We are wanting, by the Lord's help, to finish up this chapter 25 of our confession dealing with marriage. We have spent about a week and a half so far probably, and there are just a few more things that I would like to say concerning it this morning really by way of summation and really nothing really original to me, but just a couple of comments about the issues of divorce. And then just a few words concerning what our confession seems to focus in on, and that is some of the restrictions as they relate to marriage. Then I'll read to you a comment from G.I. Williamson on one of those restrictions as it relates to marrying in the Lord. which I found to be very helpful, very brief and clear statement, well thought out. Let's go back and read from Genesis chapter 2 once again, beginning in verse 18. So my plan is to try to finish up here by maybe quarter after or so and then move right into the next chapter dealing with the church. And just by way of introduction, probably just read the chapter and point out a few of what I think are some of the high points that we'll cover. in the weeks to come relating to the church. But let's read again concerning the subject of marriage from Genesis chapter 2 verses 18 through 25. This is a very important chapter in the Bible. As I mentioned I think in the first week, all of the truths that are taught in scripture elsewhere in scripture, whether they be truths relating to atonement or the coming of Christ or whatever they may be, all of those truths can be found in seed form, at least, in the first three chapters of Genesis. And I think that's probably why the devil is so adamant about attacking the truth and authority of those early scriptures. But all of that truth is found there. And here we have this wonderful statement concerning marriage as God ordained it to be. Out of this, we have developed something of a brief definition. We haven't developed it ourselves, but we did a lot of the thought work and then we adopted the definition that J. Adams gave that marriage is a what? A covenant of companionship. Everybody can remember that. And then we looked at some of the implications of that. Well, all of that truth comes to us out of these verses. Beginning in verse 18, then the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him. So out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man. to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. And while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man. And then the man said, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Verses 24 and 25 are pertinent to some of the things we'll say this morning especially. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. You remember we went back And as we talked about the importance of having a working definition for marriage, we said that that was important for a couple of reasons. And one of those reasons was that marriage has come under such attack in our day. And we looked at the various affronts that have come against marriage. And one of those, certainly in our day, is an attempt to redefine marriage as it's being pushed by the homosexual And so we spent a great deal of time looking at that. The other issue that has come against marriage is the whole issue of divorce. And our confession, sad to say, doesn't have a statement in this chapter concerning divorce. The Westminster Confession, the Savoy Confession of Faith, does have clear statements of divorce. As a matter of fact, the title of this chapter in the Westminster Confession of Faith is Of Marriage and Divorce, actually included in the title. We read that statement from the Westminster Confession last week and that's where we stopped and then we had a season of prayer as we gave ourselves to prayer for the for the people in Haiti and their relief and also about what we ought to do. Let me say, I'm going to announce, I think it's in the bulletin also, but I'm so thankful for the generosity of God's people here. We were able to send a check for for over $4,000. We sent it in the mail on Thursday to Heritage Baptist Church in Owensboro, Kentucky, and they will see to it that it is deposited directly into the accounts of the Brethren in the Dominican Republic as they are seeking to get those funds to the people in Haiti. And you can rest assured that every nickel will be accounted for. Those are faithful, godly men. and that every nickel will go to the work in Haiti as well. None of that will be siphoned off along the way as overhead or expense or anything like that. So thank the Lord for that. Thank the Lord for their stewardship over that. It's been a joy to, I need to teach this lesson, but it's been a joy, hasn't it, to watch some of these accounts of rescue. Did you see the one of that little boy after what was it, eight days? was pulled out and was still alive. Amazing. But it's also been a joy to read the letters from Johnny Parise as it has related to the outpouring of sympathy and goodwill from the Christians here in the United States in terms of sending money and resources. Okay, the statement in the Westminster Confession recognizes Of course, the sinfulness of man, that is a key note in Reformed theology, that man is a sinner, that he's not okay, and the Confession recognizes that. And because man is