I'm looking at a couple of these verses, I think
it was one we've already hit in Ephesians. But turn back to
Ephesians 1 anyway. I thought we had started in Ephesians,
I couldn't remember if we went all the way through. But I wanted to go back to the
first one, Ephesians chapter one and verse 22. I'll try to get this thing going. Now the camera woman's waiting
on the sound man. Okay, yeah, we're gonna back
up to Ephesians chapter one and verse 22. I know we read through
all these verses last week, but I wanted to look particularly
at something that as I was studying this week, I came across a phrase,
and I've mentioned this to you before, and said that one of
these days I'm going to do a whole study on this for you guys. But
we will come back to that. But I'm gonna read these just
in passing so that you might see that the church or the gathered
body, as we've seen in our definitions of ecclesia, in the etymology
and in the definitions, the called out assembly, or a called out
gathered assembly, that is, conducting business or a lawful assembly.
So it's more than just the called out ones. which most of the lexicons
give the definition of, you know, Eccleo, the called out ones. It's more than that. It's a called
out gathered assembly or a lawful assembly or congregation. It's
actually coming together into one place at one time altogether. So that is what a church is. Now, Last week, we looked at
Ephesians chapter one, verse 22. It says, and he had put all
things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things
to the church, okay? And as we've seen in all the
writings of Paul, as we've seen up to this point, in every place
that the term ekklesia has been used up until now, we've seen
that it's always not one place in any of the passages that we
have read Everywhere the term Ekklesia has been found has referred
to the church either in its institutional way or as a actual congregation,
okay, or plural congregations. But it has given us, so far,
a biblical definition of Ekklesia would be a gathered assembly,
a local group of people gathered together for service, for worship
of God. It says in Ephesians 1.22 that
he had put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head
over all things to the church. Okay, so something has been put
under his feet and he is the head over all things. What does that mean? Okay, what
does that mean? Well, if we look there in our
passage, it says, In verse 20, look at verse 20. It says, actually
let's go back to the verse 17. It says, that the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give unto you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of Him. The eyes
of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the
hope of His calling and what the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints. and what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us were to believe according to the working of his
mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him
from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly
places. Far above all principality and
power and might and dominion and every name that is named
not only in this world but also in that which is to come and
had put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head
over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness
of him that filleth all in all." Now, what does that mean? What is putting all things under
his feet and giving him the head over all things, giving him to
be the head over all things, and how does that pertain to
the church? Because he obviously links the putting all things
under his feet to the being the head over all things to the church,
okay? So the putting of all things
under his feet is somehow tied to the being the head over all
things to the church. So whenever Christ had all things
put under his feet by God, that being put under his feet also
made him to be the head of all things to the church. But where's
the tie between the church and the things that's under his feet?
Have you ever thought about that? Is that even something that's
even coming across your mind, where that tie comes from? Well,
look back with me, if you would, to Matthew chapter 22. Matthew
chapter 22. I guess I should say first and
foremost that I need to give credit to the Holy Spirit for
teaching these things because no man is taught except by the
Holy Spirit. But I also have to kind of give
a little bit of a head nod to Brother Herb Hatfield because
he's the first person that I've ever heard teach on these things
and as I begin to look into those things after listening to his
message on this about four or five years ago, I think he's
right in what he said. But look at Matthew chapter 22
and go down with me to verse 36. It says, Master, which is the greatest
commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him that thou,
shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy
soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment,
and the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying,
what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? And they said
unto him, the son of David. And he saith unto thee, How then
doth David in spirit call him, Christ, Lord, saying, the Lord
said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I make thine
enemies thy footstool. Okay, so we see that phrase,
of course, that phrase there goes back to Psalms 110, that's
where David wrote that, but he was speaking of Christ. We see
it again in Acts, if you wanna turn to Acts chapter two, Acts
chapter two. This is where we get the New
Testament definition of what that means. Acts chapter two. And if you will look with me
at, Verse 29, it says, men and brethren, let me freely speak
unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried,
and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore being
a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him,
that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would
raise up Christ to sit on his throne. He's seen this before,
spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not
left in hell, neither his flesh did seek corruption. This Jesus
hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore,
being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of
the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth
this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended into
the heavens, but he saith himself, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit
thou on my right hand, "'until I make thy foes thy footstool. "'Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know "'and share the belief that God hath made this
same Jesus, "'whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ.'" Okay,
so here we see that this is speaking of a time that happened after
the resurrection, right? The resurrection was that time
where Christ ascended the throne of David. We've seen in our time,
men have twisted this to mean that there's gonna be some future
time where Christ is gonna sit upon a throne with a rod of iron
for a thousand years and rule over the nations and Israel is
gonna be put on thrones and be judging the nations and that
time that the kingdom or the nation of Israel will be restored
to its rightful place as the elect people of God and will
rule on thrones over the nations during this thousand year reign,
okay? I don't find that in the scriptures
anywhere, especially when we see the New Testament definition
for this particular portion of that actually being defined as
Christ's resurrection. But notice if you would, that
in that resurrection, that in the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
God exalted Christ and put him at his right hand until he makes
his foes thy footstool. Now I asked you the question
a while ago, that he put all things under his feet, what were
the things that was put under his feet? Or what was the thing
that was put under his feet? Okay, well, one of the things
we see here in scripture is the thing that was put under his
feet was a footstool. Okay, now I don't know about
you, but for me, for all the years, up until about four or
five years ago, I always thought that that phrase, until I make
thy enemies thy footstool, was the time at the end whenever
all men will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord and Christ will sit on his throne and basically all
of humanity will be before him like a footstool that he puts
his feet upon, okay? And that his enemies are made
to bow down to him like a footstool. And that kind of was my understanding
or my mentality of it. And I probably was way off that.
I may be the only one here that even probably thought that, but
I always equated his enemies being everybody that will reject
and deny Christ. And at the end, we made his footstool
that he will use them to prop up his feet as he sits on the
throne. Okay. Figuratively that is, you
know, now, we learn that, and if you wanna turn with me, turn
over to Hebrews chapter 10. This footstool isn't speaking
of anybody except the church of Jesus Christ. It's speaking of the people of
God. and particularly it's speaking
of them as the gathered church. Look at Hebrews chapter 10. Look
with me in verse 11. It says, and every priest standeth
daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices,
which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins, forever sit down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. Okay, so we see that phrase being
used again in conjunction with his sacrifice. So the being made the footstool
is tied to the finished work of Jesus Christ, his death, his
resurrection, and his exaltation and ascension to the Father.
Okay, so being made the footstool has to do with something after
Christ died and being part of his work, okay? So it encapsulates
all that. So the footstool is tied to that
very thing. Now, we learned that the footstool
is a place where the service of God is made. It was at the
footstool. This is a place where you come
and worship. If you look throughout the scriptures,
there's several places where when someone saw Jesus, they
came and they worshiped at his feet. That they came and bowed
at his feet. And that the feet, matter of
fact, the Bible says, blessed are the feet of them who bring
good news. Okay, so the bowing at the feet
the becoming a footstool at the feet of Christ is a place of
worship and a place of reverence and is a place of service to
Christ. And so we're gonna do a study
on this eventually and I'll make this out more clear and I hope
I haven't just convoluted things this morning. But anyway, whenever
we see in Ephesians 1.22 where it says he put all things under
his feet, and made him to be head over all things to the church. We see there that Christ is the
head of the church and that that church has been placed as the
footstool, as the place of service, as the place of worship, as the
place of reverence. That doesn't mean that in our
personal lives that we don't have reverence and service and
worship, but the corporate place where Christ has called us to
come and provide these things, to do the things of service,
and we'll tie this all back into the Old Testament as well, is
the worship of God, the service of God is in the local church. And as we've seen up to this
point, it's a gathered congregation. It's not an invisible body. It's not the universal invisible
church that people talk about. It is the local gathered assembly,
the lawful assembly, that God has set up as the footstool for
Christ. And so this is where we come
to be the servant. If you wanna serve Christ, you
serve Him in the church. If you wanna worship Christ,
you worship Him in the church. If you want to reverence Christ,
you're gonna reverence Him by being in the church. And so that
is where the footstool or the place of service for Christ is
made. So I wanted to make that ties
as we had already read that verse. And so I wanted to step back
to that. And like I said, I'll do a more thorough study on the
footstool in days to come. So turn with me now to Philippians
chapter three, Philippians chapter three. We'll pick up with our verse
by verse through the Scripture is everywhere, Ecclesia is found. Philippians chapter three, and look with me if you would
at, well, we'll start in verse one
and work our way down, but I want you to see something here. It
says Philippians chapter three, verse one. Finally, my brother,
rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you. To me
indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs,
beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. Now, side note,
he's not talking about bark bark dogs, okay? That's what he called
the law mongers. That's what he called the religious
men. That's what he called the Pharisees, the Judaizers. He called them dogs. He called
them evil workers. He said, beware of the concision.
What does that mean? Well, those men who thought that
you had to be circumcised, okay? That's still a warning for us
today, by the way. We're not talking about Jewish
men walking around in their Jewish robes with their Jewish phylacteries
and their scrolls and their, you know, it's not talking about
that. What is what is that warning
for us today? Beware of those who keep trying to take you back
to the law. Beware of those who keep trying
to take you back to the law. They are evil workers. They're
the concision, their dogs. OK, so we got to be careful of
those who take us to a place where righteousness and acceptance
and sanctification and all those things have to do with obedience
to the law. That has nothing to do with anything,
and so beware them. Verse three, it says, for we
are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice
in Christ and have no confidence in the flesh. So see, that's
telling us here that the ones who actually are in the spirit
of God, who worship in the spirit of God. And remember, the Bible
said that those who worship God must worship him in spirit and
in truth, right? Not just in doctrine. We can
worship God in doctrine all day long, but if we don't worship
him in the right spirit, in the right way, okay, then we're not
truly worshiping him. There are a lot of people out
there that think they worship God because they have the right
doctrine, but they don't have the right practice. They don't
have the right orthodoxy in their worship and in their gathering,
okay? They must worship him in spirit
and in truth. It says, for we are the circumcision
which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. Again, going back to this law
thing as a side note, if you have any confidence in your flesh
and keeping the law for righteousness, for salvation, for justification,
for sanctification, you're looking in the wrong place because the
flesh cannot produce anything that is profitable to God. Your flesh is flesh and cannot
please God at all. And you say, well, what can we
do? Well, what do we do? We just sit there like a log?
No, you trust Christ. Christ is your righteousness.
Christ is all you need. He's done all you need to do.
He is your righteousness, if you are his. Verse four, though
I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man
thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh,
I am more. So Paul's basically giving them
a thing here saying, hey, listen, if you wanna get down to, if
you wanna talk about flesh and have confidence in the flesh,
listen, I'm the guy that could probably have confidence in the
flesh, and I'm the one that's telling you not to have confidence
in the flesh. He said, I was circumcised on
the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,
a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee, concerning
zeal, persecuting the church, Touching the righteousness which
is in the law, blameless. But what things were gained to
me, those I counted lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I
count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but dumb that I may win Christ. Okay, and so here again, Paul,
in the midst of talking about Righteousness, the works of things.
He says, listen, if you want to count things that's done in
the flesh, one of the things I did is I was persecuting the
church as a Pharisee. I was the one that was hunting
down the church. Okay. Now, to our turn back and see
here, again, it says persecuting the church. And some may look
at that and say, there you go. He was persecuting the church. It doesn't say the church at
Jerusalem. It doesn't say a particular church, it just says the church.
So it's speaking of the universal invisible body, okay? Well, if the universal invisible
body is one body and is made up of all the members, okay?
Let's try to be consistent here, folks, okay? Those who are the
advocates of the church being all the elect of God, And they
always run to the scripture verse of there is one body, there's
one faith, there's one baptism. We have all been made to drink
of that one spirit. They run to the verses that say
that there are many members, but one body, okay? They run
to all these things to prove that it's all the elect of God.
And Paul says that I have persecuted the church Well, the church is
one body made up of all of its members, right? Did Paul persecute
every elect of God on the face of the earth that ever was? No,
so now you come to the place where you have to make a distinction.
Is Paul talking about the church, universal, invisible, everywhere,
which doesn't exist, that's not a biblical concept. Does Paul
speak of that, or does he speak of a local congregation, or is
he speaking of portions of people? Because we always say, well,
the church is the people, and I even hear that among the Universal
Invisible Church. Well, the church isn't a building,
it's the people. Okay, is it part of the people
or all the people? See, you can't have it both.
You can't say that we're a part of the church as a universal
invisible body that make up one body as every member is part
of it and then say that Paul persecuted the church, shouldn't
it say he parted, that he persecuted some of the church or some in
the church or people of the church? But it says he persecuted the
church. a specific church. But we can't
say universal invisible because he didn't persecute me. He didn't
persecute you. He didn't persecute anybody outside
of that area. What about that Ethiopian eunuch? Did he persecute the Ethiopian
eunuch? He didn't persecute everybody.
