The Church of the Living God

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. If you would like to learn more about us, please visit us at our website at graceedmonton .ca.

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Please enjoy the following sermon. Well, as we begin our time in God's Word this afternoon,

I want to ask you a basic and yet fundamental question.

And the question is this, what is the church?

Just think about it for a moment.

What is the church? I find it interesting that even simple and yet foundational questions like this, when they're posed to many professing

Christians today, what one often encounters are simply blank stares.

And I'll give you a case in point. This week, I was reading an article published by the

Barna Research Group, a reputable research organization. And they were seeking to answer this very question, what is the church?

And they were seeking to answer it by posing the question to professing Christians and asking them specifically, what is in your words, the purpose of the church?

Now, surely this is one of the easiest questions to answer if there ever was one, right?

After all, we're not talking about the inner workings of the Trinity like we were next door with our new members class, speaking about how it is that Christ himself possesses two natures, a truly human nature and truly

God nature in one hypostases. It is not a question about the merits of infralapsarianism over and against supralapsarianism.

It's not even a moderate question about the nature of the doctrine of election.

But simply this question, what is the church and what is its purpose in the world?

And anytime you can almost bet on it, I bring up a survey that is taken out in the world amongst the church.

I'm going to bring it back to what I call or what has been called by many, the fallen condition focus of a sound sermon.

That as we look at what the world says about the church and even about what

Christians say about the church, it is to say it frankly, nothing short of disturbing.

Just over half of the Christians, Christians, church going Christians who were surveyed, identified discipleship and evangelism as an important aspect of the church's mission.

Just over half. That means that there was nearly half who did not see discipleship and evangelism as important to the church's mission.

Many others indicated that the church's purpose was to administer social programming and that it was the purpose of the church to enact social reform.

Some said that the church's purpose is to provide an outlet or an avenue whereby people can make positive friendships.

And perhaps remarkably, to add to this confusion, over one in four Christian respondents, 26 % to be exact, stated that one of the main purposes of the church today is to host fun, family -friendly events for the whole community.

The main purpose of the church is to put a jumpy castle at the playground across the street and invite all people to come and to jump.

And if that isn't bad enough to add insult to injury, the reason why there is this jumpy castles for Jesus mentality is because when they surveyed the pastors, 31 % of church pastors said that this was one of the main purposes of the church, to host fun, family -friendly events in the community.

But if the bludgeoning hasn't ended yet, there's still more. Remarkably, when believers results were placed next to the responses of unbelievers, both groups, believers and unbelievers, responses were nearly identical as to what the church is and what the purpose of the church is.

And what this tells me is really two things, that the average

Christian who goes to church each and every Sunday, who has been going to church now for some period of time, has no idea what the church is, and no idea what the purpose of the church is in the world.

And it tells us a second thing, that the average church -going Christian knows little more about the church that he goes to, gives to and serves in, than his lost neighbor who has never donned the doorstep of a church building.

Now, as it turns out, to quote our late brother Vodie Bauckham, the modern church is producing passionate people filled with empty heads who love a

Jesus they do not know. And there's more truth in that than I wish to admit.

And as I was preparing for the sermon and reading this article, I really got to thinking, how would our church do in a survey like this?

How would you respond? What options would you select as the identity of the church and its very purpose in the world?

And so I ask you again, if you're given the opportunity to coherently provide an answer, would you be able to explain what the church is if you were asked?

Or to go a bit further, could you accurately point to the

God -given purposes of the church? Or to go a bit deeper still, do you know the blazing center of the church's confession before the world?

What it is that we hold most dear? What it is that we find at the summit of biblical

Christianity? As we come to our text today, we stumble upon what amounts to God's answer to these survey questions.

What would happen if we took this very survey and gave it to the Lord our God? What does he say?

And these short verses that we have, we're looking at three verses. Verses 14, 15, and 16.

What we see is that God has very clearly laid out for us the church's identity, the church's purpose, and the church's confession in the world.

And as I have taken great pains over the last number of weeks, brothers, you'll remember as we looked at our sisters and the role in the church, and I said, do not tune out.

