We are in chapter 26 of the London Confession on the church, and we are starting sections five. We'll look at five, six, and seven tonight. Five, six, and seven tonight. And as intimate as God is acquainted with all of our ways, as we study God's ways and God's being, we have to admit that we come far short of understanding him. We want to understand him as he declares himself. So there's a passage in Matthew 28 verse 18 that introduces an idea about Jesus that is, is, and can be confusing. We want to understand it as well as we can. Let me just read it to you in Matthew 28 verse 18. And Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Sort of the same idea as in Hebrews chapter one, where it says that God has spoken in these last days, uh, by his son, whom he has appointed the heir of all things. So the father appoints the son. The heir of all things. He's the inheritor of all things. He, all power and authority have been given to Jesus. Matthew chapter 28 declares because about himself. So you go, wait a minute. I thought Jesus was God. He, he, he is, he is, he already owns all things, right? He owns because he's a creator of all things. He's God. It already all belongs to him. So the best of our understanding, here's how I would explain this, yes, as God, all belongs to God, all belongs to Jesus. And so what, in what sense can it be said that all power and all authority have been given to Jesus? In what sense can it be said that he has been made the heir of all things? And I think the best way to understand this to the best of our ability and stay true to scripture is that Jesus, in his role as mediator, in his role as the one who would come down and bring about salvation, he subjected himself, if you were to say it that way, subjected himself Although he was one and the same, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, he lowered himself, he subjected himself as the mediator, the one between God and man, to come as the God-man and bring salvation to him. And as the agreed upon reward, it is said that all things have been given over to Jesus, all power given to Jesus, all authority given to Jesus, all things, he's the heir of all things, all things have been given to Jesus as the rightful heir, as the rightful victor over his foes, death, hell, the grave, Satan. So in that sense, as a mediator, it's all been given to him, it's a gift to him. In a very real way, Jesus is highlighted by the Godhead, right? The Spirit comes to speak of Christ and to point to Christ. The Father, it's said, shines a spotlight from heaven, as it were, upon Jesus and says, this is my beloved Son. You hear Him. You look at Him. Philippians 2 says that at the name of Jesus one day, every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And so understand there's no rivalry happening here. There's no wrestling match. First Corinthians 15 says that in the last day, the son is going to give back over the kingdom to the father. But listen, Jesus is not dreading the last day, right? when he ought to give up something. The Father's not dreading the last day when all people will ascribe glory to Jesus. There's no rivalry here. Don't think of it in that way. But in a sense, all authority, all power, all things have been given to Jesus. And they've been given to Jesus that Jesus might build His kingdom, okay? All power, all authority given to Jesus, the resurrected Jesus. These words are in red in Matthew 28, verse 18 through 20. They are in red. These are words that Jesus spake. All power has been given to me. So I have free reign over all. As a result of that, he says in verse 19, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo, I am with you all way even unto the end of the world. Section five of this chapter on the church deals with Christ building his kingdom, Christ building his church. Let me read it to you and then we'll talk about what this means. In the execution or the carrying out, if you will, in the carrying out of this power, what power? The all power that has been given to Jesus. in the carrying out of this power wherewith he is so entrusted, the Lord Jesus calleth out of the world unto himself, through the ministry of his word, by his spirit, those that are given unto him by his father, that they may walk before him in all the ways of obedience, which he prescribeth to them in his word. those thus called, he commandeth to walk together in particular societies or churches for their mutual edification and the due performance of that public worship which he requireth of them in the world. So let's go back to where we started tonight. All power, all authority is given to Jesus. It is given to him in order that he might build a kingdom. Now, this is separate from all things belonging to Jesus, right? Everything belongs to Jesus. All the natural things, all of creation belongs to Jesus. It all belongs to him. He made it. It belongs to him. But in a different way, he is building a different sort of kingdom, a kingdom of subjects who will bring honor to him, a kingdom of loyal followers, a kingdom of faithful people. And so how will Christ built a kingdom that glorifies Himself. This should sound really familiar to you because just a very few weeks ago we preached this very message, right? How does Jesus build this testament to His glory? And what we find out is that Jesus does not build this kingdom