Doctrine

Well, today I want to talk about a doctrine of the Church. We all know that the Church is based, of course, on the Bible. Every word that's in the Bible we based our beliefs on. We know that Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone of the Church. Without Him, nothing means anything. There is no future. There is no hope. He is the chief cornerstone of the building He is building in us and the building He's building in the body that we have here in Orlando and of all the people that follow Him throughout the world.

We also know from reading the Bible that part of the foundation of what we believe is the apostles, writings, and the prophets – the Old and the New Testament that we have. But in Hebrews 6, we find six doctrines of the Church that are listed. So if you turn with me back to Hebrews 6, here in this chapter, the author is in a way taking to task the people of that day. They have repented. They have baptized. They have started their life walk with Jesus Christ, but along the way, they have fallen back.

When God calls us, as we've talked about, He expects us to grow. He's not looking for us to just be the same today as we will be 10 years from now. He expects growth. That's what He calls us for. Apparently, the Hebrews – at least some of them in the Church here – we're not doing that. So the author here says this in verse 1. He says, Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection. That's what we've all been called to. God knows that we're imperfect beings. As long as we live in this flesh, we're going to be imperfect.

But we ought to be striving for perfection. That only happens as we're led by His Holy Spirit, and we allow that Holy Spirit to make us aware of our weaknesses, and then we make the choice to eliminate those from our lives with the strength that God gives us. He says, Let's go on to perfection. Not laying again. And then He lists six foundational points here. Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works. While we know this and faith that follows are the two first steps that we have in coming to God. Of course, it is Him who calls us. We have to repent before we can begin to walk with God.

He's looking for that deep repentance that we've all experienced before we were baptized, where we look at our lives honestly. We look at our lives through what He has opened our minds to see, and we're remorseful. We see that the way we've been walking is contrary to what God has wanted us to. We see the elements of our lives that are just flat out wrong.

And though we determine to follow Him, to turn from our way, the world's way of doing things, to God's way of doing things. Repentance from dead works, because the works that we did before weren't leading to life. After we're baptized and the Holy Spirit leads us, the works that we do, should be works of life. Before that, they're dead works. So one of the foundational principles is we must repent.

If we're going to follow God, if we're going to receive eternal life, we must repent. And then the second one he mentions here is akin to it, or before baptism as well, faith toward God. Later on in the same book, the author of Hebrews says, without faith it's impossible to please God. We have to believe that He is. We have to believe that He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

So we have to have faith. If we don't have faith in God, well, if we didn't, we wouldn't even be here. We have to believe in Him. We have to believe in His promises. We have to believe in the words of the Bible. And we have to believe that what He says He's going to do, He really is going to do. So we repent that we have faith toward God. And then He says of the doctrine of baptisms.

So after we repent, we have faith, we are baptized. And we know what that baptism, that ceremony is about. We are immersed underwater, our sins are washed away, we bury the old man. We bury the old life. We've told God by allowing Him to show us who we are, we don't want that way of life anymore. It's dead, it's gone, and when we come out by the waters of baptism, there's a new life that we expect Him to ride on us, led by His Holy Spirit.

So there's a baptism here, a doctrine of baptism, and there's also a baptism of fire. You can read about that. I don't want to get into that right now. But there's a doctrine, there's beliefs that we have that come from the Bible. And then the next one here is of laying on of hands.

And that's the one I want to talk about today, but I'll come back to it in a little bit. Here in the sixth doctrine, so the six fundamental beliefs here listed in Hebrews 6, laying on of hands is one of them.

And perhaps what I should have done is before we started that, before you turned in your Bibles, had you list what are the six that are listed in Hebrews and see if that may be one that you didn't remember was there. Because when we look at it, we all know what laying on of hands is, but for some reason God inspired that that was in one of these six basic principles here, that we don't want to go back and lay that doctrine again.

God expects us to build on what we have learned. And the next one He mentions here is of the resurrection of the dead. And we know that that's a doctrine. We know that those who die with God's Spirit in them will be resurrected in the first resurrection. And the rest of mankind who hasn't had the opportunity to know God's way of life will be part of the second resurrection where they're resurrected to a physical life, and then they have the opportunity to choose what you and I have the opportunity to choose today, to follow Him or to reject Him.

And of course, we do that not by our words only, but by our actions and what is in our heart and what is in our minds as we go through our life each day. And then finally, He says of eternal judgment because there will be eternal judgment on everyone. What God wants is that everyone will receive eternal life. That's what He has called us to. If we follow these principles here, if we yield to Him and give our heart, mind and soul to Him, but some will choose the opposite way and they will not yield.

