The sermon 'What is Local Church Membership?' by Carl Provost explores the essential nature and importance of local church membership. Drawing from scriptural passages, particularly Ephesians, and historical context, the sermon outlines that local church membership is defined by Orthodox belief, submission to biblical authority, and the communion of the saints. Provost addresses the challenge posed by so-called 'Facebook prophets' who detach themselves from local church authority and accountability, stressing that such detachment can lead to doctrinal confusion and lack of accountability. The sermon highlights the role of church leaders as gifts from God meant for the edification and unity of the church body. It also refutes claims that one can belong to the visible church without being part of a local congregation, arguing that true community, accountability, and spiritual growth require active membership in a local church. Historical examples, such as early church practices and the Didache, are used to illustrate the longstanding tradition and necessity of belonging to a local church community.

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness and with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?

He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things. And He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But in speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplyeth according to the effectual working and the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." Heavenly Father, we come before you as we look at this word again, Father, recognizing that you've given us a clear description of the church here.

And Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit would open our hearts to the truth of your Word, that we might clearly see what you have called us to, what vocation you have called us to in your church. And Father, we pray in Your Son, Christ Jesus' name, Amen. As I come back to this text that we looked at in my last two sermons, we're looking at this passage as a whole here now in recognizing what's described here in the church and the question that I want to answer the question the title of the sermon today is what is local church membership For some that might seem like an interesting question. It doesn't seem like it's a difficult topic, or at least it shouldn't be. But because of some modern arguments that are going on on the internet these days, we're finding that even those that supposedly are in our camp have a hard time understanding what church membership is.

And there's many different views, and there seems to be an attack on this idea of membership within the local body of Christ And in fact there are those who are arguing from scripture and from history that church membership at least in a local church has never been required of the church. And so we're going to look at that today from this text. But I'm going to start by reading a quote that got most of this going. And what it really did is it just sort of brought to surface some issues of ecclesiology that we needed to deal with apparently. And this quote, without knowing the man's heart, I believe was written out of a genuine concern for difficulties that even his own flock was having to deal with because of their work in ministry against abortion and ending abortion in this nation.

Jeff Durbin put on Facebook, he said, Facebook is filled with Facebook prophets. These are people who aren't a part of the local church but insist on giving biblical insight and wisdom to those who are actually part of God's design for believers. Corporate worship, communion, under the care of pastors, etc. The Bible can be a dangerous thing in the hands of those who despise authority, aren't involved in the life of the body and act like renegades. We are wise to avoid the insight of people who refuse to participate in the most fundamental part of the life of the Christian, the local church.

God gave us one another for a reason. If we don't love the church, we don't love Jesus. Now I could envision myself giving this exact same warning to this body and never expect the amount of fallout that came because of this one statement. And this continuing on, for those of you who happen to run in the right circles, you'll see articles written on this, and articles that as we look at this text, that even in themselves, and the nature in which this debate is taking place clearly shows the importance of being members in a local church. And I think that this warning that Jeff Durbin gives is a warning that we should all take note of.

For I think oftentimes in today's church, for one who has served in different churches, recognizes that when somebody goes outside of the church for their leadership, It leads to all kinds of doctrine. I can remember 10 years ago having to deal with one who was following Lee Irons and having to deal with the bad theology that was coming into the church. When the local body of Christ does not recognize the God appointed leaders that God has given them, and they follow those on the internet, oftentimes it leads to confusion. And so, I'm not saying we can't benefit from those. In fact the internet is a wonderful thing.

It's a way to get the gospel out to many in the world that do not have access to good teaching and good books. But we have to be careful in recognizing that there are no avenues of accountability for many of these people. Many of them are not even in local churches and can't be held accountable for what they're teaching. As we will see that historically the church has always had renegades, but it has always had methods for dealing with those that are in the church and those that are outside of the church. Now these Facebook prophets, as they've been coined, and they seem to have accepted the term, in fact, I think they liked the idea that they're some kind of prophet of truth confronting the church and the errors of the church, especially the western church that they see as the problem.

But yet, they're not a part of that local church and they're unwilling to be held accountable by that local church or those local elders. They see themselves as a part of the visible church, but outside of the local church. And therefore they're not accountable to any local church. They're only accountable to the visible church and say that they would willingly submit to the discipline of the visible church, however that would look like apart from the local church. And so this is kind of the claim that they're making.

So they're saying they're not above being disciplined, or they're not above being corrected, but yet there is no way of actually dealing with what these people are teaching because there is no avenue of authority or structure of authority in order to deal with what's being taught. They deny that God's Word requires local church membership. And, But I believe that as we look at the text today we'll see that what this text gives us is that in this text, in this description of the church, we see that there are characteristics of the universal church by which can only be exhibited through membership in a local church. And so we're going to look at this text today. The points of the sermon today is membership is defined by Orthodox belief, membership is defined by the submission to biblical authority, and membership defined by the communion of the saints.

