This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute, where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. We're going to begin with a word of prayer and then I'm going to do a little bit of a summary and then try to finish out on a subject of the sacraments and the service of the Church. Let's pray. Lord, we are your grateful servants this morning, grateful for the many blessings we enjoy from your hand. Above all, grateful for the salvation that has been secured by our Savior, Jesus Christ. A salvation that has been applied to us by the mercy and sovereignty of his Holy Spirit. a salvation that has brought us not only salvation as individuals but as your people, has brought us into a covenant relationship with you and therefore a relationship with one another as the covenant people of God. We pray that you would help us this morning to understand the scriptures correctly as we look at our life together as your covenant community. We pray that we would be faithful to the scriptures, not only in understanding, but all the more in the manner of our life and obedience that follows. For we pray in Jesus' name, amen. just so we'd understand that what we're talking about is not like joining a club, it's not just some modern invention of men, but it's really a concept that is rooted in the word of God. Those who belong to Jesus Christ are part of his flock, and that means you're in a corporate relationship with others. You're in a community of people that are saved, what we call the covenant community, or the people of God. We also said in that first meeting that not every organization, even of true believers, is a church. that there are some organizations that serve Christian purposes. Maybe it's an anti-abortion organization or an evangelistic organization. It may be an organization that gets together for prayer. It may be just your friends getting together to sing God's praises. There are a number of organizations and affiliations of Christians that are not the church. There are many that call themselves the church that are not the church. And so we have to ask ourselves, what are the marks of a Christian church? We said the marks of a Christian church are apostolic doctrine. We got this from Acts, the second chapter, remember. They were committed to the teaching of the apostles. Or we might say they had doctrinal purity. The word of God was their standard. Secondly, a church of Jesus Christ faithfully administers the facrimus. Thirdly, there is the proper use of discipline in the church. The government and the discipline of the church are pleasing to God. Fourthly, there is a sense of service inwardly as we love one another and have fellowship with one another. Fifthly, a sense of service outwardly to the world as we evangelize the world and try to bring all areas of life into conformity with God's will. Any organization that fails in any of those five points, completely fails, would have to be disqualified as the Church of Jesus Christ. If apostolic doctrine is violated in a gross way, say the denial of the deity of Christ, that's not a church. If you have an organization that gets together and studies the Bible, even if it's the true study of the Bible, but they don't serve the sacraments, it's not the church. If you have an organization that preaches the Bible and serves the sacraments but never disciplines its members, there's no way to follow out the orders of the Lord about resolution of conflicts, then that's not the church either. Although many would claim to be that in our day. So that was the point of our first lesson. Then what we started to do is look at each of those points separately in more detail and apply it to our own particular local congregation. The second lesson was on the importance of Christian doctrine And we saw that from God's word, that God expects his ministers to be examined, to be faithful, expects his people to make sure that the preaching they're receiving is true to the scriptures. Now, there are some doctrinal differences between this congregation and other Christian congregations. It's important that we remember the unity of the Church of Jesus Christ. All who know that the shed blood of Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation, we are willing to accept as our Christian brothers and sisters. But after that, obviously there are differences as to whether God is the one who takes the initiative in salvation. Differences as to how the church is to function, about its sacraments, understanding of escapologia, that is the doctrine of last things, what have you. And so it's important that you know what the doctrinal position or distinctives of this congregation are. And for that we look to the Westminster Confession of Faith, which is the teaching standard for our denomination, for this local congregation as well. And we set that over against the Roman Catholic Church, which I really don't think is the Church of Jesus Christ because the gospel is not preached there. We set even gospel distinctives, say predestination or the inerrancy of God's word, or the view of Jesus Christ in terms of his two natures, or eschatology. We set our views over against that of other Protestant denominations, be it Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, what have you. That was the second session. And last week we looked at the government and discipline of the church and asked ourselves, does God just leave us to ourselves