Christ Shall Have His Rightful Place in His Church

Introduction to the Manifesto Series and Prayer for Ministry

0:04 This sermon was churched in Montville, New Jersey, on Sunday morning, March 10, 1991.

0:12 Now as we again turn to the Lord in prayer, I would ask you to pray with me for God's special help, not only that I may know the enablement of the Spirit of God upon mind and heart and tongue in utterance, but the Lord's help even physically. As some of you already commented, you said I appeared rather restrained in the Sunday school hour, and I was trying to spare a rather weak voice box that right now feels like someone has cut up the back of my throat with razor blades. You know that feeling that often is the precursor of a cold, and God has been very good to bring me through the whole winter without any.

0:55 But I'm very conscious this morning of seeking to minister. I minister with a very weak vocal apparatus, and yet God says that His strength is made perfect in weakness. Let us pray and ask for God's special help.

1:14 Our Father, while our flesh does not like to be brought to the place of felt weakness and conscious dependence, we thank you that as renewed men and women we welcome every influence that reminds us that in you we live, we live, we live. We live, we live. We move, we have our very being. We thank you for every reminder that without you we can do nothing.

1:44 And we would even now embrace those influences that cast us back upon you, that your strength may be made perfect in weakness. We thank you that we have one at your right hand who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. We thank you we have one.

2:04 We thank you we have one who lived in our condition and therefore we are emboldened to pray that for his name's sake for his honor that his people may be fed and that the unconverted may hear his voice coming through the scriptures with power that you would undertake for us in our need both physical and spiritual come oh Lord with the help that we seek from you. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Purpose and Nature of the Manifesto

2:38 Now we begin this morning a series of messages which I have alluded to in several prayer meetings over the past month or two entitled a manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church a manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church now the title will mean little or nothing. Unless we understand what the word manifesto means. And the word manifesto simply means a public statement of intentions or objectives.

3:23 A manifesto is a formal declaration of what a group of people are out to do or to be. Some of you have been disturbed as you have read portions of the so-called humanist manifesto. In which the human. humanists of our country got together and drafted a statement of what they are committed to at every level of our national life. Well then, we are concerned with this series of messages to set

3:57 forth a manifesto of this congregation. We shall be considering what we are as a church of the Lord Jesus Christ, what we have been committed to, and what we ought to be committed to in days to come. Now, my purpose for embarking upon this series of messages is very simple, and I would be straightforward with you in telling you what that purpose is. It is, first of all, to bring what I trust will be a timely reminder to those of you who have been with us, to bring what I trust will be

4:38 a timely reminder to those of you who have been with us for some time. It is helpful for the most mature people of God periodically to go back to foundational principles. Peter understood this when he said in 2 Peter chapter 1 verses 12 and 13, he said, I'm writing these things to you, though you know them and are established in them. Yea, I think it right as long as I am involved in it. I think it right as long as I am involved in it. I think it right as long as I am

5:08 involved in it. I think it right as long as I am involved in it. I think it right as long as I am involved this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. So he was reminding them of truths that they knew, truths that they were established in, not truths that they had forgotten, let alone rejected. But he said, though you have embraced them, though you are living in the light of them,

5:32 I want to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. And I have as one of my major purposes in preaching this series entitled A Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church that I might under God be an instrument to stir up some of you by way of remembrance. These are truths that you love, truths for which some of you have paid a dear price. But nonetheless, truths concerning which a fresh stirring up is in order. But then my second purpose is that I

6:10 might bring a succinct statement of our basic principles to you who are new among us. As you sit and worship and interact and involve yourself in the life of this congregation, many of the principles that I will be enunciating specifically and pointedly in this manifesto, you are by degrees absorbing. But though there is this gradual absorption of these spiritual perspectives, it is vital that you should have a distinct and clear articulation

6:52 of these perspectives, evaluate them in the light of the word of God and insofar as they are scriptural, to pray them. Now, in setting forth this manifesto, I am not saying that we as a church have perfectly attained any of the dozen or so issues that will be specifically highlighted. Concerning every one of these things that comprise the manifesto, we would have to say we have not yet attained, neither are we.

