I'd like to take you back in time exactly 500 years. Imagine that today is September 25th in the year 1514. It was a Friday. Do you know what the lives of professing Christians were like then on this day 500 years ago? Leo X was the Pope in Rome. He had been elected Bishop of Rome in 1513. And he's the man who would excommunicate Martin Luther in January of 1521, seven years in the future. Among those who would be the most important leaders in the decades ahead, Luther was the oldest of them. He was 31. He was a professor of Bible and theology at Wittenberg University. He had received his doctoral degree and his teaching credentials just two years prior. Ulrich Zwingli was also 31, just three months younger than Luther. William Farrell was 24 years old. Martin Bucer was 22. Philip Melanchthon was only 17. Peter Martyr Vermily was 14 years old. John Knox was no more than eight. John Calvin had just passed his fifth birthday. And all of these men were still very much Roman Catholics. Henry VIII had ascended to the throne of England five years before, and he was a faithful Romanist, happily married to Spain's Catherine of Aragon. Nearly a decade would pass before he wrote his famous and very Romanist treatise called, A Treatise on the Seven Sacraments, written specifically in opposition to Luther. In fact, the Pope was so pleased with it that he gave Henry the title, Defender of the Faith, That title still belongs to the English monarch today. Five years ago on this day in Germany, the man who would be Luther's protector, Frederick the Wise, had ruled his portion of Saxony for 28 years. Founder of the University of Wittenberg, he too was a devoted Roman churchman. In 1493, he had made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and began amassing relics, assembling one of the largest collections in Europe, a 1505 catalog of Frederick's stock inventories, over 5,000 items. And it is said that by 1520, the accumulation had grown to over 10,000 pieces. According to Roland Bainton, it included, I quote, a genuine thorn from the crown of Christ, certified to have pierced the Savior's brow, a twig from Moses' burning bush, various pieces of the bodies of Jerome, Chrysostom, Bernard, and Augustine, four of Mary's hairs, as well as three pieces of her cloak, four from her girdle, and seven from her veil sprinkled with Christ's blood. From Christ Himself, a piece of His swaddling clothes, thirteen pieces of His crib, a wisp of straw, a piece of gold, and three pieces of myrrh from the wise men." A strand of his beard, a piece of the bread from the Last Supper, one of the nails driven into his hand and a piece of the stone from which he ascended into heaven. Baten goes on and he says this. Those who viewed these relics on the designated day and made the stipulated contributions might receive from the Pope indulgences for the reduction of purgatory either for themselves or others, to the extent of 1,902,202 years and 270 days." Wow, that's a long time. These were the treasures that were made available on the day of all saints, November 1st, in the castle church in Wittenberg. On this day, September 25th, 1514, There was a great deal of religious activity in Europe. Not only was it a Friday with all of the attached fasting requirements, you couldn't eat meat, but it was also a saint's day in many different places. In parts of Germany, it was the day to celebrate the memory of Blessed Hermann the Cripple. In France, you might commemorate St. Erminfridus of Constance, or St. Lupus of Lyon, or St. Anachrius of Auxerre. In Ireland, it was the day to remember St. Finbar, who after he died, it was said that the sun did not set for two weeks. In Wales, St. Cyan was honored on this day. And in Scotland, it was the feast day of St. Finbar. If you were devout, you perhaps would make a pilgrimage to the saint's birthplace or to the saint's grave, or you would attend a mass in his or her honor. One of the most important elements of the saint's day was the procession. in which the bishops and the priests and the monks and the nuns and the guilds and the church officials and the civic administrators and all of the people would walk in careful array through the town. Usually the least important would go first, and at the end there would be the bishop or the cardinal who would process underneath the canopy carrying the monstrance, which was a special container to display the consecrated host. If there were any relics from the saint, they also might be carried through the streets so that when the procession passed by you, you might bow down at the shinbone of Saint So-and-So. 500 years ago today, pilgrimages were essential to devotion. The wealthiest of Europeans, like Frederick the Wise, might actually be able to visit the Holy Land, or more conveniently, like Luther, to go to Rome. For most, however, a pilgrimage involved a journey to nearby holy sites to view relics or offer up prayers for the dead frequently in order to gain indulgences from purgatory. Since Jerusalem, the most important destination for Christians, was so far removed from Europe, substitute pilgrimages were acceptable. An ancient alternative known as walking the stations of the cross was in vogue. This was, and still is in many places, a pilgrimage that's taken in a small place, perhaps within the walls of a church building, at which the