FBC Morning Worship Service

Faith Baptist Church

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May 3, 2021

Sunday morning service from Faith Baptist Church

01:13: Well, good morning. See you on this Lord's Day. I saw someone when they came in and Kyle, his wife is enjoying some balmy weather down south in Florida.
01:25: I thought maybe he had gone too today. He said, no, I get to stay here. So I think there may be some, because of the connection with his wife in Florida and him here, that the
01:37: Lord had mercy on him and sent him some Floridian -like weather. So we're going to bask in it today.
01:43: Hope you're enjoying the weekend and that the Lord has been blessing you this past week.
01:50: Have you seen some answers to prayer? Have you experienced the
01:55: Lord's provision in some way? Have you appreciated his providential working? Have you been challenged by it?
02:02: All of those things are good for us to consider on the Lord's Day, the day he's given us set aside to think on and meditate on the works of our
02:10: Lord. Well, just some announcements before we begin our worship service. One of them in your bulletin today, there is this insert book summary or book review by this book,
02:23: Rejoice and Tremble. Appreciate Tom Knapp writing that for us. It's one of the things
02:28: I asked him to do as a ministries, to do some reviews and maybe once a month, maybe put in a book review.
02:37: These are books that would be available in our library or on the bookshelf and something just to introduce you to some of these titles.
02:45: But in your bulletin this evening, got a completely new and different kind of situation going on, service, ministry, opportunity, however you want to look at it.
02:56: We're beginning this young marriage slash single adult ministry, and launching that this evening at the
03:04: Foreman's House in Dixon. Got the address and everything in the bulletin for you. That group will meet at 5 .30,
03:13: having a light supper time, and also in that time together, there's a devotional
03:21: I've prepared. It's a video devotional. It'll be available on the church website.
03:28: When it goes live, quote unquote, it'll be at six o 'clock. If you had everything set, your browser set at six o 'clock with the church website, you get that little box that shows the video thing saying it's about to begin.
03:46: Six o 'clock is when that will go live. That doesn't mean you can't see it any other time, you actually can.
03:54: So if you're gathering together with somebody and I'm encouraging you to do that, I hope you have someone either where you're going to visit or have someone visiting your place.
04:05: I hope you'll take some time to watch that video. It's really going to dovetail with this morning's message.
04:13: If you can't do it right at six o 'clock, don't worry about it. Go to the website at 6 .30
04:19: or 6 .45 or midnight tonight, whenever is most convenient for you, and you'll be able to watch it anytime after six o 'clock.
04:27: So we'll be doing that this evening. I do hope that this ministry time for the young married and the single adults, as well as everyone else who participates in gathering together this evening in your homes, that this will be an opportunity to really encourage some biblical fellowship.
04:53: And that's one of the things I'll be talking about in that devotional tonight. So what's involved in that biblical fellowship?
05:03: I want to share that with us tonight and encourage that to happen. So that'll happen this evening at 5 .30
05:10: at the Foreman's. Most of you who are able to attend, you've already contacted Chris or them about that.
05:17: If it's a last minute thing that has come up, we'll throw Deb into a tizzy here.
05:23: And see if you say, well, I didn't think I could come, but now I can. Just see her, let her know, and we'll have another chair or two available for you.
05:34: Then I also want to point out that Saturday morning, we'll have a work time at the church. This is church -wide.
05:41: Anybody can come to help out. Weather permitting, we'll have some outdoor projects. And then we'll have some indoor things to finish up, to work on.
05:52: One of the things we're going to be doing for some men or anybody who really wants to get up on a roof is replacing the roofing on the garage, tearing off the shingles and putting on some new steel roofing.
06:08: So if you can help out Saturday morning, be here at 8 o 'clock. We'll have some, you know, light breakfast -type refreshments available through the morning.
06:18: And we'll work until we're done. Hopefully that we'll get done with most of those projects by around noon.
06:25: And then regarding that YMSA, Young Married Single Adult ministry, the next meeting will be on Wednesday night,
06:35: May 19th. And just simply point that out because there's a sign -up sheet on the bulletin board for an evening meal.
06:44: So at 6 o 'clock on that Wednesday night, we'll have a supper available. If you can attend that, please sign up and let us know.
06:52: All right. We've gathered together today to worship the Lord. And part of our worship is going to be to commemorate the
06:58: Lord's table. Those of you who are able and eligible to partake of the
07:04: Lord's table, I hope you picked up one of the little cups when you came in. If not, feel free to slip out during this first hymn and get one of those so you can participate in just a little bit.
07:15: But we'll worship together our Lord and begin with Psalm 92, verses 1 and 2, which says, it is good to give thanks to the
07:23: Lord and to sing praises to your name, O Most High, to declare your lovingkindness in the morning and your faithfulness every night.
07:31: It's good to sing praises to your name. So let's do just that with our opening hymn as Jim comes and leads us.
07:39: Jim. That's on page number 20 in your hymnals, page 20.
07:48: Let's all stand together, please, and sing all three verses together. Praise Him, praise
07:53: Him. Praise Him, Praise Him, Jesus our
08:05: Blessed Redeemer, Savior of the earth, His wonderful love proclaim,
08:12: Hail Him, Hail Him, while shepherds watch
08:31: Him, He carries them all day long. Praise Him, Praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness,
08:41: Praise Him, Praise Him, ever in joyful song.
08:47: Praise Him, Praise Him, Jesus our Blessed Redeemer, For our sins
08:54: He suffered and bled and died, He our rock, our hope of eternal salvation.
09:04: Hail Him, Hail Him, Jesus the Crucified, Sound His praises,
09:12: Jesus who bore our sorrows, Low and bounded, wonderful, deep and strong.
09:21: Praise Him, Praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness, Praise Him, Praise Him, ever in joyful song.
09:33: Praise Him, Praise Him, Jesus our Blessed Redeemer, Hosanna's ring,
09:44: Jesus Savior, reigneth forever and ever. Praise Him, Praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness,
10:11: Praise Him, Praise Him, ever in joyful song.
10:52: Draw us closer to You in our walk, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated.
11:05: Normally at this time we would have a psalm reading, but this morning to prepare our hearts for the
11:11: Lord's table, I want to read in Luke chapter 23, verses 33 to 46.
11:18: I encourage you to follow along in your copy of scripture as I read. Then Jim will come lead us in another hymn, and then we'll share the elements together as we reflect on our
11:31: Lord's work on the cross. Luke chapter 23.
11:37: Begin reading in verse 33. It says, When they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified
11:44: Him and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then Jesus said,
11:50: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. And they divided
11:56: His garments and cast lots. And the people stood looking on, but even the rulers with them sneered, saying,
12:03: He saved others, let Him save Himself, if He is the Christ, the Chosen of God. The soldiers also mocked
12:10: Him, coming and offering Him sour wine and saying, If you are the King of the
12:16: Jews, save yourself. And an inscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, This is the
12:24: King of the Jews. Then one of the criminals who were hanged, blasphemed Him, saying,
12:30: If you are the Christ, save yourself and us. But the other, answering, rebuked
12:35: Him, saying, Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds.
12:44: But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when
12:52: You come into Your kingdom. And Jesus said to him, Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.
13:00: Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two.
13:10: And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, Father, into Your hands
13:16: I commit my spirit. Having said this, He breathed
13:21: His last. Lord, add His blessing to the reading of His word. Jim?
13:31: I take your blue books, your song books. It's My Jesus Fair, number 44, in the blue supplements.
13:43: I'm going to sing verses 1, 3, and 4. 1, 3, and 4 of number 44.
14:23: For men with joyful grief I lift mine praise.
14:31: Testifying of my sin, adoring only
14:37: Him. My Jesus kind was torn by nails, by nails of cruel sin.
14:47: And to His cross all prayer failed. God pinned my wretched sin.
14:56: O love divine, O matchless grace, that God should die for men.
15:04: With joyful grief I lift my praise. Amoring all my sin, adoring only
15:16: Him. My Jesus pure was crushed by God, by God in judgment just.
15:27: The Father grieved, yet turned His rod on Christ, made sin for us.
15:36: O love divine, O matchless grace, that God should die for men.
15:44: With joyful grief I lift my praise. Have glory of my sin, adoring only
15:56: Him. That hymn we just sang reminds us that Jesus gave
16:08: His body to be torn, His body to be broken. He gave
16:15: His blood to be shed on that cruel cross. And those who stood around, and those who even were there on that cross, on crosses next to Him, had no clue really what this was all about.
16:32: They didn't understand. They just saw a man who was suffering horribly, and some contributed to it, some laughed at Him, mocked
16:42: Him. Some thought it would be a good idea if He tried to prove His deity by coming down from that cross.
16:49: But in reality He was proving His deity by remaining on that cross. It was necessary, as the hymn we just sang said, for God, the
17:01: God -man, to die for our sin. We want to remember that today.
17:07: We want to reflect upon what Christ has done for us. The elements that we have in these little cups are woefully inferior to adequately reflect the person of Christ and His work,
17:22: His human body that was broken, that blood that was shed. And yet they do remind us, do they not?
17:29: Because in that evening before His crucifixion, they're reclining at the table with the disciples.
17:38: He took a loaf of bread, common, ordinary piece of bread, and He broke it.
17:47: And He said, as He took that bread, He said, this is My body which is broken for you.
17:54: And then He told them, and He tells us, take and eat.
18:10: We don't know how long of an interval there was between the time they took a bite of that bread.
18:19: Let them think on it. What does He mean? This is My body. Take and eat.
18:27: And as they pondered that, He then took the cup, full, enough for each of those around that table to partake.
18:38: And He says, this cup is the new covenant in My blood. The new covenant in My blood.
18:46: What does He mean by that? And then He says to them, as He says to all of us ever since, if we're going to be redeemed, we need to drink of His blood.
18:59: Literally, but even figuratively, to rest in that work of Christ on the cross.
19:06: So He tells them, this cup is the new covenant in My blood. All of you drink from it.
19:24: And so, Lord, our God, and Lord Jesus, our
19:30: Savior, our intercessor, our great High Priest, it is on one hand with great sobriety that we ponder this morning what
19:43: You did on that cross in our behalf. It is a sobering thing to think on because we realize it is
19:52: My sin that put Him there. It is
19:57: My sin that drove those nails in His hands and His feet. It is My sin that pierced
20:04: His side. It is My sin that put Him there. I am responsible.
20:12: I am guilty. I am needful. It's also a sobering thing to realize, to think of what man did to the
20:24: God -man and to treat Him as we did, to despise
20:32: Him, to belittle Him, to mock Him. And yet He knew it was coming, and He did it nevertheless.
