Beloved, tonight I invite you to turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and in connection with that, if you would turn in the back of the Psalter hymnal to page 27, Lord's Day 21, as we will consider just question and answer 54. Question tonight, what do you believe concerning the Holy Catholic Church? I believe that the Son of God, through His Spirit and Word, out of the entire human race, from the beginning of the world to its end, gathers, protects, and preserves for Himself a community chosen for eternal life and united in true faith. And of this community, I am and always will be a living member. Let's turn to the Word of God, 1 Corinthians 1, beginning at verse 1 through verse 9. Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and our brother Sosthenes, to the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I always thank God for you because of His grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in Him you have been enriched in every way, in all your speaking and in all your knowledge, because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore, you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, God, who has called you into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, is faithful. Beloved in Christ the Lord, as a young boy growing up in the small town of Sheldon, Iowa, we lived in the center of the town in a small town block right on the alley in the middle of the block. And then if you walk up that alley and cross the street, there was the property of the church. And therefore our family, for 52 Sundays a year, mostly morning and evening, we would walk that alley and we would go to that big building which I knew as the church. And in the church, we would gather with many other people, we would sing songs, we would pray, we would give our gifts and offerings, we would listen to the preacher preach, boys and girls, like we have done this morning and we're doing tonight. Yet for me as a young boy, the word church meant that building. Or at least what we did on Sunday. We went to church. We went to do church. But of course, as I grew, I began to understand that that big building was just that. It was a big building. Did it have a special purpose? Absolutely. Just like this big church building where God's people gather together to worship. But the church is not the building, boys and girls. Nor is the church simply in existence whenever a particular body gets together, for example, 9.30 on Sunday morning or 6 o'clock on Sunday evening. The church is the people of God. Some of you may remember that Sunday school song which says, I am the church, you are the church, we are the church together. All who follow Jesus all around the world, yes, we're the church together. The church is not a building, the church is not a steeple, The church is not a resting place. The church is God's people. Now today there are many different ideas about the church with regard to what the church is, what the church's task happens to be, and who belongs to the church. Yet the Word of God is very clear. The church is the glorious body of Christ. The Bible uses two everyday words to describe the church. In beautiful language, one is, it's the bride of Christ. The one to whom the bridegroom is betrothed. The bride of Christ. But also the body of Christ. The glorious body of Christ. In Ephesians 1, Paul says the church is His, Christ's body. The fullness of Him who fills all in all. And in Colossians 1, verse 18, Paul says, He that is Christ is also head of the body. The church. We confess in the Apostles' Creed that we believe a holy Catholic church. Notice, we don't say, sometimes by accident we do, but we don't say, I believe in the Holy Catholic Church. We only say, I believe in God the Father, in the Son, in the Holy Spirit. I place my trust in the Triune God, but I don't place my trust in the Holy Catholic Church or in the communion of saints or in the forgiveness of sins, but I believe that they are real. I confess a Holy Catholic Church. I believe that it exists, that it is real. Paul, in his address to the church in Corinth, before he gives that beautiful greeting of God, that blessing of God, he identifies those believers as being of that one holy Catholic church, which is a comprehensive community, the glorious body of Christ, a comprehensive community. First of all, that comprehensive community is the comprehensive work of the Triune God. Not just the Father, or just the Son, or just the Holy Spirit, but the comprehensive work of the Triune God. Now, in a specific way, the articles of the Apostles' Creed that we now come to, Holy Catholic Church, communion of saints, forgiveness of sins, those are a part of the work of the Holy Spirit. They are part of His work of applying the work of Jesus Christ. You may recall, as we said a couple of weeks ago, the Holy Spirit never works on His own. He never works on behalf of Himself. He doesn't have His own agenda. He works in connection and cooperation with the Godhead, the triune God. Now, the word church comes, as many of us know, from the Greek word ekklesia, which means an assembly. An assembly that is gathered in answer to a call that has been issued for a particular purpose. Now, originally, the word ekklesia was used for any secular purpose or gathering. For example, it could be used for an assembly of carpenters or an assembly of merchants or an assembly of farmers called together for the purpose of discussing carpenter things and farmer things