Latest / 4-Freedom Podcast / 143. Freedom In Finding A Church - Part 4 - Church Ordinances

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143. Freedom In Finding A Church - Part 4 - Church Ordinances · 4-Freedom Podcast

0:00
I do not mean to be mean. I do mean to be mad.
0:05
Those that criticize this kind of preaching, they don't like
0:08
authority. If you ain't got the King James,
0:11
you ain't got hey, You don't have a King James.
0:14
You don't have a Bible. Be surprised, son.
0:19
Don't go to sleep while I'm talking.
0:21
Hey, hey, hey. Don't, don't.
0:22
Don't you lay your head back. I'm.
0:24
I'm important. I'm somebody.
0:26
I love you. You know I love you as I
0:28
convinced you. I love you.
0:30
Yeah. You better say.
0:31
You better nod your head. Yes.
0:32
Sorry. Come on, put it up there.
0:33
All right? You stay awake and you listen to
0:35
me. I still believe if you're cold
0:40
in hell before I get my family for a woman, I'm a preacher.
0:54
When you got dressed today, you dressed deity.
1:01
This is the Four Freedom Podcast, a podcast that is part
1:05
of the RFP Network that seeks to bring freedom in Christ from the
1:09
spiritual abuse of legalism. And so fundamentalism is
1:20
designed to unpack the idea of authority from Scripture.
1:24
The problem with that is that that's not the defining
1:27
principle in Scripture. It is a part of description.
1:29
But the defining principle in Scripture is love.
1:59
I found my freedom in you. I found a toy I can't lose, and
2:08
thank God it's true. You wrapped your arms around me
2:12
and heaven broke through from the moment she found me.
2:17
I found my freedom in you. Welcome to the Four Freedom
2:22
Podcast. This podcast exists to bring the
2:25
freedom of the gospel for everyday Christians with
2:28
everyday issues. Now here are your hosts, James
2:32
Seyfried and Brett Moore. Welcome back to the Four Freedom
2:38
Podcast. What a great day it is.
2:41
Great week that we've had and enjoyed you tuning in.
2:46
We do this because of you and the listeners and we never want
2:51
to take that for granted. And we want to thank you for
2:52
tuning in. We are doing a series of
2:56
basically what to look for in the church and want to continue
3:01
that today. And if the last episodes have
3:03
been helpful, leave a rating and review.
3:06
Help us out. If you'd like to rate the show
3:09
on Apple iTunes Podcasts down at the bottom, you can give us
3:13
review and give us a comment, ways we can make it better
3:17
always. We're looking for ways that our
3:20
podcast can do better. And so if you ever have any
3:23
comments or concerns or things that we can do, reach out to us.
3:28
We would love to hear your input.
3:30
We've gotten several of those over the weeks and months and
3:33
years, and I always appreciate that.
3:36
You can direct messages on our socials.
3:39
You can also message me on my e-mail or my Facebook or my
3:44
phone number. It's out there.
3:45
Back in the day, I gave that out.
3:47
You can find that and, and, and reach out to us.
3:51
But we are just loving what's going on, loving the feedback
3:55
that we've had lately. And me and Brett, we recently
3:59
got back from Nicaragua and we're giving reports to our
4:02
church. I gave a report this past
4:04
Sunday, Brett's given one this Sunday to his church and just
4:09
excited about what Lord's doing in our lives and the lives of
4:13
our church. And Brett's got a busy week this
4:16
week. Brett, what's been going on this
4:17
week for you? And.
4:19
We have been in revival since on family here at our church and
4:25
they're just great singers. And then Todd, the dad, he's a
4:29
great preacher, wonderful, powerful preacher and man, on
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Sunday we had packed out house and we've had good attendance
4:40
every night. Tonight is the last night.
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We're going through Wednesday and we've got a potluck tonight
4:46
and then we've got our last night of our revival.
4:50
So things have been going on and then we've been busy in other
4:53
areas other our local county association.
4:58
We're trying to get a crusade together.
5:01
Next week we're going to the Mississippi State Fair to get
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out gospel tracts and they've got a tent set up where the
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state convention does where, you know, you sign up to get A to
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win a side by side to listen to a gospel presentation.
5:18
It's a great opportunity to lab and workshop giving out the
5:24
gospel. And so we're promoting that in
5:26
the county. And then I've got school working
5:28
on my master's. And so we've just got a lot of
5:31
things going on. Busy season of life, but I would
5:35
rather do this and be busy being in the ministry then being the
5:40
CEO of the company and spending all this time the working a
5:44
secular job. I love being in the ministry.
5:46
I love what I do. I'm so thankful to be called a
5:49
pastor. I love being here, being on the
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podcast, you know, I really enjoy coming on here and talking
5:56
with you and being here for our listeners.
5:59
And just like you said, we, we, we love input.
6:03
There's some podcasts out there that ignore their fans.
6:08
We know I say fans, but listeners is what I mean, ignore
6:12
them. I know they ignore their
6:15
listeners, but but we don't ignore our listeners.
6:18
We encourage input from our listeners.
6:21
So get us on Facebook or any other social media platform,
6:26
send us a direct message, tell us what you think, give us some
6:29
ideas because we definitely listen to you.
6:33
Yeah, that's great. And I put I heard y'all were
6:35
planning on having Greg Locke come in for your crusade.
6:39
Is that correct? Only if he agrees to make me an
6:43
apostle. If he can.
6:46
If he can pass that holy anointing on to me.
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Even so, Greg come quickly. Even so come thy Lord, yes,
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Amen, Amen. Love it.
6:56
And we've been busy as well. We've had we had two deaths this
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weekend. So I've got funerals lined up,
7:02
had one yesterday and then have one coming up on Sunday.
7:07
And then Brett, we're doing, I haven't even told you this, but
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we're doing a, you may have seen it on social media, a combined
7:16
revival with our community. And so it's going to be my
7:20
church, First Baptist Church of Rhonda, another church in
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Rhonda, Macedonia. And we're doing it for three
7:27
nights. And each night it's going to be
7:29
at a different church and a different pastor is going to
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speak at each one of those churches.
7:34
And so I'm speaking at First Baptist Rhonda with our choir
7:37
singing Monday. We'll be at my church with a
7:40
different with the pastor of Macedonia preaching and then
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First Baptist will finish it up at Macedonia.
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And so excited about that. Just three churches coming
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together, fellowshipping together, worshipping together,
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and looking forward to what Lord's going to do there.
7:56
But that's going to be something interesting.
7:57
I've never been a part of something like that.
7:59
We do a combined Thanksgiving service where we have three
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different churches of three different denominations come
8:04
together, but I've never done one where it's been 3 different
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churches at three different locations.
