Introduction:
A. I love the old story told of the man who was shipwrecked on a beautiful, deserted South Pacific island.
1. Years later, he was discovered by a passing a navy ship.
2. Upon their arrival at the shore they were met by the shipwreck survivor. He said, “I’m so glad you’re here! I’ve been alone on this island for more than five years!”
3. The captain replied, “If you’re all alone on the island why do I see THREE huts.”
4. The survivor said, “Oh. We’ll, I live in one, and go to church in another.”
5. And what about the THIRD hut?” asked the captain.
6. “Oh,” said the survivor, “That’s the church I USED to go to.”
B. Let’s begin this morning with some fundamental questions that all of us need to be able to answer.
1. Why do you go to the church that you attend?
2. Who are we as a church among the many hundreds of kinds of churches in the landscape of Christianity?
3. Are we trying to be just another of the many kinds of churches with just a little different flavor?
4. Are we the “Burger King” of churches while others are “McDonalds” or “Wendy’s” - all of us just being hamburger joints with different names?
5. Or are there significant and fundamental differences that set us apart that need to be understood and championed?
6. And the ultimate question is does it matter to God? Does God care about the differences among Christian churches?
7. Is God’s attitude: “Variety is the spice of life?” “Anything Goes.” “Whatever.” “To each his own!”
C. Let me state as concisely as I can who I am trying to be as a Christian, and what I understand we are trying to be as a church: We are simply trying to be Christians who belong to the church that we read about in the NT.
1. Our goal is to be the people who owe allegiance to one Lord and to His instruction only, and who show that allegiance by calling ourselves by his name - Christian. We are Christ’s followers.
2. We want to be members of the church that He established.
3. The church that Christ established was just as He wanted it.
4. Christ was the founder of the church and it was purchased by his blood (Mt 16:18).
5. Christ was and is the foundation and the head of the church (1 Co 3:11; Eph 1:22,23)
6. The NT contains the instructions God wanted the church to have with regard to worship, organization, conduct and mission.
7. By following those instructions only, we are Christ’s church.
D. Unfortunately, many churches over the centuries have departed from the NT teachings about everything from sexual ethics to leadership organization.
1. This should not surprise us since the Apostle Paul warned Timothy and us that this would occur: “For a time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Tm 4:3-4)
2. History records the many departures from the NT principles and patterns that have occurred over the years.
3. I firmly believe, but cannot historically prove, that there have always been simple, NT Christians somewhere, throughout all times.
a. Although they had to meet in secrecy, and did not have the benefit of easy access to the Scriptures, they remained faithful to the simple, uncomplicated doctrines of Christ.
4. With the invention of the printing press, and its ability to produce mass copies of the scriptures in the common language, people began to read their Bibles and realize how far their churches had drifted from the original church of the NT.
5. Leaders arose during that period calling for reformation of the church. Others called for restoration of the original church.
E. We stand here today, as a result of God’s work among the restorers of NT Christianity.
1. Listen to the words of Alexander Campbell, a man involved in the restoration movement in the 1800’s here in our country. He was often accused of founding a new religious system, but here was his reply: “We have no system of our own, or of others, to substitute in lieu of the reigning systems. We only aim at substituting the NT in lieu of every creed in existence, whether Mohammedan, Pagan, Jewish, or Presbyterian. We wish to call Christians to consider that Jesus Christ has made them kings and priests to God. We neither advocate Calvinism, Arminianism, Trinitarianism, Unitarianism, Deism nor Sectarianism, but New Testamentism.”
2. Here are the words of J.Z. Tyler in 1882 as he explained our purpose, “Were you to ask of me one word which would most exactly present the central purpose of the peculiar plea presented by the disciples, I would give you the deeply significant and comprehensive word “Restoration”: For it was their purpose, as they declared in the beginning, and as, without variation they have continued to declare to the present, to restore to the world in faith, in spirit, and in practice, the religion of Christ and his apostles as found on the pages of the NT…They clearly saw, and from the beginning distinctly recognized, that in order to do this, they must ignore and pass back beyond all ecclesiastical councils, with their creeds and confessions, their speculations and controversies, since the days of the apostles, and take up the work just as these inspired men left it.”
F. Although the early church was mostly unified in doctrine and practice, the NT shows that there were false teachers, even early on, who were trying to distort the truth and draw people into separate groups.
1. To counter those teachers and their teaching, the NT writers passed on the principles and patterns of God for the church.
2. It is to some of these principles that I want us to briefly turn our attention this morning.
I. PRINCIPLE #1: DIVISION IN THE BODY OF CHRIST IS CONTRARY TO GOD’S WILL
A. Prior to his crucifixion, Jesus had prayed for his followers, saying, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (Jn 17:20-21)
1. Paul pleaded with the Corinthians in his first letter, “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.” (1 Co 1:10).
2. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Eph 4:3-6)
B. From those passages I conclude that God desires that we all be one; He desires that there be no divisions among his body. He wants us to be unified.
1. And we notice, the unity God desires will have an impact on our believability to the world. Many skeptics excuse Christianity because of the religious division they see among Christians.
2. The main hope for religious unity rests on the next principle.
II. PRINCIPLE #2: THE BIBLE IS THE ONLY AUTHORITATIVE GUIDE IN RELIGION
A. We believe and call all others to receive the Bible as the divinely inspired word of God, and therefore the final and only authority in religious and spiritual matters.
1. Paul declared with reference to himself and the other apostles and prophets, “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.” (1 Co 2:12-13)
a. The message that those Spirit directed men delivered now constitutes the NT.
2. In our Scripture reading today, Paul wrote: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Tm 3:16-17)
a. So, God inspired his word, and it is sufficient to equip us to accomplish His will.
