A Glorious Dive into the Past (part 1)
The Glory of A True Church– The Order of the Church
Introduction
Hundreds of years ago, Benjamin Keach faced profound resistance and took real risk to show the Scripture’s teaching on the church. Baptist doctrines were not widely known and were not received kindly by the powers that be. The Episcopal Church imprisoned and mistreated Keach throughout his life.
Keach aimed to instruct normal believers in a biblical understanding of the church in “The Glory of a True Church” which he wrote in 1697.
Today, many Baptists are so free they forget what the Scripture says about the church. I intend to share Keach’s work in pieces in the coming weeks as an encouragement and reminder. Keach was willing to suffer for a biblical understanding of the church and we should be glad to hold it in times of peace.
Before there can be any orderly discipline among a Christian assembly, they must be orderly and regularly constituted into a church-state: according to the institution of Christ in the gospel.
A True Church Defined
A church of Christ is a congregation of godly Christians, who as a stated assembly (being first baptized upon the profession of faith) do by mutual agreement and consent give themselves up to the Lord, and one to another, according to the will of God; and do ordinarily meet together in one place, for the public service and worship of God; among whom the word of God and sacraments are duly administered, according to Christ's institution.1
The Beauty of a True Church
The beauty and glory of which congregation does consist in their being all converted persons, or lively stones; being by the Holy Spirit united to Jesus Christ, the precious corner-stone and only foundation of every Christian, as well as of every particular congregation, and of the whole catholic church.2
Acts 2:41-44, Acts 8:14, Acts 19:4-6, Eph. 1:1-2, 2:12-13, 19, Col. 1:2-4, 12, 1 Pet. 2:5, Acts 5:13-14, Rom. 6:17, Heb. 6:1-2.
Rom. 6:3-5, 1 Pet. 2:4-6, Eph. 2:20-21, Col. 2:19.