Would you take your vivals, please, and turn to Paul's epistle to the Ephesians at the chapter 2? You'll notice perhaps that The hymns today are about the church because we've come to that point in the Apostle's Creed that we're studying together Where the church confesses their belief and the holy Catholic Church and the communion of saints It's not a week that goes by perhaps where someone doesn't send me an article or a clipping from a magazine or newspaper or some blog site that reminds me that the number of nuns are rapidly increasing in the world now by nuns. I don't mean female Catholic clergy. I mean N-O-N-E-S the nuns Those who on survey after survey repeatedly When asked what is your church affiliation answer nun? Doesn't mean they're not believers in God or even believers in Christ It means that they simply have no active membership in a church and Don't intend to because they don't want to They often define themselves as spiritual but not religious In other words, they like to shape their own personal religion as They see fit without the interference or inconvenience or intrusion of A church and its creeds and confessions of faith Of course this isn't really something that surprises us. It shouldn't Because Americans are increasingly choosing to live isolated lives They live in walled up neighborhoods and gated communities. They work online rather than go to an office They have virtual friends smartphone dates Because it's easier than real-life relationships. They can shop online and bank online and even worship online if they want to They can text and text and face-time and Skype and conference call together and And so we would expect a commitment to a real life Person-on-person community To be something that they're not really interested in after all Fewer and fewer Americans truly date but more and more have sex Fewer and fewer people marry But more and more live together Fewer and fewer people join a company and more and more contract out their labor and services Fewer and fewer people talk on the phone and More and more text and fewer and fewer women Decide to marry and have children with a husband and More and more deciding to have children on their own Because it seems easier It seems more satisfying because the self
Without the incumbrance or hindrance of someone else Is in control. It seems as long as an American has some internet service on a laptop or Or iPad or smartphone that they can do life from birth to death by themselves And so why would anyone Invite the inconvenience of a local church Into their private sector There are myriad reasons why people say they're deserting the church They say it's legalistic, but then again Maybe it's not legalistic maybe these are the laws of Christ that they're talking about It's oppressive But ask you is it really oppressive to tell people that there's certain things with their gender? Certain roles in life that they have to fulfill Because that's the way God created them There's simplistic well that may be true But so most of the blogs that we read and all of the talk show hosts that we listen to and I would suggest you that so was the president He tends to give simplistic answers to complex problems. Every president does Churches full of hypocrites. It is There's always room for one more you'd fit right in well with the rest of We're overly protective, but we said that of our parents. Try that by the way Try that the next time a police officer stops you for speeding say officer you're being entirely overprotective See how far that gets you We're racist But maybe not maybe people Really want to worship with people who they are like with the kind of worship style born out of their culture that they're comfortable with Irrelevant, but I would suggest you that God and man and sin and salvation and Forgiveness and love are always the most relevant topics for all people Everywhere around the globe and the evidence of that is the organized religion is increasing in leaps and bounds in every area of the world except America and Europe the land of the internet Catholicism and Islam Hinduism and evangelicalism, Mormonism and Buddhism. They're all increasing The world is not getting more spiritual Human beings have always been spiritual because they're made in the image of God. How could they be anything else? But it is becoming more religious There are more and more people joining religions that are very specific About what they believe and how their adherence should live the church of Jesus Christ is growing Around the world except in the individualized isolated world of the American So when the apostles creed Talking about things that must be believed for a person to be saved It comes to one that surprises us and perhaps even among evangelicals irritates us when it says I believe in the Holy Catholic Church and the communion of saints The Holy Catholic Church has to do with religion the communion of saints has to deal with spirituality Because we are part of the communion of saints united together in Christ We are members of this holy Catholic Church. It's not a choice of either or but a case of both The nice and creed that we just said expands upon that. This is not just one church or a holy church or Catholic Church It's all it's one holy Catholic and apostolic church Those are the four marks of the Church of Jesus Christ one Holy Catholic apostolic and Although those marks are characteristic of the church are found throughout the New Testament They're concentrated in one passage in Ephesians chapter two verses 11 to 22 Therefore remember that at one time You Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision Which is made in the flesh by hands remember that you were at that time separated from Christ Aliened from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world but now in Christ Jesus You who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ Free himself as our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two So making peace Him at reconciles both to God in one body through the cross thereby killing the hostility and he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father So then you are no longer strangers in aliens But you are fellow citizens and saints and members of the household of God Build on the foundation of the apostles and prophets Christ Jesus himself Being the cornerstone and whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord In him you also