The Marks of the Church

Tonight, we're on lesson number six, the marks of the church. We've been studying ecclesiology, which is the study of the church. And tonight, we're looking at what we call the marks of the church. Now, let me tell you what the marks of the church is not first, okay?

25 years ago or so, there was a wonderful book written by Mark Dever called The Nine Marks of the Healthy Church. 25 years ago, there was a very large movement in the church towards church growth. Among them, you had Willow Creek, that church model, and then you also had the Saddleback Church model, which of course was the purpose-driven church. And they were very much seeker-sensitive type of movements to try to draw people to the church. Mark Dever, who was a great pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church and also a theologian, he wrote an antidote to that, basically the nine marks of the healthy church. He did not write that as a polemic to nail Bill Hybels and Rick Warren. He wrote it just as saying, "This is really what you should focus on if you want a healthy church." But that's not what we're actually talking about today when we talk about the marks of the church. Historically speaking, in Reformed theology, at the time of the Reformation, there was just a Catholic church, right? And then the Protestants broke up from the Catholic church. And all of a sudden, churches proliferated. They were everywhere, right?

Well, how do you know the difference between a true church and a false church?

And the way you know that is that a true church should have certain marks.

Let me give you an example here.

We've got here a $20 bill, okay?

If you have a $20 bill in your pocket, you may want to pull it out. It's not necessary. But on a $20 bill, there are a lot of identifying marks that you can use to know whether it is genuine or not. For example, you may not be able to see it from where you are, but on the far left-hand side of a dollar bill, there is a thin security strip. It's barely noticeable with the naked eye. And on it, it says $20, and it also has a flag. And it glows green when you hold it up under an ultraviolet light. That's how bankers and cash businesses check quickly to see whether it has the true marks of authenticity.

In the lower left-hand corner, there is the number 20. It is in gold ink. But then when you shift it, depending on the light, it will appear green. It's a color-shifting ink. Very hard to counterfeit. And so it's a way of determining whether it's a true, genuine item or whether it is a false item. When you look at Mr. Jackson here on the $20 bill, if you notice over on the far right-hand side, very faintly, there's a duplicate of his picture. It's a watermark. You have to hold it up to a light to actually see it. You really don't even notice that it's there. But you will see his face twice on there. Furthermore, if you look around the actual bill itself, there's what we call micro-etchings. You have to get a magnifying glass, but it will have certain things such as "In God We Trust" that's printed so small, you can't really recognize it with the naked eye. Beyond that, you will have an 11-digit alphanumeric code that identifies this bill, where it was printed and what series it is in. All these various things are marks that identify this as genuine. So when we talk about the marks of the church, what that was used for in history was to determine how to know the difference between a true church from a false church.

So let's begin with Bible point number one.

The church is the great company of persons who Christ has saved, in whom He dwells, to whom and through whom He reveals God, and in whom He exercises spiritual dominion. Hopefully you'll be repeating that in your sleep. It's about the sixth time, at least, that you've heard that in this series. United to Christ, the church is His very body and His fullness, Ephesians 1:22–23.

As the church is Catholic, which we talked about last week, the church is one holy Catholic church, and this, when we say that it's Catholic, we simply mean that it's spread out.

As the church is Catholic, meaning spread all over the world, there are also many false — that's the first blank — or apostate — A-P-O-S-T-A-T-E, apostate — churches.

Spread — spread is the third blank. So the first blank is false, the second blank is apostate, the third blank is spread — spread all over the world. As churches are spread all over the world, there are many false or apostate churches. I would guess that on your way here to church tonight, you probably passed by at least a half a dozen churches, two or three of them right down the road from us, right? There's one that meets on the corner, one that meets in the high school, one that meets up there at the very beginning of Beulah Road in 50, right? Probably passed by a lot more than that, depending on how far you drove here tonight, right? There's churches on every corner, churches in strip malls, right? Sometimes you don't even notice that they're there. Well, how do you know which ones are genuine churches that are apostolic, that are Catholic, that are holy, that are one? How do you know which churches are genuine and which churches are not? Scripture describes several marks — marks is the fourth blank — of the church to help us discern the true church from the false. We're going to be looking at those marks tonight.

In the Reformation, there were various definitions. The Catholic church said there was one mark — at least that was the leading thing during the Reformation — and that one mark was obedience to the Pope. That's how he defined a true church. Of course, the Protestants rejected that, right? There was another Catholic theologian though who was very prominent, who says, "No, there's 15 marks of the church." So he had quite a few, right?

