will be more exegetical as opposed to confessional this afternoon. Again, the first and second confessions on communion. And I don't have a bibliography. I've got a few things typed up here, but I'm not as read beyond the scriptures on communion as I am on baptism. But I do have two or three books that I think might be helpful to you on baptism. I'll just mention them. I mean, on communion, I'll mention real quickly. J.R. Graves, The Lord's Supper. But the most important book I've ever read historically on communion is by McLaughlin, I'll spell his name twice, capital N-C, capital C-L-O-U-G-H-L-I-N, McLaughlin, capital N-C, capital C-L-O-U-G-H-L-I-N, William Gerald McLaughlin. And the title of his work is Isaac Backus and the American Pietistic Tradition. Isaac Backus, B-A-C-K-U-S, and the American Pietistic Tradition. And then, of course, Isaac Backus has a two-volume history of New England. Very famous chronicle of the early days of Baptists. And why is this important? Because what you'll see is that Baptists were predominated by restricted communion. which is something I'll be driving at this afternoon, closed communion. The First London Association, the Second London Association, were called strict and particular Baptists. Now here's where my first hour lecture begins to come to bear. Strict and particular Baptists. They were called particular Baptists. They weren't strict and particular just because they wouldn't be sure their tithe was tied right. They were strict and particular because A. They believed in a particular view of the atonement, that Christ died particularly for the elect, what others call limited atonement. B. They were strict on communion. They practiced restricted communion. So, the Baptists of John Gill, the Baptists of Benjamin Keats, the Baptists of Charles Spurgeon were strict in particular, though Spurgeon's congregation abandoned restricted communion simply out of pragmatic necessity they got so big. The first Baptist church in America founded by Dr. Samuel Clark in Newport, Rhode Island was a strict and predictable Baptist church. And the first confession of faith among Baptists in America, the Philadelphia Baptist Confession, 1742, was a strict and particular Baptist confession of faith. In fact, it was verbatim the Second London Confession. And then, tell me your name again, sir. Tell me your name again. Eric Johnson. Eric asked me a question about the invitation system. And I may talk about that a little bit. Our church does not conduct a formal invitation. In fact, I would say the invitation has become the third ordinance of the church. People don't think you can get saved except during the invitation. Or that's the way most people get saved, in the invitation. Of course, the invitation is a very modern invention. And really, it's premised not on Baptist theology, but on Methodist theology, on low church theology, particularly through people like C.G. Finney and R.A. Torrey. If you want to read a great book on the adverse effects of the invitation system or the mourner's bench system, read Dr. Benjamin Warfield and his book entitled Perfectionism. Benjamin B. Warfield, Perfectionism. And while I'm mentioning that, there's another book by a living contemporary in Walter Chantry, C-H-A-N-T-R-Y, called Today's Gospel, colon, Authentic or Synthetic? Today's Gospel, Authentic or Synthetic? So those are a few books. But let me reiterate something I might have mentioned last time I was here. Spend your time in the Bible. If you're looking to preachers to find your sermons, you're looking in the wrong place. And if you're looking to commentaries to straighten you out, you're looking in the wrong place. Not that commentaries can't be helpful and not that The best thing that most churches do to their pastors is take his library away for about six months. Teach them to use his Bible. Get your sermons from the Bible. Get your theology from the Bible. Get your view of communion from the Bible. Again, I have copies of the Second Alumni Confession of Faith and the First Alumni Confession of Faith on Communion. You can get those off our church's website. I'm going to read you a short outline I have that's on the discipline of children. And I'll be glad to make this available to you. And I think that When we think about the discipline of children, it's important for us to extrapolate principles of discipline over children and think about how they might relate to the church. Though I won't spend much time on that, maybe you'll think about it as I read these. But listen carefully. Here are some presuppositions of children regarding discipline. Secondly, the etymology of discipline as it relates to children. Thirdly, kinds of discipline. pertinent to children. Fourthly, specific disciplinary techniques and principles in the Holy Scripture pertinent to children. As you think about these techniques of discipline for children, I think they are appropriate to the Church of God. By the way, John Owen, the great Puritan, said, when the church ceases the discipline, it ceases to be a church. Presuppositions of this, again I'll make this available for you. Listen, children are totally depraved and they are corrupted from the birth. They need to be disciplined. So are sinners. Even a regenerated child requires