to resolve our problems? Does anybody receive offerings and spend the money in the church? Are people allowed to get together and just vote as to who should do what and so forth in the church? I mean, how is the church ordered? How is it disciplined? And we saw that the Bible teaches the government of the church by presbyters or elders. men who are chosen by the congregation and approved by those who are already serving in that capacity, so that people trust them and will follow them, and yet their orthodoxy and the faithfulness of their life is approved by the overseers. There is always to be a plurality of elders in any congregation. The congregations are joined together in that one another must answer to each other in a presbytery structure, the regional church. And there's a system of appeals through graded courts that's possible when you're a Presbyterian. So that is the government of our church. And very quickly at the end of last week, we looked at the discipline of the church, how Matthew 18 gives us some marching orders. What happens when there's interpersonal problems? How are they to be resolved? Is anybody beyond question? And then if someone is found to be reluctant to obey the word of God, what kinds of censures should the church be using? We said, well, there's admonition, rebuke, suspension from the Lord's table, and finally, it's very grievous, but sometimes it must happen, excommunication. I ended last week on a note of surprise. that there isn't more church discipline going on in Bible-believing, gospel-preaching churches because it's really quite beyond credibility to me that in the churches, the number of which we have around us and the number of people that attend, that we don't have more cases of unresolved problems, disobedient living, failure to hear the church and get things worked out. And so when you look for a church, hopefully you'll be happy to be here, but as you look for a church here or elsewhere, really look at the question, do they discipline, do they oversee and shepherd their members? So we come to our final lesson today, and I want to talk about sacraments and service. One of the things that has separated Protestants since the time of the Reformation, has been the question of the sacraments. First of all, the question as to the nature of the sacraments, and then secondly, who are to be the recipients of the sacraments. And I'm going to take just a few minutes to talk about each one of those issues. And then in the second half of our class today, I want to look at the question of service. What is the nature of the Christian life that we live in this congregation? What do we promote? What kind of thing can you expect? You're going to find different emphases in different churches, and it's only fair to let our colors be known, let our banner fly, and you can decide whether you want to march under it or not. Some churches would have a much different conception of the Christian life than we do here, and I'll try to expound that briefly as well. First, though, the sacraments. What is the nature of a sacrament? The Bible teaches us that sacraments are those ritual ordinances that were ordained by our Lord Jesus Christ himself to be observed by his people. They have at least a symbolic value. One does not engage in the sacraments because in and of themselves they have value. One engages in the sacraments because they have value for what they teach, symbolize, or convey. No one thinks that you're really going to be able to live a strong, healthy, physical life by eating one little cracker and a cup of wine every week. I mean, Jesus didn't institute that because that was supposed to be for our physical sustenance, okay? And no one really thinks that the only washing you need is what takes place in baptism. And so we know right away that the value of the sacraments is not in the outward act. I mean, there's just not enough there. The outward act is to be pointing to an inward reality or some spiritual truth is far more important. And so what is that spiritual truth? The Bible indicates that the sacraments are two things. They are first, signs, and secondly, they are seals. Signs and seals. We don't use these words very often, so let me expand a minute. A sign points to something else, doesn't it? You come up to a sign and it says Santa Ana, 20 miles, that way. Okay, you're not in Santa Ana. The sign isn't Santa Ana, but the sign points to Santa Ana. Likewise, when we take the sacraments, the sacraments point to a reality or a spiritual truth beyond themselves. They are not salvation, but they point to salvation and the way of salvation. So that, as Jesus said, when we take the Lord's Supper, we take the Lord's Supper in remembrance of Him. When we eat the bread and drink the wine, we remember His body and blood were given for our salvation. So they are signs. They symbolize something. Now it's at just this point that many Protestants stop. They say, and that's it. The sacraments are nothing more but outward pictures, symbols of something else. Everyone who is in the Anabaptist, or in our day and age, the Baptist Congregationalist tradition, of Bible-believing evangelical theology will be a follower of Zwingli in his view of the sacraments. Zwingli said, the Lord's Supper is but a memorial. It's a memorial meal for a Savior that died and rose again. Now, we don't deny that it's a memorial. What we say is, it's not merely a memorial. It's