Go to the Church of God’s Choice

There is a statement that is commonly heard throughout our society that says: “Go to the church of your choice.” You have probably seen it (or similar statements) emblazoned on various bumper stickers, signs, posters, and billboards. This statement presupposes that there is a choice to be made in picking a church. For many people, this type of statement makes perfect sense – “it stands to reason!”

Within our communities, whether they be small towns or large, metropolitan cities, there are so many different “houses of worship.” In many places, you can find a number of “churches” – three, four, five, six, or more, all located within a short distance of each other. On one corner, you might see the church building where the local Methodists meet, across the street is the imposing place of worship of the “First Baptists,” while down the avenue is the large, impressive Roman Catholic cathedral. This supposedly presents the member of the community with a wide number of choices to be made when they start planning where to place their membership and attend worship services.

Many of these “churches” consider themselves “Christian,” meaning that their members at least maintain some sort of belief in Jesus Christ and recognize the Bible to be a source (however limited) of spiritual guidance and encouragement. Yet, these same “churches” also represent many different religious groups which vary greatly in their own beliefs, doctrines, and practices. For example, Roman Catholics strongly believe that it is necessary for infants to be baptized while Baptists do not.

The very existence of these different “churches” (religious groups) inevitably leads to some questions: 1.) Which “church” (group) should I select to place my own membership and attend? 2.) Which “church” has members that share my own personal convictions? and 3.) Which “church” is correct in its teachings and is right with God? These are all valid questions! They need to be answered.

The many choices that are presented to the common person have the potential to lead to great confusion and frustration. Some people deal with this confusion by saying (and believing): “It doesn’t matter where you go!” or “One church is as good as another!” Trying to rationalize their decision, they may add: “All roads lead to heaven.” or “All roads lead to the same destination.” Those who believe this way frequently maintain that the only thing that really matters is attendance at some type of “church.”

This has ultimately led to the statement: “Go to the church of your choice!” We are told to select the “church” that pleases us. We are encouraged to go to the group that makes us feel good and happy – which best meets our “felt needs.” Still, the questions linger!

However, when we go to God’s word, the Bible, we discover that our choice is quite simple and straightforward. There is only one correct choice to be made! In his letter to the brethren at Colossae in Asia Minor, the apostle Paul writes: “And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence” (Colossians 1:18) [NKJV]. The “He” that Paul is referring to here is Jesus Christ. Notice that Paul states that Christ is “…the head of the body, the church” [underlines mine, eas]. He repeats this idea later on in this same chapter in v. 24 and also explains that “the body” is “…His body.” Thus, Paul emphasizes here, as he does also in Ephesians 1:22 – 23; 4:4, that Christ’s body, the church, is singular, not plural!

Christ is not the head of “a body” which is “a church.” Rather, He is the head of “the body” which is “the church.” The church, therefore, is not one of many but the one and only! There is no other! It is the “…one body” mentioned in I Corinthians 12:12 – 13, Ephesians 4:4, and Colossians 3:15.

So we come to the obvious and necessary conclusion that there is only one true church! As we look out at all the choices that are available, we do not have to be confused or frustrated. On the contrary, we can be confident as we select the church that teaches the truth – the truth that is in God’s word. One of the key attributes of the one, genuine church is that it is “…the pillar and ground of the truth” (I Timothy 3:15).

Let us choose to become members of the church that is headed by God’s precious Son Jesus Christ and is ruled by His teachings. Let us: “GO TO THE CHURCH OF GOD’S CHOICE!”

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Slackness in Attendance

A Creeping problem in many congregations today: Slackness in attendance;  Delay by the faithful to reach out to those that are unfaithful and those that show a lack of interest through non-attendance at regular assemblies.

Many of the congregations that I am familiar with are plagued by members that do not attend the assemblies on a regular basis even though the preacher and church leaders encourage them by announcements of classes, gospel meetings, special meetings at other congregations in the area and other personal encouraging discussions at the meeting house. Make no mistake about it; most of those that fall into this group of church members hear on a regular basis that Christians are to be in regular attendance; study their Bible at home and at Bible studies at the meeting-house. Yet they continue to be unresponsive to these actions of encouragement from other members.

