{"id":18461,"date":"2017-11-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-05T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/ecclesiology-002\/"},"modified":"2017-11-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-05T05:00:00","slug":"ecclesiology-002","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/ecclesiology-002\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecclesiology 002"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[94],"series_event":[484],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18461","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-ephesians","series_event-ecclesiology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Ecclesiology 002","sermon_date":"20171105","sermon_month":"11","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":"","sermon_slides":5123,"sermon_mp3":5124,"sermon_id":"115171023440","series_or_event":484,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":94,"chapter_and_verse":"1:20-22","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nEcclesiology 002\n\n11-05-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 2\n\nLet\u2019s pray.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re thankful for this morning and we\u2019re thankful the fact that this is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice it.\u00a0 And I just pray You\u2019ll be with us this morning in our different Sunday School classes and in the main service that follows and as we take communion and as we gather around the Word and fellowship lunch afterwards.\u00a0 And I just ask for Your Spirit to be doing something special today.\u00a0 I ask that we would leave eternally changed in some way. So I ask that You\u2019ll do this great work this morning.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen.\n\nGood to see everybody.\u00a0 Did you guys remember to \u201cfall back\u201d? I like falling back better than I like springing forward.\u00a0 Does anybody need a handout?\u00a0 Just put your hand up and we\u2019ll send one around.\u00a0 And let\u2019s take our Bibles if we could and open them to Ephesians 1:20-22 and we are in part 2 of a study on ecclesiology which is the doctrine of the church.\u00a0 And I want to thank Jim for filling in last week; I appreciate that Jim.\u00a0 I was actually in Canada last week; you guys must have prayed for me because I got through the border people, in and out with no problem.\u00a0 And we had a great conference, we had a thousand people show up.\u00a0 This is a first time conference by this group, just stepping out in faith.\u00a0 And we had a one day conference just on Bible prophecy so there were four speakers, I was one of the four along with Bill Koenig and Eric Barger and Bill Tsfarti.\u00a0\u00a0 So we hear a lot of bad things about Canada but let me tell you something, because of their hate speech laws and their new Prime Minister but there wasn\u2019t a bad thing that I could find.\u00a0\u00a0 First of all it\u2019s a beautiful country and secondly they were just starving for Bible prophecy.\u00a0 So they gave me the story that most of them don\u2019t get Bible prophecy in their churches so we had a thousand people show up.\u00a0 That was a neat thing.\n\nAnd they couldn\u2019t find a sponsoring church to host the event, this group, because most of the churches over there believe if\u00a0 you\u2019re into Bible prophecy you\u2019re psychologically imbalanced.\u00a0 And there are people like that so I don\u2019t know if I\u2019d really argue with them totally on that.\u00a0 I feel I\u2019m semi-psychologically balanced.\u00a0 But they couldn\u2019t find a host church to host the event and it was actually the work of God because they rented this place called the Trade Ex, where they have swap meets in Abbotsford, British Colombia, and they needed a building that size to house the people that wanted to come.\u00a0\u00a0 You guys must have prayed for me?\u00a0 Did you guys do that?\u00a0 If you didn\u2019t you don\u2019t have to admit it but your prayers were definitely felt.\n\nSo I\u2019ve got a new gismo up here that I\u2019m using, speaking of antichrist technology, I\u2019m doing everything now through the church\u2019s laptop.\u00a0 I\u2019m using and IPad so all I need is a little microchip in my right hand or forehead and I will have arrived.\u00a0 But thanks to the guys in the\u2026 the tech guys for setting this up, so we\u2019re dragging Sugar Land Bible Church kicking and screaming into the 21st<\/sup> century.\u00a0 Amen!\n\nSo we\u2019ve started a study the week before last on Ecclesiology, which I have underlined there, which is what the Bible reveals about the church.\u00a0 And there is sort of our outline that we\u2019ve been working through.\u00a0 We just started it the last time I was with you.\u00a0 We looked at the definition of the church; the church is the Greek word ekkl\u0113s\u00eda (\u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03af\u03b1) and does anybody remember what ekkl\u0113s\u00eda means?\u00a0 The called out ones.\u00a0 Acts 15:14 talks about how God is calling out from among the Gentiles a people for His own name.\u00a0 [Acts 15:14, \u201cSimeon has related how God first concerned Himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for His name.\u201d]\u00a0 And that\u2019s a pretty good definition of the church.\u00a0 You add the word \u201cology\u201d which means study of and ecclesiology is what the Bible says about the church, which is important to us because the church age is the time period that we\u2019re currently living in.\n\nAnd we saw also that the church consists of Jews and Gentiles who have trusted in the very Messiah rejected by first century Israel.\u00a0 So anyone who has placed their personal faith in the Messiah that national Israel turned over to the Romans in the first century for execution, for the forgiveness of our sins, we are part of this new man that started on the day of Pentecost, called the church age.\n\nSo that moves us away from the definition and we\u2019re going to move into a couple of things today.\u00a0 Number 1, the difference between the universal church and the local church.\u00a0 And number 2, if time permits we\u2019ll be talking about word pictures of the church because a picture paints a thousand words.\u00a0 You can reveal something in picture form that would take you myriads of volumes of books to describe.\u00a0 So the Holy Spirit, in the New Testament, has given us seven word pictures of the church.\u00a0 So as time permits we\u2019ll be getting into those.\n\nBut let\u2019s move away from the definition of the church and let\u2019s take a look at the difference between the universal church and the local church.\u00a0 One of the things that I\u2019ve been sort of surprised to discover is there is a vast segment of Christendom that only believes in local churches.\u00a0 They don\u2019t believe in what\u2019s called the universal church.\u00a0 And I\u2019ll try to draw the distinction between the two in just a moment.\u00a0 But they believe, you know, Paul wrote to the Romans so he wasn\u2019t talking about principles that apply to the church over 2,000 years; he was only talking to Rome in the Book of Romans.\u00a0 And so there is this sort of denial amongst people.\u00a0 I\u2019ve noticed it sort of prevalent in not all but in what I would call very fundamentalist Baptist churches where they believe in a local church but they don\u2019t believe in a universal church.\n\nSo that\u2019s why I had you open up to the Book of Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 20-22, which says, \u201cwhich He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,<\/em> [21] far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. [22] And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church.\u201d\n\nNow according to this verse in the Book of Ephesians, the church started after Jesus ascended and was seated at the right hand of the Father.\u00a0 As that happened God the Father put, under the authority of God the Son, the church.\u00a0 Now does anybody remember when the ascension gook place, what chapter of the Bible. Acts 1, and the church formally comes into existence in Acts 2.\u00a0 So Acts 1 and Acts 2 are written during a time period when the church of Rome hadn\u2019t even been founded, nor had the church at Colossae, nor had the church at Ephesus, nor had fundamentalist Baptist churches been founded at that point, nor had Sugar Land Bible Church been founded at that point.\n\nSo this statement is made of Christ before any local church existed and when you start to under\u00ad\u00ad\u00adstand it that way you begin to understand that there\u2019s a difference between the universal church transcending over the last 2,000 years versus just a local church.\u00a0 So we believe here at Sugar Land Bible Church that there are local churches as there have been for the last 2,000 years but there\u2019s also something called a universal church which started, really before any local churches came into existence, going all the way back to the ascension of Christ, Acts chapter 1 and Acts chapter 2.\n\nLet\u2019s take a look at this and I\u2019ll just kind of talk you through this.\u00a0 This chart, what it\u2019s supposed to represent is the difference between the universal church and the left column and the local church in the right column.\u00a0 So over there on the far left you see a number; how many universal churches are there?\u00a0 There\u2019s only one.\u00a0 How many local churches are there?\u00a0 There\u2019s so many you can\u2019t even count them.\u00a0 Think how many local churches exist in the Scripture.\u00a0 Colossae, Ephesus, Laodicea, Smyrna\u2026 someone told me that there are 4,000 churches in Houston alone.\u00a0 Do you believe that?\u00a0 That\u2019s pretty amazing.\u00a0 So the universal church is one; local churches are many.\n\nThe second category: membership.\u00a0 Who are the members of the universal church?\u00a0 It\u2019s everybody that has placed their personal faith in Jesus Christ for salvation from the day of Pentecost to the rapture.\u00a0 That\u2019s a lot of people.\u00a0 But who are the members of a local church?\u00a0 Whoever happens to show up on Sunday morning, amen!\u00a0 So you can have within a local church a local gathering that they can tangibly see; that\u2019s the local church.\u00a0 Then at the same time there\u2019s something called the universal church consisting of members that we haven\u2019t even seen yet, that we haven\u2019t even met yet.\n\nWhich takes us to the third category, what is the spiritual status of the universal church.\u00a0 The universal church consists of believers only.\u00a0 The only way you can become qualified to become a member of God\u2019s universal church is\u00a0 you have to believe in His provision, which is Jesus Christ, His Son, for the sins of the world.\u00a0 You have to trust in His provision for salvation and if you\u2019ve done that at any point in history from the day of Pentecost until the rapture then you are automatically inducted, if you will, without even filling out a membership application.\u00a0 You are automatically inducted or placed by the Holy Spirit into the universal church.\u00a0 So the only people in the universal church are believers.\n\nNow how about the local church?\u00a0 Well guess what?\u00a0 In a local church you can have believers and unbelievers, so it is completely possible to come in here and fool us all; you could be carrying your Bible, you could be quoting lingo from the latest Christian movie, you could be quoting Bible verses and the fact of the matter is you could be unregenerate having never trusted in Jesus Christ, and still become a member of Sugar Land Bible Church.\u00a0 Now we, I\u2019ll talk about the interview process to become a member of our local church in just a second, but I guess what I\u2019m trying to say it\u2019s completely possible to go to a church, to become a member of a church, to be a very card-carrying religious person on the surface but never be part of God\u2019s universal church because you\u2019re religious on the exterior but you\u2019ve never trusted in Christ and Christ alone for salvation.\n\nSo when people want to join our church here at Sugar Land Bible Church we have an interview process where we try to figure out is this person really saved or are they not saved.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why when we have people fill out membership applications and go through our interview process basically the main question is can you give us your testimony, because we\u2019re trying to figure out are you saved or not?\u00a0 But it\u2019s entirely possible, is it not, to fool everybody and be in a church and be a member of a church locally but never be regenerated and never be part of God\u2019s universal church.\u00a0 So the most important church you could ever be a member of is God\u2019s church, the universal church by faith alone.\u00a0 But a local church it\u2019s very possible to have believers and unbelievers mixed together although we try to kind of preempt that possibility on the front end.\n\nIn fact, Jesus had a little group of people, didn\u2019t He, the disciples.\u00a0 How many disciples were there?\u00a0 Twelve, and yet one of them Jesus says in John 6, is a devil, \u201chaving never been saved.