Those who have studied the history of this church have known something about this corruption for many years.
For example, some of the problems today we are hearing about are:
(1) THE HOMOSEXUAL PROBLEM IN THE PRIESTHOOD
On the Fox News Channel, on “The Factor,” they reported that about 50% of the Catholic priests are practicing homosexuals.
But as bad as the HOMOSEXUAL PROBLEM might be, we are also hearing about -
(2) THE CHILD MOLESTING PROBLEM IN THE PRIESTHOOD
But they have also dealt with the priests molesting children. They have reported Cardinals who are over these priests, who knew about this child molestation in the Catholic church, and instead of throwing these corrupt priests out of the church, they transferred them to other churches, not even making these other churches aware of their evil deeds.
This child molestation problem is not just a church problem, this is a legal problem, and already some of the priests are having to appear in the courts of this land for the courts to decide how long they will have to serve in prison.
The news media talks about the corruption of HOMOSEXUALITY and CHILD MOLESTATION, but they do not tell us about their third problem. That is -
(3) THE FALSE TEACHING PROBLEM
This church, according to the Word of God, is filled with false teachings. Among the many things that this church teaches incorrectly is that they are, “THE CHURCH”.
In spite of all the HOMOSEXUALITY and CHILD MOLESTATION problems, they still refer to themselves as “THE CHURCH.”
They can talk all they want to about being “THE CHURCH,” but I can assure you that when the Lord said, “I will build my Church”, he was not talking about this corrupt organization.
What did the Lord have in mind when He said, “I will build my church”?
Let’s look first at-
I. THE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH
When the Lord created the church He had a PURPOSE IN CREATING THE CHURCH.
Today we hear about the “INVISIBLE CHURCH”. That is, you will find people who say, “I belong to the INVISIBLE CHURCH”.
WHAT DO THEY MEAN WHEN THEY SAY THAT? They are simply saying that church is where you make it . That is, you do not have to attend a local church to worship God. You can worship God:
• ON THE GOLF COURSE
• ON THE LAKE
• AT THE BEACH
• IN THE MOUNTAINS
They are saying church is WHEREVER YOU MAKE IT! The church is not an imaginary place, IT IS A REAL PLACE.
The church in its infancy did not have a physical building as we have today, because many times they had to meet in each others homes.
But it was obvious that they were turning these homes into church buildings because when Paul made havoc of the church he knew where they met.
As we read through the New Testament, it becomes obvious they had specific places they met where God added to the church. It was no INVISIBLE CHURCH, it was a VISIBLE CHURCH.
Illus: In Eastover, South Carolina, a small suburban town, they have a large hardware store that sells about everything a person could want. This establishment also has a restaurant that is on one side of the building. Many of the farmers come there to eat at the restaurant. The fellow who owns this establishment is Mr. Bunky Carter. He often has done things that do not always sit well with the local county regulators. He decided he would play a trick on them. He had an artist come and paint a mural of four horse stables on this large addition of his building, practically next to the meat market where he sells meat. The artist painted three horses with their heads sticking out the doors of these stables, and they looked like the real thing.
Sure enough! It wasn’t too long before a county inspector came along and wanted to know why he built these stables without getting a permit or clearing it before the zoning board.
Mr. Bunky was more than happy to tell this man what he thought of him, and he wasn’t about to get a permit to build these stables.
Later, the county inspection department was embarrassed when the story was in the local newspaper and the “stables” proved to be only a mural.
In other words the mural gave the impression of a horse stable, BUT IT WAS NOT A HORSE STABLE!
Today we ride by and see a lot of folks in their imaginary church services claiming they are the “INVISIBLE CHURCH”, but they:
• Have no specific doctrine they believe
• Have no specific plan of carrying out the great commission of the church
Then we see some with VISIBLE CHURCHES, but as you go into these churches it is obvious that the PURPOSE these churches exist for is the wrong purpose.
God’s PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH IS TO REACH THE LOST.
Acts 1:8, we read, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
The liberal churches today are all caught up in SOCIALS, ACTIVITIES, AND ENTERTAINMENT, but God has always and will always be caught up in reaching the lost. Everything we do in God’s church should be for the purpose of reaching the lost.
Notice, God’s purpose for the church is reaching lost souls world wide.
Illus: Sometimes you can go into some of these small churches, and the only ones who attend them seem to all belong to one LARGE family.
Illus: These churches remind us of the small town where everyone in the town had the same last name of Smith. A man drove into this town and he saw:
• Smith’s real estate
• Smith’s hardware
• Smith’s drug store
• Smith’s service station
As he drove through the town, he wondered where all these Smith’s came from. And he saw a large building on the way out of town that stated, “Smith’s Manufacturing Company,” and he said, “Oh, that is where all those Smith’s come from.”
And that is the way some of these small churches are, everybody in the church has the last same name.
The world is lost and going to hell, and God placed the church here to REACH THEM FOR CHRIST. And that is what the church should be doing!
But God had a specific purpose in reaching the lost, that is worldwide. God placed the church here for a purpose:
• WE ARE TO WITNESS IN OUR HOMES
• WE ARE TO WITNESS ON OUR JOBS
• WE ARE TO WITNESS AS WE TRAVEL
We are to witness wherever we go, and God commands the church to send missionaries to the places we can not go to.
Jesus had the church in mind when he said in Matt. 5:14, “Ye are the light of the world…”
He did not say to the church:
• YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF YOUR COMMUNITY
• YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF YOUR CITY
• YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF YOUR STATE
He said “Ye are the light of the world…”
The purpose of the church is to SHARE THE GOSPEL WITH THE LOST WORLD and we must not forget that!
We must be witnesses ...
• With our LIPS
• With our LIFESTYLE
• With our LOVE
Illus: Where is the church on Monday?
• THE CHURCH IS THE BUSINESS OFFICES
• THE CHURCH IS IN THE CLASSROOMS
• THE CHURCH IS IN THE REPAIR SHOPS
• THE CHURCH IS IN THE DENTIST OFFICES
• THE CHURCH IS IN THE RESTAURANTS
But wherever the church is every day of the week, we should be carrying out the PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH, to reach the lost.
THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH IS TO REACH THE LOST.
But let us look at something else about God’s church. Let’s look at-
II. THE POWER OF THE CHURCH
Matt. 28:18 20, “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, ALL POWER is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
Until we realize THE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH, and the POWER OF THE CHURCH, we will never be effective.
It is amazing to see:
• The preachers who will get up to preach without spending time in prayer
• The teachers who will get up to teach without spending time in prayer
• The people who will get up to sing without spending time in prayer
WHY IS THIS THE SITUATION TODAY? Because our churches are filled with people who are trying to operate on PERSONALITIES and TALENTS, and that is not enough. While God can use our talents and personalities, if the power of God does not fall on us, all we do is going to be in vain.
Have you noticed there is something strange about church doors? Something very strange happens to men and women who walk through church doors.
For example:
• A man does not walk through the hospital doors and all of a sudden know all about how to do surgery
• A man does not walk through the doors of a restaurant and all of a sudden know how to run that restaurant
• A man does not walk through the doors of a garage and suddenly know all about how to fix a car
But yet people can walk through the doors of a church, and like magic, everyone who comes through them suddenly knows how to run a church.
Listen, a church cannot operate successfully unless it is operating by THE POWER OF GOD.
We can come to church and go through the motions of having a church service, but unless:
• WE PREACH WITH THE POWER OF GOD
• TEACH WITH THE POWER OF GOD
• SING WITH THE POWER OF GOD
Nothing is going to be accomplished for the Lord.
The Lord said in Matthew 16:18, “...I will build my church;...” The power of this Church is going to be in the ability of Christ! WE CAN’T, BUT HE CAN!
HOW DOES GOD EMPOWER HIS CHURCH?
Look at the church in Acts. 4:31, “And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.”
Listen, you can never get a church to do anything for the Lord until you can get them praying. It is when they PRAY, that the place will be SHAKEN.
Illus: A.W. Tozer said, “A church that is soundly rooted cannot be destroyed, but nothing can save a church whose root is dried up. No stimulation, no advertising campaigns, no gifts of money and no beautiful edifice can bring back life to the rootless tree.”
Churches are drying up all over this nation. Something we hardly ever see in front of a church building is a “For Sale” sign, but if churches do not wake up and get the POWER OF GOD back in their churches, we are going to see an abundance of “For Sale” signs in front of churches. THIS IS SERIOUS STUFF, and somebody had better wake up soon.
Someone said, “God never intended his church to be a refrigerator in which to preserve perishable piety. He intended it to be an incubator in which to hatch converts.”
Illus: Oswald J. Smith, said many years ago, “It matters not how spiritual a church may profess to be, if souls are not saved, something is radically wrong, and the professed spirituality is simply a false experience, a delusion of the devil. People who are satisfied to meet together simply to have a good time among themselves are far away from God. Real spirituality always has an outcome.”
Illus: Vance Havener said, “Never before has the church had so many degrees yet so little temperature.”
We see THE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH, and THE POWER OF THE CHURCH, now let’s look at ...
III. THE PROMISE OF THE CHURCH
We hear a lot of preaching and teaching that reminds us that God’s church is surrounded by an evil and hostile world. This is true! But we also need to be reminded that the church is surrounded by God's love and care!
Individually and collectively, we are blanketed by God's love as the earth is blanketed by the atmosphere.
God loves the church which is the Bride of Christ. And one day the Lord is coming back for the church. When the rapture of the church takes place, TWO GROUPS OF PEOPLE WILL BE AFFECTED.
A. THE DEAD IN CHRIST
Some in the church will be taken away individually by death.
2 Cor. 5:6-8, “Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”
Paul doesn’t have a death wish, he is not walking around wishing he was dead, but he knows that he can look forward to being with the Lord when he dies!
Psa. 116:15 “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.”
The Lord also looks forward to having us with Him in glory. It is not the death that is precious, but rather the fact that death ushers the saint into the very presence of God.
But not all Christians will experience death individually. The promised rapture will come one day.
B. THE LIVING IN CHRIST
Look what happens when the rapture of the church takes place. The Bible says in 1 Thess. 4:13-18, “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
The word “rapture” is not used in the Bible, but it is used by Christians to describe the events recorded in this passage.
Look at the words “caught up” which is the word “Harpazo” (Pronounced as “Har-pad'-zo”) which means to pluck, pull, take (by force).
This is what we mean by the word “rapture”, we will be caught up by the Lord and will forevermore be with Him! This is the promise the Lord made to the church!
Conclusion:
When God said, “I will build my Church”, He had in mind:
I. THE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH
II. THE POWER OF THE CHURCH
III. THE PROMISE OF THE CHURCH
