God's Vision for Emmanuel Baptist Church - Part 1

1:30And if it leads anywhere else, you can be sure that that is not God's vision for your life or to be part of. But I want to continue this thought. Since God's vision for your semester is a Christ-like routine, and since God's vision for your life is Christ-likeness, how does the church play into all of that? God definitely has a vision for the church, and it is to contribute to your Christ-like routine and ultimately your Christ-likeness. And so, wanting to bring it home to us here today: what is God's vision for Immanuel Baptist Church? And really, the church in general. What is God's vision for the church? Why did he leave us here? What does he expect out of this community that has assembled here together? Well, this summer we spent some time, the elders and many of you, thinking through what is God's vision, how can we articulate what is, how do we summarize all of this about who we are as a body of believers? And this is what we came up with. This is what we believe encapsulates the scriptural thought about what God's vision is for us as an assembly. And I'd articulate it like this: God's vision. For Emmanuel Baptist Church, is that we become a people, or that we be a people who glorify God by loving the Christ of Scripture with all of our beings. That we will be a people glorifying God by loving the Christ of Scripture with all of our beings.

3:20And so, yes, we could say this is our vision, but it is a vision that we believe very much is in line with the Word of God and fits with Christ's likeness in you. You know, so often we Protestants are characterized by what we are against. We're the very name Protestant conjures up the idea, yeah, protester, right? And it strikes up the image of an angry mob of protesters. I don't think God's vision is so much for the church that we are known for what we're against, but who we are for. Who are we for? Oh, we're for the Christ of Scripture. Why?

4:09Because we love Him. That's why. Why do we love Him? Because God's Spirit has shone in our hearts, has transformed us, and has given us a love for the Christ of Scripture. And in this way, the Holy Spirit glorifies the triune God. So as we We want to be a people who glorify God by loving the Christ of Scripture with all of our beings. This is what God wanted from Israel from the beginning, right? Hear O Israel, Deuteronomy 6:6, love the Lord your God with what?

4:50All of your heart, with all of your minds, with all of your strength. And how does that come together? Well, comes out as an expression of loving the Christ of Scripture with the totality of your beings. And so, as a church, how do we fit into all of that? Yes, we can see that on an individual level, but it's also true of the corporate level as well. You understand that Protestantism was born out of a love for the Christ of Scripture, and it can only flourish under those same circumstances.

5:26I've often likened the efforts of the early reformers to that of an artist carefully painting an image from a palette of paints. Okay, if you've got a palette and you've got a bunch of different paints, the colors and the textures that the artist chooses and the way he mixes them together really impacts the image that he puts upon the canvas. And the vision of the early reformers was to paint the image of God and his works from the palette of the biblical authors alone.

6:03And it was this scripture-alone palette that was very different, that was being used by the Catholic establishment. That was, in addition to scripture, tradition, and other authorities, and they were painting the picture of Christ and the God of Scripture from these varying sources. While there were some similarities, there were some very significant differences. Because how one views God shapes everything, shapes the world around him and her. And so, these different views of God led to some dramatic changes in Europe as a matter of history that I'm sure you are all aware of. Now, the question becomes: how does loving the Christ of Scripture manifest itself in a local church? So, if we're going to love the Christ of Scripture with all of our beings, what does that look like?

7:09I'd say there are certainly three commitments that are true of anybody that loves Christ of Scripture. Number one, there'll be commitment to biblical truth. Number two, there'll be a commitment to biblical community, and number three, there'll be a commitment to biblical mission. In fact, if you Take out your bulletin. You can see right down on the front of your bulletin, truth, community, mission. And that is what I want to speak on each one of those here in our time this morning. In fact, I realized this morning after looking at this, I'm probably not going to get through all three of them.

7:57So I plan on doing biblical truth and biblical community this morning. And then, Pat, you're going to have to sing that so send I you song, which is right out of Scripture, by the way. You'll have to do that again. But first of all, how does loving the Christ of Scripture manifest itself in this assembly here? And I'm speaking to Manuel Baptist Church so that you can get an idea of who we are, how to connect, what we're about, and why we do the things we do. This will give you an indication or an introduction to why we do the things we do. First, commitment is proclaiming biblical truth, proclaiming biblical truth. And because it is without biblical truth, one cannot know the Christ of Scripture.

