The Christian, the Church & Our Family History | ‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4‬:‭8‬-‭9

Reformation Sunday and the Call to Study Church History

Okay, so this coming Lord's Day that is next Sunday is Reformation Sunday, which is basically the Sunday that falls closest to October 31st. And that was, as you all might know, the day that Martin Luther supposedly hammered the 95 Theses to the Wittenberg church door to discuss and to debate.

And so, Lord willing, next Sunday I'm planning to preach about the Protestant Reformation. But before I do, this Sunday, I did want to first set the tone for how we should approach the Reformation and church history in general.

I want us to think about that first and see how we should approach that and view that as Christians. So, I'm going to survey lots of ground. It's going to be, a lot of it is going to be high level, but we are going to dive into some scriptures as well, and both church history and scripture, and especially how the two should relate to each other.

How do the two relate to each other? And so, put on your thinking and discernment cap on, and put your Berean caps on, because we're going to have some heavy duty thinking through this process. So I want to start out with a question that we all should ask ourselves at the outset.

Is church history important? Is church history important? How important is church history? Is it important for Christians to read about and understand church history? Is the study of church history, and by extension, historical theology as well, required for Christians and for the church?

Is it necessary? Does God command us to learn from those who came before us? Is it something that we must bind our consciences to? And that's very serious, and we need to tread very carefully here, because we cannot and we must not ensnare our consciences or ourselves to unbiblical traditions of men, that are not biblical, that are not according to scripture, much like the Pharisees did, where they would avoid the Word of God for their own traditions.

And in light of Reformation Sunday coming up, just like the Catholic Church has done and continues to do with their man-made traditions, and binding people to all kinds of things that are contrary to scripture.

So scripture is very clear that we are not to pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather, decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. It's Romans 14, 13. So we have to be very careful and have a balance.

For you know, brothers and sisters, that you were not redeemed from your useless, spiritually unproductive way of life, inherited by tradition from your forefathers, with perishable things like silver and gold, but you were actually purchased with the precious blood, like that of a sacrificial lamb, unblemished and spotless, the priceless blood of Christ, 1 Peter 1.

So ponder these questions throughout the message today. Have these in the back of your mind as we seek to answer them biblically. So we're going to hop on these trains of thought and journey through church history, kind of a crash course through certain events in church history.

Those of you who know me well enough can probably guess where I'm going with this, but humor me anyways. I promise that you will nevertheless learn and deepen your understanding and appreciation of vital, important truths.

I know I have just from the study that I've done. I've actually learned a lot. I'm excited to share it today.

So lost my place here.

Defining Church History and Historical Theology

So okay, obviously now, before we go any further, we first and foremost need to define our terms. We have to define our terms, as I always say. So the obvious question here is, what is church history?

What exactly is church history? So church history is a kind or type of history that focuses on the church. That's kind of obvious, right? But we also need to understand what the two words mean, church and history.

Now, while our understanding of the church may be more in tune with scripture, since scripture explicitly deals with the church all throughout the New Testament in particular. So that may not be so much of an issue.

However, our understanding of history might be a little bit under the influence of secular philosophies that define it in terms of relating only to mankind and to nature. And this is where it causes a lot of problems.

And usually it's without a purpose. There's no ultimate purpose to history. It just happens, especially in Darwinian, atheistic, evolutionary, materialistic philosophies. It's kind of like Shakespeare's Macbeth, who immortalized this secular view when he said that life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

Apologize for that word. I thought that was very fitting for this. So the predominant view of written history, which is what I learned in school, and which some church historians have also adopted, is that, or claims that the historian must remain as detached and objective as possible by strictly reporting the facts alone.

Just the facts, without inserting personal bias or opinion. That's what's seen as doing good, proper history. Of course, some are postmodern and totally reject any meaning of history, and it's just all whatever you want it to be.

But there's still a semblance of this, as bad as this one is, at least I hope there's still something like this that's somewhat objective or tries to be. So, now this, we have to realize that this is actually impossible to do.

Because the writing of history, of any history, including church history, it requires making philosophical assumptions and interpretations and moral judgments about the past. You cannot escape that. It's inevitable in part because you have to pick and choose what to write about and what to exclude.

Because you can't write about everything, obviously. So you have to pick. And that is when your assumptions feed into it, and your convictions about what is important and what is not. And that's because everyone has a bias.

Everyone.

We as Christians do too. It's supposed to be a biblical bias, but we have one nonetheless. It is disingenuous to deny that fact, and it is impossible to avoid. We cannot avoid our biases. As much as we may think we are, or try to, we cannot.

So, I was really fascinated because this issue really deepened my appreciation for our Reformed Baptist standards, our creeds and confessions, because they actually define both terms very clearly according to Scripture.

It's really amazing. So, to start out with the history, history is summed up in questions 11, 12 and 15 of the Baptist Catechism. Question 11 says, What are the decrees of God? The decrees of God are His eternal purpose according to the counsel of His will, whereby for His own glory He has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.

Question 12. How does God execute His decrees? God executes His decrees in the works of creation and providence. Creation and providence. Creation is obviously when God first created the world in six days and everything in it.

So, question 15 is, What are God's works of providence? God's works of providence are His most holy, wise and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures and all their actions. All their actions.

That, my friends, is what history really means. You probably have never heard this definition of history outside of even most church historians. This is what history means. And as you can see, it is completely God-centered because history and church history is what God does.

It is what God has foreordained and caused to happen in the past, in history. So, history is the execution or unfolding of God's predestined purpose and plan in His works of creation and providence. That is very important to cement in our minds.

Now, that covers the history part. What about the church part? So, the church I have preached on before, many times, taught many times on this. But, I want to focus specifically on what the scripture says that church history has two primary meanings.

Biblically, there are two main meanings to the word church. There is the visible and the invisible church. Which are defined in questions 105 and 106 of the Baptist Catechism. Question 105 says, The visible church is the organized society of professing believers.

That is the key word, professing believers. In all ages. All ages. And places wherein the gospel is truly preached and the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper are rightly administered. Question 106 says that the invisible church, on the other hand, is the whole number of the elect.

The elect, the chosen people of God that have been or shall be gathered into one under Christ the head. So, that is the biblical definition of the church. This, however, we have to keep this in mind. This is where church historians tend to mess things up.

The terms aren't even defined properly from the start. Because they tend to use the word church in a more ecumenical or more broader sense. Which causes confusion. It can cause a lot of confusion. Many church historians, including some who claim to be Protestant, Consider the Roman Catholic Church, for example, to be part of the true Christian Church.

And one popular example, very popular, is Justo Gonzalez. He's a professing Protestant historian who nevertheless explicitly writes from an ecumenical perspective. That is also sympathetic to Rome. To the Church of Rome.

In fact, he deeply laments that the Reformation resulted in, quote, Some of the most painful and enduring breaks in the Christian Church. And that having a Protestant bias, as he calls it, is a bad thing.

Something that you need to be cured of, in fact. And also hopes that his efforts will contribute in some measure to the growing sense of unity among Christians of all persuasions. It's a big party where we all sing kumbaya and get along, right?

But beloved, do not be deceived by this, okay? This is just a fairy tale. It is not real. It is not reality. We cannot have unity at the expense of truth. That is impossible. Truth will always give out.

It will always be compromised when you have unity without it. You can't have that. You can't have it both ways. So, in fact, sometimes painful and enduring breaks in the Christian Church, in his words, are absolutely necessary.

And good, because as the Apostle Paul asserts, Indeed, it is necessary that there be divisions among you, so that those who are in the right may be clearly seen in your midst. Divisions are necessary, according to Scripture, in order to draw the line and show who's in the right and who's in the wrong.

They are necessary and good. Conflict sometimes is necessary and good. It is a good thing. It purges the Church and it clarifies the truth. And so-called Christians, you know, the so-called Christians, right? Of certain persuasions are simply not Christians at all.

They are not Christians at all. If they deny the gospel, which would include Roman Catholics. You cannot call yourself a Christian if you deny the gospel. Any primary doctrine, especially the gospel. So, in fact, it is the very reason the Reformation happened in the first place.

