Our Manifesto/Review of the Entire Series

Opening Prayer and Introduction to the Sermon Series Review

0:03 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, January 16, 1994, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now, brethren, let us again ask the help of the Spirit of God in the ministry of His Word. Our Father, we thank you for the privilege of again obeying that very mandate of the 46th Psalm, to be still and know that you are God.

0:42 We thank you that an hour is coming when all the griefs, all the disappointments, all the tears will be forever past. Thank you, oh, we thank you for the prospect of those words coming to literal fulfillment. There shall be no more tears, nor crying, nor sorrow, nor death. For the former things, even so, come, Lord Jesus.

1:19 While we are yet called upon to live, to serve, to occupy in this veil of tears, Lord, teach us, oh, teach us your ways. Help us to know them, to love them, to be prepared for love of you, the God who has revealed them. To this end, bless us in the ministry of the Word this morning, we pray. Amen.

1:49 In Jesus' name, amen. Now, according to the clear mandate of our Lord Jesus Christ, as found in Matthew 28, 18-20, that commission according to Matthew, the Church is responsible under the Sovereign Christ to make disciples of all the nations, to baptize them into the name of the Triune God, and to teach them all things,

2:30 whatsoever Christ has commanded. And according to this clear mandate of the risen Christ, the sole King and unrivaled Sovereign of His Church, this is the Church's changeless, as since the mandate is indisputably clear, and is binding upon the Church to the end of the age, whenever and wherever, whenever and wherever, whenever and wherever, whenever and wherever, whenever and wherever, when the authority of Christ is taken seriously, there you will find the people concerned to evangelize the lost

3:12 with a view to making disciples of them, seeking to identify professed disciples by baptism, and attempting to provide for these communities of baptized disciples a Bible-based, comprehensive teaching, a Christian ministry aimed at the life and the conscience, to observe whatsoever I have commanded you. There's an awful lot that goes on in the name of expository preaching that is nothing more than Bible-talking.

3:57 It does not have as its goal obedience to the commission of Jesus, which is to take these baptized, baptized communities of disciples, and expose them to a teaching ministry aimed at the transformation of life. And while that can only be accomplished by means of the doctrines of the Word of God, there is never contentment with a mere acquaintance with the shell of the truth, or with the doctrine in its abstraction, but always a concern to bring it bare, upon the life of every disciple, that he may live more and more

4:42 in obedience and in conformity to his Lord. It is for these reasons that as a general rule, the public ministries of this assembly are comprised of longer or shorter series of studies in which an effort is made to pursue with some degree of efficiency and decency of the church, in order to ensure that the teaching of the Word of God may be as effective as possible. to teach disciples large segments of the whatsoever Christ has commanded us. Therefore, in our adult class, presently, Dr. Bob is leading us

5:24 in a most helpful study of the opening chapters of the book of Acts. Recently, Pastor Lamar led us in a study of John's first epistle. For a number of years, we went through, verse by verse, the entire Gospel of Mark and a number of other large sections of the Word of the Living God. And here in our morning hour of worship, we've been engaged in a lengthy series of studies entitled, A Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church.

5:58 Six weeks have passed since our last study in this series, and furthermore, I have made some decisions concerning how this series will be brought to a conclusion, within the next several months. Therefore, in order to get us back on track with this series, and to inform you as to where the tracks will lead us in the next weeks and several months, what I propose to do this morning is to set before you what will be an extended review and announcement of some changes in the structure of the series, and hopefully to bring home to the theater of you, your conscience, a question that I will repeat again and again

6:43 throughout our time together. First of all, I want to give you a brief background and purpose of the Manifesto series, then a synopsis of the Manifesto series, and then a projected path to the conclusion of the Manifesto series. Background and purpose, synopsis, and a projected path to the conclusion. First of all, then, the background and purpose of the Manifesto series.