7:32 Nor are we already perfect. Furthermore, I am not suggesting that we are the only church that could give such a manifesto. I am not saying that Trinity Church is the only church committed to these principles, let alone that we have perfectly worked out these principles. And furthermore, I am not saying that there are not some more fundamental biblical perspectives that ought to be part of the manifesto. I am not saying that we are the only church that could give such a manifesto.

8:02 And If I am alive to preach a similar series ten years from now, there might be two or three more major elements in that manifesto. This is not closed, it is open as God continues to lead us into maturity in Christ. And further, I freely and joyfully acknowledge that to the extent that any of these things are biblical, and that we have come to a point where we have atheism, pick-up-and-ghastity, andDeath, the come to understand them and to any degree to implement them, we gladly say with the Apostle, we are what we are by the grace of God.

Tenet 1: Christ as the Exclusive Foundation of the Church

8:46 Now with those introductory words before us, we come this morning to the most fundamental, the most crucial, the most significant element in the entire manifesto. And each tenet, each element of the manifesto will be expressed in words beginning with these words, we are determined. You want to know what we're about? You want to know what makes us tick?

9:16 Well, what we are about and what makes us tick will be expressed in terms of statements, all of which begin with the words, we are determined. And the most fundamental of all of those things we are determined to do and to be is this, we are determined that Jesus Christ shall have his rightful place in his church. That's the first and most fundamental plank in our manifesto. We are determined that Jesus Christ shall have his rightful place in his church.

10:00 Since we claim to be a Christian church, that claim immediately forces upon us the fact that Jesus Christ himself and Jesus Christ alone is the architect, builder, and owner of this church. He said in Matthew 16, 18, I will build my church. He who is the builder is the owner. And thank God, it's most glorious tenant as well.

10:38 But he says, I will build my church, owns the church. He builds the church. And since it is his church from its inception, that is this particular congregation in January of 1967, we have been determined that he shall have his rightful place in his church. He must have his rightful place in that which is his own by right of purchase and by the exercise of his power.

11:16 But now what does it mean in specific and concrete terms for Jesus Christ to have his rightful place in his church? Well, I want to answer that question in three parts. Number one, he must have his rightful place. He must have his rightful place as the exclusive foundation of Trinity Baptist Church.

11:40 He must have his rightful place as the sole source of spiritual life in Trinity Baptist Church. And he must have his rightful place as the supreme Lord and ruler of Trinity Baptist Church. Very simple headings. He must have his rightful place with respect to the foundation, the life.

12:05 And the rule of Trinity Church foundation, life and rule. First of all, then, Jesus Christ must have his rightful place as the exclusive foundation of Trinity Baptist Church. And under each of these heads, we'll look at one or two, sometimes three pivotal texts, raise the inevitable question and answer it, and then make some observations. First of all, then, the pivotal or epitomizing text which teaches that Jesus Christ is the exclusive foundation of any true Christian church.

How Christ Becomes the Exclusive Foundation

12:49 Turn, please, to 1 Corinthians chapter 3.

12:56 In this section of Paul's letter to the Corinthians, he's dealing with the problem of divisions that were occasioned by God blessing the church with a multiple ministry. God had sent a number of able men to minister among them, and they took this great blessing and turned it into a curse. And various of the Corinthians began to line up behind the various preachers and split off into parties. And one was the Peter party, and another was the Pauline party, and the Apollos party.

13:31 And Paul is seeking by various ways to show how stupid, how foolish, how unchristian this practice. And at this point in the development of his argument, he has been showing that though different ones have labored in the building, the establishment and growth of the church at Corinth, it is God and God alone who has given the increase, and that each of the workers will receive his own reward. Then he says in verse 10, focusing upon himself, according to the grace of God which was given unto me.

14:08 That is, Paul, as a wise master builder, I laid a foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he builds thereon, for a foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if there were no other text in all. of the scriptures, this text, taken in its context and flow of thought, forever establishes

14:49 that Jesus Christ is the exclusive foundation of any true Christian church. Another foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, he is not saying that mankind. cannot raise up religious institutions, and call them churches of Christ, which have something other than Christ as their exclusive foundation.

