All right All right, we'll turn if you would this
morning over to uh hebrews chapter three Hebrews chapter three there's
a verse of scripture that I want to read here And then I want
to, as my grandpa would say, depart
from it. I want to begin. We've, over the last several
weeks, I think we've had 18 or 19 messages on this subject of
the ecclesia or the church. And over those last 19 messages, The subject matter that we've
had has been the nature of the church. What is
the nature of the church? And we have extensively been
looking through the scriptures and detailing how that the nature
of the church is not a universal invisible body. It's not a universal visible
body. But the nature of the church, or
the Ekklesia of Christ, is a local, visible body. So what do we mean
by that? Well, we found that the term
Ekklesia, as it was used historically, etymologically, meaning the meaning
of the word, how that word is constructed, its meaning, how
it was put together, its formation in Greek, of what that word means,
and then the historical understanding of that word as we look through
history, not only outside of the church, but also through
history as the church understood that word that Christ used, we
found this to be true. And then we went into the scriptures
and found that the Bible in 118 verses where ekklesia is found, that in all 118 verses that the
church was never once mentioned as a universal, invisible group
of people. Meaning that the church is not
all the saved people that's ever been saved, okay? The church
is a local, visible assembly or congregation of gathered believers. Believers, and if you remember,
we talked about this towards the end of this last section,
We talked about there is three distinctions in the word of God
between the people of God. There is the family, which is
made up of all the elect of all time, dead or alive, heaven and
earth. Everyone who was given to Christ
before the foundation of the world is in the family of God. The Bible says that we are sons,
we are heirs of Christ, we are the family of God. Then we've
seen that there is a distinction of the kingdom of God. The kingdom
of God is all of the family of God that is on the earth at any
particular time period, okay? So the kingdom of Christ and
the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven, all these things are
the same term. And these are all the elect that
are on earth at one particular time, okay? So in this time period, like
right now, everyone who is the elect of God that is alive on
earth makes up the kingdom of God. And then we found out, I
didn't write all the definition down here, the church is a local
visible congregation, but as its institution, when Christ
said, and we're gonna go to this verse in just a minute, when
Christ said that I will build my church and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it, he was using that in its institutional
understanding. He wasn't talking about any particular
church and he wasn't talking about the family of God who are
all the elect. Okay, because there is a distinction
between those two things, and we've seen that in those 118
verses that we went through, each verse, and found out that
that was to be true, that the church is a gathered congregation.
It's the kind of church. Whenever Jesus said, this is
my church, and I will build it, okay, he was talking about his
kind of ecclesia, as opposed to the world's ecclesia, which
we found out and understood However, Christ has implemented his Ecclesia,
and it looks, it's structured just like that Greek Ecclesia.
And that's why he chose that word, is because that was how
he was gonna structure his Ecclesia. And so what the church is, is
the elect within the elect. The church is the called out
people from the family of God, the kingdom of God, and they
gather together, and whenever they gather together in one congregation,
they form the church of Christ, the church of God, okay? And
that church is a local visible assembly. There are people who
are part of the family of God and the kingdom of God who are
not the church of God, okay? There are Christians who have
truly been saved, who are the elect of God, who have been quickened,
and they may be in Irregular churches are aberrant churches
or false churches that are not preaching the doctrines of Christ. They're not preaching and keeping
the ordinances as Christ gives them. And those people are in
there and we don't deny that there are people that's in there.
We read, remember in Revelation chapter 18, where Jesus is talking
to the harlot church, which encompasses all false churches, whether,
no matter what denomination or religion, And he says, come out
of them, my people, okay? He's calling his people out of
these false churches and false, and commanding them to come.
And I believe whenever he calls them, they will come out. Because
how can two walk together unless they agree, right? Jesus says,
come out and be separate from them. He didn't say, stay in
there and try to just live it through, okay? That was one thing,
you know, I can't, I was telling you guys about the Founders Movement,
you know, that's within the Southern Baptists. are the ones who are
trying to get the Southern Baptist back to its roots and doctrines
of grace from how it began back in the early 1900s. They want you to stay in the
churches and try to reform the churches, but Jesus is saying,
come out and be separate. And so we have to abide by the
rules of Christ. And so that means that the church
is not made up of everybody that is in the family kingdom. And
so we don't say that those people are lost, we don't say that they're
non-elect, we don't say that because we know that there are
people that need to be called out from them and they will come
into the New Testament churches that are preaching and holding
the doctrines and ordinances of Christ, which we will eventually
get to the ordinances soon. And so we see that the church
is a local visible assembly, so that was the nature of the
church. The nature is local in the fact
that everywhere that a body of baptized believers is found that
holds to the doctrine and ordinances of Christ, they are the church. And it is visible in the fact
that it is made up of those people. It's not an invisible thing.
