New Testament Service

Q: What does the Bible say about New Testament services?

The Bible describes New Testament services as gatherings where believers come to hear God's commands and worship Him. A New Testament service is characterized by the recognition of God's presence and the gathering of believers to hear His Word. In Acts 10:33, Cornelius expresses the intent of those present to hear what God has commanded, which outlines the very purpose of a New Testament service. It is not about entertainment or personal stories; rather, it is about delivering the message of God through His Word. This principle has been integral to Baptist faith, emphasizing that the Bible is our sole rule of faith and practice. Therefore, authentic New Testament worship centers around hearing and responding to God's commands.

Q: How do we know Christ's preeminence is true?

Christ's preeminence is affirmed through the Word of God, declaring Him to be above all by divine decree. The preeminence of Christ is firmly established by the authority of God the Father, as indicated in Scripture. Psalm 89:27 states that God has made Christ higher than the kings of the earth. This declaration shows that Christ holds a position of supremacy and honor as ordained by God Himself. Additionally, Christ was born to this role (Isaiah 9:6), fulfilling prophecies and establishing His rightful place. Furthermore, His role as the creator and sustainer of all things (Colossians 1:16-17) further solidifies His preeminence. Therefore, it is a fact of Scripture that Christ must hold the highest position in all things.

Q: Why is Christ's preeminence important for Christians?

Christ's preeminence is vital for Christians as it signifies His authority and rightful place in all aspects of life and worship. The preeminence of Christ is fundamental to the Christian faith because it affirms that He is the sovereign ruler over creation and the church. Christ must be first in every aspect of our worship and lives because all things exist through Him and for Him (Colossians 1:16). This recognition of His supremacy leads believers to submit to His authority, trust in His sovereignty, and praise Him as the source of all blessings. Without understanding His preeminence, worship can become misguided, negating the true purpose of gathering as the body of Christ. Therefore, Christians must acknowledge and give Him the rightful place of honor and respect in their hearts and lives.

Q: What does the Bible say about Christ being our mediator?

The Bible teaches that no one can come to the Father except through Jesus Christ, who mediates for believers. In John 14:6, Jesus explicitly states that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one can come to the Father except through Him. This crucial role of Christ as our mediator underscores the necessity of faith in His work for salvation. Hebrews 4:14-16 also affirms that Jesus is our High Priest, who empathizes with our weaknesses and intercedes on our behalf before God. Without Christ as our mediator, our attempts to reach God are futile, as access to the Father is granted only through faith in Jesus and the merits of His sacrifice.

Q: How can I give Christ preeminence in my life?

To give Christ preeminence in your life, you must trust Him fully, love Him above all, and obey His Word. Giving Christ preeminence in your life involves several key actions. Firstly, trust Him with all things, acknowledging that He is in control and capable of leading you. Believers are called to love Christ above all worldly desires, ensuring that nothing interferes with their worship and obedience to Him. Furthermore, followers of Christ must strive to obey His commands, adhering to the entire revealed will of God as expressed in Scripture. This commitment to recognize His sovereignty in all aspects of life fosters a deeper relationship with Christ and aligns one's priorities to reflect His glory. Each action taken in Christ's name serves to honor His rightful position in our hearts and lives.

