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If you have a physical copy,
open up the Westminster Standards to the former Presbyterial Church
Government. It's on page 583 in a teal version
that we typically use. If you don't have it, you can
get it at a Puritan's Mine by going to the Westminster Standards
there and pulling up the Presbyterial Former Church Government. I'm
sure you can find it easily if you just Google it on your phone
quickly, something like that. On the version that we have,
that we typically use, the printed one, one of the things that's
neat is that it has the original front page about it as well,
which is the title, The Form of Presbyterial Church Government
and an Ordination of Ministers, agreed upon by the Assembly of
Divines at Westminster, with the assistance of commissioners
from the Church of Scotland, as a part of the Covenant of
Uniformity. Oh, there's that phrase. See, I didn't make it
up. as a part of the covenant of uniformity in religion, betwixt
the churches of Christ in the kingdoms of Scotland, England,
and Ireland, with an act of the General Assembly, Anno 1645,
approving the same. Now, there's a text of scripture
that's put there at the bottom, Ezekiel 43, verse 11, which is
a beautiful verse, and let me read that to you. And if they
be ashamed of all that they have done, Show them the form of the
house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and
the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the
laws thereof, and write it in their sight, that they may keep
the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do
them. In the context, that verse from
Ezekiel is talking about the construction of the great temple
that is described in the book of Ezekiel. That temple was built
after the destruction of the first, right? The first temple,
the Solomonic temple, was destroyed in 586 BC. And the destruction of the temple
by Babylon resulted, as you know, in the later rebuilding of the
temple. And that first rebuilding of the temple with Ezra is something
that we have read about, but there's more that we need to
get back to in Ezra, the last couple chapters there. But the other thing is that there's
this idea that the initial building of the temple was much smaller
than what was described in the book of Ezekiel. And the temple
described in the book of Ezekiel that was rebuilt ultimately gets
its final glorious kind of condition just in time for Christ to get
there when Herod, called Herod the Great, not particularly great,
not a great guy, but Herod, called the Great, is the one who kind
of finishes off this glimmering white huge temple as is described
in Ezekiel. and it gets destroyed in 70 AD.
Why would our fathers in the faith begin this booklet about
the government of the church with a verse about the temple?
The reason is because they understood that the temple was a type that
pointed to the church. And so what they're doing is
they're taking this statement about a physical temple and its
administration and applying it typologically to Christ and his
body, the church. And so here is what this is.
So let's think about this. If you're ashamed of the things
that you do in the church, Remember, look to the scriptures.
Show the church the form of the house. Show the world the form
of the house. What is the form that the Lord
of the church has given for the church? And the fashion of it. What manner of working is done
there? And the goings out thereof and
the comings in, the activity of the church. And all the forms
of that activity. And all the laws of the church.
and write it in their sight, make it public, that they may
keep the whole form thereof and all the ordinances of the church
and do all the ordinances of the church. So these are the
ordinances from scripture about what the church is supposed to
do. That's the idea. So that's what's begun here. So now they're saying we've written
out an effort to talk about what the church is supposed to do.
Now, there's a preface that I would really encourage you to read.
It talks a little bit about the history. It talks about the National
Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant and the Westminster
Assembly. And it talks about their desire
to deal with offices, including what they call a doctor or teacher
and a pastor and presbyteries and the role of people in calling
of ministers and all of that. So those things are laid out
as emphases in that preface. But past that, they then go on
to this idea of the form of the church. I want to read you the
preface here, because it sets the whole tone of the rest. Jesus Christ, upon whose shoulders
the government is, whose name is called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, of the increase
of whose government and peace there shall be no end, who sits
upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it
and to establish it with judgment and justice from henceforth even
forever. Having all power given unto him
in heaven and in earth by the Father, who raised him from the
dead and set him at his own right hand, far above all principalities
and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named,
not only in this world, also in that which is to come, and
put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over
all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of
him that fills all in all, colon. Look in vain for periods before
then. He, being ascended up far above
all heavens, that he might fill all things, received gifts for
his church and gave officers necessary for the edification
of his church and perfecting of his sense. you will find that those are
almost all sort of illusions or quotes of scripture. The supremacy of Christ in the
church as its king. Go to the next section of the
church. there is one general church visible
held forth in the New Testament. So, in other words, there's one
church, one visible church, not just, Protestants are very quick
to emphasize the oneness of the invisible church. Praise the
Lord, absolutely. There's one invisible church,
all of the elect, but there's also one visible church, there's
a unity a visible unity in the visible
church. Now that visible unity can be
more or less mature. The mature form of it is having
organizational unity where you have forms that are shared. A confession of faith, a constitution
for government, a form of worship. And that unity, that visible
unity in the church causes the witness of the church to be more
powerful. Christ prays for it in John 17.
