Welcome to the third and final meeting of the 2022 General Assembly of the Confessional Baptist Association. If that sounds new to you, it's because it is. Today, the messengers of the General Assembly approved a new name for our association, and we signed our names to a new declaration of intent. 22 names of officers grace this document. We have copies of it up front. So we are the Confessional Baptist Association. This evening, we are privileged to have Pastor Jason Montgomery of Faith Community Church, Fort Worth, Texas, come and bring the message from Chapter 26, Paragraph 9 in our confession. If you don't have your own personal copy, you can find it in the pocket in front of you in the Trinity hymn notes in the back of the Blue Trinity on page 684. And Pastor Montgomery asked that I would read scripture this evening from 2 Corinthians 3, verses 1 through 6, with the specific request that it be from the King James Version. And so if you have your copy of the King James Version, Feel free to turn there or you can listen as I read God's Word out loud. Let us hear the Word of the Lord. Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men. For as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ manifested by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart. And such trust have we through Christ to Godward, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who has also made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter but of the spirit, for the letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life. Thus far, the reading of God's holy word. Now would you unite your hearts with mine as we look to the great God of heaven and earth and seek his help this evening in prayer. Thanks be to you, O Lord, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We worship and praise you, Father, in Christ, by the Spirit. We are thankful for this opportunity to come together once more for this final meeting of this 2022 General Assembly. And we thank you for being with us for the rich blessing and fellowship that we have enjoyed by your mercy and grace. How you have met with us, how you have bestowed the spirit of grace and truth upon this assembly. How we have enjoyed such precious unity. How we have been able to accomplish much in these three days. Some, though, seemed tedious, but it has all been good for us to strengthen us, to knit our hearts together in the bond of love. We are thankful for the way that you have given us a new name, a fresh sense of purpose, and a empowerment, Lord, to look forward with a expectation and holy anxiety knowing that you will yet do great things for the glory of your name through our association. That is our prayer. that you would be pleased, Lord, to use us for the expansion of the kingdom, for the proclamation of the gospel, for planting of churches, for building up and strengthening one another in each of our congregations. And we thank you, Lord, for the men who have come and the messages that they have brought to us, both in the morning and in the evening. And we thank you for Pastor Montgomery as he comes now to call our attention to your word. We pray that he would find help from on high, that your grace and mercy and strength will be with him. And that you would be with us, Lord, that we would be active listeners, that we would be able to leave this place this evening with hearts overflowing with gratitude for what you've done. among us, and we look to you now with anxious expectation, praying that the spirit of Christ will meet with us, for we ask these things in his holy name, amen. Amen, Jason. Thank you, John. Well, good evening. It's good to be with you this evening. I'm thankful for the opportunity to come to you, along with the other brothers, and bring a message from our confession, looking at chapter 26 in paragraph 9. As I said this afternoon, for those of you that were here earlier, This evening's lecture is part two of the two-part series that we began this afternoon. And the title for that lecture we gave this afternoon was The Search for Able Ministers of the New Covenant. This is one of the reasons that I had John read from the King James Version of the Bible in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 6, where it states that God has made us able ministers of the New Testament, or the New Covenant. The search for able ministers of the new covenant is something that we share a desire for with our brothers and sisters from the 17th century, those who first blazed, if you will, the trail and wrote our confession of faith. The subtitle for these two lectures is The Preparation and Selection for the Ministry Among Particular Baptists. And we took a biographical look this afternoon, looking at the life of a pastor from the 18th century by the name of Benjamin Bedham. He was, among many, an able minister of the New Testament. And tonight, we want to take kind of a confessional look at this. If you have a copy of the confession, I would encourage you to take that, and I want to read to us from chapter 26 in paragraph nine. I think the confession's also in the back of the Trinity Hymnal. John may have mentioned that just a moment ago, and you can find this there as well. Chapter 26, paragraph nine. The way appointed by Christ for the calling of any person fitted and gifted by the Holy Spirit unto the office of bishop or elder in a church is that he be chosen thereunto by the common suffrage of the church itself and solemnly set apart by fasting and prayer with imposition of hands of the eldership of the church if there be any before constituted therein and of a deacon that he be chosen by the like suffrage and set apart by prayer and the like in position of hands. This paragraph is a good example of how later paragraphs in the confession borrow and depend upon ideas that have already been presented earlier in the particular chapter that we are reading in. We will see several things here, and I just want to kind of draw your attention to them, so if you still have your confession out, let me just make some of these connections. Our paragraph opens with the phrase, the way appointed by Christ. This draws attention not only to paragraph eight, where we see this idea of officers being appointed by Christ, But it also draws our attention back specifically to paragraph 4 because the way appointed by Christ is a proper way for the church to walk because Christ is the head of the church. He is the only head of the church. He is the only one with supreme and sovereign authority by which he might declare the way that we should walk. It also is reflected in paragraph 5 when it speaks of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ that he has, that he entrusts to the church. It is reflected also in paragraph six when we speak about the church's walking in obedience to the call of Christ, being in subjection to the ordinances of the gospel. If we look back in paragraph nine, we'll notice also it says, by the way appointed by Christ for the calling of any person. This points us back directly to paragraph eight where it speaks about people being appointed by Christ and it says chosen and set apart. And this is the way Christ is going to call them out. He is going to have them chosen and set apart by his church. Notice also in paragraph nine they are called unto the office of bishop or elder. The officers have already been distinguished for us in paragraph eight mentioned as elders or bishops or elders and deacons. These are the only proper offices in the church. Also if we notice down in paragraph nine it says they are called unto the office of bishop or elder in a church or later it's going to speak about deacons. Notice it says in paragraph eight that they are chosen and set apart by the church. This will be an important thing for us to stress here in just a moment. It is the church's duty. It is the church's responsibility to set apart men to serve in office in the church. She cannot give this responsibility or pass off this duty to anyone else and still be in obedience to Christ the head of the church. Notice also the language of being set apart Paragraph nine gives us some qualifications of how they are to be set apart, things like fasting and prayer, the imposition of hands, but it uses that language