Basic New Testament — Ephesians 4

0:00 I have some outlines here that I'm going need some

0:02 help distributing and make it easier for you to follow and keep me on track. Thank you, Justin.

0:17 I kept one for myself too in case I get lost. I am you are witnessing a quantum leap this morning. Hopefully, it won't be a quantum stumble.

0:27 I am going to try preaching from my iPad this morning. My son,

0:38 Joel, helped me make it into the twenty first century. And it's really quite convenient. If you don't think it's a good idea, let me know. I'll loan it to you for a week and then you'll be won over. Some of the drawbacks is it has a nice camera so if you're sleeping I can get you.

1:00 But to your benefit, it's got a clock right at the top of the screen, so I have no excuse. But we're going to give it a try and hopefully it will work out. It's really quite convenient. A little thanks to Bob Markovich, who we know now as RC or Robert, is that true? And then Mr.

1:19 Butchers is just plain Bob. So they've been on the technology bandwagon for a while and they've kind of brought me over. I have a couple of announcements before we get started and we'll pray. But some of us this week have the opportunity, Lord willing, to go to what is called the Shepherding Conference at Greenwood Hills Camp in Fayetteville, Pennsylvania. And a number of you have been to that event And this year, we have six or seven that are going.

1:52 Bob, Robert, you how does your calendar look for that?

1:55 I've got one thing that I have to move on the

1:59 date. We're

2:00 working on

2:00 that. Get back to you. There's seven of us that are planning to go. So if you'd like to join us, you'd be welcome to it. I think that's all for my introductory remarks.

2:13 So let's have a word of prayer and then we'll launch into our study this morning. Father, we thank you for your presence with us today and for the salvation we have in the lord Jesus and and for your word which is a light unto the path of life and for the teachings in it that have brought us to a saving knowledge of the lord Jesus and we pray as a brother prayed last week that your spirit would teach us during this hour. We pray these things in our Lord Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, let me get queued up.

2:50 That was quick, see? Well, Mr. Reeder started last week a series on the New Testament Church and that was something that the elders considered important and some of the brothers among us too challenged us to launch forward with this series. And last week Mr. Reeder gave us an introduction of sorts and also some of his personal journey.

3:17 And those of you that were here remember his testimony of how he got saved later in well, not later in life, he was a

3:23 teenager still. But getting into what we call a New Testament church or the assemblies was a new thing to him. I somewhat stand in contrast to that. I was born and raised in a New Testament church in an assembly. My parents were not raised in an assembly.

3:42 My dad was like my father-in-law got saved as a young adult. My dad was in college. It was actually through the ministry of Bob Little. Some of you know that name. And Bob Little and some of his friends are going door to door and they witness to my dad.

3:59 And he received the Lord. My mom was raised in a Lutheran church and her dad, my grandfather, was a Lutheran minister who indeed knew the Lord. And so she had a good upbringing in the things of the Lord. And I might reminisce a little bit about some of the assemblies I've been in around the country. I've been here the longest.

4:24 The one I was born into in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I was there for about eighteen years. And then while at school in Chicago, I fellowshiped at Lombard Gospel Chapel in Lombard, Illinois, unsurprisingly. Then after we were married, the first year and a half of our marriage, we were in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, which is near Wheaton, Illinois, a little body there. And there was a brief time in my life where I was living in California, had a wonderful time there. I I fellowship at Parkside Gospel Chapel on 20th Corner Of 20th in Santiago, on the Western Side of San Francisco.

5:02 And that was a New Testament church as well. That was a very pleasant time for me. It was mostly Filipino. A lot of the Filipino immigrants were there. There was a group of about probably 40 of us.

5:15 All three elders were in their 70s. All of them were wonderful men. One of them, the quiet one, Mr. Dahl, they're all gone now. But I didn't get to know him that well, but I understand that when he died, his funeral procession was one of the longest ever in the city of San Francisco when he left a testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ.

5:36 So I'd better get started or we'll never get done. But all of you have an outline, so you know what we're going to be thinking about today, the necessary ingredients or the components of a local church. Now, I took this outline. I it. I'll confess I stole it from a fellow by the name of Dave McLeod.

6:00 He was an instructor at the college I went to. And a number of the students a number of the people here know them. I don't see Ray. Where is Ray? Ray was a student and his wife, Laura and Miriam and probably some others.

6:15 But I have I've stolen his approach years ago because I often, when I have a message, I give a two part title. And as you can see from your outline, he gives a two part description of each point. For a while, I felt a little bad about just stealing his outline, but then I realized that he, in his footnotes, gave tribute to the first four items he says are basically the Nicene Creed. So it's been around a while. It wasn't original to him.

6:45 And then he also gave a footnote to Bill MacDonald in the book Christ Loved the Church. So I'm really not stealing anything. And I remember once during a time I was able to meet Bill MacDonald and he was preaching a series and they had a question and answer series and one of the people asked him, Mr. MacDonald, how do you stay so humble with all the success you've had? You've written scores of books.

7:09 You're in demand all over the world to preach. And he simply said, Well, I don't think I've ever had an original thought because he gets it he got it from the scriptures. So we're going to look at some of these nine things that are necessary according to Mr. MacLeod or the Nicene Creed or Bill MacDonald or actually comes back to the Bible, the Bible. Somewhere in here is the Bible.

8:08 And we read in the scriptures that the church was built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. We read that in 20. How many fingers, Joel? Okay. And let's read that first real quick.

8:39 Having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole body, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. Actually, intended to read a verse in Ephesians, one Corinthians three that talks about it being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Then you might ask me, well, wait a minute. You said it's from heaven. But that sounds like it's being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.

9:12 But the foundation that the apostles and prophets were building upon was Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. We've just completed a study through the book of Matthew, and we've been firsthand witnesses through the scriptures of a lot of what Jesus said and taught to his disciples. And after he went to the cross and then went to the cross, rose again, went back to heaven, he commissioned his disciples to take that message to the world. And he said, he told them in the great commission, go and make disciples, teaching all things that I commanded.

9:54 And that's what they did. Now, the apostles and the prophets passed off the scene. So then what happens after that? Well, that's where I appreciate the second part of that statement. The New Testament is its sufficient and authoritative constitution.

10:15 There's a small uproar perhaps in The United States these days because we've departed from constitutional precedent, and we're kind of getting off track. And in the same sense, if we want to have a New Testament church, we need to follow the scriptures, including the New Testament, which will keep us on track. A couple of verses I noted in the outline is two Timothy three sixteen. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable in different ways. We can realign it for doctrine, for instruction, for correction.

10:53 And also two Peter one twenty one. I want to look at that verse. Add a few bugs to work out. But fortunately, you're all friends. Okay.

11:27 This is Peter, who was one of the disciples, one of the apostles. And he reminds us, For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. And as Scott Dorringer reminded us in the Lord's Supper sharing from Galatians, the message Paul preached is not his own. It was from the Lord. And that's the same message that we preach today.

12:04 It is the universal community of believers. To define regenerate, I think a great term would be born again. If you're not born again, you're not part of the church. Every believer is a member. Are point number one.

12:24 One Peter two:nine, The church is the people of God. Back to my outline. And we won't look at it, but in Ephesians one and two and also Romans eight, we see if you're not if you're still in the flesh, if you're not a child of God, you're not part of the church. So, two sides of that same coin. Every believer is a member.

12:59 And if you're not a believer, then you're not a member. We see that in Acts two on the day of Pentecost, how as Peter preached and people got saved, they were added to the church as many as were being saved. End of the chapter, Acts two, and I think it's verse 47. Look at that. So only believers are members of the church and everyone that is saved is a member of the church.

13:32 There's no outsiders. If you're saved, you are part of the body. Okay. The church is one. It is a spiritual brotherhood united in Christ.

13:46 Point number three. One Corinthians twelve twelve. Of course, when you've big fingers, it can sometimes be difficult. For as one body is one and has many members, but all the members of that body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. If we are followers of Christ, we're all part of the one body.

14:26 We're followers together. We're members together, as Paul puts it in the scriptures. Now in Ephesians three, I think I noted that verse in your handout. Ephesians four:three, in regards to the unity of the body, the unity in Christ, it's not something that we achieve, it's something that we participate in, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. We participate in it.

14:55 We don't make it. And I like what Paul said in Philippians two, and that's where the choice is ours. Whether or not we're going to do our part in promoting that unity. And that unity was accomplished at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit united the people of God to Christ and to one another. I think all of these points might become separate messages in themselves down the road, but those are chapters that need to be looked at in detail, Romans 12, one Corinthians 12.

15:37 So if we're all one body, how come we have so many different denominations? That's a good question. It's because we all have pet not pet doctors perhaps, but things we like to magnify out of proportion. I'd like to read a quote from Martin Luther. Many of you know that Martin Luther was lived about five hundred years ago.

16:06 And well, won't give you I'll just read what he said. I pray you leave my name alone and do not call yourselves Lutherans, but Christians. Who is Luther? My doctrine is not mine. I have not been crucified for anyone.

16:22 Paul would not have Paul would not that anyone should call themselves of Paul nor of Peter, but of Christ. How then does it befit me, a miserable bag of dust and ashes, to give my name to the children of Christ? Cease, my dear friends, to cling to those party names and distinctions. Away with them all and let us call ourselves only Christians after Him from whom our doctrine comes. So we need to be careful about creating unnecessary divisions or distinctions.

17:00 And as I included in your notes there, it's better to be the New Testament does talk about some necessary disunity. Both Paul and John, those apostles, talked about there is no compatibility with truth and error. One John three four and Paul and his epistles warned against it, too. So that's the basis for the statement I think I put in that outline that it's better to be divided by truth than united in error. Number four, the church is holy.

17:40 And I never get as much encouragement in that regard as when we remember the Lord together, and it happened again this morning. As we see who He was, what He did for us, who we were, it motivates me to righteous living. But number four, the Church is holy. It is set apart to God into moral and doctrinal purity. One Corinthians three seventeen.

18:13 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy. Which temple are you? As believers, we're united to Christ. We're part of the temple of God. That temple is holy.

18:27 It requires us to be holy, too. And of course, none of us can be holy in ourselves, but we can keep short accounts with God strive and desire to obey Him. Obedience is the key to holy living. Paul talks about that in Ephesians four, which we won't turn to for the sake of time, but he talks about the different natures. Our old nature has died and our new nature is from God, and he uses that term in Ephesians four twenty four, it's created in righteousness and true holiness.

19:30 Moving along to point number five. The Church is Christocentric, Jesus Christ is its head. Now I'm sorry if you don't like big words, but sometimes they make you think a little bit, and thinking is good. And so if you just break down some of these words, you can get a lot of meaning. Christocentric, Christ is at the center.

19:56 Is he at the center of what we are doing? Well, is to be as the Lord of the Church, he is to be the center. One of the notes that was included in Doctor. McCloud's article was by a college teacher who said, Ecclesiology is simply Christology. Ecclesiology is simply Christology.

20:21 Now maybe we have to back up and define ecclesiology. All of you well, I hope all of you that have been through high school know that biology is the study of human life. That is right, isn't it, Joel? Yes. Seeing if you're listening.

20:36 So ecclesiology has to do with the study of the church. And that's the basis for ecclesiology is simply Christology. Christology is the study of Christ. He goes on to say that all sociological attempts to explain the church are futile because the church can only be explained by its link through the personal work of Christ. And some of the metaphors we use are very helpful and descriptive.

21:10 Mr. Reeder made reference last week of some of the metaphors in the church, and I was reading in one of my books that some guy identified 91 metaphors in the scriptures to teach us about the church. But two big ones right here are the body of Christ and Christ is the head. And both of those stress the unity of Christ and his people. The body, of course, stresses the oneness.

21:38 And we already read that verse in one Corinthians 12 that in Romans 12 also comes out quite clearly that we're all together in Christ, different members but having this but in the same body. And then Christ is the head. Stresses that he is the leader and ruler over his church. We see this throughout the epistles. The memory verses that a lot of you children memorize for camp in Ephesians one talk about the Lord Jesus, the resurrection power that was manifested in him, and then it talks about him.

