Reformed Baptist Distinctives

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Every Sunday from the pulpit. I say welcome to hope reform Baptist Church, and I use that word two words reformed and Baptist so the question becomes

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What does the word reformed and Baptist mean? Okay, so I use the term

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Reformed and Baptistic right so everybody thinks that oh if you're a

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Calvinist you're reformed So what is Calvinism Calvinism is holding to the doctrines of grace to Tula total depravity

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Unconditional election limited atonement irresistible grace and perseverance of the Saints That's Calvinistic theology

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Okay, but reformed theology goes much further than Calvinistic theology

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So Calvinistic does not necessarily mean reformed Okay, all reformers

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Have Calvinistic doctrine they are all Calvinist, but not all

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Calvinists are reformed And we're going to go through what the distinctives of reformed theology are this morning

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So there's going to be seven distinctions that I make actually there's an eighth one there And I couldn't come up with a

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C. It's called the regulative principle of worship So all reformers hold to the historic creeds of the church, so we're creedal

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The historic confessions of the church, so we're confessional they hold to covenantal theology

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Calvinistic theology tulip and the five solas They are Christ centered Christ is the center of all of our theology

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We hold to keeping the commandments not for your salvation, but as a reflection of the change that God's done in your heart

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We're cessationists which means that we believe that the apostolic sign gifts That were throughout the book of Acts and the

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New Testament Have come to a close we have the completed canon of scripture that gives us everything that we need for Salvation and life in Christ, and then we hold to the regulative principle of worship now just to let you know

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We could do a complete Whole lesson on each one of these topics and we have done some of these in the past the five solas in Fact I did a series on if you go into the reform rookie website.

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You can go through the five solas I'll put up a link in the description so you guys could follow along So those are the distinctives of reform theology

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Now why are we Baptistic? The three Baptistic distinctives are again three

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C's credo stands for believer. I believe that's believers baptism Congregational which is in terms of church government and Complementarian okay as opposed to eagle at Arian, so we don't believe that women can hold the office of pastor

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It doesn't mean that women are not as not equal to men men and women are equal in God's sight It's just the role that office of pastor is not to be held by a woman the same way the role of mother is

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Not to be held by a man Even though the world is trying to change those distinctions and redefine what

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God has defined already all right So we got a lot of ground to cover And I pulled this information from a lot of different sources online

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It wasn't just one source. It was from Lagos and several online Articles so I didn't footnote all of them, but just know that this is from several different sources

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So the first distinction is creedal We hold to the historic creeds of the

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Catholic Church Like the Apostles Creed the Nicene Creed the Chalcedonian Creed and the

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Athanasian Creed Now first you might get upset that I use the term Catholic the word

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Catholic means universal We are not Roman Catholic. I call them

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Romanists because they are not the Catholic Church They are the Romanist Church. They departed from the faith not us.

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There's nothing in the scriptures about purgatory There's nothing in the scriptures about worship of Mary There's nothing in the scriptures about the bodily ascension of Mary into To heaven and all these other things that they add the teaching magisterium of the church being infallible

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These are all things they had to the scriptures So we hold to we are the Catholic Church don't give them the benefit of saying that they are the

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Catholic Church we are They've departed from the faith So we hold to the creeds the historic creeds of the church and we recite the

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Apostles Creed the first Sunday of every month The term creed is derived from the Latin word meaning.

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I believe credo Creeds are considered authoritative pronouncements that set forth the central article or tenants of the historic

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Christian faith They are what you must believe in order to be Orthodox, you know that to be an

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Orthodox Christian You must hold to the creeds of the church the creeds of the church are not infallible, but they are correct in as much as they reflect the in the infallible teaching of the scriptures

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Okay The creeds were written with several purposes in mind first They corrected various heresies profound doctrinal deviations from scripture that had arisen at the time

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The Athanasian Creed was written in response to Arianism. That's what Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus is not

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God Okay, he's just a man given authority by God. So the creeds actually were written sometimes in response to doctrinal levers that were being put forth in the church

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Second the creeds affirm essential Christian truths the Athanasian Creed which

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I just cited Affirms the truth of the Trinity Christ's incarnation his resurrection ascension his second coming and final judgment

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Creeds therefore have an appropriate and critical use both in Christian instruction as well as in worship services

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Creeds also help us to identify what is essential doctrine from peripheral doctrines

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There are secondary doctrines that are not essential to salvation. We're going to talk about one of them with baptism.