You know, sometimes I'm sure
that those that come here and listen to the Word of God, they
wonder whether or not our service is a typical New Testament service. Well, I grant you this morning
that there's a lot of services going on even in the city of
Great Falls that are not New Testament services. You couldn't
find anything in the Word of God, and if you were to bring
a character of scripture into town, and he was to travel around
through Great Falls, or any city as far as that's concerned, and
visit all the churches, he wouldn't recognize them to be New Testament
services. We're not here this morning to
give you some stories, maybe some, as some people call them,
tear-jerking stories. Something that might entertain
you as you're on your way to hell. We're not here for that
purpose That's not our business. I Want you to turn in your Bibles
to the book of Acts chapter 10 and I want to read verse 33 and
I want to show you what a New Testament service is and then
you can judge whether you're in one or not and You can make
the judgment. Am I in a New Testament service?
Now, beloved, there's one thing that we believe as Baptists. One of the principles of our
faith is that the Word of God is our rule of faith and practice. In other words, we hope not to
believe anything that's not in the book. We want to believe
what the book says. We want to believe the message
of the Word of God. That's one of the principles
of Baptists from the very beginning all the way back to Jerusalem
is that Baptists believe that the Bible, the Word of God, is
the only rule of faith and practice. Now then, if we're going to have
a New Testament service, then we better know what one is, as
the Bible reveals it. Now look at verse 33 of Acts
chapter 10, and Cornelius is going to hear the gospel. And
Peter has been sent of God to come and preach to Cornelius
and all of those that would gather on this certain occasion in his
household. And in verse 33, it says, immediately,
therefore, I sent to thee, and thou hast well done that thou
art come. Cornelius said, I sent to you
to have you to come to preach to us. Now listen to this. Now, therefore, are we all here
present before God? He said, all of these people
sitting in my home here today, he says, they're all here present
before God. God is a witness to what's going
on here. All of us, everything is open
and it's all naked to Him to whom we serve. God sees all,
God knows all. God is aware of us. His eye is
upon us. And we're all gathered here in
His presence, in God's presence. And then look at this. To hear
all things that are commanded thee of God. Now, beloved, that's
what a New Testament service is. We're not here to have the
preacher to give us a book review or to preach a little sermon
about something. We're here to hear what God has
given the preacher to say to us, what God's commanded him
to say. That's what we're here to hear.
We're here in the presence of God to hear from God. That's
what a New Testament church service is all about. Now I want you
to turn with me to the book of Colossians chapter one. Randy
was so good to read it to us, and I want you to turn, and I
want you to look, if you will, beginning with the 15th verse. I'd like to read through verse
19. Verse 15 through 19. Who is the
image of the invisible God? Well, Christ is the image of
the invisible God. Jesus said, if you've seen me,
you've seen the Father. I'm all there is. I'm the image
of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by Him,
that is by Christ, were all things that are created. John tells
us that without Him, there was nothing created that was created.
without Him, without Christ. And here we're told, for by Him
were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth,
visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him,
and then get this, and for Him. and for him. And he is before
all things, and by him all things consist. And he, Christ, is the
head of the body, the church. He's the head of the church.
He's the one. We don't have anyone here that
is the head of the church. unless Christ is here. Now if
he's here, he's the head. That's why we look to the Word
of God, knowing that Christ will rule his body, rule his church,
through his Word. And the Word of God is our only
legitimate rule as we come together. We try to respond to what God
says in his word. Christ is the head of the body. He's the head of the church.
And who is the beginning? The firstborn from the dead.
The Lord Jesus was raised from the dead and he's not the last
one, he's the first one. and there will be a multitude
that is more numerous than the sand of the seashore that's going
to be raised from the dead because Christ was raised from the dead. Christ was raised up and he's
the head of the body and the body, that means all the saved
that ever lived on the face of this earth, all the saved that
ever will live on the face of this earth, all believers are
in the body of Christ. And because the head was raised
up, the body will be raised. All believers will be raised
up in the resurrection of the last day. That's what the scripture
here is telling us. That in all things, that in all
things, and you see the word things there was supplied by
the translators, that in all, he might have the preeminence. that in all things Christ might
have the preeminence. Now he is emphatic. He alone, not angels or men,
but Christ, that He might have the preeminence. Christ has unshared
supremacy. He has first place. He is in a class entirely by
Himself. He is imminent above all others. It is not enough for Christ just
to be present nor prominent, but he must have the preeminence. Christ is the preeminent one. Now you say to me this morning,
preacher, why is it that Christ must have the preeminence. Why
must he be first? Why is it that we must look to
him as one who is a sovereign Christ and as one who is to be
worshipped, one who is to be bowed before, one who is to be
believed, one who is to be trusted, one who is to be given the supreme
rights over our life, the one to whom we're to take heed to
his claims? Why should he have the preeminence? Why is it that all things are
put under him? Why is it that he has no rival? no rival. Why is it that nothing
and no one can be equal to him? Why does the Lord Jesus Christ
possess this singular, this high and distinct honor of being the
preeminent one? Well, there are reasons, and
let me give you five reasons quickly why our Lord's preeminence
in all things is a fact of Scripture. First of all, Christ must have
the preeminence in all things because God the Father said He
must. God the Father said he must.
And when God says something, that settles it. Somebody said,
God said it, I believe it, and that settles it. But that's not
true. God said it, that settles it,
whether I believe it or not. When God says something to be
true, it is true. I want you to turn with me to
Psalm 89 and look at verse 27. Psalm 89 and look at verse 27. I said
God said so. And look at verse 27 here, it
says, Also I will make him, my firstborn, higher than the kings
of the earth. God said he's my firstborn son,
and he said I'm going to make him higher than the kings of
the earth. I'm going to give him that high
position, that position of honor. that position of eminence, that
position of preeminence, I'm going to give it to him. Well
now, why was Joseph, you remember the story of Joseph in the Old
Testament, why was he made prime minister of Egypt? Well, was
it not because Pharaoh wanted it? Was it not because Pharaoh
wanted it so and he decreed it and said Joseph is going to be
prime minister here in Egypt? Well, why was Mordecai led through
the city with pomp and pageantry while Haman led the horse? Well,
it was because King Ahasuerus wanted it that way and so he
decreed it. And so you see, God said, my
son, Jesus is going to have preeminence. God said he must have preeminence.
And so he has preeminence. Jesus Christ is preeminent because
God Almighty wants it that way and he's so decreed it. And so
you can put that down on a piece of paper. If you have a pen,
Jesus is preeminent over all because God has decreed it. Secondly,
Christ must have the preeminence in all things because he was
born to it. He was born to it. I want you
to turn back with me to the book of Isaiah chapter nine, the book
of Isaiah chapter nine. And let's look at verse six. Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6, for
unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government
shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. This verse of scripture is a
prophecy concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. The government
will be up on his shoulder. His name shall be called Wonderful
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. Now look in Luke chapter 1 and
verse 32 if you have your Bible. Luke chapter 1 and verse 32. I'm showing you why Christ had
the preeminence is because He was born to it. Verse 32 says,
He shall be great. He shall be great. Well, if you
look at verse 31, you see who that's talking about that's going
to be great. And behold, thou shall conceive
in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. And he shall be great and shall
be called the son of the highest. And the Lord God shall give unto
him the throne of his father David. This Jesus is going to
reign. This Jesus is born to preeminence. As the firstborn son, our Savior
has the right of inheritance. As the only son of the Father,
he rightfully possesses all of the Father's property. Number
three, Christ must have the preeminence in all things because he paid
for it. He paid for it. Now he who buys
an estate is the lord of that estate. And Christ bought the
right to rule over and dispose of this world as he will for
the salvation of his people. Remember that he created all
things. All things were created by him
and what? And for him. The Lord Jesus Christ
bought this world through his sacrifice and he will dispose
of it as he will and must in order that his elect would all
come to salvation, that they would all be saved. And listen
to what Isaiah 53, 12 says, Therefore will I divide him a portion with
the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because
he had poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with
the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many, and he made
intercession for the transgressors. So as a man, The Son of God bought
the right to possess, to rule over, and dispose of this world
for the salvation of his elect, whom he hath redeemed with his
precious blood. Jesus bought this world. Jesus
bought this world. You say, well, I don't see why
he has the right to run and govern this world. Why is it that the
government is on his shoulders? Because he bought the right.
He came into this world, He obeyed the Father, He went to the cross,
and He purchased this world by His own sacrifice. And He has
the right to dispose of it in any way that He wants, and that
includes you and everybody else in this world. God will dispose
of men as it pleases Him. God will save as it pleases Him. And Christ, as He wills, He'll
have mercy on men, and He'll give His life unto men, but only
