Oh, I love that song. I so love that song. It occurred to me while we were singing it that that song was written by Anne Steele. Anne Steele was one of the marvelous songwriters of the English Reformation. She was single her whole life, had tremendous physical problems.
But it hadn't occurred to me until we were singing it that Jason had chosen that song written by Anne Steele. It's such a marvelous song. Well, this reference is called holiness to the Lord and Of course, it's it's based on Isaiah fit 35 8 a Highway shall be there and a road and it shall be called the highway of holiness The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for others. So we've gathered here really for one objective and that is to consider the beauty of holiness and to just recognize the centrality of holiness for all of life it's the Lord Jesus Christ that makes holy by his imputation of his holiness and but the the essential purpose of salvation is holiness why in Ephesians 1 for we read just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Holiness is the purpose of our salvation.
When you came to Christ, Christ's purpose was to make holy. And so that's why he chose us when he began to move in your heart if he did move in your heart then He did it because he wanted the beauty of holiness to fall upon your life. What a wonderful thing it is. So all is lost without holiness. You know there's something funny going on with this microphone.
Do we get rid of this? I think it's this because when I turn away from it, no? Okay, it just seems like every time I turn away it goes blank. Maybe that's just in my own head. But all is lost without holiness, and it's the loss of all good, it's the loss of all love, it's the loss of all morality, it's the loss of all peace, It's the loss of all happiness.
And so holiness is central to the motives of God in our reconciliation and our Restoration that continues our whole life long. So We're here at a holiness conference because holiness is all gain and there's no loss in it and You know thinking about what I wanted to talk about at this conference over the last year as I would just write things down. I wrote down five things that I wanted to talk about somehow at this conference and One of the things that I wrote down was I wanted to talk about presenting your bodies as a living and a holy sacrifice because this culture's hostility to the body to the body of a man and the body of a woman is unparalleled, certainly in my lifetime. The whole homosexual transgender movement, it's a body-hating movement. People hate the way that God made them.
This is so tragic that a person would dislike the Manifestations of the image of God in them and to want to be something else than God wanted them to be which really is nothing more than wanting to be God and You know, we're living in a culture where the way that God has designed manhood, it's called toxic. The way that God has designed womanhood, It's called bondage in our culture. It's such a critical subject so I I thought it would be good to deal with the matter of the body to and particularly for the presentation of your body for holiness. I also wrote down that I wanted to talk about redeeming the time, governing your life. I know that Being single, it can be hard to maintain motivation and energy.
I found that. I was 28 when I finally got married. I hated being single. I recognize that it can be difficult to maintain motivation When you're not married there are things about marriage that actually inject your life into boundaries and motivations that are they're actually good for you and I wanted to talk about just living a rhythmic life of good things. Just the establishment of daily routines that have nothing to do with your feelings, They just have to do with sowing good seeds.
I wanted to say don't freewheel it with your days. Don't freewheel it with any of your evenings. Don't freewheel it. Govern your life and do good things with your life. Don't spend your life on games and entertainment.
Give your life to the things that are really good, that God says are good. And I know that marriage focuses energy and singleness leaves you vulnerable to leaving things open-ended. And I'm here to say don't have an open-ended kind of life. Have a strategic, carefully planned, rhythmic life. My friend Paul Carrington was telling a story, I think it was last year, about one of the most effective missionaries in China in the 19th century.
His name was Jonathan Goforth, and he was listening to a preacher and it just struck him and He says he was convicted and He says there are there was I brought bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, daring to dispose of my life as I pleased." He was a Christian, and he was just doing his own thing. Daring to dispose his life as he pleased, rather than as God pleased. So I wanted to talk about this whole matter of redeeming the time. And I also also want to talk about in whatever situation you're in to do it with excellence. And you know that all of us have been given things to do in the station and moment of life that we're in, but to do it with all your heart, to do it with excellence.
And even this morning I was reading in 1st Chronicles 25 and 26 and this whole idea of excellence just filled the scriptures talking about the ministry in the temple and the musicians were skilled men in performing their service and there was this remarkable statement and they prophesied with their harps. How do you prophesy with a harp? Think about that. That's something to study. They prophesied with their harps.
