Pastor Joel Laswell

I see the sun rise and set every day like clockwork and this doesn’t happen by accident. Season after season and year after year, we are all witnesses to this order in the heavens. Order does not miraculously appear out of chaos! There has to be a power that sets things in order and keeps them there. The Bible tells me that there is a power, a grand designer that created order and keeps order. If there are laws in nature there has to be a lawgiver!

In the very beginning of creation God ordained man to bring honor and glory to Him! God set man apart for a specific Divine purpose and that is still its purpose today. The ceremony of laying on of hands in ordination is a public recognition of a divine appointment.

From the beginning of the family unit in Eden, to the family circle today, we can see the blue print of God’s governing principles—His organization for the church.

In our previous studies we have come to understand that like the Sanctuary and its services teach us about the Gospel and mission of Christ, the creation and organization of the family circle is a model that teaches us about the government and character of God.

God has given us the ability to create children so as to learn more about His character and about our own character. In that learning process there are specific responsibilities that God has required of parents. How we live as Christian parents and raise our children is how we will associate with members in the church. This is a part of true Gospel Order that God requires for families and the church.

We have previously taken a good look at the roles of men/husbands/fathers, as well as women/wives/mothers and there is one more area concerning the family circle that needs to be addressed before we begin comparing family order with that of church order—family organization with church organization. We need to take a look at the role that children have in the family circle and what that means for church order.

When we establish righteous habits, we will do them without even thinking! So let us become educated to the righteous will of God concerning our roles as men and women, then we can lay out goals to change what is out of order in our life, and by God’s grace establish right habits that bring glory to our Creator!

While husbands and fathers have been given primary responsibility for the leadership of their families including their children, wives and mothers are to be "workers at home," meaning manager of the household. Their home and their children are to be their priority—in contrast to the feminist emphasis today on careers and jobs for women outside the home--a role reversal that goes against God's ideal plan. Now, don't misunderstand what I am saying here. There is nothing wrong with women working outside the home unless it conflicts with the biblical responsibilities they have in managing the home.

Each role in the family unit—Husband, Wife, and Children—teaches us something about God’s ideal in the organization of the church. We began looking at the roles and responsibilities of the family unit with the understanding that church duties first begin at home. One of the greatest problems in the family firm today, marriage specifically, is that the differences between the male and the female have only been taught from a pure physical point of view... mainly an evolutionary based view. The truth that God created man and woman with more than physical differences is not taught much at all in the world and very little in the church--not in any detail. Accepting such a cultural fallacy is one of the greatest failings of the church and thus a major cause in the dysfunction of the family unit.

Please notice that among all the levels of authority in the universe, God has set man in the place of leadership over his own home and family. The husband is to be the leader of the home. God never assigned the wife to be the head of the home. Woman was not made for the role, neither do the majority of women really desire it. Men must recognize their proper role in the home if there is to be true Gospel order.

Each role in the family unit--father, mother, children--teaches us something about God's ideal in the organization of the church. So I want to spend some time looking at the roles and responsibilities of the family unit with the understanding that church duties should first begin at home.

True church unity and organization, biblically speaking, starts at home. It started at Creation as God ordered everything according to His will, which is perfect order. God, not the author of confusion, demonstrated Gospel Order in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve.

God has given us a system of benevolence that is to keep our minds and hearts directed toward Him and the helping of others—thus protecting us from coveting that which is our neighbors. This system or reminder He calls tithes and offerings.

Spiritual order is the foundation of Gospel Order. As we learn more and more of Christ we will be taught more and more of the divine characteristics of true order… as individuals first, which will ripple into our family life and all through the church. This well ordered life will be seen by others and be a testament to Jesus working in you.

What is Gospel Order? It is proper order and system established for the conduct of all affairs pertaining to the spiritual welfare of the believers in God! Where do we find this system delineated? In God's Word! Who is at the heart of this order? Let's see what the Word of God says...

The call of the fall of spiritual Babylon and to come out of it is a call from the Savior of mankind. This is something that we must realize in its totality… that Jesus is calling His people to Himself so that He can have a pure and undefiled church, as He is pure and undefiled. As the Head of the true church it is He who is calling for His lost sheep to separate from fallen churches and follow His voice.

The Bible has given us incredible counsel on what we are to do when confronted with sin. We have studied Matthew 5 and 18 on how to deal with sin in the church—God’s checks and balances, but what if you follow the counsel of God’s word but your church rejects it? What do you do?

In part one we began to look at some biblical principles on how to correctly deal with sin within the church and more principles are shared here in part two. I want to emphasize that these principles deal with those who are in the church, not those who are not members, for the church has no authority over unbelievers. God has instructed us to use these principles to keep His church from falling or apostatizing.

God has laid out principles of organization and checks and balances in governing that organization to keep it from falling into apostasy (forming a different organization, which we have learned means joining the antichrist organization known as Babylon fallen). Just what are these checks and balances?

We must understand that when we join ourselves by covenant with an organization, we are held accountable for what that organization does. We cannot say to God that it was the leaders fault and blame others. Adam did that by saying it was Eve's fault, Eve said it was the serpent's fault. It is the spirit of antichrist that lays the fault of personal and corporate sins on others. Satan blamed God for the division in heaven that he had started!