Ephesians 4. We will be picking up this morning
with verse 11. But do you notice how verses
8, or I'm sorry, 9 and 10, do you notice how verses 9 and 10
are in parentheses? What that means is they are an
added thought between verses 8 and verse 11. So let's read
verse 8 and then verse 11. Wherefore, he saith, when he
ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. And he gave some apostles and
some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Those were the gifts that he
gave to his people. Our Lord descended from glory
to this earth and he conquered life for his people and he conquered
death for his people. He led the captivity of all of
his people. They were captive to sin, they
were captive to the adversary, captive to the grave. He led
all of their captivity captive. Every bit of it. And he did that
the moment he gave his life on Calvary. That was the moment
of victory. He redeemed his purchased possession. He finished and he secured everything
concerning them. When he came down, he took care
of everything concerning them. His blood signed the paperwork
of their adoption. And then after everything was
accomplished, he ascended back up on high. He came, He conquered,
He accomplished, and He ascended back up on high. And when He
ascended up, He left gifts. I love how they all went to see
Him there on the Mount of Olives, I believe it was, and He ascended
up, and He blessed them as He was ascending up. They watched
Him go up. And He gave gifts. When He ascended
up, He gave gifts for all of those that He redeemed. And those
gifts were laborers for the work of the ministry. That's what
he's given. Look with me at Romans 10. Romans 10 verse 13 says for whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then
shall they call on him in whom they have not believed and how
shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and
how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach except
they be sent. As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. He left laborers to notify his
people of what he had done for them. Laborers to spread the
seed of his word, laborers to preach the gospel of peace to
all of his people. And what a gift that is. What
a gift that is. That's a gift to all of us. The
gift of the labor of the ministry. If you look with me at John chapter
20, John chapter 20 verse 21 says, then said Jesus unto them again
he said to his disciples peace be unto you as my father hath
sent me even so send I you as my father sent me with the work
I'm sending you with the work well I thought you just said
it was finished thought you just said the work was finished it
is the work of the laborer is to go around telling all of God's
people to stop working. It's finished. Man naturally
works and works and works. That's all they're doing out
there is working, working, working, working on a building for their
Lord. And God's preacher comes and cries, stop working. It's finished. That's the work
of the laborer. Stop working. It's finished. Look with me at Mark 16. Mark 16 verse 15 says, and he said unto them, go ye
into all the world and preach the gospel. Go preach the good
news. The work is over. Rest in Christ. That's the calling of the laborer
and that's his message. Good news in the finished work
of Christ. All right, now go with me back
to Ephesians 4. Verse 8 says, wherefore he saith
when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and
gave gifts unto men. Verse 11 says, and he gave some
apostles. Now God's apostles were men who
were taught the gospel directly by the mouth of the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. They were all taught directly
from him. Acts chapter 1 verse 22 says,
apostles were those who were witnesses of his resurrection. Eyewitnesses of his resurrection. Peter said, we were eyewitnesses
of his majesty. No man walking on the earth today
is an eyewitness of his resurrection. So there are no more apostles.
I had a man tell me about 15 years ago that he was an apostle. Came into my store and wanted
me to know, first thing, he was an apostle. He was apostolized
in Russia. Which, you know, how silly is
that? I'm only an apostle in Russia. But he was apostolized
in Russia for his humanitarian work with some orphanages there.
And number one, that man's delusional. Bless his heart, poor heart.
That man's absolutely delusional. If you ever have anybody tell
you he's an apostle, don't believe him. Do not believe him. There are no more apostles. That
was never the work of an apostle. Never, never. Their work was
never humanitarian work. God gave His apostles to declare
His Word. That's it. Just to declare His
Word. He gave gifts to His apostles. They could do miracles. They
could heal people. God gave them that gift to confirm
the Word they spoke that it was indeed the Word of God. That's
the reason they had that. The same thing goes for prophets.
Verse 11 says, he gave some apostles and some prophets. A prophet
was a foreteller. That's what a prophet was, someone
who told the future, told things that most surely would come to
pass. Many of those prophets had the
gifts of miracles and the gifts of healings. Think of all the
great wonders that came through Moses. All the things that happened. He took a rod and smote a sea
and it just... Amazing things. Elijah raised
people from the dead. Paul raised people from the dead.
Apostles and prophets both were given those abilities for the
writing of the scripture. for the writing of the scripture
to prove that it was indeed God's word. Prophets were given for
the Old Testament. Apostles were given for the New
Testament. Both of them to prove this is
God's word. This is God's word. Now here's
where men and women go wrong. Here's where they go wrong. They
don't understand the reason for the miracles and the gifts. It
was for the writing of the scripture. But not understanding that, they
think, well, the apostle Paul laid hold of a deadly snake and
it bit him and he didn't die from it. And that proved that
he was a man of God. So if I'm going to prove that
I'm a man of God, I've got to lay hold of a rattlesnake and
see whether or not I die from it. No, sir. The only thing that picking up
rattlesnakes will prove is that I'm a fool. I'm an absolute fool. The scriptures are finished.
