The following address was delivered
at the 7th Annual Trinity Pastors Conference held at the Trinity
Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. 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 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 of
spiritual concern 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. Concern number two, the renewal
of biblical holiness. And concern number three, the
return to biblical churchmanship. While 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
Gospels. And we considered that subject
under three simple headings, its essential doctrinal content,
its appointed means of communication, 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 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 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 first time,
tapes of those two messages are available. 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. 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, we immediately think of a very marked
expression of the little cliché, 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 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. Furthermore, in a day when movements
and parachurch organizations, independent of angelistic 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 concern for biblical churchmanship. But nonetheless, in spite of
the ecumenical movement, in spite of the proliferation of parachurch
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. 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 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. 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. 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 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. What is the origin of the
whole idea of the Church? Who spawned 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 seasons of worship on God's appointed
day, for the ministry of the Word, for prayer, 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? Is this noble institution something
which, like Topsy, just growed? 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
but the one institution among many? which deserves our energies,
our time, our money, and our prayers for the accomplishment
of God's designated purposes? 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. 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. 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, 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 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. 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, 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 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 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. And he says in verse 7, Whereof,
with respect to this mystery, I was made a minister not for
anything particularly good in me, 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,
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 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 some parachurch 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 in powers, the manifold wisdom of God. And why is this so? Verse 11. 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 and are gathered into those communities
who owe 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 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 is absolutely central. God is determined to cause ooze
and aahs and breathless wonder by angels and cherubim and seraphim
and other heavenly, non-earthly creatures who behold His work
upon earth. The ooze and the aahs and the
breathless wonder is to be seen through the church. the manifold wisdom of God displayed
in the theater of the church 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, much
more briefly, the familiar words of our Lord Jesus in Matthew
and the 18th chapter 16th chapter in the 18th 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's accurate answer was not something learned of
men but taught him by his own father and then he says in verse
18 and I also say unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this
rock not upon you 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. 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? Not, I will gather my people,
I will establish my kingdom. He could have said any 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 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,
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 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 places
through the church, the manifold wisdom of God. And if our Lord
Jesus says that the focal point of His own redemptive work 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 to 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 alongside of it. It has no copy. It has no substitute. It is unique, 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 1 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 and the purpose of God? The explicit
statement of 1 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 altogether,
as best we can fit the chronology together, a total of 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. 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 letter is
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 and
do you shortly. But, because he had no direct
revelation from God as to the time frame 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 what is burning in my heart, If I cannot come in the
will of God 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. 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 a peculiar burden
for his own fellow Jews. I have continual sorrow and heaviness
of heart for my kinsmen, my brethren, according to the flesh. And he
describes them in Romans as his fellow Jews. He carries this
burden He's 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 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 impact
for 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 the matter? Has he lost
his vision? Has he lost his burden? Has he somehow 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. The church is God's house. 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 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. 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 of the truth. 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 in Ephesus
that was the child of the truth. The Apostle Paul says 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,
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. Separate the truth from the church.
And in any given area, there is no reason to believe 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
and the purpose of God is clearly asserted in 1 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 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 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 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 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
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 patent 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 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. 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 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 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 was formed by apostolic
direction. But it did not then become frozen
into the benevolence committee of the apostolic church. When
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, in
1963, after 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, 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 in their little conclaves. He goes on to say,
now look here, people will say you're 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've just evaded it. I think
you will all have to agree that this is a simple statement of
fact, and I've given you the reasons why I'm pointing it out.
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've 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're uncertain as to
the nature of the Church, How can there possibly be a true
unity for a true activity? End quote. Is this some offbeat notion dug
up by narrow minds and narrower yet spirits? No. When men who
are sensitive to the Word are honest, With that word they must
come to this conviction. 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-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 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 institution
of man 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
you see that still is in the realm of what we might call internalized
spiritual theory And that must be joined to this second commodity,
and it's what I'm calling, 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. Now it's a mouthful, but I didn't
know how to reduce it and still be accurate. When will there
be a return to biblical churchmanship? not only when we start with a
Bible-based conviction concerning the centrality and uniqueness
of the Church, but when we are brought to a deep commitment
to labor to see the Church in which we serve. Not sitting in an ivory 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, now my next
word is a key word, conforming, not conformed, past tense, but
laboring to see the church in which we serve, conforming, present
tense, always adjusting to what? to the totality, the totality
of its life, to the Word of God 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. Now, It's interesting when we
turn to the Great Commission that this is what our Lord envisions
His followers would do. When you turn to the familiar
passage in Matthew, I've asserted now once again the burden of
proof is upon me. 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. 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
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
has 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! 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 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. 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 to Christ
were gathered into communities called churches. 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
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, teaching them to observe. Now look at the next words. All
things whatsoever I commanded you, All things there's to be
meticulous conformity to the word of Christ. All things I
have commanded. Then notice the universality.
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 and you have the parts in their
totality. If I've commanded it, it's worthy
of being taught, not put into artificial categories by you
who go out in my name. Well, this is non-essential.
It need not be taught. Oh yes, I believe it. It's clear
Christ taught it. But you see, not everyone likes
that. 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. Oh no. He said, you teach
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. 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 unto principalities and powers His
manifold wisdom, pillar and ground of the truth, embodying the truth,
displaying the truth, living the truth, proclaiming the truth,
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 commission
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 of the Holy Spirit coming upon you,
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 church. And I don't even attempt to say
it in Latin to impress you. 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.
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. 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. If he has not measured the door
of entrance, if he has not described it, if he has not given the rules
within his house, if he has not told us the behavior expected
of his children, that which is intolerable and yet to remain
part of his visible house, 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. 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, 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. 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. The acceptable way
of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself and so
limited by His own revealed will that He may not be worshipped
according to the imaginations and devices of men. And I think
it would add to the worship if we, my friends, God doesn't give
a hoot about what you think. He alone knows what pleases Him. 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, 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 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 them, 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, 37? If any man among you thinks himself
to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the
things which I say unto you are the entaille, the commandments
of the Lord. 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, Karin? One, two, three. Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, eh? Stop at tres. Oh, but 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. But I have this marvelous gift. I must sing for
the Lord. Well, 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,
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 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 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 Now it is an idealistic standard
if perhaps he is in 9 out of 10. I shall never forget 22 years
ago, 23 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, 1 Timothy 3, the
bishop, they must be. I said, here it is, Lord. There's
a standard. And I was so excited, I went
to this brother and I said, brother look! He said, oh Lord, I'll
just take it easy. You mustn't take that seriously. 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 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! 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. Breckinridge,
in some unpublished material that one of the men I referred
to it earlier dug out of the rare book section, listen to
Breckinridge. who writes the qualification
for the office are clearly laid down 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. 1
Timothy 3, Titus 1, and in every examination of the proof whether
or not a man be called of God, 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 to that effect fourth 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, to seek
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! 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. 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 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 they were
there, but he never called the church to organize as church
and to fight this, that, or the other evil. And know how 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? Oh, the church can't do that.
Can't? I commend to you the marvelous
work of Thornwell, 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, they were serious
about this matter 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 task. In the pivotal
text, of course, is 2 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 of strongholds. And what are the weapons with
which the Church shook the Roman Empire? Prayer, preaching, godly
living, aggressive evangelism, self-denying community in which
each regarded other better than himself. No man said that all
that he possessed was his own. It was a disposition of heart,
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, 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. 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 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 speak 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 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 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 in the sufferings of Christ for his
body's sake, the church. What's lacking? any expiatory
virtue lacking? No! He cried, it is finished! The veil 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? Then you're
not serious. Why did Jesus say, he that will
lose his life for my sake and the gospels, 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
than he's begun to receive from any one of our assemblies. May
He yet see of the reward of His sufferings and be satisfied.
Let us pray. Our Father, we bow in Your holy
presence and we feel ashamed at our love of ease. We confess
our love to Your Son But how little we've been willing to
bear for the sake of His body, the Church, that which He loved
and for which He gave Himself, and which He continues to nourish
and cherish by His ever-living intercession. O Lord, we confess
that when we look into Your Word and begin to contemplate what
it reveals, of 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. 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, but
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. O Lord Jesus, 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. O 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 Your
grace, put these things to death in us, we pray. Come, Holy Spirit,
gift of the ascended Christ, and fill us this night, 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 namesake. Amen.