Not yet reviewed
This transcript was produced automatically and has not been checked by a person yet. Some words — names and places especially — may be wrong. Please treat the video above as the message as preached.
Good morning church. Good to see you all again. Today we’ll be discussing on this topic of who a Christian is. So who is a Christian is a topic that we will be discussing. When I was in a Bible College we have you know our principal was named Ian Payne. Ian Payne. So Ian was his name. So in one of the chapel services one of his friends a professor was preaching and then he started his sermon with this joke.
He said, “What do we get if we remove the word Christ from Christian?” and he showed the principal and said, “Ian.” So was a joke, but then on the flip side of it a lot of people tag this word Christian to their lives.
But then we can look at their lives and question saying, is he really a Christian? By the way he thinks, he acts, he lives. It doesn’t sound like that, right? Sometimes. So who is really a Christian? This is one of the questions that every Christian needs to raise and see whether he or she is really a Christian or not. Because a lot of people in this world assume that they are Christians when in fact they are not.
That’s why the Bible calls us again and again to examine ourselves to see whether we are truly in the faith or not. So let me start with this thing. Where do we find the word Christian in the Bible? In the book of Acts, if you turn to chapter 11, verse 26, chapter 11, verse 26.
So we see here that the disciples were in Antioch and in verse 26 it says, “And when he had found him he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people, and in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.” So it is here the disciples were called Christians. And who called them Christians? Not Christians, but the people who watched them outside, people, pagans, the Gentiles. So they saw these people who call them followers of Christ and they just call them Christians. So Christian simply means a follower of Christ. And we see this word only three
times in the Bible and the other two instances come from Acts chapter 26 verse 28 and in First Peter chapter 4 verse 16. So in First Peter chapter 4 verse 16 Peter calls Christians and says like, if you are called by this name do not be ashamed of this word Christian, do not be ashamed of who you are as a Christian. So we’ll get to that point as well, but Christian is the name given to the disciples by pagan Gentiles at Antioch. So these were people who were living their lives in such a way that people who saw them call them Christians. So another
question that we can ask ourselves is, when we live in this world, when people see us, do they think of ourselves that we are Christians? So this is a question that we keep raising again and again in this sermon today. So what does a Christian life look like in this world? So what does a Christian life look like in this world? So we know from the Bible that Christians, the one who is fully forgiven of his or her sins, they’re forgiven by God. They’re justified in God’s sight and they’re clothed with Christ’s righteousness. They’re adopted sons and daughters of God.
They’re transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his son, the kingdom of God’s son. And you know, a Christian gets a new heart with new desires. In other words, to say that he’s completely a new creation in Christ. The old nature has passed away, now they’re new in Christ. And that’s what a Christian is. And what are the things that we see in the life of a Christian?
God must be our highest priority in life. You and I are made to worship Him and glorify Him. That’s what Westminster Shorter Catechism says right in first question. What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
For that purpose God has made us. But because of sin we have changed our focus. We have shifted our focus from God to ourselves and this world. But we are called by God to worship Him alone, to glorify Him alone and to find satisfaction in Him alone.
And the temptation for us even as Christians is to worship the things of this world and worship something other than God himself. But thanks be to God that Christ Jesus has rescued us from our sin and he has turned our hearts from ourselves and from this world to God so that we can worship our Father in spirit and in truth. And this is the work of God and praise be to God for that. But here and ask ourselves the question, what do we really long for in this life?
Is there something in life that we cannot live with? We see all over the news, right? People have committed suicide because they couldn’t get what they want. Could be an iPhone or a bike or a girlfriend or a boyfriend or something else in this world. They couldn’t get a good job. They couldn’t get the money they want. They couldn’t live a life that they want to in such a way they want to. And that led them to commit suicide. Why is that? Because they worshipped themselves and something else other than God.
So we also need to keep asking this question in our lives again and again. What do we truly long for in this world? Is there something that you and I feel that we cannot live without? So we have to be very careful. So how do we worship God on Sunday morning? How do we worship God on Sunday morning? Just a few things. By everything that we do on Sunday the morning.
By coming to the service on time, we show that God is more important to us, right? Just like you know if you have a flight or a train at a certain time, do we plan to go half an hour later? Never, right? Because we feel that’s important for us and we try to reach at least an hour before the scheduled time. So the same way here. So if we think that this is truly important to us, then we’ll make time for that. We’ll be on time for the service. That’s the way we worship God, by showing that he is important to us, not anything else in this world. And singing, we worship God.