Was because the Roman Catholic Church had become apostate in its teaching and grossly immoral in its lifestyle. And still is. Nothing has really changed on that front. So, when I was researching for my sermon online, the AI robot, the artificial intelligence robot, gave me an unsolicited definition of church history.

I didn't ask for it. And this is what the AI robot told me. Church history involves studying the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception. It covers the origins of Christianity and the Church.

Its relationship to Jesus, its role in salvation, its polity or government, its discipline, its eschatology, its leadership, and it also examines the past events, councils, and crises pertaining to the Church, using various sources and perspectives.

So, this was an interesting answer, but it's too vague, ecumenical, and relative. It fails to mention that church history also involves studying professing believers, professing believers like the Baptist Catechism says, including key figures and leaders, such as flawed heroes of the faith like Martin Luther, as well as notorious heretics like Pelagius.

It includes the study of how the Church has gathered, localized, and split, and how the Church has related to and interacted with the culture, society, and the state. Church history is also, borrowing from Beecke and Hagen, from this booklet actually, very good booklet, that it is also the written interpretation and judgment of past events in the lives of professing believers.

Including sermons, diaries, journals, letters, theological treatises and tracts, liturgies, and even church buildings of that time. So, it's very comprehensive. Similarly, now, historical theology is a sister discipline of church history that deals specifically with questions like, how have the doctrines, specifically the doctrines, of Christianity been identified, formulated, elaborated, defended, and applied throughout the history of the Church?

What specific doctrines have theologians and churches taught in a given historical era? Historical theology also locates professing Christians and their perspectives in the historical context, prior influences, which is very important, prior influences, and commonplaces of the time.

Common understandings of their time. Alright, so now we've defined our terms.

Next step.

Grace, Free Will, and the Pelagian Controversy

Let's return to the question of whether church history is important to the life and doctrine of believers. So, by way of contrast, should our view of church history be more like what the ancient monk Pelagius thought of grace?

If you know your history, or if you attended the classes on Lordship Salvation, you would know exactly what I'm talking about. Case in point. Let's use church history to make a point about church history and tie everything together with scripture.

So, you see, Pelagius, who lived from about 354 to 418 AD, take note that this was obviously a very long time ago, was a British monk and theologian known for promoting a system of doctrines known as Pelagianism.

He emphasized human choice and free will in salvation and denied original sin, or the doctrine that mankind is born in sin and by nature evil. Pelagius thought that God's grace was optional for our salvation, that it's nice to have, sort of like a supplement, it's nice to have, but not really necessary.

You could save and perfect yourself by your own efforts, according to him. So, it's nice to have, optional, but not really necessary. In the words of Pelagius, whether we will or whether we will not, we have the capacity of not sinning by our own will.

This is because God has already given us the ability to obey Him without any extra help or grace needed. So we'll explore more of this later. But now it's time for public service announcement. It's been a while since I've done those.

I've got plenty of them today. As I've noted before, Scripture makes an important distinction between being ignorant of an important doctrine and knowingly and willfully rejecting it. There's a very important difference there.

Those who knowingly and willfully deny a primary doctrine of Scripture, especially the Gospel, have denied the faith and therefore cannot be saved. You cannot be saved. God's Word has many dire warnings of doom to those who knowingly reject the truth and suppress it in unrighteousness, like Romans 1 says.

For example, in 2 Peter 2, starting verse 19, we read,.

It says,.

That is obviously a disgusting image. To get us to see how serious that really is in God's eyes. Jesus tells us, in fact, that these are the ones sown among the thorns from the parable of the soils of the sower.

Because they are those who hear the Word, they understand it, but the cares of the world and deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the Word and it proves unfruitful.

These people understood the Gospel, in other words, they had the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but ultimately did not agree with it. They did not consent to it. They did not believe it to be true.

And therefore were never saved and instead fell away into a worse state of rejecting the truth as opposed to ignorant unbelief of the truth. That is worse, according to Scripture. So now let's turn to Hebrews chapter 10, starting in verse 26.

This is where we'll see a corollary passage. It's very important. Hebrews chapter 10, starting in verse 26. God's Word says, The fury of the fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which He was sanctified and has outraged the Spirit of grace?

