I love the church because the church is being built by the Lord himself. The immutable, sovereign, faithful, omnibinate Lord of heaven has spoken about building the church in no less than extremely triumphant words. He said, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

Welcome to Grace to You with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson.

If you ask a handful of church leaders why people love being a part of their congregations,

you'd probably hear answers like great music, friendly people, an enjoyable atmosphere,

and it's fair to say those are the chief selling points for many churches today.

That's the reason they think you love to attend church each week. Well, you

no doubt enjoy good music and appreciate encouraging people who doesn't. But are those the main

reasons to love a local church? Frankly, the Bible gives much more important reasons to love a faithful

church. John MacArthur looks at those reasons today

on Grace to You in a message called Why I Love the Church. And now with the lesson, here's John.

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 heaven, 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

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