And if you remember, you know, the universal invisible theory
says that you know, that all the people of God that are saved
make up this one body of Christ. But yet Paul was very clear in
his teaching to the Corinthians and in other places that the
body of Christ is a metaphor talking about the local congregation. The local congregation is a body
of Christ. And so there's no need to ever
even think about a universal invisible Church, I've wrestled
with that back and forth for years and years, even before
I came here. I wrestled with that whole notion myself. And the Bible is just overwhelmingly
clear that the church is a called out assembly, not called out
of the world into salvation, but called out of the family
and kingdom to organize into a congregation of people. Because
that's how Christ is governing the kingdom on earth is through
the local church. So, 18 or 19 messages that we
had on that, if you haven't listened to that, if you're watching or
listening now, you listen to what I'm saying now and you think,
oh man, that guy's a weirdo, go back and listen to the previous
messages that we've preached and go through those because
I think the Bible's overwhelmingly clear in those regards, but anyway,
Today, we're still in the study on the Ecclesia. We're gonna
start a new section, and this is gonna be for a couple weeks,
maybe three, depending on how far we get. But now we wanna
look, we've seen the nature of the church, which is a local
visible congregation, but we wanna see where was the origin
of the church. There's a lot of speculation
and debate on this as well. but there is usually four predominant
theories on when the church began or when it originated. The first
is that it began with the first man who was ever saved, that
that's when the church began. I guess you could actually say
five, you could back up into eternity, Some may say that the
church began in the eternal covenant. Okay, that's when the church
began. Some will say that it was the
first man that ever saved. Some say that the church began with
Abraham. That's whenever God called the Israelites, or called
Abraham, out of paganism. And with Abraham, that's where
the Hebrews began. The Hebrew people began in Abraham. and the Israelites all came from
Abraham, and so that he is the origin, that's where the church
originated, because that's where the faith of Abraham, who's the
father of us all, as far as faith is concerned, the Bible says,
that that's where it began, so that's where the church began,
is with Abraham, whenever he began to believe Christ, or believe
on Christ. Some people believe that it began
with John the Baptist, that whenever John the Baptist
began to preach and to baptize, that that's where the church
started right there, is that transition from the Old Testament
to the New Testament with John's preaching. Now, I will say this,
and we'll get to this in the study, but I do believe that
John the Baptist was not an Old Testament prophet. I believe
that he was a New Testament gospel preacher. I do believe that John's
baptism is New Testament baptism. It is baptism that is not old
ritual washings of the Old Testament. I think that's very clear. Matter
of fact, I think that we're gonna, I'll spend some time, we're gonna
talk a little bit about John this morning, but I think somewhere
along this, and probably what I'm gonna do, at least the way
I'm kind of thinking about it, is once I get through these major
sections that I've laid out, like the nature of the church,
the origin of the church. We're gonna talk about the officers
of the church. We're gonna talk about the commission
of the church, all that kind of stuff as we go along. But
I think I'll kind of maybe do like a quote unquote appendix
at the end and go back and hit certain topics like John the
Baptist, because that's a muchly debated situation. Was John's baptism Old Testament
baptism, New Testament baptism? Was John a preacher? Was John
in the church? Was John not in the church? All
these kind of things. So we'll deal with John the Baptist
a little more thoroughly maybe as we go along. And some other
issues that we can talk about as well. But some believe that
it began with John the Baptist and then there, I would say probably
the predominant theory, and this is because of the influence of
C.I. Schofield, and Darby, and a lot
of men like that, Plymouth Brethren, and different men like that,
that have influenced the churches, and Schofield probably more than
anybody because of his study Bible that most independent Baptists
follow and looked up to, and I think Schofield, for one, his
notes are horrible. If you've got a Schofield Bible,
cut them notes out. They're not any good. Yeah, get
rid of the whole thing. But Schofield, I think, has done
much to injure the New Testament church. Good morning, brother. Good seeing you. Do we still have a guest out
there in the foyer? Yes, I think Schofield has done
more harm to the New Testament church and has created more traditions
of men than just about anybody in our time period. But his view,
as with much of the men in his circle of influence, they believe
that the church began at Pentecost, that that's the day that the
church was born. It was on the day of Pentecost. And so we're
gonna look at these four theories, or five theories, And I don't
see that the Bible teaches none of them. The church did not start
with the first man ever saved. The church did not start with
Abraham. The church didn't start with
John the Baptist, although that's very close. And it definitely didn't start
at Pentecost. And so we'll look at these and
see that the Bible just proves them. Let's look at the first.
at the first theory, the theory that it began with all men that
was ever saved. But before we do that, I wanna
read a couple of scriptures here. Hebrews chapter three, if you
would. Hebrews chapter three. And look with me at verse six. It says, but Christ as a son
over his own house, whose house are we? If we hold fast the confidence
and the rejoicing of the whole. Talked about the term, the house
of God, that that term house of God, whenever we looked at
that, when we was going verse by verse on all 118 verses that
talked about the church and how Paul used the house of God and
he compared the church, which we've seen was a local, visible
congregation of people, that that group of people is called
the house of God. The house of God is not the family
of God or the kingdom of God, but the church. That's where
he dwells. That's where his presence is,
and we're gonna look some more about that. But it says here,
Christ, as a son, over his own house, as opposed to other houses. Whose house are we? Now, Paul
here is writing to these Hebrews, and we are the house of God. If we are a church, we are the
house of God. Now, look back with me at Matthew
chapter 16, a passage we've read many times in the study over
the weeks. Jesus says, start Matthew 16, verse 13. It says, when Jesus came into
the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying,
whom do men say that I, the son of man, am? And they said, some
say that thou art John the Baptist. Some, Elias, and others, Jeremias,
or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, but whom
say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Okay, now, he first asked, you
know, who do men say that I am in general? You know, what does
the outside think that I am? But then he asked his disciples,
who we see, as we will see, made up the church, He said, who do
you say that I am? And Peter said, thou art the
Christ, the son of the living God. And he said, blessed art
thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it
unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. Now we can take
a side note on that and show that nobody can really truly
understand who Christ is. And I heard a good message this
week from Bill Parker, who's pastor out in somewhere, I can't
remember now exactly where he's at now, but he was preaching
down in Ruston, Louisiana. But anyway, he was preaching
a message and he was talking about how whenever it talks about
knowing Jesus and who Jesus is, it's not just talking about who
he is historically or not even that he died, but that who he
is altogether. What does his name represent?
