Article 35 - The Local Church

To do is so brother Keith's gonna go down here with the young disciples do some talking with them and then by that time by the time he comes back I'll be done with my half and then he's gonna present his half in the articles.

And then we're gonna flip-flop week by week so one of us will be in here one of us will be in there and we're just gonna keep moving in and out of the hallways. So I hope it'll still show some sort of continuity.

Article 35 and the Communion of the Saints

Okay so as we've been going through the confession we've kind of moved along and so tonight I want to look at article 35 which is still dealing with the church and actually the next number of articles will deal with the church church offices qualifications care and it was starting to move through.

We've kind of looked we looked at the confession and we should be through it by the end of September. And then we've kind of laid out a roadmap for what to do after that but we've have at least another month or this month in the confession to go through the remaining articles.

Okay let's open up with a word of prayer our Father in God again we thank you Lord for the privilege to gather in Christ's name. We thank you Lord for the responsibility that you have given us to be light in the world of darkness.

Lord we we thank you for the freedom that we have Lord to gather even as we know even this night there are so many that are not able to gather freely and yet Lord we pray you bless them as they do gather whether it be in secret Lord that your word would go out that you would fulfill your purposes not only to those that do not know you but also to those that do know you.

So be with us tonight Lord may may may we consider this more than just the meeting but may we consider it as a time to gather at your feet and that you Holy Spirit would teach us in a way that it would become real in our lives.

So be with us be in our time be with our thoughts. And may the Lord Jesus Christ name be lifted up and we ask this in his name amen. Hey good evening. So we've been going through the first Baptist the first one the confession.

We're at article 35 tonight which is dealing with the communion of the Saints and so I will take care of that. And then brother Keith will come back down and he's going to do the church offices and the qualifications for pastors.

And then next week we'll continue on so communion of the Saints. So before we read the article I want to just make a couple statements to to kind of get our thoughts rolling. Hopefully it will lead us into some thinking.

I will say this if you look at article 35 in the in the confession it's actually one of the longest articles in the whole confession and and I think that's I think that's interesting and again not just because of the amount of words that they use but I think because it is such a central truth that perhaps in a confession where many doctrines are laid out and many different teachings sometimes people will think of a confession as merely a doctrinal statement and although it is a doctrinal statement yet when it comes to the fellowship of the Saints and the communion of the Saints and the and different aspects of the church it's so important that we understand it.

And as I said they actually if you look at it the references that they give for this article are much more abundant than many of the other references they give for such topics as justification and sanctification and different things like that.

And there's two appendix attached to this versus many of the articles do not even have an appendix and remember the appendix was written by Benjamin Cox and it was to clarify what the brother said in 1644.

Benjamin Cox in 1646 he added those appendix notes for clarity and for further understanding. So again tonight as we look at this I want us to think about this idea ideas not the right word the reality of the communion of the Saints and again it really is something that ought not to be considered in a vacuum.

And what I mean by that and what I'd ask us to think about is like I wrote myself a little note and I said this if your theology does not find great expression in your manner of life particularly towards the household of God you have the wrong theology.

If your theology if your theology does not find a great expression in your manner of life in other words if if what we believe doesn't move us and transform us do something to us in us and then bring something out of us and particularly when it comes to the household of faith because of the great emphasis in the New Testament on the communion of the Saints then I would suggest to you that you have the wrong theology because theology is never meant to be understood in a vacuum and again there has to be an outworking and I have a lot of things I want to say and I I really have to kind of confine my thoughts to keep within the time but but I want us to think about this.

I want us to think about how the the communion of the Saints or the fellowship of the Saints together let me pose it as a question this way you're forced to say something. Would you agree with me that the emphasis in the New Testament is towards the visible local church gathered in a particular place.

Or is it is the emphasis in the New Testament given to just the there's a lot of different terms people use. We'll say the universal church spread out through space and time if you had if you had to determine as you read through the New Testament not particularly in the Gospels but as you get into the epistles and certainly in the book of Acts would what would you say that the emphasis is placed on the local church and the outworking that takes place in the local church or is it on the the universal church as it as again as I said spread out through space and time.

Sir first one anybody anybody else any anybody have any other thoughts on that. I mean I'm not trying to exclude one from the other because we really shouldn't do that but I would submit to you not only as we will read this but also with the emphasis on in the testament that much of the emphasis on the fellowship the communion of the Saints is directed and funneled through the local church because again that's what the church is.

Right. What is the ecclesia. It's it's the called-out ones. But it's not just the called-out ones it's the called-out ones what gathered in a local place. Right. And you could even see that in the book of Acts where they had a town meeting and they actually called them the same way they said it was an ecclesia it was the ones that were called out to that meeting at a local place for instruction.

