The History of the Church Pt 4 - The Call to Restore - Landry Dukes

Welcome to the official podcast of the Church

of Christ Wheeler area. We're so glad that you've

tuned in for today's message. Whether you're

on your morning commute or if you're relaxing

at home, we're here to share the strength and

truth of God's Word with our community. If you're

in the neighborhood, we'd love to meet you in

person. Come see us at 1500 South Allen L. Bean

Boulevard right here in Wheeler, Texas. We gather

every Sunday morning at 10 .30 a .m. and in the

afternoon at 2 .30 p .m. We meet again on Wednesdays

at 7 p .m. Right now, let's open our Bibles together

and dive in to today's sermon. We are glad to

see all of you here. I hope that y 'all are as

excited as I am to continue our series on the

history of the church. We've had some excellent

lessons and some excellent speakers so far. My

dad told me actually that every lesson in this

series has gone over 40 minutes I don't think

that I'm going to go over 40 minutes today and

that's certainly to y 'all's benefit But I hope

they are able to take something away from my

topic this morning, which is the call to restore

now you may be thinking didn't chance just talk

about this last week and The answer is no he

talked about the rest the reformation movement

and the call to reform And I wish that those

words weren't so similar, but they are. So I

think it's important that we start today's lesson

by understanding the difference between the two

and kind of going over an overview of what we've

talked about so far. I don't think that Zane

pictured this Alfredo example being used in every

lesson after his, but we're gonna use it again.

If you haven't learned anything else in this

series so far, you have learned that the dish,

the image of this dish here, is not Alfredo.

This is not real Alfredo. This is what we have

made Alfredo. We took Mr. Alfredo's recipe that

he had designed, we added on to it, we made it

something completely different from what he had

intended for it to be. It's simply not Alfredo.

And we've connected that with Christ Church,

that he had the design, he was the maker of the

recipe, he had it how he wanted it to be. And

James talked about how they went through intense

persecution. And after they went through that

persecution, they started to add more things,

changes to every aspect of the church to the

point that it was no longer even recognizable

in any form. And in Chance's lesson, he went

a step further in this alfredo example. And he

said that we'd moved beyond just adding additional

ingredients to the alfredo. We'd made it a completely

different dish. We'd made it a chicken -fried

steak now. And so imagine Mr. Alfredo sitting

over here and he's thinking that these people

have lost their minds. This is absolutely nothing

like what I told them to make. And maybe it's

a silly example, but now apply that to Jesus.

He's sitting at the right hand of the Father

and he's looking down on his people and he's

saying, what happened to my church? What happened

to my people? It's completely different now.

Everything is different. So now there's people

that start to recognize this and they understand

that they need to fix this So how do we go about

doing that? And this is where we start to get

into the difference between these reformers and

restorers the reformers that chance talked about

they knew that the church at the time was not

what God intended for it to be and They their

main focus was fixing the errors of the current

church that they'd known And Chance talked about

a lot of brave men that put themselves in great

danger, many that died, just to call this out.

And these reformers had this idea that if we

just take away certain things from the church,

if we take away the pope, this hierarchy, a bunch

of other things, then we'll just fix the church

and we'll move on and we'll forget about it.

And the problem with this was that you can't

take something that's just so broken. that then

make a few tweaks and it be exactly how it needs

to be again. You can't take out a few ingredients

from the chicken fried steak and it be Alfredo

again. And this reformation movement led to the

rise of denominationalism. and as not everyone

could agree on what exactly needed to be changed

and what didn't need to be changed. These men

had their own ideas, their own creeds that they'd

write, and people would decide if they wanted

to follow this church or this church based on

what they agreed with. And this idea of following

a man's idea is being divided. That's not what

Christ intended for the church to be. We can

see that in First Corinthians chapter one, starting

in verse 10. The Bible says, Now I plead with

you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus

Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and

that there be no divisions among you, but that

you be perfectly joined together in the same

mind and in the same judgment. For it has been

declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by

those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions

among you. Now I say this, that each of you says,

I am of Paul, or I am of Apollos, or I am of

Cephas, or I am of Christ. Is Christ divided?

Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized

in the name of Paul? Would you believe it if

I told you that today, in 2026, there are 45

,000 different Christian denominations in the

world? All Christian denominations, 45 ,000.

Let that sink in. It's obvious that this is not

what Christ had intended. He wanted unity. He

wanted us to be joined together in one mind.

And this is where, while the reformers had the

right idea that things needed to change, their

way of going about it led to a whole other set

of problems, including this division. And their

ideas weren't all in vain. They paved the way

for this restoration movement that we're going

to talk about. And they paved the way for it

to unfold. These restorers, they had a different

approach. They decided that we needed to abandon

the current church. and just start over completely

using the New Testament as the guide. They decided

that what they had known as church their entire

lives simply was not church. It wasn't right.

That they needed to go back to the New Testament.

And they recognized that our authority for everything

we do as the church comes from the scriptures.

And I like the way one of the articles that I

read when putting this sermon together put it.

It pretty much sums up this whole sermon. It

says, the restoration movement was the conviction

that if we speak where the Bible speaks and be

silent where the Bible is silent, we can simply

be Christians only wearing no human names bound

by no human creeds and operating strictly under

the original divine pattern. So that recipe that

we've talked about this whole time, that recipe

that Christ had authored for us, let's get back

to that. Let's forget about all this added ingredients.

Let's forget about the chicken fried steak. Let's

start completely fresh and completely back to

the scriptures. And that was their idea. So let's

read a few verses that support this idea. I want

to start with Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verses

Ecclesiastes 3:14

14 and 15. This is in the ESV version. I perceive

that whatever God does endures forever. Nothing

can be added to it, nor anything taken from it.

God has done it so that people fear before him.

That which is already has been, that which is

to be already has been, and God seeks what has

been driven away. Then also Jeremiah chapter

Jeremiah 6:16

6 verse 16, thus says the Lord, stand in the

ways and see and ask for the old paths where

the good way is and walk in it. Then you will

find rest for your souls. But they said, we will

not walk in it. Now these verses exactly describe

the restorer's goal. They wanted to find the

old way, the correct way, the way God had laid

forth, and get back to that. So now that I think

we understand the difference between these two

concepts, I think we should dig into the restoration

movement. So first I want to talk about kind

of the same format that Chance went through.

I want to talk about a few men that were key

influences in this movement. We'll start. with

this man here, Barton W. Stone. He was driven

by passion for Christian unity and revival. In

1801, he hosted this Cane Ridge Revival in Kentucky,

where thousands of people from different denominations,

they gathered and they realized that human creeds

divided believers. Stone also co -authored the

Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery

in 1804, and that dissolved his own governing

body to reject man -made doctrines. And his legacy

was teaching that Christians should set aside

the labels that they had at the time, the denominational

labels, and simply bear the name Christian. Next

we have Thomas Campbell. He provided the... biblical

blueprint for the movement. He was a big part

of that, and he immigrated from Ireland to Pennsylvania,

and he was troubled by noticing that there was

a division around communion. And in 1809, he

published his declaration and address, where

he coined the famous quote that I'm sure we've

all heard, where the scriptures speak, we speak,

where the scriptures are silent, we're silent.

His goal wasn't to start a new denomination,

but he wanted to unite believers strictly around

New Testament practices. Then we have Alexander

Campbell. This is Thomas' son. He served as the

movement's chief spokesperson, the editor, the

defender, and through widely read journals and

high profile public debates, he taught a biblical

restoration nationwide. And one thing that was

a little controversial within the restoration

movement that he did was he would go on to found

Bethany College in 1840 to educate future leaders.

But before that, in 1832, he played an important

role in uniting his Disciples of Christ movement

with Barton Stone's Christian movement, realizing

that they had the same ideas in mind to restore,

and they would end up uniting. And the last guy

I want to look at is Walter Scott. He was an

evangelist who tried to turn theology into practical

growth. He wanted to make the gospel easy to

understand. And he created this five -finger

method, this five -finger exercise rather, about

faith, repentance, baptism, remission of sins,

and the gift of the Holy Spirit. And by teaching

this five -step gospel, Scott was able to bring

thousands of people across denominational lines

into this restoration movement. So now we can

look at these men and we may look at them and

this whole restoration movement we can say well

what's so different about them from the reformers?

There's people that look at us in the Church

of Christ today and say you guys say that y 'all

are this church that was established by Christ

from the New Testament but y 'all are talking

about these guys from the 1800s. These are the

key guys that started your whole movement. So

what's so different about y 'all? Why aren't

y 'all just another denomination? Well, I think

that those are valid questions, and we should

always be making sure that the methods that we

use today are the methods we use to ensure that

we're part of Christ's church, not any man's

church, and that we are the church that Christ

himself So I want to look at some of the principles

that were used by these restorationists so that

we know that we're not following these men's

way but that we're following the way that Christ

had set out for us to follow. So we'll start

first with this seed principle. So to illustrate

this I want to talk about this seed that was

back in the days of Jesus known as the Judean

date palm. Now, this poem and the fruit of it,

they're mentioned in Psalms and the Song of Solomon

a few times. But following the destruction of

Jerusalem, this tree stopped being commercially

produced. By 1300, the tree was completely extinct.

All that we knew about it was from writings and

from artworks, and it was extinct. It was gone.

During excavations of Herod the Great's palace

in 1963 to 1965 somewhere, there was a jar of

seeds that was found there. And these seeds,

they had been preserved in a jar. They were dry

and they were stored at a university for a couple

decades. And then within these seeds, there was

a Judean date palm seed. And in 2005, some of

these seeds were successfully planted by that

university, and they successfully sprouted. And

then in June 2020, just a few years ago, researchers

for the first time harvested new fruit from those

seeds. These seeds from 2 ,000 years ago. So

the New Testament Church and its teachings, they're

no different from this Judean date palm. If we

plant the right seed, the right plant is going

to sprout. the right fruit will be produced.

It's going to sprout the exact same thing that

it would have sprouted 2 ,000 years ago had they

been planted then. And the New Testament and

the Apostle's Doctrine contained in it are that

seed. And the only way to restore the church

is to plant and water the Apostle's Doctrine.

Let's read in Acts chapter 2 verse 42. It says,

Acts 2:42

and they continued steadfastly in the Apostle's

Doctrine and Fellowship in the breaking of bread

and in prayers. Our goal is to continue in these

things today. When we do that, we're bringing

forth the same fruit that Christ had intended,

the exact same fruit that the Christians here

in Acts were bearing. The next principle that

they use is this rule book principle. So another

illustration. Imagine for a minute that the game

of baseball was done. It was completely wiped

away. Every stadium was torn down, every bat

and glove. rotted away for centuries, and for

2 ,000 years, nobody played baseball. Anybody

that had ever remembered watching baseball had

ever even seen an inning. They weren't alive

anymore. Nobody had ever seen the game of baseball

ever. So now imagine that 2 ,000 years pass,

and somebody is digging through somewhere, and

they find a pristine copy of the rule book of

professional baseball. Well, if they read it

carefully, if they examined it, and they followed

it exactly as it was, with the right amount of

players, measurements, everything, they wouldn't

be inventing a new game. They would simply be

playing baseball, the exact same game from 2

,000 years ago, because it was produced by the

exact same set of rules. Again, the same is true

with the church. We have the rule book. If we

continue in the words of Jesus, then we know

we're his disciples. In John chapter 8 verse

John 8:31

31, the Bible says, then Jesus said to those

Jews who believed him, if you abide in my word,

you are my disciples indeed. If we're using Christ's

word as the rule book, then we can be sure that

we are his disciples. And lastly, we have this

pattern principle. best described by Zane's Alfredo

example. Alfredo, he had a pattern for making

his Alfredo. The pattern was set in order by

him and for him it was how he wanted it to be.

If we want true original Alfredo today, the only

way to have it is to follow that original pattern.

The same is true with the church and of Christianity.

