Competency and Church Purity

Well, it certainly is my delight to be here, to be able to be with you today, Rob. Thank you for the invitation, Jeff. Thank you for organizing this meeting. When God's people get together to discuss things that they have in common, particularly when we are interested in growth and grace, purity of heart, purity of worship, more sincere obedience to the Word of God, and we come together to try to hear something from the Word of God relative to that, it's always a great time of fellowship and certainly beneficial to all of us. And I thank you for letting me participate in that. It's always a blessing to be with Mark Dever in anything. I've appreciated his ministry and his friendship through the years. We go back a long time in talking and discussing with each other about many of the issues that we are going to be dealing with today. And I have appreciated God's using him in such a powerful way. When Rob first talked to me about this, he suggested a topic to me, and I was... scratched my head a little bit, and was a little bit hesitant, but I wanted to... I was a man under authority, and I wanted to try to do what he said, and the more I've thought about this topic, the more I've engaged with it, the more I'm happy that this is something that is really a relevant idea. He said that he wanted me to address the issue of soul competence. Now, I'm not sure exactly what he had in mind when he asked that. It might have been that he wanted me to deal with the caricature of soul competence that is quite often dealt with in Baptist life and how that is set forth as a foundation for individualistic libertarianism, for absolute freedom from any kind of authority and any kind of doctrine. and that the only thing that is valid in our own walk with God is our personal ideas and our personal experiences. That is an interpretation that is emplaced upon Mullin's doctrine of soul competence. The thing that I'm happy to discover and to report to you is that that is not what Mullin's meant by it. The group that has interpreted Mullin's concept in that way has misinterpreted Mullins. In fact, I think we can probably say they have absolutely no historic Baptist foundation for the assertions they make. Now, it may be true that Mullins, in some other areas, developed methodologies, omitted certain discussions in theology that bore their fruit in a destruction of historic Baptist commitments in theology and biblical authority and confessions. But it is not true that his doctrine of soul competence was an effort on his part to move away from historic Baptist theology. Now, I want us to look first of all at texts of scripture that I'll be referring to and hopefully give a true representation of as I preach. And then after that, I want to look at the particular address in which Mullins introduced his idea of soul competence. In fact, he introduced his idea of soul competence at a meeting of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society, November the 14th, 1906, 99 years ago. So it is appropriate that here in Virginia we're talking about the doctrine of soul competence in the month of November before a group of Virginia Baptists. Hopefully we can set some things right and be edified in the process. First of all, let's look at the book of Ephesians chapter 4 beginning with verse 17. So this I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart. And they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that in reference to your former manner of life you lay aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit." and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth." Then in the book of Colossians, in chapter 3, beginning with verse 5, Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience. And in them you also once walked when you were living in them. But now you also put them all aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self, who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him, a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man. But Christ is all. in all. Let's look at one other passage of Scripture, please. Would you turn with me to 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. Begin with verse 5. Do you not remember that while I was still with you I was telling you these things? And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will slay with a breath at his mouth, and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming. That is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason, God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. But we should always give thanks to you, to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. It was for this He called you through our gospel that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us." These passages of Scripture treat all sinners not only as deceived by the lust of the flesh, not only as under the dominion of one who is the great deceiver, Satan, but they treat all sinners as fully responsible for every action, every thought, every word, every deed, every action. They see them as justly judged by God. and see them as made in God's image but living within a state in which that image is perverted to purposes that are hostile to God's holiness. These passages also see every person when they are saved as in a state of being restored to the image of God. And this state of restoration is one in which there is an operation together of truth so that the understanding is affected, so that the affections are changed, so that the will and the purpose of the individual becomes more and more aligned with the will and purpose of God. And it has as its goal the full restoration of the moral image of God, that is, that we have true knowledge, true righteousness, true holiness, we walk in the truth. Now, in all of these, whether we are lost and in bondage to sin, or whether we are saved and have the firstfruits of the Spirit and are being sanctified and stand in a state of justification, no matter what our condition, God treats us as morally responsible beings, and He acts upon us as those who will give an account to Him. No one else will give an account for you. Your mother will not. Your father will not. Your children will not. Your church will not. Every man will give an account of himself. So God treats us not as stocks or stones. Not as people unable to perceive what is right. Not as people without a capacity to love the truth if our affections were not so perverted. He treats us, if you'll allow me to use this word, as people who are competent to come before him and be held accountable for all of our actions. No one else can answer. The Pope will not answer for us. The president of the convention will not answer. The church will not answer. Each of us will give an answer to God himself. And so when we are converted, we are converted in a way that makes us, in ourselves, responsive to the truth of God. It makes us love the truth of God. And He fits us for fellowship with Him in heaven. He changes us so that we delight in the chief preoccupation of heaven, or we might say occupation of heaven, and that is to enjoy the love that is expressed within the triune God. We will love to see God loved. In our fallen condition, we do not love to see God loved. In our fallen condition, we love ourselves. But he fits us. And he is the only one who can fit us for such an occupation of being in the place where our chief delight and our joy and the thing that will occupy us in eternity and that can never be exhausted is to enjoy a place in which God's glory is loved. And so when I'm speaking about soul competence in church purity, which is the title of this message, I'm not going to speak of soul competence in a negative sense. I'm going to affirm with Mullins that soul competence is a valid doctrine and it is peculiarly one that Baptists historically brought to its proper expression. The perversion of it in the twentieth century should not make us lose sight of the fact that there is something within this doctrine that is peculiarly appropriate for the fact that we will be fitted by the truth through moral transformation to live in the presence of God eternally. And that if we are not fitted by that moral transformation, then we will suffer eternally in a way in which we recognize without any doubt that we ourselves are responsible Four, our condition and God is utterly just. Though we hate that justice, He is absolutely and utterly just in inflicting upon us just such punishment. We will have no doubt that we had all capacities within ourselves to respond to the gospel had we not hated God's holiness. Now, when Mullins was at the Virginia Baptist Historical Society in 1906, he discussed what he thought was the Baptist contribution, the significant Baptist contribution to evangelical thought. He considered several things related to Sola Scriptura, and he said, Baptists believe that, but that's not our contribution. He talked about faith alone. He says we believe that, but that is not our contribution. He talked about being saved by grace alone. He says we believe that, but that is not our contribution. Those are things that we share in common with other Protestants. It is not believing in the triune God and the deity of Christ. We believe that, but that is something we share in common with all who profess to be Christians. But there is a group of doctrines, he said, that are more typically Baptist. He says the Baptist held a view of Christianity which no other held. and they are, in some respects, still alone in their position. This will lead us to our answer to the question as to the historical significance of the Baptists. What, then, is the Baptist conception of Christianity? Is it best expressed by Luther's great discovery of the doctrine of justification by faith? It is this, but more. Is it the doctrine of the right of the private interpretation of Scripture? Yes, but more. All depends on what you find when you interpret. Is it soul freedom? Yes, but more. For the free soul may grope in darkness in its quest for truth. And the question of freedom is what a man will do with his freedom. You see, he was not just advocating that if you just use your freedom anyway, that means you're a Baptist. Freedom does not imply capacity for self-government. Is it individualism? Yes, and more. A man is more than an individual, he is a social being and must live and work in a social order. Is it the separation of church and state? Yes, and more. For the separation of church and state may involve tyranny in the church and tyranny in the state. There is a larger and better statement of the Baptist position. It is inclusive of all of the above and more. It is this, the competency of the soul in religion. This, of course, means under God. It is the assertion of the sublime truth that man is capable of himself to work out his destiny under the tutelage of God alone. Now notice his emphasis. He's not saying that man as an autonomous being could save himself. But what he is affirming is that the only being that has the right and that has the power to instruct the human soul is God himself. And so we must, as it were, be open to God for this divine transaction. As an individual and as a social being, man is competent in this sense. Later he says, now this doctrine of the competence of the soul unto God, in religion assumes that man is made in God's image. That's why I read those passages earlier. And he has capacity for God, can respond to God's appeal. It does not assume that man can save himself alone, but only that God can communicate with the human soul and the soul with God. Now that's what Mullins meant by soul competence. So soul competence is a state of moral