The sermon titled 'The Jurisdiction of the Church' discusses the importance of the church as the most significant institution on the planet, founded by Jesus Christ and existing eternally. The speaker emphasizes the powers and duties of the church, including preaching the gospel, defining its authority and government, and handling attacks against it. The church is considered essential, responsible for gathering, preaching, prayer, singing, administration of ordinances, discipline, fellowship, discipleship, and serving. The sermon highlights the need for bold leadership, encouragement, and adherence to the biblical principles of the church.

Well, welcome, welcome to the Jurisdictions of the Spire conference, Church and Family Life in the Balance. This conference is being sponsored by Church and Family Life. Church and Family Life exists to proclaim the sufficiency of scripture for church and family life for the spread of the gospel across the generations. And what we do at Church and Family Life is that we produce resources to strengthen families, we do conferences to bring people together, We operate a network of churches that are connected to one another and we mentor young men. So that's what we do at Church and Family Life.

Now, we started this conference last night on the doctrine of the civil government and how to deal with the civil government when it gets out of its lane. The state is very well known for blowing out of the walls of her ordained jurisdiction. But tonight we're here to talk about the jurisdiction of the church. And we're working through, of course, these three jurisdictions, the state, the church, and the family. And tonight we'll use our time to define the jurisdiction of the institution of the church from the Word of God.

The church is the most important institution on the planet. It's the only one that Jesus Christ founded, and it's the only one that exists eternally. And The Apostle Paul calls it the pillar and ground of the truth. We're talking about such a critical institution, charged to preach the gospel for the salvation of sinners. And so tonight we wanna explain the powers of the church, the duties of the church, and even the various ways that the church is being attacked in our times.

And we'll talk about some of the hot spots of those attacks. So tonight we're dealing with the church. Tomorrow night we're going to deal with the family at eight o'clock pm Eastern Time as well. And you know this is a strange kind of a conference because it's in place of our national conference which for years we've had live at Ridgecrest, North Carolina for 10 years. This would have been the 11th year and we're having it online.

So it's a very interesting moment. But we've got three men with us to help us think through the jurisdiction of the church. Let me introduce first Gavin Beers. Hello, Gavin. Hi, Scott.

Good to be with you. Great. Yeah. Hey, Gavin is the pastor at Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Maven, North Carolina and Gavin is going to address the doctrine of the authority of the church. So, I'm really looking forward to hearing that.

And Carlton McLeod. Hey, Carlton. How you doing, Scott? How you doing, brothers? Hey, I'm doing great and Carlton is a pastor at Calvary Reformation Church in Chesapeake, Virginia, and he's the founder of d6reformation.org.

You ought to go there and check it out. It's really good. And Carlton is going to address the duties of the church. And then so and look at that, we even have Kevin Swanson here. Hi Kevin.

Greetings. Great to be with you, Scott. So good to see you. Kevin is the pastor of Reformation Church in Elizabeth, Colorado. And he's also the founder of Generations, a fantastic radio program that rolls out every day, a daily broadcast handling worldview issues.

He founded the World View in 5 minutes which I try to listen to every day. It's really really helpful. Kevin is going to address attacks against the church. I before we start, I just want to give thanks to the lord for the collaborations the lord has given us over the years. I really am.

I feel so rich as as a a man in the world to know and I'm really, really, really thankful we can be together. This is really a joy. Now also, before we get going, you who are on the live stream, feel free to submit questions. We'll try to handle them. So Gavin is gonna come up first.

So think of questions that you might have for Gavin. Gavin, lay down the foundation stones of the doctrine of the authority of the Church of Jesus Christ. Tell us about this jurisdiction called the church. Okay, Scott. Again, thank you for the opportunity to come along this evening and speak.

It's a huge subject. I think all of us feel intimidated by 20 minutes to try and outline these glorious truths. I wanna begin with reading some scripture. I'm gonna go back into the Old Testament and read at the beginning of Psalm 87. His foundation is in the holy mountains.

The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Having read that, Let's commit our time to the Lord in prayer. Let's pray. Lord, glorious things are spoken of your church.

We praise you that you predestinated the people unto yourself in eternity, that you've been calling those people to yourself through time. That in the fullness of time Christ came, he died and rose again for his bride, the church. We thank you that that church is going forth among the nations. And although kingdom rise and kingdom fall, the Church of Jesus Christ will continue. Like that little stone taken out of the mountain without hands, which grew into a great kingdom that filled the whole earth, like a mustard seed, so small and yet its growth surprising.

Lord, may we this evening know your help and may we have our hearts stirred up to pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, even as it is in heaven. Hear us, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Well, I'm thankful to be able to address the doctrine of the church with you this evening. I remember being a number of years into my ministry and I began to recognize how poorly understood and valued the doctrine of the church was.

And I traced at the same time many problems in the church because of that. People don't join the church sometime, others just leave the church, many refuse to submit to the authority of the church. And then on top of that we have 2020, COVID, and all the new pressures that have come upon us. And we're sometimes groping for an answer to this great question. But the doctrine of the church is important in scripture, and it has been confessed throughout the history of the church.

If you were to go back to the Apostles' Creed there, the church confessed, I believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints. And so it's the church confessing that she believes in the doctrine of the church. And you find that in the Reformation Confessions as well, Westminster Confession 25 of the church, chapter 26, the communion of saints for your Baptist listeners, the Baptist Confession, chapter 26, chapter 27. So I want to spend some time introducing the doctrine of the church and then focusing upon the authority and government of the church. So with respect to the doctrine, let's begin with the definition.

We're limited as to what we can do. So we'll jump right in with the word ecclesia, which is the word we find in Greek for church, and it means called out. And that really describes the essence of what the church is. Those who are called out of the world by God unto faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they are his congregation, his assembly, his church. Another way we could look at it is they are his covenant community.

And Although the church takes a new form at Pentecost, it does actually exist throughout the Old Testament from the beginning. From Eden onwards, God has always had a called out people in the world whose hope was in the Lord Jesus Christ. And as that people grows, it becomes more organized. And so Israel in the Old Testament are spoken of as God's congregation, his synagogue, his church. If you remember Stephen in Acts chapter seven, he speaks there of Moses with Israel in the wilderness and he calls them the church in the wilderness.

Then there are wonderful pictures and metaphors given to us in Scripture. The church is the kingdom of God or the Holy Nation. And so Israel in Exodus chapter 19 are God's Holy Nation. And Peter picks up that language in 1 Peter chapter two, and he calls the church likewise God's Holy Nation. And that image tells us that we're citizens of a kingdom.

But then Paul speaks of the church as the family of God. Ephesians 2 verse 19, he takes us from the kingdom into the household and shows us that we're members of the family, not just citizens of the kingdom. Church is also the temple of God, 1 Corinthians chapter three. The spirit adds living stones to the temple, then he dwells in it. It's a habitation of God through the spirit.

The church is also the body of Christ, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, Ephesians 1. He is the head and we are the limbs of the body. And then of course the church is the bride of Christ. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. And he brings us into a covenant relationship of love, having purchased us through his blood, and he binds us to be his own in time and in eternity.

So that's a brief definition of the church. There's much more that we could say. But then there's an important distinction that we need to recognize as pertains to the church. On the one hand, the church is distinguished from the world, But then we also have to recognize that there is this distinction within the church that theologians have spoken of as the visible church and the invisible church. And by invisible church we mean the whole number of the elect, those chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

In time, they truly believe in Jesus. They're united by faith to Christ and to every other believer. But only God knows ultimately who they are. What we see is the visible church. It's a visible expression of that reality that we've just spoke of, but in terms of what that church is in the world, it consists of all those that profess the true religion, and as a good Presbyterian, I would say together with their children.

But for now, I want you just to see that distinction because it's important for understanding the authority, the government of the church and so on. You see this distinction throughout scripture. In the Old Testament, all Israel were not truly Israel. Romans 2, Romans 9, Paul deals with that. But in the New Testament, all saints are not truly saints.

And so Paul can write to the church in Corinth and he can say to the saints which are in Corinth and then he can go on in chapter 13 to say, examine yourself whether you be in the faith because he understands that among the visible saints there are hypocrites, they're not all born again, He can't see their heart. And so that reminds us of this visible invisible distinction. Something else is that the visible church is distinguished by marks. Three marks historically, the preaching of the word, the correct administration of the sacraments and biblical government and discipline. If you want to find the church in the earth, you look for these three things and churches are more or less pure in relation to how Orthodox they are in those areas.

