But you'll forgive me if I begin with a complaint.
I don't often do this.
In fact, I'm not sure I've ever done it before.
!
Dark-covered chocolate biscuit.
But I thought, well, it's like being back in Cambridge.
But after 17 years in Cambridge,
I had managed almost to teach my congregation
to have a supply of biscuits when I came to visit.
I will know you have become real Presbyterians
when you provide a decent fare.
It is a great privilege to be here with you this morning.
I'd like to read, first of all, in Ephesians chapter 4,
first six verses.
And we will be dipping in and out of other passages in the Bible.
Paul's letter to the Ephesians is structured very significantly.
If I were to ask you how many imperative verbs
are there in the first three chapters,
I wonder if you'd have any immediate idea.
Anyone willing to hazard an educated guess?
How many imperative verbs does Paul use?
You know what an imperative verb is?
Pardon?
Zero.
No?
One.
But in the next three chapters, there's about 30.
And Paul is reminding us, grammatically as well as theologically,
that the gospel is first about God.
It's about who God is and what God has done.
I say that for this particular reason.
If I were to ask you this morning,
why does the Lord raise up elders and deacons in his church?
What would your instinctive answer be?
It's not a rhetorical question,
so I'd like this to be a little interactive if possible.
So if someone said,
why do you have elders and deacons in Ealing and Lys
or Brentford or Ilford?
Why do you have them?
The answer would be?
To equip God's people.
Good answer.
B answer.
A good answer.
Trigger.
Good, but B.
Another answer.
God's gift.
Yeah, God's gift to the church.
Good answer.
B.
The answer.
Service.
Good answer.
B minus.
I just said that because it's Graham.
To guard the faithful preaching of scripture.
Very good answer.
B slightly plus.
Because it's in scripture.
Pardon?
Because it's in scripture.
Yeah, that's sine qua non.
So another B.
B.
Because Christ has risen.
These are all helpful answers.
But they are not ultimate answers.
You see, all of those answers deal with God's proximate purpose for the church.
Which is its order, its edification.
God's ultimate purpose for the church is its beautification.
God is preparing a bride for his son.
The church is not first about us.
It's about our savior, Jesus Christ.
God has predestined us to be conformed to the likeness of his son.
In order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
The gospel is ultimately about Jesus Christ.
He is God's ultimate purpose.
We are God's proximate purpose.
So when we're thinking about elders and deacons and their relationship to the church,
we need to keep in mind the ultimate purpose.
God is preparing a bride fit for its king.
God wants order in his church.
He wants reverence.
But God wants a people to reflect in a creaturely, analogical way the glory of his son.
In order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
So with that in mind, let me read Ephesians 4, 1 through 6.
I therefore a prisoner for the Lord.
Paul is in prison in Rome.
Urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.
With all humility and gentleness.
With patience.
Bearing with one another in love.
Eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.
There is one body and one spirit.
Just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.
One Lord.
One faith.
One baptism.
One God and Father of all.
Who is over all.
And through all.
And in all.
Let me tell you a little bit about myself.
So that I can segue into what I'd like to be saying this morning.
I'm a convinced Calvinist.
I'm a Westminster Confession fellow.
From the top of my head to the soles of my feet.
I'm an unembarrassed, creedal, confessional Christian.
But before any of that.
I'm a blood-bought sinner.
That's my default.
I'm not a shepherd who's a sheep.
I'm a blood-redeemed sheep.
Who by the mercy and good purpose of God.
Has become a shepherd in the flock of Christ.
I was recently reading some words of John Owen.
If you're interested.
Volume 13.
Page 95.
Where he says.
I would rather.
Much rather.
Spend all my days.
Healing the breaches and schisms.
In the church of Christ.
Than spend one hour.
Defending my positions.
Though I could defend them.
With a fair defense.
I would rather.
Much rather.
Spend all my days.
Healing the breaches and schisms.
In the church of Jesus Christ.
Than spend one hour.
Defending my positions.
Though I could.
Make a fair defense.
Of them.
I say that.
Because.
Owen is reflecting.
What I think.
Lies at the heart.
Of the pristine reform tradition.
That our.
Principial concern.
Is not to be.
Ultimately.
With our.
Little.
Expression.
Of the reform tradition.
But with the cause.
With the cause.
Of Jesus Christ.
In its.
Catholicity.
Some of you.
Will know.
John Calvin's.
Very famous.
