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William E. Payne, founding
pastor of Trinity Baptist
If I were to be asked "What
kind of a church are you? I would not hesitate to
reply, "We are a Baptist church!" We
hold to those truths which have sometimes been
referred to as "Baptist Distinctives".
I would also reply that we are a "Reformed
Church" inasmuch as we hold to the great
doctrines of the Reformation in the areas
concerning the salvation of men. In this sense, I
am not at all averse to our church being referred
to as a "Reformed Baptist" church, and
I want to speak on the subject "What is a
Reformed Baptist Church?"
I.
The Scriptures
First of all, a Reformed Baptist Church is a
local church which acknowledges the supreme
authority of Holy Scripture. In all matters of
faith, that is in the things we believe, and of
practice, that is the things which we do, our
sole authority is the Word of God. If something,
whether of faith or of practice, is contrary to
the Bible then no matter who pleads for it, no
matter what clever arguments are produced in
favor of it, we cannot endorse it.
We recognize that in the operation of a local
church there may be items introduced for which
there may be no specific Biblical warrant. For
instance, I am thinking of a church secretary as
an illustration. It would be hard to find chapter
and verse which states that we ought to have one,
but we recognize that such things are necessary,
and in accordance with the Biblical principle
that all things should be done decently and in
order.
However, we would state emphatically that when
there is no express Biblical warrant for
something, we are not going to look upon it as
sacred and binding. When the Word of God does not
warrant something, we are not going to be brought
under bondage to it; but where the Scriptures
clearly call for something, no consideration
ought to make us do without it. We desire to have
our conscience bound to the Word of God, for
there we believe is true freedom. It is my
opinion that a number of items in present day
Baptist churches have no true Biblical warrant.
They are a part of the church because they were
introduced some years ago and are now
"Baptist tradition." Perhaps many
people take it for granted that they are
Scriptural, but if they were challenged to
produce Scriptural evidence for these practices
they would be hard pressed to find any.
In other areas there are things which Scriptures
clearly calls for which have dropped out of most
modern Baptist churches, and we ought to call for
them to be brought back. The eldership would be
an example of this point. Baptist churches used
to have an eldership years ago; in most Baptist
churches today you cannot find it. But we believe
that if we are going to be truly patterned on the
New Testament churches we need to return to the
concept of eldership. The Scriptures present it;
we ought to have it!
So Reformed Baptists are not governed by
tradition, not by the opinion of man, not by
sentiment, nor by pragmatism, but by the Word of
God alone. We believe in the authority of
Scripture, and we desire in our church life to be
patterned after and conformed to the Word of God.
We should always be seeking for God to deepen our
understanding of His Word, and we should always
be ready to reform any of our practices if it
becomes apparent that we are out of line with the
Scriptures. The attitude which says, "It
doesn't matter what the Bible says, this is the
way we have always done it," is to us
frightening; indeed sinful. It must be "to
the law and to the testimony"; or what saith
the Scriptures?
II.
Preaching
Secondly, Reformed Baptist believe in the
pre-eminence of the preaching of the Word of God.
We believe that the preaching of the Bible must
have the central place in our services. We
believe that nothing can or should take the place
of the preaching of the Word!
Our conviction is that the church of Christ has
suffered because she has downgraded the preaching
of the Word. We believe that seminaries and Bible
Colleges ought to be pre-eminently places where
preachers are produced and encouraged. We believe
that God's people everywhere ought to be
encouraged to pray that God would endow men with
gifts of preaching, and that he would give to His
churches preachers, great preachers, many
preachers. We believe that there is a need in the
churches of Christ for a fresh realization of the
importance of the preaching of the Word of God,
and that young men ought to be encouraged to
study theology, church history and the sermons of
great preachers of the past; that they ought to
work hard to become good preachers of the Bible.
III.
The Doctrines of Grace
Thirdly, Reformed Baptists unashamedly declare
their belief in those doctrines which are
sometimes called the doctrines of grace. By this
expression we mean in particular the doctrines of
total depravity, unconditional election, definite
atonement, effectual calling, and the
perseverance of the saints. We rejoice in those
glorious truths which uphold the sovereignty of
God in the salvation of men, and which so
gloriously affirm the great central reality that
salvation is all of grace, and that salvation is
of the Lord!
We rejoice that the doctrines of grace are
clearly set forth in the Second London Confession
of Faith of 1689, and in many other historic
Baptist creeds. We note that in 1861 when Charles
Spurgeon opened the great Metropolitan Tabernacle
in London, England, that he celebrated the
occasion by having sermons preached by esteemed
guests on each of those distinctive doctrines.
And yet it is not because Spurgeon, or any other
Baptist preached these doctrines that we believe
them. It is not just because these doctrines are
found in the historic Baptist creeds, though we
rejoice that that is the case, but it is because
the doctrines are so clearly presented in the
Holy Scriptures that we believe them.
