The Uniqueness of the Christian Church

This week I was reading a book and ran into this statement in the book. “Surely the new birth was unknown before the day of Pentecost.” Surely the new birth was unknown before the day of Pentecost. I was surprised to meet this statement in this particular book, because the gentleman who is the author of the book, in my opinion, is a very knowledgeable student of the Scriptures. Yet this was the opinion that he gave. And it serves as the partial motivation for the survey that we took. In case you are interested in the result, here they are.

Was King David born again? Going around the table we have sixteen people who say he was and eight who said he was not. Second question, did the Holy Spirit live inside or indwell King David? We had eight people saying that he did and seventeen people saying that he did not. So somebody did not vote on the first question, but that is all right. We have a general consensus here, and it appears that although it is not unanimous the vote favors the idea that King David was born again but not indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Which, if I may be permitted to say so right up front, I think is correct.

I want to read you a Scripture or two that relates to this. If you want to turn to these you can. We will later turn to a Scripture which we will look at in more detail, but this one is a mere one found in John chapter 3. So if you want to turn to it, John 3 and verse 3.

Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’

Then verse 10, Nicodemus expresses surprise about this.

Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?’

Jesus told Nicodemus, of course well before Pentecost, that unless a man is born again he cannot enter the kingdom of God. So the obvious question is, if King David was not born again, how is he going to get into the kingdom? Or if Abraham was not born again, how is he going to get into the kingdom? Nor is the truth of the new birth a new truth, because Jesus is telling Nicodemus that as a teacher of Israel he should have known about it.

So I consider it basically an open-and-shut case that everyone who will enter the kingdom of God in the future will be there because they have been born again.

But now the second question is, did the Holy Spirit indwell David? Turn now to John 7:39.

But this He spoke, meaning Jesus of course, concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

So this tells us that the Holy Spirit had not been given yet.

Turn to chapter 14 and verse 17. John 14 and verse 17. Jesus speaking,

Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

He is with you, but He will be in you. So He is not in you yet. It is what Jesus is saying.

Now turn to First Corinthians 12:13.

For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.

So this is written after Pentecost to the Christians at Corinth, and he is telling them they have all been baptized by the Holy Spirit.

Now turn to Ephesians 5:32. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 32.

We are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Let me begin just by saying that the idea that the new birth was unknown before the day of Pentecost results from a confusion between the work of the Holy Spirit in regenerating people, giving them new life, and the work of the Holy Spirit in baptizing them into the body of Christ. It was necessary for people from the very beginning of human history, after they have fallen in sin, to be born again by the work of the Holy Spirit. But that should not be confused with the gift of the Holy Spirit, because when the Holy Spirit is given He baptizes those on whom He falls into the body of Christ. He comes to indwell them permanently. And by baptizing us into the body of Christ He makes us part of the bride of Christ, the wife of Christ.

So I certainly do agree that the majority sitting around the table correctly analyzed these questions. And what this leads us directly to is what I would like to discuss today, the uniqueness of the Christian church. The uniqueness of the Christian church. What is it about the Christian church that was formed at Pentecost that makes it different from the believers who lived in all of the ages that preceded it and who will live in the ages that follow?

Let me summarize what I think the verses that we have suggested here suggest. Let me tell you what the uniqueness of the church is not. Okay, first of all it is not that we are born again, because all believers in all ages have been born again. It is not that we have eternal life. We have to have eternal life to get into the kingdom of God. It is not that we are children of God, because if God begets us by His Spirit then we are in His family. So the fourth one is it is not that we are in the family of God. Let me go over those again.

The uniqueness of the Christian church is not that we are born again. It is not that we have eternal life. It is not that we are the children of God. And it is not that we are in God’s family. Daddy, those are privileges that we share with everybody who has ever been saved.

But the uniqueness of the church consists in this, that we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. He lives in us permanently. Secondly, we are baptized by the Holy Spirit. Thirdly, we are members of the body of Christ. And fourthly, we are part of His bride. I may run those over again. The uniqueness of the church consists in these things, at least this is the minimum. You could probably come up with more. The uniqueness of the church consists in the fact that we are indwelt by God’s Spirit, that we are baptized by the Spirit, that we are members of the body of Christ, and that we are part of His bride.

Now what somebody, this is not a seminary classroom, hopefully nobody will raise this question, but in a seminary classroom we might get the question, so what? What is the big deal here? It is a very big deal, because the church needs to correctly discern its relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ and to see the ways in which that relationship is unique. The church needs to see the uniqueness of its relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let me illustrate. Suppose a man gets married to a woman, and after the marriage the woman thinks she is the man’s sister. Does that matter? Well, you married guys would be more able to answer that than I would. But the relationship of a sister to a man is quite a bit different than the relationship of a wife to him. Isn’t that right? And that would be a tragedy for the marriage, I think that would. But that would destroy the sense of harmony and oneness in the marriage. The guy thinks he is married and the gal thinks she is a sister. Well, that is the road to divorce or something. Okay, though you cannot divorce your brother, so I am sure the lady would not initiate it. But the point is that obviously if you get married you expect both parties to understand the relationship, do you not? And if they do not, the relationship does not work well.

Now if I ask you what is the special character of the church’s relationship to Christ, since the church is the body and bride of Christ, the one word that I think leaps out here is the word intimacy. A man’s wife is the most intimate person in that man’s experience. The husband and wife have an intimate relationship that the husband does not have to any other woman or any other man. That is the way it should be. And not in this day and age it is not always quite that way, but that is the way it is supposed to be. And it is the intimacy of the relationship between the man and the woman that is the unique aspect of marriage.

That means, among other things, that that is what is unique to our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Since we are part of His bride we are called into a special intimacy with Jesus Christ. Let me repeat that. As members of the bride of Christ we are called into a special intimacy with the Son of God.

And what I want to do in the rest of the talk this morning is to look very briefly at a New Testament passage that expresses this and then in a little bit more detail at an Old Testament passage. And then we will open it for discussion.

The New Testament passage you will find in Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. If there was anybody that appreciated the intimacy of the relationship of Christ and the church, it was the Apostle Paul. And this is as good a passage as any to communicate that. Philippians chapter 3. Let me begin reading at verse 8.

Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.

Now without going into a lot of detail here, it seems to me the Apostle Paul is saying, look, everything I had as a prominent member of the Jewish religion I have lost. But it is all trash, because what I have gained is Christ and the marvelous knowledge of Christ and the privilege of standing in Him, not with my own righteousness which I was trying to get under the Jewish law but with the righteousness that He gives by faith. But that is not the end of it. I have this standing so that I may know Him, so that I may know Him in the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death.

Let me point out to you that whatever little King David or Abraham might have understood of the future sufferings of Christ, it is as nothing compared to what we understand, because now we have the four Gospels. Now we have the earthly life of Jesus. We have His experiences from birth to death. We have detailed descriptions of His suffering on the cross. We live in the period where we can appreciate this. And if we have our eyes open to it, God will lead us into an intimate experience with Christ where we have fellowship with Him in His sufferings, fellowship with Him in the conformity to His death.

The Christian life is a form of intimacy with Jesus Christ and a sharing of His experience. And it is never as good an experience or perfect experience as He had, but it is a reflection of His experience that we are being led into. So just as husband and wife share life together and all of its intimate facets, so we can share life as we walk with God. We can share life with Jesus Christ, and we can share His sufferings. It does not sound pleasant, but if you are suffering for Christ it is amazing what God can do to make that a meaningful experience. We can share the power of His resurrection and the experiences of resurrecting power in our lives. This is what we are called to, intimacy with Jesus Christ.

Now for the Old Testament passage, turn to Psalm 45. Psalm 45 is certainly one of the very greatest psalms in the Psalter. Most people would choose Psalm 23 probably as their favorite psalm, and I cannot blame them. So that is a great psalm too. And this is a very beautiful song. We call this particular song a messianic psalm. And the reason we call it a messianic psalm is because it applies directly to the Lord Jesus Christ. The reason we know it does is because that is the way the writer of Hebrews understands it and treats it in Hebrews chapter 1.

So when I read through here I am going to be applying this directly to the Lord Jesus Christ and to His experience from His first advent to His second. Now what I am going to do, let me preface this by saying I do not claim to completely understand everything that is in this psalm. This is a challenging psalm. But what I am going to do is work my way through it with you very slowly and give you the concept that I get from this. I am not going to try to go into a lot of detail, and then I am going to make an application. And then we could open the discussion to questions.

The heading of the psalm is “To the Chief Musician. Set to ‘The Lilies.’ A Contemplation of the sons of Korah. A Song of Love.” Now the first verse is the psalm writer’s, the author’s introduction to the psalm. And notice the words he uses.

My heart is overflowing with a good theme. I recite my composition concerning the King. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

Verse 2,

You are fairer than the sons of men. Grace is poured upon Your lips. Therefore God has blessed You forever.