They will not submit. They will not allow God or His power to give them the overcoming that they need, and their eternal judgment will be eternal death, the second death. So we have these six fundamental principles here, and one of them is the laying on of hands. Now, what I want to do is go through the principle of laying on of hands and the examples that we see in the Bible, both in the Old Testament and New Testament, because it's throughout the Bible. It's not just a New Testament subject, and it's not just for the one or two things that you may think of.

But as we go through these examples, I want you to be thinking, why would God say that laying on of hands is one of the six foundational principles that we should know and that we should be paying attention? There's something He wants us to learn from that laying on of hands. So as we go through this, be thinking about it. I'll be making some points along the way as we do that, but let's go back and look at one here back in Genesis 48. Genesis 48, we find an incident of the patriarch Jacob laying hands on his grandsons, as he's about to die.

And what transpired here in this event still has an effect on us today, because we know the blessings that were given upon Ephraim and Manasseh. We benefit from today. We participate in it. We live here in a land that has been richly blessed because of the obedience of our forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

But here in chapter 48, we find Joseph, or Jacob, reunited with Joseph. And Joseph has two sons. And here in verse 12, we find Joseph bringing those sons to his father for this ceremony or this blessing that is going to occur. Joseph brought Ephraim and Manasseh from beside his knees, and he bowed down with his face to the earth.

And Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and he brought them near him. And then Israel, Jacob, stretched out his right hand and later on Ephraim said, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh's head, guiding his hands knowingly for Manasseh was the firstborn.

And he blessed Joseph, and he said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, blessed the last. Let my name be named upon them so they would be known as Israel going forward, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.

And indeed, that blessing has come about exactly as Jacob asked God. Now, when Joseph saw, verse 17, that his father had laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him. So he took hold of his father's hand to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. And Joseph said to his father, not so father, this one is the firstborn.

Put your right hand on his head. But his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also will be great. But truly, his younger brother will be greater than he and his descendants than he and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations. So he blessed them that day. And part of that blessing was laying on of hands on those two boys.

And we can see from what is said here, those hands were instrumental. Knowingly Jacob put his hands, his hand on Ephraim's head and the other hand on Manasseh's head. Knowingly God guided his hands because he knew what that blessing was. He knew what was going to transpire in later days. Did Jacob have to lay his hands? Was there something magical in Jacob laying his hands on that? Could God have simply had Jacob give the blessing and pray the prayer that he did anyway without the laying of hands? Yes, he could. But through that laying on of hands of Jacob the Patriarch, the blessing was transferred from Jacob to those two grandsons. God is the one who instituted that. There was something God wanted and something God meant when those laying of hands was an instrumental part of passing that blessing on to those two young boys. Let's look at another one of the Old Testament. They are here in Numbers. In Numbers 8. As God brought Israel out of Egypt, they were in the wilderness. Much of what he did was set up some structure for them. He gave them the laws. He gave them the framework for which they were going to be living their lives. He reminded them of the Ten Commandments, the way of life they would be living. Then he set about to set some structure. He began to tell them about the tabernacle that needed to be built, in which God would deal with them. He even delineated later on exactly where they should live. In that tabernacle, he laid out a pretty clear structure of how he wanted things done. Here in Numbers 8, we find that God is working with the people as well. If you remember in your readings, God said that all the firstborn of animals and the firstborn of men would be consecrated to God, that they would be used for his service. But God also designated the tribe of Levi to work in the tabernacle. They would be the servants of God. If you remember, they didn't have any inheritance like the other 11 tribes did. Their job was to serve God, serve the people, and they were going to be the ones designated to work in the temple. Here in chapter 8 of Numbers, we find a laying on of hands incident involving the Levites and all the people of Israel who God said, the firstborn that opened your wound, he is mine. Let's pick it up in Numbers 8 and verse 5. Verse 5, the eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Take the Levites from among the children of Israel and cleanse them ceremonially. Thus you shall do to them to cleanse them. Sprinkle water of purification, let them shave their body, let them wash their clothes, and so make themselves clean. Come before God, clean. Let's drop down to verse 10. And then he, because in the soon verses here, he mentions some sacrifices that will be offered as well. First he says, Though you shall bring the Levites before the eternal, and the children of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites. And Aaron, the high priest, shall offer the Levites before the eternal, like a wave offering from the children of Israel, that they may perform the work of the eternal. So we have these Levites, the tribe who's going to serve God. The people of Israel are to lay their hands on them.

Verse 12, Then the Levites shall lay their hands on the heads of the young bulls, and offer them as thin offerings here, as it says. So what you have here is the people of Israel laying their hands and setting aside the people of Levi to do this service in the temple.

Now God could have simply pronounced, as He did, the tribe of Levi, this is what you're going to do. You've been selected, I'm setting you apart, you do this. And they simply would have done it. But the people of Israel are told, lay your hands on them. Let's go down to verse 13. You shall stand the Levites before Aaron and his sons, and offer them like a wave offering to the eternal. Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the children of Israel, and the Levites shall be mine. After that, the Levites shall go into service, the tabernacle of meeting. So you shall cleanse them and offer them like a wave offering, for they are wholly given to me from among the children of Israel. I have taken them for myself instead of all who opened the womb, the firstborn of all the children of Israel. So God said, all your firstborn are mine, but Levi is going to pay that price for you. Levi, the tribe of Levi, is going to serve in your stead. Children of Israel, set them aside, lay your hands on them, consecrate them to be the workers in the temple, taking the place of those firstborn. Lay your hands on them, set them apart for this work that God has given them to do. And the children of Israel followed that. Let's go a few chapters forward, Numbers 27. We find Moses. He has a lot of work to do with the 2 or 3 million people that were there in Israel that came out of Egypt. He was their leader. God ordained him to be their leader. He needed some help, as we can well imagine. Let's look at verse 15 of Numbers 27. Moses spoke to the eternal saying, Let the God of the spirits of all flesh set a man over the congregation, who may go out before them and go in before them, who may lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the eternal may not be like sheep which have no shepherd. Well, that sounds very New Testament-like, doesn't it? Let God set a shepherd over this congregation so that the people are kept together, so they're left to be led, so they have an opportunity to do what God has, and He would be the leader of them. 1st 18, God answers. He says to Moses, Take Joshua, the son of none, with you, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand on him. Set him before he liaises with the priests and before all the congregation, and inaugurate him in their sight, and give some of your authority to him. 1st 18, God answers. He says, Take Joshua, the son of none, with you, a man in whom he may be the spirit, and lay your hand on him. Set him apart.

Moses, I've selected Joshua. You go and lay your hand on him. You set him apart. You put him in that position and give him some of that authority to work with my people, that they might be obedient.

And Moses did, as God said. God could have simply said, Joshua is the one I select. Just announce him. Announce to the people he's the one who's going to be doing this. But God said, No. Lay your hand on him. Through that laying on of hands, give him the authority that God was giving him. Wasn't Moses giving the authority? It was God who was giving the authority. Let's go to Deuteronomy 34 and see Moses' account of the same incidents here. Of course, in Deuteronomy, we have Moses, who is about to die, and he's recounting to Israel what they should do going forward, exhorting them to continue to walk with God, but also recounting to them and reminding them of the mistakes they made along the way so that they wouldn't repeat them. And in 1st 9 of chapter 34, it says this. It says, Joshua the son of man was full of the spirit of wisdom. Was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. Now, was that really? Was it just that physical act that made Joshua full of wisdom? No, it was God who gave him the wisdom, but through Moses laying his hands on him, God gave Joshua what he needed. That spirit of wisdom to lead the people, to do what he needed to do, to know what they needed so that he could provide that for them. So the children of Israel said, he did him, and they did as the eternal had commanded Moses.

Physical act of laying on of hands. And sometimes, on many occasions, God works through physical acts, and he teaches us great lessons. Each year we go through Passover, and you know the lessons that we learn from washing each other's feet, eating of the unleavened bread, eating of the wine, or drinking of the wine.

Many times, God teaches us pretty large lessons through the physical things we do. Now, we could go on and we could talk about the kings of Israel, and as they were anointed king, loyal was poured over them, and they had hands laid on them as well, as power was granted to them from God.

Let's go into the New Testament and look at some of the laying on of hands there. There's five or six, five, I guess, examples we'll look at of laying on of hands in the New Testament. The first one we'll turn to is in Matthew 19.

Little children were brought to Christ, that he might put his hands on them and pray. But the disciples rebuked them, and Jesus said, Let the little children come to me, don't forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on them and departed from there. From that example in Matthew and Luke and the other place, there's one other place, I believe it's in Matthew 2, where Christ did this, we have the tradition of the blessing of little children that we do every year, and the newborn children in the congregation, or those with small children who have begun attending, bring their children up, and elders lay their hands on them. And we pray the prayer of blessing, just like Jesus Christ did, for those children. We ask God to lead them in their lives. We ask God to give their parents the wisdom to teach them that they may grow up in the knowledge of God, that they may be Christian when they grow up and readily receive the calling that God gives children of Christians as well.

We ask that God would protect them from physical disease, physical injury, that He would bring them to adulthood.

Part of that ceremony is laying our hands on those little babies and on those young people.

Is it necessary? Is it the laying on of hands that provides that protection? Could God have just said, pray a prayer over those young children? Could Jesus Christ have said, just bring the kids here, I'm going to pray a prayer over them? No. He laid His hands on them. We lay our hands on the children.

It's not the power of the hands, our hands, but there's something that God is showing when He has us lay hands. And when He said in Hebrews 6 that one of the six foundational principles are laying on of hands.

At weddings, we have the tradition that when at the end of the ceremony we have the bride and groom kneel down. And the elder who's marrying them lays his hands on each of their heads and asks the blessing of God on that marriage. That He would help them to follow them, that they would grow together as one, that they would understand and more fully appreciate how marriage is a picture of Christ and His relationship to the church.

And that they would experience all the joys of marriage that God had built into that institution. And we lay hands on people at that point.

Let's go over to Acts. Acts 8. That would be one area that we would look at where Christ Himself set the example of laying hands on the young children. In Acts 8, we find the New Testament church after the day of Pentecost when they received the Holy Spirit and they went out and boldly preached the gospel. And as you recall, 3,000 were added in one day and then 5,000 later. And pretty soon you had a pretty sizable church. And people were hearing the Word. People, God was calling. They were responding. People were being baptized, symbolizing the remission of sins. And it was a big step in their life because baptism is one of those foundational doctrines that follow repentance and faith. And here in verse 12, we find the apostles out. Or not the apostle here. In this case, we find a deacon out among the people. Let's pick it up in verse 12 of Acts 8. When they, the people, believed Philip, he was a deacon, as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. And then Simon the sorcerer was there as well. He also was baptized when he believed. He continued with Philip and he was amazed seeing the miracles and signs which were done. I'm not going to go through the rest of the example of Simon. You see him pass there. He wanted that power for himself and he allowed a wrong attitude to enter into him. In verse 14, though, when the apostles... Now, the point here is people were being baptized. Baptized into the name of the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit. Now, when the apostles who were in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. Now notice, Philip was there. He was baptizing. But when they received word back in Jerusalem that people were being baptized and the Word of God was there and people were being baptized, they sent Peter and John. They sent apostles to that area who, verse 15, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet, it had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Baptism is one step. But on the day of baptism, those of you who have been baptized are in the process of baptism. The next step after baptism is to have hands laid on you that you received the Holy Spirit. Verse 17. They had only been baptized. Verse 17. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Could they have just prayed to God and asked for the Holy Spirit to be given? Would God have given it? He could have said it up that way, but He said, here's the process. Baptized, lay hands. And when the hands are laid on them by the appropriate people, Peter and John in this case, people that God designated, they'll receive the Holy Spirit. Now you might ask, does God ever give the Holy Spirit to anyone without baptism and the laying on of hands first?

And we know right here in the book of Acts, when Paul was talking to Cornelius, he did give Cornelius the Spirit, and at that time Paul, not Paul, Peter, baptized him. But the process that God has set out is you repent, you have faith in God, you repent, you are baptized, and then someone that God designates lays hands on you and prays for you to receive the Holy Spirit. That's the process that God has set out. There's nothing magical in the hands, but it is a process that God has set about for us to follow. Let's go down to Acts 19. In Acts 19 we have Paul, and he's in Ephesus, and he comes across some people who had been baptized. Acts 19, verse 1, it happened while Paulus was at Corinth that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples, he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said to him, we haven't so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. And Paul said to them, into what then were you baptized? And they said into John's baptism. Paul answered, John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Christ who would come after him, or him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them. And then they exhibited some signs of the gifts that God had given them, spiritual gifts at that time.

They were baptized when they were baptized not into the name of Jesus Christ, the Father and the Holy Spirit. And then hands were laid on them and they received the Holy Spirit. The same process through which the Church of God, His Church, goes through today.

Laying on of hands for the Holy Spirit to come into or be given by God to that person.

