Acts chapter 7, verse number 37.
Acts 7, 37.
This is that, Moses, which said unto the
children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord
your God raise up unto you of your
brethren, like unto me.
Him shall ye hear.
Verse 38 reads, This is he that was
in the church in the wilderness with the
angel which spoke to him in the Mount
Sinai.
And with our fathers who received the lively
oracles to give unto us.
We realize today that there is a great
mystery in the Word of God about the
relationship of God Almighty, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the blessed Holy Spirit, and the local church.
I do not understand many things about God's
mystery relationship.
The more I study and the more I
try to seek His face, the more I
realize how little I know about this powerful
element, the local church.
But God's plan and purpose apparently was that
in every community around the world, there would
be a local church.
It doesn't matter what continent.
It doesn't matter how big the city or
how small the village.
God had a plan that in every community
there would be a group of believers that
would meet together, Bible believers, and they would
follow the commandments and the tenets of the
Scriptures and they would be living epistles to
their day and to their generation.
I was intrigued by the phrase that I
read to you out of the book of
Acts about the church in the wilderness.
Because today we dedicate a local church.
We set aside a piece of real estate.
There's absolutely nothing holy about this building.
There's not a holy chair and a holy
piece of carpet and a holy light bulb.
The church is the believer.
The church is the people.
That is the church.
The building is but a tool.
And we must understand that anything that is
alive is growing and changing.
And if we're alive in the Lord Jesus
Christ, then we should be maturing as Bible
believers and we should be changing to be
like Him.
The Bible teaches that we are to be
conformed to His image.
It's God's plan that there would be salt
in Asheville, North Carolina.
There would be light.
Thankfully, we are a blessed community and we
are not the only local church.
We have many sister churches all across the
city and the county and the state.
It's not like this in every community in
America.
It's not like this in every state in
America.
But in the South, in the Bible Belt,
we are blessed.
And many times I feel like we have
a greater responsibility in the South in particular
because we have more knowledge about the presence
and the power of God than many communities.
My grandfather loved the Lord.
My father loved the Lord.
My children loved the Lord.
My grandchildren loved the Lord.
A heritage.
And many of you have been blessed with
multiple generations of growing up in a local
church and understanding the things of God and
the responsibilities that we have that once a
week we gather in a building on Sunday
to make some sense and purpose out of
life.
Why are we here and what is our
assignment?
In every community today that has a Bible
believer, they will be meeting to study the
Word of God.
They will be singing hymns of praise.
And if you look at passages like Matthew
chapter 18 and verse 17, you'll see that
the church was the instrument, the source of
order and instruction for morals and values.
If we remove the church and its light
and salt, then we produce a society with
no morals and no values and ultimately no
conscience, no caring and no compassion.
In Ephesians chapter 5, if you want to
turn with me to the book of Ephesians
chapter 5, notice what the Word of God
says in verse 25.
Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also
loved the church.
And then don't you love that phrase, and
gave himself for it.
If you read on into verse 26, it
says that he might sanctify and cleanse it
with the washing of water by the Word.
That he might sanctify what?
That he might sanctify the church.
And that he might cleanse it.
Cleanse what?
The church.
And that he might, how is he going
to perform that cleansing and that sanctifying?
By the washing of water, an illustration of
scrubbing and getting the dirt out and the
soil out.
And how is he going to scrub the
church, wash the church?
How is that going to be happening?
It's going to be by the written, inerrant,
infallible Word of God.
It's the living Word that cleanses me and
changes me and helps me with my daily
life.
It is the practical part of going to
church.
I meet here on Sunday and I receive
instruction, I receive help, I receive comfort, I
receive into my heart the very desires to
go on and serve in this life because
I've been washed by the Word of the
Lord.
We need to understand today that many of
the churches and religions in America are in
a transition.
We've got to understand that God has given
us a great and sober responsibility.