8:49And so biblical truth is necessary for knowing the Christ of Scripture. I'm just going to read a little bit of John chapter 17, verses 14 through 12. 20, just to set the context, just to set the thought here. I do not intend to expound this verse by verse today. I will, as we get to John 17, but Jesus says something very significantly. He's praying for his disciples, and he says this in verse 14: I have given them your word. So I have taken that which you told me, Father, to give them, and I have given it to them. And the world has hated them because they are not of this world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of this world, even as I am not of this world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. So separate them, sanctify them, distinguish them in the truth, in the word that I have given them, the truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For their sakes, I sanctify myself that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. And then he shifts gears. Look what he says in verse 20. I do not ask on behalf of these alone. So he's not just praying for his immediate disciples anymore, but for those also who believe in me through their word.

10:22So in other words, now he's praying for all believers, but keep in mind who those believers are. The believers are those. Those who are going to believe in the apostolic testimony of who Christ is. They will believe through their word. That's who I'm praying for. I'm praying for those who know me through the word which they, the immediate disciples, speak to them and ultimately gets written down. That's who he's praying for. That they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they may be one in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. You see, we are connected to Christ through the word. It's the only way we can know the Christ of Scripture is through the words of Scripture.

11:26You see, without biblical truth, one cannot know the Christ of Scripture, so Christ purposed that testimony about Him would be written down, given to us, so that we can connect and know Him. You see, today there are many sources of so-called authority that think they know all about the nature and the work of God, right? There's the colors and textures of religious traditions, of different religious texts. Rationalism, science, philosophy, secularism, even individual relevatory experiences, or the political, the politically correct Christ, right? And what this amounts to is a whole bunch of different palettes out there that starts painting an image of Christ or an image of God. And we must stress, as a church, we must stress to the next generation, we will stress to those here that the Christ of Scripture is not the same as Christ of Scripture and tradition. The Christ of Scripture is not the same as the Christ of Scripture and popular science or the Christ of Scripture and the political correct Christ or those who would assert their personal relevatory experiences in the face of Scripture.

13:05Whatever it may be, it is the only way you can know the Christ of Scripture is through the words of Scripture. And that's who we love. That's who we are for. It's not that we're against being politically correct. That's a good thing sometimes, right? So long as it doesn't hide, shape, dwarf, or morph the Christ of Scripture. Same with science. Same with anything, right? We love the Christ of Scripture. That's who we're about. And we want him to be known.

13:38Because we love him. See, when you abandon Scripture alone, you not only abandon Protestantism, but you abandon any hope of knowing the Christ of Scripture. He is tainted. When you start tainting this picture, when you start forcing the Christ of Scripture into other paradigms, you lose the picture of him altogether. And the false Christs of our times are all alike in one respect. They emerge out of an approach to Scripture that Christ never sanctioned. They don't read their Bibles the way Jesus read his.

14:18And such Christs, they cannot save and they cannot satisfy. And that is why we come. And there's an assembly that loves the Christ of Scripture and proclaims him. You see, loving the Christ of Scripture involves not only a personal routine, but a corporate routine that prioritizes meaningful time and meditation in the scriptures. That's what we're doing this morning. We're meditating. We're thinking through these. If you've been in studies, you've already been studying the word. It's that corporate routine that we keep bringing to mind the things of the scripture. And we talk about the things of God as revealed in the Scriptures.

15:07You see, in fact, tonight, what are we doing? We're having a meeting called Truth and Grace, young people, so that you'll come up here and learn Scripture. That's part of our commitment. We can't know the Christ of Scripture apart from this. So we want to instill at a very early age the thoughts of Scripture. We want to ingrain them in the minds of our young people. So that's why we have Truth and Grace tonight. So come, be part of that. Right? You've already probably been in a Sunday school where we've gone deeper in the Word this morning. We allot a significant amount of time to the exposition of God's Word, to the talking about and expounding on the truths revealed in Scripture. There are many studies throughout the week. There are some that go pretty deep. There's the precepts class. We're going to be doing a men's Bible study. We want to engage the men of the church to be men who engage the word, who are men great in a love for the church, and men who sacrifice on missions. We want men shaped by the word. That's all that's to drill deeper, go deeper. In fact, we have a seminary here, right? And listen, there is so many opportunities for you to go as spend as little time in the word in your corporate routine, or for you to be challenged beyond to the maximum, okay?

