The Spirit-Empowered Local Church (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter 3

and find your place at verse 16.

And as is the tradition in my church, I don't know what it is here, but in our church we stand for the reading of God's Word, so I would

invite you to stand

and we are going to read verses 16 and 17.

And I'll be reading from the English Standard Version of the Bible.

So, all

Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for

teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training

in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped

for every good work.

Father in heaven, I ask even now, as I know my brother has already prayed, I want to pray again.

First and foremost, Lord, as I pray every time I stand behind your pulpit and preach your Word, that you

would keep me from error.

For Lord God, I know that I am a fallible man.

I know of my own failures.

And I pray, God, that you would keep me from error as for the sake of your name, and for the sake of your people, and for the sake

of my own conscience.

I pray, Lord, as we look today at the Spirit -empowered local church, that we would think about each of those

words, what it means for the Spirit to be empowering the local body.

And Lord God, as we seek to see that this empowerment comes through the preached Word of

God and through the application of that Word, I pray, Lord, that again, we would

have our hearts and minds attuned to what your Word says.

And I pray, Lord, for everyone in this room, I pray for the believer, God, that they would be edified

by the Word, that they would be instructed and do all the things that this text says the Word

will do, rebuke, reprove, correct, and train.

And Lord, for the unbeliever that is here today, I pray, God, if there be

a man or woman or child today who has not bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, that today they might

see Him as glorious and wonderful and beautiful, and see His Word

as the light unto their feet and the lamp unto their path.

And we pray it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, I know that not everyone here has been with us for the past few days of the conference.

And this conference, which began on Friday, had the purpose of proclaiming, as

Brother Claude already said, the work of the Holy Spirit in the church.

And brothers have been preaching various aspects of that reality.

And Pastor John yesterday said, well, you're the last one up.

That means everybody's already said what you're going to say or something to that effect.

Like people have already said everything.

Well, that's true, but I have the benefit of knowing that some of you weren't here.

So I can repeat it and you won't know it.

There is a historical debate in the church.

And the historical debate is the debate over which church is the true church.

Which church is the true church?

Rome believes that it is the true church.

And they make this claim based on the papacy.

They say because they have an unbroken line, according to them, I don't agree, but we'll allow them

to speak.

They'll say because they have an unbroken line of apostolic succession, going back to Peter, that they

have the right to claim that they have the true church.

They have what's known as the cathedra petri, the seat of Peter.

And they say as long as they have Peter's successor sitting on that seat, that they have the

true church.

Well, the Eastern church, which split from the Western church, what we might

call today the Orthodox church, they split in the great schism that was in the middle part of the

11th century, 1054.

And that break that happened created a divide.

And they would say, no, we are the true church.

It is we who have apostolic succession.

We're the ones that go back to the apostles.

And so this great divide within the body of Christ between the East and the West has stood now for over a

thousand years.

Both claiming to be the true church.

Then you meet some fundamental Baptists.

I'm a Baptist.

But there are some fundamental Baptists who will say, no, neither Rome nor the

Orthodox.

But we go back.

We have always been the persecuted minority.

We have always been those who are on the outside.

If you've never heard this particular brand of Baptist theology, it's called the trail of blood.

And they argue that their church goes back to the original.

And some of them even say back to John the Baptist, the original Baptist.

Well, he weren't like y 'all or me.

He was not that kind of Baptist.

But that's the claim.

The claim is always, who is the true church?

We know one thing from Scripture.

There are false churches.

You read the book of Revelation.

And you see in the book of Revelation the reference to the synagogue of Satan.

And the synagogue of Satan can certainly be seen throughout our land and throughout the world.

Those that are not true churches.

Those that do not proclaim the word of God.

Those that pervert the word of God.

Those that mistreat the word of God and God's people.

Certainly false churches exist.

But that doesn't answer the question, who is the true church?

The reformers thought

much differently when it came to the question of the true church.