Often whenever this subject is examined in public some are willing to ignore these acts of unfaithfulness and allow them to continue because there are too many they have let get away with the same action or actions in the past. Remember this … “whatever we do in word or in deed we must do by the authority of Christ with love and patience.

The most wonderful pursuit for mankind while he/she lives on the earth is to pursue righteousness. The pursuit of righteousness begins with an acknowledgement of the Great “I AM” {God}. Whenever a person becomes acquainted with the Creator {i.e. the creator of all things] – Heb. 10:25 – 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. 26 for if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, KJV

Luke 12:29-31 – 29 And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. 30 For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things? 31 But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. KJV

2 Thess. 1:2-5 – 2 Grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.3 We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;4 So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: 5 Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: (KJV)

Because these  have been tolerated by the church that does not mean that the actions of those that are faithful in this matter have been correct in the past. The Bible clearly condemns those that fail to live up to their commitment made when they believed and obeyed the gospel earlier in their life. Please observe and seriously consider these following Biblical passages that speak directly to this situation

Heb. 10:24-26 – 24 and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one Perhaps we are dealing with family problems, sickness, or spiritual anemia. Regardless of the problems that we face; The Lord is with us if we are one of His children {i.e. a Christian}.

The present world society is mostly in pursuit of worldly things, sensual delights, and material wealth. These things are temporal; they will not endure for very long even if we acquire these all to our human satisfaction; eventually they will mold, be stolen, wear out, or grow old and wrinkled. But the things that are important will continue to be helpful, useful, and satisfying so long as we live above the sod. Yes, eventually we will all die and our earthly remains will be laid to rest in a quiet and crowded place {i.e. a cemetery}. This is a fact of human existence that escapes the thoughts of many people; that is why they live in the worldly, shady, sensual shadows of the night hoping to escape the “all seeing eyes” of Almighty God. Dear friend; you cannot escape the knowledge or the all seeing eyes of God. The mistake that many people make is they limit God to earthly standards – this will not hold up for God is different – see Isaiah 55:9.

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Why the World Needs the Gospel

The world needs the gospel, but most, including professing Christians, don’t even know that they have such a need.  They operate upon the atheistic ethical principles taught to them in public schools: the end justifies the means.  As a result, they grow up and make horribly wrong choices.

For example, on November 20th, 2009, a young woman died while a Philadelphia doctor gave her an abortion.[1] Such deaths are hardly ever reported nationally because it is politically incorrect to do so.  When the authorities investigated the doctor’s offices, they found dozens of frozen babies, some dating back thirty years.  What motivates such wanton disrespect for human life?  The end justifies the means.

The gospel message, however, contains no such ethic.  In fact, the apostle Paul specifically disavows and condemns the idea that we may do evil that good may come (Romans 3:8).  Jesus taught an absolute standard of morality: love God and love your neighbor (Matthew 22:37-39).

This means that neither God nor our neighbors are means to an end, but ends in and of themselves.  God and our neighbor both have intrinsic value.  Jesus reflected this truth when he implied that one soul is worth more than the entire wealth of the world (Matthew 16:26).  God and the souls of men are valuable as ends in and of themselves.

What it means to love is explicitly set forth in the commandments (John 14:15, 1 John 5:2-3).  Paul writes that when we keep God’s commandments we demonstrate true love toward our neighbor because following these absolute standards intrinsically results in not simply minimizing, but eliminating real moral harm to our neighbor (Romans 13:8-10).

Many personally understand that reducing harm is a good thing and desirable as an ultimate consequence.  However, when sought based upon man’s standards instead of God’s, such individuals actually end up causing more harm altogether.  These seek the consequence of reducing harm as an end in itself.  They employ any means to accomplish it, including, but not limited to, treating people as means to an end.  By not considering individuals as ends of themselves, however, they only increase harm.

This was the attitude of Napoleon, Stalin, Mao, Hitler, and Pol Pot.  They perpetrated great crimes against humanity in the name of “social progress.” The end justified the means, they reasoned.  Their primary error was thinking that they could do it under their own auspices; without divine revelation, without an absolute standard of morality.

Most people in the world do not want to harm others.  However, they don’t know that the best way to do that is to commit to and obey the gospel.  The world needs the gospel, but they don’t know it.