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We baptize believers Presbyterians and other denominations Lutherans baptize babies.

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That's not an essential Christian doctrine Okay, so we'll go through that. So that's the first distinctive.

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We're Crete reformers are creedal The next distinction There we go the next distinctive a distinction is confessional

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Reformers hold to one of the historic confessions that came out of the Reformation in other words the 1689

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London Baptist Confession of Faith the Westminster Confession of Faith the Belgic and the Heidelberg Confession of Faith Reformers hold to one or another one of those confessions

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So let's learn what a confession is the reformed confessions represent the considered prayerful

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Exegetical redemptive historical theological and practical judgments of the reformed churches on the most important important issues

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Facing the churches in the 16th and 17th century. You got to remember the the Reformation happened because there was

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An issue with the Roman Catholic Church They were putting forth doctrines and holding people to things that were not in the scriptures

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In fact, they burdened John Knox for for printing the scriptures in the language of the people to stop the spread of the scriptures so Romanists usually tell you the only reason you have a

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Bible in your hand is because we gave it to you and I say no You burned John Knox at the stake for trying to print

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Bibles. You didn't want it in our hands So this was a move back to the scriptures

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The confessions are not systematic theologies in miniature There are conclusions and statements about what

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Christians ought to believe and how they ought to practice the faith So the creeds tell us what essential doctrines are what you must believe the confessions tell us what you ought to believe

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Within Christianity, there are differing opinions about some things in scriptures. That's why you have different confessions

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We hold to the 1689. So the confessions are what you ought to believe the creeds are what you must believe

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They represent theology Piety and practice of the reformed churches across Europe and the

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British Isles in the classical period of reformed theology Many of these documents have been adopted as modified by contemporary reformed churches as they continue to confess and practice the historic reformed faith

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We hold to something called Semper Reformanda Always be reforming always be moving back to the scriptures

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If you see that the church is straying or certain people are moving away you bring up back to the scriptures

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Semper Reformanda So we have creedal we have confessional

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Next we're gonna have Covenantal The Reformers are covenantal in their theology in other words

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They view the Bible through the covenantal framework that God established in his dealings with mankind man,

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God deals with mankind through covenants not periods of time or dispensations

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And this comes into sharp contrast with dispensational ism, which deals with periods or dispensations of time rather than covenants

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So we look and we see the covenant with Adam the covenant with Noah the covenant with Abraham the covenant with Moses the covenant with David and then finally the covenant with Jesus and the church and we see that God deals with us through covenants

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They look at it and they look at Adam and they say well that was the age of innocence and then

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Moses is the age of the law and then David is the age of the kingdom and now we're in the age of grace

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They see the different ages where God never talks to us with regards to ages He talks to us through covenants and Jesus doesn't fulfill the ages.

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He fulfills all those covenants They all point to him in some way shape or form So we see this as a big distinction.

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They also see a difference between Israel and the church We look at the church and we recognize that within I'm sorry

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We look at Israel and we recognize that within Israel there were believers the called -out ones It's the same thing when we get to the

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New Covenant. We have the called -out ones The church is spiritual Israel the

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Israel of God now, they were still the nation of Israel. There are still bloodline Jews Okay, there's a distinction that way but as far as the church is concerned

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Acts chapter 7 Stephen says as they stoned him he talked to them about the church in the wilderness

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There was a church a call a set of called -out Believers in the

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Old Covenant that now gets passed on to the New Covenant under under the New Covenant regulations

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Not the old okay enough of that So they hold the covenant theology, which was also called federal theology or federal headship

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And it's a hermeneutical framework that seeks to understand the Bible according to its covenantal structure as dr

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Sproul frequently observed reformed theology is covenant theology Every time you hear something in the scriptures, you're hearing you are either in Adam or you are in Christ All right, they're the federal heads

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Adam is the federal head of the fallen human race. Jesus is the federal head of the regenerative a regenerate regenerated human race, okay those born of God's Spirit Reformed theologians have historically identified three overarching covenants in the

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Bible the Covenant of Redemption The Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace and I don't have enough time to go through all these like I said we could do sessions on each one of those covenants

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Books have been written on each one of those covenants So finally in brief covenant theology teaches that God has established two great covenants with mankind and a covenant within the

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Godhead To deal with how the other two relate the first covenant in logical order is called the

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Covenant of Redemption It is the agreement within the Godhead that the father would appoint to his son Jesus Who would give up his life for mankind and that Jesus would fulfill that so what we have is

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God the Father God the Son and God the Spirit Covenanting together before the creation of the world the father

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Gives the son a group of people This is in old covenant terms a way of betrothal a covenantal marriage or an arranged marriage

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So the father chooses a bride for a son and gives those people to Jesus Jesus willingly comes into the world dies on behalf of the bride he loves and takes their wrath upon him and the

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Holy Spirit regenerates them and Metaphorically walks them down the aisle in preparation for the wedding for the wedding supper of the land

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It's father son and Holy Spirit working together to bring about the salvation of his people and it's unbreakable

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It's beautiful. It's the greatest love story. You'll ever be a part of Whereas in other theologies you have

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God the Father who chooses a group of people In Christ before the foundation of the world then you have

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Christ dying for all of mankind Trying to save them and the Holy Spirit wooing whoever he can to Jesus in hopes that they repent and trust in him

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It's a fractured Godhead in reformed theology. You have a Cohesive Godhead does that does not try and fail to save his people?

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I never saw the word God and try in the same sentence in the scriptures. God has never tried anything

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You know what? God does Whatever he pleases in the heavens and the earth and beneath the earth and none can stay his hand or say what have you done?

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This is a God who doesn't take no for an answer He conquers he subdues your heart and brings you to Christ praise

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God because we never would That was a little preaching in the midst of middle of this right covenantal so we're covenantal

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So we're creedal confessional covenantal next we're Calvinistic and this is the one where everybody thinks

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Oh Calvin all Calvinists are reformed and that's not necessarily true So commonly known as tulip the doctrines of grace are what define a believer as Calvinistic They highlight the inability of man and emphasize the power and the glory of God So every time

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I read the scriptures I see over and over and over and again what man cannot do Right man cannot submit to God's Lord nor will he do so man cannot do good man

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Cannot seek after God man cannot cannot cannot and I always see what God can do God can do whatever he pleases

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God turns the king's heart in his hand like a watercourse wherever he pleases I see what man can't do and what

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God can do and that's what the doctrines of grace represent However, there's competing doctrines that keep telling me about what man can do

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Men can repent get man can believe men can keep God's commandments and God's a gentleman.

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You know, he can't violate their free will So any to any theology that tells you about the power and the ability of man and Diminishes the power and ability of God has to be rejected

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Reject that God does whatever he pleases period and the report How can the impotent?

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sinful creature do whatever he wants and Make salvation possible in and of ourselves.

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We can't it's the pride of man that wants to push that forth Read the scriptures with a critical eye and see all the

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Inabilities that God portrays on man and all of the the ability and the sovereignty and the power

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That we read about God in the scriptures. There's no comparison so Calvinism is the theological system associated with the reformer

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John Calvin that emphasizes the rule of God over all things as reflected in its understanding of Scripture God Humanity salvation the church in popular vernacular

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Calvinism often refers to the five points of Calvinistic doctrine and in its broader sense is associated with reformed theology

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So in order to be reformed you would need to be a Calvinist But you don't if you're a

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Calvinist that doesn't necessarily mean you're reformed. You may not hold to a creed you may not hold to a confession and some of the other things we're going to go through in fact, they termed a

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New term came out within the last 25 30 years called new Calvinism so you could be a

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Calvinist and Charismatic you could be a Calvinist and egalitarian. You could say that women could hold the office

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That's not reformed could be Calvinistic, but it's not reformed big difference The doctrines of grace were not created to summarize what the reformers believe

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Rather they were created to refute the five points of Arminian put forth in the remonstrance

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And the remonstrant the word remonstrance literally means an expression of opposition or protest

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So where did Arminian doctrine come from Jacob Arminius? He was a teacher in Germany somewhere and what he did was he was teaching his students about his understanding of theology and they came up with the five points of Arminianism Now the church heard these five points and disagree with them and said no.

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No, we have to have a meeting a synod So they had a synod they examined all the doctrines that Arminius was putting forth and came up with five points of refutation to the each of their five points of doctrine

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So the five points of Calvinism are not what Calvinists put forth to express their doctrine

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It's the five points that they put out to refute the errors of Arminianism So don't let an

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Arminian say all you guys created this system. You guys created the system We just came along and corrected you. That's all nice and easy

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These five points are a summary of the canons of Dort which in turn with were the judgments on of the synod of Dort in Opposition to Arminian teaching.

