LBCF Chap 27: Of Communion

We're looking at the confession, it's been a couple of weeks now, so I just want to talk about a couple of things.

We're on communion of the saints, chapter 27. I want to remind you of what we have gone through already.

The last couple of chapters, if you remember, we went through the various covenant institutions,

God -ordained covenant institutions, which makes sense because we're in the third section of the confession, which is

Christian liberty, Christian living. Remember the first part was the foundation, the second part was explanation of the covenant relationship, and now we get into Christian living,

Christian liberty. There's a logic and a cogency to how the confession was put together.

We looked at the covenant institution of marriage, and just that was preceded by lawful oaths and vows, makes sense since that's how you enter into the marriage relationship.

Then we looked at the civil magistrate, what is our responsibility, how do we live, how do

Christians live in the new covenant era in light of the government, what are our obligations to the government, what is the government's obligation to us.

Then chapter 26 is pretty much the longest chapter in the confession, and it's on the church, and again, that makes sense.

And that's where we started to see some of the greatest departure in the relationship of the

Westminster Confession and the Savoy Declaration and the 1689 Confession.

Remember we saw that starting to see not completely, but church government is one of the things that we disagree with from both the

Congregationalists and the Presbyterians, okay? Is that making sense? Then so that was the last chapter, was chapter 26, where the confession explains that relationship and how it differs from the other confessions.

So chapter 27 again follows logically. What is the basis of our union as a church?

We've looked at the local church, but now we look at the communion of the saints, which is more general.

So chapter 27, the communion of the saints. This chapter is divided into four parts, two paragraphs.

It's one of the shortest chapters in the confession, not because it's not important, but because it's really very simple to define, all right?

So this chapter is essentially the same as the Westminster, though the wording is not the same.

For some reason, the Baptists decided to change the wording, but if you look at the essence of what it's saying, it's saying basically the same thing, okay?

This chapter is part of the third section of the confession, Christian living. We already talked about that, and as such, it defines the relationship of Christians to each other, but of course, and communion is a synonym for fellowship, but communion presupposes union.

You can't have communion without union, all right? And so, as you'll see as we go into this confession, what is the basis for our communion?

We talk about communion of the saints, all right? We have a relationship with each other.

What is the basis? Why do we have this relationship, all right? And the confession shows that the communion with each other is based upon our union with Christ, okay?

That make sense to everybody? All right, now that's all just the introduction. And again, this is a very brief chapter with only two paragraphs, four parts.

Part one is paragraph 1A, talking about the realization, you know, the fact that this is true, all right?

And we notice that the realization is true by His Spirit. All saints, they're united to Christ, their head, they're united, all right?

So notice, how are we united? We're united to Christ. And you'll see as we go through it, that's what gives us the horizontal relationship of our communion with each other because of our union with Christ in that vertical relationship.

So it's by His Spirit and by faith, all right?

So it's the work of the Spirit utilized, but the instrumentality of our union and communion is by faith, okay?

Now to the second qualification, it's talking about, notice what it said, we are all united to Christ, all right?

But there's a qualification that the confession states very clearly, that although they are not made there by one person with Him, there's heresies out there talking about how we become, well, we even say it, we are one with Christ, just as we are one with each other, but not in a carnal way.

The relationship is a spiritual one, all right? So we're not made one person with Him, Christ is a distinct person, all right, and we are each distinct people, all right, persons as well, yet that doesn't mean that we are not united, and we can actually use that terminology of being one, okay?

Paragraph 1c talks about the scope of this union that we have with Christ.

We have fellowship in His graces, all right, in other words, these are, how far does this union extend to His graces?

All the graces of Jesus Christ are manifoldly expressed to us because of our union with Him.

I don't know if you remember, I'm trying to think how long ago it was, probably when I was in chapter 17 of the

Gospel of John, when we talked about where Christ prayed that they all may be one, even as we are one, praying to the

Father, remember? I don't know if you remember that sermon, when we spent a lot of time talking about what does it mean to be one and to have union with Christ, okay, and here it's just talking about what some of the benefits are.

So we have fellowship in His graces, in His sufferings. We are said to have been crucified with Him, even though He is the one who did it because of our union with Him, Apostle Paul says,

I have been crucified with Christ, okay? We partake in His death, we were buried with Him, and again, remember, this is the spiritual union we're talking about, not a physical union.

His resurrection, we are said to be raised with Him, alright, and glory.

We will be glorified with Him, we will share in His glory, everything that Christ earned, okay,

His church will share in for all eternity, all of the glory that the Father, He gives to Him, is given to us.

Doesn't that just blow you away? This is a short paragraph, but look at what it's expressing, alright?

So that's the scope, alright? Then we look at the bond, alright?

Being united to one another in love, there's the bond. What is it that bonds us all together, it's love.

But Christ demonstrated His love in that while we were sinners, He died for our sins.

So remember, that's the basis for this bond, the bond is a bond of love, alright?

Paragraph 1E, now we get to the benefits, before we talked about what we share in, but here are the benefits.

They have communion in each other's gifts and graces. One of the big things that you have to take away from this chapter in the

Confession is there is no such thing as a Lone Ranger Christian, alright?

You cannot be obedient to the Word of Christ, you cannot be obedient to what

God's plan is for the church, if you do not make yourself part of a local body.

You cannot just say, okay, it's me, I'm saved, that's it, it's me and God, that's it. We need, we are one with Christ, which means we have communion with each other, and if one part of the body is missing, it affects every other part of the body.

Remember, Paul gives that great analogy of, you know, the head, you know, the feet, and you know, whatever other part that you want to talk about, and he says the less seemly parts, in other words, the parts that you don't think about of the body as much, are no less than the head.

Not everybody, you know, would be in the monstrosity if the whole body was just a head, okay?

So, it's meant to be that, you know, that's hyperbolic language that the Scripture uses for that purpose.

If you think about it in that way, just like when Christ says, you know, take the log out of your own eye, we spout that off so quickly, we stop, we don't stop and picture it, because if you stop and picture it, picture me up here with a big log sticking out of my eye, all right?

And it's meant to make you laugh, okay? And so, here we see they have communion in each other's grace, gifts, and graces, all right?

But that comes with obligations. They're obliged to the performance of such duties, all right?

What duties? We'll get that in a minute. Notice the confession recognizes an obligation.

If you're part of the body of Christ and you are not performing some function within that body, you're not living up to your obligations.

If God has called you to a particular local church, you are to serve in that church in some fashion, all right?

And it's up to you to figure out what that is based upon gifts and graces, okay?

But notice also, obliged to performance of such duties, public and private, all right?

What would be an example of public? How can you serve in the church which would be considered a public serving in the church?

Teaching, ushering, all right? You know, all different. There's many different things. Working on the fellowship committee, ministry of mercy, you know, just think of so many public ways.

But also private. How can you serve privately? Praying, biggest one, praying.

Committing yourself to praying for the body, and we publish the prayer lists each week.

We try to keep them updated as best we can. We have the church directory.

You can pray through the church directory. I mean, there's all ways that you can privately perform duties that you're required to as well.

I notice in an orderly way, we do want to,

Paul says it very clearly that, you know, we are to do things decently and in order in the church.

It's not just a hodgepodge. And that's why there is such thing as an organized church.

You hear people, especially today, you'll hear a lot of people say, well, we don't want to get too organized.

We don't want to get in the way of the spirit. We want the spirit to be free to move. Okay. Well, the spirit is the one who has organized the church with elders and deacons and certain things.

So if you're not doing that, you're already getting in his way. All right.

So, yeah. So remember, the spirit does not work apart from the word.

The Holy Spirit works in and through the word of God because he is the ultimate author of it.

Okay. As to conduce to their mutual good, there's the whole reason, the obligation.

Why are we to work in the church? For the mutual benefit of the church. Again, we're not lone rangers.

We're not just a group of individuals. We're one. That's the whole purpose of this paragraph is communion of the saints.

We need to understand what that means. Both inward and the inward and outward man.

I like this because notice one of the probably one of the greatest errors in the church in serving is one only looking to serve in a spiritual way or the other only in a social way.

Remember, you can always fall off the horse on either side. And the confession says it very clearly that, no, as a church, the spiritual always has the priority, but that doesn't mean alone.

The spiritual always affects the physical or the outward. So it's the inward, of course, you know, the ministering of the person's spirit is primary, but also you ought to minister to the physical needs of not just the church, but of the community that the church serves.

So it's both and it's not either or. Does that make sense? That's the first paragraph.

Remember, there's only two paragraphs in this chapter. And it's very, so it's very short.

Part three is paragraph 2A. The identity, their identity, spiritual services.

Saints by profession are bound to maintain a holy fellowship and communion in the worship of God. Basically, what that's saying is if you're not part of a local body, you're in disobedience.