not just a way of getting together and saying, remember Jesus, our Savior? Well, we do remember Him, but it's more than that. However, the more than is not as much as another way of looking at the sacraments that I want to give you, and that would be tied to the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church, both of which teach that there is some kind of grace conveyed, they wouldn't put it this way, but as I read it, magically as it were, through the elements themselves. This is most strongly seen in the Roman Catholic Church, that teaches that when the priest gives you the wafer, he is actually communicating salvation physically to you. And that if you don't take the wafer from the priest, then you are cut off from the reservoir of grace that is channeled through the church, through the priest, to the sacrament, to your mouth. And this view is tied, as you probably know, to what's called transubstantiation, the idea that the Physical tokens, the bread and the wine, are transformed into the body and blood, literally, the body and blood of our Savior as you partake of them. Now, we do not believe the Zwinglian view is adequate. We don't think the sacraments are merely a memorial of something else, just pointing to something else. But nor do we have a magical view, if you want the Latin term, it's ex opere operato, which means it operates in the operation. That is, it works automatically. If you take the sacraments, there's going to be something that automatically happens to you. We don't believe in the magical view, the automatic view of the sacraments, but we don't believe they're merely a memorial. You say, well, what's the alternative? The alternative that's associated with the Reformed churches, you have the Baptistic churches on one side, you have the liturgical, Lutheran, Roman Catholic churches, but then the heart of the Protestant Reformation, and I don't say that out of any keen loyalty, but really the mainstay of theological development in the Reformation came through Switzerland and Germany, the Reformers, Their view was that in the sacraments a seal is observed. You say, well, that doesn't tell me much. Well, that's because we don't use seals anymore. When God makes a promise, according to the culture of biblical days, that promise is a sealed promise. Now stop and think about a sealed document that comes to you. The ancient world If a man sent a message to someone else and no one else was to read it, he would seal it, put his insignia in wax, and close it with the wax, so that if it arrived with a broken wax seal, the receiver knew somebody had tampered. Maybe the message wasn't true, maybe the secret was out to the enemy, whatever it may be. The seal was a protection, it guaranteed something. When a promise is made, a seal is given indicating, if I don't do this, then may certain sanctions come against me for not fulfilling my word. And I have a sermon on this, in fact, a few sermons on this that you may want to get hold of sometime. It's amazing to me, the Bible says when God made promise to us, he didn't owe us anything. He didn't have to promise us salvation, but when he promised us salvation, he not only made the promise, he backed it up with an oath. He backed it up with a seal upon his word. that it would not be violated, not be tampered with, and that he would fulfill what he had said. And when we take the Lord's Suffer, we enter into a covenant arrangement with God where we not only are educated a sign of the death of our Savior, but the death of that Savior is sealed upon our hearts. The promise is realized through the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. So we do believe that the sacraments are what we call a means of grace. that when a baptism takes place, or when the Lord's supper is taken, we should grow as God's people. We should be strengthened, assured of our salvation. We should be more able to live the Christian life because of that. not because there's some magical potent in the wine or the crackers, but because the Holy Spirit works with our belief in what is signified to strengthen our Christian water. It's not merely a memorial, it actually seals on our hearts the benefits of God's covenant, of his promises. And because the Holy Spirit is operative in the sacraments, we believe with all of our hearts that those who take the sacraments in an improper way will be punished by God. Of course, they can appeal for mercy and forgiveness. I don't ever want to lose sight of the good news that God forgives sinners. But when the sacraments are profaned, when what God has given his people to remember his covenant love is taken in an unworthy manner, then God sometimes punishes the covenant community. Anybody remind me in 1 Corinthians what was happening to the Corinthian church because it was not discerning the Lord's body? That's right. Paul says, many of you have even died. He says, some are sick, many of you have died. God afflicted the Corinthian church with illness, even to the point of death, because they were taking the Lord's Supper in an improper fashion. By the way, that passage ought to, I think, make most of Southern California, probably most American Christian churches stop and wonder, shouldn't we get a little more serious about what we're doing with the sacraments? God is not pleased when what He has given as a holy rite A sign and a seal of his covenant is profane, and so it's important that we see that