In Sending Forth Church Planters

Introduction: God Sustains What He Creates

0:00 There is nothing in God's universe that is self-originating, self-sustaining, and self-perpetuating except God himself.

0:18 God is what he has always been from all eternity. We can count on him being what he has always been today, and what he is and has been, he ever shall be. God alone can say, I am Jehovah, I change not. However, all creatures and institutions brought into being by God must be sustained and perpetuated by God, or they will come to nothing.

0:55 This is why the Apostle Paul could say in Acts 17 that the God who created us, that is, gave us being, is the God who gives unto all life and breath and all things. Again, this is why the Apostle could say in Hebrews 1 that Jesus Christ upholds all things, by the word of his power. Now, why have I said these things that form, as it were, one of the very fundamental building blocks of any doctrine of God that is biblical? Well, I have said them because God in grace was pleased to bring into being, almost 25 years ago, an assembly of his people now known as, Trinity Baptist Church. And in case you are wondering, that is the assembly of his people that meets in this place this morning. And while conscious that the living Christ who brought this assembly into being, has sustained and upheld it by his life and power, we are also very conscious that he alone can and must continue to uphold,

2:22 and to sustain it, if it is to remain a true church of Christ in days to come.

The Manifesto: Re-articulating Foundations

2:33 And if he purposes to uphold and sustain this assembly for a future generation, or future generations, or even until the return of the Lord Jesus, then he has also ordained to you, use those means chosen by him for the sustaining of the life of this assembly. For the God who appoints the ends, appoints the means thereto. And one such means ordained of God for the sustaining of the life of any true church, is that that church should have a periodic, periodic, a fresh and definitive articulation of those truths which constitute the very foundations of a biblical church. Peter recognized that principle when he said in his second letter in the first chapter, he said, I am writing these things to you not because you are ignorant of them, not because knowing them you are not practicing them,

3:54 but he says, I am writing though you know them and though you practice them, I am writing to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. In other words, he was not fearful that they had relinquished certain truths, or that holding to them they were not practicing them. He was concerned that those truths be re-articulated, that they be given a fresh, a fresh and definitive statement that the life of God among the people of God might be maintained and even increased. And therefore I am seeking to use this God-appointed means by bringing a series of studies entitled A Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church. A manifesto is defined in our dictionary as a public declaration, of the motives and intentions by a group regarded as having some public importance. Not the group having public importance necessarily, but the articulation of the motives and intentions. And in this manifesto I am not attempting to give a comprehensive statement of all of our major beliefs and practices.

5:21 This is ably done in our confession of faith, the London Confession of 1689, and our Church Constitution. Those two documents are a summary of the major doctrines we hold, preach and confess, and by which we regulate our worship and our service, and our church polity, the agreed biblical principles by which we will order our corporate life. And so I am not attempting a comprehensive statement of our major doctrines and church polity, but rather I'm highlighting those biblical perspectives which we believe are absolutely essential to our remaining a true church of Christ, albeit an ongoing imperfect church, a church with much sin, in much need of grace and cleansing, but nonetheless a true church of Jesus Christ. And what have been the tenets in that manifesto that we have already considered? The first, we are determined that Jesus Christ shall have his rightful place in the totality of our life and ministry.

6:47 Secondly, we are determined that all of our doctrine and practice, shall be molded by the word of God. Thirdly, we are determined that we shall maintain a God-centered climate in the totality of our life and ministry. And now we're considering the fourth affirmation of the manifesto, and it is this. We are determined that our life and ministry will unquestionably confirm the unique place assigned to the church.

7:22 In the saving purposes of God, we are determined not simply to state in our confession of faith that the church has a unique place in the saving purposes of God, to embody that tenet in our hymnody and sing it, but we're determined that in the totality of our life and practice as a church, there will be an unquestionable confirmation. Of this conviction that the church is unique in the saving purposes of God. And to attempt that, I gave you first of all a working definition of the church. Secondly, a demonstration from the scriptures of the unique place of the church in the saving purposes of God.

Review: Plain Manifestations Already Covered

8:16 And now we are considering in the third place some of the plain manifestations of this determination as it works out in our life and ministry. It's easy to state things and even to state them with some measure of conviction, but is this more than just preacher's talk? What is there in the life and ministry of Trinity Church that expresses in a very plain and unquestionable manner its determination to confirm the uniqueness of the church in the saving purposes of God? Well, we've been answering that question, and we saw first of all that our theology and practice of the Christian life confirms it.

9:00 It is a theology that is Christ-centered and church-based. And we know of no separation in a doctrine of the Christian life based upon Scripture that would in any way separate Christ-centeredness from church-based. But God is joined together, let not man put asunder. And then secondly, our theology and practice of evangelism and missions, which is likewise Christ-centered and church-based.

9:32 And again, God has joined those two in His Word, and we dare not separate them. And then thirdly, we began to examine last week and will complete this morning this third plain manifestation that we mean business when we say we are determined that our life will confirm, the uniqueness of the church in the saving purposes of God, not only in our theology and practice of the Christian life, our theology and practice of evangelism and missions, but in our theology and practice of ministerial recognition, specialized training, and ordination. In our theology and practice of ministerial recognition, specialized training, and ordination. And as we began our study last week, and I can't go back over that, and I can't go around for any visiting among us, these things are on tape and available from the Trinity pulpit, I sought to introduce this third area of concern by drawing your attention to that marvelous promise in Jeremiah 3.15, that under the new covenant, the Lord Himself would give shepherds to His people, described in this way, shepherds after my own heart, who shall feed them with knowledge and with understanding. And according to Ephesians 4.11 and following,

10:55 that promise is fulfilled in Jesus Christ in the new covenant, who as He continues to nourish and cherish His church in the language of Ephesians 5, He continually gives to His church pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of service. And so what we did last week is to raise the question, how do we know if Christ the head of the church is fashioning a man into a shepherd after His own heart in this whole matter of the preliminary recognition of Christ's gift? He does not send an angel down with a red hot poker to brand such people in their foreheads. He does not give them what I call the clerical fibrillation, something like that, some special twitch in the ventricles or the arteries, or the auricles of the heart, that they may know that the hand of Christ is upon them. We sought to identify the agents involved in the preliminary recognition of a man as a gift of Christ. And we saw that the agents are the man himself in the context of a living church, Romans 12.3 and following.

12:14 Secondly, the mature people of God and their counsel in the context of a living church. The whole biblical doctrine in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. And thirdly, the formal encouragement of the church through its appointed leadership, 2 Timothy 2.2.

12:33 Timothy as an appointed leader at Ephesus is to commit to faithful men the body of apostolic truth so that they in turn shall be able to teach others also. Then we raise the second question. Who then is involved? After that preliminary recognition that a man may indeed be one upon whom Christ has laid his hand, in most cases some specialized training is needed, who is authorized to impart that training?

13:06 In what context should it be imparted? We then describe the agents involved in the general and the specialized training of those potential gifts of Christ. And we have the two simple subheadings. The general training, meaning imparted, is imparted by a thorough involvement in the life and ministry of a biblical church.

13:29 The church is the pillar and ground of the truth. Not the seminary, not the Bible school, not even Trinity Ministerial Academy. The major formative influence by which Christ makes shepherds after his own heart is first of all to make them healthy sheep in a healthy church. So that they know what a church, and they know what it is to be a sheep in a true church.

13:59 And that simple and obvious fact is alas overlooked by so many when this issue is addressed. But then if the head of the church begins to brood over the spirit of a man and the agency of his own accurate self-assessment and the assessment of the mature people of God and the formal encouragement of the existing leadership indicate that he ought to be ought to obtain some specialized training under ordinary circumstances, in what context should he obtain that training? Should he be wrenched out of that which is the pillar and ground of the truth in the most crucial period of his acquisition of truth? It's as ludicrous as to suggest that someone who aspires to be a physician should be wrenched loose from hospitals and surgical wards while preparing himself to be a physician. That a man should be taken out of a ballpark and away from baseball bats and baseball gloves who's preparing to be a major league ball player. The whole concept of wrenching a man loose from real involvement in and accountability to God's institution in his most formative period of preparation for the ministry is not only unbiblical, it is ludicrous when applied.

15:20 We are not saying that every single local church has this responsibility and ought to have an academy. We are not saying that, but we are saying that only when the church feels the burden to do her task and prayerfully assesses what Christ has done to give a deposit of gift and the other factors essential for a given local church to undertake that endeavor with the prayers and help of like-minded people, we are not saying that every single local church has this responsibility and ought to have an academy. This task should not be shoved off of detached institutions which have no framework of reference from the Word of God. Now that's basically been a distillation of several hours of exposition. This morning we come to the third and final division of this crucial issue, the issue of ministerial recognition, specialized training and ordination. We have asked the question, who are the agents involved in that preliminary recognition and sought to answer it from the Word of God. We've asked the question, who are the agents involved in the general and specialized training?

The Central Question: Who Formally Recognizes Church Planters?

16:32 Now the question, who are the agents involved in the formal recognition and ordination of a man to function as a shepherd after God's own heart? Who has been given the right and the responsibility to say, not with infallibility, but with a degree of reasoned certainty, this man is a gift of Christ and ought to be formally recognized as such and set apart by a process we call ordination, whatever name you may want to give to it, the thing we're concerned about. Who is authorized to take that step of following? Final, formal recognition and ordination.

17:25 Well, as we seek to answer that question, I want to answer it in two categories. First of all, with respect to those whose initial task is that of gathering a flock and establishing a church, that is, a church planter at home or abroad. We're thinking here of a shepherd, if we may use that imagery, who does not go to an existing flock, but who goes out and under the blessing of God through prayerful, spirit-anointed labors, gathers a flock together. Who is the agent that ought to recognize such a man, lay hands upon him, and send him forth, identified as a gift of Jesus Christ, to gather a flock and to establish a church? Then we want to consider the second category, those who are recognized to serve as resident shepherds in an already existing flock, whether as the sole shepherd or one of a plurality of overseers. So, we deal first of all then with the authorized agents in the formal recognition and ordination of a church planter. Now, that's a pretty important question.

18:45 As God more and more enlarges our vision, and we see need in our own country and to the ends of the earth, and our hearts are moved, and we say, Lord, what is there that we can and ought to do? We better be clear in our understanding of this issue. And some of you whose hearts have found a wonderful affinity with our practice, you don't know what the taproots of that practice are. So, there is this manifesto, this declaration of our aims and principles, that you might see what lies beneath the surface, and hopefully make these convictions your own.

Exceptional Cases: God's Sovereign Freedom

19:25 The authorized agents then, in the formal recognition and ordination of a church planter, say at the outset, there may be exceptional cases in which God sovereignly bypasses the ordinary patterns and structures that He Himself has created, just to remind us He's God. For example, if you'll turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 8, we read in Acts chapter 8, that after the persecution that arose upon the death of Stephen, the church in Jerusalem, far from having favor with all the people, now became the object of general persecution.

20:05 And this scattered the church. The apostles remained there at Jerusalem. And we read in verse 3, But Saul laid waste the church, entering into every house, and dragging men and women, committed them to prison. Verse 4, They, they, therefore, that were scattered abroad, went about preaching the word.

20:29 Now, some unnamed people were scattered abroad preaching the word. Now, were these people who had some previous formal recognition by the church in Jerusalem, or were they what we would say just ordinary laymen with a vision and a passion for the gospel, and wherever they went, they preached the gospel? Well, we're not too sure. But we do know, that something marvelous happened through their endeavors.

20:55 When we turn over to Acts chapter 11, and verse 19, this is what we read. Acts 11, 19, They, therefore, that were scattered abroad upon the tribulation that arose about Stephen, you see how that links us right back to Luke's statement in Acts 8, 3. They that were scattered abroad, traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to none save only to Jews. And there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, that is, that was their original origin, who, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus.

21:36 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number that believed turned unto the Lord. And then the report of this filters down to Jerusalem, and Jerusalem sends up a proven man in the person of Barnabas. He sees that the grace of God was at work. God had gathered a flock, and so Barnabas stays on and shepherds them for a while, realizes they need another man of greater gifts and knowledge.

22:01 He sends for Saul, and Saul comes, and they stay there a lengthy period of time establishing the church. Now, it may well be that those who are described as preaching the word had never had any formal recognition, but not necessarily. It's an open-ended question. Because back in Acts chapter 8, no sooner does Luke give this general description, they that were scattered abroad went about preaching, but he begins to tell us about such a person, Philip.

22:35 And Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed unto them the Christ. Now, Philip was not a freelancer. Philip was one of the seven who, according to Acts chapter 6 and verse 5, had been recognized, recognized as a man who was of unusual spiritual stature and had been set apart with the other six to perform what we would now call the diaconal services. But, in addition to his role and function as a deacon, according to Acts 21.8, he was an evangelist. Acts 21.8 describes him as Philip the Evangelist. Well, you see, it could be that when Luke speaks, in general terms, they that were scattered abroad went about preaching the word, he is now guided by the Holy Spirit to give us a specific example of that.

23:33 Not that every Tom, Dick, and Harry was going about, quote, preaching, but that those who had been recognized preachers in Jerusalem did not cease to preach when they were scattered. But let's assume, for the sake of argument, that they were not recognized, quote, preachers.

23:51 It would only show that God is free to work apart from his own institutions when he chooses to do so. However, and oh, may God help us to get hold of this principle, what God may do in the free exercise of his sovereignty to sidestep his own institutions, I am never at liberty to do without sin.

24:24 My liberty is not determined by God's free exercise. of his sovereign prerogatives, but by his revealed will on any given point.

The Principle: God's Sovereignty Does Not Define Human Liberty

24:37 And so I'm concerned in this manifesto to declare we are determined to give plain to the centrality of the church in the purposes of God, not only reference to the tentative recognition of the gift of Christ, to any formal concentrated training, training essential for the honing of the gifts of such a man, but in the actual formal recognition and ordination of such a man. We are not concerned with what God may sovereignly do in the exercise of his rights as God, but with what he has revealed as the rule of our conduct. And therefore, when we turn to the scriptures, we see that the ordinary pattern, the pattern of authorization and ordination of church planters is clear. And I have but two things to say and demonstrate from the scriptures under this head. The supreme and ultimate agent is the Lord himself.

25:46 The secondary and instrumental agent is the church. That's it.

25:53 What is the ordinary pattern of authorization and ordination for a church planter, whether at home or abroad?

The Ordinary Pattern: Two Agents in Sending Church Planters

26:03 The agent is the Lord himself. Where is that? That taught in scripture. Matthew chapter 9 and John chapter 13.

26:11 Matthew chapter 9. Our Lord himself looks out over masses of spiritually needy people, people to whom he was ministering.

26:24 And notice the imagery that is used in verse 36 of Matthew 9. When he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion because they were distressed and scared. They were gathered as sheep, not having a shepherd. This is why I'm bold enough to put the concept of shepherd into church planting.

26:48 The Lord connects the two here.

26:51 He saw them as sheep, not having a shepherd. Then said he unto his disciples, the harvest indeed is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he, send forth laborers into his harvest. Now words cannot be plainer that the ultimate and supreme agent in the authorization and ordination of a church planter is God himself.

27:29 Therefore we're to cry to him who is the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth laborers into his harvest. And in the context, with the mixed metaphors, and that's why it doesn't trouble me to mix them, the Bible does again and again, or moves from one to another. When laborers are sent forth, they become instruments to perform a shepherding function, taking distressed and scattered sheep and gathering them into a place of safety where they can be cared for and fed and nourished upon the bread of life and live their life together under the rule of him who is the chief shepherd. Even the Lord Jesus, who is the ultimate and the supreme agent in this authorization and ordination of a church planter, it is God himself. Pray that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. And John 13, 20 establishes the same truth. John 13 and verse 20.

28:39 Verily I say unto you, he that receives, whomsoever I send, receives me. And he that receives me, receives him that sent me. Our Lord envisions an ongoing work in which he himself will send men forth as his ambassadors, as his heralds. And he says, he that receiveth whomsoever I send, he is active, active in the sending, though he is not physically present in the process.

29:20 He is present and he is the supreme and ultimate agent in the sending forth. Therefore, the authorization and ordination of a church planter, but the secondary and instrumental agent is the church. The secondary and instrumental agent is the church. It is secondary.

29:44 He is primary. But it is secondary. He is the ultimate. Yes, but the church is the instrumental agent.

29:55 Just as it would be a tragedy to deny that Christ himself is the supreme and ultimate agent, it is a tragedy to deny that the church has been constituted by Christ, the secondary and instrumental agent. In this great work, turn to Acts chapter 13.

Acts 13: The Church as Instrumental Agent

30:19 Notice how church-centered is this part of the book of Acts in which Luke will now describe for us how the gospel is taken to the ends of the earth primarily through the instrumentality of the apostle Paul and his companions. Now there were at Antioch among a group of concerned laymen who were plotting for an evangelistic endeavor. No. There were, there were at Antioch that was there.

30:56 Prophets and teachers. Barnabas, Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manan the foster brother of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. And as they met with local Christian businessmen to assess their financial resources, and as they met with sociologists and anthropologists to plot their strategy of contextualization of their message within the Roman Empire, no, no such nonsense is recorded in the Bible. Missionary strategy did not begin in the context of the moneybags and of sociologists and anthropologists.

31:41 It began in the context of some people with their lives embedded in a healthy, vigorous church. Doing what? Ministering to the Lord and fasting. Taken up with the most spiritual, spiritual dimensions of church life and responsibility in their appointed place of leadership.

32:04 And the Holy Spirit makes known His mind. Though the risen Christ had already spoken directly to one of these men, told him, telling him that He would carry His name far out to the Gentiles. At His conversion, Paul was apprised by the Lord Himself that He was going to be an instrument to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. But many years have passed in which God has been honing and purifying and fitting and shaping and equipping His servant.

32:34 And now the time has come and God is going to thrust Him forth. The Lord Himself who laid hold of Him and said, You are a chosen vessel unto Me to bear My name to the Gentiles. He is the supreme and ultimate agent in Paul's church planting endeavors. But even when you've been converted by direct revelation, and commissioned from heaven, God is saying, the secondary and instrumental agent will not be pushed back in the shadows.

33:03 So when the Holy Ghost begins to record how this man actually got out, the church is central as the secondary and instrumental agent. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed and they had fasted, and laid their hands on them. Oh, wait a minute.

33:31 If the risen Christ has laid His hand on a man, why in the world does He need the puny hands of His fellow creatures laid on Him? That ever bother you? That puzzled me for years. I said, the risen Christ laid His hand on Paul.

33:46 What's He need the puny hands of a few fellow sinners for? But the text says they laid their hands on them. Was it to impart grace? No.

33:54 The risen Christ imparted the grace. What were they doing? As representatives of the church in its corporate leadership, by laying hands upon them, they were saying, the church recognizes the call of God. The church is committed to stand with you in this endeavor so that they are sent out by the Lord as the supreme and ultimate agent, but by the church as the secondary and instrumental agent.

34:29 And this is validated in their subsequent history. For turn over to Acts chapter 15 and verse 40 and what do we find?

Validation in Paul's Subsequent History

34:40 Back up to verse 36. After some days, Paul said to Barnabas, let's return now and visit the brethren in every city where we proclaim the word of the Lord and see how they fare. So they went back to these young congregations.

34:55 Barnabas was minded to take with them John who was called Mark, but Paul thought not good to take him with him who withdrew from Pamphylia and went to the city of Bethlehem. So they went back to these young congregations. So they went back to these young congregations. So they went back to these young congregations.

35:02 But not with them to the work. There arose a sharp contention. They parted asunder one from the other. Barnabas took Mark, sailed away to Cyprus.

35:10 Paul chose Silas and went forth being commended by the brethren to the grace of the Lord.

35:24 We can't sort out a lot of things relative to this dispute, but one thing is clear. There's no record that when Barnabas chooses to go forth with John Mark that he was commended. He was commended by the brethren. Paul chose Silas and went forth commended by the brethren.

35:44 Wait a minute. I've been commended by the Lord. What do I need a brethren for? Except maybe to fill up the coffers and meet my monthly living expenses.

35:55 No. Paul who was pouring out his life in the establishment of churches did not despise the very institution he was seeking to establish. Nor did he regard himself as above it and not in need of all of the marvelous means of grace that God has deposited in his church. And this is true when Paul then puts his eyes upon another companion right on into the next chapter.

36:25 And he came to Derbe and to Lystra and behold a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewess that believed. The same was what? Well reported of by the local Bible school. Well reported of by his seminary, Summa Cum Laude.

36:42 Well reported of by the local mission board. And by the local cycle analysis team that had analyzed his fitness for foreign missionary service. That's what they do with people now. The same was well reported of the brethren.

37:01 He had the commendation of the church. And we could multiply other passages, but I trust these witnesses will suffice to convince me and convince your judgment that it is in this way that the words of Romans 10, 12 and following are fulfilled. Turn to that marvelous passage. It is in this way that these words are fulfilled.

Romans 10: Sent by the Church to Fulfill the Chain of Salvation

37:25 Romans 10, 12. There is no distinction between Jew and Greek. The same Lord is Lord of all and rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

37:37 How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? How shall they call on him? How shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher?

37:48 And how shall they preach? Not except they go, but except they be sent.

37:54 Except they be sent! How shall they proclaim in the official capacity of a divinely appointed herald of God unless they are sent by the Sovereign? And can say in the name of my Sovereign who has sent me, I call upon you to believe in the message of life and salvation that I bring. And what is the way the Sovereign sends them?

38:25 Does he relinquish his supreme and ultimate agency? No! But he has established a secondary and instrumental agency and that is the church.

38:38 And that's why, dear people, we are determined. We are determined! That our life ministry shall unquestionably confirm the uniqueness of the church in the saving purpose of God not only in our theology and practice of the Christian life, of evangelism and missions, but in the matter of recognition,

39:06 specialized training, and formal ordination to the work of the ministry.

Application: Rejecting the Prevailing Mission Board Pattern

39:16 Now by application, let me say that since this is the teaching of the Word, the Word of God, we have refused as a church from our very inception the prevailing pattern of a call and commission to home or foreign missions which willfully or ignorantly sets aside this pattern. The normal pattern, the one with which I grew up, it was my spiritual milk and my crackers and my Swibeck and my spiritual infancy having come down the route of broad evangelicalism in my early days as a Christian and attending to one Christian college for two years and a Bible school for another two years that were interdenominational. This was the pattern. One would feel a call to church planting at home or abroad in the quiet of his closet or more likely under the group pressure of a large gathering at a missionary rally.

40:18 In a context where you were taught the height of spiritual devotion, it's to give yourself to missionary service. Well, in the flush of your fresh first love to Christ, you're told that the epitome of love to Christ is to offer yourself as a candidate for the mission field. Of course, you're going to raise your hand, sign the pledge card, walk to the front. You'll do crawl down on your hands and knees.

40:46 And then you're told if you're serious, then you've got to go to Bible school or seminary and get equipped. And then when you're done, you've got to apply to a mission board. And then when you apply to the mission board, they may, they may require you do a six-month internship in a church.

41:04 They may. Many still do not. And then you go to candidate school. And for a period of some weeks, some of them as long as six weeks, you are given information and you are analyzed and you are considered as whether or not you're a bona fide, fit candidate for the mission board.

41:21 And if so, they then declare you a missionary, an approved missionary, a candidate. Ah, now the church comes into the picture front and center.

41:33 Who's going to support him? And so I get the letters. My name is so-and-so, approved candidate of such and such a mission. I'm in your area.

41:45 And I'd love to come and tell you and your people about our work. But the bottom line is, and I don't say this with any degree of acrimony or bitterness to the people involved. Some of them, their sincerity and earnestness shames many of us. But the bottom line is, they're prostituting themselves to get their support.

42:07 The board arrogates it to itself, the prerogative of recognition, of dictating the preparation necessary of assessing fitness. Then it says, now you go out and raise your support. And when you've got 90 or 95% pledge plus such and such a cash load to take care of the initial expenses, getting you to go to the field, then often, and this is not caricature, often the mission board itself will have a commissioning service on neutral territory that has nothing to do even with a church building, let alone the life of a vital congregation. And it commissions missionaries!

42:50 And then the churches only come in when it's time to remind them that support's falling off or when they come home on furlough and need to make up the support that is lacking. And then, of course, quote, prayer support. Now, am I casting aspersions upon the integrity of people caught up in that system? I say unashamedly before God, no.

43:15 The Lord knows the heart and to His own Master a servant stands or falls. But my question is this, where does that system find justification in the Word of God? As though the church were just an institution primarily for financial support in the great enterprise of church planting.

Thornwell and Historical Precedent

43:45 But someone objects and says, well, isn't this a rather novel or minority position? Well, suppose it were. If it's biblical, who cares? Let God be true and every man a liar.

43:57 But it's not a novel position. And I want to read to you from the godly Presbyterian who over a hundred years ago fought this battle within his own denomination over this very issue. Listen to the burning religious passion of James Henley Thornwell. And I use those words guardedly because when one reads in his biography a description of what happened when Thornwell preached, it makes me jealous to want to raise him from the dead and hear him preach just once.

44:33 Preacher who stood head and shoulders above great men in his day as a preacher. But he was a high churchman in the biblical sense. And he was wrestling with this issue as we alluded to it last week. And this is what he says.

44:47 It appears to us that this whole system he's talking about the establishment of independent boards to clear and send people to the foreign mission field apart from the control and the scrutiny and the activity of the church. It appears to us that this whole system involves an abandonment of the great principle that it is the duty of the church in her ecclesiastical capacity to conduct every department of the work which the Savior has committed to her. He goes on to say, we believe that if there be any departments of Christian effort to which the church of Christ is bound in her appropriate character to direct her attention in her unwearied labors, they are those which relate to the training of her sons for the holy ministry and sending the gospel to those who do not have it and planting plants in the dark and destitute portions of the earth. This is no novel position. This was articulated by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1837.

46:02 And Thornwell in the debate some years later is calling his own denomination back to those biblical principles.

46:12 Then he goes on to argue with equal cogency the duties of the church are duties of the church and our duties which rest upon her authority by God himself. He has given her the organization which she possesses for the purpose of discharging these duties. She can therefore no more throw them off upon others than a man can delegate to his neighbor the care of his own family while abandoning himself to idleness and ease.

46:44 If our church government is God prescribed, it is absolutely adequate for all emergencies. He appointed his own government in his church for this very purpose and gave them no authority to shift the responsibility, the heat and burden of the day upon creations of their own. If the church can delegate one part of her work, she can delegate another. And what happened when the church said, let the experts do the evangelizing.

47:19 We've got the Graham juggernaut coming into the metropolitan area glad to do it. And church is jumping on by the dozens. Men who would never be found in any other context identified with openly liberal and questionably orthodox men yet joining arms in joint endeavors to confront the metropolitan area with the gospel of Christ in such a context of compromise that God the Holy Ghost who is the spirit of truth is so great that he is not. He is the spirit of truth.

47:50 He is so insulted that I could not pray for God's blessing upon the endeavor.

47:58 If the church can relinquish one part of her duty, why not another?

48:04 Oh, dear people, do you see the issues at stake? And in this manifesto, we're saying we are determined by the grace of God to give plain testimony to our conviction of the centrality of the church in the saving purpose of God with all the difficulties it brings us to. It brings in this area of the recognition and specialized training and official commissioning and ordination of the gifts of Christ with all of its burdens and difficulties. The answer is not let John do it.

48:41 Let Henry do it. Let the experts do it. Every difficulty faced in the path of biblical obedience is a call to do what those five men were doing. Minister to the Lord and fast and pray and seek God.

49:00 God says, Cursed be he that trusts in man and makes flesh his arm and whose heart departs from Jehovah. Cursed is such a man. One more word from Thornwell. He goes on to write, As under the old dispensation, nothing connected with the worship or discipline of the church of God, we would say, with God's ancient people was left to the wisdom or discretion of men.

49:24 But everything was accurately prescribed by the authority of God so under the new covenant. No voice is to be heard in the household of faith but the voice of the Son of God. No voice to be heard but the voice of the Son of God. The power of the church is purely ministerial and declarative.

49:46 She is only to hold forth the doctrine, enforce the laws and execute the government which Christ has given her. She is to add nothing of her own to and subtract nothing from what her Lord, his established discretionary power she does not possess. The great error of the church in all ages, the fruitful source of her apostasy and crime has been a presumptuous reliance upon her own understanding. You want God to curse this church?

50:19 Begin to rely upon our own understanding. Her own inventions have seduced her from loyalty to God, filled her sanctuary with idols and the hearts of her children with vain imaginations. That's strong language. But that's no wild-eyed, fiery, bombastic Baptist.

50:40 That's a dignified southern Presbyterian recognized as the most able, anointed preacher in his generation. And he says with great conviction and passion her own inventions have seduced her from loyalty to God, filled her sanctuary with idols and the hearts of her children with vain imaginations. The Bible cuts at the very root of this evil by affording us a perfect and infallible rule of faith and practice. The absolute perfection of the scriptures as a directory to man was a cardinal principle of the Reformation.

51:18 And whatever could not be traced to them either directly or by necessary inference was denounced as a human invention, as mere will-worship, which God abhors so deeply that in instance, inspired Apostle has connected it with idolatry or the worshipping of angels. He's referring to Colossians. Now the total silence of the word of God with respect to such contrivances as mission boards seals their condemnation.

51:49 Brethren, if this is a novel opinion,

51:53 then I stand in the novelty of that great man of God and the position a whole denomination held without shame. Several decades before they began to relinquish it. No, we do not judge the sincerity or the hearts of people caught up in those institutions. I want to repeat it.

