Good morning. I give you greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's good to be back. I have a lot to tell you, but I'll reserve that for thanksful time, all our experiences in the past few weeks. But this is a special occasion, too. We're going to be dealing with a young man who is making his public profession of faith. Samuel Josiah Hines. And he's going to be standing out front and professing his faith by saying he's answering a series of questions. He's already been examined and so forth by the elders and taught and trained by them as well as his parents. So this is in preparation for that. So what I'm going to be doing is going over the five questions that you say answer for church membership, so it's a kind of a review for all of us. The particular issue that I'm dealing with, there'll be some other little issues, is what do you have to say? What do you have to confess in order to be recognized as a member of the Church? How much should be included in all that? There are some churches that require you to learn the Catechism. I mean a long catechism, and you better know the questions and answers to that catechism as a young person, and sometimes it's done in front of the whole congregation, sometimes it's done in front of the elders, and so forth. And when they get through all those 4,000 questions and answers, then okay, they'll be admitted. They have passed the test. Now, we adults don't have to do that. The Covenant. Children have to do that. We escape that. If you join the Church after 21 years old, you don't have to do all that kind of stuff. Well, what do we do in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church? Well, so this particular presentation or message will be instructional. It probably, you can liken it to a grand, maybe it was in Sunday school lesson. So it won't be your normal passage, expounding on a singular passage. There'll be a number of passages. I'll try to keep it down. And then it'll turn into a lot of passages. It's difficult. So far, I'll try to go as carefully as possible for that. And, let's see, Elder Jim says we get out of here by 12. We'll be doing okay. We'll try not to keep you too long. First passage, though, is Acts, Chapter 8. That's the one that's the first one we have. Acts, Chapter 8. This happens to be the occasion of the Ethiopian eunuch. And how Philip was supernaturally called to minister to him, give him the gospel. The Ethiopian eunuch asked the right question, what is this passage? Isaiah 53 was reading, what is this all about? Who does he speak of? And Philip explains it to him, and essentially what Philip says is what we do on Sundays. He started with the passage, and then expounded Jesus. And that's essentially how you witness. That's essentially what a worship service begins with. Essentially, starting with the passage and moving on. Now, this has to do with making a profession of faith. But that's crucial in being a Christian. So let's read a few of those verses. Not the whole passage, but just a short... Let's get down to verse 34. Acts chapter 8. I'll start with verse 34. Now I'm reading out of the old standard, American Standard 1901, so it may be a little bit different. Acts chapter 8, starting with verse 34. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee of whom speaks the prophet, of himself or of another. And Philip opened his mouth, the beginning from this scripture, preach unto him Jesus. And as they went on the way, they came to a certain water, and the eunuch said, Behold, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And he commanded the chariot, and so stand still, and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. Now, there's a little verse there that in older, by King James, is missing. In the more modern Bibles, the verse, and this has to do with the different manuscripts and so forth, it wasn't a translation thing, but the verse that's missing there, in Philips 10, if you believe, if you believe with all your heart, you may be. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Some of you may have that in your text, some of you may not have that in your text. But in effect, that's what he has to do. In other words, simply because there was some desire on the part of the Ethiopian eunuch It's not based upon his desire, though he should have a desire to become a Christian. You don't become a Christian without your wanting to become a Christian. That's got to manifest itself. It may not manifest itself early, it may manifest itself later on in life. But nonetheless, somehow your faith has got to manifest itself. Part of being a Christian, the central part of being a Christian, is the publicness of it. You don't become a Christian in secret and kind of live your life secretly and then die secretly as a Christian and so forth and so on. Part of the dilemma of being a Christian is it's got to be public. Maybe you don't want to tell your folks. Maybe you don't want to tell your mom. Maybe you don't want to tell people you work with, live with