In fact, one could argue that they were less concerned about who was the true church and rather

more concerned with what constitutes a true church.

Rather than saying my church or your church or this church or that church is the true church, the question

is, is the church that you are a part of a true church?

And so they came to the conclusion that there were three marks of a

true church.

And those three marks of a true church should be identified in every church that claims itself to

be part of the body of Christ.

First mark of a true church was that a true church must preach God's

word.

The second mark of a true church, a true church must properly administer, and this word

might get you Baptist, sacraments.

We could call them ordinances, call them what you want.

If you ain't baptizing and if you're not having the Lord's Supper together, then you're not.

A church.

That's what they were saying.

If we're not administering the ordinances, if we're not doing that, then we're not a.

Church.

And the third aspect, and this one's going to hit you for a loop when you hear this one, if you've never heard these three.

They said you've got to preach the word of God, you've got to administer the sacraments, and you must exercise

discipline within the body.

For if sin is allowed to go unchecked, if sin is allowed to go rampant within the church, it is a

cancer that will kill the church.

So they said any church that does not preach the word, that does not administer the sacraments, and does not

practice discipline within itself is not a true church.

Now again, that's not my words.

That's their words.

You can argue with them, but I want to today in my message as we're talking about the

Spirit Empowered Local Church, I want to talk specifically about the first of

their three marks.

We can talk about sacraments and discipline another day.

Maybe Brother Claude will have me back.

But today we're going to talk about the first mark of a true

church.

And that is the preaching of the word.

I agree with all three of them, but I want to expand on this first one,

because I believe and will argue that if you do not have a church which is proclaiming

the word of God, you do not have a Spirit Empowered Church.

That's the simple thesis of my message.

We can go have lunch, because that's really it.

All of what I'm going to say from now to the end of the sermon is going to build on that.

Idea.

If your church is not proclaiming the word of God, you do not have a Spirit Empowered.

Church.

That's where it starts.

That's where it must start.

So with that, we have chosen, or I've chosen today, the seminal

text for what the word of God is in our Bible.

The Bible defines itself by its own terms.

And so we're going to look today at 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, which we have already read, and

we're going to seek to get an understanding of it, and I'm going to seek to hopefully provide to you some understandings of this that may

go beyond what you've seen before.

Hopefully it doesn't change anything, because I know you've been taught the truth by your pastor, but maybe add some thoughts that we haven't

considered before.

Most importantly, among them, again, is that when we consider the

word of God as the foundation of everything that we do, that is the

beginning of being a Spirit Empowered local church.

So 2 Timothy 3, 16, let's talk a little bit about the text.

This is not a pure exposition, because I'm not preaching verse by verse as I would normally in my church,

but I still want to make sure that we understand the context of the passage and how it's coming to us

and from whom.

The book of 2 Timothy is written, of course, by the Apostle Paul.

The text comes at the end of his last epistle, written to his beloved son in the faith, whose

name was Timothy.

And it comes right after, we call this the literary context, comes right after Paul tells him in

chapter 3, verse 14, he says, continue in what you have learned.

And then it comes right before what he says in chapter 4, verse 2, where he says, preach the word in

season and out of season.

So he's he's telling him, continue in what you have learned.

And then he's saying, preach the word.

And right in between those two admonitions, he has this statement about what the

word of God is.

And he says that the word of God is breathed out, the scripture is breathed out

by God.

Now this comes in the historical context of what we call a pastoral epistle.

Timothy, again, was a pastor, protege, son in the faith of the Apostle Paul.

And Timothy was receiving from Paul these letters to help him understand how the church was supposed

to function, how the church was supposed to be structured and how the church was supposed to operate

in the world.

That's why we call 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus the pastoral epistles, because they are written

to pastors, for pastors, for the purpose of helping them understand how to structure and

minister within the local church.

And again, this passage stands out, chapter 3, verse 16

and 17 stands out as a key text in regard to the foundation

for the local church.

