I'm sure you have seen the popular religious slogan used by so-called churches today: "The Church Where Everybody Is Somebody". Fact is, THE church is a place where everybody is a nobody. The Church is made of unworthy sinners. All members know that. Ask them. Ask Jacob, he will tell you: "I am not worthy of the least of (God's) mercies. Ask Abraham: "I am but dust and ashes." Ask Job: "I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." Ask David: "Who am I, O Lord God? and what is my house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto?" Ask Mephibosheth: "What is thy servant that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?" Ask John: "I must decrease." Ask Paul: "I am less than the least of all the saints." Ask any of the saints of God and they will all tell you that they are nothing. You see your calling don't you brethren? (I Cor. 1:26-28), how God hath chosen . . . things which are not." As Matthew Henry once said: Since God made everything from nothing, if He is going to make anything out of us, we have to be a nothing." Scripture says, "If any man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself" (Gal.6:3).
Do you know yourself to be a worthless, helpless, useless, sinful nobody? . . . that God doesn't need you and that the Kingdom of God doesn't need you? If so . . . welcome to the family of God! For the church is a place where everybody is a nobody and Jesus Christ is Somebody . . . the only One Who is of real value and worth, yea the altogether lovely One, the Holy One of God. As the people said of David, so say the saints of the Son of David: "Thou art worth ten thousand of us!" The saints in Heaven are singing to the Lord Jesus Christ right now "Thou art worthy."
But wait! God says of the saints on earth, "Ye are the salt of the earth . . . of whom the world is not worthy." This is a wonderful paradox, that all who see themselves unworthy, He calls worthy. All who call themselves unclean, God pronounces clean. All who feel they are nothing, God says they are His Jewels, His peculiar treasure! Why? Because Christ hath made them righteous, holy, worthy. Because He died for them, and because of the invaluable price He paid, they are now of infinite worth to Him and the Father. Because Christ is formed in them, they are now fruitful, faithful, obedient and full of goodness. That is what God says of them. Isn't that what you think of them? All the saints are told to esteem other better than themselves. We feel that we are nothing, lest than the least, not fit to be called a disciple, but highly esteem our brethren. That's as it should be. We think ourselves to be nothing while esteeming our brethren very highly. A wonderful thing isn't it? That though we are nothing in ourselves, yet, in Christ, we are called sons of the God!
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