Last year this time, it was our anniversary, and I decided to do what I'm doing today, and I wanted to teach on, or slightly preach on, I went through some points. I'm going to give you some of those same points before I move on. I got through the entire introduction that day, and that's what I tend to do. I tend to belabor my points too long and go on and on, and I don't get through everything like I'd like to. I got all the way through the introduction, so I'm going to give you part of that introduction again. It was starting off to be what the church is not. You know, we want to know what a church is, and I think that's a really needed clarification in this day and age. What is a church? Because if you go out there and you try to find a church today, you're going to find everything but that. All right, you're going to find all kind of, and this is what I started off with last year, was what is, what a church is not. Number one, a church is not an evangelistic center. Now this hits us as Baptists. Because as Baptists, one of the things that we have some real good fundamentals, I believe, most Baptists still stick with the King James Bible. And that's a good thing. And most Baptists believe in the doctrine of eternal security, and that's a good thing. In fact, it was funny yesterday when we were at the jail, we had two conversations. One was a gentleman that came up to me and he said, you want to know if we're a Baptist? And I said, yeah, absolutely, we're a Baptist church. He goes, well, that's good because I hope you believe in eternal security. I said, yes, we absolutely do. I said, because it's a scriptural position. And he says, well, a lot of people don't. And you know, in those places, a lot of people come in and they have a lot of different positions. Just as we were meeting in this side of the building, over in this side of the building was the Jehovah's Witnesses meeting at the same time. And so the people have a choice and it was one of the saddest things to see as we're leaving and waiting to lock up the building, these men funneling out of that room. And thanking the men for coming and thank you for teaching us today. And I'm thinking, oh my goodness. there should be no thanks at all, if they only knew. But you know you don't have the liberty to do much about that. But Baptists have a lot of good things that they hold to, and that's good, but one of the things that Baptists tend to do, and we as Americans tend to do, is work, work, work. Right? We need to work, work, work, and we need to get to work for Jesus. Win him, wet him, and work him is the same. You know, win him to Christ, wet him in the baptismal pool, and then put him straight to work. And Billy Graham was big on this. Our country was big on this. He would go out and, of course, hold these evangelistic crusades. And I think churches at one time, early on in the early 1900s and maybe even into the 40s and 50s, started to build their churches like that. But church is not a place to reach the lost. Now that may be a shocking statement. I didn't get one single amen out of that. But let me just tell you, church is not the place to win the loss. The place to win the loss is out there in your workplace, out there in your neighborhood, out there at your school, out there. The place, this is the place. I'm going to give you what a church is today. I'm not going to give you all introduction today. I'm just going to kind of try to get through this. But what a church is, one of the definitions of a church is found in Timothy and that is the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. It is not a place to bring the lost. Now that's contrary to a Baptist because a Baptist thinks, no, we're going to run a bus today. We're going to bring in all these kids because they need to be saved, right? So the question then I have to ask is then what about your kids? What about the kids who are saved? All they ever learn and what we find in 11 years of running a church here and having a church here and teaching a lot of Bible is we find that when people come in and discover this place and they want to sit down and they sit down and they hear things they've never heard before. And you talk to them and they're like, this I cannot believe what I'm hearing. You know, I've read the Bible, and I have all these questions, and that's why people go to Jehovah's Witness, by the way. You know, Jehovah's Witness knock on your door, and they don't try to save you, because they can't save you, because they deny Jesus Christ as God. So they say, would you like to have a Bible study? And of course, if you love God, and if you are sincere, and you want to know how to live for God, you say, yeah, I would like to have a Bible study, because my Baptist church never teaches me the Bible. They give me little pamphlets, they give me daily breads, they give me devotionals, they tell me how to have a better Monday, and all that kind of thing, but they never teach me the Bible, so they're hungry, and then when they get into that false doctrine, they eat it up because they don't know any different, because they've never been taught, because churches are gearing themselves as evangelistic centers, and all they're giving out every Sunday is John 3.16. And I used to talk to Brother Beard about that. He was at a church that was like that prior to coming to this church, and he was at a Baptist church. And he went to the preacher, and he told me the story. He said, John, I went to the preacher, and I told him, you know, listen, every Sunday you don't have to preach John 3, 16. And the man says, well, I just can't get over being saved. It's just the wonderful thing. And he says, I'm not telling you to get over it. I'm just telling you to get past it. Because what happens if you don't get past it and you don't teach people how to study their Bibles, if you don't teach people things like right division, they end up falling for every wind of doctrine that's out there. And I have to move on, but I'm just telling you that this is why the church out there at large has changed. If you have conversation with a pastor, at least I did early on in the early 80s or mid 80s when people started bringing in things like Amy Grant, and singers like that, and you started bringing in the contemporary Christian music, CCM, they would bring that stuff in because, admittedly, by the pastors and the musicians, they would say, we want to do this to attract the lost. We know it's not, you know, what your grandpa always sang at church. We know it's not hymns, but it's what the world listens to, and if the world listens to that, they'll never come into church to listen to your hymns. They'll think your hymns are boring. And so they bring it in. Now it's not so much about that. Now they just bring it in because they like it. And because they're interested in it, and that's what they do. And they don't just listen to that CCM, Contemporary Christian Music at Church. They go all out and listen to any station on the radio all week long and have all the old life that they carry around with them because they've been taught now that music is amoral. But this is all due to the idea that churches have been built on the idea that they're evangelistic centers and it's all about winning the loss. has nothing to do with what the Bible definition is, that it's the pillar and ground of the truth and when you come to church you ought to be able to be fed the Word of God, not just the gospel. And the second thing that we covered last year, if you remember, is it's not a place for motivational speaking or correcting our mindsets. And this is what gets people in trouble. They go to the church where the preacher is the most gifted. You know the husband and wife team today, the co-pastors, Gloria Copeland and Kenneth Copeland, they're co-pastors. But I was thinking of the Osteens, Joel and Victoria Osteen. And they started that trend where churches are doing that now and people are going to find their celebrity. and they're getting their motivational speaking, and they're correcting their mindsets, and they're getting psychology lessons. They're hearing messages on overcoming obstacles in your life. Who doesn't want to overcome obstacles? We took prayer requests this morning so we could help get you over some obstacles, and we could pray for those things, but they want to give you your mindset. They want to teach you psychology. They want to teach you the world's philosophies on how to triumph, and go through, and have faith to overcome. You know, I remember the church that I was here prior to this church. It was a Baptist church, and almost, almost, I'd say 90% of the messages, I was gonna say almost every message, was a message on faith. Now, there's nothing wrong with having faith. There's nothing wrong with believing God and believing the word of God, but that's not really the intention behind that subject matter. When most churches preach on faith, they're like, have faith so that you can, you know, climb a mountain. and that you can move that mountain, and you can have a million dollars, and you can have everything that you want from God. If you just have enough faith, you believe hard enough. And this is the overwhelming message in these places. And so they give classes. They give classes on every kind of problem that man can face, so that you can go to this class, and we have a class for you, and this age group, and that age group, and everything. You fit in somewhere in our church. Right? Because that's the reason why they have a church, so that people will come and have those things. But it's not a place for that. It's not an entertainment center. Now, we cover these things all the time. That's why I feel like I repeat myself so much. But the church is not an entertainment center. You know, when people have asked, and the illustration came up recently with Brother Ferdie, he was out and he was inviting people to church, and they said constantly to him, I think three times at least, they said, well, what do you have for the kids? Now, he would tell them, and they would ask him again, now, what do you have for the kids? And he would tell them, what do you have for the kids? And I don't think they were listening, but what he was telling them is, well, we have the instruction from the Bible. And we have, and Pastor says, and I say, we have the King James Bible. And when your kids come here, they're gonna learn Bible. It's not an entertainment center. You know, most people, when they go to churches, they're looking for churches with, I mean, believe it or not, there are people that are looking for churches if they have a softball league. Do you have something I can do with sports? Because that's important to me. And my family, we're all involved in sports, and we'd like to come to a church that has sports. And we'd like to have a church that, the last church I was at in Michigan had a bowling league. And I was part of the bowling league. And that was fun and everything, but you know, they quit the bowling league. I didn't quit church over that. But churches feel the need that if they don't have something to entertain you, that you won't come back. I don't think we have a problem with that at this church. Our church is big on doctrine, and that's a good thing to do. But we don't have every class for every age group, and we don't have necessarily a kids club, a teens group, a women's group, a music program. We're just starting a music program. By the way, if you want to be a part of the choir, not today. We're going to have a choir number today. But if you want to be a part of the choir that we're forming, see me, and we'll get you in. But people go to churches based on their music programs. And whether or not, in fact, we had people here that they're not here, you wouldn't know them. I talked to them, pastor talked to them, they visited, they didn't stay, but they chose a different church than our church. You know why? Because the church they chose had a better music program. It had nothing to do with that church correcting the Bible because the church they chose corrects the Bible. It had nothing to do with the right or wrong doctrine because the church that they chose has wrong doctrine. And I know this by experience. It had to do whether or not they had a good enough music program that they could participate in, because that's what they do. And so you see how that goes. So whatever program you feel is important to you, that's the church that people are typically choosing. And of course, the pattern for those churches are programs, not preaching. You know what the pattern for this church is? Preaching. Preaching trumps everything. We're not gonna just get together and have a meal today. We're gonna preach to you first. And you know what's gonna happen when the meal is over? We're gonna preach to you again. Because that's the program. The program is not to have programs. and they have things for you to do because the world, listen, you know why so many people don't go to church today in the United States of America who once did? The reason for that is because most, the church cannot out entertain the world. The church cannot provide better entertainment than the world can provide. And the world will take it one step further than the church is willing to take it anyway. The church will take it to the ultimate sinful end that it usually goes to. And that's what will end up, if that's what you're looking for, that's what the world can provide. And so people are no longer in churches. So it's not an entertainment center. And the last thing, it's not a community center. Most churches today, a lot of Baptist churches, I should say, drop the name Baptist. And the reason they drop the name Baptist, they drop it and they put community. So we might have Bible Believers Community Church. In fact, Bible Believers is a little too specific. We don't want you to think that we're just Bible Believers, Bible thumpers, so we might just call it Port St. Lucie Community Church. Right? Because that's not offensive. And you look at all the big churches that are out there and, you know, the Rock, the River, the Grace Place, and all these different names that they throw out there because they don't want you to think anything when you think of that church. They want you to think of it as a community center. And so what happens is churches have dropped the name Baptist and replaced it with community because they're trying to reach the needs of the community. And that's their number one thrust. They get the congregation thinking that it's the community that we have to go out there and feed the community. Now, I don't know what you were thinking yesterday, but there was a gentleman that came up to us afterwards, after the service, and we didn't say anything to him. I'm pretty sure you were thinking the same thing I was thinking. And these guys get, you know, interested in the Bible. They want to get out of their prison. You