That even though we might be using the
latest technology, maybe our program is today live
around the world on broadband, live streaming video,
yes we're on television, yes we're on a
radio network, and yes we have great ability
and technology even in our worship hour and
our services, but that does not change the
heritage that God has given to us as
a church, that we are attached to the
Word of God.
And that with all of our heart and
all of our faith, we should determine today
that by the help and grace of God,
we will stand with the very faith of
our fathers that God is to this day.
And that we would determine there will be
another generation that will rise up and call
Him holy and say, by the help of
God, I will serve the Lord with my
heart and with my faith.
And that our children will hear moms and
dads and grandmothers and grandfathers say, there is
a reason to get out of bed in
the morning, there is a reason to go
to work, there is a reason to be
a responsible citizen in this community, is because
God called us to be salt and light
to this day and to this generation.
A concern that I have is that we
need to get to the point of understanding
when we realize that a crowd is not
necessarily a church, that we understand that people
in large numbers does not make a church,
but we need to see an intense group
of people that are devoted and are determined
that they're going to serve God and be
true to the faith of their fathers.
And they're going to be investing their life
in others.
It's not the number that we need, it's
the work and the heart that we need.
It's not filling the auditorium we're after, it's
filling the heart with the presence and the
power of God that we're after.
And we ought to make that a vow
today, to understand church is just not a
crowd.
We need to know it's a relationship with
the Lord God Almighty.
I talked to you in that opening scripture
out of the book of Acts about a
church in the wilderness and I thought early
this morning as I was up praying for
you and our services and all that would
participate, I thought about Hurricane Stan and the
devastation that was taking place in Central America,
Mexico being devastated with floods, Guatemala, they said
one fishing village, one report said 200 in
the village, another report said 800 in the
village, but said with the torrential rains that
the whole village just slid off the mountain
and every soul in the village died.
Mayan Indians perished there in Guatemala.
A whole community disappeared a few hours ago.
Hundreds dead in Central America.
190,000 square miles of our own nation
devastated with back-to-back storms of unbelievable
proportion.
Hundreds have died and lost their lives.
Thousands of people today have no place to
call home.
And I'm not talking about a third world
country.
I'm talking about the United States of America.
I'm talking about citizens in Louisiana and Mississippi
and Alabama that are still living in tents
today, still have no electricity, will still open
a can of cold food and that will
be their meal.
And we're sitting on a padded pew in
a beautiful air-conditioned building and the building
next door is stacked to the ceiling with
food and cakes and pastries and we're going
to have a celebration, but not all of
America will be in at our table today.
I thought about that church in the wilderness.
I thought about Central America.
I thought about our Gulf Coast.
I thought about the relationship while we're here
enjoying it.
We have young men and women in Iraq
in the military that are literally giving their
lives every single day that another group of
people can have religious freedom and freedom of
heart and freedom of spirit, that they can
have a life for their children.
Those men and women of courage and commitment.
I think one of our own is home
today from the Marine Corps.
Where is Lorena?
Where are you?
Raise your hand.
Stand up, would you?
There she is from the Marine Corps.
We're glad you're home.
Honoring those that have served.
I thought about that church in the wilderness.
I thought about North Korea and its nuclear
threat.
I thought about Iran and its bold threats.
I thought about the acclamations that have been
made, the statements that have been coming out
the last 48 hours from Al-Qaeda.
The threat of New York City and 19
bombers that they say are available for the
subway system there where 4 million people ride
the subways every single day.
I thought about the avian bird flu that
has already stricken several Pacific Rim nations.
But now, all of a sudden, they're saying
that we're on the threat of a pandemic.
Not an epidemic, but a worldwide epidemic.
You see, in the last seven days, there's
been an outbreak of bird flu in Indonesia.
A four-year-old boy has been diagnosed.
In Turkey, yesterday, 1,800 birds died with
the bird flu.
Romania, they've isolated and quarantined three villages because
of the duck population has bird flu.
Our own CDC in Atlanta said that when,
they didn't say if, they said when the
bird flu comes to the United States, it
says that we will lose between 200,000
and 2 million of our citizens.
They will die with the power of this
flu.
