PREACHED:OL,12-7-03,AM

“THE SINGULAR NATURE OF THE CHURCH”

INTRODUCTION:

11 Jesus Promised to Build HIS Church:

A. Matt 16:18.

1. Build – oikodemeo – “…to build a house…”

a. If there is only one foundation there can be only one house!

1) Can you imagine a builder trying to build two houses on one foundation?

a) I Cor 3:11. “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ…”

2) But imagine the impossibility of trying to build hundreds of houses on one foundation!

a) That’s what is being advocated by denominationalism.

21 Christ longed for his church to be one:

A. John 17:20,21.

1. He didn’t have in mind unity of everyone who claims some allegiance to Him, or who says they are a believer!

a. Same apostle, John, said of false teachers (probably the Gnostics), “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us,” (I John 2:19,21)

b. I Cor 1:10.

1) Vital question in v 13. “Is Christ divided?”

a) To Paul, the answer was obvious, and so should it be to us as well!

c. One author put it clearly when he said, “The price of a divided Christendom is an unbelieving world.”

2. And this unity is more than some loose union! It is a unity that emulates the unity of Christ and his Father! It is a unity that agrees and has no divisions!

31 The Lord’s Church is not a denomination:

A. When Paul ended his letter to the Romans with the statement, “…the churches of Christ greet you,” he was not talking of various denominations with diverse theology composing the Lord’s church!

1. In the N.T. the churches of Christ were:

a. Congregations, united in doctrine (I Cor 1:10), contending for one faith (Jude 3), supporting and upholding only the truth of God’s word (I Tim 3:15; John 17:17), and preaching and accepting one—and only one—gospel (Gal 1:6-10).

b. They followed a pattern of teaching that was proclaimed in every congregation:

1) II Tim 1:13. “Follow the pattern of sound words you have heard from me…”

I Cor 4:17. “I sent you Timothy, my beloved child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.”

41 Descriptions of the church indicate oneness:

A. THE BRIDE -

1. Eph 5:23-27

Rev 21:2 ð Heb 12:22,23

2. Christ doesn’t practice spiritual polygamy!

3. Israel was God’s bride in the O.T. and faithfulness to God and His Will was expected and demanded!

a. Deut 28:1,2. “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.”

B. THE VINE & BRANCHES -

1. John 15:1-5

a. The concept that the branches are denominations is totally illogical:

1) How can one vine grow branches of different varieties and bearing different fruit?

b. Notice the wordage:

1) “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit…”

2) Phil 1:9-11. “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

2. You cannot abide in Christ and you can’t bear fruit through Jesus Christ unless you first of all get into Christ: Rom 6:4; Rom 8:1

C. THE BODY -

1. Col 1:18; Eph 1:22,23

2. How many bodies does a normal head produce?

a. ONE!

3. How can there be many bodies, with conflicting thoughts and practices with only one head?

a. IMPOSSIBLE!

1) Only if some or all are not connected to the head, and thus, not the true body!

1) Col 2:18,19. “Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.”

D. THE KINGDOM -

1. Matt 16:18,19

a. A kingdom is bound to one sovereign and Lord and lives under his rule and command!

1) The Lord makes it clear that whatever Peter and the other apostles and inspired writers bound on earth had already been bound in heaven!

a) They were the spokesmen to reveal the will of the King!

b) Acts 2:42. “And they devoted…”

E. THE TEMPLE -

1. I Cor 3:16,17.

a. The words of Paul and the concept of the temple clearly emphasizes the seriousness of maintaining the purity of the church in life, teaching and worship!

1) We are reminded of how God dealt with unscriptural innovations in his plan of worship for Israel in the Old Testament!

2) John 4:24

F. THE HOUSEHOLD -

1. I Tim 3:14,15

a. Heb 3:6. “Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope…(He continues in Vs 12) Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’ For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened…Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.”

2. But “household” also speaks to our “adoption” into the family of God and the terms of adoption!

a. Gal 3:26,27.

“I am the church! You are the church!

We are the church together!

All who follow Jesus, all around the world,

Yes, we’re the church together!

The church is not a building,

The church is not a steeple,

The church is not a resting place,

The church is A PEOPLE.”