as He wills. He has sovereign rights. He has the preeminence in all
things. Now then, Christ must have the
preeminence in all things, number four, because He is alone able
to manage such preeminence. Now that is something that you
need to think about. He is the one who is preeminent
because he's the only one able to manage such preeminence. There are too many irons in the
fire for anyone but him, but a sovereign Christ It is written
of him in Isaiah 52 13 it says behold my servant speaking of
Christ Shall deal prudently he shall be exalted and extolled
and be very high The Lord Jesus he'll deal prudently the Lord
Jesus knows how to manage this world Now you may wonder about
many, many things. You may wonder about many, many
things. And you say, I don't understand
that if Jesus Christ is, if he is the prime minister of the
universe, as you say, and as the scripture says, why is it
that things are like they are? Well, beloved, we must, we must,
as creatures, we must not judge, become a judge of God. We cannot
answer all the questions. The secret things belong to God.
I do not know why everything is the way it is. All I know
is, is what the Bible states, and that is that Jesus Christ
is the preeminent one and that he's running the universe and
that he will deal prudently. He's too wise to err and he's
too holy not to do right. He is going to govern rightly. Bow your knee, bend your knee
and submit yourself and worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Only he
who possesses both the goodness of perfection and the wisdom
of omniscience is qualified to be the king of the universe with
absolute power. Now you remember that. That's
something you need to think about. You begin to ask, who's running
this world? Well, I'm telling you who's running
it. I'm telling you God's running
the world. I'm telling you Christ is the sovereign prime minister
of the universe. And I'm telling you this morning
that all wise men, if it were not so, would get together and
vote him to be the prime minister and would vote him in office,
if he wasn't already in office. All wise men. would get together
before midnight tonight, would vote him to be the preeminent
one, the one that's running the show. Because there isn't anybody
else got the capability. Now beloved, you can mark it
down. Either God's running this world, or the devil's running
it. And I tell you, I believe, and listen, if God's not running
it, it's for one of two reasons. Either because he doesn't want
to, or he can't. And in either case, we're in
trouble. I believe that God is running the world. I believe
he wanted to run it, and I believe that's why he made it. And I
believe that if you and I, wise people, we'll just simply bow
our knee to that truth as it is revealed in the Holy Scriptures. Now then, I want to say this
too, that Christ, number five, has the preeminence in all things
because he deserves it. He alone deserves it. He earned
the right to preeminence over God's creation by his obedience
to the Father as our mediator and surety. In John 17 and verse
4, the scripture says, Jesus said, I have glorified thee on
the earth. Jesus said, Father, I came down
to this world, and I glorified you on the earth. I obeyed you. I did your will. I came not to
do my own will, but your will, and I glorified you on the earth. He said, I have finished the
work which thou gavest me to do. Now, beloved, don't that
sound like somebody that deserves the right to be the preeminent
one? One who glorified God. Never breathed the breath that
was not to the glory of His Holy Father. The one who all of His
works glorified His Father, and the one who was given a work
And he's not like you and I, get half of it done and quit.
No, he finished the work that the Father gave him to do. And
so the Lord Jesus alone deserves the right to be the preeminent
one, that high one, that one who is higher than the kings
of the earth. So he's earned this right. I
think he's earned the right also to have the preeminence in the
hearts of his people, don't you? In the hearts of his people.
I'm going to try to tell you a little bit later here this
morning how that we can give him the preeminence in our hearts
and in our lives here in this world. But it's just a small
thing for sinners who are washed in the blood, those that are
saved by His grace, those that are robed in His spotless righteousness,
those that are kept in His hands. It's just a small thing really
for us to extol Him and give Him the preeminence in our hearts
and lives. Would to God that we could do
it perfectly, but we cannot, and we do not. We do not extol
Him and lift Him up. We do not give Him the preeminence
that we'd like, but who else has loved us so freely? Is there
anybody who loved you more freely than the Lord Jesus Christ? Why,
there's people who got their eye on you, and you get out of
step, they won't love you anymore. and they will not put up with
you being around if you do certain things. You just can't go out
here in society and do whatever you want to do and expect to
be accepted and loved by even your family members. They won't
do it. Love is conditional in this world,
but with God, his love is free. God's love is not conditional. God loves his people. He loves
them freely. Loved us with an everlasting
love. Loved us when there was nothing lovely about us. He loved
us freely. Well, I'm ready to give him the
preeminence in my life. Who else has done so much for
us? Has there anybody else done as much for you as the Lord Jesus
Christ? He gives you the breath you breathe.
