together by your word. Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to worship you, to offer unto you our sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving. Lord, we are your people, and we are privileged above all people that we can be called yours. We're Christians. We're grateful for that, Lord. We're part of your church. We've been adopted into your family and put into your body. And you own us. Lord, we're grateful for that. We pray that we could learn a little bit more about that today as we continue our study on the church. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. So we're continuing our study of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith. Last week, Brother Jimmy taught through the first four paragraphs of Chapter 26, which is titled, Of the Church. This chapter consists of 15 paragraphs. He went through four. I'm going to tackle four today. Now, these 15 paragraphs can be broken down into two main groupings. The first part, paragraphs one through four, It's dealing primarily with what is called the universal church, and Jimmy talked about that last week. And the remaining 11 paragraphs deal with different aspects of what may be called the local church. Some people deny that there is a distinction between universal church and local church, so I'll quickly offer a few scriptures to establish this distinction. The New Testament uses the Greek word we translate church 116 times. And most of these references speak to the local assembly of saints or churches. But at least 11 times the word is not referring to a local assembly of the people of God, but rather to the church as the people of God in their full scope. And Paul uses the word church in this sense in Hebrews 12, verses 22 and 23. He says, but ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men, made perfect. In this sense, the church of Christ is all of God's elect through all ages. But there is another distinction we must make as scripture sometimes uses the word church as an institution of the New Testament. Though the virtue of Christ's blood extends in the Old Testament and all of the saints there partake of his atonement, Christ founded the institution he called the church upon his own blood and built the church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets of the New Testament with himself being the chief cornerstone, as Paul says. This is what Christ was speaking about when he said to Peter, and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. This is something he is building, and that was inaugurated in his blood, and it's governed by the precepts of the New Testament, and is made up of his saints. It is this institution that Christ has established and of which all the people of God are a part, but it manifests itself in local congregations. So the local church is a particular assembly of this larger universal church. When the New Testament speaks of the church, it often refers to the church as a whole in every place, as I said at least those 11 times. In 1 Corinthians 12, 28, when Paul tells them of the gifts that God has given the church, he wasn't talking about their particular local church, per se, but about all the church. He said, and God hath set some in the church, first, apostles, secondarily, prophets, thirdly, teachers, et cetera. These gifts, God had bestowed on all of the church, not just the church in Corinth. But scripture most often uses the word church referring to local congregations who identify with this larger institution or organism, which is the body of Christ collectively. We know this by how the word church is used as it designates a particular church. Scripture may say the church which was at Jerusalem, or the church in Corinth, or the church in Ephesus, et cetera. The local church then is the subject of our lesson today. So let's read paragraph five paragraph 5 of chapter 26 in our confession learn about the foundational directive from Christ, the head of the church, which requires these local assemblies of saints for the purpose of fulfilling his will in the world. The confession reads thus, paragraph 5, in the execution of this power wherewith he is so entrusted The Lord Jesus calleth out of the world unto himself through the ministry of his word, by his spirit, those that are given unto him by his father, that they may walk before him in all the ways of obedience which he prescribeth to them in his word. Those thus called, he commandeth to walk together in particular societies or churches for their mutual edification, and the due performance of that public worship which he requireth of them in the world. We see in this paragraph that the origin of any local church is that God himself effectually calls men out of the world unto him by the preaching of the gospel. No church exists apart from people regenerated by the Holy Spirit through the proclamation of the gospel. As God calls men out of the world, they become his people and citizens of his kingdom. The Great Commission provides the foundation which requires local churches. Matthew 28, 18 through 20 says this, and Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world, amen. Now in this great commission, notice that it is founded upon Christ's authority over all the nations. As he builds his kingdom from every nation, the commission is that his representatives teach the good news of salvation through Christ, baptize those who come unto him, and then teach these converts everything that Christ has commanded them. There are three aspects of this commission. And the third part especially requires