to three. That's where I'll start, but I want to say a few things before I start talking. I really enjoyed the preaching this morning. And some of what I want to preach was touched on, thankfully. And Dale said, I hope I didn't mess it up. I said, no, that's good. I like it. Because that tells me that the Lord's leading us all in the same direction. And that's an encouragement to me. And Brother Kalk had a very difficult subject. I'm glad I didn't have that one. But I don't know that there's any man that can really do justice to explaining the purpose of the church. But I'd like to say this is a day almost all of what is loosely referred to as Christianity celebrates Easter. And there are very few people that comprehend the fact of what Jesus accomplished on the cross and when He rose again. The most magnificent display of God's power other than the fact of creation itself when Jesus rose from the dead. The magicians in Egypt could duplicate some of the things there, and Moses did. But I can assure you, no man has ever had the power to bring himself back from the dead. But Jesus did that. When he died on the cross, he satisfied in the Father's eyes our sin debt in full, 100%. And then the Bible says he was raised again for our justification. And he openly triumphed over death and hell and sin, making a show of him, making a mockery of death, hell, and sin, all the things that were brought by the curse Adam brought. Christ destroyed all of that, openly. And he rose again from the grave. He said, I have power to lay my life down, and I have power to take it again. And that kind of power has never been displayed in the world from Adam until now on such a grand scale as when the Lord brought Himself back to life. And He had to lay His life He mentioned that, but he was raised again for our justification. And that is a tremendous thing. In 1 John 1 it says that God could be just to forgive us of our sins. How could He be just in forgiving me of my sins? Because His Son paid that debt in full. And his integrity, his honor, his holiness compels him to honor what his son did for us. And so we're justified. And some people say, well, it's just as if I'd never sinned. But it goes more than that. It's just as if I had never been a sinner. So anyway, that's my introduction. I'd like to go, if you're in Ephesians chapter 3, 9 and 10 and 11. My assigned verse is verse 10. But that's all part of one sentence. Now, I'm not one of those guys who thinks God gave somebody an idea and sort of guarded over what he wrote to make sure it come out right. I believe God gave the words. And people say, well, you know, this is Peter's style of writing or it's John's style of writing or something. I think that God created the universe just by speaking the words is capable of imparting different personalities that which he inspired some men to write. And one of the things that we notice quite often in the words, the scriptures that God inspired Paul to write is that there are some long sentences in there. Some of them go four or five verses and it's just a comma and a semicolon and it keeps going. And this is one of those cases. So I'm gonna start and read verse nine. And to make all men see, what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hidden God, who created all things but Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. What a tremendous statement God's given us here and he says But first of all, he declares what our task is, the church. My assignment, sermon this morning, is to preach on the purpose of the church. And I'm going to try to differentiate, if I can, that there's a difference between our task and our purpose. And I hope to explain that, but here, our task is to make all men see. The fellowship of the mystery. We read in 1 John about fellowship. And the Apostle said, we long to have fellowship with you, but it has to be based on the fact that we have a mutual relationship with God through His Son Jesus. You see, if you want a God, but you won't accept Jesus, then we can't have fellowship. Our relationship to the Father is through His Son, Jesus. And that's brought out here in verse 9. This mystery from the beginning of the world has been hidden in God who created all things by Jesus Christ. We read in Hebrews chapter 1 that God created all things by His Son. Now there are some religions that teach that Jesus only became God when He died on the cross, or something. But my King James Bible declares He was active in the creation. He brought forth, God created all things by His Son. The Son, the hands of our Savior, brought forth things and the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God, breathed life into them. There were all three active in the creation, and that's mentioned here. And all of that brings us to verse 10. To the intent that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church a man of hope, wisdom of God. And we read about spiritual wickedness in high places, and principalities and powers, of evil men, this is a little different. This is principalities