And rightly famous.
Letter.
To Archbishop.
Thomas Cranmer.
In 1553.
Where he writes.
Just at the beginning.
Of the Marian persecutions.
He said.
I would willingly cross.
Ten seas.
To help heal.
The bleeding body.
Of Christ.
Now crossing.
Ten seas.
In 1553.
Is a little different.
From crossing.
Ten seas.
In 2017.
Calvin.
Had a passion.
For.
Protestant.
Unity.
And.
That seems.
So foreign.
To the reformed church.
Generally speaking.
Today.
We're so infected.
By 300 years.
Of post.
Enlightenment.
Atomized thinking.
That.
We are hardly moved.
Never mind.
Scandalized.
By the dividedness.
Of.
The church.
Of Jesus Christ.
Maybe I could ask you.
When.
When did you last.
Grieve over.
Weep over.
Plead over.
The dividedness.
Of the church.
Of Jesus Christ.
It's almost as if.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
Never prayed.
Father.
That they may be one.
That the world might see.
See.
Because the only church.
With which we have to do.
Is the visible church.
God alone knows.
Those who are his.
We have no access.
To the.
To the hearts.
Of men and women.
God alone knows.
Those who are his.
The only church.
With which we have to do.
Is the visible church.
The church.
Of credible.
Gospel.
Faithful.
Profession.
And I say that.
Because.
I do believe.
That how we think.
About the church.
In a myriad of ways.
Impacts.
And influences.
Without us knowing it.
How we think.
About our local churches.
I have a.
Fear.
I've got one or two.
Minor fears.
But I've got a big fear.
As a Christian.
And one of.
My big fear is this.
That I will ever speak.
Ill.
Of anyone.
Bought with the blood.
Of Jesus Christ.
Chosen in times eternal.
By the heavenly father.
And indwelled.
By the holy spirit.
I don't mean.
I should never.
Seek to.
Confront.
Or correct.
Such a brother.
Or sister.
And be open to their.
Confronting.
And corrections.
I don't mean.
That I should never.
Passionately.
Or animatedly.
Seek to.
Bring them.
To.
Embed.
Their lives.
In the theology.
And spirituality.
Of the Westminster standards.
I don't mean that.
But I have this fear.
And I.
Honestly.
Is a fear.
Of speaking.
Ill.
Of a brother.
Or sister.
Bought.
With the precious.
Blood.
Of the God.
Man.
Jesus Christ.
So when we think.
About.
Leadership.
In the church.
I do believe.
We need to.
Cultivate.
That.
Spirit.
Of expansiveness.
And catholicity.
That has marked.
The best.
Of the church's.
Leaders.
Throughout the ages.
John.
no one was not noted for being a vacillator. He wasn't noted for being a mealy-mouthed compromiser.
But he was passionate in his concern to pursue, as much as he was able,
unity in the faith. He didn't see it as tangential.
Like Calvin, he didn't think it was something that he could turn to when the times allowed or when the opportunity allowed.
It was something that was a divine calling upon his life.
And I would hope that Presbyterian churches, in these confused times,
would be noted for steadfastness, faithfulness, unyielding resolve,
to be faithful even unto death, if it pleases the Lord, for the cause of Jesus Christ and his gospel.
But I hope in all of that, we might also be noted as being the most generous,
the most open-hearted, the most embracive of men and women.
You have a little handout. It might seem a little daunting.
We won't be here all day. I'm not going to go through the 15.
The first session will focus on the first two, the 15 points,
and then there's actually eight in the second. You've got five.
I just want to touch on them. I won't touch on all of them.
But if we're going to think about leadership
and what it means to be a shepherd, a pastor, and a servant
in the cause of God, his church and kingdom,
we need to remember, above all, of course,
that Jesus Christ is the true chief shepherd of the sheep, 1 Peter 5.
We are to shepherd in such a way that people know that Jesus Christ is the chief shepherd.
If you're interested, John Calvin has a wonderful exposition of 1 Peter 5.4 and Acts 20.20.
If you've got Calvin's commentaries, they're absolutely fabulous on those two passages.
We are to shepherd knowing that Jesus Christ is the chief shepherd
and shepherd in such a way that the congregation knows that Jesus Christ is the chief shepherd
and also that Jesus Christ is the great deacon of the church.
I've come not to be served, but to serve, to give my life a ransom for the many.
He is the great deacon. He's the prototypical deacon of the church.
