Cultivating Inter-Church Relationships, Part 2

Communion of Goods and Material Items

0:02 Under the fourth heading of the lecture this morning, some practical perspectives and guidelines with respect to the duty and privileges of inter-church communion. The first major division is treating some of the ways in which we can nurture and express inter-church communion. We considered the acquisition, assimilation, communication of information. Secondly, the communication of concern and goodwill.

0:33 Now, thirdly, by the communion of goods and material items. By the communion of goods and material or financial items. And, of course, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 are a goldmine of principles relative to this aspect, in which we tangibly express the wonders, the goodness of the body of Christ. You remember Paul said in 1 Corinthians, when one member of the body suffers, all the members suffer with it.

1:14 And though we generally apply that to the body of Christ local, certainly we should seek to foster that perspective with regard to the body of Christ in its universal expression.

1:27 We often use the term with one another, put your hand where your mouth is. Well, if our mouth proclaims love, to the body of Christ, to the church universal, then we must put our hand where our mouth is. And 1 John 3, 16 to 19 says, if you see your brother have need, and shut up the bowels of your compassion from him, how does the love of God dwell in you?

1:55 And then you remember that Paul put the very issue of the collection for the poor saints of Jerusalem on this matter, of proving their love. 2 Corinthians 8, verses 8 and 9.

2:11 I speak not by way of commandment, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity also of your love. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. As grace in Christ found tangible expression, so likewise, grace in the people of God is to find tangible expression in the area of inter-church communion, even with respect to the matter of a communion of goods and the meeting of material necessities. Now there is a peculiar responsibility upon us who are part of the churches in America. We cannot be indifferent to nor insensitive to the fact that in an unusual way God has blessed us, and blessed us, and blessed us, and blessed us, with an abundance of material blessings. And therefore the communion of goods is peculiarly our responsibility.

3:21 And when we catch the vision that that communion of goods is not simply meeting temporal needs, but it is, as it were, a sacramental manifestation of the love of Christ in one segment of the body to another, then we can in a proper sense get hooked on the blessedness of giving. And we understand what the Apostle meant when he quoted those words of our Lord that are not written in the Gospels. It is more blessed to give than to receive. What a delight it is, what a delight it is to have a letter from the poor saints of Pakistan telling us that how privileged they feel to receive a gift from us to help them complete their building there in Rawalpindi.

4:05 But the joy we have in knowing that we've helped to put facilities up, in which the people of God can meet. It's just like wearing a garment given to you by a dear friend. It's more than the fact that that garment helps you complete your wardrobe. Every time you wear it, there is a communion with the love of the one who put it on your back.

4:25 Well, so amongst the churches. And we've often thought of that through the years as people have communicated with us in a material way in our times of need. And I trust there are others who feel that way to us. But then in the future, in the fourth place, another way in which we can express this inter-church communion is by cooperation in scriptural causes.

Cooperation in Scriptural Causes and Sharing Ministerial Gifts

4:52 By cooperation in scriptural causes.

4:58 When the churches of Christ in a given area can work together more efficiently in pursuing common goals than they can work alone in pursuing those goals, then they're under obligation to work together. Now, this stands out on the very face of the New Testament. Granting the uniqueness of the apostolic office and function, still the principles are operative among the churches. And I just recommend to you a careful examination sometime of the New Testament, going through with this one thing in your eye to pick up every indication of this cooperation in scriptural causes among the churches, whether it's missions, whether it's this offering and collection for the poor saints in Judea, whether it's a matter of personnel and their optimum usefulness, this cooperation in scriptural causes is very much a part of New Testament church life. And then fifthly, by the sharing of ministerial gifts. Ephesians 4.11 seems to indicate that the gifts are given to the body,

6:14 not to the so-called church. To the church invisible, to the church visible, yes. When he ascended on high, he gave gifts unto men, he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministry. These gifts are given to the body.

6:37 But I would be very embarrassed if I had to defend the position that they are given exclusively to a specific location, to a local body and to that body alone. Certainly with respect to apostles and prophets, we know that the scope of their givenness was wider. Because according to Ephesians 2.20, the church is built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets.

