The Need to Preach on Sin

There is a great need to preach on sin today. I am not at all sure that sin is any worse or more prevalent today than in generations past for one can go back in history and find unimaginable sin. Human sacrifice, cannibalism, idol worship, all forms of sexual debauchery, witchcraft, mass murderers (think Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot in more recent history), you name it, and you can find it in the history of the sins of mankind. History has taught us how depraved man can be.

However, if you and I are not as bad as some other person, as regards sin, so what? Does that make a person righteous just because he can find others worse than himself? Does that make me angelic? No! "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Rom. 3:23 NKJV) "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (1 John 1:8 NKJV) "The wages of sin is death." (Rom. 6:23 NKJV)

We all live condemned before God based on the sin in our life unless it is forgiven. Men need to be convicted of sin to motivate them to turn from it and turn to God.

What is sin and what makes it so bad? "Sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4 KJV) or, as the New King James Version puts it, "sin is lawlessness." It is disobedience to the law of God, whether willful or otherwise. What makes it so bad? It displaces God as the rightful ruler of the world and puts man in God's place. It mocks God as if to say who is God that I (man) should obey him.

Why must sin be punished? Because, if it is not, God cannot be God. Law that is not enforced is, in reality, no law at all. God, the lawmaker, is not glorified but mocked if his law is not upheld. Disrespect or disobedience to the law is really an affront to the lawgiver. Sin must be punished; otherwise, the lawmaker must step down and lose all authority to rule, for if he will not enforce his law, how can he rule at all? And, besides that, sin is evil. Should not evil be punished?

Remove punishment for sin and righteousness ceases to exist; what is right then becomes what the strongest man says is right. Hitler was, in such a scenario, only wrong because he failed to win the war. In a world without God, there is no such thing as an absolute standard of right and wrong. You can only have God if God is God and rules as God by putting teeth into his commandments, enforcing obedience by punishing disobedience.

God gives to the world security. We know sin will be punished and will not ultimately win out. We know evil and wickedness will not last forever. To paraphrase a preacher I once heard, if there is no hell or punishment for sin then Hitler got off scot-free for what happened to him happens to all men--he died. He died, but so will you and I. He got away with mass murder if there is no punishment for sin.

The truth is the rational man wants sin punished. To have God you must have sin (the transgression of the law) punished for God must rule. If sin is punished, then God is, and hope exists. Without God there is no hope for we know we will grow old and die and if God does not exist there is no hope of any afterlife.

What then--was man created simply so God could rule and punish men for their sin? Not at all! Man was created to live with God eternally. "God is not willing that any should perish." (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV) "'As I live,' says the Lord God, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.'" (Ezek. 33:11 NKJV) Man was created to give God glory throughout eternity. "Everyone who is called by my name, whom I have created for my glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him." (Isa. 43:7 NKJV)

God knew man would sin and that he had to punish sin but made provision to do that through his son Jesus, Jesus suffering for us, even before the world began. "Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world." (1 Peter 1:18-20 NKJV) Note the phrase "foreordained before the foundation of the world."

Another like passage is found in Eph. 1:4, "Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." (NKJV) Note again, "before the foundation of the world." Jesus is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." (Rev. 13:8 NKJV) John the Baptist, when he saw Jesus coming toward him, said of him, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." (John 1:29 NKJV)

No, God did not create man without knowing man would sin. It was never his plan that man be doomed without hope. God is love (1 John 4:8). He had a plan from the very beginning to both punish sin and save man while upholding his law and authority. That plan involved Christ.

"Now, once at the end of the ages, he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." (Heb. 9:26 NKJV) "Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many." (Heb. 9:28 NKJV) He "bore our sins in his own body on the tree." (1 Peter 2:24 NKJV) Jesus was born to die with the purpose of that death being to pay the penalty for the sin of man. Jesus died so we do not have to die eternally, which is to say we can be saved from the punishment for our sins against God if we are willing to accept the sacrifice Jesus made by obeying the gospel. God punished our sins through Jesus' willing sacrifice on the cross. Make no mistake about it, God did uphold the honor of his law and did punish sin on the cross of Jesus at Calvary.