We recognize that we live in an age when these
great fundamental truths are ignored, and even
blatantly denied by many professing the name
"evangelical" and the name
"Baptist". We know that they are
unpopular truths, but truth they are, and we
receive them and rejoice in them.
We would like to emphasize also that we not only
believe them but we further believe that they
ought to be clearly preached and taught from the
pulpit! We have a tragic situation today when men
in the pulpits say that they believe the
doctrines of grace but they refuse to preach and
teach them to their people.
The result is that the churches are full of
people uninstructed in the great truths of the
Scriptures (and of the historic Baptist faith),
and these people then imbibe the very opposite
doctrines -- which they easily receive over the
radio and via religious periodicals. Often when a
man comes into such a congregation and preaches
the truths of grace, uproar and opposition ensue.
This is tragic, but common. We believe that our
day needs the doctrines of grace, and that our
people need to be instructed in them.
VI.
Evangelism
In the next place, we would like to affirm that
Reformed Baptists believe in the necessity and
responsibility of evangelism. We have no more
liking for Hyper-Calvinism than we have for
Arminianism.
We do not believe that there is an inconsistency
between God's sovereignty in the salvation of His
chosen people and His command to us to preach the
gospel to every creature. If there seems to be a
difficulty in our minds reconciling any of the
truths of His Word, we see it as the result of
the darkness of our own understanding, and we
believe that our duty is to obey the Word whether
we understand it all or not. We believe in
evangelism!
Now it is true that we do not believe in much
that goes under the name of evangelism in this
twentieth century. We believe that much that is
called evangelism today is little more than
psychology and salesmanship; we are appalled by
the superficial work which goes under the name of
evangelism; we are appalled by the pressures,
gimmicks and schemes all calculated to produce
"decisions" and impressive statistics
but which work such havoc in the souls of men.
No! Because we believe in evangelism does not
mean that we are going to cooperate with every
scheme which bears that name. We believe that in
evangelism as in everything else, as we said
earlier, we must be governed by the Word of God.
The message of evangelism must be according to
the Scriptures, and the method of evangelism must
be governed by the Word of God! Nevertheless, we
repeat that we do believe in evangelism, and our
prayer is that God would ever keep us mindful of
the need to evangelize. May God ever give us a
burden to evangelize, knowing that it is for His
glory and for the salvation of men.
We believe that it is our responsibility to make
known the gospel first in our own community, and
in Canada at large, and indeed in all the world.
We believe in missions, home and foreign and we
believe that we ought to seek the souls of men in
every way that is consistent with the Word of
God.
V.
Worship
Finally,
let me say that a Reformed Baptist Church is a
local church with a serious approach to worship.
The God we worship is a God of majesty, glory and
holiness. And the God of the Bible is one before
whom the angels of heaven constantly cry,
"Holy, Holy, Holy", they worship Him
day and night; He is great and greatly to be
praised. We believe that when we come together to
worship this great and glorious God of the Bible
we ought to do so with reverence and with godly
fear. We believe that there ought to be a sense
of AWE in our hearts when we gather to worship
this God!
You say, "But surely there must be joy as
well." Yes indeed, we agree, but equally
surely it must be a joy which is a joy in God; a
joy not arising from some natural "good
feeling" but a joy arising out of the
knowledge of the Lord, and a joy tempered and
controlled by reverence.
We believe that there is a world of difference
between a "dead" service and a serious,
spiritual service. The first is not desired; the
second is. Now because of this desire for serious
worship, we believe that anything which would
detract from that ought not to be allowed among
us. Frivolity and childishness seem to us to be
out of place and incongruous with the worship of
God.
We also believe that our music in the church
ought to be governed by the great central fact of
the One whom we worship. So much of the music
invading the churches today seems little more
than carnal imitation of the world. There is very
little difference between that which is presented
on the church platform and that which is
presented on the television or the worldly floor
show -- except, of course, the
"religious" words are uttered rather
than "secular" ones. But the spirit is
of the world; the appeal is to the flesh. This we
abhor and reject as having no place in the
worship of God. That which is sacred ought not to
be prostituted and used as entertainment. If men
want to be entertained let them be hones enough
to go to some secular hall of amusement and be
entertained; let them not pretend to be
worshipping or in a service when entertainment is
the order of the day. No! When we gather to
worship, we want to keep the world out; we want
to appeal not to the flesh but to the spirit; we
want not the sophistication of the world but the
simplicity of Christ. Oh that when we worship we
might feel the awe of the God in our souls. Oh
that we might see something of the glory seen by
Isaiah and by the servants of God of old!
This, then is the kind of church we are seeking
to build. Other things could be said, but we have
sought to touch on some of the basic points.
May God raise up many such churches all over the
land and all over the world which desire the same
things and strive towards them. May God be
pleased to visit His people again with showers of
blessing that God might be glorified in and
through His church!
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