Reformed Baptist.

I was given a pretty broad topic topic of reform Baptist distinctives, and we could be here for a number of days dealing with reform Baptist distinctives. But today I want to concentrate on this history of the church. And this is something that has been more and more brought to the forefront of my mind as of late for a variety of different reasons. Even before we moved here two years ago, I recognize sort of churchlessness in my own country, and now I come here, and interestingly enough, though there would probably be a higher percentage of people here who would identify themselves as Christian and would identify themselves as church goers, you still have the problem of churchlessness. Most ambients do go to church. Rare that I meet someone here who says, you know, oh yeah, don't go to church anywhere anytime. Almost always it's yes, I go to you know, so and so church. But most of the churches that they go to are not true churches for one reason or another. And now, when I use that term, let me clarify, I don't argue that reform Baptist churches are the only true churches. Amen there are non Baptist churches that are true churches. I would say that, you know, we have Presbyterian brethren, who are you know, probably the closest related to us. And there are true churches. Amen, there are true churches among some of our Anglican brother and especially on this continent, we have people who are part of true churches. So not just Baptists, not just the Reforms. There are some evangelical Lutherans who are have true churches. Okay, that's one of the ironies of this whole you know, five hundred year celebration. We celebrate luther nailing the ninety five Theses on the door of the Wittenburg Church and starting the products of reformation. But Lutherans are not reformed. I don't know if you knew that. But there's reform theology and there's Lutheran theology. Lutherans are not reformed. But there are some Evangenical Lutherans who would still be part of true churches. There are some of our dispensational brethren. Our dispensational brethren are not reformed. Another thing that today, because of our loose use of the term reformed, many people are not aware of. But the dispensationalists are not Reformed, but there are dispensation lists who have true churches. Amen. So you don't have to be Reformed and Baptists to have a true church. That's not the argument that I'm making here, and I'll clarify what i mean when I talk about a true church. But when I talk about churches that people are part of that are not true churches. There are three categories. Especially for those of us here. I know we have people from other places, but I think you'll probably be able to identify with this as well. But for those of us here in Zambia, if you walk up to your average Zambian who says that they go to church, you're probably gonna get one of the top three. Where do you go to church? Some neo Pentecostal church? Right, they go to some neo Pentecostal church, which is not a true church. They don't have the true Gospel. It's not a true church. Grateful for to doctor and Bayway for his work on Neo Pentecostalism here in Africa. It has been very helpful to me and I'm sure to the rest of us, and it's really been enlightening to people throughout the world to understand what's going on here, And to understand that the neo Pentecostal movement is not just charismatic. Amen. We have charismatic brethren that you know, we would identify as brethren, but the Neo Pentecostal movement not the same. Okay. So that's number one of the big three. Number two of the big three is the SDA. Right, you go to church, yes, to go to church. Where you go church? Go to SDA again. Seven Day Adventish not true church. It's a cult. Seventh Day Adventism is a cult. It's built on the failed prophecies of the prophetess L and G. White. Right. Lng White prophesies that the Lord is going to return at a particular date and time. He doesn't return, and instead of acknowledging her failed prophecy and her role as a false prophet, she says, the Lord returned spiritually but not bodily, and the reason that he didn't return was because of the impurity of the bride. Particularly the bride was meeting on the wrong day. Right, bride was meeting on first day instead of the seventh day. So the advent didn't happen because we weren't meeting on the seventh Day, hence seventh day Adventists. Okay, and we weren't observing the dietary laws. Okay. So again you get legally, you get false prophety, you get all of this sort of stuff. So again it's seven Dad Venice. But that's number two on the Big three. You talk to somebody here in Zambi. You go to yes, number one, some neo Pentecostal church, number two, some seven Dad Ventist church, or number three all together Jove's witnesses. Right, you're you're a Christian, yes, lamb. Where do you go to? I'm a witness witness okay? And so again in this context, ironically, where there are so many people who identify as Christian and so many people who would assemble with others on a regular basis, most of those people are not part of true churches. And it's it's ironic and sad that we have the Reformation. And one of the things that the Reformation does, if it does nothing else, is identifies the true church. Amen. It's identifying Rome as false and then doing a whole lot of work to not just say that's false, but to respond with here's what's true. Amen. And so when we look at the solos of the Reformation, when we look at the confessions that came out of the Reformation, these things, in large part are dealing with what is the church, and not just what is the church in response to Rome, but what is the church that has always been. That's something we have to help our friends in Rome understand, because there is a sort of arrogance in Rome that says we are all that has ever been right. You guys are talking about solo scriptura. You don't have the scripture if it's not for us, because the scriptures come from us. So there's this arrogance that comes from