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By Abraham Eli
This study was first taught on January 12, 2020
Topic: Going Forward
(use the audio to study)
Background
Last week we gave our Closing Remarks on the Lord's assessment of the churches in Revelations 2 & 3, and by implication, today's churches. We noted that what God is looking for in the church is fruit—the outcome of the Holy Spirit operating in the church or a person's life—thus, any church where the fruit or result of the presence of the Holy Spirit is not manifest, has some amendments to make.
We saw that the Lord is essentially looking for holiness and loyalty or faithfulness in a church. This requirement can manifest in various forms in the various churches as assessed by the Lord:
# The Church of Ephesus was lacking in love for God and for others and was asked to repent and return to its first love—Jesus Christ.
# The Church in Smyrna was encouraged to persevere through intense persecution.
# The Church in Pergamos was syncretic and admonished to stick to the Word of God ONLY!
# The Church in Thyatira had given itself over to immorality and idolatry and was told to live with heart purity.
# The Church in Sardis was rebuked for being dead while giving the impression that it was living, therefore, they were asked to repent of their hypocrisy and live in purity.
# The Church in Philadelphia was encouraged to keep holding on to God's word and remain loyal till the end.
# The Church of the Laodiceans was rebuked for being self-sufficient and arrogant and asked to humble itself and come and depend on the Lord for all their needs and living.
We noted that church size, income, programmes, building projects, and other human criteria for evaluating a church are 'leaves' and mean nothing if fruit—the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit—is missing. Sometimes these human criteria are not even what God is interested in at all.
Finally, we warned that we must allow the Holy Spirit to lead us otherwise we would end up in the congregation of the dead—the synagogue of Satan.
Scripture Text(s)
John 15:1-17
Although we read this text last week we did not directly address it. This we shall do in this study as we look at . . .
This study will essentially be our conclusion to the global theme, "<strong><em>The State of the Church Today</em></strong>" and we shall learn some fundamentals that are essential for today's churches to be what the Lord wants them to be.
Isaiah 61:3; Genesis 1:1-4; Galatians 5:16-17, 19-23, 24-25; John 11:40; Matthew 6:33; Acts 1:3; Hebrews 10:5-9; 1 Timothy 3:1ff; Psalm 127:1; Colossians 3:16; Isaiah 37:31; John 13:35; Matthew 7:13-14; 2 Corinthians 4:17-18.
Conclusion
The Lord is focused on the church bearing fruit, and this can only be achieved when it is planted by God, remains attached to Christ, have the life of Christ flow within it produced by obedience to the word of God, and fruit is produced as the church yields to the Holy Spirit operating on the word of God in the church.
Some of today's churches are operating on worldly principles and running on the flesh, while others are operating on a mixture of worldly principles and the word, and running on a hybrid of flesh and the Holy Spirit, whereas, the church needs to operate based on the word of God ONLY and be led by the Holy Spirit ONLY—no hybrids, which is syncretism. On these bases—obedience to the word of God and the Holy Spirit leading—must everything be done in and by the church if it is to be pleasing to the Lord. These include church doctrine, establishing of churches, church activities and programmes, appointment of church leaders, etc. Unless the Lord establishes a church it will eventually crumble as many are beginning to—in some others, cracks are beginning to appear—because they want to ignore the word of God and become politically correct and socially acceptable. We are beginning to see homosexuals in the church even as church leaders, racism, ethnicity, nationalism, avarice and greed, covetousness, thirst for political power, etc.
The church must take root in the love of Christ, otherwise, it cannot bear the fruit of the Spirit upward to be seen by all (<strong>John 13:35</strong>)! The church must keep eternity in view in all that they do and at all times, otherwise, it will fail and fall away. Two major watchwords for the church today must be 'Kingdom'—and by implication the King, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His reign and rule—and 'eternity'—eternal life and heaven on one hand and eternal judgment and hell on the other—otherwise, it will just be another religion or worldly institution!
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