\u00a0 Jesus said of him it\u2019d be better for him if he had never been born,\u201d because he was a betrayer of Christ.\u00a0 In fact, the expression \u201cson of perdition\u201d John 17:12, is used of this unbelieving disciple.\u00a0 [John 17:12, \u201cWhile I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.\u201d]\n\nAnd that title, \u201cson of perdition\u201d is only used of one other person in the Bible.\u00a0 Anybody know who that one other person is?\u00a0 The antichrist.\u00a0 So \u201cson of perdition\u201d is used of Judas, who I am referring to, John 17:12 and also the antichrist, 2 Thessalonians 2:3.\u00a0 [2 Thessalonians 2:3, \u201cLet no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,\u201d]\n\nAnd so when Jesus, in the Upper Room said one of you is going to betray Me everybody didn\u2019t point to Judas and say yeah, it\u2019s got to be him? What did they all say?\u00a0 Is it me?\u00a0 Is it I? and so forth.\u00a0 In other words, Judas just fit right in with everybody else.\u00a0 He was unregenerated.\u00a0 And so you can have that reality in a church.\u00a0 How do I know this?\u00a0 Because I was just like that for the first 16 years of my life.\u00a0 I was basically a card carrying member of my particular Protestant denomination; I was even an acolyte, which is sort of like an altar boy kind of thing; they gave me this big cross for my service and for the first 16 years of my life I had all that stuff, and yet I was not a member of God\u2019s universal church because I\u2019d never been saved.\u00a0 See that?\n\nSo that\u2019s sort of a great tragedy, people who think that going to church makes them a Christian and that doesn\u2019t make any sense any more than sitting in McDonalds makes you a hamburger.\u00a0 A lot of people go to church, particularly in the Bible belt, because that\u2019s sort of the cultural thing to do and that\u2019s what our family did and these kind of things but the reality of the situation is a person has to become under the conviction of the Spirit and respond by way of faith to a clear proclamation of the gospel.\u00a0 And if that has never happened it doesn\u2019t matter what their denomination is, they\u2019re just a member of a local church but they are not part of God\u2019s universal church.\u00a0 So a local church could conceivable, we try to preempt it on the front end here but it could conceivable have believers and unbelievers in it.\u00a0 That\u2019s why here at Sugar Land Bible Church at the conclusion of all of our services we give the gospel.\u00a0 Now why do we give the gospel?\u00a0 Because we\u2019re part of a local church and we acknowledge that it\u2019s possible for someone to be part of our community but never saved so we give the gospel every single week just to make sure people, in fact, are saved.\u00a0 We don\u2019t want people to become a member of a local church without being a member of God\u2019s universal church.\u00a0 What a tragedy that would be.\n\nAnd people can fool\u00a0 you I was talking to one pastor friend of mine and there was a guy there that was running his whole AV department, not casting any aspersions on our AV guys up there, I\u2019m not questioning their salvation, except Dan, I\u2019ve always had\u00a0 issues with Dan [laughter] but the rest of them I think are okay.\u00a0 But this pastor was running his whole AV department and then he goes off to come camp somewhere where the gospel is explained and then he comes back and says I\u2019m saved, I got saved.\u00a0 So how is it possible that you could be running a whole AV department and not be regenerated?\u00a0 That\u2019s the Judas example, so that kind of thing can happen.\u00a0 And so it\u2019s a tragedy to be a member of a local church but not a member of God\u2019s universal church.\n\nGoing to the next category down, this takes us to the fourth one, living or dead; the universal church consists of living Christians and who else?\u00a0 Dead Christians.\u00a0 Where do the dead Christians go?\u00a0 \u201cTo be absent from the body is to be\u201d what? \u201cpresent with the Lord.\u201d\u00a0 And this is why the Apostle Paul says, at the point of the rapture, over in 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 16, \u201cFor the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God\u201d and notice what it says, \u201cand the dead in Christ will rise first.\u201d\u00a0 And who are \u201cthe dead in Christ\u201d?\u00a0 I said well, that\u2019s got to be the Methodist Church or the Episcopalian Church or the Presbyterian Church.\u00a0 But \u201cthe dead in Christ\u201d are the people that have trusted in Christ, they are part of the body of Christ and yet they\u2019ve passed on and so they are in the presence of the Lord.\n\nAnd you see, that\u2019s the glorious thing about the rapture, is when the rapture happens we who are alive, and I\u2019m hoping that this happens in our lifetime,\u00a0 the rapture, I can\u2019t guarantee that, but it says, \u201cThen we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds.\u201d\u00a0 Who\u2019s the \u201cthem\u201d?\u00a0 It\u2019s the deceased Christians who are now in the presence of the Lord.\u00a0 So the rapture is a reunion between the living Christians and the deceased Christians. Why is there a reunion between the two?\u00a0 Because in the universal church you can have people alive on the earth and people that have passed on.\n\nNow how about the local church?\u00a0 The local church consists of only living people, no dead people (although sometimes as a pastor you look out at your flock and folks look kind of dead but maybe the pastor looks semi-dead too when he gets more gray hair.\u00a0 So essentially what you have in a local assembly is if you have a heartbeat you are a part of a local church but that status is removed the moment you die.\u00a0 But not so the universal church; the universal church consists of deceased saints in Christ and living saints.\n\nNow how about assembly, that would be one, two, three, four, fifth one down, assembly.\u00a0 You cannot assemble the universal church at one time and one place this side of eternity.\u00a0 I mean, why can\u2019t you just get everybody together?\u00a0 Well you can\u2019t because most of them have passed on.\u00a0 So it\u2019s impossible to assemble the universal church this side of eternity in one time and one place.\u00a0 And you see, that\u2019s the significance of Revelation 4 and 5, following the rapture it talks about a great assembly in heaven; it talks about people worshipping the Lord from every tribe, nation, tongue and so forth.