Well, so far in our study, in our recent studies, we've learned that in the Garden of Eden, Adam was acting as humanity's federal head in a covenant of works. And when he sinned, the entire human race was thrust into sin and misery. Of course, the wonder of God's grace is that he didn't leave all men to perish eternally in that state of sin and misery. but he initiated a covenant of grace. And in the covenant of grace, God provides for us a mediator to be our covenant head, who of course is Jesus, and to accomplish everything on our behalf that Adam failed to accomplish. In the covenant of grace, God also grants us all that's needed for life and salvation to include our saving faith. To use the language of the banner that we have hanging in our church, the covenant is sold a great deal by grace alone. One of the things we learned most recently in the last couple of lessons is that the only mediator who could save us is one who is the God-man, a mediator who's true God and true man in one person. Of course, that's the Lord Jesus. In our most recent lesson, we learned that our mediator was given the name Jesus because he saves his people from their sin. And he has the title of Christ, which means he's the one especially anointed by God to be for us and to us, our prophet, priest, and king. Something I mentioned last time is that in the Garden, Adam had a prophetic and a priestly and a kingly role. When he sinned, those offices were corrupt. So in the Old Testament, God raised up individual prophets and priests and kings to function as mediators for his people. And all those mediators were anointed, typically anointed with oil. When Christ came, he was anointed with the Holy Spirit and he united those three offices in one person. Any questions or comments? It's just kind of a real quick review on question 41. All right, and then we took a few minutes and looked at the first office, that Christ is our prophet, and I don't want to spend too much time here, because we did look at that, but I do want to go ahead and re-read question 43, and think about it for just a moment. Question 43. By the way, there's plenty of cookies over there. My wife always makes a bunch of them thinking Chris is coming. Well, you know what, she always sends them home with him when, you know, because he's... I'll take them home tonight. Okay. No, yeah, please do. Are you expecting that they're all finished? Huh? Are you expecting that they're all finished? They will eat them. Oh, please do. You're young, they will hurt you. So question 43. How does Christ execute the office of a prophet? Christ executes the office of a prophet in his revealing to the Church in all ages by his Spirit and Word in diverse ways of administration the whole will of God in all things concerning their education and salvation. So Adam had a prophetic role in naming animals and teaching his family what God had revealed to him. Then after the fall, God would begin to raise up prophets. But ultimately it would be Jesus the Christ, the eternal word, who would be the full and final revelation of God. That's taught to us really wonderfully in a marvelous way, I think, in John 1. I printed out a few verses beginning in John 1. I'm going to read verses 1 and 2 and then skip down to verse 18. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. And the Word, this is verse 14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. No one has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father. He has declared Him. So this teaches us a couple important things about Christ as our prophet. First, before Adam, before any of Israel's great prophets, Jesus was the prophet. He was the word of God. He was the revelation of God. Again, this teaches us that Christ is not only the full and final prophet, He's God's first and preeminent prophet. And then second, the only begotten son is the one who declares God to us. The word that's declared there in verse 18 is the word exegesato, exegesato. It's actually the root from which we get our English word exegesis, right? And I think that really helps us understand the main purpose behind verse 18. Once the word became flesh, he assumed the role as our final prophet, and he exegetes the will and the ways of God. to us in a full and final way. And again, that's basically what Hebrews 1 and 2 say. God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son. So Jesus is the full and final revelation of God, our great prophet. Any comments or questions before we move on? Is John meaning no one has exegeted the will of God? Is that what he means? For example, the angel of the Lord is in the presence of Abraham when he gives the promise to Abraham and Sarah and wrestles with Jacob. There's been times where the Christophanies, if you will. And I think that it's interesting. I think what we typically call as theophanies are Christophanies. I think Christ is always the one who reveals God to people. Right. Again, just because that's how I understand Christology. And that's kind of what you're saying here, right? Yeah. In fact, I can't think of the guy. I just saw a book written by a couple Reformed Baptists that I really have a lot of respect for, and they wrote a book on the angel of the Lord. I'd like to actually pick that up. And it's really the argument they make is that all of the appearances of the angel of the Lord is, in fact, a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ in one way or another. And again, I think that's also true of things like the burning bush, believe it or not. I think that was Christ manifesting, right? Because what did the burning bush do that was so significant besides burning and not being consumed? It spoke, right? And that's what Christ does. He speaks. Anything else about Christ as our great prophet? All right, so that would bring us to question 44. Pardon me, my nose is stopped up this evening, so if I'm a little sniffly, you just have to forgive me. How does Christ execute the office of a priest? Christ executes the office of a priest and is once offering himself a sacrifice without spot to God to be a reconciliation