Open field for the living still standing

When I first moved to Chicago in 1990 at age 25, I was naive enough to think I’d have an easy time finding a old-fashioned Bible-believing Protestant church in my new Lakeview neighborhood off Lake Shore Drive.

I could not have been more wrong. Every single one I tried, it was so obvious they'd gone off into all kind of apostasy and heresy.

Today, in 2017, it’s hard to find a Christian church in Chicagoland that hasn’t been apostatized to one degree or another. Some show clear signs of infiltration of Satanic leadership and worship practices.

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In I Timothy 3, Paul writes to Timothy about ministry matters related to the assembly at Ephesus “which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”

Preacher Richard Jordan explains, “He calls them ‘the church of the living God’ because they had all kind of dead god temples all over Ephesus at that time, just like we’ve got plenty right down the street today.

“That title is to say, ‘We’re the place where the real God that LIVES lives and we’re the pillar and ground of the truth.’

“We have a testimony here at Shorewood Bible Church (Rolling Meadows, IL) that we ask people to make every week, not because anyone’s got to come here to go to heaven. The reason we’re here is to make a testimony that the truth is still available and it’s here. 

“Our testimony we’re to make is that there’s something God’s doing and we could meet anywhere we want to meet; the issue is that LIFE of Christ and being the ‘pillar and the ground of the truth.’ That’s what we’re about: ‘Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness.’

“What a wonderful thing to have God living in you, manifesting Himself; God manifest in the flesh. That’s what the church is all about!

"The vehicle to carry that out is the local assembly so I ask myself, ‘If I’m here and winter’s here, and my path through winter is going to be determined by my choices, then I need to find out what I need to do in the wintertime and start doing it.’ See how Berean that is?

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"If the primary vehicle for the work of the ministry is the local assembly, then what do we need to do? What did Paul do?

"Acts 14:21-22 says, [21] And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch,
[22] Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

[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.

“Now, you understand that it was only in verse 19 that they stone Paul and throw him out of town, and it’s then in verse 20 that he rises up and comes into the city.

“You know what he does? When Paul looks at the world out there that doesn’t know anything about the grace of God, he goes into a city and tries to get people saved.

"When he gets them saved, he begins to teach them, edify them and build them up in the faith because he knows there’s tribulation out there. There’s trouble. I mean, Paul just got out from under a pile of rocks!

“He knows that if they go out and start living for Christ and Christ’s living in them, that world out there is going to think the same thing of Christ living in them as they did when Christ lived in his own flesh in the earth. They’re going to hate Him without a cause and there’s going to be opposition and they’re going to need some sustenance to get through it.

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“So these people who Paul’s won, and is confirming and establishing in the faith, he sets together in local assemblies of Believers, ordaining godly leaders to lead these people, so that when he leaves he commends them to the Lord.

“Paul says, ‘That which I just set up there, THAT’S how God’s going to take care of you.’ Paul doesn’t just say, ‘Oh, Lord, bless thee and keep thee, make His face to shine upon thee and give thee peace, Amen.’

“That’s not what commending them to the Lord means. I mean, what are you going to do, sprinkle whiffle dust on them? See, that’s that old religious hocus-pocus-eeny-meeny-miny-moe that says you’ve got something in your hand you can go throw people.

“It says he 'commended them to the Lord.' He set up the establishment in that local church of the very thing God was going to use to protect and carry them on. It was a thing that was going to be in that town that would see that lost people got saved, that saved people got edified and that the saints were strengthened and encouraged so that they could endure and carry on.

“Now you need to know what a local church is. Not the traditional viewpoint; not some religious system idea. It’s not a building, not an organization, not choirs and pews and windows. That’s all the form.

"Write down in your notes somewhere in your Bible: ‘Form follows function.’ That will save you from ALL of the confusion about this stuff. What is the function? Get some people saved."

(to be continued tomorrow)