FBC Cracker Barrel, Part 4
I have tremendous appreciation and respect for our Baptist forefathers and mothers. In the context of the English Reformation, they broke away from the Church of England to forge a new, untrodden path of obeying Christ as the head of the Church. They became convinced that the models of church government and ministry in their day had strayed from the gospel. Upon reading Scripture they saw how differently the church in the book of Acts and the letters of Paul was in comparison to the churches in England and Europe.
What should they do? Many sought to purify the Church of England and were dubbed the Puritans. There were many good reforms that were made in England that distanced them away from the sacramental system of Roman Catholicism. But many still could not agree with a Church that was founded on King Henry’s abandonment of his wife. This led some to consider what exactly is the proper foundation and constituting cause of the New Testament church? They looked to Scripture for the answer.
As we explored in last week’s article, some of the first Baptists in England saw from Scripture that a church is created just like how a Christian is created. God’s Word creates God’s people. Just as how an individual man becomes a Christian by hearing God’s Word in the gospel and believing it in obedience, so also is the local church created: by the preached Word and in obedience to the Word.
Men like John Spilsbury (1593-1668) believed that the New Testament ministry of the gospel was able to be taken up again and recovered. They believed that Christ their king still ruled His Church by His Word. They believed that they held in their hands a sufficient Word that told them about God’s requirements for His people. They saw in that Word the ancient pattern of New Testament churches. They believed that they could find in that Word the guidance they needed to recover the model of primitive, ancient, true, New Testament, Christian churches. They sought to recover the Community of Truth.
Recovering the Community of Truth
In the last article, we explored John Spilsbury’s 1643 book called A Treatise Concerning the Lawfull Subjects of Baptisme. But a few years later Spilsbury wrote another book to further develop his argument entitled God’s Ordinance, The Saints Privilege (1646). It is here he makes his argument more clearly:
Obedience to God depends upon nothing but only his word that gave being to order, and the gospel-order once instituted stands firm still for all that believed enter upon it, as living matter upon the foundation, which is Christ, who calls all such as living stones to come under him, and built upon him, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, who hath made a free and open way for all that believe to come with boldness into the most holy place. And much more to enjoy all those privileges of grace inferior to the same.
And such as God so works in by his Spirit, as the understanding is enlightened in the truth, the conscience convicted by it, and the man has faith in it, as his duty to obey it, with the way open for it, and the word calling to it. Such by mutual agreement with truth, or by faith one together in truth; which gives being to an orderly practice of truth. To such Christ opens, such the Spirit guides, such God approves. The word of God commands them, and faith in them obeys, and thus by the power of truth, such as believe come to be one in Christ, with the God of truth. [9]
Follow the order of his argument: the Word of truth is preached, creating life. And just as God created all things in the universe by His powerful Word, so also He creates His people by His Word, even creating orderly churches by His Word. The Word of truth gathers them together as faith in them obeys, and they become one together in their orderly practice of the truth in Christ, who is the God of truth.
In other words, (1) the Word of truth is preached, (2) men are converted by the Word, (3) they gather together around the Word, and (4) they practice the Word together.
But what if our churches don’t look this way? How do we recover the community of truth? What steps did our Baptist fore-bearers take? The first thing they did was to come to a conviction of the truth in God’s Word. The right preaching of God’s Word in the gospel, which leads to men’s salvation, is step one to recovering the church.
Preaching of the Truth
The first step in recovering the community of truth is expository preaching. The only legitimate preaching of the Church is preaching which is rooted in the exposition of the Word of God. If preaching does not find its origin as being rooted in the Word, then it cannot be described as biblical, New Testament preaching. Expository preaching is when the point of the text becomes the point of the sermon.
The way in which a man can be sure he stands and speaks on behalf of God is through the faithful handling of a passage of Scripture. It is the job of this preacher to fulfill his vocation to which the church has called him by faithfully delivering the Word that he has heard in the Scriptures, as he himself has received it. It is not the job of the preacher to give his own opinions in the pulpit because preaching should be a faithful application of Scripture to today. The preacher should not speak ‘on’ but ‘from’ (ex), drawing from the Scriptures whatever he says. That is why it is called expositional preaching. It is an excavation of the treasures that are already there. It is an exposing of the Word to the audience.
The preacher’s job is not to invent but rather to repeat something. No doubt, there are times when a preacher wishes to say things in the pulpit that interest him or seem relevant to the times, but he should never use the Bible as a jumping point for his own thoughts. We should not come up with a sermon first and then later find a text that will suit the occasion. The Scriptures must be the captain of the moment; any other option would be disobedience to God.
A man should never approach the Bible as if he had unfettered power over the book. The text is king because it is the word from the King. Letting God speak through His Word is the most relevant word for the times. In his study, the preacher must submit to God’s Word and put to bed all the whimsical human thoughts he would like to say. As one theologian said, “Ultimately the preacher must decide whether he will allow himself to compromise or whether, in spite of all the notions at the back of his mind, he will accept the necessity of expounding the Book and nothing else.”
Maybe the reason why so many members have not been changed by the gospel is because the gospel has been distorted or even rejected by the leadership. Insofar as a church has failed to understand and preach the gospel, it has failed to be a true New Testament church.