responsibility before God as a result of our creation in His image. It's simple manifestation occurs when one is persuaded that he follows a path of truth in his personal actions. Every person who conducts himself that way is engaging in what we call the competency of the human soul. He may be wrong but he is engaging in actions that he considers at that moment to be most pleasing and most beneficial for those things that he values. This persuasion must always involve sufficient cognitive commitment, buoyed by a moral predisposition to act according to the cognition. When the soul is under the power of sinful corruptions, we treat the information we receive in a manner consistent with our moral propensities. Accordingly, we suppress the truth in unrighteousness, therefore worthy of punishment, and we can shift blame to no other individual, no man nor God. The soul, by the same token, can be made the object of the divine operation of grace so that its devotion and affections are made alive to the glory and goodness of God. the soul can be affected in such a way by no earthly power, only God has the power and the prerogative for such an operation. When he persuades the soul to embrace saving truth in the only saving person, Jesus Christ, He does it in a way thoroughly consistent with the nature of moral action, with the nature of the human soul, with the nature of our being made in God's image. That is, he operates internally to establish the motivational texture that will give rise to a love of the truth. And so, those who are lost, they refuse to receive a love of the truth. Those who are saved, believe Scripture, repent of sin, have faith in Christ, seek to be conformed to Christ because there's been a work of God on the soul to make them love the truth. This is Mullin's doctrine of soul competence and this is the biblical doctrine of soul competence. The Baptist view of the church is that it should be composed only of those who give evidence that such a transformation has indeed taken place. This transformation consists of the deep persuasion of the understanding and the affections concerning the claims of the gospel. But that is not the only qualification, but that is the initial qualification and is the singularly effective qualification. Covenantal commitment and baptism. In Baptist life followed this change of soul. If you were to read through this treatise by Mullins, you would see that he is interested in developing the doctrine of soul competency in three different areas. Though there are some areas in which Mullins thought, I believe, has eroded Baptist identity, I don't think that the misinterpretation of this area has helped, but the proper interpretation of it, I think, can be seen to bolster our understanding of Baptist life. Now one of the things that we find in this treatise, and I think we find in these texts, is that freeing that soul competency, Mullins was interested in freeing the church from the impurity of an improper nationalism. Freeing the church from the impurity of an improper nationalism. Hear what Mullins says about this. By their persistence, speaking of the Baptists in Virginia, by their persistence, by means of petition, remonstrance, appeal, agitation, and holy resolution, they gave the Virginia legislature no rest until the established church was overthrown. Later, in enunciating a general principle on the relative spheres of this worldly politics in relation to the concerns of religion, Mullins asserts, the state has no religious function. It is safe to trust man with his God in all religious affairs. The historical fabric in which the Baptist protest took place was described accurately and dramatically by Mullins. He says, again, nearly two thousand years of history had left men's minds fettered with an opposite view. For nearly one thousand years there had been a union of church and state, and a struggle went on for supremacy. In the eleventh century the church triumphed, and her spirit became incarnated in the great Pope Gregory VII. The exalted personality of the great Pope Gregory thus towered above his generation and succeeding ages like a malign spirit. His spell was not broken by Luther or Calvin or Knox or Wesley in the fullest sense of the word." And then he goes on to say that when Baptists argued for the fullest expanse of liberty of conscience, he summarized the fear of the opposition by observing, it was thought that this would be to deliver Christianity over to the infidels outright. to give all men liberty of conscience. So one of his concerns was that the church be allowed to be the church and that the church's concerns be with spiritual reality, be with the eternal kingdom, be with the city of God, be with those principles that conform us to Christ and not be with those things that primarily concern the city of man, which is constantly changing and constantly corrupting. I think that if we Take seriously this issue of soul competence as it relates to the church and these passages of scripture as we see them describe what God does in the human heart. We will affirm that we must not seek to transfer to the state the tasks of the church. Now it is one thing for us to argue legitimately for what we think are constitutional rights and as citizens we should do that. But we must not think that the state has any competence at all to do that which the church should do. In fact, we should fear those who seek to place upon the state the obligation of teaching what the church claims as its own prerogative to teach. For example, prayer. Now, how wonderful would it be for us to have a generic prayer in public school to have as a talisman over all the people so that there will be an aura of religiosity about the public school? Won't that please God? If we just pray generically, Oh God, bless this day and help us not to cheat and help us to respect