penitent stops to meditate and pray at depictions of the events of Jesus' last hours. These were found all over Europe. Similarly, in some of the great cathedrals, a pilgrimage could be simulated by walking a labyrinth, a serpentine pathway set out on the cathedral floor, In every case, the pilgrimage was considered an act of devotion to Christ. If you lived in a place where the local saint wasn't being honored on September 25th, and that, of course, would be most of Europe, you would still probably have a lot to do. Almost certainly, you would attend Mass. Though we think of it as a Sunday activity, in the slower cultures of the past, it was a daily occupation. Daily attendance was part of life, and it was the routine for many people, which included time for church. The building itself would have witnessed a great deal of activity on this Friday. Most churches had a central altar where the main service was held, but they also incorporated smaller altars at the sides and at the back, often even behind the high altar. Priests were employed to sing masses many times a day so that loved ones would be more quickly delivered from purgatory. If you had enough money, you were expected to use it for the benefit of your loved ones by hiring priests to say these masses for you. This was one way by which you could show your love for your family. Of course, if you didn't have money, there was provision for you too. You could light a candle and say a prayer by yourself. the churches would have been lit daily by the many candles burning in memorial to departed loved ones. While you probably couldn't read, you might have heard of the contemplations of famous mystics of the previous centuries. Julian of Norwich, Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart were all well-known and greatly influential. They had called for deeper and more intimate spiritual encounters with Christ. and their calls were widely received. By 1514, much of Europe was interested in a growing movement rooted in medieval mysticism, which sought to increase the consecration of Christians. It was called the Modern Devotion. The most famous author from this cause was Thomas Akempis, who penned the famous book, The Imitation of Christ, which was the direct forerunner of the What Would Jesus Do campaign. Perhaps the most famous advocate of the modern devotion was Erasmus. This movement was an attempt to promote meditation and a more Christ-like discipleship. You may have heard of the lay organization that adhered to the modern devotion. It was called the Brethren of the Common Life. The name tells us something about its emphasis. Simple devotion to Jesus and love to one another. Beyond the church and your own interest in eternal life, you would have been well aware of all of the great monasteries and convents found all over Europe. While they're far removed from our own experience, they were incredibly important in 1514. You almost certainly lived within a few hours walk of some kind of religious house, and probably it was even closer than that. The monasteries were, at least in theory, Places for laymen to go and find a contemplative walk with God. You see, we need to remember that they were intended as houses for the laity. Certainly, every nun was a laywoman, for no female could be ordained to the office of priest, and they could never sing the Mass. In fact, many monks were also laymen. Of course, there were others, many others who did receive ordination and could officiate at the mass. But this was not a requirement for entry into monastic orders. These houses often dominated the landscape around them and served as landowner and supplier of necessary goods and even of local governance. Beyond their prominence, they became a powerful part of religious life. And this is one of the reasons that Henry VIII dissolved the English monasteries in the 1530s. If you had the funds, you paid others, monks and nuns, to do your religion for you. And how much was done depended on your status. The richer that you were, the more you could have done for yourself and for others. The ordained monks could spend their days saying masses for you and your loved ones. The nuns could pray, and they did so as part of their daily routine. We could say much more. Sometimes this wide range of piety and devotion was called opus dei, translated the work of God. But in reality, it was the work of man. For in fact, it made God primarily a spectator. He watched as men and women worked. in acts of contrition, in daily masses, in pageants and spectacles, on high holy days. And He dispensed some level of forgiveness. You have to remember purgatory. That's that thing that's out there before you. God dispensed a level of forgiveness in response to what you did. For all of these people all over Europe, eternal life was important and it was a daily concern. The entire continent was like a busy beehive of religious activity. If the Apostle Paul had toured Europe 500 years ago, he might have said, to paraphrase the words that he spoke when he visited Athens, men of Europe, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. From Scandinavia to Gibraltar, from Sicily to the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, Europe was thoroughly Roman Catholic. and the Reformation was still years away. You see, there's a common misconception about the decades just