in the neighborhood. Well, either don't become a Christian or you're going to have to tell everybody. Sooner or later it's going to come out. So that's what's crucial about this public profession of faith. It's endemic to being a Christian. It's a public thing. Our worship service is public. The meetings that we have as elders are, in a sense, public, normally. But worship service is a public thing. When you get baptized, it's a public thing. You don't do private baptisms. As a chaplain, some of the patients want to be baptized. They want a private baptism. We don't do private baptisms. It has to be a public baptism. It has to be in front of individuals. Baptism is a ritual, which is a profession of faith, but you have to then use your mouth. Somewhere along the line, the mouth has got to be involved. And so here, in this particular passage, the fellow wants to become a Christian, and before he receives this baptism, Philip asks him, do you understand what you're doing, in effect? If you believe, and if you believe this particular thing, that Jesus is the Son of God, you may be baptized. Now, in one of my churches, I may have mentioned this to some of you already, but in one of my churches, they are discussing, not Orthodox Presbyterians, another denomination altogether, but they're discussing the issue of the Church Covenant. Some churches call it a Church Covenant, you sign a piece of paper. And the issue they're dealing with is how complicated, how detailed does that church covenant have to be? What do you have to confess in order to be a member of that church? So this particular church that I'm ministering to is going through the throes and the anxiety of how complicated should it be? Should you hold to, let's see, the second coming, the post-tribulational rapture, pre-millennial, post-millennial, mid-millennial, mid-tribulational subset of a subset, in your views of Matthew 24, are what? This particular church is going through that anxiety. Now I'm counseling with the elders, the pastor and the elders of that congregation, and basically what I'm arguing is only scripture tells us what we ought to believe, and when it comes to that profession, scripture also gives us insight of what we have to believe. And so the church hasn't finally come to a decision on their own part. They have a long list of things that you have to believe. As a matter of fact, I had another congregation. I pastored another congregation. Oh, and this was an Orthodox Presbyterian congregation. And they wanted to make sure that everybody who joined was not only a five-point Calvinist, maybe a six-point Calvinist. You had to be a Vangelian Presuppositional Apologetic. which I am, a holy endorsement, which you have to hold to a certain view of theonomy, a particular view of theonomy, in order to be a member of the church. And there were other little things in there too. Well, as much as I agree with the sentiments, the doctrine, and so forth and so on, my objection, and this is in line with what we as a denomination hold to us, that's not what you have to confess and openly profess in order to be a member of Christ's Church. Now, in order to be a teacher, in the church, you better know you're not here. And so there's a lot of things we want the members. And so I, we as elders, have to, we have far more detail, far more scrutinized and examined in order to be a leader in the congregation. That's understandable. But if you just want to be a member, I don't want to be a teacher, I just want to be a member, I just want to love Jesus and hate sin. Do I have to know all that stuff, and do I have to discern all that, be able to have an examination before the Presbyterian, before all these other individuals, and be a member of the Church? All I want to be is a member of Christ's Church. And essentially, what you have in the Acts passage is, yes, it's crucial that you believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Another text that I want to point to you is Romans chapter 10. Do you remember Romans chapter 10? What you're going to find out through these questions that we at the OPC ask, basically are questions on how to be a Christian. What does it mean to be a Christian? Acts chapter 10. What do I have to do? What do I have to say? I mean, sorry, Romans chapter 10. I was testing you. Romans chapter 10. Jump down to verse, let's take a look at verse 9. Now most of you know this. Romans chapter 10 verse 9, Because of thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord. Notice the expression, confess with your mouth. That gets so specific, not only how you do that, you can confess a number of different ways. But there's a confession with the mouth that is secret. That, and it's that, what? That Jesus is Lord. Now whether you say Jesus is the Son of God, Jesus is Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, there's a variety of ways Scripture allows us to say the same thing. So it's not as though there's one particular phraseology, and unless you phrase it this