The Universal Church (1)

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Lars Larson

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In recent months with our friend he has been able to arrange to return to the
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Philippines and so he's leaving tomorrow evening tomorrow night actually and going to the northern
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Philippines to serve in a church there very rural area right on the ocean
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I understand and so pray for David's safety if you would and the Lord's blessing upon him we want
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God's best for him why don't we pray first ask
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God to help us our father we come to you asking that you would have your way in our souls we pray
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Lord that you would illuminate our mind to the truth of your word we pray our
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God that you would help us to dispel any errant understanding that we may have and that that would be displaced with truth we pray our
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God that you would help us in this study which we are embarking upon today that you would guide us and help us and help us to be a stronger and better church before you as a result of what we give attention to and so may your will be done may you bless us help us illuminate us move us we pray in Jesus name amen there are some aspects of the
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Christian faith that we might assume are understood by most
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Christians but this would not necessarily be the case in fact
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I'm I guess I'm never really amazed at what people don't know or what they think they know but don't know for Aaron ignorance exists among Christians with regard to many doctrines of the scriptures it's a learning process isn't it and there's much to learn as a
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Christian this Bible is you know we'll never exhaust it we can give our entire lives to it some of us have been in it for many decades now but it's always a fresh book isn't it and we're always learning things new because it reflects the will and ways of an infinite
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God and we can be thankful for that it's a it's a rich book but many of us have perhaps wrong understandings that need to be corrected and they're the hardest ones to deal with aren't they
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I've always said it's harder to unlearn than it is to learn because once we have certain beliefs ingrained in our thinking and we presume that this is what the
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Bible teaches and we tend to defend those things tenaciously and what we really need to be is in a good sense thoroughly critically minded and allow the
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Word of God to confront us and challenge us in order to understand what it teaches and this matter this is this doctrine that we want to address now in our study beginning today is one of those areas one of those aspects of study that very important for there are many unbiblical views of the church that many people hold many
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Christians hold they perhaps have acquired unbiblical views regarding the church through their own church experience in the past assuming that what they've been a part of in the past was scriptural they assumed it was so and they've never known anything different perhaps they've never been in a setting perhaps where they've been taught and challenged rightly regarding the matter of what the
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Holy Scriptures reveal and I think that because of error and confusion that many churches of Jesus Christ suffer they're not all that they can be or should be and I just pray that that will not be the case with us some might believe a discussion of the doctrine of the church is not an important matter you know it may seem to have little relevance or application and they might not view this subject as something that of real interest
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I hope that's not the case with us you know the Lord loved the church and gave himself for we ought to love the church and give ourselves for her as well some might perceive a detailed discussion about this is needless and fruitless but understanding of the church of Jesus Christ has broad implications for faith and practice on how we are to view ourselves and how we are to live in the world
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God saved each of us as individuals as we came to Christ but he didn't save us to be individuals he saved us to be a part of his people a part of his church and we really aren't living as Christians until we see ourselves in God's purposes in this way and I would argue a reason a great harm has come to God's people and even entire nations through history because of error respecting the nature and identity of the church of Jesus Christ and I would assert that even in today's world of postmodernism and multiculturalism there's greater need than ever to be precise about these matters about what we believe and why we believe what we do about the church because the world has influenced
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Christendom to blur the lines between the church and the world ecumenism of the broadest kind is promoted and so most today who would argue they're
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Christian think that all distinctions between churches and denominations are artificial unnecessary and even sinful you hear that commonly they believe to keep separate from others who claim to be
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Christian is sinful unspiritual but in addition there are those in the last generation who have attempted to reinvent the church in order to reach the people in the present -day culture they have developed new models of ministry and many of these touch on the nature and function of the church their desires are noble perhaps their motives pure let's reach the world for Christ but we would question their models they advocate new unscriptural ways in which the church functions but in addition non -denominationalism is quite popular now churches all across this land of course are changing their name they have been for a generation now so that you can no longer identify them with a specific group or even a specific doctrine generalizations the
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Christian Life Center for example which tells you nothing you know and many churches are changing their labels and whatnot because they see this is going to be somehow more conducive to reaching a broader culture and they advocate denominations do not matter and so really in their advocacy of non -denominationalism they really are becoming interdenominational all groups and churches that claim to be
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Christian are presumed to be part of the universal church and so everything's accepted everything's given legitimacy you know we're
