If you have your Bibles be turning to Hebrews chapter 13. And we will be returning to that chapter as we continue our journey through the epistle to the Hebrews. And we saw at the end of the previous chapter there was the declaration that we are called to be part of an unshakable kingdom. And that of course is in contrast to all the kingdoms of this world which are very much shakable. Here today, gone tomorrow. We think of those kingdoms as mighty and vast. but they are here for just a time. And as you think about even our own history as a nation, it's relatively short compared to the kingdoms of the world. And so we recognize that the things of this world are very shakable. And the difference is that this kingdom to which we are called is unshakable. And therefore as citizens of that great eschatological and unshakable kingdom, we must stand by faith. That is the fitting thing to do. And we must walk in a fitting way again not as a way of justifying ourselves, but as what is fitting for those who are citizens of this kingdom. And so that introduces the question, well what is a fitting way to walk and to live before God as citizens of this kingdom? And the answer is given to us. We walk in light of the characteristics of the kingdom. What is the kingdom to which we are called? It's a kingdom of love. We looked at that the first week. In fact, that's exactly where our author goes in the first three verses to have a brotherly love continuing. Love one another. And He even goes into saying that there are ways that we do that. But we recognize that love is at the heart of who we are, what we are called to. Jesus said, And so love is a hallmark of this kingdom. It defines the citizens of this kingdom. Why? Because it defines the king of this kingdom. because God is love. And so my friends as you think about it we are to love one another but we are to do it in certain ways that are specific to this letter and its argument. Notice it says that one of the ways we do that is entertaining one another. It means here really traveling Christians. You entertain them. You give them somewhere to stay. We talked about how inns were dangerous and sketchy places in that day. And so you didn't make traveling evangelists and ministers stay in the inns. You would invite them into your homes and give them a place to stay. That was common courtesy. That's the way it always has been in Semitic cultures. But there's something else here. The prisoners who are suffering, they've been put in jail for their faith. Visit them. Don't disassociate from them. When you see the entire arc of what this letter is dealing with, you understand what's really being driven at here is the love that we are to have for one another is a love by which we identify with one another. Do not neglect the gathering of the saints, the author has already said. Well, why would you do that? It could be laziness, it could be you don't see the importance of what we do as we gather, or it could simply be I don't want to be associated with those people because they're falling under persecution. I think when you see the whole thrust of this letter, you see that's what's really going on. If I go to church, I'll be lumped in with this community of people, and they're getting jailed, and they're losing their jobs, and they're having difficulties and struggles, and so it's just best to stay away. You also see it here in this. Why would you stop entertaining strangers if that's something you formerly had done? Now, they're not complete strangers. They are vouched for by other churches and other Christians, but why would you stop? If I let these people stay in my home, it identifies me, it marks me as a Christian. Why would I not want to go to jail and visit my brothers and sisters that are locked up there? Because again, I might as well write my name on a list for them. They're going to see me walking into the jail and say, he's one of them. So what will I do? Will I let brotherly love continue or will I shun brotherly love and act as if they are not my brothers, they are not my sisters, they are not part of the community of the people of God? What will I do? Well, the command here is to love one another, to be a part of that community, to love one another and to join together and to stand with one another. So all of these things are pointing to the fact that it's a kingdom of love and that we should love one another and identify with Christ and His people and not be afraid to do so because we love Him and we should love His people. That's just the reality of what it means to be called into the church together. You know, it's not possible to be in the church by yourselves. In fact, the very definition of the word from which we derive church, ecclesia, means a called out people, a group called out. Now you're part of that group if you're in Christ, but it's a people who are called out from the world, separated by God's grace unto this body of believers that is the church. You can't do that alone. And so do not neglect the gathering. Do not neglect to take care of one another, to love one another, to fellowship with one another. All these things are part of this command to love and to be a part of this kingdom that itself is a kingdom of love. But we also saw last week some other commands that were a little surprising maybe. We talked about it last week. There was a command to make marriage honorable among all and the marriage bed undefiled. And it gives the warning that fornicators and adulterers God will judge. That's the testimony of all of Scripture. But why here? Why say this now