The disunity of doctrine, the disunity of government, the disunity
of worship causes people to mock at the church of God. It is something that we ought
to be zealous for, to seek unity. In seeking unity, you will find
there are many offenses that come along the way. There are
many slaps to the cheek, and that's why you have two. There
are many times when people will spit upon you or mock you or
do all sorts of things to seek to undermine the ability to build
out the visible church. And it is our duty to be willing
to suffer wrongs in seeking to come to unity. And we must be
willing to see the unity of the body of Christ as something that's
worth suffering private wrongs for, and even sometimes public
wrongs. There is one general church visible
held forth in the New Testament. The proof text for that in 1st
Corinthians 12 is, for as the body is one and has many members,
and all the members of that one body being many are one body,
so also is Christ. For by one spirit we are, we
are, by one spirit are we all baptized into one body. Whether
we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have
been all made to drink into one spirit. And God has set some
in the church, first apostles, second prophets, thirdly teachers,
after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments,
diversities of tongues. Okay, so notice the connection
in the church to these offices. Are all officers elect? Was Judas
elect? Was he a true apostle? He was
a true apostle. He was not elect. You can be a true officer in
the true visible church and not be elect. You can have real gifts
of the Holy Spirit. I didn't say you could be saved.
Saving faith is not one of those gifts that you can lose. You
can have other gifts besides saving faith and you cannot be
elect. If you believe the gospel, if
you believe that Jesus Christ has paid for your sins and that
his righteousness covers you, if you believe that There's nothing
else that you have to do because Jesus has done it and saved you. If you believe that, you are
a part of the invisible church. You're elect. You're saved. If
you believe his word is true, though you don't understand it
all, you might say, I believe a little, but not a lot. There are many things I don't
know and not sure are true. then you should pray, Lord, I
believe, help my unbelief. But the visible church, the visible
church is those who profess the true religion and those who are
under them in the household. And so we have a unity of the
visible church and officers are to be acknowledged, whether they're
elect or not, we don't know. You deal with them according
to the externals. There's one general church visible
held forth in the New Testament. The ministry oracles and ordinances
of the New Testament are given by Jesus Christ to the general
church visible for the gathering and perfecting of it in this
life until his second coming. Particular visible churches,
members of the general church, are also held forth in the New
Testament. So there's this idea that individual
persons are part of the general church visible, and also regional
churches and particular local churches are. So you think about
this universal visible church. It's all those who profess the
true religion and their households. And you think about there are
churches, national churches, regional churches, local particular
churches, that are all a part of that visible church. And you
start to see the form and order and beauty of the Church of Christ
throughout the world and its fragmentedness. And the fact
that there are small units and large units that are scattered
about and not coordinating, not functioning together. And you
start to think, if this were an army, And you were commanding
some unit. Wouldn't you start to go, in
order for us to really get combat effectiveness, we need to start
linking up and concentrating units and figuring out how to
get that group to work together so we can coordinate and communicate
and advance together. You go, there's a lot of units
here. We need to see that. You see how much more powerful
a fighting force is when it's unified and coordinated as opposed
to fragmented. One of the great principles of
warfare when you're trying to defeat an enemy is to divide
and conquer, to defeat in detail, piece by piece, rather than having
to face a foe all at once. Part of the work of Christ is
to seek to unify by unifying in doctrine and leading
into the unifying of forms. So as you argue about doctrine,
arguing about doctrine is an effort to seek to bring about
visible unity. Sometimes people want to unify
by a process of seeking a lowest common denominator and throwing
away the advances the church has made in history, throwing
away precious truths. The church exists for the truth.
The truth does not exist for the church. We have no right
to throw away the truth in order to seek greater visible unity. It is our duty to care about
the truth, and in caring about the truth, seeking to increase
the witness of the truth by seeking greater unity. It is easy to
throw away our fellow saints and to say, this is too hard,
this is too much trouble, this is not worth it. That is not the case. Particular visible churches,
members of the general church, were also held forth in the New
Testament. Particular churches in the primitive times were made
up of visible saints, of such as, being of age, professed faith
in Christ and obedience unto him, according to the rules of
faith and life taught by Christ and his apostles, and of their
children. I don't have time to deal with
the membership of the Church, including children at this time,
but it was so in the Old Covenant. And in the New Covenant, we are
taught in 1 Corinthians 7, verse 14, that the children of saints
are clean. They're holy. The word holy,
used in 1 Corinthians 7, verse 14, is often translated saint.
They're holy. They're saints. They're visible
saints. We don't know if they're elect
or not, but they are visibly a part of the church. Now, the officers of the church is
on the next page, 590, of the officers of the church. The officers
which Christ has appointed for the edification of this church
and the perfecting of the saints are some extraordinary as apostles,
evangelists, and prophets which are ceased Others ordinary and
perpetual as pastors, teachers, and other church governors and
deacons. So that idea of pastors, teachers,
and other church governors, this is the principal place where
you would have concern, or I would have concern, about the form
of government. If pastors and teachers are the
same office simply dividing up some work, I have no problem
with that, except I don't want to steal the title of teacher
from pastors. The title of teacher, there are
four titles that you find in the scriptures as regards the
office of elder. There's the office elder itself,
which points to its maturity. There's teacher, which points
to the prophetic work of teaching doctrine. There's pastor or shepherd,
which points to the work of caring in relationship and maintaining
holy boundaries and maintaining covenant. And then there's the
title of bishop or overseer. Okay, so those four titles belong
to every elder. Every elder is an elder who is
called to teach, who is called to pastor, who is called to oversee. And so to divide those away is
something I'm concerned about because I don't want to tear
asunder what Christ has put together, all of those powers and duties
in one office. Now, to have some people focus on one work versus
another more is totally fitting. The division of labor is appropriate,
and people have different giftings. And so to divide up labor and
to deal with that is appropriate, but it's important to never deny
that. So that's my concern here. So as we think about these things,
the other thing is, what are the other church governors? And
typically, the way that this is talked about is as the idea
of a ruling elder, an elder that doesn't teach, who's not a pastor. So this is the principal concern
for the form of Presbyterial Church government. We would want
to say that those are one office, and there are other church governors.
Here's the example of other church governors. In an unsettled condition,
you sometimes have what are called messengers, and messengers are
men who are sent to Presbyteries who are not elders, but who are
filling in the role of an elder while a church is in an unsettled
or immature state. That's why, for example, in Acts
chapter 15, you have apostles sitting in the council, you have
elders sitting in the council, and you have brothers sitting
in the council. They all sign off on this decrees
because they're all sitting in the council together because
there were some churches that didn't yet have a plurality of
elders to be able to send two or three witnesses to be able
to deal with that council. That's what happened there. So the office of pastor. It's
talked about here, and it says, as we consider the pastor shortly
when he comes, I'd like you to think about the work of this,
and we'll be looking at him and interacting with him as a fellow
pastor. I believe we're thinking about
him and his congregation in this role. The pastor is an ordinary
and perpetual office in the church, prophesying of the time of the
gospel. First, it belongs to his office.
to pray for and with his flock as the mouth of the people and
to God. And it gives texts out of Acts to demonstrate that and
says, where preaching and prayer are joined as several parts of
the same office. The office of the elder, that
is the pastor, notice there they use the title of elder to refer
to the pastor because it's so plain in the scriptures that
the elder is a pastor and pastors are elders. is to pray for the
sick, even in private, to which a blessing is especially promised.
Notice they're referencing there the James text. It talks about
that with the anointing of oil and praying for the sick. That's
what they're referencing. Much more, therefore, ought he to
perform this in the public execution of his office as a part thereof.
To read the scriptures publicly for the proof of which One, that
the priests and Levites in the Jewish church were trusted with
the public reading of the word as proved. So there's a number
of proof texts that are attached there that show that the Levites
and the priests, footnote six, their duty to read the word of
God. Notice how beautiful this is,
that their concern in laying out how the government of the
church is to function is they're trying to, most of this language
is language proving the point. Arguing from Scripture. One of
the beautiful things that, at the conference we were at this
week, Senator Deavers, who's also a pastor in a Reformed Baptist
church, he was talking about how, as a senator, his desire
in the Oklahoma State Senate is to never put forward a law
or bill except those things that he can prove are already legislated
by God. because he doesn't believe that
legislators have the right to invent laws to impose on men. The same is true in the church.
Now there are some principles of order in terms of like what
time do you show up or what method do you use to file or whatever.
There's some things where you have to make a decision. Those
are called circumstances where it's necessary to do is you have
to make decisions about the function of order. But in terms of which
laws, which things to hold as obligatory and what to do with
them in terms of how to penalize. Those are things he's saying
he has no right to invent. So that's true in the state and
it's true in the church. And so all this time and effort
to lay out argumentation for what's supposed to be done is
a beautiful and humble act of the Westminster Assembly. So one, that the priests and
Levites in the Jewish church were trusted with the public
reading of the word is proved. Two, that the ministers of the
gospel have as ample a charge and commission to dispense the
word as well as other ordinances as the priests and Levites had
under the law, proved, and then there's a reference to Isaiah
and to Matthew, where our Savior entitles the officers of the
New Testament whom he will send forth by the same names of the
teachers of the old. That argument right there is
a connection from an Old Testament office of priests and Levites
and this idea that in the New Testament, the officers that
exist, that there's a connection. Now, I want to show you this
because this is very important for understanding the continuation.
The understanding that the Levites are replaced by deacons and that
priests are replaced by elders in the church is important. But
we also, as Protestants, believe in the priesthood of all believers.
So there's not a mediatorial priesthood that stands between
the church congregants and God. We are all priests after the
order of Melchizedek. But the priests held certain
church government functions that still do transfer over. So we
find that here. So look at footnote seven. 7 Isaiah 66 verse 21, and I will
also take of them for priests and for Levites, says the Lord.
What's happening in Isaiah 66 is he's talking about the Gentiles.
This is a prophecy about the nations being brought in to the
church. And so he's going to make priests
and Levites out of the nations. What does that mean? Does that
mean he's literally going to bring them into the Levitical
tribe? and make them literally a part of the Aaronic priesthood
established by Moses? No. We are taught elsewhere,
which is in Hebrews, that there's a passing away of the Levitical
priesthood. And the tribe of Levi, it's not
that there's intermarriage into the tribe of Levi, whereby sons
become Levites serving in some public way. It's not about a
genealogical connection to the tribe of Levi. It is the function
and duty of the Levites that will be given to men out of every
nation. It is the function and duty of
priests the teaching of the Word, the administration of sacraments,
leading the people in prayer, that will be taken over by men
out of every nation. So that's what's being referenced
there. Now Matthew 23 verse 34 says, Wherefore, behold, I send
unto you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some of them
you shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall you scourge
in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city. So this
idea that there's a way in which there's prophecy from the Old
Testament, and a way in which there's this transitioning out
of the Old Testament into the New, where there's interconnectedness
between the Church of the Old Covenant and the Church of the
New Covenant. Back to the main thing, just
after point two. Propositions prove that, therefore, the duty
being of a moral nature, it follows by just consequence that the
public reading of the scriptures belongs to the pastor's office
to feed the flock by preaching of the word according to which
he is to teach, convince, reprove, exhort, and comfort. To catechize,
which is a playing laying down the first principles of the oracles
of God or of the doctrine of Christ and is a part of preaching. to dispense other divine mysteries,
to administer the sacraments, to bless the people from God.
Quoting from numbers regarding the Levitical blessing that we
end our service with normally, compared with Revelation 14.5,
where the same blessings and persons from whom they come are
expressly mentioned, Isaiah 66.21, were under the names of priests
and Levites to be continued under the gospel are meant evangelical
pastors, who therefore are by office to bless the people, to
take care of the poor. And he is also a ruling power
over the flock as a pastor. So notice that listing out of
duties. This is a listing out of the duties of pastors. When
you flip forward, you find that you have to go through about
three pages of proof texts to just deal with that one page.
And the proof texts are in much smaller font. Now when you get to the office
of doctor, teacher, it says the scriptures do hold forth, the
scripture does hold forth the name and title of teacher as
well as of the pastor. who is also a minister of the
word as well as the pastor and has power of administration of
the sacraments. The Lord having given different
gifts and diverse exercises according to these gifts in the ministry
of the word. Though these different gifts
may meet in and accordingly be exercised by one and the same
minister, yet where be Several ministers in the same congregation,
they may be designed to several employments according to the
different gifts in which each of them does most excel. And
he that does more excel in exposition of scripture, in teaching sound
doctrine, and in convincing gainsayers, that's arguing with people who
disagree and bringing them to agreement, that he does in application,
that he does in application, and is accordingly employed therein
may be called a teacher or doctor. The places alleged by the notation
of the word do prove the proposition. Okay, so this idea here is that
one of the duties of an elder is to exposit the scriptures,
teach sound doctrine, and convince people who disagree. And there's
this idea that some people who are elders are better at that
than they are at helping people in application, the practical
details of things, and perhaps you might associate that with
exhorting. So in other words, there's some people who have
a more prophetic set of giftings for arguing, and some people
who are better at helping to apply to bring stuff about in
terms of a kingly gifting, to help to lead and apply and give
the details and help to exhort people on. That's plainly true. Some people are better at one
than the other. And so the division of labor as to what is going
to be focused on by different elders, totally appropriate.
