The Universal Church and the Local Church

Colossians 1:24-29

COL-191

Hebrews 4:12: "For the Word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

1 Corinthians 2:14-16: "But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is understood by no man. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ."

This morning, we continue in our study of Colossians 1:25-29. Our subject is "The Mystery of the Church," segment number seven.

Porgy and Bess

The attitude of most Americans toward the Bible today, especially since the sexual revolution of the 1960s (that moral revolution that we are now bearing the bitter fruits of today in our country) – the American attitude toward the Bible is aptly expressed in the opera "Porgy and Bess" by George Gershwin. In the opera, the character called "Sporting Life" sings a song entitled "It Ain't Necessarily So." Now, Sporting Life is a lowlife, cool cat who is worldly wise, and ready to challenge the integrity of the Bible. He is the kind of character that floats around out in our society, in the rock-n-roll world, that is so attractive to the kids in the school systems, and to your children in the entertainment world. In the song that Sporting Life sings, he focuses upon the Bible, which must be discredited as a challenge to his world system values, and to his lifestyle. He knows that the way he lives, and the way he thinks is unacceptable to people who are people of the book. Therefore, interestingly enough, in the song, he goes right at the Bible. That's what he has to cut down in order to justify the way he's living. He can play with words in order to make himself look OK.

Now, Sporting Life does not view the Bible as the final authority which speaks for God on matters of salvation and moral conduct. He casts doubt on the fact, in the words of the song, that it is God who has spoken, so that what it teaches in the Bible is the truth.

This is one of the favorite techniques of the devil. He used it right in the Garden of Eden, in Genesis 3:1: "Now, the serpent (the disguised devil) was more crafty than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, 'Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden.''" He said, "Now, just think for a moment, Eve. Did He really say that? Did you imagine it? Did you misunderstand Him? That seems kind of ridiculous and outrageous – that you can't eat of every tree in this garden. Are you sure he said that? Is that the way it is?"

Notice verses 4-5: "And the serpent said to the woman, 'You surely shall not die. For God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." There you have the same expression: "Eve, it ain't necessarily so. When it comes to the Bible, it ain't necessarily so."

That is exactly the same thing that is so well expressed in Porgy and Bess. The song that Sporting Life sings ridicules what the Bible teaches. It implies that it's outrageous to human reason. It is something only a fool would believe. And I have been told that personally – that the things that I believe, only a fool would believe; and, that no one with any sophisticated wisdom would believe these things that are in the Bible.

Now, that also is no surprise. This is a common attack of Satan. In 1 Corinthians 1:21: "For since the wisdom of God, the world, through its wisdom, did not come to know God. God was well-pleased, through the foolishness of the message preached, to save those who believe."

Sporting Life says that the Bible is not the reliable Word of God. And the Bible says that God, in His wisdom, made it sure that man, by his human reason, could not decide what was the mind of God. And God was pleased to reveal His mind through the simple message of Scripture. It is necessarily so.

Notice 1 Corinthians 1:23-25: "But we preach Christ crucified: to Jews, a stumbling block; to gentiles, foolishness; but, to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."

Romans 1:21-23: "For even though (humanity) they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks. But they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed animals, and crawling creatures."

So, Sporting Life, in Porgy and Bess, in that particular scene, comes slithering on the stage, and he proceeds to sing: "It ain't necessarily so. It ain't necessarily so. The things that you're liable to read in the Bible – it ain't necessarily so." Well, the challenge is set. It's set out there: "The Bible is not necessarily so."

Then he proceeds to show why the Bible is ridiculous, by some of the things that it says. He goes on and says, "Little David was small, but oh my. Little David was small, but oh my. He fought big Goliath, who lay down and dieth. Little David was small, but oh my."

Well, he goes on: "Jonah – he lived in de whale. Oh, Jonah – he lived in de whale. So, he made his home in that fish's abdomen. Oh, Jonah – he lived in the whale." Now, who's going to believe that kind of nonsense – that somebody can go and live in a whale, and not die?

"Little Moses was found in a stream. Little Moses was found in the stream. He floated on water, till old Pharaoh's daughter – she fished him, she says, from that stream." There are little innuendos there.

Then he returns to his theme, after a little interlude that he puts in there. And he goes back to: "It ain't necessarily so. It ain't necessarily so. De tell all you children the devil's a villain, but it ain't necessarily so."

"To get into Hebben don't snap for a sebben! Live clean, don't have no fault." How's that for a plan of salvation? "Oh, I takes that gospel, whenever it's possible, but with a grain of salt."

"Methuselah lived 900 years. Methuselah lived 900 years. But who calls that livin', when no gal will give in, to no man what's 900 years."

So, the immorality, and the challenge to the moral code of God, gets slipped in by Sporting Life. And, boy, when him on the stage, he is slithering around like a snake, and you can just see the incarnation of the evil one speaking, just the same way as he did in the Garden of Eden.

"I'm preaching this sermon to show it ain't necessarily so."

That very effectively portrays the attitude of the American public toward the Bible. They're a religious lot who are ignorant of Scripture, who are spiritually benighted, and blinded about spiritual things. They like to talk about them, and they like to talk about words out of the Bible. And they know not what they're saying. And the world follows the leaders in this blindness. Americans share, sadly enough, the view of Sporting Life toward the Bible. It ain't necessarily so, as viewed by their human reason.

A famous minister in a Washington, D.C. church recently said that the inerrancy of the Bible is not the important thing, but the accuracy of the message it conveys. The inerrancy of the Bible, so that we can read the words and know what it says, and what God thinks, is not the important thing. He said that what is important is how you feel about it; how you feel about what you're reading; how you feel about the subject; and, how the message comes through to you, which means that it's a different message, and that it has no meaning and no absolute truth.

That is the way that people who are ignorant of the Bible always work. They will deal with evil, and justify that it's not evil, by playing on the emotions of people. That is the whole way to get to people and to deceive them. Satan has done this from the beginning, and when people cannot be objective, and stand upon the principles of the Word of God, especially when they don't know them, then they'll inevitably descend into subjectivism. And that's the devil's playground. Believers who stand by the Word of God, the Bible, as being necessarily so, are referred to contemptuously as the Christian right, by those who don't want to be subject to Scripture.

In Acts 5:41, the Word of God says, "So, they went on their way from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name." Here were the apostles. They were preaching the Word of God, which was necessarily so. They were right on track. They were far ahead of all the people in prominence in their day, especially the religious leader. They were on track with God because they were on track with the truth of doctrine. And they beat them up. And their reaction was: "Fine. I'm proud to suffer for what is necessarily so. You can be a fool, and the time will come when you will pay dearly for that. So, you can go ahead and call me the Christian right.

Now, Christians who not only stand for the integrity of the Bible, but also the original intent of the Constitution of the federal government – of a government of limited powers – people like that, with that combination, who take the Bible literally, and who take the Constitution literally, they're referred to as part of a right-wing conspiracy. And because most Americans are so out of touch with the mind of God, they eat that up. And they say, "Those Christians are terrible." And you've heard it, and I've heard it – these contemptuous remarks about the Christian right, and the right-wing conspiracy.

Now, often some of our young people get out into the glamorous world of Sporting Life, and they decide that their Christian, biblical, constitutionally-oriented parents are backward, unsophisticated fools who are out of step with reality; they're not in the know; and, they're simplistic. And they just can't wait to get away from those stupid parents, and to get out there where Sporting Life is the name of the game, and where most people are. They think that where most people are, determines what is the truth with young people. They follow the herd.

Every now and then, you may be blessed by having given birth to a child who stands tall and clear above the crowd, like the apostle Paul did. And you will thank God that you have a kid who stands for righteousness, when all around him are going the other direction. And he's standing there, not intimidated by them. He doesn't care whether they like him or not. He doesn't care whether they include him or not. But he cares very much about what the Lord Jesus Christ thinks of him, and what his future will be with the Lord for eternity.