Who he is? He is the Christ of God who was
given for his people, and whenever he died, he died effectually,
that their salvation was attained. It wasn't a maybe-so, a hope-so,
an invitation. It wasn't a offer. It was an
actual securing of that salvation and then the eventual applying
of that salvation in time as he determines to give it to them. And so that's part of this whole
thing that he's talking about, that this is not revealed unto
you. You know, we talk about people who don't believe in sovereign
grace and the doctrines of grace. That is something that is revealed.
God has to reveal that. Otherwise, we believe in a religious
capacity as best as our human understanding and wisdom can
understand that, which can't understand spiritual things.
But yet, whenever we are given spiritual understanding, whenever
God reveals that to us, the Holy Spirit teaches us those things,
it opens that up where we are able to understand that. That
doesn't mean that we're better than anybody else, that we're
more smarter than anybody else. That doesn't mean anything. That
means that God is sovereign. That means God chooses. That
means God is the one who controls and directs and is in charge
of knowledge and wisdom and salvation and coming to the revelation
of who he is. He has, and that's what he's
saying here, heaven and earth has not revealed, or excuse me,
flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee, but my Father,
which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, thou
art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto
thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Now, right there,
that tells us that there's a differentiation between the church and the kingdom.
No, because the church is given the keys of the kingdom. Some people like to want to make
all this one thing. They wanna say the family, the kingdom,
and the church are all the people of God from all time everywhere. Makes up that Old Testament,
New Testament, future, now, back. That's not true. There's delineation
between these things. We need to make sure we keep
those if we wanna be biblical about this very subject. Now, he says, thou art Peter,
and upon this rock, I will build my church. Now, if you go into
the Greek, and we talked about this at the beginning of this
series, I think, in passing, he said, thou art Petros, and
upon this Petra, I will build my church. He used two different
Greek words. Now, some people say he used
the same word, and matter of fact, the Catholics, this is
where their era of Peter being the first, the first Pope and
being the one who the church was built by Peter, gets it because
they say that he said, thou art Peter, Petra, or Petros, and
upon this Petros, I will build my church. And they were, he
was making a play on Peter's name. And he said, upon you,
Peter, I'm gonna build my church. So that's why they have Peter
in such high regard in the Catholic church. And they believe that
he was the first Pope of Rome. but that's not those two different
words there. Petras, which means a small pebble,
and Petra, which means a huge rock or a ledge, foundational
ledge, okay? He said, I say unto thee that
thou art just a small pebble, and upon this rock I will build
my church. I'm not gonna build it upon you,
Peter. I'm gonna build it upon me, being the Christ, the son
of the living God. and who I am in all of who I
am as the Savior, that is what I'm gonna build my ecclesia upon. Now, so right here we have the
answer to the origin of the church begins with Jesus, okay? It begins with Jesus. He will
build his church. Now, when did he begin to build
his church? Now, that's the question that
we wanna answer, right? We wanna answer, well, when did
he begin to build it? Did he begin to build it with
the first man ever saved? Did he begin to build it with
Abraham, with John the Baptist, or at Pentecost? Okay, when did
he begin to do that? Well, we know it's not with the
first man ever saved. Now, there is a debate about
whether or not Adam was saved or not, because the Bible actually,
whenever it talks about the men of faith in Hebrews, it begins
with It begins with Abel, right? It didn't say nothing about faithful
Adam, but it talks about Abel. And so a lot of men believe that
Adam wasn't considered saved, that because he is the representative
of natural man, fallen man, that he stayed that from now on. I would have to disagree. I don't
think the Bible explicitly says that, but the Bible does say
that God clothed him. See, Adam and Eve tried to clothe
themselves. They thought that they could
cover themselves, cover their sinfulness by fig leaves, right? Or whatever kind of leaves it
was. That they could cover themselves up with some fig leaves and that
they would be acceptable in God's sight beforehand. But God would
not accept that. And matter of fact, if you go
to Abel, Cain and Abel, it was the same thing. Abel presented
an acceptable sacrifice that God would accept. Cain brought
something that God despised and would not accept. And there,
Cain thought he could be accepted by God by his own efforts, by
his own goodness, by his own righteousness, by, that's what's
symbolized in there. Same thing with Adam and Eve.
They thought that they could come before God with their own righteousness,
with their own acceptance being by their work. And God wouldn't
have that. And the Bible says that he got
skins from animals and he clothed them. It didn't say he offered
them the clothes either and they had to put it on, okay? He didn't
say that either. He said, and God clothed them.
See, God gave them the covering that he required. that he would
accept. He didn't make an offer and say,
well, if you'll just choose this covering, then I'll accept you.
He didn't say that. No, he chose them and gave them
the covering, and the Bible says he clothed them, personally,
he clothed them. Now, I think that it was actually
Jesus who clothed them. I think it was Jesus who walked
in the garden with them. I think it was Jesus who talked
with them in the garden. And I think whenever he'd come
a-walkin' and a-talkin' in the garden and they were a-hidin',
with their fig leaves on, he's the one that got those animals
and shed those skins and clothed them with those skins. I think
that was Jesus. Because the Bible says that God
is invisible, right? And that no man has seen God
at any time, but Jesus has made him known. Jesus is the image
of the invisible God. I believe that if anybody has
ever seen God in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, they've
seen him in the face of the man, Jesus Christ. And so I think
Jesus was the one who clothed them in that. Now that's a side
issue, we can argue about that. I know guys don't agree with
me on that, but it's all right. So we know it wasn't the first
man, even though I believe that Adam was saved, but he was not
a part of the church. Matter of fact, nowhere in the
Old Testament is the church spoken of, the New Testament church
spoken of. Look in Isaiah chapter 40 with
me. Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40. This is a prophecy that was prophesied
of those people who would become the church. It says, comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight
in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted,
every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked
shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. So who, do
you know who that is a prophecy of? John the Baptist, okay. That's a prophecy of John the
Baptist and it's telling of a people that will come as John the Baptist
begins to preach. He's gonna begin to preach these
messages to a people that is the Lord's people. Comfort ye,
comfort ye my people, okay? And so this is speaking of the
time when John the Baptist will come. So we know that it didn't
start with Adam, because number one, Adam wasn't in the New Testament
church. Adam wasn't there during the
time where this was even prophesied. That was talking about a date
that was later to come, okay? What about Abraham? Did it begin
with Abraham? As I said, we know that Abraham
is the father of the Hebrews, the Israelites, and he's the
father of all the faithful of all ages. but was he part of
the church? Now, in Acts chapter seven, remember
we read, if you wanna go ahead and turn over there, Acts chapter
seven. We read this when we was going
through the individual verses that had Ecclesiastes in there.
Acts chapter seven in verse 38. 37, 37. Says, this is that Moses, which
said unto the children of Israel, a prophet shall the Lord your
God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me, him shall
ye hear. This is he that was in the church
in the wilderness, which the angel would speak to him in the
Mount Sinai and with our fathers who received the lively oracles
to give unto us. Okay, so if you remember, whenever
we looked at this word church, and then in the Septuagint, which
is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, which Jesus quoted
from, and some of the apostles quoted from, which gives validity
to that translation of scriptures of the Greek Old Testament, we
found that that word is congregation, the congregation in the wilderness,
okay? And so, It's not the New Testament
church, but it was a gathered assembly. The Israelites were
a gathered assembly, but yet they were not the church as far
as the Christ Ecclesia, the New Testament church that we've been
talking about. And if you'll notice here, it
says that with Moses, that's the first place that we see that
that term in the English Bible, where the term church is used
with Moses. Well, if that's the case, then
that excludes Abraham because Abraham was before Moses. So
Abraham wasn't the beginning of the church. And neither was
Moses because this speaks of a time in the future when God
shall raise up unto you, raise up unto you of your brethren
like unto me, him shall you hear. So Christ is gonna be raised
up in the future who's gonna be like Moses, okay, but yet
he's not gonna be Moses. And we have a problem today with
a lot of churches that still like to run to Moses. They like
to exalt Moses. They like to exalt Mount Sinai
and not Mount Zion. They don't like to exalt the
New Jerusalem. They like to exalt the law and
not grace. They like to exalt Hagar and
not Sarah. And so we need to be careful
of that. So it's not Adam, it's not Abraham. But what about John the Baptist?
Well, as I said, John the Baptist is this man who is called by
God, and it's in this transitionary period from the Old Testament
unto the New Testament, from the law to the gospel. And we know that to be true,
that it didn't start before John. I believe, is it? Might be in the loop. Well, here we go. Luke chapter 1, look
at verse 11. It says, and there appeared unto
him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar
of innocence. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled and
fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him,
fear not Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard. And thy wife, Elizabeth,
shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. You notice the angel told Joseph
what to name Jesus, and the angel told Zacharias what to name John.
Okay, there's gonna be specific names given to these men. And
thou shalt have joy and gladness and many shall rejoice at his
birth. One of them that rejoiced at
his birth was Jesus himself. Remember whenever Mary went to
visit Elizabeth and the Bible says that whenever they came,
whenever they got there and everything that the sound of Mary's voice,
that John the Baptist slept in the womb, says, for he shall
be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither
wine nor strong drink, and he shall be filled with the Holy
Ghost even from his mother's womb. So John the Baptist was
born again before he ever was even born. He had the Spirit
of God indwelling him in his mother's womb. So that tells
me that quickening, or as some people would say, regeneration,
I don't think that's, again, the correct term to use, that he was born again or he
had the spirit filling him in the mother's womb. So that tells
me people can be born again before they ever believe, before they
ever hear the gospel, that they're born again, they're made spiritual
by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit before that. He says,
and many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their
God, okay? He's not gonna do it for himself,
but he's gonna, many people, he's gonna turn to the Lord their
God. And he shall go before him in
the spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the fathers
to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to
make ready a people prepared for the Lord." Okay, so John
the Baptist is going to make ready a people prepared for the
Lord. So Isaiah talked about that there would be a one who
would come, who would speak comfort and bring a message of peace
to the people, okay? that would be like Elias, like
Elijah. There would be this man who would
come up who the people would be given to and would come to,
and here we see that John the Baptist is the one that was spoken
of, and we'll see this more in other verses, but the purpose
for John to come was not to continue in the Old Testament, things,
but he came as a special prophet of God. He came as something
different than had been in the past. He came preaching a message
different than in the past, and he began to baptize, and his
baptism that he baptized with was different than the Old Testament
rituals. If it wasn't, now just a side
note here, If John's baptism was the same Old Testament ritual
baptizing, then why was everybody coming out to see this new thing?
