The true church (Psalms 87)

The true church

 

 

 

[Psalms 87]

 

 

 

  A. W. Tozer's book, “The Incredible Christian” is a reinstatement of true faith to warn of hypocrisy and to be a true Christian.  The author criticizes the faith that has been lopsided to one side, the faith with experience but without theology, and the unpleasant faith that isn’t deeply moved in meeting God but only has dead orthodoxy, and etc. as ‘fake faith' distorted by modern church materialism. And he shouted that we must return to the true faith of becoming the real salt of the world and of willing to bear our own cross.  Since true Christians believe in Christ's victory, they are willing to suffer in order to participate in His victory.  Five things are listed in Pastor Tozer's book list (Internet):

 

(1)     The real is not ashamed of the rugged cross (Ch. 1),

(2)     The real rejects the cotton candy gospel and believes in the crown of thorns gospel (Ch. 2),

(3)     The real gives priority to the Lord over the Lord's work (Ch. 3),

(4)     The real desires holiness over happiness (Ch. 4),

(5)     And the real is true to the basics of faith (Ch. 5).

 

On the other hand, distorted Christians stress more than they need on their favorite Bible texts.  In doing so, other texts are relatively underestimated.  Pastor Tozer wrote eight things in his book list:

 

(1)     Fake is instant (Ch. 7),

(2)     Fake neglects transformation of character (Ch. 8),

(3)     Fake misunderstands the discipline of God as carrying the cross (Ch. 9),

(4)     Fake seeks forgiveness of sins by doing (Ch. 10),

(5)     Fake ignores creeds (Ch. 11),

(6)     Fake neglects theology (Ch. 12),

(7)     Fake neglects feelings (ch. 13),

(8)     Fake has no spiritual balance (ch. 14).

 

We, the believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, should listen to 1 John 4:1 – “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.”  We must distinguish the spirit.  In spirit, there is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, who came from God, and who leads us rightly to the truth and the evil spirit, a false spirit, that deceives us and corrupts us.  We must distinguish between these two spirits.  In particular, we must be able to distinguish between false prophets, false churches, false church members, and true prophets, true churches, and true church members.  How can we do so?  Those who are led by the evil spirit, the spirit of deception, who led the church are false prophets, those who are taught by false prophets are false churches, and those who are taught by false prophets are false church members.  And those who lead the church as they are led by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth from God, are true prophets; those who are instructed by the true prophets are the true church, and those who are instructed by the true prophets are true church members (Internet).

 

I would like to receive the lessons by meditating on what the true church is based on Psalms 87.  And I pray that our lessons will be applied to our churches so that our churches will become more and more established as the true church in the Lord's eyes.

 

First, the true church has a firm foundation.

 

Look at Psalms 87:1 – “His foundation is in the holy mountains.”  This word indicates that the spiritual foundation of the true church is solid (Park).  In other words, the true church is solid.  How can the true church be solid?  It is because the Lord who is the Head of the Church establishes His church “on this rock” (Mt. 16:18).  Here, the “rock” is the Peter's confession offaith, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16).  In other words, the church, built on the rock, is a community of people who, like Peter, rightly confess their faith in Jesus.  Furthermore, the church, built on the rock, is not only the community of the believers who make the right confession of faith, but also who live according to their confession of faithas Jesus' disciples.  More specifically, “rock” here refers to Jesus Christ.  Look at Ephesians 2:20 – “having been built on the foundation of the apostles andprophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone.”  As Apostle Paul said, it is the church thatis built on the rock has been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, in which Christ Jesus is the corner stone.  The expression “the corner stone” is found in1 Peter 2:6 and Ephesians 2:20.  The word"cornerstone" in Greek is “akrogoniaios” (ἀκρογωνιαῖος), and the “akro” means "high," and refers to "the rock built uphigh.’  All of the Israel's buildings start with cornerstone, and the direction of the building is determined by the direction of the cornerstone.  In other words, Jesus must be the cornerstone so that the church must stand, and the direction of all church must move according to the Christ's direction.  Therefore, when we are all built together on the foundation of the word of the Lord, on the cornerstone of Jesus Christ atthe center of the Word, and there is God who comes as the Holy Spirit in this house being built together, this church becomes the beautiful church and the true church (Internet).

 

Then why does the Lord build His church on the solid rock?  This is what it says in Psalms 87:2 – “The LORD loves the gates of Zion More than all the other dwelling places of Jacob.” The Lord has established His church firmly because He loves His church.  I hope and pray that our church will become the true church in God's eyes.  May God's beloved church, in which Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, and in where God's servants proclaim the Word of God so that the church can be built on the solid rock and thus have the firm foundation.

 

Second, the true church is glorious.

 

 Look at Psalms 87:3 – “Glorious things are spoken of you, O cityof God. Selah.”  Why is the true church glorious?  The reason is because the true church is “the city of God” (v. 3).  Inother words, the true church is glorious because God is there.  This is what Dr. Park Yoon-sun said: ‘It’s notbecause the city of God itself is beautiful, but because the Lord of glory loves it.’  The true church is glorious because the city of God which the Lord of glory loves is honored by God.  This reminds me of the Augustine's book “The City of God.”  The time when Augustinewas living, it was the time when the Roman Empire was collapsing.  The fall of the Roman Empire led to thewriting of his famous book “The City of God.” The original title of this book explains the intention of writing thisbook, ‘The greatest city of the world will fall, but the city of God will dwell forever’ (Internet).  Rome recognized Christianity as a state religion in AD 313 and finally established a greatempire of politics and religion.  Therefore, at that time, the people thought of Rome as the kingdom of God and called it the Holy Roman Empire.  They assured that Rome would be a nation that would never perish.  But these Romans were attacked and destroyed by the barbarians (Goths).  So, people deeply troubled and ask, ‘How can the kingdom of God be destroyed by the barbarians?’  Augustine meditated on this problem.  After meditating deeply, he concluded: ‘Roman, the kingdom of the world, is not the kingdom of God.  Therefore, Rome can be destroyed at anytime.  The true kingdom of God is under the Lord's reign, and it is completed at the Lord’s Second Coming.  And this kingdom of God will not perish but will last forever’ (Internet).

 

Our church is firmly established by the Lord of glory.  The Lord of glory is building up His church faithfully according to His promise of Matthew 16:18, which He delighted andbecause He loves our church.  Therefore, we must ask the Lord to build up His church as “a radiant church” (Eph.5:27).  May the Lord purify our church with the Word and make it holy (v. 26).

 

Third, the true church is established by the Lord Himself.

 

Lookat Psalms 87:5 – “But of Zion it shall be said, ‘This one and that onewere born in her’; And the Most High Himself will establish her.”  Here, “And the Most High Himself will establish her” means the Most High Lord Himself will establish Zion, HisChurch.  This is the same meaning as the promised word of the Lord Matthew 16:18 that our church holds: ‘I will build my church….’  These two Bible verses Psalms 87:5 and Matthew 16:18 clearly tell us that the true church, the Body of the Lord, is established by the Most High Lord, the Head of the Church.  And in the Lord's own establishment of the church, the Gentiles will repent and return to Him and become the Zion people (v. 4) (Park).

 

The Lord’s glorious church, established by the Lord Himself, is the people of all the nations He has chosen, multiethnic and universal.  Just as the Jews did not embrace the Gentiles, this church never has preconception that there is wall between nations and denies multi-ethnicity and diversity.  The church that the Lord Himself establishes is the firm church.  And the church that the Lord Himself establishes is the glorious church.  The glorious church is being built up by the glorious Lord.  Let’s keepin mind that our church is the Lord's church. And let us not forget that the church, which is the body of the Lord, is established by the Lord Himself (Ps. 87:5; Mt. 16:18).  Therefore, we must not sin against God by trying to build His church in our strength and in our own ways.  If we build His church with our own strength and in our own ways, the foundation cannot be firm.  And if the foundation is not strong, the church will be shaken and fall.  And such church will only manifest the glory of man, not the glory of God.  May the Lord Himself build His church.

 

Fourth and last, the true church is the community of the heavenly citizens.

 

 Look at Psalms 87:6 – “The LORD will write in the register of the peoples: ‘This one was born in Zion.’  Selah.”  Here, “The Lord will count when He registers the peoples” is a prophecy of the New Testament period when all the people who believe in Jesus Christ enter into Heaven, that is, all the believers enter salvation (Park).  Among the nations in this prophecy include Rahab that is Egypt, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia (v. 4).  Although these nationsare enemies of Israel, the psalmist foretold that in the future God would also make them to repent and bring them back to God.  That's why the psalmist said in verse 4, “… among those who know Me….”   In other words, all those who acknowledge God, both Jews and Gentiles, will be regarded by God as citizens of heaven (Park).  Therefore, all thosecitizens of heaven respond to God's grace: “Then those who sing as well as those who play the flutes shall say, ‘All my springs of joy are in you’” (v.7).  That is, they praise God because they are thankful for God's grace.

 

Let us all hold onto the word of Philippians 3:20-21 by faith: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”  Our citizenship is in heaven, never on earth.  We must not forget that we have citizenship in eternal heaven.  Therefore, we must live as heavenly citizens while living on earth.  We must live with solid faith built on the Rock, Jesus Christ.  We must live for the glory of God.  We must move forward to the city of God.

 

How do we know the true church and the fake church?  The true church is a church built on a solid foundation. The true church is a glorious church. The true church is established by the Lord Himself.  And the true church is a community of heavenly citizens.  But the fake church is a church built on a shaking foundation or sand.  The fake church seeks human glory.  The fake church is built by people.  And the fake church is a community of worldly citizens.  I hope and pray that our churches will be established as the true church of God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Serving the Presbyterian Church established by the Lord,

 

 

 

 

James Kim

(‘O Lord, may You build Your own Church’)