Greetings again in the worthy name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And so, what makes Jesus worthy? He's holy. The Son of the living God. Amen, brother. Anything else? He's the lamb that was slain. Amen. That's right. You know, when we think about what Jesus has done, We cannot but stand amazed in the presence of a living God. And it affects us in how we live, in what we do, in the way we think, in our attitudes, our emotions. It affects us in a lot of ways. It affects our whole. And I trust that today, we have allowed this living God to affect our life. And even in the way that Paul himself, as we studied in the Sunday school lesson, we might not have experienced all the things that Paul did in his day. And yet, we all have our personal experiences that we can thank God for, and that draws closer to him. We might not be shipwrecked in the true sense of the word, but we might have had faced times when we might have been basically spiritually shipwrecked. And God by His grace pulls us through. This morning, The subject is vast. And there's no way in 35 minutes that we can finish. I have entitled the message this morning, The Mystery Church. And I've taken the text out of Ephesians chapter 5, and I think we all know what Ephesians chapter 5 is, it makes comparisons. And what is a mystery? You know, we all, we love mystery stories, don't we? You know, it keeps us in suspense, keeps us guessing, keeps us thinking, because In the end, comes the answer. Well, the mystery church, if you please, to a lot of people, the church of Jesus Christ is a mystery. The church of Jesus Christ, if you look in the world today and the social mindset of the people of our day and time, You know, as we go into Matthew chapter seven, it talks about the broad road and the narrow road. How many people go on the broad road? It is many. How many people find the narrow way? A few. Why is that? What is it? What's the reason? The Broadway looks more appealing, it looks easier. That's right, that's right. And the point I would like to make, the mystery church is the church, is the people that walk on that straight and narrow way. And there'll be few that find it, but there are those that find it. And so I trust that you and I have found that mystery path, if you please. It is not revealed to the whole world. And I have a question here as well. Everybody that passes away, they go to a better place. It's not up to us to make a judgment. But when you think, it is sad to believe that there are people that go into eternal judgment. Because even so-called churches have misled people to believe that right is wrong and wrong is right. The church is not a social club. It is a place where God's people come together to worship the Lord our God. It is a place where we come to, to find common ground with people with a common faith. In Ephesians chapter 5, I wasn't sure just exactly where to begin reading because it seemed like if I start in verse 20, I'm just breaking in. It seemed like if I start in verse 22, I'm just breaking into the subject. But I think maybe I'll just begin reading in verse 19. speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. Now, what is he saying here? He's speaking to the church. He's speaking to God's people that within our hearts, there's a joy and we sing and praise God. And we need no other emotional support, do we? Because we sing and praise God from the heart. That is, I believe, what touches the heart of God more than all these instruments that you can afford. It brings me to mind, we had this discussion in our own family just last Sunday about instruments in church. But nevertheless, I'll leave that. Let's go on reading. Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God, wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is ahead of the wife, even as Christ is ahead of the church, and is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be unto their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it even as the Lord the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband. And in Mark chapter 4 verse 11, here it says in verse 32, it says, great is the mystery. Now to we as a people, as I said already, mystery is something that we try to figure out. And then in Mark 4, verse 11, it says, unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables. Christ is talking to his disciples. It is given unto you, and I believe he is talking to his own people because so many of the deep hidden truths of the scriptures To the non-Christian, they do not understand. It is a mystery to them. They cannot figure it out. And I will touch on some of those mysteries just a little bit later. But I would like to notice a few things here in this portion of Scripture. How it correlates very well a marriage with the marriage of the church to Christ. and how much it correlates and is similar. In verse 21, it says, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Submission. Now, we as a church people submit one to another. And you know, as husband, wife, the wife submitting herself to the husband, the church submitting itself to Christ. And then we go into verse 23, we have the headship order, which is basically the same thing. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is head of the church. And then we have in verse 24, as the church is subject to Christ, So we have the church being subject to Christ, wife to husband, church to Christ. Verse 25, husbands are to love your wives. Husbands are to love your wives, just as Christ loves the church. It is a wonderful similarity and parallel there. And then we go into verse 26, that he might sanctify. and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but it should be holy and without blemish. Let me ask you something. How do you think the disposition of Eve was when God brought her to Adam? Perfect. It was the only sinless state of common marriage there was. I believe. And I believe this was a perfect union. And it correlates that marriage to the church today in our relationship to Jesus Christ. That we, God could present, or that Jesus Christ could present this church to God Himself in the way that Eve was presented to Adam. And then we go on into verse... Where were we at? Verse 28. Men should