1689 London Baptist Confession (part 63)

Our great God and Savior, we come before you this morning thankful for all that you have done for us, for all that you have done to us, for all that you have done through us. You are a great God and worthy of all praise.

Lord, as we come before you this morning, we would pray that you would bless our time as we look to what you teach in your word about the church, what the Confession of Faith says about it, how we might view it, and come to understand the historical issues that were so prevalent then at the time of the Reformation and still have a great import for us now.

Lord, bless our time in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, so we started talking about the church a few weeks ago, a month ago. And to just kind of review briefly where we were, we talked about the Catholic Church, not in the sense of the Roman Catholic Church, but the church universal, the church invisible, which means basically every believer.

We talked about the word ecclesia, from which we get ecclesiastical, which means it's a Greek word and it means, or it's translated church. And it means called out ones. And we're going to be talking more about that, what that means this morning.

Visible Saints and the Local Church

And we come to this part of the confession. Talking about the church again, all persons throughout the world professing the faith of the gospel, and obedience unto God by Christ, according unto it, not destroying their own profession by any errors, averting or undermining the foundation.

And you know what, while I'm on that, let me just give you an example of what that means. Someone says, I'm a Christian, but they're well known for being dishonest in their business dealings. What's your first thought?

Your first thought ought to be, well, how can somebody who does that call themselves a Christian? Somebody says that they're a Christian, and yet they're living with their boyfriend or girlfriend. Again, that's everting or undermining their profession of faith.

So let me continue. Not destroying their own profession by any errors, averting the foundation or unholiness of conversation, are and may be called visible saints, and of such ought all particular congregations to be constituted.

One source I found online says this, all Christians are saints. It's not a title which the Pope places on some people who were holy. Being a saint, contrary to the usual meaning of the term, does not mean being perfect.

It means being someone who is set apart by God for holy use. Everyone who professes the true faith of the gospel may be called a saint and welcomed as a brother or sister. Obviously, some professing believers will be just that, professors of the faith, but not possessors of the faith.

They are welcomed into our fellowship, receive the sacraments, unbeknownst to us that they are not actually true believers. We cannot look into people's hearts, but we must listen to what comes out of their mouths and what their conduct is.

Somebody says, are you a fruit inspector? What do they mean? They mean you go to the store and pick up tomatoes and oranges and stuff and lick at them? No, they're talking about people who look at your life.

Is that a bad thing to do? When people apply to be a member of Bethlehem Bible Church, there are basically two ways you can go about church membership. One is to Mason. Well, there are three and I prefer the third that we don't practice.

But leaving that aside, you could take church membership seriously or you can treat it as basically a farce. You can just accept everybody's application no matter what. Or you can exact actually examine the application and talk to the person and try as much as you can to discover whether that person is actually a Christian or not.

Whether they're a possessor of the faith or just a professor of the faith. So if you look at somebody's life, if you actually inspect their fruit, would you see something that is consistent or reasonably so with Christian conduct?

If a man is living with three wives, we probably wouldn't accept him into membership. Two wives, better chance. OK, enough said about that. The confession teaches that professing Christians should belong to particular congregations.

We like to think we're pretty particular here. We don't just accept anybody. It just means individual congregations. And we'll talk a little bit more about that to the importance of that, especially as we talk about it historically.

The Christian must belong to a local body of Christ. I had a professor I used to I like to quote this because it's true. Professor in seminary, he said he was talking about ministry. And here's what he said.

He said the Lone Ranger is. The Dead Ranger. What was his point about that? Pastors out there in the ministry who just try to do everything themselves and don't have fellowship with other pastors are going to die on the vine.

But how much more true is that of Christians? The Lone Ranger is the Dead Ranger. You're a Christian, but you don't want to belong to a church. You're a Christian, but you don't want to have fellowship with saints.

Now, you may be a Christian, but you are going to starve spiritually. Right. You are out in the wilderness on your own trying to survive. You know, it's it's a Christian survivor thing. That is not how the Bible describes Christians, what we're supposed to do.

And if you think about the New Testament, how many of the New Testament books are epistles written to churches? The importance on the local church throughout the New Testament is very apparent. Moving on in the confession says this.

A Faithful Remnant and the Power of God

The purest churches under heaven are subject to mixture and error. And some have so degenerated as to become no churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan. Nevertheless, Christ always hath. Hath had and ever shall have a kingdom in this world to the end thereof that of such as believe in him and make profession of his name.

And I want to address the last part first, because frankly, I didn't make any notes about the first part or the last part. There's always a faithful remnant. There are always Christians. There are always believers.

