Tonight to Ephesians chapter 3 verse 21. I will finish up God willing this section of these series of messages tonight and then the remaining two nights we will be turning to the book of Revelation and looking at Christ and his church as Christ is centered in upon his church and his church is centered in upon him. May God give us much grace to receive all that God the Lord says to us. especially in tonight and the remaining nights to come. Ephesians chapter 3, and I think it only appropriate instead of reading verse 21 to read verse 20 as well, because they're both connected together. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, To Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Let's pray. O Blessed Father, we rejoice in Your grace and goodness to us this night. We thank You that You are such a God as You are. There is none like unto You, from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof. You are God, and beside You there is none else. We bless You for the command that You have given to us in Your Word, to look unto You all the ends of the earth and be saved. For You are God, and beside You there is no Savior. We thank You for this blessed promise. And again, we bless You that You have revealed Yourself to us in the magnificent Person of Your Son, Jesus Christ, the Lord, the Lamb, the hope of the earth, O blessed Father, now I pray that you will take your word and apply it to the hearts of your people as only you can do. Give your servant the Spirit of God to proclaim your word in a way that will honor you and will build up Zion. I ask these mercies, Father, in the precious and worthy name of Christ our Lord. Amen. We're continuing on our study tonight and we're going to be looking at the purpose of the Church of God. We have looked thus far and seen that the Church has two aspects to it. It is a universal body, yet this universal body cannot be seen only as it is expressed visibly in local congregations. As we saw John Murray's quote, he said that the church must be thought of primarily in visible terms as an institution. And hence we saw that the thrust of all that we were going to say from that point on was concerning the local church. We have looked last night at the centrality of the church and saw that the church was central to all of God's plans and purposes. No other organization, no other group can lay claim to that. The church, local churches, visibly gathered, assembled together for the purpose of the worship of God, for the mutual edification of itself, and for the spreading abroad of the knowledge of Christ as the Savior of sinners, is the church that God sets His authority upon. Not only that, but when Christ saved sinners, especially as we saw demonstrated in the book of Acts, he brought these converts into churches, not other groups, not other ministries, not other organizations, but into local baptized bodies of believers. We saw also that the instructions that the apostles gave were primarily to local churches. Paul writes and tells them how that they are to behave, how that they are to carry out their demeanor, how they are to function. The commandments that are given are given to local churches. We also saw that the matter of missions and of sending the gospel to the ends of the earth has the responsibility laid upon it primarily to churches. Churches are to do it. All of God's purposes in carrying out the gospel of His Son, in the glorification of Himself, is centered in upon the Church. That must be a conviction to us. It must be a heartfelt conviction to us. Or else we will continue to stay in a state that we're in. When there has been not only a recovery of true Reformed faith, but also the doctrine of the Church, we find that there will be a revival, a renewal, and the blessing of God in our midst. Now tonight, I want us to pick up and come to deal with this issue of the purpose of the Church. We saw last night that it was not without significance that everywhere the Apostles went, they established churches. They preached the gospel, God in his sovereign grace called sinners, gave them the gifts of repentance and faith, and these apostles started churches. We find that nine out of the thirteen epistles of Paul were written to local churches, and three of the remaining four epistles were written to pastors and elders concerning church order. Why? Why? Why did God start churches? Why did Christ instruct His apostles by the Spirit of God to lay this format out? What are the purposes of churches? You know, it's quite easy, isn't it, to get settled in and think, well, the purpose of the church is to, well, what? Come up with all sorts of ideas. You know, why do I go to church on Sundays? Why do I sit and listen to a preacher preach? Why do we sing hymns? Why do we give offerings? Why do we occasionally pray for missionaries? Why are we somewhat concerned about church order and government? Why? Well, that's a good question, isn't it? I think we need to address it. Because in doing it, we will see the purpose of the church. Why Christ had his apostles to start churches. I want to start off tonight real quickly with very little further introduction and simply say the first reason as to the purpose of the church is that it might bring glory to God. Now that's really revelational to you, isn't it? We hear that all the time. You've been taught in your