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Okay, any questions about that? All right, so that's another distinctive the doctrines of grace

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Next is the five solos and we went extensively through this. I did a five -part series again

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I'll put the link in the description if you want to go through them You could go they write books on each one of the solos

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So the five solos of the Reformation which distinguished the reformers from the teaching of Rome Remember, this was in in opposition to Rome and they include sola scriptura scripture alone

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Solus Christus Christ alone sola fide faith alone Sola gratia grace alone and soli deo gloria to the glory of God alone

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So the doctrines that Rome was putting forth became known as the plus doctrines

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So you needed scripture plus the teaching magisterium of the church you needed Christ plus the intercession of Mary you needed faith plus some kind of works you needed grace plus What the church taught in in addition to that and it wasn't to the glory of God alone

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Because if man has some part in it, he shares in some of the glory So the reformers were emphatic that God gets all the glory because God did all the work

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He's the one who redeemed you you don't add to the finished work of Christ the moment you do you ruin it you ruin it

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So these five statements of the evangelical faith lay at the center of what? Distinguished the theology of the

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Reformation from the theology of the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century The five solos formed the nucleus of the evangelical faith

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They not only capture the gospel of Jesus Christ and explain how the gospel takes root in the sinner But they also define where the authority of that gospel resides and to what end the gospel is preached and proclaimed

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Now they we have what's known as the formal cause of the Reformation and the material cause of the

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Reformation The formal cause of the Reformation was what? Solar script or it was a question of authority who has ultimate authority

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We say the scriptures they say the Roman Catholic Church Scriptures are infallible the

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Roman Catholic Church isn't although they claim it is the second cause of the Reformation is called the material cause of the

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Reformation this is how a sinner is made right in the eyes of God We say it's by faith alone.

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They say it's by faith plus works works up Roundly condemned as the basis of salvation in the

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Bible you are not saved by your good works Your good works are a reflection of what

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God has done in your heart you were saved for good works, but not by good works Taking flight in the 19th and 20th centuries the fivefold summary became shorthand the shorthand version of what is known as reformed theology

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This description of the reformed faith came later But it still captures the core of the gospel in all its graciousness and Christ centeredness just as is revealed in the scriptures

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Okay, so you want your doctrines to give glory to God and keep Christ at the center, and I think that's actually our next our next distinction distinctive

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Reformers are Christ centered The reformed doctrine emphasizes and highlights the person and work of Christ over and above the efforts works or will of mankind

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Jesus himself said the scriptures testify of me Moses wrote about me

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So when we see on the road to Emmaus Jesus speaking to them and explain opening their eyes and explaining to them

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Everything that the prophets wrote and how it all pointed to him We now look back in the

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Old Testament and the prophets and the law and we see how Moses and the prophets wrote about Jesus Okay, everything points to him

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Jesus is the end of the law for all who believe that doesn't mean the laws gone away that word end means the the target

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No, it's all these things were pointing towards the target Jesus was the target and he's here

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Okay, so he was the fulfillment of the law and the prophets Everything is centered on him

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Christ is everything to the reformed believer Christ is all and in all The holy scriptures teach us to count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my lord

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Anybody want to tell me what the definition of eternal life in John 17 3 is?

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This is eternal life That they may know you the one true God in Jesus Christ whom you've sent

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So the sum and substance of eternal life is knowing God and Jesus as Lord Where Rome wants you wants to win you to their church an evangelical

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Christian wants to win you to Christ Now where you fellowship is very important, but I'm not looking to win you to my church

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I'm looking to win you to the Lord of my church Reformed theology is entirely

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God -centered and here we clarify that it is the scent It is centered on the triune God who comes to us through the only mediator

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Jesus Christ Rome would set up another mediator a mediatrix Mary The Puritans portrayed the gospel as the greatest love story ever told

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The father's heavenly match of his perfect son with his fallen sinful bride the church They traced in glowing detail

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Jesus mediatorial office as the prophet priest and king of his people The knowledge of Christ is a topic of immeasurable glory and as Ephesians 3 says the unsearchable riches of Christ Why would you stop?

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Studying about Christ and start studying about his mother when his riches are unsearchable

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Continue to pursue Christ and no one else. He is Preeminent before all things he is what we are focused on.

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Thank goodness Okay, so that was another distinctive. The next one is going to be commandment keeping and the law

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Now we're not saying that you have to keep the commands in order to be saved The Reformation was founded on grace and not upon law yet.

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The law of God was not repudiated by the Reformers John Calvin for example wrote that what has become known as the threefold use of the law in Order to show the importance of the law in the

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Christians life So the moral law or the ten commandments that God reveals in Scripture is always binding upon us and includes the

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Sabbath the Lord's Day So when we look at the moral law We recognize that that is something that was a creation ordinance and it includes the

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Sabbath day. That's why we're here on Sunday Right. That's why we encourage people to come out on Sunday If you're avoiding the

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Lord's Day, when are you going to eat the Lord's Supper on the Lord's Day? Right our redemption remember is is from the curse of the law not from our duty to obey it

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So we are redeemed from its consequences and his pen and its penalties, but that doesn't mean the law goes away

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Oh, we don't need to keep the law anymore wrong We are justified not because of our obedience to the law, but in order that we may become obedient to God's law

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To love Christ is to keep his commandments First John John says sin is lawlessness

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Right. Do you think people still sin today? Yes, that's called lawlessness.

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So the people who are telling you that there is no more law you could tell them great. That's lawlessness That's sin

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The law is in play in the sense that that is our standard our standard doesn't go away

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The consequence for not hitting this standard goes away. Praise God because nobody can fulfill it

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Reform theology is not anti -gnomian Anti -no more no most law.

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We are not no law people Okay, the law serves as a restraint a rule and of reflection and again

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I did a 45 minute video on the three -fold use of the law and I'll put that in the description box

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So we have covenant Covenant keeping I'm sorry commandment keeping the next one is cessation ism

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Cessation ism refers to the theological view that certain spiritual gifts mentioned in the

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New Testament specifically gifts such as prophecy healings tongues discerning of spirits Have ceased or passed away at some point in antiquity usually at the closure of the canon or the death of the last

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Apostle now some who are Calvinists and hold to The ongoing gifts of the spirit would say no.

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No, we're still reformed But we would have to say how can you still Hold to the gifts of the spirit and the revelatory gifts if we have the completed canon

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If we have the completed canon, we don't need any more revelation to tell us what we need to do if that's true

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Then Paul's letter to Timothy where he says all scriptures God breathed and useful for teaching reproof correction training and righteousness

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That the man of God may be equipped for every good work is not true. It's not sufficient. We need extra biblical

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Revelation now, here's what I have to tell us tell all of us It doesn't mean that God is not supernatural.

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It doesn't mean that God doesn't still heal today We pray that God heals people, right?

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We we have a long prayer list and lots of people on it We pray that God would heal them one because God can heal them.

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Oh Isn't isn't that the ongoing gifts of the spirit? No, that's God intervening and healing somebody

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So when somebody tells me oh so -and -so has the gift of healing I say, okay give me so -and -so's name because I want to bring him to the

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Stony Brook PQ unit or the veterans hospital and see what they can Do and I said, well, you know, he'll pray

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I said no. No, no No, no You told me he has the gift of healing anytime the Apostles laid hands on somebody they were healed if he has the same gift

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He should see the same results Well, he sees more healings than most

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Then that's not the gift of healing All you have is what I have you have access to God your father who you can petition and ask him to intervene and heal

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People but know this just because we're cessationists does not mean that God isn't active in the world today

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His spirit is active. His spirit regenerates people. That's a miracle Bringing a dead heart to life is a miracle healing people is a miracle and God still does that what we're talking about is the apostolic sign gifts the gifts that confirmed the authority of the

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Apostles when they were writing the New Testament and Bringing the church to Jerusalem Judea Samaria and the outer parts of the world

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So this is a controversial topic among reformed Christians and not all hold to cessationism

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But most do because they hold that the scripture is sufficient to equip the man of God for every good work Phil Johnson says we're obligated to the

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Word of God as confessed by the reformed churches Scripture alone is canonical.

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There's no truth Okay Prophetic truth revealed truth that we need to know that's not in the scriptures the point of sola scriptura is to say that it is the unique and unknown norm for the

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Christian faith and the Christian life and We confess that unique Canonical authority for faith and life over and against Rome and the charismatics and the

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Pentecostals of all ages We hold to the sufficiency of scripture. That's all we need.

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That's all we stand on Okay, we have another distinction This is the last distinction for for being reformed

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It's called the regulative principle worship and you see how I put the C in it. So you remember it's another

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C It was funny or less yesterday Anyway, the regulative principle worship is a teaching primarily emphasized in the reformed churches that the public worship of God should include only those

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Elements that are instituted commanded or appointed by command or example in scripture

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Okay, so the scripture when we worship God we have to do so based on what the scriptures tell us

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They tell us how to worship God this is in Distinction contradistinction to the normative principle of worship, which we're going to go over in a second

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Can anybody give me an example from the scriptures of somebody who worshiped God? Not with the regular principle of worship

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Strange fire nadab in a bayou they saw God consumed the sacrifice and then all of a sudden they're like, oh

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Let's do that again, and they brought strange fire to the altar and God consumed them. They did something that was not authorized by God So our confession the 1689 says this the acceptable way of worshiping the true

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God is instituted by himself and so limited by his own revealed will that he may not be worshipped according to the

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Imaginations and devices of men nor the suggestions of Satan under any visible

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Representations or any other way not prescribed in the holy scriptures So this is the benefit of having having a confession

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I could point you to the confession and say this is what we hold to as a church. It's spelled out clearly By contrast the normative principle, which is what most other churches do

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Teaches that worship must consist of that which is commanded by God but also may include that which is not specifically prohibited by scripture so long as it is agreeable to the peace and unity of the church and Peace and unity of church is going to be subjective to the to the pastor on the congregation

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So they can bring in all kinds of stuff you have people doing Dances and movie themes and all kinds of stuff on the altar of God that are not prescribed by scripture

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You have to be wary of that. All right, so that's the last distinctive of the

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Reformed distinctives things that make us reform now We're gonna go to the things that make us

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Baptist. So we're hope reformed Baptist Church So the next

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C would be C for credo which stands for credo baptism or believers baptism and that's the practice of baptism in which the participant publicly professes faith in Christ as Lord and Savior and As an admission into the local community of faith

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So when somebody is baptized is because the elders believe that it's a credible profession of faith

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God has moved and changed their minds and hearts Okay, and now they're being admitted into the body of Christ that we have here they would become a member of the church and come under the

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The Not discipline of the church. It would be the discipline of the care and concern of the church of the elders

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The word baptizo means to immerse or dip not pour not sprinkle

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Not splash and it's understood as a sign of obedience and allegiance to Christ. Okay Our confession

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I'll point you right to the confession baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament ordained by Jesus Christ to be unto the party baptized a sign of his fellowship with him in his death and resurrection of His being grafted into him of remission of sins and giving up into God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in the newness of life

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Babies cannot repent Babies cannot believe Babies cannot confess

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Jesus as Lord and nowhere. This is this is scripture ever described an infant being baptized now

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Presbyterians are going to say well that refers to household baptism, but it never says those household had infants in them

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Okay elsewhere. It says that the whole household served the Lord. I never saw an infant serving the

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Lord Now I want to know how an infant can be in the new covenant have all their sins

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Wiped away. Okay have them be born again and then fall away from the faith

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You would have to jettison the pea in the perseverance of the Saints so now your doctrines of grace are going to be incomplete because people can fall away from the faith because they were in the covenant now they're

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Not in the covenant anymore It's real important that we listen to this entrance into the new covenant is done by God alone

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In fact the scripture says it is because of him God that you are in Christ Jesus 1st

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Corinthians 130 and It's permanent. You cannot be lost and you are continually kept by God So once God puts you into the new covenant

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You are a member of that covenant and like this says Baptism does not replace circumcision in the new covenant as the

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Holy Spirit Circumcises all of God's children and places them in Christ So circumcision in the old covenant is likened to circumcision in the new covenant done not by the hands of man

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But done by the Holy Spirit So they want to say baptism replaces circumcision. I say well, what about the circumcision of the new covenant?

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What does that replace in the old covenant? Circumcision in the old covenant is done by the parents

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Circumcision in the new covenant is done by the parents God your father Circumcises you and brings you into the body of Christ It is because of him that you were in Christ If not, then it's something that mankind can do to put somebody in the new covenant

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Why wouldn't we just baptize everybody we saw they're in the new covenant now. They can't be lost

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Perseverance of the Saints is not once saved always saved Perseverance of the Saints is once a son always a son once a daughter always a daughter

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You'll never be lost by God Jude tells us to him who was able to keep you from falling and present you before God without spot or blemish

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That is a God who begins the work continues the work and finishes the work not done by the hands of man

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Okay, that's the first Baptist distinctive The second Baptist distinctive would be congregationalism and this this is addresses church government

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We reject the idea of a presbytery or synod's overseeing and ruling over the individual congregations as hell and held that individual congregations were independent autonomous and Responsible directly to God himself.