and then right after it to let your conduct be without covetousness? Be content with the things that you have, for He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you." Why this talk suddenly about don't be adulterers, don't sully the marriage bed, and don't be idolaters and covetous people? We talked about the fact that what's probably in view there, certainly those are commands that we should obey and follow. That's part of what it means to honor Christ is to do these things. But why here in a letter that has no contextual reference to any of that stuff before, except a little reference to Esau which we dealt with last week in the 11th chapter. And I think it's because in the Old Testament context that these Hebrew Christians would have known adultery and idolatry are always tied together with people who rebel against God. Over and over the prophets say what? You idolaters, you stiff-necked people, you like animals in heat who go after any God that's put before you. It's compared to adultery. Again, I don't think it's a coincidence in the context of this letter that the call is for covenant faithfulness before God. And the ways that he's given us to live that out in our lives are marriage, which is a picture of the relationship between Christ and his church, and also to be faithful to the one true living God and not worship the false gods of this world. And so, my friends, all this is told to us, but it doesn't end there. There's the reminder that we don't need anything. except what He's given us, that He will provide for us what we need. He will never leave us nor forsake us. The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? That context seems to be directly applied, does it not, to their situation. Why would adultery and idolatry have anything to do with what men can do to me? Because again, the danger is of leaving the church and going back to the synagogue, trying to find safe haven in Moses and the law when there's no safe haven to be found there. no safe haven to be found there. Don't be covenantally unfaithful to this covenant into which you've been called in Christ. Now we've spoken about all of that. But we see that it continues today because the author of Hebrews wants them to recognize not only is it a kingdom of love and a kingdom of covenant and commitment, but it's also an orderly kingdom. And so I want us to see today what he has to say about that. So I'm going to read all eight verses again that begin this chapter and then we'll begin to think about them. Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them, those who are mistreated, since you yourselves are in the body also. Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. For he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the Word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Amen. We today want to look at three points as we think about this text. First of all, an example worth remembering. Second of all, a truth worth preserving. And third, an order worth recognizing. Beginning first with this example worth remembering, our text begins with an obvious call to remember. It's the beginning of our text today. The first word we have in the English is, remember those who rule over you. Now the great John Brown in his classic commentary on this letter comments, to a careful reader of this passage, it must be plain that it refers not to the present but to the former Not to the living, but to the dead rulers of these Hebrew believers. And that does seem clear. He says, remember, remember these, those who rule over you, and the context might be a little bit missed there in our text, but who have spoken, past tense, the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome, the end, of their conduct, the end of their walk, the end of their days, how they finish their testimony, their living testimony, consider them. So it's clearly evident at the recipients of this letter are to think back to those who were once before them, once their leaders, once their shepherds, once their elders, and to consider the way they lived their lives, that they were exemplary. And I think it's important to recognize that the text is setting them up as exemplary leaders. Now, depending on your translation, it will word exactly who these are a little bit differently. But the word here in the Greek is hegeomai, and it means those who led you, those who shepherded you. In fact, it's very close to the idea of pastoring or shepherding. So again, I don't think there's any question who's being referenced here. It's the elders. And I think, again, that's why you'll notice that many translations use the word rule. Well, where does that idea come from? Well, from the parallel term for elders, episkopos, which means overseers or rulers. So, again, I think we recognize here what is being gotten at here. Those who were the leaders of your congregation, those who were charged with overseeing you, those who were your spiritual leaders, those who were your shepherds and pastors, remember them. Don't forget them. Don't forget them. One of the lexicons stated that in context of the churches clearly refers to church officers and particularly to elders. Now in pointing to the elders that stood faithfully, who stood by God's grace and seemed to be as unshakable as the kingdom for which they stood, although we recognize they're just human beings, but by God's grace, the testimony here must be that they stood firm, stood fast, stood faithful. And He says, remember them, look to them, look at those who stood faithfully, who stood firm in the faith. Now what