catechism, what is the chief end of man? To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. But sometimes the commonplace is so commonplace to us that we skip over the meaning of it. Why did these apostles labor and spend and be spent? And Paul said, yea, and so have I strived to preach the gospel. Not where Christ was named lest I build upon another man's foundation. Why did this man labor day and night? working with his hands as a tent maker in many situations, praying, put himself in such situations where his ship was wrecked, he was in peril of life, he was beaten, he was persecuted by men. Why? Because there was one overriding motive in his heart and mind. And that was whether he lived or whether he died, Jesus Christ would be praised. God would be glorified. You go to Rome in Paul's day as Paul was in prison. Do you know the famous Roman senator Seneca was alive at that particular time? Seneca, the great lawyer, the great senator, the Roman leader. You might ask him, What is your reason for living? And he might say philosophy. Oh, the exhilaration of philosophy. Knowledge applied to hearts and lives. The Roman law. Roman justice. The glory of the state. These might be things that would motivate Seneca. But you leave the Roman Synod and go across town to the Roman jail and find the Apostle Paul in that jail and come to this lowly Apostle as men viewed him and say, Paul, what is life to you? What is your reason for living? And he would utter these words as we find recorded in Philippians 1, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Why did the Apostles labor? to establish churches. They did so that God and God alone might be glorified. It's not enough for God to be glorified. God alone must be glorified. No one must receive praise. They would preach and souls would be saved and they would form these churches and Paul would then write and say to them, whatsoever you do, whether you eat or whether you drink, Do it all, all to the glory of God. That has an effect upon the hearts and lives of men that I don't think that anything else in this world can do to a heart. My wife, as a young Christian, was involved in what is known as Christian camping. She worked in a huge camp in the mountains of North Carolina. And a lot of the churches used to go into inner city New York and get these slum kids that never had anything to do but break into other people's homes, steal, rob, pilfer, who knows what else they would do. And these churches would send these unregenerate kids down to this Christian camp out in the country, something similar to this. And she said one particular summer, the counselors and the camp staff was having a difficult time with a group of kids coming out of inner city New York. They were fighting with one another and they were stealing and cheating and belittling one another and calling one another names and so on. And they couldn't get them to, as we say in the South, the Kanji. You just couldn't get them to work together. And they begin to pray for these kids, and they begin to use this verse, 1 Corinthians 10.31, do all to the glory of God. And God began to use that in the hearts of these young people. I mean, they'd never been exposed to biblical Christianity. They hadn't been exposed to any type of Christianity. And one day after every night and every morning and in the classes for the first three days they taught them the whole aspect of God creating them for His glory. God doing everything that He has done for His glory. And one day these kids were out on the playing field and they were about to get into a fight. And I guess a couple of guys pulled out knives that they had secretly hid. And one of the kids, still, most of these kids were unregenerate, and one of these kids stepped up and he began to say, wait, this is not glorifying to God. And just spontaneous, unplanned, a couple of them began to quote that verse. Whatsoever you do, whether you eat or whether you drink, do it all to the glory of God. And they said it three or four times and then somebody picked up on the chant, all to the glory of God. All to the glory of God. All to the glory of God. All to the glory of God. And those kids closed their switchblades, turned them over to the camp directors, and God began moving. And it was something that was quite supernatural in this particular setting. So much so that they figured that there were probably a hundred or so conversions that week. Their eyes were taken off of themselves, off of their own struggles, off of their own trials, and their eyes were pointed toward God and toward heaven. And the apostles labored to establish churches so that churches, just like that are represented here, might be reflections of the glory of God. Whatever we do, whether we eat or whether we drink, we do it all to the glory of God. Paul says in this verse, to Him be the glory. Who is the Him that's referred here? To God. God the triune. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To Him be the glory. Be glory. Where? In the churches. How? By Christ Jesus. He saved you, my friend, if you're saved tonight, so that you would no longer live for yourself, but that you would live unto Him who loved you and who gave Himself for you. In other words, He saved you that you might glorify Him. And collectively, He has brought us into churches that we might glorify God, and that God alone might be glorified. Anytime a church begins to draw attention to itself, it has failed in its mission. Anytime a church is looked to as an authority, it has failed in its mission. All of God's churches are to point any individual, any person, any organization to God and God alone. The moon. I don't know too much about science, but I know a little. The moon has no light of its own, correct? We talk of the moonlight, but it's not the moonlight, is it? Whose light is it? It's the sun's light. The moon has no light, it only reflects light. And so is the church. It has no glory of itself. It exists for one purpose primarily, and that is that God may be glorified. And as long as the triune Jehovah is honored and praised and worshiped and adored, then the church is successful in its mission. I think of the great missionary William Burns. Maybe some of you have never heard of him. But when Robert Murray MacChain was commissioned by the Presbytery of Scotland to go to Israel to study out the conversion of Jews to Christ, he was gone for over a year and a half. And the man that filled his pulpit in Dundee was a man named William Burns. And as William Burns preached in the absence of Robert Murray MacChain, One communion Sunday, he preached from Psalm 110, verse 1, "...thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." And God fell in great glory and revival began. And he was the instrument that God used to bring great revival in not only Dundee, but the surrounding areas. When M'Chayne came back from Israel, Rather than assuming the pulpit, he continued by having Burns to preach and lead the meetings. And then one day, William Burns announced to the people that he was stepping down, that their minister, Robert Murray McShane, would assume his responsibilities, and that God had called him as a missionary to China. That astounded them. I mean, here was a man that God had used to bring revival. I'm not talking about superficial, shallow things that come from the United States. I hope you people don't buy into that. If there was revival in the United States, the crime rate would be down. A lot of things would be different. But I'm talking about a heaven-sent revival. Why would he step down? Why would he leave? And especially, why would he leave his glorious fatherland to go to, halfway around the world, to a country where he couldn't even communicate with them? Someone came up to him and said, Mr. Burns, I guess you're going to China to convert to Chinese. He said, no, I'm not. I'm going to China to glorify God. And in glorifying God, he knew that God would be honored and would save souls. But that must be his primary emphasis. What is the purpose of God's church, the church that you are a member of? Why is it in existence? It's not in existence for his pastors. It's not in existence for his deacons. It's not even in existence for you primarily. It's an existence for the purpose that God and God alone might be glorified, praised, honored, and worshiped. And if you draw any attention to yourself, you have failed in that purpose. Unto Him be the glory, in the church, by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. All to the glory of God, brethren. Paul, what is your reason for living? For me to live is Christ. To die is gain. Can you say that tonight? Can you say that of your church, that it lives and functions for the sole purpose, the primary purpose, of bringing glory to God? We are told in 1 Peter 2, verse 9, that we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy people, a holy nation, that we should sing forth the praises of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. We exist, my brethren. We exist. for the primary purpose of glorifying God. And not just glorifying God, but glorifying God alone. No man is to be exalted. No man is to be lifted up. Sometimes pastors, and I admire Spurgeon as he preached a famous message, on thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. Ended his message by saying, May the name of Charles Haddon Spurgeon perish. May the name of Jesus Christ be forever exalted. That's why he is remembered today. And it's the responsibility of all of us pastors to turn people from us and point them to the Lamb, who alone deserves the glory. May God keep us that way. And it's so easy, isn't it? After some time, the Lord blesses us in our preaching. It's so easy in the heart of our hearts to be puffed up. We'd take the crown off of Christ's head and put it on our own if God didn't restrain us. And sometimes the Lord lets us preach with no unction. It's just like a gravel truck backed up and dumped a load of concrete in our mouths. We struggle and can't hardly get our words out. It's just God letting us know that we're here for one purpose, and that's that His name may be glorified. Them that are exalted, He knows how to humble. Your church, your church exists, and the purpose of your church is that God, that God might be glorified. But secondly, what is the purpose of the church? The purpose of the church is to live out the life of God in her. The Lord has saved us. He has given us His life. That's eternal life, isn't it? Paul said in Ephesians 4.18, just right across the page from where we are, that the Gentiles walk in the futility of their minds, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts. The unregenerate are ignorant of the life of