And this text has come down through the ages to become one of the most important passages for teaching

a doctrine, and the doctrine is called the doctrine of inspiration.

You've all heard of the doctrine of inspiration?

The doctrine of inspiration is that God's word, the scriptures are God's word, they come

from Him, and it actually comes from the primary word in this text, which is the word

theanoustos, and it's a combination of words, the combination of the word

theos, which means God, and panuma, which means breath or spirit.

And so the word combined, and it's only used once in the Bible, it's one of those, it's called a hapax legamina, I

mean, it's the only time it's ever used.

And so that word has to be interpreted according to how it's being used in context,

because you can't go to other places and see it used somewhere else and kind of find out how it was used.

It's only used once, and I'm of the opinion, I think Paul invented it,

Paul liked to make up words.

And I think Paul took the word God, and he took the word panuma, which you know that word,

because you use it in English, we use the word pneumatic, you ever wonder why pneumatic starts with a P,

but you don't say pneumatic?

Well, the reason why is because it comes from Greek.

Pneumatic means air driven, like a pneumatic tool or a pneumatic cylinder.

So air is where we get the word, or air is what pneumatic means.

And so when it says theopneustos, you hear some guys say

theopneustos, they'll add the P, pop that P, they'll say theopneustos, and

it simply means that it was breathed out by.

God.

And so the ESV, I think, translates it very well.

It says all scripture is breathed out by God.

It's literally what the text is saying.

And if you're using a King James Bible, the King James Bible says all scripture is given by inspiration of

God.

And that actually comes out of the Latin, the Latin word inspire is

where the King James translators get that English word and pull it into the English and use that word.

And essentially what we find there is we find the idea of the source of it.

The source of scripture is that it is from God.

The source of scripture is that it is from the mouth of God.

I use this illustration with my church sometimes.

I say, you know, people will talk about the word of God and they'll say, well, this is not God speaking.

This is just words on a page.

I want to hear God speak.

And I say, well, if I get up in the morning and my kids are still asleep and I'm heading out for the day and I write

a note to my daughter and I say, hey, here's what you need to do for the day.

And I leave that note next to her bedside and I go on to work.

When she wakes up and she reads that letter, she's reading my word.

And if she chooses to disobey that letter or disregard that letter, guess who she's disregarding and disobeying?

She's disregarding me because I wrote that.

And people will argue, well, well, well, God didn't write this.

Peter wrote this and God didn't write this.

Paul wrote this.

Yeah, but if we go over to Peter's writings, he says, holy men of God spoke as they were carried along.

By the Holy Spirit, you see, inspiration, the doctrine of

inspiration is the doctrine that says the Holy Spirit of God is the author of

this book.

That's what we're saying.

The Holy Spirit of God is the one who gave us this book.

And so when we talk about the scriptures, it is not inappropriate to say this is the

word of God, even though I might say Paul wrote this or Timothy wrote this or not Timothy, but Peter wrote this

or whomever.

I'm saying those men were used by God as the mediums of that

particular writing.

But God himself is the one who gave us what he wanted us to have.

And let me back up a second, because I said mediums, that sounds kind of too spiritual.

They were the instruments.

I don't want you to think any kind of like automatic reading, some kind of Indiana Jones type stuff.

That ain't what happened.

And it's interesting and I don't want to get too far away because I do got somewhere I'm going.

But the doctrine of inspiration, I could spend all day just talking about it because we we have such an

interesting reality that when you read Paul's writings, you know it's Paul.

When you read Mark, you know it's Mark.

When you read Matthew, you know it's Matthew, because God didn't divorce these men from their

individual styles, neither from their individual use of vocabulary.

Paul has a very unique vocabulary as opposed to Luke, who had a different vocabulary.

And we're able to see the way that these words are used.

Paul makes up words, like I said before, we see all kinds of stuff in the scripture that's unique to these men.

But.

God is the superintendent of this word, that's a word I years ago, I started using

that because when people say, what do you mean when you say this is God's word, I say God superintended this word,

God ensured that this word was his word and not merely the words of men.

And so with that being said.

I want to now make three points from this text regarding a spirit

empowered church.

Now that we know what this text, where it is in the text, what it's talking about, what the focus of it is, I now want to

draw out three specific points from this text regarding a spirit empowered church.

I'll give them to you now.

I know some of you may be taking notes.

If you are, I'll give them to you and then we'll go back and walk through them.

A spirit empowered church, number one, submits to the authority of God's word.

Number two, a spirit empowered church ordains biblically competent men.

You might think that one's a departure, but it ain't, I'm going to show you why.

Number three, a biblically functioning, I'm sorry, a spirit empowered church equips the saints

for the work of ministry.

That's what a spirit empowered church looks like.

It submits to the authority of God's word, it ordains biblically competent men, and it

equips the saints for the work of ministry.

So now let's look at each one of those as we unpack it out of the text.

Number one, it submits to the authority of God's word.

When Paul calls scripture Theanoustos, he is calling the church to submission

to that Theanoustos word.

He is calling us to not only believe it, but to do what it says.

Because this is God's word, there can be no higher authority.

Put that in your mind for just a moment.

Because remember I mentioned earlier about all these groups that call themselves the.

True church.

One of the big issues when you conversate with someone from a Roman Catholic background or you have a

conversation with an Eastern Orthodox person or whatever, it will always fall to the question

of authority.

The reformers said sola scriptura, which was Latin

for the scripture alone, is the sole infallible rule for faith

and practice in the church.

It's the only infallible rule.

There are other traditions and there are history and we can study all that.

But there is nothing that is on par with the word of God.

Nothing can compare to the word of God in authority and nothing stands beside it

in way of power and might and truth in the church.

No tradition, no person, no pope, no priest, no pastor stands beside

the word of God.

Every single one of us are under the word of God and the word of God is the authority.

A church which does not submit to God's word is a church that does not submit to God.

And when we place our traditions beside the word of God or heaven forbid,

above the word of God, we have done the very thing that Jesus condemned the Pharisees

for when he says you take your traditions and you teach them as doctrine.

A spirit empowered church cannot be a church which disregards the word of God.

It cannot be a church which puts other things on par with the word of God.

Years ago, I wrote a book and the book was entitled The

Biblically Functioning Church.

In fact, one of my former elders is here with us today.

Brother Byron is here.

I'm thankful him and his family came and he served with me when we went through a very difficult time at our church.

And it was out of that that I preached a series of messages on what elders do and what deacons

do and how the church is supposed to function, how the word of God is supposed to operate as the authority in the church and how Christ leads his church through

the word of God.

And those sermons ultimately became the book.

But the reason why I bring it up today is because that term, it became part of the DNA.

Of our church.

Biblically Functioning Church, it ain't pretty, it ain't a fancy

phrase, it ain't nine marks to a healthy church.

That was much better as far as titles go.

But what it did was it identified what we wanted to be as a church.

We wanted to be a church that functioned in one way, according to the Bible.

We wanted to be a church which was a biblically functioning church.

The spirit of God is the author of scripture.

Therefore, we wanted to be a spirit empowered church by being a biblically functioning church.

We wanted the scripture to be the primary voice within the church that everything else had to

be compared to.

We wanted the scripture to be the standard that everything had to be standardized against the norm of

norms, as the reformers would say.

They said there is no norm greater than the scripture.

It's the norm of norms against which everything else is normed.

That's a weird sounding phrase, but basically it means it's the standard of standards.

And every other thing that we do must be standardized against it.

It's the rule.

It's the canon.

That's what the word canon means, a standard.

It is the standard.

And you might think to yourself, and I think sometimes we do naively think,

that there are churches out there or that there are no churches out there that disregard the Bible.

May I tell you there are.