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Christian or against everybody else you know yeah there's some cults out here there's Islam out there but we're
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Christians and so there's this general acceptance that anybody and everybody who claims to be
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Christian is so and is regarded as so and treated so and so because of this spirit permeating
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Christendom anything believed about God is presumed to be legitimate for the most part sincerity is the big test today if people are sincere how who are you to criticize you know before the
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Lord but again this only underscores the importance that we understand with precision what the scriptures affirm to be true regarding these matters and so today
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I'd like us to begin to examine what the Bible says what the Bible teaches about the church and I hope as a result we will see more clearly what we are as a church of Jesus Christ and how our
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Lord would have us minister to the world about us now first let us acknowledge that when the
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Holy Scripture speaks about the church of Jesus Christ it does so in two senses just about everybody acknowledges this one is a church that is commonly described as the universal church and the other is a local church universal and local sometimes these two forms of the church described as a church triumphant that would be the universal church and then the church militant that would be the local church another common designation is the invisible church
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I don't necessarily like that term over against the visible church the invisible church would be comprised of all people in history who are truly born again and you really can't see into their hearts that's why it's invisible and then you have the visible church would be the local church congregations again this might seem to be so elementary to be needless and fruitless to spend time delineating about this but please believe me although most agree in these two expressions of the church of Jesus Christ is much difference of opinion and sharp disagreement as to the nature of these two entities and we're going to explore these and get into some detail about it and today we'll only have time to address the identity and nature of the universal church but we're going to show that there's there's not a lot of agreement about this and we would argue that we from a reformed perspective actually have a minority view about the identity of the universal church as well as we'll demonstrate today
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Lord willing and so even though it might seem like this is a rather simple matter and maybe a matter that's not all that controversial in reality it is even what we say today would not be readily accepted by a whole lot of evangelicals in churches around and so we want to do so in the time we have by examining two passages in the
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New Testament Lord willing see how we do one in Hebrews 12 and the other in Matthew 16 two passages that speak very directly about the church and particularly in the in the form of being a universal church and so let's begin by reading
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Hebrews 12 22 through 24 here we have the universal church described for us but you have come to Mount Zion to the city of the
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Living God to the Jerusalem to an innumerable company of angels to the
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General Assembly and church there it is church of the firstborn were registered in heaven to God the judge of all to the spirits of just men made perfect to Jesus the mediator of the
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New Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of let me provide some context the writer was in various ways exhorting the
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Jewish Christians to whom he was writing to persevere in their faith in Jesus Christ due to the threat that was upon them for being
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Christian they were tempted to forsake Jesus Christ to return to worship and serve
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God according to the old covenant system of Judaism of the day the religion that was given by God through Moses to Israel they knew that was legitimate and they were catching heat for being a
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Christian for believing on Jesus let's just walk away from Jesus go back to what we knew was of God and we'll be okay we'll be safe and we'll avoid persecution and the writer in various ways throughout his epistle is saying you can't go there there's no salvation for you if you abandon
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Jesus the writer did not set forth an argument that many well -meaning evangelicals might assume about God's dealings in history in other words the writer did not argue that though God had formal dealings with the nation of Israel now his concern in this age was concerned for the church that's not how the writer argued in other words he wasn't saying that God through history was working two different programs one with Israel and one with the church that's not what the writer argued rather the writer showed his readers that God throughout history has been leading all people of faith one large body one church through history onto their heavenly destination they were one people on a journey on a pilgrimage that would eventually bring them to the heavenly
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Jerusalem to Zion and so in heaven they all we all all believers from all periods of history not just from the day of Pentecost onward we'll get into that but all people of faith in Jesus Christ all traveling together in this one mass pilgrimage being led to our heavenly
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Zion this pilgrimage a return from exile really if you want to carry that theme further and here they are described in the church of the firstborn and they and only they will enjoy every blessing forever the writer is shown in the previous chapter city
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Jerusalem they did not regard Palestine over there is the Holy Land although that's a common reference to that land in the
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Bible but that's not where they had fixed their hope their desires but rather they just as New Testament believers were anticipating a heavenly city a city whose builder and maker was
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God as Hebrews 11 8 through 10 declares by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance he went out not knowing where he was going by faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country he did not regard that as homeland dwelling in temporary dweller sojourner he didn't settle down and build a city dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob heirs with him of the same promise why he waited for the city which has foundations whose builder and maker is
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God so he is looking for a heavenly city a new