For we know Him who said, Vengeance is mine. I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Amen to that. Now in this passage, the writer of Hebrews uses old covenant illustrations to give a series of warnings to those who deny what Christ has finished for us on the cross.

The gospel of salvation that is entirely by God's grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, based on the ultimate authority of Scripture alone. This is the same gospel that was encapsulated in the Protestant Reformation and was recovered.

Known as the five solos of the Reformation. That is again, grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, glory of God alone, Scripture alone. Five solos. This is the same gospel, again, that the Protestants recovered, proclaimed, defended, bled, and died for.

Before, during, and following the Reformation. I'm now going to enlist the help of another influential figure in the history of the church. This time on the right side of things. A brilliant Reformed Princeton theologian and church historian in his own right.

His name is B .B. Warfield. Benjamin Breckenridge Warfield. That's a cool name. Whom we should all be familiar with and take the time to read. So much for showing my poker face. I guess I'm giving myself away here.

Warfield wrote about the Pelagian controversy in one of his books. Which honestly should be required reading for everyone. He sheds light for us on the kind of man Pelagius was and what he taught. So in his book on Pelagius, he says,.

So exceedingly ardent an advocate was Pelagius of man's unaided, unhelped ability to do all, everything that God commanded. That when this noble and entirely scriptural prayer, Which is praying that God would command whatever he wills and grant us the ability to obey his commands.

When this prayer was repeated in Pelagius' hearing, he was unable to endure it. And somewhat inconsistently contradicted it with such violence as almost to become involved in a strife. So he almost got in a fight over this vehement rejection of a simple prayer.

That's perfectly biblical. The powers of man Pelagius held were gifts of God. And it was therefore a reproach against him, against God, as if he had made man ill or evil. To believe that they were insufficient for the keeping of his law.

Nay, do what we will, we cannot rid ourselves of their sufficiency according to him. Whether we will or whether we will not, we have the capacity of not sinning. I say, Pelagius says, not me, not me. That man is able to be without sin and that he is able to keep the commandment of God unaided by grace.

And this sufficiently direct statement of human ability is in reality the hinge of his entire system. So, this is pretty black and white. And if you know your church history, you would know that Luther had a famous debate with Erasmus.

Where Luther called Erasmus out for this very thing. The issue was free will. And he blasted Erasmus for calling him out and saying, you don't even have the logic of a schoolboy. How is it just because God commands us to do something does not imply that we have the ability to keep it?

Why else did Jesus come in the first place?

Amen?

So, that was a little off script, but it was fitting. Now another public service announcement and reminder. Primary doctrines center around God, man, and salvation. Those three. God, man, and salvation.

You could also throw in God's word. That's a fundamental one. I'll need to add that in. Including a right understanding and proper distinction of law and gospel. Like I preached on before. Pelagius, however, rejected all three biblical doctrines.

Of God, man, and salvation. And therefore fell under the condemnation of Paul's warning in Galatians 1, 6 -9. If you turn with me there, to Galatians 1, this is a memory verse. This is something that we should all, we need to memorize.

Because in our age of compromise, and of ecumenical babble, and vagueness, and nonsense. If we fall into that trap, we're going to fall into the condemnation of the apostle Paul. And the condemnation of God.

So, Galatians 1, verse 6 says, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ. The grace of Christ. Grace alone, and Christ alone. And are turning to a different gospel.

Not that there is another one. There is no other gospel that saves. But there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you.

Let him be anathema. That's the Greek word, anathema. That means accursed, damned, condemned to hell. As we have said before, so now I say again. If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you receive.

Let him be anathema. He repeats it twice in the same statement. This is how serious God is about doctrinal accuracy. Especially of primary doctrines like the gospel. We have to get it right. We have to get it right.

And cast away these buffoons like Doug Wilson who say you don't have to get it right. And you can still be saved. But as it turned out in history. Pelagius was soundly refuted and denounced by one of his contemporaries.

Who was arguably the theologian that most influenced the Reformation. This is very, very, very important to understand. This man cast a huge shadow on not just the Western Church. But the entire Western world, even the Eastern world.

