Ephesians 4, let's look at Ephesians
4 now. Ephesians 4, look with me again
at verse 8 and verses 11 and 12. We'll skip that parenthesis. Verse 8, wherefore he saith, Isaiah, the
psalmist, when he ascended up on high, Christ, he led captivity
captive and gave gifts unto men. Verse 11, 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. He gave gifts. The gift of gospel preachers
is the title of the subject. Now we know that salvation is
by grace and it's a gift, a gift of God. Listen to 1 John chapter
5 verse 11. This is the record that God hath
given to us eternal life. And this life is where? In His
Son. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. And we know that the Son of God
has come and has given us an understanding that we might know
Him as true. Salvation is by grace. It's a
gift. 100% a gift. Not of works as
any man should boast. Right? All these works we're
going to hear, preachers and witnesses, it was God that worked
in them. and us to will and do of His
good plan. God gets all the glory. We're not going to glorify men
for doing anything. We're glorifying God and what
He does through men and in men. Okay? Salvation is by grace. 2 Corinthians 9.15 says, Thanks
be unto God for His unspeakable gift, which is Christ. We just read that. He's given
His people life and that life is in His Son. Salvation is by
grace through faith. And even that's a gift. Repentance
is a gift. Faith is a gift. Faith cometh
how? By hearing. Hearing by the Word
of God. I love that verse. Faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. In other words,
God gives the Word and says, hear. And it's the Word that
opens our ears. Remember Emmanuel breaking down
the ear gate to get in the town of Manson? Faith cometh by hearing
the gospel. Our Lord said, go into all the
world and preach the gospel. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Well, how should they believe
in him who is not heard? How should they hear without a preacher? Without a preacher. And Paul
quoted, I was thinking about reading Isaiah 52, but Hebrews
11 struck me. But Paul quoted this after he
said that, how shall they hear without a preacher? And he went
on to say, how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him
that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace. Where is that
feet? In Christ. Christ, he's our feet. That bringeth good tidings. That's
the gospel of good. It publishes salvation. It saith
unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. And your God came. His name is
Jesus Christ. So how shall they hear without
a preacher? And here it says in our text
that when Christ ascended upon high, when he left this earth,
he gave gifts to men. And those gifts were in the form
of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. That's
what he said. He said to his preachers, go into all the world
and preach the gospel, didn't he? He said, my sheep will hear
my voice. But wait a minute. He went back
and sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high, didn't
he? He left the earth. But he said, concerning his preachers,
they hear you. So this is a miracle and it's
a gift. If they hear from me, they're
going to hear you. Thank God for gospel preachers. Thank God he sent me, us, a preacher. Right, Tammy Jo? Boy, did we
have a preacher. And I say gospel preacher. I
qualify that. I title it gift of gospel preachers
because every so-called preacher is not a gospel preacher. There
are more false preachers than are true preachers. Always been
the case. Thanks be unto God if he sent you a true gospel
preacher. He sent me one. And that's how
I heard God's word. That's how God revealed himself
to me. Revealed Christ in me. That's how. he reveals himself to every single
person, every elect of God. All right? Now, I'm going to
give you a short church history lesson, okay? The facts may not
be perfect. I'm no scholar. It's just a little
bit I've read here and there. It may not be in chronological
order. Nevertheless, it'll be a blessing to you. But these are some men that we
need to know. These are some men you need to
know. You need to know something about
them. Be thankful to our Lord for such men. We have churches
now. We have the Bible. I urged you
to, you know, to watch that story of William Tyndale. Were you
glad you did? I was so glad. We want to watch it again. My,
my. We owe a debt to men. Paul said
that. Oh no man anything but to love
him. Render honor to whom honor is
due. Right? Tribute. And God did. God does in Hebrews 11. He paid
tribute to David. He honored those. Those for whom
he died. Those whom he loved. They died
for him. And he honors them. I love the
story of Stephen. The first martyr. Stephen. Don't you love that story? In
Acts 7. where Stephen was preaching the truth against all those,
he was the only one, the only man standing up believing the
truth and they all hated it. And he was preaching, he preached
the whole Bible didn't he? And he said that one that you
rejected, God has made the Lord, like Simon Peter at Pentecost.
