Alright, Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16. We're in our second section of our
study on the Ecclesia, Christ Ecclesia, the church First section,
we looked at the nature of the church and found that the overwhelming
evidence and teaching of scripture is that the church is not an
age-long institution of elect, that the church is not all the
believers everywhere, but that the church is a local, visible
assembly, that it is a congregation of people who have been elected
of God from ages past, but in time has been quickened, been
given faith, they believe the gospel, they have been scripturally
baptized, and they have gathered together for instruction and
worship in the doctrine and practice of Christ Jesus. A congregation,
a gathered congregation, a called out assembly, we've used a lot
of different terms, We see that there is no other kind of church
that Jesus built than that kind of church. So we reject any notion
of a universal church. We reject any notion of an invisible
church. We reject any notion of a universal
visible church. We believe that the church is
a gathered congregation. And so we've seen that that was
the nature of the church. And then we began a few weeks
ago looking at the origin of the church. When did the church
begin? And we've seen that there was
some false ideas about when the church began. There are some
that hold to the church began with the very first man saved
because they believe that the church is the elect of God of
all time. We've seen that there were some
that believe that the church began with Abraham and the Israelite
people. We've seen that that was incorrect
as well. We've seen that there's also another theory that's out
there that the church began with John the Baptist. And however,
that is pretty close. That's still not the time when
the church began. And then we've seen that the
church, the overwhelming belief of today is that the church began
at Pentecost. And we also seen that that was
false. The church did not begin at Pentecost. It was already
in existence before Pentecost. What we did find is that the
church began with Jesus' earthly ministry when Jesus was baptized
by John after his baptism. The Bible says that he went straight
way up out of that and entered into the wilderness and was tempted
of the devil. After that, he came in and he
began to preach and teach the kingdom of God. And the kingdom
of God, as we've seen, being all the family on earth at any
particular time, he began to teach the kingdom of God, that
the kingdom of God was at hand, and he began to gather his church.
We've seen already so far that in building the church, he began
with the apostles. That was the very first ones
he called out. The scriptures say that he placed within the
church first apostles, And so we know that the church did not exist prior
to the ministry of Jesus Christ because the apostles did not
come onto the scene until Jesus called them out of the disciples,
which John had prepared for him. We will do a little more look
at John the Baptist later on. As I said, at the end of our
study, as we go through some of these major sessions, I kind
of plan on doing like an appendix at the end and kind of deal with
all the things that people have questions about, about John the
Baptist, about baptism and about things like that. We're gonna
do a little appendix and just kind of go back and hit some
of the things at the end. But we've seen that the church
began with Jesus Christ from material that John the Baptist
prepared and that began with the starting of Jesus's earthly
ministry and not at Pentecost or the other things that we talked
about. We began looking lastly that
it began with Jesus Christ and we also seen that it will be
kept by Jesus Christ, not only in its local aspect, but also
in its institutional. The kind of church that Jesus
began and began to build and is building, that kind of church
is gonna be here from now on. From the time that Jesus began
it until the time that he comes back, it will always be here. The church didn't go under during
the Dark Ages. The church wasn't hidden in the
Catholic Church during the Dark Ages. The church didn't come
out of the Catholic church at the Protestant Reformation. The
church has always existed. It's never been a time that there's
not been a gospel witness through a gospel church in all ages. And Christ has made that promise.
We don't have to have a pedigree that shows every church that
has always been in existence to believe that. We have the
words of Christ himself. Look with me at Matthew chapter
16, verse 18. Jesus said that, unto thee thou art Peter, and
upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. Now, remember, as we looked at
the word church or ecclesia, we found that that only means
a gathered congregation. And so Jesus is saying here,
he's not talking about a particular congregation, okay? He's not
talking about any one particular congregation. He's talking about
his kind of congregations. Wherever his kind of congregations
are found, then that is the Ecclesia of Christ. Remember, we used
the example of McDonald's and Burger King and stuff like that. The kind of church that Jesus
built was one that was based upon, governed by, looked at,
Everything that had to do with the church was based upon his
doctrine and his practice, okay? And Jesus gave that first to
the apostles, instructed the apostles. And then as he left
earth, he entrusted the apostles as the foundation, laying that
foundation first within the church on top of himself. He laid them
into the church to be the ones to instruct and to guide and
to correct and to rebuke and to spread forth that doctrine
outside of Jerusalem, and then following the commission that
he gave that church to make disciples, to baptize, and to teach all
things whatsoever Christ commanded. And so we find that Jesus's kind
of church is a reciprocal thing. From generation to generation,
it follows the same doctrine, it follows the same practice.
