Well, it is so good to be with you all. I don't know how much you have kept up with biblical numerology, but the number seven is the number of completion or perfection. Brian has made me the sixth talk, which is the number of imperfections. So y'all will have eager anticipation for David Strain, as I will as well. But if you will bear with me in my imperfect talk, I actually asked Brian if I could give this talk. There were numerous reasons why. The marks of the church are incredibly important in our day, and it's a subject that doesn't get enough airtime. And so I hope that this will be helpful to you all. I want to read to us just briefly from 1 Timothy 3. You've heard this already. Brian mentioned this just a moment ago in his talk out of this passage that Statement about the church being the pillar and the buttress or the ground or the force of the truth And so I just want to read to us first Timothy 3 14 through the end of the chapter to verse 16 The Apostle Paul now writing his protege Timothy says I hope to come to you soon, but I'm writing these things to you so that if I delay you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God which is the church of the living God, the pillar and buttress of the truth. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness. He, that is God, was manifest in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. Well, we live in a day, and Pastor Strain and I just experienced this in a conversation we had this afternoon with a woman, where everyone seems to want the most inclusive view of a church. I like a church that doesn't judge people. I want a church that is accepting. I want a church that is this or is that. And beyond that, we live in a day when people want particular brands of a church. Over the last 20 years, I have heard of hip-hop churches, heavy metal churches, and cowboy churches. I'm not quite sure what that looks like. Beyond that, we have every denomination under the sun here in North America. We have Methodists and Baptists and Pentecostals and Charismatics. different stripes of all of those groups. We have Roman Catholics, we have Presbyterians, we have non-denominational, which is a denomination you know that. Back when we had yellow pages, it would say denominations, Presbyterian, Baptist, non-denominational. It was very overt. And the question is, how do we know what a true church is? Not just what denomination may be helpful or good or right. How do we know what a true church is? Is wayside a true church? How do we delineate between churches? How do we make analytical and thoughtful biblical analysis of what a church is? Well, I think it's pretty obvious, as Rick Phillips noted earlier, there are certain sects and cults that we know are not churches. The Mormons, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not a true church. We know that. Jehovah's Witnesses, Kingdom Halls, that's a Kingdom of Darkness hall. That is not a true church. I will argue with you about that vehemently. There are some that we know overtly, there are others that we're not quite sure about, and it's a difficult subject to try to determine what is a true church, and are people we love going to a true church? Are our children? And listen very carefully. When they go off to college, if they go off to college, are they going to find a true church to attend? That might be the biggest takeaway of everything I say here, is the next generation. Will my children, will your children know how to identify a true church and not just go wherever it's convenient or it feels like this is a good fit for us? Now, when we come to this subject, we have to understand that what we call the marks of the church, and there are going to be three of those that we'll talk about, the pure preaching of the word, the right administration of the sacraments and the faithful exercise of church discipline. Those are what the Protestant Reformation is going to give us as the three marks of the church. We're looking for all three of those in some semblance in any given visible church. How do we know what a true church is? Well, that subject was really born out of the Reformation, and it was born out of the Reformation out of necessity. It wasn't that the Reformers were sitting around trying to think about how can we start new churches. The Reformers, as we've already heard, were trying to reform the only church they knew, the Roman Catholic Church. They were trying to bring reformation biblically to Rome. And contrary to many of the narratives that are sort of bandied about in our day about Luther being schismatic and then all these Protestant offshoots being schismatic, the reformers were not trying to be schismatic. They were trying to bring about that sweet reformation to the only visible church they knew at that time. Now, during the Reformation, there was sort of a progressive development of identifying the marks of the church. It didn't just happen very quickly. And while the reformers agreed that the church had attributes, and you have to listen very carefully because Rome was going to say, well, if you want to know what a true church is, it is one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic church. Now, theologians are going to call those the attributes of the church. We confess that. Every time we confess the Nicene Creed, we confess, I believe in one holy Catholic, universal, and apostolic church. And those things are true, we believe that. We believe that the people of God who are redeemed form the church of the Lord Jesus and they are identified by those attributes. But those are the attributes of what we will call, for the sake of this conference and I think a helpful division, they are the attributes of the invisible church. There is the invisible church and the visible church. They are not two churches, they are different manifestations of the one true church, different sides. The invisible church, if you're