Okay, let's go to another occasion or another example or reason for the laying on of hands. We find it back in Acts 6.

Again, remember that the Church was growing by leaps and bounds that day. The apostles were handling all the affairs of the Church. You can imagine with that many thousands of people, there were a lot of questions as people were learning about God. As they were reading scriptures, as they were excited about what was being opened up to them, they wanted to talk to the apostles. They wanted to work with them, but then they had these needs of people, too. Remember, a bunch of the Church lived together. They wanted to be together. They wanted to be of people like mine. So they told what they had. They lived together. There were needs that those people had, and the apostles were attending those needs because the physical needs of people have to be attended to, just like the spiritual needs. We are all one body. We all have needs, and our job is to take care of each other and those needs. The job was becoming so great that the apostles just weren't having time to do the things that they should be doing. The spiritual matters. So here in chapter 6 and verse 3, we find them finding some help, or knowing that they need to have some help, some people that would serve in this area. Verse 3, chapter 6, Therefore, brethren, speak out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. And then he says, which is, I guess, a good job description of what ministers should do, and we should give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. We'll serve, we will pray for people, we'll work with them, we'll help their spiritual understanding, we will give ourselves continually to this. And the saying pleased the whole multitude, and they tell Stephen and these other six people that are named there, verse 6, whom they set before the apostles. And when they had laid hands on them, or when they had prayed, they laid hands on them.

And so we have the process of ordination, where, when God selects someone, hands are laid on, and a prayer is offered over them that God would give them the humility, the attitude of service, the love, the ability to do the job that they were being called to do. We all know ordinations are not any ordinations to glory, they are ordinations to service.

The Gentiles, Christ made a point very clear, the Gentiles look at positions as something of authority, but the way of God is the positions are a position of service, that we serve other people, and we serve well using God's Holy Spirit. And the ordination, the hands being laid on, is that God will give that person the ability to serve in the way that they need to serve in that congregation. And these seven deacons did that. They had their hands laid on them, God gave them the Spirit, and they went out and they served.

A few chapters forward in Acts 13, we find the apostles following the same principle, and they are ready to send some people out to serve the Gentiles who were being called. And as you recall from what we talked about in Pentecost, as the Gentiles were being called, it was a surprise. But it was obvious and evident that God was working with the Gentiles, and people needed to go out to serve them. Chapter 13 of Acts, verse 1. In the church that was at Antioch, there were certain prophets and teachers. Barnabas, Sthymian who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manan who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul, who later became known as Paul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit made known to the apostles, separate to me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them.

Separate these two out. Send them out to the Gentiles. Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away.

Ordain them to go out. Ask God. Give them what they need to be good ministers to those Gentiles, good servants to those Gentiles. Give them the words they need to help their understanding.

And so God did that, and the apostles followed the principle, laying on of hands. Could God have given them what they needed without the laying on of hands? Absolutely He could. But part of the ceremony was the laying on of hands.

Now, you can write down 1 Timothy 4, verse 14. I won't turn there. Paul is talking to Timothy. And he says to Timothy, don't neglect the gifts that were given to you by the laying on of hands of the eldership.

Timothy had hands laid on him. Paul says there are gifts that were transferred that God gave you as a result of that ordination. Don't neglect them. Use them. God set you apart for that purpose. Do it. Now, let's look at one more here in the New Testament, the one you may be waiting for me to get to. Let's turn back to Luke 4.

But we see in the New Testament, we see hands being laid on at birth, we see hands being laid on at marriages, we see hands being laid on at baptism, that people receive the Holy Spirit. And then for some, as they grow, hands laid on, that they are consecrated and are given what God knows they need in order to do the position of service that he calls them to. In Luke 4, we find Jesus Christ. And we find him as he is among the people. And one of the things that we know Jesus Christ did besides preaching the gospel is he peeled people wherever he went. Let's look at Luke 4 and verse 40.

