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What We Believe and Why - Vol. II
Written by Dr. Lester Hutson

Copyright - Lester Hutson - 1982
This material is copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced without the express written permission of Dr. Lester Hutson.

Chapter Twenty Four
The Three Ordinances of the Church

INTRODUCTION: TEXT: I Corinthians 11:1-2

There is considerable uncertainty among some believers about how many ordinances the church is to keep. We believe that there are three major ordinances: baptism, the Lord's Supper and the Lord's Day.

I. IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND WHY WE CONTEND THERE ARE THREE ORDINANCES OF THE CHURCH, IT IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW SOMETHING OF THE BIBLICAL REFERENCES TO ORDINANCES.

A. The more common understanding of "ordinance" is that it is a decree (sometimes involving a certain type of ritual or practice) which has been approved, given of God to keep, and which has been declared of God to be right.

1. Greek nouns that all can translate to "ordinance," and which communicate this idea to some extent, are "DIKAIOMA," "DIATAGE," "DOGMA," and "KTISIS."

2. The religious system of the Old Testament contained many such ordinances.

a. God said in Exodus 18:20, "And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do."

b. He said to Israel in Leviticus 18:4, "Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the Lord you God." He repeated that in verse 30. Similar words of God about keeping His ordinances are found in Leviticus 22:9, II Chronicles 33:8, Ezekiel 11:20, and Ezekiel 43:11.

c. The Passover was one such ordinance. (Numbers 9:12,14)

3. Many of these dogmas or ordinances of the Old Testament were not designed for us to keep.

a. They were specifically designed to show the inability of the law to justify, and to point men to Christ. Thus, Galatians 2:16 says, "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." No, the ordinances of the law do not justify. They point men to Christ. As Galatians 3:24 puts it, "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster (a teacher to point us to the truth) to bring us unto Christ (the one to whom the Old Testament ordinances pointed), that we might be justified by faith."

b. Hebrews 9 discusses this subject at length. Verse 1 says, "Then verily, the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary." The next four verses describe the tabernacle, and verses 6-7 mention the service of the priests therein. Verse 9 says gifts and sacrifices were offered there, and it clearly points out these were merely "a figure" or foretype of something that was to later come. Verse 10 then says the "meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances" were "imposed on them until the time of reformation." Verses 11-12 is quick to point out that all of those Old Testament affairs pointed forward to Christ.

c. Thus, listen to the divine declaration of God in the New Testament related to Old Testament ordinances. Ephesians 2:13-16 declares, "But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby." Colossians 2:13-14 says, "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross."

d. Christ Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament ordinances which pointed forward to Him. He proved that He could do for sinners what ordinances could not do. Because of His fulfillment, there is no need for us to continue keeping ordinances that point forward to His work on the cross. To continue to keep such ordinances is to say we are still looking forward to Christ to come and die again on the cross. That is a denial of the finished work of Christ on the cross.

e. Thus, we do not keep the Old Testament ordinances that foreshadow the coming Christ. We offer no bullocks nor sheep, and we keep no Passover. As we shall soon see, we do keep some ordinances, but they look backward at what He has done, or forward to His second coming, not forward to His suffering and death. And, we know also that the ordinances we keep do not save, but reminds us of the one who does save by His work on the tree.

B. In some cases, ordinance is used in the sense of a tradition.

1. In the I Corinthian 11:2 text, Paul wrote, "Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you." The word "ordinance" is here translated from the Greek word "PARADOSIS," which means "a tradition."

2. Now, the vain traditions of men Christians are told to reject.

a. God's warning in Colossians 2:8 is, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."

b. The reason we are told to be so leery of the traditions of men is the fact that they are generally contrary to the commandments of God. Thus, Jesus asked, "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?" (Matthew 15:3) Any tradition that violates a teaching of God isn't worth a zero. In fact, it is not innocent and harmless, but rather damaging to the cause of Christ. It is noteworthy that Matthew 15 points it out to be wrong when human tradition violates divine commandments, (verse 3), but when divine tradition violates human tradition no sin or harm has been done. (verse 2)

c. Too many times the traditions of men run counter to the teachings of God. Jesus said, "Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition." (Mark 7:9) He went on to point out that in so doing they made "the word of God of none effect through your tradition." (verse 13. See also Matthew 15:6)

3. It is at this juncture that many of us prove to be so near-sighted that we stumble.

a. We fail to see that a tradition can be good. We assume that because something is traditional, it must be bad and rejected. That is not necessarily the case. Any tradition that is out of harmony with God's word is evil and ought to be rejected. But some tradition can be traced right back to the Lord Himself, and these are good and ought to be kept. The idea of being against a practice merely upon the strength that it is traditional is neither wise nor scriptural.

b. This is well seen in Paul's words of II Thessalonians 2:15, "Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle." Of course, he didn't stop there. Eight verses later he said, "Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you." (II Thessalonians 3:6-7) The over-all lesson is that we are to embrace right, Biblical traditions and reject all the rest.

c. You will remember that in I Corinthians 11:2 the apostle Paul actually praised the Corinthians for keeping "the ordinances (PARADOSIS, i.e. traditions), as I delivered the to you."