Rome that says where all that's ever been? And unfortunately, there are a lot of us who are not part of Rome who think in the same way, and we only categorize ourselves in terms of here's what Rome was, but then here's who we became. No, the Reformation was not about being anti Roman or anti Roman Catholic. The Reformation was about pressing beyond that to that which has always been true and that which will always be true. Amen. It is not reaction to Rome, or even reaction against Rome. It is Rome has moved away from what we find in the scriptures. So let us go relentlessly back to the Bible and discover that which has always been the Other thing that has sort of opened my eyes here is the churchlessness in the expat community. Whereas you talk to most Zambians, yes, you know Christian, Yes, I go to church, and then you'll probably get one of the big three. Okay, you talk to expats here and more often than not, they're not going to church. They're not going to church. There's a massive mission field here, not only among Zambians who are in false churches, but there's a massive mission field here among expats who don't go to church anyway. And even sadder reality is there's a massive mission field here among expat missionaries. You talk to expat missionaries about where they go to church, and a lot of them don't. They don't. Now we already know that. You know, mission dollars spent on the continent of Africa, it's five to one mercy to ministry. Okay. For every one dollar spent planting churches, training ministers and so on and so forth, there's five dollars spent digging wells, you know, starting hospitals, or or working with orphans. Five to one, not saying that any of those things are bad, right, But the Great Commission is about the proclamation of the Gospel, and the overwhelming majority of what we call missions doesn't have any Gospel connected to it at all. And so you have people who are here digging wells, working with orphans, you know, doing hospital work, whatever, who not only are not attaching the Gospel to the work that they do, but they're not part of a gospel church. Maybe they get together every once in a while with some other you know, expat missionaries and you know, pray and read or whatever, but they're not a part of the church in the truest sense. So it's very important that we have a clear understanding of this particular Baptist Baptist distinctive. Let's look at it first through the standpoint of definition the Second London Baptist Confession, and I'll give you this and we'll come back to it again in chapter twenty six on the Church. But I want to give you a broader Reformed understanding of this as well, or a broader Reformation understanding of this as well, because it's very important that we understand that Baptists come out of are part of are an expression of this same Reformation as it continues and as it builds and as it grows. Second London Baptist Confession. And here's another little tidbit. As we look at Second London. Yeah, Baptists are often thought of as the sort of Johnny come lately's, you know, to the Reformation and our Presbyterian brethren. I love a Presbyterian brother, and you know, they like to just sort of point out the fact that your confession is sixteen eighty nine, again written sixteen seventy seven. We'll even give you sixteen seventy seven. That's great, good for you, pat you on the head. But you know ours is sixteen forty six, so thank you very much, to which I like to respond, well, you realize that that's the second London Baptist confession. The first one was sixteen forty four, two years before you, So welcome to the party. Okay, all right, So Chapter twenty six, paragraph five, In the Execution of this Power, wherewith he is so entrusted, the Lord Jesus calls out of the world unto himself, through the ministry of the Word, by his spirit, those that are given unto him by his Father that they may walk before Him in all the ways of obedience which He prescribes to them in his word. Those thus called he commands to walk together in particular societies or churches for their mutual edification and the due performance of that public worship which He requires of them in the world. Now, as we look at this and sort of back it up and look at the broader Reformation trajectory, it's important to understand that as we back up and look at the broader trajectory, one of the major distinctives for us as Baptists is that for us, the church is comprised of believers. Amen, for the rest of our Reformed brother in Edian Lutheran brethren, for all of the rest of the people who come out of that trajectory of the Reformation, the Church is comprised of believers and their children. Okay, it's comprised of believers and their children. So I just want to put that out there. Let's go back to the Augsburg Confession. That's that, the Lutheran Confession, the Ogsburg Confession. The church is the congregation of saints in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the sacraments are rightly administered. So from that we get these two pieces. We get the right Gospel and the right sacraments. Let's look at the Belgic Confession fast forward. The marks by which the true Church is known are these. If the pure doctrine of the Gospel is preached therein, if she maintains the pure administration of the sacraments, so same thing, right continuation as instituted by Christ. If church discipline is exercised in the punishing of sin. In short, if all things are managed according to the pure Word of God, all things contrary there too rejected, and Jesus Christ acknowledged as the only head of the church. Hereby the true Church may certainly be known, from which no man has a right to separate himself. And so we see there the right Gospel, the right sacraments, but also disciplined, and everything ordered according to the pure Word. Come back now to Second London, Chapter twenty six, paragraph eight. A particular church gathered and completely organized according to the mind of Christ, consists of officers