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 This can be an emotionally charged question, and the answer is often misunderstood. Many times, people who ask this question are trying to justify living a Christian life apart from any attachment to a local church. The idea became popular several years ago that salvation is only about a personal relationship with Jesus, and involvement in the church, while perhaps a good thing, is not necessary to be saved. It has nothing to do with salvation. At least, that’s what we’re told. There are millions of people who will tell you that they are spiritual, but not religious. And in some cases, what they mean is that they believe in God, perhaps even in Jesus, they might pray. But they don’t openly practice any particular religion by assembling with a church for worship. But, is it possible to love God, to serve the Lord Jesus, and live your life by the teachings of God’s Word, and not be an active part of the church? It doesn’t matter what you or I think. What matters is what God’s book says.

Ephesians 5:30-32 “For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”

You know, whatever the church is, Paul says that it is one with Christ Jesus. So, what is the church? What does it mean to be a part of it? And must I be numbered among it in order to be saved?

As I stated earlier, the question under consideration today is a relatively recent question. Despite the unfortunate misunderstandings and consequent divisions in religion today that have turned a lot of people off to Christianity, the fact is that until the last several decades, people who wanted to practice Christianity tried to do so within the scope of a local church. But the idea has been gaining steam that church membership is superfluous. Some even believe that it’s a mark of disingenuous or even hypocrisy. I think that notion has arisen from the unfortunate scandals and abuses of Christianity that have been so visibly publicized in recent years and people have a distaste for what they think of as ‘organized religion.’ Sometimes people see hypocrites in the church and they say, Well, I’m better than that and I’m not part of a church; I have a personal relationship with God and I don’t need the church.

We’ve also seen a rise of televangelism in the last half century. These independent ministries have muddied the water and confused people about the church and their relationship to it. There are people who think that they are a member of a television church somewhere. The problem is compounded by the fact that many don’t understand what the church is. They don’t understand its purpose in the world.

You may think that being a member of the church simply means “going to church.” Actually, that phrase isn’t technically correct. It’s a little misleading. Now, we can speak of the church assembled, in a literal assembly, and I guess in that sense, loosely, we could talk about “going to church,” if you mean going to the assembly of the church. But really, a Christian can’t “go to church.” The church isn’t a building; the church is the people who make it up. A person assembles with the church, but really he doesn’t “go to church.” We use phrases like that because we have lost sight of what the church is.

Many also misunderstand what it is to be a member of the church. Did you know that the Bible never speaks of people “joining” the church? We hear that phrase all of the time, but the Bible never uses it. The scriptures don’t ever talk about having your name written on some type of church roll, yet people use terms and concepts like this because they don’t have a true understanding of the church.

Sometimes people misunderstand the question itself. Someone may think you’re asking, Will I be saved because I’m a member of the church, implying that Christians believe that simply because men look at them as having some association with the church, or having their name written on a church roll, or attending worship assemblies, by virtue and merit of that fact, that they are saved. But that is not the question. It’s not, Will I be saved because, in the eyes of men, I’m a member of the church? That is putting the cart before the horse, and it is also misunderstanding church membership is. The question is: Will I be saved if I am NOT a part of the church? Are people out here who are not a part of the Lord’s church going to heaven? Are they saved in Christ Jesus? Those two questions are entirely different.

To explain that, let’s look at what happened when the church was established. We know that Christ has a church. In other words, men didn’t come along and think up the concept of a church out of thin air.

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

So, Christ has a church. But what was He talking about? Constructing some type of building, like the temple stood amongst the Jewish people for so many centuries? An ornate cathedral? Was that what He meant when He said, “I will build My church?”

Acts 2 is where Christ fulfilled His promise and His church was established. We don’t read anything about the building of an edifice. It was something entirely different. Peter preached Jesus to the lost multitude there on the day of Pentecost. Those people were convicted of their sins and they wanted to be saved.

Acts 2:38 “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins…”

Now look closely at verse 41.

Acts 2:41 “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.”

Well, what were they added to? Look at verse 47.

Acts 2:47 “Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”

You know, this verse can clear up a lot of confusion, and it answers a lot of questions. What is the church? It is not a building, because the Bible says that people are added to it. It’s obviously not talking about these people being moved inside a literal building. Verse 41 tells us that “about three thousand souls were added unto them.” So the church is made up of them. Who are they? The number already in Christ on the day of Pentecost, including the apostles, those who were already saved. And those from that day forward who were being saved in obedience to the gospel were added unto them, “to the church” (verse 47).

The second thing we need to see is that God does the adding—not men. That tells me that the church is a divinely appointed institution—not a human one. There are many groups that have bylaws that say that a person has to be voted into the church or accepted into the church. Friend, the church in Acts 2 didn’t have any bylaws aside from the gospel that was preached by the apostles. And men were added by God to that church when they were saved. I cannot overstress how significant and important that is! Nobody voted them in. They were simply made a part of it by virtue of their faith in Christ and their obedience to the gospel.

