Calvary Baptist Church

Calvary Baptist Church, Grenada, MS, USA

Holding to the truths embraced by Baptist for centuries.

CHAPTER VII

THE PROSPECT OF THE CHURCH ON THE ROCK

Revelation 22:20

We have stressed the local, visible congregation as the (true) church, a body that belongs to Christ, with Him as the Founder and Foundation, the Head and Headmaster, and the Holy Spirit as the Heart and Blood-stream.

Nonetheless, there is often in Scripture and in our common speech an institutional usage of the word, by which we simply mean “any church.” We may not correctly speak of a "universal invisible assembly," for the terms are mutually contradictory. But we may speak of churches universally, and of their universal mission, and of their universal pattern, and of their universal Saviour.

We may also recognize that the local congregation may have, indeed will have, some members like Judas and Demas, professors but not possessors, and that these are not added to the body by the Lord even if they are on the roll. There is, in a very real sense, an invisible aspect of our visible body in the flesh, the unseen, microscopic, world which binds us together. So it is with a New Testament church. The body is "fitly framed together,'' and growing with reference to a holy temple in the Lord.

In the sense of any such congregation, or all of them taken together, or beyond that to incorporate the redeemed who never participate in church membership and fellowship, what is the future prosper for the people of God? What can we know about tomorrow?

Our first prospect is the Counseling Presence of Christ, through His Holy Spirit (John 14:15-18).

Jesus promised to those who love Him and keep (guard) His commandments “another comforter.” The beautiful word “paraclete,” translated here “Comforter” and referring to the Spirit, also is used by John in I John 2:1, where our standard versions have the word “advocate.” One English term, which may be used with real meaning in both places, is “Counselor,” both in the modern sense of an advisor and in the older English sense of an attorney. “His Name shall be called--Counselor!” The Spirit is our internal advisor, and Christ is our eternal advisor. One is within, the other is above. One translates our needs into Heaven's language; the other transmits them to Heaven's throne.

The very word “another” was carefully chosen. It does not mean “another of a different kind,” but is the term used for “another of the same kind,” “another like Me.” “The Lord is that Spirit,” II Corinthians 3:17.

Thus, “if any person lack wisdom, let him ask!” For “Christ is made unto us wisdom.” While human counselors, even lost people, may offer some degree of wisdom at the secular and fleshly level, ultimate wisdom comes down from above. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,” and wisdom is the ability to use our knowledge properly.

This is our present and continuing prospect until Jesus comes again: the Spirit will remain (John 14:16) “forever.” Those who feel that He is not now indwelling the believer must deny this verse.

Our second prospect is the Comforting Power of Christ through the same Spirit (John 15:26-27, 16:7-15).

His ministry is to testify of Christ, which comforts, counsels, and controls the believer and the body of believers. His ministry is to enable us to bear witness of Christ, 15:27. His ministry is to reprove the world of sin--and unbelief is the root of all sin. His ministry is to reprove the world of righteousness, which they lack. His ministry is to reprove the world of judgment, which is and is to come.

His ministry to the believer is (1) to guide us into all the realms and glories of truth as it is in Christ and as it is revealed in Scripture; (2) to show us things to come, including a basic understanding so that we will not be found asleep or unaware of the potential of our Lord's return; (3) to glorify Christ, first in us and then through us.

A friend of mine once remarked on how little preaching we hear about the Holy Spirit. Do you know why that is? Simply because “when He, the Spirit of truth, is come,...He shall not speak of Himself!” If we hear a great deal of noise about the Spirit, we may be reasonably sure it is not led by the Spirit.

How can we understand the Bible? How can we meet our trials and times of testing? Without the indwelling Holy Spirit, Who temples within each believer as promised by Christ in John 14:17, we could not. With His presence, we are fortified against all Satan's wiles. Let the Devil do his worst; He who is in us is greater.

A third prospect for churches and Christians is the Continuing Prayer of our Lord for us (John 17:20-21; cf. Romans 8:26-27.) We have a Great High Priest Who ever lives to make intercession for us. as the book of Hebrews so clearly states.

It is a great strength to know that Jesus is praying for us, that our faith fail not. Most, if not all, of us must cry out with the man of old, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” And He promises to keep on doing just that.

He told the first church, in the real Lord's Prayer (John 17), that He was praying for them. Then He emphasized that we are included in that intercessory prayer.

The Bible includes many great examples of men who prayed for others--Abraham for Sodom, Moses for Israel, Paul for his brethren, and Stephen for

his executioners--but none greater than the Lord Who could pray for His own, promise to pray for us, and then turn toward His enemies and say “Father, forgive.” He exemplified the precepts of His ministry, to the very end.

And Paul explains that the Holy Spirit now takes the deep groanings of our heart and communicates with Christ, searching our hearts and turning our weakness into His strength.

A fourth prospect for all saints is the Correcting Preservation which Christ promised through His Spirit, I Corinthians 3:10-15 and II Corinthians 5:8-10. While much of this is a present ministry of the Spirit, some awaits His personal presence. (Cf. I Timothy 5:24-25, which indicates that both reward and chastisement may come to the believer here or hereafter.)

Some years ago in revival, the pastor and I were walking on a country road from house to house. He told me that the next home belonged to a family that believed in works salvation, and literally hated Baptists. “But,” he said, “we might as well stop anyway.”

As we walked up, the husband was hoeing in the garden. He deliberately ignored our greeting, but looked as if he might like to hoe us! The wife came to the door and greeted us warmly: “Come in here! I've been wanting to argue with a Baptist for a long time!” With that auspicious beginning, we entered, only to be challenged on “this nonsense of once saved, always saved.”