16:27We've got a seminary here that. And I want to take a moment just to stress what my commitment to seminary was when I first had the opportunity. Listen, there is a great opportunity for you to go as deep as you want to go in Scripture here. When I was going to seminary, there wasn't all the connected, the ability to pipe in and have the resources brought to me. I had to go to them. And in order for me to get the level of training that I wanted, what I believe some of the best in the land, some of the best in church history, I had to end up going to Los Angeles. And I didn't know how in the world that was going to work. I didn't know how in the world it would pay for it or how it would work out logistically. But I was like, Lord, if you would just open the what if you will open the door, and if you just get me in the realm of possibility, I will do whatever I need to do to make up the difference and I'll get there. I mean, I will just make it possible. And so the Lord did. He brought me to San Diego. Now, that's a long way away from Los Angeles. So I'd have to get up sometimes before 3 o'clock. I'd have to drive a long way to catch a train in order to then catch another, to go up into Los Angeles, catch another train, and then to go out further out of Los Angeles and to Man Eyes and then get somebody to. To pick me up so I could go in to, and that would take four hours. I had to be there by 7:30, so this is what I did all the night. And then on the way back, it wasn't as quick. Sometimes five, six hours to get back home at night, all to sit.

18:18And friends, that is here now. And I really encourage, in fact, I'm kind of surprised that there's not more interest in it. Maybe you don't, but it has been brought close. And what I'm saying is there is, you can go as deep as you want. You can come here as a few times, but whatever time you come here, you're going to find a commitment to biblical truth because you cannot know the Christ of Scripture apart from it. And because we love him, we want those avenues to be accessible to you because you will find him worthy of being loved. And as you get to know him more, you'll find that there is nothing else in this world that even comes close to being worthy of loved like the Christ of Scripture.

19:16In fact, this last week at this music week, this sing conference, and again, I reiterate with Pat, thank you for your commitment to investing in these. People that are leading us in worship. It's exciting to see what's happening. And by the way, we put our music ministry or our worship ministry under the designation of biblical truth. I think that's kind of a strange place to put it. No, it's not, because what we're doing is song is singing biblical truth. We don't want to sing songs that do not come out or do not reflect biblical truth.

19:57They don't go anywhere, right? They don't get off the ground. And so we want to excel in communicating, singing scripture. It's one of the most powerful tools for memory, for knowing Christ of Scripture. But one of the things that was said last week, John MacArthur said it well, and I've heard a lot of people repeat these words to me. John MacArthur said, Your worship cannot go higher than your theology goes deep. Your worship cannot go higher than your theology goes deep. And I would say that the same is true about every other aspect of the church. A ministry will never rise higher than the depth of its theology that undergirds it. If you have a low view of God, that's going to show up in everything we do. And so there is a commitment to going deep to understand, you know, the arts find their ultimate purpose in biblical truth. If you really can get down to it, human expression or human arts were never given for the purpose of running over biblical truth, but they were given to express that biblical truth, and that's the arts being used properly.

21:19The same is true with all ministries, they are to be expressions of love that come out of an understanding of who God is. We see it all around us. I see it in our association, I see it in church in the nations, a growing weakness in the evangelical church. I think we've all seen this. And the question is, why? And I'll submit to you: because we are leaving biblical truth behind and trying to build ministries upon a very shallow and weak theology. And eventually, when you build such ministries upon weak theology or a weak understanding or a shallow, deep, shallow understanding of Christ, people eventually get to be, why bother? Why go?

