Hope to meet again. If we have the same hope, we
will. Because it's a sure hope through
Christ. Ephesians 4 now. Ephesians chapter
4. If you remember Sunday morning's
study of this chapter, verse 2, how that we were exhorted
with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering that we would
forbear or put up with one another. Do you remember that? Endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The unity
that God has given to us by His Spirit in His Church. Because He says in verse 4, there
is one body. One body. And He is going to
continue this subject in the verses that follow, and those
that are leaders in the church and what their purpose is. The
one body, Christ's church, the body of Christ is one. One Spirit,
he said, verse 4, one Holy Spirit who leads and guides us all. We're led and guided by one Spirit. One hope, we have one hope of
our calling. And that's by grace, the gospel.
We were all called the same way, weren't we? Called by his gospel. And we have one Lord, one who
reigns over us, one faith, we believe the same thing, one baptism,
one confession, one God we worship in spirit and truth, and Father
who has taught all of his children. In other words, do you remember
back in chapter 3? Paul's prayer, verse 15, he said,
I pray to God and Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven
and earth is named. So what this is, is a family. Just as any family is united
with one father and mother and under one roof, that's what this
is. We have all things common, and we're here for one purpose.
One purpose. to glorify God, to worship God
in Christ through the gospel. We're all here for one reason,
one purpose, and we strive together for that purpose. And the sooner
we learn that, that we're not really individuals when it comes
to this place, but we're all unified in this one purpose. We're not individuals. We throw
out our individuality when we come in here. The sooner we realize
that, that we have one purpose, and that is to strive together
to help one another in this thing of worship and knowing Christ,
the better it will be for each of us individually. Not only
will it be better for the church as a whole, but for us individually. Us individually, the family.
Yet, we are individuals. We are different. And I'm glad.
It would be real boring if we were all the same. And I've said
before, if you were all like me, I probably wouldn't have
been here this long. And you probably feel the same
way. But we're all individuals. Yes, we are. And we're different.
And verse 7 says this. Verse 7. It says, unto every
one of us is given grace. God has given grace. Are you
looking at it? Every one of God's people are
saved by grace and given grace. Verse 7, given grace. Well, who gets what? Who gets
how much? You know, there are different
graces that God gives us, faith, we've all been given a degree
of faith, hope, love, certainly, but there are graces of kindness
and compassion and tenderness and long-suffering and understanding
and discernment and on and on you go. Who decides who gets
what and how much? Christ does. Look at it. Verse
7, it says, according to the measure of the gift of Christ,
it's His body, His He's the one who gives out these gifts. He
measures it out. He doles it out according as
he will. He decides who gets what and
how much. Okay? So for that reason, we
should never be envious of anybody or jealous of anybody or desire
or whatever. But no man, or listen to me,
no man or woman gets a full measure of anything. Nor does any one
man or woman get all of the gifts. Our Lord was the only one who
had the Spirit without measure, the Scripture says, the fullness
of God. All the fullness dwelled in Him,
the Godhead, Bapu. He had the Spirit without measure. No one man or woman gets full
measure of any gift, nor does any one man or woman get all
of the gift. Turn with me to Romans 12. Romans
chapter 12. And here he says the same thing
here, and he tells us some of the gifts that have been given.
Romans chapter 12, verse 3. The last part of verse 3 says,
according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
As we have many members in one body, all members have not the
same office. He's talking about our physical
bodies, and the hand is not the foot, the foot is not the arm,
and on and on, but they all have their purpose. one seems more
prominent than another, it doesn't mean it's more needful, does
it? What's the most vital part of
your body? The head? That's Christ. He's called the head of the body.