15:22 But what he is saying is, if there is any true Christian church, Christ and Christ alone is the foundation, and no other can ever come and replace him. And in the providence of God, the apostle Paul was the instrument in God's hands to come to Corinth, and to be the divinely appointed architect, to lay the foundation of the church at Corinth, and that foundation was none other than Jesus Christ himself, Jesus Christ alone.

16:01 Now, the question arises, how did Christ become the foundation of that church, and how does he become the foundation of any church? A true Christian church, and that is to ask the question, how did he become the foundation of Trinity Baptist Church? Well, the answer is given in the earlier part of the letter, and in the record of the beginning of the Corinthian church as recorded in Acts 18 verses 1 through 11. Turn for a moment to Acts chapter 18, we'll look very briefly at this portion, then we'll look at the earlier chapters of 1 Corinthians.

16:41 In the book of Acts chapter 18 verses 1 to 11, we have Luke's account of Paul coming to Corinth, 18.1, after these things he departed from Athens and came to Corinth, and he found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome, and he came unto them, and because he was of the same trade, he abode with them, and they wrought, that is, they worked together, for by their trade they were tent makers.

17:21 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded Jews and Greeks. And then as he began to preach, and there was opposition, as so often happened in Paul's ministry, in the midst of that opposition there is a wonderful summary of how the foundation of the church was laid at Corinth. We read in verse 8, And Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his house, and many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed, and were baptized. And the Lord said unto Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold

18:04 not thy peace, for I am with thee, no man shall set on thee to harm thee, I have much people in this city. And he dwelt. And he dwelt there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. Well, when we ask the question, how did Christ become the foundation of the church at Corinth, the answer that begins to emerge very clearly out of these verses in Acts is that Christ became the foundation when Paul and his companions came to Corinth and began to persuade and reason from the scriptures, first of all, in the synagogue.

18:42 And later on in the house of a certain man named Titus Justice, and it was as they proclaimed the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that God effectually worked in the heart of the people that he already had, according to this passage, by his own secret, eternal, sovereign, electing purpose, he said, I have much people in this city. And as Paul and his companions stayed. And as Paul and his companions stayed on teaching and preaching the word of God, those people were brought to faith, to repentance, to confession of Christ, and incorporated into the church at Corinth.

19:27 Now, what is alluded to in more general terms in Acts chapter 18 is specified with greater detail earlier in the Corinthian letter. Listen to the apostles' words. In chapter 1, he says in verse 17, Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made void. For the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us who are saved,

20:05 it is the power of verse 22, seeing the Jews ask for signs in the Greeks. Seek after wisdom. We preach Christ crucified unto Jews a stumbling block, unto Gentiles foolishness. Chapter 2, verse 1.

20:25 And I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling. And my speech and preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

21:00 Well, these are enough verses to give you the material with which to answer the question, how did Jesus Christ become the foundation of the church at Corinth? He became the foundation. The foundation when in the providence of God, a servant of God came, proclaiming the word of God, the word that focused upon the person of Jesus Christ. I determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ, the proclamation of his unique person and the proclamation of his saving work and him as crucified.

21:42 Furthermore, he proved this of the person of Christ and the uniqueness and nature of the work of Christ in a form that did not neutralize the offense of the cross of Christ. He refused to conform to their canons of rhetoric and of philosophy. He said, I did not come to you in the role of a philosopher or of an orator. I did not come.

22:13 He said, I did not come to you in the role of a philosopher or of an orator. In wisdom, that is, in your notion of wisdom as a philosopher, nor did I come with enticing words, your understanding of how a polished speaker should speak. No, I came as a herald and I declared unto you God's testimony about his son and about his work of redemption for sinners. Furthermore, he said, I did it not in the power of human persuasiveness, not under the pressure of an unusually charismatic personality that could exert tremendous pressure over mobs and make them do whatever I want to do.

22:55 I was with you in weakness, in fear, trembling. But when I preached, you were conscious as I was conscious. There was a demonstration of the spirit, the characteristic of which was power. And what is power?