So singing is not just for the people who stand here and lead. It’s for all of us, right? They lead so that we can sing with them, so that we can have this harmony in our songs. So by singing, we worship the Lord. And also by listening to his word, by hearing the sermon. So there is a difference between preaching and Bible study. So what do we do in Bible study? We just sit and discuss together, right? We share our thoughts when try to grow in the knowledge and everything. But what, how is preaching different from Bible study?
Preaching is mostly a monologue, means only one person speaks and everybody else listens, right? So who is that one person who speaks? Not the preacher, not the pastor. But when the pastor or a preacher stands here, opens Show what God’s intention is. Show us what God wants to hear. It is not the preacher who speaks, but it is God who speaks through his word.
So as an act of worship, we sit and listen to him. Just for an example, when an important person comes to you and he starts speaking, how do you respond to him? As he’s speaking, will you just open your phone and just look at things or keep chatting or try to look here and there and not into his eyes? How would he feel? Unimportant, that you don’t care about him, right? Even so, when we do not listen to God’s word, by our actions we are showing that God is not important to us. And that’s not worship.
Right? That’s sin. So when we carefully try to listen to God’s word and see what he wants to speak to us, that’s an act of worship. And when we come to communion and participate in a worthy manner, that’s an act of worship. As a church, when we come together in true faith, that’s worship.
And after the service, slipping away immediately and disappearing for a week is not an act of worship. Staying back and having fellowship with people, getting to know each other, so that you can help each other follow Christ in a better way. That’s an act of worship. You see, worship is not just a small thing. It’s not just a part of life, but it’s your but it’s something that you do with your whole life. Not just on Sunday mornings, but every day of your life when you go out from this service. When you go out of the church into this world, to your homes, to your jobs, to your schools. Even there you worship God by showing that, by living in such a way that brings glory and honor to His name, by showing to others around you that you value God about everything else, and by giving importance
to God, you worship the Lord. That’s an act of worship. So Christians, what is their identity? That they carry all the time with them. See, we all have you know some or the other kinds of work or job, right? There are some students here. There are some employees or no workers here. The people who do job they have different jobs, maybe an engineer or a doctor or some something else. You have all these titles with us, right?
Where do they count? A student is a student only in, not at home or in the market. An engineer is an engineer only at his company, not anywhere else. So these are little identities that we carry with us, but they are not something that we carry everywhere we go. But there is this identity that we carry everywhere we go, and that’s the identity called Christian. You are a Christian everywhere you go, not just in the church. You are a Christian even in the schools, at workplaces, in the markets, at home, everywhere you are a Christian. And this is an identity that you will never put it aside and leave it.
So you carry with you all the time. And Christians, in other is that they are worshippers. We are worshippers at the core. And that’s what God has made us to. So he created us that we might worship him. He saved us that we might worship him. So worship takes the central place in the life of a Christian. And what is worship? Giving worth or importance to God. And that’s what we do all the time. Whatever we do in life.
And just to give a thought on what worship leaders do. People who stand here and sing and lead the church. What do they do? So there is this wonderful quote by a person called Bob Kauflin. In his book, Worship Matters. He says this of worship leaders. “A faithful worship leader magnifies the greatness of God in Jesus Christ.
“Holy Spirit, skillfully combining God’s word with music, thereby motivating the gathered church to proclaim the gospel, to cherish God’s presence and to live for God’s glory.” That’s worship. So when we live to proclaim the gospel, cherishing God’s presence, living for God’s glory, that’s a life of worship. So coming to the second point, so what are certain things that we see in the life of a Christian? The second one is, a Christian loves righteousness and hates sin. A Christian loves righteousness and hates sin. So everybody born in this world is born with a sinful nature, right? It becomes more evident as we grow. Have you ever seen kids grow up? They slowly start to learn to lie, tell lies, hide truth. Where did they get that from? Did the parents teach them to lie, or
Or someone else taught them to lie? And as we grow up, we see this anger welling up in us, right? And coming out as an expression. So where do we get these things? Why do we imagine bad things, dirty things? Have you ever wondered where do they come from?