it's not merely a memorial, and yet it's not some kind of magical potent either. There is something that takes place in between those two. We would say the Holy Spirit is present and is working to bless or to curse, given whether we faithfully partake of the sacraments. So there's the nature of the sacraments. Who should partake of the sacraments? What are the sacraments? Well, they are baptism and the Lord's Supper. They correspond to two Old Covenant rites, what might be called the sacraments of the Old Covenant, those being circumcision and Passover. Let's look first of all at circumcision and baptism. Is there a biblical warrant for bringing these two together? If you wanted to listen to my tapes on the sacraments, you would find a more detailed study of the meaning of circumcision in the Old Covenant, the meaning of baptism in the New Covenant, which I try to show point by point. They are really the same. But if we need just one proof text for brevity this morning, turn to Colossians, the second chapter, verse 11, where Paul says, in whom, that is, in Christ, or probably a better translation, by whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, wherein you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead." Paul says, you were circumcised when you were baptized. Yes, it was a circumcision made without hands, it was a spiritual circumcision, not an outward circumcision in the foreskin of the flesh. But you were circumcised and Christ is the one who circumcised you. Everything that circumcision pointed to, a cutting away of the old nature, a cleansing in the sight of God, new life and salvation, is now symbolized by baptism, a purification rite where the old nature is washed away, sins are remitted, and we have new life in Christ, being raised with him in newness of life. And so Paul puts it all together there very briefly when he says, our baptism is a form of spiritual circumcision. And so we ask ourselves, who is supposed to be circumcised? in the old covenant? Well, believers were. If a Gentile was converted, became a proselyte, and became a Jew, he was to be circumcised. In fact, he could not take Passover until he was circumcised. So, converts are circumcised. But who else? Children of believers are circumcised as well. In fact, after Abraham was circumcised, the father of the faithful, God said Abraham was to circumcise his children. at the eighth day. We believe, therefore, that children of believers today should be baptized because baptism is circumcision in the new covenant. Some would say, wait a minute, that's the way God used to do it, he doesn't do it that way today. It's important that we get baptism and circumcision down, but asking the question, should we do what the old covenant said, may raise a more fundamental and broader issue, and that is, what is the relationship of old to new covenant? And in this church, we believe, again, I can only take one passage, Matthew 5, verses 17 to 20, settles that question rather clearly when Jesus says, don't you think that I came to abrogate the law or the prophets? I did not come to abrogate, I came to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or tittle shall pass away from the law until everything has happened. And any man who teaches the breaking of even the least of these commandments, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. So now, what should our attitude be toward the old covenant? Should we say everything's changed unless it's repeated in the New Testament? Or should we say the only things that are changed are what the Lord himself says in the New Testament have been changed? Well, Jesus tells us, don't you think a jot or a tittle has changed without my authority? I didn't come to abrogate the old. I came to put it into full effect. I came to fulfill it. And anyone who teaches the breaking of the least commandment will be least in the kingdom of heaven. There's a general theological principle there, the principle of continuity between old and new covenants, which means only the lawmaker has the right to change his laws. Only God has the right to change any principle that he's once laid down. Of course, you would know that if you studied the old covenant itself, because God said in Deuteronomy 4, verse 2, for instance, you shall not add to or subtract from my word. And so we don't have the right to take anything away. If the principle has once been laid down that children of believers are part of the covenant, they remain part of the covenant unless in the new covenant there's something that's given that teaches otherwise. We don't believe that there is any such teaching in the new covenant. In fact, what you find is just the opposite. The day of Pentecost, Peter is preaching and the audience says, what must we do? You know, their hearts are pricked. He says, well, you must be baptized. for the promises to you and to your seed after you, until as many as the Lord our God shall call." Well, that language, the promises to you and to your seed after you, what's he quoting? He's alluding to the Abrahamic promise, where God made promise to Abraham to be his God and to his seed after him. We read that when Paul converted the Philippian jailer, it was the instrument of the Holy Spirit converting the Philippian jailer. He says, the jailer says, what must I do to be saved? Paul says, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. You and your house. And they go home and