During the time of the Reformation, it varied depending on who was writing. Between one and three:

One would be the Word of God, and that's kind of like the Jesus answer. In Sunday school, if you don't know the answer, what do you say? Jesus, and chances are you're right, right? So by some reformers saying the Word of God, that's the mark of the church. They meant that everything — whether it's the ordinances, whether it's discipleship, whether it's the gospel — it's the Word of God, right? And that's all there is. Some defined it as three, but the Word of God,

the proper administration of the ordinances as being baptism and the Lord's Supper, and then the exercise — the faithful exercise of church discipline — being the third mark. We're going to be looking at all three of those, but we're going to spend a lot of time on the first one, the Word of God, tonight. The application for number one: can you discern —

discern is a blank — good from bad. Can you discern good from bad? And I have there as a reference, Matthew 7:15–20. Here, Jesus is talking about false teachers from true teachers, and if you'd open up your Bibles, let's look at that.

Matthew chapter 7:15–20, Jesus said, "Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their" — what? — "fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?" Rhetorical question, of course — the answer is no.

"Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits, you will know them."

So the Bible tells us we can know good from evil, right? Let's flip over on the back.

Look what Paul told Timothy. This is in first — I'm sorry — second Timothy chapter 4, verses 3–5. "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." He's telling Timothy, "Your own congregation will at some times prefer to hear falsehood rather than truth. They will prefer to heap up teachers that speak easy words to them, that don't challenge them, that don't talk about sin, that don't talk about repentance, that don't talk about holiness. And they'd rather give their attention to fables." He says, "But you, Timothy, you be faithful. You perform the work of a minister. You preach the word no matter what, right?" Second Peter 2:1–3. Peter writes, "But there were also false prophets among the people,

even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.

By covetousness, they will exploit you with deceptive words. For a long time, their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber." You're going to be judged for that, right? You cause one of these little ones to stumble. What does Jesus say? It would be better that a large millstone be tied around your neck and be cast into the ocean. He calls anyone who causes one of these little ones to stumble to account.

Bible point number two, the first mark of a true church is the preaching — preaching is the first blank — and profession — profession is the second blank — of the word — word is the third blank — of the Word of God. The first mark of a true church is the preaching and profession of the Word of God. The preaching means the declaration of God's word. The profession means the adherence to it, right? That you profess it, you take it as truth, and it's the word of God. Without the preaching of the Word of God, the church would not even exist. And I referenced here two verses that we looked at last week. Romans 10:17, "Faith comes by hearing," and what? "Hearing by the word of God." And then secondly, 1 Peter 1:23–25, where Peter says that you were born again to a living hope through the Word of God, the word, the gospel that was spoken to you, right? So we owe the Word of God to the very fact that we have faith in the living God, right? It's His revelation to us.

This is chiefly evidenced in the doctrine that the church affirms. In other words, it's not just the word that's faithfully preached, but the word that's faithfully professed, right? A man of God who's preaching, such as Casey, is doing his best to preach the Word of God, to say, "Thus says the Lord," to exposit the scripture, right? And we, on the other hand, have the duty to receive that word, right? To take that word as it's exposited and say, "This is God's word." What this verse says comes from the very lips of God, this verse is God-breathed, so therefore I'm going to embrace it and I'm going to perfect it. So we're going to adhere to that doctrine.

This is chiefly evidenced in the doctrine that the church affirms. While no church has perfect doctrinal purity, no church is going to get everything right, right? We try, but we do our theology in pencil, right? Because we're always open to revision. There are sometimes when you keep reading the Word of God, you'll realize, "You know what? I didn't really understand that right a year ago or two years ago." And you also have that same understanding when you're discipling others, right? So we work together patiently with one another, forbearing with one another, always pointing back to the word, right?

Every true church must preach and profess all that is essential to the apostolic — apostolic is a fourth blank — the apostolic faith. We talked last week how the church is one, it's holy, it's Catholic, and it's apostolic. Apostolic meaning that it received the Word of God from Christ through the apostles, right? This is adherence to the very words of Christ. It's not apostolic succession, where one apostle lays his hands on another man and another man, but it's an apostolic succession of truth, right? That the same doctrine that the apostles taught, that Peter taught, that John taught, that Paul taught, we hold to today, right?

