The Faithfulness of God: 200th Anniversary of Leominster First Baptist April 28, 2024

First Baptist Church Leominster

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Well, good morning, folks.

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Good to see you this morning. I'm Pastor Lars Larson. We greet you in the name of God, our

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Father, and His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a special day for us.

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If you happen to be visiting with us today for the first time, we welcome you and would ask if you would take a moment and fill out a visitor card for us.

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If you'll put that completed in the offering plate later in the service, we'll send you some information about our church.

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This, again, is a unique day because today we are commemorating, celebrating the 200th anniversary of this church.

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1824, this church was begun, 200 years.

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We've got some special things going on during our service. We're going to be baptizing two young men here shortly, and so several different people are going to be leading up here, and we trust everything will go smoothly, but everything kind of whacked up out of order.

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Trust it will all go, it'll all go well, but we're glad that you're able to be with us. Let me run through some more announcements.

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Let's turn off our cell phones, please, so we're not interrupted during our worship service.

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A reminder about our prayer meeting on Wednesday evening at six o 'clock. Some of us meet downstairs in my office.

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Most, however, call in via conference call. There's information in the bulletin about that. Six o 'clock

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Wednesday evening, we would welcome you to join with us. We have

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Bible studies throughout the week. Ladies study tomorrow evening here at church and Wednesday morning via conference call.

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Did I get that right? Okay, and then men's studies tomorrow evening at 7,

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Wednesday morning at 830. Men's group 730 on Saturdays at John Bolger's this

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Wednesday morning, okay, at 830. All right, so we have activities throughout the week.

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We invite your participation. Well, let's see. We have an anniversary banquet coming up, and that's

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May 11th on the Saturday evening, and the planners need to have reservations in today.

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Mine's sitting at home on my desk, I believe, but today, today is the deadline for that anniversary banquet, and so let that, let

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Artie know what your intentions are, please, and nursery workers are still needed.

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See, Laura, if ladies you could assist, it would work out maybe every four or six weeks, maybe more, and it would be helpful.

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The nursery actually is in effect right before the sermon, and so the nursery worker is able to stay in the service until that point.

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We've had our bios in the bulletin the last two weeks of the new members that are joining with us, and they, those bios are posted on the bulletin board today, and also the warrant for our meeting.

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We have a, again, a busy morning after the church is over today.

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We'll break for five minutes, but then the church members, we would ask if you would stay here, and we have a short business meeting to vote in new members, and so that is today, and a reminder, we have, of course, weekly a lunch provided after service, and so we would invite you to stay with us.

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Join us downstairs in the fellowship hall for that meal. It's a good time to get to know one another.

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What else? Today's anniversary bulletin is enhanced somewhat, and so there's some information about our church's history included in that bulletin, and there's also a keepsake bookmark and tribute to past members of our church.

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200 years. I'm just about completing 26 years, and so time passes on.

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Let's see, before we begin this morning, our formal worship, before we have the invocation, we're going to have

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Dale Wheeler come forward, and he is going to rehearse to us a historical address that was given on the, what, 50th, was it the 50th anniversary back in 1874?

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So Dale's going to come up and read that, and then after he's done, we'll begin our worship service formally.

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Thank you, Dale. Good morning.

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When we were, we decided we wanted to read something historical on our anniversary service,

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I looked through several of the histories that we had, and over the course of the church, a lot of histories have been written about our church, but this one struck me.

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This was given by Pastor A .F. Mason, and he gave this at a anniversary celebration on December 30th, 1874, and we have the actual text of his remarks, which

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I'm going to read to you. You know, 19th century language, you have to roll with it a little bit.

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I've tried to cut out some of the redundancies, and so bear with me. Just to give you a little context, so we kind of keep it straight, he starts out in the opening paragraph talking about the

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Unitarian Church, and you'll see why when we get into it, but he's talking about, you know, an address that was given at the

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Unitarian Church, so keep that in mind. Whatever progress

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Baptist sentiments have been, may have been made in Leominster previous to the present century, that would be the 19th century, neither record nor oral tradition has handed it down.

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Reverend Dr. Stebbins, in his Centennial Discourse to the Unitarian Church in Leominster says, as early as the ministry of Mr.

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Bascom, a former pastor at the Unitarian Church, in 1817, there were in church records some intimation of the existence of Baptist views in that church.

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So even back then, the Baptists were infiltrating the Unitarians. At a meeting of that church in 1817, one brother named

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Samuel Crocker was excused from connection on the grounds of his conscientious scruples regarding infant baptism, an account of which he had connected himself with another body of Christians in town, the

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Baptists. That speaker related the story of that brother,

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Samuel Crocker's conversion to Baptist views, when he received scriptural baptism at the hands of Elder Elisha Sampson in 1817.

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And when the Fitchburg Baptist Church was organized in 1830, Mr. Crocker was chosen a deacon of that church and held that position until 1856.

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In November 1818, Reverend John Walker, who was then the pastor of the church in Holden, visited

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Leominster and baptized in the Nashua River three converts, one of whom was

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Mrs. Comfort Crocker, the wife of Samuel Crocker, who was afterwards a deacon, and the father of Samuel S.

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Crocker, who was a present deacon in the 1800s.

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The following year, Elder Walker baptized seven more converts, there being an extraordinary religious zeal.

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Those ten converts, and all in this town who embraced Baptist principles, united with the

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Holden Church, retaining membership there till 1822. Imagine that horse ride to Holden every

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Sunday. In 1822, when 65 other people were dismissed from the

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Holden Church to form a Baptist church in Princeton, okay, cutting the mileage down on the horse, the history of the

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Leominster Church properly dates from the formation of the Princeton Church, 52 years ago in that those days.

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For the record of the Princeton Church shows that immediately upon its organization, the members living in Leominster were constituted a

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Baptist Church with the privilege of sustaining the ministry of the gospel among themselves. For 15 years, the branch existed as first constituted, exercising all the functions of an independent church, a part of the time having regularly settled pastors, a part of the time depending on temporary supplies.

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When neither of these could be obtained, Deacon Crocker, Samuel Crocker, came back and served as the interim pastor.

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In April of 1824, in virtue of a warrant that was previously issued for the purpose,

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David Allen, Jonah Rice, Oliver Haskell, Peter Wilder, William Parker, Samuel Crocker, Thomas Wilder, Tyler Coolidge, Joseph Smith, and Thomas Warner met at the building owned by widow

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Eunice Richardson, which is where the post office currently is, where they previously had worship.

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So before even they organized, they had been meeting there and worshiping. Thomas Wilder was chosen clerk of the parish,

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Peter Wilder the moderator, and Oliver Haskell and David Allen assessors, William Parker the treasurer, and Tyler Coolidge the collector.