So when you think about that there is that reality and there's a lot of different thoughts about how to divide the church whether it be visible invisible universal. There's a lot of different terms. I'm not gonna get hung up with terms so much right now but I am saying that the local visible church is where the outworking of the communion of the Saints is to take place in the lion's share.

Because again think about it. I mean certainly we think about the church in Afghanistan right now. Right. And we think about the Church of Louisiana right now and and and hopefully we are in prayer for them and hopefully and if we could we would support some of their physical needs.

Right. But it's rather difficult to really have continual real fellowship with someone who spread out on the other side the ocean. Yeah not ignoring it. The emphasis should be on a local body and its function in fellowship with each other if you think about it the fruit of the Spirit which we have spent time on thinking about and all the different things that are to come out of a new heart where are they to find their distribution.

Remember what it says that we are to. And by the way any scripture I quote tonight I wrote it on the board just in case you wanted that we are to to what to do good to all men especially those of the household of faith.

Why. Because they're of the household of faith. Isn't that the the essential point in it. So let's read the article because otherwise I'll never get to it. Let me read this to you. So article 35. And again if I stumble it's my eyes.

So forgive me all. Right. And remember the communion of the saints in parentheses is something that's been added in to give us understanding. And all his servants of all the states are to acknowledge him to be their prophet priest and king and call thither to be enrolled among his household servants to present their bodies and souls to bring their gifts God has given them to be under his heavenly conduct and government to lead their lives in this walled ship ship of Sheffield.

And what a garden to have communion here with his saints that they may be assured that they are made meat to be partakers of their inheritance in the kingdom of God. And to supply each other's wants inward and outward.

And although each person has a propriety in his own state yet they are to supply each other's wants according to the necessities as their necessities shall require that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ may not be blasphemed through the necessity of any in the church and also being come that they are here by himself to be bestowed in this several order due peace peculiar use being fitly compact and knit together according to the effectual working of every part to the edifying of itself in love.

And and then if you look at it there's a massive amount of supporting scriptures which we'll look at a few of them tonight. But you certainly can go back and look at. So let's think about a little bit further.

Or all his servants of all the states are to acknowledge him to be prophet priest and king. So let's think about that. Why is there a communion of the Saints. Right. Ok. And we are all under what the prophet the priest and the king.

The thing that binds us together is not necessarily likeness or differences. It's not just merely location what really binds us together as the Lord Jesus Christ as prophet priest and king. And if we begin to think about that we could spend a whole lot of time just on that.

Folks if you think about it he is he is the head of all things particularly us. And that if we if we lose sight of this listen this I think is essential if we lose sight of the centrality of the person and work of Christ.

I don't care what we call ourselves. I don't care how big we get. I don't care how many ministries we have. I don't care how many baptisms we do. If Christ is not that which binds us together then we are we are doomed for failure.

And it might not even be evident now but it certainly will become evident because again the reality is the communion of the Saints finds its unity and like-mindedness under the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ and many have lost sight of that and we could spend a whole lot of time on that.

I don't have the time to do it. There are multitudes of churches that have almost banished the Lordship of Christ out of their out of the church or out of everything that they do that is so involved in ministry and and they're so involved in outreach and they're so involved in this thing and that thing and it's almost as if the Lord Jesus Christ has to sit in the last pew and yet which really binds us together what really is the focus of the community Saints is that we're all under the prophet the priest and the king and we acknowledge him as such and what I thought was interesting and I kind of want to just break through the rest of the article so it says that they are all under the prophet priest and king and listen and called thither we don't use that word too often these days and called thither to be enrolled among his household servants well there's another great characteristics characteristic of the communion of the Saints is that we're on the same footing and what are we?

We're a bunch of slaves and I know the connotation of being a slave has so many odious thoughts especially because of things that have happened or because the way people perceive things but listen we are all bond servants of Christ we are all we have all been put into his service and it's very important in the communion of the Saints that we all realize that we're on the same footing and I've said this many times in the past but I'm saying again how many people would how many people would think that the elders or the deacons or that they're on one level and then there's everybody else people really think that you know and here's the reality every one of us are a bond slave of Christ.

Isn't that what Paul says? Paul opens many of his epistles in that very thought. Paul, a bond servant of Jesus Christ. Not only was he a servant of Christ but because he was a servant of Christ he was a servant to who?

To the churches. Why? Because Christ is the head of the church. You can't be a bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ and not be a bond slave to the church. And again I'm talking about it in a local sense and I have a Baptist background and many of you know that but one of the things that first drew me to more Baptistic thinking was the reality of the local church and that the local church was the, if you will, the natural outworking of my faith.

