The Church Her Purpose & Commission

We're going through a study on major Bible themes, and we're using Dr. Lewis Sperry Shaffer's book as a guide. These are the chapters that we're covering in these last 20 weeks. We're down here looking at the church. We started last week on the study of the church. This is our second week on the study of the church. This week it's on her purpose. and commission. So our study this morning is going to be trying to answer four questions. And here are the four questions. And Marilyn is not here to see my color. But the four questions go like this.

Is the church separate from Israel and the Gentiles? Now, this is an important question with respect to the theology that is being taught today. In fact, most of the theology that is being taught today says that the Church is not separate from Israel and the Gentiles.

The next question is, what is the composition of the Church? How is the Church composed? We saw last week that the church started on the day of Pentecost. And so what is this composition of the church? And the third question is, what's the purpose of the church? So when you think of the church, what's the purpose? And we're going to see here there's a two-fold purpose. And then the last thing we're going to look at is, how is the church unique? What's so unique about the church? I'm going to probably be spending most of my time here. What is the purpose of the church?

And there's two parts to this. And I'm going to be spending most of the time on the first part of this. And we're going to kind of breeze through these other parts. And there's notes here for your reading, for your study, but there's only so much you can cover in the 50 minutes that we have. Okay, the first question is, is the Church separate from Israel? And the interesting thing is this.

As you look in 1 Corinthians 10.32, Paul says this.

He says, Give no offense, neither to the Jews, to Israel, or the Jews being Israel, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God. And he makes that distinction between those three groups of people. So in Paul's mind, and in God's mind, when God looks down at this world, he does see these three distinct groups of people. The Gentiles, Israel, or the Jew, and the Church. So one of the reasons why we, when we taught on dispensations back in Chapter 20, we looked at dispensations from those three aspects, from the aspect of Gentile, Jew, and Church.

So, as you look at it, is there a distinction? Yes, there is a distinction. Are they separate? Yes, they are separate. And I think scripture is very clear how separate the Gentiles are from Israel and Israel from the church. And there are these three distinct groups of people, each had a start and each one will have no end. Each group will glorify God for all eternity, individually, separate as those three groups. So with Israel, he has a special purpose for Israel.

He's given them the covenants. He's given them all of the promises. And a lot of those promises have not been fulfilled. They will be fulfilled yet in the future, what we call in the kingdom period, the millennial kingdom, which is yet to come. He's given them the word of God and the law of the fathers and the prophets.

I want you to look closely here. One of the main distinctions between Israel and the Church, because today a lot of theology tries to equate Israel with the Church, but one of the main differences between the two is that Israel is God's earthly people and they will always be God's earthly people for all eternity, and the Church is Christ's heavenly bride and wife. We're God's heavenly people, and will always be that right now and for all eternity. So, the basic two differences between those. Okay. What is the composition of the Church? Well, as we looked somewhat last week, we saw that the composition of the Church, by the way, Where is Marilyn?

Because, I mean, do you notice the color on that chart? Now, the reason for the color on this chart is not because I purposely did this. It's that my color printer last night, or my printer, ran out of ink. It ran out of, you see, it ran out of blue ink. But I thought that was pretty neat. So I left it for Marilyn, but she's not here. Okay.

The composition of the Church, as we saw last week, that you have believing Jews from Pentecost to the Rapture. And we saw last week that the Church started on the day of Pentecost. And there's no question that the Church started on the day of Pentecost. even in his ministry, knew that the church began on the day of Pentecost, and it will continue to the rapture. And that is the church.

That is the body of Christ, the people from the day of Pentecost to the rapture. No one else ever before that, after that, will ever be called the Church. So the people who are saved during the Tribulation period are not the Church. The people who are saved during the Millennial Kingdom are not the Church. It's just this distinct group of people sitting here and up until the Rapture. There's a couple of designations as to the church. So why don't you turn to Ephesians chapter 2 verse 14. Ephesians 2 verse 14.

And Paul says, for he, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, is our peace, who has made both one. Now the question is, who's the both? Well, in the context of Ephesians, he's talking about both Jew and Gentile. He's made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity even the law of the commandments contained in ordinances, to make in himself of two, one new man."

Isn't that interesting? One new man. One who is new in quality, totally new, totally different from Israel, totally different from the Gentiles. He's made two, one new man. So the two are the Gentiles and the Jews. He's made the two, one new man. Verse 16, that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. So that as we look at that passage of scripture, there's this oneness of the Jew and Gentile in Christ.

And so the contrast has been eliminated. All of the differences have been eliminated, Paul says in Galatians, for there is no difference, there is no distinction between Gentile and Jew. bond or free, male or female. So there is no distinction. So the separation has been eliminated. There is no enmity between the two. And you know, as you read in the Book of Acts, or even in the Gospels, the enmity that was there between the Jews and the Gentiles. The Jews would have nothing to do with the Gentiles. So even when the church started, right?

And Peter was given this vision of the sheet in Simon Tanner's house about this sheet coming down with all these unclean animals and the Lord said, take, eat. And Peter said, no, and it's happened three times. And the Lord said to Peter, and Peter says, Lord, I'm not going to eat. These are unclean animals. And the Lord tells Peter what? what I have declared clean. Don't you declare unclean.

And the Lord was telling Peter, and was trying to show Peter, that there's not going to be any more distinction or enmity between the Jew and the Gentile. Because no sooner did he say that, there was a knock on the door. And here comes a servant of Cornelius, a Roman, asking, they want to know, they want to understand the word of the Lord. And so Peter goes up there and would not have entered into his house, but because he had this vision, and the Lord told Peter, don't you declare them unclean, don't you declare these Gentiles unclean, and so Peter freely entered the house. told them to preach the gospel and they believed and the Spirit of God came upon them and they spoke in tongues just like the Jews on the day of Pentecost.

So the whole distinction has been eliminated. The law has been abolished. Grace is now the principle of our living. So we don't live by law, we live by grace. And all of the newness, when we talk about one new man, the newness is in the resurrected and glorified Lord. That's where the oneness is, that's where the newness is. And so it's important to understand that the church is not the continuation of Israel, nor is it the remaking of Israel. It's a whole, totally new entity. There's one other passage in Scripture that talks about the composition of the church, and that is in Galatians 6, 4-16.

Let me put this up on the overhead so you can see it. You have missed the color. I mean, look at these charts. We were talking about you, so I want you to know the blended color in these charts and the effort that I had to go through to do that for you, Mary. Now, should I tell you the truth? My ink cartridge ran out of blue. But I left this for you.

Okay. So the other reference is to the fact that the Church is a new creation. And what is so interesting about this, when it talks about the Church being a new creation, and second Corinthians 5.17, it says what? Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.

It's the same identical words used in 2 Corinthians 5.17 as it is here in Galatians 6. So the Church is also a new creation. And by creation, I'm talking about the that it shows you, by using the word creation, that it didn't previously exist. It never existed before. Just like we did not exist before as a new creation until we put our trust and faith in the person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then we became a new creation. We did not exist as a new creation before that. And the newness, again, is Newness is always in the resurrected and glorified Lord Jesus Christ.

When you look at Romans chapter 6, and starting at verse 4 on, and it talks about our baptism, and we've looked at that, our baptism into Christ, not only into the person of Christ, but we've been baptized, or immersed, or identified, not only into his person, but his death. What else? His burial, what else? His resurrection. And when you get to verse 4, it says that we've been raised in what?

Newness of life. And those who are going to partake in Greek are going to find out that newness is a noun. So we've been raised in newness, and of life modifies the noun, newness. So, the source of that newness is of life, His life, the resurrected life of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, that's where the newness is.

In this passage of Scripture, Paul talks about the circumcision and uncircumcision, talking about the circumcision, being a Jew, nor the uncircumcision of being a Gentile. And he talks about it not being God's rule. And the word rule there means measure. God doesn't measure. God doesn't measure things about whether you're a Jew or whether you're about a Gentile. And he goes on to say that God's measure is in the cross. That's where his measure is, is in the cross. And we glorify God there, in the cross, and not in distinctions. Not whether you're a Jew and you keep the law, or not whether you're a Gentile.

So scripture, I think, is very clear in terms of the composition of the church. God is calling out both Jews and Gentiles unto his name. Okay, so we get now to the purpose of the church. And this is kind of where I'd like to spend most of my time. And I've divided it up into two parts. As we think of church, because we, each one of us here this morning, are members, individual members of his body, and his body being the church. So in terms of his purpose then, there's a purpose for each member of his body.

And as I've pointed out here, the fact that as you look at 2 Timothy 1.9, so turn there, we'll look at it, 2 Timothy 1.9, And just to get it in context, I'm going to read verse 8.

Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our work, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given in Christ Jesus, when?

Before the world began, or before the foundations of the world. So God had an eternal purpose before the foundations of the world, and he's called us. He's called us, he's called you, and he's called me to be vessels, if you will, in his eternal purpose.

So he's called us with a holy calling to be a vessel in fulfilling his purpose, and that purpose is fulfilled through every one of us, individually. And that purpose The point I want to make is that purpose is filled individually through each one of us, as opposed to the Church, the entire corporate body of Christ. And we'll see why, and we'll see how. Now, so here's the question. He's called us to fulfill His eternal purpose. What in the world is His eternal purpose?

Four points. I'm going to drill this into you. Four points. It concerns His glory. God's eternal purpose is focused on His glory. And what's the first one? His purpose is to declare His glory, to shout it out, right? Second is to share His glory. to share His very glory with every person, every single person. He wants to share His glory, to reveal His glory, right? He wants to reveal His glory.

And the fourth one is to be glorified. Because if we, as God declares His glory, and He shares it, and He reveals it, there is no other response that we could possibly have but to glorify God. Because we see ourselves as nothing compared to the glory of God. And so the only response is to glorify God.

Okay. So, here's the exciting part. That God would use us in this purpose, to declare His glory. Now, I really blew it yesterday. What I was going to do, in order to get through this more rapidly, I was going to print out all these passages of Scripture. So, we're not going to look at them all. But we could have looked at them if I didn't mess up.

So, let's look at Colossians chapter 2, starting at verse 26. Colossians chapter 2. We're talking about how God uses us to declare His glory, to shout out His glory. Let's see. Now, how many have verse 26? See, I've got my own Bible. Yeah, here I thought that if the King James is good enough for Paul, it's good enough for me. Okay, starting at chapter 1. Thank you. In chapter 1, do you see what I say when we look at ourselves, right? I mean, we make mistakes. God is one that never makes mistakes. He can't because of who He is.

In verse 26, starting at verse 25, of which I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given me for you to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which has been hidden from ages from generations." Okay, we're talking about a mystery. And a mystery is what? Gary? something not revealed. It's been a secret, not revealed. So it's been hidden from generations, but now, but now, in Paul's writing, is made manifest, or made known, to his saints. And who are they? The church? Believers? Okay. To whom God would make known What is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles? Which is what? Christ in you.

The hope of glory. And that word hope is not used in the vernacular that we use today. We use hope as that I hope we get some snow so we get some more moisture. So the way we use hope is as a wish. But this word, alpizzo, hope, is a fixed confidence, not only a fixed confidence, it's an absolute certainty. We have the absolute certainty that Christ is in us, and He is, and He has the hope of glory. So we can declare, we can make manifest, make known, that word manifest or make known is to declare. We can declare the riches of His glory. How do we do that? How do we do that? Think about the question, how do we do that, as we go on and look at the next three points, okay? I want you to think about that in terms of, how do we do that?

Here, God has us as vessels in his eternal purpose. about declaring the riches of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we do that? Because that's his eternal purpose, and he's going to fulfill that eternal purpose through us. And by the way, there is no other vehicle in which he can fulfill that purpose except through us. Does that put a responsibility on us? Do you feel burdened down now?

But it's in grace. It's in grace the way he does it. Okay. In Romans 3, verses 25 and 26, it talks about declaring his righteousness, or making known his righteousness. And he uses that He uses us as vessels to do exactly that, to declare, to make known His righteousness. Question again, how does He do that? How does He do it in your life? How does He do it in my life?

The other thing is that He uses us in 1 Corinthians 15 verses 1-4 to declare the gospel, to make known the gospel. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 1 through 4, it's talking about the gospel in the limited sense, because the gospel, meaning good news, is referred to as the entire revelation that we have, but it's also used in a narrow sense. And in the narrow sense, when it's used in the narrow sense, like in 1 Corinthians 15 verses 1 through 4, it's talking about the gospel in terms of the gospel to an unbeliever. The fact that Jesus Christ died according to the scriptures, he was buried, and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. That's the narrow sense of the gospel.

But he utilizes us, he uses us in that wonderful privilege, that wonderful ministry, declaring his glory through the gospel. declaring His glory, how we're used. In terms of revealing His glory, He reveals His glory through you and through me. And this is a passage of scripture I want to spend a little time on.

So turn through 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Well, I think I got a mistake already. There's the second one. How about, I don't even have to turn there, how about 2 Corinthians chapter 3? 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Hey Roger, if you'll keep notes for me so I can change this.

What we do is we send all these notes out and they're going all over the country. They're going to Canada. They're going to Okinawa. And the last thing we want to do is to have them inaccurate. Okay. Starting at verse 3, it says, Forasmuch as you are manifestly declared by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of... You know what?

