The Relation of Local Churches to One Another

Tonight we're on lesson number 13 in our series on ecclesiology.

Many of you, I know, are from a Baptist background, but not all of you. Some of us came from no religious background whatsoever. Or — I went to an Episcopal church, or Episcopal school rather, that was underneath a diocese in Texas for grade school. Got a great education there. But it's a very different form of church government than Baptists have.

Do we have anyone who is from more of a Presbyterian type of church background? Maybe you grew up — yeah. Any Episcopalian, anything like that? The reason I'm asking is that tonight and the next three nights, we're going to be learning some things that make us Baptists — things that we believe the Bible teaches. And I want you to turn to the back of your handout just to look at these.

Tonight we're on lesson 13, the relation of local churches to one another. As you may know, some churches are under a hierarchical structure where they don't make their own decisions. A local governing body determines who's going to be the pastor at that church and for how long and also their day-to-day operations. All right. Next week, we're going to be looking at lesson 14, the ordinances of the church. Now, as Baptists, we believe there are two ordinances, but many other denominations — Christian brothers and sisters — disagree, and they have what they call the sacraments of the church. The Roman Catholic Church has seven sacraments. We'll be going through those next week so you understand why they believe what they believe and the differences there. And do they confer grace, or are they representative of grace already given?

Then the next week, we're going to spend an entire evening just on baptism. And then I believe the following week is the Lord's Supper. Let's see. Yes, lesson 16, the Lord's Supper. These can be so beneficial to you because they all picture our union with Christ. And you'll understand why we do the practices that we practice and why we do church the way that we do church. OK, so flip over to the front and let's begin with Bible point number one.

The church is the great company of persons who Christ has saved. That's indicative of the church. You're not a church if you are not a group of saved people, right? Redeemed people. And whom He dwells. Part and parcel of salvation is union with Christ. Christ dwells within us and we are in Christ. He abides in us, to whom and through whom He reveals God. That's part of being saved — He reveals God to us, right? Jesus told Nicodemus, you can't even see the kingdom of heaven unless you be born again, right? And part of being the born-again church is being a missional people, one who reveals God to others, right?

And in whom He exercises spiritual dominion. We talked about that the last two weeks — about the government of the church and how we are ruled by the Word of God, right? And how that is how God exercises dominion in and through us. United to Christ, the church is the temple of God's dwelling. The organization of the church exists in regenerate members, united in equality with one another, whose sole authority and lawgiver is Christ, as expressed in Scripture.

Local churches relate — that's the first blank — they relate to one another in fellowship as equals. Every single church is on equal standing with another church. One church doesn't get to tell another church what to do or how to practice their faith, right? Christ is the one lawgiver and it's His Word that gives us our direction. So all churches relate to one another in equality.

As they are one — "one" is the second blank — as they are one in Christ.

Local churches freely share. There are two blanks here. Blank number three is "freely."

And the fourth blank is "share." Local churches freely share in concern, in consultation, and in cooperation. We'll be unpacking these tonight as we go through what it means to have concern for other churches, and what it means to seek counsel from other churches, and what it means to cooperate with other churches.

The application is this: how are different local churches sincerely united? "United" is the blank — united together. I mean, if we have such various practices — for example, tomorrow many of you will be over at St. Andrews with Ligonier, right? They have a very different form of church government than we do. So we're different local churches. They're under a presbytery. Well, actually, they're no longer under a presbytery. They became independent again.

They would have consulted us first. We could have saved them some trouble there.

But the Presbyterian Church is very different from the Baptist Church. But how are we sincerely united together with them? Under the banner of Christ, because they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is God made flesh, that He died on the cross, was buried, and rose again. Right. It is our soteriology that unites us — so we can have churches like on our campus, such as the Spanish church and also the Portuguese church, that we are united to. We are sincerely one with them because we are one in Christ. We're united to the exact same Savior, the exact same Holy Spirit who dwells within us. So when we pray, we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus and the Father hears our prayers just as much as He hears theirs. Right.

Bible point number two. Christ alone is the Lord of the church. Christ, as the sovereign head of the church, is its lawgiver and sole source of authority. Every church is therefore subject to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Scripture never — that's the first point. Scripture never presents an authority on earth above — "above" is the second blank — above that of the local church. There is no earthly authority above the local church. There is authority above the local church, but it's not earthly, right? It's the Lord Jesus Christ sitting on the throne. Right.

Scripture never presents an authority on earth above that of the local church. All local churches are both equal — "equals" is the third blank — in status to one another and in status before Christ. There are no second-class churches if they are believers in Christ. There are no less important churches. Sometimes smaller congregations feel like, "Well, they're just not in with the cool kids and they don't have the big programs and the big media exposure. God's blessed those other churches, but He hasn't blessed us in that way." No. He has put each and every member in the body just as He pleases and has gifted them accordingly, and small churches can do things that big churches can't. I've been in giant churches where you go one Sunday and you would not see the same people again for two or three weeks. One church that I went to — they said the average attendee was 1.4 Sundays a month. You know, so it was a 2,000-seat auditorium. So the people around you, they wouldn't be the same people you'd be fellowshiping with the next week, right? And so it's so nice in a smaller church that we can have fellowship with one another, right? We know each other. We know each other's needs. We can pray for one another. We can do life together and build lasting friendships. Right. That's something that you can't put a price on. So don't ever think that small churches are second-class churches. Before the throne of Christ, we are equal with the biggest, most "successful" — quote-unquote — mega church in the world.

No ecclesiastical hierarchy. That's a big word for church. No church hierarchy or association or convention can relieve any individual church of its direct — "direct" is the fourth blank — direct responsibility and accountability to Christ its head.

You can't say, "Well, you know, we're just a small fish in a pond. We can't be responsible for evangelism. We'll leave that for the bigger churches." Right. "We can't do discipleship or have a good student program or children's ministry because, you know, we just don't have the resources. We're not cut out for that." No. We are directly responsible to the Lord Jesus Christ for those whom God has entrusted to our church. And I love that our church does family discipleship, right? We bring people together on Wednesday nights and on Sunday mornings as families to study the Word of God, to worship together, to sing together, to see the children participate on Wednesday nights — and I missed not having our children's moment tonight because of sickness, you know — but that's a sweet thing that many churches never get to experience, right? And so we can't absolve ourselves of responsibilities and duties because of size or anything else. Every church is responsible to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are indeed our brother's keeper.

I want to read to you from Acts chapter four, verses five through seven. You know the story where a lame man was healed, and they're preaching Christ — the apostles are — and the religious leaders of that day aren't very happy. Their power is threatened. Their authority is threatened. It says, "And it came to pass on the next day that their rulers" — this would have been the Sanhedrin. This Jewish nation had 70 rulers, what was called the Sanhedrin, who decided matters of the law. Rome was of course their overseer, but they allowed them to handle most of their day-to-day affairs themselves. And the Sanhedrin was that governing body. And this is who it's talking about: "their rulers, their elders, and their scribes, as well as Annas, the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the family of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem." So all the leadership was there.

"And when they had set them in their midst" — them in their midst is the apostles, right? In particular Peter — "they asked, 'By what power or by what name have you done this?'" We're going to jump to verse 18. "So they called and commanded them not to speak at all or teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, 'Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge'" — figure it out.

"But we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." They were eyewitnesses to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. They walked with Christ for three years. They saw Him do miracles. And now they were seeing those miracles exponentially increased through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost had already happened. People are being healed. People are being saved, right? The Lord is adding daily to the church those who should be saved. And they're a part of that. They had ground-floor seats, so to speak, at the basketball game — being able to witness these great things taking place. You can't shut us up. We're not going to stop. Who are you to tell us what to do? God is our authority, right?

And that, my friends, is the same stance as the local church. No other church organization — whether it's the Southern Baptist Convention, whether it's our local Baptist association, which, by the way, we're part of. We're no longer part of the Southern Baptist Convention, but we're part of our local association and we can do some great things with that, right. No ecclesiastical statement binds us. We're directly responsible to the Lord Jesus Christ, right? And though others may say, "Don't do it this way, don't preach so boldly, don't do this" — we have to be responsible to our Lord and Savior.

The application for number two: if each church is free, can it do whatever it desires — "desires" is the blank — desires to do? If each church is free and no other church can boss you around or tell you what to do, can we just do whatever we want to do, right? Remember, there is no local earthly authority over the church, but that does not mean we're not under authority, right? We're under the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ and He has spoken through His Word, right? And this is our rule for our faith and our practice, and we're accountable for every word of God.