Hearts of human beings are sinful and out of its flows all kinds of evil. That’s what Jesus said. Naturally human beings love sin and hate righteousness. Naturally we do not love righteousness. We hate it. And because of that we hate God and his character for he is holy, righteous and just. We hate like us. He’s unlike us. He’s different than us. We only like people who are like us. Like we are sinful and we only like sinful people. But God is not like us. That’s why naturally human beings hate God.
God who is righteous, God who is holy, God who is just. Men and women do not love God and His Word in their sinful. That does not come naturally for us. So I just wanted to pause and say some things here about the children. So we have a lot of kids in the church, right?
As they grow up, in this context, they might show some interest toward Christian things. But do not assume that they love those things. So do not assume that they love God and His Word from their hearts. Unless the gospel transforms their hearts, they cannot love God and His Word. So that’s why constantly you need to remind your kids about the gospel, which we’ll come to discuss more about in a few minutes.
When we realize our sins and repent of it, and when we put our faith in the finished work of Jesus on that cross, God does a marvelous work in our lives, which is recorded in Ezekiel chapter 36 and verse 26. If you quickly turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 36 and verse 26.
So Ezekiel chapter 36 and verse 26. Here it is God who is speaking and says, “And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
Verse 27, “And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules.” So it’s interesting, even we look at the life of Moses and his leading, both Exodus and Deuteronomy. Moses tells the people that they will not be able to obey God’s word.
unless God circumcises their hearts and gives them a new heart. So this getting of a new heart is true of every Christian. God gives us a new heart and new spirit when we put our trust in Jesus, when we repent of our sins and have faith in Jesus. So Paul says in Ephesians 1 that God has sealed us with the Holy Spirit. That's what happens to a Christian. They are sealed with the Holy Spirit. The moment a person trusts Christ for their salvation, this happens.
From then on, the Spirit of God lives in us and helps us grow in sanctification. So day by day, day by day, God helps us to grow into the likeness of Jesus and we tend to look more and more like Jesus as the years progress in our lives.
This is true of every Christian, a truly born-again Christian. So there will be a change and progress in a Christian’s life towards godliness, towards holiness. And if we do not see a change or interest to grow in righteousness in a person who claims to be a Christian, then we can be sure that person is never born again, never saved, never a Christian at all, no matter he can call himself a Christian or tag a badge on his shirt and walk around like he’s a Christian. The sad thing is if you look at the Gospels and see, there will be a time when Jesus says, I do not know you, depart from me,
workers of iniquity. And to whom will he say that? To people who call themselves Christians, people who do ministry, people who like Christians but truly are not Christians. There is this danger of deceiving ourselves to think that we are Christians. You know, that’s why the Bible says our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked.
You know how human beings deceive others, right? There are a lot of scams happening all around. We can see them in the news and even around us, right? People deceive others a lot, but what people do not know is that they have this capability or a capacity to deceive themselves. Our hearts are so wicked, so deceitful, that we can deceive ourselves.
So it’s time for us to examine and see whether we are truly, genuinely born-again Christians or are we deceiving ourselves to believe that we are Christians. This is important for each and every one of us to examine and see. It’s not a small thing, so we cannot take it lightly, because our eternity is at stake here. So will we spend time in hell eternally or will we spend time with God eternally decides on what we do with our life today in this world. If we do not make right choices here, we might end up in a that’s eternally torment. Hell is eternal and it’s true. We can deceive ourselves into going to that place, so we have to be very careful with these things. We need to make sure that we are genuinely Christians. We need to have that assurance that we are going
to be with God forever. So let me just pause here and ask you all these things. How are your lives today? Are you growing in holiness? Do you see yourself progressing in Christian virtues like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control as recorded in Galatians 5.
If you look back to your week, or if you look back to a month, or even a year, do you see a progress in your life towards godliness, towards holiness? Do you see an increasing desire for righteousness in your life? And do you see that you are growing in hatred towards sin?
Every time we make a small mistake or commit a sin, how will we respond to that? Do we feel guilty of it? Friends, we need to keep examining ourselves regularly to see whether we are truly Christians or not. So the third thing that we find in a Christian is a Christian loves God’s Word. A Christian loves God’s Word. So once again, if you turn to Matthew chapter 4, Matthew chapter 4, so we’ll see something’s there and even in John 6 we will also see things. So when Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness, he was hungry when Satan came and asked him to
turn the stones into loaves of bread. To that Jesus replied in Matthew chapter 4 verse 4. He said, “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” So what are we living for in this world?
