What It Means to Be a Member of FPC – The Five Questions of Membership (5)


Sermon by J. Ligon Duncan on October 15, 2006 Hebrews 13:17

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The Lord’s Day
Morning

October 15, 2006


Hebrews 13:17

“What It Means to
Be a Member of FPC: The Five Questions of Membership
(5)”“Do you submit yourself to the government and
discipline of the Church,


and promise to study its purity and peace?”

Dr. J. Ligon
Duncan III

Amen. If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with
me to Hebrews 13. We’ll look at two verses in Hebrews today to show the truths
underlying this fifth question of membership. We’ve been working through the
five questions of membership over the last month or so. Last week we were
looking at that fourth question of membership, which you just heard asked and
answered in the service today:

“Do you promise to support the church in its worship
and work to the best of your ability?”

And we said as we looked at that question that that
entailed at least three things.

First of all, it means that you have a high view of
the church and a high commitment to the local church. To ask and answer that
question, and understand what’s being entailed in that question and to mean it
when we say “I do,” means that we would be a congregation of people with a high
view of the local church and of this local church, and a high commitment to this
local body of believers.

We also said that it would mean that you would have
a high view of corporate worship — a high view of what it is to come together
and worship the living God together, Lord’s Day after Lord’s Day, as the people
of God gathered; and that we would have a high view of and commitment to
worshiping God in all of life, to being those who worship God 24/7, so that in
every activity our desire is to glorify Him. In every activity, our desire is
for the pleasure of God.

And then, finally, we said in answering that
question it would mean that we would also be a congregation of people that are
committed to the work of this church; not only the work of this church in the
worship of the living God, but the work of this church in discipling Christians
and building them up in the faith, in growing them in grace so that they become
contributing, discipling Christians themselves, but also in reaching out through
missions and evangelism to those who do not know Jesus Christ, and inviting them
to enjoy the glory of gospel brotherhood in the bonds of Christ. And so those
who are asked that question, and answer it with understanding and mean it when
they say it, are people who are characterized by these three things: a high view
of the local church; a high view of the worship of the church; and, a high view
and a zeal for the work of the church.

Well, this morning we’re coming to the end of this
series, looking at the last question. And that fifth question is:

“Do you submit yourself to the government and discipline of the church,
and promise to strive for its purity and peace?”

Now, that could sound a little bureaucratic, a
little mechanical, a little administrative…a little unspiritual…to your ears
at first. The second half of the question seems more readily tied to the
biblical concept — “striving for the purity and peace of the church”
but what does this submitting yourself to the government and discipline of the
church mean?

Well, I want to suggest as we look at this
question today, and as we look at the scriptural truths which underlie it, that
there are three things that we are affirming when we affirm this question.

We are affirming a respect for spiritual authority (and you’re going to
see that rooted in Hebrews 13:17); secondly, we are affirming a pursuit of
holiness
(and you’re going to see that in Hebrews 12:14); and we’re also
affirming a pursuit of peace (you’ll also see that in Hebrews 12:14, but
also again in I Peter 3:8, 9). I’m struck again, as I look at these questions,
that underlying each of these questions are summarized biblical truths turned
into question form.

I ran a Google search on these questions earlier
this week to see where they would pop up on the internet, and it was interesting
how many different families of Christians, denominational groupings, use
basically these five questions as their basic questions of membership. These
questions stretch back for at least 450 or 500 years in the English-speaking
world — and maybe they’re older than that. I’ve not gotten back any further than
that. But when you ask and answer these questions, you’re being asked and you’re
answering something that Christians in the English-speaking world and various
Reformed and Protestant bodies have been answering for almost half a millennium.
And it struck me again in looking at the questions how they simply summarize in
question form biblical truth, and we’ll see that again today as we look at
Hebrews 13 and Hebrews 12, and I Peter 3. Before we read these passages, let’s
look to God in prayer and ask His help and blessing.

Father, thank You for Your word. It is a lamp to
our feet and a light to our way. We ask that as we hear Your word read that we
would both understand it and delight in it, hear it and do it, by Your Holy
Spirit. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hear God’s word, first in Hebrews 13:17:

“Obey your leaders, and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls, as
those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief,
for this would be unprofitable for you.”

And then if you turn back one chapter to Hebrews 12:14, we
have this exhortation:

“Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see
the Lord.”

And then finally, if you turn forward to I Peter 3:8, 9,
here we find a description of what it means to seek peace in the church:

“To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind-hearted, and
humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil, or insult for insult, but giving
a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might
inherit a blessing.”

Amen. Thus ends these readings of God’s holy, inspired, and
inerrant word. May He add His blessing to them.

