Pray together once more, please. Heavenly Father,
we are thankful and grateful to be your people
and thankful for your help thus far in the meeting.
We ask you to continue with us now as we attempt
to open your Word and to hear from you and to
learn all that you have for us this morning.
We claim the promise that you indeed will accomplish
all of your perfect will and that your Word will
not return until you avoid. So we ask that that
would be the case this morning, that you'd enable
us to humble ourselves under the Word, to apply
it to ourselves, and to seek after you to change
whatever needs to be changed in our lives. Help
me as I present the Word, keep me from error,
but enable me to present the fullness of all
that you've given. And so we do ask again this
morning for the lost, that they might be found
of you. that you would grant repentance and faith
to many who are yet in their sins, not only in
this assembly, but in others who are faithfully
proclaiming your word. And we ask in Christ's
name, amen. Well, I'm going to be dealing with
the church this morning, and I'm going to be
continuing on the subject for a number of weeks.
And so I just want to introduce the subject this
morning. Some of these verses that we... Today,
I'll be more in detail in subsequent weeks. But
I think there's possibly an underappreciation
of the value of the Church in our present -day
society, perhaps even here. So that's really
the heart, my heart this morning, is for us to
see the true value of what Christ has accomplished.
in his church. So I've got a number. We're going
to take a tour through the New Testament here.
So I've got a number of different verses. You
don't have to try to turn two of them all. Most
are sharp. And I'll be reading them. But if you
want to turn as we go, that's fine. I'm going
to begin with Matthew 16 verses. 15 through 18
In verse 15 we read he saith unto them but whom
say ye that I am and Simon Peter answered and
said thou art the Christ the son of the living
God and Jesus answered and said unto him blessed
art thou Simon bar Jonah for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father
which is in heaven and I say unto thee that thou
art Peter and upon this rock I will build my
church and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it." So there's a lot here but all I
wanted to do this morning was to focus on this
last sentence in the last verse where Christ
declares that I will build my church and the
gates of hell will not prevail against it. So
the church is Christ's Christ is building his
church and the church We should understand as
his called out people the Ecclesia The ones whom
Christ has called out from the world brought
unto himself and put into his church He's building
it. He's building it from the time he Started
and he's continued to build it today all of us
here are a result of Christ's work within us.
And He worked within us to bring us to Himself
and to His Church. There really is no separation.
Remember? The Church is Christ's body. The Ecclesiads,
the called out ones, are Christ's body. Christ
is the head. It's His Church. But He does have
a body. That's you and me. So, in other words,
This is a miraculous thing that Christ has done.
All of these years, this poor, helpless little
church has persevered and prevailed because it
is Christ that built it. The gates of hell cannot
prevail against it. Nobody carries their gates
into battle. It's not a picture of the gates
of hell battling against the church. It's a picture
of the church battling down the gates of hell.
In other words, bringing men out of the service
of Satan and bringing them unto Christ. Nothing
will prevail and it's been true. It's been true
for centuries. It'll be true as long as this
old earth keeps spinning around. Christ is building
his church. It's a spiritual reality. None of
us contributed anything except our sin. Spiritual
reality. Christ is building his church. It's
not so -and -so's church. We should never talk
like that. That's prevalent in our day. It's
not Mr. So -and -so's church or Elder So -and
-so's church. It's Christ's church. That's who's
the head of the church. Okay, then we're going
to turn to Matthew... 28, I believe, Matthew
28. I'm sure it's a very familiar passage, the
so -called Great Commission. So in Matthew 28,
verses 18 and following, And Jesus came and spake
unto them, saying, All power is given unto me
in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. Amen. So here's
Christ's last bit of instruction here while he
was... before he rose before he ascended into
heaven and he's telling his disciples that I'm
in charge I have all power there is no power
on earth that can resist me I will in other words
accomplish all of my purposes and I will accomplish
my purposes through you you understand it's through
us that he's going to accomplish his purposes
he could have He didn't need to use men. He has
all power. But the plan of God and the purposes
of God is to call the people out of the world
unto themselves and then empower them to be useful
servants of Jesus Christ. So he's telling these
apostles and no doubt this commission is primarily
fulfilled here by the apostles themselves when
he's telling them to go out into the world and
make disciples. But that's not the only people
that should learn and follow these directions.
We all should follow these instructions to a
greater or lesser degree in our workplaces, but
also in our homes. Our homes should be gospel
centered. We should be calling our children to
Christ. We should be setting a proper example
to them daily, living before them. as Christ
has told us to live, teaching them all that Christ
has taught us. It's quite a commission, it's
quite a responsibility that He's given unto His
people and it's one that we cannot do apart from
Him. Everything that we do must be bathed in
prayer. Everything that we try to accomplish
must be bathed in prayer. We don't have the strength
apart from Christ to do any of these things,
but in Christ we can do all that He's called
us to do. And this is what He's called us to
do. To bring or to call men and women to Himself,
to Christ. Point them to Christ. Now remember,
this is a supernatural act. We can't save anybody.
All we can do is point them to Christ. Be an
example of Christ. And that's what we're called
to do. The results are up to Christ. We might
witness to a hundred people that are not called.
The hundred and first might be called and will
be called. Remember, the only confidence we have
in evangelization is what? That God has a people
for Himself. And He's called us to call them
out. And He then will bring them to Himself.
The Gospel, the power of God unto salvation to
all who believe. This is what we're all about.
This is what we're supposed to be doing. So,
we don't want to minimize this calling out. We
don't want to minimize sharing the Gospel. We
have special events and such where we go out
into the community and share the gospel, but
we must take the opportunities day by day that
God presents us with to share Christ with the
dying world. The church gets this privilege and
it is a privilege to share the gospel. It's the
greatest news we can tell anybody. Okay, then
we'll go on. We'll look at Acts. Very familiar
passage, Acts 2. Remember, we're just taking
a little cruise through the New Testament. We're
going to get into more detail in probably all
of these subjects through the next few weeks.
But in Acts 2, now this is the day of Pentecost.
You're familiar with that. The Holy Spirit's
been poured out. And a great many people were
converted as a result of the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit. Again, it's a supernatural act.
It's all of God. Peter got up there and proclaimed
the gospel. Just like what we were talking about.
Just like what he was told to do. and lo and
behold God saved thousands of people but we read
here in verse 41 of the second chapter of Acts
then they that gladly received his word were
baptized and the same day there were added unto
them about three thousand souls and they continued
steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship
and in breaking of bread and in prayers and fear
came upon every soul and many wonders and signs
were done by the apostles and all that believed
were together and had all things common and sold
their possessions and goods and parted them to
all men as every man had need. So here's a picture
of the communion of the saints. The fellowship
of the saints is pictured here right off the
start. They didn't get converted or God didn't
save them. And then they just scattered around.
They formed a community, a people. And they had
certain goals. And the goals are clearly stated
there. The apostle's doctrine, the fellowship,
the breaking of bread, prayers. That became the
central thing in their lives. We can read on
and see how they gathered frequently. They gathered
at the temple on on the Jewish Sabbath and proclaim
the gospel then. They gathered on the first day
of the week and worshiped Christ together. They
were a group, an ecclesia, together. And they
took it seriously. If there were needs among
them, they did all they could to meet those needs.
That's what it says. So again, we'll probably
see some of these things. more detailed but if
you're going to think on this these verses through
the week just think of the community of believers
the wonderful miracle that had happened just
a bunch of individual peoples and and because
of what christ did in their lives they became
new people new creatures They wanted fellowship.
They wanted to learn. They continued steadfastly.
It wasn't haphazard. It wasn't hit and miss.
It wasn't, well, when I get around to it, or,
oh, if I got time, I will. No, they were steadfast
in these things. That's how important Jesus Christ
was in their lives. Again, this is the beginning
of the church, right here. This is what we need
to continue on and what has continued on through
this through the centuries Okay First Corinthians
Chapter 12 beginning at verse 12. For as the
body is one and hath many members, and all the
members of that one body, being many are one
body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit are
we all baptized into one body. Whether we be
Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and
have been all made to drink into one spirit So
here I want it again to emphasize here the spirituality
of the church It's it's all the work of the spirit.
We've all been baptized into Christ. We've all
been baptized into the same spirit That's our
commonality We're all one in Christ. We're all
different Just like the body has different members,
but we're all one in Christ. We're united in
Christ We're a functioning body in Christ That's
the church We're here to function as the body
of Christ to carry out Christ's wishes To bring
great glory to our head to acknowledge him as
our head He is His church. He's running it. We
want His will to be done. We don't want our will
to be done. That's a disaster. We want to follow
Christ and His will be done in our midst. We
need to value one another. We're not cutting
any members off. We're not leaving any members
behind. We're all tied together in this one spirit
in Christ And we want us all coming together.
We want us all going together We want commonality
we want unanimity in the church It's important,
you know, we don't work for unity God's provided
it Christ has given us unity. We are united all
word called upon to do is to maintain that unity
that He has given us. We can't allow any interference,
any division, any work of the devil to come between
us, any temptations, our own pride, our own jealousies.
We can't give any place to any of those things
in the church. We are one in Christ. Love our
brothers, love our sisters. Do whatever we can
to help them and bring them along. They had all
things in common. That's the Church. It's a beautiful
thing. It's glorious in Christ. It's certainly
nothing that a man could have ever devised or
maintained or anything else. It's supernatural.
It's a glorious miracle. And we're part of it.
We're not the church, we're part of the church.
All those faithful communions are all at one
with us. Alright, back to Acts. Did God give
any structure to this church? Is it just a majority
vote? Is that what it is? I think they call that
congregationalism today. I think if the majority
of the congregation votes on something, then
that's it. Is that what's set up? Has he set
up a dictatorship? What has he set up? Has he
set up capitalism, socialism? What's the government?
What's the governance of the church? Well, as
you already know, but I'm just simply reminding
you that governing the church falls to the eldership
according to the Bible. And it's always a multiplicity
of elders. It's never a one -man show. It's never
a one -man centralized leadership. That's dangerous.
It's always a multiplicity of multiple elders.
And it's people, it's elders that God has gifted.
Just ordinary men that God has gifted. to do
the work of an elder. And it's only men. That's
the Bible. We'll probably get into some of this
as we go on, but I'm introducing the subject
now. You know that we do have three elders here.
And we should be reading this Acts 20 more often
than we are probably. But this is Paul's farewell
address to the Ephesian elders. And so this is
what he tells them. I'm only going to read one
verse, verse 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves.
That's number one. You want to be a faithful
elder. You want to be able to lead a body of
Christ. You want to be able to lead your church
if you're not an elder and you're a man. be able
to lead your family as a husband, as a father.
Take heed to yourself. You can't lead anybody
unless you take heed to yourself. Look at yourself.
Honestly assess yourself. Then after you have
taken stock of yourself and Paul says to all
the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made
you overseers. bishops same word here's translated
overseers elders God has made overseers for his
church and you got to take heed to those folks
that you're leading that you're overseeing says
so is even says the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers Take heed to all the flock. When we
went through this before, remember, we talked
about the vital relationship between people and
elders, people of the leadership. You call it
pastor, whatever, elder, bishop. The vital relationship
that is supposed to exist between these two peoples.
It's a love relationship we said. The elders
are to love the people, and the people are to
love their elders. They're to be working with
each other, not against each other. The elders
are to bring the folks along, equip them for
the service, all manner of things that I'm not
going to get into today. But the flock that God
has made you oversee is what a responsibility
that is for the elders. We should appreciate
and pray for our elders as the elders do for
the people. And what is one of their main things?
To feed the Church of God. To feed them. Feed
y 'all. I don't you know we get together we have
our elders meetings and we talk about the needs
and so and such and such and then we go our way
and and I'm preaching for a while here now and
I've got to seek the Lord how am I supposed to
feed these folks what am I what do they need
to hear what can I bring today or what can I
bring the next day or the week or whatever it
is that's how it is you know If I didn't think
that the Lord would have me to preach on this
subject, I wouldn't be doing it. It's a result
of seeking the Lord to feed the people He's put
me overseer of. That overseer, overseeing goes
to all areas. Like, why do we meet at 10 o 'clock
on Sunday morning? Well, that was decided that
that would be the best time to do it. Why do
we have prayer before we have the worship service?
Because prayer is important. We don't think we
can worship without praying. Praying is a vital
part of the church and it's missing in too many
places today. Well, that's the very first thing
we do when we come together is pray. Sometimes
we pray for an hour, sometimes four to five minutes,
sometimes an hour and fifteen minutes. you know
whatever it is it doesn't matter we're not governed
by time we've got all day right folks whatever
however long it takes to lay our petitions out
before our god that's what we want to do okay
enough said but that's the governance of the
church all the all the ministry decisions and
when we have a when we have our annual meeting
We lay things out for you guys to discuss, and
we ask for any input before the meeting even
starts. Anyway, it's not a dictatorship, but
we hope it is godly leadership, according to
the scriptures. That's our goal, anyway. All
right, a couple more. I've got First Peter. This
is one that I'm sure I'm going to be looking
at later So in first Peter chapter 2 We read
Wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile
and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings
as Newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the
word that she may grow there by that's us We've
got newborn babies here We're familiar with how
they demand milk. This is how we should go after
the word. This is how we should pursue God so
that we might grow. Remember, we're growing.
We're not static. We're not satisfied with where
we are. We're not content. We are content, but
we're not satisfied. We want more. If so be you
have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Now obviously
that's not true of anybody that hasn't tasted
that the Lord is gracious. We've tasted it. We
know how good it is. We know what a savior we
have. We want more. We don't want just a taste.
We want to eat. We want to go after. We want
to consume. But of course it always begins with
a taste. You have a taste for God. You have a
taste for growth. Do you have a taste at the
love of God in Christ Jesus? Now, here in verse
four, to whom coming as unto a living stone,
disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and
precious. That's talking about Jesus Christ.