7:03 And not any specific church local, but the church universal. As well as that which it includes, the whole including all of its parts. We see an example, an example of this in Acts 11.22-26.

7:20 That lovely example of how one church sends key proven personnel to help another church. Acts 11.22-26. The report of the blessing of the preaching of these Greeks comes to the ears of the church which is at Jerusalem.

7:44 Notice the church centeredness of this. Notice the report, concerning them, came to the ears of the church which is in Jerusalem. And they sent forth Barnabas as far as Antioch, who when he was come and had seen the grace of God was glad. And then he obviously took them as far as he felt he could take them.

8:05 So what does he do? Verse 25. And he went forth to Tarsus to seek for Saul. And when he found him, he brought him to Antioch.

8:13 And it came to pass that even for a whole year they were gathered together, with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. And here is a beautiful, selfless sharing of ministerial gift. Now although we believe that the recognition and function of pastors and teachers is primarily local, yet surely we must never restrict the exercise of those gifts to one specific local church.

Recognition of Oversight and Discipline, and Seeking/Providing Counsel

8:47 There are diversities, there are diversities of gifts and of administration, and we should manifest in our churches that sense that whatever gifts are resident and given by the head of the church to this body local, if those gifts can be exercised to the profit of the church universal without sacrificing their primary function in the church local, then surely there is an obligation to see them thus exercised. And then a sixth channel which this inter-church communion can cut and through which it can express itself is by the recognition of the validity of the oversight and discipline of each individual church. By the recognition of the validity of oversight and discipline of each individual church. Now the very concept of letters of commendation seems to be rooted in this concern in the apostolic letters. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3, Do we need letters of commendation as do others?

9:58 The indication being that others did need them. Now why did they have to have letters of commendation? Well, because there was this sense of recognizing the oversight and the discipline of each individual church. So if a man came and said, I was part of such and such a church, the elders at Jerusalem didn't say, well, we don't recognize, the ability of the elders at Antioch really to ascertain if a man has a bona fide, credible profession of faith, so we'll deal with you as though no one ever scrutinized you.

10:32 Or if someone comes and they don't ask, are you under discipline, under the corrective discipline of the assembly you've left? Many churches don't even think to ask that question. They act as though there is no real communion among the churches. And today in many areas this is scandalous.

10:52 A man can be excommunicated in a church on 15th Street and a week later join the church on 20th Street. And it's tragic and it's scandalous. So brethren, at least inquire when receiving a member whether or not he's left as a member of good standing in the church he's come from. And if he has, he'll not be embarrassed to give you the name and telephone number of the overseers or of one of the overseers of the previous church.

11:20 Manifest in the way you deal with people coming to you from other churches that you recognize the oversight and discipline among the churches of Christ. And then a seventh way in which, before we leave that out, may I say that's why we always make that little statement when we invite people to the communion service. We invite people who are members in good standing of other evangelical churches. You see, all we're expressing in that, we recognize that there are bona fide churches other than Baptist churches, other than Trinity Baptist Church, but we're also recognizing there is an instituted government in the church of Christ and we are not going to welcome people to the Lord's table who defy that government. So just by saying we open the table to members in good standing of other evangelical churches, we show our catholicity and yet we show our scriptural narrowness. So that terminology has been carefully chosen to try to express both dimensions of truth. But now there is a seventh way in which we can express this inter-church communion by seeking and providing counsel to other churches.

12:45 Seeking it when we need it and providing it when we're asked for it.

12:52 And here, of course, Acts 15 is the classic passage to give us the message and give us the principles by which we should operate in such matters. The church at Antioch did not feel embarrassment in saying, hey, we need some help up there at Jerusalem to sort out this issue. It did not cast aspersions upon the competence of their leadership. Now here's where often pastors are so unsure of themselves and trying to project an image that they got their act together that they're too proud to call for help.

13:26 Well, I hope if calling for help is cowardly, God will give you a baptism of holy cowardice.

13:35 Ask for help, brethren. All the deposit of wisdom and tact and casuistry is not in you nor in your own eldership. Seek counsel from others. This recent crisis we came through is a good example of that.

