All right, coming back from break,
we're going to, I want us to look at Jesus. We're talking
about the origin of the church or where it began. And we just
concluded a wrap-up of last week's message that showed that the
church didn't start with the first man saved because the church
isn't the elect of all time. We've seen that it wasn't Abraham. We've seen that it wasn't John
the Baptist, although he prepared the materials. He wasn't, that's
not where the church began. And then we've seen that it wasn't
Pentecost. The church didn't begin at Pentecost.
We've seen that the church began with Jesus Christ. As soon as
he came up and was baptized by John, he began his earthly ministry
there And he came up out of the waters and immediately went and
began to call out from all those that John had prepared, he called
out 12 apostles. And that's where the scriptures
say that he laid within the church first apostles. And so he gathered
those apostles and that's where the church began to be built.
And upon teaching those apostles, they began to, as we've seen
later in the accounts of John the Baptist, we see that At that
time, now the disciples were baptizing, and Jesus was preaching. The disciples were baptizing.
Remember they said, hey, Jesus is baptizing more than you, although
Jesus wasn't the one baptizing. And so we see that Jesus and
the disciples, or the first apostles that he laid within the church,
and that's where the church began, began building upon that. And
so all those disciples were brought in together for the teaching
of Jesus. And that's where the first church began is with the
earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. As soon as he began his earthly
ministry after his baptism, that is when the church began. Now,
I'd like us to look more at that and see how Jesus is not only
the builder of the church, but he's also the perpetuator of
the church. Jesus is the one who builds the
church. Jesus is the one who perpetuates
the church. And we're gonna see that he does
that not only in its institutional aspect, okay, meaning that he's
making sure that his kind of church has been in every age,
but he is also the builder and the perpetuator of each local
congregation. And so each local congregation
is gathered together and is kept at the discretion of Jesus, okay? And so we will look and see that
also. So we see that in Matthew 16,
18 again, Jesus said that he will build his church. And so Jesus is the builder. Now, sometimes
people think that we're the builder. Some denominations, they go ape
crazy over programs to build the church. And they have all
these studies done. What's the best way to build
church? You go into any Christian bookstore, quote unquote Christian
bookstore, and there's gonna be rows and rows and rows of
books on how to build a church, or how to grow a church, or how
to maximize your church membership, how to increase your church membership,
all these kind of things. Matter of fact, way back when,
before I had any sense, or before I had half sense, I was very,
very influenced and just riddled with that stupid book, The Christ-Driven
Church. The guy that built The Purpose-Driven
Life, he wrote a book before that called of the Christ-driven
church, and it was basically this salesman-type model. It
was a seeker-friendly church model, and how they had these
concentric circles, and you had these people that was the core
group, and the outer group, and the ones that you're to reach,
and how you're supposed to go out and provide everything that
would appeal them to come into the first ring, and then transition
them from ring to ring. to get them where they're the
core members and all. I mean, it was just basically, it was
doing whatever you can to get the people in. You're lowering
the standards of scripture, you're lowering the doctrine and the
preaching to appeal to the lost people to get lost people in,
instead of the church being what it should be. The church is where
the people of God come to worship that have already been saved,
are coming to worship God and to be instructed in the things
of God and for edification. That's why we come. This is not
the evangelistic meeting. Now, again, that is to say that
we don't mind if people come in that are looking and seeking,
that those that are maybe not sure or maybe have not confessed
faith or anything like that, we surely won't do that. Now, we're not gonna extend to
them the rights of membership. They're not gonna be baptized
without profession of faith, and they're not gonna be able
to partake of the Lord's Supper without belief of the gospel
and baptism. And they will not be able to
have full functioning rights as a member of the church until
those things are met. But we see that denominations
and all their programs is not the builder. Parachurch organizations
are not the builders of the churches. I used to say this back whenever
I used to listen to the Bible Answer Man a lot in my Arminian
days and everything, that these parachurch organizations like
the Bible Answer Man, the Christian Research Institute and all that
kind of stuff, those things are needed to come alongside of the
church to fill the gaps in where the churches are not of getting
done what should be done. Well, that's erroneous. If we
believe that the Bible said that Christ has built in his church
and has promised his presence and power there and is supplying
it with everything that they have need of, then we trust that
Christ has given us all that we want. Here's the downplay
of this, and I'm kind of getting off on a tangent on this and
kind of a bird that gets in my saddle a little bit. The reason
that so many people are dissatisfied in trusting Christ to do all
that is because they have all these ambitions of wide-sweeping
evangelism outside of the scope of where God has them at the
moment. They have this wide-sweeping evangelistic concern that there
are people dying and going to hell that we're not reaching,
and if we just can reach them with the gospel. So we gotta
get all this money up so we can go reach them with the gospel.
And if we get there with the gospel, then they'll be saved.
Well, that's not happening, people. The Lord is saving every person
for whom he was given. And he's finding them the gospel
however he finds them the gospel. And is it bad to send people
out and do things? I'm not downing that either.