and merchant things. But this word ekklesia was fitting for Christians because that word, that Greek word, was the word used to translate congregation of Israel from the Hebrew Old Testament into the Greek version of the Old Testament. Congregation. Ekklesia. And Paul makes it clear that the identity of this Ekklesia in Corinth, this church in Corinth, is that it is not a church of Ekklesia of farmers or merchants or carpenters, but an Ekklesia of God. An assembly, a gathering of those who believe in, who serve God, who have been called out for that purpose. And as a church of God, she is the work of the triune God. First of all, the work of the Father. In verse 9, we read, God who has called you into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, is faithful. The Father has called. The church of Jesus Christ, beloved, is the community of those whom God the Father is calling out of the world into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ. And that calling of the Father is a token of His electing love. He is the one who chose or elected some before the foundation of the world to be saved by Christ and to become a part of His body. And I want you to think about that just a moment. We know this in our head. We know, we confess that God elected some from before the foundation of the earth. But let this sink in. He elected you. He elected me before the foundation of the world in order to save us in Christ. He had already determined that in order to make us become a part of His body. Paul says in Ephesians 1, verses 4 and 5, just as He, that is God, chose us in Him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind intention of His will. He has called His church for the purpose of setting her apart for Himself. To be gathered, defended, and preserved for His glory. And that includes then the work of the Son, the second person of the Trinity. The Son secures the gathering, the defending, and the preserving of those chosen and called by the Father. And he does this, he secures this by his work of atonement and salvation and all that it includes because of his unfailing victorious work of living the perfectly righteous life and paying for all the sin of every last elect child of God. Because of that, Paul can say to the church of God in Corinth, and this is true of all believers, he can say the church is sanctified in Christ Jesus and called into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. The church is the recipient of Christ's securing work. Sanctified in Christ Jesus. Now, most often when we think of the word sanctification, we think of it in connection with the word justification. For those who are justified, justification is that declaration by God, that courtroom, that legal term, if you will, in which God declares you and me to be not guilty, to be forgiven, to be righteous in His sight. a declaration by God and sanctification then we know as the process that follows up on that if you will the process by which the Holy Spirit makes those justified makes them actually righteous in their inner being that process of cleansing more and more every day removing the pollution and the activity of sin and that sanctification process will be completed one day in glory we might say that that is the narrow, the subjective sense of sanctification. But we can also speak, the Bible also speaks of sanctification in what we might call a broad or objective sense. Paul in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 11 says, But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our Lord. you were, past tense, sanctified. And that passage as well here where Paul says that they are sanctified in Christ Jesus, he's speaking in that broad, in that objective sense. That doesn't mean that he's saying that they are perfect, that they have been perfectly cleansed already. He's not saying that the church in Corinth is sinless. Start reading it at verse 10 through the rest of the book and it will become very clear. They were filthy. They were filled with sin as a church. That's not what Paul is saying. But sanctification in that broad sense means that they have been called. They have been set apart for a holy purpose as people holy to the Lord of whom He says they are mine. They have been set apart. Set apart. Called out of the world. Set apart. And that means those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus. In that broad sense, it means that they enjoy a new relationship with God. They are those who have been born again. They've been converted, justified. They are considered righteous in Christ as they stand before God. They enjoy new purity. Their sins have been washed away by the blood of Jesus. They have been forgiven. They enjoy a new character, a heart change. The new man, the old man put away, the new man lives with a new way of thinking, a new way of feeling, and a new way of willing. Again, not perfect. The church on this earth is not perfect. We still struggle with sin. But the difference is those who are set apart in Christ Jesus, those who are born again, we have a conscience about it. We confess our sin. We repent of it. Because we also enjoy the church. Those sanctified in Christ Jesus enjoy new resources. Empowered by the Holy Spirit with the strength of Jesus Christ. as Paul says, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. With regard to the church in Corinth, Paul, with one word, the word sanctified, says this is what they are because and only because of Jesus Christ. Set