Major Bible Themes
Mike Doyle · Oct 9, 2011
Major Bible Themes (2011), No. 41
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926249275112

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We're talking about the church today and her organization and ordinances. Two major questions. Is the church an organization or is it an organism? Another difference? What is the difference? Ah, good way to put it. And then we're going to talk about what are the ordinances of the church, the body of Christ. Are they infant baptism, first communion, confirmation, foot washing, and 37 other spiritual push ups.

So, I don't trust this thing. Now, if you look around at different denominations, you'll see that they are organizations, and the one I'm most familiar with obviously is this one, because that's what I grew up in. The head guy is a guy called the Pope, usually Italian but now German, and under him are these guys called Cardinals, which are, I forget how many of them there are, but they're referred to as the princes of the church, and under them are archbishops and bishops, and all the way down to your local church, the parish priest.

And they have, within the confines of the Catholic Church, they have a lot of authority, but it all starts here and it filters down, right down the flowchart. That's an organization. In the Episcopal Church they have presiding bishops, diocesan bishops, we had a hassle a few years ago in Denver with the Episcopal Church where half of them were promoting the ordination of homosexual priests and the other guy said no that can't be right so they split. And then you have Presbyterian which is a representative form of government a general assembly, a synod, a presbytery and then down to the local church. All of them kind of flow down with the ultimate authority being up here. A congregational form of church is a convention like the Baptist and the Church of Christ and they kind of vote on stuff and how they are going to be organized.

These are typical organizations and most denominations are structured along these lines somewhere. The problem with that is that I'm not sure or I'm sure it's not the biblical setup. Now the church as an organism is a really important concept because it gives validity for a place like us.

It's a biblical view, the church, the called out ones, Romans 12.5, as a matter of fact while we're doing this, look up Romans 12.5 and 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 1.22. And the way the church is set up from a biblical standpoint, every single believer is a member of the body of Christ.

In terms of the flow chart, who's at the top? It's the Lord Jesus Christ himself, right? And who's under him? Only the Democrats, right? Who's under him? Everybody is, but he has appointed some to be under shepherds, teachers, And what he has done in his organism is gift people to contribute to the well-being of the organism.

Okay? So, Romans 12, 5. Read it. So it is with Christ's body, there are many parts of one body and we all belong to each other. Okay. Now, let's see if I can go forward and come back. I really like this. Because that's really what the body of Christ is. We are like a human body. Every single person in this room and every single member of the body of Christ has been called to fit a unique place in the body of Christ.

And as I was looking, it's got a bunch of numbers on it. I'm down here somewhere. You know, you're over here somewhere. Somebody's here. And you might think that wherever God has placed you, might be insignificant, but if you weren't there, the body wouldn't be able to function. And the evidence I have for that is just injure part of your body. You know, see my hand? When this left, I was not functioning fully like I used to be able to do. And I was out there working yesterday and it was cold. And this finger gets really cold. because it doesn't flow right, because part of it is missing.

Well, it's the same way in the body of Christ. Every single member fits a certain place so that the whole thing can function and operate properly. 1 Corinthians, what did I tell you? Now you have the body of Christ and members in particular. Okay. Read, let's see, I don't want you to read all the way from 12 through 31, but actually what that talks about is exactly what we're talking about. Read three or four or five verses just so. And God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers. After that, miracles and gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. are all apostles, are all prophets, are all teachers, are all workers of miracles, have all the gifts of healing, do all speak with tongues, do all interpret, but covet earnestly the best gifts, and let show lie unto you a more excellent way. That's enough. So what did God do in order to organize his organism, to keep it functioning? He specifically calls and appoints people. Initially the men were apostles. We don't have apostles anymore because we don't need them.

But he calls teachers and You ever sleep bad at night and you wake up in the morning and you have a headache and your brain just isn't working? I went out and walked this morning doing this for an hour trying to get my head to move and none of those little marbles have fallen into place yet. Pastors, teachers, people that are called of the Lord He appoints them. They don't decide, well this guy is a high school teacher so he may make a really good Sunday school teacher. He calls them. Now, if you have a spiritual gift, do you have one? Everybody has one.

