Ephesians 4, 7, of course, is
in reference to the contrast between what was said before
and what is about to be said. Paul had just taught that we're
all the same. One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one birth, one calling, one hope of our calling. We're all the
same. We're all of one. One body. Now
he's about to talk about how different we are. How we're different. Now we have different personalities. We all have different experiences
and things from our childhood that have shaped us throughout
our lives. Differences of opinion on things
and such like that. But he's not going to address
that at all. You know why? Because it doesn't matter. We're
talking about the kingdom of God now. None of that matters. My opinion doesn't amount to
a hill of beans in the kingdom of God. And neither does yours. It doesn't have anything to do
with it. But what he is going to talk to, talk to address and
talk about is about our oneness. That's important that we understand
that we're one family. We all have one hope. We all
have one savior, one Lord, one God. But also those differences
that we need to understand to find our place in his church,
his kingdom, his family, his ministry. We all have a place
in the ministry of our Lord. It's all for him, but all of
us are different in gifts and in our place in his kingdom. We're not all the same in the
particular gifts that we have. And grace is given according
to the measure of the gift. Did you see that in the text?
Under every one of us is given grace according to the measure
of the gift. And that's just clearly saying
we all have grace from Christ, the gift of Christ, right? It's
from him, okay? We all have grace from Christ
to do what Christ has for us to do. That's just simple and
clear there, isn't it? Just plain. What he has particularly
for me to do, he gives me grace to do it. He does you the same
way. And it's not the same things.
We don't have the same place in his kingdom, in his church.
We differ in that. We have different gifts and are
given grace accordingly. The first thing we need to acknowledge
and be thankful for is the one who makes the difference. The
one who makes the difference between us is the same one who
makes us one. It's the gift of Christ. 1 Corinthians
4, 7, who maketh thee to differ from another? I try to remember
this verse often. What do you have that you didn't
receive? Now if you did receive it, why
do you glory as if you hadn't received it? Why do you glory
as though you were born with it or as though you worked it
up somehow, as though you distinguished yourself from somebody else?
Why do we do that? If we have a gift, which is in
the context, let's apply that verse to this context. If we
have a gift that someone else doesn't have, don't you dare
glory in that. They have one that you likely
don't have. You remember what our Lord said to the disciples
when they went out and the Lord had given them power to cast
out devils? And boy, they were happy about that. They were excited
about that. Oh, we just said go and the devils were cast out. And we like that because we want
to be God. Our flesh likes that because
we want to be God. We want to just be able to say
the word and it's done. Well, he gave them some power
in that regard. But he said, don't you rejoice in that. Don't
rejoice in that. Rejoice in that your name is
written in heaven. You didn't have anything to do
with that We didn't have anything to do with casting out the devil
either they didn't But they thought they did because he used them
as means but you see what he's saying there Don't rejoice that
you can cast out devils Don't rejoice in the gift and that
you're able to do it but rejoice in the grace of the one who gave
the gift If your name wasn't written in heaven, what would
your gift be today? What would your contribution to society
be? Or the church? And the same one who wrote our
name in the book of life, and he wrote it there because of
his great love for us and his grace upon us, he's the same
one who gives us these gifts and grace to perform in that
in which we're gifted. He not only gave us the gift,
but if we're gonna use it, in a way that's honoring to Him
in the right way, that's gonna be by His grace too. Something
to consider here that I believe is important is that since it
is according to His grace and not our will, we need to take
the place that God has given us and be faithful in that and
not impose our will in the matter. There's what we wanna be and
then there's what we are sometimes. You know what I mean? God makes
known to us and everybody what our gifts are in time. You may
not know now. You may not know all of them.
I believe everybody has more than one, by the way. More than
one gift from God. But I also believe that you have
a particular gift that sort of stands out from the rest. Because
I see that in our experience. Now that's just what I think,
that's not in the text. I know we have gifts and I know
where they came from. And I know from the word what
they're for. That's what's important. What
I think is that we all have several gifts, if not many. But there
seems to be those who are particularly gifted in certain things. But
if God has given you a voice to sing, now here's what I'm
saying. If he's blessed you with something and that came from
him and you know why he gave it to you, don't be negligent
in that. If he's given you a voice to
sing and you don't sing for his glory, then who's going to? Somebody
that he didn't give a voice to sing? That's fine too, I guess. We all have a voice, don't we?