And then sisters, as we looked at the role of elders and deacons in the church, and I said, do not tune out.

Again, I say to you, I take great pains again to say that the knowledge of these things is not optional.

For it is true, it is the very thing that we said to our new members last night in the new members class, many of you have heard it, that the life of the church will never rise above the height of its members.

It will never exceed the life of the people that belong to the church.

That the very life and ministerial effectiveness of this church is dependent on all of us having a sound understanding and a sound ability to answer these questions.

And so we're going to look at three verses today, and we're going to answer the question, what is the church?

What is the church of the living God? And we'll begin by reading the text. Join me.

In 1 Timothy 3 .14, the Lord our God has inspired these words.

They are for us. You read, I hope to come to you soon, but I'm writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living

God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness.

He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, and taken up in glory.

As we come to chapter three and verses 14 through 16, we need to understand something about this text.

As it stands here, these three verses form what is the pinnacle of Paul's first letter to Timothy.

If you look at it with me, just look, chapter 3, 4, 5, and 6. It is basically in the center of the letter, just shy of the middle, the halfway point of the letter.

And what these three verses really seek to do is to explain the reason for Paul's letter in the first place.

Now, when I introduced this letter to you a number of weeks ago, I trust you'll remember me telling you this,

I said that in the book of Timothy, what we find is the Apostle Paul writing to his child in the faith, as he calls him,

Timothy. And Timothy would have been very familiar with Paul's theology. And so we don't see a lot of theological instruction in 1st

Timothy. Instead, we see a lot of practical instruction. But because Paul is always oozing with the theological foundations of his views, every now and again, we see, if you can picture it, like walking on a hardened volcano, you see the ground split open and you peer within and you see the glowing hot magma below that is forming the foundation for this.

Every now and again, we get a glimpse of the theology of the Apostle Paul, what is informing his practical instruction.

And here, if you can think about it, to use a different illustration, when we looked at this, we saw in chapter 1, in the first part of it, that Paul was dealing with false teachers.

He took a step up the mountain. And then we looked at Christ's saving ability. And it's a trustworthy saying, worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

He says, of whom I am the foremost. We looked at the church's obligation to pray in the first half of chapter 2.

We looked at the role of the women in the life of the church at the end of chapter 2. We looked at the office of elder in the first part of chapter 3.

The office of deacon in the second half leading up to this passage. And what we have been doing is scaling a mountain, slowly making our way to the summit.

And as we make our way now to the very crest of this book, in verses 14, 15, and 16, we break out of the clouds, as it were, and we find this gleaming apex that reveals why we started climbing this mountain in the first place.

And we see some remarkable truths about the church. Here Paul tells Timothy that he's hoping to come to him soon.

We know that Paul left Timothy in Ephesus. He carried on to Macedonia and he has been held for some reason and not able to return.

And so he sends this letter, and he says that he is writing it so that you may know, verse 15, how one ought to behave in the household of God.

Now even that word behave is packed with meaning. What it conveys here is that the whole of one's life and character, the tone and tenor of a person's existence, the governing principles that direct the manner of one's life.

Here what Paul wants Timothy and all of us to know is how this church is to conduct itself at its most fundamental level.

And this is the instruction he gives. The very first reality that Paul points to, first point that I want to make in this sermon, is the church's identity.

And we find this in the first half of verse 15. I'll read it again. He says how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the

God. Now here at the beginning of that little bite -sized piece that we looked at,

Paul references the household of God. And there has been no shortage of debate about what that means.

Some have argued that house or household refers to family. They say this refers to the family of God.

We certainly see that language all throughout Scripture. Others have said no, no, this house refers to temple.

And what makes it even more difficult is that both groups argue from the immediate context.

They say the immediate context proves this. And what's remarkable I think is I think they're both right.

There is a mediating view between those two positions where many Bible scholars land. I have landed there as well.

And I'll show you how it is, I think, that when we look at the church and its identity, right here, right at the fore, we see that the church is fundamentally a family, and it is a temple, and an abiding place, a dwelling place of the living

God. Now as we reference this verse family, some will say where is the immediate context that tells us the church is a family?

