And in thinking about how to present this to you, I decided that it would be best to do so by means of visual aid. Just because I will be quoting at length from a lot of confessions and if I were standing up there and just reading them to you, you would all have a glazed look on your face and very quickly it would be lost. But this way at least you get an opportunity to look at things, to think about them along with me. And as I try to explain to you what's happening, you'll be able to hopefully grasp it a little bit better. Now my method, that's all that I was given was the title, The Means of Grace in Baptist Confessions, although I was reminded that it's confessions plural and not any one particular confession. And so my method has been to work historically from the earliest of the Baptist confessions up through some of the most recent. There are a vast number of confessions that Baptists have produced over the years, whether here in the United States or elsewhere in the world. I had to use some means by which to narrow down the field, so I decided that I would use Confessions that have been widely accepted in various groups. I think that that's the fairest way to present the material. I have some particular Baptist confessions, that is, confessions of churches that held to a particular atonement. what we would call today Calvinistic or even Reformed Baptists. I also have some material from General Baptists, that is Arminian Baptists, both in England and in America. And then as we move closer to our own day, sometimes those designations are blurred. But that's what I've chosen to do. That's the methodology. And I hope that this will be encouraging to you. So we'll move forward historically and we'll begin with the First London Confession, which was originally published in 1644. It was heavily criticized by a couple of men and revised and reissued with significant changes in 1646. And this really is the first great general confession that was held by Baptists today. It is still held by many Baptists. In fact, I like to say, you know, the Dutch have what they call the three forms of unity, the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the canons of the Synod of Dort. And I like to say we Baptists ought to have our own three forms of unity, the First London Confession, the Second London Confession, and the Baptist Catechism. So we can have our own three forms of unity, and in a sense, that's where I'm starting here. And I'm not Dutch, but I like the idea at least. All right. So we start with the First London Confession of Faith. Now, obviously, we can't read through all of the confessions. And so I've chosen just the specific chapters or paragraphs that relate to our topic. And here in First London, paragraph 12. is important. In this call. Now the call, the context here is the call of our Lord Jesus Christ to be the mediator between God and man. To be prophet, priest and king and to function as mediator. The one who is fully God and fully man, united in one person and who accomplishes our salvation. So when it says in this call, think in terms of the call that has been issued to him to be our mediator. In this call, the scripture holds forth two special things considerable. First, the call to the office. Secondly, the office itself. And now the first and the second. First, that none takes this honor, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron, so also Christ, it being an action especially of God the Father, whereby a special covenant being made, he ordains his son to this office." Now, in 1644, if you're reading this confession, you would know that they're talking about what we call the covenant of redemption. That is the intra-trinitarian determination to accomplish salvation through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, our Mediator. So that's the call. God the Father calls God the Son. Psalm 110 or Psalm 2. These are texts in the Old Testament that point to the covenant of redemption and we find them opened up for us in Matthew's Gospel and especially in the book of Hebrews. Picking up here at the semicolon. Which covenant is that Christ should be made a sacrifice for sin, that he shall see his seed and prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand." Alright, so notice everything that is contained in the covenant. Christ will be a sacrifice. That sacrifice will be successful because he will see his seed and prolong his days. Language that's taken directly from Isaiah chapter 53. And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand." The pleasure of the Lord here is his determination, his plan, his purpose to accomplish all of his will. God is well pleased in that, and he will accomplish it through Christ. Alright? Now, continuing on. which calling therefore contains in itself choosing, foreordaining, and sending. Choosing respects the end, foreordaining the means, sending the execution itself, all of mere grace, without any condition foreseen either in men or in Christ himself." Now, way back here in 1644, you see, as they're thinking about the covenant that is made by the members of the Trinity to accomplish salvation, they recognize that that covenant encompasses a great deal. And one of the things that that covenant encompasses is the means by which the mediator will accomplish his ends. Now, that doesn't simply mean that he will be incarnate, that he will take upon himself a human nature and offer himself in sacrifice of sins. but it also means the accomplishment of that which is intended by His death. You see, His death is not just a historical accident, it's not just an event in history, but it is an event that brings about salvation. I like to tell my students that one of the things that we are as preachers, we are interpreters of an ancient historical event. that has profound effects upon the lives of people today. Here we are, thousands of miles and thousands of years removed from the time and the place where Jesus Christ died and rose again, right? This is a different continent, it's a different time, it's a different language, it's a different culture. And yet my salvation and your salvation depends upon those events. And when I stand in the pulpit to preach, I interpret those events so that you hear them and understand them and recognize that everything about your salvation depends on them. See, salvation is a package. I don't mean any disrespect to it by saying that, but it is a package. It includes a great deal. And here, our fathers many, many years ago recognized that fact, saying that God is the one in this covenant who foreordains the means everything that will be involved in