I want to thank you for being back with us this
afternoon as we continue our series of studies
concerning restoring New Testament Christianity
and the desperate need and our desire to simply
go back to the Bible to find our faith, find
our doctrine, and find our practice in the church
today. This morning we introduced this topic
by talking about maintaining a mission mindset
that mindset being the the idea the principle
of restoring the New Testament Church and we're
going to turn our attention that this afternoon
to an essential ingredient in that effort and
that is trusting the authority of the scriptures
trusting the Bible the scriptures as our soul
and singular source of authority in religion
today you know I made a comment a statement this
morning that establishing scriptural authority
is so very important We cannot hope to be the
church that Jesus built if we don't test everything
in our faith, in our worship, in our practice.
We have to test everything by the Word of God
to make sure it's true, to make sure it's genuine,
to make sure it's a part of that initial plan
and pattern that the Lord delivered us in the
New Testament when He set up His church. And
so I want to spend some time focusing more in
depth in regard to that idea this afternoon.
We have to understand that the scriptures are
our only authority. We have to understand the
proper way to approach those scriptures and how
to properly interpret them to arrive at the truth
God wants us to know. Now, in a perfect world,
and spoiler alert, we don't live in a perfect
world, but in a perfect world, I would grab my
Bible just like you would. And we would open
it, and we would read it, and we would study
and meditate on it, and we would all arrive at
a singular faith, a unified doctrine, and a common
practice. In a perfect world, that's how we would
come to faith and how we would teach doctrine
and how we would live out our practice for the
Lord. However today we look around us and we
realize that you know many many people call themselves
Christians and many people go to the same Bible
that I read that you read but In the end, we
don't arrive at the same place, do we? In our
faith, in our doctrine, in our practice. We see
many different faiths around us. We hear many
different doctrines. We see many different practices.
And this is evidenced by the many different churches
that we see around us. Now, we all call ourselves
Christians, and we all say we love God, and we
all say we're following the Bible. But at the
end of the day, we don't get to the same place,
do we? And that's a problem. This is not the
will of God. Because we know the will of God.
It's revealed to us in Ephesians chapter 4. When
Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he clearly explained
and spoke to them about a unified singular faith,
not a divided faith. In Ephesians 4 .4, Paul
said there is one body, just one. Not 12, not
20, not 200. There is one body and one spirit.
Even as you're called in one hope of your calling
there's one hope there's one Lord one faith one
baptism Just like there's one God and father
of all who is above all and through all and in
you all and so The Bible speaks of a simple singular
faith that we should all be striving for Earlier
in the in this chapter. He encouraged us to strive
to maintain and keep the unity of that faith
But we live in a world that is divided in religion
We live in a world where there are many different
faiths, many different doctrines, many different
practices. Why is that? That's something we're
going to talk about and try to understand better
this afternoon. So long as we maintain an honest
and unbiased approach to the scriptures and as
long as we employ a proper method of Bible interpretation
I believe with those two essential steps we can
arrive at the truth, the truth God wants us to
understand about that singular faith, doctrine,
and practice that we all need. And so we're going
to give careful attention and analysis to our
approach to Scripture, how we should approach
the Scripture, preparing our hearts and preparing
our minds before we even crack the cover of the
Bible. And then we're going to talk about, once
we open the Bible, we're going to talk about
some basic principles of proper Bible interpretation,
because both of those ingredients are necessary
for us to arrive at the truth God has given us.
Let's talk first about approaching the Word of
God with honesty. Before we even open the Bible
and begin reading and studying, we have to prepare
our hearts and minds to approach the Word of
God with honesty. Some of the ideas that we're
going to have to buy into wholeheartedly and
not hold anything back. Because we got to buy
into the idea of trusting that God is always
right. That's what trust is, isn't it? Trust
is something that teaches us, it reminds us that
I have my own way of thinking, I have my own
way of feeling, I've got my own think so's, I've
got my own opinions, I've got my own preferences.
But trusting God and the authority of the Scriptures
means that My think -so is my opinions my feelings
my ideas have to go by the wayside If they aren't
in agreement with what God reveals in his word
and faith is trusting that God is always right
We're not we're not always right. I have been
wrong. Have you ever been wrong? I have been
wrong Because I'm human and That's part of the
human experience, the fact that we can and we
sometimes are wrong. But we need to trust that
there is one who is always right and that that
one is God. You know, in Romans 3 -4, Paul speaks
to this. He makes a passing statement here in
this verse. He says, let God be true and every
man a liar. Even if every person on the face
of the planet disagrees with God, guess what?
He's still right. He's still right. His word
is still true. Even if everyone rejects it, does
that change it? The Word of God remains the same.
God remains true and everyone on the face of
the planet is wrong, including ourselves if what
we believe is not in line with Scripture. We've
got to trust this. We've got to believe this
wholeheartedly that God is always right. And
as I just mentioned a moment ago, we've got to
be open to the idea and the possibility that
we might be wrong. I've been wrong before. You
know, I've been in a process of learning and
growing and gaining understanding since the day
I was born. Do you know how much you knew the
day you were born? You knew nothing the day you
were born. Since the day of your birth to today,
you've been in a process of learning, growing,
and gaining an understanding. And you know, along
the way, sometimes we find out that what we thought
was right really wasn't right. What we thought
we were certain was true really wasn't true.
Have you ever been there? I've been there. I've
been there. And here's the funny thing about
it. The funny thing about it is that I didn't
know I was wrong. I thought I was right all along.
I thought I was right. And that's I think that's
what the Proverbs are speaking to about mankind
in Proverbs 21 to where it says the way of of
a man is right in his own eyes. We always think
our way is right, but we also have to be open
to the possibility that we might be wrong. We
might be wrong. The Bible says in Proverbs 16
25 this is something we need to take notice of.
Proverbs 16 25 it says there is a way that seemeth
right unto a man. There are many religious ways
that seem just seem right to man. But what does
the Bible tell us? It tells us the end thereof
are the ways of death. We have many Bible examples
of that. It just seemed right for Nadab and Abihu
to offer strange fire before the Lord. And you
know they died in Leviticus chapter 10 verse
1 to 2. They died doing something that seemed
right to them, offering strange fire. Just seemed
right to King David and his servant Uzzah to
move the Ark of the Covenant in an ox cart. Just
seemed right to them. and Uzzah died doing something
that just seemed right, moving the ark of God
in an improper way, an unscriptural way. So you
see there are many ways in religion that just
seem right and sometimes our ways might seem
right and feel right and we might think we're
right but we always have to be open to the possibility
that we could be wrong. We have to be humble
enough to admit that. Here's something else we
got to do as we approach the Word of God. We
got to go to the Word of God to be true truth
-seekers, sincere in that effort. We've got to
be seeking truth. You know what we can do if
we're not careful? We can go to the scriptures
just to seek validation of what we already believe.
You ever done that? I'm going to tell you something.
I'm going to confess something to you. I've done
that before. I've done that before. Made up my
mind what was right and I've got to go to the
Bible to find a verse to back it up. Right? It's
easy to do if we're not careful. I've done that
before. It wasn't right. It was wrong. I'm going
to try not to do that again. I'm going to try
to be more of a truth seeker than a person who
just goes to the Word of God to seek validation
for what I've already determined is right. No,
I go to the Word of God saying, Lord, show me
what's right, even if I'm wrong. Please open
my eyes to that which I cannot see. Please help
me to find your truth. If we go to the Word of
God not looking for truth, just looking for validation,
that's what we'll find. We'll find validation
for what we want to believe. But we could miss
out on the truth. I think this was a problem
with the children of Israel in the days of Isaiah.
Isaiah chapter 30 verse 9, God told his people
through Isaiah, he says that this is a rebellious
people, lying children, children that will not
hear the law of the Lord. They didn't want to
hear the law of the Lord. Which say to the seers,
see not, and to the prophets, prophesy not unto
us right things, speak unto us smooth things,
prophesy deceits. They wanted to hear prophecy.
They wanted to hear teaching, right? But they
didn't want to hear the law of the Lord. They
wanted to hear what they thought was right and
what they believed was right. And they told the
prophets, even if you have to tell us lies, just
tell us lies. Prophesied deceits. And we don't
want to be guilty of that. We don't want to be
like the people in Isaiah's day. We want to be
more honest in our search for truth. We want
to approach the Word of God with honesty and
sincerity in our heart. Here's something else
we got to do. We got to be willing to buy into
this principle wholeheartedly as well. When we
seek the truth, I believe the Lord will help
us find the truth. And when we find the truth,
we need to accept the truth no matter the cost.
Sometimes it's not convenient. Sometimes it's
not to our advantage to accept the truth. change
where we've seen that we're in error and make
a change sometimes that's not easy sometimes
it's hard sometimes it's difficult sometimes
it comes with the consequences that are difficult
to deal with but you know God would have us to
seek the truth learn the truth and accept the
truth no matter the cost Bible tells us in Proverbs
23 23 by the truth and sell it not also wisdom
and instruction and understanding when you find
the truth you buy it you invest in it and you
don't sell it out for anything. No matter the
cost, we need to be seeking truth and following
after truth because that honors God. God is a
God of truth. He's not a God of lies. You know,
Satan's the one out here spreading religious
lies and if we're just buying into lies and believing
lies and following religious error, we're not
honoring God. We're actually giving honor to
the enemy of God, to Satan. So we have to approach
the Word of God honestly. Here's something else.
