Sermon Tone Analysis

“Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, „If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.‟

They answered him, „We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone.

How is it that you say, “You will become free”?‟

“Jesus answered them, „Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.

The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.

I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.‟

“They answered him, „Abraham is our father.‟

Jesus said to them, „If you were Abraham‟s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.

This is not what Abraham did.

You are doing the works your father did.‟

They said to him, „We were not born of sexual immorality.

We have one Father—even God.‟”1

We are currently exploring the particular doctrines that should define the Faith of a Baptist congregation.

What truths define Baptist theology?

How do Baptists differ from other evangelicals?

These questions should concern each of us.

If we are identical to other Christians, bringing nothing to the table that would distinguish us from every other Christian, perhaps we have no right to continue to hold a separate identity.

If we are really like all other evangelical Christians, perhaps we should close the doors of this building and lend our full support to some other evangelical church with whom we will be best able to fulfil the commission of our Master.

I am convinced that Baptist theology is biblical theology; this should certainly hold true for every Baptist congregation.

Moreover, certain truths distinguish Baptists as a community of faith.

Historically, we Baptists influenced evangelicals to become baptistic in practise.

In recent years, a form of evangelical ecumenism has influenced Baptists to become less distinctive.

It is time to seek again those ancient landmarks.

“Do not move the ancient landmark

that your fathers have set.”

[PROVERBS 22:28]

I hold these Baptist convictions as a sacred trust.

The distinctive truths which mark us as a confessional people have been set as landmarks, and no conscientious Christian should ever seek to move those ancient landmarks.

I was not born Baptist, nor was I raised Baptist; I gained Baptist convictions through study of the Word of God and through defence of this Faith in the arena of daily life.

Whenever someone asks me what I would be if I were not a Baptist, without hesitation I state that I would be ashamed.

We must be careful not to jettison the truths that have historically marked Baptists congregations simply because we no longer wish to be burdened with them.

Those truths represent the labours of dedicated servants of the Lord Christ as they defined and defended this holy Faith throughout the long ages since the Saviour‟s Resurrection.

Nor will we quickly desert these doctrinal tenets, if we but understand their significance and the consequences arising should we refuse to embrace them any longer.

In messages yet planned, I propose, by God‟s mercy, to examine the distinctive truths which combined, define us as Baptists.

For the moment, you will do well to note these distinctive truths in the margin of your Bible.

The distinctive beliefs which mark us as Baptists include the following seven truths: the authority of Scripture; the lordship of Christ; a regenerate church membership; congregational church polity; religious liberty; soul competency; and believer’s baptism.

Individually, any of these truths may be claimed by other, especially evangelical, Christians.

Taken together, these truths distinguish Baptists from other believers and define us within the Christian community.

CONFLICT BETWEEN AUTHORITY AND EXPERIENCE — The words of the Master that are preserved in the Scriptures are powerful and profound.

He was never superfluous in His statements to those about Him.

The opening words of our text constitute one of the simplest, and yet most profound, statements defining the Faith of Christ the Lord.

The Master is recorded as stating, “If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” [JOHN 8:31, 32].

It is intriguing that Jesus spoke these words to Jews “who had believed in Him.” Across North America on any given Sunday, thousands of sermons will be preached to Christians, urging them to live like Christians.

Thousands more sermons will be preached to those who are not Christians, urging them to become Christians.

It is doubtful that many sermons are preached during that same timeframe to those who are generally convinced of the veracity of the doctrines of Christianity and who think they are Christians, but who, nevertheless, have never brought their lives under the reign of Jesus as their Master and Saviour.

Tragically, I suspect that this is the situation confronting the average preacher in North America on any given Sunday.

Churches, including Baptist churches, have many people seated in them who are not born-again Christians, though they are not necessarily hostile to Christianity.

They believe the doctrines; it is just that they have never committed themselves to Jesus Christ as Lord and they have not been born into the Family of God.

They do not deny Christ, but neither do they follow Him.2

Some ministers have even identified themselves as atheists!

