Alright, before we get into Exodus 33, we're going to come back to Exodus 33.
But if you would turn to Acts chapter 7, we'll be back to Exodus 33 in just a minute, but
turn to Acts chapter number 7.
And what I want to preach about this morning is the church and what the church is and the
definition of what a church really is biblically and a lot of things that we can learn from
the Bible about the church.
Now the word church is used in the New Testament 114 times.
Now 77 of those times is a triangular church and then 37 of those times is church as plural.
Now look down at your Bible there in Acts chapter 7 verse 37.
The Bible reads, This is that Moses, and of course we just read about this when we went
through Exodus 33, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God
raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me, him shall ye hear.
This is he, talking about Moses, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel
which spake to him in the Mount Sinai and with our fathers who received the lively oracles
to give unto us to whom our fathers would not obey but thrust him from them and in their
hearts turned back again into Egypt.
Now the first thing that I want you to understand as we get into this this morning is that the
word church has an Old Testament counterpart in the word congregation.
Now the word congregation is used in the Old Testament 366 times.
Now isn't that quite a few times?
Remember the word church in the New Testament is used 114.
The Old Testament, which is more than three times as long, so it would stand to reason
that the word congregation is used 366 times.
So it's used almost as much in the Old Testament as it is in the New Testament.
When you look at how many chapters there are, how many verses there are, etc.
Now to prove that the term church in the New Testament is the exact same term as the word
congregation in the Old Testament, you don't have to turn there, but in Psalm 22 22 the
Bible reads, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation
will I praise thee.
Then in Hebrews 2 12 that verse is quoted verbatim, but it says saying I will declare
thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.
So the Bible here is showing us that the words congregation and church are interchangeable.
If God knows how to quote himself, and I'm sure he does, he quoted the Old Testament
word congregation as church in the New Testament.
The word church is not used in the Old Testament.
The word congregation is 366 times.
The Bible talked about in Exodus 33 where we started, he said the church in the wilderness
in Acts 7, but in Exodus 33 he called it the tabernacle of the congregation.
That's referred to as the church in Acts 7.
So the first thing I want you to know is that a church is a congregation.
You say why is that important?
Because most people today that are so-called evangelicals and even many independent Baptists
and even many independent fundamental Baptists that are similar to us, they believe that
all believers everywhere in this world make up the church.
Who's heard that doctrine?
It's called the universal church doctrine.
And they think everyone who's saved is a part of this organization or this group called
the church that we can't really see because have you seen everybody who's saved?
I haven't.
And so we can't see it, but they say it's out there and that every saved person is part
of the church.
They believe that to be false today and that the church in the Bible is talking about an
assembly or a congregation like the one you're sitting in this morning.
Now it's not hard to disprove this false doctrine because first of all, the fact that the word
church as plural is used 37 times, that proves to you that there isn't just one church made
up of all believers.
You know I was out soul winning and I ran into a Roman Catholic and they said, oh you
believe in all these different churches but the Bible says there's only one church.
And I said wait a minute, 37 times it says churches.
What about the church at Ephesus, the church at Corinth, the church at Laodicea?
And they didn't really know.
But it's amazing how even today the Protestants have carried that doctrine with them from
the Catholic Church and instead of a visible Catholic, did you know what the word Catholic
means, universal?
That's what the word means, look it up in the dictionary.
This is what the Protestants say, there's an invisible universal church.
Well I'm here to tell you that there is no universal church, period.
It doesn't exist, it's not a biblical concept.
So first of all the fact that there are churches disproves it.
But then someone will say, well there's both.
There's the local churches and then there's the one big church.
Well that's disproven by the fact that the word church means congregation.
Are all believers congregated?
No.
Are all believers assembled?
No.
Therefore they don't make up a church because they're not congregated.
Now if you would, turn back if you would to Exodus and actually go to Exodus 12.
We're going to look at the first time the word congregation is ever used in the Bible.
Exodus chapter number 12.
Now remember, Stephen when he was preaching in Acts chapter 7, he said that Moses was
with the church in the wilderness.
Now people will tell you, oh we're living in the church age.
And this is what they'll tell you.
They'll say, oh you need to be very careful not to get confused between Israel and the
church.
Who's heard that before?
You know, these dispensationalists.
Don't mix up Israel with the church.
Well I guess Stephen was mixed up.
I guess the book of Hebrews is mixed up.
The Bible calls what they had in the Old Testament and guess who it was?
The children of Israel and guess who the pastor was?
Moses.
And he said that was the church in the wilderness.
This is why you need to be very wary of theology, so called.
Systematic theology and epistemology, Hermannitic.
You know, anybody who starts talking about, somebody the other day, they hit me with this.
Are you familiar with the term conflation as it regards exegesis?
I said are you familiar with the term flatulation?
You know, a flatulent person is somebody who is very full of themself, very pompous,
and they like to use big words to talk down to people.
Have you ever known people like that?
And these people, they use big words to try to make you think they know what they're talking
about.
Oh the conflation of the exegesis.
Anytime you hear that stuff, just run.
Just get away from it.
It's garbage.
Oh the Christophany and the theophany and the proto-evangelium.
Let me tell you something.
The Bible says that except ye speak with words that are easy to be understood, he said you
shall speak into the air.
And that's what we have today is people using big words, big theological jargon to confuse
the listener.
My goal as a preacher is not to confuse the listener.
My goal as a preacher is to make things easy to understand, is to take the truths of God's
Word and to expound them and to give the meaning and to make them simple and easy to understand.
Not to try to make them harder so that I can put myself on a pedestal and say look at me
and all the big theological words I know.
If a word's not in the Bible, we don't need to use big words and know all these theological
terms.
Why don't we just stick with biblical words as much as possible and let those be the words
that we use.
We speak the words the Bible says not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which
the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual with spiritual.
These are the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth.
So if we want to talk about the doctrine of the church, let's talk about the congregation.
That's what God called it.
These theological systems, they're all man-made and they all twist the scripture.
Whether it be Calvinism, it twists the scripture.
Whether it be Arminianism, it twists the scripture.
They're both wicked false doctrines.
Then when it comes to dispensationalism, it's a wicked false doctrine and it twists and
perverts the scripture.
People will get up and they'll make all these statements that are not based on scripture.