We have to be aware of before we even crack the
cover of the Bible to read it We got to be aware
of the problem of bias You know we are all subject
to different biases aren't we I? Want to share
some things with you that? Some ingredients that
form a dangerous recipe for bias that we all
need to be aware of the first one is family traditions
We've all got our own family traditions. We've
got things that we were taught from our parents
and our grandparents and our great -grandparents
and things our families have done for many, many
years, many, many generations. And, you know,
we have a tendency to want to follow in the pathway
of our family and follow family traditions. But
we have to be careful of that because just because
our family has done something for 100, 200 years
doesn't make it right. That's not the true test
of whether or not something is scriptural or
not or true or not Just because our family has
done it for so long the scriptures are the true
test of what is what is right in the sight of
God And you know Jesus says we got to love him
and his truth more than we love our family That's
not always easy to do sometimes that puts us
in difficult situations But Jesus said this in
Matthew 10 37 he that loveth father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me He that love
a son or daughter more than me is not worthy
of me. We got to love God's Word more than we
love our sacredly kept family traditions. Here's
something else we've got that is a part of a
dangerous recipe for bias. We have different
influences in our culture that might skew our
thinking more than you might imagine. One of
the probably easiest ways to discover this Pull
that culture has on us. We like to say oh, no,
I would never let my culture influence me. Okay,
that sounds good But if you go visit another
country a different culture Your eyes are open
very quickly to things that are different not
wrong, but different in the way people walk talk
live and Sometimes it helps us to see that in
our culture, our 21st century modern American
culture has more of an influence on us than we
might like to recognize or admit. In Acts chapter
10 verse 28, this is Peter and you know Peter
felt the pressures of his culture. When he went
to Caesarea into the house of Cornelius, remember
Peter was a Jew and Cornelius was a Gentile and
for Jews of that time the culture was Jews didn't
go into and have company with Gentiles. That
was the cultural expectation. That was the norm
at his time for his people. And we see the tension
of that in Acts chapter 1028. He, that's Peter
said unto them, he says to Cornelius in the Gentiles,
you know how it is an unlawful thing for a man
that is a Jew to keep company or to come unto
one of another nation, but God has shown me that
I should not call any man common or unclean.
Peter goes into the house of Cornelius and says,
you know, everything in... in my being is telling
me I shouldn't be here because that's what my
culture has taught me. I shouldn't be in the
house of a Gentile. He says on the other hand
God is teaching me and he has shown me that I
shouldn't discriminate against Gentiles. I shouldn't
call any man common or unclean. So Peter was
even subject to these cultural influences and
we're not immune from them either. We need to
be aware that they form a certain degree of bias
within us. Here's something else that causes
us to have bias and that's our past experiences
You know as we go through life a lot of our past
experiences Shape and form the way we think the
way we feel and the way we view the world even
the way maybe we view our faith But we got to
remember past experience is not a test for whether
or not something is right or scriptural that
that test Falls squarely on the Word of God and
the Word of God only here's an example of that
From John chapter 1, this is Jesus calling his
disciples. And the Bible says that Jesus called
Philip. Philip was one of the first disciples
of Jesus' cause. And Philip went and found Nathanael.
Jesus called Philip and Philip goes and finds
Nathanael and he says unto them, We have found
him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets
did write. Jesus of Nazareth. That's John 1 .45.
Philip meets Jesus. He knows he's the Messiah.
He goes and finds Nathaniel. He says, hey Nathaniel,
we found the Messiah. It's Jesus of Nazareth.
You remember Nathaniel's response in verse 46?
Nathaniel said unto him, can there be any good
thing come out of Nazareth? Nathaniel no doubt
had had some past experiences with people from
Nazareth. And maybe it was part of their culture
too. Maybe the cultural... influence on them
was the idea that you know there ain't nothing
that can good that can come out of Nazareth and
Philip says that this Jesus the Messiah is from
Nazareth and Nathaniel can't hardly believe it.
Nazareth? Did you say Nazareth? Really? Nazareth?
Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? That
gives us a glimpse doesn't it into the bias that
Nathaniel had. Maybe partly due from his culture
and maybe partly due from his past experience
and we're not immune to those same influences.
In addition, we also have our own individual
ideologies, our individual and unique ways of
thinking about things. There's nothing wrong
with having individual ideologies. But you know
the Bible tells us it's dangerous to lean too
hard on our own understandings, isn't it? Proverbs
3 verses 5 to 7. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. Lean not into thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him and what he shall
direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes.
Sometimes we are maybe too wise in our own eyes.
And instead of leaning on our own individual
think -sows and ideologies we need to lean more
on the Lord and let he be the one that directs
our paths through his word. And then last but
not least. We've all got personal preferences.
And my preference might be different than yours.
And that's OK. There's nothing wrong with that.
But our personal preferences have to always yield
to the will and the ways of God. We had to be
willing to put aside our personal preferences
to obey God and to follow His word. And, you
know, we see the illustration, the example of
Naaman. Remember, Naaman was a Syrian who had
leprosy. He went down into Israel. He saw the
prophet Elisha. Elisha told him if he would just
go dip himself seven times in the Jordan River,
he would be cleansed and cleaned of his leprosy.
And you remember Naaman's response to that? He
says, you want me to go dip in the Jordan River,
the stinky muddy river of Israel, the Jordan
River? Naaman said, are not Abana and Farpar
rivers of Damascus, rivers back in his hometown,
are they not better than all the waters of Israel?
May I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned
and went away in a rage. He was angry that the
Lord told him to go dip himself down in the Jordan
River. He said, I got a lot better rivers back
home. I'm going back to Syria. I'm going to go
dip in Abana or Farpar. As his personal preference,
wasn't it? He preferred the rivers of his home
country. You think if he'd went home to dip in
a banner and far far he'd got the cleansing of
his leprosy I don't think he would have because
you know God wasn't gonna bless his disobedience
God bless his obedience, and he told him go dip
in the Jordan River Luckily one of his servants
talked some sense into him and convinced him
to go to the Jordan River he dipped down seven
times and He was cleansed his preference had
to yield to the will of God And so we got to
be aware of bias All of these things, in some
form or fashion, to one degree or another, can
form a dangerous recipe of bias. And if we have
bias in our heart, in our mind, before we even
go to the Word of God, what chance do we have
of arriving at the truth it wants to teach us?
You know, earlier in the lesson we had this...
illustration on the screen and we had a straight
arrow from me, the stick figure, to the Word
of God and then a straight arrow from the Word
of God to the faith doctrine and practice that
it teaches us. And in a perfect world, that's
the way it would work for all of us. But if we
approach the Word of God with dishonesty and
bias in our hearts, you see how it's hard for
us to arrive at the truth? If I go looking for
it to teach one way that I believe, I'm going
to end off way down here. Where if I go to the
Word of God with a bias, it's going to skew my
understanding of the Word of God. I may hit the
Word of God at a glancing blow, but I'm going
to end up way over here, away from the truth.
And this is why so many people end up so scattered
in the religious world because they approach
the Word of God with all kinds of dishonesty
and bias in their hearts. And that's why we have
such a divided religious world today in which
we live. So let's move on and talk about the
second key ingredient as far as trusting the
scriptures as our sole authority. We have to
use principles of proper, sound Bible interpretation.
Once we do prepare our heart and mind to go to
the Word of God with the right heart, once we
open the Word of God and start reading it, this
is where the work of properly interpreting the
scriptures comes in. And I'm going to share Several,
I'm going to have to move fast. We can talk about
just this the rest of the week. We can give a
whole gospel meeting just to this. I'm going
to have to move a lot quicker than that and just
quickly summarize some of the most basic principles
of Bible interpretation that will help us make
sure we arrive at the truth of God's Word. The
first one is this. We have to admit and believe
that the Bible contains all that we need. The
Scriptures are profitable. They will thoroughly
furnish us, completely equip us with all that
we need. That's what Paul told Timothy. All scripture
is given by inspiration of God and is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and
righteousness. That the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished. It means completely equipped
unto all good works. That's 2nd Timothy 3, 16
to 17. Notice here the scriptures tell us that
they are profitable for four things. The scriptures
are profitable for doctrine. Doctrine is that
part of God's Word. which teaches us and reveals
the will of God to us and we need doctrine. Scriptures
are also profitable for reproof. Reproof is that
part of God's Word which exposes and condemns
us of our error when we go astray from the will
of God. Scriptures are profitable for that. The
Scriptures also provide correction and that correction
is profitable because correction is that part
of God's Word that convicts us to restore what
is right in the sight of God and return to Him
and walk in paths of truth. Scripture provides
that correction that we need and then it also
provides that instruction in righteousness. Instruction
in righteousness is that part of God's Word that
shows us how. specifically how and practically
how we can return back if we've went astray into
past that please God. And the scriptures provide
all the doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction
in righteousness that we need. It contains it
all. We don't need other books. We don't need
other writings of men. We don't need modern -day
prophets. We don't need modern -day revelations.
We have all we need when we open our Bible. And
I want to point out something in passing while
we're talking about the scriptures being profitable.
You know, I told you this morning we're going
to use a simple four -step approach in analyzing
certain doctrines and certain practices in Christianity
today. We're going to do that later in the gospel
meeting. But I mentioned today our first step
in that four -step process was going to the original
pattern and seeing what is revealed therein.
Doctrine is found there in God's Word to help
us understand that original pattern. So we're
going to use the Scriptures doctrine to understand
the pattern God gives us in the New Testament.
The second step is studying some church history
to understand how error slowly evolved and how
men strayed away from the Word of God. Well,
the Scriptures provide some reproof in that regard.
The Scriptures will reprove us and show us. how
we've aired and how we've went away from the
truth. Scriptures also provide us with that correction
and we're going to look at our modern -day practices.
And if we find that they're not in line with
the Word of God, the Word of God will give correction
to us and help us see our need to change and
to restore and get back to serving God according
to the Scriptures. The Bible provides that correction
that we'll need at that third step in our process.
And in the fourth step in the process, we're
going to talk about steps that we can take to
restore the original pattern, to get back to
serving God and worshiping God and teaching the
things that were a part of Christ's church from
the beginning. And the Scripture will give us
instruction in righteousness to help us see what
we need to restore the pattern that God has given
us. So the idea that the Scriptures are profitable
for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction
in righteousness will be intertwined in this
four -step process. And the Scriptures will provide
us with what we need to use this four -step process
as we go to later lessons in this series. Here's
a second principle of Bible interpretation. It's
very simple. Scripture can't contradict Scripture.
God will never contradict Himself. We know one
verse of Scripture will never contradict another.
Here's an example. This is just one example.
Some people today in religion point to Acts 21,
8 to 9 as... Proof, Bible proof and authority
for women preachers in the church. And you remember
this is the point where Luke goes into the house
of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the
seven, and Luke abode with Philip for a time.
And the Bible says in verse 9, Acts 21 -9, that
the same man Philip had four daughters, virgins,
which did prophesy. Now some people point to
that verse and they say, here it is. Here's proof
positive. Philip had these four daughters, they
prophesied, and that's authority for women preachers
in the church. However, we go to other passages
of Scripture which seem to teach the exact opposite
of that, like 1 Corinthians 14, 34 to 35, where
the Bible says, let your women keep silence in
the churches, for it's not permitted unto them
to speak. They're commanded to be under obedience,
as also saith the law. And if they will learn
anything, let them ask their husbands at home.
for it's a shame for women to speak in the church.
Now what do we have here? Do we have two different
verses that contradict each other? Does one authorize
women preachers and the other condemn it? No.
There's a way to properly interpret both of these
scriptures in such a way that they don't contradict
one another. They fit perfectly well together
in harmony and agreement. We'll talk more about
that Lord willing Saturday night. We're going
to talk more about the role of women in the church
as part of that lesson. But we have to we have
to be good students of the Bible We have to analyze
it very carefully and do it in such a way that
we're never putting scripture against scripture
Because God will never disagree with himself
and scripture will never contradict itself We
need to understand some basic things about the
differences between The different covenants God
has had with mankind Specifically the difference
between the old covenant the law of Moses and
the new covenant the gospel of Christ Got an
illustration here. We'll move through it quickly.
It's on the back of your handout that you have
for this evening. This is the cross. Before Jesus
died on the cross, God's people, the Jews, lived
under the Old Covenant. It was a covenant that
was given to them when they received the law
of Moses at Mount Sinai. They lived under it
for about 1 ,500 years until Jesus died. When
Jesus died, that Old Covenant law was taken out
of the way and a new covenant came to replace
it consisting of the gospel of Jesus that began
to be preached after he died on the cross at
Calvary. The Old Covenant was for a specific
nation of people, the Israelites, the descendants
of Abraham, the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
the children of Israel. They were a party to
that Old Covenant. Gentiles were not a party
to the old covenant law. However, under the new
covenant that we live under today, the new covenant
pertains to God's people, all Christians from
all nations all over the earth. When the children
of Israel received the law at Mount Sinai, Moses
brought that law down from the mountain and found
the children of Israel disobeying that law, worshipping
idols, and as a result of that, 3 ,000 people
died because of their idol worship and their
rebellion and disobedience. But you know when
the gospel was first preached in Acts chapter
2 on Pentecost Day like we studied this morning,
instead of 3 ,000 people dying, Bible tells us
in Acts 2 .41 that 3 ,000 people were saved from
their sins through the preaching of the gospel.
Hebrews 10 .1 tells us the law was a shadow of
better things to come in Christ. Colossians 2
.16 -17 says that The law was a shadow of good
things to come but the body or the substance
is of Jesus and we are enjoying that present
-day substance or body that was foreshadowed
under the law of Moses. The Old Covenant law
is no longer binding today. We don't live, worship,
or live according to or worship according to
the old covenant law of Moses because when Jesus
died in Colossians 2 14 he was blotting out the
handwriting of ordinances that was against us
which was contrary to us Jesus took it out of
the way nailing it to his cross today the new
covenant is binding upon Christians we're not
bound by that old covenant law Also in Galatians
3 24 Paul said the law was our schoolmaster our
instructor to bring us to Christ that we might
be justified by faith, but after that faith has
come After Christ has come and died for our sins.
We know are no longer under The law that the
schoolmaster was Galatians 3 24 to 25 and we
could say a whole lot more about this But but
we need to have a basic understanding that they're
two different covenants and you know a lot of
people get mixed up in a lot of religious confusion
today because they fail to see a difference between
these two covenants and understand which covenant
we live under today. Here's something else that's
so very important if we're trying to establish
scriptural authority for our faith doctrine and
practice. We got to understand exactly, technically
how we go about establishing scriptural authority
for something. And I believe scriptural authority
is established in one of three ways, either through
a command through an example or through a scripture
which infers or implies that God wants us to
do something. Now, let me give you an example
of what we're talking about. We need to be looking
in scripture for commands, examples, and scriptures
that infer or imply. We're gonna take our practice
of the Lord's Supper, okay? We observed the Lord's
Supper this morning, and rightfully so, because
Jesus Himself commanded us to remember Him by
taking the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is
authorized by a command, a command from Christ.
