Sorry, it is getting a little late. Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you, Lord, for just for the fellowship that we enjoy. Thank you, Lord, for your word. We ask that you would give us insight and understanding to better grasp the purpose and the reason for your church. What a blessing, Lord, is the church of Christ to make us members of your body, to give us a brotherhood which we can enjoy in this life, partner with, share the common experience of the burning hearts, a body which you have purchased by the blood of Christ. Lord, give us great care, great concern, great love and devotion to your people. On the one hand, oh God, It seems that, just like everything, there are these two pitfalls where too much is made of institution, and on the other hand, with God, far too little. In our age, I think the struggle which we have in modern evangelicalism is to value too little that for which Christ shed his blood. And so we pray that you would help us, and we ask it all in his name, amen. Look with me if you will in Acts chapter 20 very familiar passage wasn't really sure where to go with this particular question other than this place because so much is said here about the Church of Christ now obviously in Acts chapter 20 the Apostle is addressing the Ephesian elders and so it is a wonderful passage to instruct church leadership but beyond that it's really quite insightful for us to know the importance and value of the Lord's Church beginning in verse 17. Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him and when they came to him he said to them You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews. How I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold, I'm going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value, nor is precious to myself, if only I may finish my course in the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Now behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God. Which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things, I have shown you that by working hard in this way, we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus. how he himself said it is more blessed to give than to receive. Even though I didn't include this in our I wouldn't say this is part of the passage that we're going to look at verses 36 38 is the goodbye. When he had said these things he knelt down and prayed with them all very instructive. There was much weeping on the part of all the embrace Paul and kissed him being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken that they would not see his face again. They come into the ship. This is this is farewell to the church at Ephesus Paul spent some time there three years he spent there. admonishing teaching from house to house as well as in public. He had invested a great deal in the fees in church and here he speaks specifically to the elders of that church explaining to them how to conduct themselves after he is gone warning them that when he leaves Savage Wolves will come in. Not only from the outside but also there will be men from the inside from among your own selves that will rise up. This was not so much a prophecy as it is a reality that the enemies of God's church are going to attack his people there are outward attacks and there are internal attacks some are overt and some are subtle some are Attempts to silence and to harm others are attempts to corrupt much like Balaam. Balaam's sin with the people of Israel was really far worse than had he cursed them. He wouldn't curse the people because he couldn't curse them for fear of death. But what he did is he taught the people to sin, to commit sexual immorality and to worship idols and practice things which God had forbidden. and so since he couldn't make a curse on them or pronounce a curse on them he he taught them to bring the curse to themselves and the church of the lord jesus christ through all ages has faced a host of enemies from without every time the church is threatened attacked when harm is pronounced against it What happens is it spreads, grows. It has been said that the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church. Overt attacks have a way of purifying and cleansing the body of Christ, and it has a way of verifying the testimony of the gospel. And so even though nobody wants persecution, the reality is that it is often one of the best things that can happen to the church. But there is a more subtle attack that the enemy of our souls and the enemy of our God uses, and that is this attack of corruption. To come from within, to teach subtle heresies, to teach carelessness about the things of God, our world today, the evangelical world today is replete of such examples. The church has become big business in America. And so the latest business model becomes the pattern for all of the church growth gurus and all of the studies and all of the things that have happened. This has just been one wave of efforts after the other. We can go back and I remember the days of Robert Shuler. Some of us can remember the days of Robert Shuler and the Crystal Cathedral and the Seeker Movement and then you had the movement that I can never remember with Rob Bale and Brian McLaren. Man, I don't know why I can never remember the name of that. And then you had the Emergent Church. So you had You know, I don't know. Yeah, so the Emergent Church was just a foggy thing for me. They were a very bizarre movement. The thing that stood out to me was some of the stuff that they began to teach. It seemed very mystical and disconnected. It wasn't organized in the thinking. They began to teach universalism. I think Brian McLaren turned out to be, I believe he turned out to be an apostate, a complete, full-blown apostate. I'm not entirely sure of that. Rob Bell went completely off the rails as well. But anyway it was just it was really a bizarre thing but interestingly the young restless reform movement kind of morphed out of that some of the early young restless reform guys were originally emergent church gas namely Mark Driscoll was