If it doesn't follow the doctrine of Christ and the practice of
Christ, it is not the church of Christ. And we have a lot
of people today that say, well, as long as the church is preaching
the doctrine of Christ, is preaching the true gospel, then, you know,
we can beg to differ on, you know, baptism and the Lord's
Supper and, you know, things such as that. If you remember
Paul in two different places in the scriptures, made very
clear note to the church that he was writing to, and he brought
up the fact of his apostolic authority, and he brought up
his apostolic teaching by Jesus himself, and that Jesus himself
had not only given him the doctrine, but had given Paul the commission
to make sure that that doctrine and that practice was followed
in all the churches. And so we see in the Galatian
church, we see him talk about the doctrine of Christ. That
it isn't by law keeping, but it is by grace that we have been
saved. The whole entire book of Galatians
is those who were Judaizers who still thought we were under the
law, who still thought it was by the law that we are kept righteous,
are kept saved. and that we had to perform those
things for us to be ultimately saved, even though Jesus saved
us on the cross. And so they were mixing law and
grace. And mixing law and grace is denying
grace. That's what Paul said. He said
you can't have a mixture of the two. You either have one or you
have the other. They are antithetical to each
other. You can't have both. You're either married to one
or you're married to the other. And he said that whenever grace
came in, that law died and we are dead to the law and we are
no longer bound to the law, and so that the doctrine of Jesus
Christ is the grace, or sovereign grace as we call it, sovereign
grace of Jesus Christ. And so we believe that that's
the doctrine of Jesus, but yet he also to the Corinthians made
perfectly clear that the ordinances that Jesus gave, the practice
that Jesus gave, And he went through on how to behave in the
house of God. He'd give them ways they were
supposed to worship, about women and their part in the worship,
about how the gifts were to be used in the worship, about the
Lord's Supper and how it was to be done in the assembly. And
he corrected them on there. And in that, he said, the Lord
Jesus gave me these, and I delivered them unto you. And I told you
how Jesus said to do this, and you're not doing it that way.
And so we corrected those. Jesus gave us in Revelation seven
churches who had been delivered the doctrine and practice of
Jesus Christ, yet they begin to err in going after other philosophies
and doctrines. And Jesus warned them, repent,
turn from those things, and turn back to the things that you were
given at the first, else I will remove your candlestick, or I
will remove you as being a witness for me. meaning that you will
no longer be a church. And we've seen that through history.
We've seen that churches have come, churches have gone, and
they are no longer in existence. So we see that Jesus is the perpetuator
of the local assembly. There is no longer a church in
Thyatira. There is no longer a church in
Laodicea. Those churches were done away
with. Why? Because they didn't repent
as Jesus said. And so he has the authority,
he has the prerogative to gather churches together like he has
here. He has the prerogative to disperse churches as he did
at Jerusalem. And so we see these things taking
place by the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the builder of the church
in its local and institutional aspects. but he is also the perpetuator. And that's what we wanna look
at today, that he's a perpetuator. And by the way, we spent a whole
section last week on talking about the place of the Holy Spirit
in all of this. This isn't got anything to do
with our authority, even though we've been given authority as
the church, that authority is led by the work of the Holy Spirit. And just to rattle off a couple
notes that we looked at last week, The Holy Spirit is the
one who brings the comfort to the church. Jesus sent the comforter
to comfort the church. That was in John 14, 16, 17.
The Holy Spirit is the one who teaches the church. There is
a special teaching that only the Holy Spirit brings in the
gathered assembly. Yes, we learn whenever we are
at home and we study our Bible, and I encourage everybody to
study daily your Bible and read the scriptures and study and
everything like that. But Jesus promised that the Holy
Spirit would be given to the church as its teacher. And one of the ways he does that
is through the gifted men in the church that he is given to
do that task. And so through the teaching of
the word of God, the Holy Spirit gives that ability, gives that
unction and gives the revelation of those things. And he does
that in the church. He doesn't promise to do that
outside of the church. He promises to do that through
the local church. That's John 14, 26. The Holy
Spirit testifies of Christ. What is he gonna teach whenever
he's teaching the church? Well, he's not gonna teach a
whole bunch of other stuff. What's he gonna do? He's gonna
be teaching about Christ. He's gonna teach us about Christ.
He's gonna teach through us Christ, okay? If you got a pastor, if
you got a preacher, a teacher, someone who is an elder within
the church, and they are not teaching Christ and centering
everything. I'm talking everything. If everything
in God's word doesn't find its center, its source, and its explanation
about Christ, then you've got somebody else. The Holy Spirit
is not teaching. Somebody else is. Because the
Holy Spirit is gonna make known or is gonna testify of Jesus
Christ. Jesus, whenever he preached to
those disciples, remember on the road to Emmaus after he was
resurrected, the Bible says that from Genesis and all the way
through, he began to show them that everything was about him.
Not just the sacrifices, not just the offerings and the rituals,
everything, everything from Genesis all the way to Malachi was about
him. And what we have a lot of times
today is we have preachers that like to go off and they like
to pick out subjects, and those subjects, they never find the
end result being centered around Christ and finding Christ in
that. And if you have a pastor and a preacher, anybody listening
or watching or listening, if your pastor is doing that, is
finding Christ, you've got a man who has been sent by God because
that is the gift that the Holy Spirit brings in the teaching
of God's Word is to make Christ exalted, glorified, known to
the congregation. Good morning, brother. We've
seen also last week that the Holy Spirit guides us into all
truth, not only doctrinally, but experientially. It guides
us into the truth of what we are to believe, and it guides
us into the truth on how we are to act upon what we believe.
That also is given in the church. Acts 13, John 16, we looked at
those verses. And so we see that the Holy Spirit
was very important in the life of the church. I can't stress
that enough, that the Holy Spirit is important within the church.