They are able to carry out this duplicitous action by convincing themselves that pastoral service is only a job and not a calling.3

These “ministers” urge those who listen to “be good,” but without hope of appropriating the power of God for righteousness.

A sense of the magnitude of the problem can be seen from the fact that in both Britain and the United States, well over ninety percent of the people surveyed in opinion polls claim to believe in a personal God.

But very few, obviously, do anything about Him.

In many cases they do not even expose themselves to Christianity.4

According to the Barna Research Group, forty one percent of adults who attend Christian church services in a typical week are not born-again Christians.5

In effect, we are witnessing a conflict between authority and experience within modern church life.

Jesus presented a statement of truth, and the Jews surrounding Him were unable to understand what He was talking about because of their bias.

They were so focused on their religious experiences that they failed to note the authority presented.

Something like happens repeatedly throughout the Christian world in this day.

The message of Christ is simple; it does not aim to impress the elite of society.

Rather, it is presented so that the simplest hearer may understand that God loves His fallen creation.

This is not to say that the Christian message is simplistic—it is not.

The message of Christ the Lord is profound, originating in the heart of the transcendent God.

Those hearing the message of life are called to faith in the Son of God.

Faith in Christ precedes all else.

Scripture states, “Without faith it is impossible to please [God], for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that he rewards those who seek Him” [HEBREWS 11:6].

Having believed, we Baptists appeal to biblical authority to justify every belief.

Ultimately, what an individual practises (to say nothing of what a congregation permits) is determined by how one arrives at the knowledge of God‟s will.

For inquiring minds, this particular search is referred to as epistemology.

Epistemology seeks to explore the basis of religious knowledge.

In the coming weeks, the epistemology I shall employ will search out Baptist distinctives.

In recent years, a new basis for faith and practise has arisen among evangelicals.

Actually, it is not new, but it is novel in the recent practise of evangelical Christians.

Increasingly, evangelical Christians, and many Baptists, appeal to experience as authority for faith and practise.

Virtually any practise can be justified by an appeal to one‟s own subjective experience.

In doing this, these experiential Christians deny the authority of the Word of God and jeopardise their own evangelistic and missionary vigour.

The graver danger is that by exalting religious experience over biblical authority they will eventually be willing to authenticate even the lack of belief for nominal Christian

Among these evangelical churches appealing to experience are a growing number who profess to be Baptists; but in reality whenever a congregation exalts experience over Scripture for justification of a given action, they have ceased to be Baptist, much less Christian.

Historically, Baptists were known as a people of the Book, appealing to the Word for authority for faith and practise.

Tradition counted for nothing if the teachings of the Word were violated.

Thus, Baptists were a doctrinal people—holding to a definite doctrinal position.

As doctrinal people, it is the Word of God to which we must look for direction.

Unfortunately, our position as a doctrinal people may be threatened through the growing tension between biblical authority and Christian experience.

Appealing to their experiences as the foundation for faith and practise, many have cloaked their new-found religion in religious language—God talk; they say that the basis for faith and practise is the Bible as interpreted by Jesus.

This sounds quite orthodox, but in practise, these advocates of modernity mean to empty the Word of God of its authority.

Whenever someone appeals to Scripture, they say, “Yes, you feel that way about what is taught in the Bible, but I feel this way.”

Therefore, they have made their experience the final arbiter of faith and practise.

Worse yet, some of these purported Baptists distort Baptist distinctives to justify their rejection of biblical authority.

The truths that mark Baptists as distinctive were received in one of several ways.

Many of them have been forged in the fires of controversy.

Non-Baptists frequently forced Baptists to define themselves and to defend their unique beliefs.

In early colonial America, Baptists struggled to practise their faith according to their convictions against the governing authorities and against other Christian denominations.

The Baptist beliefs in religious liberty and soul competency were in conflict with the concept of a state church brought by Puritans, Anglicans, Presbyterians and Catholics to the New World.

Out of conviction, Baptists often refused to pay taxes that were levied to support the state churches.

They refused to have their infants baptised by the state-sponsored churches.

Consequently, Baptists were persecuted economically, socially and politically.

They were beaten and jailed for their convictions.