But what I'm saying is a lot of times churches begin to put
in programs and start pushing money, money, money, money to
build them programs because they feel that if they're not doing
that, then they're not being evangelistic. And that's not
true. There are a lot of times that
the Lord, what seems to be, we need aid from this or that because
we just can't get it all done as a tiny church. Matter of fact,
I was told a few years ago, whenever we were discussing our involvement
in a fellowship in this area, and that it started, that we
originally was in and now we are no longer a part of, you
know, whenever I mentioned that, We're not interested in being
a part of an organization that thinks that they need to build
a school or that they need to train men for becoming missionaries
before they can go become a missionary. That those things that the Lord
calls men to preach, the Lord prepares those men, gives them
the gifts to do that, and if he calls them, then they just
need to go and trust the Lord. They don't need to go through
a school. They don't need to be educated by man. They don't
need to do all those things. They need to follow the Lord
and his gifting and the calling. Well, anyway, whenever I begin
to say that we don't believe in strict structural organization
between the churches, it's a loose fellowship. We meet, we share
the word of God with each other, and we eat together, those kind
of types of things. that the concerted effort of
becoming this organized conglomeration we want to be a part of. And
one of the gentlemen told me, he said, well, you know, how
many people are in your church? And I told him how many people
was in the church. And he said, you know, there's
a lot of things that you're not going to be able to do because
you don't have enough people there and enough funds to do
it. And so you need the help of other things. Well, see, that's
the mentality is there's so much to do out there that you're not
going to be able to do because of your size and funds. But brethren,
have you ever thought that maybe God doesn't want you to do all
that that's out there, and the size and the funds that you have
are for what he's got for you to do where you're at. If he
brings more people and has more funds, there could be more outreach
as he provides for that. But if he doesn't, there isn't
no strenuous effort that we need to get after to try striving
up the business. Okay, so I've got off that tangent,
but you know, so many people think that the church has to
be so actively involved in foreign missions or they're not being
evangelistic. They're not doing the Great Commission.
The Great Commission wasn't... Everybody has to go into all
the world. It just says to go into all the
world. Well, if I go out into Joplin, I'm going out into the
world. That's outside of the church. That's outside of the
people of God. That's into the world. Can I
go to Jerusalem, Samaria, Judea, and the other most parts of the
world? Absolutely. We have that to do. This church actually is
involved in doing that. You know how we're involved in
doing that? By this right here. We are doing
this. How else do we do that? Every
time I go preach somewhere as your ordained minister, I represent
this church and I go and I preach wherever It is, so I'm going
to other places preaching the gospel and evangelizing the gospel
of Jesus Christ. And so that is, you know, we
don't have to have giant programs. We don't have to have a million
missionaries up on the wall that we're supporting. We don't have
to have a man going to some, you know, banana boat, tropical
island, preaching to some aborigine somewhere. You know, we have
the gospel here, And as the Lord provides and raises up men and
puts within their hearts places to go, then we support that and
we do that. But if the Lord doesn't do that,
that doesn't mean that we're any less active, faithful, healthy
than any other church. Not all churches had missionaries.
Not all churches were sending out mass, hordes of literature
everywhere, okay? Let's not get wrapped up in those
things. All right, now Jesus is the builder of both the local
and the institutional aspects. And he is the master builder
through all ages. Look, if you would, there in
1 Corinthians chapter three, get over there, 1 Corinthians. Chapter 3, we're finding out
that the Lord and not the saints are the builder, is the builder. 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 9,
it says, for we are laborers together with God, ye are God's
husbandry, ye are God's building. Ye are God's husbandry, ye are
God's building, okay? We see here that we're not the
builders. The building can't build the builder. I mean, the
building can't build itself. Right? It takes a builder to
build the building. If the church is the building,
is the house of God, is the temple of God, the tabernacle of God,
it can't build itself. There's not one structure out
here looking out these windows that we've seen out here that
was ever built by itself. A two-by-four don't jump up on
its end and nail itself to another two-by-four and make a wall.
A sheetrock don't throw itself on the two-by-fours and make
itself a smooth wall. A roof don't jump on top of itself
and make itself a roof. Okay, it takes a builder, right?
A builder builds something with materials. Anybody that's done any building
knows that they have to have materials. Contractor comes in,
what does he have? He has a stack of lumber, a bunch
of nails, he has sheetrock, he has concrete, he has lights,
whatnot. Okay? So there are the things
that make up the building. So the building isn't the builder,
but the building is. But here it says, for ye are
laborers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry or tillage,
that's what that means. Ye are God's building. So we are the building. And so
if we are the building, we are not the builder. So the saints
are not the builder. Denominations are not the builder. Denominations are human inventions. Yes, we have Baptist in our name,
and as I've said a hundred times here, if I've not said it a thousand,
whenever we say Baptist, we don't mean a denomination. We mean
an identification of ministry and service. That's what Baptist
means. Baptist means a demarcation. As a matter of fact, Baptist
was given, was a demarcation that was given to the people
that held to the tenets or the faith of those who maintained
baptism and immersion as baptism. They were called Baptists. And
they were called Baptists by other people. But John the Baptist,
that was the name that was given to him to identify him. He was
John the Baptist. Jesus called him John the Baptist.