know, they want to get out and they want to serve God. And we hope that they do. But this guy had a short time. I think he told us 11 months before he gets out, which is a short time. And he said, so I think God has shown me what I should do. I'm going to get out of here. And I was waiting for him to say, and I'm going to go right back to the church that I got saved at. Or I'm going to go right back to the place where I left God. Or I'm going to get into a good church. And I'm going to go to Bible school. He didn't hear that, though. What he said is, I'm going to get out of here. And the Lord showed me to get a food truck. and I'm going to go out to where the poor people are and I'm going to feed them. Now that's a good thing to do. It's okay to do. It's all right to want to take care of the poor and help the poor. And they do have needs. I could debate that with you in the United States of America, how many people really are poor. But at the same time, it's not a bad thing. But you know what that is? That's the idea of a community center. that we're Port St. Lucie Community Church, not Bible Believers Baptist Church, and that is that we're responsible to feed the poor, because after all, isn't that what Mother Teresa did? Isn't that what she told you to do, take care of the poor? And isn't that what the Bible tells you in the book of Matthew, that if you give a little one a drink in my name? But see, that's because they don't understand the Bible. And that's for something that's coming into the Great Tribulation, where if you take care of a Jew during that time of of history coming up that God will say, you've done it unto them, you've done it unto me. And it's not for you today. It's not the plan of salvation for you today. I saw an RV one time driving down the street and it had that quote on it from the Bible. It said, you know, about taking care of the poor. And I thought, what a thing to put out there. If you're going to, why not put the gospel message, you know, Romans chapter 10, why not put that out there? But instead, people are thinking of their churches as community centers. They want to go out and they want to rake leaves for people, shovel snow for people. They want to go into trailer parks and take care of people like that and just be merciful and kind and pat themselves on the back that they did a good deed for their neighbor. And I said all that is well and good, but that is not the definition of a church. Now let me give you the definitions of a church. That was my introduction. I took the whole time last time I preached that to give you that. So I raced through it this time. The definition of the church, number one, number one definition of the church for the New Testament believer is that it is Christ's body. It's Christ's body. Now I want you to turn to some scriptures. I want you to go to Hebrews chapter 10. Now, it's interesting. Pastor preached yesterday at the jail, and he preached on who is God. And, you know, that's a good question, especially in a jail. You go out in this world, and you ask, who is God? Well, God is Allah. No, that's not who God is. Well, God is the creation. No, that's not who God is. Well, God is the, you know, who knows who God is? We don't know his name. He's just, you know, mother nature, the universe, all the things, karma, that people talk about. Who is God? Well, it's a good question. And he went through a nice list of things in the Bible that God identifies Himself and tells you right in the Bible who He is. But one of the things that God did is He manifested Himself. Isn't that what the Bible tells us in Timothy? God was manifested to mankind in the flesh. And it's the mystery of godliness. And so in Hebrews chapter 10, in verse 5, Well, look at verse 4 to get a little context. It says, For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore, because of that, verse 5, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not, but a body thou hast prepared me. So God was manifest in the flesh, but God created or prepared a body that Jesus Christ could come and live in to be like man. And he was called the son of man when he was here. And so he had that body. What was that body for? Well, we prayed it this morning so that he could be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. So that he could see what man goes through and be a faithful high priest to us. But also look down in verse 9 of that same chapter. And it says, we'll read 9 through 12. Then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, That's the Old Testament. He taken away the first that he may establish the second. Now just pause. I have to pause here because every time I see these things in the Bible I have to pause. Don't you realize that God has the right to change things in the Bible? Don't you know that the majority of your Bible is the Old Testament and how he dealt with Israel and all of that? And you would think, logically think, that that's what he's still doing today. That's not what he's doing today. He has changed the plan. Jesus Christ came and everything changed. He disrupted the world when he came. And so he says that, and by the way, he taking away the first that he may establish the second. Is the second better than the first? You can say yes because it's true. The second, Jesus Christ coming and dying for your sins and redeeming you through his shed blood is better than the blood of bulls and goats. Right? Because it tells you that it's not possible for the blood of bulls to ever take away sins, but the blood of Jesus Christ does. So let's turn that around on another subject. Let's say we had, first of all, we had a Bible that was written in Hebrew, right? And then we had the New Testament was written in Greek, right? So it's not possible. It's impossible that the Bible could ever be any better. Oh, really? Well, Psalm 12 tells you that it's been purified seven times. When you purify something, you make it better, better, better, seven times, better, better. And then what you end up with, you have an English Bible. Well, that's impossible. No, it's not impossible. God took away the first that he may establish the second. Just a point, just something to think about. Verse 10, by the witch will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. That body that you have prepared me, that God prepared Jesus Christ, was an offering. It says, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, being that body that was prepared for him, forever sat down on the right hand of God. So you see, that's why he was prepared a body. Now, we started off this point, what is the church? The church is Christ's body. Well, what happened to his first body that God prepared for him? It was crucified. It was nailed to a cross. And it was killed, right? So since then, since that time, since that body was sacrificed, and since the Bible says that his soul was made an offering for sin, but that his body was prepared as a sacrifice, and since he took our sins down to hell for us, now what is making up his body today? Us. Now, it's a deep thought, and I don't know if I can get this thought across to you very deeply today, but just maybe think about that. Think about what God, all the infinite wisdom of God, right? And His ways are past finding out, and what gives Him pleasure, and what gives Him the desire to even have man in the first place? David posed that question many thousands of years ago. Lord, what is man? that thou wert mindful of him, or the Son of man that thou