And that brings us to the authority of the church. The visible church that we've just described has been instituted by Christ in the world with its own independent authority. In other words, it has a government and that government is distinct from other governments in the world. And if you think about it, that's really implied even in the metaphors that we've considered. The church is the kingdom of God, therefore it has a king, it has a law, and we are subjects to both as members of that kingdom.

The church is a family, God is our Father, we are all brothers, but again families have authority. And you can take that theme through other images that are used as well. But the church is Christ's church and He is the only king and head of that church. And as king, He is appointed a form of government in the New Testament. So that brings us to ask the question, what is that government?

I want to look at the pattern of church government. And there is one, because Jesus did not leave us to make up a form of government ourselves for the church. As if we could adopt a business model or one that we deem to be most useful. Jesus loved the church so much that he died for her and one of the things he purchased for her was her government. So in Psalm 68, he ascends up on high, he leads captivity captive, he receives gifts for men.

But when Paul quotes that in Ephesians 4, he uses the same language and then he says, he gives gifts unto men. What are they? They're a list of church officers that are provided for the ministry of the word and the edification of the church. So it's really important to understand that Jesus has purchased these gifts. And as the king and head of the church, he regulates not only doctrine, he regulates worship, and he also regulates church government.

So What are these offices? Well, there are three appointed permanent offices in the church. The first is pastor or teacher, and he has the function of the ministry of the word. He's called by God to it and ordained to that ministry. And he stands in the office of an ambassador of Jesus Christ and therefore he has authority from Christ to preach the word.

Not every citizen in the kingdom is an ambassador. Every citizen does not have the authority to speak on the behalf of the king, but in the church, God calls men and ordains them to be heralds of his truth, preachers of the word. And then we have the ruling elder. The pastor is joined in government by elders in the congregation. And they too are chosen from among the people, Acts chapter 14 verse 23, and appointed to rule over them with spiritual authority and to shepherd them.

Then we have deacons. Deacon is not an office of spiritual government per se, but it is a position of authority in the church to administer practical love and care to the congregation and to take in hand the temporal concerns. So Christ has purchased these gifts, Christ as King prescribes them, the divine pattern is what we must follow. But then we need to consider the independence of church government. The government of the church is distinct from and not subordinate to the civil government in its own province.

We have two independent jurisdictions, both appointed by God to serve him, which both compliment each other in the world, but there's to be no encroachment of the one upon the other. And that was true in the Old Testament as well. I'm not sure we always understand that But the king could not invade the jurisdiction of the priest in the Old Testament. There was a distinction of jurisdiction and function even within Israel. Well the civil government is to govern the temporal affairs of the nation and to administer justice according to God's law.

And he has power in this sphere to coerce and wear to submit. The image that God uses is that of the sword, which is in the hand of civil rulers to punish evil doers, to reward and encourage the good. They are to maintain peace and good order and justice in society. But then you have church government, which is in the hand of elders and which is to govern the spiritual affairs of the members of the church. Jesus Christ is king.

And he has given to elders the keys of the kingdom. He has not given these to the state, nor is the state to try and use them. One 17th century work on church government states it in this way. Church government is a spiritual power or authority revealed in the Holy Scriptures, derived from Jesus Christ our mediator, only to his own officers and by them exercised in dispensing of the word, seals or sacraments, censures and all other ordinances for the edifying of the Church of Christ. Now historically this distinction between civil authority and church authority has been blurred.

It's blurred in the Roman Catholic Church. Historically the Roman Catholic Church placed its authority over the state, so the church was over the state and then at the time of the reformation the Anglican church and the Lutheran church to a certain extent allowed the state to exercise authority over the church. But the biblical position is that we have two separate distinct governments both under God but independent in their function. So we've got the independence of the church. But then we have the power of church government and I want to spend the remaining time on that subject.

I've got four points here to consider. The first is, with respect to the power of church government, it is a derived power. Absolute power and authority belong only to God, and all human poverty, a power is derived and exercised under God. So the authority of Almighty God with respect to the church has been placed into the hand of the risen Christ to exercise as mediator over his church. All power in heaven and in earth is given unto me, says Jesus.

He has had over all things to the church, which is his body, says Paul in Ephesians 1. But Christ exercises this power through his appointed officers who rule according to his revealed word. They are shepherds and elders in the church, but Jesus is the great shepherd, bishop, overseer, and elder of our souls. First Peter two verse 25. The power of the church is a derived power.

But then the power of the church is a ministerial power. We have no power of ourselves but under Christ. And that power is defined and limited by His word. The church is under the word of God. The word of God is not under the church.

Nor do we have power to add to the word or make laws or traditions to bind the consciences of men. And I say that against the Roman Catholic magisterial view of church government with its idea of authoritative tradition. That's not church power or authority ultimately. It's a corrupted authoritarianism that enslaves the Church of Jesus Christ. The Church has no discretionary power to invent worship.

The Church has no discretionary power to make laws. It has ministerial power under Christ and its power is therefore declarative. In other words, we declare the laws of Christ and hold members to obedient to these laws. Church government must be able to say, thus saith the Lord. So it's a derived power, a ministerial power, but it's a real power.

Though it's not absolute, it has been given to the church by Christ and it's real, I mean to say it's not merely advisory, it's not just pastoral counsel that is in the hand of the church. The elders of the church have the keys of the kingdom, Matthew 16 verse 19. And when used according to the word it is the exercise of Christ's power. And so we have power to admit or open membership to people, admission to ordinances like baptism and the Lord's Supper and elders have power to discipline members or shut them out from the ordinances or at length to excommunicate them through the Church of Christ. Now what I'm saying here is that is a real power.

And so Jesus says, what they bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Matthew 16 and Matthew 18, he repeats it. Now we need to be careful here. But what that means is that as the elders exercise biblical discipline according to the word of God, the members of the church should see Christ coming to them in the exercise of that authority. Now consequent upon that is that this authority has to be obeyed.

It's a fifth commandment issue as much as children are to obey their parents, wives are to submit to their husbands, members are to obey those that have the rule over them. Hebrews 13 verse 17. And rebellion against the lawful authority of the church of Christ is not merely rebellion against men, it's rebellion against Jesus Christ himself. Fourthly, church power is an inviolable power. Our Lord Jesus Christ alone is king and head of his church and his church is to be governed his way.

But that means infringement or usurpation of that government should be resisted as an attack against the king. Now I want to apply that first of all to the claims of the Pope. The claims of the Pope should be utterly rejected. It's an office unknown to scripture. He claims to be the head of the church on earth.

Worse than that, the vicar of Christ. He even goes so far as to say that he is the way, the truth and the life. I do trust that those listening would join me in confessing the words of the Westminster Confession when it says, there is no other head of the church but the Lord Jesus Christ, nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be the head thereof, but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition that exalteth himself in the church against Christ and all that is called God. So we assert this inviolable right against the claims of the Pope, and we also must exert it against the claims of the civil power. Now we each have our own ecclesiastical background and history, but perhaps in Scotland, this battle has been fought more than anywhere else in the world.

After casting the authority of the Pope out of the church, they had to fight the king and the civil powers for the next 250 years. And they did it at great cost, sometimes even to the cost of their own lives. 18, 000 dead by the end of the Covinanting period, for what? Well, ultimately they believed church government was worth dying for. And they believed that because they recognized that it was inextricably linked to the kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ.

An early example of this is Andrew Melville at the end of the 16th century when he took King James VI by the sleeve and called him God's silly vassal, his little servant. And he said, sir, as I have told you before, so now again I must tell you, there are two kings and two kingdoms in Scotland, that is King James, the head of this commonwealth, and that is Christ Jesus, the King of the Church, whose subject James VI is, and of whose kingdom he is not a king, nor a lord, nor a head, but a member. Sir, those whom Christ has called and commanded to watch over his church have power and authority from him to govern his spiritual kingdom, both jointly and severally, to which no Christian king or prince should control and discharge, but fortify and assist, otherwise they are not faithful subjects of Christ and members of his church. We will yield to you your place and give you all due obedience but again I say you are not the head of the church." We need men like Melville today. In the 19th century, the Free Church came out of the Church of Scotland due to interference of the state in church affairs.