[1] http://cbs3.com/local/West.Philadelphia.Dr.2.1512077.html

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Communication

The key to a strong marriage is communication.  However, communication is not just necessary  within the marriage relationship, but it is  necessary in any relationship, especially our spiritual  relationship with God. We may communicate in our  spiritual relationship in two ways: prayer and study.

We need to be a people of prayer. The Bible  is resplendent with the command of communication  through prayer. Paul tells us in First Thessalonians 5:17,  “ Pray without ceasing .” James wrote, “ Confess your  faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye  may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous  man availeth much ” (James 5:16). Daniel knew that  prayer was important. He “ went into his house; and his  windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem,  he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed,  and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime ”  (Dan. 6:10). Jesus must have thought that communication  with our Father was important enough not only to teach  it to His disciples (Matt. 6:9-13; Luke 11:1-4), but to  practice it Himself (Mark 1:35; Luke 4:42; 6:12). If Jesus  needed to pray, then how much more do we need to pray?  Prayer is the prelude to peace, the prologue to power,  the preface to purpose and the pathway to perfection.

Since communication is a two-fold process, we  should not only communicate to Jehovah through our  prayers, but also allow Him to communicate to us  through His written word. God not only wants His word  read (1 Thess. 5:27), He wants it to be understood as well  (2 Tim. 2:15). Moses gathered the entire nation of Israel  and conveyed the importance of communication from  God (Deut. 5:22, 27). We need to have the conviction  of Josiah towards the word of God:

And the king went up into the house of the  Lord, and all the men of Judah and all the  inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and  the priests, and the prophets, and all the  people, both small and great: and he read  in their ears all the words of the book of  the covenant which was found in the house  of the Lord . [2 Kings 23:2]

Jesus said in John 6:45, “ It is written in the prophets,  ‘ And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore  that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh  unto me .’” The only way we can learn of God and His  will for us is a daily study of the Bible. This is the only  way we can allow God to communicate to us His desires,  commands and promises for us.

Communication is not sufficient alone, but action  must correspond with the communication. Without such,  communication is vain, and the situation places a severe  strain on the relationship with problems to follow. May  we always communicate with God through daily prayer  and Bible study, and follow our communication with  faith and obedience to the will of God. “ But to do good  and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices  God is well pleased ” (Heb. 13:16).

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Saved? How?

When those extremely religious but entirely misled religious people who had had the Lord crucified were brought face to face with their sins as Peter preached the first recorded post-resurrection gospel sermon,

“…they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Men and brethren what shall we do?’ Then Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit… And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, ‘Be saved from this perverse generation.’ Then those who gladly received his word were baptized… And the Lord added to the church daily, those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:37, 38, 40, 41, 47).

Please note:

-Their ‘belief’ (even going so far as their being ‘cut to the heart’ by his message about Jesus) alone, WASN’T enough to save them…

-There was absolutely no prayer of faith for salvation even hinted at here…

-Baptism was FOR the forgiveness of sins; not something to do AFTER their sins were forgiven/they received salvation…

-They were NOT saved UNTIL they received his word and were then, by faith, baptized into Christ (Gal. 3:26-27), and THEN AND ONLY THEN did God add them to HIS church…

Jesus Christ, who has “all authority in heaven and on earth,” commanded that baptism would be an absolutely essential element in the making of His disciples (Matt. 28:18-20; Mk. 16:15-16). Subsequently, Saul of Tarsus was commanded to “Arise and be baptized, and wash away [his] sins” (Acts 22:16). The apostle Peter would also write by direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit (2 Ptr. 1:20-21) “baptism doth now save you” (I Ptr. 3:21).

But, what about so many seemingly otherwise well-grounded and well-intentioned religious people who teach that we are saved by faith only, not works, and that baptism is neither necessary or essential to salvation? How do we reach them with the gospel truth?