God. But we who have been brought savingly to Christ have tasted of life and life eternal, and we possess the gift of eternal life. And the life of God is in us. And when we are brought into Christ's churches, then the purpose of the church is to live out the life of God. that is in her. We're not to live in the energy of the flesh, but we're to live the life of God that is within us, out of us. Now, how do we do that? We do that in two ways. We do that by worship. God has called your church together. and every church that is represented here, and all of His true churches around the world, whatever they're called, by whatever name, He has called them out that they might worship Him with divine life. Worship, we think of that, and that's another word that's become commonplace to us, isn't it? We talk of worship services, meeting for worships. meeting for worship, and so on. But what is worship? Well, I could just give an entire message on the whole aspect of worship, or a series of messages on worship. But God desires worship. Our Savior says that God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. For such, the Father seeks. God is seeking people to worship Him. And in order for the church to live out the life of God in her, she must be a worshiping church. That is the primary focus of the church. We must become as Mary, sitting at the feet of Jesus, before we go out and serve properly. And a very vital part of worship is the meeting together on the Lord's Day. I talked last night about the mutual care that we find in the churches and the perseverance that is found there, because as we gather together, Christ meets with his people. His presence is a healing balm to our souls. We find encouragement in darkness. We find help in weakness. We find joy in our sorrows. We find power in our tribulations. But it comes about as the church corporately comes together and worships God collectively. I want to give you just a few things real quick. If you're taking notes, don't try to write these down because I'm going to go too fast, I think. But David Clarkson, the Puritan, and Brother Fred has the three volumes right over here in the bookstore, has an excellent sermon in volume three of his works entitled public worship to be preferred over private worship. And he gives twelve reasons why public worship is to be preferred over private worship. And it's glorious. He uses the text that we read last night, Psalm 87, verse 2, God loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. God takes delight. God takes pleasure. It pleases the Lord, brethren, when we gather together on the Lord's Day and we come, first and foremost, to worship Him. We come to worship Him whether we feel like it or not. Whether we want to or not. There have been times I've not felt like worshiping the Lord. If you'll be honest, you have too. And if you'll be honest, even further, there have been times you've not wanted to worship the Lord. Don't sit there and be so pious and say you never have, because I know you have. I know there have been times. And then all of a sudden you come to the house of God, and you begin to worship the Lord, and that worship creates worship in you, and the worship in you creates further worship in God's people, and the whole multitude of the redeemed are worshiping God, and God takes pleasure in it. David Clarkson says that public worship is to be preferred before private, first of all because the Lord is more glorified in public than in private. Secondly, there is more of the Lord's presence in public worship than in private worship. If He is with one of His elect people, how much more so is He with them when they collectively come together? Thirdly, there are clearer manifestations of God in public worship than in private worship. Psalm 63, verses 1 and 2, I long to see the glory of God in this sanctuary. Four, there is more spiritual advantage When you are alone, you are alone. When you are publicly worshipping God, you have brothers and sisters to aid you. 5. It is more edifying. 6. It is a better security against apostasy. 7. Here the Lord works His greatest works. 8. Public worship is nearest to the worship that is in heaven. That should encourage us, shouldn't it, brethren? To think that every moment, of every hour, of every day, of every week, of every month, of every year, of every decade, of every century, of every millennium, from eternity past until eternity future, there has been in the presence of God a holy cherubim worshipping Him every moment. And when we gather together and collectively worship God, we're doing what is taking place in heaven constantly. And brethren, heaven will be an eternal Sabbath of worship, will it not? Nine, the examples of God's most renowned servants demonstrate that public worship is to be preferred before prophet. Ten, public worship is most available for the procuring of the greatest mercies and for the preventing and removing of God's greatest judgments upon us. When we come and begin to praise and worship Him, how will God bring His hand of judgment upon those who praise and worship Him? Well, I'll stop there. But we live out the life of God in us by worshiping God, by returning unto Him that which is rightfully His. We worship Him whether we feel like it or whether we want to, simply because He is worthy. Is He not? God is worthy, which, by the way, is