in paragraph eight or it draws from the language in paragraph eight of being set apart. Now even within the paragraph itself, just restricting our thoughts to paragraph nine, within the paragraph itself, the final section is an abbreviated statement about the selection of deacons to serve in the church. But that final section is abbreviated, but the reason it's abbreviated is because an expanded statement has already been made earlier in the paragraph. Let me show you what I mean by that. First, we have to divide this paragraph up into three sections. Helpfully, our forefathers, when they wrote this paragraph, they broke up the sections in the paragraph by the use of semicolons. Now, I know, if I mention semicolons, we're talking grammar, and you guys are on the floor, and nobody cares anymore. This is totally boring. We're talking grammar. How was the meeting tonight? He gave us a grammar lesson. May he never speak again. Never going to that church. Okay. Grammar matters. Who's an English person out there? Aren't y'all loving me right now? We're talking about grammar. Okay, the rest of y'all just listen. Okay, now, so paragraph nine. Notice it as we kind of look through it again. If you have one of these black ones, then it's like the fourth line down. It talks about chosen thereunto by the common suffrage of the church itself, semicolon. You see that there, all right? That means that that's the end of the first section. Then, and solemnly set apart, da-da-da-da-da-da, down to the statement, if there be any before constituted therein, what do we have now? Semicolon. You guys are good. All right. Now, that's the end of the second section. Now, the third section is marked off not by a semicolon, but by what? by the period, by the, at the end, all right? And there it is, that's the third section. That's a Greek term, by the way. Anyway, all right. So we got three sections in this paragraph, right? And if you look at the last section, it's very brief, it's about deacons. This does not mean deacons are less important than elders. We have any deacons out there? No deacons? Okay, well, I was gonna praise the deacons, but we'll praise the deacons later. They're not here, all right. So, notice the statement. And of a deacon that he be chosen by the like suffrage and set apart by prayer and the like imposition of hands. This particular phrase mentions the idea of suffrage. Suffrage has already been mentioned in the first section of this paragraph by the common suffrage of the church itself. Down here it just says the like suffrage, so again common suffrage. Notice also in this last phrase they are to be set apart by prayer. It's already been mentioned earlier that it'll be set apart by fasting and prayer, and I think by implication we could say these are gonna be set apart by fasting and prayer as well. They're just being what? They're just being brief. They're just being short. They're saving words, all right? Notice also the last phrase in the paragraph and the like imposition of hands. This also has been mentioned already with the imposition of hands of the eldership of the church. And we're not going to get into too much detail here but perhaps your church has a practice where when you ordain a deacon elders lay hands on deacons and perhaps you have a practice where deacons who are previously ordained also lay hands on deacons or Maybe you just practice that elders lay hands on deacons. I don't have a beef with that right now, that's not my point. My point is simply to say we're drawing from earlier sections in the chapter. Now why do I do this? I do this, I want you to see how we're drawing on previous paragraphs or things that have already been mentioned. And we're drawing on things earlier in the paragraph itself where things have already been mentioned so that we might be able to kind of separate the wheat from the chaff here and find out what it is about paragraph nine that is new. What is it in paragraph nine that we learn that we don't learn anywhere else in the chapter, all right? So what I want to do here is summarize in a statement the new material. And this is the way I would say it and I'll read it a couple of times. If you're a note taker you can jot this down then we're going to kind of unpack this. By way of common suffrage through formal and sober institution the church concerned must choose men to serve her by way of office who are deemed fitted and gifted by the Holy Spirit. By way of common suffrage, through formal and solemn institution, the church concerned must choose men to serve her by way of office who are deemed fitted and gifted by the Holy Spirit. I hope that that at least closely gets at what's new in this particular paragraph. Let me try to unpack this by four different statements. I want us to look at the means of appointment, the manner of appointment, the men of appointment, and the mark of appointment. These are the four things that I have. Yes, I've been a Baptist a long time. That means I think in alliterative statements. Laugh all you want, but this is my time anyway, so. The means of appointment, the manner of appointment, the men of appointment, and the mark. Now, we're going to be brief on the first three and want to come down and land on the last because that's going to connect us to this afternoon. The means of appointment. It simply says here that men are to be appointed to the office of elder or bishop or men are to be appointed to the office of deacon by means of common suffrage. In short, basically this means to vote. All right? We don't have meetings in our church, you know, where the elders go into a private little room, they get a guy that they really like, and they appoint him. And then next week you find in the bulletin, you know, Larry, Curly, and Mo now have Sam are going to be the fourth elder in the church. It happened. And you didn't know it, all right? No, our confession affirms the idea of common suffrage. We are to appoint men by way of selection by the common body of the church. It uses text, for example, like Acts chapter six, three and five and six, where it speaks about the idea of laying hands upon men who were selected to serve there in the Jerusalem church in the early days of the church. So common suffrage, voting, the manner of appointment, formal and solemn institution. and also it is to be done by the church concerned. So let's think about just these two phrases for a moment. Formal and solemn institution. I take this by two different things. It uses the phrase and solemnly set apart by fasting and prayer. This is the idea of it's a solemn, it's a solemn engagement, solemn activity, it's a serious activity. When we set apart a man to serve, we're setting apart a man to serve under Christ to serve his church, to serve Christ's church, Christ's bride, Christ's sheep. He is to shepherd the flock of God. He is to be one who is appointed to rule over the people of God. Yes, but not as some Lord like they do among the Gentiles. He is to serve them and care for them and love them and guide them. a deacon that is appointed to succumb and to care for their needs and to make sure they are provided for, they are in some sense led to those green pastures, they have their tangible needs that are being met, they're cared for in such a way that the elders of the church might be able to be free to do their labors of the word and doctrine and prayer. It is a solemn separation. They're separated by fasting and prayer. It's also formal. It speaks here of the concept of laying on of hands which is what we typically refer to as the ordination of men to serve in the eldership or to serve in the diaconate. It is a formal ceremony. But notice this is all to be done by the church concern. Notice the phrasing in paragraph 9 in that first section it says, they are to be chosen thereunto by the common suffrage of the church itself. Now this is a very Baptist statement. Now in the 17th century, we probably wouldn't be saying it's a Baptist statement. What we'd be saying, it's a congregational statement or it's an independent statement. Our 17th century forefathers, Yes, we find the name or the word Baptists kind of assigned to them or used by them to describe themselves at various points, but usually they describe themselves more in