Ephesians 4:7-16

Ephesians chapter 4 verse 7. We just finished last week as Pastor Jeff got us into the first middle section.

And what was your one thing last week? It was unity. The one thing was to be one.

The one thing was to be one. The unity of the body and how it was clearly one

Lord, one baptism, one body, and how what

God has ordained in putting us together this way is the unity of who

He is. And then I loved at the end of it how it said who is over all. So it went from unity to inclusiveness, not that kind of diversity and inclusiveness, but the including of us all.

What we get now into this next section is, and my one thing is that God ordained diversity of gifts in order to build the unity and the maturity of the body.

So there are going to be in this passage 7 through 16, Lord willing, it's going to be one of the three main listings of spiritual gifts,

Romans and 1 Corinthians chapter 12 in both of them, I think it is. And then this here are the main listings of spiritual gifts.

And I told Sandy yesterday, I finally came downstairs and I said,

I'm going to have to spend tomorrow morning because it's not coming. I was working, working.

What is it? What's the one thing in this? I could not find it. Finally, uh, when

I have that in the middle of the night, I think of it. Do you ever have that where you're just working, working, working a problem?

Uh, probably the smartest thing to have, by the way, is to have a piece of paper, a pad of paper and a pen at your nightstand, by your bedside.

So when that one thing comes to you, that important thing, you can write it down and then you don't have to think about it anymore at night.

I know I don't do that. I think about it all night long so I won't forget about it. That being said, this is a list of five gifts.

And the purpose for these gifts is to build the body back into unity for the diversity of the gifts.

So what is it special about this list of gifts as opposed to the lists in Romans 12 or 1

Corinthians 12? I believe, and Jeff and I spoke briefly about it, and you're kind of okay with what

I'm about to say? I haven't heard it yet. The jury's out. I'm sure it's good.

Which is hard to do when you're one -on -one. You're such a multitasker.

Apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers, we're talking about the gifts that are given by God according to his sovereignty to equip the church to be spiritually mature.

Are they gifts or offices that God's appointed? I know these men are gifted.

I'm going to ask you if they are offices that the people that occupy those offices, are they the ones that are uniquely gifted to do that?

So my answer is yes. Some of the other lists include things like discernment.

There are only two offices in the church, the elder and the deacon, but there are roles.

So I wouldn't say that we have the office of evangelist or the office of a prophet here with us today.

I would agree. But I think it does refer to the person.

Thank you. You're welcome. Do you want to open us in prayer? Yes. Lord, we need you.

Father, we do. We do need you in all things as our teacher. God, we come to your scripture humbly, recognizing that you are the great shepherd of our souls, and you are our teacher, and that you are the giver of gifts,

Lord. And we pray that you would help us now as we open the word and go verse by verse through the text, that your

Holy Spirit would teach us in all wisdom and lead us in truth. We thank you for your word.

Your word is truth. And so we thank you, our Lord, our great shepherd, in Jesus' name. Amen. Galatians chapter 2, verses 22 to 24, the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, depends on which version you're reading, but it's all the same.

Love, joy, peace, long -suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. I believe that the didactic teaching in that is that those are the fruit of the spirit and that every believer who has bowed the knee and has the

Holy Spirit dwelling within them has got the full manifestation of all nine of those.

Not to say that we exhibit them in our life, but they're all there, okay?

Gifts are slightly different. They're the same in that they are manifestations from God through the

Holy Spirit, but they're not given like peanut butter spread across the entire church, the same.

He has reasons for them. I'm going to ask you to be my Ephesians 4 person today.

Sandy, you're going to get 1 Corinthians 1 ready, please. And Carol, if you would have 1

Peter and Barb, I got that right today. If you would have 2

Corinthians 6 and Colossians 2, Joyce, I'm going to ask if you would have that ready.

Give me the whole thing, 7 through 16. Okay. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

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 had also descended into the lower regions of the earth?

He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

So last week unity, today diversity, which leads to unity and leads to completeness.

Now the first four verses, seven through ten, I believe is a section that talks to us about the conferring of these gifts.

The first thing I want to observe is that grace is given to each of us. Not every gift is given the same to each of us, but grace is given to each of us, and I believe that scripture is going to teach us that each of us has a gift or gifts according to God's design and his holy purpose.

First Corinthians 1, Sandy, verse 4. I thank my

God always concerning you to the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus.

We receive the grace from God. As believers, I heard a little description of what grace,

God's riches at Christ's expense. You can put it that way, but we don't deserve this grace.

It's just given to us. It's given to us by God, and it's given to us because of Christ, and it's given to all of us.

First Peter 4. God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts.

Use them well to serve one another. There is no individual who has bowed the knee, who sits in this church on Sundays, who has not received a spiritual gift from God.

There is a obligation that comes along with that reality. What's the obligation that comes along with that reality?

To serve others. We're called stewards.

What is a steward? Scripturally speaking, what is a steward? Managing the owner's assets.

There you go. Managing the owner's assets. We speak every now and then as we desire for the growth, the spiritual health of the church.

Your 2020 vision. Was it the 2020 vision?

Was that what it was? No. Yeah, 2020 vision. One of them was that we would grow, but we would grow in relationship to Christ.

That we would grow in relationship to one another, and that we would grow numerically, but growing in relationship to Christ is first.

Doing that requires exercising and using these gifts. They have been given to us, to each of us.

Grace has been given to each one of us, and it has been given according to God's will, not earned.

It's not part of God's economy for an individual to say, I would like to be an evangelist.

We're going to talk about each one of these gifts individually, one at a time. There is a difference between being obedient to the command to evangelize the world and having to gift all the evangelism.

We'll talk about that as we get there. 2 Corinthians 9, do you have that,

Barb? I thought you said 2 Corinthians 6. Okay, could you get to 9?

I skipped that one, I guess. My bad. Oh no, I gave Joyce. You got 2 Corinthians. No, you have

Colossians. I have 2 Corinthians 6 .1 and Colossians. Go ahead, either one. Somebody give me 2

Corinthians 9 .8, Barb. 9 .8, okay. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

If you feel that God has equipped you as a teacher, or if you feel that God has given you a gift of prophecy, he doesn't leave it up to you to be successful in doing it.

How do we succeed in doing it, Ivan? We lean towards him to allow him to work through us, and we lend those gifts to be profitable for him, for the body.

One of the pictures, kind of similar, down this same road in Matthew, he says, you are the light of the world.

A city on a hill cannot be hidden, neither can men light a lamp. Put it under a bowl. Instead, they place it on a stand and give light to everyone in the house.

You are not that light. You are the conduit for Christ to shine through.

He is the light. Very similar at night. I don't know if any of you have ever done this.

I did it once. I was driving across New York State by myself at night in the winter.

I don't remember which interstate it was. I was going from Binghamton to Albany, whatever road that was.

But the road was basically empty. There was snow on the sides of the road. The road was clear.

It was a full moon. And I just had to try it.

I turned my lights on. I could see there was so much light coming from the moon and reflecting from the snow.

Here's the thing about the light that I saw. It was only a reflection. The moon is not a source of light.

The moon is just a reflection of the sun. Even though it appears very, very bright at night, it's only a reflection.

That's who we are. We have been equipped to do the works that God has given to us, every good work.

And it does say in James 4, this is an important one also, is that he gives grace to the humble and he poses the proud.

And I would read that to say if you feel that you have the gift of prophecy and you're proud of it and you're able to maybe look really...

I don't think that God's going to be using that gift in you. He resists the proud.

But the grace he gives to the humble. You have a gift. You didn't earn it.

There's nothing about these gifts that you earned. 1 Corinthians 6 .1,

Joyce, you want to read that? Oh, 2 Corinthians 6 .1? That too.

Okay, so 2 Corinthians 6 .1, is working together with him then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

When I first read that, I misread it. When I first read it, I read it, don't be vain about having received the gift.

And that's not what it says. Don't use his gift in vain. In other words, don't waste it.

If you've been given the gift of an evangelist, don't waste it on frivolous things or whatever else.

