Monday, January 11, 2021

WHICH CHURCH IS THE RIGHT CHURCH?

Photo by B Smith taken from the patio




309 - WHICH CHURCH IS THE RIGHT CHURCH?

JUNE 12, 1966

Henry F. Kulp



 

Romans 12: 1 - 4 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:


In this Scripture, God is telling us what it means to be spiritual. To be spiritual, one must give his body a living sacrifice, and to do this, we must do it through the mind—the mind is the key, the mind is the starting point.


1/  Do you realize that the mind, the brain, is the most magnificent thing in the universe? Through it weighs only three pounds, it contains some 10 billion nerve cells each of which has some 25 thousand possible interconnections with other nerve cells. Did you ever realize that to build an electronic computer large enough to have that range of choice, would require an area equal to the entire surface of the earth? Your mind is a marvelous instrument, and God wants you to use it—He wants you to use it for Him.


2/  In the beginning, we must have a humble mind—a humble brain—we are not to consider ourselves any better, or any more spiritual than anyone else. This is true in all ages, and this we proved to you last week.


3/  Then, it is necessary that we have the mind saturated with the Word of God, and permit the Word of God to control us.


4/  There is another thing to see—when we have a renewed mind, and we are humble in our mind, and we have our mind centered upon the Word of god, what will be the final conclusion of it all?  Christ will become the center of our thoughts, our speech, and our life.


Ephesians 1: 10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:


That is going to be a reality one of these days, but He wants it to be a reality in the believer’s life, right here and now.


5/  One day a preacher was stalking to a woman about Jesus Christ and witnessing for HIm. She said, I can’t witness for Him, I am a timid person. The preacher went away and one day he came back and happened to see her in the yard taking care of her chickens. She loved her chickens—she knew all about her chicks, what to feed them, how to raise the baby chicks, what price they were bringing on the market, and how to take care of them. The preacher said, if you know as much about the Lord Jesus Christ as you know about chickens, you could talk about Him, too. And of course, the Lord Jesus Christ is a lot more important than chicks, or ducks, or geese or anything else. When our minds are made over in Christ, He becomes the center and object of all our thinking.


6/  John 3: 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.


Here John tells us this very same thing—He must increase, but I must decrease. It could be written, I am on the wane. I am passed the full now, but Christ is just coming into HIs fullness. He is going to be everything. I read the other day where a teacher asked a little boy if he believed there was just one God, and he said, Yes, I believe, there is just one God, and the teacher said, How do you know that? And the little boy said, He fills Heaven and earth—the Bible says there isn’t any room for any other. Praise the Lord, that was a good answer—better than some philosophers could give. The Bible characters are not important, they are passing off the scene, but Christ is going to fill the scene. For nearly 2,000 years Christ has filled the scene. He has changed world history into two sections before Christ and after Christ.


7/  But there is one thing that Jesus Christ said to John that I want you to notice—when they threw John into prison, he began to wonder. He pointed the Lord Jesus Christ out, he had believed that Christ was the Messiah, he believed that the Messiah would found the kingdom and make Israel a strong nation, and overthrow the Roman empire. But Jesus Christ didn’t do it.

 Luke 7: 23 And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

There seemed to come a cloud over the mind of John, since the Lord Jesus Christ hadn’t attempted to build up the kingdom as he expected, was he to expect someone else? So he sent word to Jesus, Luke 7: 19 And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another? And Jesus said, go and tell John what I am doing. Tell him all about My works, and they did—then Jesus sent this message.


Luke 7: 22 Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.


And I don’t know a better verse for any believer in Christ to know. I don’t know a better verse for every believer to live by. Jesus Christ said to John, Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Me. 


Can the Lord Jesus Christ do anything He likes with you? Can the Lord take anything He wishes from you? Can the Lord Jesus Christ put you in a hard position, and you’ll say, Praise the Lord? Are you able to say, no matter what happens, Blessed is he that shall not be offended. You see, John had been faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ let him be cast into prison, and he was a bit offended. When we give our bodies a living sacrifice our minds are centered in Jesus Christ, and will not be offended no matter what He permits us to go through.


8/  Romans 12: 4, 5  For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.


Now we come to another truth—a very important truth. It is the truth of the body of Christ. Here He is talking about the church of our age—we shall see that later on in our message. But the thing I want you to see here is, the 5th verse. So we, being many, are one body in Christ. There are many who are saved. Today there are many of us—we are to get out of our minds the idea that our own small group comprises the only ones who belong to Him—for we being many, are one body. In other words, we have a unity. We do not always show it—but in Christ’s mind there is a unity. All who are saved belong to the same body.


9/  Colossians 1: 17, 18 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.


He is before all things, and by Him all things consist, and He is the Head of the Body, the Church.


So we must see the Head of the Body is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the rest of the Body is made up of many members, and all who are saved are members of this Body.


10/  Remember, we have been talking about the mind being in right relationship to God, and giving our bodies a living sacrifice. When we are members of this body, we all have different functions, and in humility, we do not consider ourselves better than anyone else. For notice what it says in this verse—WE HAVE MANY MEMBERS IN ONE BODY, AND ALL MEMBERS HAVE NOT THE SAME OFFICE. In other words, every member has a different function. The Lord has called into His Body down here on this earth those who have different usefulnesses. There are no two members who have the same function. 


I hear someone say, in my body I have two eyes, I have two arms, do not the two eyes have the same function? Do not the two arms have the same function? No, they don’t. Did you ever try to see a speck on the right side of the end of your nose? Try to look at it with your left eye? How can you see that speck on the right side of the end of your nose? You have to close your left eye, and look with your right eye. Then if your left elbow gets itchy, don’t try to scratch it with your left hand. It just doesn’t work—you have to use your right hand, and so every member has his own function. THERE IS NO USELESS PERSON WITHIN THE BODY OF CHRIST.


11/  I Corinthians 12: 12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.


Here Paul is talking about different kinds of Christians, all members of the Body of Christ. For as the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ, for by One Spirit are we all baptized into one Body.


We are not baptized into different bodies, we are all baptized into one body, the body of Christ, and of course, this is a death baptism, this is not water baptism. Everyone has to be baptized, he has to be baptized into the Body of Christ, by being baptized into the death of Christ.


12/  Notice, I Corinthians 12: 19 And if they were all one member, where were the body? 


What a terrible thing it would be to have a hand all by itself. For there would be no life without the body. The hand would be head. So God has many who are saved and the many have all different functions. No two are alike and no one is useless.


13/  You will notice that he talks about the eye of the body—he talks about the ear, he talks about the hearing. I don’t know what part of the body you are, there are some folks who I believe are his ears—they hear from God. How? Through the Word of God. God has given them a special ability to take the Word of God and get truth out of it. They hear what God has to say, and then they minister to others. Then there are some to whom God gives a message, they are the tongue. They have a special ability in delivering a message. They can take a simple truth and grip the hearts of men and women. These are those who speak for the body. Then there are those who are the eyes of the body—they see for God. It is a wonderful thing to see for God. There may be somebody you think is less than yourself, and yet it might be that one is the eye of the body, seeing things, and when they see things in the body, they pray about it, for they see things that no one else is able to see, and thereby they can have a real prayer life. You may think that one doesn’t amount to very much, and you may despise that one, but that one may have a very important function in the body. So in the body, no one has the right to despise anyone else. We don’t know the ministry God has given them to do. Their ministry may not show at all.


14/  But now let us notice the church. We read in Colossians 1: 18 that the body is the church. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.


Do you know there are three main churches in the Bible? How few people really understand the church. But before we consider the three churches, let us read Acts 19: 32 Some therefore cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly was confused: and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together.


Then notice, verse 41 And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly.


In this Scripture, the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ were in the midst of an angry mob of idolatrous heathen, they were in the theater at Ephesus—the mob was called an assembly, and the Greek word translated assembly is ecclesia—it is the word that we have translated church. Do you know that the word, church, or churches, is found about 117 times in the New Testament Scriptures with the single exception, every time the word, church, is found in the Bible the Greek word is ecclesia—no doubt, this was a church of the devil. But be careful of that word, church. It doesn’t always mean what people want it to mean. All the word, church, means here—the ecclesia is a called-out group. There are three called-out groups in the Bible—three churches.


15/  Notice, I Timothy 3: 15, 16 But 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 ground of the truth.


Here we read of the church of the living God. This is the right church, this is the church you better belong to. Notice, the church of the living God is the house of God. This has no reference whatsoever to any assembly hall or a meeting place. The house of God is a building made of human beings, and the Church of God during this present divine economy is called the Body of Christ, the fullness of Christ. You and I know perfectly well that no building of stone, brick or wood could be the fullness of Christ, for notice, Ephesians 1: 22, 23 And 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 fulness of him that filleth all in all.


Here it talks about the Church which is His Body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. To belong to this church, one must see that he is a sinner, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and be saved, and immediately he is made a member of the church which is the Body of Christ.


16/  We ought to know how to behave in the house of God, which is the church of the living God. This is not how we should behave in a building, but how we should behave as being members of His body. Certainly, we should be humble in this church. We should not be folks that discriminate, we should not look down our noses upon anyone, but we should be sure that we recognize that all have a part in giving forth the Gospel message. All have a distinct function.


AMEN

Ref: 06/12/1966/ 309 - WHICH CHURCH IS THE RIGHT CHURCH? / 01/12/2021

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