He didn't just call him John, Cousin John. You know, this is
my cuz from down the road. No, he called him John the Baptist
and he said, there's no man greater that has been born of woman than
John the Baptist. The Baptist was a term referring
to the ministry that John had been called to by God. And that ministry that John was
given was to prepare people for the Lord. And then the Lord took
that preparation and began building a building with it. We continue
as the fellow laborers with God, we continue to prepare the people
of the Lord. He's the one that builds it.
We will not make disciples without God. The first part of the commission,
go make disciples, that is not happening unless Christ first
gives them life and gives them faith. That will not happen.
And so we cannot even begin the commission without the sovereign
grace of God at work in the hearts of men and women that we preach
the gospel to. And so once a disciple is made,
they are baptized and brought into the church for instruction.
That's where we labor. We are laborers within the building,
as the building. But we are not the ones who build
the building. We are the building. So, saints
don't build the building and denominations don't build the
building. Jesus said, I will build my church.
He didn't say, I'm gonna give this over to the Southern Baptists. The Southern Baptists will build
my church. And I see that all over. Matter
of fact, I get, I get mail all the time of a certain congregation
or a certain para-church organization. At one time, there was the Sovereign
Grace Church Planners. It was a group out of New York. They sent me a DVD to watch,
and it was an explanation of how they were going to go out
and build churches in all these different major towns and stuff,
and they were going to appoint preacher or something to reside
over that. They wanted to raise money to
go buy a facility for them to begin to meet in and to advertise
so that the people will come. Well, that's not how churches
are built. Churches don't come together because you bought a
building, put out advertisement, and stocked it with a preacher,
and then I'll say, all right, now let's come, let's build a
church. That's not how churches build. Churches are built whenever
people are made disciples, are baptized, and then they're gathered
back together for the instruction. And they are gathered together
as a congregation. That's whenever they become a
church. And then that congregation, if it wants to seek out a place,
a specific place to meet, then they look for a specific place
to meet, and they can call a pastor. But it doesn't go, that's, what
they were trying to do was completely backwards of what the New Testament
teaches. They're wanting to find a building, put a pastor in there,
and then hope that people will start coming once they advertise.
Okay? That's not how a church is made. A church is made is whenever
believers begin to meet together. Now, there's nothing wrong with
advertising. We did that early on here. We advertised on the
radio. We advertised in the newspaper.
We said, here we are. But we were already, and I say
we, I wasn't here at the time, I say we as this church, right? This church. But we started in
a house with two families as a congregation. And it quickly
became three families, then four families, and then a few others.
And so it happened that way. And since then, we've had some
leave, we've had some come, we've had some come and leave. We've
had some come and leave and come and leave. come and leave and come and leave
and come and leave, but we have people that have already gathered
together and has decided, you know, we're gonna congregate
together as a church and we're gonna see what the Lord does
and he builds upon that. He put it within the hearts of
the Carlsons and the Domers to come together and to begin to
minister together. And then they begin to, see that
the Lord began to build that church. And here we still are
today, however many years it's been. I know we'll see 2007,
2005, was it 2004, 2005? Well, 2004 we first moved down here. Yeah,
so it was around 2005 then. Because I was supposed to say, I think
it was a couple of years before I came in April of 2007 to start
filling in the pulpit together. So anyway, the church comes together
like that. Now the denomination, the denomination
doesn't say, I'll tell you what, that town over there doesn't
have a church like ours, so let's go buy a building and start sending
people over there. In the Southern Mass, we used
to do kind of stuff like that. We had what was called missions.
And we'd find a location that didn't have a church of our stripes,
and so we'd find a place, and then part of the congregation
of our church would start going over there and meet and try to
get other people to come and congregate with that. And then
once they got a congregation built up, then they would withdraw
those members back to our church and everything. And so there
again, I don't necessarily know if that's particularly correct
or not. I mean, it's closer than just
saying, hey, here's a building, let's do that and put a pastor
out there and advertise and try to get people to come to the
thing. But anyway, denominations doesn't
build a church. Jesus said that he would build
a church. Now, that Matthew 16, 18 verse
is gonna come back in every one of these points, by the way.
Jesus said he would be the one that built the church, not the
saints, not the denominations. The third one I would have you
note that does not build the church is Christian schools.
Christian schools does not build a church. Christian education
apart from the local church control or divine worship, that's completely
unknown in the scriptures. Any kind of instruction that
is to be done is to be done in a local church. That's why you
see a lot of in our group of believers that churches If they
teach men, if they have a group that teach men doctrine and are
preparing them, men who have felt the call to be preachers
or pastors, and those existing elders, pastors of that church,
other ordained men in that church that the Lord has gifted with
these things, teach those other men, younger men, then if they
want to meet together, they do that in the church and you'll
see Brother Camp and them, their little school that they had up
in Illinois, that was a part of the church. That was a school
that was, it wasn't some university out somewhere that you went to
outside of the church. That was teaching that they did
in the local church, by the men of the church. And so that was
something that was done within the congregation, that was part
of the congregation. It wasn't an extra church organization
doing that. And so we see that in other places
around where there's nothing wrong with men having, that are
called to preach, getting together with other men that have been
called within the church and then teaching them. Matter of
fact, the Bible says that the older men are to teach the younger
men. And now I believe that that primarily is talking about teaching
the younger men how to be men, how to be God's men, husbands,
fathers, and things such as that, but it surely also can include
the fact that these men who are called to be preachers, who are
called of God, can also, just like Paul did with Timothy, and
some of the other men that Paul had done. So denominations, saints,
The Christian schools, they are not the ones who build the church. The Lord and associated churches
are not the builders of churches, okay? Associated churches doesn't
build a church either. Now, we fellowship with landmark Baptist
churches. Matter of fact, most of the churches
we fellowship with would consider themselves to be Sovereign Grace
landmark Baptist churches, okay? And even the primitive Baptist
churches that we would fellowship with, they also believe basically
the same tenets of what's called landmarkism. I'm not gonna go
into that today, but basically the center point of landmarkism
is they believe that it is the local congregation who the Lord
give the commission and give all instruction and ordinances
to. and they're the ones to carry it out, okay? That's the nutshell
of what landmarkism is, okay? And so we have no problem with
that, even though we might not take on that identifying name,
moniker, or whatever, because we don't care about those types
of things. However, we do identify and support
that truth that they're preaching, that it is a local congregation
and not a universal invisible church. It is the church that
is giving these things, And so when we look at what would be
called neo-landmarkers, these are the ones that believe that
one church becomes another church at the authority of an existing
church, and that you cannot be a church, and so that church
becomes your mother church, and kind of halfway dictates a lot
of what goes on with everything. And we do not hold to that, we
do hold to the perpetuity of the church. We do believe that
there's churches in every age, and those are made up of baptized
believers, scripturally baptized believers, but that the Holy
Spirit can bring them together without the permission of another
church. Okay? So that's what separates
us, and for those who think we're odd as far as landmarkism is
concerned, That may have been the point because there are a
lot of landmarkers out there that hold to that position that
we have to give you permission to be a church. We do not believe
that and neither do all the ones that we associate with. They
do not believe that either. They believe that the Holy Spirit
is the one that works within the hearts of the people and
that Christ builds that church and calls it together and it
can do so without the permission of another church saying so. The saints are not the builders.
The denominations are not the builders. Christian schools are
not the builders. Associated churches are not the
builders. Now, the Lord uses, as we see
in 1 Corinthians 3, 9, the Lord does use safe people in the building. but he never calls upon the saints
to supply wisdom for his building program. He never has us, that's
why I say that purpose-driven church, you know, that, you know,
coming up with ideas on how to do it, right here is where the
book, rule book for how to start a church and how to grow a church
and how to be a church is found right there, okay? A little quirky,
programs is not gonna do what God wants to do. If God wanted other agencies to
do that, he would have provided for that, right? But he didn't.
He gave the church as the place for that. Now, the next thing
I want us to look at is that the master builds his church,
or as we talked about last week, his place of service or his place
of witness, where his witness is, He does this through the Holy
Spirit. He does this through the Holy Spirit. And that's why
I said a while ago, whenever the Holy Spirit works within
the hearts of the people and gathers them together, the Holy
Spirit does this. The Holy Spirit has been given
to the church as an institution, and I say that in its institutional
sense, has been given to the church as the one who stands
in Christ's stead to gather us together, to equip us. Let's
look at a few passages. Turn with me, if you would, to
John chapter 14. John chapter 14. Look with me,
if you would, down to verse 16. John 14, verse 16. Jesus said,
and I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another comforter
that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom
the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be
in you." Now, some people will say, well, there you go, that
means that the people of God at that time were not indwelt
with the Holy Spirit, but that's when Pentecost, that's when God
began to indwell. Anybody ever heard that? That's
also what I heard growing up, that the Old Testament saints
weren't indwelled with the Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit
came upon them for certain purposes here and there, but then withdrew
himself off of them. But people were not filled with
the Holy Spirit or indwelled with the Holy Spirit until Pentecost. Now, again, a few tangents getting
off on things here. That's not true. Number one,
the Bible says that if ye have not the Spirit of God, then ye
are none of his. If they didn't have the Spirit
of God indwelling them in that new birth, then they were none
of his. Matter of fact, the Bible says
that to be born from above is to be born of the Spirit. Okay,
if someone is born of the Spirit, they are born of God. And the
Bible says, because ye are sons, he hath sent his Spirit into
you. Okay, and so if anybody in the
Old Testament was a son, then he sent the Holy Spirit into
them at some point in time, and so they were indwelt with the
Holy Spirit. So if that's the case, then what
Jesus is saying here is not talking about that, because these men
already had professed faith in Jesus Christ, had already been
recognized as believers, has already been recognized as being
born again, Otherwise, Jesus wouldn't have permitted baptism,
okay? So these men were already baptized,
already born again, already in the church. But Jesus says that,
because it saith him, neither knoweth him, but ye know him,
for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. Now, what's
he talking about there? Well, he's talking about the
church. He's talking about the church. He was speaking here
to the believers. Here, look with me back at the
beginning of John. If we follow this all the way
back, we see that this is Jesus talking to them after the Lord's
Supper, right? This is after the Lord's Supper.
