The Church of Which I Must Belong

Q: What does the Bible say about the church?

The Bible describes the church as the body of Christ, His fullness, and a called-out assembly of believers. According to Ephesians 1:22, the church is defined as the body of Christ, which is His fullness that fills all in all. The church consists of those who have been called by God and gathered together to worship Him. It is not simply an organization but an organism made up of believers, referred to as a family or body, united in faith and purpose. Throughout Scripture, the church is emphasized as a divine institution with deep spiritual significance and purpose in God's redemptive plan.

Q: How do we know what the true church is?

The true church consists of all believers called by God, united in faith, and practicing the gospel. The true church, as described in Scripture, is made up of all those whom God has called. This includes believers from all backgrounds, united in their faith in Christ and the gospel. In 1 Corinthians 1:22-23, Paul emphasizes that true believers, regardless of their Jewish or Greek backgrounds, are those who have been called and see Christ as both the power and wisdom of God. The marks of membership in this true church include a shared belief in the gospel, the work of the Holy Spirit, and a life that reflects Christ's righteousness.

Q: Why is being part of the church important for Christians?

Being part of the church is essential as it is the community where believers worship, grow in faith, and support one another. Membership in the church is vital for Christians as it serves as the primary context for worshiping God and growing in their faith. The church is described as the body of Christ, symbolizing unity and mutual dependence amongst its members. As stated in Ephesians 5:25, Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, highlighting its profound significance. The church provides believers with fellowship, accountability, and encouragement to persevere in their faith, fulfilling the biblical mandate to gather together for worship and edification, as seen in Hebrews 10:25.

Q: What are the characteristics of the true church?

The true church is characterized by its members being called by God, united in the gospel, and reflecting Christ's holiness. The characteristics of the true church include its members being called out by God, sharing a unified belief in the gospel, and demonstrating lives transformed by Christ. All members possess the same nature given by the Holy Spirit and have experienced genuine conversion, evidencing a shared commitment to faith in Jesus. Additionally, the true church exhibits holiness, with every member marked by justification through faith—being made right with God through Christ's righteousness. As emphasized in Romans 8:30, God guarantees the glorification of every member, securing their eternal status in His family.