There's always been believers, even since, you know, the flood. And before that, there have always been a few. There have always been those, you know, in the Old Testament who wouldn't bow the knee to Baal, who were faithful to the Lord, who suffered persecution.

When the Lord came back and was resurrected, there were how many? 500 that saw him, right? There were always a few. And I was contemplating that, and I thought, if we think about Christianity, and I've said similar things before, but it really struck me that Christianity might be the ultimate proof that evolution is a lie.

Even the thought of evolution is a lie. Why would I say that? Evolution is based on survival of the fittest. The strong survive. That kind of thinking. Well, what's true about Christianity? What's that?

It's all about the weak. Where would we learn that in Scripture? I think 1 Corinthians is an excellent choice. That's where I opened my Bible. So, thank you. Good job. 1 Corinthians 1 .18. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing.

But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe?

Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

And going on to chapter 2. And when I came to you, brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech, my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

We see this over and over again. And I was thinking, taking a step further. Islam starts in, well, near Mecca and Medina. But they actually have to conquer. What's the first city they conquer? I think it was Medina, but it could be Mecca.

They actually have to conquer it, and they spread by force of arms. Christianity starts in the heart of Judaism, where there are people called zealots. I mean, there's a group of Jews who are super zealous.

And there are, of course, a larger group that are pew warmers, to steal a phrase. But it starts in the heart of Judaism, persecuted by Jews, persecuted by Romans. Eventually, certain parts of the Roman Empire chased into the hills.

And someone will say, yes, but it was made the official religion of Rome. Sure. In 325 AD, right? But for a few hundred years before that, it's nothing, except it continues to grow. Not by power that we can see humanly, but by the power of God.

The strong didn't survive. The weak survived. It's often been said that the gospel was spread by the blood of the martyrs. The more persecution there was, the stronger the church became, which is counterintuitive.

But God has always had a faithful remnant. Now, let's talk about how does a church so degenerate, as it says in the Confession, so degenerate as to become not a church at all? And it says here, a synagogue of Satan.

The Roman Catholic Church as a False Church

Well, what would a synagogue of Satan look like? This is a recent example. I don't know how many of you have ever heard of Nadia Bowles Weber. She's a female Lutheran pastorina, pastorette, pastor. She recently melted purity rings, shaped them into something obscene, and presented it to feminist Gloria Steinem.

This is Christianity Today. They call her a controversial pastor who has defended the use of so-called. Now, this really must take some work. I didn't bother to research this. You'll have to trust me.

She has defended the use of so-called ethically sourced porn, and she first announced her art project at the 2018 Makers Conference, where she explained she wants to, quote, take down the church's teachings around sex and evangelical purity culture.

This thing about women that the church has tried to hide and control and that is a canvas upon which other people can write their own righteousness, it's actually ours, she told the Huffington Post. This part of me is mine, and I get to determine what is good for it, and if it's beautiful and how I use it in the world.

There's nothing you can say about that other than that is distinctly not Christian, and any church that she pastors would have to fall under the synagogue of Satan. And certainly not every church that bears the name church is actually a church that bears the gospel, right?

Any more than anybody who says they're a Christian is actually a Christian. But historically, I think we should understand again that this idea of synagogue of Satan refers to the Roman Catholic Church.

Why? Well, first of all, they were under persecution from the Roman Catholic Church. They were basically at war with it. But what are some areas of the Roman Catholic Church teaching that are distinctly anti-Christian?

Okay, I had that, actually. Good for me. Good job, Johnny. The idea that a priest re-sacrifices Jesus every time they have the Mass. Yeah, that's a major problem because it's saying Jesus said it is finished.

The Roman Catholic Church says it is never finished. It's ongoing. Jesus' work is not done. That's a major problem, and it is inherently anti-Christian. Other areas? I'm feeling pretty good about myself.

Johnny said purgatory. I had that, but I had it sort of under something else, but I'll take credit for it anyway. Purgatory because it says that your sins are not completely paid for by Jesus, that you go to a holding tank, that you may actually experience pain and suffering and pay for your own sins, which may take centuries or thousands of years.

Nobody really knows. But I did put this down because it's pertinent to the Reformation, the whole idea of indulgences. I mean, now you might hear of an indulgence. I think one of the Kennedys, I don't remember, Teddy paid an indulgence to the church to get his first marriage annulled so that he could get married again in the Roman Catholic Church.