First, membership defined by Orthodox belief. And for this we're going to look at verses 4 through 10 recognizing Orthodox belief. It says, there is one body, meaning a universal church, and one Spirit even as you are called in one hope of your calling one Lord, one faith, one baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all." And so that speaks clearly of a church that is universally united by the fact that God is one. There's only one Spirit that's in all the churches. And so that we see that nature there of a universal church or that visible church that is clearly defined by that belief in a triune God that is one.

It says, But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore, he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that ascended is the same as he that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. And so what we see there is a reference to Christ coming, descending in order to be a sacrifice for our sins.

And that He also ascended. And so it's making reference to the One who came and died for our sins and the One who ascended and now sits at the right hand of God the Father. And so what we see here is a description that we are one. And that's based upon our belief in Christ Jesus and what He accomplished for us. See, early within the Christian church it became necessary to define orthodoxy in order to distinguish the true church from the counterfeit.

Now we see this even in God's Word in many places where Paul is dealing with the Judaizers, but I think one of the places where this is most clearly seen and illustrated is in the first letter of John. Now John, the letters of John were written by the disciple whom Jesus loved. That was the one that is referred to, the writer of John's gospel also. And he says in John 2, 18 and 19, and verse 26, it says, Little children, it is the last time, and as you have heard, that Antichrist shall come. And even now there are many Antichrists.

Whereby we know that it is the last time. For they went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out, that they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us. And then down to verse 26, these things I have written unto you concerning them that seduce you.

Now what we see here is John is addressing a problem that took place in their church. Well, let me give you a little bit of a history of this church that John is writing to. Now, we're reading the letter to Ephesians, and we're reading a letter that Paul has written to the Gentile church in Ephesians. But they have found archaeological discoveries of this Johannine church, this church that was just outside of Ephesus, of those that John was leading, and it was a group that was believed to be mostly comprised of Jews that had left Jerusalem and established a church there. And John is leading this group.

And as he's leading them, there were what's considered the early seeds of Gnosticism starting to develop in this area. And there were teachers that came, false teachers that came into the church and were teaching these things Gnosticism, teaching that Jesus was not God. And there are many other errors, and he references these in the Scripture when he's dealing with the error of the church. But what we see is, is there were false teachers that came in and there were people who followed these false teachers and refused to recognize the authority of the words that were given by the apostles of the faith that they had first believed. And they followed these false teachers and they left the church.

He goes on to say in John chapter 2 verses 21 to 23, he says, I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?" So this is one of the things they were denying. He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son the same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledges the Son hath the Father also." And so we see him directly dealing with the error of the Gnostics. And he's pointing out that those who denied the Son, denying that Jesus is the Christ, that He is the Son of God, we're actually showing that they weren't truly of the church.

Because you have to understand, you have to believe that Jesus is the Christ. You have to believe that He came as the God man and died for your sins. This is what we have faith in. This is what the Gospel is. It's that He came for His people whom He bought with a price.

And to deny the deity of Christ is to deny our Savior. John references the teaching of Christ as given by the apostles. In John 1 John 2, 25 It says, let that therefore abide in you, which he have heard from the beginning. If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. Now we see there that he's saying avoid the errors of these false teachers.

And he directly deals with the error. And then he says, remember what you were taught from the beginning. He's saying The gospel hasn't changed. And so if somebody comes in with a new teaching, you need to question it. Go to the authority.

And the authority was that word that was handed down through the apostles and given to the church as a gift. And those shepherds and teachers are only to teach from that authority, not anything else. Now one of the things I want to notice when we look at this from the concept of church membership, Let's think about this. We've got this little church just outside of Ephesus that's predominantly those who follow John. John is an elder in this church, even though he's an apostle.

He's an elder in the church and he's leading the church. And it says that there were some who were with us, but they were not of us. They left. If there is no such thing as local church membership, what did they leave? Now they would say, those Facebook prophets would say, well they left the universal or just the visible church, but they were not part of a local church.

And so in essence what they have here is if you are a member of the church, you could be in worship one week in the Johannine Church, just outside of Ephesus, and the next week you could be over here in this other church in Ephesus that was predominantly a Gentile church, and that you would still be in attendance of the church without any connection to a local body of Christ. But what John is saying here is that there were a specific group that were among, that were part of their body. Not part of the universal church, but a part of their little body there, and they left that body because they followed these false prophets, and they are no longer of us. And so what we clearly see there is it's a group that left the local church. Now, when you look in Revelation and you see the warnings to the church in Ephesus, I'm not sure if it's a warning to the.

This Johannine church or if it's a warning to this Gentile church or if it's a warning to all of the churches in Ephesus. But it's interesting that one of the focuses that John says that defined whether they were truly a part of that body of Christ was by loving the brethren. And that by leaving the church and following these false teachers, they did not love the brethren, and therefore they were not truly in the church. And we see that in Revelation that that church was warned that they had all their doctrine correct. They had gotten rid of those false teachers, but that they had lost their first love, their love for Christ.

