Well, coming up is a reading of the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689 by my father, Bill Brown. Now, the Second London Baptist Confession is a wonderful resource for churches and for families. And we've made this recording in order to just bring strength to churches and families. But before we listen to this great theological statement read by my father, I'd like to give an introduction to the confession. And I want to say eight things first before we get into the reading.

First, I want to talk about the importance of doctrine. Second, the role of the church and specifically elders to defend sound doctrine. Number three, the role of the family in upholding sound doctrine. And number four, the importance of historic time tested doctrinal statements like this one. Fifth, the danger to a church to be without a sound doctrinal statement.

And sixth, the history of the Second Law and the Baptist Confession. And then seventh, I would like to speak about the impact of the confession on the church and the family and contemporary society. And then lastly, I'd like to give you a statement by the great preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, on the Second London Baptist Confession. So, let's first of all start with the importance of doctrine itself. A lot of people say All we need to do is love one another.

People say we should have no creed but Christ. That in itself is a creed. So let's dispense with the idea that creeds are illegitimate. They are very legitimate. When Paul is speaking to Timothy, He says, let no one despise your youth but be an example in doctrine.

In 1 Timothy 4, 6 we read, if you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed. So a young man's ministry is a doctrinal ministry. First of all he knows doctrine And then he communicates it. In 1 Timothy 4, 12 through 16 we read, let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

So, Paul is saying that Timothy's ministry was to communicate sound doctrine. And So he's saying that the goal of your life is to understand it and the purpose of your life is to communicate it. And it's a critical aspect of everyone's personal life. Secondly, the role of elders to defend sound doctrine needs to be identified because in this great doctrinal statement you find the critical elements that elders need to defend sound doctrine in their churches and elders who are not teaching sound doctrine are not being obedient in Ephesians 4 14 through 15. Paul says that the very operation of the gifts of the Spirit in the church have a purpose, quote, that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him who is the head." Now, one aspect of speaking the truth in love is the speaking of sound doctrine.

Sound doctrine keeps us from creating our own, you know, personal persuasions that bear the limitations of our minds and our experiences. We're all born into this world lacking many things. Our background causes to lack many things as well. It's important that we do not have our own doctrine, that we cooked up in our own fevered brains. The Lord Jesus himself said, my doctrine is not mine, but his who sent me.

If anyone wills to do his will, he shall know concerning the doctrine whether it is from God. So, you know, the Lord Jesus himself appeals to the doctrine of his father. And that's what we ought to do as well. There are many dangers in a godless culture, one of which is that our doctrine would be the doctrines of man. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 15, 9, in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines, the commandments of men.

That's a dangerous place to be. Sound doctrine is really important. And that's why in the early church we read in Acts 2, 42, that the church continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers. We also know that sound doctrine is important for evangelism. In Acts chapter 17, we read that the Athenians took Paul and brought him to the Areopagus saying, may We know what this new doctrine is of which you speak.

And Paul spoke sound doctrine because the philosophers there on Mars Hill were the doctrines of demons. And so it's important for us to understand sound doctrine so that we can properly evangelize. It's also very important for handling division in the church. The Bible says that wolves will come in and be causing division. And in Romans 16, 17, the apostle Paul says to the Romans, now I urge you brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned and avoid them.

So if you want to head off unrighteous division in a church, you do it by establishing sound doctrine. It's also important for the health of the church. The apostle Paul said to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1-3, as I urged you when I went into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine. The truth is that scripture is the foundation of all doctrine and the Second London Baptist Confession has its foundation in scripture alone, which is consistent with 2 Timothy 3.16, that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. So scripture is the place to go for sound doctrine and what you find here in the Second London Baptist Confession is an exposition of scripture and the categories that it argues for.

Thirdly, the role of the family in upholding sound doctrine. God has given these confessions of faith, I believe, to families to help instruct children in sound doctrine. In fact, the Westminster Confession of Faith in its introduction appeals, first of all, to heads of households to teach these things of sound doctrine to their families. And of course, the Westminster Confession and the Second London Baptist Confession are almost word for word identical. There are some differences, particularly in the area of baptism in church government, but beyond that, principally they're identical and they are almost word-for-word identical throughout.

The Westminster Confession of Faith appeals to parents for the teaching of sound doctrine. It reads like this, How much the serious endeavours of godly parents and masters might contribute to an early seasoning, the tender years of such, as are under their inspection, is abundantly evident not only from their special influence upon them in respect to their authority over them, interest in them, continual presence with them, and frequent opportunities of being helpful to them, but also from the sad effects which, by woeful experience, we find to be the fruit of the omission of this duty. It were easy to set before you a cloud of witnesses, the language of whose practice hath been not only an eminent commendation of this duty, but also a serious exhortation to it. As Abel, though dead, yet speaks by his example to us for imitation of his faith, so do the examples of Abraham, of Joshua, of the parents of Solomon, of the grandmother and mother of Timothy, the mother of Augustine, whose care was as well to nurse up the souls as the bodies of their little ones. And as their pains herein was great, so was their success in no way unanswerable.

The Confession continues to address heads of households in this way, that as the Lord has set them in place above the rest of the family, that they would labor in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, to be above them also. It is an uncombly sight to behold men in years, babes in knowledge. And how unmet are they to instruct others who need themselves to be taught, which be the first principles of the oracles of God? So here, even the Westminster Confession was written for families in order to establish sound doctrine that we wouldn't end up with children who grew up knowing nothing or at least not enough of what they ought to know. And then there's also the historic importance of time-tested doctrinal statements.

