Okay, so I want you to turn to
Ephesians chapter 4, and I want to look at the first 15 verses
this morning. Ephesians chapter 4, the first
15 verses. You might remember that back
in Ephesians 2 and verse 10, Paul wrote to them there that
we, his people, are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. That's it, we're his workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that
we should walk in them. amazing we won't delve into the
depths of that I'm sure it was mentioned when we were looking
at that verse last time but an amazing thing that God has ordained
all of these things but his purpose is that his people should walk
in good works in this life whilst we're still here. We're not in
glory yet. We're effectively in glory, seated
in heavenly places in Christ, but we're not there yet physically.
And whilst here, we have to walk. And in this world, in this fallen
world, we have to bear the light and blessings of redemption before
this fallen world. Why? Because that will be to
the praise of the glory of His grace, to the praise of Him,
of His glory, that He has a people in this fallen world which is
godless and rebellious and knows nothing of Him, that He has a
people that despite sin and everything else, the delusion of Satan,
the godlessness that's all around, there is a people that walk in
Christ by the Spirit, not according to the flesh, seeking to glorify
God by the nature, that nature of the new man that they portray
to the world around. I know so often the flesh rises
up, but inside there must be that new man, that new man. So we've seen a foundation laid
for this, a foundation. The foundation is sovereign grace.
It's the true gospel. It's the gospel that we stand
for. Why do we do this? It's not easy, is it? Gathering
together a small number, preparing messages. Why do we do it? Because
we don't have anybody else around who's preaching this specific
scripturally revealed, revealed by the Spirit of God, gospel
of grace, the gospel of sovereign grace, the gospel of eternal
purpose in Christ. I'm using the words of Ephesians,
chapter 3, verse 11, eternal purpose in Christ. That one gospel,
one good news by which sinful men and women are made right
with the living God, whether they be Jews or Gentiles, there's
only one gospel. That's in chapter 2. The middle
wall of division has been taken down. There is one temple that
God is building out of humanity from Jews and Gentiles, out of
living stones. One temple without any division.
And he talks about in chapter 3, he prays that his people would
be established with Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith rooted
and grounded in love apprehending not comprehending as the scripture
has it apprehending the vastness of the love of Christ the immensity
of that love of Christ which drew salvation's plan with the
end praise to God and so we come into chapter four to an exhortation. You see, it's based on that absolute
true gospel. Absolute true gospel. And so
now he comes to exhort. Verses one to three. I want us
to see this morning the exhortation which leads to a question. Where
are you going to get the strength from? And I want to give two
answers. God our savior and his gifts
to the church. The gifts that he has given to
the church. So first of all, the exhortation.
Verses one to three, let's read them. I, therefore, the prisoner
of the Lord, beseech you, encourage you, exhort you, that you walk
worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness
and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love,
endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of
peace. an exhortation to walk worthy
and keep unity in the bond of peace. And it's from Paul, who
is the prisoner of the Lord. He's in prison for preaching
the gospel of God's sovereign grace. He's in prison for that
very reason. This gospel was so true, so dear,
so vital to him, that it was worth going to prison for. And
you look at the history of the martyrs down the ages, and in
every case, can you deny that faith for the sake of your own
personal safety or your own material well-being? Absolutely not. They
couldn't deny it. When you know this truth, you
know that it's the pearl of greatest price. You cannot walk out on
that. And Paul was a prisoner of the
Lord for this. And therefore, it's not as if
he's some Innocent bystander saying well, that's the way you
ought to do it I'm not experienced in it myself, but I've read that
that's the way you ought to do it. No, he's he's actually there
He's in prison for the sake of the gospel and he is qualified
to exhort these people Qualified to do that and he asks them he
exhorts them to walk worthy of the calling verse 1 what worthy
of the vocation, the calling, wherewith ye are called." The
calling. Philippians 3.14, Paul there
talks about the high calling. It is a high calling. This calling
of the Lord Jesus Christ, this calling of the gospel is a high
calling. It's a calling. You know, you
hear your name being called. Do you remember, some of you
still are fairly young, but when you're out playing, we always
used to play out as kids. It's a great thing that I think
is lost to this current generation, is the just going out to play.