So after feeding the 5,000, Jesus leaves that place and goes away in an instance, but the crowds seeking Jesus goes to Capernaum. Why? For the food that he miraculously give them, right? So to them, Jesus says in John 6 verse 27. If you turn with me to John 6 verse 27.
So John 6 verse 27. Jesus says, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.” Then he goes on to say in verse 35, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
And in verse 48, “I am the bread of life” again. And verse 51, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever.” So what is the word here? Or what is the bread here?
It’s Jesus himself, right? So believing in Jesus is having that bread. So how does a Christian feed on Jesus daily? So how do we feed on Jesus daily? In one way, it’s by trusting him and putting our faith in him. But where do we get faith from? By hearing from His Word. That’s what the Bible says, right? So it is through His Word that Jesus comes into our lives daily. A Christian delights in God’s Word. A Christian longs for God’s Word every day. His life is bound up with His Word because he is united with Jesus in spirit. So he cannot be without word.
So he will go hungry and thirsty spiritually if he goes without word. In 1 Peter 2, verse 2, Peter says, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.” Verse 3, “if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” So Peter he is encouraging Christians to long for the word, to desire for it.
Because it is the only way Christians grow up in faith. There is no other way. There is no other way. That’s why when we come to the church, what do we hear? It’s God’s word being sung. It’s God’s word being preached. So we encourage one another through God’s word so that we all might grow up together. That we might build each other up in our faith. So there should be a deep desire for us to grow in the knowledge of the Word of God.
Not just for the sake of the knowledge, but for the sake of knowing Him, knowing Jesus personally. And if there is no desire at all for the Word. So if you are getting up daily and not desiring the Word, if you’re not showing any interest in studying the Word, so if you have no the word then our faith must be questioned. Do we truly trust in Jesus? Are we truly Christians?
So we look at Psalm 119, we have several verses in which the Psalmist expresses his delight or desire for the word. He says like he delights in the word. Dear Christian, do you delight in God’s Word today? So the Psalmist says, “I delight in your law, I delight in your commandments, I delight in your testimonies, I delight in your statutes.” This is a natural expression for a Christian whose hearts, whose heart is changed by God’s Word and God’s power. This is one of the signs of a true Christian.
Do you show that sign in your life dear Christian? The word is very precious thing to a Christian. He can give up anything for this word. So do we find in this world a Christian who does not love the Bible? I do not think so. So a Christian knows that when he opens the Bible and reads it, so it is God who is speaking to him or her.
So those who desire God will love to hear from him. Do you have any loved ones with whom you do not want to talk to? Can you say, “Oh I love this person and I don’t like to talk to him?” It sounds crazy isn’t it?
Even so, it is crazy to see a Christian not longing to read or listen to God’s Word. So let us ask ourselves again and again, daily, do we desire to read our Bibles? Do we delight in God’s Word? So there is the fourth thing that you’re going to look at now is that a Christian is not ashamed of the gospel. A Christian is not ashamed of the gospel.
Romans 1:16. “…of the gospel, for it is power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greeks. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous are led by faith.” Where do we get faith from? Listening to God’s Word. So Christian rejoices in and gladly identifies himself with Jesus publicly, is not ashamed of him.
He will not be ashamed to openly declare before people that he belongs to Jesus. We know how the world is today, right? And we know what the consequences that a Christian must face if he does that. There will be sufferings for a person who becomes a Christian. And that is the promise of the New Testament.
We are not promised riches in this world, but we are promised persecution in this world. But still, they will never be ashamed of it. People might mock us, call us all kinds of names, challenges or even threaten us or kill us. What else can they do after that?
Nothing. That’s why Jesus warns his disciples saying, “Fear not those who can just kill the body, but fear him who can kill both the body and the soul.” If the killers are souls are safe in God’s hands, we can trust him for that. They did all those things to Jesus. They mocked him, they spat on him, they beat him, made him carry the cross and nailed him to that cross.
They killed him. But Jesus rose from the grave victoriously. If we identify ourselves with Jesus, people might kill us. And that's not happening right now in our place today. Maybe it might happen in the future. We know. Who knows? but even if they kill us we will rise with Jesus victoriously so never fear persecution or death it may come but remember that God is sovereign and is in total control of this world you just take courage and do not be ashamed of the gospel why paul says because it is a power of god for salvation that is the only hope for us to escape god's wrath and enjoy him eternally there is no other way so first peter chapter 3 verse 17 through 17 first peter chapter 3 verse 13 through 17 i'll just read this passage and um you see what peter is saying here
“Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy.”
“Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.”
“For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.” So in this passage we can see that Peter is saying that sufferings might come. So you be ready for that. When you stand firm in those sufferings, people will see you and question you. And ask you for the hope that’s in you.
to share the gospel with them. Never be ashamed of it. So when you stand firm in your faith, when you stand for Christ, it is not you should be ashamed, but they will be ashamed of you. In other sense, like they will be put to shame by what they have done to us. What a promise, isn’t it? It’s hard, but it’s true, and we can rejoice in that. So let me just pause here and ask you some questions. Do you shy away from calling yourself a Christian before your friends or colleagues who are non-Christians?
Do people who surround you know that you are a Christian by the way you speak and act? Can they spot you out? Can they see that you are quite different from them? Do you hesitate much to share the gospel with others when the opportunity arises?
Are you ashamed of the gospel? Are you ashamed of Christ? We must examine our hearts and see where we are today. Finally, the last point is that a Christian submits to the local church. Christian submits to the local church. Or it all has to come down to the local church again, right?
Acts chapter 2 verses 42, 46 and 47. We turn to book of Acts chapter 2 verses 42 and 46 and 47. These are my favorite verses. There are a few verses that I keep using them again and again and again and again. There's no end to that.
So in verse 42 it says, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Verse 42. And the context of this verse is Peter on the day of Pentecost, he stands and preaches the gospel to many. And there are almost 3,000 souls are saved that day. And if you look at Acts chapter 2, we can see that those people who heard the gospel were cut to their hearts. The gospel pierced their hearts and that they got trouble with that, and then they cry out to Peter and say,
“What shall we do?” And Peter says, “Repent of your sins, turn to Christ, to be baptized.” And it’s in this context, and all those baptized people, what did they do? They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to breaking of bread and prayers. In verse 46 and 47, look at that: “And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.” Now watch this last sentence.
“And the Lord added to their number day by day those who are being saved.” So there’s a couple of things that I want to show you. So in these verses, what are Christians committed to? There are four things mentioned here, right? Preaching of God’s Word, fellowship, the Lord’s table, and prayers.
And wherever we see these four things, that’s a local church. Anything less is not a local church. Sunday schools are good, but they are not churches. Youth meetings are good but they are not local churches. There are Christian organizations who come alongside to help the churches but they are not churches.
So wherever we see these four things practiced, that’s a local church. And then see in the last line of verse 47, who is adding to what? The Lord himself. The Lord Jesus himself is saving a people and adding them to local churches and this context. So when the Bible, it does not refer to any place or building but a people. It’s a people who are saved. The root word for the church is ecclesia, which means called out ones, called out ones. So God calls his people to come out of sin, to come out of this wicked world, and be separate.
Be separate. From that we get this word, holy. Holy means being separated, being set apart. Set apart for God’s purpose. Set apart from sin in this world for God’s purposes. That’s being holy. So we are called out ones, to be separate from this world. So the Bible calls them as Saints, right? So Christians are Saints. Who gives this title? Saint Anthony, Saint Patrick, and we have, you know, a lot of saints in Roman Catholic churches, right? So looking at their lives and the experience that they had after they died, they give — they’ll be given this title saint, probably. But then we look at the New Testament. If you read the Apostles, the letters written by the Apostles, you see they address people in the church or believers in the church as Saints. So who are Saints? Called ones, saved ones, right? We have St.
James here, St. Depot here, St. Joshua there, St. Krishna there. So we have a lot of Saints here sitting in this room. We are Saints if we put our faith in Christ. So all true Christians are holy ones. They are saints. And when they gather to worship God together with all those four elements present, that’s a local church. And we have here Gospel Life Church. And it’s a local church. And who ordained it?
God did. According to his word we see. And it is in this gathering Christians hear God’s word preached. Practice in the bread and wine together. Pray together and help each other to follow Jesus. That’s a church life. So just a note on baptism and communion here, because there are elements present here. So who takes them?
So a lot of people in this world, especially in our states, in our churches around us, they have this very bad understanding of what baptism is, and what Lord’s Supper is. Some people take baptism because they’re getting married. And that’s something that they have to follow as a tradition. Some people, you know, take baptism without knowing anything about it. Why do they take it? Because the pastor asked them to take it. A lot of churches, these pastors even, doesn’t have any idea of what baptism is.