And we're to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. But it's a blessing
to his church when somebody who is particularly gifted in that
area uses that gift for his glory. And if not you, then who? If
he's gifted you to do that, then who in the world are you not
to sing? If God's blessed you with the
ability to fix things, isn't that a great gift? We have several
in the church that have that gift. What a useful gift that
is. Realize that it's God that gifted
you to do something, and if you don't do it, then who's gonna
do it? Some are gifted to cook. A lot
of us, the women here especially, are gifted. Did you realize that's
a gift from God? Isn't that a good gift? There's
some people that can't boil an egg. That's fine. They have other
gifts, but you know, Some are gifted to teach. Some are gifted in prosperity
in this world. That's a gift from God. You know
what he gives that for? You're not taking it with you.
That's for his people, for his church, for his glory, for his
honor. And obviously the gifts mentioned
in particular in the context are primary. He said he gave
some pastors and teachers and apostles and prophets. There
are no prophets or apostles now, but he did give those. And there's
pastors and teachers that he gives. And those are primary
because the gospel is paramount. The gospel is primary. The church's
commission is to go and preach. And so these are mentioned in
verse 11 but in verse 7 is included every gift that he gives. You
see that it's not you're not talking exactly about the same
thing in verse 7 or 11. I've heard it taught that way
but it's just not that way. 11 he mentions these primary
things because that's the ministry that's our ministry to preach
and to teach but he gives every gift that's given whatever it
is he gave it to you and he gave it to you for his glory in the
support of these things in verse 11 every gift he gives is to
be acknowledged he's to be thanked for it and praised for it and
it's to be used for his glory I'll remind you again of a woman
named Tabitha in Acts 9. We ought to turn there. Let's
turn to Acts 9 and look at it. I could just tell you about it,
but I want you to see it. Acts 9 verse 36. This verse,
since we went through the book of Acts many years ago, it's
been a blessing to me. Some of you know where I'm going
because I've mentioned it a time or two over the years. Verse
36 of Acts 9. Now there was at Joppa a certain
disciple named Tabitha which by interpretation is called Dorcas. This woman was full of good works
and all those deeds which she did. Now this is God in his word
saying this woman was full of good works. That's interesting
to me. I'm interested to find out what
in the world she did aren't you? It must have been something huge.
It must have been spectacular. Well, and it came to pass in
those days that she was sick, verse 37, and died, whom when
they had washed, they laid her in an upper chamber. And for
as much as Lydda was nigh to Joppa, and the disciples had
heard that Peter was there, they sent unto him two men, desiring
him that he would not delay to come to them. Then Peter arose
and went with them. When he was calm they brought
him into the upper chamber and all the widows stood by him weeping
and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made while she was
with him. Isn't that a blessing? She was
full of good works. Look what she made for me. She
made me a coat. I just love that passage of scripture
right there because we take things like we just overlook things
like that, don't we? That's what God calls a good
work. Somebody just did something simple just because they loved
somebody. And we know that it's by His grace through faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. She loved, she loved her brothers,
her sisters in the Lord Jesus, and she did something for them,
something simple, something that many would count as a small thing.
Oh, it's a great thing. Do you know what your gifts are?
Do you know what your gifts are? You see, I don't want this just
to be a lesson on gifts. I want us to actually learn something.
May we learn something this morning. Do you know what yours are? They're
probably things that just come naturally to you, and perhaps
because of that, you take them for granted. You don't even see
it as a gift. You cook a meal, And you bring it to the conference
maybe you don't think of that as a gift. But I do. By God's grace I see that that's.
That's a gift from God. And as I said I think I think
most members of God's church have one primary gift. But I
also think that everybody has more than one. I know everybody
is gifted of the Lord I know that. We're all members of one
body. And we all are given a measure
of God's grace according to the gift of Christ. Find out what
yours are, if you don't know. Think about it. And use them
for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in his church, if you're
not already. And let's be, may that mean something
to us. In verse 8, Paul refers to Psalm
68, 18. Let me read you the Psalm. What he
said there in verse 8 is, when he ascended up on high, he led
captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Here's the Psalm 68,
18. Thou hast ascended on high. Thou
hast led captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts for
men. Yea, for the rebellious also.
that the Lord God might dwell among them. Blessed be the Lord
who daily loatheth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Now I believe it's important
to read that Psalm where Paul got this passage from that he
quotes because there's a little more in the Psalm than he actually
applies here. or actually quotes himself. He
said, and David said in the psalm, thou hast received gifts for
men. Paul said you've given, you receive,
you have given gifts to men. But it's important that we realize
that he's the one that received them. He's the one that earned
them. He's the one that procured them. And then he gave them to
us. As our great savior, And also it says there, thou
hast received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also. He didn't receive gifts for good
people, but for people, he gives gifts to the most unlikely, didn't
he? The apostle Peter, you know,
we see some things about him in the scriptures. that make
us think, boy, how could the Lord ever use somebody like that?