are some of the reasons it says to think about them or how they exemplified doing this? Well, first of all, it says they spoke the Word of God to them. Now we can lay out a list of charges or orders that should be given to an elder. But at the top of that list is going to be proclaiming the Word of God. Preaching and teaching the Word of God. That is one of the primary charges of an elder, if not the primary charge given to an elder. In fact, we've often stated that part of where the church has gone wrong over the last 100 years in every denomination is making pastors more like event coordinators. You know, we're supposed to be getting all these programs together and all this sort of things, and we neglect the Word of God in prayer. And in fact, if you turn to Acts 6, what you find there is the apostle said we need to hand some of these things off to others that we might devote ourselves to preaching and to prayer and the study of God's Word that the church might be fed. How can we warn others of the things that they need to avoid or how can we guard them as one of the charges for elders are in the preaching of the word to be those who are shepherding or guarding the flock through their preaching and teaching if we don't know what it says? So my friends, we need to recognize here the importance of this. And he says of them, they are those who faithfully spoke the word of God to you. They taught it and they preached it in season and out of season. Always faithful to proclaim the word of God And they stood by the Word of God. They stood faithful to the Word of God. My friends, when you were young, he's saying, as Hebrew Christians, this is likely a young church. He says, when you were young, you remember those men who, when you were babes in the faith, fed you the pure Word of God's Word. The pure milk. But as you grew, they didn't keep you on milk, did they? But they began to give you the meatier things of the Word of God, the full counsel of God. They began to give it to you. They are the ones who were there all along the way, stood with you. And though they're gone, don't forget them. Don't forget the example of what they did. Don't forget the importance they set of what Christians are to do. They're to be a people of the Word. Our meetings are not all that important if we don't care about the Word of God. The reality is, we've talked about this, we have a great book in the library, I point to over and over again the people's book. It's about the change in the Reformation that happened as people received back the Word of God because for a millennia it had been translated into Latin. You weren't allowed to translate it out of Latin and almost no one could read Latin. Again, they were overjoyed to receive back a Word and to fellowship around the Word and to proclaim the Word and to hear the Word and to live by the Word. We should too. We should too. And so again, as you think back to those leaders that stood before you once upon a time and gave you that milk and gave you that meat, be thankful for them. Don't forget them. And second of all, he says, they set a pattern of a living faith. They lived out what they preached. They didn't just preach it and then you saw them in the marketplace and they were very different people. You didn't hear rumors. Oh, I don't think that guy means anything that he preaches on Sunday. We see people like that. You see people on television that preach and preach and preach and then get exposed. My friends, He's saying you knew these people. You were in community with these people. You walked with these people. You talked with these people. You lived with these people. You know these people. These elders, you know their manner of life. They lived respectable lives. They lived what they preached. They weren't preaching a word they didn't believe. They were preaching the very things that they believe. You know these people. You know these people. And so what does he say? He says then, follow their faith. The New King James here says, whose faith follow. He means whose faith you should follow. The word there in the Greek means imitate. You should imitate their faith. That's not an unusual charge. Paul says, imitate me as I imitate Christ. Imitate those who are a little further along than you are. It's a good way to disciple. To watch those who the Lord has placed in your path that are a little further along. Imitate them and grow by their examples. See what they're doing right. And if they're doing some things that you don't think are right, don't emulate those things. But again, these are elders. These are the examples that God gave you to your congregation. You should follow them in the faith. My friends, that makes us think about the entire 11th chapter of this letter, doesn't it? We're given many examples of those who live by faith. Now, the purpose was not to say you should emulate directly Abraham or Isaac or Jacob. The point in the 11th chapter was to say all of God's people have always dealt with struggles and faced them by faith, overcame them by faith, lived by faith. That's what you should do too. Don't expect to have an easy ride in life. Don't expect all things to go the way you want them to. Expect trial and tribulation and trouble and face it by faith. Overcome it by faith. That's the point of the 11th chapter. But if we have to look back 2,000 or 4,000 years for examples in the church, we've got some problems, don't we? If there's nobody we can point to more recent than 2,000 years ago that we can look to as an example of living out faith, we're in trouble. And that's really