And it's interesting that according to the archaeological evidence that this Johannian community actually ceased to exist around 90 to 100 AD. There's still a church in Ephesus, but there's one particular group that's tied to the Apostle John. So what did these false teachers come out of? They came out of the local church there in Ephesus. And we see that the main sin that they committed and displayed is not loving their brothers and leaving the local church over false teaching.

And so we see that there has to be a connection with these people. This isn't somebody who floats around from church to church that you don't really have a relationship with This is a this is a type of love that comes from a relationship a familiar relationship We are said that we are to be brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus We are in the family of God and in order to have that type of love there has to be a relationship. And as we read later in the text we have to be knit together as the body of Christ. And so in order for us to feel the pain of somebody leaving or to feel the pain of somebody who follows after a false prophet or a false teacher, we have to know that person and care about them and love them. And that can only take place within the local church.

But that's not the only evidence that we see from the history that the concept of church membership was a local church. Early on in the church, there was a document referred to as the Didache. And this was a document that explained how church functioned. And in this and in some of these writings we learn that there was this concept of catechumens. And catechumens were those who were training to become a part of the church.

And we learned from this that it was sometimes upwards to two years before a catechumen would be allowed to be baptized and to come into church membership. In fact, the worship service at that time was in two parts. The first part was the preaching of the word, but then they separated the last part of the service for the communion, for the Lord's Supper, to take place with only those who had been baptized. Now you've got to remember the environment they were coming out of. When 3, 000 were saved on the day of Pentecost, this was from the Jewish community.

And what was preached is this Messiah that you've been waiting for, it's Jesus. And He fulfills the law. And so they had a foundation to work with. But when the churches started in these pagan nations, these nations that were overrun with polytheism and all types of wicked beliefs, those who were eating the blood and pouring blood over themselves for different types of rituals and all kinds of things that were considered evil by God's standard. These people had to come to an understanding of faith.

And so in order for them to give a profession of faith, they had to understand what God's Word was teaching. And so they had to be taught and brought up. And a lot of churches today will have sometimes what they call a new members class. And they'll go through what the church teaches, and then that person in order to join the local body of Christ has to learn what the church teaches, and as long as they're still in agreement to submit to the authority of that body of Christ, they come into membership. And so different churches handle this different ways.

Now what we see in God's Word, and this is the argument that these Facebook prophets make, is the only requirement for membership in the visible church is baptism and a profession of faith. And We're not denying that. But what we're saying is, is there has to be a profession of faith in something. And there has to be somebody to hear that profession of faith. And there has to be some accountability that that profession of faith was given.

And If somebody is in the visible church but not a part of a local church, how do you know what their profession of faith is? When they're teaching something on the internet, and you try to find out where they're coming from, and they're not a part of any local church, how do you know they have a profession of faith? How do you know that they have been around the body of Christ and were able to exhibit the fruit of salvation in order to be recognized that they are truly in the body of Christ when they make that profession of faith. See, one of the things that happens when we live together as a community is through sanctification, we sometimes rub each other the wrong way. We bring the bad things out and we have to deal with those things.

But in a loving community we are sanctified through that. That can't take place apart from a local church. That can't take place sitting behind a computer screen on the internet. That is not church. We also see that the church very quickly recognized that they must define what the church is by orthodoxy very early on.

In fact, one of the earliest creeds we have, and a creed basically, Pretty much all creeds come out of dealing with error. And so whenever the church is having to deal with some false teacher that's teaching an error that's against God's Word, they develop a creed that says this is what the church is. And one of the earliest that we have is the Apostles' Creed. And in fact, I would venture to say that what we see in this text in verses 1 through 16 is very similar to what we see in the Apostles' Creed. We'll read the Apostles' Creed.

It says, I believe in God the Father, Almighty Maker of heaven and earth. And so there we see God the Father as we saw in our text. Now it's in reverse order in our text. It goes Holy Spirit, Son, and then Father. But here we see God the Father, Maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell, and the third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead." And so there we see Christ. And here in our text we read that he descended to the lower parts.

And I talked about the last time I preached on that passage about there were some early church fathers that believed that the sending was into hell but it probably is referring to him just coming in flesh and some of these there's a lot of debate about whether that one line should be in the Apostles Creed or not. In some churches you go to that say the Apostles Creed, do not say the line about descending into hell. But either way what we see here is a doctrine based upon God's Word to define what the church is. And the reason why they had to do this was they had to define the church because there were those that were teaching otherwise. And so what was developed was this concept of an orthodoxy.

And so we today determine the true church based upon a certain set of beliefs that can be believed in many different denominations. And there's a list of those, and they vary depending on some group on some things, but for the most part, it's that God is one, but yet he is in three, the Trinity. One thing that determines orthodoxy is a belief in the Trinity. And in fact, one way we define cults today is when a group denies the Trinity, we label them a cult. Now I didn't write down the Nazian Creed here, but that's also dealing with Arianism and dealing with the fact that it's taught that God is not three that Christ is not God And so we deal with these different errors in different ways with creeds.