discipline. Thirdly, discipline rightly administered produces, quote, a harvest of righteousness and peace, unquote. Those are presuppositions of discipline. Children are depraved. Even a safe child is depraved and needs discipline. And discipline, rightly administered, will produce a harvest of righteousness. Now, let's think about the etymology of discipline. Matheteuo. Matheteuo. It means to instruct. Didasco, it means to teach another. Both the terms mathetuo and didasco imply three things. One, a teacher, the parent. Two, a pupil, the child. And three, a curriculum. I'm your teacher, you're my student, here's what you need to learn. That's true in the church of God, isn't it? Hey, that's true in your relationship to God. He's your Father. You're His child. He's your teacher. You're His student. He wants you to learn some things. And He has several ways of teaching. And some of His ways of teaching are easier than other ways. Did your daddy or mama ever tell you, don't make me get a king's wedge. But don't make me take my belt off. You know why they said that? Because they were trying to teach you in a different way. There are three kinds of discipline. And this is true in jurisprudence with regard to law. This is true in the home with regard to children. And it's true in the church of God. Or at least it ought to be. Here are the three kinds of discipline. First of all, there's what we might call didactic discipline. The discipline done by teaching. And didactic discipline is accomplished in two ways. First, it is accomplished by exhortation. And secondly, it's accomplished by example. How do I teach my children? By what I say to them. That's didactic. By exhortation. I speak as a means of teaching. This is what preaching is. It is preaching by the Word. Exhortation. Preach the Word. Exhort the Word. But it is also didactic to teach by example. Of course, there should be a reciprocity between what one says and what one does. It's so important for a parent not only to say something to a child, but to do those things which are compatible with what one says. You've heard the cliche, don't do as I do, do as I say. Well, that's not right. Do as I say and do as I do. That's true for preachers. That's true for parents. So didactic discipline is exhortative and exemplary. But what if that doesn't work? By the way, You have all kinds of biblical examples where didactic discipline doesn't work, where the word is not enough, where the example of the teacher is not enough. If that doesn't work, then the second dimension or kind of discipline is what we might call corrective discipline. I've told you to do this. I've told you not to do this. You did what I said don't do, and you didn't do what I said do. Exhortative discipline failed. Or at least the hearer of exhortative discipline failed. Then what do you do? Well, you have two approaches. When someone fails to hear what you say, fails to obey what you say, you can do one of two things. You can talk to them about it some more. That's conversational correction. Son, when I get home, you and I need to have a talk. You've got a brother or sister who's earning in the church, I need to see you right after services. And really, that is implicitly confrontational as well. You know, how many of you want to confront your children versus how many of you want to confront a deacon who's out of sorts? By the way, speaking of Mr. Spurgeon, he has a hilarious essay on the passage in Deuteronomy, quote, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox with the ass, unquote. And it's about insubordinate deacons. Wonderful thing for you to read. So didactic discipline is exhortative and exemplary Corrective is conversational and confrontational. And then thirdly, there is excisive discipline. It's when you take an extreme measure. And by the way, theologically, what do you think about discipline? Do you think that God allows his children to get away with sin? Well, let me ask you a question. If you went home to your church and looked on the church rolls, how many members do you have and how many did you have Sunday? And where are they? You don't even know is the answer to that. And not only do you not know where they are, you don't know what they're doing. And the reason is because your hortatory discipline failed, and you probably did not even try corrective discipline as a pastor or as a church, and you surely haven't tried excisive discipline. And if that's the case, Your church is in violation of the essential principle of discipline in the Word of God, which is that God doesn't let his children get away with messing around. You know, there's an element of courage here for pastors, which is absent in the contemporary church. And not only in pastors, but in churches who are absent and ignorant of courage as well. Now, specific biblical disciplinary principles and techniques. Doesn't Solomon teach us that he who loves his son chastens him? And of course, one of the objections people want to raise about church discipline is, well, you can just judge men. Or, you're too strict, you're too hard. But biblically understood, discipline is rooted in love. Isn't it? And what does Solomon say about the parent who doesn't discipline? He who loves his son chastens him at times, but he who withholds the