You can turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10. I'll begin reading in verse 11. And finish at verse 25. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. From that time, waiting till his enemies are made his footstool for by one offering, he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us for after he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds.
I will write them. Then he adds their sins and their lawless deeds. I will remember no more. Now, where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another. And so much the more as you see the day approaching.
Amen. Let us open again with a word of prayer.
Opening Prayer
Our Father, we thank you again that we can consider now your holy word and we can engage in that act of worship, of worship, the preaching and the hearing of your word, Lord God. And we would ask that you would again now be with us. We thank you that you are with us, the living and true God, and that our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, walks among his lampstands. And we would ask, Lord God, that we would that we would know in that biblical and right way the presence of our Lord among us.
And we thank you again for your holy scriptures. Might we glean and be well instructed. Might we glean from them, Lord God, and be well instructed in them this morning. We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Introduction
Well, what I thought we would do this morning is we would take up an exercise in making the statement I am in church because and then be biblically informed in filling in the blank. Now, the reason I chose Hebrews chapter 10, I chose it as something, again, of a base camp to explore what the Bible says concerning why we need to be in church or perhaps the statement I am in church because and it is good that we are to be or we should be. We ought to be biblically informed when we come to why we are in church. Why do we come to church as Christ's people?
Now, there are obviously a number of reasons why we ought not to come to church. But when we ask that question, When we ask the question, I am in church because it is not certainly is not because of the brilliance of the architecture. It's not the externalism of the infrastructure that causes us to want to enter in. It is not because of a pre-service coffee shop.
That isn't the reason why we come if they have good decaf or good caffeinated coffee. That's not a reason to enter in and to enter into the worship of the triune God. We do not come to church for lights and music. We do not come to church for the impeccable timing of the photo of the PowerPoint guy and clicking the next slide button.
That's not why we come. There are reasons why we come to church. We do not also. It is not the case that we come to church because the preacher is winsome and charming and well-dressed.
There are biblical reasons why we come in as Christ's people and enter into the church of the living God and engage in the worship of our triune God. And in this text, we have one of those reasons. And we're going to branch out from Hebrews 10 and we're going to look at seven reasons why we are to be in church or seven reasons that we slot into the blank when we make the statement, I come to church because and notice here.
Reason 1: Christ's Perfect Crosswork
Point number one or reason number one is because of the perfect crosswork of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are to come to church because Jesus Christ has infallibly shed his blood upon the cross of Calvary to save us from our sins. Reason number one. Hebrews 10.
We have here in Hebrews 10. We have the author setting forth the supremacy of Christ's saving work. Throughout throughout the book of Hebrews, we have the author holding forth Christ Jesus and him alone as the supreme one, as the sufficient one, as the complete one. Everything else, the articles of old covenant religion are cast off, not because not because of anything inherently evil, but because of the one the one has come, Jesus Christ, that one to whom to whom all of those articles of old covenant religion pointed.
And the author is holding forth this perfect Christ. He says he argues for his perfect atoning work that need no addition or supplementation. Verses 11, 12, 13 and 14. Every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God from that time, waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering, he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified, the perfect completed work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing to be added, nothing to be nothing to supplement it with. There is nothing else needed save for a battered and bleeding savior who died infallibly upon the cross and rose again the third day for the justification of his people.
And brethren, this leads us into an argument for the perfection of the covenant. that there is now the reality, that new covenant reality, that Jesus Christ as the ratifier, Jesus Christ as the surety, Jesus Christ as the perfecter of that new covenant has secured remission of sins and there is no longer an offering for it. And as the trajectory or as the movement of the text comes to verse to verses twenty three, twenty four and twenty five, we see the reasons behind Paul's exhortation are the finished and perfect saving work of Christ and his supremacy. Notice verses twenty three, twenty four and twenty five. First off, steadfastness in doctrine or steadfastness in the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope. without wavering for he who promised is faithful. Also, brotherly love and encouraging and edifying one another in the church of the living God. Verse 24. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good words.