he not only is baptized, the jailer, but his whole house is baptized as well. And so we believe in our church that the children of believers are not the same as the children of unbelievers. Even though the children of believers are at that point still unbelievers. Am I confusing you? Here you have a Christian family, they have a nine-year-old son who has not become a Christian, at least as yet. Here's the next-door neighbor, unbelieving, godless, pagan family, they have a nine-year-old son who's not a Christian. Now we tend to think in eternal categories. We say two nine-year-old boys, neither are believers, both are going to hell as far as we know, no difference between them. The Bible doesn't. The Bible says that the one that is in the believing family is under greater privilege, greater responsibility, and therefore greater condemnation. In 1 Corinthians 7, verse 14, Paul says, your children are holy. Now, our Baptist friends don't like that. Our Baptist friends say, wait a minute, wait a minute. That can't mean the children are morally holy. And we say, that's right. It can't mean that because it wouldn't be true. You just can't say automatically the children of all believers are holy. fearing good people. It just doesn't come out that way. So what can the word holy mean? Well, in the original, both Hebrew and Greek, the word holy means set aside, consecrated. God is holy because he is set aside from sin. He is consecrated to his own perfection. And when we are sanctified, which comes from the word for holy, that means we are made holy every day, more and more purified and set aside to the Lord's service. Our children, likewise, are sanctified instruments. Now, what happens when someone who has been set aside for God's service doesn't serve the Lord? Well, to whom much has been given, much will be required, and there will be greater condemnation. We believe that God works on earth through a covenant community. And perhaps the best illustration of that, that God works on earth, even in circles of people where unbelievers are mixed in, is the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper was instituted by Jesus Christ. And do you remember who took the Lord's Supper the first time? The Twelve Apostles, right? But you see, if you were a Baptist, you'd probably rather say the 11 apostles. If you're a Presbyterian, it doesn't embarrass you to say the 12. Which one am I talking about? Judas. In fact, he's called the son of prediction. Jesus speaks curse upon him at that very meal. He says, woe to the one who goes to betray me. And yet, he says he dips his hand with us in this meal. The covenant community takes it, but then God curses those who violate the covenant, and Judas was cursed of God. Our children, likewise, are part of the covenant community. God teaches that in his word. They are holy. They are set apart. But when our children do not grow up to undertake the covenant and to live in terms with it, we believe that they will come under the condemnation of God. They are apostates. That nine-year-old next-door neighbor kid is an unbeliever. My child, if he doesn't believe, is an apostate from the grace of God. Not because he has salvation automatically, but because he's put in the circle of God's covenant people. He's baptized, he has been marked out and owned by God, and then when he renounces the blessings and the grace of God, he is in a worse condition than the next-door neighbor. So that's the first thing you need to know as to the recipient of the sacraments, that we believe in infant baptism in this church, and we believe that it's a very biblical and covenantal point. Secondly, as to the Lord's Supper, We do not believe that just anybody who walks in off the street should take the Lord's Supper. That's why from time to time you will hear a fairly lengthy discussion from the pulpit as to who should come to the Lord's Supper before we take it. We believe that the Lord's Supper is for those who are Christians. Those, as in the old covenant, would have partaken of Passover. They would have known the grace of God, would have understood the meaning of these elements, and taken them. Where baptism is a passive matter, so that even children of believers are included. The Lord's Supper is an active matter. It's a matter of apprehending the grace of God, understanding the meaning of these things, and discerning the Lord's body. And so we believe that those who are believers and are part of the body of Christ should take the Lord's Supper. There are some believers who have not yet joined the Church. And we don't think they should take the Lord's Supper, however we do, if they've been in a church that hasn't honored that principle and they're in a membership class here and so forth, we encourage them to take the Lord's Supper with us. But if all of God's people, all the Christian churches were following these principles, we really should say, a person must make a public profession of faith and come under the discipline of the church to take the Lord's Supper. In the same way that two people who love one another shouldn't go to bed with each other until they've stood up publicly and said, we're going to be true to one another. You have a covenantal ceremony that weds them and then it's alright for them to enjoy the fruits of their love. And so there are people who love the Lord Jesus Christ, I know that, but nevertheless have not publicly been covenanted to him by