Glorious God, glorious Father. Glorious Son, glorious Spirit, we bless you for the first day of the week, the first, first day you created the heavens and the earth. Now the beginning of a whole new creation, first day, Christ rose from the dead, sending forth the Spirit into the whole world to bring a foretaste of glory and begin to form new creation on the first day of the week. And Lord, you have promised that where two or three are gathered together in your name, you will be with them, especially on the Lord's day. So come and minister to us. The Apostle Peter used language we don't use, but it's memorable. Gird up the loins of your minds, and our Lord, make us to be a people who think in this day about the church before a modern watching world, We would be your instruments in the great rescue mission of seeing people delivered from sin and death and brought to forgiveness in life. Use all of the messages this day, all of our interaction to the end that when we go forth, we will go forth with a greater understanding and commitment to seeing ourselves become all things to all people, that by all means, we might save some. We pray in the name of the great Savior, Jesus, confirming that we desire to be heard as we say together, Amen. Amen. Please be seated. That's more like it. We're dealing with the church before the modern watching world. This is the third of the five messages on the topic, and I want to remind you again of the incalculably pernicious effects of a nearly two-year and forced lockdown in our culture. Depression, suicide, society governed by fear, fracturing of families, educational setbacks, and the torpedoing of community that we know of as the church. I have lost count of studies that have tried to unfold the number of churches that never survived the pandemic. And we're still reeling from it because people have gotten used to live streaming a service, not getting up on time on Sunday to get to worship. And I don't have to go into that in any more detail, but there must be a restoration of a robust view of church and community. Not formalistic, robust view of church and community. One reason, because we are made in the image of the Trinity. We're made, we're one, and we are made for community. We've covered that. But here's the other. We're looking at Romans 12, 1 and 2, which is the skeletal framework for these messages. Listen to what Paul says, and it should jar you a little bit. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies, plural, a living sacrifice. Now there's many, your bodies, and one, a living sacrifice. And the only way I think you can really understand that is that the Apostle Paul has in the back of his mind the reality of the church. He was writing to the church at Rome, and he speaks of the church. He's speaking there of you as living sacrifices, functioning as one in community. Community not as an ingrown think tank, or an evangelical or reformed ghetto, but a rescue mission. And if you go away from this conference and you either continue to think or begin to think of a reformed church as a think tank, then I have failed miserably. The church is not a group, it's not a yacht. It's a group of fishing vessels. And quite frankly, fishing vessels can stink. So that's what the church is, and what it's to be. It's a community, not as an ingrown think tank, but a rescue mission. And here's the text that will basically form what we're dealing with in this Sunday School class. 1 Corinthians 9 19-23. Now, I know Paul's dealing here with us as individuals. But in Romans, he says that presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice works itself out corporately as a living sacrifice. So think of this individually with its application, but how does it work out in community? 1 Corinthians 9 and verse 19, For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. Now one of the things I'd love to emphasize to ministers in pastoral theology is you're not a servant of the people. You're a servant of Christ. But you are a servant to the people. And so even in the preposition that Paul uses, very significant, to the end that I might win, I have made myself a servant to all that I might win more of them. Does your Calvinism allow you to say that? That you win people to Christ? If you can't say that, your Calvinism is warped. You have so emphasized God's sovereignty, you're on the side of a Greek Stoic. The Bible talks, Bible's math is not ours. It's 100% God's sovereignty, 100% man's responsibility, and in the same way, a lifeguard saves someone, not by grabbing the person, unless you want to drown with them, you give them a pole, and they grab it. That's what you do with the gospel. You give them the pole of the gospel, and by grace they grab it. To the Jews I became as a Jew in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law, though not being myself under the law, that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law. Now notice how the Holy Spirit very carefully guards this. not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ. What's the law of Christ? Christ came into the world to save sinners. And under the law of Christ is, whatever else it is, it's I give myself to see people saved, and even by the gospel to save them. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessing." And there's a profound theology behind that. It's very interesting, when Paul He's talking to ministers particularly, but he says in 1 Thessalonians when he speaks about the coming of Christ, you think he's going to say at the last day, Christ is my glory and joy, and he is. But he says to the Thessalonians who are model converts, you are my glory and my joy. Why? That's his share, part of his share, in Christ and his work. Remember, Christ is inseparable from his people, okay? And so there's no contrast between Christ being our glory and joy and you being my glory and joy. Now, this text, we need to acknowledge and we need to grieve. This has not been one of our strengths. as what the Confession of Faith calls a denomination of Christians. And we need to say that with tears and with grief. Now, what we're going to deal with in this time is the way forward. And I am convinced that if you grasp this, this will be of immeasurable help to you so that we can break the back of the problem of winning the lost, okay? In fact, when we get to the very end of this, I'll give you what I believe is our absolutely greatest asset when it comes to dealing with our culture, if we will use it properly. And here is the way forward. The difference between form, what God commands, what He requires, and freedom in church life. Dr. Schaefer dealt with this, others have in various ways. In my opinion, this is crucial for us. Form