Where I grew up, Your parents didn't make an appointment
for you to go and play with somebody else's kids. You just called
for one another and went out and you played. And then what
you'd hear, what I'd hear is this, Alan, in the distance,
calling me. It's a calling, come back. Mealtime,
it's mealtime, you're calling. We're right in the middle of
something. My name, calling, calling, calling. There's a calling
of the gospel. calling of the gospel. This is
the calling, this high calling. It's a calling from the dungeon
of sin in this world, because it is, it's prison, slaves of
sin, the dungeon of sin, to the palace eventually, in eternity,
the palace of blissful perfection. It's a calling, it's a high calling
is this gospel. What worthy of that calling?
You know like when recruits join whatever organisation it might
be. It might be the Brownies or the Cub Scouts or the Guides
or the Police or the Armed Forces, the Air Force. There's a great
sense of pride, that passing out day when they've passed their
initial training and they've got the uniform and the badges
and that's pinned on them. They're a real member of the
Corps. They're there. And there's that
calling to walk worthy of the regiment. walk worthy of the
police force, the sense of honour that you're not just doing it
for what turns up in the pay packet, you're not just doing
it for something, there's some honour involved in it, the honour
of the thing and so this is walk worthy of the calling. Now of
course you say but I'm in the flesh and I'm sinful and how
can I walk worthy of this calling? I mean is this not where the
legalists come in and they get the law of Moses and they start
whipping people who are God's children with the law to say
you're not walking worthy of the vocation and they come up
with the rules and regulations and the Sabbath days, and the
feasts, and the high days, and all of these other things that
Colossians 2 speaks about as a form of religion, as an outward
form of orthodox religion. And it says none of it's any
good in subduing the works and the will of the flesh. The flesh
is still the flesh. You don't make the flesh suddenly
start to do the things that please God. No, we're always going to
fail. It's never perfect. Jesus said
this to the disciples in Luke 17 verse 10. He said, so likewise
ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded,
you say, we are unprofitable servants. When you've had your
best day, say we're unprofitable servants. We have done that which
was our duty to do. That's all we've done. We've
not had a brilliantly good day. We've just done that which was
our duty to do. What did Paul, the one who's
writing this, say of himself? You know, I'm such a good chap,
I've done all these things for the sake of the gospel. No, he
said, I'm less than the least of the saints. I'm the chief
of sinners. He said, esteem others more highly
than yourselves. Esteem, think of others more.
It's not something we do naturally, is it? Esteem others more highly
than yourself. Generally speaking, we think
we're pretty good, but no, esteem others more highly than yourself. but the works of self, the works
of the flesh, what this is calling for is to subdue them. Now you
see, how are we going to do that? Well you have a new man, if you're
a child of God there is the new man of the spirit of God inside.
And do you know what the spirit and the flesh do? They war against
each other. Galatians 5. The spirit wars
against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit. They're contrary
to one another and that's why there's a constant battle. That's
why there's the account of Romans chapter 7. The things that I
would do in the inner man I don't do because I'm sinful. And the
things that I want to avoid I find I'm doing because the flesh.
But the flesh wars against the spirit and the spirit against
the flesh. So he's saying here, walk worthy
of that vocation. And what's one of the ways you
walk worthy of it? You subdue the works of the flesh. How do
I subdue the works of the flesh as a child of God? It's very
simple. you'll find it elsewhere in one
of the epistles don't lie to one another you who have been
called out of darkness into light oh how unworthy if you lie to
one another if you're dishonest with one another if you're not
straight and open with one another don't lie don't steal don't rob
not just money and possessions but time don't rob don't steal
those things Selfish, you see, comes from the flesh. All the
things of self come from the flesh. Don't cheat one another.
Don't hurt, or others not, just amongst the household of God,
but just don't do it. Don't do these things. Because
it's not worthy of the call. These things are not worthy of
the call. You know, it brings dishonor.
