Second Timothy, chapter three. If you're acquainted with this book at all, you recognize that this was written by Paul. When he was elderly. And in prison. And he's writing to his colleague, Timothy. And he says, but realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power, Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women, weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning, never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth. men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. But they will not make further progress, for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Eason Jambree's folly was also. Now, you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch and Iconium and at Lystra, what persecutions I endured. And out of them all, the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse. deceiving and being deceived. You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which were able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. And the letter continues, but we end our reading at this juncture. And remember, this is the word of God. This message tonight is designed for specific persons. I think the relevance of the RPCNA is a strange title, except for those persons Not necessarily members, but there's some level of interest. Now, tonight is not a textual sermon, and if you came hoping for me to exegete this fascinating passage in Second Timothy, you'll have to wait until your pastors get to it. I want to speak to you topically, and yet The focus of what I have to say, I think, might be centered down in verses 14 and 15. You continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. And I want to say that in many ways, this message is somewhat of a testimony of my own experience. I, of course, was born and reared in Reformed Presbyterian home. And later, as I came to Geneva and from Geneva went to the seminary, and from seminary into the pastorate at what was then Central Pittsburgh Church, now North Hills Pittsburgh. Then I went into a job with the Synod. For two years I was Young People's Secretary and then the job title changed to Director of Christian Education. And that was 1959. And that year, Dean Dalton of Gospel Light Publications in Pasadena came and spoke to our Synod prior to the meeting of Synod. I had just been appointed to this position or was being appointed to this position, and I needed help. I spoke to Dean Dalton about it, and he said, why don't you come as our guest out to Gospel Light Conference up in the San Bernardino Mountains? And so you'll get some help there, he said. So I decided to do that. On the way out, I stopped in Colorado Springs to see Lauren Sanney of the Navigators. I had been greatly helped by the Navigators. And I wanted to ask him some questions about administration. And he was very helpful. So then I went on out to this conference. By the way, while I was at that conference, you wouldn't believe this, but one night after a meeting, well, I do hope you do believe it. But after an evening meeting, I was getting an ice cream cone and I looked down there and I saw the guy on the cash register and I, I know that fellow and our eyes met and then we looked away. You know how you do. Then we look back again and we're both looking again. When I got down there, I said, I know you, but I don't know where from. And he said from college, man. It was the president of our class. And he was out there working at this conference grounds up in the mountains. I said, what are you doing here? He said, I could ask you the same question. So he got a cup of coffee and we went and sat and talked and he told me about his conversion, grew up in Aliquippa, came to Geneva College, went out to San Bernardino to teach, and he was converted to Christ along with his wife while he was there. And I thought, what a wonderful thing to be able to know that when I get to heaven, I'll be able to have a Geneva alumni reunion. in Christ. But while I was at that conference, I was reading in my devotions and I was in Exodus. I was at that part where the children of Israel had. Made the golden calf, you remember the story, those of you who know your Bibles. And God was ready to wipe them out and Moses steps in and intercedes. And he made a statement that. It's incredulous to all of us. If you can't forgive them. Blot me out. And the Lord caught my attention with that. I had been invited to join the Navigators, I had had other invitations as well. And it struck me, you know, the Lord put me in the Reformed Presbyterian Church. And that day I committed myself to serve him in this branch of his church. And I've never looked elsewhere. That's my testimony. And I have sensed throughout the years the relevance and the importance of that decision. Now, you might say, well, what was it that led you to think that it was so relevant? Let me tell you three relationships. And you can take this message home without any notes. There are three relationships I see that makes the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America today relevant. Say something about those. The first is. The Reformed Presbyterian Church. Is in relationship with Jesus Christ. The king and head of the church. We're committed to that. As a denomination, praise God. And you see, the true church belongs to Jesus Christ. He says in Matthew 16, I will build my church. And the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Christ is the builder of his church. And we're in this relationship to him in three ways. First of all, by being dependent upon him for our life. And I don't mean that just personally, I mean that corporately as well. We're in union with Jesus Christ and he is our life. That's what Colossians 3 says, when Christ, who is our life, appears. The Reformed Presbyterian Church, by the grace of God, is in union with him. And we're dependent upon his life, not ours. We're also related to Jesus Christ by being submitted to his kingship. One of our legacies has been through history, To be confronted with the kingship of Christ. We didn't sit down and discover that. God confronted that historically in our past and we had to confront it. And we're, by the grace of God, submitted to his kingship over all of life. Paul uses the illustration, you know, We had a wedding yesterday. Oftentimes at weddings, somebody reads Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5 is not essentially about weddings. It's about Christ and his church. Remember what he says about that? In terms of submission to him. Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church. He himself being the savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. And again, I say down in verse 32, Paul says, this mystery is great, but I'm speaking with reference to the church. Don't miss it. We're in union with him. And we are under his kingship. Amen. But we're also in this relationship by being committed to his word. I had to battle that out when I was in seminary, I couldn't figure out why the church was so dead. Of course, young men are always critical. I was no exception. But I wondered where the life was. And I began to investigate, I was going with a girl in those days who was in Chicago going to McCormick Seminary. Out in Chicago. And I went out to see if they had something. And I confronted Neo-Orthodoxy. With its failure to see the validity of the inscripturated word and its authoritative position. I battled that through. And thank you, Lord, for Dr. J. Boyd Tweed, who was my professor in Bible at Geneva, one of them, who convinced me of that truth. So I wasn't moved off base, never felt the temptation. I thank God for what I had through this church. because we've been committed to His Word. John 8, 31 and 32, Jesus said to those disciples who believed on His name, if you continue in My Word, then are you My disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Hallelujah. That's a legacy of this church, brothers and sisters, that we today are still committed to the infallible Word of God as His truth. That is so precious. Well, I came to faith in Christ in the RPCNA. I'm so thankful to be able to look back and know that I was under the preaching of the word from my earliest childhood. And I could recount many pastors along the line. Whose congregations impacted my life. And I thank God. For his grace to me. I'm not going to ask for a show of hands tonight, but I wonder how many others there are here tonight who can say I came to Christ through the RPCNA. Don't lift your hands. This is not all heads bowed. Just hold up your hands. No. People are still coming to Christ through the Reformed Presbyterian Church. And don't tell me that does not make it relevant. We're just back from Japan. and seeing the solid, not large, but solid work that has been done there under the ministry of the word by the Holy Spirit. Relevant? Indeed it is. Now, I came to faith in Christ by way of the RPCNA. But he demanded my surrender. I was baptized, as Matthew 28, 20 informs, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit. And I was called by him. That was painful. Because I had my own agenda. And I wonder if tonight there aren't some of you young people here, and maybe some of you who've been around the church for a long time. Oh, you're part of the church, but you've never dared to say to Jesus Christ, whatever you want me to do, I will do it. That's my challenge to you tonight. If you know Jesus Christ. There's no other way to know him. You can't know him halfway. The gospel that God has given to this church calls you to surrender your whole life to him. And do his will. Some of you looking for jobs. Maybe what you ought to be doing is looking for His will, hunting for an employer who needs what you can do. And put this thing in the context of going to work to serve Christ. But I challenge you tonight that you don't distort the gospel which has been given to this church. This church is in union with Jesus Christ, and he said, if any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. If you want to talk with me about that afterwards, I'll be happy to talk with you. But I say it's painful oftentimes. It was for me. But I finally had to get on my knees and say to Jesus down in Patterson Lodge, Geneva. OK, I'll do whatever you say, even if it means going to seminary, which I said I'd never do. Oh, he's Lord. We're directly related to Jesus Christ. And don't you ever forget it. If people ask you about your church, I hope you will tell them about Jesus. Tell them about Jesus. That's our identity in the world. Well, there's a second relationship here. We're related to Jesus Christ. But we're also, by virtue of that, directly related to other branches of Christ's church. Let me read you some familiar words from John 17, Jesus' prayer for his church. I do not ask on behalf of these alone those twelve that had become eleven, but for those also who believe in me through their word. Did you get that? Not only for these, but those who would believe on Jesus through their word. That they all may be one, even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. That was his prayer. And in Ephesians four, verse four, there is one body. One baptism. That's what the word says. And let me say three things about how we relate to those other branches of the church. The fact that we are in union with Christ puts us in union with them if they are a true branch of the church. First of all, by recognizing their existence. Let's just recognize their existence and not pretend they aren't there or hope they go away. Let's recognize God has his church all over the world. under many different names, but under the name of Christ. And I've never been a happy denominationalist. I'm a very contented Reformed Presbyterian, as you might tell. But I am not a happy denominationalist. I'll say more about that. But I remember talking with or listening to Dr. Voss one time in He said, the reason their denominations is not doctrine, it's sin. I tried that out on a Mormon one time who wanted to make his presentation in our living room, and I let him do it so I could study his methodology. And he said, now, Reverend, why are there so many denominations? The answer that he expected was because there's so many different opinions. Next question would be, how do you know which one's the right opinion and so