Impetuous and selfish and cowardly. Would that be too strong? I'm
glad he does use people like that, aren't you? Because I can
get in on it by his grace. That the Lord God might dwell
among them. And then he says, blessed be the Lord who daily
loatheth us with benefits. These gifts benefit his church. He says that daily loatheth us
with benefits. That could be a lot of things,
but it's in the context of him giving gifts to his people. I
benefit from your gifts. I thank God for that. He daily
loathes me with benefits, even the God of our salvation. And
he ascended, now it is the risen, ascended Christ who received
gifts for men and gave those gifts to men Every blessing upon
God's church, including these gifts, come to us by and because
of our victorious Savior. That's a great teaching here
that we cannot miss. And think about this, look at
what Paul said in verses nine and 10. He quotes that verse of scripture,
and then he expounds it. in verse 9, now that he ascended. We're talking that verse in Psalm
68 there, talking about the Christ who ascended and received gifts
from the Father and bestowed them upon his people. We're talking
about the ascended risen, ascended Lord of glory. And what is it,
if we're talking about the one who ascended, we've got to talk
about the fact that he descended first. Isn't that right? He came
down where we were. He descended into the lower parts
of the earth. The whole earth is low to him,
but he descended even to the lower parts of the earth to be
born of a woman and to be born into this cesspool of sin. How
low did he fall? Did he come down who sat on the
throne of heaven, who was holy? He said that holy thing that
shall be born of thee. And yet he was born the same
way I was. And born into this world and was hated as a baby. He's a little infant and people
hated him already and were wanting to kill him. And didn't have
any room for him. And all through his life, despised
and rejected of men. He that descended first into
the lower parts of the earth, and it's he that descended that's
the one that ascended. That's what we need to remember.
The one who came down here, why he came, what he did when he
came, why he did it. And don't forget where he is
now, he said. He ascended to. We need to see
both. We need to think about both.
He teaches from this scripture that speaks of the ascension
of Christ. He declares that his ascension assumes that he descended. In other words, the reason the
ascended Christ who ascended, that angel said, he's not here,
he's risen. And then he said, why are you
standing here gazing? That same Jesus is gonna come
back. He descended, he ascended, and
he's coming back for us. And this is the one we're talking
about. It declares that his ascension assumes that he descended. And
the reason that the ascended Christ is the source of all blessing
to his church, the reason he's able to give gifts unto his church
and bestow his daily benefits upon us is because of what he
did when he descended. He came way down for us. And
he received gifts for it. He was rewarded. and I benefit
from his reward. Philippians 2.6, who being in
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. We want to be God. He was God. He is God. But made himself of
no reputation. We want to be God, and are so
far from that that it's repulsive to even say it, even the way
I'm saying it now. And yet, we still can't humble
ourselves. We're still proud, aren't we? But he humbled himself. Made
himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant.
It was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion
as a man, he humbled himself. and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Wherefore God, and this is what
we're seeing, this is what we're talking about, he descended,
but the same one that descended is the one that God hath highly
exalted, and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven
and things in earth, And things under the earth. I thought we
were talking about gifts this morning, Chris. That's exactly
what we're talking about. When we're doing what he gifted
us to do, you think about this. It's all for his glory and honor. And one of these days, everybody's
going to see that. Everybody's going to see that. And every
tongue should confess. And may our tongues confess as
we're singing or playing piano or cleaning the dadgum toilet.
May our tongues confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of his Father, God the Father. Everything we do, cooking,
cleaning, working, fixing, whatever we do, we're doing it for the
ascended Lord of glory who descended into the lower parts of the earth
who humbled himself and became obedient to death, even the death
of the cross, and God highly exalted him. And everything that
God did, and so everything that we do, must be for his glory. Everything that God has done
has been for the glory of his son. Can we get in on that with
just a little something that the Lord's given us some ability,
some natural gift, some spiritual gift to perform? Can we honor him with that? If
he's gracious to us, we will. If we're ever gonna do anything
right, we will. If this place is not just gonna
be a religious social club, we will. This is why he received gifts
for us. He bought them with his precious
blood. He earned them, he received them for us and gave them to
us. And does that not motivate us to be thankful for these gifts
and to use them for his glory? And I could name them. I could
point out everyone in this congregation. I could say, I'm pretty sure
I know what your gift is. At least one or two of them. But it's for you to know what
they are. And realize where they came from.