for the sins of the people. Well, we've learned prophets reveal the ways of God. Priests, on the other hand, facilitate the way to God. Prophets represent God to the people. The priests typically represented the people to God. That's a broad brush between those two offices. But in fairness, there is some overlap in those offices throughout the Old Testament. For example, priests often had a teaching function. You see that in Nehemiah, for example. Or they had a word blessing function, like the Aaronic Blessing in Numbers 6. So they often had speaking functions. But typically, they were bringing people to God, whereas prophets were bringing the will and ways of God to the people. Adam had been created to worship God, and he was given a priestly task. It was his job to expand the worship of God out from the Garden of Eden and through Eden out into the rest of the world. Of course, he sinned, and after the fall, atonement was needed. before a person could worship God, right? So God provided Adam and Eve the first sin covering after their sin in Genesis 3.21. That established the need, I believe, for a formal priesthood, right? Because we're not given great details about the skins of the animal that the Lord provided in Genesis 3.21. But one thing we know, if their skin is there, Somebody died some animal died right for the Lord to do that You're getting a little picture of the priesthood that was necessary at that point Now I want to come at the priesthood and all they do from something of a side door If I can my screens jumping all around here Yeah, that's a bummer in it I want to come at it from a little bit of a different perspective. If you look there at that handout, I recorded for us the very last verses from the book of Exodus. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all the journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys." So think a little bit about the book of Exodus. God heard the cries of his people when they were in Egyptian bondage. He raised up Moses to be their old covenant deliverer and the mediator of the people. And God would use Moses to lead Israel out of their captivity so they could draw near to Yahweh. and worship Him. So through ten miraculous plagues, God demonstrated His supremacy over all the false gods in Egypt. He brought the people to Mount Sinai. He covenanted with them, gave them His law. He gave Moses detailed instructions on how to build a tabernacle, which represented the special presence of God with his people. In Exodus 25.8, the Lord said, let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. That's the goal of what God was getting at in Exodus. He wanted to dwell. with the people so that they could worship Him from a place of intimacy. The Lord set aside Aaron and his sons to be priests, Exodus 28.1. They were given detailed instructions as to the priestly garments, how they were to be consecrated, and everything was put in place for the glory cloud to fill the tabernacle so the people could draw near. We're told something surprising at the end of the book of Exodus there in verse 35. Maybe you picked up on this. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of Eden because the clouds saddled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacles. And don't miss, the book of Exodus is ending with a tension, right? Everything that was intended is not happening. The people are delivered. The tabernacle is built. God is dwelling with his people. His glory is present. Yet, not even Moses can approach His glory. Maybe you've picked up on this, but you finish reading the book of Exodus, and it's a cliffhanger. This is what God's doing, and yet it's not happening. And that tension lasts until you get to the very next verse in the Bible, which is the first verse of Leviticus. Now the Lord called him to Moses. See, Moses couldn't come until the Lord called him. And spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting, saying, speak to the children of Israel and say to them, when any of you brings an offering to the Lord, you should bring your offering of the livestock, of the herd, and of the flocks. I'm not going to get into too many details here, but this is the big picture. First off, you can only come into God's presence His way. And by the way, this is one of the reasons we have a call to worship. It will be gather because God has to call us and then we have to come on his terms and When you read the book of Leviticus, it can be dizzying with all the details, but all those meticulous details are to tell us that how Israel can now actually come into God's presence. Again, you're gonna need to bring an offering, and you're gonna need a priest who can manipulate that offering to God's exact specifications. That's why we get those incredible details in Leviticus, because before Moses and before anyone in Israel can come to God to worship Him and draw near to Him, they're going to need a priest who can make the right sacrifice, right? Interestingly enough, the thematic center of the book of Leviticus, everybody here know what a chiasm is? The Hebrew structure, literary? Do you know what it is? No. It's a literary structure that, let's think, is shaped like this. So let's say I like to go to your house to have dinner, because you're a great cook. Eleanor's meatloaf really is great at her house, and I love to go there. Now, I don't know if you follow what I did, but these statements go together, these statements go together, and the heart of what I was saying, Goertz, right here. The whole book of Leviticus is established so that the Day of Atonement is thematically in the middle of the book. Anyway, all that That's kind of the long way around the barn to say that apart from the Old Testament priesthood, there's no drawing near to God, there's no worshiping God, there's no communion, no fellowship with God. It's so serious, even my dog barks. Again, I think we can easily overlook that the bridge from Exodus to Leviticus, what a cliffhanger that is. By the way, it's also true from Leviticus to Numbers, but that'll be for another study. So anyway, Here's what we need to know, though, about the Old Testament priesthood. As important as it is, and that's the case I wanted to make, is that it's really important, it still had limitations, right? Here are some of the limitations. First, the sacrifices of bulls and goats, they had to go on year after year after year because no matter how many of them you offered, no matter how pristine your bull or your goat was or your lamb, They couldn't actually address a man-sin problem. We see that in Hebrews 10 verse 1 and then 3 and 4. Somebody want to read that? Okay. For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year make perfect those who draw near. But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Contrast that with Jesus, our great high priest, a little bit down further in Hebrews 10, verses 11 and 12 and verse 14. Somebody want to read those verses? When every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." So this is why our catechism says his once offering himself for sacrifice. He only had to make one sacrifice himself because of the sufficiency of what he offered, which was himself. Another limitation of the earthly priesthood is that they were sinners representing sinners. That is, before they could offer a sacrifice for others, they had to first make a sacrifice for their own sins. You can see that in Hebrews 7, verses 26 and 27. Somebody want to read that? For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. first for his own sins and then for those of the people So he was holy, innocent, unstained, separate from sinners. He didn't have to make a sacrifice for himself. He was truly holy on his own merit. So that's what makes him stand out also as our priest. So again, that's why our catechism reminds us that Jesus is the high priest who is without spot or blemish. And it's on the merit of his sacrifice, the efficacy of his blood, that he's our reconciliation. Everybody tracking with me so far? Yes, sir. When we speak of reconciliation, it indicates, again, that's the language that our catechism uses, it indicates that there's alienation, right? Sinners are alienated from God because of our foul deeds. We're not only alienated from God, we're alienated from each other. And so it's through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, the reconciliation is obtained. Paul put it this way in Romans 5 verses 10-11. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we now have received the reconciliation. So Christ is our reconciliation. He accomplished that fully and finally as our priest. Now behind reconciliation stands other saving graces, specifically the doctrine of justification. The justice of God has been satisfied. All the hostility between God and sinners has been dealt with for the child of God. We have a pardon sealed in the blood of the Lamb. Reconciliation is really the sweetest gospel gift, because what that's saying is we're restored to God, right? Having been pardoned, having been justified, having been cleansed, we're restored to be in a right relationship with God. And the reason I say reconciliation is the sweetest of the gospel gifts is because the saving benefit we get from reconciliation is God, right? Justification gives us a pardon, and we need a pardon to be in a right standing and right relationship with God. Because of that, our reconciliation, we get a real relationship with God. We actually have the opportunity for real fellowship and communion with God. That's reconciliation. And only a perfect priest making a perfect satisfaction for sin can restore that relationship between God and his image bearer. So, everybody kind of sticking with me? better than the beginning. I mean, I think that in this case, I mean, God walked in the cool of the day with Adam and Eve, right? But we have full union with Christ. I think it's better. Yeah, it is. And I'll tell you, I didn't go into any detail about this, but there's some really helpful things. that you can work out if you think carefully about the language of the Garden of Eden. First off, the Garden of Eden was certainly, as Eagle tells us, it was a mountain, right? So you've got the mountain of Eden. And the language is really, really cool. For example, you said he's walking in the cool of the day. That language they used to speak of the way Adam and Eve would move around when God was there. It's the exact language Leviticus uses, the way priests move around in the tabernacle. Where you see in Genesis, what is it, Genesis 28 or 29, when God's, no, this would be in chapter two, no, Genesis 2, where God says, you'll tend and keep the garden. Now certainly we think of working, and that's perfectly appropriate, protecting. Those words can mean that. But after that Genesis account, every other time you find those words together, it's speaking of a priest who's either guarding and defending the Word of God, or a priest who's doing his work in the tabernacle or temple. Every other time you find those words together. So again, Adam was called to do priestly work when you read backwards into it. So it is a lot of cool stuff. It's moving forward, ultimately, to the one who could provide everything we need to reconcile us to God. Well, finally, we have a priest who's making continual intercession for us. That's the last part of our catechism lesson there. As our great high priest, Jesus' work of atonement. is complete, right? To use the language of John 19.30, it's finished. Nothing can be added to the sacrifice that Jesus made for our sins. Nothing else is needed for atonement. No added work. There's nothing we can contribute or anything else. It's been fully accomplished by Christ for us. But even now, Christ is laboring as a priest for us through his ministry of intercession, right? Hebrews 7.25 says, Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. So Jesus' intercession accomplishes several things, right? One of the things he does for us, one of the ways he prays for us in his intercession is for our weakness. And we get a picture of this even during his earthly ministry, a couple times during his earthly ministry. In Luke 22, Jesus said to Peter, Peter, Satan desires to sift you like wheat, right? But what did Jesus say to him? He's prayed for him. But I've prayed for you. In other words, he interceded for him. And of course, in Jesus' high priestly prayer in John 17, he prayed for the perseverance of his people against the attacks of the evil one. So, he prays to address our weakness. He also prays to strengthen us when we lack assurance and are overcome with guilt, right? He's our advocate, we're told in the scripture, who's in the heavenly courtroom pleading our case for us as if he's our divine lawyer. Of course, the great thing about Jesus is it's always pro bono. It's pure grace, right? 