Background and Purpose of the Manifesto Series

7:13 Now, to understand the background and purpose, the date of the fall of 1967 is crucial to our thinking. It was at that time that some 44 people were constituted as a Church of Jesus Christ while meeting in a multipurpose gymnasium auditorium in the Jefferson Elementary School in Caldwell, New Jersey. At that time, that is, in the fall of 1967, some very basic biblical perspectives were already clearly etched upon the understanding

7:54 and consciences of those 44 charter members of Trinity Baptist Church. As the months and years have passed, under the regular teaching and preaching of the Word of God, attempting to fulfill the mandate of Christ, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, biblical truths have become issues of deep conviction and of corporate implementation. Then, in the spring of 1991, anticipating that we would have some special celebration

8:38 of some kind or another, of our 25 years of life together, sometime in 1992, I began this series entitled A Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church. And if you ask why such a title, the answer, that a manifesto is by definition a public statement of the intentions, objectives, beliefs, and goal considered to be of crucial importance. Not the people, but the statement of their intentions, objectives, beliefs, and goals. And I knew of no better way to state the purpose of that series

9:22 than to entitle it A Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church. I ask further, why did you believe that such a public statement was appropriate? Why did your fellow elders concur in the judgment that this was a wise commitment to make? And I answer, two parts.

9:44 Number one, to bring a timely reminder of our foundational principles to those who have been with us over the long haul, and to call us to a fresh commitment to those principles. Stated in his own second epistle, he says, I am writing these things not because they are new territory, not because you are unaware of them or aware of them, you're not practicing them, but rather, he says, 2 Peter 1, 12, wherefore I shall be ready always to put you in remembrance of these things, ye know them,

10:27 long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir the original devil in a hostile world, you see, to stride from their most fundamental

11:08 spiritual moorings. He did not think that because he was an apostle, and had been given a unique place of leadership among the apostles, he would forever am convinced I must put to stir by this exercise a sanctified petition of fundamental truth. It has been the passion of my heart in this entire series that in setting forth this manifesto,

11:52 those of you to whom many of these things are quote would find dignity and be prepared if necessary to spill blood that the hat may be there to be worn for another generation. And then the second purpose for the manifesto was and still is to spell out in succinct tenets or affirmations to those who are relatively new among us and to the rising generation just what we are all about. You have come into a situation that is shaped and formed

12:35 by some very clearly understood principles that are surrounded with the influence of them. And many of them you will pick up pieces by a kind of spiritual osmosis. However, if you are to fulfill the mandate of 1 Peter 3.15 to sanctify Christ as Lord ready for the hope that is within you, you must have more than a visceral sense of the rightness of what you believe in these pivotal issues.

13:17 And so it has been my second major concern to bring to sharp focus by these affirmations, these numbered affirmations, these numbered tenets of the manifesto those foundational issues that those are new among us, the generation that has risen up from the loins of our members who have known nothing but the climate conditioned by these principles would see them standing out in bold relief, would see the biblical root system to change the imagery, would see the building blocks of scripture. These things have been constructed

14:00 and hopefully as a result of this that there would be among all of us those who have been with us from the early days to those newer amongst us in the rising generation a spirit wrought commitment whole tenaciously to these truths propagate them with fervency and vigor and to defend them if necessary unto death. For the word of God calls us to just such commitments in such passages as Revelation 3.11 Hold fast that which you have we are to give heed

14:43 lest we drift away from the things we are to contend once for all the answer is clear. 1992 came 1992 went and there were no special celebrations of our 25 years together as a church however the series has outlasted its original intention and has been humorously designated by some I trust with innocence no longer the manifesto

15:28 but the mega festo. and so over the past several years it will be three years God willing this coming March I have preached some 96 sermons in the manifesto today marks the 97th now that's the background and purpose of the manifesto series I hope the newcomer came among us and I couldn't go over this of course every week that you would be able were they to ask you why this manifesto? why this manifesto series? sounds rather grandiose what's the purpose of it?

16:05 I don't think I've talked in such a way that you'd have to be a postgraduate student to be able to say well a manifesto is a statement of fundamental principles and aims and goals of the group matters of some importance and this is a series meant to refresh the fundamental truths which have made this church under God what it is in order that the old timers might be stirred up afresh in their commitment to these things and that people coming among us and rising up within our ranks as another generation would see the biblical foundation and together we would be prepared tenaciously to hold to these things propagate them furiously and defend them nobly to the glory of God

Synopsis of the Manifesto Series: Introduction to the Tenets

16:50 well that's the background and the purpose of the manifesto series now secondly I want to give a synopsis of manifesto series a synopsis defines a statement giving brief general review a condensation a synonym is an abridgment now you know what abridgment of a book is that's what you get in the book section of the Bruce Digest you don't get a 250 300 page book but you get an abridgment you get a mini production of that book and what I propose to do and hopefully is to give a brief good sixteen block and one dash for you to see

17:35 those that works 14 days that works here and beautiful in a subject like notice one I am not going to keep you here in excessive amount 97 times 4, and realize I've got the equivalent of about a 400-page book of notes. And I went through many of those in preparation to try to give you a synopsis of the Manifesto series.