The Second London Baptist Confession has part of its value in the fact that it is a time-tested creed, It's not new. Why is it important to learn the 1689? Well, one reason is we're part of a flow of history. When we come up with our own creeds, we're saying that we're doing something new. We're saying that we're striking out on our own, when in fact we really ought to be appealing to historic Christian doctrine.

Time tested doctrinal statements are very, very important because they keep us from being blown about by every wind of doctrine. And then fifthly, a church without a doctrinal statement is an unprotected church. My advice to people is very consistent. Don't go to a church without a statement of sound doctrine. Here before us is a very clear doctrinal statement And it makes clear what the people and the elders of that church need to uphold.

Paul in Acts 20 says, I have not failed to bring the whole counsel of God. And that's how you protect the church is by giving the church a sense of the broad sweep of Bible doctrine. The church should be very clear on its doctrine. And the truth about local church life is that Every person is not clear on doctrine. All are growing and all need help.

And so it's very important that we establish the church in sound doctrine. There are people that come into your church that desire to argue about doctrine and there seem sometimes to be endless disputes about things. But understanding sound doctrine helps church members to deal with those things. Mark 16, 7 says, mark those who cause divisions. And how do you deal with it?

You deal with divisions through sound doctrine. So, sound doctrine is really important for churches that they establish it and that the people in that church are able to defend historic Christianity. I'd like to also give a brief history of the Second London Baptist Confession. I said a minute ago that it was a time-tested confession. And there have been many opportunities throughout history to improve it and to criticize it.

But here's just a brief sort of bulletized summary of it. In 1596, the true confession of faith was penned by either Henry Barrow or John Greenwood. And this was really the beginning of the Baptist Confession. And then in 1644, the first London Baptist Confession was drawn up. Seven Baptist churches drew up a confession to demonstrate their orthodoxy and also to refute heresy, particularly the heresy of Anabaptism.

And then in 1647 the Westminster Confession of Faith was drawn up and as I said before the Second London Baptist Confession and the Westminster Confession are nearly identical. And then in 1677 the Second London Baptist Confession was drawn up in some of the darkest hours of oppression in England. In 1688, with the glorious revolution, Charles II is deposed and the Catholic persecution ceases. And then in the next year, 1689, they came out of hiding and they signed the Second London Baptist Confession affixing their names to the document. And that was the official beginning of the 1689 confession.

And then later on in 1742, the Philadelphia Baptist Confession was published, which is also very, very similar to the Second London. And then you find in 1855, Charles Spurgeon reprints the Second London Baptist Confession with some minor revisions and writes a preface to it speaking of its importance. And in 1991, Sam Waldron writes, for almost 300 years this has been the standard doctrinal statement for such Baptists. Most Reformed Baptists today hold this confession as comprehensively summarizing their understanding of the Word of God. And I recommend Sam Waldron's commentary that he wrote on the Second London Baptist Confession.

Now let's talk about the impact of the Confession on the church and on the family and on contemporary society. The Confession had enormous impact on Christian culture and even on nations. Benjamin Warfield, the great theologian from Princeton Seminary, wrote this of the confession of its impact on Christianity. The significance of the Westminster standards is a creed to be found in these three facts. Historically speaking, they are the final crystallization of the elements of evangelical religion.

After the conflicts of 1600 years, Scientifically speaking, they are the richest and most precise and best guarded statement ever penned. Of all that enters into the evangelical religion and of all that must be safeguarded if evangelical religion is to persist in the world. And religiously speaking, they are a notable monument of spiritual religion. The impact on people's lives was enormous. Douglas Kelly speaks of the impact of the Westminster Confession on Scottish peasants.

He says, generations of children brought up on the catechism have had a greater capacity for conceptual thinking as opposed to merely pictorial thinking than those who never memorized it. This may also confirm in an 1872 essay by Professor James Anthony Frewd of Oxford. He spoke of, quote, the Scottish peasant as the most remarkable man in Europe. And there, he traces the dignity and the intellect and the character of the typical Scottish peasant up to that time as largely flowing from the memorization of the Shorter Catechism. And we can't forget the Westminster Confessions impact on America.

Henry White writes, the open Bible, the Westminster Confession, and the shorter catechism taught them the principle of resistance to kings and they formed the bone and sinew of the Revolutionary party that wrought out the independence of the American colonies. The Westminster Confession was critical in the American Revolution. It was called a Presbyterian Parsons Rebellion because those who had held to this statement of faith were those who were the most active. This confession of faith has been translated into German, Latin, Gaelic, Hindustani, Urdu, Siamese, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Gujarati, French, Persian, Korean, Japanese, Russian, and many other languages. This confession has had an enormous impact on the church and on the family and contemporary society.

And then finally, I just want to close with this introduction to this confession with a statement by Charles Spurgeon on the Second London Baptist Confession where he says, This little volume is not issued as an authoritative rule or code of faith, whereby you are to be fettered, but as an assistance to you in controversy, a confirmation in faith, and a means of edification in righteousness. Here, the younger members of our church will have a body of divinity in small compass, and by means of the scriptural proofs will be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in them. Be not ashamed of your faith. Remember, it is the ancient gospel of martyrs, confessors, Reformers and Saints. Above all, it is the truth of God against which the gates of hell cannot prevail.

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 and owned by the Holy spirit. Cleave fast to the Word of God which is here mapped out for you. And now let me introduce to you my father, Bill Brown, reading the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689.