apart in Christ Jesus. They enjoy a new relationship with God, a new purity in Him, new character, new resources. They're not holy. They're not set apart because of their own efforts. Apart from Jesus Christ, beloved, there's only the pollution of sin. There's only remaining in that unholiness in the sight of God. But those sanctified, set apart, are as holy unto God in Christ Jesus. And that's for a purpose, as Paul says, fellowship with Jesus Christ, our Lord. God who has called you into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful. Now that word fellowship there has the idea of sharing in something. Having something in common. Sharing in something. Sharing in Christ. Sharing in His life. His righteousness becomes my righteousness. Sharing in His work. His shed blood is shed for me. And this fellowship with Jesus Christ is by true faith, which knows the Lord Jesus Christ, believes that everything about Him is true, and trusts completely in Him alone for salvation. This fellowship, by faith, makes His work mine. It is fellowship by which He strengthens my life with Himself. This is fellowship which identifies the believer's life with Christ, which identifies that I belong to Him. This fellowship is beautifully illustrated by Jesus Himself in John chapter 15 when He says, I am the vine, you are the branches. Boys and girls, you know that you look at any tree out here in the courtyard or wherever, and the branches that are coming off that tree trunk live because they draw nourishment from that tree, from the roots that take the nutrients out of the ground. They live through that tree. Jesus is the vine. Believers are the branches. We have life. His lifeblood, His Holy Spirit is in us. He gives us life. And just as a branch that's cut off from the tree is dead, those who are not a part of Christ's body are dead. Life is only in Him. By His work, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, secures the gathering, defending, and preserving of those called by God so that they are actually really gathered, defended, and preserved. And this is accomplished by then the third person of the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit. You may recall from a couple of weeks ago in connection with the Lord's Day 20 and John chapter 16, Jesus says in that chapter that the Holy Spirit would take of what is mine, He said, and make it known to you. Again, the Holy Spirit doesn't come with His own agenda. He brings together those whom the Father called from eternity, those whom Christ died to save. The very life and defense and preservation of the church depends on the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit who makes union and communion with Jesus Christ real by faith, but then He also unites believers as a body with a common confession of faith in Christ Jesus alone. Beloved, the church is holy, set apart by God. The church is the fruit of God's redemptive favor and work for saving fellowship with God. That's why the church exists. For saving fellowship with God. The church is not a man-made organization or social club that one chooses to join or not to join. It may seem like that, that we choose to join it when we make public profession of faith. But as I've said before, young people, those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are obligated. You are not born again after you profess your faith. But you profess your faith because, by God's grace, you have been born again. And by your profession of faith, you show that you are a part of the Holy Catholic Church by uniting with the visible body of Christ. We are obligated to profess our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But the church is not a man-made organization or social club that once you pay your dues and once you pay your membership fees or put your offering in the plate, you're free to do whatever you want to do or not do what you don't want to do and even unjoin if you feel like it. The church is the work of the triune God who joins us to this body of Christ. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, God has done this for you. But the church is also Catholic. Holy Catholic Church. Not in the sense of Roman Catholic with a Pope and priests and so forth in the Vatican and all that stuff. But Catholic with a small c we know means universal. It's a universal church. As it is in the second place, a comprehensive work from time and place. The second stanza of that Sunday school song says, are many kinds of people, many kinds of faces, all colors and all ages, too, of all times and places. And when we say that the church is Catholic or universal, that does not mean, boys and girls, that every single person who ever lived or will live is saved. That's not what that means. The Bible is clear about that. But the church is universal, first of all, in time, gathered from the foundation of the world, from the beginning of the world to the end of the world. Gathered throughout that time span that we call history, however long that may be. And God has not yet finished gathering His church because if He was, Jesus Christ would have come already for His bride. She's still being gathered in time. But the church is also universal in place. God doesn't just gather His elect people from Palestine or from Canada or from California, but from all tribes, all tongues, all nations. No one is shut out because of race or color or nationality or denominational affiliation. The Holy Catholic Church is made up of believers in every