the very essence of the old Anglo-Saxon word, worship, denoting worthship. God is worthy. Brethren, if he would cast every one of us into hell tonight, he's still worthy of our praise. He is worthy. And we're to live out the life of God in us by worshiping him. And as we go make our ways to the houses of God on the Lord's Day, we gather together and worship the Lord. We are fulfilling the very purpose that he called his churches into existence, to worship him. But then a second aspect of living out the life of God is the idea of mutual ministry and service. We are a selfish people, are we not? We're so concerned with ourselves when we are to be our brother's keeper. Time forbids me tonight to have you to turn to 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 12 through 14, but you look it up later. Three things that Paul brings out in that section of Scripture. He talks of the responsibility of the churches toward their pastors. He also talks about the responsibility of the pastors toward the churches. There are three things that the people of God are to do toward their pastors. There are three things that the pastors are to do toward their people. But then he tells what the people of God are to do to one another. This is not the work of the elders. This is the work of the people of God, the saints. And you are to live out the life of God. But warning the unruly, comforting the feeble-hearted, strengthening the weak, being patient with all. There is a ministry that we have as God's people to one another that needs to be operative in our churches. The elders and pastors can't do everything in case you haven't realized that. You open up their shirts and look inside there, and there's not a huge S carved on their chest, denoting Superman. Yes, their feet are beautiful, the Scripture tells us. That is spiritual and metaphorical, not physical. But they are men with feet of clay. They are called of God to lead you into serving Christ by serving one another. You want to kill your pastor? You want to get rid of him? You want to send him on to glory quicker than what he would like to go to glory? Just don't do anything. I mean, after all, you give him a good salary or give them a good salary, right? That's what you pay them to do. Just don't do anything. But if you want to please and glorify God and fulfill the purpose that He has called you into the knowledge of Himself and gathered you into a church, then you will begin to live out the life of God by serving one another, by having a mutual ministry to your brethren, encouraging, strengthening them, and by seeking to edify the Church of Jesus Christ. Don't think you fulfilled your duty after the Sunday morning worship and the final benediction has been given and you go home. You only gather to worship to give God the glory and to gather strength that you need to do the rest of what God has commanded you. Then thirdly, what is the purpose of the church? The third purpose is to fulfill its position as the repository of truth. Turn with me to 1 Timothy 3.15. 1 Timothy 3.15. We've looked at this verse a couple of times already. Paul said, But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground, of truth. God has called His churches into existence in order that they might be storehouses of His truth. Not part of His truth, not half of His truth, not three quarters of His truth, but all of His truth. The church is the pillar and ground of truth. Do I need to stress? What I stressed last night, that it is not other organizations. I don't want to grind a sharp ax with this. It's the Church that is the pillaring ground of truth. It is there for the defense and the maintenance of truth. The Church is to bring forth all of the truth of God in a balanced way. There has been struggle in some of our churches. I cannot speak for Canada, but I can for the United States. Among the Reformed and Sovereign Grace Baptist churches. They come to see the Doctrines of Grace and you go into their church on any particular Sunday morning or any particular Sunday night and you're going to hear a message on one of the five points. And that goes on year after year after year. And I thank God for the five points of Calvinist. But there is more. Someone asked me one time while they were from Bob Jones University, and they said, Are you a five point Calvinist? And I remember reading somebody that I can't remember who it was. And I said, No, I'm about a twenty nine point Calvinist. It illustrates what I'm trying to say, that the church is a repository of God's truth. we are to bring forth all of God's truth, all of the counsel of God, hence the need for expository preaching. But also, the Church is to fulfill its position as the repository of God's truth by the proclamation of the Word of God and the propagation of it, which includes the concept of missions. We are We are to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. This world is not Satan's world. It is God's world. And God has intended for His world to hear His truth. And who is to carry it out? The church. Unto Him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. It is the church. That's why the church is to pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth labors into the fields that will be ripe for harvest in about three years. Right? No. Into the fields that are quite already unto harvest. Who