Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. Today, the church and you. Who is the church anyway? And what does this church mean to you, dear listener?

But first, we at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church have met and spoken with so many of you in our radio audience over the years. I just appreciate the feedback that you've given me over the years. Constructive, it has been for the most part, and we love you. We appreciate your support. And what we would like to do in this new year is offer you an opportunity to meet and to fellowship with us and we with you in a friendly environment.

Therefore, what we propose is a fellowship spaghetti dinner on the last Wednesday of every month at 5 p.m. in our fellowship hall. And our first one will be Wednesday, January 25th, a fellowship spaghetti dinner. Wednesday, January 25th is our first one, 5 p.m. Come and meet me, Pastor Bass, and some of our people. And we can just talk about, relax, kick back, discuss anything on your heart and on your mind. I'd appreciate it if you could call us, though, to make a reservation so we know how many to expect.

And that number is 5-2-3-0-1-9-6. 5-2-3-0-1-9-6. Now, on with our topic, the church and you. Who is the church anyway? You are the church if you're a Christian.

And what does this church mean to you? Now, if we could don a pair of God goggles, if I could put it that way, whereby we could view what is actually going on in the world of the Spirit simultaneously with the world of the physical around us, we would see Christians who are our brothers and sisters as they make up the church gloriously and slowly but surely, piece by precious piece, stone by precious stone, building what the apostle Peter calls a spiritual house of which you yourself, and he's emphatic about that, you yourself are living stones. Well, this spiritual house of which we speak is the house of God, the temple.

On a plain and in a manner beyond our thorough comprehension, God is building his heavenly dwelling, his temple, in which he will live eternally. And you, believer, are one of those components, a living stone in that living temple. Paul puts it this way, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, he goes on to say, that is in Christ. In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit, unquote.

Listener, throughout history, grand physical structures have been built to God to represent his power, his majesty, glory, and presence among his people, including churches and cathedrals. But chief among them is Solomon's temple, built in the 10th century BC under the wisest and most glorious of the kings of Israel, Solomon, son of David. Gold, cedar, marble, stone constituted its elements and the design evoked the Garden of Eden, where man originally enjoyed the life and presence of his creator.

How Israel thrived in its glory days with the temple in Jerusalem, it became the central focus of Israel's worship, the center of the world, the place where I will put my name as God had promised in the wilderness. But just as Israel was meant to evoke and foreshadow so much of Christ in his church, so Israel's temple was meant to evoke and foreshadow the church as the living dwelling place of God. If we had our figurative God goggles, we might see God by his Holy Spirit living and dwelling amongst his living stones, even as his presence was in the Holy of Holies in the old temple of Solomon.

Only now it is we, his people, Christians, his church in whom he dwells and lives. And in exhorting the Corinthians to eschew evil, Paul employs graphic temple metaphors to make his point. What agreement, he says, has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people.

He has made his dwelling now in us, dear listener. He walks among us as he walked in the cool of the evening in the garden with Adam and Eve. We are now his people and he is now our God and he is sovereignly, lovingly putting us together one by one, spiritual stone by spiritual stone into that holy temple that will one day be complete. And this reality has profound implications for you, listener, for you and your life here too. Your union with the visible church must be made manifest in the visible church.

I'm sorry, your union with the invisible church must be made manifest in the visible church. So please do not tell me that you are a member of a church, the invisible church, pastor. I'm a part of the invisible church universal of which you were just speaking. And so I don't have to be a member of a local congregation. Poppycock, perhaps you also have an invisible brother or sister born of an invisible mother who lives an invisible life in your room.

That'd be all right for a child's imagination, but adults with such imaginings get put away in an institution. It's patently absurd. So it is saying that you are a Christian, but not a member of a visible local congregation. Your union with the invisible universal church is verily an invisible one as in non-existent. People who say such things, things like, well, I'm a member of the universal church, the invisible church, but so I don't have to be a member of a visible church.

People who say such things generally fall into one of two fundamental errors. Number one, first error, you may be insecure in your Christian life and commitment. You may be insecure in your Christian life and commitment. Many Christians are skittish about being transparent in any way about their Christian life, their walk of discipleship, maybe their familiarity with the Bible and or doctrine too. Perhaps they are painfully aware of how sinful they are and how short they fall in what is expected in the Christian life.

