The Beauty Of The Local Church
“Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.” Ephesians 3:21
It has been said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ, the local New Testament Church is beautiful, it’s worth determined by it’s purchased price, the perfect shed blood of Christ! See Ephesians 5:25-27
Modern man has set the local church aside as being too insufficient and has put his trust in his multi-funded, big business religious organizations. How long would those big organizations last, if there was to be hard times?
The Lord’s work has come down through the ages in the form of the local church, with one church making possible the perpetuation of another. It has proven itself to be sufficient, with not even the gates of hell able to prevail against it, because the Lord has been (and is) with it always. (Matthew 16:18 and Matthew 28:19-20)
God has always used a plan that has been considered foolishness by the wisdom of man- 1 Corinthians 1:26-31. This is so “That no flesh should glory in his presence.” and “That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”
Those who would turn from the glory of the plan of God, unto the ways and means of men, are not visionaries, but rather those who do not see what God sets before man. Eternity will manifest the difference, as God judges all things according to His Word.
The spirits of our day are projecting that man needs to be catered to, in order to get him to take up with God. The idea being, since men have no interest in the local church, then we should give them a religious program outside of the church, suited to their tastes. So, rather than preaching that sinners need to repent and be born again in order to see and enter the kingdom of God, the idea is to give them a god and a religious kingdom they can see and partake of with the eye and desires of the flesh.
The proud sinner is saying, “God if you please me, I’ll recognize you.” But God’s position with sinners is: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Isaiah 55:7 The sinner’s alienation from God’s way, is due to his spiritually dead and blind condition. To be saved from this sin condition, one must repent, i.e., have a complete change of mind about himself, see himself unworthy before God, and in contrition and godly sorrow, seek unto God with all his heart, receiving Christ as both Saviour and Lord. Then one can see the beauty of the local church that Jesus purchased with His own blood!
SHARING
Baptism, The Beginning Of A Persevering Life
Colossians 3:1-17
Christians, in accepting the ordinance of scriptural baptism, are entering into covenant with God and the local church, “…to rise to walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Thus, we are saying we are going to continue to walk with the Lord, in spite of difficulty, opposition, human failure (both our own and that of others), and that we will be steadfast in purpose and persistence, in proving God’s will to be good, acceptable, and perfect for our life.
1 Peter 3:20-21 teaches us that to walk with the Lord, we must have a good conscience in carrying out God’s will for our lives. This necessarily involves loving and serving Him with all our heart and soul.
Baptism pictures that we understand and will do our best in the way we live, to respect the sufferings and death of Christ for us: “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.” 1 Peter 4:1-2.
Just as we know it took the authority and power of God, over all things, to bring Christ forth triumphant from the grave, we know it will take our honoring the will, the authority, and the power of God, to produce the victorious Christian life.
Thus, baptism is the pictorial ordinance of a resurrected life. The ultimate reason for resurrection is to live unto the One by whom we are raised up. It is to have our lives live out the Divine plan and purpose, “not my will, thine be done.” Proper maintenance is essential to anything being in good working order. A farmer could go bankrupt with a barn full of equipment in tip top shape, unless he uses them for the purpose for which they are designed. Good, clean living falls short of everything, unless it is coupled with the work God has called us to do.
Baptism preaches that a victorious life comes by walking with Christ, according to the will of the Father. This is done by keeping our eyes on Christ, and off of the world. We may see failure in men, but Jesus never fails. We are to not only look unto Him, but also live our lives by means of waiting upon Him. We are never to grow weary in our devotion to Him.
We must set our affections on things above, not on things in this world. It is not the struggles that defeat us, but when we allow ourselves to lose interest in God’s will and we become indifferent. We don’t serve God due to legal obligation only, but we must have real interests that are fixed on things above. How successful are you in Christianity? Christ defined it this way, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matthew 6:21
SHARINGAbout Our Messages On “The Identification Of God’s House”
“But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine” Titus 2:1
“And he gave some…pastors…for the perfecting of the saints…Till we all come in the unity of the faith…That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine…” Ephesians 4:11-16
“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God…” 2 Corinthians 10:5
That which is of man is to be rooted out of a person’s thinking, and that which is of God is to be planted in its place. God’s Word is not rude and presumptuous. Clashes and repercussions occur because self-will is strong and rebellious.
People develop opinions about church that are comfortable to them, and congenial to those around them. Man savors a position on church that is “workable” with self and others.
Never has human conclusion equalled the righteousness of God. There needs to be conviction and faith on the hearer’s part, to abandon human consensus, and seek unto Divine wisdom and understanding, without becoming offended by the pastoral challenge unto doing so.
One needs not guess about the religious community’s position on establishing the Biblical truth about the New Testament Church. The plurality of doctrines, practices, and denominations full well testifies that man have chosen human philosophy over the singularity of Divine Truth.
Man finds sound doctrine unworkable and unendurable in his defined religious arena. Man wants to profess to believe enough to convince himself that he is alright. But he wants to believe in enough uncertainty, to allow the doing of what is right in his own eyes, without being prosecuted by any “absolute truths.”
Men seek to establish a general rule, that no one knows for sure. Thus they want you to think that anyone who declares doctrinal singularity is merely doing it from unfounded prejudice and bigotry.
A pastor’s role, according to the role God has for him in the church, is to overturn all opinion and philosophy, and establish everything from the Bible perspective. The identity of the New Testament Church is established on the volume of facts found in the doctrines of God’s Word, and is not left up to the threads of human speculation.
We invite you to see that the doctrines of God’s Word are non-offensive and precious to the Bible believer, while being aggressively devastating to the religious opinions of men. God’s Word is clear and straight forward, for the inclusion of men into the fullness of God’s covenant promises. Thus, God’s Word comes down clearly against all the opposites, unto the exclusion of that which deludes and deceives.
SHARING