Why was the Pharisees coming out and saying, why are you doing,
what is this? What are you doing? I mean, who gave you authority
to come out and do this in the name of God? I mean, who told
you this? Well, the Bible said that John
was a man sent from God. So the authority came from God
himself. So we can't say that John wasn't authorized to do
that, that he just was doing it on his own. We can't say that
he was an Old Testament prophet because the Bible says that the
gospel, that the law and the prophets were until John. And then the Bible said the gospel
began with John. And so John was this, yes, intermediate
between Jesus and the Old Testament. But he was fully New Testament. He was preaching the message
of the New Testament. He was preaching baptism of the
New Testament. And he was, as it says here,
making ready a people prepared for the Lord. So John wasn't
in the church because the people that were being prepared is the
church. John was the one who was preparing
a people for the Lord. So John wasn't the beginning
of the church. He was the one who was preparing
materials to build the church, as we'll soon see. So John prepared
the material for Jesus to build his church, but he wasn't himself
in the church. And so all those we can see through
the scriptures are not the origin of the church. We're gonna deal
with the predominant one, which is the church began at Pentecost.
And I think the Bible is very, very clear that the church did
not start at Pentecost. I at one time believed that,
and I also at one time preached that. But as the Lord has given
understanding more and taught the scriptures better to me,
then we see that that's not the case. Now, the belief that Pentecost was
the day that the church was born, like I said, basically came from
a lot of teaching that Schofield had in his Bible. Matter of fact, Schofield says
this, He says, this body could not begin to exist before the
exaltation of Christ and the descent of the Holy Spirit. So Schofield said the church
couldn't exist before Christ was exalted, the death and resurrection,
and before the Spirit descended, which was at Pentecost. So he
said there is no way that that could be the case. His teaching
came from that supposition that the church couldn't exist until
that took place, right? But we're gonna learn that that's
not the case. What Schofield says and what
the Bible says is totally contradictory to each other. The other reason that this Pentecostal
birth of the church is popular is because The universal theory
people, the ones that believe in the universal church theory
people, it keeps them from tracing their
history back through the Church of Rome. If they believe that
the church started at Pentecost, then they can't say that their
history goes back through the Roman church. But let's look
and see what the Bible says. Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew chapter four. Matthew chapter four. Again,
like I always say here, and I will continue to say this as long
as the Lord has me here at this church, Do not ever take anything
that I say for the truth because I said it, because I'm a pastor,
because I'm a preacher, because I'm a teacher. Don't ever take
anybody's word for it because they are some authority or something
like that. You go to God's word. The Spirit
is your teacher. God's word is the only rule of
faith or doctrine and practice, okay? So you go to God's word,
and if you find what I'm saying to be untrue, then you believe
God's word and don't believe me. And hopefully in love, you'll
come and correct and reprove me and not, you know, call me
bad names, but in love, come to me and correct me, okay? But,
okay, so what are we dealing with here? The theory that the
church began at Pentecost Well, back in Matthew chapter four,
and we're looking at starting in verse 17. Okay, this was after
John baptized Jesus, and he came up out of the wilderness from
being tempted by Satan. And it says in verse 17, from
that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent, For the kingdom
of heaven is at hand, or meaning here, right now. The kingdom
of heaven is here, repent. Okay, now remember, there are
some who believe the kingdom of God is not coming until this
rapture, and then a seven-year tribulation, and then there's
gonna be this thousand-year reign, and that's where Jesus is gonna
set up his kingdom. for a thousand years and rule
with an iron rod over the nations with Israel with him, ruling
and reigning for a thousand years, okay? Well, Jesus here himself
said that the kingdom of heaven is already at hand. John the
Baptist had already been preaching. The kingdom of heaven is here.
Okay, so the kingdom isn't something that's future. The kingdom is
something that's now. Matter of fact, in the future,
Christ has gone to offer up the kingdom to God, okay? Repent for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand, verse 18. And Jesus walking by the sea
of Galilee saw two brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew
his brother, casting a net into the sea for they were fishers.
And he said unto them, follow me and I will make you fishers
of men. And they straightway left their
nets and followed him. And going on from thence, he
saw other two brethren, James, the son of Zebedee, and John,
his brother, in a ship with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets,
and he called them. And they immediately left the
ship and their father and followed him." Now, we see here that Jesus
begins to preach the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then he begins to call these
men straightway. Now, who is Peter? Who is Andrew? Who is James? Who is John? We know them as
apostles, right? They were the apostles. We also
know that the Bible says this, that he placed in the church
first apostles, right? Who were the first men that he
called into the church? Whenever he began to build on
himself, I am Jesus, I am the Christ, the son of the living
God. And by the way, if you back up
just a few verses at his baptism, whenever he was being baptized,
God out of heaven said, this is my beloved son in whom I am
well pleased. Okay, so there's the testimony
of John, there's the testimony of the father talking out of
heaven, and now there's the testimony of Jesus Christ saying, repent
for the kingdom of heaven is in hand, and he's calling people
to himself, which in the Old Testament said that John will
be preparing people for this guy. So we have three witnesses
here bearing witness that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the
living God. The Bible says that in the mouth
of two or three witnesses, a thing established. We also know that
the Bible says that he placed first in the church apostles. We also know that those apostles
who Jesus called were from the baptism of John. John had prepared
these men through preaching repentance and baptism, which by the way
was also preached at Pentecost, right? Repent and be baptized. So Peter's preaching, Jesus is
preaching, and everyone after that's preaching didn't change
from John. So that tells me that John's
gospel message was the same as our gospel message. That's why
we call ourselves Baptists, by the way. Why? Because we are
preparing the people for the Lord. We are preparing materials
that the Lord is building his church with, right? And so John
is the preparer of the materials that Christ built the church,
and he did that with the apostles. So here we see in Matthew 4,
at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry, he does the first thing. He comes up out of his temptation,
which wasn't to try to get Jesus to sin, okay? because we know
that Jesus cannot sin. He's impeccable. There is no
sin in him and he cannot be tempted by sin. Now, can he be tempted?