Everything comes from that. Or I read on, it says, we have
many members, one body, and not the same office though. Verse
5, we being many are one body in Christ and everyone members
one of another, vitally joined together. That's what he says
in that verse 16 over there. It seemed like a difficult verse,
didn't it? By that which every joint supplieth, worketh together
the effectual working of every part, maketh the increase of
the body under the edifying of itself in love. Now that sounds
difficult, but all it's saying is, my foot is pulling, is working
with the rest of me. And if the head decides I'm going
over here, the foot better be going that way, or it's working
against me. So it's all got to work together
in order to, all right? That's what he's saying. Read
on. Romans 12, he says, verse 6, having then gifts differing
according to the grace that's given to us, and on and on it
goes, different gifts. All right, go back to Ephesians
4. Different gifts. So he gives different gifts. Ephesians 4, verse 8. And Christ
is the one who gives these gifts according to as he sees fit. Wherefore, verse 8, now he's
quoting Psalm 68 here, when he says, when he ascended up on
high, that is when Christ arose from the grave and ascended up
to heaven, he led captivity captive. I love to advert. Our brother
Patrick read Psalm 68 tonight. I knew he would. I knew he would,
because he asked me where I was preaching from tonight, and I
just figured he'd look it up. But Christ is our Lord and Savior,
the Redeemer of His people, the Redeemer of the body, and He
ascended to His throne in heaven. where he is right now reigning
and ruling over his church. No man rules his church. Christ
rules his church. That's right. He has under-shepherds.
He has those who have taken the oversight thereof, but they were
called by him, sent by him. They have his mind, his heart.
They don't do anything without consulting him. And he won't
let them do anything that's truly hurtful to his church. No, sir. He's reigning. Now, I personally
really like that thought, that even my mistakes, He'll overrule
them, and He won't let me do you any harm. It says he led captivity captive.
I've always misapplied that. I've always applied that to Christ
taking Satan captive, though that does apply. But this is
talking about us. How we were captives. We were
captives. Go back to chapter 2, verse 2. Chapter 2, verse 2 tells us that
in time past we walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air. Children of
disobedience. He said in 2 Timothy that God
uses men to that God, for adventure, will free somebody from this captivity.
But now, he's led us who were captives of Satan, sin, the world,
and all this, he's freed us from that. But yet, we're his captives
now. He's led captivity captive. But we're willing captives. We
are bond slaves. We're willing captives. I'm kind
of joking, not really joking, but it's true. I said to John,
and I said, John, you're now Irene's captive, aren't you?
And vice versa. But he's willing, isn't he? Are
you happy about that? Sure you are. And we're captives,
we're captivated by Christ, aren't we? Captivated by him and with
him. So he led captivity captive. That's the story of our freedom
and our unity to him as his bride. Verse
9 and 10. And he gave, or verse 8 says
he gave gifts unto men. Now verse 9 and 10 are simply
a statement clarifying who this was that did this. But this was
Immanuel who came down, God manifest in the flesh, verse 9 and 10.
Now he that ascended, what is it, but he's the one who descended
first. That is, Christ came in the flesh,
in the lower parts of the earth. And he that descended is the
same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might
fulfill all things. So now let's read verses 8 and
11 together. So verse 9 and 10 were just telling us for certain
who it was that led captivity captive. Christ. Alright, verses
8 and 11. Wherefore he saith when he ascended
up on high, David said, he led captivity captive and gave gifts
unto men. And he gave some, he gave some
apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors
and some teacher. Now, the gifts he's giving are
to these particular offices. These men themselves are gifts
to the church, but that's not the context. He's talking about
giving gifts, according to his measure, to these various offices
and men that he sent. All right? It says, let's look
at it, verse 11. He gave some gifts, that is, to apostles. And he speaks of the apostles
first because they were the chief, even greater than the prophets. The prophets, some of the prophets
didn't even know what they were prophesying, did they? That's
what Peter said. who prophesied of the things
that they didn't know, but now they know. But they know through
us, Peter said. The apostles were given special
gifts. Of that there's no doubt. They
were given just supernatural gifts, powers, weren't they?
Healing, languages. If you were an apostle, you'd
have gone to Mexico and spoken fluently. preached in every place
down there. That's amazing, that, without
going to school. The Lord gave them the gift of
languages wherever they went. Miracles. Miracles. Healing. A couple of them even
raised somebody from the dead. Now, need I say that there are
no more apostles? I know these fools call themselves
that, but they're sure on it. And he gave them authority over
the church. The things they wrote in this
book are God's Word. They're not the words of men.
