KenH
Well-Known Member
The Church Built By The Lord Jesus Christ
It’s so important that we make it clear to EVERY SINNER with whom we have an opportunity to share the Gospel of Christ and His imputed righteousness, that Christ WAS NOT SETTING AN EXAMPLE for them to emulate in order to gain or maintain eternal life. DON’T GET ME WRONG! It is true every regenerated and converted sinner that God the Father justified and Christ redeemed at Calvary has a desire to love God with all their heart. “We love him, because he first loved us.”(1 John 4:19) They also desire to love their neighbor as themselves – “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.”(1 John 4:7) Yet, even though they have this desire, every true child of God is forced to confess daily how miserably they fail the God of their salvation – “For I know that in me(that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do … O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:18,19,24) This reveals the difference between those born of God and those still in a state of lostness. Unregenerate, lost sinners THINK they are saved based on what they’ve done or what they’ve been enabled to do – Read Matthew 7:22; Luke 18:9-12. Many think that Christ desires them and needs them to build His church. Nothing could be further from the truth! Contrary to popular belief, Christ’s Church ISN’T built with moral, sincere, dedicated, and committed people – “But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Matthew 9:13) Christ, as well as all His disciples were quite clear on this point. The Church Christ BUILT is an innumerable group of sinners chosen by God the Father in the everlasting covenant of grace – Read Ephesians 1:3,4. These same sinners, chosen by the Father are the ONLY ONES that Christ redeemed and that the Father justified by Christ’s obedience unto death at Calvary – “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the CHURCH OF GOD, which HE HATH PURCHASED WITH HIS OWN BLOOD.”(Acts 20:28) These elect and redeemed sinners will in God’s appointed time, by God the Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the Gospel, be brought to recognize and learn of all that God the Father determined to give them, and all that Christ the Son purchased for them – “And because ye are sons (NOT IN ORDER TO BECOME SONS), God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father.”(Galatians 4:6) This is the Church of God, and you don’t add yourself to it. God adds, through the preaching of the Gospel, those whom He loved before time – “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47b) and all God’s children would have it No Other Way.
- by Richard Warmack, pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Ruston, Louisiana
It’s so important that we make it clear to EVERY SINNER with whom we have an opportunity to share the Gospel of Christ and His imputed righteousness, that Christ WAS NOT SETTING AN EXAMPLE for them to emulate in order to gain or maintain eternal life. DON’T GET ME WRONG! It is true every regenerated and converted sinner that God the Father justified and Christ redeemed at Calvary has a desire to love God with all their heart. “We love him, because he first loved us.”(1 John 4:19) They also desire to love their neighbor as themselves – “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.”(1 John 4:7) Yet, even though they have this desire, every true child of God is forced to confess daily how miserably they fail the God of their salvation – “For I know that in me(that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do … O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:18,19,24) This reveals the difference between those born of God and those still in a state of lostness. Unregenerate, lost sinners THINK they are saved based on what they’ve done or what they’ve been enabled to do – Read Matthew 7:22; Luke 18:9-12. Many think that Christ desires them and needs them to build His church. Nothing could be further from the truth! Contrary to popular belief, Christ’s Church ISN’T built with moral, sincere, dedicated, and committed people – “But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Matthew 9:13) Christ, as well as all His disciples were quite clear on this point. The Church Christ BUILT is an innumerable group of sinners chosen by God the Father in the everlasting covenant of grace – Read Ephesians 1:3,4. These same sinners, chosen by the Father are the ONLY ONES that Christ redeemed and that the Father justified by Christ’s obedience unto death at Calvary – “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the CHURCH OF GOD, which HE HATH PURCHASED WITH HIS OWN BLOOD.”(Acts 20:28) These elect and redeemed sinners will in God’s appointed time, by God the Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the Gospel, be brought to recognize and learn of all that God the Father determined to give them, and all that Christ the Son purchased for them – “And because ye are sons (NOT IN ORDER TO BECOME SONS), God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father.”(Galatians 4:6) This is the Church of God, and you don’t add yourself to it. God adds, through the preaching of the Gospel, those whom He loved before time – “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47b) and all God’s children would have it No Other Way.
- by Richard Warmack, pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Ruston, Louisiana