Yes, but he cannot sin. There is nothing in him that
could be tempted to sin. And so, out of that temptation,
that proved the validity of who Jesus was. God was proving who
Jesus was. And so Jesus comes straight away
up out of that, and the first thing he does in his ministry
is begins to build his church, right there. So the origin of
the church, I would say, and we're gonna see more evidence
to this, the origin of the church is with Jesus at the very beginning
of his ministry. That's when the church began. Now, let's go on, though, because
there's other people that disagree, that think it's the Pentecost
thing. Here's proof here that the church was in existence,
or began, before Pentecost. Look with me, if you would, at
John chapter four. John chapter four. Look with me at verse one. Actually, I want to back up into
John chapter three, verse 23. And John also, or let's start
in verse 22, kind of give us a context here. After these things
came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea, and there
he tarried with them and baptized. Now, if you just take that verse
by itself, People will think that Jesus was baptizing people
himself, but we'll soon find that in chapter four, verse two,
it says, Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples that
he had called already to himself, they were the ones who were baptizing,
okay? So Jesus wasn't actually doing
the baptizing. But it says, after these things came Jesus and his
disciples into the land of Judaea, and there he tarried with them
and baptized. And John also was baptizing in
Anon near to Silene, because there was much water there. And
they came and were baptized. By the way, there was much water
there, so the baptism that John was doing was water baptism,
not anything else. And John was not yet cast into
prison. Then there arose a question between
some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying. And
they came unto John and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was
with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, Behold,
the same baptizes and all men come to him. Okay, so he's talking
about John, John bore witness of Jesus. Matter of fact, before
Jesus' baptism and even after that, while John was baptizing
men, when Jesus passed by, remember he said, behold, the Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world. And then in his baptism,
he talked about that this man is someone whose shoe latches
he couldn't even unbuckle. One was coming that was greater
than him. So John had been bearing witness of Jesus and had even
pointed him out. Behold, there's the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world. Remember your Old Testament
school lessons, people. The Bible was teaching us through
all the Levitical priesthood that there would be a Lamb who
would come who would take away our sins, not just, cover our
sins, but actually take them away. And there he is, that's
the lamb. So John was preaching a gospel
message of Jesus as the lamb slain before the foundation of
the world, as the lamb who would come in time and manifest himself
as that lamb and be slain by wicked men and who would take
the sin of his people away. He says, John answered and said,
a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven.
So John was saying, hey, I'm not worried about Jesus and then
baptizing and everyone going to Him. A man can only receive
what's been given to him. I've been given a task. I've
been given a commission. I've been given a purpose. My
purpose was to prepare a people for the Lord, not to be the leader
of those people, not to be an authority over those people,
not to be anything for them people, that my place was to preach,
repent, and be baptized, and to teach them that this is the
Lamb of God and that I'm to prepare people for the Lord. It's up
to the Lord to do with them what he wants. It's his people, it's
not mine. And we can say that about, really,
we should say that about a lot of pastors too. A lot of pastors
think those people are his. They're not his, they're the
Lord's. I'm your pastor, but you're his, not mine. So, but anyway, John says, ye
yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ,
but that I am sent before him. Remember, John was sent by God.
Okay, he didn't just come upon this by his own, you know, desire. John says this, verse 29. He
that hath the bride is the bridegroom. Wait a minute, he's saying, They're
saying Jesus has got all the people now coming to him instead
of you. And John says, well, the bridegroom has the bride.
So the bride was already in existence right there. It didn't start
at Pentecost. He said, the bridegroom, he that
hath the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom,
which standeth and heareth him, rejoices greatly because of the
bridegroom's voice. This, my joy therefore, is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must
decrease." So even John the Baptist here is recognizing that he is
not a part of the bride. But he stands outside as a friend
of the bride, and he rejoices to hear what is being said to
the bride. So there we see that John wasn't in the church, so
he couldn't have been the beginning of the church, because he himself
wasn't in the church. But he was the one who prepared
the people for the start of the church. And Jesus was the one
who began to do that because Jesus said, I will build it.
He didn't say John would build it. He said, I will build it. But see, this also tells us that
there could be safe people. John was definitely saved. We
just read that he was filled with the Holy Ghost in his mother's
womb. We know that nobody unsaved is gonna have that. But it said
that he was not, part of the bride. So I know people get upset
whenever you say that you're not, you mean to tell me that
if I'm not part of the church that I'm not part of the bride?
Well, John recognized that he wasn't part of the bride and
it didn't faze him. He knew that he, what did he
say there? A man can receive nothing except
be given him from heaven. The fact is, brethren, there
will be some that God, Christ, never gives to be part of the
bride. Now, as I've mentioned here before, we have no qualms
whatsoever whenever we look at the scripture and we see the
Bible clearly teaches that God has elected a people to be saved.