They're not the words of Paul. No, sir. But they're the authority
of the very Word of God. And these men were chief in the
church. Then he says prophets. He gave some gifts to prophets.
And now he's still talking about New Testament times. There were
prophets before, and before the Word was completely written,
there were still some prophets around. John was the last of
the Old Testament prophets, Old Testament, but there were some
New Testament, a man named Agabus, and so on. But these men had
a special gift of discernment of Old Testament scriptures.
They could foretell future events. John the Apostle was a prophet. John the Apostle, the revelation,
you know, through John. It says he gave some gifts to
evangelists, that is, these were traveling preachers and missionaries. Philip was one of those. Philip
was an evangelist, wasn't he? And others. There were 70 of
them God sent out as evangelists. Pastors and teachers, some pastors
and teachers, and some people think this is the same office,
which it is if a pastor is a teacher and vice versa. But in some churches,
like some large churches, there are men who are teachers who
are not pastors. And all pastors are indeed teachers. But he gave these gifts to these
different offices. But he didn't give all the gifts
to any one in particular. All the apostles didn't prophesy.
Neither did the prophets have the powers that the Lord gave
the apostles. Pastors are not really called
to go out and be an evangelist full time. Though, Paul told
Timothy, who was a pastor at Ephesus, to do the work of being
an evangelist. But not too much of it. You're
supposed to stay home. And there were pastors, Timothy,
James, Epaphroditus, and on and on. And yet all of these gifts were
different, but they all served one purpose. Right? They were all different gifts,
different degrees, but they all served one purpose. The glory
of God through the preaching of His Word for the good of the
body. Right? They all served that one
purpose. Verse 12. It says, for the perfecting
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying
of the body of Christ. See, that's everything and everyone
serves this one cause. We serve Christ. And in order
to serve Christ, we serve the body. Christ is in heaven. We can't do anything for him. He doesn't need anything anyway.
But his body is here on earth. That's how we serve Him. And so, what does all this do?
What does all this do? It does away with this individuality. And it does away with pride.
It does away with self-importance. It does away with selfishness. There is no place for selfishness
in the body of Christ. No place. No place for self-glory. Not in me, not in you, not in
anyone. No place for self-seeking, seeking
our own. Scripture says, let no man seek
his own, but every man look on the things of others. There's
no self-seeking. Like in a large family, nobody
can be out for themselves. You've got to look out for everybody
else. And in doing so, you help yourself, too. There's no place
for self-pity. That doesn't help the body. That's
thinking all of yourself. And all who promote themselves,
whether it be a preacher or whoever it may be, all who promote themselves, God's going to leave them to
themselves. All those who think only of themselves, all those
who look out only for themselves, God will lead them to themselves,
and that's lonely and miserable company. Let me say it again. Let me say
it as kindly as I can, too. We all get into this. We all
are wonderful self-pityers, aren't we? All of us. And a lot of our
problems, if not most of them, spring from this. But if we think only of ourselves
and look out for ourselves and are always pitying ourselves
when there's probably, I'm quite sure, someone in worse shape
than we are who needs help more than we do. If that's all we
do, God will leave us to ourselves. And that's mighty poor company.