That's kind of a new concept of indulgence. The old concept was you gave money to the church to spring your relatives out of purgatory. Imagine your mom died. She was a faithful Roman Catholic. Well, the Catholic Church teaches that she's in purgatory suffering, and you can write a check for $1 ,000 or $5 ,000 or whatever and get her out of purgatory.

Aren't you going to do that? What kind of heartless son or daughter are you? Why would you not spare your mom or your dad or your aunt or your uncle, brother or sister, whatever, that pain? Which means more to you, your money or your relative's suffering?

That would be the idea. But ultimately, that denies the efficacy of Jesus' death, right? Other anti-Christian or un-Christian or anti-biblical views. Well, the existence of the pope. My uncle posted something funny last night.

I don't know if anybody saw it, a little two-minute video. And in it, it's a British TV show. And they said, is the pope Catholic? You know what the correct answer is? No. He's actually Eastern Orthodox.

The only person who claims the title of pope is Eastern Orthodox. The pope, of course, has the title of pope. It's just an Italian kind of nickname for the pope. But his titles are unbelievable. I didn't write them all down.

But the one that most offends me is Vicar of Christ because it suggests that he rules the church in place of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah, and he's infallible. But that's only when he speaks on the elector chair or whatever it's called.

When he speaks ex cathedra, which means in the chair. But I don't know if he's strapped in or what. Tell the truth. But he makes no mistakes when it comes to doctrine. Other ones? Yes. Okay. Sacerdotalism is the word I like to use.

The dispensing of grace through the sacraments. Yes. I didn't have that one down. So bonus points for you. Yes. The idea that you have to participate in these sacraments and baptism and the mass and last rites and first rites and middle rites, whatever they're all called.

Yes. I had that one down. Mary. She's only grown since then. I mean, they've added new offices to her since the time of the Reformation. But even at the time of the Reformation, she had an unbiblical role with regard to salvation.

Other? Yes. Okay. Idolatry. Worshipping images. Absolutely. I mean, that's yet another problem. Janet. Confessing their sins to a priest. Yep. I would go for that. That is anti-Christian. Yes. Andrew.

Veneration of the saints. They don't worship them. That's funny you say that, because in this English thing, right, here's the Pope standing here and there are these other guys around in these robes and stuff like that, but none of them have hats.

And so one of the commentators says, well, you know, the Pope is the guy whose hat landed first. And it's making me laugh. But yeah, there's a real hierarchy, right, in which, you know, the priests and then there's something before cardinals?

But, you know, there's this whole rank, yeah, bishop, and there's this, yeah, well, you know, closet Catholics. Yeah, it's cool, buddy. You get a rank. So then a priest is like a tenderfoot, right? Okay.

I'll just put it, yeah, go ahead, Larry. Yeah, they missed the entire point. In fact, you know, I could just summarize it this way. They have another gospel, right? Galatians 1A, but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we have preached to you, let him be accursed.

Now, listen to the Council of Trent. You've probably heard this before, but just listen to this. Canon number 11. If anyone saith that men are justified either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ or by the sole remission of sins to the exclusion of the grace and charity which is poured forth in their hearts by the Holy Ghost and is inherent in them, or even that the grace whereby we are justified is only the favor of God, let him be anathema.

Let him be accursed. In other words, Rome says the biblical gospel, salvation by faith alone, through grace alone, and Christ alone, or through grace alone and Christ alone, however, I'm mixing it all up.

But the biblical gospel is anathema to Rome. It is heresy to Rome. So, I mean, synagogue of Satan, yes. Go there and hear false doctrine all week long. Okay. Moving on to the confession. It says, the Lord Jesus Christ is the head of the church.

We were just talking about the Pope claiming to be the head of the church. In whom, by the appointment of the Father, all power for the calling, institution, order, or government of the church is invested in a supreme and sovereign manner.

Neither can the Pope of Rome in any sense be the head thereof, but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition that exalteth himself in the church against Christ, and all that is called God, whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.

There's some pretty strong feelings about the Pope. Let's look at Matthew 16 for a moment. Matthew 16. And much like Roman Catholics will go to Luke 1, and they will say, well, this is why, you know, Mary is the mediatrix of all graces.

She is the intermediary between us and Jesus, is because, you know, the angel says to Mary, hail favored one. That is, you know, somehow extrapolated into she was sinless at birth, lived a perfect life, you know, died and was ultimately, she doesn't even die.

She gets lifted up to heaven. I mean, it's amazing the mythology around Mary in the Roman Catholic Church. But now listen to Matthew 16, 13 through 20. And you'll notice that, you know, as we discuss it, there's a similar mythology that comes about concerning Peter.

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the son of man is? In other words, who do people say that I am? And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven.