And they all, with one accord, got mad, and one ashed their
teeth, and they picked up stones and started stoning him. And
as he was being stoned, as he was dying, the rocks of stone
raining down on his head, he said, I see the Son of God standing. The Lord Jesus Christ, who went
back and sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high in
honor of his martyr who was dying for his cause, stood up. And I stand up for this man,
Stephen, my brother Stephen. It's another one. Wouldn't it
be an honor to die like that, Stephen? We may be called on to. So these
are some men, not women, because there were many women. He read
with me of Rahab and others, women who were tortured. There
were many women throughout church history that were used of the
Lord, not to preach, mind you. Women are not supposed to preach. But they were witnesses. They
were supporters of the gospel. There was a woman named Lady
Huntington, the Countess of Huntington. She heard the gospel from George
Whitefield. And boy, did she hear the gospel. And she devoted
her life to supporting the gospel. She was a noble woman. She earned
pretty good money. She devoted every penny or shilling
that she got to the preaching of the gospel. She had chapels
built. She had a church in her home.
She had preachers in her home. William Romaine. That woman,
that's my sister. And I want to honor her. This
is devoted preachers of the gospel, okay? Some men we need to know. Called, sent, the Lord gave to
his church for preaching, and we'll see the perfecting or growth
and grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord
said in Jeremiah 3, I will give you pastors after my own heart. And they will feed you knowledge.
What knowledge? Church history? his story. Because that's where the story
starts. And the history of the church is his story. The Acts of the Apostle, I don't
particularly like the name given to that book. It's the Acts of
the Lord through the Apostle. Right? But these men, he said, will teach
you knowledge. The knowledge of the living and
true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent. Every one of these men
I mentioned preached Christ. Different men. John read in 1
Corinthians 12 and other places that there are different ministries
but the same Lord sent them all. The same message. They all preached
the same message. That's how you know they were
sent by God. They preached Christ. They all had the same message.
Different ministries like prophets and apostles. But it was the
same gospel. Same purpose. Preach the gospel. Faith. People might believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and grow in that faith. Alright? Verse
11. Begins with apostles. Now why does he begin with apostles
and not prophets? Now look at 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. Real quickly. Uh, the apostle, all these men
were used greatly, but perhaps I can say this in truth that the apostles were
used more than any other man in the scripture. Okay. And I'll
show you this first, first Peter one verse 10, Peter is writing. Now you know that God did this,
but Simon Peter was just a fisherman. He's a longshoreman. Cousin sailor. That's what he was when the Lord
found him. He didn't know God. He didn't know one word in the
Bible. But God. This is how you know God did
this. He took men like this and made them to wear Doctors and
lawyers couldn't withstand their wisdom. Said of Stephen, they
could not withstand the spirit and the wisdom of which he spoke.
Who was Stephen? A nobody. 1 Peter 1.10 says,
Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently,
who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. He's talking
about Christ coming to us. searching they searched water
what manner of time the spirit of Christ in them did signify
when it testified beforehand the suffering of Christ that's
what they prayed the glory that should follow but under whom
it was revealed not to them but unto us they did minister the
things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached
the gospel unto you the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven so
and Paul said this in Ephesians 3 Go back to our text now. So the apostles are mentioned
first because the prophets, they knew, they testified of Christ
to come, but they didn't know who he was. They didn't know
when he was coming. Okay? It's going to be Bethlehem,
born there, grow up, come out of Egypt and Nazarene. They knew that, but they didn't
know who he was. They were waiting on the Okay, so Moses, Scripture
says, wrote of me. That's what Christ said. Moses
was a prophet. Pope Moses said this, a prophet
shall the Lord raise up unto you like me, he said. And then John, John came along
and said this, John the Apostle said, he's here. His name is
Jesus of Nazareth. That's who he is. And the three
apostles saw Moses. You remember? Peter, James, and
John. They saw Moses and Elijah. And
they met, and they came, and they saw Christ, Moses and Elijah.