But we need to understand that in its widest context.
What exactly is the church?
What is it that we're seeking to build?
When Jesus said, I will build my church, he is the great church builder.
What was he actually saying?
Well, these are just 15.
They're not plucked out of the air.
They're plucked out of my head, but out of the Bible, I hope.
They have a kind of order, at least in my disconnected head.
Let me just run through them.
The spiritual nature of the church.
The church is a fellowship of the twice-born.
We are a supernaturally founded community of faith.
The church is founded on the Holy Trinity.
The early church and our Reformation forebears would be mystified and appalled in equal measure
at the crystal monism that seems to dominate so much of the evangelical church.
Some of you will know the phrase Calvin in Book 1, 1317 of the Institutes.
He says, these words of Gregory, meaning Gregory Nazianzen, vastly delight me.
Now, Calvin wasn't noted for overstatement.
And when Calvin says something vastly delighted him, you stop and you think, well, let me go
and find out what that is.
And he quotes a few words of Gregory from his baptismal oration 40, section 41.
If you haven't read it, it's just a fabulous read.
I read it recently to Joan and one of my boys, and it takes about five minutes.
He's catechizing a young man, preparing him for baptism.
And I read this baptismal oration 40, section 41.
And I just stopped and I looked at Joan.
And she didn't know what to say.
And I looked at Jonathan and he just went, wow.
Here's someone saturated with the Holy Trinity.
And Calvin says, these words vastly delight me.
And Gregory, he quotes Gregory, when I think of the one, I must think of the three.
But when I think of the three, I must think of the one.
They are one undivided torch.
And when I do, my mind is overwhelmed.
My heart is filled.
I must turn aside and with tears worship.
Now, when did you last, as you pondered God's revelation of himself as a Holy Trinity,
when did you last find your heart overwhelmed, your mind filled?
When were you last, tearfully, bowing down in adoration?
Well, to my shame, I can hardly think of the last time.
The early church fathers didn't get everything right.
Some things they got spectacularly wrong.
Augustine didn't know any Greek.
That's why he was so wonky on justification.
But they got some things spectacularly right.
And we need to recover and be at the forefront of recovering this glorious Trinitarian heritage
that, of course, is embedded in Scripture
and is seen in the life, the worship, the liturgy, the service of the church throughout the ages.
People need to come into our worship services
and discover themselves confronted by the God who is three and who is one.
And yet, in the midst of that Trinitarian foundation,
there is a Christo-centric note.
And Luther heralds this at the Reformation
when he talked about Crook's probat omnia,
the cross is the test of everything.
Now, Luther was prone to exaggeration.
If you know anything about Luther,
he takes language to the ultimate hyperbole.
But here, he doesn't.
He's saying the test of everything is the cross.
The cross promised.
The cross revealed.
The cross explicated.
The cross applied.
Everything in Holy Scripture focuses upon the one,
the God-man who, at the behest of the Father
and indwelled by the Holy Spirit,
comes to offer himself without spot or blemish
in our place and for our sake.
People, as they are confronted by who God is in his triunity,
will at the same time be confronted by the supreme revelation of the triune God
in the cross of Jesus Christ.
It wasn't the Father who died.
It wasn't the Spirit who died.
But Jesus Christ died as the sent one of the Father
and upheld by the Spirit.
Hebrews 9.14.
And then there's the Catholic character of the church.
I've touched on that.
Read Westminster Confession 26.4.
It's a fabulous, one of the finest statements
on gospel Catholicity you'll find anywhere.
And number five, the preaching ministry of the church.
It's significant, isn't it, that as Paul faces the execution of sword,
2 Timothy 4,
He tells Timothy,
In season and out of season,
You kairos, eikairos,
In good times and in bad times,
Preach the word.
Herald the word.
Let nothing distract you
from this principal calling that God has given to you.
Preach the word.
I was quite struck many years ago
reading something in Calvin
that initially surprised me.
He said the church can exist without the sacraments,
but it cannot exist without the word.
And our congregations need to be places
where the preaching,
the explication of the word of God
in Jesus Christ is made known.
Now there will be, of course, gospel application.
Wasn't it Richard Baxter who said
many sermons die for lack of application?
But we live in a day
when people in evangelical churches,
our kinds of churches,
don't really understand
that Jesus Christ himself
is the great incentive
for godly living.
He is the great application of the gospel.
