The Bride of Christ

If you are to ask an average Pastor or a Bible teacher in any Local Church this question: "Who is the Bride of Christ"? the answer you are likely to get is: "The Church is the Bride of Christ". In my opinion this is a very careless and presumptuous anwer. The truth is only a part of the Church is the Bride of Christ. Only the part of the Church that fulfills Christ's conditions will be the Bride of Christ!

There is a contemporary Christian teaching that it is the Lord desires that the Local Churches in every nation to grow in quantity and quality. But according to the New Testament Scripture this is not the Lord's primary concern. His primary concern is to prepare a Bride for Himself! Quantity is of secondary importance because only the remnant of Christians will ultimately be saved (refer to my earlier message "The Remnant of God's People").

Let us search out the Scripture concerning the qualitites that Christ looks for concerning His Bride.

1. Paul wrote to the believers in the Church in Ephesus concerning the preparation of the Bride:
"Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish" (Ephesians 5:25, 26, NKJV, emphasis added).

2. Solomon painted a vivid picture of Israel as God's betrothed Bride. Prophetically, it is a picture of the true Church as the Bride of Christ:

"Who is she who looks forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, awesome as an army with banners" (Song of Solomon 6:10, NKJV, emphasis added)?

3. John heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven (Revelation 19:10) saying:

"Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints" (Revelation 19:7, 8, NKJV, emphasis added).

From the above three passages of Scripture (two describe the Church on earth and the other describes the Church in heaven) we observe the following:

1. The purpose of Christ's atoning death for the Church and for each individual Christian is to prepare a Bride for Himself.
2. Christ Himself prepares the Bride. The Bride is a glorious Church - a holy Church, without spot, wrinkle or blemish. Only those Christians who have gone through a process of cleansing and sanctifying will be in the condition necessary for their final presentation to Christ as His Bride.
3. God's Word is the means of sanctifying and cleansing. The operation of God's Word in the life of individual Christian is compared to the washing of pure water. Man's ideas and principles, no matter how convincing and seemingly Biblical, no matter how much research work has been done, can never substitute the purification effect of God's Word.
4. The Bride is fair as the moon. The unique function of the moon is to reflect the sun. Similarly, the function of the Church is to reflect the Sun of Righteousness, our Lord Jesus Christ (Malachi 4:2).
5. The Bride is "as awesome as an army with banners". The banner speaks of victory. The Bride is not called just to win a battle or two but to proclaim the total victory of the War that her Bridegroom has already won on the Cross. The Bride is responsible to demonstrate and administer the victory that Jesus had already won. The Bride is called to be the Army of God and to get involved in doing God's will - in Spiritual Warfare! In other words the Bride of Christ is a prayerful Church.
6. After the process of sanctification and cleansing the Bride is ready to be presented to Christ. She "makes herself ready" by putting on her wedding apparel which is made of fine linen, clean and bright.
7. The righteous acts of the Christians become the "fine linen" (clothing material) for the Wedding garment. The Bride herself has to produce the material out of which her bridal garment will be made. The material is "bought" by her righteous acts.

Those Who are Christ"s

As we have seen Christ is coming for His prepared Bride who fulfills the above conditions. Nevertherless only Christ Himself knows who are His:

"Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: 'The Lord knows those who are His,' and, 'Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity'" (2 Timothy 2:19, emphasis added).

Only the Lord Himself knows exactly those who belong to Him. In outward conduct, however, all such believers have one feature in common - They "depart from iniquity". Those who lack this outward seal are not among those whom the Lord acknowledges as His. Those who do not belong to Him will not be His Bride!

Paul gave a further mark by which such people are distinguished:

"And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:24, 25, emphasis added).

Professing Christians who lead careless, carnal, self-indulgent lives following the ways of the world will not be numbered among those who are His!

A way to avoid this problem is to walk in the Spirit because Paul said earlier, "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16).

Christians' Righteous Acts

The New Testament reveals that there are two forms of righteousness - imputed righteousness and outwork righteousness.

Imputed Righteousness

"Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness" (Romans 4:3).

"Now it was not written for His (Abraham's) sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead" (Romans 4:23, 24, emphasis added).

We received imputed righteousness when we are born again. God reckoned Christ's righteousness to us because He was made sin with our sinfulness that we might be made righteous with His righteousness.

Outwork Righteousness

Imputed righteousness is for the purpose of preparing the Christian to walk the Christian walk in holiness and righteousness. It is the beginning of the sanctification process. We have to move from imputed righteousness to outwork righteousness. "The righteous acts of the saints" (Rev. 19:8) are not imputed righteousness but outwork righteousness - the righteous acts we have to perform in order to provide the linen material for our bridal clothing.

John said, "He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous" (1 John 3:7).

John said later, "All unrighteousness is sin" (1 John 5:17).

It is therefore obvious that what is required of the Bride is to practice righteousness because Christ is righteous. An unrighteous person and the righteous Christ cannot be unequally yoked together!

Someone had said, at the moment, in God's eyes, we might have just enough material to make a bikini which is not a suitable attire for a wedding banquet! Something has to happen radically before we can say the Bride has made herself ready.

The right attitude toward the Bridegroom

The real problem of the Church is that we do not have the right attitude toward Christ. We are actually lack reverence and respect for the Bridegroom!

As I shared before in an earlier message we have the spirit of Esau who was a type of carnality. We are more concerned on the things of the flesh than the things of the Spirit. We are living as though there is nothing beyond the present world - living without consciousness of eternity.

As the psalmist said we must ask the Lord to "teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (Psalm 90:12). Let us make the short time we have left in this world count for eternity!

Failing to submit to the Lordship of Christ

It is beyond the scope of this short message to consider more than one area of wrongdoing the Church is committing. One important area that comes to my mind will become clear if we ask ourselves the following questions:

Is Cod's choice our choice? Is the way we do things in the Local Church based entirely on God's choice? In other words, do we always submit and subject to the Lordship of Christ? Do we always get the Lord involved in the things that we desire to do and seek his will in prayers, intercessions and supplication?

Paul said, "And He (God) put all things under His (Christ's) feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all" (Ephesians 1:22, 23, emphasis added).

Notice that God did not put the Church under Christ's feet. He put all things (programs, activities and ministries) related to the function of the Church under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In other words, Jesus is the Head of the Church. Therefore, we must submit to the Lordship of Christ in all things related the the ministries of the Church - both Local and Universal.

Paul said, "Wives, submit to your own husband, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let wives be to their own husbands in everything" (Eph. 5:22 - 24).

In my opinion, by and large, Jesus at the present time is not effectively the Head of the Church. The Church is not subject to Jesus. It makes its own decisions, own plans and treats Jesus as a kind of "rubber stamp" to put His Name on most man-made projects and activities!

A parallel truth is a majority of Christian wives do not subject to their husbands at the present time. On the contrary, it is the wife who becomes the head of husband in many Christian homes! Their family relationship is not right. I do not believe the Church is more subject to Jesus than the wives in the Church subject to their own husbands. In other words, if you want to measure how much the Local Church subjects to Jesus just take a look at the Christian couples. Husbands and wives can be a prophetic message to the world! This I believe is how Jesus relates to His Church and the Church relates to Jesus.

Unless we are totally submitted and subject to the Lordship of Christ we are far from ready to be the Bride of Christ!

The Spirit and the Bride

At the end of the Book of Revelation John recorded:

"And the Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17).

The Bride can only says "come" when the Spirit says first. It is God, the Holy Spirit's choice and decision when the Bridegroom is coming to take His bride. The Bride simply echos what the Spirit says. The Spirit and the Bride cannot say "come" before she makes herself ready.

Are we ready?

The Outworking of God's Choice

As we have discussed in my previous message that God made his Choice for Jacob over Esau before they were born (Romans 9:10 – 13). His chose Jacob because He loved Israel:

“I have loved you,” says the Lord. “Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’ “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” says the Lord. “Yet Jacob I have loved; but Esau I have hated, and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness” (Malachi 1:2, 3, NKJV, emphasis added).

Notice that God has strong feelings (of the soul realm) – He talks about love and hate; for and against!

Moses said, “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, …”(Deuteronomy 7:7, 8).

The Bible never attempts to explain the love of God because His love is not explainable. He loves His people because He loves His people and out of this love He chose them!

God’s principle of election (God’s Choice) also applies to the Church and individual Christian/believer. According to Romans 8:28, 29 God works out the course of our lives we would take.

In Ephesians Paul said the same thing:

“… just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, …” (Eph. 1:4, 5).

