Okay, Psalm 87.3. Psalm 87.3. We are on week 11. And you guys know last week we talked about the church. And we're not finishing that. We're working on that again. This is so near and dear to my heart, and this is so, I think, misunderstood by many in the world today, and by obviously the world. Let me be more specific. It's misunderstood by many even in the Christian world, or at least professing to be the Christian world. So I'll start out with Psalm 87.3. Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God. We're working right now to give a Now listen how I'm about to say this, a Reformed Baptist understanding of the church, which I equate with Biblical. Those are synonyms. I told you weeks ago, I don't want to even have to use the word Reformed Baptist, I just want to use Biblical. But I know everybody in town is saying, well, we're Biblical, we're Biblical, we're Biblical. So I'm saying, this is what we mean by Biblical. A Reformed Baptist understanding of the church is Biblical. So we're working on a four-part outline. Last week we covered the principle of the church. Tonight, Lord willing, we cover the polity of the church. And then we'll get to the purpose of the church and the practice of the church. So the universal and local church principle, that's what we talked about last week, and how we don't want to separate those too much. Really, we have some people talk about the visible church, the invisible church, but really, I understand teasing that out a little bit and trying to work through all that, but really, as we approach the church and the scriptures, the universal church, the invisible universal church, if you will, has a visible, manifestation on earth in local churches. You understand? You can't separate those out too much. That's what we talked about last week. And we learned last time that the church is not an afterthought of God, but it's even seen in the Old Testament, and even our psalm that I just read is a great example. Again, verse 3. Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God. This is pointing to the church. Now, I want you to ask yourself why. Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God." How could I say that that is pointing to the church? Because, I mean, you understand that you don't get to just say anything is anything in the Scripture, right? You don't get to just say, well, whatever that verse is, it's talking about the church. You can't do that. You have to have reasons. Well, let me give you a reason in our text. Go down to verse 4. Among those who know me, I mention Rahab and Babylon, behold, Philistia and Tyre with Cush. This one was born there, they say. But of Zion, it shall be said, this one and that one were born in her. For the Most High himself will establish her. The Lord records as he registers the peoples. This one was born there. You know what he's talking about? What's it sound like he's talking about? He's talking about the nations, and he's saying in the nations, they'll say this one or that one was born in Arkansas, this one was born in Mexico, this one was born in Canada. But when it comes to this glorious city that I'm talking about, it will be said they're born there. What does that sound like to you? Yeah, it should. If you read your Bible and you know your Bible and you know what we believe, you think, That sounds a lot like being born again. Yes, it does. How can a person, having been born in Arkansas, have it also be said of them, they're born in Zion? Because they're born again. They're born again into the church, and they're born again because of the ministry of the church, which is the proclamation of the gospel. Not a single person has ever been born again outside the ministry of the proclamation of the gospel, which is the church's commission. Hopefully that makes sense. All of that was just review, okay? The principle of the church. Now, number two, the polity of the church. Polity, the polity. I want to take a survey. We won't do it. It was like, how many of you guys have used the word polity in a sentence in the last 20 years of your life? Probably most of you have not, but it is a biblical word. It comes from the Greek. You have probably heard of this Greek word polis, which is the Greek word for city. and the word politia comes from, well, I mean, that's the way the city, the citizens are ordered, organized, that's where we get the word politi, okay? It's closely related to words like policy, politics, My dad used to tell a joke in the arena, he said, politics comes from two words, poly, meaning many, and tics, meaning blood-sucking parasites. Actually, I grew up believing that, but it turns out... Turns out he wasn't right about the etymology, but maybe it fits. But what I'm saying is there's a foundation for this word polity. It comes from this idea of organization, okay? And so one definition, Millard Erickson, defines it as the organization or government structure of a local church or fellowship of churches. So tonight we're talking about the polity of the church, meaning we're talking about what? How the church is governed, how the church is organized, the polity of the church. Kevin Gardner writes in Table Talk Magazine, church polity is an area of church life that doesn't seem to affect us much until it does. But it is always there determining key things about how the church is run and who runs it. Okay. Did you know that there are different views within Christianity about how the church is to be structured? Okay? I'm