20:44: So this is an amazing thing for us to ponder and to reflect upon, that God became man so that He might endure all of the ridicule, the mocking, the pain of the affliction and the infliction of wounds, mortal wounds, and even more so, the agony of being forsaken by the
21:15: Father as He became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of Christ.
21:24: Oh, Father, what a sobering thing. But we also come to this meal this morning with joy, rejoicing that He was willing, that He was not only willing, but He was obedient, even to the point of death, across death.
21:42: We rejoice today in our salvation that is in that work on the cross.
21:49: So it is with sober joy that we reflect on that work today.
21:58: And, Our Father, we also come before You today interceding in behalf of Your people. We think of those who are hurting physically today, and especially our hearts are drawn to Jodi and her plight.
22:12: And we pray that by Your grace You would give some healing, some measure of encouragement, even today.
22:22: Lord, as the family waits for a transfer to another hospital,
22:29: I pray for Your purposes to be accomplished in all of that delay.
22:35: We know not what that purpose would be, but we trust in You for it.
22:42: We pray for Bob, that You would encourage him today. I pray that You would give him hope and just encourage his faith in Christ, his faith in You and in Your work.
22:58: And I pray for Rebecca and Hannah and the rest of the family is, again, very concerned about Mom's condition.
23:07: By Your grace, give peace of mind that only You can give in times of great anxiety and unrest in the spirit.
23:16: Bless them, I pray, meet their needs today. Father, we also pray for Chuck Kempf and Ruby today.
23:23: Thank You for his faithfulness through these many, many years of proclaiming the
23:29: Word. Use him, and I pray that meetings would open up for him again.
23:35: Pray for Ruby and her health condition and ask for Your sustaining grace for her.
23:43: And I pray that You would meet the needs of this couple who have given their lives to serve
23:49: Christ. Bless Chuck and Ruby, we pray. Father, we pray for those of our congregation who cannot get out and attend in -person services.
24:00: I pray that You would bless them today and meet their needs. We think particularly of Sue Cherry and Jeannie Ludwick in nursing homes, in a place where they're not allowed visitors, not allowed to leave pretty much any time.
24:18: Encourage them. We pray for Dean Kinnaman and Jed Hunsberger today. And I just pray that You would meet their needs.
24:25: Lord, others who cannot be here today and are watching by livestream,
24:30: I pray that You would use Your Word to bless the hearts of each.
24:36: Teach us, challenge us, encourage us, convict us. Lord, we need
24:42: Your Word. We need Your Spirit to do His work. I pray that He would do it today.
24:48: And we ask this in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. All right,
24:54: Jim will come and lead us in yet another hymn. Jim. Thank you,
25:01: Pastor. And that's again in your blue book, your blue supplement, songbooks, number eight, number eight,
25:07: Blessed Be the Tide That Binds. Let's all stand together, please, and sing all verses together.
25:17: Blessed be the tide that binds
25:32: Our heart in Christian love The fellowship of kindred minds
25:42: Is like to that above Three for our
25:49: Father's throne Three for our heart and prayers
25:55: Our fears, our hopes, our arms are one
26:01: Our comforts and our cares We share each other's woes
26:10: Our mutual burdens bear And often for each other flows
26:20: The sympathizing fear When we asunder part
26:29: It gives us inward pain But we shall still be joined in heart
26:39: And help to meet again This glorious hope revives
26:48: Our courage by the way While each in expectation lives
26:58: And longs to see the day From sorrow's toil and pain
27:08: And sin we shall be free And perfect love and friendship reign
27:18: Through all eternity Please be seated.
27:30: Our scripture reading this morning, I want to turn to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians 4, scripture reading for the message today.
27:40: Ephesians 4 and verses 7 through 16. I've been working through a series of messages on the church.
27:50: It's been interrupted a few times along the way, but continuing that series today.
27:57: Ephesians 4, beginning in verse 7 and we'll read down through verse 16.
28:05: Apostle Paul writing to the local church in the city of Ephesus, he says, But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.
28:16: Therefore, he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.
28:23: Now this he ascended. What does it mean? But that he also first descended to the lower parts of the earth.
28:30: He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things.
28:37: And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
28:49: Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.
29:11: But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things unto him who is the head,
29:19: Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
29:37: Our Father and our God, I pray, help us to get an understanding of the church as a body.
29:46: We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, the New Testament paints pictures for us to help us get an idea of what the church is supposed to be like.
30:00: And we've looked at a couple of these pictures and this morning we'll look at a third. So the New Testament presents the church as the bride of Christ.
30:09: And each of these pictures emphasizes a different set of relationships and also emphasizes a different role that Christ plays in relationship to his church.
30:24: So the church is the bride of Christ. We looked at this for a couple of weeks, a month or two ago.
30:32: The bride of Christ. And that picture emphasizes our relationship to Christ as his bride.
30:42: And Christ in that picture is the bridegroom, the loving, sacrificial bridegroom.
30:49: Turn a page in your Bible to chapter 5 and you read about that exhortation to husbands to love our wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.
31:00: That he might present her to himself as a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle and so forth.
31:06: The church is the bride of Christ. Then another picture that we looked at a few weeks ago is that of the building, the church.
31:16: And in each of these pictures there is an aspect of it being a universal aspect that covers the whole church from beginning to end.
31:27: But there's also a local aspect of these pictures. The local church is the building of Christ.
31:36: And this picture, I think, emphasizes our relationship to the world. And in that relationship and in that picture,
31:45: Christ is the foundational cornerstone. We are living stones pulled out, called out from the world, taken out from the world and placed into this building of Christ.
31:59: And then the third picture that we want to focus on this morning is that the church is the body of Christ.
32:06: And this picture emphasizes our relationship to one another. Christ in this picture is the functional head of the church.
32:18: Not in the sense of like the husband is the head of the wife, but like in a body, the head of a body.
32:30: Christ is the functional head of the body of Christ. Now in the course of today and probably next
32:38: Lord's Day, we'll look at three different passages that refer to the church as the body of Christ.
32:45: And again, each one has its different emphases. In Romans 12, verses 3 -8,
32:52: Paul emphasizes in that passage the body of Christ in its various functions.
32:59: Those that are in that body each have different functions.
33:05: And he talks about those different functions within the body. In 1
33:10: Corinthians 12, Paul once again takes up this imagery of the church as the body of Christ.
33:16: And in verses 12 -28, he addresses the interdependence of the different body parts.
33:25: Remember that's the passage where he talks about the eye and the ear and so on and so forth.
33:30: And how the eye can't say to the hand, I don't need you and so on. So in that passage, he's emphasizing the interdependence of the different parts of the body as they relate to one another.
33:42: But then in this passage, here in Ephesians 4, verses 7 -16,
33:49: Paul seems to take up that imagery of the body again and emphasize the strength of the unified body of Christ.
34:02: The strength of the unified body. Now, a year ago, in February of last year,
34:10: I preached on this passage as we were going through the book of Ephesians. And when I preached on this passage then,
34:17: I emphasized this text's focus on or addressing the idea of a unified diversity.
34:27: Unified diversity. I'm sure you don't remember that in the least, but I had to go back and review my notes as well.
34:36: A unified diversity. What in the world was I talking about? Well, the body of Christ is a unity.
34:44: It's a unit. There's a unity in it. So look, for example, in verse 3. He says, we are to be endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
34:55: And in verse 13, he speaks of, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the
35:03: Son of God. So the local church is to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
35:09: And the church is to grow into a unified faith and knowledge of Christ.
35:16: But then there's this idea of diversity as well. And the idea is this.
35:22: This unity. Unity of this bond of the spirit in the bond of peace.
35:29: The unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. And this unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the
35:35: Son of God. This unity is accomplished through the employment of a variety of gifts by a variety of people who comprise the church.
35:50: So in the church, there is a diversity, but it's a diversity that works toward unity and seeks to maintain that unity.
36:00: Now, what this text also emphasizes is the foundational basis for this unified diversity.
36:10: What is the foundational basis for this unified diversity? It is this that we read in verses 15 and 16.
36:19: That the church, the local church, is a body. It's a body.
36:26: Because he says, speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in all things to him who is the head,
36:32: Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies.
36:39: See the idea of diversity there? There's a bunch of joints. There's every joint that supplies to the whole body.
36:47: And it does so according to the effective working of which every part of that body, diversity again, does its share, causing the growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
37:00: So the foundational basis for this unified diversity is the fact that the local church is a body.
37:10: In other words, the local church is to be a tangible, visible expression of the global, universal, timeless body of Christ.
37:24: And in this text, Paul challenges the church, the local church of Ephesus, and he challenges the local church of Sterling, Faith Baptist Church.
37:33: He challenges us to be a healthy, stable, growing body of believers in Jesus, the
37:42: Son of God. Now, a couple things by way of note before we look at that in more detail.
37:49: First is this, that the body exists because of the work of Christ. The body exists because of the work of Christ, the work of God.
37:58: Look at verse 4, for example. He says, there is one body and one spirit.
38:04: Now look, just as you were called in one hope of your calling. He's talking here about a work of God calling you to bring you into as a part of this one body.
38:18: There's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father who is above all and through all and in you all.
38:24: This is God's work, this body. It exists because of God's work. And it is he who is wholly responsible for it.
38:35: That's one note by way of passing. The other is this, being part of the body, being part of the body involves some personal responsibility.
38:47: Look at how this chapter begins. He says, and again, notice the emphasis on a calling.
38:54: He says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of this calling wherewith you were called.
39:01: What calling was that? The calling that placed you into the body of Christ. You and I need to walk worthy.
39:07: We're personally responsible to walk worthy of this calling wherewith we were called that placed us into the body of Christ.
39:17: And then he goes on to talk about what that looks like. That personal responsibility, that worthy walk.
39:24: With all lowliness and gentleness, with long -suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the
39:30: Spirit in the bond of peace. So it is God who has brought this body into existence and brought you into this body.
39:40: This is God's work. But being part of that body carries with it personal responsibility.
39:48: All right, now let's look at this body as Paul develops this picture, this imagery here in our text before us.
39:56: Notice in verse 15, first of all, that Christ Jesus is the head of the body.
40:02: Points that out very clearly. We may grow up in all things into him who is the head,
40:10: Christ. Christ is the head. In other words, that imagery tells us that Christ is the body's central command.
40:19: Christ is the central command of the local church. Just as your brain in your head sends messages to your body to control its members.
40:33: And it does so, your brain, doesn't it? It does so very, very efficiently.
40:39: Some more efficiently than others, to be true, to be sure. But even the most inefficient, it happens very rapidly.
40:47: So, for example, if you're sitting there very quietly and all of a sudden
40:55: I pull out a big long rubber band. And this would probably only work for Jim and Linda sitting down here in the front.
41:02: But if I pulled out this big long rubber band and I stand here and I pull back this rubber band and they're looking, yeah, see there?
41:09: His brain just told his body, move over, move over. And if I let go of that rubber band and he saw me let go of that rubber band, he would duck.
41:20: See, why would he duck? What would make his body respond by going like this?
41:26: The command center up there would tell the members of his body how to move, what to do, how to respond, or how to react.
41:35: Christ is the body's central command, the central command of the local church.
41:42: But what this also communicates, and our esteemed professor of anatomy and physiology could teach on this far more effectively and profitably,
41:56: I'm sure, than I. But what this also communicates is the fact that Christ is the body's lifeline.
42:02: He is the body's lifeline. And, again, we understand this intuitively and very simply, and that is the fact that if the brain ceases to function, life ceases, right?
42:18: Life ceases. Now, surely with our machines and all the rest of that we can keep a body functioning, we can keep a heart pumping and lungs functioning and all the rest of that.
42:29: With no brain activity whatsoever. But without those machines, without the brain functioning, without the brain sending the lifeline messages to the rest of the body, life ceases to function.
42:52: Jesus is the body's, the local church's, central command, and he is the local church's lifeline.
43:01: He's the head. He's the head of the church. And as the head of the church, what
43:07: Paul brings out in this passage is he provides some vital resources for a healthy body.
43:15: He, the head, provides vital resources for a healthy body. What does he provide?
43:20: Look at verse 7. To each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.
43:32: The Lord Jesus Christ, as the head of the church, as the central command, and as the lifeline, the lifeline of the body, he gives to each member, each member of that body, he gives grace.
43:48: It was the grace of Christ that brought you into that body. It is the grace of Christ that sustains you in that body.
43:55: To every one of us, grace is given according to his, the measure of his gift.
44:04: But then secondly, as he gives resources, vital resources for a healthy body, he provides gifts for service to every member.
44:15: So verse 8 says, therefore, he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.
44:22: He gave gifts to men. Every member of Christ's body is a gifted member in some way.
44:34: Now, I say that and some of you right now would say, well, you know, I don't really have that many gifts. And what we think of is we think of some kind of giftedness, some kind of talent that could be used in a very public way that everybody would say, wow, that person is gifted.
44:51: You know, like playing the piano or playing the organ or playing some other kind of musical instrument or singing, being able to sing on key, you know, or something like that.
45:05: Some very public, some public manifestation of talent where people would say, yeah, he's got a gift.
45:16: Well, it is true that Christ gives those, but that's not the limit of what
45:21: Christ gives. He gives gifts to every member of his body.
45:27: So much more could be said about that, but we need to hurry on. He not only gives gifts, but some members notice.
45:35: Now, remember, we're talking about how Christ the head provides what the vital resources that are necessary for a healthy body.
45:43: He gives grace to every member. He gives a gift. He gives giftedness to every member, but some members in his body receive equipping gifts.
45:56: And this is what Paul is talking about in verses 11 and 12. It says,
46:02: Christ himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry.
46:15: So not everybody has these equipping gifts. Not everybody has the gift to be able to teach or to pastor, be pastor, pastor teachers.
46:25: Not everybody has a gift of evangelism like Chuck Kempf does. These are equipping gifts that God in his grace,
46:34: Christ as the head of the church and in his purposes, gives to different ones in that body.
46:41: Now, by the way, that doesn't make those who have equipping gifts superior to other members of the body.
46:50: It's just they have a different role. They have a different gift to employ and to share within that body.
46:56: And by the way, that word equipping here in verse 12 for the equipping of the saints,
47:04: I think the King James, this is the New King James I'm reading from, I think the King James says for the perfecting of the saints for the work of ministry.
47:11: That word is used in, and I pointed this out a year ago, we're talking about the unity and diversity thing.
47:18: In Matthew's gospel, chapter four, that same word is used of the fishermen who became disciples, mending their nets.
47:30: After they were out fishing, you know, they got a snag here, they got a tear there, you know, whatever.
47:37: And they needed to mend their nets. They need to equip their nets and prepare their nets for the next fishing outing.
47:46: In other words, pastor teachers and evangelists, these equipping gifts, they engage in a healing, restorative ministry with the word.
48:00: So that saints can serve with their gifts.
48:07: All right. So some members receive equipping gifts. But then as the head of the church gives these gifts to every member of the body of his body, every saint in that body is to use his gift in service of some kind.
48:27: It comes out in verse 12. For the equipping of saints for the work of ministry, for the work of ministry.
48:37: Every member of the body, every member of the body is to use his gift or gifts in service.
48:48: Now, I'm not going to take the time to expand upon this idea. I just want to throw out this thought to you and we'll probably expand on it at some point in the near future.
48:59: To serve, see, as he talks about doing the work of ministry.
49:05: To do the work of ministry does not demand an official church position.
49:13: It doesn't demand some kind of public responsibility. It doesn't demand a
49:19: Sunday ministry. It doesn't even demand an on the church site job of some kind or another.
49:34: Just to kind of help explain what I mean here. Let me explain it by a negative and then a positive.
49:43: Negatively, I served for a while on a pastoral staff and I was not the senior pastor.
49:48: I was an assistant. In that church, there was one particular message.
49:55: The pastor was really upset because he was having a hard time getting people to fill jobs in certain places in the church.