Mighty poor company. It is more blessed to give than
to receive. Our Lord said that. It's more blessed to give than
to receive. Our Lord who left everything, he left everything. All the adulation, adoration,
all the love, all the family, God himself, and all the worship
of angels. To come here for every person
on earth to hate his guts. Why did he do that? He didn't
have to do that. And he sure didn't pity himself, not one
time. He did it for us. He did it for
us. He who left the mansions of glory
with all of its, well, finery, he who had everything, he who
was rich, for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty
might be made rich. He said, are you poor? He said,
a son of man doesn't have any place to lay his head. But not
once did he feel sorry for himself. Nor was he ever discontented
because of that. The Lord gave him the way he
had perfect peace and contentment. There's a lesson to be learned
there. He said, I didn't come to be ministered unto, but to
minister. He said, now take my yoke upon you and learn of me,
and you'll find rest for your souls. It's more blessed to give
than to receive, because God blesses those that give. God
loveth a cheerful giver. He despises a taker, a taker,
a taker, a taker. Servants are the most blessed
by Christ. Christ, who thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, took upon himself the form of a servant,
made himself of no reputation, and so God has given him a name
above every name. He who had no friends, and yet
now he's beloved by many, isn't he? So it's more blessed to give
than to receive, and our purpose for being here is not to receive
help, but to give it. Oh yeah, that's right. This is
for the working together, the edifying of itself in love. All
right, let's look at this office, and the only one we're really
concerned with. You notice pastors and teachers are mentioned last,
because there are no more apostles. There are no more prophets, nor
do I know today of another evangelist. I don't know of any evangelists
anymore. Bill Clark was one, a missionary, same thing as a
missionary. Cody Gruber and Walter Gruber in that sense are evangelists,
yet they are pastors. But evangelists, like Ralph Barnard
was a good example of this, wasn't he, of an evangelist. Haven't
been many like him come along in our time. The Lord used that
man. This church is an indirect result
of Ralph Barnard. And every grace church you know
of, every preacher you've ever heard in this place and others,
is an indirect result of Ralph Barnard preaching. A fellow from
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, who was a seminary professor
down there. You know that? He was a seminary professor.
Didn't know the gospel from a hole in the ground. And the Lord taught
him the truth, opened his eyes, his blind eyes, and he went on
the circuit as an evangelist, went traveling, actually went
out west. And I don't have time to tell all this, but I'm doing
it anyway. Actually went out west back in the fifties when
it was still the wild west. And went into saloons and on
and on. The stories are many of Margaret.
Was actually beaten up and run out of town on a rail. preached
to dance hall queens and everything. He was an interesting story.
But he came back here and traveled throughout the Southeast United
States, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, and
all these places, Georgia, Alabama, and various men. He crossed their
paths, God crossed their paths through the preaching of that
man and just split this Southern Baptist, Armenian, Southeast
United States all to pieces. Just tore it all to pieces. Tore
this religious playhouse all to pieces. All these good, saved
Christian people got lost. God gave that man a gift that
very few men had. He had the gift of, he used to
say, I'm not trying to get people saved, I'm trying to get them
lost. like John the Baptist. And that's a gift, a banter. I don't know of any more like
that. I really don't. Thank God for him. Well, there
sure are some faithful pastors and teachers, though. Pastor
and teacher, as the others, has one purpose. Verse 12, the perfecting of the
saints. Now, none of us will ever be
perfect. It doesn't mean that we might
be absolutely morally perfect, but the word perfect, as you
know, means maturity. That we might grow up and mature. Complete is a better word than
perfection. That we might be a complete,
or that is, a whole person for the perfecting of the saints. A perfect man, verse 13 said. See that? A mature man, mature
woman. The measure of Christ is Christ-like. That's our goal. That's our aim, is it not? That's
why God saves us. That's why He predestinated us
to be conformed to the image of Christ. That's my goal. I want to be like Him, and I
want you to be like Him. That's why I preach. be the measure of Christ. Verse
15 says that we might grow up into Him in all things. We all
want to grow up and be just like Jesus Christ. Don't we? When I was young, I had an older
brother, and he was my hero. Captain of the football team,
and then he went to the Army and won everything there was
to win. Boot camp, advanced infantry,
and then went to Vietnam, and he was my hero. I wanted to grow
up and be just like him. Well, we've got an elder brother,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and we love everything about him. We
admire everything about him. He's our hero. He's our captain,
the captain of our salvation. Yes, he went to battle too, didn't
he? And he did die. He laid down his life, but he
rose again. And He ever lives to make intercession. We want
to grow up and be just like Him. That's a pretty good illustration.
