Word of Salvation – February 2019
B.C.29 – The Marks of the True Church
Sermon by Rev. John Westendorp
Scripture Reading: 1Timothy 3
Text: 1Timothy 3:14,15
Introd: Occasionally I hear people say that they are “shopping around for a church”.
That always makes me cringe.
It reduces church membership to the same level as shopping around for a mechanic or a dentist.
You become dissatisfied with the service at the present one so you shop around for another.
It basically turns Christianity into a consumer product.
We shop around until we find the brand that suits us.
When you think about it that’s an appalling way of speaking about Christ’s church.
It also raises the whole matter of standards by which to measure.
How does one know when one has found the right product…?
What kind of yardstick does one measure churches by?
Is it by whether the building is nice… or the music good… or the pews comfortable?
Is it whether or not people greet visitors… or the pastor makes a good impression?
Some people get to the point where they put this into the too-hard basket. They never resolve it.
These Christians become “rolling stones that gather no moss”. They are drifters.
Because they never quite find the church where everything is just right for them.
They are always moving on. I once met a pastor who had served in four denominations.
Of course there are times when we don’t have any other choices but to search for another church.
One of our young people is posted by their company to an area where there is no Reformed Church.
And travelling back to their own church every Sundays is an impossibility.
So what do you do when you’ve been moved out “to the sticks”?
At times like that some sort of “yardstick” for measuring churches becomes crucial.
Unfortunately denominational labels are not always helpful either.
You visit one Anglican Church and find that it’s evangelical…. even reformed.
You visit another where they are bending over backwards to look like Roman Catholics.
You feel very comfortable in one Uniting Church but another is worlds away from Scripture.
Searching for a church is also a valid problem for those whose church has become extremely liberal.
Where key Christian truths are denied… or where salvation by works is taught.
Or perhaps folk in a liberal church become convinced of the doctrines of grace for the first time.
So what do they do…? Stay there… or go find a Bible believing church?
And if they do move what standards ought they to use for measuring a church?
The churches of the Reformation have traditionally set 3 standards.
They have said that there are three marks that distinguish a true church from a false church.
So it basically centres on three questions:
Is the pure doctrine of the gospel preached there…?
Is the right administration of the sacraments observed…?
Is church discipline exercised in dealing with sin…?
That is the Reformational way of seeing if we are dealing with a true church or something else.
The standard is not the building… or the music… or people’s friendliness.
No. The standard is the gospel… the sacraments… and discipline.
Those are also the marks by which we should be constantly evaluating our own church.
How do we know that OUR church is still a true church? How are we Refos doing?
So just as in other areas of life we are able test things and measure against certain standards…
so we can do that also when it comes to the church.
A] THE PURE PREACHING OF THE WORD.
- Let me stress that these standards are not human standards.
We the churches of the Reformation did not make up these standards.
Kind of… as a good way of keeping everyone neatly within Reformed churches.
No… these three marks are the Biblical marks of the church.
They are standards that Scripture uses when it speaks of the church.
In ITimothy 3:14,15 Paul speaks of the church not only as the HOUSEHOLD OF GOD…
He also refers to it as …the pillar and foundation of the truth.
The true church must uphold truth… truth is central to the church’s being.
It is because the Christian church is the foundation and pillar of truth
that the Reformation spoke of this first mark of the church:
The pure doctrine of the gospel must be preached there.
Notice that it speaks of DOCTRINE… the doctrine of the gospel.
Unfortunately doctrine has become a dirty word today for many Christians.
Many say that doctrines are only human traditions… and that doctrine divides.
So do away with our creeds and confessions… let’s have no creed but Christ.
Some consider sermons on doctrine… on the catechism or Belgic Confession as wrong.
Others put up with them… and often not too graciously at that.
Surely – if the church is the pillar and foundation of truth then we have to know what that truth is.
That is why the Reformed Churches are CONFESSIONAL churches.
We confesses what we believe the truth to be in our creeds and confessions.
Today evangelical churches desperately need to rediscover this mark of the church.
I am not suggesting that they are preaching or teaching heresy.
What I am suggesting is that today many Christians do not know what they stand for.
Apart from some very basic issues – that Jesus died for them – they haven’t grappled with truth.
- We need to be cautious just how we apply this first standard.
It is not as if a church can only be a true church if every theological “t” is crossed and every “i” dotted.
It’s not so that truth always has to conform in every respect to our particular understanding of it.
What we are talking about is the doctrines of the gospel.
IOW the teachings of the truth concerning the doing, the dying, and the victory of Jesus Christ.
The accomplishment of our salvation… and the application of it to the life of the sinner.
