INTRODUCTION:<\/p>\n
A. In previous lessons we have that noticed that I am a member of the church of Christ because:<\/p>\n
1. It was founded by the scriptural builder – Christ<\/p>\n
2. It was founded on THE scriptural foundation<\/p>\n
3. It was founded at the scriptural place – Jerusalem<\/p>\n
4. Christ is the founder of only one church – His church<\/p>\n
5. It is scriptural in name.<\/p>\n
6. It is scriptural in organization.<\/p>\n
B. Today will notice that I am a member of the church of Christ because it has the Bible as its only creed, confession of faith or church manual; and because it believes the Bible is a book to be rightly divided.<\/p>\n
DISCUSSION:<\/p>\n
A. I COULD NEVER BE A MEMBER OF A RELIGION WHICH HAS A HUMAN CREED This is my conviction for several reasons:<\/p>\n
1. In the time of the apostles and for the first three centuries the Bible was the only creed.<\/p>\n
a. Why not use the same creed today?<\/p>\n
b. I do not care to have a church manual similar to the one that existed in the first century, I want to have the same one<\/p>\n
c. For this to be possible, I must have the Bible only!<\/p>\n
2. The Bible completely furnishes us unto every good work.<\/p>\n
a. 2 Peter 1:3<\/p>\n
b. 2 Timothy 3:16-17<\/p>\n
c. Since the Bible contains all that we need, we need nothing else to make us pleasing in the sight of God.<\/p>\n
3. Human creeds are revised every few years because of their imperfection.<\/p>\n
a. No disciple of a human creed knows what his doctrine will be ten years down the road.<\/p>\n
b. Creeds are constantly being changed and revised.<\/p>\n
c. This alone places upon human creeds the stigma of weakness and imperfection.<\/p>\n
4. Human creeds cannot be defended.<\/p>\n
a. First, any creed containing more than the Bible is objectionable, because it contains more than the Bible.<\/p>\n
b. Second, any creed containing less than the Bible is objectionable, because it contains less than the Bible.<\/p>\n
c. Third, any creed differing from the Bible is objectionable, because it does differ from the Bible.<\/p>\n
d. Fourthly, any creed precisely like the Bible is useless, because we have the Bible.<\/p>\n
e. This covers the whole ground. There can be no other thought of. A creed must contain more than the Bible, less than the Bible, differ from it, or be precisely like it.<\/p>\n
f. No man can defend his creed on these grounds; and thus, human creeds cannot be justly defended.<\/p>\n
5. Those who have pledged allegiance to humanly written creeds are unable to defend the Bible.<\/p>\n
a. The fact that many religious organizations have creeds shows that they lack faith in the Bible.<\/p>\n
b. The infidel would say, “Preacher, explain to me why you have some other creed than the Bible, if the Bible be true.”<\/p>\n
c. Illustration … Campbell – Owen Debate<\/p>\n
6. Human creeds are divisive<\/p>\n
a. Creeds keep religious people divided into parties and sects.<\/p>\n
b. Each creed serves as a wall to include and enclose its own adherents and to exclude all others.<\/p>\n
c. When human creeds are abolished, denominational barriers will begin to weaken and a divided people will be on the road to unity.<\/p>\n
B. I AM A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST BECAUSE IT BELIEVES THE BIBLE TO BE A BOOK TO BE RIGHTLY DIVIDED<\/p>\n
1. 2 Timothy 2:15 – “rightly dividing…”<\/p>\n
a. Many today have little or no true conception of the Bible.<\/p>\n
b. Many do not know what it means to rightly divide heaven’s message.<\/p>\n
c. Many are just as apt to go to the Psalms to learn of conversion as to the book of Acts.<\/p>\n
2. Many do not know, or ignore, that there are three dispensations in the Bible.<\/p>\n
a. Patriarchal Dispensation<\/p>\n
1) Patriarch means father, and under this system the father or patriarch was prophet, priest and ruler.<\/p>\n
2) God directed the family both religiously and politically through the head of the family.<\/p>\n
3) What was commanded for one family made not have obligatory for another family (e.g. Noah and the ark)<\/p>\n
4) It was not a written law, it was an oral law<\/p>\n
5) This law was for all mankind until the giving of the law Moses, and then was just for the Gentiles.<\/p>\n
b. Jewish Dispensation<\/p>\n
1) This was man’s first written system of religion<\/p>\n
2) Instead of a family religion, it was a national system of religion<\/p>\n
3) The Jewish Dispensation had a variety of purposes:<\/p>\n
a) To keep the Jewish nation a distinct race until Christ should come (Gal. 3:16-19) … it was called the “middle wall of partition” because it separated Jew and Gentile (Eph. 2:14)<\/p>\n
b) It was a shadow of good things to come (Heb. 10:1)<\/p>\n
c) It was a school master or tutor to bring us to Christ (Gal. 3:24)<\/p>\n
d) It was not intended to be used for man’s salvation … Hebrews 10:1-4<\/p>\n
e) It was intended to be only temporary. It was to last only “till the seed should come to whom the promise hath been made” (Gal. 3:19), and that “seed” is Jesus (Gal. 3:16)<\/p>\n
c. Christian Dispensation<\/p>\n
1) This was the new covenant of which Jeremiah spoke … Jeremiah 31:31-33 … Paul declared this was fulfilled (Heb. 8:6-13).<\/p>\n
2) The change of priesthoods necessitated the change of laws … Hebrews 7:12<\/p>\n
a) Jesus is the high priest under the new priesthood (Heb. 9:11), and every Christian is a priest (1 Pt. 2:5).<\/p>\n
b) And since the priesthood was changed the law had to be changed as well.<\/p>\n
3) Jesus came to take “away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb. 10:9)<\/p>\n
4) Jesus took away the law of Moses nailing it to the cross (Col. 2:14).<\/p>\n
5) The New Testament did not become operative until after the death of Christ … Hebrews 9:16-17<\/p>\n
3. Thus, while we are studying the will of God trying to ascertain His will for us today we must realize what covenant we are under and under what covenant a certain commandant was given or a certain thing allowed.<\/p>\n
a. This is a major problem with many in the religious world<\/p>\n
b. Remember … Hebrews 1:1-2<\/p>\n
CONCLUSION:<\/p>\n
A. Thus as we have seen in this lesson, I am a member of the church of Christ because:<\/p>\n
1. It has the Bible as its only creed, confession of faith or church manual;<\/p>\n
2. And, it believes the Bible is a book to be rightly divided<\/p>\n
B. Invitation<\/p>\n
*Outlined from Leroy Brownlow’s book “Why I Am A Member Of The Church of Christ”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INTRODUCTION: A. In previous lessons we have that noticed that I am a member of the church of Christ because: 1. It was founded by the scriptural builder – Christ 2. It was founded on THE scriptural foundation 3. It was founded at the scriptural place – Jerusalem 4. Christ is the founder of only … Continue reading “Why I Am a Member of the Church of Christ #6* – Bible Outlines”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}