in the way that others might build this kingdom. He does not have some central headquarters of a, with a, with a, uh, with an ornate and a display of architecture or of any other man made glory. How does he do this? Here's what he does. He builds this kingdom one subject at a time, right? How does he build a kingdom? One subject at a time. That's what this says here. And then carrying out this power, all power, all power to glorify himself. Again, that's a, that's a, that's an awesome thought. If you had all power, Josh, to glorify yourself, just think of all the possibilities, right? Think of all the things, all power to glorify myself. What might you do? Jesus calleth out of the world unto Himself through the ministry of His Word by His Spirit those that are given unto Him by His Father. Just stop right there. He builds His kingdom one subject at a time, one father at a time, through an internal spiritual call. This is important to understand. Jesus is building a spiritual kingdom. Now, it's manifest. We see it, but he's building it starting on the inside. Now, I gave you a chance, and really, you didn't, you never, I said, what did you have to Deuteronomy this week? And I wanted you to say, when I was reading Deuteronomy 5, this stood out to me. Now, you're not in trouble. Don't worry. But Deuteronomy 5, remember he's talking about what all the things that God had given them. He's given you, whether Gerald mentioned the provisions he gave them. Chapter 5 mentions the ten commandments that he gave them. So I gave you my commands. I showed you my glory through Sinai. You saw how awesome and fearful that I was. Chapter 6 talks about you need to talk to your children about this every day and remind yourself. But we all know that this did not work long term, right? What happened to Israel before Canaan? They went to idolatry, right? Complaining and murmuring and forgetting God. What happened to Israel after? They went into Canaan. Same thing, right? Now, who was Israel? Israel was God's kingdom, if you will. Israel was God's people. Deuteronomy 7, I chose you above all other nations. It did not work. Why did it not work? Why? What happened? Were God's laws not good? Were they not clear? Stony hearts. That's exactly right. So in Deuteronomy 5, listen to what God says. I'm just going to read verse 28 and 29. And the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spake unto me. And the Lord said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee. They have well said all that they have spoken. Now, what have they said? They said, we'll obey. We'll keep your commands. This is right after God has been on Mount Sinai, this fiery thing. They said, Moses, in fact, what did they say? In fact, not only will we be listening to God's words, we'd prefer to hear God's word from a distance. We'll still listen, but how about you go talk to God and then come back and tell us what he says? Because getting too close to him is too scary, right? He's awesome. We'll do whatever he says. Listen to what God says in verse 29. Oh, that there were such an heart in them that they would fear me. and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever. Now, parents, you love your children. And if you could do what would do well for your children forever, would you not do it? What father, Jesus says, if a son asks him for bread, will he give him a stone? It's an unnatural thing for a parent not to do the very best they can for their child. God said, if you follow me, if you listen to me, it will be good for you. It will be for your prophet and for your children, for posterity. What was wrong? Why wouldn't they do that? Why wouldn't they grab that opportunity? Because he says, they don't have the heart for it. Oh, the heart for it. Oh, that there were such an heart in them that they would fear me and keep my commandments always that it might be well with them and with their children forever. So you can talk about this every day to your children, Deuteronomy 6. You can have this Ten Commandments right before your face. You can have these awesome appearances by God, but unless there's a heart to do it, it won't do any good, right? This is why the kingdom that Jesus builds in the church is so glorious. Why? Because how does Christ gather his kingdom? How does Christ gather his church? Throughout history, People have had different ideas about this, right? The Crusaders will go and will conquer the Muslim lands and we will conquer the world through submission for Christ. Well, let me ask you, how successful was that? Not at all, right? It was brutal. There have been others who said, we'll change the laws of the United States. We will bring Christians into government, and we'll change all the laws, and we'll recapture this nation for Christ. How successful has that been? Not so much, right? Early on in the form of the Constitution, there were those who said, we'll make laws, Christian laws. We will outlaw any work on Sundays. Let me ask you something, if that had been successful, Would that have built Christ's kingdom? No, no. How does Christ build his kingdom? Here's what it says in this, in this chapter, he calleth out of the world unto himself through the ministry of his word by his spirit. They quote from John chapter 10, John 10, let's just read a couple of verses from John 10. Verse 16, other sheep I have, speaking of