Ephesians 4 (part 1)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes, as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Certainly every Christian wants to obey the

Lord Jesus, they'd like to live a holy life, but is it possible?

The question would be, why should we even obey? Sadly, we live in a transactional world.

If you do this, I will do that. And it sneaks into our life before our triune

God. If I do this, God will love me more. If I read my

Bible, God will be happy with me. If I obey, if I have a ministry, if I pray, if I'm a good

Christian, God will keep loving me. Is that the right way to think? Jerry Bridges said, to the degree that we live with an abiding sense of His love for us in Christ, to that degree we will love

God with all our heart and soul and mind. You see, for the Christian, we don't relate to God transactionally.

If we do this, God will do that. We relate to Him a different way, and we'll find out that way today.

Turn your Bibles, please, to Ephesians chapter 4. A great New Testament epistle or letter,

Ephesians chapter 4. We are saved by grace and grace alone, and we live by grace and by grace alone.

Paul will not let us forget that. We certainly have an action responding to God, but it's not a transaction.

It's not, if God does this, if I do this, God will do that. It's what has God done, and how must

I respond? We come to the book of Ephesians, and as you know, we've been going through it half a chapter a week, and so we are up to chapter 4.

We're going to cover today chapter 4, verses 1 through 16. I don't know how we'll do it, but there's no football games on.

I have all day. It's the Lord's day. I try to preach, by the way, around 45, 48 minutes.

Something like that. In the old days, you thought you were really cool if you could preach 60 minutes, 80 minutes, something like that, but I think right about 45, 50 minutes, we can give you at least an overview of this passage so that you say, you know what,

I understand it better. The next time I read it, I think I can grasp it better, and I maybe want to study a little bit more because I wish

Mike would have talked a little bit more about that particular passage. Today we're going to talk about the response to God's sanctifying work.

Technically speaking, God alone is the sanctifier. We don't sanctify ourselves. We don't co -sanctify, but God sanctifies by grace, supernaturally, sovereignly, and we respond.

That's the action. The direction is going, God is sanctifying us, teaching us to say no to sin, teaching us to say yes to righteousness, and then we respond, and we're coming to that hinge point in Ephesians where I think for 56 verses, there hasn't been any commands except for one, and now what does

God require from us as a response to his great triune love, and you see it in chapter 4 verse 1,

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.

That's one of those great therefores that you see in lots of places in the Bible, especially in Romans and Ephesians.

Remember chapter 1? Can you imagine? God in eternity past chose you.

He didn't have to choose you, but he chose you. Can you believe that, Christian? That's amazing. He actually sent his son, the sinless one, to go die for you.

The death that we should have died, Jesus died for you. To make sure that you couldn't mess it up, he gives you the spirit of God to keep you to the day of your salvation.

And then all of a sudden, Paul responds with, this has to be grace.

It has to be with kindness. It has to be with love. It has to be with a sovereign initiative.

And since God has done all that for you, the transaction isn't God, I think I'll do this so you keep loving me.

No, God has loved you. How do we respond? There is a response to grace.

It's motivated by grace, yes, but there is a response. And here we have really the missing link.

We have doctrine in the first three chapters, and now we have duty, right? You've heard this before.

There's a creed, what we believe, now there's conduct. There's a, let's see,

I have to throw in Latin every once in a while. There's a credenda, what we believe, and then an agenda, what we do.

And now we're coming to that response to the great grace of God. Truth has consequences.

And one of the great things about doing this two sermons, a chapter, is we're not going to forget about who the

Lord is, so we don't think Christianity is simply law. Simply conduct, what we have to do, chapter four, don't lie, tell the truth, work hard, don't steal, don't be bitter, forgive.

Those are true, but that's not the essence of Christianity. The essence of Christianity is Christ Jesus himself, and we want to respond with obedience.

Remember the song? Here would be a good description of Ephesians one to three, and then four to six.

This lyric, love so amazing, so divine, that's Ephesians one, two, and three, demands my soul, do you guys know hymns?

My soul, my life, my all. If God has done this, how do

I respond? I'm so guilty, I've been so graced, I want to respond with gratitude, and thanksgiving, and obedience.

One man wrote, many how -to books are published for Christians today. Christians rightly want to know how to honor

God with their lives. Many times, however, these how -to books for the Christian life fail to appreciate that how we live the

Christian life flows out of how we think about Jesus Christ, and the great salvation he has won by his life, death, and resurrection.

