We Must Worship The Lord In His Church The Lord is to be glorified by the worship He receives in His church. In Ephesians 3:21 we read, “To Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus.” But how many churches does the Lord have? Jesus says in Matthew 16:18, “Upon this rock I will build My church.
” The word “My” shows possession and that the church belongs to Jesus. How many churches did He say He was going to build? He said, “I will build My church”. The word church is singular not plural. There is only one true church because the Lord only promised to build His one church. In Ephesians 4:4-6 there are seven ones listed: “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”
Just as there is only one God and only one Lord we also see there is only one body. The Bible says there is only one body; so what is this one body? In Ephesians 1:21-22 we find out what this one body is, “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body.” Here we see that the Bible says the church is the body. So if there is only one body and the one body is the church, then there can only be one church that belongs to the Lord. One might as well believe in more than one God as to believe that the Lord has more than one church. In Colossians 1:18 in speaking of Christ, we read, “And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things
He may have the preeminence.” Here again we see that the body (singular) is the church (singular). Again the Bible tells us that the Lord has only one church. We also see that in all things Christ is to have the preeminence. For Christ to have the preeminence in all things, we must follow Christ in all things and not follow man. If we follow men in some things then Christ does not have the preeminence in all things. Since Christ only built His one church, we need to ask where did all these other churches come from? The only answer is they were built by men, so men could “attend the church of their choice”, and not Gods choice. We read in Ephesians 5:23, “Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body.” Christ is only the saviour of His one body, His one church. Christ as head over His body, His church, does not have many bodies; if He did He would be a freak.
In the Lords scheme of redemption, He has only planned to have one church. He is going to only save His one church. Are you in the one church in which Christ is going to save? Since we have seen in the Bible that the one body is the one church which the Lord built, and that Christ has only promised to save His one body, His one church, then what is going to happen to the hundreds of different kinds of other churches we see in existence today? Again let us let God answer this question. In Matthew 15:13 Jesus said, “Every plant, which my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.” What will happen to all those churches that God did not plant? They will be rooted up. This is what God has said He will do. This is frightening. I want to make sure I am in the Lords church, the only one He is going to save. In Psalms 127:1 we read, “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.” This is a sad but serious situation; one that concerns me greatly and causes me much grief and sorrow to see honest people, who are honestly mistaken, laboring in vain. This is a tragedy.
The Bible says that 1) Christ is “the head of His church” (Ephesians 5:23). 2) The church is “subject unto Christ” (Ephesians 5:24). 3) He is the “saviour of” His church (Ephesians 5:23). 4) He “loved the church” (Ephesians 5:25). 5) He “gave Himself for it” (Ephesians 5:25). 6) He “sanctified and cleansed it” (Ephesians 5:26). 7) He “nourishes and cherishes it” (Ephesians 5:29). 8) He is the founder and builder of it (Matthew 16:18). 9) He is the foundation of it (1 Corinthians 3:11). 10) “He purchased it with His own blood” (Acts 20:28). 11) He calls it “My church” (Matthew 16:18).