When Christ’s Church Is Complete

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” MATTHEW 24:14

 

PONDER THIS

What will determine the time Jesus is going to come and take the Church? It will be when His bride is complete. That will be when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Perhaps there's a service tonight in the mountains of North Carolina. Perhaps there’s a little country church there with a fill-in preacher who’s stepped in for the pastor who is ill. He's doing what a lot of preachers would do on short notice—he's just trying to explain how to be saved, and he’s using John 3:16. Maybe there are not more than forty people there in that little church building, and this layman is trying to share what Christ has done for him using John 3:16. And as he does, tears fall out of his eyes, with a trembling voice and no homiletical beauty at all, he simply tells how God loved the world and gave His Son. He says that if people would repent of their sins and trust Jesus, they’ll be saved. And a little girl steps out and comes forward to give her hand to that preacher and her heart to Jesus. And that may be the last soul that’ll ever get saved before Jesus comes. It could be today. And God says, “Gabriel, that’s it! Marshal the troops. Jesus, it’s time! My Son, go and claim your bride. She is complete.”

According to today’s verse, what must happen before Jesus will return?

Considering this truth, how is the Church directly involved in bringing about the return of Christ?

PRACTICE THIS

Consider who God has put on your heart to share the truth of the kingdom with. Make time to have that conversation today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

What Kind of Church Should You Look For?

“You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you.”  GALATIANS 5:7-8

 

PONDER THIS

Usually, when we are looking for a church, we are looking for our church of choice—the music, atmosphere, and ministries we want. That sounds good, and I understand the intention, but we should not go to the church of our choice. We need to go to the place that preaches God's Word. Paul said, “God gave this gospel.” The Gospel is authenticated by its source—Jesus. It is about Him. The true Gospel centers on Jesus Christ.

Many people seek to meet creeds, not Christ. They've entered into codes of living, but not Christ. They've joined churches without meeting Christ. Salvation is not believing something, it is receiving Someone. The true Gospel is of God. Salvation is by grace. Don’t be deceived by a false version.

Where have you been distracted by the true Gospel message?

Is your life centered on Christ right now? What areas of your life still need to be directed by Christ?

PRACTICE THIS

Thank God for the ways you have grown and learned from your church community. Ask Him for continued growth focused on Him.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Church Growth God’s Way

It is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. (Romans 9:8)

Picture the Old Testament Abraham as a pastor. The Lord says, “I will bless you and prosper your ministry.” But the church is barren and bears no children.

What does Abraham do? He begins to despair of supernatural intervention. He is getting old. His wife remains barren. So he decides to bring about God’s promised son without supernatural intervention. He has sex with Hagar his wife’s handmaid (Genesis 16:4). However, the result is not a “child of the promise,” but a “child of the flesh,” Ishmael.

God stuns Abraham by saying, “I will give you a son by her [your wife Sarah]” (Genesis 17:16). So Abraham cries out to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” (Genesis 17:18). He wants the work of his own natural, human effort to be the fulfillment of God’s promise. But God says, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son” (Genesis 17:19).

But Sarah is 90 years old. She has been barren all her life, and she has already passed through menopause (Genesis 18:11). Abraham is 100. The only hope for a child of promise is stunning, supernatural intervention.

That is what it means to be a “child of the promise” — to be born “not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). The only children that count for children of God in this world are supernaturally begotten children of promise. In Galatians 4:28 Paul says, “You [Christians], like Isaac, are children of promise.” You are “born according to the Spirit,” not according to the flesh (Galatians 4:29).

Think of Abraham as a pastor again. His church is not growing the way he believes God promised. He is weary of waiting for supernatural intervention. He turns to the “Hagar” of mere human devices, and decides he can “attract people” without the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit.

However, it will not be a church of Isaacs, but Ishmaelites — children of the flesh, not children of God. God save us from this kind of fatal success. By all means work. But always look to the Lord for the decisive, supernatural work. “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord” (Proverbs 21:31).

John Piper 

Do You Want to Be a Giant for God?

PRAY OVER THIS

“And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” 

Ephesians 1:22-23

 

PONDER THIS

There’s no such thing as saying yes to Christ and no to the Church. It is the nature of the Christian to love. The Church and Christ are not identical, but they are inseparable, like a head and a body. You cannot love Jesus without loving what Jesus loves.

