Do You Love the Church?

 Temple Baptist Church - 5-31-2026

Ephesians 5:22-33

 

Introduction: 

A.  Last week, I started a series of messages on the local church.  You may ask why such a series is important.  Because of the falling away from the local church in our day.  We need to fall in love with the local church!  I personally do not want to be “as the manner of some is!” 

 

B.  “Do you love the church?” is a question easily answered by those believers who love God! 

 

1.  Our text tells us of God’s love for the Church.  I fully understand that in this context, Paul speaks of the Body of Christ.  This phrase, though, is corporate! 

 

2.  We know that God loves every believer because He died for the individual as well as the whole of humanity.  John 3:16 speaks of the love of God for “the world,” which is corporate.  He died not only for the individual but also for every individual in the world.

 

3.  The contextual comparison is Christ’s love for His church and the love of the husband for his wife.  I do not believe that we men can love our wives and forsake them at the same time.

 

C.  A verse concerning our love for Christ says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”  (John 14:15)  Though there are many commandments, I want to look again at one that deals with the local assembly called the local church.

 

D.  Last week, we saw God’s commandment concerning the local church:  “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.” 

 

1.  Though this verse is not the subject of this morning’s message, it entails the truth of our loving or not loving the Lord as we should.  Love God, and you will love His church!  Plain and simple, isn’t it? 

 

2.  If Christ loved the church enough to die for it, then, if we love Christ as we should, we should love the local church!

 

3.  I love the church!  Not because I am a pastor.  It has been a place of separation from the world for God.  It has been a refuge in the time of storm.  It has been a place of companionship with the family of God.  I am a pastor because I first loved the Lord and then His church. 

 

4.  Though the Church that Christ died for was the body, He also loved the assembly of the local church.

 

E.  So many of God’s children in our day commit “spiritual adultery.”  This is plainly stated in 1 John 2:15:  “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”  If we love the world more than we love God, then the love of God is not in us.

F.  Now, back to the analogy that the Scriptures give here: men, we are to “love” our wives as Christ “loved” the Church. 

 

1.  Christ gave His all for the Church.  We are to give our all to our wives!

 

2.  Christ did this because He loved the Church.  We are to do the same out of the “same” love.

 

3.  We cannot love as Christ loves, but we are to love in the same way He loves. 

 

a)  The love between a man and his wife is an ever-changing love.  I have often said that the first love between a man and his wife is not the love that will hold their marriage together. 

 

b)  Though we need to keep that first love alive.  Trials and tribulations are what God has chosen to strengthen and change that love over time.  When Barbara and I were saved, we fell in love with the local church.  That first love still exists but has transformed. By finding the local church a refuge in times of trials and tribulations, our love and respect for it have strengthened!

 

c)  Our wedding vows have been kept! 

 

d)  I, ___, take thee, ___, to be my wedded wife/husband,
to have and to hold from this day forward,
for better or worse, for richer or poorer,
in sickness and in health,
to love, honor, and cherish,
forsaking all others,
till death do us part,

 

e)  Through “think and thin,” the local church has always been there for us, and we have been there for the local church.

 

G.  Why is loving the local church so important?  We cannot love the church and be unfaithful to it any more than we can love our wives and be unfaithful to them!

 

1.  Because It Is The Place That God Loves - Ephesians 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.

 

2.  Because It Is The Place Of Worship - Psalms 5:7   But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.

 

A place of Singing, A place of Praising, A place of Giving, and A place of Preaching!

 

3.  Because It Is The Place Where I Can Tithe and Give.  Malachi 3:10  Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

 

4.  Because It Is The Place Of Preaching And Teaching God’s Word - 1 Timothy 3:15  But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

 

What a joy to open God’s Word and just read it together.  What a joy to study God’s Word in Sunday School.  What a joy to be reproved rebuked, exhorted, and challenged by the preaching of God’s Word.

 

Job 23:12  Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

 

5.  Because It Is The Place Where God’s People Gather - Psalms 55:14  We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.

 

The greatest people on earth are there!

 

Psalms 122:1  A Song of degrees of David. I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.

 

6.  Because It Is The Place Where Sinners Are Both Sought And Loved - Luke 14:23  And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

 

Matthew 9:10  And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.

 

7.  Because It Is God’s Instrument For World Evangelism - 1 Thessalonians 1:6-8  And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost:  So that ye were ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.  For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God–ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing.

 

8.  Because It Was There That I Heard The True Gospel Preached And Was Gloriously and Eternally Saved – Luke 18:10, 13-14  Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican …  And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

 

9.  Because It Is A Place Of Comfort And Spiritual Joy - Psalms 122:1 I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.

 

10.  It Is An Encouragement Filling Station - 2 Timothy 4:2  Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

 

Hebrews 10:25  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

 

10.  Because It Is Just A Little Bit Of Heaven On Earth - Psalms 84:1-12  How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!  My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.  Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.  Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.  Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.  Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.  They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.  O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.  Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.  For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.  For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.  O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.