Return to Biblical Churchmanship

The Vision for Biblical Churchmanship: The Third Predominant Concern

0:01 The following address was delivered at the 7th Annual Trinity Pastors Conference held at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:13 Now, in planning the Pastors Conference three years ago, or three conferences ago, and about two and a half calendar years ago, my fellow elders requested that I speak on the Monday evening of the Conference of 1989 on the subject of our vision for these days. And it was their intention that in that message I should attempt to bring into sharp focus

0:48 the distilled essence of the concerns which, above all others, unite us in the fellowship of this Conference. It was not their intention that I could bring, into distilled essence, all of the concerns that each of us legitimately has if we are committed to a life lived under the light of the whole counsel of God and committed with equal zeal to teaching the whole counsel of God. But rather it was their intention that I should highlight and focus upon those mountain peaks

1:32 of spiritual life. Concerns which indeed unite our hearts in this particular fellowship. And on that occasion I intended to speak to you on our vision for these days in terms of three predominant concerns. Concern number one, the recovery of the biblical gospel.

1:58 Concern number two, the renewal of biblical holiness. Concern number two, the renewal of biblical holiness. And concern number three, the return to biblical churchmanship. Well on that occasion God drew near to us in a very marked way and in the present enlargement of preaching in that context I was able only to address the first of those three headings namely the recovery of the biblical gospel.

2:30 And we considered that subject under three. The three simple headings. Its essential doctrinal content. Its appointed means of communication.

2:42 And its efficacious power to transform lives. And I sought to underscore on that occasion that it is our great burden now as it was then to see a recovery of that gospel in the integrity of its content in the use of the gospel. the appointed means for its communication and in its efficacious power even the power of the Holy Spirit to transform lives then approaching last year's conference my brethren and I were a bit

3:19 more realistic and decided that I should address only the second heading namely our concern and vision for a renewal of biblical holiness and I took up that subject again under three headings we considered the centrality of holiness in the purposes of redemptive grace the indispensability of holiness in the application of redemptive grace and the theology of holiness in the outworking of redemptive grace and for some of you brethren who are with us here for the second edition of the conference I would like to ask you to please stand and please be seated and I would like to ask you to please stand and I would like to ask you to please the first time tapes of those two messages are available.

4:02 But now this evening we come to take up the third of these things that constitute our vision, not in the sense that we have had some supernatural revelation, but the word vision being used synonymous with our perspective concerning the great need of these days. And the third strand of our vision for these days is what I have entitled a return to biblical churchmanship.

The Necessity of Biblical Churchmanship Amidst Ecumenical and Para-Church Pressures

4:36 Now in taking up this subject in a day when the ecumenical movement is pressing for an ecclesiastical togetherness orgy in which all biblical distinctives of the doctrine of the church are blurred, except eventually the standards of Rome who would recall her, quote, separated brethren, to take up the subject of biblical churchmanship seems strange to many people. For the moment we begin to consider the doctrine of the church,

5:15 we immediately think of a very marked expression of the little cliche, doctrine divides. And perhaps few doctrines divide more quickly than the doctrine of the church. For while there are many in our day who have found great unity in returning to the great historic biblical and reformational truths concerning the doctrine of salvation, commonly called the doctrines of grace, let anyone introduced to such a gathering of men committed,

5:56 to the biblical doctrine of salvation, a concern for the biblical doctrine of the church, and immediately people get restless and uneasy. For they say all of the unity we've attained in our coming together around our soteriology will now be fragmented by this pesky concern with ecclesiology.

6:22 Furthermore, in a day when movements and para-church organizations, Furthermore, in a day when movements and para-church organizations, independent evangelistic associations proliferate and promote themselves and like leeches suck the finances and energies of the church, but in self-justification call themselves arms of the church again, I say, it seems strange that anyone would say that one of the three major focal points of our vision for these days is a control of the church. is a concern for biblical churchmanship.

7:02 But nonetheless, in spite of the ecumenical movement, in spite of the proliferation of para-church organizations, and even a pressure to be ecumenical around the doctrines of grace and allow everything else to remain up for grabs, I am indeed convinced, as are my fellow elders and as I know many of you are, that indeed one of the most pressing concerns of the hour is a return to biblical churchmanship.

7:42 And while many may regard this a matter akin to fiddling while Rome burns, some of us are deeply convinced that whatever gains there have been in a recovery of the church, in a recovery of the church, in a recovery of the church, in a recovery of the church, in a recovery of the church, in a recovery of the church, in a recovery of the church, in a recovery of the biblical gospel, and a restoration of biblical holiness, they will become abortive unless they flow into and are productive of a return to biblical churchmanship.

The Centrality of the Church in God's Purpose

8:20 And so it is within that perspective of the vital and delicate and interpenetrating relationship of these things that I take up my subject tonight. And I will address the subject under two major headings. I fooled you. Two major headings.

8:42 If there is to be a return to biblical churchmanship, then I assert in your hearing that first of all, we must have a biblically based conviction concerning the centrality of the church. The centrality and uniqueness of the church in the purpose of God. If there is to be a return to biblical churchmanship, there must be in our hearts a biblically based conviction concerning the centrality and uniqueness of the church in the purpose of God.

9:26 What is the origin of the whole idea of the church? Spawn the notion that companies of gospel believers who have openly confessed Christ in his ordained ordinance of baptism, that such gospel believing confessed disciples in a given geographical area should constitute themselves a community who meet for stated seasonals, of worship on God's appointed day, for the ministry of the word, for prayer,

10:09 for mutual service one to another, and for participation in a memorial supper, and then go out from those gatherings aggressively to bring the gospel to others with a view that as men and women are brought to repentance and faith, and confess that faith in the ordinance of God's institution, they too should be gathered in their area into a worshiping, ministering, serving, and evangelizing community. Who spawned this notion?

10:52 Is this noble institution something which like Topsy just growed?

11:03 Is it something, that was contrived by the genius of some early followers of Jesus? And is it as an organization designed by men and perpetuated by tradition to the present hour? I ask further, is the church the one institution among many which deserves our energies, our time, our money, and our prayers for the accomplishment of God's designated purposes?

11:45 Well, in answer to those questions, I'm prepared to assert in the plainest terms possible that there will be no solid return to biblical churchmanship until we are convinced from the scriptures that the church as an institution is both central and unique in the revealed purpose of God. The church is central as opposed to peripheral. It is unique as opposed to one of several or many institutions.

12:30 Now since he who asserts has the burden of proving, I gladly take upon myself that burden, and I would first of all draw your attention to the centrality of the church in the purpose of God, and then secondly the uniqueness of the church in the purpose of God. First of all, as to the centrality of the church in the purpose of God, turn please to the passage read in your hearing. Ephesians chapter 3.

13:06 Ephesians chapter 3. While passing over the major thrust of the more remote and even more immediate context to which Pastor Lamar alluded prior to reading this portion of the word of God, we pick up the reading at verse 6. Ephesians 3 and verse 6. And Paul says that the essence of this mystery, this truth hidden for ages and generations but now revealed, has as its essence the following,

13:50 that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. The mystery, that truth hidden, that purpose of God locked up in his heart but not revealed until, until this gospel age, is not that Gentiles would be the recipients of saving mercy through the Messiah. That truth is bound up in the entirety of the Old Testament.

14:30 The very promise to Abraham was that in him and in his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed. And Paul says in giving that promise, God, preached before the gospel unto Abraham. The gospel that this night says to anyone in this building who does not know the pardon of his sins and acceptance with God, turn from your sins, throw yourself upon the one who is promised in that promise to Abraham, even the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the seed of Abraham, par excellence,

15:16 in whom God holds out to the vilest of sinners full and free pardon of all sin. But the mystery was that in that relationship of reception of saving mercy, Gentiles and Jews would come into an entirely new relationship that of fellow heirs, the Jew would have, no precedent over the Gentile in the new economy, in the constitution of the new Israel, in the constitution of the new covenant temple

15:57 and sanctuary of which Christ is the chief cornerstone and the apostles are foundation blocks into which Jew and Gentile are built. Here is the mystery that they are fellow heirs. They all stand, they all stand on equal redemptive privilege, on equal ground as to redemptive privilege. Now Paul says in a very unique way, it was given to him to be a minister of that grand and glorious truth.

16:31 And he says in verse 7, whereof with respect to this mystery I was made a minister, not for anything particularly good in me, but according to the gift of the grace of God which was given me, according to the working of his power. In fact, he says, I feel utterly unfit and unworthy to be the recipient of such a stewardship. Unto me who am less than the least of all saints was this grace given to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. So that Paul is very conscious of his own unworthiness in being given this stewardship,

17:15 and in expressing it he tells us that the way in which this mystery is unfolded is by proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ. Verse 9, and making all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery which for ages hath been hidden God who created all things, and what's the grand intention in the unfolding of this mystery, the proclamation of the unsearchable riches of Christ being the medium by which this mystery comes to its unfolding

17:58 when Jew and Gentile embrace the gospel and are incorporated into God's new covenant building, His new covenant sanctuary, His new covenant family. Listen to his words very carefully. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church, the community founded through the proclamation of the unsearchable riches of Christ, Paul assumes is not

18:42 some para-church movement, not some evangelistic organization, not some arm of the church, but the proclamation of Christ constitutes under the blessing of God the church of Christ. And he says that through that church is now made known unto unseen powers in the heavenlies, unto principalities and powers, the manifold wisdom of God. And why is this so? Verse 11.

19:19 Because it was the eternal purpose of God that it should be so. According to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. So when the apostle conceives of this divine arrangement of gathering together Jew and Gentile, now on equal footing as they embrace the Lord Jesus who comes to them in the proclamation of the gospel, he says when these who repent and believe

20:01 and are gathered into those communities who owe all of their spirit all of their spiritual life to Jesus Christ there is manifested in and through that community the many faceted wisdom of God to the amazement of principalities and of powers in the heavenly places. But for our purposes I want you to focus upon those words might be made known through the church according to the eternal purpose

20:44 which He purposed. Now in God's mind and heart in God's own eternal purpose is the church peripheral or is it central? Is it an afterthought in the mind of God or does it come into being as an expression of eternal thought, purpose and will? Well the answer of this text is obvious that the church in the purpose of God

21:25 is absolutely central. God is determined to cause oohs and ahhs and breathless wonder by angels and cherubim and seraphim and other heavenly non-earthly creatures who behold His work upon earth. The oohs and the ahhs and the breathless wonder is to be seen through the church. The manifold wisdom of God displayed in the theater of the church

22:09 of the church of the church. And according to this passage we may say without pressing the text beyond the place to which its words take us that God's purpose to make the church central is an eternal purpose an unchanging purpose. The church is central in the purposes of God. And the second witness that I would add to my attempt to prove that the church is central

22:53 much more briefly the familiar words of our Lord Jesus in Matthew and the eighteenth chapter sixteenth chapter and the eighteenth verse. Familiar words to many if not all of us. Our Lord has just drawn from Peter a confession with reference to His own identity and has said that Peter, Peter's accurate answer was not something learned of men but taught him by his own father. And then he says in verse eighteen and I also say unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock not upon you

23:38 as the Roman Catholic Church has perverted this text the Lord did not say I say unto thee thou art Peter and upon you I will build my church. He could have said that but he didn't. He said you are Peter. You have spoken on behalf of the other disciples and you have acknowledged my identity as the Christ the anointed one God's final prophet priest and king.

