Let's get going. Okay, let's pray together and we'll get started this morning. Father, we are thankful to be together in your house on your day, be under your word with your people. This is a great blessing. And with that blessing, we pray for the presence of your spirit to instruct our hearts and minds in the knowledge of the holy things we come to consider. And especially in this hour, we pray for your help. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, Rex and I are tag-teaming Chapter 26 of the Confession of Faith, and this morning he began the appointed government of the local church last week. and I come to continue that this morning by dealing with paragraphs 10 to 13. So there's no time to waste and we're gonna go right to it. Here's the outline of the chapter as a whole. The universal church is the subject of paragraphs one to four. The local church is the subject of paragraphs five to 15. And then under that, A large heading, there are five major things to be considered. We've looked at three of them already completely. The originating mandate of the church in God's electing grace and the Great Commission, paragraph five. The defined membership of the church, visible saints. In paragraph six, the authoritative power of the church given all powers necessary for worship and discipline, paragraph seven. And then Rex began with the appointed government last week. And since I will not be here next week, he will finish with the fraternal relations. I'll tell you more about why I'm not here next week in a few, sometime today. The fraternal relations are in paragraphs 14 and 15. So he dealt with the identity of its government. He intends to deal still with the appointment of its government when he comes back next week, I understand. But this morning we come to the cornerstone of the government of the local church, which is the ministry of the word, and then we come to the extent of its government, paragraphs 12 to 13. So that's where we're going this morning. Paragraph 10 and 11 deal with the official ministry of the word by pastors. Paragraph 10 takes up its heavy responsibilities, and then takes up the proper honoring of that office financially. And then paragraph 11 takes up the auxiliary ministry of the word by others than the ministers of the gospel appointed, the official ministers of the gospel. So the confession moves here to the ministry of the word in the government of the church, having dealt with elders and bishops and deacons, it moves to the ministry of the word, and this teaches us that the church is ruled, reminds us that the church is ruled by the word of God. The highest continuing office has as its unique requirement the ability to teach. When you compare the qualifications for deacon with the qualification for elder, they're very similar, but there is one distinction, and that is the ability to teach, which is mentioned in 1 Timothy 3, 2, 5, 17, and again in Titus 1, 9 to 11. Deacons are servants of the servants of the word, so that this service to the word would not be neglected, and this is the reason for the original appointment of deacons in Acts 6, verses two and four. Hence, the ministry of the Word is the cornerstone of its government. It's an interesting thing in Acts 6 that we're talking about the neglect of the feeding of widows. that we're talking about care for the poor, but the apostles make it really clear that even more important than that essential duty is the ministry of the word in the local church. It must not be neglected even for the sake of ministering to the poor, which speaks volumes in our day, I think, of the importance and priority of the ministry of the word. Here is the first part of paragraph 10, and I'm going to ask, people who are listening to this ought to be able to find a copy of the Confession, so I'm going to ask Nathan, nice and loud, to read the first part of paragraph 10 as far as this paragraph goes. It is incumbent on the churches to whom they minister, not only to give them all due respect, but also to communicate to them of all their good things according to their ability. so as they may have a comfortable supply. And Jacob, you're seated conveniently there. Would you to read the second part of paragraph 10. Without being themselves entangled in secular affairs, they may also be capable of inciting hospitality towards others. This is required by the law of nature, by the express order of our Lord Jesus, who hath ordained that they that preach the gospel Now, the thrust of paragraph 10 is, as you have seen, the material support of elders in the local church. And I want to concentrate attention on that subject. and I'm not gonna beat around the bush because I think this is a clear biblical teaching and whatever you may think of my personal motivations, you're wrong if you think ill of them, but I want you to know what the Bible teaches about this and I'm not gonna pull any punches with you about it, okay? The framers seem to have written this paragraph because of a problem with regard to this in the churches. The fact of the matter is that this particular paragraph, and it's one of the longest sections of the confession, has no source in any other confession that we know of. Almost everything else in the confession has another source historically. This paragraph does not. Why? Because the framers wrote it, particularly, probably, because of a problem with regard to this in particular Baptist churches of the time. There's nothing new is there, is there? Baptist churches still have a problem with this. Benjamin Keech, who is the one man who signed both the First and Second London Confession, if my memory serves me, decried the neglect of financial support of pastors in his writings