the term of congregationalists or independents. So, for example, if you're familiar with Matthew Bingham, an English scholar who's written a book recently called Orthodox Radicals. It's one of those books on Amazon that has lots of zeros after it, so most people don't buy it. But he talks about how we distinguish the Baptists in the 17th century by speaking of them, especially our particular Baptist forefathers, as Baptistic Congregationalists. And it's a fairly good term. And if you guys that got that copy of Jim Renahan's book that he just put out, great book. Don't leave here without getting your copy. I hope I don't sell too many books anyway. They're for the guys, they're for the messengers or whatever. Who is it for? The messengers, is that right? And please don't leave without getting that. It's a great, great book. And Jim talks about this a little bit in there. But in other words, this is distinguishing our Baptist practice from both Episcopacy and Presbyterianism. In episcopacy, or an episcopal form of church government, episcopal coming from the Greek term episkopos, which means to oversee. You can get that out of the episkopos, epi, and skapos, scope, to look, epi, over, to look over. That's one of the things a shepherd does. He oversees the flock. He looks over them. He cares for them, makes sure they're OK. In episcopacy, the elders or the overseers, or in their terminology they would prefer the term bishop, The bishop is selected not by the congregation, but in this particular context in 17th century, 16th, 17th century England, the bishops were selected by the king or the queen, whatever the case may be. And so for example, Elizabeth in her long reign, she loved the Episcopal form of church government. She got to pick the bishops. That was a way she maintained control, right? And then the bishop would then be responsible to like appoint the priests and the shepherds, the pastors of the churches. But in Presbyterianism, it's a little bit different. Presbyterianism, you have not like a king or a queen over these churches. You have a presbytery. You have a ruling body of elders, and they will have their hands kind of in the pot. But in the Baptistic Congregationalist mindset, they're saying no. No kings, there's not some kind of overarching presbytery that comes in from out of town and forms itself together and picks so and so to be the pastor or the elders or whatever. No, the churches, the churches select those men by the church itself. Thirdly, and very briefly, the men of appointment, and that is simply drawn by the idea that those who serve as bishops or elders and deacons in churches must be men. I hope that's not overly controversial in a group like this, but one never knows. God has chosen men to lead the church, and not all men. but he has chosen those who serve as bishops or elders and deacons in the church to be men. This is consistent with the scripture. It is certainly consistent here with the confession. The confession says in phrase one in paragraph nine that he be chosen thereunto by the common suffrage of the church itself and of a deacon, the last phrase, and of a deacon that he be chosen by the like suffrage. Hopefully we won't have to answer the question of what is a man. Okay, moving along. This brings us to really the point of focus in our time tonight, and that is the mark of appointment, the mark of appointment. The church was to set aside men for ministry who bore the mark of qualification. It is not just any man that can serve in Christ's church to be a deacon or to be an elder. They were to be, according to our confession, fitted and gifted by the Holy Spirit. Bob teased me today about marking out words in my confession, and I haven't marked them off or marked them out, I've just marked over them so many times, especially this particular phrase. It is bracketed, it is cloudy circled, it is highlighted, fitted and gifted by the Holy Spirit. Our attention at this point, though, is going to turn to the elder. That is not to mean we're not concerned with the deacon, and I kind of toyed with this in different ways over the past several months, and I really, I just wanted to focus in on this phrasing that's used, fitted and gifted by the Holy Spirit. We will be, I pray, in our churches in the months and years to come, and may they be many years, we will be given the task of appointing men to serve in our churches. And as we've already mentioned, it is a solemn task. It is a task where Paul tells Timothy, don't be hasty, Don't be in a hurry. A lot of us get in a hurry, don't we? A lot of us come from single elder churches. I've been a single elder in a church for several years. 11. That's a drag sometimes. I just wonder, can I go to Walmart, you know, aisle 14 and buy an elder? You know, do they have those? You know, we just go pick one up somewhere. I'm there if we do, but that's not how it works. Do I just find some guy in my church that's a great business administrator? I just pick him. Pick a guy that makes a lot of money, because he obviously knows how to make money. Let's pick him. Pick a guy who everybody likes. That'll be a good guy. Let's pick him. Beloved, we need to think about this kind of a phrase. What does it mean to be fitted and gifted by the Holy Spirit? It is this phrase that emphasizes the issue at hand of qualification. Two points to note, I guess, before we get into the technical aspect of the terminology, notice the importance of the qualifying phrase, by the Holy Spirit. Fitted and gifted, that's where our eyes kind of are drawn. What does it mean to be fitted and gifted? We'll get to that, but I want you to notice the phrase at the end, the qualifying phrase, by the Holy Spirit. Look over, if you would, in paragraph 11 of the confession, This is a paragraph that, Lord willing, we will come to next year, the paragraph where we typically speak about the gifted brother. Perhaps some of you have gifted brothers in your church. They are not deacons, they are not elders, but they are men who are qualified to preach the word of God. Notice what it says about them. Right in the middle of it all it says, Well, let me just read the whole paragraph. Although it be incumbent on the bishops or pastors of the churches to be instant in preaching the word by way of office, yet the work of preaching the word is not so peculiarly confined to them, but that others also gifted and fitted by the Holy Spirit for it and approved and called by the church may and ought to perform it. Did you notice the phrase that I'm probably gonna mention? Gifted and fitted by the Holy Spirit. Did you notice something about that phrase? It's flipped, isn't it? In paragraph nine, those who serve as elders and deacons, or elders in particular here, are to be fitted and gifted by the Holy Spirit. Those who are gifted brothers are to be gifted and fitted by the Holy Spirit. What's the difference? Nothing. Now, notice the qualifying phrase. In the first one, the qualifying phrase is attached to gifted. So you might read that and go, okay, these men are supposed to be fitted and they're supposed to be what? Gifted by the Holy Spirit. So they can be fitted and gifted by the Holy Spirit. And I'm thinking, that sounds great. And then you flip over to paragraph 11. You're like, that doesn't work because here they're supposed to be what? Gifted and fitted by the Holy Spirit. So they're what? They are to be fitted by the Holy Spirit. They are to be gifted by the Holy Spirit. So in other words, the fitting and gifting of men for the work of ministry is the sovereign work of Almighty God to make sure they are qualified to serve his church. However, notice the importance and necessity of both fitting and gifting. We can't just sit there and say, oh, well they're like interchangeable. Fitted just means gifted and gifted just means fitted. No, that's not what they're saying either. They are two distinct things. Fitted by the Holy Spirit and gifted by the Holy Spirit. Now the language that's being used here, and we're gonna stick with the language gifted and fitted, although fitted and gifted works too, and I may switch them up. But the language is not foreign to the context of our Baptist brothers and sisters that went before us. Thomas Manton, Puritan preacher, who lived