13:50 The pastor in the church there in Virginia called and sought counsel and advice. Well, I didn't say, well, I think I'm competent to give it all to you. I said, look, I'm not as close to that situation as the former pastor. He knows the people you're dealing with.

14:05 He's geographically close enough. Why don't you make him your chief counselor in all of this? So I made a recommendation, deferred to another doctor who could deal with the patient more efficiently. But that very doctor, then, he consulted with some of his guides who've helped him and taught him how to handle the knife.

14:25 And so he counseled not only with me but with other proven experts. Experienced pastors. You see the beauty of how Christ sent down from his position as the head of the church the needed dimensions of wisdom and grace in this seeking and this providing of counsel in a critical situation. Then, there is an eighth way in which we can express this inter-church communion by the public recognition of and prayer for other servants of Christ and other churches. By the public recognition of and prayer for other servants of Christ and other churches. How long does it take to say in your announcements we're grateful to God to have worshipping with us today Pastor James, Smith and his family from such and such a place we are delighted to have you amongst this brother and pray God's richest blessing upon your life and your labors.

Public Recognition and Prayer for Other Churches and Servants

15:51 How much time did that take? What, 15 seconds? What are you doing when you do that? You're saying to your people you recognize the validity of this man's call of his ministry of the people amongst whom he labors.

16:04 Simple little thing. Or to beforehand go to that brother and say it's been good to have you here we'd love to have you lead in prayer this morning. Now our general pattern is thus and thus and thus would you feel comfortable fitting in that framework? Only takes a minute or two.

16:20 But what does it do? It is another drop as it were filling up that pool of congregational consciousness that as a church your heart and your face and your affections are outward turning to all of God's true servants and when God providentially brings them amongst you you are delighted to introduce them and commend them in that way to your people. This is why we have this pattern of praying in cycle for pastors and churches in various parts of the country and the world. That's why we have our special segment for our Presbyterian brethren who in the providence of God have been such an instrument of grace and blessing to us as a church and in our own generation to many of God's people so that anyone coming to this assembly over a period of a couple of months if they don't know anything else will know this church does not believe that all the truth begins and ends within its walls. That they will know that there are true people of God under different names. You will hear me often in my prayers say Lord everything we've prayed for ourselves we ask for every true congregation of your people wherever they may be under whatever name they may meet. That's the way of declaring that we believe that there are churches other than Baptist churches.

17:42 They may be called a brethren assembly. They may be called a Presbyterian church first, second, third or twentieth press. But we believe them to be true churches. Now over the long haul you ought to settle for yourself the kind of terminology you're going to use and people may think they're just cliches you're parroting.

18:03 That's their problem. But you use them as a conscious means of expressing these great realities and in so doing you're using this channel of the public recognition and prayer for other servants of Christ and other congregations of his people. Well I suggest brethren that those are eight concrete ways. Now does any of them seem unreasonable?

Extent of Inter-Church Communion: Avoiding Erosion of Local Mission

18:30 Especially difficult? I hope not. They are ways that we have found productive in our own life here. Now I must hurry on and take up the second category under the practical suggestions.

18:44 I've given you ways in which you can nurture and express inter-church communion now. Secondly, or be the extent or degree to which we can nurture and express inter-church communion. The extent or degree.

19:04 And here I have three headings. Number one, to the extent that there is no erosion to the extent that there is no erosion compromise or contradiction of our clearly defined mission and present condition as a local church. To the extent that there is no erosion compromise or contradiction of our clearly defined mission and present condition as a local church. God does not call us to do at the larger level of inter-church communion anything that will undermine our efficiency or our integrity at the lesser or local level. In other words, we must never do evil that good may come. And anything that undermines the doctrinal integrity, anything that undermines the moral, biblical standards of the church, anything that would strap the church with responsibilities that would cripple it in its local manifestation cannot be the will of God. Now, Owen recognized

20:33 this principle that in the providence of God each church will differ from other churches in terms of its development, its position, in the purpose of God, in terms of influence.

20:49 And so, Owen urges us to recognize that in the providence of God we will recognize that certain churches have a greater responsibility and a more useful function in nurturing inter-church communion. The Jerusalem church and the Antioch church had functions that other churches did not have.