22:17 That same power raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places in Christ, not only in this age, but also in those to come, far above, far above all principality and power and wisdom and might, and gave him and made him head over all things of the church. Christ is the sovereign ruler, and someday He's going to return, as the as Drew brought our attention to in Psalm 24. I love that trilogy, Drew, of chapter 22, chapter 23 and chapter 24. In chapter 22, we see the cross. In chapter 23, we see the shepherd.

23:01 And then in chapter 24, we see the crown, the ruling crown of the Lord. So the early church understood that. We see that also in Philippians two, where Paul talks about the humiliation of Christ. But then after he went to the cross, God highly exalted him and gave him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And that's that's not just cold theology.

23:31 That's practical thinking to to have in our minds each day as we desire to be ambassadors for him. Unfortunately, the yearly church, while they did give credence to the headship of Christ and that he was the leader in the church, soon got off track. And within that first generation, they slipped into church officers. And that led to further deterioration into a Supreme Pontiff, so to speak, and downhill from there. But Peter, some of the last words of Peter in Chapter five of his epistle remind us that Christ is the Chief Shepherd.

24:44 I'm not going to ask for a raise of hands and who knows what a Vicar is, I had to look it up. But a vicar is like a representative agent. So that vicar was apparently visiting that congregation on behalf of the congregational hierarchy to bless them in some way. I'm sure through our study in Matthew, a lot of us would have liked to go back there and be with Jesus and listen to him and ask him questions and just walk those dusty roads with him. And in a sense, we all have through the scriptures.

25:27 Let's look at a verse in Acts two thirty three. Okay. Technical difficulties. I know there's more than 33 verses in X2, but this is not letting me there. I didn't bring old reliable with me.

26:05 Anyways, who's got a Bible? Go ahead. There we go. Well, we see the role of the Holy Spirit in bringing to them the remembrance of what of what went on. And Jesus, before he went back to heaven, after the resurrection of those times he spent with the disciples.

26:59 And we need to look at these verses in John in the upper room discourse. John fourteen twenty six is the first one. But the helper but the helper, the holy spirit, whom the father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. As we look at the lives of the disciples, even while they're with Jesus and then as as Jesus went to the cross, they missed a lot. They didn't get the fact that he had to rise from the dead.

27:37 Somehow, despite Jesus' plain teaching, they still doubted, doubting Thomas. So now, after all that happened and the Lord Jesus went back to heaven, the spirit's going to help them put the pieces together, so to speak. We all have that tendency too. We use terminology like, oh, it's starting to click. But the spirit was going to be the one that took all that information that they saw as firsthand witnesses from the Lord and bring it to their remembrance and bring application to their role there in the first century.

28:14 And also chapter 16 verse 14. Part of the role of the spirit here we see here is that he's going to make the Lord Jesus that he's going to glorify the Lord. He will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. This verse and others reveal the perfect harmony and unity of the trinity, and that's something for us to learn from too. The spirit's going to glorify, going to give glory to the son.

28:50 He wasn't selfish. And the son, the Lord Jesus, when he went to the cross, he didn't regard equality with God something to be grasped. He was humble. So there's a perfect unity among the Trinity that we can see even if we can't explain it. But the Spirit will remind them of what Christ taught them.

29:11 John, at the end of his Gospel, says that, I imagine, he basically said, I imagine that if everything was written down that Jesus said and did, the whole world could not contain all the books. But what we do have, we can study. We can trust the Lord that he gave us what he wanted us to have in the scriptures. I heard something this week that put me to shame. I'd haven't heard of it firsthand, but this teacher, this Christian teacher, is talking about the tendencies among the Mormons.

29:43 He says when Mormons hit high school, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade, I believe it is, five days a week at seven in the morning, they have to get they come together under a teacher and they receive an hour of instruction every morning, five days a week throughout the whole school year. The first year they spend on the Old Testament, second year they spend on the New Testament. Third year, last year of high school they spend on the Book of Mormon, unfortunately. But just the commitment they have to their teaching is a challenge to me. Okay.

30:25 Let's move on to point number seven. Actually, before I do that, I see some more notes here. Some of the things the Spirit did. In Acts five, we see him identifying, preparing men for service. In Acts 20, we see his role of appointing elders.

30:47 In one Corinthians 12, first part of the chapter primarily, see him equipping each Christian with the abilities for service. In Acts 13, the spirit gives direction for sending out workers. And in Acts four and numerous other places, is one Thessalonians one, we see him energizing the proclamation of the word. So let's move on to number seven then. The church is a priesthood.

32:01 I like a passage in Hebrews 13 where it talks about different sacrifices. In verse 13, it talks about the sacrifice of our person. If Christ bore the reproach of going outside the camp, we need to be willing to bear that reproach too. Chapter Verse 15 of Hebrews 13 talks about the sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. We had sacrifices of praise this morning in our remembrance meeting, giving thanks to his name.

32:33 And in verse 16 of Hebrews 13, we see the sacrifice of our resources. Do not neglect in doing good and sharing. That's pretty clear, but look at the second phrase. I'll read the second part of that verse. For with such sacrifices God has pleased.

32:56 By ministering to the needs of each other in whatever way that the Lord has gifted us, I'd probably rather be working with my hands than speaking with my mouth. But whatever the Lord has given us to do, we can do it to encourage others but also bring joy to the Lord. But come back next week for more and let's see how that's going play out with Christian because I was talking to him about that, and he's quite excited. If you were here two years ago, you've heard the message already, and he wants to just play the tape, but we'll see. He says he was quite convicted, but it was an excellent message.

33:35 Okay. Number eight. You might think this is a funny way to put it, but let's dig into it a little bit. The church has ritual. It practices symbolic acts that were instituted by Christ.

33:51 Now in our experience, we celebrate birthdays, we celebrate anniversaries and other special events. But as was clearly expressed this morning at the Lord's Supper was the greatest joy of all is to remember the Lord and the things that he has done for us. So theologians, and I guess I'm among them, would identify two things in the New Testament that meet this criteria, that are the symbolic acts that Christ instituted that we engage are in. And the first one is baptism. The Lord taught it.

34:35 It was practiced in the book of Acts and explained in the epistles. And baptism in a nutshell, this will be a message later as well, is identifying with Christ and you're testifying that you place your faith in Him. And it's an event which testifies to one's entrance into the body of Christ. Only Christians are to be baptized. That was one of the things my dad would argue with my grandfather about, about infant baptism.

35:05 But we understand it to be water baptism following salvation. And if you read the book of Acts, it follows it very closely. And secondly is the Lord's Supper. I think a lot of you are familiar with the Lord's Supper, but it's a time where we it's one of our distinguishing features here and perhaps one of our greatest attractions as we celebrate it every week. We It involves communion.

35:34 Some of you might be familiar with the word communion. The symbols of the bread and the cup to remind us of the person and work of the Lord Jesus. And when we do this each week, it testifies of our continuance in the body. So baptism is one's testimony of one's entrance into the body and as we partake of the Lord's Supper regularly, it illustrates our continuance in the body. And neither one is the means by which we are saved in symbolic act itself.

36:07 It's what that it's what those symbols illustrate of how we are saved. Baptism, us being united with Christ and going down into the water, being united with Him in death, and then rising out symbolic of His resurrection and newness of life for us. And then, of course, the bread and the cup, the body given for us and the blood that was shed. Which brings us to our last item, number nine. The church is self supported.

37:13 Paul, in the book of one Timothy, admonished the Christians who were rich not to hang on too tight to their funds, but to be ready to share because it's God who gave it to you anyways, and that's the same for us too. God gave us it's his money, not ours. But in two Corinthians eight, we see reference to the churches in Macedonia, which would have been Philippi and Thessalonia. And they were going through some tough times financially. But when Paul shared with them the need of the saints in Judea, they were ready to give.

37:50 And even though they didn't have it, they still gave sacrificially. And then Paul used that event to challenge the Christians in Corinth to do likewise. And it's in that chapter that we have one of the greatest verses in that great epistle speaking of the Lord Jesus. He who was rich, though he was rich for our sakes, became poor so that we, through his poverty, might become rich. And I've quoted it before and I'll probably quote it again, but Jim Elliott made that statement that is so valuable to think about and consider.

38:31 He said, He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Let's remember that whatever the Lord gives us belongs to him and that we're just a vessel to or we just have the stewardship of sharing it where we sense as leading. And also in the book of Acts, we see that the Christians there gave help to the Acts eleven twenty nine. Three John seven, John commends the workers of the Lord there for not taking support from the Gentiles or the unsaved.

39:18 I want to close with a couple of short readings from a book that came in the mail this week, which was not a surprise. I'm part of a program called Book Builders from Gospel Folio Press, they send one title each month, four copies of that one title. And I have several copies of this if you'd like to borrow it. But this, coincidentally enough, is the book that came this month. So why do I need a church?

39:42 And one way I decide if a book is worth reading is just opening it up randomly and seeing if he can hold my attention. And let me read to you the first words I read from this book. In the end, it all comes down to realizing that knowing Christ as Savior and Lord automatically means belonging to a group of people, the Church, who are called out of the world and into a relationship with the living God. We are now reconciled to God. The church, his body, is, as we have seen already, a called out people.

40:23 Jesus Christ himself said, my kingdom is not of this world, meaning his kingdom was not from this world. That is why the New Testament lays such stress on radical holiness and the separated life. Now just bear with me for a few minutes. I have a few minutes, so I'll take them. In the days of the early church, the believers were made scapegoats for the fire of Rome, for example.

40:47 They were looked upon as social misfits and antisocial. Isn't that the truth these days? Us, people who have a moral compass are considered weirdos. They are surprised that you do not run with them in the same excess of dissipation and they malign you. One Peter four.

41:08 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you. And he talks about this fellow is from born and raised in Central Scotland. And he began a career in the banking world, but then got saved and it was about 30 ago and has been a servant of the Lord full time since. He's had a chance to travel around a little bit. And he mentioned some of the places he's been in the East.

41:43 In some places, we were reminded that the walls have ears. In others, just going for a walk meant being followed and watched constantly. I had one preaching engagement canceled at the very last minute because under the circumstances of that particular day, if I had been seen going to the place of meeting, it would have meant danger for the local believers, especially in the days following. And let me read one more paragraph. I will never forget the time when four of us from the West met with two brothers in Christ for a prayer time.

42:14 One of those men had been a believer for a few years and the other for only a few months. Both had been imprisoned for their faith several times. The prayer time was one of the most humbling and challenging experiences of my life, and this is a Christian worker speaking. We prayed for a while, and we Westerners were so concerned to tell the Lord the things that we had in our hearts. Our Eastern brothers, on the other hand, had a completely different attitude in prayer.

42:39 For example, after we had prayed for some time, they turned to us, asking us individually what the Lord had been saying to us during the prayer time. They understood that prayer was a two way exercise, talking to God and listening and hearing from him. They were men of the word. Being in constant communion with the Lord was their only source of strength and courage as they faced a very uncertain future. And then he goes on to say, I don't know about you, but when I think of those dear believers in Jesus, I'm left with the distinct impression, we are only playing at church here in the West, but it does not have to be like that.

43:41 One of the lasting impressions I have from my times with persecuted believers is that most of their young people are more mature spiritually than many of us who are in positions of leadership in Western churches. Their walk with God is real and deep. Their prayer lives are passionate and vital. Their love for God's word can only be described as an insatiable hunger. They are bold in their witness and in spite of all they have to suffer, their joy in the Lord is infectious.

44:09 In short, it is an enormous privilege to spend time, spend even a short time in their godly company. Some real food for thought there from testimony of a lessor who had some exposure to the persecuted church. So, I guess my admonition to us is to rightly esteem the local church and the universal church too, but to understand and appreciate the grace of God in bringing us into the church, but also the power of the church, the power of the gospel to reach lives. And I'm speaking to me as much as any of you to not just play church, but to live it and to do so for the glory of God. Let's pray.

44:57 Father, we do thank you for your love to us that when we were dead in our trespasses and sin you just didn't wipe the slate clean and condemn us all to a lost eternity, but we're rich in mercy. Father, I confess it's easy to speak words, but a lot harder to live a life, and we pray that you'll help me and all of us here to walk worthy of our calling and to spur one another around to love and good deeds, where we need each other even as the body of Christ with different roles and different gifts. We do have an interdependence, and we pray that you'll help us as we continue this study of what a New Testament church is to really see the Lord Jesus, for he is the Lord of the church. And we just ask for your help in these things in his name. Amen.