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The first pastor of this branch was Reverend Elisha Andrews, who was one of the fathers of the

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Baptist churches in the Worcester Association. He was installed up as the pastor of Temple, the church in Templeton in 1800, where he remained for 13 years.

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Through his labors, the church in Holden was started in 1807. In 1809, he preached for part of the time in West Boylston, and from 1827 to 1832, he was back in Templeton as their pastor again.

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In 1826, Asaph Merriam was chosen as our pastor at a salary of $4 per week.

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In 1824 to 1830, the church worshipped in a room previously used by John Richardson as a tailor shop.

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So that was where the church met. The church was supplied in addition to the two above by Reverend John Walker, Nicholas Branch, Elysis McGregory, and John Walker, the guy who came up and baptized those people in the

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Nashua River. He served as an interim pastor. He was born in Holden, and he was baptized by Elisha Andrews.

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The first meeting house of the society was built in 1831 at a cost of $834 and a land given by Calvin Jocelyn, and it served its purpose till 1842.

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That building now being used as a carpenter shop and a stable. That building still exists, by the way, and we are getting access to it.

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The present house of worship, in other words the building was here before this one, was erected in 1851.

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In May of 37, members of the branch, as they were still called, met after the close of the

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Sabbath services to deliberate on the expediency of becoming a distinct church. They chose a committee to visit the parent church in Princeton, examine their records, and ascertain whether they were actually a branch thereof.

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This measure being adopted on a suspicion that the main body in Princeton had not kept a fair record. A favorable report being made by this committee, a council was called, which met in June of 1837, to constitute this branch as a distinct and independent church.

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Delegates being present from Holden, Princeton, Townsend, Groton, and Harvard. Twenty -eight persons constituted the church when it was first formed there.

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A large part who have entered into rest, five as of this writing, Moses Richardson and Henry Perry and Sisters Evelyn Perry, Brenda Smith, and Susan Farnsworth were still alive.

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So imagine being able to talk to those people who were there when it was founded. Pastor Mason, this was a part of a much longer history, but he ended it with these words, thus we are brought to the close of the first 50 years of this church in Lemonster.

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We have mentioned a few names taken from the roll call of the dead, and a few from the roll of the living, and what more shall we say for time would fail us to tell of the holy men and women whose names are familiar to you, and of all those among them who use their office of deacon well, who through faith have subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, and these all having entailed a good report through faith, compass as a cloud of witnesses whose beckoning forms invite us to run with patience, the race was set before us.

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So those are the words of a Pastor Mason who was pastor back in 1874. Well, we'll go to our

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Lord in prayer and ask his blessing upon our worship service at this time. I might just interject this one more announcement.

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Next Lord's Day, we're going to begin a class on the book of Hebrews in Sunday school downstairs, and so at 9 a .m.

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next Sunday, if any of you would like to participate in that, we would welcome you.

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Well, let's pray. Our God, we're mindful of your great grace and mercy to us as a church, the

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Church of Jesus Christ, our God. We're attempting to serve you faithfully in the world in which you've placed us, our

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God. All these past folks who showed forth their faithfulness and devotion to you have long since passed, and here we are today, our

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God. We pray that you would help us, equip us, our God, empower us to be true and faithful to you as a church, declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ, our

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God, to our world, and we thank you, our God, for this occasion, for this privilege, this opportunity, and responsibility we have to gather together in the name of your

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Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you, Father, for receiving us in your presence.

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May you bless our efforts to worship you in spirit and in truth. Help each of us, our

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God. Glorify yourself to us and through us, and we pray, our God, for anyone here that may be a stranger to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, that you'd be very merciful and gracious to that soul today.

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Open the eyes of their understanding, our God, to see the glory of yourself and of salvation through your

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Son, Jesus, in whose name we do pray. Amen. All right, so Dale is going to help in leading the first two hymns.

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In between, we have our baptism of two young men, Joseph Weir and Matthew Nunn, and so if you'll turn to page 92 in your red hymnal, a familiar hymn,

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A Mighty Fortress is Our God. Amen.

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Please be seated. Baptism is one of two ordinances the

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Lord Jesus has given to his church. Baptism, of course, and then the Lord's Supper. Baptism is a command of the

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Great Commission. Jesus said, all authority is given me in heaven and earth. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Baptism is a beautiful portrayal, both of the death, burial, resurrection of the

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Lord Jesus, but also the passing of old life into new life for the

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Christian. And so as these two men are lowered into the water, they are signifying their faith in Jesus Christ and his death and his burial, and as they're raised out of the water, they are proclaiming their reliance, their trust, and their commitment to the risen

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Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, as Lord of their lives. They are also confessing that their former life without Christ is gone, it's over, they're dead to it.

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And now they are rising to new life in Jesus Christ. Baptism doesn't save anybody, but it is a testimony, it's a declaration, it's a confession of one's faith in Christ as Lord and Savior.

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And the Lord Jesus promised his people, those who confess me before men, I will confess him before my

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Father in heaven, referring to the day of judgment. And so it's our privilege, our joy, to baptize these two young men.

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And the first one is Matthew Nunn. Matthew's only been coming to church for a couple months now, and he heard the gospel, he was attending class, coming to service, and the

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Lord dealt with him, convicted him of his sin, his need for Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

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Matthew, is it your is it your resolve to trust the Lord Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

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Yes. And your purpose to live for him as his disciple? Yes. Among us as a church? Well then it's our privilege and joy,

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Matthew, to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There we go.

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Joey is one of these privileged young men who grew up in a Christian home. We watched him grow up from infancy, and he'd never known a time when he hasn't believed in what he had been taught, and yet he's standing here confessing

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Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Joey, God bless you for your confession of Jesus Christ your

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Lord and Savior, and your purpose to live for him as his disciple among us, his church. God bless you.

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It's our privilege and joy to baptize you, our brother, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the

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Holy Spirit. Let's pray for these young men.

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Thank you, Father, for these young men that have come forward to confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and resolve to live for you.

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Our God, this world needs more young men committed to Christ. Help them, our

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God. Help us as a church to encourage them and instruct them in the way they should go. We pray you preserve them and protect them in the faith, our

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God. Bless them, our God. Help them to be a wonderful, faithful witness for Jesus Christ throughout their lives.

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We pray these things, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Our next hymn will be

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Great is Thy Faithfulness, number 32 in the Red Hymnal. Please stand.

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Please be seated.

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Responsive reading this morning is Psalm 19. This is on page 790 in your

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Red Hymn books. Psalm 19.

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I do the regular text. You do the bold. The heavens declare the glory of God.

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The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day to day they pour forth speech.

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Night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.

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In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run its course.

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The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The precepts of the

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Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The fear of the

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Lord is pure, enduring forever. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold.

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By them is your servant warned. In keeping them there is great reward. Keep your servant also from willful sins.

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May they not rule over me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight,

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O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Well, prayer concerns.

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Number 676. Alan wishes he could be here leading singing, but it falls on us.