And since that time, every office bearer in the Free Church of Scotland, I'm a minister in the Free Church of Scotland continuing, and that goes for us as well. Every office bearer, minister, elder, and deacon has to swear this at their ordination. Do you believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, as king and head of the church, has therein appointed a government in the hands of church officers distinct from and not subordinate in its own province to civil government, and that the civil magistrate does not possess jurisdiction or authoritative control over the regulation of the affairs of Christ's church and every office bearer in our church has to say I believe that. Well I think we need to grasp this principle today when the state is encroaching more and more into the affairs of the church, claiming a power to close her worship services, telling her what she can do in those worship services. The response of the church should be simple, just like Melville.

Get your encroaching hands out of the church you have no authority in the affairs of Christ's kingdom we will have Jesus Christ to reign in his own house. So we have to hold on to this against the claims of the civil magistrate. But one final thing, we also have to assert it against the claims of the people. At times, heads of families usurp church government. They won't submit to the elders or they think that they have power to stop the elders pastoring and disciplining their family members.

Or individuals within the church simply refuse to submit to Christ in the ordained office of church government. The elders might call them to appear, they won't come. They leave the church and they tell the elders, don't come to me, I'm not going to speak to you. But what they don't recognize is that behind the elders is the authority of Jesus Christ. So the church is Christ's institution, purposed in eternity, purchased in time, called out from the world and governed by Christ through his appointed officers.

Gavin, thank you so much. That was a very rich, deep, and broad disclosure of the power and really the detailed description of the church. I really, I really was blessed by that. I wanna maybe ask Carlton and Kevin, how do you see that the church gets this wrong? As Gavin was going over point by point, it was really remarkable to just get a view of the detail that God has established to be functioning in his church.

So how does the church get these things wrong that Gavin was just explaining? Well, we live in America and this is a land of individualism. And this is the heart and soul of the battle when it comes to discipling this nation. There's such a resistance to church eldership and a resistance to this authority. When I became an elder 25-30 years ago, I noticed that the vast majority of the members were unwilling to submit to the eldership or to appear before the eldership.

They were called to a time of accountability And so we would carry on with the excommunication if that was necessary. But the thing that I learned was that what was bound on earth was bound in heaven. And the results in the lives of these members was just devastating. It was horrendous to see the effects of people who would walk away from the church and shirk the leadership of Christ, the shepherding that he placed over them. It put in my heart a tremendous fear, a reverence for Christ and his leadership.

Christ's hand is on his church and there should be a very sincere respect for that leadership and for the shepherding. So I think this is something that Americans have to learn and our members need to understand that this is how things operate in the household of God. We can't just do our own thing within the family of God, even as we don't do our own thing within our own families. So I think this is a major area of concern as we shepherd God's people. As I've said before, I think the goal amongst our American pastors and our American churches is to move that rugged individualism towards a rugged covenantalism.

We like rugged. The Scots were rugged, and that's one reason why they've been so effective in the missionary work around the world. I think there was a wonderful blessing upon these Scottish Church and the covenanters and their their legacy. But what we need is something similar to that. My prayer has always been that somehow this rugged individualism in American churches would transfer to a rugged covenantalism and a respect for the body of Christ.

Amen. Kevin, what you were saying earlier about how harmful it is to defy the authority of the church, 1 Corinthians 3 17, If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him for God's temple is holy and you are that temple. It's very dangerous to take lightly the church of of Jesus Christ and it really is one of the great maladies in an anti-authoritarian society where many church members act like the three-year-old who says you're not the boss of me and you don't really have a voice in the direction of their lives. So Carlton, what about you? How does the church, or how does the society get this wrong looking into the church?

Well, as Kevin was talking, I was thinking the exact same thing. We are a nation of rugged individualists, but as he was talking, a couple other things came to mind as well. First of all, pastors struggle with this issue. Teachers in the church, office bearers in the church struggle teaching this issue. We are by and large afraid to be called legalists.

Often when one begins to lead their flock along these lines and begin to deal with issues of authority, the real tangible spiritual authority that the church actually holds, it doesn't take but a few members who read that wrong to cause a real mess in the church. And so that's one thing. The other thing is with the rise of the church growth movement, you saw pastors basically leading by charisma, not necessarily by authority. And so people simply aren't used to it. They've not been taught.

It's been mostly about how we can make people's lives better for the last generation or so, how we can add to their lives or make sure they have their best lives now. But who stands up and says, you really need to listen to the elders of the church. There's real authority to discipline you, perhaps even to excommunicate you, and beloved, it won't go well for you. Well, you know, that's a good way to lose half your church doing that in the modern movement. So I think on the church side, there's been some trepidation on behalf of pastors because it doesn't grow, grow churches to speak this way.

And then I think on the pastoral side, we're hesitant to to seem self-effacing or self-anggrandizing or or to come off as cult members. You know, it's very taken by the way you described this leadership leadership by charisma, not by authority. I think that's worth pondering. I think that's worth writing down because the lord Jesus Christ, you know, has delegated authority to his ministers well. Okay.

So any any more on this point any any other takes coming off of what Gavin has just shared if I could just echo what Kevin said and then what you brought up, Scott, from 1 Corinthians about destroying the temple of God. Another image being the church is the bride of Christ. So many of your listeners here would be outraged if somebody treated their wife poorly. You know, what does that say then? If we treat the bride of Christ poorly, what will her husband say?

That's a serious thing. And then, Conklin mentioned pastors struggle to teach it. I think pastors also struggle to apply it. We've got different church backgrounds. Kevin and I are Presbyterian.

We have to submit to our presbyters and you see the same problem. You see the same problem of ministers struggling to submit to their brethren as you find with members submitting in the church. So it's a bigger issue. Those who are in authority need to learn likewise to submit. Amen.

You know, when you're talking, Gavin, I was so struck by just how significant the church is and how people take the church very lightly. They take her meetings lightly. They take her ordinances lightly. If if the slightest impediment comes across their schedule, they don't come and they're they're not they're not like on the front row. You know, I always wanted our family to be a front row family, right on the edge of our chair to try to hear and absorb what's going on.

But when you think about the significance of the Church of Jesus Christ, the way he's established it, you think of how harmful it is to take her so lightly. And I think that's one of the great maladies of Evangelicalism. The Church is taken very lightly. Amen. Well, let's keep moving here.

Carlton, could you talk to us about the the duties of the church? You know, what are the I hate to use the word essential things. We've heard that word essential. Right. Quite a bit lately about what are the essential things?

We've already heard that the church is essential. Right. I will say that again, the church is essential. I appreciate the richness of Brother Gavin's words. They are just powerful.

It has me already thinking about some adjustments that I might need to make. But I want to speak just for a moment on the duties of the church, which is my assignment. And I want to lead in with three propositions. The first has already been mentioned that the church is essential, meaning the institution itself and all of her functions and duties, they are essential. Essential for the people of God to render unto God due glory, but also for the spiritual and emotional, relational, and dare I say, even the physical health of God's people, just because of the impact of the word of God, the fellowship of the saints.

I believe the church is also essential to building hold and intact communities as God's word provides the framework for all communities to live in peace and prosperity. And so the first proposition is that the church is essential. And I think that's been, that was talked about yesterday and already established again tonight. The second proposition is that the church needs bold leadership to kind of jump on with brother, I don't know what you're saying. Not unloving leadership, nor undiscerning leadership, certainly not insensitive leadership, but courageous leadership.

And I think COVID has had us all back on our heels for a month or two, and we're starting to see some things shift around now, but we need bold leaders. And I'll just throw this in real quick. I'm probably not the only pastor in the last eight months that have been tempted to downplay the importance of the duties of the church as we've wrestled with the COVID situation. And what I mean by that is recognizing that the duties of the church that we're going to discuss, and I have 11 of them for you very quickly, but recognizing that the duties of the church are essential and working from there during times of uncertainty, as opposed to perhaps what some have done unwittingly, giving the impression that the ministries, the church, the duties of the church are optional. And again, that's what you were just mentioning, Scott, about how we take the Church of Jesus Christ so lightly, almost as if it is optional.

And then finally, the third proposition that I felt strongly led to just kind of mention tonight is that the church needs encouragement right now. Now more than ever, the Lord's people, particularly here in the West, have been bombarded by bad news and an abundance of worldly wisdom masquerading as truth and subject to constantly heightening levels of anxiety producing unpredictability unlike anything most of us have seen in our lifetimes and that now for several months. So I submit that the ministry that we're gonna talk about, the duties, the essentials, as you said, Scott, of the church are needed now more than ever. And you may hear me say that phrase a few times here over the next moment or so. Now more than ever, more preaching, not less, more prayer, not less, more fellowship in whatever form, depending upon your context, not less.

And before we get into what I again term as the 11 duties of the church, at least hopefully a good summary for you, I have what I call a COVID caveat because I know that amongst our listeners and watchers tonight, there are people on a spectrum. And so as we look at the duties, as we look at the responsibilities of the Lord's church, hopefully with love and sensitivity and much grace towards elder teams that are making hard calls and hard choices all around the country and indeed all around the world, just consider again that the ministry of the church is critically necessary for the glory of God and the blessing of God's people, that church ministers must step forward now, not back away. And that I believe, like you, Scott, that opportunity abounds right now. We must lift up our eyes. We must look on the fields for they are white already to harvest, John 4 34.

And then God's people, they need encouragement. They need everything that the church has been commanded by her Lord to do, as brother Gavin made sure we understood that we have a king and that king has laws and we are subject to those laws. And oh, by the way, those laws just happen to be really, really good for his people. And so I have 11 duties that I wanna share with you as it relates to what the church is commanded to do. The first one is gathering.

Again, going back to the word ecclesia, that word again called out, some dictionaries add the defining terms of a meeting or an assembly. And we see the pattern and the principle and precept in Scripture, Acts 20 and 7. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow and continued his speech unto midnight. And so we see there the early pattern of the church meeting on the Lord's Day or the first day of the week. And then of course, a familiar passage to most pastors, Hebrews chapter 10 verses 24 through 25.

And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more, as you see the day approaching. From a jurisdictional standpoint, the local church is responsible to her Lord for gathering the people of God on the Lord's day for worship. The state has, again, already been intimated, cannot prescribe worship, cannot prevent worship, cannot tell the church when to meet or when not to meet. It can certainly give suggestions and advice, but that's a totally, as we've already said, separate jurisdiction. Nor should the family attempt to usurp Lord's Day worship.

This is something that belongs to the church. The church is responsible for the gathering of the people of God. The nature of the church is corporate. It's all the words that we see in scripture are us and them and even the metaphors that Gavin mentioned. They all have to do not with individuals but with a coming together of people into one body, even bride here.

The word bride is is it relates to all of us And so it can be thought of in a plural sense because we are the bride of Christ. So now more than ever, I believe that this gathering is needed in some form of hopefully in person, but this gathering is needed. The Lord's Day is meant to be a day of worship and rest, where when we bless God and are blessed by him and blessed by one another. And so, again, that's a duty of the church. That's an essential that even in the name, the word church in the Greek, we are a gathering people.

God has called us out and he calls us together. And that's something that the church is responsible for. The second one is, and these aren't in a particular order, but the second one is, again, already been mentioned a bit, is preaching. The scriptural basis are ubiquitous throughout the both Old and New Testaments, quite frankly. But Mark chapter 16 in verse 15, and he said unto them, go ye in all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

2 Timothy 4, two, preach the word, be instant in season and out of season, reprove and rebuke and exhort with all long suffering and doctrine, even the qualifications of a church leader. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober of good behavior, given to hospitality and apt to teach. And so there is this corporate responsibility. The church gathers the people of God together to hear the declaration, the heralding of the setting forth of the word of God. The local church is responsible to her Lord for this duty, the preaching of the whole council of God and its ministers are commanded to preach the word in season and out of season.

Again, there's overlap. Obviously we teach in our homes and so forth, but we teach hopefully under the authority of a local congregation, again, as Brother Gavin mentioned. And so we need to hear the great doctrines of the faith now more than ever. And one of the difficult things that we're all dealing with, some churches, many churches are dealing with, is that they haven't been together to hear the preaching of the word of God like they had in previous days. And so I just wanna encourage all of you to remember, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.

We must take this duty seriously. Do everything you can to continue to allow the people in your church to hear the word of God over and over and over again. So the first duty was gathering. The second duty was preaching. The third duty is prayer.

Matthew 21 and 13, our Lord tells us that His house shall be called a house of prayer. The jurisdictional point here is that the local church is responsible to bring the body together for prayer. One of the most least attended meetings sadly, but one of the most critical and one of the most important meetings of the church. Now more than ever, we need to be strengthened in our faith and obedience as we pray together. And the admonitions, Again, are very common throughout scripture from the pattern that we see in Acts 1 and 14, where they were with one accord in prayer and supplication, and to the exhortation in Romans 12, 12 rejoicing in hope, patient and tribulation, continuing instant in prayer.

Ephesians 6, 18, where the apostle asked the church at Ephesus to pray for him, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for the saints. And then of course, the easy to remember, 1 Thessalonians 5 17, pray without ceasing. And we can go on, but that's a duty, that's an essential. The church of Jesus Christ seeks her Lord, beseeches her Lord, lays before her Lord, and we come together to do that as a body. The fourth one is essential to the church or this duty.

The list of duties that we're discussing is singing or praise the scriptural basis. Again, there are several Hebrews Chapter 13 in verse 15. And let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks unto his name. And again, the jurisdictional point, the local church is responsible to her Lord for his worship, for the beauty of singing, singing songs in hymns and spiritual songs and making melody in our hearts and speaking to one another in those same songs before the Lord.

One of the things that we love at our church is when the people of God harmoniously begin to sing and lift up their voices. And I like to lower the music sometimes or get it to where the voices can really be heard because it's one of the most beautiful sounds in the world, the people of God lifting up songs to her King and to our King. And quite frankly, brethren, we need this right now. And again, maybe it's my location here in Virginia in a blue state, but I'm kind of sensitive to this right now. How badly the people of God need the ministry of the church, the duties of the church, the essentials of the church.

And for so many, that singing has gone silent. And we pray for our brothers who are struggling in this area right now. Of course we sing in family worship, but family worship does not take the place of corporate worship. Now more than ever, we need to hear our brothers and sisters singing. It encourages our faith, it calms our souls, it stirs our hearts, it allays our fears, and it allows us and helps us suit up for battle on Monday morning.

And so the church must sing. We must keep singing and no government can tell us we can't sing. Also number five, the churches, again, brother Gavin said, this is responsible for the ordinances, the scriptural basis. Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost and declared, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins. And of course we read a little further and we find out that 3000 souls or so were baptized that day.

Paul tells the church at Corinth in pretty explicit detail how they are to conduct the Lord's table. When you come together, therefore into one place, it is not to eat the Lord's supper. And after a bit of rebuke, he tells them, and reminds them of what our Lord taught us. And he says, For I received of the Lord, which I also delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he break it and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. That sounds pretty essential, right? That's a duty. And then at the same manner also, he took the cup and when he had stopped saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

And the point here is that as much as we might wanna baptize our little ones in our tubs, or we might want to substitute the Lord's table around our kitchen table, brother and sister, the ministry of the ordinances belongs to the church. And they're beautiful, quite frankly. One of the things that I love about, and we need this right now in 2020, but one of the things I love about the ordinances is that we're all one around the table. There's no race or ethnicity. There's no class.

There's no socioeconomic stuff. We don't care about the age and how we look around the table of the Lord, we're all one body. When we go down in the water and we come up out of the water and as it symbolizes the death, the burial, the resurrection of our Lord, we're all one. And so these duties, not only do they give glory to God, not only are they essentials for healthy churches, but they also minister grace and peace and blessing to God's people. And they teach us something, something that we need to see over and over and over again, particularly in the age in which we live.

The sixth was discipline, which was covered by brother Gavin better than I could, but so many passages here, 1 Corinthians 5, where Paul is not too happy about the brother, the fornicator who was made such a mess there in the church in Corinth. We could also look at Romans 16 verse 17, 2 Thessalonians 3, 6 or 3, 14. But as has been said, the church is responsible for exercising loving and redemptive discipline. The goal is always the restoration of the saint, if possible. Family and state discipline can be corporal, but church discipline is real, but it is spiritual in nature.

And given the lack of honor and the disdain for any authority in our culture, now more than ever, we need this gentle, loving correction. It's hard for us here in the West. Most of us who came up in kind of more mainstream church settings, never learned much about church discipline. And so we're finding out now how critical this is, because we're not used to correction. We're not used to admonishment, and we certainly aren't used to accountability, but this is a duty of the church and is absolutely essential.

Then fellowship number seven, fellowship, Acts 2 42, and they continue steadfastly in the apostles doctrine, the breaking bread of prayers, fellowship and in prayer. And so Peter says in 1 Peter 4 in verse 9, use hospitality one to another without grudging. So we see the individual mandate for hospitality. We also see the corporate mandate for hospitality. And one of the great and I believe one of the most beautiful duties of the church is to foster times of fellowship amongst Scots people, to gather the saints just to laugh and to share.

Boy, I tell you, how missing is that right now? We had a couple of things happen here recently at our church where we gathered our men and we gathered our women and we fed them some food and it's happened in September and we hadn't really had a chance to really gather in that kind of way for several, several months. And no one wanted to leave. We were all starving for fellowship. We'd seen each other in little boxes on screens, and it's just not the same for so long.

And so the Church of Jesus Christ fosters fellowship. It brings the people of God together for encouragement and for strengthening. We need family, but family is not all we need again. And here's this term again, we function best when we live in a spirit-filled covenant community. Number eight is discipleship.

Discipleship, the Church of Jesus Christ is responsible to her Lord to do everything that we can do from the word of God to foster the growth of God's people. Brother Gavin mentioned the offices over in Ephesians chapter four, verses 11 through 15. Interestingly though, these offices were given by the Son of God, until all come in the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and cared about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head even Christ." It is a responsibility of church leaders, it's a responsibility of pastors to the Lord Jesus Christ to foster the growth of God's people by preaching the word, by all these other things, and by strengthening them in times of instruction and counsel and impartation. Matthew chapter 28 and verse 19, the great commission, go ye therefore and teach or make disciples of all nations.

This is a duty of the church. The local church is responsible to endeavor again to foster the spiritual growth of its members. And now more than ever, and hopefully this will be talked about a bit tomorrow, but a healthy family builds its discipleship around the life of the church to avoid error and to increase the unity and like-mindedness of that body. So it's important for the church to always be, have a view towards the growth and instruction, the maturation and the discipleship of his members. And that's one of our duties as part of what we do.

And then number nine, one of the duties of the local church is serving, serving others. We see this very clearly in Scripture over in 1 Timothy chapter five as it relates to widows or James chapter one verse 27 as it relates not only to widows but also to orphans or to the fatherless. The local church is responsible for acts of service towards widows and orphans and more, particularly when family cannot care for them. As it relates to widows with isolation at an all time high, with feelings of loneliness at an all time high, with so many church members unable to see each other for such long periods of time, encouraging family and friends to serve together can be a buffer against such isolation. Number 10 is sending.

Sending the local church of the Church of Jesus Christ is responsible to train up those who will go out into the Lord's vineyard and wind souls and established churches and build orphanages. The local church is responsible for preparing and sending these men into the vineyard for missions work. Acts chapter 13, verses two and three, as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work we're into. I have called them. And when they went and fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

So this is something that the church does, that the corporate body does, hopefully with the approval of the body and the prayers of the body. And then finally, number 11, the local church, one of the duties of the local church is to promote generosity in members, is to promote giving. The scriptural basis in Malachi chapter three, bring ye the ties into the storehouse of the Lord. Also, 2 Corinthians chapter nine, verses six and seven, he who sows sparingly would also reap sparingly. So many verses, 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verses one and two, on the first day of the week, set something aside so no offerings will have to be made when I come says the Apostle Paul.

But the point there is the local church is responsible for encouraging God's people to be generous towards the house of God and towards others. Ultimately, this blesses God's people. It blesses the church and brings unity to the church because we're giving for common goals, for common purposes, to strengthen the house, to bless God, to bless others. It increases camaraderie, fraternity, unity, causes people to say our and my as opposed to them and those. And if 2020 has taught us anything, and I'm just about done here, but if 2020 has taught us anything, it's to expect the unexpected.

If COVID drags on, if persecution increases or some other calamity ensues, are we ready to truly embrace 1 Timothy 5 and care for our elderly? Are we ready to build self-sustaining communities to provide for people as it relates to their basic needs to help other churches who get in tight spots. And so those are 11 duties that I came up with from the word of God. And again, the church, all these things, all these duties that we talked about, they're all essential. They all give glory and honor to God but they also strengthen God's people and so we need them all and we need them all right now.

Wow. II can't get over this list. These you know, eleven shaping, they're shaping tools. They they alter your relationships. They transform and God has brought all these things together to come.

You know, it eleven things that you've mentioned and and of course, you add the power of the Holy Spirit to be the oil in between them all. I I've I'm just so struck by how kind God is to bring so many tools to shape us like that. What a wonderful thing. Gavin and Kevin, how do you respond to this? Well, the first thing that strikes me is the necessity of the church.

We need to really impress upon our church members how important the church is, how significant it is. Again, once again, in the American Individualistic Society where it's just me and Jesus meeting on a mountaintop, the impression is that the spiritual experience is primarily individual, but it doesn't involve the church. I've asked the question which is more important, an individual experience or the preaching of the word of God. And what you'll find in Romans 10 is that it's a both and. Salvation comes by the preaching of the word of God.

And yet the modern church doesn't see the necessity of itself as it should. This is God's means by which salvation comes and by which sanctification happens within God's people. And also I don't think you're gonna see generational continuity without children attending to the preaching of the word. Preaching the word is far more important than youth ministry and Sunday school ministry. In fact, I think the core issue with this ministry, Scott, that you had is that we incorporate children into the worship service and they participate in the means of grace.

This is critical and the whole children's church phenomenon has been terribly damaging I think to a generational faith continuity. So let's see how the church is so essential to our spiritual life and to the continuity of faith for our children and our grandchildren. Amen. Gavin, any thoughts? Yeah, I think I was struck when Carlton was working through the list of Judas, that so many of them are privileges.

And it's hard to, it's hard to distinguish where Judae ends and privilege begins. You know, the preaching of the word, the ordinances, even His first one, meeting together. Now you can look at that and you can say it's our duty to meet together. It's also the invitation to a feast. Right.

It's a privilege. There Jesus spreads the table for us. He says of Israel in the wilderness, is it Psalm 78, I think, or 105, they had angels' food. And we go to feast upon Christ in word and sacrament. Who cares about light shows?

Who cares about entertainment? All the things that the church is trying to do that it shouldn't be doing, It's actually robbing God's people of the feast. So that struck me. Duty and privilege, they both go together. Even the privilege of discipline.

Whom the Lord loves, He chastens. He doesn't leave us to go our own way. The other thing is, I think people can treat the church as a preaching station. We all love good preaching. But people go and if the preaching is not just to their taste, they can go home, go online, listen to the best preachers of our generation.

But they're viewing the church as a preaching station and what our brother did was he described the church as an organic living functioning body. Amen. And I think that we in the 21st century need to know more than just going to church. We need to learn how to be the church. All of these things come together.

The care of the poor, fellowship. One verse that always struck me, Hebrews 3, "'Exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest energy be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. We don't even see other Christians sometimes from week to week. How can we be exhorting them? It's a picture of something that's living, growing, loving together.

I really like you using the word privilege. You know, it's as if the Lord is saying, come on, eat, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, like Nehemiah said, you know, come and have bread, come and have wine, get your relationships broadened, sharpen your mind, sing, Rejoice in the Lord. Right. You know, all these things. It's just a cornucopia of life transforming engagements that God has done in the church.

We really want to encourage people to take the church so seriously, more seriously than ever. Well, okay, so let's move on. Before we hear from Kevin Swanson, I just want to tell you about a few things that are going on with us at Church and Family Life. Hey, one thing is we just started a podcast a few weeks ago. It launches every Monday and we're trying to deal with issues to strengthen church and family.

And like this week, we launched a podcast that we did with Paul Washer, talking to him about preaching to children and also helping children to hear the preaching. And next week we've got another one with Steve Lawson talking about the same thing. I wanted to hear from these two men who spent their lives preaching. But we're going to deal with lots and lots of issues. We did a couple of broadcasts on medical tyranny and things like that, but we're going to try to deal.

We did those a couple of weeks ago. Check those out. They're very, very interesting. I just wrote a new book called The Family at Church, How Parents Are Tour Guides for Joy. And it's really written to equip parents to make their church life the sweetest thing ever.

And I'm saying, hey, the most important place you ever take your children is to a local church. Help them love every part of it. You're going to need to help them to do that. Also, next year, we've scheduled a live conference at Ridgecrest, which will take place May 19th and 20th and 21st. On the 19th we're having a singles conference, and then after that we're going to have our Theology of the Family Conference.

So I hope you can come to those. Also, my wife and I every year, every February, Valentine's weekend, we have a very limited attendance Marriage Conference in our home. It's one of the neatest times. We just, Deborah and I just love it. This year, we're going to have Joel and Mary Beakey come.

But you can sign up for this on the website. It's a very sweet time. You sit on couches. You're fed sumptuous, healthy food, and you get to know a small group of people and hear about marriage. It's really a really a very sweet time.

So anyway, that's those are a few things that are going on. Also pray for us. Pray for our work to strengthen churches and families. We we really desire to find the very best ways to do that in the generation that we live in. So, Kevin, Kevin is going to address attacks against the church.

Kevin, we live in really, really remarkable times and I'd like you to address the times right now. Sure, well I'd like this to be encouraging to those that are listening tonight. I'd add one more descriptive to the church that Pastor Gavin gave earlier tonight, and that is, I think it was one of the reformers that said the church is an anvil that has worn out many hammers. Indeed, the church just continues, and continues, and continues. And in my experience, it's just an amazing and amazing phenomenon to witness the church.

And as an elder in the church, as a pastor, I've had front row seats to the inner workings of the local churches out here in Colorado. And what's amazing to me is the fragility and the imperviousness of the church. We get these two things simultaneously that the church is so fragile, so very, very fragile and yet impervious because our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the Chief Shepherd and the Lord of the church. And I always picture the church as something of a small little rubber raft that's making it through a level 6 or level 7 hurricane. As you run up the 500-foot waves back down the other side, we see aircraft carriers sinking on the right and on the left, but somehow This little rubber raft just makes it through every time.

So it's extraordinary to see that as the mountains are cast in the midst of the sea, God is still in the midst of her, she shall not be moved. God will help her in that right early. This is what we see over and over again, our local churches in the macro church as we press through the ages and we see the church continue to flourish throughout the generations. I was with a local pastor friend who ministered in communist Vietnam just a couple of weeks ago. And I asked this guy, I said, is it more dangerous pastoring in communist Vietnam or here in America?

Cause he's back to the States pastoring here in the local area. And His answer sort of surprised me. He said, it's far more dangerous pastoring here in the States than it is in communist Vietnam. And he said, the reason is because the enemy is not very well defined here. It's harder to identify.

It's much more complicated and difficult to minister here in the United States. But I'm encouraged by the great hymn, the church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord, the church shall never perish, her dear Lord to defend, to guide, sustain, and cherish, is with her to the end. Though there be those that hate her and false sons in her pale, against both foe and traitor she ever shall prevail. Mid toil and tribulation, tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace forevermore, till with the vision glorious her longing eyes are blessed and the great church victorious shall be the church at rest." And I know every pastor and every church member would say amen to every word in in that hymn. So briefly let's let's talk about some of the attacks on the church and in our day in our place there are attacks that come within there are attacks that come from without both sides and I think every church is aware of these these attacks and the the trials and the tribulations the persecutions the toils and the tribulations that we face.

First let's look at the trials that come from within. From within we see scandals and scandals can be a very traumatic thing. I think the last eight to nine years in the evangelical church certainly within the homeschool movement that I'm familiar with there have been a tremendous number of scandals I can remember in the 1980s some of the televangelists and some of the the charismatic and Pentecostal pastors were going through a series of scandals, but the last 10 years we've seen a tremendous number of scandals even in Reformed churches, Reformed denominations, we've seen it in the larger evangelical world, We see it in so many of the mega churches. I think there have been 20, 30, 40, 50 major scandals of recent, and so this is a challenge that faces the local churches. Sometimes there is sexual abuse that occurs within congregations, and this is another demonic ploy to bring about some real trial and tribulation, yet God uses these things to strengthen the church.

One of the key verses that we all need to be aware of is 1 Corinthians 11, verse 18. This should be very encouraging to all of us because these things are intended. Obviously God intends for us to be strengthened through these things. He has his purposes working through the trials and the scandals that we face. Listen to 1 Corinthians 11 18, for first of all when you come together as a church I hear that there are divisions among you and in part I believe it for there must also be factions there must be factions among you that those who are approved may be recognized among you.

So it is critical that we be proved that those that can withstand, those that by faith continue to press through by the grace of God, by the work of the Spirit of God within them, are the ones that that prove to be those approved and recognized in the congregation. So God brings these things to prove the church, to test the church, and to strengthen the church. It's also demonic confusions and divisions that are introduced within the church. In the present church we see all of these controversial issues. They should not be controversial, but because there hasn't been good rooting and grounding, there hasn't been a discipleship of the churches, we see that a lot of these BLM issues, intersectionality, homosexualism, critical race theory, is striking right at the heart of some of the major denominations as in the Southern Baptist Church, the PCA and such.

So these are pretty significant challenges for churches. Even some of our churches, we we face controversial issues that pop up from time to time. It could be a confused discussion concerning certain minor doctrines. It could be the use of alternative medicines, it could be Christian liberty issues that in which there's just controversy and such. But these are the sorts of things that can create division within the church.

There's also griping, sniping, complaining, discontentment, evil surmising, gossip, despising of the preaching, the teaching the church, and the Holy Spirit's gifts within the body. These things can also be very significant challenges for the church. It seems to me that as an elder in the church we are always facing some degree of conflict, some degree of inner turmoil at any point in time. For example, right now I would say we have at least three to four difficult issues the elders are dealing with within our own congregation. So all of these things are stresses and difficulties for the church, but we do not respond to these things in a spirit of fear.

It's very important when we sense that we are facing internal attack, whether it be the world, the flesh, and the devil working within our congregation, testing us, tempting us, in some cases bringing people into outright sin and such, we should not respond to the attacks with spirit of fear but of love, power, and a sound mind. Because remember that our Lord is always preparing a table before us in the presence of our enemies. That's very very critical to know that yes we are the church militant, yes we are in a battlefield, but our Lord spreads that table before us in the presence of our enemies. I'm always thinking of John G. Payton as a wonderful example of this.

When he was on that island of Tanna, what a beautiful example is these tribes were in war against each other on the Sabbath day. He rushed out into the battlefield, stopped the war, and said, we're gonna worship God today. And he held a service on the one side and then he walked over to the other side, held another worship service on the other side. This is the spirit of love, power, and a sound mind that engages, that continues to preach the word of God fearlessly and relies upon this chief shepherd, the Lord of this church to look down and prepare that table before us in the presence of our enemies. We have the overpowering influence of the Holy Spirit's presence with us.

And we need to remember, as we face these trials, greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. The New Testament book of Acts gives us so many examples of these demonic attacks on the church or on the ministry of the Word, and yet Paul would withstand them. Listen to Acts 13 verse 8, Elamis the sorcerer, withstood them, seeking to them to turn the proconsul away from the faith. And Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him, and so full of all deceit and all fraud you son of the devil you enemy of all righteousness will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord and now indeed the hand of the Lord is upon you and you should be blind not seeing the Sun for a time." So here we see the Holy Spirit filled the Apostle Paul and enabled him to stand up against this demonic influence that was pressing against the ministry of the Word. The Holy Spirit, fellow Christians, should recognize the obfuscations, the smudgeings, the spirit of confusion that comes by demonic influence, and that minister of Christ who is filled with the Holy Spirit of God will correct it by direct and bold and authoritative confrontation.

