♪ To God ♪ ♪ All day my soldiers faithful, true, and bold ♪ ♪ I let us say to both thee, Father of all ♪ ♪ And when with them ♪ the victor's crown of gold. Alleluia! Alleluia! A golden gleam in brightness in the West, Soon, soon to faithful warriors come their rest. Sweetest of all, of paradise, of rest, Alleluia! Can we please sing the last few verses? But lo, there waits a yet more glorious day, The saints triumphant rise in pride array. The King of glory passes on his way. Alleluia! Alleluia! From earth's wide bounds, from oceans, water, or streams, in the countless coasts, singing to our Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Alleluia! Alleluia. Amen. 271. How sweet and lawful is the place With Christ within the North While everlasting love displays the choices of her souls, Joy to admire the feast. Each of us prides with thankful tongues. For why was I a guest? Why was I made to hear thy voice? ♪ Enter while it's rude ♪ ♪ With thousands made of wretched choice ♪ ♪ And rather star than God's ♪ was the same love that spread the peace that sweetly drew us in. Still sweet and still refused to taste ♪ Perished in our sin ♪ ♪ It is the nations, O our God ♪ ♪ From strength the earth to God ♪ Send thy victorious word abroad, And bring the strangers home. We long to see thy churches full, and all the chosen race. May with one voice and heart and soul sing thy redeeming grace. Amen. Good morning. Can I tell you how good it is to be here and how excited I am to be able to talk to you about the history of Midway Church as we begin to leave open in prayer and ask for God's blessing on our time. Our Father, we thank you that you salted the plant, things that you accomplished to do the very things we just sung about. You sent your victorious word abroad from this place so that in the ends of the earth people were hearing about the gospel of your son. We pray that the Holy Spirit would anoint now our teaching as we think through the history of this place and may it be an encouragement to us to be faithful in our own generation. And as you know, he compares each of those local churches to a burning lampstand. There are seven individual lampstands burning bright and clear through the light of God's truth, with only one Lord and Savior walking among them. And as you read those letters, it becomes obvious very quickly that not all of those lampstands burn with the same intensity. Some burned hotter than others. Others were flickering to the point that they were almost about to be extinguished. And yet, nonetheless, Jesus knew what was going on in every single church. He knew their condition. He knew the names of the individual members. He knew what to do. He knew what to commend. Even so, here we are gathered in this place, as warned, and we represent 16 member churches, and there are more churches than that represented here. Burning lamp stands, and yet the same Lord Jesus is the head of all of them. There's different levels of maturity among our members and our officers, different skill sets and gifts according to the Spirit's distribution of those gifts, and yet we have one and the same Lord Jesus in the midst of us, and it should comfort us, brothers, that the Lord Jesus knows exactly what's going on in your church. He could stand up and give the church reports himself and tell you what's really going on in your church. This place, Midway, is a church that existed for 115 years. In name, it was congregationalist. Functionally, it was Presbyterian. All but two of the pastors who were here were Presbyterian. The things that God did through this particular church are absolutely astonishing. And I hope you're going to be overwhelmed by just the goodness of our God and the connection he even has to our particular Baptist history in different ways. But this is really a lampstand that earned are a brightly burning map stand, the history of Midway Church, 1752 to 1867. The notes are actually in your notebook in pages 20 to 22 if you want to follow along with that posture. But I want to frame my narrative of this place because I have a very unusual curse myth. And typically, when you give a oral presentation of history, you're focusing on an individual. My task this morning is a summation of all that. So the task is rather formidable and definitely won't be exhausting. Hopefully it won't be exhausting either. But secondly, the sons of Midway Church. Third, the daughters of Midway Church. And fourth, and finally, the marks of Midway Church. What was it that made this church what it was? So first of all, the times of Midway Church. This church was founded in the year 1752, but its story actually begins 122 years earlier, in the year 1630. Now 1630, 10 years earlier, the Mayflower had made its historic voyage to the New World. Well, in 1630, for many reasons, namely to secure religious liberty. These 140 pastors, after a day of fast and prayer, set sail from Plymouth, England, on a vessel called the Mary and John. They arrived in what's now modern Massachusetts, in the year 16, over there, that lasted for five years. Then the congregation moved to Connecticut in 1635, established a different church. That church lasted for 60 years. Then their descendants migrated to South Carolina in the year 1695, and just a few miles, 19 miles north of Charleston, they established the city of Dorchester, which no longer After its founding, the church in South Carolina wanted to move here for various reasons. So they petitioned to the civil government of the state of Georgia, which was run by a board of trustees at that time, and the board of trustees was thrilled that they wanted to move here, so much so that they granted him a deed of land of 32,000 acres in this place. Now you think to yourself, why would they be so eager to do that? We need to realize that in the northern part of our state was the Cherokee Nation. Here in the southern part of the state was the Creek Confederacy. In other words, the Creek Indians. And there was widespread fear that the Creeks would rise up and slaughter the white settlers who were here. So the idea of having 350 armed settlers coming into this area will be there if the Creek don't rise. You familiar with that phrase? I always thought all my life that that meant if there's this great torrential downpour and the Creeks overflow, an avenue, then we won't be there. But otherwise, if the creek doesn't rise, we'll be there. Well, Pastor Paul Weldon, Pastor Thomas Waters, a year ago, rising up and slaughtering us, we'll be there if