The Apostolic Key - Mike Black

All right. Going to read a little scripture. Okay. Just me, God, and the Bible.

All right, let's see here. First one I'm going to read is from Matthew chapter 7. All right, "Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and realizes that he can't really do them and that they were for some other time or just for the Jews, I will liken him to a man who built his house on the rock." All right, great. Let's read some more here. Just me, God, and the Bible, of course.

All right, let me see here. Okay, John chapter 15. "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. Everyone will for sure always abide in me and does not have to worry about being cast out and withered and has no fear of being in the fire and burned."

Thank God for that. I don't have to worry. All right, good. Yeah, this is right in line with everything I've been taught. All right, one more here. Again, me, God, and the Bible. Let's see here. All right, y'all still with me here? Okay, let's see. Romans chapter 11. "You say then branches were broken off that I might be grafted in? Well said. Because of unbelief, they were never on in the first place, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but take comfort. For if God did not spare the natural branches, be sure that he will spare you because you're fine. You're already on the vine, and you can never be disinherited. Therefore, consider only the goodness of God, and you'll be okay."

All right. So, yeah, just me, God, and the Bible. That's a good way to arrive at truth, right? Oh, hold on here. I think something's wrong here.

I guess I didn't realize I had those on. Perhaps I need to check my prescription a little bit. So what's the big deal anyway? I mean, my theology might have been a little off there, but I mean, after all, isn't it open to interpretation? I mean, why does it matter anyhow? I mean, believing in faith is enough, isn't it? Just, hey, I got Jesus Christ. That's all I need.

Well, sadly, the church is being tossed to and fro by the winds of false doctrine, and the consequences can be eternal. So yes, it matters, and beliefs have consequences. And so I just want to go through some examples of where errors in theology or our beliefs can have serious and even eternal consequences. Let's take, for example, divorce and remarriage.

So many pastors and counselors are ready and willing to counsel people into a second marriage when their spouse is still living. And of course, Jesus says, "He who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery." And we know from Paul that adulterers will not inherit the kingdom of God. So there's one example. How about adornment? Why not? What's the big deal? Well, for one, it's an apostolic command, "Let not your adornment be outward." So that's a command.

Also, it kind of leads to the praises of men. The early Christians also connected adornment with the Book of Enoch, where the fallen angels were the ones that taught the women the use of cosmetics and jewelry and things like that. So we want to steer clear of that. But it leads to vanity and lust. But is lust that big of a deal? Well, according to Jesus, it is. It leads straight to hell.

Another issue would be if you believe that once you're saved, you can never be lost. That can lead to laxity. And so also, belief in arbitrary predestination can lead to unbelief in the ability to ever conquer sin. I know I was there back when I believed that. I thought there were things I just would never be able to overcome and I'd be stuck in forever and that there was no hope. Or even worse, what some have thought is that they believe themselves to be among the damned or the lost, and so they don't even try. They just think, "I must. I must be in that camp."

So what about divisions and bitterness that can creep into people's lives and cause them to sort of become lone rangers and depart from the church? They end up amputating themselves from the body and the church, wherein is found the life-giving body and blood of Jesus Christ in communion, without which, according to Jesus, we have no eternal life in us. See John 6:35.

So now, if I'm right about all this, the church is in serious trouble. But someone might say, "Well, how do you know you don't have theological glasses of your own on?" Well, first, I'll say, "I don't know if glasses are altogether unnecessary. Maybe we do need a lens through which to clearly see the truth that's in the scriptures."

After all, we can all claim—we all claim to go just by the Bible. You go in any church out there, and they'll all claim to go just by the Bible. And we believe that we're being guided by the same Holy Spirit. But yet, we come to so many different interpretations. So is the Holy Spirit no longer the spirit of truth? Obviously, it is the spirit of truth. But for example, if I would just start quoting the Bible with someone that I might have a disagreement with, someone else will just bring out proof texts of their own. It doesn't solve anything or help us arrive at truth, does it?