and members, and the officers appointed by Christ to be chosen and set apart by the church so called, and gathered for the peculiar administration of ordinances and execution of power or duty which he entrusts them with or calls them too to be continued to the end of the world. Are what a huh? Bishops or elders and deacons. So when we talk about a church, we talk about a true church, what do we mean? What I mean is we have a biblical assembly, a biblical assembly centered around the Biblical Gospel, with biblical officers, biblical ordinances, sacraments, and biblical discipline. Those are the elements. Those are the elements, and we're going to expound on those. But we're talking about a biblical assembly ordered around the Biblical Gospel, with biblical officers, biblical ordinances, and biblical disciplines. This is what we can rightly call a true church. For us as Reformed Baptists, right, this is what we can rightly call a true church. And for us that biblical assembly is a regenerate church membership A man somebody man, right, it's a regenerate church membership. But when we talk about a biblical gospel, what are we referring to there? And this is important because there are a lot of people out there. You talk to our SDA friends and you know, yes, biblical gospel. Even even the witnesses would say, you know that they have that. Our Neo Pentecostal friends would say that they had that. Let me give you five elements here. The biblical gospel is historic, God centered, Christ centered, Cross centered, and grace centered. Okay, so get these in turn. The biblical gospel is a historic gospel one Corinthians fifteen, those first four verses there. Now, I would remind you, brothers of the gospel I preach to you, which you received, in which you stand, by, which you are being saved. If you hold fast to the word I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. That's important. This conditional clause here. You know, if you hold fast. Paul is not arguing here that you know you can be saved and then not saved. That's not his argument here. We know from the rest of Paul's writings that that's not what he's saying here. So this clause here has to do with whether or not you are holding to the historic gospel. If you're holding to something that is not the historic Gospel, then you cannot count on that to save you. He spends the whole book of Galatians right pointing this out elucidating this truth, he continues, I delivered to you as the first importance what I also received. That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. So there is this historic gospel that he has given. Not only that, but note this in Galatians Galatious chapter one, Verses eighteen and nineteen, and then chapter two, verses one and two too, fascinating passages of scripture here as it relates to the importance of this historic gospel. Remember Paul, as an apostle taught by the Lord himself, Amen spent three years in the desert, making up for the three years that the others had. He had every reason to be confident in what he was doing. But look at Galatious Chapter one, verse eighteen and nineteen. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Sephas or Peter, and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. Huh, why are you going to visit? Why are you going to visit? Chapter two, verses one and two. Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation and set before them, though privately, before those who seemed influential, the gospel that I proclaimed among the gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. Three years later I went to Jerusalem. Fourteen years later I went to Jerusalem. Why because I wanted to make sure that I was preaching the historic gospel. Compare that to the arrogance that we see today. Anything I read in the Word, and that is impressed upon my heart. I just want to profess like it's gospel. Amen. Neil Pretecostalism. Was Neil Pretecostalism want to do? There is this sense of mysticism and immediacy whatever it is that I get. Listen if you want to, if you get invited to a neo Pentecostal church, it doesn't even have to be a neo Pentecostal church, just anything mildly modern evangelical, okay. And if you want people to sit up on the edge of their seat and listen to every word you say, you just want to have them right here. I'm gonna tell you how to do it. Here's how you do it. It will work. Every time you walk up to the pulpit and you say, listen, I intended to preach this passage, been working on it all week. But you know, the Lord just said to me, this is what you need to preach this morning. People will be like, we're about to get it now. Boy, Oh, it's about to be good now. None of that old, stale stuff. We're about to get the immediate, fresh right now, rave a word of God. Because there is this belief that the Holy Spirit can't work with you in your study throughout the week, only immediacy right here, right now, without reflection. We don't want that to get in the way. Right And yet the apostle Paul himself says, three years later I went to Jerusalem. Fourteen years later, I went back again to make sure that I was not running or had not run in vain, same phrase that he uses in one Corinthians fifteen. The true Gospel is the historic gospel, and those who preach the true Gospel are relentless in their effort to root and ground what they are preaching in that which has been revealed The true Gospel is a God centered gospel, a God centered gospel. In this man centered age, it is very important that we remind ourselves of this God centered gospel. A perfect example of this distinction between God centered and man centered. You know, we brother Dicky passed. Dickie talked about a survey on yesterday, and I thought he was going to reference the survey or one of the many surveys that were done when Saddleback Church was started. When when Rick Warren started Saddleback Church, Rick Warren is an absolute pragmatist. Okay, you read purpose driven Church. Purpose driven Church is pure pragmatism, all