1 John 2 verse 1, my little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have an advocate, right? A counselor, a paraclete, a representative with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he's always pleading the reality of his finished work on our behalf so that Satan can never actually enter into heaven now and offer an accusation against us. Right. I think of the words we just sang. I'm going to read a couple of these verses again. Arise, my soul, arise. Shake off thy guilty fears. The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears. Before the throne my surety stands. Before the throne my surety stands. My name is written on his hands. My God is reconciled. His pardoning voice I hear. He owes me for his child. I can no longer fear. With confidence I now draw nigh. With confidence I now draw nigh, and Father, Abba, Father, cry. So these are some of the benefits of having Christ as our high priest. Any other questions about the priesthood? One of the things I would encourage you to do in your private studies if you're reading through the book of Leviticus, and I, listen, it gets laborious. I mean, anyone who says, unless you're like a scholar, you know, and that's your thing, for most people it's going to get laborious. But one of the things that's helpful is when you're reading through Leviticus, first remember how Exodus ended. The whole book is to tell us how did Israel have access to God? That's what Leviticus is about. And the second thing to keep in mind is it's always pointing forward to the one who could just do this once for all and get it finished, right? So it's always pointing us to and bringing us to Christ, so. All right, any comments or questions about question 44? All right, question 45. How does Christ execute the office of a king? Christ executes the office of a king in calling out of the world a people to himself and giving them officers, laws, and censures by which he visibly governs them in bestowing saving grace upon his elect. and supporting them under all their temptations and sufferings, restraining and overcoming all their enemies, and powerfully ordering all things for his own glory and their good, and also intending vengeance on the rest who Again, as we think about kingship, we can go all the way back to Adam. He was to rule over the earth as God's princely representative. He was created in God's image and given the glorious task of taking dominion over God's creation. It was a spectacular privilege. A man was to establish God's reign to bring God glory, right? His task was to take the Garden of Eden and cultivate it and expand it until it covered the whole, so that the glory of the Lord would cover the earth just as the sea. Boy, I'm drawing a blank. Habakkuk 2. I can't remember. Anyway, sorry. To advance God's glory throughout the entire creation. Of course, when he sinned, he forfeited that task. He forfeited the task that God had provided him, and things turned around. Initially, even the labor of expanding God's kingdom would have been pure pleasure. After sin, our labor, the way we provide for ourselves is by the sweat of our brow. So he forfeited his kingly duties. But again, early on in biblical history, it was clear that God intended to raise up a royal line through the tribe of Judah, who would be the forerunner of the Messiah. We get a glimpse of this already in Genesis 49.10. This was part of Jacob's prophecy to Judah. It says, the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes. And to him shall be the obedience of the people. Although it's tough to translate this, because there's some discrepancies in some of the texts, but until Shiloh comes probably means something like, till the one to whom we owe tribute. comes. That's probably what it means. It's probably not a geographical location. It's probably, until the one to whom we owe tribute comes, that's probably it. That is the one who will be the ultimate king. So in that way, it's looking forward to the great Messiah. This prophecy was obviously made more specific when Nathan the prophet delivered this promise to David in 2 Samuel 7. Somebody want to read 2 Samuel 7, verses 12 and 13? When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seat after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. While this prophecy was initially applied to Solomon, Solomon was clearly a type of Christ, and it necessarily went beyond him. For one thing, the promise is that his kingdom would endure forever. Also, when you look at other texts of scripture, it becomes clear that this promise went obviously well beyond Solomon. In fact, after David and Solomon's reign came and went, you start to come to the writing prophets, and they wrote a lot about the coming king. I put a few verses down from Jeremiah 23 verses 5 and 6, where the prophet is anticipating the greater David. Does anybody want to read those verses? Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will raise to David a branch of righteousness. A king shall reign and prosper and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell safely. Now this is his name by which He will be called the Lord our righteousness. Wow. And Isaiah 11.10, And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the people. For the Gentiles shall seek him, and his resting place shall be glorious. By the way, Paul makes explicit in Romans 15 that Jesus is the fulfillment of that prophecy. The point is, all these prophecies, along with just the dozens and dozens of prophecies about Christ being the Messiah King, were all fulfilled in the Lord's incarnation, or His resurrection, or His ascension, or when He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High. The point is, our King has come, He's accomplished the work that He was sent to do by His Father, and He's now ruling and reigning at the right hand of the Father. Any questions before we go any further? All right. Well, catechism basically tells us that Christ is exercising his reign in three realms, in the visible church, the invisible church, and in the world. While we're going to look briefly at these three realms, it's worth pointing out that it's specifically for the elect, which is the invisible church, that he exercises his rule over the other two realms. In other words, everything Christ is doing in the world, as we heard earlier, is for his glory and for the good of his bride. Well, let's look at how he exercises his reign over the visible church, and I thought it might be helpful to just be reminded what we mean when we speak of the visible church. So I put down this for you from the Westminster Confession of Faith. Paragraph 2 of chapter 25, the visible church, which is also Catholic or universal under the gospel, not confined to one nation as before under the law, consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion and of their children. And it's the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation. That's the visible church. Everybody tracking with me? By the way, this has profound implications for the doctrine of baptism. If you're a Baptist, you believe you're being baptized into the invisible church. If you're a Presbyterian, you believe you're being baptized into the visible church. But there's something else you want to notice. If we receive somebody's profession of faith and it's credo baptism, they're still being baptized into the visible church. So the difference between baptism of an adult and baptism of an infant is zero. I would point that out, so everybody tracking what I just said? Okay. Just how circumstances identified you with the nation of Israel. Yes, yes, exactly. So it was initiatory, and yeah, and it certainly wasn't salvific in that sense. So that's the visible church. And in that realm, Christ exercises kingship first in calling out of the world a people to himself. That's the language of the catechism. So what's being described here is the general call that goes out to the proclamation of the gospel. Typically, we understand when the Gospel goes forward, there's an external call that ought to be proclaimed universally. The free offer of the Gospel ought to be provided to all men and women and children everywhere, in all places, in all nations, and at all times. That's the external call. The internal call is where the Spirit accompanies that proclamation of the Gospel to draw people in. But what we're understanding first is that external call is part of what Christ reigns over in the visible church, right? As the King of Kings, Christ has how much authority in heaven and earth? All authority in heaven and earth. So he definitely has the right and authority to tell the church in Matthew 28, 19 and 20, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you, and lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age." So that's one of the ways he exercises his kingly role in the visible of the church, by calling people into the church, the visible church. Everybody with me in all these various distinctions I'm making? Another is in giving them officers, laws, and censures by which he visibly governs them. So basically this is another way that Christ exercises his kingly role is through church government. We were kind of talking about Ravi Zacharias and Steve Lawson and some of those things. This is one of the things that's absent in the evangelical world. They have no ecclesiology, and they have no doctrine of church government, and yet the Reformed have historically believed that church government is one of the essential ways that Christ's reign functions in the world, right? He's given us shepherds who are elders. He's of course given us deacons and their responsibility is to reign as under shepherds in Christ's place by ministering Christ's Word. Here's how that's laid out in the PCA Book of Church Order. It belongs to his majesty from his throne of glory to rule and teach the church through his word and spirit by the ministry of men, thus immediately exercising his own authority and enforcing his own laws under the edification and establishment of his kingdom. Immediately means that he's using the word to mediate his authority. If it was immediate, it would be apart from the word. It would be direct authority. That would be what the Roman Catholics believe. They believe the church has magisterial authority, whereas the Reformers believe the church has ministerial authority. We don't have authority, except so much as we're ministering the word. So, for example, if I say to you as a pastor, you can't lie. I speak with actual ministerial authority. On the other hand, I can't say, Gabe, you've got to put pink blinds in your house. But I don't have that authority because I can't make that case in the Bible, right? However, if you were a magisterial church like the Roman Catholics, they wouldn't do that, but they could technically do that, you see? So that's the idea of immediately. Another one, Christ as King has given to his church officers, oracles, and ordinances. And especially he's ordained there in his system of doctrine, government, discipline, and worship. all of which are either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary inference may be deduced therefrom, but to which things he commands that nothing be added, and that from them not be taken away." Right? So church and government is one of the ways God exercises, excuse me, Christ exercises His kingly reign in the visible church. He also exercises his reign over the invisible church. But before I get to that, any questions about the visible church? I will say, if you understand the distinction between visible and invisible, then we're getting ready to get to invisible. It'll help you make sense of some scriptures that are otherwise really hard. Yeah, so. Like, but, versus. Just an example. I guess an example of that would be a text where, you know, separating the wheats from the tares in the church. Jesus gives the parable that, you know, there's going to be the wheats going to grow up, there's going to be tares to grow up beside them, let them grow up, and then Christ, He'll widow those at the end of the day, right? That's the point. There's going to be in the visible church, there's going to be some wheat, there's going to be some tares, right? But what's very sobering to me is not, and it's only been since I've been Reformed, though as a fundamentalist, you know, it's like, people would talk about their indwelling sins, I think, and I just can't get over it. It's like, now I'm thinking, sin leads to death. So whenever there's, you know, I'll deal with that sin later. No, deal with it right now, because if you don't, then, you really prove that you're not part of the church. Yeah. I definitely think members of the church can do indwelling sin, but there should be a hatred of it, of wanting to flee from it. Right. Yeah. One of the things I was thinking of is, in 1 Timothy 4, Paul is telling Timothy, "...not only did the lack of spiritual gift within you which was bestowed upon you through prophetic utterance, with the laying on of hands by the Presbytery, And this is the NASB, and when it uses that word presbytery, how should we think of Scripture using that word? Because I don't, like, can we take how we understand the presbytery now and apply that to what it's talking about here? How should we understand that? Well, obviously we don't do things exactly like the early church, but having said that, yeah, that's the whole purpose of a Presbyterial form of church government. The word elder there is the word presbyteros, right? So that's how we get Presbyterian. That's our form of government. we're to be a church governed by a plurality of elders, the presbytera, plural, right? And so, yeah, I do think there's some very practical applications in the way we do things. So, it's interesting. So it's obviously the first century truths for all Christians. What's that one? That's a given. Let's see if I can find this. In Acts 15, you know, they had the Jerusalem Council, right? Because there were people saying you had to be circumcised to be saved. They had this whole council. Here's the thing that's interesting. They wrote this letter, and here's how this is Acts 15, beginning of verse 22. They wrote this letter, the apostles, the elders, and the brethren. And then when they signed the letter, or not when they signed it, let's see if I can find that down here. At some point when they were distributing the letter, let's see if I can find it. It was chapter 16. He talks about the elders. The letter came with the bottom of the letter was signed by the elders. Here's the significant thing. These were These were apostles. They had authority to speak magisterially. They really did. That's part of the Catholic dogma that's broken. They really think they're part of the apostolic chain in that way. But they had that authority. They could have just said, this is what we're doing, and don't argue with me because Christ gave me that authority. They wouldn't have done it that way, but they had that kind of authority. But when they sent the letter, they signed at the bottom, the elders. Why? Because they were teaching that early church to submit to the leadership that would be there once the apostles were gone. I just had this conversation with someone, I can't remember if it was you or maybe it was Ben, but One of the things that's really remarkable is when the Apostle Paul was going out in his missionary journey from the Antioch, from the church in Antioch, he goes, he bows down, the elders of the church in Antioch put their hands on the Apostle as elders and ordained him for the mission field. And why did Paul do that? Did Paul have the authority to just hightail it out of there with Barnabas? Of course he did. But he was teaching the church by his own submission the role that elders have. So this is all getting back to the question. With that instance in Acts where you were talking about the elders signing that letter, do we know if that's elders from different churches making up like a session or is that one church? This would have been more like what we think of as a General Assembly or even a Presbytery where you have people who are coming from different churches to represent, right? Again, I'm not going to say, for example, I had mentioned to Eleanor to have your membership paper sent to us. That's the way we do it. You're not going to find that specifically in the Bible. But the basic structure of the way we try to do church government as best as we can, this is why it talks about from necessary inferences if that's what we have to do. It is as biblical as we can make it in our context. Did you ever get those? Because I asked them. What's that? Did you get my, sorry, my papers? No, but here's the thing. If you ask for them, they probably won't send them until after they've had a session meeting. Because the session will, yeah, your folks are at Westminster, so it'll be a session. So they'll have a session meeting, they'll vote, and they'll dismiss you. And it's perfect, that's just what they're supposed to do. Then, whoever the clerk of session is, he'll send a letter. That letter will come to us and we'll deal with it the next time we have a session meeting. So it doesn't just happen. Again, that's not just to be willy-nilly. It's so that everything's done in a way that's proper and in order. Everything done decently in good order, that's the Presbyterian life verse. All right, so we've talked about Christ exercising his kingly reign in the visible church. He also exercises his reign over the invisible church. And again, I put down a definition of the invisible church from