THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NESS I.—What is Meant by the Church. 1. The building in which believers meet together for worship. It was not, however, until the end of the second century, or the begin- LESSON ning of the third, that EXPOSITION “ church” began to be used in this sense. Now perhaps, it is its commonest meaning. 2. A denomination, e. g. the Metho dist Church, the Presbyterian Church. 3. The congregation, or group of people, that meets together in one build ing for worship. 4. The New Testament calls all the professing Christians in one city the church, e g.. “ the church of God which is at Corinth; but the congregation of a district are called “ churches” , e. g. “ the churches of Galatia.” The “ visible church” would embrace those mentioned in this and in definition 3, i. e. all who call themselves by Christ’s name, irre spective of creed or ritual. 5. The highest and holiest use of “ church” in the New Testament is when it is employed to designate those, and only those, who through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ have been born again by the Holy Spirit (John 3 :3), and thus have become members of that body, that spiritual body of which Jesus Christ is the Head, see Ephesians 1:13, 22, 23; 3:10, 21; 4:4, 15, 16; 5:23-27, 29, 32; Colossians 1:18, 24, etc. Not every one who is a member of the visible, or organized, church is a member of the church invisible, and there are doubtless many members of the true spiritual Church who are not members of any of the almost countless divisions of the church visible. H. How One Enters the Church. 1. The visible church. In most Protestant denominations, by personal profession of faith in the Lord Jesus; Christ as Son of God, Saviour and Lord. In other communions, mere birth in a Christian household, and confirmation at a certain age. 2. The invisible church. See para-
6 9 9 graph 5 above. By personal and real acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God,, the Saviour who died in our room and stead upon the cross, the Lord for whom we put away all known sin out of our lives (i. e. actual repentence) and to whom we surrender the ordering of our lives. See John 8:21, 24; 20:30, 31; First John 5:1, 4, 5, 13; Isaiah 53:5, 6; First Peter 2:24; Romans 10:9, 10. III. Service In the Church. 1. Preaching Christ. The apostles preached the Gospel, but so did the deacons (Acts 7:8, 10; 8 :5), and so did the individual believers who held no official place (Acts 8:1, 4). This must ever be the prime purpose of the church. — to make Christ and His salvation known. His last word was, “ Ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1 :8). His last command, coupled with the promise of His abiding presence was “ make disciples of all the nations” (Matt. 28:19). Has the church— you and me and our fellow-believers been in earnest in preaching Christ? kow many sermons setting forth Christ' and His way of salvation, and the necessity of instantly accepting Him, followed by a loving invitation to do so at that very service, have you preached, or heard preached by your pastor, in your church this year? Or, how often this year have you in your Sunday School class given your pupils the opportunity to accept Christ, after you have plainly presented to them how to do so? Was Dr. Arthur J. Gordon, Boston’s saintly Baptist min ister, not right when he said, “ The church that ceases to be evangelistic will soon cease to be evangelical” ? A little girl, friend of mine is just recov ering from an - attack of measles that caught her before she had regained her strength after an attack of scarlet fever. Her run down condition could not with stand the new germ. Would the germs of German so called “ higher criticism”
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