Like the recruit would bring dishonor on the regiment if he
turned out anything other than in his best uniform and his boots
polished correctly. It's honourable to the regiment
and to that which it stands for. So no, walk worthy of the vocation,
he says. Have tolerance and patience. Look, verse 2, with lowliness
and meekness This is the attitude of Christ, isn't it? Shouldn't
we be following Him? Matthew 11, 29, He says, come
unto me, verse 28, all you who labor and are heavy laden and
I will give you rest. And then verse 29, take my yoke
upon you and learn of me for I am meek. Our God-man, our saviour,
our glorious God come in the flesh is meek and lowly in heart. The one who is supreme above
absolutely everything in the universe is meek and lowly of
heart. And you shall find rest unto
your souls. There, peace and rest, you shall
find rest. Meekness and lowliness. So with
all lowliness and meekness, the subduing of selfishness, with
long-suffering, with patience, forbearing one another in love. You know, this is a lesson we
constantly need to learn it. It's not a matter of legalism,
it's a matter of the fruit of the spirit and the outworking
of the gospel of grace. patience, tolerance of one another's
fleshly foibles, because there's no doubt, is there, that if you
live with me for a little while, you'd get to know that there
are some fleshly foibles here that could be really annoying
to other people. Christine doesn't know anything about these things,
she's never observed them. But you know, we all have, don't
we? If we're honest, we all have things that seriously annoy one
another, you know? But to put up with one another.
Tolerance of others' fleshly foibles. What did Jesus say about
when somebody smites you on one cheek? Punch him back in the
face, get your own. No, turn the other cheek. Turn
the other cheek. If somebody says to you, right,
you're going to carry a burden for me, come a mile. Don't just
carry it a mile, carry it two miles instead of just one. Why? Why do these things? Because of love. reflecting,
bearing with one another in love, putting up with one another in
love, because the love that we're to have for one another, love
of the brethren, he that loves God loves his brother also, says
John. This is a mark of true Christianity. He that loves God loves his brother
also, because that love is a reflection of that great love, Ephesians
2.4, that great love wherewith he loved us. It's a reflection
of it. It's honoring to it. It's in
unity with it. It's characteristic of it. It's
like it. Put up with one another. Walk
worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. Walk worthy of
it. Subdue the flesh. You know, this is not legalism. This is not Thou shalt do this
and not do that just for the sake of trying to get obedience
to the law of Moses. This is fruit of the Spirit.
This is bearing the characteristics of the gospel by which we're
saved. What worthy of that. Paul tells us in other places,
put off the old man, the fleshly man, just like you would take
off a dirty old coat, take it off and put on a new coat, that
new one, which is of the new man, created in righteousness
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And verse three, endeavoring,
effort involved, effort, not naturally let it be, let it be,
endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace, striving, trying hard, because you see the flesh wants
to divide. But the spirit wants to unite.
The flesh wants to divide. There are fleshly differences,
but there is spiritual unity amongst the true people of God.
Not those that call themselves the people of God, but are not
really, but the true people of God. There's spiritual unity. There's unity in the bond of
the gospel of peace. Look, Keep the unity of the spirit
in the bond of peace. It's the gospel which is the
gospel of peace. It's the gospel which is the
basis of peace. our peace with God, the gospel
of God's grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Endeavor, strive to keep
that unity, even though flesh wants to find things between
us that, oh, he's like this and she's like that, and, you know,
like we used to say up north, they're all queer, except me
and thee, and I was a bit queer, this elf. You know, we're always
finding reasons between one another why we should have some differences.
But he says, no, try to subdue those. Why? Because of the unity
of the Spirit. the unity of the spirit in the
bond of peace you believe the same gospel don't you? You're
qualified to be a child of God on exactly the same basis as
one another? There's no one any more qualified
because of what they are than you are, or you are than they
are. You're qualified on exactly the same basis. Therefore, endeavor,
strive to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There's no other basis for it. Not, you know, in the world today,
I don't hear so much about it now, but I guess it's because
I don't listen too loudly, but so much talk of ecumenism, you
see it all being worked out in practice. that there's fundamentally
no difference, and it's all Babel religion. It's all Tower of Babel
religion. No, that's not the basis of unity.
It's not that. That sort of unity is based on
let's find the lowest common denominator. Let's find the lowest
common thing on which we can agree and we'll have our unity
based on that. You'd have to sweep away 99%
of the gospel that we believed in order to find a common basis. and you'd end up having a common
basis of your so-called false salvation based on next to nothing
at all. No, it's not based on, it's based
on the bond of peace, which is the bond of the gospel of grace.
It's unity of everything that God has revealed. I'll read something
to you that I read out in the study earlier. I found it in
Tom Harding's bulletin this week, and I think it's very, very good.
You see, the gospel truth that we believe, it's not like a pick-and-mix
counter in Woolworth's like you used to have. Oh, well, have
one of them, and you make your bag of religious sweets up that suits
you, just from picking and choosing what you want. So many people
do that, don't they? No. There is one, one selection,
which is the true gospel. There is no grace but free and
sovereign grace. There is no election but eternal
and unconditional election. There is no redemption, whatever
men might try and make out, there is no redemption but particular
and effectual redemption. There is no salvation but by
the irresistible grace and omnipotent power of God, the Holy Spirit.
There's no security but by the absolute preservation of God's
immutable goodness. And any pretended gospel that
does not proclaim these things is, as Paul says, another gospel
that is damning to the souls of men. That's why it's so important.
It's damning to the souls of men. You cannot mix and try and
manufacture a false unity. You know, it has been said that
I ought to go and get involved with the Minister's Fraternal.
I know Bill wouldn't touch the Minister's Fraternal with a barge
pole because he just had far more important things to do.
He just couldn't possibly waste the time with it. And I wouldn't
go, absolutely, because of this. If I read that out and said,
right, everybody that agrees with that, that I've just read
out, I'll tell you what, if they were honest, the room would empty
in no time flat. There'd be nobody left in there.
Because there'd be aspects of it they wouldn't agree with.
But that's what the scripture teaches, and that's why there's no basis
of unity. But true children of God, we have a basis of unity. in this gospel, in this bond
of peace, endeavoring to keep this unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace. I embrace and heartily join with
anyone who believes these truths and this gospel, absolutely.
That's why you can travel the world and you come across them.
You go to the United States, don't just go into any church,
you'll hear all sorts of rubbish, but you know where they are,
and you'll find them. The ones and twos, there's 40
odd of them free grace radio preachers on the internet, and
you go and find them, and there you will hear this message. I
remember Stephen and Sam going to Florida for a holiday, what,
five years ago, something like that? thereabouts, and looking
up Greg Elmquist's church. I know I'm doing a lot of name-dropping
in this message, please excuse that. But, you'd never come across
the man before, never seen him, but you went to his church, and
what did you say? The message you knew as soon as he was preaching,
that was the message that you'd heard from the lips of Henry
Mahan, and Bill Clark, and others that preached this gospel, this
pure gospel of his grace. So yes, amongst us, there are
differences. This is why, endeavour to keep
the unity of the spirit. There are differences amongst
us. As Christians there are differences amongst us and you would think
that differences would naturally divide. There are differences
of gifts, there are differences of office, of role, of function,
but Paul says don't let those stimulate envy and division. In other places he talks to women, Sintiki and somebody else, that
they be of one mind, that they stop falling out and arguing
about things. Don't let these differences of
gifts divide us. Don't let them divide us. Don't
let these external physical things divide us, because there's a
unity of spirit. So this is a tall order. exhortation, this beseeching
to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called. It's
a tall order to do this. Where are we going to get the
strength? I've called this message strength for the walk. When you're
planning a walk you need to know that you're strong enough to
go and do the walk. Where are you going to get the strength
from for this walk? Because in the flesh there isn't
the strength. There isn't, there's too much
to naturally divide. There's too much to cause problems. There's too much to make us walk
unworthy of the calling wherewith we're called. There's too much
to divide us and not unite us in the flesh. So where are we
going to get this strength from? So I've got two answers. In verses
four to six, God our savior. And then secondly, in verses
seven to 15, Christ's gifts to the church. So let's look at
these. God our Saviour. There is one body and one spirit,
even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above
all and through all and in you all. Not many different flavours
of church. There's not, there's not, note
this, there isn't one gospel preaching for one culture, applicable
to one culture, and a gospel preaching that's applicable to
another culture. You can't say, oh that gospel
preaching is okay, as far as it goes, but it's deficient in
its applicability to this culture. You can't say that. That's not
true. This gospel is true for all cultures. I remember when
Bill used to go to Africa and culturally you couldn't have
