We read the word of God this morning from Revelation chapter 4. Revelation chapter 4. The book of Revelation is not arranged chronologically, but in groups of seven. Along with that is attached an introduction and an epilogue. In the first three chapters, we saw the church as she is in the world. And the church in the world is always a flawed institution. She is in constant need of rebuke. Whether she tolerates sin, whether she is in danger of losing the gospel, whether she seeks to overcome the antithesis that God has created between the church and the world, or whether she is in persecution and needs encouragement, the church always in the world is imperfect. She is the company of gods predestinated, mingled with hypocrites, a company of hypocrites, and with her own sinful flesh. That's what you see in the first three chapters, and that ends with, you might say, the true church in the world at her most precarious. That is the church of Laodicea. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Christ is, as it were, already stepped outside that church. And from that picture, we move in chapter 4 to a picture of the church perfected. Remember, that's what you have here in chapter 4. God, as it were, gives the picture of the church in the world as she is a church under persecution, a church in struggle, a church in trial. And then he shows that church what she will be, so that we go here all the way to the end of history, after the final judgment and the coming of Jesus Christ, and we see the perfection of God's kingdom. So let's read chapter four. After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said, come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit. And behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone. And there was a rainbow round about the throne in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats. And upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment And they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal. And in the midst of the throne and round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him, and they were full of eyes within. And they rest not day and night, saying, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come. And when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth forever and ever, the four and 20 elders fall down before him that sat on the throne and worship him that liveth forever and ever, cast their crowns before the throne, saying, thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Thus far the reading of the Holy and Divine Scripture, it's on the basis of that passage and many others in the Word of God that we have the teaching of our Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's Day 31. What are the keys of the kingdom of heaven? The preaching of the holy gospel and Christian discipline or excommunication out of the Christian church. By these two, the kingdom of heaven is open to believers and shut against unbelievers. How is the kingdom of heaven opened and shut by the preaching of the holy gospel? Thus, when according to the command of Christ, it is declared and publicly testified to all and every believer that whenever they receive the promise of the gospel by a true faith, all their sins are really forgiven them of God for the sake of Christ's merits. And on the contrary, when it is declared and testified to all unbelievers and such as do not sincerely repent, that they stand exposed to the wrath of God and eternal condemnation, so long as they are unconverted, according to which testimony of the gospel God will judge them, both in this and in the life to come. How is the kingdom of heaven shut and opened by Christian discipline? Thus, when according to the command of Christ, those who, under the name of Christians, maintain doctrines or practices inconsistent therewith, and will not after having been often brotherly and modest, renounce their errors and wicked course of life, are complained of to the church or to those who are thereunto appointed by the church, and if they despise their admonition, are by them forbidden the use of the sacraments, whereby they are excluded from the Christian church and by God himself from the kingdom of Christ. And when they promise and show real amendment and received as members of Christ and of his church. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, the main subject of Lord's Day 31 is the keys of the kingdom of heaven. The Lord's Day or the Heidelberg Catechism brought up that subject in connection with the proper partakers of the supper. The proper partaker of the Lord's Supper is the believer who is sorry for his sins and who is desirous to have his faith strengthened. That believer is commanded by Christ to come and to partake of the Lord's table. The church also receives from Christ the command to guard that table. The Reformed faith practices what is called close communion, not closed communion, but close, from the old English meaning of the word close, which means enclosed. The Lord's table in the Reformed faith is an enclosed table. It is fenced around. And that table, therefore, is guarded, according to the Reformed faith, so that The table is not open to all who happen to be in the audience, but that table is guarded by the church. And there are keys that the church has been given by Christ whereby she guards that table. She admits to that table those that Christ admits. And she excludes from that