the creek don't rise. And so that's where that phrase came from. It became part of our lexicon, as it were. So 350 white men and women moved here with 1,500 black slaves. They called the place Midway, because it's Midway between two different rivers. And they established two as they formed it. And so they made what was called the Midway Society. And then they formed the Midway Church, which became the heart. They actually were connected to a local presbytery around here. Now, the colonists first settled here in 1752. Formerly, they constituted the church two years later. The first was the Lutheran. This is the second church ever established in this entire state. Their last worship service was held November the 19th, 1867, in this sanctuary. But think for just a moment about the history. In 1926, you know what happened, the Declaration of Independence was signed. Two members of this church were signers of the Declaration of Independence, Lyman Hill and Button Gwinnett. Numbers of the men fought for the revolutionary cause. That the British sent a group of troops up from Florida to burn down their first sanctuary, which they did. They did that on November the 27th. Liberator Falls, the name of the surrounding region was called Liberty County, which is what it's called to this present day. The church then built their second sanctuary, the one we're presently in, in the year 1792. Now think about 1792. What happened in 1792? The congregants started meeting in this place. Just a few months later, in May, a place called Nottingham, Friar's Chapel in England, There was a group, a gathering of a Northamptonshire Association of Churches, 24 strong, a young 30-year-old man stood up and preached a sermon that became known as the Deathless Sermon. His name was William Carey. William Carey said in that sermon, expect great things, attempt great things. And history is supplied with prepositional phrases, expect great things from God, attempt to be used. Carey published is inquiring into the use of means for the conversion of the heathen. In October, the Baptist Missionary Society was formed. All that was going on when congregants began to meet here to worship the Lord. The church was 60 years old. When Ann and I, or even Ann Judson, were sent to Burma as Congregationalist missionaries, but you know what happened when they set out in 1812. By the time they arrived in India, they were no longer Congregationalists, they were Baptists. There's a connection to Abner and Judson that this church has that I'm going to tell you about in a little bit. It's the thing I'm most excited to tell you about. The Haitian Revolution. They survived the Creek War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and of course, Sherman's march to the sea touched upon this place in a very profound way. As a matter of fact, it was Sherman's march to the sea that ultimately led to the dissolution of this church. And their last, this church was actually occupied by Union soldiers for a while. They used this sanctuary as a sheep pen. So there were sheep cows in this very room where we are right now. Now, let me say just a few words about the architecture of the building, and then we're gonna move on to our next heading here. But I've already said it was built in 1792. The building was actually located a few hundred yards that way, a few yards that way. It was in the middle of where the road is now. They almost destroyed the building. The graveyard across there has many of the saints who lived in this place buried here, including Charles Tolcott Jones, who I'll talk about in just a moment. But a few other things about this. The exterior platform siding was a huge round face in this way, and it was not on this wall. It was on that wall. The gallery above was ordered in a different direction, the face that way. big stairway that went to it, there was a big soundboard behind it. Apparently it was supported with a small metal rod and children would say, they kept on thinking that it was going to crash and kill whoever was in the pulpit because it looked so small. But nonetheless, that's the way it was at that time. The building was extensively remodeled in the year 1849. Several exterior doors were closed up. Here's the thing I want you to see. As magnificent, as lovely as this historic sanctuary is, this building is not, nor has it ever been, Midway Church. Because the Church of the New Covenant is not made of temples, and it's not made of buildings. It is made up of living stones. It is made up of people who are being built up by a master as its sons and daughters who live here, our brothers and sisters in Christ, and that's who I want to talk to you about. So let's move on from the times of Midway Church to the sons of Midway Church. The church was famous for producing a lot of prominent statesmen, legislators, college professors, college presidents, authors. I've already mentioned that two of the members were signers of the Declaration of Independence. Four members of the church became governors of our state. Six counties in Georgia are named after members of Midway. Bacon, Baker, Gwinnett, Hall, Scriven, and Stewart counties are all named for members of this church. Midway's third pastor was a man named Abel Holmes. His son was the famous author Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. His grandson was Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. After his ministry here, he moved to another pastorate, Independent Presbyterian in Savannah, Georgia, where he ministered for 34 years. If you know the name Terry Johnson, Terry Johnson is now a pastor of Independent Pres. Axton's granddaughter married President Woodrow Wilson, who was his first wife. Their wedding was officiated in the mass behind Independent Presbyterian. But the statistic that I love the most, the one that makes me fascinated about this church, is that in 115 years, 86 ministers rose up from this church. That's just a message. You had seven more that were sent out to the mission field, making for a total of 93 gospel ministers who began their life here. Now, that doesn't mean that all those men were sent out from this church. What it means is they were... Okay, they had water coming out of their head. But nonetheless, they were born in the womb of this Stacey, who wrote the Definitive History of Midway Church. You actually should go purchase that book in a museum. He documents 50 Now, obviously, we can't cover all of them. I'm going to give you five, all right? One of them was that his grandfather