Brother Kent will join me here on the platform to answer any questions that you may have and even clarify what I may have not stated quite properly. Now, a few months ago, I ministered on Lord's Day mornings on the subject of both baptism and church membership. And since that time, there have been a number of questions. And It's quite evident that I wasn't as clear on those Sunday mornings as I could have been. Because, well, I could say that from a number of reasons. However, tonight I hope we make ourselves clear and that it will be satisfactory to you. Let's just look to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you have called the church of Jesus Christ in the being. And we're a local assembly of your people. This is a small family that meets here in these buildings. And we have a job to do. A job that you have given us. And that is to proclaim the gospel to men. And we desire, our Father, that the branches of this meeting run over the wall and bear fruit like is written concerning Joseph in Genesis forty nine and we pray our God that that may be so and that we shall see fruit for our labors and thy rich blessing upon our gathering bless this meeting tonight give us our God the ability to so speak that we shall say that which glorifies you and also gives peace to those who may have questioned. We want to thank you in Jesus' name for ever bringing us into the fellowship of thy Son and into the fellowship of thy people. And we thank you for this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. I want to say it's good to see each one of you here tonight on a Sunday night. This is many more than we normally have. And I'm thankful for each one who's come along tonight. The guidelines for church membership that were copied here. This is the result of many meetings of the men. We've gone over this. And we want to begin our reading tonight from the Word of God from Acts chapter two. The second chapter of Acts. is the great event of the coming of the Holy Spirit into the world. This had never happened before. The Holy Spirit was here on numerous occasions, indwelling and leading various men like David, Joshua, Moses, and others under the Old Testament economy. But to come and form a body, through which he works known as the church. The Lord Jesus said to his disciples in Matthew chapter sixteen, I will build my church. And he began building when the Holy Spirit came. And the Holy Spirit's coming is a result of prophecy. It was prophesied that he would come in Leviticus chapter twenty one in the Feast of Jehovah. the Feast of Pentecost. When the day of Pentecost was fully come, the Holy Spirit came, and He made known His presence, and Peter preached that memorable sermon, and at the close of the sermon something happened. And what happened at the close of the sermon gave direction to the Church of Jesus Christ today. So we begin our reading at Acts chapter two and verse forty-one. Now that word then is a time element. And as a time element, when Peter was finished preaching, and by the way, Peter did not give an invitation. You don't find an invitation given by a preacher in the book of the Acts. You don't find that. The audience appealed to the preacher. You always have the people under conviction of sin appealing to the preacher. We have things just the opposite today. The preacher appeals to the audience. But the audience appealed to the preacher. They cried out, what shall we do? And of course, Peter told them what to do. Repent, believe the gospel. And then, of course, verse forty-one, we read this. Then, when they heard Peter's reply, They that gladly received his word were baptized. And the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls, and they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine, and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were done by the Apostles, and all that believed were together, and had all things common. and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men as every man had need. And they continued daily, with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. Now, I'm going to read this first page of the guidelines, and we're going to go over it very quickly, because this is what we arrived at as brethren. Anybody need one? Brother George has it. George is a fresh eye. Mr. George, we thank you for making those. Notice the introduction. God has ordained a local church, as has happened in some instances recently, therefore, to implement what it means to be in fellowship, we shall seek to do the following. One, inaugurate a membership role for all those who now attend on a regular basis and have been with us on a regular basis. Two, use a few Sunday, eleven a.m. meetings to explain the responsibilities of those who are members. Three, when God saves any in our midst, or if people attend and apply for membership. We have an instruction class for them before they are received as members. A. Upon receipt of an application, they shall give their testimony as the how and when God saved them, and two brethren in leadership, deacons or elders, who shall evaluate the same and come and report to the other brethren. B. After all are satisfied that this person, is genuinely the Lord. We shall publicly receive them and give them the right hand of fellowship. The membership role will be examined periodically, and if one is no longer attending the public meetings, they shall receive a visit by at least two brethren, and if they continue to be absent, they shall be removed from the membership of Graham Bible fellowship. If it is necessary to exercise the most severe discipline, First Corinthians five, they shall also lose the privilege of membership until they are restored to the Lord and the other believers. We must keep in mind that not all discipline calls for this degree of discipline, but that outlined in First Corinthians chapter five. So that is the basis. I'm going to ask our brother Kent if he'll come up and... take any questions that you may have. Okay. Who