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And so looking forward to what that's going to look like and
8:13
seeing how Lord's going to move. But we've, yeah, we've got some
8:17
busy times with, well, we're at the end of the year.
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I always say that when things slow down in the world of, you
8:27
know, school getting back in session and routines, it's sort
8:30
of when our schedules ramp up because we're at the end of the
8:33
year, we're starting to plan for next year.
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We're starting to get schedules ready and budgets ready and lots
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of transition things that go on at the end of the year for
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pastors. And so we are in full swing is a
8:47
good way to put it. And so we're looking forward to
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that. Had some great lunches these
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last couple of weeks with some guys just praying through some
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things and talking through some stuff.
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It's been really, really good so.
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Well, I have my project this morning has been trying to get
9:01
these pictures off of my phone to the build a slideshow for
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Sunday. Of course, we had to skip this
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Sunday because this Sunday was our homecoming.
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But like you, you said, we're going to report this coming
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Sunday at our church for the mission trip and we're looking
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forward to that. Trying to make a little
9:20
slideshow, little presentation, give some testimonials about
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Nicaragua and kind of share a heart with the people.
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But just like you said, busy busy season, a lot to do and
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wouldn't have it any other way. Absolutely.
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Well, we've got coming up in the next couple of weeks, Brett, we
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just booked a house for us and another couple that we're going
9:43
to be at for the meet up for the for the sake of the Gospel
9:46
Conference. Did talk to John this week and
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he said he may come down on that Friday and he, yeah, so he may
9:55
come down and join us and fellowship with the family again
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with RFP. And so that'd be good to have
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him come down. He's only a couple hours away.
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Don't know if he'll stay the night.
10:05
He may just drive down and drive back.
10:08
But looking forward to the the weekend there at Catoosa in
10:13
Ringgold at Hope Church there with JC's church and I'll be
10:18
there Friday night and Saturday and then I'll be driving back
10:21
Saturday. But Brett, you'll be staying
10:23
Saturday night and into Sunday and be going to JC's church
10:27
there on that Sunday. And so we're excited about the
10:30
meet up. It's always a great time for the
10:32
family to get together, worship together, great time of
10:35
preaching, a great time of just hearing each other's hearts.
10:39
One of my favorite things about the meet up is just seeing and
10:43
hearing and and putting faces to names.
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You know, we'll see someone. Absolutely.
10:48
Yeah, we'll see someone who will comment on a Facebook post or
10:52
social media post, and we know that name, but we don't quite
10:56
know the face. And then we're like, oh, you're
10:58
so and so. Yeah.
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And so we get to talking and go to lunch or go to dinner, grab a
11:02
coffee and just be able to hang out with one another.
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It's a great time of fellowship. And the worship is always top
11:09
notch. Just singing to the glory of
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God, the preaching that we get to hear and then getting just
11:15
the the RFP network together, the host together to be able to
11:19
talk through just where we're at.
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And looking forward to that happening, looking forward read
11:26
over the next couple of weeks to be able to go through our RFP
11:29
crossover event and talk with some of these other podcasts.
11:33
And it's a great time just to share each other's hearts and
11:37
where each other's at in their podcasts.
11:40
This will be the first time you get to be a part of that.
11:42
And it's always a good time just to get a couple extra voices on
11:46
here. And so looking forward to that.
11:50
Definitely the crossover episodes, we've had that on the
11:52
schedule for a while. We've been thinking about it,
11:56
getting some subjects together, talking to some of these other
11:58
hosts and we're looking forward to getting do that here pretty
12:01
soon. And then of course, Next up on
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our schedule is Israel. We've still got our Israel trip
12:07
planned for March to 2025. We tried to get it during spring
12:12
break, second full week of March.
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So and if you know people that have school or teachers or jobs,
12:19
like that'd be easy for someone to get off of work to go.
12:22
So if you'd like to go, I know there's some things going on
12:25
right now, but as of right now, our Israel trip is still
12:28
planned. Who knows what's going to happen
12:30
in the future and March is a long ways away.
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So be planning now if you'd like to go.
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And you know, push come to shove, we'll reschedule if we
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have to. But I cannot wait to go.
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I'll always go back to Israel. That is something that just is a
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part of my life. I know there, you know, maybe
12:49
things going on over there where you can't go right now and you
12:52
might have to wait. But as far as going over there
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to Israel, that is something I'm going to continue to do.
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I have a heart for bringing people over there.
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Man just brings your Bible to life.
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I still, it still impacted me. It impacts my preaching.
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Every time I preach, every time I read my Bible, I reference
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that Israel trip. It will change you.
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It will do something to you and we are a proponent of that.
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And so we're still promoting our Israel trip and hopefully the
13:24
Lord will work things out or be we'll be able to do that.
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Yeah, absolutely. It was good to talk with Paris
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just the other day and she said that she's hoping to be in North
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Carolina in November at our convention, North Carolina
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convention. She was there last year.
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I know Marcus will be there again this year.
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Love hanging out with him during that week and be exciting times
13:46
with us and looking forward to to that and what all that in
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holds and entails and looking so much forward to that.
13:55
Brett, one of the things you said last week was the the pager
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incident and it got me thinking as you were talking.
14:02
I'm normally man, I am top notch on when it comes to politics and
14:06
listening to podcasts. And when we have recorded that
14:09
it was earlier in the day and I hadn't listened to any of my
14:12
news. And so I and I wasn't really on
14:15
social media that day. So I was way in the lost.
14:18
But apparently the next day, man, walkie talkies were blowing
14:22
up as well. And so make sure you don't bring
14:25
your walkie-talkie when you go to Israel either.
14:28
It's so that was to look at the the logistics.
14:31
And I know we're not going to talk about a lot of that, but to
14:33
look at the logistics of the four and five level 3D5D chess
14:38
that Israel played. In order.
14:41
In order to get those pagers and walkie talkies and to get the,
14:46
the basically the word that the cell phones were compromised and
14:49
they needed to use the, the backup method of communication.
14:53
And then I mean, the way they had to do that was a long drawn
14:57
out process of so many levels of planning.
15:01
The S, the espionage sky level, I mean, it's, it's, you know,
15:08
top tier level espionage going on here.
15:11
That was that thing they had to set up a fake company months and
15:17
months ago and then convince Hezbollah to buy the pagers.
15:23
And then, man, it was very. And like you said, they're
15:26
paying. You know, Hezbollah's playing
15:29
checkers and Israel's playing 5D chess.
15:32
Yeah. It's just unreal the amount of
15:35
planning that went into that. We talk about the Iron Dome and
15:39
how incredible that is. I mean, this is almost a better
15:42
feat than the Iron Dome. I mean, to know that they were
15:45
able to infiltrate and expose their weakness like this was
15:50
incredible. Yeah.
15:52
Yeah, exactly. And you know, I will.
15:54
I know we won't go into too much of it, but I've been seeing, you
15:57
know, a lot of anti Israel social media things going on.
16:03
Oh, this is the deadliest day in in, you know, Lebanon because of
16:08
Israel. Is really this Israel?
16:10
And people don't understand that?
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Is that the north that northern Israel has been evacuated for
16:17
months. Hezbollah started sending
16:20
missiles October 8th, the day after Gaza, you know, did their
16:26
thing in Israel. Hezbollah started on October 8th
16:30
and then hadn't let up. And then they've been sending
16:34
missiles into the country for 30 years before that.
16:37
The missiles started coming, coming into the Israel in the
16:40
mid 90s. OK.
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So I mean, at some point you can only poke a bear, you know, to,
16:48
you know, so much before you get bit.
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That's right. You know, if you don't, I, I'll
16:53
just say this and you know, you people may not like it, but man,
16:57
if you don't want to start a war with Israel, then don't start a
17:00
war with Israel. You know, if you don't want,
17:02
don't start it. And I, I, I'll, I'll say this
17:05
one more statement, then we'll move on.
17:08
I heard somebody say the other day that if Israel, if Israel's
17:14
enemies stop fighting tomorrow, the war will be over.
17:18
If Israel stops fighting tomorrow, they'll be wiped off
17:21
the map. So take with that what you will.
17:25
Absolutely, absolutely. So Brett, I appreciate that.
17:29
And we will jump right into where we're at this week with
17:34
our freedom in finding a church and what that looks like.
17:38
We we started out by talking about how to start over and what
17:41
that looked like. Great song.
17:44
If you've not listened to it, the Start Over by NF and then we
17:48
begin talking through finding the church, what is a church,
17:51
church membership, church discipline, and how that looks
17:55
and if you're in a church, what that should look like.
17:58
When you begin to see church discipline again, it's
18:01
restoration. It's for the body and building
18:03
up of one another. But all throughout the
18:06
Scripture, Paul talks about how we should rebuke, extore, exalt,
18:11
extore. I'm messing that up.
18:14
Rebuke, reprove and restore one another.
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And so this is the the mission of the church is to restore one
18:21
another. But today we're going to jump
18:24
through the ordinances of the church.
18:27
Brett, how many ordinances are there?
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We'll start by. Asking 47 No, there's. 22
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ordinances, 22 All right, two ordinances.
18:37
Have you ever heard of the third ordinance, Brett?
18:40
What is the third ordinance? The third ordinance is foot
18:43
washing. Yeah.
18:47
So there are churches. I'm I'm finding churches in the
18:52
Appalachian and Tennessee area, the Appalachian region, you're
18:58
West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania region of
19:01
Appalachia. They still practice and a lot of
19:04
them practice foot washing as an ordinance.
19:07
Now, there are churches that do like Monday, Thursday.
19:10
Well, they'll do a foot washing ceremony and it's a really cool
19:12
ceremony, but they don't practice it as an ordinance.
19:16
But some churches view foot washing as an ordinance that
19:21
Jesus instilled in this moment of the Last Supper.
19:24
And the problem with that is I don't see it anywhere throughout
19:28
Scripture after that. I find baptism.
19:31
I find a little supper. Yeah.
19:34
And I am I'm ex nay on the I don't I don't do feet.
19:39
So that that's a negatory for me on the foot washing.
19:44
I was in one service one time where the pastor use it as an
19:47
illustration, where he had a guy come up, one of our deacons, and
19:50
he modeled what it would have looked like.
19:52
But it was an illustration in the sermon.
19:55
It wasn't. Like he wasn't.
19:56
Do this. Yeah, yeah.
19:59
And so that was a cool thing. But The thing is, as we look
20:03
through ordinances. Is why are ordinances important,
20:07
Brett? Why is baptism and why is Lord
20:10
supper? Why is it even something that
20:12
people talk about? Why is it something that we as
20:14
Baptists say they're our ordinances?
20:16
What? What is the reason for that?
20:20
Well, the reason for the ordinances, because they visibly
20:23
mark out the community of the local church.
20:27
They're a badge. One way to describe the problems
20:30
of the modern evangelical church is that we've forgotten the
20:34
importance of seeing. OK, so on the one hand, some
20:39
churches have become too attraction focused.
20:42
They do anything to draw a crowd so that once people come, they
20:46
hear the gospel. But a desire for people to hear
20:49
has resulted in community that's not worth seeing.
20:54
Then, on the other hand, some churches believe that because
20:58
they preached the Word correctly, they've done all that
21:00
matters, maybe through legalistic or conformist
21:04
impulses. Their community has lost the
21:07
vibrancy we see in Scripture. So the glory of what we hear
21:12
from the pulpit isn't reflected in the congregation that's
21:16
assembled around the preaching. And that partnership between
21:20
hearing and seeing is critical as we come to the idea of the
21:25
ordinances because there would mark out the community of the
21:30
local church, which is the gospel made visible.
21:35
Many historians point out that even more than being a debate
21:39
about justification with some implication for the Lord's
21:42
Supper and baptism, the Reformation was a debate over
21:47
the ordinances. And I definitely can see that
21:50
with some implications for justification.
21:54
Today, these ordinances seem so peripheral to the church.
21:58
That might seem strange. Now, what are the ordinances
22:04
exactly? What are they, James?
22:06
Yeah, we'll jump right in that. I do want to go back and and
22:09
mention one thing that you said there because I thought it was
22:12
so good. The ordinances that we go
22:15
through is the gospel made visible again, like we talked
22:19
about last week with church discipline, church restoration.
22:23
It is showing the world, showing those that are unbelievers,
22:27
those that are in the church, restoration and grace.
22:31
And this is also showing the world and the church and those
22:34
that are in the Pew, the goodness and the love of God.
22:38
And it's a it's a beautiful picture.
22:42
I say often, if we can't paint a picture with our words, then
22:45
we're useless when it comes to speaking.
22:47
Jesus often would paint a picture.
22:50
Jesus often would say, imagine with me a man who walks up on a
22:53
field and he saw this field and he began looking in this field
22:58
and he saw a treasure in the middle of the field.
23:01
And so he went and he buried that treasure and he went and
23:03
sold all that he had and he came back and he bought that field
23:06
all for the price of the Pearl that was in the middle of that
23:09
field. You can vividly see that.
23:12
You can in your mind you can imagine that happening.
23:15
And all throughout what Jesus did, he was painting a picture
23:18
with words. He blessed are the poor and
23:21
needy. You can see that for they will
23:24
inherit the Kingdom of the earth.
23:25
I mean, this is Jesus talking and this is what is beautiful
23:29
when it comes to painting pictures because it's the gospel
23:31
made visible. And so when we begin to look at
23:35
the ordinances, this is the same way.
23:37
It's taking these things that are abstract almost, but it's
23:42
putting a picture behind it. So the ordinances are referring
23:45
to simply the baptism and the Lord's Supper.
23:48
Brett. Now, before you continue, I'm
23:51
going to get your opinion on something I was on social media
23:54
not too long ago. And do you know who Jonathan
23:57
Rumay is? Yeah, John's roommate, the Jesus
24:00
Man of the Chosen. He's the chosen Jesus.
24:04
OK, that's. Why?
24:06
I'll say it the other way. He's not the chosen Jesus.
24:09
He's the chosen man that plays Jesus.
24:12
Right now I'm I'm a now you, I don't know if you watch it, I
24:16
don't think you do. But I'm a fan of the chosen.
24:19
I've watched every episode. I love the show, but I will say
24:23
that Jonathan is Catholic and I saw him wear a shirt the other
24:28
day. I'm going to tell you what the
24:30
shirt said, and I want to get your take on it.
24:33
The shirt said if it's just a symbol, to hell with it.
24:40
Now, what that was talking about is like the Lord's Supper, and
24:45
that's actually a Catholic, you know, father, Church father that
24:50
made that statement. I forget who, who, who, who it
24:54
was. But when I seen that, I was
24:57
like, what? You should be wearing a shirt
24:59
like that. And I looked it up and I seen
25:01
that it was a Catholic Church father that said it.
25:03
So I want to ask you, what do you think about that statement?
25:07
Yeah. I mean, do I think that it's
25:12
more than a symbol? No, I think that it it is a
25:16
symbol. It is a picture.
25:17
And I say that every time I give it.
25:19
This is a picture of the death, burial, resurrection.
25:22
This is a picture of Christ's body and blood shed for us.
25:25
And we're doing this, as the Bible says, in remembrance of
25:30
me, not in a substitution of me. That's right.
25:35
It it in remembrance of me. You know, we say that we have a
25:41
that problem with the Lord's Supper being a symbol when
25:45
that's all God has done throughout the Bible from
25:48
Genesis, Revelation is paint pictures over and over and over
25:54
and put shadows in place. Do this in remembrance of me.
25:59
It is a symbol. It is symbolic.
26:02
It is a picture. And I don't know when you were
26:04
talking about that while ago, that T-shirt popped in my head
26:08
and I wanted to binge it. But let's talk about the
26:10
ordinances. Yeah, baptism is defined in a
26:13
simple way here. We believe that the Christian
26:17
baptism is the immersion of water of a believer into the
26:21
name of the Father, the Son of the Holy Spirit to show forth in
26:25
a solemn and beautiful emblem our faith in a crucified,
26:30
buried, risen Savior with the effects of in our death to sin
26:36
and a resurrection of new life. You hear echoes of Scripture in
26:40
this statement, Romans 6, three and four.
26:42
Do you not know that we've all been baptized into Christ who
26:45
are baptized to death? We were buried and therefore by
26:48
the baptism into death in order that Jesus, just as Christ was
26:52
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too
26:55
might walk in newness of life. So Brett, baptism doesn't save.
27:01
It is a solemn and beautiful emblem.
27:03
It is the faith that saves by God's grace alone.
27:08
It is the picture of our death, burial, and resurrection.
27:12
I use the simple illustration every time I do a baptism of my
27:16
wedding ring. If I take my wedding ring off,
27:19
I'm still married to my wife. My wedding ring shows the world
27:23
that I'm married to my wife doesn't show that I'm married to
27:27
every woman. It's so that I'm married to that
27:29
one woman, and so that is the picture to the world that I am
27:33
showing and identifying with, that I am her husband.
27:38
Just as when we have a baptism, we are identifying with and
27:43
saying to the world Christ is my Lord.
27:46
And that is the picture of baptism, the Lord's Supper.
27:49
Is this the members of the church by the sacred use of
27:52
bread and wine, or to commemorate together the dying
27:56
love of Christ, proceeding always by a solemn self
27:59
examination? We call it the Lord's Supper
28:02
because Christians have called it also communion.
28:05
They've also shared called it the Eucharist or Thanksgiving or
28:09
giving thanks before they gave bread.
28:11
Some Christians simply call it the breaking of bread.
28:14
Then it has a precursor of the Passover meal in the Old
28:17
Testament. And even earlier than that, when
28:19
the priest Melchizedek brought out bread and wine for Abraham
28:23
as the priest of the God Most High.
28:26
So I think we should also add this phrase preceded always.
28:30
I love how they how we use this phrase preceded always by self
28:34
examination because Paul's teaching in First Corinthians
28:38
11/28 says this, let a person examine himself and then so eat
28:43
the bread and drink the cup. And so ever since the
28:46
Westminster assembly in 1640, reformed Christians have talked
28:51
about the ordinances. Other Christians have talked
28:54
about the ordinances and talk about the sacraments and both
28:58
being a sign or a seal of a covenant.
29:01
As signs, they are an outward indication of an inward reality.
29:05
I use this statement often. It's an outward expression of an
29:08
inward faith. And so this is the inward
29:11
reality of our faith. And the sign is very powerful,
29:14
to quote Westminster. There is in every sacrament a
29:18
spiritual relationship or a Sacramento union between the
29:22
sign and the thing signified, whence it comes to the pass, the
29:27
names and the effects of the one who are attributed to the
29:30
others. We know that from reading the
29:32
book of Acts. In Acts chapter 2, Peter does
29:35
not tell the crowd at Pentecost, repent and believe, but repent
29:39
and be baptized. It is not the baptism that
29:42
saves, That would be faith. But baptism is so closely bound
29:46
up with the faith that sometimes it's used as a synonym for
29:51
faith. Before we continue on, Brett, I
29:54
want to give one illustration in India.
29:57
When I was there in India, it's so easy.
30:00
You'll hear missionaries who come back from India and they'll
30:02
say, yeah, we preached over there and we saw 1000 people
30:06
come to know Jesus. And oftentimes they use that in
30:10
an illustration because they get up and they give the plan of
30:14
salvation, They give the gospel, and they use this invitation
30:18
that we use in America. And we say, if you will accept
30:21
Jesus, raise your hand, come forward, say this prayer and
30:25
thousands of people will say, yeah, I won't accept Jesus.
30:28
That's great. And what they're meaning is
30:31
they're going to accept Jesus as another God.
30:34
They're going to take Jesus home as another God and put it on
30:37
that shelf with the other gods and say, yeah, I'll, I'd, I'd
30:41
love to accept that other God. I've already got 1000 at home.
30:44
What's another one? But when reality comes with the
30:47
missionary that we were with that was a homegrown missionary
30:50
that was born and raised in India, he would always end his
30:55
messages and his invitations with if you want to accept Jesus
31:00
and reject all the other gods, you have come and accept him
31:04
now. And he said that the
31:07
discipleship process that they worked in their church did not
31:11
start until that family was baptized.
31:15
And I asked him, I said, why is that?
31:17
He said in the Indian culture, when you got baptized into the
31:22
Christian religion, you forsake your family and you forsake all
31:28
your other gods. And he said 95% of them when
31:32
they got baptized, their family disowned them because they left
31:37
the faith of Buddhism and Hinduism.
31:40
And he said, so this was a huge step.
31:43
And often times he said people would accept Christ, but they
31:45
would never get baptized. And he said it was never an
31:48
evidence of their salvation because they never identified
31:52
with Christ. And identifying with Christ is
31:55
what Jesus said, If you're going to follow me, take up your cross
31:59
daily and follow me. And then that culture, taking up
32:02
your cross was being baptized and forsaking your family.
32:06
And they knew that a whole lot more than we did in America.
32:09
And so this was the key witness or key relationship or key
32:13
evidence that was showing that they were believers.
32:17
Question Why does baptism matter?
32:20
OK, let's say I became a Christian, but I'm never
32:24
baptized. I can still go to heaven, right?
32:28
So what harm is done as a result of that omission of of not
32:32
getting baptized? OK, well the answer to that
32:36
question is I'm disobeying Christ and that dishonors him.
32:41
By not getting baptized, I miss out on an opportunity to
32:46
proclaim him publicly, just like you said what they did in India
32:50
that you know you. That is a public profession.
32:53
I miss out on the confirmation of a local church agreeing that
32:57
my profession seems genuine. I lose a visual reminder of my
33:03
death to self and life in Christ.
33:06
Other people lose out on that reminder of their own salvation.
33:10
Baptism is not just for the person getting baptized.
33:15
That's why I listen. When we have an invitation at
33:17
the end of the service and we got a baptism, don't leave,
33:21
don't hit the door. You need to stay in the church.
33:24
You don't need to hit the parking lot and get to the
33:26
restaurant forever. The crowd gets there.
33:28
No, you need to sit in your Pew and you need to watch this
33:32
baptism because it's just as much for you as it is that
33:36
person. They're they're going through
33:39
the symbol, You're watching the symbol.
33:41
And every time you see the symbol, every time you see the
33:44
picture of baptism, you're reminded of the gospel.
33:47
And that is the point. We should share this and not try
33:51
to get to the Golden Corral before the Pentecostals get
33:53
there, OK? We need to be there and we need
33:56
to watch it, OK? This is a visual depiction of
34:00
the gospel, and it's for everybody, even the spectators
34:04
too. Now, presumably an understanding
34:06
of those benefits should inform how we do baptism as a church.
34:12
Have you seen baptism practice and dealt with in ways that
34:15
subvert these purposes? OK, For the moment, we'll leave.
34:19
We'll leave aside the question of infant baptism and just think
34:23
about the baptism of believers. So listen, churches don't
34:27
require baptism for membership. They're saying obedience is an
34:32
optional part of following Jesus.
34:35
OK, there are churches that do baptism in Mass.
34:39
They make it less of a testimony of what God has done.
34:43
It's not done in connection with the church.
34:46
Who's to say what it means? So think about this.
34:49
You know, there are people, there are churches that do these
34:52
big baptisms in Mass. And I've seen churches, they do
34:56
this. They go out at like on on the
34:59
shore or beach or something. They rent out a whole beach and
35:02
I have this big baptism and then they have these other churches
35:07
that they do a baptism, but it's not in connected to a church.
35:11
Like we, you know, I'm just going to go out here in this
35:14
pond and we're going to do a baptism.
35:16
And you know, not necessarily under a church.
35:19
When the ordinance weren't given to individual Christians, the
35:22
ordinances were given to the church.
35:24
So the church is to add administer it.
35:28
OK, so who should be baptized? So you you'll notice that the
35:33
entire discussion. Right before you get into that.
35:37
Yeah, right before you get into that.
35:39
I liked how you said it's not just for the one getting
35:44
baptized, it's for the church as well.
35:46
That's why I like doing baptisms at the very beginning of the
35:49
service. And so I opened the service up
35:52
with the very first thing we do in worship is baptism.
35:57
And so that is the, the very first thing we'll have a baptism
36:00
this coming Sunday. And very first thing we'll do is
36:05
we'll have the, the tub will be filled and I'll bring the young
36:09
lady to death up getting baptized.
36:11
And, and that'll be the way I open the service and worship and
36:15
I'll pray and it'll be a wonderful ceremony.
36:18
But it's, again, it's a picture to the Church of what's going on
36:21
and how this is done. One question I want to ask you,
36:24
Brett, is at your church, is baptism required for membership
36:27
by immersion? Yes, baptism is required if that
36:33
you must have been baptized, not baptized here.
36:36
You must have been baptized at another church and it must be
36:40
scriptural full immersion baptism.
36:44
I did hear an instance on I'm part of the Facebook group where
36:49
there's a whole bunch of Southern Baptist pastors.
36:51
I think you're on it too. But this guy asked the questions
36:54
like, Hey, I've got a guy that was sprinkled as a baby.
36:58
He's he wants to become a member of my church.
37:01
But he's, you know, we're saying he's got to get re baptized.
37:04
He's claiming that's illegalism. It's already taken care of and
37:08
so he doesn't want to do it. And I'm like, well, if it was
37:12
me, I was like, OK, then he's not going to join you join my
37:15
church then, you know, I mean, you know, I just it's not going
37:19
to happen. You know, he's got needs to be
37:21
scripturally baptized and and from my opinion, it's full
37:24
immersion. Yeah, yeah, same here.
37:28
We're baptism is is by immersion and it's for membership as well.
37:33
And so when you get baptized, you become a member at the same
37:36
time. And to be a member you have to
37:38
be baptized by immersion. So who should be baptized?
37:42
Now, you may have noticed in this entire discussion that
37:44
we've had so far, we are assuming baptism is for
37:48
believers. But of course, this is something
37:51
that's been debated over hundreds and hundreds of years,
37:53
and we could even say thousands and thousands of years.
37:58
We work. As we begin to look at other
38:00
churches in the area, you're going to disagree with people
38:03
that surround you. And so the question begs to
38:06
differ is why would we believe that baptism is only for
38:09
believers? You could talk about this for
38:11
weeks if we don't have that time, but we're going to give a
38:14
couple of arguments here. The first one is the argument
38:17
for infant baptism. To start out, not saying that we
38:20
agree with infant baptism, we're just giving their platform of
38:23
what it may be to help us understand and grow a little
38:26
bit. We need to understand that the
38:28
argument for both sides is a good debate, and sometimes it's
38:31
good to hear both sides. Brett, I don't know if it was
38:34
like this in college where you were at, but often times we
38:38
would have an idea that would come up, baptism for instance,
38:41
in the baptism, and the professor would get up and give
38:44
all the reasons why our view is the right view.
38:49
And then they would say the other view is wrong and they
38:51
would never talk about the other view.
38:54
Most colleges, most, that's probably how it wasn't your
38:57
college as well. But most colleges, the older I
39:00
get in, the more I do the study is if they're talking about
39:03
baptism, they're going to bring someone in that believes in
39:05
infant baptism and they're going to let them, case in point, tell
39:09
their story and tell why they believe it.
39:12
And then the other one's going to sort of tell their story and
39:14
tell their point of why they believe in baptism by immersion
39:16
for believers only. And you begin to see both sides
39:20
and you begin to grow in your faith through it.
39:22
You begin to understand which one's right and why they're
39:24
right. And so that's what we're going
39:26
to do. Some Baptists are surprised and
39:28
even unprepared for how good an argument that it can be when you
39:32
begin to talk to someone that is for infant baptism and never
39:36
does this any good to argue with a straw man that no one really
39:39
believes. So now most people believe alive
39:42
today who are baptized their babies do so because they
39:46
believe that baptism removes original sin because they're
39:50
Roman Catholic, they don't believe in salvation by faith
39:53
alone. And I'm not going to deal with
39:55
all of that right now, but instead I want to deal with
39:58
those who disagree with us on the gospel, Evangelical
40:01
Presbyterians and Event and Anglicans who still baptize
40:05
infants. OK, they technically use this
40:08
term pedo baptism. And in short, the argument is
40:12
that a baptism in the is the new covenant or the continuation of
40:16
the sign or the seal of circumcision.
40:19
That pedo Baptist will point out that in the Old Testament God
40:22
intended children to be part of the covenant that he made with
40:24
Israel. And the sign or the seal of the
40:27
covenant was circumcision. Circumcision wasn't only for
40:30
infants, but it was for, but it mainly applied to infants.
40:34
And this rite was so important that the Lord said to Moses in
40:37
Exodus 12 that no uncircumcised male shall present participate
40:43
in the Passover. And so when we get to the New
40:46
Testament, the strong presumption is that children
40:49
will continue to be included in this covenant unless we get a
40:53
clear teaching to the contrary. But now the sign and seal of the
40:57
covenant is baptism. We begin to see this change over
41:01
with the apostle John, John the Baptist.
41:03
I'm sorry. So not all, not circumcision.
41:07
So now it applies to all children, not just baby boys.
41:10
And not surprising Then in Acts 2 when Peter proclaims repent
41:13
and be baptized, as I read earlier, he follows that by
41:17
saying for the promise is for you and for your children.
41:22
And so they would say, case closed, we have to baptize our
41:26
children because this is the continuation of the covenant.
41:30
You know, I was listening to James White do a talk on infant
41:35
baptism. And while I didn't have time to
41:38
listen to the whole thing, I didn't remember a statement that
41:41
he made. And a lot of this infant
41:44
baptism, it stems from the fact that, look, people back in the
41:50
day before modern medicine, most babies didn't live, You know,
41:55
you, you had a baby and very few of the babies you actually
42:01
deliver actually make it to maturity.
42:04
Most babies died. And so when you have this belief
42:09
that it removes original sin and you want your child to go to
42:12
heaven, you know you're going to do the infant baptism thing.
42:17
And so I thought that really stuck with me.
42:19
And I heard about making the case for it's the new
42:22
circumcision. And in my mind, Paul goes out of
42:26
his way in the New Testament say that circumcision isn't a thing
42:29
anymore. So I don't personally don't see
42:31
the correlation. OK, but we're going to move on
42:34
to the argument for believer only baptism.
42:38
So what does a Baptist say to that?
42:41
OK, well let me summarize in a few points.
42:44
And I should mention that the controversy here isn't whether
42:47
believers should be baptized. Virtually no person on earth who
42:51
calls themselves Christian would disagree with that.
42:54
It's whether believers alone should be baptized.
42:57
So let me give you a few statements about this question
43:01
#1 when the New Testament describes what baptism depicts,
43:05
it describes new life in Christ. So take those verses from Romans
43:10
6 that we just talked about. We are raised to newness of
43:14
life. It says the assumption is that
43:18
the person being baptized has been changed.
43:21
They've been regenerated. Next, when the New Testament
43:25
parallels baptism and circumcision, it parallels
43:28
baptism not with the Old Covenant circumcision of the
43:31
flesh, but with circumcision of the heart.
43:35
By the way of context, it's useful to remember that through
43:38
the Old Testament, God periodically reminds his people
43:42
that what he's most interested in is not the circumcision of
43:45
the flesh, but the circumcision of the heart.
43:49
So as we look carefully at Colossians 2 to see where the
43:52
parallel is, it says in verse 11 And him also, you were
43:57
circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting
44:01
off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ
44:06
having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also
44:10
raised with him through faith and the powerful working of God
44:14
who raised him from the dead. OK, so the continuity is not
44:19
between circumcision and baptism, but between
44:22
circumcision of the heart and baptism.
44:25
It's between saving faith and baptism.
44:29
OK, Next, there are no clear examples of infant baptism in
44:34
the New Testament. In fact, references the baptism
44:37
talk about conversion. So Peter in Acts 2 that we
44:41
talked about earlier, talks about repenting and being
44:45
baptized. To be sure, as he says, this
44:48
promise is for your children. They can repent and be baptized
44:52
as well, but not baptized without repenting.
44:57
And as we read on, the promise isn't just for our children.
45:00
It is for your children and all who are far off, everyone whom
45:05
the Lord our God calls to himself.
45:08
But we need to think of our children in the same category of
45:11
all who are far off with the desire that the Lord our God
45:15
should call them to himself. So the only example of baptism
45:19
in the New Testament that doesn't describe the the
45:23
recipients of baptism, hearing the Word or believing is Lydia's
45:28
in Acts 16. And as a female traveling
45:32
merchant away from home, she is the least likely to have had
45:36
young children with her. All right, next.
45:39
There are no known references to infant baptism in the early
45:42
church, though there are many references to believers baptism.
45:47
The first reference we see to infant baptism is Tertullian
45:51
around 8200, who's actually arguing against it.
45:56
The first defense of infant baptism we have we have isn't
46:00
until Cyprian around 250 AD, and he was arguing for it as
46:06
something that was salvific, not the argument for infant baptism
46:10
that we hear today. One would expect that if infant
46:14
baptism was widespread and if it was not universally accepted,
46:18
which it clearly wasn't, then we would see much reference to it
46:22
in the writings of the early church leaders.