18:13 That is a brief general review, condensation, and abridgment of what have covered in almost 100 messages. Thus far, we've considered nine major tenets or affirmations in the Manifesto. I plan to state the affirmation, give one or two scriptures, a sentence or two, that I hope will capture the essence of that particular tenet or affirmation. Then I'm going to close with a question.

18:47 So that's the pattern we'll follow as we work through the synopsis, leading up to what will take only a matter of a few minutes, the projected conclusion. Conclusion of the series. All right? From the background and purpose, the Manifesto series, a synopsis of the series.

Tenet 1: Christ's Rightful Place as Foundation, Source, and Lord

19:04 And we began with this first affirmation. Current has his rightful place in Trinity Baptist Church. We are determined that Jesus Christ shall have his place in Trinity Baptist Church. And what that means in specific terms is that he shall have his rightful place, as the exclusive foundation of this assembly.

19:34 1 Corinthians 3.11 Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ. And that is in the context of the building of the church at Corinth. So it is a text and a proof text which belongs in that category.

19:56 And if Christ is to have his rightful place, he must be the exclusive. He must be the exclusive foundation of this assembly. But his rightful place also involves his being the sole source of our spiritual life. In Colossians 3.4 we are told,

20:15 When Christ is manifested, we shall be manifested with him glory. He does not say, When Christ who is one half of our life, When Christ who is a part of our life, When Christ who is most of our life, Leaving something else to human ingenuity, To human psychology, To human power or wisdom and effort. No, when Christ who is the assembly where he has his rightful place,

20:58 And thirdly where he has his rightful place, He is not only the exclusive foundation, The sole source of spiritual life, But the supreme Lord and ruler of that assembly. In Ephesians 5.23 he is called the head, And the savior of the body. And as surely as the church has no savior for her sins, But she has no sovereign to rule over,

21:28 Christ shall have his rightful place in Trinity Baptist Church. Here's my question. Are you determined by his rightful place in Trinity Baptist Church?

21:58 Individual parts regard for Christ's exclusive foundational, Rightful place in the church, Place as source of life, And his unrivaled position as Lord,

22:36 That should any would be stirred, And you would do all within your power, In a biblical foundation, Would be removed from this spiritual temple, As Christ drove out the money changers, And all of their accoutrements. Number two.

Tenet 2: Doctrine and Practice Molded by Holy Scripture

23:19 We are determined by the holy scriptures. We are determined. That all of our doctrine be molded by the holy scriptures. We are told in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verses 16 and 17, All scripture is God breathed.

23:54 It's breathed out by God. And is also profitable for teaching, What we are to know and to believe about God and man, And salvation and duty, And the home and the father, And the family, All the teaching that is needed, Scripture is profitable for teaching, For proof, Pointing out the wrong, For correction, That is turning us into the right way, For little child training in righteousness, For discipline, For godly training, In a life of practical righteousness,

24:36 That the man of God may be complete, Thoroughly furnished, Unto all good works. In 1 Timothy 3 verse 15, We are told that the church, Which God identifies as his house, Is pillar and the ground of the truth. She is not only born of the truth, But she has one commitment, And that is to bear along the truth of holy scripture. And we are commanded in Proverbs 23 verse 23, To buy the truth and sell it not.

25:11 So that we may be able to trust him. It is this that is true. And this is why we have been told in the scripture, That the world will not see us as children, But as children of God. And the people of God will not see us As children.

25:31 And as children of God they will not see us As children of God. And the people of God will not see us As children of God. People of God are called children, Who don't believe in ourselves. And they will not believe in God, Nor in our love.

25:46 And when they believe in God, But it was that forced upon our initially unyielding minds the great realities of those truths. And through the years, there has been one question in every issue, whether of objective doctrinal confession or of practical congregational life and ministry, and that question has been, what saith the Scriptures? For what Scripture says and what God says is the end of the discussion. And therefore, as the second tenet of the manifesto, we spend a number of weeks opening up this glorious truth that we are determined

26:28 that all of our doctrine and practice will be molded by the Holy Scriptures. And now I ask you the question, you children, you young people, you who have grown up with this heritage, you who have come among us, who are determined to have all of your doctrine, all of your practice determined, count no cost to your personal life interlined with the Scriptures,

27:06 so determined you're willing for any human relationship to be severed or fractured temporarily or permanently,

27:18 that you might be obedient to the Scriptures. Don't answer out loud.