A church will never be recovered as a community of truth until it submits to the Word of truth. The God-appointed means of guarding and entrusting this treasure of doctrine are God-approved men called pastors (1 Tim 3:1-7). You must find a church that is led by a group of men who can accurately handle the Word of God (2 Tim 2:15). If we fail here, then any other good things a church has will be accidental and not derived from the God-given means for His church to grow into maturity and spiritual health (Eph 4:11-16).
Enlightened to the Truth
The second step in recovering the community of truth is to recognize that people who are not saved cannot be part of a true church. They may be on the rolls of a church’s membership, but the status of membership in a church should really be a vote of confidence in a person’s membership in the universal Church. Another word for this is regenerate church membership. We must first be converted before we can be covenanted together. We must obey God’s Word as individuals in repentance and faith before we agree to obey God’s Word mutually as a community.
Maybe the reason why so many churches have failed to be holy is that they are filled with unregenerate members. Maybe the reason why so many members of churches are passive and unresponsive to calls for obedience is because they are still dead in their sins. Maybe the reason why so many lack a hunger for God’s Word is because they still have a distaste for it as unregenerate people.
We need men who will stand and declare God’s Word, but we also need the Spirit of God to enlighten and convict us by the Word. As Spilspury wrote, it is by the “Spirit…the understanding is enlightened in the truth, the conscience convicted by it, and the man has faith in it, as his duty to obey it, with the way open for it, and the word calling to it.” In other words, individuals who have received God’s Word and declared their belief in God and His Word will make a commitment with other Christians to obey God by His Word.
Mutual Agreement to the Truth
The third step in recovering the community of truth is to agree together on a confession of faith. A church must be bound together in their understanding of God’s Word and share a mutual agreement of the truth. Confessions of faith should not be collecting dust. What a church believes in its doctrine is a thousand times more significant than how relevant its youth program is perceived. Christians should hunger for truth, and churches should be teaching truth.
Our local churches (and even our conventions and associations) are held together either by confessionalism or pragmatism. Either we will aim at results and let convictions fall by the wayside, or we will aim at convictional integrity and leave the results to God. As Spilsbury wrote, “Such by mutual agreement with truth, or by faith one together in truth.” What makes us one together is our mutual agreement with the truth, the same truth that we were enlightened by in salvation.
Part of being a member of a church is a Christ-given responsibility to make sure that the people we’re evaluating for membership also agree with us on the most important matters. Does this couple who is seeking to join the church understand the gospel? This is part of regenerate church membership. We make sure, to the best of our ability, that they know and embrace the essential matters of Christian doctrine. Granted we can’t see their heart, but we can see the fruit of their lives and we can hear their confession of faith.
Orderly Practice of the Truth
The fourth step in recovering the community of truth is to agree together to obey the truth. We call this meaningful membership. One of the signs of true Christians is that they are those who will agree to help each other as disciples obey what God’s Word tells them to do, which would include rightly practicing baptism as the New Testament says it should be practiced and rightly practicing the Lord’s Supper as the New Testament says it should be practiced. We’ll spend time in future articles discussing each one of these steps.
Here is what our church’s Members Covenant says:
Having been led by the Spirit of God to trust in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation, having been baptized upon our profession of faith, and being in agreement with the church’s doctrine and practices, we covenant before the Lord together with the other members of First Baptist Church, Lindale, Texas to pursue holiness through personal and family spiritual disciplines and through the following corporate expectations:
We will WORSHIP
…by gathering faithfully unless providentially hindered (Hebrews 10:25)
…by growing as Word-centered worshippers (John 4:21-26)
…by preparing for worship (Isaiah 29:13 and Matthew 22:37)
…by celebrating the Lord’s Supper faithfully (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)
We will FELLOWSHIP
…by acting in love and seeking reconciliation with one another (1 John 4:11-12 and Matthew 18:15-17)
…by promoting unity and striving for peace in the church (Ephesians 4:3 and 2 Corinthians 12:20)
…by developing authentic, accountable relationships with God’s people (Acts 2:42)
…by watching over, encouraging, and praying for one another (Colossians 4:2-3, 1 Thessalonians 5:11, and Hebrews 12:12-17)
We will SERVE
…by cultivating a servant’s heart (Philippians 2:4-8)
…by developing our spiritual gifts to build the body (Ephesians 4:15-16)
…by looking for and meeting the needs of others (Acts 2:44-45)
…by giving our time, talents, and material possessions (Romans 12:1)
We will IMPACT
…by living godly lives (Matthew 5:16 and Philippians 2:14-15)
…by guarding and sharing the gospel (1 Peter 3:15 and 2 Timothy 1:14)
…by supporting and participating in missions and outreach (Matthew 28:19-20)
…by leveraging our opportunities wisely with unbelievers (Colossians 4:5)
We commit to this congregation holding us accountable, and if we should leave this fellowship, we will unite with another church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God’s Word.
Learn more about First Baptist Church Lindale, Texas
Conclusion
As we continue in our commitments as local churches to the pure preaching of the Word of God in the gospel and to the right administration of the ordinances, we should press on to better understand and celebrate the nature of the church.
We will explore this, and more, in the next article - Why church membership?
Explore the previous articles: