Man
is an incurable religious creature. He was designed to seek and to love and
that is what man does regardless of his culture or race or the time in
history in which he was born into. There are two kinds of men in this world.
They are the sons of Adam or they are the Sons of God. The sons of Adam of
which we all were when we came into this world are natural seekers and will
love something in the creation to fill the void that was left there when the
first Adam was expelled from the presence of God. All men will love and
cling to something because that was what Adam was designed to do. Our first
parents were designed to love the creator. Our first parents walked with the
creator in unison and harmony. Adam did not know God apart from himself
until the day he eat the forbidden fruit and hid himself when he heard God
approaching as He walked in the cool of the day. He was ashamed because he
found himself naked. Now separated from his Creator, a mans instinct is to
cover himself to hide the shame of being separated from his creator.
Man has been running away from God seeking a refuge
ever since. Although a natural seeker, he does not seek God, “there is none that seeks after God…” is what the scriptures
tell us. And although man will find a thousand things to love, he cannot
find or Love God in his natural condition.
The natural man is doomed in his condition where he
cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. The natural man is in a
state of condemnation where he loves the darkness. It is in this state that
a man will seek a refuge where he can hide from the light that reveals him
and his efforts for what they are. “Light has come into the world shining
in the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it.” And the Apostle
tells us…“Every man's work shall
be made manifest: for the day shall declare it,…” (1 Cor.3:13)
Since the beginning religion has become the refuge
where many and I will dare to say… most have turned. Cain was the first
religious man when he offered up the works of his hands giving his first and
best of his hard earned crops. As we know, God rejected Cain and ever since
man has determined what should be acceptable to God and by what means God
should be pleased. That is what religion is all about, mans effort to bind
himself back to the God of his own imagination.
The Church- that which the world perceives to be
the church; is an extremely religious entity; it has been almost
from its inception. There is the church which the world perceives as the
Church and it is this church where one can see the religious activity
whereby men’s efforts are measured as they seek to bind themselves back to
God. And then there is the
Church which God himself is building. We need to understand both if we are
to answer our question, “What is wrong with the church?”
Let’s start in the positive by
looking at the church which God is building. By doing so and understanding
His church it may be possible that we do not need to spend much time looking
at the church which the world perceives and has been built by men.
First of all, whatever the church is that God is
building; His Son tells us that the very gates of Hades will not prevail
against it. The Church will be built and it will be successful in the
purpose for which it is being built. Secondly, the church is a living
entity. According to the Apostle that entity is the body of Christ. In his
letter to the Ephesians he writes…”Christ
is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
(Ehp.5:23) For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
(5:30) This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the
church. (5:32) Thirdly, there is only one church. Undivided, it is the body of Christ.
There
is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are
called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One
God and Father of all, who is above
all, and through all, and in you all. (Ehp. 4:4-6)
This in a nut shell is the true
church
of
God
. The Church is the Spiritual Kingdom of God upon this earth. It is well and
alive today and is entirely successful for the profound purpose for which it
serves. And that purpose can be found in Ehp. 3:9,10 NRS “… to make everyone see
what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all
things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety
might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly
places.”
Death itself cannot stop the church;
the great and last enemy to be destroyed cannot stop the church from moving
forward in time as it grows into the fullness of Christ’s body. We are
members of his body, as was God was in Christ reconciling the world to
himself, so we have become one with God in the body of his Son who loved us
and gave himself for us. We are no longer strangers from God but are members
of His household. The church is the household that has been built upon the
foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief corner stone. The church is the building being fitted together as it
grows into the holy temple in which you are a living stone. As was in the
Old Testament days, the
Temple
was the dwelling place of God, it was where heaven and earth meet. It was
first setup as the tabernacle in the wilderness which was built by Moses
after the pattern he was shown by God in the Mountain, and then the
Stone
Temple
that was built by Solomon five hundred years later. But neither the
Tabernacle or Stone temple are no longer, they were templar, they served as
a picture of the true temple which was to be built with living stones… “In
whom you also are builded together for an habitation of God through
the Spirit.