And so Judas has already left the scene to go do what he was
gonna do. And Jesus is instructing the men there. And so he's saying
that the spirit is going to dwell with them and be in them. Now, didn't Jesus say, turn with
me now if you would. Matthew 28. We read this last week. Just in case you didn't know,
Matthew 28 is done at the end of John. I was thinking, man, why does he
stop at verse, chapter 21? Matthew 28, and in the commission,
Jesus says this, all power is given unto me in heaven and on
earth. Go ye therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,
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 Jesus there has promised that he would be with the church
until his presence, until the end of the world. Jesus also
said this, turn with me over into Acts chapter one. before
his ascension. Acts chapter one, verse four.
And being assembled together with them, again, the church
is always an assembly of people together, not a scattered, ethereal,
invisible body, but an assembly of people. and being assembled
together with them, commanded them that they should not depart
from the Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father,
which saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized
with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many
days hence. Again, we're gonna be diving into this baptism with
the Holy Ghost in a few weeks. When they therefore were come
together, uh-oh, there they are again, come together, it's a
church, they're gathered together. They asked of him, saying, Lord,
wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom of Israel?
And he said unto them, it is not for you to know the times
and the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power, but
ye, there's that plural, that singular plural, okay, but ye
shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon
you. and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and
all Judea and in Samaria and in the outermost parts of the
world. Now, some people think that means that we're gonna have
to evangelize. We're gonna have to go out and send people out
into all the world and that's where we're gonna, no, what's
he talking about? He's talking about the church
as an institution. Everywhere that the Lord's church
is found, gathered together as an assembly, okay, everywhere
there is a New Testament church, born again, baptized believers
gathered together with the doctrine of Christ and His ordinances.
His presence is there and they are endued with power. He doesn't
promise that power to anybody else. He doesn't promise that
to promise keepers. He doesn't promise that to fellowships
and associations. He doesn't promise that to denominations
and conventions. He doesn't promise that to missions,
mission boards. He doesn't promise that to churches
that are not preaching the gospel of Jesus and the ordinances of
Jesus. He doesn't promise that. He said,
ye shall be my witnesses. So every church, wherever it's
at, whether it's in Jerusalem, whether it's in Samaria or the
uttermost parts of the world, wherever that type of church,
Christ Ecclesia, is found, it is gonna be a witness for Christ. It's gonna be a witness. Okay,
so we are a witness here. We are a witness to Joplin. How
are we a witness to Joplin? Well, surely as we go out and
we share the gospel here in town, we are definitely a witness,
but we're also a witness by holding the gospel and holding the ordinances
and doing the service of God as the house of God. This is
the house of God. And within the house of God is
where his service is done. We're also gonna talk about that
also a little bit as well in the coming few weeks, all right? Ye shall be witnesses unto me
both in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost
parts of the world, okay? So God has sent his Holy Spirit
and endued his churches, and he showed that with that, what
happened there in Acts, he endued them with power that he didn't
endue other organizations. He didn't undo the Pharisees,
okay? He didn't undo the Sadducees
or the Sanhedrin. No, he undid the church, his
called-out gathered assembly, and all called-out gathered assemblies
that hold the faith and order of Jesus Christ, he promises
his presence by the Holy Spirit to be there. He promises power
to be there. That's why I say it's important
to be in a local church because there is a special power and
presence of Christ there that's not in everywhere else. People
may want to jump from thing to thing to thing, but listen, it's
here. It's in the local church that
hold to his doctrine. And again, whenever we say the
local church, we're not talking about just any local church.
There is probably 50 local churches in this town that are gathered
assemblies that are gathering in the name, even gathering in
the name of Jesus around this town, but not all of them are
New Testament churches. They're not Christ Ekklesia.