So this is the kind of thing that should happen within our churches. We are certainly in a gigantic spiritual battle, but we know that the Holy Spirit's presence is with us. Acts 1350 is in the other example that I would give is the Jews were stirring up the devout and prominent women and chief men of the city, raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas expelled them from the region, but they shook off the dust for their feet against them and came to Iconium and The disciples were filled with joy with the Holy Spirit. So here we see this great contrast between, you know, this demonic disruption that was going on within the ministry, but the apostles were just filled with the Holy Spirit of God, filled with joy. They were joyful warriors in the midst of it.

Lambs to the slaughter, yes, but more than conquerors through him that loved them and rejoicing all the way. So just keep those things together. Yes, we are lambs to the slaughter. Yes, we will face tremendous tribulation and persecution and we will be wounded. The servants are not above their master in any of this, but lambs to the slaughter but still more than conquerors through him that loved us.

This is what characterizes our ministry, brothers and sisters. The kingdom will come with power, not just with man's words and man's motivations, man's manipulations, man's rhetoric will not do it, but it will come by a spirit-filled ministry of the teaching and the preaching of the word of God. We know that the kingdom has come when the Holy Spirit demonstrates work with power and then we can say greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. We will see a vast difference between the work of God, the work of the Holy Spirit of God, and the work of the demonic horde. He prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies.

This divine equipping of powers shakes the strongholds of hell on earth to bring down the gates of hell. Indeed, as our Lord promised us, The Church of Jesus Christ will stand, it will prevail, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So this is again, a forward motion, this is an offensive force. The Church of Jesus Christ presses on into the world. We cut through the bars of iron by the work of the Holy Spirit of God, by the preaching of the Word, and it's the power that breaks the yoke of millions who are bound in superstitions, occult powers, and those that are held by the handcuffs of drugs, alcohol, and lust.

So this is the power that crushes the enemy and enables the Church of Jesus Christ to press through again and again. So briefly that is the summary of those forces that come against us from within, but let me just touch on those forces that are coming against us from without. Certainly there are government mandates that are pressing upon us and I won't spend much time with that as others have have ministered on that in this series. But also anarchical mobs are rising up and are affecting the churches. Our church building was subjected to a BLM attack about two weeks ago.

Other churches in the area have experienced something similar. Perhaps some of you other brothers haven't experienced anything quite like this, But yeah, we were subjected to a pretty serious attack, probably affected 30, $40, 000 worth in damage. But I think the key thing as we are victims, so to speak, of some of this anarchy, our response needs to be faith. We need to respond in faith and action not to allow the ministry to languish for one second. This is what we see in the book of Acts as well.

Of course there's pushback, of course there's going to be opposition on the part of the Jewish authorities and certain anarchical forces, whether it be in Iconium or Jerusalem, of course there was all of that. But remember as the angel released Peter from the prison, what did he say? Go stand speak, okay? Yeah, you got a good night of rest in the prison now, get back out there and keep the message rolling. We don't have a moment to spare, let's continue preaching the gospel and ministering the word of God.

So it's important, I think, to have that mentality. As Our churches are attacked and as we might face off some of these rather difficult situations, the media may not be on our side. I would say the sheriff's department may or may not be on our side. It doesn't matter. We need to press on.

I would recommend kills two for graffiti. So just some practical things if you're under attack, kills two works very very well. You might need to have five gallons on hand. It only costs about $100 but within about an hour you can cover up the blasphemies. The key thing is to cover up the blasphemies and move on.

So just a hint for you, use kills too for the blasphemy on the walls and paint thinner works very well for the blasphemy on the concrete. So within about an hour, the blasphemies were covered up. Within 12 hours, the building was ready for meetings again and we were up and running. So also if anybody's interested in a ministry like that, dealing with persecutions involving BLM and some of the vandalism that might take place over the next number of years that might be a good ministry for somebody. But not only do we face anarchical mobs but we also face community gossip.

We have had instances in which the local newspapers slandered us and actually at one point set one of the local pastors against our church but we immediately called up the other pastor, we met together, we had wonderful fellowship together and we have become good friends. So they were unable to put a wedge between ourselves and other churches. But what you'll find in this form of persecution will be a straw man caricatures and so forth. That's very, very common amongst communities. We live in a small community, so that community gossip is something that I think we would expect to face.

Also, people who have left the church who aren't happy with us, that sort of thing, that can produce some level of gossip and slander and may actually set something of the local community against the church. If you preach any repentance message or you preach on the three uses of the law of God or preach on holiness, you will be accused of being a legalist and that you don't preach the gospel so that's that's automatic. We've heard that enough times I'm sure almost everybody who's ever done anything for the church understands what what will happen in that regard. I think almost every church that doing anything positive will be called a cult. I've run into many brothers who have wonderful ministries going on, but because of the pushback that happens from the local communities, oftentimes they are referred to as a cult.

One of the things that, one of the strategies that we have, we have incorporated here in our ministry has been to meet with other churches and other pastors in the local area. About six years ago, I called a pastor from a local Bible church and began to meet with this brother and we expanded that to other pastors, other evangelical pastors in the area and now we are meeting of almost all of the local evangelical pastors. We've come to the conclusion we must hang together or we will hang separately and I think all of the brothers understand that principle at least out here in the state of Colorado but it's been a wonderful experience actually to grow together and to minister to each other So we spend time together in the word and in prayer, simply drawing something from God's word and immediately following up with prayer. We've done that now for six years off and on. But six months ago when the COVID-19 virus hit immediately, I contacted the pastors and said, we need to get together on a weekly basis.

So we have been in weekly prayer together, about six or eight of us pastors in this small little valley out here in Colorado. We've been meeting together non-stop for about six months, maybe closer to eight months now, and meeting together and praying. And this has resulted in a real prayer for revival. We also have joint prayer services together and also we were able to meet as pastors with the county sheriff at the point where the commissioners attempted a 25 person limit for our churches. We all in unity approached the commissioners and said that's not going to work for us and encouraged them not to do that.

They apologized to us and asked us what we would like. We said we would like to do whatever we want to do and they said good we'll write that up and get that to you in the morning. So we've been encouraged that this working together has been effective, an effective time. We're starting to see our churches fill up, often mostly with COVID refugees, but it does seem that the county has been changed over time. I've lived in this county for nine to 25 years, and we are seeing the influence of the Lord Jesus Christ in this county unlike anything I've ever seen.

It's evident in the coffee shops, evident in the county commission. We all pray down at the county commission in Jesus name and the commissioners are typically saying amen with us. Church hopping is quelled, little and longstanding feuds are starting to melt away. So these are the encouragements that we have received as we continue to meet together as church pastors. With this, the main thing that we need to continue to do, I believe, is what we find in 2nd Timothy 3 and 4.

This has been already mentioned, but I'll just underscore it one more time. We live in perilous times, certainly. There's treachery, there's persecutions. Paul was facing the certainty of Nero's persecutions, and of course the dragon unleashing seven persecutions upon the early church, 2 Timothy chapter 3. In his dying words, he turns to Timothy and says, I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.

Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. So the message brothers is we must preach on, we must preach on. Paul is charging us, he's taking an oath upon himself to impress upon us the importance of preaching the Word of God. Whatever happens, we need to preach the Word of God.

Let me give you one last illustration that I think could be an encouragement to everybody. It was during the Boxer Rebellion in 1899. The Boxers was a term for people claiming supernatural demonic possessions in China. This was the first major persecution against the Protestant missionary movement in China began in 1899. One of the most heroic examples of a man of God is a preacher from Ireland by the name of Thomas Piggott.

And he was arrested, his family was arrested, his wife, his son was arrested. The Chinese Nero Youssin had his family arrested and it was some 100 miles away from where the county seat was, where he was to be martyred. But as the gendarmes arrested him and began to drag him from his mission station to the county seat, he preached all the way to his martyrdom. A bystander warned him at one point, you are to be killed for preaching but you keep on preaching. His wife, Jessie, continued witnessing in prison to a woman who had killed her husband and during the trial Thomas continued to preach and he preached and he preached and he continued to preach.

There, where husband and wife were stripped to their waists of clothes, Thomas continued to preach. He preached to the people till the very last when he was beheaded with one blow, and then he stopped preaching. Brothers, that's what we're to do as well. We continue to preach until they sever our head from our body. Amen.

Amen. Kevin, thank you so much. I was very struck. You began your discourse with us tonight by citing one promise after another, some of the most thrilling, encouraging promises, bringing us back into some of the smoke and the fire that we're seeing in our churches and in our culture. But I really, really appreciated the appeal there.

So Gavin and Carlton. What are your thoughts about these attacks against the church and and how we respond? Well, I love Kevin's admonition to continue to preach. As we've walked through this year and for what we in the West here, COVID has felt kind of persecution-y to us in many ways. But the word of God goes on and I've been encouraged by many of the brothers around the country who've just continued to preach.

And when they were inhibited for some reason for preaching in their churches, they were preaching online and they were sending sermons and people were being encouraged. And so what I take away from Kevin's presentation is that the enemy is going to continue to do what the enemy does, what the devil does. He kills, he steals, he destroys, but we serve a great God and a great king who has given us an unction and a seal and given us a mandate and a mission. And plus, I just like to hear Kevin talk but I am I am absolutely fired up. Amen.

Kevin, I'm ready to preach. I love it. I love it. We're gonna we're gonna keep preaching. Yeah.

Hey, what do you what do you guys say to the Christian who's brokenhearted because their church it doesn't have the eleven things that Carlton painted out before us. They're not meeting. They're isolated. What what's your council to a Christian in that position that really they really do want to meet. They want to sing.

They want the preaching but they're restricted from it because of their government or their pastors have decided to stop meeting. I would encourage them to meet. Forsake not the assembly of yourselves together as a man or some is, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Right, we need more meeting, more preaching. I don't think it has to be in a very hugely public building.

It could be in the forest, it could be in a private home, but let's continue to meet. And I would, yeah, I think it would be hard for the individual believer. When COVID hit here, my elders, they were all of one mind, we're not stopping. We're going to continue to meet. And we did go to the woods and we met for 17 weeks in the woods.

But I tried to put myself in the shoes of a member. You know, I was in the decision-making process. What would I do in the shoes of a member if my elders took a different position? Then I tried to bring that into my own context. What if my elders, you know, if I was in a church and all my elders voted no we need to close and I was of a different mind.

And I came to the conclusion that I would say to the elders that I would take my family to the closest church that was meeting. So I tried to think through those issues for myself, hypothetically, and I suppose that would be my pastoral counsel to others. If you can get to an assembly of believers who are meeting, It may not be all that you want it to be. It may not be a church that you would settle in long time, long term, or it may be, but with Kevin, I would really encourage people to get along to a church service and gather with the saints and worship the Lord. Amen, amen.

I think that's wonderful advice. Well let's close it out. I want to ask each one of you to just give a brief word of encouragement or exhortation. We've covered the doctrine of the authority of the Church, the duties of the Church, the various attacks against the Church, and the promises toward the Church. It's been just a very rich time.

I really appreciate all that you've done, but let's just kind of go around the horn. Gavin, why don't you start? Do you have any parting words for those who are listening? I have many thoughts in preparing for what I was going to say this evening, and there is so much that could be said, you know, you can think of the love of God from eternity to the church, and a love that he set upon a people in Christ to purchase this church and we will never let her go. But one thing that came to my mind as the other men were speaking, Carlton referred to it at the beginning of his own presentation.

You mentioned it too, Scott, the church is the most glorious institution in the world. Calvin echoes Cyprian, the early church father, when he says that no man can have God as his father, I paraphrase, no man can have God as his father who will not take the church to be his mother. And when evangelicals hear that today, they imagine that that's Roman Catholic doctrine. But it's confessed in the Reform Creed, Spelgic Confession, Westminster Confession, that salvation is to be found in the visible church. Not that the church makes someone a Christian, but the church has the means of grace.

The church has the preaching of the word. This was where the Spirit of the Lord works to bless the church and newborn babes are brought to life. We began with Psalm 87, "'Glorious things are spoken of thee, thy city of God.'" Goes on to say, "'And that of Zion shall be said, this man and that man was born in her, and the Gentiles are coming into her. It's a glorious body of Christ. It's a wonderful thing.

We need a high doctrine of the church. That's essential. The second thing is picking up on what Kevin was saying. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. And I fall into the trap, and thank you brother because you challenged me this evening.

We fall into the trap of expecting an easy path and if trouble comes into our church, it's almost always start wringing our hands. I think it's unexpected. 1 Corinthians 11, expect these things. This is the way the Lord proves. Sometimes he breaks down in order to build up.

Sometimes growth comes by subtraction. And I'm not sure how if we extrapolate that out, how prepared are we for that as the church? And maybe COVID has been a little tremor and we're realizing that if real persecution were to come, where would we be? So maybe there is a realigning going on in the Church of Christ. There is a sift thing.

But ultimately no weapon that is formed against the church will prosper. I was reminded as well of Chesterton. He said that many times in history, the church appeared to have gone to the dogs and every time the dog died. So yeah, that's good to remember. And then finally, this city of God, glorious things are spoken of her.

Who is this that came out of Great Tribulation and where did they come from? And these are those that washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. In Revelation chapter 21, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride for her husband." That's where it all ends. It doesn't matter what the world does.

It doesn't matter what Satan does. It doesn't matter what the church does ultimately to destroy itself. This is where it ends. Christ wins and because he wins, we win in him. Praise the lord.

Praise the lord for that. Amen. Carlton parting shot parting shot when Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, whom do men say that I the son of man am and they said, some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets and he said unto them, but whom say ye that I am and Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

I guess I would say that the church belongs to Jesus Christ, that ultimately the rock upon which the church is built is Christ himself and his word. And the Lord has given us a promise that he is building his church. He is building his church. And so we can take comfort in the fact that once we're at the end of our own abilities and gifts and skills and money, And when it seems that we can't go any further, that our Lord is still building his church and that the very gates of hell cannot prevail against it. Much has been made that a gate is not an offensive weapon, but a defensive one.

And so the church has every right and indeed the command and calling to be on the march and on the attack because the Lord himself is building the church and he's given his church real authority to affect things here in this earth as it relates to the kingdom of Christ. So be encouraged, I guess I would say, that we don't know what's ahead of us. We don't quite know, but we had a pretty tumultuous and contested election here, looming. We have economic things looming. We have a country that seems to want to tear itself apart for ridiculous reasons.

And of course we have all the ubiquitous sin and debauchery, but our Lord is still building his church and the very gates of hell itself will not prevail against it. Isn't that good? Isn't that good? Kevin, Harding Shot. I would echo what Carlton said.

We live in the darkest days in American history, as I see it. Certainly economically, we're facing a worldwide depression. We are looking at the most serious division in this country since the Civil War. We are seeing a breakdown of morality. We are not seeing a reformation of the church, not seeing a reviving of the church.

We are in very, very difficult times. Now out here in Colorado we have what we call Preppers. I don't know if you've ever heard of these people. They are prepping for the cataclysm that is to come. I heard the story of the ultimate Prepper.

He was a man from Nebraska who bought an island in the Caribbean, or at least a piece of the island Caribbean, built himself a fortress. The mountain on the island, the volcano went off and destroyed his house. And, well, he eventually came back home. I guess the point I want to make is this. I cannot guarantee that America will survive.

I cannot guarantee that any of these empires will survive. It appears the entire western world is collapsing and is making way for a much stronger eastern economy. In fact, the eastern states now dominate the world economy. That shift occurred about five years ago. So I can't guarantee that the western economies will survive.

I can't guarantee that the United States will survive. And I can't guarantee that any individual will survive, but I do know that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ will be doing quite well. The gates of hell will not prevail against her because Jesus is for us. This is for the church. Nothing can possibly undermine the future of the church.

So my encouragement is not to be the individualist, not to peel yourself away from the church, but to run into the arc of the local church, build the covenantal community of the church, work through the 490 conflicts, forgive 490 times, love should bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things, and let's continue to build the diaconate as well for the inevitable fail of Social Security. We have a project to do. Let's dig in, start building our local churches again and forming these covenantal relationships in Jesus. Amen. Amen.

May it be so. My parting shot is Ephesians 2 19 to 22. Now therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple to the lord in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit. That's my prayer. Well, thank you.

Thank you brothers for coming and teaching us. I've really been enriched by it. Tomorrow night at 8 o'clock, We'll continue our conference. Jurisdiction is under fire. Tomorrow night, Friday night, the conclusion of the conference and we'll deal with the jurisdiction of the family.

Hope to see you there tomorrow night at 8 o'clock. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you.