Because the Eastern world reacted against him in many ways. Do you know your church history? Pelagius was refuted by none other than Augustine of Hippo. It was Augustine. Now I have a maxim for you. I want to lay down a maxim.

You cannot understand. You cannot understand and appreciate the history of the church and the Reformation in particular. Unless you understand the role that Augustine played in it. He was one of the most influential figures in the history of the church.

Apart from the biblical authors. Why do you ask? Well let's find out. Let's ask our trusty tour guide, B .B. Warfield again. Who summed up the Reformation in this way. The Reformation, inwardly considered, was just the ultimate triumph of Augustine's doctrine of grace over Augustine's doctrine of the church.

It was the ultimate triumph of Augustine's doctrine of grace over and against Augustine's doctrine of the church. This one quote speaks volumes to the overwhelming influence that Augustine played on the medieval world and on the Reformation.

Warfield just nails it perfectly. Because both sides, as you will see. I'm going to get to that. Consequently, the more you understand this quote. The more you will understand the significance of both church history and the Reformation.

Because Augustine's view was championed by the Protestants, the Reformers. And Augustine's view of the church, on the other hand, was adopted and further corrupted by the Roman Catholic Church State. So that's a thumbs down.

By the Roman Catholic Church State. Because Augustine had a sovereign view of grace and he believed that man was depraved, like the Bible says. But his doctrine of the church, unfortunately, became compromised.

And he started to believe that you needed to compel unbelievers and heretics, compel them by force, to come in. Which gave rise to the Catholic Church's view of the Inquisition and those kind of things.

Augustine didn't teach that, but he kind of paved the way for that. And providentially, as it turned out, when Martin Luther, now back to Martin Luther in the 1500s. When he prayed to Saint Anne, who is the alleged mother of Mary, according to the Gnostic and Roman Catholic tradition.

During a thunderstorm, which you can definitely call an act of God in every sense of the word. So that she would spare his life. So he prayed that she would spare his life. He said something like, help me Saint Anne and I'll become a monk.

He took a vow to join a monastery. Which just so happened to be, okay I hope I can say this right. Agustina Kloster, which is very butcher German for Saint Augustine's Monastery. Okay, so I hope you can see how all these dots are connected.

They're all connected. Pretty amazing stuff. And by the way, even the secular world acknowledges to some extent the importance of the Reformation. Because this monastery became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Why? And they explained that it's due to its role in the Reformation. These historic sites are considered to represent one of the most important events in the religious and political history of the world.

The entire world. Even secular organizations recognize just how significant the Reformation was and is. So then, back to our initial question. Should we view church history the same way that the heretic Pelagius viewed God's grace?

That is just optional, but not really necessary. Not trying to influence you either way. Just saying. But maybe it's not in your best interest to side with the heretic this time. Okay, let's try somebody else.

What about Dave Hunt? How about Dave Hunt's view of church history? In a radio interview on August 11th of 2000, Dave Hunt told James White, I am very ignorant of the Reformers. I have not had time to read them.

There are truckloads, I guess, of their writings. And I like to just kind of pretend that we're back there in the days of the apostles, before all of these things were written. And I like to go to the Bible, so whether a Reformer said this or that, I don't know.

I don't know. So, kind of like, I'll just pretend that nothing exists after the Bible was written. Who cares? Who needs it? This is how many churches operate. I've seen and listened to many churches that almost completely disregard history, or view it as a distraction from other things that they consider more important.

Sometimes they may not even admit it or realize it. But this essentially is a simplistic, no creed but Christ, no book but the Bible view. This is that perspective. Very common. Incidentally, Dave Hunt was deeply influenced by another historical movement, speaking of church history, the Plymouth Brethren.

The Plymouth Brethren, which had a serious negative impact on the church, and continues to have a negative effect on it. So, I hope you're spotting the trend here. I hope you're seeing a trend. Just how connected we all are to the past.

And because we're Christians, to the church, to the historic church. But now we need to really dig into the obvious issue. What does God have to say about church history? What does God have to say? What sayeth the scripture?

Remembering God's Works and the Witness of the Old Testament

So, upon doing a survey, and I didn't even really scratch the surface. I just did more of an overview. But I found that God often commands. He commands, doesn't suggest, doesn't make it optional. He commands His people to remember, honor, and commemorate the past.