B. We can never have Christian unity if the variety of churches continue to accept as authoritative any writings or teachings other than the Bible.
1. To do so is to have conflicting sources of authority.
2. Our purpose and plea is for all people to respect the Bible as the only authoritative guide in religion.
3. One of the restoration mottos we have tried to practice is: “Where the Bible speaks, we speak; where the Bible is silent, we are silent.”
4. Therefore, without addition, subtraction, or modification, we intend to follow the Bible and the Bible alone. We charge all others to do the same.
III. PRINCIPLE #3: PEOPLE BECOME CHRISTIANS WHEN THEY DO WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS TO DO AND WHAT PEOPLE IN THE BIBLE DID TO BECOME CHRISTIANS.
A. How a person becomes a Christian is one of the most important and serious doctrines of the Bible.
1. If a person follows a plan to become a Christian that is different from the plan that God has given, are they a Christian?
2. They may be a Christian in their own eyes, but are they in God’s?
3. None of us have the right to alter God’s biblical instructions and then conclude that it will be OK with God.
4. But why would anyone want to reject the biblical plan for becoming a Christian for a non-biblical plan?
a. The two reasons I come up with are ignorance and pride.
b. When I use the word “ignorance,” I’m not using it in an ugly way. I’m saying that they simply don’t know the difference. Someone told them the non-biblical plan, and that’s the only plan they know. Or they may have sincerely studied, but they are sincerely wrong.
c. Pride comes in to the picture from two different directions.
d. First, the person might have a pride that says, “I have always done it this way, and believed this way, and I hate to change now, it is embarrassing. Or I’ve walked with God closely all these years, I know I am right with him. I cannot accept that I am wrong.”
e. A second kind of pride assumes, “God surely will understand and accept my attempts to be a Christian even if I did not become a Christian in the right way. I don’t think it will be that important to God.” That’s prideful presumption!
B. So, what plan did the people of the NT follow to become Christians?
1. First of all, I must emphasize that the NT plan of salvation is based on the grace and love of God as demonstrated and accomplished in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. (Eph 2:4-8)
2. The plan for personal access of the grace of God for salvation consists of having and confessing a faith in Jesus, repenting of sin, and immersion in water for the forgiveness of sins.
a. The Greek word for “baptism” is baptizo and means “to immerse, dip or plunge.
3. Jesus said, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (Mk 16:16)
4. The apostle Peter preached, “Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38)
5. The apostle Paul wrote, “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Ro 6:3,4)
6. All the people in the book of Acts, when the church began, were told the same plan of salvation, and all who followed it became Christians.
7. No one in the book of Acts was told to sprinkle water on their infants to baptize them, and then to confirm their faith at age 12. But that’s what many do today.
8. No one in the book of Acts was told to pray the sinners prayer to receive salvation. But that is what many are told today.
9. No one was told to do three summer-salts and four cart-wheels and say Jesus five times to receive salvation. I don’t think anyone is told that today, but if we are going to depart from Scripture then anything goes, right?
10. We insist that people become Christians when they do what the Bible says to do which is exactly the same thing that the people did to become Christians in the first century.
Conclusion:
A. So, who are we as a church? How and why are we different from other churches?
1. Please hear me clearly on this point – I believe that people in other churches love the Lord just as much as we do, and are sincerely trying to follow the Lord as they believe they should.
2. And I pray that God’s grace is sufficient to cover all who are sincerely trying to honor and obey Him.
3. However, we have a different goal and a willingness to limit ourselves to reach that goal.
4. We want to be simple, NT Christians only, and we are willing to limit all we believe and teach to what is revealed in Scripture.
5. We believe that this is the only place where Christian unity can stand, and we believe that this is the only way authentic Christianity can be experienced.
B. A man named Mack Lyon tells the story of being on the mission field as a young missionary and helping with the construction of a church building.
1. The person in charge gave him a pattern for constructing the roof trusses for the structure.
2. So, he took the pattern, measured the wood, cut it and constructed a rafter.
3. He then set the pattern aside, took the rafter he constructed, measured the wood with it, cut it and constructed rafter #2.
4. He then set aside rafter #1, took rafter #2, measured the wood with it, cut it, and constructed rafter #3.
5. He did the same with each of the rafters, measuring the new one by the one he had just made.
6. Can you guess what happened when they tried to put those rafters up? You guessed it, they didn’t fit together properly.
7. A small change in each of them, so small it wasn’t even noticeable, maybe just the width of a pencil mark, eventually added up to too big a difference to be tolerated. It was a costly error.
8. So it is with Christianity and the church. The only way to guarantee that we will continue to build properly is to continually use the unchanging pattern of the Bible.
9. Let us continually seek to be the church of Christ - His church, the one He established, doing and being what He specified.
10. And may all churches find common ground for unity in that goal.
C. So, are you a member of Jesus’ church?
1. If not, then won’t you do what the Scriptures say to do to become a Christian.
2. If you believe in Jesus, and are willing to repent and turn to the Lord, and are willing to confess your faith before others and be immersed in water for the forgiveness of sins, then you are ready to become a follower of Jesus.
3. If you are not ready to do those things today, then I would encourage you to do whatever you need to do to get ready.
4. None of us know when the Lord will return, nor when our own life might be over.
5. What a shame it would be to miss out on eternal life because we kept delaying our obedience to God until it was too late!
D. And if you are a member of Jesus’ church, are you a member in good standing?
1. Are you being faithful in your walk with God?
2. Are you being faithful in worship and fellowship and service?
3. It is so important that we be found faithfully serving and growing when we stand before God on judgment day.
E. May God help us all be faithful followers of Jesus Christ, and may we be a faithful church of Christ. Amen.