served as deacon in this church. He was orphaned young, but his extended family took care of him and raised him, and he was raised in this church, converted in this church when he was 14 years old. He entered the gospel ministry without receiving any formal education, but he studied the Bible and the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and that was his basis of doctrine. And his countenance and his speech were such that he was marked by joy. So the people heard his message, and how did he resist it? And he served in different pastors, including in the Pentecostal short time. But his biggest claim of fame was that he was an itinerant evangelist. You can actually read about him because his son wrote a biography called Making Men Laugh. It's published by Banner of Truth, and if you look at the cover, you know what's on the cover? This building, because this was where he was writing about Baker's life in a book called Creatures with Power, also from Banner of Truth. So, Daniel Baker. The second man I want to mention is a man who's buried right across the street here, Charles Polcott Jones. I'll have more to say about him in just a moment, But he was raised in this church. He lived here for some 40 years. He went to seminary, studied at Princeton. He became a personal friend of Ebenezer Porter, who was the president of Van Gogh Seminary and a leading figure in the Second Great Awakening. He graduated from Princeton in 1830. He studied pastoral theology under Archibald Alexander. He studied homiletics under Samuel Miller, and he took Hebrew under Charles Hodge. Yeah. The only plantation called Montvideo, not far from here, he preached in this sanctuary many, many times, and he was set apart by this church to be a minister among hundreds of slaves involved faith in Christ and his ministry. He wrote a catechism for the slaves. It was so helpful, so good, it spread all throughout the South. Many a slave read it, had it read to them, and it was so good that missionaries took it with them and translated it into other languages and used it on the mission field as well. There are numerous biographies written about Charles Pope-Octone, but the one I want to point you to is Ian Murray's book, Heroes. Popeye Jones is 80 pages long. It is proof positive that Iain Murray is the undisputed master of Christian biography. If you open up the book, you'll see a painting of a church building. It's this building inside there. I began to wonder, how many books published by the Banner have some connection to somebody from Midway? I think there's a lot of them. The third man is Richard Way. Richard Way. Richard Way was born in Liberty County in the year 1819. He was raised in this church, converted at the age of 12. He was annexed to membership on November the 23rd, 1832. Midway's pastor at the time was a man named Robert Quarterman, a man who apparently was more of a catalyst for seeing young men thrust into the ministry than any other pastor they ever had. And so Richard Way had a desire to go to the mission field. He married his pastor's daughter, Susan. Y'all watch those pastoral interns. And this church did something every month that was very common among many of the Apostles of today, including the Baptists. In addition to their weekly prayer meetings, they had, once a month, a concert of prayer. And at that concert of prayer, they would pray specifically, Lord, would you raise up men Would you send laborers into your harvest? Now, does that sound familiar to anybody in this room? That's what we did just yesterday, isn't it? They prayed for years this way, very intentionally. Lord, raise up people to send to the mission field. The reason I mentioned Richard Way is he's the very first missionary ever sent in this church. He was raised up some 91 years after the founding of the church. was their first missionary sent out. He was supposed to go to Bangkok, instead he wound up in China. Their commissioning service was held in this sanctuary, August the 27th, 1843. Now remember, the pulpit was over there, halfway up the wall. He preached the sermon right there, from Richard Wade, Acts 20, verse 21. Charles Polcott Jones was in the place he described it, quote, the Negroes in the gallery, who had risen up as the entrance running down their cheeks. The congregation all below bowed with emotion. The weeping became audible. We remained in this state for about a minute, when Mr. Jones concluded my prayer in which the missionaries were solemnly and earnestly commended to God. On being dismissed, I observed the ministers and members go up and shake hands with them in tears. No words were spoken, and we separated in silence. It was a day long remembered in this church. Richard and Susan Wei served in China for 16 years. One of their daughters died there. There's a memorial to her in the cemetery across the way here to the daughter that died on the mission field. Charles Jones' catechism was taken with them. They translated it into Chinese and it was used to spread the gospel there. Now, these first three ministers I'll talk about Benjamin and Cynthia Mell. They named their son Patrick. He was born in Walterville, July 19th, year 1814. Patrick was first exposed to the gospel here because his parents were faithful members of this place. He would not be converted until he was 24 years old. But before that began, well, I'll have to get to that story later in just a minute. I'm getting ahead of myself. But suffice to say, you know this man's name. He's Patrick Hughes Mell. He was baptized as an infant here, baptized as a true He was the president of the Southern Baptist Convention for a total of 17 years. He presided over the Georgia Baptist Convention for a combined total of 26 years. He's a professor at Mercer University, the University of Georgia. He was actually president of UGA for a short while. And so for a combined total of 47 years, he taught future ministers in the Baptist ministry. And in his spare time, he wrote a number of books and articles, staunchly defending the three doctrines of free and sovereign grace, writing about things like restorative church discipline. You can still obtain his books today. Our own Pastor Kurt Smith has written a paper on him, pervading his life. Now this fifth one, I'm going to tell you honestly, this is one I'm most excited about. I want to ask you a question. How many of you, raise your hand, have you heard this name before? Okay, guys from Midway, or guys from our church. This guy, this is incredible. I can't