are being built together Into a dwelling place for God by the spirit Although not in the same order as the creed In this passage Paul will talk about how the church is one Holy Catholic and apostolic Now I want you to know that there are differences And perhaps mainly here There are differences between our Catholic friends and our orthodox friends And Protestants and how we interpret these particular words in the creed And a little book I want to be a Christian or now called growing in Christ J.I. Packer explains the difference He says official Roman Catholic teaching presents the Church of Christ as one Organized body of baptized persons who are in communion with the Pope and acknowledge the teaching and ruling authority of that episcopal hierarchy It is holy because it produces saintly men And keeps them from radical sin It is Catholic because in its worldwide spread it holds the full faith in trust for all men And apostolic because it's ministeral orders stem from the apostles and their faith Protestants see it differently Packer says Protestants challenge this from the Bible In scripture they say the church is one worldwide fellowship of believing people Whose head is Jesus Christ It is holy because it is concentrated to God though it is capable nevertheless of grave sin It is Catholic because it embraces all Christians everywhere And it is apostolic because it seeks to maintain the apostles doctrine unmixed I will preach that second view which I believe is the Historical and biblical view of the church Our own Westminster confession of faith says The Catholic or universal church which is invisible consists of the whole number of the elect That have been or shall be gathered into one under Christ the head And is the spouse the body in the fullness of him that dwells and fills on all This visible church which is also Catholic universal under the gospel And not confined to one nation as before under the law Consist of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion And of their children and is the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ The house and family of God out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation So let's look at Ephesians and see how Paul defends the fact that you're just one Holy Catholic and apostolic first he says The church of Jesus Christ is one and he mentions that in verses 13 through 16 look again. How many times it uses the word one But now in Christ Jesus you who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ Free himself is our peace who has made us both one And has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall hostility By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances That he might create in himself one new man in place of the two So making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross there by killing the hostility We are both made into one he said Creating in himself one new man reconciling us both to God in one body That word body that one body is Paul's way of referring the apostles way of referring to the church At seven different times from chapter one to chapter five in all the chapters of Ephesians Paul will reference the one Body of Jesus Christ and refer to that body as the church The church is one because all Christians are part of that one body Because they have number one Through faith united themselves to the head of the church the head of the body Jesus Christ And then they have been baptized by the Holy Spirit Into this body Where there are members of one another and of Christ Paul would say that same thing in first Corinthians chapter 12 For just as the body is one and as many members and all the members of the body though many are one body So it is with Christ For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body Jews or Greeks slaves of free And all were made to drink of one spirit Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it What turns millions of people around the world into one body called the church It is their faith and therefore their union with Christ the head of the body It is also the Holy Spirit Who causes them to be born into this one new man one new man kind This one new society called the church And it is their baptism The privileges them to enter into membership in this one new worldwide communion of saints known as the church The oneness and the unique that of it Paul talks about in this chapters. He does in chapter 3 is that both Jew and Gentile One separated by race And by religion And by culture and by nationalities have all been brought into one body Look over in chapter 3 Look at what he says in these first six verses For this reason I Paul the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles Assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you How the mystery is made known to me by revelation is I have written briefly When you read this you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ Which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow errors Members of the same body and partakers of the promise of Christ through the gospel We are not even my friends to think That everybody in the New Testament Were all the same and all believe the same in fact they were not I can count at least seven denominations In the New Testament there were the Jewish churches of Judea And the Gentile churches of Antioch and Palestine The Galatian churches of Asia minor the Macedonian churches of northern Greece The Kian churches of southern Greece the Latin churches of Roman Italy and if Paul made it to Spain in planted churches there were the Spanish churches In perhaps those even in North Africa And yet Paul states that all of these people were one body Because that's what Jesus had prayed When Jesus prayed that great high priestly prayer before we went to the cross he said old father I prayed that they would be one Just as you and I are one I and you and you and me that they may be perfected in unity Because Jesus Christ lives in a tri unity A trinity he wants his church to dwell in unity In essence now listen carefully in essence The nature of their being the father and the son and the spirit are the same But they are distinct persons The father is not the son of the spirit The son is not the father or spirit in the spirit is neither father nor son three individual distinct persons dwelling in the essence of unity in the godhead And so it is with the church In essence, we are all one we