THE CHURCH VICTORIOUS

Matthew 16:18 records the encouraging words of our Lord Jesus Christ who says, "upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The Rock of which He speaks is His own Person and work. He is the "stone which the builders set at naught." He is the "Rock of Ages," the stone of stumbling" chosen and set by God. He is the sure foundation Stone and His work of redemption is a solid ground upon which all who trust Him can rest. All in the Church, which is His Body, can say, "On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand." But He also takes upon Himself the full responsibility of the building of His Church. "I will build" is the word of His pledge to successfully and completely bring each one of His elect as "living stones" into this habitation of God. He will hew them out of the rock of fallen humanity, make them fit and fit them into it by His sin-cleansing blood, imputed righteousness and power. He will take His abode therein. But He also gives a word of encouragement and comfort to all who will be more than conquerors in Him. He says, "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Here, the Church militant is promised to be also the Church victorious! Sent forth by our King and Commander-in-Chief, we go with the gospel of His glory and grace. "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;" (II Cor. 10:4,5) The Church, with Christ as its Head, is never dying, always alive and full of His strength though it faces the greatest of enemies. It is always victorious in the midst of its trials, its persecutions and its conflicts. The Church's strength or wealth or success cannot be evaluated by looking at its often small number or resources at any given time and place; but must be seen and evaluated in light of its Head, Christ Jesus the Lord! He proclaims His sole possession of it by calling it, "my church." Many will resist it to their own defeat, many will leave the borders of its local expression to their own peril and many will view it as unnecessary to their own loss. But Christ, the King of the Church, declares, "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

Gary Shepard

“Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.” (Mark 10:29-30)

Many people dabble with the doctrines of grace. They like to discuss them and debate them. They like to read what men say about them. But in their heart, they have little regard for them. This is evidenced by what they don't do:

1. They don't see them as essential in salvation.

2. They don't desire to hear them preached regularly.

3. They don't support a ministry that upholds them.

4. They don't identify with the people who believe them.

5. They don't commit all their energies & resources to the

advancement of them.

6. They don't hesitate to call "brethren" those who despise

them.

7. They don't manifest any work of grace in them.

8. They don't love & follow the Person they reveal!

The "doctrines of grace" are but the "doctrine of Christ!" Believed in the heart, they produce a commitment to Christ Jesus and His Church that cannot be hidden!

GS

Christ has told us in express terms, that "he came down from heaven to do the will of him that sent him," which will he declared to be, "that of all which he had given him, he should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day," John vi. 38, 39. The resurrection here spoken of shows, that they are persons which the Father gave the Son to redeem, and preserve to eternal life; none of which given and redeemed persons can be lost, because it is the Father’s will that they should not; and the Son came to fulfill that will, and has assured us, that all that the Father gives him shall come to him, and that he will cast out none of them, but raise up every believer at the last day, John vi. 37, 40. So exactly do the Father’s election and the Son’s redemption agree, with respect to the persons chosen and redeemed.

John Hurrion

If you wish to know if the gospel you are hearing preached is the gospel of God, ask yourself this question, "Who gets the glory?" If you wish to know whether your religious experience is of the flesh or of the Lord, ask yourself the same thing, "Who gets the glory?" Also, examine all your gifts, works, and missionary efforts by the same rule, "Who gets the glory?" God will not share His glory! That which is of God, from God, and for God's glory will be blessed with His presence and power..."that no flesh should glory in His presence...that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord" (I Cor. 1:29,30)

Henry Mahan

AN ETERNAL GOSPEL

‘We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery’. In preaching the gospel, says Paul, we are unveiling ‘the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory’ (1 Corinthians 2:7). Therefore, it is in the gospel that we find the wisdom of God; not just in the Scriptures generally, but specifically in the gospel to which the Scriptures testify.

What does this tell us about the nature of the gospel? We have already seen that it is something concealed, and even foolish, to the natural man. The second thing we are told is that this hidden wisdom was ‘ordained’ by God ‘before the ages’. That is reminiscent of Proverbs 8 where wisdom declares, ‘before the world was I was brought forth, before the hills were established and the foundations of the earth were laid, I was there with God’.

This gospel is an eternal gospel. There are many people who think that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ was something God thought up when things went wrong in the Garden of Eden.

Some go even further and think the gospel is something God introduced because Christ was crucified instead of being able to establish his kingdom here upon earth. The gospel is God’s ‘plan B’, they say, because ‘plan A’ failed.

Not at all, for the gospel is an everlasting gospel. That is what it is called in the book of Revelation. The gospel was wisdom that God established or ordained before the ages.