And then the reason to come to church is, again, the shed blood of the sovereign Christ. Verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. So, brethren, the reason that we enter within these doors is for a high and lofty and righteous reason. It is because Jesus Christ upon the cross shed his precious blood.
It's it's an amazing thing that it's an interesting thing that God's reasons for our ethical conduct. Are always much higher, are always much loftier, are always much wiser than our own. We often have we don't often have we well yeah we often have defective reasons and deficient reasons for engaging in ethical conduct for coming to church for an example. But we see this we see this throughout the scriptures if we if we look at particular things like the holiness of the Christian.
What is the reason that we are to be holy? Well, you'll probably receive different answers if you're to ask that question from a number of professing Christians. Why are we to be holy? Well, it's so that we can show others that we are, that we're legitimate.
It's so we can show others and we can boast in the fact that we are the children of God. Or perhaps some will say that we are to be holy so that we can merit our salvation. Godless doctrine. We are to be holy.
Why are you to be holy? Well, we are to be holy because we need to, by our holiness, enter into everlasting life as a reward for our ethical conduct. But God's reasons are always higher and loftier. Why are we to be holy?
Because he is. Be ye holy, for I am holy. His reasons are always higher than ours. Or if you think about wives and husbands, if you think about your conduct, one towards the other.
Wife, you are to submit to your husband, and you might ask why? Well, because he's nice to me, because he cuddles up with me in bed and speaks sweet nothings into my ear. Why are you to submit to your husband? Oh, as long as he takes out the garbage on time, as long as he does this, as long as he does that, then I'll submit.
But if not, I'll just rebel until he does. No, the reason that you're to submit to your husband is because the church is under submission to the head of the church, even Christ Jesus, our Lord. So you submit to your husband, not for some low reason, not because you're waiting for a conditional fulfillment of obedience on his behalf, but because Christ shed his blood for you and has brought you into joyful obedience to him. You submit to your husband as unto the Lord, who is the head of the church.
Or husbands, you don't get off the hook either. Husbands, your conduct towards your wives. Why are you to love your wife? Is it because she makes you a sandwich on time?
Is it because she does this and that? Is it because she does X, Y, and Z in the home? She keeps it clean. She does the laundry.
She does the dishes. She does all things impeccably in the home. If she does that, then yes, I'll love her more. No, no, no.
You are to love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. God's reasons for conduct are always higher and loftier and holier. The reason for us to come into church, the reason for us to enter within these doors, to sit in the pews, is because Christ shed his blood on Calvary's tree. To use the language of Melito of Sardis in the early church, he who fixed the stars in place It was fixed in place upon a tree.
And because of that fact, you are to enter in within these doors and worship along with your people. Do not forsake the assembly of yourselves together, as is the manner of some. It was no doubt the context of that statement that many people who profess Christ were falling away. They had the pressures and the persecutions of Jews around them who were still going to the temple, who were still going to offer up sacrifices, who were still engaged in those articles of old covenant religion.
And they were being pressured to fall back away, to fall away, to not stay, to not be steadfast, to not to not hold fast the confession of their hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. Much persecution, much heat, much hatred coming down upon them. And it was easy to go to go back to those multitudinous washings and ceremonies that they were familiar with. It was easy for them to set aside the statement of their profession, that Jesus Christ was their all in all, if they believed in vain.
That Jesus Christ was their all in all. And to own that statement, are we to believe in a crucified Messiah? I'll take the multitudinous washings that I'm familiar with. I'll take the ceremonies.
I'll take old covenant religion. But a crucified Messiah? That's a stumbling block. That's a rock of offense.
And those would prove to be those who were not Christians in the first place. The exhortation is to Christians, do not follow that way. Don't go back to the old things. And I'm careful there because in the Old Testament, we're to go and seek after the ancient past and the old past.
But what I mean are those things that have come to fruition and been completed in Christ Jesus. We are to seek after those new covenant realities that Jesus Christ is our all in all. Yes, it is about a crucified Messiah. And because of that crucified Messiah, Paul can say, do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
We are to enter into the church of Christ because of the perfect crosswork of Christ.