going to give you three main views. Let's just have a pop quiz. Do you have one? There's three main views to church polity. Do you have one that you can think of? Alexander? Congregationalism? Was that you, Connell, going to say something? Yeah, the Amen should be running. But all three of these would say they are running according to the Bible, but they can't all be true. But Congregational is one. That's going to be the third one. We're going to get to that. Another one you know of? No? Okay. Okay, yeah, maybe like elder rule. Presbyterianism, yeah. So we got two. I'm gonna give you the first one. No one's got this one yet. Episcopalianism, that's fun to say, right? Episcopal. One time, this is true story too. I'm telling stories on my family. One time, my brother, he was a junior or senior in high school, and they were gonna play Little Rock Episcopal, and he asked one of his coaches, like, who is Little Rock Episcopal? and uh like no it's episcopal so episcopal what is episcopal episcopalianism uh it comes from the greek word episcopal for bishop and this type of church polity one defines it this way places the authority of the church in a united body of bishops So who does this sound like? Well, you have Rome, which you have the one bishop above many bishops, which obviously is in error. But there's other churches that have this kind of mentality. They are the Anglicans, the Episcopalians, obviously the Methodist, most Lutherans. This is their polity. That is that the authority of the church is in a united body of bishops. I don't care how well you know that one doesn't matter because it's not true. OK, number two. Presbyterianism. This comes from the Greek word Presbyteros, which means elder. So each one of these is claiming to be biblical, Connell. So the one Episcopal comes from the word for bishop. Presbyterian comes from the word presbyteros, for elder, and here's the definition. A system of church polity consisting of rule by elders or presbyters, this form of church government comprises a local session of elected elders from within a congregation, along with a teaching elder or minister who is called by the congregation and ordained by the presbytery, The Presbytery includes the teaching and ruling elders from a group of local congregations in a particular region. Above the Presbytery is the General Assembly, which has final authority in matters of church ordinance and governance, and generally convenes once a year, having representatives from all the Presbyteries in the country. Okay, the idea is this church, for example, if we were Presbyterian, we would have elders from the church, we'd have ruling elders and teaching elders, they distinguish between those, some who just have authority, some who teach, whatever. But then from among the many churches in the area, there would be a Presbytery, which is from some elders each, and they would be over all those churches, and then you have a higher one above all the Presbyteries, and you go up and up and up. maybe it's kind of maybe you kind of organize like the U.S. government or something okay so you have all the Presbyterian denominations so the PCA the OPC all that okay again you can study that out if you want I'm not going to teach on that one thirdly The third one, we're talking about the three main forms of church polity. The third one is the first answer that Alex gave, congregationalism. Okay, here's the definition. A form of ecclesiology that emphasizes the independent governing structures for the local church over the authority of denominations or synods. So here you have what Baptist, Reformed Baptist, Southern Baptist, Independent Baptist, Baptists in general are this form, but it's also Bible churches. It's also there was an old denomination, if you will, although not technically domination called Congregationalist. So Owen, John Owen, those sort of Jonathan Edwards, the Savoy Declaration. Anyway, we'd agree with them on church polity. Now, we're congregational, and let me just defend that, and there's a lot of places we could look, but I'm just going to mention one. So in the case of church discipline, turn to Matthew 18. In the case of church discipline. So here's what our Presbyterian brothers say a lot of times, and you know what? I think sometimes they have a point. But they say, wouldn't it be easier if you just had, let's say our church is going through something, and wouldn't it be easier if your church just had somebody over you to just come in and say, quit it. This is how you need to do it. Okay, I can be like, well, I guess that sounds, maybe that could be a good thing. What's the problem? Well, the problem is it's not biblical, right? It's not biblical. And so if you think it's a good thing, God doesn't think it's a good thing, and we should side with God, right? We want to believe what the scriptures say. So Matthew 18, for example, you know the whole, we've talked through this recently, but let me just say this, verse 17. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the Presbytery, right? No. The Episcopals. Tell it to the bishops. No, no, no. Tell it to the elders. Not even that, right? Tell it to what? The church. And listen, but don't miss it there. Tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the elders. No, the what? The church. Okay? It's to the church. Now, this is congregationalism. It's not because of our American background, we like to equate Congregationalism with pure democracy. It's not that, okay? But it is to be understood as the church as a whole is invested with, by God, the necessary instruments to govern itself under the headship of Christ. There is no authority above the church except Christ. Let me say that again for emphasis. What about the government? Okay, I understand there are certain aspects. For example, if the government comes in here and says, hey, look, you guys need to have one more exit in your church to be on par with fire code. Well, I don't think that we should say, No authority over it. No, we say, okay, we live in America. We live under the laws of this land. We're going to make another exit in order to meet fire code, okay? But if the government comes in here and says, look, y'all's pastors preach too long. And they say, you can't preach over 40 minutes. Well, what are we gonna say to that? Yes, sir. No, we're going to say, look, in those cases, there's no authority above us. What if another Baptist church comes and says, we don't like the way that you're doing things? Now, we'd be foolish not to listen if they're sincerely brothers in Christ. but they don't have an authority over us. Does that make sense? Each local church is its own church, okay? No other ecclesiastical authority. I'll read you two paragraphs from our confession that say it very well. I've already given you the scripture in just one example, but in in chapter 26, a beautiful chapter, longest chapter in our confession. Chapter 26, paragraph 4. The Lord Jesus is the head of the church in whom, by the appointment of the Father, all power for the calling, institution, order, or government of the church is invested in a supreme and sovereign manner. Neither can the Pope of Rome in any sense behead thereof, but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition, that exalts himself in the church against Christ and all that is called God, whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." Now, paragraph 7. To each of these, and I'm inserting the word here, local churches, because that's what it means, Therefore gathered, according to his mind, declared in his word, he has given all that power and authority which is in any way needful for their carrying on that order in worship and discipline, which he has instituted for them to observe, with commands and rules for the do and right, exerting and executing of that power." Okay, what is this saying? Someone give it to me in layman terms. It is saying that each church under the authority of Christ is invested with all that is essential to govern itself. Does that make sense to you? Not to govern itself however it wants, right? But what? To govern itself under the what? Under the authority of Christ which is given to us in His Word. And there are things that are Essential there are things that are cultural. Okay. Are we required to meet on Sunday to worship? Yes Are we required to meet at our time that we meet at 1030? Do we have to meet at 1030 to worship? No, that can be changed Who has the right to change that? The church now we do right so not only do we have the right but we also have not only had the right to govern ourselves We also have the way it's another our word Responsibility. So it's not just like, oh, I've got the right to, we also have the responsibility. And let me say this, hopefully this doesn't scare anybody, but let me just be honest. Pastor Jacob and I will give an account, right? We will give an account. But who else will give an account for the way that the church has done things? Who else? Yeah, each member of the church. That's with rights also come responsibilities. So you have a right, all right, but you also have the responsibility. Before I get into the further really in the outline, really the outline, let me read you a quote from Benjamin Keech. The beauty and glory of a true church consists in the true and regular constitution of it, nothing being lacking that is essential upon this account. Okay, so remember last week, three marks of a true church. What are they? The right preaching of the gospel, the practice of only two ordinances that are not justifying or regenerating ordinances, and the right practice of church discipline, which by the way, in church discipline, we have two aspects, formative, which is teaching, always should be happening, and then as necessary, corrective, which is restoration of those in error, or if it comes to it, sadly, but necessary, dismissal. So can a church get polity wrong and still be a true church? Yes. Okay? But, back to Benjamin Keech, the beauty and glory of a true church consists in the true constitution of it. For example, can you eat Twinkies every day, a whole box of Twinkies every day, and still be a human being? Yes. But eventually, you're going to be a miserable human being, and you're going to be quite an unhealthy human being, and you're not going to live life to its fullest. Okay, similarly, can you be a true church and mess up polity? Yes. But why would you want to? You understand? Why would you not want the beauty and the glory of the church to shine how it's supposed to? Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. So if we want to see the church shine most beautifully, then we need to see her ordered rightly according to the scriptures. Boy, all that. I'm just now really getting to the outline. We'll see where we get. That's fine. We're not in a rush. Okay, so number one. So we're talking about polity. Here's our outline. Number one, that you don't have. Membership. Membership. We're talking about polity. So number one, membership. Christ's kingdom on earth is the church. a spiritual kingdom. Not that it doesn't have impact beyond the spiritual, it does, but that it is a kingdom that consists in the joyful reign of Christ in the hearts of men. Jesus says in Nicodemus in John 3, 3 what? Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So one is not in the kingdom of Christ unless he is what? Born again. So the universal church is comprised of only those born again. Who comprises the body of Christ? Only those born again. So it is each local church's responsibility to make sure that her membership is comprised of who? Only those who are born again. Tom Askell says, only persons who give evidence of having become followers of Jesus Christ are entitled to membership in Baptist churches. Another quick example in Scripture, I'll say Ephesians 1.1 says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Who comprised the local church at Ephesus? Saints, the holy ones, those born again in seeking to live under the rule and the reign of Christ. Again, our confession, paragraph 5 and 6 of chapter 25. In the execution of this power wherewith He is so entrusted, the Lord Jesus calls out of the world unto Himself through the ministry of His Word by His Spirit those that are given unto Him by His Father, that they may walk before Him in all the ways of obedience which He prescribes to them in His Word. Those thus called, He commands to walk together in particular societies or churches for their mutual edification and the due performance of that public worship which He requires of them in the world. The members of these churches are saints by calling, visibly manifesting and evidencing, in and by their profession and walking, their obedience unto the call of Christ, and do willingly consent to walk together according to the appointment of Christ, giving up themselves to the Lord and one to another by the will of God in professed subjection to the ordinances of the gospel." Do you understand? What happens is, when you understand the gospel that Jesus Christ is your only source and hope of righteousness, that you stand guilty and condemned before a holy and good God. But Jesus Christ is the righteous One. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Truly God and truly man. Born of the Virgin and fulfilling all righteousness and keeping the law and then shedding His blood on Calvary under the wrath of God. dying for our sins, rising again the third day. When you understand that truth and the Holy Spirit calls you in an effectual way where you say, I'm running to Christ now. My eyes are open. My heart is broken for my sin, but I see that the solution to my problem, my only hope is Jesus Christ. When you rest in Him, you understand you are the epitome of foolish if you think that coming to Christ has no practical implications for then progressing to join and live your life in and with others who have experienced the same thing in what the Bible calls local churches. The membership of the church is comprised of only the regenerate. Okay? We require, of course here, the regenerate to be biblically baptized, which is baptism by immersion that takes place post-regeneration, after your regeneration. Church discipline also comes into play here because just like we want to make a good effort to see only the regenerate join, we also have to labor to fight sin together. And if someone shows themselves by the evidences afforded us to be unregenerate, then it is our responsibility to remove them from the role. That's all tied together. One of the hardest things in the Baptist world, and this was me growing up, I had no idea about this until I got older, removing someone from the role. Last I checked, the Southern Baptist Convention, listen, this is just mind-blowing to me, has over 70% of its members not coming to church. Let's make that easy. That means across the board, now each place is gonna vary. That means across the board, if your church has 100 members, how many are showing up? Less, yeah, less than 30. If your church has 1,000 members, that means less than 300 are showing up. This is in the largest Protestant denomination, if you want to call it denomination, in the United States, the Southern Baptist Convention. Because they don't understand regenerate church membership. One of the most basic Christian activities in your week is what? showing up to church right if someone not because of health reasons okay when I talk about this and I'm not among you I've dealt with questions like that here before but and I'm happy to answer them you know but if someone not because of health reasons or they're deployed overseas or whatever people like to bring up these exceptions but if someone consistently forsakes the local church they are showing themselves to not be born again okay And if after repeated attempts to win them back, they still refuse, then the church has the duty to do what? Remove them from the membership. Say, look, from all of the evidence afforded us, you're not a believer. Because one of the most, not the only thing, not the only thing, not the pinnacle of our walk with Christ, but one of the most basic realities of the Christian is we what? We go to church. And of course, this has application, obviously, beyond that to any pattern of sin. But John Owen says this, the whole church power is committed unto the whole church by Christ. So that's what I'm saying. What I'm saying is, first of all, membership