Together in the Christian Life – Dr. Charles Stanley

Dr. Stanley shares the importance of being an active part of the church. Everyone who wants to maintain a growing relationship with Jesus Christ needs to be committed to a local body of believers. If we do so, our lives will never be the same.

Our man who simp is studying the scriptures to find out if this is true, if that’s true, he can miss the whole point.
When a man is studying the word of god and being sustained by as a disciple, he moves to a point of obedience.
A true disciple is searching the word of god for the principles of god to make application in his life that he might become more like god.
In touch, the teaching ministry of Doctor Charles Stanley, reaching the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Next on in touch, together in the Christian life.
Many professing Christians say that they don’t really truly need to be a part of a church because they can live their Christian life fund without a church.
In fact, they will even tell you that, uh, their churches that have conflict with each other, which we understand.
They’ll say that there are many people in the churches who have conflict with one another.
And they’ll even tell you that, um, they know some people who are professing Christians, and what they say is not the way they live.
Now we would not deny any of that. That all of those things are true.
And I do understand why people sometimes on the outside, look in and say, well, you know what?
I think I can do just as well without you all.
Well, I can understand why you would say that, but what you have to ask is this.
What is the opinion of almighty god about his church? We can be critical of it.
We can see our false in our fallacies. And and we understand that.
In fact, if you’ll think through it, in the new testament, most of the epistles deal with problems in the church.
When you look at the 1st Corinthians, for example, 2nd Corinthians and all the problems that the church was having and difficulty this is going on.
So much of what Paul wrote was trying to help them straighten that out.
But does that mean that the church is no longer important?
Does it mean that it’s not important that you and I be a part of a fellowship?
Well, it’s one thing to say, well, I think I can live the Christian life just as good as anybody else and not have a relationship with the church.
Well, I understand you saying that, but let me ask you a question. Is that the will of god?
You may say, well, for me, it’s the will of god.
Well, is that what the word of god says?
Well, I don’t know about that part, but I just know that I can live it without the church.
Well, let me ask you this. What’s the implication of that?
If you can live without the church, what’s the implication?
So I wanna ask two questions in this message, and I want you to think soberly about them.
Now I wanna say it right up front, I realize There are people who cannot go to church because of health reasons.
They would if they could, but they literally can’t understand that.
There are some people who live in distant places where the church is not anywhere close by.
Understand that. There are some people who live in Little towns or big towns, whatever it might be, and they can’t find the church that’s preaching the truth of the word of god.
And they know the difference. I understand that.
That does not mean that the church is not important or that they shouldn’t belong if at all possible.
I just wanna ask two questions.
And if you’re one of those persons who goes to the church, final, maybe if you don’t, I’m not questioning your salvation.
I want you to think about these two questions.
So I want you to turn, if you will, to the 10th chapter of Hebrews And I wanna begin reading in this 19th verse.
And, uh, I’ll just sort of explain these verses as we go along for a moment before we come to the heart of the message.
Beginning in verse 19 of Hebrews chapter 10.
The writer says, therefore, brethren, since we have confidence, to enter the holy place for the blood of Jesus.
And what he’s referring to here is the fact of our presence that is we can live and walk in the presence of god today.
And whereas in the old testament, there was a veils and so forth and in a part of the temple.
He says, therefore, since we have confidence, the end of the holy place, but the blood of Jesus, that is in his presence by his blood at the cross, by a new and living way, which he inaugurated for us through the veil, that is his flesh, that is when he died on the cross, The veil was rent from top to bottom and open the way so that anyone can come to god through his son, Jesus Christ.
And since we have a great priest over the house of god, which is Jesus, let us draw near with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with a pure water.
That is we have been sanctified. Then he says, let us hold fast. Let us take a firm grip.
Let us hold fast a confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful.
That is our hope is our strong anticipation.
That god will fulfill his promise because it’s his nature to do so.
And let us consider how to stimulate one another, to love and good deeds.
Not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another And all the wars you see the day drawing near.
And what he was simply saying here is the they could probably foresee what was happening because in 70 AD Titus, the Roman General came and destroyed the temple, or the fact that the judgment of god might be closed by.
So what I want you to see is this, this 25th verse is the strongest verse in the new testament concerning the assembling of Christians together.
For worship, for instruction, for encouragement, and for good works. The strongest verse in the new testament.
And notice what he says, not forsaking our own assembling together, which was exactly what was beginning to happen in some places.
And so the right of Hebrews say, Listen. Wait a minute.
You need to stop and think about what you’re doing by straying away from the church.
So what I’d like to ask is this.
If a person can live a good Christian life, walking in obedience to god, and do his will, and accomplish his purpose in their life alone, apart from the church, then So why did Jesus establish the church?
And the scripture says in the Matthew Matthew chapter 16, very clearly, the scripture says that Jesus said speaking the the to his disciples.
He asked them. He said, now who do people say that I am?
Peter said, thou wan to Christ the son of the living god.
And Jesus replied by saying to him, uh, Peter, you’re right.
And he says upon this rock, I will build my church.
Now you don’t build the body of Christ on a man.
You build the body of Christ on the son of god.
Thou art the Christ, the son of the living god.
And so Jesus was saying upon upon this foundation, what foundation that foundation that Jesus is the Messiah.
He’s the son of god. He’s the savior of the world, man’s only hope.
Upon this truth, he says, I will build my church.
And if you’ll think about it, that is what the church has been built upon, the person of Jesus Christ.
So what I want us to think about here is this.
If Jesus said that I’m establishing my church and the gates of hell will not be able to prevail over the church.
And you and I have seen over over time in history.
All kind of isms have come and gone, and the church is still here and growing by leaps and bounds all over the world.
Why? Because it’s his church, it’s not a denomination. In fact, god did not establish denominations.
So people say, well, I don’t they’re so it’s so confusing, David, all these denominations. Forget that.
Find you in church that teaching and preaching the word of god. It’s not denominations.
And so Whatever those excuses may be, ask yourself this question.
That is, um, if Jesus said, and he says this in the 12th chapter of Romans, that The church is the body of Christ.
That is when he left and ascended, he left his followers as his physical living body.
We are the body of Christ.
That is it’s our hands now through which he works, our eyes through which he sees, our ears through which he hears, and it’s our life through which he works.
We are his body. This is the church.
So when I’m talking about church, I’m not only talking about the large corporate body of believers all over the world, whether they’re Chinese Japanese Germans, Americans, Americans, or Brazilians, or whatever it might be.
But there’s also local churches. And if you look in the book of Galatians and colossians and and ephesians, you know, these were local assemblies.
And so Uh, if a person can be a good Christian, live a godly life, fulfill god’s purpose in their life, and understand the things of the word of god and, uh, do all of that with ever no assembling with other people Then and then my question is what’s the implication of that?
That is if the church is not employed a local autonomous body of of believers, assembling together to worship and to be inspired and motivated and instructed and to do the work of the lord If that’s not necessary, what’s the implication?
Here’s the first implication. That simply is that Jesus made a big mistake.
He made a mistake by saying, I will establish my church if it’s not important.
That is if if if we can go it alone in the Christian life, and every single person do whatever they do individually without any relationship to any other Christian, then Jesus made a big mistake.
Because look at all the time we spend.
I look at all the resources we spend at all of our efforts to get the gospel all over the world.
That is if we can do it alone, why this whole idea of the church.
It would mean that the assembling of ourselves together on Sunday morning would be absolutely unnecessary.
And so why do people do that?
Of course, uh, we would be saying that Christians don’t need each other.
We can grow spiritually on our own without any relationships. And think about this.
The Christian life is all about relationships. My relationship to him, my relationship to others.
Your Christian life is is your relationship to him, but it’s also your relationship to others.
And I wanna show you why that’s so true here.
And so every believer would be expected to be interpreting the word of god according to their own personal view.
