Destroying The Church Brick By Brick

Introduction

Good morning. If you open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 16, if you look at Matthew chapter 16, and carefully examine what Jesus tells Peter. In Matthew chapter 16 and verse 18, we see our Lord and Savior having a conversation with Peter. As you may have guessed, we’re going to look at verse 18, where Jesus says, And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. That is a pretty strong sentiment, don’t you think? If you could say about anything in this life, I am going to build this, and not even the gates of Hades themselves can tear it down. Not even the gates of Hades, not even Satan and all his might and all the principalities and rulers of darkness can drag it down or break it up.

That is powerful. And it is a blessing to be here in the church of the living God this morning. Amen.

Serves to serve us or to be a good place of encouragement, which it is and should be. But there’s something that goes into the life of a church, and that’s work. Doing those things that Brother Hart just spoke about, that is benevolence, works of evangelism, edification, building up, the saints who are here. But we also know, and anyone who has a television or access to the internet and reads anything about news knows this church, this church, like all the others of Christ, are under full-fledged attack by the devil and his angels. Note this morning that there are many different types of angles and schemes that Satan is using to tear down this church. He’s using the government for one. If you have been anywhere near an election, even or any news or ideas of amendments and voting, you know that homosexual rights and the tolerance of that is very quickly going to become a very big battleground to churches who stand against homosexual behavior on account of what God has said.

They will label churches who preach homosexuality a sin as intolerant. And when the government decides, and make no mistake, this day is coming. When the government decides that these people are intolerant and we are not giving them their rights as human beings, every single one of us who stand up against it will have to answer to Uncle Sam for what we are saying.

There’s people who have no interest in what God has to say. They don’t care, or they might claim to. They might claim to care, but when it comes down to it, when it comes to careful study of your Bible, of the scriptures, they want to turn a blind eye and say, that’s not exactly the God I know. It’s interesting that often the God that we don’t know is the God that we haven’t studied thoroughly enough. That’s why it’s critical for us as Christians to be examining our Bibles daily, see what the church is supposed to be, what it’s supposed to do, and how we as Christians fit into that local body that God provided for us. But there’s one other aspect, and this is littered throughout the New Testament.

In fact, we have examples of people railing against God in the old, but it’s about false teachers. How many times does Jesus talk against false teachers? How many times does Paul warn against the danger, the ferocity of wolves? The metaphor of wolves tearing apart Christ’s sheep. In fact, we have shepherds that are elders who oversee the work of this congregation to help maintain pure doctrine, to help do what God has asked them to do. Look with me in Matthew chapter 7. We’re going to look at one such example here in Matthew chapter 7 and verse 15. Jesus says, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbrushes or figs from thistles?

So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, you will recognize them who? False prophets of verse 15 who we’re to beware of. You will recognize them by their fruits. You don’t think there are false prophets? You are mistaken. I turned on my television a few weeks ago, perhaps over a month ago. I started watching this fellow named Joel Osteen. I wanted to see what he had to say. I wanted to perhaps learn. He’s, if nothing else, a fantastic speaker, obviously. That’s why thousands of people flock to him and buy his materials and really his services in a sense.

And what I noticed was this guy’s got it wrong. He he preaches a gospel of if you commit your life to God, he will give you tenfold. He preaches about how if you obey him, he’ll give you everything. God will give you money. He will give you a bigger car, a bigger house, a second or third or fourth car. He wants you to be happy. That’s what God wants more than anything else. That’s what you take away if you listen to Joel Osteen preach. Let me tell you this morning. If you want to feel good or think that you want to be rich, go listen to the words of that man. But if you want the words of life, if you want salvation, you read this book.

1. What Does Not Destroy the Church

You read the book of life that is from God. And so this morning we have to understand that we must separate what is of the world with what is of God. Otherwise, this church will be destroyed. This morning I want to talk about destroying the church brick by brick. And let’s start with what does not destroy the church. Please note with me that truth does not destroy the church. God’s truth will never be destroyed. Look with me in 1 Peter chapter 1. If you look over at 1 Peter chapter 1, and look at verse 22. Notice what Peter says in verse 22, through the end of chapter 1, as we have it divided. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.

Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you. Now people may claim, and if you’ve watched any of any television shows or read anything on the internet about God, they will claim that this God, with this truth of which he claims to be giving us, the Bible is full of division. In fact, it’s full of rape and incest and adultery, and it’s full of all these bad things. In fact, God, and certainly Paul is a bigot, is a word often thrown around because of his views towards women and homosexuals.

Understand, truth has not divided anything. In fact, note this morning that truth and God’s word has not caused any division. The only thing that the truth of God’s word has destroyed is error and false doctrine and the weight and guilt of sin on our consciences. God has proven to give us a way to get out from the burden of our sin. We understand passages like Romans chapter 3 and verse 23, and Romans chapter 6 and verse 23. For all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. For the wages of sin is death. We understand that that happens. God has a plan. God gave his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to come and die on the cross for our sins. And it doesn’t matter what people claim.

It doesn’t matter that they say the truth is what has divided churches because there are all these people who got all upity and had the nerve to say, This is what God said, and if you’re not doing that, you are in danger of transgressing his law and being forever lost. People want to say it’s the truth’s fault. But let me tell you, God has been in opposition to man from almost the very beginning. Look at me in Genesis chapter six. Look in Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5. Note what happened. In Genesis chapter 6, way back at the very beginning of your Bible. Look at Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

How bad was it? Look at verse 7. Excuse me, verse 6. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. Whether it’s passages like Genesis chapter 6, whether it’s how the people of Israel even responded to the very prophets that God sent them, unmindful of Jeremiah, constantly was being ridiculed, mocked, told he was wrong, lying. Brother Adam a couple weeks ago mentioned some of the stalks that Jeremiah was even put into. But people have been in opposition to God and his word from the very beginning of time. Satan was there, wasn’t he, in Genesis chapter 3? With Adam and Eve, Satan was there telling them, This is not what God meant. You will not surely die.

Isn’t that what the serpent tells Eve in Genesis chapter 3? God’s truth is always going to be in opposition to anything that is not from him. Because anything that is not from him is from man or is from the devil, and neither we nor Satan are good enough to have any type of say over God. The truth does not divide people in any other way than it separates those who are gods and those who are not. So this morning when we charge what can destroy the church. Recognize truth does not destroy the church. It is what the church is charged to uphold with. Isn’t that what Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 15? The church is the pillar and the ground of truth.

So it is not truth that has divided or destroyed the churches. It is those who have gone away from truth. Those who have avowed the lies of men, the soothing words that Paul warns Timothy of in 2 Timothy chapter 4, to slowly pull up their anchor and drift away from that very truth. And what’s so critical about leaving that truth is that truth, that word of God, the gospel is what Paul writes about. Romans chapter 1, verse 16 is the power of God unto salvation. And so when you leave that, you have left the power of God unto salvation. That will destroy you, but it will not destroy the truth. A second thing that will not destroy the church is persecution. Now I know this one really defies human sense here.

We think that with the government bearing down and the lack of caring by individuals in the public, and certainly false teachers railing against the church and saying they are upholding what is not of God. They are false, they are wrong, they are just mean, legalistic. We throw whatever word you want onto that fire. But you know, if you read your New Testament, look with me in Acts chapter 5. The church actually thrived from persecution. Look in Acts chapter 5, beginning in verse 29. Notice what is going on here in Acts chapter 5. We see the apostles are before the council. I want to read several verses in the section starting in verse 29 of Acts chapter 5. But Peter and the apostles answered, We must obey God rather than men.

The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on the tree. God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And notice as they keep going, the apostles are under trial for preaching the word. They were told strictly not to, and they went about doing it anyway. But pick up the reading in verse 38. A Pharisee in the council we read about in verse 34 named Gameliel is talking and telling the council, here’s some words to watch out for. Look in verse 37. After him, Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered.

So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone. Note what he says, why. For if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail. Isn’t that right, brothers and sisters? If something is not of God, it will fail. But keep reading. In verse 39, but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God. Verse 39, so they took his advice. When they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. Now I can’t stop reading this without reading the next two verses. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

And every day in the temple and from house to house they did not cease. What? Teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus. You see, they were told, do not do this. In fact, they were beaten for preaching about Christ, for teaching about Jesus. And a man, the council is telling them, Be careful. In the off chance, is what he’s really saying, in the off chance that these men are from God, you may even be found opposing God. Be careful of persecution. But notice, despite the fact that they were still beaten, that didn’t get them off the hook. Despite the fact they were beaten and warned not to. Look at Acts chapter 6 and verse 2. And the twelve, that’s the apostles who were just punished, summoned the full number of the disciples and said, It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.

Now look down at verse 7. And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. So what’s going on? Well, in Acts chapter six, there’s so much of a benevolent need because of the growing church there. In Acts chapter six, the apostles set up disciples to help relieve them so that they wouldn’t be serving tables so that they could preach the word. And the result of all that persecution and all that the council was trying to STEMy and stop the growth of the church resulted in what in verse 7? The number of disciples being multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. But if you want a more clear example, look at Acts chapter 8.

As we move forward, in fact, it wasn’t just in Jerusalem. In Acts chapter 8, beginning in verse 1. And Saul approved of his execution, that is Stephen’s. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house. He dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. If you have any question of how the word of God spread, it was right there in Acts chapter 8 and verse 4. Not only were the apostles charged with teaching, and those who were set up preaching and teaching, and the amount of momentum that got going by the teaching day by day in the homes and in the temple, it is by the people who were scattered abroad teaching the word.

You see, persecution to truth, if truth cannot be abolished, if God will always stand and you believe that, even persecution against that church, against that truth, is not good enough to stand up against God. So we need to take great confidence as a nation that no matter what happens, no matter what the government does, no matter what your neighbor says or thinks, maybe even what other people in other church buildings lobby against you for coming here to worship God at this very building. If you’re doing what God says, there is nothing that can pull you away. And more importantly, the church will thrive on truth. But do you see the catch there? We gotta stick with it. You have to have truth to survive persecution. And so if you have truth, persecution will not destroy.

But neither will the loss of creeds. Look at me in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Certainly the church at Corinth struggled with division in just about every way that you I would think you can. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, beginning in verse 3. Paul says, And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Why is he saying that? Why is Paul was the church at Corinth just saying, you know, we don’t want to worship God, we want to worship the wisdom of men?

Not exactly, but note back in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, beginning in verse 12. He’s asking them about their quarreling, and he says in verse 12, What I mean is that each one of you says, I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos, or I follow Cephas, or I follow Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? He’s telling them don’t follow men. Follow truth. We have a danger in our society today to lean on all the wonderful resources we have. If you go back and ever get a chance to look at somebody’s library as a book, I ask that you drive up to Hansville, Alabama, and see Leon Maldon’s, I call it a shrine of Bible knowledge.

He has books over every type of corner in the room, and he actually has a cove where the church used to have a baptistry filled with books. And those are tremendous resources. But can I tell you if there was a fire, if there was something that destroyed every book, every book in the entire world except this one, we would be okay. We would at least have truth. We would have the power of the gospel that is unto salvation. It doesn’t matter what this man said about it, or even what this man says about the truth. It matters what God has revealed and whether or not we will obey what he says. And so it doesn’t matter what is lost or what is gained, as long as we stick with the truth, the church will not be destroyed.

And one final point to give special comfort to this church, even here this morning. Being in the minority does not mean the church will be destroyed. It does not mean even if we were to shrink a little bit, or if Orlando were to get bigger and we weren’t to gain with it, being the minority has no bearing on whether or not the church can remain and serve God and give glory to him in the way it was designed. Look at Matthew chapter seven. In Matthew chapter seven.

He says, Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many. Verse 14, though, for the gate is narrow, and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few. It doesn’t matter if you are part of a biggest congregation or a really tiny little one. If you worship God, if you cling to what He says, you will be doing the right thing.

The way that is hard, it is difficult. Does that scream easy big church to you? Does that scream get rich quick if you study and do what God says? No. In fact, it’s anything but Jesus tells us a life to be lived after him is a life of sacrifice. We even have to pick up our crosses and follow after him in Luke chapter nine. We have to really sacrifice. If you’re living your life and it’s easy, I I wonder how we we look at Matthew passages like Matthew chapter seven and think, This is hard. Are you sacrificing enough? But we don’t need to look around and say, Well, there aren’t many people here, Orlando’s really big, and comparatively we’re really small and get discouraged and fall away.

God’s known from the beginning of time who would follow. God knows that the people who would follow would be few. No what’s said about the gate also? There are few who find it. Let’s be one of the few and make sure that our church is not destroyed. But notice that in Romans chapter 14 and verse eleven, Paul says that every knee will bow, and then every tongue shall confess God is Lord. It doesn’t matter right now what happens, it matters that in the grand scheme of things, will you bow your knee and confess his name now or when it’s too late? Because the minority will do it now. The minority will enter through the narrow way now. The minority will get through the hard struggle that is life.

2. A Worldly Focus

But for those who go down the easy way, they’re still going to confess. Their knees will still bow. It will just be too late for them. But back on to what we were discussing this morning, you see that all those potential speed bumps, if you will, whether it be truth or persecution or loss of creeds or being the minority are things that people say would divide or even destroy the church. But there’s a lot of things that actually do destroy the church that we often don’t consider. One obvious one, though, is a worldly focus. Would you look with me back at 1 Corinthians now in chapter 3? Would you look with me in 1 Corinthians chapter 3? If you’re worrying about what dangers this church is facing, these are it.