table those that Christ excludes. And those keys are called the keys of the kingdom. The table of the Lord belongs to the kingdom of the Lord. And those keys that Christ committed to the church are powers whereby the church, as the servant of Christ, opens that kingdom to the believer, and shuts that kingdom against the unbeliever. And that's the subject of this Lord's Day. And that title, Keys of the Kingdom, really is a figurative thing. Just like your house has a key, and that key shuts out Those that do not belong in that house. And that key opens up to those who belong to that house. So Christ's kingdom isn't a kingdom that's open to all. We were appointed a kingdom. That kingdom is for the elect. And it's by these keys that that kingdom is opened and shut. And you'll say to me, after we read Revelation 4, what does that have to do with the keys of the kingdom? Well, when you have to live in the church in the world, you can begin to think she's a rather shabby thing. She's small. She's despised. She's persecuted. She's full of sin. whether that be the sin of her own flesh or the sin of the company of hypocrites that lives in her. The church in the world is an institution that has no attraction for men. That church in the world is at warfare. That church in the world has struggle and trouble and trial and tribulation. That church, as far as the world is concerned, is to be accounted as nothing. If you look around in the world and you look at all the institutions of the world, You look at the institutions and halls of power and government. You look at the grand institutions of the universities and the grand institutions even of the false church. And you put those all and you rank those all in comparison with God's church in the world. You say the church is a very tiny and insignificant thing. It's a very shabby thing. And it isn't. You would say about that church, that church has no power in the world. And you would be mistaken. That church stands at the very center of history. Right now, in all the world, with all the events of the world, they all serve this church. The most important thing that's going on in the world right now is the preaching going on in this and other true churches of Jesus Christ. By that preaching, God is judging. The church is the very center of all things. The fullness of Him who filleth all in all. And that church had committed to her two of the grandest powers that have ever been in the world. The power of preaching, which is a saver of life unto life, and a saver of death unto death, to all who come under it. And the power of discipline, according to which judgment God excludes from the kingdom of heaven. And God admits to the kingdom of heaven. And so, as we take up this subject of the keys, we must remind ourselves of the kingdom to which those keys belong. And it's of that kingdom that John has a vision in Revelation 4. So let's consider our text in Lord's Day 31 in light of Revelation 4 under the theme, The Keys of the Kingdom. Notice, first of all, the kingdom of those keys. Notice, secondly, the key of preaching. Notice, finally, the key of discipline. Chapter 4 of Revelation, John sees a vision of the perfect kingdom of God. It's the kingdom of God that is coming and that has been coming all through history. It's the kingdom that God announced in the garden. It's the kingdom of which there was a little dim type in the kingdom of David and of Solomon. It's the kingdom that came when Jesus Christ, the king of the kingdom, came in the world and he came preaching the kingdom. He was preaching this kingdom and it's this kingdom as that kingdom will be perfected that John sees in Revelation 4. At the moment appointed by God, Jesus Christ will appear in heaven. He will judge the world in righteousness according to the gospel. And he will bring and perfect this kingdom. And John hears a voice like a trumpet, and John is caught up in the spirit into his vision so that what John sees, he sees in a vision. And what dominates this vision that John sees is a massive throne. And on that throne stands a great king. John is seeing the kingdom as that kingdom centers upon the throne of the king. That's really what a kingdom is. A kingdom is simply the extension of the rule of the king. And on this throne there's one who sits and his appearance is like a jasper and like a sardis stone. Jasper stone, you have to think of like a diamond with all of its prismatic colors. The light enters it and the light is burst into all the colors of the rainbow. There's a brilliant colored spectrum that radiates from this throne. And the Sardis stone is a clear red or orange color so that you have an array of colors, a radiant brightness. and those two stones emphasize the beauty and the preciousness of the weight of glory. Radiating from this throne is the glory of the living God. The glory of the living God with all of his might and all of his sovereignty and all of his holiness and righteousness. All of those perfections by themselves are a radiant glory and the sum total of them is this brilliant light that radiates from the throne. And surrounding that throne is a green rainbow. And that rainbow is a symbol of God's covenant. At the heart of this kingdom stands the covenant relationship of the triune God with his people in Jesus Christ. So that this kingdom is a covenant kingdom, and the covenant is a royal covenant. And it's green. Green like the green of