24:08 You've acknowledged the identity of my office as Messiah. My person as Son of God. Thou art the Christ the Son of God. And upon this rock upon the realities of who I am in my person and office I will now notice of all the ways he could describe the certain success of his mission as Messiah and Son of God isn't it significant that he chooses to describe it in these words.

24:42 Not I will gather my people I will establish my kingdom he could have said many of those things and they would have been true but he said I will build my church. And in the first explicit reference to Ecclesia in the New Testament our Lord clearly underscores the centrality of the church in the accomplishment of his own saving purposes. And from this point on having established by this confession

25:24 his identity as to office and person he begins plainly to tell them that in pursuit of that task he must first be crucified and buried and be raised from the dead and though their comprehension is clouded and murky at this juncture our Lord goes on to do those very things and accomplishes in space-time history those redemptive acts in the virtue of which and in the virtue of which alone he fulfills the promise I will build my church. But you see

26:08 from the cross of Christ and the open tomb of Christ and the session of Christ and the sending forth of the Spirit of Christ it finds its terminus in the building of his church. So that in the mind and heart of our blessed Lord all of the agonies he underwent in conjunction with his rejection his scourging his mockery and his cruel death all of the triumphs of the empty tomb there in that garden and all of the glory of his being received back to the right hand of the Father and his sending forth

26:52 of the Holy Spirit has as its focal point of outworking in the application of redemption to build his church. And therefore if the eternal purpose of God shapes and molds the gospel proclamation of the mystery referred to in Ephesians 3 to the intent that there might be made known unto principalities and powers in the heavenly place through the church the manifold wisdom of God. And if our Lord Jesus says that the focal point of his own redemptive work

27:36 as to its application can be summed in the words I will build my church then surely the church is central and not peripheral in the purpose of God. But not only is the church central the church is unique. And I want briefly now to try to demonstrate the uniqueness of the church in the purpose of God. And by unique I mean one of a kind there is no other like it there is nothing else along side of it it has no copy it has no substitute it is unique

The Uniqueness of the Church in God's Purpose

28:20 one of a kind in the truest sense and in the strictest meaning of that word. And the proof of my assertion I set before you under first of all the explicit statement of 1st Timothy 3.15 and then the implicit argument of apostolic labors and teaching. Where do we find the doctrine of the uniqueness of the church in the purpose of God?

28:50 The explicit statement of 1st Timothy 3.15. is perhaps the clearest most focused assertion of the uniqueness of the church in the purpose of God. Now you remember the setting a church has been established at Ephesus primarily through the labors of Paul he labored there all together as best we can fit the chronology together a total some three and a half years he has left his spiritual child and laboring companion Timothy there at Ephesus to carry on pastoral duties in that congregation

29:34 and he tells him very explicitly in the middle of the third chapter why he has done what he has done. He says in verse 14 these things write I unto you hoping to come unto you shortly my letters a stopgap measure so when you write letters as a stopgap measure you have apostolic precedent he said I write these things all the while I write them I'm hoping to come unto you shortly but because he had no direct revelation from God as to the timeframe with reference to a return visit to Ephesus or if such a visit would ever come to pass but if I tarry long if I cannot come and do in my person

30:19 what is burning in my heart if I cannot come in the will of God and accomplish through my heart and accomplish through my labors what to me is utterly and absolutely crucial Timothy I want you to have it in black and white I want you to have it with ink on parchment here it is but if I tarry long that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God which is the church of the living God the pillar and the ground or buttress of the truth

31:00 and in this text the apostle indicates that that which lay at the heart of his tremendous concern for the details of church behavior at Ephesus was his understanding of the glorious identity of the church and the awesome function of the church now you see with a man so burdened for the whole Roman world carrying continually peculiar burden for his own fellow Jews I have continual sorrow and heaviness of heart for my kinsmen my brethren

31:43 according to the flesh and he describes them in Romans as his fellow Jews he carries this burden he is always looking for new frontiers to push back for gospel endeavors I have no more place in these parts he says to the Romans I long to come to you and after some mutual fellowship and encouragement and strengthening of one another's faith I plan to be taken by you on my way to Spain there's a new gospel frontier here's a man alive with passion to see the gospel taken to the ends of the then known earth why in the world

32:27 would he be so concerned then if a church a strong church a church where he labored longer than in any other church is already in existence through it tremendous impactful the gospel has been made upon all of Asia Minor why in the world is he concerned to go back there himself and get involved in all these little niggling details of behavior in the church the right place of women and men and all of what's his what's the matter has he lost his vision has he lost his burden has he somehow