found a bigger division than between southern english culture
and western african culture nevertheless what was the message exactly
the same message for both exactly the same message of a substitute
for both exactly the same christ for both no difference no difference
at all no there are not many different flavors of church there
are not many remember that each time you feel disunity with your
brethren, each time you feel some sort of animosity or ill
feeling between you and those who are truly your brethren in
the gospel of grace, remember that that is dishonoring to the
triunity of the Godhead, who we see here. There is one body,
and there is one body of his people, of whom Christ is the
head. There is one spirit who reveals
the things of God to us. There is one calling in one hope
of your calling. We share a joint hope of glory,
of eternity. There's one Lord, one Lord Jesus
Christ. There is one faith, one true
faith, not flavors of faith, there is one true faith in Him. Christ alone, He alone is my
salvation. There's one baptism by which
we mean certainly the external symbol of water baptism, but
really That's just the external symbol. This is talking about
what it implies, that baptism of the Spirit, which is the coming
of the Spirit of God upon a person. That's how you get to be in this
family, by one baptism of that Spirit who comes at conversion,
and gives sight and faith to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's one God. There's a unity
in the triunity of the Godhead. One God and Father of all, who
is above all, and through all, and in you all. you know, to
be disunited when we have this one God, it's completely contrary
to that concept, isn't it? Of the unity of the Godhead.
To be disunited as the people of God is absolutely scandalously
dishonoring. to the triunity of the Godhead. Let me give you an illustration
which perhaps has some currency at the moment because of the
film The King's Speech that is being tipped for Oscar success.
Looking at another historical program the other evening about
the one who became king in the place of Edward VIII, that was
George VI and the one who had the stammer. And it was about
the aspects of it were about the scandal of the abdication. It wasn't just a historical event
that happened, it was a scandalous thing that happened. It was an
outrageous thing. Why was it so scandalous? Why
could he not just walk away with impunity and go off and just
live their lives with absolute impunity in terms of The way
the British people and the monarchy viewed that, it was because of
the dishonor that it brought to the monarchy, to the institution,
to what it, and not just for itself, but what it symbolized.
What it symbolized of the social decency of the British Constitution. I know there's sin everywhere.
I know that there is. But you know, there's something
that it stands for that even to this day in this fallen world,
the British Constitution and the British sense of fair play
and integrity and honesty and freedom. That abdication was
a scandal. towards that and everything it
stood for. Now, it's a weak illustration,
I know, but disunity amongst the children of God is scandalous
against the integrity and the unity of the Godhead. There's not multiple flavors
and you can have your God and I'll go and have my flavor. No,
there is one body and one spirit. There is one Lord and one faith
and one baptism. There's one hope of calling.
There's one God and Father of all who is above all and through
all and in you all. So that's the first answer. Walk
worthy of this calling because think of who your God is. How
can you dishonor him? Walk worthy of it. Endeavor to
keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Oh yes,
we'll embrace and have true fellowship with any who believe that gospel
of sovereign grace that he has revealed. The one that if you
dilute any of it, it's another gospel that's damning to the
souls of men. We can't. We can't have anything to do
with that. We can't endorse it. We can't encourage it. We can't
count those that pedal those variations, those distortions
of the truth as brethren we can't do that but for those that believe
the truth and among ourselves endeavor to keep the unity of
the spirit in the bond of peace and then secondly you see from
verse seven Paul goes on to talk about why there are differences
that we should endeavor not to cause disunity between us And
the answer is Christ's gifts to the church. God has given
gifts to the church. And he's given gifts to strengthen
us for a walk that is worthy of the calling wherewith we are
called. He's not left, as we read in
Psalm 68, he sets the solitary in families. He doesn't leave
us alone. He's not saved us and sent us
out into the world lonely on our way. He sets the solitary
in families. He has given gifts to his church
to strengthen his children for that walk, for that worthy walk
of the gospel of his grace. And so we read in verse 7 that
unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure
of the gift of Christ. It's Christ's prerogative to
give gifts to his church. He gives some A gift of special
warm friendliness, of hospitality, of ministry, of encouragement. All of these different gifts
he gives to his church. We read about it clearly in other