love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hateth his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord the church. See, as the husband provides for the wife, so the Lord provides for the church. And then in verse 30, for as we are members of his body, of his flesh and his bones, and so we are members, husband and wife become one flesh, the body of Christ and Christ himself become as one. And this is a wonderful parallel, and then it is a mystery. But my object this morning is to direct our thoughts to a higher relation of Christ and His church, and not just the physical relation, but Christ and His church, which is shadowed by the lower relationship of man and wife. In Romans 11, verse 25, it says like this. It says that you should not be ignorant of this mystery. And the Bible has various scriptures that it talks about mystery. Mystery. And when we think about the mystery church, what does the word church mean? Called out. called out means from the world under the dominion and authority of Jesus Christ. The Greek word is ekklesia. And the Spanish word for church is iglesia. That's right. I thought you would say it back there. The Spanish word is iglesia, meaning people that are called out. Let's turn our Bibles to 2 Corinthians 6. It may be some well-known verses to you. 2 Corinthians 6, it talks about the people of God. It says in verse 14, not being yoked together with unbelievers, what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness? What concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth within infidel? Or what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And therefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord. And touch not the unclean thing, and I will what? Receive you. Now, does that mean that we should separate ourselves and go live in an island somewhere? But it goes on to say, and I will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord God Almighty. And so coming out from among them and being separate, it means that we should in all aspects of life. I preached a series of messages at home and I spent a whole year doing it. of separation of the principles of separation and non-conformity. As separation and non-conformity goes deep within the heart of each and every Christian man. It affects the things we think. It affects the things we say. It affects the things we do. It affects the things we read. It affects the songs we sing. It affects a lot, just all aspects of our walk of life. Separating ourselves from the world. Separation and non-conformity, it is a scriptural doctrine. It is not just something that we have concocted up, but it is a doctrine of the Scriptures that I believe it needs to be adhered to. And the church of Jesus Christ should be separated from the dictates of the world and be living unto Jesus Christ Himself in a pure and a holy, set aside as pure and holy as a bride before her bride, her groom. And one thing that happened in the church, where no organization as it has ever happened, is founder and his head actually died for it. actually died for it. That is, you know, the world does not understand that concept. That Jesus as head, as founder of the church, actually died for it. You know, when you think of the world in its settings, you know, man, builds up his power, his authority, his influence, and he becomes master, he becomes Lord, he becomes King, and whatever else you call all these leadership positions, or maybe even a so-called God, and he has put himself up on pedestals. And what is a mystery to the world is how that in the church of Jesus Christ, we are ruled and guided by one that gave himself and the spirit of God directs our hearts and minds. And we have a leadership here that is not exalted themselves. I trust you haven't. If you are from the true church, I don't believe you have. But that's the leadership is humble and is guided by spiritual truth and is open to advice from the laity. You know, not exalting ourselves in any position. And that's one thing that has driven me in my ministry, is to never exalt myself and try to put myself on a pedestal. But that I am a servant to the church. And that is something that the world does not understand. It is a ministry to them. Because the world's setting, there is Lords over them. And Jesus alludes to that in his ministry. And so as a church, this is a mystery. They do not understand it. This is not Phil Miller's church. Sometimes we use that term for identification. We have to understand that. But sometimes we do identify that the church has field notice church for identification. But in all reality, this is the church of the living God. And we are the people. We are the people of this living God. And God only has chosen us as servants to you. which is a total mystery to the world. Common agreement of Christian people together for God to recognize that is beyond the world's understanding. Many times people with a shallow understanding of the doctrine of the church will tend to disagree and Islam will gain a following of those like-minded in shallowness and disrupt the unity of the church. We've seen that. where it seems like there is not that unity. In churches, they split and divide. Let's turn our books to Matthew, our Bibles to Matthew chapter 16. First of all, let's go to Matthew chapter 18. Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them." Now let's go to chapter 16. Again. Chapter 16. Jesus here is talking to Peter. Blessed art thou, son Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood. And verse 17, for flesh and blood hath not revealed unto thee but my Father which is in heaven. I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee, I want you to listen to this. I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. What is this scripture telling us? Brother Phil, what is this scripture telling us? It's part of the mystery, isn't it? But the scripture says these mysteries are revealed to us. And I don't believe I have any special revelation above any of you, any of you. But I believe that as the church decides, we come to common agreement, agreement, that God recognizes these common agreements in the church. I don't know what rule you have here in your church as far as agreement, because we have a congregation of maybe 100 members, 120 members, some of them have 200 members, and it's hard to get everybody to agree. Sometimes it takes giving and taking in the church of Jesus Christ, and we just have to give up our will, even though we don't agree. We have a 20-80 rule, or 80-20 rule, however you want to say it in our church. I don't know how your church has it here. It doesn't really matter to me. But there is that a common agreement among brethren in the church, that when we agree on something, that that becomes a rule. And I believe that God recognizes that rule. I believe that if something is bound in heaven, and if we as a church decide to loose something, I believe that God recognizes that it is loosed. And all of these decisions based upon the true principles of God's Word. You know, sometimes, you know, the Bible doesn't, there's a lot of things that we have to come to common agreement on that we can't find actual scriptures on. You know, the Bible doesn't say you can't wear white pants in church. I don't know what your rule is here, but I'd hate to see white pants in our church. That's just an example. If we come to a common agreement that we don't wear white pants in church, we don't wear white pants in church because it's wrong. And I trust you have your standards, we have ours. Our standards may vary, may differ, but I can still come here and worship God with you. That's another part of the mystery of Jesus Christ and the church. That I can come and fellowship with you. And I can fellowship with many churches across the land and feel at one with that worship. The Bible... Let me go back just a little bit. For us, if the church comes to a common agreement for me to walk away and simply, how would I say, to walk away in disagreement and not come to an acceptance of what the church has decided is a direct rebellion against the authority that God has placed upon the church. I'm not saying we have to agree with everything, but I am saying that we need to accept Now I do like to quantify and qualify this statement because we have to understand that it has to be according to the scriptural principles and the basis needs to be right here. Because God gives us directives. It is God that gives us those directives. God placed the leadership in the church. And the Bible says in Acts chapter 20 verse 28, take heed therefore to yourselves and to all the flock. And I would like to challenge you ministering brethren, and I think it was the, I preached here a number of years ago, and as I recall, I preached here and I said something, and in the message I challenged the ministry a number of times, and I think it was Brother Phil Beachy that got up and said, I was just a little too hard on the ministry. But the Bible says that we should take heed to the flock. And that means the church. That means the people that we are responsible for. And that means that as we preach and as we teach, that the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached and that we leave nothing out. And brothers and sisters back there that are not a part of the leadership team, I have a note here, I believe it's still in my pocket, that a sister has given to me, and I still have not preached on it, has given to me on a message that she would like to hear. Brothers and sisters, give your ministers notes on messages that they should preach. And I think they will appreciate it. Because sometimes that is God's way of, we as a ministry, preaching the full gospel. Sometimes we as ministry in the flesh, we miss things. But you as a laity, you catch these things that we don't. And this is part of the mystery of the church. A mystery of the working together of the church. That the world does not understand. What is the purpose of the church? Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4, and I'm not going to read much here. I'm going to read verses 11 through 16. This is the church and the purpose of the church. He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. Why? Why? Why do we have the leadership team? We have all these people. We have evangelists. We have school teachers, and we have Sunday school teachers. We have various aspects of responsibility. Why is it? It is for, it says, the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. For the edifying of the body of Christ, so that we might all be spiritually edified. So we can all grow in the likeness of Jesus Christ. So we can all encourage one another to become more like Christ. And that is a part of our calling, a part of our responsibility. In Ephesians 1.9, I might return to that. I know I'm in here in Ephesians, maybe I will. Having made known unto us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He has purposed in Himself, the government of a church is still a mystery to the world. How can the church be led by a leadership and yet we are subject one to another? The world does not understand that concept. It is a mystery. Now there are quickly, there are six reasons for the church. And I am not, I'm not going to take the time to read many of these scriptures. But the church affords shelter for the people of God. In other words, I believe that as a Christian people, we want to afford ourselves to become a part, a member of the church of Jesus Christ. It gives us a sense of security, doesn't it? So it affords shelter for the people of God. As a sheepfold, you know the example of a sheepfold in St. John chapter 10? They are secure. They are secure. But let me warn you with this. It is possible to be a visible part of the church of Jesus Christ, to be a part of the visible church, but to be spiritually corrupted. But it is not possible for those that are corrupted to be a part of the invisible church. Let me say that again. It is possible to be visibly a part of the church, but to be spiritually corrupted. But it is not possible for those corrupted to be a part of the invisible church. Number two, the church affords spiritual nourishment for God's people. The church affords spiritual nourishment. Have you ever thought about it? How much we enjoy coming together? You know, if we wouldn't have had times like last night, last evening, we had parent-child time, youth and their parents. We had