Why God loved Jacob and hated Esau?

The question is what did God see in Jacob that caused Him to choose him and reject Esau?

God loved Jacob

I believe the one thing that Jacob had going for him was that he appreciated what God had to offer – His blessing. God foreknew Jacob and saw in him that here is somebody who would do anything to get what He had to offer. God had to deal with Jacob for years because he went all together the wrong way of getting it!

Genesis 32:22 – 32 relates how Jacob wrestled with God in order to get His blessings:

“And He said, ‘Let Me go, for the day breaks.’ But he said, ‘I will not let You go unless You bless me!’” (Gen. 32:26, NKJV).

God hated Esau

The writer of Hebrews said, “… lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears” (Hebrews 12:16, 17, emphasis added).

Notice that Esau was classified as a fornicator even though nothing was written about him ever committed fornication. His sin of corruption was as the sin of a fornicator. He was also being described as a “profane person” which means being earthly and sensual.

In other words, Esau was a carnal person. He was a man with a type of carnality – being more concerned with things of time than things of eternity; the things of the flesh than of the Spirit. Carnality is living as though there is nothing beyond the present world; living without conscious of eternity!

Esau’s attitude was exactly the opposite of what caused God to love Jacob. He had not appreciated what God had to offer. He had his birthright but he despised it and exchanged it with a bowl of soup. God hates carnality and therefore He hated Esau.

The Outworking of God’s Choice in the Old Testament

Here are a few examples to show how God endorsed His choice:

1. Bringing back the Ark

1 Chronicles 13 relates the story of how David and his people brought back the Ark from Kirjath Jearim. They carried the Ark on a cart driven by Uzza and Ahio (V. 7). David played music before God with all his might with singing (V. 8). When Uzza put out his hands to steady the Ark the Lord struck him dead.

David realized his mistake and said, “No one may carry the ark of God but the Levites, for the Lord has chosen them to carry the ark of God and to minister before Him forever” (1 Chronicles 15:2, NKJV, emphasis added).

The above shows the significance of God’s choice. The Church can learn a lesson from this. If we disobey God and are not in harmony with His choice even our praise and worship would not do a thing to please God!

2. Building of the Temple

It was God’s choice for David’s son Solomon to build the Temple. In fact God made His choice before Solomon was born (1 Chronicles 22:7 – 10).

The Word of the Lord came to David:

“Behold, a son shall be born to you, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies all around. His name shall be Solomon, for I will give peace and quietness to Israel in his days. He shall build a house for My name, and he shall be My son, an I will be his Father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever” (1 Chron. 22:9, 10, NKJV, emphasis added).

Notice that God even chose the name of David’s son before he was born.

The Outworking of God’s Choice in the New Testament

1. To bear fruit for God

Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you” (John 15:16).

Jesus did not say He chose us for salvation. He chose us to bear fruit after He had saved us. If we do not bear fruit every thing that we do will merely be religious effort.

A few verses back Jesus taught His disciples how to bear fruit for God:

“Every branch in Me that does no bear fruit He (God) takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me” (John 15:2, 4, NKJV, emphasis added).

We bear fruit for God by abiding in Jesus. This means we live by faith and our entire day to day living entirely dependant on Jesus. We follow His doctrine and be hearers and doers of His Word.

2. Another apostle to replace Judas

Two men, Barsabas and Matthias were qualified to take the place of Judas. The apostles prayed and said, “You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two You have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place” (Acts 1:24, 25, emphasis added).

The next verse says, “And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. And he was numbered with the eleven apostles” (Acts 1:26).

3. The conversion of Saul

Saul lost his sight after he met the Lord at Damascus Road. The Lord commanded Ananias to lay hand on Saul to recover his sight and to baptize him.

The Lord said to Ananias, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer fro My name’s sake” (Acts 9:15, 16, emphasis added).

4. The sending out of Barnabas and Saul

Barnabas and Saul were chosen and sent out by the Holy Spirit when prophets and teacher gathered and prayed in the Church of Antioch:

“As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them’” (Acts 13:2).

Conclusion

Volunteers have no place in the Kingdom of God. God does not ask for volunteers. He alone chooses whoever He wants to use!

The Remnant of God's People

All through Scripture God revealed that only the remnant of His people (Israel and the Church) – His divine election will be saved. Both Israel and the Church depend on God’s divine election. More simply stated they depend on “God’s sovereign choice”.

Israel and the Church are two different people of God

Israel is never used in the New Testament as a synonym for the Church.

Paul said, “Israel has not obtained what if seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded” (Romans 11:7, NKJV, emphasis added).

The word “elect” comes from the Greek word “Ekloge” which means “divine selection” or “divinly chosen”. It is obvious that Israel is used here to describe those who have not believed in Jesus the Messiah, and are therefore not part of the Church.

God’s plan for Israel and Gentile Christians is made clear by Paul:

“For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentile has come in. And so all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25, 26, emphasis added).

Paul set unbelieving Israelites in contrast with Gentiles who have become believers. The “blinded” Israelites are not identified with Gentile Christians; they are distinguished from them. Only when the full number (chosen by God) of the Gentile become believers then the “all” (all who are not blinded or the remnant) Israel will become believers.

Israel and the Church are the products of God’s Choice

The principle of divine election applies both to Israel and the Church. Both Israel and the Church are the products of God’s choice or God’s election. God has no alternative principle. The truth is, He never endorses or blesses any decision or program which He Himself has not initiated.

Israel is God’s choice

In Romans 9:10 – 18 Paul clearly said that God declared His choice even before the birth of the twins Jacob and Esau:

“It was said to her, ‘The older shall serve the younger’. As it is written, ‘Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated’” (Romans 9:12, 13).

Before the brothers were born, without reference to anything they had done, God declared His choice. The older serving the younger – in contrary to the accepted cultural rules of the day. Clearly God’s choice was not based on Jacob’s character or good deeds, since he had not even been born yet. Any goodness that subsequently came out of Jacob’s life was the fruit of God’s choice. Therefore God’s dealings with Israel are the expression of His sovereign decision, not made on the basis of works.

The Church is God’s choice

A careful study of the New Testament Scripture reveals that the same principle of God’s choice applies to Gentile Christians. The principle of divine election (choice) is unfolded by a number of New Testament Scriptures:

Jesus spoke to His disciples, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, ….” (John 15:16).

The above implies that only those whom Jesus has chosen will bear fruit. Others are just exercising religious effects.

His disciples had not become followers of Jesus because they made the right choice. It was not they, but Jesus, who made the choice.

Paul said, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified” (Romans 8:29, 30).

The above passage contains a succession of verbs in the past tense: foreknew, predestined, called, justified, glorified. The whole process had its origin in God’s foreknowledge. From eternity He foreknew each one of us. On the basis of this He predestined us; He planned the course that our lives should take. Unfortunately many contemporary Christians do not understand the divine, eternal origin of our salvation.

We are Christians not because we chose God but because He chose us. In much contemporary teaching, we are left with the feeling that salvation depends entirely on our making the right decision, when actually this is secondary. Salvation depends on the decision God has already made. It is true that we have to make a decision to accept Christ; but any decision we make is merely a response to the decision which God has already made. Furthermore, He made that decision before He created the world.

The Remnant of Israel

In Romans 9 Paul revealed that those Israelites whom God has actually chosen for Himself will be only a remnant out of all Israel:

Paul quoted a prophecy from Isaiah 10:22 concerning Israel:

“Though the number of children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved” (Romans 9:27, NKJV).

In Romans 11 Paul said, “Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace” (Romans 11:5, emphasis added).

The remnant of Israel is brought about by God’s grace alone; it is not something that Israel could earn!

Zephaniah, an Old Testament prophet, prophesized the promise of the restoration of the remnant of Israel:

“I (God) will leave in your midst a meek and humble people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. The remnant of Israel shall do no unrighteousness and speak no lies, nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth ….” (Zephaniah 3:12, 13, NKJV, emphasis added).

God is looking for a meek and humble people who will trust in the Lord – a people who is righteous, honest and without deceit.

I believe God is aiming to produce the same type of people for His Church.

God’s remnant according to prophet Zechariah will be refined through fire:

“That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, but one-third shall be left in it: I (God) will bring the one-third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; and each one will say ‘The Lord is my God’” (Zechariah 13:8, 9).

God’s ultimate purpose is to produce the remnant (one-third of all Israel) of His choice! Even though it involves refining and testing by fire, God will not cease until His purpose is accomplished.

