Church Membership and Our Children

Introduction: The Crucial Questions of Church Membership

0:03 This morning worship service was held on June 16, 1991, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. I will introduce the subject of the ministry of the word this morning precisely as I did last Lord's Day morning by asking several tremendously important questions. And I trust you will pay careful attention to the questions so that they may fasten your mind on the crucial issues that are before us in the ministry of the word this morning. The first question is this.

0:43 Who has a right of admission into the membership of any church which claims to govern its admission policies by the Lord? By the word of God. Who has a right of admission? That is, not to come within the doors of a building where a church gathers, but a right of admission into the number and role of the official membership of an assembly of people who has a right of admission into the membership of a church which claims to govern its admission policies by the word of God.

1:29 Or to put the question, in another form, when Christ stands by the door of entrance to His own church, what tokens of admission does He demand from all whom He will admit with His smile of approval? What tokens of admission does He demand if we are to have Christ Himself usher us, into the role of the membership of His church? Or to put the question in one more form,

2:09 what spiritual credentials are to be mandated for one to enter into and remain a member in good standing of a biblical church? It is these questions with which we began to grapple last week as we continued our present series, of studies entitled, A Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church. In this manifesto, or public declaration of our major aims and principles as a congregation, a congregation approaching its 25th anniversary,

Affirmation 5: A Membership of the Regenerate and Converted

2:52 we are presently considering the fifth affirmation in our manifesto. And the fifth affirmation is this, we are determined to strive for a membership role of Trinity Baptist Church comprised only of truly regenerate and genuinely converted men and women. Now in our initial study of this affirmation last Lord's Day, I was able to accomplish, I trust, at least I sought to accomplish, but two things. Number one, to give a brief explanation, of the words of the affirmation.

3:34 When I say we are determined to strive for a membership role, comprised only of truly regenerate and genuinely converted men and women, what do we mean? Well, by truly regenerate and genuinely converted, we mean nothing more or less than what the Bible means by those terms. Except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Except he be converted and become his little children, he shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven.

4:12 And by using the terms men and women, I was simply seeking to reflect the teaching of the word of God that we find in the book of Acts, where the church is described as growing when it comes to a number of 4,000 men, and then when multitudes of men and women, are added unto the church. And then the second thing I sought to accomplish was to show on what biblical basis this determination rests. Why are we determined? To have a membership role comprised only of truly regenerate and genuinely converted men and women.

4:51 Where do we get that notion? Why should we be determined to strive for such a standard? And I answered that question by two categories of biblical testimony. Number one, that the new covenant assembly prophesied in the Old Testament is an assembly that is described as truly regenerate and genuinely converted.

5:19 And then secondly, when we come to the New Testament, it is assumed that the new covenant community is comprised of truly regenerate and genuinely converted men and women. All the instructions, all the exhortations, all the consolations assume that the people to whom they are addressed are in Christ Jesus, that they are truly regenerate and converted. Now this morning we come to the third division of our subject. Having given this explanation of the words of the affirmation, the biblical basis on which this determination rests,

Manifestation 1: Dealing with Children and Covenantal Birthright

6:02 we come this morning to what I'm calling the manifestations of this determination in our life and practice as a church. If I say that we are determined to strive for a membership role comprised only of truly regenerate and genuinely converted men and women, then surely there ought to be some very clear and convincing manifestations of this determination. Anything you're determined to do and you're striving to do will be something evident in your life. And so it is that in our life together as a church,

6:46 this determination to strive for a membership role comprised only of regenerate and converted men and women is indeed abundantly manifested. We'll have time to take hopefully just two of seven of those plain manifestations. The first is this. The first manifestation of this determination to strive for a truly regenerate, genuinely converted membership role is seen in, number one, the manner in which we deal with our children and their relationship to church membership.

7:30 The manner in which we deal with our children and their relationship to church membership. Now it's often said you can touch many things but don't touch my wife or my children. And few things are more sensitive than when people begin to talk about our children, what they are, what they are not, what they should and should not have. But in this, as in all things, let God be true.

7:57 And every man a liar. Let God's will be done and let all human sentiment be nailed to the cross of Christ. And I want to demonstrate in three categories how our dealings with the children of the members of this congregation is a patent, a clear and undeniable manifestation of our determination that the membership of this church will be comprised only of truly regenerate and genuinely converted men and women. Now what is the first strand of this evidence as it relates to our dealing with our children?

8:37 First, we do not regard them as having a covenantal birthright to membership in the church and therefore we do not sprinkle them as infants. That's the first indication. We do not regard our children as having a covenantal birthright to membership in the church and therefore sprinkle them as infants. When many of our Presbyterian friends have a service that they call the baptizing of their infants and a little one is brought to the front of the church and the minister holds that child, the language used is found in the early editions of the Trinity Hymnal which is in the pew.