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In other words, the local bodies are responsible to God not to bishops not to Presbyters above them we believe in associations not denominations

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So congregationalism speaks of a form of church government Episcopal church government is ruled by bishops and I learned this that it's

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Episcopal and the bishops Become bishops by the laying on of hands so that's different than Presbyterianism this

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Episcopal in Episcopal ism in order for somebody to become a bishop the other bishops have to lay their hands on him

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In Presbyterian church government, it's ruled by elders and in congregational church government is ruled by the congregation

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That's why the elders of the church are chosen by the congregation not the best bishops or the presbyters

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So the congregation recognizes the giftings in the body and puts forth men who can be elders men who could be deacons

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But that has to be recognized by the congregation not people outside the congregation In fact in Presbyterianism the pastor of the church is not a member of the church.

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He's a member of the presbytery So he doesn't fall under the church the discipline of the church

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He would fall under the discipline of the governmental body over the church, which is again not biblical

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Episcopal government usually includes a hierarchy over the local church and Presbyterian government sometimes does as well

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Congregational government nearly always avoids such hierarchy maintaining that the local church is answerable directly to God not some man or organization again

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Congregationalists promote associations not denominations Congregational churches recognize the sovereignty of Christ over his church and make that a touchstone of their faith

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Even the SBC the Southern Baptist Convention holds to individual church autonomy okay, the next and last distinction in the

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Baptist Church is Complementarianism so complementarianism is the teaching that masculinity and femininity are

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Ordained by God and that men and women are created to complement or complete each other

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So the biblical view is that men and women are equal but have different roles

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Isn't it odd that in today's society people are teaching you that men can be women and women can be men

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They're changing the roles and unfortunately that's happened in the church first They're saying that women can hold the office of pastor and that's not a biblical notion

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The only one who can hold the office of pastor is a man the same way The only one who can hold the role of mother is a woman

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It's that simple doesn't mean that women are inferior to men Men are the priests of their homes and they're gonna be held responsible for how the family goes

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The woman is supposed to come alongside and be a suitable help mate to the man To help the family grow in the fear and admonition of the

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Lord the same way Adam was called to be the head and lead his wife

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It's the same thing in the church men hold can hold the role of pastor women cannot hold that role so Complementarians believe that the gender roles found in the

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Bible are purposeful and a meaningful distinction that when applied in the home and church Promote the spiritual health of both men and women

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Complementarianism is the model for the home. The husband has the role of headship in the family He's to nurture his wife and lead his family lovingly humbly and sacrificially the wife has the role of nurturing her children and intentionally willingly submitting to her husband's leadership and Nine out of ten times she's gonna submit to her husband in the way that the man submits to the

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Lord If he's humble and submissive to God that rubs off that that's that models it for the rest of the family and the woman in In like manner will submit to him knowing that he submitted to the

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Lord. He's a man of God he's gonna do what God tells him to do not what the Society or TV or whatever else is around us tells him to do

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Complementarianism is the model for the church as well Biblically the men in the church bear the responsibility to provide spiritual leadership and training

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The woman are to exercise their spiritual gifts in any way the scripture allows The only prohibition is to teach or to assume authority over a man.

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She cannot do that First Timothy 2 12 when men and women are fulfilling their God -given roles within a church

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Christ is honored men lead their home and men lead the church. We're the ones who are gonna be held responsible for it

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Okay, listen if Jesus wanted to Make a statement to society he could have chose a woman to be one of the

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Apostles He didn't because he says as it was from the beginning The woman was deceived.

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Okay, Adam is the head and he's gonna be held responsible for how the family goes. All right, so Real quick to sum this up The Reformed Baptistic distinctions, there's seven reformed distinctions.

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Actually, it's eight because of the last one. We're creedal confessional covenantal Calvinistic we're

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Christ centered commandment keeping cessationist who hold to the regulative principle of worship that those are the reformed distinctions

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The Baptist distinctions are the three C's were credo Baptists were

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Congregationalists and we're complementarian in our theology I'm gonna say questions if anybody has questions nothing.

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Was this helpful? Okay stepped us through so when I get up there and I say welcome to hope perform

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Baptist Church You're like I know what reformed is. I know what Baptist is. Yes, welcome All right.