They're based on their theological system of dispensationalism.
They'll say, you have to separate the church and Israel.
Israel is not the church.
The church is not Israel.
They need to be kept completely separate.
Wrong.
Because in Acts 7, Stephen called it the church.
And that's what I'm going to call it all day long.
And God put that there for a reason.
To help us see the connection between the congregation of the Old Testament and the
church of the New Testament.
I'm going to help show you that connection this morning.
That's the goal of my sermon.
You see, the biggest mistake that people make, especially so-called dispensationalists, is
that they throw out the Old Testament to an extent when it comes to doctrine.
And they say, well, you know, the whole Bible's for us, but it's not all for doctrine.
Well, the Bible says all scripture is given by inspiration of God.
It's profitable for doctrine.
And so when we are studying the New Testament, we need to realize that the New Testament
builds upon the Old Testament.
Did you get that?
The New Testament builds upon the truths laid forth in the Old Testament.
That's why Jesus said, think not that I'm come to destroy the law or the prophets.
He said, I came not to destroy, but to fulfill.
He didn't want to destroy it, he wanted to build upon it and finish it and fulfill it
and to bring it to a New Testament.
But see, instead of using unbiblical terminology, we should use biblical terms.
Instead of calling it the church age, why don't we call it the New Testament?
Well let's call it the New Testament church age.
No, let's just call it the New Testament.
We don't need to add all this stuff on there.
We can just call it the New Testament and the Old Testament and throw out this false
teaching that says, oh, the church is different than Israel.
Israel was also a church.
Was the whole nation a church?
No, because the whole nation was not assembled together.
But when they assembled at the tabernacle, that was a church.
Let's look at it together.
First of all, I'm going to show you some of the first mentions of the word congregation
to help you get a feel for this doctrine and then we'll get into chapter 33.
Look at Exodus 12 verse 3.
Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, this is the first time the word's
used.
On the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to
the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house.
Now the first thing I see in that passage right there is that a congregation is somebody
that you can talk to at one time.
You can talk to all of them at once.
You see that?
Moses being told to speak to them all and to tell them something.
Jump forward to verse 6.
It says ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month and the whole assembly
of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
Again, it's a group that's together for the purpose of killing lambs to sacrifice them
unto the Lord.
Go to verse 19.
Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses, for whosoever eateth that
which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether
he be a stranger or born in the land.
Now here, keep your finger there, go to 1 Corinthians 5.
What we take from this third place is that the congregation is something that you could
be kicked out of, was it not?
Because the Bible said that if you had leaven in your house during this week of the Passover,
that you would be cut off from the congregation of the Lord.
So is this something that just because you're a Jew or an Israelite, you're just automatically
a lifelong part of?
You can be expelled from it, can't you?
Now you say, well how is that consistent with the New Testament church?
Look at 1 Corinthians 5.
I hope you're paying attention this morning.
What was it that got people kicked out in the verse that we just read?
What did they have in their house that got them kicked out?
Leaven during the week of the Passover.
Look at 1 Corinthians 5 with that in mind.
The Bible says in verse 6, your glorying is not good.
Know ye not that a little leavened at the whole lump, purge out therefore the old leaven,
which ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened, for even Christ our Passover has sacrificed
for us.
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice
and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, and then look what
he begins to talk about.
I wrote unto you an epistle, not to company with fornicators, he lists other sins, for
sake of time jump to the last verse, but them that are without, verse 13, God judgeth, therefore
put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
We could read the whole chapter, but not for sake of time, but in this chapter, this man
is committing a sin.
In this case it's fornication.
Other sins are mentioned that are very grievous sins.
God tells them that they need to kick that person out of the church, and he says that
they need to put away from among themselves that wicked person, and he likens that person
that needs to be kicked out unto someone who is leavened.
He said get the leaven out because the little leaven is going to leaven the whole lot.
Do you see how the doctrines of the New Testament are building upon concepts from the Old Testament?
The Old Testament taught something about kicking somebody out for leaven.
You say, what's the big deal about a loaf of bread?
But it was a picture that God used in the New Testament to show us about throwing somebody
out of the congregation who is leavened in their life, talking about wicked sins.
Go back to Exodus 12.
So you can see here how the concept of the church in the New Testament is building upon
the concepts of the congregation in the Old Testament.
Look at chapter 16 verse 1 of Exodus.
Now is there a difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament?
Absolutely there's a difference.
The Bible delineates that, the Bible makes that clear, but the New Testament builds upon
the Old Testament and most of the things we see in the Old Testament have not changed.
And the things that have changed, God specifically told us that they changed in the book of Hebrews
and elsewhere.
Look down at your Bible at Exodus 16 verse 1.
The Bible says they took their journey from Elam and all the congregation of the children
of Israel came unto the wilderness of sin, which is between Elam and Sinai, on the fifteenth
day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.
Look at verse 2.
The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in
the wilderness.
Jump down to verse 9.
And Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come
near before the Lord, for he hath heard your murmurings.
And it came to pass as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel.
So is Aaron talking to everybody in the congregations here in them?
And it says that they looked toward the wilderness and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared
in the cloud.
Go forward if you would to chapter 33.
So I just read for you the first six or seven times that the word congregation is used in
the Bible and we can see it's very consistent.
It's always talking about a group of people that are gathered together either to hear
some kind of preaching or to do something or to go somewhere and so forth.
It's a group.
It's a congregation.
It's an assembly as the word implies.
But look at Exodus 33 verse 7.
The Bible says, And Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp.
Now what is the camp?
Well, who likes to go camping?
You know, I just went camping for the last couple of days on this backpacking trip that
we went on the men's backpacking trip and let me tell you something.
I love camping but I was thinking to myself, man, I would not want to do this for 40 years.
I mean, it's fun for a couple of days and especially when it's just me and one of my
kids.
On the church camping trip, my wife was just way too pregnant to go and I just took the
four boys, I'm sorry, the three boys and Miriam.
So I just took the four oldest children, just me, and I had to care for the four children
camping.
You know, usually my wife is doing a lot of the cooking and cleaning.
You know, I had to do all the caring for the four oldest children on the camping trip.
And it was really fun for a few days but man alive, camping for 40 years would be very
difficult.
It would be very hard.
And that's what the Children of Israel did.