and freedom. Now let me begin by dealing with form, and you're going to have to write quickly. I hope you will write these things down, but I've got to get through this kind of quickly, because I want to spend more time with the freedom aspect. Let me give you the framework for this. Let's say I'm asked to debate with someone about the essence of a healthy church. And I have to pick points that I can put forward that, quite frankly, are unassailable. In debate, you always put forward points that, as best as you can see, are irrefutable. Now, the other side will try to do it. If you're a good debater, they won't do it. You want a great example? There was a guy from Long Island who debated with James White on baptism. He loves James White. He's a good friend of James White. James White is a Baptist. This other guy was a household Baptist. Poor James White. He didn't have his best night then. But anyway, you can listen to the debate between Shishko and White, and we are very good friends on baptism. But anyway, debate. There's your lesson on debate, okay? So if I'm asked to debate, what about the essence of a healthy church? Okay, remember there's a lot of different forms of what a church can be, but you want a healthy church, okay? And the Reformers even made a difference between what's the essence of the church and what's the essence of a healthy church. Okay, so this is the form for a healthy church. These are non-negotiable absolutes regarding the church. Okay, here we go, number one. The final authority of Holy Scripture. For a church to be a church, there has to be the final authority, not of a pope, and not of a local church pope, of which there's too many. Any church that is not committed to the final authority of Holy Scripture, stay away from it. Because the final authority will be whoever's leading that church. Second Timothy 3.16, all scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness that the man of God, in the first case there, it's the minister, might be perfect, thoroughly equipped to every good work. The minister has to be one reverently captive to the word of God because the church is meant to be. And we'll give a text at the end of this that brings it all together. Final authority of Holy Scripture, and you can pick up many other texts. Second Timothy 3.16 and following. Number two. And these are all linked, incidentally. Christ's lordship as king and head of the church, that is crucial over against all human authority that would usurp Christ. We talked about the other day about having respect for the church calendar, which we should have, but at the same time not imposing that on the church. Why? Because Christ doesn't. Christ's lordship as king and head of the church, all authority in heaven and on earth is given to me. Not to me, not to the session, not to a presbytery, it's given to Christ. So Christ's lordship as king and head of the church, and it's fascinating to see how that's been developed in the Reformed history. Number three, the gospel as the heart and soul of church life. The gospel as heart. I didn't say the Reformed faith. Now the Reformed faith is the greatest expression of the gospel, but in itself it's not the gospel. The gospel is Christ. So the gospel as the heart and soul of church life, among many other texts, Galatians 1 and verse 6 and following, rarely does Paul pronounce an anathema, which means be eternally condemned. But he says, if anyone, even an angel from heaven, brings to you a gospel other than what I preached to you, let him be eternally condemned. And the whole book of Galatians, which is dynamite when you open it up, the gospel as heart and soul of church life. And what's the church? Saved people, people who profess faith in Christ, people who are baptized, they're marked out to be followers of Christ, and they improve that, they live out of that. But that's what we're dealing with as church life. faithful people, holy people, not everyone's regenerate in church life, but people who profess Christ to follow Him. Number four, building on last night, the non-negotiable absolutes regarding the church, sound and thorough doctrine. sound and thorough doctrine. This is where Dr. Machen had his difference with the fundamentalists. He was the leader of the fundamentalist movement, fundamentalism over modernism in the 1920s in particular. And the fundamentals of the Bible is the Word of God, the substitutionary atonement of Christ, the miracles of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and so on. And he believed those, and he defended them, but at the same time he said, if that's all you believe, it's an impoverished Christianity. And he wrestled with that. The essence of a healthy church. Sound, the word, as I was chatting with one of you in here that works with the subject of mental illness. Parse that out. The Greek word hygieno, hygienic, hygienic teaching. It's good. Good, sound doctrine builds up healthy, spiritually healthy people. And it also has physical effects. Anyway, your text for that, Acts 20 and verse 27, I didn't shun to declare to you the whole counsel of God. And so there we're talking about sound and thorough doctrine. And frankly, there's a reason why the Westminster Confession of Faith is used as a standard for other Reformed churches. It is, as Benjamin Warfield said, the most mature statement of the historic Christian faith that you will get. Okay, so that's number four, sound and thorough doctrine. Number five, trained ministers and ministry. I was defensive early on in my ministry when people would say, oh, you went to cemetery. And because they had often seen ministers in a liberal camp who were dead as doornails. I'm not sensitive about that anymore. When you see how people's souls are ruined by self-made ministers, male and female, people that have had no training but love to trust in the inspiration of their own gut, you really come to believe trained ministers and ministry The Apostle Paul talks about cutting 1 Timothy 2 to a straight path through the Word of God. And it's stunning to me when I ask people who visit, what school did your pastor go to? It doesn't have to be Westminster or Greenville. I don't know where he went to school. I don't even know if he went to school. And I'll say, let me ask you a question. You find out that you need to have major heart surgery. Are you going to go to someone that's had no training to do it? Of course not. So do you realize your soul is infinitely more valuable than your heart? And so brothers and sisters, I'm adamant on this, because the scriptures are. that you might cut a straight path, give attention to yourself and to your teaching, that you might save both yourself and those who hear you. A trained, trained ministers and ministry, and whole pastoral epistles emphasize this. Number six, church government. Now we're dealing with non-negotiable issues. Church government by a plurality of elders. Not a pope in Rome and not a pope in your hometown. There was a minister, OPC minister, who was ordained in another Reformed denomination. And one of the ministers at his ordination service in this Reformed body said to him, here young man is my advice to you. If you're not a pope in the church that you pastor, somebody else will be. I said, did you rebuke him? That's out, folks. The elders. Paul called for the elders of the church, Acts 20. And Acts 20 is in the dealing with the elders on Miletus. That's pretty much the constitution for what the Christian church is meant to be. Let the elders who rule well be worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the Word and teaching. And whether you say, as most Orthodox Presbyterians do, that one that labors in the word and teaching is the minister, or as many say, and I'm probably closer to this view, this so-called two-and-a-half office view, you got one group of elders, and among them, you have one or more in some cases, and their labor is the word of God and teaching. We call them ministers, and that's fine. But, here's where you draw the line. Because we have some dear friends in the OPC, I love them as brothers. But their emphasis on the minister gets to a clericalism with which we should be very uncomfortable. And here's my question. The Apostle Peter spoke to his fellow elders. Can you say that of your session members? And if they can't, now again, I'm older, I can get away with stuff that you can't. I say you are not committed to what the word of God teaches. You are one, and there's a lot of practical reasons for this. We'll get to it in a moment. But church government by a plurality of elders, 1 Timothy 5.17, 1 Peter 5.1 and following, Acts 20.17, 1 Timothy 3, on qualifications for elders. Church government by a plurality of elders. Yes, yes, it's necessary for the health of the church. If there's not a plurality of elders, it would still be a church, not a healthy one. Number seven, assistance by deacons. and their concern, that is the deacon's concern, for mercy and temporalities, okay? Assistance by deacons and their concern for mercy and temporalities. Acts chapter six, where there's about a half dozen references to diakonoi, which means a waiter on table. We'll come back to that in an interesting thing in the next section. But deacons and their concern, not just for mercy, yeah, your concern for the widows, But the apostles, now the ministers and the elders, they're to be given to prayer in the ministry of the Word. And the deacons have a responsibility, along with Ministry of Mercy, to say to the elders, how can we be of help to you so you can be given to prayer in the ministry of the Word? And early on, thank God in the OPC, there have been tremendous changes. Those of you who have had Nathan Trice as your uncle, you're going to appreciate Nathan and others, David Nocklaw. Finally, the OPC has come to realize that the deacons aren't just figureheads in the church. They are ordained servants to minister mercy to those in need and to help with building and grounds and so on. Why? So that the elders can be given to prayer and the ministry of the word. And I don't hear this as much now, thankfully, but the OPC's done a lot of work on this. And ministers would say, well, our deacons don't do anything. And you say, well, but do they free you up? so that you can be given to prayer and the ministry of the word? Oh no, we can't give the deacons that authority. Excuse me, in Acts chapter six, by the ordaining, by the laying on of hands, deacons are vested with that authority. Under the elders, yes. I say maybe this is one of the reasons your church hasn't grown. Because the elders are devoted to the budget, they're devoted to the building, they're devoted to all these things. How much time do you spend praying? and ministering the word. So, again, very important. Number eight, accountability on every level of church life. Accountability on every level of church life. We have Presbyteries, Acts 15. I love to tell my independent brothers and sisters, there's Acts 15 in the Bible? Yeah, well, it doesn't apply to, really? There were problems in the churches. You don't have problems in the church? Wasn't the church triumphant already? No, they had a gathering. We have Presbyterians in some churches, synods, and general assemblies where we function together as a body. Accountability on every level of church life, 1 Peter 5 and verse 5, as well as Acts 15. Likewise, you younger, submit yourselves to the elder, and I do believe that refers to the elders in the church. Yea, all of you be submissive one to another and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble, which means even elders have a particular responsibility to listen to the sheep, that they're called the shepherd. on every level, or accountability on every level of church life. In biblical church government, no one is not under authority. I know that's a double negative for you English teachers, my sincere apologies, but it makes the point. In biblical church government, no one is not under authority, including the minister. Now, I know that officially, and I did express my disagreement with this when I came into the OPC, and I still am not convinced of it biblically, but I submit to it because I don't believe I'm sinning when I do. I don't see, biblically, how a minister is to be a member of the Presbytery, but not a member of a local church. I don't get it. But okay, so I submit to that and house rules that we have in Presbyterianism. Practically speaking, my fellow elders have a responsibility for me. If I'm abusing the use of alcohol, I guarantee you, the Presbytery's not gonna see it. My fellow elders will. If I'm not treating my wife well, Presbytery's not gonna see that. My fellow elders will. So on every, so I say de facto, and I've told the Presbyterian this, de facto, my first court of jurisdiction is the session, and in our case, we have a deacon that we work with very closely as well. So on every level, accountability on every level of church life. Essence of a healthy church, also on every level, a visible expressions of holiness and love. At the essence of a healthy church, holiness separated unto God and love, we give ourselves for the good of others. I remember the first time I attended a Presbytery meeting. It was in the old Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Synod. I'd never been to a Presbytery meeting. So I got to the Presbytery meeting and it was a little bit, a little bit late and before the break and I don't know what the Presbytery was, it was southeast of the RPC, yes and I don't know what these men were debating, but boy, whoo! They, whoo! One of them had his view about this, the other one had his view about this and I thought, hey, yay, yay, this is the war of northern aggression all over again and they were going at it Break came and they had coffee together And they were chatting together, and I asked my pastor about this. He said, that's one of the beauties of Presbyterianism when it's done right, and don't ever forget it. I've seen it at General Assemblies. In most cases, men can have very definite disagreements. I mean, if you don't have disagreements with the OPC, you'd never be a good OPC person. I tell people, I had disagreements with myself. But you... But... a hallowed commitment. You go out in the evening to have a glass of beer or whatever you're going to do with men. At the break, you talk to that person and say, I want you to know as vehement as I was, I love you as a brother and I respect you. I don't agree with you on this, but I respect you. And that needs to be true on every level of church life. That's why if you have the Lord's Supper weekly, as in my opinion we should, and you take that seriously, if you don't take it seriously, you'll have a blasphemous Lord's Supper. All right? If you're going to offer your gift on the altar, there's a wide range of meaning, and your brother, your sister has something against you, you go and you be reconciled to your brother, then offer your gift. And you know, that's reformed. Reformed. We've split over common grace. Damn your separation. That's the way you live your Christian life. Maybe you need to be converted. When I say this, my doctrinal commitments, brothers and sisters, are as deep as any. But when the world looks at the church, and it sees a bunch of people shafting one another. You think they want to be part of that? There's a gospel transformation Bible, very helpful incidentally, and quoting and dealing with Isaiah 13, one through 11. God's purpose for his people is that they should be a name, a praise, and a glory for him. They represent God and reflect Him to a watching world. The word, he says, must be heard, it must be proclaimed, taught, evangelized, but the word must be seen. God's reflection is in His people and His church. And here is a probing question. People think of your church. I can't stand that. Well, Pastor Shishko, we're glad to be at your church. And you get the New York in me. So wait a minute, it's not my church. Jesus paid for it and I don't believe in stealing. Do people see a reflection of God? Do they see a reflection of Christ? And number 10, the church's mission is the Great Commission. Okay, Matthew 28, 18 to 20, go and make disciples of all nations. It's not social reform. Now, Christians, disciples will go out and they'll affect, they'll be involved with social reform projects. Great, that's good, but that's not the work of the church. Political arena, I hope that you are involved in the political arena because the magistrate is to be a minister of God for good. And pray tell, if anyone should know what the good is, it should be Christians. You should be involved in the political arena. And where our government is a government of, by, and for the people, that's not in the Constitution, but it was in the Gettysburg Address, it's still true. If it's that, then you should be involved in the political arena. But the church, corporately, is not. The church is not a country club. As I said before, the church, it's a group of smelly fishing boats. Turn with me please to 1 Timothy chapter 3. This is, I don't use the word amazing very often, this is the most amazing couple of verses about the church in all of the New Testament. 1 Timothy 3 and verse 14. I hope to come to you soon, but I'm writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in church. Okay? What is the church? One, the household of God. And church is made up of families, and it is itself a house. which is the church of the living God. It's not a funeral home. Do people experience a living God in your worship? A pillar and buttress of the truth, not that the church establishes the truth, which is Rome's view, but it holds up the truth before the world. That's what a pillar in a museum does. There's a vase. You have to say vase in New York, or you're not re-cultured, okay? It holds up a vase so that you can—it displays it, okay? And what is the Church? It's a pillar and buttress of the truth. It upholds the truth before the world. In other words, in your budget, and the conduct of your congregational meetings, conduct of your worship, conduct of your fellowship times? Are you showing the truth of God? Here's what's remarkable. Under the inspiration of God, after talking about the church, Paul says, Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness. He, which is referring to Christ, was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory, which is all referring to Christ. But he's talking about the church. What he's saying here is that what the church is in its outward expression is derivatively from Christ, who's the original. He was manifested in the flesh. Folks, the Holy Spirit indwells you. When you're fellowshipping with the Lord's people, you're fellowshipping with Christ, justified by the Spirit. You believe in Christ, you rest in Him. That justification that is secured by Christ's resurrection and is declared by His resurrection, that's yours. Do you realize we're seen by angels? Paul says that's why your conduct in worship has got to be proper, because of the angels. No, we don't proclaim ourselves, but we proclaim Christ. That is the work of the church. Even at the Lord's Supper, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. No, we're not believed on, but we point others to the Lord Jesus. Our ministry is like John the Baptizer's. He must increase, but I must decrease. And what's going to happen? Should you, if you're alive when Christ comes back, you'll be taken up in glory, or your soul will be. And that's what's amazing. It shows that the church, the church is, by the Spirit, it is a continuous incarnation of Christ. Not in the Roman Catholic sense, where you've got the organization, that's the continuous incarnation of Christ. But by the Spirit, you are that. That's why the church is so important. And Paul's not speaking here of the individual. He is speaking of the church. Okay, now. Let's, in the second place, and I've got, I'm gonna guard myself here. I said 20 till, good, I got 20, 23 minutes. Let's start talking about freedom. We talked about form. These are non-negotiable things. They can be worked out in different ways. The concepts are non-negotiable. What about freedom? That by all means, I might save some. How is that worked out in church life? I'll give you an illustration from, two illustrations from history. A man named Hudson Taylor goes to China. goes to Hudson Taylor from China, to China, and he is dressed like a Westerner. That was expected by the churches that sent him out, because he was representing the West. And he finds out that he is only alienating people. And so he grows a queue. He grows his hair longer, he wears different clothes, eats different food. And the Chinese people begin to respect him and listen to him. He's also written off by many of the churches that supported him. He had compromised. Baloney. The Bible doesn't dictate the kind of garments that you wear. Modesty, yes. Become all things to all people that by all means you might save some. Francis Schaeffer. I mean, he actually used to preach in a tuxedo, which is very interesting. But a minister should always, always suit, tie. That's fine. He goes to Switzerland. They don't wear suits and ties in Switzerland. He wears knickers. He grows a beard. His hair gets a little bit long. Churches stop supporting him. He has compromised. I won't use the words a New Yorker would, but that's baloney. But you see what we're dealing with. He saw that there was a freedom that he had within the bounds of Holy Scripture, so that he might become all things to all people, that by all means, he might save some. Now let's work this out in the 20 minutes that we've got. And I, young folks, I really want you to discuss these things. And if you think I've gone off the beam on them, please tell me. And I'm glad I've got a fellow elder, and perhaps others of you in here may be. If I'm off the beam, I want to be corrected. If I'm not off the beam, we need to make some changes. Okay, here we go. Freedom. Five areas. Number one, the Sabbath, which really, we should call it the Lord's Day Sabbath. Otherwise, people think you're Jews, and we know what we're talking about. But there's an example of it. We honor the Sabbath. Well, at least if you say that in New York, they think you're an Orthodox Jew. right? And I don't want to ditch the word because it's biblical, but it's the Lord's Day Sabbath is probably the best way to put it. How is the Sabbath to be sanctified? The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, a holy resting. that day. Even from such worldly employments and recreations are lawful on other days except so much is it to be taken up in works of necessity and mercy." And I believe that that's a masterful statement. Absolutely masterful. And it connects with our culture if you really think about it. I'll give you some examples. There's something called rest in the Sabbath. Ah, but it's a holy resting all that day. It's rest. And here's where evangelicals, at least some of them, have caught on something that Reformed people, I'm afraid, in some circles have lost. God gives us a day of rest. Matthew Sleeth in his book 24-6. You get the point. He's a medical doctor. He's an evangelical. Don't get your view of the Sabbath from Matthew Sleeth, okay? He says, hey, you want to live seven days a week and not take a day of rest, then you're going to kill yourself. But he's right. And that's not the only purpose of the Sabbath, but it's one. How do you rest on the Lord's Day, especially in a culture where six days out of the week you're on a merry-go-round going 500 miles an hour? Rest. Two services. I don't see a biblical mandate for two services, but if you're going to do it or have three, what's the purpose of them? Well, we have two worship services on Sunday. Why? Because we're to worship the whole day. Well, pray tell, why don't you just stay at church all day? And I'm not being smart about this, but it's a good question to ask. What's your purpose, particularly in that second service? Would you consider making that second service, as we did in Franklin Square, the second service we had said, and it was a worship service, and yes, we love to worship, we love to sing. Let's take some of the old classics, like Pilgrim's Progress, or the Christian's Great Interest, and let me take those and simplify them, because people aren't gonna read most of this. And you don't want them to lose, excuse the expression, the guts of these things in our faith. And God blessed that. He brought people from other churches who just wanted to learn. Or an evening service, where, yes, you worship, but you say, adults, we'd love to have you come, but it might be best if you'd stay home and pray, because we're trying to reach out to young people, and we want an evening where we can answer their questions. Area number one, where Reformed churches have a strength, a huge strength, that will minister to our culture. You take the Reformed faith seriously and you will be able to answer the questions that are being asked today. I know because I went through it. I came to the Reformed faith in no small measure because I drove people crazy with my questions my first year in college. And thank God someone put G.I. Williamson's study guide to the Westminster Confession of Faith in my hands. And that helped me so much to grapple, what's the purpose of the state? What does the Bible say about marriage? What does the Bible say about salvation? Do you give opportunities where you can take young people who are asking hard questions and give them a time to discuss those things? Well, we have our two worship services for the Lord's people. Wonderful, praise the Lord. What are you doing to become all things to all people that by all means you might save some? Well, if they want to come to worship, they can come. I'm sorry, that doesn't cut it. I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some." Mercy. So much is taken up in necessity and mercy. Isn't the work of seeing people converted a work of mercy? Frankly, isn't rest for your body a work of mercy? The private exercise of worship. And incidentally, frankly, I'd be happy on a Lord's Day, you begin on a date like our black brothers and sisters, it's a long service, a fellowship, I love that, we don't do it that way. What about going to a bird sanctuary and using some time to let the birds preach from the book of general revelation to you? I think Jesus spoke about that. Consider the birds. Consider the lilies. I'm not taking away from worship and special revelation, but you see, folks, freedom. There's freedom in those areas. So on the Sabbath, the Lord's Day Sabbath, number two, music. I don't think the Orthodox Presbyterian Church has ever mandated you use the Trinity Hymnal or the Trinity Psalter Hymnal. Now incidentally, I love both of those books. I love the Trinity, Psalter, Hymn