And when Ian Hamilton wrote that in the last ten years, it was nothing new, because this is the doctrine of scripture.

So for our outline today in Ephesians four, one to sixteen, let me give you three questions designed to motivate you to respond to God's great grace with thankfulness, and gratitude, and obedience.

Three questions. I'll give you the three questions up front. Since God has called you by grace, how should you respond?

Number two, since God has united the church at his own expense, how should you respond?

And question three, since God has gifted the church and equipped it, how should you respond?

Three reminders in the form of questions. So let's go to number one, the first question found in verses one and two.

Since God called you, dear Christian, by grace and love, first three chapters, how should you respond?

Now let's take a look at verse one to set the context and set the table. I therefore, Ephesians four, one, a prisoner for the

Lord, probably in Rome, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

The first thing Paul says here in chapter four, in this kind of hinge going from doctrine to duty is, and I've done this many times and you're probably tired of me doing it, but if there are scales here that you would weigh things on, chapters one, two, and three, there's a lot of heavy things there, wonderful things, gravitas, doctrine, glory of God, the heavy weight of the glory of God is on this side of the scale.

And now by the Spirit's power, we begin to live out the Christian life and our desire is to have our doctrine match up to our duty.

It will never be true perfectly until glory, but it's our desire to balance out the scale of our lives by the

Spirit's power. He's urging you to go past doctrine. It's not enough to just think rightly about the triune

God. It is mandatory, but there's something more. You can know all about the Lord and then just know all about the

Lord. As a matter of fact, did you know in Ephesians, I think there were 20 times the word

Lord used in verses in chapters four, five, and six, and only six times it's used in the first three chapters.

In other words, you think about Christ when it comes to doctrine in Paul's thinking here and Lord when it comes to ethics, if Jesus is your

Lord, then you want to respond with obedience. It's certainly not sheer brute force or willpower only.

He wants you to conduct yourselves, Philippians 1, in a manner worthy of the gospel. You ever see somebody that doesn't know how to match their clothes?

They kind of have the color clash. Maybe some of you are here today or maybe I'm here today. Remember back in the old days, you had granimals.

Remember a granimal? I mean, if a mom didn't know how to match an infant's top and bottom, they could look at the granimal.

And it saw this animal and you mix the two animals together and it worked. I thought if a mom doesn't know how to match a kid's clothes,

I don't know what that's going to say about her husband, but that's another story. Colors that clash,

I mean, you can't wear that. You can't wear certain things like that and it's almost like for a Christian, what he wears or what she wears in terms of gospel obedience, it clashes when it doesn't flow out of grace and respond to what the

Lord has done. Did you notice in chapter 4, how many times do you see the word call or called in verse 1?

Of the calling to which you've been called. Verse 4, that belongs to your call.

Here's the point. God calls people to believe. We would call that a general call.

If you're not a believer here today, here's a general call. I give you a sincere offer from God himself, that if you'll simply trust in the

Lord Jesus Christ, the risen Savior, to believe that He died for your sins and was raised from the dead, you shall be saved.

Now some people say no to that call, but there's another kind of call, what Paul is talking about here. It's called the effectual call, the internal call.

When the Spirit of God takes the words from a preacher and says you must believe and then makes you alive, you believe.

You were called. This is not like being a pastor is my calling. This is somebody preached the word to me and the

Spirit of God regenerated me through that preaching and He called me. That's what

He's talking about here. And the calling is God's work and God's alone. This gracious act of God that He changes powerfully from the inside.

So if God, here's the point. If God so called you, dear Christian, and changed you and did everything for you, how do you respond?

Answer, pridefully. Answer, I got it going on.

Answer, I'm better than you. No, no, if we are the recipients of salvation, the divine call, that puts us all on the same playing field and how do we respond?

That's question number one. How do we respond, verse two? With all humility. Doesn't that make sense?

This is kind of, any person who had any thinking would say if I just contribute sin, if I just am supposed to go to hell and God calls me and quickens me and makes me alive,

I think I should be the most humble person on the planet. Now you're thinking rightly. With all humility.

Lowliness. I mean the world is self -esteem, self -aggregation, forget it, self -assertion.

I mean Augustine when he was asked, Augustine when asked what's the chief Christian grace he said, humilitas, humilitas, humilitas.

If God so did all the saving, God alone monergistically, it was done to us and how do we respond?

With humility. Stott says, pride lurks behind all discord, while the greatest single secret of concord is humility.

One man said, humility is something we should constantly pray for, yet never thank God that we have. I don't mind being treated like a servant, says humility.

I don't have to thrive off of other people's praise, says humility. I don't have to be recognized for my behind the scenes ministry, says humility.

There's no ministry below me, says humility. I'm content with the gifts God has given me, says humility.

George Washington Carver was a scientist, remember what he was famous for studying? A peanut, yes.

Here's what he said in his biography. When I was young, I said to God, God, tell me the mystery of the universe.

God didn't say anything out loud, but this is how he recounts it. God said, that knowledge is reserved for me alone.

So I, George Washington Carver said, God, please tell me the mystery of the peanut. Then God said, well,

George, that's more nearly your size. No wonder

Paul writes elsewhere, do nothing from selfish or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, let each one of you regard one another as more important than himself.

Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

Have this attitude in yourselves, which is also in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant.

Being born in the likeness of man and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient.

Well, not only that, if God did all the calling, how do we respond? Not with just humility, but what does Paul say in gentleness?

Not harshness or rudeness. Proverbs 16 says, he who is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he who rules his spirit than he who captures a city.

This harsh kind of bravado is opposite of the Lord Jesus, who was gentle and lowly, who had self -control.

Well, not only that, Paul goes on, God did everything for us, how do we respond?

With humility and gentleness and also, what, patience. Long -tempered takes a long time.

It should take a long time for somebody to rile you up and make you want to pay back and fight.

We know this, dear Christians, do we not? That we are prone very much so to disappoint one another, sin against one another, fail each other.

Think about that in marriage, you think about that in body life. And so he says, I just want you to put up with difficult people.

Remember, God saved you, God did all the work, what do you get? How do you respond? Love, 1

Corinthians 15, does not take into an account a wrong suffered. How long is your list of your spouse's complaints?

Well, understanding doctrine, we should just say, you know, that's not how we should act. You see what he says in verse 2?

God did all the calling, God did all the saving, bearing with one another in love.

I mean, all this doctrine about unconditional election and redemption and forgiveness and sealing and bringing the church together by the blood of Christ, God sending

Paul the apostle to tell us the mysteries of the gospel and to preach to the Gentiles. How should that make us respond?

I mean, as I say these things about humility, don't you think of Jesus? I do. Gentleness, I think of the

Lord Jesus, bearing with one another in love, that's how we're to respond. You know the old slogan, to dwell above with saints we love, oh, that will be glory.

But to live below with saints we know, well, that's another story. In a church like this, a growing church, different sizes and different sizes of people.

No, that's not what I meant. That's not what I was saying. But that's true. Different backgrounds.

I mean, what holds us together? Only the Lord Jesus. And so when you see Him, then some of the differences and issues and sins against one another, we just think, okay,

I bear with that. I was loved with undeserved love.

I will love them back over and over and over. We're a family, in other words. Jesus said, by this all will know they're my disciples if you have love for one another.

So with all doctrine, with all holy living, God is sanctifying us and He's the one moving and we respond.

So if God calls, He calls, He calls three times, well, then how do we respond? Certainly with not some kind of bravado, but with Christlike response.

Not only that, verses three through six, question two, since God has unified the church, his own expense, how should you respond?

Verses three, four, five, and six. A lot goes into church unity from the triune

God's perspective. The response should be verse three. We should be eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.

This is not our church. If God is concerned about unity, dear Christian, you should be concerned about unity.

Not church generally, but Bethlehem Bible Church. Since God has brought

Gentiles that are far off and Jews who are close together, made one body broken down, broke down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility, we both have access to God, we should be concerned about church unity.

The unity of the spirit is important, and Jesus prayed for this, and it is true, and then we come along as a response to keep unity as a priority.

Jesus said, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you,

Father, are in me, and I in you, that they may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me.

Look again at the passage. Eager to maintain the unity. That is with diligence. This should be at the top of your list on things.

Okay, what about church? What is going on at church? I need to make sure I put some effort into that.

Somebody has wronged me, and I need to put effort into making sure there is no breach in the body.

Something is going on, and there is a little group over here, a little faction. I do not really want to deal with it, but I must because I have to be eager to do that.

And to show you how important unity is, Paul uses seven objective, unifying facts in verses four, five, and six.

Seven words preceded by the English word, one. Not unity at any price, but look at the things that we all have in common.

Verse four, there is one body, one spirit, one hope, one

Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all. Every Christian here has those in common.