But they did their work beautiful. There are 288 of them and they they were instructed in the songs of the Lord and were skillful. And then I turn over to chapter 26 in 1 Chronicles and you have these the sons of Shemaiah were there and the text says that these sons governed their father's houses because they were men of great ability they were men of great ability and they were governing their father's resources and so they were appointed to be gatekeepers and the gatekeepers in the temple were like the the logistics machine in the temple and they you know brought brought supplies in and they they stored and ordered the utensils for the priests but they were skillful they were They were skillful in the logistical matters. They were really good at it. What I wanted to say was, whatever you're doing, do it really well.
Do it with all of your heart. Be indispensable in your work. I was having lunch with a friend in Raleigh a while back and the waiter came up and my friend said to him, hey, in a few minutes we're gonna pray, is there anything we can pray for you for? He says, yeah. And he disappeared.
And he came back with a sheet of paper and he'd written down all these prayer requests We thought wow that's never happened to us before and The first thing on his list was I want to be the best waiter in the world." I thought, wow, that's biblical. That's really biblical. But I just wanted to encourage you to, however small you think it might be that you've been given to do do it with all your heart do it with excellence do it so that you're indispensable and glorify God and get and give your energies to doing everything you do with excellence for the glory of God so I also want to talk about marriage a little bit and of course you know last last year I said don't prepare to be married prepare to be holy well as it turns out preparing to be holy is preparation to be married. But, you know, we're living in a world Where people are barely getting married like they used to. You know, when I got married, the average age for a male was 23 and the average age for a female is 20.
Today the average age for a male is 30 and the average age for a female is 28. These are massive, massive changes. And I just read today that 70% of Generation Z would prefer a pet over a spouse. How about that? And they would be willing to take a second job to finance a pet.
And, you know, and half of them would start a GoFundMe page for their pet. So don't do that. You don't want to live that way. This culture is going to drag us along if we just say no, unless we say no. We're not going that way when it comes to marriage and children.
Some of you here, you've been married and you're raising children alone. One of the funniest things I read recently there's a couple in India who are suing their son for not giving them grandchildren after six years. The son is being sued. They're seeking $643, 000 in damages. I'm not kidding.
And They say that they spent $257, 000 raising him, and he's an only child. They said that they did not marry him off so that he would live alone and not have children. That's not why we did this. The parents' attorney says that they're also citing the problem that there will be no one to care for them in old age. So you know, hey you don't want your parents to sue you for not giving over grandchildren okay hey get by your parents are gonna want grandchildren here's the reality almost all of you are gonna be married you're not married right now but there's gonna be some some miracle that's gonna happen and it's gonna be an arranged marriage you know you don't like the idea of an arranged marriage all marriages are arranged marriages by God and you know getting married is what you ought to you know continue to pray about and and look around for it's a good thing It's the grace of life says the Word of God so I wanted to talk about Marriage, you know, you got to be really careful who you marry Getting married is one of those danger.
It's one of those dangerous things you'll ever do And my wife yesterday she showed me this meme that one of her friends sent her. Listen up, girls. If he's not wearing a diaper, you can't change him. So be careful who you marry. So, but that's not what I really want to talk about tonight.
Those are the things that are on my mind, but I want to talk about one of the most important things you'll ever do with your life from now on until the end of your life and that is prioritizing your local church and I just want to say that whatever you're doing with your single years don't miss this one thing Exert great energy for the greatest institution on the planet the only institution that Jesus Christ Established it's the only thing he's building. He only Jesus is only building the church. He's not building anything else and So open your Bibles to Acts chapter 2 and find verse 37. Acts chapter 2 verse 37. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter-than-honey Word of God.
Acts 2, verse 37. So, we pick up the storyline here, and Peter is preaching, and I want to have a zero in on what happened. Notice what happened from the preaching. And the first thing that happened was they woke up. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do?
And then he calls them to repent. That's verse 38. Then Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call." And then they were called to renounce the evil movements of their culture in verse 40. And with many other words, he testified and exhorted them, saying, be saved from this perverse generation.
And then they were baptized, verse 41. And those who gladly received his word were baptized and that day about 3, 000 souls were added to them and next they started a completely new way of living and that's defined in verse 42. Their whole worlds changed, their whole schedules, their whole priorities changed and they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need.
So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." Now these verses, particularly verse 42, explains the program of the early church and it explains the program of the church in the 21st century as well. They continued steadfastly in the Apostles Doctrine, in the fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. And what we find here are the things that characterize Christianity. They are tests and measurements. They are things that you should ask, is this me?
Is this how I'm approaching the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ? And this text is so familiar to me. My pastor, when I first became a Christian in my teens, was carefully teaching me this verse, Acts 2 42, and he taught our whole church to understand this text. So this text was pivotal in my early years as a Christian. He made it clear that what Christ was doing was building His church, and there are particular ways that He engages me in the building of His church, and these ways are here.