the context here. You have leaders who were faithful and they have died, most likely died. Don't forget them. Live by their examples. Just as Hebrews 11 were given full of examples, you've been given examples by God. Imitate them. Well, imitate what again? their manner of living, not as some fake way of earning merit before God, but as the result of a transformed life by the power of the Holy Spirit. As the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts, they live out a life of service to God, not because they feel they need to, to earn merit, but because they desire to, because Christ is worthy. He is our King. And we have been allowed in this glorious kingdom, not because we deserved it, but because He is good and gracious. And therefore, why would we not want to live out our lives in service to Him, in love for Him, and in love for His people and His church? So look to those examples and live like those people. Imitate them as they imitated Christ. And notice why he says, your former leaders. It's not implying that the current leaders are bad. I think you can look to verse 17 and say, he says, of the current leaders, obey those who rule over you. He means present day, your elders now, and be submissive for they watch out for your souls. He's not saying anything against the current elders, but the current elders have not finished their race. They have not finished their race. And until the full testimony is written, their story is not complete. But there are some, he says, whose story is complete. They finished well their race. They faced death and some people think, well, this must mean persecution or maybe some sort of martyrdom. It's not necessary that it be that. Whatever the end of their race, they finished it well. If it was imprisoned, they finished it well. If it was killed by the sword, they finished it well. If it was dying in their own bed, testifying to the glories of Jesus, they finished well. They finished well. Look to them. Don't forget them. Remember them. Because God has given them to the church as an example of what it is to be faithful. As an example to others of what it is to be faithful. because God left the church in good order. And even the current generation of elders have been raised up by God's order. This church didn't invent elders. God prescribed elders for the church as the means of governance for the church. And what he's saying is that idea should be preserved and appreciated and loved. And that brings us to our second point this morning, a truth worth preserving, a truth worth preserving. Because he goes on immediately to say one of the most important lines in this entire letter. It's quoted often. It should be quoted often. For Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Now, we want to make sure that we understand this is in the context of the letter that he's making the point, but there is a greater theological point here to be made as well. Because there is an immutability. Christ doesn't change. And we should give thanksgiving to God for that. Why? Because the same Christ who planned from before the world began that He would die for His people is the same Christ who died for them and the same Christ who ministers for us today. Why is that an important thought that He doesn't change? Because the love He exercised for me before time began is the same love He has for me today and the same love He'll have for me forever and for you as well if you're in His kingdom. Now this is a thought that I think maybe we don't put a lot of thought into, but it's an important one. The culture that this letter was written to, a Greco-Roman world, had lots of gods. And what can we say about those gods? They were completely capricious. They could be for you one day, you could do the right sacrifices, and Zeus is your buddy today, or Apollo is your buddy today, and tomorrow they're trying to strike you down and kill you because you've offended them in some way you didn't even recognize. In fact, much of mythology is people trying to figure out, what have I done to upset Neptune? What did I do to upset the gods? What have I done? I don't even know. Praise God that is not the God of the Bible, the one true living God who created all things. Our God is unchangeable. If He loved me then, He loves me now, and He'll love me forever. And that is the reason we have a doctrine on the perseverance of the saints. I don't have to worry that God's gonna change his mind tomorrow and say, you know what, I should have never thought about Rick. He's a complete jerk and I'm done with him. Because if it was based on my merits, he would have never saved me anyway. So praise God, we have to think about these things and see why they're important. So that is the broader context in which we can say, Jesus Christ is immutable. He doesn't change. He is the same yesterday, today, forever, amen and hallelujah. But that isn't exactly the context he's working through here. It's not a coincidence that he puts this right after, remembering those who led you before. Remembering those who led you before. Because my friends, just as the king doesn't change, his kingdom doesn't change either. One of the great glories that we talk about often, especially as we come to Reformation Day, is that his kingdom is everlasting, and it is glorious, and it is perfect. That's why it's unshakable. It can never be less than perfect. And that's why He justifies us and we'll be glorified one day as members of that kingdom. But we might remember what Luther wrote in that great hymn. Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also. The body they may kill, God's truth abide is still. His kingdom is forever. The kingdoms of this world are not forever. We've seen them come and go. But His kingdom is unshakable and unchangeable. His kingdom never falls. Go back to Daniel, we could preach a little while on what Daniel says about the kingdoms of this world and the kingdom that is Christ, that it is unshakable. What a comfort that is to us. But my friends, as you also think about it, that says something about his kingdom, that it's stable, that it should be stable, that the church should be stable, that it shouldn't be rocked to and fro by every changing wind of doctrine or idea that comes along. And yet we often see in the world churches that are very changeable. Here one day, there the next, some new idea comes along and just like a tree in a storm it's blowing back and forth. We're over here, now we're over here, now we're over here. My friends, that is not the kingdom Christ gave us. He gave us a stable kingdom, an orderly kingdom. And that's what I want to think about today. Why look to the elders? Because the elders were given by God's grace to lead, guard, and protect that community. And they set an example. They set an example. And now as those elders have died and gone on, it does seem like things are changing. It doesn't seem to be the new elders particularly that are changing because he, again, he seems to endorse their leadership. But it seems the church is changing. It's forgetting the values it once held. It's moving away from those values to different values, like self-preservation and looking out for number one, right? Looking out for myself. And that's a strong and powerful motivation, isn't it? because God charged me to care about my family and to protect my family. That's one of my jobs as a father and husband, but He doesn't give me that charge in contrast with my charge as a Christian in the church of Jesus Christ. That I'm also to love the larger community that is my brothers and sisters in the faith. And so these things have to be wrestled with and thought about, but what's happening in this context is no one's thinking about it. They're forgetting for a moment that Christ didn't change. He's not any less with you than we read about just a moment ago when He said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. That was told to Joshua. And the author of Hebrews says, He might as well be saying it to you today, and tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and even after He returns, you will be with Him forevermore. He will never leave you nor forsake you. What a glorious promise that is. And so my friends, when you think about that for a moment, if Christ isn't changing and His call isn't changing and His commands aren't changing, why are you changing? Why are you changing? And my friends, that's a question that we have to ask ourselves. And it brings us to our third and final point this morning of an order worth recognizing. Far too often, I think it's the case in this, a change in leadership means a change in the church. The church is a totally new place. You bring a new leader in, there's new programs, there's new emphases, there's new music maybe, there's new translation of the Bible being preached. Not that any of that's bad. I'm just saying that's what happens, right? A church's culture can change like that. A new pastor comes in. And my friends, I think that part of what we need to think about here is, is that what's intended? Is that what's intended? is the church must be such a changeable place that it's costly blowing here and there, to and fro, constantly changing. Now, this is not a message against newness. Just to make this clear, don't get me misinterpreting what I'm saying. In our hymn book, we have songs written 10 or 15 years ago, and we have songs that were written nearly 1,500 years ago. And we sing them both. And we rejoice in them because they both tell the truth of God's word sung. We rejoice in that. This isn't about nothing new is good or nothing new is better. But my friends, we do need to recognize that we need to be careful about the substance of things changing. Maybe not style, but the substance of things changing. And oftentimes style change leads to substance change. a new style of doing something, a new way of doing something, and we're not analyzing why are we doing it differently. Again, analyze it. If it's good to do it differently, do it differently. We hold to always reforming. That means you're always asking why you do things. And can we do it more like what God's Word tells us to do? So this is not a word against change, but it is a word against change for the sake of change. It is a word against that because I think what we're reminded here is Christ doesn't change. His kingdom doesn't change. His word doesn't change. We've got to think through the things that we're changing and certainly the motivations for why we're changing them. I said last week as I was trying to get you prepared to think about this today that there are important truths that we've always held to as a people and we should continue to hold to. They don't change with time. People may not like them, but they don't change with time because they're what God said. And there, as the people of God had gathered and distilled that truth and tried to put it in statements or creeds, we recognize that they did us a service. They did us a service. We shouldn't just throw those things in the garbage can and act as if they weren't given to us by God's grace. Again, we need to recognize that there is an order