Thirdly, the Bible doesn’t make any distinction between the time a person is saved and the time they become part of the Lord’s church. Unfortunately, preachers today plead for people to be saved and then they encourage them to “join the church.” But that’s not what the Bible teaches. In fact, the Bible never gives one single indication that anybody was ever saved and then encouraged to go join the church. Rather, the Bible clearly shows that a person is added to the church by God when they ARE saved. There’s not one bit of difference between those two things. Being added to the church equals being saved.

When you divorce yourself from all of the unscriptural notions that most people have about the church, and you see it through the lens of the New Testament, it becomes a lot clearer. The people who were baptized on the day of Pentecost didn’t come out of the water, dry off and ask Peter, “Do I need to join a church?” or “What church am I now a member of?” You see, there was only ONE church: the one that Christ established, that He died for, that He purchased with His blood.

Acts 20:28 “…to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.”

Those people understood, when they understood the gospel, that when they obeyed the gospel and were thus saved, that they were becoming a part of the Lord’s church. God counted them as members of Christ’s body by virtue of their salvation, and that was that. There was no other process to it. They were added to the church upon their having been saved.

By the way, what does the word ‘church’ mean? It actually comes from a Greek word ecclesia, which means called out or an assembly. In other words, it means those whom God has called out of the world by the gospel and separated unto Himself in salvation. Now, when I’m saved, I may still be physically in the world, but I’m no longer of it spiritually. I become a citizen in Christ. I’m now a member of Christ’s kingdom and a part of a community of saved believers in Christ. Now, please understand: I am not saved merely because I associate myself with the church. Rather, I am numbered among the church because I am saved.

Now, what are the practical implications of all of that? Let’s look a little closer at the passage in Acts 2.

Acts 2:41-47 “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”

You see, the Lord added them to the church when they were saved, and they, the church, continued in worship together and common association one with another. It certainly doesn’t appear that all of these people were just freelance Christians. They were part of a community of faith and service that worshipped and prayed and worked and served the Lord together.

The book of Acts is a record of early church history. It shows time and time again that the church was a functioning unit of believers knit together. When disciples were made from city to city as the gospel was spread throughout the world, congregations were established and left behind by the apostles to carry on the worship and the work of that local church.

Acts 11:26 “And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.”

Acts 20:7 “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them…”

Acts 14:23 “And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.”

Acts 14:27-28 “And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them and how had had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles. And there they abode long time with the disciples.”

Acts 15:4 “And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them.”

Later, when Paul wrote his letters to various congregations:

Romans 16:5 “Likewise greet the church that is in their house…” (regarding Priscilla and Aquila)

I Corinthians 11:18 “For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it.” (rebuking the Corinthians for their abuses of the Lord’s supper)

And we could go on and on and on. My friend, the idea of the church, as a local group of Christians who come together on a regular basis for worship and edification, is found all throughout the New Testament. So, again, I remind you that the Lord adds to the church daily those who are saved (Acts 2:47).

Now, there are several terms that are used in the bible to describe the church. One of them compares the church to a body.

Ephesians 5:30 “For we are members of his body…”

Ephesians 1:22-23 “And 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 fulness of him that filleth all in all.”

That last passage teaches a wonderful truth: Christ filleth all in all. That is, He alone is the source for all spiritual blessings and endowment and bestowment, and that the church-His body—is the fullness of Him who filleth all in all. In other words, the church is the receptacle where we connect with all of the blessings and unsearchable riches that are found in Christ Jesus.

I Corinthians 12:26-27 “And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.”

Here, Paul exhaustively uses the metaphor of a physical body to illustrate the relationship of members of the church. How can that be, if Christians can function independently of each other? How can I serve the Lord with no association with the local church? What good is a hand, foot, eye or ear, as the apostle Paul uses for comparison, if it’s not attached to the body?