our teachers and help us to be kind to each other. Amen. Now, that's what the church is after, isn't it? That's the kind of prayer that we want. That's what prayer is all about. Well, I think that we would think that kind of prayer, as far as what we teach is concerned, pleases God, not one bit. We want to pray in our closets, in the most fervent way, with no one but God knowing what we pray. We want to come to God saying, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. We want to pray in the name of Jesus with the realization that we have absolutely no right to come before the throne of God in any other name. He is the one who has given us entrée before the throne of grace. It is only because of His atoning work that we can even approach God as Father. It is because of His death that He has sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. And to think that the state can write a prayer or that a prayer said at the beginning of a day in public school is that which we should be concerned about as genuine prayer is completely an absurdity. It is opposed to the biblical doctrine of prayer. It is opposed to what the Bible itself says about prayer. It creates hypocrisy. It creates superstition. And it is imposing upon the minds and hearts of people who have no heart for God a religious activity for which they are not competent, and God has not made them competent. The Baptist understanding of the individual standing before God is consistent with these passages of Scripture, and that prayer is a matter in which we come to God as sinners. in the name of Christ. Without seeking to fulfill our lusts. Praying for things that are to the glory of God with the full knowledge of who God is and what he requires of us. The state cannot stop us from praying. If it does not have a prayer, if it does not say you can't bow your head and have a moment of silence, Christian students still can pray all day. And no one can stop it, and they can pray in the most effective and in the most spiritual and in the most effectual way, for their friends are passing in the hall, for their own purity, for their faithfulness to the Word of God as it has been taught. Nothing can stop genuine prayer. We should also not want the state to teach us what the law is like. Now, there may be some advantage, and it may be constitutionally acceptable to post the Ten Commandments in school. I have no concern in arguing that at all. If I'm convinced that it is constitutional as a citizen, I would seek to uphold the right of people to do that. But for the church to think that that is something that is a part of that which we have been mandated to do by Christ is absolutely false. What is the use of the law in Scripture? The use of the law is as a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. It is not to create a Pharisaical sense of righteousness, so that if people quote the Ten Commandments, they think that they are righteous before God. That is precisely what Paul did before his conversion. That's what the rich young ruler was doing before his conversion. That is what the Pharisees were doing. They were about to establish a righteousness of their own because they did not understand the purpose of the law. And we have no business trying to create an impression in people's minds that the purpose of the law simply is to plaster a kind of ineffectual morality over them and not lead them to Christ. We want to if we're serious about the law, then we need to preach law and gospel in our churches. If we're serious about the law, we need to see it as a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. If we're serious about the law, we need to see it as something that explains to us a substitutionary atonement and explains to us what sanctification is and that explains to us what justification is. If we're serious about the law, then we'll be serious about biblical doctrine. And that is the part the law plays in the concerns of the church. It is opposed to the Baptist's understanding of the responsibility of the individual before God and what God has set forth by divine revelation to bring the soul humbly in repentance before Him to think that the law is simply some sort of a generic moral code. It does have its civil use, and the law written on the heart can be prompted by many things, and we all want stability in society. But the Church's concern is that the law be preached in such a way as to lead people to Christ, and the state is not confident for that. Now, please don't stone me before this next one, or after it either. But we should be careful also about the use of the name of God. I think I understand the emotion that is behind the Pledge of Allegiance and people wanting to have under God in the Pledge of Allegiance. It is a good thing for a nation to recognize that there is a divine being to whom we will be held accountable. And I would not argue that it's unconstitutional to do that. But I think that we should shiver sometimes when we think that this is an act of worship and that this is something that the church should yearn for, that the name of God the set forth in something like the Pledge of Allegiance. I remember when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals did what they did with the Pledge of Allegiance and all the senators gathered out there on the steps and you had Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch and Lieberman and all of these people saying the Pledge of Allegiance and saying very loud, Under God! Which God? Is this honoring the name of God? Is this the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Is this what we're concerned about, that the name of God be set forth in a public way without any kind of definition, without any discernment, that we know this God only in the name of Jesus? that we know this triune God as He is represented to us by the