The Purity and Unity of the Church

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Okay. Today we are continuing in doctrine of the Church. This is our second week doing it. Last week, you know, we had the weekend thing. So it's been two weeks. But I want to ask a couple questions to see what you guys think about this topic. So when I say the word pure, what do you think of? When I say pure could be a word, a phrase, a thing. What comes to mind? Yeah. Without blemish. Okay. Pure. The what? A pearl. That's. Yeah, I think that's. That makes sense. A pearl. Yeah. Lincoln, did you raise your hand just now? Complete. You think of complete. Okay, wait, what did you say again? The word. Yeah. The word is pure. Yeah. Like complete. Yeah. Complete. Okay. Clean. Cleanliness. Okay. Levi. Clean water. Yeah, you think of, like the, like, pure life water, you know, or like. Like white cloth, you know, that was perfectly white. What? Like light. Oh, white. Like cloths. Cloths. Okay. Yeah. No, I'm not laughing at you. Let's get it. White cloths. I was just not. I was hearing something different. Okay. Yeah, no, that's a good answer. Yeah. Yeah. So we're kind of getting the good image. Maybe you guys have different things in your heads. That's okay. Now, when I say the word unity, what do you think of united? [00:01:57] Speaker B: All united. [00:01:58] Speaker A: United. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Asher? One. You think of one. Like the number one. The number one. Okay, that makes sense. Unity. Anyone else? [00:02:11] Speaker C: Church unity. [00:02:12] Speaker A: You think of church unity. Wow. Me too. That's good. Yeah. Katie? The United Kingdom. The United States. Okay. Genly, were you going to say the same thing together? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Anyone else? Yes. Okay. [00:02:35] Speaker C: I don't know where I saw this. [00:02:40] Speaker A: It was like just the world. The world. It was all these people standing up on top of the world, holding hand. I feel like I've seen an image like that. Like a. Like a. Like kind of in a circle around the world. Yeah, that. That's an image. And I don't know where I've seen that either. Huh. Clip art. There's probably some folks from way back in the day that put that as a bumper sticker on their car or something. That's probably a bumper sticker for sure. Okay. Yeah, those are good answers. Yeah. Yeah. I think when I think of it, I also probably think of, like, the U.S. you know, there's all these different states with their own personalities. They're all very different, but they are united as one nation. Or you think about the United Kingdom. They're different countries. England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland. Yet they're united as one kingdom. So. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. So that's what we're talking about with the church. We are talking about church purity, church unity. But I think maybe having some of those images and phrases can help us understand, because I think those were mostly, you know, pretty accurate to what we're looking at. So let's do a review. Let's do our review. What. What is theology, Asher? You got it. The study of God and how to [00:04:04] Speaker C: be more like him. [00:04:05] Speaker A: Yeah, study of God and how to be more like him. Okay, so what's the. I said it already today, so hopefully someone can get it. What is the. The big doctrine that we're covering right now? Not like this individual lesson, but yeah, yeah. The doctrine of the church. So we have several lessons kind of underneath that. So theology is a big umbrella. The littler middle umbrellas are like doctrine of the church. And then we have the lessons underneath those, if that helps you kind of picture it. Now, what did we study two weeks ago? Two weeks ago is our first church lesson, and it did have a similar kind of structure to the title and topic. It was the something and something of the church. So there are two things, You know, we're trying to learn what the church is, what might be. I don't know if this is a word you guys really think of, but what might be something that you would want to start with before you get into all the details, huh? Okay. I couldn't hear that, but sounded funny. Maybe what the church is. Right. So we studied the nature of the church. So that's kind of. When we say the nature of the church, we're talking about what it is, is at its core. It's. It's being the nature of the church. And we talked about its marks. So things that. About the church that kind of distinguish it as the church. So the nature and marks of the church. So I was, you know, I was going to ask, do you guys remember anything about that lesson? Now that I say it. You guys remember anything from two weeks ago? Yeah, we just talked about having membership, knowing who's in and out of the church. Yeah, that's helpful. So we actually know what the church is if we know who's in and who's not in the church. Yeah, yeah. Anything else you guys remember? Yeah, I think we talked about the church universal, being a global and even crossing time, sort of assembly of people that will be gathered together in the last day, all believers from all of time and all places. And then there are local churches, which are just local representations of that universal church. We talked about the church should have right preaching. So they should preach the Word faithfully. They should have. They should practice the ordinances that God gave us. So practice baptism and the Lord's Supper rightly, which is connected with membership. Those were kind of the main ones. And then we'll kind of unpack a couple more here in a minute. So we're going to focus today on the purity and unity of the church, which are two attributes that each church should have. So these are two attributes every church should have, and they have them in varying degrees. So nobody is. No church is completely pure, completely unified. So it is by degree. But that's what we're going to talk about. Here's the summary. So these are kind of the definitions of purity and unity. So the purity of the church is its attribute of holiness or conformity to God's will. So complete, perfect, it is clean. It is its attribute of holiness or conformity to God's will. And the unity of the church is its attribute of oneness. I think Asher said 1. It's oneness and absence of divisions. Divisions contradict the gospel. They're not something we should just kind of put up with in the church. But some things we should address because unity displays the gospel and the unity of God himself. So one other aspect, I think these were more so the marks or this was the nature of the church we talked about last week. We listed four attributes. It was one holy, catholic and apostolic. And catholic is meaning universal. There. This is the church has kind of confessed and said this is what the church should be. And it's been doing this for hundreds, thousands of years, even saying that it is one holy, catholic or universal and apostolic, handed down by the apostles. So we're going to unpack today the first two. So when we see the the church is one, we're thinking about unity. When we read that the church is holy, we're thinking about its purity. So we're talking just about 2 of those from last or two weeks ago. So here are the major affirmations. The first is that the church must be pure. Plain and simple. The church must be pure. So let's go into the word, see what the Bible says. Go to 1 Corinthians 1. See that the church must be pure. Can someone read 1 Corinthians 1:2, second verse of the book? Thank you, Hank. [00:09:47] Speaker C: The church of God that is important to those sanctified in Christ Jesus called be saints, together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ with their Lord and. [00:10:00] Speaker A: Okay, yeah, thank you. So look at that verse in your Bibles. How is the Corinthian Church described in this verse? Multiple ways. But how are they described? Yeah, sanctified in Christ, called to be holy. Called to be holy. That's right, yeah. Anything else? There are a couple other ones. Those are kind of the main. So the church of God, they're in Corinth, sanctified in Christ, called to be saints. And so that's really helpful. So sanctified. Do you guys remember what this means? We. This is several weeks ago we talked about sanctification, but yeah, to be made holy. That's right. Sometimes it's referring to when God sets apart Christians. Sometimes the Bible uses. Uses it as a progressive growing in holiness during the Christian life. So they're called, they are sanctified, they're made holy in Christ Jesus, and they're called to be saints. Well, the interesting thing is that the word for saints is when it's used in a singular way and more in a really, it's used as an adjective. It's the word holy. And so the word saints in Greek is just holy ones. That's kind of the literal translation. We use the word saints, but it's the holy one. So they're called to be holy, holy ones together. So made holy and called to be holy ones together as the church. So you can see a little bit of unity there. We're focusing on the purity. So in terms of their position in God's eyes, so where they are, how God sees them, they were set apart as pure and holy when he called them, and they responded with repentance and faith. So they were set apart in God's eyes as holy. It's in terms of position, it is just who the church is. The church is pure because they've been sanctified and called to be saints in Christ. Let's go down to Ephesians 5, so that's a little to the right. Ephesians 5, we're going to look at verses 25 through 27. So Ephesians 5, 25, 27 says, Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, make her holy, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, 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. So the last verse, we're looking mostly at the position of the church in God's eyes as being pure. What now is the purpose of the Church's unity. What is the purpose, I think especially of that last verse 27. Yeah. [00:13:20] Speaker C: So that he might present the Church to himself. [00:13:24] Speaker A: That's right. So the purpose of the Church's purity is so that the Church, all Christians in the Church, can be presented before God in splendor. He would be pleased and happy looking upon his beloved children. And so he makes us pure. But also our aim is to be pure so that we can be presented before him blameless. Of course, this is something that Christ accomplishes on the cross, but this is the purpose of the Church's purity. Now then, go to 2 Corinthians, chapter 6, 2nd Corinthians 6, not 1 Corinthians, but 2nd. Look at verse 14. That's towards the kind of somewhat towards the end of that chapter, 2 Corinthians 6, 14. Are you guys there? Yeah. So while I'm going to read this. But while I read it, think about, you know, how is this the Church's goal, to be pure? How can we become pure? Paul writes, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, as God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing. Then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. Okay, so how can the Church be pure according to that? And you can say what the verse says or even practical examples. How can the Church be more pure? Anyone have a clue? Look especially at that last verse. It's kind of a good summary. Some of it is a little difficult to just drop into a book and know what's going on in the context. But look especially at that last verse, 7:1. How can the Church be pure. By its members not being a part [00:16:36] Speaker C: of the wrong crowds? [00:16:39] Speaker A: Yeah, the members can choose with whom they associate. Well, who are their close friends. That can be a really good practical way. Even for you guys to consider purity is Friendships, who are your closest friends and how they lead you? Yeah, it seems like now there's some confusing stuff in here, like what is Belial? We don't need to get into all of that. But what he's showing is that to be in close union with non believers can be troubled. But even more than that, he's drawing a distinction between the church and the world. So members of the church have to somehow become and remain unstained from the world and be lights in the darkness. Of course, Christ is the one that purifies. So it is first and foremost, most importantly, through faith in Christ, that each member of the church has become pure in God's sight. But because of that, we want to live in accord with what is true in God's sight. We don't want to live a life that contradicts how we think God sees us. So we want to live purely too. And so he says, cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body. Rid yourself of sin. All the sins you do in your body, which is everything, because you are always in your body. All the sins you do in your body. Cleanse yourself, remove them, run from them. Temptations that strike you, avoid situations that tempt you, flee from sin. Because ultimately you should be fearing God. More than fearing peer pressure, more than fearing a certain temptation, you should fear God first and foremost and cleanse yourself from sins. That's what Paul is saying. So it's the position of the Church that in God's sight, through faith in Christ, each of those members is pure. The purpose of the Church's purity is so that they can be presentable in God's sight, which he accomplishes. And then the way in which we preserve purity is to avoid sin and to live according to God's will. So kind of in summary of that, the purity of the church hangs on three key principles, three key points. The first is, so these I guess, would be sub points. I don't remember if I wrote them on your handouts or not, but the first of these would be freedom from wrong doctrine. So I'll flip to these verses so I can get through them quickly. But the first is Titus 2:1, if you want to write them down to look at later. And Titus 2:1 says, so this is Paul, he's writing to a pastor. He says, as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. So the pastor of the church, he's telling is you are in charge of teaching sound doctrine, which we can take to mean that the church must have sound doctrine. We must be free from having wrong doctrine. Well, first, what is doctrine? We use the word a lot. But what is doctrine or a doctrine? Yeah, yeah, it's a teaching. So. So you must have freedom from false teachings. Why is this important? Anyone? Yeah, you don't want to be teaching wrong things to members or non members. Yeah, you don't want to. Yeah, you don't want to teach anyone wrong things. If people believe the wrong things, can they know the gospel? No. Especially on certain points that are more of a gospel point. We have to have sound doctrine. It doesn't mean that there won't be kind of disagreements on maybe less important teachings, but on fundamental truths that are connected to the gospel, we have to have sound doctrine. Freedom from wrong doctrine. The second key point is freedom from wrong conduct. So freedom from wrong doctrine. Freedom from wrong conduct. I'm going to Colossians 2:6 if you want to write that down, and I'll read that. Colossians 2:6 says therefore. So this is again written to a church, to a group of believers. He says, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. So we must be free from acting poorly. Wrong conduct. Why is this important for the church? It's kind of obvious. The church has to believe the gospel. They have to believe God's word. But why is it important to be free from wrong conduct or way of living? Anyone? Yes. [00:21:37] Speaker C: People looked and saw these people who were saying that they were believing something and then not following. [00:21:43] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. He said people wouldn't join the church. Why would. And that's a great point. Why? If you look at this group of people that spend their Sunday mornings doing this, sometimes other parts of the week, but they don't look any different than anyone else in the world. Well, there's nothing attractive about that. I can just live just like them, but then I can sleep in on Sunday morning. You know, what would be the point? Well, the point is we get to reflect the purity of our Savior Jesus. We get to make him look attractive to the world. So freedom from wrong doctrine, from wrong conduct, and then finally conformity to God's Word, which is very much related to that. Obviously, this is important because in order to have the right teachings, we need to follow God's Word. In order to live the right way, we need to obey God's Word. And so we need to conform our lives and our beliefs around what God's Word says, not what we think it should say, but what God's Word does say, so the Church must be pure. The second major affirmation is the. The Church must be united. The Church must be united. So I'm going to John, chapter 17, verse 11. I'm going to read. And I am no longer. Jesus is praying to the Father. He says, and I am no longer in the world, but they his disciples are in the world. And I am coming to you, Holy Father. Keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. So what is the significance of what Jesus prays here? What is the significance of what Jesus prays here, prays to the Father that his disciples would be one as he and the Father are one. How? How united are the Son and the Father? Not quite the same. I almost said the same. Yeah. They are one God together with the Spirit. Father, Son and Spirit are one God. They're indivisible. You cannot divide the Son, the Spirit and the Father. They are one God. We distinguish them in ways. We talk about them because the Bible talks about them this way. And there are persons, but they are one God. That is a type of unity that we frankly can't fathom. It's mysterious to our human brains. And he is praying that the Church would be that united, made up of many different people, yet united like Father, Son and Spirit in the Godhead. This is an amazing prayer. And so what he's saying is that who the Church is is unified because they're unified in the one God. He brings them together. And in Christ, the Church is in unity as Christ is in unity with the Father. So that's what he teaches there. Ephesians 4:3 then says this. I'm flipping there. Ephesians 4: 3 says, he's telling the church to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. So here we're seeing the purpose of unity in the church is to keep peace. To keep peace. And again, like we kind of talked about with purity, is it displays the Gospel to the world when the church is fighting each other. Well, that doesn't look like that attractive of a group. Why is the Gospel going to change my life? Those people are fighting with each other over silly things. Unity is super important for the church. And Hebrews 12:14, flipping there now says, strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see. So this is just something that the Church does. The church strives for unity knowing that without the Church being unified, no one will see the Lord the church's unity is incredibly important for the gospel. So the church must be united. Now, let's talk about errors to avoid. So big point number two, probably on the back page, errors to avoid. The first one is that we cannot claim to exclusively be the only pure church. Cannot claim to be the only exclusively the only pure church. Why can't we do that? Yeah, you're kind of. Yeah, it's just. It really does become more about you than God because you become the only true church. Everyone else is wrong. And I don't believe that churches can be completely pure. We're full of sinners. We overlook things, we make mistakes, we sin, we do evil things. We do have some divisions. We do have some teachings that probably aren't completely pure. We don't do any of that intentionally, or we ought not. But we will come short on the purity meter. Yes. [00:27:36] Speaker C: At my school, for our last chapel, and he said that people who look for church say that they want to find a perfect church, so there's no such thing. And then he said, like, the only kind of perfect church is an empty church because as soon as you walk in, there's sin. [00:27:52] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Once people walk into the church, they are sinners. So there's not perfection. Now, of course, there are lines we can draw. There are churches that have, or at least proclaimed churches that have compromised the Gospel, teaching false gospels. You know, obvious ones would be like Mormon churches teaching false gospels. But we could really go further than that and even prosperity theology and such things. So there are lines to draw. It's not that everyone who says we're a church is a true church. We can't exclusively claim to be the only one. It's arrogant. Only God can make the church pure. Second error to avoid is we cannot seek unity by just finding agreement on the lowest common denominators. What I mean by that is we shouldn't just get rid of every distinction. Oh, people disagree on baptism. Well, let's just make that not important. Let's move that aside. People disagree on this. Let's just kind of get rid of that. We start doing that, we peel it away until we have almost nothing left. So that's not the right way to seek purity. There will be times where it is appropriate for some churches to meet separately, but we want to just avoid tearing away every distinctive because we want to conform to God's word the best we can. And to do that, we need to obey it the best we can. Now, in terms of enacting the doctrine, big Point number three, always, you know we're running out of time. But enacting the doctrine. First, don't be overly critical of the church. I would even say a good exercise. You can think this through later. I highly encourage this. Think about the ways. Especially if you find yourself frustrated with where you are at our church or maybe in the future you can do this at another church. If you go somewhere else one day. Think about what ways is this church? In what ways is Error heights pure? And think even right out the ways that you see signs of purity in the church. In what ways is error heights unified? Write out some ways that you see unity represented in the church. Seek to not be critical. For some people, that's much more of a temptation. I think that's even a temptation for me. And so if you feel drawn towards being overly critical, then look for encouraging signs in your church and thank God for them. Second way to enact this doctrine, to live it out. Don't just leave the church or find a new one, but seek to help it become more pure. Of course there are times if a church compromises the gospel, you cannot stay in good faith. But I find it kind of too often that people think I'm frustrated with the music style, I'm frustrated with something kind of trivial. But this church has a better version of that. So I'll just go there. We shouldn't shop for churches like this. And when you join a church, if you are a member, you've made a covenant with every other member. Breaking a covenant is a really big deal. I don't think we understand that enough. It should not be an easy thing, a quick thing, to leave a church. Because when you make a covenant with that church, it's not to leave when you don't like something and there's another church doing it the way you do. Like the covenant is that you want to help your church grow in purity and unity and so you stay and help it. I think that's a much better first reaction than leaving and going somewhere else. So that's just my encouragement, especially for those of you that might be going to college or leaving here sooner rather than later. But maybe some of you younger ones will remember this too one day. So yeah, don't leave for no reason. Make sure it's good. But try to help the church grow. Are there any questions about that or anything from this lesson? Yeah, Lincoln Church. [00:32:03] Speaker B: Cuz I don't know if this is like so we left the church cuz they wouldn't let us talk. Like they wouldn't like, not physically, but like. I mean my. My dad and mom were trying to like, speak up, but the pastor. But one of the pastors left Lincoln. Which church? [00:32:23] Speaker A: Sec. Yep. [00:32:24] Speaker B: It's because they weren't preaching the actual Bible. [00:32:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:28] Speaker B: And there were also not letting us talk about what we think it is. [00:32:33] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I would trust. Trust your parents to lead you guys in the right direction and I would trust them myself too. So thank you for sharing that. Any other questions? All right, let's pray. Father, thank you for the word and for the church. God, thank you for error heights and the ways in which we see purity. We see, you know, in faithful preaching and. And faithful. Even praying and singing. God, we see unity and all sorts of people from different ages and walks of life coming together to worship and to love one another. Lord, we thank you for that as it reflects the gospel. And we ask that you would help us to grow in purity and unity as well. We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen.