Admonition Podcast

helps if I turn it on and not on.

Good morning.

It's good to see all of you here, especially good to see many visitors that we have among
us.

We're grateful for your presence and we're grateful for the opportunity that you have to
be with us this morning.

We pray that you will be able to come back and visit with us again soon.

Raise your hand if you're...

If you do not have one of these booklets uh with you or if you do not have one here,
Isaiah is going to pass them out.

So if you just raise your hand if you need one.

We're going to be covering the second booklet in the Back to the Bible series.

And Isaiah, if you need more, there's more in the back in the foyer.

ah So just keep your hands up till you get one and uh they'll make sure those are passed
out.

We mentioned a few weeks ago,

as we started this training, this is an opportunity for us to train ourselves how to study
with others.

It is also an opportunity to learn because sometimes we find, oh, I didn't know that
particular detail or I didn't know best how to present that particular detail concerning

the Word of God.

As we study with individuals who, by and large,

have spent their entire life never being given any structure to how they study the Bible,
and certainly not to God's expectations for their lives.

So as we go through this study, you may find some things, you come along, say, well, I
didn't know that, or I need to study that more, or you say, this is entirely foreign to

me.

I've never heard anything like this.

Don't hesitate as your time here before you leave and walk out those doors to let us know.

We'd be happy to study with you further and if this is, with this being the second book,
you will have missed the first booklet.

You say, I liked what I saw here, but I'd like to start at the beginning.

Just reach out to myself or Justin and we'd be happy to sit down and go through this
material with you.

Now, having said that, we will have the slides, the overheads uh for these lessons as we
go through.

but we will move through at a fairly rapid pace.

uh So if you're turning to all of the passages in the text, that's good.

If you say, can't keep up, that's fine too.

The passages will be on the slides.

Now, not all of the slides came in exactly the way they were supposed to this morning, so
bear with me if we have some issues there.

We're beginning with a second booklet dealing with the church.

And we're gonna begin in Matthew chapter 16.

As we have done in the previous two studies, we're going to take this particular lesson,
this particular booklet, break it up into two lessons, and I will be commenting along the

way on some things that you may want to consider if you're sitting down and studying
through this with someone who is trying to learn what God would have them to do.

This particular booklet focuses on the church and worship and what God

commands us to do under the New Testament age.

We noticed in the first booklet as we concluded that study that we are not under the Old
Testament anymore, but rather that we are under the New Testament, the law of Christ, and

in accordance with that we need to know what the law of Christ, the New Testament, says
concerning the church and worship.

Matthew chapter 16 verse 18.

And I say unto thee, now this is Jesus speaking to his disciples because he asked his
disciples, who do men say that I am?

And they gave some of the ideas that the people had said.

Then Peter pointed out that you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

Jesus commended Peter concerning this and he said, and I also say unto thee, thou art
Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.

and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The question is, who built the
church?

The answer is Jesus did.

It's His church and He came to build it.

To whom does the church belong?

Well, as we just answered, it belongs to Jesus.

Did Jesus build, according to the text, churches, plural, or the church?

singular.

singular.

There's only one.

He didn't come to build a plethora of churches.

He certainly didn't come to build two or 20,000 different churches, all believing and
teaching different things.

Then consider, as we go further, I gotta fill these in as we go, uh turn if you will to
Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians chapter 1 beginning in verse 20.

Now some of these longer texts when you've got

A number of verses here, they won't all be on the text, just the ones, the section where
it's highlighted for the answers, but we're going to read the entire thing.

In Ephesians chapter 1 verse 20, which he worked in Christ, being God the Father, worked
in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the

heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion.

And every name that is named, not only in the age

in this age, but also in that which is to come.

And he, God the Father, put all things under his, Jesus' feet, and gave him to be head
over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in

all." Is Jesus the head over all things to the church?

Now one of the things, especially for the visitors who haven't been in one of studies
before, one of things we reiterate is as you're sitting down with someone and you're

teaching them the gospel and using the Back to the Bible series, you might ask the
question.

You let them answer it.

You let them read it.

You let them acknowledge what the text says.

Now if you're going around, if you've got maybe a group of three and you're taking turns,
it's okay if everyone answers.

But make sure that they're seeing the answer.