He gives you the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the water
you drink. The Lord sustains you and He's given you an opportunity
to hear about His preeminence so that you'll have an opportunity
to go out and bow your knee and to seek His will and to seek
His pleasure in your life. He's been good to us all. Yes,
he has. A brother mentioned that this
morning and this brother here don't have a lot of money. I
don't know whether he's got any at all or not. He'd be the one
that would know more about that than anybody else, but I was
impressed with his prayer. God has given us so much and
he has. He has been good to us all. The
mercy of God has been wonderful toward us all. Who else has done
so much for us? Who but Christ has given so much
to us? Who else but Christ has been
so constantly faithful to us? Who else? Now the Lord Jesus
has been faithful to me. I've not been faithful to Him,
but He's been faithful to me. He said, that even when you're
unfaithful I'll still be faithful because I can't deny my own character
and my character is I'm a faithful man and even if you're unfaithful
I'm still going to go on and be faithful to you. Now then
that brings me to something else and that is that the preeminence
of Christ I want to talk about the preeminence of Christ in
the worship of God Now then we've learned that he is the preeminent
one and why he is preeminent. Now I want to talk about the
Lord Jesus Christ because many, many people do not understand
why it is that we are constantly preaching Christ. while we're
constantly lifting up the Lord Jesus Christ and setting him
out before the people and telling the people that this is God's
messenger, this is God's son, this is God's provision for your
salvation. They say, well, why don't you
preach somebody else? Or why don't you preach about
somebody else once in a while? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ,
our Savior, is preeminent in the worship of God, God Almighty. Now, you hear me closely. God
Almighty cannot be known. He cannot be worshipped. He cannot
be served in any way, to any degree, except as He is known
and worshipped and served by faith in and through the merits
of Jesus Christ. Now, you'll have to study on
that a little bit. Christ is the mediator. Our Savior
declares in John 14 and 6, no man, he says, no man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Now that just simply means what
I said a little bit earlier. No man worships God, no man comes
to God, no man serves God unless he believes in the Lord Jesus
Christ and trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, our faith,
our prayers, our services, our sacrifices of praise are acceptable
to God only through the person and the work of our Lord Jesus
Christ. 1 Peter 2 and verse 5 tells us that, that we offer the sacrifice
of praise to God through Him. and that were the living stones
put in this living church, in this living building, to offer
up sacrifices of praise to God through Jesus Christ. But you
leave off Jesus Christ, and you might as well stay at home with
your sacrifices, and you might as well shut your mouth with
your praises. They don't get to God unless you offer them
through Jesus Christ. I'm telling you, he's the preeminent
one in the worship of God. Christ is the preeminent one.
Now, next, notice this. In the preaching of the Word,
Christ is preeminent. This is so important. I got a
call from a young man the other night who spent about four years
among us here. He's now the pastor of the Columbia
Primitive Baptist Church in Columbia, Maryland. And he told me, he
said, right before he hung up, he said, Brother John, he says,
I want to tell you something. He said, I want you to know that
I learned more about what it means to be a preacher of the
gospel when I was in Montana, just those four years, than I
have learned in all of the years since I've been gone from there
and all the years I've been trying to preach. I learned more about
it right there. And I said, well, explain yourself.
And he said this. He said, I learned that whatever
happened. been making a difference, whatever
happened in your family, whatever happened to you, whatever you
heard or didn't hear, whatever was going on outside the church
or whatever affected the lives of the people in the church,
that every time the church met together, Christ was preached. He was lifted up. The message
of the book was preached to those that came to hear it. Well, you
see that's not the way it is every place. There's a whole
lot of times that people give up the message. They give up
the message and they don't preach Him. But in the preaching of
the Word, Christ is preeminent. Now the most prominent and the
most important aspect of public worship is the reading and the
preaching of the Word of God. But this fact must be understood,
and I want you to get this, it is not enough for a preacher
just to say, I preached the book. That's not enough. And there's
a whole lot of preachers that you would hear. We preach the
book. We are sent of God, hear me now, to preach the message
of the book. The message of the book. There's a difference. And the
message of the book is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's the message of the book.
There's not a page. in the Bible. I'm saying that
there's not a page in the Bible that if you understand it, if
you study it, if you search deep enough, if you scratch and search
deep enough, that does not speak of Christ. Not a page in this
Bible. This Bible is about Christ. The message is Christ. Now listen
to me now, and there is no preaching of the word of God unless Christ,