of the Moor, because it's got all 150 Psalms, but I don't think there's a mandate for that. We should. We're part of the OPC. This is part of our history, and I'll give a caveat in a moment. The Bible talks about bringing out of our storehouses things old and things new. And we're good about bringing out storehouses things old. Ah, you want to be part of this church? For our membership requirement, you've got to read John Owen, Volume 6. If you listen to the work, the songs of Keith and Kristen Getty, Now, in my opinion, they're becoming more in the performance mode, but you go back. They've taken traditional hymns, and in many cases, they put them to tunes that you can really sing. And, hello, thousands of people are captivated by the old hymns. But we have people in the OPC, and they run off the Gettys. Those performers. I don't like that either. But there are so many things you could profit from. We're going to sing something from Church Works Media. Christ is Sufficient. Glorious contemporary hymn. Sum of Sovereign Grace music is excellent. What's your standard? Trinity Hymnal. No, I'm sorry, that's not the standard. There's frankly things in the Trinity hymnal I don't want to sing and worship. One, is it scriptural? Remember, final authority of scripture. Number two, is it singable? Really, you're supposed to be able to sing with the understanding And as much as the old Welch melodies may appeal to the old Welch people, many of them we can't even sing, but that's the tune that we use. Who says? And so for a pastor to, with carefulness, replace a tune so that people can sing it is going to make big changes in our midst. and it's got to be suitable. What you might sing out at the campfire is not something you may sing in worship, okay, but what is suitable to the reverence and so on and so forth. Those are our standards we used in Franklin Square. And that's not because we did it, but our elders wrestled with this. And over the years, they constantly went back to the fact, what do the scriptures really say about this? This incidentally came up with wine in the Lord's Supper. I'll divert for just a moment. I could understand why you'd have grape juice where people would have issues. I get that. Hello? The Bible talks about wine and the Lord's Supper. But one of my fellow elders said, Bill, you don't want to die on that hill. You're fighting on too many other hills already. So after about 15 years in Franklin Square, I said, OK, let's see how we deal with this. I said, fellas, I've decided to make a change when we're doing the Lord's Supper. And when we're reading our standards, as we frequently do, I said, I'm just going to change the word wine to grape juice. And they said, you can't do that. I said, let me ask you a question. If I can't change it to grape juice, so we're honest about what we're serving, then why can't I make that change? And he said, yeah, why do we use grape juice? I tell you why, the lordship of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, which is true. Anyway, now we made the change gradually and carefully and we explained it to people, but it didn't split the church, okay? But anyway, that's not just a, that's what the New Orleanites would call lunyap, a little something extra. But anyway, but what is scriptural? Instruments. Worship should never be a performance, never. Even in the Old Testament, and my dear RPCNA sister and brother, my apologies to you, but you have to deal with the scriptures. I know you do. that in the Old Testament, you can prove that the instruments were an extension of the human voice. Pray tell, what are vocal cords? Well, this is electronic, but if you have another piano with strings on it, it's like a harp. But anyway, that's, but instruments, what instruments do you use? We don't use a guitar. Why not? I'm not a big fan of guitars in worship. But what I'm a fan of, and what's right and what's wrong are different. What gifts has God given you in the church? And are you able to use those gifts in a way that you are helping people to sing better in worship? The changing of words. We were in a church in upstate when we were camping. We sat next to a man, I don't know if he was a homeless man, but he was kind of a sad, bedraggled guy. Never been. in a Protestant church. And so he's saying, here I raise mine Ebenezer. Hither by thy help I'm come. Well, I know what that means, and you do. This poor guy, he's saying, what planet in the solar system are you from? And there's an area where, and I'll give you a caveat in a moment, please, let's think about the words that we use in worship. you really can say you and your, instead of thee and thou and I. And if it's a word that doesn't communicate well, maybe you shouldn't use that stanza, or at least explain it beforehand, because we're to sing with the understanding, as the scriptures say. Now, here's the caveat, we'll get on to number three. No iconoclasm in the issues about music. Dr. Schaeffer would speak of the counterculture or the changes in church as revolutionary. I don't like that term. I'm a reformer. A revolution doesn't help anything. A preacher comes in and says, next week, it's going to be the electric guitar, and it's going to be the drums, and the whole thing, and the people can like it or lump it. Hello? Bye, church. Don't do it. Slowly, and with education, with understanding, working with people. But be careful, folks. No iconoclasm here. Reformation, not revolution. Number three. these areas of freedoms, Sabbath, the Lord's Day, and music, church programs, including Sunday school. And talk with your elders about this, don't be iconoclastic, but ask, what's the purpose of this? We would, in Franklin Square, every year, our elders had three questions they would ask about church life. Number one, what are we doing by God's grace that we believe is right and God is blessing. And that's number one. We keep doing it. How can we do it better? Number two, what are we doing in church life that perhaps we shouldn't be doing? And we would periodically ditch programs. They weren't doing anything. Number three, what are we not doing that we ought to be doing? What do we believe biblically we ought to be doing? Church programs, including Sunday school. Are you truly making disciples in these programs? Are you truly becoming all things to all people that by all means you might win some? Are you truly equipping the saints for works of service? We were chatting a little bit last night about how there can almost be a caste system in many churches. The men do this, the women do this, certainly the children don't do anything. Which, incidentally, is one of the reasons why children ditch church when they get older. If they're not important