The fullness of the church had never existed until after Christ's death and resurrection and Pentecost. From the day of Pentecost forward, it was all about bringing forward this manifold wisdom and this mystery. And the mystery was the very bride of Christ, the church. that in local places God would save his people. He would have a remnant in these places and he would save them. Good morning. Welcome to Trinity Reformed Baptist Church, Jackson, Georgia. It's September 20th, 2015. Join us now as Pastor Brandon Smith continues our sermon series in the book of Ephesians. Open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3. I'm going to begin reading in verse 1, down to verse 13. For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you, that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit. To be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel, of which I was made a minister. according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things. So that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities and the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory. Now last week we stopped in the middle We kind of put a bookmark in where we were and we were moving down towards the end of this section of Scripture. But what we had mainly focused on was dealing with the reasons that Paul placed himself into this text. He spent all this time, you know, He opened up telling us who He was in chapter 1, but after that He goes into this great, great, wonderful description and glory in God and in salvation and in His person and everything that God had done as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What we saw, He explained our sin to us and He explained our need for salvation. And he even came to a place where he explained to us this chasm between Jew and Gentile. And that it had to be fixed. And that God had fixed the issue between God and man, and that was in the Gospel. And also in the Gospel he had fixed the great frustration between Jew and Gentile. And now he comes to this place where he plainly and pointedly places himself in the text. The author of this letter, for this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus. And it's interesting, out of nowhere, out of all this explanation of the greatness of God, now he comes to a place where he places himself in the text, forefront and center. Let me explain that he did that to explain the intention of his apostleship, that he was a minister called by the Spirit to follow the prophets and the other apostles, that Paul, a minister of the Gospel for the sake of the Gentiles, and Paul was a minister of the Gospel by the gift of God's grace. It was God who had done this, who had gifted him in verse 7. And Paul was also a minister of the Gospel to preach to the Gentiles, verse 8, and we went back to Acts 9 and 15. Then we talked about the content of his message. If he was given this task, well, what was the content? And Paul places himself in the text to explain the revelation of his apostleship. And what was that revelation? It was the mystery, the mystery of Christ to the world, including the Gentiles. We talked about how that was so strange for the Jews. The Jews had grown in a culture of looking at the Gentiles as this unclean people. They just didn't want anything to do with them. But Paul is saying to them now, the Gentiles are fellow heirs of the kingdom, the Gentiles are fellow members of the body, and the Gentiles are fellow partakers of the promise. But then secondly, Paul explained the mystery of Christ administrated by God. We kind of closed in this area and I want to pick up here this morning. Paul explained the mystery of Christ administrated by God. In verse 9 it says, verse 8, he just told us to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ. and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages had been hidden in God. And not just any God, the God who created all things. And what was this? He's telling us that this mystery of Christ was administrated by God, but it was the mystery, it was hidden in God. It was hidden in God. A lot of times we look at a mystery that's hidden and we're just glad to know some information about the mystery, but really what's most important is the source of the mystery. Then we can begin to really answer the true questions about the mystery itself. A lot of times there have been people that say that they saw a ghost. And there have been people that have done research and gone into various places and shown that, no, what they saw was not a ghost, but it was this. And they proved that it came from a particular source. Certainly there are things that are still unidentified or people don't understand its source, but there are many things that we've been able to explain to say, well, no, it was not a ghost or it was not an unidentified flying object. You know, the Martians didn't visit, in other words. We've been able to explain those things. Well, we have to say Paul is giving us a source here. There's a mystery, it's a mystery that's in Christ and it's been hidden, but we have to ask the question, where's the source? Where was it hidden? It was hidden in God. It was not as though it was something out there in the wild blue yonder and God kind of picked it up along the way and said, oh, I think I'll use this mystery for my advantage. No, this mystery was hidden in God. It's from the very Godhead itself. The mystery of Christ goes back before time began. All of this glorious salvation, all of the glory of the church, all of what God would do, it was hidden in God. The text in verse 11 even tells us it was His eternal purpose. This is what Paul says, this was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, verse 11. We have to understand that the mystery of Christ and the Church And the mystery of salvation and the glories of salvation was not something that was just thought up on the fly. You know, we try to plan, we try to put things together, but Paul's telling us this mystery, no, it was hidden in God. And if it was hidden in God, God is a God of order. He's a God of perfection. That means that the mystery that was hidden in Him is not something that was just thought up at the last minute or was just on the fly. That means that it was a perfect plan. It means that it was perfectly ordered. But He also tells us it was purposed through the person and work of His Son. This is the mystery of Christ, that Christ would come. And when Christ came, He would live a perfect life. He would never, ever break the law of God. Not in one way. Not even in thought. This was a part of that purpose. That He would die a sinner's death. He would be raised. But also a part of that mystery is how through the work of the Lord Jesus, that there would be a kingdom that would be brought together from all tribes and tongues and nations. God would save a people through the propitiatory work of His Son. And that people would include every tribe and tongue and nation of God's design. Now, do we know of all the different people groups that God has saved men from? No, we do not. I don't know. Maybe you do, but I don't. But what I do know is that there will be different types of people in the Kingdom of God. And the church is made up of those different types of people. Personality, race, cultural background. People who have different socio-economic backgrounds. People who have different regional backgrounds. I believe the Lord is going and has and will convert Yankees. Right? I'm a Southerner. I've got my Yankee brother down here, Brooksy and Robin. Where's another one? Jim! We've got some Yankee brothers around here, right? Careful. That's why we're here. It doesn't matter where you grew up, from what regional background you were born into, raised in, fostered in, whether it's the northwest of the United States or the northeast or the southwest or the midwest. It doesn't matter whether it's from Asia. Eastern Asia, or Western parts of Asia, or Western Europe, or Eastern Europe, or Northern parts of Africa, or Southern parts of Africa, or whether it's South America or Central America, or even somewhere on some small island, God has his people and he's saving them. And they may have different backgrounds. But they will have one great thing in common. The mystery of the gospel has been made known to them by the Word, through the power of the Spirit, and they have been redeemed. This is a great mystery and it was hidden in God. Man didn't come up with it. This wasn't generated by some great philosopher. We've lived in an age here not too long ago that philosophy was greatly important. But the philosophers of our modern and post-modern age have gone against the truths of this hidden mystery. There's been philosophers in past ages that have gone against this great hidden mystery. But Paul is saying, when I came forward, I'm not my own philosopher here. I'm not trying to bring about something new. I'm standing on the shoulders of the prophets and these other apostles, and I'm standing in Christ preaching this mystery, making it known, and it's from the very person of God Himself. It's hidden in Him, His purpose. This mystery was not only hidden in God, but this mystery was made known through the manifold wisdom of God. Now, oftentimes we need to understand, once again, when the Bible uses the word mystery, it doesn't always connect with our modern day definition of a word totally. When we think of the word mystery, we think of the word in the sense that it just cannot be known. It can never be known. But that can't be the case if Paul's using it because he's telling us he knows it and he's been brought forward to tell us what the mystery is, right? I know many times in our modern-day vernacular we'll use the word mystery as though it just can't be known. Sometimes I'll even use it in argumentation with people and say, well, you can't know that. That's just a mystery. Nobody can know. The main focus of Paul's use of this word here, this mystery that was hidden in God, truly was not known in certain generations and certainly not known in all of its particulars, and it certainly will not be known in every single particular that God has, even in our present generation. But the plainness of the mystery itself is being made known through Paul, and Paul is saying that this is the manifold wisdom of God. God is manifesting this wisdom. It was hidden in God, and now through apostles, through prophets and apostles, including Himself, He's the one bringing forward this mystery. He's giving this mystery to the Gentiles. And even to those Jews who might be near Ephesus, they need to understand that this Gospel is going out to more than just Jews. It's going out into the world. Now, Paul does something very interesting here as he tells us that this is hidden in God who created all things. In verse 10 he says, So that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known. What was hidden is now going to be made known. And what is going to be made known is the manifold wisdom of God. It's His wisdom. It's manifested from Him. But notice what He says next. Made known through the what? The church. The church. Local churches. The local body is so important. Because the manifold wisdom of God is going to be brought forth to the world, to the peoples. What is Paul desiring to do when he goes into these cities and towns? Is he going into the synagogues and preaching in the synagogues and teaching in the synagogues and then turning around and saying, well, you all just figure it out for yourselves? What does he try to do? He tries to establish groups of people there. And what do those groups of people, what do they become? Churches. Because those local bodies are going to be the conduit for which God is going to take this Gospel out into the world locally. Into this town or city of Ephesus. Into this city of Corinth. This manifold wisdom of God is going to be made known through the church. Now, Rome has interpreted this as meaning that we're going to have this great one unified church and the Pope is our leader. Wrong. Why is that wrong? Because the Pope has actually usurped the very authority of Christ. He's become the very authority for the church, saying that he interprets Scripture. That's not what the Scripture teaches. Paul as an apostle is interpreting Scripture from the Old Testament, but he has apostolic authority. He's been called of God as an apostle to do that which God called him to do. To make this wisdom known. To make the mystery of the manifold wisdom of God known. And it's going to be made known to these people and they're going to make up the churches. And the churches will do what? They'll make it known to the rulers and the authorities. in the heavenly places. You want to know what the mystery is? The mystery is the church, the very church of Christ. The fullness of the church had never existed until after Christ's death and resurrection and Pentecost. And from the day of Pentecost forward, it was all about bringing forward this manifold wisdom and this mystery. And the mystery was the very Bride of Christ, the Church. That in local places, God would save His people. He would have a remnant in these places and He would save them. And the importance of the local church is that they are bringing forward this manifold wisdom of God to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. The church is used to make this mystery known to human and angelic beings. It's an interesting concept. Harold Horner in his commentary says, equality between Jews and Gentiles was beyond the comprehension of any human being and any angelic being. Now think about it for a minute. The angels don't know it all. Humans certainly don't know it all. And for humans to look around and see how in the world can Jews and Gentiles come together. Now, in America, we don't quite think that way very often. We certainly have our race issues and all those kinds of things. But for us, it's not so much Jew-Gentile. We've got other issues. White, black, rebels, Yankees, Westerners, Midwesterners, we've got other issues. Sometimes it's just socioeconomic. This person's from that side of the track and that person's from this side of the track. They grew up with a silver spoon in their mouth. There's all kind of issues we deal with and we separate ourselves and we section ourselves out. But to the humans in that day, equality between Jews and Gentiles was beyond comprehension. And I went to New York here a couple of years ago, walking in downtown New York. You would see some of the very historic conservative Jews with a black suit on and their round rim hat. And they would have these curls in their hair and their beards. And I would think to myself, OK, I can get the picture a little bit. I am not like that guy. Not to be ugly or mean, but it was just reality. But you know what that guy was thinking? I'm not like that guy. Not only do we as humans have trouble comprehending the races, can you imagine being in a kingdom where you are among all different types of people, racial, socioeconomic background, and you are with them, and you are with them without sin, and you have no bias toward any of those people at all? I can't fathom that. Because I walk in the world and there's just some people I have bias against them. I struggle with it. Let's just be honest. I look at some people and I hear them talk and I hear the things they say or I watch them act and I'm just thinking, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh. You ain't coming to my house. Not acting like that. I don't know who you think you are, but not at Smith House. Can you imagine that kind of a kingdom where everyone is in Christ? Well, Paul is even saying here that not only can humans not fathom it, but angelic beings can't either, the heavenly places. Hohner goes on to say, nevertheless, contrary to all prior thought, Paul has been showing that the mystery is the church. composed of believing Jews and Gentiles united into one body. This was a revolutionary new concept. Now, I don't know that I totally agree with his statement here that it was a revolutionary new concept because God had been bringing His people together for centuries. It certainly is a new concept in the sense that all would be together in the sense of the church, Jew and Gentile alike. But God had always had His remnant. even though it was more Jews before Christ and less Gentiles, and after Christ it would be more Gentiles and less Jews, percentage-wise, I'm not speaking of Jews being saved, I'm speaking of percentage-wise. But he goes on, through the church, the angelic leaders, both good and evil, gain knowledge of the manifold wisdom of God, demonstrating that even the most diverse elements are subject to Christ. That's a great statement. First of all, he notes something important. Angelic leaders, both good and evil, gain knowledge of the manifold wisdom of God. Through the church, what's being brought together, what's happening, the angels are watching. as the gospel is going out to the different parts of the world, and they see God saving many from different tribes and tongues and nations, and those people are interacting together. Although there were Jews chasing Paul down, there were also some Jews that were in these local churches, and they were gathering with these Gentiles, and they were worshiping with these Gentiles. And the angelic beings in the heavenly places are looking at that going, whoa, I get it now. Didn't think it could happen, but I get it now. But he goes on to show that's not even the most important part. He says, they gain knowledge of the manifold wisdom of God, demonstrating that even the most diverse elements are subject to Christ. We don't really know much about the angels and exactly what all they're doing. We get some biblical information. It's helpful. But honestly, not one of us could write the definitive thesis for a PhD on all about angels. We have some who have taken angels to the extent and fallen angels to the extent that it's everything that you can imagine including the boogeyman. You've got others who have taken anything angelic and what would be in mystery and they've thrown it right out of the scripture. Well, neither one of those is right. Two extremes. We know in the heavenly places there are angels. And whether those angels are the fallen angels or those are the angels who were obedient and followed their God, all of them, those most diverse elements, those things that we just don't fully understand, even those things are subject to Christ. They are gaining the manifold wisdom of God through the church. You know what that means? God is using the church in ways you don't even understand. You know what that means for us in society as Christians? When we push against the idea of the importance of the local church, when we say, oh well, that's not all that important. I can be a Christian at my home in my den. And I'll just watch whoever on Sunday morning or listen to whoever. You know what you're saying is? You're saying, well, I really don't believe portions of Paul's letter to the Ephesians. I really don't think that the church is that important to God putting forth His manifold wisdom. That which was hidden in God and His eternal purpose, I really don't think it's that important. I'll just do what I want to do. No. Paul says here, the church is important. Local bodies. He's writing to these Christians in Ephesus. He's writing it specifically to this local body. Some people, I'm not going to get into this a lot, but they want to say all this stuff about the universal church, and that's fine. But these letters are primarily written to local bodies. That's why we gather in local bodies and the Word is preached to us as a local body and we worship as a local body. And every Sunday, Lord's Day, we meet here and that parking lot has cars in it. When everybody's passing by out there, we're saying to the world, you're rejecting the manifold wisdom of God. You're going and doing other things today that don't really matter in the great scheme of things and in the eternal purpose of God's created order. You're driving your car, your motorcycle by and you're doing your things and God says you, you are rejecting and rebelling against my purpose. And this is why he pours his wrath out on sinners. You don't think that people seeing that parking lot is important? You don't think people meeting in this building is important? You don't think this local body is important? and you've not understood the part we play in the manifold wisdom of God. What little we can understand about it, true, we don't understand it fully. But Paul's giving us evidence here of the importance of the local church. And it's not just that we gather and say anything. It's not just that we gather and open up our mouths about anything and we gab and we come together even as some great little social group or we're just a socialite bunch. That's not the issue because the mystery which is coming through the church was opened in Christ. And we talked about earlier how that was given to us time and time again, the phrase, in Christ. Several times in chapter 1, it's in Christ. Chapter 2, it's in Christ Jesus. Even here in chapter 3, it's the mystery of Christ. The Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus. We can't just come here and just say whatever we want to. We have to make sure that what we're doing is in Christ. Are we being obedient in Christ? Now the greatness of what I've just said is that what we're saying is the mystery is opened in Christ. It's no longer closed. It's no longer dark. There's been light shed and it can be seen. And certainly the world is not seeing it. That's why we meet here is to say to the world, God has been gracious to enable us to believe and see things that you do not see. And it's not because we're better people, it's by His grace, through faith, we believe. Some would say, well, you're being arrogant when you say that. No, I'm just being honest and truthful. This is a message to the world. We're gathered here today and we believe we must be here today to worship God rightly because that's what God has ordained and that's His eternal purpose and that's a part of His manifold wisdom. And the world is saying, you're just so silly. Or maybe even they're saying, you're not even silly, you're just not even smart. You can't even think. They're looking at their own wisdom. What we're saying, in Christ the mystery is no longer closed. It's being made known to God's people. It's only open to the elect. And that's not an arrogant statement either. I have absolutely no idea why God elected me but by His grace. I don't deserve it. What I deserve is death and hell. And I don't say that flippantly, because that is a really horrible thing to think about, that what I deserve is actually to be condemned to hell for eternity. That's what I deserve. But by God's grace, He elected me before time began and He saved me. I don't know why. And someone here this morning might say, well, if He's elected you and you understand it, but, you know, I don't know if He's elected me or not, so I can go do what I want to. Let me just ask you a question. Have you even comprehended for a moment that you're not perfect? And if you're not perfect, by what standard are you not perfect? And if you start to talk about the standard and the standard is the world or the people around you and all those types of things, well, that's not the answer. Because there is no perfection in and of the world itself. You need to understand you're not perfect because you're not perfect according to God's law. Each and every one of us, we are sinners. But that's the problem, isn't it? Apart from God's work in us, we don't want to admit we're sinners. And we don't even think about the fact that we might be sinners. We just live our way. Well, thirdly, this morning, Paul places himself in the text to explain the opposition to his apostleship. He's placed himself in the text to talk about the intention of his apostleship. He's placed himself in the text to talk about the revelation of his apostleship. And now he's placed himself in the text to speak of the opposition to his apostleship. And he does this from the very start. Verse 1 of chapter 3, for this reason I pull the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles. He states from the front that there's been opposition to his apostleship. Why would he be a prisoner? Certainly he's a prisoner of Christ and sends a bondage to Christ, right? But even more than that, he's been imprisoned. The Jews have chased him out of just about every city he's been in. They hate his message and they hate him. And they want him dead. So he's seen opposition. It's funny to think about Paul, though, in opposition. The Jews who had become Christians before Paul was converted, they feared Paul because he was persecuting Christians. But then once he's converted, the Jews fear Paul as a convert. So they fear him as a convert, and now he's going to take a message to the Gentiles, and the Jews loathe the Gentiles, so you have two bad problems here. Paul is now one of those people, and they fear him as a convert because they know how tenacious he was as a Jew. And they loathe the Gentiles, and now he's preaching to the Gentiles. So the Jews opposed Paul's message to the Gentiles. They feared him as a convert. They loathed the Gentiles. The Jews opposed Paul's message to the Gentiles. Therefore, they had to say what? We're going to call for his imprisonment. Everything we can do to keep him bound up, we've got to shut him up. Even if we have to kill him, we've got to get rid of this guy. He was opposed. in every way. But notice Paul's opposition in verse 13. Notice his mentality to this opposition in verse 13. Therefore I ask you, not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory. I'm saying, look, this is all a part of the plan. Don't lose heart. In my tribulations, this is part of the plan. I've been put forward, I've been called out and put forward to preach this gospel to the Gentiles. This is who I'm supposed to go to. I go into these cities, I go into the synagogues, this is where I start. There's persecution when I go in all of these towns. This is what I do. And as I'm preaching the gospel, God is saving His people. Some among the Jews and some among the Gentiles. And those groups are coming together as these local bodies. And here you are, church at Ephesus, local body of Christians at Ephesus. I'm writing to you from prison and you've seen me chased out of your own city. You've even been persecuted in your own city by the Jews. He said, verse 11, because this is the eternal purpose which God carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, and we have confidence in Christ Jesus our Lord, and have access through faith in Him to the Father, therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf. Look at the grand scheme of things is what he's saying. You're going to have trouble. You're going to have persecution. But don't lose heart in my tribulations. You know, we could even put this in a little more American context. Right now we don't have persecution in the church necessarily. We may have it some as individual Christians. We may have it among family members. But we don't have quite the persecution that the church has in other places. We do have troubles in our lives, don't we? when one among us comes down with a terminal illness, when one of us has a child or a family member who is going through great stress, anxiety, depression and struggle, You know what some people have done at times? Well, God let that Christian die of cancer. What kind of God is that? As Christians, we ought to say, don't lose heart in my tribulations. Some people said, well, what kind of God is that? That Christian's son or daughter was allowed to get into this trouble or that trouble, or they went through this trial or that trial. Don't lose heart in my tribulations. Why would we not lose heart at these tribulations? Because God is our refuge and our stronghold, a very present help in trouble, right? Paul is also advising the people to look at how God was giving him the grace to persevere. Even while he was in prison, Paul had the grace to persevere. Why? Because he understood the purpose. The purpose was not his glory. The purpose was for the glory of the Gentiles. And what was going to be the glory of the Gentiles? It would be that God would save them to God's glory. Paul was showing his consistency by God's grace, his perseverance by God's grace. It made me think about a historical figure by the name of Robert Brown, also known as Trouble Church Brown. He was a separatist from the Church of England in the 1580s. And a separatist at that time was not really what we would think of as a Baptist today. It was