We are talking about truth at its very core – the truth of God in Christ.
And central in that are the doctrines of grace.
That the believer is made right with God only thru faith in Jesus.
So this standard is not meant to be very exclusive – as a way of keeping most other churches out.
But it is rather inclusive…
it includes all those churches who uphold the truth of the gospel of God’s grace in Jesus.
In fact this same article of the B.C. condemns sectarianism.
Sects see truth only in their own little group.
We need to guard against the idea that our church is the only true church.
Biblical Christianity sees truth wherever the gospel of Jesus is preached;
Wherever it is not compromised with the false teaching of salvation by works.
- So we have this first standard for measuring our own church and other churches.
The pure preaching of the doctrine of the gospel.
Churches are not to be judged first of all by how nice the building is or how lively the singing.
Nor by how friendly the members are… but first of all by its pulpit.
Does the gospel of Jesus Christ in all its fullness ring out in this place?
Only to the measure that any church does that is it a true church.
The church of Jesus Christ is the pillar and foundation of the truth.
And the truth is personified in Jesus who said; I am the way the TRUTH and the life.
Let me add that some folk find fault with these three marks of the church.
They say: It does not include mission… which should surely be another mark of a true church!
But what is ‘missions’ if it isn’t preaching Jesus Christ?
In the N.T. a great deal of the preaching was done to unbelievers.
Jesus told the disciples to preach this truth to all nations.
We today pride ourselves that in Reformed churches we guard our pulpits closely.
Only the gospel is to be preached there.
But unfortunately most of the preaching from this pulpit is preaching to the converted.
Of course we need that – there has to be INREACH as well as OUTREACH.
God’s people need to be fed and encouraged Sunday after Sunday.
If we didn’t do that then soon there would be no outreach at all.
But the point is that true gospel preaching must not be seen only as sermons from this pulpit.
The faithful preaching of the gospel of Christ also happens in Sunday School and youthgroup.
It happens when a church runs a Holiday Club for community kids or devotions at craft morning.
It happens when you witness by word and deed to your unbelieving neighbour.
Well, okay, you and I know we could be much more faithful in that area.
Yet we do thank God for the evidences of this mark of the church among us.
B] THE PURE ADMINISTRATION OF THE SACRAMENTS.
- The second mark of the true church is the pure administration of sacraments.
Tonight I have included no Scripture reading dealing with the sacraments.
I could easily have done that of course.
There are many Scriptures dealing with baptism and Lord’s Supper.
However I want to limit myself still to 1Timothy 3:14 & 15.
That the church is the pillar and foundation of the truth.
The reason for that is that the sacraments are not essentially different to the Word of God.
What are the sacraments all about if not the truth of the Gospel?
They are not different in essence.
In a sense Baptism and Lord’s Supper are God’s audio-visual to us.
In them God shows us gospel truth.
What we hear with our ears in gospel preaching is made visible in the sacraments.
We hear the Word… but we touch and taste the gospel in the sacraments.
So just as the Church is bound to uphold the doctrine of the gospel…
….so too it is bound to rightly administer the sacraments.
Sacraments are simply another way in which the church proves she is the foundation & pillar the truth.
- Yet as soon as we talk about the sacraments things become more complicated.
Many of us have struggled with whether or not to take communion in another church on holidays.
And what about baptism? Some churches would not accept our baptism as valid.
They hold to baptism being only by immersion and of adults.
They refuse to recognise that children too belong to the household of God.
With our variety of churches things are surely far more complex than at the time of the Reformation.
Perhaps at this point the historical situation would help us.
At the time our Confession was written there was sharp disagreement about the Lord’s Supper.
Zwinglians, Lutherans and Calvinists disagreed with each other.
They could not come to a consensus about the meaning of this sacrament.
Yet – even though the B.Conf was written from a Calvinist perspective
this article does not exclude the Lutherans and Zwinglians.
IOW here too it did not mean to be exclusive but inclusive.
It was meant to be fairly broadly interpreted.
And in fact we still do that when it comes to baptism.
The Reformed Churches recognise as valid any baptism in another church.
“If it has been administered in the name of the triune God
and by a person authorised by the particular denomination.”
- Does that mean then that we interpret this fairly loosely?
That any church that has baptism and Lord’s Supper has the marks of the true church at this point? No!
No matter how broadly we interpret this article
there are practices in the sacraments that do not conform to the truth of the gospel.
And then I am not even talking only about the R.C. Mass which we regard as idolatrous.
I am talking about the disregard there is in many churches for the sanctity of the sacraments.
That they belong within the household of faith.
