book tonight, First Corinthians chapter number one, and in verse number one the Bible reads,
"Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and Sosthenes our
brother unto the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ
Jesus called to be saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ
our Lord, both theirs and ours."
So first of all, let me point out a few things.
Paul is writing this epistle and he's writing it with Sosthenes.
Sosthenes is the one who is helping him write it or he's saying this is a greeting from
myself and Sosthenes our brother.
And he's writing it under the Church of God, which is at Corinth.
And so whenever we see the term the church in the New Testament, he's talking about an
assembly of believers every single time, okay, because the word church means congregation.
And that's why you'll have geographical locations like the church at Corinth.
And then you'll often have it in the plural form, churches.
And many people teach a false doctrine that there is just one church.
There's only one church, and I've had a lot of Roman Catholics tell me that when I'm out
soul winning.
They say, "What's this churches?
There's the one true church.
There's one church."
And even Baptists and Protestants have become wrapped up in this thing thinking that every
believer belongs to the church, so-called.
Well, that's not true because this is the church at Corinth, okay?
And they say, "Well, there are churches, but then there's also one big church."
No, if a church is an assembly, if a church is a congregation, I'm not congregated with
all believers.
I am not assembled with all believers.
Therefore, there is nothing on this earth at this time known as the church, which includes
all believers.
This is not true.
It's a false doctrine.