atoning work of Christ. He is the one that's been given a name above every name, that the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And when he had made purification for sin, he sat down at the right hand of God and he has received a name that is much more excellent than the name that the angels have. The name that we know, the name that we should have in reverence when we speak of God, we must think of and we must desire that that word and that name be used in the context of the triune God who is revealed to us in the Lord Jesus Christ in his atoning work. And so there, when Paul wrote to the Thessalonians and Paul wrote to the Ephesians, when he wrote to the Colossians, he saw them as people that were bought out of this world. He saw them as those who were made citizens of a heavenly world, an eternal home. And though he admonished them to pray for all leaders and kings and princes and those in authority that we may lead tranquil and quiet lives, we certainly should do that. and though he admonished them to be obedient to those that had the rule over them he just as clearly recognized that they were persecuted by their countrymen they were persecuted by the state and he recognized that even when they were persecuted they were no less the church and no less free before God and no less justified and no less responsive to the divine revelation given us in scripture. One of the principles of soul competency is set forth by Mullins and I think is set forth in these passages of scripture is that it frees us from the deceit of an improper kind of nationalism. A second thing, it frees the church from superficiality of ritualism. It frees the church from the superficiality of ritualism. In the second Thessalonians passage, when the apostle begins to talk about those who are converted, that were chosen, it says that he has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit. Now, what does this sanctification by the Spirit mean? Well, it means that they had been set apart by the Spirit of God. They had been called by the Spirit. The Spirit had done an operation in them in which He had changed their hearts from being hostile to God to being responsive to God, from being haters of His holiness and haters of His truth to lovers of His truth. The Holy Spirit had operated so that they themselves would respond freely to the gospel when it was given to them. So they've been set apart by sanctification of the Spirit. Now when Mullins is writing about this, he's very concerned about Roman Catholic ritualism. He is concerned that the Roman Catholic sacramental system is something that robs God of His sovereign prerogatives. That plashes upon a person who has no understanding the false concept that he is thereby receiving grace. that this exulterio parraco operation of the sacrament, in which you receive grace because it is simply done in the doing, if you have the right form and you have the right matter and you do it the right way, then grace is conveyed to you. This is pure ritualism, Smullin says, and it is a violation of the image of God in man. It says that we are getting something and there is no corresponding transformation of understanding related to it. And he was arguing that there's always a corresponding change of understanding in the operations of God's grace upon us. Now, the operations of God's grace sometimes and many times goes beyond our understanding in sanctification and in holiness, but it is always consistent with and accompanied by advances in understanding. And ritualism is something that operates without the understanding. We see this happening Throughout Scripture, the Jewish sacrifices took on the form of rituals when there was no heart behind it, there was even disobedience to the form and the matter that was to be used. And the prophets would say, circumcise your hearts, rend your hearts, knot your garments. Malachi says, close the door of the temple, don't bring those sacrifices any longer because you are far away from me. It had become simply a ritual and it did not tell them in their heart that they were needing to have a sacrifice that would once for all be made that would cleanse them from sin. They needed to have an operation of the Spirit within them that would change their heart. They had forgotten that and they thought that purely performing the ritual was sufficient. That is a violation of the way that God operates with sinners. That is an imposition of something upon the human soul that does not have any understanding. It is not transformation. So we must be freed from the superficiality of ritualism. When we view the ordinances in a certain way as simply performing something without an understanding of the transcendent spiritual reality involved, we make ourselves guilty of ritualism. Now, as Baptists, I think that we hold a biblical view that we do not think that there is any grace at all conveyed in the actions themselves, either of baptism or if the Lord suffered. But both of these are tremendous opportunities granted us by God which, if invested with the Word of God and with intense reminders as to what these emblems mean, there can be an operation of the Spirit of God in an advancement of understanding and an advancement of sanctification through that intense time of contemplating what we mean when we take those elements in the Lord's Supper. What we mean when we observe a baptism of a person being buried with Christ in baptism and risen to walk in newness of life. And we should be convicted that we ourselves must be sanctified and pursue that resurrected newness of life. But it must be accompanied by the Word. If it is simply done just to get it done because it's commanded to be done, but we have no connection with the Word and no challenge to the understanding and challenge to the heart involved in it, then we are guilty of ritualism. We think