The saying goes… “All roads lead to Rome. All roads lead to heaven.” Doesn’t matter what church you belong to as long as they call themselves a church. The question before us today is who gets to define what a church is? Who may identify as the true church. This has been a central question throughout church history.
The Scriptures are crystal clear. There is one Lord, One faith, one baptism, on God and Father of us all. There is one way to salvation and that is in and through our Lord Jesus, who said, “I am the way the truth and the life.” And the community that he gathers is the church. It is his body, his bride. The one for whom he lay his life down. And he is the shepherd of his sheep. He calls all people to become part of this body. Jesus defines what the church is through his word.
If this is all true, it is absolutely important that you find this body, and join to her. If you love the Lord Jesus you will listen to his voice and be part of his flock, you will join become part of his body. You will join his bride.
But in this generation how in the world can I possibly even identify it? Well, this is what we are going to look at today, and although article may sound harsh to our western secular ears, it is an article that is of utmost importance in our society. We confess in Lords Day 31 that God has given to the church the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
I believe this article is more important now then maybe when it was written. When it was written most went to the church closest to them. Today we have the blessing of vehicles. What this means is you can choose any of the 30 or more churches that are in a 10 km radius of this place. Yes, you heard me there are more then 30 different churches in a ten km. radius. According to google (who you should never trust to identify a true church) there are, “Vrye Gereformeerde Kerk Bellville, Brackenfell community church, Rhema church cape town north, Church of the Nazarene, Faith Point Church, Deo Gloria Family Church, All Saints Catholic Church, Methodist Church, The Full Gospel Church of God, Joshua Generation, Shofar Christian church, Logos Christian church, Uitsig Dutch Reformed Church, Emmanuel REACH church…” and I am not even close to halfway…. You get point. The point is that the first line in our article is a good one, “We believe that we ought to discern very carefully from the Word of God what is the true church, for all sects which are in the world today claim for themselves the name of Church.” So many claim the name church, but who defines what a church is?
Also, before I begin, I want to make it clear that the church never reaches perfection in any the things that we will be talking about this side of heaven. It is always growing. True church does not mean perfect church. There are some churches that are more mature and some that are less mature. Just as it is with a person’s life, so it is with the church. Just because we are not perfect, does not mean God does not call us to that standard.
When we go to church to a church that meets our need then we treat the church like anything else in our consumeristic society. The Church becomes me centered and not God centered. Its about what I want, not what does God want.
On the true road there are churches farther along and farther back, but no church on earth has “made it”.
As members of the ICRC an international reformed community of Churches we also state that the Westminster Catechism is a faithful summary of the Word of God. In Chapter 25 article 5 it states, “The purest churches under heaven are subject both to impurity and error. Some churches have so degenerated that they are not churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan. Nevertheless, there will always be a church on earth to worship God according to his will.”
The marks of the true Church
- The marks
- The preaching
- The sacraments
- Church discipline
- The people
- Discernment.
The Marks
Really this is about a God centered church and church life. This is not about the church itself, like it is in Roman Catholic theology. Where the church in a sense defines her own marks. And where the most important thing is to join the institution of the Roman Catholic Church for it alone is true.
But the reformers argued that you do not look at the church first, but the Word first. You don’t look at the community, but how the community thinks about God and what he says, and so the reformers believed the first and most important mark of the church was the preaching of the Gospel. Is it a God Centered, Christ exalting, church that proclaims the Word in all its fullness? It is not how nice or not nice the people are that defines the church, the question is, “Is the word preached!?” Do they desire to hear Gods word!
Preaching
Let’s look at the preaching. Does the Church preach the full counsel of God? This is what a true church does. In fact, the word of Christ calls the church into existence through the live giving power of the Spirit. And it is also the food which sustains the church. Without the preaching of the Word of God there can be no life in the Church. There can be no light in the Church. For his word is a light unto my feet. His word is life. And that word centers around the person and work of the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ. That is why the article’s focus is on the gospel! It does not say the word, but the gospel! And the gospel is revealed in the Word and the Word is Christ.
Jesus shows us the importance of preaching by starting his ministry in preaching, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” and ending his earthly ministry with the commanding his disciples to preach and teach.
Simply put, the Bible teaches us to preach Christ crucified (1 Cor. 1:23). If a church preaches any other “gospel,” whether it is explicitly faith plus works or some insidious version of “get in by faith, stay in by obedience,” it is not in conformity with the “teaching of Christ” (2 John 9) but with that of an antichrist counterfeit. Anything other than in Christ alone is what Paul termed “a different gospel” (Gal. 1:6), which brings with it an eternal anathema (Gal. 1:8–9).
We see that this was central to the church from the beginning. Read through the sermons in Acts, and you will see how central the gospel is to the church. And the Apostle Paul told the Ephesians that his whole ministry was to “Testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” and that he “did not shrink from declaring [to them] the whole counsel of God,” and that he taught publicly and in house to house testifying both to Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Paul also tells timothy to devote himself to the public reading of God’s word! Throughout most of church history many churches would read a whole chapter from New Testament in the morning service, and a chapter from the Old Testament in the evening.
This is the first and most important mark of any true church. In fact, some of the reformers had only this as the mark of the true Church. If the word is preached that church will be continually in the process of reforming as it is shaped into the image of the body of Jesus Christ. It cannot be otherwise. If the word is preached and obeyed the sacraments will be honored, and holiness of the church will be respected in and through church discipline. It begins and ends here. Constantly gathering around the word as it reveals Christ to us. Therefore, we love our worship. Our bible studies. The reading of the Word around mealtimes. We want more of it. It is the love for the Gospel of our King, and allegiance to him that unites us.
Which brings us to the second mark.
The Sacrament.
Are the sacraments faithfully administered? Again, I want to make the point here: we are on a journey. We read that the true church “maintains the pure administration of the sacraments as Christ instituted them.” It does not mean perfect, but it is in obedience again to the Lord of the church Jesus Christ. It means we do not add sacraments. Or subtract from them. They have been given by the Lord of the church to strengthen the faith of his people. These two sacraments are baptism and the Lord's supper, of which we will hear much more in later sermons. These make the word tangible and visible to us.
Church discipline
And finally, we have been saying over and over again, this church is holy. That is repeated and again in these chapters. It is the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, dressed in his righteousness, and indwelt with the sanctifying Spirit. Just as Israel differentiated between the unclean and clean, the common and the holy. So we are body that is set apart, and called to be holy. Jesus the Lord of the church has the keys of the kingdom which he has given to the church, and through the preaching of the gospel opens the door for all who would come in and it is closed to all those who harden themselves. Yes, even the preaching of the gospel is a form of the Lord's discipline whereby he rebukes us in our sin and encourages us in holiness. More narrowly though the church also practices the authority of Christ by warning those who persist in sin, and if they do not listen to withhold the sacrament from them, and at some stage put them outside the fellowship of the church!
Love and holiness go together. Love is pure and holy. Love hates what is false. If you are in a friendship your love for another person will tell them not to get into drugs. Your love for them will warn them of danger, and if needed do all in your power to stop if they persist. At some stage you may stop hanging out with them, so that you don’t have to be around those places of darkness.
Just so the church is called to a holy communion. They are to have a holy and pure love for one another. if someone persist in sin and refuses to repent, we ask that that person not partake with us, to show them the seriousness of their sin. A church without church discipline has no boundaries, and cannot be called a church. You can't be part of a knitting club if you hate knitting. You can't be part of the church if you hate righteousness and holiness.
The goal of church discipline, then, is not to throw people out of the church or to feed the self-righteous pride of those who administer the discipline. It is not to embarrass people or to exercise authority and power in some unbiblical manner. The purpose is first to restore a sinning believer to holiness and bring him back into a pure relationship within the assembly. The purpose is always loving.
Second it is to is to protect the purity of the fellowship (1 Cor. 5:6), to warn the assembly of the seriousness of sin (1 Tim. 5:20), and third, to give a testimony of righteousness to a watching world.
The question is: Do they desire to see the holiness of God exalted and the unity of the saints not expressed in shared likes, but in the person of Jesus Christ? Do they hate sin, and desire to graciously call people to repentance, and practice discipline on those who harden their hearts?