That command was given from Christ to Paul, and
then Paul wrote it to the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians
11, 24. Jesus told Paul, Paul told Corinthians,
take, eat, this is my body which is broken for
you. Jesus said, this do in remembrance of me.
That's a command. Verse 25 Jesus said this cup
is the New Testament in my blood this do ye as
oft as you drink it in remembrance of me that
is a command from Jesus when Jesus commands us
to do something We better be doing it and we
certainly have scriptural authority for it now
There's also certain elements concerning the
Lord's Supper that are established not by command
per se but rather by example Okay, we take the
Lord's Supper on the first day of the week I
don't believe there's a command where Jesus said
or the Apostle said thou shalt take the Lord's
Supper on the first day of the week there is
a scripture which teaches that in the form of
an example an Example we have the example of
a first century church congregation at Troas
Luke writes about it in Acts 20 verse 7 where
Luke says, Upon the first day of the week when
the disciples came together to break bread, Paul
preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow.
And he continued his speech until midnight. So
here's an example of a first century church that
Paul visited coming together on the first day
of the week and breaking bread, which is a reference
to the Lord's Supper. So by example, by a proved
apostolic example, we see here that the church
Jesus built came together on the first day of
the week to observe the Lord's Supper. The day
that we do it on is authorized by example. And
then last but not least, the frequency, how often
we take the Lord's Supper. That is not authorized
by command. I don't believe it's authorized by
example. I believe it's authorized by an inference,
a scripture that infers or implies it. And it's
the same scripture. Acts chapter 20 verse 7 says
the disciples came together on the first day
of the week. You know, every week has a first
day. Every week has a first day. And, you know,
when God told the Jews to remember the Sabbath,
to keep it holy, what did the Jews understand
from Exodus chapter 20 verses 8 to 10? Did you
know there's no scripture that says take the
Lord's Supper every first day of the week? There's
no scripture that says every first day of the
week. I haven't seen it yet. But there's also
there also in any scripture where God told the
Jews to remember every Sabbath He didn't say
remember every Sabbath. Look at what God told
the Jews about the Sabbath He said remember the
Sabbath day and keep it holy six days shout that
labor and do all thy work But the seventh day
is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God The Lord told
Israel remember the Sabbath now every week has
a Sabbath. It's the seventh day And he didn't
tell him to observe every Sabbath is the word
every in that verse. Let's look Word every isn't
in that verse But you know what the Jews understood
from that verse they understood that every week
has a Sabbath and if it's the Sabbath We need
to remember it and keep it holy So guess what
every Sabbath the Sabbath was a weekly observance
among the Jews They understood that without God
saying every Sabbath in the same manner when
the Bible says that the example of the first
century church was to come together on the first
day of the week to break bread. We can understand
every week has a first day and we can understand
that it's the Lord's will for us to come together
every first day of the week and every first day
of the week we come around the Lord's table.
Again, there's no command for that. There's no
example of that but it's inferred or implied.
Through a careful study of the Scriptures we
can easily make that connection. that the Lord
wants us to take the Lord's Supper every first
day of the week. So, listen, we got to get in
the habit of looking for commands, examples,
inferences. We need to be able to find commands,
examples, or inferences for everything we do.
in our faith, in our doctrine, and in our practice.
Here's something else we have to recognize that
there is such a thing as the exclusion principle,
and the exclusion principle needs to be honored
and respected. How does the exclusion principle
work? It's very simple. God told Noah in Genesis
chapter 6 -14 to build an ark, and he told him
a specific type of wood to use to build that
ark. Genesis 6 -14, God told Noah, make thee
an ark of gopher wood. Gopher wood. I have no
idea what gopher wood is. I know oak wood. I
know yellow pine. I have no idea what gopher
wood is. When God told Noah to build an ark of
gopher wood, guess which type of wood it needed
to be? It had to be gopher wood. Now, God didn't
find it necessary to say, Noah, I want you to
make this ark out of gopher wood. Not oak wood,
Noah. Noah don't even think about pine wood.
Noah don't think about cherry or birch wood.
That's not allowed. Noah don't even go looking
for any cedar wood. God didn't have to tell Noah
all the woods not to use, did he? All those woods
were automatically excluded when God said what?
When God said go for wood, that was the wood
it needed to be and all other woods were automatically
excluded. They were not... They were not permissible.
