Two Distinctives of the Church

2008 Summer Bible Study #2
Two Directives of the Church


2 Distinctives of the Church

Proclamation and Ordinances (baptism and the Lord’s Supper) briefly explain that they are Distinctives and pay attention over the next two weeks as to why they make the church so distinctive.

What is a church? John Calvin would say “Wherever 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, a church of God exists there.


The first Mark of a true church is correct teaching or proclamation

From the very beginning the Word of God was the means by which He created
Creation
i. Genesis 1:3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light,
ii. Genesis 1:6 Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters
iii. Genesis 1:9 Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so
iv. So God spoke and created
God gave life to His Creation the man and woman as He “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Genesis 2:7
Man and woman would rebel against the Word of God bringing sin into the world and with sin certain judgment but the One True and Living God would sustain man with a what?
Word of Promise
i. Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”

Creation of a people of God to carry the message of hope to the world by His Word.
i. Genesis 12 1Now the LORD said[a] to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3(C) I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
ii. By His Word he gave the nation of Israel the Law. And in that Law man would be laid beside the holiness of God and realize that he would nor could measure up to the holiness of God in his own power
1. the law served as a cosmic neon sign pointing to the Seed because there was no hope in the law itself.

Take this Concept to the New Testament and Watch how it unfolds

John Would write “In the beginning was(B) the Word, and(C) the Word was with God, and(D) the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3(E) All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
i. That is why He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.

So the Word of God, the Son of God comes in flesh to preach God’s Word, embody God’s Word, and to fulfill Gods Word through His perfect life, atoning death, and triumphant resurrection.
i. Matthew 5:17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
1. In every way Jesus fulfilled the law
a. Moral law by keeping it perfectly
b. Ceremonial law by being the embodiment of all the symbols and types
c. Judicial law by personifying God’s perfect Justice [1]
2. That is why we do not practice the Old Testament laws and rituals because they were completely and utterly fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ.
ii. He is the completion of all that the Law is. The law divinely pointed to the need for a savior and uncovered mans need. Because God is holy and our sin separated us from fellowship with Him.
Because he is the embodiment and completion of all that the Law was we now do not preach OT Ritual but faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we preach the Word. Romans 10:17 So(Y) faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
i. Romans 2:28For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. 29Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too,
What does that mean?
It means that the word of God is preached and through the Spirit of God man is strengthened to respond in faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
--That is what happened when Peter began to preach what “The Word” in Acts 2. people were moved to respond in faith and three thousand by faith responded to the truth of Jesus Christ and His Work

The Church is expanded when the word is rightly preached and people respond in faith.

God is sovereign. "Sovereign" means that he alone exercises supreme authority.[3]
In fact that is how Jesus Taught us to pray in Matthew 6:10 “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done”
i. The Lord who is creator and Lord of the Church is also Lord of all that He has made. His sovereignty and Lordship will be acknowledged by all with Shouts of joy or fists of anger
ii. In that sense the Church is a breaking in, reclaiming of His sovereign rule into this present age…a sort of foretaste of heaven
iii.

So all proclamation of the church should be within the guideline and framework placed on it by The Sovereign God and should the message of the church should have at it’s center the Gospel Message which is the More than “God loves you and died on the cross”

Yes The God of the Bible is a loving God. However, that love cannot be fully understood without first understanding His Holiness.
Gods Love provides what His holiness requires
If God is not set apart, if God is not holy, then the church need not exist. But apart from Gods love the church would not exist
If God is set Apart then His people must likewise be set apart. So the Message that God brings to his people can be summed up as
i. He is a just God and Gracious as well
ii. He is a Holy God yet He is merciful
iii. Humanity is in Sin Yet God offers His divine forgiveness through Jesus Christ. That is the message of the Gospel

Therefore, anything which detracts or adds to the message of the Gospel is actually a lie because it takes away or adds to the only means of redemption that God has given.

When this happens it imperils every lost soul who here’s the distorted message
i. So when a preacher gets up and preaches a gospel without the truth that man has sinned and that God's holiness requires penalty, but also that God in his love sent His Son, The Lord Jesus Christ, to take that penalty upon Himself for the sins of man, that He died, was buried, and rose again on the third day defeating death, hell and the grave then that man ceases to preach the gospel. It is not just love, nor is it only condemnation.

The Result of Right Teaching
Right Teaching of the Gospel centers around the right understanding of the Gospel
Right teaching about the Gospel results in a correct understanding not only about God but about humanity.
Right teaching of the Gospel Centers the church itself upon Christ’s work of atonement and not only his teaching or life example.
i. This is what sets Christianity apart from all other religions of the world in that the figurehead acts as both example and redeemer. Christ came not only to preach but to be a ransom for his people
ii. So when the church gathers it gathers not as just in instructed or encouraged people but a ransomed and saved people.
Finally right teaching about the gospel centers the church not on human actions but on receiving by faith and repentance the rewards of Gods actions in Christ.
i. God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21

So in the end a Gospel centered church teaches both the turn from sin and turn to Christ.
So an exposition if Mans sin is not enough
Neither is only preaching on the Love of God enough both are necessary

The Oldest Sermon we have outside the New Testament was preached sometime in the early in the second century and was circulated with a message from Clement of Rome. No one really knows who the writer was but it was clear what he was preaching.
The focus was on remaining steadfast under the hardships of being a Christian in that Culture but listen to where that hope came from…
“Involved in blindness, and with such darkness before our eyes, we have received sight, and through his will have laid aside that cloud by which we received sigh, and through his will have laid aside that cloud by which we were enveloped. For he had compassion on us, and mercifully saved us, observing the many errors in which we were entangled, as well as the destructions to which we were exposed, and that we had no hope of salvation except it came to us from him. For he called us when we were not, and willed that out of nothing we should attain a real existence. .. since he has displayed so great mercy towards us and especially in this respect, that we who are living should not offer sacrifices to gods that are dead, or pay them worship, but should attain through him the knowledge of the true Father, how will we show that we do indeed know him, but by not denying him through whom this knowledge has been attained. [4]

A cross not taken up by repentance nor affirmed by faith is a cross that does on save. Therefore the right preaching of the Word is central to the church and is the basis and core of who we are.

IF a church loses the gospel message then that group ceases to be a church. It may be a religious organization or a club but it is not a church for the true church must present the Gospel and respond to it.[5]

What is our message to the world? What is that we are to proclaim as individuals and corporately?

The Gospel…Paul would say it this way…” 2 Corinthians 5:19-21 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

[1] Macarthur study bible, notes on Matthew 5:17, p 1400
[2] The notes from this lesson are mainly from Aiken’s A Theology for the Church “The Doctrine of the Church” by Mark Dever P. 778-783
[3] adapted definition from m-w.com “Merriam Webster online, “sovereign”
[4] Steven Mckinion, Life and practice in the early church, page 76
[5] John Hammett, Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches. Page 64