That's what this is all about. That's why I preach. And that's
what my purpose is. Read on. It says, for the work
of the ministry, verse 12, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
The pastor or teacher is for the work of the ministry. He's
not a socializer, an organizer. He's not trying to get people
this and that and the other together for political causes. The work
of the ministry is to preach the gospel that people might
know Christ, and you know then, really, all of their troubles
are over. Well, they have all the troubles that everybody else
has, but their troubles with God are over. Their inner turmoil
and chaos and confusion, that's gone. And on and on I could go. We come to the knowledge of Christ,
it's a saving knowledge. It saves us not only from death,
but from a life of grief and sorrow and turmoil. Verse 12, for the edifying of
the body of Christ, preaching of the gospel is for the edifying
of the body of Christ. I know some men who like nothing
more than to discipline people. There's nothing I like less.
I don't know why they like it. I knew a young man, and you know
him too if I call his name, that all he ever wanted to do was
discipline people, is purge the rolls. Well, he did all right
until it was gone. Nobody left but him and his wife.
I'm telling you the truth. Every time we got together with
him and his wife, all he wanted to talk about was, what am I
going to do if this happens, if that happens? How am I going
to handle it? Now, he never would listen to
me. And I told him, your job is to
feed the sheep, not fleece them and beat them and discipline
them and so forth. That's not your job, to feed
them. Well, he wouldn't listen, so he's out of the ministry. God removed him. Our job, my
job, is to edify the body of Christ. Well, how do I edify
it? What is the work of the ministry? My dad told him in the preacher
class one time, he said, Todd, you'll never have to worry about,
he said, it's not personality that God uses, you'll never have
to worry about that. Gifts, it's God's word that he
uses, not personality, it's not charisma, personal abilities, but the thing
that God uses is his word. That's the preacher's tool, the
preacher's power. This is what causes us to grow
up in him and all things, complete. This is the work of the ministry,
to preach the Word, that is, the gospel. For the edifying,
this is what edifies, or that is, feeds, this is what sheep
feed upon, sheep food, the body of Christ. Now listen, I don't magnify myself,
and I don't even like to deal with this. But it's come up. But I do magnify my office, and
it's high time somebody did. Now more than ever, in this generation,
when there's nothing but a bunch of ignorant fools who are called
preachers and pastors and reverends, who are the scum of the earth,
now more than ever, this office Dignity and respect needs to
be brought back to this office, doesn't it not? I appreciate
that much about our President right now. Like him or not, he
has restored some dignity and respect to the office of the
President of the United States. Even those that don't like him
say, sir, when that dude before him sure did bring it low, didn't
he? And now more than ever, in this office, and there are men
today, and I'm not magnifying myself, but the office. There
are men today who are the finest men on this planet who would
make good presidents and governors and so forth. They'll never be
elected, and they won't run. But God's Word magnifies this
office, doesn't it? God's Word does. Yeah, I promoted John, don't
you understand? He said, what did you go out
to see? Did you go out to see one of these scribes and Pharisees?
These little weaklings? No, he's a man. These people respected him. Even
his enemies, Nancy, respected him. Even the Pharisees and the
scribes came to hear John, though he was dressed in camel hair. They had to respect such authority.
And no man is sufficient for these things. No man is sufficient
for these things. The Lord sent those fishermen
out, I guarantee each one of them said, don't send me, like
Moses and on and on. But our sufficiency is of God. Our sufficiency is of God. That's
our competence. He ordained this office and he
equips those for it. Uh-huh. And I knew a man who,
every time he got up, he was a preacher and a pastor and a
good one, but every time he got up, he would apologize for being
mad. He's a very humble man, very meek man, and he meant it
sincerely. He said, I don't have any business
here and all that. Finally, a couple of us cornered him and said,
listen, we all know you're worthless. We all know, everybody knows
you're just a man like everybody else, but God put you up there,
he sent you, now act like it. That's not being proud of yourself,
but that's magnifying the office. You've got a job to tell, thus
saith the Lord. Nobody's going to listen to a
man that doesn't speak with authority anyway. And I'm thankful now
more than ever. Knowing what I know now, I'm
thankful now more than ever for a faithful pastor that God put
me under. And I consult him now more than
ever. I wish I'd done more so then. If I was just a church member
now, I'd be the best one in the book. Guaranteed. I guarantee you I'd listen more
carefully, I'd follow him, I'd support him now more than ever.