wait to tell you this story. This young man, Edward Stephens, was born to members of Midway named Oliver and Eliza Stephens, January the 23rd, 1814. Now remember, when he was born, he was baptized in this sanctuary, March the 6th, but shortly after baby Edward was born and baptized, his parents came to credo that as conviction. They left his church in good standing, joined a Baptist church. Edward was converted around the age of 13. His ministry was ordained to be sent to Burma as a missionary in the year 1837. Jesse Mercer preached his ordination sermon during the 16th anniversary of the Georgia Baptist Convention, May the 7th, 1837. He went to Burma where he worked alongside Admiral Judson of the Burmese church that Judson had planted. He authored the first commentaries in the Burmese language, Commentaries on Matthew, Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews. He finished the Burmese Dictionary that Judson had begun. He compiled a Burmese of the Bible that Judson had done. And he was also the pioneer to introduce the concept of associationalism to the Baptists in Burma. So much so, he's called the father of associational gatherings in Burma. He died in 1886, having served almost 50 years on mission field in Burma. But he started his life here. The successor to Abner Judson was nurtured here, originally, in this church. Everett was sent out from the south. So, I'm gonna have more to tell you about him in just a moment. So, we see the times of Midway Church, the sons of Midway Church, but brothers, I am so thankful that I have heroes in the faith, but I'm also thankful I have heroines in the faith, too. And the church would not be what it is without the women of the church. So, let's talk about the daughters of Midway Church, the daughters of Midway Church. First of all, this was a place known for family piety. And you don't have holiness at home if you don't have godly mothers. And so there were many, many godly mothers here. It's interesting, at the end of 1 Timothy chapter 2, Paul tells us by his grace with the Holy Spirit that women cannot teach men or rule over men inside the local church. Therefore, they cannot be elders, they cannot be deacons. And he gives the reasons for it, that God created man first and woman second, that male headship was God's intention for creation. He also talks about what might follow the order But she can be redeemed in her influence, as it were. She will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with self-control. What I believe Paul is saying is, this is his version of the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world, except his father was unregenerate. He was an unregenerate Gentile, but he had a godly mother, Eunice, a godly grandmother, Lois, who taught him scriptures from the time he was very, very little. So, think about the godly mothers who raised young men and young women inside this world. Sure, from the one example, or two examples, actually. Cynthia Mell, P.H. Mell's mother. I told you that H. Mel was converted when he was 24. He started aspiring to the gospel ministry before he was converted. If you don't know, you have to read this out. Converted ministers? No. So his mother knew that he was not a converted man. And so she wrote him a letter two years before her death, and this is what she said. Earnestly as I wish a son of mine to be a minister, yet I tremble at the idea of educating and devoting a son to the sacred profession without previous satisfactory evidence that his own soul is right with God. My heart burns to see you in every sense of the word a true Christian. I say this with anxiety and righteous fear, but I say it with earnest prayer for the real conversion of your soul to God. with some hope that he will hear the petition that I have endeavored to offer up for you for many years now. I will repeat, I can never consent for you to study the ministry until I have some satisfactory proof of your heart being turned to God in holy consistency and permanency of character. and the Lord used it instrumentally in his life to bring him to faith in Christ. And therefore, we were blessed with the HML. There's another I want to mention, and that's Mrs. Eliza Stevens. I just introduced you just now to Edward Hill Stevens, who was the first missionary from the South. What's fascinating about this is she wrestled in her soul for a long while about whether or not to become a Baptist. There's literally a reported prayer that she prayed, Lord, if the Baptists are wrong, please don't let me become one. Right? But she struggled with this. Her son was baptized as an infant, and shortly thereafter, she moved to burn her husband, moved to a Baptist church. That was the year 1814. Now, when did the Judsons go to Burma? 1812, two years earlier. Remember what happened. They went, along with a man named Luther Rice. They were all convinced of believers' baptism. William Ward actually baptized the Judsons when they got there, the Cary Mission. But Luther Rice came back. to find out a support system to help them, and that's how the Triennial Convention came to be. But he came back here spreading that news, and here's this young couple who's just come to believers baptism, and they're hearing the news that there's a missionary on the field. And this Judson fella, he was a congregationalist too, and he's become convinced of the same thing at the same time we have. And so they took their young son, Edward, and kind of like panicked and commit him to the Burmese mission if that would be what God desires. Now, bear in mind, at that time, Judson had only been on the field for two years. He was 25 years old. He was young at the time. It was 20 some odd years later that this young man volunteers to become a missionary. He has to sit the permit. The thing is, his parents did not tell him about that dedication. They didn't say a word. They raised him like the rest of their kids. They never said anything to him about being a missionary. They said if it's God's will, he'll bring you to pass. Even when he went on that field and was commissioned, they didn't say anything. As a matter of fact, he'd been on that field for decades. He came home on sabbatical, on furlough, and when he got back here, he had some friends and family who said, by the way, when you're a kid, when you're an infant, did you know the story about your mom? She dedicated you to the Burmese mission. mothers who pray over their children, who give the gospel to their children. One other thing I'll mention is