Christ Honoring Church (Part 1)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Avendroff. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the Scriptures verse by verse with No Compromise.

The Goal of a Christ-Honoring Church Is Maturity in Christ

Let's turn our Bibles to Colossians chapter 1 as we now continue to worship the Lord by listening to His Word preached. Let's one more time look at Colossians chapter 1 verses 28 and 29 so we can see what are the essentials of a Christ-honoring church.

We're going to quickly find out that the essentials are not going to be what the world would say. In these two powerfully packed verses, Paul shows us what a Christ-honoring church is. Colossians 128, Him, Christ, we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

For this I toil, struggling with all His energy, that He powerfully works within me. Paul is in prison and he writes to the church of Colossae, this is what I want you to do. And so in review, the first essential for a Christ-honoring church is the church must have the right purpose.

The right purpose. I don't know if you shoot guns at all, but if you've got the wrong aim, you've got the wrong bead, you're not aiming small to miss small, you're going to miss your target. And here the target is not a new building, that's not why we exist.

We get the new building, we don't get the new building, we are the church. The goal of this ministry is not more income, more people, more press, that's not our goal. We have marching orders and we have the goal here of what?

What does the text say? Three times using the word everyone, so it's not just leaders, it's not just those in the know, it's everyone should be made mature, present mature, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

That is the goal of the ministry, whether there are 30 people here, 3 or 3 ,000, we want you to be mature. That's our goal. As you increase in maturity, you'll look more and more like Christ, won't you?

You'll be able to say by the Spirit's power no to sin more often, yes to righteousness more often and God is glorified when the church begins from one level of glory to the next like 2 Corinthians 3 to look like Christ Jesus.

That's why we exist, the maturity of the saints. You say what's the goal of the worship service today? The worship service is to exalt the triune God and when you exalt the triune God through His word and through His ways, you grow, you learn, you are mature.

That's my motive, so that you'll more resemble Christ Jesus, you'll live up to your position in Christ Jesus. And look at the text that Paul and the leaders may present. It means to offer or to yield.

I love weddings when we have a wedding here and I get to ask the question right down there, who gives this bride to be married to this man? And the father then presents the daughter to the groom and he says what, I do.

That's the kind of language, to offer, to yield. I don't care about explosive growth, I think I said it two weeks ago, it's more of a problem when all the people show up. If there just would be 300 and we would cap it, my life would be a lot easier.

Two services, buildings, what about this, all these other issues but we preach the word and if God adds people, then He adds people. You know what, mature saints, you say, why would I want to be a mature saint?

Well, one of the reasons you want to be a mature saint because then when a trial comes, you can handle it more biblically. When temptation comes, you can buttress yourself against that temptation because you are more mature.

Show me a little child who's three years old and put him in a tempting situation and what do they do? I've seen some of those cameras where they film what's going on in the room and they'll say to the kid, you know, there's some brownies over here, they do weird things like, if you don't eat that brownie, when we come back after five minutes, we'll give you two brownies and you just watch that kid and they're just kind of looking at it and everything and finally they just have to go for it and then all of a sudden you bring in a ten-year-old kid, they can understand delayed sanctification, delayed gratification and if you don't eat that, you get two later and they can hold off and it's the same thing.

As we learn and grow, we have a better idea of what the world offers and what it actually gives, who Christ is, evangelize, we evangelize better, pray more, give better and so we want you to be mature for lots of reasons.

False teachers on the other hand, they want you to stay babies because then they can manipulate you. Paul says, everything about me drives me to the constraint of having Christ proclaim so that you are mature.

See that word there, mature? Maybe your text says perfect, it means wholly devoted to God, all-sighted, wholly true. Solomon said, let your heart therefore be wholly true to the Lord your God. You want your kids to grow up, we want our church to grow as well.

Turn with me if you would to Ephesians, just for a quick second, you'll see a mirrored language there, Ephesians chapter 4. By the way, if you show me a congregation, I'll tell you everything you need to know about the leadership because if the leadership is driving the church towards a view of Christ so that they might be mature, as you see a maturing church, you know that the leaders have been faithful to discharge their duty, to preach the word but show me a church that's immature and not maturing and I'll show you leaders who are doing the wrong thing.

Maybe they want all the power, maybe they want all the prestige, who knows? And Paul here says, as God gives in verse 11 apostles and prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, why does he do that? Verse 12, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of faith and the knowledge of the son of God to a what?