a part of the emergent church and most people don't really know that or remember that but he kind of moved in the early 2000s and and started embracing more historic doctrines and started preaching about the need for strength and manliness and homes and families and sound doctrine and strong doctrine and fighting the good fight and you know that attracts young men who were sick of the yuppies of the Rick Warren era and you know just all of the stuff that had been coming along and so I mean like most of the time we look back and we see like Rick Warren and the Young Restless Reform or the Emergent Church and Robert Shuler we don't see that the direct connection but all these things are just models and patterns and ways to accrue people from you know going out into the society and doing a survey and asking people what they would like to have in a church or doing demographic studies out of the community that you're in and finding out that this is the median income and this is the kind of music that people like and this is the way people dress and then marketing the church to them. And so that's what was going on. But that's essentially the same thing that went on in these other movements. They just they changed it a little bit. And so if you went to Orange County and you saw Rick Warren, you know, it was a kind of a, like I said, a yuppie type movement, very soft, a lot about feelings and a very psychological type approach. And then, of course, she listened to Driscoll and it sounded very different. But there was a there was a straight connection. But all of these things have just served to distract from the biblical model of the local church. In fact if you look at the Roman assembly the Roman Church the Roman body what you find is that the the Church of Rome puts so much emphasis on the church that you know that that basically becomes supreme it is really a higher authority than the Bible they wouldn't claim that actually would probably claim I think if I'm right that they would claim some kind of equality there but ultimately what it boils down to is the church is the one who tells you what the Bible means the church is the ultimate authority when the Pope speaks he speaks from the chair he speaks. Inerrantly and so there's so much emphasis that is placed on the church. that is unbiblical and then of course in our day and time the church is just marketed and so you know if you don't like the church you're in or the church you found you can find another one you can just shop around and there are all sorts of flavors and designs and styles and very little communion between the bodies and and so forth we really need a healthy understanding of the church but this these corruptions these subtleties these things have served the enemy of God well In our very own day, it seems that there is little seriousness about what we are, what we are doing, and why we are doing it. Why do we do church the way we do? Why is it important? And so we've just kind of learned to not even think in those categories in our day. So anyway, this is the subject matter we want to look at this morning. Our catechism question is question number 53. This is, of course, following the Apostles' Creed, and so the language when we read this sounds shocking, but just keep in mind, we'll cover it. This was written a long time before the Church of Rome. What do you believe concerning the holy and Catholic Church of Christ? So I think I've mentioned this already when we were looking at the Creed earlier, but when you see the word Catholic here, Catholic little c. It just means universal. So the Roman Catholic Church is claim that this is the universal church of Christ. Right. It's the Roman church but it's the universal church. And so the true church is what is claimed. The word Catholic just means universal. And so even after the Reformation when for instance the Heidelberg Catechism was being used. They would go back and quote from the Apostles Creed and this word was in there it's not a bad term. It the meaning is is sound and so. It throws people off a lot of times but that's all it means is what do you believe. About the holy and universal church of Christ now. I want to say up front, James was telling me last week, week before last sometime, that there's a group of people now that want to refer to themselves as reformed Catholics because they're trying to take back that word and I don't have the time or energy to talk about the foolishness of that. I wouldn't waste my efforts on that. It's not a good exercise at all. wrangling about terms and phrases that aren't even biblical phrases and terms but we shouldn't be afraid when we read this anymore than we should and we see it says the Church of Christ that's not talking about the local Church of Christ is talking about the biblical term so what do we believe about the holy and the universal church that belongs to Christ that's what the question is the answer is I believe this is a really good answer I debated on it a lot of times I don't even read these answers out or haven't been reading them out we've just been talking about the stuff that's in them but this is such a really good answer I wanted to look at it a little more carefully I believe that the Son of God does from the end of from the beginning to the end of the world gather defend and preserve for himself by his spirit and word out of the whole of mankind a company chosen to everlasting life and agreeing in true faith that I am a lively member of that company and so shall remain forever. So we're going to look at that in a little more detail but first of all let me just ask the question what is the church? Now when we say the church normally we're referring to the local church. but it is appropriate to refer to the what is historically been called the invisible or the universal church. Dear brother David Miller I remember hearing him preach years ago and he was emphasizing the importance of the visible local church and he's talking about you know the church is the bride of Christ and he said he was glad that he didn't have a visible and universal bride he wanted a visible tangible bride that he could hold and love and so forth and that is true we don't want to deemphasize the local church but at the same time how do we understand the teaching of the Bible about all believers throughout the world they are in fact part of the one body of Christ and so the visible local church are Portions, like each visible local church is an expression of the larger body of Christ. This particular question is referring to the one church throughout all the world, throughout all the ages, made up of all believers of all times. So when we say church, what are we referring to? The word church comes from a Greek word, ekklesia, which means assembly. congregation. Zacharias or Sinus defined church by saying this. It is the church is to be that assembly or congregation of men. Now again this is he's using this referring to the universal church. this collection of men this congregation of men chosen of God from everlasting to eternal life which the son of God from the beginning to the end of the world gathers defends preserves to himself by his spirit and word out of the whole human race agreeing in true faith which he will at length glorify with eternal life and glory so when we when we speak of the church of christ we're talking about all saved people throughout all ages which the son of god gathers protects governs and preserves this church will have no lack she will be presented in glory complete not one that he has been given by his father will be lost, but all will be raised up on that day. But in this world, while all believers, all true believers are part of this invisible and universal church, if in fact we are members of that, then we must join ourselves to local assemblies. And so the question should be turned not only what is the when the Bible speaks of the Church of Christ in this way which God has purchased with his own blood but how do we find a true church that is actually how do we define and find a true church that is an accurate representation of this invisible and universal church. So all believers not only are members of the universal church but all believers are obligated to join themselves to local visible bodies, not just floating around. It's not good enough just to float around and not to be connected to a local church anymore than it is sufficient to say that they have been baptized in the spirit and not make a public profession in the baptismal waters. Right. And so we have to visibly and locally join ourselves to a local church. So what are the marks of the true church or of a true church. This is this is kind of where I want to go with this. You've probably some of you may have read Mark Devers book nine marks of. I don't even know what the title is nine marks of the local church and nine marks of the true church or nine marks of the church or. Something but anyway he had nine marks of a healthy church he wrote that book as an attempt to help people to find a good sound churches. But. This whole debate about what is a true church is not one that has just developed in recent time. Even the language is not something that is new. Benjamin Keats wrote a book in the late 1600s, I don't remember what year, but called The Glory of a True Church. The Belgic Confession which was penned I believe in the late 1500s. It was before the West Minister had a section in there referring to the marks of a true church and so throughout history there have been. Kind of at least three marks that have been identified as as marks of a true church. These are the things which people should look for. Now you just consider what is it that people look for when they consider finding a church. Well oftentimes people will ask questions when when you invite them to church they'll ask questions like this. Do you have children's ministry. Nothing wrong with children's ministry. Matter of fact children's ministry is a wonderful thing. But it's not essential. They will ask sometimes, what's your style of worship? Or what kind of music do you use? Do you sing modern songs? Normally, when I'm asked that, I say yes, we sing modern songs. We sing songs that have been written in the last three or four hundred years, which I consider to be modern. We also sing old songs that we find written in the Old Testament. But that's not normally what they mean. They mean the Hillsong type stuff, the little 7-11 choruses, seven words repeated 11 times. But they want to know what kind of What kind of music do you have? How long are the sermons? Maybe is a question that people will have. how many people they are and so normally we're out on the streets and we're doing evangelism and that's it's just not uncommon at all for people to come up and say well what kind of denomination you part of and there's a there's a sense in which that's okay you know I mean you want to feel things out but the things they're asking are usually not the right kinds of things they're not asking what do you believe what do you teach about this What is your view of worship? Most of the time, that's not even in their thinking. They're thinking about peripheral things, non-essential things, things that don't matter. How big is your church? How many people attend? Not only a children's ministry, do you have children's church or a children's service? Do you have a nursery that's staffed or something like that? But what are the things which people ought to be looking for and ought to be asking about when they're considering whether a church meets the qualifications of a true church? These three, as I said, have been historically agreed upon across denominational and convictional lines. Now there are some, like when I say this, when I go through these three, you're gonna look at them and say, eh, but just bear with me. Paedo-Baptists and Baptists alike, Presbyterians, Dutch Reform, this is kind of agreed within Reform circles. The marks of a true church are these, the right preaching of the Word of God, the right administration of the sacraments, and the practice of church discipline. Now, the reason I said you're gonna think that this is a little strange is because, you know, We don't agree with our Presbyterian friends about sacraments. That's that's actually the area where we disagree right. Largely one of the areas we disagree but but nevertheless these are the kind of the hallmarks of what we would consider and we wouldn't say that a Presbyterian church is not a true church. There's a little qualification in there. Let's just consider these things. What do we mean we say the right preaching of the Word of God? Specifically, narrowed down, it is the pure doctrine of the gospel. If the pure doctrine of the gospel is preached, then that is a good sign that you have found a true church. And when I say the pure doctrine of the gospel, you can narrow that down a little bit further. One of the things that is emphasized here is this gospel and law distinction. I was telling Christie earlier this week that it is in fact strange really that like in most modern preaching books you don't really have anything about the law and the gospel being preached most modern preaching books which you guys probably never read a preaching book. It's not going to help you but most modern preaching books are talking about technique delivery alliteration study habits all these kinds of things are talking about how the preacher can communicate better but if you were to go back and read older books what you would find is they have substantial issues that are in there and one of them is the preaching of the law and the gospel and so this is an area that I think if you just look across the landscape we're weak in not just in like Armenian circles I mean just across the landscape A right and proper understanding of the relationship and the distinction of the law and the gospel is not something that we're particularly strong on in our day. This is why on the one hand you have legalism that is a really horrible thing. And on the other hand, you have antinomianism or lawlessness that abounds. And so in the fundamentalist movement, you did have a tendency toward legalism. And then, of course, like I said, it's not just in the young restless reform movement, but you see a lot of lawlessness that is called Christian liberty it's it's an attempt to react to legal standards of a generation before but this is a very very essential matter because the law is not the gospel the gospel is not the law but the law and the gospel are not enemies they are both useful and helpful and we have much need of precision and accuracy here When a person is looking for a true church, they should be careful to consider if the Word of God is rightly preached. And one of the ways that you can test to see if the Word of God is rightly preached is to test in this area about the distinction and relation of the gospel and the law. Charles Spurgeon said before he was converted he was just attending all the different chapels in his town every every church every chapel every denomination didn't matter he was trying to find somebody that could help him to get relief and he said he went into several assemblies and he said they were good men who preached but one particular congregation I remember him discussing he said he went in and heard the man breach and he said it was as though he were giving orders to soldiers marching orders to soldiers that had no feet He said he was telling them what they ought to do. He wasn't giving them any gospel. And he said then he went into one assembly and he said it was as though they were all Christians. There were no unbelievers at all. There was no preaching of the cross at all. And so the assembly where he was converted was a Methodist assembly which he said the preacher was so stupid he didn't even have any ability to to do anything other than just to preach what the text said and so that's exactly what he did and he said he had no learning or education he was just an older man in the assembly because the pastor couldn't make it it was a snowstorm and he couldn't get there for the snow and he said this man preached a horrible message as far as style and technique but he just stuck with the text and he applied the text and he called Spurgeon as a young man who was a visitor very small. Like we said it's a small congregation. He looked out and he said young man you look very miserable and you're going to stay miserable unless you look to Christ and live. Look to me and live. And he he called him out that way. And and of course he was he was able to understand the gospel. But this is this is the first mark the right preaching of the word of God specifically of the pure gospel. Secondly the right administration of the sacraments. I said this and I don't have time to elaborate on it. But I've said in the past that during the Reformation, there was more written about the Lord's Supper than there was about the doctrine of justification. We think of the Protestant Reformation, we think of the doctrine of justification by faith, and it was very, very important doctrine. But we overlook this understanding of the Lord's Supper, what it is, what it is about. There are a few various views on the Lord's Supper. There's the Roman Catholic view. which was the dominant view of that day called transubstantiation, the view that the bread and the wine become the body and blood of Christ. Then there was the Lutheran view called consubstantiation, and Luther did not believe that the bread and wine became the body of Christ, but that the body and blood of Christ were physically present with them. And then of course you had the substantial view, which was the Reformed view, The view of Calvin which is why Calvin was called a and his followers were called Calvinists had nothing to do with the doctrines of grace. But Luther referred to his followers as Calvinists and this view was that there is a spiritual communion with Christ the body and blood of Christ are not present with even the elements but that he is spiritually present we spiritually commune. And then there was a view held by Zwingli, which is a lot