But this is okay. Such an attitude is a good sign of the stirrings of humility. As a matter of fact, all believers should be ready to confess what the tax collector said of himself in comparison to the self-righteous Pharisee. Jesus put it this way, but the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. Well, dear listener, if all those clean scrubs, suit and tie Sunday morning church people toting their Bibles under their arms, I'm not ready upon reflection to do this very thing.

Well, they're probably more like the proud Pharisee who said of himself, and Jesus put it this way, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I give tithes of all that I get. What did Jesus say of the two? Well, he said this, I tell you, this man, that is the tax collector, went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted, unquote.

Well, this person, then the tax collector and the stirrings of humility, as well as the unchurched person, should be encouraged to come with his sin and his insecurities and his risks and join those of us who share those same insecurities and humility. In the church, we find forgiveness of our sin in Christ, and we also find exaltation, so to speak, that is a lifting up and encouragement in fellowship with others of like mind. There are those of us just like you. Dear listener, if you are unchurched today, don't let the hypocrites keep you from coming to us.

Much can be said for our insecurities concerning our knowledge of the Bible and doctrine, too, dear listener. Many Christians, whether they be new or mature, they may be hesitant to come to church because they're afraid to expose what they think might be their lack of knowledge of the Bible and its teachings, which is called doctrine. It requires as much patience and humility to learn as it does to grow in discipleship in the Christian life. Perhaps in important terms that we hear in the Bible all the time, seem intimidating at first, don't they? Justification, imputation, propitiation, for example.

Yet with a little patience and diligence, anyone can learn what the Bible teaches about these important matters of life and faith. Even something as innocuous as saying, let's all turn to the book of Hezekiah, for example. This can be intimidating to some Christians who may not be as familiar as their neighbor is with the various books of the Old Testament and New Testament, and may find themselves embarrassed, thumbing back and forth in their Bibles long after everyone else has found their place and now listening intently. Has this ever happened to you? Please, not to worry.

Anyone near is ready and willing to help you find your way in God's precious word. Come to church. Come to New Geneva. You will learn in time. This is what I want to underline in this regard.

Paul said, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Christian life is not only a growth in grace, but also knowledge. This is why we teach. Do you see the community in which we as Christians grow? Our discipleship and knowledge of Christ and His teachings cannot be attained without one another.

This in turn cannot happen without the face-to-face, look-me-in-the-eye-skin-in-the-game fellowship that only a church environment provides. This often means we risk very much. This keeps people away too. The risk of getting our feelings hurt or having our lack of knowledge in the Bible exposed for all to see. And then the risk of trusting church leaders, for example, with the money we give and the souls that learn and grow.

That means we and our children. Also the risk of trusting church leaders for the destinies to which we go. So believe me, dear listener, we in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church understand this to our toenails. And consequently, we take ordaining of church officers very seriously. The author of Hebrews puts it this way, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God.

Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. This is quite a standard to live up to, dear listener. We in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church take this very seriously. Hebrews also says, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Unquote. You, in order to obey a leader, must have a leader over you and submit to them in terms of these church offices and functions. And we, in the Orthodox Church, take these things very seriously. We understand the sense of risk to which you put yourselves as sheep of the flock, but this in no way lessens your obligation to commit yourselves to a community of believers, dear listener. A look at the one another passages in the Bible is a beautiful testament to this.

Just listen to a few of these. Though we are many, we are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. Love one another with brotherly affection. Live in harmony with one another. Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you.

Instruct one another. Greet one another with a holy kiss. May there be no division in the body, but that members may have the same care for one another. Exhort one another every day. On and on we could go, dear listener.

In all of these, there is the implicit understanding that we are self-consciously together in a plan with one another, not just randomly bumping into each other as Christians at Walmart or the Chuckers game. And that plan is, of course, the church. The church is the arena in which the love of Christ we have for one another is expressed with all of the risk of hurt and offense and humility, as well as the reward of love and affection and edification. You will never know the reward without putting your heart out there at risk, dear listener. Come to church, risk getting hurt and offended.

And you will always experience the reward, too, of love and affection and edification because there is forgiveness for one another and in Christ. There can be no substitute for worshiping together, dear listener. In his instructions on worship, Paul begins in the first place when you come together as a church. When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation. On he goes.