The Remnant of the Church

The question we need to ask is, “Will the Church that is saved also be a remnant”?

Let us refer to several Scriptures which indicate that not all the Church will be saved.

1. Luke’s description of the Narrow Way

Jesus addressed the question: “Lord, are there few who are saved?”

Jesus said, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from, depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity’” (Luke 13:24 – 27, NKJV, emphasis added).

The “gate” of salvation is narrow. It speaks of paying the high cost of total obedience and never to compromise the truth of God’s Word!

Paul wrote to Timothy regarding the seal of God for those who are His:

“Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are His,’ and, ‘Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity’” (2 Tim 2:19, emphasis added).

2. Matthew’s description of the Narrow Way

At the close of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave a similar warning:

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:13, 14; 21 – 23, emphasis added).

From the above two passages of Scripture we made our observation:

1. Only few believers are likely to choose to enter by the narrow gate. But only the narrow gate and the narrow way will lead to life.

2. Only believers who do the will of God the Father will be qualified to enter the Kingdom of heaven.

3. Jesus does not know any believer who merely says, “Lord, Lord” or even uses His name to prophecy, to cast out demons or to work wonders! He considers such person as worker of inequity or lawlessness!

Notice that in the above two passages of Scripture there is one phrase that occurs three times: “I do not know you”. This means that even though these “miracle workers” had been busy serving the Lord, they had never been on the list of God’s elect. Apparently God had looked below their public ministry into their personal lives! In their innermost character God had discerned something described as “lawlessness”. This expressed itself in attitudes such as pride, arrogance, self-seeking, covetousness and personal ambition. For such, He had no place reserved in heaven.

God is looking for the nature of the Lamb, manifested in meekness and purity and holiness for those who serve him in public ministry. There is one unvarying requirement of God that runs through the whole Bible:

“Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14, emphasis added).

Mega-Churches That Are Merely Storehouses

An evangelist from a third world country was having a time of fellowship with the senior Pastor of a chain of Mega-Churches from a Western country. Before they parted company, the evangelist made the following statement: “Your Local Churches are only storehouses, storing people for hell”. It was without doubt that the senior Pastor was very much offended. This incident happened more than 12 years ago.

To some people this might appear a shocking statement, but somehow I have reasons to believe that the evangelist was actually speaking the truth. In fact he had made a prophetic statement. With the present New Age movement Local Mega-Churches are mushrooming all over the world! These Mega-Churches not only have large worship sanctuaries they have ultra modern convention centers as well.

How to build a Mega-Church

If it is your “goal and vision” to build a Local Mega-Church then all you need is money and some imagination and creativity. Here are the steps:

1. Spend plenty of money to rebuild your present Church building and equip it with all the facilities (including facilities for youths and young kids) of a country club. Money spent will be recovered very quickly. People who wish to be members of any country club need to pay costly entrance fees and monthly subscription. They are usually wealthy people. But if they can get to enjoy all these facilities for free in a Church, there is no reason why they should not quit going to the country club. Furthermore, they receive all the blessings that a Church offer.

2. Send out faithful and persuasive Church members to invite people to join your Church. Remember not to ask about people’s religious background – whether they are Christians or not or whether they are members of any other Local Churches or not. Be extremely friendly and do their best to build a good personal relationship with new comers. Give them an impression that your Church is indeed an interfaith religious institution. Do not offend anybody. To lead new comers to say the “Sinner’s Prayer” is not advisable. This might frighten them away. Get them water baptized quickly. Make sure you do not mention “repentance” but encouraged them to treasure their new life in Christ. Whether they believe you or not and whether they need to confess their sins or not are not important issues. The important thing is to ensure them of their salvation – tell them they are now saved by the act of water baptism. Tell them all of them will go to heaven because they are now the Bride of Christ.

3. When the new comers begin to enjoy the fellowship of your Church slowly but firmly persuade them to give tithes. Put some fear in them. Show them the Old Testament Scripture about robbing God (Malachi 3:8). Preach a few sermons on the topic of tithing. If they are slow to take heed tell them their business might fail if they refuse to tithe properly and regularly. Tell them God might punish them and inflict them and their family members with incurable diseases if they continue to rob God.

4. Never preach repentance or end-time prophecies. Avoid teaching “hell” and the new birth. Instead, tell them they are wonderful, they are good people and God loves them as they are. Tell them their spiritual Church family is more important than their physical home family so than people come from broken families will not be offended. Show them genuine Christian love. You must ensure every sermon preached from the pulpit is an “itching ears” sermon or the sermon they love to hear.

5. Get them involved in a Church growth/development campaign. Statistics are made available by organizations specializing in studying the growth pattern of thousands of Churches all over the world with various cultures and customs. This is a good way to understand the behavioral pattern of the Universal Church. From these statistics a principle of growth is derived. Using this principle the Local Church will be able to discover the areas of strength and weakness. Spend time and energy on the weak areas and try to achieve a balance. The ultimate goal is to increase the numerical growth rate. It must be good if you believe Mega-Church means a “mega” number of Christians.

The Biblical New Testament Local Church

The “Church” is an “assembly of people” called out from the present world order to serve Jesus Christ and to be prepared by Him to become the collective instrument of the government which He will establish in the next age. The fact that Church people are Christian people called out from the world order means you can never let the world come into the Church to defile the Church.

The apostle Paul described the Church as “His (Christ’s) body” (read Ephesians 1:22, 23). Seen in this light, the Church is not an organization (much less a social club) but an organism. Each member of this body is directly related by personal faith to Christ, as its Head, and through Him to all the other members.

Here are some of my observations concerning the true Church of Jesus Christ:

1. Over the centuries, the true concept of the New Testament Body of Christ has been corrupted and distorted. The Church as it is known today bears little or no resemblance to the original model established in the New Testament beginning from the Book of Acts.

2. Many of those who consider themselves as members of today’s Local Church have no living, personal relationship with Christ, and are often at enmity with other professing Christians. Only a small minority of those who are currently called Christians are members of the Church which is described in the New Testament.

3. Members of Christ’s Body must remember what Paul said: “Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are His,’ and, ‘Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.’” (2 Tim. 2:19, NKJV, emphasis added). In other words, the true Church has two distinguishing characteristics:

a. God, and God alone, knows all those who are truly His.

b. Everyone who claims to be member of His Church is required to demonstrate it by a life of practical righteousness and holiness.

4. You have probably heard this: “Going to Church does not make you a Christian just like going to a garage does not make you a car.” Only born again believers can be true Christians and therefore you cannot invite non-Christians and non-water-baptized people to be members of the Local Church. By careful study of the Book of Acts you will realize that every believer was born again and water baptized before they joined the Local Church. According to the Scripture unbelievers have the “spirit (unclean) who now works in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). The Church being the temple of God is holy and it must not be defiled by any unclean spirit (1 Cor. 3:16).

5. The Church does not save and the act of water baptism does not save (please read my earlier Posting – “Understanding Water Baptism”). Therefore by going to Church does not make a person a Christian. Similarly by ministering the act of water baptism does not make a person a Christian. A person must repent and believe before he is qualified to be water baptized (Acts 2:38).

6. God ordained three structures to be built for His glory by His people - The Tabernacle of David, The Temple of Solomon and the Church of Jesus Christ. All three are related; but the first two are physical structures and the Church is a spiritual Structure. All three are built by divine pattern with divine provision and for a divine purpose. David got the pattern for the Temple of Solomon by the Spirit of God (1 Chronicles 28:12). Similar the spiritual pattern for the Church of Jesus Christ is given by the Spirit of God. Men are not called to build any Church, whether a mega-Church or a small Church without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit!

The New Testament Salvation

The whole process of the New Testament salvation consists of justification, regeneration, sanctification and glorification in this order. It is beyond the scope of this message to consider salvation as a continuous process. We shall consider salvation in its most basic meaning – the “initiation” act of entering a life of faith in Christ.

Basically, salvation means the translation of a person from the kingdom of Satan to the Kingdom of God. Therefore, being “saved” means being “salvaged from sins” rather than being “saved from hell” even though the latter is the result of the former.

Jesus is called the Messiah because He would save the people from their sin:

The angel of the Lord said to Joseph, “And she (Mary) will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

The New Testament makes it plain that the experience of salvation comes to each soul only as a result of personal response to the gospel.

Paul explained that salvation comes to a person through believing with the heart and confessing with the mouth the truth of the gospel:

“That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9, 10).

The born again experience that Jesus spoke about in John 3:3 is further made clear by the apostle John:

“He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in Hin name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:11 – 13, NKJV, emphasis added).

In other words, the active response to the gospel is personally receiving Christ. The result of this response of faith is becoming a child of God, or “being born of God”. Each person must make his own response; no person can make the response required from another person. Each person will be either saved or lose solely by his own response.

Entrance into the God’s Kingdom

Let me summarize the basic facts of the Gospel and the response which each person is required to make:

1. Christ was delivered by God the Father to the punishment of death on account of our sins.

2. Christ was buried.

3. God raised Him from the dead on the third day.

4. Righteousness is received from God through believing these facts.

If you are one of those who are afraid of offending an unbeliever by telling him that he needs to confess his sin, look at it the Scriptural way:

Paul said, “Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death” (2 Cor. 7:9, 10, NKJV, emphasis added).

Conclusion

If you are truly convinced what the Scripture says about the Church, salvation and the born-again experience surely you will also be convinced that the way of building Mega-Churches is entirely of man’s idea without Scriptural basis and is an abomination to the Lord!

Secular Government Authority

I believe this is a very delicate subject to handle. There are divergent views among Christians. I am talking about the command of God for Christians to submit themselves to secular government authority, whether the government is good or bad, righteous or unrighteous.

Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome:

“Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake” (Romans 13:1 – 5, NKJV).

There is a parallel passage of Scripture written by Peter:

“Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men – as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king” (1 Peter 2:13 – 17).

Notice that both Paul and Peter were ministering the Gospel during the Roman Empire. Jesus, as well as both Paul and Peter were executed under the Roman Empire. Therefore whatever they said they had to live it out.

Out of the above passages, we may select three statements that are particularly significant:

1. There is no authority but by the act of God.

2. They are God’s agents working for your good.

3. They are God’s agents for punishment.

The apostles addressed these words specifically to Christians. They stated that government is established by an act of God. How that government will affect Christians depends upon the attitude and conduct of the Christians.

If Christians are walking in obedience to the will of God, then the government and its officers “are God’s agents working for their good”. But if Christians are disobedient and not walking in the path of God’s will, then the government and its officers become “God’s agents of punishment”. In other words, Christians get the kind of government they deserved.

All authority is in the Hand of Jesus

After the resurrection of Jesus He came and spoke to His disciples:

“All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18).

Concerning Jesus Paul said, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power” (Col. 2:9, 10, emphasis added).

Being the Head of all principality and power Jesus has all authority.

Government Authority and our prayer

Every earthly government has the authority to rule because God had appointed and given them the authority. We are not talking about the person (righteous or unrighteous) who occupies the seat of the office of certain government, but about the actual office itself. Both Paul and Peter said behind the office of the Government authority is God’s authority. Our relationship, as Christians, to the office ultimately depicts our relationship with God.

Because not all Governments are necessarily good Paul instructed Timothy to have the Local Church which he called God’s house (1 Tim. 3:14, 15) to pray for a good Government (1 Tim 2:1 – 4). We may sum up this passage of Scripture in a series of logical steps:

1. The first ministry of the Local Church in regular fellowship is prayer.

2. The first specific topic for prayer is the government.

3. We are to pray for good government.

4. God desires all men to have the truth of the Gospel preached to them.

5. Good government facilitates the preaching of the Gospel, while bad government hinders it.

6. Therefore, good government is the will of God.

The need to subject to bad Government authority

A question arises – What happens when an ungodly, wicked man or a persecutor is occupying a position of high authority in the Government? Let us consider two appropriate examples:

Jesus and Pilate

Jesus gave us a good pattern to follow, because He encountered the above problem!

Pilate confronted Jesus who claimed to be the King of the Jew. Jesus answered him:

“My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jew; but now My kingdom is not from here” (John 18:36).

Jesus revealed a very important basis spiritual principle – The Kingdom of God is never established by carnal weapons. It is not that we should not use carnal weapons. But, the Kingdom of God is not established by fighting.

All Christians are citizens of two Kingdoms – We are citizens of the Kingdom of God and also the citizens of our own country. As citizens of our own country it may be our responsibility to fight. But we are not establishing the Kingdom of God by our fighting.

The Lord said to Zerubbabel, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit” (Zech. 4:6).

In other words, there is only one power in the Kingdom of God – The Spirit of God.

Pilate told Jesus that he had the power to crucify Him. But Jesus answered him:

“You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin” (John 19:11).

Here is another remarkable statement made by Jesus. Jesus pointed out that Pilate had a lesser sin than the Jewish High Priest who delivered Jesus to him. The High Priest had no authority at all to do that. But, Pilate even though wicked, had the authority. Jesus showed that he had tremendous respect for secular authority – even for the authority used unjustly against Him! He did not resist Pilate.

Peter and other apostles and the High Priest

Peter and other apostles were put on trial by the Jewish High Priest. He said to them:

“Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name?” (Acts 5:28, emphasis added).

What a remarkable statement – The High Priest said “this name” instead of “Jesus’ Name”!
But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

The apostles had a specific mandate, a command of Jesus Christ to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15). The apostles were merely obeying Jesus even thought the High Priest told them not to do. In a way, they were saying they could not stop preaching Jesus – “You can do what you like with us but we would not obey you”. Notice that they did not stage a revolution, stage marches nor hold protests, but just simply submitted to unjust treatment!

What did they do while submitting to the unjust authority? They sang, they preached, and they testified. By their submission they opened the way for God to help them – God vindicated them!
Christians and conscience

Let us refer back to Romans 13:5, “Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience sake”.

The question is, “What if the ruler (the one in authority) demands that I do something which I cannot do with a clear conscience"? The answer is, “I refuse to do it”. But, you submit by saying that “I would not do that, but you can do what you like with me”. You disobey the authority but you would not give up your submission.

Peter said, “And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed” (1 Peter 3:13, 14).

Concerning the faithful followers of Christ, John said:

“And they overcame him (the accuser of our brethren) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death” (Revelation 12:11, NKJV, emphasis added).

In other words, for them it is more important to do the will of God than to stay alive!

Deceptive Soulish New Age Teaching

Powerful deceptive New Age spirits are at work in the Church of Jesus Christ. As the present Church Age draws to a close, utterly vital is the need for discernment between God’s truth and Satan’s lies; between what is a genuine work of God and the counterfeit of the enemy. Invariably, the New Age teaching is always appealing to the soul. It ministers to the soulish part of man.

I suggest my readers refer to my earlier postings such as, “The three types of men” (posted on 28th. Feb. 2005) and “Soul and soulish activities” (posted on 7th. Nov. 2005). Briefly, the whole personality of a man consists of spirit, soul, and body. Before a man is born again, his spirit is in a state of death and it is impossible for him to relate to God. Instead he relates well to spirit beings that are also in a state of death – that is the evil spirits. When the man is born again, his spirit is quickened, or made alive by the Spirit of God. This enables him to relate to the true God.

Paul said, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely: and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23, NKJV, emphasis added).

Notice the following:

1. God Himself sanctifies the believers completely. Sanctification is a continuous process in the Christian walk.


2. It is hoped that our sanctification is complete and our spirit, soul, and body found blameless at the Lord’s second coming.


3. Sanctification process is considered complete if our spirit, led by the Spirit of God takes total control of our soul and body.


4. The spirit of a Christian consists of intuitive knowledge of God, and conscience.


5. The soul of a Christian consists of renewed mind, will and emotion.


6. A Christian is considered soulish if his mind is in various stages of renewal and his spirit man is not in total control of his soul and body.

Therefore, a soulish Christian will be easily deceived by soulish teaching of the New Age movement. In fact all New Age teaching and all religious teaching are in the soul realm. The Devil has no power to touch the spirit of the true Christian, but he has the power to touch and deceive the soul of the weak Christian which is not in full control by his spirit man. Matured spiritual Christians will not be deceived by the New Age Movement.

Psychology and the New Age Movement

It is beyond the scope of this message to study in details all the teaching of the New Age Movement. We shall only consider the gospel of “Self-esteem” and the gospel of “Inner Healing” which are commonly taught in the Local Church. Both of these teaching are based on human psychology which is the study of the human mind and human behavior – of the soulish realm. Therefore, psychologists can never understand things of the Spirit of God! But all true Christians understand things of the Spirit of God. Therefore, true Christian psychologist does not exist. It is a pity that most theological colleges and seminaries “Psychology” is a recognized subject. Most theologians fail to understand that psychology has given us a clearer understanding of the unredeemed human character, but it fails to give Biblical answers to the regenerated believers.