are born again of the spirit to a new humanity And being Christy is a new creation The old things of his race and his creeds and his nationality and his background have passed away And be told this new thing of being a Christian has come And yet we remain distinctly who we are There is an American church But the church is not American And there is a Russian church But the church is not Russian Just as there were Gentiles in the church and a Gentile church and Jews in the church and a Jewish church But the church was neither Jew nor Gentile The church rises above all these things and calls us To be one in Jesus Christ I had a beautiful illustration of this just last week I was invited to go to lunch and meet a guy His name is Wong Fang He was not from around here Wong Fang Fang Wong is his last name so Americans will say he was Fang Fang long He was a Chinese man Now listen to this A Chinese man Pastoring in Malaysia In a Presbyterian denomination Who wanted fellowship and support for what he's doing in his country And when I sat down To lunch with him we had instant communion I'm not Chinese I may look like a lot of things but I'll never be mistaken for a Chinaman And I'm not from Malaysian fact he had to show me on a map exactly where it was We share a Presbyterianism But I've entered to say his Presbyterian church And this Presbyterian church Look a lot different And yet we were one the communion of the saints And our membership in Presbyterian churches gave us Some commonality And we were reminded that we were one because of Christ and the spirit in us And our baptism Alistair McGrath as well said That in recent years under increasing pressures from secular societies Many Christian churches have come to realize that what they have in common Is far more precious and important than what divides them There is a growing recognition that Christians are at liberty to disagree over certain matters Things that are not essential to the gospel while taking a common stand in the essentials of the gospel You know folks if all the Presbyterian churches in the world stopped existing The church would still belong And if all the saints in Malaysia Turned away from Christ and back to Buddhism or Islam The church would still continue The church Is greater than our Institutions and organizations because the church is created by Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit and not by men And the church has a oneness In Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and their baptism And a oneness not because of men The church is one It is also Catholic Look at verses 17, 18 and 19 and he came and preached peace to you were far off And peace to those who were near For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father So that you are no longer strangers and aliens But you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God I know this is confusing to Protestants that we say we believe in the Catholic church But the word Catholic comes from a little Greek word Catholicos that literally means universal or worldwide or the substance of the whole To say that my friend has Catholic tastes as one author wrote Does not mean that he belongs to the Latin church It means that his tastes are vast and universal and varied He likes a lot of different things And that's the way the world originally was meant to read in the Greek versions of the earliest creeds Martin Luther came along And felt that that word should be changed and so he changed it to I believe in the Holy Christian church But in so doing Philip Shaft says he left the church at Rome to monopolize the name Catholic but in truth There is a Roman Catholic church because there are churches of Rome all over the world universally But it's true that there are Catholic orthodox church because there are orthodox churches all over the world And Presbyterian churches and Pentecostal churches all over the world Because Jesus said it should be Goal and be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judean Samaria to the utmost parts of the earth to the very ends of the earth Go and make disciples of all the nations And that means that the church is by nature universal When he says that they were strangers and aliens But now become fellow citizens when he says that Christ preached those who were Near the Jews and those who were far off the Gentiles And brought them into one universal church He's attesting to the Catholicity of the church That the church is never poorly localized or inculturated or bound to one people group or society In fact, he says the dividing wall Those Jewish cultures and rituals that held Gentiles back and made it more difficult for them to find access into the church They've been removed So that people Jews and Gentiles Male and female Slave and free all kinds of people from everywhere can make their way into this one Catholic church It is wrong for the Roman Catholic church or the Greek orthodox church to say that they are the one true church. They could never possibly be that Because they can't be everywhere To enfold every person It is wrong for Baptist to say that they're the only biblical church Because that's simply not true It is wrong for Presbyterians to say that we alone hold the true faith reform faith because other people believe that In other churches and other denominations and that kind of competitive and sensorious and combative manner of dealing with other Christians and churches May have hurt the cause of Christ greater than anything else We may want our pastor to get up and slam other groups And spend his time in the sermon telling them and telling us why they're all wrong But I think it's better to tell people what is right What is biblical to celebrate that Because he said For he himself is our peace And another place he says that Christ is called us to peace and not to conflict There were differences in these churches And they wanted to impose on each other their own views of things But there was a very famous council in Acts chapter 15 that said we're not going to do that We're going to be a universal church and we're going to look differently But we're going to hold to the faith once for all delivered to the saints rooted in Christ and his gospel Herman Whitsius says the middle wall of partition has been broken down The gospel church is not confined as it was in the church of old to any place or people But is scattered abroad throughout the whole extent