By grace I'm safe, grace free
and boundless. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor. We
are located at 4137 Todd's Road, two miles outside of Manowar
Boulevard. Sunday morning Bible classes at 9 45 a.m.. Sunday
services are at 10 30 a.m.. At 6 p.m. Wednesday services
at 7 p.m. Here's our pastor Todd Nyberg
I'm a reader versus scripture from Ephesians chapter 1 and
I've entitled this message, The Church of Which I Must Belong. Now this is an amazing verse
of scripture regarding what the church is. In verse 22 of Ephesians
chapter 1, it says, He hath put all things under his feet, 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, did you hear that description
of the church? The church is called the fullness
of him that filleth all in all, his very body. The church of which I must belong. Now I can certainly understand
someone becoming very cynical about most of what goes on under
the name of the church or Christianity. I'm ashamed of it and I do not
want to be identified in any way with most of what goes on
under the name of Christianity. It bears no resemblance to the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think that many so-called churches
would be nothing more than social clubs. I hope that doesn't sound
unkind, but it certainly is true. And I can understand why someone
could become very cynical about what most people call churches. But just because there's a counterfeit,
that does not mean there's not a true. There is such a thing
as a true church, a church of the living God. You see, 1 Corinthians
11, 18, Paul says to the church of Corinth, when you come together
as a church. There is such a thing as God's
people meeting together. It means a called out assembly.
God's people meeting together. Our Lord said we're two or three
are gathered together in my name. There am I in the midst of them. Now the church is an organism,
not an organization, but an organism coming together to worship her
head, her husband, her Lord, her Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We come together to hear his
word, to worship him, to sing his praise, to call upon his
name, to meet with his people. Coming to church is necessary. Now, the church is no man-made
institution. It is God's church. It's not something that had a
beginning. You know, before the New Testament, we read of the
church in the wilderness. As a matter of fact, the church
has always had existence before God. He said, before I formed
thee in the belly, I knew thee. He says that to every single
one of his people, every church member. The church has always been known
and loved by God. Now, the Bible uses the word
church in two different ways. First, there is the local church. I pastor a local church. In the Bible, there's the church
of Corinth, and the church at Ephesus, and the church at Philippi. A local church. Thank God for
the local church. This is my family, men and women
who believe the gospel, who preach the gospel, who are saved by
the gospel. I do not believe somebody that
has no interest in being part of a local church, if they have
no interest in that, I don't believe they have any love for
Christ because you can't be interested in love Christ and not love his
body. But in every local church, you have a mixture. of believers
and unbelievers, tares and wheat, sheep and goats. There are no
local churches with a pure membership, nor do we expect there to be.
The Lord gave the parable of the tares and the wheat. You
probably are familiar with that parable, where a man sowed wheat
and an enemy came in at night and sowed tares, which looked
just like wheat. And at the time of when they
were supposed to cut them down, they said, what, you want us
to cut them down all at once? You want us to rip the tares
out before we pull up the wheat? And he said, no, because you'll
pull up the wheat too. You see, we can't, I don't have
the sense to know who's a tare and who's a wheat. I can't make
that judgment. The Lord says, let them grow
together and the Lord will take care of that on judgment day.
So in a local church, you'll always have believers and unbelievers
saved and lost. There is no pure membership.
But the Bible also speaks of the universal or the Catholic
Church. Now, Catholic simply means universal. This is not a reference to the
Roman Catholic denomination like you have Catholics and Protestants.
I'm not talking about that at all. We're talking about the
universal church. This is the church that Christ
himself builds. I think of Matthew chapter 16
where the Lord said to his disciples, whom do men say that I the son
of man am? And they said, well, they say
pretty good things about you. Some say you're Elijah or one
of the prophets or Jeremiah. And he said, Whom say ye that
I am? And Peter answered, Thou art the Christ, God's prophet,
God's priest, God's king. Thou art the Christ, the son
of the living God. And our Lord answered Peter,
Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood hath not revealed
this to thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto
thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock This confession
you just made of me, I will build my church. And the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. Now let me show you some scriptures
where the church is referred to in this universal way. In Acts 20, 28, Paul said, Feed
the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
This is talking about every believer. We read in Ephesians 5, verse
25, where Christ loved the church, and he gave himself for it. This
is all of God's elect. This is every believer, everybody
for whom Christ died. Christ loved the church, and
he gave himself for it. In 1 Timothy 3.15, we read that
the church is the pillar and the ground
of the truth. That's not talking about some local church. That's
talking about the church, the Catholic church, the universal
church, the church of which every believer is a member. In Hebrews
12, 23, we read of the General Assembly and the Church of the
Firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. Now this is the church
I'm speaking of. This is the church of which I
must be a member. Now, let me give you some things
God's Word says regarding this church. I just read that passage
of scripture from Ephesians chapter 1, where he says, the church
is the fullness, the completeness of him that filleth all in all. It's his body, and he would not
be complete without his church. Now, I don't understand that.
I read it in the Word of God. There it is. He's the eternal
Son of God. He's in need of nothing, yet he's made himself. to where
he will not be complete without his church. That's why not one
member of this church will ever perish. The church is his body. The church is called in Ephesians
chapter 5, his bride. What a beautiful analogy. The church is the bride of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is one with his church. The church is called in 1 Timothy
3.15, the pillar. and the ground of the truth. Now, the truth
concerning God, who He is, is seen in the church and in His
salvation of the church. You see, God manifests who He