And what's it designed to do? It's to edify the body of Christ. It's never to make you feel rooty-kazooty. It's never for that, it's always for the body of Christ. So you really are, as a gifted one, a conduit through which the life of Christ flows for the edification of the whole thing. On Wednesday night we're studying 1 Corinthians, and the coolest thing that I've learned so far is that Paul says that he was a planter, Apollos was a waterer, but it was God who gave the increase. And so the conclusion that he drew from that was that he and Apollos were nothing. perfect. Then God's organism, the body of Christ can function as it should.

Because the members, I mean I don't wake up in the morning and say, boy Elbow you did a great job yesterday. You're special. I don't even think about it. Right? Is my elbow important? Sure it is. So the organism of the church has the head, which is Christ. and all the members of the body and each individual member is specifically suited out by God to fit the place where he puts you.

And you may and nobody may ever recognize what you're there for but he does and he'll reward you for that. And it can be just a little tiny non-significant thing. So if you're called to be a a planter or a waterer. The great thing about that is that you're nothing. I finally have something in common with the Apostle Paul. We're both nothing. I like it. Because you don't get any credit and that's the way it should be. Because the head gets credit.

So the church is set up so that there's local members local groups and if you look at the last chapter of the book of Romans there's this Paul says in Romans well greet so-and-so, greet so-and-so, greet so-and-so and they're all households and half of them are little churches where they gather and get together and study the Word of God and pray together in their bodies of believers.

What would be the ideal number in a church? Have you ever think about that? What would be the ideal number? I think you said 30 or 35. 30 or 35? That's kind of what I think. But what do you think? Have you ever asked yourself that question? What's the ideal number? 100? 1,000? 2,000. What's the ideal number?

I don't really know. But a body of believers that can be a small number These people call me up all the time who've learned of identification truths and stuff and they say, well I live in Podunk, Idaho and I can't find any church around that I can go to that is like-minded.

And I say, well is there one other person that you know in your town that you fellowship with? And if they say yeah, I say, well there you got to start. There's the start. You know, you just get together with them once a week and spend time in the word of God and God will draw others to you and you know what before you know it you might have an organism going.

A lot of them say no there isn't anybody that thinks and acts like me or understands what I understand. I don't know what to tell people like that because in our society we think we need to go and be in a building someplace that has a cross in front of it. And there's a sign out there that says services at 10 o'clock. And that's not what the body of Christ is. It was 300 years before anybody in any group of believers ever bought a building. The first part of the church always meant people's homes. They didn't buy buildings.

So you're all welcome over at my house. Each local church has an under-shepherd or an elder and members. See? Now, is that okay? I mean, if you belong to a place like Holly Hills, you know, we don't have these secret guys call us up once a month and say, how's it going down there? Are you teaching the right stuff? Are you raising enough money? Do you have committees and all that kind of thing? Why not? Why not?

Because Christ is the head. Christ is the authority and the spirit of God dwells within us personally individually and as a body of believers and we look to him for direction One of the coolest things that happened around here that when your mom got sick There was never a meeting Never oh you do this you do that you do that. We're gonna people just bang the body of Christ responded just like if you your body gets sick and your corpuscles go to help out that part. The molecules in your body didn't have to have a meeting and decide which ones were going. They just went. And that's the way our organism functions. It's the way it works.

And when Peggy got sick, this body of believers responded just like that. People would go over there and run into other people. Oh, I didn't know you were coming over. You know, there's a little bit of organization about the food so that they wouldn't have five meals in one day and no meals the next day. Other than that, people just responded.

That's the way an organism works. Because the head is Christ and the Spirit of God is the life within the body. So I'm really comfortable with this setup. You know, I could live and you could live anywhere in the world and function like this and be perfectly at rest with what you were doing spiritually.

You see that? When we sent Hassan back to Uganda, if this is what he did, we would have been totally comfortable with that. He didn't need to go back and get hooked up with a presbytery or anything else. If he's the equipped, under-shepherd, you know, if you went to a village and began to teach and God formed a little local church under him, that would have been fine with us and that may still happen. See? Okay.