23:11 Ability to perform, ability to effect. Change. And as I preached, he says, there was a putting forth of the mighty power of the Holy Ghost. And the result was, you weren't responding to me, Paul, to my clever sounding words, to my convincing logic.

23:32 You were responding to the God whose power you experienced under the proclamation of the gospel that focused upon the uniqueness of the person of Christ and the nature and the sufficiency of the work of Christ. And though with you in weakness and fear, preaching that message in power, your faith rests not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

23:58 And he summarizes all of that in chapter 1 in verse 9. And he says, you were called. You were called. Chapter 1, verse 9, God is faithful through whom you were called into the fellowship of his son.

24:17 Jesus Christ, our Lord. How did Christ become the foundation of the church at Corinth? Christ became the foundation when through God's appointed means of preaching Christ and him crucified, God put forth his own sovereign power effectually to call these Corinthian sinners into vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that way, God established a church at Corinth of which Jesus Christ was the soul,

25:00 the exclusive foundation. So the foundation of the church at Corinth is Jesus Christ in the glory of his person as the God-man, in the uniqueness and sufficiency of his work, as the substitutionary sin-bearer, the beauty of his person and the sufficiency of his work perceived by spiritual illumination and received in that faith which is the gift of God. And sinners are brought into union with the Lord Jesus.

25:40 And that very Christ becomes the foundation of that church.

How Christ Remains the Exclusive Foundation

25:47 Well, if that answers the question, how does Jesus Christ become the foundation of the church? Then another question is raised, how does he remain as the exclusive foundation? And this is crucial.

26:02 It is only as the truth about man's desperate need of a divine human savior is retained in the religious consciousness of any group of people that Christ will remain the foundation of that church. There was no foundation. There was no foundation of a church in Corinth until some sinners were brought to see through the preaching of the word that their condition as sinners needed nothing less than the divine human savior identified as Jesus of Nazareth

26:42 and that their condition as sinners was such that only the bloodletting of the incarnate God, that message that was a stumbling block, a scandal on the trap stick to the Jew, only that message was God's instrument of power unto salvation. And if this church, Trinity Baptist Church, is to be maintained as a true church with Jesus Christ as her exclusive foundation, those biblical truths that bring us to face what we are as wretched hell deserving,

27:23 wrath deserving sinners must never, never, never be veiled in this place. Because the moment we begin to lose a heart grasp in our religious consciousness, notice I didn't say in our theoretical convictions, the moment we lose a consciousness at the level of religious conviction and felt awareness of our destiny, we lose a consciousness at the level of religious conviction. So wretched, so undone that nothing but the incarnate God can answer to our need.

28:06 And that incarnate God impaled upon an instrument of Roman execution, Christ crucified. Only then, only then will Christ remain the foundation of this church. Because that's how he became the foundation in the first place. That's why he became the foundation of this church.

28:24 That's why he became the foundation of this church. That's what happened at Corinth. That's what happened here. God brought together in 1967 by various means some people of greatly diverse backgrounds and greatly diverse religious and church experiences and associations and a host of other differences.

28:46 But one thing was our common bond. We had been brought to see that in Adam we fell. In Adam. In Adam we stood under the curse of God.

28:58 That in ourselves we were nothing, had nothing and could do nothing to commend ourselves to God. That the only ground on which we could find acceptance with God was to be found in the work of that unique person, the God-man Jesus Christ. And in the work that he accomplished by his death and resurrection and the church was found. He was founded on that foundation of Jesus Christ, not in some mystical, undefined way but he was foundation to us as he was to the Corinthians

29:41 when he became the object of the smitten conscience's only hope, when he became the resting place of the tempest-driven soul that had felt something of the whiplash of hope that had felt something of the whiplash of peace and love that had felt something of the wheat and three crops on his remains joke R. So when we have a to call him Jesus, of the GI stream, charity. So he � Psalm 50 so we're going to go there and find the soul where we were born. And when we have the foundation of God's only hope, he was founded in our yourselves, to us, as we were raised in marriage, that Jesus was the only hope of life.