21:15 Now, the outworking of this principle raises many questions. And you and your fellow elders, must wrestle with them. For instance, would it ever be right to receive a convinced pedobaptist into your congregation as a member? Well, if you take the position of some baptist, the answer is clear.

21:35 No, they have no true baptism. They are living in blatant disobedience to the word of God. Unchurch them. Don't ever even receive them.

21:43 Well, some of us feel that's a rather simplistic and wooden answer.

21:48 And it may well be appropriate at certain periods in the life of the church. to express inter-church communion by receiving into full communion someone who is a convinced pedobaptist. But should you do that in the fledgling days of the church before its position is well established in the doctrine of baptism? It may not be expedient to do so.

22:12 Given the infancy of the church, maybe you have a lot of people who come out of a background where they paid a dear price when they came to an understanding of baptism that meant the repudiation of their infant sprinkling. For you to receive a pedobaptist would be on the surface of things to despise the price they paid. That would fracture the unity of that existing body. Another church might not have that at all.

22:39 One of the best ways you might teach the fact that our pedobaptist friends are not to be unchurched is to receive such a person. I'm not legislating. I'm raising the hypothetical situation and challenging you to think through this matter. But you must never, never, never nurture inter-church relationships at the expense of the erosion, compromise, or contradiction of your own mission and present condition as a local church.

Extent of Inter-Church Communion: Proportion to Unity of Faith and Life

23:09 All right? Secondly, the extent to which you can nurture and express inter-church communion should be in proportion to our unity of faith and life.

23:25 In proportion to our unity of faith and life with those to whom we are relating. In proportion to our unity of faith and life with those to whom we are relating. Those churches sharing the same confession of faith should obviously engage in many more inter-church activities than those who do not hold to a common confession of faith. Churches that hold to a common confession of faith should seek to share ministries, missionary concerns, benevolence endeavors.

24:10 But we should not exclusively relate to those of common confession. How are we going to demonstrate that we believe the church of Christ is wider than those who hold to our confessional standard? Well, it's possible, you see, to have someone to speak about a need on a given mission field without approving of his para-church missionary organization so it's possible to limit a man to the thing you want him to speak on and he can speak then of churches in another part of the world and expose your people to that influence. Likewise, with regard to benevolence gifts, it's one thing to commit yourself to the support of a missionary and thereby put your imprimatur as it were upon the thing that he's doing. It's quite another thing and the framework within which he does it, it's another thing for a one-shot benevolence concern. We have used existing missionary societies to give relief money to famine-stricken areas of the world or were areas that have had calamities such as earthquakes and other things and in no way would anyone construe that as our approval of the particular organization and all that it is doing. A once-for-all gift is an expression of compassion in the face of need whereas if we were to put that out fit on our budget then it could be construed as an approval

25:37 of its overall perspectives. However, there are some organizations and groups and churches that do not meet minimal standards of what constitutes a church, a church and for us to enter into any kind of supposed church communion with that which is no church according to Scripture is to compromise and to declare a lie. Now here I commend to you Owen's very perceptive statements in volume 16 page 190 and he gives four things that must be present if any institution is to be called a church. Faith in Christ or holding him as the head in the sincere belief of all things concerning his person, office and doctrine in the gospel with whatever belongs thereunto. Secondly, love to Christ in all that is his. Thirdly, holiness.

26:42 Fourthly, the observance of his commands unto all duties of divine worship. These things are essentially requisite unto this union and the part of the church. But then he goes on to say there may be failures in the churches in some of these as unto sundry of these things. There may be some differences about them arising from infirmities, ignorance, prejudice and the part of those of whom these churches consist, the best of us knowing here but in part.

27:11 But while the substance of them is preserved, the union of all churches and so of the Catholic church is preserved. So you've got to wrestle these things through, brethren, and don't overlook them simply because they are matters of great difficulty. But in proportion to our unity of faith and love will be the degree to which we can nurture and express with liberty, joy and agreement and good conscience inter-church communion. But then thirdly, the degree is determined not only by principle one, no erosion, compromise, contradiction of our mission and present condition, number two, proportion to our faith and life, but thirdly, in consideration of our providentially arranged relationships in the body of Christ. In consideration of our providentially arranged relationships in the body of Christ.

