Is One Church As Good As Another?
Eph. 1:22-23; 1 Tim. 3:15

A. The view of most people in the denominational world today is that one church is as good as another. Anything of a specific belief or worshiping God in a designated way is unnecessary.
1. In Christian Denominations “ecumenical” movement is popular — denominational mergers are often announced in the news.
a. We can have “Unity in diversity.” After all we have many thing in common We are more
alike than we are different, and since we have so much in common we can have “unity”
despite their disagreements.
(A) It is a commonly held belief that it does not matter which church one belongs to, as long as one is sincere.
Popular evangelists on TV and in community crusades, advise people to “join the church of your choice.”
If one needs a church, any church will do. One is pretty much as good as another.
Churches are like vitamin pills in a bottle — If you need to take one, it doesn’t matter which one you take----They are all the same.
Churches are like motor oil. There are a lot of different brands. All about the same except some have a different additive. But, they’ll all get you where you’re going.
(B) Will that Idea stand up to close examination? I don’t really think so.
It’s a dangerous concept that Ultimately leads to cynicism and unbelief.
When people, In the name of open-mindedness, get to lazy to search for truth it won’t be long until he starts justifying what he’s doing by saying, “It doesn’t really matter.”
Mark it down. He must eventually come to the conclusion, “If it does not matter what one believes, then it certainly can not matter whether one believes at all?
Do we believe truth can contradict itself — or be whatever we want it to be?
We just had 8 years of a president who not only believed that, he lived it.
That’s the sociopathic philosophy that puts people in prisons and electric chairs and literally destroys a society
b. Person looking for the Lord’s church today, is in much the same position as a
first?century person looking for the Messiah Himself!
(1) The question was always the same. And it was the one question one could not afford to be wrong about.
(1) Do you know what that question was? “Could this be the Christ?” That was the question asked by the woman at the well outside the city of Sychar, Jno. 4:29.
(2) But there were many who claimed to be the Christ ? Matt. 24:5, 24.
(a) Were any of the many “Messiahs” who appeared then as good as any of the
others? What was the likelihood that one of these, out of all the others,
was the “one true Messiah”?
(b) Today, if we have correctly identified the Messiah, would we want to
connect ourselves to any church that this Messiah did not acknowledge as
belonging to Him? The truth is, Christ does not acknowledge just any
church that professes Him Matt. 7:21-23.
(3) Apostasy is a very frightening thing and yet it was predicted early on - 1 Tim.
4:1; Acts 20:28-30.
(1) Some congregations in the 1st century disregarded Christ’s authority.

(2) He was about to disavow them ? Rev. 2:5; Ephesus “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place.”
Rev. 3:16, Laodicea, “Because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot,
I will vomit you out of My mouth.”
(2) Now as it did then Faith and Practice does make the difference Matt. 7:21.
(1) As with individuals, churches that go beyond the “doctrine of Christ” forfeit the right to wear His name - 2 Jno. 9.
(1) If we ask whether one “has to be a member of the Church of Christ to be saved,” you are probably missing a crucial point.
(2) The Lord’s church is not the one “correct” denomination that one must find to be saved.
(2) The church of the Lord consists of Christians, those who have been “added to the Lord” - Acts 11:24; 2:47, “The Lord added to the church those who were saved.”
(1) The Lord’s “disciples” are not members of any denomination They cease to be the Lord’s disciples if they attach themselves to any congregation or organization operating outside the boundaries of Christ’s authority Lk. 6:46.
(2) If you are in any denomination at all, you’re in something that came along many years after the Lord’s church began.
(3) We just encourage you to do what sinners did In New Testament, times to become what they became Undivided, un-denominated Christians who did what God asked, and were added to Christ’s Church.
(3) The question is not, which denomination should I join.
(1) The basic question is, Have I really obeyed the gospel the way Christ and His apostles commanded and the way the New Testament Christians obeyed.
(2) Am I actually a New Testament Christian? Do I know for sure that I have fellowship with Christ?
(3) Acts 20:32.

Spur - 5/20/2001 pm