That's how the exclusion principle works. When
God specifies something, it automatically excludes
every other alternative of that same thing, things
in the same category. Here's another example
of the exclusion principle. In Numbers chapter
20, God told Moses there in the wilderness, Take
your rod gather the assembly together thou and
Aaron thy brother speak to the rock before their
eyes and it'll give forth water They were in
the desert. They needed water. They were thirsty
God told Moses speak to the rock and there you'll
have water Moses went to the rock But he didn't
speak to it. Remember what he did. He struck
it with his rod twice It brought forth water
But God was not pleased Later God spoke to Moses
and said you didn't honor me Before the children
of Israel and it was actually because of that
rebellion and that sin and that disobedience
God told him you won't go into the promised land
Because you didn't follow my instructions I said
speak to the rock and you know when God said
speak to the rock that Excluded striking the
rock that excluded getting up and dancing on
the rock that excluded everything else And Moses
didn't obey he didn't honor the exclusion principle.
He should have been more careful Because speaking
to the rock excluded everything else We got it.
We got to be thinking about the exclusion principle
Okay, and here's the next logical step to the
exclusion principle this last principle of interpretation
I'll share with you this afternoon As part of
being good students of the scripture and trusting
it is our only source of authority We have to
develop a good ability to discern between matters
of faith matters of opinion. There are some things
that are truly matters of faith, things that
God has specifically spoken to us about and given
us guidance and scripture to guide us. But then
on the other hand there are a lot of things God
hadn't told us how to do or when to do or what
to do and there are areas of judgment or opinion
and we need to be able to draw a line clearly
between what are matters of faith and what are
matters of opinion. Now I've got a table here
to try to illustrate this, to help you understand
it. It's very, very important. It's also on the
back of your notes. I'll give you three examples
concerning three different aspects of our faith
and practice. First thing will be our church
assemblies. We are authorized by Scripture to
come together for edification. Hebrews 10 25
tells us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves
together. And that's why we've come together
today, to assemble to be edified. So our assembly
is authorized by Hebrews 10 .25. And I want to
tell you something. It is a matter of faith that
we come together on the first day of the week.
We have the example of the church at Troas. We
read that earlier from Acts 27. They came together
on the first day of the week. So we need to assemble,
yes, and we need to come together at the very
least on the first day of the week. Okay, that's
a matter of faith. What if I came in here and
I said and I told the church at North Warren
I said, okay, here's what y 'all need to do you
need to stop meeting on Sundays and The day you
need to assemble on his Tuesdays just Tuesday
Cancel your Sunday service and y 'all are gonna
have services every Tuesday If I came in here
and taught that and you know these brethren would
tell me number one. That's not right That's a
sinful violation of a matter of faith. We are
to assemble on the first day of the week So to
come together only on Tuesdays, that's that's
not permissible That's not allowed. However,
you know what? There is a matter of opinion or
judgment when it comes to our assemblies. And
it's not the day that we assemble, but it's the
time we assemble. What time are we going to come
together on Sunday? Is there a book, chapter,
and verse that says, Thou shalt come together
at 10 .30? I like 10 .30. That's what I was raised
to. I was raised, you know, back home. We worship
10 .30. I love it. But is there a verse that
says, Thou shalt assemble at 10 .30 on Sunday
morning? No, is there any verse any command example
of scripture that infers or implies God wants
a certain time of day or certain hour? No, you
know what that is that's going to be a matter
of opinion or judgment Congregation could make
a judgment to come together at 8 in the morning
10 30 in the morning 5 in the evening And that's
not something we're gonna get upset about and
divide about and fuss and fight about the time
that we meet Because it's not a matter of faith.
That's a matter of opinion Here's a second example
our practice of the Lord's Supper. It's authorized
by Christ in first Corinthians 1126 Concerning
Lord's Supper. Here's a matter of faith It's
a matter of faith that we take unleavened bread
and the fruit of the vine those are the elements
the Lord chose and by choosing the Unleavened
bread and the fruit of the vine. He automatically
excluded all other elements What if I came to
North Warren and said y 'all need to change your
the Lord's Supper instead of bread You need to
have fried chicken and instead of fruit of the
vine. You need to have soda pop What if I taught
that? These brethren run me out of the building.
That's a sinful violation of a matter of faith.
Jesus said bread and fruit of the vine. We can't
change that. That's a matter of faith. But you
know there are some elements concerning the Lord's
Supper that are a matter of judgment or opinion.
For example, how many containers are we going
to drink the fruit of the vine out of? We're
going to drink it out of one cup, drink it out
of two cups, ten cups, any number of cups. I
don't believe the Scriptures provide us with
enough information to determine how many cups
Jesus and His apostles used when He initiated,
when He instituted the Lord's Supper. And if
there's not enough information in the Scriptures
to discern or decipher how many containers they
used, we can't make a law saying it has to be
one container or two containers or any number
of containers. That's going to be a matter of
opinion and judgment. Every congregation is going
to decide and not make a law about it and not
be divisive about that. See the difference between
matters of faith? Needs to be bread and the fruit
of the vine. And matters of opinion, how many
containers we use. That's a matter of judgment.
Third and final example, our practice of water
baptism. We're authorized to baptize people.
People need baptism for the remission of their
sins. Matthew 28, 19, Jesus commanded his apostles
to go out, teach the gospel, and baptize people.