Reason 2: The Church of the Living God
Secondly, Why? Or again, the statement I am in church because it is the church of the living God. It is the church of the living God. Turn to First Timothy for a moment.
First Timothy. And we'll come back to this text in a moment, but First Timothy Chapter 3. One of the reasons that Paul indicates his writing Why is writing these things to Timothy in the context here? We get we get.
We get some of the some of the reasons, some of the backup as to why Paul is writing to Timothy, verse 14 of First Timothy, Chapter three, these things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly. But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Brethren, when we enter into a Christian church, I'm not saying when we work through these points, I'm not saying the reason why you would need to enter into this church. This is our local church.
We ought to be committed to her for the building up of her, for the building up of one another within this place. But why Christians, generally speaking, ought to enter into a faithful and Bible preaching church and engage in the worship of the triune God? Reason number two, as the text says, because it is the church of the living God, the house of God, the church of the living God. When we look out at other religions, when we look out at other churches, that are not Christian, we do not look upon churches that are engaged in some sort of true worship, but rather we look at false churches.
We look at churches where there is no God. We look at churches where there is no Christ. We look at dead churches. It is not the case that someone can say to us in our exclusivity and our commitment to separation from false religion that they can say, oh, but preacher, You're wrong in the oneness Pentecostal church where they deny the Trinity.
There is lots of singing. There is rich and there is joyous raising of hands and there is much worship. No, that is dead and unsaving religion. That is not the church of the living God.
If they deny the Trinity, if they deny the deity of Jesus Christ, if they deny anything that is essential to saving faith and biblical revelation, then they're not the church of the living God. We don't look for the validity and the veracity of the true Christian church in the raising of hands, in the singing, in joy or in anything else of external and subjective matters. But rather, we look at the church and we look at her and see objective things. Is she preaching the word?
Is she exercising church discipline? Is she engaging in the proper administration of the sacraments? And is her doctrine biblical? If it is not, that is not the church of the living God.
And throughout biblical history, that was the righteous boast of God's people, that they were not boasting in themselves, not boasting in what they had done or anything of human things, but rather boasting in divine things. The fact that they were the congregation of the living and true God. And it was with wholesome mockery, for example, that the psalmist would rebuke that the psalmist by God would rebuke the heathen nations around them who served gods that were no gods at all. Psalm 115.
This is. The psalmist's wholesome mockery of the heathen gods around them, around him. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to your name give glory because of your mercy, because of your truth. Why should the Gentiles say, so where is their God?
But our God is in heaven. He does whatever he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak.
Eyes they have, but they do not see. They have ears, but they do not hear. Noses they have, but they do not smell. They have hands, but they do not handle. feet they have, but they do not walk, nor do they mutter through their throat.
Those who make them are like them. So is everyone who trusts in them. And the psalmist closes with concerning the living and true God, concerning Yahweh, concerning their covenant Lord, the heaven. Even the heavens are the Lord's.
But the earth he has given to the children of men. The dead do not praise the Lord, nor any who go down into silence. But we will bless the Lord from this time forth. And forevermore, praise the Lord.
The psalmists realize God's people realize that their congregation is the congregation of the living and true God and all of those who surround them, all of those who surrounded them, all of those who did not exercise or who were not engaged in the worship of the triune God of the armies of Israel. It was dead and unsaving religion. And so, brethren, when we come into this church, we need to realize that one of the reasons we enter in is because it is the church of the living God. And we ought to hold that with great zeal and with great jealousy and anyone anyone who would come to us, anyone who would come to us and boast Those who are erroneous, those who are cultists, those who are engaged in false religion, any of them who would boast in their prominence, in the prominence of their deities, we ought to be like David before Goliath.
Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? We hold with zeal our church, not our church, but the church of Christ and the gathering together of his people. It's not a light and a lowly thing. It is a heavy and a high and a lofty thing that we come together because we do so in the name of the living God, because it is the house of the living and true God.
