Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
There is a strange, seemingly contradictory verse from Hosea that speaks of how God looked upon the great missionary zeal among His people. I noticed this verse many years ago, and it instructed me in the fear of God. Hosea's strange verse reads this way (10:1): "Israel is an empty vine; he bringeth forth fruit unto himself."
One would think that a vine that bore fruit is a vine that cannot be called "empty", but that is not how it was, in this case, from God's point of view. From God's perspective, Israel bore much fruit, but none of it belonged to Him. In other words, membership in Israel's religion increased, but the converts who joined their religion did not belong to God. There had developed in Israel a difference between the religion of God's people and the religion of God. To say it another way, to belong to Israel no longer meant to belong to God. There is no greater tragedy on earth than that.
It has happened again. God's people long ago wandered from the truth and helped invent a new, more socially acceptable religion to which to win converts. In time, it became known as "Christianity", or "the church", and its members claim to be "Christians", a name taken from the Bible. For centuries now, the saints of God within Christianity have labored with Christians to win people to "the church", and when those sinners are won to the "church", what has God profited from it? Nothing.
The following statement is one of the most important truths you can learn about membership in God's family: "CHURCH MEMBERSHIP" DOES NOT EQUAL "MEMBERSHIP IN THE FAMILY OF GOD". The ramifications of this truth are staggering to consider.
Since Christianity, or "the church", is not of God, one can join it and still have no spiritual connection whatsoever with Jesus Christ. Every honest-hearted person in the world knows, in his heart, that this is true. No doubt, every one of us knows members of Christian churches who have no faith in Christ at all, no love for the things of the Spirit, and no understanding whatsoever of things concerning the kingdom of God.
Christian missionaries are laboring around the globe for converts, but when they win "lost" souls to their church, what does God get out of it? Those zealous and hard-working missionaries are making sacrifices to be "fruitful" in their labor to win souls, but to whom do those souls belong when they are won? If they have not received the baptism of the holy Ghost, they have not been won to God for "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Rom. 8:9). To whom then do they belong? Please think about that question, and about the obvious, awful answer.
Membership in God's family means to be born again; it means to have sins washed away by the blood of the Lamb of God; it means to be baptized with the holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues. If the congregation to which we are winning people is not that which Jesus created by the baptism of the holy Ghost, then we, too, have become empty vines, regardless of how many souls we have "won".
To which assembly do you win people? To a Christian assembly that they can join, or to the assembly of saints who belong to God?