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So, here at Free Grace Baptist 
Church, we're starting a new video series, basically answering 
questions that people have. It could be theology, around 
faith, and different things. So, we've got a form on our website 
to facilitate those questions. They can do it anonymous if they 
like. And the short video is easy to share with your friends, 
with your family, easy to consume. So, for the first question, I 
thought we'd start with something really fundamental to who we 
are. So I have a question from a young man, Justin, and the 
question is, what is a Reformed Baptist? So is there a succinct, 
sufficient answer on that one? Do you want to go? Sure, I can 
start with that one. A lot of people think it's a 
weird thing, right? Yeah, it is a little weird because Reformed 
is typically associated with infant baptism, and so I think 
it's helpful for us to add the Baptist moniker to distinguish 
ourselves from our Paedo-Baptist brothers and sisters. But certainly, 
let's talk about Reformed first and what that means, and so I 
think John DeWitt's book is pretty helpful, What is the Reformed 
Faith?, and I'll try to just summarize a few points. But the 
importance of the authority of Scripture, certainly that is 
cardinal for anyone who's Reformed, especially against the Papists, 
against Roman Catholicism, which views tradition on par with Scripture. We're not against tradition, 
but it's not on par with Scripture. Scripture is our final authority 
and our ultimate authority. concerning all things that pertain 
to life and godliness, so the authority of scripture. With 
that, the centrality of worship. We worship our triune God acceptably. According to Hebrews chapter 
10, He is a consuming fire, so we must approach Him acceptably. 
That is, according to John 4, we worship Him in spirit and 
in truth. So we don't get to do anything 
we want when we come together, but we worship Him according 
to His ways and mainly His words. So we sing the Word, we pray 
the Word, we preach the Word. and we partake of the word in 
the sacraments. So centrality of worship. And 
then I guess as a subheading with that is the centrality of 
preaching. That is the pinnacle of the worship 
service. God speaking to his people and 
encouraging them, uplifting them, calling the elect out of darkness 
into marvelous light, calling sinners to everlasting life. 
It is by the word that faith is wrought. So preaching is important. 
And then also as well, the importance of the covenants. That is, I 
think many, I've heard one of my professors say that Reformed 
theology is covenant theology. How does God interact with human 
beings? Or I guess more precisely, how 
do we interact with God? And it is by way of covenants. So those things are central and 
important. And if there's anything I forgot, 
I'm sure Pastor Butler can add a few things as far as what Reformed 
is. Yeah, I think commitment to the 
Second London Confession, and the commitment isn't slavish. It's not recognizing it as the 
authority, an authority like the Bible. But we believe that 
confession, not insofar as it is biblical, but because it is 
biblical. We believe that it does teach the truth of those 
chief doctrines from Scripture. So, I think that a Reformed Baptist 
is one that embraces those things that Mike has mentioned. You 
know, I think today it's quite commonplace for somebody to say, 
I'm a Reformed Baptist, and by that they mean they're a Calvinist. 
And I'm not denigrating Calvinism, certainly Reformed includes Calvinism, 
but Calvinism is a part of Reformed. So, as Mike said, covenant theology, 
regulative principle of worship. the sorts of things that we see 
in our confession of faith, those distinctives, that ultimately 
is, I think, a good working definition of Reformed Baptist. And, of 
course, our theological forefathers were called Particular Baptists, 
which I personally wouldn't have a problem with that sort of nomenclature 
or that moniker. I think that's an acceptable 
and a good name. Probably could have saved us a bit of confusion 
in the 20th and 21st centuries in terms of the language Reformed 
Baptist. So, I've been here for several 
years, and it was more commonplace when I first got here than it 
is now. But the question always came, 
how can you be Reformed and Baptist? So, I think the confession of 
faith is a good starting point, and I think sort of subscription 
to that confession, not loosely, but in what we might call a full 
or a strict way is most helpful for definition. And then if I 
can go on to define Baptist, I think Dr. Renahan has a helpful 
definition of what a Baptist is, and I'll try to paraphrase 
as best as possible, but he uses the language of a self-confessed 
proponent of the historical traits of the Baptist movement. And 
so, I think the key thing there is self-confessed, while there 
are a lot of churches that believe and practice believers' baptism, 
they're not self-confessed as Baptist, and they would not certainly 
espouse the historical traits and understand the historical 
movement and its unfolding and its beginning in the 1600s. And so, I think that's important. 
Self-confessed, espousing the historical traits. So, certainly 
important for our particular Baptist forefathers was the believer's 
baptism. We don't practice infant baptism, 
but also following the congregationalists and the importance of congregational 
church polity as opposed to Presbyterian church polity. And so, I think 
that's a helpful definition of what a Baptist self-confessed. 
proponent of the historical movement. Thank you.