right. And so when they started their church, one of the famous surveys that they did was a music survey, And so they surveyed the whole community and thousands of people in their community to find out what radio station they listened to, so that they could shape their worship service around the styles and preferences of the people around them, so that he could shape his messages according to the styles and preferences of the people around him. He says, in purpose driven church, he can lead anybody to Christ. He just needs to know that key to their heart. You find out what that is right, and you shape your message in accordance with that. That's the essence of a man centered gospel. Got to give the people what they want, right, Mark one fourteen. Now, after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God Romans one to one. Paul, a servant of Christ. Jesus called to be an apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God. Restsaloniness too too. But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the Gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. Can can can you be further away from pragmatism? Okay, preach the word be ready in season out of season, right you chiros achiros. And it's not TikTok time, right, it's not cronos time. That's opportunity time in season, out of season, when it's popular, when it's not amen. But why do we need to do that? Because the time is coming when people will not end you or sound doctrine. Instead, they're gonna accumulate for themselves. Teachers in accordance with their own desires. These people with their itching ears are gonna turn away from the truth, and they're gonna turn aside to myths. And if we're not careful, what we do is stick up a finger to find out which way the wind is blowing and try to become one of those people that they're accumulating for themselves. People are gathering teachers. Wait, wait, wait, come out, be still. What are we doing. We're finding out whether people are going because we must leave them. This is what Paul warns Timothy about in two Timothy four, right, and we have brothers. We need to be warned about this because here's the truth. Can we can we just be honest, here's the truth. When the church is growing, I feel good, hey man. When it's not, I feel bad. I'm excited to be around other ministers. When we having record attendance and record baptism. You know, hey, brother, let's go to lunch, right, sit down and talk about what the Lord is doing. But when the people are beating me up, leaving for other churches, when our numbers are dwindling, when the leadership is not even unified, when my wife doesn't even like coming to church with me, I don't want to go to lunch with you, because you might ask me how things are going, and I don't want to lie. You can't say amen, you ought to say ouch. Right, But in all honesty, we need to recognize this in ourselves, because what will happen is we'll begin to shape the gospel that we present in order to appease those to whom we presented. And so if I'm in an environment where every time I mentioned repentance, I see people's eyes glaze over all of a sudden. First I try to find another word for it. If that doesn't work, then I try to find a way to present the gospel without even getting to it. Huh. So, so we have to be we have to be careful. In a true church. The gospel is God sinner. Now here's what I'm not saying. I am not saying there there are those who pride themselves. And you know, there's some people who believe that one of the Reform Baptists hallmarks is smallness. How's it going on, Whether it's going well? You know, people are coming and you know here in the gospel we're baptizing folks. Church is growing, We're having to expand. You know what, that means right, and won't pray for you, brother, pray that you'll get back to being faithful. Lord, run some of them people off, because we all know that if you're a true reformed Baptist, you're not gonna have a lot of people that needs to be sent back to Hell where it came from, God grows his church. Amen. And we ought to be passionate about that. We ought to be passionate about souls. So the idea that we commit ourselves to a God centered gospel is not somehow inconsistent with the idea that we have a desire for Christ to have the fullness of the reward for which he died. Amen. So don't don't hear me saying that, because there are a lot of people who either directly or indirectly seem to be saying that. Right. You know, if we're if we're doing our jobs, you know, then then there won't be many of us. And there are times when that's true. Right. There are times when it's out of season, but there's other times it's in season. There have been great revivals in history, Amen. And it's here's what's ironic. On the one hand, we sit there and you know, we're being faithful, therefore we're small. And on the other hand, we praise God for those historic revivals where massive numbers of people were saved and added to the church. Well, were they not being faithful? Huh? You can have faithfulness and growth. Amen. God can put you in a season right where it's just good. And that's one of the things, quite frankly, that has been so encouraging to me about being here because I come from a place in the US. Man, you know that y'all been to the little soccer Baptist church. Why a Baptist church. Oh, we don't have reformed Baptist churches that size in the US. You just don't. People in America would be like that Ronald, that Conrad, that compromising man. Too many people over there, too many people. Ah h, you get off your fingers and toes counting people. You must not be ah too many people. But what it is is that there is a season here that God is blessing. Amen. And so there's a God centered gospel without compromise that's bearing much fruit. Brothers, praise God for this season. Don't take it for granted, because seasons like this usually don't last. Amen. And It's interesting that you know, when that begins to turn is when we're in the greatest danger. When we've