So we see the purpose of the creed is to define the church. And what we see even in the text here today was when Paul was describing the church, he laid out the orthodoxy of what we believe, what the church is based upon. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, one Holy Spirit. It's one unified body that defines us, but that is displayed Within many churches And so when we gather together as the local church, we don't see us as independent from the church. We see us as a part of the universal church.

And so what is sort of this straw man that's kind of being built around this is that to be a part of an individual church is something separate from being a part of the visible or universal church. And what I'm saying is, is what it actually is, is the same thing. But in order for us to exist within a community, it must be local. We also see in the Apostles Creed here, it says, and I believe, well let's see, From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead, and I believe in the Holy Ghost." And it says, I believe a holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

And so that's probably, I mean, the Apostles' Creed is pretty much accepted universally across all of the Orthodox Church. There are churches from just about every denomination that say the Apostles' Creed. Because there's really, there's nothing you can deny here. You must believe in the virgin birth in order to be Orthodox. You must believe that the Holy Ghost came over Mary and she conceived as a virgin.

It was an act of God. These are things that are orthodox that we have to believe in order to be a part of the true church. We have to believe that Jesus died and was buried and that he was raised again. And that because of that we have this forgiveness of sins, we have the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. But in the middle of this there's another phrase that's in here that I want us to focus on a little bit later, is that the church, even though it's this universal church, that it must take place in the holy catholic church, meaning universal, and the communion of the saints.

And That phrase is in there and it's very important, the communion of the saints, recognizing that this can only take place when there is a community. We also see that another early example of the church defining a universal church is that these can only be realized, these terms can only be realized in the idea of a church that's defined by this orthodox belief that lives in this community based upon a biblical authority that we submit to. So the second point I want to come to as we look at the text is membership is defined by submission to biblical authority. In verses 11 through 5 in our text in Ephesians it says, And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie and wait to deceive.

But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head, even Christ." This is where the Facebook prophets take exception with their understanding of biblical authority. In fact, in quoting Calvin and Calvin's quote of Augustine, they use it as a reference that there are those inside the church who are wolves. And we recognize that. We recognize the mixed nature of the church, at least until the glorification when Christ returns. And therefore, they also recognize that there is the potential that there are those outside the church who are saved and so it's recognizing that God can save people where he chooses to save people and and just as the thief on the cross was saved and was told that today you'll be with me in paradise, that there's a recognition that God can save people in all places and at all times.

But, what they say, and even in Calvin's quote itself, I think it kind of goes against what they're teaching, is that because of that, it's not necessary to be a member of a local church to be in the visible church. And I don't believe that's what Calvin's teaching at all. In fact, in the quote that they use, Calvin himself said, all are obliged by God's commandment of confessing Christ before men to join themselves to the true visible church. And so what Calvin is saying there is maybe there is this person that's outside the church, but once, if you live somewhere where there is a church, you are commanded by God to join yourself to the body of Christ. It's an option.

It's not so well, there's the potential that somebody can be saved outside the church and so I'm going to profess Christ and be baptized At one point in time and never be a part of the local church again but yet I'm in the visible church and I'm not there's nothing wrong with that And basically what this is saying is you're being disobedient to the commands of God by not joining yourself to a local body. Now they make a distinction between the visible church and the local church and that's where they kind of work from. They're saying that you can be in the visible church but not be in a local church and that they're two distinct things. But I think where the confusion is is that the local church is never separate from the visible church. It's just a way in which we gather together.

We define ourselves not only by city and state and country, but we define ourselves by denominations and what we believe. And there is, within the visible church, those differences that separate us. But yet we come together in a local body in order to love each other and edify one another in a local body of Christ and that that can't take place apart from the local church. And to say you're part of the visible church without being the local church is actually to deny What God has commanded us to do and to live with each other edifying each other I'm gonna point out some reasons why the local church membership is necessary for membership in the visible church. Because I'm saying that because they're the same thing, that in order to be in the visible church you have to be a part of the local church.

And of course they make some exceptions to these, but the first one I want to point out is that God has placed those in authority over us as a gift. We're told in this passage in verse 11 that, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. That these are a gift given by God and so we recognize those as a gift. We don't see that as a burden. We don't see that, oh, well this person, you know, I don't like something that he's teaching or I don't like, you know, therefore I don't have to submit to him and I can go do my own thing.

We recognize that God has placed authorities there as a gift and that there's a reason that we need that authority over us. And that authority comes from the foundation of the Apostles and prophets and we have shepherds that don't teach The the things of men they teach the things of God they teach from this foundation that's been laid out and that they over Shepherd us that they they watch over us and protect us and they teach us. And in fact we're told that it's for the equipping of the saints. And so we need to recognize the authority as a gift that's been given us. In fact it's kind of interesting that if you read Durbin's statement that I read at the beginning, actually what he's doing there is shepherding his people, shepherding his flock and protecting them from those Facebook prophets.

Those who claim to be the visible church, they'll claim that they are prophets holding the church accountable. Those who stand with signs outside of churches on Sunday because they consider themselves the church by just being gathered together, and picket churches because they don't think churches are doing things the way that they think they should be doing. And they call themselves the righteous prophets, but yet they answer to no authority. We also see that apostolic succession is the normative way that the church grows. Now what do I mean by that apostolic succession?