But if you remember, we've already seen two or three other verses
before that has spoke of Paul persecuting the church. And if
you look back in Acts, whenever that took place, where did it
say he persecuted? The church at Jerusalem. So why would we think that the
Holy Spirit would change gears, change his mind, change his story
over here in Philippians and say that he's talking about somebody,
anybody else besides the church at Jerusalem? So Paul here concerning zeal,
persecuting the church, and we can honestly, without any hesitation,
without any worry about being unbiblical or bad hermeneutics
or whatever you wanna say, say that it's talking about the church
at Jerusalem because we've seen that in Acts. The Holy Spirit
already told us it was the church at Jerusalem that Paul was persecuting. Even though he was going from
town to town and house to house, The Holy Spirit said it was the
church of Jerusalem that he was after in those places. So here we see that again in
verse six of Philippians three. Look at chapter four. Chapter four. And look with me at verse, 15 says, now ye Philippians know
also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from
Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving
and receiving, but ye only. Okay, so here, Paul is making
distinctions among different churches because he says, ye,
Philippian church, are the only ones who communicated concerning
giving and receiving, but no other church did that. So he recognized that not all
of them made up one universal invisible body called the church,
that they were separate, individual, identified, lawful assemblies,
congregations, and he said, no church. He made it about specific
churches. Although they weren't named,
he didn't name those churches, other than the Philippian church
to whom he was writing. He didn't make those names known,
but in the context of this, if we were to be honest with the
words of scripture and to be honest with grammar, to be honest
with common sense, whenever he countered, you know, whenever
he makes distinction with no church except your church communicated giving and receiving,
then he's making a distinction saying that there is more than
one church as it pertains to congregations. As an institution,
there's only one church. It's Jesus' church, the church
of Jesus Christ. Only one in institution, but
several in location and assembly, in congregation. Multiple churches,
one institution, Christchurch. The Ecclesia. Okay? So here, Paul makes that distinction. So again, no universal invisible
church found with Ecclesia being used here. Not one place. And here we are, coming into
Colossians. You would think that if universal invisible church
is the main definition of Ecclesia, If you would think that it is
the Universal Invisible Church that is the most important thing,
it's more important to be in the Universal Invisible Church
than it is to be in the local visible church. At least I'm
in the Universal Invisible Church. Well, brethren, here we are all
the way in the New Testament up to Colossians, and there's
not been one mention of a Universal Invisible Church yet. But there's
been a whole lot of information about a local, visible, lawful
assembly and the importance of it. We've
found up until now, up until Colossians, we have found that
in that lawful assembly is where worship is. In that lawful assembly
is where the command of Christ is for you who believe to come
to be baptized and to be taught all things whatever Christ has
commanded you. Oh, but, oh, but, oh, wait, I
know, but, okay? That was Christ's command. Make
disciples, baptize them, teach them all things. Who's supposed
to teach them? Go ye, therefore, who is he talking
to? Remember back in Matthew 28,
he was talking to the church. Go ye, And remember ye, whenever
we talked about the word ye, the word ye is not equal to you,
individual. Ye is a collective. Ye means a collective group of
people. Ye is plural, but it is a singular
plural. It's speaking of a specific group. And so whenever he said ye go,
ye and make disciples, baptizing them, who's them? The disciples that ye made, and
teaching them, who's them? The disciples that you made,
that you baptized, all things whatsoever Christ has commanded.
And lo, I, Christ, am with you always. even until the end of
the earth. So where was the Great Commission
given? It was given to the church. Who's to carry the Great Commission
out? It's the church. Where is the baptism and ordinance
supposed to be done? At the church, in the lawful
assembly. Where is the teaching supposed
to be done? At church, in the lawful assembly. So we've seen the important place
Upon that, and here we are in Colossians chapter one. This is where we start to get
into the murky waters and everybody begins to say, ooh. It's hard for me to see local church
in some of these things. Well, Colossians chapter one, He says in verse 18, speaking
of Jesus Christ, and he is the head of the body, the church,
who is the beginning of the firstborn from the dead, that in all things
he might have the preeminence. And he is the head of the body,
the church. Now, should we think that what
Paul is saying to the Colossians is any different than what Paul
said before whenever he used the term body to the Corinthians. Remember in Corinthians, Paul
used the metaphor of a body in relation to the local congregation
at Corinth, to the lawful assembly at Corinth, to the congregation
at Corinth. He told the congregation at Corinth,
ye are the body of Christ and members in particular. Now, does that mean anybody who
was not in the congregation of Corinth is not in the body? Or
they was the only body? No, what is he doing? Again, remember when we went
through that, I said, don't let the metaphor get away from you,
okay? providing a metaphor to teach
unity in a congregation who was plagued with disunity. Disunity
in their service, disunity in their doctrine, disunity in their
morality, disunity in their ordinances, disunity in the What's the term I'm wanting to
use in the, what's the term I'm looking for? The richer and the
poorer people, the statuses of people. There was disunity there. The rich people were taking advantage
of the poor people. They were coming and eating at
the Lord's table and not waiting for those who didn't have anything.
And they were eating everything up before that and then not not
discerning the Lord's body and not preferring one another and
waiting. Matter of fact, they weren't
even doing the Lord's supper correctly, but anyway, they were jumping
ahead of everybody. Okay, there was disunity at Corinth. And Paul used a metaphor of a
body, how a body can't be disjointed or it won't work right. If it's
disjointed, it hurts, it's sick, it's wounded. It's not functioning
properly. And so we use the metaphor, but
that's not something that we need to take and plaster over
everything and say that this body means everybody everywhere. He was using a metaphor for that
particular church or that particular lawful assembly to get across
to them that the ecclesia is made up of one group of people. That's why you've been called
out to make this one gathering And if you're not in unity, you're
not gonna function well. So let's not use the metaphor
to go further than it needs to go. And so here we see, again,
Paul using that metaphor to the Colossians. He says, and he is
the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.
God has made him the head over all things to the church. Who do we worship when we come
to the Lawful Assembly? Christ. Whose commands do we
obey whenever we come to the Lawful Assembly? Christ. Whose word do we proclaim whenever
we come to the Lawful Assembly? Christ. Whose ordinances do we
hold and present? Christ's ordinances. In those ordinances, who is displayed? Christ. Who is our only rule
of faith? Christ and His Word. That's our only rule of faith
and practice. Whenever we preach the gospel,
who do we preach? Christ. Christ is preeminent. Christ is prominent. Christ is
the center. And Christ has been made the
head or the governor or the leader or the ruler or the central figure
over the church. He's the head of our church.