For the man or woman who is not willing to accept Jesus (in gospel obedience), who desires to serve himself and do as he pleases, the sacrifice of Jesus is of no benefit to such a person. Such a man or woman is at war with God; they are unthankful and unholy. He will show God who is boss. He will show God who runs his life. He will show God who is God, namely himself. What a fool such a person is. He is going to take on the creator of all that exists in the heavens and on earth, going to take on the one who has lived eternally. He is willing to take on God when he would run from a mean dog. That is irrational thinking--can't take on a mean dog but thinks he will take on God. How foolish man can be.

God is our only hope. We need to submit to his will. I have never known a man who thought the teachings of Christ as found in the New Testament were evil. All agree that if all men would live by those teachings we would have a much happier and safer world than we do today. Those teachings bring only good to man, no evil, and give good hope of a wonderful life to come.

How sad it is then that men today will not preach against sin, showing men their sins, confronting them with them, so that they might be made aware of sin and its consequences and be led to repentance, gospel obedience, and forgiveness.

If we preach the Bible, we must preach about sin. Have you ever given it thought that if there were no sin, there would be no need for the Bible, no need for Jesus the Savior, no need for the cross? Every man and woman has sinned and needs to have it forgiven if they are to obtain heaven. When we fail to preach on sin we leave sinners in sin thinking all is well with their souls and thus help them along the road to hell. If I help a man get to hell, I am going to have to pay for my sin in doing so.

No man will repent unless and until he knows he needs to.  Men must be made to feel the guilt of sin if they are to be converted. "Godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, not to be regretted." (2 Cor. 7:10 NKJV) It is the job of the church and every member to help bring godly sorrow into the lives of men and women who are involved in sin. They need to know what the Bible says about sin and need to know there is a way out through Jesus.

People living in adultery are a good example of the kind of thing I am talking about. The Bible only gives one reason for a second marriage aside from the death of one's spouse. "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery." (Matt. 19:9 NKJV) Unless there has been fornication on the part of one's spouse, it is adultery to divorce and remarry and yet it is rare to hear preaching against this sin. Why not? Because many religious bodies that call themselves Christian have come to accept this sin and accept those involved in it as members in good standing. What does God say about it?

"Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor. 6:9-10 NKJV) John the Baptist lost his head over this matter telling Herod it was not lawful for him (Herod) to have his brother Philip's wife (Matt. 14:3-4). This woman, although married to Herod, was always referred to in scripture as "Philip's wife" and not Herod's.

The same sin abounds today in America but rather than having men like John the Baptist preaching against it many religious bodies just welcome in the adulterous couple as full-fledged members in good standing. They welcome them on their way to hell with not a word to warn them. John the Baptist lost his head in preaching against the sin, but who is to say the modern-day preacher will not lose his soul for holding his silence, refusing to preach against it and other sins?

When we fail to preach against sin we "have strengthened the hands of the wicked, so that he does not turn from his wicked way to save his life." (Ezek. 13:22 NKJV) Shall we be found innocent on the Day of Judgment when we remained silent in the face of sin lest we hurt feelings and be found to be disagreeable? What is needed is preaching and teaching against sin and not acceptance of it as though all is well.

I am glad I was raised in a time (50's and 60's) where I was able to hear fire and brimstone sermons about sin and hell. There was little to no hesitancy to preach against sin in those days. Such sermons were needed then and are needed now, whether they are preached or not. Jesus did not go to the cross and die just so we can continue to be sinners. What has happened to the gospel of Christ? I fear it has been replaced by a social gospel and by benevolent societies calling themselves churches.

You can feed and clothe a man or woman until old age and death but that will not get them to heaven without repentance and obedience to the gospel of Christ. They will still have the problem of sin, and you will have your own sin problem if you fail to teach them the truth about sin when you could have.

We can either preach on sin or we can let people die in sin thinking all is well. The trouble is not only will they reap what they sow but so will we. "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap." (Gal. 6:7 NKJV) Why not encourage your preacher to preach on sin? To preach on sin is to save souls.

