Recently, I traveled to Oak Harbor, WA to take part of the 50th Anniversary celebration for Bible Baptist Church. For a church to begin takes the grace of God. People must be saved, baptized, and added to the church. For a church to continue takes the grace of God. Spiritual growth and spiritual integrity both depend on the Lord. No true church can function without Christ.
Jesus promised Peter in Matthew 16:18, “And upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Satan hates the Lord’s churches, and he assaults them continuously. False teaching, false teachers, disunity, externalism, worldliness, ongoing sin, apathy—all of these and more pose devastating threats to the churches of the Lord Jesus.
Yet Christ, as the chief-Cornerstone and Head of the church, protects His church and sanctifies His church to purge it from sin. Because of Christ, the church not only can continue, but it can also thrive. Praise God when this can be said of a church after 50 years.
We desire the same thing for Jackson County Baptist Church. By God’s grace, under the Headship of Christ, through the working of the Spirit, and with our cooperation, may this work here be established; and should Christ tarry, that it would continue for generations to come.
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