where we read, and the eleven disciples went away into Galilee unto a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. Acts chapter two, verse thirty-seven, where we read, Now when they heard this, that is the sermon of Peter on the day of Pentecost, Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter, and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sin, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this onward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day they were added unto them about three thousand souls, and they continued steadfastly in the Apostle's doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. Verse forty-seven, the middle of the verse, and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. May the Lord bless the reading of his word. Let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you that the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. We thank you that the day that we were saved was exactly as we sang this morning. It was a happy day, for we learned that the transaction was done. It was finished at the cross on Calvary's Hill, and the day that we trusted Christ, we were received by thee, and we rejoice in that truth. And we pray, our Father, that in the midst of all the things we don't know about tomorrow, that we may determine to take time to be holy, that we may live holy lives before thee, and speak well of him who loved us and gave himself for us. We commit each one to thee. Those who aren't with us this morning, we ask your blessing upon them. And we pray that above all else, we may honor and glorify thee, the God of all grace, for we pray in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, when our brethren decided that we have a membership instead of what we've said over the years, a fellowship, the Lord's Day passed, we spent, and also today, these two Sundays are set aside to go over this in its two aspects. And last Lord's Day, we examined the importance of baptisms. because in baptism we have a person bearing testimony to their relationship to the Trinity, to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. And the three members of the Godhead are involved in the sinner's salvation. God the Father elects, God the Son redeems, God the Holy Spirit applies that redemption to the heart. Now, baptism... is a manifestation that a person has truly been born from above by the Holy Spirit of God. And you'll notice in our scripture reading this morning that baptism, as we noted last week, is part of the Great Commission. And this brings home to our hearts the importance of the local church. Because God expects those who trust Him who are converted to him to obey his word. Now, we have made a paper, and it's back on the book rack, and I hope you have one. And I'm going to go over this paper with you, relative to church membership. I'm going to read it, and just tell you what's on it. For this reason, one of the most important things in a believer's life that a believer can do is identify himself with a local assembly of believers. Baptism and church membership contribute nothing to salvation, but they are the fruit of a genuine conversion. If you have the assurance that God has saved you and you desire to identify with Christ and with this local assembly of believers, we would enjoy hearing from you. We ask you to indicate your desire below, so that we may schedule a time for you to meet with a few of our brethren. We shall ask you to relate your experience as the how and when God saved you at that time. And here are the two places where you can make a mark. The first is I can testify to a saving work of God's grace in my life, and I desire to follow the Lord in believers' baptism, and to be publicly identified with Christ and Graham Bible Fellowship. And then there's another spot. I can testify to a saving work of God's grace in my life, and I desire to be identified with Graham Bible Fellowship. I have already been baptized since my conversion. Then there's a place for your name, for your telephone number, and a place that you can list other members of your immediate family who like to join you in fellowship and in membership here at Graham Bible Fellowship. Now, today I'm going to take up time to speak about church membership. And I'll tell you, well, over the years, We have taken the position of church fellowship. But we don't talk about fellowship, and you don't answer questions about fellowship. You do answer questions about membership. How many members do you have at Graham Bible Fellowship? Did anybody ask that question? And I know you answered, well, we don't have any members. We just joined together in fellowship. Is that how you answered? It's, and we're living in a day when our brethren, as we've discussed this, quite a few months, desired that we go to a church membership rather than fellowship. Now, let me try to explain this morning what we mean. The church is the greatest institution on earth because it represents what God is doing in the world. What God is doing in the world is far more important than anything that man does. Membership in the church is far more important than membership in a political party. Much more important. The church is not an organization. The church is a living organism. The church is made up of people who have been twice born. Born once by natural generation. Born again the second time by the Spirit of God. Convicting of sin and accomplishing a new birth, a regeneration, by applying the redemption of Calvary's cross in a very real way to the heart of a child who believes. Now to be born again by the Spirit of God and the Word of God makes you a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. There's no other way to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ than to be born again by the Spirit of God. And the true church, the universal church, you can't even join it. You can't join the universal church. You are joined to the church when you're saved. For by one spirit, were we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jew or Gentile, bond or free? That's First Corinthians chapter twelve. And verse thirteen. So if you're saved, that's one of the reasons that we continuously talk about church fellowship. We are in fellowship as believers in Christ with the head of the church. There is but one church. It is a church of Jesus Christ of which our Lord Jesus himself is the head. But now when we talk about church membership, We're talking about the local expression and the local church, Graham Bible Fellowship, is an expression locally of what the Church of Jesus Christ is. It is the local expression of the church that we are considering this morning, not the universal