Latest / The Immutable Word / EP058 Why Baptist? Priesthood of the Believer - Part 4

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EP058 Why Baptist? Priesthood of the Believer - Part 4 · The Immutable Word

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Welcome to The Immutable Word. This is Alan and Robert, your hosts.
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We're back for another episode. We've been covering the Baptist Distinctives
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or the Baptist Chrostic.
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And if you haven't caught those earlier episodes, we've covered an introduction
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to this series, and then we also covered the first two, which is the Bible as
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a sole authority and the autonomy of the believer.
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Now we're going to be covering the priesthood of the believer.
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But before we start diving in, I'll just do a real brief recap of what was covered before.
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So when we began the episode, the introduction, we began by exposing the strategy
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of ecumenicism, which seeks to achieve a one-world religion by diminishing the specific words of God.
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And we established three things, one being the doctrine is the ultimate metric.
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A church is not measured by its label or longevity, but its alignment with the New Testament pattern.
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And then there's two lines of history. We identified a clear division between the line of Rome,
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And also the line of Antioch. And then lastly, the danger of apostasy,
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where we learned that a lack of knowledge regarding our heritage leads to five-stage
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decline from a spirit-led man to a dead materialism.
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And then secondly, we covered—that was the introduction. And then the first
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acrostic, we covered the Bible as the sole authority, where we solidified our
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foundation by declaring that the Bible is our sole rule of authority in all
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matters of faith and practice.
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And then sola scriptura, scripture is the final arbiter, surpassing human reason,
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tradition, and ecclesiastical creeds.
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Secondly, the two manuscript streams, I mentioned that earlier,
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we distinguish between the preserved lines and also the corrupt line,
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which underpins modern translations that often omit key doctrines.
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And then, divine preservation.
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We rested on the promise that God has preserved His pure words for every generation,
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providing sufficient and objective standard of every believer.
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Then we covered the autonomy of the local church, our last episode,
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which is the A in the acrostic.
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Most recently, we examined the sovereignty of the corporate body,
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asserting that the local church is an independent entity under the direct headship
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of Jesus Christ. So, there's no earthly headquarters.
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The Baptist Church submits to no external hierarchy or papacy.
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Its authority is in heaven and in the hand, which is the Word of God.
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The powers of the keys, the local congregation holds the final authority in
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selecting officers, commissioning ministries, and exercising discipline.
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And then lastly, a safeguard against error. The autonomy ensures that if a central
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hierarchy falls into apostasy, the local body remains anchored solely to its head, Jesus Christ.
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So, those are the three that we had just covered, the introduction,
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the Bible as a soul authority, and the autonomy of the local church.
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Now, we're going to be covering the P in Baptist, the priesthood of the believer.
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So, I've had the opportunity to start thinking this way. I had mentioned that
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there's a good framework that helps organize things.
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The details in my mind, it's easy to get lost in all the details and all the information.
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It's easy, especially if somebody is talking with you and you're trying to do
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your best to articulate what you believe and why you're a Baptist.
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This is a great framework to organize all those details so that way you can be articulate.
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You can distinguish between us, why we're Baptist in comparison to the other
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belief systems that are out there. So I don't think I missed anything.
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Robert, how are you doing? Sorry, I didn't ask. I'm good. I was just taking a quick nap.
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Was I talking that much? Come on.
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Yeah. I mean, yeah, you got it. I mean, it's a simple list of distinctives.
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And so just hopefully everybody will get it as we go through.
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And each one has its own unique flavor. One of the things I will say,
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though, kind of like when we get into some of the other distinctives,
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there's going to be some overlap. So you'll hear some redundancy.
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You know, we're covering eight of them.
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Eight, when it's typically it's seven, but there's an S at the end,
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it's separation of church and state.
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But like when we get into liberty of conscience or individual soul liberty.
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Some of the autonomy of the church stuff, some of this priesthood believer,
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you'll see some overlap in that.
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So just so people are aware as we go through them. But hopefully they'll help you.
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Just again, the idea is, you know, what we basically are arguing is that these
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are biblical New Testament distinctives.
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And if you're going to go to a church or if you're going to be a part of church
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or, say, you're called to the ministry, you're going to start a church.
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Then what you want to do is make sure that these distinctives
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play a significant role in the structure and
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the framework of your church otherwise you're not matching
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what a new testament church's framework is as described in the bible so we're
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not we're not going to the old testament right we're not looking at levitical
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priesthood we're not looking at you know we're not looking at the the kingdom
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relationship the kingdom of heaven or anything like that you know And so,
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one of the things you can tell is as soon as the church moves away from these distinctives,
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you're immediately going to start creeping into false doctrine,
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the incorrect church organization, the hierarchy.
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And you're going to basically start, you know, going to a church that's unbiblical
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or start to adopt unbiblical principles.
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You mentioned that if somebody is starting a ministry or starting a church,
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this would probably be a great foundation to start with if you're training people
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or training your staff or training your members, right, in these distinctives. Yep, absolutely.
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So, and this, because it'll help you when you're running a church,
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when you're electing members, when you're electing leadership,
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when you're selecting these things, when you're, you know, coming out,
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it's called church polity, which is basically church government, how you run a church.
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So, these distinctives, again, we're not trying to argue for a Baptist church.
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Although I would recommend, you know, using the title Baptist,
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but we're not arguing for a denomination.
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We're arguing for biblical New Testament principles that are founded in Scripture.
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If you run your church or you operate
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or you are part of a church or participate in a church that has all,
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you know, at least most or if not all of these, you know, these distinctives,
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then you're basically in a New Testament church.
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If not, then you're in a church that doesn't match the New Testament.
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It's really that simple.
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Yep. Provides clarity.
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All right, so getting into the priesthood of the believers, when we covered,
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I mean, these sort of lean on each other, right? So you had the Bible as a sole authority.
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You had the autonomy of the local church.
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I see a common theme. Remember we
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said that the first distinctive sets the foundation for the rest of them.
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If the bible is not your final authority it really doesn't matter what
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any of these other distinctives are you see
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what i'm saying so it doesn't matter what you believe about autonomy of the
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church priest of the believer two ordinances individual soul none of that matters
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if the bible is not your final authority because once you move away from the
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bible being your final standard then you can pretty much basically subject your
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your whole church polity and structure and hierarchy to tradition,
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whatever man-made systems, you know what I'm saying?
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So the Bible is the foundation of it. But each one complements,
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and like I said, some of it overlaps, other distinctives.
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Gotcha. For sure.
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All right, well, let's explore the priesthood. And there is a common theme here.
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When we were talking about the Bible as a total authority, we were talking about
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the autonomy of the local church, that we're not dependent on some hierarchy
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or some central church or governing system.
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It is completely independent of that. And now we're talking about the believer.
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You did mention this, too, a little bit about the differences,
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what distinguishes the believer.
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And can't remember exact terminology used. So, we're going to really cover that
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today where you as a believer has direct access to the throne of God that you
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don't have to go through a mediator, you don't have to go through a priest or anything like that.
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You can access that directly. We'll basically look at really three things or
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four things under priesthood of the believer.
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One, we're going to look at the definition and the scriptural foundation for
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the doctrine and, you know what I mean, what it is.
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And then we'll look at the parallel between autonomy and the priesthood,
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kind of what you're alluding to.
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Then we'll look at the polemic against sacerdotalism, which is the Roman Catholic
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antithesis of, you know, the Baptist or New Testament structure,
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the Baptistic structure.
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And then the fourth thing we'll look at is the spiritual sacrifices,
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the responsibilities of the priesthood of the believer.
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So let's define it. So what autonomy is basically, like we talked about,
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you know, what autonomy is to the local church, priesthood of the believer is
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to the individual Christian.
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The doctrine of the priesthood of the believer holds that every born-again Christian
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has direct access to God the Father through the sole mediation of Jesus Christ,
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thereby negating the necessity of a human intermediary or a specialized sacerdotal class.