experienced this good season, where we've experienced this growth, where we've experienced this expansion, where we've experienced this fruit of the gospel, and then all of a sudden things turn. That's when the temptation is greatest to say, Ah, wait a minute, what are we doing wrong now? Right? Be careful with that, Be careful with that. What are we doing wrong? Now? What are you communicating? Let me put it in another context. Okay, the parent, you know, with a number of children, and you know, you have children who are growing and doing well and prospering, and then there's a child who either you know, runs into a rough patch, turns himself away, and we go, ah, what do we do wrong with this one? You know what, every time a parent comes to me with that, you know what, I say, You probably need to repent. I know, but I'm asking what is it that I did wrong that I need to repent for? No, you need to repent because you just intimated that the rest of your kids are doing well because of what you did right. And that's the problem with this one, is something you listen, that's the grace of God. Same thing, Pastor, there's a good season and there's growth and prosperity in the church, and all of a sudden things turn and we don't have the same offering that we did in the past. We don't have the same baptismal numbers that we did in the past. That's that moment where we start going, Okay, what is it that we're doing wrong now? Because we need to change what we're doing in order to get back on that trajectory, because it was us, obviously who created that trajectory. Now, listen, I'm all for evaluation, and if there's things that we can do better, we need to do better. That's not what I'm talking about here. Okay, let me let me move all right, and God center gospel, Christ centered gospel. Okay, Christ's centered gospel. Again. The gospel is good news. It is the good news of what God has done to save sinners through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Amen, we preach Christ and him crucify Onnthian's nine twelve. If others share the rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the Gospel of Christ. It's Christ to cross centered gospel. The gospel we preach is a bloody gospel. It is a bloody gospel. And this is another point of departure, because what is happening is especially for example, in Neo Pentecostalism and Neo Penticostalism, they talk about the blood. Amen, they talk about the blood. But the blood is a tool. So we plead the blood, we pray the blood, We claim the blood in order to manipulate the supernatural realm for our benefit. See, they have the blood and not the cross. We preach a bloody gospel in that we make sure that men understand that Christ died for sin, that Christ endured the cross, because all we, like sheep, had gone astray, each of us had turned to his own way. But God has laid upon him the iniquity of us. All that cross, that blood, the suffering servant, the atonement that was made on our behalf, the propitiation for our sin, the expiation of our sin in the blood of Christ. That's the gospel that we preach. We preach a bloody gospel. We preach the cross, we preach sin People need to know that the Gospel is not just here so that you can manipulate the spiritual realm, so that you can fulk it about yourself. That we don't preach the gospel to men who are basically good and just need a little help. We preach the gospel to men who are ruined sinners who need a substitute to die on their behalf one Corinthians, one, p. Seventeen. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel words of eloquent wisdom. Let the Cross of Christ be emptied of its power. Lets the Cross of Christ be emptied of its power. Galatians five eleven. But if I brothers still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed. The offense of the cross has been The cross is offensive, which is why we will have a tendency to move away from it. See, if I tell you you know you need to plead the blood. If I tell you that you know you need to be covered in the blood so you can protect yourself against you know, your spiritual enemies, out there. If I tell you that, you know, it's the blood that that that allows you to have what you want, do what you want. And again that's not offensive to you, because that's what your flesh wants. Your flesh wants to save itself. Your flesh wants to hear you're okay, you just need this tool in order to be a little better, in order to be more powerful. That's what your flesh wants. Your flesh will come back week after week for more of that. Your flesh doesn't want to hear that you are ruined sinner. Your flesh doesn't want to hear that you are powerless to please God. Your flesh doesn't want to hear that your sin sent Christ to the cross. That's not what your flesh wants to hear. It's a grace centered Gospel Acts twenty twenty four. But I do not account my life any value nor as precious to myself. If only I may finish my course in the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. The grace of God. By grace, you've been saying, oh, thank you, I'm sorry. By faith, you've been saved through faith, and it's a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that Noma can boast it's a grace senter. Amen. If this is not the gospel that we're hearing, then we're not in a true church. We're not in a healthy church. If this is not the gospel that we're hearing, If this is not the gospel that I'm preaching, then I am not preaching to the health and well being of my people. Amen. All right, biblical officers. The others won't be as long as that one. The biblical officers that we have the elder, overseer, bishop, pastor again terms used interchangeably. The Confession uses the term bishop, elder interchangeably, and deacon. But there are those two offices. Think of them as word. Indeed, all right, with our elders, called and gifted by God, Called and gifted by God, see that Ephesians four. I'm qualified for the work on Timothy three, Titus one, first Peter five. So again, called and gifted has