is regenerate. Let me also say this. It may be a hard truth. It shouldn't be a hard truth for us. Maybe a hard truth. No wonder so many churches are in an unhealthy state. When you have, just think about it, think about the practical ramifications. When you have unregenerate people in the body, I mean, they're not really in the body, but you understand what I'm saying. You have unregenerate people who are now making decisions about what should happen in the church, and you have unregenerate people, we can talk to the pulpit, unregenerate people getting behind pulpits, and if you think to yourself, there's no way someone in a conservative church could be unregenerate behind the pulpit. It's absolutely true. We have deacons who are unregenerate. We have people on committees who are unregenerate. Now, if that's true, is there any wonder why so many churches are in shambles, right? It's not the way. Why so many churches don't know what to do when it comes to music, right? It's like, I don't know if I'm actually at a church or am I at a nightclub. I can't tell the difference. I'm not saying that to be funny, because it's not funny, and it's actually heartbreaking. But here's the reason why, they don't get membership right. So if you're just saying, well, it's just a little bit review and whatever, yeah, yeah, yeah, we believe in Regenerate Church membership. Don't let that pass over you so fast and stop and think for just a second how vital it is that a local church holds to the biblical practice of Regenerate Church membership. Believers, okay? We'll get to that in the text Sunday as well. Questions, comments, that, and I'll go to the next point. Okay, second point. We've talked about membership. Number two, management. I could make this one really long. I'll try to keep it brief. The management of the church. We acknowledge two offices in the church. What are they? Yeah, elders and deacons. Actually, it's interesting. The most common word that we typically use is the word pastor. The most common word the New Testament uses is elders. I'm not saying that we have to always say elders, pastors, fine, pastor what we're used to, I like the word pastor. But pastor, more often than not, I think it's used as a noun once, but more often than not, it's used as a verb. What does it mean, what is a pastor in the verbal sense? Shepherd, yeah, very good. So pastors and deacons, elders and deacons. So in the New Testament, you're gonna come across these words, elders, bishops, pastors, overseers. They are all one office. They are different words for the one office of elder or pastor. And they all just kind of give a little bit different aspect of the office. These men who are pastors, these men, I don't say that in the general sense of these persons, but particularly these men, right? I believe unapologetically that both pastors and deacons they're required to be men. And that's not even an argument here, I get it. But these men are required to live holy and exemplary lives. They must have a call of God to the office. And that call must be publicly recognized and affirmed by the church. They must be gifted to teach. In other words, someone can't come around, even Pastor Jacob didn't do this, I didn't do this. You can't come around and say, you know, I'm called to be a pastor. And then you say, well, who called you? And you say, well, God called me. So why can't argue with that? Okay, you're a pastor now. You can't do that. That call is to be affirmed, publicly recognized and affirmed by the church. They must be gifted to teach, as I said. I'm just going to read one verse here, Hebrews 13, 17. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. So the elders of the church have a responsibility of oversight for the souls of the congregation. to love them, to pray for them, to disciple them, to confront them when necessary, whether it's doctrinal error or moral error, to visit them. And one day, your elders will stand before God and they will give an account for Mani's soul. For Cheyenne's soul. Right? They will give an account. It's just a reality. The church has the responsibility to care for them, to listen to them, to love them, to hold them accountable. And it's no advantage to a church to make the labor of pastors difficult. It does not serve you in any way. If you say, man, what? Surely nobody's thinking about this. But if you think to yourself, what can I do to make Pastor Jacob and Pastor Quatro's job more difficult? How can I be more difficult to shepherd? That is no advantage to you, okay? It's no advantage to anyone. So you consider these things. Now the offices of pastors and deacons in the churches in the New Testament are, across the board, filled by a plurality. Now it's interesting today, no one seems to argue about plurality of deacons. If you say, I think each church should have a plurality of deacons, no one argues. But when you talk about plurality of elders, people get, I don't know, bent out of shape. The churches in the New Testament were led by a plurality of elders, and they were served by a plurality of deacons. A couple of verses to mention, Acts 14, 23. And when they had pointed, this is the verb, sorry, the nouns are important here. When they had pointed elders, is that singular or plural? Plural, not a trick question. Acts 14, 23. And when they had pointed elders, plural, for them in every church, is that singular or plural? Church. Singular. So when they had appointed elders, which is what? Not a trick question. Plural. In every church, which is singular. So plural elders in singular church. Does that make sense? And when they had done that, with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they believed. Philippians 1.1. Paul and Timothy, who is the book of Philippians to? The church at Philippi. Philippi Baptist Church. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints of Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers. Plural or singular? Plural. And deacons. That's in the text. Plural or singular? Plural. So, church singular to be served by plural elders, plural deacons. Deacons are set apart by the church to serve the physical needs of the church so that the pastors can be better free to labor in the Word of God in prayer. Deacons are not on equal authority as pastors. Nor are they designed to be in conflict with the pastors in any way. Deacons are to be holy men called by God with exemplary lives, like pastors, to help take care of day-to-day issues that arise in the church, whether that's health issues, financial issues, building issues, some sort of physical needs. That's why you have deacons. You have deacons. Oftentimes in Baptist churches, deacons are seen as overseers. They're the ones that make sure everything, they're just running the whole show. But actually, in the New Testament biblical model, you have pastors who are responsible to oversee, to care for the souls of the church, and you have deacons that are responsible to serve alongside the pastors and under the authority and direction of the pastors in order to free the pastors up so that they can what? Lower their golf handicap. Kill the big buck deer. No, so that they have time to spend in the Word of God and prayer. You understand? It is Christ's design that the offices of pastors and deacons work in beautiful harmony. The pastors oversee the church, the deacons come alongside the pastors, help them to stay focused on caring for souls. Can you not see how beautiful God's design is in this? You know why so many churches run awry in this area? It's because we just don't believe it. And part of it is because of church members, part of it is because of pastors, part of it is because of deacons. There's not just one group that you can say was their fault. It's just we don't believe it, we don't trust it. Let me say something else about deacons. The deacon's role does not take away from the responsibility of members to love and care for one another, okay? or the pastor's role either. So for example, you see sin in someone's life, you can't say, well, that's Pastor Jacob's job. Or you see someone with a flat tire, well, that's a deacon's job. No. All of this works beautifully when each part is working properly. Pastor and deacons are not the rulers, but leaders. Pastors leading in oversight and direction, deacons leading in example by serving. Now this brings up a big giant pink elephant in the room. What is that? We don't got deacons. I think we need to correct that. So let's correct it tonight. No, I'm joking. That's not how that works. We don't have deacons right now. That's obvious. So let's own it. We're not as healthy as we could be. True or false? It's true. If the churches in the New Testament did not have or had a plurality of pastors and a plurality of deacons, that means that any local church that does not have a plurality of elders and a plurality of deacons is not as healthy as it could be. Am I saying that we're an unhealthy church? No. Am I saying that a church that only has one pastor and plurality of deacons, am I saying they're unhealthy? No, I've been accused of that. I'm not saying that. They might be, okay? But there are a variety of reasons sometimes why you might only have one pastor for a season. But should not the goal be to have our churches, each local church... Remember, back to the beginning, we are governing ourselves, okay? So Providence doesn't get to go tell someone else how they do it. We're governing ourselves But we're governing ourselves under what? The Lordship of Christ. So you don't just, so I've heard people say stuff like that. You don't just get to say, well, I just don't think we need plurality of elders. And you don't get to say, well, you know what, Providence Baptist Church, we don't need deacons. Like you don't get to say that kind of stuff because it's in the Word of God. Pastor Jacob and I have been praying about this for years. You guys know that, I mean, it's no, I mean, we don't even have to say it, but the way that our deacons, that we lost our deacons was a hard, heavy thing for our church. And so we've been slow to figure out, well, what direction we need to go. But Pastor Jacob, I have read, we've read things, we've prayed, we've talked, we've had actually lots of talks. And we've talked about that we're not far away from Acts 6 in preaching through Acts and to even make this a focus and a goal that when we get there in Acts 6 won't be long, but even a focus and a goal in 2026 uh, that maybe by the end of the year, I don't know, we'd be ready to say, okay, these men in our church are deacons. I mean, unless the Lord makes it clear before then, but what you should look for in a deacon, you should go read first Timothy three, but you should look for a D in a deacon is a man that's called by God to that office. a man that is a holy man. He's mature in the faith. He's able to steward that. He's a trustworthy man. He's exemplary in his conduct. He's exemplary in his attitude to the