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So when we say sacerdotal, it means priesthood, a priestly class,
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or a priestly clergy of hierarchy, like bishops, archbishops,
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monks, priests, and things like that, right?
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Or, you know, presbyteries or church councils, you name it.
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So this doctrine, it's not merely a rejection of hierarchy, but it's also an
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affirmation of the believer's kind of his independent standing before God.
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So, there is a universal priesthood, and we don't mean universal in the sense
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that you have, you know, all these physical churches here on earth,
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and there's a universal church under one head.
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What we mean by universal is that every single born-again believer is part of
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the priesthood. And here's what's unique about it.
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So, the New Testament identifies the entire redeemed community as a holy priesthood
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and a royal priesthood, two terms that are used in Scripture.
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And it's distinct from the Levitical model of the Old Testament, okay?
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So, for example, 1 Peter 2, 5, the Bible says, ye also, as lively stones are
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built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood.
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And then what's the purpose? To offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
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Then 1 Peter 2.9, just four verses down, says, but you're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood.
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So you're a holy priesthood, and you're a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people.
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And we don't have time to go into the distinctions, but if you notice,
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it says you're built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood,
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and you're a royal priesthood and holy nation. So you have a spiritual house and a holy nation.
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And these are spiritual. This is the reason why, you know, this first,
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you know, sub-point of the definition of the scriptural foundation is it's universal
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because every single one of us are part of this priesthood.
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Now, an interesting verse, Romans, or Revelation chapter 1 verse 6,
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it's speaking in this past tense, John the Revelator's writing, right?
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And he says, he hath made us kings and priests unto God his Father.
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Now, I point that out because when, you know, you think about we're serving
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as a priest today, right?
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But when Jesus Christ returns and we're going to the millennial reign.
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Part of our rewards and our inheritances have to do with us ruling or reigning.
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For example, the Bible talks about, if you suffer, you will reign.
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It talks about in Timothy, if you suffer, you'll reign. Not reign as in water,
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reign, but reign like a king.
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And of course, you see parables in the New Testament, in the Gospels,
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where Jesus Christ refers to like, hey, I'm going to give you a talent.
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Depending on your faithfulness, your reward is going to be, and those talents.
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He equates them to cities or locations.
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You know, oh, you're going to be ruler over X amount of cities.
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So, there's indication, and there's also confirmation in Paul's Gospels that
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when we get to the judgment seat of Christ, there's going to be a judgment of
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our works and our faithfulness, not our sins.
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People forget that. All of our sins were judged at Calvary.
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Okay? So, when we stand before Christ at the judgment seat, we're going to be
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judged for our works, our investment into the kingdom of God?
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What did we do and our motivation behind it?
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And then depending on our faithfulness, you know, the Bible talks about it in
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1 Corinthians 3, 2 Corinthians 5, that our works are going to be burned up and
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it's going to be all of our works.
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Some of our works are wood, hay, stubble, and some of them are going to be,
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you know, gold, precious stones, and so forth and so on.
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Well, those represent the types of works we do, the
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kind of or every sort and and
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that relates to our motivation so say you
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are a you know a pastor of a church okay and and say you're you've been a church
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you've been head of a church or a pastor of a church for 35 years and you pass
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on you go into glory and then god you know you stand before god or jesus christ
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at the judgment seat of christ and he weighs your motivation for being a pastor.
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And what if he reveals that, hey, you didn't want to work a hard job,
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you know, all you wanted to do was kind of like preach behind a pulpit,
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get, you know, a paycheck and, you know, insurance and the church basically took care of you.
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You went golfing every Saturday. You know what I mean? Something like that.
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And I'm not saying that's what every pastor does. I'm just saying,
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let's just say in this case, you have a pastor that does that and he's standing before Christ.
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Everything he did in the ministry is going to be weighed and judged in the balances
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based off of his heart's motivation. Did he do it because he loved Christ?
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Did he do it out of duty and responsibility as a Christian?
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You know, was he diligent? Did he obey the commandments that God gave him as
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a pastor? Did he labor in word and doctrine?
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Did he guard the flock from wolves, right?
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I mean, those are all those things that the Bible, you know,
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illustrates and clearly lists are they going to be the things that we're measured against.
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So, that's why it behooves us to know the scripture. it
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behooves us to rightly divide so that we can know what our distinct responsibility
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if you come before god and you lived in
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the church age and you tried to build an ark and you
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thought you're pleasing god because you built an ark god said
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well that had nothing to do with you don't you know how to rightly divide people
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are going to be judged because of their ability to rightly divide not so i say
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all that to get to revelation 1 6 that currently we're a royal priesthood we're not kings, okay?
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We're not kings by the very fact that, you know, we're not trying to set up a church-state system.
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We're not trying to set up the kingdom of heaven, right?
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We're not trying to be a ruling national Christian nation. That's not what we're trying to do.
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And let me say this, too, before I kind of get to Revelation 1.6.
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Priest of the believer is proof, is proof that Baptists inherently should be dispensational.
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And the irony is you have hard-shell Baptists that are Calvinists.
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You have a lot of Reformed Baptists that are Calvinists.
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It is almost virtually impossible to reconcile Calvinist theology and being
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a Baptist and lining up with these distinctives.
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This particular one, this distinctive here, Preacher of the Believer, is proof of it. Why?
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Because priesthood of the believer means that you have a soul,
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independent, free will, conscience, and volitional choice to serve God.
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And you will be judged based off of that action.
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That is anti-Calvinistic. Calvin doesn't teach that you have a free will.
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You do things because you were elected to do them. You do things because that's
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the Holy Ghost had to make you born again and then save you.
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That's how they operate.
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So, being a Baptist is uniquely dispensational. So, you know what you're stating
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with the priesthood of the believer?
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You're stating that the Old Testament Levitical priesthood no longer applies.
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And there's been a change in the ecclesiastical structure from the Old Testament
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Levitical system to a New Testament church.
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That's anti-Calvinistic, because they teach the covenant of grace, covenant of law.
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They just basically teach there's
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two covenants, and it switched from the Garden of Eden, and that's it.
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Everything's been the same since the Garden all the way until Christ comes back,
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if they believe Christ comes back.
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From my own ignorance, so Calvinists believe that they still have to go through
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a mediator, that there's no direct access to the throne of God?
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Oh, no, no, no. They believe that.
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That's not what I'm talking about. I'm saying that there's a difference.
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Where's the Old Testament Levitical priesthood? Where is it?
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In the Old Testament. Oh, wait a minute. You mean the transitioned?
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Okay. Calvinists don't believe that. If you ask them, how was everybody saved
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in the Bible, they'll say Abraham was saved exactly as you and I were saved.
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They believe that as soon as they exited the Garden of Eden,
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they're under one covenant of grace.
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That's why they use the word grace a lot That grace extends from the Garden
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of Eden All the way until the Millennium So the problem is Is under the Mosaic Covenant,
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You had a Levitical priesthood, right?
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Okay, then where's the Levitical priesthood now? I mean, if there is no such
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thing as dispensations, if dispensations is the wrong theology,
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then we should all be sacrificing the lambs right now.
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Yeah, so that's the inconsistency with Calvinists. You mean something changed?
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You see, I'm being sarcastic because that's literally, if you were to reduce
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the Calvinist position, that is exactly what they believe, but they will not admit it.
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They all are dispensationalists to some degree.
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And they will not admit it. But my point is, is the priesthood of the believer
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would not be a true doctrine if there was no dispensations because we'd still
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be under the Levitical priesthood.
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So they must be dispensationalists. So yeah, what I'm saying is that to be a
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Baptist, you have to be a dispensationalist.
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You cannot be a Calvinist and a Baptist.