accomplishing it. Notice, all of mere grace. Everything about our salvation is by grace without any condition foreseen either in men or in Christ Himself. God doesn't look down the corridors of history and see the ones who will choose Him and determine that they will be the elect. All of it is of God's grace. And so we have a brief statement here, but it's a helpful statement and it begins the process of reminding ourselves that this doctrine of the means of grace is intimately related to God's eternal purpose, which is accomplished by way of covenant. Now, in the revision in 1646, I chose to use the revision here because the revision becomes the basis upon which the Second London Confession is built. We read this in paragraph 24. Faith is ordinarily begotten by the preaching of the gospel, or Word of Christ. Now, stop. Isn't it interesting that they put it that way? I heard a sermon last night that basically tried to say that. But here, in a much simpler way, it's put together. I could do, maybe last night I could have done what Rich did, could have done this morning, and say, well, here's what our Baptist fathers said, there it is, thank you very much, and sit down. They said it nicely, didn't they? Faith is ordinarily begotten by the preaching of the Gospel or the Word of Christ. That's Romans 10, 17. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. Without respect to any power or agency in the creature, but it, that is the creature, being wholly passive and dead in trespasses and sins, doth believe and is converted by no less power than that which raised Christ from the dead. Now that's really important, too. We have to remember we're talking about grace and how grace comes to sinners. Well, what does the Bible tell us about sinners? They are dead in their trespasses and sins. They can't take a baby step towards God. God is the one who must initiate and accomplish their salvation by grace. And so here, though they're not using the phrase the means of grace, you see that this is intimately related to that idea because faith which is the absolute necessity. to enjoy and experience salvation. Faith comes by the Word of Christ, by the preaching of the Gospel, without anything in the creature, because the creature is dead in trespasses and sins, and it is necessary for the power of God, the same power that raised our Lord Jesus from the dead, to raise us from the dead of our trespasses and sins and give us new life. You can see that from the beginning, Our fathers understood this doctrine. It's followed up here, 26. The same power that converts to faith in Christ, carrieth on the soul through all duties, temptations, conflicts, and sufferings. And whatsoever a believer is, he is by grace, and is carried on in all obedience and temptations by the same. Grace is not just something that comes to us in the inception of our experience as Christians. It's not just the moving power to take us out of death and give us new life, but grace is something that we need every day of our lives. And here our fathers are insisting that the same power... You know, there's a lot of comfort in this. You're struggling in your Christian life. The same power, the same power, that brought you to faith is the same power that carries you through all of the duties, temptations, conflicts, and sufferings. And at the end, when you stand with all of the redeemed before the throne of God to praise Him with our Lord Jesus leading us, at the end you can say, everything is by grace. Glory to God. It's all by grace. I didn't do anything. It's a gift. He gave it to me. He gave it to me when I first believed. For me, it was when I was about 15 years old. He gave it to me. And at the end, it's still a gift that He gave to me. What a great thing. And it's all by grace. 33. Now, how does grace come to us? The means of grace are... Let me blank it out so you don't look. So you listen. I know if I'm sitting where you're sitting, I'm reading while the guy is talking. So I know the tricks. And I just lost my train of thought. The means of grace, from the beginning, have been understood to be primarily brought to us in a church context. See, that's one of the things that we haven't really emphasized yet, but maybe is implied, even in the way that the conference is put together, because when our brother Rich talks to us about baptism and the Lord's Suffering, he's not talking about individual acts, he's talking about acts in a church. Preaching, too, is something that comes, notice we said last night, through appointed men. through men that are appointed. Well, how are men appointed these days? There's only one place that can appoint a man to be a preacher of Christ. You know what that is? It's your church and my church. That's the only place. So the means of grace are focused on the church, not on the individual. And that's what we see here in the Baptist Confession. This is 33. Jesus Christ hath here on earth a spiritual kingdom, which is his church. whom he hath purchased and redeemed to himself as a peculiar inheritance." Now, when you read that, think all the way back to the first slide that we saw before about the covenant of redemption. That in God's purpose in eternity fast, the Father appoints the Son to take upon Himself a human nature and die in our place so that He might have a church. This language goes all the way back there and is dependent upon that doctrine. Picking it up again. Which church is a company of visible saints, okay, what they mean by that is people who have a valid profession or a credible profession of faith. Not St. Larry, St. Jarrett, St. Rich, St. Jeff, you know, that's not the idea. It's rather that we are saints by our profession and by our actions. We show that we believe Christ and we live according to what Christ has said. That's what they mean by visible saints. Called and separated from the world by the Word and Spirit of God to the visible profession of faith of the Gospel, being baptized into that faith and joined to the Lord and each other by mutual agreement in the practical enjoyment," that's an important word there, "...of the ordinances commanded by Christ, their head and king." Now, you know what? That's the definition that I gave you yesterday of the means of grace. Backwards. I said the first part of the definition is a dominical institution, remember? Well, here it's the last thing. And then I said, a promise of divine blessing? Well, that's what comes before. The practical enjoyment. Now, they don't mean having a good time with each other, you know. Man, that was a really good sermon, Brother Rich. Thanks very much. We're thrilled by that. You put words together in such a way that, man, it was just a happy time. Is that what they mean by the enjoyment? No, they don't. They mean the blessings that God brings, that God promises to bring to us. The practical enjoyment of the ordinances. Now, ordinance is an important word in the 17th century. They don't reject the use of the word sacrament, but often times they replace sacrament with the word ordinance because ordinance is related linguistically to the word ordained. And in their argument for believer's baptism, they want to make a strong case that says, we practice believer's baptism because it is ordained, it is commanded, it's an ordinance of Jesus Christ. That's part of their argument in favor of their practice of believer's baptism and over against infant baptism. So when they talk about practical enjoyment of the ordinances commanded by Christ, they're talking about the means of grace. and how the Church is blessed by those things. Blessed is the man. Blessed are the peacemakers. It might be Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, I don't remember, but someone in one of the commentaries on the Sermon on the Mount says blessed simply means happy. It's what it means, happy. Well, in the practical enjoyment, blessing, happiness, of the ordinances commanded by Christ their head and king. But where do they come from? They come to us in the church. That's what our Father has recommended. And the church becomes central in early Baptist thinking. It becomes part of our lives. We have been influenced by a kind of evangelism that focuses so much on the individual, it's soul winning, that we forget about church planting. When you read about the early Baptists, they were concerned to win people to Christ, but not in isolation. Winning people to Christ was, in a sense, part of the goal. The whole goal was to plant churches. Because it's in churches where you have the practical enjoyment of the ordinances commanded by Christ. You don't have those things as individuals. You have them as churches. So there's a focus on the church here. Notice 34. To this church he hath made his promises. Now, promises, whenever you see it in the Bible, and when you see it in theology, there's a related word that ought to come up in your mind, and that's the word covenant. Now here, they're explicitly put together. But when they say, He hath made His promises, they mean the promises that are related to the covenant. In fact, these are parallel statements. To this church, He hath made His promises and giveth the signs of His covenant. Presence, acceptation, love, blessing, and protection. Well, what is that if that's not the means of grace? You see, that's what it is here. Here, now what is the reference of here? It's the church. Here are the fountains and springs of His heavenly graces flowing forth to refresh and strengthen them. This is the place. It is the church. I was going to say, this isn't the time to go into a defense of the Sabbath day. But one of the reasons that the first day of the week as a continuing Sabbath is so important is because that's the day when God has appointed for us to meet together in our churches and to come and to bless us by His presence in our churches. There's nothing on earth that compares to the Church of Jesus Christ. That's pretty amazing when you think about it, because probably most of our churches are unimportant in the eyes of the world. We meet in places that they don't even pay attention to. They drive by in their cars, or they live next door, and they go out and cut their lawns, or have a barbecue or something, and they think, who cares about those 50 people over there in that building? But you know what? God does. God looks down on even the smallest group of His people and blesses them with His presence. That's the truth. We bought into the lie that says you have to be big and exciting in order to give a demonstration of the power of God, when that's not true at all. It's not true. Every true church. Everyone. Your true church. You come here this week, you're discouraged because nothing has been happening in your church. You know what? God is there every week. And you are worshipping in the presence of that God. Be encouraged by the fact that He looks down upon you and He has set His unchangeable love upon you. He loved you when He called you out of the death of your sins. He loves you now and He will love you to the end and that love will never change. Don't buy into the lie that it's glitz and glamour. Recognize that it's ordinary things, the ordinary means of grace. And they are fountains and springs of heavenly grace flowing forth to refresh and strengthen them. Brother Ken picked a hymn, I don't know if you picked a hymn, it's by Thomas Kelly, who's one of my favorite unknown hymn writers. One of the things we're lacking these days is a good biography of Thomas Kelly. But his hymns, he was the leader of a small movement of churches in Ireland. His hymns are full of spiritual grace and blessing. Despite the fact that they were small churches in the midst of a Roman Catholic population, they understood something of this truth. I hope you're encouraged. I hope it will strengthen you. Well, you see from the beginning here in the First London, they have an understanding of the church and how God works through the church and the blessings that he gives to the church as he has commanded himself. Now, we move on. to the Second London Confession and the Baptist Catechism. Now, I've decided to put them together here because they really belong together. Now, we call the confession the 1689 Confession. The irony of that is it was not actually printed in 1689. It was first printed in 1677, and that's why I prefer to call it the Second London Confession rather than the 1689, although everybody calls it that, and every once in a while I do too. In 1693, the General Assembly of the Particular Baptist in London published a Baptist version of the Westminster Shorter Catechism and argued that it is the same theology as is contained in the Confession. So the two of them belong together. They sort of help to explain each other, and that's why I've put this together in the way that I have. Now, before I read this, let me say this. In the Second London Confession and the Baptist Catechism together, you have the best and longest theological presentation of what the means of grace are about. It all fits together and it gives us the big picture of this. So I want to give you the big picture as we work our way through the Confession. This is the Second London Confession, Chapter 3 of God's Decree. This is where we start. God hath decreed in himself from all eternity by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably, all things whatsoever that come to pass. Yet so as thereby is God neither the author of sin, nor hath fellowship with any therein, nor is violence offered to the will of the creature, nor yet is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established in which appears His wisdom in disposing all things, and power and faithfulness in accomplishing His decree." Okay? How many things come to pass by the decree of God? All things, right? That's what we believe the Scripture teaches. All things come to pass by the decree of God. All things. That means your growth in grace. Method by which you come to faith. You come out of the death of your sins. Some of you may have come out of total pagan backgrounds. Some of you may have been raised in a Christian church. Whatever the circumstances were that brought you to Christ, God ordained them from the foundation of the world. And God ordained all of the rest of the events of your Christian life. This is where we have to begin. If we talk about the sovereignty of God, let's think about the sovereignty of God in relationship to this issue, what we're calling the means of grace. And of course, grace itself is an act of the sovereignty of God. Now we move over to the Baptist catechism, because the Baptist catechism at this point asks a really important question. Question 11, what are the decrees of God And the answer that's given, the decrees of God are His eternal purpose according to the counsel of His will, by which for His own glory He has foreordained whatever comes to pass. Alright? Whatever it is that happens, happens because God is the one who foreordained it. Then the next question is a question you ought to memorize. It's really short, but it's an important one. How does God execute His decrees? Now, execute here simply means brings to pass. How does God bring to pass His decrees? If the decrees are not executed, they're just theoretical, aren't they? They're just ideas in the mind of God. How does God bring those ideas, those decrees, into reality? And the answer is quite simple. God executes His decrees in the works of creation and providence. That's it. That's how God executes His decrees in the works of creation and providence. He speaks and brings into existence a universe, and particularly a world, and then creates beasts to live in that world, and then finally, He creates a man and gives to that man a woman to live in that world. He creates. And then, after He rests on the seventh day, He executes His decrees by way of providence, by His continual governance in the world. It's very simple. God has decrees. He decrees all things ahead of time. He executes His decrees by creating the world, and then providentially by governing the world, by continuing to be involved in every moment of all of the things that happen in the world. Now, back to the confession of faith, It picks up on this idea in chapter 5. Chapter 4 is the chapter on creation. For the sake of time, I'm skipping that. Chapter 5 of Divine Providence. God, the good creator of all things, picking up on what it has just said, In His infinite power and wisdom doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all His creatures and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, to the end for which they were created, according to His own infallible foreknowledge and the free and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, infinite goodness, and mercy." Now, the Baptists here did something that the Presbyterians didn't do. And that is that they insert the word good at the beginning, and it acts sort of like a beginning and an end. You see goodness right near the end. They want us to think of the doctrine of providence in terms of God's goodness. God is a good creator. who provides for his people everything that they need. And notice, he upholds, directs, disposes and governs all his creatures and things from the greatest even to the least by his most wise and holy providence. It's simply stating that God is not a God who makes the world and then leaves it to run on its own, but God is a God who is continually involved in all of the events of the life of the world. We're not here to talk about providence in detail, but it would be really interesting to do so, because the Bible teaches us about the imminence of God, about God's continued presence and activity in the world around us. Paragraph 2. Although in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first cause, all things come to pass immutably and infallibly, so that there is not anything befalls any by chance or without, that means outside his providence. Yet by the same providence he ordereth them to fall out according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently. Now this is simply saying that on the one hand God has decreed all things that happen, but on the other hand he has decreed that they will happen by means of certain things. I don't know what the weather forecast is for DFW in the next few days. Is there any rain in the forecast? No, there's no rain. Okay. Why is it that there will be no rain in the forecast? Because God has determined that there will be no storm systems or clouds that will come in this direction and put rain upon you. But I'm sure in the national map, I know when we flew down from North Dakota the other day, there was rain in the central part of the country and we flew above those clouds I think it was probably in the Omaha area, and up in the northwest, up in Seattle, there were clouds as well. Why rain in those places? Because God determined that there would be rain there, but also because of the interaction of weather systems that cause those fronts to move in certain directions and bring rain to those places. And so God decrees all things, but He decrees that these things will happen by means of secondary causes, okay? When we talk about the means of grace, we're talking about secondary causes. Notice paragraph 3 of this chapter. God in His ordinary providence maketh use of means, yet is free to work without above and against them at His pleasure. In His ordinary providence, that is, in the way that things happen moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day, month by month, year by year, ordinarily, You can expect that certain things will happen. We spent the summer in Illinois. We got there right at the beginning of July. Somebody had said that corn is supposed to be knee-high by the 4th of July. And that's what it was. It was at least knee-high by the 4th of July. We were out in the middle of cornfields. I'm telling you, millions of ears of corn around us. Little town called Prophetstown, Illinois, just surrounded by cornfields. As the summer progressed, that corn grew. And by the end of the summer, the farmers were ready to begin to harvest that corn. Why does it grow? It grows because at the beginning of the year, they put the seed in the ground and then they water it. and they take care of it. And they put it in a place where the sun will beat down upon it. That's one of the great blessings of the Midwest. Humidity and sun. Heat. And it makes that corn grow and it's some of the best corn in the world. There it is. We get to enjoy it. And it feeds much of the world. But that's just ordinary providence, you see. It happens year in, year out. Now, there might be a drought one year that causes a difficulty, and there might be another year where it's an exceedingly good crop. But it all comes from ordinary providence. God normally simply works through means. You plant the seed, and the crop grows, and at harvest time, you pick the crop and you get the benefit of that crop. He makes use of means. Now, the latter part of this paragraph is the justification for miracles. God is free to work without, above, and against them at His pleasure. You take an axe head, right? And you drop that axe head into the water, what happens to it? It goes to the bottom, right? But, at one point in the Scriptures, it floats. Why does it float? Because God is able to work against the ordinary means that He's established. That's a miracle. You take five loaves and two fishes, and how many people ought they to feed? Well, they ought to feed not even as many people as are in this room. And yet they feed thousands against the law of supply and proportion. Why? Because God creates a miracle for those things to happen. Ordinarily, it's not enough. And the disciples, when this food is brought forth, are astounded. Lord, there isn't enough to feed these people. Jesus rebukes them, O ye of little faith. God is free to work without, above, and against means at His pleasure. But ordinarily, in His providence, He makes use of means. that brings us to chapter 14. The grace of faith whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the word, by which also and by the administration of baptism and the Lord's supper, prayer and other means appointed of God, it is increased and strengthened. Now, this is the doctrine of providence applied to the grace of God in our salvation is what it is. And they're saying, ordinarily. Now, you know what ordinarily means, right? It means in the average, typical, day-by-day, in the normal course of events. Ordinarily, the grace of faith is wrought by the ministry of the Word, by which also, that is, the grace of faith is strengthened. By the administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper and prayers, it is increased and strengthened. Alright? That's ordinarily what we expect because God has established these things. You know, the question, how does grace come to us, is really an important question that seldom do we think about. We don't think about it. We say our salvation is of grace. And that's true. But how does that grace come to us? Does God just zap in individuals at various times, according to his own desire? Does he just do, bzzz, bzzz, more grace, bzzz, bzzz, not you, bzzz, you. Is that what he does? Or are there invisible bubbles of grace? And if we happen to walk through them, we get the benefit of them. Now, it sounds silly, doesn't it? But that's not how God works. God works ordinarily through means, through methods. That's how He governs the world. And that's what the doctrine of the means of grace is about. That God has established and given to us in His Word an understanding of the process that He follows. Now, back to the Baptist catechism. What are the outward means? by which Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption. Now we go back to the covenant. The benefits of redemption. The things that He purchased for us that were ordained from eternity from Father to Son by the Spirit. What do the outward means? How does this get accomplished? Well, our fathers thought about this. The outward and ordinary means. There's that word again. by which Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption are His ordinances." There's that word again. Notice its relationship to ordinary. "...especially the Word of God, baptism, the Lord's Supper, and prayer, all which means are made effectual to the elect." for salvation. See, they thought about it. And they recognized that there was something special about the Word of God, baptism, the Lord's Supper, and prayer. Those are the things that we're talking about this week. How is the Word made effectual to salvation? The Spirit of God makes the reading, but especially the preaching of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners and of building them up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation." That's what we were trying to say last night. How is the Word to be read and heard that it may become effectual to salvation? that the word may become effectual to salvation, we must attend thereunto with diligence, preparation, and prayer, receive it with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts, and practice it in our lives." Oh, you remember what we saw about providence before? That God works through means? Well, when you come on the Lord's Day to listen to the sermon, do you come with diligence? Do you come with preparation, seeking to put aside the distractions that are in your mind? Do you come with prayer, praying for the preacher, that God will keep him faithful to that Word? And do you pray for yourself and everyone around you, that they will have ears to hear? In a will that has changed to obey what the Word says, to receive and believe it, do you lay it up in your heart? Do you practice it in your lives? Remember what James says about those who look into the Word, they're like those who look into a mirror and walk away and forget if they don't do the things that are contained in the Word. This is the controversial one, and I'm glad that Rich has to deal with it. He told you before we were texting, he didn't tell you the whole story. In fact, I can pull out my phone and I can read you his texts. I have the proof. But he would say things like, Larry called me on the phone and told me that you're going to take the session on baptism. And I just replied and I said, you have a problem with lying, don't you? We did not choose our topics. They were assigned to us. I just want you to know that. How do baptism and the Lord's Supper become effectual means of