When we look at the early church we see that the Apostles went out with power. They were the messengers. They were given gifts of miracles to establish that they were from God. And the towns that they went to, they established churches, and they appointed elders over those churches. And we know from Paul's missionary journeys that He would spend two or three years in a place.

And we're not given every detail about what he was doing, but I guarantee you, he was training up these men to lead these churches. He was teaching them the gospel. He was teaching them what was necessary, and the men that were leaders that God had clearly gifted to be leaders, he would appoint those men over churches. And when he would leave, he still had a connection with these churches. He still felt like they were his children.

And he would write letters back to them and oftentimes correct them or confront them in some error. But yet, they had men that were left in place to lead these churches. And so what I mean by apostolic succession is the normative way that the church grows, and we'll talk about the other way, but the normative way the church grows is that there's a church in Ephesus, and it's grown to a certain point where they can no longer fit everybody in whatever facility they're meeting in. And as they're evangelizing the city, they would take other men who were gifted and appoint them as elders and they would go start another church. And that's the way the church spreads in a normative way.

It's through that apostolic succession of going out organically through the body of Christ and them sending men who have been recognized as gifted from God, ordained as elders, and out to plant new churches. And even sending out evangelists. An evangelist would go out to plant churches and then establish elders and to move on. But this idea was that he still had a connection to some local body that had sent him. And so if he starts teaching error over here in this other city, there's another local church that sent him out that you can make an appeal to.

But what we have today is we have these people that are sort of, they are their own authority. There is no church to appeal to and they can teach whatever they want to teach. And some of these men are teaching good things. They're not all Arab, but what's happening is they're attacking the local church because they don't want to be a part of a local church and they don't like it that we're saying that in order to have a true platform to speak from, you should be a part of a local church. In order to speak from the authority of the gospel from the established.

Now we recognize that there have been times in church history through extreme persecution that God has grown this churches through non-normative means means of just men who were you know transformed by reading God's Word and that maybe the at the time I'm thinking of even during the Reformation the Roman Catholic Church didn't recognize these men as legitimate ministers. Or if they were at one time priests, They were stripping them of their credentials saying that they had no authority to preach But yet these men were gifted by God and that's we see the Protestant Reformation come out of that but men who in many respects were clearly recognized at one time or another as leaders within the church. And so we see this corruption and we see things sometimes happen in a non-normative way. But when the church is healthy, it happens through the sending out of elders. It's not somebody that just gets this idea that God has called them and has nobody recognize that call and goes out on their own to plant or start a church.

That is not the way that we see in God's Word. And so in order for this church growth to happen properly there needs to be a connection to the local church. And in order for you to be raised up as a leader within the visible church, you have to have a connection with the local church with people who know you, people that can clearly see your gifting and can recognize that you've been gifted by God, and can, through a vote or however the church handles that, be able to have these men presented, ordained, examined by their elders, and ordained, and put into that office. And that's how we see the authority of the church exercised in order to keep things in check and not allow anybody who wants to teach any kind of doctrine to go out and teach what they want to teach. And in fact, we see that the church dealt with this in many ways throughout the history of the church.

In fact, Paul himself was called before the Jerusalem Council to be examined, to see if what he was teaching was in line with what was given to them by Christ. And he went, in fact, he took a Gentile with him, and he clearly laid out from God's Word and was able to show that even though there were Judaizers saying that he was teaching a different gospel, that what he was teaching was in line with the gospel that was given to them by Christ Jesus. And so even Paul was subject to this Jerusalem council. We see that we have church synods throughout the history. We don't see them anymore because the church is so fragmented.

But there was a time when the church or Protestant church as a whole would gather to deal with a certain error. And out of this church synod, they would develop an understanding or teaching against something that they decided was error and was bringing harm to the church. One of those is the Synod of Dort. In fact, that's where we get our five points of Calvinism from. And what was happening there was the followers of James Arminius were teaching these five points that the church determined were error.

And long after Calvin, when the Sinai took place, they developed a direct response to these five teachings. And that's how the five points of Calvinism came about. And they had nothing to do with Calvin sitting down and writing five points. It was actually a direct response to these five errors that were being taught by the followers of James Arminius. But the church gathered together and they determined that this one teaching is error and that this is the true teaching and The church is able to use that in order to continue to build orthodoxy.

And so the church has always had ways of dealing with this. In fact, we see another example of this that I think kind of draws a connection. And even though this is an area that Calvin has greatly criticized at times, I think it clearly shows that there was a way that the Universal Church could recognize false prophets even when it was across the nominations or even when it was across major divides like Roman Catholic and Protestant. And that was Servetus. Now see Servetus was condemned as a heretic for his writings and for his teaching.

He was very vocal. He was trying to, he was very vocal with his teaching. He was trying to transform people. In fact, he seemed to have some kind of special interest in John Calvin. He wrote a lot of letters to Calvin.