is in the salvation of a sinner, in the salvation of every sinner
that Christ died for. Every attribute of God is manifested
in me being saved. God manifests His sovereignty.
He chose me to be saved. He manifests His justice. He saved me in a way that honors
His justice, where my sins are punished and yet I deserve to
be saved because I have the very righteousness of Christ. He manifests
His wisdom, how He's made a way to be just and yet justify the
ungodly. He's manifested His love that
He could love such a one as me for Christ's sake. All that God
is, is seen in the church. How he saves sinners by his grace. Truly, glorious things of thee
are spoken, Zion, city of our God. According to Revelation
chapter 2, verse 1, Christ walks in the midst of his churches.
Now, where can I find the person of Christ? where his church gathers
together. He's promised, there I am in
the midst of them. And this gives us some idea of
the importance of church attendance. Christ is there. Wherever he
is, that's where I want to be. I'm not going to stay home if
he's there. Christ walks in the midst of the churches. Now, are
you a true church member? Do you belong to the true church? I'm not asking you right now
about a local church. You can have your name on the
roll of a local church, even a true local church, and miss
Christ altogether and never be saved. And it's also true that
you could never be a member of a true local church and still
be saved. The thief on the cross is an
example of that. Now, in order for us to answer this question,
I have to know what the one true church is, so I can know if I'm
a member of this church. Now, I've already said the word
church means a called-out assembly, called by God. The true church is everybody
that God has called. Listen to this scripture, 1 Corinthians
1, verses 22 and 23. Paul said, we preach Christ crucified. unto the Jews, the religious
fellows, that's a stumbling block and unto the Greeks, the intellectuals,
it's foolishness but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ,
the power of God and Christ, the wisdom of God You see, God
calls His church. It's the irresistible, invincible
call of His reigning, sovereign grace. The church is a called-out
assembly, called out of the world. It's made up of all of God's
elect, all those He chose before time began, all that Christ died
for, all who have been born of the Spirit, Every Christian. This is a church. And it's a
church of which all of its members have the same marks. They're
all new creatures in Christ Jesus. They're all born of the Spirit
of God. They all believe the gospel. They all have repentance toward
God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. They all love Christ
and they all hate sin. They all draw everything they
believe from one book, the Bible. They are at complete agreement. There's no fractures. There's
no divisions in this church. They're at complete agreement.
The Scriptures alone as our only rule and ground of faith and
practice. They all believe Christ alone
as the only ground of salvation. They all believe grace alone
as the only way they can be saved. They're all at complete agreement. They're all truly one. They all
believe that Christ is all in salvation. Now, this is a church
that depends upon no man, only the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I
am thankful in a true local church where God has called a pastor
and made him an undershepard of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that's a true office. God has I don't need to prove
it. Those who sit under me would
say, well, God's called him to preach. I know. He's my pastor. This is a true God-called office. But you know, every local church,
at some time, error is going to creep in. And it's going to
cease to be a church. It's going to become a religious
organization. A local church never lasts. But this is a church that's dependent
upon no man. It's a church that's not dependent
upon the hand of man in any way. It needs no charismatic personalities. It needs no fine buildings or
cathedrals or pulpits or money or any act of favor whatsoever
from the hand of man. This church depends on no man.
It depends completely on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the
church of which the promised blessings of the Bible truly
are possessed. This is God's building. The body
of Christ. The family of God. The church
of the firstborn. The temple of the Holy Ghost. The light of the world. the habitation
of God, the salt of the earth. This truly is the church triumphant,
of which the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. This
is the church of which Christ says, Lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. It is the only church where all
of its members are holy. It is the only church where all
of its members are saved. It is the only church that has
true unity. Its members are at perfect agreement. They believe the same thing.
You see, they have the same Savior. They've been taught by the same
Spirit. They have the same nature. And you take any one of them,
perhaps they've never met each other, and you'll find they all
believe the same thing. They all believe the Bible is
the inherent Word of God. They all believe God is God,
holy, in control, absolutely sovereign, absolutely holy. immutably
just. They believe the same thing regarding
God. They believe He's the creator
of all things and the first cause behind all things. They believe
He controls. They all believe the same things
about man. They all believe that man is dead in sins, unable to
do anything to contribute to his own salvation, and is totally
dependent upon the grace of God. They all believe that. They all
believe that Christ is all in salvation. They have no other
plea but the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I had a poor woman
come up to me very recently, and I asked her. She was trying
to promote something in her religion. I asked her, I said, what are
you going to say to God? She said, why should I accept
you? And she said, well, because I follow the steps of Jesus,
I walk in his steps. And I said, you don't even have
a clue as to what the gospel is, or you wouldn't say something
like that. The only plea as to why God would ever accept me,
every believer will say this, is because of the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Because His blood washed away
my sins, and His righteousness is the only righteousness I come
into God's presence with. All believers are in complete
agreement regarding what they believe. And as I've already
said, it's the only church where all the members are holy. Not
merely holy in profession, not merely holy in name, not even
giving them the benefit of the doubt, but holy in truth. Holy
in life. Holy in reality. There are no
unholy persons in this church. They're all holy in the Lord
Jesus Christ. God is... Christ is made unto
them wisdom, righteousness, holiness, and redemption. And it's the
only church that is truly Catholic. Universal. made of men and women
from every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation, and they're all one
in Christ Jesus. And this is the only church that's
