Adult Sunday School - Going Public Part 5 (Chapter 5)

All right, good morning, beloved.

Thank you, faithful saints, for being here this morning to delve into God's Word,

to be edified in His teaching.

So approach Him in prayer this morning.

Father, we thank You that Your mercies are new every morning unto

us.

Thy people who are called by Thy name, we pray, Lord, that You would help us in our weakness

and the weakness of our flesh to lay aside all earthly care and, Lord, to

intently receive the instruction of Your Word to make us strong even unto salvation.

We ask You, Lord, that You would be glorified in our midst, in our time together, as we

examine this issue before us.

And Father, may it edify our souls and our spirits that we in the inner man may be lifted up,

empowered, and sent out to a dying world that needs this

kingdom message, that Jesus reigns and that He lives, and that by means of His death, birth, and resurrection,

all men who repent and trust in Jesus can have eternal life.

And we pray, Father, that You would have Your way in us this morning and forevermore in Jesus' name.

Amen.

All right, beloved.

Well, let's examine today's chapter, chapter 5, so on page 81, and

to kind of recap a little bit of where we've been so far.

So what are we essentially trying to establish here in

studying this book?

What are we establishing?

That's right.

That's pretty concise, and I like that, and it's essentially the right answer,

but I want to simplify a little bit more.

Basically what we're studying and what we're trying to get at, the purpose, the point of this,

is establishing what is a Christian?

That's really the basic question.

What is a Christian?

And how does baptism, membership relate to the

Christian life and experience, right?

Because ultimately, all these things are pretty meaningless if you're not a Christian.

What good is baptism if you're not a Christian?

It's just getting wet.

What good is being a member of a church if you're not a Christian?

It's useless.

You know, there are so many people who are church members who are baptized

and who are going to hell.

So what we really want to get at is what is a Christian, and then what flows from that, right?

Sometimes in this argument, we get so fixated on the nuances of, okay, baptism

means this, and church membership, this, and it becomes almost like very stale, legalistic, and it's almost robotic.

But what we're talking about is we're talking about living people, living organisms, and the church in itself is kind of like a

living organism.

And so we're not talking about these static, weird laws and regulations.

More so we're talking about what is the essence of a Christian?

And I would propose to you that the essence of a Christian and what makes a Christian a

Christian is that they have repented of sin, trusted in Jesus, and that Jesus now

lives and reigns in them.

And as a result of that, what flows, an outpouring, an outflow of that decision to

know and follow Jesus is these other things such as baptism and

membership.

That flows from a heart that's been regenerated.

It flows from a person who has received the rulership of Jesus.

Oftentimes we don't use certain biblical terms in relation to

conversion, in relation to church membership.

And I want to, hopefully through this chapter, we're going to undo some of that and reintroduce some

biblical terminology in relation to regeneration.

We often talk as Christians and evangelicalism that you have to accept Jesus as what?

As Lord and Savior.

Is there anything wrong with that statement?

No, it's a perfectly great statement.

I'm always very intentional in saying you must receive instead of accept, okay?

Because evangelicals, people who are synergists will typically use language

like you must accept Jesus.

A monergist, you know, the position of a Calvinist would be, well, you receive Jesus as Lord because the

difference is that in one, you're making Him Lord, and in the other one, He is Lord.

And so we, and the Scripture says in Colossians 2, 6, now that you have received Christ the Lord, now go

on walking in Him, being rooted in Him, and establishing the faith, okay?

So we receive Christ the Lord.

We don't make Christ the Lord, amen?

So, what we want to kind of unravel today, though, so we use that terminology of Lord and Savior.

Those are great terms, but what's implicit behind the term Lord is what?

What's implicit behind that term?

What is a Lord in the biblical sense?

Yes?

Allegiance.

Allegiance.

Those are great words.

I like it.

What else is implied in those terminologies of Lord?

Submission.

Submission, absolutely.

Think of a, it's a, think of a feudal system.

What is a Lord?

A master.

An owner.

A ruler.

A ruler.

This is what Lord means in the Old and New Testament sense, someone who has

authority over you.

We still use this term today.

We use the term land.

What?

Lord.

Lord.

If you've got a landlord, then you've got someone over you, and they own something that you

don't, and you are, in a sense, subservient to them, because at the end of the month, or at the beginning of the month, who is that check going

to?

Is it coming to you, or is it going to them?

It's going to them, right?

So, you owe them money, therefore you are in the, you are in the

subservient role in that relationship.

Jesus is Lord, which means he's ruler, he's master.

He is the owner, okay?

And all those things are kingdom terms, because in a kingdom, there's

one who is supreme.

And this supreme one in this kingdom, this kingdom of God that we speak of, is the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so with that kingdom understanding, that kingdom terminology in mind, let's see what the

implication is for the believer, for the Christian.

So in chapter 5, we're examining how, or what in, rather, what is the passport

of the kingdom?

The beginning question in this chapter is, is whom do you speak for?

Oftentimes if you have a role in a company, or in a church, you'll say, hey,

well, these views are from this, or a political party, for instance, these are the views of the

Democratic.

Party.

This is the views of the Republican Party.

This is the views of our church.

And then sometimes we'll say, well, this is the view of the party or the church, but here's what I think.

And then we say, I'm not speaking for them, but we use that, those phrases all the time.

And the reason why that's important is because in a sense, every single person

is a representative of an entity that's bigger than themselves.

Sometimes it's a family, right?

So one of the things that comes up here is, son, you're a Peterson, which implies what?

He represents his family.

He bears their last name.

And so their behavior is a reflection of the family, of the name,

right?

And that's why, you know, in the family, we say, son, you're a Peterson, you're a Garcia.

You've got to represent the family well.

You've got to represent where you're coming from.

In the same way, we do that with our companies that we work.

We do that with the political parties that we align with.

We do it in every facet of life.

We always try to identify with a particular group or entity that's bigger than ourselves,

and we speak on behalf of it, okay?

Now, what do you have to do in order to speak for Google?

In order to speak for Google?

Yeah, yeah, or be

hired by it, by the CEO and be their spokesperson.

Can you just go up in front of a news camera and say, I represent Google?

What would be the problem with that?

Because you're phony, you're fake, you're not really representing them because you haven't gone through the process in order to

represent this company, right?

There's a process for Christians to be, or, you know, for a person to represent

Christ and his kingdom, okay?

So we want to get this in mind.

There's a process at work here.

It's not just I can say, hey, I speak for Jesus Christ, or I speak for this person, or I speak for that person.

There is a process in place.

In order to speak for the family, you usually have to be part of the family.

And you have to then, or be hired by the family, for instance, a spokesperson or a

lawyer.

If a family is involved in a legal battle, they'll often hire their lawyer to be the

representatives before the media.

And so, again, there is a process in place to be a true representative, and in this

context, what we're going to be talking about is how baptism, obviously, again,

we're presupposing genuine conversion, faith in Jesus Christ, repentance from sin,

you know, confession of Christ as Lord, ruler, owner.

And then baptism is kind of the seal, it's kind of

our badge that we show the world that says, I'm a representative of Christ,

okay?

And again, you know, we think of, you know, there's always a process, and there's also a lot of

fakes and phonies.

I always think one of my favorite movies is Dumb and Dumber, okay, the original, Dumb and

Dumber.

And one of my favorite scenes is very early in the movie, when Jim Carrey is running through the airport to get the luggage

to the woman, and then the airport employee tries to stop and then he pulls out, he's like, it's

okay, I'm a limo driver.

He pulls a badge, almost to say, hey, look, it's okay.

You know, as if he's a cop or something, like, oh, I've got the authority, I've got the right to do this.

And he runs and he falls off the tarmac.

You know, so a lot of people do that.

They think because, hey, I grew up in the church, hey, I was

catechized, hey, I was baptized, hey, I was, I went through confirmation, hey, I've got all these things, and

therefore I can speak on behalf of.

But there is a genuine mark or passport for the believer.

So we're going to delve into this to, again, some degree here.

So one of the questions brought up in page 82 in the middle, in the middle paragraph there,

if baptism is the new covenant -initiating oath sign, which we established in the previous chapter,

who has the authority to transact this oath?

That is, who is authorized to administer baptism and by what authority?

Does anyone know what our confession says on that?

What does our confession say in regard to this issue?

I don't think you're going to find it in the chapter, so you kind of have to pull out

your 1689 Confession, Second Lenten Baptist Confession,

and let's look at, one second,

I think it's in Baptism of the Lord's Supper, chapter 28,

paragraph 2.

It says, these holy appointments, referring to baptism and Lord's Supper, are to be administered by those who

are qualified and thereunto called according to the commission of Christ.

And so, in other words, who has the authority to

baptize or to administer Lord's Supper?

And this, there's a couple layers here, but the first, obviously, is the institution of.

The church, okay?

These are church ordinances, not individual ordinances, okay?

And what happens way too often in evangelicalism is that we individualize everything.

Everything is so individualized and personalized.

You know, and again, this is the culture of modern evangelicalism.

I think I said this last week or a week before, you know, the pastors are very common.

You go to a nice big mega church, what do they make you do at the end of the service?

Everybody just close your eyes.

It's just you and Jesus now, you know?

And they individualize everything.

So it, and then people at the end of service, and I know this because I was part of several big churches,

what do they do?

Might chat for five minutes at the coffee bar and then go their separate ways.

And there's no interaction, there's no relationships, there's no, not a lot of life happening outside of the four

walls of the church.

And those are things that even, you know, our church may struggle with to some degree, but it's one of the things that we try to

avert through our home groups, through all the activities that we provide here at the church that, you know, we're a church that wants to be involved in

day -to -day life.

But the appointments that are administered, Lord's Supper and baptism, these are church ordinances

and they are particularly performed by those who are qualified and therefore, and they're also called.

So they have a gospel call, a ministry call according to the commission of Christ, which is the Great Commission, Matthew 28,

19, and other Scriptures that refer to the stewardship of God's

graces through the elders.

And 1 Peter chapter 3 comes to mind, Hebrews chapter 13, so many verses that speaks

about the elders administering such mysteries.

Any thoughts or questions on that?

Okay.

And so, the question that I guess the author of this book is trying to get at is, does

baptism have an ecclesial, ecclesiastical shape?

Which another way of framing that question is, is baptism purely

individual or is it collective, right?

In the political world, collectivism scares me.

I don't like collectivism in the political world or in the secular world.

I think collectivism is dangerous and it's dangerous for a couple of reasons.

And we see that danger early in human history after the fall.

What was one of the first things in Scripture, stories

in which we see humankind unite, collectivize, but against the true God?

Tower of Babel.

So, early on after the rebellion of Adam and Eve, you have humankind collectivizing, coming together.

And what did they come together for?

They want to build an edifice in defiance to the one true God, right?

Which is, again, shows you early on why collectivism is evil

in regard to the world.

Because when the world, when sinful, unregenerate persons collectivize, come together, it's always,

always for the purpose of the fine God, okay?

So, collectivism in all sorts, I think, is bad in the world, which is why I think communism is a very

dangerous ideology because it supposes a utopia that cannot

exist because of the human condition, okay?

And so what inevitably comes behind such utopic ideologies such as

communism is force, okay?

Because in order to take something, you know, if someone doesn't want to give up land, for

instance, as we saw within the communist revolution in China, and the Great Purge, and

also the, what was it called, the Great, what was

the thing that they did there?

The Cultural Revolution.

The Cultural Revolution under Mao, where farmers who had land didn't want to give up their land, so what did they do?

They used force of government to come and take it from them and then kill

them, but before killing them, parade them and say, look at these, these people are trying to take away land from

you and all these things, and they mocked them, they flogged them, and they ultimately killed many of them, and this is why it was a huge genocide.

So collectivism always leads to death, always leads to destruction, and the

finances for God except in the church, except in the church.

Collectivism works in God's economy because our ruler isn't the pastor,

our ruler isn't the denomination, our ruler is Christ, and

Christ has given us his precepts, he's given us his law, he's given us what is good and what is right, and when we

follow that, it.

Works, right?

And so a spiritual collectivism under the banner of Christ and under his kingdom

is the only collectivism that works, and baptism is an individual

work that then, I guess, for lack of a better

term, baptizes us into the collective, okay?

So you have the individual doing a personal act, that personal act doesn't just stay personal,

it's not just between him and God anymore, now he's being baptized not just into Christ but into Christ's community.

Does that make sense?

Say again?

Yes, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely.

And so, you know, at this point a lot of pastors would say, I don't mean to get political,

but I mean to get political, right?

You know, I think the church is too shy on certain things, I think we need to declaratively

say what is good and what is right and from God's Word, and every sign and form of collectivism

done by sinful man throughout the Bible and throughout human history always leads to calamity.

The only exception is Christ's church, that's the only exception.

And so there are a lot of communists who say, well, collectivism works, just look at the New Testament, and what they always point is to Jesus,

isn't that interesting?

Well Jesus, you know, was a communist, oh, look at the New Testament church, they were communists, they had all things in common, that's what we want to do,

and I guess that'd be great if you were saved, that'd be great if you knew Jesus but you don't know Jesus,

you're just using Jesus as a political prostitute, and that's the error, and that's the sin

of the collectivist.

And so again, collectivism in the world won't work, will never work, always leads to death, collectivism in the church is

Christ's command.

Christ commands us to come together as one, we're one body, though many members, Paul says in 1

Corinthians 12, many members, diverse, yet one in Christ.

And so, very important distinctions to be understood and made.

So we would contend, not just through the literature here, but also just by means of common sense and what God's Word teaches

us as a whole, that baptism is

a mark of the individual coming into the covenant community, okay?

So it's not, again, it's not just the individual having an individual private relationship with Jesus, now it's a public act, it's a

public affair, it's an oath before many witnesses,

and that oath brings you into a community, similarly even to marriage again, right?

So the two become one.

You have the many, the two, the plural, becoming one, the unity, understand?

And that's through an oath, a public oath, before witnesses.

Baptism serves as that same symbol, it is a public oath before many witnesses.

And so that's the importance here that we want to point to.

Any thoughts or questions so far?

So in that sense, baptism almost acts like a passport.

What does a passport do in function?

What does it do?

Just one word.

Access is good.

I'm looking for one that starts with a letter I.

It identifies, it identifies you, just like an ID does, right?

But an ID isn't comprehensive enough because you can have an ID

in the state of California, you can be an illegal immigrant and have a California -issued state ID, did you know that?

And so, yeah, they hand out these things like candy now.

But a passport says a little bit, has a little bit more information.

A passport identifies you as a what?

As a citizen, with a national identity, and it gives you access

to other parts of the world, and it oftentimes can be a protection as well.

You know, say, hey, I'm an American citizen and, you know, and one of the good things about being an American is that

typically, not in all cases, you know, the U .S. government, if you get in trouble abroad,

the U .S. government does work pretty hard in getting you back.

And they will go to, you know, a far extent, more so than other countries, to

bring its citizens back.

And so it identifies you and it doesn't just identify you personally, it identifies you

collectively with the American identity.

Or the identity of whatever, you know, passport nation that you originate from, okay?

It identifies you as a national, okay?

Baptism identifies us as kingdom nationals, okay?

As kingdom citizens, as kingdom ambassadors, okay?

Which is why, you know, oftentimes if you ever traveled abroad and asked, are you American?

And then you get in a conversation with a foreign and say, what do you think about Americans?

And then you say, well, I can speak for Americans.

We're not all like that, right?

If they have a negative view, for instance.

And so he said, well, I can speak for most Americans.

We're not all like that, right?

So again, even just by virtue of you having a passport, just by virtue of you being an American or whatever

nationality you originate from, you in a sense represent the collective.

You are an individual representing the collective.

And so again, a baptism is essentially a passport.

Think of it in our local church politic, okay?

Every Sunday when we take the Lord's table, what are the three things that we require and ask?

That your faith be in the Lord Jesus and that you be what?

Baptized by full immersion and that you be a member of a church in good standing, right?

That way we can identify that, hey, if you're partaking and we don't really know you, we can

have some degree of confidence, not total confidence, but some degree of confidence that you are partaking in a way

worthy of the table, right?

Which is the call that Paul gives the church in 1 Corinthians 11.

And so we can have some degree of confidence that the table is being honored in our midst where most

churches don't even have any requirements.

And the danger of that, again, is dishonoring the Lord because we truly believe this

is the Lord's body, this is the Lord's blood, not in the Eucharist sense.

Obviously, we went through a whole series of Roman Catholicism.

You know, we do not believe in transubstantiation.

However, we do believe in the true spiritual presence of Christ in the blood, in

the emblems of the bread and the wine.

And so we want to treat that with a severity and a degree of honor and respect and dignity that it

deserves being the body of our Lord, spiritually speaking.

And so we want to have some degree of confidence.

And this is how we can identify such ones with a clear conscience.

Does that make sense?

And so sometimes we've had times in this church where people come into the church and they say, I love the preaching, I love the church,

but I hate that you guys do this.

And it's always a battle because, again, they've been hardwired within evangelicalism

today to everything being so individualized, everything being so

personal.

And how dare you take my personal right to partake in this table?

But again, it's a collective thing.

Baptism, Lord's Supper, individuals are partaking, but it's on to a collective.

It's on to a greater group.

Do you understand?

And so because what are we being baptized into?

The body of Christ.

What are we partaking of in the Lord's Supper?

The body of Christ.

In a sense, again, there's a lot of symbolism here.

Jesus says, they symbolize my body.

But what else symbolizes his body?

The New Testament church.

We are a symbol of Christ's body.

And so all these things are connected in such a unique way that we want to really make sure that

we have a proper understanding and that we're honoring correctly the Lord's arrangements.

So I want to spend a little bit of time, page 83 and onward, talking about the kingdom of God.

Again, I opened up earlier this morning with the concepts of the kingdom.

The kingdom is a lost concept in

Christianity today.

It's a lost concept.

Most people have a vague understanding of God's kingdom.

But in essence, what is God's kingdom?

What is God's kingdom?

The covenant of God?

Absolutely.

That's part of it.

It's certainly covenantal.

What is the American government?

Or what is the American kingdom?

Think about it.

OK, so it's a structure, right?

Or a system, or I used a term already.

It's a government.

Think of what that word government means.

Has the word govern.

OK, and meant just means that's essentially the many.

And so governing of the many.

OK, and so you have a government.

And that's what God's kingdom is.

In essence, it's a government.

OK, again, and I think the NIV translated Matthew 19, where

Jesus says the kingdom of God is in you.

But that's a pretty poor translation.

Really, what Jesus is saying is the kingdom of God is in your midst.

It's in the middle of you.

It's in between you.

It's starting to rise.

And what we believe is that the message that Jesus preached is

very clearly the message or the gospel of the kingdom.

Notice what he says in Mark 115.

He says the time is fulfilled.

This is Jesus opens his ministry.

He says the kingdom of God is at hand.

OK, Jesus says in Luke chapter four, verse 43, that his purpose is

to proclaim God's kingdom.

OK, Matthew 24, verse 14 says, and this good news gospel

of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to the nations.

And then the end will come.

So the gospel is of the kingdom.

OK, God's kingdom, God's government has citizens

and ambassadors.

And that's what the Christian is.

A Christian is a citizen and an ambassador of God's

kingdom.

So the church, I was just out east with the family celebrating Noah's birthday,

went to a weekday service out in Charlotte to a church in the area.

Man, I really like the church.

I really like the pastor.

Really great church.

And I was listening to the preacher.

And he was talking, he was teaching through Hebrews and he was in Hebrews chapter two.

And he talks about the world to come.

And I was like, OK, this is really good stuff.

And then, and then pastor, bam, he puts a, he's got the nice screen in the back and

he puts a chart.

And the chart was dispensationalism and talking about the world to come.

And he's how there's going to be a seven year tribulation.

The church is going to get raptured before that.

And then all this thing that's in the chart was there, the dreaded dispensationalist chart that I always say.

And what he said is that in the thousand years, there's going to be

unregenerate persons and that they're going to be the subjects over which the kingdom

rules.

I thought, OK, that's an interesting concept.

There's going to be a thousand year rule.

And in the midst of that thousand years, there's going to be unbelievers who are going to survive and they're going to populate the earth.

The preacher said, and that in that they are going to, you know,

essentially give birth to unregenerate people.

And then there'll be one last rebellion and all these such things.

There's a lot of problems with that contextually and scripturally.

The Bible says in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 that the Lord Jesus, when he returns in flaming vengeance, he's coming to destroy

those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and obey his gospel.

The gospel of his kingdom.

At Christ's second coming, according to 1 Corinthians 15, all his enemies are subdued.

All his enemies are subdued.

OK, how then do unregenerate people come into this supposed rule of Christ

when he destroys his enemies?

How do unbelievers then survive that event?

How do then they even populate?

They have a, my problem with dispensationalism at its core, it's not just

eschatologically, but it's gospel centered.

It's about the kingdom.

They have a misconstrued view of the kingdom.

The pastor said, Jesus is going to come back.

He's going to rule from Jerusalem.

He's going to, they're going to build a third temple.

He's going to, he's going to reign from the third temple.

That is an upside down view of God's kingdom because it's the opposite of what Jesus

himself says.

Again, they are to some degree, dispensationalist Christians, are to some degree like the

ancient first century Jews that preceded them.

Because what were the first century Jews looking for?

Not only Messiah, but they're looking for a political Messiah, an earthly Messiah, a Messiah who'd come

and subdue and reign from Jerusalem and do all these things.

And what dispensationalists say was that, well, the Jews weren't actually wrong.

They just got the timing wrong.

And I'd say that, no, they were wrong.

That is not what Jesus came to do.

That's not how Jesus establishes the kingdom.

So we have a clear, actually, difference in the way that we view the kingdom.

Dispensationalists and, you know, people who are either, you can be historic pre -millennial, you can

also be all millennial or post -millennial and have a more congruent view, more biblical view of the

kingdom.

So it's not just to pick on one eschatological flavor, but I truly believe that

dispensationalists have a twisted view of God's kingdom and that becomes a gospel issue.

It's not to say that they're not saved, not to say that, you know, they're, well, I would say that

dispensationalism is heretical and not just like little h heresy.

I'd say it's pretty big heresy, but it doesn't necessarily disqualify one from being a Christian.

So I'm always very disappointed when I go to a church and the service is good, the preaching is good, and the,

you know, the people are great, and then they're teaching dispensationalism.

It's always a, you know, unfortunate thing.

But again, we want to have a right understanding of God's kingdom, and God's kingdom is essentially God's rule,

God's government, God's right to rule on the earth, his authority over heaven and earth.

Now, a couple of years ago, John Piper wrote a book called God is the Gospel, and it caused some

controversy because, you know, it kind of sounds weird, but I agree with him.

I love that book, and in essence, what he's saying is what is being said here,

because what is the gospel?

The gospel is the message of the kingdom, particularly in the person and

work of Jesus Christ by means of his death, burden, and resurrection, okay?

This is a kingdom message, okay?

The gospel that saves us, 1 Corinthians 15, is the death, burial, resurrection of Christ.

But it's not something distinct from the kingdom message that Jesus preached,

which is why the author says that Jesus is the kingdom in person.

Jesus is the kingdom in person.

Do you agree or disagree with that statement?

What are your thoughts on that statement?

Jesus is the kingdom in person,

because again, what is the kingdom?

It's a government.

It's a rule.

Who's the ruler?

Jesus.

So, think of a monarchy.

Who is the head of the British monarchy?

Now, it's the king.

Long live the king, right?

Before that, it was Queen Elizabeth, and she reigned for 70 years, and she was the, I think, longest reigning

monarch of the British crown.

In a sense, the queen, or the king, is the British government, okay?

And even though now it's more of a figurehead, constitutionally,

the monarch of Great Britain still has vast power and authority.

So much so that if the king of England today, King Charles, if he so

decided, and there's a TV series based on this that's actually a really fascinating TV series, and I think it's a British

series.

I don't think we have it in the United States.

The monarch of Britain can dissolve Parliament.

Now, Parliament is the supposed real government of

Great Britain, because it's a representative democracy.

And so, you have MPs, ministers of Parliament,

and they serve as representatives of the people.

The people vote.

It's a democratic process.

But if the king so decided, he could dissolve the Parliament, and that means

he can get rid of it.

He has the right to do so.

Why?

Because, in a sense, he is the kingdom.

And, again, man, I'm almost tempted to pull up

the clip from that program where it's a hypothetical.

This was before King Charles became King Charles, where Queen Elizabeth dies, King Charles becomes king,

and he goes and he marches into the Parliament, which is forbidden.

Because in, I think, the 1600s or 1700s, I

think the original King Charles, actually, marched into Parliament, dissolved them,

and basically was going to institute more of a dictatorial rule again.

And then the Parliament fought back, and then they got the king, and they killed him.

They cut his head off.

But that could technically still happen today, which is why there's more of a distinction, actually, because of that.

Now, the king is more of a figurehead, but he still has that right.

In this TV show, he does that.

He comes into Parliament, he opens the door, and he dissolves it.

He says that, I was born and bred, he says, by holy birthright,

because he says, I am Britain, and Britain is I.

And he says, I dissolve Parliament, and he dissolves it in the show.

A really powerful scene.

I encourage you to look it up on YouTube.

And in a sense, it's because it's what he's saying is constitutionally true for him.

He is the head of that government.

He is the government.

Jesus is the kingdom of God.

Jesus is God's kingdom in person.

Jesus is not simply a personification, but he often

is personified.

For instance, he is God's wisdom, according to Scripture.

Wisdom is not a person, but Jesus is the embodiment, personification of God's wisdom.

Jesus is called the Word, the Logos.

Jesus isn't literally a word that just comes out of God's mouth, but he is the

personification.

He is the Word of God made flesh.

So there are a lot of things in Scripture that Jesus personifies, in a sense, right?

Things that are almost inanimate.

So, for instance, Jesus calls himself, he says, I am the door.

Does that mean that Jesus is literally a door with a doorknob and hinges?

And no, what he's saying is, I am the personification.

I am the fulfillment.

I'm the embodiment of these ideas, of these concepts, of these theological and

metaphysical truths.

In the same way, Jesus is the embodiment of God's kingdom.

Any questions or thoughts on that?

So he is the kingdom in person.

And we know this because Jesus ultimately, he demonstrates his authority as

king, as the one ushering God's kingdom by his divine proclamations.

Again, he comes in his incarnation, in his earthly ministry.

He says, the kingdom of God is in your midst.

The kingdom of God is near.

The kingdom of God is here.

So you'll see in different phases of his ministry, he'll say the kingdom of God is nigh, it's near.

The kingdom of God is in your midst.

It's breaking in.

Then he says, the kingdom of God is here.

Okay, so he uses all three tenses throughout his ministry.

And we're actually going to, in today's sermon, you know, we're going to delve a little bit deep into that as well and the implications it has for us

in regard to our spiritual fight against the enemy.

But Jesus often uses these terms in Scripture, in those three different tenses, in order

to reveal that he is the breaking in of God's kingdom into the world.

And so, although it may sound a bit controversial to the untrained ear when one says

Jesus is the kingdom in person, I think that is a very theologically accurate description

of Christ and of God's kingdom.

So what does Jesus do as king?

What does Jesus do as the kingdom personified, as the kingdom in person,

is that he delegates authority to his people.

Where does Jesus reign from?

He reigns from heaven.

Again, dispensations would say, well, to some degree, Jesus isn't reigning yet.

Because they believe that Jesus, the Messiah, will reign from Jerusalem.

We believe, and we confess, Jesus is ruling and reigning today from Jerusalem,

the true Jerusalem, heavenly Jerusalem.

Jesus is enthroned today at God's right hand of majesty.

He is already seated upon his throne.

He's already seated upon true Jerusalem.

Okay, so we're not waiting for a future enthronement, like dispensations are literally waiting for a future

enthronement, which is to say that there is, in some sense, a way in which Jesus is not ruling and reigning today.

That is theologically inaccurate.

It is biblically untrue.

The Bible says and prophesies this concerning Christ in Psalm 110, that the Lord said unto my Lord, sit at my

right hand until I make your enemies at footstool.

And he says, the word shall go forth from Zion.

Go rule in the midst of your enemies.

Jesus is doing that today.

How do we know this?

Early on in the Christian ethos, in the Christian narrative and story of the church, you

have the first martyr, who was who?

Stephen was the first martyr of the Christian church.

And before he is killed, this is a fascinating vision.

Actually, this is a story that converted me to become a Christian, is Acts chapter 7.

Stephen's martyrdom.

Because it says in that account, as he was being stoned, that he saw the heavens

opened and he saw Jesus where?

Standing at the right hand of God.

And he said, and it says in the scripture, he prayed, Lord Jesus,

do not hold this against them.

OK, so at that moment, I recognize, wait a second, Stephen's praying to Jesus.

Jesus in the King, the Jehovah Witness Bible, the New World Translation says, and he entreated.

And interestingly enough, I had to study what their version of a study Bible, the Jehovah Witness Study Bible.

And the word it says, and he entreated.

And the footnote says it can be translated as prayed to.

And I was like, that's a pretty hefty admission right there.

And I was confused about, OK, who is Jesus really?

Is he Michael the Archangel?

Is he God?

And I thought to myself, well, and the Jehovah Witnesses don't believe you can pray to Jesus.

I was like, you know, Stephen is praying to Jesus.

And at the very least, he's talking to Jesus.

And what's talking to a spirit or to, you know, a being from a different realm?

Well, that sounds like prayer to me.

So let me just ask Jesus who he is.

And so I closed my eyes and I said, Lord Jesus.

And at that moment, I knew he was God.

At that moment, God converted me.

He gave me a new heart because I knew that he was Lord.

I knew that he was God.

I knew that I could pray to him.

And so that changed everything for me.

And it changed ultimately Stephen's course, because as he was about to die, he has an

assurance that Christ is reigning.

So even though his physical condition would tell him that he's being defeated, he saw the victory

of Christ as king.

And that's the vision he sees before he dies, before he enters into glory.

Isn't that awesome?

Isn't that beautiful?

So the imagery that Stephen receives is the rulership of Christ, that though he'd be

killed on earth, Jesus is ruling over his enemies.

And at Stephen's death, his martyrdom would serve as a mark of the increase of God's kingdom.

Right?

And that's the beauty of the gospel, is that despite martyrdom, despite hardship on the earth,

despite conditions going from bad to worse, we still have a victorious

eschatology because we know that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father.

He's ruling and reigning now in the midst of his enemies.

Isn't that incredible?

That's right.

Amen.

Isn't that beautiful?

Man, what a way to go.

That's, I want, that's the way I want to go.

And so we understand that Jesus is king and he gives his

church authority.

And what's the biblical case for that?

What's the biblical case for Christ giving authority to his church?

That's right.

So in the Great Commission, Jesus says, all authority and heaven and earth has been given to me.

Therefore, now that therefore is now the dispensing of a couple of things, the dispensing of the marching orders.

It's also the dispensing of the kingdom authority by which they can now do this work.

Because notice in whose name we baptize.

He says, go, therefore, as a result that Jesus has all authority in heaven and earth.

Go, therefore, into all nations, baptizing them in the name of the triune God,

Father, Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Okay.

So you have this authority now in the triune God to evangelize,

disciple, and baptize the nations.

That's our job.

And that's the authority that Christ has given the church collective.

Okay.

We also see notions and pictures of the collective authority of the church

in Matthew chapter 16, Matthew chapter 18, where Jesus talks about the keys of the kingdom.

To whom were the keys given?

To the church.

Now, again, depending on your background, there's different answers.

One end of the spectrum, you have Rocantholicism, which teaches that the keys were given to who?

To St. Peter and to his successors, all the popes that have come supposedly since Peter.

Others would say that the keys are a

reference to the spiritual gifts or the anointing of the Holy Spirit within the charismatic

movement, for instance.

The keys, you know, you'll hear often within charismatic circles, I bind and I loose you in the

name of, you know, and they do this because they think that that's what that means.

It's, I can command heaven to do as I please.

Right.

Is that the proper understanding of the keys of the kingdom?

No.

Proper understanding of the keys of the kingdom is the authority that Christ has given the church

collective to bind and loose within this kingdom arrangement, which is to say,

we affirm you or we do not affirm you in regard to your Christian witness.

Whether you are a Christian or not, it is the judgment of the church.

It is a church's judgment.

And this is going to be important for us later today, brothers and sisters.

And so I encourage you, we have a meeting after our services this afternoon, so I encourage you to be

here as we exercise collectively the keys of the kingdom.

And so the power that's vested into the church is the authority to say you

are a citizen or you're not a citizen.

OK, this is the, you know, we've spent many, much time on this topic, so I don't think we

have to, you know, beat a dead horse through between my teaching and Pastor Conley's teachings on the subject of

Matthew 16 and Matthew 18.

But again, it is good just to reiterate these things in regard to when he says, I give you the keys of the

kingdom is what he's doing.

He's conferring on them powers of binding and loosing into these keys of the kingdom.

These powers of binding and loosing, it belongs to us collectively, collectively,

the church.

Any thoughts or questions on that?

What the keys of the kingdom also accomplishes is that it grants

the church to act as God's authorized

representatives on earth for affirming those who, like Peter, truly confesses that

Jesus is the Messiah.

Remember the great confession of faith in Matthew chapter 16, Peter says, now thou art the Christ, the son of the

living God, and the keys are for all those who confess that to be true.

Right, so it's not just to Peter, but it's all those who confess like Peter that

Jesus is truly the Christ.

It's the witness of the Christian.

And so the job of the Christian now is to, they've been authorized to now

bring that messianic message to the world.

Makes sense.

So you've been called a Christian, and the mark of that is your baptism.

Another kind of a seal of that is your, by virtue of

baptism, is now your membership into that local congregation.

You know, you're baptized into Christ, but also into his body, and

we believe in the local church.

The church local is the local representative of Christ's body.

And so when a person is baptized, they are being baptized into church membership.

So again, that's kind of the thesis that we're working on here.

So again, this kingdom authority, as we've looked at some scriptures and we've quoted from scripture, is this

kingdom authority to represent Christ as his ambassadors.

A great verse for that.

It's also in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, starting verse 17, that says, if

there's any man who be in Christ, he is a new creation.

Behold, the old is gone, the new has come.

Therefore, we as ambassadors of Christ implore you to be reconciled to God through Christ.

For God made him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

And that's the call of the Christian, is to be an ambassador and to preach the message of

reconciliation, the gospel of reconciliation, the gospel of the kingdom.

Again, this is all, I'm just, I'm really pumped about this because this ties in so beautifully

with my message this morning as well during the main service.

And I hope that you see the correlation and the thread that's being woven through what we're

teaching here this morning and what will be spoken of later today.

And then what we will actually actualize after our church services was we have a

quick church meeting.

Now, here's a great question.

That's essentially the question from pages 89 onward is,

what makes a church a church?

So, OK, so we open up with saying, what makes a Christian a Christian?

Right.

Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Repentance of sin.

Baptism.

Now they're part of the local church.

Now they're ambassadors of Christ.

So we know that, OK, this is what makes the Christian.

But what makes the church?

What makes the church?

When I was a church planter in Canada, we had a guy join our church.

He was really gung -ho, really on fire for God.

And we loved having him.

But then he just stopped coming one day.

And trying to figure out why isn't that coming?

I talked to him.

He's like, well, I started my own church.

I said, what?

I said, where did this come from?

He had, someone gave him an opportunity to preach at a senior citizens place

and have, they had like a little chapel.

And so he's doing like chapel services there.

He says, oh, we started our own church.

And I said, well, did you or are you just preaching on, are you just preaching there?

Like, yeah, I'm preaching there and I'm doing all these things.

And, you know, it's our new church now.

I said, well, how does that work?

I mean, he thought just by virtue of him preaching that that's now church.

He had no concept of what makes a church actually church.

I think most Christians today don't actually know what makes a church a church.

If you just go before the senior citizen center, first of all, most of them don't know why they're there.

And so they're just there because they're a captive audience.

And I know because I've preached in senior citizen places and I've been a guest in many senior citizen homes.

And they've got nothing else to do at 10 a .m. in the morning on a Sunday.

You know, they're there because it's it's chapel time and then TV's at 11 and then lunch is at 12.

And, you know, they're just being wheeled in.

It's that's not a church.

That's not a church.

It's a service.

It's a ministry, but it's not a church.

What makes a church a church?

Say again.

One more time.

Members.

OK, so what's what's what makes someone a member?

Search of a C.

Obviously, important.

Another C word.

I like commitment.

Another C word.

Covenant.

Covenant.

Coming together in a covenant relationship.

So what makes a marriage?

It's a covenant.

OK, do you just hold hands one day on the beach and say, I think we're married?

I don't think that's the way it works, is it?

You can't just say, oh, I think we're married.

When I was a kid, one of my earliest memories.

I think I was three or four.

I they dressed me up and I was part of some wedding at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses.

And another girl, her her her her nickname at the time was was Kuki.

OK, Kuki, like like a cookie, but in Spanish cookie.

OK, and I remember she was dressed in like a like a wedding dress.

And I was dressed in a tuxedo.

I was freaking out because I thought I was getting married that day.

I was like three or four.

And it's funny because I think somewhere this footage still exists where we're literally walking down

the aisle.

And I literally jet and run to my parents because I did not want to get married.

And so, you know, what what makes a marriage?

What makes a church a church?

What makes these things are the idea of covenants.

People coming together in solemnly devoting, committing themselves to this act,

to this particular work.

And so if if a people come together and they they congregate and they they they

not only fellowship, but then they decide we're going to come in covenant community of one another and we're going to

build it and we're going to start a church that would constitute a church.

And then they'd have to institute elders.

They'd have to institute, you know, baptism, Lord's Supper, all these things that the Bible gives us.

The Bible being the law book, the guide to the life of the church.

And so what constitutes a church is in a sense a charter

or a constitution or a covenant.

These are, you know, constitution charters.

These are essentially covenant documents.

If you start a business, you have to start a charter.

Like if you make your own business, you need to have a charter basically stating what your business name is,

what your purpose is, what services or what goods you're selling.

And the same thing when a church comes together and they become a corporation in a sense.

Corporation is a word which means it has two connotations.

Cooperation amongst many.

OK, so the word cooperation essentially means it's cooperation amongst many.

And so church is a cooperation, is a corporation.

And what brings us together is the covenantal commitment to adhering to

Bible belief and standards.

Some of the things that are brought here are the

Charleston Baptist Association, page 91.