50:06: Probably the nursery was one of them. It seems to be the perennial ministry place where needs are, but other places as well.
50:16: He was having a hard time with that and he was getting pretty frustrated. He finally said this. He said if you don't have a ministry in the church where on Sunday morning if you're sick and you can't make it, you have to call somebody to take your place.
50:30: If you don't have a ministry like that, you don't have a ministry. You're not really serving the
50:36: Lord. Now that is a bizarre, extreme idea and notion and I want to dismiss that completely.
50:45: So that's a negative thing. On a positive thing, listen. Some of you are young moms and some of you are homeschooling moms.
50:57: Some of you have secular jobs that demand a lot of hours and work out of you.
51:07: In any one of those capacities, you can do the work of ministry, do the work of service.
51:20: I'll just leave it at that for right now. Every saint is to use his gifts in service.
51:27: And what the head of the body intends in all of this provision of these vital resources for a healthy body is brought out at the end of verse 12.
51:39: And that is a mature body. A mature body. That's the goal.
51:46: For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry for the edifying, the building up of the body of Christ.
51:52: A spiritually healthy vital body is what the head of the body desires as he gives these resources to the church.
52:04: All right. Christ Jesus is the head of the body and he provides as the head of the body.
52:10: He provides vital resources for a healthy body. Then thirdly, as the head,
52:19: I want us also to see in this passage that Christ establishes the marks of a healthy body.
52:26: What is a healthy body anyway? What is a healthy body? Well, one of them we've already alluded to.
52:33: One of the marks of a healthy body is a body of serving saints.
52:39: They're to be equipped for the work of ministry, serving saints. Think on this.
52:49: Spectator saints are sick saints. What do
52:54: I mean by that? What I mean by that is a professing believer in Christ who shows up at church and kind of does his duty and then leaves church.
53:08: Whatever happens there or whatever has happened there, it's kind of, okay, that's done with. I've done my duty for the week and then
53:14: I go on to regular life. I go on back to life. It's like there's a disconnect between what's happening in the ministry of the word that is supposed to be equipping for ministry and the rest of life.
53:29: There's a disconnect. And that saint, that professing saint, is a mere spectator just sitting there watching what's going on.
53:37: Well, such a one is a sick saint. Think about it from the standpoint of the body, right?
53:45: If you have developed some kind of crippling disease that renders your hand or your fingers useless where you just can't use them anymore, is that healthy?
54:02: Is that healthy? No, you know that. You understand that. If your body's healthy, your members are going to function as they're supposed to function.
54:14: And so it is with the body of Christ. The various members of that body are to be serving saints.
54:22: A second mark of a healthy church is a unified faith and knowledge.
54:29: This comes out in verse 13. He says, He says, So what is that?
54:59: A unified faith means that as one, the body holds to objective truth.
55:09: A unified faith holding to objective truth.
55:17: Truth that needs to be learned and known by all. The faith.
55:24: Another way we talk about that is the fundamentals of the faith. You cannot be a healthy member of the body of Christ if you don't believe in the virgin birth.
55:36: In fact, you're not a member of the body of Christ at all if you don't believe in the virgin birth. And the deity of Christ.
55:41: And the vicarious atonement of Jesus on the cross for the sins. For your sins.
55:48: You don't believe these fundamentals of the faith. We could go beyond that to talk about the local church's confession of faith or doctrinal statement.
55:59: And the church comes to a place of unity regarding this statement of objective truth.
56:08: Now this doesn't mean there isn't leeway for different interpretations on matters where good godly men through the ages have differed in terms of opinions on things.
56:21: Certainly there is. Certainly there is. Even in a local church where there's general consensus on the basics of the faith.
56:32: There can be differences of opinion on various incidental matters of that faith.
56:37: Let me give you an example of this that's outside of our own local church so you can understand what
56:43: I'm getting at. This organization that my wife is an administrative assistant for.
56:51: The Reformed Baptist Network. They hold to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith.
56:57: It's a wonderful confession of faith. But it was written in 1689. So not too awfully long after the
57:04: Reformation. About 150 years. And in that confession of faith there is a very, very pointed section that addresses the
57:14: Antichrist. The identity of the Antichrist. And it says that the Pope, the
57:19: Pope, is the Antichrist. Okay? Not the
57:25: Pope is an Antichrist. It specifically says the Pope is the Antichrist. Well, any church that applies to that network of churches has to adhere to, has to hold to, identify with the 1689
57:39: London Baptist Confession of Faith. And so the question is asked in that application, do you agree with everything in that confession of faith?
57:48: If not, what do you disagree with and why? And then there was another follow -up question like, would you make your disagreement a matter of like a hobby horse or a matter of contention?
58:01: And we've seen several of these applications. And almost all of them say, well, the one thing that I disagree with is that statement about the
58:11: Pope is the Antichrist of revelation. And they would modify it and say,
58:17: I believe that he is an Antichrist, but there are many Antichrists. I don't believe that, we don't believe that the
58:23: Pope is the Antichrist, and so on and so forth, you see. And the network welcomes them into that confession of, into that network.
58:32: Why? Because there is a general consensus with the body of the faith, the body of truth.
58:39: And there's some differences of opinions on with some of the little details and nuances within it where different men would disagree.
58:49: And that's fine. But as one, as a body, the church holds to the objective truth that must be learned and known by all.