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The Army of the Lord

“The army of the Lord” is a phrase found only once in the NKJV of the Bible, and that in the Old Testament in Joshua 5:14, where Joshua, in the vicinity of Jericho, meets up with one who says of himself that he is the “Commander of the army of the Lord.” (NKJV) However, having said that, it is clear from many different New Testament passages that while the church is never called an army, it is clearly described as an army in that each Christian is considered a soldier, outfitted with battle gear, a weapon, and engaged in warfare. Since the church is composed of its individual members, each member a soldier, it follows that the church is the army of the Lord here on earth.

In the book of Philippians, Paul refers to Epaphroditus as his “fellow soldier.” (Phil. 2:25 NKJV) He does the same with Archippus in Philemon verse 2, and almost every Bible student is familiar with Paul’s admonition to Timothy where he tells him, “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” (2 Tim. 2:3 NKJV) If we are honest, we realize that is an admonition to us as well if we desire to be a faithful Christian.

We ought to put emphasis on the phrase “must endure hardship” for it is easy to think in our day and age and in our country there is no hardship to be endured as a Christian. Wrong! Paul made it clear it is not a matter of whether or not we will be persecuted, but more a matter of when or where or to what degree, for he says, “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” (2 Tim. 3:12 NKJV)

There is, I think, a greater implication in Paul’s statement than we generally are willing to accept. We think if someone on the national scene has spoken against Christianity, and we hear about it, that we have been personally persecuted because we are a Christian. Yet, in the first century, when Paul was writing, there was no national news that you were going to get instantly, unlike today. The persecution Paul spoke about was far more direct and personal.

Paul was speaking to a single individual in his letter to Timothy and saying to him, paraphrasing, if you are a Christian and are living like it and talking about it--the command is to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15 NKJV)--then you are going to suffer for it. If we do not suffer for it (sooner or later), then maybe that says a lot about our failure to live the life as God intended it to be lived. That is the implied teaching of the passage; if there is no suffering personally, then there is likely no actual living of the life as Christ intended one to live it.

The Christian life is referred to as warfare. Paul says, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God … ." (2 Cor. 10:4-5 NKJV) Timothy was encouraged to “wage the good warfare.” (1 Tim. 1:18 NKJV) To Timothy, Paul says in the second letter to him, “No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.” (2 Tim. 2:4 NKJV) This was in the very next verse after Paul told him he must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ (2 Tim. 2:3).

A lot of people enter into the Christian life sort of unaware. They are thinking love, peace, mercy, grace, and hope. They are not expecting combat and are ill-prepared and often unready and unwilling to engage in it. Yes, there is love, peace, mercy, grace, and hope in Christ, but one has to remember these are mostly things that are found within one’s inner being because of what he has become in Christ and what Christ has done for him. As far as the outside world goes, it is an entirely different matter.

You have to a large degree become the enemy to the world unless you are going to try and be a secret disciple and never speak of Jesus and just go on living like the world. If you decide on that course you will get along fine in this world but there is always the Day of Judgment to look ahead to. That will be a looking forward to “a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.” (Heb. 10:27 NKJV)

But, as I said, many are not ready for the combat. In the parable of the soils the one unprepared for combat is the one represented by the stony places soil (describing the heart of man) where when the seed was sown (the word of God) it was received and sprouted and came up but “when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he (the person with this kind of heart--DS) stumbles.” (Matt. 13:21 NKJV) He is neither prepared for nor willing to engage in the fight. The heart’s desire is only for the smooth things of Christianity, the blessings.

At the end of his life, Paul said he had “fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Tim. 4:7 NKJV) It had been a fight indeed. Remember when Paul was being converted? Do you remember the words of Jesus when speaking with Ananias about Paul? He said, “I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake.” (Acts 9:16 NKJV)

One can read about the life of Paul and his sufferings in summary in 2 Cor. 11:23-33. He talks about his beatings, imprisonments, being stoned, and many other things that came his way in his life as a Christian. It had been a fight, a lifelong fight after his conversion. And here is the lesson we need to learn from this, those of us who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus, the battle Paul fought was a religious fight, the very kind many feel is too unchristian, or unchristlike, to fight.