wondering, is not everybody that doesn't show up on the Lord's Day. I know you probably think that. Where are they at? They haven't been here. They're part of the invisible church. We're the visible church. The invisible church, as many of you probably already know, is everyone who is savingly united to Jesus, Old and New Covenant, from every tongue, tribe, nation, and language. Both the church militant and belonging to the church triumphant. They are those who are savingly united to Jesus. They are the church, if we can say this ultimately, that the Apostle Paul says Christ purchased with his blood. They form the church that Christ loved and gave himself for. But the reformers also understood that Rome had perverted that by trying to take those attributes and saying that their physical and visible manifestation, their governmental structure, was the manifestation of that church. Now, the reformers accepting those four attributes of the invisible church, nevertheless are going to labor to define what are the marks of the visible church. When we see a people gathered together, when we hear nomenclatures attached, when we see government involved in whatever that is as a church, what are those things that mark it off? Now, I want to read to you a quote Gerhardus Voss, who is the best theologian that's ever lived, in my humble but accurate opinion, said this, the marks, the marks of the church, the marks refer to the visible church and not like the attributes to the invisible church. A mark by its nature is something that must fall within the sphere of what is visible. Let me read that again. is something that must fall within the sphere of what is visible. I'll give you an illustration. When I was about 17, I really got into pocket watches. It was a phase. I passed through it. But my parents had a friend that was a jeweler, and he had a lot of really cool pocket watches. And I'd go in to see him, and I'd talk to him about these pocket watches. And he would tell me how many of the pocket watches that were worth quite a bit, had been counterfeited, and he would show me how you would determine whether this pocket watch was authentic or not. He would take out a little magnifying glass, and he would show me almost imperceptible initials. so small, you wonder how they graved it on the side of this pocket watch, and he would say, if you see these initials on this watch, you know that so-and-so was the maker of that watch. In the same way, the visible church is going to have identifying marks. They are going to be there, they must be there, or else we're not gonna be able to discern what is a true church, what is not a true church. Now, as the Reformers developed this, and all of the Reformers were developing a theology of the church, as Dr. Parson said earlier, the Reformation wasn't simply about a recovery of the doctrine of justification by faith alone, it was a recovery of what is the church, how does the church worship? All of those things were essential to the Reformation. They were all interconnected. And as the reformers were developing a theology of the marks of the church, John Calvin was sort of leading the way with the institutes of the Christian religion. Now remember, and keep in mind, this is important, Calvin writes the Institutes, the first edition, when he's very young, he's in his 20s. Never a good idea if you're in your 20s to try to write a massive systematic theology, but John Calvin was an exception. He writes it when he's young, and early on, Calvin is going to set out two of what we are gonna say are the three marks of the church in the Institutes, Calvin says, we only contend for the true and legitimate constitution of the church, which requires not only a communion in the sacraments, baptism in the Lord's Supper, which are the signs of a Christian profession, but above all, an agreement in doctrine. You've heard that from Rick Phillips at this conference. the importance of sound Christian doctrine. What is it in which we all find our common fellowship? Calvin's gonna say above all, it's in sound doctrine, but he's gonna say it's also in communion in the sacraments. Elsewhere in the Institutes, Calvin says this, wherever we see the word of God purely preached and heard and the sacraments administered according to Christ institution, There, it is not to be doubted, a church of God exists. Wherever the word is purely preached and heard, and the sacraments administered according to Christ's institution, there, there a church of God exists. Now, many scholars, and you might read up on this subject, and you will find that the bulk of historical scholars are going to say Calvin only believed in two, of what later Reformed theologians will talk about, three marks of the church. But later, and the reason I mentioned Calvin's youthfulness when he wrote the Institutes, later, in his Ecclesiastical Orders, Calvin said this. He said, the church is called the house of God, the pillar and ground of truth, for in these words, Paul signifies that in order to keep the truth of God from being lost in the world, The church is its faithful guardian because it has been the will of God by the ministry of the church to preserve the pure preaching of his word, to manifest himself as his affectionate father, while he nourishes us with spiritual food, the sacraments, and provides all things conducive to our salvation. And Calvin will go on to say, including discipline, doctrine, discipline, and sacraments. So in Calvin, you find the seeds of what you're going to find later on in our confessional tradition. And again, Calvin says there are three things on which the safety of the church is founded. doctrine, discipline, and sacraments. These are the three marks of the church as defined in our later 16th and 17th century confessions. Now, I don't want to touch on the other reformers just now, I'll come back to Martin Busser, but I do want to talk about the 16th and 17th