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There are some are now saying that the church is actually damaging to your spiritual health.
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If you want to be a real follower of Jesus the best way to do it is to leave the church.
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Christians in our beloved country of America desperately, desperately need to recover a
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compelling biblical vision of the church.
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Welcome to Open The Bible with pastor Colin Smith, and Colin today we’re going to be thinking
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about what is the church and why does it matter?
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Well it matters, because it matters to Jesus.
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I mean, Christ loved the church and gave himself for her, and you know we want to be like Jesus,
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that means we’ve got to love the church as Jesus Christ does, and that means that we’ve
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got to have a very different view of the church from the view that’s held in the world.
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The world never thinks much of the church, it’s always out of date, it’s always irrelevant,
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so forth, in the eyes of the world, but in the eyes of Christ, the body of believers
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that the saviour died to redeem is infinitely precious, extremely valuable, dearly, dearly
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loved.
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And if we’re going to be like Jesus then we want to grow in reflecting that same view
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of the church that we see in our saviour.
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We see that in Matthew 16 and in chapter 18, join us there if you can as we begin our message
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What is the church?
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Here’s Colin.
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The aim of the series, remember, is that we will share the passion of Jesus Christ for
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his church.
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And let’s face it, in the eyes of the world the church looks pretty weak, out of date,
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out of touch, out of style, the list goes on and on.
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What we’re going to learn from the Scriptures is that in the eyes of Jesus Christ, the church
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is infinitely valuable, eternally precious, and infinitely glorious.
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There are many Christians who can only see the church through the eyes of the world.
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And what I want to do in this series, as we open up the Scriptures, is to help you see
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the church through the eyes of Jesus Christ, to see the church as Christ sees her.
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Now I want to suggest to you right at the beginning that the vast majority of Christians
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in this country have never seen the church as Christ sees her.
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Let me give you some figures to bear that out.
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76% of Americans claim to be Christian.
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Let’s take the population, it’s just over 300 million, but let’s round it to 300 million.
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What that means is that 225 million people in this country claim to be Christian believers.
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Of that number, on any given weekend, 52 million gather for worship in their local church,
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which raises the question, where are the other 173 million?
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What about them?
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There are 173 million people in the United States of America today who claim to be Christian
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believers, but do not have a living connection with a congregation of believers, in which
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they engage in worship and in the body of Christ.
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Now, think about what that means, friends.
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Less than a quarter of those who profess to be Christian believers actually gather with
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others for worship.
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And if we could do a survey of the 173 million Americans who do not gather with other believers,
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I’m sure we would hear many, many stories, and some of them at least will be familiar
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to you.
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Some of them may be part of your experience.
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There would be some who would only have a faint connection with Christianity.
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Maybe they were baptized as infants.
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They might say that they believe that Jesus died on the cross, but they have really never
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experienced any living power of Christ in their life.
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It’s merely something that is a vague belief in the background of their lives.
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But then there would be others in the 173 million who have believed and who have served.
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And in some way, they’ve been burned.
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They saw sin or they saw scandal in the church, and they were offended and they were discouraged.
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They got burned and they determined that they would never go near a local church again.
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Then there would be others who would say, you know, I came to church for a long time,
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I simply got nothing out of it.
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I gave up.
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There was nothing of spiritual substance there.
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There was nothing that touched reality.
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There was nothing that connects with the life that I’m living today.
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Others may simply have drifted.
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They were involved in other activities, other things, took over.
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Or maybe they never found a church that felt like home.
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The list could go on, and you could think of other reasons, I’m sure.
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It isn’t hard to find reasons to abandon the church.
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We live, folks, in a highly individualistic culture, probably America today the most individualistic
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culture that has ever existed in the history or on the face of the world.
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More and more people in these early years of the 21st century, live with an instinctive
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distrust of anything that looks in any way like an institution.
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Then there’s a natural pragmatism that is within many of us that is always looking at
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the question, what’s the most efficient way to get a job done?
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And for those who simply look at the question, what’s the most efficient way of getting a
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job done, the local church often doesn’t look like the best vehicle for changing the world.
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So folks drift and they put in their energy somewhere else.
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On top of this, it’s important for you folks to know that there are some who are now saying
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that the church is actually damaging to your spiritual health.