Now, at the same time, it says, nevertheless, where is but one
minister in a particular congregation, he is to perform, as far as he's
able, the whole work of the ministry. So sometimes you have to put
up with a guy who's mediocre at one part and hopefully better
than mediocre at the other. And so you have this idea of
one person trying to deal with those things, but the mature
condition would typically be that you have multiple elders,
some that are better at application and exhortation, and some that
are better at laying out systematic dealing with doctrine, some that
are better in analyzing the word as it's laid out, and the idea
of giving argumentation to help to convince gainsayers. So that
work, Then it says, a teacher or doctor is of most excellent
use in schools and universities, as of old in the schools of the
prophets and at Jerusalem, where Gamaliel and others taught as
doctors. So this form of government, one of our concerns is this idea
that not only is the elder one office, and we're fine with the
division of labor, but the idea that universities or schools
be set up If what's meant there is merely the setting up of classes
under the supervision of the church to train future officers,
that's fine. If what's meant there is what
we think of as the modern university separated out from the church,
not under its authority, and something that's kind of ongoing
with an accredited system, handing out of diplomas, and dealing
with federal grants, and all that kind of stuff, then no.
Now, obviously, there weren't federal grants and there weren't
those sort of separated existences at the time this was written,
but there were universities already that were separate from the control
of the church. And so that idea of universities that are controlled
by the state and are not a part of the church is something that
I'm very desirous to avoid being brought in. So that's one of
the things that we'd want to have clarity in if we were to
adopt the Presbyterian form of government is the union of the
office of elder, that it's one office And the other thing, that
universities are not some distinct and independent thing set up
by God that's outside of the church that, for some reason,
church officers are having a special role in. So, that right there,
those are the principal things as to why we have not adopted
the Presbyterian form of government, but you also see there's much
excellence laid out in this, much excellent work of our forefathers
in the faith. And so it's our duty, when covenant
of uniformity has been attained by our forefathers in the faith,
to seek to acknowledge what's good and to seek to, with a scalpel
of a surgeon and not with the hatchet of a lumberjack, to seek
to make the correction where necessary. So sometimes that's
simply by adding a footnote or an asterisk to explain how we
understand something. And other times it might be a
need to reform a document and to change wording. But that's
the main thing. So as we come into this, and
we've expressed, we've already talked to pastors shortly about
those things, and he You have no problem with that and also
think that it's good to work through the historical documents
and to have as much as we can. And so the things to discuss
with pastors shortly as we think about those things, I want to
read one more section to you of Church Governors, but I want
to talk to you about a little bit about the idea of the process
of fraternal relations. But let's look at one more thing
here. Go to the next page, page 596. about other church governors. As there were in the Jewish church
elders of the people joined with the priests and Levites in the
government of the church, so Christ, who has instituted government
and governors ecclesiastical in the church, has furnished
some in his church beside the ministers of the word with gifts
for government and with circumcision. Sorry, with commission. Sorry,
I was thinking Old Testament symbols. and with commission
to execute the same when called thereunto, who are to join with
the minister of the government of the church, which officers
reform churches commonly call elders." So this idea that this
is the argument here is that there are Old Testament elders,
and there's Old Testament priests, and the pastor has replaced the
Old Testament priest, but the office of elder simply continues
forward. That's the argument. The problem
is that the New Testament gives qualifications for us for the
elder in church office, and it does not differentiate between
the teaching office and the non-teaching office. And so that being the
case, there is not a sufficient basis to try to differentiate
the two, but instead to understand that the elimination of a separate
priest class is what has actually happened, and the elders take
on a responsibility to do the public teaching and the administration
of the sacraments and prayer, and to do that, not having a
distinctive priest class. That is what I would put forward
to you. And so that's the places that
we'd want to deal with. There's some things at the end
about the qualifications of the pastorate that I'll talk to you
about in just a moment. But let me pause in running through
this. Let me talk to you about fraternal
relations. We have a general duty as Christians
to acknowledge other people who profess the Reformed faith. So
you go around and you're looking for, do we have the same doctrine?
Do we have the same worship? Do we have the same government?
And you're looking for minimal validity. We've talked about
how to acknowledge people's profession, we have the Solas, Tulip, Trinity
Incarnation, the representation by Christ and Adam in the covenants. These are things that we tried
to use, sort of minimal things to say we have the same gospel.
To say that we agree that when God gives a commandment, it's
our duty to obey it, that the law of God tells us good and
evil, is how you acknowledge Christ as Lord. That right there,
there are millions of people in America who would agree with
those things, who have the true gospel and acknowledge Christ
as Lord in that way. Many of them disagree with us
about many details of worship and government. And those are
things that we would pray there'd be resolution on over time. But
we must acknowledge when those people have the profession of
the true gospel and a profession of the authority of the law,
we want to try to deal with them in a charitable manner and to
deal with them in a way where we cover sins as much as we can
to seek to come to unity and to deal with people as fellow
visible saints. So that right there is one thing. Throughout the world, who knows
how many tens of millions of saints there are that meet that
description. Now, as we think about how to
then deal with that in an increasingly formal way, you're dealing with
not just individuals, and you're not just in a vague way dealing
with other bodies that are constituted as churches. You're trying to
think about how can we begin to formalize interaction and
acknowledge people in increasing ways. So you could just go from
we're aware of you to let's come in together and have a shared
court. But that seems like a rather large jump. Even before marriage,
the Bible encourages engagement. So you can work through the details
of things proceeding into a marriage. So the idea of interacting, you
start to interact and you have a duty to acknowledge people
as Christians who are Christians. But then there's this duty to
think about how to start moving toward a greater visible unity.