If we rightly understand the question “Do you
submit yourself to the government and discipline of the church, and promise to
strive for its purity and peace?”
…if we rightly understand that question
and we intend it when we say “I do,” then we will be a church consisting of
members all of whom have three things: We will all have a respect for spiritual
authority that will manifest itself practically; we will all have a commitment
to pursue holiness (we won’t give just lip service to godliness, it will be a
real agenda in our lives); and, we will all have a passion for the peace of this
church family, as well as peace with our brothers and sisters in Christ around
the world.

I. A glad and willing respect
for the elders, and a joyful acknowledgment and embrace of their spiritual
leadership as the appointed shepherds of this flock

I want to look at those three things with you today.
If we really understand this question and mean it when we say “I do,” first
of all we are going to be a people characterized by respect for spiritual
authority.
Now, having just said that I’ve already said something very
counter-cultural. We live in a day and age where authority is not respected, and
you’re not even used to hearing from leaders using words like obey
(twice) and submit in one sentence, like you did in Hebrews 13:17. It
wouldn’t be a congressman who would last very long who would include obey
twice and submit in one sentence in his speech to his constituents,
because, you see, we are first and foremost consumers. And we relate to the
church as consumers. The church is a goods and services provider. And even in
our government, we’re king. Our representatives serve us. We don’t think of
obeying and submitting. But isn’t it interesting how the author of Hebrews
speaks to this early Christian congregation — we don’t know exactly where it
was, some people think Rome, some people think Palestine (I think Palestine) —
but wherever it was, here is this early Christian author, maybe Apollos or
another student of Paul, saying to this local congregation, “Obey your leaders
and submit to them.”

What is he saying? He’s saying ‘I want you to have a
glad and willing respect for your elders. I don’t want you to have a grudging
acknowledgement and respect for them. I want you to have a glad and willing
respect for your elders. I want you to have a joyful acknowledgement and embrace
of their spiritual leadership as the appointed shepherds of your flock.’ Notice
again what he says. Hebrews 13:17: “Obey your leaders and submit to them.” Do
this with joy, so that they will do this with joy. What’s he saying? He’s saying
that we ought to do everything we can to show respect for and follow the
shepherding of the elders of the church. We ought to joyfully acknowledge and
embrace their spiritual leadership.

Now this is a very significant thing. It’s
significant in many ways, but I want to mention just a couple.
One thing that you need to understand is that our
church is not personality-centered
, and so many churches in
Christendom today are. They’re centered around one particular person, and when
he goes, the church falls apart. And that’s not First Presbyterian Church.
Pastors come and go–but the elders, they are always with us. One hundred seventy
years, twelve different ministers — the continuity of the church has been kept
for us by the leadership of our elders, and that’s something that I rejoice in.
Do you rejoice in that?

I was an assistant on a church staff in another
Presbyterian church in town when the pastor announced his resignation. At the
congregational meeting where his resignation was received and accepted by the
congregation, a dear friend of mine said to me, “You know, something happened
today that I have never seen happen in a congregational meeting.” I said,
“What’s that?” He said, “The church didn’t split!” He had come from a background
where every time a pastor had left the churches that he had grown up in, there
had been a church split. And I said, “Well, that’s how it’s designed. The church
isn’t built around one man.” The elders together give spiritual oversight and
leadership to the church, so that the church is not personality-driven or

—centered. It’s not about one man and his particular whims.
The leaders of the church together give spiritual oversight. That’s the first
thing I want to say.

The second thing I want to say is this: How do
they do that?
Well, they do it primarily through prayer, example, and
teaching. Yes, they have the keys to the kingdom. They are the ones who admit
into membership and dismiss from membership. They are the ones who administer
the discipline of the church, whether it is admonition or whether it is removing
someone from the privilege of coming to the Lord’s Table. Yes, they do that. But
primarily their ministerial authority, their spiritual and pastoral authority,
is manifested in prayer, in example, and in teaching.

Now I wish that you could see the elders of the
church every month at prayer for you. We had a really long Session meeting this
last month, and I thought, “You know, they’ll probably skimp on the prayer time
at the end….” Oh! Was I wrong! We went longer than we normally go in prayer!
Why? Because the elders take seriously praying for the congregation.

And they take seriously their example. I received a
beautiful letter from a congregation member this week who said, “You know, I was
looking at the back of the bulletin and I noted in looking at the list of the
elders that I know almost every one of them, and some of them I know very well;
and to a man, they are a godly example of spiritual maturity and leadership.”
I’ve sent that letter on to the Clerk to share with the elders at our next
meeting because it was so encouraging. These are men who lead by example, and
they are men who lead by teaching.