33:11 been affected by all of the pressures upon him so that now he wants to retreat into this lovely ecclesiastical backwater and just tidy things up until the Lord takes him home not this man Paul no he says Timothy I am passionately concerned for the details of behavior there in the church at Ephesus because I understand the glorious identity of the church and the awesome function of the church what is its identity it is the house of God

33:55 the church is God it is his house by possession yes it is his house by indwelling he is both the owner and its glorious tenant you may own a house and not live there you may live in a house and not own it and be a renter but God's house is his because he owns it and he's the tenant and he says this house is the assembly of the living God he understood the glorious identity of the church and he's not using the concept of church

34:39 here in some nebulous undefined synonym for God's people whoever they are wherever they are whether gathered in visible assemblies or not the niggling details of the ordering of concrete church life is what bristles through this epistle and he says that congregation at Ephesus in its glorious identity is nothing other than God's house and the living God's possession it is the ecclesia it is the called out assembly it is the place of the living God's dwelling and possession

35:22 and understanding its glorious identity he wants everything in God's house to be glorious reflective of its owner and tenant and of the livingness of its God who possesses it but then he also understood its awesome function notice what else he says of the church which is the pillar and ground now he does not mean that the church is the mother of the truth again one of the false claims of catholicism no there was a church at Ephesus that was the child of the truth the apostle Paul says

36:05 in the second chapter of his letter to the Ephesians he Christ came and preached peace to you who are afar off and to those that are nigh when did Christ come and preach peace to the Ephesians well when the apostle as a duly sent one came and preached Christ himself comes upon the wings of the messengers and the message of his appointed messengers and the Lord Jesus had come and he had come in terms of the proclamation of the truth and the church at Ephesus was the child of the truth but then he says when there were enough children of the truth to be constituted into a church

36:50 that church becomes the unique steward of that truth in that part of the world in which God has placed it and it is the church thus brought into being and gathered by the truth that now becomes the steward of the truth the pillar that upholds the roof and then the ground which could mean the foundation which supports the pillar or the buttresses in either case the imagery is clear though we may not be able with precision to settle particularly the significance of the second word this much is clear

37:34 separate the truth from the church and in any given area there is no reason to believe that that church will be up that the truth will be upheld that the truth will be propagated that the truth will be enfleshed that the truth will be embodied and in that sense the church is the pillar and the ground of the truth and that is not said of any other institution it is not said of any other grouping of men of any kind and the uniqueness of the church

38:19 and the purpose of God is clearly asserted in 1st Timothy 3 and verse 15 but then there is the implicit argument of the apostolic labors and teaching and summarize simply a reading of the book of Acts and many sections of the epistles leads us to this conclusion all of the labors of the apostles and those with whom they labored and those whose labors they approved of were labors aimed at the establishing of churches

39:01 as the fruit of God blessed evangelism in fact Luke so writes the history of the book of Acts in such a way that the success of the gospel is invariably described in terms of the establishment and growth of churches and there are terms used synonymously by Luke under the inspiration of the Spirit believers were the more added to the Lord believers were added to the church disciples were multiplied those are all synonymous terms he does not describe

39:44 God blessed fruit in evangelism in terms of decisions in terms of little groups that have no resemblance to New Testament churches and while we have the record of the conversion of a few individuals and nothing is said about their subsequent involvement in any specific church or their being particularly used to be the nucleus of a church I'm conscious of that I've chosen my words carefully wherever Luke intends by the Spirit to describe God's owning the proclamation of the gospel he describes it in terms

40:26 of churches coming to birth churches being strengthened churches walking in peace and in the fear of God when Luke describes the new advances of the gospel into the Roman Empire he is careful to show that it is in the scattering of the church at Jerusalem that the gospel begins to penetrate beyond the boundaries of Palestine and when there is the first what we would call formal missionary journey by one called and set apart to bear the name of Christ to the Gentiles the Holy Ghost is so clear

41:08 to emphasize in Acts 13 it was in the church that was that strange construction that baffles all the Greek scholars in the church that was there at Antioch five of its gifted men are named and out of the five the Holy Ghost separates out of the womb of the church Saul and Barnabas for the work to which he called them it is not enough that the Apostle Paul be saved by an intervention of direct revelation by the risen Christ and clearly and articulately marked out as a commissioned

41:52 herald of the cross God spends years seasoning him and teaching him and disciplining him and then he embeds his life in a living thriving church where he learns accountability even as an Apostle where he learns to work with his brethren where he learns to bow to their judgment on matters that are not matters of pagan biblical truth and principle and clear matters of righteousness and only when thus prepared does God say separate Paul and Barnabas and the ones who are sent forth Luke says by the Holy Ghost

42:36 are sent out of the womb of the church the sending of the Holy Ghost is always in conjunction with the life and ministry of the church and then if you read Acts 14 21 to 28 you have a beautiful summary of this whole emphasis on the apostolic labors being found in conjunction not only with the establishment of churches as the fruit of evangelism but with the systematic return and the strengthening of the churches helping the churches to recognize their Christ given gifts of leadership when they had ordained for them elders in every church

43:20 they just didn't go and have a Bible conference with some little groups of people who love Jesus and turn them loose to do their own thing there were churches established churches strengthened churches furnished with God given gifts of pastors and teachers now it's interesting this same book the book of Acts and the epistles these same letters they contain a record of temporary committees established for specific crises a committee was sent up to Jerusalem to sort out the crisis of doctrinal aberration