That's really what the intent of that passage is. We have been given this grace according to God's measured design.

It's not your desire. That being said, it is good to desire the better gifts, but you don't earn it.

He gives it to you. And then at the end of it, it talks about he gave these gifts after having descended, having ascended onto high.

What is he talking about there? There are three approaches to this one, oh, by the way.

One is the teaching, which I think is in the Apostles' Creed. He was crucified, died, and buried.

He descended into hell, and he rose again, according to the scriptures. That's one of the approaches that this might be referring to, is after his crucifixion, his descent to lead the captives free, that's a whole other lesson all by itself.

Another is that he descended into the lower reaches of the earth, the basest part of humanity, the most evil, that he came and he ascended.

The third is that he came down and he became man, and we had the birth, the incarnation, the death, and then he rose again in glory back up to heaven.

That, I think, is the teaching here. Now, what's significant about that is what happened after Jesus rose, was arisen up into heaven.

What had to happen at that time? The Holy Spirit descended upon us.

Why? To live within us and keep going. See, it's more than that.

To help us serve God. Yes, keep going with that. Okay, you shall receive power after that the

Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses to the other most parts of the world.

Once he arose, once he was risen, we were left here without him physically here, but the

Holy Spirit then comes, I will send another. He comes, and our commission is to go and tell that news to all of the world.

The church gets established. The church wasn't established before he was ascended into heaven.

It's established after he ascends to heaven, and so now we've got the conferring of gifts, which happens.

He has now ascended back to the Father. He's given us the Holy Spirit, and as he's done that, he has equipped his church with the tools necessary to build a healthy and vibrant church.

That's the fullness of what occurs there. Give me verses 11 and 12, please. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.

We're going to spend just a little bit of time on these five, because I think these are the five building blocks that he uses to put together a building for his church.

We were daydreaming a little bit before most of you got here. John was already here.

The price tag for what we want to build out at Phillips Road could be a bit on the limiting side, if you would.

So how do we care for this body in the meantime? Do we push these walls out a few feet each way so that we can sit everybody here?

But you can't do that without understanding architecturally and understanding what you can and can't do.

For instance, you can't go so far out that the roof line now is so flat that we have water leaking in.

You've got to build appropriately. He gave us five. He gave us five. The first one, and it could be four, it could be five.

I'm going to call it five with the recognition that it says he gave,

I'm looking for it now, apostles, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and it doesn't say, and the teachers.

Yeah, you're correct. It does have and, but it doesn't have the definite article before teachers.

So it could be pastors, teachers.

I'm going to put it in five because there's a different role between pastor and teacher, and you'll see why

I say that in a few minutes. The first one is the gift of apostles. What is an apostle?

When you send out to proclaim the message. That's a big part of it. Keep going. I've got a clue.

I have it written down here. It all depends on what we're calling an apostle. An apostle is one who saw

Jesus at Jesus' resurrection. That's another part of it. I got it all written down here, guys.

Chosen by Christ, witnessed to him, and testifies of him.

These are the three basic tenets of an apostle. We do not believe that the apostolic office continues.

That has ceased. So you don't believe in a new apostolic reformation? How outrageous is that?

I would say that it's not scriptural, but I would be less concerned that if somebody told me

I don't believe in the Incarnation. Okay, the new apostolic reformation is not a scriptural teaching, but it's secondary to the tenets of salvation, if you would.

That being said, in Luke 6, it actually teaches us that the night before Jesus chose the twelve, he spent the whole night in prayer.

Now, this is God, who from before the foundation of the earth knew who the twelve were to be anyway, but it does say that he spent the whole night in prayer and chose the twelve.

By the way, who was one of the twelve he chose? Judas. He knew, he knew.

He did not, this did not come as a surprise to him, but the twelve that are called his apostles, initially as we go into the

Gospels, are chosen by him. Romans 1 .1,

you got that, Ivan, if you want to read that for us? And Rich, if you would get Hosea 12 ready, and Ephesians 3,

Candy, if you would get that ready. Are you okay to read, Candy? Okay, you're gonna get

Ephesians 3. Go ahead, Romans 1. Romans 1, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.