29:56 Omnipictorium and even reflect position. Moses and trembled before the lightning and thunder of Sinai and came to rest in the quietness of the full and free pardon held forth to sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ. Only as those truths about our desperate human condition and the truths of Christ's glorious provision for sinful men in substitutionary curse bearing as they are kept only then will Christ remain the true foundation of this church.

30:40 And it has been our determination as part of our manifesto that Jesus Christ would have his rightful place in Trinity Baptist Church first of all his rightful place as the exclusive foundation of this congregation. And it's been very interesting over the years to see how many have come and gone who want a church that has some other foundation. They want Christ in the walls. They want the cross in the roof rafters.

31:15 They want something of the blood and the righteousness of Christ in the decking and in the shingles. But they do not want the great issues of their own sinfulness and Christ's. Christ's unique person and work as the foundation on which everything else rests and listen carefully from which everything else in the edifice takes its dimensions and its lines and its shape.

31:47 This building takes its shape from the foundation blocks that are out of sight.

31:55 They were laid and then they were backfilled. But the walls of this building, the building and the configuration all take their shape from the foundation. And there are multitudes in our day who want a religion that's got something of Jesus in the walls and in the rafters and in the shingles. But they don't want Christ as foundation.

32:24 They don't want a religious life that is shaped and molded by the twin notes of man's wretchedness. And Christ's supreme glory. They want something else mingled in the foundation. Fun and games.

32:44 Personality cult worship. A host of other things. But dear people, may God have mercy upon us if we ever budge from this foundation for other foundation cannot. And that which is already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

33:06 And the day comes when those great truths are no longer the foundation blocks from which our whole experience and life takes its shape and form. We may be called Trinity Baptist Church. We may have some historical continuity with what was founded in this place. But it will not be a true church of Christ.

33:33 Because another foundation would have been erected which would have in turn resulted in the construction of a different building. Not physically, but spiritually.

Tenet 2: Christ as the Only Source of Spiritual Life

33:48 Then I must hasten on to touch the second.

33:52 If Jesus Christ is to have his rightful place, it will not only mean the rightful place as the exclusive foundation of Trinity Baptist Church, but Jesus Christ must have his rightful place as the only source of spiritual life in Trinity Baptist Church. The only source of spiritual life in Trinity Baptist Church. The pivotal texts, we've sung one of them. Jesus said in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

34:29 No man comes to the Father but by me. In Colossians 3 and verse 4, there's a most fascinating little phrase. It says when Christ, and in the Old Testament, Old 1901, the words who is are in italics. They are supplied.

34:48 They are not there in the original. Colossians chapter 3 and verse 4. Paul says when Christ, our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory. Christ, life, not the one who gives us life, not the one who imparts life, but he says Christ himself,

35:22 our life. When Christ who is our life. Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

35:41 And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. This is not some kind of obliterating of the distinction between Christ and myself, but so intimate is the bond of life which he himself imparts that Paul does not scruple to say Christ, our life, Christ liveth in me. Now again, the question arises, how does he become the life of his church? Well, the answer is given to us in 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter

36:22 chapter 2, verses 4 and 5. How does Christ become the life of any church?

36:31 Here Peter writes in chapter 2 of his first epistle, verse 4, unto whom coming a living stone, that is Christ, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect precious, you also as living stones are built up a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. You see the term Christ the living stone, and we coming unto him become living stones.

37:16 Stones are dead, inanimate objects, yes, I know that, but Peter is using imagery, and he's likening the spiritual temple which God erects on the basis of the work of his son. In these terms, Christ who is the chief cornerstone, Christ who is called the very foundation, he is the living stone, and coming into contact with him, he imparts his life to us, and we become then from dead stones, with no life. We become living, living stones, as we come unto him who is the, capital L, living stone.

38:00 And it's interesting, isn't it, that in John 14, 6, when he says, I am the life, no man comes unto the Father but by me, and coming to the Father through Christ who is the life, coming into contact with him by faith, he becomes our life. This is why John can say, and this is the witness that God is born about his son. He says that in him is life, and he that hath the son hath life, and he that hath not the son of God hath not life. And whatever spiritual life there has ever been at any point in the history of this assembly,

38:46 that life has been imparted by Jesus Christ himself. And as the first note in the manifesto that I will bring before you in these coming weeks, I would say in your hearing this morning, that if Jesus Christ is to have his rightful place among us, he must not only have his rightful place as the exclusive foundation of Trinity Baptist Church, but as the only source of spiritual life in this assembly.