I'm not the head of this church. The pastor is not the head of
the church. The pastor's not the ruler of the church. He's
not the dictator of the church. He is not the CEO of the church. He's not the COO of the church
or the CFO of the church. The pastor is the pastor. He is the teacher and the one
who leads by example is the one who keeps the chaos down by being
the overseer of things. Some do that well, more better
than others, me being the others. But the fact remains is Christ
is the head, not the head, skull of a body. He is the head or
the leader. He's the one who's head in charge
of the body. his body. His body being the
whole body. Okay? Not the whole body with
him being a head up somewhere in heaven who is governing the
rest of that from the neck down. Okay? No. We are all the whole
body from head to toe and he is the head of that. We are his
body on earth. Okay. So, And 1 Corinthians 1.18,
no alarm there to have to go look into the Protestants or
to historical things. You know, it is what it is. Every
place up to this point has talked about a local visible assembly,
a lawful assembly. Paul has used this metaphor already
one time in regards to a local visible assembly. And so we shouldn't
have to think anything different here. Look at verse 24. Matter of fact, let's go back. Let's go back and keep reading
from 20. It says, and having made peace through the blood
of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him
I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven,
and you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind, by
wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his
flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and
unreprovable in his sight. If ye continue in the faith,
ungrounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel, which ye have heard and which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven. Oh, you mean the gospel
has been preached? to every creature which is under
heaven. I thought that was why we had missionaries, because
that still hasn't been done yet. Hmm, the Bible says, which was
preached to every creature which is under heaven. Whereof I, Paul,
am made a minister, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you and
fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ
in my flesh for his body's sake, which is his church, which is
the church. Okay, so Paul here says that
Christ is in the body of this flesh through death to present
you holy and blamable and unreprovable in his sight. So one of the things
in Christ's dying, and this is one of the reasons why we can
say, remember this right here, when it said that Christ loved
the church and gave himself for that and we said, just because
he says that doesn't mean it excludes his death work for those
outside the church, okay? Meaning the elect of God who
isn't in a local gathered lawful assembly, okay? Yes, his death
was for them too, but there is something about this that he
also died for, okay? And he died here to present you
holy and blamable and unapprovable in his sight. Someone say, well,
yeah, that's speaking of, that is speaking of imputed righteousness
that is speaking of our justification, and that includes all these people
over here, too. But look what he says. If ye
continue in the faith, ungrounded and settled. Oh, wait a minute. That's a condition, right? If
ye continue in the faith, ungrounded and settled, and be not moved
away from the hope of the gospel. which ye have heard and which
was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof
I, Paul, am made a minister." Who has Paul made a minister
to? The church, right? He was made a minister of Christ
to the church. But what's this, if ye continue
in the faith, you mean that Christ's imputed righteousness could be
lost If we don't continue in the faith, how many of you this
week cease to continue in the faith at some point? To continue
in the faith means to never go away from the faith. Grounded and settled and be not
moved away from the hope of the gospel. How many of you has ever
doubted your salvation? You ever doubted your salvation?
Have you, you were moved away from the hope of the gospel?
When you did, does that mean you lost your salvation? Does
that mean you're not there anymore? Does that mean Christ's righteousness
now has to be removed from you? What's that talking about when
it says that, that he has done these things in the body of his
flesh through death so that he might present you holy and blamable
and unreprovable in his side. And then down in verse 24, he
talks about for the body's sake, which is the church. Paul was the minister of the
church. Christ died for the church and is wanting to present this
church institutionally and anywhere that type of church is found
to present it. And Paul was a minister of that.
Matter of fact, Paul even made mention of that thing himself,
that he would present them spotless and blameless. How is that to
be? Do we ever find conditions given
to local assemblies that if you don't continue in the faith,
then you cease to be my church? Anybody ever heard that? Turn with me back to Revelation. Turn with me back to Revelation. And we just talked about the
church in Ephesus and how Paul was talking about how they were
a wonderful church. But look in chapter two of Revelation. It says, unto the angel or the
messenger of the church of Ephesus, who's the, Who's the angel of
the Church of Ephesus? Anybody got a clue on that? Any
thoughts? You think that there was a winged
cherubim that was placed over the Church of Ephesus? Some invisible
creature guarding that church, keeping the riffraff out, keeping
the demons away. Is that what he's talking about?
Whenever Jesus is writing these letters to the seven churches
in Asia, seven churches, by the way, we're gonna get there in
our verse by verse, but, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus
write, who's that addressed to? Who's the letter being primarily
sent to first? The pastor. Who's the messenger
of the church? He's the preacher, the pastor. And so he's telling John to write
this letter to the pastor of the church of Ephesus. These things saith he that holdeth
the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst
of the seven golden candlesticks. Now we gotta know what that,
what does that mean? Look back up in chapter one and
verse 17. It says, when I saw him, I fell
at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon
me saying, fear not, I am the first and the last. Oh, wait
a minute, John fell at his feet, like a footstool. John fell at
his feet as dead. So he's talking about Jesus here.
Jesus says, fear not, I am the first and the last. I am he that
liveth. and was dead, and behold, I am
alive forevermore, amen, and have the keys of hell and of
death. Write the things which thou hast
seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be
hereafter. The mystery of the seven stars
which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels
of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks which thou
sawest are the seven churches. Okay, so Christ has in his hand,
not a universal invisible body, but he has seven churches with
seven pastors who is pastoring those churches, who is the messenger
to those churches. That's what we found here in
the first chapter. And so now he says, under the
angel, of the church of Ephesus, right? Verse two, I know thy works,
and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst bear them
which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say that they
are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars. That's
pretty good, right? That sounds like a good church. I know thy labor, that means
that church was laboring for Christ. I know thy patience,
they were waiting on Christ. And hast thou cannot bear them
which are evil. They were a righteous church
who loved righteousness and hated evil. Kind of like Hal Job, you
know, he loved righteousness and eschewed evil. And thou hast
tried them which are apostles. There were people who were saying
that they were apostles of Christ, but yet this church in Ephesus
tried them. by the word of God and found
them to be not apostles. And has borne and has patience
and for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted. Listen,
they have not grown weary in well-doing. They have continued
in laboring for Christ, serving Christ. But look at verse four,
nevertheless. That word nevertheless, you know
what that means? What I'm about to say is no less important because
of what I just said. Meaning that even though you
have all that for you, there is something of utmost importance
you need to know. I have somewhat against thee
because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from
whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works Or else,
here it is, I will come unto thee quickly and will remove
thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. What was the candlestick again?