Which briefly leads us to the final points
The people.
Our confession states, “Those who are of the church may be recognized by the marks of Christians.” We often call this article the marks of the true and false church, but we can also call it the marks of the true and false Church and of a true Christian. What is the mark of a Christian? Its not how nice they are. How soft spoken. It is not that they are friendly. It is that they believe in Christ and show the fruit of that. It is that they are warriors, who know what is evil and what is Good. They are athletes who give all for the prize. They are prayerers who are constantly going to the throne of grace in their time of need. I love the intensity of these words “flee, pursue, crucify, appeal”. It echoes the language of scripture. This is language of the deepest desire.
Just as the first mark of the church is the gospel, so it is with a Christian. A Christian is marked by the gospel which is preached to him. A Christian is constantly disciplining himself; a Christian is constantly making use of the sacraments which avail him of Christ work for him. So, the mark of a true Christian is closely associated with the mark the church. Jesus. Go back to Jesus! I love that last line in the paragraph “They appeal constantly to the blood, suffering, death and obedience of Jesus Christ, in whom they have forgiveness of sins through faith.” That is the gospel right there. It keeps going back to Jesus. Is this you. Am I describing your life right now? I hope so. It should be if you are part of this community. If not talk to your elder. Talk to your brother or sister that they may pray for you and with you. Pray that the Holy spirit would open your eyes to the Lord Jesus that you might see the depravity of your heart in the light of his holiness and run to him. For Forgiveness, for repentance, for holiness. For grace, joy and peace.
True Christians are basically gospel centered. Constantly going back to what they believe, what we have confessed. In the we are the I. and that I in order to be part of the we must truly believe.
Discernment
Finally, it tells us about the false church and the call to discernment.
Dear brother and sisters this takes much wisdom in our time. We started with a whole lot of churches. I pray that this sermon may help you to live with discernment. To know that Church is not first about how welcoming they are (although it is a fruit of the Gospel) or if they sing the Psalms or if they only sing hymns. It is not about what they wear. It is do they have their Bibles open and desire to have the shape of their church be the shape of Christ’s body.
Many churches assume since they are the true church every other church must be false, because it is not like them. But this is wrong. Our confession says the two churches are easily recognized and distinguished. We should not just throw the name false church around lightly. But neither must we be afraid to use it! There are simply churches that are not churches even if google labels them as such. We already saw in a previous article God defines the church and not google. Those who preach the prosperity gospel, those who allow all and every person to their church without ever calling them to holy living, and repentance. Those who do not believe in God or in the supremacy of Jesus like Mormons or Jehovah witnesses. Those believe that you can believe in the God of Jesus Christ and still hold onto old religions.
I ask for discernment because one church that struggled not just with one, or two, but with three marks was still called the church. They struggled with being united around the gospel of Christ. instead, they were united around different people. As we read in 1 Corinthians that people followed their favorite theologian and were not gathered around the word and the cross, so Paul points them back there in chapter 2-3.
They struggled with church discipline as we see in chapter 5 and Paul warns them that the acceptance of a little sin can infect and kill the whole body like a cancerous tumor. They not only struggled with church discipline, but they also struggled with the sacraments as we read about in chapter 9 and 11. And yet, YET! Paul’s calls them, “The church of GOD!” So, we must be careful just because a church is struggling does not mean they are not church. The question is are they willing to grow, to be rebuked, to learn, are they holding onto to Christ. In this church we are not perfect. Far far from it. And that is ok…. God is always calling us to reform. To confess. To grow. And we strive toward holiness for that is where our God calls us. Be holy as I am holy. We have this article not just to recognize false teachers and churches, but also to cause us to do some introspection! Are we still reforming? Are we still investigating the places where the light of the gospel is not shaping all we do? Are we still feeding the flock with the spiritual food and drink?
Dear beloved, The Reformed churches are not motivated to talk about “true” churches and “false” churches by ego or arrogance, but by a sincere desire to see all God’s sons and daughters in churches that feed their souls. We desire all Gods people to receive the word of Christ.
Amen