Clarification: Judging People, Not Systems

52:17 God knows that in my heart I do not judge them. I have precious blood relatives in that system. I've never sent a letter admonishing them or correcting them. God has not established a relationship that would make it seemly for me to be their teacher.

52:38 I can only pray that God will do something that will make them hungry to know the way of God more perfectly.

52:47 But dear people, for us to say, look, we don't judge what the rest of men do.

52:57 We are determined by the grace of God that our life and ministry will give unquestionable confirmation of the truth. To the centrality of the church in the saving purposes of God. Can't we be given leave to at least live by our convictions without being condemned as narrow and judgmental and censorious?

53:29 I've heard a sermon in which I've spoken of the ten evils of mission boards. Some of you have been here for 25...

53:35 How many have ever heard me preach such a sermon? No, I haven't. But what I am saying is if we would have the smile of Christ and when there is a man upon whom we would lay our hands believing that Christ is forming him into a shepherd to go and gather sheep and bring them together into a church, a laborer to be thrust forth, then we must do so in a way that recognizes the supreme and ultimate agency of the Lord Himself and then the secondary and instrumental agency of the church. Now, that's all I'm going to give you this morning.

Application: What the Church Must Do

54:17 I had hoped to complete the second category, but as I've said to many of you, I'm determined not to gloss over these things. These are foundational. Let me then skip over the second head and take it up, God willing, next week and bring my closing exhortation.

54:34 In the light of these principles, what are we to do as God's people? We're to do what Jesus said. You see, when we really believe it's not the experts in the parachurch, the institutions that will take care of this matter of the recognition and the sending forth of those whom the Lord has put His hand upon for this work, then we will cry to God, first of all, to make such men. And then for God to send them forth.

55:03 We'll cry to God for wisdom to give sound counsel and cry to God for wisdom that our leaders who teach and assess a man's fitness for this labor that divines and wisdom would be given as we wait upon God and as we seek His face. You see, the burden then is where it belongs. It's upon us as the people of God. The church at Antioch had its blood involved with Paul and Barnabas when they went forth.

55:34 Not just its shekels. Their blood. That's why when they came back, they stayed no little time at Antioch with the brethren. Why?

55:43 They had shared missionary blood. Shared missionary pulses and heartbeat.

55:52 Not just a coffer into which they threw their shekels to salve their conscience that they were a, quote, missionary church.

56:01 And some of you have known what this has meant in our life together. That when our missionaries hurt, we hurt with them. Why? The relationship is vital because it's ecclesiastical.

56:13 We're part of the same body. And when one member suffers, all suffer with it. So let us cry to God. For grace, nobly to do our task, whatever the cost may be.

Evangelistic Close: Receive the Church-Sent Herald

56:26 Cry to God that He will equip and fit and furnish and give grace to recognize such men. But what do I say to you sitting here this morning for whom I prayed, for whom many of us prayed in our congregational prayer? My unconverted friend, listen to me. The greatest gift God can give you is to be next to a godly set of parents.

56:51 To hold and shape your mind and thinking and to point you to the Savior. The greatest gift God can ever put before you is a shepherd after his own heart. Sent and authorized by the King. Recognized by His church.

57:08 My friend, listen. When God puts before you people who know the Gospel and know the God of the Gospel and love God and love you and seek to set before you the horrible state of your heart and of your condition, ambition in the court of heaven and seek to entreat you to repent and believe the Gospel. When God puts as a roadblock in your path to hell a humble, ordinary, fellow, but redeemed sinner who speaks to you in the name of Christ, of your need of Christ and of the glory of Christ and the sufficiency of Christ and the willingness of Christ to receive all and any who come. My friend, if you hurtle over that roadblock, I tell you, God's got a special place in hell for you. You've despised His greatest gifts. You're so determined to go to hell that even when He puts the roadblock of a servant of Christ before you, you turn it aside. I beseech you in Christ that be reconciled to God, stack arms, turn from your sin and flee to this Christ who, because He has blessed you, has died for sinners and is determined to gather all for whom He died.

58:35 He's continually active in this work of sending men, active at the right hand of the Father, active in His church by the Spirit. And oh, my unconverted friend, I plead with you in His name, go to this Christ who once again has entreated you through His servant to be reconciled unto God. Let us pray.