59:00: A unified faith and a unified knowledge. And the word knowledge in verse 13 is not talking about head knowledge, it's talking about experience of Christ.
59:09: We come to a unified experience of Christ that is learned by walking with Him.
59:16: So, for example, look back at chapter 3, verses 17 and following. He says that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the width and length and height and depth, to know the love of Christ, to know, to know the love of Christ, to experience personally the love of Christ, which passes head knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God.
59:50: So one of the marks of a healthy church is serving saints. A second mark of a healthy church is a unified faith and knowledge, walking with Christ, experiencing the love of Christ, His forgiveness and the comfort that He gives, the peace that He affords and the hope that He provides and so forth.
01:00:09: A third mark is practical godliness, practical godliness.
01:00:16: This comes out in verse 13 again, where we come to a unity of the faith and the knowledge of the
01:00:23: Son of God to a perfect man, that is a complete, a mature man.
01:00:33: Marks of maturity, if you're taking notes, you can jot down here a cross -reference, Titus 2, verse 2, where Paul is talking about the marks of a mature man that include things like sobriety, gravity, self -control, patience.
01:00:49: These are all marks of practical godliness. Again, it's easy to get bogged down in the details, and I don't want to do that.
01:00:54: I want to give us a broader picture than that, that the marks of a healthy church that Christ establishes, a healthy body, are serving saints who are unified in their faith and knowledge, who engage in and are growing in practical godliness and, fourthly, personal
01:01:15: Christlikeness. As he says at the end of verse 13, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
01:01:26: Parallels, verse 19 of chapter 3, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
01:01:34: Growing in personal Christlikeness. How does that happen? How does that happen?
01:01:40: One of the ways that happens is by what's going on right here and right now, where we are confronted with the
01:01:48: Word, we have the Word open before us, we're looking at it, we're listening to it as it's being preached and taught, and we're interacting with the
01:01:56: Word. And it happens when you're at home and you open up the Bible in the morning or evening, or whenever it is you do your time of personal devotions, of personal reading of scriptures, and you are looking in the mirror, you're looking in the glass of the
01:02:09: Bible, the scriptures. And as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3 .18, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as an emir the glory of the
01:02:20: Lord, by this means we are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the
01:02:32: Spirit of the Lord. A healthy body is going to be marked by members who are growing in personal
01:02:41: Christlikeness. And then a fifth mark of a healthy church is spiritual stability.
01:02:48: Spiritual stability. Verse 13 segues into verse 14.
01:02:55: That we should no longer be children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, and so forth.
01:03:08: Spiritual stability. Are you a stable Christian?
01:03:14: Are you growing in that stability? What's involved in that?
01:03:20: Well, stable Christians have developed to the place where they're not tossed around like children.
01:03:28: See, no longer children tossed to and fro. Children who can be rather gullible, you know, vulnerable.
01:03:40: Why do you have to work so hard to protect children? Why should we, in our nation and in our society, why should we work hard to protect children from predators and all the rest of that?
01:03:53: Why? Because they can be gullible. They can be vulnerable.
01:03:59: Well, as believers in Christ, we need to grow in our walk with Christ so that we are healthy members of the body who are not like children who are vulnerable and gullible, tossed here and taken there.
01:04:16: Stable Christians have not only developed to that point, but they have also settled down on some things.
01:04:22: They're not tossed to and fro. They don't vacillate in the storms of life. And another way to think about that is riding the roller coaster.
01:04:32: And there's an element of that which is common to the experience of the Christian life, riding the roller coaster of up and down, right?
01:04:40: But the more mature and the more stable we become in our walk with Christ, the less we ride that roller coaster where one day we're on a spiritual high, the next day we're on a spiritual low.
01:04:56: We're not thrown in a tizzy by every little thing that comes along our way that is a negative thing, where, okay, something bad happened to me today.
01:05:08: God must not love me anymore. Something bad happened to me today. I must have done something terrible that God's beaten me up today.
01:05:14: We're just constantly living like that. Stable Christians are settled, not vacillating, not gravitating to the latest
01:05:26: Christian fad, you know, and so forth. Stable Christians are discerning.
01:05:32: The last part of verse 14 says you're not carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.
01:05:42: You see through the tricks. You can see through some of the tricks. And you don't fall for the deception.
01:05:49: When you hear this televangelist or this radio preacher say to you, if you will just send me $100 of seed money, that will multiply into thousands and thousands of times, and you'll never believe the dollars that will fall from heaven.
01:06:13: And you hear that kind of stuff no matter what form it takes, and you say, get out of here. You might as well go buy the lottery ticket.
01:06:22: You've got more discernment than that. Spiritual stability. A sixth mark that Christ has for a healthy church is, the way
01:06:32: I'll put it in verse 15, holistic spiritual growth. Holistic spiritual growth.
01:06:38: What do I mean by that? Well, what I mean by that is what Paul is speaking of here in verse 15. He says, but speaking the truth may grow up in all things unto him who is the head.
01:06:50: Grow up in all things so that in every area of your life, you are impacted by God's truth.
01:06:58: In your marriage relationship. In your singleness. In your parenting.
01:07:06: In your career. In your school. In your friendships.
01:07:13: In your neighborhood. In your community relations. In your finances.
01:07:19: In your goals. In your citizenship. In your politics. In your use of social media.
01:07:27: In everything. You grow up in him in all things.
01:07:32: The mark of a healthy church is the members of that body. The members of that body are growing in every area of life.