visitest him." I mean, we're made a little lower than the angels. Why do you care about us? The Bible does tell you, though, that before he ever made us, before the foundations of the world, right, he had a plan to save us. He knew, he has foreknowledge, he knew what would happen. But what I'm saying is, God prepared for him a body, a body of a man, And that body was used as a sinless sacrifice for man, so that man could then receive him and then become his new body. That's an amazing thought. I don't know where to take that thought, but I know that one day I am predestined to be conformed to the image of his dear son, and I am going to be part of him, and the bride, according to the Bible, is one flesh with the husband. And the Bible talks about we're a building fitly joined together and compacted. So there's something that is out there that we're gonna be a part of that I have no idea about. I have some thoughts about it that where Bible even calls you a lively stone. You know, I don't know what you're gonna, I know what the devil, I know what Lucifer, the sum of all wisdom and beauty was made up of. He was made up of inorganic material. He was made up of stone and metal. I don't know what you're gonna look like. I don't know what we're gonna be, but I'm just saying when we get saved, we're part of Christ's body. Now look at Colossians chapter one. Colossians 1 and verse 18. We're a local church, all right? Now, I went through a couple weeks ago, if you remember that, I went through this whole idea of this Baptist bride doctrine, which is nonsense. Meaning that the local church is the body of Christ. That's foolish, that's stupid. And, you know, people who believe that, they have a lot of problems. Pastors who believe that. Uh, but there's something about a local congregation. There's something right about it, and we're gonna get into that here in a few minutes. But Colossians chapter one in verse 18 to to mirror. We know what we're doing right now. We're mirroring what we're going to be. You know, when we take that body and blood of Jesus Christ that that, uh, that, uh, I want to call it communion. I don't like that word so much. But I mean, when we take the Lord's Supper, you know that we do that in remembrance. of him. It's not the literal body and blood of Christ, but we do it in remembrance. It's a type. It's a picture. You know, when you get baptized after you're saved, you know, we're not getting saved. You know, we're doing a type. We're showing a picture. You know, when you show up for church, what you're doing, you're showing a picture of Christ's body. And so when you get to Colossians chapter one in verse 18, it tells you who's the head of the church and he is the head of the body, the church. Well, yeah, that would mean the local church and the head of us. We're saved. The Bible tells you in Corinthians that you're either the eye or the ear or the foot or the hand, right? Literally a part of the body. He's the head. He's the head of the body, the church. So if we're the church, if his body is called a church and then he tells us to forsake not the assembling of ourselves together, that might mean that we ought to be here today. That might mean that 11 years of being in business, if you want to call it that, you know, as a church, that might be a good thing. That might be actually a good ministry to have, a good mission in life to have a church. He's the head of that thing. And so go over to verse 24. in the same chapter, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church. Now go to Ephesians chapter one. That's why your Baptist writers say, well, that that must mean then that when we have a church that we're Christ's body. They literally believe that. I don't know if you're listening to me right now or just turning your pages, but these Baptist briders, they believe that because the Bible says church, and because he's the head of the church and that is his body, that that must mean when we meet here, we are his body. Literally his body. And then if you're not a member of the, I'm not gonna go any further than that, but if you're not a member of this church and baptized by a faithful minister, like me, who's been ordained, that you are not part of Christ's body. See the heresy that comes into that? And that's a lot of your Baptist brethren, all right? We're not saying that, I'm just showing you a mystery. Christ is the church, and you get in Christ, you become the church, he's the head of the church, you make up his body, but it's a picture of what will really happen someday, all right? And so, let's see, what did I say? Ephesians chapter one, verse 22. And he hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. I had an argument with a Baptist pastor one time, and he said, oh, you don't believe that? The Baptist bride garbage? I said, no, I don't. And he says, well, then what do you believe? Do you believe in the universal church? I said, well, yeah. He goes, well, that's what the Catholics say. That's the word Catholic means universal. I said, yeah, but I'm not a Catholic. I said, you're more Catholic than I am. And he says, well, then what do you think? You think that, where is the pastor of the universal church? Where is the deacons of the universal church? He said. Where are the elders of the universal church? And he says, what do you think the church is? And I quoted this, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth. I didn't quote this verse exactly. I just gave it to him. I said, well, I think the body of Christ is everywhere. You know what he did? He literally laughed at me. He doesn't know his Bible. The Bible says, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. If you get saved, you're part of Christ's body. You know what that makes you? A Hindu would like this. That makes you part of this everything. You are part of everything. You're in his body. He's the head of the body. He made everything. By him, all things consist, right? So guess what you are? You are part of that. You're part of the universe now. My mom's brother, we prayed for him. We haven't prayed for him. His name is Bob. you can pray for Bob. He's my uncle. And you ask Uncle Bob, where are you going to go when you die? He goes, well, I'm just going to vaporize into the universe. I'm just going to be part of the universe. And I'm going to go back to what I was originally. You know, well, then how did you get here, Bob? Look at you. You're a mess. If you know him, you'll know that. But that's what he believes. But that's what's going to happen to you. And so, anyway, let's see here. Go to Ephesians chapter 5. I guess the point I want to make to you on all this is that you're a part of something very, very special. You're a part of God. I'm going to show you that in a minute. You are a part of God. There's no deity about you, and I'm going to read some quotes from some people who are false preachers who believe that you are a deity. But you're not a deity, but you are. You will be. And you might, even me, I'm talking to me right now, you might want to start acting like it then, John. Might want to start acting. The pastor in his press message yesterday said, you know what your problem is? You're not holy. He told those men in the jails, your problem is you're not holy. And of course that includes us too. And God is holy. And the only thing that can get to heaven is holy things. So one of these days, whether you like it or not, whether I like it or not, we're going to be converted and we're going to be holy. So we might like to get used to the idea now. So Ephesians chapter five in verse 29, it says, um, For no man hath ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it. That's why you ate this morning. That's why you slept last night. That's why you combed your hair today. That's why you took a shower. You say, well, I don't like this life. Yeah, but you still take care of yourself. You don't just hold your breath and kill yourself, do you? I mean, you're all alive today. None of you committed suicide between last night and tonight. What I'm saying is I'm not trying to make a joke. I'm just telling you, for no man ever yet hated his own flesh. You take care of yourself, but nourish us and cherish it, even as the Lord, the church. The Lord wants to take care of his body. And he says in verse 30, for we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. We're flesh and bone with Jesus Christ. You cannot separate us from the love of Christ. We are part of his body. And no man ever didn't take care of himself. And because of this then, we ought to be here today. Because we are trying to take care of the body of Christ. How are we doing that? We're trying to do that by coming to church and being fed the word of God. We're trying to do that by rub shoulders with other people who are part of the same experience that we're having. Now that may sound a little liberal, the way liberals talk. Let's go on my journey. Let me walk your journey with you. Let's share experiences and let's cope together. But I'm serious. We are all on that same road. And we want to get together at church with other people who are on that same road. And when we get here, one of the things I appreciate about our church is that when you get here, you want to talk about the Bible. And I get cornered many times, and I don't get to talk to all of you because a lot of times, as soon as church is over, as soon as class is over, I'm getting cornered by people who have opened up the Bible saying, now what about this, and what about this, and how about this, and what do you think about that? And, you know, that's good. I don't mind that at all. I think that is the way it ought to be. But most people get together and they're just, well, when is this going to be over? And I can't wait to talk to Ferdie after church because I want to know what the score of the ball game was going to be. You know, and he doesn't know anything about ball games, but I mean, I want to talk to him about carpentry. I can't wait to talk to so-and-so about this or that. And that's all that's on people's mind. They're networking, they're meeting people, they're doing whatever they do. But anyway, because of these things, that's what's going to make more sense out of 2 Corinthians 5.17. Go over there. 2 Corinthians 5.17. We're talking about what is a church. It's a far cry. It's a far cry from a community center. It's a far cry from an evangelistic center. It's a far cry from an entertainment center. It's a far cry from going to hear motivational speaking. It is something that if the world really knew how practical salvation was, If the world really knew, I had another conversation yesterday, a man was sitting next to me when we were first getting in there and he said, what does it mean to be spiritually dead? What would you say if an inmate came to you and said, what does it mean to be spiritually dead? So I got to talk to him and I said, listen, you know what the problem is? I said, most people are too religious. And they look at the Bible too religiously, and they want to have some kind of a theological epiphany about God and have some kind of... No, the Bible is... You know what your problem is? You're dying. You're going to die. There isn't anybody in this world that you can think of who hasn't died in history, right? There is nobody who's a thousand years old anymore. There is nobody that you can go back to even 150 years. They're all dead. So we got a problem. The problem is I live in a sin-cursed world. The problem is I'm dying. The problem is I have aches and pains. The problem is I want to sin all the time. What's the problem? Who can fix my problem? What doctor can I go to? It's not a religious experience, you understand? It's very practical what the Bible... We got problems and we need to solve the problem. And so he said, what does it mean to be spiritually dead? I said, you got a problem. Your problem is that you're without God in this world, and until you receive Jesus Christ, you're gonna stay dead, and you're gonna end up in hell. You say, you told him that? I told him that. He didn't bat an eye. I'm sure he's heard worse language than that in his lifetime. And I said, so if you don't want to go to hell, receive your creator, the one who made you and made all these buildings, the one who made all this world, the sun, the moon, the stars, the one who's responsible for us being alive and breathing right, receive him and it'll fix the problem. Sounds like a reasonable thing to do, right? I mean, it is. It's your reasonable service to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not a religious. Well, you know, I just dread religion because all the things that are going to make me do. How about all the things you get to do? How about all the things you get to be a part of? How about all the benefits that we're talking about here being part of Christ's body? And we're not even done yet. Second Corinthians 517 says this. It says, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, He is a new creature. Old things are passed away. All the things I just described, this old life, that sin nature, the curse that we're under, the death curse that we're under, the sin curse that we're under, the aches, the pains, all those things are gone now for you. You have been passed from death unto life. The Bible says you're already alive. Ephesians, if we go back there, we won't. But it tells you you're already seated together with him in heavenly places. You're as good as there right now. In fact, there's a representation. I believe this. There's a representation of you in heaven right now. The angels look at you in heaven right now. They don't have to look at you down here. They can look at you right there. And so, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. A new creature? Yeah, that means that you're part of Christ's body. You have transformed into something brand new. You're part of this entire universe. Now let me just show you something that might really blow your mind. We'll go back to Ephesians 2. We'll do this. I'll show you one thing and then we'll get to the thing that will blow your mind. I trust it will. It did mine. Galatians or Ephesians, Galatians, Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 6. This is what your future is. The next two things I'm going to show you, I'm going to show you 1 Corinthians 15 in a minute as well, but this is one of the things that is going to be destined for you in your future. The Bible already tells you in the book of Rome is that you're predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son. So you're gonna be just like Jesus Christ. But Jesus, part of what's gonna happen with you is in Ephesians chapter two and verse six and verse seven. And hath raised us up together and made us sit together, there's the verse, in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. So you know what you're going to be? You're going to be on display. And this is the verse