Churches that – for a fee – baptise anyone’s baby – no questions asked.
Churches where people can come by arrangement to have the baby “done”.
And the parents are not even sure what is going to be done to it.
I am talking about places where the Lord’s Supper is conducted without any safeguards.
Where no attempt is made to ensure that only Christians partake of the sacrament.
Where warnings are not even given about eating and drinking in an unworthy manner.
There are churches fail to pass the test of this second mark of the church.
And we for our part too must be vigilant that the sacraments are rightly administered.
They are God’s audio-visual of the gospel truth for His children.
C] THE EXERCISE OF CHRISTIAN DISCIPLINE.
- Finally there is that third mark of the true church – Christian discipline.
Again it would be easy to find Bible verses that show the need for the church to exercise discipline.
We could talk about 1Corinthians 5 where Paul calls for the expulsion of a grossly immoral man.
Yet I again want to relate this to our text in I Timothy 3:14,15.
Paul speaks there of a right way of conduct.
That people ought to know how to conduct themselves in the household of God.
There is conduct that is proper in the church and there is behaviour that is improper.
Just as there is truth to be upheld and error to be refuted.
So too there is right behaviour to be encouraged and sin to be punished.
In fact earlier in this chapter Paul talks about elders.
He mentions that they are to be men who manage their own households well.
Otherwise – how can they manage the church?
Paul is drawing a parallel between the home and the church.
And the Church is therefore also called the HOUSEHOLD OF GOD.
So just as a household needs to be disciplined and orderly so too does the church.
It is the household… the family of God.
Of course we are not just talking here about the extremes of discipline… such as excommunication.
Although that too is included. But we are talking about all discipline.
Home visits made by elders. Instruction classes for young people. Rebuke of sinful behaviour.
The mark of the true church is that it knows how to exercise discipline.
- A major problem in our permissive society is that discipline of any form is not popular and is avoided.
We tend to shy away from it… it is painful…. and it is unpopular.
Discipline is falling on hard times…. already in the homes of our nation.
And many churches reject it totally.
Today we are much more inclined to say, ‘Live and let live!’
And yet this article also speaks of Jesus as the head of the church.
And it speaks of all things being done according to the Word of God.
So we must also listen to the Word of God when it talks about hard things such as discipline.
Even that hardest part of discipline: that the church must sometimes excommunicate.
In some ways we could compare that to surgery.
Surgery is never something we eagerly look forward to.
Surgery is always painful… yet it is usually highly necessary.
As someone said; ‘It’s usually just what the doctor ordered.’
So too there are many instances in Scripture…
where Jesus as the Great Physician orders drastic surgery for the wellbeing of the church.
- At the same time discipline also seeks the wellbeing of the person concerned. Even excommunication.
It is a kind of last-ditch shock treatment to impress on the offender the seriousness of his situation.
It is to call them to repentance.
And it’s beautiful when that actually happens.
We have an example of that in Scripture too.
That immoral man in I Corinthians 5 was expelled from the church.
But in the second letter to the Corinthians
we also read that he repented and was restored to the church.
Discipline seeks the welfare of the church and the salvation of the offender.
It is an important mark of the church.
In fact such an important one that we ought not just leave discipline to a few elders in the church.
All of us have a mutual responsibility to encourage and admonish one another.
That too is Christian discipline.
Discipline is keeping each other accountable before God.
These then are the three marks by which the true church may be measured.
Does any church measure up to all three of these perfectly? No!
No matter how you apply these standards there is no perfect church on earth. There never will be.
At this point we have a bit of a problem with the Belgic Confession today.
It says that the true church and the false church are easily distinguished.
That may have been true at the time of the Reformation in the clash with the church of Rome.
Today it is far from simple and I prefer the outlook of the Westminster Confession.
It says that in every church there is a mixture of purity and impurity.
A church is pure only to the extent that it is faithful to these marks.
IOW we must also be realistic – the perfect church will be found only in heaven.
Yet the Lord has left us a guide for measuring the church.
Let us be diligent then in our congregational life to be the pillar of the truth. Amen
BC stands for Basic Christianity. What are the fundamentals of the faith?
BC also stands for Belgic Confession – a document in which the Christian church (in a time of great persecution) spelled out the basics of what she believes.
When Christianity is a mile wide and an inch deep it needs to grasp again the basics of the faith and confess them in a world where the faith is increasingly under attack.
Those who drew up the BC declared that they were ready to obey the government in all lawful things, but that they would “offer their backs to stripes, their tongues to knives, their mouths to gags and their whole bodies to the fire” rather than deny the truth expressed in this confession.