I have been to California and seen the giant Sequoia. That tree is as tall as a twenty-story building with a seventy-foot circumference. It’s giant! You would think a tree that big would have a tremendously deep taproot that would go down, down, down to keep it standing so tall and for so long. But you know what I discovered? Those trees don’t have deep taproots at all. Their roots grow very close to the surface, and the experts say the reason they have survived and grown so tall and for so long is that they grow only in groves—their roots all intertwine. When the winds come, they hold one another up.

Do you desire to be a giant for God? What would it look like to be so in the fellowship of the Church where we’re intertwined, where we love one another and care for one another so deeply that when the winds of life come, we stand strong? When you love Jesus, you’re going to love His Church.

When have you seen the Church come together in a time of difficulty?

What are some things that make it difficult for you to connect with the people in your church? How can you surrender those things to God?

PRACTICE THIS

Find a way to connect to someone in your church that you don’t know well. Consider meeting for coffee or sending a card.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Jesus’s Joy in Marriage

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor. (Ephesians 5:25–27)

The reason there is so much misery in marriage is not that husbands and wives seek their own pleasure, but that they do not seek it in the pleasure of their spouses. The biblical mandate to husbands and wives is to seek your own joy in the joy of your spouse.

There is scarcely a more hedonistic passage in the Bible than the one on marriage in Ephesians 5:25–30. Husbands are told to love their wives the way Christ loved the church.

How did he love the church? Verse 25 says he “gave himself up for her.” But why? Verse 26 says, “that he might sanctify” and cleanse her. But why did he want to do that? Verse 27 answers, “that he might present the church to himself in splendor!”

Ah! There it is! “For the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). What joy? The joy of marriage to his bride, the church. The joy of presenting the church to himself in blood-bought splendor.

Jesus does not intend to have a dirty and unholy wife. Therefore, he was willing to die to sanctify and cleanse his betrothed so he could present to himself a wife “in splendor.” He gained the desire of his heart by giving himself up in suffering for the good of his bride.

Then Paul applies this to husbands in verses 28–30: “In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.”

Jesus had said to husbands and wives — and everyone else — “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). Marriage is an extraordinary place of application. It is not merely “as” you love yourself. But you are loving yourself. When you love the person with whom God has made you one flesh, you are loving yourself. That is, your greatest joy is found in seeking the greatest joy of your spouse.

John Piper 

Where Two or Three Are Gathered

BIBLE MEDITATION

“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:20

 

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

There is something wonderful about unity. I heard about a fellow who courted a girl by writing her a beautiful love letter every day for two years. He thought that would be a wonderful way to court her. Do you know what happened? She married the mail carrier! There is nothing like being there. There is nothing like personal contact. There is a sense in which Jesus Christ is present when His people gather. You cannot get it the same way at home.

ACTION POINT

Do you have a church home? If not, I encourage you to find one today. If church attendance isn’t important, I wonder why Satan works so hard to keep folks away. If you do have a church home, make a special effort this week to meet a new friend and find a need that you can meet.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Is Your Church Built on These Essentials?

BIBLE MEDITATION

“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18

 

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

Any great church is built on these four things that begin with the letter B.

The Book–the inspired, infallible Word of God.

The Blood–the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Birth–the new birth.

The Blessed Hope–the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You need to be part of a community of faithful believers. Don’t be a “bone on your own,” like the dry bones in Ezekiel. God tells us not to forsake “the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25). He wants us to find a Bible-believing church and connect with the people there.

ACTION POINT

If you’re looking for a church, find out if they take a stand on the Book, the Blood, the Birth, and the Blessed Hope. If they don’t, saturate that place with your absence. Look for one that does.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Do you love Jesus but not the church?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“And I [Jesus] say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Many people say, “I believe in Jesus, but I just don’t believe in the church.” That’s like saying, “I believe in football, but I just don’t believe in stadiums, the gridiron, goal posts, and shoulder pads.”

Jesus loves the church. He gave His life for the church. If you are ever going to be victorious in the spiritual battles of life, you must realize that Christianity is not a “Lone Ranger” religion. The church is here to band together and win the battle together.

Sabine Baring-Gould wrote the famous hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers.” One stanza really stands out in this regard: “Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane, but the church of Jesus constant will remain. Gates of hell can never against that church prevail. We have Christ’s own promise, and that cannot fail.”

ACTION POINT:

Jesus loves the Church, which is His body.  If we love Jesus, we will love what He loves.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers