Never is the church more heavenly than when it is confronting sin.

Never.

You can't minimize sin in the church and at the same time say thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

We literally act in perfect harmony with heaven when we deal with sin. Welcome to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. I'm your host,

Phil Johnson. A great preacher once said, the church is not perfect, but woe to the man

who finds pleasure in pointing out her imperfections.

Christ loved his church, and let us do the same. The question is, why does Christ love the church?

And how can you cultivate that same kind of love for your own church, even if there are people in your congregation who are difficult and maybe even

hurtful. John MacArthur has answers today, practical stuff in a lesson called Why I Love the Church.

So now, here's John with the lesson. I love the church. I confess to that. I am an inveterate

and incurable lover of the church.

It thrills me beyond anything and everything to serve the church.

It is the supreme joy of my life to labor for the church.

To spend my years on behalf of the church, I wouldn't trade for anything.

And there are some reasons why that is true, and I will share a few of those with you,

and we'll look at some texts who undergird them.

First of all, I love the church because the church is being built by the Lord himself, the

immutable, sovereign, faithful, omnipotent Lord of, whose word can't return void but always accomplishes

what he says, whose purpose always comes to pass, whose will is always fulfilled

ultimately, whose plan is invincible and unshakable, has spoken about building the church

in no less than extremely triumphant words.

In Matthew chapter 16 and verse 18, he said, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades

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