See, he's, Paul, now this is a whole nother study, how is Paul legitimately one of the apostles?

By the way, what did they do after Judas was no longer an act? What did they do?

Devote him to my sin. And they identified the criteria for who would be, and they had two,

Matthias and, I don't remember who the other one was, and they actually didn't vote, they cast lots before the board and let

God choose, you know, who it would be. We believe Paul is an apostle because God called

Paul, you know, on the road, and he actually appeared to him.

We believe that Paul has all the credentials of being an apostle. He calls himself an apostle, and as an apostle, he is what?

Set apart. So he had a role to do, set apart, by God.

So Acts 1, 21 and 22 is how these criteria are established, including witnessing his resurrection.

So to take the transition from the three years and 40 days where Jesus, is it maybe three years and 40 days?

Close enough, where he was actually on earth teaching, performing miracles, and then the upper room, that master's course in theology that he gave them, all of this, and then the 40 days, by the way, that is an incredible study all by itself.

What did Jesus say at the end of the time when he was on the cross? Rich, what does your shirt say?

Tetelestai. Why did he stay for another 40 days if it was finished?

That's a fun question to ask, and if you look at the various encounters that Jesus had those last 40 days, each one of them has a purpose.

Each one of them has a purpose, but then he left, and he left the church, and what he left initially for the church were the apostles, because they were the original chosen eyewitnesses set aside, given a job to do.

That's the apostles, and we do believe that once the time of the apostles ended, in various ways, that there are no more apostles, because nobody else actually meets these criteria.

So what else has he given us, in addition to apostles? What's next on the list?

Prophets. What does a prophet do? Foresees, foretellers. Guys, get a clue.

It's on my piece of paper here. The truth. Truth tellers. Foretell and foretell.

In either case, what he's doing is proclaiming the words that God wants them or her to proclaim.

Hosea 12 is going to say that God spoke through the prophets. That's in the Old Testament, and Luke 24 is going to tell us that the prophets taught us about Jesus, and I love the way you do that.

You can go through the entire book of the Old Testament and find Jesus in all of the books of the

Old Testament. The prophets proclaimed him to be, and only he fulfilled all of it, but that's what they did.

But what he's saying here is, yes, there were Old Testament prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah.

There were Old Testament prophets, but in the time of the New Testament and in the building of the church, there are prophets.

Now, we believe that office of prophet did not stop at the end of Acts.

There still are prophets. What's the difference between foretelling and foretelling?

Foretelling is telling the future, but foretelling is proclaiming the word of God. I'm not going to get into the debate right now.

Maybe you want to. I would clarify that not an office of prophet and that New Testament prophecy is different than what you're describing in the

Old Testament of the prophet who speaks for God with the full authority of God. I'm looking at Agabus in Acts 10, and if we could just turn real quick to 1

Thessalonians 5. I'll just read it. It says, this is speaking to the

New Testament church, so this is didactic material to be obeyed in the new covenant. 1

Thessalonians 5 19 and 20. Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophecies.

So, there's a sentence in which I think the preacher on a Sunday morning needs to speak prophetically to the world and to the church, and that's words taught by the

Spirit. Although, I can still err. My words don't carry the same weight as Scripture, but we need to speak by the help of the

Spirit, and that's what's referred to as do not despise prophecies. John, did

I give somebody Ephesians 3? You can give me Ephesians 3, and I'm going to emphasize verse 4, but go ahead and read the whole passage.

For this reason I call the prisoner of Christ Jesus on me. Assuming that you have heard the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how a mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly.

When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of grace, which has not made known to the sons of men in other generations, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the

Spirit. There is a level of understanding and revelation that is given by God.

It was not before, but it's not. In this particular case, we're talking about the Gentiles being crafted in, but God does proclaim truth so that, in verse 4, you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was now made known.

There is a danger into being quick to accept somebody's utterances, and it's self -proclaimed,

I have a word of God for you. There's a very strong danger in it. In fact, in 1

John chapter 4, it says that there are antichrists. It's a small c.

It's those who are against Christ, who are prophesying false prophecy, and they're going to come out from among you.

There's a danger to it, so when you hear somebody proclaim something, this is a word of God, test it against the whole, and Scripture be a

Berean, and not be a Berean. Scripture is the sole judge. I guess you don't listen to Benny Hinn, huh?

I never have. Have you? I've heard, but I've not listened to them.

Big difference. So now we get into the next one, and that is the gift of evangelists.

Now, the Great Commission does not say that only those who

I have specifically called out are to go into all the world. It's pretty much a universal command in Matthew and Acts that we're to go out.

Evangelists, I feel so fun when I can say that, is this bestowment of this special gift that is given.

That word is not used very often. It's used here. It's used in Acts 21 and 2

Timothy 4 -5. Now, it says that we are all to go out.

Mark 16 -15 is kind of a paraphrase of the Matthew Great Commission, and it says you're to go into all the world and preach the gospel.

This is to all of us, but yet this passage talks about I have given this special grace to those whom

I have given it to. What's the difference between everybody who has the command to evangelize and those who have a special gift of evangelism?

The special gift comes from God, but the call to evangelize, you know, just personal oratory or whatever talent

God has given you. Okay, I'm going to challenge that. If you're going to go with Jeff and Phil and you say,

I would really like to do this, and I'd like to go up to Princeton, and you're going to actually speak out to students out there, don't do it unless you're doing it with God's word and through God and let

God speak in through you, even though you might not have a gift of evangelism. So, anytime you're uttering

God's word in proclamation, being a light in a dark world, you better be doing it with God.

Yeah, well, I'm not saying the word of talent by itself, but based on the word of God.

Based on the word of God, but there are those who have this gift. I'm going to be very honest, brother,

I think you have that gift. I've seen it and I think, you know, it's pretty evident.

And, you know, going out with Phil, it's interesting to watch that gift on him because in Acts 21 .8, it says,

Philip, the evangelist. Well, we have our own Philip, the evangelist, and it's just amazing how students respond to him.

You would think they would just egg him or something like that or throw a tomato in his face. Instead, it's just like he has a certain disposition that people are willing to listen to him.

They don't feel threatened, even though it's a random stranger approaching a stranger. The Lord just allows that connection to happen so quick.

And he has just a way of smiling and it's just a gift. It really is a gift to watch him.

Tim Robinson, I think also has the gift of evangelism. I agree. Yeah. For the rest of us, we don't need the gift to just, you know, share

Christ with a friend. That's the point. That's the point. If you're sitting here and if on a given

Sunday we have 250 people, I don't know, maybe 10 have this gift of evangelistos.

Maybe only 10. But everybody here has the opportunity and the obligation to speak and the ability to just share

Christ. Absolutely do. Absolutely do. Absolutely do. The next one down the line is shepherds.

We're going to read two passages and I'm going to talk about the difference between them. John, did you read already?

Okay, you're going to do Titus 1 -7 and going over there, John, you're going to give me

Hebrews 13. So give me Titus 1 -7 first. 13 -20. That too.

Oh yes, 13 -20. That what I got there? You got it. Okay. Go ahead, John. Titus 1 -7.

Yeah. For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach.

He must not be arrogant or quick -tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain.

Okay, that's probably good. There are lists of the qualifications of the episkopos.

The overseer, the bishop, those who have spiritual accountability to lead and to direct and to watch out for the spiritual care of the church.

That's the episkopos. Hebrews 13. Now the God of peace who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant, even blood, even

Jesus our Lord. The great shepherd and that's

Poimenes. This passage here is

Poimenes, not episkopos. What is the difference between an overseer, bishop, and a shepherd?

That's a good question. Is there one? I know the

Catholic Church. Is there a legitimate biblical difference?

I don't know. You'd have to ask yourself why did he choose

Poimenes here when in other places Paul, the saint, used episkopos.

There is an establishment of an individual who has, I believe, a unique accountability before God for the care of the flock.

