MY LIFE AND MY CHURCH

12-31-78b

Acts 20

 

            Orchestra and minister of music.  We appreciate you all the time.  But we want you to know there's been no day ever that we have fallen in love with you more zealously and preciously than we have this day. 

            Your presence is a benediction and your singing has been no less glorious.  God reward you for your love and faithfulness.  Now, we don't know how many are able to listen to this service on radio and on television. 

            In so many areas of the city, the electricity being cut off, why, the radio doesn't work and the television doesn't work.  And our house is as cold as a refrigerator.  There's no heat in it at all. 

            So, after this service is over, if anybody wants to warm up the pastor, why, you just come and say we'll share our fire and our hearthside with you. 

            I don't know what most of the people in the city are going to do if it doesn't come back on.  And they say it might not be on for days. 

            They have exploded, Satan has, demons have exploded all of these transformers.  And they say that's what's the matter.  So, we maybe huddling together in the closest communion Baptists have ever known in the history of the world keeping each other warm. 

            What a preciousness to see you here.  Man, this is one of the greatest days of my life.  I had no pressure at all at the eight-fifteen service. 

            And I preached for an hour and five minutes.  It was just marvelous for me.  Dear.  Dear.  But I'm not going to say what I'm going to do this morning. 

            So, you all just be real relaxed and just sit there and listen.  Because this is a message from the Lord. 

            And it has in it so much for us who are in this dear church and who look forward to this coming Sunday and the Sundays beyond as being high watermarks.  Very zenith hours in our spiritual life.

            As I was going to say on the radio and on television, you are with us in heart and spirit in the First Baptist Church in Dallas.  And this is the pastor bringing the message entitled:  MY LIFE AND MY CHURCH. 

            In our preaching through the book of Acts we're in Chapter 20.  And this will be about the third of the fourth sermon that I have preached on the 28th Verse. 

            It's one of the most meaningful verses to me in my pastoral ministry of any in the entire word of God.  The Verse is this Paul speaking to the pastors of the church at Ephesus. 

            He says:  Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers to feed the church of God, to shepherd, to care for the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. 

            My life and my church.  It would be difficult to open emphasize the dearness and the preciousness of the bride of Christ to our Lord. 

            The church is his body.  The church is his bride.  The church is the temple of the Lord.  It is precious in his sight.  He bought it and purchased it with his own blood. 

            When you come to the end of the life of our Lord in the days of his flesh, what remained of all of his ministry was a church.  That's why I had us to read together that wonderful passage in Matthew 16:  On this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 

            When the Lord ascended up into heaven he left down here in the world his church.  The great doctrines of salvation are summarized by the ordinances in the church. 

            The ordinances are peculiarly the possession of the house and the people of God.  They don't belong to the state, to the judiciary, to the legislature, to the school system. 

            The ordinances were given to the church.  They were ordained in the church.  And as such, they present fully, beautifully, completely the great doctrines of salvation. 

            The recurring church ordinance, the bread is his body.  And the crushed fruit of the vine is the crimson of his life.  This is his, atonement for our sins. 

            The initial church ordinance, baptism is the burial of our Lord and the resurrection of our Lord. 

            Paul defined, described, delineated the gospel in the 15th Chapter of I Corinthians.  As he begins:  My brethren, I declare, I define for you the gospel. 

            What is it how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures?  That's the recurring church ordinance.  His body, his blood, his suffering on the cross.  Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. 

            Then the second ordinance.  He was buried.  And the third day, he was raised again according to the scriptures.  This is the gospel. 

            And when a man preaches the gospel, that's what he preaches.  And the gospel is framed and forever dramatized in those two ordinances in the church. 

            When the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the world at Pentecost, it empowered and quickened a church. 

            In that 2nd Chapter of the book of Acts that describes this ascension gift from heaven, those that believed were added to the church.  And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. 

            The Holy Spirit lives in and moves in and quickens and empowers a church.  The fruit of all of the missionary journeys described in the New Testament is to be found in the churches that were ringing the Mediterranean Sea. 

            When Paul was done with his missionary journeys, he spoke of the churches of Judea and the churches of Samaria and the churches of Asia and the churches Galatia and the churches of Macedonia and the churches of Achaia. 

            The fruit of the preaching of the gospel by apostle and missionary and evangelist always is the church. 

            The last address of our Lord in the New Testament in the Revelation, in the last book of the Bible is addressed to the seven churches of Asia.  And he speaks to his churches today as he spoke to those churches in the Roman province of Asia. 