way, you're not going to get it. So there is a variety of phrases that are used here, but this is the one that Paul uses in Romans chapter 10. Because if thou confess with thy mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead." Now, this may seem obvious, but it's supposed to be very important, that when we ask someone to confess their faith, and they say the right words, that's all we really care about. That they say the right words. Well, quite frankly, that's not all we care about. And believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead. Now, we can't judge of that belief. It's not as though the elders, it's not as though the leaders of the church and the rest of the congregation have some magic truth glasses and they can peer into someone's heart. Nonetheless, when we ask for that open, outward, public profession, We assume, and rightly so, assume that there is a real transformation of the heart and life. We also know at the same time that not everybody that says one thing, that Jesus reminded us in Matthew 7, that not everybody that says, Lord, Lord, really believes that Jesus is Lord. They're going through the motions. But nonetheless, It's not as though we just simply care about what is said. Because what is said is a reflection of the heart, in its truest sense. In the truest sense. So here is the Apostle Paul, if you confess with your mouth, Jesus, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believes, the righteousness with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. You see this relationship between the mouth and the heart. The mouth speaks out from the heart. Out of the heart, as Jesus said, out of the heart come the issues. Proverbs 4, out of the heart comes the issues of life, the expression of your heart. So somewhere along the line, even though I may be able to stand up here and say, yes I do, yes I agree, yes I agree, yes I agree, that's not the end of our confession. Quite frankly, that's the beginning as it were. But I do spend the rest of my years in the body of Christ, in the Church of Christ, continuing to confess Jesus as Lord. It's not as though you take membership classes, and finally when you get done with membership classes, that's the end of membership classes. Uh-uh, no, mm-mm-mm. Membership classes continue to the day God takes you to glory. That means when you die or get raptured, you can run. So you're constantly in membership classes, and there's a constant confession of faith. We do it corporately, we do it together, we do it individually. We don't just do it on Sundays, although this is the official time. You do it at other times, throughout the week, and so forth and so on. So again, even though you give the right answers at this particular moment in front of the congregation, it's not as though that's fairly just. As long as you get that squared away, that's all that's necessary. That's not all that's necessary, but that is the beginning. And we have the Biblical right to assume that when they make that profession, and that's why we examine sinning, and as well as adults, that they understand what that commitment to Christ as Lord and Savior, what that means in their life and their heart. Now, let's, by way of preliminary, and that was all by way of preliminary, so let's go through those five questions. that are going to be asked. Back in the old days, there wasn't five, there was basically four. They did add a question. But the first question that you're going to be asked, or that you are asked, have been asked, basically boils down to, what is the ultimate standard? So let me give you a headline for each of those questions. What is the ultimate standard, number one, Number two, what is the ultimate person and persons? Number three, what is the ultimate dilemma? Number four, what is the ultimate relationship? Number five, what is the ultimate institution? Which came first, the family or the church? Or, which came first, the family, the church, the community, the state, if you will? Which came first? Interesting question. So, the first question we deal with is the ultimate standard. Now, here, the new question that is put in is the question of who is God? That's actually number two. Number one is, what is the Bible? Number two, who is God? Number three was the Dilemma, and so forth and so on. Now, this follows the pattern of the Westminster Confession of Faith. The Westminster Confession of Faith opens up chapter one on God's revelation. God reveals himself in creation and in the scriptures. So it opens up with the Bible. What is the Bible? The Westminster Confession of Faith is supremely, exquisitely detailed in that. Let me describe it this way. Frankly, as far as I'm concerned, I don't think that we as reformers in general, other than our reform denominations, could ever get together and come up with such agreement as we had 300 and some odd years ago. I don't know whether the PCA, the OPC, the RP, the NBC, and everything else, all the Bible-believer reported, could ever have such unity