Make sure that they're reading the answer and that they're acknowledging that the answer
is what came exactly out of the text.

So is Jesus the head over all things of the church?

Yes, that's what the text plainly says.

In verse 23, the church is also called his blank, his body.

The church is the body of Christ, according to the text.

Now consider as well Ephesians chapter 1 verses 22 and 23.

There are some things that you can do and in the booklet, the evangelism explained
booklet, there's some of these visuals are there.

Sometimes I'll use them and sometimes I won't.

Depends on the person I'm studying with and how well I think they're coming to this.

But imagine if you had a body with multiple heads.

Would there be something wrong with that body?

Yes there would.

Well, what if you had a body with one head but multiple bodies?

Be something wrong with that body?

Absolutely.

We'd all acknowledge that.

The text says that the church singular is the body singular of Christ.

Christ is not the head of a multitude of bodies.

Christ is not

one head with other heads of a single body.

Rather, there is one body and one head.

Consider as well, we go over to Ephesians chapter four.

In Ephesians chapter four and in verse four, we read, there is one body and one spirit,
just as you were called in one hope of your calling.

Is there only one hope?

The answer is yes.

Is there only one Holy Spirit?

The answer is yes.

Is there only one body?

The answer is yes.

Now, why is it that it's important when you get to chapter 4 that you had already gone to
chapter 1?

Because chapter 1 tells you in the context what the body is referencing.

It's referencing the church.

So when you know the body is referencing the church, you now know that what Paul is saying
in Ephesians 4 is that there's one church.

John chapter 17, as Jesus is praying in the garden, or praying up in the upper room before
he goes into the garden, get my words out here correctly, Jesus is praying with his

disciples in private in the upper room.

And we read in John chapter 17 and in verse 20, I do not pray for these alone, that these
are the disciples sitting there.

He says, do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through
their word, that they may be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also

may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.

Did Jesus pray that his followers all be one?

The answer is yes, he did.

As a matter of fact, when you look at that text, notice how many times Jesus emphasizes
the oneness of the relationship of his believers and himself and God the Father.

over and over and over he repeats this idea of oneness.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul as he is writing to the church in Corinth will write to
them about division and the problems that they have there in the church at Corinth.

And chapter 1 verse 10 we read,

all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that you be
perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Now it's important that someone realizes that Paul is writing to a church and he's writing
to them and he's admonishing them, he's pleading with them to all speak the same thing.

that there should be no divisions among them.

So, is religious division condemned by Paul in this passage?

Yes it is.

Since religious division is condemned and since Jesus prayed that all his followers be
one, must we strive to be one religiously?

Yes we must.

Alright, then consider

Colossians chapter 1 verse 18.

Colossians chapter 1 verse 18, and He is the head of the body.

Now, who do we already know is the one who's the head of the body because Ephesians told
us?

Jesus is.

Okay, so the context here is Jesus.

Jesus is the head of the body, the Church, which is the beginning, the firstborn from the
dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

Since Jesus is the head of the Church, the body.

Should we go to anyone other than Jesus and the inspired writers of the New Testament,
which taught what Jesus said, you need book one to remember that, and the inspired writers

of the New Testament to learn the organization, worship, and name of the church?

Should we go to anybody else other than Jesus for that information?

No.

It's His church.

He built it.

He gave the instructions for it.

Okay?

the organization of the church.

So we're going to move from kind of a header up here concerning the church and who's in
charge of it, who's the head of it, to how is it organized.

And we're going spend the majority of our time here this morning.

Matthew chapter 15.

Matthew chapter 15.

We read in verse 13, but he answered and said, every plant which my heavenly father has
not planted will be uprooted.

If a church is not built in accordance with the word of God, will it be rooted up?

One of the things that you need to know and you need to recognize as you're studying with
people is that you will be confronted with your own thoughts on a matter as you're trying

to teach them.

And if you are not settled on what the Word of God says, and if you cannot with confidence
state that you agree with what the Word of God says,

You need to ask someone else to have that Bible study.

Because the last thing you need to do is sit down with the Word of God and try and
convince someone to believe the Word of God and obey it if you don't believe the Word of

God and obey it.