And in fact, there was one time that John Calvin had agreed to meet with him in France, where if he would have been caught, he would have been tried and killed as a heretic himself because the Roman Catholic Church had control there and Servetus didn't show up. But anyway, Servetus is captured by the Roman Catholic Church and he's going to be tried as a heretic and he escapes after three days. Where does he go? He goes to Geneva. And where does he go in Geneva?

He goes to church on Sunday where Calvin is preaching. Now this is somebody who's been after Calvin for years trying to convince Calvin of his beliefs. Now what he basically taught was a form of modalism, also referred to as Sibelianism. And this is basically teaching that there is no trinity, that Christ, the Holy Spirit, and God are just different modes that God appears in. And so there is only one God, and that he sometimes appears as the Holy Spirit, and he sometimes appears as Christ, he sometimes appears as God the Father.

And so clearly labels a heretic by the Roman Catholic Church, but also clearly labeled as a heretic by the authorities in Geneva. Had nothing to do with the church. The church didn't have the power of death. But at this time, nothing unique to Geneva. Anywhere where the church existed, heretics were burned.

That was just how you dealt with, that's how the healtics were dealt with at this time in history. Nothing unique to Calvin, nothing unique to Geneva. But what's interesting was, is they had a standard by which they could determine who a false prophet was. And by this, both the Protestant Church and the Catholic Church had determined this man as being outside of the church, a heretic, outside of the visible church, because he refused to renounce his beliefs. In fact, Calvin went to him and pleaded with him multiple days before he was killed for his beliefs, pleading with him to renounce his beliefs.

Calvin actually showed a great bit of compassion for this one who had, in many ways, had tried to stir up trouble within his church. We also see in the Corinthian church, Paul had the right to the Corinthian church. He was, he told them to remove a man that is in sin from the church. Now here we have a story of a man who was said to have taken his father's wife, and he was allowed for whatever reason to still remain in the church. And Paul recognized this is wrong.

So he writes a letter confronting them, remove this man from your church, basically exercise church discipline, and deliver him over to Satan. And this whole concept of delivering over to Satan is for the potential of, if they're outside of the church, they're no longer a part of the local church, they no longer receive the means of grace, that if the person is truly regenerate, that it will bring him to a point of repentance and it will restore him. And in fact, later in the second letter, Paul again has to tell them another man, basically, who apparently had repented, had been through enough to let him back in the church. And so they erred on either extreme within the writings to the Corinthians. So what we see in Matthew 18 in church discipline is that Is that the church is giving the authority To bind or loose that were said that we're two or three are gathered together in my name, it's right after the passage on how to carry out church discipline, when two or three are gathered together in my name, that He is there in their midst.

And whatever we bond on earth is bound in heaven, whatever we loose on earth is loosed in heaven. And the concept there is that within a church court, when the church gathers together in order to hold a man accountable, within a church court, it's saying that when two or three godly men are in agreement in bringing church discipline in this manner, they can know that the authority of the church is displayed through godly men gathered together and being in agreement, knowing that that is the direction of Christ. And so the authority of Christ here on the earth is displayed through the local church through a plurality of elders who exercise the authority of the kingdom by being in agreement with God's Word in dealing with error in the church. And that's what we clearly see in the church course that are handled properly within the church today. Now, try exercising church discipline on one outside the local church.

Try exercising church discipline on one of these Facebook profits and see how well that goes. You can't get anywhere. In fact, we have a good example of this that happened, I guess it's probably about two years ago now, but this whole problem with Bill Goughard. Now there was a problem with Bill Goughord for years. And there was organizations that were trying to hold him accountable for years.

And they found out what church had ordained him years ago, and they went and found out he has no connection with that church anymore, that he was a parachurch organization. He didn't go to any local church. And so there was absolutely no way to hold the man accountable. And it wasn't until just by the internet and the popularity of these people that started coming forward and writing the things that had happened that the man was eventually held accountable. But probably 10 to 15 years before that happened, there were Christians trying to hold this man accountable, but there was no way to do it because he was not a part of a local church.

Now, Bill Gothard would clearly say he is a part of the visible church, had a great ministry, a ministry that many people benefited from. However, because he was not a part of the local church, he was beyond being held accountable. He was an authority unto himself. And that's not the way the church body functions. No man should be above the authority of being held accountable to God's Word.

And in fact, in the Presbyterian understanding, which these Facebook prophets have a problem with, is elders rule over a church, but yet elders are held accountable at the presbytery level. And what this is saying is, is if the elders are in error, that the church can make an appeal above the elders to presbytery, and men from presbytery, going back to that two or three gathered together, will come in and will examine those men and determine whether there's a disciplinary issue or not. And even in our own denomination, this has taken place. There have been men removed from the office of elder because This process has been handled properly. And so we see that everyone is held accountable and it can only happen within the setting of local church membership.

Alright. Another example of this is accountability, or another reason for church membership, is that accountability is a part of membership in the local church. We see the submission to elders required in Hebrews 13, 17. It says, obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they must give an account and that they may do it with joy and not with grief for it is unprofitable for you." And so what we learn there is that the church members are required to obey those who rule over them And to submit themselves to those who rule over them referring to those church leaders for they have watch for your souls so that's saying one of the responsibilities of Shepherds is to watch over the souls of his people and it says for they must give an account that they may do it with joy. And so it's saying that in a church it's functioning the way it should be functioning, that elders are watching over the flock, and that they have to give an account for those people that are under their watch.

They are held accountable for those people. Now how does this work in a church without a local church membership? Am I responsible for people within so many square blocks of this building, whether they go to church or not, or those who profess Christ but yet don't go to church. See, it doesn't make sense if anybody who's a part of the so-called visible church but not a member of the local church, who do you offer an account for? Who's accountable for these Facebook prophets?

And it says that they must do it with joy. So it should be in a sense in which the oversight of God's people is a joyful act and not with grief. And it says that in order to bring grief to this process that it's unprofitable for you. And so for those who remove themselves from the oversight of elders and shepherds, they are actually a grief to the church and they're actually making it unprofitable for themselves. And so here we have not only a responsibility but we have a warning for those who refuse to submit to local churches.

We're also told, which is interesting, submitting one to another. Now we're, even in this passage, we're told how we're supposed to edify one another, submitting one to another. Now how do you submit one to another if you're not part of a local church? How does the greater, you know, how do I submit to somebody over in the Methodist Church across town? It can't happen.

I don't know that person. That person doesn't know me. They don't know what's going on in my life. There can't be any accountability. There can't be any encouragement.

We don't know each other. It has to take place in a local church. Now we also see in this text that is speaking the truth and love. Now how does that take place outside of the local church? In fact, I would venture to say that if you read these Facebook posts that you won't see much love at all displayed.

In fact, one of the reasons why Facebook often times results in these arguments that are very uncharitable is because there is no accountability. There is nobody coming back and saying, you know brother, the way you said that was very uncharitable and unkind to your brother in Christ, you should have said that differently. Now some people will attempt to do that within the follow-up post, But there's no way to bring real accountability in this process. And that's why it requires somebody to be part of a local church. So if you're part of a local church, and you post something on Facebook that's very uncharitable, then as a brother to that brother in Christ, or sister to that sister in Christ, you should confront that person and say, you know what, brother, that was not right.

That was unloving. But you don't get that if you're not a part of a local church. The other argument that they make against being a part of a local church is this doctrine of private judgment. And they say the church has completely lost this idea of private judgment. In fact, they're saying The reason why the Protestant church existed at all is because this idea of private judgment.

That through the priesthood of believers, meaning we can all open in God's Word, and we can all study for ourselves, that you should be able to make a private judgment against the authority that God has placed over you, and even go against them, and that the local church structure of elders does not allow for this. But there again I think that this completely just misrepresents scripture. In fact Nowhere does being part of a local church negate private judgment. In fact, we're told clearly in Galatians 1, 8 to 10, it says, But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you, then that ye have received, let him be accursed.

For do I now persuade men, O God, or do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I shall not be the servant of Christ." And so what we see there is even Paul is saying, if I preach anything but the gospel that was given from the beginning, may I be accursed. We also see in 1 Thessalonians, it says, prove all things, hold fast to that which is good. In 1 Corinthians, I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say. 1 Peter 5, 1-5, it says, The elders which are among you I exhort.

Who am I also, an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of that glory, that shall be revealed? Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage, or being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility.

For God resists the proud and giveth grace to the humble." Now, how does that take place outside of a local church? How do we submit ourselves one to another? How do we clothe with humility? In fact, I'd venture to say there's very few on Facebook that are presenting their own version of the truth that are doing anything in humility. It is impossible to shepherd sheep that stray away from the flock.

It has to be in the context of a church. In fact, we're told that in the parable of the sheep that when one sheep strays, you leave the 99 and you go get the one. It requires you to leave and go get them but when one sheep just refuses to be a part of the flock, how can you have oversight over them? We also see this as some other quick examples of membership that there was a numerical record kept when it said 3, 000 were saved that they actually knew who was coming into the church. They were able to give a number.

There was a recognition of being in the church or not in the church. And that churches are addressed individually in Paul's letters. And we're going to look at a couple of verses of that in just a minute. And churches are charged to care for widows and orphans. Now how do you determine if a widow is a widow in deed if there is no local church membership.

I mean we're given very detailed criteria by which a widow is a widow indeed and whether we should care for her needs or not. How can you do this? How do you know? I mean if there's a widow that's a professed believer living in the community that is a widow indeed, what church is responsible for if she's not going to a local church? If she's just a part of the visible church but not a local church, does every church get together and throw some lots and determine who has to be responsible for?

I'm going to say nobody's going to be responsible for because if she's not a part of the body of Christ, people don't know her needs and they can't care for her. So it requires local church membership to function as the church. And we see that true local church membership is characterized by the communion of the saints. Now I'll try to go through this last point quickly. Membership defined by the communion of saints.