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And so stand up and sing out if you would. With each passing moment, strength

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I find to meet my trials here. Trusting in my

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Father's wise bestowment, I've no cause for worry or for fear.

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He whose heart is kind beyond all measure, gives unto each day what he deems best.

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Lovingly he is part of pain and pleasure, wringling toil with peace and rest.

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Every day the Lord himself is near me, with a special mercy for each hour.

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All my cares he faint would bear and cheer me, he whose name is counselor and power.

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The protection of his child and treasure is a charge that on himself he lay.

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As your days your strength shall be in measure, this the pledge to me he made.

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Help me then in every tribulation, still to trust your promises,

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O Lord, that I lose not faith's reconciliation offered me within your holy word.

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Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting, e 'er to take us from our

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Father's hand. One by one, the days, the moments fleeting, till I reach the promised land.

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Amen. Let's be seated and at this time we'll take up our morning offering. It's a part of our worship and if you're a visitor you filled out that card.

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If you put that in the offering plate, that's all we ask of you and we'll send you some information about our church.

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And let's see the choir has us as a special at this time. Amen. God bless you.

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And in my season by season,

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I watched him amazed in all of the mystery of his perfect ways.

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All I have need of, his hand will grow, he's always been faithful to me.

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A trial or pain, he did not recycle to bring me gain.

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I can't remember one single regret in serving

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God only and trusting his hand.

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All I have need of, his hand will provide, he's always been faithful to me.

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Great is thy faithfulness, O God my

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Father, there is no shadow of turning with thee.

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Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not, as thou hast been, thou forever will be.

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Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness, morning by morning new mercies

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I see. All I have need of, thy hand hath provided, great is thy faithfulness,

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Lord unto me. This is my anthem, this is my song, the theme of the stories

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I've heard for so long. God has been faithful, he will be again, his loving compassion, it knows no end.

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All I have need of, his hand will provide, he's always been faithful to me.

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He's always been faithful, he's always been faithful, he's always been faithful to me.

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He's been faithful to me. the

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Well, let's be seated, please.

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I think because of the time, we'll forego this, this next hymn. and we'll have Pastor Jason come and read for us.

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And he's going to read Lamentations Chapter 3, verses 1 through 27.

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Lamentations, which follows immediately after Jeremiah, of course. Lamentations Chapter 3, 1 through 27, and this is the passage it will be given attention to here shortly because it speaks about the faithfulness of God, and of course, that's what our intention is, our desire to glorify

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God today for his faithfulness to us over these last 200 years. Pastor Jason, please.

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Lamentations 3, I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

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He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not in light. Surely he has turned his hand against me time and time again throughout the day.

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He has aged my flesh and my skin and broken my bones. He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and woe.

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He has set me in dark places like the dead of long ago. He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out.

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He has made my chain heavy. Even when I cry and shout, he shuts out my prayer.

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He has blocked my ways with hewn stone. He has made my paths crooked.

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He has bent to me a bear lying in wait like a lion in ambush. He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces.

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He has made me desolate. He has bent his bow and set me up as a target for the arrow.

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He has caused the arrows of his quiver to pierce my loins. I have become the ridicule of all my people.

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They're taunting song all the day. He has filled me with bitterness. He has made me drink wormwood.

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He has also broken my teeth with gravel and covered me with ashes. You have moved my soul far from peace.

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I have forgotten prosperity. And I said, my strength and my hope have perished from the

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Lord. Remember my affliction and roaming, the wormwood and the gall.

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My soul still remembers and sinks within. This I recall to my mind.

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Therefore, I have hope. Through the Lord's mercies, we are not consumed because his compassions fail not.

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They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul.

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Therefore, I hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him.

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To the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the

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Lord. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. Let's pray.

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Our Heavenly Father, you are so very, very good. And you are so very, very faithful, even when we are faithless.

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And Lord, we rejoice and exalt in who you are, in what you've done.

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And Lord, we pray that as we continue to worship you through the preaching of the sermon, we pray,

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Lord, that we would be attentive to what your word says. We pray that you would teach us, help us to understand this truth, help us to apply this truth, and help us to glory in who you are.

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Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, we are pausing today from our study of the

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Gospel of Luke to express our gratefulness to our God for his kindness to us, this

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Church of Jesus Christ. And so today, we commemorate our 200th anniversary, the founding of this church,

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First Baptist Church of Leominster. The preserving and sustaining mercy of grace of God has been evident through the history of this church.

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And we will attempt to emphasize our Lord's kindness this morning in two ways. First, we'll provide an overview of history of Baptist churches in New England, attempting to provide an historical context in which our church has existed and emerged to what it is today.

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And then, secondly, we'll consider the record of God's dealings with his people in the Old Testament passage that we just read,

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Lamentations chapter 3, verses 1 through 27, in which we will draw out several attributes of our

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God who has brought us through history to where we are today. And so, let us begin by reading just a few words that were already read for us, but I want to reiterate these.

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Lamentations 3, 22 through 27, through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed because his compassions fail not.

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They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore

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I hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

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It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.

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Let's consider then first, again, two parts this morning, let's consider first our church within the historical context of Baptist churches in these northeastern

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United States. It's quite remarkable that our church, especially as a

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Baptist church, with a reformed confession and convictions, exists and experiences

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God's blessing in this corner of our nation at this time in history. It is not that common, frankly.

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It's clear that this church is not held to the convictions which characterize us today in comparison with those held espoused by this church throughout much of its 200 -year history.

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Churches, of course, may experience periods of growth or diminishment in numbers, phases of strengthening of biblical convictions, but sadly, they may experience times of weakening, deficiency and departures in their message and faithfulness from the truths of the word of God.

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Our Lord's letters to the churches of Asia Minor in Revelation 2 and 3 certainly testify to this, that this is true throughout any stage of history.

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But thank God that he also visits his people with his mercy and grace, restoring and sustaining them to his favor and blessing.

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And thankfully, the Lord at times grants seasons of renewal when he blots out the sins of his people so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the

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Lord, as Luke wrote in Acts chapter 3. And thankfully, he has done so in the history of this church.

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Now, I'm not well -informed of many specific details of the history of our church, but it's quite clear that our church has not always been as true and faithful to the

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Lord as it could have been and should have been through periods of the last 200 years.

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And perhaps the best evidence for some of our assorted history, if I can use that term spiritually speaking, may be assumed from our church's long affiliation and involvement with the

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Northern Baptist denomination. Since this church was an active participant within that denomination throughout most of the 19th century, really from its beginning, 1824, and all of the 20th century, until we separated from that denomination in 2001 to become an independent

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Baptist church, some conclusions can be drawn reasonably regarding this church's faith and practice through consideration of the history of the denomination.