To deny — this is the fifth blank — to deny the faith once delivered to the saints is to be apostate. Apostate means to fall away. If we deny that Christ came in the flesh, we're apostate. If we deny that Christ's substitutionary death was for us and in our place, we're apostate. If we deny the divinity of Christ, we're apostate, right? We're falling away from sound doctrine. There are many doctrines that can be equivocal, right? We can have difference of opinions on certain interpretive hermeneutics. We can have difference of opinions on eschatology, right? Those are second-order or third-order things, but you cannot deny the basics of the orthodox faith, the apostolic doctrine that Jesus Christ's death, burial, and resurrection is substitutionary atonement for sinners who are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone.

Acts 2:40–42, this is the early church. It says, "And with many other words he testified and exhorted them saying,

be saved from this perverse generation." This is Peter boldly preaching on the day of Pentecost. He's saying, be saved. This is the apostolic call of the gospel, right? "Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. And that day about 3,000 souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine" — it means teaching — "and fellowship and the breaking of bread and in prayers." That's what we call the common means of grace. But the focus is here: they continued in the apostolic teaching. They didn't just hear it once and forget about it. They continued learning and sharing and growing and in proclamation of the gospel as proclaimed by the apostles. Flip over on the back.

Look what Paul writes to the church — well, it's recorded. This is Luke recording Paul's words to the elders at Ephesus. This is where he's already been to Ephesus and he's on his way home on basically his third missionary journey. And he knows that when he goes to Jerusalem, he's going to be imprisoned. He's going to be sent to Rome — perhaps beheaded. And he may never see his beloved church at Ephesus, the church that he planted, again. So he calls for the elders to come out and to meet him. So he's outside the area of Ephesus. And he says, "Indeed, now I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more. Therefore, I testify to you of this day that I am innocent of the blood of men, for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God." Paul, as an apostle, had faithfully taught the Ephesian elders the whole counsel of God, the apostolic faith. He held back nothing. So he says, "My hands are innocent. I have no blood on my hands. I have faithfully dispensed my gospel duty."

Then look what he says. Verse 27, "For I have not shunned to declare the whole counsel of God. Therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock." Be careful about yourself. Be careful about the flock. "Among whom the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood." The church is so precious that Christ gave His very life for them. Verse 29, "For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also, from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore, watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone, night and day with tears. So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified." Saying, "I'm commending you to the very Word of God, which is able to build you up. Just take heed to yourselves. Take heed to the flock by giving yourselves over to the Word of God." The true church — a mark of the true church — is fidelity to apostolic doctrine.

The application for number two. "Eagerly" — is the blank — "eagerly receive the word and search the scriptures." And the reference here is Acts 17:11. Does anyone know what that reference is off the tip of their head? Remember the Bereans. Paul, on his missionary journey, found the church at Berea. They eagerly received his words. They eagerly and intently listened to his preaching. And then they searched the scriptures to make sure the things that Paul said were indeed so. Right? That's what we are to do. When we come here at church on Sunday, we are to eagerly receive the Word of God and search the scriptures. Make sure that that is what God's word says. Because the scripture is a rule that we must be faithful to. Right? And if a church is not proclaiming the apostolic doctrine, they're not a true church. Okay?

But on point number three, the preaching and profession of the word must include gospel purity — purity is the blank — gospel purity. It's not only receiving the apostolic doctrine, but it must include a faithful proclamation of the gospel. Gospel purity. It is possible for a church to have sufficiently orthodox statement of faith regarding the doctrine of God, which is the first thing that we studied in systematic theology. Bibliology, the second thing. Anthropology, which is the study of man. Hamartiology, the study of sin and how sin corrupted man. Christology. Pneumatology, which is the doctrine of the Holy Spirit — yet have a deviant soteriology.

There are churches that when you look at their statement of faith, everything's good. We believe one God. We believe this one God exists in three persons. We believe that the Father is God. We believe that the Son is God. We believe that the Holy Spirit is God. We believe that Christ became incarnate of the Virgin Mary. We believe that He suffered, was dead, buried, and rose again. So you have all this doctrine that is correct, yet their gospel is deviant.

Gospel purity includes the essence of Christ's redemptive work, that being His substitutionary death, burial, and resurrection. Also it includes its application, meaning justification by grace through faith in Christ alone. And the necessity of faith — that's the second or third blank — faith. And the fourth blank is repentance. So the first blank is purity. The third blank is faith. The fourth blank is repentance. In other words, you could have a church that sure seems like on paper they have a great doctrinal statement of faith. But what is the gospel that they are preaching?

Do they ever say that you're a sinner? Some churches don't like to talk about sin. They say, "Well, that's Sunday coming. I just want to talk about goodness and mercy and grace and how God loves us all. We're all children of God." Right? But some churches never talk about sin.