In his,
I don't know if any of you have read
volume one of O,
and some of you have had it,
on the glory of Christ.
He has this,
I think,
beautiful,
lyrically beautiful passage
which is just so rich in theology.
And he's really saying
if people are suffering
and struggling with obedience
in the Christian life,
preach the glory of Christ to them.
That would be so foreign,
I think,
to many of our churches.
If people are languishing,
if people are struggling
in any way,
if temptation is pressing hard upon them,
preach the glory of Christ.
A few years ago,
a young fellow in the congregation,
a very fine Christian,
came to me and said,
I'm struggling badly
with internet pornography.
I was so full of admiration for him.
He came and he said,
with shame,
I want to tell you.
And we would meet together regularly
and I thought,
you know,
I don't quite know what to do.
I've not read any books about this.
It's quite neat.
Do you see,
when a sin doesn't trouble you,
and that has never troubled me,
other sins trouble me,
they're actually worse than that.
You might think,
is that possible?
Yes.
That sin's never bothered me.
When a sin doesn't bother you,
I don't know,
I think psychologically
you tend not to dwell
upon how you might
pastorally respond to it.
But every time we met,
I would choose passages
that focused on the glory
of Jesus Christ.
And it struck me
that when the Lord
restores Peter,
John 21,
Peter has failed horribly,
remember?
Before a servant girl,
he denies the Lord with curses.
And when Jesus restores her,
he doesn't say to Peter,
Peter,
do you promise from now on
to be courageous and bold?
Do you promise no longer
to be pusillanimous
and weak-willed
and faltered?
Do you promise to be resolute?
He says,
Peter,
do you love me?
Do you love me?
You see,
Peter's failure
was not that
he lacked courage.
Peter's failure was
he didn't love Jesus
as much as he thought he did.
And it's when you love someone
that your affections
have taken up with them.
And you are the better
armoured
against
temptation.
And so in our preaching ministry,
we're to
proclaim Jesus Christ.
When we pastor people,
people will
come to you
and they'll say,
I've got this problem
and that problem.
And you'll say,
well,
let's think about
the Lord Jesus.
Well,
yeah,
I'm happy to do that
later,
but please,
will you address
the problem?
Now,
one or two
who might be medics
and you know about
referred pain.
You know,
you go to the doctor
and you say,
I've got a really bad knee.
The doctor examines you
and says,
yeah,
you've got a problem
with your right shoulder.
And you say,
what a numpty.
My shoulder's fine.
It's my knee.
He says,
yeah,
your shoulder's actually
not fine.
Your knee isn't
the problem.
It's coming out there
that the problem's
actually somewhere else.
And Jesus does that
in the upper room
in John 14 through 17.
He begins,
you'll remember,
let not your hearts
be troubled.
You believe in God,
believe also in me.
The disciples are
besides themselves
with anxiety.
They're worried.
They're fearful.
Jesus is going to leave them.
How are they going to cope?
Life seems to be
falling apart around them.
What does Jesus
actually do
in John 14 to 17?
Well,
he does many things,
but if you run,
if you read through,
if you stand far enough back
and look at the terrain
of the chapters,
you discover something
very striking.
Jesus is saying to them,
I know you're troubled.
Let me tell you
about the Holy Trinity.
Imagine someone comes
to your door tonight,
some fellow member
or dealing or whatever,
and they say,
I'm in great distress
that this has happened.
Can you help me?
And you give them
a cup of tea
with a biscuit.
And you say,
well,
let's think about
what?
Well,
let's think about
the Holy Trinity.
I would guess
most people would think,
well,
that's nice,
but
that's really not
what I need.
And Jesus is saying
to his disciples,
this is what you need.
You need your lives
sunk into who God is.
Number six,
the covenantal,
sacramental,
sealing signs
of the church
are called
the drama of identity.
The evangelical world
today,
in all its forms,
I think,
plays down
the significance
of the sacraments.
And yet,
in the Bible,
Old and New Testaments,
sometimes the language
of the Bible
collapses the sign
into the reality.
Genesis 17,
circumcision
is called
the covenant.
Now,
is it not
the sealing sign
of the covenant?
Yes,
it is.
But it's actually
called the covenant.
1 Peter 3,
Peter says,
baptism now saves you.
It's a great question
to ask an ordination
of elders and pastors.
Do you believe
baptism saves?
No.
The Bible says it does.