9:21 It's a Presbyterian hymnal used in the Baptist church. On page 66, here is the order of service for the baptism of an infant. I shall read it. Your edition there may not have it so you may not want to attempt to find it.

9:37 But on page 66, if it's one of the older ones, when an infant is to be baptized, the minister shall proceed to give instruction in the following or similar language concerning the ground of infant baptism. Now listen carefully. The minister is to use this or similar language. Now I quote.

9:58 Although our young children do not yet understand these things, they are nevertheless to be baptized. For the promise of the covenant, that is God's oath sworn promise, a covenant is made to believers and their seed, as God declared unto Abraham, I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee throughout their generations. And then the rest of the passage is quoted. In the new dispensation, that is in the new covenant, no less than in the old, the children of the faithful born within the church, now listen carefully, the children of the faithful,

10:42 that is the children of church members in good standing, have by virtue of their birth interest in the covenant and right to the seal of it and to the outward privilege of the church. For the covenant of grace is the same in substance under both dispensations and the grace of God for the consolation of believers is even more fully manifested in the new dispensation. Moreover, our Savior admitted little children into his presence, embracing them and blessing them and saying, of such is the kingdom of God. Now listen.

11:18 So the children of the covenant are by baptism distinguished from the world and solemnly received into the visible church. Now could language be more plain? They are saying that this child's right of admission into the church is his blood connections with believing parents. And that connection is based supposedly upon a divine promise.

11:52 Then it says, before the baptism of the infant, the minister shall require that the parents acknowledge the duty of believers to present their children for baptism, that they assume their responsibility. And here are the questions that are to be asked to the parents, so that no one will think I've created a straw man. That's why I'm taking the time to do this. Bear with me.

12:11 Question one. Do you acknowledge that although our children are conceived and born in sin and therefore subject to condemnation, they are holy in Christ and as members of Christ, members of his church ought to be baptized? As members of his church, how did they become members? Because they were born of members.

Biblical View of Children: Fallen and Needing Regeneration

12:41 Do you promise to instruct your children in the principles of the holy religion, etc.? Now, when I say that the manner in which we deal with our children and their relationship to church membership is a patent manifestation of our determination that this congregation shall have a membership role comprised only of the truly regenerate and the genuinely converted, here's the first indication of it. When we deal with our children, we do not regard them as having a covenantal birthright to membership in the church and therefore sprinkle them as infants.

13:20 We regard our children as a precious gift from God, for the scripture says, Lo, children are enhanced by the inheritance of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. We regard them as a great blessing. In Psalm 128, the Psalmist celebrates the blessedness of the fruitful couple who have their children like olive plants round about their table. But, but, we also regard them as the scripture regards them, as fallen sons and daughters of Adam for Romans 5, 12 says, Wherefore as through one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men

14:03 for that all sinned. When did all sin? All sinned in Adam. And we regard our children scripturally as natively the fallen sons and daughters of Adam.

14:16 We regard them in the light of Psalm 51 in verse 5, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. We regard our children as precious gifts from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is his reward. Yes, but we regard them from the same Bible as fallen sons and daughters of Adam under condemnation in the language of Ephesians 2, 3.

14:45 They are by nature the children of wrath even as the rest. And until there is this clear evidence of the distinguishing marks of the new covenant realities in our children when they have come to maturation of their minds and their psyches and of their understanding and can intelligently choose the way of discipleship and openly confess it, we do not regard them as members of the new covenant community. Why? Because they do not yet possess

15:27 the distinguishing marks of the members of the new covenant community. For the Scripture says in Romans 9, 8, It is not the children after the flesh that are accounted the seed, but the children of promise. And God's word, I will be a God to thee and to thy seed, given to Abraham according to Galatians 3, is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who is the seed of Abraham, and to all who are in Christ. And we are only in Christ, not because we lucked out and had the right bloodlines.

16:06 We are all the sons of God by faith in Jesus Christ. And then he says, If you are of faith, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. That's the teaching of the word of God. And therefore, our determination to have a truly regenerate and genuinely converted membership rule is manifested in the manner in which we deal with our children, first of all, in that we do not regard them as having a covenantal birthright to membership in the church and therefore sprinkle them as infants.

16:47 And I say by way of application, the theology and practice of infants sprinkling within the Protestant, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic churches, has a built-in tendency to dilute the purity of the membership of the church. Further, treating the children as though they are in a special category, not recognized in the word of God, creates confusion in their minds. The Bible knows only two categories, the righteous and the wicked. Psalm 1, Blessed is the man, and he describes the righteous.

17:21 The wicked are not so, and he describes the wicked. Where is this middle sort of no man's land? Wicked but covenant children and not really wicked. Not righteous quite enough to partake of all the sacraments and all the privileges, members of the church yet not communicant members, in Christ in one way yet not in Christ in another.

17:47 Where does the Bible give us the materials for such a category? To the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. No, we do not regard our children as in some special category.