rod... Yeah, do you hate any of your church members? I'm going to tell you what, if they need the rod and you're withholding it, you do. If Solomon is true. If Solomon is true, the withholding of the rod towards a child or the withholding of a rod from an erring church member constitutes hatred, solomonically understood. And more than that, it constitutes negligence, pastorally and ecclesiastically. Lack of discipline is a demonstration and proof of hate. Listen. Another principle of Discipline is that discipline is not death, but discipline knows when to listen and what to listen for. Let me repeat that. Discipline is not death, but discipline knows when to listen and what to listen for. Did you ever spank a child and really before the paddle or the swedge got to the seat of learning? Now what kind of ear do you have as a parent? If you have a discerning ear, you know that's a deceptive cry. Right? If you know your child well enough, you're a wise parent, you can tell. what's real and what's not real. Or if you have a child like my younger son, oh my goodness, you can put the belt to his hide and you're dying that he would cry. But you know he hasn't yielded. because he's not broken. And what I'm listening for in my precious son Matt's cry is the moment he breaks. Discipline is not death. And some of us, as spiritual parents, are willfully deaf. to insubordinate children in the church of God. By the way, discipline is both private and public. I've taught in many schools, and you say, don't rebuke a child in public. Ha! Shoot you out. If they sin in public, rebuke them in public. That's biblical. Then that sin rebuke before all that others may fear. Publicly censure the sin, and thereby publicly warn all the other sinners. That too applies to discipline in the Church of God. By the way, that text of Paul to Timothy was a text regarding disobedient and insubordinate elders. If they sin, rebuke them publicly, and if they repent, forgive them. Private and public discipline are warranted depending on the nature of the offense, The degree of severity of the offense, if it's a private offense, not severe, doesn't require public rebuke. If it's a man living in open adultery, defying the gospel and the authority of God's church, you ought to publicly and severely discipline him. Discipline, rightly administered, can redeem. Here's a very important point. The end of discipline is not punishment. The end of discipline is redemption. Why do you discipline a little child? Because you want to change his behavior. Thou shalt beat him with a rod and deliver his soul from hell. That's what Solomon said. And people who criticize church discipline, criticize it because they have a false understanding of what it means. They think it's not loving, and they have forgotten that it's not really punitive, but it is primarily rooted in love and redemptive in its end, in its goal. Discipline is redemptive to the one disciplined, dear friend, and discipline is redemptive to the entire community. When one in the Church of God sins a sin worthy of discipline, severe discipline, failure to discipline that individual preaches a toothless morality. and a toothless gospel to the community of the church and to the community outside the church. If you're letting people get away with sin in your congregation because you're afraid to confront them, especially gross sin, you are making impotence the very gospel you preach. And more than that, You are spitting on the gown of the bride of Christ. And you're showing her soiled linen to the ungodly world outside. Solomon said, failure to discipline makes sinners worse. One of my favorite sayings of Solomon is Ecclesiastes 8.11. Listen. Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil. Our Constitution guarantees the right to a fair and speedy trial. Wouldn't it be nice if we had those in this nation? But we don't. And Solomon says that when you are unspeedy to discipline, you harden the hearts of sinners to do sin. Because sin is against and evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil. Speedy discipline censures the exceeding sinfulness of sin. teaches the sinner that he cannot sin without consequences on earth or in heaven, and it teaches other sinners that sin has consequences as well. In fact, failure to discipline is a corruption not just to the sinner who needs discipline, but failure to discipline is a corruption to the entire community. You remember the story of Achan, don't you? And what about Paul in 1 Corinthians 5? They had a few problems there. Paul said, talking only about one of the problems the Corinthians were having, Paul said, even a little leaven leavens the whole. And he's not talking about Mrs. Baird's bread. He's talking about sin. in the camp of the church of God. Well, that's my outline on child discipline, and it's applicable to the church of God as well. I'll give this to you, Dr. Holmes. Now, please bear with me a few moments as I talk to you about the word communion. Because I think it's imperative if we're going to discuss communion that we find out what communion means. So this is an excerpt from my book on communion and church discipline. Bear with me as Paul says, a little in my folly while I read, but I think that this will be edifying to you. By the way, before