They say it will equate itself with the
great flu pandemic of 1918.
They say that worldwide we could see 200
million people die.
I thought about a church in the wilderness.
You say, well, pastor, what are you talking
about?
I'm telling you this is a very troubled
old world.
I'm telling you there are problems around the
globe, but I don't have to go around
the world to find problems.
I can go right out the door of
this building.
I can look inside this building and there's
heartache and there's trouble and there's problems and
there's death and there's dying and there's sorrow.
There's broken homes and broken lives and broken
dreams.
What's the hope?
The only hope you have is a church
in the wilderness.
A place where you can call home.
A place of refuge from the storm.
A place where your children can find out
when there seems to be no hope and
no way out, you've got a God that
can invade that hopeless situation.
When you can look down that long, dusty
road and have no hope and no help,
you can see a miracle coming up the
road because it is the Lamb of God,
the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords,
our Kinsman Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, the
very present help in the time of storm,
the shelter in the midst of this chaos,
the One that provides the rock, an anchor,
a place of refuge.
Are you not grateful for God's mysterious relationship?
The church.
Ephesians 5, 27.
This is a powerful scripture.
He said that He might present it, what?
The church to Himself.
A glorious church.
Not having a spot or wrinkle or any
such thing, but that it should be holy
and without blemish.
What kind of church?
A glorious church.
Not having a spot.
God said, I want to work with you
as individual Bible believers and I want you
to have a place to come together and
study the Word and know the Word and
to train your children and have help for
your marriage and your hope for the future
and the way we'll do that is we
come together at church and while we're there,
we'll work on not having a spot on
the church.
What is that spot?
A spot of ego.
A spot of pride.
A spot of bitterness.
A spot of envy.
A spot of anger.
A spot of criticism.
A spot of cynicism.
A spot of blame.
A spot of a grudge.
All of those things that mar the life
of anyone that's supposed to be walking like
Christ.
I ought to go to church and say,
God, You get my garment ready to meet
You.
Take out the spots.
That the wrinkles will be removed.
The wrinkle of relationships.
The wrinkle of not being right with God.
The wrinkle in our marriages.
The wrinkles that we have in our relationship
with our children, our friends.
God said, I want to heal your home,
your family.
I want to take the past and put
it under my marvelous power of forgiveness and
let you start afresh and anew.
Church is the only place you can start
over.
Church is the only place that will give
you hope in a hopeless situation.
It's the love of God and the forgiving
power of the Lord Jesus Christ that makes
the church so special.
What matters in this world but God and
each other?
The things in life that matter, we quickly
discover, are not even things at all.
That's what we find out.
In France, the vineyards of France, they have
a different concept in raising the grapes than
they do the vineyards of California.
In California, they're big on irrigation.
They have all kinds of irrigation systems through
the vineyards there in California.
And therefore, if it's not raining every day
or every other day, they irrigate the vines.
But in France, they have a different concept,
the vendors there.
They have a different philosophy.
They found out that if they irrigated, that
the root system of the vine stayed on
the surface.
But if they don't irrigate, that the vine
keeps putting down a root, a taproot, and
it keeps going deeper and deeper and deeper
and deeper until it hits groundwater.
And then there may be a time when
the vines will not be as productive.
You could have an off-season during a
drought, but you will not have a vine
dying because of the drought, because it has
grown to the groundwater and has a taproot.
And what we're asking God to do for
all of us is when we go to
church, we're in a dry and a barren
land.
And God, I know that I cannot survive
on my own, but I'm going to step
out on Your promises.
And I don't have an irrigation to go
with me to work or to school or
the university.
I can't go to the office.
I can't go into the courthouse and have
someone hold my hand.
But I do have a taproot that goes
down deep, goes down deeper than my emotions
or my feelings or my friends or my
family.
A taproot of knowing, peace of mind, heart
assurance, that the taproot of my soul is
wrapped around the spring water of life itself,
the eternal surging artisan well of the presence
and power of God, where I know that
my heart has been established and my comings
and goings are established in the Word of
God and in the fellowship of God.