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You can call yourself a Calvinist and Baptist, but you're undermining either
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the theology or the principle of being a Baptist.
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And that's why this is a really important distinctive then to distinguish between
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a Calvinist and a Baptist.
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And so that's the key there is just knowing that there's a difference.
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You know, everybody's a dispensationalist at some point.
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If you say, hey, do you sacrifice, you know, do you take the Sabbath day off?
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Do you sacrifice, you know, on the day of atonement to the priest?
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Do you go into it? No. Well, why?
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If we're all under one single covenant, why would you say that something's different?
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See, what you're inherently saying is, oh, God is operating differently before
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the cross than he is after the cross.
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Oh, that means all those Old Testament, you know, religious laws,
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you know, the ceremonial laws, the religious laws, so forth and so on,
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the moral laws, all those things operate differently now.
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Why would you say that if there's no such thing as dispensations?
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There's Calvinists that outright deny that dispensations even exist.
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That's even a true doctrine.
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So, anyway, the point is, is the very, the very distinctive of priesthood of
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the believer proves that Baptists are inherently dispensational.
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And if you're dispensational, you're inherently Baptist.
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So, anyway, the, you know, he hath made us kings and priests,
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right revelation 1 6 hath made us
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kings and priests so here's my take on this is that
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you know obviously we're part of the priest of the believer i
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almost when i read that i think that somehow in the millennium that there's
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probably going to be two major offices that we serve so you know how we're going
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to go to the judgment seat of christ and we'll receive our rewards inheritance
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right and i i think this is me i think some of us are going to be priests in
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the millennial kingdom, and some of us are going to be kings,
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depending on whatever those rewards look like. Some of us won't have anything.
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It just depends. Again, whatever you get at the judgment seat of Christ will
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determine what you do in the millennium.
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So, are you saying that we may not be kings or priests?
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Right. Yeah, you could basically be walking around naked because you have no
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righteousness because of your works.
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That's why, if you look in Revelation, the Bible says those white robes that
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were given to those saints was the righteousness of the saints.
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Now, here's the thing. If you know your Bible, I don't operate under my righteousness
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when it comes to salvation.
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2 Corinthians 5.21, that he made it, he became sin that we might be made the
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righteousness of Christ in him.
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So, my righteousness is gone.
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So, my righteousness is exchanged for Christ. However, in the book of Revelation,
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the white robes that those people come on, the Bible explicitly says that is
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the righteousness of the saints,
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not the righteousness of Christ.
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So, that's why I say, if you basically get saved and you do absolutely nothing
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from the day that you get saved until you're raptured out or you die,
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then you have no rewards.
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You're not going to rule. Why would God give you the privilege of ruling with
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him and reigning with him or serving with him in the millennium?
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So you can just be walking around literally naked if you don't have ropes of
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righteousness. I mean, it could be.
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I don't know. You could be basically sitting up in heaven on the sidelines and
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not even be part of the kingdom.
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Just existing. Yeah. For a thousand years.
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A lot to think about. A lot of time to think about. Anyway, so my point here
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is that there's only two offices listed in Revelation 1-6, kings and priests.
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So that's what leads me to believe. The Bible says, again, if you suffer with
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them, you'll reign with them.
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So there is a—and we have crowns and stuff that we're given,
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and those crowns, of course, that we throw at Christ's feet and so forth and so on.
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So there's some distinction as far as the crowns and the rewards and the inheritances.
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But I just thought it was interesting in Revelation 1-6, only two offices are
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listed, kings and priests, you know.
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So, my theory is that it's possible that basically when we go into the millennial
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reign, we're going to be either a king or a priest, depending on our service. Or nothing.
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Yeah. So anyway, so the universal priesthood, again, is the fact that every
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single one of us, every single believer, there's no believer,
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okay, that's exempt from being part of this royal priesthood.
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That means if a 13-year-old kid gets saved, he's part of the royal priesthood.
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If a guy's been saved for 80 years, he's part of the royal priesthood.
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If the person is the head pastor of a church, he's part of their same royal priesthood.
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All ground is equal when it comes to the royal priesthood of the believer.
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Every single believer. So ultimately
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we're saying there is no intermediary between the believer and God.
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Like the Bible says in the book of Hebrews, that we can come boldly before the throne of grace.
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We don't have to go through a priest. We don't have to go through a pastor,
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an associate pastor, a senior pastor, the more spiritual Christian.
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Basically, you have direct access to God. So that's what priesthood of the believer
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allows us. That's the benefit of it.
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So, you have the universal priesthood, but you also have what we call the abolition of the veil.
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There's no more veil in the temple, and this is the implication.
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So, the tearing of the veil when Christ was crucified, it signifies the end
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of the priesthood and the restriction that barred the common person from the Holy of Holies.
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Only the high priest was allowed to go into the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle.
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No other Israelite was allowed to go in. So if you look at the Old Testament
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Levitical priesthood, you had the high priest.
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The high priest was the only, but you had other priests that operated,
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the Levitical priests, they operated.
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Some of them, you know, set up the table, showbread.
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Some of them, you know, constructed the tabernacle as they traveled.
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You know, some of them handled the meat, you know, and the sacrifices and so
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forth and so on. You see what I mean?
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So you had different levels, but you also had the high priest like Aaron.
25:22
He was the elevated priest. He had a very specific role.
25:26
And only the high priest was allowed to go into the Holy of Holies.
25:30
Guess what doesn't apply anymore after the New Testament?
25:34
There is no hierarchy of priests. Yeah, the priesthood. Every single one of us.
25:39
The Bible says in Hebrews 4.16, let us therefore come boldly into the throne
25:43
of grace that we may obtain with mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
25:49
So, Hebrews 4.16 says all of us have access.
25:52
There is no high priest. So, you don't, oh, this is my pastor.
25:57
He's the most holiest of us all.
25:59
So, if you want to access God, you have to go to the pastor.
26:01
You see the analogy there, right?
26:05
The Bible also says in Ephesians 2.18, for through him, Christ,
26:09
we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
26:13
So that means every single believer is a priesthood of the believer,
26:18
is part of this royal priesthood, this holy nation of believers.
26:20
And every single one of us have access to the same Holy Spirit.
26:24
And every single one of us has access to the same Father, the same throne room.
26:28
So, you know, what it does is it eliminates a hierarchical system in church
26:35
Like, oh, that's the tier A, the tier 1 Christians And those are the tier 2
26:40
Christians And these are the tier 3 Christians,
26:43
There's no distinction like that in the Bible So the Bible basically says when
26:47
you are saved and you're sealed by the Holy Spirit You are as equally righteous
26:53
and holy and justified as the next person who's saved,
26:58
All the ground is even after Calvary. Okay?
27:02
When it comes to a pastor, and we'll get to the offices later when we get to
27:06
the other distinctives, one of the things to remember is the pastor's role is guarding the sheep,
27:13
guarding the church from false doctrine, and taking care of basically the church.
27:18
And the deacons are there to help serve in the logistical fashion, services.
27:23
The pastor is supposed to labor in word and doctrine. That's his role.
27:26
That's not every church member's role
27:29
okay but every church member when it
27:32
comes to their own personal walk with
27:36
the lord jesus christ they are accountable they're accountable for their behavior
27:41
they're accountable for their thought life their testimony you know all those
27:46
things like the bible says in revelation or romans chapter 14 verse 12 so then
27:50
every one of us shall give account of himself to God, right?
27:54
So, basically, you know, the abolition of the veil just means that there's no
27:59
more high priestly position.
28:02
It doesn't exist. Every single one of us have the same exact access to the Father, okay?
28:07
So, holy priesthood, universal, every single believer is part of this royal priesthood.
28:14
And being a priest, there's no hierarchy of priests. Every single priest within
28:20
this royal nation of believers is exactly the same.
28:23
Same level, same access, same responsibility, same obligation. Okay?
28:30
So that's the definition, scriptural foundation. We find out what the Bible
28:34
defines the priesthood as, what they are, and, you know, the fact that they have equal ground.
28:40
Now, the autonomy and priesthood, here's the parallel, right?
28:43
So we said that what autonomy is to the local church, priesthood is to the individual Christian.
28:48
So a critical, you know, this theological symmetry exists between the governance
28:54
of the corporate body, which is the church, and the standing of the individual
28:58
soul. So Baptist polity, again, polity is just governance, like how you govern the church.
29:03
Baptist polity rests on the concept that what autonomy is to the local church,
29:08
priesthood is to the individual believer. So what does this mean?
29:11
You have sovereignty and the corporate body. So the local church,
29:15
so we already talked about it in autonomy of the church, right?
29:17
It's independent, self-governing.
29:19
So it's independent. There's no other, you know, superior body that tells it what to do.
29:25
It's self-governing. It governs itself.
29:28
And it submits to no external authority other than Christ.
29:32
The highest level of authority of the pastor is Jesus Christ.
29:38
He is the head of every local church, right? So, there's no such thing as a
29:43
pope, a synod, or a convention.
29:45
So, that's what local, independent, self-governing body means to the church,
29:49
right? That's what autonomy is. Okay, well, here's the parallel.
29:52
Just as a local assembly requires no mother church to validate its ministry,
29:57
the individual soul, the Christian, okay?
30:01
The individual soul requires no mother church to validate its salvation of prayers.
30:08
So, just like the autonomy of the church, they don't answer to any other higher
30:12
external body other than Jesus Christ or authority.
30:15
The individual believer doesn't answer to anybody but Jesus Christ.
30:22
Now, people will confuse that with circles of authority, okay,
30:28
within the local church.
30:29
The pastor has a circle of authority. He's responsible for the church.
30:31
Guess what you can't do? You can't go tell the pastor how to run the church.
30:35
Guess what the pastor can't do? He can't tell you how to run your family.
30:39
Okay? So he can't step into your living room and say, you've got to do A, B, C, and D to serve God.
30:45
He can't do that. He has no right to do that.
30:48
Just like none of us have the right to go into the church and tell him how to run the church.
30:53
There's certain guardrails that have been set up. So that same autonomy of the
30:58
church applies to the believer in the sense that the believer is ultimately
31:03
accountable to Jesus Christ, period.
31:08
Now, what God has done, though, and I want to be careful to kind of explain
31:14
this, that doesn't mean that every
31:16
church member can go willy-nilly and do whatever he wants in the church.
31:21
Because guess what Jesus Christ did through Paul, his writings? He set up guardrails.
31:27
Didn't Paul say, if any one of you have a brother that's a fornicator,
31:30
know not to eat with them?
31:32
Didn't he rebuke them in 1 Corinthians 5 because there was a man committing
31:35
adultery with his mother or mother-in-law, whoever she was?
31:39
And he says, you should be ashamed. You should have judged him and you should
31:42
have, you know, excommunicated him basically from church and given him over
31:47
to the devil for the destruction of the flesh.
31:50
He shamed them for not making that kind of judgment.
31:53
There's an accountability within the church when it comes to,
31:57
and the reason why, and this isn't the place for it, one day we're going to
32:00
have to do an episode on it, but the church is the pillar and the ground of the truth.
32:09
The church is, not the individual believer.
32:12
You know why that's important? Like, what would you think, Alan,
32:16
like if every believer had a right to come up and make his own doctrine,
32:20
what do you think would eventually happen to the church?
32:23
Division, apostasy,
32:26
Basically, he would basically go down to the toilet. Every believer would be
32:30
his own YouTube cloud church.
32:32
You know, he could basically make up whatever, you know, doctrine he wants,
32:36
right? He can pretend like he's an authority. He has no accountability.
32:40
There's no guardrails. There's nobody to reprove and rebuke him.
32:43
You see what I'm saying? There's no iron sharpening iron.
32:46
So guess what Christ did? Christ, he said the lowest level of preservation when
32:55
it comes to unity of the faith,
32:57
and we talked a little bit about this last time, but unity of the faith,
33:01
the single doctrines that we believe in is not put on the individual, it's put on the church.
33:08
Therefore, every believer has to be part of and be an active member and contributing,
33:14
participating member of a church because that's the guardrail God set up for doctrine, okay?
33:21
That it's important to understand that. It doesn't mean the church can go in
33:24
there and tell the family what to do because you know what you have?
33:27
You have the first institution God created was the family, okay?
33:33
Well, government came later, and then later on came the church.
33:35
So, you know how the balance works?
33:37
You have the family in the middle, and you have the church over here,
33:41
and you have the government on the left-hand side.
33:44
Well, if the church controls the family, you know what you have? You have a cult.
33:49
If you have the government controlling the family, guess what you have?
33:52
Communism. So, the balance is that they have very different spheres of authority
33:58
and responsibility. just like the head of the family is the husband.
34:05
The head of the wife is the husband. The head of the husband is not the pastor,
34:10
it's Christ, according to 1 Corinthians 11.
34:12
You see how that works? It works beautifully, honestly.
34:15
So, when you understand that hierarchy and framework, it makes perfect sense.
34:24
Because one, it guards the father, the husband being the head of the the household,
34:30
for example, it guards that priesthood responsibility of each individual believer.
34:37
But the church guards the church overall over the span of decades from preserving,
34:44
because the church is the one that preserved the Bible.
34:46
It was through the Holy Spirit, but guess who that the Holy Spirit used? The church.
34:51
You see what I'm saying? It wasn't an individual.
34:53
Think about that. Again, it's so important. You don't have some lone ranger
34:57
Christian going, hey, you know what?
34:59
I'm going to come up with my own doctrine and then try to carry.
35:03
There's kind of like a chain of custody. Okay. So, because the Bible says in
35:09
Jude, it says, contend for the faith once delivered, right?
35:14
Ephesians 4 says, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Okay? Well, what's that one faith?
35:22
It wasn't, you know, basically Paul and the rest of the apostles had to get
35:27
on the same page to operate within the church function.
35:32
And the church preserves the unity of the faith, not the individual Christian.
35:37
And that unity of faith is then, it's part of a chain of custody.
35:43
It goes from the Waldensens to the Albigenses, to the Paulicians,
35:48
to different church groups, individual churches throughout the 2,000 years of church history.
35:54
And so, basically, it comes down to this, that the autonomy of the church is
36:01
a parallel to the autonomy of the believer in the sense that the individual
36:05
believer has an accountability of God, but he's got to be part of the church.
36:08
And of course, the church can't be told by any external authority what to do
36:12
and how to run its... So as part of the government of the church,
36:16
it's like a checks and balances, the accountability of a group of believers,
36:21
preserving the faith, which is God's word.
36:24
Otherwise... And the church is a checks and balances for the individual that
36:28
doesn't get lost in false doctrine.
36:31
If they decide to go off on their own and start a podcast or something like
36:34
that. It's a balance, exactly.
36:36
I mean, honestly, that's what it is. Yeah, that's a great way to think about
36:39
it, because there are a lot of people out there that don't understand that.
36:42
Why do I even have to attend a church when I've got the Bible in my hand?
36:46
I've got everything on YouTube. There are podcasts that you follow like a mutable
36:50
word. I could just learn everything I need to know instead of being part of
36:53
a church. But it's much broader than that.
36:55
Yeah, that's why you see commandments that Paul, when he writes,
36:58
he says, you know, you're supposed to edify one another. exhort one another, right?
37:03
And so much more as you see the day approaching, like Hebrews 10, 25.
37:06
So, you take these verses, they all imply that you have to be part of some group.
37:12
You can't do it individually. If you look at those verses, the way that they're
37:16
worded, and, you know, a great passage is like 1 Corinthians 12.
37:21
Well, in 1 Corinthians 12, you have the body explicitly described. Yeah.
37:26
And here's the thing, if you think about it this way, if it wasn't necessary
37:31
to have a church, how would this chapter even make sense?
37:35
I'll read to you here a couple of verses. So, you know, we talk about being
37:39
baptized into one body, right?
37:41
He says this in verse 11, 1 Corinthians 12, 11, but all these worketh the one
37:46
in self-same spirit, because he's talking about diverse kinds of tongues,
37:50
interpretation, different spiritual gifts.
37:51
He goes, all these worketh that one and self-same spirit, dividing to every
37:55
man severally as he will.
37:58
For as the body, not the individual Christian, as the body, the church,
38:03
is one, and hath many members.
38:06
Now, he's talking about the body of Christ here. And all the members of that
38:09
one body being many are one body, so also is Christ.
38:12
For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body. So, this is the spiritual circumcision.
38:16
Whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond and free.
38:20
Okay, Now, verse 14, he says, For the body is not one member.
38:24
Now, watch the unity here. It's not one member, but many.
38:28
If the foot shall say, because I'm not the hand, I'm not of the body.
38:31
Is it therefore not of the body?
38:33
And if the ear shall say, because I'm not the eye, I'm not of the body.
38:37
Is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye...
38:42
Right. One guy ruling everything. If the whole body were an eye,
38:47
then where were the hearing? No balance.
38:50
If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
38:53
It's out of balance, right? It's a monster is what it is.
38:58
If the whole body weren't, you know, he goes, but now hath God set,
39:02
watch, every set the members, every one of them in the body as it hath pleased him.
39:09
And if they were all one member, where were the body?
39:12
So you need a body. He says, it's not about the individual members. It's about the body.
39:16
That's the God rule. That's the minimum preservation of faith and doctrine is in the body.
39:23
Okay? He says, And if they were all one member, where were the body?
39:28
But now are they many members, yet but one body.
39:33
And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee. Right?
39:38
I have no, he goes, nor again, the head to the feet. I have no need of you.
39:43
Nay, much more, those members of the body which seem to be more feeble, watch, are necessary.
39:50
The ones that you think are weak, they're there for a reason.
39:53
They serve a purpose. And those members of the body which we think to be less
39:57
honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor, and our uncomely parts
40:02
have more abundant comeliness.
40:03
For our comely parts have no need, but God hath tempered the body together,
40:09
having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked.
40:14
Why? Because one part's weak, one part's strong. So the strong helps the weak.
40:20
And the part where the strong has to take over, it's going to miss the smaller
40:24
parts. The weaker part comes in and fills those gaps.
40:28
It's a perfect unity. So he says that there should be no schism in the body,
40:33
but that the members should have the same care one for another.
40:36
He says, and whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it.
40:40
Or one member honored, all the members rejoice with it.
40:43
Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular. Now watch what he says.
40:48
Somebody goes, oh, he's just talking about the body of Christ. And watch verse 28.
40:52
And God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets,
40:58
thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing,
41:02
helps, governments, diversity, is tongues. Are all apostles?
41:05
Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles?
41:09
Have all the gifts of healing?
41:11
He says, do all speak with tongues? And so forth and so on. And then chapter
41:14
13, he goes into charity, the love of the brethren to each other.
41:18
It's a perfect, consistent unity. Okay? So that's why, and later on in Timothy,
41:23
he says that you got to watch how you behave yourself in the church, in the house of God.
41:29
For the church is the ground and pillar of the truth.
41:37
See that? So how did God protect the truth? The church.
41:42
How was the church protected by its many members working in unity together?
41:47
So if you as a christian think hey i'm just going to go do my own thing i'm
41:51
not going to be part of the church then what you're doing is you're dislocating
41:54
yourself from the membership and now you have no balance you have no checks
41:59
and balances you have nobody to reprove you and rebuke you if you start to go
42:03
into false doctrine see the danger.
42:07
So, anyway, and that's all relevant to this point, that the sovereignty of the
42:12
corporate body is in parallel to the sovereignty of individual person in their
42:17
individual walk with Christ.
42:21
But the corporate body of the church, okay, the congregation,
42:27
must work in unity with each other.
42:30
But that church doesn't have a right to dictate to the individual their individual
42:36
walk with God. So, again, circles of authority.
42:39
The church operates in one circle of authority, and the individual works in
42:44
another circle of authority, basically.
42:46
And then the government, the other circle. So, when we get to separation of
42:49
church and state, all of that will fit perfectly.
42:53
So, the autonomy, then we have the priesthood. So, the sovereignty of the individual soul.
42:57
So, the doctrine of the priesthood, the believer, illustrates,
43:00
we've kind of alluded to this already, but a level of autonomy that applies
43:05
to the individual conscience.
43:06
It asserts that the believer is competent to interact directly with God.
43:13
Okay? Okay, for example, there's a statement,
43:17
it says, the general priesthood of the believer illustrates a level of autonomy
43:20
greater than the local church body or its pastor, meaning that the individual
43:26
has more autonomy than just the church.
43:30
Because the church, technically, you can vote things in, you can change.
43:35
You know what I mean? It's there to protect each other.
43:37
But the individual is even more autonomous than the church. So it's a greater level of autonomy.
43:44
Because he alone, the individual, Romans 14, 12, will give account to God.
43:48
So when you stand before God, Alan, your pastor isn't going to stand in your place.
43:54
You are going to have to answer for you. You know what I mean?
43:57
And you can't point the finger at your pastor and say, well,
43:59
my pastor didn't do this.
44:00
My pastor didn't do that. God's going to hold you directly accountable.
44:04
That's why the pastor has no right to tell you what to do, because you're the
44:07
one that's going to have to give an account to God.
44:09
He's not going to answer for you. It's just like in the church state,
44:12
separation of church state, John Leland, you know what he said?
44:15
He said, hey, if the government will stand before God at the judgment day in
44:22
your behalf, then it can give you whatever rules it wants.
44:25
But that's not how it works You stand at the judgment seat So you have to be
44:32
able to rule Autonomously and independently.
44:36
Anyway, it sounds deep, but it's actually not once you start to think about it.
44:40
So the point is, basically, is that the church, the individual believer has
44:44
to be— So, for example, you know how like, you know, last year when we did the
44:50
Law of Christian Fellowship, right?
44:53
And we talked about, hey, there's
44:54
going to be certain things that are preferences or convictions, right?
44:58
Standards you set for yourself. Now, your standards and convictions may be a
45:02
little bit more than the next person.
45:04
Remember, God will judge you based on what you know. 1 Corinthians 8.
45:07
When you look at 1 Corinthians 8, the person, the Christian with the weaker
45:11
conscience will be judged based off of his weak conscience.
45:15
The guy with the stronger conscience will be held accountable based off of the
45:20
strength of his conscience.
45:22
So that individual has to make a decision how they're going to serve God.
45:26
So let's just say I have the knowledge God has blessed me with.
45:31
That I'm going to have, I'm probably going to have to give an account a whole
45:35
lot more than the individual Christian maybe that's never studied the Bible, you know?
45:40
And I'm saying they're going to be held accountable for not studying their Bible,
45:43
but I'm going to be held accountable to things I know.
45:46
Like, for example, if I know that I'm supposed to operate with charity and I
45:50
don't, I'm going to give an account for that.
45:52
So that's why it's important to understand that this level of autonomy,
45:55
it seems nice that, hey, nobody can tell me what to do, but that also means
45:59
you have a greater responsibility to God.
46:01
And so got to be careful about that.
46:04
Now, the exact opposite, the antithesis to this is sacerdotalism,
46:09
which is the Roman Catholic hierarchy of priests.
46:12
We're against it. We're anti-sacerdotal, 100%. We're against a religious class of Christians.
46:20
We believe that there's a single mediator between the divine and the human, right? Christ Jesus.
46:24
There's one God between God and men, or one God and one mediator between God
46:30
and men, the man Christ Jesus, 1 Timothy 2.5.
46:32
The Roman Catholic position is, and this is what they teach.
46:37
Is that priests act especially in the person of Christ as ministers of holy
46:45
things, particularly in the sacrifice of the mass. That's the Code of Camelot, Vatican II.
46:50
So, what they're basically saying is that when it comes to your righteousness
46:55
and your mediation between God and men, the priest has to step in and do it for you.
47:02
That's what they believe. That is part of their tradition.
47:06
That is absolutely, completely, 100% opposite of what the Bible demonstrates.
47:11
And that sacerdolatism is...
47:14
If I'm saying that correctly? Yeah. Sassadolism is basically a system hierarchy of priests. Okay.
47:21
Okay. Hierarchy, right? Hierarchy. Which is... Remember, we just said that all
47:25
ground's even after recovery.
47:28
But not with the Roman Catholic Church. You have to have that intermediary that's
47:31
stepping in on your place.
47:33
And... Yep. There's a higher level of spirituality with different priests. Okay.
47:38
That doesn't exist, the priesthood believer. So, there's a term in Revelation
47:44
2.6 and 2.15 called the Nicolaitan.
47:48
And the etymology of that word is, it's a combination.
47:52
Nico is Nikeo or Nike to conquer.
47:57
That's where we get our word Nike, our shoes, means victory.
48:02
Laos, Nicolaitan, Laos is the people. So it's the conquest or the victory over the people.
48:08
That's what Nicolaitan is. And guess what God says in Revelation 2, 6 and 15? He hates it.
48:14
He goes, you have the doctrine of Nicolaitan. There's a church there in Revelation 2.
48:19
They have, he says there's a doctrine called Nicolaitanism.
48:24
And he goes, which thing I hate? That's what God says.
48:29
He hates Nicolaitan. sacerdotalism.
48:31
So, you could take Nicolaitan and your Bible and write sacerdotalism because
48:36
that's exactly what it is.
48:38
It's a hierarchy of religious priests that act as intermediaries between the believer and God.
48:45
So, I have a question, not to go off the tracks here a little bit.
48:49
So, in the Old Testament, you had the Levitical priests that,
48:54
in that time, did step in.
48:57
They were the only ones that had access to God or the Holy of Holies, right?
49:01
Yeah, you only had one priest that had access to the Holy of Holies.
49:05
None of the other Levitical priests could.
49:07
The High Priest. You had a hierarchy of priests. So, you had a hierarchy in the Old Testament.
49:11
He was literally called the High Priest.
49:15
Nobody else held that role. Only one man did. The only one high priest that had access. Okay.
49:19
But you had other priests, but they didn't have that ability or that responsibility
49:23
or the ability to go into the Holy of Holies.
49:25
But each of those priests had responsibilities in their own sphere.
49:30
Like, say, for example, they handled the meat. They're the ones that would separate
49:34
the clean goats from the dirty goats.
49:37
They're the ones that would say, oh, this lamb is marked and marred.
49:40
They would intercede at that level between the Jewish people and their God.
49:46
The high priest would intercede for the entire nation of Israel for the day
49:51
of atonement. So, it's a hierarchy.
49:53
There was a hierarchy in the Old Testament. A hierarchy. So,
49:55
basically. Sacedonism.
49:57
Yeah, sacedonism. It's a hierarchy. So, basically, there's different levels.
50:02
So, what we're saying is the priesthood of the believer, there's no levels. Right.
50:06
Right. Every single individual believer is exactly the same when it comes to
50:12
their responsibility to God.
50:13
But in the Old Testament, Levitical high priesthood, because that's all the
50:16
Roman Catholic is trying to do is they're trying to— They're trying to mimic
50:18
what was happening in the Old Testament and keep what was happening.
50:21
Yeah, but they made up an entire—it doesn't even match the Levitical priesthood,
50:25
but they tried to mimic it.
50:27
What it is, it's an abuse of it, basically. Okay.
50:30
And that's what—so what I'm trying to get at is that's what God hates is the
50:34
abuse. That's what Nicolaitan means.
50:36
It's an abuse of what was used in the Old Testament, that hierarchy. Right.
50:41
So, you know what you say about the people that sit in the pews?
50:44
You call them the laity. Right.
50:46
The usage today is, oh, you're not, oh, are you the pastor? Oh,
50:50
no, no, I'm just a member of the church.
50:52
Oh, you need to go talk to Pastor, you know, Tom. Pastor Tom,
50:56
he's the one that's going to tell you.
50:58
So, you know what the people go, oh, oh, you're just the laity.
51:01
You're just the guy that sits in the pew and that's the pastor.
51:03
But what is Nicolaitan? Victory over the laity.
51:09
Victory over the common people. Victory over the individual member.
51:14
That is what sacerdotalism is you have priests that are over the common people.
51:20
You have special priests that have a higher level of accountability or spirituality.
51:25
Which does it? Sacrificentalism just means you have ranks. Yeah, which doesn't exist.
51:30
You have a bishop. You have the Bishop of Canterbury. You've got this priest,
51:34
he's the high priest. Oh, this is the priest.
51:36
He's over this bishop of priests, and so forth and so on. Gotcha, just hierarchy.
51:40
That makes sense. So, today doesn't exist. It undermines what the Bible says.
51:44
Yeah, there's no hierarchy in the priesthood. There's none.
51:48
There's no high priest, you know, oh, Tom, he's the high priest of the holy
51:53
priesthood. Oh, he's priest class number two.
51:55
Oh, he's priest class number one. That doesn't exist. The priesthood of the
51:58
believer, you know, from the earlier points that we covered,
52:02
zero, zero, zero hierarchy.
52:05
Sacerdotalism, hierarchy. We're anti-sacerdotalism. We are against any kind
52:11
of hierarchy. That's Nicolaitan.
52:13
So, that term, Nicolaitan, is basically sacerdotalism.
52:18
It is a picture of it. That's why I'm saying, write in your Bible,
52:20
in Revelation 2, 6, and 15, write sacerdotalism, because that's exactly what
52:25
it is. That's what Nicolaitan is.
52:28
Thanks for the clarity. So the Baptists are therefore radically opposed to priests,
52:32
sacraments, all formalisms, were anti-sacerdotalists, and are the natural enemies, you know,
52:39
of ecclesiasticism, which is basically sacerdotalism. It's just another word for it.
52:44
So our function, when it comes to the priest of the believer,
52:48
is, well, the Old Testament priests, like, you know, they had bloody sacrifices,
52:52
you know, they had to manage the temple, the chopping up of the meat,
52:57
you know, the cutting up of the animals, the wringing out of the blood, and so forth and so on.
53:01
Well, the believers, the New Testament believers, have spiritual sacrifice.
53:06
We don't have physical sacrifice.
53:08
You know what I'm saying? We're not going to go kill a turtle dove.
53:10
We're not going to sacrifice physical stuff.
53:12
Because the Bible says in Hebrews 10, verse 12, that Christ finished the work
53:17
of the Old Testament priests. He applied the blood once for all.
53:21
So, no re-sacrificing of Christ is allowed. That's blasphemous.
53:26
And the reason I say that is because the Catholic position and their Catholic
53:30
catechism, it says this, the mass is a real sacrifice because in it,
53:36
a victim is offered by a priest.
53:40
The sacrifice on the altar is no mere commemoration of Calvary,
53:44
but it is a true and proper act of sacrifice.
53:47
So, the Catholics believe every time they minister, administer the Mass,
53:53
they are re-sacrificing Jesus Christ over and over and over and over and over again.
54:02
Okay? So, that's what they teach. But the Bible says, Hebrews 10,
54:06
11, every priest standeth daily ministering and offering times,
54:11
oftentimes, the same sacrifices, guess what?
