Identity Mark Number Five: THE DESTINY OF THE CHURCH.

The destiny of the church is to someday be with God eternally. The church recognizes that it is a pilgrim—each Christian is a pilgrim, moving from this world, through death, through the resurrection, through the Judgment, into the eternal presence of God. In that day, its destiny will be realized.

I want to close with a thought from my mentor in the faith. Some of you may have known, or at least known of, the late Brother Gus Nichols [1892 – 1975], truly one of God’s noblemen. It was my happy privilege to know this good man for twenty-five or –six years, the best years of his life, and in many ways, the best of mine. He wrote a book of sermons in 1949 [Sermons by Gus Nichols and Others (Jasper, Alabama: Private publication, 1949)], and in that book of sermons, here is this statement about the identity of the church:

Though there is a period of nearly two thousand years between us and the church in New Testament times, we can be as certain that we have the same church as if we were only a few years removed from the apostolic age. Those who took the Gospel, the seed of the kingdom, and carried it from Jerusalem (the first congregation) to other places and planted congregations, were only reproducing the church as it was established in Jerusalem. THEY WERE NOT FOUNDING DENOMINATIONS. So now, those who start congregations exactly like the congregations we read about in the New Testament are only reproducing the church of Christ, as it was under the inspired apostles. Hence, the only question (for those claiming to be the church of Christ—WW) is: DOES IT HAVE THE MARKS OF THE CHURCH DESCRIBED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT? If not, only false doctrine and sin could account for the difference. For no one is permitted to change the church from what it was when fresh from the hand of its Builder, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Matthew 16:18—WW). Therefore, for a church now to be the church of Christ—the church which Jesus built—it must be identified with the New Testament church. Christ is not the founder of any church which differs from the one mentioned in the New Testament. Of course, no church can be identified with the church of the New Testament and yet differ from that church. Everything which is true about the Gospel and the church of Christ is as old as the New Testament. All that is new about Christianity is not true, and whatever is true is not new. Hence, to be a product of the New Testament, every mark of the church must be one which characterized the church in the days of its purity, before the death of the inspired apostles, and before the apostasy began.

I maintain that this is a summary statement that is exactly correct. It is not believed because a man said it. It is true because it represents a summary of Bible teaching. But whether one ever reads this summary, or not, the thought that we are developing from the Bible is that the church in the 1 st Century was IDENTIFIABLE. It was known by the apostle Paul, the apostle Peter, and others. It was known by those who went about to persecute the church. And they knew what they were attempting to do and went it about it with the churches that were of that particular view and faith of Jesus. And there are the marks that we’ve described.

If there were more time and opportunity, we could develop these details in length and ramification, or what a blessing it is that by virtue of the Word of God, there is available in our day the teaching of God concerning what the church in the 1 st Century was. And a group of men and women today, who are children of God, can duplicate those particulars in the life and work of a church and today be identified with the church as it was given then. And what a thrill it is to know that.

Can you imagine the joy of a person’s life when he or she has been searching for the Way of God, and finally comes to see it—see it in its simplicity, in its power, and in its beauty—and in so doing say, “Now, my soul is at rest. Now, I belong to God, and now I have found a home among people who believe and do as God’s Word teaches. And together, these folk bond with each other and God and are determined to carry the cause of Christ as far as they can around the world, and to live and die in the faith, and die with the hope and expectation of being with God eternally.” And that’s a precious birthright.

I must close. Thank you for your attention.

In a moment, we’ll be singing an invitation hymn, and as it is sung, if you’re not a Christian, you need to be obedient to Jesus Christ as the Son of God. In order to do that—to become a Christian—one must believe that Christ is the Son of God, must repent of sin, must confess faith that Jesus is the Lord, and be buried in baptism for remission of sins that, by the grace of God, sins may be forgiven and may be made a child of God, added to the church and rise in newness of life.

If you are a Christian and have erred from the way of God in a public fashion, you need to repent of that wrong, confess that sin to God and ask loving brethren to pray with you and for you that you may be forgiven.

On these terms, we invite you to come as we sing. May we stand.