The church, right? If you remove the candlestick,
you've removed the church. But wait a minute, I thought
the church was eternally secure. Well, the elect are eternally secure, but an individual lawful assembly,
when it ceases to be a lawful assembly, ceases to be Christ's
church. And here we see that Jesus is
warning a true New Testament church who has been bought with
his blood and is made up of people who are the elect of God being
warned that they will cease to be the church in Ephesus unless
they repent from going astray from something that he has taught
them or told them. So that means that there is a
practical righteousness that a local congregation or lawful
assembly Lawful assembly, whenever they cease to be a lawful assembly,
then they cease to be Christ Church. Whenever they don't hold to what
Christ has commanded, they're not Christ Church, they're something
else. See, remember back whenever I gave you the illustration of
McDonald's and Burger King, just because they look alike, they
smell alike, they function alike, They may even have a lot of the
same things on the menu like, I don't mean that McDonald's
and Burger King are the same thing. Just because there are
people that are meeting in places and opening Bibles and having
preachers, having hymns, having prayers, giving gifts, money,
missionaries, all that stuff doesn't mean that they are a
lawful assembly that is a church of Jesus Christ. What is it that
makes them the church of Jesus Christ? If you continue in the
faith ungrounded, or in the faith grounded and settled and be not
moved away from the hope of the gospel which he had heard and
which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, where
have I Paul and made a minister? See, to be a church means to
be grounded in the faith, to be living in the hope of the
gospel, it means that you are a lawful assembly that is doing
what Christ has commanded. And if you cease to do that,
guess what? The letter from Christ comes. Now that also tells us that we
should have pastors who are preaching and teaching these things to
the churches. A faithful pastor is gonna be
someone who teaches the churches that we have moved away from
this and we need to move back to this. If not, he's not a faithful
preacher, whoever he is. It doesn't matter how many doctorates
he has. It doesn't matter how much education he has. It doesn't
matter what he thinks. If it's moved away from Christ,
then there is the warning given to us that Christ can remove
that candlestick. And he goes on to these other
churches and gives them the same thing. He tells them, yes, I
know that there's aspects of you that is good, but he says,
I'm wanting a church that is spotless. I'm wanting a church
that is unmovable. I'm wanting a church that is
doing what I have commanded. Why? Because if we don't, if
we're saying something else, then we're saying something else
about Christ, right? Now, this is where we'll go back
to the Old Testament at some point, and we'll see, because
in the Old Testament, if you remember, that every item in
the sanctuary was specifically designed, told to be specifically
placed, and was specifically used, and if it was used out
of what the context of how God told them to use it, there was
judgment. Why? Because Christ put them
there, to show him that he might have the preeminence. And if
we move away from the things that Christ has taught, even
whenever it comes to the teaching of the church, if we move away
from that, then we tell something about Christ that is untrue.
And we don't want to do that. And so we see now in verse 24,
he says, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up
that which is behind the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his
body's sake, which is the church, where I am made a minister according
to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill
the word of God." So see, Paul was given as an apostle
to minister to the church in Colossae. in Ephesus, in Thyatira,
in all these places where Paul went. He was a minister to them. To do what? To teach them all
things whatsoever Christ had commanded. To keep them in their,
how many times? Go through whenever you're reading
through the epistles of Paul, and even some of the other epistles,
but mainly the epistles of Paul, where he talks about keeping
you in remembrance of these things. Bring to you remembrance. reminding
you of these things. These things that I tell you
are the things that was given to me. Remember that was, I mean,
that was what he told the Galatians, what he told the Ephesians, the
Colossians. I mean, he was keeping them in remembrance of these
things. What things? Well, the things
that Christ told him to tell them. Now that the New Testament
church is established, now that the New Testament church is being
perpetuated by that first model, by that first church that Jesus
put together. Now he's building upon that in
every place. And as that is being perpetuated,
what are we doing? We're doing the same thing, what
Paul did. We're doing the same thing that John the Baptist did.
We're preparing a people for the Lord. We're instructing them. We're guiding them, directing
them in the things of God. Plus, we're also the place where
we worship. Chapter four, Colossians chapter
four. We'll finish up here in Colossians
and we'll be done for the day. Colossians chapter four. She didn't like that, did she? Do I need to give you more time
than two verses, sister? 30 minutes is what I need. Oh, OK. Well, you know me. I
can do 30 minutes like nothing. Well, that's all right. What
time is it? 11.30. 11.30. OK. Well, we might
be able to bang out a few more verses. I just seen that I was
getting to the hour mark here, so. All right. Colossians chapter 4. I said something you didn't mind,
you were bailing on me. Colossians chapter four, look
at verse 15. It says, salute the brethren which
are in Laodicea and Memphis and the church which is in his house. Okay, so again, we see Ecclesia
once again is being used in a local, visible, gathered assembly, context. It was the church which was in
the house of Nemphis. Okay? If it was a universal and
visible something, it wouldn't be, why wouldn't he say, salute
the church which are in Laodicea and Nemphis? But why does he
make a distinction? Now, was there a Laodicean church?
Yeah, there was, we found that out in Revelation, or we'll find
that out in Revelation. But not only did that, to the
church which was in Nemphis's house. Look at verse 16. And when this
epistle is read among you, among who? The Colossian church, right? When this epistle is read among
you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans,
and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea." Okay,
so again, the term Ecclesia is referring to a specific local
congregation in Laodicea, right? Okay, no universal church there,
Colossians. All right, we'll move into Thessalonians
then. Thessalonians, if you need to get up and use the restroom,
get over here, or whatever, but we'll keep on tripping since
we're so close to lunch anyway. All right, 1 Thessalonians, and
we'll start in verse one. It says, Paul and Silvanus and
Timotheus unto the church which is in God the Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that what it says? Well, if
it was a universal and visible church, that's all he needed
to say, right? If the church is the elect of God in everywhere,
and everyone is in that body, and that body makes up all of
the church, and Jesus is the head of that whole individual
conglomeration that's universal and visible, not gathered and
assembled, then all he needed to do is say to the church, which
is in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, but he says,
to the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, so again, ecclesia is used
in the context of a individual lawful assembly, congregation,
and not an invisible and universal thing, but a local and visible
thing. So I don't know about you guys,
but I'm beginning to get the idea, as we've gone through every verse
that Ecclesia has found, that there is no universal invisible
church. But hey, we still got a few more
books and chapters to go through here, and we might find one somewhere,
so let's keep our attention here to the scriptures. 1 Thessalonians
chapter two, look at verse 14. Next place that the word is found.
1 Thessalonians 2 14, for ye brethren
became followers of the churches of God, which in Judea are in
Christ, for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen,
even as they have of the Jews. Now, here again, this is one
of those verses where if there was the greatest opportunity
to invoke a universal invisible mentality or idea, it would have
been here, because Paul could have easily talked about the
church as a universal body in Judea and could have said, for
ye brethren became followers of the church of God, which is
in Judea. But he didn't, he said churches.
Why? Because there were multiple churches
in Judea and they became followers of those churches. Why followers
of those churches? Why didn't he just single out
one particular church? Well, probably because all of
those churches fell into the category of the institutional
church, the Church of Jesus Christ. They were New Testament churches.
If they're New Testament churches, they're all saying the same thing,
right? They're all teaching the same thing. They all have the
same gospel. They all have the same head,
Christ. So to say that about one church
is to say that about all churches, right? Again, I'll drop back
to a McDonald's illustration. To say that McDonald's has the
Big Mac, if I say McDonald's has the Big Mac, am I talking
about McDonald's down here on the range line? Or down there
on the range line? Or over here on Main Street? You say, well, I mean, that's
true about all three of them. Right, why? because the institution
McDonald's has made the Big Mac. To be McDonald's means you have
a Big Mac. So to say that McDonald's has
a Big Mac, to say that of one means to say that of all of them.
Why? Because institutionally, the
Big Mac is the burger of McDonald's. and I'll just break it down a
little bit further. To say the Big Mac is two all-beef patty,
special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed
bun is true of what? All of them, right? Why? Because
the founder of McDonald's who invented the Big Mac has said
the Big Mac is gonna be two all-beef patty, special sauce, lettuce,
cheese, pickle, onion on a sesame seed bun. And I'm going to call that the
Big Mac. I'm not going to call it the Quarter Pounder. I'm not
going to call it the Cheeseburger. I'm not going to call it the
Silly Willy or the Triple Stack. I'm not going to call it whatever.
I'm going to call that the Big Mac. And so the institution of
McDonald's, from its founder, decided that the Big Mac would
be to all of you, patty, spread, sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickle,
lime, sesame seed, bun. And there we have the Big Mac. And if you
go to any McDonald's franchise, you will find that same thing
in every place. The church of Jesus Christ has
been given a gospel, has been given ordinances, has been given
a practice, has been given gifts, and whenever you go to this church
or that church or this church or that church, you're gonna
find it's the same as the institution that Christ instituted, that
he started, that he set forth in his ministry and said, this
is what it's gonna be. To be my lawful assembly, this
is what it is. And so to say what's true about
one is to be true about another. If I go to one New Testament
church, guess what? I'm gonna hear the same gospel
as if I go to another New Testament church. If I go and see the Lord's
Supper being done at one New Testament church, I should be
seeing the same thing in another New Testament church, just like
I did over here. Why? Because it began at the
first New Testament church when Jesus said, do this in remembrance
of me, and he told them how to do this. So if we are doing what
Christ commanded, teaching all things whatsoever he commanded,
then that means that every church that has come into existence
is doing that. That's why Paul is saying here,
at this juncture, you became followers of the churches
of God, which are in Judea, not the church, but the churches.
You became another church, just like the rest of the churches,
just like every church that has come from the original church
that was instituted by Christ, the model church, the first church,
the one who is the pattern after all churches should be following. That's what it means. So again,
it's an individual local assembly that he had in mind here. All right, look at 2 Thessalonians. Second Thessalonians, that will
be the next place that we find the word ecclesia. Second Thessalonians, verse one. Now this again, same church. Paul wrote another letter, a
second letter to the same church that we just was talking about.
Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus unto the church of the Thessalonians,
in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So again, he's
writing to the church at Thessalonica. Okay, so he's talking about a
specific church. Look at verse four. So that we
ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience
and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure.
Again, here's another prime example of a verse where Paul could have
easily used the singular church if there was such thing as a
universal invisible body. Because a universal invisible
church is a singular thing. But congregations are plural. And he used the plural. So that
we ourselves, glory in you, in the churches. So that means in
every congregation, where we go, we glory in you. We talk
about your service. Now, why would that be the case? Well, if you remember, it's the
local lawful assembly is the place where we gather to conduct
the business of the kingdom. And when we gather with the church
to conduct the business of the kingdom, that is providing service
unto God and worship unto Christ. And it is the preaching of the
gospel for the edification of the body, this church. And so brethren, that is the
work that we are to do. And whenever that is being done
at a church, it's a beautiful thing. I've mentioned that to
you before. Whenever someone really sees a church that is
following the New Testament pattern in everything, in the people
loving each other, preferring one another over themselves,
whenever they are edifying one another, using their gifts, whenever
they are, you know, loving their pastor, whenever the pastor is
leading the sheep and not lording it over them, whenever he's doing
his role the way God tells him, and as everybody else does their
thing the way God tells them to do their thing, and whenever
all this stuff is, it's a beautiful thing. It's a healthy thing.
It's a wonderful thing. And whenever you see that, you
know what? You wanna go and tell other people about it. You wanna
tell, you know, Whenever I come home from Choctaw, or from Coweta,
or from Mena, or all these places where I get to go and minister
the gospel at these other churches, I love to come back and share
with you, oh, what a wonderful, edifying time it was there to
see the people that was doing this and that. And why, what
are we doing? We are glory glorying in those churches. Now, ultimately,
whenever we glory in that church, we are glorifying or glorying,
bringing glory to Christ. Why? Because he's the head of
that church. See, if we're doing everything that Christ has commanded
us to do, if we are functioning the way that Christ commanded
us to function, and then that unity of the Spirit is there,
that service is there, that worship is there, all the things that
are there, guess what it does? It brings glory to Christ. And that's where we ought to
give praise and glory. And we ought to tell that to other people.
And that's what Paul was saying here. He said, listen, your faithfulness,
your action. And now listen, don't get me
wrong. Don't forget that all of that
is granted by God. Our faithfulness is given to
us by God. And we'll see that whenever we
get into revelation, I'm going to show you that the righteousness
of the saints, it was granted unto her. It was granted unto
her to do that. So see, every church is granted
by God, by Christ, to be faithful. That's why we pray, Lord, keep
us faithful. Yes, did Christ write to those
churches and warn them? Yes, the warning was there, the
admonition was there. to let them know what's right
and what's wrong, so that they might know that, and see that,
and recognize that, realize that, repent of that, and do all that.
But behind all of that, God has his decrees. God has his purposes. So here we see that, he says, so that we ourselves,
glory in you, in the churches of God for your patience and
faith and all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure. So there was a faithfulness among
that church that Paul shared with in all the other churches
that he ministered to. All right, how about, let's go
ahead and move into 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy will be the next place
where we find the term ekklesia. 1 Timothy chapter three. 1 Timothy chapter three, and look
with me if you were in verse five. It says, for if a man know
not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the
church of God? Now, what is he talking about
in this context? Well, let's go back to verse
one. Let the context drive the definitions and the understandings
and the meanings here. This is a true saying. If a man
desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. Okay, so here we learn, and we'll
get into this as our study goes deeper, past just the defining
of Ecclesia and the nature of Ecclesia, that there is an office
that's called bishop. Now, who is he writing to here?