27:29 The place where you close the heart can either say, Amen, what you say is true, or whisper, have you lied to the Lord? Crossfully submissive to husbands, speaks of fathers nurturing their children, when it speaks of women being keepers at home,

28:13 when it says children be obedient to your father in all things, and when it says honor father, not a wispy occasional romanticness that in some way was conformed to the Bible. I'm not asking that. I'm asking are you determined with a determination that causes you to say with the psalmist, as you deal with the Word of God day by day, I thought upon my ways,

Tenet 3: Maintaining a God-Centered Climate

28:44 I made haste and delayed, not to observe my precepts. Then there is the third tenet in the manifesto, and it is this. We are determined. We are determined to maintain a God-centered climate, totality of our life as an assembly.

29:06 Determined to maintain a God-centered climate in the totality of our life as an assembly. And why is this so? Well, for the simple reason that the great end of all of God's works in creation, in providence and in grace, and the great end of all of His institutions is His own glory. And there is a text that captures that so beautifully and comprehensively, Romans 11, 36.

29:35 For of Him and through Him and unto Him are all things.

29:51 The devil is not man but God. And the great turning point of the church of faith must never be man or men. What men are and what, what men can do and what men say. It must be that something of the glory of the thrice-holy triune God is manifested in the assemblies of the saints.

30:16 This was Paul's great concern as stated in Ephesians 3, 21. Unto Him be glory in the churches and in Christ Jesus unto the ages of the ages. Amen. Amen.

30:31 We are determined to maintain a God-centered climate. In James, services are a stumbling block to many.

30:45 Some of you kids don't have a clue what I mean when I say that. I remember talking to a couple recently. I said, Pastor Martin, do you realize how strange it is to walk in this place? I said, I know.

30:55 It's like stepping back centuries.

31:03 But plain. Nothing ornate. No frills. Nobody coming up in the morning smiling, saying, Hi, you look like a lover.

31:11 But I'm so glad you've done the Lord a favor. Come out today. And create a nice lady. Be back, folksy, cutesyette.

31:20 No, no. Someone comes and warmly welcomes you. Begins worship with the reading of the Word of God. And then we're led into the presence of God.

31:31 And there is a joyful, simple hope. And if He is not seen by the eye of faith and glorified by the energizing ministry of the Holy Ghost, then we've got nothing. We fall on the deck. We're duds.

31:57 We've had it. No backup shoes. We've been determined. And it's cost some of us a deal.

32:05 We're determined to maintain a God-centered climate in the totality of your own life.

32:17 And therefore, the life of this assembly,

Tenet 4: Confirming the Church's Unique Place in God's Saving Purposes

32:22 we plead with God for an eagle's eye to see the first thing, no matter how innocent it may be in and of itself, that would deflect from beholding the glory of God in the face of Christ in this place. We are determined that our life and ministry will unquestionably, unquestionably confirm the unique place assigned to the church in the saving purposes of God. We are determined that our life and ministry will unquestionably confirm

33:05 the unique place assigned to the church in the saving purposes of God. Jesus Christ promised to build only one institution, His church, Matthew 16, 18. I will build my church. My church doesn't say prostitutions to which I pledge my presence.

33:30 Give the keys of the kingdom. No, my church. Now God has given other institutions that have other functions, the state, the bearer of the sword, to protect the righteous and punish the wicked. He has given the home with its proper sphere of authority.

33:49 But in terms of the saving purpose of God, Christ has promised to build only one institution, His church. He's committed the kingdom of God. The keys of the kingdom to only one institution, Matthew 16, 19. Matthew 18, 17, and 18.

34:04 What He says individually to Peter in Matthew 16, He says collectively to the church in Matthew 18, or to all of the apostles representative of the entire church, I give unto you the keys of the kingdom. And He doesn't say I save a few for this parachurch organization and that parachurch organization and everyone who feels he's got a mission from the Lord to start a new organization. We are. We are determined that our life and ministry will unquestionably confirm the unique place assigned to the church in the saving purposes of God.

34:38 For Christ promised to build only one institution, committed the keys of the kingdom to one institution, and listen, He pledged His special presence to only one institution, Matthew 18, 20, where two or three are gathered in My name. And the context is the church gathered in an orderly way to effect discipline and to pray. And He says where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst. And I defy anyone to find in His Bible where Christ hedged His special...