A lot of churches has relegated the Holy Spirit as nothing, and
some churches has exalted the Holy Spirit higher than they
should. While the Holy Spirit is a part of that three-one God,
the Holy Spirit has, as the scripture says, is not the one to be exalted. The Lord Jesus Christ is to be
exalted. The Father is not the one to
be exalted over the Son. But yet we also find that the
scriptures say that the Son is the everlasting Father and that
the Spirit is His Spirit. So whether you're talking about
the Father or the Spirit, the exaltation needs to be in Christ
because He is the everlasting Father and His is the eternal
Spirit that is given without measure to Him. So the Holy Spirit
is important in the life of the church and is given to the church. That promise isn't given to any
other institution. no matter how zealous for religious
works they are. And then we've seen last week
that the master builds his church on himself, as we just read there
in Matthew 18, that he is the divine builder, he is the divine
foundation, the divine supervisor, the divine light, and he is the
one who has brought in the divine materials, which is those who
have been quickened of God. Today, we wanna look at the fact
that Jesus is the perpetuator, not just the builder, okay, but
the perpetuator of the church. There in Matthew 16, 18, he said,
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now, over the course
of the years, it has looked like the gates of hell has prevailed
against the church, especially when you look in the Dark Ages,
at how many were killed for the name of Christ, and how many
were excluded from regular citizenry within towns. Even here in the
United States, the Baptists were of lower class citizenship, and
they were treated as nothing. Their children were forced to
attend Christian schools of other denomination
that did not preach the things that were taught by the New Testament
churches. And so it isn't just something
that happened back in the 1200s, the 1300s, the 1400s, but in
the 1700s, the 1800s, the 1900s, the Baptists have been persecuted and I believe
are still persecuted today whenever we preach and teach
these truths, especially through ridicule. But Jesus says here,
and he gives the promise, and this is the only promise that
we need. Like I said, if we don't ever find a pedigree of church
to church to church to church to church, we have the promise
that Jesus said that the gates of hell will not prevail against
his kind of church. And so if I never find, if I
have 10,000 of scholars that's out there from the Protestants
that say the church could not be found here or that these guys
were heretics, these guys were heretics, blah, blah, blah, all
that stuff. I don't believe that stuff because
let God be true and every man a liar. Second of all, the Protestant
history is skewed, remember, because if they hold to the true
history, they and all their churches cease to exist. They cannot deny
the headship and the foundation of their churches is not Christ
but the Catholic Church, a false church. Every church that has
came from the Protestant Reformation has its head and start in the
Catholic Church. The Baptists are the only ones
who have never ever been in the Catholic Church and are the only
ones who can say that their founder and builder is Christ. And we'll
see that here in just a few minutes when I get to some quotes that
we'll look at. But Jesus gave that promise in
Matthew 16, 18. Look again, if you would, at
Matthew 28. Jesus again makes this promise
to the church, not only this particular church that was gathered
here before His ascension, but as it's kind, that every church
that bears His name, every church that has His doctrine and practice
is given this promise. In Matthew 28, in verse 20, it
says, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you. And lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. And so there's no way that He
can be with them now. And we know that this is not
talking about this particular church, okay? This particular
church, just in a few chapters later in Acts, got dispersed
and was spread all over the place, okay? So he wasn't talking about
that. If you remember, there was 120
right here, 120 people here on the mountain that Jesus was talking
to. That was the first church, already in existence, already
functioning as a church, already made disciples, scripturally
baptized, and being taught all things whatsoever Christ was
commanding, okay? And had the apostles laid in
at first. It had gifts already within the
church. It already had discipline within
the church. It already had the ordinances
within the church, okay? So this was a fully functional
church at this point, and Jesus said, And lo, I'm with you. And lo, I'm with you always,
even until the end of the world. OK, and so that promise is given
to him or given to them there in John Chapter 14, if you would. John Chapter 14. We read this last week and talking
about the Holy Spirit. Again, Jesus is speaking to the
disciples here. And he says in verse 16, and
I will pray the father and he shall give you another comforter
that he may abide with you forever. So here again, we see that Christ
abides with His churches, wherever they may be found, His kind of
church. He abides with them forever by
His Spirit. He sends His Spirit to comfort
them, to be their comforters, and to abide with them forever.
Now, He can't abide with them forever and to the end of the
world unless the institution of His church is perpetuated
to the end of the world. His church is being found in
every generation is the only way that this promise can ever
be made. If the church ceased to exist
during some dark period of time when the Catholic church was
the only thing that was to be found, then Christ lied. He did not keep hell from prevailing. Christ lied, his presence did
not stay with them. Christ lied and did not send
them a comforter to abide with them in doing what the comforter
was sent to do. So any of this notion of this
invisible church or this invisible visible church militates against
the very promise and work of Christ and his love and keeping
of his church. Since the Lord affirms that the
church is perpetuity, we know that it's in existence today.
There are a lot of people today that says, you know, the church
is dead today. You know, they talk about how
the church has lost its way and it's went the way of the world
and it's just, all that's in the church is the world today.
