Well, thank you again for being here. If you will, find in your copy of the Scriptures the book of Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. If we've not had a chance to meet yet, I'm Jarrett Downs. I'm one of the pastors here at Heritage. Hebrews chapter 13, and I would like to read to you verses 1 through 14. Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing, some have unwittingly entertained angels. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them, those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are in the body also. Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. For he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Remember those rulers who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned outside the camp, therefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp bearing his reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. I believe that it will be very appropriate for us to begin our conference with the kind of encouragement and instruction that can serve us as, or that can serve as an overall guidance to our approach to Baptist history. And the passage that I just read to you, I believe, provides us exactly the kind of guidance that we need in order to properly approach the study of the generations who have preceded us in the faith. Hebrews 13 contains some very practical and pointed applications, as you have just heard, and they are all based upon the glorious doctrine that has been presented already in the book of the sufficiency and the superiority of the person in the work of Christ. The book of Hebrews teaches this message. that God spoke in times past, in various ways, and at various times by the prophets. And He did so in shadows and types and prophecies, but has in these last days spoken to us by His Son who is not simply another shadow, but He is the brightness of the glory of God. God has spoken to us by the Son who is the prophet, who does not simply point us to God, but who Himself is the express image of His person. God has spoken to us by this Son who does not foreshadow, but has actually purged our sins by Himself. And unlike the Levitical priests who had to remain standing and ready to repeat the shadow ceremonies over and over again, this priest, after making his offering, he sits down. And he sits down at the right hand of the majesty on high in an unambiguous and undeniable display of the glory of a finished work, which does not have to be repeated. Our Savior is the Savior of the gospel which Moses preached. Our Savior is the heavenly pattern upon which the tabernacle of fabric and metal was constructed. Our Savior is the glory and the light who was casting the shadows seen in the Levitical ceremonies. And in Him, we have not been brought again to the base of a thundering and burning Mount Sinai. from which rained down upon the people words and commands and judgments which the people themselves begged would just stop. It was such a sight that even Moses admitted that he was exceedingly afraid and terrified and trembling. We've not been brought to that mountain if we've been brought to Christ. In Christ we have been brought by the grace of the Father and the application of the Spirit, not to that old mountain, but to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem. And it is there, dear saints, at that new mountain, at that new city, that we are gathered together in the greatest of GAs, the General Assembly of the Firstborn, the Church of the Firstborn, and from this mountain. comes a word which soothes and reassures that God has declared us right by Jesus the mediator of the new covenant. The blood of Abel was spilled and it cried out to God from the ground and his blood when spilled cried out for judgment and it cried out for vengeance. And God was good and God was right to answer that call. But in Christ we have come to the blood of sprinkling, which cries out for mercy and forgiveness. And God is good and God is right to hear that call and to welcome us safely to His throne of grace. This is the gospel of the book of Hebrews. And this is the gospel upon which we rest our heads at night. And this is the gospel which makes secure paths of obedience in the day. And this is the gospel which motivates the obedience of Hebrews chapter 13. And in Hebrews 13 at verse 7, there is presented to us what I believe is a local application of the principle of Hebrews 11. That there is a parade of believers from the beginning to now who are all bound together in justification by faith alone in the promised Son alone." It's not that they were all as...sometimes I've heard it referred to as the hall of faith or the heroes of the faith or something like that. I think that this is what binds them all together. They all humbly put their faith in the promised Son alone, and they're all bound together by that. And because we have been surrounded by a cloud of people distant and people near who have all had the same testimony, that believing in Christ is believing to the saving of the soul, we now hear their testimony and we are strengthened to maintain ours. That's the very general principle of Hebrews 11. Or to remember those like Abel or Noah or Abraham who, though long dead, still preach to us through the Scriptures And here at verse 7, we are to remember those generations who have preceded us, who have preached the scriptures to us, they themselves also proclaiming and entrusting themselves to the same and only gospel there ever was. So when you look at verse 7, the first and primary application is the thankful remembrance which takes place within our individual congregations of the men we personally knew. who preached the gospel to us. But I think when we step back a little bit and we consider this as an application of the general principle of chapter 11, I believe that we not only may, but that we must extend our thankful remembrance of faithful teachers and guides beyond just our local congregations. This is one of the benefits of the communion that we enjoy in our state and national associations. But I also believe that we must extend our thankful remembrance beyond just the nearest generation that precedes us. And that's one of the benefits of historical studies. Therefore, the question is, how may we be guided as we extend a thankful remembrance to our Baptist forefathers? Well, let me give you six ways that I believe that we may be guided today and tomorrow, and the text will help us with these. Six ways that we may be guided. First of all, a proper remembrance of the faithful preachers who have preceded us is a characteristic of perseverance. The faithful, or excuse me, the proper remembrance of the faithful ministers who have preceded us is a characteristic of perseverance. You notice that chapter 13 is a continuation of the applications in the book of Hebrews, and as such it is a continuation or a continuing description of Christian endurance. That's what is being described here for us. Both the individual Christian and the Christian congregations are to be marked by these particular characteristics, which are the marks of perseverance with Christ. So what are those characteristics? Well, perseverance with Christ is perseverance in brotherly love. Perseverance with Christ is marked by this, the perseverance of love to the stranger and to the prisoner. Perseverance with Christ is marked by a perseverance of purity, whether you are married or single. There's this perseverance of contentment, but also this, the perseverance of the remembrance of the faithful preachers who have preceded us. These are the marks of enduring Christians. A proper consideration of the saints who have preceded us in the preaching of the gospel is no more optional than brotherly love or purity or contentment. It's not that we may. It's that we must give our consideration and our remembrance to the stream of believers from Abel down to today, this parade of the faithful who all have had the same testimony of faith in Christ. So observe here from our text that this command to extend our thankfulness and our consideration to the preachers and the guides who have preceded us is in the context of an enduring walk with Christ. Secondly, the proper remembrance of the faithful preachers who have preceded us is essential for perseverance in orthodoxy. Now, there's not two kinds of perseverance. If there is going to be perseverance, it will be perseverance in orthodoxy. Our perseverance with Christ is defined by our perseverance in His doctrine. It's not a matter of if you feel like you are persevering. It's a matter of if you are believing and doing what Christ says. Our perseverance is a perseverance in His promises and in His commands. It is by His doctrine. So you can see then how very appropriate verse 9 is in this very context, which says, do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings. It's not that we may, it's that we must give our consideration and remembrance to this passing down of the doctrine of Christ. Yes, progressively unveiled from the time of Abel to the time of the apostles, but it was always the doctrine of the one Messiah, of the one son of the woman from Genesis 3.15. It was always the same gospel. So a remembrance of the faithful preaching of times past, distant and past near, will serve to protect us from stepping outside the stream of Orthodox Christianity. The proper remembrance of our faithful guides of the past is essential for our doctrinal stability today. We cannot suppose that, especially we as preachers, can ignore the passing down of the good deposit and still have the good deposit. Do you want to be susceptible to being carried away with some strange and novel doctrine? Do you really want to risk stepping outside the consistent testimony from the past of believers in general and of the message of faithful preachers in particular? Our Savior tells us in verse 7 to follow their faith, to cling to justification by faith alone in Christ alone as they did. A faith that is novel or unique or strange will only lead us away. If you untie the boat at the dock in the river, it will drift away. One of the strands in that rope is the remembrance of faithful leaders. It is no random placement of this text here in our context when we are told, don't be carried about with various and strange doctrines, after being told that we must bring a proper remembrance to the preachers who have preceded us. giving a careful consideration. Well, third, a proper remembrance of the faithful ministers who have preceded us is by remembering the word they preached. A proper remembrance of them is to remember the word they preached. Remember those rulers who have spoken the word of God to you. Our thankful remembrance And our grateful perusal of ecclesiastical history is not with an idolatrous veneration of particular people, but with thankfulness for the Word of God they preached, and with thankfulness for the good deposit they have passed down to us. If there will be any passing down of the good deposit, any passing down of the one gospel, it will be by the faithful preaching of the Word of God. The work of Baptist history then for us is not just simply names and dates. It's the tuning of our ears to the pitch of verse 7 and then listening for the word of God that our Baptist forefathers preached. A proper remembrance of the faithful ministers who have preceded us is by remembering the outcome of their way of life. Again, from verse 7, we remember those rulers who have spoken the Word of God to us, and we consider the outcome of their conduct. Now, the word for outcome here is referring to more than just the end result of a man's life. It's a little bit more nuanced or complicated than that. It's a word that carries the idea of a person being delivered or rescued to a certain end in their life. So we could translate the verse as, consider the escape or consider the deliverance of the manner of their life. Consider that there is this tenor or this theme in their lives. There is this