has any questions? Do you want to read? Read them. You read them on an account. You want to answer? Okay. If you turn to First Corinthians chapter five, Church membership, I think, has a lot to do with church discipline, the same as church membership or discipline has a lot to do when someone is received into fellowship. We've all heard the expression, if you call this your church home, those of us who attended Ireland Street Chapel, and it has been mentioned here a number of times, I always... glimmed a little on the inside when I heard that expression. It's not a matter of someone calling at their church home. It's a matter of being received in the fellowship. The Lord Jesus said, receive ye one another. And what does discipline have to do with church membership? It has this to do. How can you put a person away from something he's never been received to? I'm answering a question with a question. How do you put someone away from something they've never been received, too? And in First Corinthians five, it says, in the last verse of the chapter, dealing with a brother who's living in immorality, and he goes into detail, and I'm not going to go into detail of it, but the word, therefore, is a word of summary in the last clause of the chapter. Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked person. The man who's living in sin must be disciplined, and he must be put away. I didn't write the Bible, but that is what Paul instructed a local church, the church of Corinth. Do you, brethren, have anything to add? Yes, and that man in First Corinthians five, if you read Second Corinthians chapter two, and again over in chapter six, he was restored. He was restored when he was put up. He repented, for he realized the severity of the judgment, and he repented, and he was received back. And they were instructed to receive it. I think you better ask another question. You have a handful. By the way, if you're not satisfied with the answers, just keep asking questions. Yeah, what are the convictions why they wouldn't want to become a member? Why would they want to teach and not be a member? I do not understand the question. I think the answer is quite obvious, isn't it? Can you go anywhere else and teach and not be a member? Could you teach in the Elks Lodge and not be an Elk? You know, and it comes down to that, really. Is this person in fellowship or out of fellowship? Here's what I meant when I said, and I've said this a number of times. Twenty or thirty years ago, we knew what it meant to be in fellowship. And that question, and I don't, I'm not making fun of the question or the questioner, but it reveals that do they know what it means to be in fellowship? It cost them thousands of dollars. John MacArthur's church, according to our bylaws, If a person does not attend the Lord's Supper, they're not to be a teacher in the Sunday school. That's in our Bible. No, no. A visiting speaker, we usually bring them in. We're going to have one teacher next week, Dr. Bitler. He's going to teach next week. And when we talk about attending the Lord's Supper, we mean basically that they're really in fellowship with us. Here's where we really show... the unity of the body the bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ and when you go over to a little further that's in first Corinthians ten when you go to first Corinthians twelve it says now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular so it's not only the Lord if we remember but we manifest our unity in Christ one with another with a risen head of the church And that was part of our bylaws when we started Graham Bible Fellowship back in nineteen seventy-five. I had to think for a moment. It just means that we recognize that they've just recognized in fellowship as they were before. And we've just turned the word from fellowship to membership. For instance, if you were in a court of law, And by the way, often I'm called upon and I, to protect myself, I tell people I'm not a counselor. I am not a trained counselor. I let them know that. I said, now I'm willing to sit with you with an open Bible and tell you what God's word says. But I am not a counselor. So I make sure that they understand what I'm saying. So that if any of this problem that came up with Brother John MacArthur does come up, they can't say that I was giving them counsel, I was just simply telling them what the Word of God says. And with the open, here's the thing, with the open in fellowship, if you call this your church home, let's make a hypothetical question or situation. Totally hypothetical. Suppose somebody comes for a few months. on a regular basis. And they know the right words. You know, you can know the right word. And everybody thinks, well, these people are saved and open arms. And this person would say, well, I call this my church home. And I can tell you people who call this their church home, one or two, who don't come, who have told me this is my church home. But anyway, suppose that happened. And then suppose they drifted into sin and we had to deal with it. We have to, the discipline is something you just don't close your eyes to. You have to deal with it. And then they turn around and get a lawyer and they sue the church leaders who dealt in discipline. And then you're brought in the court. They say to the person, the lawyer does, you know, they say to the person, when did you join Graham Bible Fellowship? I didn't join, I just went there, and I'm not a member, I'm in fellowship. And the lawyer then uses that, and you know how free a lawyer can be. And they could really cause problems for the leadership. When I met, taught the subject of church membership, I did say this. I remember saying this. What we're doing is trying to help the future leaders of the church. I'm not going to be here forever. Neither is Brother Champ. Neither is Brother Sutton. And when we're gone and there are other men come in, we're trying to help them and get established that they will not have to face some of these