Getting people to Jesus is our sole objective at the sinner’s pulpit because it is God’s soul objective. It is His final answer for redemption, salvation and reconciliation. Please don’t miss this. God’s answer – not man’s answer.
It’s not inclusive, it’s very exclusive.
Jesus said I Am “the” way, “the” truth and “the” life.
[6] Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6 KJV)
Since the fall of man, there has been a division. Until sin, man knew nothing of the knowledge of good and evil – division. Sin caused the division and division, the fall. The peace that man once had with God was disrupted.
The division caused man to be driven out of the presence of God. (Genesis 3:23)
The divide is evident from the very first human offspring and has continued throughout history and is evident today.
A kingdom, a city, a house, divided against itself cannot stand. (Matthew 12:25)
Through the ages this division has not changed. Gods way/man’s way. (Isaiah 55:8,9)
(See: What difference does it make)
We see this throughout history with God’s chosen people of the northern and southern kingdoms. We have seen schisms in the early churches: Greek, Roman, Orthodox, and all the denominations (divisions) over the course of two thousand years. We see it with the Pharisees and Sadducee’s. We will continue to see it as long as man speaks and acts in a way that is contrary to God’s truth. Have we ever seen people- America and the world- so divided?
Can we expect them to fall? All of the once-great kingdoms have.
The eternal Son of God, (God in human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ) entered humanity not to unite the lost dead world which was now in the kingdom of Satan to each other, but to unite the lost dead world to Himself. (John 17) He did not come to bring peace on earth but to restore peace in Heaven. He is the only way one can come across the great divide of death to life.
In Him there is no division. He is truth and truth can’t be divided. In Him we are complete. In Him, we are one as He is one. We are all one in Christ by faith in His finished work.
[21] That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. (John 17:21)
In Him is life and aside from Him there is no life. He redeems, saves and reunites us to our position before the division.
That which caused the division, sin, has been taken away; He took it upon Himself. He that knew no sin, took your place dying on the cross because the wages of sin is death. He paid it in full.
By faith in His work, God now sees you as holy, righteous, blameless, justified, and yes, sinless. In Christ you have all spiritual blessings. (Ephesians 1:3) You are hidden in Christ, as safe as He is.
It’s as if you were poured into the ocean and now are a part of it. Hidden, safe, secure because you are a part of Him. He does the holding and promises never to leave you.
There is now no condemnation, no barricade or division between you and God.
He is building “His” church (not the religious church we are used to, but an assembly) one believer at a time without affiliation to religion, but by faith and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. We who are in Christ, our only hope of glory, will not fall because He will not fall.
This unity with Christ causes the believer to be separate from the world. We are set apart for God, a new creation.
Just recently a dear friend lamented concerning the schism going on right now in one of the largest Protestant churches in the world. Many in that denomination say they’re fighting for “their” church. They are breaking away and forming yet another denomination, not only exalting Christ, but the name of the founder of the denomination.
Paul was faced with this problem in the early Corinthian Church. Paul reminds them that all believers have one Lord , and God has called them into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ. No other name is to be owned by His people, but all must be united in that blessed name.
I hope this is considered before jumping into another Denominational setting.
Friends, there is one church (assembly): the church the body of Christ in whom we are immersed (a synonym for baptized) into by the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13) It relates, connects us to Christ and to every believer around the globe. Christ died for it, you don’t need to fight for it. You need to rest in it. As a great man once said:
“Don’t miss the sitting in while you are setting up”.
Think of all the time lost coming together in a corporate environment praising God for His beautiful gift of redemption through the finish work of Christ, while you are “setting up” some new organization with another book of discipline or catechism that is likely to cause dissension and division later.
I maintain that religion is Satan’s greatest tool and works to keep more from coming to Christ than any other institution on earth.
Remember, the world is watching.
Religion defined: anything man has formulated to reconcile with God, other than what God has done in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
Shouldn’t our local assemblies and places of worship mirror this one true church, where Christ is the “agenda”?
Shouldn’t our local assemblies lovingly stand for the truth of God’s word as found in the Holy Scriptures? If not the truth of scripture, than we are back to allowing man to decide, divide and…fall.
We are all sinners, turned Saint, who have been saved by the grace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 2:8,9) We all still sin because of our human nature, but it will never separate us again from God again. God sees us as His children now, born from above. (John 1:12, 3:3). God chooses not to remember or impute sin to us, Christ took it all upon Himself.
The difference now, is we are a new creation and we won’t like sin, neither would we advocate, agree or promote it. It’s just not who we are. Our new nature will war against it. With Christ living in us through the Holy Spirit, our minds are being renewed as he chastens and disciples us to be like Him. In Him we have His mind. Can we be “in Christ” and disagree with God?
We disagree with one another all the time causing divisions,(denominations) but can we disagree with God and be part of Him?
There are drunks, queers, liars, adulterers, murderers, cheaters, proud, lustful, covetous fornicators in the one true church who have been washed in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)
They all hold the same office in the one true church: Saint! Many continue to struggle with the above stated issues here on earth, (their state) but God sees them as righteous as Christ. (Their standing before God) Not one of them would say they love their sin, hence the struggling.
I ask again, can we be in Christ and disagree with God?
Jesus came to give witness of the truth. Truth is never subjective, never divided. It’s never your truth or my truth.
God is not a man that He should lie.
What God said through the prophets and now Christ Himself (Earthly ministry and now heavenly ministry through the apostle Paul) are truth.
Anything else is a house divided.
There remains only one division:
You are either in Christ, totally forgiven, one with God in Christ, no barricade, or division. Or, you are dead in your sin and separate from God.
As members of the Body, let this be our agenda: Let us by grace lead people to the one true church – the body of Christ and allow His love, mercy and grace to change their minds, immerse them, and grow them up in this body.
Get em to Jesus!
SINNER’S PULPIt
“Come in a sinner and leave a Saint”
sinnerspulpit.com 