“For no other Foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 3:11.
It is not the union of men with men that makes a Church if Jesus Christ is not the center and the bond of the union. The best of men may come into bonds of amity and they may form a league, or a federation for good and useful purposes—but they are not a Church unless Jesus Christ is the basis upon which they rest. He must be the ground and Foundation of the hope of each and of all. Neither can a Church be created by a mere union to a minister. It is most good and pleasant to see Brethren dwelling together in unity—it is most advantageous that between the pastor and his flock there should be perfect love, but the relationship must not be exaggerated beyond due bounds.
Brethren, there must be no glorying in men, nor blind following of them! A body formed of individuals whose religion lies in drinking in the theories and opinions of a religious teacher falls short of being a Church of God. The Church is not built on Paul, nor upon Apollos, nor upon Cephas, but upon the sole authority of Jesus Christ! We are not to be believers in Luther, Calvin, Wesley, or Whitefield, but in Christ! Of such believers a true Church must be composed. Neither is a Church made by the following of any particular form or rite. We have one Lord, one faith, one Baptism— and we are bound to be loyal to Christ in His ordinances as in all else—but it is not the practice of an ordinance which constitutes a Church!
It is well to be united and bound together in loyalty to the faith once delivered to the saints, but unless there is vital, personal union with the Person of Christ on the part of the members of the Church, their association may constitute a league for the defense of orthodoxy, or a confederation for the maintenance of a form of religious thought, but it is not a Church! No, most blessed Lord, You must be there, or nothing is there! Pastors, elders, deacons, teachers, evangelists— these are courses of precious stones in the heavenly temple—but without You they are no Church, for the Foundation is needed—You, my Lord, are needed!
All Your saints come to You and rest on You, O Christ, and in You all the building, fitly framed together, grows unto an holy Temple in the Lord. You are the Stem from which it branches, the Head in which it lives, the Shepherd by whom it is fed, the Captain by whom it is marshaled, the Husband to whom it is married! You are, indeed, the All in All of the Church which You have redeemed with Your own blood.
The One Foundation, Sermon No. 1494, delivered September 14, 1879 by C.H. Spurgeon
Great excerpt!
ReplyDelete