And we just end up throwing texts back and forth at each other and don't get anywhere. So yes, perhaps we do need glasses after all. I don't know if that's a good idea to have, but I think we do, just ones with the right prescription. And so the title of my message today that I just made up a few minutes ago is The Apostolic Key. And I think that one of the keys to right understanding of the scriptures is that apostolic or historic faith that was guarded by a unified church in the beginning, and it had been handed down to them personally by the apostles of Jesus Christ.

So that's why I want to start with looking at the apostles. So what is an apostle anyway? Well, that word in the Greek for anybody that likes to look stuff up would be 652 in your strongs. Apostolos, and I'm sure I mispronounced that, but it's a delegate or an ambassador or a messenger, and usually it has the idea of one being sent forth with orders and under the authority of the sender. So in this case, our apostles were sent forth under the authority of Jesus Christ. He was the sender who himself was sent by the Father.

And so in Matthew 10:40, he said, "He who receives you," talking to his apostles, "receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me." He also said it in John 20:21. He said to them again, "Peace to you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you."

So earlier, I talked about, "Well, why not adornment?" or, "Why not love the world and the things of this world?" Well, because the apostles were ones with authority. And so when they say things like that, they're not just suggestions, maybe things that would be good to do but not necessary. They were commands.

And so they had authority because of Jesus Christ. And the fact that they did issue commands, a lot of people say, "Well, there's no laws. That was just Old Testament. Now there's just liberty, and we're free. We don't have commands or laws anymore." Well, Peter said, 2 Peter 3:2, "Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle, in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder that you may be mindful of the words which are spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior." So the early Christians for sure took the authority of the apostles very seriously.

I'll just read a quick quote from one of them. This comes from Tertullian, sort of towards the end of the second century. He said, "In the Lord's apostles, we possess our authority, for even they did not of themselves choose to introduce anything new, but faithfully deliver to the nations the teaching that they had received from Christ. If therefore even an angel from heaven should preach any other gospel than theirs, he would be called accursed by us." So you see that reference to Galatians 1, that there was only one gospel, and it came straight from the apostles through Jesus Christ.

And so I would also like to take a look not only at the authority of the apostles, but also their inspiration. They were the Holy Spirit-inspired teachers who wrote the New Testament. I mean, we wouldn't even really know what Jesus had said if they wouldn't have recorded his words for us. And a lot of their teaching in the beginning, the early Christians could rely upon what the apostles said because they viewed them as inspired teachers. So what they said was received as the word of God. And even Paul hints to this in 1 Thessalonians 2:13. He says to the Thessalonians, "For this reason, we also thank God without ceasing because when you received the word of God, which you heard from us," so it was oral in the beginning.

He says, "You welcomed it not as the word of men, but as in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe." So when the apostles actually did commit things to writing, their writings were inspired scripture. So as David said, that was the original test of whether something was inspired or not. They didn't have to just guess. Well, let's see.

Romans, yeah, that sounds inspired. James, I don't know. It kind of seems like straw to me. No, they just knew the only thing was, was it an authentic writing of an apostle or one of their close associates that came with their stamp of approval? Like Mark, that was basically the gospel of Peter. That had Peter's approval because Mark was with Peter. Luke was with Paul. His gospel had Paul's approval.

So they were viewed as inspired teachers. So what they taught, you could rely on. You didn't have to guess like, "Oh, well, can I take this or that, or should I shove this under the rug?" And also, this fits into a kingdom framework. We claim to be kingdom Christians, and so we rightly view Christ as a king with commandments. Well, he also sent forth messengers of his own to establish the church.

So a couple more quotes along this line. Irenaeus, who was only one human link removed from the apostle John through Polycarp, he said, "It is unlawful to assert that the apostles preach before they possess perfect knowledge, as some do even venture to say, boasting themselves as improvers of the apostles. For after our Lord rose from the dead, the apostles were energized with power from on high when the Holy Spirit came down upon them.

They were completely filled and had perfect knowledge. They departed to the ends of the earth, preaching the glad tidings of the good things sent to us from God." So they had a very high view of the apostles and realized that they were inspired teachers. A lot of times nowadays, if the apostles are taught or even talked about, they're kind of described sort of maybe as some stooges. We only think about what they did wrong or where they messed up, which, of course, if you think about it, we wouldn't even know that if they weren't humble enough to tell us about their faults.

And so another one from Tertullian, he said, "Now think of this verse. When you hear this, where do some people put this verse? When he, the spirit of truth, will come, he will lead you into all truth." I've heard that so many times in reference to sitting down and reading our Bibles. Nope, I'm going to arrive. He's going to guide me into all truth. I'll be just fine.

But that was specifically spoken of Jesus Christ to at least the 11 faithful there in John. And so what Tertullian says is, "He thus shows that there was nothing of which they, which is the apostles, were ignorant, to whom he had promised a future attainment of all truth by the help of the spirit of truth."

So again, the key to getting these things off and getting that right prescription really lies in the historic faith. And that's because of the apostles, really. They were inspired teachers who delivered the faith to faithful men.

Let's go for one more. I have a lot of quotes. I probably won't go through them all, but this is like Tancha. So we've heard from Irenaeus, who was only one human link removed from the apostle John, also from Tertullian, who was in a whole different part of the world there in North Africa a little later in the second century. Now, this is all the way up at the beginning of the fourth century. He says, "The disciples, being dispersed throughout the provinces, laid the foundations of the church everywhere. They themselves did many and almost unbelievable miracles in the name of their divine master. For at his departure, he had endowed them with power and strength by which the system of their new announcement could be founded and confirmed."

So we get that idea also from Hebrews chapter 2. I think it's verse 3 where it talks about the faith was originally given through the Lord and confirmed by those who heard him. And it was basically strengthened and improved by the miracles that they performed.

So that idea is with the apostles as the foundation of the church. And in Ephesians 2:19, it says, "Now therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and the members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit." So again, that's almost it's right there in the scripture, but it seems so foreign in today's modern Christianity to think of the apostles as foundational and just really a source of strength we can rely on just because they've been just seeing it, "Oh, they're just 12 ordinary men," or just something like that.

So now I want to move on kind of to the idea of a unified church that they had established and how that helps us have confidence in that early Christian historic faith. The unified church, she diligently guarded that rule of faith that was once for all entrusted to her by the apostles.

Now, let's consider some of the things Paul wrote to Timothy. He said, "Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me in faith and love, which were in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

But you have carefully followed my doctrine. You must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them." So this is really where the early Christians shine because they took charges like these about committing what had been entrusted to them very seriously. And they viewed novelty, anything new, as heresy. So it's not like, "Oh, well, they just had to kind of guess at the faith." And then slowly over time, the faith grew even more until finally, 1500 years later, the reformers got it right.

So no, this was something that was once for all delivered and guarded. So Tertullian said, "Innovation is unlawful." So they help us learn the early Christians really help us learn the true historic faith because they received it directly from the apostles. Another advantage is they were native Koine Greek speakers.

So we read translations, whereas they read and even thought in the language of the New Testament. Very important. And they also lived in the same culture. We have huge cultural barriers here, and they didn't have those. And we even have the New Testament canon because of them. I don't know how many times I've heard when talking about theological things, I might quote some early Christians, and you'll just hear, "I don't want to hear early Christian quotes. I just want to hear the Bible." Now, of course, then that would just lead to a back and forth of proof text and doesn't really get anywhere. So I mean, is that right? I mean, is there an advantage to the early Christians?

And if they're going to discount them, then they got to think like, "Well, these are the ones that had to sift through all these false gospels and other false books to know which ones were authentic and gave us our New Testament canon." So we're quick to point to them for that. But when their theology disagrees with ours, all of a sudden, it's like, "Well, those guys, quiet."

But one key advantage they had, and I think this is really the apostolic key, was a unified church teaching the same doctrine because the apostles delivered the same rule of faith everywhere they went. We know Thomas went as far away as India. It went also as far away as what's now Great Britain.

But no matter where it was taken, it was all one and the same rule of faith. But again, don't just take my word for it. Let's hear it from them. This one comes from Irenaeus. Again, just one human link removed from the apostle John.