more prominent today, and the name leaves my mind, but it's the Zwinglian view that essentially it's just a bare memory. It's a memorial service, which we would say it is a memorial service. Now this is a greatly oversimplified, these various views, various and sundry views, but There were lots of debates and lots of discussions on this. Baptism, of course, is an ordinance given by Christ and it is greatly disputed. Interestingly, if you go back and you read the Belgic Confession, There are there are statements which are made in the Belgian confession which really lay the groundwork for the Baptist position even though it was long before and was not a Baptist document but baptism is an ordinance which expresses one's profession of faith we sometimes even speak of one who comes and makes a profession of faith they have Repented, they have come, they have professed to know Christ, but baptism is the public profession of faith. It is given by God to the church to display that a person has been buried with Christ and been raised to walk in the newness of life. been united with Christ and so baptism is an expression to the world that we are now in Christ the Lord's Supper is an expression of why we are in Christ and so for all that could be said when when you know it for my dear Presbyterian brothers you know I mean I read lots and lots of Presbyterian Dutch reform and so forth writings but I can never join a Presbyterian Church I could attend I could partner with I could be encouraged and but I can never join because this is such an important matter. It's one of those pecking order doctrines. And lastly the practice of church discipline or you could say the right practice are the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Normally when we talk about Matthew 16 we're talking about The Pope of Rome and Peter. The Roman Church claims that Peter was the first Pope that Jesus said upon this rock I'll build my church. Did I say it? Is it 16 or 18? I may have given you the wrong reference. No, it is 16, Matthew 16. Jesus asked Peter, or he asked the disciples, who do people say that I am? Some say John the Baptist some say Elijah or Jeremiah others Jeremiah one of the prophecies of who do you say that I am Peter replied You are the Christ the son of the Living God Jesus answered blessed are you Simon bar Jonah for flesh and blood and I reveal this to you But my father who is in heaven 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 and so the argument usually is does Jesus mean here that Peter is the rock or the statement that he made you're the Christ the son of the living God is that the rock on which the church is built. But that's always where we do this we approach this tech usually polemically we as as Protestant Christians we approach the text saying well the Catholics have gotten this wrong but one thing that we don't think a lot about is what he says after that. I will give you the keys of 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. What in the world does that mean? You know that's something that ages past you would see a lot written on. The keys of the kingdom of heaven. So there's a key of knowledge, there's a key of discipline. The key of knowledge is the key which the church is given, which opens the door of the kingdom of heaven. That's why it's so important of the right preaching of the word of God. But the key of discipline is the key of censure, we could say, is the one of church discipline, where the doors are shut. And so even though it's had a certain resurgence in our day, this is a mark of the true church that not only is preaching correct, not only are the sacraments rightly administered, but also that church discipline is practiced. I would not be a part of a church that did not practice church discipline. There were no accountability. We were just kind of there. You know how do we know if a person's profession of faith is real or not. Well essentially once they sin through that process of church discipline you're to consider them not a Christian you begin to evangelize them you begin to. To talk to them about Christ up into that point you consider them to be a Christian who is in sin but this is not given as a way to. Impose authority necessarily but it is for the good of the church the good of the of the individual. So these are the marks the right preaching of the Word of God the right administration the sacraments in the right handling of the of the key of discipline. didn't mean to spend so much time on that, but let's look back at our catechism question. What do you believe concerning the Holy and Universal Church of Christ? Three particular things. First of all, the gathering by the Son. I believe that the Son of God does from the beginning to the end of the world gather, defend, preserve for himself by his spirit and word out of the whole of mankind a company. So the first thing is that the son of God is the one who gathers the church. It is not the body. which gathers the body it is the Son of God who gathers the body. This is very instructive because as I said in modern times church growth techniques and church growth gurus seem to believe that it is the church which is making converts to Christ rather than Christ himself who is converting and gathering his own body. This is liberating because if it is in fact the son of God who is gathering the church and he does so by the spirit and through the word then it liberates us to simply go and do what he has told us to do in the way that he has told us to do it rather than trying to find a way. to convert and to convince men to become Christians. Now I'm not saying we shouldn't engage people. I'm not saying that we shouldn't plead with people. I'm not saying that we shouldn't reason with people. We should do all of these things. We see this in scripture, but we should do so within the parameters of what God has said. It's the Son of God who gathers. It's the Son of God who preserves. It's the Son of God who governs his church. Not you and I. There are those who believe that if you teach this, that it makes men careless. And so they care not for the souls of men. Perhaps that could be the case, but it is only the case in those who don't really understand what is being said. I'm not saying that we should be careless. Que sera, sera, what will be, will be. We just go along and do our thing. That's not at all what I'm saying. But I am saying that the pressure is not upon us. It was in his little book called Evangelism and the sovereignty of God that I read where J.I. Packer noted that While far from hindering people from becoming missionaries and evangelists, this is the very thing which motivates. Because if I believed that it was, if the responsibility was on me to convert, then I would be so afraid that I would say something wrong that I might not say anything at all. But knowing that it is the Son of God who gathers, it frees me and liberates me to simply be obedient. and what has God said that he does in gathering his church he does so by his word through his spirit so I believe that the Son of God does from the beginning to the end of the world gather defend preserve for himself by his spirit and word out of the whole of mankind a chosen company the way God builds his church Two ways, right? By Spirit through His Word. Look with me at 2 Thessalonians 2. There's a verse that I've always thought was very helpful. It just kind of has this all summed up in one verse. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers. Beloved by God, beloved of the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. Now there's a lot that's summed up here. But he says we should be thankful to God for you. It's always right to give thanks on your behalf because you've been loved by God. And the reason you are beloved of the Lord is because you were chosen to be saved. You were chosen to be saved through the Spirit setting you apart and faith in the truth, belief in the truth. So from the sinner's perspective, the sinner believes the truth Justified by faith, he believed God, it was counted to him for righteousness. But in fact, the Spirit himself was the one who was setting him apart, sanctifying him for himself. The word sanctification here should be seen probably in the general sense, not in the, we think of sanctification, we think of a process of growth. But you were chosen to be saved through sanctification. So in this way, you were saved through being set apart by the spirit and belief in the truth. What we're seeing here is the truth and the spirit, the word and spirit. This is the way God has chosen to save those whom he has chosen to save. Our duty as the Church of Christ is to preach the word of God in the power of the spirit the spirit causes men to believe we don't know what has ever been converted through apologetics not the apologetics that are you know apologetics that basically evidential apologetics I should say no one has ever been converted that way now that has been at times useful steps in the process of someone opening their minds up but that has never been A point of conversion for any soul throughout any time. That's not the way God converts people. So much of our efforts are in trying to tear down these false ideas of unbelievers and to convince them of things such as the existence of God or whatever. And there's a place for that. But understand that when God saves, he saves by his word through his spirit. the mere expression of evidential apologetics will never convert merely tearing down false ideas and false religions it's not enough showing the inconsistencies in them there's a place for that you can look at for instance in the Jehovah's Witness organization and you can find all manners of false prophecies and you can find all manners of inconsistencies and you can take The New World Translation, which is the translation of the Bible that has been made by the Watchtower Society, and you can completely demolish the viewpoint of that organization, but that is not going to convert sinners. God converts by His Word through His Spirit. So simply tearing down false religion is not enough. Our duty as the people of God is to preach the gospel purely and accurately to preach the word of God to explain to me and what the Bible says and then the spirit is the one who produces faith so God chose you for salvation by the setting apart of the spirit and by belief in the truth so the first part of this answer is that the church is gathered by the sun the second part is it is gathered By the sun through his word and spirit or by the word through the spirit. And thirdly that the church was chosen. Let me see here. That's actually worded. Chosen to everlasting life. and agreeing in true faith that I am a lively member of that company. So again, we go back to this passage in 2 Thessalonians. you are chosen we if we had time I could spend a little bit of time on that but what is the true church the true churches is a company of people which God has chosen from eternity to save he chose to save them by the word through the spirit and it is this assembly of believers is gathered by the sun and I love the way this catechism ends and he said what do you believe about the true and universal Church of God he gives this answer but then he says that I am a lively member of it was important because you remember this catechism is designed for personal comfort what is your only comfort in life and in death that's the that's the basic question that underlies everything about what the writer is using to teach us so we're not just here talking about theoretical ideas we're talking about the things that provide comfort to our soul in life and the things that provide comfort to our soul in death and so in order to have that comfort we're unpacking you know what we believe about God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, what we believe about the church We believe about the gospel we believe about the law and so we're going to unpack all these things but it's for the comfort of our own souls. What do you believe about the church. I believe that the church is gathered by the