Isn't it also that the members there, they're members because they're the members of Christ's body, not because they've gone through some church program to become members? That's a good question. Did everybody hear the question? They're members of the body of Christ because God put them there and they didn't go through some church organization that put them there, right?

So how do you get qualified for what God has called you to do? Ever think about that? I mean, you know, one, you have a God, the Spirit of God gifts you, but you don't start out the first day of the gift. being good at it. In my opinion, what's the main purpose of the church other than to glorify God? What's the main purpose on the earth? What do you think? What are we here to do?

Let's look at Ephesians. See if it's up here. Ephesians 4.16. Or Ephesians 4, isn't there someplace? I think that's where it is. I'm hoping that's where it is. I'm going to start with 7. Watch how this goes. Okay, we're going to start with 11.

And he himself gave some to the apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and teachers. Now here's the purpose. Watch what they're there to do. The equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ. There it is. And those aren't three separate issues, it's all one issue.

The whole reason that there are these people given to the church is the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ. Every single one of us, as members of the organism of the body of Christ, that's what we're doing. Interesting about how your body works. They say every seven years, all of the molecules in your body are replaced.

So what are you doing when you're equipping saints for the ministry? You're replacing yourself. And maybe for the local church you're in, maybe for another place. But that's what you do. The whole focus is the edification of the body of Christ by equipping them for the ministry. The ministry is not in Peoria, Illinois. It's right here. See that? Now watch.

Till we all come to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The body of Christ, the local organism of the church, is to be the manifestation of the fullness of the stature of who Christ is, collectively as members of the body and individually. that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

That's the purpose. That's what the church is doing. If you can observe it working, that's what it's working towards. Is that okay? That's an awful lot of verses and we're not going to pick them apart, but that's really what it's for. Every one of us is edified by every other person and we're growing as a body of believers to manifest the glory of God. Okay?

Now, so anybody, everybody settled down on what your function is in the body? Can I ask you individually? Nobody, everybody went. I'm not making eye contact with him. What would be something that you would do in the body of Christ that would be non-public? Nobody would know you were doing it.

You can encourage other people. Encourage other people. You can pray. You can pray for them. Come alongside them. You know, counsel. Hospitality. Hospitality. rip out bushes? It helps. It's the all-inclusive. Sure. You know, and it may be more than one thing that people that work for the kids in the Sunday school, you know, we just don't say, well, why don't you come down and work in the Sunday school? No, we're looking. We're looking to see if they fit, in the sense that God called them to do that. And I've seen with people upstairs, people that you're talking about, somebody in the body is hurting, and somebody who you would never think of comes alongside them and walks with them.

Nobody else knows what's going on, just the two of them. And that's the way the body functions, I think. How do you get to be a member of the body of Christ? By believing. What's the transaction that takes place? You're born into it, aren't you? Isn't that what happens? Members, they differ, we talked about that. I want to point out right here, there's no exaltation of one member over another because your function or the gift that you have, otherwise divisions occur.

The whole first part of 1 Corinthians, that's all that's about. That Paul says, look, you guys have made celebrities out of your leaders. You got them up on these pedestals. And so the way to combat that is he said, look, everybody in the body of Christ is a servant. Everyone. There isn't any, oh I'm of Apollos and I'm of Paul. We're all servants. And then he begins to define what a servant is. A servant is nothing. Because he's just, or she is just somebody who's used of the Holy Spirit to edify the body so the credit goes, maybe put it this way. If all of the increase is given by God, then all the results are his responsibility and not yours.

Isn't that interesting? Yet you'll have people come up to you and say, well boy, you're working in a sunny school down there, how's it going? Like you're producing something? Come on. The great thing about that, the great freedom about that is that if you're planting, or you're watering, or you're building on the foundation, and it doesn't work out, is it because you weren't cool enough? Or smart enough? Or energized enough?

