A beautiful corporate worship space was not the idea of mere men. The Great Commission taken in comprehensive context places explicit responsibility upon believers to own physical property and build appropriate buildings where disciples can continue to honor God by gathering weekly for corporate worship and declare the Gospel of His kingdom to the whole world from those strategic, decentralized, sanctified, set-apart, and holy locations. Moses was entrusted with blueprints explaining exactly how to construct a worship space for the Hebrew people under their particular covenant, and it cost everyone involved treasure and sacrifice given out of respect for God’s command that a proper place of worship be built. While we acknowledge that our new covenant does not necessarily require us to construct an exact replica of the ancient Temple of Jerusalem, it does extend the same principles to our present-day pursuit of an honorable gathering space for worshiping God as a body of believers on the first day of the week. Ironically, a single lonely verse (1 Corinthians 6:19), where the Apostle Paul rebukes believers who are sinning sexually and makes a point to illustrate how tremendous the price was for Christ to save our lives, is used by people in our time to erringly suggest we "don’t need church buildings." This is, at best, very poor interpretation of the Bible, and at worst, denigrating to the price Jesus truly paid to establish His kingdom via the church.

The personification of truth and grace sat down next to Father God in Heaven - in universal kingdom authority - and He commissioned supernatural gifts sent from Heaven to the earth. These "grace packages" were sent in the form of anointed Bible preachers who are set within your local church by the will of God. Are you partaking of the grace uniquely given them by Jesus Christ for your benefit? In this sermon, Pastor Gordon explains the first startling act of Jesus Christ which began immediately after He ascended to Heaven and sat down upon His throne. Teaching from Ephesians chapter four, in juxtaposition with Romans chapter ten, Pastor Gordon explains how the grace of God is for the "repairing of the saints." No wonder Satan hates the church and works overtime to diminish its true importance in the life of Christians!

Someone asked, "What is God doing today in our world? What is God doing in the midst of America's confusion and troubles today?" Here's the answer: He is building strong local churches! What does a strong local church look like? How is it possible to truly connect your life to the greater cause and commission of the Universal Church through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ? In this fascinating sermon, Pastor Cary explains why Jesus declared: "I am the vine."

What does the Bible mean in Ephesians, the second chapter, when it says, "He made us alive TOGETHER in Christ"? What about when the Scripture says, "He raised us up with Him and seated us [TOGETHER] in heavenly places in Christ Jesus"? What about when the same letter closes with a similarly situated description of us "being joined TOGETHER" and "being built TOGETHER into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit"? It sounds an awful lot like we need each other? We apparently need to be "TOGETHER" in order to fully experience the Christian life offered by the Lord Jesus' resurrection! Find out just how important the grace of the local church assembly is to your citizenship status in Heaven in this careful look into the juxtaposition of Ephesians chapter two and Romans chapter ten. Is Christianity mostly about you, alone, in your personal relationship with Jesus? Has the modern church overemphasized our "personal relationship with Jesus" at the expense of reverence for the local church established by Jesus? Can this error be eternally deadly? Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus!

What does the Bible mean when it says we were raised up together with Christ to sit with Him in heavenly places? Didn't Noah save your soul so you could be born the first time, enabling Jesus to provide for your salvation the second time, thereby making you a twice born? Find out why Jesus said that the last days would be "as it was in the days of Noah." Noah found grace in the sight of God and so must we all. We are saved by grace! Outside the ark there was no salvation. Outside the church there is no salvation. Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus!

The implicit promise of eternal life was given on condition of obedience in Genesis 2:17, but the tool used to deliver the promise was the tree of life described in Genesis and Revelation. God created a mechanism for salvation by the tree hewn for the construction of Noah's ark. God created a mechanism for salvation by the tree upon which Christ was crucified, and He constructed the church by that tree. The tree of life will provide the nutrition necessary for eternal life in Revelation 2:7. The ark was the tool of salvation from the floods. The church is the ark of salvation from the coming wrath. There was no life outside the ark. There is no grace outside the church. There is no life eternal outside the fruit of the tree of life. There is no resurrection without the tree of His crucifixion.

God created the time dimension. God also created our biological systems, which require nourishment within very particular parameters and within certain intervals of time. For example, if the human body does not receive proper hydration by drinking water within a four day period, it will die. Also, we know that if the human body does not receive proper nourishment by eating food within a seventy day period, it will also die. With this reality of life as the backdrop, Jesus entered history and stood upon the baked earth of ancient Palestine declaring: "Man does not live by bread alone!" Listen while Pastor Cary elucidates upon this remark of Jesus taken from Matthew chapter four, teaching: "There is a universal clock placed into creation, and Jesus Christ must become the Lord of your schedule!" Learn how to partake in regular intervals of the life-giving and nourishing grace that comes from Heaven through Christ's church. Are you living by the words that proceed from the mouth of God? Do you know how, why, and where these words proceed? Find out here!

From the beginning of creation, God said it was "not good that a man should be alone." The writer of Proverbs reiterates that a man who "isolates himself is not wise." When the local church is neglected, man returns to that former state of "not good" and the consequences could not be more serious. The story of the created universe is the source of these five truths: 1) The origin of all that exists came from the number three (as opposed to a number one). God, in three persons, created the world thus we deduce "three was not enough." 2) We are created in His image and after His likeness. 3) Every human being, without exception, requires others. 4) The corporate gathering of the church of Christ was in the mind of God during His creation of the universe. 5) There is no salvation outside the church as there was no salvation outside the ark of Noah during the flood.

Extra (outside) Ecclesiam (the church) Nulla (there is no) Salus (salvation) is the historic doctrine of the church passed from the Chief Apostle Paul through Cyprian (258 AD) Luther (1490 AD) Calvin (1560 AD) and beyond. The church is the created means of man's access to grace in this world. Grace flows through the local church. He is the vine, and we are His branches...but only when we do not self-amputate. With the near disappearance of this sacred teaching of the Bible, grace may be at an all-time low in church history. Receive grace afresh as this rare teaching series from Pastor Cary Gordon begins Beyond The Walls.