44:03 in the church at Antioch and that's all it was and I marvel how people will try to make a standing form of church order out of what is patently a temporary arrangement in the face of a crisis and on their way they report to the churches it doesn't say they picked up presbyters along the way to have a synodical meeting at Jerusalem no the text is clear that the church decided who would go up to Jerusalem to the apostles elders and the church to sort out this matter

44:47 of these people these mavericks who came out supposedly sent by the Jerusalem church and were confusing and upsetting the believers and when they couldn't sort it out they said here's a problem so they formed a temporary committee for the sorting out of a doctrinal issue but it didn't become the standing doctrinal sorting out committee nor such committee is found nor is such to be found anywhere in the New Testament when there was a famine and the poor saints in Judea were to be the recipients of the benevolence of the Gentile churches a temporary committee to handle this particular situation

45:29 was formed by apostolic direction but it did not then become frozen into the benevolence committee of the apostolic church where it did its job it was dissolved and the only thing that remains are specific local congregations now brethren what do we do with all that data I say we either rationalize it away piece by piece and in the process sell out our consciences or we come to the conviction that the church is not only central in the purpose of God it's unique in the purposes of God very interestingly

46:12 in 1963 Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones speaking at a special gathering of the Westminster Fellowship there in England spoke on the theme consider your ways the outline for a new strategy listen to the words of the doctor I quote from this collection of addresses Knowing the Times printed by the Banner of Truth magazine page 176 listen to these words it is that while evangelicals have tried to solve their problem and get out of their difficulties by forming movements they have evaded

46:56 avoided and bypassed the whole question of the nature of the church that would be my fundamental criticism of our spiritual grandfathers and those before them during the last century the moment they began to meet the situation by forming movements they had already gone wrong I think it is there that they departed from the scripture surely these are matters that should be decided and determined in terms of the church and in the realm of the church but they allowed the position to develop in the church that is liberalism and all the rest and they went out of it as it were and met

47:39 in their little conclaves he goes on to say now look here people will say you are offending these others if you begin to be concerned about churches you will wreck their movements the whole thing will collapse you cannot do that the result is that in our fear of causing division or in our natural love toward our brethren and our desire to avoid putting them as we say on the spot and in the difficult position we have left the whole doctrine of the nature of the church unconsidered we have just evaded it I think you will all have to agree that this is a simple statement of fact and I have given you the reasons why I am pointing it out

48:24 surely the doctrine of the church is central it is foundational all these other matters arise out of the church and it is because we have been evading the doctrine of the church in this way that we find so many of our present difficulties to be what they are the church is the pillar and ground of the truth all activity should be church activity and if we are uncertain as to the nature of the church how the church can there possibly be a true unity for a true activity end quote is this

49:08 some off beat notion dug up by narrow minds and narrow yet spirits no when men who are sensitive to the word are honest that word they must come to this conviction the church is central to the purposes of God the church is central to the purposes of God the church is unique in the purposes of God and brethren I submit to you that there will be no return to biblical churchmanship until we have a Bible

49:53 based conviction of both the centrality and the uniqueness of the church in the purpose of God and if you don't have that conviction my plea is with the Berean spirit go to your Bible in dependence upon the Holy Ghost and ask God to teach you if indeed his church is central and unique Lord convince me from your word and having been convinced from the word let God be true and every man a liar let every

50:37 institution of mine crumble and come to naught but he will build his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it but now my second heading is this if we're to see a return to biblical churchmanship there must at the starting point be a Bible based conviction concerning the uniqueness of the church but brethren that's not enough to eternalize spiritual theory and that must be joined to this second commodity and it's what I'm calling

Commitment to Total Conformity to God's Word

51:22 we must be deeply committed to labor to see the church in which we serve conforming the totality of its life to the word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit and in the word of God so that we may be able to see the church in which we serve as we are beginning to see the church in which

52:07 we serve to see the church in every tower pontificating about the church generically, or everyone else's church in a distance, but deeply committed to labor, as Paul says, to have spiritual birth pangs to see Christ formed in our people, to fill up that which is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for His body's sake. The church, deeply committed to labor to see in the church in which we serve,

52:51 now my next word is a key word, conforming. Not conformed, past tense,

53:02 but laboring to see the church in which we serve, conforming, present tense, always adjusting to what? To the Torah. The totality, the totality of its life, to the Word of God,

53:22 by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now please do not put any meaning on those words, other than those that I have sought to place upon them.

The Great Commission as the Mandate for Conformity

53:36 Now, it's interesting when we turn to the Great Commission, that this is what our Lord envisions His followers would do. We turn to the familiar passage in Matthew. I've asserted now once again, the burden of proof is upon me.

53:56 And I've asserted that if there's to be a return to biblical churchmanship, we must be deeply committed to labor to see the church in which we serve, conforming the totality of its life to the Word of God, by the power of the Spirit of God. Matthew chapter 28. The risen Lord appears there at the appointed place in Galilee, and He first of all, before commissioning His own points to Himself, and His regal position.

54:28 Matthew 28.18 And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Whenever you think of me, my person, my words, my works, think of me as I am, the one who has received as the reward of my obedience. I have received this.

54:56 This mediatorial authority, the authority that is my rightful possession as God, aspects, the exercise of which I voluntarily relinquished in the days of my humiliation, now is deposited in my hands as the pierced and exalted Lord, the Messianic King. All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Whatever has to do with my person, my work, my church, remember who I am. I have all authority.