It was a fight over doctrine, over who was right and who was wrong, over who would be saved and who would not, over the way to heaven. Too many people today see this as an exceedingly nasty type of fighting that drives people away from Christ, they say. Don’t talk to me about it. Your fight would be with Jesus, Paul, Jude, and others. Jesus and Paul were in religious debates nearly all of the time.

Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.’ And ‘a man’s foes will be those of his own household.’” (Matt. 10:34-36 NKJV) Paul got in trouble because he was unwilling to remain quiet about his religion and insisted on evangelizing and debating. Come to think about it, that was pretty much the same reason Jesus was crucified, was it not?

But, most of the talk today by the Christian community, as the world would define it, seems to be about getting along, how we are all going to the same place no matter what we believe or practice, and how it is so un-Christian to fight with one another. Some are willing to go so far with this approach as to say one does not even have to be a Christian to go to heaven.

Jude says he wrote “exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith.” (Jude 3 NKJV) One cannot do that and not debate religion. “We do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” (2 Cor. 10:3-5 NKJV) Christian debating (casting down arguments) is a part of the Christian warfare.

Debating is as far as it goes. No Christian, living as a Christian, would ever do harm to another. “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” (Matt. 5:44 NKJV) Christian wars are a misnomer. The Crusades and other European religious wars were not Christian. Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world.

When one looks at the armor a Christian is to put on to fight the Christian warfare,“put on the whole armor of God” (Eph. 6:11 NKJV), that he might stand and not fall one finds that he is given “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Eph. 6:17 NKJV) This is the word which is described in the Hebrew letter as being, “living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Heb. 4:12 NKJV)

There are those today who would remake the sword of the Spirit into a butter knife. Just sharp enough to cut soft butter and that’s it. They do not want a sharp two-edged sword, one that pierces in the way described in Hebrews 4:12. The fear is that someone might get hurt, that is, get their feelings hurt. They are not going to wield any such sword, and so you can forget them as an active soldier in the Lord’s army. They will not debate the truth; they will not contend earnestly for the faith; they will not wield a two-edged sword.

One of the great failings of Christian understanding is to understand that until the heart is pricked with the sword of the Spirit (and someone has to wield it) there can be no repentance, no seeking of salvation, and no turning from error or sin to the truth. You may hurt a man’s feelings for a day, yet save his soul for eternity. Until a man is convicted of the truth in his heart, the truth of his own sin, of his own error, the truth of what God requires of him, there will be no movement on that man’s part and thus no salvation.

I will never forget the wisdom of an old, long-gone preacher of my youth, one I never met, who has now been gone for a few decades. He was talking to a man who had been convicted of the truth but who was nevertheless unhappy with the preaching, as this man felt the preacher had not spoken as softly and kindly as perhaps he could have, and this offended the young man. The old wise preacher made a comment along these lines--that preacher is the best friend you will ever have. He taught you the truth and convicted you of it. Obviously, this is a paraphrase, but that is pretty much the exact thought expressed and how true it was and is yet to this day. Many is the man who will speak softly to us and who will allow us to go to hell before they will offend us, but how many a man is there who will tell us the truth? Which of the two is really our friend?

I told my children when they were growing up that one of the worst things that happens with adulthood is that when you reach that point, there are few who are willing to tell you the truth, even when you are dead wrong. When we are growing up, we have parents, teachers, and other adults who do not hesitate to jump in and let us know we are in the wrong but once a man or woman reaches adulthood suddenly no one is friend enough to any longer tell us the truth about ourselves. They nod and say yes to whatever we say. The days of being rebuked for a bad attitude and wrong doing whether toward God or man have come to an end. We are thus always right and never wrong, and how dangerous that is.

I close with this. God has an army. A man is either going to be in it and be a faithful soldier and take the sword of the Spirit and use it properly, which means for something other than buttering his bread, or else he is not. Either way, there are consequences that follow. For the one who picks up the sword of the Spirit and then drops it and turns tail and runs the Bible says, “The cowardly…shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” (Rev. 21:8 NKJV) Since that is the case, the only real choice a man or woman has, accept it or not, is fight or die.