Just get people and dunk them in water and then say that, “Okay, now you are saved, you will go to heaven if you die.” Even young people do not know what it is, and they simply listen to pastor and just take it, having no idea what it is. So we are surrounded by such churches and such Christians who call themselves Christians. So first, baptism does not—baptism, water baptism does not save anybody. It’s just an outward expression of an inward change that God in our lives. When a person truly repents of his sin and trusts Jesus for forgiveness and eternal life, God works in his or her heart through his spirit and changes that person.
And that person testifies to God’s saving work in his life through baptism. So whatever happened in his life spiritually is symbolically expressed in baptism, in water baptism. So he or she goes into the water and comes out representing that he or she died with Christ and rose with Christ again, and now that he is a new creature in Jesus Christ. This is a one-time event in life. So after that, so, to show that they are regularly—oh, sorry—to show that they are trusting God, are continuing to trust God, they regularly partake in communion.
Which we do it, just to remember what Jesus had done on the cross nearly 2000 years ago. It is through baptism a person enters into the local church and becomes a member, showing others that they are also belonging to Christ and now they belong to each other. So that happens through baptism. And every time we come to participate in the communion, we are just saying that whatever confession that I have made at the time of baptism, that’s still true even today in my life, and it’s continuing.
That's one of the purposes of communion. But then we also have a very bad understanding of communion even around us in churches. People think that they get healed if they take those elements. People think that there is something magical in them. Or people think that they would be forgiven if they take it.
But we take them to show that we are forgiven and we are walking in the forgiveness of life. So it is through baptism a person enters a local church and becomes a member of it. Then by practicing the Lord’s Supper, he or she shows that they are good standing Christians.
It’s like every week or every time we participate in the communion we are getting a bona fide certificate. “I am a good Christian.” So Christians commit themselves to the local church. So it is in the context of a local church Christians grow in their understanding of God and grow into the likeness of Christ Jesus.
This is the way God designed it to happen. A Christian cannot obey God’s Word without being in a local church. A Christian cannot obey God’s Word without being in a local church. For him to practice his Christianity, he needs other Christians. We need to realize that deeply. It is not an option for a Christian, but a command to be in fellowship with other Christians so that they can love one another, serve one another, bear one another, forgive one another, and encourage one another. These are the commandments that are given to us by our Lord himself. And we cannot practice these commandments without being with other Christians.
So the church is a family for a Christian. So who in the world says that he is a part of a family but does not want to be with his family? That’s how a Christian who does not want to be a part of a local church.
That is how a Christian is. So dear friends, dear brothers and sisters, let me ask you this question. How is your commitment to your local church? How is your commitment to your local church? Do you treat your church as your family, as your brothers and sisters in Christ?
We have a special blood relation with each other. Do you realize that? It's the blood of Christ that relates us. So true Christians, take these things seriously. So be so with us. So we see the world is changing rapidly. We have a lot of advances in this world, right? lot of things changing, modernization, post-modernization, whatever you call them.
But we can see that it is becoming more and more evil every year. Sin is increasing, evil is increasing, wickedness increasing, and it will keep increasing until the Lord comes back. However, we see that this world is changing, but however, God never changes. He's always the same. He remains the same. He's the same yesterday, today and forever. And his word, and his word never changes.
His commands never change. For nearly 2000 years, Christians have been practicing these things that are written in this word. Some have gone astray, but others have remained faithful to the word. Dear brothers and sisters, we are called to be faithful to God's word and do what it says. We are called to live out for God's glory, for the good of the local church, and for the benefit of our own souls.
Will you take these things seriously? So may God help us in these things. Let us pray. Father, we want to thank you for this time that you've given us to sit under your word, to listen to it, and to benefit from it. Father, we pray that you'll just sow this word deep in our hearts, that it might bear fruit unto righteousness and dispel evil from our hearts.
Change us, transform us until the likeness of Christ is fully formed in us. Oh, may we rejoice in you. May we delight in your word. Give us that heart. We pray that you'll just bless us together and help us to be what you call us to be, worshippers.
Help us to worship you in spirit and in truth. Father, bless each one of us today and may you get all the glory, praise and honor in our lives. And in Jesus' name we pray.