Let The Bible Speak - What god has joined together part 2

Announcer: Today on Let the Bible Speak - Today we continue our look at what God has joined together. Let The Bible Speak starts right now. From the churches of Christ Let the Bible Speakf Christ Let the Bible Speak with Kevin Presley ♪ Intro Music ♪ And welcome to Let The Bible Speak. Thanks for joining us today for a bible study about primitive pre-denominational Christianity. Our purpose is to indeed let the bible speak because it is the lamp of God to light our path through life. Our appeal is to the scriptures for our faith and practice and I hope that's your desire as well. Today I want us to return to the theme we began last week, what God has joined together and that familiar phrase comes from the sacred institution of marriage between a man and a woman. When Jesus was once confronted by the pharisees about Moses teaching on divorce and remarriage Jesus answered their insincere and nefariously crafted question by going all the way back to the dawn of time and the beginning of marriage as God instituted it. He said in Matthew chapter 19 beginning in verse four have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female and said for this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they two or twain shall be one flesh wherefore they are no more two but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder. Well the marital union of a man and woman that is approved and recognized by God is not to be broken and can not be broken in fact without sin being involved. Think about that. The union of marriage can not be broken except by death without sin being involved somewhere. It is more than a civil contract. It is more than an institution or a civil institution. It is even more importantly a divine contract and to do anything that would destroy that union involves sin and it shows contempt for God's arrangement but beyond marriage which is what is under consideration here in Matthew 19, well there are other spiritual concepts that God has joined together in his great plan of redemption and today in part two of our study we'll see how it does harm to the beauty and the efficacy of God's plan and purpose to separate them. I'll be back with that after a song. - If you've ever visited an Assembly of the Church of Christ you've seen that it's different. No rock bands, no choirs and praise teams, no theatrical productions. That's because we believe worship is simple but profound, and is according to what's revealed in God's Word. When you visit with the Church of Christ, you'll find that everybody simply sings the praise of the Lord together, congregationally. We meet around the Lord's table every Sunday to remember the body and blood of the Lord in His new covenant. We pray together, and none of that pop psychology. But sound teaching from the Word of God. Oh and one more thing. We won't ask for your money. Members provide for the needs of the local church through a weekly collection. So forget all the hype. Come see the difference, and be our honored guest today. What God hath joined together let not man put asunder or separate. This warning was spoken by Jesus in the context of marriage, the holy and scriptural union of a man and a woman but we're using this famous phrase to provoke some thought about other things that are inseparable in God's plan and to separate them does great harm to God's design for things, namely our redemption. Last week we saw that there is a union not only in the gospel itself but throughout the word of God between the grace of God, the response of faith, and the obedience of faith or between grace, faith, and works, or faith and obedience. Those things are often separated by men but they are inseparably joined together by God. God's grace or his unmerited favor is freely offered to sinful man. It can not be earned, it'll never be deserved but it must be without exception received or accessed by faith according to Ephesians two in verse eight and then according to James chapter two and other passages, faith without obedience, well that's not true faith. In short, the gospel not only offers pardon on the basis of grace, it is conditional in that it requires faith and it has commands that are to be obeyed in faith. The bible never says, it never says that we are saved by grace alone. It says we are saved by grace through faith, Ephesians two and verse eight, and the only place where the phrase by faith alone is used in the new testament, the only place, is James chapter two and verse 24 where James said ye see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only. Other works James refers to are not works of human merit for no work can merit the salvation of man but they are rather works of faith, works of obedience to the gospel of Christ and thus the bible does not merely say we will be condemned if we refuse to believe the gospel, that's true, but it also says we will be condemned if we refuse to obey the gospel. Second Thessalonians one, verses seven through nine. Obedience is not optional. Obedience is not auxiliary, ancillary, it is not icing on the cake, it is not something extra, it is not something that the Christian needs to try to do as a good measure but obedience to the gospel is essential because the bible says Jesus is going to return and take vengeance on them who obey not the gospel. Again, second Thessalonians one, seven through nine. The Hebrew writer said in Hebrews five and verse nine that Christ is the author of eternal salvation unto all them who obey him. That's our review. God has joined together grace, faith, and obedience and it is a perversion of the gospel to separate them but today I wanna move along and mention another inseparable union as described in the word of God and this one is actually likened in the new testament to the marriage bond that we read about in Matthew 19 between a man and a woman and that is the union of Christ and the church and Ephesians chapter five, verses 22 through 25, the apostle Paul writes 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. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands and everything. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Here Paul is giving very practical instruction regarding the relationship of a husband to a wife and how the marital relationship is to be carried out. So Paul is likening the relationship of a husband and a wife to that of Christ and his bride, his spiritual bride, the church. Then he goes on in verses 28 through 32 to say so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself for no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the lord does the church for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause, here's the words of Jesus that we read in Matthew 19, Paul quotes him. He says for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh. Listen now, verse 32, this is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the church so the bible says in marriage, a man and a woman become one flesh. Man cares for his wife and protects and nourishes her like he does his own self. She is part of him. So in the same way, Paul over and over in his epistles describes the church using the metaphor the body of Christ. Well that's more than just an illustration of the church's members relationship to one another as Paul emphasizes in first Corinthians chapter 12. Rather, it's first and foremost a picture of the relationship of the church to Christ, the body of Christ. Consequently, the bible even describes congregations of the church as the churches of Christ. That's a scriptural description, Romans 16 and verse 16, and that should be how the church is described today if we understand the relationship of one to the other. We're not the bride of Martin Luther. We're not the bride of England. We're not the bride of any other entity or theologian or any man. We are the bride of Christ and consequently we should fittingly wear his name and not some other. It's frankly an insult to Christ when churches choose another name or description above or beyond one that emphasizes the church's relationship to Christ but it's not really surprising that men call the church by other names and designations today because people have, to a great degree, divorced Christ from his church. I know that because there is a fast increasing number of people who claim or believe that one can follow Christ and not be part of the church. They make a very serious delineation between what it means to be in Christ and what it means to be in the church. Many people describe themselves as spiritual but not religious. What they really mean is that they have spiritual thoughts, perhaps they believe in God, perhaps they might even claim they believe in Jesus but they claim no church affiliation. They're not active in the work of any local church but rather they might say they simply follow Jesus or some other kind of religious order or religious structure. Well that sounds good but is it right? Is it possible to be a member of the church and not have a relationship with Jesus? In the eyes of God, no. In the eyes of men, well yes that would be possible, associating yourself with the church by attending its assemblies or claiming membership in a congregation. Well that'll no more make you a Christian then walking into a hospital makes you a doctor or walking into a garage makes you a mechanic but on the other hand, a man isn't really a doctor if he never enters a medical facility or a hospital. Friend, first of all Christ and the church are inseparable because of what the church is. In one sense it is a spiritual congregation or assembly. Now the word church is actually a poor translation of the Greek word Ekklisia which basically means called out. It first refers to those people called out of the world by the gospel and saved in Christ and thus separated unto Christ. In other words, the word church applies to all who are in a saved relationship to God through Christ Jesus. In the (mumbling) through obedience to the gospel. The scripture says in Acts chapter two and verse 47 that after the people on Pentecost who heard or were convicted by the gospel thus believing in Jesus and turning from their sins in repentance, that they were baptized that same day for the remission of their sins and the scripture says in verse 47 consequently the lord added those who were being saved daily or day by day unto the church. Now notice that, the lord added those who were saved unto the church. He still does that, by the way. Number one, the church is a definite thing that one can be added to and number two, the lord is the one who adds us to it when we're saved. Now think about it, if the lord adds every person to the church who is saved what does that say about a person who wants nothing to do with the church? Now friend, this talk that has become so popular today