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That if you want to be a real follower of Jesus, the best way to do it is to leave the
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church, that in some way the church is actually toxic to spiritual life.
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All of this is to say that Christians in our beloved country of America desperately, desperately
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need to recover a compelling biblical vision of the church.
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Well, this is the reason for our series folks, and by the time we are done with these four
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weeks, I hope that you will feel that the great privilege of your life is that you belong
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to the body of Christ and that you are discovering a growing passion for the church, which is
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the Bride of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
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Well, now we begin today with the question, what is the church?
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What is the church?
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First time I thought about this issue seriously, I was with a group of friends in the Junior
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common room in the London Bible College at the age of 20.
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We were a group of students who loved the Lord.
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We were all studying theology.
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We met together regularly for worship and for prayer.
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We shared real fellowship.
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We were studying the Bible.
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And so the question came up.
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We’re sitting around in the Junior common room, well, what do you think guys, are we
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a church?
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Interesting question.
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If you’ve been involved in student leadership, by the way, on any college campus or lead
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a ministry, you have probably at some point got into this discussion, are we a church?
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I’ll ask you to think about this with me.
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If three Christians meet every day at a bus stop, are they a church?
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If they talk about the Bible when they’re on the train or when they’re in Starbucks,
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is that a church?
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Is your small group, your life group, is that a church?
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I ask the question because a growing number of Christians today simply have the idea that
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church is plural for Christian.
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They have this diminishing definition.
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They feel that any group of Christians speaking about something spiritual in any time or place
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is the church.
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Now, I’m asking you the question, do you think that’s right?
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And if not, why not?
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What is the church?
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So, we’re going to see what Jesus meant when he talked about the church, and that’s coming
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up in a moment.
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So I hope you’ll stay with us.
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The message today is called What is the Church?, and it’s been one of the most popular requested
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and downloaded messages of the past 12 months, and we’ve bundled that up with some of the
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most popular messages into a series which we’re calling, Listeners’ Favourites.
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And we’re airing those every day on the radio this month.
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So, if you ever miss one of our messages, don’t forget you can always
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go back and listen again online.
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Come to our website, openthebible.org.uk, or find us as a podcast
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on your favourite podcast site.
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Search for Open the Bible UK and subscribe to receive regular updates.
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Back to the message now, here’s Colin.
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What is the church?
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Let’s begin by asking this question.
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What did Jesus mean when He spoke about the church?
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What is the word church mean on the lips of Jesus?
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Don’t you think that’s the best place to begin?
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Because whatever Jesus means by the church, that’s what I want to mean
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when I speak about the church and I’m sure you feel that too.
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Now, there are only two occasions in all of the four gospels
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where the word church actually occurs.
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Our Lord Jesus only used the word church twice
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and what He said on these two occasions defines what church is for us.
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The first occasion Jesus used this word is very well known.
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It is in Matthew 16, verse 18 and I hope you’ll turn there with me now.
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You know the story.
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Peter had confessed that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God.
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And Christ says to him,
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I tell you, you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church.
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First time Jesus said the word.
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And then He said the gates of hell will not overcome it.
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Now this time the first time Jesus used the word church
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it is very clear that He is using the word
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to refer to all believers in every age and in every place.
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Now I say that is clear because He is very clear in saying
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that there is only one
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my church, singular, I’ll build it.
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So Christ is here not speaking about a local church like the orchard
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because the orchard is only one of many.
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And the Lord here isn’t speaking about the Baptists, or the Methodists,
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or the Lutherans, or the Catholics, or any other church or group of churches
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that you might care to name.
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He is speaking here about all believers
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in every age and in every place.
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That’s the first definition of the word church,
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it’s the way in which Jesus uses it, in Matthew, in chapter 16 and verse 18.
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And this reminds us that there is one church,
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and Jesus says, I’m the one who is building it.
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Believers in Christ from every time, every generation,
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and from every country and every background in the world
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are truly one in Jesus Christ,
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whatever the particular brand of church they may belong to,
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there is one body in the Lord.
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And the New Testament repeats that again and again.
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And Jesus says the church is built on the solid rock of Christ himself.
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Remember, Peter has just confessed that Jesus is the Son of God.
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And Jesus says to him, now, Peter, verse 17,
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the Father has revealed this to you.
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You didn’t work this out on your own.