            I could sum up the loving attitude of our Lord toward the church in Ephesians 5:25:  Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. 

            And I can sum up the spirit and the heart and the attitude of the apostles and the missionaries and the evangelists of the New Testament toward the church in this my text. 

            Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to the flock over which God hath made you overseers, to feed, to shepherd, to care for the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood.   

            And this is my life in God's house, with God's people in the church.  The American you'll find all over the world, every city you'll ever visit all the way around this earth.  In every country and nation there you'll find the American.

            A man wrote a book entitled The Ugly American.  And I can see why he would write such a book. 

            So much of what you find in the American tourist and in the American business man and in the American entertainer as he goes abroad is so anti-thetical to the spirit of Christ and to the spirit of God. 

            But wherever you go, you will also find the people of the Lord.  And I love to identify my own soul and heart and life and love and interest with them. 

            I may not understand their language.  They maybe of a different color from my skin.  They may conduct their services in a different way. 

            But if they are God's people and they are gathered in the name of Christ, I feel at home with them.  I believe in what they believe in. 

            I believe in the gospel that they preach.  I believe in the book out of which they guide the lives of their families and their children. 

            I believe in the spirit of God who moves in our hearts and lives in our midst.  I believe in Jesus, whose our great intercessor and Savior in heaven. 

            And I believe in the glorious promise that someday he is coming again.  And wherever in the world I am, and I've been around it three times. 

            I've crossed the equator more than twelve times.  I have been in so many cities and villages and countries of this earth.  Wherever I am, there I am at home when I find myself gathered with the people of God. 

            It is a benediction just to see them, hear them sing, preaching the gospel when I can't understand a syllable of what they say.  But the spirit of it I feel in my heart. 

            And, of course, out of all the churches in the world, the one dearest and most precious to me is our wonderful First Baptist Church in Dallas. 

            I love being a part of it.  I love the fellowship and the communion of the spirit of God with you.  I love to sing with you, to pray with you, to kneel before God with you. 

            I love to share in the services with you.  I love to pray about the programs of the church.  Its many-faceted ministries.  I love to dream with you and to look forward to the golden tomorrows God has promised us.  I love everything about this dear church. 

            My predecessor, as you know, was Dr. George W. Truett, under shepherd of this congregation for forty and seven years.  Dr. Truett was a close personal friend of John D. Rockefeller Senior. 

            The elder Rockefeller, the founder of the great standard oil company and the Rockefeller empire and fortune. 

            The elder Rockefeller was the superintendent of the Sunday School at the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio. 

            And upon a time when they were without a pastor, John D. Rockefellar asked the committee of the church to come down here to Dallas and to invite his friend, Dr. Truett to be the pastor of the church in Ohio. 

            The committee came only to be disappointed in the response of the great pastor.  No.  He was staying with his people, staying in Dallas. 

            So, as the days past, John D. Rockefeller sent the committee down here to Dallas to visit with Dr. Truett. 

            And John D. Rockefeller said, "You let him set his own salary.  Any amount of money.  We'll be glad to pay.  Let him set his own conditions.  Anything that would please him we would be happy to meet, but get him." 

            So, the committee came again down here to Dallas and to visit with the great pastor, George Truett.  And they related to him what the committee in Cleveland and what John D. Rockefeller has promised. 

            Money is no consideration.  Set your own salary, any salary that would please.  Write your own conditions as pastor of the church.  Anything you would like we would be happy to meet. 

            And Dr. Truett said, "No.  No.  I will not go." 

            Finally, the committee in desperation said, "Dr. Truett, could you be moved at all?  Is there anything that we could offer that would move you?" 

            He said, "Yes.  Yes." 

            And the committee thus being encouraged said, "Oh, Dr. Truett, tell us.  What is it that would give you cause to move?  What would move you?" 

            And he replied, "Move my people and I will move with them." 

            He stayed in this church forty-seven years under shepherd caring for God's flock.  That's part of the greatness and the nobility of the heritage of this congregation.  I set one time at a Southern Baptist Convention high up in the auditorium.  In one of those balconies. 

            And by my side was seated one of God's great laymen, John L. Hill of the Sunday school board in Nashville, Tennessee. 

            And seated there we were listening to George Truett as he was preaching from the platform.  And as Truett was delivering his message, in incomparable tones and gesture and manner, Dr. Hill turned to me. 