18:07 We see them as greatly privileged. Paul asked the question in Romans 3, 1. What advantage is it for someone to be a Jew? He says many advantages.

18:16 What are they? They were entrusted with the oracles of God. He speaks later on in Romans, they had great privileges. But he said we've concluded all under sin and all need the gospel.

18:27 All need the gospel. All need to be regenerated. All need to be converted. And we look upon our children as gifts of God, as precious gifts of God.

18:39 But we look upon them as sinners by nature. Sinners in Adam. By nature children of wrath. Greatly privileged.

18:48 Greatly privileged to have the Bible brought to them with their mother's milk. To have the truth of God surround them as their native heir. Wonderfully privileged. But, but, without the work of the Spirit in their hearts.

Christ's Sword: Personal Allegiance Over Family Ties

19:04 Privileges that give them no right to membership in the church unless the privileges lead to personal inward appropriation of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. And furthermore, this theology and practice of infant sprinkling runs counter to one of the most pivotal statements of our Lord Jesus Christ. He said in Matthew 10, 34, Think not that I came to send peace on the earth. I came not to send peace but a sword.

19:34 I came to set a man against his father, the daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's foe shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. He that doth not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.

19:56 What's Jesus saying? He's saying when my grace comes to one member of the household it does not automatically incorporate all the others. Jesus is saying grace may come to a father and that covenant son, as our Presbyterian friends would say, may become his bitterest enemy. Grace may come to the son and not to the father and the father may become the son's bitterest enemy.

20:23 That's what Jesus said and he bears full responsibility for it. He said, I came literally to cast a sword upon the earth. In other words, Jesus said, I throw down the gauntlet and when I reveal my glory to a child, that child embraces me as the supreme object of religious affection. While that child will still be an obedient and a respectful son or daughter, he will no longer give idolatrous attachment or allegiance to mother or father.

20:52 He will love me supremely and that will bring the sword between the parent and the child and vice versa. When grace has captured the heart of a father or mother who's determined to yield supreme allegiance to Christ and that mother or father will not bend to the wicked and selfish and carnal whims and desires of a son or daughter who wants to go the way of the world, that child may turn in hatred to that father or mother. Jesus bears responsibility. He said, I came to cast the sword.

21:25 Dear people of God, may God have mercy on Trinity Baptist Church when we try to take the sword and bury it. Wherever Christ is present, his sword is present. His sword is present and it's out of genuine love to our children that we will not seek to rid this place of the sword. But someone objects.

21:52 Isn't this cruel? To give the children of church members no status. No standing beyond that of a raw pagan kid who happens to come in off the street. My friends, that's not cruel.

22:07 That's the nicest, most lovely thing we can do to them. Because that's reality. And they're standing before God. Take some little waif who's been reared in a home where the only time he's heard the name Jesus is in a curse word.

22:25 Never seen the pages of a Bible. Never heard a sermon. Let him sit next to one of you kids, who can't remember the first time you saw a Bible and heard a Bible verse every day of your life until you want to vomit it out because you don't love the things yet. Put the two of you on the same queue.

22:41 What's the difference? You're greatly privileged. He's not. But before God, you're both in Adam, lost, condemned, conceived in sin.

22:50 You need to be born again. You need to be converted. That's reality. And the most loving thing we can do to our children is keep reality.

23:01 Tearing them in their spiritual eyeballs. And not cooperate with the devil in deluding them and sending them to hell self-deceived. So this is the first strand of the evidence that the manner in which we deal with our children and their relationship to church membership demonstrates our determination to have a truly regenerate and genuinely converted membership. We do not regard them as having a covenantal birthright to membership in the church and therefore sprinkle them as infants.

Manifestation 2: Not Encouraging Baptism for Children/Adolescents

23:32 The second element in our dealing with our children, even when there are evidences of grace in childhood and adolescence, we do not encourage them to be baptized nor receive them into membership. Even when there are evidences of grace, or perhaps I should add, apparent evidences of grace in childhood and adolescence, we do not encourage them to be baptized and receive them into membership. Why not? Do we believe God saves children?

24:06 I answer a resounding yes. Yes! Were you awake when we prayed for little Lee Hamilton this morning? What did I pray?

24:17 And what did you pray with me as I was your mouthpiece? That the Spirit of God would savingly reveal Christ to that little boy. Why would we pray that if we didn't believe God could do it? Does the Bible record young Samuel being saved as a preteen, age 12?

24:36 Yes! Does the Bible say that John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit from his mother's womb? Yes! Do we believe God can and God does save children?

24:46 I answer yes! Yes! Yes! Unequivocal yes!

24:50 Do we believe children ought to repent and to believe the Gospel from the time the Gospel is brought to them? Yes! Because the Bible says in Acts 17 30 God commands all men everywhere to repent. We believe children can.