difficulties. Yes. Well, that's a pretty broad question. I do not know. I can't tell you off the top of my head, but I do know of that. Well, I have, I just used, I just mentioned that to answer the question. Mr. Neal, that's a good question. That's a good question. Number one, I'm not worried. I'm not worried. Number two, it's not a matter of me going to law with another brother. It's a matter of another brother taking me to law and I can't get out of it. Or you see, or somebody else. And it can happen. It can happen. We're living in a day of easy believism. And of course, not everyone who progresses. Lord, Lord is really the Lord. I don't believe a genuine believer wants to go to law against another believer. It's foreign to Scripture. And I think if they do that, I think a good call for the church to go into, get on their knees in genuine prayer and to see that person because the Scripture says it's wrong. That's true. We should take joyfully the spoiling of your good as they did as you read in Hebrews chapter ten. Paul said, they took joyfully the spoiling of your goods. And that's not fearing what men can do if you take it joyfully. I'm waiting for you, brother. I don't think it's the rule of the Medes and the Persians. But when it comes, that question said leadership. Can you imagine a person wanting to be in leadership who doesn't want to belong to the group? It doesn't make sense to me. I don't hope I appear to be rude when I make that statement. But no. Well, David Lyons isn't a member here, but he's been here quite a bit. And if he's coming in two weeks, he's going to minister the word. And we love David. And if the choir or director wants to ask him to sing in the choir that morning, I don't think we should say he can't do it. You see, we don't have a law. This is not the law of the Medes and the Persians. It can't be all this. You see, however, when it comes to a strict questions like that leadership and I think that's an entirely different thing that often happens by the way and not often but it has happened on a number of occasions and I just simply write I just like brother Greg Bartman wrote to me concerning Mike and Beth Burke if they wanted to join out there and I wrote them a letter and commended Beth and Mike and the children to them for their shepherding care. And if they belong to another church, I just simply write them a letter and tell them that you have been coming here and you applied for membership and if there's any reason why we should not receive you into our fellowship. It's that simple. I've done that for many, not many, but a number of people in time past when Mark and Sindy Vestover with us before they moved west. I wrote to Brother Bartman and told him that. Is there any reason why we should not receive them in the fellowship? In other words, if they're being disciplined in the church where they're at, you can invite discipline into your own meeting. If they're on the run, you see. And when basically there's but one church, And I'd like to throw something out tonight. I was going to minister on this for a few minutes, but I'm watching the clock. In first, or Ephesians chapter four, we are commanded to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And then there are seven unities that are mentioned. Not one of those seven is the unity of the Spirit. Those seven things are the unity of the body. The unity of the body of Christ. And my question to you tonight, and I'm going to leave it to you to study, on your own, what is the difference between the unity of the spirit and the unity of the body? Okay, next question. That's entirely up to the person. That's entirely up to the person. I recognize this as the family into which God has placed and he has placed us in a family together. And I like the way the family works. When there's a death in the family, the members of this body, they move in to comfort and to do many, many other things. That's a good reason. The question was, why should I? That's a good reason. And of course, when there's a marriage, when there's a birth, and when there are other things, the Christians join together and they unite and becoming a blessing to others. That to me would be my reason for joining. Well, there are some things I usually chuckle at on the inside. I'm not allowed to... to make it known publicly, but I'll make something known tonight. A dear brother who was speaking a few weeks ago at a men's meeting, and it was Brother John Bramhall, and a man said to him, What church are you a member of? And he said, Are you born again? He said, Yes, I am. Well, he said, I'm a member of the same church you are. Well, now that recognizes the one body of Christ. We all are members of the body of Christ and you can't join us. You are joined to it when you're born of God. God places you into that. But you know in his address that night, he said something. And I listened closely. Brother George was there. We were sitting together. He mentioned a group called the Assemblies. Who are they? And that's when I chuckled on the inside. We can say and have an easy answer for somebody, I'm a member of the same church you are. There is only one. That's true. But then who are the assemblies? You see, we have to answer these questions. And we have to answer the very questions that we raise by the things that we say. And... I would have loved to ask him that publicly, but it would have been out of place to do it. But there's something to think about. Well, we can have a good question like that. I'm a member of the body of Christ. Praise God I am. Who baptized you? Well, you can say I've been baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body. That's true. But who baptized you publicly? See, Who baptizes the converts? Converts to Christianity are baptized, and it is the responsibility of the local church to do it. That's another good reason. Go ahead. No one is hungry. I am not interested in being like the other denominations. I'm only interested in one thing. In glorifying God.