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You’ve had a revelation from the Father here.
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Peter, you are in touch with reality
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when you say that I am Christ, the Son of the Living God.
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And I tell you, Peter, on this reality,
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that I am the Christ, the Son of the Living God,
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this reality, that you have confessed that
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I will build my church,
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in other words, he is saying the church stands solid
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on the foundation of Jesus Christ,
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who is forever the Son of God.
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And then Jesus says, And the gates of hell
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will not prevail against it.
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Now, think about it,
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you can’t say that about any local church.
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You read through history.
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You travel around the world,
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all over the world,
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there are stories of churches whole denominations
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that have lost their way, and then they’ve closed.
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Travel around Europe.
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See the ruins of buildings where Christ was once honored.
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You can’t say the gates of hell
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will not prevail against any local church.
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That’s not what Jesus is saying.
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He’s saying, I will gather the body of believers
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from every age and in every place,
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and the gates of hell cannot prevail
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over the people of God.
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If you have faith in Christ, you have this promise
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Jesus says, not one of them will be lost.
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Churches may close.
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No believer is ever lost.
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Let me make one or two observations
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before we go on to the second use of this word church.
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When Jesus speaks about the church here
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in Matthew chapter 16,
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He speaks about what is sometimes called
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the Church Universal.
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That is the entire body of believers
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in every time and in every place.
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And it’s important to remember, folks,
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that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one
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who knows these believers.
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We don’t know them, and sometimes,
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we can’t discern if someone is a true believer or not,
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if they’re the real article
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or if they’re just sitting in church and a hypocrite.
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But Jesus knows.
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Any local church, any gathering
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like the gathering we are part of today,
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it is going to be a mixed bag,
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a mixed bag of those who truly belong to Christ
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and of those who don’t.
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Jesus said, the wheat and the tares grow together,
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and that happens until Christ comes,
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and when Christ comes, you know what?
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One will be taken, and another will be left.
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That’ll be true in worship services
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where there is a mixture of people
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who truly have faith in Christ and those who are just there.
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See, you do not belong to Christ by joining the church.
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You belong to the church by being joined to Jesus Christ.
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That’s so important to grasp.
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You do not belong to Christ by joining the church.
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You belong to the church by being joined to Jesus Christ.
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And in 2 Timothy, for example,
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we read about men and the church
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like Hymenaeus and Philetus
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who must have caused terrible trouble.
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We’re told that they wandered away from the truth.
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Their teaching spread like gangrene.
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And the apostle Paul says in the light of these folks,
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he says this,
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he says,
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nevertheless the God solid foundation stands firm,
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sealed with this inscription.
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The Lord knows who are his.
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The other people thought that
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Hymenaeus and Philetus were his
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but it turned out that they were not.
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He said the Lord knows who are his
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and then he says this,
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and everyone who professes the name of the Lord
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must turn away from wickedness.
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God knows who are his.
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God knows who’s a genuine believer
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and who’s a hypocrite.
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We don’t often know that,
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often don’t know it.
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But he knows the wheat from the chaff.
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Nobody fools Christ.
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Nobody deceives him.
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Here’s what we do know,
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that everyone who confesses the name of the Lord
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must turn away from wickedness.
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So if a man holds on to wickedness
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he should not fool himself into
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thinking that he belongs to Christ.
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You can’t fool Christ,
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so don’t fool yourself.
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Third observation,
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just before we move on.
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Since the church,
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as Jesus speaks about it here,
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is the full company
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of all true believers
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from every age and in every place,
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it follows that only Christ right now can see it.
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None of us has seen this.
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None of us has met…
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seen every believer in every place.
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So many are with the Lord.
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But the church in all of its glory
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is going to be unveiled
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on the day when Jesus Christ
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stands with his people in this
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vast, unimaginably vast congregation.
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John saw it in the vision in the book of Revelation.
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He said it was a multitude that no one could number.
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And they’re drawn from every tribe and language and nation.
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And they’re saying,
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salvation belongs to God.
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And they’re there, John says,
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because they have been washed in the blood of the Lamb,
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that is Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God,
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who laid down his life as a sacrifice for our sins.
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And there they are and the Lamb himself stands
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at the center of the throne and he’s the one
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who leads them into springs of living water
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and God wipes away all tears from their eyes.