who is the gospel, is preached. First Peter chapter 1 verse 25
says, but the word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is
the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. There is
no preaching unless Christ is preached. Now that puts a lot
of people out of business, don't it? It puts them out of business.
Now the book of Acts demonstrates that our Lord Jesus Christ was
the subject of preaching in the earliest days of Christianity.
That he was the subject. The words preach, preached, and
preaching are used 37 times in the book of Acts. And every time
that they're used, the subject preached was Jesus Christ and
the resurrection. Jesus Christ and the resurrection
if the book of Acts is to be taken for our standard and I
believe it is It must be concluded that unless Christ has been preached
no preaching has been done now now ain't that clear that simple
and if we had some way of Conveying that to every man that was in
the pulpit this morning. What what a different world this
would be and If you were to hear men get up and preach Christ,
preach Christ. I told you the story, I think,
one time about the, I believe this was among the United Brethren,
or Moravian Brethren. They got them a new preacher.
And he got up and preached and preached. Everybody was disappointed And
so finally somebody got up enough nerve after he preached for several
weeks and wrote him a note Put it on the plat or put it up on
the pulpit so he could see it when he came into the pulpit
and it said We would see Jesus We would see Jesus And so he
studied about that and first thing he began to dawn on him
that he wasn't preaching Christ. And so he began to study and
preach Christ. And directly somebody left him
a note on the pulpit stand that said, and then were the disciples
glad when they saw Jesus. And so beloved, Christ is the
subject. Christ is the message. And if
the book of Acts, now the man who pretends to be a preacher,
but does not preach Christ and Him crucified, he mocks the people
who hear him. Rather than serving their souls,
he destroys their souls by not preaching Christ. unto them. Now then, that brings me to this.
Now what we're saying is, in the worship of God, Christ is
preeminent. We're saying that in the preaching
of the word, Christ is the message. He's preeminent. We're saying
this, that in all of our songs of praise, Jesus Christ must
be preeminent. Now beloved, we do not gather
to sing the praises of men we're here to sing the praises of God
we take part of our time here generally about a half an hour
to sing the praises of God now it is insignificant really whether
we have a musical instrument or whether we don't. That's really
not the issue. It's insignificant. Somebody
said, well, I sure wish we could have the piano. I do, too. That'd
be wonderful if we could have it. I enjoy the piano. Some people,
they don't care one way or the other. And it really don't matter,
I suppose, whether we have any musical instrument accompanying
our hymns or not. But it seems to be some blessing
to many. And it's also insignificant whether
the tempo of the music is modern or whether it's conservative.
That really don't mean a whole lot. But it is of utmost importance
that the word of the message contained in our songs be of
praise both doctrinally and that it be accurate and Christ-exalting. Christ is to be the center of
our singing. Christ, the center of our praise
when we come together and lift up our voices to sing. Christ,
it's to be unto Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. And
then the ordinances of worship prescribed in the New Testament
are designed to focus the hearts of men and women upon Christ.
The ordinances, I say, are designed. Now, there are only two ordinances. There's only two that's ordained
of God in the church. And this is another distinctive
of Baptist churches. We believe in Believer's Baptism
and we believe in the Lord's Supper. These are the two ordinances
that are required, allowed by the New Testament in the church. Now Believer's Baptism, we just
recently baptized Brother Jonathan here because he believes on the
Lord Jesus Christ with all of his heart. And so we baptized
him. Now, the last Sunday of May,
the 25th of May, I believe it is, we hope to take the Lord's
Supper. Mike and I was talking about
the other day, and we thought that we should observe the Lord's
Supper. So we plan to do that the last Sunday in May. We're going to do it right here
on Sunday morning. Now, there's no other ordinances
in a New Testament church but baptism and the Lord's Supper.
And these two ordinances are to be observed by believers only,
only in the manner prescribed in the New Testament. They're
not sacraments by which grace is conveyed to sinners. Nobody
gets saved by taking the Lord's Supper. And nobody gets saved
by being baptized. But these ordinances, redemption and the grace of God
are confessed and celebrated in these ordinances. Believers'
baptism is symbolic of the burial and the resurrection of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And believers confess faith in
and identify themselves with Christ when they're baptized.
And that's what it's about. Here's somebody, now you see
in the first century, if you made a profession of faith in
Christ, You were bucking the trend and you were standing out
in society. If you went down and were baptized,
everybody knew it. Everybody in the town knew it.
This man is identified with that despised Jesus of Nazareth. He's identified with him. Now
beloved, see, nobody says anything anymore. Jonathan, you didn't