places, like in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14, the chapters
about the spiritual gifts. Talks about these gifts that
God gives. God has given according to the
measure of the gift of Christ. there are differences of gifts
for a purpose the purpose isn't to disunite you because oh she's
got that gift and he's got that gift and therefore they disunite
no the purpose of the gifts is not to disunite but to strengthen
you know my foot doesn't do what my hand does or my heart does
or my head or my neck because they all serve their own purpose
in the body and the church of christ is a body and all the
parts serve the purpose according to the gift that he has given
And it's Christ's discretion to give. It's his discretion
to give. And don't be envious of one another's
gifts because don't forget that every gift comes with an awesome
responsibility. It's a job to do in the church
and bear that gift and do that gift and fulfill that awesome
responsibility that has been entrusted to you. But Christ
dispenses these gifts. Verse 8, wherefore he saith,
when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and
gave gifts unto men. Christ dispenses gifts. What it's saying is, having accomplished
salvation, he ascended. He ascended to heaven. Having
accomplished it, they saw him go. He'd accomplished salvation,
and he went to heaven. And from there, he dispenses
his gifts. Now it's quoting Psalm 68 and
verse 18 where the text that we read earlier says he received
gifts for men but here he gave gifts unto men. Is it wrong? the old jewish scholars said
that paul didn't know his scriptures he got it wrong because when
he quoted that verse he didn't write it down exactly as psalm
68 18 did no he was writing under the influence of the holy spirit
and what he was writing was this that christ received gifts for
men in the psalm in order to be able to give gifts unto men
he received gifts for men in order to give gifts unto men
Firstly, he received children from the Father. Our Lord Jesus
Christ received children from the Father. Isaiah 8, 18, and
it's quoted in Hebrews 2, 13, I think it is. Behold I and the
children whom he has given me. The father gave to the son, children,
his people. And that's why we read in the
Psalm, lift up your heads, verse Psalm 24 at the end of it. Lift
up your heads, O ye gates, and be lift up, ye everlasting doors,
and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory?
The Lord of hosts. He is the king of glory. Behold,
I and the children whom he has given me. Christ came, he descended
in order to redeem his people that he might take them to glory.
And having descended, he ascended to glory and he's going to take
his people to be with them. But look what it says, he led
captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. What is it that he
led captivity captive? The captivity that we're all
in by nature. the captivity to Satan, to sin,
to condemnation, slaves of sin, it says in other places, slaves
of sin, and he led that brutal regime of satanic captivity over
the minds of men and women, he led that captive. Just as, I've
told you this illustration before but it won't hurt to be repeated,
that historically it's known that when the Romans conquered,
when they conquered somebody that had been an oppressive tyrant,
when they conquered, they would lead them that that which caused
captivity to others they would lead that one captive through
the streets of Rome look what we've done to him making an open
show of them making a public disgrace of them the one who
was such a tyrant is now defeated and so it is Christ led the captivity
of Satan over the hearts and minds of everyone captive because
he saved his people from their sins and then verses nine and
ten Now he that he ascended, what is it that he also descended
first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended
is the same also that descended up far above all heavens that
he might fulfill all things. So he ascended only after he
had descended to accomplish salvation as a man in the place of men.
That's what he did. He came, it behoved him to adopt
the flesh of the children that he might save them by the suffering
of death. So what gifts does he give to
strengthen his people, to walk worthy? Remember in the study
in Isaiah 31, sorry, Isaiah 32, in verse 1, a king shall reign
in righteousness, which is clearly, it was Hezekiah, but it's clearly
Christ. A king shall reign, and he shall give princes, it says.
He shall give princes. In the gospel age, he shall give
princes. Here are these princes. Verse
11. He gave some apostles, some prophets,
some evangelists, and 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 these four One, two,
three, four, sorry, five. He gave these five scriptural
ministry gifts to his church to strengthen us for the walk,
for this walk worthy, to strengthen us. He gave apostles first of
all. These are messengers. These are
foundational. Ephesians 2.20, built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone. They're built upon Christ, but
their doctrine, the apostles' doctrine. What did the early
church continue in? The apostles' doctrine, and breaking
of bread, and prayers. That's what they continued in.
