Message 3

The word "church", water baptism compared to spirit baptism, the Lord's Supper examined. The meaning of the word "Church". Matt. 16:18; Eph. 5:23. According to some of the best lexicons and writers it means an assembly or congregation of persons called out from among the people for a specific purpose. Liddel and Scott define the word "ecclesia" as an assembly of citizens summoned by a crier, a legislative assembly. Danetrench in his Synonyms of the New Testament says, "as we all know this word was the lawful assembly of all those possessed of the rights of citizenship for the transaction of public affairs. "

Robbins in his lexicon of the N. T. says regarding the word "ecclesia", convocation, an assembly, a congregation, in the literal sense a popular assembly composed of persons legally summoned.

The N. T. meaning of the word church demands an assembly of believers called out from the world. Ecclesia is translated from two Greek words, ek-out of; kalleo-to call, therefore we see the ~rd means called out. The word church is never applied to a hierarchy, whether civil or religious. This is simply a matter of honest scholarship.

The word ecclesia appears in the N. T. a sum total of 11 7 times; 11 2 of those are primarily to a local assembly, either in the singular or plural. We find then these facts: Christ was the head of the Church he founded and it was a local assembly; it was democratic in its government (has no power to change or legislate what is already laid down in the bible, the church is actually a theocracy, jba) its cardinal message is the message of the new birth or salvation by grace alone. The baptism was the baptism of believers only; and as such, in church capacity alone did they observe the Supper of our Lord. The salvation of the human soul was by grace alone, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ; the only officers were pastors and deacons; the only priest they knew anything about was Christ, and the early churches believed in the doctrine of the security of the saints. They also believed in electing grace before Calvin ever came along .An example can be found by reading the "History of the Evangelical churches of the Valleys of Piedmont", a history of the Waldenses which was written before Calvin ever lived.

Christ said "my church" denoting his assembly and the doctrinal marks can be found in history and will be generally involved in a great struggle. The great struggle today, is between the truth of God's word and liberalism. The evidence of this struggle may be observed in the world's idea of Christianity. Anything goes for salvation, church membership no longer seems to be an important commitment, and any kind of life style may be considered Christian. Iniquity is abounding and the love of many is waxing cold. Matt. 24:12.

The doctrinal approach. Eph. 5: 25 says Christ is the head of his church; Matt. 16:18 says he is the founder of his church; John 3:1-6 says you must be born again to see God's kingdom; Matt. 18: 1 5-18 lays down the government of the church in one of many instances. Eph. 2:7-9 tells of salvation by grace; Acts 2:41 tells that believers only were baptized; Rom. 6:1-4 tells that baptism is a burial, buried with Christ in the likeness of his death. Eph 4:5 says that there is one baptism. You may as well talk about two faiths or two lord's as two baptisms. There is only one baptism the church is to be concerned about, that is water baptism.

The prevailing idea today is that when you are saved you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and you become a member of the "big church" There is no such thing as the baptism of the Holy Ghost on the earth today. The bible is clear, "one lord, one Faith, one Baptism". There was a divine purpose in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit on the early church and it never was repeated. That purpose was to confirm, by signs and wonders, the faith of the early Christians. -They had no New Testament to guide them and God proved his presence in the work of the church, he showed his authorization of it. 1 Cor. 13:9-12 says those early gifts ended. The prevailing idea in the world today is that the only real baptism is the Holy Spirit baptism. Nothing could ":be farther from the truth. Human hands administer only one baptism and that is the baptism by immersion upon the authority of a local church. In Acts 10 we find both baptisms in the same chapter and it seems that Peter still realized the importance of water baptism in verses 44-48. A close study of Acts will reveal that the Jews, Samaritans, and then the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit and we have no more record of such cases.

Doctrinally we maintain that only the church has a right, only in church capacity, to observe the Lord's Supper. 1 Cor. 11:18-33. The bible says "When ye come together in the church", where there is no church there is no supper. The church observes it even though the individual member has certain responsibilities, which require self-examination. Let us look at some biblical restrictions: (1) place, in the church, 1 Cor. 11:1-2. (2) motive, it must not be a social feature, 1 Cor. 11:21-22. (3) purpose, must discern the Lord's body. 1 Cor. 11:27-29. (4) those who are baptized, Matt. 28:18-20. (5) to those Who are church members, Acts 2:41-42. (6) those who are sound in the faith, Acts 2:42. (7) restricted to those who are in fellowship, Acts 2:42. (8) to those who walk orderly, 2 Thess. 3:6. (9) to people with clean lives, 1 Cor. 5:1-11. (10) to those who are of the same faith, Heb. 13:8-16. (11) to the elements used, bread and wine, Matt. 26:26. Those who wish to say fruit of the vine means grape juice have the burden of proof on them. (12) The design, always in remembrance of Jesus. Not sentiment or love for anyone else. (13) to a united church, 1 Cor. 11:16-20. (14) to those judged by the church to be worthy. (15) to those who will examine themselves to see if they can discern the Lord's body.