And of course, there is that exhortation, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, that you are doing, dear listener, if you're not a member, a community of a church, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. And all the more, as you see the day drawing near, Hebrew says, the necessity is certain. We are one body in Christ, wired to express that oneness in worship as the gathered people of God on Sunday in a physical locale.

If your heart does not yearn to gather with other, to be with other Christians on Sunday, if your heart does not long to gather in worship with other believers, please do not tell me that you are a Christian. I don't believe it. And there can also be no substitute for learning together. Learning and teaching can only occur when there is a teacher and a student. Like teacher, like student, Jesus said.

The touchy-feely you can learn from me and I can learn from you concept derived from a decentralized network like that found in a home church movement is nowhere found in the Bible. Since the days of the apostles, God has clearly gifted particular men in the church to teach as distinguished from others with other gifts. Paul puts it this way in Romans 12. So we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.

If prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service and serving, the one who teaches in his teaching. Dear listener, your learning, your growth and grace is dependent in part upon teachers whom God has gifted and given to the church. There can also be no substitute for serving together, brothers and sisters. You cannot serve effectively as a solo Christian, a cowboy, lone ranger on the plains of the church. The Bible says, through love, serve one another.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, Peter says, as good stewards of God's very grace. Oh, dear listener, do not let your insecurities and your feelings of inadequacy keep you from fellowship in Christ's visible church. We need each other. As Paul says, the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. That there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

Oh, this cannot occur in a vacuum of one. If you're out there, dear listener, without a church community, come to us, we say, come to us, come to New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. If not us, then seek out another body of believers who preach and teach God's word and attempt to live it. Howsoever imperfectly that might be. Well, this brings me to my second impediment to life in the church, why people don't come into fellowship and community in the church.

Number two, they are too proud to come into fellowship with and under the authority of another. This may be you. Many who do not join a church, come into fellowship with a church, are too proud to come into fellowship with and under the authority of another. This is the rub for many a person who claims to be a Christian, but will not join a church. In my years of experience as a pastor, I find that the first group of persons that is those who may be a bit insecure, may be a bit unwilling to risk in their Christian life and commitment, they can be encouraged and coaxed and loved into life in the church.

But the proud? Solomon says this about the proud, scoffer is the name of the arrogant, haughty man who acts with arrogant pride. These, the proud, rarely come into fellowship in a local congregation unless they come into true humility before the Lord. Peter says this, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility towards one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

The proud who refuse to come to church generally have three issues. I've delineated these many times. First of all, the proud who refuse to join a church and come into fellowship with the church have three primary issues. They are unteachable, incorrigible, and unmanageable. Yes, they are unteachable.

They're unwilling to learn from authority. They're incorrigible. That is, they're unwilling to receive discipline from authority, and generally they're unmanageable. That is, they're unwilling to have they and their family led by authority. You see the theme in all of these, and that is authority.

First of all, the proud man who will not join a church invariably is obstinate and unteachable. As I've observed with you, God has gifted his church with able teachers. I've been the beneficiary of so many of them. This is why I acknowledge here and now that I am glad to align myself with a particular church and submit myself to its teachings. One who has taught the word must share all good things with the one who teaches, Paul says.

Support a local church and its teachers, dear listener. Pride drives men to sequester themselves and their families at home, thinking they're smart enough, wise enough, and gifted enough that they don't need teachers to grow in their faith. Oh, the old Reformation adage, sola scriptura, means scripture alone is our authority for doctrine. Excuse me. Sola scriptura.

How true and precious. But so many twist sola scriptura to mean solo scriptura. That is, I alone am the authority for interpreting scripture, sitting on my couch in my home with whatever ideas I have about what the Bible means, undisturbed by what others may think, no matter how wise, gifted, and experienced they may be. Do you know somebody like this? Perhaps you are somebody like this.

And this is precisely how distorted, error-prone doctrine begins, too. How many hobby horses, irrelevant tangents, worthless digressions, and sad error I have encountered in those who refuse to come into the church, sit under the teaching of the word. Certainly, the Bible is clear and understandable to all. This is fundamental. But while the Bible is comprehensible to all, its basic message of salvation by grace through Christ, it is also complex in many of its parts.