Concerning the Church of Jesus Christ, Paul said:

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:12 – 14, NKJV).

Note the following observation:

1. The true Church understands things of the Spirit of God.


2. To the natural man (like the psychologist) spiritual things are foolishness because spiritual things can only be discerned by the Spirit of God.

Paul said further that the true Church has the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). If we, as a true body of Christ with the mind of Christ, the Local Church will not be infiltrated by New Age teaching!

Self-Esteem

The BBC English Dictionary defines the word “Esteem” as “admiration and respect”. Therefore “Self-esteem” means “admiration and respect” of self. In Scripture the respect and admiration of self is motivated by pride:

“The rich man’s wealth is his strong city, and like a high wall in his own esteem. Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty, and before honor is humility” (Proverbs 18:11, 12, NKJV, emphasis added).

The Bible teaches us to esteem others and not self:

“Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man” (Proverbs 3:3, 4, emphasis added).

“Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself” (Phil. 2:3, emphasis added).

“And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake” (1 Thess. 5:12, 13, emphasis added).

Denial of self

Jesus did not teach his disciples self-esteem. Instead He taught them self-denial:

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” (Luke 9:23, 24).

It is for the sake of self-denial that Paul said:

“Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9, 10).

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

The Bible never urges self-acceptance, self-love, self-assertion, self-confidence, self-esteem, self-forgiveness, nor any of the other selfisms that are very popular today. We are not called to accept self, but to turn from self to Christ! We are called to put self to death!

Inner Healing

We cannot talk about inner healing alone without referring to “Visualization”. Visualization is a major technique of Inner Healing. The real danger is, visualization is a very basic tool of operation in the occult realm and it has its foot very well into the door of the Church!

Inner Healing or “healing of the memories” can be a form of hypnosis. Psychologists use hypnosis to “regress” their clients back into their childhood or even into the womb (with the visualization of Jesus in their midst) in order to deal with early traumas. There is no Biblical basis at all in hypnosis and visualization. Visualization has its place, but if it is man’s method of influencing reality, it is unbiblical. It is one thing to visualize the sort of house we ask an architect to design or the garden we are planning. It is quite another to visualize all the seats in a Church to be full when they are empty, or little men with hammers within the body attacking cancer cells. The ends may be in God’s will, but the means to achieve the ends have to be His also. If it suits his purpose Satan can bring a counterfeit healing but in any event our departure into fantasy gives demons both the invitation and the opportunity.

Paul warned the Christians in Colosse: “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh” (Col. 2:8, 23).

“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).

Imagination and fantasy may well seem harmless enough, yet the Bible describes them as evil. The practice of visualization in inner healing is seen as rebellion in the sight of God:

“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry” (1 Samuel 15:23).

The Bible clearly declares that “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3) and that those who receive Him as Savior and Lord are new creations, for whom old things have passed away and all things have become new (2 Cor. 5:17). The past is taken care of on the basis of faith in God and the finished work of Christ on the cross – not on the basis of some psychotherapeutic process (inner healing and visualization) that must be engaged in to make God’s promises effective. In contrast, inner healing is based upon the premise that the past is still attached to us, buried deep within the unconscious, from where it determines our attitudes and actions.

The person who claims to be a Christian psychologist with an inner healing minister is not a Christian. The Christ that he imagines is a counterfeit Christ!

The Spiritual Babylon

Babylon, according to what John described in the Book of Revelation Chapters 17, 18 and 19 is not a physical city. Just as Zion was not just a city in Israel but in the New Testament it is a representation of the Church of Jesus Christ. Spiritual Zion is the true Church but Spiritual Babylon is the harlot Church. In the New Testament Babylon is a Church within the Church. It is an invisible body coexisting with the invisible Body of Christ. Babylon consists of believers in a fallen spiritual condition. But Babylon will be judged during the Great Tribulation.

Babylon according to John

John in the Book of Revelation named Babylon as the mother of harlots:

“Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, ‘Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication’. And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (Rev. 17:1, 2, 5, NKJV, emphasis added).

Take note the following:

1. The seven angels are sent by God to judge the world with seven bowls judgment(Rev. 16). One of these angels will judge the great harlot.


2. The great harlot is Babylon, the mother of harlots. Spiritually speaking, the mother of harlots is the harlot Church; harlots are members of the congregation who worship in the harlot Church.


3. “Many waters” or “sea of glass” (Rev. 4:6) symbolizes the crowd in every nation, tongue and people. Spiritually speaking, the great harlot is in control of the harlot Church throughout the whole world!

The Spiritual Bride and the Spiritual Harlot

An angel said to John concerning the Church of Jesus Christ towards the end of this age:

“Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still” (Rev.22:10, 11).

Notice that the Book of Revelation is written for God’s people, the Church. John was commanded not to seal his prophecies because it will soon be fulfilled. The angel told John, a time will come when there will be a line of separation and departure of ways and characters among God’s people. Those who are wicked will become more wicked; those who are righteous will become more righteous. The difference between those who are in darkness and those who are in the light will become more distinct as a testimony for all to see before the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is never the intention of God to confuse His people. He wants to make it very clear to us that the righteous will receive His reward but the wicked will miss it all!

The Old Testament Spiritual Harlot

The Old Testament prophets identified the harlot as backslidden people of God:

“Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also. So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees” (Jer. 3:8, 9, emphasis added).

Both Israel and Judah had committed spiritual adultery or spiritual harlotry and defiled the land by worshipping idols.

God said, “They have had a harlot’s forehead” (Jer. 3:3)

Notice that this can be identified with the forehead of the scarlet woman what John saw
(Rev.17:5).

Ezekiel said the same thing regarding Jerusalem’s harlotry:

“But you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it” (Ezekiel 16:15).

Isaiah said Zion, the city of David, had degenerated:

“How the faithful city has become a harlot! It was full of justice; righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers” (Isaiah 1:21).

The word “Zion” speaks of the Church in the New Testament. Therefore, in a way, Isaiah prophesied that a section of the Church will become a spiritual harlot!

The New Testament Spiritual Harlot

The harlot Church is a Church defiled by allowing the infiltration of the world into the sanctuary. This defilement of the sanctuaries of the Lord’s house was described by Jeremiah:

“We are ashamed because we have heard reproach. Shame has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of the Lord’s house” (Jer. 51:51, NKJV, emphasis added).

“Strangers” speaks of “sinners” or “unsaved people of the world”.

In the Tabernacle of Moses or the Temple of Solomon strangers or sinners were allowed in the Outer Court. Only those who were set apart, received the blood sacrifice at the Brazen Altar and cleansed at the Brazen Laver, were allowed to come into the Holy Place.

In the New Testament Church as described in the Book of Acts, only born again, water-baptized believers were allowed into the sanctuary to worship the Lord. But in all of today’s Churches unbelievers are welcomed into God’s Holy sanctuary. Man’s rationalization says that, “by letting unbelievers into the Church and by letting them listen to the preaching of God’s Word they might believe and repent of their sins”. But, the truth is that the Word of God is Spirit and the spirit of the unbeliever needs to be regenerated and quickened by the Spirit of God before he can understand things of the Spirit. In other words, the person needs to be born again by the Spirit of God. In many cases unbelievers come to the Local Church to seek blessings instead of the Savior and Lord!

Babylon, the Harlot Church

Babylon is the Harlot Church whose members are all professing Christians who love the world. It consists of those who love the world’s favor than its reproach. It consists of those who have seen the honor of the world rather than its shame; self indulgence rather than self denied.

Babylon is all who professed to be Christ’s little frock but they denied Christ as the Chief Shepherd. They denied Him by the way they live and by their action and deeds. Babylon is any Church, any ministry, minister and any Churchgoer who love the world system. It is made up of certain pastors, evangelists, Bible teachers and multitude of Christians who have been seduced by the spirit of the world. It is a religion that has been polluted by worldly methods. The world is trying to turn God’s people into spiritual harlotry. The world is trying to make the Church to do God’s work with world methods. Ministers begin to copy the ways and methods of the world – in the area of music and choreography. People come to Church to be entertained instead of ministering to the Lord in praise and worship.

The Lord said through Jeremiah, “And my people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end” (Jer. 5:31)?

John heard the cry of an angel, “And he (an angel) cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, ‘Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury’” (Rev. 18:2, 3).

John heard another voice from heaven, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities” (Rev. 18:4, 5).

God is warning his people to come out of Babylon because God will judge Babylon!