They didn't see Him before. And now they know. This is Jesus
of Nazareth. There He is in the flesh. There
He is. Isaiah wrote, a virgin shall
conceive and call His name Immanuel. Well, Matthew said, It's her
name's Mary. And she's from Bethlehem, the
house of Judah. That's who she is. That's who
that virgin is. Isaiah said, a child is born,
a son is given. Matthew said, his name is Jesus. That's who he is. So the apostles
are mentioned first, not by a degree of importance, but just simply
because we know We know the whole story through the apostles. These
apostles now were extraordinarily gifted men. They were sent by
our Lord to preach Christ before there were Bibles. Here's the
three things that qualify an apostle. Three things. And there
are no more apostles. No more apostles. They had to
see Jesus Christ in the flesh. You say, what about Paul? He
said, I saw him, remember, on the road to Damascus. They had to be sent by the Lord.
The Lord had to personally call them and send them. Every one
of them. And then thirdly, they were given
gifts unlike any other men ever before were sent. There are no
more apostles. In fact, the Lord commended the
church, where was it? The church in Ephesus. He said, you've tried those that
say they're apostles and are not. And today, there are men that
call themselves apostles. You know that? Right down here
on 220, there's a parking space on a corner of one of these false
churches called Apostolic Corner. That's where, I guess, the apostles
park their cars. They're liars. There are no apostles
today. There were 12. There are a few
more actually, Barnabas. But those 12, Counting Paul and
the Lord used to write his word. These men wrote the Bible. And
we believe, we're sure, that the epistles were not the words
of men, but in truth the word of God, don't we? We do. You
know how few people believe that? Especially a lot of women. They
don't like what Paul said about women and preaching and all that.
They don't like it. So they twist it and corrupt
it. We believe every word that they wrote was the Word of God. Don't you? Don't you? That's
because Christ revealed Himself to you through these men, through
these apostles, okay? Through their Word. And we believe. Thank God for Simon Peter. Don't you love Simon Peter? I
look forward to meeting that man. The amazing thing is he
looks forward to meeting you. Simon Peter. Oh, I love Simon
Peter. James and John. All the apostles. I look forward.
And every one of them but John were killed. Like our Lord said of the prophets.
Which of the prophets did you not kill him? We owe a debt to
these men don't we? We owe a debt. Our Lord honors
them and we do too. And in honoring them we honor
him who made men the way he did and worked through them. Okay?
Prophets now. Prophets. The prophets were before
Christ. John was the last of the Old
Testament prophets. That's what Christ said, didn't
he? The law and the prophet were preached until John. The kingdom
of heaven is preached and men press into it. These were men,
prophets sent, called to declare. This was their message, every
one of them. Someone's coming. That's what Moses wrote of me,
he said. What'd he say? There's a prophet
coming, like me. He's the one you're going to
hear. He has the Word of God. He is the Word of God. Prophets. They preach someone's coming.
The Holy One of Israel. Prophets. They foretold future
events. What future event? Christ. The
coming of Christ. His great salvation. Suffering
of Christ. They prophesied of Him. Of Him
who was. Who is. I mean then. Was and is. and is yet to come. That's who they preach. To Him
give all the prophets witness. The testimony of Jesus, the gospel
of Jesus Christ is the spirit, the heart, the soul of all prophecy. Reject any and all these so-called
prophecy seminars if they don't preach Christ from them. Those
fellows don't know the prophets. They don't. And so we had men
sent like Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah. There's some prophets that you
don't know much about. You need to. There's a man named
Micaiah over in 2 Chronicles 18. If you want me to preach
on him, I'd just be tickled to death to do it. His story. Preaching before Ahab and Jehoshaphat,
remember? If you want me to preach on it,
I'll do it. Micaiah, okay? They're unknown
prophets. You remember the prophet that
was over in 1 Kings 13? The prophet that prophesied against
Jeroboam and all that idolatry? We don't even know his name.
Well, God honored him. We don't know his name. Then
you have Ezekiel. Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah,
Jonah, Micah. Could you finish this, Emma?
Olivia, could you finish this book? I'm glad. You adults need to
learn these books of the Bible. These men that preached Daniel,
Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah,
Haggai, Zechariah, Malki. Aren't you thankful for all these
men? Thankful, thankful, thankful, so thankful. Gifted, given the
word of God to preach to men, and they all preached Christ,
the gift of God, didn't they? The grace of God, the gospel.
They didn't know his name. They didn't know when he was
coming, but they preached he was coming. prophets. Those men,
those sinners like us, they were gifts from God to sinners like
us. Oh my. And they loved not their
lives unto death. That's what in the last book
of the Bible God honors them. He said they're worthy. God said
that they're worthy. Don't you love the prophets?
Thank God for the prophets. Evangelists. Then you have evangelists
in verse 11. Evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Prophets were before Christ,
evangelists after our Lord. Evangelists are traveling preachers. Traveling preachers, preaching
throughout the world. You know, the Lord called 70
evangelists to go out and preach. Remember that? Philip was one
of them. Philip was one of them. Boy,
what a preacher. lord use philip mightily i don't want to make
sure that show enough that philip went out preaching the gospel
as a band he heard the gospel from philip the eunuchs he's
sure glad lord sent him priest of one man because without how
shall they hear without a preacher and uh... we i my dad heard an
evangelist his name was ralph martyr from winston-salem north
carolina dad if you want to hear a good message My dad preached
the message one time on John the Baptist come to town. Boy, he tore up religion. Just tore it up. In doing so, men were born again, given the
gift to preach the gospel, and went out preaching like my pastor.
My pastor's a result of an evangelist coming to preach the gospel.
I'm sure thankful for Ralph Martin. That was what he was called to
do. He failed as a pastor. My dad said he was too mean.
But boy, he was an evangelist. And so these were traveling preachers,
like missionaries. Walter Gruber, an evangelist. Aren't you thankful? Oh boy,
I'd like to get some of our brethren from Mexico to stand up here
now and tell you how thankful they are for Walter Gruber. and
Cody River, and many others. David Brinerton, who was the
missionary to India. What was his name? Huh? No, David
Brinerton, the Indians. I mean, India. I forget, anyway. Anyway, there
were so many Missionaries sent all over the world. Like I said,
the Lord called 70. They went out in all the world
and preached the gospel. That's what they did. The first
century. Are you still with me? The first century until now. In the early church. I'm talking
about the first 100 years after Christ left. In Rome. The church was in Rome. All right,
big church, Rome. That's the letter to the Roman,
all right. Before Roman Catholicism, before
it corrupted the church in Rome, when that's where all the, it
became Babylon. But for the first hundred years
or so, there were men whom the Lord raised up. There were men
like a man named Clement, a man named Ignatius, Polycarp, some
of you recognize his name, Papias, You never heard his name, maybe.
Well, we're dead. The Lord used these men. You
see, the Lord has not left himself without a witness in every generation.
How shall they hear without a preacher? And he had preachers in every
generation, OK? And these men were up until about
400 AD. And then God's providence, like
the churches, Thyatira, and Philippi, and Laodicea, and Sardis, those
churches, gone. Gone. They served their purpose,
and they left. There's no more gospel there.
You hear me? And for about a thousand years,
darkness ruled all over. No Bibles. Very few preachers. About a thousand years. It's
called the dark Why? Because the Word of God is light. And there was no people in that
Bible. They were in darkness. But even in the darkness, even
in those years of darkness, there were men. That Frenchman's book on the Reformation, I just marvel, Stephen and I
have been talking about it. Go back and read a few here and
there who would stand up against Roman Catholicism, against error,
and preach the gospel. And you would be thrilled to
hear their testimony. They preached the gospel just
like I did, just like we did. Here and there. There weren't
many, but they were there. God left this world in darkness
over all the land for about a thousand years. Then around the 14th century, light began to shine in the darkness. God, in great mercy, once again
caused the light to shine in darkness and the first One of
the first men called out of darkness by that gospel to go and preach
the gospel was a man named John Wycliffe. And I'm going to name
to you about a dozen Johns. Reckon why their names were called
John. In the providence of God, like
John the Apostle and John the Baptist, the evangelist, John
Wycliffe, he's called the Morning Star of the Reformation. You
know that? He's the one, the first one that the Lord raised.
And what he did, like Tyndale, was the Lord, he heard the truth
from somebody and he believed that everyone needs to have a
Bible. He was in England. And so he
began to translate the Bible from Latin, not Hebrew, not Greek,
but Latin, okay? And he translated the whole New
Testament by himself so that his brothers could have a copy
of the Bible. Well, what happened to him? Well,
the church in England, so-called, banned him from preaching, kicked
him out. Okay? And he translated the whole
Old Testament. He died of a stroke. And when
he died, the Roman church dug up his bones and burned him. John Wickley. Thank God for John
Wickley. Another man named John. He had
a different name, Jan. He was from Czechoslovakia. John
Huss. John Huss from Czechoslovakia.
Another man from Switzerland. Both of them were killed. I love
this story. Two men, closely related, brothers
in Christ, stood up against Catholicism and preached the truth, Nicholas
Ridley and Hugh Latimer. Burned at stake, burned alive,
like we just read in Hebrews, for preaching Christ. Now don't tell me men don't hate
God, don't hate the God of the Bible, and hate the truth, hate
Christ. People burned for preaching the
God of the Bible, for preaching the Christ of the Scripture.
And while they were burning, this was when the light began
to go on, okay? Men didn't have Bibles. And while
they were being burned at the stake, Hugh Latimer turned to his brother
Ridley and said this, his dying words. He said, be the man brother
Ridley. We're going to light a candle
in England and nobody's ever going to put out. And we have the gospel because
of him like that. That candle was their own bodies. Tyndall, you remember, dying,
he said, Lord, open the king of England's eyes, Henry VIII.
And he did. Henry VIII said, print a Bible. God answered prayer. The effectual,
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. God heard
the prayer of William Tyndall, and you have a Bible. I look forward to meeting that
man. William Tennant. Martin Luther. Martin Luther. John Bradford. A man I could
spend a long time with. There's a man named John Bradford. I was going to read something
he wrote on election, but I don't have time. John Knox. Queen Mary. Buddy Mary. John Knox was perhaps
the man used most greatly in all the Reformation. Bloody Mary
said, I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the armies
of England. That's what she said. He stood
in her face, the Queen of England, who could, like Pilate and Herod
and these men, Pharaoh, like Moses with Pharaoh, he stood
in her face and denounced Roman Catholicism and denounced everything
she could do, right in her face. He died an old man. I say old
man. He was only about 55. I didn't
live very long. I had hard lives. He was put chained to an oar
in a French galley or ship for 19 months. And one of those slave masters,
taskmasters, had an idol of the Virgin Mary said,
kiss this. He says he grabbed that idol
and threw it in the ocean and said, let's see if she can swim. But God preserved his life. John
Knox. John Calvin. John Newton. John Bunyan. John Flavel. John Warburton. Chapman. Oh, I'm so grateful. Time would
fail. Like Hebrews 11 says, time would
fail to tell all the men and preach the gospel. Spurgeon.
Robert Murray McShane. I was telling somebody the other
day a story of the first Bible conference in the United States. My dad was determined to have
a Bible conference at Pollard Baptist Church in 1954, and he
sent out word all over the United States for a long time, anybody
who believes Calvinism. That's how he had to put it.
anybody believes Calvinism, come. Anybody that preaches Calvinism,
come. In the whole United States, four
men showed up. Ralph Martin, A.D. Mews, B.B.
Caldwell, and George Fletcher. Four men. 20-some years later,
at 13th Street, Dad said, I'd like to see all the men who are
pastors of churches now, raised churches, stand up. 41 men stood
up. Forty-one. The Lord sent the word, and great
was the company that published it. Thank God for these men. Groover, Walter Groover, Scott
Mahan, Richardson, huh? And in our day, Chapman, Edmondson,
Stoniker. Thank God for them all. And they're preaching. Preach
Christ. Now let's just look real briefly at our text, okay? That
was a very short history of 1,900 years, no more, 3,500. It says
he sent these men for one reason, to preach the gospel. Verse 12.
for the perfecting of the saint, for the work of the ministry,
that is preaching the gospel, for the edifying, the building
up of the body of Christ. What is the body of Christ built
on? One foundation, Christ the Lord. Other foundation can no
man lay than that which is laid, God laid. The chief cornerstone,
the rock of ages, Jesus Christ the Lord. That's who the whole
church is built upon. And that's the foundation of
the apostles and the prophets and us, every true preacher.
That's who we want men to know and stand upon and be found in. And this word, perfecting, as
you know, we've looked at it too many times, means maturity,
to grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ. Verse 13, till we
all come into the unity of the faith, that is, one faith, till
we all know this one Lord, this one God, this one Christ, this
one way, truth, one life, That's why the preachers are saying,
the knowledge of the Son of God under a perfect man, the measure
of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Now, he's talking
about growing up in Christ, be conformed. This is why God predestinated
people to be conformed to the image of Christ. Look at verse
14. Give me a few more minutes. These men
are sent that henceforth we know more children. tossed to and
fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine. Paul one time
said this, he said, I want you to be as children in malice,
that is not be full of malice and hate and strife like little
kids, you know, but be men in understanding. So I want you
to quit yourself like men. Now we just read about people
who were strong in a faith, Babe, a young person in the faith
is weak in the faith. We need to grow strong in the
faith, don't we? Strong, valiant for the truth,
don't we? Bold for the truth. Do you need to grow in knowledge? Do you need to grow in wisdom?
What about love? What about faith? Do you have
strong faith? Where does it come from? Hearing the Word of God. The sincere milk of the Word.
You may grow thereby. You hear it from me, but you
need to read. You need to have your own cow. I'm feeding you the milk. I'm
nursing you as it were, but you need to have your own cow for
the rest of the days of the week. Gather in your own manner. Right? We need to grow, so we don't
be little children. There's babes, there's young
men, and old men. We need all of them. We need to grow up. Little children
are easily influenced. Verse 14, that we be not carried
about with every wind of doctrine. Everything that comes along,
we're grounded and settled in the truth. Slight of men, cunning,
craftiness, they lie and wait and see. That's what false prophets
prey on. the weak and the young. They
can get professions out of little children. Baptizing them left and right. We need to grow up. Verse 15, speaking the truth
in love. Oh my. I've been like Peter too
often taking that sword and wanting to cut people's head off. Speak
the truth in love. I need to grow in that, don't
you? that we might grow up into him, verse 15, and all thank
Christ the head from whom. He's the one from whom all blessings
flow. We're just the body. Without him, we're dead. All
life comes from Christ our head. We're all fitly joined together,
compacted, united, by that which every joint supplies. And John
read that, and we read it. Last time we looked at this,
every part of the body has a part in the body. We're all members
one of another. What's the purpose? Why are we
members? To exalt the head and this, the
effectual working and the measure of every part, the grace given,
that we might make increase. Increase what? Faith. Faith. Not childishness. Faith. We might grow up into
faith. And that's what we need to do. And the edifying of itself in
love to God, love to Christ, His unspeakable gift, and love
to the souls of men. Love to one another. Okay, stand
with me.