For us, that's our pastor. He has, I believe, a calling to be

Poimenes as the shepherd of the flock, much like Christ is called the great shepherd.

At the same time, I think he holds the obligation to be an episkopos, an overseer, those who watch out.

But we have a number of individuals in this church who hold that role of episkopos.

I would contend that somebody who is a care group leader is exercising that role of episkopos.

But we have one Poimenos in the church. That's him. He has this overall shepherding pastor, if you would, shepherding obligation under the authority of God and under the accountability of God for what you have there.

So would you say the episkopos is like an under -shepherd? See, now if you go into...

I have a book. It's called the Expositors Bible Dictionary and it will take different words that are used in New Testament, Hebrew, Old Testament, Greek.

And if you get into the word there, episkopos, it's got all of these terms in there.

It really does. But for some reason, this word Poimenos, it's only used a couple of times.

For the pastor, right? Yeah. And it refers to the great shepherd, Jesus Christ.

So there is a... Based on the fact that Paul chooses to use a different word, there's a different meaning here.

And it's the fact that there is an individual who cares for the flock. Having said that, we do have apostles, which are our foundation, and we do have prophets that foretell and foretell and proclaim the truth as God gives to them.

And I do believe we have teachers. In addition to the Poimenos, we have teachers. And the role of a teacher is somebody who correctly divides the word of God and instructs others with that word.

We have many teachers in this congregation. And teacher,

I don't believe... We didn't talk about this one. But I don't think teacher is a uniquely male gifting, because we have women who teach women.

And they're held accountable to rightly divide the word and to pass it along.

The pastor has a unique obligation to do all of this kind of stuff, the Poimenos.

But underneath that, then we have episcopals, and we have teachers. And the teachers are charged to teach.

The pastor is charged to teach, reprove, instruct, correct, all this other kind of stuff.

Yeah, John? Based on these two words that you just spoke, they're

Greek, right? Yeah. How would you distinguish those two between the churches of Revelation and the great shepherd spoke to the angels of each one of those churches, the pastors of each one of those churches?

How would you distinguish those two words? Within the seven churches, he talks to the lampstand.

I know I've heard you teach on this one. Go ahead. So, the word there in the

Greek is Angelos, right? And Angelos means messenger. So, some who take the interpretation that there is, that that's referring to the pastor, are doing so because they're the primary spokesman who deliver or give the message of God.

But the other interpretation there is that it actually is referring to Angelos as an angel, because angel is translated from Angelos as well.

So that there's a guardian angel over each church. And for some reason, Paul is addressing, I mean,

Jesus is speaking to the Angelos. So, it's kind of questionable whether it's referring to the pastor there in the first place.

So, I wouldn't distinguish between Episkopos or Poimen. In fact, this is a little bit of a difference between the way we're reading this, but that's okay.

In Acts 20, we're told to the Ephesian elders, shepherd the flock of which are made overseers.

Poimen, the flock of which are made Episkopos. So, I'm taking this as an office of Episkopos and Poimen, shepherd, pastor, and overseer is the same office.

So, I think that here it's only referring to shepherd teaching as you, as much as me.

I think you as a pastor of church are an Episkopos and Poimen teacher of the church, as are the other three elders.

So, I have a plurality of elders there. But some people take that view, which would correspond to what you're saying, that every church has an

Angelos, has a pastor overseer, a senior pastor. And I think that's your view, right? Yes.

That every church has a senior pastor. So, your view of Revelation would support his view at that point.

Hey Jeff, do you know how John MacArthur interprets those passages in Revelation? I think he takes that as a pastor.

Yeah, Angelos, yeah. Whether it is appropriate to identify that as separate or the same, the messages in this passage is not changed.

Right. Because what God has ordained, starting out with apostles and then prophets and then evangelists and then pastor teachers or pastor teachers, whichever way you want to do it, what

God has provided to his church after he ascended into heaven was the fullness that equips the church to be spiritually mature.

That's the message of this particular section. We need to go on quickly because what does this all mean?