age and place of history who acknowledge their sin and misery, who acknowledge their need for salvation, who trust and love the saving work of Jesus Christ. Once again, with regard to the church in Corinth, in verse 2, Paul says, To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. Together with all those everywhere who what? Call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul wanted this church in Corinth possibly because of what he was about to say to them, challenging their behavior and such. He wanted them to know that they are not alone. They're not an island unto themselves. They were a part of a vast whole. They belong, for example, the church in Galatia and the church in Ephesus and the church in Thessalonica and Philippi and Colossae and Escondido and Sheldon, Iowa and Rotterdam and wherever believers are found. Believers are united with all who share something specific in common and that is calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved, that calling on His name shows the world that you are different than the world. And that calling also shows other Christians that you are one of them. That you are united with them because together you are united to Christ. This calling is something that we have in common with all true believers. It must be there. But we may not share the exact same system of theology and doctrine and we might not totally agree with each other with regard to interpretation of Scripture on every minute point. That's why we have different denominations and federations. It's all because we're still sinful. But we all agree on one thing. All true believers. And that is that salvation is in no other name. That there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we might be saved. There is no other way to the Father except through Jesus Christ. And this calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul says it here, he's talking about a calling unto salvation. The calling of true faith. What a beautiful reminder to this church in Corinth, even in the midst of their difficulties, of who they are. The glorious body of Christ. The call of salvation. The call of true faith. As Paul says in Romans 10, verse 13, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But along with that then, it's a habitual calling, a continuous calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in praise, in thanksgiving, in worship, in asking, asking for His blessing, asking for His help, asking for His intercession. This calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is part of that beautiful fellowship with Him. And together as believers, we enjoy fellowship with each other as a community of faith in the one head of the one body. It's one church. But we must also admit or recognize that there is a constant change that takes place to this universal church. I'm not talking about a change in who the church is or what the church believes. That is constant. that is constant forever and ever. But we designate the church in a couple of different ways. Militant versus triumphant. Visible versus invisible. And we could spend so much time on these things, but just very simply, very briefly, militant versus triumphant. Many believers, including Paul, believers in the Corinthian church at that time, many of our loved ones, believing loved ones, are dead to this life. They've died. They've left this light. Their souls are in heaven. They are a part of the church triumphant. The church which is no longer attacked and threatened by Satan. The church which is triumphant by God's grace over sin. They no longer sin against the Most High Majesty of God. But those who are alive on this earth at any given point in history, like today, are a part of the church militant. The church that is still fighting the good fight of faith under the banner of the cross of Jesus. The church that still does battle against Satan that must seek to ward off his flaming arrows of temptation. And then visible versus invisible. When we speak of the invisible church, very simply, the invisible church is all true believers. All those who have been born again scattered throughout this world. Not all in one place. Invisible because you and I can't truly read the heart of another, not even each other. We trust each other, we trust each other's profession, but we can't truly read the hearts of one another. Only God truly knows those who are His. But the visible church is that invisible church as it is made visible in local churches, in local congregations, in the lives of God's people. The church is not simply in existence at 9 o'clock on Sunday morning and 6 o'clock on Sunday night, but the church exists at all times. That visible church we know is made up of flesh and blood believers. Just look around. And that means, of course, that there are flesh, there are visible flesh and blood bodies of believers, such as the church in Corinth was, such as the Escondido United Reformed Church and other churches gathered throughout the world. The congregation of true believers gathered together makes visible what is invisible. But the sad truth is that not all that calls itself church is a church. It might be an assembly, but it's not a church of God. There are true churches and false churches. As we confess, true churches are identified by the marks of the true church. Faithful preaching of the Word of God. Consistent and faithful administration and participation in the sacraments. Diligent administration of discipline. And the