of confession as we did back in 1640s, when we came up with the Westminster Confession of Faith. And, you know, when we look back on the Westminster Confession of Faith, we in our 21st century, Boy, it was detailed. Wow! And frankly, historically, it was basically a compromised document. It was a compromise. I don't mean compromised, but it was a compromising document. There were a variety of marvels to study the history of the debates. They had the lines, words, phrases, And they had such unity brought about by the Spirit of God that they came up with those 33 chapters and so forth and so on. I look back on that and say, would we still have such unity? I'm afraid we don't. Maybe we'll get back to that. But nonetheless, chapter 1 in the Confession talks about the Bible. What is the Bible? And the question is asked. Do you believe the Bible, consisting of the Old and New Testament, to be the Word of God and its doctrine of salvation to be the perfect and only true doctrine of salvation? So it starts off with the Bible, the ultimate standard. Question number two is, who is God? Let me just stop there for a minute. Do you start with the Bible or do you start with God? Well, it was Mr. Divine, starting with the Bible, and then chapter 2 is God. I remember when I was first, when I was ordained, I think it was 39 years ago that I was ordained, 40 years has passed and 39 years ordained. I memorized chapter 2, who was God. I wanted to get it right, because you're standing before a presbytery, and you know, they just cut you down to size, you know, they can get to me, they'll do things like that. So I committed it to memory. Don't ask me to repeat it now. Because I was good back then. But nonetheless, it's detailed, and who should be first? Should the Bible be first, or should God be first? Well, frankly, we can't say both things at the same time. You have to speak consecutively. That's the trouble with being human. So we do put one word in front of the other. We can't use two words at the same time. It doesn't make sense, and so forth. But, if you were going to visualize chapter 1 and chapter 2 of the Westminster Confession, question 1, question 2, they basically are like this. I believe what I believe about who God is because I believe what the Bible says who God is. We believe who God is because it's His Word that tells me. Somewhere along the line, you're going to have to say one before the other. In this instance, we're following the pattern of the Westminster Divines. It puts the Word of God. That is God. We learn about that Word from who God is. So first of all, we want to know what your ultimate standard is. In your evangelism, ultimately in your evangelism, telling others about Jesus, the first thing you want to deal with is what standard are you going to go by? I mean, there's so many religions, so many faiths, so many different opinions. Where are you going to go? What are you going to start with? Well, we start with what God says. Now, I combined the two right there, that phrase, what God says. Turn to 2 Timothy. Here's the most famous passage on that. 2 Timothy. I know you won't memorize this, but 2 Timothy chapter 3. Here's Paul talking to his son, the faith. 2 Timothy chapter 3. That's page 229 of my Bible. Secondly, chapter 3, Paul is describing the conversion experience, as it were, of Timothy. He's the covenant son, raised knowing the scriptures from infancy, and so forth, includes his covenant history, his background. And then he says a most marvelous confession about what scripture is. If you've known the sacred writings, what a name! Verse 16, all scripture, literally the writings, are given by inspiration of God, and profitable for doctrine, reproof, corrections, instructions, and righteousness, that the man of God will do the best he can, will know as much as he can about spiritual things. Now if you're not looking at the text, you know I'm not saying that. Very clear. All scripture is given by inspiration. It's profitable for God to recruit, correction, destruction, and righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly furnished, complete, thoroughly furnished, for what? Every good work. So that first question deals with, do you believe this about the sacred writings, the scriptures? Somebody said to me, that when Paul said, All Scripture, he was referring to all sacred writings. All sacred writings. That's the phrase. The phrase is there. That would include the Vedas and the Upanishads, which are much older than the Old Testament, maybe. The writings of the Qur'an, Baha'u'llah, the Book of Mormon, it says all the sacred writings are inspired of God and that's what you have to receive. Now a lot of people interpret it that way and there are some Christians that kind of get bamboozled with that nonsense. Paul's not talking about sacred writings of anybody's notions of sacred writings, obviously not. He has a context in there, without getting into the whole of the context. Most of us see that immediately, that he is referring to the scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments. The Jews call their Bible the Old Testament, the Bible. It's not the Old Testament. When you talk to a Jew, you witness to a Jew, and you refer to the Bible, that's the Old Testament. Now, they don't refer to it as the Old Testament. Because they don't have the New Testament. We talk about the Old Testament and the New Testament, and that's somewhat offensive, too. But then they've got to get over that, too. But nonetheless, that's their Bible. So that's why it's so clear. I do believe the Bible, consisting of the Old and New Testament, that gives the whole parameters to that. So people know you're not just bringing up somebody's sacred writings that they just invented themselves. And here this text points out, this writings that we have, the Old and New Testament, give us everything we have to know for salvation. John chapter 20, Jesus says, or John, John chapter 20 says, these are written, many things that Jesus taught, but these are written, that you may know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and have life in His name. So even though there's lots of things that could be sacred, lots of things that Jesus taught, and we know all those things, it boils down to, in this particular text, it is the writings of this particular text, Do you confess that? It's fundamental. That's the ultimate standard of what we say faith and practice. Number two question is, do you believe in the one living and true God in whom eternally there are three distinct persons? God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Let's say I'm into one of those. who are the same in being, equal in power and glory, and that Jesus Christ is God, the Son comes in the flesh. So there you've got who God is, the Trinity, and Incarnation. Fundamentals to the Christian faith. Fundamentals to what it means to be insane. And when the Philippian jailer asked that question, so it wasn't an Ethiopian unit, but he asked the question, what do I have to do? And Paul said, what? believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy household. And then the Philippian jailer took the two fellas, Paul and Silas, to home, took them home, and they spent quite a while instructing them. That's what he talks about, instructing them. So that when we have a faith in Jesus Christ, this is in the Jesus of the Bible. A hundred years ago, that is still around today. But a hundred years ago, some theologians were asking, who is the real Jesus? They had theological treatises and debates and all kinds of things on trying to find the real Jesus. Whenever I'm bored or tired or have nothing better to do in life, I sometimes read those reports. by the liberal theologians, and I get a chuckle out of it, because it's nonsense. Because we know exactly who that Jesus is, because he's clearly revealed in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments prior to the Holy Spirit, etc. etc. So here's that, when we confess Jesus, it's not any Jesus, it's not any notion of Jesus, it's not some figment of Jesus, it's not any Jose out there, it is this Jesus who is the incarnate, second person of the Blessed Trinity. So there you have the ultimate person and persons. If you want to get technical, we don't believe that God is a person. We believe that He is persons, if you want to be a free person in one God. Sometimes we talk about God as a person. We understand what that means. But he's three persons. God the Father, God the Son. Distinctively so. And so when I confess Jesus, he is that person. He is God. He is that Son of God. It's not as though I confess him as a good man. Confessing Jesus as a good man will never get me saved. And confessing Jesus as simply God It won't get me safety either. Those two things go together. And this question wants to make that clear. Do you understand what that means? No, I don't understand what that means. You could ask me 40 years later, or longer than that. Do you understand everything I'm saying? No, I don't. I take it by faith. And so I continue to grow. And so now, when this question is asked, now when I give it to somebody else, I hear somebody make that profession of faith, Ah, yes! You know, I hadn't thought of that. I hadn't thought of that. But that's a good point. So you continue to develop an understanding of that, confessionally. Number three, the ultimate dilemma. That's very crucial. What is the ultimate dilemma? Turn to Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 7. Again, there's so many texts here to bring up. I'm trying to limit it here. Romans chapter 7. I call this the quangri, the dilemma text. This is a good text for, I wish I would and couldn't, but sometimes I think I can, but I can't, and if only I could, if I wouldn't, I should, but something's in me that's pulling me apart. That's a McElhaney paraphrase. And it's not as though he just ends it, Romans chapter 7, the end of chapter 7, with just a great frustration. Okay. I'm frustrated about the whole thing. So join