The Doctrine of the Church (Part 2)

With the exception of our Easter Series, and Communion Sunday’s we have been going article by article through our Church’s Articles of Faith as we seek to learn just what it is that our church believes, and hopefully what you believe as well. Hopefully I will manage to finish this series up by the end of September, since I have plans beginning in October to start a new series which I have yet to title. As with our previous messages in this series, our passages will be all over the place, so, for your convenience and mine as well, they will be on the screen.

Last week we began looking at the Doctrine of the Church. As we did so, we looked at the universal church, and our church’s written definition of the local church. Originally I had high hopes of covering all of this in one message. But since last week’s sermon was so long, I decided I better cut it into two parts. Originally my bullet point were going to be:

What the Church Believes

What the Church Does

How the Church Relates to Those Outside the Church

Last week, we looked at what the Church believes. Let’s get started now with

What the Church Does

Note that,

The Local Church Puts into Practice the Ordinances Which Christ Gave to the Church

Let’s spend a moment considering the term ordinance verses the term sacrament. Both are good English words, and you will not find either of them in the Bible. In the mind of most Baptists, the Catholic Church has corrupted the term sacrament by teaching that the sacraments convey grace to people without requiring faith from those participating in them. Therefore, we use the term ordinance instead since it was ordained by Christ that His followers should practice certain things.

We should be aware, however, that there are other church groups who continue to use the term sacraments, but they give them the same meaning which we give to the ordinances. In other words, they do not teach or believe that grace is conveyed by the participation in the sacraments. In their minds a believer participates in the sacraments in obedience to Christ.

How many ordinances did Christ give to the Church? We believe that He gave two ordinance to the Church, and we will look at them in the order in which they should occur in the Christian life.

Let’s look at

The Ordinance of Baptism

I picked this “water” slide for today’s sermon because it depicts the water of baptism. In the early days of the church they did not have baptistries built into the church building, with warm water and all. Rather, they would baptize people either in a lake or in a river or stream which was deep enough for a person to be totally immersed under the water.

As I reread what I had just written, I thought it might be interesting for a church to have an entire indoor pool, and the Pastor lay his hands and pray over the baptismal candidate before pushing them down the slide into the water. What do you think about that? I can hear the “boos” already!

Our Church’s Article on the ordinances begins with this statement:

We Believe that Christian Baptism is Believer’s Immersion in Water

There are various views about baptism, and we should give a little attention to them.

There those who practice infant baptism. In the Catholic tradition grace is conveyed to the infant by the sprinkling of water on them. But that goes against what the Bible teaches about justification by faith alone.

But Catholic churches are not the only ones who practice infant baptism. In theology infant baptism is referred to as Paedobaptism. Churches in the Lutheran, Episcopalian, Methodist, Presbyterian and Reformed traditions also practice infant baptism. In this view all infants of believing parents should be baptized into the covenant community of God’s people. In the minds of those who embrace Covenant Theology, infant baptism is the New Testament version of circumcision. Both are seen as bringing a child into the faith community — whether it be the faith community of Israel, or the faith community of the Church.

Our view is that an infant should not be baptized for at least two distinct reasons. First of all, baptism by immersion would endanger the child’s life, and we certainly do not want to do that. Secondly, we believe the Bible teaches that baptism is for believers. An infant cannot grasp the message of the gospel, let alone place saving faith in it.

Of course, this brings up the discussion of the mode of baptism. All of those who practice infant baptism also practice sprinkling instead of immersion. That solves the potential problem of drowning an infant in the water. But the Greek word, baptizo, from which we get the English word, baptize, literally means to immerse. We believe that water baptism beautifully pictures how the believer has died with Christ and has been raised to walk in newness of life.

I remember hearing a story many years ago about a father and son who farmed together, but they went to separate churches. The father was a staunch old-time Methodist who believed that the proper mode of baptism was by sprinkling. The son had left the Methodist church and become a baptist, and he believed the proper mode of baptism was by immersion. And this father and son would argue almost daily over the proper mode of baptism. One day one of their cows died. The father instructed the son to move the cow out of the barn and to bury it. So the son somehow managed to get the cow outside of the of the barn. Then he through a couple of shovels full of dirt on it and declared it to be a finished task. After a few days there grew to be quite a stench around the farm, and the father went to investigate. And he found the cow still on the surface of the ground with just a little dirt sprinkled on it. In anger he went and found his son and started rebuking him for not obeying his command to bury the cow. His son stated that he did bury it — it buried the Methodist way! The father soon became a Baptist!

We need to understand that there are two different baptisms mentioned in the New Testament — maybe even three if you include John the Baptist baptizing future believers before they came to true faith. What I am referring to is water baptism and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

All who have truly repented of their sins and come to faith in Christ are baptized by the Holy Spirit the moment they place their faith in Christ. It doesn’t matter if the person is a Baptist, Methodist or any other church affiliation. We are all baptized by the Holy Spirit. One Lord, one faith, one baptism.

Our focus for this morning is on water baptism, which we most commonly refer to as believer’s baptism. How does one determine if they should be baptized or not? First, all who have come to faith in Christ should be baptized because it is the first step in obedience to Jesus Christ. If a so-called Christian is unwilling to be baptized then there is question to the authenticity of their faith.

Philip the Evangelist was traveling down the road to Gaza when he came upon an Ethiopian Eunuch who was sitting in his chariot reading from Isaiah 53. Philip asked him if he understood what he was reading, and he invited the evangelist to explain it to him. Let’s pick up the narrative in

Acts 8:35–38 NKJV

Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?” Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.

Only those who believe in the person and work of Jesus Christ and have embraced His work for their salvation should be baptized.

Our statement goes on to say

We Believe the Christian Baptism is into the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost [Spirit]

Some churches believe that a person is to only be baptized into the name of Jesus. But Christ’s own words should settle this matter.

Matthew 28:19 ESV

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

This is, in truth, the place where Christ ordained Christian baptism.

I have already mentioned this in part in my argument against infant baptism. But our statement says,

We Believe that Christ Baptism is to Show Forth in a Solemn and Beautiful Emblem [Visible Picture]our Faith in the Crucified, Buried and risen Savior, with its Effect in our Death to sin and Resurrection to a new life

Romans 6:3–5 ESV

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Further, our statement reads,

We Believe that in Scriptural Order Baptism Precedes the Privileges of Church Membership and is the Public Recognition of the Lordship of Jesus Christ

We read this last week, but it is worth reading it again today.

Acts 2:41–42 ESV

So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

So this is the first ordinance of the Church — believer’s baptism by immersion. Let’s move on now to look at

The Ordinance of the Lord’s Supper

After this message we will celebrate this ordinance together as a local body of Christ. This is our statement on communion.

We Believe the Lord’s Supper is a Memorial Service in which the Elements of Bread and Wine [Cup] Remind us of the love of God in Jesus, “Who spared not His Own Son but Delivered Him up for us all,”

Why do we stress this as a memorial? Because the Catholic Church teaches that this is a means of conveying grace. In other words, it turns the beautiful observance of this Supper into a way in which a person can earn salvation.

Titus 3:5 NKJV

not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,

That This Ordinance is to be Observed in Anticipation of His Coming and Preceded Always by Solemn Self Examination