we begin, Just think about the word communion. I have two ideas. They're common and union. And it's going to be hard for me to talk to you about this without talking about our practice as a church. And I'm not here to convince you that you ought to do everything. In fact, I'll tell you this. If you tried to do in your church what we do in our church, you'd probably be fired next week. So don't, until you've prayed and thought and sought God Almighty about any of this. But think about communion. It means common union. And for us that means, first of all, a common union with Christ. But it's not just because you can say Jesus, and it's certainly not just because you have professed Jesus that we have a common union. By common union, we mean you must have a vital experiential spiritual union with Christ. And I suppose I'll tell you a little bit about my personal history here, because I do think that I have some biases that make me skeptical of contemporary churches, and specifically skeptical of contemporary conversions. I want to say this humbly, really it's not an aggrandizing of myself. I grew up in the home of an evangelist who literally was God's instrument in bringing tens of thousands of people to Christ. I myself have seen thousands of people come to Christ under my father's ministry. And I'll tell you how they came. They came by being in services where the Spirit of God was overwhelming in His presence, where you did not have to beg men to walk the aisle, where men as the Israelites were thrust out of Egypt. The things that I saw in my childhood under my father's ministry were much closer to what you read about in the Great Awakening or the preaching of Jonathan Edwards than anything I've ever seen. If I see people walk the aisle of Billy Graham crusade, they're all laughing, talking. That's not what I saw. What I saw was sinners' hearts radically broken by the power of Almighty God. And you know, when you talk about the Shekinah glory, In the Old Testament, it speaks of the kavod, K-A-V-O-D-H, it means the heaviness. No offense, but I don't believe that phenomenon is common today. Maybe in individual conversions, but in terms of communal worship, you're not seeing that. What I saw as a child and a young person, I've never seen since. Never seen it under the ministry of any other preacher. And I don't mean that any other way, but factually. So I'm skeptical from an experiential standpoint about what people call conversion. Secondly, I'm skeptical from a theological standpoint. Because I don't hear the gospel being preached in churches. What I hear being preached in churches is decisional regeneration, anthropocentric religion, warmed over semi-Pelagianism, tepid. lukewarm and anemic Arminianism. That's what I hear. Man-centered theology. And I don't believe man-centered preaching saves. I believe only God-centered preaching saves. Preaching that affirms that salvation is of the Lord. And I think we're so powerless in our preaching that we need invitations. Just so we can create some action. And we need six verses of Just As I Am. And we need psychological pressure. And we need discipleship seminars, etc., etc., etc. So I'm very skeptical. And as you get to know me, these things are rooted in deep biblical convictions. And I don't want to offend anyone, but I don't want to shave down my sword Just because it might sting you. Communion. That means for us a vital, spiritual union with Christ. It also means an intellectual union. You know, one of the evils that we face as contemporary church is the evil of democracy and pluralism. Now, politically, I support democracy. Politically, I support pluralism. But let me tell you something. God's church is not a democracy. And it certainly is not a pluralistic society. And what we have in most churches today is a watered-down gospel that creates a corporate-sized church who believe in the lowest common denominator of doctrine, where everybody's opinion matters. And you can believe this, and you can believe that, or do this and do that, and you have democratic pluralism of our political culture infiltrating the culture of our churches. The church is not a democracy, it's a theocracy. And it's not a sphere of pluralistic opinions, but it is a sphere of one mind. And that's the mind of God. And for us, that means doctrinal unity, intellectual unity. If you don't agree with us doctrinally, you shouldn't be a part of our church. and won't be a part of our church. So, communion means a common spiritual, vital union in Christ. It means a common intellectual union. And it means a common moral union as well. Our church isn't perfect. All the time I feel like Paul says, in lowliness of mind, let each esteem the other better than themselves. Do you have trouble doing that? I don't. I'm ashamed to say I don't. I feel all the time like I'm some strange way blessed and graced to pastor people much better than I. They're not perfect. I'm not perfect. But I tell you what we won't permit. We won't permit overt rebellion against God with our teenagers. We won't permit overt rebellion against God with our adults. We won't permit a little snotty-nosed rebellious children in our sanctuary, little hell fits, tantrums by deacons or babies. Won't permit it. Ain't going to happen. Because we have a common