46:25
And we don't. And I will say that when you ask
46:28
a pedo Baptist or somebody that believes in infant baptism,
46:32
where do you see this in the Bible, they'll say, oh, where it
46:36
says he and his family got saved, Surely there were infants
46:40
in there. And that's really all they can
46:42
point to. Yeah, no, I think it's a great
46:45
explanation. Thank you for that, Brett.
46:46
And it helps us really get a greater understanding of what
46:49
baptism is. And it gives us tools in our
46:52
belt. That's what we want to do during
46:53
this is give you tools for when you are approached with
46:57
something in trying to find a church and trying to figure out
46:59
where you fit. It is to have these theological
47:02
tools in your belt to say, hey, This is why I want to go here,
47:06
because they line up scripturally, They line up
47:08
biblically. They they line up with the early
47:10
church. They, they look like the church
47:12
in Acts and that's what we want to look like.
47:14
OK, so we'll, we'll go ahead and switch over to the second
47:17
ordinance. I think we covered baptism.
47:19
Well, we'll look at the Lord's Supper and what this is.
47:23
And so we'll spend the rest of our time shifting our attention
47:26
to this. And a good place to start the
47:28
question is, is simply this, what is the Lord's Supper?
47:32
What is it? Lord's Supper, as we saw
47:34
earlier, is a meal of bread and wine that commemorates Christ's
47:38
death that secured our forgiveness by God.
47:42
And this is what Paul writes in First Corinthians 11.
47:45
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you.
47:49
The Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took
47:51
bread. And when he had given thanks, he
47:53
broke it and said, This is my body which is for you.
47:56
Do this in remembrance of me. And in the same way he also took
48:00
the cup after the Sup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in
48:04
My blood. Do this as often as you drink it
48:06
in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this
48:10
bread and drink this cup, and proclaim the Lord's death until
48:13
he comes. Whoever, therefore eats this
48:15
bread and drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will
48:18
be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the Lord.
48:22
Let the person examine himself then, and so eat the bread and
48:27
drink the cup. So what we see here in First
48:29
Corinthians 11 is the Lord's Supper has meaning that is
48:32
grounded in three things, the past, the present, and the
48:35
future. And that's what we're going to
48:37
look at in the past. The Lord's Supper is a
48:40
remembrance of what the Lord did on the cross.
48:42
He told us that we should do this in remembrance of Him.
48:46
It's a reminder that it's good for our soul.
48:49
It's good for what we should do. You may recall the Roman
48:52
Catholics view of the Supper, Lord's Supper, as representing
48:55
the Christ sacrifice on the cross, the bread and body, the
48:59
bread and the wine become a physical body and blood of Jesus
49:03
in their mouth. This is not what remembrance
49:06
means. Luther taught it like this, that
49:08
there was a real presence of Christ in the Supper and to
49:12
contrast that the Reformed and traditional Baptist belief of of
49:19
this is that we don't do. We just simply partake of merely
49:23
what is called bread and wine or bread and juice.
49:26
That Christ really is present and His presence is a spiritual
49:31
one and not a physical one. Thus, when we talk about feeding
49:35
on Him in your heart by faith, we are talking about the Lord's
49:38
Supper and allowing Him to begin to work in our life.
49:42
Does belief in the Lord's Supper is, I'm sorry, does belief that
49:47
the Lord's Supper is a mere memorial of Christ's death, as
49:51
Baptists have generally believed that?
49:53
Does it make it even important? Certainly not all throughout the
49:57
Bible, God calls his people to remember.
50:00
That's what the Passover was, a time to remember God's salvation
50:03
for his people. And the salvation that we
50:06
remember in Christ is so much greater than that.
50:08
Not salvation from a temporal slavery in Egypt, but eternal
50:11
slavery to sin. And if we think of the
50:14
remembrance of a great event in history is important, how much
50:18
more remembrance of this hardly just simply a mere memorial, but
50:22
a simply a, a thought of this is this foundation for what we
50:26
believe and why we believe it. Recently, we recently, about 5
50:30
or 6 years ago, we went to New York and we got to go to the
50:32
9/11 memorial there because 2900 people had died and they made a
50:38
massive memorial, Brett. And so they made this memorial.
50:41
And if that is worthwhile having a memorial there, we should.
50:45
This is much more than just simply a memorial to Christ.
50:48
And so, Brett, why don't you talk about the present working
50:51
of the the Lord's Supper in our life?
50:55
OK, so you look at the past, I'll look at the present.
50:57
The Lord's Supper isn't simply looking into the past.
51:01
Paul describes it as saying something about a present
51:04
reality as well. When we take the when we take
51:08
this supper, it is only after examining ourselves, examining
51:13
ourselves to be sure we are in right relationship with God and
51:17
right relationship with each other.
51:19
Beyond that, in verse 29, he says if we eat and drink without
51:23
discerning the body, we eat and drink judgement on ourselves,
51:28
judgement that apparently had led to the death of some in the
51:31
Corinthian church. This is no laughing matter.
51:35
Discerning the body is more than simply recognizing what the
51:39
elements represent is a recognition of what the
51:43
congregational body represents. That together we represent
51:47
Christ himself, and how we treat each other represents Christ
51:51
himself. The Lord's Supper shows that at
51:54
the present I as an individual am walking with the Lord.
51:59
It shows that as a body we are walking in a unity that
52:02
proclaims truth about who Christ is, is a snapshot of the
52:08
heavenly congregation as best we can tell both and who's
52:12
participating and how we relate to each other.
52:16
You know, we can even look into the future.
52:19
You probably noticed that future tense and Paul's teaching and
52:22
taking the supper. We proclaim the Lord's death
52:26
until he comes. It is a supper in anticipation
52:30
of his final coming, a dress rehearsal, so to speak, of the
52:35
messianic banquet that is coming.
52:37
That's why Joyous fits the Lord's Supper just as well as
52:41
somber. We are capturing all these
52:43
emotions in this one token of what Christ has done, is doing,
52:49
and will do. Amen.
52:52
So, Brett, the question we have to ask is what does the Lord's
52:55
Supper do? If it's is what it is, what does
52:59
Lord's Supper even going to accomplish?
53:01
In other words, we may ask the question, if someone was a
53:04
Christian and they said I'm never going to partake in the
53:07
Lord's Supper, what would they be missing?
53:10
What would they miss if they never took the Lord's Supper?