Out of all the people of the world, God has elected a people
to be saved, and we have no problem with that. We defend that. That's what sovereign grace out
on our side actually means, that God is sovereign in bestowing
grace to whom he wants to give grace and mercy upon whom he
gives mercy, that he has chosen for himself a people and has
given them to Christ. And we don't have any problem
with that. And we'll go down to bare knuckles with people
about that very doctrine. But then we'll turn around and
say, well, You mean God can choose some of his elect people to be
a part of the bride and some not to be a part of the bride?
God can choose some to be a part of the church and not part of
the church? Well, brethren, if he can choose some for vessels
of honor and some for vessels of dishonor, he can surely choose
within his elect, who is that? Now, remember, let's go back
to the illustration that we found in the type and the foreshadow
in the Old Testament. Remember, there is all the people
of Israel, they was considered, the elect of God, the people
of God, okay? In the type of foreshadow. And
that encompassed every Israelite. If you were an Israelite, you
were the people of God and you were favored of God. Remember,
you have I chosen above all the nations and I've set my love
upon you. In Malachi, remember, he said, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau I've hated. How do we know that you love
him? Because I chose you and not Esau.
That's how God showed his love, by choosing you and not the other,
okay? And so we have no problem in
the Old Testament seeing that Israel, out of the Jebusites,
the Hittites, the Canaanites, all the other nations that were
around at the time, the Egyptians, that God did not choose them
as his people. God didn't set his love and favor
and blessing upon those people. Whenever the sacrifices were
being made by the Levitical priesthood, those sacrifices were not made
for other nations. It was only made for Israel.
Whenever Moses went out with the hyssop in the blood and he
sprinkled it upon them and not anybody else. And whenever that
Levitical priesthood was chosen, out of all of Israel, God elected
the Levites and only the Levites. to be the one who served God
in the tabernacle and eventually the temple, who God chose to
do the work of service for carrying out His ordinances and His message,
right? It was the Levitical priesthood.
The priest is the one who preached. The priest was the one who did
the sacrifices. The priest was the one who anointed
the furniture, who did all the ritual stuff. All the stuff was
done by the Levites. Was the Israelites who were out
among the common people, were they any less the people of God?
No, they were not. But God had purposed a special
group of people from within the people of God to carry out his
service and work. That's what God has done here
with the church. God has, out of the family and kingdom of
God, he has brought together congregations of people and they're
the ones that he has placed his presence in, his word in, his
gifts in. That's where his Holy Spirit
comes and dwells among them in a special way, not that he does
in just family and kingdom in general. He comes to the people
of God when they are gathered, and that special blessing in
a New Testament church that is holding the doctrines and ordinances
of Christ He has promised his presence there. He hasn't promised
his presence in the churches down the street that are holding
a different doctrine and different ordinances than he had. That's
not his church. That's some other church, someone
else's church, not his. But in his churches, he has promised
that. And so we see right here, the
issue of being in the bride, John said, hey, I'm a child of
the king, yes, but I'm not a bride. And he said that, and he rejoiced
greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. And he said, this my joy
therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must
decrease. He that cometh from above is
above all, and he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh
of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is
above all. He's saying, listen, The words that I speak are words
from a man from the earth. But the words that he's speaking,
they come from above. They're heavenly. Of course you
ought to listen to him. Of course you ought to go to
him. Of course he's better than I am. And if he chooses to have
this people to himself, that's his choice to do. And hey, I
rejoice in him doing what he wants to do. He that has seen
and heard that he testifieth and no man receiveth his testimony,
He that receiveth his testimony hath set to his seal that God
is true, for he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God,
for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. So see,
even there he said, hey, I'm a guy who God has given the Spirit
by a measure, but that guy that you're talking about, that all
the people are going to, God's given him the Spirit without
measure, meaning that he has it all. All the Spirit is in
that man. I only have it in a measure. He says, verse 34, for he whom
God has sent speaketh the words of God, for God giveth not the
Spirit by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son and
hath given all things into his hand. That means Christ is the
head of all things, right? He that believeth on the Son
hath, that's past tense, You see that? Y'all notice that sometimes
we read over things and we don't stop to think about what it's
saying. It didn't say, he that believeth on the Son will have
everlasting life. Or it didn't say, he that believeth
on the Son gets everlasting life. Or he'll give everlasting life.
He says, he that believeth on the Son hath, past tense, already,
everlasting life. So those who believe on Christ
believe because they already have everlasting life. See, your believing didn't get
you saved. Your believing didn't cause Christ
to make you born again. He says, he that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
So that means those who are unbelieving, the reason that they're unbelieving
is because the wrath of God abideth on them. Now look at verse four. It says,
when, therefore, the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that
Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus
himself baptized not his disciples, he left Judea and departed again
to Galilee, and he must need to go through Samaria. Okay,
so we see here that it says, in John chapter four that the
ordinance of baptism was already being practiced among the church,
okay? Jesus and the disciples were
already baptizing the disciples as they were listening to Jesus'
preaching. So the ordinance of baptism was
already there. Turn back to Matthew chapter
26. Is that thing all right back there? Matthew chapter 26, if you would. Look with me if you would down
at starting in verse 26. And as they were eating, Jesus
took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to the disciples.