to the church. And God has blessed us with this. In fact, if you think about it for a moment, we shouldn't be surprised that God's kingdom should not be in disorder because the Bible tells us over and over again that He is a God of order. That disorder and chaos comes from the evil one. And everywhere you see God at work, it's generally bringing order. Even from the beginning, if you will, in creation as the spirit hovered over the waters and was bringing order to the chaos there. God is a God of order. He tells us that in His Word. And He tells us in 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul says, Let all things be done decently in good order. Be done in good order. Why in the world does that matter? Because we're called to reflect the God we serve. This is His kingdom. If He is a God of order, we should get in good order and be in order because we reflect Him as He's called us to do. Now, I think we can find this throughout the Scriptures, but 1 Corinthians is all about order. When you think about it, there is disorder upon disorder upon disorder. We've looked at this before. Even the gifts that God has given them, they're using them in a disorderly way. And what do you mean? To divide. They're ranking gifts so they can say, my gift is better than yours. These things are disorderly. God gave all of these gifts to the people of God, diverse gifts to a diverse people, so they might come together and worship Him in unity, using their gifts together as the body. And you're using to divide the body. That's the opposite of why Christ gave them. That's disorderly. He's given them for order, and you're creating chaos and disorder, and that is not what He's called to do. In fact, as Paul walks through all the instructions of how they're being disorderly, including how they're abusing the communion table. We had a sermon on that a couple of weeks ago, so I won't go into that. But what does He say at the end of that table? Excuse me, at the end of that chapter. He says, these things do, and when I come to you, what? I'll set the rest of the things in order. Paul says, do these things that you need to work on immediately, and when I come to you, I'll set the rest of the things in order. In other words, his coming to them is about getting them in good order. Now, this shouldn't surprise us. We could turn to Titus chapter 1, and Paul says exactly why he sent Titus to Crete. What was it? To set in order the churches. Well, how was he to do that? By appointing elders in all the congregations. See a connection here? Order is important. Order is important. And God has not left us without structure. And so again, we see this over and over again. Now we could go on and on about the importance of order, but we also see the importance of avoiding disorder. In Paul's letter to the Thessalonians he says, Now what is he talking about here? What does it mean to be disorderly? It means to be causing havoc and chaos in the church. In fact, the word in Greek that is used there is actually a military term. It means to be out of rank, to be out of rank. You can imagine almost a situation where a private's telling the sergeant what to do. I'm sure Brother Samuel learned there is a chain of command in the military, right? And you better stick to it or there's gonna be some problems. And again, the point here is disorderly conduct that's disorderly, that's ruinous of the unity of the church. That is so serious. that it says that you should withdraw yourself from that brother. That's the same prescription for heresy. Think about that for a moment. In fact, in the book we put out, it's not out there this week, but in the book we put out many weeks, The Glory of the True Church by Benjamin Keech, he says in there that the Bible basically equates disorder in the church with heresy. Like that's important to think about and wrestle with on why, again, we're being instructed here that it's important to think about the order of the church and to think about those that God has raised up Now, again, as you think about this, it brings me to a point I'm wanting to make. Because let's face it, I'm a human being. I might die this afternoon. I'm not expecting that to happen, but we know people die suddenly. The Lord could call me home today, He could call me home tomorrow, He could call me home next week. And what will become of our church? What will become of our church? Is our church going to be a church that gets blown to and fro? standing here today and somewhere completely different tomorrow? Or is this a church that has some kind of guide and rudder to where it will go? And what is that guide and rudder? Well, I grew up in Baptist churches, as you all know, and we would hear, we have no creed but Christ. Well, that's great if we all agree to the right interpretations of the scriptures, or even agree on one interpretation of the scriptures, but we don't. We don't. So what is a Baptist church? What is a Baptist church? What makes a Baptist church unique? What makes it different from a Presbyterian church, or an Anglican church, or a United Methodist church? I hope a lot of things. But there ought to be some things. So what are those things? Well, as churches, we create statements of faith. We have certain things that we think characterize us as a church. But my friends, if you've been around churches long enough, you know those things come and go. They fall. They get changed. Everything that you can think defines your church today can be gone in five years. It's one of the reasons that I've been talking a lot about these sorts of things. This