In other words, the implications of being able to live a god led life and do the will of god in your life fulfill his purpose in your life Without having any relationship to a local body of believers, the implication is somebody made a big mistake.
And it was Jesus because it wasn’t necessary. But on the other hand, let’s ask ourselves the question.
Why Did he establish the church?
I know it’s divided into denominations and all that kind of thing, but you don’t have to let that bother you.
You have to choose to belong to a body of people with whom you can relate, who believe is you believe, and who are teaching the truth of god’s word that will give you guidance and direction for your life, strength, and help in times of difficulty in hardship and suffering and sorrow, which all of us need in our life many times.
So without all of that, what kind of life are you gonna live? Think about this again.
What do you do on Sunday morning? What kind of relationships do you really have?
What kind of spiritual relationships do you have? You’re gonna live and you’re gonna die.
One of these days, you’re gonna stand before the lord can give an account for your life.
And will you say to him?
I know I should have loaned a church, but I just know you’re not gonna say that.
So the question is this, what is god’s purpose for saying for sake, not the assembling of yourselves together.
That is we are to assemble ourselves together. We are to worship as a body.
Well, look at what the church does.
For example, the first thing we are to do, and that is we we meet together and we worship.
So what do we do by worship?
Well, we sing and we praise the lord and give him thanks for the good things that he’s done for us.
We pray and recall his blessings in our life make our request.
We give of our finances and obedience to him. And so and what do we do?
We fellowship with each other. A second thing is this.
And that is he wanted us to assemble together because he wants us to have instruction in the word of god.
Now listen, uh, 2 verses carefully.
Go back to 2nd Timothy, uh, chapter 2 for a moment and, uh, look at this passage.
Second Timothy too, and Paul’s writing to, uh, he’s writing to Young Timothy and giving him, uh, some, uh, uh, instruction He says in this 15 first of second limited to you, listen.
He says be diligent to present yourselves approved to god uh, as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.
Let me ask you a question. Without any biblical instruction in your life, how much truth would you know?
If he was just left up to you to read the Bible and figure it out.
Now do you say, well, does that mean that, we can’t, uh, study the word of god without having a pastor.
No. I’m not saying that. I’m simply saying this, that the word of god says that I’m we we’re responsible for reading and studying and praying of the scripture and interpreting properly.
Now here’s what gets people in trouble.
What gets people in trouble is they find them a passage they like And so they they go after that one.
They say, here’s what I believe.
Well, see, that’s the way denominations start, and that’s the way groups start and cult start.
And people they pick and choose. This listen.
This is the only way to properly, honestly, genuinely interpret the word of god.
Are you listening, say, man? And that is you compare scripture with scripture.
Not scripture with my opinion, not scripture with what I want, not scripture with what I don’t like, but what, in other words, there are no contradictions in the word of god.
You can study for a 1000 years, and god still be talking. But here’s the warning.
And then I want you to look at this passage.
In the 4th chapter of 2nd of 2nd Timothy, and the, uh, first few verses.
He’ll listen to what he said to Timothy.
He says, I charge you in the presence of god and Jesus Christ, who is the judge of the living and the dead.
And by the appearing of his kingdom, preach the word, be ready and seasonality of season, approve, rebuke, Exort with great patience and instruction.
Now watch this. He says, this is what I want you to do in the church.
For this reason, watch this. The 3rd verse. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.
But wanting to have their ears tickled, They will accumulate for themselves, teachers, in accordance to their own desires, and turn away there is from the truth and will turn aside the myths.
One of the reasons that people get in trouble, what they believe is because they they listen to false doctrine.
Now notice what he says. He says the time will come when they will not endure it.
They they don’t want the truth. They don’t want the truth.
They want something that tickles their ears, which is what he was saying is they want something that that, uh, they want to hear.
When it comes to the purpose of the church, it’s not only worship and instruction.
It’s it’s doing something you cannot do alone. Think about this.
He says the great commission involves all of us.
Go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature.
He’s given us the commission to evangelize the world. We cannot do that singularly.
We do it together.