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The Fragrance of Christ

The apostle Paul made the following statement in 2 Cor. 2:15-16, “For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death to death, and to the other the aroma of life to life. And who is sufficient for these things?” (NKJV)

I like the phrase “the fragrance of Christ.” When I think of the word fragrance, I think of that which has a pleasant smell--a flower out of the garden. But there are many wonderful fragrances when you live out in the country as I do. The smell of new mown hay, the smell of a cornfield in August on a late summer evening about dusk, the smell of the farm field after having just been turned over (plowed) in the spring. All evoke pleasant thoughts; arouse an inner peace and contentment, a satisfaction with God’s creation, and a comfort in knowing he is out there, Lord over all his creation. It is strange how smells can direct one to thoughts of God, but then God created them that way.

If we are a Christian, when we think of Christ, the thought of him should have the same kind of effect on us as the aromas we have been talking about. It is pleasant to think about Christ. Like the pleasant smells of a country evening in late summer, thoughts of Christ should bring peace and contentment to our souls and they do, that is, if Christ is in us and we are in him. When Paul preached Christ, those who accepted Christ found the tree of life, for Christ was and is that tree, a tree figuratively speaking, with pleasant blooms, a sweet fragrance of life, bearing as its fruit life itself.

But as there are pleasant smells, there are also unpleasant ones--the trash can, the hog pen, skunks, decaying animals killed in the road, etc. From those we flee. Christ and his gospel are like the unpleasant, offensive smell of death in those who are rejecting him. Ever wonder why some just do not want to hear it, the gospel? I am persuaded that deep down they know their guilt and their need but the desire is to live their life as they please (the Bible in the newer translations sometimes uses the phrase “selfish ambition,” or the word “selfishness,” or “self-seeking” with regards to a certain state of mind) and they thus harden their heart as they do not want to hear what they will not accept and that which condemns them.

To the one who hears the gospel and accepts it there is a sense of freedom, the conscience is made clean, and burdens are lifted as the song goes “at Calvary.” To the one who will not hear, does not want to hear, his view of Christ and his gospel is a message of enslavement, of the loss of personal freedom. Thus, the fragrance of Christ is to the one party pleasantness while to the other offensive. One man’s heart is hardened by the gospel of Christ, while the other man’s is softened and made tender, but it is always a personal choice as to which it will be; either way, we allow it.

In Eph. 5:2, the New King James Version of the Bible speaks of Christ’s sacrifice of himself for us as “an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” I think the International Standard Version states it best as far as the meaning of the passage goes when it says Christ “gave himself for us as an offering and sacrifice, a fragrant aroma to God.” That is to say God was pleased. He was satisfied. Christ’s sacrifice was sufficient.

The fragrance of Christ is the fragrance of life, of pleasantness. Each of us must choose either the fragrance of life or the fragrance of death. We get to choose which it will be. Moses, in speaking to the children of Israel in Deut. 30:19, spoke words that are applicable to us today as well. “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.” (NKJV) Why not choose Christ?

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The Church Christ Built--Marks of Identification

The church Christ built is worthless to man if it is impossible to find it, if it only existed in ancient history, and cannot be known today. Fortunately, like all things that exist, there are marks of identification that allow us to know his church from those made by man. What are the marks of identification of the Lord’s church versus man-made churches?

(1) The time of its founding. The Lord’s church began in the first century on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. Any church that was built or came into existence later cannot be the church Jesus built. Many of today’s churches were founded during the years of the Reformation and in the years since then, thus eliminating them from consideration as being the church Jesus built.

(2) The builder--Christ himself built his church. If a church can trace its beginnings back to a particular man or movement that can be named for its founding, it is clearly not the church Christ built.

(3) Its name. If a church is the church Jesus built, then one would expect it would not have a name given by men attached to it. Actually, no formal name was ever given to the church Jesus built. It was often referred to by appellations such as: the body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23, 4:12), the Lamb’s bride (Rev. 21:9-10, Rom. 7:4), the church of God (Acts 20:28), the church of Christ (Rom. 16:16), the church of the living God (1 Tim. 3:15), the church of the firstborn (Heb. 12:23), the household of God (Eph. 2:19), the flock of God (1 Peter 5:2), God’s field (1 Cor. 2:9), God’s building (1 Cor. 2:9), the house of God (1 Tim. 3:15), the temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16-17), and, of course, the most common designation for the church in the Bible is the singular term, “the church.”