to also be qualified, Amen, Called and gifted has to be qualified and then appointed ordained by the Church. We don't self appoint as elders. We have to be evaluated, evaluated in terms of whether or not you have these gifts and graces, and in terms of whether or not you're qualified. And one of the interesting things about all of these pseudo churches, right, haven't haven't done anything here formally in this regard. Uh. But you know when you when you when you lift up the hood and look at the engine. In these pseudo churches, there are a number of things that you find out of place, and almost always you find a minister who's self appointed. Nobody sent them. Ay man that's self appointed. Put out a shingle. Right, we're doing the deal, self appointed, accountable to no one. Okay, this is not the picture that we find scripturally called and gifted by God, qualified for the work. Those qualifications are evaluated and then appointed, and they're dained by the church. We see that. We see this in Titus. I left you in Creek to set things in order. I left you there are appoint of elders. All right, let's move to the biblical ordinances, sacraments two, baptism, and the Lord's Supper. Listen to this from Jonathan Lehmann in his book The Church and the Surprising Offense of God's Love Baptism and the Lord's Supper also served as membership controls for the church. Baptism is a means for admitting people into the church, and the Lord's Supper is the means for allowing people to give a sign of continuing in the membership of the church. The church signifies that it considers those who receive baptism and the Lord's Supper to be saved. Therefore, these activities indicate what a church thinks about salvation, and they are appropriately listed as a mark of the church today as well. Again. Baptism, Lord Supper, front door, back door. You're Baptism says you're one of us. Welcome, right. The Lord's Supper says we continue to acknowledge and recognize you as one of us. When someone is disciplined by the church, what's removed from them? Table fellowship? Table fellowship is removed? Amen, belong right there, y'all right, I'm okay, all right, this is one mit. You want to make sure I'm still in the right room. Okay. Table fellowship is removed. Okay, it's removed. And let's let's let's let let's let's let me deal with this. We have to be very careful with the way that we even think about this, let alone talk about this. I somebody asked me on Sunday after my message, uh if I believed that Adam and Eve were in heaven, And I said, I don't. I don't put people in heaven unless the Bible does. Hey, man, well, who I want to you know? I read, I read an Old Testament narrative and I'm like, I, yes, this one's in. Come on, now, come on. We battle enough for the assurance of our own salvation. You want us to do it for other people? Listen, Believers sin sometimes grievous. I didn't put this on here, but let me sorry. Listen to this Chapter twenty, Chapter seventeen, The perseverance of the Saints, paragraph three. And though they may, through the temptation of Satan, end of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of means of their preservation, fall into grievous sins, not just sins, grievous sins, and for a time continue therein. So we've fallen into a grievous sin, and we continue in that grievous sin, whereby they incur God's displeasure. And grieve His Holy Spirit. Come to have their graces and comfort impaired, have their hearts hardened and their consciences wounded, hurt and scandalize others, and bring temporal judgments upon themselves. Yet they shall renew their repentance and be preserved through faith in Christ Jesus to the end. Let me say this, and let me say this carefully. I think we too easily and too flippantly tell people that they weren't really saved. They sin grievously, continuously experienced temporal judgment, scandalized the name of Christ, were disciplined by the church, and then you know, things turn around, and you know what our desire is is to say, they just weren't. They just weren't Christian thought they were saved, but really weren't saved. A couple of things. One our own confession. Our own confession doesn't allow for that kind of automatic knee jerk response. Number two, I don't know. I don't know. Here's number three. I think we do a couple of things when we do that. Sometimes that may be the case, but I think we do a couple of things when we do that. I think number one, we downplay this magnificent race, this grace of God receiving a wounded sheep back and healing it. But I think there's a second thing that we do. I think there are people sitting out there in the audience listening to us and to others who immediately say this happened because I wasn't a Christian, And in their mind they're going, ohoh, good thing, I am a Christian. I don't have to worry about that. Yes you do. Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. And I worry that we don't take advantage of the opportunity to warn Christians, to warn Christians that but for the grace of God, there go you. It can happen. Watch yourself, pastor around women who are not your wife, it can happen. Watch yourself. When opportunities for corruption and compromise arise, it can happen. Watch yourself. It happens, It has happened, And our flippant, knee jerk reaction to say ah must not have been saying that could be possible. But then here's another issue. Do I need to know that if you send grievously and continuously, and you know and brought scandal and all these sorts of things. If you weren't truly a believer and that happened, what do you need? Repent and believe? If you were a believer when that happened, what do you need? I can't know. I can't know where you were when that happened. I can't know this. Regardless of where you were, what you need is repent and believe. So rather than you know, standing around navel gazing, you know, to figure out what did you I don't know that. I don't know that. Repent, believe, turned to Christ, trust him and him alone as your only hope. That's what you need. And for the rest of you out there witnessing, watch yourselves, watch yourselves, and him who thinks he stands take heed lest default. So, yes, that we remove these privileges from people. We may excommunicate people and treat them like unbelievers, but there's a difference between having the authority and the responsibility to do that and taking it upon ourselves to declare when a person was actually saved. Are you smelling when I'm stepping in? Huh? All right? Biblical discipline, formative discipline and corrective discipline. Formative discipline and corrective discipline. And you know, often oftentimes when we think about discipline in the church, the only thing we think about is corrective discipline. But there's also formative discipline. Just like with our children. The only discipline with our children is not corrective discipline. The most of the discipline with our children is formative, instructing them in what to do, what not to do, how to live, how not to live, and so on and so forth. Okay, so putting these things together, let's look at the sort of practical arguments for church membership that are born out of this. And there's five major categories or headings. One is identification, another edification, cooperation, accountability, and submission. All right, first identification, Listen, membership in the True Church identifies a person as a Christian who believes the true Gospel. Amen, Membership in the True Church identifies a person as a believer or as a Christian who believes the true Gospel. Again, I just said, we don't have the authority from a spiritual standpoint to declare you know, who got in who didn't get in, right, But we evaluate people based on their profession, and we baptize people, you know, based on their profession and based on you know, the evidence that we see supporting that, and we're saying that this person is evident, is showing evidence to be a Christian who believes the true Gospel. Amen. That's important. That's important. It's important for you and for me. And I'm not talking about you and me as elders looking at other people. I'm talking about you and me as believers. Amen. Believers need this prone to wander, Lord, I feel it prone to leave the one I love. Here's my heart, Lord, taking seal it. Seal it for our courts the book above we are. We are pron to wonder. And this is why churchlessness is so sinister. Because we are prone to wonder. We do need to be before those ordinary means of grace on a regular basis. On Timothy three fourteen fifteen. I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the Church of the Living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. I am not a pillar and buttress of the truth. The Church is. The Church is, And by the way, this is why from the standpoint of the church. It's so important that we guard our doctrine, all right. This is another argument for confessional, Amen, This is another argument for confessionalism. And by the way, all churches are confessional. All churches are confessional. It's just that some churches have a public confession, other churches have a private confession. But all churches are confessional. All churches draw the line somewhere, all right. But churches that don't have a public written confession are drawing a line somewhere that they're not telling everybody. All right, But all churches have a confession, whether they acknowledge it or not, but whether they know it or not. Okay. On John two nineteen the language here they went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they are not of us us us us Amen. By the way, if you read it again, you'd see that every time there's in us, there's a day, right, they us, they us. We identify ourselves with the US and not the them. Okay. Number two, That identifies us as one who loves the brothers. John thirteen thirty five by this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. And it's amazing how people everybody wants to run to that idea of the universal Church because it's easy to love theoretical people who agree with you on everything. Amen, there's people out there. I love everybody in the church. What church, you know, the universal Church out there, who all hold to the same things that I hold to disagree with me on anything, and never hurt my feelings and never upsets. Come on, now, that's not what's being said here. Look for example at one John two seven through eleven, Beloved, I'm writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you've had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you've heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you. Because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother, is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in light and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness. And walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. Do we love the brethren? How do you know that without membership in a local body of believers. Thirdly, it identifies us as one who walks in righteousness, because if I don't walk in righteousness, I'll be just fellowshipped. Amen. So this is what a healthy church is doing. A healthy church is saying more, I'm hearing the true gospel. I've responded to the true gospel. And in this healthy church that preaches the true gospel and understands salvation based on this true gospel, they are affirming to me that I am reflecting and representing what it looks like for this to take hold and take fruit. And I've been baptized in this true church. And now I'm continuing in this true church. And I have table fellowship with this true church because they are acknowledging that they continue to see in me that which is consistent with my profession. If I'm not part of a true church, where do I get this from? All? Right? Argument number two edification edification, And here we talk about the ordinary means of grace and spurring one another on. Listen to this from Richard Baxter. If you will be converted and