I mean, just on 32nd Street down here, there's like three or four
churches just within this few blocks, but not all of them are
Ekklesia because they do not hold the doctrine of Christ and
his ordinances. we see that the Holy Spirit is
the one who is given to comfort the church and to be there with
them and to empower them. Look with me a verse back into
John, if you would, John chapter 14. So the Holy Spirit is sent
to comfort the church and to empower the church. The
Holy Spirit's also there to teach the church. John chapter 14,
look with me if you would, verse 26. But the Comforter, which
is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall
teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance
whatsoever I have said unto you. So here the Lord is saying that
the Holy Spirit is given as the teacher. There's other scriptures in the
Bible that codify this. Matter of fact, I think it's
back in one of the epistles of John that he says that you have
no need that any man should teach you, that the anointing that
you have from the Lord is all you need. What is that anointing?
It's the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, okay? That's for the
individual. We have the Holy Spirit to teach
us, right? And the Old Testament said there
was gonna come a time where no man his neighbor will say no
No God for they shall all know him for they shall all be taught
of God Okay, so we have the Holy Spirit who's teaching the people
of God But here we see that the comforter is sent in a special
way and to the congregations wherever Christ congregation
is that that congregation meets that the Holy Spirit comes and
and is teaching them all things and bringing to remembrance.
That's why it's important. Why is it important? Well, number
one, it's within the congregation where Christ has put the gifts,
the gift of preaching, teaching, that he's given pastors and teachers
for such things as that. And so to say, well, I don't
have need of a local church Well, you're saying, well, I don't
have need of that special and new power of witness. I don't
have need of following Christ's command to be in a local assembly. I don't have need of the gifts
that God has called. The Holy Spirit is given to teach
there. There is a special teaching that comes for those within the
local church as they gather in the local church. And you'll
find that, brother, you go to a church that believes these
things, that holds the doctrines of Christ and the ordinances,
and they are a tight local church, and they follow the New Testament
pattern of edifying one another, loving one another, looking out
for one another, taking care of one another. If you look and
you find a church that's like that, you're gonna find that
that church is healthy, that the people there have understanding
of the word of God, where when you walk into these churches,
walk into any of these churches in this town and you begin to
go up and down the pews and start asking people about the scriptures,
there are probably not many of them going to be able to talk
to you about the scriptures. You go in there and ask them
about, you know, what's the difference between justification by faith
and justification by words? They're going to look at you
crazy. As a matter of fact, go in and ask them, what does it mean to
be justified? You're not gonna find too many that's even gonna
be able to do that. But brother, you go into one of the Lord's
churches where the New Testament pattern is being followed, that
church has a special understanding. Listen, men and women in that
church, they know the Scriptures. You don't have to, you know,
say something and look at blank stares or say, oh, they don't
know what I'm talking about. No, they have an understanding
and an idea and a thought about the Scriptures. They know the
Word of God. Why is that? Because God has
placed a special presence here of learning by the Holy Ghost. So the Holy Spirit comforts,
empowers the church, it teaches the church, it testifies of Christ. Look at John 15, 26 there. It says, but when the Comforter
is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the
Spirit of truth, which proceeded from the Father, He shall testify
of me. So whenever that Spirit comes
in chapter 14, verse 26, to teach you all things and to bring all
things to your remembrance, what's gonna be the centrality of His
message? The centrality of the Spirit's message is gonna be
on Christ. Now, side note, you go into these
prosperity churches, what is the main issue that comes in
that church? Prosperity, faith, seeking faith,
letting your faith build your health, build your wealth. It's all about you using your
faith to better your life, to make you more healthy, to make
you more wealthy. God doesn't want you poor. God doesn't want you sick. God
doesn't want you in debt. You know, that's the main thing.
Turn on the channels. Am I incorrect on that? You turn
on the prosperity gospel, and what is the all they talk about?
They're always talking about healing and money. Healing and money.
Healing and money. Healing and money. That's all
they talk about. Whenever the comforter comes
into a church, he's gonna testify of Jesus. He's gonna make Jesus
be the central figure. Not money, not health. Matter
of fact, the Bible teaches that a lot of times, Jesus will keep
us from having money in hell. Matter of fact, whenever he sent
out his disciples, what did he tell them? He said, whenever
you go out, don't take more than what you just have to carry with
you. He said, don't take a lot of money, don't take extra clothes.
He said, just go out, go. That's not a prosperity message. Okay, so the Holy Spirit testifies
of Christ. He testifies of Christ to the
church, and he also testifies of Christ through the church.
Okay? He testifies of Christ. The message
that we need to hear is the centrality of Christ, and the message that
we need to preach is the centrality of Christ. The gospel message
isn't, come to the church. Is the church important? Absolutely,
that's why we're doing this study. But it isn't, let's build up
the church. And that's what most visitation programs in all these
so-called churches is about, is a church building program.