And so what's historically been used as the name for that is
fraternal relations. And oftentimes fraternal relations
have existed inside of a national or civil covenant. And so civil
covenanting is typically the banner under which an encouragement
for church unity has occurred. When you look at the history
of what's occurred inside of the Reformed churches and Reformed
states, the organizing and encouraging of churches to be able to unify
has typically occurred with the magistrate seeking to call Christians
to come together and to have a covenanted uniformity. And
that brings about large-scale covenanted uniformity. Where
that does not exist and where the magistrate is an enemy of
the Church of God, individual ministers must do the work of
seeking to call other individual ministers as representatives
of their churches to start working together for that effort. And
so you have some stage where you start to recognize the legitimacy
of other persons before you have a covenanted uniformity. That
stage What you're doing there is you're saying we have a like
faith. It's similar, even though we
have not worked out everything in detail. We have a like practice. It's similar, even though we
have not worked through everything in detail. And that like practice
includes a similarity of government and a similarity of worship. The similarities are such that
you go, there's so much overlap of unity. that we should work
through these details. We should commit to one another
to work through the details to resolve the remaining points.
So that idea, you're then recognizing when you form fraternal relations,
you're recognizing that truth about another party, and you're
also recognizing that they have a legitimate ordination, that
they are an officer of the Church of Christ, You are recognizing
their sacraments as valid, and you recognize their church discipline
as valid, which doesn't mean that you're agreeing with every
decision they've ever made as a government, and it doesn't
mean that you're saying you'll never look into the details.
You're saying that as a general function, their church government
is valid at this time to your knowledge, and so you'll start
to deal with them the way you would. a true court of the Lord
Jesus Christ and to seek to come to greater uniformity of government.
So ordination, sacraments, and discipline. Acknowledgement of
the government and worship. So those things are what would
be discussed in that process. In the context of having acknowledged
each other, you begin to encourage things like preaching, between
the ministers of each other's churches and a sharing in sacraments
as a way of trying to deal with things. It doesn't mean you don't
still deal with examinations and so forth. You don't just
accept the other examinations necessarily in the same way that
you would once you covenant. But there's this disposition
of acknowledgement of each other and an honoring of each other's
governments. And the goal is to come to unity. So it would be like two distinct
states interacting with each other and acknowledging each
other as states. And then you're considering covenanting together
to have a shared government. So think about how the colonies,
the 13 colonies became 13 states. The Articles of Confederation
formed a covenant between them. The Constitution was a later
covenant that was a binding covenant between the states. Those covenants
took existing governments and caused them to have a union.
And the same sort of thing, that covenanting, that federating
together, is what occurs in how churches unite. And so to form
together a place to begin to work and to acknowledge each
other in formal ways allows for the more detailed work to occur.
So that's what fraternal relations are that we'll be going through
and seeking to establish. And that is something that is
the work of officers as they interact, the establishment of
fraternal relations. But it is also valuable, especially
in a condition where we're as small as we are, to carefully
involve the people and to be able to allow for a process of
building of relationships as we embark on this new effort.