Not a house of idols not a house of deaf mute and dumb gods and blind gods those who cannot walk but rather it is the church of the living God who is not constrained by the elements of stones and trees but rather is above the heavens even in the heavens and laughing upon those in derision who would mock him and say that he is not with his people.
Reason 3: Christ Walks Among His Churches
Point number three. I am in church because it is among the churches that the exalted and reigning Christ walks and fellowships. Blessed reality, you can turn to Revelation for a moment, Revelation chapter one, we come to church because it is in the church of the living and true God that the exalted and reigning Christ walks. Revelation chapter one, you'll remember the scene where John is given this vision of this one like the Son of Man in grandeur and in great glory, magnificence.
And one of the aspects that John records concerning this one like the Son of Man is in verse 13. And in the midst of that, this is Revelation chapter one, verse 13, and in the midst of the seven lampstands, One like the son of man, we get an interpretation of what those seven lampstands are in verse 20. The seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches. Jesus Christ walks among his churches.
He walks among his churches with those eyes as of a flame of fire, gazing through the darkest veil to see the evil and to see the good. And he commends the good and the righteous, and he condemns the wicked and commands to repent. It's a blessed thing as we move to another point, but we're sort of here already with the fact that Christ walks among his churches. It's a blessed thing to have the presence of the ruling and reigning Christ for two reasons here, because, yes, he commends the good.
He commends the good. He can look upon the church and he doesn't commend them because they're so great, but because they are in union with him and conducting themselves in a manner worthy of his glorious gospel. He can say, I commend you for taking those those who thought they were apostles, but were not out of the ranks of your church. I commend you for holding to sound doctrine and for hating the doctrine that I hate, the doctrine of the Nicolaitans.
He can commend, but also brethren, it is a blessing to have the ruling and reigning Christ walking among our churches so that he can condemn in that in that Christ like displeasure for his people and turn us back to the right path. We need to understand that too, that Christ's condemnation in identifying error and those things that we are doing incorrectly is a benefit to us because then we can repent and seek the old path, seek the right path, seek to walk in the right way. And let us always welcome, though it is hard, let us always welcome rebuke. Let us always welcome correction because it is not an attack on your tight pride, but rather it is the ruling and reigning Christ walking among you for the good of your soul, giving you rebuke, giving you correction, causing you to return back to the path, which is the way everlasting.
Always welcome that. Always rejoice, though it may be hard.
Reason 4: Pillar and Ground of Truth
Reason number four, brethren, I come to church. I am in church because the church is the pillar and the ground of the truth. You can turn back if you're if it's OK with you. First Timothy three verses 14 and 15, because we have there that language of the church being the pillar and ground of the truth.
And it's important As we consider reasons for entering within these four walls or within the four walls of a Christ preaching Bible preaching church, we consider this reason that she is the pillar in the ground of the truth. First Timothy three. Again, beginning at verse 14, these things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly. But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
Brethren, it is in the church, a true a true Christian church, it is in the church of the living God where you will see the word of God held up. where you will see the doctrine, where you will see the theology, where you will see the rich revelation that God has given to us in the scriptures held up as it ought to be held up, certainly fallibly, because the preacher is not perfect, nor are the saints within the pews perfect. Nevertheless, in a true church of the living God, the word of God is held up. The church of the living God is the pillar and ground of the truth. Now, this does not mean, of course, that the infrastructure or the institution, the physical institution of the church and and her rulers, for lack of a better term, are somehow over the word and sovereign over it, but rather that the church is the body that the body that holds up the infrastructure that holds up and extols the word of the living, true God, because it is God who who exalts his own word above his very name.