from this time. There are some who have denied that any elders in the local church ought to be supported regularly. This is fairly commonly known to be a position of some of the Brethren and Plymouth Brethren churches, that pastors should be supported. support from the church. And so, since such a view can have devastating results for the church, it's important to focus our attention on this point. The biblical evidence is mainly to be found, not exclusively, but I don't have time to go to every place, the biblical evidence is mainly to be found in three classic passages. The first one is 1 Timothy 5, 17 and 18. The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. For the scripture says, you shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing, and the laborer is worthy of his wages. Now we have to ask and answer three questions about this crucial passage of scripture. What is honor here? What is honor? Now some people say it's respect plus financial support. I don't think that's exactly correct. Honor in this passage deals with financial support period. Why do I say that? Honor in the New Testament often designates something of material value. Matthew 27, 6-9, Acts 4-34, other passages in Acts, it talks about something of material value, the cost of something even. You can look up those passages. It's clear. But honor is used of material support in the media context of 1 Timothy 5, 17 and 18. It's used of honoring widows in verse 3 of 1 Timothy 5, and that's talking about financial support. And this becomes clear also in verses four to eight and 16. Check the context for yourself. Verse 18 supports verse 17. Note how it begins with the conjunction for, with verses used elsewhere in the New Testament to describe material support. Let's go back there a second. For the Scripture says, you shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing, and the laborer is worthy of his wages. Now, in the rest of the New Testament, passages like 1 Corinthians 9, 9, Matthew 10, 10, Luke 10, 7, all of which are cited here in some fashion by the Apostle Paul, all of them deal with financial support. That's what the passage is talking about. What then is double honor? We've seen what honor is, it's financial support. What is double honor? There are two clues that unlock the meaning of this unusual phrase. The first is the use of honor in verse three. Widows who can't be supported by their families, Paul qualifies it in a moment, Widows are to be honored financially. That is to say, the church is to take care of them and support them if they stand in need. Elders, and I think there's a deliberate contrast with verse three, elders are to be doubly honored financially. Widows are to be honored, elders are to be double honored. You see the contrast there. The second clue to the meaning of double honor is the use of double in the New Testament. If you go to passages like Revelation 18.6, which talks about rendering to Babylon double the punishment, and to Matthew 23.15, these passages are using the term double in a figurative way. but in a figurative way, which means plenty. Babylon is to be doubly punished, amply punished. Matthew 23, 15, the same way. It's figurative, and it means plenty or ample. Double honor, then, is ample financial support. That's what it means. Who are to be doubly honored? That's the third question. The answer is clearly elders who rule well. But especially those, says Paul, who labor in the word and teaching or the public ministry of the word. Paul's thought can be illustrated by means of three concentric circles. The outer circle encompasses all qualified elders. The next circle, the elders who rule well. And then the inner circle encompasses elders who are gifted to work hard at preaching and teaching. Financial support then, according to Paul, must be focused in the inner circle and radiate outward as the necessity and ability of the church makes this appropriate. So, here's my attempt to illustrate that. Paul is thinking of three concentric circles of elders. All, I believe, qualified elders, then elders who are particularly gifted, elders who rule well, and I don't think that's in contrast to elders who rule badly, it's in contrast other qualified men whose gifts and graces may not be as clear. And then there are elders who labor in the word and doctrine. Okay? So there are three concentric circles of elders. Now, I've got a couple of things on my heart to say about this that aren't really the point here. One of the things that have been a grief to me in my ministry is that I can't convince people that most of the elders in the New Testament were not supported. Most of the elders in the New Testament were not vocational pastors. But when you try to get a church to recognize what in some places is called ruling elders, I don't like that kind of language, everybody thinks of vocational pastors. Unless somebody looks like a vocational pastor, they don't think they're an elder or pastor in that sense. Well, that's simply wrong. None of the elders in Ephesus were supported. This is why Paul has to give the exhortation here to Timothy in 1 Timothy 5. That's why he has to say this. Because they had taken Paul's words so literally about working to support themselves, Acts 20, remember? They'd taken Paul's words so literally there that they weren't supporting anybody. Now the point is, You can't read your New Testament with any kind of realism and historical understanding without understanding that most of these churches, all of whom had a plurality of elders, most of those elders were not supported. And yet somehow we think that the only kind of elder we can have in our day is a supported elder, a vocational pastor. There's something vastly wrong with the way we're thinking about that. You see my point? So stop it. Don't think that to be an elder somebody has to be qualified to be a vocational pastor. That's not true. And you gotta stop thinking that way. Otherwise, we'll never have any non-supported elders because we can't get the church to recognize them because nobody can see them. I'm just frustrated about that. And then it's not with you, it's 40 years of frustration. I'm frustrated with my dad about that. I am. He's dead now. He's in heaven. I think he knows better. But if anybody in the church in Grand Rapids was qualified to be a non-supported elder, he was. And he couldn't bring himself to see it. Maybe it was partly because his son was one of the pastors and he thought it looked crooked or something. I don't know. But the fact of the matter is he was apt to teach. He taught Sunday school classes most of his life. He was a fine man, and we had him meet with us as elders. Do you think we could ever get him to stop thinking about all elders as being vocational pastors, and since he wasn't one, he couldn't be an elder? I couldn't get him to do it. It was frustrating, and I'm still frustrated about it, and I don't want this church to be guilty of it, all right? Boy, that's really good to get that off my chest. But the other thing that's clear here is that financial support from the church is to be focused on the elders who labor and the work in the doctrine, and that's not all of them. You see that clearly, right? And it might radiate outward to other elders who have certain gifts and abilities, and maybe in administration, maybe in private counseling, and they might warrant, in some cases, that kind of financial support. And then there are all qualified elders, all of whom need not be supported, right? According to 1 Timothy 5.17, there's your Bible for it, right? Okay, Galatians 6.6. Tim Octor, can you see that? Can you read that for me nice and loud, okay? Now that's the key passage, but I want you to see the context, and Tim's about to read it. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. The one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, Let us do good to all people and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. Now, there's a second key passage about the financial support of elders. I want you to notice a number of things about it. It describes, you saw that, right? Material support as sharing, as contribution. That's the language used. And there are three questions again. What is to be shared? The answer is all good things. The good things in this context, notice verse 10, do good to all men, especially those of the household of faith. The good things are material blessings. The emphasis of all good things. Why does he say all good things? Well, I think you can see it clearly. It's on the necessity of an open-hearted generosity on the part of the church towards its teachers. With whom are they to be shared? Well, they are to be shared with the one who teaches. Now, teacher is an interesting word. It's the word from which we get the English word catechize. And that word suggests regular or systematic instruction. It's someone who's regularly engaged in the instruction of the church, that is to have shared with him all good things, right? What are the consequences of sharing or not sharing all good things? Well, you saw them there in verses 7 and 9, right? He who sows to the flesh, for all who love the flesh, reap corruption. He who sows to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap eternal life. Paul connects this sharing of all good things with some warnings. He goes immediately to them. Well, look at it again. So, the one who has taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, this will he also reap. And whatever a church sows, this that church will also reap. That's the point, I think. It's at least one of the connections. And he comes back to the whole issue of doing good. Let us not lose heart in doing good in verse nine. For in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. And so, one of those that are of the household of the faith is the one who regularly teaches. So this is an awesomely important thing then. Here's my conviction. The oppressive failure of evangelical churches to properly support their pastors is no little reason at the root of the dearth and the curse upon the professing church. Let me put it this way. They're getting just the kind of pastoral labor that they're paying for. Those who value the labor of God's servant will find themselves blessed with valuable labor. Those who don't will get just the kind of labor they're paying for, right? I'm glad I'm 70, I don't have to worry about what people think of me anymore. 1 Corinthians 9.14, 1 Corinthians 9.14. Oh, I didn't give you the text here, did I? Maybe I'm going to, no. Lee, you have a Bible there, don't you? Would you look up 1 Corinthians 9, 14 and read it for us, please? You can take a moment to put on your glasses and all of that. Okay, now here there are two questions. Who should have a living? Well, the one who preaches the gospel. I assume this means as his vocation. What is to be earned? A living or a livelihood. That's interesting language, isn't it? Pastors are to be so paid that they are not financially in a slow death, but that they're living. Such a sufficiency of the world's goods as to have a decent life, not such an insufficiency as makes life a slow death. Some of you have been in jobs, or maybe you still are, I'm sorry, where the pay is not a living, it's a slow death. Well, whatever we think of that, and however sorry we feel about that, churches must not do that. They must give their pastors a living. So, conclusions