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And so let's consider first the Northern Baptist in the early 19th century. The Northern Baptist churches of the early 19th century were evangelical and mission -minded, and for the most part, reformed, by the way, in their theology and practice, that is.

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From the 18th century onwards, Baptist churches practiced an independence and autonomy of the local church.

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Each church is independent from others, although they may band together in associations. Baptist churches of the 18th century were both

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Calvinistic and Arminian, as well. I won't go into detail to explain that right now, but for the most part, they were

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Calvinistic. They seemed to be predominant, which is reflected in the confessions of faith that the church has espoused during those early years.

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Baptist churches had adopted confessions of faith, documents that summarize or set forth their belief as to what the scriptures taught regarding God, the

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Holy Trinity, how God would have us believe, what he would have us believe, and how he would have us live for him in this world.

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And so, in that day, the most popular confession was called the Philadelphia Confession of Faith.

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It was really known as the Baptist Confession in these 13 colonies. It was really a restatement of the

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Second London Confession of 1689, the confession that this church advocates today.

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The New Hampshire Baptist Confession of 1833 was a milder Calvinistic confession that was formulated in order to refute and correct the growing

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Arminianism among Baptist churches here in the New England region, and New Hampshire was the regional, all of New England region of Baptist churches at that time.

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And so, adherence to a confession helped keep historical continuity and commitment to essential doctrines and practices through those early periods of Baptist history in the northern

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United States. Baptist churches had grown in number and influence through the 18th century.

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Isaac Backes, who pastored over here in Middleborough, who actually was born and raised in Connecticut, he was converted under George Whitefield's ministry during the

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Great Awakening, the 1740s. And he became a leading Baptist pastor and church planter, having founded over 50

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Reformed Baptist churches throughout much of southern New England, so much so that by 1790, there were 35

01:05:30

Baptist associations, groups of churches, approximately 560 ministers, 750 churches, and 60 ,000 members in Baptist churches in the

01:05:41

U .S. And the Baptist churches joined together in their promotion and support of missions, both domestic and foreign.

01:05:49

It was the English Baptist, William Carey, who had great influence on the founding of Baptist foreign missions.

01:05:57

His work in India inspired and moved American Baptists to missionary efforts. There was, out of a

01:06:04

Christian group of students at Williams College out here in western Massachusetts, became famous for the

01:06:11

Haystack Prayer Meeting of 1808, which resulted in great missionary enthusiasm among the students of that college.

01:06:20

And indeed, that Haystack Prayer Meeting was a contributing factor to the organization of foreign missionary societies.

01:06:27

For out of such a revivalistic atmosphere came Adoniram Judson, a very well -known missionary, and Luther Reitz, whose conversion from congregational to Baptistic principles prompted the

01:06:40

Baptist to undertake a national missionary organization just six years later.

01:06:47

Adoniram Judson set sail from New England for India to become a missionary in 1812.

01:06:53

Eventually serving in Burma for many years. Luther Reitz, who had originally sailed with Judson, returned from India to New England, and he raised support for foreign missions among Baptist churches.

01:07:08

And in 1814, Luther Reitz was instrumental in forming the General Missionary Convention of the

01:07:14

Baptist Denomination of the United States of America for foreign missions. They had long titles back then, long names.

01:07:21

But this came to be known as the Triennial Convention. And really, the Triennial Convention was the one

01:07:28

Baptist denomination of all Baptist churches, both in the North and the South at that time.

01:07:35

Also formed in those early years was the Home Mission Society, established in New York City in 1832 to promote evangelism and planting of Baptist churches in the

01:07:46

American West, the American frontier. And so its mission was declared to preach the gospel, establish churches, give support and ministry to the unchurched and the destitute.

01:07:57

And it had a great missionary effort to Native Americans, to Indians out

01:08:02

West as well. The Triennial Convention had no stated position on slavery until 1844.

01:08:13

This allowed both abolitionists as well as slave promoters to participate in the one large

01:08:19

Baptist denomination from both the Northern and Southern states. But in 1843, the abolitionists in the

01:08:28

North, to their credit, founded the Northern Baptist Mission Society, which opposed slavery.

01:08:38

In the following year, to their credit, the Home Mission Society refused to ordain a man from Georgia as a missionary because he was a slaveholder.

01:08:47

And in May of 1845, in Augusta, Georgia, the slavery supporters of the South broke with the

01:08:53

Triennial Convention and founded the Southern Baptist Convention. The Triennial Baptists were thereafter concentrated in the

01:09:02

Northern states. You had Northern Baptists and Southern Baptists. The abolitionists in the

01:09:08

North became the sole inheritors of the Triennial Convention or of the Baptist denomination of the

01:09:14

Northern states. Now, Northern Baptists were in some ways different from Southern Baptists in that Northern Baptists were supporters of higher education, much more so than the

01:09:25

Baptists in the South. In contrast to the earlier Great Awakening, the great revival of 1740s, it was characterized by great emotionalism and conviction of sin under Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield.

01:09:39

It came to pass what was known as the Second Great Awakening that began around 1795 and continued to 1840.

01:09:47

One once compared and contrasted these two revivals, the Great Awakening and the Second Great Awakening.

01:09:54

One of the chief differences between this period of revivals and the Great Awakening, apart from its longer duration, was its general character.

01:10:02

Almost universally, the scattered sparks of revival fire were fanned into flame by prayer.

01:10:08

Prayer is what characterized the Second Great Awakening. Education and sophistication were the principal forces which tended to restrain the emotional element in religious experience.

01:10:21

The Baptist emphasis on education is evident by the multiplication of schools established by 1900.

01:10:28

There are dozens and dozens of Baptist colleges and universities. But it's in the arena of higher education, so called that the

01:10:38

Northern Baptists began to depart from the faith and practice that they had earlier universally espoused.

01:10:45

Because of the principle of soul liberty, the autonomous nature of the local churches,

01:10:51

Christian pastors and their churches that embraced modern views of science and history eventually dominated the growing number of churches among Northern Baptists.

01:11:01

Through the middle and latter decades of the 19th century, the teachings of Darwinian evolution, the newly conceived geological ages, the higher criticism of the scriptures which had denial of the supernatural, the miraculous, became predominant beliefs that shaped the character and quality of the

01:11:19

Baptist churches in the North. The belief and conviction of inspiration and inerrancy of the scriptures were questioned and abandoned entirely.

01:11:28

They didn't believe the Bible was the word of God. The miracles recorded in the Bible were rationalized as embellished natural events.

01:11:37

The virgin birth of Christ was denied as was his resurrection and the teaching of his second coming.

01:11:43

He's not coming back a second time, these liberal Northern Baptist churches taught.

01:11:49

Other essential beliefs were either de -emphasized or disregarded entirely. There was a turning away of evangelism, diminishment of teaching regarding original and personal sin.

01:12:00

The need for personal conversion waned and in its place arose an emphasis on societal causes for the ills of society.