First I want to point out that this letter itself is addressed to the saints at Ephesus. Now that's saying that there's a specific group of people in Ephesus that this letter is addressed to. We also see in Philippians 1.1 Timotheus, the servant of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons. So there we got saints in Philippi with the bishops and deacons. So there's a unique group in Philippi where the saints with bishops and deacons over them.

Now one of the things, and I think this verse is important, is they argue for out of Jeremiah 31 is eventually because God writes the law on our hearts that there's no need for shepherds and deacons. That's just only like an early need for the church. But eventually, we don't need elders and deacons anymore. Whoever is gifted for that day can stand up and give a message. And that's what some of these groups are teaching.

And they don't recognize any authority, even in their little gatherings that they call church that they get together in. There is no elder in their groups that they're calling church. In Philemon 1 and 2, it says, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy, our brother unto Philemon, our dearly beloved and fellow laborer, and to our beloved, Afia and Archipas, our fellow soldier, and to the church in thy house. Now here we have a church that's not only limited to a city, but here is a specific church limited to what fits in one person's house. Clearly describing a local church.

And I guarantee you they knew who their membership was. If they'll come into your house and you can only fit so many people in there, you know who the members of your church are. In Galatians, Paul says, Paul an apostle, not of men, neither by men, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead, and all of the brethren which are with me unto the churches of Galatia. Now here we have Galatia mentioned and we're told that there's not just one church in Galatia, which would point to this concept of a universal visible church only, but there are individual churches in Galatia, more than one, but yet unique and distinguished from the other. Clearly again, pointing out that there are local churches.

First I want to notice that Paul is not addressing the individual, but he's addressing community. When you look at Paul's letters, he doesn't write these letters. We shouldn't be reading these as if they're written to us or just one person, me as an individual. We should look at these letters. They're written to a specific church, a specific community, and because they're God's Word, they apply to the universal church.

So they apply to this church just as they applied to the Ephesians. Now let's look just real quickly at what the church is called to do in community. It says, a community is called, as we see in verse 1 here, it says, I'm a prisoner of the Lord. I beseech you that you walk worthy of the location with which you are called with all lowliness and meekness and with long suffering for bearing one another in love. Now how do you exercise for bearing with one another in love and meekness and long-suffering outside of the local church?

Is this what we see displayed on Facebook by these Facebook prophets? Is there meekness and lowliness and long-suffering? See, Facebook is not a community. Social media is not a community. Community requires real live relationships, not through the internet, but in person.

In fact, a number of years ago, Barna said that the future of the church was internet churches. And there was a couple of them. In fact, when I was in seminary in class, there was a group of people that were going to start one, and they wanted me to be a part of it. And I'm like, that's not church. And they were convinced, they spent a lot of money on fancy website and everything, and they were gonna have, you know, people could just sit down in front of their computer screen on Sunday morning and attend church.

There's no community there. It didn't go anywhere. And Barna was wrong. Now you still have some churches that satellite the campus in, but even for that to work, they have to have local elders and they have to have some kind of organization and the people know that they're a part of that church. So even when you go to Second Baptist of Houston, I think there are six or seven campuses, and if you're on the week that you're at a campus where the minister isn't preaching, you get to watch them on the screen, there's still a hierarchy.

There's still an eldership there, or men who exercise oversight. I'm not saying that's right by any means, but I'm saying that it can't exist without some form of community. So we see that community requires communion of the saints. And this brings us back to what we clearly saw in the Apostles Creed, that one holy Catholic Church and the communion of the saints. In order to truly be a local church, we must have that communion of the saints.

A community is called to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There's no way you can, this is talking about being peacemakers, there's no way you can keep the Spirit of unity in the bond of peace on Facebook. All I see is more and more divisions coming about. There is no unity coming about. There is no peacemaking taking place.

And the reason why is it's impossible to have unity and the bond of peace without some level of accountability. And then we see that church membership requires the communion of the saints. We also see that gifts are given to a community of believers. We see shepherds and teachers are given for the equipping of the saints. And that spiritual gifts are not given for you as an individual, spiritual gifts are given for the body of Christ.

And so if you are gifted, which everyone is, your gift is for the edification of the body of Christ. And that can only take place in the local church. We are also told that church membership requires us to be fitly joined together in verse 16 and that this is not possible without church membership in order that We can know each other well enough to be joined together or some versions knit together. In order to be that connected, we have to know what's going on in each other's lives. And that can only take place in a community.

So how much edifying love are you feeling on Facebook? You getting any edification there? It can't happen. See, shepherds are to love the sheep and sheep are to love the shepherd. The sheep are to love one another and edifying one another in love.

So let us as God's community, as God's church, be defined by Orthodox doctrine that we hold to the true faith as given by the apostles and the prophets. Let us be defined by submission to the authorities and submission one to another. Let us be defined by the communion of the saints. Let us be defined by love. In John, in his gospel, not his letter, he says, A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I loved you, that ye also love one another.

By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another." Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we come before you. And we recognize, Father, that you have given us a clear vocation and calling, that we are called to be a part of the body of Christ, and that you gifted us all uniquely and individually.