How Christ Remains the Only Source of Spiritual Life

39:24 And if you ask well how does he remain such to the people of God? He answers that in John chapter 6. It is only as we by faith continue to feed on him. And he uses language that was offensive to the Jews, but how marvelously it answers the question.

39:46 John chapter 6 and verse 52 and following. The Jews therefore strove one with another saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus said therefore unto them, verily, verily I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have not life in yourselves. He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up in the last day for my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed.

40:22 He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him as the living father sent me and I live because of the father so he that eateth me he also shall live because of me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven not as your fathers ate and died. He that eateth this bread shall live forever. What's he saying?

40:51 The heart of what he is saying is exactly what Paul said in Galatians 2.20 I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me. And in what sense does Christ live in him? Is it some kind of a passive mystical living out his life through him? No.

41:12 He goes on to explain it and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live in the orbit of faith in the son of God in what unique life. Does he constantly exercise faith in him? The son of God who loved me gave himself for me. In other words, while faith has many facets in terms of its exercise, the fundamental focus of the faith by which Jesus Christ continues to be the life of his people is the faith that fixes upon him as the crucified savior, the son of God who loved me, gave

41:56 himself for me. That's what Jesus is teaching. He that eats my flesh, present tense, and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. In whom do I live? In what church do I

42:10 live imparting my life where I am continually cherished, where I am continually eaten and drunk by faith in my capacity as the only savior of sinners my body given, my flesh my blood given for sinners. I am the life of the church that does not come to the cross at the beginning and move on to some other place for the sustaining of life. No, it is the very place where life was imparted that life is sustained and the moment

42:54 we get weary of living at the cross, constantly taking our posture as those who in themselves have no claims to God's favor. Those who must stand naked and undone apart from the blood and righteousness of the savior. Whenever we start pleading mercies from God on any other ground but that Jesus Christ died. He that spared not his son but delivered him up for us all. How should

43:26 not with him also freely give us all things then we are in danger of seeking our life in some other place than that in which God is ordained to impart it. Jesus Christ must have his rightful place. Not only as the exclusive foundation of this assembly but as the only source of spiritual life in this assembly. That means that there is no inherent life in the means of grace. Preaching,

44:02 praying, the Lord's supper. There is no inherent grace in those means though God has ordained them. Under the blessing of God they can become the channels through which Christ who is our life communicates himself to us. But if we have an idolatrous confidence in the means God will curse us.

44:27 Curse our idolatry and cut off the springs of life. There is no inherent life in rituals and forms. There is no life in men, the best of them in programs and plans. Jesus Christ himself is the great reservoir of life and only as God is pleased to grant us streams flowing out of him. That beautiful

44:55 imagery in the book of the Revelation. There is that river of water of life and where is its source? It flows out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. And any other stream with any other source has death in it.

45:14 May the day never come when the Lord Jesus says to us as he did to the church at Sardis you have a name that you are alive but you're dead.

45:25 Your reputation exceeds your experience. There was a time when Christ was your life when you did not scruple to say again and again until people thought you were a one. No, Charlie we have no righteousness of our own to claim any blessing from God. Our claim is that Christ has purchased all for us and we gladly acknowledge our dependence upon him for all things. Thirdly and

Tenet 3: Christ as the Unrivaled Lord and Master

46:01 finally, Jesus Christ must not only have his rightful place as the exclusive foundation of Trinity Baptist Church his rightful place is the only source of spiritual life in Trinity Baptist Church but Jesus Christ must have his rightful place as the unrivaled Lord and Master of Trinity Baptist Church. Again, the key text which point to him is the unrivaled Lord and Master of his church. There are many. I just set three before you.