Jesus spoke to the Pharisees and He condemned the Pharisees there in Matthew chapter 23
because He said that they would go scouring the earth to make one proselyte, that is to

take a Gentile and convert them to being a Jew, to convert them to Judaism, and they'd end
up creating someone who was twice the child of hell that they were.

What's Jesus' point?

Jesus' point and his emphasis was that when they would sit down and convince that
individual to leave paganism, to leave their polytheistic ideologies, to leave their

religions that didn't originate in God, they'd turn around and teach them to obey the
doctrines of men and the thoughts of men instead of God.

So they would rescue them from

false teaching and paganism only to introduce them to false teaching and human doctrines.

when you sit down with someone and you emphasize to them that if they will open up the
Word of God and they will just do what it says and when they do what it says they will be

right in the eyes of God and then they look at you and go, well is that what you believe?

And you start squirming.

And you start, well I don't know that it means exactly

You need to have the honesty and the uprightness of character to say, know what, I've
always thought that that wasn't what I believed, but I've had to change my beliefs to

match what God says, just like He's telling you you have to do.

part of the challenge to be a teacher is that you have to teach yourself.

And if you are unwilling to open the Word of God and believe what it says,

Do the courtesy of not trying to teach someone else to do what you won't do yourself.

If a church is not built in accordance with the Word of God, will it be uprooted?

Yes, it will, because God didn't plan it.

Now, consider as well Acts chapter 14.

Acts chapter 14, you're reading about the early church.

You're reading about the growth of the early church.

So in Acts chapter 14 and in verse 23,

you read, so when they had appointed elders in every church, well, what's going on?

Who is this talking about?

Well, if you read a few verses back and help them with this so they have a frame of
reference, Paul and Barnabas have gone out on a missionary journey and they have

established churches and preached and in cities and as a result, individuals have been
converted.

churches have been established.

Now they're going back through those cities on a return journey.

And we read, when they had preached the gospel to that city and many dismayed...

uh Sorry, I looked down and went to the wrong verse.

Verse 23, so when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they
commended them to the Lord in whom they believe.

So as they returned in their journeys back to their original starting point, they ordained
or appointed elders in every church.

Did these inspired men ordain elders in every church?

Yes, they did.

Are we right if we did as they did in ordaining a plurality of elders in every
congregation?

Absolutely.

If we do what the early church did and the early church was right in the eyes of God, then
we'll be right in the eyes of God.

We don't have to have a conference or a discussion or a big meeting about it.

All we have to do is open the book and do what they did.

All right?

Acts chapter 20.

There was one question that didn't show up on that slide, and I'm going to read it before
as you all are turning over to Acts chapter 20 verse 17.

Could we be wrong if we did not organize the church the way those inspired men of God did?

Absolutely.

Now we're leaving it to our judgment to be right in the eyes of God instead of God's
example.

Acts chapter 20 verse 17.

We read, Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews.

This is Paul.

Go back to the verse before it and you'll see that.

He reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers and in the
marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.

Go down to verse 28.

wrong chapter.

I'm in chapter 17.

That's...

that'll happen by the way.

When you sit down and study you're trying to focus on two things at once, you'll start
reading from a chapter and they're like, what are you reading?

Acts chapter 20.

I'm making all the mistakes for you so you know that it's okay to make them.

Alright, Acts chapter 20 verse 17.

Not 17, verse 17.

Notice the plurality there.

Verse 28.

Yes.

Did you know there's a bunch of denominations that do not believe that?

That they have individuals in different roles serving as the overseers of the church.

In most Baptist churches, it's deacons that are overseers in the church, not elders.

But that's not what the text says, is it?

The elders were given the role, the responsibility, and did you notice what Paul said?

That the Holy Spirit said that this is what they were to do.

Now, Titus chapter 1.

Titus chapter 1, verses 5 through 7.

read, for this reason I left you...

I'm going to catch up here with the slides.

Titus chapter 1 verse 5 uh

a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the
faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort

and convict those who contradict." As Paul writes here in this text, we read this.

Notice when Paul told Titus to set things in order, did he tell him to ordain elders?

The answer is yes.

When we do what Titus did in organizing the church, are we doing the will of God?

Yes.

We're doing exactly what God told the first century church to do.