ministers' lives. Many of the young ladies here at Midway became the wives of missionaries and of pastors. And my fellow pastors, do I have to tell you that our wives are the unsung heroes of the ministry? People don't notice them as much because they're not the limelight like we are. What they don't see is the wounds they bear. They don't see that when every time you and I are hit, our wives feel it. And yet they can't cry out and say anything about it. They have to keep their mouths shut, not react to it, be gracious, still be hospitable, and yet they're struggling with nightmares over former church members who've caused grief and things like that. People don't see the sufferings that our wives go through. Well, if James Stacy and his history of the Midway Church, if I might count this 29 women who became the lives of ministers through this local church. I'm going to focus on just one of them. This is Mary Jones, Charles Popeye Jones's wife. Charles Jones labored very diligently among the black slaves. He died in 1863, halfway between the war between the states. The war between the states devastated and scattered the church in all these different directions. The cemetery grew up weeds, it was decaying, and the church was scabbing, not even a weed here. Well, in December of 1865, Mary Jones and some of the ladies of the church met in the sanctuary to pull weeds and clean it out. Mary came to the sanctuary by herself and entered the door. And she came and she prayed right there. Now remember, everything was remodeled, so everything was in the position you're seeing When I had finished in the cemetery, I went alone into our old church and knelt before the pulpit. He was right here. So I knelt before the pulpit, and there pled with the God of our fathers that he would not forsake his ancient heritage, but remember the desolation of his own Zion. And although parted and scattered, he would once again the highest dead might come up in remembrance before the throne, but above all that he who had given his precious blood to the life of the church would once more lift upon us the light of his countenance and arise with healing in his wings for our bleeding and desolated church. When I rose from my knees, I felt an assurance that God would not cast us off for ever." That all happened right there. Amazing thing. So praise God. mothers of the church could not name what the church is without them. So I praise God for not only heroes, but heroines of the faith. So we've seen the times of Midway Church, the sons of Midway Church, the daughters of Midway Church, finally the marks of Midway Church. Here I want to make some application. What made this church what it was? And what I want to do is talk about a first cause, the first cause of it, and then seven secondary causes. It was so eloquently taught to us last night, wasn't it, that God uses secondary causes, almost an infinite number of secondary causes, to accomplish His purposes. But there's always only one primary cause. The first cause is always God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And I want to emphasize, why was this church so fruitful? Because God Himself made it fruitful. Now, my brothers in the ministry, I emphasized this more recently, It's exciting to hear all the things God did to a church like this. It can also be a little intimidating. You can look at it and say, well, why is my ministry not being blessed like this? But the reality is, your task is to be faithful. It is God's work to bring the results and the fruit. Our job is to be diligent and faithful, so I just want to give you an exhortation. Actually, just type this out. I want to exhort all my fellow pastors with it. Here it is. Pursue personal holiness with all your might. Be ruthless with your own sin. Kill it. Mortify it. Give it no quarter, show it no mercy. Bring them to the foot of the cross, your sins, that is, and lead them there. Pray fervently. Preach fearlessly. Forgive generously. Love freely. Do the work of an evangelist. Take heed to the ministry you receive through the Lord to fulfill it. And remember Robert Murray McShane's Timeless Admonition. It is not great talents that God blesses so much as great conformity in Christ. A holy pastor is an awful weapon in the hands of God. Brothers, let's take that to heart. Let's labor and strive because God is worthy. Even if we don't see the same truth, God has the power to turn the time. God has the power to bring you right back. of Midway, and also Robert Ballard, who was the son-in-law of Charles Potthoff Jones. He wrote two books about his famous father. Following all their work, getting ahold of the readings, he talks about what it was like for him as a child at Midway. But I want to give you seven specific marks of Midway that I hope will be important to you. The first is this. Why did God's blessing rest upon it? Because the church has seen her pastors as gifts of the Ascended Cross. And what I mean specifically by this, and I am looking at what James Stacy said about this, the very first thing he says that was the mark of Midway. This congregation was ever vigilant to make sure their vocational pastors received a comfortable supply. He made sure they were paid. That's what this church did. That's the number one thing he says. You think to yourself, isn't that crazy? Is that the first thing you think about, about a strong church? See, the church held its annual business meeting every year in March. They would meet here, they would establish in their wills, and if they died, you could collect that rent money from their children, from the heirs of their estate. And as a matter of fact, they were so serious about it, that if you were negligent to pay the debt you had offered to pay, the civil magistrate would show up at your door and buy you twice the amount. Now, I don't agree with that. I think they probably wanted to keep their hands off of the church. But that's how seriously they took it to make sure their pastors had a comfortable supply. They say, why is that important? It's important because they needed their ministers to be focused upon prayer and the Word of God, and they wanted them to have the time to commit to it. I'm afraid in the modern day, too often American church builders seem to think that their pastor's salary is a matter of charity rather than a matter of duty. But it's a duty given by Christ. You are commanded by Christ you deacons here, it is your task to lead the church to say, this is our job. We get to do this and we've gotta make sure we're looking after our pastors. So, don't be shy about that. We shouldn't be greedy, obviously. That would disqualify you from the ministry. But to say, you have needs, you have to be able to pay your, for your family and all their professions is, be able to show hospitality to others. So, you gotta have a comfortable supply in order to do that. The second thing you Absolutely, God was essential. That's why they were vigilant to make sure their pastor would obey so they could give themselves fully and prepare. James Stacey mentioned several times that this congregation, both black and white, strongly preferred their preaching to be from a manuscript rather than extemporaneous. Now, brothers, I'm not imposing that upon you. I don't preach from a manuscript either. Some people do, some people don't. That's a matter of the way God has wired you. That's a matter of Christian liberty, isn't it? But it does tell me something. Why did they want a manuscript form to be read? It tells me the congregation wanted a studious ministry, that sermons were well ordered, well thought out. They expected their pastors to know what they were going to say before they got in the pulpit. And that is a reasonable expectation, isn't it? God forbid we should ever get in the pulpit not knowing what we're about to say. Well, the Midway Saints applies the preaching of God so highly, preaching the word of God so highly, that there were times when the church was disrupted because of, you know, Revolutionary War, Civil War, things like that, and so they were and they would have some of their deacons or other men stand up and read the printed sermons of other people. They would actually pay a stipend for that to happen, because they believed it was so important. So even if they didn't have a pastor, they're still getting fed by the word of God. That's how much they prize Him. Now, my fellow pastors, you know this, and I'm singing to the choir as it were, but your primary task, not your exclusive task, but your primary task is prayer and the word of God. You're to preach the Word, the whole Word, and nothing but the Word. God called you to be a herald of His message. And you know what? He never calls you editor-in-chief. You don't get to add to it, you don't get to take away from it, you have to faithfully dispense what He's given. And that requires diligent study, a studious habit, a prayerful habit. So give yourself to the Word. They understood the centrality of the Word and would not let anything detract from your conduct. One other thing before I leave this heading, I said they love a spirit-filled preaching of the Lord. Spirit-filled preaching. My homilized professor at Columbia Bible College was a man named Richard Heltrick Sr., who's gone on to be a Lord. Of all the things he taught us in homiletics, the one thing I'll never forget is a day when he was preaching to us, or teaching us about the role of the Holy Spirit in preaching, and a look of pain came across his face He pointed to the side wall and said, I would rather beat my head against that wall than to get in the pulpit without the anointing of the Holy Spirit. That has stayed with me ever since. You and I cannot manipulate the Holy Spirit. We can't force Him to do our bidding, but we can certainly get on our knees and plead for Him too. The Scriptures say in Thessalonians Paul said, Our God will not come to you in order. but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance. Preaching the word without the power of the Holy Spirit is dead formalism and dead orthodoxy. Lady Betozer once compared it to Elijah being happy to go on top of Mount Carmel, put up that one altar, lay out the pieces, and never be concerned that there was no fire from heaven. We want fire from heaven. Samuel Pierce, when he was revived, testified to a fellow minister. He said, an observation once made to me helps to support me above water. If you did not plow your closet, you would not read in the pulpit. And so he knew he needed to plead for God to pour out his spirit to the merits of Christ. Charles and Mary Jones, from one point in their life, moved from here and went to Philadelphia to join a Presbyterian church that was there. Well, Mary came back home by herself. several weeks to visit family, and she came and worshipped at Midway. Charles was back in Philadelphia, and she wrote a letter to him and said this, I know it's not another gospel. In other words, I know that what's being preached to us in Philadelphia is the same gospel that's being preached here. But then she said this, but oh, it seems as with peculiar unction that the word is dispensed here. The church relied upon the ordinary beings of grace, meaning they believed in the regular principle of worship. In the early 19th century, evangelicalism saw the rise of a scourge named Charles Ramsey Fink. His imprint still haunts us to this day, as you know. Really, you could say he's the father of the modern church growth movement, and that is to not admit as anonymous. He introduced what he called his new measures, which really he didn't invent, but he popularized them. Anxious dentists, raising your hand to indicate you were converted, altar calls, things of that kind of thing. And there were many people who adopted his new measures because they wanted to see the same results replicated. It's interesting and ironic, historically, that he called them his new measures because they were very much a departure from the old habits. What was novel in the church became normal. in its normal evangelical culture to this day. Today, in the 21st century, the Baptist Bell, you know how it is, man, everybody on the street says he knows Jesus. And yet, how many really know the true gospel? They're almost inoculated against it because of the Spirit. And novelty is normal today. It is normal in our churches to burn strange fire and build new altarparts. But do you remember Nahab in the Bible and poor Uzzah? Use God's methods. If you want God's blessing upon your ministry, you've gotta do God's work and God's will. Because otherwise, it will never have God's blessing upon it. The thing is, the midway congregation got that. They didn't go in with the trends of the day. They stuck to the old ordinary means of grace. They preached the word, they sang the word, they prayed the word, they saw the word in the sacraments of baptism, the Lord suffered. All those things they did, they just said, hey, this is what God's supposed to do, and that's what we're gonna do. No stranger to that. the