There are churches out there that outright disregard the Bible.

In fact, in 2nd Timothy chapter 4, Paul tells

Timothy that's going to happen.

If you just look over just for a moment into chapter 4, he says in verse 3, for the time

is coming when people will not endure sound teaching,

but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own

passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

Beloved, doesn't that sound like Paul had a vision of 2024 church?

That he could look into the Internet today and look into the televisions and radios today and see

exactly what we see, people who will not endure sound teaching.

Brother Claude, after each of the messages, that sound doctrine.

Well, you can't say that in every church, could you?

You might have to say, I got to go.

And what's sad is it don't normally come all at once.

Most churches don't go crazy overnight.

It takes a steady decline.

And you know what's funny is if you go back and read Charles Spurgeon, you'll know

in his writings, he was talking at that time about the downgrade controversy.

They were seeing the downgrade 200 years ago in the churches.

Well, that downgrade continued.

Every major Protestant denomination has

within it churches that absolutely disregard the Bible, don't believe it, don't apply it,

mistreat it, misuse it, mishandle it.

And we know it because I mean, we got some great

Presbyterian brothers.

Brother Dan was here yesterday, preached the word of God powerfully.

But he ain't part of PCUSA.

More letters you get, more trouble you get.

No, I'm just kidding.

No, it's the PCUSA has gone a different direction.

And, you know, you look at the United Methodist Church and all the things that are happening there.

And again, I'm not up here trying to bully, pulpit nobody or beat nobody up.

But but, you know, part of how I've met a lot of people is I make I make little videos where I make fun of denominations.

Most of what I say ain't too far off.

In fact, some of it's me pulling back a little because I can't even talk.

Some of the crazy stuff that these people do, they disregard the word of God.

And when the Bible is disregarded, let me tell you two things that happen.

When the Bible is disregarded, miracles become myths and standards become suggestions.

Miracles become myths and standards become suggestions.

Let me give you an example of what I mean by that.

John Dominic Crossom is probably one of the most famous liberal teachers of

biblical history and theology in the world today.

John Dominic Crossom teaches at churches all across our land and seminaries and other places like that.

And if you ask John Dominic Crossom what happened to Jesus when he died on the cross, he will say he was buried in a shallow tomb.

His bones were dug up by dogs and he was eaten by dogs.

Now, this is a man who is brought into seminaries to teach.

He is brought into churches to teach.

There was a church in my town that had him.

I got the invitation to come.

I didn't go.

I actually wanted to go at a whole bag of tomatoes.

No, I just his level of what's known as

higher criticism, higher criticism is where they will take the Bible and they will look at it from the

purview of the anti supernatural worldview that they have.

And they will say, well, this couldn't have happened because these things, the miracles don't really happen.

So there was really no parting of the Red Sea.

Miracles don't really happen.

There wasn't really the feeding of the five thousand.

And this is why I say what happens is miracles become myths.

You get online, you listen to these teachers who are talking about all the social goodness and woke ism and all

that nonsense.

You'll hear them proclaim those things.

But then when they get around to Jesus feeding the five thousand, that's not about a miracle of Jesus multiplying bread and fish.

What that is, was that was a socialist miracle.

Jesus taught the ones who had into serving the ones who had not.

And the great miracle of the feeding of the five thousand is the miracle of socialism.

Socialism ain't no miracle, y 'all.

Sorry, I'm getting a little now.

The reality of it is there are churches which disregard the word of God and they do

so boldly.

Beloved, a spirit empowered church will submit to God's word, start to finish.

That ain't meaning we can't have disagreements.

We got men in this room who disagree on the millennium.

We got men in this room who disagree maybe on the mode and candidate of baptism and things like that.

But what it does say is when we come around the word of God, we all agree on one thing.

This is God's word.

I am imperfect in my interpretation, but it is not imperfect in what it says.

It is perfect in every word.

And so it begins with a submission to the word of God, and I say with Martin Luther, if you got a

position that differs from nine, you bring me the scripture in plain reason.

As he says, if I can be convinced by scripture in plain reason and not by princes and popes who have often contradicted themselves,

my heart is captive to the what?

The word of God.

My conscience is captive to the word of God.

That's what the man of God must be.

He must be a man whose heart is his conscience is captive to the word of God.

So and that's again the spiritually the spirit empowered church is a church which

submits to the authority of God's word.

Number two, the spirit empowered church ordains biblically competent men.

Now, this is going to flow all together.

It all comes out together because it really is just flowing right out of the same idea because you might

think that's a departure, but it's not.

Notice in this text, when we look at Second Timothy, notice in this text what the scripture is able to

do.

It says all scripture is breathed out by God and it is profitable for four things.

It's profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction

and for training in righteousness.

The word of God is a powerful tool.

In fact, it says in Hebrews that it is sharper than any two edged sword.

So because of what it is, it must be handled correctly.

It must be handled competently.

In fact, just for a moment, since you're in Second Timothy, turn over to chapter two.

Notice what it says in verse 15.

Now, if you have a King James Bible, I actually prefer the King James use of the word study here.

But in the ESV, it says, do your best.

The idea is the same, but I just because I'm a teacher, I like the word study because I tell my teacher, I tell my students they

got to study and here it is.

But what does it say?

It says, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,

rightly dividing the word of truth.

Beloved, if the word can be rightly divided, it can be wrongly divided.

If the word can be handled properly, it can be mishandled.

And the word of God mishandled is more dangerous than the firearm than a firearm in the hand of any psycho.

Because what man can do to the flesh is not to be compared to what can be done to the

soul by a man who mishandles the word of God.

And therefore, when we consider the man of God, the man of

God must be a biblical man.

The man of God must be a word of God man, because if he is not, he will not be complete and

equipped for every good work.

That word complete the word hearty is there means qualified.

It means competent.

And how is a man made competent?

He's made competent by the word of God.

In fact, you don't have to turn there, but if you look at the qualifications in First Timothy, chapter three.

And you look at the qualifications for what it means to be an elder in God's church and the word elder and the word pastor

and the word bishop all come from the same idea, they're different words, but they they all have the same office in

mind.

And that is the office of the man who stands behind the pulpit and preaches the word of God is the office of leader in the church.

Our church has three pastors, three men who share that office together.

We are all elders.

I'm the primary preaching elder, but we all share the role of pastor together and we all have the same title with Pastor

Keith, Pastor Mike, Pastor Andy.

But if you look at the qualifications and certainly there are moral qualifications, the moral qualification of being the husband of

one wife, moral qualification, not being a drunkard, not being a violent man, not being an

abusive man, all those things are there.

But there's one qualification that sits under the office of elder that does not sit under the office of

deacon or any other place in the church.

And it is this qualification.

He must be apt to teach.

The man who qualifies to be God's man, standing behind God's pulpit, preaching God's word is

a man who must be gifted to teach and preach that word.

So what that means.

Is this not a position for every person?

And that does not elevate one or put one in a position of saying I'm greater than you, Paul, Paul destroys that in

in first Corinthians, chapter 12, when he says the hand can't say the foot, I have no need of you, that I can't say the year I have no need

of you.

No one can look at another and say because I'm gifted differently than you, that makes me more valuable in God's church than you.

That's not the way it works.

But what it does say is that God has set aside certain men.

And by the way, it's men.

Say amen, it's man, because here's the thing, the pulpits in this land are filled with unqualified

men and unqualifiable women,

unqualified men don't need to be in the pulpit and no woman needs to be in the pulpit.

You get mad and you talk to Claude later, but but the reality is this,

the reality is this, when we see this text, it tells us in first Timothy three, he must be apt to teach.

He must have that ability, must have that ordained of God competency.

And we live in a land, as I said, of men who are unqualified, and I won't say this, it has nothing to

do with their outfits or their haircuts, even if they're wearing big pink sweaters and tight pants

might look foolish, but I don't make them unqualified.

What makes them unqualified is how they handle the word of God.

That's what matters most.

You can see a man in an Armani suit who's spitting out nonsense.

I did last night, I just for the for the sake of knowing I was preaching this morning, I said, you know, I wonder what kind of crazy is going on today.

There's a pastor, I just pulled up social media, just look, there's a pastor charges five

hundred and fifty dollars for a one on one phone call.

That's his that's his counseling fee.

Five hundred fifty dollars for a one on one phone call

out in California.

Bethel Church is charging six thousand dollars per person for a prophetic two day

conference.

You want to come learn how to prophesy six thousand dollars, two days.

And you'll be anointed a prophet.

First of all, that's just a lie.

God is the one who gives gifts, particularly in regard to that.

But think about what is happening around our land.

Think about how that the word of God is being mishandled, mistreated and the people of God being

abused.

And as goes the pulpit, so goes the pew.

As goes the pulpit, so goes the pew.

It will flow out and it does flow out when you have

unqualified men preaching the word of God.

I have a hard time believing you have a spirit empowered church because the word of God does not have its way in that church.

The word of God is not being preached in that church, and in fact, the word of God is being criminally mishandled

in that church.

Years ago, Dr. James White wrote a book called Pulpit Crimes.

It is a good book, Pulpit Crimes was all about what was happening in the vicinity of this sacred

desk and the crimes that were flowing forth from here.

And beloved, you do not have a spirit empowered church.

If you have a church where the word of God is being mishandled, the people of God are being abused and criminal acts

are being done behind the pulpit.

And it is criminal, it's absolutely criminal.

If the man of God is not rightly handling the word of God, it will

quench the spirit of God.

So the spirit empowered local church, number one, it submits to the authority of God's word.

Number two, it ordains biblically competent men so that the man of God will be competent.

He will be complete.

He will be he will be the one who is equipped.

But then out of that flows a third thing, the spirit

empowered local church equips the.

Saints.

For the work of ministry.

And this honestly, I will tell you the truth, this was the whole sermon.

I rewrote the sermon on the way here, but I originally was going to preach just this.

So we got another hour to go.

No, originally I was going to preach.

First Corinthians 12, four through seven, which ends with this passage, we're fixing to look at.

But I just because this whole thing could be really because everything I've set up into this point

really is introduction, because if you have a church submitted to God's word and you have a man who's preaching

God's word or men who are preaching God's word, then what flows out of that is the spirit empowerment of the church, which

is the people of God doing the work of ministry within the body as they're supposed

to.

Because here's the problem, ministry has become in so many churches what is

viewed.

Rather than what is done.

We watch the pastor minister, we watch the worship team minister, we watch the people minister rather than

we are the ministers, you are the ministers.

And so what does a spirit empowered church look like?

It looks like a church that is operating within its giftedness to minister one to another, the

word of God within itself.

I'll give you some thoughts on this as we consider this, because it says

in the text that we're in, it says that the word, the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

The man of God preaches the word of God and he equips the saints of God for the ministry.

Turn in your Bibles to Ephesians, chapter four, everything I just said is in this

passage that I said, the man of God proclaims the word of God to the people of God, and through that they minister to one another.

So look what this text says, Ephesians, chapter four, verses 11 to 13.

And he mentions a couple of different offices here, a couple of different positions here.

He talks about apostles and all those things.

We're not going to get into the meanings of those because we just don't have time today.

But ultimately what he's saying is the shepherds, if we can just simplify it and say the shepherds, he

says, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists and the shepherds and the teachers.

To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the

body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature

manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

What did he say there?

He said that these offices, these roles, this shepherding duty is for the purpose of

equipping the people of God for the ministry of the church.

In so many churches, ministry is seen as that which is done by

someone else rather than that which is done within the body.

A spirit empowered local church is a church where the people of God

are not observing ministry, but doing ministry.

So with that in mind, I just want you to consider this.

If you have your Bibles open, I know you do.

Just go with me very quickly to first Corinthians.

And I want you to see something here in first Corinthians, chapter 12, we

see verse four, and I know some of the brothers already mentioned this text, but I want to point out something very specific.

Beginning of verse four, it says now there are varieties of gifts.

But the same spirit, there are varieties of service, but the same Lord,

and there are varieties of activities.

But it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

Verse seven to each is given the manifestation of the

spirit.

For the common good.

Here's here's what happens in a spirit empowered local church.

God will save you by a miracle of his grace.

He will then.

Put within you a motivation to minister in

his body.

We call that a spiritual gift.

And I've had I and this may sound weird.

But that's what I call spiritual gifts.

I call them motivations because you know what?

I've been able to talk publicly my whole life.

I ain't never been in a place where I didn't feel like I could get up and stand in front of people and talk.

I was a magician, a professional magician at the age of 16.

I was in plays and all these different things, standing up, talking to people.

I ain't never been something I had trouble with.

But.

The desire to proclaim God's truth did not come until I got saved.

The motivation to preach the word of God was not in my heart before God saved my

soul.

So that's why I say a spiritual gift is my it's what motivates you.

If you look at first Corinthians 12 and you look at Romans 12 and you compare, you'll see some gifts there and you can see them as sort

of like Paul's, like seminal motivations, whether you're motivated to prophesize.

Brother Claude's been teaching on or you're motivated in your giving or mercy.

And we see seven of them in Romans 12.

And I'm not sure how many there are in first Corinthians 12.

But there's you can look at those lists and say, how has God motivated me?

And that motivation becomes a ministry.

So my motivation to preach God's word became the ministry of the pulpit.

Somebody else might have that motivation, but it might become a different ministry.

It might become a podcasting ministry or something else, something else where God is ministering his word.

But here's what happens when God's word.

When God's spirit, rather, is working through that motivation and becoming a ministry,

what you are seeing in the church is you're seeing a manifestation of the spirit of God.

I want to read to you.

This is from Fred Zaspel.

Fred Zaspel is an author and seminary professor.

And this is what he says about first Corinthians 12, verse seven.

He says, what is being manifested?

What is being made visible?

It is the Holy Spirit himself.

When you are operating in your giftedness, when you are operating according to the gift that God

has given you within the body and you're being equipped to do so and given opportunities to do so, and that ministry is

happening within the body, the spirit himself is being seen in you.

And therefore, Paul says to each one is given a manifestation of the spirit.

For the common good.

Beloved, how do you know you're in a spirit -empowered local church?

The church is submitted to the word of God.

The church is being led and preached to and served by biblically competent

men.

And those men are equipping you for the ministry within the body.

That's a spirit -empowered local church.

And praise God that you guys have one right here.

And praise God for all of them in our land.

And may God continue to build them and flourish them as he sees fit.

Let's pray.

Father, I thank you for your word.

I thank you for your truth.

And I thank you that we have the opportunity to be reminded of that truth here today.

I pray, oh God, that every man in this room, every woman in this room, every child in this room will be submitted to

the word of God.

Particularly, first and foremost, where it says to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

If there are men and women here who have not submitted to that, Lord, I pray that you would open their

hearts.

Give them the gift of faith.

Give them repentance, Lord, which leads to faith in life.

And Lord, do what only you can do.

Change the heart of the sinner and make them your own.

And Lord, for the believers here, I pray they've been encouraged that they're in a church that believes and submits to the word of God, ordains biblically

competent men and seeks to equip them for the work of ministry.

And I pray every believer here would recognize what motivates them within the body of Christ.

And they would pursue that motivation as a ministry.

And they would see the spirit work in their life.

And I pray this in Jesus name and for his sake.

Amen.