When the Son was setting, verse 40, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to him. And he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. He laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. Now, could Christ have just had them come up one by one and ask God to heal them? Absolutely. Could he have just done a group prayer over all the people that were assembled there that day and said, God, heal all their diseases. Would God have done that? Yes, he would have. Christ set the example. He laid his hands on every one of them and they were all healed. And when we read that verse and as you read through the other healings of Jesus Christ, the miracles that he performed during that time, the miracles of healing, it's safe to say that every single one of those people had hands laid on them. That was just his method of doing that. He laid hands on them all. Even the lady who had the health problem for 12 years where she spent her fortune looking for doctors to help solve her problem, it was when she touched Christ and he felt the power go out of him, and it was that touch and that faith that made her well. So it's safe to say when we see these things that Christ laid hands on all that were sick. And so we follow that same principle today. Certainly Paul followed it. Let's go back to Acts 28. Acts 28. Paul finds himself here in a different area, and one of the leading people of that region has fallen sick. Acts 28 and verse 8. It happened that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and dysentery. Paul went into him and prayed, and he laid his hands on him and healed him. And that others brought their sick to him, and he healed them. Well, he laid his hands on them. Now, was it Paul who was healing the people? No. It was God who was healing. Was there something magical in Paul's hands that brought about that healing? No.

But God said, and Christ set the example, lay your hands on them and pray, and they will be made well. Over in James 5, we have the admonition that I'm sure we're all very familiar with. James 5, 13.

And so today, when you call for healing, we pour oil over Aaron when they anointed him as thy priest, and we lay hands on you. Following the example of Jesus Christ, following the example of Paul, all the apostles did it, follow Jesus Christ's admonition. Is there healing power in the hands of an elder? No. Must it be done? If you're going to follow God's principles, it must be done, because he's the one who ordained it, not man. Laying on of hands. What do we think about the laying on of hands? When we think of it, we think of it as, well, it's just kind of one of those necessary little rituals we go through, but it really has no meaning. We do it just because God said, and, you know, let's just do it. Lay your hands on me and be done with it. Now, I should mention that in Acts 19, verse 11, it also talks about anointed cloths. And just so you know, when you ask for an anointed cloth, if I can't come an anointed personally, and I do prefer to anoint personally rather than giving anointed cloths, cloths should be when you're far away or I'm far away and it's not a critical need, but something that could be put in the mail, you've made the call. But when I pray over an anointed cloth, I put my hands on it, just like I do if you're there in front of me, and I pray the same prayer over that cloth, that I pray over you. So when you receive that cloth, just as when Paul sent the anointed handkerchiefs or aprons or whatever it says in Acts 19-11, that has transferred to them, hands have been laid on it. But what do we think about laying on of hands? Does it ever cross our minds? Why is it that God had so many occasions in our life be marked with the laying on of hands? From the time if we're born in the church, from the time that we're born, until the rest of our life, laying on of hands, is just something that happens. When we're married, hands are laid on us. When we're baptized, hands are laid on us. When we're ordained, hands are laid on us. When we get sick, hands are laid on us. God is there in laying on of hands throughout our Christian life. In Hebrews 6, he says there's one of the foundational principles. What does he want us to learn? And is the laying on of hands? So we just kind of discount it and say, you know what, I don't need that. If I just pray to God, all I have to do is ask him, and he'll heal. Or we just disregard it all together and say, you know what, I can just take this pill, that pill, or whatever pill I need, and that's all I really need to do, to be healed if we're talking about healing.

I think God knew what he was doing when he said and gave his church the commission of what to do when we're sick, what to do when we're married, what to do when we're baptized, and there's something that he was trying to show. Before we go there, let me go back to Proverbs 19.

We read this Scripture last week in conjunction with what we were speaking of. I want to repeat it here. It's a principle that we should bear in mind in everything that God says. Proverbs 19, verse 16 says, He who keeps the commandments keeps his soul, but he who is careless of his ways will die.

We don't want to be careless with the things that God has given us. We don't want to be careless with the truth he's given us. We don't want to be careless with the laying on of hands. We don't want to take it for granted. We don't want to roll our eyes on it. We don't want to think, not necessarily, a waste of my time. We don't want to think, I don't want to bother the elder because he's too busy for that, because that's simply not true.

No elder would be too busy to do one of the things that God had asked him to do.

He's the one who set the structure in place, not us. And he expects you and me to follow it.

I won't turn to 1 Corinthians 11, but it passed over every year. That has many physical symbols that we do. And on love and bread has the symbols of us putting leaven out of our houses. But there's a deeper spiritual meaning to that.

But in 1 Corinthians 11 it says, don't take. Don't take the Passover lightly.

Don't take it in an unworthy manner. Be aware of what you're doing. Don't just think, I'm going to go there, I've got to go through this process of washing someone's feet, taking the unleavened bread, drinking a sip of wine.

Be cognizant of what you're doing. Don't take these things that God says carelessly.

Don't let them become or have no meaning in your life.