35:09 Believe it or not, I gave seven principles to demonstrate how this was carried out by the apostles in the book of Acts. Now my question is this, are you determined? Are you determined? Has this become visceral, spirit-wrought conviction to you?

35:37 Are you determined that your life, and any ministry you may have, will unquestionably confirm the unique place assigned to the church in the saving purpose of God? Raising a breed of high churchmen and high churchwomen in the truest, most noble sense. For her, for her, my tears shall fall. To her, my toils and cares be given,

36:09 till toils and cares are no more. I've had people, suggest to me, Pastor Martin, you've paid your dues, been in the ministry some 40 years, you're getting a little frayed emotionally with the passing of the years, you'll soon be 60. Why don't you stay on and take all the stuff you've got to take in a pastoral ministry? All the stuff you've got to take especially if you happen to be one of the pastors at Trinity.

36:36 All kinds of doors open to you, why don't you go into a conference ministry, minister to preachers, do some writing. Why do you have to take all that hassle? There are a lot of reasons, but not the least of which, next to the salvation of my own soul, is there's no other framework in which I could labor with a good conscience.

37:05 To exercise the keys in his name in a house that he never built.

37:13 We are determined that our life in ministry will unquestionably confirm the unique place assigned to the church in the saving purposes of God. Are you thus determined? Tenet number five, we're making good progress.

Tenet 5: Striving for Regenerate Church Membership

37:28 We are determined to strive for a membership comprised only of truly regenerate and genuinely converted men and women. We are determined to strive for a membership comprised only of truly regenerate and genuinely converted men and women. And why is that so? Because that's the revealed will of God.

37:53 In Acts chapter 2 in verse 41, a passage we studied a few weeks ago under Dr. Bob's guidance, who was received into that first Christian church those that had known the convicting work of God, those who had seen in Christ the exalted Lord and Messiah, had by faith and repentance embraced him and confessed him. And it says, there were added unto them in that day 3,000 souls. And then they conducted themselves like converted people do.

38:28 They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer, and then in Acts 2.47b it says, and the Lord added to them daily such as should be saved. It is the will of God that the church not be a fishing pond, but that it be a gathering of those whom Christ has called to himself. For the great promise of God in the new covenant according to Jeremiah 31 and chapter 32 in Ezekiel 36 36.

39:04 And in that community they shall all know me from the least to the greatest, that they shall all have forgiveness of sins. As we were reminded in the previous hour, though we cannot, though we cannot keep out hypocrites, we must have a structure of receiving and retaining members that people have to be very clear hypocrites to get in and stay in until God exposes them. And therefore by our methods of evangelism, and preaching, our admission procedures, our pastoral involvement, and by the exercise of godly, balanced biblical discipline,

39:47 this goal is prayerfully and seriously pursued. This goal of being determined to have a membership comprised only of truly regenerate and genuinely converted men and women. Now I'm going to ask my question. Are you committed?

40:04 Are you committed to that perspective? Where the enemy will first attack it? You'll attack it with your own kids. They'll begin to show in pre-adolescence or maybe even before that what appear to you as they have to be signs of regeneration.

40:24 They have their devotions without being reminded. They pray. And they're all coming to you and you're going to start pounding on the elders. Look, my child is saved.

40:34 I know they're saved. And if they're saved, they ought to be baptized and brought. Our answer is show from the word of God where anything other than those described as men, and women were brought into the church. You'll look in vain.

40:47 The Holy Ghost specifies men and uses words that describe adult males with the second generation who've got all the answers, know all the right things, and are under tremendous influences of God's common grace. And some of them may well be saved. But nothing is lost by waiting until they can speak for themselves and have a relationship with God. And have matured sufficiently

41:31 to separate themselves emotionally and psychologically from mother and father and say, yes, I love this. Does not that if mother, father,

41:46 it's sooner or later.

41:50 And that's the non-negotiable condition of being a true disciple. According to Luke 14, 25 to 33.

42:00 Dear people, I ask you the question, are you determined? Are you personally determined in this assembly? Who's being and demeanor and conduct in private, in public, in the home, in the workplace? Makes it evident that you are truly regenerate and genuinely converted man or woman.

Tenet 6: Biblically Established Standards for Church Officers

42:27 Are you determined? Are you determined that the membership of this church will be one in which together we strive to see only such among us? Number six, we are determined. We are determined to pursue a biblically established, standard in the recognition and retention of church officers.