And so did Jesus make a mistake when he said I I’m establishing the church? No. He did not.
Now one of the primary reasons he established the church is this passage of scripture that, uh, I want us to think about here for a moment.
Looking second Timothy, uh, chapter 4 again, if you will. And I’ll look at this third verse.
Because he says, well, the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled they will accumulate for themselves, teachers in accordance to their own desires.
Now watch this and will turn away there is from the truth and will turn aside demths.
What’s the purpose of the church? To protect us, to protect us from being what?
From being swayed and pulled away from almighty god himself because here’s what I watched.
And any pastor will tell you this.
When people who are Christians church members, for example, uh, when they stop coming to church, That is when when they, uh, cease to come to church before long and when you go looking for them, here’s what you find.
They not they not only have, uh, drifted away from church. They drift away from god. Listen.
Think about all the sounds you hear, all the ideas you hear, all the implication in other words, all the temptations, all the things that are just bombarding you continually day after day after day.
Sitting and watching television, listening to radio, the counter music, and the counter programs, What is it that keeps you straight?
It’s this relationship. It’s, in other words, god created the church.
Not only for instruction and worship and the rent and evangelizing the world, but also for our protection, we need one another.
And I can say to you, my friend, if you do not go to church, if you have no relationship to a church, you need to be in a body of believers with whom you agree.
That you believe that are consistent with the word of god.
Then what about this whole idea of your spiritual gifts? He’s given some the gift of organization.
He’s given some the gift of exhortation, some mercy, and, uh, some giving, and some, uh, uh, prophecy.
And all the spiritual gifts god has given us. He doesn’t give us those gifts just to exercise on ourselves.
For example, my gift is is, uh, of subtle mix shift prophecy and exploitation.
So what am I gonna do? Stay in front of me and talk to myself.
Well, George, you ought to shape up? No.
What we for example, do you have the gift of organization after you organize your house?
What are you gonna do? Now I’ve been in some homes.
I don’t think anybody had the gift of organization, but that’s okay.
What I want you to see is this.
God has given every single one of his children a spiritual gift, and it is to be exercised among the body of Christ.
He’s gifted you for that. Not for yourself, but to give it away.
Then of course, one of his primary reasons for the church is watch this. Watch this carefully.
We all need one another.
Now over 25 times in the new testament, Paul talks about our relationship to one another.
So I’m just gonna read you a few of them. Listen to what he says.
He says, We are to, 1st of all, love one another, build up each other, forgive one another.
Accept one another. Encourage each other. Serve one another. Be patient with one another. Kind of each other.
Devoted to each other, admonishing each other, comforting one another, stimulating one another, confessing to one another, fellow shipping with one another.
The church is all about relationship.
And so when he says, forsake not the assembly of yourselves together, What he was doing?
He was admonishing us to be wise.
About how we live our life and relationship to him and our relationship to each other and the impact all of us together can have on the world.
I think about someone, for example, uh, who can only give maybe a couple of bucks a week or something like that.
Maybe that’s all they that’s all they have.
Uh, somebody else who can give Moa, it’s not all about money because he uses all of us.
I think about people who pray and pray diligently daily. It’s what we do.
Whenever you have the lone ranger idea, you have a non biblical idea.
You’re just every single one of us equally important in the eyes of god.
It’s just that he gives us different relationships and different things.
So when somebody says, well, I can do just as good without the church.
I want to tell you, no, you can’t.
First of all, the implication is that Jesus made a mistake.
Church is not necessary, which means that god made a mistake.
And that, um, uh, all this church business is not necessary.
You just haven’t thought about what we do.
And the reason you’re able to hear the truth is because a group of us got together and said, we want people to hear it who can’t hear it.
And we’re giving our money and our time and our resources and our life and our energy, all of us together.
So that you can hear the truth.
And my desire for you is that you be wise enough to realize you have a responsibility before almighty god to assemble with other believers, whomever you choose, to worship him, and encourage each other.
And be instructed in the truth of the word of god and carry out the work that god has called you to do as a member of his fellowship.