Now, in forming a covenant, to form a covenant to have a union
of churches, there would need to be an adoption of a confession
and catechisms, an adoption of a form of government, an adoption
of a form of worship. And so the fraternal relations
allows for a place where counsel could be gathered to begin to
work through establishing those things. So the work is not done,
but this idea of establishing fraternal relations allows for
the beginnings of those work to lead to covenant and to potentially
allow us to extend invitation to others of like faith and practice
to work in that or to simply establish the covenant and then
encourage others to consider joining with us. So that's the
types of decisions that will be made after fraternal relations
are established. Now, If you go with me in the
form of Presbyterial government towards the end of it, you start
to have a discussion of church courts. And after this discussion of
church courts, there's a section on ordination. and then there's a section for
examination of people. So I want to look at you, before
you, this idea of the rules of examination because you're going
to be talking to a minister of the gospel and trying to consider
him and his church. And so go to page 615. These
are the rules for examination. One. that the party examined
be dealt with in a brotherly way, with mildness of spirit,
and with special respect to the gravity, modesty, and quality
of everyone. This man, Pastor Schwartley,
is a man who is greater than I. He is of greater age, he's
been a pastorate far longer, and he was as reformed as I have
managed to become since I was born. When he comes in the room, I'll
stand. You should stand. We've all benefited from his
ministry. He's taught us many things. Our church repented of the original,
sorry, of the American, revision of the Westminster Confession
and adopted the original in large part because of the excellence
of his work arguing for that. So he's been used to bring me
to public repentance in this body. As an instrument of the
Lord, he should be dealt with with great honor because of his
work, and his age, and his accomplishments, and because of his special use
in the hands of God to bless us as a congregation. That doesn't mean that you give
up your judgment, and it doesn't mean that the congregation should
not raise concerns, and it doesn't mean that the council should
rubber stamp this. Both the fact that he is owed
much respect and the fact that we must carefully perform our
duties are true. But we must approach him with
a mildness of spirit By the way, this direction is given to presbyteries
to examine men who are coming to join the presbytery. This
thing goes up a notch in terms of our mildness and our respect,
given the fact that he is an officer, an elder, and more aged,
and greater in gifting and accomplishment, at least than me. with special respect to the gravity,
modesty, and quality of everyone. He is a man who has suffered
much for the truth of God's word and has been disrespected by
many. We have the honor of being a congregation who can show him
respect for the sufferings and losses that he has undergone
in defense of the truth. Modesty and quality. Two. He shall be examined touching
his skill in the original tongues and his trial to be made by the
reading the Hebrew and Greek testaments and rendering some
portion of some into Latin. One of the things that we believe
should be amended in the Presbyterian form of government is a testing
in Latin given this time. It's really useful for ministers
to know Latin because it opens up a world of books that were
written in a thousand year period where Latin was the academic
language. However, given our condition
and time, I would suggest that we amend this if we adopt an
amended form to not require a testing in Latin. As regards original
languages, notice this, and if he be defective in them, inquiry
shall be made more strictly after his other learning and whether
he has skill in, notice this, logic and philosophy. Why? because systematic thinking and
the ability to deconstruct false doctrine and to be able to make
argumentation for the construction of systematic philosophical presentation
allows for defects in being able to read the original language
to be protected against by using systematic reasoning more carefully.
Many errors, like my, horrifically mediocre, maybe, not even mediocre,
my bad ability to read Greek and Hebrew. My bad ability to
read Greek and Hebrew are often protected for you and my teaching
because of the fact that when I read a translation and I'm
thinking about it, I often, by thinking about the systematic
nature of the thing, can figure out that there's probably a bad
translation there. And then go and research the
original language and find a solution often because of that. So because of strength in logic
and systematics, I am more able, as a result, to know with my
defects in Greek and Hebrew that I need to go put special time
in to look at the Greek or Hebrew of the text. So this is what
they were aware of as well. So focusing on that. So with
Pastor Schwartley, I believe that, I can't remember the degree
to which he studied. He certainly uses tools and all
that kind of stuff for original languages. But the idea that we think about
his systematics and we think about his systematic and logical
capability there is an important part of it. And that's been on
display for us in the books that we've read by him. So the degree
to which we need to go through everything, he's got all sorts
of stuff available online and all sorts of books and all sorts
of stuff. We have ample evidence through much interaction but
also through much publishing of his teaching. We're also not adopting him as
our own officer. We're acknowledging him from his work as a true officer
elsewhere. Three, what authors in divinity
he has read and is best acquainted with. The guy has read like 10
times what I have read. I asked him about commentaries,
and he knows more commentaries than basically anybody I've talked
to on almost any book. I asked him for best commentaries
on a number of books, just kind of at random. I was like, hey,
about the book everybody's saying. And he was able to list off a bunch of periods.
He was like, oh, this one is this, and that one is that. I mean, the guy's awareness
of learnedness is very high. So I would encourage you to ask
him about that. I think you'll find it enjoyable. I'm not asking
you to not ask. I'm just letting you know that it will be enjoyable
if you do ask him about what he's read and what he's learned
from it. So, but I make it more particular
because the guy's read so much that you're going to go, he's
going to go, well, I mean, what have I read or read or whatever?