In other words, you didn't sort this out for yourself. God revealed it to you. And I tell you, you are Peter. And on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

Now from that, the Roman Catholic Church says not only was Peter the first pope, but he started an unbreakable chain of popes who rule and reign in the place of Jesus at his authorization, speak ex cathedra, all these other things that they do.

Why? Because blessed are you. It's inconsistent with the rest of scripture, and it's a dubious interpretation of the passage that we have here. Certainly there's nothing to indicate. I tell you that you are Peter, and not only am I going to make you the pope, but all your successors will be the pope after you.

Jesus could say things that bluntly, but he didn't. And there's a good reason for it, because that's not the right interpretation. Are there biblical arguments against, for example, people infallibility?

Yeah, Erickson. Romans 3, which is, okay, there's no one good, right? Not even the pope, who sweeps sexual abuse scandals under the rug like nobody's business. Puts a lot of maids to shame. Okay, the cessation of apostles, the cessation of revelation.

I mean, even if we just look at Hebrews 1, this is how God used to speak to people. He doesn't speak that way anymore. Why? Because we have his final word, the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that, and we'll look more at this, Jesus is the head of the church.

But let's look for a moment, and this is one of my, I always like this one. Galatians 2, because I just say, you know, out of everybody, I mean, you know, I know MacArthur said that Paul is his hero and stuff like that.

But here is like, to me, this is like a scene from a movie, where, you know, the hero goes into the bad guy's lair and faces, you know, all the bad guys all by himself. Now, not that these guys are all bad, but he stands up, just bold as you can, here in Galatians chapter 2, verses 11 to 14.

And, I mean, the problem here is, you know, is the Judaizing of Christianity, which is to say that they were, and even Peter had fallen under this, this idea that somehow Christianity was something that you added to your Jewishness.

Or if you were a Jew, that you had to go back and also be under the old law. You had to add those things, you had to go be circumcised, you had to live the dietary laws, you had to do all these things.

And look at what Paul does in 2, verse 11. But when Cephas, which is to say Peter, came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, even though he'd spoken ex cathedra about this. I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.

For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles, but when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. In other words, he was living in hypocrisy.

And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, if you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?

I mean, there are people in the Middle Ages, basically, who would get burned in the fire for this, for questioning the Pope. Peter wasn't a Pope, that's the problem. How about this, the vicar of Christ ruling in place of Jesus?

This is from Got Questions. Calling the Pope the vicar of Christ implies that he has the same power and authority that Christ had over the church. This title is derived from Jesus' words in John 21, verses 16 and 17, to Peter, feed my lambs, take care of my sheep.

Again, a massive over-interpretation of this. This, according to Catholic reasoning, defines Peter as the prince of the apostles, the first Pope, and fulfills the words of Jesus in Matthew 16, 18, and 19, calling Peter the rock.

Now, in the Confession, the Pope is called the Antichrist. And I say this, whether he is actually the Antichrist or not, he is certainly Antichrist, in other words, against Christ, because he is the head of a false church which teaches salvation by works.

Let's look at Revelation 19 for a moment, because I was kind of playing this and I thought, does anybody really believe that the Pope, the vicar of Christ, the head of the sea of Rome, I mean, he's got all these titles.

I mean, I can't even keep them all. It's like watching one of these boxing matches where they start ticking off all the guys' championships. You just go, okay, okay, we get the point, he's a good fighter.

With the Pope, he has all these titles and all this import and everything like that. Does anybody really believe that when the Lord returns, the Pope is going to be looking forward to it? I don't. I think he's going to go, oh, man, the gig's up.

It was fun while it lasted, but I'm in trouble. Look at Revelation 19, verses 11 and 20. Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.

His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God.

And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.

He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has the name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.

And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and his army. And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he had deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped its image.

These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. I don't believe there's a lot of hallelujahs just before that because they see the judgment of the Lord coming. I don't believe that the Pope is looking forward to this at all.

I think if you just read what he's saying now, he's all concerned with political power, the ecology, hugging the earth, all these kind of things right now, but there's no contemplation of the Lord returning and supplanting him as head of the church.

Which again, by the way, is completely false. Let's look at Colossians 1 .18. Colossians 1 .18, the only head of the church is Jesus Christ. He's the only head of the church. Paul writes this. Again, think about this.

This is after Roman Catholics believe that Peter has been anointed the first pope. Colossians 1 .18, and he is the head of the body, the church. He, Jesus, he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

He gives that to nobody else. Not the pope, not a pastor, not a denomination or a presbytery. There's nobody else, just Christ alone. Colossians 2 .18 and 19. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels.

