FROM the Word of God
TO the saints of Christ’s Church
Anyone who does not remain in Christ’s teaching but goes beyond it does not have God. The one who remains in that teaching, this one has both the Father and the Son.
Second letter of the Apostle John 1:9 – CSB
IF you squirmed a bit while reading my last Saturday Post laser-focused on your PASTOR and mine, prepare to become even more uncomfortable this week as we point the BIBLICAL TEACHING finger back at ourselves.
‘Upbuilding the saints‘
By review, in our look at the theology of Dr. Martyn LLOYD-JONES on the Christian Life, subtitled: DOCTRINE AND LIFE AS FUEL AND FIRE, we observed his teaching of important distinctions.
Upbuilding the saints AND evangelizing the lost.
SAINTS & HOLY ONES
WE are the saints of Christ's Church and Kingdom to come.
O when the saints go marching in, O when they crown Him Lord of all, O Lord, I want to be among the number.. O when all knees bow at His name, O when they sing the Saviour’s praise, O Lord, I want to be among the number When the saints go marching in! excerpt source:
Gotta love them ole hymns evangelizing Jesus as Lord and Saviour!
The Spirit-led saints of the Church proclaim the victory of Christ on the Cross.
- “Our church is really good at evangelism, but as for our membership we might as well have a revolving door.
Sound familiar? (It’s a common challenge.)
Is that YOUR church too?
- Multitudes of evangelized faces — yet so many souls forgotten as they slipped out some Sunday through the revolving doors of our ‘church’.
THREE Marks of a true church:
In the fourth of his key distinctions, The Distinction between Right and Wrong – Understandings of the Marks of the Church, Lloyd-Jones states THREE Marks of a true church:
- the Word is truly preached (our current focus)
- the sacraments are truly administered (can’t go there today) and (3)
- discipline is truly exercised. (Today: a bit of admonition to self-discipline concerning Scripture)
more about Jason Meyer, author of the Lloyd-Jones resource used here & his church
While proclaiming and evangelizing the Gospel to evangelize ‘outsiders‘ through missions distant to our personal lives, WE as Christ’s saints must NOT neglect a personal relationship within our local church, our fellowship of the saints to each other.
So in addition to EVANGELIZING the lost (to come take a look at our ‘church‘), the other oft’-neglected responsibility of church leadership to the Lord of the harvest is the upbuilding of Christ’s flock, the saints of our local church.
But DON’T blame your Pastor
He’s just one evangelist with a high roof over a pulpit lit up on Sundays.
Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
Ephesians 4:12 CSB +(every version from the Bible points to Christ’s gift)
The finger of response points back to ALL of the church — including the Pastor AND including YOU and ME.
And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, equipping the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.
- some evangelists
- some pastors and teachers
- EQUIPPING THE saints (That’s US, beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus)
- FOR THE WORK of ministry (YES, saints, we are ministers + AND WHY?)
- to build up the body of Christ (that is, His Church)
Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.
But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head — Christ.
Ephesians 4:15 [context 4:12-15] + Grow up in Christ.
For your Upbuilding (Edifying, Building up)
Of grace and freedom of the saints Paul writes to the church at Corinth:
- All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. – 1 Corinthians 10:23 LSB
Be encouraged by Scripture and the Word of God through the Apostles.
Paul writes to the church at Thessaloniki:
- Therefore, [encourage] comfort one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing. – 1 Thessalonians 5:11 LSB
..We speak in Christ in the sight of God. And all these things, beloved, are for your building up.
a Second Apostolic Letter to the Church at Corinth 12:19b
What do YOU and your LOCAL Church believe?
Last year I shared a post on BIBLICAL Doctrines of the Church from an agreed statement of the International Council of Biblical Inerrancy.
(It may help you to first, sort out what you believe about the inerrancy of the Holy Bible and secondly, give you some insight into the theology you hear from the pulpit of your church.)
Source: ICBI – THE CHICAGO STATEMENT ON BIBLICAL APPLICATION
The Church and Its Mission
We affirm that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit gives the Bible its canonical authority, and the role of the
church was and is to recognize and affirm this authority.
We affirm that Christ the Lord has established his church on earth and rules it by His Word and Spirit.
We affirm that the church is apostolic as it receives and is established upon the doctrine of the apostles
recorded in Scripture and continues to proclaim the apostolic gospel.
We affirm that identifying marks of local churches are faithful confession and proclamation of the Word of
God, and responsible administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper.
We affirm that churches are subject to the Word of Christ in their order as in their doctrine.
We affirm that in addition to their commitment to a local church, Christians may properly involve
themselves in parachurch organizations for specialized ministry.
We affirm that Christ calls the church to serve Him by its worship, nurture, and witness as His people in the
world.
We affirm that Christ sends the church into the whole world to summon sinful humanity to faith, repentance,
and righteousness.
We affirm that the unity and clarity of Scripture encourage us to seek to resolve doctrinal differences
among Christians, and so to manifest the oneness of the church in Christ.
- HOW ARE YOU DOING WITH THESE AFFIRMATIONS OF YOUR FAITH?
- All “YES’ & Amen?
NOW think about the doctrine you hear preached each Sunday and what you do NOT believe & therefore must stand firmly AGAINST.
We deny that the church can grant canonical authority to Scripture.
We deny that the church is constituted by the will and traditions of men.
We deny that the church can bind the conscience apart from the Word of God.
We deny that the church can free itself from the authority of the written Word of God and still exercise valid
discipline in Christ's name.
We deny that the church can accommodate itself to the demands of a particular culture if those demands
conflict with scriptural revelation, or if they restrain the liberty of Christian conscience.
We deny that differing cultural situations invalidate the biblical principle of male-female equality or the
biblical requirements for their roles in the church.
These are the very doctrines -- the lines in the sand -- of the PROTESTANT REFORMATION.
HOW’D YOU SCORE?
- Can you DENY false preaching and false doctrine?
- Do you recognize false preaching and false doctrine when you hear it?
Returning now to the first letter of the Apostle John to the Church:
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
1 John 4:1-3 LSB
Do you hear this preached as written by God in Scripture through the Apostle John?
In our NEXT Saturday Post we’ll take a look at some familiar characters from your local church as described by one of the theologians mentioned previously: John Bunyan.
Jesus Christ is Lord!
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