If God is the one who's given the increase, then all the results are in his lap. And the lack of results are in his lap too. So, if you find yourself in a position where you're handing out tracts or witnessing for Christ and nobody comes to Christ, was it because you just didn't have your story straight? No, it's God who gives the increase.

It's the perfect attitude to have because you know that as a member of the body of Christ, it's God who does everything. You're thankful that you're used, and you know what? Nobody's left out of the using part. Nobody is left out of the conduit. Everybody is used that way, but it's God who gives the increase. Otherwise, it wouldn't be an organism, and you would have divisions. In today's society, how many pastors are better known than the name of their church? I'll give you a good example. You probably know this one. I can't even think of his name now.

Who's the guy that wrote The Purpose Driven Church? Rick Warren. What's the name of his church? Gee, you don't know, but you know him. It's Saddleback. What's the name of this John Hagee's church in San Antonio, Texas? What's the name of his church? Nobody knows. What's the name of the church that... Who's the guy that bought the old basketball arena? What's it? What's the name of his church?

Isn't it interesting that nobody knows the name of the organism, but they know the pastor. Why? Because the pastor has been raised up into celebrity status. See that? God in his grace has gifted every member and it is a matter of grace. We talked about the goals. Any questions? Let's talk about ordinances. There are two. What's an ordinance, by the way? The city council got together and decided we're having ordinances. Those under shepherds decided we're going to have a couple of rules anyway. What is an ordinance?

There's no definition up there for them. You're going to have to come up with one. I'd say something endorsed by the Lord himself that was practicing in the church. Okay, that's not bad. Anybody else? There are two of them. Baptism and the Lord's Table. And they both depict things.

Are they required for spiritual growth? You have to do them to gain membership? In other words, Does water baptism and the Lord's table impart any sort of spiritual benefit? Why do them then? Why do them? Why do you do them? Because of what they depict. What's that? Because of what they depict and it's also remembering. Okay. Okay. I think the basic issue is the reason why you do them is because the Lord set it up that way. Okay.

If you come out of Catholicism like I did, water baptism did something spiritually for you. And the way they look at it is that your soul is like a light bulb, but you're born and it's dirty. And if you get water baptism, it washes all that original sin away. So you're starting with a clean slate. In terms of water baptism or either one? Yeah, just either one, remembering him, remembering his completed work and so forth. Okay, that's good.

My mother, I have seven brothers and sisters, most of us got married and had kids, and none of us really were Catholics as we grew up, so she'd come visit, right? And so she'd say, I'm going to wash the baby. She'd take them in the bathroom and she'd baptize them. She would. And so I used to kid her, she'd come to my daughter and I'd say, now don't you be baptizing my daughter. She'd say, too late.

Because she believed that water baptism imparted some spiritual benefit. Do you think it does? Do you think these ordinances are just rituals and rites that we do? Just because that's the way we do it around here? Or how about, what's the best way to baptize somebody? Sprinkle them? Pour stuff over their head or dunk them? Dunk them, right, that's what we do. We dunk them. Should a person be baptized? Yeah. Should you? I got a yes. Got a yes. Well, there's no reason why not. That's a better way to look at it. There's no reason why not. But it's not required.

You don't get to move down three rows if you do get baptized. The example is the thief on the cross. He didn't get a chance to get baptized, but the Lord said, today I'm going to be with me in paradise, right? Can't both of these be looked at more like a celebration? I mean, the Lord suffers a celebration and Our baptism is a celebration of what happened.

I think so too. Let's, oh darn it, every time I do that. There you go. You're back. How am I doing there? We already had that one. Bingo. Alright, baptism. I think this is a good example. It's outward physical expression of an inward spiritual truth. Okay? So I've always had a theory In our church, where should the baptismal be? That's what I think. It should be right out there in the lawn.

Because really, what does it depict? What does it depict? It depicts the identification truths, doesn't it? You get out on the water, you die. When you start going down, you should be waving goodbye to the world. Goodbye to sin. goodbye to the law, down you go. And as you're down there, the death and the burial take place, and when you come up out of the water, what does it depict? Resurrected life. Brand new life. Isn't that something? It's perfect for that. I mean, could you have come up with a better example or witness to what identification really is than baptism?

