In Matthew 16:18 Jesus promised to build His church.  The church is the “called out” of Christ.  A person becomes a part of the “called out” when he or she obeys the gospel.  In writing to the brethren at Thessalonica, Paul said, “Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 2:14).  Everyone who becomes a member of the Lord’s church does so the same way, that is, by obeying the gospel of Christ.  In last night’s blog, we found that one does that by believing in Jesus (John 8:24), repenting of sins (Acts 3:19), confessing Christ (Romans 10:9-10), and being baptized (Acts 2:38).

It is a great privilege and blessing to be a member of the Lord’s church.  It is the only place where one can obtain the glory of our Lord.  Every member of the Lord’s church should be ready to defend it against all false teachers and counterfeit churches that are in the world today.  We should do so kindly and with love, but we must do so.  It is a part of earnestly contending for the faith (Jude 1:3).

Defending the church begins with defending its oneness.  We live in a religious world where most people believe that there is a plurality of churches that belong to the Lord.  However, in the promise that Jesus made in Matthew 16:18, He did not speak of churches, but of His church.  Paul confirmed this in his inspired writings.

Ephesians 1:22-23 (ESV)
²²  And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, ²³  which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

We learn from this passage that the church is the body of Christ. Colossians 1:18 teaches the same thing.  Now, read what Paul writes in Ephesians 4.

Ephesians 4:4 (ESV)
⁴  There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—

This is very clear, isn’t it?  If the church is the body (and we know that it is), and there is only one body, that means there is only one church.  This makes perfect sense scripturally.  Jesus is the head of the church (Colossians 1:18).  Since there is only one head, we would expect there to be only one body, and that body is the church.

Here is another way of looking at it.  We know that the church is made up of all the saved (those who have properly obeyed the gospel).  Luke wrote, “Praising God and having favor with all the people.  And the Lord added to the church daily, those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47).  Since the saved are added to the church, anyone who has reached the age of accountability and is not a member of the church is lost.  So what conclusion can we reach from this?  There is one body made up of all the lost, and one body made up of all the saved, and that body is the church.

The truth that there is only one church is not popular today, but it must be defended.  In our next blog, we will get into some specifics about things we must defend concerning the church, especially as it relates to the local church.  But, let’s never grow weary of defending Biblical truth.     

As you wind down for the night, think about these things