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Sermon from Oct. 30, 2011
Brother Joseph Barr
Matthew 16:18-19 “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Who, What, Where and When
We are fighting a battle. I’ve been fighting this battle for over 30 years, trying to get people to understand truth. Today I’m going to break it down so even a child can understand it. We didn’t invite you here today to insult you, but as a gospel preacher, I’m here to inform you. I don’t mean to hurt your feelings.
In John 8:44, Jesus is explaining the character of the devil. So the devil is a liar. He is a deceiver. “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” In 2 Corinthians 11:13 the Bible says, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.” Jesus chose 12 apostles so the devil said, “I’m gonna get me some apostles too.” Keep in mind that you can’t tell the difference by looking at them. If a lie doesn’t appear to be true, it has no strength at all. The only way we can tell the difference between a true apostle and a false apostle is the Bible. That’s why everything I say I’ll show you in the Bible and I hope you won’t shoot the messenger.
We are talking about the church. We’re going to start by looking at the church of the Bible.
• Jesus said in Matthew 16:18-19 and Acts 20:28 the following: Matt 16:18-19 “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
• Acts 20:28 “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.”
• God gave Peter the authority to build His church. The church and the Kingdom are the same thing. This church is from God. Jesus paid for it by a death on the cross. The church is His body. Christ established ONE church:
• Eph 1:22-23, “And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
• Col 1:18, “And he is the head of the body, the church…”
• Eph 4:4, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling.
Since Christ has one body and that body is His church, there is just one church. And since Christ had His church, the devil wanted churches of his own, with ministers of his own.
You’ve heard the phrase, “go to the church of your choice.” Well, is there’s only one church, what choice is there? There is only one name given in the Bible:
• Romans 16:16 “Salute one another with an holy kiss. The churches of Christ salute you.”
• Acts 20:28 “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.”
• 1 John 5:7 “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”
Jesus IS God. When was the one church founded?
• It was promised in the Old Testament in Isaiah 2:1-3 ““The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
• Came to pass in the New - Acts 1 and 2
So the “when” is the day of Pentacost, n 33 A.D. “Where” is Jerusalem.
In Acts 2:4, the Bible says, “ 4And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” The speaking in tongues was not jibber-jabber. This was enabling men of every nation to hear and understand the gospel. Acts 2:36-38 says, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
37Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
38Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
God is calling the whole world into one place and I don’t know about you but I’m coming. Acts 2:41 & 47 says, “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
47Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”
Now, if the Lord was adding to the church, that means the church was established. Well, you know what the devil is going to do. Christ built one church so the devil wants to build many. People always wonder where all these other churches come from. Here’s the “Who, What, Where and When” of several churches:
• Methodist: Wesley, along with his brother(Charles) founded the Holy Club while they were at Oxford, where John was a fellow and later a lecturer at Lincoln College.[10] The holy club met weekly and they systematically set about living a holy life. They were branded as "Methodist" by students at Oxford who derided the methodical way they ordered their lives. Wesley took the attempted mockery and turned it into a title of honour. Initially Whitefield and the Wesleys merely sought reform, by way of a return to the gospel, within the Church of England, but the movement spread with revival and soon a significant number of Anglican clergy became known as Methodists in the mid-18th century.[11] The movement did not form a separate denomination in England until after John Wesley's death in 1791.
The only problem is, it doesn’t match the Bible. Did John Wesley die for anybody? Is God’s word authoritative? What you’ve got to do is find Methodist church in the Bible.
• A.M.E.: The African Methodist Episcopal Church was started in 1787, in Philadelphia PA, when a group of people of African descent was pulled from their knees while praying in St. George Methodist Episcopal Church. The group, led by 27 year-old Richard Allen, an ex-slave, politely walked out, thus starting a movement that resulted in the creation of America's first formally organized black church. In time, other "African" churches were started and in 1816, these churches came together to form the A.M.E. Church...with Richard Allen as its first Bishop. These facts say to us that the AME Church was the result of racial discrimination rather than theological or doctrinal concerns.
There ain’t no such thing as a black church. Or a white church. Or a Mexican church. If you wanna get to heaven, you’ve got to get over this black/white thing. “By His stripes, we ALL are healed.” You won’t see any black history day at the Conway church of Christ. We celebrate all people. You can’t go around saying the white man’s got you down. You got yourself down! Pull your pants up and get over it!
• Baptist: The African Methodist Episcopal Church was started in 1787, in Philadelphia PA, when a group of people of African descent was pulled from their knees while praying in St. George Methodist Episcopal Church. The group, led by 27 year-old Richard Allen, an ex-slave, politely walked out, thus starting a movement that resulted in the creation of America's first formally organized black church. In time, other "African" churches were started and in 1816, these churches came together to form the A.M.E. Church...with Richard Allen as its first Bishop. These facts say to us that the AME Church was the result of racial discrimination rather than theological or doctrinal concerns.
When the Lord added to His church, did He add them to the Baptist or the Methodist? No, but yet people were being saved in Acts 2:47. So, why did we need the creation of the Baptist church in 1609? Answer is, we didn’t. Now, these men, by the way, acted in good conscious with themselves. But good conscious can’t save you. It has to be in accordance with God.
• Jehovah’s Witness: The Jehovah's Witnesses was begun by Charles Taze Russell in 1872. He was born on February 16, 1852, the son of Joseph L. and Anna Eliza Russell. He had great difficulty in dealing with the doctrine of eternal hell fire and in his studies came to deny not only eternal punishment, but also the Trinity, and the deity of Christ and the Holy Spirit. When Russell was 18, he organized a Bible class in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Now, these are not Christians but I’m putting this up here because it’s one of the fastest growing religions in the world. In Matthew 16, Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do men say I am? 16And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 1 John 5:11 says “
11And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
• Pentecostal Holiness: Pentecostalism and the Holiness Movement are charismatic religious traditions within Protestant Christianity that gave rise in the 19th and 20th centuries in the United States. Pentecostal and Holiness churches are often characterized by their emphasis on a post-conversion encounter with God through an experience called the "baptism of the Holy Spirit." Though different in origin and organization, Pentecostal and Holiness churches have some commonalities. The Holiness Movement can be traced back to John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. Holiness Christians believed that faith in Jesus included sanctification from sin and transition into a life of holiness. The Holiness Movement spread to the western and southern United States and urged followers to live by a strict moral code
The Holy Spirit doesn’t directly operate on people today. Not since Acts 2:37. The mind behind that movement is Charles Parham. Basically, they were saying, “this sitting down, singing and listening to a sermon thing is not enough – we’ve got to have more.”
What more could Christ do? He Warns Us. Matt 15:8-9 “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” That tells you, right there, about how Jesus feels about the commandments of men.
The only way we can follow God is by following the Bible. You can’t follow Him with your imagination. Titus 1:14, “Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.”
God tells us what to expect in John 12:48-50 “ He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.”
If God said, “Come to the party dressed in black,” why is it that some of us will show up dressed in red or blue or purple? God said, “we will be judged by what is written in the Bible (Matthew 7:21: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”) Why is it that some of us will show up all dressed up in the words of men?
Just don’t leave here today saying it doesn’t matter. It does matter. The Bible is right.
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