Bible point number three. The truth that local churches are equal in standing before Christ, and thus equal in status among each other, stands against Roman Catholicism. "Roman" is the first blank — what we call the Roman Catholic Church. Roman Catholicism falsely teaches that all churches are subject to the authority of the Bishop of Rome, otherwise known as the Pope, who they assert is the successor of Peter. They believe what they call apostolic succession — that Peter was appointed to be the ruler of all the churches by Jesus Christ, which he wasn't, and that he laid his hands on his successor before he died. It's been one unbroken chain. Historically, that's laughable, right? There are many churches that actually claim apostolic succession. Now, we believe in apostolic succession of the truth, right? In other words, the Word of God that we proclaim — the gospel — is the same gospel that Peter and John told the Sanhedrin: we've got to obey God and not men, right? We're going to keep preaching. That's apostolic succession of the truth, but not of an office, right? And that's what the Roman Catholic Church believes.

They assert that the Pope serves as a successor of Peter and an infallible representative of Christ on earth. They believe that the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, is not only the successor to Peter, but he is the infallible successor of Christ. He is the Vicar of Christ. He stands in the place of Christ on earth. If you remember when we studied bibliology, Caleb taught an excellent lesson. I encourage you to go back and watch it on YouTube. We were talking about how Scripture is unbroken — how it's inerrant and infallible, it cannot err, right? Because it's from God.

Every word of God is God-breathed — that's what the Scripture is described as.

But are not men fallible? Even the best of men are fallible, right? Everyone in this room is fallible. We have all erred. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. But what the Roman Catholic Church teaches is that because of his office, the Pope is infallible in his word, and therefore his word is equal with Scripture. When he speaks, it's Christ speaking — that's what they teach. That's heresy. The canon is closed, right?

Matthew 16:18–19 is where they get this. It simply refers to the personal position of Peter as the first confessor of Christ and his pivotal preaching ministry to both the Jews and the Gentiles. Flip over to the back. I want to read this in its context here.

It's in reference number three on the back.

Matthew 16, verses 13 through 23: "When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, 'Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?' So they said, 'Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.' He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?' Simon Peter answered and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'" So we call Peter the first confessor, right? He's among the apostles. He was the one who stood up and boldly said, "We know who You are. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." All the other apostles agreed at this point. But Peter, of course, liked to be the vocal one among them.

Verse 17: "Jesus answered and said to him, 'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church.'" He's doing a little wordplay, you know — Peter, his name meaning little rock. "On this rock I will build My church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." Now the Roman Catholic Church says that Christ here is saying He is building His church on Peter, right?

And in a sense, Peter is part of the foundation of the church. The church is built on the foundation of the apostles, right. But what "this rock" is — it is his confession that "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." It says, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." A lot of people scratch their heads and say, "Well, what does that mean?"

This actually comes from the language and the pageantry of the scribes. If you were a scribe in Israel, you were one who copied Scriptures by hand — and they did not have printing presses back then. And so the men who did this were carefully selected. They had to have good character, kind of like what we would say are qualifications for a pastor today. And the scribes, because of what they did, they knew the law better than anybody else. Because if you copied it by hand day after day, you would know it too. And so many of them became part of the Sanhedrin. They were the religious leaders of the day. And even when the Sanhedrin needed expert testimony, who would they call but the scribes? Because the scribes were the PhDs. They knew the holy Scriptures. And when you became an official scribe, you were given a ceremonial key. Perhaps you've seen a dignitary or a mayor or an important business person being given a key to the city. You know, it's a little wooden key, spray-painted gold. It's symbolic, right. But the idea is they were now a scribe and they would be unlocking the Scriptures. They would be using it to help people relate rightly with one another and to understand the Lord God.

It also has a link to that of the householder. In the first century, and way before that, wealthy people often had servants, and one of their most trusted servants — like Joseph in the Old Testament — would have been the manager of the house. And he would have had access to all the food stores, which were normally kept under lock and key. And if you had that key, it gave you access, and you determined who got fed and by what amount, right?

Jesus actually brings both of those two figures together in Matthew 13. You can look it up later on your own, but in Matthew 13:52 He says, like a good householder, he brings out things both old and new. In other words, he goes and he gets the fine wine, he goes and he gets the choice aged cheese, he goes and he gets the fresh meat — brings out the good stuff, sets before the people the banquet, right?

And that's what Peter was going to be doing. He was going to be preaching the gospel, right? He was going to be pivotal in founding and growing the early church. Verse 20: "Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ" — because it wasn't His time yet. Right. He would soon be crucified, but it wasn't time. From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and raised the third day. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. He's rebuking Christ, saying, "Far be it from You, Lord. This shall not happen to You."