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That’s the church.
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What a day it will be when it’s full glory is revealed.
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What a day it will be for you
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to be part of that great multitude.
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All believers,
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from every age,
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in every place.
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I want you to turn over in your Bible two pages
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to the second time that Jesus spoke about the church.
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It’s in Matthew chapter 18
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and we pick it up in verse 15.
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Our Lord is speaking here about a situation
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where there is a dispute between two believers.
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Someone has wronged his brother
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and he says, verse 15,
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if your brother sins against you go and
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show him his fault just between the two of you.
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And then if he won’t listen,
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verse 16, take someone else along.
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And then verse 17 is our focus
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where Jesus uses the word church a second time.
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He says, if this person refuses to listen still
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even to these people,
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tell it to the church.
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The church, Matthew chapter 18 and verse 17.
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Tell it, that’s tell this problem to the church.
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Now think about it folks, that cannot possibly mean
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tell it to all believers who have ever lived
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in every age in every place.
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It cannot possibly mean that.
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So many of them are in heaven.
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So what is Jesus referring to when he speaks
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about the church here to whom a situation is told
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and it has not otherwise been resolved?
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And the answer is surely that Jesus is speaking here
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about a local congregation of believers.
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So what I want you to grasp is that there are only
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two times when the word church is used
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in all of the four Gospels, only two times
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when Jesus used this word from his own lips.
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And on these two occasions,
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he defines for us what church is.
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One that it is the body of all believers
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who have ever lived in every time
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and in any place, those who are in Christ.
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And two, that the church is a local congregation
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of believers who are called out by God to worship
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and are sent out by God to serve.
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Now let me explain the last part of that little statement
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that I put there before you.
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The word for church in the New Testament
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is the word ekklesia, it’s made up of two words, ekklesia.
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And these two words put together,
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their root meaning is basically called out.
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That’s what the word means, called out.
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The word could be used to describe a gathering, an assembly.
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We might say in our day a congregation.
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And in the Old Testament, God called out an assembly,
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a congregation, a people to worship him.
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This goes all the way back to the book of Exodus.
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You remember, God said to Pharaoh, let my people go.
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Why?
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Why are God’s people to be let go?
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What is God redeeming and saving his people for?
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Answer, let my people go that they
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may worship me in the desert.
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I’m calling them out for worship.
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I’m gonna meet with them at Mount Sinai,
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that’s what God is saying.
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So God’s pattern for Israel is that his redeemed people
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who he has brought out from slavery
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should enter into this purpose
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that they assemble before him in his presence,
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placing themselves under his word
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so that God’s people may learn to worship him
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and learn how to live under his authority.
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You’ve been listening to Pastor Colin Smith
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on open the Bible and a message called What is the Church.
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00:22:12,520 –> 00:22:15,439
It was originally in our series called What is the Church
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00:22:15,439 –> 00:22:16,880
and why does it matter?
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00:22:16,880 –> 00:22:19,040
And this message has been one of the most
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00:22:19,040 –> 00:22:22,739
requested and popular downloads of the last 12 months
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00:22:22,739 –> 00:22:23,979
and we’ve bundled it up
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00:22:23,979 –> 00:22:26,380
with all the other really popular messages
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00:22:26,380 –> 00:22:29,640
and we’re featuring it every day this month
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00:22:29,640 –> 00:22:32,520
under the title Listener Favorites.
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00:22:32,520 –> 00:22:34,119
If you ever miss one of our messages,
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00:22:34,119 –> 00:22:37,180
don’t forget you can always go back and listen again
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00:22:37,180 –> 00:22:38,880
online at our website
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00:22:38,880 –> 00:22:41,880
openthebible.org.uk
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00:22:41,880 –> 00:22:43,959
Or you can find us as a podcast.
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00:22:43,959 –> 00:22:45,739
Go to your favorite podcast site,
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00:22:45,739 –> 00:22:47,479
search for Open the Bible UK
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00:22:47,479 –> 00:22:50,920
and subscribe to receive regular updates.
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00:22:50,920 –> 00:22:53,280
Open the Bible is able to stay on this station
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00:22:53,280 –> 00:22:54,500
and on the internet
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00:22:54,500 –> 00:22:56,540
because of your generosity.