of the world And is the common mother of man in all of the nations Nearishing them with the same milk cherishing them in the same bosom making the whole world so to speak a common temple and to God By the coming of Christ the truth of the ancient prophecies is fulfilled Which has been that people from all the nations without distinction Should be invited into the fellowship of God and his people called the church Cyral of Jerusalem one of the early church fathers said The church is called Catholic because she is diffused over the whole world from the one end of the earth to the other The church is one the church is Catholic and the church is apostolic Versus 1920 so then you are no longer strangers in aliens But our fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone Paul tells us at the very foundation of the church is the old testament prophets the new testament apostles And Christ in his gospel in other words the foundation of the church is the Bible Old Testament From Genesis to Malachi gospel From Matthew Mark Luke John And new testament apostle teachings from extra revelation This is the faith once for all Delivered to the saints The church is not apostolic Because the office of prophet or apostle continues because they don't And it's not apostolic because there's a succession of Peters fellow apostles who bear the title Pope because They're not They're apostolic Because they believe in what the apostles taught they believe in Christ the cornerstone And the old and new testaments the foundation Jesus never appointed a pope Jesus never said that the head of the church would be Peter Peter never said that he Was supposed to pick a successor that would follow on and be the vicar of Christ on earth Now people often point to Matthew chapter 16 verse 18 I tell you this you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell should not prevail against it I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth I'll be bound in heaven whatever you lose on earth shall be lost in heaven Peter was the leader of the apostles And the apostles were to start and to design and to build the church That was their apostolic authority to do so And they were to write the new testament to complete the Bible And give us this great proclamation Summarized in 1 Corinthians 15 that Christ died and rose again on our behalf and appeared to many For this is what we preach the apostles say and this is what you believed But there is no mention on Christ's part Or anybody else's of a pope Significantly Peter is the leader And Leon Morris says there is no doubt that Peter is assigned a preeminence Which is clearly seen in the early chapters of Acts But this is not an absolute preeminence and we must be careful in defining it In any case, there is no mention of any successors of Peter Whatever position is assigned to him is personal and it is not transmissible to those who would succeed him Jesus is speaking of the apostle Peter And not those who would follow him Honestly, folks, it's impossible to follow the line of Peter now because it's been interrupted so many times. There's been competing popes Male and female There's been a break of the eastern church away from Rome And then the Anglican church and then the Protestant Reformation this whole thing has been shattered But what unites the church what makes an apostolic is the Bible And the New Testament so the churches that believe the gospel Teach the apostolic faith Practice the ethics of old and New Testament who are seeking to be faithful to these things even though they fail Their apostolic churches and those that do not Can claim a lot of things for themselves But they cannot say they're following Peter or Paul or the Christ who sent them out to the ends of the earth To be apostolic is to be biblical That's the long and the short of it And finding the churches holy Verses 21 and 22 in whom the whole structure Being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord In him you also being built together into dwelling place for God by the spirit. I know that some of you would say pastor You can't really have considered what the church is today and then look us in the face and say that it is holy But I can because the word hoggios means three things It means to be sent aside dedicated a consecrated to some god And the church is dedicated and consecrated to Jesus Christ God in the flesh To be holy means to be sacred To be concerned with spiritual things and that is what the church is a temple of the Lord a house for God the dwelling of the spirit As the words that Paul uses It's not involved in secular political economic things but in things of the spirit It is spiritual And it is holy Not because it is without sin But because it is growing and godliness and in Christ's likeness And he who began a good work on us will continue to perfect that until We're glorified and sendless We have been in the past set aside By God for Jesus Christ we are in the present Induelt by the Holy Spirit which makes us a sacred people And in the future we are becoming more and more godly and less and less sinful until we arrive with him in glory And Paul talks about these things in this verse Join together in the Lord in the past Presently being built together into a dwelling place of God in the spirit and in the future Growing into a holy temple. We are holy in our standing Holy In our experience and holy in what we're pushing towards in the future Obviously some churches Or more holy than others And some are more doctrinally and morally purer than others And some have become so polluted that they no longer bear the privilege of the title church Our own confession of faith says the purest churches under heaven a subject both to mixture and air And some have so degenerate days to become apparently no churches of Christ Nevertheless, there shall always be a church on earth to worship God according to his will If the church denies the deity of Christ teaches a false gospel rejects the word of the apostles worships other gods endorses immoral and perverted behavior Then they are apostate A no longer apostolic and they are no longer consecrated to spiritually oriented towards or pushing towards holiness They cannot be holy But in perfect and sincere churches pursuing Christ Holding to his word and seeking to worship and live for him Our holy churches They belong to God in Jesus Christ Why do we believe this? Why does this have to be in the