When a person becomes a Christian they start working on a project it's a building project the the mission that you are on whether you're single or married or whatever, is building something with God. And God engages His children in the building project. And you've got to be involved in that building project with all of your heart. And we're building something very specific. We're building something according to an architectural design.
It's God's architectural design. He is the one who has defined what the building should look like and how it should get built and These these are architectural drawings from from the infinite creative mind of God and he dictates his plans to his children and You know what it one of my concerns not just with single people but all people who call themselves Christians they take the church so lightly They make it sort of a secondary matter in their life. And I've really spent, you know, the last four decades of my life really appealing to people to make it the central matter of their life, not a peripheral matter in their life. So I'm doing that now again with you. God intends to gather His people together in local churches, and it is a building project.
The church is a building, but it's so interesting when you look at the ways that the Lord explains the church. The metaphors, the imagery is so diverse, it's so beautiful. You can't even contain what God is doing in this metaphor of a building. It's a household. No, it's a body.
No, it's a temple. It's a holy nation. No, it's also a flock. It's a vineyard. It's a structure with living stones.
It's a pillar and ground to the truth. And it's a bride. I mean, the language is so effusive because the church is so beautiful And so important to God that he uses dozens of metaphors to try to get it into our hearts How how important how beautiful it is to him? That we would think the same way about it and So so my prayer is that every person in this room would do a serious reevaluation of their relationship, their life in their local church. And I want you to see the preciousness of the church.
I want you to walk into the meetings of the church, of the worship of God, and to be in awe at every song, at every prayer, at every scripture reading, at the preaching, at the fellowship, at all the things, to be in awe of what God has done. Hey, there's nothing like the church that exists in the world today. Nothing. And we know that Christ loved the church and he gave himself for her. And the question I wanna ask is, do you love the church the way that Christ loves the church?
Now Here's a reality About the church God wants to disrupt your life through His church. God wants to pull you out of some of your concerns and interests and maybe some of your idols and take you places that you wouldn't normally go on your own. He wants to disrupt your schedule and He would draw you into his worship on the Lord's Day and he would engage you in the prayer meetings he wants to get you out of your life and Into the prayer meetings he wants to get you out of your patterns and into the fellowship of the Saints, out of your own thoughts and into the preaching of the Word of God. God wants to disrupt your life. And he wants to do it by his church, Because he wants to get you out of some things and into something he's building.
So yeah, the church is disruptive. It doesn't mess with your schedule. God designed it to mess with your schedule God designed it to change your life and Where you put your energies? And so You know even it was even just through the preaching of the word that the church was born and people were saved they were they were pierced to their heart to the heart and The result was they got baptized in verse 41 they were baptized if you claim to be a Christian you know are you baptized what were you baptized as a believer I'm a Baptist So you would expect me to say that. But have you been baptized?
I've been shocked at how many people who have said they're Christians and they haven't been baptized. That's really the first thing you do when you're a Christian. It's not for the advanced. It's for the neophytes to get baptized. And they were steadfastly devoted to four things.
Steadfastly devoted in the Apostles' doctrine, in the fellowship in the breaking of bread and the prayers the way they did it matters steadfastly. So are you steadfastly devoted to God's agenda for the building of His church? You know, people do what they want to do. People do the things that they love to do. Hunters want to hunt, gamers want to game, people who love movies want to see movies, and people who love the church will prioritize the church.
It's just the way we're wired. And so they were continuing steadfastly. It's very interesting in the Greek manuscripts here. The definite article appears before each of these. The Apostles Doctrine, the Fellowship, the Breaking of Bread, and the Prayers.
Right? So, they are a thing. These things are a thing that you get involved in It's not a generality they are specific activities That disrupt your life to bring you into the things that God is doing to build his church. And so they were they were hungry for the teaching and they they changed their pursuits. They were like newborn babes, you know, that longed, you know, for the pure milk of the Word.
And that's of course that's what we do we study a book we study the truth when you go to a church it's the truth that you should hear. I was with a group of men in our church we were discussing this passage and I said what what what was this and one of the men said they became sola scriptura believers that's exactly what they did they believe that scripture was sufficient for them scripture alone and they continually devoted themselves to the Apostles doctrine and That phrase there just establishes the authority of the Apostles' teaching, which is what we embrace. The Church is built on teaching. The Church is built on the Now, the Apostles' doctrine implies practice. The Church always moves from orthodoxy to orthopraxy.