confessions on the marks. Now, the reformed confession spoke to the issue of the marks, again in light of Roman Catholic perversions of the biblical teaching on the church. The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 25, Section 3 and 4 describe the marks of a true visible church. Now listen, this is our confession. Unto this Catholic visible church Christ has given the ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God for the gathering and perfecting of the saints in this life to the end of the world, and does by his own presence and spirit, according to his promise, make them effectual thereunto. Now, our confession says, particular churches, which are members thereof, are more or less pure according to the doctrine of the gospel that is taught and embraced Ordinances administered, that's the Lord's Supper and baptism, the sacraments, and public worship performed, more or less purely in them. Now, you might have noticed those are three that don't coincide completely. Calvin said sound doctrine, discipline, sacraments. The Confession says sound doctrine, sacraments, worship. As you look, though, in the other confessions, and the Belgic Confession is the one that we would go to specifically with regard to the marks, in Article 29, the Belgic Confession, a precursor to the Westminster Confession, says the marks by which the true church is known are these. if the pure doctrine of the gospel is preached, if she maintains the pure administration of the sacraments as instituted by Christ, and if church discipline is exercised in punishing sin. So now you see the Belgic Confession says what Calvin says. Now, I would argue that they're not saying different things. The Westminster Standards say, pure preaching of the word, right administration of the sacraments, and right worship. The Belgic Confession says, and right discipline. But the question you have to ask is, how do those things coincide? Well, discipline serves the worship of the people of God, who is invited into the worship of God as the people of God, who is kept from the sacraments in worship as an act of discipline. Well, those who are under discipline, you see, these are not contrary, they are harmonious. Now, one of the premier authors of the Belgic Confession, Guy de Brie, principal author of the Belgic Confession, wrote, listen to this carefully, as for the false church, so now he's talking about not the true church, but as for the false church, He says, it ascribes more power to itself and to its ordinances than to the word of God. He's thinking there of Rome, elevating the sacraments above scripture, elevating its practices, its tradition, its ecclesial structure above scripture. Gidabri says, neither does it administer the sacraments as appointed by Christ, but adds to them and takes from them as it thinks proper." Now this is vitally important. We don't live in a day where we see the influence of the Roman Catholic Church the way they did. You have to remember, Rome dominated the world, dominated nations. These statements are made in light of a very pressing contemporaneous error where Rome was perverting really all of the marks of what makes a visible church a true visible church. Now, we can go through all the history, we can look at all the reformers, we can look at the Puritans, we can read all these things, but the question is, how do we arrive biblically? How do we arrive at these conclusions? And I'm going to tell you right now, there's no Bible verse. I thought about this. I read 1 Timothy 3. The church is the pillar and buttress of truth. That's a great lead-in to this subject. But there's no verse where Jesus says, if these three things are done, you have a true church. He doesn't say, I will build my church. If it has these three marks, you'll know it's a church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And there's no verse in Scripture Acts 2 comes very close at the end when they're all together, the Apostles' Doctrine, the breaking of bread and prayer, but you don't have discipline in there. And so the question is, how do we arrive at the conclusion that the marks of a true church are the pure preaching of the word, the right administration of the sacraments, and the faithful exercise of church discipline? Well, I would argue that we have to go to the Lord Jesus himself before we go elsewhere. One of the interesting things in theology is that everything flows from the head of the church, the Savior, to his people. So, for instance, why do we only believe in having two offices? Elders and deacons. Well, we can say, well, we only see those in the pages of the New Testament, and that's true. But where do they derive from? Well, remember, the Lord Jesus is the Savior of the spirits and the bodies of His people. He is the Savior of the whole of us. You'll remember when the little girl is dying and Jesus is interrupted by the woman with the flow of blood and he finally makes it to that house and she's died. And he goes up and he puts everyone out. He brings in that inner circle. He raises the little girl. He says, Talitha, Talitha Kumi, and he raises that little girl up. And then he says, give her something to eat. He's the Savior of spirit and body. He is the Savior of the whole of us. That's why we hope in a resurrection. You'll remember at the end of the Gospel of John when the disciples have been out fishing and Jesus is there on the shore. What is he doing? He's grilling them some fish on a fire that he's made. Why? Because he cares about the whole of his people. He is the Savior who in himself has everything necessary. And then when he ascends to heaven, what does that savior of spirit and body do? He distributes out of his fullness two offices. One to elders to care for the spiritual needs, one to deacons to care for the physical material needs of their people. Because only he, only Jesus, has in himself all that his people need. No under shepherds