Maintain a holy fellowship and communion in the worship of God, not just that you worship God, but there is a fellowship involved.

That's why we do whatever we can in this church to encourage fellowship.

That's why we have an afternoon meal. That's why we plan. That's why we have bagels in the morning. That's why we have men's breakfast and women's breakfast and other fellowship times to enhance the fellowship aspect of the church, which is extremely important.

It's one of the means of grace. A lot of people don't realize that. But that Holy Spirit fellowship, that koinonia in the

Greek, is a means of grace. If you absent yourself from the fellowship of the church, you're actually absenting yourself from a means of grace.

OK, so the spiritual services and the performing of such other spiritual services as tend to their mutual edification.

You have no idea what you may add to the fellowship of the church.

Being a pastor for 28 years now and having been around the block more than once or twice,

I can't tell you how many times I've sat with somebody and I say, you know,

I just don't feel that I'm being of any use to the church, you know.

And 99 times out of 100, I've been able to sit with that person and point out how many ways they have served the church and they didn't even realize it.

It might even just be sitting over the table and a cup of coffee and a bagel and just some encouraging words that you don't even give second thought to, but you have no idea how much you may have helped that person.

And just because you don't see it doesn't mean that it's not happening. But if you're not here, you're not participating, then it's not going to happen.

All right. Now, some people just have a gift, you know, for that.

And they do counseling probably more than I do. And they don't even realize that they're counseling.

All right. And that's a good thing. I love to see that when that happens. Makes my job a little easier.

Paragraph 2A, their identity, now to talk about physical services, as also in relieving each other in outward things, according to their several abilities and necessities.

This is where you have an opportunity to help someone in need in the physical sense.

Whether it be money, helping with a house project or, you know, things of that nature.

And again, this is all part of the community of believers, things that should be taking place.

And then their recipients. Now, this is interesting here, too, which communion, according to the rule of the gospel.

Notice the confession is saying that this is part of the gospel. All right. Though especially to be exercised by them in the relation wherein they stand.

That simply means the first priority is the household of faith where God has called you.

We just as the elders of this church, our primary obligation is to the flock that God has called here.

That's not to say that we can't go and help other people. We can preach in other pulpits.

We can perhaps even counsel in another church if the pastor there calls us and needs some help.

But primarily, the elders of this church are responsible here.

All right. But that doesn't exclude others. But that's the primary. All right. Whether in families or churches.

Now, here's you know, we know the admonition to dads. You know, dads are mandated by scripture to take care of their own families, to make sure that, you know, they have enough bread to feed the flock, so to speak.

And whatnot. So you have your families or the church, whichever. And that's it, too.

And that's both. And it's not an either or. All right. Yet, as God offers opportunity is to be extended to all the household of faith.

In other words, just like we do here, we remember when

Cuba was hit with the hurricanes. What did we do? We sent money down there so that they could buy a whole pig and boxes of food.

And our contacts down in Cuba, you know, Hot Neal and Daniel Perez.

They were able to to purchase this food, not only take care of their own church, but to actually feed a whole community for quite a number of days just on what we were able to send down to them.

OK, so that's you can see how that's right in in line with what the confession teaches.

That, again, our priority is here. But as God has prospered us and has blessed us, we're able to help people in other in other locations.

OK. Even all those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And again, the priority is to the household of faith.

But taking the example of Cuba, not only were we able to provide for the household of faith down there, but to the whole communities.

Hot Neal reported back how blessed they were because they were able to bless the community in which they were in when they couldn't get food.

So the name of Christ is exalted in Cuba because of some money that we were able to send from here.

All right. And that's all part of comes all under the communion of the saints. Now, there are some limitations.

Nevertheless, their communion, one with another as saints, does not take away or infringe upon the title of propriety, which each man has his goods and possessions.

In other words, the Scripture teaches that private property is the biblical method, not communes.

You do not have to sell all your belongings and live together and etc.

OK, which there are people who advocate such a thing, but it's not what the Scripture teaches.

They misunderstand what was going on in the book of Acts. And by the way, just so that you understand the book of Acts, when they were doing that, did it work out perfectly?

No, because by the time you get to Acts 6, they had to appoint people because they were being preferential. The Greek widows were being overlooked.

OK, so no, it does not mean that you you have to live in a commune.

You do not want to see me in my bathroom when I get up in the morning. Any questions?