And if they don't talk about sin, is that a true gospel? If they say, "Hey,

come to Jesus," and they never talk about repentance, is that a true gospel? No. If their gospel is, "Live your best life now. God wants to bless you. You should be rich because you're a king's kid. You should be successful because you are the army of God." But there's never any talk about turning to God in faith and repentance and calling Him as Lord and following Him as your master — is that a true gospel? No. So you can have a great statement of faith, but you can have a deviant gospel.

1 Corinthians 15:3–4, Paul lays out the doctrinal element. He says, "For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for your sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." When that is read, that should be expounded on. Especially verse 3, "That He died for our sins according to the Scriptures." It means we've got to talk about sin. That all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There's none righteous, no, not one, and that we can't save ourselves. We can't merit our own salvation by works. We have to come as beggars to Christ who died in our place and we receive Him through faith. In both faith and repentance, repentance is simply turning away from ourselves, our trusting in ourselves, our own works, the world, the flesh, and the devil. And then faith is turning to God. It's the same turning from different points of view. Turning away is repentance — from everything that's evil — and then turning to Christ is faith. Both repentance and faith go hand in hand together.

Flip over on the back. Look at Romans 10:9–13. "That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation. For the scripture says, 'Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame,' for there's no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him." God's no respecter of persons. The gospel's for every man, every woman, every boy, every child, every ethnicity. "For whoever calls upon Him shall be saved."

Flip back over on the front. The application. What are examples of false gospels — gospels is the blank — that churches teach? What are some examples of false gospels?

Yeah, the social gospel. The social gospel says, "Hey, you know, our purpose of the body of Christ

is to clothe and feed the poor." There's nothing wrong with that.

But is that part of the Great Commission? No. It's to go and make disciples, right? Now, as you make disciples, you can meet their needs, right? You can, as you minister to someone, if they're hungry, you buy them food, right? And if they lack shelter or clothing, you provide for them. But first and foremost, the gospel is what our mission is, right? So we can take good things, such as doing back-to-school supplies and giving those out to the neighborhoods. We can do good things like open up a soup kitchen, right? Those are good things. But apart from the gospel, it's wood, hay, and stubble, right?

That's a false gospel. Exactly right. That we're all children of God, right? The Bible says that those who are adopted in Christ — who have faith in Christ — are the children of God, right? And to say universally, there's a sense in which we're all children of God in just a creative sense, the progeny of God. But to be His true children, to be the focus of His gracious covenantal love, it's only through union with Christ, right?

Yes, man. Ah, yes. Another false gospel is new revelation — that "God continues to speak today," and "He didn't say everything. He's infinite. So how could it be contained in just this little Bible, right? So he continues to speak. And therefore, the preacher who's speaking is God's prophet, and he can declare new revelation to you." And that's how we get things like the Book of Mormon, right? That ended up being a false gospel, another gospel.

Works-based. Yeah. Many preachers will tacitly — they may not come out and say it — but basically through their preaching, they'll say, "You've got to do better," right? And then whole sermons are, "Do better. Do good works." With the idea that if you are truly a Christian, you're going to be doing good works. And that is true in the sense that love for Christ results in good works, and we're saved for good works. But it's not true conversely that our good works save us. That if you do enough good works — if you make that your implication — keep trying harder, keep doing good works, you can out-earn your bad. And many people commonly think that's the way to heaven, right? They'll say, "Hey, I know I've done some bad things, but I've done a lot more good things." And so in the balance, my good things outweigh them. And that's a false gospel.

Prosperity. Yes. The prosperity gospel has unfortunately blown up in Africa. You know, Africa, about 40 years ago, was nowhere near as Christian as it is today. Christianity has exploded. But unfortunately, there's been a very bad flavor of Christianity — it's a prosperity gospel. It's our worst excesses here, that we've exported, right? And there, if you watch TBN or anything like that, you'll hear the prosperity gospel oftentimes — that God always wants you to be happy, He always wants you to be healthy, He always wants you to be wealthy. And that's the mark of being the true church and having faith, right? And if you're not healthy and you're not wealthy and you're not happy, then it stinks to be you. You just don't have the faith, right? If your baby's fighting for life in the hospital, well, there must have been some lack of faith in his parents. Yeah, if someone has a degenerative illness, they totally ignore where Jesus says, "This man, maybe he's sick to the glory of God," right? So God allows illness into our life, and He makes rich and He also makes poor. Those are all according to His purposes and from His hand, right? It's not as a result of our faith.