word and spirit. The sun gathers by the word by his word and spirit this company of chosen people they were chosen to everlasting life. But but finally I believe that I'm a lively member of that company and so shall remain forever. Assurance is not the equivalent of faith. By that, I mean that a person may have a true faith in God. He may be a true Christian and not have a true and settled assurance. But assurance is a gift of God. It's something which we should pursue, really. I mean, the reality is that the Bible tells us these things are written that you may know. I remember hearing John MacArthur talk about this, and he said he was discussing this whole matter of assurance with somebody who who didn't have any. And he asked them, Are you a Christian? They said, Well, I hope so. He's like you know that's just that's just really not good enough. I mean like I and I agree with that I don't understand how a person can live their life and say well you know I'm doing the best I can. I hope I'm going to heaven when I die. I'm trusting in Christ. I'm not sure it's enough. I'm not sure he's really saved me. I'm not sure the promises are for me. I hope they are. But you know I mean I got to get to work tomorrow so I don't have enough time to really sort it out. I don't I don't understand that kind of thinking. For me, personally, when I was saved in my early teens, I had been raised in a home where I had been taught the gospel, I had been carried to church. My mother was a believer, my father was not at that time. But I became just... utterly and absolutely crippled with a sense of fear that I had committed the unpardonable sin. And for years and years, I never met anybody that could really relate to what I had experienced. I mean, to an extent, but not not really in this kind of crippling fear about this particular sin. until I read I remember I read the book I was standing in books a million actually reading because you know it's one of those things when you're young and poor and you can't afford books and so you just go to the bookstore and stand there for hours until you can read the book but I went and I read it was a Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners by John Bunyan I don't even know why they had it on their shelf because it's not a book that you would typically find in books a million but Bunyan had a very similar experience, very similar experience. But one of the things that just gripped my heart as I was going through that is that I needed to know. I just couldn't function not knowing had I been saved and lost my salvation because I wasn't sure if that was even a possibility at that time in my life. I was asking questions and I couldn't get sufficient answers people were giving me cliches and simplistic answers that really weren't satisfying the concerns of my soul and if they did point me to a scripture a promise or whatever then I would you know I had a 10 arguments for why that didn't apply to me. So had I been saved and lost my salvation, was I never saved at all? Had I become an apostate and abandoned my faith? Had I blasphemed the Holy Spirit and now was beyond the reach of salvation? I wasn't certain But for however long that period of time was, I just couldn't function. I couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, I couldn't carry on my normal duties. I went from being top of my class to basically flunking out in my freshman year. I didn't completely flunk the year, thankfully. I got some relief before the year was over, but I went from being top of the class to To a bunch of zeros and an F's because I couldn't read I couldn't study I couldn't I couldn't make myself move I was just crippled in fear and paralyzed almost I spent hours and hours praying and pleading and reading and studying So this whole idea of, you know, I hope I'm going to heaven really doesn't seem sufficient to me. How could you live that way if you really believe that the biblical picture of eternity is true? You know, that this is your everlasting life or your everlasting destruction. But anyway, so that assurance is of great importance and the good news is that God does give that as a gift to his children. He does give us the means to have assurance and we ought to pursue such means and to be certain and think seriously about whether or not we are truly members of his lively church. I know that's an awful lot of information. It probably seems scattered, and I apologize for that, but let's pray. Father, thank you for this time and for your word and spirit which has been used of your son to call us to yourself, to be a part of your true church. Lord, I ask that if there is anything which we should take away from this, help us to know the essential matters. Help us always to be committed here in this body to the right preaching of the Word of God, to the right use of the sacraments, the right administration thereof, to the practice of being faithful with the keys of the kingdom of heaven, specifically the key of discipline. Lord, help us just to guard that which is entrusted to us. Help us to live in faith, believing that it's the Son of God's job to build His church. It's not our job. Our job is to be faithful. Our job is to preach the gospel, to go to the whole world and preach it to every creature. Our job is to pray. It's your job to build your church. Help us to walk in faith. At times it's discouraging, oh God. At times our faith seems to be so little vindicated. But Lord, it's your church. It's your word. Let us be satisfied. Let us trust in you. As Andrew Fuller said, let us hope that if you build a house, you intend to dwell here. Let us walk with confidence, oh God. And Lord, I pray that you would grant us a lively sense of assurance. Comfort our hearts. Lord, we don't want to just talk about these things. We don't want to just have all of our theology ordered and neat. We want to know the state of our souls. We want to enjoy fellowship and communion with you. And we pray that you would help us, oh God, in this. We ask all of these things in Christ's name. Amen.