And so a church of the living or in the church of the living God, insofar, of course, that she is a true church and is faithful. You are to enter within those doors because she is the pillar in the ground of the truth. She preaches the word that the preacher comes up here and in the power of Christ, under the ordaining of the Holy Spirit, opens up the Bible and seeks humbly to preach to you the riches and the excellencies of Christ Jesus. bringing to you the weight of the revelation, bringing to you the shining light of God's holiness, his righteousness, his sovereignty, his hatred for sin, the reality of that sin, biblical anthropology, that we outside of Christ are dead in our trespasses and in our sins, in bondage to it, blinded. by the power of reigning sin, but also pointing you on to that one that the Bible that the Bible is moving towards in in the pages of its revelation, the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect savior, the one who came in the fullness of time, born of a woman born under the law to redeem those who are under the law, our precious savior, who shed his precious blood for all those whom the father had given to him. It is in the church of the living God, where you should hear, where you will hear the preaching of the word unto your edification and your encouragement.
If you are a saint unto your possible condemnation, if you are one who continues in your rebellion against God, but if you are such, it is also unto or designed for your salvation. If you are if you are Excuse me, if you are appointed unto eternal life, you are in a blessed place to be seated in the pews of a church because it is by the means of the opening up of the word. It is by the means of the preaching that you will bend the knee to the ruling and reigning Christ who walks among his churches and you will enter into Emmanuel's land, singing his praises with his precious saints. The church is the pillar and the ground of the truth.
The church holds forth the word of truth as a divine design for her conduct and her activity in this lower world. Turn to Philippians for a moment. Still under point number four, the church being the pillar and the ground of the truth. There's a reason for us to enter into church, to be here Sunday in and Sunday out.
Philippians chapter two. Beginning at verse 12, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ and that I have not run in vain or labored in vain. Brethren, it is your ability or you owe your ability, if I can use this language, to go out into a crooked and perverse generation and hold forth the word of truth.
You owe that ultimately to a triune God who has saved you and brought you out of darkness into his marvelous light. But brethren, you need to be well equipped. You need to be fed the word of God. You need to be instructed and directed in the word of God before you can go out into a crooked and perverse generation and hold forth the word of truth.
Lest you preach error, lest you preach heresy, lest you preach nonsense and you do not preach Christ crucified. It is in the church of the living God that the word of truth is held up, that pillar and ground of the truth, where we hold up the word of God as it ought to be held up, though fallibly, so that sinners and saints can look upon it and be well instructed. We go into church or I am in church because the church is the pillar and ground of the truth.
Reason 5: God's Ordained Care for His Sheep
Fifthly, brethren, I come into church because the church is God's ordained place for the care of his sheep. The church is God's ordained place for the care of his sheep. Certainly some notions and aspects of this already covered. But please turn to the book of Acts for a moment.
The church of the living God that Christ purchased with his own blood, is a church that is God's ordained place for the care of his sheep. Acts, Chapter 20. We begin reading at verse twenty five. And indeed, now I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more.
Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also, from among yourselves, men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.
Therefore, watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone, night and day with tears." It's interesting, we have in here again point number one, the church to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. The Church of God was purchased by the shed blood of that one who fixed the stars in place, who was fixed in place upon a tree. And we gather together again because of that. But notice the notice the the other language here concerning care of the flock.
Verse 28. Therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Of course, Paul giving issuing this exhortation and command to the Ephesian elders. But this is, brethren, it is in the church of God where men have been put over you as bond servants, of course, for Christ's sake, but nevertheless put over you for your care, for your feeding, for your instruction, for rebuke and for correction, and so that you might be thoroughly equipped by the word for every good work.
Notice also the language here made you overseers to shepherd the Church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. And then notice there's a context also here with regards to the activity of savage wolves, heretic and errorists and false teachers who would come in and seek to divide the flock. Verse 29, for I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, not only those savage wolves, but also from among themselves. Verse 30, also from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves.
It is under perhaps non normative circumstances where you may have to read, you may have to be instructed, you may have to open up the Bible yourself. and read and learn and pray that you would grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, because you're not under a normative circumstance where you can enter into two doors and be under the instruction of the word of God. Nevertheless, under normative circumstances, and this pertains to most of the time, we are to enter into this place. You are commanded to come in because this is the place that God has ordained to care for his sheep. So we come in and we are well instructed, Lord willing, by the pastors who have been set up by the Holy Spirit as overseers to shepherd us, to shepherd you.
