Admonition Podcast

Good afternoon.

Thank goodness I finally got that right.

I'll be completely honest with you all, I get so nervous before I get up here and I
apologize sometimes if I say things that...

are not exactly what I'm supposed to be saying.

that's, I'm glad I finally got that out.

But good afternoon.

Thank you all for being here.

If we have any visitors, thank you for being here also.

And I hope that today that you feel encouraged, that you feel loved, that you feel valued.

People talk about the church all the time, but very few people truly understand what the
church really is.

If you ask 10 people what they think about the church,

You might get 10 different answers.

Some will say that it's a cult.

Others will say it's a denomination.

Some will say it doesn't matter what church you attend as long as you believe in Christ,
that's OK.

Some would even say the church is man-made altogether.

If every, and the problem with that is with, when people start using the church for
everything, eventually the word stops meaning anything.

If every religious group with different doctrines, different plans of salvation and
different authority structures uses the word church, then truth becomes impossible to

understand.

The church is not something man built.

The church is something that God designed.

The world today has cheapened the idea

of what the church is.

Men have divided it.

Men have remodeled it and renamed it until it hardly resembles the church that we find in
scripture.

Many have turned the religion into entertainment, preaching into storytelling and worship
into performance.

And the tragedy of it all is that souls are being lost every single day because people no
longer have a good understanding of what the church, of what the Lord's church truly is.

So as we begin this afternoon, I want to ask a question.

Is the Church of Christ a denomination?

On the nationally televised Nancy Grace program, a Baptist preacher, Tom Rakula, well, the
Church of Christ is relatively a new church.

It was started about 150 years ago by Alexander Campbell.

Now, he is not the first to level such a claim, and he certainly will not be the last to
say such.

that if this is true, if what he said was true, then the Church of Christ is just another
denomination among denominations.

But is this true?

A couple passages this morning I want us to look at, and if you turn to Matthew chapter 16
verse 18.

tells us, upon this rock I will build my church.

Here he was not talking about a denomination or an earthly organization.

Christ was declaring that he would build something eternal.

Christ was declaring that he would build something divine, something that was bought with
his own blood.

Did Christ promise to build his church from this passage?

Yes.

When Christ built this church, to whom would it belong?

Would it not belong?

to church the what it not belong to Christ who built it if it belonged to Christ would it
not be the Church of Christ furthermore did Christ ever promise to build his church and

where do we find that where did he build it I invite you now to turn to Acts chapter 2
Peter

convicted to cry with the people and they said, shall we do?

And Acts 2 37 Peter answered, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus
Christ for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Acts chapter 2 verse 38.

Approximately 3000 souls were gladly welcomed this message and were baptized upon their
baptism.

They were added.

What were they added to?

Acts 2 41.

To what were they added?

The Lord added to the church daily.

such as should be saved, Acts chapter 2 verse 47.

But wait a minute, to whose church did the Lord add them?

Did he add them to a denomination?

Was it the church which Christ promised to build in Matthew chapter 16 verse 18?

If not, then whose church was this?

On the other hand, if the church which Christ promised to build is the one here in Acts
chapter 2, then those added to it were in the church of belonging to Christ.

Acts chapter 20 verse 28 tells us, to feed the church of God which he had purchased with
his own blood.

The church exists because Christ died for it.

It's not man's idea, it's God's.

Before the foundation of the world began, before man was ever

everything before sin entered into the garden, God had already had a plan to save mankind
from their sin and the church was part of that plan.

You can see this in Ephesians chapter 3 verse 10 through 11 where it says that to the
intent now and to the principalities and powers and heavenly places might be known by the

church, the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he proposed in
Christ Jesus our Lord.

It is not enough to just wear the name of the

Church of Christ.

We must understand what that name truly represents.

It's not enough to just say we attend worship service.

We must realize what kind of worship that we are a part of.

When we gather here on the Lord's Day, when we partake in singing and when we pray and
when we study and we partake of the bread, we are participating in something that is far

greater than ourselves.

That's why Satan tries so hard every single day to confuse people about what the church
really is.

If Satan can get people to believe that any church will do or that the church doesn't
really matter, then he can lead souls away from the truth.

But there is only one church that belongs to Christ, and the Bible makes that clear.

In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 4 through 6, it tells us there is only one body, one spirit,
and even as you are called in one hope of your calling.

One faith, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all
and through all and in you all.

That one body is the church.

Not many bodies, not many faiths, not many baptisms, just one.