In order to get this in context, let's go back to verse 1. And Paul is writing to these Corinthian believers, but he could be writing this letter to you and to me. So this is written to every one of us. So we'll go back to verse 1. Paul says, again to commend ourselves or need we as some others epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you?" So Paul is saying this.

He says normally when a stranger goes to another group he needs a letter of commendation. For example, Paul was on the road to Damascus And he had to have a letter of commendation from the Pharisees in Jerusalem saying that he was authorized to go to Damascus and to round up those nuts who believe in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he had this letter of commendation. So he understood what authority meant in terms of letters. And so what Paul is saying, do we need some authority from man to come to you? No way. We don't need any authority.

And so in verse 2, he says, you, you are our epistles. You are the letter. That's who you are. You're the letter. We don't need some letter from some higher muckety-muck. You are the letter written in our hearts. Look at that. Written in our hearts, known and read of all men. You are a letter, you're known, and you're read of all men. without saying a word, people read you, people know you, without saying a word. In verse 3, for as much as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of a living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart. You students who are going to be coming to the Greek class, here's the breakdown of that verse.

Subject, you. Okay? Verb, are. It's an essence verb. It's the state in which you continuously exist. You are, and the direct object is epistle. You are an epistle. You are a message, modified then, of Christ. You are an epistle, a message, of Christ. And the message is not written in tables of stone like the law was, but the message is written in your hearts. And that's where the message is, it's in your hearts.

In verse 4, in such trust have we through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient of ourselves. This is one of my favorite verses. Every time I come down to study scripture and to prepare a lesson, I say, Lord, I can't do this. And I read verse 4. And such trust have we through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is where? Our sufficiency is of God. So that the Lord tells me, Hal, you're absolutely right. You can't do it. You're absolutely right. This is telling me I'm a zero.

And that there's no sufficiency in and of myself. And my sufficiency is of Him. And then, as you get to 2 Corinthians in chapter 9, in verse 8, where it says that that God is able to provide all grace toward you and to give you all sufficiency, all sufficiency, not some, but the totality of sufficiency, so that you can do this. And it goes on to say, in all things, in every single thing, What a, what a, what a message. Okay. And then verse six.

Who has made us able ministers, here we are, here we are as ministers of the, of a New Testament, or the New Testament not of letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killed, but the Spirit gives life. But if the ministration of death written and engraved in stone was glorious, understand that for a minute, that the ministration, that what was written in stone, which is the Ten Commandments, it's saying here, it's not that it was bad. Law isn't bad. God's Ten Commandments isn't bad. But what does it say?

It's glorious. It shows forth the glory of our living God. It shows forth His righteousness, His justice. It shows forth all of those aspects, at least those aspects of God. And it was glorious. And not only was it itself glorious, but it was given in glory. God on Mount Sinai appeared to all of Israel. How? on top of that mountain with bright, awesome light. And Israelites saw that. And they couldn't come near that mountain. They couldn't touch it unless they died. We're talking about a holy mountain. So the law came in glory, and it was glorious. Back to verse 7. So Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses when he came down from the mount for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away.

Now look what it says, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be more glorious? And what Paul is saying is that the ministry of the Holy Spirit in your life, in my life, will be more glorious than that of the law. Believe that? That's what it says.

Verse 9, For if the administration of condemnation be glory, much more does the administration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excels." So the law was glorious, but there was something more glorious. And something that is more glorious is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in your life and in my life that is more glorious than the law.

Can you think of why? Think first of what does the law reveal to us? God's righteousness? To do or not do his law? Okay. So it reveals to us our incapability of doing His law, His justice. It reveals those aspects of God's glory. What aspects of His glory doesn't it reveal? Okay, His grace. Very good. Now, okay, His love. Even though there's a command, Thou shalt love your neighbor as yourself, it doesn't reveal that love. It doesn't demonstrate that love. It doesn't show that love.

Okay, so that's the law. Now here's you. Now here's the ministry of the Spirit through you. Now tell me what's being revealed. through you, what cannot be revealed through the law. Since we have to get through. The spirit? Very true. Okay, good. Okay, excellent. And just in case you didn't hear Crystal, His immense love, compassion, mercy, and grace. You can't find that in the law. You can't see that in the law.

But you can see it through the life of the believer as the Holy Spirit ministers through the life of the believer and as the believer walks in the Spirit and not in the flesh, then that life is being manifested. And that's the way the world sees the Lord Jesus Christ.

I think as I told you before, when I was an unbeliever, I could tell you, and I never opened up the Bible, never once, but I could tell you more about Jesus Christ than probably most Christians. How could I do that? The reason I could do that is because I saw the Lord Jesus Christ, His life being manifested in the life of my boss, the guy I went to work with. I saw the life. I saw Christ. That's the thing that brought me, one of the things that brought me to Christ is seeing the life and seeing the difference between who I was and who He is.

Do we understand in terms of how he reveals his glory to the world? What a wonderful privilege we have to be used as this vessel where the Spirit of God would reveal the person of Christ through us. And he does it also, not only when you're feeling up and chipper, but he does it in every single trial and all the suffering that you go through. And in Romans chapter 5, and we don't have a chance to go through that, but in Romans chapter 5 it talks about a trial coming to you, and you walking by faith, and just resting in the Lord about that trial, and knowing that He has a purpose in that trial in your life. And through that trial, we learn patience, the patience of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then patience works experience, and that experience means tried character, and that tried character works towards hope, and hope is the absolute certainty in terms of who Jesus Christ is, His love, His grace, His mercy, His compassion, and His being there, His faithfulness to us in the trial, that He'll not allow us to suffer above what we're able through that trial, but will, with that trial, provide a way of escape, and that way of escape is Him.

He is the way of escape. And then as we go through that trial, the world is watching us going through that trial, and they know how they would react to the trial or to the suffering. And they see, as we trust in the Lord, as we walk in Him, they see that our response is totally different, and it's not for me. feel sorry for me, I'm going through this terrible trial, and I can't run, right? They don't see that. So that's the other way that His glory is revealed to us.

We cannot share the glory of Christ. When a person puts his trust and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, It's the Lord Jesus Christ who says, Father, the glory that you have given me, I have given them. Everyone that believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, he gives every single one his glory. His glory as a man. He doesn't give us a deity. We don't become gods, but he gives us his glory, all of those attributes. short of being deity. And then our only response in all of this is to glorify God. We're going to finish up here real fast.

The purpose of the church, the second part is the local church, that is, Holly Hill Bible Church. Question, why are we here? Why do we come? And why do we come on Sunday, whatever day? Why do we come? Is it because of evangelism or is it edification? This chart Vern gave out during the annual meeting, I wasn't here, but I modified a little bit. So here's the question, and evangelism is very important, but that's not the reason why we come here to church. We come for this reason. We come to be edified. We come to be built up in the Lord so that we can go out and be evangelists and evangelize.

Okay? Last point. As you look in terms of who you are, you've put your trust and faith in Christ, and you're a member now of His body. You're in a living union with the Lord Jesus Christ. So you're born of God. You're indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And by the way, that indwelling is for all eternity, and for all eternity we're going to be learning about the Lord Jesus Christ? Think about that. For all eternity. What does that say about the Lord Jesus Christ? If we can continue to learn about Him forever and ever and ever, what does it say about Him? That He's infinite? that there's no end to Him, right?

We're baptized by the Holy Spirit, as we've talked about, in His person, His death, His burial, His resurrection, and we're also baptized into His body, the Church. We are a new creation, as we've talked about. You share His very glory. The glory, Father, the glory that You have given me, I have given men. You share His very life.

In Colossians 3.4, it says that Christ, who is our life, He's your very life. You share His eternal purpose, and we've just gone through His eternal purpose. You share the oneness, the oneness that the Father and the Son had for all eternity. You and I share in that oneness. You and I are in that same circle with them. You ever think of yourself that way? We don't think of ourselves that way, do we? How often do you think that you, God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, are in one, in the same circle together for all eternity? Wow.

Your Christ body, you are heavenly people, as we saw in Colossians, Chapter 1, Christ is in you. You're not of this world anymore. You're in the world, but you're not of the world. You're a temple. You're a building. You're loved and cherished by Christ. And finally, you're His bride. And there's going to be a marriage when He returns. And we're going to become His wife. Any 20-second questions? Let's close in order first. Our Father, we just stand in awe as we look at this whole study and all the truths about us concerning the Church. And Father, oh how we thank You that You would, in Your grace, use each and every one of us to be an epistle for Christ, to manifest His life through us, that others may know Him, come to see Him.

Because Father, they're not going to see Him any other way. They're not going to see Him through creation. They're not going to see Him through the Word, because they can't understand the Word. So the only way they're going to see him is through our life.

And Father, thank you for the wonderful privilege of manifesting his life through us. And we pray, Father, that we would be sensitive to the needs of others who are in our sphere of influence, that we may come alongside and just be a witness for you. And we ask this in Christ's precious name. Amen.