One Body in Christ – Pastor James Boice [Part 7]

The video of this post is from the YouTube site, Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The speaker is Dr. James Boice who passed away in 2000. He was a contemporary and friend of R C Sproul.

In his sermon, he is talking about the invisible church and how it was established, by covenants God made with the people He was calling out of the world.

This is part 7 of my mini-series about the intimate connections between the Old and New Testaments. It is meant to oppose un-biblical teachings such as Dispensationalism.

ONE BODY IN CHRIST, [ongoing study of Romans 12] Pastor James Boice

HIGHLIGHT POINTS [bracketed statements, emboldening and underscoring are mine]:

• The church became visible at Pentecost
• At Pentecost people of diverse backgrounds were brought to faith by the Holy Spirit
• However, the church was in existence before Pentecost
• A better name for the church is the Body of Christ
• That is those people who walked with the Spirit of God in their midst since people first walked on the earth
• The Body: those whom God called from all time and places
• Romans 12:4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5  so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another
• First occurrence of the term, ‘church’ was in Matthew 16
• Matthew 16:18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it
• Mat 18:17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church
• The word ‘church’ is used 18 times in Acts; and in Romans, 6 times, all in chapter 16
• The doctrine of the church is found in 1 Corinthians and Ephesians
• ***The church is discussed in other scriptures by other words and images: Romans 12:4,5 – The Body of Christ (a very important image)
• What is the church?
• It is NOT a building we attend; but people
• Are all who attend members of the ‘Body of Christ?’
• The Body of Christ are those people who are UNITED to Christ
• United to Christ: a spiritual reality accomplished by the Holy Spirit when He convicts a person of sin, leads them to faith in Christ and joins him/her to Christ
• Before being united to Christ, we had been united to Adam
• Paul explains this in the initial 11 chapters of Romans
• Books by Chuck Colson and John Stott on The Body
• Colson – the building is not the church
• Stott – the Body is all those that God is calling
• Did God call people in the Old Testament?
• Yes
• The chief idea related to the Body is Covenant
• Covenant has to do with a PROMISE
• God entered into a formal agreement to save, protect and bless a certain people
• Those people contribute by believing, worshiping and obeying [Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26 are about covenant blessings and curses]
• In Genesis 3, verse 15, God promised a Savior who would be born of the woman
• Gen 3:14 The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15  I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel”
• Adam and Eve believed that and were UNITED to Christ by faith as we have been
• They looked forward to that union, we look backward to it
• The godly line of Adam, listed in Genesis 5, were also united by faith
• God called Abram in a more specific manner; he responded like the others:
• Gen 15:5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6  And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness
• [At that time, Abram had no child through which he would obtain all those offspring God promised]
• God also added prophets, kings… to His people in the same way
• Luke 2:25  Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26  And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ
• Luke 2:36  And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, 37  and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.38  And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem
• The ‘church’ consists of these people, those whom God called from all time and places and joined to the Lord Jesus Christ
• The Body of Christ, above, is the first concept related to the church; below, we have the second, UNITY
• The church is ONE, it is not multiple:
• Ephesians 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5  one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6  one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all
• 7 important unities, an exegesis of what Paul gave us in Romans 12:4,5
• ONE BODY: pictures the church as an organism, as a living whole; not mechanical, like denominations
• Denominations could be compared to automobiles: Toyotas, VWs, Fords…; some work better, some not; some prestigious, some not…
• The BODY is an organic whole that lives and grows; all the individual parts contribute to it
• In 1 Corinthians 12, God combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so there should be no division [read the chapter, too long to quote]
• If one part suffers, so does every part; if one is honored, so is every part
• ONE SPIRIT: Paul refers to the Holy Spirit in terms of how He has worked in our lives to bring us to Jesus Christ
• Individual testimonies differ… BUT all were put on the road to Christ by the Holy Spirit
• He regenerated us and works in us to produce the character of Christ: sanctification
• Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy…
• ONE HOPE: sure and certain hope, things that are yet to come but are certain realities
• Eschatology: the return of the Lord Jesus Christ; resurrection of the body; final judgment…
• WE SHARE THE ABOVE; THESE TRUTHS ARE ABOUT EACH MEMBER OF THE BODY
• ONE LORD: true Christians have only one Lord
• ONE FAITH: the faith = the content of the gospel
• [The Biblical gospel message; the biblical description of Christ, the church…]
• ONE BAPTISM: the public rite that identifies us with Christ (Paul wasn’t talking about modes of baptism, such as sprinkling vs immersing)
• If you’re a Christian and have been baptized, that unites you with every other Christian, despite the mode of baptism you underwent
• ONE GOD: although Paul unfolded the above from the lesser to the greater, this reference to God the Father is regarding the source of this PLAN of redemption
• What is this church to which we have been joined?
• Those who have Jesus Christ as Lord; who have believed in Him; who identified publically with Him in baptism
• The many visible churches does not fit with Paul’s doctrine above; we err [Boice took 5+ minutes to explain that]
• A core problem in the divisions of the VISIBLE church is our INDIVIDUALISM
• It is common for Americans to see Jesus as ‘my Jesus’ and view themselves as loners, apart from the Body of Christ – an unbiblical view
• Pastor Boice notes some surveys: 56% of Christians attend church because they believe ‘it is good for them’
• 26% attend for peace of mind and spiritual well-being
• Truth/doctrine don’t seem important to these Christians
• The Bible directs people to go to church:
• Hebrews 10:25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near
• The above amounts to NARCISSISM
• Narcissus was a Greek character, beautiful, in love with himself [not too concerned with others]
• We can’t have ONE BODY in Christ, if what we actually have is a privatized, array of worship styles and practices
• ECUMENISM is NOT a solution; it seeks to unify from the top down; something like thinking that a Christian president would make a Christian America
• The UNITY of the BODY is a given; we need to make that clear by personal demonstration and by avoiding any unnecessary division
• We need to learn from one another with a humble teachable spirit
• In our study of Romans 12, we will be focusing on a diversity of gifts
• We must learn from one another and receive the Gifts God has given EACH ONE to be used for the WHOLE BODY
• TO HEAR Pastor Boice’s next sermon, about gifts of believers for the church, click the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUK0CkylF4M&t=1627s

The following 3-minute video is an explanation of the Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 25, on The Church. Following that is a link to the video and a link to the late John Gerstner’s playlist on the entire WCF explained and discussed.