If you're a young person who thinks that the Sporting Life gang out there is where it's at, get your head screwed on straight and get a life. Stop imitating them. Stop wearing their clothes. Stop singing songs the way they do it. Stop appealing to the emotions, and playing on that. And get yourself into a manly or womanly orientation – a mind that is set upon Christ, or you will grow up indeed to be a backward, unsophisticated fool, totally out of step with reality. When you take these positions about the Bible, that it ain't necessarily so, you have, in effect, denied the reality of God – that there is a God who has made these declarations. The Bible says that the fool has, in his heart, denied the reality of God: "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.' When you say the Bible is not necessarily so, you are saying that there is no God. So, therefore, you don't have to do what it says.

Many people, over these decades, have left Berean Church when they came up against some point of doctrine in Scripture which they claimed was not necessarily so, as the pulpit here was preaching that it was so. I have had to get up and walk out of the service. Charismatics sometimes accidentally stumble in here, and they're the first to go. I've had people stand up. My most recent experience was a man who suddenly jumped up off the back row, and stood there, outraged and shaking. I just thought I had so thrilled him that he couldn't remain seated. And I wish, to this day, what it was that I had said at that very moment. I don't know. But suddenly he shrugged his shoulders and turned and walked out the door. Something was said, and he said, "That ain't necessarily so. But it was said here; it was out of the Scriptures; and, it was necessarily so. I wonder now how things are with him today.

The Lord, God the Holy Spirit, in writing the Scriptures, tried to prepare us for that nonsense – that people will leave the light to go to the darkness. Men without manhood will be hooked in their nose with a ring, and they'll be dragged off by their wives. Women, blinded by their sin nature, will take to their bosom a viper of a man, who will not have any hesitation of abusing them, and making them his toy. You say, "How can that be? Why would anybody do that?" That's what comes when you accept the principle enunciated to Eve, that the Scripture ain't necessarily so.

Philippians 3:17-19: "Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us." Paul says, "Sound doctrine is your guideline: "For many of whom I have often told you, and now tell you, even weeping, for they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction; whose God is their appetite; and, whose glory is in their shame – who set their minds on earthly things." He's not talking just about unbelievers. He's weeping because Christians are following this kind of a lifestyle. How can they do that? Their end is destruction – they may even suffer the sin unto death. Their God is their appetite: "This is what I want. This is what I want. This is what I want" – material things. And whose glory is their shame. They're very proud to do what the Word of God says, "You should be ashamed of doing this. If you violate this moral code, this is conduct that you should be ashamed of." You should cringe at the thought that you would be guilty of something like this. This is what is done in darkness. And Christians, whose minds are on earthly things, in heaven's name – you're not going to be here that much longer. And you are still stupidly getting up in the morning, and thinking about earthly things, instead of orienting your day to the things of God?

In 1 Thessalonians 2:1-2, Paul says, "For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. But after we had already suffered, and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God, amidst much opposition." People who understand that the Word of God is true are the ones who have the capacity to keep going when people walk out on them. When years of ministry, and kindness, and great things have been done, people who have been oriented so that they're not fools in life, but who, at some point, get their noses tweaked, and the devil says, "What they're telling you ain't necessarily so," then they shove off.

You've all had the feeling of throwing your hands up and saying, "It's not worth it. I'm just disgusted with people. I'm disgusted with the way they foul up their lives when they have opportunity to know better. I'm just disgusted how they are drawn like a magnet to the things of the devil. And the older they are, the dumber they get."

What's the answer? Well, the answer is not throwing up your hands. Scripture warns us: "Stay with it. In due season you will reap, if you faint not. You don't quit." They have a chance. They have a chance to change. But you yourself – God's never going to forget that you stood by your guns, and you were the faithful steward of the treasury of divine viewpoint delivered to you. Your eternity is going to be magnificent because of it.

In 1 Peter 3:14-17, Peter says, "But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence." How many Christians, in God's name, can give a defense for what they believe, except that: "This is what we believe (our church). This is what my family has taught me. This is what I have always thought," instead of saying, "Thus saith the Lord," and give us a little Scripture. They don't know. They're not trained. They can't talk in terms of the Word of God. Yet if you can't do that, then you're mute. The devil has won.

