Let us hear from God's Word. You may turn in your copy of the scriptures to Ephesians chapter one. Be reading verses 15 through 23. Follow along in your own tablet or app or listen as I read. Ephesians chapter one, beginning in verse 15. This is God's Word. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might that 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 rule and authority and power and dominion. and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Amen. Let us go before God in prayer. Our gracious and heavenly Father, as we come this evening to hear of your church, as we come to hear of how you have called your church and formed your church and are our authority. Father, as we hear from your word this evening, as we hear of Jesus Christ, who is our head, Father, we ask for your mercy. We ask for your grace. We ask that you would be with us. We know that we are not a church gathered in this place and we are not gathered on the Lord's day. But Father, as believers here, Submitting our minds to your word, Father, we ask for your spirit's help and aid. We ask, Father, that you would grant us a submissive spirit to hear, to listen, to think, to consider, to carry these things with us, so to speak, in our hearts. Father, above all, may we bow before Christ. May we proclaim him as Lord, On every opportunity, may we conduct our lives in such a way as to give the evidence of our belief that He is our Lord and our Savior. We ask, Father, that you would bless Pastor Steve Garrick as he comes this evening for your namesake and for the honor of Christ. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. It's my privilege and honor to introduce to you a man under whose ministry I've sat for many years, a man whom I've had the privilege of laboring with in the ministry of the gospel. studied the word, uh, and received, uh, a bachelor's for that. And then he has served many, many years faithfully in churches in Texas and now in Georgetown, uh, as a minister of the gospel, he is going to speak to us, uh, based on the first paragraph of chapter six. So let's give him our attention. Pastor Steve Garrett, would you come and speak to us? My assigned task tonight is Chapter 26 of the Confession, Paragraph 1, although to give an overview of the chapter in its entirety. If you don't have a copy of it readily available at the back of the Trinity Hymnal, page 683 I believe it is, you'll find Chapter 26 of the Confession. And so you can follow along there. We will also, of course, be referencing scripture, which is God's authority and God's inspired word. Chapter 26 of the confession is one of those unique chapters as far as Baptist is concerned. It's the longest chapter. In many ways, it's the most original in terms of the confessions, although much of it's borrowed from the Savoy Declaration. And it opens with the doctrine of the universal church. That doctrine is one of those doctrines that sees adherence across a very wide spectrum. Just mention the Universal Church and you will find almost every possible combination of ideas being advocated one way or another. Questions like, is there even such a thing as the Universal Church? If so, what's its character? Is it a visible Universal Church or an invisible? Or both? And under whose authority does it operate? Well, as soon as you start to answer those questions, you now get an entire new set of combinations. Well, if it is existing, what ecclesiastical power does the Universal Church have? Can it in some ways trump the local church? Does it have more power than the pastors? Who ordains ministers? The universal church, visible. The universal church, invisible. The local church, none of the above. Who owns the church property? Should or can a professing Christian be a member of the universal church without being a member of the local church? And if you are a member of the local church, does that mean you are automatically a member of every church? All of us I think at one time or another as pastors have dealt with those problems and those questions. And we run into people who have abused or at least misunderstood the doctrine of the universal church. Some have insisted they are members of the universal church and therefore they have no need of the local church. Me, my Bible, God, and a fishing pole. Some insist that not only are they members of the universal church, they are ministers of the universal church. Christ made me a minister and that's all the authority that I need to do whatever I want. Some who take the title of Christian regardless of their profession or doctrine count themselves as members of a universal body and therefore everyone who takes the title of Christian is a part of the universal church. and radical ecumenism is the result. Then, to make matters worse, there are those on the other extreme, those who see the doctrine of the universal church mishandled, and so they just simply decide to preempt the entire discussion by declaring there is no such thing as a universal church, period. There are only local churches, and that's it. Well, the writers of the Baptist Confession lived in an era when the doctrine of the church faced no less debate in their time than in our own. At one end of the spectrum was the Roman church, which declared that there was only one universal, visible church. And outside of that church, there was no possibility of salvation. Since the Roman pontiff, the Pope, was supreme head of this church, submission to this Pope was critical for salvation. Back in A.D. 1304, Pope Boniface VIII issued a papal bull entitled Unum Sanctum. which was described as, quote, a declaration that it is necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman pontiff, head of the universal visible church. Now, at the other end of the spectrum during the Reformation, there were radical reformers. Again, pushing