It Must be Applied!

The story is told of a preacher and a soap salesman walking down the street together. As they passed a bar, a drunk staggered out. The soap salesman said to the preacher, “your gospel isn’t working very well to have drunks on the street.”

They walked a little further and saw some little children playing in an alley, as dirty as kids can get. The preacher said to the soap salesman, “I see your product isn’t working either.” The soap salesman replied, "the soap must be applied to work."
The preacher answered…."so does the gospel."

On the day of Pentecost, the apostle Peter preached enough gospel to save the entire world….were it applied to all the world. After hearing preaching about Christ, some Jews came to believe in Christ and asked what to do? Acts 2:37. Peter told them, “repent and be baptized every one of you in the name [by the authority of] Jesus Christ for [in order to have] remission of sins.”
Some 3,000 persons applied it to themselves and were baptized – Acts 2:41 – and the Lord added them to the church – Acts 2:47.

Some people might ask, which church the Lord added them to? In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, “upon this rock I will build MY church.” Since Christ is the ONLY rock foundation upon which the church is built – 1 Corinthians 3:11 – and no one can build another rock foundation, He added them to His church.

Jesus is the head of the body, the church – Colossians 1:18. The bible teaches that there is ONE body – Ephesians 4:4.

There are a plurality of local churches – Roman 16:16 – but the ONE church is a [spiritual] relationship with Christ, the head.
Christ is head and savior of the body, the church – Ephesians 5:23.

Some ask if a person can be saved outside [not in] the church which is Christ’s body?
Ephesians 5:23 tells us what Christ if the savior of…..His body, His church!

The GOSPEL must be applied to be effective.