Sabbath day, keep it whole. The Sabbath was central to that. Both James Stacy and Robert Mallard give particular interest to this in their biographies. Mallard said this, Midway, Sabbath, and church were both prized and honored. In all human history, as in the Bible, they were closely associated. is not one from which ordinarily come devout worshippers. On the other hand, children reared to keep the Sabbath holy will not forsake this and move themselves together. And then James Stacy writes this, with the Midway people, the Sabbath was emphatically the Sabbath of the Lord, and not a part simply, but the whole of it. The day was to be strictly observed not only by themselves, but even by strangers passing through on the highways and their herds, requiring them to rest until Monday. Typical Lord's Day at Midway was they would begin at 10 or 10.15 with a prayer meeting that lasted 30 to 45 minutes. At 11 a.m. the worship service would begin for morning worship. The Word would be read and preached. The sayings would seem hearty praises to the Lord. The Lord's Supper was observed on a quarterly basis once every three months. The congregation afterward, within break from lunch, there were actually about 30 little houses or booths set up. so that you could have a home lunch, put your feet up for a little bit, and then there was an afternoon service, and everybody would come in to hear the Word preached again. Congregation would then leave, arrive home around sunset, the day would end with family worship and the children being called to the Catechism. That was a normal Lord's Day here at Bidwell. Robert Mallard gives an in-depth description of the Lord's Day. He's growing up in the 1830s, 1840s here. He says this, quote, all the sons and daughters of Old Midway were held in the club. Fifth, the congregation practiced piety in the morning. The Sabbath commandment is actually corrected ahead of time. Have you ever noticed that? Make sure you and your family are keeping the Sabbath and keep it whole. So it follows that that's where piety was beginning. The two of the pastors were talking to one another at one point in Midway's history, Family worship is generally kept up by all the families of the church. Every single family practices family worship. And then James Stacy says of this, what a startling and wonderful statement coming from the lips of a pastor. No wonder the church accomplished such wonderful feats, for the power of Jehovah was its own. They also trained their children well in discipline. You were expected to bring your children into the sanctuary for the Lord's Day once they were two years old. And they were expected to know how to behave in church. And if you proved to be a parent who didn't discipline your children, the church would put you under discipline. Since you don't discipline your kids, we're gonna discipline you. Until you learn that you need to go home and spend. And so they learned to raise their children in the wisdom and admonition of the Lord. Won't spend much time with it, but they also had to think about the education of their children. There were no schools here when they came here. So they had to establish schools for their children. They were very careful to say, we want godly men training our kids. We don't want to put them with pagans, let them train them. And we want them to train them through a Christian worldview and classical education. That's why they produced so many university professors and authors and all that kind of thing, because they were very focused upon educating their children in the gospel. Sixth thing, the church was given to hospitality. Two marks which held the church were, first of all, abusive love for the saints. That's always the march of the healthy church. Hospitality is one of the practical evidences of love in the church. Think about the word inhospitable. How often do you hear that word? Where do you hear that word? It's often used with nasty, isn't it? We can't go your hospitable church is lethal to spiritual. These were people known for their hospitality. Again, James Stacy says they were hospitable and kind. There were few houses of any where the worthy traveler could not spend the night without the payment of a single cent. It was said that Charles and Mary's house was always full of people. And when you came in, they made you feel like they were indebted to you for coming to their home rather than you being indebted to them. So being hospitable. 7th and 5th, the church evangelized the Romans and Mary. What I mean by that is, people in their own area who were ethnically different than them, people of a different culture, specifically the black slaves. And they were very careful to give the gospel to the black men and women. Now, when you read the stuff from that time, you'll pick up on some white paternalism. I mean, look at the architecture. 21st century, we look at this and we see what this is, right? We see segregation between blacks and whites, and we recognize that it's not right. That being said, brothers and sisters, be careful before you judge the Martian, because I'm pretty sure a hundred years from now, the Lauritarians, people are going to look back at us and go, those guys aren't even Christians. Look what they tolerated, look what they put up with in their own culture. We're often lying to the things in our own culture. But future generations will look back and clearly know, ah, there's that problem. So we do recognize that there were difficulties, issues in our culture at that time. But all this being said, the passion shown to black men and women was extraordinary. And black men and women were allowed to be members alongside the white members of midwifery. You owe it to yourself to read Ian Murray's chapter across the book of Jones, The Heroes. There was a four-year-long revival that swept through the black slaves from 1848 to 1852. Multitudes of black men and women were being saved. The thing was, their white masters weren't. It was touching the blacks, not the whites. But here's the thing. I told you that this church began with prayers and rewards day? The floor was open not just to white men, but also the black men and women. And off of these walls echoed mercy. Please have mercy upon my master. Would you please save him? Would you give him a regenerate heart? And at the fourth year of the revival, their masters began coming to great faith in Christ as well. Charles Jones talks about one man, an older black man named Jimbo. Listen to him talking about He