prior to the Reformation. Sometimes it's said that religion was at its lowest ebb. That the fires had burned low and few people cared. But that's exactly opposite to the truth. Nearly everyone cared. And they were active participants in a whole host of pious behaviors. And this is the climate. from which the Reformation came. In the next decade, as the Reformation began to dawn, Luther and his colleagues began the process of examining this amazing collage of religion. They knew that there were significant problems with the reigning pattern of piety, and they considered both doctrine and practice, probing everything carefully by Scripture, seeking to construct a better way by which people may be able to know God. As they evaluated the familiar practices, they saw that there were two fundamental flaws in most of them. First off, they were based on a semi-Pelagian understanding of grace. You know, the Roman system of salvation had an important place for grace. In fact, it taught that salvation began with grace. But the problem was that it also had a very important place for man's actions. Grace began the process and enabled man to work. But at the end of the day, salvation depended on man's fulfilling the actions prescribed by God or more likely, the actions prescribed by the church. Salvation was not wholly of grace, but was rather the result of synergism. God began the process and man, with God's assistance, completed it. The multitudes of pious practices found throughout Europe in 1514 were based on this theological fact. Grace and works merged together. The second fundamental flaw noted by the reformers was that much of this activity was based in human invention and not in the revelation of scripture. Practices had developed over centuries and became part of the accepted definition of Christian life. Adherents pursued these acts with unquestioning vigor simply because they were the things that Christians did. There were few who paused to ask whether they should be doing these things. or why they did them. Of course, in their beginnings, almost every act flowed from a noble motive. Someone, somewhere, seeking a more robust spiritual life, began this practice, advocated its benefit, and others followed, seeking the promised profit. But even laudable motives to increase piety and devotion cannot legitimize a practice. The long-term results of this pattern in late medieval Romanism speak loudly and clearly. They were at the very core for the need of reformation. Even practices rooted in Scripture had been corrupted by semi-Pelagianism and human traditions. Baptism had long ago devolved into an application of water on infants. And when water touched the body, grace entered the heart. While the Mass was the most important religious act, strangely, most Christians only received the sacrament once a year at Easter time. Their attendance at Mass was as observers, not as participants. Similarly, it is estimated that most Christians, even the ones who attended Mass most frequently, only heard about 10 sermons in an entire year. Preaching was badly neglected. It's strange to think that they really believe that people would benefit from watching a priest mumble a religious service in Latin, a language that the people didn't understand. One comes to understand how magic or perhaps better superstition and Christianity came to be interwoven. We need to remember that all of these things, the lighting of candles and the pilgrimages and the fasts and the relics and everything else were popular attempts to find forgiveness from God and eternal life for themselves and their loved ones. Day by day, week by week, year by year, people were ardently pursuing this cycle of religious works, desiring to know that eventually they would be free of the fear of judgment and welcome into the eternal presence of God. We must not blame the fervent people. They did what they knew and they did what they were told. Christianity had become a religion of human effort based on human traditions. The reformers reacted against this man-centered form of piety by turning their attention to God, asking the question, what does He do? What does God do to grant salvation? How does salvation come to sinners? How do Christians, how do believers grow in Christlikeness? Well, these are central questions and that they're at the very heart of Reformation theology. In fact, if we think about this historically, We can say even more so that they are at the heart of Reformed theology. Luther did well, but his sight was limited. Those who came after him built upon his insights and moved the cause of Reformation forward. We call this Reformed theology. The question was this. How does God dispense grace to the elect? How does God dispense grace to the elect? And it is a pressing question, isn't it? In the recovery of a doctrine of grace as opposed to works, it's not enough simply to articulate a doctrine. To do only this is effectively to make the doctrine merely theoretical. For Reformation to have any power, it must also address practical questions. How does God's grace work in the world? Do the Scriptures teach us methods that God employs to bring salvation to His people? And, how is He active in the pious acts of Christian believers? Well, the result of this burning inquiry was the development of the Reformation doctrine of the media gratiae, or