Short Review

You’ll recall that we looked at how the altar call and the so-called “prayer of faith” do not conform to the Biblical example of how someone gets saved. And you’ll recall that there is a model for salvation. In other words, there is a solid example for evangelism in the Church today. That example is repeated time and time again in the Bible, and it demonstrates what it looks like for someone to truly get saved.

You might also remember that we said that a solid Christian will eventually identify that model. Since it’s laid out for us in the Bible, a solid Christian is bound to stumble across it sooner or later, especially if he reads the Book of Acts.

A Christian should not get his concept of what a salvation experience looks like through subjective stories, or through anecdotes. He needs to be more serious and seek a pattern in the Scriptures. Serious Christians will seek the ancient paths just as God told us through the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 6:16:

Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.

The right approach to establishing, organizing, and promoting a model for evangelism in your congregation is to go back to the beginning. You’ll know what to do if you ‘ask for the ancient paths.’

So where are these first principles located? Where can we find these foundations? If we go to Hebrews 6 verses 1-2 we find the only passage in the Bible that uses that term foundations and it presents seven of them to us. Not surprisingly, among those Seven Foundations is the doctrine of baptisms.

So, you can see that a sound understanding of baptisms is the key to establishing, organizing, and promoting a model for evangelism in your congregation. The Bible itself calls baptisms a fundamental principle.

Purchasing Power

Now, the bad news. Unfortunately, today’s Christian Church is in bad shape. It’s in such bad shape that it's just like a church that during the times of the Apostles was in Laodicea.

Have you heard about the church of Laodicea? It’s one of the seven churches of John’s Revelation. Jesus warned each of those churches about how they had to change. Each of them was doing poorly in an area of Church life. Here are Jesus’ specific warnings to the church in Laodicea:

You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.

Consider what it looks like to be poor.

Consider what it means to be blind.

Consider what it means to have no clothes--that is, to be naked.

Jesus goes on, giving these three pieces of advice:

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich;

and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness;

and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see (Revelation 3:17-19).

Okay, so this passage is all about one thing: purchasing power. Let’s break it down into bite-sized portions, focusing in on the three things the Church must purchase from Jesus.

Our Lord Jesus is a merchant, and he is selling items which can aid us. If we will obtain his help, we have to be willing to procure these three things: gold, white clothes, and eye salve.

These are Jesus’ wares. Again, there are three of them: (1) gold, (2) white clothes, and (3) eye salve.

You maybe haven’t noticed the spiritual poverty, nakedness, or blindness of the Church, but the Lord Jesus has. It was Jesus who said to the Laodiceans that they were poor, blind, and naked—and that’s because they needed to hear it! Even if they didn’t know it, they needed the three items Jesus was offering.

And what about us today? Do we need the gold, white clothes, and eye salve of Jesus? Absolutely, yes. Maybe you didn’t know it, but the Church is very over confident. The Church thinks that she is rich, but she is spiritually poor.

The Christian Church today needs Jesus’ gold, white clothes, and eye salve. So, let’s look at what these three items stand for. And let’s figure out what we must do to obtain them.

Purchase Gold

First, in order to take away our poverty, Jesus offers us gold. Any person who has gold is no longer poor, that’s for sure!

Jesus offers us gold, but not just any gold. His is gold refined in the fire, so it is tested and true. It has passed through fire. That means that all the dross has been burned off. It has been purified. It is what people call “pure gold.”

Obviously we’re not talking about something physical when we speak of Jesus' gold. The gold of Revelation 3 is metaphorical. So, what exactly is that gold, and how do we buy it from our Lord Jesus?

The refined gold Jesus offers the Church today is the Faith, the sound doctrine.

It’s no coincidence that when the Apostle Peter speaks of our faith, he  tells us that it is ‘… of greater worth than gold’ (1 Peter 1:7).

Let's remind ourselves again about the meaning of the term the Faith: The Faith with a capital F is the set of the basic Christian teachings. Those teachings were given to us by the Apostles. Call them sound doctrine, if you will. These teachings are the intellectual framework of Christianity--something at least as valuable as gold.

The Faith is the doctrine passed down to us by the Apostles. You’ll find the Faith in the New Testament because the New Testament is the writings of the Apostles. How precious and valuable do you consider your New Testament? Again, it is worth much more than gold!

And the sound doctrine within the New Testament Scriptures is extremely uncommon—you won't hear it even preached in most churches! So that's what makes it so valuable.

Getting Rich

Now we know what it is; but what’s the effect of the Faith on people like you and me? As the passage says, it makes us rich. We become intellectually, spiritually, and corporately enriched when we possess Christian sound doctrine.

Let’s hear the passage again. In it, Jesus speaks to a congregation that is deceived. They think that they are wealthy, but they’re not. The reason why they are so deceived is that they don’t know what true riches are.