salvation? This building used to belong to the Church of Christ. Baptism and the Lord's Supper become effectual means of salvation, not for any virtue in them, or in Him that does administer them, but only by the blessing of Christ and the working of the Spirit in those that by faith receive them. Remember what we said last night about how the doctrine of the means of grace fits perfectly in a Credo Baptist circumstance? That's because when a believer is baptized, his or her faith goes out to Christ in claiming that Christ is Lord. We deny with all of our hearts the Church of Christ doctrine that says that the application of water to the body saves anybody. It doesn't. But there is something important about baptism that we need to remember. It is a means of grace. What is prayer? Prayer is an offering up of our desires to God by the assistance of the Holy Spirit for the things agreeable to His will in the name of Christ, believing with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies. That's just the description of what we just heard really wonderfully preached to us. Back to the confession. Chapter 22 of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day, paragraph 5. The reading of the Scriptures, preaching and hearing the Word of God, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord as also the administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper are all parts of religious worship to be performed in obedience to Him with understanding, faith, reverence, and godly fear. Moreover, solemn humiliation with fastings and thanksgivings upon special occasions ought to be used in a holy and religious manner." This is just picking up threads from elsewhere in the confession and presenting them to us. These are the things that we ought to be doing. And then just a little bit more from the second London, chapter 28. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordinances of positive and sovereign institution appointed by the Lord Jesus, the only lawgiver to be continued in His church to the end of the world." Remember what we said last night about dominical institution? Notice how strong this language is. They are ordinances of positive. That's a key theological word. It means a revealed command. Ordinances of positive and sovereign institution appointed by the Lord Jesus, the only Lawgiver." That's about six different ways that they're emphasizing the fact that this is a command of Christ. Now why? Because they're practicing believer's baptism in a climate of infant baptism, and they want to say over and over and over and over and over again that we do what we do because Jesus commanded us to do that, and the implication is there's no command to baptize babies. But we do this because Christ appointed it to us. And then paragraph two, these holy appointments, there it is again, are to be administered by those only who are qualified and thereunto called according to the commission of Christ. That's why baptism is to be done by pastors. Dads don't baptize their kids. Pastors baptize people. And the only proper baptism is a baptism that's done by someone who's been appointed of the church as a pastor to baptize someone else. That's the doctrine, you see. That's the appointment of Christ. And that's what we must do. Now, we have to move on. When am I supposed to stop? Lunch is at noon, so 1230 or so, I can stop? The ladies might appreciate if we stop before then. Now, let's go on to a general Baptist confession from 1678. And that's wrong. It should say Orthodox confession, not Orthodox catechism. That's an error. I guess I'm not in error. This came out in 1678, the year after the Second London Confession of Faith was published. And what's really interesting is if you look at them side by side, it's very clear that the General Baptist took the Second London, the particular Baptist confession, and it served as the basis for their own confession. They used a lot of the same language, although they Arminianized it, as we'll see right here. This is their chapter 18 of Christ dying for all mankind. Now, you have to notice the way that they do this, because their approach to the means of grace is similar, but it's not identical. God the Father, out of His royal bounty and fountain of love, when all mankind was fallen by sin in breaking up the first covenant of works made with them in Adam, did choose Jesus Christ and sent Him into the world to die for Adam, or fallen man. Now notice, Adam there is is defined as fallen man, as humanity. So Adam, Christ's death, is intended to satisfy the fault of Adam and to remove from us the sin of Adam. That's why in the General Baptist doctrine, people have the ability to respond because Adam's sin has been removed from them. And because Adam's sin has been removed, Christ came and paid for that for all men, Adam as the representative, and he pays for that sin, then all men are free of that sin and of the taint of that sin. God's love is manifest to all mankind in that He is not willing, as Himself hath sworn and abundantly declared in His Word, that mankind should perish eternally, but would have all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. And Christ died for all men, and there is sufficiency in His death and merits for the sins of the whole world, and at the point of the gospel to be preached unto all, and hath sent forth His Spirit to accompany the Word in order to beget repentance and faith, so that if any do perish, It's not for want of the means of grace manifested by Christ to them, but for the non-improvement of the grace of God offered freely to them through Christ in the Gospel." Now you read that and you say, well, that doesn't look too bad, but actually it is. Because what they mean by this is living up to whatever light you happen to have, whether or not you have the explicit Word of the Gospel proclaimed to you. Now, I don't have the time to show you in their writings, but they did not believe that a person must have explicit faith in Christ in order to be saved by Christ. Adam's sin is removed, and so you have an ability now to live up to whatever light God gives to you. That's what they mean by this language. Notice, it is universal. Christ has died for all men, there is sufficiency in his death and merits for the sins of the whole world, and at the point of the gospel to be preached unto all, and has set forth his spirit to accompany the word in order to beget repentance and faith, so that if any do perish, any, it's not for want of the means of grace manifested by Christ then. What about the heathen who's never heard? He still has the means of grace, you see, because that