In 1774, a summary of church discipline defines a local church as follows.

A particular gospel church consists of a company of saints incorporated

by a special covenant into one distinct body, being together in one place for the enjoyment of

fellowship with each other and with Christ their head and all his institutions to their mutual

edification in the glory of God through the Spirit.

It's a wonderful summation of what the local church is.

It is, again, a gospel company of believers coming together

in a special covenant as a distinct people for the purposes of meeting,

fellowshipping, worshiping God and bringing forth God's kingdom into the world.

And we have a constitution.

You can go to our website, look at our church constitution.

If you're a member, you had to go through the constitution.

You had to go through our statement of belief, which is the 1689 Second Lenten Baptist

Confession.

And all these things had to, you know, you had to go through and affirm in order to be a member

here.

And so this is what unites us as a corporation, as a body, as a

distinct people, is our mission, our values, and, you know, our basis for that

being the Word of God, the Bible.

So that when you're baptized, especially by a particular church,

you are now representing that church, right?

You're representative of Christ.

So you have a responsibility, don't you?

And that responsibility is to represent Christ well in the community.

I remember in my church in Connecticut, when I became a member there, it was a great

church.

And it was a very old church.

It's called Wettersfield Evangelical Free Church, and it's still there today.

It's a wonderful church, great pastor.

And I remember on the church covenant, which every year we would actually read through it

corporately.

We would recite it together during one of our church meetings.

And in that meeting, in that church covenant, it says one of the,

I guess, one of the means of being disciplined is,

or reasons for being disciplined would be anything that would become unfitting to the Christian character.

And that really brings home the severity of understanding the gravity of what you're representing.

And we have a witness that we have to give the world.

And there are a lot of things that we can do and partake in that can become unfitting or unbecoming

of our Christian character and of our Christian witness.

Which is why it's so important that we recognize, you know, the importance

of coming into a church membership, coming into a church community that takes these oaths seriously.

And what a blessing it is to be part of a church that takes these commitments seriously.

Where other churches are kind of, you know, I forget what the statistic is, but most

churches in America do not practice any form of church discipline.

You know what church discipline looks like?

You just start attending a different church or you stop attending altogether, right?

There is no formula, there is no formulation of these things.

Most churches do not practice any form of church discipline.

Well, most people will just self -impose it.

They'll just stop going or they'll find another church.

And again, most churches don't communicate with one another and there's no, you know, we're a

unique church in that we take these things seriously and we take them biblically as we should.

And so we've come to the conclusion of our time.

Are there any last thoughts or questions on this material?

You understand why your, you know, baptism is a sense, a sign of God's, of your

passport as a kingdom citizen?

You represent Christ, you represent his kingdom at large, but you also represent his local church,

the local body of Christ.

And it is a mark that follows you throughout your Christian life.

And so whether you're part of this church or another church, eventually you're going to, you still represent the same kingdom should you be in

Christ.

And so you can take your membership, this is what we do practically in this church, is that when a person

leaves the church, maybe relocates, they don't necessarily just cease being members here, that

membership continues until they're transferred to another church.

And so there's a smooth transition.

Does that make sense?

So, any last thoughts or questions?

Yes.

How should we look at Presbyterians?

That's right.

Well, our view is that we should, we should baptize them.

That's our view.

And again, you know, we don't, for the spirit of

unity or conformity, we often, you know, again, there's much reason to fellowship and praise

our Presbyterian brothers and sisters, because we have so much in common.

But that is not to say that these things are not important.

Obviously, that's why there's a denominational line and distinction between Baptists and Presbyterians,

is because it is a severe issue and is an important issue.

So there's been debates on that for hundreds of years between Baptists and Presbyterians.

I don't think we'll sell it today.

But the view within the Baptist circles has always been two.

One is that the mode of baptism is illegitimate,

but the baptism is still legitimate in that it was done

sincerely.

And so they believe that it's still valid, where other Baptists would say

it's unvalid because it isn't baptism.

I would be more on that side, that it is not a valid baptism.

As our confession says in chapter 29, in

paragraph 4, it says, Immersion or dipping of the person in water is necessary

to the due administration of this ordinance.

Now, how some have interpreted this, even from our confession, is that, well,

the administration of Presbyterian baptism is

incorrect, but it doesn't delegitimize a genuine

person of faith being sprinkled.

So it was an illegitimate administration, but not an illegitimate...

I don't know how that works.

It doesn't make sense to me.

That's why I don't take that position.

Where it's the administration of it is incorrect, but it's still valid because of the sincerity behind it.

I don't think that's a good case.

Yes.

Which is why they have confirmation.

Because, of course, they baptize infants, and then they have to have a confirmation,

which is to say, hey, that thing that we did when you were a baby is legitimate because you now believe,

right?

I would say so, yeah.

Which is why we discourage them from partaking in communion here when they visit,

because they haven't been baptized by full immersion, which is a necessary requirement for the due administration of

the ordinance.

And so, again, in our context, we like to minimize some of

these things, but this is why we have a distinct denomination

from the Paedo -Baptists, and this is why we are called Baptists, is because this is

a big deal.

It's not a small issue.

This is a big issue.

So, all right.

Let me pray, and then we can get ready for service.

Father, we thank you, Lord, for your goodness.

We pray, Lord, that you would grant us wisdom in all these things and more.

Father, for the glory of your name, the edification of your church, help us, Lord, to see the importance

that it is to be baptized in union with Christ, to be joining the union of the body of

Christ in the corporation of God's people.

And we pray, Lord, that we would work cooperatively unto that end to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in

the name of the triune God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to whom be glory both now and forevermore.

Amen.