We need to let God take care of the government and politics. Allow us, allow our mindset to be focused on solving what we can. Know what Paul says in verse 1 of 1 Corinthians chapter 3. But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready. Why? Verse 3. For you are still of the flesh. For while there’s jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says I follow Paul and another I follow Apollos, are you not being merely human? This is a big danger.

You want to worry about what’s going to destroy the church is this. It’s saying, this is what I think. And as we talked about in our Bible class this morning, men being trained with business ideas and ideas of the flesh and applying them into the church. What does Paul talk about is the problem in 1 Corinthians chapter 3? We’re going to address the full breadth of the problem in the next in the next point here. But he says that your mind is of the world. And in verse 3 he says, Are you not being merely human saying, I follow Apollos or I follow Paul? His focus is on the fleshly things. And he’s having to tell them, get out of that. Stop it. Focus on that which is spiritual.

What is the mission of the church? We need to be careful that we don’t make this church into something that we want. Can I tell you that that’s kind of hard? It’s not as easy as it sounds. We all come to church to worship God. But when you come here, are you just focused solely on praising him, or do you get distracted by some of the elements that go on around you? What about when the song leader leads a little bit off pitch? Can you worship God still? We should be able to. What about when the preacher, I don’t know, at the 9 o’clock goes a little long, and the Bible class has a little bit less of a gap in between it? Can you make it?

Can you focus? I think we should. But when we allow these things to build and to focus, and then in fact, then we tell the elders, the leaders of God’s organization that I know how this can be done. Here’s how. And the reference for that is this is how my business did it. Or this is what I learned in school. We’re enforcing worldly concepts on a spiritual organization that will destroy a church from every angle, whether from the inside or from the outside. If we allow what is not the doctrine of God to get in and make any seed in the church, it will be destroyed. If you don’t believe me, think about a garden. Have you ever put grass down and been really happy and satisfied with how you got the whole lawn resolted?

And then one day you walk out there just two weeks later, and there’s a weed. We do not like those pesky things. But if you leave it unchecked, if you allow it to just sit in there, what happens to that weed? It spreads. It grows. It may not be noticeable. In fact, it may not even cause a problem because after all, your lawn was bad if you had to resod it in the first place. But eventually, if you allow that weed to grow, it will take over your yard. And so will the flesh. The lust of the flesh, the pride of life, the lust of the eyes. These things, when they creep into the church, which they do through us as individuals, will defile it. We will be defiling the church which was purchased with the blood of Christ.

That will destroy the church. In fact, Paul warns Timothy of this in 2 Timothy chapter 4. If you’ll look with me there.

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. He’s not saying that these are just bad people necessarily. But what happens? It’s a steady flow. Verse three, they will start accumulating for themselves their own teachers. Before they were listening to good teaching. Sound doctrine. They reject that. They get their own teachers. Eventually, that’s a that even might be a little too much. In verse 4, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. This church cannot leave the truth if we wish to be the very pillar and ground of truth that God commands us that we be.

3. An Immature Faith

And so a worldly focus is toxic to this church. Now, what also destroys is an immature faith. Look back at first Corinthians chapter three. I’d like to flesh out this idea. This is perhaps the most startling. I hope you take this as the most personal application and the biggest challenge this morning. Look back at first Corinthians chapter three. I want to read the first three verses again. But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready for it. For you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

They weren’t ready for it. After all the teaching and all the milk he had given them, they hadn’t grown at all. Look with me in Hebrews chapter five. You’ll see the same wording. The Hebrew writer obviously shares these thoughts. In Hebrews chapter five, look at verse eleven. About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. Now who was called dull of hearing? Keep looking. Verse 12, for though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment, trained by constant practice, distinguish good from evil.

What’s the problem with an immature faith? Look at what the Hebrew writer says in verse 12. For though by this time you ought to be teachers. You need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food. The crime, the reason a church can be destroyed by immature faith, and that is an immature faith of each and every individual therein, is because the teaching cannot go on if we are not growing. Let me ask you, what did you learn this week as you were reading your Bible every day? What did you learn? How did you grow this week from studying your Bible each day at home? Let me ask you this. What did you learn the last time you read your Bible every week?