or subordinate officers have those things in themselves. He is the source, they come from him. Well, in the same way, the Lord Jesus is the source of the marks of his church. How? Well, you all know, I assume, that Jesus, as the Messiah, is the prophet, priest, and king of his church. He fills those roles. He is the prophet of prophets, the priest of priests, and the king of kings. As the prophet, what does he do? He ministers his word. Every time it is read and proclaimed, Christ executes his office, revealing God's will to his people revealing the works of creation, redemption, and providence to his people. As priest, what does Jesus do? Well, he sacrifices for them and he intercedes for them. And as king, what does he do? He subdues us to himself. He rules and reigns. He conquers all of his and our enemies. and many more things he does in those three offices. How do those offices then become the defining marks of a visible church? Well, the pure preaching of the word, Christ as prophet. If he is executing that office, then that's becoming a mark that he is there in his church, foundationally ministering. If he is executing his office as priest, then the sacraments certainly become a part of that. He is mediating those things that point to his shed blood, his sacrifice. I think prayer also might be included in that. He is making our prayers acceptable as he intercedes for us. And Christ as King is ruling and reigning, and he brings his work of discipline in the church. The Apostle Paul says that in 1 Corinthians 5. when he is talking about the act of church discipline with the man who's done this egregious thing with his stepmother. And Paul says, as you are gathered together and I'm there in the presence of the Lord Jesus. This is the king, ruling and reigning, defending his church, purifying, restraining, reclaiming as king. The point is that if we want to understand what those marks are, we have to understand who the king in the head, who is also himself the foundation of the church is. You know, I was thinking about how absolutely necessary this is for us in our lifetime. Because when I hear most well-meaning believers talk about where their loved ones go to church, where their kids may go to church, where people they know go to church, it is very clear to me, and I don't say this in any condescending way, it's very clear to me that they don't have a clue about this. Again, I'm not saying that condescendingly, but what I'm saying is this is a lost idea. Now, Christ is the source of everything. We've heard about the means of grace. Brian speaks about the means of grace. a lot in this church, rightly so. Well, those means, the Word, sacrament, prayer, I would include discipline, also come from Christ in those three offices. And as those means are carried out, as the Gospels proclaimed, as the Word is taught, as the sacraments are being administered according to His institution, as discipline is faithfully being carried out, those means manifest themselves as the marks. Isn't that amazing? From the head, to the means of ministry, to the marks of what a church is. Do you see that organic connection of all those things? There's nothing that is disharmonious. Everything is flowing down from Him. And that means that when we consider this subject, we have to say, when I'm thinking about, is that church over there a true church? And we may not be able to discern that as well as we would like, and we'll come to that. But when we ask that question, we have to say, is Christ acting as the head and savior of the church in those offices, among these people, in whatever denomination, whatever nomenclature that visible church takes on, is he acting in those ways? And if he is, those marks are going to be there. Let me say this. I know you all are tired, just listen carefully. Your pastor, if you go to this church, Pastor Strain, me, Pastor Barrett, we don't get to make up the marks. Now there are many people that try to make up those marks, and they're called counterfeits. And the way you all know this, the way you spot a counterfeit, whether it is a watch, or fiduciary currency, or baseball cards, or sports memorabilia, is you look for those authenticating marks. And the Lord Jesus is going to put those marks wherever his true church is manifested in this life. They are going to be there. They may be microscopic. like they often are on those pocket watches. But they are going to be there, and if you look carefully enough, you're going to see them. Now, having talked about what we might call the Christology of the marks, I want to talk about the inner relationship. Now, this is going to sound maybe a little bit uncertain when I say this, but not all the marks are as equally as important as the others. They all have to be there in some form or fashion, but they are not all as equally important. What do I mean by that? Well, Gerhardus Voss again, the best theologian, in the history of the church said, if necessary, we can think of word as a means of grace or a mark of the church without sacrament, but it is impossible to think of the sacrament as a means or a mark without the word. What does he mean by that? He means if your pastor got up and didn't say anything and went down to the table, it's all set, everything's prepared, And he begins to break the bread, pour out wine, hold up the bread, not too high because we're not worshiping it, just keeping it here. Hold up the cup. We do things right in Presbyterianism. Hold it up just right. But he doesn't say anything. And then they start passing it out to you all. Are you observing the means of grace and the mark of the church properly? No. Why? It has to be accompanied by and informed by the Word. It has to be. Church discipline cannot be carried out according to whatever whim or fancy we want. Let me give you an illustration. I don't know what I'm doing as a parent. I'm just going to go ahead and put that out there. If