25:06 We believe children can be saved. We believe children ought to repent and believe the Gospel. But, listen carefully, since there is no command or precedent and no example in the New Testament of any but adults being received into the church as members, we do not press upon them the duty of baptism and church membership while they are still children or in adolescence. You see, not all general duties are timely duties.

25:38 Not all general duties are timely duties and I want to illustrate. I've been quoting all the text. I haven't had you ruffling through your pages of your Bible, but now I want you to turn to this passage with me, 1 Corinthians chapter 7. Here's a young lad giving manifestations of the grace of God in his heart.

26:00 He shows evidences that he's truly been regenerate. He has a hunger for God in the Word, a desire to be holy, a tender conscience to sin. He says that he trusts only in Christ. He shows a disposition to reject the world and its ways and its people and its standards and its so-called system of fun and fulfillment.

26:21 He shows a heart turned to God and to his people and to his ways and to his church. And all of the marks of a converted young man. He's come into puberty and he begins to feel these powerful engines of sexual urges surging through his being. And one day he's having his devotions and he reads in 1 Corinthians 7, 1 these words, concerning the things whereof he wrote, it's good for a man not to touch a woman, but because of fornication let each man have his own wife and let each woman have her own husband.

26:52 And he says, Oh Lord, thank you. Here's the provision for these powerful urges that I now live with day after day that have awakened in me in the past couple of years to avoid sexual urges, sexual impurity, I'm to have a wife. And he runs in and says, Dad, let me tell you what I found in my devotions this morning. Look, you know I've been talking with you, Dad, about my struggles with purity, personal purity of mind and body.

27:19 I found in my devotions God's answer this morning, Dad. Here's the answer, Dad. I'm to get married. And his dad says, But wait a minute, son.

27:29 You're only 14. He says, Yeah, Dad, but I'm a Christian. I love Christ. Jesus said, If you love me, take my commandments.

27:37 Here's a commandment. Let each man have his own wife. I got to obey Christ. I got to get married.

27:45 What does the father say? Father says, Son, the Lord looks upon your disposition and he smiles. He says, Son, it's right that you want to obey Christ, but this is not the time to obey him in this command. There are other principles of the word of God.

28:05 To take a wife as the legitimate avenue of the release of your God-given sexual appetite means you are also mature enough to provide for her. Mature in judgment to be ahead over her and to lead her and to guide the children that might be the fruit of your union. Son, the Lord accepts the willingness for the deed, but it is not timely obedience to take a wife when you're 14. All right.

Timely Obedience and New Testament Precedent

28:34 You see the principle? Likewise, when a 12-year-old manifests what appear to be the fruits of grace, a heart for God, tenderness to sin, love to Christ, all of the evidences that we can read and comes and says, Dad, Mom, I've seen in the Bible where it says, believe and be baptized. And it's those that receive the word were added unto them. Dad, Mom, I must go to the elders and tell them I'm saved and I need to be baptized and brought into the church.

29:03 And we say, what? God doesn't say, kids, be quiet. No. Don't have mercy on any parent who ever says that.

29:09 And you'll never find your elders saying that. Just this week, last week, I had a phone call from one of the little girls in the church hasn't even seen her 10th birthday telling me she believed the Lord saved her. How do you think I responded? Bah!

29:25 What are you talking about? God doesn't say 10-year-olds? No. I said, that's wonderful.

29:29 And if you've really been brought to trust in the Lord Jesus, you continue to trust in Him. You continue to turn from sin you continue to look to Jesus as your only hope of salvation and you be assured that if you should die in your condition now, you'd go to be with Jesus. That's what I tell her. I'm not a priest giving her absolution, but I can tell her what the Bible says.

29:55 He that believeth on the Son hath life. I can tell her what the Bible says. He that hath the Son hath life. But you see, when they say, well, if that's so, then I ought to be baptized and join the church.

30:08 We say, no, no, no. Because you must be old enough to understand the implications of being openly identified with Christ and His people, old enough to bear the responsibilities and to accept the liabilities. You see, the Bible doesn't know two standards of life and discipline, one for children and one for adults. You want to start excommunicating thirteen-year-old children?

30:38 No. And twelve-year-olds, if they cast off their profession by the pattern of their lives and to exert the social pressure of excommunication demanded by the Word of God, no, my friends, listen, listen. The reason we do not receive children and adolescents into the membership even though they give the marks of being saved is because that would not be to encourage timely obedience. The theology and practice of toddler, child and adolescent decisionism and baptism has filled evangelical churches with unconverted and unregenerate people

31:20 who've been labeled chronic carnal Christians. That's what filled the evangelical church with them. Not only a truncated gospel message which we'll touch in another sermon and shoddy standards of interviewing for membership, but in great measure it is the assumption that any child or adolescent who professes to trust in Jesus is a proper candidate for baptism in church membership and it's filled evangelical churches with unregenerate and unconverted people. And one of the indications we're determined to have a membership role

32:04 comprised only of truly regenerate and genuinely converted men and women is because we will not even when there are evidences of grace encourage the baptism of children and adolescents and receive them into membership. I want you to see those verses with your own eyes. I alluded to them earlier. I said there is no precedence set in the word of God for the reception of any other than those that can be called men and women.