when they're little, why are they important when they turn 14 years old? And we need to rethink all of these different issues about including the role of children in church life. You know, they can help out giving out bulletins and different things. But church programs, truly making disciples, truly equipping the saints for the works of service. At least as I read Ephesians 4, every church member has some service that's done. I have a body, and I hope that all the parts of the body are doing at least something to make the body work. How are our churches equipping saints, all of them, for works of service that help bring the power of the kingdom of God to others? Everybody. Everybody. Now, it doesn't mean everybody necessarily has a job teaching Sunday school or the nursery. If someone wants to work in a soup kitchen, great, or a food pantry, great. Someone has a burden to help in the community working with a crisis pregnancy, so great. Encouraging the fact that each part does its work. And no caste system. I am so thankful that one of the goofy ideas in the OPC that was rather, not really common, but painfully too common, maybe 15 years ago, has pretty well gone the way of the dodo bird. The only person in the church who is to present the gospel to someone else is the minister. I'm gonna be really blunt, that's crap. And it's utterly unbiblical. Acts 8 and verse 4, the apostles, who were then the leaders of the church in a time before elders and other ministers were being formed, intentionally, they are kept in Jerusalem. But the disciples in the persecution are scattered everywhere, evangelizing. They're bringing the good news to people. They're not preaching. There is a technical meaning to that, and I believe that that is given, at least in most cases in the Scriptures, to an ordained minister. But are you kidding me? A Christian who loves Jesus, and you're not permitted to tell someone else about Christ? No way are you gonna be a minister to me, buddy. I happen to love my wife a lot. I hope she loves me too, I don't know if there's controversy, maybe we'll be pre-marital. Nobody's gonna tell me I can't tell somebody how much I love my wife. You love Jesus, folks, then you tell people about it. But that's what I mean, and I say this respectfully. But folks, the final authority of Holy Scripture, that gives form and freedom. Number four, the church facility. And here, you'll get this in your bibliography that I'll give you later today, Stephen Veyer's book, Loving Your Community. He's a Westminster, Philadelphia graduate. His book, Loving Your Community. This guy is a model of someone committed to at least the doctrines of grace, and he has ministered in his area in Illinois, or Indiana, I believe it is, Lafayette, Indiana. He's gotten in trouble for it. See, they had a counseling center. Biblical counseling center, CCEF-oriented counseling center. And they got in trouble. Why? Because they didn't capitulate to the culture's view about gender. And they were gracious. But they would work with men struggling with gender dysphoria. Men do, women do too. And they would work with them biblically. And they got sued. And they pursued it in the courts. And they won. Praise the Lord. See, there's an example of being out there in the community, but the use of the church facility, and I have, because now we have our own church facility in Comac, and we wrestle with these things in Franklin Square, and our view then was, I hope they do change, whatever was done in the building had to be in accord with our doctrinal standards, and it didn't really work well, but at least the practice we're working on now is we are open to use our church facility for those things that are not contrary to the doctrine that we hold. And you gotta wrestle with these things. Believe me, one thing came up, praise the Lord, we've been praying about the use of our facility. And we have one of our members works with emergency medical system workers. You know the suicide rate? among emergency medical system workers. And she's very burdened for having a place where those workers can come and just talk with one another and with a minister, an elder, a counselor there to help them out. And so we're working on that. And just here, since I was here, a police officer that we're working with who knows we want to use the facility, he said, would you be open to working with families where there have been suicides? And I haven't talked with our officers yet, but I know they're gonna say, great, praise the Lord. But you have people say, well, wait a minute, you gotta watch about insurance concerns. Okay, talk with your insurance company. I don't know. You know who's gonna be using our bathrooms? So what? become all things to all people that by all means you might save some." Yeah, but they could damage the property. Really, so can our children. Do you believe the church facility is to be used in a holy way so that you might by all means save some? You know the music that they're playing in this church facility when they gather together on Saturday night and have their coffee? Yep. And they love to come and hear the Word of God taught. Now if it's blasphemous, obviously you don't have it, but you see what I mean? You see how we can confuse form, and we've got forms for everything. Everything becomes an issue. I've become to those without law, I became as one without law, but under the law of Christ, that by all means I might save some. The last one is this. Ready? Yeah, I've heard this line. Well, I had to go to a Baptist church to get saved. Well, that's a horrible view of salvation. I didn't know the Baptist churches were saviors. But I get the point. People hear the gospel and there's a call, albeit not always the wisest, but people are called to come to faith in Christ. We're not really strong on that. in Presbyterian churches, in Orthodox Presbyterian churches. I think, frankly, I think we're maybe a little bit too critical of ourselves in that, but you know the point. The Reformed faith has, along with sound doctrine and church government, which is really important on our day, it has probably the greatest asset to minister to a culture that's becoming rubble. You wanna write it down? Here it is. Households. Households. Something called hospitality. That, by God's grace, is one of our strengths. I love it for those of you who are new to the OPC. And you say, I feel like I have a family here. And you do. And incidentally, another thing. You want real radical change in church life? Start referring to one another as brother and sister in Christ. And you can use pastor if you want. He's first of all your brother. And he may be a father in the faith or a mother in the faith. Let's start thinking