God never intended it to last that long.
It was only supposed to take about six months but they murmured, they complained, they grumbled
and because God was angry with their lack of faith when they got there, He forced them
to do it for 40 years.
There's a big lesson there that we need to be careful what we complain about.
God might just give us more of it, just to punish us.
But the camp is talking about the fact that everyone who left Egypt, which was the Children
of Israel, and also a mixed multitude, people from Egypt that just wanted to jump on this
bandwagon, they came along too.
So the camp is everybody.
The whole nation of Israel and other nationalities that are mixed in.
But in verse 7 it says, Moses took the camp tabernacle and pitched it without the camp.
So he put it outside the camp, afar off from the camp.
Everybody got that?
Is it right next to the camp?
Is it in the middle of the camp?
No.
He took the tabernacle and he got it out of the camp because he knew that there was a
bad influence in that camp.
There were a lot of sinful people in the camp and he wants to get the tabernacle far out
of the camp and then look what it says, and it came to pass that everyone which sought
the Lord went out under the tabernacle of the congregation which was without the camp.
Bear with me here, I'm going to tie this in with the New Testament.
He basically is saying, I'm going to put the tabernacle far outside the camp so that
people who want to come there are going to have to make a point to come there.
Now when the tabernacle was in the camp originally, everybody's there.
Everybody's gathered.
Everybody's assembled.
But he saw right away that the sin and the corrupting influence of the wicked was something
that did not belong in God's house.
So he decided to move the tabernacle far from the camp so that people would have to go there.
People would have to make a decision, okay, I want to seek the Lord.
I want to hear the preaching of God's word.
I want to go to the house of God.
And they had to leave the camp and they had to go to that congregation, that tabernacle
of the congregation.
And then look at verse 8, and it came to pass when Moses went out under the tabernacle that
all the people rose up and stood every man at his tent door and looked after Moses until
he was gone into the tabernacle.
And it came to pass as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended
and stood at the door of the tabernacle and the Lord talked with Moses and all the people
saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door and all the people rose up and worshiped
every man in his tent door.
I want you to get the picture here.
These people could not all congregate or assemble inside the tabernacle because the tabernacle
was not that big of a building.
The Bible gives us the exact dimensions of the tabernacle.
Not nearly big enough to fit hundreds of thousands of people, or even tens of thousands of people.
So the tabernacle of the congregation was basically the focal point where Moses would
go into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar of God's power and God's presence was this
end.
The Lord would speak unto Moses and Moses would speak unto the people.
So when the people went out to the tabernacle of the congregation, they basically congregated
around it and they stood in their tent door and they basically had their tent pitched
toward the tabernacle and they stood there and they saw the cloudy pillar descend.
They heard the preaching of God's word.
That is what the tabernacle of the congregation was in the Old Testament.
Now go if you would to Hebrews chapter 13.
Now here's some more symbolism.
What is the Bible called in the New Testament, or the church called in the New Testament
of the Bible?
He said the church is the pillar and ground of the truth, right?
So God calls the church a pillar in the book of Timothy.
And then also in the book of Genesis, when Jacob first goes to Bethel, which he said
this is God's house and he called it Bethel, which means the house of God, he set up a
pillar of stones and said this is God's house.
So throughout the Bible, the house of God is always signified by a pillar.
We saw it in the tabernacle of the congregation, a cloudy pillar representing God's presence.
Look at Hebrews chapter 13 verse 10, the Bible reads, we have an altar whereof they have
no right to eat which serve the what?
The tabernacle.
For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary, the sanctuary
was a part of the tabernacle, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high
priest for sin, are burned without the camp.
Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without
the gate.
Let us go therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
So because the tabernacle was moved far away from the camp and people had to go there away
from the group and go there, well the tabernacle is where all the sacrifices were taking place
because that's where the altar was, that's where all the accouterments were, the sanctuary
and the most holy place.
He said because of that, Jesus Christ, he went outside the gate because he was the sacrifice.
So he was killed outside the gate of Jerusalem without the camp as it were.
The Bible uses that symbolism of going out of the camp to the tabernacle.
He tells us in the New Testament, let us go therefore unto him without the camp bearing
his reproach.
How do we do that?
Where's the camp?
Where's the tabernacle?
Do we have a physical camp today that we're all camping in?
No, we're not in that phase where the children of Israel were in the wilderness and where
they were camped at the tabernacle.
Do we have a physical tent that we go to and a physical altar that we go to where we
can say this is the tabernacle?
No.
But spiritually the Bible says that we ought to know how to behave ourselves in the house
of God which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
So the Bible is telling us that the New Testament equivalent of the tabernacle of the congregation
is the local church.
When you go to church, that's the new house of God.
Old Testament, it was the tabernacle.
The New Testament, we go to the house of God.
That's why the house of God should not be just like the world because that would be
a within the camp church.
When you have churches that are trying to fit in with the world and look like the world
and act like the world and be blending in with the world, that's a within the camp church.
We need a without the camp church and you know what comes with the without the camp
church?
Reproach.
People are going to talk bad about it.
That's what reproach means.
A reproach is something where people would make fun of you for it or attack you for it
or criticize you for it.
You know, we as Bible believing Christians, we don't go to a church that's just like the
world.
We are not like the world.
We need to separate ourselves and step out of the camp, not physically, but spiritually.
We need to get out of the camp of worldliness and the ungodly heathen people that we live
around.
We need to get away from them spiritually and basically be in a church that is separate
from the world where we can be without the camp.
That is the lesson of the Old Testament tabernacle of the congregation.
Let's look at some other scriptures about the congregation and then we're going to get
into the New Testament.
Joel, Joel chapter 2.
Joel is at the very end of the Old Testament.
All those little books, the minor prophets, the book of Joel.
The reason I'm going into such detail is because today we need to understand the doctrines
of the local church.
A lot of people, they're confused.
They think, oh, I heard somebody say this, we don't go to church.
We are the church.
Well, when we get there, we are, but when you're sitting at home, you're not the church.
This universal church doctrine has caused a lot of people to quit coming to church because
what they say is, oh, I'm already in the church because I'm saved.
Now there are a lot of bad things that come with this false doctrine and that's why I'm
spending so much time clarifying this to you today.
Now, for example, is salvation something you could ever be kicked out of?
No, but is the church something you could be kicked out of?
Absolutely.
Think about this.
The Bible tells us over and over again that we need to have unity within the church.
Well, if you have this false doctrine that every believer is the church, now you're going
to think you have to be unified with every believer.
When the Bible clearly tells us that there are some brothers that walk disorderly and
he says that we need to separate ourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly
and not after the tradition which we received of us.
He said separate from the disorderly brother.
Separate from those that are brothers that are fornicators or that are idolaters.
God tells us that there are people that are saved but that we need to separate from them.
But then on the other hand he tells us there's unity in the church.
Why?
Because the church casts out the leaven.
That's why there can be unity in the church but there cannot be unity amongst all believers.
But this doctrine is basically, I believe, in preparation for the anti-Christ.
The anti-Christ is going to seek to unify all religion.
And today we already have the evangelical Christians calling for unity in the body of
Christ and by that they mean anybody who even claims the name of Christ.
Whether they be Catholic, whether they be Presbyterian, Methodist, Nazarene, and even
now lately it seems like Mormons are being brought into the fold.
When I was a kid it used to be that you'd go to the Christian bookstore and there was
a lot of anti-Mormon literature there, a lot of anti-Catholic literature.
Now you go there, there's a rosary bead.
Now you go there and the Mormons are being promoted in many cases.
And today people are accepting Mormonism as a denomination of Christianity.
And it's not.
It's not even close.
The Jehovah's Witnesses and all these groups and people say let's all be unified around
the name of Jesus.
Wrong.
There's another Jesus.
There's a false gospel.
And we are not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.
And we are not even to yoke together with people who are believers if they're living
in open fornication and other grievous sins.
The Bible's clear.
And that's another sermon of itself.
But the bottom line is that this doctrine of a universal church is basically something
that's bringing people together and uniting people when God commands us to be divided.
Not divided within the family, not divided within the church, but divided from those
who are not like us.
Those who want to stay in the camp can stay in the camp.
We need to go out the camp.
Okay?
And that's something that is not necessarily permanent.
People could be out the camp today, they could be at the tabernacle of the congregation today,
and later they could backslide and be gone.
Whereas salvation isn't like that.
You see what I mean?
So anyway, look at Joel chapter 2 verse 16.
Joel chapter 2 verse 16.
It says this, gather the people.
Notice the wording there.
Gather the people.
A congregation is a gathering, it's an assembly.
He says gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children,
and those that suck the breasts.
Let me ask you this.
Is church just for grown-ups?
Just for the adults?
These kids are too young for church.
Well if those that suck the breasts are welcome, I'd say that we're talking about every age,
are we not?
He says everybody from the elders all the way to a nursing child.
He said let the bridegroom go forth out of his chamber and the bride out of her closet.
So there we see an assembly of all people of all ages.
Jump back if you would to Proverbs chapter 5.
And while you're turning to Proverbs 5, I'll read for you some scriptures from Psalms.
The Bible says in Psalm 149, praise ye the Lord, sing unto the Lord a new song and his
praise in the congregation of saints.
So what is the congregation made up of?
Saints, those that are saved, right?
Is it for the unsaved?
No, it's for the saved.
It's the congregation of the saints.
He says in Psalm 111, praise ye the Lord, I will praise the Lord with my whole heart
in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.
So now we have the word congregation tied to the word assembly and he said it's the
assembly of the upright.
Not everybody is it?
Is it for everybody?
No, it's for the upright.
He said in Psalm 107 32, let him exalt him also in the congregation of the people and
praise him in the assembly of the elders.
Look down at Proverbs 5 14, the Bible reads, I was almost in all evil in the midst of the
congregation and assembly.
Not talking about two different places.
It's a congregation and it's an assembly.
Many people misunderstand the word and in the Bible.
Sometimes the word and can mean two different things or it can be a restatement of the same
thing.
For example, the Bible says God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Especially talking about the same person.
Jump back if you would to Psalm 40.
Psalm 40, you're in Proverbs, the book before that is Psalms.
Look at Psalm 40, I'll read you some other scriptures while you're turning there.
Psalm 75 2, when I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly.
Talking about a leader of the congregation.
Psalm 74 2, remember thy congregation which thou has purchased of old.
Do you remember when Jesus said that he had purchased the church with his own blood?
Remember that?
Acts 20 28.
The church that God had purchased with his own blood says the same thing in the Old Testament.
It says that God purchased the congregation.
The rod of thine inheritance which thou has redeemed, this Mount Zion wherein thou has
dwelt.
Look at Psalm 40 verse 9.
I have preached righteousness in the great congregation.
Below I have not refrained my lips, O Lord thou knowest.
I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart.
I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation.
I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great congregation.
So again, the congregation is a place where a large group of people is preached unto.
Even in the Old Testament.
He said I've preached to the congregation and he talked about the subjects that he preached.
Go back to chapter 35, just a few pages before you there in Psalms.
While you're turning there I'll read you Psalm 1 verse 5.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of
the righteous.
Is that consistent with 1 Corinthians 5 that said to cast the wicked out of the congregation?
He said that the sinners would not be in the congregation of the righteous.
Psalm 35 18.
I will give thee thanks in the great congregation.
I will praise thee among much people.
So what's a congregation?
It's a group.
It's an assembly.
It's a gathering.
It's much people.
People are being preached to.
It's not for everybody.
It's for the upright.
It's for the righteous.
It's for the saints.
People can be cast out of it.
People are preached to there.
People go there outside the camp.
You're not just automatically there.
You gotta go there.
You gotta make a point to get out of the world and go there.
And that's what the church is supposed to be, an oasis from the world that we live in.
Where we go to get away from the sin, I mean when we go to our job, we're surrounded by
sinful people.
When we live our lives Monday through Saturday, we are surrounded by ungodly and sinful heathen.
We're not supposed to be taken out of the world.
God wanted to leave us in the world so we could reach those people.
But we need to have a place where we can get away from that influence and get away from
the wickedness and go to a clean place and a godly place and a righteous place where
God's presence is.
That's what church was in the Old Testament and that's what church is in the New Testament.
Quit trying to make a distinction between the two that isn't there.
Yes, there are differences, but there are also more similarities than there are differences.
And we need to build upon the Old Testament as we study the New Testament.
Go to Romans 12, Romans 12.
Now as you turn there, let me read a scripture to you, again, destroying this false doctrine
that we're living in the so-called church age.
And I'm sure we've all heard that term, the church age, the church age, church age, church
age.
Try this on.
Ephesians 3.21, you don't have to turn there.
Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end,
amen.
It's almost as if God predicted what false, I guess He knows everything, He knows the
end from the beginning.
He knew what false doctrines would be out there and He puts these verses that just slice
them to pieces and yet people still believe in them.
I mean look, can I read to you again?
Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end,
amen.
Will there ever be a time when there's not church?
Will there be church in the millennium?
Yes.
Was there church in the Old Testament?
Yes.
Is there church in the New Testament?
Yes.
Is there going to be church for eternity?
Yes.
World without end, all ages, praise God in the church.
That's what the Bible says.
And yet people will say, you know, God's no longer dealing with Israel, now we're in the
church age, but when the church age comes to an end we will go back to dealing with
Israel, do not confuse or conflate or conflagrate, you know, the church with Israel because they
are two separate and distinct entities.
Of course the Bible called it the church even when it was Israel, but don't let me confuse
you with the facts.
Theology is what's destroying people's doctrine.
They need to just get a Bible.
Just get rid of all these books, get rid of your charts, and get rid of all this nonsense
and just get a Bible and just read it, man.
So much of the, people say the Bible's confusing.
No, man has made it confusing.
We get a preconceived idea, then we start getting confused.
You know, this guy Harold Camping, who's heard of that guy?
False prophet.
This guy, he spent, he raised millions and millions of dollars and he bought billboards
all over California, and I drive in California a lot.
Did anybody see any billboards of his in Arizona as well?
Were they in Arizona?
Okay, they were in Arizona too, but man, there were a lot of them in California, and let
me tell you something, billboards are expensive.
They're not cheap.
I think they're about $1500 a month for a billboard, something like that, and you have
to buy a certain amount of months, and I mean there were just billboard after billboard,
and he said the rapture's going to happen on March 15th.
Was it 2011?
Yeah, 2011.
March 15th, 2011, he said the rapture's going to happen, and bought all these billboards
and everybody's talking about it, and then of course he said, oh, it happened spiritually
but not physically.
Then he said, but the world's still going to end on October 15th, 2011, like I said.
Well October 15th, 2011 rolled around.
Guess what?
The world didn't end.
Then he just disappeared for a while.
Nobody could find him.
He's like 90-some years old, and then finally he came back and said, I'm sorry, I was completely
wrong about the whole thing, and this is not the first time this guy's done this.
He predicted it back in 1984.
He predicted it in a bunch of other years, and people still follow the guy.
Millions of people follow this guy.
I mean this guy's radio program is very popular, and millions listen to this guy.
People all over the world follow this guy.
In other countries it's all translated into their language.
And this guy, one of this guy's key teachings, you say, why would people follow that?
You know why?
People believe what they want.
They don't look at the facts and then decide what they believe.
No, they believe what they want, and you know why they love Harold Camping and why they
want to follow him?
Because he tells you not to go to church, and everybody wants to sit on their lazy rear
end and not go to church.
So look, if you start preaching, and he preaches this.
He says you're sinning if you go to church.
He says the church age has ended, and he said my radio program is where you're fed.
Listen to this program.
Read your Bible, listen to the program, send your money here, and get out of the churches.
He said every church is wrong, you need to follow me.
The reason people love that is because they can lay in bed and eat chips off their chest
while listening to Harold Camping instead of coming to church and actually having to
groom themselves and actually having to get in the car, and I can't afford the gas money.
You afford the gas money everywhere you want to go.
You get to all the recreation that you want to go to.
You know what?
If you wanted to be there, if you made a point to be there, you could find a way to get to
the house of God, but they don't want to go to church, so they want somebody to tell them
what they want to hear, that oh, it's bad to go to church.
You're doing good sitting there listening to Harold Camping on the radio instead of
going to church.
There are people who listen to my preaching instead of going to church.
They need to get right with God and go to church.
There are people who live in Phoenix, Arizona who listen to my preaching and don't come
to this church, but they listen to the sermons.
They're not a part of the church.
They need to get down here.
They need to get in the car and get down here, or at least get to another church, but get
somewhere.
You know what I mean?
Be there.
It's a congregation.
You're not congregated with a radio.
You're not congregated with a TV set.
You're not congregated with a radio or an internet or anything else.
You need to get down to the church physically.
Listen to Harold Camping, all ages, world without end.
Give him glory in the church.
Somebody even called in and brought that scripture to him.
They called in and said, I'm confused.
What about this verse?
And he just, well, you know, and he just gave some big, and then they're like, oh, okay,
thanks for helping me with that.
Let me roll over to the other side of the bed and listen to what else you have to say
today.
Are we in Romans 12?
Now, here's where some people bring confusion to this doctrine, because so far everything's
been pretty clear, right?
Is anybody confused so far?
The Old Testament, people who loved God were commanded to gather together at the house
of God and to hear preaching from the man of God, and it was for the people who really
wanted to be there, and they had to choose to be there.
Did you notice that they didn't bring it to them?
They took it away from them and said, you come to us.
We're out here.
Come out here and find us.
We're in the congregation.
The New Testament clearly builds on that.
I showed you a few examples.
I couldn't show them all for the sake of time, but I showed you some examples of similar
concepts between the Old and New Testament there on the congregation and the church.
But there's another concept in the New Testament called the body of Christ, and the Bible calls
the church in the New Testament the body of Christ.
People will say this, well, I believe in local churches, but I also believe in one universal
church that's the body of Christ.
Let's look at some scriptures on the body of Christ and see if that holds up.
I'm going to start out by showing you some of the ones that they will use to prop up
this doctrine.
I'm going to show you why they're misinterpreting it.
It says in Romans 12.4, for as we have many members in one body and all members have not
the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ and everyone members one of
another.
Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophesy,
let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith.
Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering, or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that
exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity.
He that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness.
So in this passage he said as we as human beings have many members in one body, and
member in the Bible means body part.
So he's saying we've got a hand, we've got a foot, we've got an eye.
