The Necessity of the Word

I. Introduction

We talked about the the certainty of the church, the foundation of the church.

We talked about what the church is

The church is not a building, it is not a place, the church is a people.

Last week we looked at some metaphors, the church is the bride of Christ, the church is the family of God, we are the people of God.

The church is made up of all who are called out of the world and called into God’s Kingdom

The church is the people of God

So we could talk about the

Church Universal

Church local

Church Invisible

Church visible

One might say that within the visible church there could be a further distinction.

The Church as an Organism

The Church as an Institution

The church is the body of Christ, the local church is an organism in that it is a communion of believers, a group that is united in the bond of the Spirit.

The church is the body of Christ, made up of individuals from

The church is the body of Christ, it is a local expression of believers that is organized and structured.

Church as an Institution helps us understand the local expressions of the universal ch

There are offices and there are means that the Lord has established for the good of the body, for the edification of the body.

When we speak of the church as an institution what we are saying is that the Lord has established a structure or a skeleton upon which the body lives and grows and thrives.

There are four parts to the church as an institution that I would like for us to consider.

The institution is put in place by the Lord for the good of the organism, for the growth of the organism.

The church as an institution or organization is the means to an end and the end is the health and the growth of the church as an organism, the people of God, the community of believers.

Many theologians and pastors have thought and wrote about the marks of a church.

And what I mean by that is, what are the things that we should see within the church as an organization or an institution to let us know that what we are looking at is a true Church, is the Church of Jesus Christ. Others have went further than that and said what is necessary for the institution to lead to a health church or a healthy body.

So just to be clear, you can have a group of people that gather together and call themselves a church, but that does not necessarily make them a church.

Scripture speaks of a religious assembly and Jesus refers to them as a synagogue of satan

Revelation 2:9 ESV

“ ‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

Rev.

Revelation 3:9 ESV

Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you.

In other words without certain parts of the institution you will not have a true body of Christ and without certain parts of the institution you may have a local expression of the body but it will be an unhealthy body.

In other words without certain parts of the institution you will not have a true body of Christ and without certain parts of the institution you may have a local expression of the body but it will be an unhealthy body.

For many there have been two foundational marks of a true church.

Luther: “the congregation of saints in which the gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments rightly administered”

Calvin: “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.”

Preaching of the Word

Right administration of the Sacraments (Baptism and Lord’s Supper)

Others have argued that there should be a third

Faithful exercise of Church discipline

I am going to argue, that is, I am convinced that there are two marks of a true church, the preaching of the Word and the Right administration of the sacraments.

I would go on to say that though there are other marks of a healthy church, there are two more marks of a church that are necessary for a church to be a healthy church and those are understanding conversion and biblical membership ( i put those two as one) and godly leadership.

So that will be our direction for the next four weeks

We will consider

Necessary marks of a church

Preaching of the Word

Sacraments

Necessary marks for a healthy church

Godly leadership

Understanding conversion and church membership

II. The Centrality of the Word

This is by far the most important mark of the Church of Jesus Christ.

Again, we need to be clear, every group that gets together and calls themselves a church is not a church of Jesus Christ.

One of the points that Luther made is that it is not enough to have the preaching of the Word but he referred to the gospel rightly taught, that is right doctrine is a necessity for a church to exists.

As we think about that one may say, well churches disagree on certain doctrines so you are saying some denominations are churches and not others?

Within the church there are primary doctrines, there are secondary doctrines and there are tertiary doctrines.

In other words there are doctrines that brothers and sisters in Christ can disagree on and yet these doctrines are not central, they are doctrines that we can disagree about and still function within the same local body of believers (escatology).

There are secondary doctrines, doctrines that we might disagree on and may not be able to function within the same body of believers but we can love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ and even cooperate for the gospel. (baptism)

But then there are central doctrines doctrines like the Deity of Christ, salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. The type of doctrine that if a group denies this doctrine then they are not the church of Jesus Christ (mormons, Jehovah witnesses).

A church is a place where the central doctrines of the Christian faith are rightly preached.

But not only that one of the things that Calvin mentions is that the Word of God is not only preached but also heard. “Purely preached and heard”. For there to be a church the Word has to be recieved when it is preached, if you have one person preaching and 100 people who are not interested and couldn’t care less what the Bible is saying then you don’t have a church.

But where you have the gospel preached, where you have pure doctrine and the pure doctrine of God’s Word is being proclaimed and applied and you have people listening to, receiving, and applying that truth to their lives; there you have the most important mark of the Word of God.

There may be a lot of problems in the church, they may have many things wrong; but if they have this right then they are a church of Jesus Christ and if they have this right then eventually all other pieces will fall in place. The Word of God is like medicine prescribed by a doctor, when purely preached and heard, even in the sickest of churches, the Word will bring life, healing, and health.

If the church gets this right then eventually all other pieces will fall in place

The preaching does not have to be perfect, no church has every doctrinal point right, but where the fundamental doctrines of the faith are proclaimed, loved, and cherished, there you have without doubt you have the most important mark of the church of Jesus Christ and greatest need for the health and growth of that church.

And at the same time, you may have 10,000 people gathered and they may do a lot of churchy looking things but if the gospel is not being rightly preached without a doubt you do not have a church of Jesus Christ

So here at TBC

Look at the top of your worship guide

God-Glorifying

Bible-Centered

Disciple-Making

The reason this is our motto is because this is meant to remind us that that right preaching and the faithful hearing of the Word of God must be central for us as a body of Christ.

The reason this is our motto is because this is meant to remind us that that right preaching and the faithful hearing of the Word of God must be central for us as a body of Christ.

Why?

Why is the Word of God so important, why is it central for the Church of Jesus Christ? Why is it central for us?

I. God’s Word gives life

we see by the Word God created the world and all the life in it.

If we keep reading the story we read of the fall in and how Adam and Eve were cast out of God's presence due to sin. Though they lost sight of God, God mercifully sent them His voice or His Word if you will. He gave them the Word of promise

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." ( ESV)

Reading on In we find that it was God's Word that called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans.

Read

This was used by God as the force, the drawing promise if you will calling Abraham out of Ur to follow after God.

By this God's people were created, they became visible, by hearing that word of promise and responding to it. God's people were created by God's Word.

Even when God's people were in bondage in Egypt, what did he do? He began in by calling to Moses. God spoke out of a bush!!!

God have His law to His people.

We could go over more example, but then we come to

The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones.

2 And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry.

3 And he said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know."

4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.

5 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.

6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD." ( ESV)

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.

8 And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them.

9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live."

10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. ( ESV)

Again we come to the supreme example of God creating life by His Word

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 He was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

( ESV)

And agin if you continue to read on in you get to v.17

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. ( ESV)

Brothers and sisters I cannot over emphais that God creates His people by His Word. Where the Word of God is absent so is the presence of God's people.

Brothers and sisters this is not an option. If we are going to be a healthy church or even a true church we must build on the Word of God.

Not on tradition

Not on pragmatism

Not on programs

Not on surveys

Not on opinions

Not on SBC or the GBC

Not on feelings

But on the Word. God creates, rules, sustains, and matures His people by His Word!!!!!!!

People talk about all the accomplishments of Martin Luther the Reformer but listen to what Luther said:

"I simply taught, preached, wrote God's Word: otherwise I did nothing....The Word did it all."

We need to preach the Word and preach the Word and stay in the Word and keep the Word in the center of all that we do here no matter how many mega churches may use self help and programs and all of these others things and have apparent success. The reason that we stay in the Word is because it is through the Word that God builds His Church. No matter how successful other ministries may look if they are not built on the Word of God they are not a true work of God.

II. God’s Word grows us into Christlikeness

What did Jesus say when He was tempted in the wilderness.

But he answered, "It is written, "'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" ( ESV)

We know the famous words of the Psalmist

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. ( ESV)

And again what did Jesus pray in His High priestly prayer?

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ( ESV)

And Paul wrote

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. ( ESV)

Dear dying Lamb Thy precious blood shall never lose its power. Till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more. Amen

II. God’s Word grows us into Christlikeness

We need God's Word to be saved but we also need it to continually challenge and shape us. His Word not only gives us life, it also gives us direction as it keeps molding and shaping us in the image of the God who is speaking to us.

During the time of the reformation there was a phrase adopted by the reformed church.

"The church reformed, always being reformed according to the Word of God."

In other words a healthy church is a church that hears the Word of God and continues to hear the Word of God and be shaped by it.

Such a church is composed of individual Christians who hear the Word of God and continue to hear the Word of God, always being refashioned and reshaped by it, constantly being washed in the Word and sactified by God's truth.

A church that is not willing to change to better conform to God's Word is not a healthy church, they are a church unwilling to submit to God's Word. That is the same for individual Christians as well.

For our individual health and our health as a church we must continue to be shaped in new and deeper ways be God's agenda in our lives, rather than by our own agenda or by tradition.

God makes us more like Himself through His Word, washing over us, refreshing us, reshaping us.

That brings us to the third important point.

III. God’s Word gives us instruction

It gives us instruction individually.

God’s Word instructs the church when it comes to church government, when it comes to the sacraments, when it comes to membership

And also when it comes to evangelism, missions, education, stewardship, social issues, family issues.

God’s Word instructs us

III. The Role of the Preacher

How many times have we heard something like well I didn't like the preaching but the music was good at that church so we are going to go there. Or vice versa.

The most important thing when someone is looking for a church is not the music, not how friendly the people are but it is the congregation's commitment to the centrality of the Word of God. The centrality of the Word coming from the front, from the preacher, the one gifted by God and called to that ministry, is the most important thing you can look for in a church.

Preachers are not called to preach what is popular according to the polls. What life does that bring?

We are not called to preach history lessons or moral exhortations but to preach the Word of God.

What did Paul tell Timothy to do?

take a survey?

form a committee to see what you need to preach?

spend all your time doing administrative things?

Read a book?

Use a program?

2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; ( ESV)

This is the great imperative.

The Apostles gave themselves to what in the book of Acts?

Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.

2 And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, "It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.

3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.

4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." ( ESV)

This is the great task of the preacher, to hold out the Word of Life to people who need it for their souls.

Preach the Word!!!

Brothers and sister the preaching of the Word must be absolutely central to us as a body. Expositional preaching is the fountainhead of growth in a church.

God's Word is the word that we need to hear today.

So what makes a really good church?

Even more than parking and pews and greetings and programs and nursery and music and all the things that I asked you about at the beginning, even more than the preacher, it is what is preached- it is the Word of God.

Because

"'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" ( ESV)