that we are doing well religiously, without a corresponding transformation of heart. That is not how God operates within us. That is a violation of the image of God within us. It's therefore a violation of what Mullins is calling soul competence. If we believe in soul competence, then every advancement in sanctification, everything that we do that honors God, will be accompanied by an understanding. We must not create sacraments of human traditions. How many churches do this? Oh, boy, you've been in them. We've all done it. We get so used to doing something one way, and we think that this is the way that God has ordained it, and we think that there is something special and sacramental about that, and we begin to create little traditions and little rituals, and we think that those things convey grace. We're all familiar, of course, with how sacrosanct the whole of the invitation system is and decisions that we must make. And we have the idea that repentance and faith somehow are bound up in coming down to the front. Now, there may be value in a person coming and receiving counsel and making a public stance. That's not the point I'm making. The point that I'm making is that so many times we define that moment as that which sets forth repentance and faith in the life of the person. When you do that, that's an act of faith. When you do that, that's an act of repentance. By your coming, you will indicate that you are asking Jesus to save you. Where does the Scripture ever say that by your coming, you're asking Jesus to save you? You just talk a person into getting up the courage to come down to the front and that this makes them saved because you have redefined faith by coming down to the front and you have assured them that by your coming, you're saying this? That's not the case. In rare occasions it might be the case, but if you have convinced them that the problem simply is they don't have the courage to get out of the seat and come down front, you've created a ritual that violates their own responsibility before God and violates the prerogative of the Spirit of God over their soul. We must be very careful not to create human rituals that destroy God's prerogatives. This could be done by those who are the most well-meaning. I read something some time ago about a person that I think is very sincere in his love for Christ and his zeal for souls, but I think he got carried away in something. And he posted an article in which he started a club called the Soul of Month Club. And he calculated that his ministry had one conversion for every $48 given to it. And so he started the Soul of Month Club And then for every $48, he could guarantee someone to be saved. He said, see yourself saved by the cross. He's called an emblem he had. And with $48 a month, you're bringing someone drowning in sin to safety. What a privilege and a responsibility. You can email or call our office for a free envelope. Please keep this envelope in an upright, visible place. I'll lean our big envelope against the wall of our desk where we write our check. He gives to his own ministry, $48 to guarantee that he'll get someone saved. It will bless you just to see it and then make the appropriate envelope, take the appropriate envelope and mail it to see a soul saved each month. Now, no, don't reach out to touch someone. Reach out to save someone by helping him to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, your $48 each month to save a soul is tax deductible. Well, I didn't make that up. That is a serious attempt on the part of a person, I think, actually to see people saved. But he has so convinced himself that there is an immediate transaction between the forty eight dollars that it is little short of the medieval practice of indulgences. As soon as the coin in the coffer clings, the soul up from purgatory springs, so said Tetzel. That money transfers immediately into salvation. This is creating rituals that are superficial, that violate scriptural principles, create false confidence And the Baptist understanding of soul competence is designed to keep us just from that kind of superficial ritual. Well, the third point, and I must hurry, is it frees the Church. The doctrine of soul competence, as we see in Mullins, which I think he truly, he had biblical insight here, and in these passages of Scripture that we have seen, frees the church from the deceit of authoritarianism. It frees the church from the deceit of authoritarianism. Our text in 2 Thessalonians says, God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. It was for this He called you through our gospel so that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now again, he talks about the Roman Catholic view of faith, the Roman Catholic view of Scripture. Faith is something that is simply believing what the church says, whether you understand it or not, it is simply being obedient to the sacraments, that is faith. And Scripture, you just believe what the priest says because the priest has heard it from the Pope and he is the only one who has the right to interpret the Scripture. And so simply believing what they say is faith. That is not what Paul talks about. Paul talks about a personal engagement with the truth of God in which you come to believe it is the Word of God. In 1 Thessalonians, he talks about that church when they heard him preach, they received it as it really was the Word of God. And he says, when I preached to you, the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in conviction and with the Holy Spirit. And he talks about the changes that took place in their life and how they turned from idols to serve a God living and true and how the Word of God went forth from them. He assumes that their conversion is built upon a personal understanding of the truth. There's a necessity of a response to the truth. The Colossians were taught