Therefore, I can go forth to serve in
the church and not with a pat on
the back or my name in the bulletin
many times behind the scenes because I belong
to the King and my taproot is wrapped
around the rock of ages.
I'm in love with Jesus.
Someone asked me the other day, they were
mystified, they said, how in the world, what
is your program?
What do you do at Trinity?
You have so many volunteers, thousands of hours
every week.
How do you get people so motivated?
What system do you teach?
And I said, it's very, very simple.
I said, we have a small handbook called
the Inerrant, Infallible Word of God and we
found out that when we fall in love
with Him that we do love Him so
much that if we spent every single day
doing something for Him, we could never repay
Him for what He's done for us.
I said, we do not have merit badges.
We do not have brownie points.
You don't have to work or volunteer, pray
so many hours to go to heaven.
I said, we just found a bunch of
old bad people that were messed up in
sin, drugs and alcohol out in the world,
had no hope and had no future and
introduced them to the loving, changing power of
the Lord Jesus Christ and all things passed
away, all things became new and they wanted
to be a part of a new way
of living and loving.
They determined they wanted to invest their lives
in letting other people know it's more than
attending a church.
It's more than sitting on a pew.
It's a way to live.
And we have fun.
We're so messed up, we really enjoy this.
We have been psychologically damaged by the fact
that it's just fun.
I can't get over the fact that all
the things I used to do and all
the things I used to say and all
the time I used to stay in the
office that a loving God would say, you
know what, Ralph?
I'll forgive you.
You forgive yourself.
Make your life count.
The power of the church.
Not only do we have our responsibility as
a church, but in verse 27 it also
says, or any such thing.
It says that he might present himself a
glorious church, not having a spot or a
wrinkle.
And have you noticed that next catchphrase, or
any such thing?
That it should be holy without blemish.
You see, we have the cause of our
church, our purpose for existence.
We have the commitment of our church, our
past and our present.
We have the continuance of our church, our
future.
And then we have the compassion of our
church, the souls of men.
The Bible talks about a no man.
Brother Wendell cares for my soul.
How could we sit here and not care
for the souls?
Brother Mark Logan just got back from Africa.
Brother Wendell just got back from Egypt.
We have members of our church literally around
the globe today.
The sun never goes down on the ministries
of this local church.
Because somewhere in Honduras today, someone needs to
know that someone cares for their soul.
That someone cares in Haiti today.
That someone cares in Israel today.
It doesn't matter where they live.
Someone cares.
And that they're standing there declaring with the
Word of God, Tina, whosoever will may come.
We're just sinners saved by grace.
How could we be handlers of the truth
of God's Word?
But see, what happened is our example, our
elder brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible
says that he looked down and he saw
the multitude, Chris, and he was moved to
compassion.
Something ought to touch our heart, Tom, when
we see all those people hurting.
It ought to move us to compassion.
But notice the phrasing in verse 32.
This is a great mystery.
But I speak concerning Christ and the church.
What is that great mystery?
I don't understand all that mystery.
But I do know this much.
That Jesus loves you and He loves me.
And there's a great mystery there.
We have a relationship with the Lord Jesus
Christ.
He has determined today that we can have
a beginning afresh and anew in Him.
And He established the local church.
Look what the Bible says in 2 Chronicles
7.
They had a building dedication back in the
Old Testament.
Chapter 7 talks about that building dedication.
Now when Solomon had made an end of
praying, the fire came down from heaven and
consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices.
And the glory of the Lord filled the
house.
And the priest could not enter into the
house of the Lord because the glory of
the Lord had filled the Lord's house.
And when the children of Israel saw how
the fire came down and the glory of
the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves
with their faces to the ground upon the
pavement and worshiped and praised the Lord and
said, For He is good, for His mercy
endureth forever.
If we ought to leave out of this
building saying one thing, we ought to say,
For the Lord, He is good.
Look around you and see what He hath
provided.
And His mercies endure forever.