and powers in heavenly places. You see, Satan always imitates God. If God has principalities and powers in heaven, Satan wants his counterfeit on the earth, because that's all he can do. That's his domain. And what we have here is our task is set before us. And that task is to make all men see what the fellowship with God is. And that it's based on His Son Jesus, who by the way created all things. And it's our task in verse 10, that now unto principalities and powers in heaven and places, these things might be known to men. Well, how are they going to be known to men? By the ministry and the work and the operation of a local church, a church that God gave, a church that God founded and established. And the church, by the way, is the only authorized institution on the face of God's earth to propagate the gospel and spread the truth. And I'll get into that in a little bit, but this will bring us to our purpose. Verse 11, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. It all ties in to Jesus our Lord. The work of the church, the message that the church has proclaimed, it's all based on the Lord Jesus Christ, our founder. And it says it's based on an eternal purpose. And the word eternal appears in the scripture a number of times. Eternal life. I can't have eternal life on a temporary basis. I can't lose. A lot of these people think they can lose their salvation, and they can't. Because salvation they have is work salvation, or emotion salvation. And you can lose that just as quickly as you got it. But when God saves us, when we are redeemed by the blood of Christ, that's eternal. It's not something that we did, therefore it's not something we can lose. He secured that for us. He went in heaven, put his blood on the mercy seat, in a true tabernacle which God could not man, and obtained, excuse me, what? Eternal redemption for us. And as long as that blood's there, the Father's satisfied. So it's never gone away. to the Father's satisfaction of Christ's offering for me and never going away. So that's what we are to proclaim. And the church, that's our task, is to proclaim this, so be known to principalities and powers and heavenly places, and to His children. Here, I'll get into that in a minute. But this is an eternal purpose. The purpose the church has is eternal. And it says here in verse 12, in whom speaking of Jesus Christ, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him. We need to understand it's the faith of Christ that saves us and keeps us and secures our eternal salvation. So, most people don't, you don't think about it, it's really easy to confuse, well confuse is not the word, it's really easy to unintentionally blend purpose and responsibility. And I mentioned that the church has a task, and this is the task of the church and duty of the church, if you will, to spread the gospel. That's not our purpose. That's our duty. That's our task. Most people think it's the same thing, but it's not. And I'll give you a couple examples. I'll try. I had a whole bunch of them. Don't worry, I'm only going to use two. The purpose of a man is to be the head of the house. The job of a man, a responsibility, task, whatever you want to call it, is to provide for the house. They're two different things. He has a responsibility to provide for that house because he's the head of it. That's his purpose, to be the head of the house. His task is to provide for it. It's the duty of a woman to be the wife of a husband. It's her task to guide the home. Many times guys don't like that. But the Bible says she should be the guide of the home. I had over 40 years experience working in a shipyard. And there is a propulsion system that lets the ship go. But there's a steering system that guides where it goes. And that's how I try to explain to test for the wife to guide the home, not just pick out the grapes and the corn and the soap and all that, but to guide the home. And many times that's accomplished by training children. It's manners, as was mentioned earlier. instilling in them a respect for God and their family. But she guides them home. That's her task. Her purpose is to be a wife. A man's purpose is to be husband, head of the house, and provider for it, and so forth. So I'd like to briefly look, before I get to the purpose of a church, let's notice a few things about the task of a church, as I try to differentiate between the two. The task of the church is to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Matthew 28, verse 18, 19, 20. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. And Jesus said, teach them all things whatsoever I have commanded you. But we preach the gospel of Christ. And it has to be the gospel of Christ. If you look in most of the other translations other than the King James Bible, And you open it to the book of Romans, look at chapter 1, you find verse 16, and in King James, Paul is inspired to write, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and salvation. These other verses say, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. And I think, what spirit led them to leave out of Christ? What problem did they have with Christ? Jesus is creator of all things. He's the head of the church. Why would they have a problem with him? So we're to preach the gospel of Christ. That's the task of the church. To all the world. Now this church, Lily Valley, Rupert, Rossburg, whatever church, We don't have the power to go into all the world and preach the gospel. We have the authority. But He has only given us a limited amount of power. That's why He has more than one church body, more than one local church. One local church might send a missionary to Argentina. Somebody else sends a missionary to the Philippines. And God, through all of His congregations, covered the world. But we have authority, and that authority comes from the one who establishes church, the Christ of the gospel. The one that has the eternal purpose in Christ. Now you think, as I get here in a minute, I get to our purpose. If there is an eternal purpose in Christ, and we are in Christ, then we have an eternal purpose. The authority by which the church accomplishes her task was given to her expressly by the Lord of Glory. We can look in James chapter 2 verse 1 and find out He's the Lord of Glory. And He is the one that stood there with His church. Well, in that passage, Matthew chapter 28, He said, Go in all the world and preach the gospel and teach to all things I commanded you. We have authority. This church, our church, any of the other churches, have authority from God to go preach the gospel, to evangelize the world. In fact, it's not a request. It's a command. We are missionaries. Gladly, we're missionary churches because we want to be, but it's also a requirement, not a suggestion. God said, go in all the world. He didn't say if you feel like it or if you want to. or if you've got time or if you can afford it. He said, do it. And he, by the way, told us what to preach and teach. He said, all the things that I've commanded you, that's what you teach. And by the way, he said, the words I speak, they're not my words. What's everybody heard the father say, that's what I'm telling you. to the father in John 17, he said, all you've given me, I've given them. So we have authority to perform our task of evangelizing the world, and that came from the Lord Jesus, who is the founder of the church. And the church is therefore responsible to ensure that whatever she teaches and preaches is a true gospel of grace, not a gospel of works, Not a gospel of works and faith, or a little bit of faith, a little bit of works. Grace. All grace. No works. Those preaching the gospel are not to handle the words of God deceitfully. Brother Scott touched on that. It is an incredibly dangerous thing for a man to stand before a congregation of God's people to gain a following and be liked and thought highly of, you preach the truth. Whatever it is, you preach the truth as it is, amen, as they are, one said. But we ensure that we proclaim salvation by grace. No words, no, if you believe and get baptized, you'll be saved. That's not how it works. You're not a fit candidate for baptism until God saves you. So we have to preach grace. Grace. Nothing else. And those preaching the gospel are not to handle those words deceitfully. That's 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 2. But rather, we are to use great plainness of speech. That's 2 Corinthians 3, 12. You tell it what it says. And you tell it like it is. Don't try to dress your speech all up in finery and make it seem higher than it is. You just tell them God has commanded all men everywhere to repent. and explained that means all men everywhere need to repent or he wouldn't have commanded it. And God has provided a remedy for your sin. So we're to preach, not deceitfully, but plainly the gospel. And another thing, at no time ever for any reason, no exception should a church preach for doctrines and commandments of men, as Mark 7-7 also is mentioned in Matthew. But many, many churches have been, I use the word church very loosely here, have been destroyed by somebody, generally a council, demanding that people obey the commandments of men as though it's doctrines from the scriptures. We just preached the gospel. And the doctrines and commandments of men does not ever equal the scripture. The so-called Roman Catholic Church insists that church utterances and tradition is on the same level as scripture is. But it isn't. But we're not them. We're a local independent missionary, Baptist Church, and we preach the truth. And we're to be very careful about that. It's the duty of the church to make known the manifold riches of Christ. He's the head of the church. We point people to Him, to Christ. And we make known not only His Son, but the great love wherewith God loves His people. That's Ephesians 2 forward. He didn't just love us a little bit. He loved us conditionally. He had a great love for us when we were still on every single cross. He sent His Son to die for us. And therefore, we're to proclaim His love. Ephesians 2-4, I mentioned, talks about the great love of God. And then, of course, in the book of 1 John, we read about the love of God loved us before we loved him. His love for us is the cause of our love for him, and he is love. And another part of our task as Christians and members of the church is to occupy until he comes. He gave a parable in the Book of Luke, and there was a landowner, reference to the sun, who came to this earth to save His people from their sins. He said, I'm going to a far country, and I'll return. And this is a parable teaching that the Lord went back to heaven to obtain eternal redemption for us, and He will come again for us. He said in John 14, if I go away, I'll come again. And the planner said, I'll come back. You occupy it till I come back. Occupy, meaning be productive, not lazy. Be doing the work I gave you. Be evangelizing the world, preaching the gospel of Christ to every creature. So he said occupy until I come. And so in our passage here in Ephesians chapter 3, we read about the mystery. And this is where a lot of trouble comes in, confusion. It doesn't need to be that way, but it is. A lot of false teachers, a lot of people who don't read the Bible, a lot of people who despise us, us meaning we Gentiles, and we were abhorred by the natural descendants of Abraham. I'm going to get into that just a little bit here in a second. But we read about the mystery of the gospel. And that mystery is the Gentiles will be fellow heirs of the inheritance of the saints in life. If fate is not a way reserved in heaven for us in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 4, we have an inheritance in heaven if fate is not a way. And it's there for us. Not there for just whoever comes by, but for us. And who was Peter writing to? If we go back to verse 1, he said to the elect. So there is an inheritance set aside specifically for you in heaven. And it's reserved and kept by the power of God. That was a great mystery to the prophets of old. And the Bible says, they understood that the things by which they wrote was not for them, not for their time, but was for us. How that the Gentiles would be fellow heirs to the salvation of God. The Jews couldn't, they just couldn't get their head around how God would welcome Gentile heathen dogs into his kingdom and his family. You see, what they don't understand, Jeremiah 17, 9 says, the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked. That applies to Jewish hearts as well as Gentile hearts. And the same blood of the Jewish society that was shed to take away their sins has power to take away my sins. And it was God's choice to do this. And the Jews hardly consider themselves worthy of God's favor. You know, the Pharisee standing there, nose in the air, said, I thank you, Lord, I'm not like other men. Well, he was unjustified. The Republican, picture of the Gentile, was humble and repented, and the Bible says he went down to his house justified, rather than the other. Why is that? The law of the mercy of God. So, the Bible declares that this mercy and love of God is for Abraham and his children. And some people think, well, old Jews. Abraham and Sarah had children, and Isaac had children, and it went on. But that's not it. It's not the natural lineage. We read in the book of Romans chapter 9, Israel hasn't obtained what she's looking for. Because it's for the elect. It's not for natural children. It's for spiritual children. Let's go to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. I want to just read a couple verses here. through faith in Christ, even though we're not of the natural lineage of Abraham. Verse 7. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, underline that in your Bible if you have a study Bible, work and copy it into your Bible. They which are of faith are the children of Abraham. That's the ones accounted for in the promise. It goes on to explain The children of promise are the ones of faith. So know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And then verse 14, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles, how? Through Jesus Christ. That goes back to verse 11 there in Ephesians 3. All the blessings that we have from the Father of lights, of who there's no shade of turning, all good things come from above. And they come to us, not randomly, but through Christ. And so it says here that the blessings of Abraham might come on to Gentiles through Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit. How? Through natural lineage? No, through faith. You see, we're accounted for the seeds of the promise. When God told Abraham, I'll make your seed as the stars of heaven, he wasn't talking about natural lineage. He was talking about spiritual, about faith. So it's the task of the church to wrap all this up. It's the task of the church to proclaim this. That's our job. That's our duty, is to go into all the world and preach the gospel of Christ that He and He alone is our access to the Father and He's the Savior of the world. That's our task. I went through all of that to get