The scriptures are finished. They have been written. They're
done. No more word is coming from God. Until the day we hear
the announcement of his return. This is the only word that he
will give. Now we declare future events. but only those events that have
already been declared in the Word. We're only declaring the
written Word. There are no more physical eyewitnesses
of His resurrection, so there's no more apostles. And Revelation
22, verse 18 says, this is a critical thing to understand about this
thing of prophecy and all this kind of stuff. Revelation 22,
18 says, if any man adds anything to the words of this book, God
will add to him all the plagues in this book. No new word. No new word. Scriptures are finished. Everything that has, everything
he's going to say, he said. The only kind of prophet then
that can remain is a false prophet. Someone who says something other
than what is written in this word. So he said in verse 11,
he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists. The work of the apostle and the
prophet is done. He gave some evangelists. An
evangelist is a missionary. And we still have true missionaries. I personally believe they are
becoming fewer and fewer. And there may come a day when
we can't find a true missionary. Most people who go under the
name of missionary, they are humanitarian workers. They go
to build houses. They go to dig wells. That is
not the work of a missionary. A missionary's work is one thing.
Preach the gospel. Preach the gospel. Preach Jesus
Christ crucified to sinners. Go out and find some men and
women who have never heard where the only place for remission
of sin is and tell them where it is. It's in the blood of Jesus
Christ. That's the work of a missionary.
The prophets work, the apostles work, the missionaries work.
It's all the same. Verse 11 says he gave some apostles,
some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. A pastor and a teacher or a preacher,
they're two different offices. A pastor means under shepherd. The word translates a herdsman. Pastors are preachers and teachers
of the word. But not all preachers and teachers
of the word are pastors. There's a lot of responsibility
that goes with the work of a pastor. It's something different from
preaching, studying and preaching, studying and preaching. That's
a teacher, a preacher. And a pastor's work is a herdsman. And that work needs a lot of
help. The pastor needs a lot of help,
so much help. So God provides men to help with
the preaching and the teaching of the word and their vital helps. They are that, you know, people
get the call to go fill in somewhere. We're going to go fill in somewhere.
Oh, that is such a, a vital thing to do is such a necessary work. And not only are teachers and
preachers gifts to the congregation, they're great gifts to the pastors,
great gifts. Now here's the reason God gave
these gifts. Verse 12 says, for the perfecting
of the saints. The word perfecting means maturing,
for the maturing of the saints. We are never going to be perfect. Until the day that we are Standing
with him in his image Will never be perfect until we are standing
there in his presence in his likeness But we do here on this
earth grow toward that end We mature in the word and We mature
in grace, we mature in faith, we mature in love, and that maturity
comes through the preaching of the word. Preach the word, preach
the word, feed on the word, feed on the word. Don't I'm running out of time.
So just listen to this verse of scripture first Peter 2 verse
2 says as newborn babes Desire the sincere milk of the word
that you may grow thereby Desire the teaching and preaching of
the word that you may grow thereby just like babies grow They grow
they feed and feed and feed on the same thing same thing And
they grow and mature, children, young adults, adults. And that's
what Paul's saying right here in verse 12. For the perfecting
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and we just declared
what that was, preach the gospel. And he went on to say, for the
edifying of the body of Christ, for the confirming, for the comforting,
for the encouraging and the building up of God's people, the body
of Christ. Verse 13 says, till we all come
in the unity of the faith. That's the reason God gave these
gifts. This is his word. This is what all of his people
are ultimate, ultimately going to become conformed to. This
is our goal, Christ and his word. And God gave these gifts to bring
all of his people into the unity of the faith. And not only is
that the work of the laborer, that's the reward of the laborer. Nothing would make me happier.
