"Teaching To Observe"

LEXINGTON BAPTIST COLLEGE

Lexington Baptist College no longer exists.
I was privileged to attend when Dr. Brong
was there and these truths were taught. -R. Wolfe

A Teaching Agency of Ashland Avenue Baptist Church

"Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." (Matt. 28:20.)

Failing to teach their members to observe all that Jesus commanded, even true churches of our Lord pave the way to their own destruction. Baptists of this generation are numerous and prosperous because of the faithfulness and sacrifices of previous generations: but by our own betrayal of the historic Baptist faith we are storing up trouble for our successors.

Practically all Baptist churches still have some sense of a mission to the world, and all that have any real claim to the name Baptist are still baptizing their disciples, but the sad fact is that most Baptist churches today are failing to indoctrinate their membership with the teachings and commandments of Jesus. A generation of modernistic preachers, a product of denominational and undenominational seminaries, is gradually leading our churches away from loyalty to the Lord Jesus and His word. The disastrous loyalty of this generation is either to a denominational program or to a super-denomination in process of formation. Thus few Baptists today have much real conviction of Baptist teaching, which is to say, Bible teaching. What are some of the "all things" that we are commanded to teach baptized disciples to observe? I mention four:

1. Obedience to Jesus as Lord.
2. New Testament church polity.
3. The ordinances of this church.
4. Witnessing to the saving grace of God in Christ.

Theoretically all Christians worthy of the name will acknowledge that it is their duty to obey Christ. Yet in practice the majority of so-called Christians want to choose for themselves how far they will go in this obedience. Various denominations have chosen some of the commandments of Jesus for emphasis while openly rejecting or disregarding other commandments. Interdenominational "fundamentalists" pride themselves on their faithfulness to what they are pleased to call essential teachings or commandments while they ignore or regard lightly those commandments of our Lord which are most divisive.

Our Lord has not excused the disobedience of even the least of His commands: "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5:19.)

Jesus declared (Matt. 16:18) that He would build His church, and in Matt. 18:17, 18 we find Him instructing His disciples to refer their personal quarrels, as a last resort, to this church, showing that by this time the church was already organized for business. The commission in Matt. 28:18-20 must have been given to this church as a continuing institution. If He was speaking to the disciples in their personal capacity, the commission died with them. If He was speaking to them merely as disciples, then He was authorizing the utter confusion that we see in professed Christianity today. The view that Jesus was speaking here to His disciples as an organized church is the only view that makes good sense. In fact, practically all Christians recognize that our Lord has something called a church with authority to carry on His work in this world. Divisions arise over the question of whether to recognize the church as it appears in the New Testament or to substitute something else.  Any church or any school as a teaching agency of a church or churches that does not teach Christians to observe the church polity instituted by the Lord Jesus certainly is not teaching them to observe all things He has commanded.

Lexington Baptist College is one of very few schools today that maintain a sound scriptural position on the church of the Lord Jesus as we find it revealed in the New Testament. Ordinances apart from a true New Testament church, it is, of course, impossible to observe scripturally the ordinances of that church baptism and the Lord's Supper. "In one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." (I Cor. 12:13.) The kind of body referred to is that kind of which the church at Corinth was an example, as we read in verse 27, "ye are a body of Christ." From I Cor. 1:2 we find that by "ye" Paul meant "the church of God which is at Corinth."

Of course the only kind of church that can administer baptism is an organized church. And, if the baptism is to be scriptural, the church administering the ordinance must be of the kind instituted by our Lord, deriving its authority by succession from that first church. The Lord's Supper is quite generally recognized as a church ordinance. In I Cor. 11:17-20 we learn that even when a church meets to observe the ordinance, if there are divisions and heresies, there it is not possible to eat the Lord's Supper. How much more is this true where the divisions and heresies are of such a nature as to have given rise to distinct denominations?

Lexington Baptist College as a teaching agency of the Ashland Avenue Baptist Church and other churches cooperating in this teaching ministry believes in and stands for believer's baptism under the authority of a New Testament Baptist Church and the Lord's Supper as an ordinance of that church.

"Ye shall be witnesses unto me." (Acts 1:8.) "Make disciples of all nations." (Matt. 28:19.) True churches of the Lord Jesus are evangelistic, missionary churches. Undoubtedly this is the chief emphasis of the great commission, and the church which has lost this mission has lost its very reason for existence. In our insistence upon teaching to observe all things that our Lord has commanded, we are not to lose sight of this great commandment to His church to preach the gospel to every creature.