Peter says,
in the day of Pentecost,
people say,
what must we do?
He says,
repent and be baptized
for the forgiveness
of sins.
The drama
of covenantal identity
belongs to the very
nature of the church.
And there are times
in order to accent
the significance
of the sealing
covenant signs,
the language,
if not the reality,
collapses the sign
into the rays,
into the things
signifying,
into the reality.
That's why
when you read
John Calvin
in the Institutes,
at times you're
scratching your head.
Because
he puts things
in ways
that
I don't think
Calvin would be
invited to a
reform conference
anywhere.
I help organize
banner conferences.
We wouldn't invite
Calvin.
He would be
suspect on any
number of levels.
He mixes
with Lutherans.
Not good.
He talks to
Roman Catholics.
Not good.
He's willing
to accommodate
even convictions,
cherish convictions.
He doesn't fit
into the monochrome
reductions view
of the reformed
faith that
we unhappily have
in the churches
today.
But when you
read Calvin,
he can be
very perplexing
because he
talks about
the duplex
loquendi
modus,
the twofold
way of speaking.
He writes
sometimes
as if
the sign
and the
things signified
are one.
At other
times,
he writes
as if they're
miles apart.
The church
can exist
without the
sacraments,
can't exist
without the
work.
And Calvin
would say,
well,
here's the
thing.
When I'm
talking to
Roman Catholics
who collapse
the sign
into the
reality,
I separate
the sign
and the
reality
to show
them that
the sacraments
do not work
ex operae
operato
by their
own internal
power.
they work
by the
power and
grace of
God
through faith,
which is why
Calvin called
the sacraments
means of
grace,
sacramenta
conferut
gratia,
the sacraments
confer grace
by the will
and purpose
of God
through the
Holy Spirit
received by
faith.
But when
he's talking
to Zwinglians,
a bit
broad brushless,
who separate
the sign
and the
reality,
Calvin brings
them together.
he wants
the church
to realize
that God
has given
us these
drama
identifiers
to placard
that we
are the
people of
God
united
in Jesus
Christ
to the
triune
God.
And that's
why the
sacraments
should not
be downplayed
in any sense.
And that's
why Calvin
wanted the
Lord's
Supper
every
Lord's
day.
He said
that's
surely what
the Bible
teaches.
We preach
the word
and then
the word
is made
visible.
He didn't
get his
way.
Much more
to be said.
Number seven,
the holy
identity of
the church.
I think
that means
that church
discipline
belongs to
the wrong
spelling here,
the notes
of the
church,
the marks
of the
church.
Church
discipline,
the Scottish
Reformation,
I think
Calvin actually
teaches it
but doesn't
particularise it.
John Knox
particularises it.
Not only is
a church,
a true church
where the word
is faithfully
preached and
the sacraments
rightly administered,
the true church
also has
godly discipline
because God
is a holy
God and
the church
is to reflect
the family
likeness.
And then
allied to
that is
the
counter
cultural
holiness
of the
church.
Don't be
conformed to
this world
but be
transformed
by the
renewing
of your
mind.
The church
is called
to live
counter
culturally.
And I've
used the
phrase
sola
scriptura
not
nuda
scriptura.
You know
it's the
year of
the
Reformation.
And
many
Christians
dismiss
tradition
in a
way that
would
appall
our
Reformation
forbears.
Because when
they spoke
of sola
scriptura
they didn't
mean sola
scriptura
removed and
isolated from
the history of
tradition in the
church.
They embraced
tradition
insofar as
it could be
established from
holy scripture.
Nuda
scriptura is
what the
Jehovah's
witnesses and
the Mormons.
If you took
a hundred
passages from
the Bible,
a hundred
key verses
that you
think are
evangelical and
reformed,
gave it to
a JW,
do you believe
that?
They'd say
absolutely.
Because they
believe in
verbal inerrancy.
So they
say.
Mormon would
say the
exact same
thing.
But if you
were to say
now tell me
do you
understand this
verse to
mean
oh no?
So the
life of the
church is
never to be
dislocated from
the flow of
its history or
tradition.
Calvin, I'm
just using
Calvin as
an example,
he quotes
Augustine
403 times
the Institute
I once
counted.
He quotes
Bernard of
Clairvaux.
He quotes
all kinds of
people to
show that the
reformed church
is not
de novo.
it didn't
just come
out of the
air.
It belongs
to the
true tradition
of the
church.