The only way to have the original is to follow

the original pattern. God has established a pattern

or order that he wants us to follow him. And

our job is to follow the pattern and not to come

up with any of our own ideas. In First Chronicles

1 Chronicles 15:13

chapter 15 verse 13, it says, for because you

did not do it the first time, the Lord our God

broke out against us because we did not consult

him about the proper order. It's pretty self

-explanatory. God was not pleased here with anything

other than what had been established by him as

the proper order. And we know that the same is

true today. God is not pleased with anything

except for what he has established as the proper

order. So these three principles, they were the

principles that were used by Stone, Campbell,

Scott, the other Campbell, as well as many others.

And they didn't want to create another denomination.

They wanted to unify Christians by simply getting

back to the Bible. And in order to do this, they

had their focus set on five core areas or five

foundational teachings. Those five things were

the rejection of human creeds, unity, baptism

by immersion for the forgiveness of sins, weekly

communion, and then autonomous congregations.

And we're gonna talk about each of those briefly.

The first one we'll talk about is this rejection

of human creeds. So I guess the best thing to

do there is... figure out what a human creed

really is. A definition that I found was that

a human creed, it's a statement of faith that's

formulated by people, often a church denomination

or council that summarizes the core beliefs of

that community. It's called human because it

is written by humans, not directly inspired by

God, and it is distinct from scripture. And one

of the big creeds that these restorers criticized

was the Westminster Confession of Faith. This

creed that they criticized was over 12 ,000 words,

33 chapters, and it was all of man -made ideas

and thoughts declaring what they believed. The

ideas were from scripture, but it was just what

they believed. 12 ,000 words about it. And these

restorers argued that this was completely unnecessary.

They taught that we have no creed but Christ,

no book but the Bible. Do Bible things in Bible

ways and call Bible things by Bible names. That

was what they taught. In 2nd Timothy chapter

3 verses 16 and 17, the Bible says, All scripture

is given by inspiration of God and is profitable

for doctrine, for proof, for correction, for

instruction in righteousness, that the man of

God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for

every good work. All scripture, it's given from

God himself. Anything that we need to know about

how we should do and how we should be comes from

it. It says in verse 17 that because of the scriptures

being of God we can be complete. Complete doesn't

mean that we need to add on anything that tells

our ideas. Complete means we have everything

we need right there from God. They also strove

for unity and they wanted to put an end to this

culture of denominationalism. As we talked about

already we can clearly see a pattern in the New

Testament that Christ Church was meant to be

one without divisions in John chapter 17 verses

John 17:20

20 and 23 22 the Bible says I do not pray for

these alone But also for those who will believe

in me through their word that they all may be

One as you father are in me and I in you That

they also may be one in us that the world may

believe that you sent me and the glory which

you gave me I have given them that they may be

one just as we are one. Christ intends for us

to be one just as he and the Father are one.

And that's pretty close, I think. We've struggled

to understand just how close the Father and the

Son are. That's the closeness that he wants us

to have. And that's the definition of being unified.

And that's what they were looking to restore

in this denominational culture looking for unity

at this time. Next they taught that the Bible

was clear in its teaching that forgiveness of

sins comes through baptism by immersion. We talked

about Scott's five -finger method and today we

teach a similar method to salvation that mirrors

this and much more importantly mirrors the scriptures.

We read about this plan of hearing, believing,

repenting, confessing and being baptized for

their mission of sins. And Zane talked about

this is how we're added to Christ Church. And

I want to very briefly look at some of these

verses so that you can take the Bible's word

for this plan of salvation, not mine or any of

these restores. So we're going to briefly look

at some of these. Romans chapter 10 verse 17,

Romans 10:17

the Bible says, so then faith comes by hearing

and hearing by the word of God. We see here that

you have to hear to have faith, hearing the words

of God, not the words of anyone else. We also

see that you have to believe in Acts chapter

Acts 16:30–31

16, verses 30 through 31. And he brought them

out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved?

So they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ

and you will be saved, you and your household.