You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are… poor... I [Jesus] counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich… (Revelation 3:17-18).

So, the Laodiceans’ problem was not economic poverty. On the contrary, they were financially prosperous. They had finances, but they didn’t have the Faith. They had money, but they didn't have ministry. They had become monetarily rich, but at the same time they had become spiritually poor.

Pillar and Ground of the Truth

On the other hand, a congregation rich in the Faith will find itself owning a treasure of immeasurable worth: sound doctrine. Now, since no other:

religion

business

sports club

family dynasty

municipality

state

country

army...

... or corporate entity possesses anything of similar value, the Church should appreciate its sound doctrine. Remember: Jesus calls it gold refined in the fire, so it's valuable. But do we truly appreciate it?

We need to remember that sound doctrine is a rarity. It's like a fine diamond. It's like a rare emerald. It doesn’t belong to any other group on the planet. It belongs exclusively to us, God’s Church.

Yes, the Church owns the Truth! We are the stewards of the Truth.

All sound doctrine belongs to us. We are the Church of the Living God, the pillar and ground of the Truth (1 Timothy 3:15; NKJV).

Think about it: Since the Apostles and prophets are founding members of the Church, and they composed the Bible, and the Bible is the Truth, and the Bible belongs to us—we are the foundation of the Truth. The Truth was established in us, and it continues to shine exclusively through us!

Remember: The Church is not an entity of this World. It is not a famous restaurant. We are not some elite yacht club. We are not a popular TV network. We are not a top-rated university. We're not Harvard, Oxford, Yale, or Cambridge. We are much much more. We are the pillar and ground of the Truth.

That also means that we are Jesus’ mouthpieces, his spokesmen and spokeswomen.

One Body

We are not a human organization. An organization comes into being by men. Rather, we are a living organism, brought into being by God.

Organisms are alive. They are living, breathing creatures designed by the all-wise God, whereas organizations are designed by fallible men.

Again, the Church is not an organi-zation but an organ-ism. Specifically, we are a Body. We behave in a natural, healthy, and organic way.

The Church is the Body of Christ.

Note that the Bible doesn’t call the Church a Body. It calls the Church the Body. As a matter of fact, it  calls the Church the One Body. That’s because Jesus is monogamous—he has one Bride. He sets his eyes on no other.

Jesus is a Groom and his covenant is with only one Bride—the Church, the One Body.

Adam and Eve

Go back approximately 100 generations to our forefather and foremother, Adam and Eve. Did you know that they represent Jesus and the Church? Eve was literally the body of Adam.

In what sense was Eve the body of Adam? Well, Eve proceeded from Adam. God formed her from Adam’s body—in particular, from his rib. She was his body because without Adam, Eve wouldn’t have ever existed.

Now, consider the origins of the Church, and you will have to admit the same truth that applies to Eve: The Church wouldn’t exist without Jesus. We come from him—specifically from the blood that poured out of his side on the Cross.

Our life comes from Jesus' life--and his life is in his blood. The life of the Church originates from Christ’s life-giving flow of blood.

Furthermore, God gave the Church to Jesus in the same way a father gives his daughter to a groom. Right now we belong to Jesus—but that only became official at Pentecost when a group of believers became alive through the elements of water and blood.

A woman's body belongs to her husband. The two become one flesh and the bride becomes the groom's body in marriage. Likewise, the Church now belongs to Jesus and we have become his Body.

God presided over this union. He gave us to Jesus. God officiated our union and has declared the two husband and wife: Jesus and the Church. It's a glorious thing to be God's Church. There's nothing to compare us to. We're the one!

Pay the Price

Now, let's get back to the question of how exactly we buy this gold Jesus offers us. How do we obtain sound doctrine?

There’s a price to pay. God doesn’t give anything for free. We have to pay a price. But what is it? How do we get sound doctrine?

Well, many will say that the price is Bible study. That’s part of it, but it’s the easiest part. The hardest part and the heftiest part of the price is boldness. The biggest demand God puts on us, the payment due, is bravery.

Call it courage, but to obtain sound doctrine you must resist lies, fight false teachers, and stand tall against enemies. You will lose friends, family support, professional opportunities, promotions, and popularity. You’ll pay dearly for sound doctrine. You may even have to pay with your life.

Is not buying the opposite of selling? Yes, it is.

So therefore "to buy" means “not to sell.” Buying is "not selling." So, Jesus says that we have to buy gold from him. That means, in the inverse, that we cannot sell out. We cannot compromise the Truth.

Don’t let anyone take from you that which you have acquired for such a high price. Never sell out. Guard your valuables with all your might. The wise king Solomon gave us that same advice when he said:

Buy the Truth and do not sell it (Proverbs 23:23).

What great words of wisdom! Let's take them to heart and hold firmly to the Faith, the sound doctrine. It is gold--gold refined in the fire!