What are some of the things that we can do? Or what are the things we can learn? Or does God want us to learn from laying on of hands? And why did He put that in there with those six doctrines in Hebrews 6?

I've got four points here, but I'm not going to stay there exhaustive. And I'm going to invite you to meditate and to think about this through the week. And think about what God is trying to do. But let's look at a few of these, a few of them here that I've jotted down. Number one, laying on of hands. We talked about how it happens at birth, it happens at marriage, it happens at baptism, it happens if we're ordained, it happens when we're sick.

It's the laying on of hands that represents God touching us.

God is with us in every critical aspect of our lives. He wants us to be aware that He is there, to be cognizant to ask the blessing.

Over the children, cognizant to ask the blessing over the marriage, cognizant to come to Him and go through the process that He ordained when we're sick. If we want to be healed, go through the process. And absolutely, for baptism and to receive the Holy Spirit, He's the one who set the process. He's the one who said, be immersed in water and have lands laid on you and you will receive the Holy Spirit.

The only way to salvation. The only way that we turn a light, there is no choice. We can't say, meaningless, God can forgive me without being baptized. Yes, He can. Will He?

Be thinking about that one as we go through the points. Let's go to Ephesians 4 and look at a point here.

Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4 talks about the church, talks about the body of Christ.

We know that God works with us individually. Paul tells us in Philippians, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. But we know that God works with a body. He's building a spiritual temple in you and me individually, but He's building a spiritual temple in His body as well. He can't have one without the other. Here in Ephesians 4, He lays out the structure for His body. The structure that He's given, not that any man has devised. Let's pick it up here in verse 11. In the preceding verses here, He talks about how it's one baptism into one spirit. Verse 11, it says, He gave Himself some to the apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. Why? For the equipping of the things for the work of ministry, that they would be equipped to serve, that they would go out and serve, that they would grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. It's the structure He set up. No man devised it. He's the one who said, This is the way my body will work. And He says, for the edifying or the building up of the body of Christ. That's what His will is. We grow individually, but His body grows as well. The body through which He is growing. Till we all come to the unity of the faith. We learn unity. We learn how to get along with one another in a group setting. Pretty hard to do that if we're just off by ourselves. Till we all come to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God. To a perfect man. To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That's what He's working. That's what His structure is. That's what He set up and He said, This is how my body, my church, is going to be administered. And people that I call into it will be baptized. They will receive the Holy Spirit in this manner that you follow. And this is the structure that will be in the body in which they will grow to perfection. Just like it says in Hebrews 6, go on to perfection. You can search the Bible in the New Testament. You're not going to find the incidence of people separating themselves from a body. People doing it on their own. God intended that people were part of a body. It's the way He set it up. Not my idea, not some man's idea. God is the one who set it up. Jesus Christ began His church, and He's the one who sets it up. So, when God says, the laying on of hands, and He says, In this structure, these are the physicians that are going to lay on hands. Is He showing what His structure is? Is He showing that if you're going to be baptized, you're going to have to do it through someone in the body? Could God just call people and give them the Holy Spirit on His own? Yes, He could. But He set up a mechanism whereby you're baptized, and hands are laid on by someone in the body that He called. Be part of the body. Be part of the structure. Go through the structure that I have set up, because we're baptized into that body of Christ.

And through the laying of hands, as you go through the examples you see, it takes that part of the structure for the people to be part of that. Even as the Gentiles, Peter and John, were sent out. As part of the structure, go. Lay hands on them. And they'll receive the Holy Spirit. Paul was anointing. God said, Call the elders of the church when you're sick. Let them lay hands on you. And the prayer of faith will heal you. So He's showing a structure, and that we go through a structure. And some people don't want to hear that they have to be a part of a church. They just kind of want to do it on their own. Sorry. That isn't the way that God set it up. It's not my idea. It's not someone else's idea. It's simply the way He did it. And if we want to be part of His kingdom, we work through His body. He works with us individually. Well, we work through the structure that He set up. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 12. So one thing we can say is that the laying on of hands shows the government of God, or the structure of God. And that He works through people. It's Him that does it. It's Him that does the healing. It's Him that gives the Holy Spirit. It gives the abilities to do what people need to do. It's Him that blesses. It's Him that sets apart people. But He does show that you work through the structure that He has set up. 1 Corinthians 12. I mentioned body, and that's actually the third point that I have. God works through a body. Let's look at verse 12. Verse 12 of chapter 12.

He looks around, and He knows where the body is, where the people should be. Let's go down to... He gives some examples here of what our body parts would be if they were independent and thought that they could just kind of run off and do their own thing.

But here in verse 20, He says, Now, indeed, there are many members, yet one body. And then He goes through some more examples. Verse 27. You are the body of Christ and members individually. And then He goes through and He says again what the structure of His body is. Our bodies have brains, heads, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, legs, arms. His body, all functioning together, is made up of the people that He put in that all have their own gifts that God gives them so that the whole body functions together.

When Jesus Christ set up the blessing of children, the blessing of marriages, laying on of hands after baptism, laying on of hands when someone is sick, He said it needs to come through the body. And like I said, that can be a hard concept for some to grasp. Not everyone, but some have an issue with it.

They just kind of want to be their own body. But another thing that laying on of hands teaches us is an attitude of submission and humility. We have to do it God's way. We can't just say and tell God, I don't want hands to be laid on me when I'm sick. Just heal me. You know there's a concept where God says, ask and you will receive.

Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened. And there's something very humbling when you have to ask for something. I remember as my kids were growing up, I had the older two primarily. We learned our lesson by the time the third and fourth came along, but we anticipated every need they had. When they needed something, we were right there and we made sure they had it. When they went off to college and they needed money, before they even know they needed it, there was money so that they didn't have to think about it and they had everything that they needed.

Apartment rent would be paid without them having to think about it. And it dawned on me one day that this just wasn't right. When they got themselves into trouble rather than us anticipating their need and just fixing it, they really should ask. They really should come and say, I got myself into trouble. I blew something here and I need more money in order to have this happen. And so we started withholding that and waiting for them to ask.

And you know, it was tough. It was tough on them. It was tough on us to not just do it, but it was tough on them to come and humble themselves and say, I need this. Can you give me this? Can you give me an extra amount of money? And I began to understand when God says, ask, and you will receive. He knows what our needs are.

He knows when we're sick. He can heal us immediately before we ever got sick. But He says, ask. If you want to be healed, ask. If you want the Holy Spirit, go through this process. And that's the only way. And if you want to be healed, ask for it to be done. And go through the process. And don't think, I'm above it, beyond it, I don't want to humble myself to do it. There is a humility that comes, and we know that without humility, we won't be in the Kingdom to ask.

Now, Christ says that in many places, you know, to ask... Let's turn over to James 4 for a moment. Just look at a concept there. Because when we ask, we need to ask God in the right frame of mind. Over here in James 4, he's talking about wars and fights among people. And he says here in verse 2, you know, you want all these things, you fight in war. And he says, you don't have because you don't ask. We haven't asked, is what he says. You ask and you don't receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures.

You ask and don't receive it because your attitude is wrong when you're asking it, he says. You know, one thing about God, you can't fool Him. He knows what's in our hearts. He knows what's in our minds. I can fool you, you can feel, fool me. Can't fool God, He knows exactly what we're thinking. He knows exactly when we ask or whether we're just thinking, I'm just going through this trite custom the church has. But you know, really, really, if that medicine out there that's going to be the thing that really heals me, you ask. He says, but you ask amiss. Let's go back and look at a Psalm. Psalm 66.

Psalm 66 verse 16. Come in here, it's written, all you who fear God, and I will declare what He has done for my soul. I cried to Him with my mouth, and He was extolled with my tongue. And then he says in verse 18, if I regard iniquity in my heart, if I give place to iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. If I got some ulterior motives, if I'm just going through the motions here, if I'm just asking because I've been told to ask and say, I'm just going to check that one off. God knows what's in the heart. He says, let the prayer of faith be prayed.

He knows when we ask whether we're asking a myth or whether we're asking because we're coming to Him because we really have faith. We really believe in Him. We really seek Him. And we really put stock into the process that He has set apart.

I didn't mean to get off on that that much, but He said, you know, when we ask, there's a humbling part to asking.

When we go through the laying on of hands, it's the physical process.

But God teaches us some major things through life as we have that happen to us. So important was the concept that He put it there in Hebrews 6 as one of the six elementary principles that He says, don't learn again.

Understand the process of it and understand the significance of it.

And have a feeling there's even more significance to it than what I have said today.

And as you go home and you study about it, doubtless, God's Spirit will allow you to see the wisdom in what He has set in His church, in His body, the purpose of which is to have us all come to the unity of faith, to be in His kingdom, to be led by Him. So know the doctrines of the church, but don't ever take for granted the laying on of hands.