The Local Church 5 - Part 5

These women with head coverings on, you know, mantillas on their head. And on the way home, the kid said to her mother, what was that? Why did all those women have head coverings on their head? And she said, she said, don't even think about it. She said, we'll never be back.

So they went back home. That was it. You know, they were going to hold people at arm's length.

They weren't going to become deeply involved in anything like that. Well, the next Sunday, her husband said to her, are you ready? And she said, ready for what? He said, ready to go. She said, ready to go where? He said, ready to go to the chapel.

She said, ready to go to the chapel? He said, yes. She said, am I supposed to wear one of those things on my head? And he said, yes, I think so. And they went back that Sunday and they were invited out to dinner.

And for 22 times in the months to follow, they were invited out to dinner. She said, we had attended churches for years. We had never been invited out to dinner.

I said to the kids, don't worry, we'll never be back. She said, we never left. The importance of showing hospitality.

And then, of course, the responsibility of sharing in the work in the local chapel, cleaning, repairing, and submitting to the leadership of the elders. Now, just some closing thoughts in connection with assembly life. Try to look at other Christians the way Jesus does.

That's not easy, is it? It's really not easy. But that's the way we should do it. But try to look at other believers the way the Lord Jesus does.

Avoid a critical spirit. I don't know anything that's more detrimental to the spiritual life of an assembly synapart than a critical spirit. Some of us feel that we really have a talent for criticism.

Well, that's one talent the Lord wouldn't mind you burying. It's a good thing to recognize the difference between matters that are fundamental, that are important, and that are secondary and peripheral. There are some things that are fundamental.

We went over that previously. They're the basic truths of the Christian faith. There's no compromise with those.

There are other things that are important because the Bible teaches on them. But there's a difference of opinion among Christians in the interpretation of them. I think in a case like that, the assembly should adopt a position on those issues.

And then when you come into fellowship in that assembly, you can believe differently, but you mustn't push it publicly or privately. That keeps peace in the assemblies. And then there's other matters that are peripheral.

There are matters that God doesn't care about. God doesn't care whether you're a vegetarian. He really doesn't.

He's not too concerned whether you use leavened bread or unleavened bread or grape juice or fermented wine. He leaves that, many of these things, to the local assembly to work out. Again, I say what I suggested before.

Get convictions for yourself. What your parents believed about the truth should not be enough for you. Get your own convictions from the Word of God.

Maybe that could come out of our meetings here, where you go to the Word of God and see it written in the Word of God. And if you see it written, when you get those convictions, stick to them. An old man, Alfred May, said that to me years ago.

He said, Bill, when you get scriptural convictions, stick to them. And I have sought to do that. I would also say this.

No man's gift is too big for God's principles. I might be in a little nondescript assembly, and I might think, My gift is really too big for this type of thing. I should seek a wider sphere of influence and leave the principles and just go off to where I'd reach a bigger audience.

No man's gift is too big for God's principles. Stick to the principles and let the Lord lead you. I think it's interesting that when other people have abandoned something, we discover it.

And when people discover something wonderful that we have, we abandon it. That's been going on. I thank God for the great truths of the New Testament assembly.

And it's strange to see people abandoning those truths for something less. At the same time, others are coming to see them. I read you all of those quotations from clerics who say, Look, this is the New Testament way, where the gifts are given for the perfect.

Get the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. And just let me repeat what I've said several times already. Remember that just following the pattern is not enough.

We want to have the right pattern based upon the Word of God, but we want to have the spiritual power that is necessary to go with it. I believe the Spirit of God is moving in a special way in our days, in connection with the whole subject of assembly planting. God seldom reforms a movement.

He begins something new. I want to be involved in God's work of beginning something new in the United States. The same principles, but a fresh display of those principles.

I believe God is doing that. He's doing it in Little Rock, Arkansas. He's doing it in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Hopefully he'll be doing it in this area as well, in more than one place as well. It's in the air, friends. Let's be part of it.

Shall we pray? Father, we thank you for these times when we can be together, when we can sit at the feet of Jesus and hear the voice of the tender shepherd through the Word of God. We're reminded of how precious the Church is to you, and we want it to be precious to us as well. Help us to be more faithful, we pray.

Help us to be more committed. Help us to be the men and women of God that you would have us to be. Make these truths real in our lives and through our lives to others as well.

We pray in the Savior's worthy and precious name. Amen.