42:55 We're determined to pursue a biblically established standard in the recognition and retention of church officers. Both the Old and the New Testaments make it clear that those who are designated as the people of God are either cursed or blessed by the kind of leadership they produce and tolerate. Both the Old and the New Testaments, make it abundantly clear that the people of God are cursed or blessed by the kind of leadership they produce and tolerate. The most indicting commentary on the state of religion in Israel

43:39 at the time of Christ is that they would allow the scribes and the Pharisees to be their welcomed leaders. And in the days of the prophets, what was the great burden of Jerusalem? Every time he'd open his mouth and say, judgment is coming, you've broken the covenant. Prophets would say, peace, you're God's covenant people.

44:03 That's old, cranky, disloyal Jeremiah who's got something going with Nebuchadnezzar and getting paid off to be disloyal. Don't listen to that old crank.

44:14 And you'll remember what Paul said would mark those epochs in the last days. They will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they will turn away from the truth. You see, their true condition is seen by the kind who are determined by the grace of God, to pursue a biblically established standard for the recognition and retention of church officers. That standard is clearly set forth in 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1, and in a lesser sense in Acts 6.

44:56 No one is brought into the office of elder or deacon who does not come through the scrutiny of those passages in the presence of God and of His people. And where do you think this notion of confirmation every four years came from? I didn't inherit it from any other church that had it. We didn't find it in anybody else's constitution.

45:19 It grew out of the conviction of that little group of people 26 years ago that a man could erode in his overall pattern of life and ministry without the kind of thing that would warrant specific discipline and lose his grip over your conscience so that you could no longer sit there and believe that this is a man of God leading you, preaching to you, teaching you, and you would have a way of expressing that by withholding that confirmation every four years. Said to a young man that thought he was interested in having a Reformed Baptist church and wondered how he could get in the loop. So I told him, seek out a Reformed Baptist church,

46:02 settle down, get a job, become a good church member, and show like everybody else you can go to work and still get the prayer meeting and be a good churchman and then tell the elders you feel some inclination to the ministry and maybe they'll give you opportunity, to teach here and preach occasionally there. And he said, how long would that process take? I said, oh, usually two to three years. And he said, and at the end of that, no guarantees?

46:27 I said, son, I've been with these people 30 years and I still don't have tenure. Every four years I could get my walking papers. That's if I'm behaving myself. That's if I'm not doing something that would warrant church discipline.

46:44 For our Constitution says elders and deacons, church officers are subject to all of the biblical law. All of the biblical principles of discipline. A man could begin to be curt and show a spirit of arrogance and insensitivity and a lack of love and outgoingness to the people of God so that he loses his pastoral grip, which is a grip of conduct and of conscience and of love. It can never be.

47:25 And if he's lost it, opportunity to declare that loss. That's how determined we are. Are you determined? Who determined?

47:39 That no one is in this place. I don't care how charming he is. I don't care what his gifts may be. I don't care what his abilities may be.

47:50 If he can preach like Whitfield and Rowland and Spurgeon and Edwardship of relaxed time in all, if you do not see him to be a blameless, consistent, mannered, you have no business putting him into office or retaining him because that's the standard of the Scripture. Sinless?

48:33 But willing to confess his sin when he's sinned publicly. Willing to stand up Sunday night and confess before he preaches that he said something Sunday morning that was tinged with a spirit contrary to the spirit of Christ and ask your forgiveness. That's what I'm talking about. Spiritually real.

49:02 I ask you this question. Are you determined? Are you determined? Are you determined to maintain a biblically established standard for the recognition of sin?

49:08 Are you determined? Are you determined? Are you determined? Are you determined?

Tenet 7: Validating the Life-Out-of-Death Principle

49:12 This is the mission of the church. Give your mission and your��agednation of church officers in this place. God ground that you can answer in your heart yes Seventh affirmation We're determined to validate in our corporate life. The principle of life outof death which is essential to real Christianity.

49:33 We are determined to validate in our corporate experience the life outof death principle essential to real Christianity. What am I talking about? Again I quote? From John chapter 12, Jesus said, Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth by itself alone.

49:51 But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Then he goes on to say, He that would save his life shall lose it. But he that hates his life, the same shall save it. He says it in other settings.

50:06 He that would save his life will lose it. He that will lose his life for my sake and the gospel's the same shall save it. Paul says death works in us, but life in you. We who live are always delivered unto death.