46:38 In Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost when Peter is preaching he points men to the Lord Jesus in his present position at the right hand of the Father with these words. Verse 36 of Acts 2 Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God hath made him both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom he crucified. I don't like this sloppy talk about have you made Christ Lord. God beat you to it. You don't

47:13 make him Lord. God's already made him Lord. You either come to him and bow before him and find the benefits of mercy stored up in him who is the Lord or you stand out in defiance of his authority and experience what the scripture says when it's speaks of the great day of his wrath has come and who shall be able to stand kiss the sun lest he be angry and you perish in the way no God has made him Lord and Christ and Ephesians 5 says as the church is subject to Christ

47:56 so let the wives be to their own husbands and Jesus said in Luke 6 46 why do you call me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say in other words these texts point to the fact that Christ is Lord and involved in that Lordship among other things is government and rule government and rule that are real that are concretely expressed in his words which are directed to our wills now when we ask how did he actually become the Lord and Master of his church well again the answer of

48:40 scriptures could be given from many angles but I think perhaps one of the clearest answers is given when we take the conversion of Saul of Tarsus as a pattern of what God does in every conversion not in terms of the external circumstances but the inward spiritual experience there was that man on his way to lay hold of the friends of Christ and to commit them to prison and even to death and you remember the story of how a light shone above the brightness of the noonday sun and he fell to the earth blinded and heard a voice out of heaven saying Saul Saul why persecutest thou me and he knew it was a voice

49:23 of the living God and he cried out for the voice spoke to him in Hebrew and being multilingual he answered in the Hebrew who art thou Lord who art thou Adonai who art thou and the answer came back I am Jesus whom thou persecutest then the apostle writes in 2 Corinthians 4 6 God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and when the apostle was brought to see who Jesus Christ really was what was the first response of his heart Lord

50:08 what will you have me to do if indeed the Jesus whom I have been opposing and persecuting in his people is the Lord is Jehovah Jesus then there is only one response befitting what will thou have me do Lord in other words whenever the Holy Spirit savingly reveals Christ to the human heart he always reveals him as the Christ worthy not only of our trust as Savior but of our unquestioned loyalty as our sovereign and our unquestioned submission as our Lord

50:52 the Holy Spirit never reveals Christ to the heart of a sinner in such a way that the sinner merely trusts Christ for the pardon of his sin while still holding a clenched fist in defiance of his rule and his government it is unthinkable that the Holy Spirit would so honor the Lord Jesus he does not he will not and Christ becomes the Lord of a church when he has brought individuals by the dynamics of his grace to embrace him as Savior and as Lord and to implant in their hearts a disposition to obey him and how does he remain the Lord and master

How Christ Remains the Unrivaled Lord and Master

51:36 of his church when his word alone rules and governs every facet of the life of that church when in every situation whether it's the matter of church officers and the standards that ought to be set church membership and the expectations that will be articulated whether it's church discipline whether it's entering a building program whether it's missions evangelism whatever it is the mindset is Christ is Lord and this book is his scepter and we will let him wield his scepter over us to us the word of God over these years has not simply

52:19 been the book that has shown us how to get to heaven we've sought to live with the conviction it's the book that tells us what we're to do in every area of our lives on our way to heaven and this church if it is to continue with the blessing of God there must be that fresh commitment to Jesus Christ as the unrivaled Lord and master other Lords and masters have sought to take us over Lord conformity occasionally comes by and flirts with us points us to what everyone else is doing sometimes with apparently great blessing and he says

53:02 why don't you do it my way that's what everyone is doing and we have periodically over the years felt the pressure of Lord conformity but he holds no Bible in his hand and then Lord pragmatism has come along what seems to work and he points us to his success stories and says if it works do it but Lord pragmatism holds no Bible in his hand and there's Lord expediency expediency he can point to the easy course he can point to the selfish course rather than the right course but he holds no Bible in his hand and Lord capitulation he tells us what will take

53:47 the heat off and make it easier but he holds no Bible in his hand it is only the Lord Jesus Christ who comes to us and says if you love me keep my commandments why do you call me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say and I say to you who are new to this assembly when some of us if the Lord tarries are in our graves and anyone comes by and says that this church should be governed by anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ speaking in the scriptures may God give you the grace to rear back on your hind legs and roar a thundering