The doctrine is meant to teach you how to live. The doctrine is not designed just to sit and rot in your brain. You know there's so much good doctrinal preaching around, but a lot of times it doesn't move to action. It's just moving doctrine. But they never tell you how to live.
They never tell you what to do about it. But the doctrine always ought to lead to to practice Into action that's why David said in Psalm 119 the law of the Lord is perfect Converting the soul like it makes a change it makes wise the simple it rejoices the heart you know so it changes you it's meant to change you you know I was I was reading the biography of Adoniram Judson a while back, To the Golden Shore. Such a remarkable testimony. But there were all these new converts in Rangoon, Burma. And The emperor issues an edict that Christianity is illegal.
The older Christians, the missionaries that were there in this compound, they talked about leaving. But the new Christians resisted. And I wrote this down from the biography. They said, as for me, I will go for the wherever the preaching is to be had. And we're gonna leave because they wanted the preaching.
That's the Apostles doctrine. So since I was in my teens, I've prioritized the local church and in our family when we got married we prioritize local church life and I'm here to encourage you to do the same it's a blessing it's so good a true church will be composed of people who are steadfastly devoted to the Apostles' doctrine. You need it. You need the preaching. And then the fellowship.
That's the next thing. Fellowship is a thing. It's something that God does with his people. And this describes the spiritual, organic relationships that are forged in Christian community because there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. There's one body.
There is one body. And those who are in the body have a spiritual fellowship together. The word koinonia means togetherness, It means sharing and participation and communion and coming alongside. It has to do with the interaction of God's people with one another. They have a spiritual connection because they have Jesus Christ.
J.J. I. Packer explained it like this, it is first a sharing with our fellow believers the things that God has made known to us about himself in hope that we may thus help them to know him better and so enrich their fellowship with him. So to fellowship is to share with other converted people the things people the things of God through personal personal not live-streaming interaction there's no such thing as a live stream church. There may be times of severe persecution like many of our brethren in China and there's a lot of preaching still going on the live stream but it's so imperfect it's so defective but this is this is fellowship We have we have fellowship with one another and there's much to say about the fellowship of the Saints.
Now the foundation of fellowship has nothing to do with common interests. It has nothing to do with connecting with friends, it has nothing to do with talking about cars or sports or children or makeup, It's not about... It's a spiritual fellowship. It has nothing to do with your stage of life. It has nothing to do with your five years old or 95 years old.
It's a family-integrated fellowship. It's a generational fellowship. That's what you see all throughout the Bible. You know, in Southern California, I was a singles pastor for a year, years ago, way before almost all of you were born, like way before. So I kind of know how a singles culture gets created in a place like Southern California where I grew up.
But I remember one time There was a singles pastor who came to me under the cover of night because we had been talking about having age-integrated churches and killing your youth groups and your singles groups. That was not very popular. It's still not very popular. It's getting more popular. But this fellow came to me, well-known singles pastor, and he said, Mr.
Brown, I read your book about age integration in a church. He said, here's what I think. When we gather our singles together, they don't get more healthy. They get more unhealthy. Because we all need an intergenerational fellowship.
The five year olds actually need the 95 year olds, they do. People from all different life stages need one another. A church is not an affinity group around Some secular interest a church is is a spiritual fellowship And and all the all the members need one another The Bible talks about the church as being a body where all the members are necessary. All the members are necessary, from the oldest to the youngest Every financial situation Every emotional situation that we all need one another and But you this is the metaphor of the body. The body grows by one another's ministry.
A couple months ago, my mom, she had a minor stroke. She's 95, 94, and 95 next month. And so I was in the hospital with her and going back and forth to the hospital and I was listening to a book called The Secret Language of Cells. By the way, my mom is okay. She's doing, She's actually doing great.
And she's back on her exercise bike six days a week, going three miles a day. That's my mom. But anyway, I was reading this book about the secret language of cells. It so reminded me of Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 about the body. And the book says that it's not the brain that controls everything in your body, it's the billions of cells and they're always talking to one another.
And he says, the greatest secret of modern biological science, hiding in plain sight, is that all of life's activity occurs because of conversations among cells during infections. Immune T cells tell brain cells that we should feel sick and lie down. Long-distance signals direct white blood cells at every step of their long journey to an infection. Cancer cells warn their community about immune and microbe attacks. Gut cells with microbes to determine who are friends and who are enemies.