In
Apostolic astonishment Paul reminds his Corinthian listeners with this
question. What? know ye not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which
is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
God
has prepared for himself a body according to the Hebrew writer. God lives,
He “habitats” in the people
that make up that body which is the true
temple
of
God
. In short, the Church is the body of Christ which is made up of believers
and is the dwelling place of God on this earth. He in us and us in Him was
the priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus just hours before he was nailed to the
cross. "that they all may be one,
as You, Father, are in Me,
and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe
that You sent Me. (NKJ John 17:21)
To make the Lord’s Prayer possible the Father would fulfill an Old
Testament promise which would change the course of Human History. The Son of
God would ratify an entirely New Covenant based upon Better promises. The
Old Covenant would have to become obsolete but not until someone had come
along and kept it in its entirety.
This is Huge. In truth, it simply does not get any bigger then this in the
course of human events. God had established His nation under the first
Covenant at
Mt.
Sinai
with its do or die dictates. It was a ministry of death and condemnation
written upon tablets of stone. Though a ministry of death the Law was holy
and Just and good and it demanded satisfaction, it demanded perfection.
Within that Law that said “do this and live -do this and die” were the
shadows and types that Spoke and pointed to the coming of the promised one.
The entirety of the Old Testament with the Law, the prophets and the psalms
were in promise and preparation of the promised one.
"You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life; and these are they which testify of
Me.
(John 5:39)
All the shadows and types pointed to the Christ of God. Looking back,
we can see Him, in those shadows wrapped up in the Law of commandments and
ordinances that were against us. (Col. 2:13,14) And if we can see Him, then
you can see the church, back there …hidden in the types and shadows.
Before the Law that was
contrary to us should go away
…someone had to come along who would be born under it and keep it
perfectly. That someone was Jesus of Nazareth. He is the New Covenant and it
was His own Blood which ratified it.
What He
accomplished without going through all the detailed events found in the
gospel accounts of His Life was to fulfill the law of requirements that was
against us. The requirements and with its veil that said stay away and come
no closer or you must die. Jesus removed that veil and nailed those
requirements on His cross revealing the way back to God. His priestly prayer
could now be answered. He is the way the truth and the life. By man came
death; by a man came salvation from death. At the last day, the day of the
resurrection, when the last trumpet is blown, when salvation will be
complete, then the saying will be also be fulfilled which says, God will be all in all.
This is the goal of redemptive
history, “God will be all in all”
and its realization and culmination is focused upon the church. Here is what
Paul says… “…
and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe,
according to the working of his great power.
God put this power to work in
Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in
the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and
dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also
in the age to come.
And
he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all
things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all
in all.” (Ehp.1:19-23)
This is a very big passage
here and for the sake of repetition…it is the goal of redemptive history, “God
will be all in all” …for all creation groans and labors to this very
day because it is the earnest
expectation of the creation which waits for the revealing of the Sons of
God. (
Rom.
8:19)
This tells us that the revealing of the Sons of God has
not happened as of yet. That revealing will come when Christ who is the Head
of the Body comes for His Church who is His body at the last day. It is in
this hope in which we are saved, (Rom. 8:24) eagerly waiting for the
adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Christ is the first fruits, He is
the head of the church which has come out of the grave, and it is of
necessity that His body which is the church follows him. And when that day
comes, then will be fulfilled the saying, death
is swallowed up in victory; God
will be all in all.
The revelation of the church was for the name sake and glory of God.
In the entire known and unknown universe you can’t
possibly point to a loftier goal. There simply isn’t anything greater and
of import then God’s glory and His name. He tells us very plainly that He
is a jealous God. "...for
you shall worship no other god, because the LORD, whose name is Jealous,
is a jealous God".
NRS Exodus 34:14
It
is this God of the scriptures who reveals the church as the showcase for all
creation and the intelligence that fills it for the Kindness and the Grace
that he is displaying through the church. We who were dead in our trespasses
and sin, He has made us alive together in Christ, we who had no
hope and were without God in
this world have been brought near to God by the very blood of Jesus, He has
become our peace and has broken down the wall of separation, no more Veil,
…and in his flesh he has abolished the enmity the law of commandments that
was against us. And in so doing God has created for His glory the one new
man making peace that he might reconcile those who were called the
circumcision and those who were called the uncircumcision in
one body. God did this for His name sake and for His glory through the
cross, thereby putting to death the enmity between us and Him.
In summation, there is peace with God, there is
reconciliation with God, and it’s through the fleshly body of His Son who
offered himself up in perfect obedience to the Father on the cross through
death. It was only after his once for all sacrifice of himself upon that
cross whereby he entered into death, (it is Christ that has died) satisfying
the Father, that the mystery could be revealed; the mystery that God in
Christ would bring together all His chosen people into the one body. It was
something that was hid in ages past but now was being revealed by the Spirit
that was promised by God to be poured out upon His people.
There is one Body, one household, in which the
whole building is being fitted together and grows into the holy
temple
of
God
. Jew and Gentile, fellow heirs of that Body partaking of the promise in
Christ through the Gospel.
This was the message that
Paul was preaching as the unsearchable riches of Christ and it was his goal
to make us see the fellowship of this mystery and how it manifested the
wisdom of God to the intelligence that fills His creation. This was the
reason that Paul bowed his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for
whom the whole family in heaven
and earth is named.
If you have ever wondered how one might try to encapsulate the intent
of the scriptures and come to the bottom line… then I believe you can’t
go any further and any deeper then what the Apostle tells us about the
Church.
If we are to realize the one body concept of the church, if we are to
understand that the very Spirit of God has taken up His abode in that one
body, if we are to comprehend that we as individuals are members in
Particular of that one body, then how can such an organism be divided? Can
it be divided? Can God be divided? Can Christ be divided?
As a believer you know the answer to that question.
As
you turn this over in your heart and mind, ask yourself - What is the…
“sticky glue” that binds believers. What is it that ties all believers
from the day of Pentecost until now? What is that thing called when you walk
into a place where other believers are gathered and immediately you feel a
bond and a since of kinsmen ship even though you may not have ever set foot
there before?
I
believe Paul has the answer for us when he wrote his letter to Titus.
To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and
peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour. (Titus
1:4)
The
believer in God and in His Son Jesus Christ has a common body of
truth which all believers hold too since the Spirit of God moved men to pen
the written word. It is common in the sense that it is the faith,
that body of truth …the doctrine that is and has been accepted
between all believers regardless of time, place, culture, or
ethnic background; it has not changed nor can it. It is the truth of
the good news found in the gospel that speaks for the salvation common to
believers.
It
is that body of truth found in the written Word which is the only binding
ecclesiastical tie of the church wherever the church may
be found. But it is a tie that is all but lost to the church. What am I
talking about?
It is nearly unthinkable that the Baptist would cross his
denominational line and ask the Methodist, the Lutheran, the Nazareen,
the Church of Christ, the Pentecostal... how many denominations are there
…to sit down and consider together there Theology and understanding in the
things of God found in the scriptures. The denominational barriers
structured by there creeds, traditions and dogmas have made it all but
impossible to sit and discuss
“the Common Faith.” What does happen from time to time is that
they will gather around a common cause in a united effort to voice there
opinions around social change, but how often have you seen it come to
pass where the church comes together in the matters of Doctrine and Faith. I
dare say that most of you here today have never witnessed such a gathering.
But this is not a recent phenomena found in our time and culture, can you
hear the cry and the concern of the Apostle? Imagine Paul writting to the
church today, what do you suppose he would say?
Perhaps he has already said it when he wrote his letter to the
Ehpesians.
”I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of
the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness,
with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one
Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one
faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and
through all, and in you all.” (NKJ Ephesians 4:1-6)
Paul was not the only apostle to warn that there would be
a departure from the faith. Jude written probably around the time of
Paul’s death agrees. "Beloved, while I was very diligent to write
to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you
exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all
delivered to the saints." (NKJ Jude
1:3)
He tells his
listeners …exhorts them that
they should contend for the faith, earnestly! Before the apostles had a
chance to die there was already a departure from and a proliferation of
false teaching in the church...
hence they write…. “contend for the faith!”
But how does one began? With so many opinions coming out of the church...
with all the institutions for learning the scriptures, with all the
commentaries available today, with all the books that have been written to
help us, with all the interpretations and translations, which creed do you
take a stand on, which statement of faith… which translation of the Bible
do you take your stand on where you can cut your fellow believer if he or
she does not agree with you about that particular translation… where do
you start?
How do you cut through all the smoke and the straw men
that have been put up and built by the leaders of the “churches” over
the centuries? How do you get through the traditions and the dogmas and
the creeds that have been taught to believers and handed down for
generations which have replaced sound teaching and doctrine?
For some, it is unsettling and disturbing to even want to
approach and discuss these issues. There are many in the churches today who
do not think that doctrine is worth fighting for or over. For others it is
the very nature of the strife that these issues gender that gives them
purpose and drive. In other words they are just there for the fight and the
fight itself has become there refuge and comfort as they strive for meaning
in this life.
My hope is that what we are doing today will cause us to move in a positive
direction; the direction of the scriptures themselves. It is there…
that the body of truth, the teaching, the doctrine that encompasses the
common faith which has bound all true believers since God spoke to
them... that we find the comfort and hope of the Sovereign God of which we
owe our absolute allegiance too.
The Truth was designed to set men free. Jesus promises the believer... And
you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32)
Nature can show the Glory of God, but only in the written
word can we find the truth of God. Truth leads to freedom and yet there are
many sitting in the pews of the church who are hindered, in confusion,
and worse, they are in bondage to the traditions and the dogma being
taught. We need to be diligent; we need to be jealous for the word, because
it is only there in the scriptures that we will find the hope that is of
God, and the comfort that is God.
One good starting place is in the promise of God... the promise of God found
in the written word. It is there that He tells us that He knows those
who are His. Those who He has chosen... He will not forsake or lose one of
them. Contained in these seemingly simple passages are doctrines of profound
depth and importance to the believer, passages that contain hope and comfort
for those who would seek God and have ears that can hear.
John
6:39,40 And this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all
which he has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at
the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which
sees the Son, and believes on him, may have everlasting life: and I will
raise him up at the last day.
John
10:27,28 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And
I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater
than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
The Fathers will, the giving of a people, the seeing and the believing of
those people, the security of those same people, the promise of life to
those people, the resurrection of those people... the concept of a last day,
to perish or not to perish, and the greatness and the powerfulness of God,
are all found here in these seemingly simple passages. Simple enough for a
child to comprehend, and yet, look how many in the denominations that the
church has split into have divided over these very things as to there
meaning and intent.
One of the most sobering passages that I know of found in the scriptures is
when (lets turn there) “...the Lord said,” "Hear
what the unjust judge said. "And shall God not avenge His own elect who
cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? "I tell
you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man
comes, will He really find (the) faith on the earth?" (in
Luke 18:6-8)
There is a definitive article in the Greek found before the word "pis-tis"
which is the word for faith. The Young’s literal translation correctly
places that article so it reads, "the faith"
I don't know about you but the words of our Lord concerns me! No, It...
Troubles me!
Have you ever considered the Lords question here?
The
Lord when He does return will certainly find all kinds of
religiosity. He certainly will find denominationalism. He will find a
plethora of creeds and statements about faith. He will see the battle lines
drawn in the sand over all the cultural issues that the church has been
involved with over time- done in the name of God from the crusades to
the abortion clinics to homosexual rights. He will see the great edifices
that men have built from the great cathedrals of Europe built centuries ago
to the mega churches here in
America
where tens of thousands of the faithful crowd into buildings made of
glimmering glass and shinny steel.
He will see all
these things …but will he find the faith?
The church needs to reclaim the Faith, more so, the very Gospel itself that
declares the common salvation passed down from the Lord and His
Apostles. We need to understand the difference between truth and
doctrine of the scriptures and the traditions and the dogmas of men that have
been entrenched in the church. We need as the people of God, to grow
up in our understanding...
"That we henceforth be no more children,
tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the
sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is
the head, even Christ." (Ehp. 4:14,15)
And
that is our goal here...not to point a finger in judgment at the
differences that we may have... but to speak the truth in Love,
and that we will grow up in our Lord Jesus Christ... in all
things.
By
His grace and mercy may he bring this to happen.