            And he said, "Look at him.  See him.  Watch him." 

            He said to me, "That's the only man I know in the world that cannot be moved." 

            So many of the other pastors among them, Ellis Fuller, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Atlanta Georgia leaving their pulpits to enter other ministries in the denomination and the faith. 

            Yet, that man John L. Hill says, "That man is wedded to his church.  He loves his church.  He's staying with his people.  You couldn't move him. 

            That stayed and stays in my heart through all of these years and years since Dr. Hill made that observation to me.  I also love this church. 

            I'd rather be a member of this church than to belong to anything else in the world.  In fact, I suppose the only thing in the world I belong to is the First Baptist Church in Dallas. 

            I love everything about it.  I love this old beat up auditorium.  It was built in 1890.  How many years is that?  Eighty-nine years ago. 

            Built in 1890.  We still worship in it.  It fits like an old shoe.  I just love coming into this place.  And someday, of course, it's made out of wood.  It's brick veneer. 

            Someday it will have to be torn down but I don't want to be here when they do it.  I want to be in heaven when they tear this sanctuary.  I love this place. 

            I love thy kingdom, Lord. 

            The house of thine abode

            The church our blessed Savior

            bought with his own precious blood. 

            I love thy church oh, God. 

            Her walls before thee stand. 

            Dear is the apple of thine eye. 

            And graven on thy hand. 

            For her my tears shall fall. 

            For her my prayers ascend

            To her my toils

And cares be given

            Till toils and cares shall end. 

            I love to be numbered with the people in this church.  Put my name down.  I belong to this congregation. 

            Again, my life and my church.  We have an assignment from heaven, all of us.  And all of us are to share in it.  It isn't just one of us or two of us.  It's the thousands of us. 

            One of the great revelations of God in the book of Corinthians is this, that God has given to each one of his people gifts. 

            If you take the Bible words:  charis grace charisma a grace gift, charismata plural grace gifts.  The word is so banded about the day until it's kind of lost the meaning that it had when Paul used it. 

            But Paul said:  All of us have charismatic gifts.  All of us do.  They're sovereignly bestowed by the spirit of God.  And we differ in those gifts. 

            You have a gift.  You have a gift.  You have a gift.  And each one of us has a gift.  Maybe several of those gifts.  And they're all to be used for the building up of the body of Christ.       

            And Paul illustrated it.  He said:  The body is not all foot.  It's not all hand.  It's not all ear.  It's not all eye. 

But there's a need for the foot, for the hand, for the eye, for the ear. 

            And the foot can't say to the hand:  I don't need you. 

            And the hand can't say to the eye:  I don't need you. 

            And the ear can't say to the eye:  I don't need you. 

            But all of the members of the body fitly joined together are built up into the loving grace of our Lord.  That is the church.  We differ so greatly in our gifts.  But every gift is needed. 

            And when all of us come together and our gifts and our talents and our blessings from heaven are consecrated to him, the church is strong.  And it's healthy.  And it's vigorous and it's viable and alive. 

            And it has a marvelous ministry in the earth.  I must be faithful to my brethren in the church.  They must count on me and let me count on them.  There is a ministry that each one of us has. 

            And I have a part in it.  And if I don't carry my part, somebody else has to carry his part.  And it's a heavier load for him. 

            It's like a yoke.  And we're yoked together.  And when I pull and you pull, we share that burden.  But if you pull and I don't, then it is heavy for you. 

            I must be faithful to you and true to you.  And I must bear my part so that God's chariot can go forward in power, in speed accomplishing the purpose for which God has sent us. 

            And I must be true to the faith.  This blessed gospel revelation of the mind of the Lord in Christ Jesus unto death.  I must be true to it.  I must not fail it. 

            I cannot remember how this is.  But somehow in my reading I can remember a story that went something like this.  The Christians are being fed to the lions in the great coliseum. 

            And those thousands of people teared up watching those ferocious beasts devour God's children.  Exalting and rejoicing in the blood that was shed. 

            Well, the Christians were called out one at a time to face those carnivorous beasts.  And as this Christian was called, as he left to enter the arena, to face the death of those ravenous animals. 

            As he left to enter the arena, another Christian, a friend in the congregation of Christ came back.  And they past like this.  One of them going into the arena to face death and the other one returning safe, secure. 

            And as they passed, the Christian that was going into the arena to face a horrible death said to the Christian who was coming back. 

            Said to him, "Maranatha, maranatha.  The Lord cometh.  I'll see you in the morning on the other side of the river." 

            And he passed by entering the arena to seal his faith with his blood. 

            What he didn't know was this.  That the Christian who was coming back had recounted the faith and had denied the Lord.  And his life was spared because he had surrendered his faith. 

            Of those two, God help me, God help us to be the Christian that if we were confronted with a gladiatorial confrontation in a coliseum with ferocious beasts, we'd gladly lay down our lives. 

            We would never recant or deny the faith.  We'll seal it with our blood.  My life and my church. 

            All of the values that we hold dear are foundational in the church.  The church supports them.  Brightly keeps them.  Every we hold precious in our hearts, in our lives is kept in the church, sustained and supported by the church. 

            Let me name some.  Number one.  The very world in which we live is surrendered from judgment and from the awful outpouring of the wrath of God because in it is the church. 

            Maybe a small minority, but the only thing that stands between the judgments of God upon this earth is the church. 

            It's exactly as those angels going down into Sodom said to Abraham:  We're going down to see if the iniquity of the city is as it has come up unto God.  And if it is, if it is, judgment shall fall. 

            And as the two angels went on their way, the Bible says:  Abraham stood yet before the Lord. 

            And Abraham said to God:  Oh, God, would you destroy the righteous with the wicked.  That be far from thee will not the judge of all the earth do right? 

            And God said:  I will not destroy the righteous with the wicked. 

            And then Abraham begins his prayer:  Per adventure, there be fifty righteous in the city of Sodom, would you destroy the fifty righteous? 

            God said:  No.  If there are fifty in the city, I will spare it for the sake of fifty. 

            Then Abraham carries through his prayer:  Forty-five, forty.  If there are thirty righteous.  If are there twenty.  If there are ten. 

            And God Almighty said to Abraham.  If there are ten righteous in the city of Sodom, I will spare it for the sake of ten. 

            Ten could not be found.  And because they are not found, God's judgment of wrath was poured out upon Sodom.  It is the same thing in the world today. 

            The only organization, the only group that stands between the wrath and judgment of God upon this earth is the church, the people of God. 

            Let me show you in the 4th Chapter of the book of the Revelation in the 4th Chapter there is a door opened into heaven.  And John is raptured.  He's taken out of this earth and is raptured up to heaven. 

            That is a type of people all of God who someday will be raptured through an open door into heaven. 

            And when John is raptured into heaven, Chapters 4-19 are called the days of the Tribulation and the great Tribulation. The wrath and judgment of God, the vials of God's wrath are poured out upon this sinning and iniquitous world. 

            The church disappears in the 4th Chapter of the book of the Revelation.  And you don't see it again until the 19th Chapter when you see Jesus returning with his bride, with his saints, with his church. 

            That is, the judgment of God cannot fall in this world as long as we are in it.  It is the presence of the people of God that withhold the awful wrath and judgment of Almighty God upon this world. 

            It's like the angel said to Lot in Sodom, escape, flee.  For I cannot do anything until thou become thither.  As long as righteous Lot is in Sodom, the fire could not fall and did not. 

            It is not with this earth.  It is the presence of the church, the people of God in it that shields this world from the awful visitation of the great tribulation. 

            Not only that, but the very properties we own, the values of what we possess are sustained and for to by and secured by the church. 

            Let me be crass for a minute.  Let me be mundane and terrestrial for a minute.  Let me be very worldly, materialistic for just a minute. 

            I want you to tell me how much do you think a home was worth in Sodom?  How much?  Tell me.  What do you think about the prospects of a suburban development in Gomorrah. 

            Tell me, what do you think the value was to Naboth and his vineyard in Jezreel and Jezebel was on the throne? 

            Let's bring it down to us today.  Tell me.  You tell me, what do you think of any property that you might possess in an atheistic and a communist land?  You tell me. 

            The government owns everything.  The state owns everything.  And the people live off of the largest of those who are in power in those Kremlin and communist and totalitarian governments. 

            The very value of what we possess is guaranteed to us, fortified for us, secured to us by the people of God.  And when they are crushed, we have no liberties.  And we have no possessions.  We are pawns of the government.        

            May I bring this a little closer home?  There was a wealthy miner in Montana who decided in his atheism and infidelity, that he was going to build him a town without God and without a preacher and without a church. 

            He's going to build it just as he desired.  So, he took a thousand acres.  And on that thousand acres of land, he