from 1620 to 1677, in volume 10 of his works, Sermon 31, Page 473, because I know everybody's going to run home tonight and want to get the works of Manton off their shelf, and they're going to grab it. There it is. Wow. You wondered why you had all those volumes for this one thing. OK. I've had the works of Manton on my shelf for several years. I confess, I don't know that I've opened them yet. I'm sorry, but I did. Don't tell my wife that. Maybe she's watching. She'll say, see, you didn't need all those books. How could she draw a conclusion like that from that comment? Please, no. Thomas Manton makes this comment. His words are so helpful. He is speaking here in this particular portion. It's a sermon on John chapter 17, the high priestly prayer of Christ. And he comes around to around verse 18 and he's expositing that. And he comes to the matter of calling, the calling of God for a man to service. You know, I really missed a chance there. I could have said, yes, I have read the entire works of Manton. And in doing so, I stumbled upon this statement. That's not what happened. A guy in my church said, you know, it was in there. And I thought, how did you find that? And he said, Lagos. I just searched it. It was Vishal, by the way. Some of you know who he is. Yeah. I'm going to talk to him later. Regarding calling, it's an inward call. This is what he's focusing on at the moment. He says, what is the inward call? What's the inward call of God to a man to draw him to serve? I answer, God calleth us when he maketh us able and willing. The inclination and the ability is from God. The inclination, he draws from Matthew 9, 38. He thrusts out laborers into his harvest. I mean, he compels us, doesn't he? He compels us to go out. Didn't Spurgeon say something to the effect of, if you can do anything else than pastor, what? Do it. Amen. Amen. If you can be happy doing something else, just do it. But if you can't, then do it with all your might and all you can, all your energy. He thrusts out his laborers into his harvest. Makes me think of the passage in Corinthians where Paul says, the love of Christ, what controls us, compels us. But then he speaks about the ability. And from this he draws from 2nd Corinthians 3 verse 6. He maketh or he makes us able ministers of the New Testament. Able, it's an important word. It's going to come up time and time again tonight. Both of these are required, inclination and ability. Ability there must be. He says, look at the princes and they counted a point of honor when they send out ambassadors to foreign nations to employ those that are fit. So it is for the honor of God that all his messengers should be, are you ready? Gifted and fitted. All of his messengers should be gifted and fitted. Didn't you love Jarrett's treatment last night? And I was so encouraged, yes, I sat there and cried, when he sat there and said that we all have the same calling, but we don't have the same strength. Oh, it was so good. What a reminder to know I'm not to compare myself with someone else. That's hard to remember at times like this isn't it? I'm not to compare myself with someone else. Not to compare myself with myself. I stand before the Lord and you stand before the Lord in your service and God is the one who compels us to go and he is the one that gifts us and fits us with different abilities, different levels, different experiences, different time. Man goes on and says that gifts and abilities, brothers, are our letters of credence that we bring to the world. that we are called of God and authorized to this work. Certainly, if the Spirit of God fitted Basileal and Aholiub for the material work of the tabernacle, much more does spiritual work require proportionate abilities. It is true there is a latitude and difference in the degree of abilities, but all that can look upon themselves as called of God must be able and apt to teach. You know, when you look at the qualifications in 1st Timothy 3 and Titus chapter 1 at the distinction between the elders and the deacons, they're almost identical, except the elder has to be what? Apt to teach. That's how he says it in 1st Timothy 3. In Titus chapter 1, he says he has to be able to exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict. It's the same basic thing. The apostle Paul took this for a call, 1 Timothy 1.12, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. If ever God puts. If ever God puts us into the ministry, he first enableth us, hear that word ability again at the root of that, and bestows suitable gifts and graces. So when our confession uses that terminology of gifted and fitted, it's not foreign language, it's not language that's never being used there. And, you know, if I had logos like Vishal, I could search all the Puritans, we'd find probably more phrases, but I don't. Not only is it not foreign to the context of the Baptists, if we look outside the Baptists, it's not foreign if we look inside the dialogue that's going on between the Baptists themselves. briefly made some statements this afternoon looking at Benjamin Bedlam and I wanted to kind of slow down just a little bit and draw your attention to a series of documents. There's a book that Jim Renahan put together several years ago called Faith and Life for Baptists. It's kind of a compilation of the records of our Baptist brothers from like 1689 to about 1694 or 5, something like that. And it talks about their assembly meetings and kind of what went on, the minutes and stuff like that, the questions, the dialogue. Our brothers mentioned in a letter that was written in 1689 calling upon the churches to send messengers down to London in September of 1689 that there is a need for an able and honorable ministry. I want to read to you from the document it says this. They were concerned about the church the strength and life and vigor of the churches they thought had waned and We are concerned, they say, quote, that the great neglect of the present ministry is one thing, together with that general unconcernedness there generally seems to be, of giving fit and proper encouragement for the raising up of an able and honorable ministry for time to come. They're saying, we've looked at the churches. We've looked at our churches. And we're concerned that there's not a sense of urgency to raise up able and honorable men to serve the churches. I want you to remember those two words, able and honorable. I know it's not gifted and fitted, but it's able and honorable. Just keep those in your mind. The assembly met in September of that year. And they did what Baptist preachers do when they get together, they talked a lot and they kept talking. And they got to one point in their dialogue where they were asking questions and giving answers. And here were a couple of questions. Question number one, whether the graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit be not sufficient to the making and continuing of an honorable ministry in the churches. Whether the graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit be not sufficient to the making and continuing of an honorable ministry in the churches. Does a man just having the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the spiritual graces of the Holy Spirit, does that make him sufficient? Or does that not make him sufficient? And they said, yes, it's not sufficient. He needs something else. He doesn't just need gifts. Whether, another question, whether it not be advantageous for our brethren now in the ministry or that may be in the ministry to attain to a competent knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin tongues that they may be better capable to defend the truth against opposers. They resolved here also in the affirmative. In other words, they wanted to have men who were gifted who were gifted with graces of spiritual endowments that would be given to a believer, but given specifically to the man for the purpose of ministry. But they also wanted men who would have human learning. Remember today we talked about Thomas Collier in the 1650s who thought that pursuing human learning was to rob God of his glory. But they said no, we think men need to be pursuing human learning as well. Notice the concept of being honorable pointed to the idea of spiritual gifts, but