knows the total population of the world today? Approximately? Raise your hand. This is not an invitation. How much is it? Five million people. Five billion, right. Thank you, I was just checking to see if you knew. What percentage of the world has access to the gospel? I'll tell you. Only 49 percent, 51 percent of those five billion people have no access whatsoever in any shape, form or fashion to the gospel. Some of the young men in our church get together every two weeks. On a Saturday afternoon, they pray, they exhort one another, they encourage one another, and one of the brethren will bring a message. One brother, they're constantly finding all these people. It's been a real blessing. God has used them to evangelize the unsaved and also for some of their Armenian friends to be exposed to the doctrines of grace. One of the brethren was bringing a message on particular redemption, and I said, do you believe that? Oh yes, pastor, you know how I believe that. I wouldn't have become a member of Trinity Baptist Church if I didn't believe in particular redemption. Do you really believe that? Yes, I do. He was wondering if I was questioning. I was. If you really believe it, then why aren't you proclaiming it to the ends of the earth? It's easy for us to become bookworms and tapeworms, isn't it? and sit in our studies and listen to all these famous preachers and read all these famous commentaries and just sit and sit and sit and sit and sit until we soon begin to stink. Pardon the bluntness, but part of the church's purpose is to be a repository of the truth of God, the whole truth of God, and part of that is proclaiming the truth of God to the ends of the earth. Lord, we pray, send us missionaries. I ask, will you go? Will you bring yourself before the church and say, I want the church to consider me as to whether I'm called and gifted and qualified and see if I'm proven and see if I would be a candidate for this church to send me to the ends of the earth and preach the gospel where Christ is not known. God has intended His truth to be known to the ends of the earth. He hasn't chosen angels to do it. He's chosen men who have tasted of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Men who have tasted of the bitterness of sin and of the sweetness of the Savior. to go to others who are in the bitterness and bondage of sin to likewise tell them of the sweetness of the Savior. That's part of the church's purpose. She exists. She lives in order that she might be a proper steward of the truth of God. And then lastly, there's more than I can say, but lastly I want to say this. Number four. What is the church's purpose and God's plan? It is to be the instrument of God for the subduing of the gates of hell. Let me repeat that to you again. I want you to catch what I'm saying. The church is to be the instrument of God for the subduing of the gates of hell. Is that kind of foreign to your thinking? We have this mentality in the States. I don't think you Canadians have it. You may be more spiritual than us. I hope you are. I am being a little facetious. But we have this mentality in the States. We want to maintain. But what did Christ say? Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I don't want to go into the Greek exegesis of it. It might be over my head and it might be over your head as well. But I just want to bring out something that's pertinent to this verse, Matthew 16, 18. Our mentality is this, isn't it? Here is the church of the living God. Christ is building it. The gates of hell will come against it, yes. But the gates of hell will never fully overcome the church because Jesus is building it. I want to question that mentality. I think rather than the church being here and the gates of hell constantly bombarding it, it should be the other way around. Brother Huebner touched on it this morning. It should be, here is the gates of hell, and here is the church. bombarding the gates of hell, preaching the saving truth of God in our communities, in our provinces, in our country, and around the world. And as the gospel light is shed forth, it will dispel darkness. We don't do it politically. We don't do it with the proper understanding of the right use of the law. The only thing that will subdue the hearts of men is the gospel. I'm not talking of theonomy here. I'm talking of preaching the gospel in our communities, our towns, our villages, our cities, our provinces, our country. It's time, instead of us having this weak little maintenance position, that the Church of God arise. She gird herself with the armor of God, go forth with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and began to bombard the gates of hell. Genesis 22, verse 17, God, in reaffirming the Abrahamic covenant to Abraham, said this, that your seed shall possess the gates of their enemies." Strange, isn't it? Coincides with Matthew 16, 18. The gates of hell. The gate was the strongest part of the city. By using this terminology, God was saying to Abraham, your seed will be triumphant and their enemies shall be trodden down, their walls, cities shall be knocked down, and your children shall put their feet on the necks of their enemies. They shall be militant and they shall be triumphant. Let me ask you, we have talked about the church universal and the church local, but there are also other designations that are given