forth and so on? Well, I remember what Voss said. Why are there so many denominations? I said, that's easy. Sin. And he was stunned. Yeah, I guess that's right. Well, let's go on. Sure, those divisions have come, but Let's recognize that a lot of those things were born out of pressures of obedience in history. If you'd lived in Germany at the time of Luther, you'd probably been a Lutheran, as they came to be known, because there was pressure on them at that point. And the place where Satan was attacking They had to confront. And that was Luther's point. If you're faithful in all these places, all around the circle, but neglect the place where he's attacking, you're unfaithful. The Reformed Presbyterian Church was born out of persecution and a problem with the Reformation settlement. That's why we're separate. It wasn't because we were psalm singers. It wasn't because we were feeling better than other people. It was a matter of obedience. And so that came to pass. Think right now the pressures that are on Bible-believing Episcopalians. Right now. Doesn't your heart go out to them? I was talking with one just recently. And he was almost weeping as he told me about it. The problems they're going through. Satan's attacking other branches of the church, just like he will attack us. And we shouldn't just sit in judgment on our brothers and sisters. It's true. that the church oftentimes looks apostate, but be very careful, brothers and sisters, about saying what church is apostate and which one isn't, unless you're assuming the role of the pope. That is not our prerogative. Until the church decides that a church is apostate, we must consider it as a true branch of the church. So let's at least recognize their existence. But also biblical friendship and service. And I know many of you practice this. And so do I. John 13 says, By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. John 13, 34 and 35. So we belong to the National Association of Evangelicals, NAE. They've been having problems lately. We're part of NAPARC, North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council. Crown and Covenant services all kinds of churches outside of our circles. The Reformed Presbyterian Seminary has many denominations represented in their student body, and we minister to them. the home as well. And need I need I mention here Geneva College. You stop and think of how many persons that we through this branch of the church and all those support people. To whom we minister. That makes sense. We're part of the body. We're part of the body. And we have biblical friendship. And we serve. And we are served as well. Thank God for the body of Christ and for all the friends that we have who walk under the name of Jesus, but who may be part of a different branch. We also cooperate in ministry. I'm sure that happens locally here. We share with others, we pray with others. Think of the RTF Reformation Translation Fellowship representing quite a number of different denominations as we minister to China, Some of you perhaps have been in the joint chaplains organization. Of which we're a part so that we can minister to the military. A new phenomenon right now is the summer mission teams. We cross over and we have service. To and we have service from other branches of the church. And I need not say much about BCCS, but some of you know what that's all about. You cooperate in ministry to accomplish the purposes of the kingdom. And what a blessing it is. When I was director of Christian education and we were members of the NAE, I went to the National Sunday School Association gatherings where the secretaries for their Sunday school gathered. And one of the memories I have was getting acquainted with the. Secretary for the Assemblies of God. From Missouri. And I asked him about his testimony, how he came to know Christ, and he said, oh, I used to be a Presbyterian. And I said, what happened? He said, my dad became sick. He was in the hospital. We thought he was going to die. We tried to get somebody from our church to come and visit, but nobody would come. And so in desperation, we turned to some friends in the A.O.G. And they sent a team of people in. They talked with my dad. They laid hands on him and prayed for him. And he was healed. He didn't say automatically. But he recovered. That touched this brother and he became an Assemblies of God member. Now, there is that kind of shifting that goes on. But there is one other thing that I want to mention about this relationship to other branches. That's prayer. Prayer for the body. When you pray, when we pray, we should pray for each other. We should pray for one another. Friends, there are thousands out there who need our prayers as well. I want to read you something which I reread every once in a while. Some of you young people probably never seen this. But it's worth reviewing. In our Constitution, we have a section called the history. And the history includes a document called the Covenant of 1871. The first part of it is confession of sin. If you want to find out how to confess your sins, let me encourage you to read that first part sometime when you're on your knees. It's rather thorough. But then into the covenant, what we will do. Now listen to section four. That believing the church, capital C. To be one. And that all the saints have communion with God and with one another in the same covenant. Believing, moreover, that schism and sectarianism are sinful in themselves. and inimical to true religion, that inimical means adverse to, against, and trusting that division shall cease and the people of God become one Catholic, meaning universal, church over all the earth, we will pray and labor for the visible oneness of the church of God in our own land and throughout the world. on the basis of truth and scriptural order. Considering it a principal duty of our profession to cultivate a holy brotherhood, we will strive to maintain Christian friendship with pious men of every name and to feel and act as one with all in every land who pursue this grand end. Did you know about this? And as a means of seeing this great result, we will, by dissemination and application of the