the idea of being capable or able pointed to the idea of training. Remember, they wanted an able and honorable ministry. They want a ministry, they want pastors who are able, who have human learning, but also are honorable to God. They have gifts and graces that the Spirit of God has given to them. apart from human learning. These were both, they thought, helpful to the ministry. We'll say more about that in a moment. They are going to put one of these over the other and that's a helpful thing for us to consider. A few years later, let's jump forward to 1692, and in 1692 the subject came up of Okay, we want ministers to be trained. We want ministers to know things and have this human learning. But, I mean, we're just a bunch of broke Baptists in the 17th century. We can't do this. We can't send our men to Oxford. We can't send our men to Cambridge. Our churches are being, you know, strapped for the Church of England. We don't have a lot. What can we do? So they wrote that that all the churches, they encourage the churches to take up quarterly collections in what method they thought best for the encouragement of the ministry, though it be never so little, doesn't matter how much it is, by helping those ministers that are poor and to educate brethren that may be approved to learn the knowledge of those tongues wherein the scriptures are written. What are they saying? What they're saying here is we wanna take up collections to help men to be able to study, to be able to learn how to more effectively handle the word of God. Now, if you're getting the idea here that, oh, I can't be a pastor unless I can read the Hebrew Bible, the Greek Bible, and read Latin, that's not what they're trying to say. They're not trying to say that everybody has to become absolutely proficient in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, or just quit, all right? We won't have a test tonight, but I'll bet most of us would have to quit, all right? I've had Hebrew, I've had Greek, I've had Latin, I've had German, and yeah, I'd probably flunk too if you just laid them all out here and said, okay, read them. I can already hear my German professor laughing if I was to take that kind of a test. I could never find the verb. I just could never do it. He'd give me a paragraph, I'd translate the whole thing, and he'd look at me and go, yep, you missed the verb again, didn't you? I missed the verb. Well, what they're saying is they want to help these men train. They want to help these men become more proficient in the Word of God. And to do that, exposure to the tongues that the Bible was written in would be very helpful. Next year, it's 1693. Now in 1693, there is a discussion that just seems to explode amongst the Baptists. And this issue of human learning versus grace gifts that the Spirit of God just endowed men with was kind of coming to a head. It seems that some were beginning to rise up again and oppose human learning. Remember, Collier's back in the 50s, and he passes from the particular Baptist scene by the 70s. He's no longer part of this group, all right? But there's still this struggle, this tension about whether or not we're going to stress spiritual gifts or human learning, right? What's going to kind of win the day? And they have a long discussion about it, and it's like two and a half pages, all right? So we're not going to read the whole thing. I don't have time. There's too much more to say. But let me just kind of sum this up for you. They basically conclude that Spiritual gifts, by God, are absolutely necessary for the ministry. Got to have spiritual giftedness. Human learning is most helpful. They try to do all they can to stress that human learning is helpful, beneficial, and profitable, but they come short of saying that it's what? Absolutely necessary, right? They want to make sure they're prizing spiritual graces over human pursuits and human learning. At the same time, affirming the benefit of human learning and the profitability of that. If you have the book, you can go read that. It's on page 127 to 129. This language of able ministry is also raised by Benjamin Keech. Takes us back a few years to 1689. Keech writes a book called The Minister's Maintenance Vindicated. At that particular time, they were debating on whether or not you should pay the preacher. We're all thankful. For those who pay the preacher, right? Because if you don't pay the preacher, what do you do? Well, he's going to have to go get paid somewhere. And what that means is if he's spending all of his time laboring in a job for 40, 50, 60 hours a week, and then he's got to come and feed your soul with the word of God on the Lord's day. We're gonna have some serious sermon complaining going on pretty soon because he just finds it very challenging to do that. Some of you men are bivocational. You probably know exactly what that's like. Some of us have had to be bivocational before and it can be absolutely overwhelming. Keech asked the question, how can we expect an ordinary way to have an able ministry raised up or those who are now employed in the work of the gospel, how can we expect them to carry on that work to the honor of God, the comfort of his people, the credit of our sacred religion? We need to pay the preacher. And is this not a biblical principle? Don't muzzle the ox while he treads out the grain. The laborer is worthy of his rages. Those who sow spiritual things among you ought to what? Ought to reap some kind of physical blessing to encourage them in the labor and to help them in the labor. Our own confession addresses this very issue regarding support for ministry. It's because of men like Keech in these days pressing for this matter. But the point to stress here is that Keech is saying, if the guy's having to work all day, every day, we won't be raising up a what? An able ministry. And again, able, able in the language of these documents, able is leaning to the idea primarily, not exclusively, but primarily toward human learning, skills that men can develop and grow in. Keech also touches in this in some sense in his book on the glory of a true church where he speaks about men who are first proved and then found. He uses this phrase meet and fit persons for that sacred office. You might remember this afternoon we mentioned a man by the name of Benjamin Grosvenor. Remember Benjamin Grosvenor was the man who preached at Keech's home to a few other people. and Keech, and he was found to be a youth of promising abilities. And Keech said that he should go under the instruction of Timothy Jolly, that minister, to be better fitted for the work of the ministry. In other words, he's sending Benjamin Grosvenor off. Why? Because he wants to fit him under human tutelage. He wants to put him under an instructor to help him. Whether one, again, like we mentioned this afternoon, whether one gets their human learning by self-education, whether one gets their human learning by diligent study on their own, by sitting under a tutor, by meeting with someone and being mentored by them, or going off to a seminary, all right? That's not the question about where to go. It's the question about going, doing something to make sure that you are growing in the ministry. And they're going to stress, they're going to stress even through the 18th century, and we're going to kind of get to a document here in the 18th century to kind of show this, they're going to stress the priority of spiritual giftedness, but the, and I'm gonna say it this way, the almost absolute necessity of learning. I've gotta be growing. Did not Paul tell Timothy, let your progress be what? Evident to all. Look at our pastor, he's so faithful he never changes. We want to demonstrate that we're what? That we're growing, we're always learning. We are always maturing. We're always coming to think better thoughts of God than we thought before. I teased Matt this afternoon because he always calls me Dr. Montgomery when I'm in some kind of a public setting, and it just, you know, builds up the expectation for disappointment. And I'm thinking the only thing I learned in my doctorate was that I'm stupid. And I just hope the other professors at IRBS do not get wind of it one day and realize, why is he here? One day they're gonna go, Jim, we gotta talk. Why is