back against Rome in its extreme form. Their perspective was there is a universal church, but it is only invisible. And in fact, any visible component, any idea of saints gathering together, that's just saints who happen to be in the same place at the same meeting house. Any structure to them, to some of them anyway, was unbiblical. Well, in the middle of Rome on one end and the radical reformers on the other, in the middle were the reformed perspectives. But these perspectives also had some differences as well. So the Roman view, the Roman Catholic view was that there is a universal visible church. And in the reformed ideas, the Westminster Confession for example, the Presbyterians state plainly there is a universal visible church and a universal invisible church and a local visible church. In this view, if you will, the universal visible is the outermost circle. It's the structure of Christendom in the world, and you can see it. And then within that were the actual real saints, because there are some who profess to be Christians but weren't. And then churches kind of bridge the gap between the two, having some who were in the one and some in the other. Well, into this milieu step the Baptists. And it's no surprise that the Baptist confession then is indeed such a detailed, the Baptist chapter, excuse me, on the church is such a detailed, lengthy description. There's a lot of difference between the Baptists on this chapter and those of our Presbyterian brothers. Well, rather than addressing the entire chapter, relax, I have a lot of notes, but not that many. We're only going to look at the first chapter as an overview and then the first paragraph in more detail. Let me give you just a breakout of chapter 26 or how I see it functioning. Paragraph one of that chapter is the Catholic Universal Church defined. What is it? Then paragraphs two and three talk about the relationship between the Universal Invisible Church and visible churches. Paragraphs 4 through 7 talk about Christ's headship over the church. Paragraphs 8 through 11 talk about the authorities of each local church vested in its officers. And then paragraphs 12 through 15 talk about the church and relationships. Relationships of church members to each other and relationships of churches to each other. So paragraph one is we're going to look at, and we're going to ask four questions tonight. So I'm going to tell you upfront where I'm going to go, because this is going to be almost more of a lecture in some ways than a sermon. So let me give you the four heads up front and you can kind of hopefully follow along a little better, uh, through this lecture. And I apologize for that. First question is the concept of a universal church, a biblical concept. Can we show from scriptures that there is such a thing as a universal church? Secondly, what is the universal church? That is, how do we define it? Third, who are its members? Who is in this universal church? How do we know who's in it? What is the mark or distinguishing characteristic of membership? And then last, what relationship does the Universal Church have to Christ? So, is it biblical? What is it? What marks off its members? And what relationship does it have to Jesus Christ? And I think those four questions are answered in the first paragraph that we're going to be dealing with. So, start off. Is it biblical? Well, In order to answer that question, we have to look at Bible scriptures. So let's look at a few scriptures, if you would. Let's go to Matthew, chapter 16, verse 18. A good place to start. This, of course, is Peter's declaration about Christ. And Christ in return says to him, I say to you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. The word church is very obviously singular here. Christ did not say you are Peter and on this rock I will build my churches. But the concept of church is referred to as a particular, as a, if you will, a generic. The universal use of church here is reflected also in its relationship to the universal gates of hell. The gates of hell or the gates of Hades are a generic concept. There are not multiple hells. They are referred to in the singular because indeed it refers to the powers of Satan and those who are his under a generic category. The universal church then here is coextensive with the true kingdom of Christ. Matthew 16 indicates there is indeed a universal church. Now even our Roman antagonists would admit, of course, that verse 18 disproves a universal church. They would say it's visible and we would say that it is an invisible entity. Let's turn to Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 23, which is one of the texts cited in the confession as a proof for this idea of the universal Catholic Church. Hebrews chapter 12, let's start at verse 22. You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God. the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, and to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect. The assembling of the saints spoken of there, the church of the firstborn in verse 23, is a reference to those who have already gone into glory. The term firstborn is not a reference to Christians in general, but rather Christians whose race is already one. They are firstborn in the sense that they have already ascended, not ascended, but they are already in the presence of Christ in heaven. Their spirits are the spirits of just men made perfect. The idea of quoting this verse is to show that the term church does not refer to only an assembly on earth. That the church spoken of in Hebrews 12, 23 is a church also in heaven. So that we are not referring to a visible entity. We're referring to a spiritual entity. The church is universal. But it's universal and invisible because it includes saints on earth, but also those in heaven whose spirits are made perfect. It therefore includes Old Testament and New Testament saints, both those in the presence of Christ and those yet still on earth. And we as believers have come into this universal spiritual body. Turn then, if you will, to Colossians chapter 1 and verse 18. Very simple point to be made. Speaking of Christ as the head of the body, the church. Again, this text is cited as proof of this concept because there is only one Christ who is only one head and there is only one church spoken of. Christ is not a head to a multitude of bodies. Rather, his headship requires that we understand that there is a universal church over which he is the head. And as there is one body, again, both heaven and earth, so this universal church is a spiritual entity connected by the Spirit in union with Christ the head. All right, one more, if you will. Ephesians chapter 1. We're going to read it verse 10 and then down verse 22 and 23. Having spoken of the mystery of God's will, the plan which he purposed in himself, we read in verse 10, that in the dispensation, or if you will, the unfolding or the management of his plan, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, in him. And then down to verse 22, 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. God had established a plan, a plan from all eternity. And in the dispensing of this plan, in the managing of history to bring about the plan of redemption, when the perfect time arrived, Christ came as the redeemer of all. And therefore, as salvation and all of the saved are summed up under Christ as head. The word in verse 10 is an interesting word. That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ. The gathering together in one is actually a long Greek word. that basically has the idea of summing all things up under one head. An analogy, an illustration, this is just mine, but picture if you would raw recruits at the military base. And it is the officer's job or the sergeant's job, whoever's in charge, to take these raw recruits and to order them so that they are now under one head, one structure, one unit. It's to take them and make them as not individuals but as one cohesive whole. And so to sum them all up, to consume, not to consume them, but to subsume them under one head, Jesus Christ. And so when the fullness of the times came, God sent Christ so to bring all things into order under His headship. And since the headship we are speaking of in its context is the head of the church, verse 22 and verse 23, then the idea of those things which are in heaven and which on earth refers to the church in heaven and on earth, summarized or summed up or headed up by Christ. The Confession connects verse 10 with verses 22 and 23, that Christ is the head of the church. And so it appears that the writers of the Confession understood that the things in heaven and on earth, verse 10, referred to those who were already in glory and those still on earth, all of them being summed up under one head in one church, one body. You will find the same concept in Ephesians five as well, that there is one Christ, the head of the church, just as there is one husband to one wife. In fact, the idea of the husband and wife is not an accidental allusion to Christ and the church. It is an intentional illustration. The concept of Christ in the church as bride and groom was in the mind of God from all eternity and the creation of marriage was meant to reflect that entity from the very beginning. One husband, one wife. So there is one Christ and one universal church. So I think the scriptures show us and indicate that there is indeed a such thing as a universal church. that it is joined to Christ the way that the body is joined to the head, that this joining is a spiritual joining, that it is accomplished by the Holy Spirit, and that it is an invisible joining which connects both saints already in heaven with those still on earth, all under one head, Jesus Christ. So that the universal church is indeed universal and spiritual or invisible. All right, let's look at the confession in more detail. That's the scriptures behind it. Let's look at the actual statement of the confession itself. And we've noticed that this universal church or the church itself is defined by what I call two descriptions. So we're now answering the second question, what is the universal church? So is it biblical? Yes. Second question, what is it? How do we describe it or how do we define it? Well, the first of the two descriptors is the term Catholic or universal. And those two words are not meant to be taken separately. Rather, they are together. The idea is that the second term, universal, exegetes or explains the first. The Catholic, that is, the universal church. See, by Catholic, the writers of the Confession wanted us to understand the word universal, not Catholic with a capital C as in Roman. The definition of Catholic means universal or general or affecting the whole. I found an old Webster's Collegiate Dictionary from the early 1900s. And it includes the definition of, of or pertaining to the universal church, which I thought was interesting. But if you get a modern day dictionary, that particular dictionary, a modern day Webster's, that particular definition is either excluded entirely or it's somewhere towards the bottom. And instead, up towards like number two, is the idea of being broad-minded or liberal. So, a very interesting development in the definition of words. What the Confessions were doing is they were reclaiming this term away from Rome. Now, to my knowledge and to my research, and if I'm wrong, please correct me, but I have never been able to find where Rome has ever officially adopted the word Catholic as a part of its title. They accept it, and indeed they use it, But I've never been able to find an official declaration of the Roman Curia saying we are the Roman Catholic Church. To my knowledge, it's not there. But if you'll remember, the Roman Empire was at least administratively divided between East and West, and the West fell in the 400s and The East continued on until about 1450, 1453 to be exact. But after the East fell, something began to happen. The Eastern Church, the Orthodox Church as we know it, the seat was primarily seen as being transferred out of Byzantium into Moscow. That's about the time that the Russian rulers began referring to themselves as Tsars, Caesars. that Moscow was now a patriarchate equal in authority with Rome and Jerusalem. Well, it was about that time that the term Catholic began to be used more and more as a title of the Roman Western Church. The Eastern churches touted themselves as Orthodox. And so in response, and many times, the Western Church said, well, we are Catholic. In fact, in the late 1500s, in the Counter-Reformation era, there was a group of, shall I call them hardline members of the Roman Catholic Church, that began using an insult that they had developed. And the insult was the word, ah, Catholic. As if to say to those who they thought were heretics or schismatics, you are not Catholic in any sense of the word. You are a Catholic. And it was actually taken as a very deep insult to be called that. Particularly by the Orthodox churches in the East. Our church, Rome, is Catholic. You are a Catholic. So this word, Catholic, came to be used more and more as an epithet, or a title, for the Roman Church. And the writers of the Confessions are stipulating that that's not right. That's not your word, that's our word. We will go back, if necessary, to the Church Fathers, and we will show you that the word Catholic does not refer to Rome, but to the universal Church. It is you who have misused and left the proper understanding of the Catholic Church. We understand it, not you. The Catholic or Universal Church, therefore, as a phrase in the Confession, was an intentional attempt to grab back away from Rome this term. The term Catholic is not in the Greek New Testament, although it comes from Greek words. There's a variation of it in Acts 4.18 when it's talked about the Sanhedrin universally forbidding the apostles to preach or teach. That's the only use of a form of that word. But the word itself is an important term. The Confession says we believe in the Catholic Church. We believe in the universal church and it isn't Rome. Generally speaking, within Christendom, although again, there are the radical reformers. But generally speaking, the issue is not whether somebody believes in the Catholic universal church, it's how they define it. So that takes us to the next point. The first descriptive term is that the church is Catholic or universal. The second in the confession is that it's invisible. That is, that the Catholic or universal church is not a visible organization, it's not an entity, it's not a structure that you can see. It is an invisible communion of those of faith with Christ by means of the Spirit. Why does this matter? Why emphasize the invisibility of the universal church? Well, because Rome claimed that the universality of the church was in fact visible. You could see it. The universal visible church is right there in Rome, and it's in all of the churches around the world. It's in the organization and the structure. The authority of the priest comes from the pontiff himself, the See of St. Peter, and works its way through. We are one organization. We are one visible structure. And there is no salvation outside of this visible, universal, Roman Catholic Church. Council of Trent, Cardinal Bellarmine, And I assume I'm pronouncing that right. That's one of those names that I've seen since I was young, but I've never heard it pronounced. In Texas, you can say Bellarmine, and I wouldn't argue with you, but since his name is Roberto Romulo Bermino, I'm assuming Bellarmine would be the right way of pronouncing it. That's an assumption. He wrote this. The church is one body of men united together by the same Christian faith, who participate in the same sacraments under the governance of lawful priests, especially the Roman pontiff who is the sole vicar of Christ on earth. Now, lest you think that that's a 1500s idea. 1943, Pope Pius XII issued a papal encyclical and he wrote, they walk in the path of dangerous error who believe that they can accept Christ as the head of the church while not adhering loyally to the vicar on earth. They have taken away the visible head, the visible church, and broken the visible bonds of unity. and so have left the mystical body of the Redeemer so obscured and so maimed that those who are seeking eternal salvation will never find it." Now, understand what he's saying here. If you think, he says, that you can have Christ without having the visible Church, you're wrong. Because by taking away the visible head of the Church, which is the Pope, and the visible unity, which is the church structure, you are leaving the mystical body of the Redeemer so obscured that nobody can see it. Where is salvation? Where is the church? Where is Christ? You can't find it unless there's a visible entity. So when the confessions add to the term Catholic or universal by adding the word invisible, They are intentionally striking at the idea of a structural, visible, universal church. To the writers of the Baptist Confession, the church universal was invisible because it was spiritual. And that's why we have the next point. If you have some means of comparing the Baptist confession and the Presbyterian Westminster together. Now would be a good time to have that available because you will notice that there are a couple of phrases that are added to the Baptist in paragraph one that are not in the Westminster. The Westminster reads as follows. The Catholic or universal church, which is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect, dot, dot, dot. Whereas the Baptist intentionally add two phrases here. The Catholic or universal church, which is invisible, with respect to, and then it mentions two things, the internal work of the spirit and the internal work of the truth of grace. By the Presbyterians omitting this concept that the invisibility consists of the spiritual work of the Holy Spirit and of the gospel. That leaves open the idea of what do you mean by the universal church being invisible? And the general explanation of the commenters on the Westminster is that by invisible we mean that you just can't see it. In fact, it's something you can never discern. A. A. Hodge in his commentary wrote, this universal church is called invisible because even in the sections of this body visible to us, its outlines are very uncertain. Many who appear as parts of it do not really belong to it. And many may really belong to it whose union is not clear. The lines are not to human eye drawn with any degree of accuracy between the church and the world. So by invisible, they mean you can't figure out where the outlines are. Thus the Presbyterian definition of invisibility leaves open, or at least facilitates the idea, that because man is unable to distinguish true converts from false, or those who are part of the universal church from those who aren't, It therefore creates and opens up the idea that the church should expect false converts in the universal visible church. Robert Shaw, in his commentary on the Westminster Confession, this church is said to be invisible because it cannot be discovered by the eye. It's not separated from the world in respect of place but of state. It lies hidden. This visible church comprehends hypocrites and formal professors as well as those that are affectionately called and regenerated. On this account, notice this exegesis here. On this account, the church is compared to a floor in which there is not only wheat but also chaff, Matthew 3, 12. Now, let's stop for a moment. Matthew 3.12 is John the Baptist talking about Jesus Christ, and his message is to Israel. That the Redeemer has come, that the old covenant, which does indeed have an internal and external aspect to it, is now being done away with, and in the new covenant, only the wheat. So the Messiah has come. This is not the church is filled with wheat and chaff. but that rather old Israel is filled with wheat and chaff, and Christ the Messiah has come and in the new covenant is going to separate that out. But that's not the way Robert Shaw or the Presbyterians see it. They see it as referencing the church, which is rightly filled with both wheat and chaff. Or, he says, it refers to a field where tares as well as good seed are sown, Matthew chapter 13. Well, what does Christ say? The field is the world, not the church. So, Shaw's conclusion. Such being the state of the church as exhibited in scripture, there can be no warrant to exact from persons positive marks of their regeneration as indispensable to their admission to the fellowship of the church. or to require from them an account of their religious experience for the purpose of forming some judgment about their spiritual state. Here's what that means. Summarize. Since the universal church is invisible, and by invisible meaning that we can't distinguish who's in and who isn't, we can't see the outlines, we can't find the boundaries, it's invisible. Such being the state of the church, there is no reason, no warrant to take from people some positive mark that they are in fact regenerate before admitting them into the fellowship of the local church. Someone wants to join the church. There's no reason to, to try to find some positive mark of there being regenerate as an indispensable criteria to being admitted into the church. Don't require of them an account of their religious experience. Why? Well, because the universal or Catholic Church is invisible, but they don't qualify what they mean by that. And it leaves open or at least lends itself to the idea that what we're talking about is an indefinable boundary. The Baptist would have none of it. To them, the Universal Church is invisible, not because you can't find the outlines of it, but it's invisible with respect to the work of the Spirit and the Word, which works internally in the person to bring them into the Universal Church. The Universal Church is invisible in the sense that those who are its members are such by the internal work of the Spirit and Word, but that did not mean that there were no signs at all. In fact, since the work of the Spirit is indeed a work of the Spirit and of the Word, there will be fruit of this invisible work. This fruit will be visible. It should be examined, and it should be examined as a condition of admission into the visible local church. But then that's Jason's presentation for tomorrow night. No, that's it. That's it. All right. So the church is described as universal or Catholic. It's described as invisible and its invisibility is specified. It's invisible because it's a spiritual work inside of the person with the word of God to bring them to life and so by the spirit to bring them into communion with Christ their head. What does that mean? Well, I think there are some implications here for associationalism. If you view the visible church as universal, or to put it another way, if you view the universal church as visible, then you will have a structure that is much more hierarchical and denominational. We speak of the Roman Catholic Church. the Anglican Church, the Methodist Church, to some degree the Presbyterian Church, but Baptist Churches. You can always tell somebody who isn't a Baptist because they ask, what does the Baptist Church teach? Well, there is no Baptist Church, capital C. There are Baptist Churches. In fact, in the chapter on the Lord's Supper, the