When a church has a name or designation not found in the Bible, that ought to immediately raise a red flag. That alone tells you it differs from what you find in scripture and makes it suspect. If a church is named after a man, a method of governance, or a peculiar doctrinal stance, it detracts from God’s honor and glory. God is to be given glory in the church (Eph. 3:20-21)—not a man or a movement.

(4) Its members--their names. In the church built by Jesus no member was called anything other than a disciple, a brother or a sister as the case might be, or just brethren when taken collectively, a child of God, a saint, or just by the name Christian (Acts 11:26). This listing is not necessarily exhaustive but is sufficient to make a needed point. In the New Testament church there were no such beings as Christians who also had an additional appellation or name to distinguish them from others. This was the very thing Paul condemned in 1 Cor. 2:4 when he said, “For when one says, ‘I am of Paul,’ and another, ‘I am of Apollos,’ are you not carnal?” (NKJV)

No church whose members are called by a denominational name in addition to the name Christian is the church Jesus built. Not only is it carnal, as Paul said, but it is also dishonoring to God, as if it is not good enough to just be called a Christian or child of God. The name “Christian” is a Christ-honoring name. Denominational names dishonor Christ as his name is replaced with that which the Bible knows nothing about.

(5) Membership--how do people become members of Christ’s church? This is an easily answered question. The church was established on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. When Peter confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, in Matt. 16:16, Jesus’ responded by saying, “on this rock I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18 NKJV) but then in the very next verse he tells Peter, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 16:19 NKJV) Jesus thus uses the terms the church and the kingdom interchangeably making them one and the same.

The kingdom of God is not something that in our own time is down the road in the future. Jesus said to those with whom he was speaking, in Mark 9:1, “Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.” (NKJV) Paul says some years later in Col. 1:13, “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love.” (NKJV)

Peter used the keys of the kingdom (the keys being the gospel message with its requirements) on the day of Pentecost. When the 3,000 that day heard the message, believed it, repented of their sins (as instructed to do--Acts 2:38), and were baptized for the forgiveness of sins (as instructed to do--Acts 2:38), they were then translated into the kingdom of God by God himself. It is in that kingdom, not out of it, where salvation is found. If saved that day, no one doubts that they were, they were at that very time translated into the “kingdom of the Son of his love.” (Col. 1:13 NKJV)

Men do not join the church (the kingdom of God), but rather God adds them upon conditions. “The Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47 NKJV) The conditions are those set forth by Peter on the day of Pentecost. Jesus said, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5 NKJV) There are only two kingdoms, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. One must be in the kingdom of God for salvation, but Jesus is the Savior of the body (Eph. 5:23) which is the church (Col. 1:24). The kingdom and the body, the church, are one and the same, the difference being only in the way it is being portrayed. The kingdom has a king, the body has a head, but the same one who is king is also the head--the head of the body and of the church, which are one and the same (Col. 1:24).

Membership in this body, this church of Christ, this church Jesus built, is granted only on the basis of the new birth (John 3:5). It begins with the Spirit in that through the Spirit’s word, the gospel message, man is led to faith and repentance and a willingness and desire to confess Christ for who he is--the Son of God--and it culminates in baptism for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38, 22:16) but more succinctly to put to death the old man of sin and to arise a new spiritual creation (Rom. 6:4-6). The old man dies in baptism (Rom. 6:4), “we were buried with him through baptism into death.” (NKJV) We come up from the water clothed with Christ (Gal. 3:27 NAS). Paul is thus able to say, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body…and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.” (1 Cor. 12:13 NKJV)

These then are the terms of membership if one desires to be in the church Jesus built. One can get into churches built by men on other terms, into man-made churches, but there is only one way into the Lord’s church. We must go back to the New Testament and enter the Lord’s church on the same terms of membership that they did back then. The same process that makes one a Christian also makes him a member of the church Jesus built, also adds him to the church, the Lord doing the adding when the requirements are met.