Well, while it angers us to have to come up against the mindlessness of the world system, and of its corrupting ways, we have to act with gentleness and with reverence. Forgiveness with justice must always prevail. And keep a good conscience so that, in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. Let them say what they want to say. But just be sure that your integrity is intact, and compatible with the reconciliation that you have experienced to the standard of absolute righteousness in Christ Jesus. So, they may misrepresent you, and they may say all kinds of bad things about you, but God knows that it's not true. And those who know you well will know who's right and who's wrong.

"For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right, rather than for doing what is wrong. If you do not live for eternity, if you do not live for the long haul, you will go down the tube with the world. Unless you are strengthened day-by-day with the Word of God, and with orientation to doctrine, and staying in temporal fellowship, the temptation will come along, and you'll get sucked right in.

2 Timothy 4:3-4: "For the time will come when they will not endorse sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths." We have a horde of people who once sat in this room, and even were receptive to the Word of God, who finally were brought down by Satan, by something that he told them ain't necessarily so. And they were wrong about it: a biblical thing; a matter of lifestyle; a matter of personal decisions; or, a matter of involvement in the world system. And they said, "No, that preacher is wrong." And when they did that, they drew a line in the sand. You want to be sure you remember that. Draw the line in the sand. And you're on one side, and the rebels are on the other side. And God's going to, in time, reveal who was right and who was wrong. And God help the one in that situation who was in the wrong. You may have a wonderful life until you stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ, and it all comes crashing down, because there you will discover that it is all necessarily so.

Security in Numbers

People take stupid comfort and encouragement in resisting the teaching of God in Scripture, if they have a lot of other people joining them in their negative volition. It's amazing. Just get a bunch of people (enough people who believe something is wrong), and that's all some people need to be encouraged to go along with them. Get a nice, big religious operation going, a lot of big jumping and jiving and clapping hoopla, and a lot of sophisticated people there. These people must be right. Yet they're all being shortchanged. They're all being made "Christianettes," without any future of any value in eternity beyond escaping the lake of fire. They think that they have security in their numbers.

That's what the kids who go out of our homes, in time, must remember – that there is not security in numbers. There's only security in the truth of the Word of God, because the majority of people are usually wrong. But these people can look forward to one thing – I'll guarantee you. They can all look forward to grieving with one another when the truth finally comes out, and God makes the thing clear. The worlding's way of rejecting the mind of God is simply to flee from the voice proclaiming His truth, and resort to religion. It is a very serious and grave sin not to support a true-blue local church.

I will tell you, without a moment's hesitation, that this is one of the worst griefs that some Christians are going to suffer the Judgment Seat of Christ. They fled from their right church – from their true-blue right church. And when they fled, the rest of their lives was a treadmill of religion – just running out the clock. That's it.

Now, we are dealing with great realities, and the people who follow us, after the rapture and tribulation, dear Lord, how they're going to find the realities of the things that we take so easily for granted now. They're going to be hanging on for their lives. They're going to be hanging on in desperation. They're going to have no one to turn to as the forces of the world rise to the most corrupt level imaginable in human governments. And these poor believers in Jesus Christ are going to be the object of every bit of hatred and attack and misery. They'll have no place to go. And most of what they have is taken away from them. But all they have is God in heaven. All they have is the reality of Scripture. And as our Lord Jesus Christ, as he hung in agony on the cross, reviewed doctrinal principles in His mind – the suffering; the pain; and, the enormity of being drenched in the sewage of the worst sin of the world, His mind was running through what was going to happen out there: the joy after the resurrection; the salvation that would be possible; the fulfillment of the promises to Israel; and, the great and wonderful body that will be raised to join Him for all eternity in the church. These were the things, the psalmist tells us, that were running through His mind, and that carried Him through that terrible moment, as it would carry us through.

Christians do not want us to call attention to what the Bible commands if they are violating some principle of doctrine. And they will even rebuke you for your arrogance and insensitivity. Because you did what? Because you gave them the facts of the Word? You would be surprised at the things that some people say to me. They are horrid things, because of what they heard out of the preaching instruction in the church service, and the names they will call me. I wish you knew them. You'd be a lot kinder to me. You'd be more sympathetic to me. Maybe I could even get some respect around here. It's crazy what people will say and do. You have to say, "Samuel. Samuel." Yeah, I know you're standing there. I won't fall into the trap. I'm not going to get all broken-hearted over this the way Samuel did when the Jews said, "No, we're going to have a king. I don't care what you say, prophet." And God said, "Samuel, stop grieving. They didn't reject you. They rejected Me." And you must remember that, too.

If God says, "Don't do it," it's necessarily so. If God says, "Do it," it's necessarily so. So, you go ahead and play the fool, and revise Scripture, and reinterpret it, and pretend that something is so that ain't. Unbelievers and carnal Christians are amazingly blind to the mind of God in Scripture. And when something that God says is so, they are the first to say it isn't so.

This church to which we belong is the body of Christ. We have a great and wonderful privilege, with marvelous potentials for our blessings now, and for all eternity.

In Colossians 1:24, the apostle Paul refers to the church as the body of Christ: "Now, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh, I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church." The apostle Paul underwent a lot of suffering. Paul's church-age ministry to the gentiles of the Roman world entailed a great deal of grief. Paul was happy to suffer physically for the church since it was suffering for the body of Christ. Christian service always entails sacrifice and sufferings at the hand of Satan and his people. Paul felt honored to proclaim the doctrines of the church, which were so separate and distinct from Israel. Many characteristics, we have shown you, distinguish the church from Israel, so the two cannot be equated as one.

For example, the church has a permanent union with the royal family of God. All Christians are now royalty, not just the royal line of David, as under Judaism. The Christian is permanently indwelt by Jesus Christ. The Christian is permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit for power. Every Christian acts as his own priest. There's no priest that he goes to in order to approach God. Every Christian is God's ambassador to the world. There are no such things as laymen and clergy. Every Christian possesses a completed Bible. And even if you don't need the Bible every moment, when you come to a church service, have it there. Just have it there next to you, because it's the reminder that everything we are to talk about is based upon that book. That's the authority. And when you walk in here without it, you kind of imply to yourself and others that it's not all that important. You don't want to do that. We Christians are capable through doctrine and the power of the Holy Spirit, when we live in temporal fellowship, to have a supernatural life of righteousness. We can do right. We Christians live by the principle of grace, not the principle of the rules of the Mosaic Law.

Each Christian has a spiritual gift for service in his mission in life. God wants you to do something with your life. And He has given you the means to do it. Divine good service will store treasures in heaven for your eternal reward.

The Universal Church and the Local Church

Now, this church, as a universal organism (a living thing), of course, has also a local church organizational expression. That is what we are in at this moment. The local expression has to be compatible with everything that we have said about the church as the body of Christ. The church gathers for one primary purpose: for the teaching of doctrine. If you are in a group of believers, and you sense that they're there for something else: that they're there for inspiration; that they're there for a challenge; that they're there to socialize; that they're there to help you meet the right people to do the things you'd like to do, then you will pay for that association with a lot of grief for now, and for all eternity.

Acts 2:42 is explicitly clear. What did the Christians gather for, when they gathered on Sunday. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' doctrine, and to fellowship in the form of breaking of bread (the Lord's Supper), and to prayer. Those are the things that constituted their fellowship: the Lord's Supper; and, prayer meeting. That's it. That's church life. Now, in modern times, we use modern equipment, and modern technology. But the objective is always the same. We use various venues to do this, and various approaches to various age groups. But at the heart of it is that we want to teach you a principle of the mind of God. That's it. It's all we're going to do; that is, we're going to teach you a principle of doctrine, one way or another, so that you may grow up to be a real man or a real woman, and not a stupid twit. You will be somebody who can make an impact on society; on your family; on your relatives; and, on the lost world.

Our teaching of doctrine goes from grace salvation to super-grace living. A congregation of believers gathered in one location for fellowship and for regular spiritual ministries, based upon the study of doctrine. The mind of Christ guides us in everything that we do at this local level.