I don't think so. I don't think you could. Yet these denominations that we went through, very few of them ever look at it this way. They really don't look at it this way. They look at it as a ritual or something that departs some sort of special grace to you.

And some denominations make it a part of local church membership. The Baptists do that. Yeah, this is kind of a funny story. I had lunch a week ago Monday with seven guys I went to college with. They live in Denver. We get together about every six months. And one of the guys, and they're all guys who come out of Catholicism, right? And one of the guys joined a Baptist church. He lives up in 111th and something. And this is a guy with a great sense of humor.

And I said, well, what's the name of your church? He says, it's the Temple of the Yellow Tennis Ball Walkers. Get the picture in your mind? He said, I had to be baptized to join that place. He said, and they make you put this robe on, and it's got weights in the bottom of it so that when you go down in the water, the robe doesn't come up around your head. I said, well, they let you take the walker into the water with you? But in order to join that church, he had to be baptized in that church. I said, well, what if you go to the Baptist church down the block? He said, yeah, they'll do the same thing. Membership.

So, water baptism, I think there's no better description or discussion or explanation of what water baptism is than crucified, buried, and resurrected with Christ. There's no better way to look at it, because that's really what it depicts. And that's why I think that baptism ought to be out on the front lawn, rather than inside the church. As you come up out of the water, you're a brand new creation in Christ. And another thing, if kids around here want to be baptized, if somebody comes to me and says, well, I think I would like to baptize little Johnny.

And I say, well, does he understand this? You know, it isn't just so that he can sit upstairs and take the Lord's table when it's passed around. Does he really understand what this is? I think it's important, although he didn't have to in the Apostles' time.

But in reality, the fact that someone could already have died and resurrected with Christ without that water baptism. In other words, he just said when he comes out of the water, he's a new creature in Christ. That's what depicts. That's why water baptism doesn't really give you anything, it just depicts what's already happened. It's a witness to the world, a way of a changed life, but it's no different than if I go witness to somebody that has been saved again because I witnessed, just like I'm not a believer because I was baptized.

Right. I'm just thinking now that God set those two things up to be like learning, if you think about learn from them so I think he wanted that because they say that you know if you give a kid a task to do and they really if they learn about something that they're doing something they learn it better. Interesting. Well it's interesting you know in Acts and other places there are when people believed in the personal work of Christ that's what they said baptize him.

Right now. Go find the water. Baptism doesn't impart any spiritual blessing or grace upon the recipient. Water baptism does not regenerate a person, which Catholicism would try to tell you that. Only faith in Christ regenerates a person. There's no scriptural basis for infant baptism.

Oh my goodness. What are we going to do then with the little ones? Some churches have these what are known as dedication ceremonies. Dedicate to what? You know, it's interesting. Most of the young mothers, including my wife, when they first have their first baby, They don't tell you this, but in the back of their mind they think this is the one that's born without the sin nature.

This little darling is not going to ever... What does that child prove to them? They got one. They got one. And they don't have to go to sinning academy to figure it out. They get it real quick. So, what would you do with your child? Where should the focus be? I would think the focus would be on teaching them the truth of the gospel. And if you want to come down and join us with these young kids, they figure it out pretty quick. They're very smart. They know. They get it. And I'm amazed at how young they understand things. But they do.

It's not a requirement for salvation and it's not a result. The Lord's Supper. Again, my experience in Catholicism. Catholicism has this doctrine called transubstantiation, which they say that the bread and the wine or the juice, even though it doesn't change physical appearance, it actually becomes the body and blood of Christ.

And so when you receive what they call communion, you have received within your person the body and blood of Christ. Now if you sit down and think about that, that's pretty gruesome. But that's their replacement theology for oneness. They think that that gets you closer intimacy wise with Christ than any other thing that you can do.

And I remember with my mom one time, she went to Mass every day and took communion every day of her life. I said to her one day, I said, Mom, you know when your digestive system digests the bread and the wine, what do you go back to being sinning again or what do you do? I mean, why don't you take communion about every 20 minutes? Because you don't want it to digest, because then where does Christ go?