54:32 though that Jesus Christ alone shall be Lord and Master of this assembly so my brothers and sisters this is the first line of the manifesto and it is this that we are determined we are determined that Jesus Christ shall have his rightful place in his church the rightful place as the exclusive foundation and that means the moment we move out of the orbit of the great motifs of sin and grace we are moving away from our foundations for it is only when our religious life is steeped in the biblical

55:15 revelation of what sin is and what grace is that we rest down solely and comfortably upon Jesus Christ alone Jesus Christ must have his rightful place as the sole source of spiritual life and therefore as we feed upon him as the crucified and exalted Lord if there is a withholding of life then we must not look for gimmicks and gadgets we must look to those places where we may be grieving and quenching his spirit and if I may say it reverently stopping up the conduits from his own infinite fullness into our own

55:59 pathetic little need we must look for the areas where the spirit is grieved not look for new and novel methods that can be employed with no ethical and moral confrontation of issues and that's the curse of so much of evangelicalism in our day it's looking everywhere but to the source of the spiritual deadness and then Jesus Christ must have his rightful place as unrivaled Lord and Master let me ask you as I close this morning do these things burn in your heart are you ready by God's grace to give your life's blood for these principles

Call to Commitment and Evangelism

56:44 some of us and remember I said anything we are we are by the grace of God but some of us weighed very weighty issues over these matters there wasn't any building like this standing in 67 for some of us it literally meant we didn't know where we'd live we weren't sure how we'd put bread on the table but this truth that Jesus Christ must have his rightful place in his church meant enough for some people to sever friendships

57:27 that had gone on for years risk many things because these truths were truths that became visceral by the power of the spirit are they truths implanted in your heart for which you're willing to pay a price if necessary shed blood I wonder if you can't shed your easy chair and come out and pray if you'd be ready to shed blood I wonder I wonder I wonder if you'd be ready to shed blood when you're not willing to stand up to some of your dear friends

58:12 who put the pressure on you and you're kind of embarrassed at the plain simple unadorned

58:19 life that we seek to live under the rule and reign of Christ oh dear people will you not pray that God by the spirit would so work these perspectives into the very texture of our souls that they would be part and parcel of our life together until the Lord Jesus comes and you who sit here this morning who've never known his grace and forgiveness if you don't get anything else about what I've said this morning I hope you get one thing whatever this church is about Jesus Christ is something more than incidental to it I hope you got that much I hope if you missed a lot you'd say but wait a minute in his first point Jesus Christ alone is the foundation

59:03 Jesus Christ alone is the life Jesus Christ alone is the Lord whatever this church is about Jesus Christ is not secondary he's not somewhere out on the perimeter he's at the center you've got it that's right the only thing worthwhile we have to offer you is our savior but in him my dear sinner friend there's all you'll need for time for the judgment and for eternity this church exists to be a platform not to parade any men not to parade the cleverness of any group of men or people this church exists to say to a lost and needy world

59:46 behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world it's the point you to him who says come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest all you need for your guilty conscience is to be found in his precious blood all you need for the chains that bind you to your sin is to have his mighty hand of omnipotent grace at the chains and set the prisoner free my friend if you've missed a lot I hope you haven't missed that and if you've got that much you've got enough to go to him you've got enough to go to him go to him go to him go to him even today

Concluding Prayer for Steadfastness and Salvation

60:29 and find him to be what we have found him to be all he has promised in the gospel let us pray our father we thank you that your son is indeed all of these things to his true people and we earnestly pray that he will always have his rightful place in this congregation that even until the hour of his return there will be found in this place a people who are determined that there shall be no other foundation

61:12 save Jesus Christ no source of life but Christ no sovereign to govern and rule but Christ oh lord by your holy spirit you can so work to keep these truths alive in the hearts of men and women and some who are but boys and girls now the generations to come will still hold them precious oh father by the holy spirit do that work we pray and for those who have never come to him who is the living stone who are yet dead in their sins oh lord this day may

61:55 they see the beauty of Christ and run to him and find life and salvation and pardon in his own precious blood write your word upon our hearts and may it bear fruit in each of our lives we ask in Jesus name amen