volleyball, we had a supper, and we enjoyed that fellowship. Now, have you ever wondered how life would be if we would not be getting together in times of fellowship dinners and even in church like this? But we are by ourselves out there somewhere trying to be a Christian. It's like a coal set by itself, it would soon go out. Discouragement. And there's a lot of things that would come into our life, whereas as we sit together, as the Scripture says, in heavenly places, in places like this. We sit here, we encourage one another, we sing songs that are meaningful, and songs that were written by people that had gone through times of duress, temptation, struggle, disappointments in life. And we sit here and we sing these songs and they relate to our experiences. And so we should be faithful in our church attendance because it encourages us in our spiritual experience. And may I suggest that those that neglect the gathering of the church, neglect services, I'm not saying those that are not able to, because I know in this past week there are some of you weren't here much. You weren't able to be here. I'm not saying that. But I'm meaning that when church doors are open and it is possible to come, that I am here. that I not neglect the gatherings when the church doors are open. I believe that is very important for my spiritual benefit, my spiritual enrichment. And if I neglect, then I believe that your Christian walk is becoming anemic. Number three, it provides adequate means of Christian fellowship. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have what? Fellowship one with another. That's right. What are we doing here? What are we going to do afterwards? We have a fellowship dinner. Why a fellowship dinner? It's because we enjoy one another's company. And in our common communication, one with another, We see it, see each other, this brings something else to my mind. We see each other's expressions. We hear each other talk. How people say things. And you cannot do this on social media. To me, social media is kind of a downfall of our relationships. How many times we go somewhere and we see even our own youth. They're all sitting around, they got their phones. You know, just... And to me it's... Anyways, we'll leave that where it is. It provides adequate means. Warning against the forsaking of assembling themselves together. Okay, number four. It provides a means of keeping the commandments of the Lord. It provides the means of keeping the commandments of the Lord, such as there are seven ordinances that we believe as our commandments from the Lord to us. Are we able to name them? I'm not gonna ask you to name them, but I will just name them quickly. We have baptism, communion, we have feet washing, we have marriage, we have the holy kiss, we have the covering, we have anointing with oil. Those are the seven ordinances. Somebody told me, my wife actually told me that the last time I was, that time I was here and Phil thought I was hard on him, I preached on the ordinances. I don't remember that. I apologize for saying that. You might say that after this message. Number five, it keeps us in touch with heavenly influences. Sitting together in heavenly places. Where on this earth can you gather together with such a people that brings such satisfaction and such peace and such joy and such contentment in our hearts as to be with the people of God. You try to gather with some of the other people that know not God, and you actually, in a lot of places, you actually fear for your life. So it affords an opportunity for God's people to unite their forces. That's number six, actually. But it helps, it keeps us in touch with Heavenly Father as sitting together in a heavenly place. Number six. It affords an opportunity for God's people to unite their forces and resources in the worth of winning the lost, in the work of winning the lost. It affords an opportunity for God's people to unite their forces and resources in the work of winning the lost. Now is it not true that a group of people can do more work than one man by himself? One man by himself is very limited in what he can do, but you get a church together, a church that prays together, and a church that works together, there is power. Because of God, there is power. And so that it affords us to work together. And now in closing, let's turn our Bibles to Matthew chapter 28. And I believe probably most of us know what the mandate that God has given to the church. Here it says, verse 18, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Then we have the mandate in verses 19 and 20. It says, go ye, go ye therefore. and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Not in the name of Joseph Smith or some of these other Figures that people worship, Buddha and some of them. But in the name of the living God, the creator of all things, the God that gives us life, the God that gives us breath, and we as a thankful people, we want other people to know. We want other people to experience and that is the burden that we as a Christian people have. And I believe that that's why Paul in his ministry went from place to place. I believe that's why he went on his mission trips across Asia and some of those places. And that his burden was for the souls of people that they would find the same common salvation that we do and come to the knowledge of the mystery of the church of Jesus Christ. The church is a mystery to the world. And so we go, we teach all men, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe some of the things that we teach. Amen, brother. All things. I intentionally misquoted that to see if you would catch, but I knew you would. teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even into the end of the world." This is not Paul writing. This is not Peter saying this. This is Jesus Christ giving this mandate to His people. And that mandate comes all the way down to October of 2021 to the Clearview congregation at home in our church, to the Messiah Church here in Berlin, Ohio. That mandate is for us. And that we should not be ashamed of it, but that we should live it with confidence and the power of Jesus Christ that it affords us to go forth, that people may be brought to the kingdom of God. Let's kneel for prayer.