  1. Well, we might begin by pointing out that there’s only one place in the entire New Testament wherein the phrase “faith only” occurs. It is James 2:24; and it unequivocally and unashamedly proclaims for all time the following “firmly forever fixed in heaven” (See Ps. 119:89; ESV) truth: “You see that a man is justified by works and NOT BY FAITH ALONE” (James 2:24; NKJV; EMPH mine; DED).
  2. We might additionally point out, that biblically speaking, according to Jesus, belief (i.e., faith) itself is a work (See Jn. 6:29).
  3. We could also correctly inform them that there are several different kinds of works seen in the scriptures, none of which can we afford to mix up when talking about that which is either condemned or commended by God. For instance, there are:
  • Works of the law, through the keeping of which no one will be justified (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 3:10-11).
  • Works of the flesh, through which the conduction of such shall cause many to be condemned (Gal. 5:19-22).
  • Works of merit by which some will seek in vain to enter heaven (Eph. 2:8-9).
  • And Works which God demands we must do both in order to be saved, and which were the reason we were saved to perform to begin with (Jn. 14:15; Lk. 6:46-49; Eph. 2:10; Titus 2:11-14)!
  1. We would also point out that baptism is the “by faith” response to the gospel (Gal. 3:26-27), because it is an act of faith – never seen in Scripture labeled as a work, by the way – in the working of God Who raised Jesus from the dead (Col. 2:12).

However, just as the centerpiece of some “martial arts” training often includes and involves allowing the opponent to strike first, and then seizing the opportunity to use their momentum against them, so too can we operate in this spiritual battle we oft-times are forced into having to wage. When all else fails, let us try the following…

Tell them that if they can point you to just one person saved in the Bible by saying this “prayer of faith” under the New Covenant (i.e. converted to Christ), you will throw out EVERYTHING you’ve ever said regarding baptism. (This of course does not and cannot include the thief on the cross who lived and died under the old covenant – Hebrews 9:15-17 – some 50 days before Christ’s church was ever established in Acts 2). However, if they can’t show you even one Biblical example of such – and they can’t because it is never found in Scripture – then what makes them believe that they were saved by such a non-Biblical process? ‘Especially in light of the literal thousands of conversions we do see therein, without even a hint of such a prayer being preached or taught for salvation’s sake?

And then, after they’ve exhausted all efforts to find even one person in the New Testament after Christ’s church was established and the New Covenant put in place by His blood (Luke 22:14-20; Acts 20:28) who was saved by the prayer process they believe they were, ask them what they would think, if you could show them not one, not two, but three separate and distinct Biblical examples, of those who had believed, and called Christ “Lord,” and all three of which, absolutely were not saved by simply so doing what they believe to be the two essentially exclusive salvation elements from Romans 10:9 – 10; the very two things that they base their whole salvation on, according to their understanding to this point. Then show them the following examples, followed up with the following questions:

A). James 2:19 with Mark 5:1-12: Did they believe? Yes! Did they call Him Lord? Yes! Were they saved? No!

B). Matthew 7:21-23: Did they believe? Yes! Did they call Him Lord? Yes! Were they saved? No!

C). Acts 9:1-8 and 22:6-11; at the conclusion of these verses, as Paul headed into Damascus, having called Jesus “Lord,” and obviously having believed (enough to be evidenced by his obedience in response), then by their reasoning of thinking that that is all that was required to obtain forgiveness and be saved, then he certainly should have been already saved at the point where he entered Damascus, should he not? Then why is it that THREE DAYS THEREAFTER then, that his sins remained unforgiven, and he had to “Arise and be baptized TO WASH AWAY HIS SINS, calling on the Name of the Lord (Acts 22:16)? The answer is simple. Because belief and confession alone are not enough according to the Scriptures – three times over.

Certainly any serious seeker of God can surely see, after studying this, what they, like the jailer and the thousands of other serious seekers of God we see getting saved as outlined therein, must certainly do to surely be saved. And we must let them know that if we can be of any further assistance whatsoever, or answer any questions, it would be our delight to do so, straight from the Word of God.

So then, who do you believe; man, or God? What exactly do you trust your eternal soul to (Jn. 12:48)? Does your preacher preach a different gospel than seen above (See: Gal. 1:6-10), which includes baptism both for and before salvation (Acts 2:37-47)? If your soul is worth to you, “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” come study with a local congregation of the churches of Christ… “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (See John 8:31-32). Or, having seen the truth, “And now, why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on His Name” (Acts 22:16; ESV), just as those in Acts 2:37-47 did and were added to the Lord’s church; to Christ’s one, New Testament – body, bride, church, kingdom, saved and forgiven people.

 

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