to this. This is our purpose. As I mentioned, the purpose of a woman is to be a wife. The purpose of a man is to be the head of the house. Which, by the way, means you need to have a house. a household, not necessarily a building. But that's a requirement of where Scott preached about the requirements of a pastor, a bishop, or a deacon, being a husband or a wife, have children and subjection and so forth, and that part of it. But the purpose for a church is a little different than our task. We have a task because of our purpose. Not the other way around, we gotta get cause and effect right. Our purpose, the church, finds a foundational purpose in the worship of God and praising of his grace. Let's go back to Ephesians, only this time go to chapter one. Well, read chapter five too. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 5, having predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. Now notice this verse. This is why He did it. To the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the blood. What are we going to be praising God for? Not Easter eggs. Not a pride flag. None of that other stuff. We'll be praising God for His grace. Because by the works of the flesh, there's no man to be justified in the eyes of God. We'd still be in our tents and condemn. Offer all the bullets and all the rams. Observe all the feasts. Do all these things. Without fail, it's still roasting hell forever. It wouldn't matter. Because you sin one time, you're a sinner. You break the law one time, you're a lawbreaker. And it's not a matter of degrees. You either are or you aren't. So if you're a lawbreaker, you're condemned. If you're a sinner, you're condemned. It doesn't matter if you just don't do what you like or a whole bunch of other big bad things. You're still a sinner. And grace takes care of that. Grace doesn't care if you're a sinner or not. Because it's not a challenge. I hope I'm saying this right. It's not a challenge for God to redeem us. He did sell a tremendous price. But it wasn't like it was a hard job he just barely could do it. He dispensed to us grace. so that we can praise Him in heaven for the glory of that grace. He didn't just save us so we wouldn't suffer in hell. He saved us for His own glory. He said all these things are created for His glory and His pleasure. So, our purpose, this is the purpose of the church. Of a Christian, in general, as a Christian by extension out of the church is to praise, this is our purpose, to praise the glory of God's grace. Just think how glorious grace is where the law, good though it was, couldn't accomplish salvation. Grace is good. It's glorious. It didn't leave us condemned and wishing we'd have burned one more candle or did the rosary one more time. left us perfect in Christ. Accepted in Christ. So, that's the purpose of the church. It's to praise God. And she's fulfilling her purpose when she exalts her head. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. Giving Him preeminence in all things. And He is to have preeminence in all things. And that is our purpose. to glorify and praise God. Where to put him first? Just speaking as a man, my duty, my purpose as a husband is to put my wife above everybody else, even the children. You see, because I'm not one with them, I'm one with her. And that's the purpose of the church, is to be one with Christ and exalt Him as the head, the founder, the sustainer of the church. And I keep talking about a church. Perhaps I should... Bert Dill mentioned this, touched on this at least some. But a church is a body of believers. It is those chosen by God before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1-4. And ordained into eternal life. That's all who believe, by the way. Acts 13-48. And saved by grace. Ephesians 2-8. And baptized into one body. That's the important part. You can be Christian with all these things. If you want to be truly in the church, you're baptized. The spirit into one body, that's 1 Corinthians 12, 13. That's what constitutes a church. Religious guys getting together and ringing out a bell and calling it a community worship center, that's not a church. That's where you have the same sex marriages and all that foolishness. And all kinds of other blasphemous things. But a true church is people Chosen by God, ordained to eternal life, saved by grace, baptized into the body. We're baptized into Christ. We're baptized into that membership. And that's what a genuine New Testament Christian church is. We're the only one with a purpose from God. God doesn't work through ecclesiastical councils, or mission boards, or synods, or any of this other. has glory in the church. Ephesians chapter 3 verse 21, unto him be glory in the church. So that's our purpose, to praise Him, glorify Him. And although our task or duty is of utmost importance, it doesn't offset or override our purpose. My purpose, first of all, is to praise God, worship Him. Worship God. Then comes things like evangelizing, teaching, and all this other things. You have to put things in proper