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Jerusalem and so the earthly Canaan was only a shadow of the heavenly reality which they saw in faith
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Old Testament believers desired what New Testament believers are promised the Old Testament saints never realized their desires in this world they were sojourners they lived in the light of God's promise why because God determined we the believers of this age complete our journey as we follow them by faith to Mount Zion the heavenly city of God and so we read further in Hebrews 11 these all died in faith not having received the promises but having seen them afar off were assured of them embrace them and confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth for those who say such things declare plan to return if they were looking for an earthly homeland they would have stayed in Ur the
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Chaldeans where home was that's not what they were looking for but now they desire a better that is a heavenly country and therefore
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God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared a city for them and then farther down in Hebrews 11 we read all these that is all these
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Old Testament believers having obtained a good testimony through faith did not receive the promise why there's 40
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God having provided something better for us that they should not be made perfect apart from us there's one people before the coming of Christ after the coming of Christ but one people all the same inheritance and they hadn't received it yet because we're all going to arrive there together and so we are on this pilgrimage is journey of faith one people of God stretching in number since the beginning of time traveling through this world a barren wilderness journey to our heavenly promised land the writer urged these
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Jewish New Testament believers in Jesus Christ not to go back to their former ways rather to journey onward in faith to their heavenly reward that awaits them at the end of their lives of faith the
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Old Covenant characterize that section of road that believers traveled in the past oh yeah they traveled over that road but New Covenant believers have passed that stretch of the road they're moving onward
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Jesus Christ has moved onward and now that Jesus is coming died and rose again the end of their journey is in sight they're coming to Zion the promised city of God and God therefore will have no pleasure in them if they shrink back it is to return to Judaism just as God rejected and judged the children of Israel who refused to enter and take possession of the promised land so God would reject these professing
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Jewish Christian believers if they refused to follow the Lord Jesus on to Zion just as those apostates had forsaken the
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Lord and wanted to return to Egypt and thereby incurred God's judgment they died in the wilderness even after God is so graciously delivered them these professing
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Christians must not commit the same sin of apostasy they must continue onward in faith and so really the writers argument is as if he were saying this and these are my words besides look how close you are to the end it's time to sprint to the end not go back why see them the first of us believers have arrived already they're there that great cloud of witnesses consider their witness but most importantly for ongoing strength in your journey consider
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Jesus who himself endured hardship so as to secure an entrance for us focus on his sufferings and hardship lest you become weary and discouraged in the way that's leading to glory yes it's difficult but not only is
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God bringing you on this road of difficulty to get you to heaven he's using the difficulty of the road to prepare you for heaven you are his sons you have forgotten that he's preparing you through chastening so that you'll be prepared to receive your inheritance as sons when you finally arrived to the city of which you are a citizen
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God has a purpose in making your way difficult it's so that we may be partakers of his holiness let us press on in faith encouraging one another and helping one another less sin prevent us from finishing this journey so we read in Hebrews 12 12 therefore strengthen the hands that hang down and the feeble knees that's a description of weary travelers and make straight paths for your feet so that which is lame may not be dislocated but rather be healed this is a wonderful book a wonderful extended metaphor that is so rich well we come now to Hebrews 12 18 and following again which would have been very significant to Jewish believers he took your approaching heaven itself you're not coming to a physical mountain that may be touched
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Mount Sinai in which the holiness of God was manifested when he gave the law to Moses your privilege is much greater than itself the heavenly
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Jerusalem the very dwelling place of the living God and so it's as though he were telling this people you're right there you were just about to arrive at your final destination it's just in sight now do you see it through the eyes of faith just look who's there as we arrive we're coming into the presence of the living
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God and look there's an innumerable company of angels and whom else do you see you will see the gathered church before him and so here it is where we see the
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Universal Church described we may see that first the Universal Church is described as or called the
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General Assembly verse 23 a this speaks of a festal gathering it's a feast probably a reference to the great banquet of the
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Messiah that spoken about so much in Scripture of course eating a meal together in Scripture is one of the supreme expressions of fellowship and here the people of faith are gathered before the living
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God in this great festive atmosphere secondly the Universal Church is the church in the
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Greek word for church is ecclesia called out gathering of the firstborn who are registered in heaven now of course elsewhere
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Jesus Christ is described as the firstborn son and we have become brothers and sisters by adoption through faith in Jesus Christ here however the metaphor is given not that Jesus Christ is the firstborn son you have that elsewhere but here is described as a church of the firstborn because everyone in the church is firstborn son privilege here spoken about in fact my new
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Reformation study Bible note gives a good comment about verse 23 all the firstborn in Israel were sanctified at the service in God's presence but the