Well, those who take that view, and myself included, I would say that when Paul is speaking about household here, how to behave in the household of God, we see a number of references that demonstrate that he is staying on theme with what he has already been speaking about.

Case in point, if you look at chapter 3 and verse 4, we read that an elder must manage his own household.

Well, speaking about the family of the elder. In verse 5, furthermore, if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?

But that's not the only reference. If we jump on a bit further to 1st Timothy 3 .12, let the deacons each be husbands of one wives, what?

Managing their children and their own households well. Here the exact word that Paul uses in reference to the household of God is the same word that is used to speak of families.

And we'll look at the scriptural warrant for that a little bit more in a few moments. Yet at the same time, the use of this word house or household should also be understood as a physical place for the presence of God, namely a temple.

And why is that? Because as well in the immediate context, if we look at verse 15, we read that one is to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living

God. And then here we see building language, which is the pillar and buttress of the truth.

So what Paul is doing here is he's not just using familial language, but he's using building language.

And it begs the question, what does it all mean? What does it mean that the church is a family?

Well, when we say that the church is a family, what we're saying here is that it speaks to the nearness, the connectedness, and the interdependence that trumps all other relationships in this world.

That every true church is at its roots a family of believers who live and do life together.

And this is really an incredible aspect of church life. I want you to think for a moment, just every once in a while I ask you to do it.

I know it's awkward, but if you can humor me, if you look around for a moment, just remind yourself of who is in this room.

And I want you to think for a second that it was not all that long ago that we didn't know any of each other.

And not only did we not know any of each other, but we were not bothered by the fact that we did not know any of each other.

I might have driven past you. I might have seen you in a mall. I might have seen you. And frankly, I might not have really concerned myself whatsoever with your existence in the world.

And the fact that this church is less than five years old, I think proves really the strength of the church as a family.

I was thinking about it as I was writing my sermon this week. I know we're missing people, so we're a little bit smaller today.

But think about this for a moment. Five years ago today, the only people that I knew in this room were my immediate family and Steve Cortez.

Those are the only people that I knew in this room five years ago. And yet, what has happened in the last five years?

Not only have we seen the Lord add to our number, not only have we come to know and to meet, to greet people, and to have some semblance of a relationship at a superficial level, but we are at a stage,

I trust, with many of us in this room where we have a love and a care and a knowledge and a concern for one another that trumps all of those that are part of our blood relative families.

Why is this? It is because the church is at its most fundamental level what?

It is a family through and through. As I was thinking about it this week,

I thought because of the degree of love and unity and mutual concern that we have, my brain actually can't comprehend the fact that there was a time when

I did not know some of you. I know I think of some of you and think, I've known you for three years, and yet I feel like we've lived our whole lives together.

And if I were to send you away, just like Paul with Philemon and Onesimus, I'm sending now a very part of myself with you as you go.

We are a family through and through. And how can the church be a family through and through?

It is because at the very root of our identity, what are we? But we are adopted children of God and members of the household and the family of God.

One of my favorite verses in all of Scripture, and you know, I say that a lot.

I have a lot of favorite verses. First John 3 .1 is one of them. We read, see what kind of love the

Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God.

And so we are. The Bible tells us that before the foundation of the world,

I know this is a truth that is very precious to us. Before the foundation of the world, he predestined us for adoption as sons in Christ.

The Bible tells us also that we are not only children in this family of God, that though some professing

Christians maybe would prefer it this way, but that we were adopted into God's family. And when we were adopted into God's family, we were adopted into a great family with countless brothers and sisters.

Some of you have heard me talk about it before going to the Albert homeschoolers conference and going in the parking lot.

And for those of you who have been there, what do you see in the parking lot? It's just 15 passenger vans, right?

And if you love big families, you go there and you go behold the families, right?

The church of the living God is much greater, much bigger, much more glorious than that.

And our Lord Jesus, our elder brother, if I can call him that, I think Romans 8 .29 implies that.