church. And you almost would look at this man's life and you would say, if we were to say someone, we want to put so-and-so forth for a deacon, that someone visiting would say, oh, I thought they were a deacon already. And why would they say that? I've seen it what you never want to happen in church if we say I'll use myself for example we never won't happen in church you say well you know Alan he's a he's a deacon first of all he's only here once a month secondly I see him all out in town I know what he acts like down you know that's not That's no, and I just put it this way, and I think you all feel the same way. I refuse to allow that, okay? So let us pray and let us seek the Lord as it comes to deacons. So membership and management, and the last point. Okay, we're just gonna get through it. We're going to, we got a couple minutes, I'll get to it. Last point, meetings. Membership, management, meetings. We're gonna have a whole lesson on this in a few weeks on the regulative principles, so I don't really have to cover as much as I want tonight. But I'm gonna just say that our meetings must be structured according to what? the Bible. Okay. And so we meet on the first day of the week, because that's the day Jesus rose from the dead. It's the Lord's Day. It's the Christian Sabbath. We're required to meet that day. We're required. We can meet other days. This coming December, so in a month, less than a month, we're going to meet on Thursday morning FOR A CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION. WE'RE ALLOWED TO DO THAT. WE CAN DO THAT. WE HAVE THE FREEDOM TO DO THAT. WE'RE NOT REQUIRED TO DO THAT. AND BY THE WAY, I CAN'T REQUIRE ANY OF YOU TO COME TO THAT MEETING. I CAN'T SAY, WELL, WE'RE GOING TO MEET FOR A CHRISTMAS MORNING MEETING BECAUSE WE WANT TO WORSHIP THE LORD TOGETHER THAT DAY, AND I CAN'T SAY TO YOU, YOU HAVE TO BE THERE. I HOPE THAT YOU WILL COME. BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE HERE. YOU MAY HAVE OTHER PLANS ALREADY. THAT'S UNDERSTANDABLE. BUT IF CHRISTMAS FALLS ON A SUNDAY, YOU HAVE TO BE HERE. Right? What's going to happen if I don't? Well, I mean, you'll be forsaking the assembling of yourselves. You'll be in sin with the Lord. So we have to meet when and in the manner that the Lord says. Let me also mention within our meetings, because I really haven't talked about these yet, we observe the two ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism is only for the regenerate and the Lord's Supper is only for those who have been baptized. These ordinances are not justifying or regenerating ordinances, but they are sanctifying, so don't miss that. God graciously strengthens and grows His people's faith through these ordinances. So if you've been one that's looked before and you say, well, it's Lord's Supper, whatever, no big deal. You know God sanctifies His people, He strengthens them, encourages them through the ordinances. You know when someone's gonna get baptized, well, first of all, God strengthens and encourages and sanctifies them, but also He sanctifies the church. when we observe baptism. Tom Hicks writes, Baptism and the Lord's Supper are also important for church discipline. Baptism is front door discipline in as much as only those who credibly profess faith in Christ may receive baptism. And baptism precedes church membership. The Lord's Supper is part of the church's formative discipline. It is part of the formative discipline because it is a means of grace through which the Spirit forms believers more and more into Christ's likeness. It is part of corrective discipline because the church should withdraw table fellowship from members who walk in a disorderly way, violating their profession of faith. Also, I'll mention this about the ordinances, and then we're going to close. Since the ordinances are given to the church and not just individual Christians, it's a very logical step to believe that it's the pastors who administrate the ordinances. Because the ordinances are church ordinances, they're not individual. You don't get to run to your house and say, okay, in family worship tonight, we're going to have the Lord's Supper. No, it's a local church ordinance, so that's why we believe qualified men, the elders, are responsible to oversee them. So this is a brief overview of polity. Whirlwind, fire hydrant, drink at night, right? But to be clear, let me say this. Church polity is not a side issue, okay? It comes down to this as Reformed Baptists. Do we acknowledge King Jesus gets to rule his own house the way that he has designed? What would you do? That's the thing about Alex with this. What would Alex do if he goes home this evening and he says, you know, he's about to sit down or something and Rory stands up and says, you know what, dad, we're going to start running the house the way I want. That's not what I can just tell you. Don't do it, Rory. That's not going to fly in the Osborne household, nor should it. Then why do we think it should fly in the Lord's house? Who do we think that we are to say, you know what, this is just how we've always done it, and this is just how we're going to do it. So does the bride have to submit to her husband, or do men get to overrule Christ with man-made hierarchies, with traditions? When we get polity right, the church begins to look more and more like Psalm 87, that city on a hill where it is said, glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Let's be that city. Providence Baptist Church. Let's be that city.