\n\nWHAT KIND OF CHURCH IS THIS?
Henry Mahan<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat kind of church is this?\u201d During a recent Bible conference this
question was asked by a visitor who had dropped in for the service. I
had just finished preaching a message on the subject \u201cIn Search of
Truth\u201d and the visitor turned to one of the members and asked, \u201cWhat
kind of church is this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How refreshing! In this day (when practically every form of religion is
so pigeon holed and typed that it appeals to some segment of our natural
society) to preach the gospel of the mystery of Christ in such Bible
terms that a natural man is shut up to divine revelation and is unable
to identify us with some particular brand of religion! It was said of
Spurgeon that no organization could really brand him and say he belongs
to us! The hypercalvinists called him an arminian, the arminians called
him a hypercalvinist, the legalists called him an antinomian, and the
antinomians called him a legalist. The established churches hated him
and the Baptists finally disowned him, but true believers of every
persuasion loved him and understood his message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The natural man understands logical Calvinism. He can easily identify
with the cooperative redemption presented in arminianism. He has no
difficulty with modern fundamentalism! But the free gospel of the grace
of God through the merits and death of the Lord Jesus Christ must be
revealed to the heart by the Spirit of God. Barnard used to say,
\u201cPreachers are wrapping salvation up in a neat little package and
selling it to unsuspecting men and women. Preachers are trying to
present the great mysteries of redemption in language which \u2018the natural
man can understand and approve of, so that he can make his peace with
God and go on about his regular routine and fleshly pursuits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blessed is the preacher who can shut men up to free and sovereign grace,
and yet lovingly, sincerely invite all men to look to Christ and be
saved. Blessed is the preacher who knows that \u201csalvation is of the
Lord,\u201d who has the patience to wait upon the Lord to regenerate, awaken
and call his hearers, yet he prays for their deliverance, urges them to
close with Christ, and beseeches them to \u201cbe reconciled to God.\u201d Blessed
is the preacher who can preach with equal force and confidence both the
preservation and perseverance of believers. He will not \u201cturn away from
us and we will not depart from Him.\u201d Blessed is the preacher who can
rejoice in imputed righteousness, \u201cwith His holy garments on, I am as
spotless as His dear Son;\u201d and yet along with his congregation hunger
and thirst for spiritual growth and personal godliness. Blessed is the
preacher who can find and preach both justification and sanctification
at Calvary. We do not go to Calvary for justification and then to Sinai
for sanctification. We are \u201ccomplete in Him.\u201d Blessed is the preacher
who can preach prophetical truth in such a way that his hearers are
looking for the returning Christ and not only the return of Christ!
Blessed is the preacher who administers believers\u2019 baptism, presides at
the Lord\u2019s table, and oversees the business of the Lord\u2019s church, not
according to the \u201cway we do it in our circles and according to our
custom and tradition,\u201d but according to the Word of God! It may be, if
preachers and people return to the Scriptures, someone will ask, \u201cWhat
kind of church is this?\u201d And we can answer, \u201cIt is the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ which He loved and purchased with His own blood and of
which He is the sole Head.\u201d\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WHAT KIND OF CHURCH IS THIS?Henry Mahan \u201cWhat kind of church is this?\u201d During a recent Bible conference this question was asked by a visitor who had dropped in for the service. I had just finished preaching a message on the subject \u201cIn Search of Truth\u201d and the visitor turned to one of the members and asked, \u201cWhat kind […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[96,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-henry-mahan","category-gospel-preaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5377,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5376\/revisions\/5377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}