You say, well, you know, we look so different. We are different ages and everything else and backgrounds. Is there a unifying reality?

Yes, we all have these things in common. Should we not be able to get along?

What does he say there first in verse four? One body. This is 1 Corinthians 12 language. Even as the body is one, and yet has many members.

If Christ is the head, we're the body. We should be unified. Not Christ as head and two bodies or three bodies.

Of course, the mouth can't say to the knee, you're done. Or the finger to the ear, that's it. Our relationship is over.

Our eye to the hand, I've had it with you. Every part of the body is essential. And we're part of one body.

I've met people before in my office and they'll say, well, I need some help. Please come in. How can I help you?

And they'll say, I'm a cutter. I mutilate myself. I cut myself. Of course, that is wrong on a number of reasons.

Image bearing and other things, but they have one body. It would be wrong for us to do physically how much more so with Jesus' body.

He goes on. There's another unifying agent for all of us. Everybody at Bethlehem Bible Church. You might be a little more

Arminian or Calvinistic or charismatic or cessationist or complementarian or egalitarian or whatever our differences might be.

You have one body and one spirit. Capital S, Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit that indwells us.

The Holy Spirit that convicts us and encourages us and illuminates the scripture. Talked about in Ephesians 1 .13.

Sealed with Him. In Him with the Holy Spirit of promise. Everything that happens here, the

Spirit of God is doing and working. There's also verse 4. One hope. A decrease of unity is when we're all looking at self.

We're all looking at the news. We're all looking at current events. We're all looking at other people. But when you keep your eyes focused on the hope of the upward prize of the call of Christ Jesus of heaven.

We're all looking the same direction then. We're hopeful of who's going to return. Would today be a good day for the

Lord Jesus to return? I think today would be a good day. If we're looking all around, well, we could be not unified.

But looking with hope. All going the same direction. That's what

He's after. All looking at the same person. 1

John 3. Beloved, we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that when He appears we shall be like Him because we shall see

Him just as He is. And everyone who has had this hope fixed on Him purifies himself just as He is pure.

Verse 5. There's one Lord. What unifies the church? Lots of things do. Here's another one.

One Lord. Christianity is about Christ. One Lord. We no longer say

Caesar is Lord. I am Lord. Other people are Lord. Jesus is

Lord. There's one mediator. The Lord. One risen

Savior. The Lord. And there's also one faith that unifies us. There's one object of faith.

When I say faith, I don't mean faith in general. I don't mean faith in faith. I mean the object of faith.

When I hear things like the just shall live by faith, that's shorthand for the just shall live by faith in the risen

Savior who loved me and gave Himself for me. We all have the same object of faith.

There's objective truth to be believed about that object, the Lord Jesus. The faith delivered once to the saints.

Well, what else unifies us? This is kind of interesting. Baptism?

I thought that was a divider. I mean, are you sprinkled? Are you dunked? Are you splashed?

Are you triple dunked? I remember one time I went to a church in Los Angeles. And they had like this big pool.

And they said, I baptize you in the name of the Father. And they threw the person in. Pulled him out. In the name of the

Son. Threw him in. I thought, I know what's coming next. This same church, by the way, had two offerings.

The general offering. And then the pastor said he had a need. A personal need.

So, he stood down here with a little bucket. And it looked like a little trick or treat orange bucket.

Like a pumpkin. And we were supposed to get up row by row. And go put something from our wallet in that man's little bucket for his own personal problem offering.

I didn't put any money in. What does that have to do with anything?

Nothing, but we're just taking a little breath here. There's a lot of doctrine in life.

And we can't live without doctrine. But doctrine changes you. When you look, just like 1 John 3, at the

Lord Jesus. You're purified. You are changing. You're doing different things. And Paul from the get -go says, listen, you're called.

We respond with humility and forbearance and loving one another. But also, if God is so involved with the unity of the church, that ought to be at the top of our list.

And by the way, we might be Jews and Gentiles, but we have lots in common. Including verse 5, baptism.

Not baptismal regeneration, where somehow you're saved. If you would like to argue, is this your personal baptism?

Because you would all have that, to be in a local church. Or probably what it is, is a spiritual baptism.

Listen to 1 Corinthians 10. For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and passed through the sea.

And all were baptized into Moses in the cloud. United. This is the language of 1

Corinthians 12. For by one spirit, we were all baptized into one body.

This is the language of Galatians 3. For all of you were baptized into Christ, have clothed yourself with Christ.

Without this baptism being placed in the body, it doesn't matter if you're sprinkled, dunked, dumped, a child, an adult.

It doesn't matter. So whether you want to refer this to your own personal baptism, or probably more likely the spirit baptism, we all believe this.

And then number 7, verse 6. The 7th unifying factor is we have one

Father. Right? We're all part of a family. We're all children of the same Father. And one

God and Father of all. And then Paul does this a lot. He just begins to praise.

He speaks of a person of the Trinity, and then he just praises. Who's over all, through all, and in all.

I mean, is there anything more close than a family? There shouldn't be. God has designed it that way.

And then a church family? We all have one Father. We all are children of that Father.

1 Corinthians 8. Yet there is but one God, the Father from whom all things exist.

And so, dear Christian, whether we're Jews or barbarians, circumcised, uncircumcised, free or slaves, church unity should be important.

Factiousness, divisions, groups, cliques. We're part of the body.

Question 3. Well, when you know God calls you, you respond with humility.

You know if God's concerned about church unity, we should be. And then now, verses 7 -16, since God gifted the church and equipped it, how should you respond?

And here's what you're going to see. I should respond with thankfulness. I should respond with ministry. I should respond with service.

Speaking the truth in love. Work. Well, let's start back at verse 7.

Ephesians 4 -7. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

Now, sometimes we use the word grace for forgiveness. You're graced by God and now you're forgiven.

That's true. Sometimes the word grace is used for a spiritual gift to serve other

Christians. That's what this is here. There's a saving grace. We all have the same saving grace because of the

Lord Jesus. But there's a serving grace and we're different. There's a unity to the body, but we have some diversity.

These are called grace gifts. And it's where we get the word charis. Charismatics.

Charismatics, truly, biblically speaking from Ephesians 4 -7, are people that have a spiritual gift.

It's now been used of people that speak in tongues and other things. But here, this is a common word for a spiritual gift.

And you notice what happened? It is given. The spiritual gifts are given.

You, Christian, were given a specific capacity via a spiritual gift to serve

God's people. It's supernatural, it's undeserved, it's for others.

You say, well, I don't even know what it is. Well, you hear phrases like this. We don't decide our spiritual gift, we discover.

We don't request a spiritual gift, we recognize. And doesn't it make sense if Ephesians 1 says,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Wouldn't that mean more than just getting to heaven, but also serving? I mean, doesn't it make sense when the

Bible says, He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How will he not also with him freely give us all things?

If he'd so lathered, so lavished love, wouldn't he give us something to help the church with unity and service?

By the way, if you're a Christian, you have a spiritual gift. See it again in verse 7? To each one. We don't have the haves and have -nots.

To each one. 1 Corinthians 12, to each one. Romans 12, grace given to me to every man among you.

1 Peter chapter 4, each one has received a spiritual gift. As commentator

O 'Brien said, No one misses out on Christ's bounty. Every one of you has a spiritual gift.

We're different, there's diversity, but we're all unified. You should be confident you have at least one spiritual gift.

And you say, well I don't know what it is. Well, maybe you say to yourself, this particular area

I like serving, and I get joy and satisfaction from that. That would be a good litmus test. Other people recognize when

I do certain things, that I, not in my own strength, but I'm good at it. And other people recognize, that's a good way to figure it out.

Just help where there's an opportunity needed. And people will come alongside. Sometimes you think, well,

I have a propensity, naturally, for music, and then it matches the spiritual gift. That happens too.

Here's what I see though sometimes in a church like ours. Sometimes we think, you know what, we have to be at this level of spiritual growth to serve.

I have to have a perfect marriage, and a perfect life, and a perfect this, and a perfect that. Then I'm able to serve.

Who would serve then? Then Moses said to the Lord, Please Lord, I've never been eloquent, neither recently, nor in times past, nor since you have spoken to your servant.

I'm slow of speech, slow of tongue. Who's made man's mouth? Who makes him dumb, or deaf, seeing, or blind?

Is it not I, the Lord? Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to say.

Yes, we're weak vessels, but we have this treasure in earth and vessels that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves.

Jesus, matter of fact, handpicked your gift. That's what verse 7 says according to the measure of Christ Jesus.

Can you imagine perfectly picked out by Jesus? Here's your gift. I mean,

Jesus has all authority to do whatever He wants in heaven and earth and He picks out this perfect gift with the perfect wisdom that He has for His perfect serving in this local church.