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Levites served the sanctuary in the place of the firstborn in the heavenly assembly all believers redeemed from destruction are firstborn consecrated to God and enrolled as his priests church of the firstborn and then thirdly we see the
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Universal Church includes the spirits of just men made perfect and of course women to speaks of men you know generically mankind all who are justified to faith have been made and this includes all the
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Old Testament Saints who the writer has in particular view Hebrews 11 and then also we're approaching our heavenly
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Zion we see Jesus who's described as the mediator of the covenant the new covenant is the only covenant that makes sinners into saints and fits them to come to the presence of the living
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God and of course this covenant is based upon our Lord's sacrificial death for his people by which he pardons them and cleanses them from sin so as to present them holy before God the point we want to stress is this there will be one church in eternity one people of God comprised of Jew and Gentile believers of all ages who have all been equally brought before God through the mediation of Jesus Christ the one
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Savior of all people that is the universe here's a good definition taken from our confession of faith the
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Baptist Confession of 1689 the Catholic and the old use of the word
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Catholic just simply meant universal the Catholic that's a little lowercase C not capital
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C like in Roman Catholic but lower C the Catholic or universal church which with respect to the internal work of the
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Spirit and truth of grace may be called invisible consists of the whole number of the elect that have been are or shall be gathered into one under Christ the head thereof and is the spouse the body the fullness of him that filleth all in all again from the
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Baptist Confession of faith will give to give emphasis to two aspects of this definition and then we'll show in some ways where Christians understand this definition of the universal church differently and that would be wrong understanding in our opinion first the universal church may be called the invisible church the word invisible is used because the universal church is comprised of those who experienced a spiritual work of salvation in their souls something that you and I cannot see we can see the evidence of it but we cannot see it itself the spiritual work of grace is not overtly evident you cannot see outwardly whether or not a person is truly born again although you can see evidence that the new birth has taken place and then secondly the universal church is made up of all the chosen people of God throughout all of history all who were redeemed from their sin by Jesus Christ comprised the universal church however there's a very popular different interpretation of the universal church and I would probably reason ninety -five percent of evangelicals have this other view of the universal church any
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Christians believe the universal church is to be identified differently than what we have just set forth they would say the universal church does not include
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Old Testament believers but rather it only contains or comprises
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New Testament believers from the day of Pentecost until the second coming of Christ the universal church is only
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Christians in this church age and so it's popularly asserted the universal church only contains true believers in Jesus Christ on this side of the death and resurrection of Jesus this view of course distinguishes sharply between the nation of Israel and the church espouses of this view assert that Israel is
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Israel the church is the church the two should not be confused or intermingled with one another it's believed that Israel and the church have different purposes in God's work within redemption history some assert different destinies
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Israel will be on a renewed earth where the church will be in heaven with the Lord different destinies different peoples different programs
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God has two purposes in history and so they view the universal church much narrowly than we understand now we readily admit there is a distinction between believers under the old covenant of believers under the new covenant we don't deny that the true people of God in Old Testament times were believers who were for the most part of national
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Israel many of which from Moses onward were living under a national covenant clearly the vast majority of them were from one ethnic nation
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Israel but most of the people of God in this new covenant age are Gentile which is in accordance with the declared purpose of God to take his gospel to the nations through Israel and so even though we would acknowledge an understanding of the universal church should include all true believers through history and I've listed as a handful of passages
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I think that underscore this reality for example in John 1026
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Jesus taught other sheep I have which are not of this fold that would be
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Jewish believers them also I must bring that includes you and me
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Gentile believers they shall hear my voice there shall be one fold and one shepherd see one universal church not two one fold and one shepherd and so here we have the one fold his sheep comprised of Jewish and Gentile believers
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Matthew 8 10 11 we read of course Jesus encountering a
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Gentile believer during his earthly ministry there I say unto you I've not found so great no not in Israel I say unto you that many shall come from the east and the west that's where Gentiles live many will come from there as this
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Gentile centurion and sit down alongside Abraham Isaac and Jacob there's one people in the kingdom of heaven so here the
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Lord taught the Gentiles would be seated with the patriarchs of Israel Gentile believers also enjoy the promises that God gave
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I haven't seen such faith in all Israel this man and others will be many coming from the east and the west all over the world sitting down with alongside
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Abraham Isaac and Jacob and enjoying the blessing of the kingdom Matthew 19 28
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Jesus said to them verily say to you that you which have followed me in the regeneration when the
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Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory when the kingdom is fully manifested you also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel he's talking to his twelve apostles here he's declaring that they will rule over the twelve tribes of Israel there's one people of God the twelve apostles are promised authority to lead the twelve tribes of Israel and those people that argue that Israel's Israel the church is the church and the two shall never be mixed
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I'm gonna have troubles with the passage like this where the Apostles are entrusted with authority over Israel fourthly
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Romans four nine through Israel the people of God Paul argues in Romans four are spiritual descendants of Abraham not physical descendants he is a father many nations as God promised way back in Genesis 12 and 15 and 17 22 the father many nations that means
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Gentiles and so how is Abraham a father to them they have the same faith as Abraham is what
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Paul reasons one people of God Romans 9 6 we have stated by Paul you know why isn't he basically setting forth an argument you know how can
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Christianity be true when it seems like so many Jews believe on Jesus their Messiah he says it's not as though the
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Israel is his error but this is what Paul is doing he's saying not all of spiritual
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Israel are physical Israel you say there are two Israel's here described and one of them are the people of God and one or not there is a national
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Israel but there is a spiritual Israel also and spiritual Israel and is comprised of all believers who
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Paul argues in Galatians are promised children just like Isaac was a promised child not as Ishmael who is a physical offspring of Abraham of the flesh but Isaac who was born because he was promised by God and if you're a
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Christian is because God promised you to his son Jesus Christ and so you are a promised child of Abraham in the same way
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Isaac was Paul reasons this convincingly and with great effect and great implications in Galatians and the epistle to the
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Galatians and then here we are Galatians the sixth passage Galatians 3 6 to 8 just as Abraham believed
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God and it was accounted to him for righteousness and therefore know that only those who are a faith of the sons of Abraham people argue that Israel the national
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Israel and the Jews ethnic Jews are the true people of God Paul and you can understand why he got himself into trouble so often when he preached in synagogues and know the true people of God are not those who are physical descendants of Abraham but the ones who are the true sons of Abraham with regard to God's promises are the ones that have faith and so Paul said scripture for seeing
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God would justify the Gentiles by faith preach the gospel to Abraham of you all the nations of the earth should be blessed all of these verses can only be understood rightly within context if you have a concept of the universal church as we have described it as set forth in Hebrews chapter 12 let me say one more matter about the nature and identity of the universal church before we move on we should not assume that Christian institutions such as parachurch organizations ministries denominations or national state churches
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Church of England the Church of Scotland the church of Germany which is the
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Lutheran that's how they describe the Lutheran church they don't call them Lutherans they call them evangelist in German national state churches they are not to be confused with the universal church the universal church has to do with individuals that are born again by the
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Spirit of God and oftentimes there is wrong legitimacy and accept them as such but this is not how the
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Bible presents the universal church as we saw in Hebrews 12 the universal church is in the process of being gathered as true believers complete their life of faith as a journey in faith to come into the presence of God the universal church has not yet been fully gathered for not all the elect have arrived we will and there will be one people and this has been
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God's purpose throughout all of history and so we see just in the beginning of this study on the church that what we're advocating is not what is necessarily advocated by everybody but I believe it's biblical and it's reflected very well in our confession and this is the historic reformed understanding by the way of Protestants until the last hundred and fifty years or so well
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I know it's running late but let's turn to one other passage and I want to just point out a couple things of importance and that is
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Matthew 16 where our Lord Jesus spoke about the church first time the church the word church in English is found in our
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New Testament and this is on the lips of our Lord Jesus in Matthew 16 reason
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I'm bringing this up is that we've been recently speaking about the role and importance of the kingdom of God and how it should be understood probably is a very central if not the central
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I won't go that far but a very very central theme of all of scripture how does the church relate to the kingdom of God there's a lot of different opinions about this and I thought that we could look here at Matthew 16 and see that there is a correlation a relationship between the church universal church and the kingdom of God and it's found in our
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Lord's words in Matthew 16 when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples saying who do men say that the son of man
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I went to Caesarea Philippi with my son -in -law Darren when we went to Israel I had to drive up in our van there were only ten of us in the tour group drive up to Galilee actually driving near the border of real close to Lebanon and went up into the mountains in this wonderful beautiful Canyon where there's a beautiful river flowing down there was a grotto and from the
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Roman days so it was a pagan place and so there was little alcoves in the cliffs dedicated to the god
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Pan of the Roman Pantheon but that was Caesarea Philippi and I was
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I was struck there were class groups there and I remember seeing one Israeli teacher a woman carrying a k -47 around her neck as she's guarding her children their school class there in Caesarea Philippi but here they were at this you know
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Jesus took his disciples up there very quiet refreshing place obscure place and here he speaks to them who do men say that I am the
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Son of Man and they said some say John the Baptist some Elijah others Jeremiah or one of the prophets he said to them but who do you say
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I am Simon Peter answered and said you are the Christ the Son of the Living God Jesus answered said to him blessed are you
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Simon bar Jonah son of 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
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Peter and on this rock I will build my church there's the word church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven another expression for kingdom of God and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven whatever you lose on earth we loosed in heaven and he commanded his disciples that they should tell no one that he was
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Jesus the Christ and so here we see in our Lord's words that the church is very closely associated with the kingdom of God in his own words well what it would is what's being said here well our
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Lord speaks first about the foundation our Lord said to Peter I tell you you're
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Peter on this and of course we can't get away from this what
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Rome has claimed about these words for 1 ,500 years the
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Lord renamed Simon calling him Peter by the way the Greek word for Peter is a masculine noun that's important the
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Lord then said that he would build his church upon this rock you're Peter it was
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Simon you're now Peter a rock and I'm going to build a church on this rock however the
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Greek word translated as rock in the second occurrence is not the masculine form translated as Peter but rather it's a feminine form and so it is not
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Petras that's the name of Peter but Petra just like the city of Petra down in southern
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Lebanon the masculine form was used in ancient Greek language to describe a small rock or stone the feminine form however was used to depict a rocky ledge or a large boulder so there is a distinction between them and this is important of course the statement of our
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Lord to the Apostle Peter is one of the most important verses of scripture to the Roman Catholic Church has been for 1 ,500 years is used to assert authority for their
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Pope and for the exclusive claim of legitimacy for their church is the only true church according to them their interpretation of the passage may be gleaned from the
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Catholic Catechism and here are some key points in that Catechism the
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Lord made Simon alone whom he named Peter the rock of this church he gave him the keys of his church instituted him shepherd of the whole flock the office of binding and loosing which was given to Peter was also assigned to the
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College of Apostles united to its head this pastoral office of Peter and the other Apostles belongs to the church's very foundation and is continued by the bishops under the primacy of the
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Pope then 882 the
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Pope Bishop of Rome and Peter's successor is a perpetual invisible source and foundation of unity both of the bishops and the whole company of the faithful for the
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Roman Pontiff by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ and as pastor of the entire church as full supreme and universal power over the whole church power which he can always exercise unhindered now that is power and then 883 the college or collection of body of bishops as Peter's successor as its head and as such this college has supreme and full authority over the universal church there is a universal church but this power cannot be exercised without the agreement of the
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Roman Pontiff in other words he's the buck stops here he's the man in charge well in these paragraphs of the
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Catholic Catechism we read of several assertions regarding the office of the Pope and his authority all based on our
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Lord's words to Peter in Matthew 16 18 and 19 before we attempt to discern the objective meaning of that other words of our
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Lord however consider what is taught in this catechism first it claims the
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Lord made Simon alone whom he named Peter the rock of this church now that's one interpretation of Matthew 16 18 but it may not be and I would say it is not the correct one
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Peter again is a masculine Greek noun the rock on which the church is built is a feminine noun they're different words there's a metaphor there there's an analogy there but there's not a totality they're not a tautology it's not the same second it claims that the
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Lord gave Peter the keys to the kingdom which is true but it makes assertions regarding the Kings and his successors that is not taught in the passage the
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Lord did not institute Peter as the shepherd of the whole flock it doesn't say that the church was built upon the foundation of the
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Apostles and Prophets but not upon Peter alone and Ephesians 2 declares that the church is built on the foundation of the
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Apostles and the Prophets third the claim that this pastoral office of Peter and the other
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Apostles is continued by the bishops under the primacy of the Pope is not taught by our
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Lord here the Bishop of Rome did not begin to claim or assert formally his authority as Pope over all
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Christendom until the year A .D. 1054 and he made that demand to the eastern eastern branch of the church at which time they said no you're not and that's when the
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Eastern Orthodox Church formally and finally split with the Roman came to be known as a great schism for there's no place in Matthew 16 18 and 19 that the
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Lord Jesus succession of bishops who would have the same authority as Peter and the
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Twelve Apostles the assertion that college or body of bishops has no authority unless united with the
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Roman pontiff Peter's successor as its head cannot be legitimized for what is taught in Matthew 16 18 and following the
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Lord does not say that Peter or the Pope both of the bishops and the whole company of the faithful that is not stated and six the
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Lord does not declare Peter to occupy an office as vicar of Christ which means that he is supreme head for the representative or substitute of Christ on earth but he claims that authority in fact in history declared that it was in 1890
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Leo XIII said of himself the supreme teacher of the church is the
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Roman pontiff in other words me union of minds therefore requires together with a perfect accord in one faith complete submission and obedience of will to the church and to the
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Roman pontiff as to God himself that's quite a claim can you imagine that if I had that power you need to obey me as though you were being
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God and on in high tone at itself in my mind you forgive me
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I'm not trying to be you know offensive in any way but to call a man holy father that Jesus said call no man on earth father and and yet he he said you know that he was you know that I am the
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Holy Father the record which means that I am God on earth was the claim of the
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Pope these are the kind of claims made by Rome and the opinion that is to be held by all faithful according to Rome based on what's taught here in Matthew 16 18 and 19 and what we're saying is it doesn't kind of way to teach that what is the
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Lord saying well there are perhaps three or four major interpretations basically one argues that you're the
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Christ the son of the Living God blessed are you signed by Jonah on this rock on this profession
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I'm going to build my church and this is good to be the position
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I take second some argue that Christ himself is the rock on which the church is built okay
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Christ is the rock and clearly is the Rockies declared Paul said in 1st Corinthians 10 Christ is that rock but not here in this context our
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Lord depicts himself as the builder of the church not the foundation on which the church is built
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I will build my church on this foundation the rock and third third interpretation of Petra again feminine which
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Jesus builds his church is indeed Peter some are doing some Protestants do as the leading spokesman of the
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Apostles and this is not to say that the Lord was declaring him to be the first in the line of Pope's but that he was a foundation on which the
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Lord would build his church and they would argue from Ephesians 2 that the church is built on the foundation of the
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Apostles and prophets I prefer to see Jesus's reference to the rock on which he would build a church to be the profession that Jesus is the
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Christ the son of the living God and you don't know anybody to the church unless they confess that and they demonstrate that that's a reality in their life but what about the identity of the church in this passage it's taken from two
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Greek words means to call and so the church is a called out assembly called out of the world by the
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Lord himself and again there's a local church is universal church but here the universal church is set forth before us and I would argue that believers of the
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Old Testament part of Israel are part of the church as well as true the
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Lord was giving a future chance on this rock I will build my church and and that and our dispensational friends would argue there he's going to begin building it on the day of Pentecost so the church is a
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New Testament believers in Israel is the old but in the same way the kingdom encompasses all people including
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Abraham Isaac and Jacob that Gentile centurion who believe Jesus said
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I haven't seen such faith in all of Israel he'll come and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God there's one people in the kingdom of God we would argue that all of those people the
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Old Testament are also in this church that Jesus is building well we've come to an end of our time but I would encourage you to perhaps to read through this and and see the biblical evidence that we've sought to set forth the universal church is the whole body of the redeemed that God the
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Father elected from eternity even before creation and gave his those chosen people as a gift to his son and basically covenanted with his son here your people go redeem them and the
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Son of God basically say yes father I will and purpose to do so and the
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Holy Spirit in that blessing Council of the Trinity affirmed I will apply the benefits of his life and his debt to them we will save them and it's the one church the called -out assembly from all of history that's what equity churches that will one day stand before the throne of God all bought by the blood of the
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Lamb of God and that's the kind of destiny of the one people of God you have reflected in the whole of scripture and also clearly in the book of Revelation as well one people of God and they are people of faith from the very first convert to the very last were one people bought by Christ and under Christ our
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Lord amen let's pray father we ask that you would help us to understand these matters and the implications for we recognize
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God that this does influence a lot of what we hear or impact much of what we hear today popularly espoused regarding the identity of your people and your purposes and the destiny of them we pray