Do y'all remember who he's writing to? He is writing to Timothy. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the commandment of God, our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ,
which is our hope, unto Timothy, my own son in the faith, grace,
mercy, and peace from God, our Father, and Jesus Christ, our
Lord. Okay, so he's writing to Timothy. And he's writing to Timothy,
and the things that he's writing to Timothy about is to what? to teach the church, the things
that he is to teach in the church. And as we're seeing here, things
that he is to be teaching about the church. But one thing that
he's here to do is to tell you how to act in the house of God,
which is another metaphor for the church, okay? The house of God is a metaphor
for the church, and we're not talking about the walls, the
building, okay? Sometimes that's referred to
as the house of God. I don't know how many times my grandma
caught me running down the halls whenever we were in church, and
she said, that's not the way you act in the house of God. Well, the building isn't the
house of God. While it can be referred to that way, it's not
the house of God. The house of God is the lawful
assembly. That's the house of God. We'll
see that too in our study later. Okay, so he's instructing Timothy,
and it says, it says verse 11, according to
the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my
trust, and I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me
for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry,
who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and an injurious,
but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelief.
And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant, which faith
and love, which is in Jesus Christ." This is a faithful saying worthy
of all that acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am the chief. Okay, so Paul was
talking about who he was, but then he drops down And he says
in verse 18, this charge I commend unto thee, son Timothy, according
to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by
them might war a good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience,
which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrecked,
of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan,
that they may learn not to blaspheme. What does it mean that he is
delivered unto Satan? Y'all know what he's talking about there?
You remember back whenever Jesus taught in Matthew, I think it
was, in Matthew, whenever he taught on church discipline,
and if there was heretics, or if there was people in there
that was causing division, or if there was people in there that
wouldn't repent, whenever they were confronted, held accountable,
and they were taken a witness, and then after they took that
witness, then they were taken before where? The church. And it says, if they didn't listen
to the church, then he said, put them out of the church so
that Satan might have his way with them. Well, what has happened?
Hymenaeus and Alexander was put out of the church and delivered
unto Satan. So they were blaspheming God
in the church. And so Paul had them put out
of the church, okay, wherever this was. Now, I lost my place here. What verse
I needed to go to? Oh, I'm sorry. Back to chapter three
now. He said, so, if any man desired
the office of a bishop, he desired the good work. A bishop then
must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober,
of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine,
no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler,
not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his
children in subjection with all gravity, for if a man know not
how to rule his own house, How shall he take care of the church
of God? And he goes on saying, not a
novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into condemnation
of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good
report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach and
a snare of the devil. Okay, so what is Timothy, or
what is Paul doing? He's instructing Timothy on what
are the qualifications for the office of bishop, where we'll
soon find out eventually down the line that the term bishop
pastor, elder, teacher, all these terms are interchangeable. And
so he's talking about if you want, if someone desires the
office of bishop or to be a pastor, okay, he does desire good work,
but there are some qualifications, not just anybody can be a pastor.
That's why we say you can't just go to school and become a pastor. You can't just wake up one day
and say, I think I'm gonna be a pastor. You can't just decide,
hey, I'm gonna have my own church. You know, I'm tired of having
to do all this at all these other churches and blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah. I'm just gonna start my own church in my own house.
Now, can that happen? Yes. There can be a church in
a person's house and somebody starts that up with other believers
and that's how our church started. But to just say, I think I'm
gonna be a pastor just because you wanna be a pastor, that ain't
how it works. The pastor has some qualifications
for one, and second of all, the church notices that, and then
they lay hands upon him and they ordain him as such, okay? So, and we'll see that as we
go along, but if you notice in verse five, he says, if a man
can't do that in his house, if he can't pastor his house, if
he can't rule his house, And if he can't be of good report
outside, then how in the world can he take care of the church
of God? Now, let's do our little scenarios
again here. If the church is a universal,
invisible, single body made up of all the elect of everywhere,
how in the world am I, as a pastor or a bishop in this case, as
we see the term being used here, Bishop, how am I as a bishop
of the church supposed to take care of, as I would my own family,
somebody somewhere that I'm not even at? How am I supposed to
bishop or pastor somebody who I don't even know that is in
some other location that I can't even get to? Is it incumbent then now upon
me when I become pastor that it is my duty to now travel around
to every elect child of God and to pastor them? And make sure that everyone who
is the elect of God is taken care of and taught and
preached to? Because that's the job of the
pastor. No, he's talking about an individual
congregation. A bishop is made a bishop over
a congregation, okay? A bishop is a officer of a lawful
assembly. You remember whenever we were
going through the historical aspects of ecclesia and not only
learning the etymology, but the historical thing? And we saw
that in the Greek city-state, when the ecclesia came together,
that within the ecclesia, that there was also officers within
the Ecclesia. Next week I'll have all those
quotes printed out for you guys that we read at the beginning
about what the classical understanding of the term Ecclesia was as it
was used when Jesus said it, okay? But we see that the lawful
assembly, within that lawful assembly was also officers. Why
was there officers? Well, without officers, things
can get chaotic whenever there is a group of people coming together,
right? As with any place, if there was
a group of people coming together for anything, I mean, let's say,
let's see, let's say we had a rally down here at Landerth Park for
hemophilia, my boys have hemophilia, and we're gonna have a rally
down there at Landreth Park for hemophilia, and we're gonna raise
money to give to bioethics that help out with our boys' hemophilia,
okay? And I put out an ad, rally at
Landreth Park, benefit for hemophilia, all proceeds go to bioethics. And I put that out, and I give
the date and the time, and then everybody shows up down to Landreth
Park on that day that sees that and says, hey, I think I wanna
be a part of that. and they come down to Landreth
Park, and then we're all just standing there. Okay, we're all here, what do
we do? Well, someone has to lead in
that, right? Someone's gotta come up with
a plan, someone's gotta keep the order, someone's gotta determine
what's gonna do what, and so even though you've come together
as a group, within that group who have all come together for
that cause, you still need officers or somebody in charge to organize
and to start and run the, make sure that everything is done
as it's supposed to, right? That's all the pastor is. The one who is the overseer is
the one who helps organize and keeps everything flowing, but
it's at the discretion or at the at the will of the church. I serve the church. But in serving
the church, part of that service is to oversee. And in overseeing,
not overstep the boundaries of that office. Okay? But it's to a local body. Here
we have gathered people here today, and in that gathering
of this assembly, I'm here to keep the order, and to preach
the word of God. That's why the term is pastor-teacher,
as we see. He's giving gifts to the pastor-teacher,
okay? There's two functions to that.