the means of grace. Now, let me try to define for you the means of grace. Let's try to define this more carefully. Grace must be understood as God's unmerited favor extended to sinners. It originates in God. It comes only from Him. Grace provides every aspect of salvation to humans. It is completely apart from human works of any kind. The other term means the means of grace is an English rendering of the Latin word media, and it simply indicates a method of communicating or imparting something. We speak of the news media and the news media, at least in theory. are the instruments to inform us of events that take place in the world around us. We wouldn't know of what is happening in the world unless some means was used to tell us the news media. The phrase means of grace simply speaks of the instruments or methods that God determines to employ to bring grace to His elect. Richard Muller defines the phrase in the Reformation era this way, the method by which the grace of God is active in the church, instrumental both in the inception of salvation and in the continuance of the work of grace. Similarly, Charles Hodge says this. The phrase is intended to indicate those institutions which God has ordained to be the ordinary channels of grace That is, of the supernatural influences of the Holy Spirit to the souls of men. Well, so far, so good. But what are the means of grace? Well, unless we think carefully, we will not understand exactly what this phrase intends. Frequently, we use it generally to describe any good and useful activity in the church or in the Christian life. There is no denying that there are many good and useful activities in the church and in the Christian life, and we ought to do them and we ought to encourage others to do them as well. But a good and useful activity is not necessarily a means of grace, and we must not equate the two. Our Reformed fathers considered very carefully the question of definition and have given us helpful criteria by which we may distinguish between things that are good and useful and things that should be specifically called means of grace. Now, what I want to do is to help you think through this. If you examine the reformed confessions, including our own Second London Baptist Confession, we'll be looking at this material more in depth tomorrow. You'll find some technical language that is used to define and identify the means of grace in reformed churches. They are simple and they are few. And in the confessions, two criteria are used to mark them out. Now, if you were taking an exam on this message, I guarantee that these two things would be on the exam. So be prepared. The first criteria to identify something as a means of grace is divine institution. Divine institution, though we might sharpen this to say dominical institution. Divine institution points to a divine origin and command. And addresses the problem of man centeredness that was identified by the reformers. Man-made religious acts have no part and no power in God's distribution of grace. Now, I sharpen the phrase to dominical institution because there are many things that are of divine institution that are not under the new covenant means of grace. For example, circumcision. Was circumcision divinely instituted? I hope you say yes, because it certainly was. But the requirement of circumcision was limited to a particular covenant and is now gone. If we say dominical institution, we clearly indicate that these things belong to the New Covenant and come to us through the command of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord Christ's dominical institution. He is the one who has given these commands to us. Notice, for example, how the London Baptist Confession makes this point very carefully in chapter 28, paragraph 1, which says this, Baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordinances of positive and sovereign institution appointed by the Lord Jesus, the only Lawgiver, to be continued in His church to the end of the world. That is really significant language intended to teach us that there is something exceptionally important about baptism and the Lord's Supper. You see, in order for something to be a means of grace, it must have dominical institution. It must have a command from the Lord Jesus. The second criteria which helps to define further the means of grace is that there must be attached a promise of divine blessing. A promise of divine blessing. By this, our fathers were thinking covenantally, recognizing that God reveals Himself to us by way of covenant and that these acts are related to His covenant. The Lord very explicitly promises that He will bless these acts and we are thus able to trust His promise and rely on Him to be faithful to the commitments that He Himself makes. God promises. God makes commitments. We can hold Him to be faithful to these commitments. This addresses the matter of semi-Pelagianism. These are the acts of God. And the promise is made that Christ will be present in them. Listen again to the words of the Second London Baptist Confession. 