I've entitled this message, What
is the Church? What is this we're doing right
now? I dare say everyone knows this building is not the church.
People call buildings churches. You know that's utterly mistaken.
The church is the called out assembly. It's people who assemble
together called out by God. That's what the word church means,
a called out assembly. Now we've been looking in Ephesians
chapter five, verses 22 through 33 for five or six messages.
I want to bring another message next week, Lord willing, on the
eternal union between Christ and his church. But notice in
verse 23 of Ephesians five, Christ is the head of the church. Verse 24, therefore, as the church
is subject unto Christ. Verse 25, husbands love your
wives, even as Christ also loved the church. Verse 27, that he
might present it to himself a glorious church. Verse 29, for no man
ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth
it, even as the Lord the church. And then we read in verse 32,
this is a great mystery. I love the mystery of scripture. That's what makes it so awesome.
Truth is spoken that we would have never known had not God
been pleased to make it known. The mystery of the scripture. You know, this is a mystery religion.
It's a religion of divine revelation. It's not something you can just
figure out. It's what he's revealed. in his word. This is a great
mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. What is the church? Now, this word is used in two
senses in the Bible. The first sense is what we're
doing right now. This is the Todd's Road Grace Church, a local
church. Now, there are many institutions
that call themselves churches that are not churches. What is the criteria that determines
whether something is a church? Well, number one, the gospel
has to be preached. And number two, there's going
to be people there that believe the gospel. It is that simple. The gospel
is preached. Before we go on, hold your finger
there and turn to 1 Corinthians 15. If you would ask any of these
institutions that I'm saying are not churches, they'd say,
well, we are too. And if I would say, is the gospel
preached there? They'd say, well, of course it
is. Yes, the gospel is preached. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
we find out how God defines the gospel. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel. The gospel which I preached unto
you, it hadn't changed. It's the same gospel I preached
unto you, which also you've received. wherein you stand, your standing
is in the gospel, by which also you are saved by this gospel,
if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you believed
in vain. Four, and here's the gospel, there's not a more important
verse in all the word of God than this, so please listen carefully. Four, I delivered unto you, first
of all, that which I also receive, God gave me this, I received
it, and I'm giving it to you. This is a gospel of divine origin. This is not manmade. I'm delivering
to you that which I received. And here it is, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures. Now, the thought
is not ended until verse 25. But there's a conjunction before
every verse saying this is actually just one big long paragraph. But the first point is how that
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Now, when
he says according to the scriptures, New Testament hadn't yet been
written. He's talking about the Old Testament scriptures. How that Christ died for our
sins according to the way the Old Testament scriptures present
his death. Oh, you can preach the gospel
from the Old Testament as easy as you can in the New Testament.
Matter of fact, everything in the New Testament's in the Old Testament. You know,
people make some kind of division. I love what Brother Mahan used
to say, the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. The
Old Testament is the New Testament concealed. And when he's speaking
of preaching the gospel, it's how the Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures. And there's so many examples,
the great day of atonement, the Passover, and I love them all,
but God said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you.
Isn't that the gospel? Not when I see your faith or
when I see your obedience or when I see your good intentions,
or when I see anything about you, when I see the blood, there's
one thing God was looking for, only one, the blood of your son. And he said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. The gospel is how that Christ
died for our sins, according to the scriptures. The gospel
is how that Christ, who he is, God's prophet, God's priest,
God's king, the son of God, the creator, the one who controls
everything, the savior. How did Christ die? Why did he
die? for our sins. Who's the hour? That's very important. Who's
the hour? Is the hour everybody's? Did
he die for everybody's sins? Well, if he did, he's a failure
if not everybody's saved. And not everybody's saved. The
hour represents his elect, those the father gave him before the
foundation of the world. And if that's not brought out,
the gospel's not brought out because his death is not properly
brought out. It's how that Christ died for our sins, the sins of
God's elect became His sins, he became guilty of them. God
punished him for them. He gave his righteousness to
his people. How that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures. That's so simple. That's so simple. And every message that preached
in the church has to have something to do with that. And if that
is missing, the gospel is missing. And there's folks in the church
who believe this message. You believe what I just said?
Do you believe the gospel is how the Christ died for our sins
according to scripture? I believe everything in this
book. I believe the Bible is the word of God, and I believe
everything in this book. You got believers. You got the
gospel, and you have believers. That's what a local church is. But in a local church, like Todd's
Road Grace Church, and like any other local church, You have
wheat and tares. You have believers and unbelievers. And these local assemblies grow.
And they shrink. And at some point, they cease
to exist. The machinery may go on, but
the spirit of God is left. The gospel is no longer there.
