Bible Lesson 224
What the Church that Christ builds, will look like. Ephesians 5:1-21
“Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children?..”
“If the church of the Acts had overlooked iniquity and by-passed evil, and smilingly looked the other way while the devil sneaked into every phase of her life as we have done today, Christianity would have died in infancy.” Vance Havner
This month we want to think about what we should be and in doing that we must look at what we have become. Shamefully, the visible church, and there is actually only One Church, at least one true church, and that Church is made up of all of those that God has called, justified and sanctified and glorified. (Romans 8:29-30).
That is what we call the invisible church, or the Church that Jesus Christ said that He would build. (Matthew 16:17-19). The Church that Jesus said that He would build would be a militant church one that did not hide behind stained glass windows; but one that would storm the gates of hell and overcome the world and sin.
The church that Jesus builds has members who are qualified to serve God, and they never go AWOL (absent without leave). It consists of the Army of God, and it wears the Armor of God. The members of Christs church have counted the cost of serving God as they live in Christ.
They accept the hatred and persecution of the world and sinners, because they look much like Christ did when He walked here on the earth. Jesus Christ who is the head of this church was always ready to teach the hard truths of the Word of God.
Jesus Christ always preached that those who were not following His Fathers decrees, statutes, commandments had to repent and turn away from sin, to serve God.
Jesus preached that it would be a demanding walk and always told of the reality of the Christian life. He spoke plainly to the one who came and wanted to join Christ’s group, saying to them, “birds have nests and foxes have holes, but Christ who was the leader of the group had no place to lay His head.” (Matthew 8:20-22).
What would you have said to someone who required that kind of selflessness of you when you walked that aisle and shook that preachers hand’ If you are honest, you will have to answer that you would have wanted to reconsider.
What would you have said if you had been told that the world would hate you because it hated Christ before it hated you’ That’s where the rubber meets the road, and that is why preachers today stay away from the truth and instead, preach sermons that really say nothing about what the true Christians life is like. When have you heard that if you wanted to join some church today, you would have to prove you loved Christ more than you love anyone or anything else’ (Luke 14:26-33).
We tend to stay away from anything that does not make man the center of the universe, and does not make sinners uncomfortable. Why would we do that’ It is because we are ‘practical’, preachers have rent or house payments, kids to feed and educate, car payments and all sorts of things just like lost people do. That is the reason that we should have men, who have been called and equipped by God, and are sold out to the truths of the Gospel, for pastors. All of us know that at some level of our being, but we manage to keep it down and quiet as we march on to be like everyone else. We are people who like to think that everyone of us alive are in the same boat. The boat that we are all in together is a show-boat; but those who are the Children of God are in the life boat.
What will the Church that Jesus Christ is building look like’ It may not look like a palace; but the center of attraction is the Almighty God who created the heavens and the earth. It is not dead and listless, and busy with all kinds of programs, that may be good but only when they uplift the One who went to the cross to pay the sin debt of those who will obey all that He has commanded us. Christians obey all that God has commanded and Jesus Christ said that is the way that we love Him and He predicates His love and the love of His Father on our obedience. (John 14:21-24).
This church will not be concerned with nickels and noses and numbers, but will be concerned with lost souls. That is the reason that Christ left heaven and came to this earth to die, and resurrected. He did not come to build great buildings, or to initiate social programs or babysit our children. He came for one reason and that was to be the sacrificial Lamb of God. To die to redeem those who would obey Him, a Savior. (Hebrews 5:8-9).
The Church that Christ is building is a church that has one rule and guide and that is the infallible Word of God, The Bible. Unlike churches today, His church will preach only what the Bible says. It will never speculate or insinuate that there are errors in God’s Word. Christ’s Church will not be concerned about individual’s feeling. If the Word of God confronts their sin, and they grieve that is what it was written to do. People will get over hurt feelings, but they will never get over going to hell.
Wouldn’t you like to be a member of Christ’s Church, a church that is pure and without spot or wrinkle’ You can if you are sold out to God and you follow His directions in the Bible.
Until next time,
may God bless and keep you
This is Bro. Bob