And the
counter-cultural
holiness of
the church
is not to
be lived
out irrespective
of the
church's
history and
tradition.
Ultimately we
take everything
back to the
word of God,
to the law
and the
testimony.
If they
speak not
according to
this word
they have
no light
of dawn.
Isaiah
8.20
Number
nine, the
familial
membership of
the church.
I take
that as a
given here.
The promise
is to you
and to your
children and
to all who
are far
on.
Children
belong by
the will
and purpose
of God
to his
church.
densdensdensdens
If someone
asks me
why are you
a predo
baptist,
I tell
them I'm
not a
predo
baptist,
I'm a
baptist.
Who happens
to baptize
children?
Because God
commands it.
Children
belong.
They're not
by their
baptism
them junior members of the church in one sense, they are members of the church of Jesus Christ
by the goodwill and purpose of God. God places his name upon them. It's the most remarkable
thing. I can't think how many children are baptized in 38 years as a minister. I moved
beyond anything I could tell you every time I baptized a child. That the triune God who's
from everlasting to everlasting stoops down in undeserved kindness and grace and mercy
to a judgment deserving little sinner and says, I will be your God and you will be my child.
I just think it's breathtaking. And if people press me, I say, I baptize children because
I'm a Calvinist and not an Arminia. Because the great movement of the gospel is not from
faith upwards, it's from grace downwards.
Number 10, the Presbyterian polity of the church. Acts 9.31, we'll come to develop that later.
The pilgrim faith of the church. Again, you can read the passages. The scriptural worship
of the church. I find it bemusing that evangelicals will argue so passionately for what the Bible
teaches about justification and have the scripture absolutely shape and style and inform all their
view of justification but never think that worship, which is more important than justification,
you can't divide the two, but in terms of essential priority, that the doctrine of worship should
not be contended for as eagerly, as passionately as the doctrine of justification. I think it's part of
the anthropologizing of the gospel. God is to be worshipped according to his word. God is to be believed
according to his word. Worship isn't something that God has left us to. Remember what happened to Nadab and
Abihu, Leviticus 10? They offered up strange, unauthorized fire. God killed them. You think, oh, goodness
me. Uzzah, he was simply trying to help the ark and he was struck down. Well, okay, that's the old covenant.
Well, you come to 1 Corinthians 11. And Paul said, you know the reason why some of you have died early?
Because you're abusing the Lord's supper. Christians were treating other Christians with disdain.
God says, I take my worship seriously. And our worship is to be shaped and styled by what God
has declared. It's what's called the regulative principle. Although we must never interpret it
woodenly. That's why the reference to Calvin, hopefully you'll find helpful. David Fyfe has
probably heard me say this 101 times. Calvin deals with worship about the context that should
you kneel to receive the supper, all that sort of stuff. And Calvin's written to the English
exiles in Frankfurt and said, well, yeah, it's not good, but bear with tolerable foolishnesses.
Don't get hung up on smaller things. Remember the big thing. But then at the end of his exposition
in Book 4, Chapter 10, he says, let love be our guide and all will be safe. Because cultures
change, times change, history advances, he writes. Therefore, don't treat the regulative principle
woodenly. Allow for change and development all within the absolute scrutiny of Holy Scripture.
13, the multinational, multicultural expression of the church. You can look at that. The evangelistic
mission of the church. Some years ago, I read a little sentence in J.I. Packer. I can't
remember where I read it. But he said, evangelism is a Christian living as a Christian in the
world. And I just was absolutely struck by that. Evangelism is essentially a Christian
living as a Christian in the world. He's not saying we are not to engage in evangelistic activity.
He is saying what I think the whole Bible tells us, is that the heart of evangelism is Christian
living as Christians. That's why the early church made such a profound impact. They live
so differently. And to my shame, it's because I don't live so differently. I don't mean oddly.
I don't mean we have to get out of our way and behave bizarrely, as I think some Christians
do. But to live distinctively different lives. So that people, I was converted through a boy
at school who lived a different life. I'd never heard the gospel. Although he told me in later
years he would always share the gospel with me. I remember him never doing that. Absolutely,
I've got no recollection of ever speaking one word about Jesus to me. But I remember first
encountering his life. He was the year ahead of me. School, he was very different from me.
I was in the academic stream. He wasn't so much. I was into sport. He wasn't so much. I was
into girls. He wasn't too bothered. He played in a gospel band. I did clubbing Saturday nights
on Sunday nights. We didn't call it clubbing. We called it discos. I remember his life.