the Gentiles, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, they shall hear my voice, there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Verse 27, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. John 12, verse 32, said it this way, Christ speaking here, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all unto me. I'm going to draw them to myself. I'm going to bring them to myself. It's an internal spiritual call that Christ uses to cause people that he loves to want to love him, to want to follow him, to want to serve him. And brothers and sisters, we must, and we talked about this a lot the last few weeks, and I'll move off of it. This is why these ideas of, we said it again, regenerate church membership are so important, right? Any other way of building a kingdom, has been proven to be completely unsuccessful. It's an internal spiritual call. This call is to all who have been given to Christ by the Father. All that the Father giveth me, Jesus says, shall come to me. Praise God for that. Isn't that good to know? None of those whom the Father gave the Son will be lost. They'll all come to me. Praise God for that. Christ says, I will gather my sheep. They will know my voice. They will follow me. Those internally called are also externally called, right? They're called in a visible way. So it's not with the scripture does not teach. The father can call you to himself, call you to Christ, and then there'll be no change or no love for Christ. There's a visible external aspect to this call. And this is what Jesus is talking about in Matthew chapter 28. All power has been given to me in heaven and earth. I'm going to use that power and calling you to myself, go he therefore and teach all nations. Good. All the nations church. and teach of me." Now, the whole way this works is not listed here. Here's what happens. As you teach the nations, God is calling those who belong to Him to Himself. And then you baptize those whom God has called. Baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son the Holy Ghost and then teaching them to observe all things Whatsoever I've commanded you and lo I am with you all way even unto the end of the world Christ mandate to us as Believers in Jesus Christ is to build his church in the way that he has called us to build go teach and Then baptize those who believe and then teach again, discipleship, baptism, membership, teaching them to observe all things I have commanded to you. What is the call of Christ? What is it? What is he calling us to? He's calling us to obey him. Here's how they put it here. He's called to him that they may walk before him in all the ways of obedience, which he prescribeth to them in his word, what teaching them all things that I have commanded you. Can I just stop there for a minute and say this, I said it in the paper and we say this, this is a central mission of the church. As we think about our interaction with one another. in a manward way, our goal as a church is not to save people from hell. All the Father giveth me shall come to me. Now that does not mean that we should not preach evangelistic sermons and calling sinners to believe in Jesus Christ. We should. But our main focus as a church is to teach those whom God has called to himself all the things That he has commanded that we may live those things out. That's our focus, teaching them, baptizing them and teaching them again, teaching them to observe all things I have commanded. Now, hear me out here. I am not saying that we're, that we don't preach, that we're not evangelistic. We should be evangelistic and for it to obey this commission. We're not saying don't call centers for pitch. You call centers to repentance. Believe in Jesus Christ and you'd be saved. But in our day to day activities and our day to day preaching, we want to equip those whom God has called himself to understand, to trust, to love him better. Now I'm just saying that in comparison to. many churches today who all has preached for the most part. The central part of the preaching is to those who are unconverted, to those who are not converted. Brothers and sisters, the gospel is good news to those whom God has brought to himself. So as a part of this, this chapter says a part of obedience is belonging to the church. The first step of obedience that you'd be baptized. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you'd be baptized and you'd be added to the church. And that the church is not just a part of obedience, but the church provides the structure and context from which the great commission can be carried out. In other words, how are. People can be taught to obey God through preaching. How are people going to be going to be held accountable to obeying God through church, the church, through discipline, through accountability, through, uh, exhortation, through rebuke, through love, through phone calls, through prayers, through all the things that God has taught us to do within the context of the church. The church is central to God's Christ commands to us in the great commission. Now, We'll move through this next section very, very fast. Section six, all this gives us, it just sort of defines what the, what a church member is or what a, the composition of a church member. They are saints, right? So if you're a saint, you should belong to a church. Saint just means, but you've