He said that whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.

So that if you're going to understand the church of right, and if you're going to give the biblical answer on that survey, you must first understand that the church is a family.

And it calls for the greatest degree of brotherly affection. As it relates to the application of this, it calls us to truly know and love one another, to serve one another sacrificially, to pour out our lives even in service to our

Lord, even as we serve one another. One commentator rightly says, unless the church is a band of brothers, it is not a true church at all.

And I ask you, is this church a band of brothers? And are you seeking and working and laboring and praying to the end that we would increasingly be a band of brothers?

But the church is not just a family, we're told, being that it's a house, that it has pillars and buttresses, it is then also a temple.

Now you might ask, how can the church be a temple and a family at the same time? I don't know.

But what I do know is that scripture tells us this, it makes it explicitly so. The language of scripture, if we look at another place, and I invite you to turn there to Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 19, we see that the very language used where the church is seen both as a family and as a temple in another place, so that you know that I'm not off my rocker.

In Ephesians 2 .19 we read, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

I want you to see with me the progression from strangers, not aliens, to citizens with the saints, and then members of the household.

We're moving from out to in, from the most distant strangerly relationship to the nearest family relationship, a household of God.

But Paul then accommodates his language to include this idea both of family and of temple, because he says next this, the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

Christ himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the

Lord. Elsewhere, Paul is explicit when he speaks about the church as a temple.

He asks the Corinthian church the rhetorical question in 1 Corinthians 3 .16, do you not know, that word you is in the plural, as in, do you all, sorry, do you not know that you all are

God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you? Or in 1 Peter chapter two and verses four and five, where he says, as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, a strange stone, but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, that is the same house as our passage, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

So that what this all means is that the church is not just a family, but we all, if we are in Christ, constitute the temple of almighty

God in the world today. Now, there is a good likelihood that most of the truth that I just mentioned went right over your heads, that we are brothers and sisters in this room assembled, the temple of the living

God, and that scripture tells us that the spirit of God dwells in us, in the plural.

Now, some of our dispensational brothers and sisters, and we love them and we agree with them on many, in many respects, you will sometimes find them talking about the building of the next temple of God, and they will go on and they will say, there is a major prophetic plot point that has just been unveiled,

Jerusalem is now going to be establishing a new place for the temple, they're going to be moving this, they're going to be doing this, they always find websites that I can't find on the internet, they're probably on the dark web,

I don't know, but they say, the temple is coming, and when that temple comes, look out, and I love to playfully and lovingly jest with them and say, brother, it's never sisters, it's always a brother, brother, that temple is already here, that temple that Christ is going to come and fill, that temple is here, it is not made either with dead stones, but it's made with living stones, it is the church of the living

God, and can't you see the significance of this?

If only the ordinary Christian could understand this, this means that when we are together as a local church, no matter how big or small we are, no matter how impressive or unimpressive we may be, irrespective of whether we meet in this increasingly cramped room or a cathedral with 200 foot ceilings, as the church of the living

God, as the temple of the living God, when we assemble together,

God's presence, his special presence really is among us as he dwells in the midst of his assembled church.

This is how God's covenant faithfulness worked out in the Old Testament, and it's more fully realized in the

New Testament. In Exodus 25, as the nation of Israel is making its way to the promised land, what does the

Lord say? He says, and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst.

The reason why, if the Lord ever grants us a building, I hope he does one day, we will never have a room where over the door it says sanctuary.

And this is why, because that room is not the sanctuary, these people are the sanctuary.

It is the people of God. And I'm not sure when it happened for me, but my perspective about this has changed.

I would say that at one point I had an unintentionally low view of the church. I would say, if you said, is it important to worship?

I would say, of course, sincerely, it is important to worship God. Some might say, is it beneficial to meet with God's people?

Absolutely. It's beneficial that we come together even on a weekly basis. But when it came down to it at a fundamental level,

I did not really see a big difference between the assembling of God's people on a Sunday and a barbecue in my backyard on a

Saturday. But don't mark my words, mark

God's words. That when scripture speaks to the church as the temple of almighty

God, what this means is that when we come together as a church, we are not just a bunch of Christians in a room singing a few psalms or songs and then preaching a sermon.