And brethren, this is again a joy. It ought to be a joy when we when we get to the end of this, we will see that when we come into church or we come into church and it is both a duty and it is a privilege. If it is just duty, then that touches upon the things of external religion and bringing our blind and bringing our lame into the church of God. But it is duty we are exhorted, and it is a privilege because we joyfully obey the master's command to enter in and sing the praises and worship our triune God.
So brethren, it should be a joy to come in here and to be sitting under instruction. I'm not boasting in myself and I'm not saying that you need to exalt Pastor Butler and Pastor Porter because it's a joy to come in and listen to them and to sit under their instruction. No, it is because in the church of God, God has ordained people to preach to you, to open up the word, to instruct, to tend to wounds, to feed you the word of God, to feed you the things of that Christ who is full satisfaction and full and eternal soul nourishment. Yes, the preacher is fallible, but the preacher is such if he follows after the Apostle Paul, he is one who does not preach himself, but Christ Jesus, the Lord and ourselves, your bondservants for Jesus sake.
So, brethren, when we come into church, it is a joy because we can be well instructed. We can be fed the riches and the excellencies of such a savior. We can be rebuked. That is a good thing.
We can be corrected. That is a good thing. Why? Because it realigns us onto the way everlasting.
The word of the word of the living and true God. We need that realignment. We do need that realignment. It is it is not to say impossible because with God, all things are possible.
But under normative circumstance, it is God's ordained means of feeding the sheep to enter into this place, to sit under the instruction of an ordained minister or a preacher of the word under the providence of God and learn of the riches of Christ and grow thereby.
Reason 6: The Lord's Supper
Point number six, point number six, because it is in the church that the Lord's Supper is administered. Because it is in the church that the Lord's Supper is administered. We've been here many times before, but turn to First Corinthians 11 for a moment. I am in church because there the Lord's Supper is administered.
The Lord's Supper is not something that is some sort of a loose observance or some sort of a loose admonition or a loose suggestion or recommendation by the by Christ, but rather it is a command. It is it is a command for our obedience that we, again, don't just approach with a sense of duty, but with a sense of privilege. 1 Corinthians chapter 11 at verse 23. This is the Apostle Paul. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take it.
This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. This is something that has been given by the Lord, Paul says, for I received this from the Lord and then he delivered it to them. And what this ordinance is, is it's a remembrance of Christ's body broken for us, Christ's blood shed for us and the command of the Savior. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
So, brethren, we come to church because it is in the church where we engage in joyful obedience unto the commission of the Savior to do this in remembrance of him. And it is a joy. It should never be, brethren, and shame on any of us if this is our disposition, that on the Lord's Day, when the sermon is finished and the preacher says, OK, now turn to First Corinthians 11. We've got to be here, I forgot, for another You know, another 25 minutes.
Listen to him regurgitate again this ordinance. Heaven forbid. Heaven forbid. After the preaching is finished on the Lord's Day, we finish the prayer.
We give up. We you know, we finish. We finish the prayer after the sermon. We say turn to First Corinthians chapter 11.
Praise God. We get to engage in the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. Do this in remembrance of me. The pre-crucified Savior said as he was on his road to Calvary, where he was on his on the road to that cross, where we where he would receive bruising, where he would receive nails in his hands and in his feet, where he would before that be spit upon.
He'd be lathered in the spit of his mockers, be put to death for our sins. And heaven forbid that we should ever say, oh, great, now we get to engage in this again. I forgot I'm not going to get home sooner. Praise God for the Lord's Supper.
And so when you're here and we finish praying and we say, OK, now it's time to engage in the Lord's Supper, turn to First Corinthians chapter 11. Praise God. I'm going to do this in remembrance of my Savior who shed his precious blood, who had his body broken for me. Brethren, pass around that bread.