And if there is one body, and that body is the church, then there's only one church that
belongs to Christ.

The church is too important for us to treat like it's not that important.

When a man builds his home, and one day I want a beautiful cabin in the woods,

Separate it from everywhere else.

I don't want no neighbors.

I just want I want a nice place So I'm going to design how I'm going to build this home
Now if a man comes up to me and says you know what I like your cabin But I think I'm going

to change how it looks I think I'm gonna come in and I ain't gonna make it wood.

I don't want a cabin.

I want a brick house You know what I would look at that man say get off go on somewhere

That's exactly what people have done today to the Lord's church, is it not?

They have made it to where it hardly resembles the church that we see in scriptures.

If we truly love Christ, then we'll love His church.

And if we truly honor Christ, we will honor His design.

And if we are part of Christ's body, then we will follow his authority and not our own.

In John chapter 14 verse 15, if you love me, keep my commandments.

So today I want us to take a good look and a serious and loving look at the church.

We will see its foundation.

We will see its authority and we will see its identity, its faithfulness and its mission.

And each of these truths will remind us not only who we are, but who we belong to.

So as we begin, let's look at the

the church's foundation.

If a man wants to know the strength of a building, he does not look at the paint on the
walls or the decorations of the place.

He looks at the very foundation of the building.

If the foundation is strong, it's going to stand, but if the foundation is weak, that
house is going to completely fall over.

When Jesus said in Matthew 16, 18, upon this rock I will build my church, that statement
is the foundation of everything that we believe.

That statement is the foundation of everything that we preach

everything that we are.

The church is not built on man, the church is built on God.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 11, other foundation can no man lay than that
which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

There is no other name, there is no other authority, no other power that can support the
weight of salvation.

Christ alone is the foundation and everything apart from him will fall.

We find in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 19 through 20 where it says,

you are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and the
household of God are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets Jesus Christ

himself being the chief cornerstone.

The Apostles and the prophets laid the foundation through the Word of God.

They taught it, they preached it, and they wrote by inspiration.

But look back at that verse at the end of it where it says that Jesus Christ is the chief
cornerstone.

In high school, in ag class, we took classes that was, we'd work on uh small engines.

We would work on plumbing stuff, welding.

But one time we worked on laying block.

If you've never laid block, it is the most annoying thing ever.

And it is so annoying.

And one day I was in there and I failed it to be honest with you, I did.

uh We have to lay the mortar on the block and then you got to make sure it's level and
then you put another block on that corner and you keep doing it and you got to make sure

it's level.

m

If it's not level, it's gonna flop over this way or it's gonna go on this side and it's
just not gonna look good.

It's not gonna be even and you will never be able to build a house on it.

The people that built this church or this laid the wall for this, I don't know how they
did it, but props to them.

But how important it is to see that Christ is the chief cornerstone.

That means that no matter that he has to be the authority, has everything that we do must
be measured by Christ.

Now the world will come along and try to shift that cornerstone.

They'll try to say, well, you know, the Church of Christ should adapt culture or we
should, we need to modernize religion.

Well, brethren, when you remove the cornerstone, you destroy the structure.

You can't have the Lord's church without the Lord's foundation.

And think for a moment,

how great and what it means that Christ is the foundation.

It means that the church rest upon his authority, not ours.

Jesus said in Matthew 28 18, all power is given to me and in heaven and in earth.

That means he alone has the right to rule what?

His church.

It's not the preacher's church.

It's not the elders church.

It's not the members church.

It's his church.

He built it.

He bought it and he governs it.

And when men come along and start

making their own laws and inventing their own way of worship and their own plan of
salvation, they are no longer standing upon God's authority.

They're standing on traditions of men and men's opinions only.

Jesus warned us in Matthew chapter 7, verse 26 through 27, where he tells us that everyone
that hear these sayings of mine and do with them not shall be like a foolish man who built

his house upon the sand.

And the rains descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon the house and
it fell and

great was the fall of it.

That's what happens when we forget the Lord's foundation.

People start to build something that looks strong, something that sounds religious, that
even uses the Lord's name.

But without obedience to the Word, it amounts to nothing.

That's why we teach the same Gospels that the Apostles preached.

Because the moment we leave the foundation is the moment we leave the church.

If Christ is the foundation of the church, then everything that we do must rest on Him.

The church is not a business, the church is a body.

It's not about pleasing people, it's about pleasing God.

Acts chapter 2 verse 42 and they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine and
fellowship and breaking of bread and in prayers.

That's what faithfulness to the foundation looks like.

They didn't drift from what Christ had established.

They didn't go and create the wrong way of worship.

They didn't run after a new idea.

They simply followed what he commanded and we must do the same.

If you want to find the Lord's church, you have to go back to the Lord's blueprint.

If we lose sight of the foundation,

and we lose everything.

Because without Christ there is no hope.

Without Christ there is no salvation and without Christ there is no church.

That's why it's not enough to just wear the name Church of Christ.

That means nothing if we're not standing upon the foundation that that name represents.

The church will stand firm and it will only stand firm on Him and only then.

Now that we've talked about the church's foundation I want us to move on to our next
point, the church's identity.

Once you understand the foundation of the church that rests on Christ, the next question
becomes even greater.

What is the church itself?

Now take this with a grain of salt.

I am not uh a Greek person at all, but the Greek word for church is ecclesia, which means
called out.

Now that'd probably be the only time that I will use a Greek word in any of my sermons,
but it means to be called out.

And that word tells us everything that we need to know about its identity.

church is made up of those who have been called out, called out of sin, called out of
darkness, called into this marvelous light of God.

1 Peter 2, 9 tells us, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
peculiar people, that you should show forth the praises of Him who have called you out of

darkness into His marvelous light.

That is who the church,

Random group of people who happen to meet here on a Sunday morning at the same place each
week, but a holy people who have been set apart for God's purpose.

When you and I are baptized into Christ, we are not just forgiven, we are added to
something.

We find that what we just read in Acts 2, 47, that the Lord added to the church daily such
as should be saved.

That means if you are not yet in the church, you are not yet among the saved.

Because the same blood that saves you is what places you into that body.

We find in Romans chapter 6, 3 through 4, know ye not that so many of us were baptized
into Christ, were baptized into his death.

Therefore we are buried with him in baptism, unto death, like as Christ was raised.

up from the dab out the glory of the Father even so we should also walk in newness of
life.

When we obey the gospel we are baptized into his death and that's where the blood of
Christ is found.

The blood adds us to his body which is the church.

Ephesians 1 22 through 23 and have put all things under his feet and gave him to be the
head over all things to the church which is his body.

So we have figured out so far by reading all this is that the Church of Christ is not a
denomination.

It's the body of Christ.

That's why the Bible never speaks of many different churches and really many different
faiths or different teachings.

It speaks of one body, one church, and one people.

That one body

is the church.

If you don't get anything else out of this lesson, know that the one body that we find in
scripture is talking about the church.

So when someone asks, well what church do you go to or what denomination do you go to, the
answer should never be about belonging.

It should be about I belong to the church which Christ built and what he promised to
build.

The church of Christ is not a man-made group with a man-made name.

It's a blood-bought family of God.

In Romans 16, 16 the churches of Christ salute you.

That phrase that we read here is not just a title, it's an identity.

It means the churches that belong to Christ.

Now think about how precious and how great that truly is.

You and I are part of the same body that Jesus died for.

The same body that began in Acts chapter 2, the same body that the apostles served in, and
that's the same body that we will be presented before God on the final day on judgment.

That is our identity.

That is who we belong to.

But with that identity, it comes with something.

It comes with responsibility.

If we belong to Christ, then we must reflect Christ.

The world learns who Christ is by looking at his church.

When people see us, do they see Christ?

When people see us, do they see love?

Do they see patience?

Do they see uh purity and truth, or do they see division?

Or do they see compromise?

The church's reputation in the world depends on the faithfulness of its members.

Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5, 14 through 16, You are the light of the world.

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.

Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but under a candlestick.

And giveth light to all that are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, which glorify your
Father, which is in heaven.

The church is not called to blend in, it's called to stand out.

to shine not for our own glory but for whose?

God's.

Every member of the church represents the body and when the church forgets the identity it
starts to lose its strength.

When we forget who we belong to we start acting like we belong to the world and not of
God.

So our third point now is the church's faithfulness.

When a person knows who they are, it changes how they live.

And that's true for individuals and it's true for the church.

If the church is the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, the family of God, then the
church must live in a way that honors the one to whom it belongs.

Faithfulness is not an option.

It's the very heartbeat of the church.

When Jesus spoke to the seven churches in Revelation, He didn't praise their numbers.

He didn't praise their wealth or their reputation.

He praised their faithfulness.

Revelation 2 10, be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

Faithfulness is what God requires even when the world misunderstands us.