54:14
Which can never take away sins. So, even the Old Testament priests couldn't
54:18
take away sins with all the sacrifices they did.
54:20
It was necessary, verse 12, that Christ would offer himself once for all.
54:27
So anyway, so the point being is that we don't offer physical,
54:30
we offer spiritual, and we don't re-sacrifice Christ over and over again.
54:35
That's why it's a picture. It's a type.
54:37
So here's three sacrifices the believer is described in scripture that we offer.
54:43
So number one is our service. The Bible says in Romans 12.1,
54:48
I beseech you therefore, brethren, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice,
54:53
not a dead sacrifice, a living sacrifice, right?
54:56
So that's service. That's us. That's us presenting ourselves in the ministry.
55:01
That's us being involved actively in a church and functioning.
55:05
Remember we said the three things that a church is supposed to do is,
55:08
you know, exalt the Savior, evangelize the sinner, and edify the saints.
55:12
So some part of that ministry that you have is your daily bodily sacrifice, being a part of that.
55:20
And then, of course, the sacrifice of praise. The Bible says in Hebrews 13,
55:25
15, by him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.
55:31
So the fruit of our lips basically is offered like a sacrifice.
55:36
When we praise God in prayer and music openly, publicly, in the public forum,
55:43
when we give God praise, that is a sacrifice that's well-pleasing in his sight.
55:48
And it's not a physical sacrifice. it's a spiritual sacrifice.
55:51
And then, of course, you have the sacrifice of stewardship.
55:55
This is, you know, this is stewardship in any sense, not just financial,
55:59
but it's the giving of your time, your money, your material, right?
56:03
The Bible says in Hebrews 13, 16, for example, but to do good and to communicate,
56:08
communicate is how you give.
56:11
Forget not, for what such sacrifices, God is well pleased.
56:15
So, whenever a Christian gives to the ministry financially, they give of their
56:20
time, they give of their material and their resources.
56:23
Whatever the case is, it's a spiritual sacrifice to God.
56:26
So, you have your body, you have your lips or your praises, and then,
56:32
of course, your resources.
56:33
Those are the three types of sacrifices that a New Testament believer gives.
56:38
Now, again, that's our sacrifice, but the priest and the believer also determines
56:43
like how you're going to serve God, you know, whether you can or can't serve God, you know, how,
56:49
whatever those, that doctrine you're going to follow or you're going to adhere
56:53
to, whatever conviction or standard you set in your life, that's what the priest
56:58
or the believer has to give an account to God for.
57:01
And when I encourage you to read Romans 12 and you'll see like what the Christian
57:06
is responsible for, that's part of his priesthood.
57:09
Now, what's interesting though, So, I want to point this out before we look
57:13
at the five concluding arguments about why preaching the believer is doctrinal.
57:19
But 1 Corinthians 11 says,
57:21
This is a very interesting passage, and this kind of shows you the level of
57:26
autonomy that an individual believer has.
57:29
Now, if you go to 1 Corinthians 11, the first part of the chapter is where basically
57:35
God says that every man, whenever he prays, verse 3, I would have you know that
57:39
the head of every man is Christ, the head of the woman is the man,
57:42
and the head of Christ is God.
57:44
He's setting the premise here, right? He says, the head of every man is Christ,
57:49
the head of every woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.
57:54
So, there's that hierarchy there.
57:56
Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoreth his head,
58:03
not his noggin, but his head Christ.
58:05
But every woman that prayeth and prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoreth
58:11
her head, for that is even all as if she were shaven. Why is it dishonoring?
58:16
Because she's dishonored her husband.
58:18
She's acting independently of her hierarchy, her head, which is her husband,
58:25
not the pastor, not a religious leader, right? Not her boss at work.
58:31
So, that's what Christ is doing here. What Paul's establishing in writing this
58:34
is like, hey, there's a hierarchy level of accountability and leadership and authority.
58:39
But he says, verse 6, for if the woman, watch what he says, for if the woman
58:44
be not covered, let her also be shorn.
58:47
For to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. He goes, for a woman to be shorn
58:52
or shaven, she has to be covered.
58:54
For a man indeed ought not to cover his head for as much as he is the image
58:57
and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. And so again,
59:00
the man doesn't cover his head because then you're covering your authority, which is God.
59:06
The woman, she's supposed to cover her head to show that she's under the authority
59:10
of her husband. So it's a difference.
59:12
Then he says, for the man is not of the woman, but the woman was made for the man, basically.
59:18
Neither was the man created for the woman, the woman for the man.
59:20
For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels,
59:25
referring to Genesis 6, nevertheless. Nevertheless, neither is the man without
59:29
the woman, neither the woman without the man.
59:31
For as much as the woman is the man, even so is the man by the woman,
59:34
but all things of God. But watch what he says here.
59:36
Judging yourselves, is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?
59:41
That this is an interesting statement. Verse 14, does not even nature itself
59:46
teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him.
59:50
You know what nature teaches you? If you were, you know, Alan, think about this way.
59:54
If you were to go by your neighbor's house and it was like the grass was five
59:59
feet tall and the weeds and the bushes were out of control, what would you conclude
1:00:05
about that particular yard?
1:00:08
Has it been mowed in a while? Right. And what you might suspect is,
1:00:13
oh, it doesn't look like anybody lives there.
1:00:16
Or, oh, maybe they're not home or maybe they're away. But you know,
1:00:20
ultimately, you wouldn't probably say it this way, but ultimately what you're
1:00:24
thinking is, oh, that yard has no master.
1:00:28
Nobody's in control of it. No caretaker, nothing that manages the property.
1:00:33
So he says in verse 14, Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man
1:00:39
have long hair, he has no master.
1:00:43
He has no caretaker. He has nobody that's in control of him.
1:00:48
So a man with long hair in type is covering his authority.
1:00:53
He's rejected it. So, it signifies a man that has long hair is rejecting the
1:01:00
higher power. But he's telling you that nature teaches you that.
1:01:03
That's interesting. Then he says this, watch verse 15.
1:01:07
But if a woman have long hair, it is her glory. It's a glory to her,
1:01:10
for her hair is even given for her covering.
1:01:13
Because, again, she's showing that she's under the authority of her husband.
1:01:17
Now, watch what it says, verse 16, but watch.
1:01:20
But if any man seem to be contentious about what? A woman's long hair.
1:01:23
If any man seem to be contentious We have no such custom Neither the churches of God.
1:01:31
Now, you know, it's interesting about what he says there. He says,
1:01:35
if a man has long hair, it's a shame.
1:01:39
It's a shame because he's covering his authority. But a woman,
1:01:42
she has long hair, it's glory. But notice what he doesn't say.
1:01:45
But if she has short hair, it's a shame.
1:01:48
Now, you know what Baptists teach churches and fundamentalists has taught for
1:01:53
30 years? Like, oh, a woman has short hair, she's in rebellion to God.
1:01:57
Yeah, if it's not touching her shoulders, it's not good. He says,
1:02:00
we have no tradition in our churches.
1:02:03
He goes, if any man be contentious, that's what he said, right?
1:02:06
He goes, if any man be contentious, he goes, we have no such custom.
1:02:12
What is he basically saying? He goes, the length of that woman's hair is between
1:02:16
her and her husband, not her and the church, not her and the pastor,
1:02:22
not her and the leadership of the church.
1:02:24
The only person that has a right to tell that woman how long her hair is is her husband,
1:02:30
The reason why am I showing why am I saying that because for years fundamentalists
1:02:35
have said well, you know a woman's hair That's gonna you know,
1:02:38
that's a reflection of her spirit her heart If her husband said she can have short hair.