been set apart by Christ. You've been called by Christ. You're calling on the name of Christ. Okay. But secondly, you should be a visible saint. Let's define this visible saint here in this section six, visibly manifesting and evidencing in and by their profession and walk, their obedience unto that call of Christ. That makes sense. Not just, I believe that Jesus has died for me, but you're a visible saint. In other words, you are manifesting the work of grace in your heart by your obedience, by your love, by your profession and walk. Next, these are, it's a voluntary membership. What is coerced to join? What is forced to be apart? It's those who are willingly, it says, they have willingly given themselves to the Lord and to one another. So there's a voluntary membership, but it's also a voluntary subjection to God and to one another. Understand that. As church members, members of God, of the church of God, we are voluntarily joining But as we are voluntarily adjoining, we are voluntarily giving ourselves up to God. Lord, you now are my Lord. You now are my ruler. You now are my master. And we are giving ourselves up to one another. So we are giving ourselves up to God, giving ourselves up to one another, for the purpose of obeying and worshiping God in the way that he would have us to obey him. So we're saying, listen, we're saying, I belong to Christ, and I belong to the church, and the whole mission of the church is that we might mutually edify one another, we might mutually encourage one another to do all the things that God has commanded us to do. That's what we're about. That's why we're together. And so I'm asking you to help me observe and do all the things that God has commanded. I belong because I belong to him. Okay. Now this is, this next section is really important. That's a pretty serious thing to subject yourself to voluntarily submit yourself to the authority of another. We better know about this authority. Here's what it says to each of these churches thus gathered. According to his mind declared in his word, he hath given all that power and authority, which is in any way needful for the carrying on that order in worship and discipline, which he hath instituted for them to observe, which commands and rules for the do and right exerting and executing of that power." Here's what that means. He is saying God has given to the church, Jesus has given to the church all the authority that is necessary to help, to enable you and I to do all the things that God has commanded us to do. They have enough authority to reign over worship and all the things that God has commanded us to do. Now, authority is an important word. It's also kind of a scary word. And so, let's think about this for a minute. Is there really authority in the church? Does the Bible teach that? Turn to Matthew 18 for one example of this. Matthew 18. What authority does the church have over my life? What authority does the church have over my business and my thoughts? Now there's some real scary answers to that question and some real wrong answers to that question. Does God sanction the church's authority? Matthew 28. We'll read this familiar passage starting in verse 15. Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. If he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church. But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be into thee as a heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything, that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father, which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Verse 18, of course, is the passage that we're looking at. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. What's he saying? He's saying when the church acts out in this way, Which way? The way that he's commanded to deal with angry people, fighting people. When the church acts out in this way, then whatever they do in solving the problem or in removing the individual who will not listen, they have heaven's approval. What's been bound on earth is bound in heaven. They have heaven's approval. They have authority. when they act according to my commands. 1 Corinthians 5 is another example of that. We won't turn there right now, but it's where the brother was committing adultery. He says, listen, you're going to gather together in God's presence to deliver this one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, the soul might be saved. So church authority is real. The authority over my life is real. It's sanctioned by God. What's done on earth is done in heaven. It's sanctioned by God. Now, this is the next important thing, though. It is limited. It's real, but it's limited. And I made two points to this. Number one, it's only local. In other words, only Ripley Church has the right to speak into my life. No other churches or groups of churches or other bodies have the right to speak into my life. But God has placed me in the authority of this church that you may be able to speak into my life, calling me to live. I don't mean that an individual Christian can have the responsibility to exhort me and to love me and to teach me. I don't mean that. What I do mean is this church alone has the right. Say, Brother Isaac, you have gone astray. We are going to call you to repentance. And if you don't repent or if you don't, you know, whatever it may be, then this will be the, this will