spring. And that green of spring is the green of life from the dead. The covenant life of this kingdom. is the covenant life that came through the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The life of this kingdom, the covenant life of this kingdom is the vibrant, fruitful, new life that Jesus Christ brought to light by his resurrection from the dead in this glorious kingdom. There is a new and eternal life, a new and eternal life that came through judgment, that came through destruction, that came through resurrection. A resurrection life is a life of this kingdom. And before that throne are the seven lights that are the seven spirits of God. Seven. Again, the covenant number. Animating. Animating the life of the covenant that stands at the heart of this kingdom. Animating the resurrection life of fruitfulness and of newness is the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the spirit of the covenant. He's the spirit who is the life of believers. He's the power and principle of the life of this new creation. So that this world is full of the spirit of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. No longer is the animating power of flesh and blood. Now the animating power of the believer and the church in this creation and all the life of this creation is the covenant spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as John is observing this this brilliant throne surrounded by the green rainbow with the lamps burning before it. Then out of that throne came thunders and lightnings and voices. And you have to really combine all those things. The thundering has a voice-like quality to it. And the thundering is accompanied with the brilliant flashes of the glory of God. The king is speaking. And he speaks over all his new creation. He speaks and his voice is heard in all of his kingdom. So that that whole kingdom is ruled and controlled by the word of him who sits upon the throne. That word, as that word is given its living power through that spirit surrounding that throne. John sees 24 thrones. And you're to think of that 24 as 12 plus 12. Twelve is always the number of God's church in the world in any one particular dispensation. There were 12 tribes of Israel in the Old Testament. So that in the Old Testament, the church was the Israel, the nation of Israel. And there were 12 apostles in the New Testament. So that the church is the Israel of God. But John sees them here combined. There's 24. He doesn't say there were 12. of the 12 tribes and 12 apostles. No, he sees in that 24 the essential unity of the people of God through both dispensations, all history long, from the beginning of the world to the end thereof. God gathers his church In the Old Testament that church took the form of the nation of Israel. And in the New Testament that church is the Israel of the living God. And now here in the new creation they are joined together. The Old and the New Testament church all made one through Jesus Christ. So that we have the perfect church. She's perfect in number. but she is also perfect in righteousness, and she is perfect in glory. On those thrones, those that sit on those thrones, the elders, those elders are representative of the whole church, the whole church in her dignity, the whole church in her honor. And adding to that is the righteousness of that church. They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, and they are white, perfect, spotless, glorious righteousness, so that they can stand before the throne of the living God without fear and with joy and worshiping him. And she is perfect too in her glory. She sits on thrones and she has crowns on her head. And those thrones and those crowns are clustered around that main throne. And that shows that the glory and the power of the church is simply a share in the glory and power of Him who sits on the throne. This is the church as she has overcome. She's overcome sin and Satan in the world. She's overcome every tribulation and persecution. She's enthroned now, ruling over the entire creation, sharing in the glory of the king of the kingdom. And as John continues to study the throne room, he sees four huge beasts. One like a lion, and another like a man, and another like an ox or calf, and another like unto a flying eagle. And they have six wings, And as he studies those wings, he sees that those wings are full of eyes. And these beasts cease not, day and night, with all their power, to praise Him who sits on the throne. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, which was, and which is, and which is to come. Those beasts are representative of all the animate power in creation. The intelligence of a man. The royal bearing of the lion. The strength of the ox. The, the floating beauty of the eagle. They're full of eyes. It's as if you can see right into those beasts. And those beasts show out all that they are. Those beasts with those eyes and those wings, along with their voices. Those beasts are all of creation. All of the powers of creation. All that God made. As those things that God made now, transparently and plainly, Give glory unto their creator. That's what John says. Thou art worthy, O Lord. The elders are sitting there, and the elders are seeing the beasts, and the elders are hearing the beasts. As it were, all creation lifts its voice up to Him who sits on the throne. And the elders notice exactly what that means. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things. For Thy pleasure they are, and were created. This creation, this kingdom, which is the new heaven and the new earth, this creation, God is everything. God is all in all. As He sits on the throne in His glory, and as all things surround Him, And as all things have no other word to say, thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor. John sees a kingdom then. He sees the perfect kingdom of Christ. That kingdom is the goal of God's counsel. That's what he says. That's what the elders say. For thy pleasure they are and were created. God created all things for his own pleasure. Everything. In heaven and in earth. And that means, first of all, that God conceived of this perfect kingdom in his counsel. And this perfect kingdom, as John sees it, is always before God. And all things that God made, and you must say then to all events of time in history, serve the realization of that kingdom. And that kingdom has no other purpose than the pleasure of the living God. That he be glorified. that he be shown to be who he is, in all of his perfect holiness and righteousness, in all of his grace and mercy, in all of his sovereignty and power, that his glory shine out like the radiance of the Jasper stone and of the Sardis stone, in all of creation. That's God's purpose. That's God's purpose. in the salvation of his church, and also in the damnation of the ungodly. John sees, too, a sea of crystal. What you see beneath that sea of crystal is the revelation of God's wrath against sin for all eternity. in the salvation of his elect, and in the damnation of the ungodly, in the uniting of all of that creation in one, in that God purposed, that God be glorified, and that kingdom, that kingdom is always coming, The coming of that kingdom is like a great big ship that rolls through the ocean of history and pushes a massive bow wave before it. The coming of that kingdom explains all things in history. The coming of that kingdom is like the coming of the massive storm so that that storm actually creates its own atmosphere with its own humidity and its own thunderings and its own lightnings. All of history is but the storm created by the coming of the kingdom of God. That kingdom came immediately in the garden with the announcement of the coming of the seed of the woman who would crush the seed of the serpent. That kingdom moved through history. It destroyed Egypt. It brought Israel through the wilderness. That kingdom created, the coming of that kingdom created David and his kingdom. And you might say that kingdom finally arrived. It broke into, definitively, this world with the coming of Jesus Christ. He simply is the kingdom. Now, the gospel of that kingdom goes out into all the world. And that gospel is the power of the king of that kingdom to save and to damn, to justify and to condemn, to redeem and to hold in bondage according to the will of the king of that kingdom. That's what the preaching is. The preaching is simply, in this life, the most outstanding form of the coming of the kingdom. And that stands over against all carnal views of the preaching. Ministers can think that sometimes. Elders can think that. The members of the pew can think. We begin to develop a very carnal view of the preaching. And that carnal view of the preaching is something like this. Well, that was a good message. The carnal view of the preaching is, you know, I learned some things from the minister today. The carnal view of the preaching is that the preaching is a smortus board that you can take what you like and you can leave what you don't like. That carnal view of the preaching shows itself in a willingness to tolerate in that preaching the word and wisdom of man instead of demanding and insisting the word and wisdom of God alone. That's a very carnal view of the preaching. That carnal view of the preaching shows itself in a take-it-or-leave-it attitude. But the preaching is the coming of God's kingdom for salvation and damnation every time it comes. Every time it comes, something is happening under that preaching. And the Catechism says what's happening is that God's people are being brought into the kingdom. And what's happening is that the reprobate and the impenitent and the ungodly are being hurled out of the kingdom. That's what's happening every time the gospel is preached. That happens to you. That happens to me. That happens to anybody who hears that message. The king of the kingdom is in that preaching judging with His voice, all who hear it. You can never, ever, no one can, come under the preaching, the true preaching of the Word, and be unaffected by it. It is impossible. That's because behind that preaching is God. That's the insistence of Scripture. Paul says in Romans 10 that in the preaching of the Gospel we hear Christ call us And Paul says in that same chapter 10 that the preaching of the gospel and its testimony is akin to the testimony of the sun, moon, and stars to the eternal power and Godhead of God. No one can escape that. Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4 that the Ephesians to whom the gospel came some 50 years after the birth of Christ, maybe longer, Paul says that they were all taught of the Lord. So that Jesus himself came to them. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians chapter one that the Thessalonians received his word as it is in truth the very word of God. Now I can't explain that to you. I cannot explain how the minister can go into his study and he studies and he he writes on his pad of paper his sermon out and then maybe he types it into his computer and he studies that and he gets that into his brain and then he gets up on the pulpit and he begins to deliver his message and he says, thus saith the Lord, I cannot explain how with these human words organized in human sentences that came out of my brain and out of my heart that you are being taught of the Lord. But that's the truth of it. I, of course, am going to pray that whatever, whatever I say, that that's not the Lord's Word, that that become harmless and that fall to the ground. I'm not insisting that every and button is, is the very Word of the Lord. But the preaching is that. So that the Lord, in the preaching, sets himself down on a throne to judge. And the Catechism insists on it. According to its testimony of the Gospel, God will judge them, both in this and in the life to come. That's the power of the preaching. God, who knows the hearts, So that something very mysterious and ineffable happens underneath the preaching. I don't believe that any one of us can enumerate the benefits that we have received under the preaching. You simply can't add them up. None of us can understand fully the instruction that we've received under the preaching. You just can't do it. Secretly, mysteriously, ineffably, God, by that word, instructs and exhorts and rebukes with all longsuffering his people. He does that principally by a judgment. The power of the preaching is a power of judgment. That's why when an unbeliever comes unto it, he gets angry, and he says, the minister is so judgmental. Well, it isn't the minister he's got to worry about. It's God. He's complaining that God is judgmental. The preaching is judgmental. Everybody who comes under it, God judges. And remember that God's judgment is always a legal verdict. And that legal verdict only has two possible outcomes. That legal verdict is a verdict of justification, and that legal verdict is a verdict of condemnation. That's how you have to understand those two parts of the catechism when it says, thus according to the command of Christ, it's testified to every believer, etc. And then secondly, it's testified to every unbeliever, etc. The catechism is explaining the two judgments that God gives underneath the preaching of the Word. And those two judgments under the preaching of the Word come to the believer and to the unbeliever. And to the believer, there is the judgment of justification. And to the unbeliever, there's the judgment of condemnation. to the believer that whenever they receive the promise of the gospel by true faith, all their sins are really forgiven and of God for the sake of Christ merits. Now, you cannot understand that temporally. That's not a temporal statement, when. That does not mean that you come as an unforgiven person so that God's never forgiven you, and then when you believe, you are forgiven. Now you have prerequisite repentance. Now you have to repent in order that God believe, but you also add to this, you must believe in order for God to forgive. Do you understand that? That's not a temporal statement. That's a logical statement. That's a statement of promise. The believer comes under the preaching of the gospel, and under that preaching of the gospel, that believer is made to be a sinner. With all his original sins, and all of his actual sins. And you might say, the guilt builds up in his mind. And then the minister declares the promise, that the promise is that all who believe their sins are truly forgiven them. The believer says, I believe that. And then the doubt creeps in his mind. He says, but does that really, do I have to do something? Anything? And the gospel comes and says, the gospel says, no. All who believe, without any condition, without any work, without any activity on their part, all who believe, Their sins are really and truly forgiven at the cross of Jesus Christ. The Gospel assures them. Notice the Catechism calls that a promise. The preaching of the Gospel is always the preaching of a promise. And you have to understand that that promise was a promise of what was coming in the Old Testament. God had not yet made the sacrifice for sin. It was in His counsel, but He hadn't made it yet. And God always said to the Old Testament saints, I am bringing that sacrifice, and on the basis, you are forgiven. It was a promise of what was coming. And in the New Testament, it's the promise of what God has already done. The gospel always a declaration that you've been forgiven in the cross of Jesus Christ and in the counsel of God. It's a promise of what God has done. And by that gospel, God judges his people. He judges that on that basis, They're righteous in Christ. And heirs of eternal life. And in their own mind and conscience he, as it were, throws the doors of the kingdom of heaven wide open to them and says, Come in, my people. Enter into the joy of your Lord. That's the one power of the preaching. And the other power is the power of condemnation. that it is declared and testified to all unbelievers and such as do not sincerely repent that they stand exposed to the wrath of God and eternal condemnation so long as they are unconverted. The gospel also has a testimony for the unbeliever. And that testimony to the unbeliever is that he is unforgiven. He stands exposed to the wrath of God and eternal condemnation. That's why I don't believe