He said basically we being many are one body in Christ and everyone members one of another.
He says that each of us have different gifts or abilities.
Mercy or preaching, ministering, teaching, exhorting, giving, ruling, showing mercy,
these are all different gifts that people have in the church, in the body of Christ.
Now a lot of people are confused because they look at that and they say well it says there's
only one body, see one universal church.
But let's keep looking at scripture.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and I'm going to take you to every scripture on the body
of Christ that I can find here quickly, we're going to run through them and then I'm going
to be done with my sermon this morning.
But I want to blow through a lot of these scriptures on the body of Christ just to show
you everything that God's saying about the body of Christ so you can get it in context.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 16.
Now here's the thing, does the Bible contradict itself?
No.
I was talking to somebody recently and we were talking about the subject of marriage
and divorce and what the Bible talks about that and we were talking about the doctrine
and they said well you know different people have different opinions on that subject.
And he said good men differ on that subject and I said well I'm sure good men do differ
on that subject.
But I said Jesus was real clear in Luke chapter 16 when he said that if you marry a woman
that is put away you've committed adultery.
And it's very clear, it's very succinct, and it's just really easy to understand there
in Luke 16.
And then he said well there are other passages that seem to say something else.
But see I have to ask myself well if one passage is super clear and another one seems
to say something else, it sounds like I'm interpreting one of them wrong.
And here's the thing, the one in Luke 16 there's really no other way to interpret it.
Whereas the one in 1 Corinthians 7 is very vague and there are a lot of different ways
to interpret it.
And that's what we, see the Bible says through faith we understand.
And I think that the first step to understanding the Bible is deciding that you believe the
whole Bible.
And once you decide that you believe the whole Bible, well then you find one passage that's
real clear and you find one that's more vague and you use the clear one to understand the
vague one because they both have to reconcile.
And if you can't get, if you have two verses in the Bible that seem like they say two different
things and you can't get them to agree, you're interpreting one of them wrong.
Or else the Bible has errors in it and why do we even believe it?
Why are we even preaching it?
It's not even the word of God then.
We have to get it to reconcile one with another.
So if we have 300 some scriptures in the Old Testament on the congregation teaching us
one thing very clearly, then we have the New Testament calling it an assembly, calling
it a gathering, calling it a congregation, tying it in with the Old Testament, calling
what they had in the Old Testament a church, we don't want to just take one vague reference
and undo all that and knock all that down.
It's got to all fit.
It's got to all agree.
Look at 1 Corinthians 10 verse 16.
The Bible says this, the cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood
of Christ?
This is the second mention of the body of Christ in the New Testament here in regard
to the church.
Obviously it talks about his body in other places.
The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?
The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
For we being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread.
Now the Bible teaches here that what makes us one body according to 1 Corinthians 10,
16, and 17 is the fact that we have communion one with another and that we eat the same
bread together.
Now look, have I eaten bread with people that are on the other side of the world who are
saved?
Do I get together with them and have communion?
What does communal mean?
What if you lived in a dormitory and they said, hey, there's a communal bathroom on
floor 3.
What does that mean?
Shared, right?
So if we have communion one with another, if we are sharing something together, if we're
sharing bread, wouldn't we physically have to be in the same place to have that type
of communion and that type of fellowship, one with another?
The Bible's clear here that we are made one by gathering together and having that communion
and breaking bread one with another, eating and drinking together.
That can't be a universal church.
It doesn't work.
Jump down if you would to 1 Corinthians 12, verse 12.
The Bible says this, for as the body is one and hath many members, or body parts, and
all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ.
Now notice the wording here.
He says, for as the body is one, now is there only one human body in this world?
Because they'll say, well, see, it says the body singular, but wait a minute, I've got
a body, there are millions of bodies, billions of bodies, true?
He says this, for as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of, here's
the key, that one body.
Is there only one body on the planet, or are we just talking about one body at this time?
See how that works?
He says the members of that one body, the word that there is the key word, saying we're
talking about a particular body.
Not that there's only one, but that we're talking about a particular one.
He says the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
He says in the next verse, for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body.
Many people will just quote that phrase alone.
They'll say, for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, but hold on a second,
whether we be Jew or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have all been made to
drink into one spirit, for the body is not one member but many.
So here, when he says that we're all baptized into one body, he's referring to the fact
of whatever nationality we are, whatever our financial standing is, whether we be bond
or free, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, we're all baptized into that one body.
Again, an example body, not necessarily one universal body, it doesn't exist.
Go to 1 Corinthians 12, 27, jump down to verse 27.
Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular.
Now here's the thing, why didn't he say we are the body of Christ?
Why did he say ye are the body of Christ?
See what I mean?
Because he's not there.
Now when he was talking about us in general getting baptized into individual bodies, whether
we're a Jew or a Gentile, he used the word we.
But then when he's talking about their church in particular, he said ye are the body of
Christ.
Why did he not include himself in that?
He could have said we are the body of Christ, but he said ye.
Every word matters.
Jump if you would, I was going to read more there, but for the sake of time, go to Ephesians
1.
Ephesians 1, let's jump forward to Ephesians.
Ephesians chapter 1, verse 22, the Bible reads, Ephesians 1, 22, and it put all things under
his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church.
So Jesus Christ is the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness
of him that filleth on all.
Now can we really make a distinction and say that the body of Christ and the church are
two different things?
Whatever they are, they're the same thing.
What we've seen in Romans, 1 Corinthians, and Ephesians is that the body of Christ is
the church.
So you can't say well the church is local, but the body is universal.
Or you could say well they're both out there.
Well they're not both out there and we'll keep seeing this.
Jump down to chapter 3, verse 5, it says, which in other ages was not made known unto
the sons of men as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.
Now in verse 5 of Ephesians 3, the Bible says that in other ages there were certain things
that were not known unto the sons of men like they've been revealed to us now.
Now people would like to take that concept and just say, yeah they didn't know how to
be saved, you know?
No.
He tells us specifically what they didn't know.
Look at verse 6, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body.
Question, in the Old Testament, were the Gentiles allowed into the tabernacle of the congregation?
Were they allowed in the house of God?
No.
Was the Ammonite allowed into the house of God?
Was the Moabite allowed into the house of God?
I had it in my notes, I skipped over a second time.
