And what makes a healthy church is not how many programs it has or how much money it has or how big it is,

what makes a healthy church is its holy character.

And yet that's very, very infrequently ever even suggested today in the area of church growth.

Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson.

The renowned preacher Charles Spurgeon offered a clear warning to those who say they are Christians,

but do not live a righteous life. He said the man who talks about his experience as a Christian,

but who never does anything for Christ is only an idle dreamer.

John MacArthur helps you avoid that kind of spiritual hypocrisy with a lesson titled Sound Octrine backed by sound living.

It's part of his current study that's taking you through the New Testament beginning to end.

And now with the lesson, here's John.

What then makes a church healthy, holy living, the fruit of healthy doctrine?

I can't emphasize this enough because there are so many options being offered today in building a church.

What the Lord wants has nothing to do with the size of a church, what He wants has to do with the virtue of a church.

The character of the church.

As I've said through the years, my job is to concentrate on the spiritual depth of the church and let God take care of the breadth of it.

The size is not an issue to me. The character is.

And what makes a healthy church is not how many programs it has or how much money it has or how big it is,

what makes a healthy church is its holy character.

And yet that's very, very infrequently ever even suggested today in the area of church growth.

It's just so very important to understand that the Lord is concerned about the quality of a church, not the size of it.

The size of it is all bound up in His own sovereign purpose.

And the size of it, I'll go a step further and say, is directly related to the virtue of it.

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