Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter
4. I'd like to look at verses 11
to 16, but before we begin, let's ask our Lord's blessing. Our Father, how we thank you
for this precious time to be here. the meeting to hear the glorious
gospel of God's grace in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I pray you bless the
services. Cause us to hear. Teach us by
your Spirit. Forgive us for Christ's sake.
Amen. The Apostle Paul in verse 7 had
set forth under the revelation of God's Spirit, that the Lord,
according to His will and purpose, gives to each believer grace
according to the measure of the gift of Christ. That is a portion. It is a portion that is needed
for the fulfillment of every vital part of the body. We desperately
need each other. We desperately need each other.
And also he said in verse 9 that the Lord came into this world
and victoriously conquered conquered sin, conquered Satan, conquered
death, conquered all that needed to be conquered, while you and
I don't even realize what needs to be conquered. We say sin,
Satan, self, the world, but how much do we really know
but that the Lord knows? Verse 9 says that He ascended. What is it? but he also descended
first into the lower parts of the earth. And I read Psalm 139
verses 13 to 15 and showed where that lower parts of the earth
was his mother's womb. Go back and read that and you'll
see he was talking about when he was born in his mother's womb,
the lower parts of the earth. Now for his people to be delivered
from the power, captivity, of all that opposed them. He had
to be made like them and for them conquer their opposition
by suffering what they deserved. Sin had to be conquered. He was
made sin. Death had to be conquered. He
died. His obedience to God's law, God's
will, God's purpose, His righteousness now rose. Now He has conquered
all that opposes us and He has robed us, all believers, in His
righteousness. Now, having fulfilled all that
was necessary, all that was demanded by God's law, let's look this
evening, verses 11 to 16, and I want us to see what
Almighty God has given. He victoriously conquered, put
away our guilt, robes us in His righteousness. Now, He has now
given us these gifts that we're going to look at this evening,
and it's for the perfecting of the saints, the building up,
the maturing of God's people. Let's see what the Lord has to
say. Verses 11 and 12, He gave some apostles, some prophets,
some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the perfecting
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying
of the body of Christ. Now, when the Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world, He called 12 apostles, 12 apostles. Men especially called and commissioned
by Christ, taught the gospel by the Lord Jesus Christ. The
apostles were men that heard Him, that saw Him, that learned
what they learned from the Lord. Now there were twelve apostles
and one of them was a devil. That's what the Lord said, Satan,
a devil. But in time, that apostle was
replaced. Now I know the 11 apostles, they
chose Matthias and everything and it's mentioned and it's not
mentioned anymore. But the Lord raised up Paul. Saul of Tarsus converted him
on the road to Damascus, Paul the apostle. Now I want you to
look at 1 Corinthians 9. 1 Corinthians 9, 1-2. 1 Corinthians 9, 1 and 2. Now this is for the building
up the saints. He gave first apostles. This
is what the church needed. 1 Corinthians 9, 1 and 2. Am I not an apostle? Am I not
free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ
our Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord?
If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you. For
the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord." Now, Paul
the apostle said, I've seen the Lord, I saw the Lord. Turn to
Acts 9.17. Acts 9.17. Now remember, an apostle
had to learn the gospel, see the Lord. Learn the gospel from
the Lord. Acts 9, 17. The apostle Paul, Saul of Tarsus,
converted on the road to Damascus. The Lord blinded him, sent him
in to that city of Damascus and sent one over to speak to Saul
of Tarsus, Paul the apostle. Acts 9, 17. Listen to this. Ananias, when his way entered
into the house, putting his hands upon him, said, Brother Saul,
the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way, as thou
camest, has sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and
be filled with the Holy Ghost." Turn to Galatians 1, 11 and 12.
So, the inspiration of God by His Holy Spirit says that
Paul saw the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a vision. The Spirit of
God says he saw Him. So he said, I've seen the Lord.