One is the pastor part, the other is the teacher part. Okay, so
I preach God's word, but I also oversee the congregation. And everything is done by the
church, And Christ is the head of that, not me. So again, here
we see a reference to something that only can be done as it pertains
to the context of a local gathered assembly. An officer of the church
is not somebody who is an officer of everybody everywhere. Okay,
look at verse 15, 1 Timothy 3, 15. It says, but if I tarry long,
that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in
the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the
pillar and the ground of truth. Man, we've got a lot of rich
stuff to talk about in these verses. Okay. He says, number one, thou needest
to know how to behave thyself in the house of God. So there
is a, there is a way that we should behave in the house of
God. Remember Christ said, teach them
all things whatsoever I've commanded. Okay, that's how we are to behave
in the house of God. But here he says that the house
of God is the church. Now up into this point, what
have we seen? Church has been a local visible assembly. We've
not seen it in anything else. And so here again, Timothy is
being instructed on what to do and how to do it and how to teach
it in the church as a pastor. Timothy was a pastor. And so
Timothy is being instructed, and here he says that these things
I write unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly, but if
I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave
thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living
God. But he also gives another definition
or another example of what the church is. The church is the
pillar and the ground of truth. You ready? Okay. I'm gonna wrap her up here
after we get through Timothy and get this and one more verse,
I believe. Okay. There's a way you behave in the
church, and there is a, what does it say here? The church
is the pillar and the ground of truth. Now let me ask you,
if the church is a universal invisible thing, then that means
that all the elect of God, wherever they be, head for head, across
the world, past, present, and future, is the ground of truth. pillar and ground of truth. Now let me ask, is every person who is the elect
of God, the pillar and the ground of truth? Would you say that
you're the pillar and the ground of truth? Come to me, I'm the
pillar and the ground of truth. The truth was placed the church
that's where it was to be taught according to Christ and every
place for that the instruction has been has been to the churches
as they've come into existence Paul he give to the churches
the things that Christ had said so truth was given in the churches
and it was kept in the churches it was preached in the churches
it was taken out and shared by the churches, okay? And so the
church, the local lawful assembly is the pillar and the ground
of truth. Now, how is that? Well, if we
have the gospel of Christ, if we have the ordinances of Christ,
the way that he's put it out, we have the service of Christ
and all the things that Christ has commanded in that place,
then that means we are the pillar and the ground of truth. We are
the example. We are the place where you find
the ground of truth. And I'll agree with my friend
J.C. Fulton. I believe that, yes, we can have
knowledge and not be in the Lord's churches, and we can have some
knowledge and stuff like that, but we begin to see and understand
things a little bit better whenever we are in the Lord's churches.
Whenever we are submitted and committed in a local visible
church, where there has been placed gifts and officers that
the Lord has called with the specific task of preaching these
things and giving them gifts to do such that we gain and understand
the knowledge. And I believe also where the
Holy Spirit brings us more and more into submission to God's
word. But see, whenever we're not even submitted to Christ
in coming and being a part of the local assembly, then how
are we gonna be submitted in other areas of our life whenever
the Holy Spirit comes and convicts us of that? Whenever the first
thing that Christ tells us to do as a believer is to be baptized
and to come to the church to be taught all things what he
has commanded. Two things, baptism and church. And if we don't submit
ourselves to baptism and church, and now again, these aren't salvific,
brethren. These aren't salvific things.
These are proper service to Christ, proper New Testament obedience
to Christ. And how, if we're not submissive
to the Holy Spirit in those two things, are we gonna study God's
word and expect to be submissive in other areas? When the very
first two things that Christ has commanded of us as believers
is to be baptized, scripturally baptized, and to be a part of
the local church where the pillar and the ground of truth is. I believe that the Holy Spirit
will reveal and teach us and bring us into more submission
to what God's word says whenever we are submissive to Christ in
these things. And so Paul here says that we
are the house of God We are the church of the living God, and
we are the pillar and the ground of truth. Okay, so the local
lawful assembly is the house of God. It doesn't have to necessarily
be in a big building. It could be in a small house.
It could be in a warehouse. It could be in a picnic yard. It could be, you know, anywhere,
but it's the lawful assembly, is the house of God, and it's
the pillar and ground of truth. Look at chapter five. Verse 16,
this will be the last one for today. Chapter five and verse
16. If any man or woman that believeth
have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church
be charged, that it may relieve them that are widows indeed. Okay, so here is Paul's instruction
to Timothy. and to the church, but it's here
saying that if there are any among the church who have widows,
if any man or woman that believeth have widows, okay, so anyone
that's part of the church that believeth have widows, let them
relieve them. Okay, so that means if you have
a family member that is a widow, okay, it's your job, it's your,
place to relieve them. That word relieve there actually
means to sustain and keep them. Okay. It's what that word means. It says, let them relieve them
and let not the church be charged. Okay. So that's basically saying,
listen, if there is a widow among you and that widow is part of
your family, then it's your place to do that. and to do that so
that the church doesn't have to take up that slack. Now if
the church is a universal invisible body, does that mean that everybody
out there that's the elect of God has a responsibility to take
care of a widow that doesn't have believing family members? No. What's it talking about? That local lawful assembly in
which that widow or those believing people are a part of. The instruction
is to that local church that, hey, if you have among yourselves
a widow and they have family members that are believers, that's
where the place ought to go and not to lay that charge upon the
church, the lawful assembly to do. But if that's not the case,
if they don't have believing people taking care of them, then
the church ought to take up that charge to take care of the the
widow. And that would apply to the,
listen, that actually applies to the, you know, the orphans
and everything else. But anyway, it says, so that
the church, that let not the church be charged that it may
relieve them that are widows indeed. Now, what are widows
indeed? Well, those are widows as we
found in other places of scripture, we find that widows indeed are
believing women, okay, who are a member of the church, who have
no family to take care of them, okay? That's who the church has
the responsibility to do and everything. My grandma is a widow, and could
the church down there take care of her? Well, in an aspect, I
guess they do take care of her. They have let her continue to
stay in the parsonage down there because of all the years of service
that my grandpa did for the church, they let her stay in the parsonage.
But all of our family, we split up a certain amount every month
and we put into her account to help take care of her so that
she has enough to take care of all the things she needs to take
care of with her health bills and all that such. So that is
what the Bible teaches. And so we recognize that to not
let that be the charge of the church to do those things. But
again, it's not everybody everywhere's responsibility to do that that
claims the name of Jesus Christ. Now, can they do that? Absolutely.
We find that example in the scriptures all over the place where churches
see that other people in other churches have need. And what
do they do? They take up a collection and help them out. Okay? Whenever
we read, you know, from some of the missionaries sending stuff
back, hey, this is going on, this is going on, the Lord placed
it upon our heart, hey, we ought to help them out in that. And
so what do we do? We take up a collection, we send
it over, we help them out. Okay? There's nothing wrong with
that. Okay? But here we see that it's
not incumbent upon all the elect of everywhere to make sure that
these widows are taken care of. Who's the instruction to? The
local lawful assembly, that's the only way that it can be in
context if it's to be kept. It can't be anything else. All right, well, we'll stop right
there, and we'll pick up, let's see, 516. Let me mark this so
I don't have to go over again where we were last week. We'll start back up next week,
Lord willing. So wait a minute. Or if you're from Jamaica, Philly,
Mom. All right, anybody got any questions
or comments? Did I go overboard on that one?
My filter shut off. Any questions or comments? All
right, let's bend over in prayer.