29.1 Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ to be unto the party baptized, a sign of His fellowship with Him in His death and resurrection, of His being engrafted into Him, of remission of sins, and of giving up into God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of life. You see, baptism is described in terms of wonderful blessing. And the Lord's Supper is the same. Chapter 30, paragraph one. The supper of the Lord Jesus was instituted by him. Dominical institution. The same night wherein he was betrayed to be observed in his churches unto the end of the world for the perpetual remembrance and showing forth the sacrifice of himself and his death. confirmation of the faith of believers in all the benefits thereof, their spiritual nourishment and growth in Him, their further engagement in and to all duties which they owe to Him, and to be a bond and pledge of their communion with Him and with each other." These are really wonderful words. You see, we have two principles which serve as criteria for determining the identity of the means of grace. They are based upon a fundamentally important and basic assumption. And this fundamentally important and basic assumption needs to be emphasized. Here it is. Christ is truly a present and active Lord. Christ really and truly is a present and active Lord. Consider texts such as these. Matthew 28, 18 through 20. You probably could recite it with me. Jesus says, all authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Jesus makes a claim of universal power. And then He says, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." There's dominical institution and there's the promise of blessing. Go and do this. This is my command. And as you do it, I will be with you. I will watch over you. I will protect you. I will bless you. I will give you success. Acts 2, 22-24, and then 33-36 on the day of Pentecost, when Peter is interpreting for this large crowd of Jews the strange events that they have just witnessed. Peter says this, Men of Israel, listen to these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know, this man being delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death, But God raised him up, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held in his power. This Jesus God raised up again, to which all are witnesses. Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord, sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus, whom you crucified." I understand why later on in that chapter it says they were cut to the heart. Because there, Peter is saying, this Jesus that you crucified now sits at the right hand of God with all power and authority in the universe. Ephesians 1, 15-23, Paul says this, After I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet and gave Him to be head over all things to the church. which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." Jesus Christ is right now the powerful, ascended, heavenly Lord who rules and reigns and is present in His church and present with His people. This is the base upon which it is all built. These truths were crucial in the thinking of the Reformers and the English Puritans. This was a principal matter. Christianity is based on the fact that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. That He lived a life of holy obedience to God's law. That He offered Himself as a sacrifice on the cross and propitiated God. That He died, was buried, and rose from the dead on the first day of the week. But the essence of our faith doesn't stop there. They believe. And we must believe also that Christ ascended into heaven and now sits at God's right hand, reigning with all of the power in the universe. And dear brothers and sisters, He is not an absent Lord, but a very real and present Lord who takes direct interest in His church on earth. He alone extends the kingdom. He alone causes believers to grow like Himself. He alone works in their lives. The Gospel is not just about historical events, though it certainly is, but it is also about a presently active Lord Jesus Christ. And from the perspective of our fathers, He was not merely crowned as King of Heaven watching to see what would happen with His church. To the contrary, He was a very real and present Lord with a direct interest in the expansion of His kingdom. They believed that Christ was at hand, walking among the candlesticks, and personally active among His people. And because of this foundational belief, they asked the question, what has He appointed as the method by which He accomplishes His will on earth? Is it simply reactive to events that take place on earth? Or is it proactive, ensuring that all of His elect will at the proper time Be brought to faith and grow in Christ. Chapter 14, one of our Baptist confession identifies the means of grace. It says this, the grace of faith whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls. Listen to this 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." Notice, the grace of faith in both its birth and growth is stated to be the direct work of Christ by His Spirit. Did you notice the word ordinary? And consider its relationship to the word ordained. Our Puritan fathers believed that because God is immutable, because God is a God of order, the process by which grace is given has been established and fixed by His will. And then notice how it comes and how it grows. First, there is the ministry of word, which is the preeminent means of grace and is distinguished in the confession from all of the rest by a semicolon. The preaching of the word alone is a converting act. None of the other means of grace give new life to