22:12Think about it this way: suppose you were wanting to pitch a course to the administration at AM, and you said, You know what? I want to have a course over there at AM. It's going to take about 20 minutes of. Lecture a week, and the homework will be about probably less than 10 minutes a day. What do you think the administration at AM would say to you? Talk to me. They'd laugh, right? They'd say, obviously, your material is not substantive enough, substantial enough to warrant even a three-hour class. In fact, that doesn't even warrant a one-hour class. And yet, that is the diet of biblical truth much across this nation and in our church association, in our community. Listen, and I'll get in trouble for this, I know, but short sermons, weak commitment to biblical truth is destroying the church because it's not feeding the sheep.

23:41A church that loves Christ will orient their entire weekly routine around meaningful time in the scripture. We love the Christ of Scripture. And because we do so, there will be a commitment to biblical truth. That is going to be something characteristic of any church that truly loves the God revealed in Scripture. There will be a commitment to scripture. You've heard me say it over. It's obvious. You've heard me say it before. Christianity isn't about great and high truths. It's about simple, fundamental truths being taken deeply into the heart. And you've heard this before. Commitment to biblical truth.

24:46Second, being a people who glorify God by loving the Christ of Scripture with all of our beings shows up not only in proclaiming biblical truth, but in nurturing biblical community. There will be a commitment to biblical community. And it's here where we exalt the Christ of Scripture. Exalt him. Those who love the Christ of Scripture will naturally have an affinity for the community that he cared so much about. He gave his life to establish a community of people. And those who love the Christ of Scripture will love what he loved. It's natural, right? If you're married, you end up loving. Loving the things your spouse loves, or your parents, or whatever. Anytime you really love somebody, you begin to love what they love. And the same is true, certainly is true about Christ. If you love the Christ of Scripture, you will love the community that He gave His life to establish. There are many descriptions of the New Testament that describe this body, this church.

25:59And there are too many to go through in this setting, but there's enough that I could bring to your mind six of them, six descriptions very quickly, in order to give you a sense of what God is doing here, what God's purpose for us assembling here this morning is about and beyond, and for every assembly that we have throughout the week. But first of all, first description of the church is: the church is an assembly. It's an assembly. The basic meaning of the Greek term ecclesia is simply an assembly of people. In Acts chapter 7, verse 38, the term refers to Israel in the wilderness, an assembly of people in the wilderness. In Acts 19:32, it refers to an angry mob at Ephesus. So the church there, the church that tries to string up Paul. I mean, if you really wanted to translate it that way, you don't. It's a mob, right? But the idea is. That it's just an assembly. They just happen to be angry people. In Acts 11, 26, it also describes the assembly of Christians at Antioch. So the term is just a generic, simple expression of an assembly of people.

27:19And it's also important to understand that it's a local assembly of people. I often hear sometimes people suggest, well, I'm a member of the universal church and I'm not a member of a local church. And my response is, okay, when's the last time you met with the universal church? They have never assembled. Ever. And they will. And we look forward to that glorious assembly. But every assembly, we're talking about the church here. It's an assembly. It's local. There's an assembly. It's part of the universal church. But it's an assembly. So it is, at first, at the very basic level, the church is an assembly. Second element is that it's a divine assembly. In fact, let me read to you a portion of Ephesians 1.

28:11Not only is it a divine assembly, but it's an assembly in Christ, and it is described as a faithful assembly. Let me read 1 Corinthians or Ephesians 1, a few verses. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God to the saints who were at Ephesus. The sanctified ones, the called-out ones, the distinct ones who are at Ephesus, who are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him.

28:59So it's a divine assembly, Paul is saying, called out by God, set apart by God. If you believe the truth, if you believe the apostolic words that Jesus envisioned you would believe, you are set apart by those words, sanctified in that truth, called out, and there is a purpose for that to be holy and blameless. And as Romans 8:29, that we looked at last time, that is to be expressed by conforming into the image of the Christ of Scripture.

29:34Holy and blameless. So the church is a divine assembly. It is assembled in Christ, as Paul says, in Christ. You know, fallen man is in Adam. Redeemed man is in Christ. And there's a clash of two personalities there. Two very different. One is fallen. And Adam, fallen, was the father of a race, people. And it included all. Of us, right? And his personality dominates us until we're redeemed. And redeemed man is in Christ. He is the father of a new race, if you put it that way.

