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The Church God Blesses
Eph 1:3
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
We are blessed to be part of the Church of the Living God!
· This is a glorious church! It is glorious because Christ is sanctifying and cleansing us with the word of God!
· He has clothed us with the beautiful garment of salvation; He has arrayed us with the white robe of righteousness!
· The church is the fullness of God and it is baptized with the love of God – a love marked by giving, not getting.
· Christ’s love makes the church complete
· His words suggest her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of the church.
· She is radiant with holiness!
Do you understand that we are too blessed to be stressed?
· There’s too much joy in Jesus for any of us to ever get depressed!
· There’s too much peace in the Holy Ghost for you to be fretting about your health or your wealth!
· There are so many exceeding great and precious promises God has given his people that we need never be cast down, never fear what the future may hold, and never feel as though we cannot make it to the other side of glory!
· If you ever feel down, remember Christ is risen indeed and sitteth on the right hand of majesty and power!
· He reigneth forever! His right hand and glorious arm hath gotten him the victory.
· He warned us we will have tribulation in the world, but quickly added: “But be of good cheer for I have overcome the world!
I. THE CHURCH GOD BLESSES IS BUILT ON A SURE FOUNDATION.
Isa 28:16 Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation , a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation : he that believeth shall not make haste.
Ps 87:1-6 talks about that foundation. The first verse declares:
A. “His [the Lords] foundation is in the holy mountains”.
2 The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
3 Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah.
5 And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her.
6 The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there
The church was established in the everlasting mountains of God’s holiness! As such, it is superior to every other community, organization, city or nation.
The church is the birthplace of everyone who is born from above. When you are born again of the water and of the Spirit, your name is entered in the Lamb’s Book of Life!.What an honour it is to be born in Jerusalem from above, and to have our citizenship there! The church is the mother of us all!
The most high God himself has established her! And when he writes up the register of names of those who will be fitted for heaven, he will base it on this very list!
What a contrast is seen when you compare the gates of Zion and the foundation of the city of God to that of the nations and cities mentioned in the 4th verse of Ps 87…
B. The nations and men that forsake God have a shaky foundation.
Ps 87:4 I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there.
1. Rahab refers to Egypt. The Hebrew meaning of the word is ‘haughty, insolent, or proud.”It was with a high hand, that the Lord God brought his chosen, blood-bought children of Abraham out of cruel Egyptian bondage, but not until he had humiliated Pharaoh and all his royal henchmen!
2. Babylon was founded by Nimrod in Genesis 10 – 11. He headed up a united Gentile force to build a city & a tower whose top would reach to heaven. Their vain idea was to make a name for themselves, God brought it all down and scattered them abroad upon the face of all the earth. Babylon fell!
3. Philistia, the city of war-mongerers who terrorized God’s people on so many occasions, were brought to their knees after the Babylonian captivity. As foretold, he “executed vengeance on them with furious rebukes, and destroyed the remnant,”
4. The rich and strong city of Tyre was soundly denounced by the prophet Joel for selling children of Judah and Jerusalem as slaves to the Greeks. Amos threatened Tyre with devouring fire for “delivering the captive Israelites) to Edom, and remembering not the brotherly covenant”.
5. Then there was the adventurous and powerful Ethiopia. The Bible speaks of Zerah the Ethiopian who attacked King Asa at Mareshah, and Tirhakah the Ethiopian who advanced toward Judah against Sennacherib. Although Ethiopia is often spoken of in the Bible with great respect, yet they were known to be a careless and war-like people.
The Bible clearly states that the wicked shall be turned into hell , and all the nations that forget God.
The only time and way God will bless any nation or people is when they return to the LORD God and he forgives their sin and heals their land.
Isa 28:16-17 [THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language]
“Watch closely. I’m laying a foundation in Zion,
a solid granite foundation, squared and true.
And this is the meaning of the stone:
A TRUSTING LIFE WON’T TOPPLE!
I’ll make justice the measuring stick
and righteousness the plumb line for the building.
A hailstorm will knock down the shantytown of lies,
and a flash flood will wash out the rubble.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, shanty towns appeared in cities across the United States because of the massive unemployment. Some were nicknamed “Hoovervilles” because the residents blamed the economic conditions on then President Herbert Hoover, who did not believe in government interference in an attempt to end the depression.
Shanty towns, “marginal” or informal settlements are units of irregular, low-cost dwellings, usually on lands belonging to third parties, and most often located in the periphery of the cities. These dwellings are often assembled in a patch-work fashion from pieces of plywood, corrugated metal, sheets of plastic, and any other material that will provide cover.
Ps 40:4 Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
We dare not build upon the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets of old with those materials which will be soon destroyed in the fire of divine judgment;
· such as the wood of human efforts, or
· the hay and stubble of fruitless lives.
We are building on that which can bear the fire:
· the gold of the absolute deity and holiness of Christ Jesus,
· the silver of redemption by his blood,
· and the precious stones of the beauty and high value of the gospel.
Let’s be careful to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.
C. Abraham looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
D. You and I are built upon that foundation!
Eph 2:19-22 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
THANK GOD FOR A SURE FOUNDATION!
II. THE CHURCH GOD BLESSES IS OBEDIENT TO THE FAITH!
Isa 26:1-2 In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
2 Open ye the gates , that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.
A. Sin is a reproach to God, to the Church, and to a Sinful World that needs to see the Beauty of a Sin-Free Life.
1. The Lord did not, and never will, apologize to the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation. They are still reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Nor will he apologize to any born-again, Spirit and truth sanctified saint who leaves this habitation of holiness and turns back to his or her own vomit or starts to wallow in the mire again.
2 Pe 2:20-21
20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
2. The Lord God did not, and will not, apologize to the multitudes of ungodly sinners whom he destroyed by a great flood in the days of Noah, and neither will he owe this end-time generation an apology when he burns up the world and all its works in the rapidly approaching day of God.
3. He did not apologize to Sodom & Gomorrah for raining fire and brimstone upon them from heaven as a just reward for their vile abominations in the matter of effeminacy, homosexuality and fornication, and neither will he apologize when he reveals his righteous wrath upon this untoward generation.
B. All Sinful Practices Must be Confessed and Forsaken.
Pr 28:13-14 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.
2 Co 6:17-7:2 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
7:1 Having therefore these promises , dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
C. We Must Continue Steadfastly in the Apostle’s Doctrine, in Breaking of Bread, and in Prayers.
This is the kind of church God chooses to bless.
This is the church to which the Lord adds souls.
This is the church marked by miracles and many wonderful works.
III. THE CHURCH GOD BLESSES HAS A DIFFERENT WAY OF WALKING.
A. It Doesn’t Walk like the World.
Eph 4:17-32
17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness,[lewd sensuality] to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But ye have not so learned Christ;
21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
27 Neither give place to the devil.
28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
B. It Walks in Love.
Eph 5:2-7
2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
4 Neither filthiness, [obsenity] nor foolish talking, nor jesting, [coarse joking] which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.
5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
C. It Walks as Children of Light
Eph 5:8-14
8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
9(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
10 Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
12 For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
13 But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
D. It Walks Circumspectly
Eph 5:15-21
15 See then that ye walk circumspectly,[carefully] not as fools, but as wise,
16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
IV. GOD WILL BLESS THE CHURCH WITH A WONDERFUL, ETERNAL REWARD.
Rv 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me,Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from
their labours; and their works do follow them.
Rv 19:7-9 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which arecalled unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Rv 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Rv 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
