MARKS OF THE TRUE CHURCH
Last week we look at the nature of the Church, We saw that it’s not an institution made up by man but by God. We saw that the Church is not a denomination, nor is it a building, but actually a community of believers made up of people. The Church is visible yet also invisible that God alone knows truly those who are His and the Church is local universal & eternal made up of believers of from the entire history of life and into eternity
• Today we are looking at the Marks of the True Church
Imagine your house is being burgled whilst you’re in bed, you come down the stairs and catch the culprits red handed but they escape. The police come round and take statements. After a week the police call you up and ask you to come down to the station for an identification parade to see if you can identify the villains ~ there will be certain Marks about them that you will probably remember to distinguish for instance accent, size , weight , distinguishing marks and so on, which will enable you to mark out the real criminals in the line.
Turn this picture to the Church say a group of Churches were in the identification parade you’ve got the Baptists , Methodists, Anglicans, brethren, Jehovah witnesses, Free Churches, Presbyterians, Mormons, Catholics, 7th day Adventists, Christdelphians, The Universalist, The Quakers, The Pentecostals and we could go on .. But time permits……
How would you identify a true Church, amongst that Lot? Well as you recalled certain marks or characteristics with the criminal who robbed your house so in the area of spotting the true Church we will be seeking tell tale Marks from the Word of God which will give us the answer to the real Church and one which is spurious.
Article 26: 6 - 10 Read out: Article 19 of the 39 Church of England states :
• The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the sacraments be duly ministered according to Christs ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same.
• Reformer J. Calvin said, Where ever we see the word of God purely preached and heard, and the sacraments administered according to Christ’s institution, there, it is not to be doubted the true Church exists
• In contrast the Roman Catholic position has been that the visible Church church that descended from Peter and the apostles is the true Church. It is only right as protestant non conformists we take the view of the 1689 Baptist articles, the 39 Articles & Calvin as the correct Marks .
The main marks of a true Church
1. The Pure word of God preached (Apostles teaching) in its purity. (Unaltered by human tradition or liberal theology)
No6 & no7. The Pure Word of God preached and obeyed.
2. The proper administration of ordinances Lords supper & Baptism.
No 6 no 8 . Ordinances duly administered as the Lord commanded.
3. The Correct Church Governance
Article points no7,8,9,10. Here we see the appointment of Church officers by the membership set aside for the execution of preaching the pure Word, administering the ordinances and Church discipline. (These must be Faithful men).
We see these three pivotal marks in the early Church is quite clearly practiced in the early Church Acts 2:41-42 41Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. 42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Acts 6:1-4 the choosing of the seven. These are the Marks we are looking for in Christ’s Church Elders & Deacons 1Tim 3:1- 13.
1. Mark: The pure Word of God Preaching of true doctrine: 2Tim.4: 1-5.
The Gospel .
What is the Church to be saying? What is to be proclaimed week by week from our pulpits? The views of philosophy, science, politics, social concerns, Ecological concerns the leading thoughts of our day in regard to religion, morality, social justice and ethical concerns our own personal views, in some measure all these areas will be touched upon when the scriptures are unpacked, but it must always be in the light of the Scriptures that is central to our preaching The pure Word of God this is the Mark of the true Church. The Gospel of our Lord Jess Christ.
The Charge given here to Timothy is the Churches charge even to this day and beyond. 2 Timothy 4:1In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
Earlier
a) 3:14-15 Paul had reminded 2 Timothy (3:14) how from childhood he was brought up on the ‘sacred writings’ which had made him wise unto salvation (15) , If we are believers this morning then we too received the Word which made us wise unto our salvation. They are sacred (Holy) writings.
b) 3:16 Paul continues to remind him of the divine origin of scripture ‘God Breathed’ 2Tim 3:16 . We must understand the Divine origin too and believe it (AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE IS AT STAKE) because of the Words divine origin is it the power of God unto salvation _ (If the word is merely the word of man then its open to change)
c) 3:17 Paul also reminds Timothy of how he was equipped for such a ministry , through the Word itself and so are we all through its teaching , reproof, correction, training in righteousness. To do Gods good work and so what it does for him it does for us to and that is why it is central Mark to the Church.
