{"id":18504,"date":"2018-12-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-23T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/ecclesiology-045-no-video-for-this-session\/"},"modified":"2018-12-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-12-23T06:00:00","slug":"ecclesiology-045-no-video-for-this-session","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/ecclesiology-045-no-video-for-this-session\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecclesiology 045 – (no video for this session)"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[87],"series_event":[484],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18504","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-luke","series_event-ecclesiology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Ecclesiology 045 - (no video for this session)","sermon_date":"20181223","sermon_month":"12","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":6305,"sermon_slides":6306,"sermon_mp3":6312,"sermon_id":"122318174842908","series_or_event":484,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":87,"chapter_and_verse":"22:19","sermon_transcript":"Please note that due to recording problems, there is no video for this session.\n\nDr. Andy Woods\n\nEcclesiology 45: Church Ordinances, Part 2\n\nLuke 22:19.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 12-23-18\n\nFather, we\u2019re thankful for Your people, thankful for today and thankful for this morning, thankful for this special time of the year where we commemorate the birth of Your Son Jesus into the world and I pray that He would be first and foremost in our thoughts this morning in the midst of a hectic time of the year.\u00a0 And 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\nAlmost Merry Christmas to everybody.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take our Bibles if we could and open them to Matthew, chapter 18 and verses 18-20.\u00a0 As you all know we\u2019ve been continuing our study through Ecclesiology, the doctrine of the church, and last time if I remember right we were looking at church ordinances.\u00a0 What are ordinances?\u00a0 They\u2019re basically rituals.\u00a0 Ordinances basically are rituals in the church and we said there are probably about three, potentially.\u00a0 The first one is foot washing and we put a question mark by that because as interesting as foot washing is we don\u2019t really think that rises to the level of an ordinance that the Lord has ordained for His church.\u00a0 I\u2019m not necessarily against churches that want to do that but probably when you look at the whole Scripture it really isn\u2019t a ritual that\u2019s supposed to be practiced in the church on equal par with communion or baptism.\n\nSo from there we went to communion and we looked first of all at three things: number one, the frequency, how often are we supposed to take communion, and the issue is you\u2019re supposed to take it regularly.\u00a0 And what that looks like for every local church is sort of up to the leadership of that church, once a week, once a month, once a quarter, the Bible really doesn\u2019t tell us, it just says to practice this regularly.\n\nAnd then we looked at something that I hope alleviated some of you because I know it terrifies Christians if they don\u2019t understand this and it\u2019s an issue of self-examination.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the passage we always read every Sunday, a man ought to examine himself, not every Sunday but every communion Sunday.\u00a0 He or she who comes to the Lord\u2019s Table in an unworthy manner eats and drinks damnation unto himself so people say what in the world is that talking about.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 11:27, \u201cTherefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.\u201d]\u00a0 People say what in the world is that talking about?\u00a0 And last time we were trying to make the case that it\u2019s not \u201cunworthy\u201d that\u2019s the issue, it\u2019s unworthily.\u00a0 It\u2019s an adverb.\n\nSome translations translate it is as \u201cunworthy manner.\u201d\u00a0 So, it\u2019s not so much oh my goodness, I guess I\u2019d not worthy as a child of God to take communion because I have a sin in my life from three months ago that I\u2019ve never confessed.\u00a0 That\u2019s really not the point; the point is the manner in which the Corinthians were partaking of communion, and they were coming to the Table drunk and disorderly.\u00a0 They were treating it as a common meal. They were alienating people in the church that didn\u2019t have money.\u00a0 And so that\u2019s what the Lord is upset about.\u00a0 It\u2019s \u201cunworthily,\u201d it\u2019s the manner in which they were practicing communion that was the issue.\u00a0 So, we went into that a little bit.\n\nIf you\u2019re curious about that you can hear it, all this stuff is archived on our website, that\u2019s www.SLBC.org<\/a> as you probably know.\u00a0 And then from there we went into the meaning of communion.\u00a0 Why do we take communion?\u00a0 Why do we partake of the Lord\u2019s Table?\u00a0 What you discover is within Christendom there are three views on that.\n\nThe first view is called transubstan\u00adtiation which is the idea that when you partake of the elements you\u2019re actually partaking of the physical body and blood of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And we talked about how we do not think that\u2019s a right representation of what the Lord\u2019s Table is all about. First of all, you would be sacrificing Christ anew every single mass or every single Eucharist if that were true.\u00a0 And we went through a number of other issues related to Roman Catholicism and their view of the Lord\u2019s Table.\n\nThe second view is what\u2019s called consubstantiation and some would refer to this as the real presence view.\u00a0 So the second view that I think is not correct, just like I don\u2019t think transub\u00adstantiation is correct is sort of transubstantiation with a kind of lighter touch on it.\u00a0 So what is claimed here is that when you take communion, or the Lord\u2019s Table, the Lord is unusually present during that time.\u00a0 In fact, His presence is more manifest during that time than at other times in church life, or other times during the life of the Christian.\u00a0 And I can kind of see why people believe this because when you take communion it\u2019s sort of a special time, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Usually everybody is quiet and prayerful and reflective and some people get kind of that extra liver quiver that they don\u2019t normally get during the life of the church and so you think well, Jesus is really here during this, I mean, He\u2019s here 100% of the time during this and he\u2019s only here 75% of the time during Sunday School.\u00a0 And when the sermon comes around He\u2019s there about 50% of the time but when you take the Lord\u2019s Table He\u2019s there 100% of the time.\n\nThat\u2019s what\u2019s called the real presence view and it\u2019s actually the view of Martin Luther because what you have to understand about Martin Luther, and we covered this in our Protestant Reformation series that we did here a year or two ago; it\u2019s that Luther was a Roman Catholic and Luther really didn\u2019t want to start a new movement called the Reformed Movement.\u00a0 He basically wanted to continue on as a Roman Catholic and he wanted to change some things in the Roman Catholic Church.\u00a0 And he was as surprised as anybody when he posted his 95 Theses on the door in Wittenberg Germany, back in the 16th<\/sup> century, that all of a sudden, the Roman Catholic hierarchy was calling him a heretic.\u00a0 So he was given, what we might say the right foot of fellowship, he was basically, and all these reformers, were kicked out of the church.\u00a0 So they really had no choice but to start their own churches.\n\nAnd so what you have to understand about the Protestant Reformation is they did a lot of good but they dragged with them into their new reformed movement certain vestiges of Roman Catholicism that had been taught for a thousand years or more, one of which if we have time we\u2019ll get into it today, is infant baptism.\u00a0 And another thing that they drug with them into their new reform movement was consubstantiation.\u00a0 Now they changed it where they\u2019re not going to believe in transubstantiation any more but they took sort of a lighter form of transubstantiation and just said well we\u2019ll make this the real presence view.\u00a0 And instead of making the elements the actual physical body and blood of Jesus Christ we\u2019ll just say well Jesus is abnormally present during the Lord\u2019s Table.\u00a0 So even Lutheran churches today, to my knowledge, still embrace this real presence view.\n\nHere\u2019s a scholar commenting on Martin Luther and I found this quote and this Lutheran scholar says:\u00a0 \u201cLuther denied the doctrine of Transubstantiation, rejecting any molecular change of the elements. Consubstantiation, a term never employed by Luther,\u201d so Luther never used the word \u201cconsubstantiation but he taught what has come to be known as consubstantiation. \u00a0\u201cConsubstantiation, a term never employed by Luther is used to explain his view that the body and blood are present \u2018in, with, and under\u2019 the bread and wine.\u201d (the real presence view).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [Emir Caner, \u2018Balthasar Hubmaier and His Theological Participation in the Reformation: Ecclesiology and Soteriology,\u2019 Faith and Mission <\/em>21, no. 1 (2003): 42.\n\nSo it\u2019s not so much saying that the elements represent the physical body and blood of Jesus Christ but here\u2019s what he did say, Christ is present in, with and under the wine and that sort of leads to this idea that Jesus is abnormally present when the Lord\u2019s Table is administered, as compared to other times during church life or the Christian calendar or the life of the Christian.\u00a0 So this is called the real presence view.\n\nAnd amazingly what I\u2019ve seen in my lifetime is this second view consubstantiation, the real presence view, is making a comeback and the areas you see it making a comeback in is what\u2019s called the emergent church.\u00a0 The emergent church is a movement that started, probably in the 90\u2019s, maybe a little bit later, and their goal is sort of to leapfrog the Protestant Reformation and go back to the medieval monasticism because their view is that there\u2019s a lot of things that were helpful to the life of the church that were lost through the Protestant Reformation that need to be retrieved from medieval monasticism.\n\nSo they talk a lot about the desert fathers, and contemplative prayer, and they\u2019re into a practice called Lectio <\/em>Divina<\/em> which is kind of a repetition of Scripture.\u00a0 And when you actually study some of these practices\u2026 and they\u2019re into visualization, all these kinds of things, and when you actually look at their practices they\u2019re really not biblical, they\u2019re not found anywhere in the Bible.\u00a0 And then you press them, why are you bringing all of these things back into the church; the darkening of the sanctuary, the practicing of advent, all of these kinds of practices, Ash Wednesday, candles, all of these kinds of things.\n\nThey have something called\u2026what\u2019s the name of that maize that they walk through? The [can't understand word] is like on a carpet and sometimes it\u2019s an actual maize but you follow this maize around and all this stuff is supposed to bring you close to Christ and all these kinds of things.\u00a0 When you ask them why are you practicing all of this stuff, it\u2019s not found anywhere in the Bible, their view is these things were regularly practiced prior to the Protestant Reformation and so if we\u2019re really become all that Christ has called us to become we need to go back and retrieve all this stuff. And one of the things that they\u2019re retrieving from the dust pan of history is this real presence view.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because it appeals to the sort of mystical side that\u2019s governing or generating the emergent church.\n\nSo I have a few quotes related to the emergent church and you should know something about the emergent church, even if it\u2019s not affecting your life personally I can guarantee you it\u2019s affecting the life of your children and your grandchildren, because that\u2019s who these emergent church people have targeted.\n\nOne writer says this: \u201cPost-moderns\u201d that\u2019s the young people, \u201cprefer to encounter Christ by using all their senses. That\u2019s part of the appeal of classical liturgical or contemplative worship: the incense and candles, making the sign of the cross, the taste and smell of the bread and wine, touching icons and being anointed with oil.\u201d\n\nPost-moderns prefer to encounter Christ by using all their senses. That\u2019s part of the appeal of classical liturgical or contemplative worship: the incense and candles, making the sign of the cross, the taste and smell of the bread and wine, touching icons and being anointed with oil.\u201d\u00a0 [Julie B. Sevig, The Lutheran<\/em>, 9\/2001.]\n\nAnother emergent church writer says, \u201cModern thinkers\u201d I guess that would be the old folks, like myself and up, \u201cModern thinkers want things very orderly and systematic because they learn in a logical and progressive manner.\u201d\u00a0 So goodness, we can\u2019t have a logical presentation of God, what a shame that would be, even though logic itself comes from God.\u00a0 Well what do they want instead? \u201cThey\u201d the older people, \u201cprefer, generally, to sit and listen.\u201d\u00a0 I wish that were true.\u00a0 \u201cEmerging post-Christian generations, on the other hand, long to experience<\/u><\/em> a transcendent God during a worship gathering rather than simply learn about him<\/u><\/em>.\u201d \u00a0[(Italics added) Dan Kimball, The Emerging Church<\/em>, 121]\n\nSo, it\u2019s all about what you experience and what you feel rather than what the Bible actually says.\u00a0 Now I\u2019m not against feelings and experiences but the reality is if you don\u2019t have a grid by which you determine your experiences, or look at your experiences I should say, or evaluate your experiences how do you even know if your experience is from God, because Satan has (as we have talked about many time) can create all kinds of experiences, can\u2019t he?\u00a0 Did you know that Satan is even going to raise the beast, as we\u2019ll study in Revelation 13, from the dead?\u00a0 You talk about an experience!\u00a0 So why would people embrace that instead of the true Christ?\u00a0 Because they\u2019re not hemmed in by doctrine and the Bible any more, everything is how they feel, and experiences.\n\nAnd this writer goes on and says, \u201cThey\u201d that\u2019s the younger people, \u201cwant fluidity and freedom rather than a neatly flowing set program. They want to see the arts.\u201d Now am I against the arts?\u00a0 Not at all; in fact don\u2019t I have some up there right now.\u00a0 I think sometimes a picture paints a thousand words.\u00a0\u00a0 The problem is now when that sort of takes over and eclipses what church is really supposed to be about, which is the proclamation of Scripture, that\u2019s where it becomes a problem.\n\nAnd I notice in all of these environments the preaching and teaching of the Scripture starts to almost disappear.\u00a0\u00a0 You really don\u2019t have preachers and teachers any more in these kinds of environments; you have what they call group facilitators.\u00a0 So, a group facilitator is not somebody who authorita\u00adtively declares truth, someone with the training in theology and original languages to study during the week and proclaim what the Word of God says, but it\u2019s really to guide a discussion because after all at the end of the day all of our opinions are equal.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 I mean, we\u2019re all valuable is sort of the logic.\n\nAnd to a certain extent we are all valuable and we\u2019re all priests, the priesthood of all believers but there\u2019s a place in the Scripture where people that have actually given themselves to the study of God\u2019s Word to proclaim what the Scripture says.\u00a0 That\u2019s the office of pastor-teacher.\u00a0 That\u2019s sort of looked at as pass\u00e9 in the emergent church, and so you don\u2019t want to authoritatively declare truth in that kind of environment because you\u2019re asserting your own opinion over somebody else\u2019s.\u00a0 I mean, Joe Blow in the pew there might have had his own list of co-experiences with God and isn\u2019t his experience just as valid as your proclamation of truth?\u00a0 And this is the mindset of the emergent church, so the goal is just sort of to guide the discussion, you don\u2019t really have pulpits anymore.\u00a0 Not that I\u2019m a big stalwart of coats and ties, I do here at this church wear a coat and tie just because I guess I\u2019m of the belief that if you into your attorney\u2019s office or your doctor\u2019s office you\u2019re going to see him or her dressed professionally.\u00a0 And I guess I sort of feel that if I\u2019m going to stand up here and declare eternal things shouldn\u2019t I look quasi-professional about it?\n\nBut you\u2019ll notice that in the emergent church the coats and ties are out; pulpits are out and it\u2019s usually a guy in kind of like a Hawaiian type of shirt and he\u2019s got the all-around tan and all this stuff.\u00a0\u00a0 And he\u2019s just kind of going around, you know, facilitating everybody\u2019s view.\u00a0 This is the emergent church, they want validity, they want freedom rather than neatly flowing program.\u00a0 They want to see the arts in a sense of mystery brought into the worship service, rather than focusing on professionalism and excellence.\u00a0 This will shape how a worship gathering is designed.\n\nSo what people think is oh my goodness, if we want the church to grow and if we want to attract young people we\u2019ve got to make our church this way.\u00a0 And you can see how the real presence view with its emphasis on Jesus being mystically present in a special way during the Lord\u2019s Supper would be very appealing to this crowd.\u00a0 So the view that martin Luther brought into the Reform circles is sort of making a comeback today through what\u2019s called the emergent church.\u00a0 And my thinking on it is well where is your Scriptural support for the idea of the real presence view?\u00a0 And it\u2019s sort of disheartening because the young people involved in the emergent church, they\u2019re really not all that persuaded by textual arguments from the Bible.\u00a0 I mean, what really motivates these people is the church growth mindset, what works, and the second thing is what feels right.\n\nI\u2019m not wired that way at all, I want to see it in the Bible or I can\u2019t really believe something.\u00a0 And one of the downers in life is you sort of assume that your mindset is shared by everybody else.\u00a0 So you go to an emergent church leaders or participants and you start making your points from the Bible and they don\u2019t really care that much about it.\u00a0 I mean, you think you can prove them wrong by what the Bible says\u2026 well, they have a completely different authority base than what I have or what you have.\n\nAnd even this week a pastor texted me and he said I\u2019m so discouraged, I\u2019ve got \u00a0this young couple in my church and I\u2019ve taught them free grace, soteriology, I taught them dispensational eschatology which are all fancy names for the kind of things we teach here, and they\u2019re leaving this church for this other church down the road that\u2019s very traditional, very reformed, quasi Roman Catholic, and I\u2019m just so discouraged I don\u2019t know what to do; if you have a book you could recommend.\u00a0 And my answer to that is well I do have some books I can recommend, one of them I wrote, but also what you need to understand is there\u2019s probably something pulling them that has nothing to do with the Bible.\u00a0 In other words, you can give them Bible, you can give them a book, you can give them theology until the cows come home but it\u2019s likely that something is pulling them outside the Bible.\u00a0 It\u2019s likely they are wanting a sense of feeling or they want a certain feeling when they come to church, or they feel disconnected from history so they like the idea that we can trace our lineage back to Peter as the first Pope, or whatever.\u00a0 But it\u2019s likely something is pulling them outside of the biblical text.\n\nAnd that\u2019s kind of a hard pill to swallow as a pastor because you spend so much of your time studying and teaching the Bible to learn that there\u2019s a lot of people within Christendom that really don\u2019t even think that highly of the Bible at all.\u00a0 In fact, what they\u2019re thinking about is marketing, growth, or feelings.\u00a0 So that\u2019s the emergent church in a nutshell, and that\u2019s why the real presence view you can see would be very palatable to that group.\n\nWhere is the Biblical support for the real presence view?\u00a0 Well the fact is there is not Biblical support for it.\u00a0 They use two verses, one of them is Romans 8:9 which says this: \u201cHowever, you are not\u00a0in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God\u00a0dwells in you. But\u00a0if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.\u201d\n\nNow what does this have to do with communion?\u00a0 Absolutely nothing, this isn\u2019t even a communion context here; this is talking about the Spirit coming inside the Christian when the Christian trusts Jesus Christ as Savior.\u00a0 It has nothing to do with Jesus being present during a Lord\u2019s Table celebration in an unusual way.\n\nNow here\u2019s the verse everybody uses for almost everything.\u00a0 Matthew 18:20. You\u2019ve heard this one used, right?\u00a0 \u201cFor where two or three have gathered together in My name,\u00a0I am there in\u201d what?\u00a0 \u201cin their midst.\u201d\u00a0 I can\u2019t tell you the countless ways we use this without really paying attention to its original meaning.\u00a0 Someone is struggling\u2026 the church down the street is so BIG and I\u2019m pastoring a small church.\u00a0 Well, don\u2019t worry brother, \u201cFor where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 18:20] Or we\u2019re going to have Wednesday night prayer meeting and we need you to come but we\u2019re discouraged because the turnout is so low, but don\u2019t worry, \u201cwhere two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.\u201d\n\nSo they like to use this, real presence people, for the Lord\u2019s Table.\u00a0\u00a0 I mean, after all Jesus says \u201cwhere two or three are gathered there I am in your midst.\u201d\u00a0 That would certainly apply to communion, right, in their minds?\u00a0 So Jesus is atypically abnormally present during the communion in ways that He\u2019s not present during other times in the life of the church.\n\nAnd if you learn nothing else out of this church just learn the three rules of Bible study: those are context, context, context!\u00a0 Context, you know how Peter says \u201clove covers a multitude of sins.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [1 Peter 4:8, \u201cAbove all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.\u201d]\u00a0 Can I give you my rendition of that? Context covers a multitude of interpretive sins. How\u2019s that?\u00a0 Because people throw the Bible around all the time and you get some crazy interpret\u00adations of the Bible and you're rescued from those interpretations just by taking the words and putting them back into their context.\u00a0 And this is my problem with the whole emergent church\u2019s view of Lectio<\/em> Divina<\/em>, where you retrieve this practice from medieval monasticism where you sort of take a verse of Scripture and you empty your mind of all content.\u00a0 Now if someone is telling you to empty your mind of all content you automatically know that\u2019s not God; that\u2019s Eastern Mysticism.\u00a0 The Bible is not about emptying your mind of all content.\u00a0 In fact, didn\u2019t Joshua tell us to meditate on God\u2019s law.\u00a0 How frequently?\u00a0 Day and night!\u00a0 If you want to meditate that\u2019s fine but it\u2019s not some kind of content less exercise.\n\nSo Lectio<\/em> Divina<\/em> is this practice, sort of going back to medieval monasticism, the Desert Fathers, [The Desert Fathers (along with Desert Mothers) were early Christian<\/u> hermits, ascetics, and monks who lived mainly in the Scetes desert of Egypt beginning around the third century AD.]\u00a0 And you empty your mind of all content and you find a verse of Scripture and you don\u2019t exegete that verse of Scripture, you don\u2019t try to figure out what the Scripture means, you just start repeating it over and over again in your mind.\u00a0 In fact, you\u2019re using that verse regardless of what the original content of the verse says.\u00a0 So this is what they mean by Lectio<\/em> Divina<\/em> and this is something we\u2019re supposedly all supposed to be practicing.\u00a0 And my problem is that verse rattling around in your head doesn\u2019t mean anything.\u00a0 You can make it mean whatever you want it to mean, if you don\u2019t study it in context<\/u>.\n\nSo this is what they\u2019re sort of doing with Matthew 18:20 to, when they make an appeal to the Bible (which is rare) they make an appeal to the Bible to form the basis for the real presence view.\u00a0 And so they think it\u2019s found there in Matthew 18:20. Now what does Matthew 18:20 have to do with communion?\u00a0 Nothing; it\u2019s got nothing to do with communion in context, just like Romans 8:9 has nothing to do with the Lord\u2019s Table.\u00a0 [Romans 8:9, \u201cHowever, you are not\u00a0in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God\u00a0dwells in you. But\u00a0if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.\u201d\u00a0 Matthew 18:20, \u201cFor where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 18:20]\n\nDoes anybody know what Matthew 18:20 is talking about, the context of it?\u00a0 It\u2019s talking about church discipline.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 Because verse 15 comes before verse 20, see how easy this is.\u00a0 [Matthew 18:15] \u201cIf your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [16] But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED.\u201d\u00a0 [17] If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.\u00a0 [18] Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.\u00a0 [19] Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.\u00a0 [20] For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.\u2019\u201d\n\nSo, it\u2019s talking about the process of church discipline, the leadership of the church executing that process properly.\u00a0 And God is assuring that when you\u2019re executing that purpose properly, as painful as it is, because it\u2019s never fun to do this to anybody, or have it done to them, Jesus makes a promise, there I am in the midst of you.\u00a0 That\u2019s the \u201ctwo or three\u201d referenced earlier in the chapter; nothing to do with communion, nothing to do with just a typical church gathering.\u00a0 The Lord is present all of the time, even in communion, but we shouldn\u2019t say during communion He\u2019s especially present.\u00a0 That\u2019s what called the real presence view.\n\nSo, if the transubstantiation view doesn\u2019t work, and if the consubstantiation view doesn\u2019t work, what then is the true definition of communion?\u00a0 I\u2019m so glad you asked because that takes us to the correct view, which is the memorial view.\u00a0 It\u2019s quite similar to the rainbow in the sky, Genesis 9:8-17.\n\nEvery time you look at that rainbow biblically what are we to be reminded of?\u00a0 That the judgment of God that hit this world, in what\u2019s called the global flood, and God has promised never to do that identical thing again.\u00a0 He will never hit this world in judgment wiping out every single person with the exception of eight people.\u00a0 Even the great tribulation period itself that we\u2019re studying in the Book of Revelation on Sunday morning will not produce what the flood produced, the total extermination of the human race, because in Matthew\u2019s Gospel there are many that survived the tribulation period, many of who are believers and they go into the thousand-year kingdom and they begin to repopulate the earth.\u00a0 So, God has promised never to flood the world again and He\u2019s given us a sign for it, which is the rainbow in the sky.\u00a0 You can read about it in Genesis 9:8-17.\n\n[Genesis 9:8-17, \u201cThen God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, [9]\u00a0 Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; [10] and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. [11] I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.\u201d [12] God said, \u201cThis is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; [13]\u00a0 I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. \u00a0[14] \u201cIt shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, [15] and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. \u00a0[16] \u201cWhen the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.\u201d [17] And God said to Noah, \u201cThis is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.\u201d]\n\nWhen you look at the rainbow you\u2019re not getting a special liver quiver from God (you might, I mean, that\u2019s not wrong) but God doesn\u2019t say I\u2019m abnormally present when you look at a rainbow.\u00a0 I mean, it\u2019s just neat to look at a rainbow, see it\u2019s beauty and its color and you\u2019re reminded of God\u2019s promise.\u00a0 That\u2019s all that rainbow in the sky is there for.\u00a0 And I think that\u2019s a pretty good analogy for what the Lord\u2019s Table is.\u00a0 What exactly is the Lord\u2019s Table?\u00a0 It\u2019s a reminder to the Christian concerning what Jesus did for us; that\u2019s what it\u2019s there to do.\u00a0 It\u2019s there to stimulate remembrance on the part of the Christian as you take the bread and drink the cup you\u2019re reminded of Christ\u2019s body and blood, they are not his blood but they\u2019re reminders of His body and blood.\n\nAnd then consequently we have an attitude of gratitude and we remember that salvation is free to us but it wasn\u2019t free to Jesus, the second member of the Godhead.\u00a0 That\u2019s the correct view of communion; it\u2019s not saying Jesus is abnormally present during communion, although sometimes it feels like it. It\u2019s not saying this is actually the body and blood\u2014transubstantiation view.\u00a0 But these are the memorial view.\u00a0 And this was the view not taught by the Reformer Martin Luther but it began to be taught by the Protestant Reformer, Zwingli, and he led the Protestant Reformation (if I remember right) I want to say Switzerland, and he is the one that really started to articulate what the Bible says concerning the Lord\u2019s Table, which is the memorial view.\u00a0 And I think if you were to go to a Baptist church, Presbyterian church, most Reformed churches today other than the Lutheran church, that would basically be their view, the memorial view, coming from Zwingli.\u00a0 And of course because we believe this is the view that has the best Scriptural support it\u2019s the view that we embrace here at Sugar Land Bible Church.\n\nIs there support for the transubstantiation view?\u00a0 Not really.\u00a0 Is there biblical support for the consubstantiation view?\u00a0 Not really.\u00a0 But there is biblical support for the memorial view and you\u2019ll find that in Luke 22:19-20, and you might want to flip over there and look at it.\u00a0 This is where Jesus outlines the Lord\u2019s Table for the very first time and it says, \u201cAnd when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, \u2018This is My body\u2019\u201d now last week we saw that that\u2019s metaphorical language, they would have never thought that His body was the bread because they were looking at Him square in the eye when He was giving this ordinance.\n\nSo it\u2019s like saying Jesus, Jesus says I am the light of the world, I\u2019m the bread of life, I\u2019m the vine, etc.\u00a0 That\u2019s what He means when He says this bread \u201cis My body,\u201d in other words it represents something.\u00a0 \u201cThis is My body, which is given for you; do this in\u2026\u201d what\u2019s the next word, \u201cremembrance of Me,\u201d that\u2019s the key word.\u00a0 That\u2019s the word Zwingli focused on.\u00a0 [20] \u201cAnd in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, \u2018This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 And of course, the verse that I typically read on communion Sunday is 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, I don\u2019t know if I need to read that right now, you might want to just jot that down because Paul is quoting what Jesus said here in the Upper Room when He\u2019s talking about communion for the Corinthians.\n\n[1 Corinthians 11:23-26, \u201cFor I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; [24] and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, \u2018This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.\u2019\u00a0 [25] In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, \u2018This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.\u2019 [26] For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.\u201d]\n\nSo, what are we remembering exactly, at the Lord\u2019s Table?\u00a0 Here\u2019s some things we\u2019re supposed to think about?\u00a0 We\u2019re supposed to think about the fact that Christ\u2019s sacrifice is final and complete and past because Jesus said, His final words on the cross were \u201cIt is finished.\u201d [John 19:30, \u201cTherefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, \u2018It is finished!\u2019 And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.\u201d]\u00a0 John 19:30, which is just an English translation of the Greek word tetelestai,<\/em> which means paid in full, and tetelestai <\/em>there is in the perfect tense, this is a big deal, I won\u2019t bore you with Greek tenses unless it\u2019s really significant. \u00a0The perfect tense is a one-time action with ongoing results.\u00a0 And that\u2019s a great description of what Christ did; He died once and look at all of the ongoing benefits that we have because of what Christ did.\u00a0 Here we are in the twenty-first century still benefiting from it.\n\nSo, Christianity is not a doing thing, it\u2019s a done thing!\u00a0 If you\u2019re here today and you think gosh, I\u2019ve got to do X, Y and Z to somehow make myself better or right with God, then you\u2019re not understanding the basics of Christianity or the gospel itself.\u00a0 Christianity is not I\u2019ve got to do a bunch of stuff.\u00a0\u00a0 You know, God bought lunch so I need to throw in the tip.\u00a0 That\u2019s not Christianity.\u00a0 Christianity is Jesus did the whole thing and we receive as a free gift what he does.\u00a0 And you can go out from this point in your life and live an exemplary life but the fact of the matter is at the end of your life you will be no more accepted by God than you are at the moment you trusted Him.\u00a0 The whole deal with God is \u201cin Him,\u201d \u201cin Christ\u201d we have been given \u201cevery spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.\u201d Ephesians 1:3. [Ephesians 1:3, \u201cBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,\u201d]\n\nThere\u2019s no further blessing that you can gain other than what you already have in Jesus Christ.\u00a0 So we\u2019re not out doing, what we\u2019re thinking about when we take communion is done and what that gives us access to because we have received it as a gift.\n\nWe\u2019re also remembering our present union with Christ because Romans 6:3 and many other verses in Romans 6, says that we have been baptized into Christ.\u00a0 [Romans 6:3, \u201cOr do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?\u201d] \u00a0\u00a0Baptized there is not water, we\u2019ll talk about water baptism a little bit later as time permits, but baptized there, Romans 6, means identification.\u00a0 I am identified with Christ the moment I trust in Christ as my Savior.\u00a0 What does that mean?\u00a0 It means when He died who else died?\u00a0 I died. When He was buried who else was buried?\u00a0 I was buried.\u00a0 When He rose from the dead who else rose from the dead?\u00a0 I rose from the dead.\u00a0 When He ascended who else ascended?\u00a0 I ascended.\u00a0 By the way, did you know that, that according to Ephesians 2:6 that Jesus is not the only one at the Father\u2019s right hand right now.\u00a0 [Ephesians 2:6, \u201cand raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.\u201d]\u00a0 We, as His children, are right there with Him, legally and positionally because of our baptism into Christ.\n\nSo, we kind of come before God with this warm theology, crawling over a bed of nails saying Oh Lord, it\u2019s just little old me down here, would You please see fit to answer this prayer request I have.\u00a0 And we don\u2019t even understand who we are in Christ.\u00a0 We don\u2019t even understand our riches or we wouldn\u2019t be groveling and we wouldn\u2019t be begging.\u00a0 The fact of the matter is you already have every spiritual blessing that can be given to you in Christ Jesus and you already are seated with Christ at the right hand of the Father.\u00a0 So, given who you are\u2026 it would be like Donald Trump\u2019s son, Baron Trump who\u2019s twelve or thirteen, something like that, like him crawling into the White House oh gosh, I\u2019m coming before the President of the United States, I mean, I wonder if he\u2019s going to banish me or punish me.\u00a0 But since he\u2019s the President\u2019s son the President can\u2019t wait to put his arms around that kid and he can\u2019t wait to hear what he has to say, can\u2019t wait to hear what his requests are.\u00a0 That\u2019s who we are \u201cin Christ.\u201d\n\nWe\u2019re not grovelers and beggars and crawling over broken glass saying well, I hope God will listen to me today I\u2019ve done three good things.\u00a0 Now I\u2019ve done three good things, He\u2019s got to listen to this one prayer request, right?\u00a0 That\u2019s not Christianity.\u00a0 Christianity is done, we are presently unified with Christ and that\u2019s what we celebrate during communion.\u00a0 And guess what folks, we\u2019re not just unified with Christ, we\u2019re unified with who?\u00a0 With each other, because we are all part of the same body, because Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12:13 that not only have we been baptized into Christ Jesus but we have also been baptized into the body of Christ.\u00a0 \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 So not only are we identified with Christ at the point of faith, we\u2019re identified with each other.\n\nAnd you say well, I don\u2019t really like sister so and so, and brother so and so, they really get on my nerves.\u00a0 I mean, I avoid conversations with them, I don\u2019t like them.\u00a0 We\u2019re not really functioning according to our identity when we get that petty.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 When we hold grudges against each other, because we are already positionally identified with each other. So, if we\u2019re already positionally identified with each other, as Paul says the matters of this life should work out in and of themselves through a process of love.\u00a0 So, we remember that at the Lord\u2019s Table.\u00a0 I also think that at the Lord\u2019s Table we remember what Christ said about His return, because in 1 Corinthians 11:26, after Paul outlines the Lord\u2019s Table for the Corinthians, and repeats what Jesus says in the Upper Room, it says in verse 26, \u201cFor as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord\u2019s death\u201d and most people stop there, what\u2019s the rest of the verse say, \u201cuntil He comes.\u201d\n\nSo, there\u2019s part of communion where we\u2019re thinking about Jesus is coming back.\u00a0 Do you all agree with that, believe that, Jesus is coming back?\u00a0 I mean, do you realize that this world is on a downward spiral and our hope is not so much in fixing this world but it\u2019s in being rescued out of the world because Jesus is our blessed hope.\u00a0 I mean isn\u2019t that what Jesus said in the Upper Room, [John 14:2] \u201cIn My Father\u2019s house are many dwelling places, if it were not so I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you.\u00a0 [3] \u201cIf I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.\u201d\u00a0 [4] And you know the way to the place I am going.\u201d\n\nIs that your hope or is your hope in fixing X problem in your life, gaining that salary, putting enough money into that retirement account, getting the right people elected to office, which I\u2019m very pro politics and getting the right people elected to office.\u00a0 But the reality is all of that stuff, as significant as it is from an earthly point of view, that\u2019s not our hope.\u00a0 Our hope is in Jesus is coming back to take us out of the world.\u00a0 And so we\u2019re to think about that as we partake of the Lord\u2019s Table.\n\nAnd we are also to consider, as we partake of the Lord\u2019s Table the basic facts of the gospel which are described in 1 Corinthians 11:24-25, \u201cand when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, \u201cThis is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.\u201d [25] In the same way He took<\/em> the cup also after supper, saying, \u201cThis cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it,<\/em> in remembrance of Me.\u201d\u00a0 So, it\u2019s a reminder of the fact that salvation is free to us but it was not free to Jesus Christ, the Second Member of the Eternal Godhead who paid such a great price to gain our salvation.\n\nSo, I hope you look at the Lord\u2019s Table as not just another empty ritual.\u00a0 Oh, we\u2019ve got to do this again, every quarter, you know\u2026 when is the pastor going to start preaching.\u00a0 Or some of you, when is the pastor going to stop preaching.\u00a0 You know, it\u2019s once a quarter, we\u2019ve got to get the tables out again, the deacons got to dress up.\u00a0 I hope you\u2019re not looking at that as just another empty ritual within Christendom, because God forbid, if that\u2019s the case we\u2019ve lost the whole meaning.\u00a0 The point of it is do this in remembrance of Me.\u00a0 There are tangible things that we\u2019re supposed to remember as we partake of the Lord\u2019s Table.\n\nSo, ordinances, we have foot washing, probably not an ordinance.\u00a0 Communion, an ordinance.\u00a0 And then the third ordinance that God has given to His church is the ordinance of baptism and here we\u2019re speaking of water baptism.\u00a0 So let\u2019s talk about first what baptism is not.\u00a0 Let me give you, like I did with communion, the wrong views before we get to the right view.\n\nA lot of people believe in what\u2019s called baptismal regeneration.\u00a0 What does that mean?\u00a0 It means when you get baptized you become a Christian.\u00a0 And is that true?\u00a0 Well, if that is true, then it contradicts what Paul says elsewhere because that would be salvation by works and we\u2019re told very clearly in Ephesians 2:8-9, \u201c \u201cFor by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, [9] not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.\u201d So if you argue for baptismal regeneration then you\u2019re simultaneously arguing for a salvation by work.\u00a0\u00a0 And you say well, pastor, are you saying that unbaptized people are going to get into heaven?\u00a0 Well, it depends what you mean by baptism.\u00a0 Are you talking about our baptism into Christ and our baptism with one another, which is something that God does at the point of personal faith in Christ.\u00a0 Is that what you mean by baptism?\u00a0 If that\u2019s what you mean by baptism then I think it is true un-baptized people will not get into heaven.\n\nBut if what you mean by baptism is water baptism, if someone has never gone through the ritual of water baptism are you telling me that they\u2019re going to get into heaven?\u00a0 Absolutely, there\u2019s going to be a lot of unbaptized people in heaven.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because salvation is not by works, it\u2019s a gift by faith alone in Christ alone. I got saved when I was sixteen, and I was raised Episcopalian and this kind of raised some consternation in my house because I told my dad I wanted to get water baptized.\u00a0 And he says what are you talking about, you\u2019ve already been baptized.\u00a0 And he took out the family picture book and lo and behold there I was in an Episcopalian church and an Episcopalian priest was pouring water over my head.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I was very happy, it looked like I was screaming at the top of my lungs.\u00a0 And he said well what do you mean you want to get baptized (he thought I was joining a cult) you\u2019ve already been baptized, infant baptism.\n\nSo, at age sixteen I decided you know what, as long as I\u2019m living at this house I\u2019m just going to be in constant loggerheads with my dad on this so I decided to postpone water baptism until I got older, moved out, etc.\u00a0 So, I finally got water baptized when I was 27 (in a Jacuzzi by the way).\u00a0 And now if you\u2019re telling me that water baptism gets you to heaven I guess what that means is if I\u2019d been hit by a car from age 16 to age 27 I would have gone to hell, right?\u00a0 Well of course that\u2019s a silly thing, I had trusted Christ, I had taken Christ as my Savior through faith alone, I was baptized by the Holy Spirit, I was baptized into the body of Christ.\u00a0 And because I made a decision to postpone a ritual to keep peace in my family, which was a decision I felt the Lord led me to make, and you can bicker with me on that, whether I made the right decision but at the time as a 16 year old that\u2019s what I thought the right thing to do was.\u00a0 Are you telling me that I was unregenerate during age 16 to age 27?\u00a0 That\u2019s the kind of conclusion you\u2019re forced to if you believe that baptism gets you to heaven.\n\nBy the way, there\u2019s a guy in the Bible that we know a lot about who got into heaven but was never baptized.\u00a0 Who would that be? The thief on the cross.\u00a0 People say well you don\u2019t believe in death bed conversions, do you?\u00a0 Well, of course I do, it\u2019s right there in the Bible.\u00a0 Jesus, as you know, was crucified between two thieves, one the thief goes to his grave ridiculing Christ.\u00a0 By the way, the fact that Jesus was crucified between two thieves is a fulfillment of Isaiah 53, written seven hundred years in advance which says He\u2019d be numbered amongst the transgressors. [Isaiah 53:12, \u201cTherefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Mark 15:28, \u201cAnd the Scripture was fulfilled which says, \u2018And He was numbered with transgressors.\u201d]\n\nHow literal is that, there He is crucified between two thieves, one thief ridicules Christ, the other thief at the last moment reaches out to Christ by way of faith and makes a verbal statement to Him expressing that faith, and Jesus says in response, \u201cAnd He said to him, Today you shall be with Me in Paradise.\u201d\u00a0 [Luke 23:43] He gave an immediate assurance of salvation.\u00a0 \u201cToday you will be with Me in Paradise,\u201d Jesus didn\u2019t yell out okay you all, quick throw water on this guy, he\u2019s about to die, we\u2019ve got to get this guy baptized so we can get him into heaven.\u00a0 NO, the Bible doesn\u2019t say that.\n\nSo are there going to be unwater baptized people in heaven?\u00a0 A lot of people I think.\u00a0 The most prominent I can think of is the thief on the cross.\u00a0 By the way, if baptism gets you to heaven some of the things Paul says don\u2019t make any sense.\u00a0 For example, over in 1 Corinthians 1:13-17, Paul had his own little personality cult of people that were following him.\n\n[1 Corinthians 1:13-17, \u201cHas Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? [14] I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, [15] so that no one would say you were baptized in my name. [16] Now I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other. [17] For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.\u201d]\n\nSome were following Peter, some were following Cephas, some were following Apollos, some were following Paul, and Paul here says is Christ divided and rebukes his own little group of Paul groupies, I guess I could put it that way. And he says in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 12, \u201cNow I mean this, that each one of you is saying, \u2018I am of Paul,\u2019 and \u2018I of Apollos,\u2019 and \u2018I of Cephas,\u2019 and \u2018I of Christ.\u201d\u00a0 That type of behavior what does it contradict?\u00a0 It contradicts the fact that we have been baptized into Christ\u2019s body, 1 Corinthians 12:13. [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\nWell you know pastor, I really don\u2019t like it when you\u2019re not here because I prefer your preaching over the guys preaching that fills your place.\u00a0 Or people say I do like it when you\u2019re not here because I like their preaching better than yours, that kind of mentality.\u00a0 That is a total contradiction to the fact that we all have been baptized into Christ.\u00a0 I mean, why should it matter whose preaching on that particular day as long as they\u2019re teaching the Word of God.\u00a0 If you start to gather around, or if a [can't understand word] starts to rise or fall based on who\u2019s preaching then what is that?\u00a0 That\u2019s a personality cult and that\u2019s the very thing that Paul condemns here.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cHe says in 1 Corinthians 1:13, \u201cHas Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?\u201d\u00a0 And then he says this \u201cI thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius.\u201d [1 Corinthians 1:14]\n\nNow you\u2019ll notice that Paul did baptize but here he is taking baptism and de-emphasizing it to do what?\u00a0 To address his own little personality cult following that he had.\u00a0 He says, \u201cI thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius.\u201d\u00a0 And that\u2019s a very strange statement to make if baptism gets you to heaven.\u00a0 I mean, if baptismal regeneration is true that\u2019s a very odd statement, it\u2019s nonsensical, at least to me.\n\nHe says in verse 14, \u201cI thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, [15] so that no one would say you were baptized in my name.\u201d\u00a0 Verse 16, \u201cNow I did baptize also the household of Stephanas;\u201d now this next statement he makes you appreciate it more as he gets older, as you get older, because he kind of has a senior moment here, isn\u2019t it interesting that when you get older you put things in microwave ovens and forget they\u2019re there, and you kind of walk in a room and can\u2019t remember why you walked into that room.\u00a0 And so, I\u2019m sort of appreciative of what Paul says here in verse 16, \u201cNow I did baptize also the household of Stephanas, beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other.\u201d\u00a0 I can\u2019t remember who I baptized.\u00a0 I remember this guy and this guy and this household and that household, other than that to be frank with you I don\u2019t even remember.\n\nNow that\u2019s a very, very odd statement to make if baptism gets you to heaven.\u00a0 He says in verse 17, \u201cFor Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.\u201d\u00a0 So, if baptismal regeneration is true these statements that Paul makes where he is not (to my mind) devaluating human baptism, it has its place, but he\u2019s putting it in its proper order so as to avoid having a personality following.\u00a0 These statements wouldn\u2019t even be included in our Bible if baptism gets you to heaven and if baptismal regeneration is true.\n\nWell, what about infant baptism?\u00a0 I mean if baptism doesn\u2019t get you to heaven what do you think about baptizing infants?\u00a0 Well again that\u2019s the Lutheran perspective and he (Martin Luther) is the Protestant Reformer who brought infant baptism into the Reformed faith.\u00a0 Here is one scholar speaking of Martin Luther, and it says, \u201cHe believed that such sacraments\u201d what sacraments? One of them being baptism, \u201ccould generate faith and hence could generate the faith of an infant.\u201d\u00a0 Now when I was in Wittenberg, Germany on one of my trips we actually went to the very first church that launched the Protestant Reformation.\u00a0 This is the church that Luther started after he was kicked out of the Roman Catholic Church and right there in the midst of the church, towards the front, is that little tiny pool there, where he baptized children.\u00a0 And the tour guide who was an expert, you get different guides depending on what city you\u2019re in, made the point that the water in that pool was always cold and the kids didn\u2019t like being stuck in there.\u00a0 But when Luther baptized his own children, the guide said, they heated the water, so he made a special exception for his own family.\n\nBut Martin Luther, where did he get this idea that you baptize infants?\u00a0 He was Roman Catholic so he dragged it into Protestantism through the writings of Augustine, and so forth.\u00a0 So you do find certain Reformed churches today will baptize infants.\u00a0 And they\u2019ll try to make their case from Genesis 17.\u00a0 Genesis 17 is the Abrahamic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant is where those identifying with the covenant are circumcised on the eighth day, so they say well look, part of the Abrahamic Covenant is circumcision of infants on the eight day and let\u2019s just sort of translate that over into baptism for infants in the age of the church.\u00a0 And that\u2019s sort of the logic of their position.\n\nAnd this is why they do not like the dreaded \u201cD\u201d word.\u00a0 What\u2019s the \u201cD\u201d word that I\u2019m thinking of?\u00a0 Dispensationalism.\u00a0 A dispensationalist believes those are rules for Israel but not rules for the church.\u00a0 And I had to learn this lesson the hard way because I was teaching a Bible study in California at a local church and some folks in a Presbyterian church nearby, this is right when my wife and I had been married, got wind of it and they wanted me to come into their church, in the Presbyterian church, I guess they\u2019d been listening to some of it, and they wanted me to teach this in the Presbyterian church.\n\nAnd so I naively thought well, if it works over here in this church it\u2019s going to work in the Presbyterian church, right?\u00a0 And I went in and had a conversation with the pastor and I made the mistake of bringing up the \u201cD\u201d word, that I\u2019m a dispensationalist, and that shut the whole thing off right then and there.\u00a0 And this is an exact quote from him.\u00a0 He said, \u201cI don\u2019t want any of that heresy taught in this church.\u201d\u00a0 And at the time I was sort of taken back by that\u2026 \u201cheresy\u201d?\u00a0 I mean, to me dispensationalism a friend, it helps you unlock the whole Bible when you start seeing the different rules apply in different ages of time. \u00a0But then in hindsight I could see what he was very worried about.\u00a0 He was worried that I was going to stand up in front of his people and say we\u2019re in the age of the church now, the church is a parenthesis, it\u2019s a unique body or mystery, different rules apply, such as the rule that once you\u2019re saved you\u2019re supposed to get baptized.\u00a0 And he wanted everybody not thinking that way, he wanted everybody thinking about Genesis 17 which to his mind kept on going, you just made a little adjustment from circumcision to baptism and he didn\u2019t want all these people in his church rising up and demanding to be water baptized after they were saved when in fact they were all baptized as infants.\u00a0 See that?\n\nSo the answer to their use of Genesis 17 is the \u201cD\u201d word, Dispensationalism.\u00a0 And we\u2019re out of time but next week I\u2019ll show you the very clear pattern in the Book of Acts where once a person is saved they are supposed to get water baptized.\u00a0 Water baptism never precedes salvation.\u00a0 And so this is the reason we don\u2019t baptize infants, because how in the world would you validate whether they\u2019re Christians or not, they can\u2019t even talk and express their newfound faith in Christ.\u00a0 I will baptize any infant that can walk forward in front of the microphone and give me their testimony on how they got saved.\u00a0 That infant we\u2019ll baptize.\u00a0 But other than that the pattern of Scripture is salvation first, baptism second.\u00a0 So the baptismal regeneration view is not right, the infant baptism view is not right, and we\u2019ll get out of that and we\u2019ll talk about what baptism actually is.\u00a0 Sorry I talked to long but what else is new.\n\nLet\u2019s pray. Father, thank You for today, thank You for the Christmas season and thank You for being with us as we study the doctrine of the church.\u00a0 I pray You\u2019ll be with us during the main service as we take a look this morning at the virgin birth of Christ. 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