Instructor cells in the thymus teach T cells not to destroy human tissues. And the book illustrates just how cells function and how they communicate. And billions of cells are constantly communicating in your body to take care of whatever attacks. He talks about how cells travel. Travel is not always easy and the tasks are not simple when they arrive at the site but they manage by using complex navigation modes to transmit through drastically different environments sometimes without nutrients and oxygen they need constant help via signals from many other cells on their journeys they may roll or crawl along lining cells the assembled army is soon marching through blood and tissues.
The book goes on and tells about how cells will climb up and over in order to take care of an attack. But the body of Christ is like that. You need all of the cells. The church is like a body. Every member needs to function in the body.
And that's the question of tonight. Are you functioning in the body according to the way that God has gifted you and according to the commands that God has given you. Whether you feel gifted or not, you actually have commands. And then you have the fellowship. Or rather, you have the breaking of bread.
And one commentator says, the breaking of bread refers to the frequent celebration of the Lord's Supper, which appears to have been observed at the close of the main meal something that was to cause problems in Corinth. So the Lord's Supper, the gathering of the people of God to take the Lord's Supper, This practice is mentioned twice in Acts chapter 2. And this is distinguished from just eating together. The Baptist Confession of 1689 talks about this very clearly, and I'll just run through some of the high points the origin of the Lord's Supper the Supper of the Lord Jesus was instituted by him the same night wherein he was betrayed where is it to be conducted answer In local churches. When should it be done?
Unto the end of the world. Why? For the perpetual remembrance and showing forth the sacrifice of himself in his death, confirmation of the faith of believers in all the benefits thereof, their spiritual nourishment and growth in him. And who is supposed to take the Lord's Supper? Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements in the ordinance do then inwardly by faith and they spiritually receive and feed upon Christ crucified and all the benefits of his death the body and blood of Christ and those who receive it unworthily are guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord eating and drinking judgment to themselves the Lord's Supper and God desires his people to come together and celebrate one of the two ordinances, the Lord's Supper.
The second ordinance being baptism. And then finally, prayers. A true church will be characterized by prayer and there are of course many places where we see this manifested in the Bible. The prayer meetings of the church have fallen out of favor. Most of the churches in my town have canceled their prayer meetings.
They don't meet for prayer. And the reason they don't meet with prayer for prayer is they figured out that nobody wanted to come. So they just stopped doing it. But the body of Christ is characterized by prayers. The people of God gathering together and praying corporately.
You have private prayer and you have corporate prayer. The Lord's Prayer was given to the disciples to teach them how to pray corporately. The language is Our Father. Not My Father, our Father, because you're praying it corporately in the church. Prayer is an act of love.
It's an act of love toward God. David said, I love the Lord because he's heard my voice It's an act of love toward God and it's an act of love From God because he calls us to speak to him and to pray So here's the question. Are you continuing steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine, in the fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers? In the prayers. So here's my advice.
Decide to engage yourself in the building up of the body of Christ steadfastly And recognize that there's a sweet interruption that God wants to bring into your life. He wants to change your schedule. And so when it comes to the Lord's Day, don't decide on Saturday night whether you're going to go to church. Make one decision for the rest of your life. When the prayer meeting comes up, let's say it's on Wednesday night, don't decide on Wednesday morning whether you're tired or too tired or too busy or behind on this or too frustrated.
Don't decide every week. Decide once. Make one decision and carry out that decision. My pastor used to say that There are two ways to cut off the tail of a dog. One way is you can just cut it off one inch at a time.
It's very frustrating to the dog. The other way is to take it off one time. It's very frustrating to live a frenetic, unrhythmic life. I want to encourage every person in this room to make the local church the greatest priority in your life and you'll be glad that you did because God will use it to change your life. So don't don't spend your life confused about what you're going to do with yourself and what your vision for your life should be.
Your vision is to be faithful where God put you. Your vision is your church. It's your job. It's your family. There's your vision.
It's actually very simple. It is a divine appointment and we have been commanded so that we would not be subject to our emotions to be tossed about by every wind of circumstance and emotion. But we're called to do excellent work in the house of God. It's the most important institution on the planet are you continuing steadfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and prayers would you pray with me father we thank you that your wisdom is greater than ours. You've called us to such good things, such healthy things, such soul-nourishing things, and I pray, O Lord, that you would use all of those who love you in this room to devote themselves to your glorious church.
Amen.