Oh, great one, Abigail. God loves you just the way that you are. You don't need to repent. I'm okay, you're okay. God's just a big Santa Claus and He's going to give you good toys — no lumps of coal for anybody. God wouldn't do that. So those are examples of some false gospels that we run across. So even though you could have a good orthodox statement of faith,

what gospel are you proclaiming? That's the mark of a true church.

Bible point number four, the preaching and profession of the word must include gospel proclamation — proclamation is the blank. What I mean by that is this: you can have the right statement of faith, you can even have the gospel down right,

but if the gospel is never proclaimed, never shared, then are you the true church? What's our definition of the church? The church is the people whom Christ has saved and whom He dwells in and He has revealed Himself to and through, right? The church must be missional. The church must be not only living the gospel, but preaching the gospel, or else it's not the true church.

Every true church will be engaged in proclaiming the good news — that's the second blank — the good news of Jesus Christ to all men. The gospel means good news, right? So it's not something you should be ashamed of. It's the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Every true church will be engaged in proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ to all men.

This obedience — that's the third blank — to Christ's great commission takes place organically in each local — local is the fourth blank — congregation. You can't say, "Well, I'm part of the one holy Catholic apostolic church," and so the church at large is the gospel proclaimer, but our little local congregation — I mean, we're just a small church and we're kind of off the main road. We don't have the resources for TV and radio, so we don't have to be about that. We'll let other churches do that, right? No. Every local church, to be the church, must be the people who are being part of revealing God to men by proclaiming the gospel.

This will be evidenced in faithful congregational preaching. Whenever the pastor preaches on a Sunday, he's primarily preaching to the flock of God, to saints, right? The worship service is not meant to be an evangelistic spectacle, okay? There are some churches that do the opposite. They make the whole thing about evangelism and end up with sheep that are starving, right? But you feed and encourage the flock. But in doing so, how do you do that? By exalting Christ crucified, right? The very gospel that is good news to all men is the very source of encouragement and edification for the Christian. So the gospel is always being proclaimed when it's preached in the congregation. But also in personal evangelism —

in our own lives, in our own families, in our own neighborhoods, in our own work, we preach the gospel personally. God can give you some neat opportunities that just fall in front of you sometimes. Be faithful to be always ready to give an answer, right? For anyone who asks for the reason of the hope that's within you. And in missionary endeavors, the church faithfully proclaims the gospel by doing missions as a church, whether it's doing a project together as a church — such as VBS, which is a great missions-type project — whether it's through our giving. Our church proudly supports 10 different missionaries or missionary endeavors. We give 1% of our budget to each one of them, and we get reports from Wayne once a month on a particular missionary so we can pray for them and know how they're doing. That's allowing us to be senders, right? How will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they be sent? That's what Romans tells us, right? So those are all different ways that a true church is faithfully engaged in not just gospel purity, but in gospel proclamation.

Romans 10:14, "How shall they call upon Him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?" Flip over on the back.

John 20:21, this is the great commission in the gospel of John. He says, "And Jesus said to them, 'Peace be to you. As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.'" We're to be ambassadors for Christ. What is an ambassador? Someone who represents a king or a government or an authority, right? And that person has that entity's authority at their hand to speak on their behalf, to make proclamations on behalf of the king, right? And is that not what the church does? We say, "Rejoice, be glad. There's good news for all people, for there is born to you in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord." Flip back over on the front. The application.

How is a church to be salt and light? That comes from Matthew 5:13–16. Go ahead and flip in your Bible to the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5.

We're going to read verses 13 through 16. These are familiar verses to you, I know.

Jesus says, "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."

When it says that we as the church are to be salt and light, what does salt do? What was the function of salt in the first century? Primarily for preservation. If you ever have seen how the ancients took care of meat and made sure that it didn't go bad or spoil, it was salted. You like beef jerky? Essentially what you're eating, right? Salt and meat, right? Also, it was valuable as a food additive for flavor, just like it is today. When you have a Thanksgiving meal, pass the salt, right? The church is to be the salt of the earth, not only to preserve, but to pass around the savor of heaven wherever it is, right? To be sprinkled throughout this world saying, "Let me tell you about the manna of God that has come down, Jesus Christ. Let me tell you about the true vine. Let me tell you about the true bread, the true water that if you drink of this, you'll never thirst again." Right?

How is the church to be light?