The church must be faithful in three main areas.

It is in doctrine, in duty, and in devotion.

The church must hold fast to that truth.

Truth is not something we shape just to fit the times.

something that we cling to no matter what the times become.

Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4, 2 through 4, preach the word.

Be instant in season, out of season.

rebuke, exhort, and all long-suffering.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own loss
shall she heed the ears.

James said in James chapter 1 verse 22, be you doers of the word and not hearers only,
deceiving yourselves.

Faithful Christians take what they learn and live it out daily in their workplace, in
their school, and in their homes.

Doctrine and duty both matter, but they mean nothing without true devotion to the Lord.

Now the final point for this afternoon is the church's mission.

Every great work that God has ever begun, it had a purpose.

When he made the world, he had a plan.

When he sent his son, he had a reason for doing that.

And when Christ built this church, he gave it a mission that would stretch far beyond time
itself.

The church's mission is not to entertain the world, not to impress the world, not to blend
in, but to reach the world.

When Jesus gave that great commission in Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 through 20, he
said, all powers given to me in heaven and earth, go ye therefore, teach all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to

the end of the world.

Amen.

This is a heartbeat of the church's mission, to take the gospel to every creature.

If you look at the early church in Acts, that's exactly what they did.

They didn't have the buildings or the programs or the money, but they had faith and that
was all they needed.

They didn't have anything that they could go to.

Acts 8, 4 says, therefore they were scattered abroad everywhere preaching the word.

They were scattered by persecution, yet they still preached.

Why?

because they understood their mission.

They understood their purpose and we need to understand ours as well.

We may not all stand in the pulpit, but we can all share Christ in some way.

We can all pray for someone.

We can always invite someone, encourage and speak the word of truth to those who are
searching.

Paul said in Romans 1, 16, for the power, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it is the power of God into salvation.

The power is to say,

is not in us.

We have no power at all.

The power is in the Word of God and our job is to carry that message faithfully and sadly
there are souls today who will never know the truth unless the church moves.

There are hearts waiting for someone to show them what real hopes looks like.

If we stay silent, that mission suffers.

The church's mission doesn't end with reaching the lost, but it continues to strengthen
those that are saved.

And the Great Commission says after it says baptizing them.

It continues and says teaching them to observe all things.

That means once a soul becomes part of the church, our mission is to help them to continue
to grow.

Galatians 6-2,

fulfill the law of Christ.

That is the mission and motion a family working together to stay faithful until the Lord
calls us home.

And above all, the mission of the church is to bring glory to God.

Ephesians 321 tells us in the hymn, be the glory by the Church of Christ, Jesus Christ
through all the ages, world without end.

Every act of worship, every word of truth, and every soul that is saved, all of it points
back to the glory of God, not us.

That's why this mission matters so deeply.

Because it's not about building a name for the church, it's about lifting up the name of
Christ.

Once the Lord returns, our mission is going to be finished.

And the only results of our faithfulness will remain.

That's why the church cannot be idle.

That's why the church cannot be silent.

The church cannot be content just to exist.

The church has got to move, work, teach, and love, and serve while there is still time
because the world needs what only the church can give,

the truth.

There's so many other opinions out in the world.

There's too much of that.

The world needs the truth and the church is the only thing that can give that truth to
them.

That that's the church that we want to be a part of.

The one that has the truth, not just opinions, not what somebody says or can get up and do
a lesson without any verses in there at all.

We want to hear the truth.

We want to hear what the Bible has to say because that is our ultimate authority and
nothing else should come, should we say other than that.

The church is not man's invention, it's God's.

And it's His plan for us.

And if you're not yet part of the body, you can become part of it today.

God gives us a plan.

tells us we must hear the word, Romans 10, 17.

So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

He tells us that we must believe, Mark 16, 16, he that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned.

He tells us we must repent of our sins.

Luke 13, 3, I tell you nay, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

We must confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, Romans 10,

10, 9 through 10, that if thou shalt confess with our mouth, the Lord Jesus shall believe
in that heart that hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

For if the heart of man believeth in the righteousness and with the mouth the confession
is made into salvation.

In Acts 2.38 he tells us we must be baptized for the remission of our sins.

Repent and be baptized.

Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

1 Peter 3 21, the like figure, whereunto even now baptism doth also now save us.

And finally, Revelation 2 10, be thou faith one to death and I will give thee a crown of
life.

This afternoon, if there's any way that we can help you, come now as together we stand.