Again, do good to all men? Yes. Particularly those of the household of faith. And that's what Paul says and I've just quoted and I wrote them on the board so you don't have to look at them all. But in Romans 6 Paul says but now having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God.

Did you come here tonight realizing that you are my bond servant? Well you are. So please stop my car. But really there's a truth to that isn't there? Not in a wrong connotation but in the right connotation.

You came here to serve me, I came here to serve you, we all came here to serve Christ. And if we didn't, that's why I say if we don't see it that way we're going to miss the forest because of the trees.

Because again, there is a tremendously individual reality of the cross of Christ. Granted that he died for me, died in my place, bore my sins, but there's also a reality that Christ came into the world to die for the sins of who?

His people. Shall call his name Jesus, he shall save his people from their sins. That the community of saints is really based on that dual concept of our individual relationship and yet our corporate relationship because Christ purchased the church to himself as his bride.

And again in this thought of being a slave, I think it's helpful for us to realize that we're on the same footing and that we are here to serve one another. One of the reasons why, and I just want to mention this, one of the reasons why if you remember in the Bible study we're going through on Sunday morning we're going through the God who's there, we only got two chapters left, Brother Mike has chapter 13 this coming week and I have chapter 14 the following week and then I handed out to you last Sunday that we're going to take a, it's going to take us 18 weeks to go through the one another's of the Bible and it kind of ties well with this thought.

In other words, there are so many specific commands about relationships in the local church, in the community of the saints, that it's a worthy study and so we're going to take two of them. I pulled out 36 of those things.

And you know, to love one another, serve one another, minister to one another, mourn one another, comfort one another, pray for one another, don't judge one another, don't bite and devour one another.

We're going to go through it because it's so central to our function as a body of believers and so I hope that will help us. But I want to look at, if you would, go to Romans 12 for a minute. I want to show you something.

I will almost guarantee that almost everybody in this room could, from memory, repeat Romans 12, 1 and 2. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy, and depending on your translation, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, you present your body of living sacrifice wholly acceptable, right?

I would say that's one of the memory verses that many, many people not only have, give to their children, and rightfully so. But what I want to do in this light of the community of the saints, and I believe it's drawn out in the article, I want to read the first eight verses and here's what I want us to think about.

You cannot separate verse one and two from verses three to eight and many, many people do not see that. In other words, our faith should have an outworking. Again, I'm not disowning good works to those outside of the household faith.

I'm not discounting seeking to minister, why we have missionaries, right? Why we support Scott Phillips and the people, the Tao tribe of Indonesia, because we know we have a responsibility. But I don't want you, I want you to read this in one setting, in one thought, that Romans 12, 1 and 2 should really never be broken up from Romans 3 to 8.

Look at it. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone, everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

For as we have many members in one body, but all members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them.

If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. Or ministry, let us use it in our ministering. He who teaches in teaching, he who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness.

And you keep going on and on, but we'll stop there. My point is, in the communion of the saints, if we are truly seeking to present our bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God, and if we are truly seeking to have our minds renewed and to draw near to God, then there must be an outworking among the saints.

And that is why it is so devastating when people will make that statement, and they'll make it in a thousand different ways, but it's essentially saying, I only need God, I don't need the church. You are wrong.

If you think that, you are flat out wrong. And I know I've heard, all through the years of ministry, I've heard all the things, you know, well they're a bunch of hypocrites, and you know, all the other stuff.

And let me tell you, if God has given you, and the scriptures say he certainly has, a measure of faith, and God has given you a gift, and everyone has a gift, because again, we're all on the same footing, mine's not the same gift, then we are obligated to give that gift back, both to God and to God's people.

And there are so many people, I say again, that will bypass that reality, and just think that they could be a Lone Ranger, or they could be, and I want to make this point too, I'm not discounting that, even as it says in the confession, where it talks about supplying each other's wants, inward and outward, and although each person has a propriety in his own estate, yet that they are to supply each other's wants.

And I thought about that scripture, and I wrote it on the board, 1 Timothy 5 .8, right? What does it say? If anyone does not provide for his own, especially though, of his own household, he's worse than the unbeliever, that I am not saying that we ought to become a commune.

And there have been many, many that have jumped off the cliff on that side, right? And we've seen the disastrous results that come out of that. However, having said that, and I will show you if I have time, very quickly, that one of the main functions of the church is that each member is to supply that which God gave them to the benefit, and for the growth, and for the blessing of the body that's there.

