Bible Lesson 31
#5 IN A SERIES
The last lesson we began in the next step of our study of foundations, and we reviewed the foundation of our homes and we saw that the True Church is made up of individuals who have been “quickened” or given Spiritual life, (regeneration) by God and who have been created anew “in Christ”, and are now, that new creature that is guided by the Holy Spirit of God. Those people normally join themselves to one of the institutional churches or denominations. It stands to reason that the church is made up of individuals, has a foundation that consists of individuals; and the church?s foundation is only as strong as the sum of those who make up that particular church.
Let me be very clear here, “the Church”, the true church, has a firm and solid foundation, and a firm and perfect head, and that foundation and head and body is the body and person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The institutional church, which consists of the denominational and independent groups, is supposed to represent the true church; however, that institutional church has been so weakened and diluted by false doctrines and lack of discipline, that the institutional church now contains, some members of the true church, but does not represent the Church of which Jesus Christ, is the head!
With that said, let’s turn to Revelation, and read Chapters two and three.
These chapters in Revelation answer many of the questions that we have to ask ourselves about the visible church of our day. First, we should understand that there are two distinct churches that we find in our Bible.
There is the visible church or the institutional church; which contains some truly saved and many who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ in the forgiveness of their sins; and there is the true Church, which is invisible; and it contains only truly saved sons of God.
It may help us to understand the difference if we understand the Greek word that is translated as church in our Bibles. The Greek word is “ekklesia”; and that word does not speak of what we think of when we read the word “church? in our Bibles.
What it does mean is, “a gathering together of the Called out ones”, those who are truly saved and obedient to Christ, because they love Him. I have no trouble with our calling these groups of real Christians, churches; but what we must understand is that the True Church is made up of only those who are truly saved, and who are acting like the children of God.
We have said before and we say again here, that there were no church buildings until 3 to 4 hundred years after the death of Christ. The first church met in homes, for all of those years. The problem with the visible church, the institutional church, the denominational churches are that they stopped following God and His directions, from the Bible; and they more or less went into business for themselves.
In too many instances today, the institutional church is more of a family run business, than it is a house of worship and prayer and praise of God. I hope that everyone who is following these lessons has read for themselves Chapters 2 and 3 of the Revelation. In those Chapters, we find a series of letters written by the Apostle John, dictated by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, concerning things that Jesus wanted everyone to know. The letters (seven in all) were written to seven groups of the called-out ones or if you prefer, seven different churches, in Asia Minor. The letters are all addressed to the “angel” of the church, which is more than likely an elder or pastor of the groups.
These letters should remind us today, that Christ is concerned about His Bride, the Church, and we should measure our groups by these letters; because Christ is surely concerned about the state of the church in our time. To emphasis that fact, I will quote a few lines from a message by that great old theologian and preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, on September 14th, in the year 1856. That’s over 150 years ago. In this message, Spurgeon began this way, after reading 1st Timothy 3:15, a verse that deals with “how people should conduct themselves in the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”
Spurgeon said this, “the professing church has been flattering itself that, notwithstanding all our divisions concerning the doctrine, we are all right in the main. A false and spurious liberality has been growing up, which has covered us all, so that we have dreamed that all who bore the name of ministers were indeed God’s servants, that all who occupied pulpits, of whatever denomination they might be, we’re entitled to our respect, as being stewards of the mystery of Christ.” He goes on to explain that it had become clear to many in that time that things were not what they seemed; and he goes on to say, “This is a day of strife, a day of division, a time of war and fighting between professing Christians.
God be thanked for it! Far better that it should be so than that the false calm should any longer exert its fatal spell over us.” I have quoted Spurgeon to alert you that over the past 150 or so years, the situation has not noticeably improved and is probably worse now than it was then. Why is it important that the church not be free to mix cultural factors and lace the truth with our perceived “compassion”, and tolerance?
We must understand that the Bible is the Word of the Creator to His creatures. That it is “one way”, and without any wiggle room for us to make it more appealing to sinners; because it is the “Truth that sets us free:” and any mixture of error, regardless of how well-meaning it would be on our part, keeps souls from being set free, or saved. We have been guilty of taking a great liberty with the Truth, the Word of God, (See John 17:17). With that said, let’s begin to look at the seven letters that Christ had John the Apostle wrote to the seven churches in Asia Minor.
First, we have the letter to the church at Ephesus, which is addressed to “the angel of the church in Ephesus”. The body of the letter begins like this, “These things says He who hold the seven stars in His right hand, who walks amid the seven golden lampstands”; and we can look back to the first chapter of the Revelation, verses 12-16, and find that this one is, Jesus Christ. Jesus then says to the church at Ephesus, or the called out ones there, that He “knows their works, their labor, their patience and that they cannot bear those that are evil.” Jesus tells them that He “knows that they have tested those who say that they are apostles and are not, and have found them to be liars, and have persevered and had patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.”