be what will happen. It's only local. We don't have the right as a church to go to old Enid if it were, or to first Baptist Ripley or to any, any other church and say, you have to teach this. You have to do this. We don't have the right to do that. Right. Also, it's limited in this way. We don't have independent authority. And what I mean by that is this. We don't have the right to speak on any subject we want to speak about. I don't have the right to tell you that you have to wear pants, or you can't wear pants, or whatever the subject is. I'm tired of that example. We need a better example. We need a different one. I don't have the right to do that. I don't have the right to tell you how much you spend on your groceries. I don't have the right to tell you what decisions you make about your children going to college. The authority that we have over one another in the church is limited to doing the things that God has commanded us to do. So for example, for example, I have the right to come to you with, let's say that Brother Lewis and Brother Aaron are in a fight and they can't work it out. This is slightly hypothetical. Then I have the right, if Brother Aaron calls me to go to Brother Lewis' house, Brother Aaron says, Brother Lewis, you've got to calm down on this. You've got to do this. I'm calling on you both to reconcile and to repent. And I have that right to do that. If you won't listen, then I have not just the right, but also the responsibility to then go to the church and say, church, we have a problem right now. We have two brothers who are, who are fighting and they will not give up. They will not humble themselves. We have to call them to repent. I have the right to do that, but I don't have the right to say, Lewis, you know, Until you decide you're going to listen, you're going to be locked in the hen house for the next two weeks. Isn't that right? Isn't that authority? And churches, oftentimes, and big churches, big denominations, have oftentimes way overstepped their bounds of authority to require things and do things that they have no right to require to. So our authority is real, but it's limited. What is it limited to? It is real, it's limited, and it is informed. That's probably not a strong enough word. It is regulated, I'll say, by scripture. Our authority is regulated by scripture. So for example, let me give you a few examples. Well, this is an example here, Matthew 18. The only way to deal with a problem with Lewis and Aaron is to do it according to Matthew 18, right? Let me give you another example. Timothy, 2 Timothy 4, Paul said to Timothy, Timothy, there's going to be some days coming when people are going to stop listening. They're going to be foolish. They're going to stop listening. He said, Timothy, I want you to preach the word to them. You preach the word, you preach it in season, out of season, you approve, you rebuke. So I come to Ripley Church, and I see some that may not be You know, maybe do some foolish decisions. What is my, what is my authority over them to preach the word to them, to rebuke them, to reprove them. But again, I can't tie them in an, I can't, I can't physically grab them and say, you know, and stream with them and, and, and, and, and, and, and do all kinds of ridiculous, uh, uh, uh, things in order to try to get them to go my way. I have the right to do that. I can preach the word to them. I can rebuke them. I can reprove them. That's all I can do. Right. It's all I have the right to do. It's all I have the authority to do. As a pastor, my authority is limited to not being lord over God's heritage, but by humbly feeding the flock and teaching you the truth. That's my authority. Right? As a pastor, I can call upon us to give willingly to the needs of the church body, but I cannot force you to do what I think you ought to do. Right? So again, there is authority over the church. authority over the individual and over the church by Christ, right? But it's, it's regulated. It's limited only by what the scripture allows us to do. Thank God for that, by the way. Thank God. Thank God for authority, right? Thank God that he created a system, a body that can speak into my life and do me well. He's created this for my good, but thank God that he limited this. So that the moment that, that men begin to get high on themselves and forget the commands of God, remember the Pharisees, they came up with all sorts of rules and regulations that just bound the people into this legalistic and awful, uh, bind. You don't have to live that way, but you also should not live as a rebel. You should welcome authority, but only as scriptural authority exists over your life. That's the authority, and the next time we'll look at the officers of the church that we found in this chapter. I think it's a great, great study, though. It's an important study that we would do well to heed. Thank you for listening to this message. Our prayer is that you've been blessed by the messages and the daily devotional blog on sermon audio from Ripley Primitive Baptist Church. We would love the opportunity to be of greater service to you and your walk with Christ. In other words, we would like to get to know you better. Do you have need of counsel, of a home church, or can we just pray for you? Please feel free to contact us by phone at 662-837-8590 or visit our website at www.ripleypbc.com.