He says, "Although dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, the church has received this faith from the apostles and their disciples. The church received this preaching and this faith, although she is scattered throughout the whole world, yet she carefully preserves it as if she occupied only one house.

She also believes these points just as if she had only one soul and one in the same heart. She proclaims these things, teaches them, and hands them down with perfect harmony as if she possessed only one mouth. For although the languages of the world are different, yet the significance of the tradition is one and the same. For the churches which have been planted in Germany do not believe or hand down anything different. Neither do those in Spain, Gaul, which is modern-day France, the East, Egypt, Libya, or in the central regions of the world."

So no matter where one went there in the beginning, it was a unified faith. They didn't have to worry about these different denominations they'd have to pick from. Or how do I know? I'm here trying to find a church to be a part of. Well, how do I know this one's got it right? It was the same throughout the known world at that time.

Another one from Tertullian. So this is a little farther on. This is towards the end of the second century. Let's see if it's still the same. He says, "It is not believable." And again, this is the apostolic key. "It is not believable to say that the apostles were either ignorant of the whole scope of the message, which they had to declare, or they failed to make known to all men the entire rule of faith. Let us see then whether, even though the apostles proclaimed it simply and fully, yet the churches, through their own fault, proclaimed it differently than the apostles.

You will find that the heretics put forward all these suggestions of distrust." Now, let me just pause right there. Is it only the heretics that try to make us doubt that there was one in the same faith that was held to at the beginning?

No, all the time you'll say, "Oh, they just went astray right after the apostles. And so that's why we can't really trust what they say." Because if we do trust what the early Christians say, that historic faith, then a lot of what's taught out there would have to be heresy.

They all taught free will. Well, if I want to believe predestination, well, uh-oh, that kind of I might have to say like, "No, they got off course right at the beginning." Or another one would be unconditional eternal security. They all taught conditional security. You could lose it if you weren't faithful or if you went back to a life of sin. So it's like, "Well, well, no, they got off track there at the beginning too."

But so anyway, I'll go on with Tertullian. He says, "Suppose then that all the churches have erred. Suppose that the apostle was mistaken in giving his testimony. Suppose that the Holy Spirit had insufficient concern for any one church to lead it into truth, although he was sent for this reason by Christ.

Suppose also that he, the steward of God, the vicar of Christ." The Holy Spirit is that. Okay. "Neglected his office, permitting the churches for a time to understand differently, to believe differently than what he himself was preaching through the apostles. If so, is it likely that so many churches and they so great should have gone astray into one in the same faith?" He goes on to say, "No accident distributed among many men leads to one in the same result.

Error of doctrine in the churches must necessarily have produced various results. However, when that which is deposited among many is found to be one in the same, it is not the result of error, but of tradition. Can anyone then be reckless enough to say that the ones who handed on the tradition were in error?"

So we see here that Tertullian is claiming, even though it's been so many years, you had the heretics out there, especially the Marcionites, which he would have to which he wrote a work against, saying that exact same thing that's talked about nowadays, where they all went into error right away. And he's saying, "Well, if that's true, if they all went into error or something different was taught over here than was taught over here, how did they arrive at one in the same faith?"

And as far as he talked about tradition, I would just by way of explanation of what that means, because I know that's kind of off. Normally, when people think of tradition, they think about a bunch of useless things that were added to the faith after all by high churches and things like that. But really, it just means, and this is 3862 for all the strong people out there, paradosis, which is a delivered or received precept, a handing down. So it's the idea of transmitted instructions or ordinances. So it's the whole rule of faith, all of their teaching. That would be when they talked about the apostolic tradition. That was all of their teaching. It's also the ordinances, Christian customs, like the head covering and non-adornment, things like that.

These were all part of what God gave to Jesus or the Father gave to the Son, and then the Son delivered to his apostles to be spread out through the world. So when he says tradition, don't get confused by that.