Guaranteed. And I didn't say that for my
sake. That's a confession. I was ashamed of myself as a
young believer. So it's written here, this is for the edifying
of the body of Christ, not the puffing up of the man, but till we all, verse 13, till
we all come into the unity of the faith, that's what this is
all about, and that we all be united by faith
in Christ. Let's just look at a few of these
things for maturity here. Spiritual maturity is what we
seek. Go to 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter chapter
1. 2 Peter chapter 1. Spiritual maturity
is what you and I need. You know that? One time, not long ago, I told
you I've learned all I need to learn in this world, and I stumbled
all over myself trying to explain it. Now, I've got a lot of lessons
to learn, I know that, and experience. Yet, as far as this world goes,
you know, there's only so much you can learn. But spiritually,
spiritually, My, my, we've got so much to learn spiritually.
Maturity, spiritual maturity, that's what we need and that's
what we need to aim at. James said that we may be perfect
and entire, wanting or that is lacking nothing. 2 Peter 1, verses
5 and on, Peter says, give diligence. Add to your faith virtue, to
virtue knowledge, to knowledge temperance, to temperance patience,
to patience godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, to brotherly
kindness charity. If these things be in you and
abound, they make you that you shall either be barren or unfruitful
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh
these things, and so on and so forth. So we need maturity in all of
these things, don't we? Don't we need to grow in patience? Patience? If we don't have more
patience, if we don't learn, if we don't grow in patience,
we'll be impulsive, right? Won't we? We'll be impatient,
and we'll act hastily, and we'll probably bring great reproach
on the church, on ourselves, on Christ, and on and on it goes
if we're intemperate. If we don't grow in kindness
and on and on it goes. We need to grow in these areas. And back in our text, so the
maturity that we seek is spiritual maturity. What is it that matures
up? It's the Word of God. Just like
food, if someone goes without nutritional food, their body
will suffer greatly. They will be deficient in many
areas. You need every, every nutritionist and health expert
will tell you, you need the basic, all the basics of the food chain,
right? No bypassing that. I don't care what modern science
says. Read God's Word if you want to
know how to eat. And those that lack these things will be deficient
in certain areas. Deficient in iron, deficient
in whatever, zinc, on and on it goes. And just like if we
leave out proper nutritional food physically, if we leave
out spiritual food, we'll become deficient in all these areas.
Right? We'll become spiritually anemic
and weak. There's milk. It says, desire
the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. Now
Dan, I know you can have milk, you can't have bread. Some people
can't tolerate lactose, right? But everybody needs this milk. Everybody starts out with milk.
All of God's people start with milk. You don't start chewing
on strong meat necessarily, but milk, foundation. And you go
on. Bread, there's meat, there's
a difference between milk and meat. Right? Paul said in Hebrews,
he that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness
if he doesn't go on to meat. So he said, let's go on to perfection.
You remember these verses, we've looked at them. There's meat,
so there's different food. We need it all. We need it all. There's honey. The Scriptures
are so sweet, aren't they? In places. If God gives you... You know, the older you get,
when you get real old, there's nothing you don't like. Is there,
Henry? Is there anything Henry doesn't
like? He didn't get like that and might eat him. But when you
get real old, you know, you like everything. If your wife fries
shoe leather, you'll be thankful for it and eat it. You understand
what I'm saying? Same spiritually. It'll all be
sweet to you, even the rebuke, even the warnings, even the conviction,
convicting word. See what I'm saying? The psalmist said, let the righteous
smite men, it will be kindness. Even the chastening is kindness.