55:32 Therefore, there is no realm you'll face in pursuit of the task that I cannot alter by my authority. There is nothing I say that any man has a right to override by his authority. All authority has been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Going, therefore, make disciples of all.

55:55 The nations, and how do you do that? Beautiful example of it in Acts. And when they had preached the gospel and made many disciples in that city, they didn't make disciples by going around with a basin and sprinkling people in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost and say, you're now a disciple. Nor did they go around and put chloroform on people's faces and get them knocked out and dunk them and say, you're now a disciple.

56:22 They neither sprinkled them or dunked them. They made disciples by preaching. And when the Holy Ghost owned the preaching and men saw their sin and saw in the gospel that Christ was the only hope of sinners and turned from sin and professed adherence to Christ, they were thus baptized into the name of the triune God, into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And as we read the commentary on their obedience to that injunction, those who were made disciples and were baptized upon profession of that attachment, that attachment to Christ, were gathered into communities called churches.

57:01 And in that context, what was to be the focal point of their burden? Now notice verse 20. Teaching them, those who have been made disciples and gathered into assemblies of disciples, teach them to observe, to keep, to treasure up, to obey. All of that is bound up in that.

57:26 The verb, to keep. It can mean to keep as you would keep a precious jewel. To keep in terms of preserving something precious. But it also means to keep with a view to compliance with.

57:40 Teaching them to observe. Now look at the next words. All things whatsoever I commanded you. All things.

57:55 There's to be meticulous. Conformity to the word of Christ. All things I have commanded. Then notice the universality.

58:07 All things whatsoever I have commanded. So you have the microcosm and the macrocosm. You have the whole and all of its parts. You have the parts.

58:18 And you have the parts in their totality. If I've commanded it, it's worthy of being taught. Not put into artificial categories, die you who go out in my name. Well, this is non-essential.

58:33 It need not be taught. Oh yes, I believe it. It's clear Christ taught it. But you see, not everyone likes that.

58:41 So we'll keep that in the cupboard. And if someone comes and says, Do you believe that Jesus said? Oh yes, I'll show you I do. And I take it out of the cupboard and say, See, see, I believe that.

58:51 Oh no. He said, you teach them to observe all things whatsoever. I. Have commanded you.

59:02 Now brethren, if there were no other text in the Bible, surely this should suffice to convince us that if the church is to begin to be what it ought to be as God has purposed it should be, the theater within which he displays of the principalities and powers, his manifold wisdom, pillar and ground of the truth, embodying the truth, displaying the truth, living the truth, proclaiming the truth,

59:37 then we must take seriously the words of Jesus and be deeply committed to labor to see the church in which we serve, conforming the totality of its life to the word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. For in the parallel, a commissioned passage in Luke, he said, and behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you. You cannot do this in your own strength, but I'm sending the comforter. I'm sending the Spirit and ye shall receive power, the Holy Spirit coming upon you

60:22 and you shall be witnesses unto me. Now brethren, in the concrete, in the specific, what does this mean? Let me, as I try to bring our meditation to a focused conclusion, say that if we are deeply committed to labor to see the church in which we serve, conforming, I emphasize conforming, no church this side of the consummation will ever be able to say we've arrived. Conforming the reformed church is the reforming.

61:01 Church, and I don't even attempt to say it in Latin to impress you.

Conformity in Church Membership Standards

61:08 To see the church we serve conforming the totality of its life to the word of God. What will that bring within its orbit? May I say it must bring these five things within its orbit, and I'm not going to spend long on each of the heads. Number one, conformity to the word of God with respect to standards of membership in the church.

61:33 I'm amazed how many people think that the Bible has next to nothing to say about who should get into the church, what should be expected of them when they come in, what must they do and be to remain in, and what are grounds to put them out.

61:53 Seems to me, for Christ to say I'll build my church and give no instructions on those things, he did a pretty pathetic job.

62:04 If he has not measured the door of entrance, if he has not described it, if he's not given the rules within his house, if he's not told us the behavior expected of his children, and that which is intolerable and yet to remain part of his visible house.

62:26 And I tell you, I'd quit the ministry tomorrow and I'd go into construction work where at least the contractor had the decency to give me a blueprint so I'd know how to go about where to lay my bricks and cut my tuba floors. How long to cut them and where to put them. And will you say that a builder of an earthly house is more concerned for his dwelling than God for his? Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

62:54 And that means we must go to our Bibles with a heart dependent upon the illumination of the Spirit and having gone to our Bibles, go to the older standards. Go to those books of church order and those confessions of faith. Go to those books of faith. Go to those books of faith.

63:11 Such as our own confession of faith and the Savoy Declaration and the Cambridge Platform of Church Order and Benjamin Griffiths on the true nature of a gospel church and a host of other witnesses from the past. We will find that in our commitment to Biblical standards of who gets in, what is expected of those when they come in, what must they do to remain in and what are the grounds to put them out the Bible does not speak with a garbled tongue.

Conformity in Church Worship

63:50 Secondary in which we must be deeply committed to labor to see the church in which we serve conforming the totality of its life to the Word of God in the power of the Spirit not only with respect to the standards of membership in the church but secondly conformity to the Word of God with respect to the worship of the church. It's as though God never wrote the second commandment or that commandment had no application to present church life. I'm amazed how many people profess adherence to the 1689 Confession who remain utterly indifferent to such statements as these.