30:17And all of its members share his personality. That's what dominates us, is his personality. We're in Christ. We share in his personality. We share in his death. We share in his resurrection. We share in his current sufferings. We share with the glory to come. We are in Christ, this assembly. If you are a believer in Christ, you are in him. And it is God's design to call us together, to meet together, because he is forming Christ's likeness in us, and he has a unique purpose for the church being active and involved in your life, accomplishing that.

31:06And you don't get there outside of it. Other fourth element: the church is a faithful assembly, as Paul mentioned, a faithful assembly. Now, faithfulness involves two concepts: the idea of belief and the idea of fidelity. So, for example, I am. Married to Nancy, my wife. I believe it. I have a ring that she gave me, and it reminds me of our wedding vows. We made a covenant together. We are married, and I believe that, and I act accordingly. That's what faithfulness involves. I believe it, and I act accordingly. And by the way, being a faithful assembly, that was never said about Israel under the old covenant. Never was. They were never called a faithful assembly. But it is said about the church. That is said about the church.

32:08Faithful, those who believe Christ, and those who act accordingly. It is a community whose personality and whose attitude is that of faith and acting on that faith. That's what it means to be part of a faithful assembly. So, all of our corporate actions together are to reflect faithfulness, belief in the Christ of Scripture, and appropriate acts that come out of that. That's why we gather. And that's why, when we come across things that are contrary to that, we shouldn't be involved in it.

32:52Right? And to protect the church from those elements that would challenge that. But the church is also, number five, the family of God. The term Christian, the term brethren, often used to refer to the family. The Christian refers to those belonging to the household of Christ. Like in Acts 11, 26, Romans 8:29 speaks about the brethren, and it refers to the members of one's own tribe, or one's own kin, or countrymen. But they talk about the close relationship among those who are in the church.

33:38So not only is there a love towards the Christ to Scripture, but there is a love towards one another. Because as the Father and the Son and the Spirit love the Redeemed, the Redeemed also love the Redeemed. Spiritually related. Last week, this called the taxi and got this guy from Ethiopia. And he immediately could tell I was a Christian, and he got all excited. He said, We're from the same spirit. We're born. I just came over. He came over a few years back, and he said, I only had $14 in my pocket, and the Lord blessed me. Now I have 41 taxis running around. Great God, great country, right?

34:29But his Point is that we're of the same spirit. Never met the guy before, right? There's an affinity, there is a natural connection because we come from the same place. Sixth description that I want to bring to your attention that really encapsulates all of these, and that's the bride of Christ. The image of the bride of Christ ties all these concepts of belief, fidelity, relationship, and love all into one image. The church has been redeemed to love.

35:04We've experienced redemption in our own hearts. The Spirit of God has poured Himself into our hearts, and we are born from above. And because of that, we have been given the capacity, and I'll say the unique capacity that separates us from all other peoples and all other people groups across the planet. We have been given the unique capacity to behold the beauty of Christ and enjoy Him. Been given a love, a taste, appreciation. Listen, the church is the greatest organization on the planet. There's none like this. There's no more delightful place to be than among the church.

35:56No organization rivals it at all. I had some great times at Texas AM. But my engineering classes, I just wanted to get out of there. It wasn't a place, oh, I want my heart. I just, it feels so good to be talking about all this math and physics. I just, now some of you might be like that, you know, I don't know, but whatever, or my job, you know, the job was always, yes, I appreciate being, I appreciate a good job and I'm thankful for it, but you know, that wasn't the place that my soul just, this is my belonging. No, it was a job, right?

36:34No, there's something very unique about the church. There's no other organization like it. My kids love it. My kids love to be up here. I love to be up here. They love, even when they don't have anything to do, I just want to go with you to the church, just to be up there at the church. There's something special about the place, even, where the people of God meet. It's a unique organization. It's a divine organization. And it's an assembly. It's a family. It's a bride. It's purposed by God in Christ.

37:12It's his delight, as he says in 1 Peter 2:9, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. This is where God likes to be. So that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous right. Light. You know, the first thing that ever drew me to Christ was being among his people. I think if any of you will go back and start looking at your life, you'll start seeing how the people of God and the assembly of God was what God used to proclaim the word of God that changed and drew you to him.