sinful, the Westminster Confession recognizes that he will seek to invent excuses or reasons for divorce. And we can see how true that is in our own day and culture. That confession was originally adopted back in the 17th century. That man will devise many reasons or excuses for divorce. And boy, in our day we see it how clearly as we have even such things as no fault divorce. In addition, the Confession recognizes correctly the right to divorce and remarriage on two and only two grounds. What are those grounds? What are the grounds upon which the Confession, the statement we read last week, recognizes the legitimacy of divorce and then remarriage? Adultery and, well, death. Well, you don't divorce. You can remarry after death, but we're talking about divorce. So death does end it until death do us part. But we're talking about the legitimacy of marriage. What does that mean? Generally, 1 Corinthians 7 deals with that in the context of an unbeliever, I think, who determines that I didn't sign up for this. I don't want to be a Christian. I don't want any part of Christianity. I don't want to be married to a a woman who is a Christian, and I'm out of here," and deserts the marriage. It seems to me that Paul would say that that person who's been deserted then is free to remarry. Sam Waldron is helpful here, and again, I think he is brief and to the point. I really recommend at least his opening paragraphs on this subject to you. The biblical teaching on divorce and remarriage may be summarized around three issues. And then he identifies three vital issues relating. He says, first, the divine attitude towards divorce as it is epitomized in two statements. And he writes, as the negation of the marriage God ordained as a blessing at creation, God hates divorce because it always is the result of sin. And so, you know, God is not pleased ever at divorce. And it is, according to Waldron here, It is the negation of that which God ordained to last forever and that has resulted because of sin. Now he cites two scriptures, Malachi chapter 2 and verse 16 is one. For the man who hates and divorces, says the Lord God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not be faithless. do not sin in this issue of divorce. Matthew chapter 19 and verse 6, so they are no longer two but one flesh, what therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. And then they go on to say, argue with Jesus in that context, well Moses said it was okay that we could put away our wives and then Jesus clarifies, because of the hardness of your heart. And because of sin, and for that reason, God has allowed that. And then he writes, as a necessity in a fallen world under the curse, God permits it because it is not always sin to divorce or to be divorced. And he then cites the illustrations. from Ezra chapter 10 verses 1 through 14, which is a very interesting chapter. We won't turn to it or read that, but I would recommend it to you as God there actually commanded certain persons to divorce the pagan wives that they had taken while they were in rebellion and unbelief and in violation of God's covenant. And there they are instructed to put them away, to write a bill of divorce. Can you think of another example where a righteous man in scripture was considering divorce? Joseph in Matthew chapter 1 verses 18-19, from a human perspective, there's Mary whom he's espoused to and she's with child and before he has clear revelation from God, that this is a holy thing, he's troubled. Now he's a righteous man and he loves Mary, he wants to do right, and he doesn't want to publicly ridicule her, he doesn't want to be harsh to her, he wants to be gentle. So his thought is, I'll get a bill of divorce in a private way, and put her away privately. God himself divorced Israel after having entered a marriage covenant with her. Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse 8 and Ezekiel chapter 16 speak of that. Second, the essential nature of divorce must be understood in the light of the identity of marriage. And that's another reason why it's important for us to have a good working definition of marriage and understand what it is and what the attributes of marriage are. Waldron writes, as defined in Genesis 2 and in the definition of marriage as a covenant of companionship, he says, in light of that, the essential nature of divorce must be understood. And so then he observes, since marriage is not constituted by sexual relations, divorce is not constituted by adultery. In other words, the act of adultery doesn't automatically constitute divorce. Again, going back to the example of Joseph and Joseph's mind at that time as he was thinking, He was not divorced from Mary, but he had thought that he may have to get a bill of divorce and put her away. A second he observed, since marriage is constituted by the formal covenant of marriage, and remember we talked about that formal covenant, we talked about the importance of a service, we talked about the importance of exchanging tokens and vows publicly and and before the Lord. So since marriage is constituted by the formal covenant of marriage, a divorce must be carried out by a formal bill of divorce. Again, let me give a couple of passages you may want to consider. Deuteronomy 24, verses 1-4, Jeremiah 3.8 