32:32 Look at the evidence with your own eyes. Acts chapter 4 and verse 4. The great ingathering on the day of Pentecost is simply described in these words. Acts 2.41

32:44 Then they that received the word or his word were baptized and were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls. So that's an indefinite description. But when the description becomes more definite what do we find? Look at verse 4 of chapter 4.

33:01 But many of them that heard the word believed and the number of the men adult males came to be about five thousand. Acts 5.14 And believers were the more added to the Lord multitudes both of men and women. And the technical precise words are used.

33:28 Bunei and aneh adult males and adult females and it doesn't say and paideia or technon or the other words. For children there is utter silence that is eloquent in its impress upon those who respect the word of God. And then when we read in Acts 8.3 that Paul was persecuting the church who was he persecuting?

33:56 Saul laid waste the church entering into every house and dragging here we are again men and women and not children they'd have been the easiest to drag committed then to prison. And it's not that Luke didn't know the word for children or ignored children because later on in Acts when there's a farewell for Paul it describes the believers going down to the shore with Paul and describes the men and women and their children. So when children were there he noticed them and he knew the right word to use to describe them but he doesn't describe any children. Why?

34:33 Because there is no clear example or precedent or precept that mandates the baptism and reception of the Lord in the church. The baptism and reception into membership of children. And if you want a more thorough treatment of the biblical data I encourage you to get the tapes on pre-adult membership and the tapes on dealing with our spiritually awakened children. And brethren the great issue in this really is sentiment and superstition.

The Dangers of Sentiment and Superstition

35:07 Those are the two great pressures sentiment and superstition. Oh any lovely children in the water oh isn't that sweet. Any lovely here little eight year old say I love Jesus. Sentiment and then superstition.

35:24 If somehow you get them in the water and in the church they'll be a little safer. My friends if they're in Christ they're as safe as they can ever be. If they're in Christ they're safe. If they're out of Christ they can be in the tank a dozen times and hold concurrent membership in a dozen churches and they'll be lost as the devil.

35:46 So it's really sentiment and superstition. And you younger generation you men in your thirties to whom I speak who will be the pillars in this church in years to come the day sentiment and superstition begins to creep and ooze through the windows and the cracks in the walls meet it for the demon that it is. It will destroy the life and the power in this assembly. But then there's a third area and here I want you to help me and God help you to listen.

Manifestation 3: Rejecting Decency and Orthodoxy Without Unfeigned Faith

36:21 As I told several people this thing has so gripped me that I almost despaired of preaching this aspect this morning because I firmly literally believe that grasping this concept from the word of God and being ready to die for it under God may be the difference between life throbbing in this place if the Lord tarries fifty years from now and death taking over this world in our graves. Here's the third strand of the manner in which we deal with our children in their relationship to church membership that patently manifest our determination to strive that the membership role be comprised of the truly

37:06 converted the truly regenerate and truly converted. Not only do we not regard our children as having a covenantal birthright to membership not only of grace in childhood and adolescence that we do not encourage baptism in church membership. But hear me carefully. When children grow up in the church and continue among us, they are not automatically assumed to be converted and therefore received into membership because as adults they are decent in their life and orthodox in their doctrine.

37:47 Hear me now. What about those who as little children don't come forward to mom and dad or one of the elders and say, I believe God has worked in my heart. I'd like to be baptized and we have to put them off. What about those who come on the threshold of their adult life so that they could legitimately be called young adults, young men and young women.

38:10 They are men and women, post-puberty, begun to settle into an adult mindset. Paul said, When I was a child, I thought as a child, I felt as a child, I reasoned as a child, now that I've become a man, I put away childish things. I didn't become a man overnight. He didn't become a fully mature man overnight.

38:30 But there's a threshold between a child and a man. That's a biblical distinction. It's not artificial. It's rooted in the Word of God.

38:39 What about those then, that in infancy we do not sprinkle? In childhood, there's no pressure from them to be baptized and come into membership. And now they're young adults and they're living very decent lives. The common, grace of God, operative through a Christian family and the preaching of the Word and Sunday school and Christian school has kept them from going the way of the world outwardly.

39:04 Very decent lives. They attend church every time the doors are open. Their lives are decent and respectable. Their doctrine is orthodox.

39:15 You ask them about any major doctrine of the Christian faith, they say, Sure, I believe that. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, sure, I believe that. What's the way people are saved? Through Christ's death.

39:26 Thoroughly orthodox in their doctrine.

39:30 Thoroughly decent in their lives.