It's foundational, and it's one-off, not to be repeated. There are
no apostles today. There have never been since these
first apostles. These were the divinely appointed
conduits of Christ's truth and they were there until there was
a completed Bible. You know John the Apostle died
a very old man after he'd written the book of Revelation. Completed
Bible, the perfect word of God, the perfect law. James says,
we'll get to it at some stage in the James study, when we look
into the perfect law, the perfect word of God, the completed Word
of God. There's nothing else to say,
because it's all here. Word of God. They were that.
Then there are prophets. prophets. There are some who've
had a special gift in interpreting and applying the scripture. A
deep knowledge in studying. They're able to spend much time
in deep study and prayer to know the mind of Christ. There's one
that we read about in the Acts of the Apostles, a man called
Agabus who was a prophet. You read about him a couple of
times in the Acts of the Apostles. And then you could point to different
ones in different days, you know, Tyndale for example and others
of the reformers that we know about in history. Somebody like
John Gill, a tremendous gift. He was a prophet in his day in
that he had a tremendous gift. for studying and getting deep
into the meaning of the scripture and there are others in our day,
I won't mention any names for the sake of causing embarrassment but there
are others in our day who have this gift of acting like prophets
in their day, special understanding of scripture and writing literature
and the things that we have now, the blessings that we have now
that were completely unknown to us 10 years ago. You had to
have a lot of money to build up a huge great library of theological
books whereas now we've got this e-books thing online and you
can just go and for free you can just get access to all of
these wonderful writings of men who were effectively prophets
in their day with deep understanding of the scripture. And then there
are evangelists, I'm running out of time so I haven't got
time to go deeply into all of this, but evangelists who had
a wide-ranging geographical ministry and still do in our day. And
then pastors, shepherds of the sheep, local church messengers,
those given the message for a local group of Christian people. I
read about, a lot about churches without pastors, pastor-less
churches, and that they're looking for pastors. And I think, yes,
I know there are people who are genuinely seeking to be taught
and led by those that are truly ministers of the word of God
but I just wonder where are they looking? God gives gifts to his
church and I would say to them look amongst your own ranks first
of all is there nobody that can teach? Oh, there's nobody that's
got the charisma of so-and-so. You haven't got so-and-so. What
gifts have you got there now? That's the thing to do. God gives
pastors and teachers, teachers, assistants, supporters, helps,
other people who can teach in the assembly. One of the qualifications
for office when you get to 1 Timothy chapter 3 is that an elder should
be apt to teach. teachers. He gives these ministerial
gifts to his church. You notice that that list doesn't
mention spiritual social workers, does it? I fear that so many
that are looking for a pastor are actually looking for a spiritual
social worker, as they would see it. No, these are scriptural
ministry gifts. They're all scriptural ministry
gifts. Remember what the Ethiopian eunuch
said when Philip came alongside him? And Philip said, do you
understand what you're reading? How can I, unless a man come
up here and explain it to me? And Philip went up and preached
to him Christ. How can I preach? How can I,
me, how can I preach? unless a prophet helps me. I
make use of the writings of John Gill and the writings of Don
Faulkner and other people like that and Henry Mahan and you
name them. If it's good stuff I'll look
at it and see what they have to say. How can I preach unless
a prophet helps me? And so the purpose of this is
to strengthen the church, for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
till we all come. You see, as the word of Christ
dwells in us richly, so we come to the knowledge of the Son of
God, to a perfect man, not that we're ever perfect in this life
but gradually the church is being built Peter says to the ones
he writes to the last verse of his second epistle 318 grow in
grace and the knowledge of Christ and these gifts are given to
the church that we might grow that we would henceforth no more
be children tossed to and fro and carried about you know like
a little fishing boat in a stormy sea it's going to get smashed
on the rocks any moment No, every wind of doctrine by the slight
of men and cunning craftiness, but speaking the truth, the gospel
truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the
head, even Christ. That's the strength that we have,
the strength of scriptural ministry gifts, the knowledge of who the
true God is, that we might walk worthy of the calling, that we
might be united in the gospel of his grace.