Give me verses 13 and 14 again. Okay, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the

Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

We are going to, these gifts are going to promote the maturity that is needed within the church because the initiation into God's family is salvation and it is, we are justified.

The blood of Christ washes us clean. But what we are left with are impurities that need to be purified.

Last night we were talking about this and the process of purification of gold.

The goldsmith knows that the pot of gold is pure when he can see the reflection out of the surface because the impurities come up to the top and they need to be skimmed off.

And when there's no more impurities, what's left is a perfect mirror. We are told that the gifts are going to be used after salvation to further our growth of our believers.

And what we're going to experience is growth in unity, growth in knowledge, and growth in being mature.

I want to emphasize the things that come out of this four or five -fold gifting that God gives the church, and that's faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the

Word of God. And the important factor to this is that there is only one true word.

What damages a church almost to tears is when the person who is teaching teaches heresy, whatever it may be.

But there is only one true word. Deuteronomy 7 -9 is going to tell us that we need to know that the

Lord is God. That's the foundation of everything that we should be teaching is know that the

Lord is God and know that Lord who is God. Hebrews 11 says that anybody who comes to Him must believe that He is.

I love the way that just ends. He is. It doesn't say is what. It's almost like it's ego ami.

Whoever comes to Him must believe ego ami. He is. And that's the foundation of a truth.

Acts 26. Rick, I'm going to ask if you would open up Acts 26 and go to verse 18.

This is Paul reciting what happened to him on the road to Emmaus.

And at one point in time in 15, he says, who are you? And go to verse 18.

I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

I'm sending you, Paul. I am me. That's what he says. I am me. And I am sending you with this message so that the world can be delivered from darkness into light and and from evil to righteousness and into faith.

God gives us these gifts and gives the church the gifts so that we will progress down this path of maturity.

And the second half of that is that so that you will weather the storms.

John 16 .33, John Morrow, if you would get that ready, I will talk about Matthew 7.

And Matthew 7 talks about building your house on the rock, not on the sand.

So when the winds come and the storms blow, the house will not fall down.

We are given these gifts, this teaching, so that we get fully equipped into the one true word, no deviations.

It's faith is by hearing the word of God, the true word, and that we know that he is.

And so that is the rock that we're built on. So when the storms come, they don't fall down. John 16 .33.

These things I have spoken to you so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage.

I have overcome the world. That's our hope. This is the purpose for these gifts is so that we're totally equipped not only to know him, not only to grow in, but just to stand up when these various storms come.

Give me 15 and 16, we'll close with these verses. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

In love. First Corinthians 13. Though I speak with the tongues of angels and have not love,

I'm nothing but a clanging bell. Truth must be spoken in love, and I want to emphasize that.

All of these things that are given to us, all these things that are equipping us, truth must be spoken in love.

We're told to sanctify them in truth. Truth sets free according to Nate. There must be truth, but there must be love, and it must be done in a way.

Truth spoken in love. It says in John 14, I am the way, the truth, the life. Nobody comes to the father but by me.

When truth is spoken in love, the body is going to work the way

God intends. Our joints are fit together. Our joints are fit together.

No arthritis. We are many members, but we are one body working together.

And it says in Ephesians 2 that we're all built on the same foundation, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone.

We're built on the apostles and prophets, and we're built into a dwelling for him.

Using these gifts, minister in love. That's God's gift to us following his ascension.

You want to close this? We got a question from John. Which one last? You know who Dr. Francis Schaeffer was?

I know of him. I've read his books. This is a quote from one of his books.

He said, truth carries with it confrontation. Truth demands confrontation.

Loving confrontation. But confrontation nevertheless. It is not love to let your brother go down the path of error.

That is not love. Go ahead. So Father, thank you so much for this passage of scripture that's just so rich with meaning,

Lord. And thank you that we are able to come and dig out that meaning and exposit the scripture and hold tightly to what you have said,

Lord. We pray for this church, this body that you've given us. Thank you for the gifts of people in the body to fulfill these roles that you have given us.

Thank you that you alone are the great shepherd that is over us. And we look to you, our

God and Father, and the chief shepherd of our souls, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. Thank you.