01:07:44: God's truth is impacting your life in every facet of that life.
01:07:52: Christ is the head of the body. As the head of the body, he provides vital resources for a healthy body.
01:07:59: And as the head of the body, he also establishes the marks of a healthy body.
01:08:06: Then lastly, I want us to notice here in verses 15 and 16, that Christ directs the framework for a healthy body.
01:08:16: The framework. I'm going to think of another way to put it. I'm sure there's a better way, so I'm not mixing the metaphors of framework.
01:08:23: But nevertheless, what I'm getting at is that in this chapter, in chapter 4, verses 1 through 16, this section of the letter is bookended with the idea of love.
01:08:39: Let me show you what I mean. In verse 2, when Paul starts out here telling us about our personal responsibility in the body, he says you're walk worthy of this calling with which you call, with all lowliness and gentleness, long -suffering.
01:08:56: Now look at it, bearing with one another in love. All right.
01:09:02: But then in the middle of the section, well, let's near the end of it anyway.
01:09:08: Verse 15. He's speaking to those involved in the equipping ministries, pastor, teachers, evangelists, and so forth, are to be speaking the truth in love, so that we may grow up in all things in him who is the head.
01:09:27: Speaking the truth in love. We are to bear with one another in love. Those in equipping ministry are to speak the truth in love.
01:09:36: Preaching and teaching needs to be delivered in love. In what way? I think what
01:09:43: Paul's getting at here is, look, those who are evangelists, pastor, teachers, are not to be parading their knowledge.
01:09:51: Like, wow, look at all the great wealth of knowledge that I have. That kind of thing. They're not to be riding a hobby horse.
01:09:58: Like, this is the thing I like to preach about. And every time you come to church, you hear the same thing all the time. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.
01:10:04: Not to be riding a hobby horse. He's not called to solve all of the world's problems.
01:10:10: What is he called to do? He's called to meet the needs of the members of that body.
01:10:17: Giving the members of that body the needed truth that will equip them for service.
01:10:26: Motivated. He's motivated by a love for that body. Those members in that body.
01:10:33: That they get what God wants them to have. That they might be what
01:10:39: God would want them to be. We're to bear one another in love. Pastor, teachers, evangelists are to speak the truth in love.
01:10:48: And in verse 16, every member is to contribute his share in love.
01:10:56: You see this? You're to supply your part. It says, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share.
01:11:14: You, individual members of the body of this local church, this local expression of the body of Christ.
01:11:23: You are to supply your part. You're one of those joints that supplies your part.
01:11:31: You're to do your share. You're to do your share. Which every part does its share.
01:11:39: And do so motivated by and promoting love.
01:11:45: You see this? Look at the end of the verse. It causes the growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
01:11:56: So every part of the body contributes its share in love.
01:12:02: In other words, the framework for this healthy body is to be a framework of love.
01:12:11: The members have love for one another. The equipping ministry is motivated by and expressed through love for the various members of the body.
01:12:23: And the various members contribute their part to that body out of love for one another and love for the body.
01:12:32: Christ erects the framework for the body. A healthy body. Well, let me ask a few questions and we'll close.
01:12:40: Firstly, are you a member of Christ's body? And of course I'm talking there about the broad universal beginning to end global body of Christ.
01:12:52: Are you part of that body of Christ? Has God in His grace called you out of darkness into His marvelous light?
01:13:02: Has He called you to repentant faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior? If He's calling you today, heed that call.
01:13:12: Call upon Him to save you today. Are you part of Christ's body?
01:13:18: How about the local body? Are you part of that local body of Christ?
01:13:26: Second question, are you yourself growing so that you may serve
01:13:34: Christ's body? Are you growing? And thirdly, are you doing your part?
01:13:41: Are you contributing your share to ensure the health of the body of Christ?
01:13:50: Food for thought. Our Father and our God, I pray today that as we consider this picture of the church being the body of Christ, we would also consider our own personal responsibility in contributing to its health.
01:14:09: And this we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's take our hymnals and turn this morning to number 373.
01:14:20: 373. And just sing the first and last stanzas of this hymn of dedication, really, commitment, consecration.
01:14:31: I have but one life to offer to Jesus my Lord and King, and I give it to Him.
01:14:36: Let's stand as we sing, shall we? 373, the first and the last stanzas. Only one life to offer,
01:14:57: Jesus my Lord and King. Only one tongue to praise
01:15:05: Him, and of Thy mercy sing. Only one heart's devotion may it be.
01:15:19: Consecrated alone to Thy matchless glory, yielded fully to Thee.
01:15:31: Only one life to offer, take it, dear
01:15:36: Lord, I pray. Nothing from Thee withholding,
01:15:44: Thy will I now obey. Thou who hast freely given
01:15:52: Thine all in all for me, claim this life for Thine own to be used, my
01:16:01: Savior, every moment for Thee.
01:16:10: I trust the remainder of your Lord's Day will be a good day of rest and refreshment and rejuvenation.
01:16:17: And I trust you'll gather together in some form this evening, either at the foreman's or some other way.
01:16:24: And again, tune in to that devotional. Let me encourage you to do that. Kind of follows up a little bit on the message this morning.
01:16:31: Let's pray. Now may the Lord make you to increase and abound in love for one another and for all, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our
01:16:46: God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.
01:16:52: This we pray in His name, for His sake. Amen. You are dismissed.