I disagree. I disagree. False churches have
gone that way. False churches have that. But
the true churches, they have the promise that Christ is with
them and the comforter that is there teaching them and preserving
them. What is he preserving? What is
the Holy Spirit preserving whenever he teaches the church? He's preserving
the doctrine and the practice that Christ has given, all things
whatsoever Christ commanded. That's why we harp here so much
about finding New Testament churches, if you're out there listening
and watching. That's why we talk about it's important to find
those things. Why? Because that is where the
blessing of Christ has been promised, nowhere else. That's where the
perpetuity of doctrine and practice is kept. That's why whenever
I came out of the Southern Baptist Church and we found true churches
that kept the doctrine of Christ in not only in its doctrinal
form, the theology of Jesus, but the practice, the ecclesiology
of Jesus, And we said, there really is churches that follow
the New Testament pattern out there. Well, the reason is because
we're so blinded by so many modern-day churches that what is truly the
true New Testament churches are few and far between. Now, there
are more than some people think. Some people think that there's
just a handful of them in the United States today, but there's
a lot more than that. But we are in the minority. But
the importance is there, not just anywhere. The whole adage
that we see on the bumper stickers, attend the church of your choice,
nah, that's not true. Okay, that's not true. We want
to attend the Lord's church. And if we're a child of grace,
not only are we commanded to do that, why would we not want
to be that if that's where the presence of Christ is promised,
the power of Christ is promised, the teaching of Christ is promised,
and the keeping perpetuity of Christ's promise, and the glory
of Christ. The Bible says that the church
is the glory of Christ. Why would you want to be outside
the church? Why would you want to be not associated with the
local congregation that gathers in the name of Jesus Christ,
if that's where his glory is, and that's where his teaching
is, and that's where his blessing is? We should want to be there. Plus the fact that he has told
us and commanded us that we are to be there. If there has been or shall be
a moment in which church, like the first one, has not been obtained,
then every word that Jesus has spoken in these verses are false. Now, there's a few things that
we need to look at as far as perpetuity is concerned and not
overlook these things. Number one, to hide behind the
general church or the universal church. idea is to shame the
Lord Jesus Christ, I believe. To hide behind a universal church
is to shame the Lord Jesus Christ. He speaks of the first church
as an institution, living on and on and on, age after age
after age, until he comes again. And all of them find their root
in that first church that he built, that he began, that he
said the gates of hell would not prevail against it. So this
general church notion militates against that, and to me, I believe,
brings shame upon the Lord Jesus Christ. To hide behind the perpetuity
of the faith, that it's just the faith that's perpetuated,
not the churches of Jesus Christ. It's just the faith. Well, the
faith has been perpetuated through the ages. Well, to me, I believe
that also is a shame to Christ, and it actually dodges the very
issue itself. Here's the reason why. Turn with
me, if you would, over to Jude. This is why you cannot separate
the doctrine of Christ from the congregation of Christ. You cannot separate the doctrine
of Christ You can't say that the faith of Christ has been
perpetuated, but not the churches. You cannot say that, yes, the
churches went away, but the faith was preserved even in those Catholic
institutions. There were men within those,
and start naming all those what they call the forefathers or
the church fathers, which to me were heretics, okay? I do not look to those men. I
do not look to their little groups of council, the Council of Trent,
the Council of this or the Council of that, all those things, even
the ones that had truth there, okay? They had erred from the
truth and they were not the Church of Jesus Christ. And they did
not keep the truth. The Reformers did not pull the
truth out whenever they came out. They still were in error.
They were in error to not only the doctrine, they were in error
to the practice of Jesus Christ. But the reason that you cannot
separate the doctrine of Christ and the ecclesia or the congregation
of Christ, the reason that you cannot say it's the faith that's
perpetuated, not the churches, is because of what we find here.
Look at Jude, third verse, he said, Beloved, when I gave all
diligence to write unto you, of the common salvation, it was
needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should
earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto
the saints." Now, is the faith of Jesus Christ perpetuated throughout
the ages? Yes, that's true. But he says that was once delivered. to the saints. When was that?
Because we've had preachers in every age. We had preachers and
prophets in the Old Testament. But when was the faith once delivered
to the saints? During Jesus's earthly ministry.
That's whenever the faith was delivered unto the saints. And
how did it delivered unto them? By personally teaching them and
instructing them and then laying within the church the foundation
of the apostles who he specifically and specially taught. And they became the voice piece
and the authority that taught and began to build the churches
after Christ's ascension. It was once delivered to the
saints then. and it has been perpetuated,
but how has it been perpetuated? This is why you can't separate
it. Look, if you would, at 1 Timothy. If Christ has promised to perpetuate
that faith, that He's given to that faith once, and it's going
to be for all times, how is Christ's plan to perpetuate His faith? 1 Timothy chapter 3, look with
me if you would, down at verse 15, or excuse me, 14. These things
write unto thee, remember this is Paul writing to Timothy, the
young preacher Timothy, the pastor Timothy, and he's given him,
this is an epistle, he's teaching him how to be a pastor, how to
function within the church, And he says, these things write unto
thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly. But if I tarry long,
that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in
the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the
pillar and the ground of the truth. So the church, Christ's
congregation, is the pillar and the ground of truth. If the truth,
the faith of Jesus Christ, is going to be perpetuated in every
generation is being perpetuated in the congregation of Jesus
Christ, in his churches. Those who have been born again,
who have been scripturally baptized, and have been gathered together
for the instruction and worship of Jesus Christ, who continue
to teach all things whatsoever Christ has commanded. Not what
Mosheem, not what John Gill, not what Charles Spurgeon, not
what Westminster, not what any other theological organization
has taught, what Christ has taught. So if there is a perpetuation
of the faith, then that means that there's been a perpetuation
of churches because Jesus said that Church would be the pillar
and the ground. And as we learned through the
nature of the church study, that there is no other kind of church
except a gathered congregation. It's not everyone everywhere. And let's just take that for
example. If we just say that the church is the family, all
elect of all time, is the pillar and ground of truth found in
every elect child of grace? No. None of us have everything
perfectly right. But churches can have the doctrine
of Christ right, and they can have the ordinances correct.
We have two ordinances within the church, baptism in the Lord's
Supper, preaching if you want to consider preaching an ordinance. We have the doctrine of Jesus,
the sovereign grace and teaching of imputed righteousness, and
that can be found in churches today. But not everybody holds
to those, not everybody believes that. Whether it be a gathered
congregation down the street who believes something similar
to that, but not all of them, then they're not the pillar and
ground of truth. Some individual in their house
may believe that they have the doctrine of Christ, but they
don't have the practice of Christ unless they're gathering together
with the people of God. Because the practice of Christ
is that we be assembled together. Why? Because he's giving you
a gift to exercise in that assembly. And if you're not exercising
that gift in that assembly, then you're not following the practice
of Jesus Christ. So that's why it's important
to be a part of a New Testament church, because that is where
you're part of service to Christ. People say, well, I'm serving
Christ outside of the church. I'm serving Christ doing this
or doing that. No, you're not. You're not serving Christ doing
that, because the only place that Christ has made for His
service is the local congregation. In and through, the local congregation
is the only place that Christ has not only given authority
to serve Him, but has called us to serve Him. Can't find anywhere in Scripture,
brethren. Search it. Search it all you will, and I'm
not saying that In a prideful way, I'm saying that in a confident
way, because I disbelieved this myself. And I had to search the
scripture over and over and over again, trying to prove men wrong
that were saying these things, and I couldn't. I couldn't do
it. Everywhere I found, service was always directly tied to the
local congregation, whether it was an ordained minister being
sent out, whether it was an ordained deacon being sent out, whether
it was something being voted on, done by the local church,
Everything was that, but not to mention going back to the
very beginning when Jesus gave the commission that if you were
made a disciple, you were to be baptized and to be brought
back to the congregation for instruction in all things whatsoever
Christ has commanded. You cannot find service anywhere
outside of that. And we see the parallel back
in the Old Testament. There was no service outside
of the Levitical priesthood and the tabernacle which God had
built. You can't find it anywhere else. What happened when they
took the ark somewhere else? Devastation happened. What happened
when those who were not qualified for the service of God tried
to do the service of God? Devastation happened, didn't
it? Uzzah put his hand to the ark, God killed him. The two
sons, I believe it was, of Aaron who brought in strange fire,
what did God do? Why? Because they were not doing
it God's way. They were not doing it in God's
place. They were not the ones who were
qualified to do it. And the church is no different.
God has set his special place here within the local congregation. And if there is perpetuation
of the faith, it's going to be in the local church, not outside
of it. Because he said that the church
is the pillar and the ground of truth. And without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, priesthood of Gentiles,
believed on in the world, received up into glory. So Paul here is
teaching Timothy that the gospel and all that is to be taught
about Christ and what he has done is found in the local church,
that they are the pillar and the ground. And so with that,
we ought to be very careful in how we approach the church that
Jesus has not only built but has deemed the place of his perpetuation. So both the pseudo-Baptists and
the paedo-Baptists are wrong in their general church idea
and their faith perpetuation idea because it is the local
church where that's at. Now, whenever we look at the
church being built by Jesus and it started because this is what
this section is about. It's when did the church begin?
Okay. And we found that it was, it
began with Jesus Christ at his earthly ministry. Okay. If that's
the case, if Jesus is the founder and the builder of the church,
if Jesus is the one who instituted that at the very beginning, and
he's the one who began to build the church and is building the
church, If he's the one doing that, then nobody else is. So
that means that if any other church has come into existence
that does not have Jesus Christ, the perpetuator, Jesus Christ
as the beginner of their church, then they're not his. The Lutheran
church didn't appear until 1530 AD. That's when the Lutheran
church began. The Lutheran Church and the Lutheran
doctrine began in 1530 A.D. The Anglican Church began in
1534 A.D. The Presbyterian Church appeared
in 1541 A.D. The Congregationalist Church
appeared in 1602 A.D. The Methodist Church appeared in 1744 A.D.
The Disciples of Christ or the Campbellites began in 1827 AD. These are all the major denominations
of today. And now, the Baptists, the Reformed
Baptists, are wanting to say that they began in 1541. You
know, they're wanting to go back to the Reformation and say, well,
we came out of the Reformation. That's not true. They may have,
if they wanted to follow the doctrine and practice, of the
Reformers, but if they want to follow the New Testament pattern,
the foundation and start of that church did not begin at that
time. It began before that. Now, I want to read some quotes
to you guys here about this, and I know, again, this can become
boring and it can become monotonous, but please listen, if you would,
to this. A lot of these quotes do not
come from Baptists, by the way. Okay? A lot of these quotes. During the 1st and 2nd centuries,
the Mesoleneans and Eucrites and the Montanists preached the
word and practiced the same according to the Baptist message and method. That's during the 1st and 2nd
centuries. During the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and
6th centuries, the Novationists held and propagated the Baptist
doctrines and practice. During the 7th and 8th centuries,
the Polychians became very numerous and brought down upon themselves
the hatred and the hostility of the papal church organization,
and these worshipers maintained Baptist peculiarities in faith
and practice. Notice they always put faith
and practice, not just in their doctrine. You can't just believe
in Sovereign Grace and be considered a New Testament church. You can't
just hold the New Testament church practices and deny sovereign
grace. See, we have a lot of independent
fundamental Baptist churches, the ABA, the BMA, places like
that, who don't believe sovereign grace, but they believe in the
church practices, baptism, the Lord's Supper, local church,
blah, blah, blah, all those things, but they don't believe sovereign
grace. Then you have some that believe in sovereign grace, but
they don't believe in the practice. and how the Lord's Suffering
should be done, how baptism should be done, and the local church,
and all those sort of things. But here we find during the sixth,
for the seventh and eighth centuries, these polychians held both, not
only the faith and the practice of the Baptists. During the ninth
century, the Waldensians became very dominant. And from that
ninth century, even into the Reformation, and that's when
they began to compromise, just like the Baptists began to compromise
in the 1600s, the Waldensians began to compromise later on
in the early formations of the Reformation. But until that time,
during the ninth century, the Waldensians became very dominant
and the glorious gospel, the Son of God, was preserved in
its pristine purity. They were called by Roberson,
the historian, Trinitarian Baptists, as all Orthodox Baptists are
Trinitarians. During the 10th century, the
Petrines, came into existence along with the Waldensians and
maintained Baptist preachments and practices. During the 11th
century, the Waldensians, Albigensians, the Cathari, the Lyons, and the
Anabaptists attracted renewed attention throughout Europe and
perpetuated the Baptist faith and practice. During the 12th
century, the Arnoldists, the Waldensians, and the Anabaptists
maintained a pure gospel and perpetuated peculiarities and
practice. During the 13th, 14th, 15th,
16th, and 17th century, the Anabaptists and the Mennonites preserved
the preachments and practice of Baptists. During the 18th,
19th, and 20th centuries, modern Baptists have maintained the
pure gospel preaching and practicing according to the apostolic and
Christolic message and pattern. So here we see that from the
time of Christ until the time of now, the faith and practice
of Jesus Christ has been held among these people in every generation. The Baptist faith proclaimed
by brethren bearing different names during the centuries have
been perpetuated through Baptist churches. Our doctrine and practice,
apostolic in character and kind, have come down through the centuries. Now, here's a quote from Zwingli,
who was a Swiss reformer, of the 16th century. He was not
a Baptist, okay? But he was a Swiss reformer.
Some say that he could have possibly been leaning that direction,
but he was not. A Swiss reformer of the 16th
century says this, the institution of anabaptism, and let me just
pause here for a minute in case anybody's watching or listening.
It happened around, there's nobody listening, I ain't recording,
that's watching. If you remember, the first and
second The First London Confession of Faith begins with a disclaimer
saying that there were seven churches in London that were
falsely accused of being Anabaptists, or falsely being Anabaptists,
okay? And a lot of people think that
they say that, see, the Baptists are kind of trying to distance
themselves from the Anabaptists, because the Protestants were
saying that the Anabaptists were heretics. The Catholics were
saying that the Anabaptists were heretics. And now they're saying,
see, that even the First London Confession of Faith, those Sovereign
Grace particular Baptists said the Anabaptists are heretics. They don't want to be associated
with them. They're saying we're wrongly called Anabaptists. Don't
call us that. That's not what they meant whenever
they said that. What they meant was they are
wrongly called Anabaptists. The word Anabaptist means re-baptizer. And they were over and over and
over again saying, we are not re-baptizing you. You guys who
are believing the truth and wanting to come out of the Reformation
churches and the Catholic church, we're not preaching re-baptism,
we're preaching baptism. There is no such thing as re-baptism,
there's only baptism. You can be dumped, you can be
immersed without authority and without proper gospel in many
places, but there's only one baptism, and that is scriptural
baptism. And so what they were saying
is the very term Anabaptist, which was given to them by the
Catholics, that that term is an incorrect term. Don't call
us Anabaptists, we're Baptists. There is no rebaptizing, it's
just baptism. So when Zwingli talks about the
Anabaptists, He's talking about the Baptist, not some secluded
group. He says, the institution of anabaptism
or rebaptism is no novelty, but for 1300 years has caused great
disturbance in the church. Thus, Zwingli traces baptism
back to the second century within 200 years of Jesus Christ. So
the practice of the Baptist, he says, goes all the way back
to, that he can tell, all the way back to the second century.
Mosheen, not a Baptist, a Lutheran historian and a Pato Baptist,
a baby baptizer, says this, the true origin of that sect which
acquired the name, see they didn't name themselves that, they acquired
the name, Anabaptists, is hid in the remote depths of antiquity
and consequently difficult to be ascertained. Thus Moshim absolves
Baptists from the criticism of being Protestant. See Moshim
said that the Anabaptists, that their start comes from antiquity
and they can't even really be discerned where they began. that they weren't part of the
Protestants. I don't know why Baptists keep wanting to say
that they are part of that. Dr. Dermott, chaplain to the
King of Holland, and Dr. Yip Edge, professor of theology
at Drenagen, received a royal commission to prepare a history
of the Reformed Dutch Church. Okay, again, this is a church
that came out of the Reformation. This history prepared under royal
sanction and officially published contains the following testimony
to the antiquity and orthodoxy of Dutch Baptists. Quote, we
have now seen that the Baptists, who were formerly called Anabaptists,
and in later times, Mennonites, were the original Waldensians,
and have long in the history of the church received the honor
of that origin. On this account, the Baptists
may be considered the only Christian community which has stood since
the apostles, and as the Christian society, which has preserved
pure the doctrines of the gospel through all the ages." Okay,
and so again, that wasn't a Baptist who said that. That was a Dutch
reformer who said that, and he said that about the Dutch Baptists
of that day, who were sovereign, grace-believing, Baptist-acting
in practice people. He said, these are the same people
who were found in the Waldensians. So he also realizes that the
Waldensians believed the same thing as what those current Baptists
of that day were believing. And he said, matter of fact,
precedes the Waldensians and goes back that they are the only
group of people that can find themselves coming from the Apostles
themselves, the first church. So these historians carry Baptists
back to the Apostles and declare that Baptists have preserved
the gospel and its purity down through the ages. John T. Christian, a very renowned
Baptist historian, in his book on Baptist history, says this,
I have no question in my own mind that there has been a historical
succession of Baptists from the days of Christ to the present
time. Dr. George Lorimer writes in
his book, The Baptist in History, that the, quote, the Baptists
are more likely the oldest, is generally conceited, and grows
more certain with the progress of scholarly investigation. J.B. Moody in his book, My Church,
writes this, quote, Church perpetuity is scriptural, reasonable, credible,
historical, and conclusive. Dr. J.O. Smith, in his book,
Baptist Law and Continuity, writes, we have submitted the testimony
of more than 40, listen to this, more than 40 of the world's best
historians, not one of them a Baptist, who expressly and clearly point
out the movement of these Baptist people through the long centuries
back to the apostolic age. Dr. J.W. Porter, noted author
and editor, says this, quote, if Baptists have not perpetuity,
then Christ's prophecy and promise have failed. This is unthinkable. H.B. Taylor, in his book, Bible
Briefs, writes this, quote, Baptist churches are the only institutions
that are divine on this earth. Without them, Matthew 16, 18
has failed of fulfillment. Now, whenever he says that, granted,
he is talking about the Baptists that hold that doctrine and that
faith, because there are Baptist churches out there that do not
hold that doctrine and faith today. But whenever he wrote
that, that was the prevailing belief of the time, the sovereign
grace of God and the practice that those Baptists held. Dr. T.T. Eaton writes this, quote,
those who oppose Baptist succession have no logical ground to stand
on in organizing a church out of material furnished by other
churches and with those baptized by regular ordained ministers.
Dr. R.B. Cook writes this in his
book, Story of the Baptist. Baptists are able to trace their
distinctive principles to the apostolic age, when from the
union of the church and state, Christianity became generally
corrupt, there still remain in obscure places churches and sects
which maintain the pure doctrines and ordinances of Christ." Notice
he said doctrines and ordinances. And hence it is certain that
these churches and sects held substantially the same principles
which are now held as the distinctive views of the Baptist. If you
look back in that quote, he says, when from the union of the church
and the state, when was that? Well, that was the beginnings
of the Catholic church. the Catholic Church began to unionize the
church and state back with Constantine. So he said, so all the way back
to that time period, that there were Baptists in existence. Dr. D.B. Ray, in his book, Baptist
Succession, writes this, quote, Baptists have, with one voice,
denied any connection with the Romish apostasy and claimed their
origin as a church from Jesus Christ and the apostles. Today,
the Reformed Baptist Church says that we're wrong about that.
The Founders Movement and the Southern Baptists who are trying
to get their roots back to Calvinistic beliefs, they believe they came
and stem from the Protestant Reformation, that the Baptist
that was before their time was not the Baptist that have come
out of the Reformation. And I would agree to that. The Baptist that came out of
the Reformation is not the Baptist of the days old, okay? but the
ones of the days of old are the ones who held to the apostolic
beliefs. Dr. D.C. Haynes, in his book,
The Baptist Denomination, writes this, quote, The Baptist Church
is the primitive church. There has never been a time when
it was not in being. At least from its foundation,
let's assume there. Dr. George McDaniel, in his book,
Churches of the New Testament, writes this, quote, There is
no personality this side of Jesus Christ who is satisfactory, is
a satisfactory explanation of their origin, save the Baptist
Church. So we see that there's a lot
of quotes here, and I could go on. There's another one here.
The president of the Council of Trent, Cardinal Hosius, he
writes this. If the truth of religion were
to be judged by the readiness and boldness of which a man of
any sect shows in suffering, then the opinion and persuasion
of no sect can be truer and surer than that of the Anabaptists,
since there have been none of these 1,200 years past that have
been more genuinely punished or that have more cheerfully
and steadfastly undergone and even offered themselves to the
most cruel punishment than these people. That was, he quoted that
in 1544. That was at the Council of Trent,
and he said that for 1,200 years past, so 1544 minus 1,200, that
takes us back to what, 200 and something, 300 AD, 354 AD. So here, a non-Baptist, President of the Council of Trent
admits that the Baptists were the ones holding these things
from early on. Again, we read what Zwingli,
the Swiss reformer, says. In another quote, he says, the
institution of the Anne of Baptists is no novelty, but for 1,300
years has caused great trouble to the church. whenever he wrote that was in
1525, so that would mean that the Baptists were in existence
in 225 AD. Robert Barclay, he's a Quaker,
he wrote this in his book, Inner Life of the Societies of the
Commonwealth. There are also reasons for believing
that on the continent of Europe, small hidden Christian societies
who have held many of the opinions of the Anabaptists have existed
from the time of the Apostles. John Clark Redpath, a Methodist
author, in his Redpath's History of the World, wrote this about
Baptist church perpetuity. He said, I should not readily
admit that there was a Baptist church as far back as AD 100,
though without doubt there were Baptists then, and here it is,
listen to this, as all Christians were then Baptists. That's a
Methodist saying that. recognizing the perpetuity of
the faith being found in the Baptist churches. The church
is the pillar and the ground of truth. These so far has been
the, the Baptist church has been the only one that has been found
to be identified not only by scripture, but also by history
as having churches that are the only churches that can go all
the way back to the apostolic time. And if that's the case,
then that was the church that Jesus was talking about when
he said, the gates of hell will not prevail. And there is evidence
that shows that. And then he also said that that
church that he built, that is not going to have the gates of
hell prevail against it, is the pillar and the ground of truth.
And as these men have testified, not being Baptists, that they
have held that doctrine and that practice from the first Apollo
church down through the centuries. But you know what I find funny
in a lot of these? that even though that they acknowledge
the fact that these Baptists are the original Christians,
that these Baptists are the first church, and that they are holding
the same doctrines from then all the way until that time when
they recognize that, they still choose to not be a part of it?
Isn't that amazing? That even though someone acknowledges
that, sees that, scripturally, historically, that they believe
that it's okay to not be part of that. It's okay to do that.
We're just gonna do our own thing. Alexander Campbell, he's the
founder of the Campbellite movement. That's where the Churches of
Christ have come from and the Disciples of Christ Church has
come from. He originally was a Baptist,
but began to err in his view of baptism in beginning to believe
that baptism was a necessity for salvation. He says this,
From the apostolic age to the present time, the sentiments
of Baptists have had a continued chain of advocates and public
monuments for their existence in every century can be produced. Isaac Newton, learned English
philosopher, student of the scriptures and of history, says this, the
modern Baptist, formerly called Anabaptist, are the only people
who have never symbolized with the papacy. The Edinburgh Cyclopedia,
that is a Catholic encyclopedia, by the way, the Edinburgh Cyclopedia
says this, quote, it must have already occurred to our readers
that the Baptists are the same sect of Christians that were
formally described under the appellation of Anabaptists. Indeed, this seems to have been
their leading principle from the time of Tertullian to the
present time. Tertullian, if you didn't know
who Tertullian was, Tertullian was a monotonist, okay, who also
was grouped in with those Baptist groups of people. Tertullian
was born 50 years after the death of John the Apostle. So here's
the encyclopedia for the Catholic Church admits that the Baptists
have went all the way back to right up to the Apostle John. In his book on the New Testament
Church, W.C. King writes this, of the Baptists,
it may be said that they are not reformers. These people,
compromising bodies of Christian believers known under various
names in different countries, are entirely distinct and independent
of the Roman and Greek churches, have an unbroken continuity from
apostolic days down through the centuries. Throughout this long
period, they were bitterly persecuted for heresy, driven from country
to country, disenfranchised, deprived of their property, imprisoned,
tortured, and slain by the thousands, yet they swerve not from their
New Testament faith, doctrine, and adherence or practice. The claim of Dutch Baptists to
apostolic origin was thoroughly investigated, as I read a while
ago, by the people in Holland of the Dutch Reform. But they
wrote the history of the Dutch Reform. And out of that, actually,
there came the first Baptist church in America, which was
located in Newport, Rhode Island. And Dr. Porter writes this. He
says, Dr. John Clark received his baptism
from Reverend Stilwell's Church in London. and this church received
theirs from Holland, and the Holland Baptist from the Waldensians,
and the Waldensians from the Novations, the Novations from
the Donatists, the Donatists received their baptism from the
apostolic church, and the apostolic church from John the Baptist,
and John the Baptist received his baptism from heaven. And so brethren, we find that
it is not only in the church, that Jesus would perpetuate it,
the promise given to him, but it is evidenced in the fact that
history details that. That his practice, his doctrine,
all things whatsoever Christ had commanded has been preserved. It was the faith that was delivered
once to the saints. They have been made the pillar
and the ground of that. They are divinely kept. That's
what perpetuation means. They are kept. And so it's no little thing.
That's why I started this study out with the scripture that Paul
asked the Corinthian church, do ye despise the church of the
living God? If you do not look at the New
Testament church and appreciate what is there and value your
time and effort and service and love and gifts and support there,
then we despise the church of the living God. If we don't think
anything of its ordinances, if we don't think anything of its
doctrine, or the people that make up that church, if we don't
do that, then we are despising the church of the living God.
That's what Paul was saying to them. You guys are acting as if you're
not a congregation and one people, but you are. If you're a church,
if you're what Christ has built, then you are one body who are
to function together with one mind because you have one faith
and one practice. And if you're not doing that,
then you're not His. You're despising Him, rejecting
Him, rejecting His service in this world. And so that's why
it's very important for us to realize that. That's why we need
to understand that it's only Christ that can perpetuate these
things. It's not scholasticism. The seminaries have not kept
the faith down through the years. Look at all the universities
today that originally started out as Christian universities
and look at them now. They've not held to the faith.
They've not held to the practices of Christ. And so it's important
that we find that. Anybody got any questions or
any comments? This was when the church began.
It began with Jesus Christ. and his ministry, and it is carried
out from age to age to age until he comes again. All right, Lord
willing, we'll pick up the next topic next Lord's Day. Not sure
exactly what it's gonna be. I'm kind of leaning towards the
officers of the church, but that's what I was leaning towards before
I did the origin of the church, so we'll see where the Lord leads
this week, but anyway. If you have any questions, feel
free to ask those as well. All right, let's bow and we'll
have a word of prayer.