local assemblies of saints for its fulfillment. The first part is to go and preach the gospel. Second part is to baptize those who are converted unto Christ. And the third part is to teach them everything that Christ commanded them. We also see in Matthew 18, verses 15 through 20, that the existence of local churches is a necessary component in carrying out this discipleship ministry when Christ outlines what to do with a member of the church who sins. If the sinning member does not take the correction from the ones who confront him with his sin, the church is commanded to rebuke, and if still no repentance, to exclude the person from the church. This is teaching through calling the sinning one to repentance and also through discipline, if not heed it. We also see that the formation of local churches is commanded by Christ because this is the practice of the apostles being led by the Spirit who began to carry out this great commission. Everywhere Paul went on his missionary journeys, when people were converted, he set up local churches and established elders to carry on the ministry of teaching as required by Christ's command. So now let's look at the membership of local churches, as we read paragraph six. It says, the members of these churches are saints by calling, visibly manifesting and evidencing in and by their profession and walking, their obedience under that call of Christ, and do willingly consent to walk together according to the appointment of Christ, giving up themselves to the Lord and one to another by the will of God in professed subjection to the ordinances of the gospel. The first part of this paragraph speaks of the membership of churches as saints by calling, saints by calling. According to the meaning of the word saints, we see that the members of churches are called to be holy. They are called out of the world and into the service of God. They are consecrated unto a holy They are not common vessels, but holy vessels, reborn as citizens of a holy kingdom, baptized into Christ, and gathered together as one body. We see this in Paul's language to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 1-2. He says, under the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. We see then that the members of churches are saints set apart in Jesus Christ. But this holy calling is not just something that they are, they are set apart, they are holy in that sense, but it is something also to be pursued. They are called to be saints. So the members of churches are to manifest the holy calling that they are set apart unto. This means that they are to show evidence, both by their profession of faith and by their manner of living, that they are indeed saints. On the day of Pentecost, we see that upon conversion to Christ, the people were baptized and then added to the church. They then sat under the apostle's doctrine and committed themselves to the fellowship, the ordinances, and worship of that church, that local church. Acts 2 41 and 42 says this, then they that gladly received his word were baptized. And the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. We also see in this passage that the converts were added unto them. This implies that there is a known membership of believers in a local church. They were added unto them. It is important for discipleship that the membership of a church be known and established. There is inclusion into this number by profession of faith and baptism, and there is exclusion of this number by unbelief and church discipline. All the saints locally are to submit themselves to the established eldership and be counted among the membership of the church. So there is a membership of the local church. We've talked about the foundational directive of Jesus Christ, which is that believers gather in the local church for worship and edification. Then we talked about the membership of local churches being made up of people who have been called out of the world and into the kingdom of Christ by the gospel, being marked out by profession of faith, baptism, and holy living. and that this membership is recognized and known. Now as we look at paragraph seven, let's consider the authority of the local church. Our confession reads, to each of these churches thus gathered, according to his mind, declared in his word, he hath given all that power and authority which is in any way needful for their carrying on that order of worship and discipline which he hath instituted for them to observe. with commands and rules for the do and right exerting and executing of that power. This paragraph tells us that the local church exercises a divine authority in its own sphere of responsibility, a divine authority in its own sphere of responsibility. In Matthew 18, when teaching about the discipline of a sinning brother, Jesus tells his disciples what to do if reconciliation cannot be made when one and then several people confront the wayward one. He says, and if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church, but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. We see in this passage that the church, as a body, possesses a divine authority. And when acting in truth under Christ, its censures are recognized in heaven. Think about that. This is a very serious thing. Some people think that when they are being confronted with their sins at one church, they'll just move on over to another church. But when a person is rightly under discipline in truth, Regardless of whether another church accepts them, heaven recognizes the judgment as valid, and unless they repent, they will suffer