Galatians 1 verse 11 and 12. The Scripture says, But I certify
you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached to me is not
after man, for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught
it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. So the Apostle
Paul, he saw the Lord and was taught the gospel by the Lord
Jesus Christ. Chosen, ordained, taught, and
sent by Christ Himself just like all the other apostles. Now they
were endued with power to perform miracles to confirm that they
were who they said they were. I want you to look at Hebrews
2 verses 3 and 4. Hebrews 2 verse 3 and 4. For if the word spoken by angels
was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just,
recompensive reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great
salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord,
and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him, God also
bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, with divers
miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His will."
Now these apostles, this is what the church needed, this is what
the Lord gave to the church, first apostles, and they were
called of God for the establishing These early churches, they were
ministers and servants of Christ that personally, as I said, you
have to understand, men use these titles, Apostle so-and-so. There are no other apostles.
The apostles are no more. There were those apostles that
the Lord called. And now they're not here anymore.
Men that heard the gospel, that saw the Lord Jesus Christ, taught
of Him, and were sent in the establishing of the first churches,
and were endued with power. Miracles. They were miracles
to confirm that they were who they were. I want you to look
at 1 John 1 verses 1-4. Now, we're going to turn to a
few Scriptures here, but we need to look at it. 1 John 1. Verse 1 to 4, John the Apostle says, that which
was from the beginning, which we've heard, which we've seen
with our eyes, which we've looked upon, our hands have handled
of the word of life. The life was manifested and we've
seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life
which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. that
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also
may have fellowship with us." And truly, our fellowship is
with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, and these
things write we unto you that your joy may be full. You know
how settling, how comforting, how assuring it was to these
local bodies and these early churches that were established
that God would send men and speak to these churches truthfully
through the mouths of men, blessed of the Holy Spirit, that learn
the gospel from the Lord. These churches were established
by God, raised up for this purpose. Now, I want you to turn to John
20, the Gospel of John, chapter 20. an amazing passage of Scripture,
John chapter 20, verse 19 and 20. Now the Lord is getting ready
to send these apostles out. He soon will be leaving. He's
going to the cross. And after He's gone to the cross,
raised from the dead, He meets with His apostles. Now, after
the resurrection, Now, just a few days, he's going to ascend back
into heaven. And listen to this scripture, John 20, verse 19
to 22. It said, Then the same day at
evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were
shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews,
came Jesus and stood in the midst and said unto them, Peace be
unto you. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his
hands, his side. Then were the disciples glad
when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again,
Peace be unto you, as my Father hath sent me, even so send I
you." Now listen, I'm going to read this next verse in just
a second. They had been with the Lord these three, three and
a half years, walking with the Lord. And now the Lord is saying,
okay, I'm getting ready to send you out. Now listen to what he
says, as my Father sent me, Even so send I you. Verse 22, And
when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them,
Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Now, these men, and I truthfully
believe, I read Brother Henry on this verse of Scripture right
here, and I see exactly what he was saying. These men had
received the Holy Spirit. They believed the Lord. They
couldn't have believed without the Holy Spirit prior to this.
But the Lord is commissioning them to go out and to establish
these churches. And what He's actually done is
for the special purpose of discernment. Now this was something that these
apostles had that no one else had. I want you to turn with
me to Acts 5. They could discern Spirit. They could discern spiritually
things that you and I. I don't know what you're thinking.
I can't perceive. You can say something to me and
I can kind of guess maybe what you're thinking or mean or something
like that. But I want you to look at Acts
chapter 5 verses 1 to 4. Acts 5 verses 1 to 4. But a certain man named Ananias
with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession and kept back part
of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain
part and laid it at the apostles' feet. Now you listen to what's
said next. What he did was he came in, he
brought in some money. Scripture said he sold a possession. kept back part of the price. And he came in and he laid some
money down at the Apostle's feet. Now that's how much we know.