With imperfect Kenny Loggins music. 1

Corinthians 12 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually, just as He wills.

He picks it out. Never fall for the trick, well, you know, you want to have the spiritual gift, just pray for it.

Just start speaking in tongues and you'll get it. No, no. I mean, we can develop our spiritual gifts. Kindle afresh,

Paul said to Timothy, the gift of God which is in you. But here we have a triune God, the

Father, the Son, and the Spirit all working together and He gives you a gift. And now we come to the section that I've been waiting for.

Here comes Ephesians 4, 8 and it is awesome.

This Jesus has the right to give you whatever He wants because He is exalted.

Ephesians 4, 8 Therefore it says When He ascended on high, He led a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.

In saying He ascended, what does it mean? But that He also descended into the lower regions, the earth.

He descended as the one who ascended far above all heavens that He might fill all things. And He gave the apostles, prophets, evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers.

Now if you're reading your Bible carefully, you'll realize this is from Psalm 68, right? Psalm 68.

You see a little indentation, maybe capital with the New American Standard. I'll tell you what's happening and then we'll look at it in more detail.

Back in the day in Rome, if you had a great general and he conquered the lands he would go back to Rome and he would tell the senators outside the city

Do you see all these things that I brought from this conquered land? I have conquered generals,

I have conquered people, I have elephants, horses, food, paintings, slaves.

This is what I brought back. I've ransacked this other country and I've conquered them and I think it deserves a celebration.

The senators would say well, does this deserve a triumph or does it not? A procession or does it not?

And if it was great enough and wonderful enough the whole city would be there lined up as you would have these great soldiers of Rome coming back for a triumph with all kinds of people in handcuffs and chains getting ready to be slain over the temple.

What does Jesus do with this same triumphant language? Jesus, the eternal son, adds human nature, assumes human nature and he comes to earth and he conquers through the resurrection and he's coming back with all kinds of slaves and enemies and traitors and rebels and instead of slaying them at the temple of the false gods he regenerates them, equips them and gives them to the church.

That's what's going on here. See, what's going on? What's going on is this great triumph happens and instead of God just obliterating enemies like Paul.

What do you think Jesus did on that road to Damascus with Paul, Saul? He should have just obliterated

Saul, that Christian killer, that Pharisee, that law keeper, that destroyer of grace. And what does

God do to Paul? I'll tell you what he does. When God ascended on high he led a host of captives including

Paul and he gave gifts to men. What kind of gifts? Verse 10? Verse 11? Apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers.

Paul is rescued and redeemed should have been slain up at the temple of the false gods as a sacrifice to these false gods as it were and instead what does

God do? There's no false gods. Jesus was sacrificed for Paul and for every other

Christian and now God gives Paul to the church as a gift.

That's amazing. That's wonderful. The huge parade.

You ever been to a parade? I think the first huge parade I went to well I went to a small one in Iowa town of about 600 and they had,

I don't know, they have things like, you know, motorcycles driving up over cars. They have that one in Santa Cruz too.

They had a couple like local businesses go by in the parade and like the people that sell outhouses they drove by.

I'm like, wow, parade. Now I'm going to get to New England here in a second but I remember then going to the

Lakers parade. Remember there and I think five times we beat the Celtics in the 80s?

Was it four? My kids would say to me, Dad can we cut school today because we want to go see the

Patriots parade. The Red Sox parade. The Bruins parade.

You have any other sports in this town? Victory White Horse All my enemies behind me,

I'm going to go kill them and instead of killing them, I die on their own behalf and I rescue them and I say, by the way, here's

Paul for the church. Verse 8. Don't read too much of this.

It's super easy. When he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.

We know who those gifts are. We know they're people in verse 11. You say what about all this ascension, descension stuff?

It's super simple. In saying he ascended, what does it mean by that? He had also descended into the lower regions of the earth.

Well, I don't want to be flippant but what goes down must come up. Right?

And so you have the Lord Jesus, the eternal son he assumes humanity and then afterwards he's raised from the dead.

He who descended is the one who ascended to where did he ascend? Far above all heavens, he might fill all things.

I think it's pretty simple. It's just a general statement that there's humility in the descent and there's exaltation in the ascent.

That he might fill everything. Jesus said in John 20, I ascend to my father and your father and my

God and your God. Verse 11, what does this conquering king do with his vanquished captives and enemies?

Well, he regenerates them and he gives them to the church. Verses 11 through 16 is one long sentence in the original language.