he here? I think it all the time when I stand before my church on the Lord's Day. I think it all the time when I engage with other men. I think it in class. You heard David Bain preach this morning. Why am I here? You see? And brother, that's not meant to blow you up. That is meant to say I love you and God has gifted you for ministry. And I heard you from the other room while I was trying to talk to your classmates. That man went from a meeting in class this morning in here to preach to you. Isn't it wonderful that God gifts his people and that he calls them to grow and learn? Well, 17th century Puritans had this idea of men being gifted and fitted. Our Baptist forefathers thought of men being gifted and fitted or able and honorable. By the time we come to the latter part of the 18th century, it seems that this idea of spiritual giftedness and human learning kind of coalesce in the minds of those men in the Bristol tradition that we spoke about this afternoon to the single term able. They wanted able men, able ministers. Hugh Evans, who was the tutor at the Bristol Baptist Academy and also the pastor of the Broadmead Baptist Church in Bristol, who followed Bernard Foskett, the father of Caleb Evans, a Welshman, preached a sermon in 1773 to the Bristol Educational Society, and the title of it was The Able Minister. It was based on a text from 2 Corinthians 3, verse 6, that I had you guys read earlier, John, that God has made us able ministers of the new covenant. And it's these kinds of men that we want to serve our churches, and brothers, It is this kind of man that you want to be if you're to faithfully shepherd the flock of God. I'm so thankful God is patient with us as we grow and as we learn, but let us labor to be able men. Let me tell you what Hugh Evans thought of when he thought of an able man. An able man is qualified or qualified to be considered an able man when he meets four criteria. And these are, I think, very helpful. Please try to listen to the whole of it before you get up, leave, and quit. Don't do that, all right? And again, this is Caleb Evans. I tend to think he has a good point here. But it's not the Bible, I understand that. And it's his understanding of what an able minister was to be. An able minister, number one, has a competent share in the gifts of nature. A competent share in the gifts of nature. He breaks this down. into three different categories. And let me just say that these four things could be broken up into two. The first two have to do with what we could call natural endowments. And the last two have to do with what we could call spiritual endowments. You can see the distinction between the spiritual blessings that God pours out upon a man and the natural endowments that God pours out upon a man, yes, by way of grace, but it's what we might call common grace. So these first two things are things that he will have by way of nature. The last two things are the things that he has by way of special grace as a redeemed man fit for the ministry. So in the realm of the natural endowments that God gives a man with, a man who is to be an able minister in Christ's church must have a competent share of the gifts of nature. And he breaks these down into three. He says he must be sound in mind, sound in voice, and sound in body. He must be sound in mind. You've met a guy before, tells you he's in the ministry, and you don't know that he can think his way out of a paper bag. And you're thinking, wow, this is challenging. You might wanna think about this. I mean, you're gonna be presented with some pretty difficult things in the ministry. You're gonna have to find a way to think your way through some of these things. Yes, you can pray, but the age of special revelation is over, and you're going to have to deal with difficult tasks. You're gonna have to think. You're gonna have to be a man of sound mind. He says that it is required to have a sound mind to form an able minister, as well as a sound, healthful body, a sound, well-formed, capacious mind in a sound, healthful body. We'll talk about that sound body. I'm sorry, I skipped that. That was his first point. A good constitution and a moderate degree of bodily strength and health seem highly requisite to form the character of an able minister. Ministry takes its toll, does it not, brothers? It takes its toll on your body. This is why eventually we come to the point where we have to retire. Maybe our wives will have to tell us when that day is. It's gonna be hard to quit one day, right? I can already tell it's gonna be hard to quit. But there comes a time when our natural endowments wear out. And I need to have a sound body. And I need to have a sound mind. Why is it right before you go on a trip, your wife decides we're going to start trying to lose weight together? I confess, I have not done well this week at all. It's not my fault. It's those kitchen people. Made all that food, snacks, and all kinds of things on the table. Like every fat preacher, I'm a victim. Okay, so sound body, sound mind, and a sound voice. If you've read Spurgeon's lectures to my students, he talks about the importance of the voice. And notice what Evans says about this, I might further observe that a good degree of natural elocution, a capacity of speaking freely and intelligibly, or what the apostle calls a door of utterance is also necessary to the ministerial character. Sound body, sound mind, sound voice. We cannot all have the voice of Whitefield. It is estimated that Whitfield preached once to a crowd of 80,000 people with no vocal helps, and in the back of the group, you could hear him as if you were in the front. He could also say Mesopotamia, and it made women swoon, but that's irrelevant. We all know what it's like on Sunday night. And somebody wants to have a conversation with you about 10 o'clock at night, and you think, I have expended the quota of my words. I'm done talking. It's usually one of my, my son will come in about 1030 or whatever, you know, and want to talk about some kind of something. And I'm like, you know, I'm doing everything I can with my body language not to pay attention. My phone is propped up on my stomach. My headphones are on my head. And I'm like, I don't even hear you. but he wants to talk, and I'm thankful for that. But dad's tired, my voice is tired, my body's tired, everything about me is tired. Monday's exhausting. Now brothers, keep this in mind. He says, these qualifications are given indeed, hear this please, in various degrees to different ministers, as it pleaseth the great giver of every good and perfect gift to impart them. I'm not telling you to assess yourself by Whitfield's voice or Spurgeon's voice or Bob's voice. It's impressive. But brothers, we have to have bodies that can endure the ministry. We have to have minds that can think through the ministry, and we have to have voices that can command the attention of men when they must be gained as hearers. A competent share in the gifts of nature. Secondly, he says, they need to have the improvement of human learning. And there is so much here, I need to be rather brief, but I just want to say, just to stress maybe the major points that he has to make here. He's arguing for diligent engagement in the life of the minister to learn and to grow in his mind. To grow in his ability to learn and to grow in what he learns. And those are two different things, all right? To grow in your ability to learn. I don't think I could do it, but I might be able to do it. I might be able to like Brussels sprouts. If I ate Brussels sprouts like every day, shaking your head Dave, couldn't do it, no, probably couldn't. I love broccoli, can't do Brussels sprouts, all right? But little children can grow in their ability to what? Appreciate good food, all right? You can grow in your ability to read good books. How? By reading good books. I went back to school to get my doctorate in 2014. Today's my birthday. Thanks. Yeah, credit cards are accepted. I went back. I'm 55 today. I know I don't look a day past 54, but I'm 55 today, and it's 2022, 2014, I'm not a mathematician, that's about eight years, that means I was 47 when I went back to get my PhD. What was I thinking? I was in there with these guys that were like 26 years old, had no kids, had