And again, you know, technology is a great thing, right? You can listen to a preacher from the other side around the world, but I will tell you what, if you think you could survive, and if you think you're pleasing to God, to sit at home and watch some preacher on the other side of the globe, and send him a couple dollars, and pray for the people he tells you to pray about, I believe you're wrong.

I believe that the centrality of the local church is an absolute essential, and that you and I are to use that which God has given us to, um, if you will, in one sense, fulfill our obligation as slaves of Christ, and also to fill up what is lacking, because if you think that any church has everything they possibly could need, you're wrong.

Because if that were true, we'd be in heaven. So I want you to think about that, and you know, I thought about that verse in, um, in Psalm 133, if you remember how that psalm, that little short psalm, three verses, whatever it is, what does it say?

Behold, what? Anybody remember? Behold how good and how pleasant it is, for what? For the brethren to dwell in unity. And again, as they speak about the communion of the saints, and as they speak about this reality of how we all have been given our own estate by God, whatever that is, and a proportion to each one of us as God has seen fit, yet that is not to be for self-consumption.

There's a reality of it, but again, not asking us to become a commune, but we ought to be a community. And again, the reality of it, and, um, I just think that there are many, many of God's people who, um, for a number of reasons, which we don't have time to go into right now, for a number of reasons, have, in a sense, turned away from this whole reality of being a, uh, a community of believers.

And I'm going to emphasize once again, in a local church. Again, you can, you can enjoy the many blessings of God, especially with technology, especially with all the different things, but I do not believe that you ought to be a member.

I'm going to take it back. You can't be a member of a church that's 400 miles from here. You just can't do it. Now you can call yourself a member, but you're not a member because you cannot function as God has called us to function when you can't meet together, when you can't intermingle, when you can't mormorate one another, when you can't, um, see one another, when you can't do the one another's of the Bible, which again, we will study as we go forward.

All right. So brother Keith is here. I'm going to just ask us, uh, to take one more, uh, second. I want you to look at first Corinthians chapter 12. Like I said, the old verses are up on the board. You can look at it at your own time, but let's just end it with this one.

Spiritual Gifts for the Profit of All

First Corinthians chapter 12. Again, in the thought of that you and I under the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the brothers have said, as prophet, priest, and King, that you and I under, as the confession has stated, being called to be slaves, bond servants of Christ, we have an obligation both to our King and to our King's people to demonstrate, to bear fruit in the reality of a local assembly.

Okay. First Corinthians chapter 12. And let me just ask you to read this. Um, I'll just read the first 11 verses and I'll try not to comment, but that's very difficult. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant.

You know that you were Gentiles carried away to these dumb idols. However, you were led. Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the spirit of God calls Jesus accursed. And no one can say that Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy spirit.

Now there are diversities of gifts, but it's the same spirit. There are differences of ministries, but it's the same Lord. There are diversities of activities, but it's the same God who works all in all.

But the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one. Look, look, look, look, look for the profit of all. That's why it is the community. That's why the community saints are so essential. It's the profit all.

This church is not here for you alone. This church is here for us. This church is here for the glory of God. And the glory of God is demonstrated in our communion with one another for the profit of all.

For to one is given the word of wisdom through the spirit, to another, the word of knowledge through the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same spirit, to another working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning spirits.

And am I getting into all this stuff about miracles and prophecy right now? Because I just don't have the time. Different kinds of interpretations. My point is, again, look at verse 11. One in the same spirit works all these things to distribute to each one individually as he wills.

And then he goes on to the whole thing about the body. So I hope you see that. I hope you see that. That's why I believe they spent so much time on this article. And then Brother Keith's going to come and talk about several different aspects of the church.

But it's so essential, brothers and sisters, that we, as they ended, saying, being fitly compact and knit together according to the effectual working of every part to the edifying of itself in love. And I will say, I know you brothers and sisters, I know some of you come a great distance to be here.

I know some of us bypassed 15 churches to get here. I can remember, and I just ended this way, I was still an elder down, pastoring down in Middleburg, and I was living in Yulee for three years. Because we moved from Middleburg.

I drove 65 miles one way, sometimes four times a week. And you know what? That was the most pleasant 65 miles one way I could ever drive. Because I knew what I was doing. At least I felt I knew what I was doing.

I was going to be part of a local body of believers. And I will say, one of the reasons why we did wind up moving away from that is because I began to feel that I wasn't able to fulfill some of those very things that I've spoken about, being so far away.

And that even in our world in 2021, 130 mile round trip is a long run. So anyway, may God bless us, may we grow in our fellowship, and may, as the psalmist says, may our community and each other be sweet.

Okay.