Ask him more particular questions that will give you an opportunity
to delve into the learnedness of Pastor Schwartley. And I have this ability to defend
the orthodox doctrine contained in them. Sorry. What authors
and divinity he has read and is best acquainted with and trial
shall be made in his knowledge of the grounds of religion. The
grounds of religion is the arguments, the ability to defend the doctrines. And of his ability to defend
the orthodox doctrine contained in them against all unsound and
erroneous opinions, especially these of the present age. Of
his skill in the sense and meaning of such places of scripture as
shall be proposed unto him in cases of conscience, and in the
chronology of the scripture and the ecclesiastical history. If he is not before preached
in public with approbation of such as are able to judge, he
shall, at a competent time assigned him, expound before the presbytery
such a place of scripture as shall be given to him. So what
we're going to do is we're going to, by acknowledging him in a
fraternal way, we will have opportunity to hear him preach. and we will
be able to work through things. This is the stuff you do before
you covenant or before you ordain. He's already ordained, but covenanting
with him is the stuff that comes later. These are things that
are later. I want to show you how much evidence
we already have. His public preaching is generally
available. You can find it on YouTube. You
can find it on Sermon Audio. He shall also, with a competent
time, frame a discourse in Latin, another thing we will amend,
upon such a commonplace or controversy in divinity as shall be assigned
to him and exhibit to the presbytery such theses as express the sum
thereof and maintain a dispute upon them. So we would probably
do that in English as opposed to Latin, just saying when we
amend this or adopt an amended version. Six, he shall preach
before the people. the presbytery or some of the
ministers of the word appointed by them being present. Seven,
the proportion of his gifts in relation to the place under which
he is called shall be considered. The man has like six families
in his church. The proportion of his gifts compared
to the calling that he has, it is a whale in a lake. The proportion of his gifts in
relation to the place into which he is called shall be considered.
Beside the trial of his gifts and preaching, he shall undergo
an examination in the premises two several days, and more if
the Presbyterian shall judge it necessary. Nine, and as for
him that has formerly been ordained a minister and is to be removed
to another charge, he shall bring a testimony of his ordination
and of his abilities in conversation whereupon his fitness for that
place shall be tried by his preaching there, and, if it shall be judged
necessary, by a further examination of him." So, the things that you look into, like
character and doctrine, and understand his life, and you want to learn
about his life, and you want to learn about his doctrine, And we want to understand his
gifting. And so the fraternal relations are the context in
which that can be done further. But we don't want to wrongly
acknowledge people. But I think you will find very
quickly it is obvious that the man has lived a hardworking and
honest life, has led well and done much considering the circumstances
in which he's found himself. and that he has shown great fortitude
across decades and is worthy of our honor and respect. There
was a discussion that Mr. Nye and I had with him as
we went out as well. And that discussion involved
the discussion of James Chapter 2. He has some old sermons on
James Chapter 2, where the language is not quite as clear as John
W. Robbins or Gordon Clark would
have it, or as I would have it. But we had some discussion with
it. And it's obvious that he believes that good works are
the evidence of faith, and that also that he is very concerned
about antinomianism. And so in discussions, there
is It becomes very clear that he believes assurance is based
upon faith in Christ. You look to Christ for your assurance.
And it's obvious that he also believes that it works with the
evidence of faith, and that faith itself is a believing of the
gospel. And so I think that it is appropriate to discuss that
with him in this context. But I also think that it's important
that we not that we not demand an exact usage of the exact wording
that we would be on professional language as long as upon discussion
it is made clear he agrees with us in the doctrine. And so it
is my special request that if you seek to engage and understand
that, that you also make sure to show him respect in that process. So I am open now to comments,
questions, and objections from the voting members, and those
with speaking privileges. Yeah, so I think when you read
the functions of the courts, a part of them being to examine
and train officers, the idea of the examination of testing.
Testing is training. And so there's testing in terms
of a gate where you're keeping people out, but it's also testing
in the sense that you're giving them assignments to do. And you
saw the list of assignments that the presbytery is to give to
test a man, right? So it talks about giving requirements
to teach on certain things and you're testing certain things.
So yeah, so I have no problem with the assignment of teaching
of officer trainees by a higher court. And I have no problem
with the assigning of tasks of study or teaching to be given
to people who are training. And I don't have a problem with
that occurring at whatever court level. However, I do think that
being able to see into the character of a man is an extremely important
part. I think the design is that, generally speaking, with the
training of men, it's supposed to occur at a local level, so
there's regular interaction with officers. And then there's also
some that would occur at sort of the 1 per 50 level, because
it's still a pretty small group. And you want a decentralized
training. So if you try to have a denominational
seminary where everybody has to go to you know, whatever town,
right? Then you're robbing churches
of their young, energetic men and their ability to serve and
help in that local church for a period of years. And you're
removing their connection to the sheep. And you're removing
the training in ordinary life of ministry. So I think it's
a monstrosity. And so I do think it should remain
very close to the local church, and that local churches need
to not abdicate the raising up of men. And so we have made local
churches geldings and commanded them to breed. And it is unfitting. So that's my answer.
Westminster Presbyterial Form of Government 1 - Fraternal Relations
Series Presbyterial Government
| Sermon ID | 11424249577862 |
| Duration | 1:00:42 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Language | English |
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