and said, take ye, this is my body. And he took the cup and
gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, drink ye all of it, for
this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the
remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not
drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when
I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. And when they
had sung a hymn, they went out into the mouth of olives." Okay? What are we seeing here before
us? The Lord's Supper, right? This
is where Jesus started the Lord's Supper, the institution of the
Lord's Supper. Now, if you've still got a mark
back in Hebrews, turn back to Hebrews chapter three, excuse
me, number, Hebrews chapter two, I believe
it is. Hebrews chapter two, starting in verse nine. It says,
but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels
for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he,
by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. For it became
him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing
many sons unto glory. Don't let that every man throw
you off thinking about every man, woman, and child, because
we know the Bible teaches that not every man, woman, and child
will be saved, right? We learned that in Revelations,
the Bible says, those whose names were not found in the lands of
good life were cast in the lake of fire with death and hell and
Satan, okay? So we know that there'll be people
that are in hell. Rich man and Lazarus, there's
a man in hell, right? So we know that not every man
then, Jesus tasted death for in the fact of every person head
for head, but every man of the many sons, right? Who's the context of the every
man? The sons of glory. In bringing many sons unto glory
to make the captain of their salvation. Whose salvation? The sons of glory. Well, who
are the sons of glory? Remember the Bible says, because
ye are sons, God has sent his spirit into you Crying, whereby
we cry Abba Father. Okay, we were sons by our union
with Christ Jesus. We sang that this morning, didn't
we? We're sons because of a union with Christ before the foundation
of the world. That makes us sons. That's where
we are adopted as sons. And then because we are sons,
God has sent his spirit into us so that we will cry Abba Father. And who is it that Jesus is doing
this for? In bringing many sons unto glory. That's the one who he's tasting
the death for. Every man, every one of those sons. Now, you women
are included in that whenever he uses the term sons. He uses
male pronouns and things like that to speak of that. But you ladies who are children
of grace are included in that. and bringing many sons unto glory
to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one." Which also tells
me that it can't mean every man, woman, and child, because if
it is, then that means every man, woman, and child has been
sanctified and is one with Christ Jesus. Because they're the same
people who he's talking about in verse nine, who are the every
man. See, it's very clear that Jesus didn't die for every man,
he died for his people. For which cause he is not ashamed,
here it is, to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church will I sing praise
unto thee. Now, scour the New Testament
all you can, there's only one place that shows Jesus ever saying. and that was right there at the
Lord's Supper whenever he sang a hymn before they went out to
the Mount of Olives. You don't see where he sang anywhere else
in scripture. The only place that says that
Jesus sang was at the institution of the Lord's Supper, and Hebrew
says that it was in the midst of the church. So that tells me that we had
baptism, we had the Lord's Supper before Pentecost, in the midst
of the church, who was already called by Jesus, who had first
started placing apostles there. Okay, so, so far, we've seen
that there were people being called out into the church before
Pentecost, that the ordinances were already laid within the
church and taught before Pentecost. What about the gospel? Was the
gospel preached before Pentecost? Before Jesus, what do you mean?
Can you preach the gospel before Jesus even died? Look with me
if you would to Luke chapter nine. We're gonna read this and
we'll take a break. Luke chapter nine. We'll start in verse, Verse one,
it says, then he called his 12 disciples together and gave them
power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the
kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And he said unto them,
take nothing for your journey, neither staves nor script, neither
bread, neither money, neither have two coats a piece. And whatsoever
house ye enter into, there abide, and thence depart. And whosoever
will not receive you when ye go out of that city, shake off
the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.
And they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel
and healing everywhere." Well, wait a minute. How can you have
the gospel before Christ has died? Were they telling people
about Christ dying? Well, John was saying, behold,
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Can you
only imagine the people that were standing by there saying,
whoa, whoa, wait a minute, what are you talking about? How is
he the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? But,
brethren, we heard the gospel being preached back in the Old
Testament. Matter of fact, the New Testament tells us that the gospel
was preached unto Abraham. The Bible says in Isaiah very
clearly that he would redeem his people. The Bible says in
Psalms 22, David gives a explicit account of the crucifixion of
Jesus Christ. Job bears witness and testimony. He says, I know that my Redeemer
liveth. He knew that there would be a
Redeemer who would come. So yes, the gospel was before
Pentecost. Look at Mark 1.1. This is what I was telling you
about, about John the Baptist here. Mark 1.1. It says, the beginning of the
gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Okay, the beginning of
the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written
in the prophets, behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying
in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord, make his
path straight. John did baptize in the wilderness
and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sin, not
the covering of sin. That was what was being preached
in the sacrifices. The sacrifices were a covering
of sin, but not a remission or removal of sin. And there went out unto him all
the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized
of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins." Now,
and we can go down actually further and read about John and about him eating
locusts and wild honey and what he said, but what I wanted to
point out here is that the gospel began to be preached with John.
He is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He's the one
who began to preach. Now, what do I mean by that?
Was there not gospel in the Old Testament? There was gospel in
the New Testament, but that gospel was somewhat veiled in the Old
Testament. But now John began to preach
that this land, this man who would come, the Christ, he would
be the one who would bring the remission of sin. It would be
by his, sacrifice, that the remission of sin. So that fuller preaching
of the gospel began with John. And so the gospel started with
John. Gospel preaching began with John. All right, well, let's take a
break there. If you need to use the restroom
and get a drink, refill your coffee, whatever, you can do
that. And then we'll meet back in here
and continue on. I want to strike one.