Sometimes being a Reformed Baptist can feel lonely. The Reformed guys say we are not really reformed. And the Baptist guys say we are not really Baptists! So, it leaves us on a bit of an island.
But for me, that’s okay. I don’t mind living on this island because I believe it’s the most biblical understanding of Christ’s church. This post is simply the handout for a lesson in a series I’m doing at Providence Baptist Church called What is a Reformed Baptist? This is from Week 10 on The Principle of the Church. You may listen to the message here.
The Handout
What is a Reformed Baptist?
Week 10: The Church
The Universal Church
1689 2LBCF 26.1 “The catholic—that is, universal—church may be called invisible with respect to the internal work of the Spirit and truth of grace. It consists of the full number of the elect who have been, are, or will be gathered into one under Christ her head. The church is the spouse, the body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
John Calvin: “The church is called “catholic,” or “universal,” because there could not be two or three churches unless Christ be torn asunder [cf. 1 Cor. 1:13]—which cannot happen! But all the elect are so united in Christ [cf. Eph. 1:22–23] that as they are dependent on one Head, they also grow together into one body, being joined and knit together.”
James Renihan: “Though each [local] church is independent, they form one body.”
Eph. 5:25 – Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
Dustin Benge: “Christ has eyes only for His church.”
Song of Solomon 1:15 – Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves.
Revelation 1:5-6 – “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
Exodus 19:5-6 – “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
Robert Mounce: “The early church understood itself to be true Israel and the inheritors of all the blessings promised to their spiritual predecessors.”
Romans 9:6 – But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel
Louis Berkhoff: We should not close our eyes to the patent fact that the name “Church” (Heb. qahal, rendered ekklesia in the Septuagint) is applied to Israel in the Old Testament repeatedly, Josh. 8:35; Ezra 2:65; Joel 2:16. The fact that in our translations of the Bible the Old Testament rendering of the original is “gathering,” “assembly,” or “congregation,” while the New Testament rendering of it is “Church,” may have given rise to misunderstanding on this point; but the fact remains that in the Old Testament as well as in the New the original word denotes a congregation or an assembly of the people of God, and as such serves to designate the essence of the Church.
Acts 7:37-38 – “This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ 38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.”
John Owen: “the church is the house of Christ, his family, his kingdom.”
The Local Church
Tom Hicks: “Individual local churches are the only divinely authorized institutional expressions of the universal church. A local church is a covenanted assembly of credibly professing believers. In order for a local church to exist, its people must have mutually agreed to believe and obey the Word of God together.”
1LBCF Article 33: Jesus Christ hath here on earth a spiritual kingdom, which is His Church, whom He hath purchased and redeemed to Himself as a peculiar inheritance; which Church is a company of visible saints, called and separated from the world by the word and Spirit of God, to the visible profession of faith of the gospel, being baptized into that faith, and joined to the Lord, and each other, by mutual agreement in the practical enjoyment of the ordinances commanded by Christ their head and king.
James Bannerman: “The term church is frequently employed in Scripture to denote the body of believers in any particular place, associated together in the worship of God.”
Revelation 2:5 Jesus says to the local church at Ephesus: “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”
Revelation 2:9 – “‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
Belgic Confession: We believe that we ought to discern diligently and very carefully, by the Word of God, what is the true church—for all sects in the world today claim for themselves the name of “the church.” We are not speaking here of the company of hypocrites who are mixed among the good in the church and who nonetheless are not part of it, even though they are physically there. But we are speaking of distinguishing the body and fellowship of the true church from all sects that call themselves “the church.” The true church can be recognized if it has the following marks: The church engages in the pure preaching of the gospel; it makes use of the pure administration of the sacraments as Christ instituted them; it practices church discipline for correcting faults. In short, it governs itself according to the pure Word of God, rejecting all things contrary to it and holding Jesus Christ as the only Head. By these marks one can be assured of recognizing the true church—and no one ought to be separated from it.
Marks of a True Church:
- The Right Preaching of the Gospel.
- The Right Observation of the Ordinances
- The Right Practice of Church Discipline
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