Westminster talks about it being an ordinance to be observed in his church perpetually, but the Baptist changed that, an ordinance to be observed in his churches. This concept that the Catholic or universal church was not hierarchical, that it was not a visible structure, that it was a spiritual body, leads us to the idea that we are not to associate in a denominational structural way. The church is a spiritual body. the representation of the universal church, I guess in respects, is the local church, or perhaps I should say the local church should be a fit representation of the universal spiritual church. So in terms of association between churches, since Christians are members of local church and also members of the universal church, then it is their duty, as it is their duty, to pray for the church universally, so they should also seek to cooperate. That is, not only does this doctrine tell us that our coming together in communion should not be structural, but on the flip side, it tells us that it should exist. We cannot say, I'm a part of the universal invisible church and leave it at that. If there is a relationship between the universal visible and the local church, and there is, then members of the local church, as it is their duty to pray for the church universally, so it is our duty to seek cooperation between churches as God permits. And so chapter 26, paragraph 14 of our confession says, as each church and all the members of it are bound to pray continually for the good and prosperity of all the churches of Christ in all places, and upon all occasions to further it, everyone within the bounds of their places and callings in the exercise of their gifts and graces, so the churches, when planted by the providence of God, ought to hold communion amongst themselves for their peace, increase of love, and mutual edification. And I can do no better on this topic than to refer you to the book, Denominations or Associations, and in particular, chapters three and four written by Dr. Jim Renahan. And since I can do no better, I will borrow heavily. Dr. Renahan quotes from the Abington Association of 1652. In respect of union in Christ, there is a like relationship between the particular churches, each towards the other, as there is betwixt particular members of one church. For the churches of Christ do all make up one body or church in general under Christ, just as particular members make up one particular church under the same head, Christ." By the way, there's a great quote. Early church father, Ignatius of Antioch, about 107, And Ignatius says, let the people be gathered around their bishop just as the Catholic Church is gathered around Christ, its head. And what Ignatius is pointing out is this correlation between local church and universal church. that just as Christ is the head and focus and center of the universal church, so local churches center and are visible around their pastor. But he doesn't mention these things just simply as simile, he's saying there's an analogy, there's a ratio, there's a comparison. That to some degree, the universal church is to be functioning in a manner similar to members function to their local church. And that's exactly what our confession says as well. That there's a relation between the particular churches, each towards the other, and particular members of the one church, universal. Scripture then doesn't just condone associations. Scripture expects it. One of the founding distinctions of Arbka was that we intentionally wanted an association that fulfilled the confession. There were other Reformed Baptist associations before, but Arbka's founding distinctive was that scripture expects us to hold communion together. It's not just a good idea. It's not just a grand idea. It's a scriptural idea in which churches are expected to hold communion together. All right, so is it biblical? Yes. How do we define it? Catholic, universal, and invisible as regards to the internal work of the spirit, but that creates a correlation between local church and universal church that creates ideas for associationalism. Third, who are the members of the universal church? We are told that the Catholic or Universal Church consists of the whole number of the elect that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one under Christ, the head thereof. Now, a distinction has to be made here. The New Testament local church, as an assembly, obviously is a New Testament entity. But we're not speaking of the New Testament local church in this paragraph. We're talking about the Universal Church. And so it very carefully points out that the total number of those who are members of this universal church include all the elect of all ages, whoever have been, are, or will be. All who have had the internal work of the spirit, all who have had the internal work of the truth of grace. These are members of this universal church. And the distinguishing mark is this evidence that is seen, paragraph two, of the internal work of the spirit which is unseen. The good news of the gospel has been around since man sinned. Ever since God promised to destroy the work of the serpent through the seed of the woman, the truth of God's grace has been published by God through his messengers and the written word. And the work of the spirit has borne testimony to and brought about that gospel promise and brought it to the heart of God's elect. That promise has never changed and the work of the spirit has never changed. All who have ever been saved have had the internal work of the spirit bearing testimony to God's gracious promise of salvation. So by stating these, that those who are made to believe the good news of grace by the work of the Spirit, that is the elect, by stating that these are the members of the Universal Church, the Baptists are creating this relationship between Universal Church and local visible. Universal Church is the whole number of the elect. The elect manifest that work of the Spirit and the Word in their lives. The local church then is to be comprised of those who are, as near as we can tell, elect. One day, there will be a single assembly of all the elect who have ever been, are, or ever will be in Christ. And this great heavenly church will be one assembly, one church, one people gathered together in one place, worshiping God together forever. If you have had the internal work of the spirit and of the gospel in your heart, you one day will be a part of this visible assembly in heaven. Is it biblical? Yes. How do we define it? Catholic, universal, invisible in relation to the work of the spirit and the work of the gospel. Who are its members? The elect who have had this work of the spirit in their heart. Fourth, what is its relationship to Christ? And there are three things that we are told to round this up this evening. First, that the universal church is Christ's bride. If you will, Ephesians chapter 5, verse 25. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. If the spirit of God has taken the word of God and internally wrought in you new life so that you have come to Christ for salvation, then I tell you, you are part of this bride. And the most simple thing, but the most astounding thing I can tell you tonight is that he gave himself for you. At a wedding, the groom stands there and he makes solemn vows. And Jesus Christ, before the foundation of the world, made a solemn vow. He pledged himself to you if you are a believer in Christ. He has pledged himself to sacrifice himself for you in time, to cleanse you with the word, to make you more sanctified, to make you more like him, so that on the last day, with all the love and ardor of a groom for his bride, he will dress you in his righteousness, and he will love you forever as one who is without spot or stain or wrinkle or anything. You will be before him forever adorned in the beauty of holiness. Secondly, we are his body. Ephesians 1, 22 and 23 again, if you will. 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. Again, if you are of those who have had the internal work of the spirit and of the gospel, the spirit has brought you to life through the word and brought you to faith in Christ. Then your relationship to Christ is as a member of the body to the head and understand what verse 22 is telling you. When God the Father put all things under Christ's feet and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, it does not mean that Christ is head just of the church, but that Christ has sovereign authority over all things in heaven and earth for the sake of the church. Or to make it more personal, Jesus Christ governs the world and all things that happen in it so that you would come to faith in Christ. So that you, one of his elect, would be saved. Kings have been risen and put down. Apostles work directed from east to west. Gospel preached where you were born, when you were born, what nation, what family. If you have had the spirit and the word work new life in you, you are connected to Christ by his spirit and he rules over the world so that he could have you and be joined to you by the spirit. Last, Ephesians 1, 23, the last part says this, that not only are you His body, but you are the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Christ, for the believer, fulfills everything that we need. He is our representative, our surety, our redeemer, our sacrifice. He is our righteousness. He is our husband, our mediator, our prophet, our priest, our king, and a thousand others. Christ fulfills everything in the church and in the believer in every way imaginable. He fulfills all in all. And yet, Paul depicts Christ here as himself incomplete without the church. Now, it's not literally true. Christ has everything. But the picture is like a husband and wife where the wife completes the husband. This is what Calvin says. This is the highest honor for us in the church. that until he is united to us, the Son of God, as it were, reckons himself, in some measure, incomplete. What consolation is it for us to learn that not until he brought us along with him does he see himself as possessing all, or wish to be regarded as perfect? Now, again, there is no true lack in Christ. Yet we are treated as the completion of our own Redeemer. The Universal Catholic Church is indeed a spiritual entity. It is biblical, it is real, and its members are those whom the Spirit of God has worked in. And if that is true of you, you have the greatest blessings in Christ. But that leaves one very simple question. Is it true of you? I am not going to assume for one minute that everyone I speak to tonight has had the Spirit of God work in them. So I ask you, have you had this work of regeneration, a work made invisibly inside you, where when the Word of God was preached, your heart was mollified and softened, contrition of sins wrought in you and in fear and in repentance and in joy, you embraced Jesus Christ. And in that moment, his pledge, his vow, his work, his headship, his fullness, everything is yours. Has this happened to you? If not tonight, come to Christ. Because salvation is not in the visible church. It's in Jesus Christ, the head. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for the mercies of our head and our savior, our groom, Jesus Christ. We thank you for a love that we cannot even begin to comprehend. And yet we pray as the apostle Paul does that we would begin to understand it. that your love was fixed on us before there was a world that Christ took the vows of being a mediator before the creation. And he is indeed the one who fills all that we need in every way. I ask father for your spirit to be pleased to work. Save those without faith in Christ. I ask in his name. Amen.