What's darkness a motif or a symbol of? Sin, right? Of blackness, of darkness — being away from God, having no revelation, right? If you get up in the middle of the night and the storm has knocked off the power, you're probably going to stub your toe. That doesn't feel good, right? So hopefully you have a flashlight, right, to see your way, right? The church is supposed to be in this dark world to provide light in the darkness and to point the way to Christ.

Bible point number five, the preaching and profession of the word must include faithful discipleship — discipleship is the blank. Every true church is actively engaged in following — following is the second blank — following Christ,

and making — making is the third blank — making disciples of others.

We are not called to merely make converts, but to grow — is the fourth blank — in grace as His disciples. First blank is discipleship, second blank is following, the third blank is making, the fourth blank is grow. The idea behind this is that not only is the church to hold to sound doctrine, the apostolic doctrine, not only is it to make sure that it has gospel purity and gospel proclamation, but the church must be engaged in taking that doctrine, taking that gospel, and reproducing others by making disciples.

And that first comes by us individuals following. Every single one of us is a disciple, right? To be a disciple is to be a follower of Christ, to be a student of Christ. We are followers of Christ now. When we get to heaven, guess what? You're still going to be a disciple. You're still going to be a follower of Christ. You're still going to be learning the infinite, because we're finite, right? But God is infinite. We'll never be able to contain all that is in Him, right? We'll be a finite representation of Him, and we'll know Him as He is as much as we can know, but we'll always be learning, because there's ever more to know about our glorious Savior, right?

On this earth, we need to be committed to being disciples first and foremost ourselves, and then reproducing by making other disciples. And that starts in our homes, right? Whether it's you have kids or like me, you have grandkids now, right? And even with me, my kids are grown, but I still have some influence over them, right? Some ways to encourage them in their faith, right? Because you never stop being a dad, right? They never stop being a mom. If you don't have children, you have a church full of children. You have a church full of brothers and sisters to disciple. God gives you a spiritual family, right? So we're always about reproducing Christ, right? Taking that doctrine, taking that gospel hope, embracing it, making it a part of ourselves, and seeing it come into fruition in others. Matthew 28:19 says, "Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations." Yes, you make a convert first to make a disciple, but ultimately you make a disciple, right? Flip over on the back.

Titus 3:12–14. Now we read this in our men's class this past Sunday. This is the closing of Titus. Paul is saying goodbye. He says, "When I send Artemas to you, or Tychicus, be diligent to come to me at Nicopolis, for I've decided to spend the winter there." So he's going to send a couple of men to relieve Titus, and Titus is going to come to where Paul is in Nicopolis. "And send Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey with haste, that they may lack nothing." So I want you to send these two men, Zenas and Apollos. We know who Apollos is from Acts, but we don't know who Zenas is. He says, "I want you to send them on their journey with haste, that they may lack nothing." What that journey is, we don't know. I know that journey had to do something with the church, or Titus wouldn't be sending them. So likely it was a missionary endeavor or discipleship endeavor. "And let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful." He's saying, "Let our people in our church at Crete continue to learn, continue to be disciples."

When we look at just that little passage right there, we see how a church's discipleship blossoms. First, you have Paul, who is away from Crete, and he's in a place called Nicopolis, and he says, "I'm going to send you, Titus, relief." One of them is Tychicus, which we've read about. Often Tychicus was a valuable helpmate to Paul, but he's also sending another man. So he's relieving Titus, but how's he relieving Titus? By sending two well-trained gospel ministers in his place. And then Titus is coming to encourage Paul. They've also sent Apollos and Zenas the lawyer. We think that's probably a Jewish scribe, someone who would have known the Jewish law, on a missionary endeavor or discipleship endeavor, some type of a church work endeavor.

Just in those names, you have Artemas —

which is a Greek name named after the Greek goddess Diana. We have Zenas, named after Zeus, and then we also have Apollos. Those are three Greeks — pagans — who have become disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ and are actively serving in the church in either an eldership role or a missionary role. They've been making disciples, right? And their focus is to keep making disciples. He says in verse 14, "And let our people also learn to maintain good works to meet urgent needs that they may not be unfruitful." That's the very essence of discipleship, right? To be faithful followers of Christ. And we see that in the early church, and that's why the early church blew up, right? Because they were discipleship-minded throughout, right? The true church must be given to discipleship.

The application for number five: love Christ by keeping His word, right? How will they know that you're my disciples, Jesus says?

By your love for one another, right? By keeping My commandments, you'll show that you love Me, right? If you love Me, keep My commandments.