Do the terms, because you've seen them in these passages, do the terms elders, bishop, and
overseer refer to the same office?

The answer is yes.

They're described as elders, Paul met with the elders, but they're also described as
overseers.

And in the King James Version, the Old King James Version, you find the term bishop used
to refer to an overseer.

It's an Old English word that means overseer.

Can you say that again?

Alright, we'll get into that in just a moment.

So, deacons are different, but elders, bishops, overseers, all referencing the same group
of people and all to be appointed in the body of Christ.

And as you notice there in Titus chapter 1, there's a list of qualifications, something
that may come up.

has come up in multiple studies with people as I've studied in this area.

They'll say, well, the church where you attend, do you have elders?

And I'll say, no.

And they'll look at you like, whoa, isn't that what you're supposed to have?

But that's where the text helps you, doesn't it?

Because as you read Titus chapter 1 verses 5 through 7 or 5 through 9, you'll find a list
of qualifications.

And you can say, well, at the moment we're working on getting to the point where we have
men who are qualified and able and willing to do it, but we have to have them meet the

qualifications.

We can't appoint somebody who's not qualified.

So you understand and help them understand that at times a church, just like the churches
as Paul went through on the missionary journey the first time and established the

churches, he didn't put elders in or appoint elders the moment he established the church.

He came back through and appointed elders and he sent Timothy and he sent Titus back to
the churches to appoint elders to give time for the men there to mature and to meet the

qualifications.

So you actually can re-emphasize the importance of doing it God's way and not man's way.

Over in First Timothy chapter 3, we find another list.

And if you've been in the adult Bible class here on Sunday mornings, you know that we've
been through this passage, but we're going to read it again as we go through the text.

Verse 1 of chapter 3, this is a faithful saying, If a man desires the position of a
bishop, he desires a good work.

A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good
behavior, hospitable, able to teach.

As you're going through and studying with this person, don't spend eight weeks teaching
him what all these things mean.

That's not the point of the study.

The point is for him to realize there's qualifications and God set a standard.

All right?

So notice, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not
quarrelsome, not covetous.

one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence.

For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church
of God?

Not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride, he fall into the same condemnation as the
devil.

Moreover, he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into
reproach and the snare of the devil.

Now, must an elder be married?

Well, in order to be the husband of one wife, you have to be married.

Must an elder have children?

Well, the text clearly states that he must be one who rules his own house.

Well, having his children in subjection with all gravity.

May a recent convert or a novice serve as an elder?

The answer is no.

The text plainly states that he must be one who is not a novice, not one who's
inexperienced in the Word of God.

So if you had an entire congregation that had just been converted in the last month, would
you have anyone qualified to be elders?

No!

Why not?

They're all novices.

You have to give people time to develop from the state of being a babe in Christ, a
novice, to being mature in Christ in order to have one who's qualified to be an elder.

But then consider chapter 3 verses 8 through 12 to the discussion or the question that was
just asked.

Likewise, deacons.

must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money,
holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience.

But let these also first be tested, then let them serve as deacons, being found
blameless."

Now, notice in the text that the text tells you what a deacon is, just the same way the
other text told us what an elder was.

The role of an elder, according to Paul in Acts chapter 20, was to be an overseer.

The text here tells us the role of a deacon is to be a servant.

As a matter of fact, if you were to go look up the word deacon and its original meaning in
the Greek, because it's a Greek word, not an English word, it means minister or servant.

So you have in the church in the first century those who were overseers who met
qualifications.

Now you have a group of servants who are meeting

qualifications.

Now does that mean they're the only ones who can do any work or any service in the church?

Not at all.

but rather they have special responsibility and service that they do, therefore they must
meet qualifications for those responsibilities.

Let's continue down into verse 12.

Likewise their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things.

Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.

What church official is under discussion here?

Deacons.

Is it God's plan that there be qualified elders and deacons in every church?

Yes, it is.

That is exactly what God established to be the ideal scenario and the organization of the
church.

Now, a few things that you may have noted.

These are important for you to remember and also important to not get distracted.

As an individual goes through and answers these questions, they may have spent their
entire life in a church where they have women elders.

They may have spent their entire life in a church where they have single men serving as
deacons who've never been married.