Let's go out and invite people to church. And so they go out
and they go, oh, our church is such a great church. It has games
for the kids, it has basketball courts, it has Nintendos and
Xboxes and all these stuff in the rooms that they can play
with. They have karate after Wednesday night meeting. They have two camps a year. We have a good rock band, a worship
band. It's all about building up the
church, but that's not our message. See, whenever we go out from
here, the message is Christ. Whenever we're in here, the message
is Christ. It's Christ, Christ, Christ,
Christ, Christ. Everything is about Christ. In
fact, this study on the church is centered on Christ. Why am
I preaching this? Because number one, Christ built
it. Christ loved it. Christ gave himself for it. Christ
is building it today. Christ has placed his presence
here. It's about Christ. Christ is the one that's given
gifts so that we are edified in Christ. And it's to prepare
us for works of service so that we might go out and Be a witness
of Christ. You shall be witnesses of me.
It's all about Christ. To preach about the church is
to preach about Christ, the importance of Jesus Christ. Now, look at John chapter 16
again, starting verse 6. The Holy Spirit comforts and
empowers the church, or teaches the church, or testifies of Christ
to it and through it. And it preaches, the Holy Spirit
preaches to the church and through it. Look at verse 16, or excuse
me, verse six. It says, but because I have said
these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless,
I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that
I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send
him unto you. And when he is come, he will
reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment,
of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness because
I go to my father and you see me no more, of judgment because
the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say
unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." Okay, so the Holy
Spirit preaches to the church and it preaches through the church. Okay, the next thing that the
Holy Spirit is for whenever it comes to the local church is
it guides it again into all truth of doctrine and its service. Again, there in chapter 16, look
in verse 13. We already read it once. How
be it when he, the spirit of truth, the spirit of truth, it's
been said a couple of times that he's called the spirit of truth. Meaning that this spirit, whenever
he comes, he comes with the truth. If you want to know the spirit,
or if you want to know the truth, you better be where the spirit's
at. And the spirit has been promised to the local congregation. How
be it when he, the spirit of truth has come, he will guide
you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever
he shall hear, that shall he speak and he will show you things
to come. He shall glorify me for he shall
receive of mine and shall show it unto you. And so there we
see that the Holy Spirit guides us into all truth in its doctrinal
form and in its evangelistic or in its service form. Look
at Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13. Look with me. Starting in verse one. Now there were in the church
that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers as Barnabas and
Simeon, that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene and Manan,
which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord,
and I want you to pay close attention to hear how all this works. As
they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said,
separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have
called them. Now, I want to stop there real
close. I want you to pay attention.
We're going to look at this in detail further on down the road. But please make note here that
the Holy Spirit worked within those of the congregation and
said, separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto
I have called them. There you have the biblical backing
of what we believe here, that the ordination of men is not
by the hands of other preachers, It's not by the hands of a school. It's not by the hands of some
board of elders, okay? That it's the church that ordains
men, but you see how it works in coordination with and under
the influence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit put it within
the hearts of the church, but he also put it within the heart
of the individual. He had called Paul, And Barnabas,
Saul and Barnabas, individually, personally, but
he also, through the church, put that within the heart of
the church. And so there was a personal witness of the Holy
Spirit to that calling, and there was also a public witness of
that calling. See, that's why we believe that
ordained ministers are ordained, because the church recognizes
the gift and the calling of God. And we don't lay on hands quickly.
We examine those men to see whether or not that be true if God has
called them. And if the man believes that
God has called him and the church sees that God has called him
and gifted him with that by looking at the biblical principles that
God has given us, then those men are then laid on hands by
the local congregation, not by a presbytery that's called from
five or six, 10 churches, not by some sent on, not by some
potpourri-type atmosphere, it's done by the Church, and whenever
the Church does that, that doesn't mean the Church is the Catholic
Church. It doesn't mean that the Church is being a pope. It
means that the Church is doing what God has called it to do.
It is the place of service. It is the place of ministry.