church to which every believer is joined. You couldn't join it. We've been joined to that. But we're talking about the local expression of it. Once we have been born again by the Spirit of God. And after we've been saved, we read in Acts chapter two, verse forty-seven, the middle of the verse. We read, and the Lord added daily to the church such as should be saved. And we want to consider the local aspect this morning. Now, last week, we noted three things that you'll never find you can't find in the New Testament. Three things you won't find. Number one, you will not find an individual or a group or a class of believers outside a local church. You won't find them in the New Testament. The second thing you won't find is a believer who was outside the authority and discipline of a local church. You won't find that in the New Testament either. And third, you won't find a believer who was not baptized in the New Testament. Now that was easy in the days when the New Testament was written for this reason. There was only one local church. There was a church at Rome. There was a church at Corinth. There was a church at Philippi. And there was a church at Thessalonica. And it made it easy. When a person was saved, that's where they entered into fellowship with the other believers. However, in our day, it's something else. There's a multitude of local churches, and it complicates the problem by trying to solve, and we're trying to solve that problem by church membership, in contrast to church fellowship. See, twenty years ago, when you talked about church fellowship with somebody, they understood what you were talking about. I'm not sure that everybody that we speak with today understands what we mean by church fellowship. Alas, today things have changed. And we're trying, by the grace of God, in making this transition to make it easier for our children and our grandchildren in the future. And the reason we're doing it in my book is that we're commanded in Second Timothy chapter two and verse one. Paul says to Timothy that the things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same, commit thou to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. In other words, the church is to be an ongoing process, an ongoing thing. The church is not supposed to die. when a few of the leaders that are present here die. The church is a continuous thing. The church operates as a family of believers who care one for another. As we noted in the Sunday school this morning, in Galatians chapter six, Paul writes to the churches, there it's the churches of Galatia because it was a church in various places. cities, Iconium, Lystra, Derby, etc. And he writes to them as a group. What's true for one group is true for another group. And as he writes to them, he says, If a man be overtaken in a fall, ye who are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest I also be tempted. So we find that the law of love that you expect in a family and a local church is a local family and I'll tell you I've noted this over the years for this assembly of believers that when someone has a problem the family responds I've always enjoyed working very much with a believers here the family responds to the cares and the hurts of others. And I saw it again this past week in the passing away of Mrs. Mann. And when the Lord called her to himself, the family responded immediately. And you can only rejoice in your soul when you see this. So the local church operates like a family. We pray for one another. We even go as far as to rebuke one another. when it's necessary, and that rebuke should always be in the spirit of genuine love. This would be natural in a local family. Parents have to discipline children. They're commanded to do so in the book of Proverbs, and they discipline children in the spirit of love, as we would in the natural family, or in the spiritual family. The one is a representative of the other. In other words, the local church is an expression of the body of Christ in a locality. We want to begin today. You say, well, you've begun a long time ago. It's about time you talk about stopping. Well, we want to, I want to, that was my introduction. And I want to take up three things with you this morning that I think help enlighten. first of all what the church means to our Lord what does the church mean to Christ this is what should really grip the heart of a child of God first of all Ephesians five twenty five it tells us that Christ loved the church and gave himself for it Ephesians chapter five verse twenty seven we read that Christ is going to present the church to himself as a glorious church having neither spot or wrinkle or any such thing and that it should be without a blemish in other words that's what the church means to Christ but more than that in Ephesians one and verse twenty two we read that God put all things under the feet of Christ and gave him to be the head of the church which is his body, the fullness of him that fill us all in all. And you and I, who make up the body of Christ, we are on earth the fullness of him who fills all in all. My life goes back a number of years. I remember when Queen Elizabeth became Queen of England. And she became the chief monarch of the Empire of Great Britain. But I remember King George, her father. King George became king when his relative, King Edward, abdicated the throne. And you see, he abdicated by marrying the wrong woman. Some of you remember that, some of you know your history. Well, when King George married, he had a wife. And King George became the chief man, the head of the British Empire. His wife, the day she married King George, by virtue of her union with him she became the fullness of him who fills all and all in the empire of great britain our word designed that all things are put under the feet of christ that he is the head of the church but we are the bride of christ and by virtue of our union with him we become the fullness of him who fills all in all in the universe of God. There's a day coming, beloved. There's a day coming. In that day, through all the intelligences of the universe, the Lord Jesus will be able to say, this is my church for which I gave my life. Behold I and the children which thou hast given me, he can say to the Father, and I'll tell you this, there won't be a one missing. They'll all be there. They'll all be there. But more than that, what does the church mean to Christ? Not only did he die for the church, he's going to present it to himself in the coming day as a glorious church. He made it that we become the fullness of him who fills the whole universe. But more than that, he has given instruction to his church in Ephesians three, verse ten. He