more saying, we have a problem with church and state being together. He was a separatist. He wanted a church that wasn't run by the state. So he wrote two treatises against the Church of England, which propelled him forward as a catalyst in the movement against a state-run church. Although he was demonstrative in his personality, And he had a loud voice for separation of church and state. He later withdrew from the movement. Now can you imagine this great figure pressing forward, separatism was on his mind, writing against the Church of England in a day when they can put you to death, right? And then he withdraws from the movement. He assimilates back into the Church of England and he left his disciples to suffer at the hands of the monarch by exile or death. The men he had made disciples, the churches that had been planted, he left them and he went back into the Church of England and many of those followers were either exiled To the Netherlands, they were put to death. Men that he had trained personally, that became pastors of these churches, were executed for their beliefs. Apparently, Robert Brown was great at causing a ruckus, but he was not great at persevering, right? Boy, don't we see a difference in Paul? On the other hand, here's a man writing to the Ephesians from prison, and in spite of violent pressure from the Jews, he continued to do the work of his ministry. His steadfastness proves not only his ministry, but his message. Paul places himself in the text here to remind the Ephesians, I believe in this so much, I'm willing to pay the price. And he's showing the Ephesians the importance of persevering, but not persevering in Paul because even in the places he inserts himself in the text, who's he always pointing to? It's in Christ. That's still his message. He's telling you who he is, but he's always pointing the church to Christ, to persevere in Christ. I want to leave you with three things this morning. recognize true Christianity never disconnects from its foundation. Paul stood on the shoulders, as he said, of the prophets and the other apostles. He called them the holy apostles. He wasn't trying to disconnect himself and say, I have a new message. The church today shouldn't do that. If the church today, if there are churches, local churches, that they have a new message and it's a message other than what the Scripture teaches, they are not a true church. The prominent, prominent religious figures, Protestant religious figures of our day, most of them, not all of them, most of them are preaching another message. Joel Osteen does not believe in the doctrine of sin. He does not therefore understand the need for Christ. He is a false prophet. That's just the truth. We could go on down the list. T.D. Jakes has a great show on TV and he can inspire people, but he does not believe in the Trinity. That is a new message, folks. Well, probably many of you aren't watching any of those shows, but apparently, numbers upon numbers upon numbers are watching these TV shows. They've been listening to Oprah for years. This is the culture we live in. And this kind of mentality has seeped into the church. But I'm telling you, the church, true Christianity never disconnects from its foundation. And it's not just the prophets and the apostles, but the greatest foundation that Paul stood on was what? Christ. The Rock. Christ. Secondly, recognized true Christians were unable to understand the mystery The mystery of Christ by God. We didn't have our own understanding, we didn't come about it by our own ability and power, but we weren't able to understand this mystery. The mystery of Christ, the mystery of the church, what the church is doing. The church ought to be seeking out what God has for the church to do. Now I'm not going to say any more about that this morning because we're going to open that up the more we go into Ephesians. What is the purpose of the church? What's the background? What's the church supposed to do? What's it supposed to look like? Paul's going to unfold those things for us. And thirdly, recognize true Christians' delight in the revealed truth of Christ by faith. True Christians weren't able to understand the mystery of God They were enabled, that way by the Spirit, recognized true Christian's delight in the revealed truth of Christ by faith. The Spirit enabled them to understand the mystery. And because the Spirit enabled them, they believed. And not only do we believe, it's not some duty that's harsh and we hate it in a sense, but it's a duty that brings delight. We delight in the revealed truth of Christ by faith. I want to leave you with this quote by Calvin. He says, And if the calling of the Gentiles draws the attention and excites the reverence of the angels in heaven, how shameful that it should be slighted or disdained by men upon the earth. If this mystery through the church is brought forth to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places, and even they stop and take notice. How shameful is it that it should be slighted or disdained by men upon the earth? Do you think most churches understand today this mystery of the church to the point of what Paul is persevering for in his tribulations and trials? I doubt it. Most churches gather today for a whole lot of other reasons than a right doctrine of the church. And so you know what they do? They slight or disdain what even the angels in heaven have stopped to take notice of. The mystery of the church. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, You've been merciful and kind to give us Your Word. We pray that Your Spirit use Your Word and the preaching of it for Your glory alone and nothing else. We ask these things in the name of the one and only Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.