the Westminster Confession of Faith. The Catholic or universal church, which is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one under Christ, the head thereof. And it's the spouse, the body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. So our Catechism is telling us that He works out His kingly rule also in the invisible church. Does everybody understand this language of the invisible church? We're basically talking about the regenerate people, you know. And again, this is something This is something we can't see, right? I can't see your heart. I can only evaluate the fruit of your life, the confession you make with your mouth and the fruit that you demonstrate in your life. But that's what we can't see as human beings. We can't see the heart. But there is an invisible church, and that's where Christ is working. And he also reigns over that. He mentions a couple of ways in the catechism. First, by bestowing saving grace, upon his elect. So again, this is going to be those for whom the general call of the gospel goes out and Christ accompanies that call with the Holy Spirit that changes the heart, gives the person ears to hear, they receive the gospel, they repent, they have the free gift of faith to lay hold of Christ. Again, that's His work. And this emphasizes Christ's sovereign role in salvation. You're familiar, I'm sure, with John 15, 16. He said, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you, right? He exercises his kingly reign by bestowing saving grace upon the elect. Also Christ's reign over the invisible church is in rewarding their obedience, correcting them for their sins, preserving and supporting them under all the temptations and suffering. And there's a real sense in which all this is wrapped up in Christ's promise to be with us, to never forsake us, the promise that He'll persevere us, right? And so it's going to involve all sorts of things, with the Spirit of Christ being sent to reside with us, where Christ ministers to us when we sin, He's going to convict us. This goes back to some of the things you guys were just talking about. If I hear someone's, I just gave the illustration in church on Sunday of that gal, I don't know, you wouldn't have heard it, but. Was it Sunday morning or Sunday night? I don't remember. It was a gal who said, I don't want Jesus. I don't want the gospel. I have no intention of repenting. The sad thing was, she was perfectly willing to accept hell. From what I could tell, that's just what she's going to get if she doesn't repent. If I encounter someone who's struggling with a besetting sin, and they fall twice a month into a sin pattern, and they're repenting, That person needs, they need some strong shepherding. But I don't, my first thought is not necessarily that they're an unbeliever. But if I'm dealing with someone who's like, I know that's a sin and I don't care, I don't naturally, I don't assume that's a believer. Because one of the things Christ does when he's ministering to us is the spirit convicts us of sin. If there's no conviction of sin, that's an indication of the presence. of the Spirit isn't there, right? And I'm not saying that there's not going to be some of that, or that believers won't sometimes be able to see it. I'm talking about a pattern of, I know this is sinful, and I'm not slipping and sliding and mucking through it. I'm doing it. I'm sinning boldly, as it were. That's a very dangerous place. Because Christ is ruling and reigning over us. He's giving us victory. That's the other thing. Yes, a person sins in this way. Two days later he sins again. Three days later he sins again. But if you're truly repenting and truly looking to Christ, you're also going to start to accrue the strength of the Spirit in your life, and you're going to have more and more victory over it. And again, if you're not doing that, then that indicates a really problematic heart. So he exercises his reign over, we'll just say, the internal man, right? And Christ loves us too much to leave us in unrepentant sin. Because to your point, Dave, sin kills us, right? I mean, we see the meme all the time, but the reason it goes around all the time is because it's so helpful. It's from John Owen that you'll either be killing sin or sin will be killing you. Hey, you're a reprobate, you're not invited down here. I was preaching to her early, she fell asleep. That's definitely a reprobate doll. Definitely, definitely visible. I don't know, she's about to exercise. Nothing to do with your ability to communicate, of course. Hey, are you saying I'm not even qualified to preach to the dogs? Maybe it's just because you have a soothing voice. Anyway, so then finally, the third realm, Christ's reign is exercised over the world. His kingly reign is exercised over the world. First by restraining and overcoming all our enemies. Again, this is so, there's nothing in the world, no enemy, no power of the sword that can separate us from his love. Second, by powerfully ordering all things for his own glory and our own good. Again, this is one of the teachings of Providence, you know, that God's working out all things for good to those who love and are called according to his purpose. And then third, by taking vengeance on the rest who do not God, debate not the gospel. This is the language you may recognize from 2 Thessalonians 1, verses 6-9. It's a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you. Now think about what Paul just said. It is a righteous thing for God, I'm just going to paraphrase this, to harass those who are harassing you, right? and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels." So, in other words, when Christ returns, you're going to get rest and they're not. In flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. They shall be punished with everlasting destruction for the presence of the Lord and for the glory of his power. Now this vengeance will be partly carried out by Christ's providential power today, but the day of his wrath will be that last day when Christ will finally put all those who oppose him and his church, including Satan, and the