From a Seimon Preached at Woodlawn Baptist Church, Augusta, Ga. B? REV. HUGH S. WALLACE
church—which is HIS Body) become united with the HEAD (which is Christ) is through the mysterious process of the NEW birth. “ Ye MUST he born again,” said Jesus. Second: — A S U R R E N D E R E D CHURCH. No one can read the Acts of the Apostles without realizing that those early Christians were truly SURREND ERED to Christ. In Acts 2:42-47 and 4:23-35 we see this truth plainly taught. In 2 Cor. 8:5 we are told that the Macedonian Christians “ First gave their own selves to the Lord.” Third:-?-A SEPARATED CHURCH. In Luke 6:22 Jesus says, “ Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake.” In First Chronicles 29:15 God’s Word says, speaking of His peopie, through His servant David, “We are strangers and sojourners,” In Psalm 119:19 David speaks again and says, “ I am a stranger in the earth.” In Heb. 11:13, we read that God’s people in Old Testa ment times “ were strangers and pil grims on the earth.” In 1 Peter 2:9-11 we read that God’s people under New Testament dispensation, are a “ peculiar people,” and “ as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts.” Now, we very well know that a pilgrim and a stranger and a sojourner is not AT HOME as such. He is on a “ pilgrim age” to a better land; he is only pass ing through (sojourning in) this earth; we know that a stranger generally keeps himself separate from others with
The question is, are we to have a Church “ After God’s own heart,” or “ After the world’s pattern or plan?” Must the church he approved of God or man? Must the church he in favor with God, or with the world in general? If it is to be a “ Church after God’s own heart,” and approved of God, and in favor with God, then it must be a church constructed and conducted ac cording to “ The Pattern Given in the Mount.” (Ex. 25:40; Numbers 3:4; Acts 7:44; Rev. 8:4.) “ The Church after God’s own heart” was in the FIRST century and must be in the TWENTIETH century: First:—A SATED CHURCH. In Acts 2:47 we are told that “ The Lord added to the church daily such as WERE SAVED.” In Acts 5:14 we are told that. “ BELIEVERS were added un to the Lord.” So then we are taught in God’s Word that only BELIEVERS— SAVED people— can rightfully belong to the church, which, is “ After the pat tern given in the mount.” We hear a great deal these days about “ joining the church and doing better,” but there is not a line in the Bible to justify such a position. It is just as unreasonable for one to think of being a member of his mother’s family without having been born physically, as it is to think of be ing a member of the Heavenly Father’s family without having been born spirit ually through faith in the atonement of Christ on the Cross. The only way by which the members of the physical body become united with the head is through the mysterious process of a physical birth; and the only way. by which the members of the spiritual body (the
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