50:20 That the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh. That's the principle. It's God's way of strength out of weakness. Life out of the womb of death.

50:33 Denying ourselves for Christ and his gospel. And I tell you, dear people, if there's one tenet that's going to be more difficult to maintain than perhaps anything, the other in this cursed obsession with the religion of self-worth and self-actualization and self-fulfillment and self-discipline. You get involved in a business venture that panders to the idea. Woman, make your own mark.

51:13 Oh, my friend, listen, listen. If it doesn't call you to die, that you might live, it's calling you to a pseudo-life that will lead to the chambers of death.

51:36 A couple of years ago, Pastor Martin, when I was a young man, when I was a young man, when I was a young man, when I was a young man, when I was a young man, when I was a young man, when I was a young man, when I was a young man, one man used to quote to me the text, we are all here, do thyself no harm. He used to get upset because I got so worked up in preaching and he'd know that my blood pressure was probably off the scales and my heart's beating and a lot of those that took it easy and told me to take it easy, they're in their graves. I may be there tomorrow, but right now, as far as I know, all the systems percolate and long quite well for an old duffer.

52:11 The same should say, putting it to the test right now, you dear brethren, and sisters who comprise the fellowship that meets in Irvington, you think it's been easy to let you go?

52:33 When I stood at the communion, or sat at the communion last time, you weren't with us.

52:47 I think if God is pleased to establish a church, that no longer will I and my fellow elders have the blessing, Pastor Bavard, in the circle of our eldership.

53:03 I'd give my life, but you know what's kept me from playing emotional tricks and putting pressure? This principle, part of our life, we'll find.

53:19 And if God shall body for the sake of the Trinity Church, I have the word of God.

53:45 A grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies.

53:50 I ask you, are you determined? Are you determined to pursue that principle?

53:59 Are you? You parents, you ready to steer your kid away from the prestigious college that you know would destroy them? Go to a less prestigious school where they can still be a part of this church or a church of like faith in order to be a part of this church. I'm not going to go to a church of like faith in order to be a part of this church.

54:17 I'm going to go to a less prestigious school where they can still be a part of this church or a church of like faith in order to be a part of this church. I'm going to go to a less prestigious school where they can still be a part of this church or a church of like faith in order to be a part of this church. So their souls might be safe. Are you going to lose something of their academic life?

54:27 You know what? God will never be debtor to that choice.

54:33 God will put you to the test in many areas.

Tenet 8: Maintaining an Ungrieved Holy Spirit

54:37 But that's the principle. Then we are determined to maintain the presence of an ungrieved Holy Spirit in every facet of our life in ministry.

54:48 We're determined to maintain the presence of an ungrieved Holy Spirit in every facet of our life in ministry. Contrary to much thinking and practice in our day, the church is not designed to operate by secular marketing skills, techniques, and principles. Rather, the whole life and ministry of the church is utterly dependent upon the presence and the imminent and powerful working of God the Holy Ghost. What God did in establishing the church there in the upper room when the Spirit of God came and filled that new covenant temple, God is saying His presence is the key.

55:26 God is saying His presence is the key to all of this. God is saying His presence is the key to all of this. Therefore, Ephesians 4.30 says, Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption.

55:37 Do not grieve Him, for a grieved spirit becomes a withdrawn spirit. Though you are sealed by Him to the day of redemption, His mighty actings and workings will be restrained if you tolerate anger and wrath and bitterness and clamor and evil speaking. And so He says in the context, Put these all away to maintain. The presence and the activity of an ungrieved Holy Spirit.

56:04 It's then that when we pray, the Spirit of God will give us the needed guidance. When we gather to pray, He'll be present as the Spirit of grace and supplication. When we gather to worship, He'll be present as the Spirit of worship. When the Word is taught and preached, He'll be present as the Spirit of illumination.

56:21 As the Gospel is preached, He'll be present as the Spirit of regeneration. When truth is taught, as the Spirit, as the Spirit of creation. My dear people, what are we if He's gone? If He's restrained?

56:37 Therefore we are determined to maintain the presence of an ungrieved Holy Spirit in every facet of our life and ministry. I ask you, is that your determination? What are you tolerating right now that's grieving Him? A grudge?

56:52 Somebody you've got ill will against them? And though you give a plastic smile when you see them in your heart, the dagger's there. And if you could, with impunity, you'd stick it in them. That's grieving the Spirit.

57:05 Can't forgive? I won't forgive. All right, then grieve the Spirit and bear the results.