Again, this almost sounds like Roman Catholicism. Deprive yourself, suffer for Lent. Pain is gain. Worship of angels, or we could say saints. Going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind.

And not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body nursed and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. It's always Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1, verses 22 and 23.

And he, the father, put all things under his, Jesus' feet, and gave him, Jesus, as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Jesus is the head of the church.

He's the only head of the church, ever and always. The confession goes on to say, In the execution of this power wherewith he is so entrusted, the Lord Jesus calleth out of the world unto himself, through the ministry of his word by his spirit, those that are given unto him by his father, that they may walk before him in all the ways of obedience, which he prescribeth to them in his word.

Those thus called, he commandeth to walk together in particular societies or churches for their mutual edification and the due performance of that public worship which he requireth of them in the world.

How Christ Calls and Gathers His People

So let's think for a moment how people are brought into the church. You say, well, I invite them and they come in. I say, would you like to come to my church? They come in. That's how they come into the church.

He's talking about actual membership of the body of Christ. They are called out of the world by Jesus. Called out of the world by Jesus. John 12, 32 says, And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw, what?

All people to myself. Does that mean every man, woman and child? He's going to draw those who are the called out ones. How does he do it? By the word and the spirit. Romans 10, 17. Who can turn there and read that for me?

And I'll read 1 Corinthians 12, verses 13 to 18. Somebody would go to Romans 10, 17, please. And I'll read 1 Corinthians 12, 13, 18. For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body. One church universal.

Jews or Greeks, slaves or free. And all were made to drink of one spirit. For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body.

That would make it not any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body. That would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?

If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members of the body, each one of them as he chose. In other words, we're all called into the body. Baptized into the body by the spirit.

Who has Romans 10, 17? Go ahead, Linton. Okay. People hear the word. They hear the gospel. And they come to faith in Christ. That's the only way they can. You know, there are all these ideas out there that Muslims are coming to faith in dreams.

Well, maybe if they've heard the word of God and then they have a dream and they're convicted of it. Okay. But not just a random dream. They would have to hear the word of God. There's no allowance for any other way other than by hearing the word of God.

They're also saints. The believers are given to Jesus by the father, as the confession says. John 17, verses 1 and 2. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come.

Glorify your son that the son may glorify you. Since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. Not to everybody, but to all whom you have given him.

The elect are given to the son by the father. In fact, John 6, 44. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. No one has the ability. Nobody has the capacity. Nobody has the power to come unless the father draws them.

And then notice what he says. And I will raise him up all that the father has given me on the last day. Excuse me. Now, why are they given? Why are they given to the son? Why do they come to the son? And the answer, let's look at Matthew 28.

Would somebody read Matthew 28, verses 18 and 20? What we like to call the great commission. It's so interesting here because, you know, a lot of times we skip over verse 20. We think, you know, the idea is to go.

The idea is to baptize. Well, the idea is actually to make disciples, right? And what do disciples do? Well, verse 20 tells us they observe, they obey all that I have commanded. Right. This is why we're called into the church.

This is why we're given to the son. Now, do we do that? We don't perfectly obey. But our desire is to obey. Our desire is transformed. Our desire is changed. Our direction is changed. If there's absolutely no desire for obedience, then there's been no change in this at all.

Now, how? Talk about why we are called in so that we can obey. But how do we do that? How do we practically do that? Well, we do it together. That's why the church is so important. That's why the local church is so vital.

We walk together for our mutual edification. The church organizes local believers. Let's look at Titus 1 .5. Titus 1 .5. And if somebody would read that, please. Titus 1 .5. We're going to be doing a couple of verses in Titus.

Titus 1 .5. Titus being one of the pastoral epistles. Paul writing to Titus, telling him how to run the church on Crete. And would somebody read Titus 1 .5, please? Okay. Again, the idea, he's organizing.

Paul is sending Titus there to put things that remain in order. To take the believers there and organize them. And then to appoint elders in every town. So there are elders in every church. The local church also is to protect believers.

It's to be a place of, yeah, organization, mutual edification. But it's also to be a place where believers are protected from false doctrine. Now, that doesn't happen in a lot of churches. But it should happen.

Titus 1 .9 tells us that. Listen. It says, he, or an elder, or elders generally, must hold firm to the trustworthy word. As taught. They have to believe in the Bible. They have to hold tightly to scriptures.

So that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine. Exhort in sound doctrine. And also rebuke those who contradict it. When unsound doctrine is introduced into a church. Or when someone hears of it and brings it to the elders.