joining the church, and we think they should wait until they do that before they take the Lord's Supper. How about children? Well, not children that don't understand these things, because at Passover, remember, the child who took the meal had to say, Father, what do these things mean? The child had to be a discerning, understanding child. But now how young can the child be? And the answer to that question is, I don't know. You bring me a two-year-old who can give me a two-year-old's profession of faith, and we'll have that two-year-old take the Lord's Supper." And some will say, well, that's not possible. Well, I don't know. I don't know enough about human psychology to tell you whether it is or not. But if it happens, I'm not going to say, oh, no, God's Word says eleven years old before you can do anything. 11 years old before you can join the church. There's nothing like that. And if we're going to be true to our principles as Reformed people, we should not impose prerequisites that the Bible doesn't impose. There's no age requirement for the Lord's Supper. And so we've had, as young, I think as five years old, a child come to the session. We don't ask the child complicated theological questions. We ask the child, you know, what is sin? Are you a sinner? How can sinners go to heaven? And when the child can explain in the child's vocabulary, you know, that Jesus Christ is their only hope, we just rejoice. Jesus says, forbid not these little ones to come unto me, and we don't try to do that here. But we have no age requirement. I would simply say that when your child is able to give expression under questioning to his or her faith, that's fantastic. And we'd be glad to interview the child. Okay, the sacraments. I've taken longer than I had intended on the sacraments. I need to change the subject. Talk about the service of the church. What kind of lifestyle do we promote, try to live? I don't say we always live it, that's for sure. But what kind of lifestyle is the ideal that we are promoting in our congregation? Well, I'd say first of all, it has an inner and an outer direction. We believe in the life of the church, the congregation. So that the lifestyle of our church will call for you to be concerned for the body of Christ, to attend church, to be interested in the needs of fellow believers. You say, well, pastor, can't you take that for granted? Well, I wish I could. I think I should be able to take that for granted. Perhaps some of you have been associated with churches where, either because it's so big, or even if it's not so big, it's so cold and impersonal, that the church is basically people getting together on Sunday, and they don't care about each other after that. It's almost an audience, spectator sort of thing again. And there's no real sense of body life, of caring for one another. Now we're a small church, and I really don't want this to sound like patting ourselves on the back. It's not meant that way at all. But I think most people are real surprised to hear what we do as a church in terms of taking care of each other. One of the reasons is because we promote tithing, and we take a good portion of the tithes we get and we put it into our diaconal fund. And when people have needs, we've had people who have been out of a job, couldn't pay their rent, we pay their rent. They have a child come into this world and don't have coverage for it, we cover it. We've had people out of work that we take care of, people have gone into the hospital, whatever it may be. We try to do that, and not because we're trying to earn brownie points, it's because we care for each other. You know, in the early church we read that people didn't have to go through some big long procedure, they just didn't consider things their own. If someone, a brother or sister had a need, they met it. And that's one of the things we believe in here, we believe in caring for one another. Now if we care financially, obviously we should care spiritually too. And so we try to be in touch with one another, we pray together, we try to do things together, we try to engage in projects, even evangelistic and service to the world together. What I'm getting at here is that there's a sense of community. And that requires coming to church. We believe it's a moral obligation to attend church. Yes, I know. Situations come up. You're traveling. You're ill. There's some reason why you can't come. We're not talking about being censorious or snoopy. Always finding out why you're not there. But you can be sure of this. If you don't come to church for three or four weeks, I don't think it's ever gone beyond three, one of the elders is going to call and say, is everything okay? We haven't seen you. We've missed you. You know, just make sure things are okay with you. There's that sense of community there. It's much harder because we're so spread out. You know, we have people in Long Beach and Duarte and down in Laguna Niguel and Irvine and all around. So it's difficult, but our congregation really believes in pushing that body life, service inward. We also believe in service outwardly to the world. We're an evangelistic church. We have an evangelistic program now. We're training people so that we can get the word of God out to those who need to hear it the most, because they're going to be going to hell if they don't. And we're not the kind of Calvinist that says, well, if God's predestined someone to be saved, he'll bring them to our church, too. No, we believe if God's predestined people to be saved, he has means by which the word will get to them. And one of the means is my just, you know, taking it and walking on my feet next door to my neighbor and talking to him. And so we believe in evangelism. We'll be promoting that. Most churches could be expected to believe that. I want to add, however, what I think is probably more distinctive, and that is that in our congregation, we also believe that service to the world means trying to bring all areas of life under the dominion of Jesus Christ. Let me give just one illustration. We had a prayer request this morning about the election coming up. Hardly anybody in our congregation would flinch at that. I think in many churches people would say, oh, well, that's really not churchy enough. That's not religious. That's not spiritual. So we don't pray about those things. Or if we do, it's just an individual thing. We don't believe that. We believe that the gospel has come to conquer the earth and to conquer it not just by sending souls to heaven, but by changing the lifestyle of people to make it pleasing to God. I'll put it this way, whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. So that means the way I spend my money should be to the glory of God. The way I relate to my neighbors should be to the glory of God. The way I vote or rule in society should be to the glory of God. My recreations, my vocation, everything I do should be to the glory of God. We don't believe that God asks from us then just 10% of our money in two hours on Sunday morning. We believe God asks for unconditional surrender. Everything I am is given to him. I'm now his. I'm your deputy on earth, Lord. If you've given me a job as a salesman, or as a medical doctor, or as a lawyer, or as a teacher, an engineer, whatever it may be, I must do it to your glory. And we push that in this church because we believe God is intending to have his dominion come to expression in all areas of life. And consequently, our attitude toward culture is not what is sometimes called a retreatist or a monkish attitude. We do not believe that we should avoid worldliness in the outward sense of we shouldn't do what the people in the world do. We believe that we should be involved in the world, but in a God-glorifying, obedient fashion. That general attitude, in some circles, is called a transformational ideal of the Christian life. Instead of our avoiding going to movies, or not being involved in politics, or what have you, we believe that Christ sends us into the world to transform all areas of life to his glory. We are not then retreatists. We don't believe, don't touch, don't... What's the old saying? We don't smoke and we don't chew and we don't go with the girls that do. It's not the moral position of our church. There may be something, too, not smoking and so forth, but the thing is, the principles of God's Word inform us in everything that we do. And those principles are not just negative. Don't touch. don't taste, and so forth. We don't condemn drinking, for instance. We certainly condemn drunkenness. We do not condemn drinking. I mean, when God says wine is one of the gifts he gives as a blessing of his covenant, it would be, in fact, to despise God's goodness not to drink wine, not to endorse that sort of thing. We do condemn drunkenness. So, basically, what I guess I'm saying is we have a world-affirming, transformational, dominion-oriented view of the Christian life. so that we have a life inwardly as God's people, the body of Christ, and outwardly we should be seeking to see people converted, and beyond that all areas of life brought under the dominion of God's Word. A little bit longer than I wanted to go today, but that in four simple, easy lessons is an introduction to Covenant Community Church, I hope that in listening to what I've had to say that you've been attracted to some of it, you've been challenged by some of it, hopefully not much of it you've had to disagree with, but in one way or another we would really encourage you to become part of the life of this body. We're a small congregation at present, but since we're post-millennial we think we're going to keep growing. keep seeing more people come and more areas of life transformed to God's glory. We intend to keep moving right along. We hope you'll be part of that program. If you would like to be a member of this church, let me tell you in just two minutes, and then we'll stop, what it requires, what would be required of you. If you are a member of a church presently that is in the general circle of Reformed churches, say a Christian Reformed church, Presbyterian church in America, what, Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, some of these bodies, then the easiest thing for you to do is to ask your session to write a letter of transfer and send it to our session. And I can give you the address and so forth. And upon receipt of that letter, then you will become part of the role of this church. That is, very simply, you'll move from one congregation to another. Most of you, however, as I look out on you, are probably not in that situation. you're members of other churches that are not Presbyterian or Reformed, and what we would have you do then is to meet with the session for a brief interview to ask you, do you know what it means to be a Christian? Do you understand what it is to be a church