Pass around that wine and let's proclaim our Lord's death till he comes again. I am in church because it is the church in the church that the Lord's Supper is administered.
Reason 7: Mutual Building Up of Saints
And seventhly, brethren, and finally, I am in church because or you are in church because you are to be a contributor to and recipient of the building up of your fellow saints. Again, you are to be a contributor to and a recipient of the building up of your fellow saints. And we can turn back to where we started. Hebrews, Chapter 10.
Hebrews, Chapter 10. Certainly, I don't think exhausting the reasons that the Bible sets forth or gathering together, nevertheless, some of the important ones, some of those high and heavy ones, that we find within its pages. But again, Hebrews chapter 10, Paul has already written concerning the efficacy, the power, the supremacy, the sufficiency of Christ Jesus as that surety, as that mediator of a better covenant. And again, beginning at verse 23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful.
And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. Brethren, we are to have an others minded disposition when we enter within the doors of the church. We are coming in to worship the living and true God. We are coming in because Christ has shed his blood for guilty sinners.
We're coming in for all of these reasons, but we're also coming in because we are to consider one another and stir up love and good works.
Practicing One-Anotherness
We are to be found with love, brother to brother, sister to sister, sister to brother, brother to sister. Brethren, let this mark us. Let let this be our disposition that we enter in and we consider that one to anotherness, that Christianity, that Christ demands. We are to put the interests of others or we're not only to be about our own interests, but also about the interests of others.
Paul writes the Philippian church. And then what does he do after that? He sets forth Christ Jesus as the example, as the one who perfectly did that. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, he says, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation.
We are to follow after our master and our example who did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. We are to imbibe the ethic of the risen Christ and engage in one anotherness in this church. Consider one another. Consider that that when you ask somebody, how are you doing and they say pretty good or fine, it might not be the case.
I'm not I'm not going to I'm not going to constrain your conscience by pulpit commands that aren't in the Bible. Nevertheless, consider one another. Are you really OK? Are there any wounds, brother, sister?
Are there any wounds in the inner man? Can I help? Can I pray? Talk to one another.
Yeah, sure, at some point you can talk about the Canucks, but we're in the church of the living God. Talk about Christ. Speak about Christ in you, the hope of glory. Speak about our crucified and our risen Savior.
Talk about... apply those balms of tending to wounds. Not the balms of personal opinion, philosophy, or psychotherapy, but the balms of Christ Jesus and His gospel. Apply those and love your brother, love your sister. It's okay throughout the week to put down cell phone And, you know, to put to put away the keyboard and pick up that old technology, the phone, say, brother, sister, thinking about you praying about maybe maybe you weren't even thinking about them.
Start to think about them. Pick up the phone. How are you doing? Again, not imposing the iron fist of new command or, you know, some sort of imposition upon you.
But just to imbibe that ethic that our Savior had, that the apostles had, who shed tears over their brothers and sisters, and to have this one anotherness. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. And what does this do? But it magnifies and extols the grace of God in saving us from out of darkness and into his marvelous light.
It's not an act of self-congratulatory back-patting. Okay, check. I called so-and-so. Okay, check.
I asked how so-and-so was doing. My list is done for at least three years. I'm done now. No, it's so that we can extol the grace of God, that we can lift up a crucified and resurrected and ascended Christ and say, I am exercising gratitude for my Savior, who fixed the stars in place, was nevertheless fixed in place upon a tree, shed his blood for me.
Now I'm going to act according to my master. I'm going to follow the lamb wherever he goes. By the way, the lamb is in the church, so you need to follow him into the church. If you are a Christian who follows the lamb wherever he goes.
Brethren, it is not the case that we look to the church and we try and find reasons that appeal to the flesh for us to be here. We don't we don't have a you know, we don't have a PowerPoint screen, they're not evil. We don't need one. We don't have fancy architecture that, you know, praise God for this building, but we don't have pillars of splendor and rich architecture and all that sort of thing because we don't need it.
