Yes, The Church Is A Hospital For Sinners – But It Also Becomes Barracks To Raise Soldiers Of The Cross

“You cannot be a ‘saved sinner’ because a person is either genuinely changed or still in sin.”– Leonard Ravenhill

We all know that the Law is the schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ (Galatians 3:24).

By the Law is the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20), for sin is the transgression of God’s Law (1 John 3:4).  These sins that we are all guilty of committing, sins of which the Holy Ghost convicts us in repentance towards God (Acts 20:21; 2 Corinthians 7:10-11), which brings us unto the cross to receive salvation, which only Christ can give (Romans 3:23-26).

And when the Law drives us to the foot of the cross, we hear the words of Jesus say unto us, “As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you” from John 20:21.

“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.”– Matthew 10:37-39

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”– Mark 8:36

At the cross, Paul tells us in Galatians 2:20 that, like him, we are now “crucified with Christ: nevertheless I [we] live; yet not I [us] , but Christ liveth in me [us]: and the life which I [we] now live in the flesh I [we] live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me [us], and gave himself for me [us].”

At the cross, we are now dead to sin, and we live unto righteousness; this, by His grace (Ephesians 2:1; 8:-10).

We know from Romans 8:10, “If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”

“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.”– Galatians 5:24

At the cross is where we are to put on His righteousness by faith, where He takes upon Himself our sins, and we, through imputation, take upon ourselves His righteousness. The only sin Jesus ever had was ours, and the only righteousness we will ever have is His (2 Corinthians 5:21); and “we put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Romans 13:14).

Now, for us “to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

As Oswald Chambers rightly put it, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

Once we are now partakers of the cross through this lifetime process of regeneration (Titus 3:5), here we will grow daily by His grace and follow Him in the way, becoming His disciples; we are then to be about the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12) in fishing for men (Matthew 4:19).

However, let me ask you, why does it stop here with most people, that is, if they even get to this point?

If people have been saved by Christ, in which grace glories (Ephesians 1:6), why are they not out seeking and saving others?

If they have freely received, will they not freely give to others (Matthew 10:8)?

People in this country understand that the Church, metaphorically speaking, is a hospital for sinners. This is true, no doubt.  A hospital is for a healing environment, for patient care, and patient recovery.

Remember when Jesus said to the Jewish (Romans 3:2), self-righteous Pharisees in Matthew 9:10-13, “And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?  But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

We find that this is the case for everyone that walks into a church building. Upon entering, they are to “repent for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2).

When they are granted godly repentance, they then understand by the Holy Ghost to “go and sin no more” (John 8:11), and that all things old have passed away, and that behold all things are become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).

First, the milk of the Word is for the babes in Christ (representing the foundational, basic teachings of the Christian faith – 1 Corinthians 3:1-2; 1 Peter 2:2). Second, Christians are to then grow up into grace by feeding on the meat of the Word (John 6:35; Hebrews 5:14).

Yet, this is not at all what is seen today. We see that the people are taught by the unrepentant hirelings (John 10:12), not to grow up and become disciples, but rather to become nothing more than impotent (sick-bed keeping) spectators, just like themselves. This is happening, of course, because they are not being led to the Great Physician.

They are humanistically built up (admonished) in the flesh instead of being built up by the Spirit (1 Peter 2:5), where they continue to be pandered in becoming the enemies of the cross that they have now become (Philippians 3:18).

Their wounds and hurts are continuously tended to, paralyzing them by reminding them that they are sinners and not redeemed through the blood of Christ (Colossians 1:13-14). Overcoming, conquering, and being empowered to do the impossible in the name of God is never preached (1 John 5:4-5; Romans 8:37; John 14:12; Hebrews 2:4). They are simply taught to stay in the hospital bed and to go no further. Therefore, they are willfully misled and are told to stay in the hospital bed and let the Lord do what the Lord will do.

Clearly, these individuals are not taught to go outside of the camp and bear the reproach of Christ as Scripture teaches them (Hebrews 13:13). No, this is the furthest thing from their minds; and yet, this is where the abundant life in Christ is found (John 10:10).

In many cases, these professors are also manipulated by the unrepentant hirelings to keep them in the hospital beds by telling them that they need deliverance. This, they say, is why there is no change or growth.

Friends, my experience over the last 30 years of ministry is that it is not a devil that needs to be cast out; they first need repentance, as well as discipline.  Why?  It’s because deliverance will not fix what obedience is meant to kill (Romans 6:17).

Furthermore, it is to be addressed that these pew sitters, those who linger in the hospital beds, are also to blame for not reading their own Bibles in being healed and liberated unto the works of Christ (John 8:32; James 2:14-26).

However, to those who have been converted, they see this transition, which is the work of the Holy Ghost in leading us out of the dead state into the resurrection life as witnesses of Christ (Acts 2:32).  The church is not first to be only a hospital, but also a barracks to raise soldiers of the cross (2 Timothy 2:3).

Salvation Army founder Cathrine Booth said it best:

“A barracks is meant to be a place where real soldiers were to be fed and equipped for war, not a place to settle down in or as a comfortable snuggery in which to enjoy ourselves. I hope that if ever they, our soldiers, do settle down God will burn their barracks over their heads!”

Therefore, and in conclusion, if these said professors claim that they have been saved from their sins (Matthew 1:21), I simply ask the same question that those who are lost are asking: What is it that they have been saved to do? The world is literally dying to see the redemption that they claim to have received, and that isn’t going to be done on a hospital bed.