39:34 They begin to say, Wait a minute, I only like the people who are decent like I am and orthodox like I am. I don't feel comfortable with those who deny the essential truths of the gospel. I don't feel comfortable with people living like the devil. All my associations have been in church circles.

39:50 Now, if I'm going to get a husband or a wife who's like me, decent and orthodox, where am I going to get them? I've got to get them in the church. But I've been around long enough to know I can't get them in the church unless I'm in the church. There are people sitting here this morning who've come out of churches who would stand and bear witness to what I'm about to say.

40:18 That in those churches, it was an accepted right of entrance to adulthood if you were decent and orthodox to apply to become communicant members. Right? Amen? Amen.

40:34 That's all you needed. Decent and orthodox, you were brought in, treated as Christians, and sent to hell full of deception and you dragged the church down with you because devoid of the spirit of God and spiritual light and spiritual motives and gospel realities, the world was brought into the church by decent, orthodox people brought up in the church. We need to go down that path.

41:11 And I fear with our best efforts, we may have been deceived.

41:17 God knows we're not welcoming it.

41:21 Know the privilege of having one's mind and heart molded by the church and godly nurture and all the things we've talked about in Sunday school is a marvelous thing. But you see, when Paul thinks of Timothy, he doesn't accept the reality of his spiritual life because he was decent and orthodox. Because he had a Christian grandmother and mother. Listen to what he says in 2 Timothy 1, verses 3-5.

41:51 And until your elders and your believing, those believing brothers and sisters in the assembly discern this is true of you, they will have strong objections to your being received into membership. Paul could say of Timothy these wonderful words, 2 Timothy 1, 3 and following, I thank God whom I serve for my forefathers in a pure conscience. How unceasing is my remembrance of you in my supplications night and day, longing to see you, remembering your tears that I may be filled with joy, having been reminded of the unfeigned faith, the non-faith, the real

42:36 faith that is in you which dwelt first in your grandmother, Lois, and in your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded in thee also. What was he persuaded of? Real faith in Timothy's heart. Not just the propped up perfume semblance of a decent life in an orthodox creed.

43:06 You see, a decent life in an orthodox creed can prop up a spiritual corpse and perfume it to make it smell. Like a living creature, but it's a corpse still. Until the Holy Ghost sovereignly takes out the heart of stone and gives the heart of flesh and until that person with all the privileges and decent life and orthodox faith sees himself lost and condemned and deserving of eternal hell and his only hope in Jesus Christ and throws himself upon the Savior and there is unfamed faith in the Son of God.

43:49 That person is a worldling lost and damned and on his way to hell and has no right of admission into the community of the saints of God in their new covenant form.

44:05 No right! And that galls some of you because you've got kids that are decent and orthodox and if you had your way they'd be church members.

44:17 You don't think that they would bring spiritually blind eyes, spiritually deaf ears and perverse hearts and soon grow tired of preaching because they had no spiritual appetite for the word and be the ones who would begin to want shorter sermons and then something plus sermons and then something in place of sermons. You don't care just so long as your kids appear respectable as church members. God have mercy on you. God have mercy on you.

44:55 No, there must be unfamed faith. And there'll never be unfamed faith until there's unfamed conviction. And there'll never be unfamed conviction until our decent orthodox kids see that they are lost, condemned, hell-deserving wretches. In spite of all their decency and orthodoxy, they stand naked and exposed to the wrath of God. Until

45:23 they see that and run to Christ and cleave to Him as for life itself. They have no unfamed faith. They therefore do not belong in the company of the new covenant community of God's people. And dear people,

The Trojan Horse: The Greatest Danger to Trinity Church

45:38 I want to say and this point is all I'm going to do this morning. I'd hope to cover two heads, but this is so crucial. I want to say by way of application that I believe, this is my personal judgment, I'm not speaking for the other elders I haven't discussed it with them, but I believe personally and I seldom say that in this pulpit, I believe. But I'm saying, I believe that right now, the greatest danger to Trinity Church exists precisely at this point. That we

46:14 will assume that those who grow up among us, having the nurture of Christian home, of a biblical instruction, whether by homeschooling, Christian school, who grow up under a sound ministry of the word of God in the Sunday school, in the church, that when they come to adulthood, and they are decent and orthodox, if they apply for membership, how can we keep them out? I believe that's the greatest danger facing the future of Trinity Church. It is what I regard as the Trojan horse that will bring about the demise of Trinity Church. You know what the Trojan horse is?

46:51 How many of you kids know about that story in Greek mythology? Well, if you didn't, just take your dictionary and you'd find under Trojan horse this simple little description. Greek legend, a huge hollow wooden horse, filled with Greek soldiers, and left at the gates of the city of Troy. When it was brought into the city, the soldiers came out of the horse at night, and opened the gates to the Greek army, which destroyed the city of Troy.