And at first I thought, he should be odd. He's called Albert Bogle with a name like that.
But then after a few months, I think, I thought, he's not odd. He's just a bit of a name.
And then a few more months, I thought, there's something about him that I would like to have.
I didn't know what it was. I would remember in my later teens coming home from an evening
out in Glasgow, lying in my bed and thinking, is this it? Is this life? You get through your
studies. You blow off steam Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night, back Monday. Is that it?
It was his life that intrigued me. And that eventually when I bumped into him one Saturday night,
he'd been at a gospel something and I'd been, you don't need to know what I'd been.
Why don't you come to the Bible class I go to tomorrow? I said, yeah, yeah. Went along.
Someone preached in John 3.16. Never heard of John 3.16. Didn't possess a Bible. And the Lord
saved me. It was his life. And you say, well, that's your story. It is my story and we all have
different stories. Evangelism is a Christian living as a Christian. And the weakness of the
church is because we don't live the Christ-like lives that confronts society in the way I think
the early church did. And then just look at the last thing before I quickly transition.
the scriptural foundation of the church. I've mentioned before I'm going to finish that
little segment. It is written. The absolute, unbreakable authority of the Word of God.
when Jesus is tempted by the devil. Matthew 4. He plunders the book of Deuteronomy and three
times replies, not with a Bible in his pocket, but from his own memory. Giga-rapti. It is written.
And I think Jesus didn't, obviously he didn't have a conduit from his divine nature into his human
nature so that he was excused. The rigor of reading and learning. Isaiah 50, third service song.
Morning by morning you awaken my ear to hear as one who is taught. Jesus had to learn the scriptures.
I could well imagine he had memorized the whole of Deuteronomy.
I'm embarrassed. I hardly memorized any of them. I muddled through passages in major books.
The Savior just knew exactly where to go. He had such confidence in the authority and power
and truth of the Word of God that he was able to use it.
The church is to be shaped and styled and impregnated in all that it is by Holy Scripture.
Now, that's the context for really what I want to say from now on.
I wanted to say that because, at least for me, and I basically try and speak to myself and
let everyone else listen in, I need always to be reminded that as a Dei Uri Divino Presbyterian,
a divine right Presbyterian, that's what I am. That's what the Bible teaches.
We should all be Westminster Confession Presbyterians.
I think.
I try and persuade people of that.
But as I said at the beginning, that's not my default.
Heaven will be populated, ultimately by quote to our Western circumcised refugees,
that Heaven will be populated by blood-redeemed repentance sinners.
And if I forget that, woe unto me.
I'll be like Jesus' disciples who came to him one day, Mark 9, and said,
Lord, we saw a man casting out demons in your name.
We told him to stop because he wasn't one of us.
And Jesus rebukes them.
And in effect says, well, he may not have been one of yours, but he was one of mine.
And if we have a well-rounded biblical doctrine of the church,
we can passionately contend for what we believe the scriptures teach
concerning how God wants his church to be ordered,
how he wants it to be lived out and expressed,
and how he wants worship to be done.
But we do it from the context of the Catholic faith of the church.
And keep reminding ourselves,
am I speaking ill of anyone but with the precious blood of Christ?
Right.
Before we stop for a peeking,
I have five or six minutes to tell you why I'm a Presbyterian.
This is a personal testimony.
I wasn't always a Presbyterian.
I was baptized in a dispensational Baptist church when I was 18.
The first book of the Bible I was really taken through was Revelation.
I had a chart up on my wall with the seven dispensations.
I would go to university, just started university.
I brought up my large housing scheme in Glasgow.
First person in my family ever to go.
I would work out scenarios,
how to speak to people about the tribulation, the rapture.
I just thought that was what Christians believed.
There were two kinds of Christians.
There were Protestants.
There were Catholic.
My mum was a Roman Catholic.
I knew that.
I was Baptist.
I'd never heard of that Presbyterian.
I didn't know what that meant.
Methodists.
Who are they?
So my background isn't Presbyterian.
I was a Schofield dispensational Christian because I just thought that's what Christians believed.
That's what I was taught.
So why did it change?
Well, let me mention seven brief things.
Number one, because God is who he is.
God is a unity and a diversity.
He's a diversity and a unity.
Number two, because of the pattern of the old covenant church.
Unity and diversity.