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00:22:56,540 –> 00:22:58,880
Open the Bible is a listener-supported ministry
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00:22:58,880 –> 00:23:02,680
so thank you for giving and supporting Open the Bible.
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00:23:02,680 –> 00:23:05,199
If that’s something that you’re thinking about doing,
405
00:23:05,199 –> 00:23:07,040
if you’re able to set up a new gift
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00:23:07,040 –> 00:23:09,920
of five pounds per month or more this month,
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00:23:09,920 –> 00:23:12,079
we’d like to thank you by sending you a copy
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00:23:12,260 –> 00:23:15,739
of Pastor Colin’s new book, Flying Through the Bible.
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00:23:15,739 –> 00:23:19,439
And Colin, when you do this kind of high altitude flight
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00:23:19,439 –> 00:23:21,319
over the entire Bible story,
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00:23:21,319 –> 00:23:24,239
there’s so much in there that you really have to focus in.
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00:23:24,239 –> 00:23:27,040
So what are the themes that you focused on
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00:23:27,040 –> 00:23:28,479
in this new book?
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00:23:28,479 –> 00:23:31,880
Well, it really is a high altitude flight
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00:23:31,880 –> 00:23:33,319
over the Bible story.
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00:23:33,319 –> 00:23:35,880
I mean, we’re talking about around 100 pages
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00:23:35,880 –> 00:23:39,300
so it’s covering it at a great speed.
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00:23:39,359 –> 00:23:42,260
But you know, you can get an overview of the Bible
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00:23:42,260 –> 00:23:45,819
very simply by thinking about five people
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00:23:45,819 –> 00:23:47,660
in the Old Testament,
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Adam and Abraham and Moses and David and Ezra.
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00:23:51,819 –> 00:23:54,119
If you get the stories of these five people,
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you’ve really got a broad outline
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00:23:56,819 –> 00:23:58,739
of the Old Testament story.
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00:23:58,739 –> 00:24:00,619
Then when we come to the Gospels,
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we look at five events in the life
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of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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00:24:04,719 –> 00:24:07,800
He was born, He was tempted, He was crucified,
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00:24:07,819 –> 00:24:10,540
He is risen, and He has ascended.
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00:24:10,540 –> 00:24:12,680
I grasp these five events,
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00:24:12,680 –> 00:24:14,819
and you have a broad outline
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00:24:14,819 –> 00:24:17,660
of what you need to know about the Lord Jesus Christ.
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00:24:17,660 –> 00:24:19,739
And then in the New Testament letters,
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there are five marvelous gifts
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that God gives to all who believe,
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00:24:24,260 –> 00:24:26,020
the gift of the Holy Spirit,
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00:24:26,020 –> 00:24:27,459
the gift of faith,
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00:24:27,459 –> 00:24:28,920
the gift of forgiveness,
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00:24:28,920 –> 00:24:30,260
the gift of the Church,
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00:24:30,260 –> 00:24:32,380
and the gift of heaven itself.
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00:24:32,380 –> 00:24:35,300
So there’s a very quick fly through the Bible.
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00:24:35,300 –> 00:24:37,140
It’s cookies on the bottom shelf.
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00:24:37,140 –> 00:24:40,060
And I hope folks are going to find it really helpful.
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00:24:40,060 –> 00:24:41,540
Well, we’d like to send you a copy
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00:24:41,540 –> 00:24:42,680
of Pastor Colin’s book,
446
00:24:42,680 –> 00:24:43,939
Flying Through the Bible,
447
00:24:43,939 –> 00:24:44,780
to say thank you
448
00:24:44,780 –> 00:24:47,300
for supporting Open the Bible this month.
449
00:24:47,300 –> 00:24:48,739
Full details of this offer
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00:24:48,739 –> 00:24:50,300
are on our website,
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00:24:50,300 –> 00:24:54,339
that’s at openthebible.org.uk.
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00:24:54,339 –> 00:24:55,680
For Pastor Colin Smith,
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00:24:55,680 –> 00:24:56,579
I’m David Pick,
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00:24:56,579 –> 00:24:59,900
and I hope you’ll be able to join us again soon.
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00:25:00,660 –> 00:25:05,380
Jesus only uses the word church twice in the Bible.
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What does He mean by it?
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Find out next time on, Open the Bible.