Then again, the church is depicted as “the bride of Christ” in Ephesians 5. It doesn’t say that we’re all “brides” of Christ. It says that the church is His bride. Stop and think about the implications of shunning the church. Would you be offended if someone claimed to love you, but shunned your wife? Or your husband, whom you love? I would be. I dearly love my wife. She’s the closest person to me in all of the world. If you reject, shun or hate her, you and I won’t get along very well. So, how can people claim to love Jesus and shun His bride and want no association with her? You may say, Well I know a lot of members of the church who aren’t perfect. Well, neither are you. You may say, Well they “go to church” but they’re just a bunch of hypocrites. Yes, unfortunately, some are. Jesus even acknowledged that some of the people who claimed to follow Him would be hypocrites. But not all of them are. The church is made up of fallible human beings, but it is still His bride and Jesus loves His bride. The church is worthy of my service, my loyalty and my devotion by essence of the fact that I love its bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Did you know that there are also certain duties to God that you can only scripturally fulfill as a faithful and active member of Christ’s body, the church? The church is to come together to commune (I Corinthians 11:23-30, Acts 2:46, Acts 20:7). The Lord’s Supper is not just about eating bread and drinking fruit of the vine. The word ‘communion’ means a common union or sharing in those elements. And the church must assemble together to do so, as the Lord Jesus instructed. I know people who get the idea that they can just get off in their hotel room or at their house, with some bread and some grape juice or whatever they choose to use, and have their own little communion and observe the Lord’s Supper, but there’s not one example in your Bible of that. Communion is God’s people coming together to share in the remembrance of Christ’s death.

I Corinthians 16:1-2 teaches that I am to lay by a portion of my income for the work of the kingdom, including the relief of needy saints.

I Corinthians 16:1-2 “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.”

It’s very important to note that Paul did not only say for each person to set it aside. He said for that money to be set aside so there would be no gatherings when the time came to use those funds for their purpose. That implies that they gave what they had set aside to some sort of common treasury that was used for the relief of needy saints. Now, if Paul was simply telling those Christians to set aside or earmark some money at home, there would still have to be some sort of collection or gathering when he arrived. But he said he didn’t want that. He wanted that money to be there, already gathered by the time he got there. He tells them to take care of this on the first day of the week, consequently the same day that the church came together to commune and hear preaching from God’s word (Acts 20:7). So these were all things that are done not by individuals, but by the collective church.

Many of the early Christians were faced with temptations and pressure to denounce Christ, just like Christians today are. And many served God under the threat of bloody persecution. The Holy Spirit admonished those Christians as follows:

Hebrews 10:25 “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”

My friend, you simply cannot serve the Lord without a relationship to other Christians. And that relationship exists within the framework of the local church—a group of people bound together in faith, truth and love, who function as a body to carry out God’s work in that locale. That, my friend, is God’s plan. The Lord adds those who are saved to His church. What sense would it make then, for a man to say that he can be saved without the church because he has his own relationship with God? God adds all who are saved to the church, and the church is a functioning, assembling, praying, worshipping, giving, serving unit. Are you a faithful member of Christ’s church? Not a denomination, now. Christ’s church. It predates all of the denominations that men have built. Are you a member of the church that you read about in the New Testament? You don’t become a member by joining it. The Lord adds you to it when you obey the gospel in baptism for the remission of sins. If you haven’t done that, I hope you will today.

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 What is the meaning of life? And what is God’s purpose through it all? The great accomplishments of men usually come after a great deal of planning and preparation. When you see a beautiful building, maybe a skyscraper, you know that that didn’t just dawn on somebody to build a building there one day. They didn’t just go on down to the steel mill and the lumber yard and go to work on it. No, instead the financing had to be found, the property had to be secured. Engineering studies had to be completed and architects had to draw up the plans and the builders had to spend months and sometimes years, building that structure beam by beam and floor by floor, until it was finally complete. The same thing is true with a highway. Somebody didn’t just get a bulldozer and an asphalt machine and haphazardly lay down a road one day. Oh, no. it took years of planning, financial allocation and preparation and then, construction, to bring it to pass.

The same thing is true in a sense, with God’s purpose for mankind, which was unfolded and manifest in Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 3:8-11 “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:”

Now, you see, God does nothing by accident, and nothing that is not in agreement with His framework and plan. And that plan does not merely go back thousands of years—it goes back even before the genesis of time. And if you really understand the Bible when you read it, then you understand that everything within it, from Genesis 1:1 has to do with the unfolding of God’s ultimate and eternal purpose. The fall of man in the garden didn’t take God by surprise. Neither did the death of Christ, His Son. Both of those things were within the scope of God’s infinite foreknowledge. God has a purpose, and we’re going to see what that purpose is.

The gospel of Jesus Christ, or the plan of redemption, is sometimes called the scheme of redemption. That’s because of the way it was planned, executed and revealed. The apostle Paul’s favorite word to describe the gospel was the word ‘mystery.’ He uses it several times, and that word doesn’t mean strange or beyond our ability to understand. Rather, it means hidden until the time of its revelation.