from paragraph 10. Well, it's clear, isn't it, throughout the New Testament that certain elders, not all elders, but certain elders are to be supported materially. and there are no hair splitting distinctions between itinerant teachers and regular local teachers, nothing like that's found. You read about that in some of the crazy books that deny regular supportive pastors, but they're not in the New Testament. The Bible does not fastidiously restrict support only to some very rare itinerant class of teachers. Focus of support, the second thing we learn, should be on those elders who excel in the public ministry of the word. see the preeminence of the word in the church. And then the material support given to such elders by the church are generous and ample. You notice how the confession talks about efficiency, so that they can show hospitality, so they can live a decent life. Hospitality is expensive. You look at your grocery bills, if you do allow hospitality, you know that hospitality is expensive. and it's getting more expensive. So we need to be generous and ample so that our elders can live a decent life, the ones that are supported by the church, and so they can be generous themselves and show hospitality to others. This is not optional. Well, that brings us to the auxiliary ministry of the Word, paragraph 11. Yes, Nathan. Go ahead. I was about to think I should ask what questions come, so go ahead. Yes, they did. So my sample size is very small. In this area, there's a lot of single-pastor churches. They don't believe in paternal loyalty. And some of those guys are way overpaid. So if you could give us some context, like maybe within what you've seen to inform tradition. I just haven't seen. I'm ignorant of. And then secondly, if churches are failing in that area, I wonder, is it a result of poor tithing? It could be. Let me say, I do think that churches with a reformed theology of preaching and the ministry are doing better than most other churches. And that's your sample, basically. I don't know what other churches you're familiar with. So I guess I would agree with you. But I have seen many Baptist churches that I've actually had to lead business meetings in. We had church plants in Grand Rapids over the years. ten plus of them. And one of our privileges was to make sure that those churches didn't fall into the kind of lack of generosity that other churches did. And some of those were pre-existing churches. I went into a church in South Carolina and had to lead a business meeting because the pastor was being miserably supported and it was part of our duty as the church that was giving him oversight to lead a business meeting of the church, you know. Basically, in that meeting, my member of the service raised his salary by about 50% because it was necessary. It was that bad. So this is my, you know, I do think there are some churches and probably some of the main liberal denominations that have established about this that are maybe doing better than, but there are a lot of Bible and Baptist churches that are not doing Yes, Blake? Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see Austin. Mm-hmm. Okay. Austin. I apologize, my memory is failing me. You addressed this already in the modern exposition. where it says, this is required by the law of nature. Is that referring to showing hospitality to others, or is it referring to giving ministers honor? It would seem like it would, the context is teaching me that phrase. This is required by the law of nature, showing hospitality towards others. I'm looking for it here. Yeah, I'm not sure I can be dogmatic about this, but the context of not being entangled in secular affairs, capable of exercising hospitality, and then, and the general context would lead me to think that this refers not just to hospitality, but to all the things that have just been mentioned. Yes, go ahead, Alex. I don't think that's what the verse is talking about. I think you could probably get there by a third or fourth degree deduction. We should honor elders, therefore God will honor elders, therefore he'll give them heavenly rewards, but that's not what 1 Timothy 5, 17 and 18 is talking about. It's talking about financial support. Sarai? a problem that was, is showing up among Baptist churches, that's why it's in this confession and not others. Does that mean, what, Presbyterian churches, we don't see this kind of problem as often in Orthodox Presbyterian churches? Yeah, I don't think so, although I think it may be still a problem there. That's my impression. And there were things about them, I don't know if I want to say this or not, but there are things about their misconception of church government that at least help them on that issue maybe to be more faithful. Bryce? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, another application is that you can pray for Nathan and Jamie and Jason, who are on our compensation committee, because we do have a compensation committee. They're the voting members. I'm the non-voting members. And so, they need our prayers that they will have wisdom on this issue, because it is possible. And of course, I have seen And I've been involved in situations where elders were being paid in an inordinate kind of way as well. So both extremes are possible. Every televangelist, there are probably 1,000 that have to work to get a job to feed their families. Yes, go ahead, Jonathan. eldership levels in the church that the Bible doesn't speak of, like, oh, well, the associate pastors, we've got the head pastor, then we've got the elder. Yeah, no, we need to say that very clearly. All elders are pastors or bishops, and all elders then have equal authority. So there are three things that