said this, I can never forget the prayers of Demba, a native of Africa and for many years a member of Midway Church. There was a depth of humility, a conviction of sinfulness, an inability to do all good, an assurance of faith, a sense of the divine presence, a nearness to God, a flowing out of love which I have never before heard neither before nor since. prayer I felt as weak as water, and that I ought not to open my mouth in public, and indeed knew not what it was to pray." What beautiful, beautiful things God did here. We'll let James Stacy have the last word. Here's his summation. Now, whether these explanations be regarded as satisfactory or not, we feel assured that if the past order of things could be restored, and this deep and fervent piety, the spirit of daily strict observance of the Sabbath and this constant everyday faithful religion could be reinstated, then we would again see the return of this marvelous spiritual power, and these churches of the land, so many of which are now dead and fruitless, would again exhibit signs of returning life, and if not like this old church, yielding a hundred, would certainly yield thirty or sixty-fold. It is simply the absence of spiritual life, and not the absence of church machinery, that stamps them with such spiritual Father, we thank you that your son knows exactly where what the state of our churches is. Lord, would you bring your life to us? Would you help us recapture our first love? Would you show us those things which are displeasing in our lives? Help us to pursue those things which aren't. Do this for your glory we ask in Jesus name. Amen. If you would stand and let's turn in our memos to hymn number 12. Praise God, the Lord, His praise to obey. All ye His servants praise His name. Who in the Lord has ever praise his name The war is only days, and it is the ruler's treasured place. I know the Lord is high in state, above all gods, our Lord is great. The Lord performs what He decrees, In heaven and earth, in depths and seas. He lays the vapors to ascend, ♪ As from earth we go to stand ♪ ♪ Abide with us and defend our land ♪ The Lord, His praise, O let us praise His name! Who in the Lord we serve, ♪ And His command is made ♪ ♪ And in the church ♪ ♪ His praise is swelling place ♪ ♪ Praise be the Lord ♪ ♪ Shown for the eyes of men ♪ Turn one page over and hand over thirteen. I'll worship the king. our shield and defender the ancient with grace Roselle of his life, oh, so is the light, whose canopy's space. Mysterious of wrath, the deep thunderclouds form. is his breath on the wings of the storm. The earth withold, almighty thy power hath founded of old. Established it fast by the changeless young mans of the sea. By bountiful care it breathes in the air. It shines in the light. and sweetly distilled in the dew and the rain. For children of dust and feeble as prayer, in Thee do we trust, Lord, blindly to fail. Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end, our Maker yet. O measureless height, ineffable love, while angels delight to Him be above, though their place with true adoration shall lift you high. Amen. Hymn number 53, Hallelujah. I will sing the glorious praises of my God through all my days. would no confidence in princes, nor foretells returning, and his purposes shall end. Happy is the man that chooses Israel's to be his name. He is blessed whose hope of blessing on the Lord his God is same. Heaven and earth the Lord created, seas and all that that they contain. He delivers from oppression, righteousness he will maintain. Through the day he gives the hungry, ♪ Sets the mourning prisoner free ♪ ♪ Raises those bound down with anguish ♪ ♪ Makes the sightless eyes to see ♪ ♪ Well Jehovah loves the righteous ♪ And the stranger He defends, Helps the fatherless and widow, Judgment on the way makes sense. Alleluia, praise Jehovah, O my soul Jehovah praise, I will sing the glorious praise of my days. Over all, Thou reigns forever, through all ages He is King. Unto Him, Thy God, O Zion, joyful hallelujah sing. What wonderful words. Hallelujah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah. Praise Je Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty Early in the morning Our song shall rise to Thee Holy, holy, holy Merciful and mighty God in Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee. Passing down their golden crowns around the Class of 2016. Cherubim. Settled in holy family for thee, Who heard and marked them, evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy Lord God In this time, in moment, Thy glory may not see. Only Thou art holy. There is none beside Thee. Let's sing this last verse to our God like we love Him, like we mean it, and like we are wonderfully proud of what He has done both here and is doing now in our churches and our lives. Let's sing this last verse. Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty All that works shall praise thy name in earth ♪ And sky and sea ♪ ♪ Holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Merciful and mighty ♪ ♪ God in three persons ♪ Amen. Thank you. God's promise is interesting. We also desire a generational work. So let's ask the God of August to bless you. To bless the church's representative. You know, we've had desire to come to IHOP. We've had desire to come to you. It's a real church, but it's a problem. So we do desire to see the work that we're investing in our lives, and we'd also like to ask you to continue. And now, take Christ as a gift. Our great holy god, we do come before you with great thanks for the history of this church and the fact that you've raised up some of the gospel ministers, We would be a womb for those that preach the gospel and live the gospel and take the gospel to those that desperately need it. We would pray that you would keep a lampstand burning in each of our locations and send your grace and your anointed spirit to empower our preaching and empower the family piety in each of our homes. We pray desperately, Lord, for your grace to cause us to walk in holiness, to be sanctified, and to treasure Christ above all things. Not many of us will have beautiful buildings like this. Not many of us will be remembered these generations to come. But Lord, we wish to die and be forgotten so that Christ may be elevated in our homes and in our times, in our churches, We ask for your kingdom to come, by the power of your Spirit, Lord. Please anoint us and empower us with spiritual gifts, so that we can do this humbly, and we can do this in a manner that is worthy