outcome for all of them. There's an outcome of deliverance unto safety. John Owen puts it this way. He wrote saying that this word signifies an end accompanied with a deliverance from and so a conquest over such difficulties and dangers as men were exposed to. He says, these persons in the whole course of their conversation, that means their manner of life, were exercised with difficulties, dangers, and sufferings, all attempting to stop them in their way or to turn them out of it. But what did it all amount unto? It was a blessed deliverance from all troubles and conquest over them. Can we find then in Hebrews 11? Can we find any that God abandoned? Consider the deliverance, which is the tenor or the tone of their lives. Do we have any record of God revoking His promises to a poor soul held by Christ? Will we ever find in history far or history near the perishing of a true hope in Christ? In a proper remembrance of those who have preceded us, and who persevered, we will be putting our consideration upon God's preservation of them. We consider the outcome of their life, this tone or this tenor of deliverance. Fifth, a proper remembrance of the faithful leaders who have preceded us is always with our hope in the Savior. It's always with our hope in the Savior. Notice verse 8. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Historiography is, among other things, the attempt to organize and present a story that always has fluctuations. It always has an ebb and flow and highs and lows. Church history and Baptist history Congregational history has always had this element of transition from one generation of leadership to another. So can we be confident in the midst of that? In the midst of that change and turmoil that's always present with us, can we be confident that the good doctrine preached in times past is still the good doctrine? Can we be confident that it is still reliable? Yes, because Jesus is. Can we be confident that we will be delivered as our forefathers were delivered? Yes, because there is an alpha and an omega. Can we have a stabilizing comfort in the face of the reality that our leaders are here for only a short time? Yes, because Christ remains. We can look back with thankfulness upon those who have preached the gospel to us personally, or as we extend our thankfulness beyond the immediately preceding generation, and we can do so with a confident thankfulness. Though they are gone, Christ remains. Is the gospel that they preached somehow lost? in the passing of lives, in the passage of time? No, because Christ remains. Is the testimony that God gave to them, declaring them right in His sight by the righteousness of another, somehow rendered unavailable or ineffectual to us because of the changing of history? Baptist history is the study of men whose bodies have perished or are perishing. Well, the heavens will perish, won't they? They will grow old. God will take them like an old worn-out garment and fold them up. But to the Son, He says, you are the same and your years will never fail. Your throne is forever and ever. Passing away of good men is not the passing away of the gospel, so we study history with some confidence. Well, sixth and finally then, a sixth way that I believe that we can be guided for our conference this next two days is this. Number six, a proper remembrance of the faithful leaders who have preceded us should encourage us to be the same for those who will follow us. If you yourself, if you are a minister of the gospel, verse seven ought to really catch your attention. As pastors we should be striving to be these kind of leaders so that the people who listen to our preaching would be able to give a thankful remembrance of the doctrine that we taught and of our example of faith. Would you like to be respected as a pastor? David Dixon says this, he wrote this, He said the best respect a preacher can crave or that a people can give to a preacher either in his lifetime or after is to remember the truth of God taught by him and to make use thereof. That's the best kind of respect that we can crave, the respect that's being spoken of in verse 7. So, dear friends, may we give this kind of remembrance to those of the past that we will hear about today and tomorrow, and then may our consideration of them encourage us to be the same for those who will come after us. May the Lord bless us today and tomorrow. Let's pray together. Father, we are thankful for the opportunity that you have given us in this conference to gather together. these opportunities that we have father to be of encouragement to one another. Um, to hear teaching, to give our consideration to important things. So father, we are not only thankful to you for this, but we wish to thank you for this great and glorious gospel that you had preached to us. Father, by your grace, you are causing to continue to be preached to us. We thank you for your tender mercies, sending us a preacher. We thank you for the gift and the work of your Holy Spirit to give us light in life. That we may. Hear your word with joy and with reception and belief. Thank you, Father. for the grace that you have extended to us. Father, we pray for those that will be leading us in the teaching today and tomorrow. We pray that you would strengthen them. We pray that the teaching would be honoring to you and it would be encouraging to your people. Help us, Father, to be encouraged in the gospel. Help us, Father, to be encouraged for perseverance as we put our thinking upon men of the past. Help us, Father, to be strengthened and clinging ever more tightly to our dear Savior. Father, we thank You for grace, and we thank You for the sending of Your Son. And we thank You that we enjoy the forgiveness of our sins by Him, by the shedding of His blood. We look to You, Father, for all that we need. We pray in Jesus' name. Okay. Our next session will begin at 3 o'clock. Do I have a little bit after 2 right now? Is that the correct time? Okay. Our next session begins at 3 o'clock.