(6) Another mark of the Lord’s church is its organization. Each congregation was on its own, running its own affairs, with no guidance from any kind of national church organization. Each congregation was to have elders appointed who met certain requirements as set out in 1 Tim. 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9. This group of men was sometimes referred to under various terms in the same way Christians were as discussed earlier. The terms used were elders, overseers, shepherds, bishops, pastors, and rulers.

One of the requirements for a bishop or elder was that he be “the husband of one wife” (1 Tim. 3:2, Titus 1:6), and thus the church Jesus built was led by men. There were no women in leadership positions in the church. Perhaps the reason is given by Paul in 1 Tim. 2 when he says, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man…for Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.” (1 Tim. 2:12-14 NKJV) This is a historical reason that time will never be able to erase and thus it was not a matter of culture as some teach today.

If you find a congregation that is in violation of God’s plan for church leadership, you can be certain that it is not the church Jesus built or it has apostasized, one or the other. The eldership was always made up of a number of men and not just a single individual (Titus 1:5, Heb. 13:17). Thus, in the church Christ built, there were no women in leadership positions or teaching over men (preachers), nor was there any such thing as the modern pastor system. Those things are from men, not God.

There was also a group of men known as deacons who worked or served in the church under the direction of the eldership. Qualifications for these men are found in 1 Tim. 3:8-13. Some feel the 7 men chosen to supervise the daily distribution in the church at Jerusalem, as found in Acts 6:1-6, were the first deacons. They certainly filled the role deacons might well fill.

(7) Worship of the church. What are the acts of worship as found in the New Testament that, when done in the right manner, please God? Partaking of the Lord’s Supper on the first day of the week is one (Acts 20:7), prayer is another, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19-20, Col. 3:16) is included, teaching of God’s word in which exhortation would be a part, and giving. Very few, if any, would object to any of these things for all are pretty much in agreement that these things can be found on the pages of the New Testament as things authorized in worship. We can do all of these things in the name of the Lord Jesus. “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Col. 3:17 NKJV)

But when we talk about the worship of the church, there is more to it than just the correct object of worship--God in heaven. Jesus said we must worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:24). He then says in reference to God that, “Your word is truth.” (John 17:17 NKJV) This means, obviously, that man is not free to worship God just any way he chooses and call it worship, worship that is pleasing to God. God gets to decide what pleases, not man. If you recall, the church at Corinth in 1 Cor. 11 had a worship problem as it pertained to the Lord’s Supper. We are not free, in the Lord’s church, to do things our way.

The problem today, when one is searching for the church built by Christ as far as it pertains to the worship, is finding a church that has not added to the worship. All kinds of entertainment have been made a part of the worship--plays, instrumental music, musical entertainment (generally called in my part of the country “special music”), special events, and around election time even political rallies passed off as worship service. No, if we want the church the saints had in the first century, the one that belonged to Christ, we will have to content ourselves with doing what they did under divine approval and say that is good enough for it is good indeed as it came to us from “the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” (James 1:17 NKJV)

(8) The works of the church. The church Jesus built taught the gospel, they attempted to build each other up in the faith, and lend a hand to one another as needed; they were encouraged in every good work, and helped the poor and needy. The mission of the church was spiritual, but that did not mean it was divorced from the cares of this world completely. “Whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (1 John 3:17 NKJV)

Much of what you see being done in churches today was never a part of the New Testament church. There were no ball teams, no seminars on how to do your taxes or lose weight, no business enterprises to raise money versus giving it out of your own pocket, and the list could go on and on. We need to learn what work the New Testament churches were involved in and get back to it, and forget about everything else.

In this article, I have tried to set forth the marks of identification for the church Christ built. That is the church we need to be in and get back to. If we did all denominations would cease to exist. Men will fight that tooth and nail for it is one thing to say we want Christ’s church and it is another thing to want it enough to give up “our church,” our denomination. In other words, the old saying “talk is cheap” is more than just a saying. A lot of things will have to be given up to get back to Jesus’ church, but it can be done once the will to do it is found. 

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