an unbeliever can last very long under the true preaching of the Word. I don't. You say to me, well, how does a hypocrite stay in the church for so long? Well, maybe he wasn't hearing the true preaching of the word. But I believe when the preaching of the word comes, that preaching of the word is decisive. That preaching of the word goes right to a man's heart. And that preaching of the word is a powerful word from God himself. So that unbeliever under that preaching stands confronted, stands right before the very face of God. And he hears God's testimony against him. When that comes, that unbeliever can't stand that preaching. Scripture also speaks about the unbeliever's conscience being seared with a hot iron. If your conscience is your eyes, then you poke them out with a hot stick. If your conscience is your sense of touch, you just simply burn until you can't feel anything anymore. They say about a chef that if a chef works in the kitchen long enough and he's touching hot pots all the time, pretty soon he doesn't even feel a hot pot. That's the unbeliever under the preaching. His conscience is seared with a hot iron. But he hears that testimony. The minister declares Jesus Christ, and the unbeliever hears that testimony and says, I don't believe that. That's a bunch of bunk. That's a bunch of malarkey. The minister's got it all wrong, and he's being judged under that. That's why the preaching, too, is the chief of the means, because the preaching can do what the discipline can't. The preaching can take a man who shows himself to be a believer, and the preaching in that man's heart simply says to the man, you have no part in the kingdom of God. You can sit here in the pew week after week and year after year, but you have no part in God's kingdom. You stand exposed to the wrath of God. And according to that testimony, God judges. And he draws his people in to the joy of their Lord. And he excludes the unbelieving and ungodly from that kingdom, declaring to them that they have no part in it. And that Gospel then also has attached to it the power of discipline. And here too, there's a very carnal view of discipline. And it's more common than you think. And that carnal view of discipline is that when the Church, the true Church of Christ, puts someone out of the Church by discipline, that really that amounts to an exclusion from one particular club. You have clubs in the world, and those clubs have their rules, and those clubs have their membership. And sometimes a member of a club behaves himself unseemly, and the club kicks him out, and he just simply moves to a different club, and they take him in. I say that's a very common view. And I want to prove to you how common it is. If there are members of Reformed churches who would be excommunicated by second for their doctrine or life, they stand in the position of an excommunicate. Either that or your discipline doesn't mean anything. Let's take, for example, this is a real example. Let's take, for example, that you have a man in the church who decides that he's getting divorced and remarried. And we don't, of course, believe in divorce and remarriage. So we excommunicate him. And he joins the URC because you can get divorced and remarried there. And he becomes probably an elder. He's a good guy, runs a good business. nice and kind, has all the qualifications of a good egg. And the minister says to the congregation, now you, you must treat that man as an ungodly person. And they say to you, well, he's a member in good standing in the URC church, and he's an elder. And all men speak well of him. Then your discipline doesn't mean anything. Nothing whatsoever. Your discipline applies across the board. And notice what your discipline is. Those who under the name of Christians maintain doctrines or practices inconsistent therewith. When that preaching comes, and I believe it's the preaching that does this, when that preaching comes, then that preaching as it were brings men out of the woodwork. So that that preaching addresses what man cannot see, but that preaching manifests men in the world. It manifests men as they really are, whether they are believing or unbelieving, whether they are godly or ungodly. The preaching, as it were, manifests them. That's why if you don't have true preaching, you can't have true discipline. The unbeliever and the ungodly are allowed to hide under that true preaching. It's the true preaching that manifests men in the world. And men are manifest in fundamentally two ways. What they believe and how they live. What their doctrine is and what their life is like. That's how men are manifest in the world. Men ultimately have to make a confession with their mouth. Men ultimately have to have a conversation in the world that's visible to all. And the standard of judgment is the Word of God. The Word of God as it's maintained in the Christian faith and the Reformed creeds and taught here in this Christian church. And it's not just, you might say, gross sin. But doctrine. Who believes that today? Does anybody believe that? You could have a perfectly upstanding life that no man can find fault with and believe a doctrine that keeps you out of the kingdom. I wonder, who believes that? You believe that Christ died for all men. You're outside the kingdom. If you believe that you have to repent before God can or may forgive you, you stand outside the kingdom. That's anathema. Doctrine. And notice the Catechism