The Era of the Church

Colossians 1:1-2

COL-012

The Era of the Church

The Church is Separate from Israel

The prophet Daniel spoke about the Christ being rejected and cut off and immediately it talked about the coming of the great antichrist, and it would seem that the two followed one another when in fact there was almost 2000 years so far separating those two events. So they couldn't see the difference in the Old Testament because the Church was a secret. And so we referred to the Church as an intercalation into God's plan for the nation Israel. It is not connected to Israel; it's just inserted, temporarily interrupting God's program with Israel.

The Church you should know by now is not a replacement for disobedient Israel, but a separate plan of God. It has never been a replacement. And unfortunately, many Christians find it very hard to believe that John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, Martin Luther, the great reformers, and those who followed them, men of intense students of the Bible, could have missed this very simple fact that the Church is not a replacement for Israel. They followed the Roman Catholic line of doctrine just as they did in things like infant baptism. These men believed in the literal interpretation of the Bible and even though they couldn't find a whisper of suggestion of infant baptism in the Bible, only believer baptism of a mature person who could make the choice for Christ, yet somehow that was so attractive to them from the Roman Catholic medieval Church, that they hung onto it.

The Greek Bible

Well, the young men took him at his word. They became serious students of what the Greek text said, and they sat up in their Churches and that's what they preached. And then Zwingli began having a problem because they went to him and they said, 'Master Zwingli, we are teaching people to baptize their infants. In fact, we don't even baptize them, we just sprinkle them, or we pour water on them. And in the Greek Bible we find no such thing.' And Zwingli could not get himself to say, 'Young men, you are right, and we must abandon that false doctrine. That's a creation of the Roman Catholic Church. And the Roman Catholic Church got it from Babylonianism, that's what Nimrod used to do with his infants in the Babylonian system, and we must cease and desist.' But he did not do it. He could not get himself to go against the idea of infant baptism. And the result was that he put to death some of his young men. He brought them under condemnation and began persecuting them so that his students had to flee for their lives because they had taken their teacher quite properly seriously to learn the word of God in its original language because that's where the truth lies and to teach people from that.

So, this business of the Church being mixed up with Israel should not astound you. These men made some great strides in restoring truth that for 1500 years had been covered over by the human viewpoint of the Roman Catholic Church, but they didn't live long enough to get it all together to straighten it all out. And it wasn't until the 19th century when these great Bible movements arose in England that suddenly people said, 'Wait a minute, there's a great deal more in the scriptures than has come out of the Reformation, particularly the prophetic scriptures. It's a whole new ballgame and it's an area of total ignorance to us.'

And once they started putting the pieces together of the prophetic scriptures, it hit them square between the eyes. Wait a minute, Israel is one thing, the Church is another and the two must never be mixed. So, the Old Testament scriptures never indicated that there would be such a thing as a Church. And what it did, however, as we showed you this morning was leave gaps at certain points in the Old Testament scriptures where the Church would be inserted. These are not discernible to the writers nor to the readers. They are easily discernible to us now on this side knowing what we know.

Differences Between Christianity and Judaism

1. All Christians are In Christ

   First is the union of all believers in Christ. All Christians are unified by being in Christ. This is a position of sanctification. We are in Christ; we are set apart for eternal life. This is the only basis of unity among Christians on earth during the Church Age, the unity of the Holy Spirit which He creates when He puts us into Christ. Christians are very different from one another in a variety of ways, but they are one common people in this and this alone, their positional sanctification, that they are in Christ.

   No Old Testament saint was ever told that he is in one of the persons of the Godhead. There is no such thing as unity among Christians today, in general, in their experience. We have mass movements and what Christian groups and denominations do is they come to truces between themselves so that they agree not to fight each other over certain things. But we have this multiplicity of differences of how to do things. You have only to drive down the street and see all the Church signs and you know that each one of them has a particular peculiar factor that makes them different than everybody else. But whatever their difference is, right or wrong, the one thing they have in common is that if they are genuine believers, they're in Christ, they're in the member of the Godhead. There is some unity that exists within small groups like local Churches, but this will fluctuate also.

   What we have in the word of God to us because of this unity in the spirit is the command to love the brethren and that calls for a mental attitude of tolerance. There are many things in which we Christians have to tolerate each other in a local congregation, things that we personally do not find attractive, appealing, or desirable, but they are characteristic of certain believers, and we live and let live.

   Now this does not include accepting or associating with Christians who are negative to sound doctrine or who have heretical beliefs. If a person is negative to what is true doctrine, if a person has, worse than that, heretical beliefs that they're propagating, then we don't tolerate it, then we don't say it's okay. Then we must say, 'You are your own priest. You're free to believe what you believe, but what you believe is not what is in the Bible, and we take issue with you that that is a wrong thing for you to teach or for you to believe.'

   Christians today are separated primarily over doctrine and its implications and many times that is zeal which is substituted for the word of God. People get all attracted, get all emotionally charged up over something, over some movement or even some procedure. Many denominational structures are designed so that in a service you are impressed by the ritual. It is designed to appeal to your emotions, but when it's all over, you're not any closer to God than when you came in. You know nothing more about Him than when you came in.

   And there's a lot of preaching which is the same thing. It is an appeal to your emotions to make you feel you've had a wonderful time coming to church that night, but on the way home, as you silently drive quietly home, you think to yourself, 'Now, what on earth did I learn tonight that I didn't know when I walked in? How has my faith been strengthened over what it was when I walked in that service tonight? I had a jolly good time, but I'm as ignorant and as far from a closer walk with God as I was when I walked in.'

   But whole structures of denominations are built on what they call "preaching." And when they say the word "preaching," they mean getting the emotions titillated. If you teach the word of God, they don't consider that "preaching." They call that "teaching."

   When I was a student at Dallas Seminary, I was once asked to speak at a church which was looking for a pastor and it happened to be Wednesday night and they asked me to come in and conduct a Wednesday night service and have a Bible study, which I did. And what I did was taught them a principle of doctrine. Well, the officials came to me and said, "We would like you to come and speak Sunday. We've heard you teach. Now we want to hear you preach."

   Right away I knew I was associated with yo-yos here, but just for the fun of it, I went ahead, and I messed it all up by teaching them again on Sunday. I had a nice big, wonderful Sunday evening teaching service and they were thoroughly disappointed, I'm sure, because there was no fire, no brimstone, no shouting, no yelling, and no pulpit pounding; it was just explaining the Bible. But for anybody who sat there and listened attentively, I guarantee you they walked out of that service that night spiritually edified and closer to their knowledge of what God's mission and capacity to execute that mission was than when they came in.

   It is a shameful thing for a preacher to stand in the pulpit and not deliver the goods of doctrine to people when they have taken the trouble to come out to hear it. Well, one of the great truths that we have is that we as believers are all united in Christ. This side of eternity, there can be no complete Christian unity in organization, but our position in Christ gives us total unity in the body. Whatever our difference is, we're still brethren in Christ.

2. Every Believer Indwelt by the Lord Jesus Christ

   A second characteristic of the Church Age is that every believer is now indwelt by the Lord Jesus Christ. This was pointed out by the Lord Himself in John 14:20. Please remember that John chapters 13 through 17 is the only part of this Gospel that's dealing with the Church era. And Matthew 16:18 is the only part in the rest of the Gospels that deals with the Church. All the other Gospels are dealing with the finish of the Old Testament era and it's dealing with the close of the Old Testament. But here in the upper room, where Jesus had already told them, 'I'm going to build a new thing called the Church,' and then in that upper room in John chapters 13-17, He gave them the great truths relative to the Christian era.

   Those chapters deal directly with the Church Age and are applicable to you and me. And in John 14:20, He said, "In that day [in the day when the Church is in operation], you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you." Those are grand words, 'God the Son in us and we in Him.'

   And so every believer in the Church Age is indwelt by Jesus Christ. This is the basis for our fellowship with the Lord. That can only be realized in our experience of course, as we are walking by means of the Holy Spirit. Known sins have been confessed. We're in a responsive mood to the Spirit of God so that the Lord Jesus Christ becomes very real in His presence then in our lives.

   This is the picture that we have in Revelation 20. Jesus Christ is knocking at the heart's door of the believer who is out of fellowship. What is He seeking? He's not trying to get that person to be saved. He's trying to get that Christian to confess known sins and let Him back in to the place of fellowship. He indwells us, but we shut Him out from fellowship by our various sins. The carnal heart is open to Christ, not through salvation, but through confession of sins. It is our confession that makes us a spiritual person as per I John 1:9.

   People who are saved by believing the Gospel and are placed in Christ when they enter the Christian life. Now before salvation, your heart or your mind is a disaster area of disorientation to spiritual things.

   I saw a sign recently by the highway put out by the Tilton Organization, "Jesus Christ come into my heart". And what he's trying to do is tell people to be saved. But talk about an unscriptural invitation. If there's anything that you don't want to invite Christ into is the heart of an unsaved person; it's a filthy, dirty, stinking lousy place. The human heart, the human mentality, all that is in a person, that is not where you want to invite Jesus Christ.

   It's interesting that many people who do not work from scripture, but reason say, 'Well, I can't become a Christian until I clean up my life.' And when they say that, what they're telling you is that they realize what they are without Christ. They're a garbage pile and they recoil from the idea of inviting Christ into their heart, into their life. So, they try to clean it up and that's a vain pursuit.

   What we have to do is believe the Gospel and then He comes in and cleans it up. Faith in Christ is what removes the garbage pile of sin in the soul and makes it a fitting place for Christ to inhabit. And when that garbage pile is gone, then we're at ease with Him.

   You know how your housewives are. You're going to have somebody who's going to come to visit you. Right away, you want to clean up the place. So who cares if there's a few potato peelings on the floor? People should understand that. Who cares if there's some old dish cloths that you haven't picked up yet? People should understand that; after all, people are living here. But you don't take that attitude. You say, 'Hey, if somebody's going to come here, I want this place to reflect well upon me. I want it to be something that is fitting in which to receive my guests.' And it is Jesus Christ who makes our lives fitting for us to have fellowship with Him.

3. Every Believer Indwelt by the Holy Spirit

   The next characteristic of the Church Age is that every Christian is indwelt permanently by the Holy Spirit. John 14:16-17, Jesus says, "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper [God the Holy Spirit], that He may be with you forever; [17] 'that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you." And He will be in you forever.

   No one in the history of all the world of all the saints, preceding this point in time, was ever permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Some people were temporarily indwelled to perform a spiritual function, but then the Holy Spirit left them. Some in the Old Testament era had the Spirit indwelling them to accomplish great things, even to help them build the temple, to give them construction skills. But when the job was done, the spirit of God left them.

   In the Church Age, every believer is permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit and He can never leave the Christian. That is why the Bible elsewhere says, 'Do not grieve the Spirit of God which dwells within you' (Ephesians 4:30). And the word "grieve" means don't cause Him to be upset about your sin. Unconfessed sin grieves the Holy Spirit. Elsewhere the Word of God says, "Do not quench the Holy Spirit" (1Th 5:19). And the word "quench" means to put out the fire. To quench the Holy Spirit is to say "No" to His leading, to turn your back upon His guidance. So you grieve Him with unconfessed sin, you quench Him when He tries to lead you, you say, 'No, I'm not going to do that.' You turn your back upon that which He is placing upon your heart to do. And then we have a positive statement in the Scripture, "walk by means of the Holy Spirit" (Gal 5:16), which is to be guided by Him.

   Those three verses, those three principles are the way to be a spiritual Christian. You do not grieve Him by unconfessed sin, you do not quench Him by refusing to follow His guidance, and what He asks you to do, and you walk not in dependence upon your human self-will, your human determination, but you walk humbly in dependence upon the Spirit of God to carry you through.

   And when you know that that's happening, you should realize that sometimes things will happen in your life that you think are just terrible. Something didn't go wrong that you wish had gone another way. In time, you will discover that because you were being led by the Spirit of God, that was caused to happen to protect you from something worse, to cause you to get on track into a greater blessing that you would've not have proceeded to had everything worked out the way you were planning it and putting it together. So don't be so upset when things don't click. Say, 'I wonder why God the Holy Spirit is putting things together like this.' In time you'll discover that all things work together for good to those who have the called ones according to His purpose.

   Every Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit permanently. So, every Christian has divine power for living his life and using his spiritual gift.

4. The Universal Priesthood of All Believers

   The number four characteristic of the Church Age is the universal priesthood of all believers. This is taught in 1 Peter 2:9, "But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD," speaking to Christians. We Christians are priests. There is no such thing in the Bible as laity, the non-priests, and the clergy, the priests.

   In the Old Testament, that's the way it was. In the Old Testament, if you are not of the Levi tribe, you could not be of the clergy. And if you are not of the Levi tribe in the line of Aaron, you could not be a high priest. It required certain specifications for you to be a priest. Now, if you wanted to go to God, then you had to go to the priest and you had to get the priest to perform the sacrificial function for you. You had to approach God for a blessing by working through the Aaronic priesthood. And the individual Jew was never a priest, and he would consider it blasphemy for him to enter the temple and to try to act and function as a priest.

   So clearly something has happened that is very different in the order of events, in the order of the organization, in the order of life between Judaism with its clergy and laity and Christianity in the Church Age, which has only priests. All believers are priests. And a priest, as you know, represents others before God. In the Church age, the only person you represent is yourself. You are no one else's priests except temporarily as parents.

   When you are parents and you have children who have not arrived at an age of independence, then you are their priests and you make decisions for them. And you tell them where they're going to be, how they're going to act, what they're going to do with their lives, what they're going to watch on television, what they can eat, what they can't eat, where they can go, where they can't go, who they can go with, who they can't go with. And if your child wants to go to some other religious kooky organization, you say, 'Hey, I'm your priest. You're just a kid, you're not going to go and participate in that religious operation.' And any parent who does not function as a priest in behalf of his son or daughter is derelict in duty in a monstrous way. It is your business as parents to tell your children where the food is spiritually. You don't treat them as prodigal sons who can go off and eat the pig food or at best gnaw on the corn cobs where all the kernels of nourishment are already gone.

   The universal priesthood: in the millennium, there will be a temple for the Jews once more in Jerusalem, and the Old Testament priesthood will once more be functioning. It will be of the line of Levi again and it will have the full operation and they will be sacrificing animals. But the sacrifices now will no longer be symbolizing something in the future, the coming Messiah, it will be symbolizing something that's already happened. Just as with the Lord's Supper, we're not commemorating the coming of the Savior in the future. We remember the Lord's Supper in terms of what has already happened. That's what's going to happen in the millennial temple. But today there's no specialized group of priests and the Roman Catholics are simply carrying over the Old Testament idea and they're also joining it with the Babylonian idea where the idea of specialized priesthood was the norm.

   The Universal Priesthood of All Believers in Christian Worship

   Today every Christian is his own priest. That was never true before the Church Age where every born-again believer is a priest. Hebrews 3:1 tells us that Jesus Christ is our high priest today in the Christian era. As priests of God, we worship Him ourselves in certain ways.

   1. Bible Doctrine

      First, we worship God by listening to Bible teaching. We learn basic doctrine. And as we learn basic doctrine, we learned the worthiness of God and as the old English word "worthship" of a person from which we get the word worship. When we worship God, we're recognizing how worthy He is. And when we learn the word of God, that's when we get to know Him.

   2. Prayer

      Secondly, as a priest, we exercise prayer. We do this privately; we join together and do this as a group.

   3. Giving

      As priests, we exercise giving, we give of our offerings, our substance; and we do it not by the legal method of the Old Testament of a percentage, but by the fact that God owns it all and we give it by grace. We determine how much He wants us to keep of what we have earned. And He tells us by the guidance of Spirit of God, how much to give, what we keep and what we give out of what we earn.

   4. The Lord's Supper

      We also function as priests when we gather at the Lord's Supper. There, our testimonies to the grace of God are an exercise of our priesthood, because one of the things priests do is praise God. And when you stand up in a testimony meeting and you give a testimony in an expression of the praise to God for what His grace has done to you, you are acting as a priest.

   5. Spiritual Gifts

      Five, priesthood includes exercising your spiritual abilities in His service. And that's what you do in Christian service, you are a priest who is serving God.

      Every Christian An Ambassador for Christ

      In your distinctiveness of the Church Age, every Christian is an ambassador for Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:20: "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." There is no such thing as the preacher who is the agent of evangelism. The preacher is not the one who is to expand the local Church ministry. The expansion of the local Church ministry is a result of the people of God acting as ambassadors of God. They are out there in full-time Christian service and that's what it means to be an ambassador. You are an ambassador of God like an ambassador of our nation. You are in full-time service. If you are the ambassador of God, which you are, then you are in His service.

      Now, you do many other things in life like ambassadors do and one of the things you do, of course, is you have a livelihood by which you earn the funds to perform your ambassadorship. And that's the reason you earn those funds. But you are in full-time Christian service.

      This was not the case in ages past. Some were in God's service as clergy, others as laity were not. All believers are the witnesses of the Lord. And yet we must admit that most Christians are absent without leave from their ambassadorial responsibilities. And that is because they lack the sustaining power of the knowledge of doctrine and of the principle of temporal fellowship with the Spirit of God.

      A Christian's livelihood is merely his means of financing his ambassadorship. The issue is thus not how to use your life to make the most money, but how to use the income that God has given you in order to effectively accomplish your mission. This being true, every one of you, you see suddenly, has an importance of life beyond anything you could imagine.