you do, talk to me later. And I'll ask a lot of probing questions. But knowing how to discipline your children is one of the most challenging things. There's no handbook. We don't all just know it. We're trying to discern who they are. We're trying to discern what they need. We're trying to discern how to bring this discipline in a way that they're going to receive it. Well, in the same way, the church is to carry out faithful discipline, just like parents who love their children are to carry out that faithful discipline. And if parents don't discipline their children, they don't love them. The Bible says that in Hebrews 12. Any parent that doesn't discipline their child doesn't love them. They're setting them up for disaster. But we don't get to make it up. And in the same way, Christ has revealed in his word how discipline is to be wrought in the life of a church. Here's what I'm thinking about. I mentioned the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 5 dealing with the man who had been living in open, unrepentant sexual sin with his stepmother. And the church was bragging about it. They were boasting about it. They were not mourning over it. Paul says you ought to be mourning, rather you're boasting. By the way, when we look at churches that have messy situations and are not dealing with things, just read 1 Corinthians. I mean, it is a train wreck of pastoral problems. And yet Paul tells them what to do. Well, I assume, and you can disagree with this, but I assume that the man he's speaking about in 2 Corinthians, which is really 4 Corinthians, but you don't care, came back and repented, and the church didn't want to receive that brother back. And Paul then has to say to them, receive him, reaffirm your love to him, lest he have sorrow upon sorrow and be crushed by the weight of it, for we are not ignorant of Satan's devices. So Paul understands there is an abuse of church discipline that's not in accord with scripture. Therefore, Paul is teaching us in the apostolic writing that even church discipline, especially perhaps, has to be governed by Scripture. Therefore, Scripture is the most important means and mark of the church. The sacraments can only be rightly administered in accord with God's Word, and discipline can only be faithfully carried out in accord with God's Word. Now, that raises the question, I've taught myself to stop saying begs the question because that's bad grammar, it's raised the question, what What is the purity level that we are looking for in order to determine whether Wayside Presbyterian or First Pres Jackson, Mississippi or Church Creek Presbyterian or any other church is a true visible church of our Lord Jesus? How clear should the marks be? How visible must they be? This is touching a bit on what Dr. Phillips said earlier about how we have communion. What are those doctrines that keep us united with other believers across denominational bounds? It's related to that. How much purity? Well, Calvin in the Institutes basically says this, listen very carefully. He says, I affirm that they are churches in as much as God has wonderfully preserved among them a remnant of his people, and as there is still remaining some marks of the church, especially those that can never be destroyed. He says, but on the other hand, because those marks which we ought to chiefly regard in this controversy are obliterated, and he's talking about Rome, he says, I affirm that the form of the legitimate church is not to be found in any one of their congregations. Now Calvin's making a very bold statement. He's saying, if some semblance of those marks is preserved, I'm gonna flesh this out in a minute from the confession, He says, there we have true churches, but wherever they've been obliterated, as they were in the Roman Catholic Church, especially post-Trent and the indoctrination of the Counter-Reformation, They were obliterated. The gospel was not being preached purely. They were saying you were saved by faith plus spirit wrought works. You're justified by that. They were making the mass an idolatrous meal that substituted Christ. Rome teaches that baptism removes original sin. And Rome certainly wasn't disciplining in accord with Scripture. So Calvin very clearly says there, there is no visible church. But he makes that caveat, wherever you find even the semblance of these things, the remnants of them, there a true church is found. Now, almost done. I mentioned the Westminster Confession. Please write this down, Westminster Confession 25-5. Just jot that down, read it later. It's one of the more important statements in the Confession that doesn't get a lot of cash value. Listen to this, the Westminster Assembly said this, the purest churches, now if you're really given to theology, you love arguing about theology, listen carefully. You like arguing about theology, this is for you. The purest churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error. You've heard the old adage, right? If you ever find a pure, perfect church, don't go there, you're gonna ruin it. You know that, right? I hope you know that, right? The purest churches under heaven are subject to both mixture and error. Some have so degenerated as to become no churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan. Nevertheless, there shall always be a church on earth to worship God according to his will. Now that means, Wherever we have loved ones, friends, neighbors, co-workers who attend churches that are not reformed or as reformed as us, who go to churches where the gospel is preached, such as we heard, Arminian evangelical type churches, Calvinistic-ish churches, I don't even know how to define this, Go to churches that don't have confessions of faith, but the word is preached, the gospel is preached, salvation by faith alone and Christ alone is proclaimed. The sufficiency of the work of Christ, the sufficiency of Christ is taught. Salvation by grace is taught, not by works, where that's taught. Where the sacraments are more or less purely carried out, And we as Presbyterians would say that our dear Baptist brethren are not carrying it out as purely as they could, but where it is more or less purely carried out, and where discipline is more or less faithfully administered, there you have a true church. Now, let me say this, none of us are the arbitrators of determining a true church. We don't go around, that's a true, that's not, that is, that's not. We really ought to have ecclesiastical statements from our ecclesiastical bodies, and we don't have that, so we've got to use our discernment, we've got to use wisdom, we've got to try to be charitable in our assessment. I have met a lot of well-meaning, serious, confessionally reformed men that have a cumulative zero charity. when it comes to assessing other churches outside our tradition. We don't want to do that. Listen, if you want to read something that is phenomenal, and it's a weighty work, John Owen on justification by faith alone is phenomenal. He will deal with this subject. How much purely does that need to be preached? How much does one have to understand in the church they're in? And again, I wanna read this to you. The purest churches, including Wayside, First Press Jackson, Church Creek Presbyterian, the purest churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error. We may not know what it is, but it's there, somewhere. It may come from laxity, or it may come from being overly strident. There's error somewhere. and how we carry things out. Church discipline, let me just say this quickly. I cannot, and I would like these guys to correct me, I can't think of a single book in the last 200 years written on how to carry out church discipline in a local church other than maybe what Nine Marks has produced. And yet it is a mark of the church. It is also very difficult. Every situation is difficult. Every couple that comes to you with marriage problems has challenges. And yet it has to be carried out, and it has to be carried out with much love and wisdom, with much patience and care, with much diligence and determination. I have a situation I'm dealing with right now, just to talk about the church discipline mark and aspect, which a very, very sweet and godly woman has been the subject of incredible infidelity in her marriage. And she and her still husband for the time were overseas when much of this was happening well over a decade. And I asked her this week, I said, you know, is your husband under discipline in the church where you all are members? And she said, no, because he said, I'm really sorry about what I did. Decades of infidelity. But he said he was really sorry, no discipline. The problems that that creates, that is one of the most unloving things you can do to someone, is not to carry out loving discipline. And it's not just unloving, it is actually saying that is not a mark that King Jesus wants in his church. It is one of the engravings that he puts on his church. It's not up to us to decide whether we want to put it there. He puts it there. We are called to be faithful in lovingly, wisely, diligently carrying it out. Let me just say this as we close. I mentioned that the biggest takeaway from this may be for the children. And can I just say, everybody that's had children here all day, your children are amazing. Y'all are rocking it. Because y'all have been listening to some long-winded Presbyterians all day in October when the weather is spectacular outside. If our children are going off to colleges, and most of them will, the number one thing we should be helping them discern is not just what school has the best program for them to go into whatever they tend to be good at, it ought to be what local church bears the marks of a true church from Christ as prophet, priest, and king, more or less purely, More or less purely. And will I guide them to make a decision based on that? Because you know, I don't think young people leaving churches is just because parents didn't take it seriously. I have seen parents take their commitment to a local church very seriously. But when their children go out of the home, there's no instruction about this. This ought to be a generational thing. We need to get out the magnifying glass. We need to say to our children, look, if you wanna know whether this is the authentic thing or not, these are the initials you're looking for. These are the marks. And if you see them, even if they're not perfectly there, because they're never gonna be perfectly there in this life, then bind yourself to that church. Bring your spouse to that church. Raise your children in that church. Listen, that's why this is important. Yes, it's important for the glory of Christ, but it's important for us and for our children and for the continuation of the true religion in the world. Let him who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says. Let me pray for us. Father, we do thank you that you have not left us to ourselves to try to discern what is a true and a false church. Lord, thank you for giving us in scripture all that we need. We thank you that your word is the preeminent means of grace and mark of the church. And Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are alive, risen, ascended, reigning, that you are exercising and executing your office as prophet, priest, and king. And we pray that you would make us a people that love you in each of those offices and in your mediatorial work. And we pray that you would make us a people that love and recognize and direct others to your church. We pray that you would make us patient. We pray that you would make us careful in considering these things. We pray, our God, that you would make us a people who labor to see those marks evident on the local churches that you have called us to be a part of. We thank you and praise you and pray these things in Jesus' name.