Sermon Tone Analysis

What Baptist’s Believe, Section on the church, Herschel Hobbs – The Tozer Pulpit, Vol.

II, Book 7, p. 23, “No Second Class Christians.” -

 

 

*INTRODUCTION*

 

I have a couple of things on my long-term preaching schedule that I need to get to.

One of them is the book of Romans and the other is the Church Covenant.

Tonight we will look at a little of both as we talk about the first paragraph of the Covenant */and/* Romans chapter twelve, verses four and five.

A covenant is an agreement that is entered into by two or more parties.

Generally, each party has some benefits and some responsibilities.

There are all sorts of examples in the Bible where people entered into Covenant agreements with one another and with God.

When you come through the front doors of this church, right in front of you is our Church Covenant.

It is the agreement that the members here have entered into.

We all share in the benefits of it and we all share in responsibility toward it.

Basically what it says is that we have agreed to walk together in subjection to Christ, one another, and the teachings of the Bible.

What I want us to do for the next little bit is to look at the biblical foundations of our Covenant.

And let’s begin by looking at the first paragraph.

*Having been led, as we believe, by the Spirit of God, 2 to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour 3 and, on the profession of our faith,4 having been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,5 we do now, in the presence of God and this assembly, most solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with one another as one body in Christ.6*

When I read that first paragraph I thought, “Well, that is the makeup of the church.”

So, tonight we are going to look at some things that the Bible teaches about the church.

*/So, stand if you will and let’s read together Romans 12:4-5/*

 

*Romans 12:4 - 5** (KJV) **4**For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:  **5**So we, /being/ many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

*

 

 

Let us pray…

 

There are so many misunderstandings of what the church is that I thought we ought to set the record straight.

*I.

WHAT IS IT?*

 

 

            *A.

A GROUP GATHERED TO GOD based on their relationship to Jesus*

 

That is why not every assembly is a church.

Not every group that gathers is gathered in the name of Jesus.

And some claim the name but do not have the identification with the Jesus of the NT.

But */WE/* are gathered together as body of Christ.

See…

                        *1.

IT IS GOD’S CHURCH*

 

*1 Timothy 3:15** (KJV) **15**But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.*

It is God’s church because we are God’s people

 

And…

God’s people only become His people as a result of His call.

What then is the church?

The church is people who have been called by God and who belong to God

 

                        *2.

SAINT SIZED*

 

No matter how many members are in a true New Testament church, it is just the right size.

See, when the definition of the church is properly understood then it becomes clear that in God’s eyes there are no large churches and there are no small churches.

A group that may be small in number is just as much a s church as a group that is large in number.

Stoney Point and New Salem and Green Pond are just as much complete NT churches as Woodstock and Bellevue and Dallas First Baptist

 

 

                        *3.

CHRIST IS ITS HEAD*

 

We are autonomous but we do not do as we will but as Christ wills.

We operate under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

*Ephesians 5:23** (KJV) **23**For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

*

 

Christ is the head of the church

 

            Colossians 1:18

 

The church is built upon Jesus Christ

 

            Matthew 16:18

 

The church was purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ

 

            Acts 20:28

 

What then is the church?

The church is people who have been called by God and who belong to God

                        -BASED ON THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO JESUS CHRIST.

You and I are in covenant to work and worship together under His leadership.

*B.

A POWERFUL PLACE OF POTENTIAL*

 

It is an assembly of believers baptized in the Holy Spirit, who have gathered in the name of Jesus Christ.

- Jesus is in the midst and the Holy Spirit is in every believer.

– THERE HAS TO BE POWER HERE.

It is my contention that there is no way that a true NT church cannot have Pentecost power.

*1.

PACKS PENTECOST POWER*

 

 

Same Lord and Savior – Same Spirit

* *

*                                    a.

PERPETUATED BY GOD FOR 2,000+ YEARS*

 

 

                                    For 2,000 years God has perpetuated the church.

We do not have the same people in the church who were in the church 2,000 years ago but there is a line of descent that has not been broken.

Just as with the race of man.

I was not there to sit around with the family of Adam and Eve but somehow, through biological reproduction I am of the same race.

God has perpetuated man in that He has never just stopped and started all over.

Today they can take your DNA and tell you if your ancestors came from Europe or Asia or wherever.

Same thing with the church -

God has not stopped the church and then started it all over.

There are groups who teach that the truth of the church was lost and so they had to start their cult to find it again.

*b.

SAME SPIRIT*

 

What makes the members of the modern day church different from the OT believers in God is the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Ekklesia was used in the Greek Old Testament to refer to God’s chosen people.

When the NT believers used that term to describe themselves it not only gave them a connection with the God of the OT but it gave them a distinction of being called out.

What distinguishes us from OT believers is that we have the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God in our lives.

*/A/*

 

So, same Spirit but then the church has Power because it is neither dead nor weak.

*2.

NEITHER WEAK NOR DEAD*

 

 

*A Sunday school teacher asked her little children, as they were on the way to church service, "And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?"

One bright little girl replied, "Because people are sleeping."*

You and I are not just in a social club together.

We are gathered here as one assembly of the church that belongs to God.

Every church is a church of potential if the Spirit of God is in it.

A New Testament church is not a dead church and a dead church is not a New Testament church.

Some are sick – Some need to get the world out and let God back in.

Some need a Bible in their pulpit.

I talked to a fellow the other day who had moved into an area close to here and I knew that he was looking for a church.

So, we talked and he gave me a little history of the one that he had found.

He said that the people were almost at the point of selling but God filled the pulpit and is filling the pews and now that church is growing.

Every church is a church of potential if the Spirit of God is in it.

Every church has potential because the same God who worked in the church at Jerusalem still works today.

What has had such a dampening effect on the church today is a low level of spiritual enthusiasm and the negative impact of some very bad examples.

There have been some church leaders and others who have sinned and done some foolish things – I know that.