that we would talk about when we say the phrase, trophies of his grace. You're going to be trophy, you know, the devil is trying to accumulate trophies too. He's trying to take every one of us. If he could, he can't take you if you're saved, but he's trying to take everyone in this world to hell. Because that's his only trophy, that's his only gratification when he gets there. He stole that many people away from Jesus Christ. And what he came to die for, and the gift that he came to give, he stole that away from Jesus Christ. And that's going to be his claim to fame. While he burns in the hottest, deepest hell there is. Now he's not going to get to enjoy that trophy. But the Lord Jesus Christ is going to get to enjoy that trophy. And in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. You know, I have a little theory based on that verse. We're trophies of His grace. That must mean if you were born in this time period, in this dispensation, in this age, that you must be like me. You must be some of the worst of the worst people who were ever born. Because He elected not to do it for Noah and his people. He didn't do it for Sodom and Gomorrah and those people. He didn't do it even for the Jews when he came. He did it for this dispensation. He said, you know what? You're going to be trophies. You guys are filthy. You're the off-scouring of the world. Read Romans chapter 3, what God thinks about people. It's not very flattering at all. And so he said, so I'm going to put you guys on display. I'm going to show this, the ages to come, the trophies. Look what my grace can do. Look how far my grace can extend. So you're going to get to be that. Now go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And you know what? You don't deserve that. I'm saying that with me included. Look at 1 Corinthians 15. You might want to just get to know that chapter. I started one day writing down key places in the Bible that I felt were key for me. And 1 Corinthians 15 always came up in that thought. It always comes up. It's one of the greatest chapters in the Bible. But 1 Corinthians 15, now look at this. This is the thing that might blow your mind. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 24. It says, then cometh the end. Hallelujah for that. Bring it on today, Lord. I don't need dinner. I don't need the rest of this coffee. Let's just get to the end. I want to be out of here. Let's get this thing over with. Then come at the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God. Whoa, wait a minute. That's Jesus Christ delivering up the kingdom to God. Even the Father, when he shall have put down... So if you don't believe in the Trinity, you're crazy. I mean, you've got to get past passages like this, right? So, Eve and the Father, when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power, you say, what in the world, John, is going on in the world today? What is it with God that he has got the, I mean, look at this world. It's a mess. How come he hasn't changed things? Cause there are, there, there's a plan that God has and I can't take time to get into that, but God, there are, there is rule and authority and power out there. That's what you wrestle against. Ephesians chapters five, five or six, six. You wrestle against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world. The prince of the power, the heir is the devil. The God of this world is the devil. It's not God. There's a time. Thank God for the time. Because if it weren't for the time, you wouldn't be saved, right? God's long suffering. According to Peter, the reason why you're saved is the long suffering of God. So he gives people a chance to be safe. So don't get mad at God for that. But one of these days, Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom of God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. He's going to put it down. He will put it down. It will not go on like this forever. It will be utopia one day. All right? You can rest assured. And I want to be there when it is utopia. I don't want to be burning with the devil in hell, having him laugh that I'm there with him. So, verse 25, for he must reign. He must. Just like ye must be born again, he must reign. It will happen. Till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifested that he is accepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, when that time comes, Then shall the son also be subject unto him that put all things under him. God put all things under him. Now, the son, Jesus Christ, part of the Trinity, is going to be subject to the father that God may be all in all. You know what that means? It's a really intense thought that one these days, all this world, all the principalities power is going to be subdued unto God and it's going to be done through Jesus Christ. He is the great judge. And when that's done, God, Jesus Christ is going to go into God and be the Trinity. You are going to listen. What I'm telling you is you are going to be part of the Godhead. That is the church. You are part of Christ's body and Christ's body. One of these days is going to be part of the Godhead in terms of it's going to come together and be like it. I believe like it once was. And so I'm not telling you that, you know, I don't want to get, I don't want to say any more than that. All I'm just telling you, read the Bible. What does that mean? If you're part of his body, your flesh and bone, according to Ephesians five, and you are going to be part of that. It's an amazing thought. Therefore, therefore, I'm going to make it, I'm going to make my assertion here right now. Therefore, the church, the local church, the body of believers that you have a chance to be a part of in this area where you live, should be the center of your life. Say, well, you know, I'll go to church if I feel like it today. I'll go to church if I, you know, if I'm in the mood and if I choose which church to go to today, it's all up to me. Listen, All, if anything I said to you this morning so far has excited you at all about your future and what you are in Christ and who you are in Christ and what is coming for you and all the things that God has prepared for you that you has not even entered into your ear or your heart or your mind, but we're trying to get a little glimpse of it through the scriptures today. Then why would you, why would you opt out? Are you saved? You know, one of the other conversations I had yesterday, you get some interesting conversations at the jail. You ought to come with us. This one guy came up to me and he said, you know, if you're not, he's the guy who's walking in the spirit. And he said, you know, he said, I have to wonder about people who aren't doing that. He says, I wonder if they're even saved. And I said, well, I wonder too. Because, you know, what is it about you that you would want to be saved? You would want the benefits? Of course, who wants to go to hell? Nobody wants to go to hell. That's an easy one, John. Yeah. Tell me what to do. Okay. One, two, three, repeat after me. Jesus saved me. Okay. Am I saved? I'm going to heaven now? That's why the Bible says you have to repent, right? Jesus said you must repent. There's an attitude. There's a heart that goes with it. God looks at your heart. He said that to me. He said, you know what, God looks at their hearts. He knows if they would, he said that he knows if they just went down to the altar and they just prayed a prayer so that they could take care of business so that they don't have