Mature man, to the measure of a stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. Paul says my privilege is to preach the word in such a way that you'll grow, you'll learn, you'll, actually if you look back at verse 12, the equipping of the saints, it means to prepare.

When I was a kid and I was goofing around with my brother who was nine years younger, I'd pick him up by the arms and I'd swing him around. And I was trying to teach him a physics lesson about centripetal force and I was swinging him around and then all of a sudden, arm out of socket, just hanging and then it's like, don't tell dad, don't tell dad, don't tell dad, I'll give you my tinker toys, don't tell dad.

Log, you know, Lincoln logs. Some of the young people here are going, Lincoln logs? What's a Lincoln log? I hate walking behind people now, they should be ticketed for texting, walking through the mall.

I'm just on my way and they're just like this. But anyway, it's dislocated, I'm just trying to keep you awake, dislocated. And what the doctor would have to do is hold the elbow a special way, our mom could do it, and then it's just turned the right way, oh, and it goes right back in.

That's the exact word that's used here in Ephesians. Dislocated bone, shoulder, right back in, kind of chiropractic adjustment, realigned. So the body's edified. And we don't stop as leaders until you're glorified.

I'm happy when new people come. I'm happier though when you as a mature person goes out and preaches the gospel to someone else and they get saved, and then you say, come with us. But no church's success should be rated by numbers, cash, buildings, attendance.

We want you to be mature. By the way, if our goal is maturity, listen, where does entertainment fit in? If our goal is everyone, everyone, everyone mature so you look more like Christ, as we proclaim Christ to you, you become more and more mature in every area.

You are growing. God declares you just. He then works out salvation in you, sanctifying you over and over and over, and you arrive in glory. We do that through the preaching of the word in Christ Jesus.

Where does entertainment fit? Is entertainment fine? Well, it's fine, but it doesn't fit anywhere in the local church. G. Campbell Morgan, the pastor previous to Lloyd-Jones, said, when amusement is necessary to get people to listen to the gospel, there will be failure.

This is not the method of Christ. To form an organization and provide all kinds of entertainment for young people in order that they may come to Bible classes is to be foredoomed to failure. Christ-honoring churches, number one, have the right purpose.

Christ Must Be the One Proclaimed

Number two, they preach the right person. Take a look back at verse 28 of Colossians. Let's go back to Colossians. The right purpose is maturity, Christ-likeness. How do you get there? He says with a summary sweeping overview, three words, him we proclaim, Jesus we proclaim.

Preaching, the right preaching or the right person, maybe we'll call it the right person preached. We proclaim him. It's an announcement. I have an announcement. It's about Jesus today. It's not about me.

It's not about the elders. It's not about Paul the apostle. It's about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Of course the pastor can have an anecdotal story about himself or tell something about his brother dislocating his arm.

But the issue is, I hope he can, the issue is Christ, you come to this church, you bring a friend. I used to go to churches before and I'd think, I'd better not ever bring my friend to that church because I have no idea what they're going to do.

I have no, I don't know. I don't know what they're going to do. I mean people going and doing the dead fly up here and jumping all around and I don't know, laughing and doing things. I'm afraid to bring a friend.

And then you do bring a friend and the whole time you're just going, God help me, God help me, God help me. Please. And you know, you're watching their faces. There's all this shenanigans going around.

By the grace of God, if you teach a Sunday school class and you say to yourself, no matter who comes today, I have a message for them. It's Christ Jesus, the God man, the incarnate son of God who came and died on a cross and was raised from the dead.

That's who I have to offer you. I don't have anybody else. If you're bored with him, I don't know what to tell you. The God man, that's who we are going to proclaim. Paul was smart enough. He could have proclaimed himself easily.

He says, I have an announcement. By the way, that's a present tense. Over and over and over. If you're an apostle or anyone else, you preach Christ. A teacher, Sunday school teacher, your parent, that's what you should teach your children.

He says something here in the Greek language that's hard for us to understand. We preach Christ. It's easy to say we preach about Jesus, but here with this language for emphasis, we preach Christ. That's how you know who we are.

2 Corinthians 4, for what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord. You want to bring a friend to the church, we'd love you to bring a friend to the church. First preach them the gospel and then say, I'm going to take you to a place where what you hear is they sing about Jesus, they read scriptures about Jesus, they pray through Jesus as a mediatorial advocacy, and they preach about Jesus, they baptize and talk about Jesus, they have communion and talk about Jesus.

If you don't like Jesus, this is a bad church for you. That's what we do. That's what you do when you teach your kids. This is not a system of philosophy that Paul preaches. He's preaching the Messiah.

I love Heidelberg Catechism. They knew what it was like to preach Christ so that you would mature. Listen to this. It's just brilliant. What is your only comfort in life and death? You're on your deathbed, what's your hope?

What's your comfort? You've got a long life to live and you're just in high school or college, what's your hope and comfort? It's a horrible world, what's your hope and comfort? Unsaved spouse, what's your hope and comfort?

Unsaved kids, what's your hope and comfort? Money, success, credit cards, big house, got it going on with the portfolio. Listen to Heidelberg Catechism. That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul both in life and death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head.

Indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, he assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him.

That's proclaiming Christ. Spurgeon said, when I cease to proclaim Christ, salvation by faith in Christ, put me into a lunatic asylum for you may be sure that my mind is gone. And I like Paul because he practiced what he preached.

Go to chapter 2. Paul is saying, we proclaim him, we proclaim him, we proclaim him. You read Colossians chapter 1 verse 15 and 20, he proclaims Christ. And now in chapter 2 as well. He practiced what he preached.

This is, this is what I'm after. I'm after not here for some peppy pickup sermon to get me through another week. I'm here to have someone say, you know, all these things that you look at the world and, and the system and things that are competing for the glory of God and for your attention.

There's somebody else who's greater. There's a greater God. And when you see him, the, what the world offers is just fake. It's plastic. It doesn't stand up to it. Here's the Golden Gate Bridge. Take a look at it.

Why are we focused over here on Plato Bridge? Colossians 2, Paul is just showing people, look at who Christ is. Focus on Christ. Keep your gaze on Christ. Glance at the problems, but you gaze on Christ and you watch what happens.

Colossians 2, 13. And you who were dead in your trespasses, the uncircumcision of your flesh spiritually, God made alive with him. It's all about God. It's all about Christ Jesus. He made us. He co-quickened us.

Father, Son, and Spirit, salvation of the Lord. Spurgeon said, that must be God's work. Many man may reform himself, but how can man give himself a new heart? God did it. We were, some people buy houses and they fix them up.

It's a good job to do. Fix them up. Well, when God saw our house, it couldn't be fixed up. Just put the new windows in. It'll be fine. A new roof. It'll be okay. Some new plaster pairs. It'll be fine.

God says, here's how this house is going to be fixed up. Wrecking ball, destruction, because we didn't just need a little fixing up. We needed a complete, I was going to say makeover. That sounds stupid.

Don't just need a little paint job because everything in the house is broken. The electricity doesn't work. The roof doesn't work. The walls don't work. The phone doesn't work. Nothing works. And so what does God do?

He regenerates us. He quickens us. He makes us alive. And by the way, if two people in the universe could make us alive, I'd preach both. But since only one can make us alive, we with Paul and everyone else preaches Christ Jesus.

See, if there's two saviors, you wouldn't mind if I preach two people. Let's preach Jesus and let's preach, I don't know. Glenn Beck. I'm amazed how Christians listen to Glenn Beck and then what he does is he has theological words but with different meanings.

And we hear what we want to hear as we listen to these false messiahs. But if there were two saviors, Buddha and Jesus, you wouldn't mind if I didn't say him we proclaim half the time. But there's only one that can take a sinner who's dead and trespasses in sin, whose heart is uncircumcised.

And then God says, you're now alive, live with the same power that he creates the universe. He recreates people. Listen to S. Lewis Johnson yesterday and he said, people are like, you know, in numbers.

You mean to tell me God can make a donkey that talks? Who can make a donkey talk? And S. Lewis said, he said to the guy, who can make a donkey? Who can take a donkey and make them alive? So Paul is saying, that's why I talk about God.

We believe in monergism, God alone working in salvation. Do we respond? Of course. But who's on first? The cause of your salvation, right there in the text. Take a look at it again. God made us alive.

We were impotent spiritually. Churches want us we proclaim, pastor we proclaim, congregational size we proclaim, buildings we proclaim. I'll show you a church that's on its way down into spiritual dwarfism, but here he made you alive.

So that's why Paul says we preach him. Not man and God as co-authors, not man alone, God forbid. And then he just keeps going. This God that Jesus, that Paul proclaims Jesus Christ, he does all kinds of things.