Chosen of God and precious. Is he precious to
us? Hopefully so. But here we are in five. Here
we come in. Ye also as lively stones are built
up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer
up spiritual sacrifices Acceptable to God by
Jesus Christ There's the purpose of the church
To carry out all of these instructions all of
these reasons for living for reasons for being
in Christ Results of being in Christ. Not to
get into Christ. But because we are in him, this
is what our desires have come to. To be living
stones. The picture of a house. Spiritual house.
A living stone is a spiritual reality that results
in a spiritual living house. That's the church.
That's what we are. It's not this building. Not
any building. We are the stones. We are the spiritual
stones that have been brought together that are
growing up to be built up into a bigger and bigger
and more beautiful house. How is that possible?
Because we're going to be growing in Christ.
We're going to be growing in Christlikeness.
Our love is going to increase to God and to man.
It's a beautiful thing to be part of. It gives
reason to your living. To be a holy priesthood.
To offer up spiritual sacrifices. The priesthood
of all believers. Intercessors for one another.
Critical again. I'm going to stop there. Spiritual
sacrifices. We do have spiritual sacrifices.
They're spiritual. They're not physical sacrifices.
They are physical in one way is that they happen
through our bodies, which are physical. But they're
spiritual sacrifices. So we want to talk about
spiritual sacrifices. in the coming weeks. So
I'm going to read verse 6. Wherefore also it
is contained in the scriptures, behold, I lay
in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
Unto you therefore which believe he is precious.
But unto them which be disobedient, the stone
which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the coroner." So you can see this
all revolves, this organism of the church, the
spiritual ecclesia called out one. It all revolves
and it is a result of Jesus Christ. We never
lose Jesus Christ. He's always here. He's the
chief cornerstone. It doesn't matter that the
builders rejected Him. God overcame their decision.
He's precious unto us. We want to show that preciousness
to Him. We want to love Him because He first
loved us. We want to love one another because
He first loved us. It's a glorious thing to be
part of. Can you see Jesus in one another? Do
you look for Jesus in one another? Yes, yes,
yes I'm gonna wrap it up with two more one from
Hebrews Hebrews chapter 12 This is a great contrast
here folks read the whole old covenant context
but in Hebrews 12 let's say in verse 21 we read
and so terrible was the sight that is the giving
of the old covenant under under Moses that Moses
said I exceedingly fear and quake remember remember
the fire the lightning thunder Don't come near
don't come near. That's what the whole covenant
Made this total separation between God and his
people. I Am holy you're sinful You have one
high priest. He makes intercession for you People
couldn't stand it. They said we can't take any
more of this. We'll tell us you just tell us
yourself Moses That was the giving of the old
covenant But that's done And in verse 22, we
read what we have come to. But ye are come unto
Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable
company of angels, to the general assembly and
church of the firstborn which are written in
heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to
the spirits of just men made perfect, and to
Jesus Christ, the mediator of the new covenant,
and to the blood of sprinkling. that speaketh
better things than that of Abel. It's a beautiful
thing. It's a communion thing. You don't have
to stay. Come. Come to Christ. This is what we're
supposed to be experiencing now. This isn't talking
about some future time when we're in heaven or
when Christ returns. This is now. We are to feel
and experience these things now. This close communion
with God. This fellowship with Jesus Christ.
with one another, with the angels, with just
men made perfect. It's no longer stay away, you're
too sinful, it's all now. Come, come, I'll receive
you. In Jesus Christ, we're made fit to have
communion with God. It's glorious that men can
have communion with eternal God, the creator
of heaven and earth. We can know Him. We can
experience Him. And we can know and experience
Him in a real and living way when we gather together
as a church, as an ecclesia, as a called out
people. We're bringing the Holy Spirit with us.
We're coming with eagerness and anticipation.
We can't wait to meet with one another with God
around the throne of grace to receive from Him
all the goodness, all the mercy, all the love.
all the training and teaching and everything
else that he has for us this day. Whatever he
has for us, we want it. Okay, last verse. And
this is our hope. This is the future. In Revelation
21. Whoever has this hope purifies himself as
he is pure Revelation 21 verse 1 and I saw a
new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven
and the first earth were passed away and there
was no more sea and I John saw the holy city
new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband People
you see it that was coming down out of heaven
the people and I heard a great voice out of heaven
saying behold the tabernacle of God is with men
and he will dwell with them and they shall be
his people and God himself shall be with them
and be their God and God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes and there shall be no more
death neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall
there be any more pain, for the former things
are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I made all things new. And he said
unto me, Write, for these words are true and
faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I
am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.
I will give unto him that is a thirst of the
fountain of the water of life freely. And he
that overcometh shall inherit all things, and
I will be his God, and he shall be my son." A
glorious ending awaits. We have a pure hope,
a sure hope of a great ending. Let us strive
after God. Let us experience Him now. Let us
serve Him now. Let us love Him now. Amen.