Babylon, the harlot is falling

Babylon is falling and John’s prophecy in Revelation is going to be fulfilled before our very eyes. God is going to bring down every unspiritual lukewarm Local Church, every unspiritual ministry, every backslidden preacher and every lukewarm Churchgoer.

“I know your works and what you are doing; you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of My mouth! For you say, I am rich, I have prospered and grown wealthy, and I am in need of nothing; and do not realize and understand that your are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked” (Rev. 3:15 – 17).

We are going to witness the fall of some of the harlot ministers who were polluted by the world. Mega-Churches with their multimillion projects to compete with the world are going to come crashing down. Some Churches and Church projects built by those who have no clear mandate from God are going bankrupt. Only the genuine spiritual ministry is going to pick up the pieces.

God is about to do a new thing in the backslidden Church (Isaiah 43:19). He is going to bring down the proud, the famous and the self-centered ambitious “men of God”. God is about to raise up humble and God-fearing ministers who seek the Lord to bring the Church back to repentance and holiness.

God said, “My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray; they have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place” (Jer. 50:6).

A Call to Repentance

When God’s people were captives in Babylon they quit singing, they quit rejoicing and hung their harps upon the willows (Psalm 137:1 – 3) because they thought God had forgotten them. Babylon had taken away their harps and their songs. His people could not sing the Lord’s song in a strange land (Psalm 137:4). Babylon is a strange land for the true Church.

But God is calling the harlot Church to repent and to return to the Lord:

“Turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with morning” (Joel 2:12).

Joel, the prophet continued to comfort His people, “So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm. Who knows if he will turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him – a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God” (Joel 2:13, 14, NKJV, emphasis added)?

Spiritual Growth

The Bible has a great deal to say about spiritual growth, about Christians developing spiritually, about taking on stature and growing on to the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). But we cannot talk about growing spiritually unless we also acknowledge that there is also some kind of spiritual retardation and stunted growth for some Christians.

Paul’s concern about the Corinthians was that they never seem to grow up:

“And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ” (1 Cor. 3:1, NKJV).

Spiritual babes are carnal and not spiritual.

The writer of Hebrews said the same thing, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe” (Hebrews 5:12, 13).

Spiritual babies are milk Christians and are unable to take solid food.

Spiritual Growth is a Command

Spiritual Growth is a divine command. It is not optional whether you and I grow or not.

“You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen” (2 Peter 3:17, 17, emphasis added).

Notice the contrast that Peter brought out, separated by the word “but”. Christians have to make their own choice. They must choose for themselves, either be deceived by wicked influence of the flesh and the devil or grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

The food for growth

What is the thing that makes people grow? You are what you eat. In other words, what you put in your body is what you are. If you eat a whole lot of wrong things, your stomach will rebel against it. If you continue to do it your body will miraculously try to accommodate it and stores it up in folds of fat. This is potential heart attacks.

Similarly, the thing that makes Christians grow spiritually is the type of spiritual food they eat. What spiritual food you partake is what you are as a spiritual person. We cannot build our Christianity out of Christian view points from other people, view points of Christian book writers and view points of “Christian” film producers.

A preacher must first be partaker of what he feeds the sheep. He must check out to see if the food is good for spiritual children. He must feed them with the pure Word of God:

“…. As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2).

Only the pure milk of the Word would ensure healthy spiritual growth.

You cannot grow by eating junk food of religious spectacular teachings, soulish entertainment, unsound doctrines or “itching ears” sermons.

Those who do not grow are caught in the peripheral Christian world. They delight in talking about semi-soulish secular things. There is no flow of deep devotion that comes from their type of Christianity. If you talk about Jesus and the Bible you do not see any sparkle in their eyes. Talk about the business world, new management methods, politics and promotional schemes you will have great response from them. When you talk about spiritual things you will receive very little response. They will have just enough spiritual knowledge to satisfy their conscience as professing Christians!

If they want to grow they must eat the right food. That means they have to feed upon the Word of God on a regular basis.

Nothing can take the place of the Bible

Nothing can take the place of the Bible which is the Word of God. If you do not read your Bible you can be religious without being spiritual. If you delight in the Word of God you will find delight in reading Psalm 119 in which the psalmist wrote about the excellencies of the Word of God.

There is nothing in the Bible to say that by the laying on of hands you will blossom into maturity. God has not provided this short-cut. By the laying on of hands you may get healed; you may receive spiritual gifts; you may be ordained. But the laying on of hands has nothing to do with the development of your stature or character.

The only thing that is going to make you grow and develop spiritually is to feed on the Word of God which is your healthy spiritual food. The Bible contains all the right ingredients for growth. If you are a born again, Spirit filled, child of God; if you are constantly feeding on the Word of God and maintaining your prayer communion with the Lord; if you are walking and fellowshipping with the Lord, you will be growing automatically.

But most likely you are not going to see your growth yourself. But someone else will see it.

Paul wrote to Timothy, “Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all” (1 Tim. 4:15, NKJV, emphasis added).

“These things” are the things mentioned in the previous verses (12 – 14). These are doctrine, Word of God, godly conduct and spiritual gifts.

Christians must continue to grow, for otherwise they are likely to backslide. It is a tragedy for men and women who come to the door of the Kingdom of God and stay at the entrance. They have not tasted the benefits that are offered inside the Kingdom of God. They live forever at the door of the Kingdom. They have not gone inside to the place of God’s appointment and to take the mountain of treasures that God has offered them!

Secret of growth

Jesus said, “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin” (Matthew 6:26, 28, emphasis added).

Jesus Himself revealed the secret of growth, both physical and spiritual:

1. The Father gives food for growth, both physical and spiritual. He feeds us.

2. The lilies of the field provide an example how growth comes naturally and automatically. The lilies just drink up the rain and the sunshine provided by God – that is all. Lilies can do nothing by themselves.

Similarly in the spiritual sense, means you must expose yourself to the Word of God, drink in the Spirit that comes by the Word which contains all the healthy ingredients for healthy growth. No one can try to growth.

Many of us run from one “Deeper Life Conference” to another (even Advance Deeper Life Conference”; run to camp meetings and run from one Christian seminar to another. Nowadays there is no shortage of conferences, seminars and meetings to keep Christians so busy that they have no time to read the Bible. We try to get a fresh shot in the arms in all these conferences in order to grow. But, all we get is men derived knowledge.

Paul said, “We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him” (1 Cor. 8:1 – 3).

The Source and process of spiritual growth

He who loves the Word of God loves God and God knows anyone who loves His Word. But if you look toward men’s teachings for growth this is what Paul had to say:

“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:6 – 8, NKJV, emphasis added).

When Paul said “… so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him” he meant growth is a process in our Christian walk. This process is Biblically referred to as “sanctification” and takes time. In fact it takes us a life in the sanctification process. We must always remember that growth is not a “crisis” but a process; but birth is a “crisis” which is instant. After we have experienced the “crisis” of our spiritual birth we go on with the growth process.

Sanctification through the Word of God was referred to by Christ Himself when He prayed to the Father for His disciples:

“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17).

God as the only source of spiritual growth is made clear by Paul:

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase” (1 Cor. 3:6).

Danger of failing to grow

If you starve yourself physically you are going to become weak, emaciated and eventually die. If you withhold from your spiritual life the things that made for growth and development, you are going to become spiritually weak.

When your physical body is run down because of the lack of nutritious food it exposes itself, in a way, to the attack of virus and germs. Similarly, if we do not maintain our spiritual relationship with God, immerse ourselves in the Word and the Spirit, we expose ourselves to some kind of spiritual infection.

That is why Paul said, “We should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love, may grow in all things into Him who is the head – Christ” (Eph. 4:14, 15).

Notice that we cannot speak "the truth in love" to one another unless we know the truth of God’s Word and have some truth to tell others!

The need to grow individually and corporately

We can never make the Word of God exhausted. In other words, we always have something to learn from the Bible no matter how spiritually grownup and matured we become. A preacher’s problem is not having something to say to the hearers, but it is to what God wants to say at an appointed time and season! A preacher must have the enough of the Word in him that he is ready to preach the Word “in season and out of season” (2 Tim. 4:2).

Paul said, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and …” (Col. 3:16).

We need the anointing of the Holy Spirit. God does not let the Word of God yields its secret to lazy people. To have the Word of Christ dwell in us richly means hard work. Salvation comes by grace through faith and not by works (Titus 3:5), but knowing the Bible does come by hard work!

Paul said the Local Church as a Local Body of Christ needs to grow up together:

“… in whom (Christ) the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Eph. 2:21, 22, emphasis added).

Here the Lord reveals a very important spiritual truth that many Bible teachers and Pastors of mega-churches failed to understand.

The Local Church will never rise higher than the conditions of our homes. In other words, the Local Church will become an expression of the home life of its people! That is why, in the New Testament, the Bible tells us that sanctification starts in the Christian home situation (1 Cor. 7:14). Godly fathers and mothers sanctified the children.

This is in total contrary to what Rick Warren wrote in his book “The Purpose Driven Life”

“Your spiritual family is even more important than your physical family because it will last forever. Our families on earth are wonderful gifts from God, but they are temporary and fragile, often broken by divorce, distance, growing old, and inevitably, death. On the other hand, our spiritual family – our relationship to other believers – will continue throughout eternity. It is a much stronger union, a more permanent bond, than blood relationships” (Page 118).

The writer sounds convincing and logical. But, if you do not know your Bible well enough but blindly feed on man’s words and theory like the above you will be deceived. The truth is wholesome families form a wholesome Local Church; God fearing families form a God fearing Local Church. God delights to see His people reflect the glory of His Son, Jesus Christ:

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18).

When we continuously feed on the pure Word of God; when we commune with the Lord through the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will take the Word of God to change us to the same image that we see – the reflection of Christ, from glory to glory!

The Right Attitude And Motivation

This message is closely related to my message last week: “A Call to Excel unto Excellence”. If you have not already done so, please read last week's message before you continue.

In order to be fruitful it is essential that the believer serves God with the right attitude. One of the attributes of man given by God is the freewill to choose. For example we can choose to fear God:

“Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord” (Proverbs 1:28, 29, NKJV, emphasis added).

We have the power and ability to choose. We can choose to fear God. We can choose to praise God and to worship Him. On the same basis we can choose to serve God with the right attitude.

The Right Attitude

Our attitude when we face a task or an event will say one of two things: “I want to do this” or “I have to do this”.

But the majority of our attitude in life is on the “I have to” basis. It is quite a natural thing to do. We are in the habit of saying, “I have to go to bed, I have to go out, I have to go to Church” and so on. But if we choose to approach everything from “I want to” attitude it will be far more advantageous to us. When we say "I want to" we are not under compulsion to do anything. Instead we are set free to make our own choices.

“I want to” attitude generates opportunities

When we say “I want to do it” in any situation we will have the opportunities to do things otherwise seem impossible. This was the attitude of the apostle Paul:

Paul said, “… we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope” (Romans 5:3, 4, emphasis added).

Paul wanted to “glory in tribulations” because by doing this he had the opportunity to cultivate godly character.

Paul also said, “There I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10, emphasis added).

In other words, when Paul was weak he had the opportunity to experience God’s power.

An opportunity to demonstrate the grace of God

Jesus said, “But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also” (Matthew 5:39).

Certainly it is not an easy thing to do. No one likes to be slapped by anybody! But, the situation gives an opportunity for the person who is slapped to offer the other cheek. The fact is that you cannot turn the second cheek until someone hits the first one. Whether to turn the second cheek or not is your choice. By offering the second cheek you demonstrate the grace of God!

Opportunity generates enthusiasm

True enthusiasm is not jumping up and down with excitement. It is not just doing something eagerly and with great zeal. Enthusiasm is measured by two major factors – conviction and belief.

As an example, a salesman is enthusiastic if he has a deep conviction and a belief in the product that he is selling. In other words, he is totally persuaded and totally convinced that you need what he has to offer.

You will never “sell” Jesus Christ to any unbeliever unless you are enthusiastic for Christ. By enthusiastic for Christ means you are totally persuaded and convinced and believed that unless that person receives Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior he is going to end up in eternity of hell and damnation! The major reason why many Christians are reluctant to get involved in personal evangelism is because they lack true enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm develops creativity

Creativity means the discovery of new ideas and visions. A creative person has the courage to walk into undiscovered territories. A creative Christian is seeking after new visions while everyone else is hunting for "success" methods and formulae. The Christian who desires creativity would wrestle with God until there is a breakthrough in the realm of strategy in new concepts, new ways and new ideas – until the fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit brings forth new visions. In other words, he must be a prayerful person. His desire is to bring forth "Isaac" and not "Ishmael". Notice that "Isaac" is the product of God, but "Ishmael" comes from the "flesh" or if you like, the product of man's carnal nature.

Methods and formulae will not work because this is not how the Holy Spirit would work in the life of a local congregation of believers. In a large degree a lot of believers dropped out of Church life because to them it is boring and dull. Mostly, the false lies on their sides. They did not pray; they did not keep their own vision sharpened; they did not keep their spiritual sensitivity alive. The humdrum of routine and traditionalism in worship services affects their enthusiasm. What we need is the sensitivity of the Holy Spirit to lead us in the realm of creativity out of true enthusiasm. The key to have the sensitivity of the Holy Spirit comes from prayers and waiting upon the Lord. We may have to spend long hours on our knees to seek the Lord. We need to go through many "Gethsemane" experiences! There is no short-cut.

As mentioned earlier, it calls for a change to the right attitude in serving God. It goes from the “I have to” attitude to “I want to” attitude. Everything becomes an opportunity which will develop enthusiasm which will bring forth further creativity and good results which are pleasing to the Lord.

Vision and not ambition

Vision is God centered but ambition is self centered. An ambitious person will walk over people to get what he wants. It does not matter who he hurts and who he wounds as long as he gets what he wants.

A Biblical example is Absalom, David’s third son. In fact he was David’s favorite son. His ambition was to overthrow his father’s kingdom. He was admirable, able to win people’s hearts. He had “personality plus” but he was proud. He had great skill in looking for short cuts to get what he wanted. He was a man of reputation.

Jesus Christ, in contrast, “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7, NKJV).

God will not use a self centered ambitions man!

Disappointment develops discouragement

Let us look at the negative side. If we lack enthusiasm and continue on with the “I have to” attitude, then, everything becomes a threat – a threat to our time, a threat to our money, our family, our business and our leisure. Then we become disappointed with our Church life.

What is disappointment? It is something we often experience in our family, business and Church life. Disappointment happens when people or circumstances fail to meet the appointment of our expectation – dis-appointment.

If we do not deal with disappointment it will lead to discouragement. If we do not deal with discouragement it will lead to resentment. Resentment will lead to bitterness. Finally, it leads to poor results in our walk with God. Poor results are the results of poor attitude and good results are the results of the right attitude. Your attitude will determine the results that you bring forth in doing God’s work!

God knows our ability

Some Christians may feel that they lack the ability, gift or talent to serve God. The qualities that God looks for are commitment, faithfulness, diligence, resourcefulness and obedience and not ability.

In the parable of the Talents Jesus said:

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his good to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediate he went on a journey” (Matthew 25:14, 15, NKJV, emphasis added).

Jesus gave one person five talents because He knew this person could handle five talents. He gave one talent to another person because He knew he could only handle one talent. But the person who he gave one talent could not even handle the one talent properly!

You may say God is not a respecter of anyone or “regard the person of men” (Matt. 22:16). It is true in the area of judgment and acceptance. But when it comes to the delegation of responsibility God is a respecter of the person of men.

One of the reasons why we get discouraged is because sometimes we become competitive. We try to compete with the person next to us. The right thing to do is to do our best with our God given ability. Not many of us are called to be “mighty” man of God. Not many of us are great preachers. There is actually no competition in the Kingdom of God.

The Right Motivation

The thing that keeps us going in serving God effectively is having the right motivation. Motivation to a large degree controlled by attitude.

There are three forms of motivation:

1. Motivated by fear

Many Christians feel threatened and challenged when they are motivated by fear – fear of being punished if they fail to do something to “please” God.

They go to Church because they fear death, they fear hell, and fear punishment from God. There is nothing wrong with reverent fear of God because the Bible teaches us to fear God. But, some Christians have an unhealthy fear of God. They think that if they come to Church regularly, pay their tithes and serve God He will have mercy on them. They have the “give out of fear of poverty” attitude. Some of them are self centered givers – they give to get.

For example, many believers are motivated by this:

“There is one who scatters, yet increases more; and there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty” (Proverbs 11:24).

2. Motivated by incentive (reward) system

This form of motivation is common in the business world. If you reach certain target in your sales and achievement you will get a reward in the form of a bonus or in the form of a free, all expenses paid, holiday. This is actually a form of professional bribery.

Motivation by fear and reward are often used by parents toward their children. It is common for a mother to say to her son, “If you are a good boy and eat up your vegetables you can have some ice cream”. Or the mother could say in a threatening way, “If you do not eat up your vegetables you will get no ice cream. The boy is being brought up and motivated to practice professional bribery!