must be remembered in terms of the eldership of the church. Plurality, they're all to me normally a plurality of elders. Parity, those elders have equal authority. And diversity, the plurality and parity does not mean that all the elders have equal influence, equal usefulness, equal gifting, or equal support. All right? Yes, Blake? Yeah. Mm-hmm. living, but he didn't really preach at one specific church or belong to the local church. He would travel all over the place and have these private jets. But the problem is, is when you don't have a local pastor at a local church, it's like, how are you, it's kind of like the same thing when I was saying last week, I would try to be bonkers that why do these people not belong into a local church? Well, same exact thing for these Why do you have to go to all these other places? And of course, they're doing it for the money and not for to save the souls of those that need Christ. Amen. Well, I'm going to move on now because I have a couple of other paragraphs to deal with here and some other things that you need to know. And we're almost there. Don't look at the PowerPoint screen, you'll get dizzy. The auxiliary ministry of the word, paragraph 11. The prohibition of preaching by non-ministers is usually associated with an exaggerated distinction between ministers and elders. But there is, however, no precept forbidding a Christian to preach the gospel as he may have opportunity. You know, I don't think I put a place to read the confession in there, so I'm going to read it. This is paragraph 11. And it's, again, something that is not unique to the Baptist confession. There's a paragraph like it, I think, in the Savoy Declaration. but it is quite different than the Westminster Confession. Although it be incumbent on bishops or pastors of the churches to be instant in preaching the word by way of office, yet the work of preaching the word is not so peculiarly confined to them, but that others, also gifted and fitted by the Holy Spirit for it, and approved and called by the church, may and ought to perform it. Now, this is where I'm going with this heading. So there is no precept permitting a Christian to preach the gospel as he may have opportunity. There are examples of Christians preaching the word who were not ordained elders in the book of Acts and in 1 Peter 4.10. But there are, this needs to be emphasized, there are precepts and principles which require him to avoid pride, anyone who does this kind of preaching, and to submit to the church and its overseers in the estimate and exercise of his gifts. So, the Bible does contain examples of people preaching who are not elders. The Bible does not forbid them to do that. The Bible does, however, say that they ought to do that in submission to the church and its elders. Now, this is led to the commendable practice of Reformed Baptist churches, recognizing by a vote of the church certain men as gifted brothers, commended to minister the word of God publicly. Some of you new people don't know this. We have two gifted brothers in this church right now. Eddie Goodwin and Rex Emrod are gifted brothers voted such as by the church a number of years ago. And we may have more. This is just a way of saying, look, Use your gifts, but use them in submission to the elders of the church and to the church itself. The teaching of the 1689 here, and with regard to the administration of the ordinances of the church, C. 28.2, is in contrast to that of the Presbyterians and the Westminster Confession. That's very important to say. The Westminster speaks of ministers as alone competent to preach and administer the sacraments. And there are plenty of examples that I know of in Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed churches where if they don't have a minister, an ordained minister, then the most anybody can do is get up and read a Puritan sermon from the 1700s or something like that. They may not preach. Now, that is not the Baptist view. It's not the view of the Baptist confession. But particularly revelatory of the restrictive Presbyterian view of this matter is the statement of Westminster 27.4. There be only two sacraments ordained by Christ our Lord in the gospel, that is to say, baptism and the supper of the Lord, neither of which may be dispensed by any but a minister of the word lawfully ordained. This is not the position of the Baptist confession. This is the position of Presbyterians historically, but not the Baptist. The Baptist view is that if a man is called and qualified by the church to do so, he may administer the ordinances. And got lots of questions last week in Guadalajara about this subject, and this is the basis upon which I answered them. But we must go on. If I have time, you can ask questions about that if you like at the end. the extent of its government. Can you read that, Adam, where you are? And I think Terry can probably read the other paragraph. Paragraph 13. No church members upon any offense taken by them having performed their duty required of them towards the person they are offended at ought to disturb any church order or absent themselves from the assemblies of the church or administration of any ordinances upon the account of such offense at any of their fellow members, but to wait upon Christ These two paragraphs are really countercultural, counter-evangelical church cultural, all right? Let me tell you why. These deal with the extent of the government. It extends to all of its members, paragraph 12. It extends to all of its problems, paragraph 13. And then in paragraph 13, there are three subpoints, the situation envisaged, the prohibition issued, and the direction required. Let's look at it. Paragraph 12 asserts that all believers are bound to join a local church with the qualification when and where they have opportunity to do so. And when they join, to subject themselves to its discipline. Can't join, can't say I want to be a member, but you can exempt me from your discipline. No, you can't do that. And this is assumed from paragraph five, which teaches the same thing. The implications that Christians ought to submit to the government of their churches. Biblical support, go read 1 Thessalonians 5.14, 2 Thessalonians 3.6-15, 1 Corinthians 5.9-13, Hebrews 13.17. I think most of you are familiar with those passages. The situation, but it extends to all its problems as well, and then the confession goes into a particular situation. The situation envisioned is that church members have been offended by a person in the church. They have performed the duty of Matthew 18, 15 to 17. The person has not satisfied them by his repentance. Perhaps the people have not taken the matter to the church yet, or perhaps they have, but the church has not acted, at least not to their satisfaction. What do they do now? You leave the church and never come back, right? That's what you do. Or maybe you start gossiping about the person all over the church, try to drive them out of the church by all the slander and gossip you're saying. Is that what you do? Confessions tells you something absolutely opposite to that. And here's the prohibition issued. It informs such church members as to what they should not do. There must be no disturbance of the church order by public demonstrations, whispering or letter writing campaigns or gossip. There must be no absenting themselves from the church's meetings or abstinence from the church's ordinances. I'm not going to the Lord's table if they're letting that person go. No, I'm sorry. You're not an elder of the church. It's the church's job as a whole to take care of these matters. And here's the direction issued or required. The direction required informs such members of what they should do. If they have not told the church, well, they should take it to the elders so the elders can call an orderly meeting to deal with the problem. If they have told the church, Either the church hasn't acted yet or in a way that is satisfactory to them, they should wait. And this is the language of the confession. Wait upon Christ in the further proceeding of the church. Have we forgotten that Christ is the church? Don't we believe that anymore? They should do the one thing that people in such a situation are least likely to do. They should pray to the Lord of the church. They should believe that there is someone higher than the elders, the Lord Jesus Christ, and wait on the proceeding of the church. In our day, when the situation envisioned in this paragraph is seen as a clear warrant for a church split, the teaching of this paragraph is radical. The regulative importance of Christ's directions in Matthew 18, 15 to 17 for our conduct in the church must be remembered and imprinted on our minds. The regulative importance of Christ's presence in the church must be remembered, weighed upon Christ in the further proceeding of the church. That's the confessions teaching, and it is, I think, biblical teaching. I have two minutes or so for questions. Austin. That's a good question. I'm not sure it has the same answer in every situation, but it would make sense, wouldn't it, that if a church was for some reason, if we were for some reason, without elders for a while, or There's some odd circumstance where Pastor Sam is in South America and Pastor Dan has a way ministry and Pastor Joe's here by himself, but all of a sudden he's got a funeral to go to someplace in Florida or North Carolina. What do we do then? Well, I do think that the first place you might look is either to the gifted brothers of the church or after them to deacons, and I don't think you would have to necessarily for that period of time forego the ordinances of the church. But this decision would be made by the elders of the church. And if there were no elders, I think a church meeting together and appointing a qualified man, that is to say a man whose life is not repugnant and has an exemplary Christian life, could administer the ordinances. This is not a this is not an allowance for just a free-for-all It's a it's an allowance for a church to act in an orderly way to supply a temporary lack, right? Bryce Yeah Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's right. And it's certainly our policy to make sure if somebody begins to come here that we check with their former church about the circumstances of their leaving their previous church. There may be good reasons, but we need to be sure as elders that there are. Blake? members of local churches, but it gives the qualification when and where they're able to do so. And so it assumes that the normal order is that a Christian would be part of a local church, but that there are circumstances where that may not be the case. And for that reason, at the seminary, we have put in a policy. Because the normal requirement is that our students be members of local churches, but we haven't exempted policy. that says that they could study with us, but they're limited to the Master of Arts in Theological Studies because it's a non-pastoral track. So someone who is aspiring to the ministry and studying for the ministry should not be in a situation where they're not in a local church. Yeah, absolutely, and of course, there, let me assure you, there are a number of hoops they have to jump through to get that exemption. But the confession and its statement about this was very helpful to us in coming to the place where we began to grant such an exemption, right? Okay, hymn number 32.