1:02:43
It's none of your business That's between that man and god,
1:02:48
That's autonomy of the believer that's how
1:02:51
much liberty an individual has he can
1:02:54
determine what his wife looks like and what
1:02:57
she doesn't look like and nobody that doesn't determine
1:03:00
her because of it that shouldn't determine her spirituality not that it's anybody's
1:03:05
business but it does well her spirituality is between her and god but what i'm
1:03:09
saying is but the hair is not a reflection of that right but i'm just saying
1:03:13
that nobody else in the church has a right to tell her and nobody has the right
1:03:16
to poke the nose in and judge her for it.
1:03:19
Because why? Who's her authority? Her husband. Her husband. Yeah.
1:03:24
So, that's just an example of
1:03:25
how autonomy works. Again, if the church controls the family, it's a cult.
1:03:30
If the government controls the family, it's Marxism.
1:03:34
So, that's why you got to be very careful about how you judge people in church
1:03:38
and what you think people should believe and what they shouldn't believe.
1:03:41
You set the doctrine of the church, the church should have unity when it comes
1:03:44
to faith, and you got to be careful and watch for, you know,
1:03:47
false doctrine and heresy.
1:03:49
But ultimately, that's the pastor's job. He's responsible for not letting the
1:03:52
wolves come into the sheepfold.
1:03:55
So anyway, so here's the five arguments.
1:03:59
This is the arguments that establish the priesthood of the believer.
1:04:03
So one is the argument from exclusivity.
1:04:05
What that means is that the scriptures explicitly identify Jesus Christ as a
1:04:11
sole mediator between man and God. That's it.
1:04:14
There's no human priesthood that mediates grace, right? They don't,
1:04:18
there's no other priesthood that usurps the office of Jesus Christ.
1:04:22
The argument from exclusivity means that only, only Christ is the mediator between God and man.
1:04:31
So that's the argument from exclusivity. The argument from access,
1:04:34
because the veil of temple was rent, Matthew 27, 51, now there is open access
1:04:40
to the holiest of holies.
1:04:42
Every individual Christian, every individual believer has unlimited access to Jesus Christ.
1:04:52
And if you try to limit that, if human hierarchy, a religious hierarchy steps
1:04:56
in and tries to limit that, they're basically usurping not only the office of
1:05:03
Christ, but the work of Christ.
1:05:05
They're basically saying what Christ did on the cross wasn't enough.
1:05:08
What we're saying is because what Christ did on the cross opened up the veil,
1:05:12
opened up the full access to God, and every believer has right to access God
1:05:17
without anybody hindering it. So, that's the argument from access.
1:05:21
Then the argument from universal designation, the Bible says every believer
1:05:26
is part of the royal priesthood, 1 Peter 2.9.
1:05:29
So, the creation of a distinct clergy class that rules over the laity violates
1:05:34
the scriptural status of the saint, right?
1:05:36
So, any kind of hierarchy of whatever priesthood is going to violate the individual
1:05:41
designation of every believer being part of the priesthood.
1:05:44
Now, number four, the argument from efficacy. because the
1:05:47
old testament sacrifices offered by priests could never take
1:05:50
away sins the believer must rely solely on
1:05:53
the once for all sacrifice of jesus christ right
1:05:57
rather than the daily sacerdotal rituals okay
1:06:00
and then number five so that's the efficacy argument then the accountability
1:06:04
argument states that every believer must give personal account to himself to
1:06:08
god romans 14 12 no priest church institution you know possesses any power to
1:06:14
answer that for the soul right you have to give an account of yourself.
1:06:17
Your pastor's not going to give an account of you, whatever your youth pastor
1:06:21
is in, and so forth and so on, right?
1:06:22
So, those five arguments basically show us because those arguments are all true.
1:06:27
All those arguments are in Scripture.
1:06:30
All those arguments prove that priesthood of the believer is a very specific
1:06:36
individual doctrine that's found in Scripture. So, that's priesthood of the believer.
1:06:41
Every Baptist church or every Baptistic church should possess that that doctrine
1:06:46
and should exercise it and should teach it so.
1:06:50
Yeah, it's a great foundation, a great framework. And we're only three in,
1:06:54
there's still five more to go, so Baptists and...
1:07:01
So, Bibles are final authority or sole authority, that's the foundation of these doctrines.
1:07:07
Autonomy, the church doesn't answer to anybody, priest or the believer,
1:07:10
the individual doesn't answer to anybody but God.
1:07:13
Yeah, it's simple. The next one we'll look at will be the two ordinances.
1:07:17
And again, every single one of these distinctives are the antithesis of the
1:07:23
Roman Catholic Church, right? Whatever the Roman Catholic Church teaches.
1:07:25
But the two ordinances is baptism and the Lord's Supper. And those are the only two ordinances.
1:07:31
The only two ordinances that exist.
1:07:34
You know what I mean? So there's no Hail Mary full of grace.
1:07:37
You know, the sacrament of marriage, the sacrament of the priesthood,
1:07:41
the sacrament of this, and the sacrament of baptism.
1:07:43
So that's the antithesis to the biblical New Testament teaching.
1:07:48
So that's what we'll see in two ordinances that we get into. Nice.
1:07:52
Yeah, you know, what I'm saying is it's very thematic and it is the opposite
1:07:57
of what the Catholic Church teaches.
1:07:59
I mean, it's black and white, it's night and day, which is interesting.
1:08:04
Yeah, and you know, I was reading a book by Greg Bonson called Pushing the Antithesis,
1:08:09
and he was talking about apologetics, but that's,
1:08:12
you know, he says in apologetics, the job of the Christian is to openly demonstrate
1:08:17
the opposite of Christianity to be unreasonable and untrue.
1:08:22
That's the antithesis, push the antithesis. So, guess what? The antithesis to
1:08:26
every single one of these Baptist distinctives is the Roman Catholic hierarchy,
1:08:31
their system of theology, their system of tradition, their system of polity.
1:08:36
It's all the antithesis of these Baptist distinctives. They're the great enemy
1:08:40
on earth to the Baptist faith. Yeah, or...
1:08:45
Biblical faith, the Bible, I mean, everything about it.
1:08:49
So, all right, good deal. If anybody has any comments or has,
1:08:56
if this has helped them already, we haven't gone through everything,
1:08:59
but just going through the BAP acrostic is— I thought you were going to sing the B-I-B-L-E.
1:09:06
I can, but nobody wants that, trust me.
1:09:10
But it would be nice to hear if anybody has used any part of it.
1:09:13
Like, you don't have to say, well, I've used a whole thing.
1:09:15
You don't have to use the whole thing. Sometimes it's just explaining one piece of it.
1:09:20
When somebody asks you why you're Baptist, I did maybe about two or three weeks
1:09:23
ago when I had somebody I work with ask me, what's different about what you
1:09:28
and all these other variations of Baptists believe?
1:09:32
And I was able to talk about some of these things, and it was very,
1:09:35
very straightforward, clear, concise. I could think clearly because I was using part of the acrostic.
1:09:41
So I challenge those out there who can do the same thing. I'd like to hear from
1:09:44
you to see how it's helped.
1:09:46
And I put together an infographic to kind of help, you know,
1:09:51
the acrostic and break it down
1:09:54
with the reference and then what the antithesis to each one of those are.
1:09:59
So at some point we'll make this available, you know, in the future.
1:10:04
Nice. Yeah. Yeah, you're sharing it now. It looks really cool.
1:10:08
One day when we have our website up, we'll be sure to share all the resources
1:10:12
out there. Stay tuned. We are working on it.
1:10:16
Getting closer. Getting a little bit closer.
1:10:19
All right. I guess we'll wrap it up there. We'll see everybody on the next one.
1:10:23
We'll be covering the two ordinances, and then we've got four more after that one.
1:10:28
So, great series to cover. All right. If there's nothing else,
1:10:31
Robert, we'll wrap this one up here.
1:10:34
Sounds good. All right. We'll see everybody next week. Lord willing, thanks for joining us.