hear anything repulsive about being baptized. Well, no, not
anymore. Nobody hears anything and nobody
is in any way persecuted because they were baptized. But beloved,
what baptism is, it identifies you and sets you apart as one
who is loyal to King Jesus. as one who belongs to Him, as
one who is saved by His grace and merit, and you belong to
Him, and you identify He's your Lord, and you're submitting to
Him, and this identifies you before all the world as a follower
of the Lamb of God, a follower of the Lord Jesus. Now the Lord's
Supper is a symbolic remembrance of Christ and His great work
as redemption, as our Redeemer, as our substitute. The Lord Jesus
died on the cross, The Lord Jesus, his body was broken and his blood
was shed. And when we take the Lord's Supper,
it symbolizes that we believe the Lord Jesus Christ died for
us. And as often as we do it, we
show forth his death until he comes again. And these are the
order, but Christ has the preeminence in these ordinances. And that's
the point that I'm stressing. Now hurriedly, I wanna just talk
just a little bit about how I, and you can give Christ the preeminence
in your life. and how you can give Him the
preeminence in all things. Now, the Holy Spirit tells us
that He, Christ, is to have the preeminence. We're told that
in the Bible, and that's what we've been preaching about this
morning. Now then, it ought to be, if it is God's will that
He have the preeminence, it ought to be the will of every believer
that Christ have the preeminence in their life. that Christ have
the preeminence in my life. Now indeed it is the will of
all who know Him in the experience of grace and salvation to give
Christ their Savior all preeminence. I believe God fixed it up that
way. I believe when God saved you He fixed it up so that your
will would be that Christ would have the preeminence in your
life. I believe he did. I believe that's what the Bible
means when it says old things have passed away and behold all
things have become new. I believe when the Bible says
we're new creatures in Christ that that's what it's talking
about. That we're no longer thumbing our nose at Jesus Christ and
everything that's high and holy and thumbing our nose at the
word of God but we're living in obedience to Christ and that
he's the preeminent one in our hearts and in our minds. now
then uh... i think that every believer is
crying with john the baptist he must increase but i must decrease
is that not right is that not uh... is that what's going on
in the lives of believers he must increase i must decrease
and that's the way it is as believers now john gill I think he was
right when he wrote, Christ ought to have the preeminence and first
place in the affections of our hearts, in the contemplations
of our mind, in the desires of our soul, and in the highest
praises of our lips. Was he right? Absolutely. He
was right. Now then, if I would give Christ
the preeminence, and you know, I don't claim to be righteous
in and of myself. I don't claim to be able to perform
righteousness that God will accept. But if I'm going to give Christ
preeminence in all things, number one, I believe the Bible teaches
this, that I must trust Him with all things. I must trust him
with all things now beloved here's the reason the reason that you
and I we say we're believers now the reason we must trust
him with all things now if you trust him to save your soul Could
you not trust Him to keep you in this life? And could you not
trust Him to undertake for you? Could you not trust Him to lead
you and direct you and to guide you and to show you the way that
you ought to take in this life? Could you not trust Him with
everything? If He gave Himself and if He
died in your room instead in place, if He suffered your death
on the cross, could you not trust Him with all things? Now I want
to tell you something. Now here's the clincher. God
trusts Christ with everything. God the Father trusts Christ
with everything. You say, well, can you prove
that? I sure enough can. Look over in John chapter three.
Turn back with me in your Bible to John chapter three and look
at verse 35. It says, the Father loveth the
Son and hath given all things into his hand. Look at that. The father loveth the son and
hath given all things into his hand. Now, beloved, if that be
the case, if God has trusted him, then surely he must know
something about him. Surely he must know something
about his trustworthiness. Surely he must know that he shall
not fail, that he surely will not be discouraged, that he surely
will not give up the battle. He trusted his people in his
hand. God's family. You see, God's gonna have a family. And He trusted them. He said,
they're mine, but I've given them to you. And Christ, He took
these people. He said, all that the Father
giveth me, they'll come to me. And then I won't cast them out.
I'll keep them. The Father trusts His Son with
His sheep. With His sheep. Do you know that
the only thing that stood between all of the lost sheep of Christ
and hell was Jesus Christ. He was the only one that stood
between us and hell. And he did not fail. Praise God. The Father trusted him and he
delivered all of his sheep. He saved every one of them. He
said not one of them is going to be lost. Not one of them.
He said I've lost any of them. And he said, every one of them
is going to come before the Father. I'm going to present them all
with ecstatic pleasure before the Father in the end. Not one
of them is going to be lost. ever sheep. So you see, you gotta
trust Him with all things. That's what's involved in Christ