53:12
We wrote down a couple of things here that allow us to talk
53:16
through this and we'll just sort of each hit one of them as we go
53:18
through here. The first one that we wrote down
53:21
is this. It's a regular opportunity for
53:24
self, self examination. Paul tells us to examine
53:29
ourselves to see if we are in the faith and it's a great time
53:33
to do that. As often as you begin to walk
53:35
through this Lord's Supper, you begin to say this is myself
53:40
examination. This is me looking at my faith
53:43
and what I believe. What's the next one, Brett?
53:46
It's. Also a regular opportunity to
53:49
check our relationships in the church.
53:51
It's a wonderful to see husbands and wives or friends slip out
53:56
just before the Lord's Supper to reconcile some difference.
54:00
That's exactly what Paul has in mind when he tells us to discern
54:05
the body as we eat and drink. Yes, we're to do that.
54:09
It's such a blessing to see people, hey, during the
54:12
invitation time before we partake, they're going to people
54:16
and they're getting right and they're saying, I'm sorry I said
54:19
this about you, please forgive me.
54:21
And they're getting right with and it's, you know, bringing,
54:24
it's checking our relationships in the church, you know, And so
54:28
it's a blessing when that happens, when people recognize,
54:31
hey, before I take the Lord's Supper today, I got to go over
54:34
so and so and and we got to get this thing between us fixed.
54:38
Yeah, absolutely. It's also a powerful reminder of
54:41
our own forgiveness. We begin to see something that
54:44
represents what Jesus did for us thousands of years ago on the
54:47
cross. And it reminds us that this is
54:51
something that since the disciples were with Jesus, they
54:53
did this. They broke bread often, and they
54:57
had fellowship together. And it reminded them every time
55:00
that they were forgiven. What else?
55:09
It's a reminder the passing nature of the physical and
55:11
eternal nature of the spiritual. As we eat that bread, we
55:16
remember that man does not live by bread alone.
55:19
The supper is bridging from what is temporary to what is eternal.
55:25
Yep, it's also a picture of heaven.
55:27
Brett, what encouragement to look around the the time where
55:30
we get to take partake of the Lord's Supper and get a glimpse
55:34
or a hint of what heaven's going to be like.
55:37
Brothers and sisters from all tribes, nations, tongues meeting
55:41
together. It's so encouraging.
55:44
I've always said that the closest we'll get to heaven on
55:48
earth is in the church, and how closer can you get even more in
55:53
church than participating in one of the ordinances?
55:57
It's also a warning of judgement to those who don't partake.
56:01
Perhaps someone's been disciplined or excommunicated,
56:04
or perhaps for pastoral reasons you've been advised not to
56:07
partake. Or perhaps you can't partake
56:10
because of unresolved relationships in the church.
56:13
What could be a hint of heaven becomes a hint of hell, and that
56:17
is remarkably powerful. Yeah, that's what we talked
56:21
about last week with church discipline.
56:22
Ultimately it's that ex communion.
56:25
You're not allowed to partake in the body of Christ together in
56:29
that act. It's also a reminder of what is
56:31
at stake with our unity as a congregation.
56:34
Unity isn't something merely because it makes the life of the
56:37
church more enjoyable. It's important because it's a
56:40
picture of Christ and nowhere do we see more clearly than the
56:43
body of Christ assembled around the body of Christ, right?
56:48
It's it's beautiful picture. And then I'm, you know, sure
56:53
there's significance. We just don't understand.
56:55
Jesus took this remarkably seriously.
56:58
He was so serious about the Lord's Supper, these organs is
57:02
it was one of the last acts of his earthly ministry.
57:06
Paul took it very seriously as well, as we can see in First
57:10
Corinthians 1127 through 29. We may arrive in heaven someday
57:16
to discover that it, that it is a means of grace in ways we
57:20
could never comprehend here on earth.
57:24
So we need to take note of some of these things and think
57:27
through the next time we partake of the Lord's Supper.
57:31
You know, you think about go through these again.
57:33
Which one of these have you overlooked?
57:35
Which, which one have you undervalued?
57:38
You know, we need to work together to make this supper
57:41
what Christ intends for us. Now look, I am, I am not about
57:45
scaring people away from taking the Lord's Supper.
57:49
I had a lady in my church one time that I pastored.
57:52
She refused to ever take the Lord's Supper.
57:55
I think she had a beef with one of her sisters, sisters.
57:59
And they didn't speak. And, and, and she was just under
58:02
the impression that she could never take the Lord's Supper
58:05
because that was in her life. And she was forgiving.
58:08
And, you know, she would reach out to her sister and she
58:11
forgave her sister, but she was so scared that she wouldn't come
58:15
to church on days we were having Lord's Supper.
58:18
For instance, if she forgot we were having the Lord's Supper
58:20
and she showed up that day, she would leave before we took it
58:25
and she would never take it. And, and I think that's the
58:27
wrong idea. Yes, it's a serious thing.
58:29
Yes, you need to examine yourself.
58:32
You need to get right, right relationships.
58:34
But he didn't put this here for you not to take it.
58:37
OK, We need to take it. It's an obedience thing.
58:41
We we need to identify ourselves as a disciple of Christ.
58:46
And, you know, it's a really important thing.
58:48
We shouldn't take it lightly, but also we shouldn't deny it
58:52
either. Love it, love that, love that
58:56
the we get to participate in something so profound, so
59:02
beautiful, the picture and we get to have something that is a
59:07
little glimpse of heaven here on earth.
59:10
And and it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
59:12
Brett, next week we will be wrapping up this series of
59:16
finding this church and finding the the different things of what
59:20
to look for in a church. And we will begin tomorrow, next
59:24
week's series, next week's episode, not series on the
59:27
church gathered and what that looks like and how it should
59:30
look in the gathering setting and talk through just a little
59:34
bit of of how this how this should look, what it should
59:38
resemble, how it should be a picture of heaven here on earth
59:41
as well. And so I'm looking forward to
59:44
that, looking forward to seeing you soon in Ringgold, GA.
59:50
I have to continue to change the name there because JC every week
59:54
gets a new building. It must be nice being a big time
59:57
search planner, getting all these buildings everywhere,
59:59
getting to move locations. And so looking forward to that.
1:00:03
And hopefully you guys will join us.
1:00:05
There in November, there's no tickets necessary, you just show
1:00:08
up and enjoy the time. Get your own lodging or call
1:00:12
someone and lodge with them and it's going to be a great time.
1:00:15
Hope to see you there and until next time to God.
1:00:19
Not the pastor. Be the glory.
1:00:22
Found my new name, found that good grace, found that healing.
1:00:28
And the tears fell down my face when I found my beginning has no
1:00:34
ending. From that second chance, from my
1:00:35
best friend, from my forgiveness, from my happiness.
1:00:37
I've been singing ever since about my freedom.
1:00:54
Thanks for listening to the Four Freedom Podcast.
1:00:57
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