Paul now charges Him to put it into practice and preach the sacred scriptures to the Church at Ephesus. Why is it a central mark (Mark 16:15, Preaching matt 28:18-19. And teaching is commanded by Jesus). The apostle are following the mandate of Jesus in the context of the Church
1. It brings salvation to the sinner (No Gospel Word - spurious Christian conversion) faith comes by hearing what? The Word ( Rom 10:17).
2. It builds up & disciplines the saints ( To be built up through teaching correcting encouraging without it you will get individuals who will be spiritual malnourished and fall into all kind of sins).
3. It attacks error (2) Correct & rebuke (The sword of the Spirit the only offensive weapon on the armour of God). The Authority of Scripture begins to be undermined.
Pseudo Church without the pure Word of God.
Article 26: 3. The purest churches under Heaven are subject to mixture and error, and some have degenerated so much that they have ceased to be churches of Christ and have become synagogues of Satan. Nevertheless Christ always has had, and always will (to the end of time) have a kingdom in this world, made up of those who believe in Him, and make profession of His name.
It is possible for a Church to degenerate overtime into something unrecognizable and will cease to be a true Church _ There are many “Churches” in Leicestershire today but many of them cease to be a Church because the word has been so diluted it is unrecognizable.
a. The extreme case:
A pseudo Church may well degenerate to such an extent that it may well become unrecognizable as they fail to preach the pure Word of God (hence fail to understand the will of God for them & the Church, becoming doctrinally unstable diluting the Word).
• (Matt 7:15) Jesus warned of false prophets disguised as sheep but inside they are ferocious wolves, coming amongst the Church.
• Paul warns the Church elders at Ephesus Acts 20:29 of the same thing and a decade later would come to fruition. Timothy is sent in to deal with the situation.
• In the book of revelation we have the Church at Smyrna & Philadelphia were commended by Jesus for standing firm against those entrenched in error whom belonged to the Synagogues of Satan (Rev 2:9, 3:9)
• Ultimately if the pure Word of God is proclaimed within the context of the fellowship error cannot co-exist it will find other pastures (1Jhn2:19 )
For instance there are clear throughout history most recent: The Mormon Church does not hold to major Christian doctrine concerning salvation or the person of God and work of Christ, they also have extra Biblical books on top of scripture. Also consider the Jehovah witnesses: Conceal salvation by faith alone, call for good works, proclaimed the dates & times of the Lords return unsuccessfully, they deny the triune God head & the deity of Christ.
These two religious bodies are synagogues of Satan…… both Joseph Smith and Charles Taz Russell came out of the mainstream Christian religion, the question must be asked was the gospel ever preached to them, where they ever openly rebuked for their error and cast out of the Church? Maybe so, maybe not – but what is certain if they had truly born again they would have never left.
b. Subtle case: The rise of liberal theology:
I believe liberal Theology is like a corrosive acid: which has a corrosive effect upon the Word and Church, like an acid it will burn away at the purity of the metal, So too liberal Theology has a corrosive effect upon the scriptures IT EATS AWAY AT the pure truth and so distorts the word which is to be at the heartbeat of a true Church as it undermines the original intent of the Word.
This why timothy and the Church is charged here refute those within the Church from falling into error 2tim4:3- 43For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths
A) This type of Church will place great emphasis upon the social atmosphere of society outside and bring and adapt it into the Church as the norm, and apply human wisdom to win others to its cause, all types of people will be accepted without any demands of the gospel applied and all types of sin will be tolerated.
B) Not only but it will negate its responsibility to preach the pure Gospel (Christ centered) The gospel message of the grace of God and justification through faith alone, will be hidden or changed, to a (man centered gospel) where rituals and traditions take precedence, the congregation will never here the call of the Gospel, the Word will be given a 5-10 minute personal thought without any exposition.
C) Warning this subtle increase of liberal theology even amongst professing evangelicals who impose an increasing application of liberal theology upon the, enabling to twist the original intent of scripture (Steve Chalk with his denial of penal substitution) The Authority of Scripture is undermined. With the rise of the Christian gay movement within the clergy, the roles of women in office in the Church ignored and so with a continuing liberal application to scriptures you can basically get the Scriptures to say what you want them to say, The Authority of Scripture is under attack! Tolerance at the expense of truth .
2. Mark: The proper administration of the ordinances.
Acts 2:41-42 41Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. 42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Here we see the two ordinances which our lord himself instituted in his ministry.