The gospel plan of salvation was always in the mind of Jehovah God, but it wasn’t until Jesus Christ came, lived among men and fulfilled its requirements and returned to heaven, that it was finally revealed and was no longer kept a mystery to man. The plan itself existed in some form since before the fall of man, and it was developed for us through the ages. We’re going to look at the gospel in five stages: the gospel in purpose, the gospel in promise, the gospel in prophesy, the gospel in preparation and the gospel in proclamation. I think this will help us to see how God developed His plan, and it will help us to understand how the Old and New Testaments agree, and work together. In fact, if you don’t look at the Bible through that lens, then you’re going to misunderstand it. Keep in mind that the entire Bible is about one theme: the salvation of mankind through Christ Jesus in His church. That’s what it’s all about, from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. Christ is the keynote of this great symphony called the Bible, and His church is the fruition of His work in eternity and here on earth.

1. THE GOSPEL IN PURPOSE

The gospel is something that was purposed.

II Timothy 1:8-10 “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:”

Now, Paul plainly says here, that our salvation was appointed to be in Christ before the world began. Well, what does that mean? It means that this redemption of mankind could only be accomplished by and through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that God chose and planned this as the means of making us holy and fit to live with Him in eternity. You know, the word “predestination” is grossly misunderstood today. Some would have you believe that God selected individuals to be saved before the beginning of time, to the exclusion of others, thereby condemning those people to eternal hell right from the beginning. They had no chance. And only those chosen or preselected by God can understand the gospel and ultimately be saved. In other words, your eternal fate was supposedly decided by God before you even came to be. And if you’re saved, it’s not because you chose to be, but because God sent some irresistible working of grace into your heart and drew you to the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, He refused to do the same for those whom He did not predestinate in the beginning. My friend, such a doctrine has no foundation in the scriptures, and is, in fact, contrary to the plain teaching of scripture.

Predestination IS a Bible doctrine. Paul talked about it extensively and unquestioningly in his letter to the Ephesian church.

Ephesians 1:3-6 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”

Paul goes on from there to show how those chosen in Christ were washed in Christ’s blood and reconciled to God. If you go back and read that passage, there is a key phrase that appears again and again here and all throughout Ephesians and in many of Paul’s writings, and it helps us to understand what is meant by the term “predestination.” That is the phrase, “in Christ.” Look back at Ephesians 1.

Ephesians 1:3 “…who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:”

Ephesians 1:4 “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world…”

Ephesians 1:7 “In whom we have redemption through his blood…”

Ephesians 1:10 “That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in       one all things in Christ…”

Ephesians 1:11 “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:”

And on and on and on we could go. The phrases “in Christ,” “in Him,” or “in Whom” all tell us what predestination is all about. You see, God made us all creatures of will or volition, and the Bible bids ALL to come in obedient faith and receive salvation. The Bible teaches that it’s God’s will that NONE should perish. He doesn’t want anybody to perish, but of course, He is confined by His own holiness and righteousness, and we can only come to Him through the redemption that is found in Christ. But God’s great desire is for ALL MEN to come to the knowledge of the truth, repent of their sins and be saved. But, you see, God made us creatures of will. We have to make that choice when we are confronted with the gospel.

John 7:37-38 “… Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”

Jesus didn’t say ‘the select few’ who were chosen—He said, “any man” could come to Him and find salvation. Here is where the point is often confused, and here’s what Paul was telling us in Ephesians: sinful man cannot find his own way back to God. Man can never become, on his own worth and goodness, good or holy enough to merit God’s favor and fellowship. No, it was solely an act of grace that brought about the plan of redemption for fallen man through the remedial work of Jesus Christ, and all who are saved can only be saved IN and BY HIM. Salvation is not the result of man’s initiative and effort to get back to God. God determined, or limited in advance, from the beginning, that Christ Jesus would be the means of man’s redemption. Salvation was planned only in Jesus, and thus, only for those who would place their trust and faith IN HIM. It was foreordained. The Greek word that the apostle Peter used for that in the following passage means “to know beforehand” or “to foresee.”

I Peter 1:18-22 “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit…”

So, you see, it was planned, purposed by God that man would one day be saved IN HIS OWN SON, Christ Jesus, who came and died for us, so that we, through obedient faith could be reconciled through Him to fellowship with God. The gospel existed even from the dawning of time in the form of God’s purpose. He predestinated that men would one day be saved and reconciled in Christ Jesus.

 2. THE GOSPEL IN PROMISE

God had a purpose from the beginning, and then He made a promise that He would bring that purpose to pass. God chose a man to make that promise to, and through him, He would bring it to pass. That man was Abraham. You recall that Abraham exhibited such faith in God that we came to know him as the father of the faithful. God chose him as the father of a great family and ultimately a great nation, through whom God developed His purpose.

Genesis 12:1-3 “Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

That promise to Abraham would be repeated again in Genesis 22, 26 and 28. Well, what does it mean? That was a direct promise of the birth of Jesus Christ, a descendant of Abraham, made some 2,000 years before Jesus was even born. Most of the Old Testament record is about the development of the nation that came from Abraham, the nation of Israel, or the Jews. God chose them, and they were the vehicle through whom God developed this plan and brought forth His Son, the Messiah, to save mankind from his sins. He chose them to serve Him, that through that service, He might bring about Christ Jesus the Lord, for all mankind.