and Isaiah 50 and verse 1. All of those talk about the necessity of a formal bill or statement of divorce. Number three, since marriage has for its purpose companionship, divorce repudiates that companionship. Isaiah chapter 50 and verse Thus says the Lord, where is your mother's certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, for your transgressions your mother was sent away. Also again, I would recommend Deuteronomy 24 and also 1 Corinthians 7. If we were going to stay here, if we were going to spend another week or two dealing with this whole subject of divorce, especially in the context of remarriage, we would have to deal with the 1 Corinthians 7 passage. But I just want to stay in the context of our confession and I'd recommend it to you for your further study and reading. Now our confession teaches in its four paragraphs several things and I just want to share with you a couple of thoughts concerning those major things now that our confession deals with. So far we have simply looked at what our confession doesn't necessarily deal with in great detail. Now I'm just going to share with you just a few thoughts concerning what our confession does deal with. First, God has ordained a monogamous marriage. That couldn't be clearer from Genesis chapter 2 verses 18 through 25. That first thought that it was instituted by God and God made, how many women did God make for Adam? One, one was plenty as my father would say. And I'm sure my mother said the same thing. God made one man and one woman and so it's evident that marriage is to be between one man and one woman only. And note Adam's prophecy. I think it's interesting to note that in the Genesis 2 passage there in verses 23 through 25. Let me read that again. You know who says this? It's not God who speaks here. It's Adam. Adam, the first prophet of God. And Adam speaks according to the will of God. And certainly at this time Adam is in perfect fellowship with God, isn't he? This is before the fall. And so Adam speaks these words, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. I like the King James word there, cleave. I don't know why, but I like that word. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not And we're not ashamed. Jesus commented in Matthew 19 in verse 5 on Adam's prophecy by reinforcing it. He says, they too shall be one flesh. Now, let me ask you, matter of fact, we were talking this morning back here about various things that happened in the Old Testament as it related to worship. What about the whole issue of multiple marriages in the Old Testament? It wasn't always one man and one woman, was it? Sometimes God doesn't judge us by turning us into a pillar of salt. Sometimes he judges us by giving us dysfunctional families and relationships. You think of the household of David. Think of those sons of Jacob. So what else? Any other thoughts concerning these multiple marriages? Is that justification for polygamy? As a matter of fact, if you read in the book of Genesis, you see this progression of sin and moving away from the will of God as man becomes wicked. And so it seems that multiple marriages or the departure from monogamy appears as man departs and moves away from God. Look at Genesis chapter 4 and verse 16. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod east of Eden. And then verse 19, and Lamech took two wives. The name of one was Ada and the name of the other was Zillah. Williamson, James Williamson, in his commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith said, polygamy is the result and evidence of man's depravity. It is not the manifestation of God's approval upon which God did not ordain, nor say was very good. Rather, it's the evidence of man's depravity. Any texts come to your mind detailing depravity? Yes. In Deuteronomy 17, God instructs him that the king shall not smoke by rites himself. His heart shall not wait. You read that and the clear statements of that, the clear teaching in Genesis and you look at the wisest man in the world, Solomon. And it just, you know, one of the things of reading in the book of Genesis and in the Old Testament, we're reminded over and over and over again, we need a Savior. come about long expected Jesus, because the best of us, none of us are perfect. Ecclesiastes 7.20, I think, there is not a righteous man, there is not a man on the earth that does not sin. And so we're reminded over and again of our need of a Savior. And we thank God for those promises. Any texts that come to your mind that speak to the depravity of man, that if you were going to engage with somebody, maybe you've met somebody that believes that man is not depraved, that he's okay. What text might you? Yes. Romans 3. OK, don't read the whole, right. Were you thinking in Genesis, were you thinking of Genesis 6, 5? Yeah, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And certainly that would have been also in this area of marriage moving away from God's will into polygamy. Yes. Yeah, the passage in Isaiah speaks of a man being corrupt from the sole of his foot to the top of his head. It really describes it in very graphic terms, being putridly spiritually sick. Second thing that our confession clearly does teach and point out is that marriage serves a purpose. And we've already covered