"But He turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind Me, Satan. You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.'" This is the same Peter who just said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus told him flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but My Father. And He just told him that He is going to build His church on this confession — that Jesus Christ is Lord. And Peter, you're going to have the keys, because that's what the gospel does. The gospel unlocks the riches of heaven and sets the banquet before us where we feast on Christ. Right.

So is Peter infallible here?

Jesus just called him Satan. Right. He says you don't even understand the things of God here. Just that quickly, in the same turning point, right? There is no man that's infallible and there is no man that has authority over the church but the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the God-man. Right.

Put back over to the front. While Peter was personally instrumental in founding Christ's kingdom, it was Peter's great confession — "confession" is the second blank — that "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," that constituted the rock on which the church is built. "Built" is the third blank. The church is built on that great confession that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, right? We can't say that apart from the Holy Spirit, right? We can't believe that apart from the revelation of God the Father.

Peter and the other apostles equally constituted the foundation of the church. It wasn't just Peter who was the rock. It was the rest of the disciples, the rest of the apostles as well. Flip over to the back.

Ephesians 2:19–22: "Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" — having been built on the foundation of Peter alone? Is that what it says?

No. "On the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."

Peter and the other apostles — with Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, being the chief cornerstone — Peter and the other apostles are equal in honor and recognition for their founding work. Revelation 21:14 on the back talks about this and describes the new Jerusalem. And it says, "Now the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and on them were the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb." So the ones that Christ had picked, right — He gave the Great Commission. The Great Commission was first to them, but it's to us as well, right? So the whole church — and they were representatives of the church.

Scripture records that the counsel of James was regarded as of equal weight with that of Peter. And we find that in Acts 15, which we'll be touching on in just a minute.

Paul sternly rebuked Peter when he was hypocritical. We find that in Galatians 2:11. You remember that story?

Peter was hanging out with the Gentiles. But then when the Jews came to the dinner, came to the service — what did Peter do? He backed away from the Gentiles, right? And started hanging out with just the Jews. And what did Paul do? A fellow apostle, a pastor — he rebuked Peter sternly to his face in front of everybody. Is that infallible? Not at all.

And then Peter humbly refers to himself as a fellow elder in 1 Peter 5:1. He's not calling himself the chief elder. You'll see that on the back: "The elders who are among you I exhort. I, who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly, not as being lords over those entrusted to you, but as being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away." Peter could write so humbly because he had been humbled, right? Jesus restored him after he denied Him three times. "Do you love Me?" "Feed My sheep." "Do you love Me?" "Tend My flock." "Do you love Me?" So that had been burned into his soul and he was humble, right? And he called himself a fellow elder. He didn't say, "I am the chief elder and y'all need to listen to me." No. He's as a tender father — he's exhorting them.

There is absolutely no — this is the fourth blank — absolutely no evidence in Scripture that indicates that Peter had any superseding authority, or that any supposed authority was passed — "passed" is the fifth blank — was passed down to his successors. The gospel was passed down to its successors. You are proof of that, right? But no authority was passed down, nor was Peter even a Bishop of Rome. We have no historical proof that he was ever in Rome. Some people say perhaps he was crucified there, but that's not in the Bible, right? And we have no proof that he was a Bishop at Rome ever, right? So the whole story of him being the Bishop at Rome with the authority to pass down, being infallible — it's totally against Scripture.

The application is this: who is infallible?

Amen. Our Lord is infallible, right? God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. I want to read to you from Numbers 23:19: "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?"

God doesn't change, right? He is altogether perfect, altogether lovely. Every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of lights, and there is no variance, no changing, no shadow in God.

Bible point number four. The truth that local churches are equal in standing before Christ, and thus equal in status among each other, stands against national church theory. "National" is the blank.

National church theory is not all that different from Roman Catholicism, but it's the idea that the state is the one in whom resides all the authority over the church. Originally, the Anglican Church was formed as a breakoff from the Catholic Church, but it basically kind of copied the Catholic Church. It says all the power is going to be held centrally by the state, and the state will be responsible for the churches. States are not very good at growing anything or doing anything right other than spending money, right? That's all they can do successfully. National churches teach that all members of the church in any nation are bound together in a national organization that has jurisdiction over all the local churches.

