Ephesians chapter 4, and let's just read verse 7. But unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Let's
read verse 8. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended
on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now
he begins here with a contrast in verse 7. But unto every one
of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of
Christ. And he begins with but because
there's a contrast here. And the contrast is this. The
Apostle Paul has been speaking to us of unity. You and I have
been looking at that. In verse 3, endeavoring to keep
the unity. of the Spirit and the bonds of
peace, the oneness. We're one. We've already looked
at that in the third chapter, the second chapter, where he
said, He is our peace who hath made both one. We're one. And he has been presenting
arguments for us to endeavor to keep this peace. He has us
to look at ourselves. How are we to walk? What's to
be our attitude? with lowliness and meekness and
long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. Brother Larry
told us about that this morning. And then in verses 4 and 6, he
gives us the seven ones that you and I looked at last week.
It's an argument for peace. There is just one body, and we're
in that body, therefore there's unity. There's just one Spirit
that puts us in that body. You have Him if you are a child
of God, and I have Him if I am a child of God. Just one Spirit
to regenerate us, to reveal Christ to us, to seal us, to keep us.
One Spirit. And then one calling. We all
have the same hope, and that is to be with Christ and to be
like Him. And then He goes on to the Lord
Jesus Christ. There is only one Lord. To you
and I, there is just one Savior. There is no other. There are
many Jesuses. We look around us and we see
the world preaching and believing in different Jesus. But to us,
there's only one Jesus. That's the Lord, the dear and
blessed Son of God. One faith in Him that saves us,
that justifies us. One baptism that identifies us
with Him. And then verse 6, he says, one
God who is the Father of us all. All the believers. He's the Father
of all of us. But then he comes here now and
he starts this verse 7 off and he says, but. There's a contrast
here. But. And what Paul is going to
show us, that though we have unity, though we're one in Christ,
we don't have uniformity. We're different, aren't we? All
of us are different. But to everyone is given grace. according to the measure of the
gift of Christ. Now, in our natural state, we
know we're different. We have different personalities.
All nationalities have their own cultures. You and I have
different convictions, different preferences. But you know, in
the kingdom of God, within the church, we don't have uniformity
either. We're all different in the church. As you and I live our Christian
lives, we're different. We're made to differ. There are
some of us more loving than others. There are some more tender than
others. There are some more kind, more generous, more faithful. There are some that's got greater
gifts than others. Somebody makes us to differ.
We are different, aren't we? Some have more grace than others.
More grace is measured out to them, and that makes them to
differ. Aren't you glad that we're not
all pastors? There wouldn't be room enough.
Were this masses of people? There wouldn't be room enough
up here for everybody to be a pastor. When you ladies found out cleaning
back there and cooking, you had too many of you, didn't you?
There's too many helps. So aren't you glad there's a
variety? Aren't you glad we're all called
to the same office and we all have the same grace? And that's
what Paul's going to teach us here in this passage. We do have
unity. We're one. But we don't have
uniformity. We're different. When the Lord
saves us, He saves us by His grace. But did you ever notice
this? John Bunyan made this statement.
He said there's some of God's children. They're saved by grace. And if you're saved by grace,
you're saved. But he said he's convinced that there's some of
God's children that you're not going to have much fellowship
with them, and much friendship either, until you get to heaven.
And that's so. But there's others, and I've
come to appreciate this with you folks. I've come to appreciate
the grace that's in you. I've come to appreciate the gifts
that you've been given. And there's all kinds of gifts
within this congregation. We have a pastor. We have teachers. We have song
leaders. We have helps. We have someone
that takes care of the finances. We have someone that takes care
of the mailing the sermons out, the taping of those. We have
those who play the instruments. We have helps, those who clean. We're not all the same. And it
depends on your gift, the amount of grace that you need. But whatever
grace you have, it's measured out to you by Christ Himself. Now, I imagine it takes more
grace to be an apostle than it does to teach. Brother Glenn
is a perfect example. If you ask him, he'd probably
say it takes a greater measure of grace to teach Sunday school
than it does to lead the same. But whatever amount that it takes,
it's the grace of Christ that is measured out to that person.