world under his feet. The last day to meet death will be destroyed and Christ will establish the new heaven and the new earth. Will the elect rejoice when the wicked are punished for their sins? I don't think rejoice is the right word. We won't mourn. I don't know that I would say rejoice is the right word. If you look at Revelation 6 and you see the martyrs under the altar, they're crying out, how long, oh God, how long till you vindicate their blood? They're in heaven, so we have to believe, even though this would be what we call the intermediate state. This is not a sinful, this is not a sinful cry. So what are they asking for? They're saying, God, we want your justice to unfold on those who were unjust to us. And that is a righteous thing. I've often thought about this. I remember, well, someone who I love very much died. It was an unbeliever. And I remember thinking about this and studying this. This was many, many years ago now. And I finally had to come to the conclusion that, yes. When I'm sanctified fully on the other side of glory, whether it's the intermediate state or in the new heaven or the new earth, my desires will be so aligned with Christ's that I will say they're getting exactly what they deserve. And I praise you, God, for the glory of your justice. And when I consider myself, I will say I praise you, God, for the glory of your mercy. Rejoicing is praising the Lord, conquering fully all sin and death, and His full justice. Yeah. And it's kind of even a reminder of, you know, when, say, David would come back from battle, right, and people would be singing in the streets rejoicing over his conquering of all enemies. But, I mean, that'll be a full and final conqueror when our Lord returns. Yeah. It'll be joy in that sense. Yeah. Yeah. One final point in terms of the prophet, priest, and king. It's helpful to think about these in the proper biblical proportions. Here's what I mean. If you overemphasize Christ as prophet, there's a tendency to become word-centered in a way that's legalistic and moralistic, right? If you overestimate strictly the priestly work of Christ, you end up thinking that all that matters is your salvation. That would be something dispensationalist. If you go back to the 19th and 20th century and the rise of liberalism, all they talked about was the kingdom of God. They weren't interested in a priest who offers them once for all sacrifice. They were wholly interested in a king who would help them create a better society. Right? And so, if you don't keep them in the right biblical proportions, You'll end up legalism on one side, liberalism on the other side, or so salvificly focused that nothing else matters. Again, that's sort of the dispensationalist today, you know? Whereas if you keep these balanced, you have a work-based life grounded in what Christ has done for you as your priest, and you're able to see his kingdom extend through the world in a way that's worth of bucks and healthy. Does that make sense? It's a helpful thing to keep in mind. I think, too, we do. We tend to have our hobby horses, the things that we really like to do. And again, all those things are good. I mean, people who love the Word of God, well, that's a great thing. unless they only see it as a book that they study either out of intellectual curiosity or as a how-to manual or some sort of legalistic structure that they want to implement. And again, it's hard to fault someone who really desires to focus on the salvation of Christ. But in our context, I think that's dangerous. You got the people who think that salvation is all feeling. That's where I've got to focus. I don't really need the didactic instruction of the prophet. I just need to have a sense that the priest loves me and he's ministering for me. And I don't really need to worry about a kingly rule because that doesn't exist. On the other hand, all I got to do is I just want to do something for the kingdom. I want to build something. I want to make something. If you don't get this balanced, you'll end up wobbling. All right, well that's, any comments or questions to wrap this up? and that's kind of how they go through scripture. And you know what, I've had this conversation with people and one of the bits of pushback I'll get back is, but don't you love the law? And I'm like, yes, I do love the law, and believers should live by the law, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about living it as though the Bible, they want a manual for every little detail of life rather than an ethical set of principles that guide all that we do, right? If you think about the Garden of Eden, right, when God created Adam, everything was yes. Everything was liberty. There was one no. no in the whole garden. You can't eat in the tree of knowledge. Everything else was a yes. And I did mention this Sunday, you know, God gave us the law. He didn't give us 6,000 laws. He gave us 10. 10 words to structure the entirety of our lives around. But I think when you read the law properly, it's not, okay, here's my how-to, here's my how-to. When you read the law, you see, this is what I could not fulfill in my sinfulness. And Christ fulfilled this as the prophet, the priest, and the king. And so when you read the law, it doesn't reflect myself. It reflects Christ. I think that's one of the things, too. Like David says, oh, he says in the Psalms, oh, I love you, how I love your law. It's reviving to the soul. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, in fact, Jesus took the ten and he summed it down to two. You know, everything else was a yes. So, so long as you live those two, everything else is a yes. I wish Chris was here. He would be, he would remember this probably, or maybe Daniel would, but what was it Augustine said? Something to the effect, love God and live. In other words, if you love God and that's really your grounding, biblically loving God, you have so much liberty and freedom. Yeah. Wow. Anything else? So we're meeting on Wednesdays? We are. Okay, let me make sure I got this. Your dad's gonna shoot me. I messed it up again. I already heard about it.