that in our definition, and that purpose is what? What is that first purpose that takes in that definition? Companionship. It's not good for man to be alone. Marriage also serves the purpose to fulfill the God-ordained desire for sex, and then the blessing of children. Yes? No, not everybody is going to be married, but we are talking about marriage and the great blessing that marriage is. Now, we're going to talk about, there are doctrines of devils. which Paul talks about, and some who would press upon the conscience of some that they would become more holy and more sanctified if they would remain celibate. And Paul says that's a doctrine of the devil. Where do we see that? Yeah, where do we see that? Roman Catholicism and the whole celibacy of the priesthood. How's that worked out for them? You know, it's tragic. It's tragic to deny unnatural affections, to not accept with gratitude that which God has graciously given, to make a law against something that is beautiful and sacred. Hebrews 13 says, undefiled before God. Paul doesn't pull any punches. He says that's a doctrine of the devil. One of other doctrines along with that, but that's certainly one of them. That was the third thing I was going to mention is that celibacy is not to be regarded as a higher level of holiness. It's very possible. I think most people tend to believe that Paul was not married himself. The other apostles, it's clear that most of them were married and actually took their wives with them on many of their missionary endeavors. And Paul does warn about being careful how you choose in marriage. And so I think we need to be careful about that, that it's not just marrying in of the Lord, but we would want to choose somebody that will not hinder our path to heaven. but rather that would be a help. The woman is to be a helpmate to the man, and the man is to love and nurture the wife. And that's in the context of growing in the likeness and conformity to Jesus Christ. And so that's something that's very important. So anyway, Paul refers to celibacy as a doctrine of the devil and it leads to all sorts of unnatural things and desires. That's 1 Timothy 4, 1 through 5, by the way. And marriage is good and it is a guard against sexual impurity. I mentioned the Hebrews passage. Let me turn there and read it. Hebrews 13. And verse 4, let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. And so it seems to me that the apostle is saying there not only is marriage to be honored and it is sacred and intimacy in marriage is a wonderful and glorious thing that's blessed of God. But I think if we read into that the context there that it serves as a preventative against impurity and the carrying out of lust and fornication and adultery. Let's see, also the fourth thing that our confession does mention is relationship to Bible Christians. Believing Christians have to follow certain restrictions in marriage, and that's in paragraphs three and four. And of course there are those There are those clear restrictions that we read in the Old Testament as well concerning the marriage of close kin and relatives. But the main thing that I would just want to focus upon is the idea that Christians are restricted to marry in the Lord. Paragraph three and four of our confession, paragraph three anyway, It is lawful for all sorts of people to marry who are able with judgment to give their consent, yet it is the duty of Christians to marry in the Lord. Therefore such as profess the true religion should not marry with infidels or idolaters, neither should such as are godly be unequally yoked by marrying with such as are wicked in their life, or maintain damnable heresy. So there it's the idea from 1 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 39 of marrying in the Lord and there in the context of Christians who, you've got to think about this, Christians back then living in a very pagan culture where most of their friends and associates would have been pagan. They've been converted out of that at Corinth. And as a matter of fact, maybe they were married to a pagan and God saved one of them. And maybe later the pagan leaves or the pagan dies. And Paul is real clear now. He says, don't go back to paganism and then be unequally yoked. And it's certainly true for us of all times as believers. We can say clearly on the authority of the Word of God that it's a sin for a believer to marry an unbeliever. Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to read, I'm just going to read his words. on that in just a moment. Any other thoughts on that? It's a hard issue in our day. We deal with it, don't we? Oh, Pastor, I love her though. God's going to change her. After all, I know so and so and they got married and one of them was a believer and the other one wasn't, and a few years down the road he got saved and they have a wonderful marriage. And God in his grace sometimes does that, doesn't he? Grace covers a multitude of sins and God in his mercy does things, but it doesn't give us a warrant to sin in boldness and go against his clear teaching on the subject. Let me read to you this statement because the question would be, even as our confession states, and therefore such as profess the true religion should not marry with infidels. So is the true religion the Baptist