But the Bible teaches us that, now, Jew and Gentile are ONE in Christ. In other words, God does not favor one above the other. His purpose for Israel was fulfilled in the coming of the Lord Jesus, and God has now made one new spiritual Israel, or spiritual nation, out of those who are in Christ.

Galatians 3:14 “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

Later, Paul would say this, concerning Jew AND Gentile:

Galatians 3:26 “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”

How are we all children of God today? By essence of being the physical children of Abraham? No. you see, in this economy, it has changed. We are not children of God because we are physically related to Abraham. Rather, we are now the children of God “by faith in Christ Jesus.” How do we exercise faith in Jesus?

Galatians 3:27-29 “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

So, during the period of the Old Testament, you had the gospel in the form of a promise that was to be fulfilled when Christ would finally be born.

 3. THE GOSPEL IN PROPHECY

God not only purposed, and then promised salvation through the lineage of Abraham, ultimately in the personage of Jesus Christ. He then sent His prophets unto them to make sure that they would recognize Jesus when He came. Look at how masterfully Peter ties it all together in the following passage:

Acts 3:24-26 “Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.”

Friend, all of the prophecies of the Old Testament were given to point men to Christ as the Messiah and the Savior of man. It is important to note that Old Testament prophecy is not about ‘end times.’ Old Testament prophecy is not about future events to us or the end of the world. Old Testament prophecy was the gospel being preached before it came to pass. Do you realize that? The law was full of symbols and types and shadows that pictured the Lord Jesus, who would, one day, come. And the prophets one by one, from Samuel to David to Isaiah to Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Joel…all the way down to Malachi, were all prophesying about one thing, and that was the coming of Jesus into this world as the Messiah who would save men from their sins. He was pictured hundreds of years before He was born of Mary, to be the prophet, priest and king, who, alone, could redeem mankind from his wickedness. Jesus, from His birth to His death, resurrection, ascension back to heaven, to His coronation and His destroying the Old Testament temple and its symbolic and typical worship…in all of that, He fulfilled every Old Testament prophecy. And we now know that He IS who He claimed to be: the Son of God, full of grace and truth, by the fact that He DID fulfill the hundreds of prophecies about Himself.

So, the gospel was purposed by God in the beginning. It was promised by God in the dawn of time. It was prophesied by God through the developmental dispensation of the Jews and the Old Testament. Then, it entered what we’ll call the stage of preparation.

4. THE GOSPEL IN PREPARATION

Just as the promises and prophesies of God were about to come to pass, after God had very carefully woven this plan together through the loom of time, He now sets the stage for a great man named John the Baptist. John lived contemporarily with Jesus Christ, but his work preceded the Lord’s work here on earth.

Matthew 3:1-2 “In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea. And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

You see, John wasn’t part of that kingdom. He was the harbinger who came before, and made things ready for Christ’s kingdom. That is one of the glaring fallacies of the doctrine of dispensational pre-millennialism—the doctrine of the rapture and the thousand-year reign that you hear so much about today. All of that insists that Christ’s kingdom is yet to come, that it is still yet off in the future somewhere. That doctrine claims that the Jews of Christ’s day were not ready for the kingdom and they rejected Jesus, so God delayed His plan until one day when He’ll finally bring Jesus back and He’ll finally get to reign as King and the Jews will all return and be part of His kingdom. Have you ever stopped to think that if that is what the Bible is literally teaching, then John’s ministry was a flop? And so was Christ, when it gets down to it. John said, in the above passage, “…the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus sent His twelve disciples and the seventy (Luke 10:1) to preach the kingdom of heaven, that the kingdom was near.

Mark 9:1 “…Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.”

They would see the kingdom come with power in their own lifetime! That brief period of a few years before Calvary and Pentecost, was the gospel in the stage of preparation.

5. THE GOSPEL IS PROCLAIMED

Finally, at last, in the fullness of time, the gospel, after being developed by the mind of God, after being promised by God, prophesied by God’s prophets, prepared by John the Baptist, the time had come that God proclaimed it to the world. That’s when Peter, for the very first time on the day of Pentecost, stood and proclaimed Jesus as Lord and Christ, and men turned to Him in faith and obeyed the gospel in baptism, and received the long-awaited forgiveness of sins. No longer was salvation a potential promise: it was now a manifest reality. Friend, what a thrilling thing! We’re not waiting on salvation to come. We can have it NOW in Christ Jesus. That which was predestined, set aside in advance, foreknown and predetermined by God, is now a reality, and ALL can receive it! YOU can receive it today by turning to Jesus Christ in faith and obeying His word in baptism (Hebrews 5:9, I Peter 1:22). Won’t you do that today? Be part of God’s great plan for your life and for the ages.