with me, and so we'll confess frustration. But what's fundamental to being a member of this church is everybody's frustration. Let me get down to that God! Not just any notion of God, but the God of the Bible. One summer I spent... One whole summer I spent tracking down Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons and Christian scientists. Christian scientists don't roam, they don't go door-to-door. I just went to their church. But the Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons go door-to-door. So I would see them, whoever, Jehovah's Witnesses, as soon as they left the house, I'd go to the house. I did that for a whole summer. I came to one house, knocked on the door, and they were still there. So they invited me in, and there I was with the Mormon missionaries and myself, in front of this family. We had a good debate. And it really confirmed my faith in Christ alone, who is God and Son of God, etc., etc., etc. One of the most meaningful experiences I had in my own profession of faith. And so here is this Confession of who Jesus is. But, we have to know number three. The grand dilemma. What is your grand dilemma? Now, Donna and I have a marvelous job of being chaplains. We deal with dilemmas. Crucial dilemmas. Life and death dilemmas. On a daily basis. I like that. You know, if you're going to come to me with what color the carpet should be, I'm really not going to care one iota. Or we had a debate in one of my churches over whether you're going to have flowers in the communion table. Who's going to do it? When are you going to do it? I'm allergic to that kind of stuff. So we just banned flowers. No flowers in the church assembly. So silly. But there is LE GRAND DILEMA, and you've got to come to that. Sometimes you've got to tell the person, this is the great dilemma. It's your sin. What is the greatest hindrance to coming to God? It is not your sin. It is His holiness that judges and condemns our sin. Somehow we've got to get through that holiness. Yes, it is. But the grand dilemma is my sin against the background of a holy, perfectly holy God. When I ministered to Mormon, who was it then? Muslims. Mormon, Muslims, that was it. When I ministered to Muslims, God will forgive you. You don't need a saviour, you don't need any of this other kind of stuff. See, the good thing about Islam is that God will just forgive you. You have to go through a mediator who's got to live, incarnate, he's got to die on the cross, he's got to do all this other kind of stuff. Islam is so simple. You believe God, he forgives. Shhh, watch the slate, please. You see how attractive Islam is to a lot of people. It's pretty straightforward. It's trinity, three in one, two in one, whatever it has to do. You Christians make things so complicated, we Muslims just make it so easy. And yet their notion of sinfulness is so shallow in the light of the Word of God. I kind of like their notion of sin, because I'm a sinner. When Adam and Eve fell, and they believe in Adam and Eve's story, and they fell, and so forth and so on, the Muslim concept is that there was a mistake on Adam's part. Whereas the Bible says, uh-uh, it was no mistake. I mean, maybe you can make an excuse about Eve, but it wasn't for Adam. He did what he did, self-consciously so, with evil intent in his heart. The rest of the scripture is just Jeremiah brings that out. The heart is desperately wicked. What's Jeremiah saying? Disciple, who can know us? The grand dilemma is not the president. It's not insurance. It's not who's going to take care of you when you get older. Those are things I think about. The Grand Dilemma is not am I going to get a job. The Grand Dilemma is not how am I going to pay for this stuff. The Grand Dilemma is not the one about my kids. I love my kids, but they don't like me. The Grand Dilemma is not paying the mortgage or the rent. The Grand Dilemma is your relationship to God. And you're a sinner. I'm working with a nurse at the hospital. And without getting too revealing, her good friend got saved. And she would like to as well, but she's really not moved, interested. She's not opposed to it. We have good conversations with each other. She admires Jesus. But you see, you don't become a Christian simply because you admire Jesus, or you like the Ten Commandments, and you like the whole notion of doing to others. Jesus meek and mild, dishonest. You don't become a Christian for that. You have to first acknowledge, not only who God is, but who you are in relation to God, and not just a creature of God, but a sinner in the ultimate dilemma. How is that dilemma going to be solved? You have broken His commandments. That is horrible! And then the solution is given only by Jesus Christ. Verse 26, this is the last verse of chapter 7 there. Verse 24. Verse 24. Wretched man that I am. Wretched. Romans 7.24. Wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? Somehow I've got to be brought to that point. Maybe I won't bow those words. And maybe I won't understand that at first. But somewhere along the line, it's going to hit me, who is going to deliver me from this ultimate dilemma that I've brought on myself? Proverbs 19.6, one of my favorite verses of Proverbs. Proverbs 19.4, the McElhenney Paraphrase is basically, we humans make a mess of our lives, and then we blame God. That's Proverbs 19.3 and 4. We make a mess of our lives, and then we blame God. That's got to stop. We make the best of our lives, absolutely holy, and only He can rectify that through Jesus Christ, the Son of the Cross. So the ultimate dilemma, the person's got to be brought to, this gal that I'm witnessing to has got to be brought, and with all the explanations, all the preaching, won't convince somebody of that, short of the work of the Holy Spirit bringing that conviction to them. And the Spirit of God has got a unique way of doing that to each one of us. That was number three. What is the dilemma? The question is, do you confess that because of your sinfulness, you abhor and humble yourself before God, and repent of your sin, and you trust for salvation, not in yourself, but in Jesus Christ alone. There is that ultimate dilemma. I've got to own that dilemma for myself. And that I had broken his commandments. There was a TV movie I really liked. And it was about, maybe you saw it, Twilight Zone. It was about the truth glasses. And the essence of the storyline was basically when people put on their truth glasses, they would scream and go insane. Because the writer of the storyline had played on it all. going on every time. These are regular glasses. They put on these glasses, and they scream! And they almost go insane. Well, the punchline was, when you put on the truth glasses, you saw who you really were. You were an ugly mess. And these were the truth glasses. And of course, we have the truth glasses right here at the Word of God. So the word abhor basically means, to paraphrase, Horrible, at that, because of my sin. But I repent of that, and I trust in Jesus Christ. Number four, the ultimate relationship. So there's the ultimate dilemma, and the answer, the ultimate relationship. Do you acknowledge Jesus Christ as your sovereign Lord? Do you promise, in reliance on the grace of God, that you will serve Him with all that is in you, forsake the world, resist the devil, put to death your sinful deeds and desires, and lead a godly life? And you say, what? You say, I do. Sam and I have been over this. He goes to say, I do. You say, yes, okay. Make any agreements. Say it out loud, especially. That's asking me to live the perfect life. That's what that's boiled down to. Acknowledge Jesus Christ, Sovereign Lord. I can do that. Anyone can do that. Reliance on the grace of God to serve Him with all that's in you. Yeah. Forsake the world. Resist the devil. Put to death the sinful deeds and lead a godly life. Boy, that really builds up. Let me get personal again. I was raised in a Baptist church. And before you were baptized, you're dumped in the water, you give a testimony. And the whole congregation, everybody watching, they believe Jesus is the Christ that will live. My father was a pastor and a minister, and it was my older brother that was getting baptized. And the question was asked, will you live for Him from now on to the best of your ability? And my brother said, yes. And I went, great! She's not going to come after me anymore! He's not going to go like this to me anymore. Boy, I dumped a whole lot into his confession. For the rest of my life, I won't tell you how it turned out. But here's the ultimate relationship. Trusting, forsake the world, resist the devil, put to death the deeds of the body. There's a number of texts, I won't go into all of them. But that's a whole career. That's a whole lifetime. Let me put it this way. That's a whole degree, quite frankly. You want another degree? You want to get involved with that? Put that one to practice. Here's the ultimate relationship. A godly relationship. I said this in class the other day. We were talking about homosexuality. And I usually ask this question to people. So I asked the question in class. What is the opposite of homosexuality? And they gave their answer to it. It was very avoidable. I said, the opposite of homosexuality is godly living. Holiness. That's the opposite. And that takes all the working of Christ, death, and the spirit of God, and faith, in that work. Fourthly, now we're almost done here. Actually, it's number five. Question number five, the ultimate institution. Ultimate standards, ultimate person, ultimate dilemma, ultimate relationship, finally, the ultimate institution. Yes, we have to be institutionalized. We're not free just to be Christians on our own, by ourselves. We have to be part of a body of Christ. Where's a good text? Where's a good text of being a member of the body of Christ? Good text of being a member of the body of Christ. Where are you going to find in the Bible the word member? Where am I going to be a member? Where are you going to go? Any ideas? Well, let me suggest 1 