01:12:10

And so the conversion of adults was becoming increasingly rare. There was an emphasis on the social gospel.

01:12:17

It became the predominant concern which addressed issues of poverty and alcoholism and community disintegration as really the means of recovery and restoring society.

01:12:28

There were evangelicals and evangelical churches present here and there but the denomination was increasingly dominated by modernists.

01:12:38

It was in the early 20th century that these differences grew to the point of being divisive.

01:12:45

The Northern Baptist Convention was founded and formally founded in Washington, D .C. on May 17th, 1907.

01:12:53

Charles Van Hughes, the governor of New York was its first president. He later became the chief justice of the

01:13:01

U .S. Supreme Court. The purpose of the Northern Baptist Convention was to foster cooperation among the disparate

01:13:07

Baptist churches and ministries that existed. In 1911, most of the churches of the

01:13:13

Armenian denomination, the Free Will Baptist General Conference merged with the

01:13:19

Northern Baptist which further resulted in deterioration of doctrinal distinctives and clarity of the gospel message.

01:13:27

And then in 1920, the more conservative Baptist churches and their leaders formed the Fundamentalist Federation.

01:13:33

Now, these were Baptist churches that were evangelical in the Northern Baptist Convention. They produced a seven -point statement of their belief drawn from the

01:13:42

Philadelphia, earlier Philadelphia, New Hampshire confessions. And so this group sought to reform and restore the

01:13:48

Baptist denomination to its historic and reformed convictions. The Federation drafted proposed a confession of faith to be adopted by the churches of the denomination.

01:13:59

But the liberals declared to do so would violate historic Baptist principles of soul liberty.

01:14:05

And so it was in 1922 at their annual convention that the liberal preacher

01:14:13

Harry Emerson Fosdick preached one of the most controversial sermons of the 20th century.

01:14:18

His message was entitled, Shall the Fundamentalist Win? It resulted in a national firestorm.

01:14:28

The result of the controversy was that the Northern Baptist Convention rejected all forms of required confession of faith by churches.

01:14:38

And so here's a description of that gathering. Residing over the gathering this year was

01:14:43

Rochester's Helen Barrett Montgomery, a Wellesley graduate, social reformer and Greek scholar.

01:14:49

She would in 1924 translate the whole New Testament, the first American woman known to do so.

01:14:55

And Montgomery was the first female president of any American Protestant denomination. She acknowledged in her opening address the tension in the room over a confession of faith and stressed that the

01:15:06

Northern Baptist Convention had no authority to enforce a confession if it were adopted. For us

01:15:12

Baptists to have an official confession of faith would come seriously near to abandoning one of our fundamental principles, she declared.

01:15:21

Like many modernist Baptists, Montgomery viewed confessionalism as a contradiction of Baptist principles.

01:15:28

She was wrong because the early Baptist churches were all confessional, Philadelphia Confession, New Hampshire Confession and others.

01:15:37

Well, after the proposal to adopt a denomination -wide confession of faith was made at this convention, the liberal

01:15:44

Baptist pastor, Cornelius Wolfkin, pastor of John D. Rockefeller, he was a Baptist, opulent

01:15:50

Park Avenue Baptist Church in New York City proposed a substitute motion in place of a confession of faith.

01:15:58

He said that the Northern Baptist Convention affirmed the New Testament is the all -sufficient ground of faith and practice and that we need no other.

01:16:08

That was a declaration or a proposal that was adopted by the

01:16:13

Northern Baptist Convention. The motion won the day. It was a rejection of any and all statements of faith in 1922.

01:16:22

And it was upon this and after this that this denomination seriously defected and departed from the historic faith and practice that had characterized

01:16:31

Baptists since the 17th century. From then on until today, the denomination has become increasingly aberrant and apostate.

01:16:39

The Northern Baptist churches have been characterized by sinful compromise and great doctrinal error.

01:16:46

In 1950, the Northern Baptist Convention changed its name to American Baptist Convention. And then in 1972, the name was changed to its present

01:16:54

American Baptist Churches USA, ABC USA. It was after the abandonment and rejection of sound statements of faith or doctrinal confession of faith and practice, the denomination slid on that slippery slope into error and abandonment of truth.

01:17:11

It's one thing to claim that the Bible is the sole source for truth, but it's absolutely essential to declare what that truth is, what that source of truth the

01:17:20

Bible teaches, and what God would have us believe and practice. As the denomination departed from biblical truth, evangelical

01:17:28

Baptist churches began to depart from the denomination in large numbers. The General Association of Regular Baptists, the

01:17:35

GRB, I was converted in one of those out in California. It was formed in 1932 coming out of the

01:17:42

Northern Baptist Convention. And then in 1947, the Conservative Baptist Association came out of the

01:17:49

Northern Baptist denomination. And through the 20th century, most of the churches of the

01:17:54

ABC USA became increasingly apostate. And so, so -called Baptist churches have merged with liberal congregational churches, federated churches, and even joining

01:18:06

Unitarian congregations which deny the biblical teaching of our triune

01:18:11

God. They deny the Trinity, and yet they claim to be Baptists. Their seminaries confer decrees upon Unitarian ministers who've practiced and promoted

01:18:21

Wiccan paganism. That was going on at Andover Newton Baptist Seminary.

01:18:27

The ABC USA promotes homosexual membership and leadership in their churches. They endorse and perform homosexual marriages.

01:18:35

They excuse and promote sin of the most egregious nature. They've long since departed from the biblical gospel.

01:18:42

They're no longer churches of Jesus Christ, in my opinion. The Lord has removed their lampstand from his presence,

01:18:49

Revelation 2 .5. Well, it's from this historical context that the Lord has recovered and restored our church.

01:18:57

There have been some efforts through the years by a few pastors to teach the scriptures, but this church for the most part followed the course that its denomination had set before it.

01:19:07

Is it any wonder that when the Lord providentially moved this church to call Ken Doerr as its pastor in 1987, he thought there were perhaps only three true

01:19:16

Christians in this church. He told me that. But the Lord was faithful to his promise to bless the teaching and preaching of his word, and because of his faithfulness to bestow mercy upon those who repented their sin before him and believing upon Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the

01:19:34

Lord has restored his name and presence to this church, and he's made it into a place in which currently dwells, he dwells in power along with many souls he's called to himself through the gospel.

01:19:49

Great is his faithfulness. This church came out of that denomination, of course, in 2001, and it was then that the

01:20:01

Lord really began to bless his gospel and we began to see people converted on a more wide scale, and he has blessed wonderfully since then.

01:20:11

That's the history of our church in association with the denomination. God is merciful and God is gracious to us.

01:20:21

Now let's turn our attention to the Old Testament passage of Lamentations Chapter 3 and address the subject,

01:20:28

Lord, great is your faithfulness. The committee that's planned the events of this year's anniversary celebration asked if we would preach this morning upon this text which includes the affirmation that God great is your faithfulness.