Extent of Inter-Church Communion: Providentially Arranged Relationships

28:20 If in your immediate area there are several virile evangelical churches, you can't act as though they don't exist. They may not be reformed, but they have a clear testimony to the deity of Christ and the authority of Scripture and the sinfulness of man and the need for repentance and faith. Well, you can't act like those churches don't exist. They do exist.

28:42 God has planted them. Are you going to say the devil has raised them up? No. Well, if God has, then the head of the church has joined you to those people.

28:52 And you might like it if the head of the church had more fully instructed them in certain areas, but facts are facts. Stubborn things, but facts are facts.

29:02 And if God, in His providence, brings you, our brethren have to leave because of a work schedule. They already spoke to me. It's been good to have you with us again. If God, in His providence, deposits, a combination of gifts in the assembly in which you serve, which result, as in the case of our brother Pinero in a literature ministry, why then you see your intercommunion with churches will be conditioned by that peculiar gift that God has deposited.

29:33 In our own case, it's been the tapes and the wider conference ministry that God has thrust upon me. It would be terrible, it would be terrible for us as a church not to see in those things the fact that God has pressed us into a more highly developed consciousness and outworking of the consciousness of interchurch communion. But now, don't you feel that unless in five years the assembly in which God places you has the same extent of cultivated interchurch communion as you saw here, your people are sinning. Don't lay that kind of burden upon them.

30:13 Don't lay that kind of burden upon them. At all. And here again, Owen, volume 16, page 185 has a very helpful statement. But then let me conclude because I do want to leave a little time for questions if you have them.

Concluding Exhortations: Treat Brethren as Brethren, Avoid Sectarianism, Use Careful Terminology

30:28 I'm sure you have oodles of them with what I'm calling concluding exhortations. We looked at the, excuse me, we've looked at the ways in which we can express this interchurch communion, the degree, and now some concluding exhortations. And they're very simple. Always treat brethren as brethren.

30:54 There is a difference in error and in heresy.

31:01 If I understand the use of the terms at least historically, heresy is the holding to a tenet, the holding of which precludes any possibility of salvation.

31:16 But a man may be in very serious error and not be a heretic. He may be a beloved beloved brother who has fallen into error. And we must be careful to treat brethren as brethren. Woe be unto the man who sees no difference between a godly paedobaptist or Anglican,

31:40 a godly Erastian, and a devout Roman Catholic, and treats them all the same. God have mercy on the people who sit under such a ministry.

31:53 I could never be an Erastian. I could never be a minister or a member of the Church of England. But I do hold loving fellowship with my dear brother and esteemed father in the things of God, Dr. James Packer.

32:12 Now, does that seem contradictory? Well, it shouldn't.

32:17 I have many dear, esteemed brothers and fathers who are convinced paedobaptists.

32:25 And I hope they regard me as the same, though for the life of them they can't figure out quite how I tick.

32:34 All right, second exhortation. Avoid a sectarian attitude while holding tenaciously to your distinctive convictions of conscience. Avoid a sectarian attitude while holding tenaciously to your distinctive convictions of conscience.

33:02 Some would say that's like exhorting a man to be fat and skinny at the same time. To be tall and short at one and the same time.

33:12 Some feel the only way to avoid a sectarian attitude is to become a latitudinarian. Hold nothing with burning conviction beyond a few, three or four or five, quote, fundamentals of the faith. Once you begin to have distinctive convictions in the full range of biblical truth and church life and order and worship and the sacraments, that will produce a right-angled character who has, who has no real Catholicity. That's not true.

33:43 Not true at all. It is possible to hold tenaciously to your distinctive convictions of conscience while avoiding a sectarian attitude. Preach on Sunday a sermon with all of your might on your convictions regarding church government, church ordinances, and then on Monday go off to a ministerial fellowship and hold intimate communion in prayer and discussion with someone who differs radically on the very points that you preached with your soul and with your blood on the Lord's day. But you hold fellowship with him in the things that you have in common.