C. Now the three ordinances of the church bear the divine stamp of God's approval.

1. It is noteworthy that they are ordinances of the church collectively, not individually, though individuals are members of the church. It is not an individual function to baptize, observe the Lord's Supper, or individually pause for worship on the Lord's Day. These are functions the church body is to keep as a group, or as members collectively, not individually. No individual member apart from collective church authority has a right to baptize. No member has a right to take the elements in his own private observance, and thereby ignore the collective observance of the Lord's Supper by the church. Furthermore, no member has a right to conduct his own private worship service on the Lord's Day apart from the worship service of the church collectively. These are church ordinances given to the whole body.

2. These three practices have been celebrated regularly for almost 2,000 years. Thus, they are true traditions. They are not merely the traditions or ordinances of men.

a. It was God Himself who initially gave the commission to baptize, and who commanded that it be adopted as a regular practice, tradition, or ordinance. He commanded in Matthew 28:19, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

b. It was this same Jesus, who is God, who instituted the Lord's Supper and commanded it as an ordinance or tradition to be kept in Matthew 26:26-29.

c. And, though there is no specific commandment in the Bible that the church is to assemble and worship on Sunday, the early Bible churches did so, and with God's obvious approval and blessing. Acts 20:7 says, "And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight." The first day of the week is Sunday, and that is the day this church was keeping as a day of collective worship. I Corinthians 16:2 shows the Corinthian church was giving on Sunday, and giving is one of the formal acts of worship. Eight days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ was discovered, the apostles, members of the first church, (I Corinthians 12:28), were assembled. (John 20:26) That would, of course, have been on Sunday, and Jesus Himself met with them on that occasion. We believe that to be a sign of divine approval and indicative of the fact that the Lord always meets with His church when they worship Him upon the first day of the week. We believe this is the day John called "the Lord's day" in Revelation 1:10. The early Bible church practices assembly for worship on that day, and we believe it is to this practice, tradition, or ordinance that Paul refers when he said we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together in Hebrews 10:25 (note that here is a clear indication of a joint function of the members of a church, thus, a collective church practice, or ordinance). So, the keeping of the first day of the week as a day of worship by the church is a tradition approved of by God. It is not one of the vain traditions of men.

d. All three of these are indeed the ordinances of God, and are to be kept faithfully by the Lord's churches.

II. THE THREE ORDINANCES OF THE CHURCH TOGETHER PREACH THE GOSPEL.

A. The gospel of Christ is clearly defined to be the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, according to the scriptures. (I Corinthians 15:1-4)

B. The Lord's Supper particularly emphasizes the death of Christ.

1. Of course, all three ordinances of the church suggest all three aspects of the gospel: the death, the burial and the resurrection. However, the aspect of the gospel that is stressed most in the Lord's Supper is Christ's death.

2. When He instituted the Supper, the Lord Himself broke bread and said it stood for His broken body. Then He took wine and said it stood for His pure shed blood. (Matthew 26:26-29)

3. It would be hard to miss the emphasis on Christ's death, for the breaking of His body and the shedding of His blood is the very crux of His death.

4. The death is still the major emphasis of the Lord's Supper when Paul speaks of it years later in I Corinthians 11:23-26. He is still laying the emphasis on the broken body and shed blood of the death of the Savior.

C. The particular emphasis of baptism is the Lord's burial.

1. Again, baptism beautifully pictures the death, burial and resurrection, but the immersion of a person under water strikingly emphasizes the burial.

2. Romans 6:4 accentuates the burial in baptism when it says, "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism unto death." Consider also Colossians 2:12.

3. Baptism is a visual testimonial that our sins are gone, buried by our Lord. They are gone, taken away. Thus we are dead to sin (Romans 6:2) and alive unto God, (Galatians 2:20), so that Paul could write, "For ye are dead, and you life is hid with Christ in God." (Colossians 3:3) The burial of baptism emphasizes this beautifully.

D. The major emphasis of the Lord's Day is the resurrection of our Lord.

1. Matthew 28:1-6, Mark 16:1-6, and Luke 24:1-6 all tell how the disciples discovered the resurrection of Christ on the first day of the week, Sunday. The fact that Christ arose naturally suggests His death and burial, but the aspect that is foremost about the first day of the week is the resurrection.

2. By their assembly to worship on the first day of the week, churches are saying they worship and serve a risen Savior. Sunday assembly is a visual testimonial of the resurrection, just as the Lord's Supper is of the death and baptism is of the burial.

E. Thus, by keeping these three ordinances, or traditions of the church, a church visibly preaches the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, which is the gospel, God's method and means of saving the lost. (Romans 1:16)

1. All three of these ordinances are actually fingers pointing backward to our Christ. They are reminders to us of what it is to us, and how we received the standing we have as sons in His family. And, they are an outward testimonial of the church to those who are yet lost. Neither of these ordinances saves from sin's penalty, but they all point to the one who does.

2. Furthermore, by their weekly observance and keeping of these ordinances, a church continually preaches the gospel, week by week. Even though the sermon in the pulpit may not deal directly with the death, burial and resurrection each week, the beautiful truth is still propagated by the practice of the church. And, of course, when the message in the pulpit deals directly with the gospel, that message is reinforced by the visible testimony of the church's conduct.

3. Thus, we believe it is good for the Lord's churches to seek to keep all three ordinances of the church each week.

"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"