CHURCH COVENANT

 

We, who have caused our names to appear on the roll of Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, confess that we once were dead in trespasses and sins, strangers from the covenants of promise, alienated from the life of God, being by nature the children of wrath, and would have continued in such misery throughout eternity apart from our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who, according to His rich mercy and His great love wherewith He loves us, saved us by His amazing grace, there being nothing real or foreseen in our persons to recommend us to be the objects of His favor.

 

 

Having been born again by the Holy Spirit, who has opened the eyes of our understanding, given us spiritual discernment, and imparted unto us the faith to believe all things whatsoever that are revealed in the Holy Scriptures - which indeed are the very Word of God, each jot and tittle thereof having been written exactly as God willed by holy men of old as they were moved by the Spirit and so constitute the sole authority for the practice of our faith - the purpose of the new life we now live in Christ, our heart's desire and soul's delight, is to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience, keeping our garments unstained by this world as we walk through it as strangers and pilgrims, endeavoring to render unto God the things which are God's, by His mercy presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice unto Him, which is but our reasonable service.

 

 

Pursuant to this purpose, we have searched the Scriptures, for they are they which testify of Christ, and found that the final end of this purpose, even our salvation, is our absolute and complete conformity to Christ by the renewing of our minds, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Having also found the Scriptures do plainly testify that God has ordained His public worship as the means whereby He receives His due honor, glory, and praise as the Creator, Fountainhead of all life, and Giver of every good and perfect gift, and that God has in every age had His own peculiar people, that is His Church, who assemble in local congregations to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.

 

 

Furthermore, these assemblies of the congregations, which are His local visible churches, are the means whereby God has promised that He will meet with His people to sanctify them, providing them with pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Likewise, we find in Holy Scripture that an explicit covenanting with, and giving up ourselves to the Lord and to one another, is the formal cause of a particular visible gospel church.

 

 

We, therefore, do most solemnly covenant in the presence of God and of each other, in unfeigned humiliation for our sins and with a deep sense of our own unworthiness, to give up ourselves wholly unto the Lord and to one another in a church state constituted according to the pattern set forth in the New Testament, taking God to be our God and giving over ourselves to be His people, trusting solely in the righteousness of Christ for our justification, His righteousness being imputed unto us through the faith we have received of God by His Word according to the everlasting covenant of grace.

 

 

Being fully satisfied that the faith and practice of Mt. Olivet Baptist Church reflects the true doctrines of grace revealed in the Holy Scriptures and being also satisfied of the true manifestation of God's effectual saving grace in the hearts and souls of the members thereof, we solemnly join ourselves together in a holy union and fellowship, humbly submitting ourselves to the discipline of the Gospel and all the holy duties required of a people in such a spiritual relationship, in no wise trusting in the strength of our own powers for their accomplishment, but trusting solely in God to supply all our need according to His riches in glory, and to strengthen us to do all things through Christ, who is the Author and Finisher of our faith.

 

 

1. We do promise to love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, to separate ourselves from the worship of the world and the vain religion of the times we are fallen into.

 

 

2. We do promise to conduct ourselves carefully and deliberately in God's house, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but rather coming together as often as we can to worship God in public, seeking more light to understand His Holy Word and to discern the outworking of His divine will in providence, believing that there are greater mysteries to be unfolded and shown in the Church beyond what she has ever enjoyed.

 

 

3. We do promise to walk in holiness, godliness, humility, and brotherly love and, to the fullest extent that we are able, to make our union and fellowship delightful in the sight of God, profitable to our own souls, and lovely to the rest of the Lord's people, refraining ourselves individually and collectively from all known sin and every appearance of evil so as in no wise to bring reproach upon the name of the Church.

 

 

4. We do promise to watch over each other's conduct and behavior, and not to permit one another to stumble and fall into sin, insofar as God shall reveal it unto any of us. Likewise, we do promise to stir up the grace and love of each other to the performance of good works, which God has ordained that we should walk in them; to admonish, and exhort one another daily, according to the precepts set forth in the Holy Scriptures, lest any of us should become hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

 

 

5. We do promise in a very special manner to pray for one another and for the glory and increase of this church and for the presence of God in it, and for the pouring out of His Holy Spirit upon it, and His protection over it that we might continue to glorify and serve God in our generation, believing we have been called into His kingdom for such a time as this.

 

 

6. We do promise to bear each other's burdens, to comfort one another and bear one another up in all afflictions and infirmities, both inward and outward: of the flesh and of the soul; to help each other raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord and to cling lovingly to one another with warmth and compassion, despite the hatred which the Lord promised the world would have toward us.

 

 

7. We do promise to bear each other's weaknesses and failures with much tenderness and meekness, considering ourselves lest we also be tempted, not disclosing any such shortcomings to those outside the church, nor to any within the church except according to Christ's rule for its discipline and order (see Matthew 18:15-17).

 

 

8. We do promise to strive together for the truth of the Gospel and the purity of God's worship in the observance of all His precepts and ordinances; to avoid causes and causers of division, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; for the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable.

 

 

9. We do promise to have a tender compassion and pity for the souls of the lost, acknowledging that except for the free grace of God we too would still be counted among their number. We do promise further to labor and contrive the advancement of Christ's Gospel in obedience to His Great Commission to preach the salvation which is in Christ to all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever the Lord Jesus has commanded in His Word, supporting such efforts with our time and our treasure.

 

 

10. We do promise according to our ability, as God shall bless us with the good things of this world, to bring our tithes and offerings into the Lord's house to support the ministry of this church and to sow unto our pastor God's material things as he sows unto us God's spiritual things, God having ordained that they who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel, knowing that as a man sows, so shall he reap. We do promise further to walk with our pastor as he walks with God, submitting ourselves unto his spiritual direction as he watches for our souls and to esteem him highly in love for his work's sake; that he might do it joy and not with grief; that it might profit us and that we might be at peace among ourselves.

 

 

This covenant we make with the full and free consent of our minds, believing that, through free and boundless grace, it is owned of God and ratified in heaven, before the throne of God and the Lamb. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Amen, and Amen.