says to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church, the manifold wisdom of God. Do you want to know the wisdom of God? God has provided it. for his people, the church. Well, we say, oh, you're talking about the universal church when you read those verses in Ephesians. You want to know something? You're right. You're right. But what is true of the universal church should be true of the local church as well. For we're just a microcosm of what the church is. And in First Timothy chapter three and verse fifteen, and by the way, that was written. To Timothy, well, he was at Ephesus. If you read in First Timothy chapter one. But in chapter three, verse fifteen, he says to Timothy, But if I tarry long, that you may know how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God. And the expression house of God in First Timothy three and verse fifteen has reference to the local church. that you may know how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth. And the only pillar and ground of truth that the world has today is a local church. God has ordained it so, and it is important. Now, that brings us to my second point. My second point this morning is our responsibility. to the Lord and to the church. The church is not only the body of Christ, the church is termed the bride of Christ. Therefore, our greatest responsibility is to love one another, loving one another in the local family. Now, our responsibility can be summed up in one word. accountability. We are accountable one to another. Elders are accountable to church members. Elders are accountable to the Lord. People are accountable to one another. And in that same responsibility, the members of the church are commanded by the Lord to give. Giving is a command of the Lord. First Corinthians chapter sixteen, the word of God says, Upon the first day of the week, let a man lay by in store as the Lord has prospered him. Giving is a command of God. You see, now there, you could be very slick with the word of God, and I'm going to just go out on a limb for a moment. Suppose a person says to you, I give to the universal church. how do you do that? How do you do it? You see, Paul's command was to the church of God at Corinth. It was at a particular place at the command of God where it comes. Furthermore, we are commanded in Ephesians chapter five to be subject one to another. You see, we no longer belong to the kingdom of darkness. We don't act like the world does in business. The Church of Jesus Christ is a living organism. So we don't belong any longer to the kingdom of darkness or to this world system. You see, while we live in this world, we belong to a company whose citizenship is in heaven. That is our true company. But there is a company of God's people on earth, and we need the fellowship of God's people in the local church and to be accountable one to another. We are simply a colony of heaven, living on earth, awaiting the coming of the Lord from heaven. Our Lord is coming again. And therefore, we do have a responsibility toward other members of the family of God. My third point, and this to me is the most important, belonging to a local church does not save anybody. And because of that, this is why we always stress church fellowship and not membership. We don't want anybody to be confused. If you join Graham Bible Fellowship, friends, and you're not saved, joining with us doesn't save anybody. To be saved, you must be joined to the Lord. And you must be joined to the Lord by the new birth. There is no other way. You see, there are people who have an idea that they belong, because they belong to a local church, that everything is all right, and it could be all wrong if you've never been born of God. It's more important to be born of God than to be in fellowship in the universal church than to belong to Graham Bible fellowship. That's most important. But my friend, if you are born of God, and you consider yourself and have considered yourself to be part of Graham Bible Fellowship over the years in fellowship with us, at this time when people ask questions, we want to receive you into membership. We'd like your help. to get us over this period of transition. Make it easy for us. It isn't all that easy. I'd sooner be preaching on the holiness of God this morning than taking up this. But this is what the brethren have instructed me to do. And I follow instructions usually. And I believe that accountability is very important. Now living in a world And you know the world we're living in. Accountability is something to be desired. It's something to be desired in the world. And you know it's getting to the place on a lot of places. Even in the church. Accountability is something to be desired. And therefore I hope that this transition will be something that will result in rich blessings and be a help to our children and our grandchildren as we trust are going to continue on in the things of God. For it is our Lord's intention that the church of Jesus Christ continue from generation to generation until he comes. Again, I want to stress one thing. belonging to a church. Even being baptized doesn't save anybody. But if you have been saved, then you should be baptized. It's part of the Great Commission. You won't find a person in the New Testament who has not been baptized. who is in fellowship with God, a saved person who is not baptized. You won't find him in the New Testament. Furthermore, you should unite with a Bible-believing church. And we believe the Word of God. And we are going to preach the Word of God, the whole counsel of God, by the grace of God, until... The Lord takes us home. So, may I say to you, take a look at that paper, get one there on the book rack as you go out and consider filling it up. If you haven't been baptized, I'll do everything I can to help you. The only thing I want to be sure of is that you're saved. We'll make arrangements for the baptism. And if you've considered yourself in fellowship over the years, we invite you to take that step of accountability and help us over this transition. Now let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you that to have life is to have Christ. And not only to have life, it is to know that we have life. We can know that we pass from death on the life because we love the brethren and we seek to do what is well pleasing to you. We commend one another to you. We thank you for this time of blessing together and we ask that you take this word and bless it to every heart. Now we commend this company to thee and to the word of thy grace which is able to build them up and give them an inheritance among all that are sanctified through Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.