I think this is the only verse in the psalm that refers to the first advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a very quick summary of the Lord Jesus Christ as He is revealed to us in the pages of Scripture. There is what it says here. You are better looking than any other man. And I do not think he is talking here about physical qualifications but moral and spiritual qualifications. You are fairer than the sons of men. Jesus was the most beautiful person who ever walked the face of the earth, perfect, sinless, holy.

Furthermore he says, “Grace is poured upon Your lips.” Remember the words of the people who listened to Him in the synagogue at Nazareth. They marveled at the gracious words that came out of His mouth. And the words of Jesus were full of grace. Therefore God has blessed You forever. What has God done for this man? Well, God also has highly exalted Him, giving Him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

The writer of Hebrews is very fond of the idea of Jesus sitting at the right hand of God. And he likes Psalm 110 which says, “The Lord said unto my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.’” Please sit here in the most dignified and exalted position of the universe while I get ready to crush Your enemies. That is what God said to Him. Now the crushing of His enemies is what the psalmist deals with in the following verses, verses 3 to 5.

Notice this carefully. The psalm is speaking to the King.

Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O Mighty One, with Your glory and Your majesty. And in Your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness. And Your right hand shall teach You awesome things. Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the King’s enemies. The people fall under You.

You are going to be a conquering King. Notice that He is armed with two weapons, a sword, and He is obviously armed with a bow because “Your arrows are sharp in the hearts of the King’s enemies.”

Interestingly enough, the passage that Joel read to us shows Him armed with a sword, a sharp two-edged sword coming out of His mouth. And in Revelation 6 verse 2 we see the white horse rider again, and this time He is carrying a bow, and He goes forth conquering and to conquer. So the white horse rider of the book of Revelation is the King with His bow and with His sword riding forth to defeat His enemies and to crush them. That is what this passage deals with.

What happens after He crushes His enemies? His kingdom is established, right? That is next. Verse 6,

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions.

So notice here what it said. You know, okay, now He has crushed His enemies, right? And He has a throne. And God says to Him, God says to Him, “Your throne, O God,” because the Son is also God, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.” And God has given You this because You have loved righteousness, You have hated wickedness. And therefore God has anointed You with more joy than even Your companions who share Your privileges and power. And He has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your companions.

Now the next verse is a little tricky in the Hebrew text, and I am going to tell you what I understand here by this. But let us read verse 8 first of all.

All Your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, by which they have made You glad.

Now understand the King has a kingdom here, right? He has got a throne that will last forever. And now I think in the poetic imagery of the psalmist we are to see a complex of royal buildings constructed of ivory, gleaming with their ivory sheen. And these are His palaces. And inside one of these palaces He has gotten dressed for the special occasion that is now about to be presented.

And so what the writer sees, as I understand this verse, is he sees the King emerge from the ivory palaces with these garments on. And the garments smelled beautifully. “All Your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia.” The point here is that God has anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His companions. And now His very garments express that joy that you get out of something good-smelling, perfumes. They have made You glad, he says here.

But here is the King coming out of the royal palace of ivory, and He is dressed in these beautiful garments that smell so good. He is happy. Why is He happy? Verse 9,

Kings’ daughters are among Your honorable women. At Your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir.

Now it becomes apparent that in a sense this is the King’s wedding day. And He has noble women, the Hebrew says kings’ daughters, and next to Him on His right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. So what we have come to at this point is that the King is all dressed up to get married. And now here is the bride beautifully dressed in gold of Ophir, and she is standing right next to Him on His right hand. Noble women, royal women are standing there. If we think of Old Testament women, if we ought to think of women, we could think of people like Sarah and Rebekah and Jael and Deborah and all the wonderful, wonderful women of the Old Testament who will be present on this occasion. But the queen is there, all right.

Then the psalmist pauses in order to say something to the queen. And I am going to read what he says to the queen. And even though I do not say much about it I am going to come back to it at the end. Now hear, get the scene right. Out here, maybe on the steps of the ivory palace or maybe out in the courtyard somewhere, we have got the King and the queen and these royal women surrounding them. And so the psalmist says to the queen, I mean whisper something in the ear of the queen here.

Listen, O daughter, consider and incline your ear. Forget your own people also and your father’s house. So the King will greatly desire your beauty, because He is your Lord, worship Him. The daughter of Tyre will be there with a gift. The rich among the people will seek your favor.

I have not the slightest idea how brides feel on the day of the wedding. But supposing that you imagine a bride has come from a distant country, and you know there is a little touch of homesickness there, and she is remembering her father’s house in her land. And the psalmist says to the queen, let me make a suggestion to you. Just forget about your people where you come from. Just forget about your father’s house. Just get your mind focused on the King, and that way He will find you beautiful. And furthermore He is your Lord, so worship Him. And then there will be people here to honor you and seek your favor. That is his advice to the queen. We will come back to that at the end.