Bible point number six, the preaching and profession of the Word of God must include the primacy of preaching — preaching is the blank for number six.

While many consider preaching Christ to be foolish, the centrality of preaching is one of the defining marks of the church. The sermon — this is the second blank — came from the practice of Jewish synagogues, which were engaged in the practice of expositing scriptures for centuries before Christ's incarnation. Modern church views the sermon as being a TED talk or a stand-up comedy routine. I'm going to say a few words, tell you a few stories, make you feel good about yourself, maybe drive home one point, be done in 10, 15 minutes, and you'll be left feeling good. What matters is how you feel when you leave, right? That's the most important thing. That's how many modern churches think, but that's not what sermons are about. In the ancient Jewish synagogues, they would read the scriptures and exposit them, right? That's what sermons should be doing — taking God's word and explaining it.

In the Old Testament, we see the Levites were commanded to teach the law to Israel, Deuteronomy 33:10. Without the teaching ministry of the priest, Israel was said to have no true God and no law, 2 Chronicles 15:3. Those are on the back — flip over to the back to read those. You can't miss those there. Deuteronomy 33:10, "They shall teach Jacob your judgments in Israel, your law. They shall put incense before you and whole burnt sacrifice on your altar." We normally consider the priests to be mediators between God and man and that their chief role was to offer sacrifice and to make prayers and intercede — which is true. They were also to teach. Their very act of sacrifice was teaching. Their very act of offering prayers was teaching. They were to know the law and to teach the law. Look at 2 Chronicles 15:3, "For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest and without law."

If there is no preaching or expositing of the Word of God, how do you know who God is?

How do you know what pleases Him apart from His word? When Israel returned to the promised land — remember God sent them away for their idolatry, but He promised in —

You find this in Deuteronomy, you find this in Jeremiah, you find this in Isaiah — that He promised that after 70 years they would return and they'd be restored into the land. We find that under Nehemiah, of course. When Israel returned to the promised land, Ezra and the Levites "read distinctly from the book, from the Law of God, and they gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading," Nehemiah 8. As they were putting back together the temple and cleaning it out, they found the Torah that they hadn't heard for 70 years, and they unearthed it and they read it and people wept, and Ezra and the Levites gave the sense. And that's what a true sermon is. It's not just about taking the text and explaining it, right?

Likewise in the New Testament, John preached. We'll find that in Matthew 3:1, John came preaching. So too did Jesus at the very beginning of His ministry. Let me read to you Matthew 4:17 and also 23. It says, "From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'" Then verse 23, "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. Then His fame went out all through Syria." And it goes on to talk about the great multitudes that followed. Jesus was all about preaching.

Jesus trained — this is the third blank — trained His disciples to preach. Mark 3:14, when He sent out the disciples to minister — the twelve and the seventy — He trained them, it says, to preach. After Christ's ascension, Peter preached. You can look up those in Acts. You know the great sermon on Pentecost. So too did Stephen. When Stephen preached, the hearers could not overcome the wisdom that he spoke by the Spirit of God. So much so that they stopped their ears and stoned him, because they were so convicted, they had to kill the messenger. The apostles deemed preaching so vital that they appointed deacons to help care for the flock so that they could give themselves over to the word and prayer. Paul continued this dedication to preaching. Find that in Acts 13 — that was his modus operandi. You go to a city and you go to the synagogue and he would talk among the Jews, right? And if they wouldn't listen, he would go to the Gentiles in the city.

Paul charged Timothy in light of Christ's return to preach — this is the fourth blank — the word always. We find that in 2 Timothy 4:1–2. "I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word. Be ready in season, out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching." I wish we could go through that, but that's a great summation of preaching, right? It's convincing, it's reproving, it's exhorting, being patient, it's longsuffering and teaching, right? And Paul told Timothy, "That's what you've got to be about."

The application for number six: "Take heed" — that's the blank — heed, H-E-E-D — "Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine." That's what he tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:16, which I will read. Actually, I don't have that on my sheet. That's okay, we're not going to look it up for time's sake, but it tells Timothy to take heed to yourself — the preacher has to have a pure heart — and also to the doctrine, right? And that's why we come to church on a Sunday morning to hear the Word of God. In our Sunday schools, it's being preached, right? In our singing, it's being sung — it's still being preached, it's being proclaimed, just to music. From behind a pulpit, it's being proclaimed. In a church that doesn't proclaim the Word of God, that doesn't preach the Word of God, it's not a true church.

Bible point number seven, the second mark of a true church is the faithful practice and administration of the ordinances of Christ. Christ commanded every believer to be baptized — that's the first blank. Christ also commanded the church to faithfully observe — observe is the second blank — the Lord's Supper. He gave us two ordinances, and we're going to spend a week — actually three weeks — on them coming up here as we study ecclesiology. So we'll go into these in depth. Both of these ordinances, both baptism and the Lord's Supper, picture our union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. We recently had three beautiful baptisms, didn't we? And to see those baptisms — that was a picture of the gospel, was it not? Buried with Christ in His death, raised with Him to everlasting life, right? It's our union with Christ saying our old man has died, we're no longer our old self. We've been placed into Christ, buried with Him and raised with Him in newness of life.

So these ordinances both celebrate — that's the third blank — the gospel, and proclaim the gospel. There's celebration. Every time we do a baptism, it should fill your heart with joy. Every time we celebrate the Lord's Supper, it should not be a somber funeral dirge. It is a rejoicing and partaking of the new covenant, right? It's with joy that we do this. Their observation is therefore an indispensable part of the worship and witness of the church. If the church does not proclaim the gospel through baptism, if it does not celebrate the gospel through the Lord's Supper, then it's no true church. Because that's simply a way of picturing the gospel, right? Matthew 28:20 says, "Continuing with the Great Commission, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you." Christ gave us only two ordinances. We best obey Him in observing them, right? Application: know Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he says, "I desire to know nothing among you but Christ and Christ crucified." And both baptism and the Lord's Supper is nothing but Christ and Christ crucified.

Bible point number eight, the third mark of a true church is the faithful exercise of church discipline. And we're going to talk about this more in depth when we study the government of the church coming up soon here in ecclesiology. As the church is one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic, it must not practice or endorse evil — because it's one, the body of Christ can't endorse evil. Because we're holy,

united to the Holy One, we cannot endorse evil. Because we're spread out all over the world, what would the church's witness be if it embraces evil, right? Because we're apostolic, following in the doctrine of the apostles who said to flee and turn from sin and turn to Christ, we can never embrace or promote evil. It must discipline — is the second blank — sin in its congregation.

Just as the church must guard the purity of sound doctrine and the faithful practice of the ordinances, so too must the church guard the holiness of its walk before God. We have a duty towards our brothers and sisters to encourage them to walk in holiness. And when they're out of line, we have a duty to encourage them humbly — knowing, but for the grace of God, go I, right? We could be partakers of the same sin just as easily. We probably have been in the past, right? So we don't do it haughtily, but out of love and out of concern for them.

Jesus is jealous for His bride. You can read that in Revelation 2 as He writes to the churches. He tells them, "I'm not going to tolerate the sin. You need to repent, to get right." The church must not allow immorality to be accepted or celebrated. 1 Corinthians 5:1–7. And I don't want to read to you those seven verses because I see this so much — I'm afraid — in churches today.

1 Corinthians 5 — the church of Corinth was Paul's problem church, if you will. "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles — that a man has his father's wife." That man is living with his own stepmother. "And you are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from you."

You're puffed up. You're actually saying, "Aren't we modern? Aren't we inclusive? Aren't we welcoming? We don't talk about sin. We just love people as we find them and let God handle that." That's what the church of Corinth was essentially doing. "For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged as though I were present him who has done this deed." Paul says, "I know this guy is doing wrong. I don't have to be there to know evil." "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." It's simply a way — and we'll talk about this when we talk about the government of the church — of saying, don't treat him as a brother in Christ. Treat him as an outcast. Don't let him have the benefits and privileges of Christian fellowship. If he's living in open antagonism to the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be buffeted by Satan, because that's the only way he'll ever turn to Christ. If he's coddled in his sin, he'll never repent.

In union with Christ, we are to flee sin and be His holy temple — that's the fourth blank — His holy temple, and to be His children.

Ephesians 5:1 says, "Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children."

The application: "Have no fellowship with darkness, but expose them." That's what Ephesians 5:11 says. That is something that we say, "Well, I don't want to be confrontational. That's just not me. I don't want to talk about someone's sin in our congregation because we're all sinners, right?" But when someone is in open, unrepentant sin, that has to be dealt with. We are all sinners, right? And we're all going to fall short of the glory of God, but as soon as we do, we should repent of it, right? But for someone to be in open sin and for it to be celebrated — let it never be so among the church. That is the third mark of the true church: one that faithfully exercises loving discipline.