Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20050102.htm

APPLYING OUR CHURCH'S STATEMENT OF BIBLICAL FAITH
Article III, Part IX Of The Nepaug Bible Church Bylaws: The Ordinances
A. Why We Hold ONLY To TWO ORDINANCES: Believer's Baptism And The Lord's Supper
(Ephesians 2:8-9 et al.)
  1. Introduction
    1. Besides opposing any sacraments to save the soul, we hold to only two ordinances, Believer's Baptism and the Lord's Supper as clarifies our Church Statement of Faith in Article III, Part IX as follows: "We believe that Believer's Baptism and the Lord's Supper were ordained by God for the present Church era."
    2. The reasons for this belief come from the Scriptures as it is properly applied as follows:
  2. Why We Hold ONLY To TWO ORDINANCES: Believer's Baptism And The Lord's Supper.
    1. Salvation is by grace through faith alone, Rom. 3:24ff; Eph. 2:8-9, so no alleged sacrament CAN SAVE.
    2. Accordingly, we explain misunderstandings of Scripture that have led to errors on the alleged sacraments:
      1. The alleged sacraments of Roman Catholicism are errantly so called for the following Biblical reasons:
        1. Re: baptism, Catholicism holds that infants are born "to eternal misery and perdition" unless "regenerated to God through . . . baptism . . ," Loraine Boettner, Roman Catholicism , p. 189ff. Yet, baptism does not save according to 1 Cor. 1:17, so baptism is not a sacrament that can save!
        2. Re: confirmation, Catholicism asserts this rite bestows the Holy Spirit on its candidates, Ibid., p. 190. However, 1 Cor. 12:13 with Eph. 1:13 shows the Spirit comes at faith in Christ for today's believers, so the rite of confirmation in the Roman Catholic Church is not a sacrament that saves!
        3. Re: the Mass, Catholicism holds Christ is actually re-sacrificed at the mass so that as one ingests the elements they are efficacious, Ibid., p. 174-175. Yet, Hebrews 9:24-28 states Christ finished His saving work at Calvary; besides, as His disciples were Jews who would not have drunk of Christ's cup had they thought it was His actual blood due to what Leviticus 7:26-27 states, all Scriptures that mention the partaking of Christ's blood are figurative, so the mass is not a sacrament that can save!
        4. Re: Penance, Catholicism holds the priest in the confessional absolves sins committed after baptism, Ibid., p. 191. Yet, 1 Tim. 2:5 says only Christ is man's Mediator with God, and sins are forgiven by confessing one's sins to God, 1 John 1:9; thus, penance can not be a sacrament that can save!
        5. Re: Extreme Unction, Catholicism uses James 5:14-15 to claim a priest who anoints a dying man has his current sins forgiven him, Ibid. Yet, James 5:15b shows the deed was done to restore health, and 1 Tim. 2:5 asserts Christ is our only Mediator, so this rite is not a sacrament that can save!
        6. Re: Orders, Catholicism treats the ordination of priests and the consecration of nuns into orders as a sacrament, Ibid., p. 189. However, there is no Biblical justification for such a belief.
        7. Re: Marriage, when Jerome's Vulgate translated Eph. 5:32 errantly to state marriage was a "sacrament", not the correct term, "mystery", the Church made it a sacrament, Ibid., p. 192. The later Confraternity text mended his error, so marriage in Catholicism can not be a saving sacrament!
      2. Mormonism errantly uses Paul's words in 1 Cor. 15:29 to promote belief in proxy baptism where one is baptized to save dead ancestors: near Paul's readers, pagans practiced washings in the sea without which they believed there was no hope of bliss in the hereafter (Pindar, "Fragment," 212; Sophocles, "Frament," 753 cited in Bib. Kno. Com., N. T., p. 544). Since Paul refers to the practioners of this rite as "those", he evidently alluded to pagans, ironically noting the local pagans believed in the hereafter better than did the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 15:12. Proxy baptism is not a sacrament that can save the soul!
    3. Rather, Scripture teaches only two practices have been ordered as ordinances for believers as follows:
      1. Only Believer's Baptism and the Lord's Supper are commanded by Christ in the Gospels and by the Apostles in the New Testament Epistles, so we hold to them as the sole ordinances for the Church, cf. Matthew 28:19-20 with Matthew 26:26-28 and 1 Corinthians 1:13-17 with 1 Corinthians 11:23-27.
      2. We do not observe foot-washing as an ordinance since Jesus told the eleven it was merely an example (hypodeigma = "'pattern'", Ibid., p. 320), not a formal ordinance. Besides, nowhere in the epistles is foot-washing treated as an ordinance, but only as a cultural practice, cf. 1 Timothy 5:10, Ibid.
Lesson: Scripture reveals God instituted only Believer's Baptism and the Lord's Supper as ordinances.

Application: Thus, we heed these ordinances as BELIEVERS in obedience to God in our WALK!