I asked, “Ma'am, do you have a Bible?” (I didn't want her to think I was bringing in a Baptist version on her!)

A bit grudgingly, she read the passage, first silently, then aloud. A puzzled look came over her face.

“What is represented by the gold, silver, and precious stones on the one hand, and by the wood, hay, and stubble on the other?”

“Much to my surprise, she did not immediately respond with “salvation,” but looked carefully at the verse, as if she had never seen it before. Instead of answering, she walked slowly to the open window and called to her husband.

“This man has shown me something I did not know was in the Bible, and I don't think you know it is in the Bible. And I know our minister does not know it is there, or he would not preach the way he does!”

Well, I wish I could tell you that he responded, and that they were gloriously saved, but instead he turned, grunted, and said, “Get those

Needless to say, we left, and I cannot think of that family without a prayer that the word may have begun its work that day and that somehow the Sword of the Spirit may have pierced that hard soil as the farmer's hoe pierced the earth, to make a place for the seed which is the word from which the new birth results. But all I know is, that for those who do accept, there is a built-in corrective to keep us from going so far from grace that we would be lost. Saved so as by fire: possible, though not recommended. But if saved, safe. And the indwelling Spirit corrects until the Judgment Seat of Christ, when the things that do offend shall be burned up with everlasting fire that those things, which cannot be shaken, shall remain.

Since a Tuesday night in September during my Sophomore year in high school, 1949, at West Frankfort, Illinois, First Baptist Church, under the ministry of Chester Swor, when the Spirit of the living God touched the heart of a lost church member and led him into the family of God, I have never been afraid of hell. That is a settled matter. God said it; that settles it; and I believe it.

What, then, makes me live a moral life? What made me return to my home church at Buckner, and request Scriptural baptism? Why do I serve Him?

I think of the day when I shall see Him as He is, and be made like Him. I think of the consuming fire of His holy presence. There is no need for a lengthy purgatory; just seeing Him will burn out the dross and refine the gold. I think of His saying to me, “Why did you do that?” “Why did you live that way?” And I believe I would just melt down in my shoes and disappear in shame and grief to hear that sort of tender rebuke from my dearest Loved One. My wife, my mother, my grandmother, have all been able to make me ashamed by a word; how much more my Saviour?

For a disobedient wood-hay-stubble believer, that is a frightful prospect indeed; it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. It may even result in an early end to this life (Ecclesiastes 7:17), the “sin unto physical death” which is for the believer the equivalent of the unpardonable sin in the life of the unbeliever, the “land's end” of God's road of life or opportunity. For all believers, it should be a sober prospect, one which carries its own built-in corrective and chastening rod (Hebrews 12:5-11). Still, it is part of the prospect for “the church on the rock.”

And last, and greatest of all, there is the prospect of the Coming Prince (Titus 2:12-14, Revelation 1:5, 20:4, 21:22).

There are so many passages dealing with the brightest star in the Christian's sky, the most blessed hope in the believer's heart, the best of all prospects for the congregation of the Lord's people, that we would enjoy camping here for much longer. But to balance this volume, we close with the highest point, saving the best till last. JESUS IS COMING AGAIN!

No matter what our eschatological view, if it keeps us from living godly lives in urgent, fervent anticipation of our Lord's return, it is wrong. If it keeps us from “occupying till He come,” it is wrong. As it is true that any

view of events in eternity past which makes us less of a winning witness, less compassionate and less missionary, is wrong, so it is true that any view of the future which tends toward less moral, less upright, less fervent lives is wrong. Test your head by your heart in matters outside the realm of time. We cannot know all the details of eternity, past or future, but we can know the results which should be produced, and we can judge our view by its results. “By their fruits ye shall know them.”

Paul said to Titus that we should be “looking for (awaiting, expecting, accepting in advance) that blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Here again, Greek proves deeply interesting.

The Greeks used the definite article, “the,” much more than we do. When two nouns, such as “God” and “Saviour,” are joined by “and,” if both have the definite article in Greek, they refer to different persons or things. If the first has the article and the second does not, the two are one.

Paul called Jesus God here, “the great God even our Saviour, Jesus Christ.” The two are one. He also stressed the real hope of each believer, “the blessed hope, even the glorious appearing” of this great God! The two are one. Our hope is not primarily an event, but a person!

This Coming Prince for whom we are to earnestly keep looking is The Faithful Witness, The First Begotten from among the Dead to die no more, and the prince of the kings and kingdoms which became His at His coming, the One Who loves (Greek present participle) us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us a kingdom of priests. We shall reign with Him, sitting on thrones to judge, first the angels, then the world (I Corinthians 6:2-3, Revelation 20:4). Rather than thinking of the “millennium” or thousand years in terms of a continuing carnal condition, may we see it in terms of the genuine triumph of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, not merely a temporary but a total triumph, including the resurrection of the lost dead and the ushering in of the new heavens and the new earth after a perfect judgment?

At any rate, let us not be looking for an earthly hope, but for an eternal Hope, the soon coming and glorious appearing of the One Who brings every good gift and every perfect gift, Who brings our reward at His coming for us, Who brings the judgment of the world with Him, and Who will usher in eternal righteousness by His presence. Truly Christ Himself, our glorious Lord, is the brightest prospect of the believer and the blessed hope of the Church on the Rock.

If your church is not on the Rock, it will be on the rocks, and if your life is not on the Rock, you will be crying out to be under the rocks. Why not be certain that your life, and your church life, is built on the solid Foundation? The wise man built his house upon the Rock.