IF WE DON'T BUILD GOD'S HOUSE, WHO WILL?

2/23/92

IF WE DON'T BUILD GOD'S HOUSE, WHO WILL?
EZRA 2: 68
(PAGE 696 COME ALIVE BIBLE)
JESUS CHRIST said, "I will build my church and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it."
His true church is the universal church that often manifests
itself as a local church body. Our English word itself has its
derivation in the term "belonging to the Lord." It is His
church, this fellowship of believers. Each of us as members are
spiritual building blocks bought at the price of His redemptive
blood as shed on Calvary to purchase our salvation.
Like a crustacea in the sea, the spiritual body, the church,
needs a house. As our beloved Lord is the builder of His
spiritual church body, so He proposes to use those purchased by
His loving sacrifice to build the church house. That means we
who constitute the present membership have been blessed to be
here at such a time as He proposes to build another house in His
beloved name.
The Old Testament is replete with accounts of various periods
when God's people were honored by Him by allowing them to be His
agents through which He built His house. We who are blessed to
be challenged currently can learn from them.
One such exciting account in recorded in the book of Ezra.
Zedekiah, Judah's last king, and his people were carried into
captivity by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 B.C. Jerusalem was
destroyed and the temple burned on July 18, 586 B.C. (II Kings
24). Daniel and Ezekiel were among the captives.
On October 29, 539 B.C., Babylon fell to the invading armies of
the Medes and Persians, led by Cyrus the Great. During th ...

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