37:53It's a special place, the church of God. Nurturing the community of faith here is a very, very precious thing, and it's an expression of love. And it's something we're all called to do. Well, as I said, there is a natural love for physical brothers and sisters. We know that. Something special about physical brothers and sisters. But there is something that is a supernatural love for the family of God that is born by God Himself in the people, in His people, by the Holy Spirit, so that we can appreciate the things of God.

38:38And this is what's unique about the church. It is the community comprised of people whom God has given the ability to behold and delight in the beauty of Christ. The church, and only the church, has experienced a joy that can only be celebrated amongst themselves. No one else gets it. But if you have been redeemed, if you have, if the light of God has shone in your soul, you know what I'm talking about. You must share it.

39:13In fact, when I had just come to Christ, I was so excited about the gospel. I went back to my hometown in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and my dad had a bread route. Some of you may have heard this story, and I had to get up early and deliver bread to all the different restaurants and stores all around. So I would get up really early in the morning, 2:30, whatever, and I would get out and I would work. Well, the nice thing is that I'd always see these sunrises, these epic sunrises coming over this mountain range called the Sangre de Cristos. And it always started out with the deep purples, and then it went to the reds, and then it turned to the yellows, and then these gold. And it was just beautiful, some of the most beautiful place on earth, seeing these sunrises. But you know something? God had given me a capacity, and this is something special. He gave me a capacity to enjoy the beauty and not just enjoy the beauty of a sunset. He gives all of humanity in his common grace the ability to enjoy a beautiful sunset. But I was able to enjoy the God behind the sunrise because he had done a special work. And that's why he puts Christ on display. To those who can enjoy, and if you have a taste for Christ, and you have been given the church, only the church has been given this capacity to behold and delight in the beauty of Christ. One morning as I was making my rounds, there was this glorious sunrise coming up over the Sangre de Cristos, and I just would run into the store, deliver the bread, and come back out so I could get the next phase of it. And I was doing this through my just watching, just amazed at the glory of God that's being told in the heavens. And I got to this one restaurant where one of the foulest-mouthed, darkest individuals worked. And he had, he was a stubborn, foul, cantankerous old goat, if there ever was one. And the sunrise was at its glory and peak, and I just went into this dark little kitchen. He's over there with his eggs and his bacon, and he's over there cooking.

41:39And I said, Frank, you've got to come out here and see this. The glory of God is all over the sky. He's like, it's ugly. It's really ugly. I said, Frank, you need to get away from that stove. But it was just a shutdown. I don't want to hear about God. I don't want to hear about the glory. He had no capacity to share that moment with me. No capacity at all. And that was just a sunrise.

42:11Same is true with the beauty of Christ. There is no one that's going to share your celebration, the beauty of Christ, than those who assemble with you who have experienced the same. That's what biblical community, we meet together and we have this unique privilege of celebrating and exalting the Christ of Scripture. And he shows us his beauty, and in our corporate gatherings, we celebrate that beauty and transformed into that beauty as we worship that beauty. Well, I had another point today.

43:04Biblical missions. It's sufficient today to say that we want to be a people who glorify God by loving the Christ of Scripture with all of our beings. We do this by proclaiming biblical truth so that we can know the Christ of Scripture. We do this so that, and we express this love by nurturing biblical community so that we can exalt. The Christ of Scripture together. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we proclaim you because we love you. We meet together because we exalt you. And Father, as we do, we proclaim that anybody can come if they will come.

43:59And so we ask you this morning to turn hearts to you. Draw people to yourself. And there are some of you here today that need to make an expression of faith. God is looking for an expression of faith. That may be confessing your sin and asking Christ to come into your heart. It may be whatever the Lord has. There are many expressions of faith, but you need to call upon Christ today. And if that be you this morning, call upon him. Say, I want to know your beauty. I want to know your glory. Show me.

44:42Father, thank you for the assembly of this body. May you be exalted here today as we go on with our fellowshipping and our reflection upon your word and fellowship around the tables. Father, thank you and be with us in Jesus' name. Amen.