47:17 So you see what they did? They brought what looked like just a big toy in front of the city gates. What could be more innocent than a wooden horse? It can't snort like a war horse, pawing around and he's doing fine.

47:31 It can't paw like a war horse, it can't spread its nostrils and snort.

47:39 Carries no warrior, just a big toy. Just a big wooden horse. They're playing games with us. Innocent wooden horse.

47:50 So the army retreats, and the horse stays in front of the gate. They look over the walls at it. Ha ha, that's cute, isn't it? Yeah, I bet our kids would like to crawl over that thing.

48:00 That was just a wooden horse, just a big toy. Harmless? Don't anything do us? Come on, let's bring it in. We can throw darts

48:08 at it and assume that it's their war? We can have our horses and we can have our soldiers trained by throwing their spears into it, and we can have our kids play on it and write graffiti on it. Kill the Greeks.

48:22 Let's bring it in. So he opens the doors and bring it in. And they shut the gates and they all go to bed and say, boy, we're going to have a fun time in the morning.

48:30 During the night,

48:33 secret doors are opened. The soldiers within the horse come out, open the city gates, let the destructive army that is no dead wooden horse can come in with living war horses that paw the ground and snort and follow the directions of the soldiers on their backs. Soldiers that carrow rear spears, real spears and arrows and swords and they destroy the city. You know what the Trojan horse at Trinity Church is? It sits right out there in the parking lot.

The Consequences of Unconverted Membership

49:07 You know what it is? Young people growing up in this congregation, the only way they should grow up, decent and orthodox.

49:18 Remained in their passions by godly discipline, knowing that their will is not the measure of what is right.

49:27 No, restrained. Conscience is made sensitive by teaching and preaching and common grace. They're decent. They're orthodox. There's nothing the Bible

49:36 says they don't believe.

49:40 But there's no unfamed faith in them. They've never known the throes of Holy Ghost conviction. Never seen themselves lost and unparvened in the hands of an angry God. They've never seen any beauty in the Lord Jesus Christ. No loveliness

49:56 in His cross. They are blind and deaf and dead. But they look so innocent. So you just say, well, we let them in. I mean, who

50:08 wants to keep out sincere, decent orthodox, precious people brought up in the church? Oh, come on. Not so sure there's any faith, but they'll be harmless. You don't want them marrying people in the world, do you? Maybe if

50:25 they marry someone real, they'll eventually get... Huh? Let the horse

50:31 in. And know what'll happen? When the soldiers come out of that horse, then the doors are open for the world to invade the church and take it over. Why? Because

50:44 such people, they've never had any spiritual sight of Christ. They therefore cannot have the mark of the true circumcision. Philippians 3. These are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit, who glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. They do not

51:04 glory in Christ because they've never seen their lostness and they've never seen beauty in Christ. Oh, they can tell you everything orthodox about Him,

51:13 but they cannot sing one line from the heart of this simple hymn. My Jesus, I love Thee. I know Thou art mine for Thee. All the follies of sin I resign.

51:32 They cannot sing. We taste Thee, O Thou living bread, and long to feast upon Thee still. We drink of Thee the fountainhead and thirst our souls from Thee to fill. They can't sing that. So what happens?

51:52 Because they have no genuine love for Christ, no spiritual sight of Christ, they're not satisfied with those means by which Christ reveals His glory and satisfies the hearts of His people. Biblical preaching, biblical worship, biblical singing of psalms and hymns. And what do they do? Because they've got long standing and they've got a reputation for being around a long while. They're looked upon

52:15 as influential. And they begin to subtly move the church away from God's instituted worship, the centrality of preaching, the simplicity of biblical worship. You see what's happened? They've been the Trojan horse that has opened the gates and the world takes over. That's what happens!

A Call to Vigilance and Personal Application

52:38 And I prayed this morning, O God, use the imagery that standing there in Trinity Church parking lot is a Trojan horse. And in it is every decent, orthodox but unconverted, unregenerate young man or woman who's been raised in Trinity Church. God have mercy on those of you who sit in the eldership in years to come. If you stand and say, we've interviewed John Jones, his creed is orthodox, his life is decent. If there is

53:16 no objection, they'll be received into the membership next Lord's Supper. If the elders get so spiritually irresponsible, God have mercy that the rank and file of you will object in mass. Go to those elders and say, I cannot with good conscience sit at the table of the Lord. And see the right hand of fellowship extended to that person. I've been

53:39 in the home. I've spent X number of years in their presence. I've never heard them once spontaneously speak of how God's ministered to their hearts through the word. Never heard them speak of the preciousness of Christ. And when they've tried

53:56 to do it, excuse me, it's been as hollow. It's been as hollow and unreal.

54:04 No. I have no reason to believe unfaithful. Main faith dwells in that person. And another one, and another one, and another one!

54:14 You, the people of God, armed with the word of God and indwelled by the spirit of God, would not allow that this church would be ruined by the Trojan horse of those who are merely decent and orthodox, but who know nothing of the grace of God. You know, there are churches that at one time were like this one. Look around the walls. No icons.

54:42 No icons. No pictures of Christ. No crucifixes. It's awfully plain and bare, isn't it? You see, you need

54:52 no painted Christ upon the walls or upon placards and banners. You need no crucifix before your eyes when the Holy Ghost gives you to see Christ by the Spirit. You have all of Christ you desire. But when eyes no longer see Him by the Spirit, then they must have a substitute.

55:13 In will come all modest symbols at first. Modest banners and modest icons. But once the door is opened, where does it stop? But in the horrible idolatry seen in institutions that call themselves the church of Christ that are a house of idols. There are churches

55:38 like this built for preaching, built by preaching under the blessing of God,

55:44 where now you don't even get a ten minute sermonette. Where did it all start? When decent orthodox people, brought up in the church, were assumed to have a right of admission, and they had no hunger for the Word of God, no hunger for the God of the Word, and began to get restless. And so the time of the preaching was cut down, and then the substance, and then the emphasis.

56:06 There are places where there was close, applicatory preaching that pointed out sin, and pointed people to Christ continually, that probed the conscience, where now one could sit for a decade and never have his conscience twitch once. Not once! Where did it all begin? When decent orthodox people brought up in the church were welcomed in as members and they began to dictate the policy and muzzle the mouth of the man in the pulpit, that he should just simply preach positive. Just preach Christ.

56:35 Just preach positive. And then before long it was, don't touch issues, you'll upset. And before long, you had a nice religious club, and Paul said that's exactly what would happen. The time would come when men would not endure sound doctrine, but will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.

56:53 They just come because they want a religious ear scratch once a week. Just enough. They don't want arrows in the heart. They just want tickles in the ears.

57:03 Oh, and a little scratch. Oh, she's so good. Just enough of God. Just enough of Christ. Just enough of the Bible

57:09 to tickle the ear. Nothing to pierce the heart. Nothing to wound the spirit. Nothing to break them loose from their idols and their love of sin. Dear

57:20 people, God help you if we just treat this as another morning of Pastor Martin's bellowing.

57:27 God have mercy on Trinity Church if the warning sounded this morning is not implanted in the texture of your heart by the power of the Holy Ghost.

57:42 This church, twenty years from now, will not have a regenerate, converted membership. So I lay before you this first undeniable manifestation of our determination to strive for a truly regenerate, genuinely converted membership. And what is it? It is simply this. The manner

58:11 in which we deal with our children and their relationship to church membership, and that in three areas. Number one, we do not regard them as having a covenantal birthright to membership in the church. Therefore, we do not sprinkle them and call them church members in any way. Secondly, when there are hopeful evidences of grace in childhood and adolescence, we do not press them to baptism and church membership until they become adults. Thirdly,

58:40 when children grow up in the church and are decent and orthodox, but cannot bear witness to and manifest in life saving grace, we do not regard them as having a right to membership. Those practices are not accidental. They are calculated practices. This is based upon the precepts and principles of the Word of God that we might strive for a regenerate and converted membership.

Final Exhortation: Get Into Christ

59:13 Are you ready to carry the torch to another generation? You ready to pay the price of standing against the tide of childhood decisionism, of the sentimentalism and superstition so often attached to infant baptism? Notice I didn't say always, but so often attached to infant baptism. Are you ready to stand against the tide of when your own children come to adulthood and have no marks of conversion and you desperately want them to be treated as Christians?

59:45 If you have any love for Christ in His church, the answer is a foregone conclusion. By the grace of God, here I stand, so help me God. I can do no other. My friend, if you're out of Christ, you're in the horrible place of being exposed to the wrath of God.

60:06 My plea to you today is not to come into this church, but get into Christ. And when you're into Christ, you'll want to be a part of His people. You're either in Christ and safe or out of Christ and exposed to the wrath of God. And don't you treat it lightly, because God says he that being off and reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be cut off and that without remedy. Don't you play with

60:28 God, for our God is a consuming fire.

60:34 Let us pray. Holy Father, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God of Sinai with its thunders and its fire and its voice that shook the mountain. O God, we bow in your presence and how we pray that in this holy temple which you have made of living stones you would so come by the Holy Ghost that the truths articulated this morning would be inwrought to the very texture of our hearts, that we may be prepared to pay any price that our Lord Jesus

61:19 would have until the day of his return in this place, a true and living temple of those who are vitally joined to him. Bless the truth preached this morning. God, do what we cannot do in causing it to be a living principle in the hearts of your people and an instrument of life and salvation to those who are yet in their sins. Hear our cry and seal your word, we plead, for the glory of Christ and the good of the souls of men.

61:52 Hear us, for Jesus' sake. Amen.