Nothing would make me happier as a pastor. Nothing would be
a greater reward to me than to see all of us fall in love with
Christ. I mean that. Not being here because
we really ought to be here. It's our duty to be here. It's
the safest thing. I don't want to, I mean, fall
in love with Christ. Nothing would just thrill me
more than if I did and somebody did with me. Verse 13, it says, till we all
come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son
of God unto a mature man, that spiritual maturity, unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. What that
means is, by God's grace, we're going to keep preaching this
message. We're going to keep preaching this message until
Christ comes back and takes his people out of the earth, until
we all come to that full maturity till that time comes the goal
of the laborer and the purpose of this spiritual maturity is
verse fourteen that we henceforth be no more children tossed to
and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the
slight of man and by the craftiness by the cunning craftiness whereby
they lie in wait to deceive we get tossed to and fro We're so
fickle. We're sheep. We are sheep. We're just sheep. And sheep have
no defense of their own. Sheep have no wisdom of their
own. And we get so tossed to and fro. And I was going to have you turn
to Psalm 107. It's talking about the redeemed. And they keep getting
in trouble. And spiritual maturity causes
us to realize, crying to the Lord, crying to the Lord. We
get so, we just get so right here, everything is just so,
and then we go, wait a minute, crying to the Lord. And he pulls
them out of their trouble. And then they fall right back
into it, and they get so messed up, and then they cry unto the
Lord, and he pulls them out of their trouble. They go up, they
go down, they reel to and fro, they stagger like a drunk man. And they cry unto the Lord, and
He pulls them out of their trouble. Spiritual maturity from hearing
the Word and hearing the Word at the first sign of reeling
to and fro, spiritual maturity goes. Maybe I'll just cry to
the Lord, and He'll pull you out of your trouble. So now let me catch up where
I was. Verse 14, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to
and fro, carried about, with every wind of doctrine. Go ahead
and turn with me to Hebrews 13. I want us to see this. Hebrews
13. Verse 9, it says, Be not carried
about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing
that the heart be established with grace. Established with
grace. What is grace? Grace is a free
gift. It's a free gift. We will, Lord
willing, in a couple of weeks, when we come back to this, we'll
be going through a lot of the of the warnings, a lot of the
commandments, a lot of the do's, a lot of the don'ts, and where
we get in trouble, where people who even hold to the things of
the truth get in trouble is we start to look to the flesh to
see whether or not we can find any assurance of salvation. Am
I matching up to any of this? You know, a believer is supposed
to grow now. You're supposed to feed on the
word and grow to the fullness. Do I see? And then we don't. And then we start to become worried. And what we need to realize is
the heart, as we deal with all these things, the heart must
be established with grace. Grace. It's a free gift. It's a finished free work. It's the blood alone. It's the
blood alone. It's the blood alone. Spiritual maturity establishes
the heart with grace. Does it grow in good works? Absolutely. Is this salvation by grace, through
faith, that not of yourselves? It's the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any man should boast. We're his workmanship created
unto good works. Yes. Yes. But we never leave
the foundation Grace, never, never. When God opens our eyes
to the truth, initially we all have a lot of religious baggage
that we don't even know we're carrying. It's weighing us down
and we need to let it go. It needs to be cut off. The works
of the flesh, that doctrine of the works of the flesh, it will
try to hold on to a man or a woman as long as it can. Through the labor of the word,
though, slowly God's people will become planted and grounded in
grace, grace, grace, and it'll start to fall off, it'll get
cut off. All right, verse 14, it says, that we henceforth be no more
children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind
of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby
they lie and wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love."
The truth is Christ. We preach Christ in love. We preach the love of God toward
us in Christ. That's where every blessing of
the Father is found, only in Him. Speaking the truth in love,
we may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even
Christ. He's the head of the body, and
the body's the church. 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. Christ is the head, the body
is the church, and the body comes from him. Everything the body
needs, everything that is required, it is supplied by him. From whom? The whole body fitly joined together. We're all joined together in
him, perfectly joined to him, perfectly joined to each other. Not just joined, he said compacted. That means God's people are not
just close, they're one. They're one. One in love, one
in heart, one in spirit, one in Christ. And it's all according
to his work. And it's him making the increase. Concerning the gift of laborers.
This is what Paul said. I planted and Apollos watered
God gave the increase So then neither is he that planteth anything
Neither he that watereth nothing but God that giveth the increase
I Now, I want to close with this. I didn't want to run out of time
without telling you this because this is just my favorite part. Once God's people do come to
the eternal unity of the faith, Once that final day comes that
we are truly perfect in Him, absolutely perfect in Him, the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, there will
be no more labor for any man. No more labor. Let me close with
Jeremiah 31. Go with me over to Jeremiah chapter
31. Jeremiah 31 verse 31 Behold the days come saith the
Lord that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah Not according to the covenant that I made with
their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring
them out of the land of Egypt which my covenant they break
Although I was in husband unto them saith the Lord. I But this
shall be the covenant that I will make with all the house of Israel.
After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward
parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God,
and they shall be my people." You know this law that we can't
keep, this perfect law of commandments, all these holy commandments that
we look at that and think, oh, that's so contrary to my nature. He said, I'm going to put my
law in their hearts. I'm gonna put this perfectly
in them. This is Christ. And we're gonna
be just like him. He said, I'm gonna put my law
in their hearts. Verse 34 says, and they shall
teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying,
know the Lord. They're not gonna stand up in
front of each other and say, know the Lord, know the Lord. For they shall all know me. From
the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord, for
I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin
no more. In that day, there will only
be one prophet, that prophet. They asked John, are you that
prophet? He said, oh, I'm not worthy to tie his shoes. There's
a prophet there. In that day, we will consider
the apostle. That's what Hebrews 3 told us
to do. There's going to be one apostle, the apostle, Christ. He will be the only evangelist. He's going to stand up and preach
His word. He's going to spread the seed,
preach the word. We will all cry, Jehovah es mi
pastor. I got a hold of a Spanish Bible
one time and went to Psalm 23 verse 1 and it said, Jehovah
es mi pastor. The Lord is my pastor. The Lord
is my shepherd. And we will all be taught of
God. One teacher, one prophet, one
apostle, one evangelist, one pastor. One teacher, the Lord
of Glory. That's going to be wonderful,
isn't it? What a gift, what a gift to God's people. Okay, you're
dismissed.