01:20:44

So we'll do so. We purpose to explain the historic and literary context in which these words of Lamentations 3 are proclaimed.

01:20:53

So here again are verses 22 to 27, and notice there's two strokes, two stanzas here.

01:21:01

Through the Lord's mercies we're not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning.

01:21:08

Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion says my soul, therefore I hope in him.

01:21:14

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the

01:21:22

Lord. It's good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. First a few words about the historical context when

01:21:30

Jeremiah wrote these words of Lamentations 3. Lamentations was written by the prophet

01:21:38

Jeremiah at the end of his public ministry that encompassed over 40 years. Jeremiah began to serve in the days of King Josiah Judah which was a glorious period of renewal and revival.

01:21:52

Josiah had reigned from 640 until his untimely death in 609 B .C. And afterward under the leadership of his sons, however, there was significant decline and departure of Judah from God.

01:22:06

Jeremiah had foretold Jerusalem's destruction, the destruction of the temple and the exile of his people to Babylon.

01:22:14

And Jeremiah continued to proclaim God's word during the reigns of the remaining kings of Judah and through the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, he was a firsthand witness and watched it decline, deteriorate, and ultimately be destroyed under the judgment of God.

01:22:30

There were three deportations of Jews by the Babylonians back to Babylon. He witnessed all three deportations who had survived the siege but were taken captive by Babylon.

01:22:43

Jeremiah was in great distress and grief while viewing the ruins of his city and the misery of his people.

01:22:49

He saw it all, he saw it coming and then he saw it happen. In the opening words of Lamentations, one expressed his distress.

01:22:59

How lonely sits the city that was full of people. How like a widow is she who was great among the nations, the princess among the provinces has become a slave.

01:23:11

She weeps bitterly in the night, her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers, she has none to comfort her.

01:23:17

All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. They've become her enemies. Judah has gone into captivity.

01:23:24

Under affliction and hard servitude, she dwells among the nations, Babylon. She finds no rest and all her persecutors overtake her in dire straits.

01:23:35

And so it was in the deepest of sadness and near despair that Jeremiah penned the words of this prophecy of Lamentations.

01:23:44

Whereas his prophecy in the book of Jeremiah foretold the fall of Jerusalem, Lamentations expresses the pain of the event itself, as one rightly said.

01:23:55

Let's just stand back a little bit and say a few words about the literary nature and major themes of Lamentations as an entire book, five chapters.

01:24:07

The book of Lamentations is a very sophisticated and beautiful literary document. This can be seen in considering the book contains five separate but related laments, a lament is an expression of sorrow, of sadness.

01:24:24

The poetic rhythm of the meter of the lines and the acrostic nature of its organization all suggest that it's quite literary, it's sophisticated in quite a literary way.

01:24:38

First, let's recognize that the book of Lamentations contains five chapters, which are five individual laments expressed by its author.

01:24:47

Poetic laments in scripture here and in the Psalms have some common characteristics. First, there's a complaint about adversity, which the

01:24:55

Lord either tolerated or caused, we saw that, in Lamentations 1, verses 1 through 3.

01:25:01

Secondly, there's a confession of trust in a lament. Third, an appeal for deliverance on the grounds of the

01:25:07

Lord's character and covenant. And fourth, certainty of a hearing, often with assurance that the enemies and persecutors will in turn expel them.

01:25:16

And fifth, the Lord will not experience the wrath of God. God will be merciful and he will render justice.

01:25:21

And these four qualities may be seen clearly in Lamentations. Secondly, the literary nature of this book may also be seen in the poetic meter of the lines of the verses.

01:25:34

Whereas in English poetry, there's often a quality of rhyme among lines, in Hebrew poetry, the poetry is evident through its cadence of meter of each line or each verse.

01:25:47

That is, there's a repetition pattern of the number of syllables in each line of the Hebrew text.

01:25:54

As one described it, the clearest evidence for meter in Hebrew poetry is the book of Lamentations, which seems to use a line of five beats divided three -two.

01:26:05

My Hebrew professor in seminary was from China, and so I was really messed up in my pronunciation of Hebrew.

01:26:12

But he would make us, when we read, emphasize both the minor and the major accents.

01:26:18

So he had us reading Hebrew like a cantor. And so I'm somewhat familiar with the meter that they're talking about.

01:26:26

And there was a particular pattern of meter that was true of laments. And it conveyed the idea of sadness and even despair.

01:26:36

And so the clearest evidence of meter in Hebrew poetry is the book of Lamentations, which seems to use a line of five beats divided three -two.

01:26:45

This meter is called kinah. After the Hebrew name for lament, it is most often found in poetry of this sorrowful kind.

01:26:53

There is sophistication in Jeremiah's authorship. When considering the structure of the five separate but related laments of Lamentations, one may notice that the first two chapters, chapters one and two, and the last two chapters, four and five, have 22 verses of text each.

01:27:13

However, the verses that are here in chapter three are 66 in number, three times the number in chapter one, two, four, and five.

01:27:26

And the verses are set forth as an acrostic. That is, in each verse of chapters one and two, and four and five, each verse begins with one of the 22 letters of the

01:27:37

Hebrew alphabet in order. In this third chapter, three verses each begin with one of the 22

01:27:44

Hebrew letters, which together account for all 66 verses. And so of this writing being employed as an acrostic, it may be said, this method may indicate that the poet is giving a complete treatment of the subject matter.

01:27:58

The acrostic also provides a form for the literary expression of grief, allowing the writer to impose a kind of order on the chaos that such a terrible tragedy brings.

01:28:08

I bring all this up to just to emphasize the literary sophistication of the writers of the

01:28:15

Old Testament scriptures. These were brilliant men, granted inspired by God, but they were intelligent, reasoned, literary men, and it certainly is reflected through Jeremiah's pen as he penned this book of Lamentations.

01:28:30

When we consider six verses that we have read from Lamentations 3, we may see that verses 22, 23, and 24 begin with the eighth

01:28:39

Hebrew letter, ches, and the next three verses, 25 and 26 and 27, each begin with the ninth letter of the

01:28:47

Hebrew alphabet, tes. And we may see by these literary characteristics the depth and sophistication of Jeremiah's writing of these five chapters of Lamentations.

01:28:58

It's an incredible book, a book of poetry. Now, let's consider the message of Lamentations 3.

01:29:06

When we read the first three verses of Chapter 3, they reveal that the author himself is speaking.

01:29:12

This is first person singular. I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

01:29:18

He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not in light. Surely he has turned his hand against me time and time again throughout the day.

01:29:28

The author is speaking. Jeremiah is writing. However, although Jeremiah is alone speaking, he's writing his sorrow on behalf of all the surviving people of Judah.

01:29:39

They're in Jerusalem, of which he is just one. As one wrote, in this poem, an individual expresses the grief of his community.

01:29:48

He expressed that he had witnessed the darkness of the Lord's judgment upon his people and upon his blessed city,

01:29:54

Jerusalem. God's hand had been against him over a prolonged time as he expressed the wrath of God poured out upon him by the

01:30:01

Babylonians, the instrument of God, even described here as the rod of his wrath.

01:30:07

God was in control. And in the following verses of Lamentations 3,

01:30:13

Jeremiah used a number of metaphors to describe the severity of God's judgment upon him. This was

01:30:18

God that judged his people. He has aged my flesh and skin and broken my bones.

01:30:24

God has hedged me in so that I cannot get out. He's made my chain heavy. He has been to me a bear, lying in wait like a lion in ambush.

01:30:34

So although it was the Babylonian armies that had afflicted and destroyed his land, Jeremiah saw

01:30:40

God himself as the one who had come against him. This happened to him. Even though he had been

01:30:45

God's faithful prophet to his people, we read God has bent his bow and set me up as a target for the arrow.

01:30:54

He's caused the arrows of his quiver to pierce my loins. I've become the ridicule of all my people.

01:31:00

They're taunting song all the day. He's filled me with bitterness. He has made me drink wormwood.

01:31:06

The man is sorrowing in his difficulty. But what is the specific message of Lamentations 3, 22 through 27, which seems to be a rather positive expression of faith on the part of the prophet?

01:31:20

Well, beginning with verse 22, we arrive at the near center of this poem of Lamentations 3, and really it's the central message of the entire book of Lamentations.

01:31:31

There's a turning point in Jeremiah's thinking that is expressed first with a word regarding the mercies of God, and then by an expression of faith and hope that God would bring restoration to him and his people.

01:31:44

And so in verses 22 through 24, with each verse beginning with a Hebrew letter, the writer expresses his knowledge and assurance it was only due to the mercies of God that any of his people, including himself, had survived.

01:32:01

Jeremiah wrote, through the Lord's mercies were not consumed because his compassions fail not.

01:32:07

They're new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, and therefore

01:32:13

I hope in him. The Hebrew word translated in English as mercies is the often employed

01:32:20

Hebrew word of the Old Testament, chesed. This word conveys the thought of God's covenant love.

01:32:28

The ESV translates this word slightly differently. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

01:32:35

His mercies never come to an end. And so whereas the ESV rightly conveys the faithful, loving action of the

01:32:42

Lord toward his people by the word steadfast love, the New King James Version rightly shows the plural number of the word.

01:32:50

The noun is plural, the mercies, which suggest many acts of God's love having been shown to his people even while his judgment was upon them.

01:33:00

Jeremiah wrote that the Lord's mercies are not consumed because his compassions fail not. God is sovereign in his determination on whom he will have mercy and on whom he will have compassion when they are in their sin.

01:33:14

When Paul was setting forth his reasoning for the sovereign grace of God in electing some sinners onto salvation and passing by all others, he wrote these words to respond to a possible objector to God's sovereignty and salvation.

01:33:29

What should we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God when he chooses some but not others? Is there unrighteousness with God?

01:33:36

Certainly not, for he, God says to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whomever

01:33:43

I will have compassion. So then it's not of him who wills, you don't have salvation because you willed it, nor of him who runs, not because of anything you did, do, could do, want to do, but of God who shows mercy.

01:34:00

For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I raise you up that I may show my power in you and that my name may be declared in all the earth and therefore

01:34:09

God, he has mercy on whom he wills and whom he wills he hardens. In the eternal covenant that the three persons of the

01:34:18

Holy Trinity had entered with one another before creation, the father had elected those that he purposed to save from their sin out of fallen humanity.

01:34:27

He gifted those chosen ones to his son to redeem them unto himself. And even when the elect were lost in their sin and under the wrath of God due to their sin,

01:34:38

God had compassion upon his chosen people even as they, as he intended and purposed to save them from their sin.

01:34:47

He preserved his elect even while they were in their lost rebellious and sinful state because he purposed to redeem them to himself through Jesus Christ.

01:34:56

And so the compassion of God for his people that Jeremiah described as his compassion's fail not must speak of the everlasting love that God had for his people.

01:35:06

Even when they were in their sin and under his wrath, God had compassion for them and desired and purposed to save them.

01:35:14

And if you're a Christian today, even before you became a Christian and you were steeped in rebellion and sin and defiance of God and unbelief,

01:35:23

God had compassion upon you and purposed to show mercy upon you. And so there was a time when he called you to salvation because of his everlasting love for you.

01:35:33

And there was nothing lovely about you. There was nothing that he saw ahead of time in you that moved him to love you.

01:35:40

It was sovereign grace from first to last. Matthew Henry wrote of this, these streams followed up to the fountain.

01:35:47

It is the Lord's mercies. Here are mercies in the plural number denoted the abundance and variety of those mercies.

01:35:55

God is an inexhaustible fountain of mercy, the father of mercies. No, we all owe it to the sparing mercy of God that we're not consumed.

01:36:05

Others have been consumed round about us and we ourselves have been in the consuming and yet we are not consumed.

01:36:11

We are out of the grave. We are out of hell. Had we been dealt with according to our sins, we should have been consumed long ago.

01:36:19

But we've been dealt with according to God's mercies and we're bound to acknowledge it to his praise.

01:36:25

And then he went on to write that even in the depth of their affliction, they still have experience of the tenderness of the divine pity and the truth of the divine promise.

01:36:34

They had several times complained that God had not pitied, but here they correct themselves and own that God's compassions fail not.

01:36:43

They do not really fail. No, not even when in anger he seems to have shut up his tender mercies.

01:36:48

These rivers of mercy run fully and constantly but never run dry. No, they're new every morning.

01:36:55

Every morning we have fresh instances of God's compassion towards us. He visits us with them every morning.

01:37:01

Every morning does he bring his judgment to light when our comforts fail, yet God's compassions do not.

01:37:08

His compassions never fail. And then Jeremiah made this glorious declaration in verse 23 and it's expressed to God.

01:37:16

Notice, great is your faithfulness. The reason that Jeremiah and the small remnant of Jews with him had been spared and saved through the great calamity of God's judgment upon Jerusalem and Judah was due to the faithfulness of God to his covenantal promises.

01:37:33

The faithfulness of God speaks of the immutability, the unchangeableness of God, which is an aspect of God's goodness.

01:37:41

The psalmist wrote of this glorious attribute of God. Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, of the heavens of the work of your hands.

01:37:48

They will perish, but you will endure. That's because God doesn't change. Yes, they will all grow old like a garment, like a cloak.

01:37:57

You will change them and they will be changed, but you are the same and your years will have no end.

01:38:03

The children of your servants will continue and their descendants will be established before you. God is true to his word of promise.

01:38:10

What he committed to do in his covenant with his people in Christ, he will never withdraw or fail to bring to pass.

01:38:17

Great is thy faithfulness. Of God's immutability, which means his unchangeableness, assures us of God's promises because he changes not.

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As the classic writer Stephen Charnock wrote of the attributes of God, thou art the same.

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The essence of God with all the perfections of his nature pronounced the same without any variation from eternity to eternity so that the text doth not only assert the eternal duration of God, but his immutability in that duration.

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His eternity is signified in that expression, thou shalt endure. His immutability is this, thou art the same.

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To endure argues indeed this immutability as well as eternity, for what endures is not changed and what is changed does not endure, but thou art the same.

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He could not be the same if he could be changed into any other thing than what he is. The psalmist therefore puts, not thou has been or shall be, but thou art the same without any alteration.

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Thou art the same, that is the same God, the same in essence and nature, the same in will and purpose.

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Thou doth change all other things as thou pleavest, but thou art immutable in every respect and receive no shadow of change, though never so light and small.

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And then Jeremiah closed this triad of verses 22 through 24 with these words, the

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Lord is my portion says my soul and therefore I hope in him. Because God had declared his covenant that he would show regard and favor to his people,

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Jeremiah, even as he sat amid a ruined city with a destroyed temple and with abandoned streets because of the exile,

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Jeremiah had reason for hope. And so he gave forth these same words of encouragement to those that were in his hearing.

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We read in verses 25 through 27, the Lord is good to those who wait for him.

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Think of the audience to whom he's addressing these words in their misery, perhaps starving, in ragged clothes, their homes destroyed, the temple completely abandoned and destroyed, to the soul who seeks him.

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It's good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It's good for a man to bear the yoke and his youth.

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And so it's our privilege and even duty to enter, to center our hope on God who's promised his favor to rest upon us in Jesus Christ.

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He did not disregard or destroy us even when we were living in disregard and defiance of him.

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And so we must take our comfort in him alone and in what he has promised to us through his son, our

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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If I could just throw one additional lesson into this, do not assess

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God and your relation to him based upon what you see happening to you. Can you imagine if Jeremiah had done that?

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No, we are to see our relationship with God based solely upon Jesus Christ, who he is and what he's done and what he's promised to do.

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Several lessons of this regarding our church and our Lord's gracious dealings with us and then we'll close.

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After considering the history of the Baptist denomination of which this church was a part through its entire existence until 2001 when we severed our formal ties with it, we can assert several truths that the

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Lord has confirmed to us. First, there is great value and importance for a church to hold a clearly stated biblically -based confession of faith.

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Our Baptist confession of faith of 1689 is not an infallible document, nor is it an authoritative document except to the degree it accurately sets forth the truth of the

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Holy Scriptures. The Bible is the only objective source for spiritual truth that God has given us in this world.

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All else is subjective and flawed, but it's great error to assume that as the

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Northern Baptists have done to this day that confessing the Bible to be the inspired word of God alone is all that's required for cooperation and fellowship between churches.

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The Bible, God's word, teaches us the substance of God's truth, what we're to believe and how we're to live before him.

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And therefore, it's not just the Bible itself but what the Bible teaches that is to be the basis of fellowship and cooperation of churches with one another.

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Paul declared it was a truth and content of the gospel that was to be the basis of cooperation and fellowship with other churches.

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He wrote, even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we preach to you, let him be accursed.

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You can't have fellowship with those who teach another gospel. And as we've said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you've received, let him be accursed.

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A confession of faith is a tool employed in the life of a church. How is a church confession of faith to be used?

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Charles Spurgeon wrote these words. He actually recovered the Baptist Confession of 1689 and applied it to his church and he prefaced that confession with these words.

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This little volume is not issued as an authoritative rule or code of faith whereby you're to be fettered but as an assistance to you in controversy, a confirmation in faith, and a means of edification and righteousness.

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Here the younger members of our church will have a body of divinity and small compass and by means of scriptural proofs will be ready to give an account for the hope that is in them.

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Be not ashamed of your faith. Remember it's the ancient gospel of martyrs, confessors, reformers, and saints, and above all, it's the truth of God against which the gates of hell cannot prevail.

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Let your lives adorn your faith. Let your example adorn your creed. Above all, live in Christ Jesus and walk in him, giving credence to no teaching but that which is manifestly approved of him, owned by the

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Holy Spirit, cleave fast to the word of God which is here that is in the confession mapped out for you.

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There is great value and importance of a confession of faith. And when the ABC USA abandoned confessions of faith, they went off the deep end.

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And to ruin. Secondly, the word of God sets forth the spiritual principle of separation from evil in order to experience the blessing of God.

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Throughout the scriptures, God commands and expects his people to separate themselves from evil people and influences that would lead them to compromise or defect from him and the truth of his word.

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He commanded Abram to get away from his family, his homeland, after which God would reveal himself to Abram.

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The Israelites were to separate themselves from the Canaanites, lest their faith and practice be corrupted.

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God had instructed kings not to marry foreign women, for they would turn the heart of the king from the Lord. And in the

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New Testament, Christians are warned to avoid corrupting influences in people. Paul wrote, do not be deceived.

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Evil company corrupts good habits. You're going to become like those you run with. God will withhold his blessing and refuse to bestow his grace on people who refuse to depart from evil.

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Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness?

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None. And what communion has light with darkness? None. And what accord or accordance has

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Christ with Belial, with the devil? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols?

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You're the temple of the living God. As God said, I'll dwell among them. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the

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Lord. Do not touch what is unclean. And then we have the promise of God, if they obey that, and I will receive you, and I will be a father to you, and you should be my sons and daughters, says the

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Lord Almighty. Our Lord, our church had failed and refused to separate from an apostate denomination in which many of their churches and ministry denied the essentials of the

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Christian faith. This church was guilty of its sinful tolerance and refusal to stand true and strong for the gospel and for other essentials of the word of God.

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Separating ourselves from that communion of churches put us in a place in which we could receive God's richest blessings.

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And I would argue that that's really when it began to take place, when we did so. And lastly, and we conclude with this, certainly the blessing of God upon us is not due to any credit or any righteousness on our part.

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The blessing of God that he's bestowed upon this church after having separated from its former corrupt denomination was solely due to the mercies of God's sovereign, unchangeable grace.

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It was his doing that brought this church out of its former state and restored it to a place of his favor and blessing.

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It is because he had set his love upon this people, so he purposed to deliver them from that which was defiling and damning, bringing his people under the authority and blessing of hearing and doing his word.

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Each of us can say of ourselves, and we can say of our church, through the Lord's mercies we're not consumed because his compassions fail not.

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They're new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, and therefore

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I hope in him. Amen? Amen. Well, normally

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Alan comes up here, but it's left to us. Let's turn to 599, please, and sing this concluding hymn.