perspective. If I will make missionary work above Christ, He doesn't have preeminence and all things. And I have something I will order. My purpose is to praise the Lord. My task is to spread the word. So make no mistake. We're going to find God to praise His... The glory of His grace is our purpose. And notice this, the Jews praise the law. Law of works. You know, Moses. Law of Moses. They praise the law. It can't save. The church praises the glory of His grace, which does save. What a difference. See, our purpose is far higher. When we praise the glory of God's grace, we're doing more than just ascribing to Moses had written the law. That no flesh would be justified by the laws of motherhood, clearly. No flesh would be justified by the works of the law, and no flesh would be justified in the eyes of God. But we are saved by grace. Not just trying, but we are saved, helped by grace. And therefore, when we praise the glory of His grace, we are praising Jesus because grace and truth came by Jesus. John 1.14. Grace and truth, two things that's absolutely vital for our existence. Grace and truth came how? By Jesus. So, He is our end. He's worthy of all of our praise. We're completing Him. Think about that. We're complete. Under the law, I'm lacking something. Probably a lot, but at least something. In religion, I'm lacking something. In any other kind of affiliation, I'm lacking. In grace, in Christ, I'm complete. I'm complete in Him, as Colossians 2.10. And I'm accepted in Him, Ephesians 1.6. I'm accepted by the Father, only if I am in Him, His Son. That is, Him meaning Jesus Christ. You know, Noah and his wife, his three sons and their wives, was only safe in the ark. They weren't holding on to the side of it. They were sitting on top. They were in the ark. In the same way, we're safe in Christ. So, in Him, we live and move and have our being, that's Acts 17 to 28. Although we are, there's not any significance whatsoever. It's because we're in Him. Therefore, He's worthy of all our praise. And that's our task and our purpose is to praise Him. And our life, and we can't overlook this one, our life is hid with Christ in God. Without Him, we don't have life. In Him was life, and the life was the light of man. Without Him there is no life, no light, no salvation, nothing. But in Him we're complete, accepted, we live, move, have our being, and we have life. So we should praise Him. It should be automatic. It should be something that we don't find tedious. I've got to go praise God now. No, it should be something we look forward to and do with great joy. And the purpose of the church then is that we're to worship God and God alone. God alone. We're not to worship any other God. God commanded in Exodus 20 verse 3, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. That means not only don't have any other gods in my presence, but it means don't have any other gods you place above me. He needs to have the preeminence and everything. And there is no other true god by the way. There are none. Isaiah chapter 44, 45, and 46. Those three chapters, the primary thrust of those chapters is there's no other god. There's religion, but there's no other God but me, God says. Therefore, why would we worship anything else? How could we have a purpose worshiping a false god? We couldn't. Therefore, our true purpose is to worship the true God. And God seeks true worshipers. And that can only be accomplished when we worship Him in spirit and in truth. We don't have a spirit unless the spirit gives us life. And the Spirit isn't to me, this is incredibly interesting, and I don't really have time to get into it, but the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, gives us life and gives us truth that we need to grow in Christ. And it all comes from Him. I don't want to use any names, but they taught me to speak in tongues. And the story is, there I was in the service, and the Holy Ghost just came over and just took charge to make me talk in tongues. So I said, what did you say? Oh, I don't know. It was a language major. I said, we're King James spouses. If there's no interpreter, the Holy Ghost says, be quiet. So He's got a lane for you to violate Scripture. He gives us grace and truth and He leads us in that truth all the time without fail. Therefore, we should praise Him for that. That's our purpose. Our task is to let everybody else know, but our purpose is to praise Him. We know the praise of His Spirit and truth Revelation 22 verse 9 commands us to worship God. Our purpose then is to make known to principalities and powers, everybody, the glory of God and His grace. That's my purpose for existing, to praise God and the glory of His grace. My task is to tell everybody else they get a chance to, And then I'll close with this verse, Colossians 1, verse 27. To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery, and with Gentiles to be included, what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you, The hope of glory. In Him, you're complete, accepted, have life. With each of you, you have hope.