But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled thine heart
to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price
of the land? Why has it remained? Was it not
thine own? and after it was sold, was it
not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this
thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men,
but unto God." The Lord gave the apostles a spirit of discernment
to know. I want you to look at Acts 8,
Acts 8, verse 18 to 23. Acts 8, 18 to 23. There was a man named Simon,
he saw some miraculous things. When Simon saw that through laying
on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered
them money saying, give me also this power that on whomsoever
I lay hands he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto
him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that
the gift of God may be purchased with money. Now that was something
that Peter could pretty well figure out. Just, you know, somebody
comes up and says, you know, tell me how much it'll cost me
for you to give me a, you know. But, let's go on. Thou hast neither
part nor lot in this matter. For thy heart is not right in
the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy
wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine
heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art
in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." You
know, when the Lord raised up these early churches, He gave
these men some discernment. He was confirming. These men
are sent by Me." How else would anybody have known unless these
men would have absolutely had the power given to them by God
to perform these miracles, to have this spirit of discernment. So when the Lord left this earth,
He gave these men These certain powers, there were
some apostles. But then secondly, back in Ephesians
chapter 4, in verse 11, and it says, "...and prophets, foretellers."
Now this gift was one whereby men called and taught of God
possessed the ability to preach the gospel. But to preach the
gospel, declaring truth that would surely come to pass, to
foretell what was going to go, look at Acts 11, 27. Acts 11, 27. The Scripture says, and in those
days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch, And there stood
up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that
there should be great dearth throughout all the world, which
came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar, when the disciples, every
man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto
the brethren which dwelt in Judea, which also they did, and sent
it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul." Now there
was a man named Agabus, and this man, under the inspiration of
God's Spirit, he was a prophet. And he foretold what was going
to happen, and based on what he told them was going to happen.
Do you see what happened? These brethren right here sent
relief. before it ever got there. That's
what he said. He said that by the Spirit there
should be great dearth throughout all the world which came to pass
in the days of Claudius. Then the disciples, every man,
according to his ability, sent him some relief, helped him out.
There was prophets. So the Lord raised up apostles. He gifted them, breathed upon
them, gave them that ability to be able to perform miracles.
and to have a spirit of discernment, then he sent some prophets. And
then the Scripture says, back in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse
11, it says, and some evangelists. Now these evangelists were men
that it appears as though, based on the Scriptures, now I'll show
you what I mean. These were men that, men were
traveling missionaries. We talk about evangelists now. I would say as closely as I could
tell, Brother Walter Groover, Brother Cody Groover, these men
are evangelists. What they do, they're in the
Yucatan and they live in Merida. But there's churches that are
scattered around. And over the last 45 plus years,
the Lord having sent Brother Walter and Betty down there,
and then Cody and Winna grew up, and the Lord gave Cody and
Winna a heart to be there and stay with them. And now it appears
as though Cody and Winna is starting to take the bulk of the load. But for all these years, What
Brother Walter and Betty would do, they would go and Betty would
minister to the women and Brother Walter would go and preach to
the churches. They would go into these villages.
And they would go in and usually what he did was he would show
a movie. He'd ask the mayor or somebody,
can I show a movie or something like that. It was a documentary
or something like that. And a big crowd would come up
and he'd ask them. He'd ask the mayor, he'd ask
their permission. Try to make any waves or anything.
He said, I'm going to show this film and I want to talk to the
people just a minute about the things of God. And if they allowed
him to do it, they'd go do it. And then they would wait to see
whether or not the Lord would bless it. and raise up a following,
a hunger. And there'd be times that there'd
be people that'd say, would you come back, come to my house,
come to my house this weekend, or come like that. And the Lord
was pleased over years to raise up, and now there's churches
established, but what he did was, he's not a citizen, Well,
I think Walter finally did become a citizen, but he's not able,
even then, he's not able to have certain things. He can't own
land and stuff like this. He's got certain credentials,
but he's a traveling evangelist. This is what he was. Now I want
you to look at Acts 21 verse 8. Acts 21 verse 8. And think about the miracle of
God's grace. He would raise up prophets. I
mean apostles that had been taught the gospel by the Lord. And then the Lord gifted them
to be able to perform miracles and signs to confirm that they
were who they said they were. Gave them spirit of discernment.
And I mean, you know, you come in and you tell a man like Ananias
and Sapphira, you've lied to the Holy Ghost. You've lied to
the Holy Ghost and God killed him right then. That'll usually
wake somebody up. His wife did the same thing.