      Every Christian's life has enormous purpose no matter what the grief that comes, no matter what terrible disappointments come, no matter how people or family or friends or whoever let you down. And no matter how many tears that may cause, you are still an ambassador.

      You cannot suddenly say, "I'm not God's ambassador anymore and I'm not going to work for the Lord." This is so typical of Christians who are immature. When the going gets rough, they cut out and suddenly they evaporate. We don't see them in the local Church ministry anymore. They're off chasing rabbits someplace else to try to find themselves when what they should know is that they are ambassadors for Christ. And even though they may have come upon hard times, they're still the Lord's ambassadors. A Christian's calling is very distinct. No Jew would ever consider himself the official representative of the most-high God. That is what an ambassador is. An ambassador speaks for the authority that he represents, and you speak for God.

   6. The Canon of Scripture

      The sixth one is the distinctiveness of a completed canon of scripture (The word canon means "standard."), the completed standard of Scripture. John 16:12-13 indicate that the Spirit of God is going to bring to the mind of the New Testament writers what Jesus has taught them. John 16:12-13, "I have many more things [Jesus says] to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. [13] "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will disclose to you what is to come." 'He will also give you prophetic insights.'

      This is further reinforced by 2 Peter 1:21, which says that holy men of God we're led by the Spirit of God to write. And 2 Timothy 3:16, that tells us that the content of all scripture was breathed out from God into the minds of the writers. It's all "God-breathed."

      So, Christians today, in contrast to the Jew of the Old Testament, possess the full revelation from God in the Bible for personal guidance. They have a completed Bible: they have an Old Testament; they have a New Testament. Now you can undermine that in one of two ways. You can undermine it the way the Jews do who say there is no New Testament Bible. They do not recognize the New Testament as equal to the Old Testament in inspiration. Or if you don't want to follow that route, because that won't appeal to many people, you do what the Mormons do: you come up with a brand-new Testament and as you've heard them in their advertising, they have "the Last Testament of Jesus Christ." Get their "complete" Bible and you undermine the true Bible by adding a false testament of your own. Of course, all the religions of the world also have their religious writings.

      God today guides us through this completed Bible. That's the standard. This is the way He guides you. He no longer speaks through dreams, through visions, through audible voices or through angels. I'm very uncomfortable when I hear people giving testimonies, which is commonplace on TV among Charismatics: 'God told me that I should do this. So, I said, "Well, what about this?" He said, "Well, if you do this, we'll do this."' And pretty soon you got the impression that they're hearing a voice. And some of them are probably nutty enough to hear voices in their religious disorientation.

      When God speaks, He speaks through this book. Yes, He hits your mentality with very specific ideas. A Christian who is walking in that fellowship of the inner circle is going to have his mind directed to the will of God. That's exactly what He does. But you're not going to hear voices and you're not going to see flashing lights, but you are going to have a very strong understanding. The heart will be burdened, and the mind will be focused, 'This is what I want you to do.' And you take your steps in that direction. And when you find that it's not quite right, you wait upon God, He gives correction, and you change and eventually you'll get to where He wants you to be and doing what He wants you to do.

      Whatever God has to say to us today then is in writing and it is in this book. That's why the Bible is such an important book and that's why inerrancy is so important. If you want to get rid of the Bible, then get rid of the doctrine of inerrancy. Just ignore all these passages in the Word of God that claim that it is God who is speaking in these books. Then you can believe anything you want to believe, and you can say anything you want to say. It is when we learn doctrine that our thinking gets oriented to the mind of God and then the details of life fall in place for us.

   7. A Supernatural Way of Life

      And finally, number seven (perhaps one of the most outstanding and hardest to imagine) is that God calls us with our Old Sin Nature to live a supernatural way of life. Now that kind of a requirement wouldn't make any sense at all unless God had made a provision that made that possible. Here's a way, 1 Peter 1:14-16 put it, "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance [the lusts of the Old Sin Nature], [15] "but like the Holy One who called you [God], be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; [16] "because it is written, 'YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.'" And here we have a scripture that says, 'I want you to be as good as God. I want you to be as perfect as Jesus Christ. I want your integrity to function on the level that His integrity functions. I want you to be as perfect as the Son of God.'