variety or the Presbyterian variety or how do we determine that? Maybe you have a real easy answer and I would certainly appreciate it if you could pass it on to me. I can put it in my notes to use for pastoral counseling at a later date. I do believe, honestly, that we do need to get beyond just simply whether or not a person's a believer. I think we do have to speak of issues of compatibility and we do have to speak of issues of issues, especially relating to doctrine issues. How do you feel about children and the discipline of children and raising children? I mean, there's lots of issues. And so I think those are also important. But just this idea of the true religion, let me read to you And you can accuse me of taking the easy way out. That's all right. But let me read to you what Williamson writes. I think it's good. He says, Section 3 states that it is lawful for all sorts of people to marry who are able, with judgment, to give their consent. This first section is about marriage in general and how we support marriage, even in a sense for two unbelievers marrying, we support that. In other words, just because a person's an unbeliever and another one's an unbeliever doesn't mean they shouldn't get married. Right? So he says, it's unlawful for men to be sinners and to disbelieve the gospel. But there is every reason for Christians to approve of civil laws which require unbelievers to observe the demands of monogamous marriage as far as it is possible. Forbidding unbelievers to marry would be at least as great an evil as to forbid believers to marry. Thus we believe that where civil law recognizes a minister of the church as an agent of society with civil authority to sanction the marriage of unbelievers, it may in some cases be his duty to so act that a greater evil may be averted. But it would be the duty of a minister in such a case to inquire as to the religious profession of both parties and to proceed only if both make no profession of the true religion. If one and only one does profess the true religion, however, it would be contrary to the word of God to sanction such a marriage, for the scripture clearly states that a believer must marry only in the Lord." And then 1 Corinthians 7.39 with other passages. It is true that such a marriage, once contracted and consummated, is binding. for the believer to initiate the dissolution of the marriage bond in such a case is wrong. In other words, I had a case one time where a person had come to me, and this was several years ago, and had married an unbeliever, and the spouse continued to be an unbeliever, and now he wanted to divorce her because she was an unbeliever and continued to be. And he had no grounds for that. Zero grounds. But it is probable that the cases envisioned by the apostle were rather due to the conversion of one's spouse subsequent to marriage. In any case, the believer cannot marry an unbeliever without committing sin, and church discipline is clearly required in such a case. It is an added difficulty to discern among the various denominations that claim to be Christian which one adheres to the truth of God to a sufficient degree that one may have confidence that a member of that denomination may be expected to know and to profess the true religion. The confession says that such as profess the true reformed religion, or our confession says the true religion, should not marry adherence of the Roman Catholic faith, nor such as maintain damnable heresies. It may be argued that a person could conceivably be a true believer and yet be an adherent of a false religion. In other words, he's not discounting that that may be possible. I think it's as rare as hen teeth myself. I hope you understand that I don't mean this to be harsh. But honestly, in my experience, and I've known many As some would say, some of my best friends are Roman Catholics and I've known some that have been very sincere and talk about the Lord all the time. But I have never ever met one who has any assurance of sins forgiven and lives in the hope of heaven. They are not trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ. They are resting upon what the church can do or the priest might do for them. That's my experience. We believe that this is a false abstraction. A person's faith cannot be judged apart from his profession and walk. And in this case, the profession and walk would be contrary to the judgment that he is a believer. We cannot so separate between personal and corporate responsibility. Finally, we must admit that the problem of deciding whether or not a person is sufficiently Christian to marry is a difficult one in some instances. There are errors that are of various degrees of seriousness. In any case, we believe that the believer who knows the true Reformed religion is obligated to enter upon marriage only if such requires no compromise of God's truth. So I think that's where we have to hang our hat. No compromise of God's truth, especially the truth that is necessary to the saving of one's soul. Okay, marriage. Let's talk about the church. This is a chapter 26 of our confession, and I would point out to you that it's the longest chapter in the confession, and we will be here for a while. My thoughts are this morning, in the time we have left, we have about 10 minutes, and what I would like to do is just to begin to read it to you. Before we actually begin to teach this, I do want to read it as our practices in its entirety. I think it's important to have a sense of it, then we'll go back and look at it. line by line. So what I want to do this morning, we'll just read it and I may stop along the way to make just one or two comments and point out maybe what I think are some of the highlights that we will come back and emphasize and stress in the weeks to come. And our confession begins with the Catholic, and I'm glad it says or Universal Church right after that so nobody is confused. We do believe in what we would call the Holy Catholic Church if we're speaking of it in the sense of the universal body of believers. The Confession does not say the Roman Catholic or Universal Church. It says the Catholic, the General, the Universal Church, which with respect, and here's what defines it, to internal work of the Spirit and truth of grace. You must be born again. May be called invisible. In other words, they're saying that this universal body of Christ, this universal church may be called invisible. I think that's a little unfortunate because it's just not suggesting that people that have truly been born again and are in Christ are somehow invisible. But they're talking about this organic body and so they're distinguishing between this universal body of believers and then this called out local assembly, which it'll pick up, spends most of the time addressing. That universal church consists of the whole number of the elect that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one under Christ. And that's in both dispensations. The head thereof, and is the spouse, the body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. Paragraph two, all persons throughout the world professing the faith of the gospel and obedience unto God by Christ according unto it. In other words, all people throughout the world who have what we would call a credible confession. In other words, they claim to believe in Jesus as their Savior and they have a life that is in alignment with that. They're walking in obedience, not perfect, but in obedience to that. Their confession is credible. It says, 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. The very last statement there is a Baptist distinctive. That we should not just spend some time with that. It talks about all of those who have this work of grace, have this credible confession of faith, are truly members of this universal church. They are the elect. And it says, of such, of those, ought all particular congregations to be constituted. Why is that a Baptist distinctive? Yeah, believers and their parents, or believers and their children. And so, we believe in what we, the Baptists, our view is, and this is what we believe the Bible teaches, or we'd be something else. We believe that the church is a gathered church. It's a gathered assembly. It's a called out people. who have been changed by God's grace. Now does that mean then that our Baptist church is perfect? We don't have any tears among the wheat? Is that possible? Not hardly. Paragraph three, 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. That's a harsh statement, isn't it? And we know that to be true. We can point to places this morning where people gather for what they would call worship. And no longer are they worshiping the God of the Bible. No longer are they following after Jesus Christ of the Bible and yet they continue to refer to themselves as churches. In many cases they have degenerated so far that we would have to agree with our confession that they're not churches, they've become synagogues of Satan. Nevertheless, Christ always hath had and ever shall have a kingdom in this world to the end thereof, of such as believe in him and make profession of his name. So there it's talking about the abiding presence of the church to the end of the age. Matthew chapter 16 and verse 18, the Lord Jesus Christ said to Peter upon his profession that he is the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus congratulated him and said, flesh and blood hasn't revealed that to you, but my father in heaven has and thou art Peter. And upon this confession of who I am, I shall build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Paragraph four is important. It's becoming important once again in our day. It was vitally important in the day that this confession was written as they were dealing with Rome, plus the Archbishop in the Anglican Church as well. And so they write, the Lord Jesus Christ is 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. Remember, the Lord Jesus said to his disciples, Matthew 28, prior to his ascension back to heaven, to the right hand of his Father, he says, all authority in heaven and earth has been given unto me. and he is the head of the church, the only head and king. Neither can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof, but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition that exalts himself in the church against Christ and all that is called God, whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his eye. Not all Baptists, even those who would adhere to the 1689 Confession necessarily agree with, I would say, the