Sapphira came in. Peter asked her, did you sell
the land for a certain amount of money? Sure did. And she died
right there. Fear on all the people. They were apostles taught by
God. Prophets to foretell and evangelists. Acts 21 verse 8. The next day we that were of
Paul's company departed and came unto Caesarea, and we entered
into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of
the seven, and abode with him." Now Acts 21.8 tells us what Philip's
calling was. He was an evangelist. But I want
you to turn back to Acts 8 And I want to show you what the Spirit
of God had done. He tells us in chapter 21 that
he was an evangelist. But look at Acts 8 verses 1 to
5. Saul was consenting unto his
death and at that time there was a great persecution against
the church which was at Jerusalem. They were all scattered abroad
throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen
to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for
Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, hailing
men, women, committing them to prison. Therefore, they that
were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip
went down to the city of Samaria and preach Christ unto them.
So I know that the scriptures tell us in chapter 21 that Philip
was an evangelist. Here, this is what he was doing.
They were scattered abroad and they went everywhere preaching
the word, going to all these places. I want you to look at
the same chapter, Acts 8 verse 25. Acts 8 verse 25. And they, when they had testified
and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem and
preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. And the angel
of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward
the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza,
which is desert. And he arose and went, and behold,
a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority, unto Candacy,
queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure,
and had come to Jerusalem for to worship. He was returning,
sitting in his chariot, reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the
Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him,
heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and said, Understandest thou
what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except
some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he
would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which
he read was this, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter,
like a lamb done before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth. In
his humiliation, his judgment was taken away, who shall declare
his generation, for his life is taken from the earth. And
the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee of whom speaketh
the prophet this, of himself or some other man? Then Philip
opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached
unto him Jesus. The Lord was pleased to save
him and he was baptized. You know how that Ethiopian eunuch
was converted? Converted by the Spirit of God
through the evangelist Philip. He had apostles, he gave apostles,
he gave prophets, he gave evangelists. And then back in Ephesians chapter
4, it says, and some pastors and teachers. Now, some people
say that these two offices are the same. It may be, they may
be. But it also may be speaking of actually two different offices. Pastors being the ones in whom
have been particularly called as the under-shepherd of a certain
assembly. This is where we are. I realize that all pastors travel
and they go different places, but it's not like they're not
evangelists, gone and traveling all the time and gone like that.
No, pastors are called to these assemblies. But then there's
also teachers, men within the body gifted to teach or preach
and called as a support. to the assembly through the proclamation
of God's Word. Brother Henry Mahan said of this
greatest blessing that God gives a pastor is to raise up men that
would be a help to him in the preaching of the gospel, in the
proclamation of the truth. And then back in Ephesians chapter
4, back in verse 12 now, all this for the perfecting of the
saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ, for the maturing of God's people. The best of men
are, at best, men. And being plagued with the presence
of sin, we need to hear. We need that our faith be matured
by the Spirit of God through the preaching of the gospel.
that we might grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior. God Almighty, in His wisdom and
mercy and grace, what did the church need? The church needed
apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers, the
Scripture says, for the work of the ministry. for the edifying
of the body of Christ, in the preaching of the gospel, and
in taking the oversight. Peter said in 1 Peter 5, 1 Peter
chapter 5 verses 1 to 4, the elders which are among you I
exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings
of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.
Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight
thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre,
but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage,
but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherds
shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth
not away." Almighty God has graced and given these men that have
been raised up for this particular reason, for the maturing of the
saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building up, for the
edifying. Back in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 13, till we all come
in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of
God unto a perfect man, a mature man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ. God called ministers in whatever
capacity they're called. The apostles were the apostles,
the prophets were the prophets, the evangelists were the evangelists,
and pastors and teachers all raised up for this particular
reason, that they might minister for the glory of God and for
the good of God's people and mature by the Spirit of God,
God's people, through the hearing. They all preach the same message. God's going to save His people.
You know that. God's going to save them through
the sound of the gospel. And to this end, we preach. God's people are the objects
of His mercy and He's not going to leave them. He's going to
keep them. Verse 14-15, and the reason that
He sent these is that we henceforth be no more children tossed to
and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the
slight of men, by cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to
deceive. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into Him
in all things, which is the head, even Christ. Is it not so evident
the need that we have to hear the gospel preached. We need
to hear it. We need to hear it. This is the
reason, Paul said, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to
and fro, carried about. If you'd leave us to ourselves,
there is no end to the silliness that we would believe. There's
no end to the recklessness that we would go to. The preaching
of the gospel hedges us up, keeps us. We hear it. We hear it again. I want to hear it again. I'm
not preaching, by the grace of God, anything that you've not
heard before. It's very comforting for you to hear the same thing. Paul said it's safe. It's safe. He says, it's not grievous for
me to preach the same thing. I don't want to preach anything
different. I don't want anything strange. Everything that you
hear, now the Lord may give you some new light on it, but everything
you hear, when it is consistent with what you've heard before,
your heart's settled. Don't tell me something that
I've not heard before and it'd be inconsistent. That's going
to confuse me. Don't tell me that. You tell
me something that I can sink my spiritual teeth into and rest
in. And then in verse 16, from whom
the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every
joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the
measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto the
edifying of itself in love." Because of the mercy of Almighty
God, and you know what's going on around us, all of this foolish
preaching, let me tell you the purpose of it. Revelation 12. Here's the purpose of foolish
preaching. Revelation chapter 12, we've
looked at this before, but this is what Satan is doing in foolish
preaching. Revelation 12 verses 13 to 17.
When the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted
the woman which brought forth the man-child. And to the woman
were given two wings of a great eagle. She's kept by the Lord. That she might fly into the wilderness
into her place where she's nourished for a time and times and half
a time from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his
mouth water as a flood after the woman that he might cause
her to be carried away of the flood. This is the reason of
all of the lying Little G Gospels, they call it, which is not another
gospel. There's one gospel. But all of these different denominations. This one says this, and this
one says you've got to be baptized to be saved. This one says you've
got to speak in tongues to be saved. This one says you've got
to do this or that. And it all is according to man's
will. It's all based on man's will.
There's only two messages. God's will, man's will. God's
grace, man's works. Call it what you want to call
it, but all a false religion has one purpose. To try to swallow
up God's elect. The serpent cast out of his mouth
water as a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be
carried away of the flood. Whenever you hear Anybody preaching
a false gospel, this is the reason for it. Now, they'll tell you,
we love people. That's a lie. No, they don't.
No, they do not. No, they don't. No. No, the scripture
says the reason that they're preaching what they're preaching
is Satan is moving upon them, they're his prophets, moving
upon them to try to carry away the woman, the bride. And the
earth, verse 16, helped the woman. And the earth opened her mouth,
and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
And the dragon was wrought with a woman, and went to make war
with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandment of
God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." This is the reason
Satan desires to consume God's elect. He knows that God has
an elect. He doesn't know who they are.
So what he does is he sends all these false prophets to preach
all of this false religion. And this is the purpose of it
right here, to swallow her up. But the Lord in His mercy causes
the earth to help the woman. Causes the world to take it in. and to drink it in, drink all
that Satan and God gives, all that the world wants, exactly
what they want. They want a lie and God gives
them a lie. Because they don't have a love
for the truth. They love darkness rather than
light. But to the bride, what the Lord does is He sends Apostles
and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers for
the perfecting of the saints, for the building up of God's
church, for the establishing of the Lord's people. Oh, the
mercy of God that God Almighty in His wisdom would send that
which He knows we must have. I pray that the Lord calls us
as we hear the gospel preached afresh. Lord, bless it to our
hearts. May we realize what we're doing
here tonight is by the grace of God, that God would send a
preacher. You know, there's different assemblies,
and by the grace of God, the Lord, after time, may not have
a pastor for a while. But the Lord would send a pastor.
Without a pastor, I'm going to tell you something. There's a
great void there. You can have men come and they
can fill in. You ask anybody in that assembly. They'll tell you. They'll tell
you. Well, we're praying that God sends us a pastor. Raise
up a pastor. It's a body. Lord, bless these
words to our heart. For Christ's sake. Amen.