Now in verse 13 it seems to me, okay, have you got this picture here? What I see here is the King and the queen, who is to be married, are standing there outside the palace. Now it seems to me they turn and go into the palace for the ceremony, the wedding celebration, whatever it is they are going to do. Verse 13, the psalmist kind of followed them in, if you want to put it that way.

The royal daughter is all glorious within the palace. Her clothing is woven with gold. She shall be brought to the King in robes of many colors. The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to You with gladness and rejoicing. They shall be brought. They shall enter the King’s palace.

As they walk into the palace now the psalmist is admiring the beautiful clothing in which the queen is dressed. And he is saying she has all of these lovely robes on her, and she has been brought to the King in these lovely garments.

And then notice in the middle of verse 14, “The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to You with gladness and rejoicing. They shall be brought. They shall enter the King’s palace.”

Now we see another group here. We have not seen them in the previous description here as the King and the queen stand outside. We see the royal women that surround them. But now there is the wedding party proper, the attendants of the bride, the virgins who attend the bride. And those of you who think of the New Testament in this connection you are probably already thinking of Matthew 25, the parable of the ten virgins. I think to be correctly interpreted, the believers of the tribulation period, and they are to be ready to go into the wedding with the bride and the bridegroom when they are united. And so that is exactly what happens here. The virgins, her companions, follow her. They shall be brought to You with gladness and rejoicing. They shall be brought. They shall enter the King’s palace.

So now what we have is the King and queen. They have gone into the palace, and they are accompanied by the attendants of the bride, the virgins. And then to the King the psalmist says,

Instead of Your fathers shall be Your sons, whom You shall make princes in all the earth.

Okay, this is a king that has a long line of kings who are his fathers, the descendants of David. This is all the way from David all the way down. So there have been a lot of kings there. And not all of them are present, because there is no reason to think all the kings were saved. But instead of these ancestors of yours, says the psalmist, you are going to have your own, those who have a relationship of sonship with yourself. And there is going to be the ones who give authority to. They are going to be the princes in all the earth.

So here we think, it seems to me, of the heirs not only in the church but outside of the church in the Old Testament period. And then the psalmist concludes this psalm, I think, with very beautiful words. He says,

I will make Your name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore the people will praise You forever and ever.

Now in my opinion, folks, this is a beautiful thing. And what I would like us to get out of it is that our place is this. We are not among the royal women that accompany the King. We are not among the virgins who accompany the bride. We are part of the bride. We are part of the body of Christ. We are the ones who are being married to the King.

Now in that light look back at the advice that he gives to us in verses 10 to 11. “Forget your own people also and your father’s house. Turn your back on where you came from and focus your attention on the King.” I think that is applicable. That is an appropriate thing to do today, because we read in Colossians, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

And I am wondering as we sit here, do we realize that we are headed for the richest possible relationship with Jesus Christ in the future? What do the things here in this world matter in the light of that marvelous relationship to that glorious King that is described in this psalm? Why can we not easily turn our back on all the things that seem to ignore us, attract us, seduce us, tempt us? This is the King. This is the King in all of His splendor and glory. And if we turn our back on these things and focus on Him, “So shall the King greatly desire your beauty.” You look beautiful to Him.

Have you ever thought of being beautiful for the Lord Jesus Christ? But one of the fundamental reasons why we live for Him is so that people think that, you know, I am just pretty certain with regard to this person and that person, hopefully with regard to Victor Street, the Jesus looks at us and says, you know, I am attracted to that. So shall the King greatly desire your beauty. And then because He is your Lord, worship Him. Worship Him. One of the main things we are called to do in this world, we have many other things that we can do, but that is one of the main things that we are called to. Yes, He is our husband, but He is also our Lord, and He wants our worship. That is why we are at this table, is it not? Hopefully we are here because our Lord asked us to be here. We are here to worship Him. He is the one who gave Himself for us. He is the one who is coming in all of His splendor and all of His glory. He is worthy of our worship.

Forget your past so that the King will find you beautiful. And remember He is your Lord, and worship Him. The songwriters put it well. “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun doth his successive journeys run. His kingdom spread from shore to shore till moons shall wax and wane no more. To Him shall endless prayer be made, and endless praises crown His head. His name like sweet perfume shall rise with every morning sacrifice.” That is the future, and we can begin to enjoy it now.