57:15 And then, as many of you know, for almost 50, over 50 sermons, we've been working out tenet number nine. I'll just state it. We're determined to maintain a balanced New Testament perspective in our teaching and expectations concerning conversion, the Christian life, and the mission of the Church. And from sermons 41 to 96, that's where we've been parked.

Tenet 9 & Projected Conclusion: Balanced NT Perspective and Two-Generation Vision

57:41 Having spent a number of months on conversion, now many more months on the Christian life. Now, having given the background and purpose, the synopsis, in five minutes, let me give you the projected conclusion of the series. First, the general time frame. I've sought to map out the materials that yet remain, so that by the month of April, God willing, the series will most likely be completed, and God willing, we will then return to a verse-by-verse study of some larger portion of the Word of God.

58:17 Again, not a promise, but most likely, the book of 1 Peter. So that's the general time frame, as I've sat down with the calendar and the materials. The method to be pursued? Well, as of today, the expositions of 1 Corinthians 13, 4 to 7, are going to get bumped into a Sunday evening series, and I hope to complete that.

58:40 In the coming weeks and months. That whole matter of the climate of fellowship that got us into 1 Corinthians 13, and in the providence of God, as the way I've interpreted it, I've been intimidated by 1 Corinthians 13 for years. I've wanted to preach on it, but I've been scared to death to. And before I knew it, there I was, starting to preach those verses.

59:01 So I'm in, I can't get out. And a number of you have said you've received great help, and if not great help, substantial help. And so we're going to bump that, and hopefully complete the public means of grace, that is continuous remembrance of the Lord Jesus in the supper, continuous calling upon God for His power in the prayers, and then we'll take up the final tenet, tenet number ten, which is this, and I believe I can deal with it in four weeks, the tenth and final affirmation of the Manifesto will be this, we are determined to articulate, implement,

59:40 and seek to impart a two-generation vision for the work of God in this place. Well, in conclusion, let me say that I'm very conscious that this has not been a sermon the way I try to teach the men to preach a sermon, and it's not ordinarily what you get in this place, but I've been willing to set aside the general principles by which I operate for your edification, and I trust for the long-term benefit of this assembly, however, I trust that it has renewed your understanding of what this series is all about, refreshed your memory, stirred your heart to intensified determination

60:23 with respect to these crucial biblical issues, and I trust for you and the younger generation, these things will become so much a part of the very texture of your soul, that when you're seeking a life's partner, these things will regulate where you look, and who you look at, and who you won't look at. When you're seeking your life's employment and location, these issues will determine the great decisions that will affect your own personal life, your career, your family. I trust it will be helpful to our brothers and sisters in the Grace Fellowship ministry that these things, having been reviewed and articulated,

61:07 will burn in your breast, and that your cry will be, Oh, God! That you will be able to open up a church molded by those affirmations in the heart of the moral cesspool and religious confusion of the city of Newark. And I ask you, as you sit here this morning, can you say of these things in the light of the text Proverbs 23, 23, Buy the truth and sell it not. Are you prepared to pay any price to have these truths become your own?

61:42 Once they become your own, are you prepared to say there's no price big enough to cause you to part, even? My friends, if you want to play church, you've got lots of options within a 20-mile radius.

62:08 I'm not enamored with numbers.

62:13 If for the sake of good stewardship we need to hang temporary walls in all need in one center bank who are serious with God and only heed that part, that's not going to bother my ego. No, it won't. Because I don't want wood, hay and stubble that will collect in smoke in the day of the Lord Jesus. The gold, silver will stand the test of the fiery day.

62:48 Well, I've explained to you why we got into this, where we've been, where we hope to go and how we hope to come to our journey's end, the Lord sparing us. My covetous prayers for God's help as we pursue that goal together.

63:11 Our Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it is a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. And we pray that you would take this overview of these matters that have been expounded in many ways with many texts of Scripture, enforced by illustrations from the Old and the New Testament in months and in the past several years. And we do earnestly plead, O God, that by the Holy Spirit these convictions will burn within our breasts and that in the strength of Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit we may live by them,

63:54 that we may articulate them and pass them on as a legacy to another generation. But, O God, you must work in order to internalize them, make them part of the very fabric of the souls of a rising generation. O God, do it for your glory, we pray. Dismiss us now with your blessing.

64:17 Take us safely to our homes. Bless this day with continued presence, we ask in Jesus' name.