And why does he give these to the local church? Verse 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry for the building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of faith and the knowledge of the son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the statute of the fullness of Christ.

The gifts are people. Jesus loves his church. He gave himself for her. He'll also equip the church.

And he equips the church through people. This is Old Testament continuity. The same thing happened in the

Old Testament where you needed somebody to work on the tabernacle and he equips people to specially know how to work on the tabernacle.

Chosen people. It's the goodness of God. And what does he give? He gives at the top of the list

Apostles. Now this could be a whole study on its own. Maybe we'll do some breakouts on this one day.

These are some foundational offices at the top of the food chain.

Apostle. Now here's how I like to think of it. You could have Apostle, all caps, that's

Jesus. He's called the Apostle. The sent one. You could have a capital A Apostle the rest small letters.

That's those that have seen the resurrected Jesus. Handpicked by Jesus. The 12 minus Judas plus Matthias then of course

Paul. And then there's a small a Apostle. Just means a sent one. These were foundational.

These men spoke for God. Directly appointed by the Lord Jesus himself. Laying down the foundation to receive

God's word. To declare it. To write it down. One man said there's no Apostles today unless you're more than twice the age of Methuselah.

By the way I've met some Apostles before. They call themselves Apostles. And I thought you know I'm not the smartest guy in the world but I do have a little bit of theological education.

If you were an Apostle I should be able to ask you any question in the Bible and you should give me a good answer. How can

I a lowly minister know less than you the Apostle? There's no Apostles for today.

They would do miracles and signs and wonders as a foundational authentication to Christ's Church.

They had absolute authority. I mean absolute. A unique place forever they had in Revelation 21.

Where would we be without Apostles? Well there was another gift to the church.

Men. People. Prophets. Direct divine revelation would go through them.

They were the channels of the mysteries of God. They did not have the same authority of an Apostle but they spoke when they did speak the word of God similar to the

Apostles. Officially. Sufficiently. Properly. No prophets today.

You say well he was sure prophetic when he preached today. That's a lot different than a prophet. Well there's something else.

The church began to spread. There was something called an evangelist. Now most of the time we think evangelist today is somebody that just likes to preach a lot and evangelize a lot.

That's true but these foundational offices were in fact that. Foundational. It's one thing to do the work of an evangelist.

It's another thing to have this office. Only three times this word, this noun is used. So you can just imagine there's all kinds of like little villages and places.

You need to go send the truth out. There's specially equipped apostolic lieutenants sent out. Evangelist.

Did you know sometimes even during the Great Awakening people weren't called evangelist because they realized this was a specific foundational office that's not for today anymore so they were called exhorters.

Spreading the gospel in new places. And then you think well who's going to shepherd the flock today? If apostles are gone, prophets are gone, evangelists are gone, we already have the word of God.

Nobody needs to tell us what's true and what's false. We have the word of God. Who's going to shepherd the flock now? And what does the passage say?

Pastor teachers. Jesus is the great shepherd. We read that in John chapter 10.

God is the great shepherd. Ezekiel 34. And these pastors and teachers do that very thing.

They shepherd. Got a settled congregation. Unlike an evangelist going all around.

And their purpose was to what? Feed the sheep. To protect the sheep.

To guard the sheep. What does verse 12 say? To equip the saints for the work of ministry for the building up of the body of Christ.

That word equip means you've got a broken fishing net and you've got to mend it. You've got a broken arm and you've got to mend it.

There's something broken in the church the Lord uses these men to do that. Mending nets.

You have an old car and you have a my first car was a 1967 Chevy Nova. And so beat up and you restore the car back to its original condition.

That's the idea here. Jesus didn't come to serve but to be served.

No. He came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. I like this idea.

If my job is to equip you for ministry. You're my ministry. Then this makes sense by James Packer.

It stated first the church name. Second ministers the congregation.

And third assistants to the ministers the name of the pastor. So first you've got the church name.

Who are the ministers? The congregation. Who's the assistant to the minister? Me. I like that.

Elton Trueblood said perhaps the greatest single weakness of contemporary Christian church is that millions of supposed members are not really involved at all in the local church.

And what is worse? They do not think it's strange that they are not. I'm so thankful for the majority of people at Bethlehem Bible Church.

You have a ministry. You want to serve. Trueblood goes on. Most alleged

Christians do not know or do not now understand that loyalty to Christ means sharing personally in his ministry.