There's honey, it's sweet, but there's bitter herbs, we need
them both. There are promises. Oh, we need
promises. There's warnings. We need them
both. There's words of comfort and words of rebuke. As Paul
told Timothy, all scriptures are given by inspiration of God
and are profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction. What if a child did not receive
chastening? What if a child did not receive
rebuke? What if a child was not corrected
by his parent? Well, what you have is the children
of 2003. Spoiled brats. Worthless to society
and themselves. They need it. They cry out for
it, whether the parent realizes it or not. And nobody, nobody
profits from an undisciplined child. Well, most of our personal
problems spring from a spiritual deficiency. And the answer is
in them. There is no answer out there
in the world from anybody or anything. Would you listen to
me? There is no wisdom outside of
that wisdom that comes from without. I've told you before that the
leading profession today in suicides is psychiatry. And people are
going to those dudes with their problems. I've even heard a preacher so-called
going to Christian psychiatrists. They don't belong in the ministry,
those men. They've got a Bible. This is where we get our answers.
And if you can't find it in this book, there are men that God
has given who can. You understand what I'm saying?
If you're not looking for the answer, you need to seek someone
who is. And what that man will do And
we would be wise to consult someone who is wise from God's Word. And if that man is wise, if he's
truly wise, what he will do is tell you nothing but what he
has learned from this right here. And you can't go wrong. He's
going to lead you right. That's right. If he's wise, and
all of God's men are that way. That's what he said. He gave
some pastors and teachers. And if you, like James said,
are willing, obedient, if you are doers of the word, not hearers
only, then you'll profit. You'll profit. And everybody
else will too. Till we all come, verse 13, in the unity of the
faith, the unity of the faith, not only unified in our belief,
we've already seen that, one faith, but the unity of the faith,
the unified cause. I hope somebody's with me. Till
we all come to realize, I'm not here for me. That's what Paul said, all these
things have fallen out for your glory, unto me for your glory. This is what the unity of the
faith is. Paul came to that unity of the faith and he said, for
me to live is what? It's Christ. That's the unity
of the faith. Paul said, I've learned in whatsoever
state I am to be content. I'm where God put me. And for
me to live, if I die, fine, I'll go be with Christ. That's far
better. But if I stay here, it's for your sake, he said. Now he,
he's in the cause. He's in the cause. And so do
we need to be. He was a happy man. Paul was
a happy man. He spent many years in prison.
There was nobody suffered like Paul did. Nobody quite as alone
as Paul was. Nobody, with the exception of
our Lord himself. Yet he was a contented man, at
peace. He could sit in a jail cell and
sing. Do you want that? Until we all come
to the unity of the faith of the knowledge of the Son of God.
See, this is something a little bit different. The knowledge
of the Son of God. I want to know, now this is not a doctrinal
knowledge, it's not knowing about Christ, this is having his knowledge
to live by. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, that's what that meant. If I had the
knowledge of Christ, if I had the degree of what he knew, that
God He committed himself. When he was reviled, he didn't
revile again. When he was reproached, he reproached again. He didn't
try to defend himself. This and that and the other.
He didn't spend his life totally committed. He knew where his
health came from. If that mind was in you and me,
Nancy, we wouldn't have a Careywood. We'd have cast it all on him.
We wouldn't have him on. That's impossible, isn't it?
But I want more than what I got. I know that. I want more than
what I've got. Under the measure, look, read
on. Under a perfect man, that is, I want to act like a man.
And you want to act like a woman? I'm looking at Jim, am I? Okay.
Don't you want to act like a woman? That is, a godly woman, a Christ-like
woman, a woman Christ's bride, God's daughter. Don't you want
to act like that? Bring glory to Him. under the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. As we said, want to grow up and
be like Him. No more children, verse 14, that
we be henceforth no more children. What are children? Children are
tossed to and fro, they're up and down, they're easily upset,
they're easily mad, they eat this and that and the other.
Children are just all up and down, up and down, up and down.