the dead. They increase and they strengthen faith that has previously been brought to birth by the preached word. But they do not impart that life to a dead sinner. I commend to you the section on preaching in the Westminster Assembly's directory for public worship as an excellent exposition of this point. Then back in our confession, next comes baptism and the Lord's Supper and prayer, which are all stated to be means that are appointed by God. Of course, our confession also indicates that there are other means appointed of God language that's very familiar. We might ask, what are these other means appointed by God? If we look a little bit later on in the confession, they're identified for us. Chapter 22, paragraph five says, speaks of solemn humiliation with fastings and thanksgivings upon special occasions which ought to be used in an holy and religious manner. The confession teaches us, for example, that there ought to be fasting associated with the ordination of new elders in our churches. But the result of this is that the means of grace may be listed simply the ministry of the Word of God, baptism, the Lord's Supper, prayer, and occasionally days of fasting and thanksgiving. Think about this light or this list in the light of Scripture, Matthew 28, 18 through 20. All authority in heaven on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Here is Christ's claim of universal sovereignty, of divine institution of both preaching and baptism, and the promise of the Lord's presence with the church as the church fulfills these commands. Romans 10, 14 through 17. How then will they call on Him in whom they've not believed? And how will they believe in Him whom they've not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things. However, they did not all heed the good news, for Isaiah says, the Lord who has believed our report. So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. Faith comes through hearing, hearing the Word that Christ Himself speaks. In the context, this isn't a reference to written Scripture, but rather to the exalted Lord who speaks to His people in faithful preaching. To quote one of the Reformed confessions from Switzerland, the preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God. Christ is present when His Word is faithfully preached and He speaks, imparting faith to His hearers. John 14, 13 and 14. Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. 1 John 5, 13-15. These things I've written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request which we have asked from Him. When we pray, who hears? And who will do these things? Is prayer just a routine? Is it an exercise of religious words? No! It calls upon the Lord Jesus Christ at the Father's right hand to accomplish His will. The very things that He has revealed in Scripture. Prayer is not a time for us to indulge our lusts, but rather to bow before Him and ask that He would bless the things that He Himself has promised. Now, these are only samples, and they will be explained to us in more detail in the following sessions of our conference. Now, we must be careful. There are a couple of cautions that we need to state. The doctrine of the means of grace is not intended to teach. that these are the only activities that may and even should be present in a church. There is a wide variety of activities our churches may and perhaps ought to do. Every useful writer on the doctrine of the means of grace makes this point. The doctrine is simply formulated to say that these things are the things that we must do And these are the things that we may expect God's blessing upon because He has promised to bless them. While we may ask Him to bless all of our activities, in these cases, we may boldly come to Him and implore Him to be faithful to the promises that He has made. There are many positive and useful things that we do which should not be considered means of grace. And I want to mention some of them to you. But before I do, please listen carefully to what I'm about to say. If I include an item in this list, it does not mean that I'm opposed to what I say. OK, don't hear me opposing these things. I'm not saying that. Don't take it that way. In fact, I will mention some things that I wholeheartedly support, but I know that they're not means of grace. So if I mention your favorite thing, it's not to call the legitimacy of that thing into question. Everybody understand that? OK, I hope you do. Please don't come up to me afterwards and say and punch me in the nose and say, you said my thing. Well, the first two things that I say are my things. I can punch myself in the nose or I can say they're not means of grace. I want you to help you clearly think about this point. That's all I want to do is help you think clearly. These things are not means of grace. Associations of churches. Ministerial training institutions. That's what I spend my whole life doing. Youth groups, small groups, Christian schools, homeschools. counseling and counseling centers, Sunday schools, retreats, fellowship meals, discipleship meetings, financial giving, spiritual gifts, blogging and reading blogs, and the list could go on. Many of these things are very useful and may and even should be done. But they are not the same as preaching, baptism, the Lord's Supper, prayer, and occasional days of fasting and Thanksgiving. In our