The heathen were not allowed in the house of God, according to the Bible.
They had to be circumcised and become a part of the nation of Israel in order to come near
to the congregation.
Certain nationalities were completely prohibited in the Old Testament from ever joining the
congregation for ten generations.
But wait a minute, what about in the New Testament?
Has there been a change?
Yeah.
The change is that in the Old Testament, they could not be a part of that body.
They could not be a part of that assembly.
They could not come into the congregation.
Whereas in the New Testament, they are.
That's why Jesus said, other sheep have I that are not of this fold.
Them also must I bring, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd, right?
So should we have a separate church for the Jews and a separate church for the Gentiles?
Should we have a separate church for white and a separate church for black?
No.
Jesus said that his house in the future, he prophesied, listen now, in the Old Testament
he prophesied and said, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.
Was it a house of prayer for all nations in the Old Testament?
No.
It wasn't for the Moabite.
It wasn't for the Ammonite.
But now it is, isn't it?
Is every nationality welcome at our church or any biblical church?
Yes.
Should we have separate churches for different nationalities?
The Messianic Jews, so-called, they have their own church.
They need to get in a Baptist church and quit talking about Yeshua and Yahushua and Yahweh
and start talking about the Lord Jesus Christ and get in a Baptist church with white and
black and red and yellow and quit thinking that they're somebody special because in Christ
there is neither Jew nor Gentile.
There is neither bond nor free.
We need to get in the one body with one shepherd, one church, be assembled with one place from
the oldest man to the sucking child, everybody assembled in the house of God.
That's biblical.
Let's keep reading.
He said that now what they didn't know at that early time, until later it was prophesied
and later it came to pass, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body
and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel.
Look to chapter 4 verse 11, Ephesians 4 verse 11, and he gave some apostles and some prophets
and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
Again, not talking about every single believer because every single believer doesn't even
hear the preaching because they don't show up.
And he says that that's the purpose of a preacher or a teacher is to basically edify the body
of Christ, which is the church.
Keep reading in verse 13.
It says, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son
of God unto a perfect man, under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind
of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby Harold Camping, you know,
whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into
him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined
together and compacted.
Can that be said of all believers all over the world?
That they're all fitly joined together.
They're all compacted.
Does everybody know what a trash compactor is?
Does it take things apart or put them together?
This is an assembly.
The body of Christ, he said, you get a pastor in there, you get a teacher in there, you
get evangelists in there, and you perfect that body, you teach that body, you train
that body, you educate that body, and it becomes more and more compact over time.
It gets joined together.
There's unity.
We all believe the same thing.
Now let me ask you this.
When I first started the church and we had a bunch of visitors come in, do you think
we all believe the same thing?
But don't you think that it can be said more six and a half years later?
Boy, we all believe the same things.
Now I'm sure we have differences of opinion and slight differences, but in general we
all believe the same salvation, we believe the word of God, and we agree on a lot more
than we disagree, 99 point some odd percent.
You know why?
Because we're all in the same body, we're all joined together, we're all hearing the
same words, we all make this our authority.
Word sharpens iron, we're all talking one with another, we're all getting the same preaching
of God's word.
And so over time we become more compacted, we become more fitly joined together, we fit
together more over time.
This is not every believer, my friend, it's a local church.
It's a congregation, as the Bible has always taught, all the way through, even in the Old
Testament.
But speaking the truth in love may grow up unto him in all things, which is the head
not even Christ, verse 16, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted
by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working and the measure of
every part, making increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
This I say therefore in testifying the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles
walk, in the vanity of their mind, and we can go on and on, but again, without the camp,
don't walk like the unbelievers walk.
Come down to chapter 5 verse 22, I'm almost done, Ephesians 5 22.
The Bible reads in Ephesians 5 22, wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as
unto the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he
is the savior of the body.
Again people will say, singular, the body, the church, there's only one, but wait a minute,
is there one husband in the world?
Is there one wife in the world?
He said as the husband singular is the head of the wife singular, so is Christ singular
the head of the church, but you know what?
Christ is the head of every church, just as the husband is the head of every wife.
Not just one husband and wife, but a particular husband and wife.
Just as in 1 Corinthians 12, he said that particular body, he used the word that one
body, because there's not one body.
There are multiple bodies, but here we're one body.
I only have one wife, praise God, I mean that's what the Bible tells us to do, but does that
mean that there's only one wife in this building?
No, because wives have their husbands and churches have Christ.
Now you say, well Christ can't be the head of every church, well he's the head of every
biblical church, if he's not the head there's something wrong.
You say, how can that be?
Well what about this, the Bible says that Christ is inside of me.
The Bible says Christ in you, the hope of glory.
The Bible says that the spirit of Christ is in you.
Let me ask you this, can the spirit of Christ be inside me and also in brother Chris at
the same time?
But is he in everybody?
No, but he's in me, he's in Chris, he's the head of the church, whether it be faithful
word Baptist church or whether it be any other Bible believing church that has Christ as
its head.
Let's keep reading.
It says in verse 24, therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be
to their own husbands in everything.
So what that's saying is that the churches need to be subject to Christ in all areas.
He says next, husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself
for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any
such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish, so ought men to love their
wives as their own bodies.
He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
And we can go on and on.
Last place we'll turn, the book of Colossians, Colossians chapter 1.
Colossians chapter 1, it says in verse 18, and he is the head of the body, the church.
So again, the body is the church, one and the same.
And what does church mean?
Congregation.
You see, a lot of people misunderstanding the Bible, forget going back to the Greek
and going back to the Hebrew, some people just need to learn English.
And if we knew the English word church, if we knew what it meant, we wouldn't even be
having this discussion.
If we knew that church meant congregation, we could all pack up and go home.
Because of the fact that we cannot be congregated with people that are on the other side of
the world.
And a lot of false doctrine comes from changing the meaning of words to meaning something
completely different.
The Catholics did it, calling it the Catholic church.
Catholics aren't all assembled together, but they're all a part of that church.
And then the Catholics, basically the bastard sons of the Catholic church, Martin Luther,
John Calvin, they basically just hung onto this doctrine.
And they set up their own little Catholic churches.
You know what I mean?
Because we're independent, thank God.
We're an independent Baptist church.
And I thank God because I see other churches changing all the time.
I don't want to change.
I'm glad I'm independent today.
I'm glad we're independent as a church.
I'm glad we're not yoked up with the wrong people, or any people.
Christ is our only head, okay?
The Catholic church has a different head.
The Pope, he's their head.
He's called Papa, which means father.
God's our father.
The Lutherans, they have their head.
It's in Missouri, or it's somewhere else, depending on what Lutheran church they're
in.
The Episcopalians have their head.
The United Methodists have their head.
The Southern Baptists even have their head, in Texas somewhere.
The president of the Southern Baptist Convention, that's who's calling the shots.
That's who makes the rules.
They can tell churches what they can and cannot do.
Only one person tells this church what we can and cannot do.
The Lord Jesus.
And so we see here that this is a critical, important doctrine.
And we've been deceived by the Catholics and we've been deceived by the Protestants that
every believer is part of the church.
It's not, it's a congregation.
Colossians 1, verse 18.
He's the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Jump down to verse 24.
Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions
of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church.
Whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to
me for you to fulfill the word of God.
You say, oh, there's dispensation right there.
You've got to be a dispensationalist.
Well, let me tell you something.
The word Nazarene is in the Bible.
That don't make me a Nazarene.
The word presbytery is in the Bible.
That doesn't mean I have to become a presbyterian, does it?
The word church of God is in the Bible.
That doesn't mean that I'm a part of the church of God, man-made institution.
And just because the word dispensation is in the Bible, that don't make me a dispensationalist.
And let me tell you something.
If a dispensation is supposedly an age or a period of time, okay, let's read it.
Let's read that verse again.
Whereof I am made a minister according to the age or period of time of God which is
given to me for you.
How does God give Paul a period of time, an age?
Paul's not even alive anymore except his soul in heaven.
Did God give him the whole church age?
It doesn't even make any sense.
The word dispensation, and again, don't want to get off on a rabbit trail, it's talking
about the gift or something that's commended unto someone and I have a whole sermon where
I prove that.
Don't have time for it now.
But this dispensationalist doctrine that says that we're living in the church age, they'll
say things like this too.
The rapture of the church.
Oh, the church will be raptured out before that.
Who's heard that?
The church will be raptured out before the tribulation.
What church?
You mean churches?
And we get confused and we get this into our head and we need to get it out of our head
today, that every believer is a part of the church.
We need to get it into our head that we are a part of the church when we assemble with
the church, when we join with the church, when we're baptized into the church like they
were baptized unto Moses, like we're baptized into the body of Christ.
Let me tell you something, salvation ain't by baptism.
Salvation is by faith, not baptism.
But yet we're baptized into the body of Christ.
We're baptized into the church, they were baptized unto Moses, nothing to do with salvation.
Well it's a spirit baptism, wrong.
The spirit baptism in the book of Acts was when they were immersed in the spirit, when
the whole room was filled with the spirit and they had fire on their heads and the whole
room had a mighty rushing sound of a wind.
That was the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
That didn't happen when I got saved.
Who had that happen when you got saved?
The whole room filled with wind and a cloven tongue as a fire appeared on your head.
Then don't tell me that's a spirit baptism.
When the Bible says we're all baptized into one body, it's talking about being dunked
in water.
Let me tell you something, if you've been saved and you haven't been dunked in water
by the local church, you're in disobedience.
That's why random believers shouldn't just be out baptizing random other believers.
Oh I'm saved, you're saved, let's baptize you.
No, you're baptized into the body of Christ.
You're baptized into the church.
That's what the Bible teaches and we see how one false doctrine can lead to another, but
not in this church.
I wanted to take the time this morning to make this clear to you, to show you a multitude
of scriptures and you know what, if you're smart, you'll read the whole Old Testament
and look at all 366 mentions of congregation.
Then you'll really learn a lot and then when you're done with that, read the New Testament,
look at the 114 mentions of church.
Then you'll understand and realize that the one builds on the other and that you've been
lied to if somebody told you that the Old Testament church has nothing to do with the
New Testament church.
It's a continuation of the same thing.
Okay, let me ask you this quickly.
When did the New Testament begin?
Well with the death of the testator, right?
A testament is a force after men are dead, otherwise it is of no strength at all while
the testator liveth.
Jesus Christ took the cup and said, this cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is
shed for you.
This is my body which is broken for you.
The New Testament began with the death of the testator with the blood of Jesus Christ.
The First Testament was dedicated with animal blood.
The Second Testament, the New Testament was dedicated with Jesus Christ's blood.
The New Testament began with the Lord Jesus Christ.
But let me tell you something, Jesus and his disciples were called a church.
Moses and the wilderness was called a church.
It builds on another.
The church underwent a change, but it's still church.
It's always been church and it will always be church.
And look, you don't ever get sucked into this lie, oh I'm at home with my family, that's
church because we're all saved, wrong.
Somebody said where two or three are gathered together and sometimes they even count the
fishes because a couple guys will go out on Sunday and go fishing and say well we're in
church because there's two of us, Jesus is with us.
That's great to gather and pray, but that isn't church.
And we need to understand how important this is.
If God mentioned it between Old and New Testament almost 500 times, maybe you could get down
here and be faithful to it and realize that this body is a special place.
This is the body of Christ.
Think about it, let that sink down.
This is that pillar and ground of the truth.
This is the body.
This is the inheritance of that heritage of the tabernacle of the congregation in the
Old Testament.
Let's make it a priority to be here and let's understand how important it is.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father we thank you so much for your Word, dear God, and we thank you for allowing us
to be a part of this body.
Thank you for the fellowship and communion that we have one with another.
Thank you for the people that are here and that every joint supplies something to help
bring us closer together and to help us all grow and learn.
Help every single person to be in their place and to do their job and to work together and
to be that evangelist and to be that prophet and to be that teacher and help us all to
be united and unified.
Not with some guy in Zimbabwe that we've never even seen or heard of or met, but with people
that are actually with us today and will be with us at future meetings of this congregation.
Help us to make it a priority to be in this church that you've purchased with your own
blood.
And God I pray that every other church across America and across the world today, where
your people are assembled, I know you're not just with us, I know you're with them as well.
And so bless them for not buying into the lie of the universal church, but actually
showing up and being in a physical, local church like you taught.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.