brains as big as the rock of Gibraltar, and they would rattle things off, and I'm just like, Maybe I need more iron. I didn't know what I needed. I'm like, I can't think like you think. And they're just going through all kinds of stuff. And I'm like, wow. I had to work at some of that stuff. And I never got the German verb. I got Latin. That was kind of fun. I liked Latin. Didn't like German. It was much easier to study back in the 90s when I worked on my master's. And some of you are thinking, oh, you don't know how hard it's going to be, kid, when you're my age. I mean, look at you, Bob. You're just right there. But it's hard now. Use it while you're young, Sal, because you're not going to have it forever. You're going to slow down. And it gets harder. But listen, you can get better by practice. You can learn to read by reading. You can learn to love good doctrine by reading good doctrine. We need to learn. Evans argues we need to learn because of the present fallen state of human nature, our minds are not what they need to be. They need to be renewed and transformed and reshaped and retooled. Human nature is in a fallen state and when you get saved, it doesn't just fix everything like that, does it? If you were dumb the day you met Jesus, you were probably dumb the day after you met Jesus. And we're struggling. We don't just become smart, we become saved, transformed by the grace of God from a dead creature to a living creature, but we don't just get like massive mental abilities the day we meet Jesus. It doesn't happen like that. Even Jesus in his human nature learned. And if Jesus needed to learn, you need to what? You need to learn. And he, the chief shepherd and guardian of our souls, learned. We, the under-shepherds, need to what? Learn. The present fallen state of human nature argues that we should be learning. The nature and extent of the work to which the minister is called should encourage him to learn. I went a week ago or so to one of my brother's offices. And he's an engineer. And I'd never seen where he worked. And I looked at everything, and I was amazed, and I walked out of there and thought, I don't understand anything. Engineers are smart. I do third grade math, and I'm lost. And we homeschool, so it's a good thing I have a wife that knows how to do more than third grade math. We minister to people who do all kinds of different things. You need to know how to engage with your flock. You need to know how to somehow have some kind of intelligent conversation with them. They walk in the world every day and they deal with all kinds of things. And you need to preach a sermon that somehow, someway is going to intersect with where they're living and engaging in the Christian life. And if you're not learning something, you don't have to become an engineer. You don't have to know everything they know. It's wonderful that they know what they know. And you don't have to know all that, but you got to engage. The nature and extent of the work to which we're called tells us we need to have more breadth to our learning. The testimony and practice of wise and good men of the ages should encourage us by their habits to say we need to be learning as well. And here Evans goes through several things, very interesting. He spends time looking at the schools of the prophets. Remember the prophets, Elijah, Elisha, and when Elijah left and passed things off to Elisha, there was always this little group of guys that was around Elisha, called the Sons of the Prophets, or the School of the Prophets. They were like little pockets, little seminaries, and they were in different towns. They were in Gilgal, they were in Jericho, they were over here, and one of the same group of guys. And Elisha would go here, and he would go there, and he would teach them. And he would, for example, there was one situation where Elisha gives a message to one of the men who's in the sons of the prophets. He's not a prophet, all right, but he is one of the sons of the prophets. In other words, he's not like Elisha's literal son. He's like a schoolboy, and there he is. And he is sent to Jehu with a message. Remember that? And he tells the guy, he says, now when you get in there to Jehu, tell him the message and get out. Don't stay. Jehu's not the kind of guy you want to stay around with. So the son of the prophets, the young man that goes into Jehu, he didn't get revelation. Elisha got the revelation. But the young man had to be taught. The young man was in school. The young man had to learn. This is an example for Evans of why ministers of the gospel, we live in a day and age when the age of revelation is past, we have an inscripturated word now, and we need to be what? Students of that word. What did Paul tell Timothy? Just sit around and wait for the revelation, Tim, it'll come. Study to show thyself approved. A workman who needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. I'm sliding back into my King James tonight. So you get the point. The testimony and practice of wise and good men through the ages. He looks at the synagogue. He looks at later institutions in the Reformation. He looks at the example of Jesus himself. We could look at the example of Paul to Timothy or Timothy passing on what he's learned to other faithful men who will then be what? Able to teach others. We have this commission We talk about commissions a lot, the Great Commission, but we have a commission as well as ministers to make sure that we are pouring our life and what we know into those that are around us that are faithful men, that they might do what? Do the same thing to someone else and someone else and someone else and someone else. That line of faithful men, brothers, from Paul to Timothy to faithful men to others has terminated at this point with you. And it's your job to grow and to learn that you might press that into the heart and mind of another man that God might raise up to serve the people of God. That's the pressing duty that is upon us to grow in human learning. There are other things, and my time is almost out. I don't know when we're supposed to be gone, but when you leave, we're done. A third, there is a third category. Now that's the natural endowments. Those are the natural endowments. You need to have some form of a physical and bodily and vocal constitution where you can engage in mental constitution, where you can engage with these kinds of things. And also in this realm of common grace, we have the idea of human learning. We grow and through habit and through practice, we grow and become better at those kinds of things. Thanks be to God, it's not all just about that. All right? And this is where it gets really good. but we only have a few minutes. So, we need more than natural endowments. As wonderful as natural endowments are, we need the superintending grace of the work of the Holy Spirit upon our ministry or we will never, never be useful to Christ. Evans goes on and says, we need the gifts of grace. We need, he quotes Gill here, special and peculiar gifts from Christ, ministerial gifts. We need men who have an inclination, listen, we need men who have an inclination to use the gifts that they have for the benefit of the church. You might sit there and say, well, you know, I don't have that much of a brain and I don't have that much of a voice and my body is kind of weak at times and I don't know how to read German. My sympathies. But I've got a heart that burns within me by the grace of Christ to use what I do have for his service and for his kingdom. And I'm willing to be spent for the cause of the gospel. John Bunyan was not a rogue scholar. Was John Bunyan able and useful? I think so. I think so. You, by the Spirit of Christ, have been given, Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, you have been given the mind of Christ. The natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. But why? Because they're spiritually appraised. But the spiritual man appraises all things. The distinction in 1 Corinthians 2, verses 14 to 16 is not between the lost man and the guy that got a degree. The distinction in 1 Corinthians 2, 14-16 is between the man who is without the Spirit of Christ and the man who is filled with the Spirit of Christ. And one can't do anything with the Word of