And that's a good way to get yourself confused and lose your notes. All right. So we see this unified church was really a fountain of truth that one could go to because it was the same everywhere. You could have confidence in what was being taught in a church as far away as North Africa or Spain or wherever in the world. It would be one in the same message that you're receiving in a unified church, so like a haven of safety. So Lactantius, again, who was towards the end of the early Christian, he said, "When they are called Phrygians, Novatians, Valentinians, Marcionites, Lutherans, Calvinists, Mennonites," oh, whoops, sorry, "or by any other name, they have ceased to be Christians.

They have lost the name of Christ and have assumed human and external names. It is the Catholic or universal church alone that retains true worship. This is the fountain of truth. This is the house of faith. This is the temple of God. If anyone will not enter into this, he is estranged from the hope of life and eternal salvation." So the idea of, well, first off, attaching human names to a movement, Paul even goes over that in 1 Corinthians. Don't be called of Apollos, of Cephas, of this or that. We're just of Christ. So anyway, swore my little pet peeves about the names. Feel free to disagree. I'm okay with that. But the main point is the idea of the church as the fountain of truth, the place where someone could go to to find salvation.

Now, how is that? That would seem so strange nowadays where it's just me and God, just my personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I don't need the church. It's just me and God forever. I'll be good. Another quote from Vermilion, and that's the middle of the third century. So this is all over the place, different countries, different times. He said, "According to the," he goes to the Old Testament to the figures of the church. He said, "According to the Song of Songs, the church is a garden enclosed and a fountain sealed, a paradise with the fruit of apples.

And also," he says, "and the Ark of Noah was nothing else than the sacrament of the church. And all those who were outside the Ark perished. Only those who were kept safe, only those who were kept safe who were within the Ark. Therefore, we are clearly instructed to look to the unity of the church."

And so this unified church, proclaiming a unified message, ought to be reason enough for us to look to the early Christian to help us with our prescription, to get it right.

And why is the church so important? Well, for one thing, it is the church that baptizes us into the body of Jesus Christ. It is the church wherein is found, like I said earlier, the body and blood of Jesus Christ that Jesus himself said, "Without it, you have no eternal life in you." And so that's a huge thing. But I think the best reason to look to the historic faith, that apostolic faith, the key, is that it helps us have confidence in the scriptures themselves.

I think that's the main thing. We know that we can read the scriptures as a whole and arrive at the true historic faith if we just simply read it for what it says. If I would go back to Matthew 7, "Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them," that's the one that built their house on the rock.

Everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them doesn't mean he's right because they were too hard and you just can't do it. You hear them and don't do them because it was just to show you how bad you are. No. That one builds his house on the sand. So we can have confidence that Jesus is serious about that. We need to take his sayings, his commands, and do them. That's a breath of fresh air.

Back to John 15, we realize that we do need to abide in him. And if we don't bear fruit, we will be cast out as a branch and withered, and they will gather them and throw them into the fire. That's true.

And of course, he did say, "Apart from him, we can do nothing." That's true. But we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. So we need his strength to continue on faithfully, but we do need to continue faithfully. And that's where the church and brothers, we strengthen each other. Iron sharpens iron. But there is that warning that we can be lopped off. Same thing in Romans 11. We go back to that. We say, "Do not be haughty, but fear." So there is a place for the fear of God, for if God did not spare the natural branches, he may not spare you either. So we take all of the teachings of the New Testament.

We take it as a whole and don't have to hide anything under the rug. I don't know how many times in the past I would read something like that, and then it was just immediately explained away. Well, what it really means is, or what Jesus meant by that was, or instead of the head covering, Paul gives the reason for that. He points back to creation, the order, creation order, and even to the angels as his reason why. So we see that that's an apostolic custom. But what are we told? We're told, "Oh, no, that was just something Corinthian custom. That's not for today." And it's like, so I would see all this stuff being explained away or tossed under the rug, and I would say, "Okay, well, then what good is it?

What's it for?" I mean, if I have to explain everything away and it's not for today and it doesn't apply anymore, what's the point of it? But the early Christians looking at that historic faith helps guide us. Almost like we know the law was that tutor to bring us to Christ, and now with faith, we shouldn't need a tutor any longer. But unfortunately, with how far astray the church has gone nowadays, we do need some help getting back to Christ. And that's where they help us just be able to rely on the scriptures. They remove these upside-down glasses that are a result of theologians trying to cram Jesus and his apostles into their theological boxes.

Maybe not on purpose. I mean, they might genuinely mean well, but that's what ends up being the result. Jesus is muzzled. The apostolic commands are just shoved to the side, and people end up living no differently than the world.

So I just think it produces true liberty that we can simply read it and do what it says and not have to guess if we're on the straight and narrow way that leads to life. So we will become acquainted with, and therefore, we'll be able to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

We will be encouraged to cling to and be nourished by the church, the ark that will be spared, the house with the blood on the doorpost and the scarlet thread in the window, the city of refuge from the coming destruction, and the temple and dwelling place of God in the Spirit, where we're edified and strengthened together.

So as we journey onward to the promised land, to that rest that is to come, looking for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ and his return, and for the new heavens and new earth where the righteous will dwell with the Lord.

So as we're heading that way, we have this confidence through this historic apostolic key of faith that we will, if we're faithful, we'll make it there. So that's all I had. Any corrections or comments? Really appreciate your message. And I'm thinking, we live in a day that is there's so many divisions among so many different kinds of churches. And unfortunately, it's easy for us to get used to that and think that that's acceptable. And I mean, it's all this stuff that is little things, but it's a result of something bigger. We can't preach in each other's churches because of this and that reason.

Some churches don't preach one another because of from a different conference or something. We can't. That you have communion, and that's another level that has to share one another communion. And yet, we claim to be disciples of Christ the King. So we need to look at all those things and start something here among us and learn to break down these walls of divisions that Jesus doesn't want part of. And actually, the divisions define us against unity, like being a unified church. And the church is divided in so many levels, unfortunately. But that's working.

The things that we do see, that's working. But breaking down those walls of division and building that thing and learning to be gracious towards those that maybe don't understand. Yeah. Amen. Amen. I just appreciate the call that you gave. The unity was in the beginning. Christ was behind that. And that's something for us to, wow, yeah, wrap our head around very much. Very important.

Yeah. Thank you. I was really inspired too on what you shared about passing on the true faith. And Paul told Timothy that what you have heard, the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So Paul was very concerned about that. Peter was very concerned about that. Remember, it's remind. Teach them. Make sure people get this and be able to pass it on. And just that we are passing on a true faith that hasn't been added to and hasn't been taken away from.

Your message really inspired me on that again. Thank you. Thank you. The other thought that you brought home was how that the gospel is a whole gospel. You can't break things down and everyone have their little pet peeve idea of something else. But we have to have the complete gospel in order to understand God clearly. Otherwise, we get sidetracked. Yeah.

I appreciate your quote about some of the early Christian writers that talked about that the gospel through the whole world was unified. And I know we live in a very divided world now, but one thing that always reaffirms my faith is when I see someone from a different culture, a different experience, come to the same conclusions as I do about God. One example would be the Bible Project, Matthew, and a lot of the stuff that he says is exactly what I believe. And then my churches in Bangladesh, different culture, and they come to the same beliefs as I do. And that, to me, reaffirms my faith and what I believe, that when you read the Bible and you take for what it says, that you can agree on that.

Yeah. I agree. And I mean, that's what happened with the early Anabaptists. I don't know if any of them really read the early Christians, but they just did what Jesus said. They just took it all pretty literally and seriously, and they arrived pretty close at the historic faith. And so, yeah, I just encourage us to stick with the things that we do have that are in line with the historic faith. And as we find out things that we might need to tweak a little bit, that we're encouraged to do that, to stick with what was once for all delivered. And it is a huge encouragement when we do see others, Bangladesh, you said, or I look to people like Alice who came in here just from Boston who didn't really have a whole lot of this church movement I've never heard of before, but they arrived at a lot of the same stuff just by and that's what the early Christians helped.

We've been so pre-programmed by theology nowadays that it's hard. We do need them to kind of be like, "Oh, okay. Yeah. I can trust what they said because it was unified. It was from the apostles. And really, it points us right back here."