They teach themselves, and then they also make sure
that the teaching of the church is in accord with what we publicly declare we
believe the Bible to teach, and so they attempt to protect the church from false
teaching.

And the Apostle Paul says to us, and our question of
membership says to us, and the Book of Hebrews says to us that we are to honor
and respect that spiritual leadership in the church. We’ll do everything we can
to respect and show respect for, and to follow the shepherding of those elders
that God has appointed as shepherds over our flock.

And the author of Hebrews adds something very solemn
and very sobering, doesn’t he? He says remember that these keep watch over your
souls, and one day they will give an account.

The great Baptist minister, John Gill, was writing
to a young man in London who had just gotten his first pastorate. He had been an
assistant on a church staff, and now he had gotten his first pastorate, and he
was going to pastor a very small Baptist church. John Gill wrote him a letter
and he said:

“I know that you are somewhat embarrassed that you have been called to pastor so
small a flock.

But I will assure you that on that great Day when you stand before the Judge of
heaven and earth

and you give account for how you have shepherded their souls, you will say ‘This
has been enough for me.’”

I want you to remember your elders, because there
will be a day when we will stand before God and we will give an account for how
we have or have not faithfully shepherded this flock, and that is a tremendous
burden, even as it is a tremendous privilege to serve you and minister. Respect
your elders.

II. A glad and willing self-exertion for the purity of the church

Secondly, answering the question, “Do
you submit yourself to the government and discipline of the church, and promise
to strive for its purity and peace?”
means a glad and willing self-exertion
for the purity of the church.

Turn back again to Hebrews 12:14. Notice that the
author of Hebrews says, “Pursue sanctification, without which no one will see
the Lord.” What’s he saying there? He’s urging us to pursue growth in godliness,
to pursue holiness. Many of you know Jerry Bridges’ great book The Pursuit of
Holiness
, and he’s urging that on every Christian: pursue holiness. But when
we ask it and answer it in the context of the congregation, we are especially
understanding that our individual lives have a bearing on the whole
congregation.

Do you remember in the Old Testament that when Achan
sinned by the stealing of items that had been put under the ban as the children
of Israel went into the land of Canaan, what happened? Almost the whole nation
was cursed. Why? Because of his sin. The spiritual principle still obtains: My
private behavior when I am off by my own has a direct impact on the well-being
of this congregation. And you know what? So does yours. Our personal pursuit of
holiness is not just a private matter. It’s a matter of the well-being of the
whole congregational family, and so when we say “I do” to the question “Do you
promise to strive for the purity of the church?” we’re saying that we will do
everything in our power to make sure that we do not bring sin and judgment into
the camp of God’s people, and that is a solemn thing.

And it’s interesting, isn’t it, that purity is
put before peace…
that we’ll strive for the purity of the church even
before we strive for the peace of the church? Why? Because there is no peace
where there is not purity. Why? Because one of the things that you strive for
when you strive for growth in godliness is the ability to forgive. And because
we’re sinners, there’s going to be sin, and there’s going to be a need for
forgiveness in the congregation. But if you’re not growing in your ability to
forgive, there will never be peace in the congregation–because there’s always
going to be sin, I can tell you that! We’re always going to let one another
down. We’re going to say things that hurt other people; we’re going to do things
that hurt other people; and if we’re not growing in the ability to forgive that,
there will never be any peace here. That’s why Jesus would say

“Seek first the kingdom and its righteousness, and
all these things will be added to you.”

And I’ve quoted it to you fifty times in the last year, but
Martin Luther, commenting on that passage, says

“It is due to the perversity of men that they seek peace first, and only then
righteousness; and consequently they find no peace.”

And that’s true here. If we don’t seek holiness,
we’ll never have peace in the congregation, and our individual lives have a
bearing on the well-being of this whole church. So when we say “I do” to this
question, we’re saying ‘Yes, Lord. I understand that what I do when I’m away at
school, what I do when I’m at work, what I do when I am at home, has a bearing
on the well-being of this congregation; and I will do everything in my power not
to bring sin and judgment into this camp of God’s people, but I will pursue
growth in godliness.’

III. A glad and willing self-exertion for the peace of the church
And, thirdly, when we ask and answer this question “I do”
we are committing ourselves to a glad and willing self-exertion for the peace of
the church.
We’re saying that we will do everything in our personal power to
make sure that this is a harmonious, happy, safe and secure family and
fellowship of believers. And that passage that we read from I Peter 3:8, 9 gives
us such a beautiful description of what it means to strive for the peace of
the church
. Listen to the words again. Peter says,

“To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted,
humble in spirit, not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a
blessing instead.”

He’s just written you out a program for how to
strive for the peace of the church. When we say, “Yes, I do; I will strive for
the peace of the church,” you’re saying ‘Lord, I’m committed to being
harmonious, to doing whatever I can to promote harmony in my congregation, and
to do nothing, if I am able to avoid it, that would promote disharmony in my
congregation. I want to be sympathetic, I want to be brotherly, I want to be
kind-hearted, I want to be humble in spirit. And when those show evil and insult
to me, I will not return in kind, but instead I will be concerned to bless.’

You understand that when we say that we’re going to
pursue the peace of the church we don’t just mean that we’re not going to break
out into a fisticuff over every kind of conflict. It’s not just a cessation of
hostilities. In the Bible, peace means the total well-being of God’s
people. When the minister pronounces peace on you at the benediction, he
is calling down God’s fullest blessings on you so that the total well-being of
your person is advanced by the favor and grace of God. And so when we say that
we are pursuing and striving for the peace of the church, we mean
that we want our brothers and sisters in Christ in this congregation…we want
their best interests in everything. We’re looking out for the total well-being
of the congregation. Isn’t it interesting that while we submit to the leadership
of the elders, we ourselves pledge ourselves to pursue the purity and peace of
the church? We’re going to pursue godliness for the welfare of the whole church.
We’re going to pursue peace for the well-being of the whole church.

All three of these things we vow when we answer
this question of membership. We’ve said all along that these things have
practical ramifications for us as the people of God.
If we are people who
respect our elders, then we’ll be people that pray for them. We’ll pray for
their godliness, we’ll pray for their decisions; we’ll gladly follow their
leadership.

You know, in the church today so often people say,
“Well, I believe in every-member ministry.” What they really mean is they
believe in every-member ministry, because they want every member to make the
decisions for the church–and they resent it a little bit that the elders of the
church give leadership in certain areas. We shouldn’t resent that, friends.
That’s both a privilege and a burden that they bear for us. And we should not
only pray for them, but we should respect them and follow their leadership as
they do it.

And when we say that we’re going to pursue the
purity of the church, it means that we’re going to be characterized as people
who want to grow in Christ-like behavior. You know, one of the things that the
world looks at the church and then dismisses the church for is that in our lives
we look no different than the world. And if we’re really answering this question
“I do” and we mean it, then we’re going to look different than the world. There
are going to be things that the world does that are perfectly accepted in our
culture, but we’re just not going to do them. There are going to be things that
the world loves and strives for, puts a premium on, has as a priority in life,
that we are just not going to strive for and long for and pursue. Our lives,
individually and collectively, are going to look different.

And we’re going to pursue peace. You know, the world
knows a lot about discord. We see it at every level. We see it internationally.
Were you like me? Wondering, when the Berlin Wall fell during the George H. W.
Bush presidency, if we would experience a period of relative peace in the world
in the next 20-25 years? Boy, have I been changed of that particular persuasion!
We’ve seen more conflicts today than we did during the Cold War. Makes you yearn
for the days of the good ol’ Soviet Union. The world knows about discord. And
when the world looks at the church and it sees discord, it sees a lack of peace,
it says “Aha! They’re phonies. They’re hypocrites.”

But when the world looks at a church and it sees
harmony…not a fake harmony, not a pretended harmony…but a harmony that
exists because we do sin against one another, we do let one another down, we do
hurt one another; but we do something really strange: we forgive one another.
We’re reconciled to one another. We accept one another. When the world sees
that, the world says, “Something’s going on there. Is that the gospel thing?”
That only happens because of the gospel. That only happens because of God. That
only happens because of grace.

And so when we really answer these questions and
mean it, you understand how radical, how revolutionary, how important this is
for our witness to the world. Yes, it’s for God’s glory. Yes, it’s for our good.
But, boy, is it important for our witness! Maybe you’ll pray with me over the
weeks to come that we would live out in our fellowship more of the realities
that we have all professed that we believe in answer to those five questions.

Let’s pray.

Our Lord and our God, when we acknowledge in a
few moments that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one and only foundation of the
church, we ask that we would do so with the realization of just how precious the
church is. But we would also do it acknowledging that we have so often looked
like the world that it has left the church almost invisible in the eyes of the
world, and we don’t want to live that way. We want to be a city on a hill, a
beacon of the grace of Christ, a witness to the gospel, open disciples of the
one true God; and we want the world to see that not for our glory, but for
Christ’s. In His name we pray. Amen.

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