Twelve tribes.
The one people of God.
There was diversity.
There was unity.
Number three, because the New Testament is absolutely clear that individual churches are to be served and led by presbyters and deacons.
It should be Philippians 1.1.
I don't know why it's 1 Timothy 1.1.
Where you have a parity of responsibility and government.
That doesn't mean there will not be a deferring.
But it means there is a principal conviction that the church is ruled by a plurality of elders and deacons.
But then fourthly following on from that because individual churches or congregations are not autonomous.
Now I may return to this later, but take Acts 9.31.
Paul talks about the church singular.
Singular throughout Galatia.
Not the churches.
There were individual churches.
That Paul could write there and in other places of the church singular.
And so in Presbyterianism, you have this wonderful principle of the strong.
Helping the weak.
First as a privilege and then as a requirement.
And I think the imagery, Paul's imagery of the church as the body of Christ,
highlights that and placards that to us.
There is one body.
There is only one body of Jesus Christ in this world.
And there is diversity.
And infelously because in Acts 15,
we read of the elders in Jerusalem and other appointed men
taking decisions for the whole church.
This is the rock on which independency is shattered.
There's other little rocks as well.
But I think Acts 15 is the exegetical rock.
The theology of the Bible, the theology of who God is,
I think more than anything else,
confronts and challenges independency.
But here we find the first general assembly of the church
resolving a doctrinal matter
and exercising a power of order
by telling other churches to refrain from certain practices.
They didn't offer advice.
They gave an instruction.
And then sixthly, because children belong to the life and witness of the church.
I studied divinity for over a year at U College in Edinburgh
before I became a Presbyterian.
I had finished university in Glasgow.
I felt strongly called to the ministry.
But I was worshipping in a Presbyterian church.
But I was still inwardly a Baptist.
Everything else had fallen to the weight of the Paragraph.
I was now a Calvinist.
I had a satiriology that was reformed.
But baptism, baptism.
I was sitting in a bus north of Aberdeen
at late one Saturday night, travelling back to Aberdeen,
when one moment I was a Baptist
and the next I was a Presbyterian.
All the pieces of the jigsaw went boom in a second.
I was pondering, I was thinking about Joshua's words
at the end of Joshua 24.
As for me in my house, we will serve the Lord.
And I thought, he didn't turn to his wife and say,
Mrs. Joshua, what do you think?
Didn't say to his children,
would you like some input into this?
I thought, he's acting as a covenant head.
And in that instance,
some of you got surprised by joy, C.S. Lewis.
I'm sure most of you have.
The great week.
And he has this epiphany
on his way to Whipsnay Zoo, isn't it?
That one moment, he's an agnostic,
next minute he's a seer.
Well, it was like that for me.
The dawning realisation that the weight of the paradigm
had finally overwhelmed me.
Romans 11, that we Gentiles are engrafted
into Israel, the old stock,
the church of God,
the ecclesia,
the kahal Yahweh,
the congregation of God.
We are grafted into that.
And then Paul warns us,
don't get high-minded.
God is able to cut you off again.
So watch it.
And then,
it struck me,
Peter's words,
the promise is to you
and to your children.
You know what he's saying?
Hey,
the Abrahamic covenant
has not died.
We are not preaching
anything new.
The gospels come out
of the shadows.
The types are being replaced
by the reality.
That's what Jeremiah 31 is about.
The new covenant.
What God promised to Abraham
still stands.
And the last thing.
Presbyterianism is, I think,
essential to the well-being
of the church.
There's many essays,
but not to its essay-to-be-being.
In other words,
you can be a true church
of Jesus Christ
and not be Presbyterianism.
But,
you will not be the church,
and I'm going to give you
my conviction,
you will not be the church
God wants you to be.
Now,
stellar figures
in the history of the church
would differ from that
in our own day
Dick Lucas,
Jim Packer.
John Owen
was persuaded
to move from
a form of Presbyterianism
to a form
of Congregationalism
that still had synods
and everything else.
Thomas Goodwin
became really an independent.
So,
stellar figures
in the church.
But,
even pygmies
can throw little stones
at giants.
And,
you can be
a church
of Jesus Christ.
Absolutely.
A communion
with the saints
in the wider church.
And yet,
not be the church
God calls you
to be
in His Word.
So,
that's all really
back round
to the next session.
But,
we're having a break.
Is that right?
Okay.
Let's go.