The Pastor-Teacher-Elder

The local church has an organization. It's very simple. It comes right out of the Bible. First, there is the pastor-teacher-elder. There is only one elder in every local church. That elder, as Acts 20 shows, interchanging the "elder;" the "bishop;" and, the "pastor." These are all the same person. He is the quarterback of the team, upon appointment to that duty by the congregation. He is responsible for the pulpit, and for the spiritual leadership of the church. And he is the executive director of the organization.

Deacons

Secondly, the other office is deacons. They are responsible for handling the material business of the church. They take care of that which is necessary on the physical level to conduct the work of the Lord.

Now, you have many spiritual leaders who are associated with the pastor-teacher elder in his job, of course. So, in a way, they are associate pastor-teacher elders – all of us, in one way or another. You also have many, many men who are associated with the deacons. They're associate deacons that go about here as unsung heroes, carrying on the work that they do, and the skills that they have to make it possible for the Lord's work to be done. And, boy, do we have a magnificent crew of those people here.

When you have a church that's devoted to the Word of God, and we say that that Word is necessarily so, it has a constant purging process. I use the word "purging" because Buddy Rouch used that word to me 40 years ago. He said, "There's something strange about Berean Church." One day, he said, "I've observed that it has a constant purging process. God brings in the elements that need to be done, and those who become a drag, and who are who are a detriment to the group, flush out." And that is true. Therefore, what you have is a group of believers who, as long as they maintain their integrity of temporal fellowship, they're not going to be stopped from doing things that churches with thousands could not do. When you send at the Judgment Seat of Christ, you're going to be glad that you were part of this team.

This local church organization with the mind of Christ, and under its proper leadership, proceeds to do the work of the ministry. Ephesians 4:11-12 tell us what the elders are supposed to do – the pastor-teacher. And the Scripture uses a double term because he's not just a teacher, and he's not just a pastor. There are teachers who are not pastors, but nobody can be a pastor without being a teacher. Ephesians 4:11-12: "And He (God the Holy Spirit) gave some as apostles, and some as prophets." We don't have those anymore. Those communicators are gone: "And some as evangelists." We have those who specialize in evangelism: "And some as pastor-teachers. In the Greek language that "pastor and" is a dash: pastor-teacher. It's a combined office. And, in Acts 20, that's connected with the elder. His job as pastor-teacher for the equipping of the saints (a military term) – equipping them for the spiritual battle, with doctrinal instruction for the work of service, so that they can serve God effectively, to the building up of the body of Christ, so that people can be reached for the Lord, and the work of the body of Christ on this earth can proceed.

Now, if the pastor-teacher fails in the pulpit to be an instructor of the Word, you have a social club. We are surrounded by country club churches. Whether you like it or not, that's the truth. We are surrounded by country club churches because the pastors are not focusing upon the doctrines of the Word of God. So, people do not know how to contend with Satan, and to contend powerfully for the faith that is once-for-all delivered to the saints.

God's Grace

Now, what this leads us to is a key quality that makes the church different from Israel. There is one magnificent feature that came along suddenly, after centuries of human experience. It was always there in the background of God's dealings, but now it became the primary focus of everything that God does, and everything in his dealings with human beings. And that is His grace – His undeserved, lovingkindness. The church is the product of divine grace alone. And it is a tragedy that most churches have never grasped that. So, they don't know how to run a local church operation on a grace basis. They violate the principles of grace left and right. They don't know how to give a salvation invitation without violating grace. They don't know how to take an offering without violating grace. They don't know how to present a musical number without violating grace. They don't know how to meet with people who are visitors in the congregation on some particular Sunday without violating grace. The whole thing is like some foggy field to them, and they don't know how to proceed. But boy, are they confident; are they arrogant; and, are they sure that they know how to go? And those people, when you talk to them about grace, they run from it. They do the "ain't necessarily so" routine, and they won't talk to you about it. They put their nose up, and they treat you as somebody who is just too ignorant to talk to, such that you don't think that the Mosaic code and the Law system is the way God deals with us today.

Tonight, we deal with the church as the magnificent product of the grace of God, for which all of you are trophies of that grace.

God, our Heavenly Father, we want to thank You for Your Word; for its truth; and, for its trustworthiness.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1995

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