And speaking of Paul's letters, Peter puts it this way. I quote him. There are some things in them, that is, Paul's letters, that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures, unquote. Every believer must come under the magisterium of the church, that is, its teaching authority. Certainly, you must be wise, you must discern error, you must embrace truth.

Do not turn your mind and your spirit off, but this must also be mixed with the humility that Christ has much to teach me at the feet of others. The church is his chosen instrument to build you up and teach you in the way. Come to New Geneva today. If not us, then another Bible-believing, Bible-teaching church. Secondly, the proud man.

He is not only unteachable, but the proud man who will not join a church invariably refuses to be corrected. No one really enjoys having his life measured by the word of God with a good chance that he'll be checked and corrected in his behavior somewhere. I still don't like this, although I have benefited in my spiritual growth from correction. Whoever ignores instruction, Proverbs says, whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence, unquote.

Perhaps there's some sin that is cherished or error that is believed or lifestyle choice followed over which the proud man knows he would be called out if the church got to know him. Many do not join a church. Therefore, he stays away from the light, lest his deeds be exposed, as Jesus puts it. Instead, dear listener, find a church of loving people and wise leaders who themselves are open to correction and discipline. This is one of the great salutary benefits of life in the church is that we humbly acknowledge that we need each other to discipline one another.

Paul says in Galatians 6, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ, unquote. Oh, great advice. Are you too proud to be corrected and therefore you don't join a church?

Hebrews says, for the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it, unquote. That's the secret to the Christian life, dear listener. No man knows the peaceful fruit of righteousness until he has experienced the painful pruning of discipline. Painful pruning yields peaceful fruit. Any of you gardeners know this, don't you?

Come to New Geneva or else find another church of like mind and faith where you indeed will be humbled and share in the discipline of the Christian faith. Thirdly, the proud man who will not join a church is invariably a control freak. I've seen this so often. The proud man who will not join a church is invariably a control freak. This type of person has a problem relinquishing control over his life, perhaps his family's life and their circumstances.

He cannot come to trust teachers, elders, deacons, and other Christians in the church to have any say in his spiritual life or that of his family. If he has a family, that is. And this goes back in part to our previous issue of trust and risk. But dear brother, if this is you, if this is your circumstance, you know it, that you will not join a church because you're a control freak. There must be a balance in your life between following those you trust and reliance upon your own judgment, gifts, and discernment.

You must use them both. You cannot go it alone. Christ did not give us the Christian life to go solo. At some point, you have to let go some of that control to godly men and women who love you and have you and your family's best interests at heart. Once again, the author of Hebrews says, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

We have leaders in the life of the church for this precise reason. Author of Hebrews also says, obey your leaders and submit to them. You cannot obey and submit unless you indeed are part of a church, members of a church, part of a community of the church, and you will have leaders in that church. And Hebrews says, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you, unquote.

We just encourage you, therefore, to come to New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Come and join us, fellowship with us, see how we teach and live the Christian faith. But if not us, then join another church of like mind and faith, where you will be taught, where you will be loved, where you will be embraced as a brother or sister in Christ. We at New Geneva have met and spoken with many of you in our radio audience over the years. We have so appreciated the feedback we've gotten from you, and we love you.

We appreciate your support, too. And what we'd like to do in this new year is offer you, a radio listener, an opportunity to meet and to fellowship with us and we with you in a friendly environment. And therefore, what we propose is a fellowship spaghetti dinner, a fellowship spaghetti dinner on the last Wednesday of every month subsequent, and that would be at 5 p.m. on the last Wednesday of every month. Our first one will be Wednesday, January 25. Put this on your calendar.

Wednesday, January 25 at 5 p.m. Come and meet me, Pastor Bass, and some of our people at New Geneva, and we can talk and kick back and discuss anything on your heart or your mind. And that would be Wednesday, January 25 is our first one at 5 p.m. You can call us for reservations. Let us know so we know how much spaghetti to make. 523-0196. That's 523-0196.

This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. We meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us for further information at 523-0196. Check out our websites, two of them, newgenevaopc.org. Newgenevaopc.org.

And then our new website in which we have cataloged our previous radio messages, and that is omnispotestas.org. Let me spell that. O-M-N-I-S dash P-O-T-E-S-T-A-S dot org. Omnispotestas.org.