She always said, Oh, Michael. It's an affectionate calling to mind of the person and work of Christ for you personally. Should we do it more than once a month? What do you think? As often as we do it, we do it for remembrance of Him. Should we do it more than once a month? What do you think? Because that's kind of what we do. Some churches do it every week. What about the third Sunday instead of the first Sunday? Okay with me.

That's on the organizational chart. Christ's death has value only due to his resurrection. Do you understand what that means? How does Christ's death only have value because of the resurrection? I jumped ahead a little bit. Why do you think this line here is a correct statement? He wasn't killed. He remained dead.

Yeah, the value of the resurrection proves that God accepted the sacrifice. If there was no resurrection, then God wouldn't have accepted the sacrifice. Anyway, affects and calling to mind the personal work of Christ, he died for our sins as our substitute and he also died unto the source of sins, our sin nature. We're no longer a slave to sin, but we're now a slave to righteousness.

The bread represents his body, which I think is a pretty good symbol because we're considered to be one loaf, right? and the cup represents his blood. Now, I wish I had a little more time. See this sentence here, the cup is the new covenant for the church.

Do you buy that? What the overheads are going to say to us is that we as believers are under the new covenant between Christ the Father and the Son. Do you buy into that? I guess you don't. I guess you do. What is a covenant? It's an agreement between two parties. Okay. And it's usually verified by something of value being exchanged. or something in Old Testament time, a death takes place. Sometimes they cut an animal in half and walk down between them and that would seal the covenant. The eternal covenant is a deal between who and who? God the Father, God the Son.

Where are you in that deal? Are you part of it? Were you part of it? We're not part of it, but we're recipients of it because we're in Christ. That's true, but in terms of covenant, in order to accrue to the benefits of the covenant, I have to be a party to it, don't I?

God said, I'll do this, like when he said to Abraham, I'm doing a covenant with you, it's one-sided, I'm going to do everything. Well this isn't, I mean this isn't, this is a two-sided covenant between the Father and the Son. Here's the point I'm after. I don't think we, put it this way, we are the beneficiaries of what the eternal covenant between the Father and the Son accomplished.

But if we, if everything about us is based on God's grace, and grace is unmerited and it's unlimited, and it puts God under no obligation. When Christ rose from the dead, was God under an obligation to offer salvation to you and me? Did he have to do it because that was the deal? Well, if you read the covenant, that's not in the deal. That's not part of the contract. He's under absolutely no obligation to offer salvation to anybody even though he's totally satisfied about sin.

That's a good thing. You know why? Because now he begins to operate on grace. I don't have to do this, but I'm satisfied and I'm going to do it. So I would say that we don't live and we are not under the eternal covenant, we are under grace. Christ was under the covenant and he fulfilled his half of it, but my relationship to it is solely on the basis of grace. If I'm living under grace, I cannot be hooked up to anything that's obligatory by the one who's dispensing the grace to me. Do you see that? That's why I disagree with your dad about that. And there's a new covenant for Israel. Yeah. Which was made with them. Yeah. Did I explain myself okay with that?

It's not that we aren't beneficiaries of it, because we are. But we are on the basis of grace, not on the basis of obligation. Because Christ was under no obligation, the Father was under no obligation to offer salvation to anybody. That was not part of the transaction.

You see that? So, I would agree that in celebrating the Lord's table, it's more of a gracious frame of reference rather than a binding sort of a thing from a covenant standpoint. Because a covenant is a transaction. If you come to me and say, I want to buy a house, we're going to sign a contract, guess what? You're doing a covenant. You're signing a deal. They're going to do certain things, you're going to do certain things.

And if you both do them, we have a closing and everybody is satisfied. Well, both the father and the son did what they said they were going to do, and God raised Christ from the dead. At that point, covenants fulfilled. There's no mention of, oh, and then we're going to do a church. No, it's all based on grace. All right, let's close. Dear Father, how we thank you for your grace and your mercy towards us. We thank you for the body that we are members of, which is your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we pray in his precious name. Amen.