having the preeminence in your life. You trust Him. Trust Him
for your full salvation. Quit trying to make a contribution
to your salvation. Leave it to Him. Leave it to
Him. I read a story the other day about a fellow saving a drowning
man. And somebody said, well, why
didn't you get him? He went out, and he swam out there, and he
just let this fellow thrash and thrash and thrash around. And finally, when he just gave
up completely, and he couldn't do a thing for himself, this
fellow just kind of went over and got him and rescued him and
brought him to land. Somebody said, well, why didn't
you get him sooner? Why did you let him flounder around out there
so long? The fellow said, well, I had
to wait until he couldn't help himself. Quit trying to help
himself and then I could I could save him and the same is true
with God You cannot save yourself. You must give up on it Salvation
is not your work. It's not something you can do
only God can save a sinner Christ will completely save you and
he'll be the one that does it all and And when it's all over
with, He'll get the glory. It'll be His glory. You gotta
give up and abandon yourself upon Christ and into His hands,
and He will save your soul. Okay, and then listen. I think
it means that we should love Him above all things. Trust Him
with all things, love Him above all things. We should not allow
anything to interfere with our worship of and our obedience
to Him. I think that faith is entirely
losing, it's entirely losing our lives to the rule and the
dominion of the Son of God. We love Him. There's so many
verses that we could read. Matthew 10, 36 and 39, Luke 14,
25 through 33. It tells us that all who follow
Christ, all who trust Him, must surrender themselves to Him as
Lord. Not only do they confess Him with their lips, that Jesus
is Lord, but they willingly bow to His dominion as Lord. We must
obey Him in all things. That's the way we give Him preeminence.
We believe that the scriptures, somebody said, well, I just think
the Ten Commandments. If we keep the Ten Commandments, that'll
be enough. But you can read over there in
Luke 18, verses 17 through 25, that many people say, like the
rich young ruler, we've kept the commandments. We've kept
the commandments. And the Lord Jesus told him,
said, But you still lack. You lack. And so the Lord told
him what he lacked. He said, you take everything
you've got unless you forsake all that you have. Unless you
hate your own life, forsake all that you have. You cannot be
my disciple. He told this man, he said, you've
got all these possessions, take them and sell them. Give it to the poor. And the
fella couldn't do that. Now what I'm leading to is that
we don't just say the Ten Commandments. We live by the rule of the whole
revealed will of God. Everything in the Bible. And that's what we need to do
if Christ is going to be preeminent in our life. We must bow. We
look upon no word from God as being optional, no ordinance
of our Lord as a matter of indifference, and no doctrine of the gospel
unnecessary. We love the Lord Jesus Christ
and we yield the rule of all things to Him. And that we must
do. And then lastly, I think we must
render praise to Him for all things. Jesus Christ alone deserves
all praise. He's our God. He alone created
us. He alone redeemed us. He alone
saved us. He alone preserves us. He alone
shall bring us to glory. He alone. If we would be in harmony
with God, you know the Lord Jesus said, or God said, this is my
son. You honor him. And if you don't
honor him, you don't honor me. You must honor him if you're
going to honor me. John 5. And so we must do and
be in harmony with God. We must give Christ all preeminence
in all things, in all our preaching, in our worship, in our service,
in all our affairs, in all our gifts, in all our desires, in
all our relations. Let us be in agreement with our
Father and determine that in all things He might have the
preeminence. Father, in the name of Jesus,
we thank you for this opportunity today. May it please you to use
this message. May it please you that it may
bring forth fruit. And may each one here that says,
I am a believer, may they again take a look. at their situation,
at their lives? Are they trusting fully to the
Lord? Are they giving Him preeminence?
Are they obeying Him in their lives? Are they obeying the Word?
Are they seeking the knowledge of God in the Word? Lord, and
if there's a lost soul here today, Lord, would you bring them to
the end of themselves, where they would give up on themselves
and where they would trust the sufficient Savior the satisfactory
Savior, the all-sufficient Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Bring
some poor sinner out of his death and to life today. We ask it
in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen.

New Testament Service

What does the Bible say about New Testament services?

How do we know Christ's preeminence is true?

Why is Christ's preeminence important for Christians?

What does the Bible say about Christ being our mediator?

How can I give Christ preeminence in my life?

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Articles

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New Testament Service

What does the Bible say about New Testament services?

How do we know Christ's preeminence is true?

Why is Christ's preeminence important for Christians?

What does the Bible say about Christ being our mediator?

How can I give Christ preeminence in my life?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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