\u00a0 So that is going to be a glorious scene, Revelation 4 and 5, following the rapture because that\u2019s the first time in the history of the church the universal church will be assembled at one time and place.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 But until that happens, because most of the universal church has passed on it\u2019s impossible to assemble everyone at one time and place because you\u2019ve got dead people and living people.\n\nNow compare that to the local church.\u00a0 Can you assemble everybody in your local church at one time and one place?\u00a0 Yes you can, theoretically although it\u2019s kind of hard I\u2019ve noticed.\u00a0 A good incentive is to offer food, that brings everybody out of the woodwork.\u00a0 But it\u2019s very difficult to get people, all the member of your church at the same venue at the same time at the same place.\u00a0 Yet it\u2019s at least a possibility, isn\u2019t it.\u00a0 So hypothetically a local church could all be assembled in one spot but not so the universal church.\n\nHow about visibility?\u00a0 The universal church is what I would call invisible and what I mean by that is God and God alone knows which people are saved and which ones are unsaved.\u00a0 I can get a pretty good sense people are saved based on what they say, based on their testimony, but the reality is\u00a0 you can conceivably have an unbeliever in\u00a0 your local church.\u00a0 But related to the subject of visibility God knows everyone who is regenerated and everyone who is not and God and God alone can see that.\n\nThe Book of Ephesians tells us that we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption. So what is a seal?\u00a0 It\u2019s imagery that comes from Greco-Roman times, in which the New Testament was written, I brought in my props today, let\u2019s pretend this is a letter scrolled up like a scroll, now you don\u2019t have UPS back in Bible times, so how do I know that this scroll that I\u2019ve sealed up is going to reach its intended destination?\u00a0 Well, they would put a melting wax seal here which sealed it up, and then as it was melting they would take the signet ring of the\u2026they usually had some sort of replica of the Roman Emperor on it, and place it into that wax that\u2019s melting and it dried there.\u00a0 So when you saw this seal you were told through that imagery that you cannot break the seal and you cannot open the seal; the only person that can open it is the person to whom the letter is intended.\u00a0 You see that?\u00a0 So that seal guaranteed that this letter would arrive at its final destination.\n\nAnd you see, that\u2019s the imagery that Paul uses in Ephesians 4:30 and other places to describe what has essentially happened to us.\u00a0 [Ephesians 4:30, \u201cDo not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.\u201d]\u00a0 We have been sealed by the Holy Spirit so just as the seal guaranteed that the letter would arrive at its destination, because if you broke the seal and you weren\u2019t the intended recipient you did so under violation of Roman law which means you could be executed.\u00a0 So the seal is a big deal (pardon the rhyme there).\n\nSo the seal on us, spiritually speaking is basically a guarantee that we\u2019re going to arrive at our final destination. That\u2019s one of the reasons we believe here very strongly in the doctrine of eternal security because that imagery is not going to allow a person to be unsealed before they reach glorification of heaven.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why when you study the Gospels, I think it\u2019s around Matthew 27, I want to say verse 66 but I\u2019m not sure if there are 66 verses in that chapter, but it\u2019s in Matthew 27.\u00a0 [Matthew 27:66, \u201cAnd they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone.\u201d]\u00a0 Some of you are looking there right now to check me on that, which is good, it\u2019s good to be a Berean, basically what they did is they put a seal, now this wasn\u2019t wax obviously but it was an insignia or seal over the gravestone of Jesus Christ, because they were afraid that the disciples were going to steal the body and fake the resurrection.\n\nSo that seal was a guarantee, at least in their minds, that no one would tamper with that body and so again that\u2019s the imagery of the seal.\u00a0 That\u2019s why it\u2019s such a big deal that Paul tells us that we have been \u201csealed,\u201d Ephesians 4:30, with the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 [Ephesians 4:30, \u201cDo not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.\u201d\n\nNow where am I going with this?\u00a0 I\u2019m not teaching on eternal security today, we\u2019ve done many, many lessons on eternal security.\u00a0 My only point is who can see the seal?\u00a0 Only God can!\u00a0 I can\u2019t see if you\u2019re sealed and\u00a0 you can\u2019t see if I\u2019m sealed so in this sense the universal church consists of people who have been sealed by the Holy Spirit so the universal church is in that sense invisible.\u00a0 Compare that with the local church, the local church is very visible, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 We have a membership roll and I can look on it and see who\u2019s a member and who is not.\u00a0 So the universal church has an invisibility idea that the local church does not have.\n\nHow about jumping down to the fourth from the bottom there, New Testament material.\u00a0 The vast majority of New Testament material is aimed at local churches.\u00a0 The biblical writers don\u2019t sit down and say hey, I\u2019ve got some random theological thoughts I\u2019d like to share with you today.\u00a0 That\u2019s not how the biblical canon came into existence.\u00a0 The biblical canon is what we call crisis literature and basically what that means is it\u2019s written to resolve a crisis involving real people in New Testament times.\n\nSo virtually every book of the Bible you can identify some kind of crisis going on in the background and the Holy Spirit used that particular crisis to pen God\u2019s message to those people locally and also to the universal church.\u00a0 So Corinthians was written to resolve the issue of immorality, 1 and 2 Corinthians, sometimes called 1 and 2 Californians.\u00a0 The Book of Galatians was written to resolve a very real problem taking place in Southern Galatia which is the issue of legalism.\u00a0 The Book of 1 and 2 Thessalonians was written to resolve confusion that new believers had about end time events.\n\nSo with all of these books that are being written you can sense a crisis in the background, therefore most of the New Testament was written to resolve local church problems.\u00a0 So most of what you read about in the New Testament, particularly the letters or the epistles, is written to local churches.\u00a0 A minority of Scripture, on the other hand, relates to the subject of the universal church.\u00a0 Most of the Scripture deals with the local church and yet a minority of Scripture deals with the universal church.\u00a0 The key book that deals primarily with the universal church is a book written to the church at Ephesus but in chapters 1-3, particularly chapter 2 and 3, and particularly chapter 5, deals primarily with the universal church.\u00a0 So the Book of Ephesians, even though it\u2019s written to the church at Ephesus is dealing with universal church issues and that\u2019s why earlier I quoted from Ephesians 1:20-22 to defend the idea that there is such a thing as a universal church.\n\n[Ephesians 1:20, \u201cwhich He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,<\/em> [21] far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. [22] And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, [23] which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.\u201d]\n\nWhat you have to understand is most of the New Testament was not set up that way.\u00a0 Most of it is addressing real local church problems and concerns and every time you read a New Testament book you\u2019re reading about a problem that has to be solved.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I always get a kick out of churches that promote themselves on their marquee and they say we are a first century church.\u00a0 And I\u2019m like oh Lord, I wonder which one it is?\u00a0 Is it Corinth?\u00a0 Is it Laodicea?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s such a great thing to be a first century church when you look at all the problems that are being addressed.\n\nBut the Spirit of God is superintending, He\u2019s designing the Scripture as these crises are unfolding and this is how the New Testament canon was developed.\u00a0 So most of the New Testament material is dealing with the local church problems; a minority of the New Testament space is devoted to the subject of the universal church and most of that you can probably find in the first three chapters of the Book of Ephesians.\n\nHow about joining the universal church?\u00a0 How do you actually join the universal church.\u00a0 Any suggestions?\u00a0 You trust in Christ alone for salvation.\u00a0 Paul says everyone that has placed their faith in Jesus Christ is part of the universal church, part of a body, starting on the day of Pentecost and being completed at the rapture.\u00a0 In fact, Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:13 says, \u201cFor by one Spirit we were all baptized\u201d past tense, this is not talking about water baptism here, it\u2019s talking about Spirit baptism.\u00a0 All water baptism does is it\u2019s an outward symbol of an inward reality. But water baptism doesn\u2019t get anybody into the universal church.\u00a0 The only thing that gets people into the universal church is the Spirit of God taking them and baptizing them into Christ\u2019s body.\u00a0 Baptism, the Greek verb baptiz\u014d<\/em> simply means identification.\n\nSo at the point of faith the Spirit of God takes a human being that was once lost but now is saved and baptizes them or identifies them into Christ\u2019s body,\u00a0 the church, and here I\u2019m speaking of the universal church.\u00a0 Water baptism doesn\u2019t get the job done.\u00a0 Water baptism is just an outward testimony of the inward reality that that has happened in a person\u2019s life.\u00a0 But if a person has not been baptized by the Holy Spirit into Christ\u2019s body then they are not part of the universal church; they are an unsaved human being.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter how religious they are, it doesn\u2019t matter what religious ordinances and rituals they\u2019ve submitted themselves to.\u00a0 The only thing that gets you in the door is faith alone in Christ alone.\u00a0 And at that particular point in tome something has already happened to you where the\u00a0 Spirit of God at the point of faith takes you and identifies you into Christ\u2019s body, the universal church.\n\nSo that\u2019s how you become a member, that\u2019s how you join the universal church.\u00a0 It\u2019s something God has already done.\u00a0 Now I run into many, many people and what they tell me is they want to get baptized in the Spirit.\u00a0 And I always say well, are you saved?\u00a0 Are you a Christian?\u00a0 Oh yes, I\u2019m saved but I want to go on further and get this extra work of God where I\u2019m baptized in the Spirit.\u00a0 That doctrine is very popular amongst charismatic Pentecostal Christian circles.\n\nWhen you look at 1 Corinthians 12:13 what tense, just even looking at it in English, what tense is the verb \u201cbaptized\u201d in?\u00a0 \u00a0Past, present or future?\u00a0 \u201cFor by one Spirit we were all\u201d what? \u201cbaptized,\u201d what\u2019s the tense there?\u00a0 Past, it\u2019s already happened.\u00a0 So as a New Testament Christian you don\u2019t have to go out seeking for some kind of extra work of God where\u00a0 you\u2019re going to be baptized in the Spirit, it is a work of God that has already happened to you at the point of faith alone in Christ alone.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 12:13, \u201cFor by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.\u201d]\n\nIn fact, you don\u2019t have to go on with God and start pleading and begging for additional blessings.\u00a0 Why do I say that?\u00a0 Because the Book of Ephesians, Ephesians 1:3 says, of the universal church, what? \u201cBlessed\u201d is that past, present or future?\u00a0 Past, it\u2019s already happened.\u00a0 We have been \u2026 \u201cBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed\u201d past tense again \u201cus with\u201d how many spiritual blessings? All spiritual blessings, \u201cwith every spiritual blessing\u201d God doesn\u2019t say I\u2019ve given you about 95% now you grovel before me and I may throw a few more crumbs your direction so you can have a full blessing.\u00a0 The reality is everything God wants to give you in terms of spiritual blessings\u00a0 have already been transferred to your account.\u00a0 You read these stories about these people that are living under a bridge and yet they\u2019re millionaires because someone has died and through the will or the trust they\u2019re millionaires, they just don\u2019t know how to access what they own.\u00a0 They don\u2019t have the understanding, they don\u2019t have the education so they\u2019re living in poverty yet they\u2019re maxed out in terms of their wealth.\n\nThat is a pretty good description of how many, many Christians are living today.\u00a0 They\u2019re looking at themselves incomplete and they\u2019re groveling before God when in reality God\u2026 and we\u2019re saying Lord bless me and God is saying what else do you want?\u00a0 I\u2019ve blessed you with every blessing in the heavenly places.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a matter of opening His Word and finding out what you possess.\u00a0 You see?\u00a0 You have to be a Bible reader to understand these things.\u00a0 You have an advantage if you\u2019re in a Bible teaching church explaining these things to you.\u00a0 It\u2019s like the person that\u2019s poor who has a bunch of money but they don\u2019t know it, they don\u2019t need money; what they need is an understanding of what they already possess.\u00a0 They need an education on how to access what\u2019s already theirs.\u00a0 And that is a pretty good description of what we have in Christ Jesus; we have all of these wonderful blessings because we have been baptized or identified with His body.\n\nNow a body has many parts, doesn\u2019t it; some are hands, some are feet, some are ears, some are a mouth, I didn\u2019t really know God was going to make me a mouth in His body but I\u2019m happy with the choice.\u00a0 I hope He\u2019s happy too.\u00a0 But we all have different roles that we play in the body of Christ because a body has different facets working in harmony with other facets and you receive that status at the point of faith alone in Christ alone. That\u2019s how you join the universal church, faith alone in Christ alone puts the mark of the Holy Spirit, the sealing mark of the Holy Spirit, which is invisible, on you and it inducts you automatically into the body of Christ.\u00a0 And you have already been maxed out in terms of your blessings.\n\nNow this is important because a lot of people when it comes time for the offering plate to be passed and here at Sugar Land Bible Church we don\u2019t pass the offering plate, and I think that\u2019s one of the things about Sugar Land Bible Church, one of the many things that I really, really like, we don\u2019t\u00a0 put an emphasis on giving.\u00a0 There are boxes in the back and as you have been blessed by this church and through the teaching of the Word of God our experience has been that people, naturally, without being pressured or harassed like to contribute to a church like that and this church, because of that policy and the blessing of God on this church is completely debt free. And you don\u2019t see people pressuring you for money constantly.\u00a0 There\u2019s no big mortgage payment we have to meet so we\u2019ve got to get people to give more and more and more.\n\nThere\u2019s a lot of churches that will not tell you what your blessings are.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because they want you to think that you give to get blessed.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 This is very, very popular in what\u2019s called prosperity gospel, you put in a quarter, God is obligated to give you a dollar.\u00a0 Or the ten-fold blessing. And it\u2019s a powerful fund raising tool; you tell people you give to get blessed.\u00a0 That is not our philosophy here.\u00a0 We do not tell people you give to get blessed; we tell people you should give because you are already blessed.\u00a0 See, if you recognize you\u2019re already blessed then something natural happens in the heart where you give graciously and generously and Paul is very clear that we should give, 2 Corinthians 9, not under compulsion.\u00a0 [2 Corinthians 9:7, \u201cEach one must do<\/em> just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.\u201d]\n\nSo it\u2019s a tragic thing when people think they have to give to get blessed.\u00a0 That\u2019s putting people under compulsion and that\u2019s not the New Testament model.\u00a0 You give because you already have been blessed.\u00a0 How have you been blessed?\u00a0 You have been baptized already into the body of Christ and spiritually speaking your bank account has already been maxed out.\u00a0 So that\u2019s how you join the universal church, faith alone in Christ alone.\n\nWell how do you join the local church?\u00a0 Every local church has its own manmade, and just because it\u2019s manmade doesn\u2019t make it wrong necessarily, but they have their own manmade path to joining. So the way it works at Sugar Land Bible Church is we simply ask you to fill out an application, which I think is one page or two pages; on that application we ask you a few things, what is your testimony and there we\u2019re trying to figure out are you saved or not.\u00a0 If a person says well, I\u2019m saved because I did 100,000 good works that would raise a question mark that the person is not saved so in our minds we don\u2019t think they need to join the church at that point, they need to get saved, they need to hear the gospel and respond to it.\u00a0 So you\u2019ll be asked about your testimony,\u00a0 you\u2019ll be asked on there at some point what are you spiritual gifts, what do you think they are, because we, at Sugar Land Bible Church think that people become members, not to get, you get a lot, but also to give.\u00a0 That\u2019s the New Testament model.\u00a0 God has given to each member of His church at least one spiritual gift, 1 Corinthians 12:7 indicates that through the use of the word \u201ceach.\u201d\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 12:7, \u201cBut to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.\u201d]\n\nSo we want to know where is your giftedness and we\u2019re sort of trying to figure out where you could fit in with the body, which is just good knowledge for the elders to have.\u00a0 And we also ask you have you read our statements of faith; we have statements of faith that all members must comply with and then what we have are teaching positions.\u00a0 The statement of faith is basically the bare minimum requirement of what you have to believe to be a member.\u00a0 The position statements reveal to you the angle that the church will teach from, from the pulpit and all its Sunday School classes and all of its small groups.\u00a0 So the position statements get more specific.\n\nFor example, we believe in pretribulational, premillennial dispensationalism.\u00a0 You say what in the world is that?\u00a0 Well\u00a0 you don\u2019t need to know what that is right now, I\u2019ll explain that to you as you become more and more familiar with our\u00a0 teaching ministries.\u00a0 Now does that mean that every person who joins that church has to believe that?\u00a0 A lot of people don\u2019t even know what that means, so it would be sort of unrealistic to force people to believe in that when the function of the church is to bring the saints to maturity.\u00a0 So you can have question marks in your mind about our position statements and as long as you agree with the statements of faith, which is the lower threshold requirement, then you can become a member of Sugar Land Bible Church.\n\nSo then what happens is, after you fill out the application you\u2019re interviewed by two elders and again the emphasis is are you saved, have you read our teaching positions and statements of faith because we don\u2019t want people to come in here to build a parallel society.\u00a0 We see that in the immigration debate, don\u2019t we.\u00a0 There are people that want to come into the United States, they don\u2019t want to adhere to the values of what the United States is about because they want to change the United States from within.\u00a0 And people do that theologically all the time.\u00a0 People come in with their own ideas and their own doctrines and they kind of see a church like this as a way to promote or propagate those doctrines.\u00a0 So that\u2019s basically why we\u2019re trying to figure out do you basically agree, at least with our statements of faith, and do you also understand that when the church teaches it will teach from the angle of our position statements.\u00a0 So that\u2019s part of the process, well, are you saved, we sometimes ask have you been baptized, because we do baptize people in water, only God can baptize people in the Spirit, Amen.\n\nSo we\u2019re trying to figure out are you saved, do you need to be baptized, do you agree with the angle that this church is coming from in terms of its doctrinal statement and then part of it is are you going to submit to the authority of the elders.\u00a0 The elders here, and I\u2019m one of them, are not perfect people. God doesn\u2019t use perfect people because there aren\u2019t any perfect people.\u00a0 So we\u2019re going to make some mistakes along the way, we\u2019re going to goof up, hopefully those goofs will be minimized.\u00a0 But there are a lot of people that simply do not, particularly in the society that we\u2019re living in, which is very anti-authoritarian, they don\u2019t want to be under anybody\u2019s authority.\u00a0 The problem is the Book of Hebrews, chapter 13 and verse 17, to the sheep, says what?\u00a0 \u201cObey your leaders and submit to them for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account.\u00a0 Let them do this with joy and not with grief for this would be unprofitable to you.\u201d\n\nSo if you join Sugar Land Bible Church are you going to submit to the authority of the leaders or are you going to sort of come in in with an anti-authoritarian mindset.\u00a0\u00a0 And lately what we\u2019ve decided to do, this policy is I don\u2019t think retroactive but pretty much from this point on what we\u2019re trying to do is look, you need to be here for at least six months because only after about six months understanding where this church is coming from, sitting under the sermons, can\u00a0 you in your mind make an educated\u00a0 view, are you going to submit to the authority of this church.\u00a0 A lot of people just want to come in and join just like that.\u00a0 And we\u2019ve discovered that the people that are fastest in are usually the fastest out the door because it\u2019s like a fast marriage, you haven\u2019t had a chance to even get to know each other.\u00a0 So we\u2019ve extended that to at least six months.\n\nWhat I\u2019m trying to get at \u2026 well, let me continue with the process.\u00a0 You fill out the application, you meet with the two elders, the two elders will then go to the elder board and say so and so has applied for membership, we as the two elders that did the interviewing think that such and such a person would fit and be a good member.\u00a0 And so we, as the elder board, take a vote, up or down, whether to admit such a person.\u00a0 There\u2019s not too many people that I can think of that we turn down.\u00a0 The only people that we would turn down would be unsaved people or people that have sort of a rebellious attitude towards leadership and towards our doctrinal statement.\n\nSo then once the elders vote and say such and such can be a member then in the congregation, the next meeting (this is all spelled out in our Constitution if you take time to read it) in the very next meeting the person that has gone through the process is announced that they are now formally a member of Sugar Land Bible Church.\n\nSo what\u2019s my point?\u00a0 My point is to join a local church involves some manmade steps.\u00a0 Now we maybe do things a little bit different than the church around the corner or the church down the street.\u00a0 They may do things their own way but God has given liberty to each local church to establish their own unique requirements for membership.\u00a0 So becoming a member of a local church is contingent on manmade requirements; I\u2019ve just sort of explained what our manmade requirements are.\n\nBut that is not how it works with God\u2019s universal church.\u00a0 The only thing you have to believe in is Christ alone for salvation and then at that point you receive a gift of the Holy Spirit called baptism where He identifies you with Christ\u2019s body.\u00a0\u00a0 Denominations\u2026 you have denominations in the universal church.\u00a0 I mean, is Jesus a Baptist or a Methodist or a Presbyterian.\u00a0 The reality is God\u2019s universal church has no denominational requirements.\u00a0 The local church, on the other hand, can that have denominational affiliations and requirements?\u00a0 Sure it can.\u00a0 But it really doesn\u2019t matter where you go to church in terms of membership to be a member of God\u2019s universal church. \u00a0God\u2019s universal church, I am convinced, is made up of Metha, Catha Bapterians, or Bapticostal Fundamatics, or whatever denomination people are in.\u00a0 God has got people saved that have been sealed by the Holy Spirit that are across the denominational spectrum.\u00a0 So the universal church has no denominational affiliation or requirement but the local church can.\n\nNow at Sugar Land Bible Church we are basically an independent Bible church. What does that mean?\u00a0 It means we don\u2019t have any denominational head over our church but if you were to join a Baptist Church, Presbyterian Church, many of those function differently where you\u2019ve got several churches under some kind of denominational label. So I hope that helps a little bit.\u00a0 The distinction between the universal church and local church, the universal church is a very real thing.\u00a0 We know that because Christ was placed head over the church at His ascension, which occurred long, long before any local church came into existence.\n\nSo we believe there are local churches but we also believe in the universal church.\u00a0 The universal church is one, the local churches are many.\u00a0 As far as membership, everybody that\u2019s a believer from the day of Pentecost to the rapture is part of the universal church; they are members of that church.\u00a0 But members of a local church depends on that local gathering.\u00a0 In the universal church the only people that get in are believers; but in a local church it\u2019s possible, although we try to mitigate this, to have believers and unbelievers.\u00a0 It\u2019s possible to have believers and unbelievers there.\u00a0 The\u00a0 universal church consists of the living and the what?\u00a0 The dead.\u00a0 The local church only living people are obviously there.\n\nCan the universal church this side of eternity assemble at one time and place?\u00a0 It cannot. The first scene that happens is in Revelation 4 and Revelation 5.\u00a0 But it is possible, it\u2019s not easy, but it is possible to have everybody at a local church assembled at one place.\u00a0 The universal church is invisible because we don\u2019t know; only God knows who has the Spirit\u2019s sealing, but a local church is very visible; you just look out and see who\u2019s there, you look at a roster.\u00a0 Most of the New Testament material, is that aimed at the universal church or the local church?\u00a0 The local church.\u00a0 A very small minority of material is aimed at the universal church.\n\nHow do you become a member of the universal church?\u00a0 Faith alone in Christ alone.\u00a0 How do you become a member of a local church.\u00a0 You have to submit to certain manmade requirements. \u00a0And finally, is the universal church denominational?\u00a0 It is not.\u00a0 But a local church can be affiliated with a particular denomination.\n\nAnyway,\u00a0 I hope that adds some clarity to a subject that can be sort of confusing. Do you guys have any thoughts or questions.\u00a0 [someone says something]\u00a0 She\u2019s asking what is the Biblical support for the doctrine of the second blessing?\u00a0 The biblical support comes from Acts 8 and Acts 19.\u00a0 In Acts 8 the Samaritans believed that they did not receive the Holy Spirit right away until the apostles from Jerusalem could come and lay hands on the Samaritans.\u00a0 And in fact when Simon, the Sorcerer, a man steeped in the occult, saw this he wanted that power. Remember that in Acts 8?\u00a0 Now what is going on in Acts 8?\u00a0 Acts 8 and the Book of Acts is a transitional book. There are things happening in the Book of Acts that are not normative today in the church.\u00a0 Paul very clearly explains what\u2019s normative in Romans 8:9, he says if you don\u2019t have the Spirit of Christ you don\u2019t belong to who?\u00a0 Christ.\u00a0 [Romans 8:9, \u201cHowever, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.\u201d]\n\nWhat\u2019s normative is when you trust Christ, you receive the Holy Spirit immediately at the point of faith.\u00a0 So then why did God delay the giving of the Holy Spirit in Acts 8?\u00a0 To understand that you have to understand the Jewish Samaritan conflict.\u00a0 The Jews hated the Samaritans, a half-breed race who set up their own rival system on Mt. Gerizim.\u00a0 And the Samaritans, the Jews hated the Samaritans and the Samaritans hated the Jews.\u00a0 In fact, you remember what the sons of thunder said when Jesus came to a Samaritan village and they did not respond to Christ\u2019s message.\u00a0 They said Lord, shall we not call down fire from heaven and nuke these people?\u00a0 \u201cnuke\u201d is my translation, microwave them, whatever word you\u2019re going to use.\n\nWhy would they say that?\u00a0 Because they hated the Samaritans and this is what blows everybody\u2019s mind when Jesus is ministering to the woman at the well in Samaria\u2026what are you talking to her for?\u00a0 We can talk on and on about the hatred between the Samaritans and the Jews, and if the Holy Spirit had come immediately upon the Samaritan believers in the church age there would have been two churches right out of the gate. \u00a0There would have been a Jewish church and there would have been a Samaritan church.\u00a0 Now what do we know about the church?\u00a0 There\u2019s neither Jew nor slave nor free, we are all one in Christ.\u00a0 The Samaritan had to see that they now belong to Jerusalem and those in Jerusalem had to see, physically or tangibly that they now belong to Samaria because they are all one in Christ.\u00a0 So what is happening in Acts 8 is a transitional issue that is not normative today.\n\nNow my professor, J. Dwight Pentecost wrote a little book on this just before he died, called Transitional Problems in the Book of Acts<\/em>.\u00a0 And he surfaces a number of issues like this where things are happening in the Book of Acts that are not normative throughout the church age. So the Pentecostal movement takes their authority from the Book of Acts.\u00a0\u00a0 The Book of Acts in the charismatic, Pentecostal movement is almost everything.\n\nHere we look at the Book of Acts as a historical book where things were happening that may not be normative today.\u00a0 One of the things they were doing in the Book of Acts is they were selling their homes; I don\u2019t see any of these rich prosperity preachers doing that so it\u2019s sort of selective.\u00a0 So to establish something as normative in the church you cannot locate it only in the Book of Acts.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to find it also in the epistolary literature.\u00a0 So why do we practice communion?\u00a0 We\u2019re getting ready to do that this morning. Because I can find it in Christ\u2019s teaching in the Upper Room, I can find it in the Book of Acts and where else can I find it?\u00a0 In the epistles, 1 Corinthians 11, many other passages I could go to.\u00a0 And if you understand what I just said that distinction between the Pentecostal movement and our movement, we\u2019re viewing the Bible differently in that sense.\u00a0 So I hope that helps.\u00a0 I\u2019m way over time.\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for the doctrine of the church, I just ask that Your Spirit will be at work to make these things clear to us so that we don\u2019t walk in confusion.\u00a0 And I just ask that You\u2019ll bless the worship service that follows. We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name and God\u2019s people said\u2026. Amen!","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t