puts doctrine first. They believe doctrines inconsistent therewith, or practices. When that preaching manifests men, then the church applies the Christian discipline. And as I've said before, and as I'm going to emphasize again, and I'll keep emphasizing it, Christian discipline does not start with the elders. If it does, we have a problem. Christian discipline starts among the brethren. And the catechism absolutely insists on it. They will not, after having been often brotherly and not admonished, renounce their errors in wicked course of life. Notice, the church institute isn't even involved yet. There's a whole bunch of discipline that the church institute never ever hears about and they shouldn't. Don't always run to the elders right away with your problems. You're not doing your job. We don't wanna hear about it. Go knock on your brother's door and sit down with him and explain to him what your problem is. I don't wanna hear about it. The elders don't wanna hear about it. Everybody in the church doesn't want to hear about it. Go deal with your brother. That's Christ's way. And the Reformed creeds insist on it. You hear about your brother. He's believing something a little weird. And you say, I have to go figure out what he believes. And you sit him down. You don't spread around in the congregation. You know, Joe Bob believes something a little bit weird. Go talk to him. You see that the man has something off in his life, and you say to him, I need to go talk to him. You don't run to the elders and say, now, you need to take him in hand, and you need to deal with him. No, no. Offed, brotherly admonished. And a brotherly admonition isn't you coming in with fire and brimstone. It's a brotherly admonition. It's done in love. A love that patiently and clearly points out the sin. And notice you do it oft. It's not one and done. You sit down with him. And parents do this with their children all the time. Does a dad who has problems with a teenage kid drag that kid off to the elders after the first admonition? Of course he doesn't. That's ridiculous. For years, he rebukes his son. Many times. And he sees and observes that that son's receiving it. He keeps at it. Now, when his son becomes belligerent and says, you need to stop talking to me, he takes his son to the church. And that's what the Catechism says too. They won't renounce. That's the standard. They won't renounce their errors and wicked course of life and are complained of to the church. And that means the consistory. And then what does the consistory do? Slap them under excommunication right away? No, they admonish them. And if they despise their admonition, By them are forbidden the use of the sacraments and excluded from the Christian church. And you have to notice that too. This article is very important. It has very much to teach. I don't have time to teach you it all. When the sacraments are taken away, at that point, you are excluded from the Christian church. When the sacraments, Acts of Communication is the stamp on that. Acts of communication is where the final seal on that. But at the point where the consistory says to you, we're removing, you may not partake of the Lord's table, and consequently you may not have your children baptized either. At that point, you are excluded from the kingdom. And that means, too, that if someone leaves under discipline, the consistory needs to inform the congregation. so that that congregation can treat that one as an excommunicant. You might never have read the form over him. But if you took the sacraments from him, then he stands in the position of an excommunicant. And notice, too, that the purpose. Now there's other purposes, too, but notice the purpose. It's a salvific purpose. When they promise and show real amendment are again received as members of Christ and his church. That's what the church is hoping for. The church wants the man back. And they don't just take him at his word. That's very often how discipline goes awry. The church may show itself to have the stomach to put him out, and then she, as it were, gets cold feet. And on the first hint that he says, I might be sorry, she takes him back. But the catechism is very specific. They promise. It's almost as if the church puts him under oath. We don't trust you. You need to make a promise. You blew the trust. And we need your promise. And then show real amendment of life. He has to demonstrate by his life and by his confession the sincerity of his repentance. And when they promise and they show, they are received again as members of Christ's church. And I say there's no power like that in all the world. Catechism talks about whereby they are excluded from the Christian church and by God himself from the kingdom of Christ. What the church binds on earth, God binds in heaven. What the church looses on earth, God looses in heaven. So that the power behind the keys, too, is that one who sits on that throne. And by these two, The kingdom of heaven is opened to believers, and it's shut against unbelievers. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank Thee that Thou hast brought us into Thy kingdom, what a glorious kingdom, and what power Thou hast given to Thy church in the world to preach the word and to exercise Christian discipline. And Lord, may we do so faithfully. according to the command of Christ our Lord. Forgive us, Father, our sin, and bless us in this day. We ask this all for Jesus' sake. Amen.