Here's a God I proclaim to you. Verse 13, having forgiven all your transgressions. Can you imagine, if you're a Christian today, God has granted you forgiveness. Just how many sins can a person commit in their lifetime?

Just how many sins does it take for God to banish you into eternal judgment because of his justice? And God is forgiving us every one of our sins? We all have skeletons, we all have issues. And here the word for forgiveness is where we get the word grace.

He granted us a favor. Could I ask a favor of you, please? Oh, I'd like to do you a favor. The favor God gives at the expense of his son is forgiveness. And this is not the word for missing the mark sin, this is transgression.

It's at the end of a sentence, emphatic, high-handed sin. That's why I love these verses in the Psalms, how blessed is he whose transgression is what? Forgiven. Oh, Lord, if you should mark iniquities, who could stand but there is forgiveness with you?

Our Micah, who is a God like you who pardons iniquity? Paul says, you know, I'm just going to keep proclaiming Christ. Look at the next part of the verse, in verse 14, rather. He cancels out the debt of sin.

That's why we proclaim Christ. Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile towards us. This debt, it's where we get the word from chiropractic, chiro is hand.

There's a debt against us and it's written in hand, as it were. This is just a good way to think about it. And so if I got a debt against you back in those days, I would write it on some animal skin probably and I would write it and I would give it to you or I could keep a copy as well, write one for myself.

And here the text is saying, God can take something like an eraser and erase the debt that was against us for all of our sins erased. What's the point? Paul is trying to say, no matter how many times you've sinned or what you've done in your past, God erases it.

I'm thankful for that. I know he can do a work that I can't do. Friends, I can't even erase sins out of my own mind that I did before I was saved and after I was saved. Yet God can erase every one of those sins.

If two people could erase them, then I'd preach two people. The sin debt against God has been blotted out. Means to wipe off or to erase. You've got a black marker, except like upstairs in the room at IBS, sometimes I go up there to teach a class and I think, somebody has taken indelible ink and doodled on my wall.

Not my wall, whatever it is. Whiteboard. You know what? In 10 years from now, we're not even going to know what a whiteboard is because it's all going to be linked up to the computer like they have now.

I think Dave Myers knows something about that. And it's, I can't get it off. Scrub. From now on, I'm going to say to Caleb Johansson, I got a job for you. Okay. I'll do whatever you say. Scrub that off.

You can't do it. Friends, even if we could deal with our sins by this. You know what? I sinned a lot in the past, but I'm not going to sin one more time as long as I live. Our sins in the past that have been indelibly marked against the law of God must be punished.

One sin, right? That's James chapter two, verse 10. And yet God relieved the debt by punishing Jesus in our place. Isaiah 43, I am the one who wipes out your transgressions. Same language. Paul can't stand it.

He just keeps going on. Look at the text in verse 14 and he's taken it out of the way. Not just wiped it out, but takes it away. Same language. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And then with finality, what does Paul do? He talks about this Christ who having done all this, verse 14, nailed it to the cross. The document itself is gone. The charge that was put above Jesus was our charge.

And then it gets better. You don't need crazy Christian quote unquote TV. If you want spiritual warfare, watch this. Verse 15, Paul is preaching Christ. He wants the church of Colossae to grow up. You preach Christ at Sunday school, your kids mature.

You preach Christ at home, your kids mature. Preach Christ from the pulpit, they mature. And here, what else did Jesus do? Could there even be anything else? He vanquishes Satan and all the hordes of Satan.

And when he had disarmed the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them having triumphed over them through him. He disarmed the rulers. Here's the picture. It's figurative language all pointed to one thing.

Jesus triumphs over evil and Satan and his minions. But here's the language. Could be two different ways you could look at it. That here Jesus is, and all the demons are grabbing him from every side, trying to pull him down, trying to hold on to him, trying to grab him.

And they're just trying to kind of gorilla glue themselves on with their nasty fingernails, as it were, and they're attached to him. I mean, this is figurative language because these are, for the most part, invisible beings unless they would inhabit someone.

But they're all grabbing Jesus. And it's like Jesus, like a bad set of, like a bad tunic, just rips them all off. He displays triumph over them. Or it could be the demons, as it were, had weapons and they had arms and they had different things to attack Jesus, and he just strips them of their weapons and armor, puts them to public shame.

Either way, Jesus is triumphing over them, and that's what the text says. Having triumphed over them through him.