Now, so far they have received a good grade from Christ; however, in verse four of the letter, we find Jesus Christ as He says to these people at Ephesus, “Nevertheless”, “I have this against you, that you have left your first love”. This was a church that had many good points, that Christ recognized as good and commended them on; however, they were doing the right thing for the wrong reason. All of our deeds are to be done out of love for our Savior, and these Ephesians were not the “Christ lovers” that their forefathers had been.
Many in our day are operating much like these Ephesians, however, we have been wrong for so long that we have failed to even keep up appearances. We don’t have any problem with inviting the lost into our groups as members, and most labor, but for temporal things and not for the things of God. We tend to be patiently impatient, and we tolerate many things that God will not tolerate.
We do not try the spirits of those who we call as ministers for our groups, instead, we tend to look for someone who will agree with us, as we disagree with God and His Word. At least, the Ephesians had not become weary of it all, while we, in the institutional churches of our day, have trouble keeping our eyes open for the twenty-minute sermons that we hear delivered on most Sundays.
Let me say as I always have that these lessons are not to demean the institutional church as organizations, but they are to call the institutional church to take a good look at itself, and it’s goals and the doctrines that are being taught and the critical doctrines that are being ignored. The Church of Christ, the true church, was never meant to be an organization, it was and is today an organism. It is the body of Christ and it stands, only as we know the gospel of Christ and preach it and apply it to people’s lives.
We should find it strange when the church taken as a whole, has decided to reverse itself and turn away from doctrines that have been rock-solid for hundreds of years. Think about how the church conducts discipline, or better yet how the church refuses to conduct discipline. The Bible tells us that Christ gave Himself for the church, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish, (Ephesians 5:25-27).
Does that describe the church where your membership exists? The Bible speaks of men being dead in trespass and sin, which requires the work of God to “quicken” and bring them to a point that they can commune with God; but most preachers choose to preach to everyone who sits in the congregation as if they were already capable of communion with God, and they invite them to choose heaven or hell.
The Bible says that no man can come to Jesus, except the Father draws him, but the visible church seems to have skipped a step in true salvation and left the work of God out of salvation, in order that the church can save people and make them church-members rather than Christians, (Ephesians 2:1,John 6:44). Preachers and Pastors, stand before large congregations on Sunday mornings and say that, Jesus Christ loves everybody; and that He died for everybody; but the Bible says that Jesus loves those who know His commandments and keeps them. The Bible also says that Jesus died for those who would obey Him,(John 14:21-24; Hebrews 5:8-9).
Too many pastors and leaders have begun to cozy up to the homosexual lifestyle, and they would allow those who practice that lifestyle to be ordained and be accepted in their sin. There are even those who are attempting to make Romans chapter one and verses 18-32, be one of several mistakes made by Paul. What they are really saying is that God was wrong to say t hat the homosexual lifestyle was an abomination.
We cannot, and we must not, allow anyone, not even an angel, to corrupt the pure gospel of Christ as it exists in the Bible. (See Galatians 1:6-10). The question is not so much, how can I get along with the group to which I belong; but how can I be faithful to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We must be willing to get cross-ways with the world, in order to keep the commandments of Christ. How about you are you willing to stand in the face of anyone who corrupts the Word of God, and because you love Christ, defy them and challenge them to prove what they say?
That?s what it will take, if we are ever to bring the institutional church back to the firm ground of the truth. It all rests on your conception of the Bible. Is the Bible the inerrant, infallible and inspired Word of God? If you, or anyone else, does not believe that, then we do not have any room to discuss Christ, Salvation, or heaven.
What?s left is self, the world, and hell. I know that many people have been taught to see every thing in shades of grey; but the Word of God appears in either black or white, as truth or error, as absolute or obsolete. What?s your understanding of the Bible, is it the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth? I firmly believe that everything I find in the Word of God, is the inspired and inerrant Word of God to man.
I believe that the only place where any man finds what he considers an error, is in the darkness of his heart where he would hide some sin. If I could find any verse that I thought was in error, then I wouldn?t believe any of it: because then I could not trust the one who inspired it; and I trust God through Jesus Christ with my life, my family, my happiness, my joy and my assurance and finally with my eternal life, which I believe will contain such grace and glory that it would impossible for any man to speak of it.
I trust that you can trust that precious Word to the point that, God can find in His grace to “quicken” and call you out of darkness into light and then perhaps someday as we behold His glory, we may cross paths in heaven.
Remember now, when I use the word church, as being in error I am not speaking about the True Church, the body of Christ on the earth. Christ told Peter that it would be Him (Christ) that would build that true church. That True church is perfect, and it cannot be harmed by anyone; but if we are real, and we love the Christ of the Word and the Words of Christ, we are to, at least attempt, to point out to the institutional church, these visible churches that we find so often in our communities, that they must not pervert the truth.
Now in closing, am I saying that you should not attend the institutional church? No, I am not saying that, what I am saying in love, is that we need to be part of the light and not part of the darkness, we should be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.
We should first, know God through Jesus Christ, then we should know the Word of God, then we should love the brethren, and we should seek to improve the teachings of the church we attend. Jesus is concerned about our beliefs and our obedience. Take some time to compare what you are hearing in your church, with what the Bible says.
Until next time,
may God bless and keep you
This is Bro. Bob