grace is universal, because he's not subject to the limitations of Adam's sin, and because he's able to live up to the light that's given to him, whatever that light might be. It's a very different approach. Of vocation and effectual calling. Vocational calling, general or common. is when God, by the means of His Word and Spirit, freely of His own grace and goodness, doth ministerly acquaint mankind with His gracious good purpose of salvation by Jesus Christ, inviting and wooing them to come to Him and to accept of Christ, revealing unto them the Gospel covenant and those that with cordial hearts do improve this common grace." There it is. See? Every man in the world the light has come to. It's bordering on Quakerism here. If they accept this common grace, this general revelation, He in time works unfeigned faith and sincere repentance in them. So, they respond, because they're able to do so, to the common grace, and so God comes to them, and because of their response in common grace, God gives them more grace, working in them true faith and repentance, so that they come to accept of Christ as their only Savior and Lord with their whole heart. And God becomes their Father in Christ. they being then effectually called are by faith united to Jesus Christ by grace unto salvation. In some ways it's very similar to Roman Catholicism. They take the baby step and God responds to their baby step and gives them finally true faith and sincere repentance. But that's very different, isn't it? And it depends upon the way that you view the sin of Adam. Now let's come back to a particular Baptist confession. This is the first confession that was written in America. Now, you might say, well, what about the Philadelphia Confession? Well, the Philadelphia Confession is really just a reprint of the Second London Confession with two articles added to it. So in that sense, it's not an American confession. It's an English confession brought to America. This is the first one that was done by Americans. Kahuki Association was in North Carolina, and this is from 1777. We believe in God's appointed time and way, by means which he has obtained, the elect shall be called justified and sanctified, and that it is impossible they can utterly refuse the call, but shall be made willing by divine grace to receive the offers of mercy." Now, that's good, but it's brief. That's as far as the Kahuki Association Confession goes explicitly in talking about the means of grace. In God's appointed time, by means that he has obtained, the elect will be called. And that's the first place in America that we begin to see this. Let's move on to the New Hampshire Confession, which has become a very important part of American Baptist history, originally published in 1833 as a means of bringing together Free Will Baptists in northern New England and Calvinistic Baptists in southern New England. It's something of a compromise document. Chapter 9, Of God's Purpose of Grace. We believe that election is the eternal purpose of God, according to which he graciously regenerates, sanctifies, and saves sinners. That being perfectly consistent with the free agency of man, it comprehends all the means in connection with the end. That it is the most glorious display of God's sovereign goodness, being infinitely free, wise, holy, and unchangeable. that it utterly excludes boasting and promotes humility, love, prayer, praise, trust in God, and active imitation of His free mercy, that it encourages the use of means in the highest degree, that it may be ascertained by its effects in all who truly believe the gospel, that it is the foundation of Christian assurance, and that to ascertain it with regard to ourselves demands and deserves the utmost diligence. Moving backwards in the confession of grace and regeneration, We believe that in order to be saved, sinners must be regenerated or born again, that regeneration consists in giving a holy disposition to the mind, that it is effected in a manner above our comprehension by the power of the Holy Spirit, in connection with divine truth, so as to secure our voluntary obedience to the Gospel, and that its proper evidence appears in the holy fruits of repentance and faith and newness of life." Now, that's two paragraphs before the one on grace. But it's a fair enough, decent treatment of grace and regeneration. And I put them out of order because I think we need to see them out of order, see that this is stated in the context of grace. Paragraph 10 of sanctification. We believe that sanctification is the process by which, according to the will of God, we are made partakers of His that it is a progressive work, that it has begun in regeneration, and that it is carried on in the hearts of believers by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, the sealer and comforter, and the continual use of the appointed means, especially the Word of God, self-examination, self-denial, watchfulness, and prayer." Now, it's interesting that they define the means of grace differently. Because up to this point, the means of grace have been public, and they have been church-centered. But now the means of grace are becoming personal and they reflect what are today called the spiritual disciplines. Now what this effectively does is that it changes the focus of the means of grace away from a corporate, church-centered activity to a personal activity, and focuses attention on the individual rather than the individual as part of the whole, as part of the church. And effectively, it begins the process that we have today that teaches us that you provide growth to yourself. You have to do some things yourself in order to assure that growth comes to you. But that's not the historic doctrine. The historic doctrine is that you participate in the church. and your participation in the church, your listening to the Word, your baptism, or the observance of the baptism of others. I suspect that our brother Rich will talk about that. I love to go to baptisms, and those baptisms are to me a means of grace because every time I see someone baptized, I'm reminded of the commitments that I made, that Jesus Christ is my Lord and I will serve Him. And I thank God for His grace in the Gospel that He gives to the person who is being baptized. They're a time of rejoicing for me. When I was a college student, I used to have baptisms in the evening before church, and I would go early to be there to watch those baptisms because I enjoyed them so much. They meant so much to me. Prior to this, the means of grace are defined as church-centered. Now they're becoming more personal. Paragraph 11, of the perseverance of the saints. We believe that such only are real believers as endure unto the end, that their persevering attachment to Christ is the grand mark which distinguishes them from superficial professors, that a special providence watches over their welfare, and they are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Twelve, of the harmony of the law and the gospel. We believe that the law of God is the eternal and unchangeable rule of his moral government, that it is holy, just, and good, and that the inability which the scriptures ascribe to fallen men to fulfill its precepts arises entirely from their love of sin. To deliver them from which and to restore them through a mediator to unfeigned obedience to the holy law is one great end of the gospel. and of the means of grace connected with the establishment of the visible church. Now, they're not denying, you see, they're not denying the place of the means of grace in the church, but they're expanding the definition out into public and private. And we see that in paragraph 15. We believe that the first day of the week is the Lord's day or Christian Sabbath and is to be kept sacred to religious purposes by abstaining from all secular labor and simple recreations by the devout observance of all the means of grace, both private and public, and by preparation for that rest that remaineth for the people of God." For the sake of time, I'm going to keep going. A treatise on the faith of the free-will Baptist. Now, you know, it's really interesting. The particular Baptist in England in 1677 published a confession. The general Baptist the next year published a confession. New Hampshire publishes a confession, which is largely Calvinistic, in 1833. The Free Will Baptists come out with a confession in 1834, in the next year. Notice this is like the Orthodox confession we saw before. Chapter 5, Atonement and Mediation of Christ 1, Atonement. As sin cannot be pardoned without a sacrifice, and the blood of beasts could never actually wash away sin, Christ gave his life a sacrifice for the sins of the world and thus made salvation possible for all men. He died for us, suffering the penalty of the law in our stead to make known the righteousness of God that he might be just in justifying sinners who believe in his Son. Through the redemption effected by Christ, salvation is actually enjoyed in the world and will be in the next. by all who do not in this life refuse obedience to the known requirements of God." Now, read that in the context that I gave you before. Notice, it's not by those who put their faith in Christ, but those who don't refuse obedience to the known requirements of God. By virtue of the atonement which is designed to counteract the effects of the fall, man is placed in a salvable state. The grace of God, the influences of the Holy Spirit, and the invitations of the gospel are given to all men. And by these, they receive power to repent and obey all the requirements of the gospel. You see, for the general Baptist here, or the free will Baptist, God is still at work, but God is at work generally. And men have the ability, restored by Christ's death and doing away with the sin of Adam, men have the ability to live up to the light that is given to them and be placed in a salvable state. If they do that, then God will ultimately give them unfamed faith and repentance, and they will know Christ. Now, the last major Baptist confession to notice is the Baptist faith and message. And I compared 63 and 2000, and I believe that they're exactly the same. There might be a word here and there that has been changed, but I did look at both of them, and I think that they're the same. Chapter six, God's purpose of grace. Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which he regenerates, sanctifies and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is a glorious display of God's sovereign goodness and is infinitely wise, holy and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility. So there is a recognition of the means. All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ and sanctified by His Spirit will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, bring reproach on the cause of Christ, and temporal judgments on themselves. Yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." And then eight, baptism in the Lord's Supper. Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. Then I've highlighted some words here that show a change that reflects the modern approach to baptism and the Lord's Suffering. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate his second coming. Now, that takes baptism and the Lord's Suffering out of the category of the means of grace. And I'm not picking on the Baptist faith and message. This is the predominant view in our day and age today. Now, what conclusions can we draw? What do we see? Well, in this movement from the 17th century up to today, we see in the beginning a strong doctrine of the means of grace that are strongly church-centered, to an expansion of the means of grace into things that are public and private, ultimately to a loss of the doctrine beyond a wink and a nod. Because ultimately, that's what we have today. In fact, I know some men, I know a Calvinist who identifies himself as a Calvinist who says, I don't believe in the means of grace. I just don't believe in those things. Well, the question that we have to ask and that we're trying to ask is this. How does grace come to a sinner? And how does grace come and work in the life of a saint? Is it by direct and individual action? That is, that God comes at any particular time and, as I said before, zaps grace into a sinner. Well, no, that's not the case. Rather, God is a God of order. who has established the method by which he brings his people out of death into life and brings them in life in conformity to his son. Well, the reality is that a thorough going doctrine of the church centered means of grace is the only satisfactory exegetical and theological answer to these questions. If we don't have that full-blown doctrine, we really can't answer those questions. We don't know how God's grace comes to people. We may say that it comes, but we don't have an answer. But the Bible provides us with an answer. And that answer is that God has appointed some things through Jesus Christ and promises that he will bless those things. And those are the things that ought to be central in our lives. That's what we find in the early days of Baptist confessionalism. We may have moved away from it, but we still have a great heritage and it's our task to try to recover that great heritage. Well, thank you very much.