64:33 The acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by Himself and so limited by His own revealed will that He may not be worshiped. According to the imaginations and devices of men. Well I think it would add to the worship if we my friends God doesn't give a hoot about what you think. He owes what pleases Him.

65:06 And when you come with the fruit of your own aesthetic influence or your own desire to have a pleasant climate in which to make unconverted rebels feel comfortable then you are a man of God. God says of that will worship who hath required this at your hands. If we in our day are to have anything that resembles a return to biblical churchmanship we've got to be committed to labor at any cost to see our churches, excuse me, conforming to the revealed will of God in the power of the Spirit

65:49 with respect to the worship of the church. It's very interesting, isn't it? that it's in the midst of giving what we would again call legalistic details current charismatics would call them that that's the way they treat the most of them it's in terms of how many prophets can speak what gender and in what order it's at the end of giving such mechanical mathematical details if the prophets speak let it be by the most two, three, let one speak and then when he's all done giving all of those details what does he say in 1 Corinthians 14? 1337 If any man among you thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual let him acknowledge that the things which I say unto you

66:33 are the entele the commandments of the Lord.

66:41 You mean, Paul if we don't implement these directives that are precise and mathematical and categorical we're defying the Lord? He says yes in the name of speaking the word of the Lord you defy the word of the Lord if you have four prophets speak I said the most three you can count can't you, Corinth? one, two, three uno, dos, tres, cuatro eh? start at tres oh, I'm so full of the spirit I gotta speak commandment of the Lord says keep your mouth shut the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets

67:25 but I have this marvelous gift I must sing for the Lord oh good sing in your shower sing at your table sing in your living room sing at family night sing on the street corner to the glory of God but until God says he wants you warbling in his presence in a performance role keep your mouth shut in the church that's what I'm talking about the things that I say unto you Paul says are the commandments of the Lord the third area if we're serious if we're serious about a recovery of biblical churchmanship brethren

Conformity in Church Officers

68:08 we must be committed to conformity to the word of God with respect to the name number gender functions and standards for church officers name number gender function and standards I've used up too much time but for you men who have the materials and can investigate it I urge you to look up in the Savoy Declaration it's in Mather's work on the history of New England volume 2 page 219 on what he says about appointing any other officers

68:52 other than elders and deacons and calling them any other names I tell you it's strong language and it's interesting when Paul says oh Timothy I hope to come shortly but if I can't tarry I want if I tarry I want you to know how men ought to behave themselves and and what is one of the primary focal points of his passionate concern for the behavior of the church if any man seeks the office of an overseer he desires a good work the bishop therefore they must be not it is an idealistic standard if perhaps he is in nine out of ten I shall never forget

69:35 twenty two years ago twenty three years ago when we were teaching on the biblical standard and name and number and gender of church officers I went to some friends and I said isn't this marvelous it was like I was discovering the wheel I said look we don't need to be at the whims of who's a nice guy and who's got personal charisma the bible's got a standard and I remember the first time I studied in the Greek first Timothy three the bishop they must be I said here it is Lord standard and I was so excited I went to this brother and I said brother look he said oh well just take it easy you mustn't take that seriously

70:20 I mean that is a noble ideal but I mean if you start pressing that you're never going to have any elders you're never going to have any deacons I mean if someone you know meets seven or eight out of them you've got to be realistic I'll never forget what happened to my spirit it drove me to my knees it drove me back to my knees to my Greek text it drove me to do a word study is that particle of imperative to be taken seriously away with this pragmatism away with expecting so little of God's grace

71:04 what a denigration of the sanctifying power of Christ that he cannot make men meet his own standard by his own grace there will be no return to biblical churchmanship until we're ready to labor in our own assemblies in dependence upon the Holy Ghost with respect to the name number, gender, functions and standards for church officers Breckenridge in some unpublished material that one of the men I referred to it earlier dug out the rare book section

71:48 listen to Breckenridge who writes the qualifications for the office are clearly laid down in the Bible in the sacred scriptures not only point by point in many detached passages but also in compact and lucid treatises written by perhaps the greatest of the apostles to his own sons in the ministry teaching them how and what they ought to preach and what description of persons with what kind of endowments and pastors of the church ought to be 1st Timothy 3 Titus 1 and in every examination of the proof whether or not a man be called of God

72:32 whether that examination be made by himself by a congregation or by a presbytery these scriptural qualifications constitute the divine standard of judgment and he goes on to say to put a man in office while ignoring them is to nullify the very act or words of the Lord or words of the Lord to that effect 4th area I said I would attempt to be brief if we are committed to return to biblical churchmanship then we must be deeply committed to labor in our own assemblies in dependence upon God

Conformity in Church Tasks, Functions, and Ministries

73:16 to see conformity to the word of God with respect to the specific areas of the church's tasks functions and ministries conformity to the word of God conformity to the word of God conformity to the word of God with respect to the specific areas of the church's tasks functions and ministries everybody's telling the church what it ought to do it seems except Jesus the head of the church has Jesus told the church to give general education to its young no that's the task of parents

73:57 has Jesus told the church to organize and confront specific social evils by a standard of selectivity determined by men no the evils of abortion and the killing of children were far more rife in the age of the apostles ministry than it is even today one of our brethren has dug out very reliable sources that a Roman child was not considered worthy of being protected even at birth not until the child having been placed