principles of truth herein professed and by cultivating and exercising Christian charity. Labor to remove stumbling blocks and to gather into one the scattered and divided friends of truth and righteousness. You pray for that. Every year at Synod, we have an evening devoted to listening to fraternal delegates. I've been impressed to notice that more and more of the Synod are staying for that. There seems to be a sensitivity of the importance of our brothers. And that's probably because of the hostility that's coming in the culture. against the Christian faith. And that's why I read Second Timothy three. That's the other reason I read it. Because persecution brings believers together. So we pray for the body. You say, I don't know what I can do for the rest of the church. You can pray for them. can talk to the head of the church about his whole body. Now, there's one other, and let me hurry on. Because the RPCNA, in its relationship to Christ, is relevant because it's directly related to the lost world. I don't have to prove that point. We all know that. We struggle with it all the time. But you see, the Great Commission is not fulfilled yet. And Philippians 2, 16 talks about holding forth the word of life, Paul writes to them, so that I will not have labored in vain neither and run in vain. The job isn't finished, brothers and sisters, and we have the message that the world needs. Amen. Isn't that true? Doesn't that make us relevant? If we have what the world that's lost needs? Our focus is not how to preserve our churches, Our concern is how our churches can get out to meet the need. He that loses his life shall find it. And I have never felt impeded, held back, hampered. in doing the job of evangelism in ministry because I'm a reformed Presbyterian. Is there anybody here who has? Then we're relevant. We're relevant. We're relevant to wherever God has placed us. The assignment is not completed and the message is still needed. It's the need of the hour. Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. We have that. We have the message, which is the power of God unto salvation. That's our legacy. I'm not sure, but recently I was I was for a couple of months, I was moderator, interim moderator up at Rose Point. But now I'm a pastor elect. But one of the questions came up is, will we continue the radio broadcasts? Newcastle WKST used to be, is that still it? Rose Point's been broadcasting over WKST Newcastle for many, many years. As part of their witness. As far as I know, that's still going on. This. This message that we have. Is not just individuals being saved, valuable as that is vital as it is, but it's also a Christ centered worldview. which changes culture, brings meaning to work. It explains what worship is all about. It also explains what leisure is all about and the place of art and all of life. That's the gospel that we have to offer a world that's looking for authenticity. And we have it. Let's not keep it under a bushel. I remember one time many years ago now, some of us went up to scout State College to see if there was a potential for planting a church there. And if you want to find out about churches in an area like that, always go to the parachurch people because they've scouted all the churches all over and they know where the Bible believing churches are. And we went to one of these leaders and we said, we're not exactly known for our evangelism, But we're probably able to help students who need to know the relationship between Jesus Christ and their call and their work. Is there any church here that's helping that? He looked at us dumbfounded and said, I don't know of any church doing that. We went to talk to another man who was reformed. And we said, what's the need here? He said, what we need up here is a church that can help students who can relate their Christian confession to their job. into their work and our jaws dropped. He'd been trying to get somebody to come and plant a church there and nobody would do it in a town where every four years you've got a new clientele. But Campus Crusade for Christ had more workers on State College campus than any other university in the United States, and they told us it was because the fruit was so ripe. So we went to State College. Today, there's a church there that's ministering. Well, we are ministering worldwide. And we've already prayed for many of those places, Sudan, Cyprus, Senegal, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, Japan, China. And we pray for them. And that's our mission. So, brothers and sisters, I believe with all my heart that the RPCNA is relevant. We're in union with Jesus Christ, the head of the church. We have communion of saints with the rest of the body. And we have the message which the world needs. I don't think I need to say any more. Let's pray. Father, we thank You. We thank You for Your church. We thank You that You've included us in Your church. That we're part of Your people. We ask, O God, that You'll forgive us for our narrowness of mind. Help us, Lord, have hearts that are big enough to include all for whom you've died. At the same time, O Lord, help us to be faithful, as Paul was admonishing Timothy, that he should continue in the things which he has learned, remembering from whom he has learned them. And so we ask that you'll keep us as a faithful branch of your church. Lord, use us as you choose. Forgive our sins. Especially, Lord, forgive our sin of faithlessness, not believing you're big enough to use us personally or Congregationally or denominationally to have any effect. And we can't have any effect apart from you. But we thank you that you are king. And as we seek your kingdom together with our brothers and sisters. Give us that united heart. To exalt you. And not us. Pray for any here tonight, O God, who may be struggling in his own heart or her own heart with your call upon her life, his life. God, help them to surrender to your will. And we do pray that you'll lead those that are capable of working to employers who need what they can do. and that they can go and serve you as they go to work. Bless our churches. Bless your churches to your own honor and glory. Amen.