Many Christians have a heaven-or-hell Christianity – heaven for reward and hell for punishment. If we are serving God just for a place in heaven the motive is wrong. If we are serving God to avoid hell the motive is also wrong.

3. Motivation based on love

Jesus had never used any of the above two forms of motivation. Instead He said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15).

Once again we come back to the “I want to” and not “I have to” attitude. We want to serve God because we love Him and we have a heart for Him!

The only right motivation in the Kingdom of God is the motivation that is based entirely on Love - Love for God, love for our own families, love for our fellow believers and love for our neighbors!

A Call to Excel Unto Excellence

Every Christian is called to excel unto excellence in the things of God. God desires that every believer be fruitful in his Christian walk. The apostle Paul said every Christian needs to seek to excel for the edification of the Church:

“Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to excel” (1 Cor.13:12, NKJV, emphasis added).

The Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:3 – 9)

The Parable of the Sower was the first of many parables of Jesus. It was one of the two parables that Jesus explained to His disciples. It is beyond the scope of this message to expound the parable of the sower. But, we can establish an important spiritual principle from it.

The Sower was God and the seed was the Word of God. All genuine Christians are good ground for the Sower to sow His seed.

Jesus said, “But others (seed) fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” (Matt. 13:8, NKJV).

The seed was the same, the ground was the same and the Sower was the some. Why then some ground yielded a hundredfold, some sixty and some thirty?

Jesus’ explanation is in Verse 23:

“But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” (Emphasis added).

Notice that fruitfulness or productiveness of a believer is directly proportional to his degree of hearing and understanding of the Word of God. Jesus also brought out two aspects of hearing the Word of God.

1. What you hear

“For assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it” (Matt. 13:17, emphasis added).

2. How you hear

“Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him” (Luke 8:18, emphasis added).

So we see it is entirely up to us, and not up to God, to determine whether we want to be 30, 60 or 100-fold Christians. The responsibility falls on our own shoulders. He who gives diligence 30% of what he hears will bring forth 30% fruit.

The spiritual principle is the percentage yield is directly proportional to what you take heed or to the degree of diligence that you give to the Word of God. Jesus had established this principle elsewhere:

“For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you” (Luke 6:38).

Church Leadership Management

Simply put it, management means getting things done. Expand this a little bit, management means getting things done through people. Leadership means the management of people. Church leadership means the management of Church members.

The Autonomy of the Local Church and believers

Both the Local Church and the individual believer are autonomous. This means the Local Church is self governed and self-led (hopefully by the Holy Spirit) and responsible for itself. It means a Local Church cannot tell another Local Church what to do! We can apply this principle on the same basis to the individual believer – the autonomy of the local believers. This means every individual Christian is responsible for his own life.

A day will come when all of us will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and we will have to give an account of our lives before God (2 Cor. 5:10). It is no good to say before God on judgment day with excuses saying: “Well, I did this because my Pastor told me to”! A Pastor or leader should not make any decision for those he leads. If he makes decisions for them then he is responsible for them if things go wrong. A Shepherd will lead, will feed, will counsel, will guide, will direct, will encourage and will exhort. But he must not override the autonomy of the local men and women of God. They are responsible for their own lives and decisions.

Nehemiah as an example of excellent spiritual leader

Nehemiah was a cupbearer of the king during the Babylonian captivity. He was a Jew. He heard news regarding the state of the city of Jerusalem – the city of his forefathers. The city was broken down, the wall was crumpled down and the gates were burned and in desperate need of repair. Nehemiah had a God given burden and vision to go back to the city of Jerusalem to rebuild the wall and to repair the gates. He got permission from the king to be released for an appointed time.

The importance of time

We cannot talk about efficiency, leadership and management unless we address the subject of time. In the business world time is the money, a very expansive commodity. We cannot apply this principle to the Church, but nevertheless, time is valuable. Every one of us has an appointed time. Jesus made reference of time over and over again.

He said to his brothers, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready” (John 7:6).

He knew when it was time for Him to go to the cross. He knew that he had a specific period of time in which to accomplish a job – to train 12 men, to carry on from where He would leave off.

Paul said we need to walk in wisdom redeeming the time (Eph 5:16; Col. 4:5).

Facing opposition

Nehemiah had an adversary by the name of Sanballat. But, Nehemiah overcame his adversary and completed his job with determination (More on this later).

Paul said, “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12).

In other words, all true Christians will face opposition. There will be difficulty time, and problems. There will be many circumstances we will have to overcome.

Important Leadership Principles

Nehemiah had an adversary named Sanballat. He posted five mocking questions to Nehemiah and the Jews:

“But it so happened, when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, that he was furious and very indignant, and mocked the Jews. And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, ‘What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish – stones that are burned?’” (Nehemiah 4:1, 2, NKJV, emphasis added)

I attempt to build 5 leadership principles from these 5 mocking questions to enable us to be more efficient and effective in the economy of God.

1. What are these feeble Jews doing?

In other words, did Nehemiah and the Jews know what they were doing? Nehemiah had a job to do. He had an objective, a goal to accomplish – to rebuild the walls and gates of Jerusalem and to complete it at an appointed period of time.

A leader must also ask himself, “What I am doing and why I am doing it; where am I going and why I am going there?” If a leader does not know how is he going to lead others?

In the business world there is an expression that is often used – plan your work and work your plan. In other words, set your goals and work your plan toward the goals.

A Biblical principle is that we need to be men and women of vision. Vision is revealed by God through the Holy Spirit. We must know what God has called us to do in a specific time and purpose. Then we set a goal toward reaching the vision.

Nehemiah was a man of vision and he set about a strategy in which to accomplish his objective and vision. Similarly, in leadership we need to understand that the Christian life is one of strategy. Unfortunately, many Christian leaders instead of seeking strategy they seek after “success” methods of others. Many methods fail because what are successful to some might not be successful to others. In other words you cannot copy someone else’s method. Method is not strategy. Our God is a God of strategy and He reveals His strategy to us by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, vision is simply God’s revealed strategy. It is unique for a particular purpose and time.

2. Will they fortify themselves?

We are talking about facing oppositions and obstacles here. We must anticipate obstacles and problems that we are going to face in achieving the goal of our vision. We do not wait for them to arrive and then look around for a solution. In fact we must welcome oppositions knowing that oppositions, difficulties and problems are our stepping stones for success!

Paul said, “I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation” (2 Cor. 7:4).

He further said, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in need, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10).

He also said, “.... but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope” (Romans 5:3, 4)

Paul knew that without all these problems he would not develop Godly character.

As I shared with my readers last week, it is God’s will that all believers be overcomers. You must overcome or you will be overcome! But, you cannot be an overcomer unless you have got obstacles to overcome.

Read Nehemiah 5:1 – 13 you will notice that Nehemiah overcame all obstacles and oppositions.

3. Will they offer sacrifices?

Nothing is achieved without cost. Excellent personal leadership, excellent personal achievement and excellent personal management are accomplished at cost.

We are called to deny self in order to follow Jesus:

Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24).

John said, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for our brethren” (1 John 3:16).

This does not mean we ought to die for our brothers, but we at least make ourselves available for our brothers.

Nehemiah laid down his life for God and his fellow Jews when he rebuilt the broken down walls and gates of Jerusalem.

4. Will they complete it in a day?

In other words, will they finish what they had begun? We are talking total commitment here. Our commitment to the Lord’s work must not be motivated by fear, or reward, but by love alone.

Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15).

The right attitude is – We do the Lord’s work because we want to and not because we have to.

Nehemiah rebuilt the broken down walls and gates of Jerusalem because he wanted to and not because he had to!

5. Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish – stones that are burned?

Our work is going to the fire of testing! We have to let every area of our personal lives be tested to see whether or not we have the overcoming quality.

The areas that people will want in us as spiritual leaders are dependability, commitment, faithfulness, loyalty, reliability and trustworthiness. These qualities are developed in us through the trials and testings that God will lead us through. Like gold tried in the fire we will come out as lively stones, resurrected from the broken down rubbles that God can use – excelling unto excellence that we might be excellent in the Kingdom of God. God wants us to be fruitful – not 30% or 60% but 100%!

“And it happened, when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations around us saw these things, that they were very disheartened in their own eyes; for they perceived that this was done by our God” (Nehemiah 6:16, NKJV, emphasis added).

God gets the Glory in every excellent thing that we do!