creed Because the church makes everything else in the creed real Without the church God is an idea. He's a doctrine Christ as gospel can become A self-help program The people can take or leave the spirit Becomes a mystery that can even turn into superstition But the how and the where of father, son, and spirit in our lives finds this place in the church I suggest you that's why they're increasing nuns in the world They would love to keep Jesus Christ in the church at arm's length They want him just out there where they can reach him in time of need But not at the center of their lives where he might interfere with who they are and what they want to be They're worldly as David well says finding as the center of their world the fallen mankind And relegating to the periphery of life and he thought about God But God will not stay at the periphery of life Or at the periphery of humanity or their history of the periphery of the human experience He will move into the very center And he will demand that we profess loyalty to him And join his kingdom his church and move with him When he said go and baptize them and the name of the father son and holy spirit and teach them everything I told you He was commanding us to make converts and disciples who remembers of the one holy Catholic and apostolic church So that outside of that church There is no ordinary way to be saved. That's what our confession of faith says This church is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ the house and family God Outside of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation We embarkly explains that this way it is still true that God knows nothing of solitary religion And that the Christian without the church or the church without Christians cannot fully exist not baptized Not a member of a local church Not believing in Christ Not confessing the creed You are a nun You have none of salvation Michael Horton reminds us Evangelicals did not differ with the church of Rome in the claim that outside of the church. There is no salvation but merely Disagreed in their definition of what constituted the true church Listen to the little Belgium confession We believe and confess one single Catholic or universal church A holy congregation gathering of true Christians Believers awaiting their entire salvation in Jesus Christ Being washed by his blood and sanctified and sealed by the Holy Spirit We believe that since this holy assembly and congregation is the gathering of those who are saved That there is no salvation apart from it No one ought to withdraw from it Content to be by himself Regardless of a stash or condition But all people should be obliged to join and unite with it Keeping the unity of the church Look how Paul began this passage Let me conclude with this look at verses 11 and 12 Therefore remember that you at one time Gentiles in the flesh Called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision which is made in the flesh by hands Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ alienated from the commonwealth of Israel Strangest to the covenant promise having no hope and without God in the world but now God has brought you into Christ and his church People who are not in the church are without God in the world They're outside the communion of saints the communion of Christ They have no part in the dwelling place of the spirit They're lost everything we are Everything we believe Every aspect of our life and how we live as Christians is shaped by the church By this one holy Catholic and apostolic church please my loved ones please I say this as your friend Be done with this idea that you conveniently go to church with just an idea of Jesus And your own individualism it Cannot happen You must be baptized into Christ as church you must learn from us What it is to believe and follow God you must be part of God's family If you would dwell With God himself forever in heaven We believe in the holy catholic church Because it is the place of religion The place where God brings the world to himself and Christ to the world We're going to celebrate the Lord's Supper If you look in your bulletin just for a moment You find that there's a panel for prayers to be said during the Lord's Supper For people who are not Christians Not baptized not members If you have faith in Jesus Christ and You are baptized member In a Bible believing church a church that loves and honors Jesus Christ And if you are in good communion with that church not under discipline And in sweet relationships with your brothers and sisters and Christ please Come to this table. We have in common here is the communion of the saints in the communion of the Lord But if you don't Don't be offended Become our friend Become our brother assistant Christ Read those prayers and pray them a prayer For faith in Jesus Christ a prayer for obedience To be baptized and to join the church a prayer for reconciliation Perhaps to other believers or churches where you've come from So that the next time we come and confess that we believe in one Holy catholic and apostolic church and the communion of saints You can take that communion with us We say this because we love you and we want the church to grow We want many people to be with us in world and in heaven In Jesus Christ And we're offering you the opportunity this morning To receive Christ as your Lord and Savior To move towards baptism and membership And to become part of the church Because you're part of the communion of saints For this is what we believe This is what Jesus wants It's pray Father we thank you for all those who are in our church and even In our numbers today who will soon be part of the communion of the saints And part of the church of Jesus Christ perhaps even part of this congregation I commend all of us to your grace A grace to save us and bring us into Christ and His people A grace to To build us up and to make us more holy If we are already in Christ and members of his church Meet each of us here this morning in the way we need Jesus Christ personally Whether we go to the supper or not Come to us a Holy Spirit And make us more and more one Holy Catholic and apostolic individually and corporately Do this we pray because it is what is good for us and mankind What pleases Jesus Christ It is what our heavenly Father wants from us And because we love him we want to give him that We want him to have one holy Catholic and apostolic church In Jesus name