Remember, honor, and commemorate. There is, in fact, a comprehensive theology of remembrance, woven through the entire Bible. So, starting with the Old Testament, these passages give us a general sense of how God wants us to view history.

And how we should see history, all of history, as providentially predetermined by God, who is the ultimate cause of all history. So, Psalm 77 verse 11 says, I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your wonders of old.

I will ponder all your work and meditate. That's to think deeply on your mighty deeds. Your way, O God, is holy. What God is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders. You have made known your might among the peoples.

You, with your arm, redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph. So, that's like an emphatic five times in that one small passage. Remember, ponder, meditate, think deeply on the works of God.

Deuteronomy 32, starting in verse 6 says, Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? It is not He your Father who created you, who made you and established you. Remember the days of old.

Remember the past. Consider the years of many generations. Ponder the past. Ask your Father and He will show you your elders and they will tell you. So, He's telling them, you need to be talking about this stuff.

You need to be talking about the past, meditating on it, pondering it, asking the elders to explain it to you, the significance of it to you. So, I want to summarize and give a big picture of how God repeatedly instructed Israel to commemorate, to memorialize many historical events.

He said, remember the exodus out of Egypt, what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out.

That's Deuteronomy 7. Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.

Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. That's Deuteronomy 5, the fourth commandment. Remember the waters of the Jordan River were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord when it passed over the Jordan.

So, these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever. It's in Joshua 4. Remember the Lord and His mighty works, His creation, His deeds, His wonders. That's all over the Psalms and in many other places.

Remember the national feasts, the holy days, the celebrations, the ritual sacrifices. All of these things were embedded in the worship and nation of Israel. Remember, remember, remember. Remember the hall of faith, the hall of faith, the faithful men and women of God of old, and the martyrs, like the passage in Hebrews says.

And even in heaven, remember, remember the pierced hands and feet and side of Jesus Christ. Even in heaven, which will forever remain on our Lord and Savior. To remind us of the gospel, the series of historical events.

That is what the gospel is. It's a series of historical events consummating in the perfect life and vicarious death of Christ our Lord. So important it is to remember that after Jesus rose from the dead, His resurrected, glorified, perfected body still had the scars of His sacrifice on His wrists and on His feet and on His side.

He invited Thomas, who doubted the resurrection, to see and feel the scars of crucifixion. Put your finger here, said Jesus. See my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.

So that's just barely scratching the surface. And the New Testament similarly repeats this emphasis on remembering the past and those who came before us. 1 Corinthians 10. Let's turn there. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 10, starting at the beginning in verse 1.

We'll see a summary of what I read in the Old Testament. 1 Corinthians 10. Here we read 1 Corinthians 10, verse 1. Now these things took place as examples for us, for us who came later, that we might not desire evil as they did.

Do not be idolaters as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did. And 23 ,000 fell in a single day.

We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come.

Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed, lest he fall.

Amen.

Just an amazing recap of how God literally says, He made these things happen, in part so that we could learn and benefit from them. To know them, understand them, and not be ignorant of them. Now, continuing on, 1 Timothy 3, verse 15 says that, We need to know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

Pillar and buttress of the truth. The church is a pillar and buttress of the truth. What does pillar and buttress mean? What is a pillar? A pillar and a buttress, like a fortress. Pillar is something that maintains stability.

It supports, it holds, it preserves. A buttress, same thing, it protects, it preserves, maintains. So the church maintains the truth in this evil world. And ask yourself this, Was the church born yesterday, when you got saved?

Is that when the church was born? Or was the church born way back in the times of Christ? Like the Bible says, when the new covenant was authorized and established. So, the church has been, in other words, consequently, therefore, thus, the church has been a pillar and buttress of the truth from its inception back in the New Testament.

The church has always been the pillar and buttress of the truth. The salt and light that preserves, buttresses, and supports the truth. And every age that it has existed. So, let's turn now to Ephesians 4, verse 11.

Ephesians 4, verse 11. So, Ephesians 4, verse 11 tells us,. And He, God, Christ, gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, or pastors, and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, which is the church, until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.