saved, attend upon the Word of God, which is the ordinary means. Westminster Confession. The outward and ordinary means where by Christ communicated to us. The benefits of redemption are the ordinances, especially the Word, sacraments and prayer, all which are made effectual to the elect for salvation. Listen to this in Second London Apist Confession. The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts, and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word, by which also and by the administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper, prayer and other means appointed of God. It is increased and strengthened these ordinary means. Okay, let me just say a few things about this. From our confession, we see that the ordinary means of grace were understood to be the ministry of the Word, baptism, the Lord's Supper and prayer. These ordinary means of grace we call them ordinary means of grace. There are extraordinary means, amen, but these are the ordinary means by which God communicates these things to us. The cornerstone of this is the ministry of the Word. It's the umbrella under which the others come. It is pre eminent among the means of grace because it gives rise to the others. How do we know about the others? We know about them because of what we find in the ministry of the Word. Amen, So it's pre eminent among those. How can they call upon whom and Him and whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in Him whom they have never heard? How are they to hear without someone preaching? And how do they preach unless they are sent? As it is written? How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good News? But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ. That word does something. It is a means of grace. Okay to criteria, Ah boy, all right, I had two minutes. Two criteria for whether or not we classify something as a means of grace. Number one, it has divine and dominical institution and I'm indebted to Barcelos for this. It has divine or dominical institution. It's instituted by the Lord. And secondly, there is a promise of divine blessing. Okay, those are the things that we identify as such. But divine institution we mean it's instituted by the Lord under the New Covenant. That's why we call it dominical right under the New Covenant, and it comes from the commands of Christ. We see in our confession that baptism and the Lord's Supper are spoken of in these ways. Particularly in those chapters, there is a promise of divine blessing related to God's covenant with his people. God acts, God acts in these means of grace, and Christ is the one who brings blessing. It's interesting when we come before the table of the Lord, oftentimes those of us we are Baptists, especially if we have Baptist roots that are not reform Baptist roots. Our Baptist routs say to us, you know our position on the Lord's Supper, it's purely memorial. There's nothing more than that. There's nothing more than that going on here. Yeah. Read First Corinthians ten. Read the confession. We do not believe in transubstantiation or consumstantiation, but we do believe that the Lord suppers and means of grace instituted by the Lord, and that there's a blessing attached to it. Ay Man, the spiritual reality there all right. Number three cooperation exercising our spiritual gifts Romans twelve, First Corinthians twelve. It's amazing, you know. In one Corinthians twelve we learn that all the spiritual gifts that God gives us are given for the edification of the body Amen, all of them, all of them meeting material needs Acts Chapter two, First Timothy, Chapter five. And then of course there's the whole ministry that we find in Titus two of the Older to the younger. Right, all of these things, all of this cooperation requires that we are part of a body of believers. Number four Accountability, accountability for what for life and doctrine. Accountability for life and doctrine, that we believe rightly, that we live rightly. This is what we find in the church. And fifthly, submission to authority. Submission to authority Hebrews thirteen seventeen. Obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with growing, for that would be of no advantage to you. And so again we're called clearly as believers to submit to spiritual authority. So when we understand that this is what the healthy church looks like, the true church looks like, this is what the healthy church does while the healthy church, while the true church exist, we then go from that to look at the life of the individual. And it's not difficult for us to say, we all need this. Not only do we all need this, we all have to have this. Not only do we all need it and have to have it, but it's commanded. We do not forsake the assembly, all right. And again for those who argue, yeah, that's right, we don't forsake the assembly. But the Lord says, you know, wherever two or three are gathered in his name, right, we find that in Matthew eighteen in the Church Discipline passage, right that Matthew eighteen Church Discipline Passage and the being gathered together in His name talks about the authority of the church to exercise discipline, Amen talks about the authority of the church to exercise discipline. It absolutely does not teach that anytime two believers get to get whether you have a constituted true church. Come on, now, why does Paul tell Titus and Titus one I left you in crete to set in order what remains appoint elders? Ah, Paul, we don't have to do that, because all you need is two people. We have a two or three are gathered in my name? Right? If that's true, how can the apostle Paul say that there's something out of order in crete? Riddle me that, Batman. Huh. It's out of order because Matthew eighteen has nothing to do with what constitutes a true church and everything to do with affirming the authority of the true church to exercise discipline. Amen. Okay, so all right, a lot more than we can talk about here, but we don't want to stop so that we have time for questions. Okay,