strength of that statement of referring to the Pope of Rome as that anti-Christ. And we'll talk about that when we do come to it. But I would just say to you, Whether he is that actual man of sin may be up to some debate that is referred to in 1 Thessalonians and in Daniel, may be up to some measure of debate. But let me ask you something, what do you call somebody who sits in the place of authority and elevates himself when he speaks above Christ? who says, in fact, when he speaks in a, not everything he says, but at times I'm going to speak and when I do speak, I'm going to speak with the very authority of God. What would you call that? Yeah. Paragraph five. In the execution of this power, wherewith he is so entrusted of the Lord Jesus calls out of the world unto himself through the ministry of the word by his spirit. those that are given unto him by his Father. I think of that, this high priestly prayer in John chapter 17. Matthew 28, he says, I have all authority in heaven and on earth. In John chapter 17, he says, Father, I have completed the work that you've given me to do. I have glorified you on the earth. Now glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world was. To what end? To what purpose is he to be glorified? And Jesus says that he may give eternal life to all that the Father has given to him. And that's what our confession is teaching there. That they may walk before him in all the ways of obedience which he prescribes to them in his word. Those thus called, he commands to walk together in particular societies or churches for their mutual edification and the due performance of that public worship which he requires of them in the world. And there we're beginning to now move into the idea of the local assembly of baptized believers, the local church. And we believe in the universal invisible body of Christ, the universal invisible church if you will. But brethren you can't make heads or tails of that if you deny the importance of the individual visible local assembly of baptized believers. And you can read throughout the New Testament and you'll see over and again That the vast majority of the time that the New Testament is even speaking of the church, it's speaking in that context of these local assemblies of baptized believers. To the church at Corinth, to the church at Rome, to the churches, plural, throughout Galatia, who are these people? These are gathered assemblies of believers that have been baptized, that are organized under the authority of Christ with church officers and members. Yes? Right. You know, there's an institutional sense of the American cringe, but in the practical application, it is always the local bridge hall. Yeah. The membership. That's right. And so, you know, I think it's been talked about by many people I know in the past as well, what church you remember, how many you've heard of. You know, the church is just basically the same. Yeah, people honestly that say that sometimes you have to really question. Often you find it's a lack of desire to submit to anybody. It's a lack of, they want to be their own man or woman as it were, which is contrary to the spirit of Christ. Certainly that's often the case. Sometimes people can just be confused as well. There's a lot of crazy teaching that's taking place even today. Yes? All believers are instructed and commanded to be members of a local church. be part of a local assembly of baptized believers. Again, I don't think you can make any sense of the New Testament that way. The whole Book of Acts, the whole missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul, on the first missionary journey, goes up in there throughout Galatia and the regions and he preaches the gospel. And many are converted. And he leaves men behind. And what are those men doing? They're teaching these people. And God is blessing. And God is pouring out His Spirit. And God is knitting them together. And God is raising up men to be elders and pastors in those congregations. And he comes back and he reports to the church at Antioch, this is what happened. And now we're going to go back. And he goes back on the second missionary journey. To what end? To establish the brother. And now there's churches that are there, local assemblies of baptized believers. Well, we just read through the first five paragraphs. We'll come back next week and we'll pick up our reading and then we'll back up and we'll begin next week to look at paragraphs one and two dealing with the universal church. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, again for your word, and we thank you for the time that you've allowed us to come together and consider it. Lord, especially in this subject of marriage, we Father, we would pray that you would forgive us as a nation, Father, for our sin in this area, perverting that which is holy and right. And Father, that you may bring a spirit of revival, Lord, in our land and that the foundations would be established once again. Father, thank you for the Church of the Lord Jesus. Help us, Father, to understand more of its purpose in the world to bring glory to you in the days and weeks ahead. Bless us now, Father, as we enter into this hour of worship. We pray that we would have a sense of your presence with us. In Jesus' name, Amen.