And it is the place where God has called the government of
the kingdom to take place. And within the government of
the kingdom, the church, the ecclesiastical, the called out
ones are the ones who are to oversee the affairs of the kingdom. Why? Because they have been given
the keys to the kingdom. Why? Because they've been given
the ministry of God's house, just like the Levites was given
the ministry of the tabernacle. And they were the only the ones
to be able to do the sacrifices. The church is the one who God
calls to do that ministry. So if one is to be ordained as
a minister, God is gonna put that in the heart of the men
who he gives that gift to, and he's gonna give that through
the local church. He's gonna let them see and recognize that,
and then that local church, as the church, ordains that man. And then whenever that man goes
out, that man goes out representing that local congregation and the
Lord Jesus Christ who sends him through that local church. And
so, brethren, we have the Holy Spirit that does that. He is
the one who calls us into those. Notice this. It says, and when
they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they
sent them away. So they being sent forth by the
Holy Ghost departed unto Seleucia and from thence they sailed to
Cyprus. Again, side note here, just so
that you can see the cohesion in the scriptures that we don't
want to take one scripture out of its context. A lot of men
who disagree with what we believe here that have even come here
that have attended this church and have gotten mad and left
this church because of things that we hold to about offices
in the church, you know, pastors, teachers, things such as that,
and that ordaining people, you know, and they want to say, well,
I was ordained of God. I wasn't ordained by men. Well,
God ordains men through men and women in the local church, okay? So no, we're not ordained by
men by some secular organization. We're not ordained by men from
some ecclesiastical academic organization. We are ordained
of men through the local church because God has given that to
the local church to do. And so some men will go to verse
four and say, see there, they were sent forth by the Holy Ghost,
that the Holy Ghost, and then they will stop in number two
and said, they will say, separate me Barnabas and Saul
for the work whereunto I have called them. They'll say, see,
God called them, the Holy Ghost sent them, it's not got anything
to do with the church. you're making potpourri out of
the church. No. No. If you see there, it's the
church and the man. Why? Because number one, that
man is part of the church. And within the church is where
he places the gift. So it's not uncommon to see that
within a local church that the gift of a pastor or teacher,
evangelist, comes up that God gives that gift and whenever
he does he calls that individual and he says he puts it within
the understanding and the mind and the heart of the church to
see that to recognize that and say hey this brother shows that
Christ has called him he claims that Christ has called him and
he shows that he's been given that gift. So the Holy Spirit there is the
one who is So the scriptural program of the church and the
way that people are sent out and evangelism works is from
the local church, right? God put it within the heart of
the men God put it within the heart of the church and said
separate me these men and send them out to this place and so
It's not about Programs It's not about Committees, committees
don't send men out, call men and send men. Boards don't call
men and send men. Denominations don't call men
and send men. And that's why we had to break
fellowship with that Sovereign Grace Baptist Fellowship, who
is wanting to create a school to send all their guys to and
to have a missionary school to prepare people to go to the mission
field and everything. Listen, is that what they did
here? Nope, God put it in the heart of Saul and Barnabas and
put it in the heart of the church. The church prayed, they fasted,
they sought the Lord, they recognized that's what the Spirit was doing,
and whenever they recognized what the Spirit was doing, they
got in action and they did it. They didn't go into two years
of, you know, Masters of Divinity School. They didn't go to some,
well, we need to go to some preparatory place to get us ready to speak
the language go over there and learn the customs and all that
kind of note. What'd they do? They went. They went. See, all these other things are
human inventions. And people say, well, we gotta have them.
Well, you just expect that this little old church is just gonna
do that? Well, if God's power is there and presence is there,
do you think that's not enough? Is the power of Christ in the
church not enough? Do we have to have Extra help. Is Christ not able to take care
of his church? Is Christ not able to empower
his church? Look at those little band of
men. You remember whenever, before Christ died, or before he was
ascended, well, matter of fact, it may have been after he ascended.
It was after he ascended. He talks about those disciples
and how they were turning the world upside down. He said, these
men are fishermen, and yet they speak with all this knowledge
and authority. and they're turning the world upside down. And if
we don't stop this, then everyone's gonna believe on this Jesus.
Well, how did Christ do that? Fisherman. Well, whenever Christ's power
is in somewhere, it can do that. And I think that Christ's power
can set aside a man and give understanding between the man
and the church and to raise that man up and to send that man out
to do what God wants him to do. So we see the Holy Spirit here
is the agent in which the Lord uses to build his church. Christ also builds his church
on himself. We read that in Matthew 16, 18,
with the Holy Spirit being the one who conducts and works within
the people of the church. And so this is how the church
of the living God is made up. We have a divine builder who
is Jesus, We have a divine foundation, that was in one, I forgot to
read that, I'm sorry guys, 1 Corinthians chapter three, verse 11. It says, for other foundation
can no man lay than that is laid which is Christ Jesus, okay? So we have a divine builder,
we have a divine foundation, we have a divine supervisor,
which is the Holy Spirit. We have a divine light, which
is the Word of God. In 2 Timothy, got a couple of
verses here to read and we'll stop for the day. In 2 Timothy chapter three, It says, in verse 16, it says,
all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all
good works. Okay, so God has given us a builder,
a foundation. He's given us the supervisor.
who is governing the affairs within the people of God in the
church, which is the Holy Spirit. He's given us the word of God
that is to be our instruction guide, to be our corrector, our
teacher. And then he's given us the divine
materials in which that is to be built, and that is the people.
Look with me again at Acts chapter two. Acts chapter two. Acts chapter two, look at verse
41. The day that gladly received his word were baptized, and the
same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. So the church is built with the
souls of those who the Lord saves. Look at verse 47. Praising God
and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to
the church daily, such as should be saved. So we see that Christ
is the builder of the church, both in its local and its institutional
aspects, and it's all centered on Him. He is the one who started
it. He is the one by the Spirit who
is governing it, and He is the one that's empowering it, and
He is the one that is perpetuating it, and we'll see that more really
next week. Anybody got any comments or questions before we dismiss? Let's bow and have a word of
prayer.