74:41 on a mat on a mat on a mat outside the home was picked up by the father and taken in otherwise it could be left to starve left to be taken and there's not a hint that any apostle sought to organize the churches into a concentrated organized effort to attack that specific evil or any other evil and there were plenty if you read Romans 1 the apostle who wrote about them knew that they were there but he never called the church to organize as church and to fight this

75:26 that or the other evil and now some people get around that they say well the influence of the gospel wasn't pervasive enough therefore we need to look to the times after Constantine in other words you don't believe in the sufficiency of scripture can't have your cake and eat it too either you say you believe in open-ended revelation on ethical matters or you say the bible is sufficient to get the agenda for the church as church who's to take the gospel to the world well the church can't do that it can't I commend to you the marvelous work of Thornwell

76:09 volume 4 read that section where Thornwell debates the issue can the church do all Christ has called her to do if she will wait upon Christ for the gifts and the manpower and the grace and the substance to do it and Thornwell's intransigent answer against all the sophistry of Hodge was the church can do all she is called to do if it is the will of her lord to do it and then finally if we're serious about this matter

Conformity in Church Resources, Weapons, and Methods

76:52 of the restoration of biblical churchmanship then we must seek conformity to the word of God with respect to the church's resources weapons and methods of accomplishing her God given tasks conformity to the word of God with respect to the church's resources weapons methods and for accomplishment of her God given tasks in the pivotal text of course is 2nd Corinthians 10 3 and 4 though we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down

77:37 of strongholds and what are the weapons with which the church shook the Roman Empire preaching godly living aggressive evangelism self denying community in which each regarded other better than himself no man said that ought that he possess was his own it was a disposition of our not a liquidation of all titles and right to personal property it was a disposition of heart and those were her weapons with which she conquered with no fax machines no telephones no jet planes

78:21 no printing press her weapons were mighty through God oh dear people are we simple enough to believe that those weapons are still mighty how will we know if we clunk around in Saul's armor and never go forth as an army of God's Davids to be laughed at by the Goliaths of this world who if in the name of the God of Israel meet God's Davids with God's weapons will find their heads severed from their shoulders

The Inevitability of Suffering in Biblical Churchmanship

79:00 now brethren I would be less than honest if my final note were not this you come to that Bible based conviction concerning the centrality and uniqueness of the church and the purpose of God come to a deep commitment by the grace of God to serve the church in which you labor to the end that there will be continuing conformity to the whole revealed will of God in the power of the Holy Spirit and you have put yourself not only in the way of the greatest joys you'll know

79:45 this side of heaven you've put yourself in the way of suffering listen to Lloyd Jones and this is my final word I let the one who being dead now speaks through the printed page I must mention one factor which affects our thinking because I think it may be a potent one namely the fear of consequences we're we have got to face this men who have tried to conceive of the church and to function in the church in New Testament terms have generally had to pay for it and have had

80:30 to pay for it very dearly at times it seems to me to be almost a universal rule that it may involve suffering I go beyond the doctrine I say it must involve suffering as our redemption was procured in the suffering of the Savior its application only comes in the way of the suffering non-redemptive but the suffering of the servants of God I for my part Paul said fill up that which is lacking

81:13 in the sufferings of Christ for his body's sake the church what's lacking any experience a torii virtue lacking no he cried it is finished it was rent he is perfected forever by one sacrifice those that are sanctified well what's lacking in the sufferings of Christ with respect to his church the suffering that inevitably comes in the way of the application of that redemption in and through the church and through the servants of God who labor for her perfection you want it easy

81:54 and you're not serious why did Jesus say he that will lose his life for my sake and the gospel the same shall save it that's our vision for these days brethren not only to see a recovery of the biblical gospel a restoration of biblical holiness but a return to biblical churchmanship and thank God for what our eyes have witnessed of that return but oh surely surely our great and exalted savior deserves far more

82:39 than he's begun to receive from any one of our assemblies may he yet see the reward of his sufferings and be satisfied let us pray our father we bow in your holy presence and we feel ashamed in our love of ease we confess our love to your son but how little we've been willing to bear and we confess for the sake of his body the church that which he loved and for which he gave himself

83:23 and which he continues to nourish and cherish by his ever living intercession oh lord we confess that when we look into your word and begin to contemplate what it reveals the centrality and uniqueness of the church and your purposes we feel ashamed again of the years that many of us spent regarding the church as some human creation or some sloppy afterthought in your mind oh god forgive us that we would treat so lightly that which you've prized so highly from eternity

84:06 then we pray you'd forgive the level of our shallow commitment our indifference to so much of the word and command of jesus lord jesus we do love you and we pray that we confess we have not been diligent both to learn and then to teach all things whatsoever you have commanded and we confess that oft times we've attempted to do it but we've not done it in conscious dependence upon you our prayerlessness is eloquent testimony to our creature confidence oh lord jesus

84:50 forgive us help us so to abide in you and to have your word abide in us that we will become mighty in that weapon of all prayer see the pulling down of the strongholds of human pride the casting out of all of the encumbrances that have entered your house oh lord jesus christ we love you and we want to obey you but we fear our own hearts and our own cowardice our own love of ease by the power of jesus by the power of your grace put these things to death in us we pray come holy spirit gift of the ascended christ and fill us this night

85:34 not that we may have happy feelings but oh that we may be holy men wholly committed to see our lord jesus glorified in his church in our generation hear then our cry and answer our plea for your dear name sake amen