moral union. And by the way, the common union that we have in Christ also involves some personality characteristics. You know, Christians shouldn't be jerks. Christians shouldn't be mean. Christians shouldn't be hateful. Christians sure shouldn't gossip. By the way, if you just brought gossip under your control at your church, what kind of revival would you have? By the way, women shouldn't rule the church. By the way, women shouldn't rule their husbands. By the way, you ought to be kind to me and I ought to be gentle to you. Because you see, when the Holy Spirit really saves you, He graces you not only with a mind, but He also graces you with His personality. You know, one of the things God says He hates is He who causes discord among the brethren. The hardest disciplinary case our church ever had was a 75-year-old woman who just kind of went bonkers on us overnight. would not be corrected. She was the matriarch of our church. In our history we've probably had 7 or 8 cases over 19 years of excommunication in our church. And I'll tell you more about those perhaps. Keep me as the apple of thy eye. You know that in the Hebrew, the word for apple of your eye doesn't mean that you're an apple and God's looking at you. The word translated wrongly, though it's a euphemism and a metaphor, it's not apple. If you look at my eye from the side, you'll see that my cornea bulges. And in Hebrew poetry, biblical poetry specifically, the bulging of the cornea is called the apple of the eye. And when David says that, keep me as the apple of your eye, when God says to Israel, I kept you as the apple of my eye, this means that anywhere I was, there was God's eye. I'm in his cornea. And that's what discipline is. That's what community is, being in the cornea of the eye, God. Listen to this. We're going to begin with a word called in communication. I talked last time about front door discipline. Well, you've heard of excommunication. I want to talk to you about in communication. We coined this term in order to remind you that church discipline begins not at the back door with excommunication, but at the front door with in communication. And by in-communication, we mean the methods, means, and message. By in-communication, we mean the methods, means, and message. I'll give you this later if you want it. Just listen. Whereby a local church in-communicates its members. What method do you use to bring members into your church? What means do you use to bring members into your church? Most importantly, what message do you use to bring members into your church? Incommunication means how an individual, a communicant, comes into communion with the local church. To understand the term incommunication and its more familiar antonym, excommunication, You have to explore the common root of both in communication and excommunication, the common root of which is commune. As a verb, commune derives from the Latin communicare, C-O-M-M-U-C-A-R-E, communicare. And communicare means to receive communion or to commune in some intimate way. In Middle English, you have the word communen, or in Middle French, communer, both of which mean to converse intimately or to administer and receive communion in the church. As a noun, commune, which is connected with communion, commune derives from the Latin communio, where we get our word community. It means a community organized on a communal basis. A community organized around commonality and a community organized around unity. Is your church unified? If it's not, is it a church? If your church isn't unified, can it observe communion? No. Paul, you remember the big problem at Corinth? It was division over all kinds of things. And Paul said, quote, therefore, when you come together, it is not to observe the Lord's Supper. Unquote. You call it what you want to. But if you're not unified, Paul said to the Corinthians, you may be eating and drinking, dear friend, but you're not in communion unless you're commonly unified. So answer for yourself, yea brother, sister, answer for God, is your church unified? And I would add, is it unified in mind? Is it unified in morals? Is it unified in message? Is it unified? Can your church observe communion? I hope you know, and I guarantee you, God does know. Not only whether or not you're unified, but God Almighty knows whether or not you can observe communion. You can't observe that which is not there. To commune is the act of intimate communication. Communication denoting both verbal and vital intimate relationship among members of the Community is the society of those who are in intimate communion one with another. Communicant is the individual member of the unified community. To communicate is to converse intimately among individual communicants and the collective community. Communication is the intimate in mutual conversation. Communion. Is the intimate relationship within the community privately experienced? Look, your members come together one to one. Is there a genuine spiritual unity between them? A genuine intellectual and doctrinal unity? Does this member's spirit bear witness with that member's spirit that they are the children of God? Because they do have love, they do have joy, they do have peace, they are gentle, they are kind, they are good. If not, they're not in communion.