And then we see repentance in Acts chapter 17,

Acts 17:30

verse 30. Repent therefore and be converted that

your sins may be blotted out so that times of

refreshing may come from the presence of the

Lord. We also see confession in Acts chapter

Acts 8:37

8 verse 37 then Philip said if you believe with

all your heart you may and he answered and said

I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God

and Lastly we see that following these things

led to being baptized for their mission of sins

as we see in Acts chapter 2 verses 37 and 38

Acts 2:37

Now when they heard this they were cut to the

heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles

men and brethren What shall we do? Then Peter

said to them, repent and let every one of you

be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for their

mission of sins and you shall receive the gift

of the Holy Spirit. Again, this is just a very,

very quick overview of what we believe the Bible

teaches on baptism and this plan of salvation

that these restorers also taught. We'll touch

on it again a little later. These restorers also

believed in the importance of weekly communion.

This was something that was not widely practiced

in the denominational world at this time just

as it isn't today. And some of the reason is

simply the same reason as it is today that man

decided that it just wasn't as special if we

did it every week. And these restorers saw a

biblical pattern in the New Testament that says

we need to be doing this every single week regardless

of what we think. Acts chapter 20 verse 7 it

Acts 20:7

says now on the first day of the week when the

disciples came together to break bread Paul ready

to depart the next day spoke to them and continued

his message until midnight so we see in the scriptures

that on the first day of the week the disciples

came together for the purpose of breaking bread

or for the purpose of communion and it doesn't

matter what man thinks it doesn't matter what

you or I think about if it loses its meaning

or not whether we do it every week What matters

is that this is part of the pattern that Christ

intended for us to have. And while these restorers

put a large amount of emphasis on communion,

when looking to the New Testament, we can see

a pattern for the way that Christ expects us

to conduct the entire assembly of the church.

And Zane referenced these verses so we won't

go into it too much, but we need to understand

the importance of conducting the assembly in

the way that Christ has established. And lastly,

in these foundational teachings that these men

had, they taught the pattern of autonomous congregations.

In the New Testament, we see no pattern showing

a board of men or a physical leader here on earth

that's telling us what to do. And every congregation

is to have one head only, and that head is Christ.

We're to answer to Him and to Him only. Here's

another slide that I stole from Zane. Thankfully,

I don't think he's here. He's not here to see

that I stole it. First Corinthians chapter 12

1 Corinthians 12:12

verse 12, for as the body is one and has many

members, but all the members of that one body

being many are one body, so also is Christ. And

also verse 27, now you are the body of Christ

and members individually. Christ has appointed

the body and the church the way that he wanted

it. Congregations in different locations with

Christ at the head, with men appointed to the

office of elders and deacons to serve within

their local congregation and that one only and

I think if you asked any of our elders here if

they wanted that job in one or two more congregations

they would tell you no that's impossible we can't

do it right if you ask us to do that and there's

a reason for that Christ made this the way that

he wanted it and the way that would work for

a reason it's not our job to improve it in any

way So these five things, these restorers mostly

agreed on these foundational teachings. And of

course, as you can expect, they did however have

their disagreements. One of the biggest things

that would lead to disagreement in this restoration

movement was what to do when scriptures are silent

on an issue. Some felt that when the scripture

was silent, they also needed to be silenced,

and others... felt that when the scripture was

silent, they had the freedom to implement whatever

they felt they wanted to do. And this difference

would lead to some divisions within this restoration

movement. So let's touch on a few that they faced

at the time, very, very briefly. First, instrumental

music in the assembly. This is one of the first

major splits that these restorers had. The church...

instruments had not come along for a very long

time in the church, but these restorers, they

grew up in a church that had instruments. This

was what they were used to at the time. This

is what they were used to for church, and they

couldn't find a biblical ban on it. So some of

them thought it was okay to continue in that.

Others thought that the scripture's silence on

it meant that they just needed to stick to acapella

singing only. There was also split over the use

of one container in communion. versus the use

of multiple containers. There was also churches

that split over differing views on divorce and

remarriage. Some believe that there was never

any cause for divorce or getting remarried, while

others taught that there was exceptions in the

instance of adultery. And lastly here that we

have, the use of Bible classes versus family

integrated assemblies. So the main thing that

I want to point out here in bringing these up,

is that within the restoration movement, within

this idea of using the New Testament as the ultimate

authority for everything that we do, with people

looking with honest hearts and with honest minds

that want to find the truth, they can still come

up with different interpretations some of the

time. And that's hard when that's the case, but

it is true. So what do we do in those situations?

Matthew chapter 21, verses 24 and 25, it says,

Matthew 21:24

I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell

me, I likewise will tell you by what authority

I do these things. The baptism of John, where

was it from? From heaven or from men? We always

need to be testing ourselves, asking ourselves

these questions. If the things that we do, we

can find authority for in the scriptures or if

there are things that we've just simply added

on. We need to see if we've elevated commandments

of men to be commandments of God. And I think

Sean will get into some of those disputes that

we've talked about next week. So I encourage

you to be back for that. Now, we've ran through

a lot of things. We've ran through a lot of things

very quickly. I encourage you to go and look

into these things a lot more. It's been very

encouraging for me to look at these things and

study it further. If you have any questions after

services, I'd be glad to talk with you. But as

we close, I want to ask you a question. Why do

we even care? about these things. You've kind

of already asked this once. Why bring up the

restorers? They're just men that lived a couple

hundred years ago. How do we know that these

men are actually part of the church that Christ

built and how do we know that we're part of the

church that Christ built and not just part of

some other man -made idea? Let's read 1st John

John 4:1–3

chapter 4 verses 1 through 3. Beloved, do not

believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether

they are of God. because many false prophets

have gone out into the world. By this you know

the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses

that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of

God. And every spirit that does not confess that

Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of

God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist

which you have heard was coming and is now already

in the world. I think any Christian in any denomination

would tell you that they confess that Jesus has

come in the flesh, 100%, wholeheartedly, they

believe that. They think that we just need to

love Jesus. At the end of the day, as long as

we love Jesus, none of this assembly stuff, none

of this restoring stuff, none of this baptism

stuff, none of it matters as long as we love

Jesus. We're all just on the same road, or on

different roads to the same place, something

like that. And because of this view, this very,

very popular view, this idea, that we're all

just on different roads to the same destination,

it's a very common belief. And is it the case?

What does it really mean to confess Jesus here?

Well, earlier in this book, we see the answer

in 1 John chapter two, verses three through six.

Now by this, we know that we know him, if we

keep his commandments. He who says, I know him

and does not keep his commandments, he is a liar

and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps

his word truly the love of God is perfected in

him by this we know that we are in him He who

says he abides in him ought himself also to walk

just as he walked To know Jesus to love Jesus

to be with Jesus. We have to keep his commandments

That is the only way it's the only road By this

we know that we are in him we need to walk just

as he walked We need to follow the pattern that

He has authored to us. We need to follow the

recipe that He gave us, exactly as He gave it

to us. And if we truly love Jesus, why would

we want to do anything else? Why would we want

to add on to it? Why would we want to change

it? We can't make it any better. So I want to

ask you, do you truly know Jesus? Do you really

know Jesus? If you know that you're not keeping

the commandments that He's given us, I can assure

you that you don't know him, and that he doesn't

know you. There's good news though, and we've

talked about the first steps in obeying his commandments.

We've talked about how to obtain forgiveness

of sins through baptism. And when you do that,

you obey the gospel, not the gospel of any man,

not my gospel, not Sean's gospel, the gospel

of Christ. Thank you for listening to today's

sermon from the Church of Christ Wheeler area.

We hope this message encouraged you and strengthened

you in your faith this week. Don't forget the

doors always open at 1500 South Allen L. Bean

Boulevard at 1030 a .m. on Sundays, 230 p .m.

on Sunday afternoons and recharge with us midweek

on Wednesdays at 7 p .m. For more information

or to hear past messages Follow us on your favorite

podcast platform. Look us up on Facebook and

Instagram. We hope you have a blessed week and

we'll see you next time.