to worry about going to hell. He was preaching to me. And he said, but God sees their heart. And the Bible tells you that, right? I said, yeah, the Bible tells you that. And so, you know, if that's true, then your heart, where your treasure is, there your heart is, right? Where your heart is, there's where your treasure is. So that's why we ought to have a desire to be here this morning because this is a picture of what our life, the new creature that we've become, the part of all this Godhead and to be able to be part of Jesus Christ and to be put on as trophies of His grace and to be on display for what God can do for a man and that you're never going to die again and have all these blessings. And so if I'm excited about that, what can I do practically? What can I do in this earth about that? Well, you can come to church. And you can be around other people who are a part of that too. And you can converse about that and talk about that and grow in that idea and learn the Bible together. That's why those men came yesterday. You know another thing that they said? We took a time, we sang, and yes, I led the songs, acapella, there was no piano, there was no music, and so we had, and these guys, these guys, you have to understand, they get more lively than we do here. And so what happens is, is they start making up little repetitions, right? So you're singing this part of the song, and they're like, repeating it again, and they're singing it again, and they're going on, and they're doing this while they're singing. Yeah. And it's entertaining. But they're excited about it. They're excited. And you know what one of them said? I said, let's take time to hear from you. Let's see what God has done for you today. And so one of them raised her hand and you know what he said? They said, you know what? I could be in a worse place. And they said, thank God that I could be here, that this place provides a place for me to go to church. And of course we got thanked for being there. you know, that you guys came. One guy even told us, I'm thankful that God sent King James Bible believing preachers. And we had a good day. And so it's good to get the feedback. But they said, you know what? I ate today. I had, I could, and more than one of them said I could be in a third world country right now in jail and I wouldn't have any of these things. And they're there. Now, of course, what else do they have to do? You might say that they want to get out of their cell. They want to come and get into the room. Fine. But what do we do? We're not in a cell. We got a harder choice. We make a choice to come here. We make a choice to get up and take a shower and put good clothes on and come to church. Right? And we ought to want to because we're new creatures in Christ. The local church is for saved people. I got to wrap this up. The local church is for saved people. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. The local church is not an evangelistic center to bring all your lost friends to. Now, you can bring your lost friends here. It's fine. We want lost people to come in with you. We want you to invite people to church. It's more than fine. We want that. And we'll preach to them. And one of the things that the mantra around here amongst the pastor and I is, we'll either preach them in or we'll preach them out. They're not going to stay here very long if they don't like what they hear. And if they do like what they hear, then praise the Lord. So you don't have to worry about it. Let us worry about it. All right? That you invite them. And if they come, hopefully they'll get saved. Um, but we're not going to, we're not going to just have a hot dog Sunday and, and, uh, Sunday, Sunday and the Superbowl Sunday and every kind of Sunday to bring in more and more and more lost people. And only preach John three 16, every Sunday, we're going to teach you like we're teaching you right now, who you are in Christ. And we're going to open the Bible and we're going to explore the Bible. And we're going to, and you know what, what we're going to do when we go back to that jail, we're going to do that very same thing. Those guys are getting John three 16, every time preachers come in. And you know what, rightly so, because we want to, we want to save people who are perishing. And they need to be saved. But you know what they also need? They're hungry. They need to be taught. And the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. And if they don't get it when they come to the church, where are they going to get it? When are they going to get it? Now, that's what I wanted to get into my point number two this morning. We're not going to get to point number two. But 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 2. It says, unto the church of God. Now listen, that's how this book is addressed. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, through the will of God, and Sasson, he's our brother. Unto who? Unto the church of God. That's you. That's not the name of a denomination. That's you. You know, there's churches of God out there, and that's the name of the denomination, but that's you. You're the church of God. You realize that Paul gave up his life for the sake of this idea that we're talking about this morning, for the sake of the church? Before I read more of that verse to you, let me read something about Paul here. Paul said this in Galatians 6, verse 17. Don't turn to it. From henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what, Paul had literal, physical marks in his body for going through basically torture to be able to establish churches. He told Titus in Titus 1.5, For this cause I left thy thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee. His goal was to have churches in every city. That was his ministry as an apostle. And then he said in 2 Corinthians 11, 28, besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. You know, as we're reading 1 Corinthians here, back to that verse, 1 Corinthians 1, 2, do you know that Paul wrote 13 books of the New Testament? Do you know all 13 of those books apply to churches? We might get the idea that God is interested in his church. We might get the idea that when Jesus was here, he said, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. But you know who does go to prevail against it? A lot of people. They are using by the devil the gates of hell. to try and destroy the foundation, the purpose of a church. Turn it into a evangelistic center. Turn it into a YMCA. Turn it into a community center. Turn it into an entertainment center. Turn it into a place where people can just go and have a good time and have their needs met and have a class for them. So anyway, he says in 1 Corinthians 1-2, unto the church of God, which is at Corinth, this is a local church that was established in one of those cities, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place, call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." Don't you know there are four things in that verse, 1 Corinthians 1-2, that identify who goes to church? Are you part of that? Are you part of the church of God? If you're saved, you are. Are you part of the sanctified? If you're saved, you are. Are you called to be a saint? If you're saved, you are. And if you call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you're saved, at least you did at one time. So who's supposed to be sitting here this morning? The saved. But where are the saved today? They're everywhere else. They're