Know what they are and know why God gave them to you. what the
point of it all is. And use it for His glory. Oh
Lord, if I can sing it all, let me sing of Your glory and do
it with all my heart. If I can cook, don't ever let
me count it a chore to do it for my Savior. That's worship, isn't it? You
say, well, the worship is the preaching? Absolutely, that's
primary. Clearly in our church, that's
primary. So is everything else we do here. Can you worship him by cooking
a roast? Oh, you better believe it. You better believe it. And may
we never cook one without worshiping him. And if I can preach, if I can
teach, if I can teach my children, if I can be a witness, Lord,
be my sufficiency. Because who in the world is sufficient? I know that if I can preach with
the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I know it's
just a bunch of noise. I know that. So let me love you more and more. And let me love your sheep, your
people, your church. The way you said, as I've loved
you. And give me grace to tell them
with a heart like yours. That'd be going too far if I
didn't know what he said about that. David's a man after my
own heart. Oh, Lord, make us that. Make
us that. And tell of the great Redeemer
of sinners, the gracious and merciful and
almighty Son of God, the Lamb of God that takes away sin. Even when we're talking about
the gifts that we have as believers, we're talking about Christ. Did
you notice that? You can't avoid it. You can't
avoid it in the text now. I couldn't preach this to you
faithfully. I can't talk about the gifts without talking about
Him. Even when we talk about what we can do, we're talking
about Him. When you do what you do, and you're doing something,
aren't you? We're all doing something, whether
good or bad. When you do it, think about what
he did for us. Think about all that he did for
us and think about how high he is now. You see, both are equally
important, aren't they? Think about him that descended
and realize that it's him that descended that also is sitting
on the right hand of the throne of glory and power in the heavens. Think about where he is right
now. He led captivity captive. You know what that means? Everything
that held me in bondage, he bound it. At the same time that he gave
these gifts, he led captivity captive. And what does that have to do
with the gifts? Well, everything, because if we were still captives
of Satan, Captives of God's law Captives of our own sin all of
which we were we wouldn't be able to do anything for him Let's
look at John 8 John chapter 8 31 This is the reason that we're
able to do anything for him and He led captivity captive. John
8, 31. Then said Jesus to those Jews,
which believed on him, if you continue in my word, then you
are my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth
and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, we be Abraham's
seed and we're never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou?
You shall be made free. Jesus answered them, verily,
verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant
of sin. You saying you don't have any sin? You've never been
in bondage? You're in bondage to your own
wretched self, your own flesh. And the servant abideth not in
the house forever, but the son abideth forever. If the son therefore
shall make you free, then you free. And not until, not until. So he led captivity captive. In other words, he bound, he
rounded up all of the things that bound me, all of the enemies
that limited me. And he has put them in prison.
He redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse
for us. We talked about we're in bondage to the law. Redeemed
from the curse of the law. How? He became a curse for me. And now we can sing this song,
free from the law, oh happy condition. He freed us from the power of
sin. He said, sin shall no more have dominion over you. How do
you do that? In the same beautiful, wonderful,
victorious act. when he was made a curse for
me. He paid my sin debt. He did all that I couldn't do
and didn't do all that I did do and then paid for everything
I did and didn't do on the cross. He freed us from the penalty
of sin by bearing the wrath of God in our place. We shall one
day be freed from the very presence of sin. when he shall change
our vile bodies and make them like unto his glorious body.
We're gonna be free, sure enough then. But we're free now, we're
free indeed because of him. The son hath made us free. All
of this by the triumph of his cross. He descended from the
very throne of heaven into the lower parts of the earth to become
what we are. So that as he is, so are we in
this world. In verse 11, look at verse 11. As we've seen already, I just
wanna, wanna just, this thought or two on that. He gave these
people. In addition to giving certain
and various gifts to every member of his body, as spelled out in
verse seven, he also gave those who lead them in worship. who
preached to them the gospel. And he did it for three reasons,
it says in the text, for the perfecting of the saints. You know what that word means,
perfecting? Sounds like, well, he's making us perfect. There's
a lot of people that believe that, that before we leave this
world, you know, the Lord's making, we're a little bit less sinful
every day. Is that your experience? No, we've got to study a little
bit better than that. We have to read the whole Bible,
you know, so that we don't fall into things like that. The word
perfecting means furnishing or equipping. Does that make sense
in the context? He's talking about gifts. He's
talking about what we can do for his glory in this world.
And then he turns around and says he gave some apostles and
teachers and preachers to equip you. To furnish what you need. That
explains the context, doesn't it? How are you gonna glorify
Christ in whatever you do, in the gifts that he's given you,
if you're not motivated and informed to do so? And that happens by
the gospel, isn't that right? You're not motivated to do anything
for his glory by me talking about the law, whipping you with the
law and say, boy, if you don't do anything for him, think about
all he did for you, how sinful and rebellious and, you know.
No, we preach Christ and him crucified. We talk about him
that descended and ascended And if you ever see him, you know
what you're going to want to do? What did Saul of Tarsus say
when he first saw it? Lord, what would you have me
do? That's what we're talking about. Gifts, doing something
for him, for his glory. When he does something for you,
that's the first thing you're going to say. Lord, what do you
want? What do you want me to do? And by these means, he furnishes
us who are in his church, his family, to glorify him with what
he's given us and because of what he's done for us. It happens
by the preaching of Christ through preachers and teachers. You're
furnished with the knowledge. How do we glorify him? There
are people that don't have a clue about that. You realize that?
Just look at what religion does. Do you think he's glorified by
everybody bragging on one another? Do you think Christ is glorified
in that? In people performing, you know,
and everybody praising men instead of him? So we're furnished with knowledge
to do that, to glorify him with what he's gifted us to do, and
with motivation to do that by the gospel. That's why he said
there he gave these men, these leaders, And then secondly, let
me get back over there, Ephesians 4, 11, I'm still in John where
we turned a while ago. Okay, Ephesians 4, 11. Look at the next thing. He gave
some apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints and for the work of the ministry.
We've got a job to do, don't we? He equips us. First of all, and then we've
got a job to do. That's why he equips us. He doesn't
equip us to just do nothing. These gifts help us do that job. They're given for that purpose. Now that we're equipped, let's
get to work. That's what he's saying here.
The preaching of Christ is our commission, and sinners are saved,
and saints are comforted by the ministry of the gospel. And no one man can carry it on. No, nobody is gifted that much. We're all gifted in this and
that, and all together we carry on the ministry by his grace.
He's our sufficiency in it, but he does use us. He didn't send
a bunch of angels down here to preach. He told us, go and preach. We're all gifted to the end of
the furtherance of that work, the work of the ministry. You
see that? It's not complicated work, is it? It's simple work. Oh, but it's
so far beyond us. Even all together, it's beyond
us. But we're in it all together
by his providence. And we'll get it done by his
grace, by his power. He's gonna accomplish it in us. And then thirdly, for the edifying
of the body of Christ. The work, the ministry is, didn't he say to the disciples,
look at the harvest. The harvest is plenteous and
the laborers are very few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest.
You see, that's the work of the ministry, but also we're not just trying to, you
know, reach out as they say. The Lord said, feed my sheep,
feed my sheep. Living things grow by being fed. If we're alive in Christ, that's
how we'll grow. And the word edify means to build
up. To build or to build up. This
is the Lord, this is a couple of things. It's the Lord adding
daily to the church such as should be saved. That's Acts 2 47. He
added to the church those that he saved. But also, each one
of us as believers is built up. Edified. Knowledge puffs up, Paul said,
but love builds up. Love edifies. And each of us is built up as
we learn of him and his love. And as he blesses us according
to the measure of the gift of his grace. In other words, think about this.
Everything I've said kind of boils down to this right here.
We have gifts. We do things for Him. But it's
really Him doing something for us. Isn't it? He's perfecting
us. He's equipping us. He's furnishing
us. He gave these gifts to us. He
gives us the work of the ministry, a job to do, a work to perform. And He builds us up and strengthens
us, makes us capable. Paul said, who is sufficient
for these things? You know what else he said? Our sufficiency
is of God. So he gave us gifts to do things
for him, but it's him doing something for us. Don't ever forget that.
Let's pray.