Concerning baptism, it's a matter of faith that
we immerse people. That's the example we have
of the Ethiopian eunuch. Philip took him down
into the water, baptized him, and they came up
out of the water in Acts 8, 38 -39. If I came
in here and taught that you could sprinkle people
for baptism, that would be a sinful violation
of a matter of faith. That's not the right mode
of baptism. The scriptural mode is immersion
in water. So I would never want to teach this,
that we can sprinkle for baptism. However, there
is a matter of opinion when it comes to the body
of water that we use for baptism. We can baptize
people in a river. We can baptize people in a
stockpond. I baptize people in the Caribbean
Sea, in the ocean. We can baptize people in a
baptistry. The scriptures don't specify. It doesn't
say thou shalt baptize people in a river or thou
shalt baptize them in a baptistry. If God doesn't
tell us exactly where to baptize them, we shouldn't
make that a matter of faith. That's a matter
of opinion. As long as we got enough water to
immerse people, that's all that matters. You
know, there's been a lot of division in religion
and even in churches of Christ through the years
because people at different times and at different
places fail to see a clear line between faith
and opinion. We've got people that take matters
of faith and say, oh, those things don't matter.
That's just opinion. That's liberalism. That's
lawlessness. That's taking laws that God has
given us and throwing them out the window. And
we don't want to be guilty of that. On the other
hand, we've got people who take matters of opinion
and move them over in the realm of faith and
they make laws out of opinions. That's legalism.
We don't want to be guilty of that either. We
need to be careful to draw a clear line between
what is faith and what is opinion. We can go
to the Word of God with all the honesty and sincerity
in our hearts and we can do our very, very best
to eliminate all bias before we approach the
Word of God. But if we go to the Word of God
with that honest heart, And if we employ an improper
method of interpretation, what's going to happen?
We're going to have a hard time getting to the
true faith doctrine and practice Jesus wants
us to have. And this is why a lot of people end
up scattered in a hundred different directions
in religion today because the methods of interpretation
they use are not sound, are not logical, they
don't apply them consistently. All these different...
Improper methods of interpretation send people
off a thousand different directions and prevent
a lot of people from ever coming to know the
truth that God would have us to understand. As
I close this evening, I want to close by asking
a question, a question I want us all to consider.
Where are we going to get our faith? Where are
we going to get our doctrine? Where are we going
to get our practice? Matthew 21 verse 23. When
he that's Jesus came into the temple, Chief priests
and elders of the people came to him as he was
teaching and they had a question for him They
told Jesus by what authority? Doest thou these
things and who gave thee this authority they
wanted Jesus's authority for his teaching for
his doctrine They want to know where that authority
came from Verse 24 Jesus answered and said of
them I will ask you one thing Which if you tell
me I and likewise will tell you by what authority
I do these things Jesus said the baptism of John
whence was it? from heaven or of men and they
reasoned with themselves saying if we shall say
from heaven He will say unto us Why did you not
then believe him? If we tell Jesus that John's
baptism was from heaven we're in trouble because
we rejected John's baptism So he's got us 26
but if we shall say of men if they were to say
John's baptism was of men we fear the people
for all hold John as a prophet." So they were
going to have a hard time answering this question.
So they didn't. They answered Jesus and said,
we cannot tell. And, you know, Jesus said to
them, neither tell I you by what authority I
do these things. We learned some important things
about authority here in this passage. There are
only two sources of authority in religion today.
Either our faith doctrine and practice is from
God in heaven or it's from men on the earth.
It's from heaven or it's of men. If our doctrine,
our faith, our practice is from heaven, we're
going to find that it's clearly established and
authorized in the Scriptures. But if we go to
the Word of God and we can't find clear teaching
or authority for our faith, our doctrine, our
practice in the Bible, there's a really good
chance that that part of our religion is not
from God in heaven, it's from men. It's man -made
religion. I'm here to tell you there is no salvation
in man -made religion. There is no salvation
in religious error and false doctrine. There
is salvation in Christ. There is salvation in
His truth and His teaching and His doctrine.
And we need to be good and careful students of
the Scriptures. We need to trust the Scriptures
that they will lead us in a pathway that's pleasing
to God. And if we'll continue to look to them
as our only source of authority, we know that
we can be pleasing in the sight of God today
as we try to restore the New Testament Church.
As we mentioned this morning, to do that, to
restore the New Testament church, we've got to
go back to the Bible. We've got to go to it honestly.
We've got to interpret it correctly to find our
faith, to find our doctrine, and to find our
practice. This is the model, right? This is what
we want to be. We don't want to end up over here
to the right or over here to the left. We want
to go to the Word of God and let it lead us to
the truth that God would have us to understand.
That's my lesson for you this afternoon. I hope...
that these things have been good for us to know
and to be reminded of as we sort of build a foundation
today and maybe tomorrow night for going into
more detailed doctrinal studies of specific topics
later in the series. So thank you for being here
to help us lay that foundation today.