They may have spent their entire life, if they grew up as Mormons, seeing elders as young
18-year-olds who wear a name badge with the word elder.

And those are great discussions to have.

They may have questions about them.

So somebody tell me, what do do with questions that come up in the middle of the study?

All right, we defer, we don't debate.

We write down the question and we come back to it later.

Why?

Because one of the things that you need to remember as you're studying with people is they
will begin to see

what they've been taught doesn't match what the Word of God says.

And they'll have questions, and the questions are legitimate, they're great, they're
important, and they should get answers to every single one of them.

But it's not the most important question.

It's not the most important thing.

But we humans,

have a tendency to see something and immediately go down a rabbit hole.

Only to lose entirely our sight of what was actually important.

There's a reason why I don't spend a lot of time on social media.

Because I'll see something and I'll go down a rabbit hole and an hour later that an hour I
didn't have to spend, I'll have spent an hour doing something that I didn't need to do.

because I can get distracted.

When you're studying with someone, they have a question about that.

Appreciate the question.

Thank them for the question.

Write the question down and come back to it.

Because what we're doing is we're establishing what God said, not having a debate or an
argument about what they think or about what I think or about what somebody else thinks or

about what their preacher thinks.

What does the Bible say?

You're building their framework of knowledge about what the Bible actually says.

Philippians chapter 1.

You see not only the command in the text for these roles, but then you also see the
example as Paul writes to the churches that this is exactly how the churches were

established.

This is exactly what the churches were made up of.

in the first century church.

So when Paul opens his letter to the church at Philippi, we read Paul and Timothy, bond
servants of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi with the

bishops and deacons.

There's a picture just in an opening introductory verse where you see Paul greeting all
the Christians, all the saints,

all the holy ones, that's what saints are, they're not people who've been dead for 400
years, they're holy ones, they're alive, they're in the church right then, to all the

saints and the elders and the bishops that are in the church in Philippi.

So you see there the church at Philippi was organized with both elders and deacons,
bishops and deacons, overseers and servants.

That's how the church was organized in the first century.

Now, due to time, we're gonna put pause right there.

We'll put a bookmark in.

Hope you'll be back next Sunday morning because we'll be continuing this.

But why?

Why is it important?

Why is it necessary for us to even ask the question, must we organize the church the way
the scriptures tell us to organize it?

And the answer comes back to this.

In Ephesians and in Colossians as we read, the church was purchased with the blood of
Jesus Christ.

and it's His church.

Not mine, not Joe's, not yours, not Martin Luther's, not anybody else's.

It's not the Pope's, it's not the Cardinal's, it's not the Elder's, it's not the Bishop's,
it's Christ's.

So if we're going to have a part in the church that Jesus established, and if we're going
to have a part in the church for which Jesus died and shed his blood, we better make sure

that we examine that church and it actually looks like his church.

If you're driving down the road and you come to my house, you're all welcome anytime you
need to stop by.

But if you come to 315 Southwick Drive, and as you pull in, you pick up the phone and you
say, Aaron, I'm right outside.

And I look out the window.

I'll see you.

I'm right here.

Where are you?

I'm right in front of this two-story brick house.

It's a beautifully landscaped lawn.

I love how you've treated that lawn.

I can tell you, you're not at my house.

My house is not brick and my lawn is not landscaped.

So I can tell by your description of the house that you're not at my house.

You say, but I'm at 315 Southwick Drive.

What state are you in?

You know there's another 315 Southwick Drive.

It's not in Mississippi.

in Mississippi?

if it doesn't look like his church and it's not organized like his church and it doesn't
do what he says his church does then maybe it's not the church for which he died.

And if you're not in a body, a church for which Christ died, you are not in a place where
salvation is found.

And many others have started and founded churches that do not belong to Jesus Christ.

So how are you going to know if you're in the right church?

You're going to open up the Word of God and see what Jesus said His church looks like and
find that church.

and join in participation with those Christians and elders and deacons in being obedient
to that Savior.

If you're here this morning and you're outside the body of Christ, why stay outside His
church?

He came and He said it to build His church and the gates of Hades.

the gates of hell will never prevail against his church.

If you have need of the invitation, why not come forward now as we stand and as we