And then he said cheap Christianity can usually pull a pretty good attendance on a

Sunday morning. But since God has saved you, called you, elected you, redeemed you, forgave you, what's your local ministry here?

It doesn't have to be within the building. But you are, if you are an inherent or a member of this church, you are to serve.

You are to serve. One man said, you can always get a crowd if you demand very little and put on a show.

The pastors and teachers are equipping you to do the work of the ministry. Paul said,

I commend you to God and the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all who are sanctified.

This building up, this equipping. How long do we do it?

Verse 13. Until, well there is an end date, but it's until, until we all attain the unity of faith and the knowledge of the

Son to a mature man, to the measure of the stature, which belongs to the fullness of Christ. God wants you, the

Father wants you to look like his Son. You say, well positionally I do, that's true, but practically, more and more and more.

Ministers of the word of God, people are changed, you serve, take care of, you equip, and then you grow.

Let me say this, and I can say it for the parent thing tonight, I love babies. I love children. But if they're not growing, something's wrong.

I'm glad I'm not still a baby. You probably are too. Like, well sometimes you act that way.

Being a baby Christian isn't bad, staying a baby Christian is wrong. Verse 14, there's kind of a negative side to this, then we get to the positive.

So that you may no longer be children. What do children do? And what do infants do?

They'll put anything in their mouth. Soldering iron, or a pewter elephant, they don't care.

44 caliber mammal. Who would ever have that?

Tossed to and fro, waves carried about, every wind of doctrine, human cunning by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

It's like they're just at the mercy of everything. Whatever's being sold, oh, Joyce Meyer's being sold, and then it's this person sold, that person sold.

I just look around and go, whatever they're selling, I buy. That's what immature people do. At the mercy of evangelicalism, at the mercy of the wind, blown this way and that way, by people that aren't out for your own good.

What do they do? What do these kind of people do? How do we have to, what do we need to make sure we keep growing in the knowledge of the

Son, and maturing into manhood to the stature and fullness of Christ? Because there are people, look at the end of verse 14, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

These are people that literally talk for Satan. By sleight of hand, it's where we get the word cube, like a dice cube, like a die, because they're going to trick you and swindle you when you walk by.

Professional gamblers, they will manipulate you. You are the mark. So the church comes alongside, and we learn, and we grow, and we don't buy into trickery of men and deceitful scheming.

Pastors have to sometimes say, yes, this is true, and sometimes, Titus 1, contradict those and refute them.

Positively, though, verse 15, speaking the truth in love, literally, truthing in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ.

Truthing in love. There's a lot of bad things we need to avoid, but we truth in love. Falsehoods, our own, our old life, and now we tell the truth.

We tell the truth about the Lord Jesus, about others that we may present every man completing Christ. Colossians chapter 1.

Verse 16, we conclude, from whom the whole body, the body of Christ, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly,

I ask the question, are you working properly? Would you like to work properly? Makes the body grow, see, we need every one, so that it builds itself up in love.

Every pastor should want church growth. This kind. Not the empty pews we don't preach to, the ones that are filled.

When you ask yourself the question, in light of what God has done for me, I never want to say, God, I serve so you'll like me, but since you have loved me,

I want to serve. And that was really the whole thing with Ephesians chapter 4, 1 -16.

If God has effectually called you, well, we respond with humility. If God has so worked on the unity of the church,

I want to make sure I'm eager to maintain that, and since God has gifted the church at the expense of His Son, I want to use my spiritual gifts.

Not because I must use them because God can't live without me, but because I'm told to, because it's good, and it's right, and it's loving for other people.

Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. Thank you for Ephesians chapter 4, 1 -16. I thank you as a pastor that we have people here that are humble and gentle and forbearing with one another.

Would you help us to do better at that? I thank you that we have many people here who want church unity.

No factions and splits and little corners, big ones at least, but if there's a minor click or group or anything like that,

Father, would you just help us to love one another and when people want in to a group, we let them.

And Father, lastly, that we would use our gifts. So many new people here, Father. I pray that you would let them see opportunities to come alongside and serve.

And Father, for those that just want to show up on Sunday and have nothing to do with the body the rest of the week, I pray that you'd convict them by your love and by your grace that they want to respond out of gratitude.

How could we not respond with service and ministry for you after all we've received?

I thank you that we have wonderful people here that love and serve and love to serve.

And I count that as a gift, Father, and help us to excel still more in Jesus' name. Amen. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.