Corinthians chapter 12. You can turn to it now, I'm not going to read it, but nonetheless, the essence of 1 Corinthians chapter 12 is that the Spirit of God is the one that makes us a member of the Church, a member of the body. So even though we talk about making a public profession of faith, even though we talk about learning the Bible ourselves, studying scripture, going to classes, coming to worship service, you know, that doesn't constitute us members. What constitutes us members is the working of the Holy Spirit, which I don't control. It's not as though I can put in a nickel, quarter, or dime there and get out the Holy Spirit. He works sovereignly as He pleases, and when He brings me into His body, I'm in that body, and I'm in that body forever. Membership is in the body of Christ. Now, it's manifested in the little local congregation, that's for sure. Manifested in the little local congregation. So, when Sammy makes his public profession of faith, it's not as though he's going to become a member. He's been a member because of God's covenant promise. Now it is his mature state, but it's obvious to all. Now he takes on all the responsibility. partake of the Lord's Supper and other things. And you know what? If the Heinz happens to move to another church, which will probably never happen, he's still going to be a Christian. He may have to reaffirm your faith, or not, whether it's in the OPC or another denomination. So I go, we've got to go through this again. We've got to get baptized all over again. We've got to go through all this stuff all over again. Well, you have to do certain things, but no, you don't have to become Christian all over again. This congregation is not going to be in the end all, thank God. You'll see he's not going to be in the end all, thank God, of the body of Christ. It's been around for 2,000 plus, 3,000 years. At least the New Testament portion has been around for 2,000 plus years. This body is everywhere, and to be a Christian means to become part and parcel of that body. I can't be a Christian by myself. That's why I believe in denominations, not just simply associations or fraternities or federations, but denominations. And we can go into that later on at another time. But here's the last question. Will you, number five, do you promise, this is where the rubber hits the road, Sammy, this is where the tire really hit the freeway, if you will, number five, do you promise to participate fully in this church worship service to submit in the Lord to the government and to heed its discipline, even in case he should be found delinquent in doctrine or life." In other words, am I going to submit to the body of believers here? And am I going to contribute to the body of believers? All of us here who are members of this Church have agreed to that. And will I be submissive to, in case they should discipline me? I don't know about that. Let me evaluate that part. I was disciplined... I think I'm going to go to the Lord. I don't like the word disciplined. Obviously, you can do that as children with your parents, right? When your folks discipline you, you just go to another family, right? Come on, I'll let you stay at home all night, be wherever you want. I don't think so. Well, the same with the body of Christ. Once we join the body of Christ. Now we join the body of Christ as it manifests in this local congregation, granted. And I haven't been, I'm not, same with me as a minister of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. But if I move to another denomination, I'm still in the Church of Jesus Christ. And it's not as though I make up those things and invent those things. I must follow what the Word of God has to say. There is just a brief outline. What I'm going to do next is At the appropriate time, I'll ask Sammy and his parents to come on down, the elders to come on down. We'll go through those questions, just by asking them, and he will respond back. And then I'll give a brief exhortation to him, a few sentences, and then I'll ask you a few questions, whether you're going to support him or not. And you'll affirm that and then have a word of prayer in that situation. That's about the scenario of what we're going to do for that membership. At this time, let's have a word of prayer. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the confession that we are to make. And we pray over this, Father, that the confession that we make is exactly what your word requires of us. And you bring that to pass by the power of your Holy Spirit. Thank you, Lord, that we are going to hear a young son of the covenant, a believer already, who now wants to make public that confession and share in all the duties and responsibilities. We thank you for that family, the Heinz family, for all our sons and daughters. But at this point, Sammy is the last of our young children, and there'll be more someday, of all our covenant children making public their confession in their heart. So Lord bless us as we continue our service, for Jesus' sake, Amen.