No local church will continue. I don't know when the Lord's
going to return. I hope he returns to that, don't you? Wouldn't
that be wonderful? But what if he doesn't come back
for a hundred years? That may be, maybe 500 years. I don't
know, but any church at some point, the gospel will stop being
preached. What all is behind that? I don't
know, but it's going to happen. And the thing that is, if You
can see the wisdom of the Lord in this, because what if this
church had been in existence since the apostles? Man, that's
the church I want to be in. Oh, you'd find such comfort in
being in that church. This is the church. This is the
hub. This is the wheel. This is the
one I want to belong to. And the Lord scatters them all
to make sure we can't find any confidence in being a church
member as such. As a matter of fact, I think
it's crazy to have a church role, because whose names are you putting
on it? I mean, you're having wheat and tares, and somebody's
gonna find confidence, well, I'm on the church roll. What
difference does that make? There's only one church roll
I wanna be on. That's the Lamb's Book of Life. The General Assembly
and the Church of the Firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.
That's the church roll I wanna be on. That's the universal church. Now, there is the local church. And like I said, the local church
is made of wheat and tares. It never continues. And there
is the universal church. And that's the way that word
is used in all six of these times in Ephesians chapter five. It's
speaking of the universal church. It is all of those who are eternally
united to Christ. It's all of the elect of God. It's all that Christ died for. Now, what I love about this church,
listen to this, it never grows. and it never shrinks. It's always
the same. Turn with me to these scriptures. I was just talking about the
role. Look at these scriptures, Hebrews chapter 12. Verse 23, to the general assembly
and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven. Now that's the roll call I wanna
be on. Look at Revelation chapter 13.
This is also mentioned in the Old
Testament, in the book of Daniel and in the writings of Moses.
But look at verse eight. And all that dwell upon the earth
shall worship him, speaking of the false prophet, whose names
are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. Look at Revelation 20, verse 15. And whosoever was not found written
in the book of life, the names of all the elect written in this
book. Whosoever was not found written
in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Look in chapter 21, verse 27. And there shall no wise enter
in anything, talking about entering heaven, that defileth, neither
whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which
are written in the Lamb's book of life. Now this is everybody
who's in heaven and who's going to be in heaven. Everybody's
name who's written in the Lamb's book of life. It's called in
scripture, the Lamb's bride, the Lamb's wife. You remember
when the Lord met Paul on the road to Damascus and he said,
Saul, Saul, Why persecutest thou me? He didn't say them. He said me. Now, wait a minute.
The Lord was seated at the right hand of the father. Saul couldn't
get to him. I mean, he could squash him easy
if he wanted to, but he couldn't get to him. I mean, he was beyond
Saul's reach. But what does the Lord said?
What did he say? Why persecutest thou me? Such is the union between Christ
and his church. In as much as you've done it
to the least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me. That's
the Lord's words. He doesn't say it's just the
same as you doing it to me. He said, you've done it to me. And
in as much as you've done it not to the least of these, my
brethren, you've done it not unto me. Now, the church is The called out assembly. Called
by who? Called by God. What an awesome
thing to be a part of the church of the living God. Turn with
me to Ephesians chapter one. Remember, we're asking the question,
what is the church? Verse 22. He hath put all things
under his feet, God the Father has put all things under the
feet of the Son, he's the Lord, and gave him to be the head over
all things to the church, which is his body. The fullness of him that filleth
all in all. Now I want you to think about
what that verse of scripture says. It says the church is the
body of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says the church is the fullness
of him that filleth all in all. He, and I wouldn't say this unless
the scripture taught it, he would not be full if one of his people
were missing. Now, this is prefigured when
Adam was created. And remember, Adam was not complete
until who was created? Eve. She made his completeness. Now, the Lord, and I say this
reverently, I say it amazed, I say it fearfully, but the Lord
would not be complete without any one of his people. The church
is the fullness of him that filleth all in all. Now it's true, we're
complete in him. Aren't you thankful for that verse? I don't know
how many times when I'm feeling down, that verse comforts me. I'm not lacking anything. I'm
complete, I'm plumb full is what that means. I'm full. Everything
God requires of me, I have in his fullness. You're full, you're
complete in him. While that's true, it's also
true that we complete him. And I wouldn't dare say that
unless the Bible said that we are the fullness of him that
filleth all in all. Every individual member of the
church makes up his body in its fullness and completion. That's
a mystery, isn't it? That's a mystery. That's not
something we would ever know had he not made that known to us. Look at Ephesians chapter five, verse 25. Husbands, love your
wives, even as Christ also loved the church. That's all the elect. That's
his body. That's his bride. That's who
he loves. And if I make it different from
that, I've taken away the meaning of that verse of scripture. You
know that probably 90%, 99%, I don't know, most religion maintains
that God loves every body. Now, let me say this. It's not so. And there's a point behind it.
It's not just that, well, he doesn't love everybody. You might
not be one of them. That's not what this is about. The point
is, is everybody he loves, he saves. That's the point. His love is salvation. He can't love somebody and that
person wind up in hell. Christ loved the church. How much? He gave himself. He gave himself for every member
He gave all, oh, what he paid for his church. And here's what comes about from
him giving himself, that he, verse 26, might sanctify and
cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. Now, he sanctified
all of his people by his death. He made them holy. and he cleanses
them. And I need to be cleansed every
day, don't you? I get my feet dirty every day and I need to
be cleansed every day. And the preaching of the gospel
is bath time for the believer. The washing of water by the word. That, verse 27, he might present
it to himself a glorious church. Now you can look at Todd's Road
Grace Church and you can say, what's glorious about that? Look
at the preacher, that's enough to let you know that's not the
case. Well, you don't see what God sees. He sees his church
as a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish before him. And now he says to his church,
he says this to every individual believer, he says this to you. Thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot in thee. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
16. Verse 18. And I say also unto thee that
thou art Peter and upon this rock, upon this foundation, I
will build my church. Now the church is that which
he builds. A lot of men have made a stab at it. They even
have people that do church planting and they'll go in some place
and they'll plant a church and all that kind of foolishness.
That's all that is. I will build my church. Upon this rock will I build my
church. Upon what rock? Peter's confession
of Christ. The message of the church is
who is Jesus Christ? What did he do? Whom do men say
that I am? They say good things. Some say
you're Jeremiah or John the Baptist, one of the prophets. Some say
ye, thou am. Peter said, thou art the Christ, the son of the
living God. You believe that, that he's God's
Christ? You know, when we talk about
him being prophet, he is the word of God. Prophet brings men
the word of God. He is the word of God. A priest
brings me into God. Supposedly, they just picture
what he does. He brings me into the Father's presence. I love
to think when the Lord said, no man comes to the Father but
by me. That means when he comes into the Father's presence, you
know who else comes? Every one of his people. Eternally
united to him. What a priest. The priest that
offered up his own blood to the Father and the Father accepted
it. And what a king he is. This is, a human king has no
power. He has all power. He's the son
of the living God. He's the creator. He's the one
who controls everything. He's the savior. If you're saved,
it's up to him. You know, the leper understood
this. Lord, if you will. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. Do you know anything about Come
into this presence the way the leper did. Lord, he worshiped
him first. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. The only church that is the church is the one that
he has built by his glorious work, working out a perfect righteousness,
paying for their sins, giving them his righteousness, giving
them a new heart, calling them by his grace, the called out
assembly. Look in, Let's stay here, verse
19. He says, verse 18, I say unto
thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I'll build my
church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. You know what that means? That
means he's gonna bust down the gates of hell and get his church
out of it. We're by nature children of wrath,
just like everybody else, and he's going to knock down the
gates of hell. I just love the power of that.
I mean, Satan wants to keep his goods. He can't do it against
this one. He knocks down the gates of hell. And when he saved
you, he knocked down the gates of hell to bring you out. Look
what he says in verse 19. And I'll give unto thee the keys
of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever, this is the work
of the church, whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be
bound in heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt loose
on earth shall be loose in heaven. Now, you know, people think,
well, Peter has all this power as the Pope and whatever he binds
here on earth, it's going to stay here. You don't want to
be able to get to heaven, whatever he sets free. No, that's talking
about the gospel. You know, the gospel looses men,
sets them free. The gospel binds men when they
try to approach God on the basis of their works and their goodness.
You can't get into heaven that way. That's what that means.
Our message is a message of liberation to some and a message of binding
to others. That's the work of the church.
Look in Ephesians chapter three. Ephesians chapter three, verse
eight. Unto me, whom less than the least of all the saints is
this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what
is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the
world hath been hidden God, who created all things by Jesus Christ,
to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers and
heavenly places might be known by, who? The church, the manifold wisdom of God. Do you know anything about the
manifold wisdom of God? If you know how he can be just
and justifier, that is the manifold wisdom of God. Rejoicing in that. If you know how God can accept
you for Christ's sake, God has made known to you his own manifold
wisdom. Now that's the high privilege
of the church. I said this this morning, there
are many people who would think about how God can be just and
justify the ungodliness, dry doctrine. Dry doctrine, give
me something I can feel, I feel it. I feel it. I love how he
saves sinners, but that's the special privilege of the church.
Look in Hebrews chapter two. And this is Christ speaking in
verse 12. Let's look at verse 11. For both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one. For the witch cause
he's not ashamed to call them brethren. You know he's not ashamed
on me, that's my brother. That's my brother. He says that
of every single one of his people. He's not ashamed of me. That's
my brother, that's my sister. I made him so. Now let's go on
reading. Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In
the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. You see, it's only the church
that can hear him singing. Singing the praise of his father.