is called Pillars of Truth for Baptist Churches, and it's our historic documents as Baptists. So you've got the Second London Baptist Confession, you've got the Baptist Catechism, the Orthodox Catechism, and in the back you have the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the Chalcedon definition. These are the landmark documents that we hold to and that Baptists have always held to until when? About a hundred years ago. We started saying, eh, we don't need the Apostles' Creed. That's Catholic. We don't need the Nicene Creed. That's Catholic. Or maybe the Anglicans too, you know, but it's not us. It's not us. We're not a confessional people. Well, it's funny. The original Baptists thought they were confessional people because they wrote a lot of confessions and they wrote a lot of catechisms. And why did they do that? they just bored? They think, you know what would be a good idea, let's just write down what we believe, nobody's going to read it, nobody's going to care. So they got together and they said, we talked about this last Wednesday night, we're tired of being called Anabaptists. We're not Anabaptists. We're tired of our Presbyterian friends saying that we hold the heretical beliefs We're tired of our congregational friends telling us that we hold to heretical beliefs when it isn't what we believe. We need to sit down and write out what it is we believe and all sign our names to it and stand on it and say this is what Baptists believe. And they did it. They never claimed it replaced the Bible. They said it's just a summation of Bible yet subservient to the Bible. Now why are those things important? Because that gives you somewhere to stand. That gives your church somewhere to stand that if somebody comes in later and says something, you go, wait a minute, I think that conflicts with our confession. I think that conflicts with our confession. And if we turn to our confession, we can see the scriptures that are referenced and go, oh, wait, it actually conflicts with the scriptures because here's the scriptures I can give you. When you think about it for a moment, and I've said this many times, and you all have heard me say this, and maybe some of you don't like me saying it, but I've said it many times and we'll say it again. If I'm going to a town, and I don't know anybody in that town, and I don't know anything about any church in that town, and I'm looking for a worship service on Sunday morning, I'm not going to a Baptist church. I'm not gonna go to just some random Baptist church. Now, if Michael says, hey, let me tell you a great Baptist church in Phoenix, one of you go, hey, let me tell you, there's a great Baptist church in Denver, there's a great Baptist church wherever it may be, I'll go to that church, because that's who I'm gonna agree with the most. But if you just say, here's some random Baptist church, it's the Wild West. Let's be honest, Baptist churches, you have no idea what you're walking into. And I've walked into some bad ones. I mean, Allison was in here Wednesday night. I made this point at the end, too, because it's important. What does a Baptist church even mean? Nobody knows. You can be the most charismatic, crazy church and call yourself Baptist, or you can be a very traditional church and call yourself Baptist. You can preach the scriptures. You cannot preach the scriptures. It's just whatever. I've said my first choice will be an OPC or PCA church. I'll agree with 90% of what I'm getting there, maybe even a little bit more, but I know what I'm getting there. I know what I'm walking in on. Now, why is that important? They're confessional. They hold to the Westminster Confession. They don't blow to and fro. And they've got a document that when trouble comes, they can say, nope, you're in violation of what it is we believe as a denomination. My friends, if you've been watching the SBC over the last 10 years, you'll see the problem with not having a very good confession or having a very narrow confession like the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message, because it's a battleground constantly. What do we believe as a people? What do we believe as a people? So my friends, when you hear me talking about these things, about the fact that we need to know what it is we believe, and we need to encapsulate what it is that we believe, and we need to stand on what it is we believe, and it not be changeable year after year, day after day, new fad after new fad. There's a reason for that. And I think it's very much in context with this. For 350 years, and yes, all these documents that are in this book are at least 350 years old, or right around there. Some of them are much older. Baptists have held to these things. They've been put to the test against the Scriptures time and again, and they've stood the test. The Apostles' Creed has stood for almost 2,000 years. The Nicene Creed, similar lengths of time, have stood, and the church has been able to say, this is the truth that we believe. And people spent their lives putting those statements together to defend the church against heresy and false teaching and danger. And how arrogant are we to say we don't need any of it? We're so smart. We don't need the greatest minds that God raised up in the church. So my friends, what I'm saying is we need to know where we stand. If Christ is unchangeable, if He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and His kingdom is unshakeable, then my friends, our testimony ought to be as well. And so I think we need to think about these things, and I challenge you to do that.