Every day. Did you read your Bible this week? Did you read it every day? If not, why not? An immature faith is absolute poison to a church. Look at 1 Timothy. Look at Hebrews. The writers are consistent. The Bible is clear. We must move on from milk to solid food. Why? Look at Hebrews chapter 5. Look at the last verse, verse 14. Solid food is for the mature. For those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Look at chapter 6 and verse 1, though. Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

And this we will do if God permits. Leave it. Move on. Get to the weightier matters of the law, because if we don’t, we won’t be ready when those false teachers I opened with come into the church. If we are not constantly distinguishing good from evil, how do you recognize that which is good and that which is evil? More importantly, how do you recognize those who are disguised? Those who come in as wolves in sheep’s clothing. You know, the ones who dress like us and talk like us. If we do not examine ourselves and grow our faith daily, this church will not grow any faster than each and every one of us will. And please note that. It doesn’t matter whether you’re an elder or you’re sitting in the back left corner when Mr.

4. Grumbling and Disputing

Earl Nost is not here. Every single person, you got that now. Every single person in here has to grow in order for this church to do the same. If not, we will only move backwards. And I want to get to two more points quickly this morning. Grumbling and not producing fruit. Look with me in Philippians chapter 2. When Paul’s talking to the church at Philippi, he’s speaking of Christ and uplifting him in his example. But notice what he says in verse 14. In Philippians chapter 2 and verse 14, he says, Do all things without grumbling or disputing. Verse 15, that you may be blameless and innocent. Children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world.

Have you ever seen a light that’s flickering on and off? Have you ever seen one of those? What do you do with it? Do you leave it and say, Well, I’m glad it’s producing some light? Or do you take it off, throw it away, and replace it with a new one? As Christians, when we grumble, when we complain, when we say, Well, the church was too long, the preacher went too long, the singing was off, I didn’t get to do what I wanted. I don’t like the direction of the church, we are grumbling and disputing, and we’re allowing our light to flicker off more than it’s on. That does no good. Just like we wouldn’t be satisfied with a flickering light, what do we think God thinks about us?

What about this church here at South Bumby? Do we allow grumbling and complaining to take place each and every worship service when we get back into our cars and we go home? Do we complain about the audio and the video booth? Do we complain about the prayer, how it was too long or too short? What’s your mindset towards the church? Is it how can I help or how can it help me? Because until the mindset is how can I help, that only leaves room for complaining, because you’re never going to be satisfied here. If you came to South Bumby, this church, as I know it, to be satisfied yourself, you will find yourself wanting. If you came to worship God and to find and work out your own salvation, then you will have found that here, I pray.

5. Not Producing Fruit

The words of God are what provides salvation. It is Christ’s blood that provided the forgiveness of sins. It is not the church, it is not anyone else except Jesus Himself and us who answer to Him. Do not grumble or complain at what God has made or what God has devised. And the final point this morning is not producing fruit. We each as members need to go out and do the work. After all, in Luke chapter 10 and verse 2, the well known phrase, the harvest is plentiful, plentiful, but the laborers are few.

If you don’t bear fruit, he’ll throw you out and find someone who will. If this church is to be destroyed, the number one way it will is by not producing fruit. Let me ask you, whose charge is it to produce fruit at the work here at South Bumby? Is it Bob and I? Is it Jim, Ralph Walcott, and Bob as elders? Is it the deacons? Is it those who lead worship? Or is it each and every one of us? What are you doing to produce fruit? Or will you allow God to throw you or perhaps this whole congregation out and find someone who will? We made it clear that God has a plan and God’s truth will not be squashed. This church can stand strong if we hold the truth.

But if you want to know when this church’s work is done, when we are safe, I’ll tell you when we can slow down. In fact, the Bible tells you. The Bible shows us exactly where you need to be to be content in the eyes of God. Look with me in Mark chapter 16. I want you to see. This is when we’ll know the work is done. In Mark chapter 16. No, in verse 15. And he said to them, go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. This work at South Bunby is done when every single creature has not only learned the word, has been so built up and edified that they are like Christ, and there are no needs in the saints.

Conclusion

That’s when we’re done. And until then we have work to do if we wish to be obedient and to not be destroyed when Satan comes at us. I ask you this morning, will this church stand? And ask you more importantly, if each and every member here this morning represented the South Bunby Church of Christ. Would it grow? Or would it fall? If it was on your shoulders, what would happen? Let’s stick to truth. Let’s recognize that it is God who has given us everything, and it most importantly, in that, God gave us His Son. We mentioned that several times. Christ was crucified, His blood was shed. The baptistry is ready. You can be baptized, coming into contact with that blood. In fact, you can even help the mission of the church this morning: being baptized.

Believing and being baptized and having your sins washed away. If you wish to come forward in any way, if you wish to take the power of the church and to pray for you, come forward right now as we stand and as we sing.