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The devil must rejoice, and the skeptic certainly delights in the divided state of religion today. Numerous denominations exist, and countless divisions within those denominations. Surely this isn’t God’s will, and it’s not what Jesus built more than 1900 years ago when He said, “I will build My church.” What we have is a farming problem.

Some months ago, a friend of mine and fellow gospel preacher held a gospel meeting for my home congregation. He presented a lesson entitled, “Farming Problems,” and he presented this thought-provoking illustration that I want to share with you.

Suppose you had five farmers living in a community, and all five got ready to go out and plant a crop of wheat at the same time. They all go down to the local co-op and purchase the seed for planting. They all intend to purchase the very best seed they can buy, and they all plan to raise the same crop. The seed is purchased, the ground is plowed, the crops are sown, the months pass by, and the same sun shines on all five fields. The same rains fall on them, they endure the same temperatures and the same weather conditions. Then comes the harvest. These same five farmers gather their crops and bring them for sale. Let’s suppose that one of the farmers had a truckload of wheat—beautiful golden heads of wheat. Then, behind him comes the next farmer and, strangely enough, he has a load of corn. Along comes the third farmer and he has yielded a great crop of soybeans. After him comes the fourth farmer with a bumper crop of peanuts. Finally, the fifth farmer comes along with a plentiful harvest of potatoes.

Obviously, we have encountered some farming problems. I mean, how could five farmers obtain the same seed, from the same place, and bring back five totally different types of crops? Well, we’d have to conclude one of the following things:

*You are dealing with ignorant farmers, who didn’t know what wheat seed looks like, and they didn’t care to check that what they were getting was wheat. OR…

*They might have received impure seed. Some other kind of seed was mixed in with it or the supplier substituted a different kind of seed. OR…

*Perhaps the field was not adequately prepared, so the past seed choked out the new. OR…

*You are dealing with dishonest farmers, who claim to plant wheat, but instead, for whatever reason, planted something else.

Did you know that the word of God is called a seed? It is. It’s called, “the seed of the kingdom.” When Jesus preached the parable of the sower in Luke 8, He likened the preaching of the truth to a farmer planting seed in a field. You’ll recall that the seed fell on different kinds of soil, and depending on the condition of the soil, it either yielded fruit or it didn’t. Now, it didn’t yield different kinds of fruit because it was one farmer planting one kind of seed. It simply either brought forth fruit, or the crop failed. Those are the two choices.

Luke 8:11 “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.”

Jesus goes on to explain that the soil represents the human heart. The same laws of nature that tell us that every seed will bring forth after its own kind, apply spiritually as well. The seed of the kingdom will produce one thing and one thing only, if it produces anything at all, and that one thing is a Christian. So, maybe when we see Christendom in a state of chaos and rank division, perhaps we have a farming problem. We either have farmers who are ignorant about the seed being planted, or we have impure seed that is mixed with or replaced by something else that’s being planted, or we have an unprepared heart where the tares of error have not been removed and have sprung back up and taken over the wheat, or we have dishonest farmers—preachers who are disingenuously leading people astray while claiming to preach the word of God, but instead are preaching something besides or in addition to the word of God.

Some of the most basic and immutable laws of nature are the laws of seedtime and harvest. All life on earth is based on the simple principle that God decreed in the beginning, that every living thing would have a way of reproducing itself, and that is by the seed placed within it.

Genesis 1:11 “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.”

Genesis 1:24 “And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.”

We continue to see that principle in all life on earth. That is one of the glaring problems with the Darwinian Theory of Molecules to Man Evolution. While species can adapt within themselves over time for the sake of their survival, they still belong to their own kind. In other words, dogs don’t change into cats, birds don’t become fish and pigs don’t mate with cows and produce another kind. Every living thing belongs to its own kind and reproduces its own kind.

Here’s something else: when God created the world, He did so through miracle. It began by miracle. But God at that time, set into motion immutable laws of nature that allow things to continue. In other words, the first life was created by God, by miracle, full-grown with the appearance of age, but each was created with the seed of reproduction to bring forth after its own kind. Consequently, today a pair of monkeys may leave Africa and be taken to Australia, and they can mate and produce another monkey. But it won’t be a kangaroo. You can go out in a field and plant corn, and that cornstalk will produce a seed. You can take that seed, preserve it and wait a long time, maybe even carry it around the world and plant it, and if it grows, there is one thing you know. You can mark it down, it will produce more corn. It’s not going to produce peas or butter beans.

Well, the same is true concerning New Testament Christianity, and the church that you read about in the New Testament. Think about it this way: it was created and revealed by miracle (Acts 2), but God placed within it the seed of reproduction, which Jesus identified in Luke 8 as “the word of God.” Since that time, more than 1980 years ago, when that word is planted yet today in the ready heart of a person, it will produce one thing and one thing only: a New Testament Christian, just like you read about in the book of Acts. And, that person will be a member of that very same church that you read about in the book of Acts. You see, the word of God will make Christians and Christians only. Just like the five farmers that we talked about earlier, if you see more than one kind of Christian, or you see different kinds of fruit, then somewhere along the way, there have been some farming difficulties. Let’s see if we can look at the realm of modern, fragmented, broken religion and identify what the trouble might be.

Let’s start in Acts 2. On the day of Pentecost, the apostle Peter and the beginning nucleus of the Lord’s newly established church was filled with the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit of God led them and empowered them. (There is the beginning by miracle, like we mentioned earlier.) When Peter preached that day, he did so by the inspiration and in demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit. Thousands of people were gathered there, and they saw what happened that day. A great multitude heard Peter preach that Jesus, whom they had crucified just days before, was indeed Lord and Christ.

Acts 2:37-38 “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

Acts 2:41-42 “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”

So, these people heard the gospel preached for the first time, they wanted to obey it and be saved, Peter told them to repent and be baptized for the remission or forgiveness of their sins. Luke says they gladly received his words and were baptized and three thousand were added to the number of disciples, and they continued on in corporate worship and in living the Christian life.

Acts 2:47 “…And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”

Now let’s think about that. Let me ask you a question and I want you to sincerely think about this: When those people on the Day of Pentecost believed what they believed and did what they did, what were they? What did they become? Were they Catholics? No, because the catholic church with its hierarchy of priests, bishops, archbishops, cardinals and popes did not evolve for several hundred years from this time. Were they Protestants? No, that couldn’t be, because the protestant movement was born in protest of the doctrines and perceived corruptions of Catholicism. That was nearly 1500 years away from the time that Luke wrote Acts 2. Were these people Lutherans? Well, no, they couldn’t have been Lutherans because Martin Luther didn’t nail his 95 objections to the door of the Catholic church in Wittenburg, Germany until October 31, 1519. So it was just under 1500 years too soon for them to be Lutherans. Were they Presbyterians? No, they couldn’t have been Presbyterians because it wasn’t until 1539 that John Calvin began preaching about God’s sovereignty and others developed the five points of doctrine that was born of Calvin’s theology, The Five Points of Calvinism. Were these people Baptists? Well, they were baptized, but these people were told to be baptized for the remission of sins (Look closely at verse 38). Baptists don’t baptize for the remission of sins, and if you don’t believe that, just walk up and ask the Baptist preacher if baptism is for the remission of sins and see what he tells you. Besides all of that, they couldn’t have been Baptists because John Smith didn’t baptize himself and organize a group of people to worship with him until 1607. They weren’t Methodists because John Wesley didn’t break away from the Church of England and a group was not formed calling themselves Methodists until the end of the 18^th century. And on and on and on we could go…That still leaves us with the question, what were these people in Acts 2?

Acts 11:26 “…And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.”

What made them Christians? The fact that they simply followed the teachings of the Lord Jesus in faith. They obeyed the gospel preached by the apostles by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and the faith that existed in the first disciples was then again born in the hearts of those who heard the word, believed it and submitted to it. That’s how the seed principle works, you see.

Now, those early disciples had a creed that they went by, but that creed was not what you might be thinking. Their creed was simply the word of God, nothing more and nothing less.

I Peter 4:11 “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.”

You see, if the same word that they believed and obeyed 2000 years ago is believed and obeyed today, then you’ll have the same thing that you had 2000 years ago, nothing more and nothing less. Simply, a Christian.

So, why so many churches? How has religion in the name of Christ become fragmented and denominated? Today, we are living in the era when postmodernism rules the thinking of people, and unfortunately, the Bible hardly even enters the discussion. People just do what feels good and right to them, and truth, if it even really exists, isn’t all that important to people.