Now we must cringe to think about that unless we remember that He's also provided us with the means of doing it. That Christian who is constantly feeding upon the word of God because he's here in these services is not going to be a fool in his life, in his actions, in his conduct, in his thinking. And he is going to be capable of understanding the things of God and operating in a godly way. Integrity will be second nature to him. Believers in the Church Age are provided through the indwelling Holy Spirit and the doctrines of the Word of God, a supernatural means for this to be done: the combination of the Word and the Holy Spirit.

This does not call for a change in your personality or for you to conform to some stereotyped image of what spiritual people do. It always makes me nervous when I get with some Christians, especially preachers, who want to show that they're sweetness and light. They use words like "love," and a certain vocabulary that is geared to show that they are really nice people. But I know that they all have a sin nature. And while they should act with cordiality and good manners, there's a genuineness that should come through. And that genuineness enables you to understand that you're not perfect and neither are other people perfect, so you live and let live. You let God deal with these people, and you keep your focus on your own spirituality and your own godliness.

'Walking by means of the Holy Spirit' is Galatians 5:16, walk by means of the Holy Spirit. There is only one way you can do that: you keep your known sins confess and you learn doctrine and say amen to it. Then you can walk by means of the Holy Spirit.

The Church Is Different

You and I are not only called to live a supernatural life, but we're also able to do it. We're not only called to be as holy as Christ, but we're able to do it. But you have to get the pieces together, and then it will function. Remember the last time you did something, and you said to yourself, "How could I have ever done something like that? How could I have ever thought something like that? How could I have ever been guilty of something like that?" You're shocked and horrified. It is because while you are potentially a godly person, if you don't follow the system, you will break down. And the system is 'be here to learn the Word,' and the system is 'confess when you're out of line, and then go on, not grieving the Spirit of God, not quenching Him, but in dependence upon Him.'

You may be the poorest person on earth if God chooses that for you in material things, but you'll be the happiest person this side of Heaven. That is the winning life.

And those of you who are young, there's a tree out there at Lake Murray and a limb has been cut off of it and an enormous scar has grown over it. It's not just little, but it's an enormous bulge. And when you're young, you should remember that the branches of life, so to speak, that are growing in many directions of your life can be cut off. A piece of integrity can be cut off and there will be a scar and it can grow to be a very ugly thing sometime. And while the grace of God carries you through and life continues, why do you want to scar up your life?

And I guarantee you, if you're not in this room learning the Word of God, you will scar up your life. If you're not here being reminded of how to function on the distinctives of the Christian life that are yours and yours alone in the Church Age, you'll mess up.

Comparisons of Christ to the Church

1. The Shepherd and the Sheep

   First, there's the comparison that Christ is a shepherd, and the Christians are His sheep. John 10 describes that.

2. The Vine and the Branches

   Secondly, there is the comparison that Christ is the vine, and Christians are the branches. John 15:1-17.

3. The Cornerstone and the Building

   A third comparison is that Christ is the chief cornerstone and Christians are the building erected on it. Ephesians 2:19-22, I Peter 2:5, I Corinthians 3:9.

4. The High Priest and the Kingdom of Priests

   Number four is that Christ is the high priest, and the Church Age believers are a kingdom of priests. I Peter 2:5-9, Revelation 1:6, Revelations 5:10, Revelation 20:6.

5. The Head and the Body

   Number five is that Christ is the head of the Church, which is His body. Christians are His body. Ephesians 4:11-16,

6. The Head of a New Creation and the Creation Itself

   Number six is that Christ is the head of a new creation and Christians are members of that new creation, a new species of human beings. 2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 6:15, Colossians 1:13, Colossians 3:1-4, and Ephesians 2:21-22.

7. The Bridegroom and the Bride

   Finally, number seven is the comparison that Christ is the bridegroom, and the Church is the bride. Ephesians 5:25-33, 2 Corinthians 11:2, Revelation 19:7-8.

Now, these seven comparisons (these seven figures) to illustrate the nature of the Church make it very clear that at no point could Israel fit into this picture. When you're talking about the Church in these comparisons to Christ and to the purposes of God, there's no way without you finally abandoning the meaning of words (which is what the amillennialist do, they abandon the meaning of words) in order to try to come up with a Christian Israel, and it doesn't work. The comparisons of these analogies to Christ and the believers is a specialized group of believers totally disassociated from the Jews of the Old Testament. Once more, it is proper and fitting that we should thank God that we have been so honored and so chosen to live at this particular point in time to be part of this magnificent body of Christ, the Church Age believers.

Benediction

Dr. John E. Danish, 1995

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