And it started off well. You know, the Church of Scotland had a vibrant start, right? John Knox was the leader of that church. They started the first public schools, and the reason was that they wanted every boy and girl to be able to read the Bible in their own native tongue. So the Bible was given to them as their textbook, right? And they were making disciples. The Kirk — that's what they call the church there in Scotland. It was a glorious thing for 100 or 200 years, right?

Now you wouldn't recognize it.

It's hollowed out. It's liberal. I've even heard that John Knox's grave has been paved over with an asphalt parking lot. You know, what a shame that is.

Against the national church theory, we assert that there is no example of a national church in the New Testament. Sometimes a church is referred to generically or as the church universal. The Bible will say "all the churches" or "let the churches do this or that," but it's speaking generically. It's not talking about a specific national church. Sometimes a church is referred to as regional churches. For example, we can think of the seven churches in Revelation, which were in Asia Minor, right? Or the churches of Macedonia, right? Regional churches.

But this never implies a governing organization over — "over" is the second blank — over the regional churches. In the Old Testament, indeed, the people of God were associated within the national context of Israel. "Israel" is the third blank.

In the New Covenant, the people of God are comprised of believers — "believers" is the fourth blank — from all nations who are joined to Christ. This is illustrated in the seven candlesticks representing the seven churches in Revelation 1:20, right? Jesus is walking among these golden lampstands, and Revelation 1:20 tells you — it doesn't make you guess what this imagery is. It says the seven candlesticks are the seven churches, right? And He proceeds to write seven letters to these specific churches in Asia Minor.

The independence of each church is illustrated in the Council of Jerusalem as recorded in Acts 15:1–35.

This was the story where the gospel had gone forth. Remember how Peter had a vision, and a delegation of Gentiles came — and the vision was of unclean animals coming down on a cloth, and God tells Peter, "Rise, kill and eat." And he said, "No, I don't eat unclean things." So He told Peter three times — you know, like you have to — and Peter gets it finally, right? And he realizes that God is speaking about the Gentiles, that there is no one who is unclean, right? That there is no one who can't be made clean in our Lord Jesus Christ. And they receive the Holy Spirit, right? They are saved. The Gentiles are saved, and it's determined that Paul and Barnabas should be witnesses and go out as missionaries, and we find that in Acts 13 where they go on their first missionary journey. They'd start off with the synagogues, but then the Gentiles would give them an audience and they found that the Gentiles were receptive. And so Gentiles are getting saved left and right now, and the idea was — what should we tell them? How should we integrate them within churches? Because we've got some Jewish practices and some Christian practices — how does this work out?

So they actually had a council. It was one of the first councils where they got many of the apostles and disciples together, and we find that in Acts 15. Flip over to the back. Don't have the whole thing quoted here — I just have a few verses just so you can get the idea of the nature of this council. I have verses 2, 6, 13, 15, 19, and 22. They determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go to Jerusalem. This was the church at Antioch. They already had an apostle — they had Paul — but they determined that Paul and Barnabas should go to Jerusalem for counsel, right? Like, well, you've got an apostle.

No, they wanted to get the counsel of the church at large. "To the apostles and the elders about this question." And now the apostles and elders came together to consider the matter. So they came together to listen and to reason together.

Verse 13: "James answered, saying, 'Men and brethren, listen to me.'" And the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written. James looks to the Old Testament and he finds Scripture that is apropos to the situation. In fact, it's pretty amazing. He quotes Amos about the restoration of Israel. He says the restoration of Israel is these Gentiles who are coming into the church — saying this is being fulfilled right now in front of your eyes. But it's amazing that James would look to the Scriptures — which is what they had, the Old Testament at that time — for their guidance, right?

So when churches do meet together, this is still our authority, right? It's the Word of God that is our authority.

Verse 19: "Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles."

So they realize that the Gentiles are turning to God and they don't want to put unnecessary burdens on them, because men don't have the authority to burden men or to put laws on them. Only God does. Verse 22: "Then it pleased the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas." What we see here is mutual cooperation. We see respect. We see people listening to one another. We see the Word of God as the abiding authority, and we see no man-made rules being put on people — just trying to apply Scripture. That's what we see there in this case.

Put back over to the front.

Here we see the apostles and the elders working together where no one person has original authority or power over the whole. "Whole" is the fifth blank. What was true there in Acts 15 at the Council of Jerusalem is true for any nation. There is no national church that should have power over the whole. Okay.

Through Scripture, reason, advice, and persuasion, they worked together without coercion. It wasn't top-down: "OK, you're going to do things the way we do it here in Jerusalem. And when you go into all your Gentile cities, you're going to do it our way or the highway, or you're not in the church." Not at all. No council claimed authority until the second century, and that wasn't even an ecumenical council. At the end of the second century, there was a regional council, and it was against the Montanists — that's how you pronounce them. The Montanists believed that they had ecstatic divine revelation on par with Scripture, and they would speak in the first person as the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this local regional council formed at the end of the second century to rebuke that, right? Because that was error. They were doing it to cooperate and warn other churches about that. But we don't even have an ecumenical — meaning all the churches together — council until the First Council of Nicaea in 325. So churches just didn't do that. They were individually independent of one another and would seek advice and consent, but no one church would tell another church what its standard of doctrine is or how to live.

Local churches were not surrendered until the third or fourth century. We don't really see local churches being subsumed by states until you get to Constantine and later on, right? So local churches were always independent from the very beginning.

The application for number four. What is the danger of concentrating power — "power" is the blank — in men's hands?

Men are corrupt, right?

We are swayed easily. We are weak. We are tempted by the flesh. It's very easy for you to use power for your own benefit.

It's very easy to be flattered and to use that power corruptly, right? For profit and for gain, right?

Let's never do that in the church.

Bible point number five, the independence of each church. By the way, I did not mention the Presbyterian form of government, because just as Roman Catholicism would be a worldwide church hierarchy and then you would have a national church — which we just talked about in point four — the Presbyterian model would be kind of the same thing, having a hierarchical structure over churches that could be statewide or regional, where again churches can — I went to one church for a little bit that had a great man of God preaching there. He was at an Episcopal church, beautiful worship. I didn't agree with infant baptism, but I asked him after I visited once or twice and enjoyed his preaching. I said, "You know, most Episcopal churches are going left. How do I know that one Sunday I'm not going to see you up here blessing same-sex unions or having a female priest appear?" He says, "It's not in my hands. It's up to the local diocese."

Right. So local churches in that type of a Presbyterian or Anglican communion do not have autonomy. So that's the concern.

Bible point number five. The independence of each church is qualified by interdependence. The independence of each church is qualified by interdependence. What I mean by that is this.

Every single one of us is accountable to our Lord Jesus Christ, right? Every single one of us is united by faith to our Lord Jesus Christ, but we're not united alone, right? You're united to Christ, and you're united to Christ, and you're united to Christ. So that makes us brothers and sisters, right? That gives us a community, right? That gives us like-mindedness, a single purpose, because we all call upon the Father, right? We all pray to the Father through the Son by the Spirit. So the same Christ who saved me has saved you. The same is true of churches. Churches are independent of one another, but they should also be interdependent in some ways. And we'll be talking about these three ways here.

While each church bears its own responsibility in ascertaining its doctrine and duty, it is to acknowledge the indwelling of the Spirit in other — "other" is the first blank for number five — other churches as well. There must be sympathy and mutual concern — "concern" is the second blank — for each other church's welfare. "Welfare" is the third blank. Recognizing that together — "together" is the fourth blank — so the first blank is "interdependence," the second blank is "other," the third blank is "concern," the fourth blank is "welfare," and the fifth blank is "together" — that together we make up the great body of which Christ is head.

Local churches should come to one another's aid. We should come to one another's support. And we have a beautiful picture of that here. I like to brag about it — that on Sunday morning, we have a Spanish-speaking congregation and we have a Portuguese congregation that meets here at the same time. Sometimes they come in and share a fellowship meal with us like we do when we celebrate the Lord's Supper, and how sweet that is, right? We should be concerned about those churches. Pastor Willie and his wife June — I pray for them every morning, and part of why I pray for them is that they're my brother in Christ, but I'm concerned about their flock. They can reach people that I can't, because they know the language and they know the culture. And their church has struggled a little bit with immigration enforcement pressure — many have self-deported — and so they've struggled financially. And our church has helped out with that in regards to rent and whatnot, because that's what we do. We are concerned about other churches and their welfare. We're concerned about their well-being and we have sympathy for them because we know that they are serving the Lord Jesus Christ and they are making disciples and they are preaching the gospel, right? Flip over to the back.

Look at Acts 11:29–30: "Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea.

This they also did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul." Here we have a case where a church — I believe this was at Antioch if I recall right — sent monetary support to the church in Jerusalem.

There was a famine going on during that time in Jerusalem, as the Bible tells us.

It can be noted historically, and I think with good cause, that you'll see several times that the church in Jerusalem is helped out by other churches. Jerusalem — big city — what's going on there? Remember early on they sold their property and laid it at the apostles' feet, because they thought that perhaps Jesus was going to come back at any given moment, right? Well, when you sell your fields all of a sudden you can't provide for yourself anymore. A lot of people suspect that that was probably part of what was going on, because persecution wasn't taking place yet during this time.

So other local churches were coming to their aid, concerned about their well-being and their benefit. They were giving their own money to help other churches. Right. And local churches do that. I've seen local churches go when a church gets flooded or when a church has its roof torn off or when trees fall down — they go and they help them out, right? Because that's what brothers and sisters in Christ do.

Look at Romans 15:26: "For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem." There's another example of them sending monetary aid to the church in Jerusalem.

Look at 2 Corinthians 8:1–4. Paul — he's smart as a leader of men — he's actually encouraging the church of Corinth to contribute, and he does that by bragging on the churches of Macedonia and their generosity to try to inspire the same in the church of Corinth. He says, "Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia: that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. For I bear witness that according to their ability — yes, and beyond their ability — they were freely willing, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints." And he encourages them to give freely, to give willingly in that passage.

Then look at Colossians 4:16. This also shows cooperation and concern for soul care among churches. "Now when this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea." It's a lost epistle. We don't have that letter anymore. How wonderful it would be if one day we dig it up or something — who knows? But we see churches passing on epistles, right? Because again they didn't have printing presses, and so they were sharing things that would encourage each other's souls.

Put back over to the front. Ephesians 4:4–5 says: "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling — one Lord, one faith, one baptism." So we are one with our Spanish-speaking congregation. We are one with our Portuguese congregation. We are one with our fellow churches here in the area who call on the Lord Jesus Christ.

The application is this: do you pray — "pray" is the blank — do you pray for and help and encourage other local churches?

I encourage you to do so. Again, we have a local association. We have a good man who is now leading that local association.

He's the gentleman that we've supported for the longest time with our India missionary, right? And we know him. He's been here in this congregation. He has a heart for discipleship, a heart for the gospel. So we can cooperate and fellowship in that, right.

Bible point number six. The fellowship between local churches may involve special consultation and both seeking and giving advice — "advice" is the blank — as the good order and reputation of each church is valuable to the others. Isn't that important — that each church has good order and a good reputation? If a church has a horrible reputation — their pastor is a philanderer, someone's been embezzling from the church, they have allowed disunity and racial bigotry to run rampant in the church — that reflects on all the other churches. That tarnishes the name of the Lord Jesus Christ before people, right?

As the good order and reputation of each church is valuable to the others, cases of grave importance and difficulty can be submitted to an association for counsel. It's what we see happening in Acts chapter 15 that we just talked about with James, right — where Paul was at Antioch and they didn't quite know what to do with these Gentiles. So they go to the church in Jerusalem, where you have James and you have Peter and all the other apostles and disciples there. For example, the church at Antioch sought advice from the church in Jerusalem, although the Apostle Paul was at Antioch.

In such cases, the admonition or advice received is not a binding authority — it's not a binding authority — but it is to be taken as moral persuasion. Their counsel should be regarded as an index to the truth. All we mean by that is it indicates the truth. If you know that this congregation has a good reputation and they preach the gospel and they're living it, and you go to them for advice —

you can probably be sure that they're looking to the Word of God, right? That they are like-minded, that they believe in the authority of the Word of God, right. So even though what they say isn't binding because of who they are, they should be an index to the truth. They should be pointing to the truth, right. And the Word of God is what is binding. The receiving church must ultimately compare this cooperative counsel with Christ's laws. "Laws" is the fourth blank. It's ultimately the Word of God that we're responsible to. But sometimes you say, "Well, why even get the counsel then?" Sometimes churches can have blind spots.

Sometimes churches can go through turmoil and there are competing factions within the church and they need a referee, right? So to be able to voluntarily go to another church and ask advice, ask counsel, or to a local association, or just call some pastors from local churches to come in and help — we should be able to aid one another in that way, right? To faithfully point them to the Word of God.

Flip over to the back.

Proverbs 15:22: "Without counsel plans go awry, but in the multitude of counselors they are established." Every one of us values a wise counselor, right? You've never made mistakes? Maybe when you're 18 you don't think you need wise counsel, you know. Then you live a little bit and you realize, "Boy, I was a fool," right? Then you start to listen, right. Then you start to accumulate wisdom, and down the road you start to be able to give advice to other people: "Don't make my mistakes. Do it this way," right? The same is true of churches. We should avail ourselves of advice when necessary.

Application.

Let me read Revelation 2:29: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." The Spirit speaks to us through the Word of God, but He often uses people, right? When we come here on Sunday morning, we hear Pastor Casey preaching, right? He's preaching from the Word of God. So he's an instrument of God, right? And the Spirit speaks to us through the Word, right. The same thing — the Spirit can speak through a church. A church can be a vessel to point us to Christ. The application is: is it prudent to get godly counseling?

Always prudent — exactly. Who goes to war without determining if he can win, without counting the cost? Very apropos right now.

Number seven.

The fellowship between local churches may involve cooperation in mission — "mission" is the first blank — mission work. Find a reference there in 3 John 1:8.

We may involve cooperation in mission and giving. We already referred to 2 Corinthians 8. Evangelistic enterprises — there's a reference to Mark 2:3. That's the great story where there is a lame man, a paralyzed man, who has four friends who carry him on a mat, right? Christ is inside the home. It's so crowded they can't get near. So what do they do? They carry him up on top of the roof, right? They pull back the tiles and the roofing material and they lower him on ropes before Jesus — they are literally carrying that man to Christ.

And Christ is amazed at their faith. They knew that He was a Savior, right. This man was healed, but more importantly he was saved, right. And we can cooperate with other churches in evangelism, right? It's why we have a local association — to do evangelistic events.

Also in biblical education. That's the fourth blank.

Biblical education is a very important thing. We take that seriously here at Beulah, but that's a great way and reason why many churches cooperate together — whether it's through organizations such as Founders or G3, Founders Seminary, right? Or through the Southern Baptist Convention. Not all of the Southern Baptist Convention is bad, right. You know, they have some unfortunate things, but on the flip side, what they do with their seminaries is excellent. I went to one of the six Southern Baptist seminaries, and I tell you it was a wonderful experience — great, godly professors. We're going to have one of those professors come speak here in June. Looking forward to hearing Dr. Wellum — what a blessing that will be.

Looking at 3 John 1:8, it's on the back.

"We therefore ought to receive such, that we may become fellow workers for the truth."

Saying that if we receive — in this context missionaries, a traveling itinerant preacher — that we become partakers of that by blessing them. And what does our church do? Don't we have 10 missionaries or missionary endeavors that we give 1% of our budget to support each one?

Do you know that you have a part in what is happening in the church over in India?

You have a part in what's happening in Thailand. You have a part in what's happening here locally with our pregnancy counseling centers, right. We participate, and we're not the only ones giving in those endeavors, right. Most of those missionaries have other churches supporting them. By each church giving a little bit — if we give 1% of our budget and another church gives 1% of their budget and so forth — we're able to accomplish great evangelistic endeavors and discipleship opportunities that we wouldn't be able to do on our own, right.

Also look at Philippians 4:15–16: "Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only. For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities." Paul is telling the church at Philippi — even when he went to a different area, the church at Thessalonica was still supporting him. They were supporting him in the gospel ministry, and we can do the same thing, right.

John 17:23 says, "I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me." Because we are united to Christ, who is united to the Father — as a result, we reflect the very love of God, and together, churches in unity with one another are a witness to the world. "That the world may know that You have sent Me." So we can cooperate together by having godly concern for one another, godly counsel, and in cooperation for things such as missions, education, and various endeavors that are for the welfare and benefit of other churches.

The application is: what partnerships and forms of cooperation does Beulah exhibit?

I've already named some of them. What are some ways that Beulah partners with other churches and church organizations here in our community?

Amen, amen. I want to say — what a fine teaching ministry that is, and how fruitful it is, and I'm jealous that y'all get to go tomorrow. I'll be running my business, but I can always catch the live stream. So that is an excellent way that we have partnered with others. What other ways have we exhibited this fellowship and cooperation?

What about through our homeschool groups that meet here? It's fostering Christian education.

Who else? Missionaries — yeah, and also through our local association. So we are able to have an outsized impact through this cooperation.

Founders. Yeah, that's another one — exactly.

God bless y'all.