to the church. The church that is in heaven right now, what is it called? And the church that will be gathered collectively in heaven after the last day in the great day of judgment, what is it called? The church triumphant, right? What is the church known as while here on the earth? The church militant. And I believe from the very heart of my heart that when Christ is speaking in Matthew 16, 18, that the gates of hell shall not prevail against his church, that he was not meaning this attitude that the gates of hell will bombard the church, but the church will endure. But I believe, according to his last commission of preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth, that it's just the opposite, that the gates of hell are here and the church is bombarding the gates of hell. and that we are God's instrument. The churches are God's instruments for subduing the gates of hell. It is time that the church of God arise. It is time that the men of God arise. It is time that we go forth triumphant. In Revelation 14, 1-3, We see the Lamb, and I'm not trying to be contentious with eschatology, but the Lamb is standing on Mount Zion with His 144,000. Rutherford saw that as the Lamb in his fair army, and I believe that is the Church there. Those 144,000 are representative of all the redeemed. They're with the Lamb on Mount Zion. He is triumphant. He is victorious. We need to have that attitude. We need to realize that God calls our churches into existence in order that we might be the instruments to subdue the gates of hell. Rise up. Fulfill your purposes. Pastors, elders, men of God, I exhort you tonight to set your sights afar. Have your eyes fixed firmly upon Christ, the Lord of hosts, the captain of the Lord's army. Have your eyes fixed upon Christ's final and glorious triumph over all of his enemies. And rather than retreating, or rather than fortifying ourselves and digging our trenches and waiting for the prey to come to us, rise up. Anyone play chess? I love chess. I'm terrible at it, but I love it. And any good chess master will tell you that one of the best defenses is a good offense, right? May God cause us to rise up, brethren, and take the battle to the enemy rather than waiting for the enemy to come to us. What is it that will subdue the hearts of men, women, boys and girls around the world? the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, the word of the living God. We are to be the repositories of God's truth. So in closing, let me say, the purpose of the Church, the purposes are these. We are to bring glory to God and to God alone. Then we are to live out the life of God in us. Thirdly, we are to fulfill our position as the repository of God's truth. And fourthly, we are to be the instruments that God has chosen to subdue even the gates of hell. Oh, I want you to be militant, brother. I want you to be charged and energized by the supernatural and sovereign working of God's Spirit and meet the enemy. I could tell you a lot of illustrations about one of my favorite heroes, Stonewall Jackson, how that he met the enemy before the enemy came to him and won the day. We likewise must meet the enemy before he gets to the past. and bring forth the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, and slay him in his tracks. May God help us to do so, for Christ's sake. Amen. Let's pray. O blessed Father, it is much easier to preach than it is to put it into practice. It is much easier to hear than to implement the things that we have heard. I pray that by your grace and by your spirit that you will put these things upon our hearts and minds and cause us to see your purposes in establishing our local churches. That we do not exist for ourselves or for our own name. And if we become a praise unto ourselves, may you smite us and close our doors. if we keep your name from being hallowed and glorified. Cause us to realize the great responsibility that is ours in worshiping you, in ministering to one another, also in maintaining your word and defending your word, and at the same time proclaiming your word to the ends of the earth. And, O Father, even tonight as our Savior bid us to pray, I pray, O Lord of the harvest, that you will send forth laborers into the fields that are white already, even this moment, unto harvest. That those who are rebels against your holy name, who resist your grace, who spurn your law, who will not have Christ to reign over them, that you will subdue them by your mighty, irresistible gospel. Make them followers of the Lamb, Establish local churches whereby you may be glorified and that they may reflect your glory and cause your name to be preached, loved, worshipped, and adored to the ends of the earth. O Father, deliver us from a defeatist mentality. Defeat in us, O Father. That retreat attitude that causes us to fortify ourselves rather than going in the whole armor of God, meeting the Goliaths of the world. As only you can do, our Father, inspire the hearts of your people. Cause them to arise and shake off the sleep and lethargy that many of us find ourselves in. And be bold in the Lord and in the power of your might. I ask this, Father, for your own praise and glory, that your name and your name alone may be hallowed through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom is honor, glory, dominion, power, might, and blessing forever and ever. Amen.