34:25 And I hope that will mark you, brethren. Then finally, avoid terminology which will unnecessarily offend or prejudice other brethren. Avoid terminology which will unnecessarily offend or prejudice other brethren. The Bible says, let not your good be evil spoken of.

34:49 Do some of you wonder why in prayer meetings I'll say we're delighted to have a letter from so-and-so and explaining who he is. I'll say this is an individual who holds to the perspectives on the truth of God which we hold dear. That's a big mouthful. Why don't I simply say he's a full-blown Calvinist?

35:08 Because I never know whether we might have a visitor who's heard all kinds of crazy things about us as a church and to whom the word Calvinist is like holding up the proverbial red flag in front of a bull.

35:21 So you go through this big long mouthful of this dear brother who holds doctrinal perspectives similar to our own, who holds dear the truths which form the warp and woof of our life together as a church. You go through all of that and many times in reading letters people will use language that's fine with someone you know. It's no more public than their typewriter in your eyeballs. But when I'm reading their letter, you know, they'll use the term Calvinist, right?

35:49 Reading without missing a lick. I just substitute that kind of terminology. It becomes second nature. Why?

35:55 I'm not embarrassed about being a Calvinist. Not at all. And in this context I can say it. I hold without embarrassment to traditional, historic, Calvinistic truth or the truth of God as articulated in Calvinistic creedal and confessional frameworks.

36:13 But in a prayer meeting you don't have a group of ministers. You have real students and a visiting friend who understands these things. You have all of those people who may have all of these prejudices and all of these barriers. Don't unnecessarily prejudice their minds to you and to your people and then in discussion with other people the same thing.

36:36 You must labor, brethren. You must labor under the conviction that inter-church communion and fellowship is a biblical responsibility and if it doesn't adjust in terminology a little bit will help to promote that blessed end then we'll be prepared to use it as awkward and inconvenient as it sometimes is. Well, in my final word let me just give you a quick bibliography or quickly give you a brief bibliography of things that I hope will help you. I've already mentioned what is the finest thing I know of dealing with the subject explicitly is Owen Volume 16 pages 183 to the end of the book.

37:17 183 to 208 and the title of that section is called Of the Communion of Churches so he's dealing explicitly with the subject. Volume 16 pages 183 to 208 and then in Murray Volume 2 there's some excellent material I believe you get much of this in your in your systematics course on ecclesiology as required reading the chapters beginning on page 321 chapters 26 to 34 goes to 321 to 386 then the section in Benjamin Griffith's short treatise concerning a true and orderly gospel church I alluded to this last week in conjunction with church discipline but there's an excellent section of the communion of churches and it deals specifically with the matter that we've been talking about this morning and then of course in our own confession of faith the London Confession and the chapter 26 sections 14 and 15 chapter 26 sections 14 and 15 dealing again with the subject of communion of churches and then because the lectures are going wider than this class I do want to mention the work that Pastor Nichols has done in his

38:47 ecclesiology course seeking to demonstrate exegetically that the notion of an invisible church is foreign to the overall climate of the New Testament but on the other hand demonstrating exegetically that the landmark position that there is no church but the church local comprised exclusively of confessed disciples who have been properly baptized is also a notion which has no foundation in scripture now if God can keep you men staring between the rock and the ditch of landmarkism on the one hand and this nebulous invisible church doctrine on the other hand we will be greatly rewarded in our labors because it seems that there is a tension in all of us that pulls us in one of those two directions either to get so far removed from the concreteness of the New Testament doctrine of the church and what it involves and what it demands even if it's not at this level of inter-church communion while not being driven all the way over into the camp of the landmark position which I regard as cultic and schismatic divisive and exegetically untenable so if any of you go in that direction you'll know what my opinion of you is before the fact

40:14 but if you go that far it wouldn't matter whose opinion you held because usually you've got such a fanatical the person who does has such a fanatical notion of the mission in trying to restore the pure and primitive doctrine of the church that you can't help them some of the most bullheaded people I've ever had to deal with are people who hold that position or positions similar to that in other areas alright any basic questions that we can address ourselves to in the few minutes that remain those