God's eternal judgment. The church possesses a divine authority. We also see the authority of the church being an independent by virtue of the fact that Christ's commands to the church are not mediated through any other government. In other words, neither the family nor the state stand between the church and its commission to worship, conduct discipleship, and evangelism. We know this because Christ's commands to the church are direct, without being filtered through any other jurisdiction. This again is seen most clearly in the Great Commission. Christ said, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Notice that Christ here is declaring his power over everything in heaven and earth, and it is in this power that the church is commissioned to do its work. Father, mother, wife, nor children have more of a claim on the believer than does Christ. In Matthew 10, 37, Jesus laid claim to total loyalty, which exceeds the loyalty we owe even to our own family. He said, he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. What this means then is that if a family member stands between you and Christ, the family member is to be denied and Christ is to be followed. This would entail leaving your own family if they would keep you from Christ and his church. This is a very common fact in the Muslim context. This happens very often, that you must leave your very own family to follow Christ. Thus the family of God is more basic, and loyalty to it more important than even your own natural family. Concerning the authority of the church when dealing with the realm of the state, when the disciples were confronted by the civil authorities and commanded not to preach in Jesus' name, Their answer, we ought to obey God rather than man, was a recognition of their obligation to Christ's mandates, even if it contradicts the mandates of another authority. In this case, the civil or religious leaders. This means that we are not to ask permission of nations when we go to preach the gospel. We do not ask permission to distribute Bibles. We do not ask permission to plant churches. We do not ask permission to gather as an assembly. We have a mandate from our king who holds all authority in heaven and in earth. We do these things even if it means persecution and death, and in many places it actually does mean that. This is the example of all the apostles of Christ who were nearly always at odds with the civil and religious leaders in their day. Christ has a preeminent authority that he gives his church directly, and we operate in that authority. One sign of great apostasy from Christ in our day is the utter capitulation of churches to the whims of the government when they ban the meeting of the church in many places due to COVID. Now, obviously, our governor, thankfully, understood that he didn't possess authority, that kind of authority, and merely gave non-authoritative guidelines for restricting meeting. But we saw in many places, churches in Canada, in California, and other places, who boldly took a stand against the mandates of a usurping government. And they suffered greatly for it. Some pastors even went to jail as they asserted Christ's authority over the state's mandates. They suffered for this. But beyond the encroachment of state usurpation into the church, this paragraph understands each particular church to have no higher authority above them than Jesus Christ himself. In other words, the Baptists who approved this confession, as we do, believe that each church possesses an independent authority to conduct the mission of the church and to carry out church discipline without authoritative interference from other churches, a presbytery, or in hierarchy of bishops, or for that matter, even the state. Some Christians then have used Acts chapter 15 and the Jerusalem Council as evidence of a hierarchy beyond the local church, which should be established as a governing model of polity for the church. When we consider this meeting in Jerusalem in Acts 15 where Paul and Barnabas with others from Antioch went to meet with the apostles and elders there to hammer out the question of circumcision and adherence to the Mosaic law concerning Gentile believers, we must recognize the unique position of the apostles in the church. The apostolic office was a foundational office in the church which formed the basis of teaching from which the structure of the church is built upon. It was the apostles and their associates who wrote the entire New Testament. Their teaching, as Paul said, was the commandment of the Lord, very literally. It was the commandment of the Lord. Their words were authoritative. And this is the word that the church is built upon. The Jerusalem Council was unique in that its authoritative directive was ratified by the apostles themselves, who did possess an authority that reached beyond a single local church. Their teaching was for all the churches, but the office of apostle passed away with that generation, as the foundation can only be laid once. There's not multiple foundations of the church. We are built upon that foundation of those apostles and prophets. There is no continuance of the apostolic office today, so this council, this Jerusalem council, has no bearing on church polity. To sum it up, the authority of the church is specific to the responsibilities of the church, which is given directly by Christ without any intermediaries and applies to each individual congregation and not through a hierarchy above the local church. seen clearly in the matter which Christ deals with the seven churches in the book of Revelation. His commendations, think about this, his commendations, rebukes and remedies are given directly to each of these congregations and he holds them individually responsible apart from any of the other seven churches. Our next paragraph deals with the continuing offices in the local church Paragraph 8. A particular church, gathered and completely organized according to the mind of Christ, consists of officers and members, and the officers appointed by Christ are to be chosen and set apart by the church, so called and gathered, for the particular administration of ordinances and execution of power or duty which he entrusts them with or calls them to, to be continued to the end of the world, are bishops or elders, and deacons, bishops or elders being one and the same. We see in this paragraph that a church which is properly organized consists of officers and members. This is not to say that a church isn't a church if it doesn't have officers, just that it isn't yet complete without the two aforementioned offices, that of elders and deacons. We see in scripture that during the formation of a local church, They sometimes lacked ordained elders, as was the case in Crete. Paul commissioned Titus, Paul went around establishing churches all over the island of Crete, but they didn't yet have elders. So Paul commissioned Titus to ordain elders, to go back behind him and visit those churches and ordain elders and to properly order the churches that already existed yet without officers. He said in Titus 1.5, For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city as I appointed thee. That's in Titus 1.5. Elders are mentioned here in this verse, and deacons are the other office of a properly organized church. In Philippians 1.1, Paul, in his greeting to the Philippian church, distinguishes the members the overseers, which is another word for elders, and the deacons. He says, Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons. So we have the saints, the bishops, and the deacons. Paul is very careful to spell out to Timothy and Titus the qualifications of these two offices of elder and deacon. and none other. There's no other qualifications in scripture for any other offices for the church. That's another reason that the apostolic office evidences itself to be only for that generation is that there is no mention anywhere of qualifications for them or the ordination of them except we see in the book of Acts the ordination of Matthias as an apostle who took the place of Judas Yet even in this case, it was a man whose qualification was that he had to have been an eyewitness of Jesus Christ in his earthly ministry and of his resurrection. Paul seems to be an exception, as he was not present to witness the ministry and resurrection of our Lord, yet he was given a special audience with Christ, with the risen Christ, and spoke of himself as one born out of due time, he said. And so the apostles were eyewitnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ and personally were taught by him of their doctrine. So only elders and deacons are to be the continuing officers of the church properly constituted and their duties are laid out in scripture. Elders have the responsibility of shepherding overseeing, administering the ordinances, and teaching, while deacons administer the responsibility of caring for specific needs in the body. So we've talked about the foundational directive of the local church, the membership of local churches, the authority of local churches, and the offices in the local church. In closing, I want to draw attention to the central duty of the local church, and this is mentioned in two contexts in the Great Commission, and it is the teaching ministry. When Christ commanded the apostles what to do, it was to go and teach all nations, which resulted in baptizing converts into the name of the Holy Trinity. This is teaching to the lost. There is a teaching ministry to the lost. It is calling them out of the world and to be reconciled to God through the gospel. And then we have teaching mentioned again in the Great Commission in the context of observing Christ's commands. We have teaching for justification and teaching for sanctification, if you will. The point here is that teaching is primary in the ministry of local churches, and we should put effort into it and emphasis upon it. You know, some churches, as I'm thinking about this, put emphasis when the Catholic Church say upon the Eucharist, and that is the emphasis of their service. But we see in the Great Commission that the emphasis should be placed on the teaching ministry, not that the Lord's Supper is not important. It is part of the teaching ministry. So a large part of our worship of God is submitting ourselves under his word to be justified and sanctified as he works his grace into our hearts through the word of God. Prayers, singing, and the ordinances are all indispensable parts of worship and all play into that teaching ministry. But without the faithful spirit-filled preaching and teaching of the word, the church will be immature and unable to grow into the likeness of Christ. During the Reformation, the teaching of the word became the central activity in the church and the Lord blessed with a great revival and a great renewal of his people that had not been seen since the first century. So let's all avail ourselves to the ministry of the word today and pray that God blesses that word with salvation for the lost and for sanctification for the saints of God. Amen. Good morning. I am pinch hitting for Dr. Ryan Bush this morning who is out at