false church is the very opposite with its crown being it denies the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But the other sad truth is that visible churches, visible true churches, are not all filled with true believers. We don't want to believe that. But the Word of God makes it clear that there are wolves among the sheep. There are tares, weeds among the wheat. But these wolves and these weeds, They do not make the church less glorious. To the visible eye, yes, but not in reality. The church is the glorious body of Christ, and one day when Christ comes for His bride, all who rejected Him and His church, all who laughed at His bride, at His body, will see her glory, but they will miss out on it. They will not participate in it. The glorious body of Christ, a comprehensive community, The comprehensive work of the triune God. A comprehensive work from time and place, but also, finally, a comprehensive work for eternity. Paul says some beautiful, comforting words to the church and to the believers in Corinth in verse 9. God is faithful. The one who calls, he says, is faithful. That means, beloved, that he doesn't fail. He doesn't call effectually and bring His elect children to faith and then let them go. The church is chosen for eternal life and He unceasingly takes care of her. He will complete the work that He has begun. He gathers, defends, and preserves His church. This gathering, He has been gathering. He is gathering. And the church will ever be gathered. The church is gathered as He makes known of the truth of Jesus Christ and moves his elect to believe that truth and that gathering will be complete. Not one elect child of God will be left out, will be left behind. Not one will be missing from the body, the bride of Christ. In the same way, he has been and is and will ever defend his church. That defense is secure because of the victory of Jesus Christ. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church. And he continues to defend his church, to defend us even today as His truth is taught in opposition to error so that we might recognize error. And finally, He has been and is and continues to preserve His church to keep her in the faith. In verse 8, Paul says, He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. The church will not, the body will never be separated from the head. And believers will never be snatched away from the body of Jesus Christ. But this comprehensive work for eternity, beloved, includes today. It's not just far off. It includes today. The last line of answer 54 there we confess, and of this community I am and always will be a living member. I am and always will be a living member. We know that when we die, our soul lives. The day that I die, I will enjoy greater, more intimate fellowship with my Lord and Savior as my soul is translated from this body and from the church militant to the church triumphant. There is life after death, and for the believer, that life is glorious. But that life doesn't just begin when we reach glory. It's more full than to be sure, but it doesn't begin there. It's today for those who believe, who are born again. That fellowship is real. It is to be real today. Paul uses sanctification also in the narrow subjective sense, or at least the results of that narrow subjective sense. Again, he says, you are sanctified in Christ Jesus. But then in verse 2, he says, and you are called to be holy. Or as some versions say, to be saints. You are set apart, and you are to be set apart. You are saints. You are holy. You are called to be this. Be what God has set you apart to be. Be holy. Call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Exercise fellowship with Jesus Christ. He's talking about the conscious, actual activity of a true church member. He's talking about holy living. Live consistent according to who we are in Christ Jesus. He is our Lord, the Lord of all those who call on His name, Paul says. He is our Lord, our Master, the Rulemaker. Again, with regard to the Corinthian church, Paul found much fault with the Corinthian church, the Corinthian believers. So much. There was division among them. There was abuse of the sacraments. There was disorder in the worship services. There were theological problems. There was moral carelessness like sexual immorality. And he challenges, he addresses and challenges them on each and every point. Yet before he does, he reminds the church of who they are. He says, you are called of the Father. You are sanctified in Christ Jesus. And you enjoy fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. And then he addresses their sin. Beloved, that's a comfort for us today because we as believers, we as a church, we are not yet perfect. We fail. We make mistakes. We make unwise decisions, even as a church. We have errors. Christ calls sinful men to preach the Word and sinful men to serve as elders overseeing the flock. In that sense, praise Him that we are then preserved and protected from our own sins too. We look forward to that perfect church in glory. The congregation for believers in every age. Today, too, Jesus Christ has established the visible church as evidence of those who belong to Him. And so that we might enjoy communion of saints already today. We'll consider that next time, the Lord willing. But that means, then, that when it comes to the visible church, the local church, there's no optional membership. Those who believe, those who have been born again, those whom God has made a part of His holy Catholic Church must then be a vital part of the visible church, the local church. I am and forever will remain a living member of that church. And a living member, beloved, is an active member, one that contributes to the life of the church. A living member. Together, living members enjoy communion with Christ and with each other. living members work for the advancement of Christ's kingdom through His church. The church of Jesus Christ is that vehicle, we might say, in which Christ provides protection from that club called the world, over which Satan is the prince. And therefore, beloved, we are called to cherish the church, the local church, the one of which you are a part. We are called to care for and love each other, to help each other, to bear one another's burdens. We are called to provide for the work of the church, provide for the church by the work of our hands and our financial resources, make the deacons work easy and a joy. And we are called to take advantage of the opportunities that God gives us to gather together as a body of Christ in this place because it is here in the congregation of God's people where God meets with his people, where he has chosen to exercise his means of grace. That's not to say that God doesn't bless us and strengthen our faith in our fellowship with him in the privacy of our homes as we have devotions and pray and meet with him. But it's in the congregation, the gathering of God's people where he has chosen to use the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. Beloved, praise God that the church is not an accident. The church is not an afterthought, as our dispensational friends believe. They say that when the Jews rejected Christ, that was kind of an oops. God didn't plan on that, and therefore He had to go to plan B, and that's what we are, the church age, plan B. God didn't plan on it. The church is no accident. The church is chosen by God the Father from the foundation of the earth, redeemed by God the Son through His payment of blood, Gathered, defended, and preserved by God the Holy Spirit. Gathered by the Word of God. Defended with the Word of God. And preserved in the Word of God. This morning we had a beautiful illustration of that with Naaman. Immersed in God's grace. It's all of God's grace. That story was about Naaman. And applied to you and me. This is about us. We are the church. We are those whom God has thought of. The church is the glorious work of God, an eternal work of God. He chose us. He had us in mind to make us part of His church from the foundation of the world. What mercy! But that also means, as we confess in the Belcher Confession, there is no salvation apart from the true church of Christ. Apart from the body of Christ. As the branch is cut off from the tree and is dead, those who are cut off from that body are dead. But those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ have been made a part of that body by the triune God. If you believe you are a part of God's glorious work, a part of Christ's body. And beloved, the glory of the visible church is reflected in its members through their loyalty to Jesus Christ. And that church is glorious, which acknowledges Christ as its head and Savior and makes His body clear for all to see. Does that describe the Escondido United Reformed Church? Does that describe us, that we acknowledge Christ as our head and our Savior and that we make his body, his glorious body, clear for all to see? When others see the Escondido United Reformed Church, or us as believers, members of this church, representatives of this church, the Holy Catholic Church, when they see us, do they see the glorious body of Christ? Are you a living member? You see, God made each of His elect children a priority in His work. You were a priority. I was a priority. And therefore, we must ask, is the church to which you belong, where He has placed you, is it a priority for you? Or does it get your leftover time? Does it get your leftover financial resources? Do you do your work in the church? Do you work in the church? Whatever it might be. Pouring coffee, serving cake, sweeping concrete, sidewalks. Do you work? And do you work with joy? You see, it's possible to do all kinds of things in the name of God for His church, but if it doesn't come from a true heart that serves God, it's meaningless. Do you do your work with joy without complaining? Or do you burn out in your work at church? Do you need a break? Do you think you deserve a break? Whether it be from teaching Sunday school or catechism or being involved in Bible studies. I don't know why you think you deserve a break. Praise God, He never takes a break from gathering, defending, and preserving His church. Is the church glorious to you because of God to whom you belong, who has known you from eternity? What devotion God has shown to you and to me. This is the church of God for His purpose. His glory is to be our goal. His will is to be our delight. And remember, beloved, that your name means nothing in the membership roles of the visible church if it's not recorded in the Lamb's book of life. But for those who have been born again, He has chosen to care for and nurture His people in this life through the church. And therefore, beloved, may we consider our church membership in the glorious body of Christ a privilege that we faithfully exercise and a privilege that we would never, ever want to be without. The glorious body of Christ. What an identity. What a history. What a Savior. Amen.