I don't want to be that way anymore. Tossed to and fro. Easily upset. Carried about with every wind
of doctrine. Children are easily led astray, especially by, look
at it, especially by cunning men. It's a slight of men. Children, come here little girl,
come here little boy. You know, I don't want to be led astray
by these wolves in sheep's clothes. Let me read to you what my pastor
read, and he said it very succinctly in his commentary. Listen, he
said when we were first converted, we were babes in Christ. We were
babes in understanding. We had to be fed milk. I remember,
you know, I remember very well when I was a young, young believer,
I didn't like the book of James. I didn't like it. I believed
salvation by grace, Henry, not works. And I didn't understand
James, you know. I thought he was teaching works.
I didn't like it. Martin Luther didn't even want
it in the Bible. That's a baby in understanding,
isn't it? Now I know there's no conflict between James and
Romans. But we were babes in understanding. You know, I'd amen Grace, but
I'd get real quiet when I'd hear about responsibility. We were
babes in understanding, had to be fed with milk. We were babes
in strength, very weak, had to be protected. Somebody might have to walk on
eggshells around you for fear, right? Fear of offending you. We had to be watched over. We
had to be pacified. Babies need pacifiers. So do immature believers, need
pacifiers. Give them something to make them
happy. Babes in fruit, that is, who
don't produce much fruit, and children are in danger, he says,
from false teachers, cunning men, strange doctrines. And a
true minister, then, must feed them the word of God, and they
grow up in all things in Christ. They become strong in faith,
love, patience, knowledge, and all grace, and the danger of
them being deceived or led away from Christ lessens and lessens
and lessens. And they become mature and grounded
and settled. And you can't offend them. And
you can't run them off. And nobody's going to lead them
off. I don't want to be like that, don't you? Some of you
are. men, women, but they're babes, they're young men and
fathers. But that's the whole purpose,
that we all be of stature, grow up. That's what we want for our
children, them to grow up and be fine young men and women,
productive citizens and all that, humanly speaking. And that's
our purpose and goal in what we do here. Verse 15, and this
is the manner in which I, the preacher, am to do this. Speak
the truth in love. Speaking the truth in love. You
will be thought the enemy of some. Paul said that. He said, am I to become your
enemy because I tell you the truth? There was a time when
I was a teenager when I thought my dad was overly harsh with
me and too strict and mean. I thought my dad was mean. I
know better now. I was a rebel. That was the whole
problem. I was a mean one. And Paul said, and I'll become
your enemy because I'll tell you the truth. The truth's got
to hurt before it sets you free. Right? The heart's got to be
broken before it's healed. We've got to be brought down
before we're lifted up. We've got to be emptied our mind before
it's filled with the knowledge. We've got to be children before
we're grown, or young people, grown men and women. Speak the
truth in love. Though speak the truth, don't
be, if I yet speak to please men, afraid of what it might
offend somebody, I'm not deserving of Christ's It wouldn't be a
good parent if he menced your word with you. But do it in love. Do it in such a way that the
person knows that you love them. Not just being mean. You're telling
the truth. The truth is a good force. It
will set us free. Set us free. Set us free. Christ
said, you know, the truth will set you free. His Son sets you free. You're
free indeed. And this is what the whole body
joins together in doing. In verse 15, we receive everything
from Christ the Head. The whole body is joined together
in this. Every joint supply, we need every one of you. We need each other, don't we? I've said before, I've asked
you before, who in here would you be willing to do with that? Nobody. Not even the youngest. or the youngest believer, or
the oldest. We're not ready for Henry to
show you. Aren't we? We're a bird's-shearing.
And we're not, we don't want to lose anybody. We're all a
vital part here. I don't want to lose my little
toe. I don't even want to lose a nail off my little toe. Huh? It's painful and it hurts. There's
a gap. Something's missing. We're all violent. But we all,
you know, Don't be a sore toe. That's to each of us. You might be a toe, but don't
be a sore toe. Edify the body, and they'll edify
you. They'll edify you. All right,
stand with me. And I give you that we're complete
in Christ, yet we want to grow and raise in the knowledge of
him. Send your word and spirit and truth and help us grow up
in Christ in all things. Create life for one another. for Christ's sake, the glory
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.