minds, they need to be put in a different category. A different category doesn't say don't do them. It just says different category. The second caution we need to make is that we reject with all of our being the Roman notion that states that anything works in and by itself. There are two things that are necessary for blessing to come from the means of grace. The first is the present activity of Christ through his spirit. Jesus Christ must be active in these things. And the second is the act of faith in the recipient. No religious activity brings grace automatically. It's very interesting that the Romanist response to the Reformation published in the canons of the Council of Trent condemns anyone who denies the Roman position that the sacraments work in and by themselves when properly administered. Here's the language. If anyone sayeth that by the said sacraments of the new law, grace is not conferred through the act performed, but that faith alone in the divine promise suffices for the obtaining of grace, let him be anathema." Well, brothers and sisters, I am glad to receive the anathema of the Roman Catholic Church on that point. Because I deny with all of my heart that doctrine of the Council of Trent. They said this because they understood that the Reformed churches vehemently denied the point that they were making. And we must do so also, always. In a related matter, when all of the reformed writers emphasize the importance of active faith when participating in the means of grace, you can at times sense their discomfort with the practice of infant baptism in this formulation. When I read Charles Hodge on this, he's obviously uncomfortable with the implications of this doctrine for pedo-baptism. You sense the same kind of ill ease in others like William Cunningham and James Bannerman. In fact, the means of grace, specifically baptism, fit perfectly within a credo Baptist framework, because we believe that the person who is being baptized must be active in faith as they confess that Jesus Christ is Lord in the waters of baptism. The doctrine of the means of grace also calls us to examine our other acts. Is it possible that we fall into the trap of our own traditions and introduce and expect God to use methods of our own invention. For example, I hope I don't get in trouble here, but I'm going to if I see a caution sign, I'm still going to go through it here. When I was a young man, altar calls were considered to be a test of orthodoxy in many churches. If a preacher didn't give one, he wasn't really interested in seeing people brought to Christ. But as many of us grew in the Reformed faith, reading books about the invitation system by men like Ian Murray and Errol Hulse, we realized that this action, though laudable in its intention, has no basis in Scripture and ought to be rejected. I wonder, do we have anything else like this that we ought to reject? Well, there's much more that I'd like to say. Tomorrow morning, we'll work our way through the means of grace in various Baptist confessions and catechisms. We might talk about the five solas of the Reformation and how they have a direct relationship to the means of grace. We could speak about the relationship between the means of grace and the regular principle of worship in an excellent sermon on worship. Derek Thomas calls proper worship means of grace worship, and he's exactly right. But time will not permit any more than a mention of these things. Let me conclude with some quotations from one of the greatest of our fathers, John Owen. He says this. Such is the nature of the unalterable decree of God in this matter that no person living can ever attain the end of glory and happiness without the means of grace and holiness. The same eternal purpose respects both. When he's writing about baptism in the supper of the Lord, Owen says this. Two principles. Number one, that we submit our souls and consciences unto the authority of Christ in these institutions. Unless this be the foundation which we build upon, the whole service will be lost unto us. And secondly, that we rest on the veracity of Christ for the working of the grace and accomplishment of the mercy represented in them and sacramentally exhibited by them. For they will not profit them by whom the promises of Christ virtually contained in them and accompanying of them are not mixed with faith. And we cannot believe the promise unless we submit to the authority of Christ in the appointment of that wherein to it is annexed. Those are our two principles, divine institution and a promise of divine blessing. And once more, Owen says this. The rule of God's continuance with any people or church as to the outward dispensation of His providence and the means of grace is that expressed in 2 Chronicles 15 which says this, The Lord is with you while you be with Him. And if you seek Him, He will be found of you. But if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. And then Owen says, He judicially forsakes them by whom He is willfully forsaken. By those who substitute man's inventions for Christ's commandments. Brothers and sisters, let's take heed. May the Lord be with us as we pursue Him in the ways that He has sovereignly appointed. Preaching His holy word. Baptism. The Lord's Supper. Prayer. And occasional days of fasting and thanksgiving. These are the means of grace. Soli Deo.