by Ephesus. Paul talks about this in terms of he taught you the gospel and you received it as it is the truth. And he says you received an understanding of the truth. It was their personal understanding of the demands of the gospel. Not even apostolic authority could change their heart. Paul told the Corinthians that he avoided coming to them because he wanted their actions to be as a result of their personal interaction with the truth, their personal conscience, rather than his simply forcing them into something. And in his own life, he knew that his being an apostle, and preaching the gospel to others would be no good unless it was also accompanied by a personal transformation and a willful suppression of the lusts of the flesh and of those things that took him away from God. I'd beat my body, I'd make it my slave, lest after having preached the gospel to others, I myself would be a document, undisapproved, retrograde. It is a confrontation with the truth. So we are responsive to God and to God alone. God is the only one who can change the heart. So we must avoid authoritarianism in which we think that we make progress in the gospel simply by getting people to do what we tell them to do. I'm not saying we're not under the authority of Scripture. And I'm not saying that there's no authority structure in the church by which decisions are made in the church and that there's not a teaching ministry in the church that has a proper authority. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that every advancement that is made in spirituality and every exhortation that comes from the minister must not be based upon the idea that you do this because I said it. But if you are a Christian and you understand the Word of God and see that I'm teaching to you the Word of God, then this must be the manner of life that you pursue from this point on. Peter said, I, as a fellow elder, exhort you. He exhorted them to someone who's a fellow elder, someone who's a fellow sufferer, someone who is going to be a sharer of the glory of Christ that would come. And so authoritarianism, Pure authoritarianism is something that does not honor the actions of God upon the soul, the transformation of the heart by the truth. It is opposed to the doctrine of soul competence. Those who are not converted did not receive a love for the truth. Those who are converted receive a love for the truth. And so when a person is converted, happens by these means. The heart is changed, the understanding is changed, the affections are changed, the conscience is changed. And all of these things that go into constituting the image of God in which our actions arise out of our moral dispositions are in a process of change. And that is what God is doing with us. He is changing us from one degree of glory to another. He is changing us by this interaction with the truth. He is changing us by the constant hearing of the gospel. He is changing us by the fellowship that we have in the church. And so Paul says, because I have this ministry, I have great boldness in my speech. And he had great boldness in his speech, even though, he said, we have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God. and not from ourselves, from God, and not from ourselves. So as we finally reflect on what this issue of soul competence means, we should see that our purpose in ministry is not to get a number, not to create mere unthinking conformity, to a pet project that we have, to a method that we have, to a program that we have, but to capture a soul by truth. To see a person come to a love of the truth. Second, we must constantly guard against creating rituals without any warrant from Scripture and those rites, those aspects of worship. that we practice regularly should constantly be warmed to the heart by the fire of the Word of God. And third, we should look forward and can look forward to that day of glory when according to the working of His Spirit, according to that work that He does within us by which He raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, That power that Christ has that enables Him to conform everything and subdue everything to Himself will transform our vile bodies and make them like His glorious body. That time when He will transform us and sanctify us, body, soul, and spirit, according to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who has called us, is God, and He will do it. And so we look forward. to the full enjoyment of the glory of God. God will operate in us in such a way that we can say He respects the created order that is placed within us. We will be full persons and every aspect of our being will be caught up in the glory of God so voluntarily, joyfully, happily. We are before God enjoying all the bliss of heaven. We will not feel that we are forced there. We will not feel that we are repressed there. We will not feel that we are doing something that someone has fooled us about. We will have complete awareness of all that is there, but we will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it has been absolute grace that has brought us there, but a grace that has conformed us to the image of God in the full and mature and glorious way. that God intended from the beginning in our creation. Let's bow for prayer. Father, we thank you that you have given us a glorious gospel. We thank you that you will operate in us in such a way as to bring every aspect of our being, that our souls will be conformed to Christ and then our bodies will be glorified and so we will live forever in the full enjoyment of God. We thank you that your truth taken by the bright and wonderful power of your spirit has brought us to know Christ in whom we rejoice, whom we love, whose image we look forward to seeing replicated in our lives, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren, and in whose name we pray. Amen.