that I love Jesus but I don't belong to the church, that's just wrong. You can't be saved if you're not part of the church because if you have been saved the lord has added you to the church. Now someone says but that's not really talking about a local church, it's talking about the universal church. Well potentially true enough but the universal church is made up of Christians who are members of the church locally where they live. There's no other manifestation of the church than what we see locally. The only visible, active, organized manifestation of the lord's church is that of local churches of Christ. Congregations of Christians who assemble together, serve together under the leadership of local shepherds, edify each other, and most of the epistles of the new testament were written to such groups of Christians and you know, friend, it is inconceivable to think of Christians living back there in the first century who claimed to love, serve, and follow Christ who were not an active part of such a local group of Christians. In fact, in Hebrews, some were placing distance between themselves and the local church because of the threat of persecution. They were tempted to go back to temple worship under the old law and they were not only sinning by so doing, they were placing their souls in grave danger of rejecting Christ altogether and departing into complete and utter apostasy. He not only tells 'em not to become apostates, he warned in Hebrews 10 and verse 25 not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Brother, sister, my friend, if you think you are serving and pleasing the lord but you're not part of a faithful local church that honors the word of God and carries out its worship and work according to the lord instruction's, his word, you're deceiving yourself. You can not be subject to a king unless you're a citizen of his kingdom. Jesus is the king over his kingdom and his kingdom on Earth is the church. Matthew 16, verses 18 through 19. How could someone say well, I want Jesus to be my king but I want nothing to do with his kingdom. How can you be married to Christ if you're not part of that which the bible calls his bride? How can you be a child of God and a fellow heir to the blessings of God if you want nothing to do with his family? The bible calls the church the house of God. First Timothy chapter three and verse 15. How can you say that you're redeemed by his blood while then denouncing and refusing association with his church when Paul said that the elders of a local church in the city of Ephesus in Acts 20 and verse 28, take heed therefore unto yourselves that all the flock over which the holy ghost have made you overseers to feed the church of God which, listen now, which he hath purchased with his own blood. You see, people are teaching a false and a dangerous doctrine when they would lead you to believe you can be a Christian without being a part of a church. The church is Christ's bride and if you insult, reject, denounce or otherwise want nothing to do with his bride how can you love Christ? Because Christ loves his bride and he loves his bride more than you love your husband or wife, I can promise you that. And if people claim to care for you but hate your spouse whom you love, what do you think about that? How do you react to them? How do you think Christ reacts to people who scorn his bride? God has joined together in a sacred and saving union His son, Christ Jesus, and the church for which he died and man can not separate that union without rejecting the plan and the purpose of the heavenly father. There is no such thing as salvation outside the church of Jesus Christ. Finally, God has joined the properties of spirit and truth or like we say, motive and method. In John, the fourth chapter, you may recall that Jesus there met a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well who had come to draw water. When she came to recognize Jesus as a prophet of God she asked him a question about worship. She and her people had been worshiping in ignorance. Jesus says so but Jesus then goes on in verses 23 through 24 to tell her the hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Now any worship or service to God must, Jesus doesn't say it might, it should, it can, it ought to, he says any worship or service to God must involve those two vital elements, spirit and truth. But again, men have sought to separate what God has joined together. Now one says well what's important is that what is done is done in the right away, that it's done in truth, that we go by the book, it's according to the word of God which is what truth is, John 17, verse 17, and then on the other hand you have someone who says oh no, that's really not what's important. What's really important is that we have a pure heart and that we worship no matter how we worship, that we worship with the right motive and you'll find many people who that's what they believe and thus they say God will really receive any kind of worship as long as it comes from a good heart but my question is why not both? Why does one exclude the other? Why does one have to be set against the other as though we can only focus on one or the other? Of course service to God must come from a clean and pure heart. Jesus taught that without question. Of course worship must engage not merely our outer man and his actions but our inner man and his heart and worship that does not do that is vain. That's very true, but you see Jesus placed equal emphasis on truth as he did spirit. He didn't put more emphasis on it but he put just as much emphasis upon it and just as worship in truth without spirit is dead and ineffectual, so worship in spirit without truth is trite and sinful. People believe that if they feel good about their worship or if it creates some wonderful emotion, some warm feeling within them well then it must be of God. It must be alright. Not so says Jesus. Not only our worship but all of our service and our obedience to God must not only come from a pure and worshipful heart or else God doesn't receive it, but it must come from an obedient heart as well. Worship without truth is what Paul in Colossians two and verse 23 called will worship. No, rather Paul said for God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, Romans chapter one and verse nine. He says I serve God with my spirit. He served with his spirit within and according to the gospel. And so must our worship and service be today if God is to accept it. Now make no mistake, there is worship that God does not accept. God does not accept all worship. It takes more than one just saying well, you know, I love God and so I'm just gonna launch out and worship him in some way and he'll receive that. Folks, you read the bible beginning with worship itself in the book of Genesis and God has never received worship on that basis. He always has required that worship be according to his direction. But listen, there is worship today that God does not accept and it's not just that which comes from an unclean heart but that which comes from the will of man as opposed to the word of God. Paul said in second Thessalonians two and verse 15 therefore brethren stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught whether by word or our epistle. Well what does that mean if it doesn't mean that we're to follow apostolic practices in the exact way they were originally revealed to be followed? What does that mean if we're not to do things according to the bible instead of whatever way we choose? Paul told the Corinthians in first Corinthians 11 and two to keep the ordinances as he delivered them to them by inspiration. That means we're to do bible things in bible ways. We are to let the bible speak about how we are to worship and how we are to serve the lord. Yes, in spirit, but also in truth. God has joined those two things together and don't let people separate them. Folks, the bible reveals to us a pattern for how we're to worship God. When Jesus instituted the lord's supper he showed us how to do it and the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, as well as Paul's later account in first Corinthians 11 show us how Jesus did it and thus how we're to do it. The bible tells us we're to sing and make melody in our hearts unto the lord. It says nothing else about offering any other kind of music unto the lord. The bible tells us who's to do the preaching and under what circumstance, in what kind of environment. The bible regulates these things. It tells us when we are to worship, when we are to come together to break bread and what God's word says about those things matters just as much as the heart and spirit with which we do it. What God hath joined together let not man put aside. - The Psalmist said, "Through Thy precepts, "I get understanding." The Bible is the revelation of God to man and you simply can't live for God until you know something about the Word of God and you may say, "Well, I want to read "and study the Bible, but I don't know where to begin. "I feel overwhelmed" or "I don't understand the Bible." I want to offer you a wonderful way to get acquainted with the scriptures. You'll learn about some of the most basic and foundational teachings of God's Word and you'll get a better handle on how to read and approach and study the Bible as a whole. Won't you get in touch with us today and ask to be enrolled in the Bible Correspondence Course. It won't cost you a penny and we'll mail the lessons to your home and you take your time to read and study through the lessons, I think you'll be surprised how much you'll learn. - Our study has been What God Has Joined Together, and in the last two weeks, we've talked about the relationship of grace, faith, and works, or obedience as well as Christ and his church, and worship or service in spirit and truth. These are things that man cannot divide without destroying the plan of God. If you'd like to go back and study more about what we've talked about, we'll be happy to send you an outline or transcript of the lessons. You can order both of them if you choose, just let us know that's what you want when you contact us, and do request the studies by the title What God Has Joined Together. It's free, and we'll have those on the way as soon as we hear from you. Also, don't forget the Bible correspondence course that we regularly make you aware of on this program. Let us hear from you today, enrolling in that course. Also, you can check us out online at letthebiblespeak.tv. We're on social media as well, and we want you to subscribe to our podcast where you can receive Let the Bible Speak each week and listen to it on the go. Thanks for joining me today. Our time is gone. Until we meet again, the Lord willing, I pray that you have a great week, and that you'll plan to meet me back here next time for another study from the Word of God. Until then, God bless you.