These are some of the marks of the Lord's church down through the ages and they go all the way back to Christ. The identifying marks are the same today. Some say we make too much of the church, if it is the pillar and ground of the truth, and it is, then we see the need to recognize and appreciate this divine institution that has been appointed by God and protected by Him to do his work. When we see error in the main identifying marks, we see the error multiply.

If we are to understand some of the things of this story we must often go back to the beginning. Matt. 28:19-20 and Matt. 16:18, makes some promises to his church, "I'll be with you until its over and the gates of hell shall not prevail." These promises aren't made to anyone else in the world and you will find Christ only where he promised to be. Christ never left us without warnings or promised blessings. John 16:33; Acts 20:29-31.

The greatest of the struggles have sometimes been from the inside. When we view the beginning of Christianity we see that only Christ could preserve his church down to this present hour. Right in the midst of Judaism and Paganism Christ started his church and that immediately opened it up to persecution and conflict. Look at the early history, Stephen was stoned to death, Matthew, the apostle, was slain in Ethiopia. Mark, was dragged through the streets unto death. Luke was boiled in oil. Peter was crucified with .his head down. Andrew was tied to a cross from which he continued to preach. James was beheaded at Jerusalem. Philip was crucified and then stoned " Bartholomew, was flayed alive. Thomas, was run through with lances. James the less, was cast down from the temple and beaten to death with clubs. Simon, the apostle, was crucified in Persia, and Jude was shot to death with arrows. Mathias was stoned to death; Nero in Rome beheaded Paul; and Jesus Christ, the founder, was crucified on the cross. This is the beginning of Christianity. This still didn't destroy it, how else then could it be opposed? From the inside, Trojan horse tactics. The lord's church has gone through this and continues to go through this today. See 2 Peter 2:1-3, "There were false prophets also even among the people as there shall be false teachers among you". Not around you but among you. False doctrine will be slipped in as in the Antioch and Galatian churches and the problem with Judaism. Christ, Peter, and Paul saw and warned of future error creeping in the church and drawing men away. 1 In. 2:19; Gal. 5:4. Falling from grace here in Galatians means that a church may fall from teaching grace; when this starts you have the beginning of an apostate religious world. See 2 Thess. 2:1-10; Rev. 17:1-7.

While we lay no claim to Baptist being our name by divine origin, John the Baptist required salvation before baptism and Baptist seems appropriate for us today. The system of doctrine we have been presenting has been nicknamed in the past and may be again in the future. In history we read of Paulicians, Waldenses, Albigenses, Paterines, Ana-Baptists, and finally Baptists. We do find error among some of these groups just as we find error today among those who call themselves Baptists .

There were regular and irregular churches in history. The regular churches didn't compromise and the irregular churches did. Many churches are more concerned about criticism than they are about God's will. Churches today often do not mind what God thinks about them, how much he rebukes them, or how they hurt the cause of Christ as long as they don't offend anyone.

Early on the churches wanted a leadership dominated by human beings and priesthood among the clergy was formed. There is a lot of difference in a pastor taking the oversight and being a dictator, God gave the office of pastor to his churches. Each church and pastor must be free to obey the commands of Christ without hindrance from any outside source, church, or another pastor. See 3rd John. Compare Gaius, Demetrius, and Diotrephes. We must not surrender our personal convictions to another or we become their slave. When God calls a man to preach he must be under God's personal supervision and when a church begins i t must be under God's personal care as well. When a church calls a pastor it is saying the Holy Spirit directed us through the vote and when a pastor accepts the call he is saying the Holy Spirit led him to agree with that call, therefore they didn't hire him and he didn't just take the job, they were led of the lord. That's a good position to be in when the Lord is in charge.

Another error that came in is baptismal regeneration, which brought in with it the error of infant baptism and a whole new conflict.

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