Mark of the Church Baptism
The call of baptism which come about as a result of repentance & faith in Jesus Christ hence in Matt.28:19 the disciples are commanded to “ Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them (part of the process of making them disciples) in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. . And we see this process born out on the day of Pentecost when Peter preached and 3,000 were saved and baptized and still to this day believers on confession of faith believers are baptized in the faith.
Mark of Lords supper. Matt28:19, Luke 22:19 in remembrance of Him. 1Cor11:23, Acts2:46
Lords supper was inaugurated in the upper room on the Passover where Jesus bring new significance into the Passover meal picturing his suffering and death in a symbolic way through the emblems of bread and wine. The bread – His body the once and for all fulfillment of the ceremonies surrounding the Passover lamb.
Ordinances continued:
The wine representing the blood of the new covenant foreshadowing the shedding of Jesus blood, the cup representing the wrath of God poured out and absorbed by Jesus which open the new way of redemption for all who believe through the new covenant as promised.
a) Once a group begins to practice these two ordinances it is continuing the NT pattern and is attempting to function as a Church, these are Marks of the Church.
b) The Church needs to have a proper understanding of these two ordinances, because these marks were made prominent due to the Roman Catholic view that saving grace came through the sacraments thus making the sacraments works by which partaking in one could earn ones salvation as a result the Church is teaching that payment is required for salvation rather than faith alone as the reformers believed like Martin Luther. (Rom 1:16-17). So neither Baptism or the Lords supper is a means of our salvation, but a sign of it, we are saved by faith alone.
• Pope Joseph Ratzinger states, “ The Church outside of RC says ‘it’s deficient’ in reality it is the Catholic Church whose deficient as it is they who obscure e the gospel of grace through the sacraments and make it into a gospel of works. So the proper administration) of the ordinances is essential as it will protect the purity of the gospel & Church.
c) Baptism and Lords supper serve as membership controls, and they are an outward sign to others we belong to the Lord and are saved. Baptism serves as the means of admitting people into membership of the Church and the participation in the Lords supper is the ongoing sign that we belong to the Lord and are saved. So without these two functions of baptism & communion there is no Church.
3. The correct Church (discipline) governance
In acts we see the first new shoots of the early Church a fellowship of people redeemed through Christ, over time there was a need for correct governance of the fellowship , the Apostle saw the needs and it was they who first called upon the fellowship in Jerusalem to set aside seven men full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom (Acts 6:3) to act as deacons.
Over time under the direction of the Apostles like Peter and Paul Churches were called to establish servant leaders who were to act as elders/overseers. (1Tim 3:1-7) deacons (1Tim 3: 6-13) . These were to be faithful men servant leaders men of good standing , filled with the Holy Spirit able to care & lead the Church, to govern the affairs of the Church whether spiritual and practical in keeping with the Gospel and the apostles doctrine.
We see Titus on the island of Crete was charged by Paul to appoint Elders Titus 1:5d 5The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint[a] elders in every town, as I directed you and its purpose was always that of governance of the local Church.
In (Acts 20: 28 - 32) Pauls farewell to the Ephesian elders he shares with them the need to care for the Church as he speaks of wolves coming in and destroying the gospel , he share of those even within their own ranks of perverting the gospel, a decade later this takes place it comes to fruition and so Timothy is sent in to correct the errors and establish suitable elders and deacons.
Why? To maintain the true Marks of the Church of Christ, if we fail here , we will no longer have a true Church
1) To protect and maintain the true Marks of the Church , to keep correct doctrine through the pure Word of God, to be able to refute error, when it attempts to enter the Church (and it will). To proclaim the pure Word of God
2) To administer the ordinances as commanded by Christ serving as a sign of saving grace not a means to grace (works) a sign of belonging to Christ and membership to the local Church.
3) To Govern the Church fellowship with spiritual oversight, to edify, to correct, to train up, to refute , to lead, to discipline as Christ directed Matt 18: 15 -19. Shepherding the flock and in accordance to His Word 2Tim 4:1-5.
If we fail to maintain the pure Word of God as passed down and entrusted , if we fail in our responsibility in the proper administration of the ordinances , if we fail in the proper governance in the life of the Church we are in danger of ceasing to be a true Church for these are the essential MARKS to the Church of Christ.