You know, only the church can enter in unto now unto him that
loved us and washed us from our sins and made us kings and priests
to God. They're the only ones that can
enter into that. The church, they hear Christ singing. In Matthew chapter 18, verse
20, it was read this morning. The Lord said, where two or three
are gathered together in my name. Now that's what's going on right
here. This is the called out assembly. Where two or three
are gathered together in my name. You know, all I want to hear
is his name. I want to be saved in his name.
And I'm not interested in anything else. We're gathered together
in his name. Do you want to hear what I've
got to say? No. Do you want to hear what he has to say? Yes. We're gathered together in his
name, the public assembly of the saints. Now, this is why
church is so important. He's here. Is any other reason needed? He's
here. He said that I walk in the midst
of the seven golden candlesticks. Now that's talking about those
churches in the first two or three chapters of Revelation. And those churches had problems. He talks about, I've got this
against you. I've got this against you. I've
got this against you. You see, the church is comprised
of sinners, saved by grace, who are still sinners. It's only
the universal church assembled in heaven in their head that
is no longer sinful. They're perfect in Christ Jesus.
But the church here on earth, it's still folks like me and
you. And the Lord still says, I walk in the midst of the seven
golden candlesticks, those seven churches. That's why church attendance
is important because he is here. And let me say this. And I mean,
I know this is so. The most real, glorious, private
worship you'll ever have is in public worship. Somebody says, well, I'm just
fine with private worship. You ain't worshiping. You're
talking, but you're not worshiping. The most real assuring worship
that goes on is in hearing the preaching of the gospel and believing
it. And you know you're saved. You
hear this message. I'm one of his. I'm part of his
church. I want to look at another couple
of scriptures. Look in Revelation 22. Verse 16, I, Jesus, have sent
mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. In the churches is called out
assembly. That's where he testifies to
us these things. Look in verse 17, and the spirit
and the bride say, come. This is what the church does.
It says to the world, come to Christ. Come and welcome. You know, preaching his love only for the
church doesn't keep us from calling upon all men, come and welcome.
If you come, you'll be received. If you ask for mercy, he'll give
you mercy. Turn to 1 Timothy 3. Verse 15. Paul is speaking to Timothy and
he says, if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest
to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of
the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth. That's what the church is. It's
the house of God. It's the place where his family
gathers. And I love the way he calls the church the pillar and
the ground of the truth. Now, the truth is Christ. The
truth is his gospel. The truth is his grace. The truth
is his word. What does a pillar do? It upholds
something that you can see, doesn't it? You don't have pillars underground.
The pillar upholds something so that all can see it. The church
is the pillar of the truth. Well, I thought seminaries were.
No, you were wrong if you thought that. There's nothing in the Bible
about seminaries. The church is the place where people learn
the gospel to preach it, not seminaries. Seminaries are a
parachurch organization. I don't believe in any parachurch
organizations, like the Campus Crusade or the Young Lions, all
those things. No, it's the church. That's it. It's the pillar of the truth. It upholds the truth for the
world to see, and the church is grounded in the truth. That's its ground. It's the pillar
and the ground of the truth. Now, listen to these names of
the church. It's called the body of Christ.
This is the church. What is the church? The body
of Christ, the church of Christ, That's not talking about the
denomination. The Lamb's wife. The Lamb's bride. The brethren
of Christ. His companion. Daughters of the
King. The family of God. The fold of
God. The flock of Christ. the sheep,
the friend of God, his habitation, the house of
God, the Israel of God, the lot of his inheritance, members of
Christ, a peculiar people. And that doesn't mean what we
think. We think they're peculiar, they're
weird. Well, there's a lot of weird people in the church. I
wouldn't stop one of them. But that's talking about a purchased
people. His purchased possession. The portion of the Lord. The
temple of God. The treasure of God. The apple
of his eye. vessels of mercy, the vineyard of the Lord, children
of the living God, the ones the father gave him. Now, what an awesome thing it
is to be in the church. It's an awesome thing, isn't
it? It's a glorious thing to be called out by God himself. Now, I have to say this. I'm going to close with this
thought. People leave the church, and
people get mad, get miffed, go somewhere else. I hate that when that happens,
but as long as they're going to church where the gospel is preached,
I'm happy. But understand this, the only
reason to leave a church, the only reason to leave a church
is because the gospel is not preached. And at that point,
it's no longer a church anyway. Get out of there. And if the
gospel ceases to be preached here, You need to leave, go somewhere
else where you can hear the gospel. But understand this, the only
reason, well, they got problems in that church. Well, no more
problems than you have in your own life. I mean, it's sinners. Well, I've been offended. Well, yeah, you get around people like
all of us, that's going to happen. You can just write it down. That's
going to happen. And I'm not going to say, If
I've offended you, I'm sorry. When I have, I'm sorry. I really
am. I wish I hadn't done it. But
remember, the church is the apple of his eye, his people. What a blessed thing
to be in the church of Jesus Christ. Let's pray.