There are lots of things that we don't need and ought not to mark the church and ought not to serve as reasons for us to be here that we very often think are reasons that we should be here. We're here because of the shed blood of a savior. We're here because it is the church of the living God. We're here because it is within these walls.
It is among the congregation of Christ's people that the exalted and reigning Christ walks in fellowships. We're here because the church is the pillar and the ground of the truth. A faithful church holds up the word of the living and true God and says, look to Christ Jesus for your salvation. We're here because the church is the ordained place for the care of the sheep, rebuke, correction, love, feeding, tending to wounds, discipline.
We're here because the church in the church, it is where the Lord's Supper is administered. We get to remember, we get to proclaim the shed blood of Christ and his broken body. And brethren, we are to gather together here because we are to contribute to and be the recipients of the love of the brethren. And let's seek to do that.
Let's seek to do that prayerfully. We don't we don't set up our own impositions and our own commands and our own criteria as to what that looks like. Nevertheless, prayerfully, we approach the scriptures and we see the exhortation to do it and we do it. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.
This is duty and privilege when we come to church. It's our duty to come because we're commanded not to forsake coming. But it's also privilege because it's the church of the living God. It is the church of the living Christ where he walks in fellowships.
And brethren, hopefully I shouldn't have to qualify this, but I'm going to do it anyway. I'm not indicting anybody. I'm not charging anybody with sin. I'm just trying to set forth what the Bible sets forth.
Under normative circumstances where the children of God are able, we are to gather together where his people congregate in order to engage in the worship of the triune God. I realize things can get in the way. Legitimate reasons, whether health or otherwise. But brethren, insofar as it is normative and insofar as the Bible sets forth the fact that we are ought to and you're able to enter in within these doors and engage in the worship of our triune God with a congregation of people who do it as dutiful obedience, but joyful obedience to their risen King.
And if you're
Call to Repentance and Faith
and if you're here in this, you really don't care about gathering together as a church because you are outside of Christ. You are a sinner. You are outside of having been touched by amazing and sovereign and victorious grace. The church compels you.
The preacher compels you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I deliver to you that which we have been delivered by preachers throughout the ages, that Christ Jesus died according to the scriptures. that he was buried and that he rose again according to the scriptures. And that act of salvation in history was for all those whom the Father had given to him. It was for guilty sinners.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world, sinners to save. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. And you will enjoy the riches of his providential blessings in the congregation of his saints. And brethren, let's let's let's consider one another and stir each other up to love and good works.
When we enter into this place, let's enter in for the right reasons, for divine and holy and high and lofty reasons. And let us engage in the worship of our triune God with duty and with joy and with great privilege. Let's pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you so much that we can gather together in this place. We thank you, Lord God, for the shed blood of our Savior. We thank you, Lord God, that when we gather together, this is not a house of idols or dead religion. But Lord God, it is the truth that it is the church of the living God.
And, God, we would pray that we would count it a privilege to be able to gather into this place, to come within these walls and worship our triune God. That we can engage, Lord God, in fellowship, in the gospel of saving grace, one with another. And we would ask, Lord God, that you would help us. Help us as your saints to stir one another up to love and good works.
Help us, Lord God, to have the disposition of brotherly love that we might consider one another. And let us exercise this, Lord God, let us be found as those who are characterized by love for the brothers, because truly, Lord God, if we have no love for our brothers, then you are not in us and we are not Christians. Brothers, God, we just ask that you would now stir us up, help us to go into the fellowship luncheon, Lord God, and to have godly conversation one with another, to enjoy food, a bounty of food and drink that you've provided for us. And Lord God, might we go out into the lower world, into our various charges under heaven, Lord God, and might we conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of your glorious gospel.
Might we live according to Christ and his commands, and might we do so dutifully and joyfully. So we just ask God that you would be with us, be with those who are not able to join us. Those who are ill, Lord God, lift them up in body and in strength and lift them up in the inner man and cause them to rejoice along with us, though away from us in Christ, his riches and his excellencies. We pray in his most precious name.
Amen.