When God's people are together, it constitutes God's temple, invoking

God's presence with the promise of God's blessing, worshiping the living God according to his commands alone.

And then after all of this is present, we as the priests come together and offer our spiritual sacrifices to God on his altar.

And there is no thing in the world like the assembled church anywhere. It is totally unique.

It is altogether unique. There is nothing like it on this side of eternity. And when

Paul says then that we are the church of the living God, that word church, many of you know, comes from the

Greek word ekklesia. It is a compound word from ek out of and kaleo to be called.

It means that we have been called out of the world. It is a picture to ancient

Greek times when for political purposes, they would call out all the men and the men would come from their homes.

They would assemble and assembling there they would do political business. Well, we have been called out of the world.

It captures the idea of God's effectual calling in our lives, of his irresistible grace in our lives, of our consecration to him.

And we have been called for the very first purpose of the church, which is to worship him.

You know, what's interesting is that survey, when it spoke about, and I spoke about the

Barna Research Group being a reputable organization. When they asked those survey questions, one of the options they did not give the people responding was this, that the purpose of the church is to worship

God. And it is. Missions exist for this purpose.

Every bit of evangelism that we ever do. I like what John Piper said.

I said it on Thursday during our statement of faith class, missions exists because worship doesn't. And we must worship

God. There's more to say, but that's a long first point. So we'll keep going.

We'll look next at number two, the church's purpose. And we read here that the church is in Paul's words, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

Now, if we remember back to the context, remember all the way back to chapter one, maybe if you turn there, it'll remind you to see some of the words.

As Paul is writing this letter, he is coming against a new wave of false teachers.

Those who were introduced agnostic teaching, those who were engaged in some form of rigid

Jewish legalism, or those who are engaged just in simply Jewish speculations.

And he told Timothy there not to entertain these false teachers.

And what we see is that the church is not only not to entertain false teachers, but the church is to promote the truth.

How do we know that? Because he says back in our passage in first Timothy 3 .15,

that the church is the pillar and buttress of the truth. Now, what is a pillar?

A pillar is an upright pole or shaft that supports a structure. When many of us think of pillars,

I don't know about you, I think about the Greek Parthenon in Athens, where there are some of the remaining pillars that are standing.

Or you might think of, I think a brother and sister, you traveled to that area of the world, going to different ruins and finding the

Acropolis and other things and the bases of pillars and some pillars that are still standing upright. And as Paul writes to Timothy, remember where Timothy is.

If you can put yourself back into the biblical geography, Paul is writing to Timothy as he is in Ephesus.

And there in Ephesus, when Paul was there earlier, you'll remember that the temple to Artemis or the

Greek goddess Diana was in Ephesus. One of the remarkable things about that temple is that it is one of the seven ancient wonders of the world.

It was a massive temple complex constructed to worship this fertility goddess,

Artemis or Diana. And if you were to go there today, I'm not sure if you went there, but if you were to go there today, you'll find that there's really only one pillar left.

There's a foundation and a singular pillar that they reconstructed. But back in Paul's day, as Paul would have written this letter, it was, if not for a pagan purpose, it was a magnificent building to behold.

The footprint of it was 377 feet wide by 180 feet long.

One of the most magnificent features of this temple of Artemis in Ephesus was this, that it was surrounded by, fenced by 127 marble pillars that were six feet in diameter and 60 feet tall.

If that wasn't enough, they were encrusted in gold and jewels and all kinds of other things that probably took the beauty away from it, if I'm honest.

I think what Paul is getting at as he speaks about the church being a pillar for the truth is this, that it is the duty of the church to hold up the truth that men may see it.

That as that pillar attracted the gaze of those people walking through Ephesus, so the church is to attract the gaze of those around them that they might see the truth.

But then he adds as well a buttress. Some of you in your translation might have foundation or ground.

That is because there is some debate about what this means. And the reason why there is some debate is because even some scholars believe that here

Paul has invented a word, just put together a couple of words to convey a new meaning.

And that might sound strange, but that happens all the time. If you think about, if you have a King James version on your laps, you have a

Bible that is largely informed by the translation work of William Tyndale and words like scapegoat.

Those are words that did not exist before William Tyndale, but now they're of great benefit to us as we think about that thing or about mercy seat.

Do you know that the English word atonement was invented by William Tyndale at one mint.

And so here, perhaps that is what Paul has done here, but the word itself conveys this.

It is something that supports. It is something that lends its firmness.

It is something that makes another thing steadfast that strengthens and buttresses it.

What Paul is trying to convey is that the church then is not only responsible for lifting up the truth, but it's also responsible for protecting and defending the truth.

So if we review for just a second, then the church is the assembly of the living

God. It is a family. It is the temple of the living

God. If we were to reach for some other scriptural insights, it is the body.

It is the bride of Christ. It is various other images. It exists then to worship

God in this temple, and it exists to uphold and defend the truth of God's word.

Now, what do we do with this? Some have looked at this picture of the church as a pillar and buttress, and they say, this is too exalted a view of the church.

There's almost more about the pillar and the buttress than the truth. But I want you to see that it's not making too much of the church.

It's not saying that the church is the manufacturer of the truth, but it is the job of the church to be the custodian of the truth.

The church is responsible then to confess, to uphold, and to conform its life to sound doctrine.

And that means that as a church, we have a responsibility to lift up as pillars of this truth, to lift up and proclaim this truth.

John Stott says in this, the church's function is not to advertise itself, but to advertise and display the truth.

That is why even as a church plant, I remember us having conversations about this.

We, against all conventions in the church planting world, had a $0 budget for promotions.

Because we said that if we proclaim the truth, the Lord will save his people, people will come, he will build his church.

This means that if the church is the pillar of the truth, the church is

God's principal missions agency in the world. This means that the church is

God's strategy for world evangelization. This means that there is no other institution or organism that has the promise of Christ's blessing other than the church.

We see, in fact, in the first mention of the church, the ecclesia of God in the

New Testament, in Matthew 16, is what? It is Christ's promise that he will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

And I ask you, I don't expect an answer, at least not out loud. Is this church fulfilling the purpose for which it is made?

Is this church comprised of all of its members, fulfilling its purpose to uphold the truth?

As I think about this, I think there are many ways that we can improve upon this. The church is not just an institution, it is made up of its members.

And so I ask you, as individuals, are you day to day in your lives, at work, at home, in your communities, in your friendships, holding up the truth, the truth of the gospel that people might see?

Would that God would grant that this church would have six foot in diameter, 60 foot tall marble pillars holding up the truth.

That God would make us a truth proclaiming church. This is a summons, no doubt, to bold gospel proclamation and we must fulfill it lest we neglect the very purpose for which we have been made.

But then to buttress the truth, this means then that we must defend and uphold this truth.

The truth needs to be defended from attacks, attacks of the enemies, the enemy and of other enemies on every side.

I don't think you have to look very far to see that that is true. And I think that probably if we're honest with ourselves,

I think we're depending on someone else to do that defending a lot of the time.

Case in point, if someone were to attack the truth in our city today on a fundamental level, or maybe on a global scale,

I think that we would expect that seminaries would stand up and respond. That maybe men like Albert Moeller would get on his podcast,

The Briefing, and he would explain why that idea is a bad idea. That the Evangelical Theological Society, that they would come to the aid of the church as it comes against every wave and every onslaught of the enemy.

It is not the seminaries. It is not the professors. It's not the theological societies.

It's not the theological journals. It's not the guys on Twitter and Facebook and YouTube and YouTube shorts and whatever, wherever else it is that you see these guys.

It is the church that is responsible for defending the truth. I think what

G .K. Chesterton says with a little bit of humor, he says, the church is always defending on behalf of humanity what the world at the moment is stupidly attacking.

We are responsible to counter every false claim against the truth.

And this calls for the greatest diligence in studying the scriptures and sound doctrine.

John Calvin, he speaks on this and he says, zeal without doctrine is like a sword in the hand of a lunatic.

Lest we be lunatics, we must be sound in our doctrine, wielding it carefully.

Some have asked, I know people have approached me before when I was beginning to learn

Greek and they said, why are you learning the biblical languages? It is because it is the responsibility of the church to defend the truth.

Some will ask, why did you take a group of a dozen people this summer through the biblical languages?

It's not because I'm lonely in my Greek, although I was a little bit lonely, but it's because the more people that can expound the scriptures and say, no, wait a second, what you just said is completely wrong.

We need people who can read Greek, who can read Hebrew, who understand how to make sound arguments, who know how logic works, who know the

Bible like the back of their hand, who have studied it, who have made it their aim that if I know one thing,

I will know this. This church, if it is to be a buttress for the truth, must have people who have made this their aim, who have said,

I will learn how to counsel, not from pop psychology, not from modern therapeutics, but from the

Bible. People who can go out into the streets and proclaim this truth and defend it.

And people, I would suggest, who when they hear the denial of that truth in a church, pray for it, seek to reform it, and then eventually leave it.

Matthew Henry says, when the church ceases to be the pillar and ground of the truth, we may and ought to forsake her.

That's why if Roman Catholics or Eastern Orthodox call us schismatics, we would say,

I'm sorry, but when you left the truth, we had a duty to leave. We are not the schismatics.

It's your doctrine that made us go. We may and ought forsake her, for our regard to truth should be greater than our regard to the church.

We are no longer obliged to continue in the church, then she continues to be the pillar and ground of the truth.

So brothers and sisters, these are then the identities or the identity of the church and the purposes, some of the purposes of the church.

I want to look lastly at the church's confession, and we see that in verse 16. We read, great indeed we confess is the mystery of godliness.

You know what I see here all the time in Paul's letter? Understanding that he is writing to Ephesus is allusions to his earlier ministry in Ephesus.

Do you remember what the people were chanting as they came together in their riotous group in the arena?

They came together and they said what? Great is Artemis of the

Ephesians. Almost in the same cadence, we see Paul say, great is the mystery of godliness.

That this mystery is greater than Artemis. That this church is greater than Artemis' temple.

That this purpose is better still. Now what is this mystery of godliness?

Again, we see Paul building upon what he said last week, speaking about deacons.

What does he say? That he must, where is it? Verse 9, chapter 3 and verse 9, they must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.

It's not a secret that is hidden from Christians, but it's a secret that is revealed to Christians at its proper time.

Now what many scholars see here then is that this is one of the church's earliest creedal statements, a creed or confession of the church.

And it's placed very nicely, I think side by side in three different stanzas.

I want you to see this with me because there's a contrasting that takes place. Great indeed we confess is the mystery of godliness.

And then the key word is always the last word in the phrase. He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the spirit.

See flesh and spirit. He was seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

Now what do these mean? I don't have a lot of time, but I'll go through them briefly. That Christ was manifested in the flesh speaks to his incarnation.

That contrary to the Gnostic and the docetist teachers, we see here that Christ the

God -man really did come in the flesh. He didn't appear to be man, he was a man.

He condescended and he came to his own. So that John could say, that which was from the beginning we have heard, we have seen with our eyes.

We have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest and we have seen it.

And testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the father and was made manifest to us.

What does it mean to be vindicated by the spirit? Some have argued various positions on this.

I think that the most clear argument could be made for this, that for Christ's ministry to be vindicated by the spirit is this, that through him, the

Holy Spirit did mighty works, many miraculous works. These works were seen and they attest to the identity of Christ.

This is further seen in his resurrection where R .C. Sproul says, by overturning the guilty verdict of the ungodly court, the world's court judged him to be wrong and a liar and a false teacher.

But the resurrection proved that he lived a life of perfect righteousness. We're told that he was seen by angels.

Now this could mean or speak to the angels who observed his ascension into heaven.

It could be that the angels saw him in his life on the cross. What we do know for sure is that Christ's work had a real effect on the angels.

Colossians chapter 2 and verse 15 said, he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.

When we were singing about Christus Victor, that's part and parcel of this verse.

In Ephesians 3 .10, so that through the church, the manifold witness of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

Or in 1 Peter 1 .12, it was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you and the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the

Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which the angels long to look. That Christ was seen not only by man, but by the angels.

And then speaking to the human experience, that he was proclaimed among the nations.

You have to remember that we're crisis coming here. The expectation is that he is going to be a very

Jewish Messiah. I praise God. I don't know what your lineage is.

You've heard me say this before, but I praise God that he saved not only Jews, but that he saved Gentiles, because that includes me.

That includes many of you, all the nations. And that this truth was upheld by that pillar, which was the church proclaiming this truth to them.

That he was believed on in the world. That Gentiles, as well as Jews, believed in Jesus Christ and became the heirs of eternal life.

And that he was taken up in glory. What's interesting is that it does not speak to Christ's humiliation.

It does not speak to Christ's cross, but it does speak to Christ's glory.

And the words, I didn't plan on this, but the words that we were singing today, come behold the wondrous mystery,

I think capture this. Listen to these words again. Come behold the wondrous mystery,

Christ the Lord upon the tree, in the stead of ruined sinners hangs the

Lamb in victory. See the price of our redemption, see the

Father's plan unfold, bringing many sons to glory, grace unmeasured, love untold.

It goes on. Come behold the wondrous mystery, slain by death the

God of life, but no grave could e 'er restrain him, praise the

Lord he is alive. What a foretaste of deliverance, how unwavering our hope,

Christ in power resurrected as we will be when he comes.

That marvel of all marvels that Christ is not dead in a tomb somewhere. Marvel of all marvels that Christ is not hanging on a cross somewhere, but he is, as we're told, he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

He upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

Having become as much superior to the angels as the name that he has now inherited is much more excellent than theirs.

To which of the angels did God ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you.

Or again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all

God's angels worship him. Of the angels, he says, he makes his angels winds and his minister is a flame of fire.

But of the son, he says, your throne, oh God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

So that Christ is not dead. He's not on a cross. He is reigning in glory right now.

I was on the edge of sleep this morning and Nicole was at the baking day yesterday. And she asked me, as I was half in sleep, she said, what does it mean that the government shall rest upon his shoulders?

And I said, the only thing I could say in that sleepy stupor, that Christ is in heaven and all authority on heaven and on earth has been given to him.

And he is sovereign over everything then. So what is the church's identity?

We are a temple. We are a family. We are an assembly. We are the people of God.

What is our purpose? Our purpose is to worship him. Our purpose is to proclaim his truth.

Our purpose is to defend his truth. Our purpose is to glorify him in the world.

And what is our confession? The church's confession is Jesus Christ. This is the mystery of godliness.

Jesus Christ. Christ is the blazing center. And as we come to the summit of this mountain, we find a banner waving on the summit.

Someone has already been here and whose banner is it? It is Christ's. It is the banner of Christ that flies at the summit of the existence of the church.

So that we must be, if we are to be a true church, all about Christ.

All about his victory on the cross in our place. All about his victorious ascension.

All about his victorious reign now on the throne at the right hand of the throne of God.

If we are not about proclaiming the truth, if we are not about Christ, then we are not a church.

I'll finish with these words from G. Campbell Morgan. He says, he was the predecessor of Martin Lloyd -Jones.

He said, the church of God, apart from the person of Christ, is a useless structure.

That's true. However ornate it may be in its organization, however perfect in all its arrangements, however rich and increased with goods, if the church is not revealing the person, lifting him to the height where all men can see him, then the church becomes an impertinence and a sham, a blasphemy and a fraud.

And the sooner the world is rid of it, the better. May the

Lord preserve us from ever being such a church. Rather that this church would be what we have been created to be, a people, an assembly, a temple, a family, one that proclaims, that believes, that cherishes, that trusts, that worships, that exalts

Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Thank you for listening to another sermon from Grace Fellowship Church.

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