not in church. Well, I guess they don't appreciate what God did for them. Well, you don't know why they're at home. Yeah, I kind of do. If they're not sick or infirmed or traveling because of, you know, they have to out of necessity, they chose not to be here. Now, listen, the Baptist writers are the ones who beat you over the head because you don't come to church. Because if you don't go to church there, you're opting out of the body of Christ. And if you're not a faithful member of this church, well, you're not going to be in the body of Christ. Well, that's garbage. But we're just telling you for our own sake, for your own good, for what God, to show appreciation. You know, one of the reasons you go to church is to worship God. You don't just come to get something. What are you going to give me today? How about you go to worship God and show God how much you appreciate him? Hey, you died to build the church. You made the church part of your body. You sacrifice the physical body that God gave you, laid that down as an offering for sin once and for all the final sacrifice. You shed the blood that was running through those veins and you're taking on a brand new body. That brand new body is me. Us people will get saved. We get to be a part of your body. We make up who you are. Well, I'm just going to stay home this week. You know, that church, I've been to that church. You know, the pastor, he does this and I don't like that about the pastor. So, I don't know. I guess there is no place to go. I mean, we are very unappreciative people. You know, I go to Romans chapter 12. You say, what a slap in the face. I did something for that person and they didn't even say thank you. What's going to happen when we go to heaven someday, and stand before God, and He says, you know what? You didn't even go to church. Oh, wow, you know, two hours on a Sunday morning, you just couldn't spare the time for me. Say, well, I can learn the Bible at home. Really? Can you? Do you? Romans chapter 12, verse 1, look at what he says here, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. That's reasonable to God. You know, God's the one who sets the rules, right? He's the one who says, well, that's just, that's too hard for them. No, he said, this is reasonable. And he said this, present your bodies a living sacrifice. So my former pastor, Pastor Noe up in Michigan, he'd say, well, don't tell me that. Oh, I'm sorry, Pastor Noe, that I missed church, but I was with you in spirit. He said, listen, and he's an old man, he would do what I do sometimes. He'd get down and go, listen, I don't want your spirit, I want your body. That's how he would talk. I don't want your spirit with me, I want your body to be sitting in the pew. And you know what? That's not a misapplication of the text. uh... present your bodies you know what you did today you sacrificed you could have been working right now making more money for your bank account because I know you need that listen we all need more money you need it but you're not doing it because you're here you could use some recreation I understand hey man they're working me six days a week I need a day off I understand but you know what you did you sacrificed you presented your body a living sacrifice to be here and that's acceptable to God I'm already out of time. Let me just do one last verse for you. Go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. It's along the same line. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. We didn't even get into the good stuff. Well, this is good stuff. But I mean, there's some of the good stuff about doctrine. What the church is supposed to be doing with doctrine. And they do a very, very bad job of it. and the people that are on TV, oh my goodness, if you're listening to them, you might just want to stop. You know, go to a real church. Come here and get your fill while you're here, okay, and don't try to get it there. The stuff they're teaching, listen, the stuff they're teaching, they're angels of light. I'm totally convinced of this. They are the ones teaching the doctrines of devils. the seducing spirits. I would love to get into that this morning, because that's kind of where I get excited to talk about that stuff, but I can't. But turn them off. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 4. And while you do that, to get Ephesians in your other hand, get Ephesians chapter 3. So 1 Thessalonians 1, Ephesians 3. First Thessalonians one in verse four. Says so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith and all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure. You know what that's Paul saying right there so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God. We glory in you, you know what that means, that church attendance brings glory to God. You know what those men did yesterday? They stood up and a lot of them were saying, I want to give thanks to God, I want to give thanks to God, I want to give glory to God. And you know what gives glory to God? When you just show up. When you're just in the place that He set aside for you to be on a Sunday, that is the right day, by the way, to come to church. You come to church on a Sunday and you set that time aside. It used to be in America, in fact, all these conversations come to my mind. One guy told me, he said, you know what we used to do in this country? And I said, what's that? He said, we used to like take Sundays off. Businesses used to shut down. You couldn't even go to get a hamburger at Culver's, you know, because they were shut down. Chick-fil-A still does it, yeah, but they get persecuted just for that. And they make more money than everybody else. I like that. You know, God can honor that, but he said, that's what we used to do. And I'm like, yeah, we used to, but we don't, we don't care about bringing any glory to God. It's family day. It's my day off. You know, I don't get any time for myself. Boy, church was so long today. I'm going along right now, but go to Ephesians chapter three unto him be glory in the church. It says in verse 21, Ephesians 321, unto him be glory. We could just say unto him be glory, right? But it doesn't say that. It says unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end. Amen. That's a good way to end the class. You coming to church are showing God that you appreciate him. You're presenting your body as a living sacrifice. You're showing a picture of what it is you're destined to be a part of. And when you do, whether you realize it or not, whether you say a word or not, whether you give a testimony today or not, and we'll take testimonies later, whether you're, you know, but just being here, it brings glory to God. He's like, thank you for going. Thank you. Thank you. You know what? Here's a treasure laid up for you because you took the time. to show, just like when you took the Lord's Supper, to show His death till He come. You took the time to get baptized and show this world that you're not ashamed of believing in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And you took the time for the rest of your days on that earth because you live near a church that was a good church, that preached doctrine that I can't tell you about today. But you took the time to be there and that brings glory to me. Thank you for that. I appreciate your reasonable service. I appreciate that and here's a treasure for you. Now, I'd love to go on, but that is one of the things the church is. The church is the body of Christ.