truly apostolic. Now, a lot of churches make that
claim. They say, well, we can trace our succession all the
way to the apostles. Baptists do that, Catholics do
that, and it's impossible to do that. When somebody does that,
It's impossible, but this church, the universal church, the church
of God's elect, it's built upon the foundation of the apostles
and the prophets. It has true apostolic doctrine
and true apostolic practice, apostolic faith and apostolic
works, and it does not acknowledge anything else to be of God. This
is the church in which all the members endure to the end. They never quit. Now, the church
of which I pastor, I've seen so many come and go. Some who
claim to believe, and now they don't. They come and go. They
don't endure to the end. I've seen that so much. But in
this church, They all persevere all the way to the end. They
never quit. You may persecute them. You may
imprison them. You may beat them. You may behead
them, you may burn them at the stake, but they'll still endure,
no matter how Satan and the world have sought to extinguish this
church, it's still an anvil that has broken every hammer that's
tried to destroy it. This is the church where every
member endures all the way to the end, and it's the only church
of which no member can perish. Every member of this church is
eternally secure. They're secure because God willed
their salvation. God chose them before time began. And if God willed somebody's
salvation, they must be saved. They're eternally secure because
they have no sin. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
has wiped away their sin. They're eternally secure because
they have perfect righteousness before God. The perfect righteousness
of Christ is charged to them. regenerated by the Holy Spirit.
They have a new nature. The scripture says we're partakers
of the divine nature. Having the very nature of the
Spirit in the sense of being born of the Spirit. They're all
justified. That means they've never sinned. You see, this is what the gospel
does. It takes a sinner, a real bonafide
sinner, And the gospel makes it to where that real sinner
is not guilty of any sin. He's never sinned. That's what
justification is. That's what the blood of Christ
does. It actually justifies and makes me without guilt. Just
as truly as my sin became his, so that he became personally
guilty of it, and God punished him because he was guilty of
it, his righteousness becomes every true church member's, every
believer's. They become guilty of his righteousness.
Every believer is justified. Every believer is sanctified,
made holy, declared to be holy, made holy by the Holy Spirit,
given a holy nature. Every believer is justified,
sanctified, and glorified. Romans 8 to 30 says we're already
glorified. Now how can that be so? Because
you look at me, I don't look very glorified, but in the Lord
Jesus Christ, He's glorified. He's in heaven, seated at the
right hand of the Father. And so is every church member
in Him already glorified. God is for these people. And
if God be for us, who can be against us? This is the church
which does the work of Christ here on earth. Now, it may appear
weak and without influence. but it is through the church
that God acts, through her prayers, through her preaching. You see,
the church is the light of the world, the candle not hid under
a bushel, the city on a hill, the salt of the earth, and it
is the church that spreads the gospel net. And I love the way
The fishing of the church, you know, the Lord said, follow me
and I'll make you fishers of men. It's throwing a net out and pulling
in it. You know, the other kind of fish
is trickery. This is what most religion does.
It sets up bait to try to fool the fish. It's deceitful. Put
bait here, they'll like this and they'll... And that's what
goes on under most religion. They try to bait men to hear
middle like this middle But and they're trying to hide what they're
really trying to do But in the gospel we just throw out the
net and bring in the fish the Holy Spirit said to the church
at Antioch Separate me Saul and Barnabas for the work where into
I have called them Now this is the church Which will be truly
glorious at the end the bride adorned in the wedding garment,
perfectly conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. How
beautiful, how glorious will the church of His elect be seen
to be then. All other kingdoms will be gone. All other governments shall be
gone, but not the church for which Christ died. Oh, he's made himself a glorious
church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Now, this
is the church that I'm talking about, of which a man must be
a member if he would be saved. If I'm not in this church, it
would be better for me to have never been born. Now, am I a
member of this church, this church of the Lord Jesus Christ? But
there's only one way you can know if you're a member. Do you believe the gospel? Do you believe that Christ is
all in salvation? Do you believe that if he died
for you, your sins are gone? Do you believe that His righteousness
is the only righteousness needed to make you perfect and in this
church? Do you believe on Christ? Do you call upon His name? Are you right now resting in
Him as everything in salvation? Now that is the mark of membership
true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. All of the members of
this church believe the gospel. They believe the gospel of the
scripture, the gospel of Christ alone, of grace alone, of faith
alone, of the glory of God alone. They all believe that God does
everything in salvation and Christ gives all the glory. Do you believe? Now, if you believe, You are
a member of this glorious church. Now we have this message on CD,
on DVD, on cassette tape. If you call the church or write
the email address or write the church, we'll send you a copy.
This is Todd Niagara praying God will be pleased to make himself
known to you. That's our prayer. Amen. By grace I'm saved, grace
free and boundless. You have been listening to a
message by our pastor, Todd Nyberg. Address all correspondences to
Pastor Todd Nyberg in care of Todd's Road Grace Church, 4137
Todd's Road, Lexington, KY 40509. So, I'm going to start off by
saying that I'm not going to be doing any of this. I'm not going to be doing any of this. I'm not going to
be doing any of this. I'm not going to be doing any of this. I'm not going to be doing any of this. I'm
not going to be doing any of this. you.

The Church of Which I Must Belong

What does the Bible say about the church?

How do we know what the true church is?

Why is being part of the church important for Christians?

What are the characteristics of the true church?

Sermon Transcript

About Todd Nibert

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The Church of Which I Must Belong

What does the Bible say about the church?

How do we know what the true church is?

Why is being part of the church important for Christians?

What are the characteristics of the true church?

Sermon Transcript

About Todd Nibert

Comments

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