like that. Why? A culture in which over 50% of people come from utterly broken and devastated homes. And no wonder in so many cases why they're so messed up. But rather than point the finger at it, do something really radical. Open your house. Love to have you come over for a cup of coffee and chat. Do you know that I'm gay? I know that you're made in God's image. And I really want to get to know you and chat with you. See the point? And at the Seminary of the Kitchen table, get to know people as human beings. And yeah, you pray before your meal. and you have your family worship after your meal. You know how Rosaria Butterfield was converted? She was chairman of, chairwoman of the Lesbian Studies Department at Syracuse University. I mean, if you really want nuttiness in the academic world, nobody beats New York. And she hates the moral majority. And she writes an editorial. in their local newspaper in Syracuse about how bad moral majority is. An RPCNA minister writes back to her, communicates with her, and says, Endblaster, what do you mean you don't like the moral majority? You need to realize what we stand for and what... He says, we'd love to have you come over for dinner. And it's funny to read Rosaria's account of how she drove her truck and she didn't know whether to go in, but she did and so on. And Ken and Flory Smith meet her. They didn't even talk about church for two or three weeks. She'd come every week. And she had to get over the hurdle of realizing these really were human beings that invited her. They didn't have horns. They didn't breathe fire. They didn't have tails. No pitchfork. But here's what impacted her. They read and sang the Psalms, and she was captivated by the fact that this old literature was so beautifully sung and was so meaningful. Three years later, Rosaria Butterfield becomes a Christian, and she's married to a Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America pastor in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Gospel Comes with a House Key is the book that she's written, and it's in your biography. You want a great book for church to use and Sunday school. And don't go to the pastor and say, this firebrand, Pastor Shishko, spoke for the Singles Conference, and he said, we need to go through Rosaria Butterfield's book, The Gospel Comes with a House Key. I'll get a call from your pastor. Who do you think you are, the bishop of the OPC? I don't want that to happen. But gently suggest that that would be helpful. Because when people come out of, let me use this as an illustration, they come out of the gay community, and I don't use the word gay because I think it's a bastardization of the English language, but they come out of the homosexual community, or the gay community if you want, or a lesbian community. That community is really strong. And if they don't have another community that they can be a part of and be accepted as they work through, not accepting their sin, but accepting as they work through it. If they don't have that, you ain't gonna get them. Because that community is so strong. We had in Franklin Square, we had a man who had been part of the quote-unquote gay community in Greenwich Village for many years. And I remember when I began to minister to him, I would not use the word gay. By that time he was repentant and he was working through things, but I wouldn't call it gay. And he later told me, he said, I appreciated that. He said, I wasn't gay, I was miserable. But if that dear single man, he never married, if that dear single man didn't have a family, that he could be with, yeah, even with children. Watch, you've got to be careful, you've got to take all lawful attempts to preserve your own life and the life of others, I get that. But he said, if I didn't have families that I could be a part of, I'd be so tempted to go back. And if the mindset that you deal with is My house has to be absolutely spotless before I'll have anybody come into it. Or there is no way I'm gonna have a cross-dresser in my house. They need to be called to repentance. You know why we're saved? By faith. and hospitality, the Lord welcomes we messed up people, and we are, to become part of his house. What is the church? It is the household of God, and it's a full service hospital. A woman pregnant with a child, little children, people in need of surgery spiritually, it comes, end of life care. You gotta think like that as a church. We continue to think of the church as a reformed ghetto. Not gonna work in the watching world. But when churches and their homes see themselves as rescue missions, wow, I've come to that house. You realize they're Christians. They're Orthodox Presbyterians. I've seen the love of Christ in that house. Really? Yeah. They've shown love to me. They know about your background. They do. We're honest about it. And they've told me that by grace I need to change. But you know, they told me about someone who loves me even more than they do. And I give my life to him and he will change me. His name is Jesus. Okay, here's your word for today. See why I am so burdened for this young people? You've got a lot of years ahead of you, by God's grace. I don't have that many ahead of me. Somebody said to me once, Pastor Shishko, I hope you live to be as old as Methuselah. I said, you really, you hate me that much? When I was converted and I realized the Psalms said you'll live three score and 10 years, I got one more than that. And I thought, wow, why so short? Now I look at it, I say, Lord, why so long? You got your life ahead of you. And I want to see the OPC be a place in which all people can say, I found a home. I found people who love me, and they speak the truth to me in love. But that's where I learned about God. who says we'll live in his house forever. And I learned it not only from the church, but also from homes in that church. I wanna see that. Okay, here is your phrase for today, and then we're gonna pray. Counter-cultural community, okay? Counter-cultural community. Not only counter-culture to what we talked about in the first session, but even counterculture to reform churches that want to be country clubs rather than full-service hospitals. Countercultural community, churches that are outposts of heaven. Let's stand and let's pray. Our Lord, if anything, And this last hour was said or presented in a way that is contrary to your word, either in content or in spirit. Blow it away from us. But Lord, to the extent that these things are true, especially about freedom in church life, grip us with the fact that we, and the churches of which we're a part, as a living sacrifice, are to become all things to all people, that by all means we might save some. For the sake of the Savior Jesus, amen.