You see, when the protestant reformation began, the Catholic church dominated the world and it was governed by the dictates of the pope and the church hierarchy. It functioned under the authority of the catechism. Well, some noble, brilliant, well-meaning men saw the error in all of that, and they broke away, and the protestant reformation was born. These men studied their way out of the blindness of the dark ages, but unfortunately, they and/or their followers began to draw up their own peculiar creeds that distinguished and delineated them one from another. Here’s a visual that might be helpful:

THE BIBLE AND HUMAN CREEDS

Bible + Catechism = Catholic

Bible + Discipline = Methodist

Bible + Westminster Confession of Faith = Presbyterian

Bible + Prayer Book = Episcopalian

Bible + Second London (later Philadelphia) Confession of Faith = Baptist

Bible + Book of Mormon = Latter Day Saint

Bible + Ellen G. White Writings = 7^th Day Adventist

Well, on and on we could go. But do you see the problem with what came out of the reformation, as opposed to the restoration? Jesus said that the seed of the kingdom is the word of God. That’s largely how we get five farmers all claiming to plant the same seed, yet producing five completely different things, per our illustration in the beginning. Either they’re not planting the pure seed of God’s word, or they’re mixing it with something else—maybe the Westminster Confession of Faith or the Discipline or the Baptist Faith and Message or the Philadelphia Confession of Faith. Friend, we can never have the unity that Jesus decreed and prayed for under those conditions.

I Corinthians 1:10 “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you: but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”

John 17:20-21 “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou has sent me.”

Jesus answers the question as to why there is so much skepticism in the world today, because we are far from being one, as Jesus prayed. We are divided by creeds and catechism and disciplines and various other dogmas. The sectarian preachers may say that their creeds are necessary to unite upon, or create cohesiveness, and simply state what’s in the Bible. Well, think about it: if they’re only stating what’s in the Bible, if that’s all a creed does is state what’s in the Bible, then why do you need a creed? Why not throw them away and just use the Bible? It’s really not complicated. Let’s just suppose for a moment that the Catholic throws away his catechism and the Methodist throws away his discipline. The Presbyterian throws away his Westminster Confession and the Baptist throws aside his Baptist Faith and Message or the Philadelphia Confession of Faith. You know, if we ALL did that and agreed that the Bible is the inspired word of God, and that it is therefore our only rule of faith and practice, where it speaks we speak, where it is silent we are silent, wouldn’t we be more on the pathway to unity for which Jesus prayed? Plant the seed of the kingdom in the hearts of men and only the seed of the kingdom in the hearts of men, and Christians after the very fashion of those we read about in the New Testament will be the only result.

What if we all resolve to answer the question, “What must I do to be saved?” That’s a perfectly scriptural question, by the way (Acts 2, Acts 16). What if we resolve to answer that question with nothing but a Bible answer? You see, that’s the problem. A creed teaches people that all they must do to be saved is to receive Jesus and say a prayer inviting Him into their heart. Folks, that may be what their creed says, but that’s not what the seed says (see Acts 2:37-38 above). Peter answered their question, “What must I do to be saved?” They did what he said, repenting and being baptized for the remission of their sins, and the Lord added them to His church. Do you know that that can be duplicated today and have the very same result, without the interference of creeds, catechisms, disciplines and so forth?

But then you have another denomination that comes along and says that according to their creeds and bylaws, you have to be voted in after you’re saved. My friend, there is not one single passage in your Bible that says any such thing! The Lord does the adding—not men (see Acts 2:47 above). He adds a person to His church not when he submits to the Philadelphia Confession of Faith, the Discipline or any other creed or set of bylaws. He does it when he submits to the Lord Jesus Christ and receives the remission of sins (see Acts 2:41,47 above).

The Lord has a sobering warning for us:

Matthew 15:9 “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”

Matthew 15:13 “But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.”

II John 1:9 “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.”

I want to tell you something that is great news and is wonderfully refreshing! You can be a Christian, and a Christian only! You can make your plea the simple restoration of New Testament Christianity in your own heart and life, and in the lives of others. You may be a member of a denomination, but I hope that you’ll give some serious thought to how that denomination came to be, and what makes it a denomination. You can throw aside those creeds and dogmas and simply take the word of God as your rule of faith and practice, and that means answering Bible questions with Bible answers. That means looking to see what Jesus and His apostles said about a matter instead of what Dr. Somebody says about a matter. When you turn to the word of God for the answers, you’re going to find that it makes things a whole lot simpler.

People have tried all kinds of things to cure the malady of division in religion today. I can tell you that postmodernism is NOT the answer. The idea that there is no such thing as truth, truth doesn’t matter, truth is whatever you think it is in your own mind and that’s irrelevant to somebody else…Folks, that philosophy has our world so mixed up that we don’t know up from down today. Just look at our culture! A new denomination is not the answer. That only compounds the problem. Ecumenicalism is not the answer because truth comes from God, and truth MATTERS. It matters what you believe. The answer is nothing more and nothing less than to return to the New Testament, and only believe, preach and practice those things that you can read therein. Would you resolve to do that today? It may mean that you need to be baptized for the remission of your sins because that’s not what you were taught before in a denomination. It may mean that you need to change your worship because you’re not currently worshipping in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). But if we would strike hands and hearts upon that noble resolve, a great revival and a great re-manifestation of pure, first-century Christianity would result. May God give us the hearts and the resolve to do so!