member? Encourage you to be part of the life of this church, to minister here and not just be ministered to, and so forth. A brief interview, and then after a credible profession of faith has been heard from you, Then what we do is we ask you to stand before the congregation and answer four questions. You don't even have to make up your own profession of faith. We'll ask you the four most relevant questions, which if you say in the affirmative before these people, then you are joined to this congregation. Those questions are, do you believe the Bible to be the word of God and its plan of salvation to be the only true and infallible plan of salvation? Everyone's saying, yeah, I believe that. Okay. Secondly, do you believe that that Jesus Christ is your Savior and the only way that we can be saved. That it's only because of his shed blood that we're going to be counted right in God's sight. I believe that. Do you believe that he should be your Lord as well? That you should live a godly life? Yes, I do. And then finally, do you agree to submit to the government of this church? And in case you should be found wanting in doctrine or life, to heed its discipline. That is, will you be part of the body of Christ and its leadership? Well, yes, I will. And then those four points, having been affirmed, then we give you the right hand of fellowship and you become a member of the church. So the thing that you should be thinking about right now is an interview with our session, where we can just talk to you about your background and Christian profession. And what I have there is a sign-up sheet with some times given. The session has set aside next Saturday, May 31st, and Monday evening, June 2nd, so that those who are in this class will be able in the near future to have an interview. Then hopefully we'll have a large group of you join the church on one particular Sunday. Maybe three weeks from now we'll be able to do that. We're going to have these meetings in two places so that for your convenience you can choose where you wish to go. Time-wise you may wish to go to the more inconvenient geographical location, but next Saturday we'll be meeting at my home in Irvine from 8.30 in the morning till noon. And then on Monday evening, we'll be meeting up here in Placentia at Jim Andrus' home from 6 in the evening till however late it takes us, let's say 9 o'clock or so. So I'm going to pass around this piece of paper, and although we're going to be dismissed to go sink, please make sure you get hold of it if you're interested in an interview, and get your name down here for what seems most convenient for you, and we'll move right along here. I'm going to have that sort around and give you just the last minute. Have I not covered anything that you'd like to ask about? Any questions, Don? Yes, the question is about what are called charismatic gifts, prophecy, healing, tongues, and so forth, and they are spoken of in 1 Corinthians 11 to 14, 12, 13, and 14 in particular. The view of this church is that tongues and prophecy are revelatory gifts of the Holy Spirit, that what is said through the tongues or prophecy event is a revelation from God carries his authority, is inspired. We don't believe anyone has that inspired gift today, because we believe in the completion of the New Testament, God has stopped revealing himself, having given everything that is necessary for the Christian life. And consequently, though we believe Charismatics are our brothers in Christ, we don't see eye to eye with them as to the validity of those gifts in this day. As for healing, I believe God is continuing to heal people today, but I don't think the gift of healing has been given to anyone. And by the way, I work with charismatics at the high school where I teach, and I have plenty who are my friends and so forth. Not one of them will point me to someone who has the gift of healing once I say... Remember, the gift of healing is like what Peter had. He said, rise up and walk, and the man walks. If anyone has the gift of healing, we'll go to Hoag Hospital, take 10 random rooms, and we'll see the gift of healing at work. But I don't know one person who will claim that. They'll say, well, if they have faith, or if you just believe enough and so forth. Well, I believe in faith healing in that sense. I believe we can pray and someone can be healed. I've seen it happen. So, yeah, I certainly believe it. I don't believe the gift of healing, however, has been given to anyone after the apostolic generation. If we had time, and I have a six part or five part series on the charismatic gifts in our tape library you can study. I think it's provable from the New Testament that those gifts were intended for the foundational days of the church and the apostolic generation. Are we a charismatic church? not in the traditional or the customary sense, but we are a charismatic church. Because Paul says in the Greek, to every man has been given his charisma from God. Every Christian has a gift and talents to be used in his service, and we believe in their exercise, and so we're charismatic. But that doesn't mean we have tongue-speaking and prophecy meetings. This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute. Duplication, sharing and distribution is encouraged. For more information about the life and ministry of Dr. Greg L. Bonson, visit our website, www.bonsoninstitute.com, where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.