God and the other one appraises it and can handle it rightly. not just by magic, not just by infusion of spiritual wisdom, but by diligent practice and perseverance and growing and exercising the gifts that God has given to him. He's done what? He's grown. Spiritual endowments, in a similar way to natural endowments, can be matured, can be honed, can be shaped. I mean, how many times have you said, you know, man, I wish I knew then what I know now. Why? Because God has shaped you and honed you. And hopefully after 10, 20, 30, 40 years in the ministry, you're a better expositor with the word of God than you were 40 years ago. If you're not, then something's wrong. You need to be progressing in the gifts and abilities that God has given to you. Be faithful, brother, in the small things. Be faithful in the little things that God has given to you, and he will entrust you with greater riches. The last thing I want to say, or the last point that Evans has for us is that not only do I need natural endowments of sound body, sound mind, sound voice, the ability to think and make it through the ministry, not only do I need to progress in my learning and my growth, not only do I absolutely need, and he says these are absolutely necessary, these spiritual endowments of gifts and graces. He says we need men who are ministers of the spirit, not of the letter. An able minister is a gospel minister. He's a gospel man. He's not, in that sense, a legal preacher. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3, and I'll read this from the New American Standard, He says in 2 Corinthians chapter three and verse four, such confidence we have through Christ toward God, not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. Brothers and sisters, the world has enough legal preachers. The people that come to you each and every week that hear the gospel as you're preached, they're preaching to themselves often legal messages every day. We're masters at the law, aren't we? Do this and live, we tell ourselves, but there's no life there. There's no life there. There's only life in the gospel. Paul says we need to be ministers of the Spirit, not of the letter. Now, that doesn't mean we don't preach the law. Of course we preach the law. But brother, don't preach the law as if it's the gospel. And don't preach the gospel as if it's the law. You know, what do you get that Horton says the glossable? That's kind of messy. We need to be clear on these two great words, as Luther would call them, of the scripture, the law and the gospel. We must be clear on these when we preach. They say that a mist in the pulpit is a what? It's a fog in the pew, and if you're not clear on what law is and what gospel is, the law says do. The gospel says done. The law says do this and live. Brothers, there's no law, there's no life in the gospel, the law anymore. The covenant of works has been what? It's been broken. It's been broken, not to be picked up again. The gospel says live and do this. In other words, we must obey from a principle of what? A principle of life. And the only way our precious People will ever grasp these kinds of things as if they are confronted regularly, carefully, lovingly, generously, personally by the able minister of Christ. Don't you love that image when Pilgrim goes, I think it's to the Interpreter's House. We'll have to ask Jeff, Matt, later on. Jeff, one of the guys in my church, he always fixes me on Pilgrim's Progress illustrations that I give. No, it wasn't that, it was this. He goes into the Interpreter's House and he sees this picture of a man. And this man has the word of God in his hand, the world is behind his back, his eyes are up to heaven, and he says, who is that? I mean, Pilgrim's about to embark on this journey to the celestial city. And the interpreter says, that's the only one that's been given to you to kind of direct you and tell you what to do on the way to the celestial city. Who is this man that's this appointed, authorized representative of Christ to come to the people of God and to bring them the truth of the Word of God? It's the preacher. It's the preacher. What do we say in the old catechism of old? The preaching of the Word of God is what? The Word of God. Why? Because this is how God comes to men. He comes to men as the Word of God is unfolded and read. He comes to the people of God as the Word of God is unfolded and taught. He comes as the Word of God is unfolded and exhorted, and people are exhorted to give heed to that Word. Beloved, we need men who are naturally endowed men, intellectually prepared men, spiritually gifted men. Gospel preaching men. In short, we need able men. May God, for the glory of his name and the good of his church, bless us with able men for the ministry of the word. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we bless your name. I pray, Father, for my brothers in particular, who will go from this place back to the field of God, God's field, God's building, and they will labor in the house of God. And they will labor in word and doctrine. They will labor in proclamation and prayer. They will labor for the glory of your name and the good of souls. I pray, oh God, that you would wash them wash their own hearts and souls tonight with the gospel. God remind them that the words of the Apostle Paul, you know, he says, who is sufficient for such a task? Our sufficiency is from you. Indeed, you are the one who has gifted and fitted us. And God, we can find many things about ourselves that are lacking. God, you have chosen to use means, fallen, frail human means, men to preach your word and I just pray for my brothers that you would uphold them, that you would encourage them, that you would help them to make good use of the gifts that you have given them both naturally and spiritually, that you would make them prepared men, gifted men, gospel preaching men, able men, able ministers of the new covenant. to preach the glories and the riches of Christ and his full and perfect and sufficient work for the salvation of sinners. I pray God tonight for those who are here that are faithful members of churches. God, might they pray for their pastors who have a great task and a great weight upon their shoulders. Might they pray for these men, uphold them, encourage them, humbly sit beneath their teaching, Yes, keep them accountable. Oh God, I pray that you would fill our churches with faithful members who will give themselves to longing to have able ministers of the gospel proclaim Christ to them. Pray that you would help them as they will have to participate in the process of selecting men in the days to come and the years to come. Father, I pray for those who may be here tonight that do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. they have yet to hear, they have yet to see, they've yet to come and be overwhelmed by the beauty of the Lord of the New Covenant. And Father, we pray that tonight in the reading of the word, in the study we've had of this confession, God, I pray that you would use these things to confront them even in their lostness. God, that you would Help them to see that the joy and the peace, the longing that will satisfy the soul is not to be found in the law of God of doing things. But God, it's found in the gospel. It's found in the work of Christ. So I pray that you would, even this night, work in our hearts and draw all of us away after Jesus. Father, we thank you for the time that we have had in these days. Precious time. We pray time well spent. We ask, O God, your blessing as we close our time. Send us out. Send us out as ministers. Make us able ministers. Send us out as believers. Make us faithful sons and daughters of God. We ask, God, this all for the glory of your name and the good of our own souls. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. If you'd take your Trinity hymnals one last time and turn to hymn 281, 281 for all the saints. Let's stand together and sing. Alleluia! Alleluia! Thou of Theron, their fortress and their might, Thou o'er their captive, in the wealth of fire. Now in the darkness, here they're born to light. Alleluia. Alleluia. O may thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold, Ride as the saints do, nobly proud of old, And win with them the victor's crown of gold.