And that's the point that the Apostle Paul is making. that
though we have unity, we're all so different in our gifts, in
whatever the Lord has given us to do. Let me give you three quick reasons
why you and I should appreciate and be thankful for one another's
gifts and not be jealous of one another. First of all, If you
have a gift, I don't care if it's the pastor, I don't care
if it's the song leaders, the teachers, those who take care
of the finances, those who mow the yard, those who clean, whatever
we do. And the church is full of gifts
there. But whatever your gift is, here
is why we should never envy one another, never get jealous of
one another. Christ gave you that gift. He measured out the
grace that was required for you to minister in your gift. And
He gave you that gift. That's what He said in verse
7. But to every one of us, we're different. We don't have uniformity. Our gift's different. Therefore,
to every one of us, each one of us is given grace according
to the measure of the gift of Christ. How the Lord Jesus must
love His church. To measure out such grace. And I hope that you see it in
one another. And sometimes it may not appear
big. Your gift may not be something
that's hardly noticed. But I'm telling you that it's
so important that Christ gave it to you. And He measured out
that grace to give to you. That's how important you are
to this congregation. And that's why we should never
be jealous of one another. And that's why we should always
seek to be where the Lord has put us. And seek to do what He's
given us to do. Because it's Christ that gives
the gift. It's Him that measures out the
grace. And secondly, For the reason these gifts are
given. Look in verse 12. Beginning here in verse 12. The
reason. Christ gives them and here's the reason that He gives
them. Look at this. For the perfected. He says in
verse 11, He gave some apostles. He gave gifts. He gave apostles,
prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. And if you study 1
Corinthians chapter 12, you see a lot more gifts. Even helps. And here's why He gave those
gifts. It's for the good of His church.
Look at this. For the perfecting, the equipping, the furnishing
of the saints. For the work of the ministry. There's a ministry here, isn't
there? And look who all has got a part
in it. Just about all of you have a part in the ministry.
All I do is come here and preach. You hear and listen. And the
ministry spread. How often do you go here, hopefully,
and tell somebody else what I've just told you? Or you'll get
thoughts. You'll get thoughts from the
Sunday school teacher. It's the work of the ministry. Brother
Larry takes it and sends it to another man, and he puts it on
the Internet. Brother Fortner just told me this last week,
he just got back from Europe, and he said several people come
up to him and told him that they've listened to the sermons from
the Sovereign Grace Church. How many of you are involved
in the work of the ministry? We all are, really, aren't we?
You say, well, all I do is clean the church. Well, I guarantee
you this, if this church ceases to be clean, we won't meet here
too long. We may go six or seven months.
But if it's not clean, we'll have to meet somewhere else or
quit. Everybody's involved in the work of the ministry. For
the edifying, the building up, the comforting of the body of
Christ. Look at this. Till we all come
into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of
God into a perfect man, a mature man. Till all the elect are brought
into Christ and brought to know Christ. And after being brought
in, they mature into adult Christians. That we henceforth be no more
children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind
of doctrine. Oh, the gifts of Christ. Why
does He give gifts to His church? For the good of His church. There's
no sense of me agloring and gloating because I'm a preacher. Why am
I a preacher? It's a gift to the church. It
don't have anything to do with me. I'm a servant. I'm a feeder of the flock. That's
all I am. Glenn, you can't glory because
you're a teacher or a song leader. It's for the good of the church.
That's why the Lord... These guys, these poor televangelists,
poor things, going around making millions of dollars. or for some
guilt they bragged out. We're not to gain from these
things. We don't make ourselves apostles
and prophets and pastors and teachers or whatever. The Lord
calls us to that. And He gives those people to
the church, to have His church. And they're going to cease, aren't
they? The gifts that we have is just temporary. I ain't going
to be preaching in heaven. The preaching is going to be
over with. He ain't going to be teaching. Maybe he'll be leading some songs. But it's temporary. It's temporary. We use it for the good of His
church. And that's why we're just not jealous. That's why
Moses told Joshua, I wish all God's children were preachers.
I wish they all would just go wherever we're preaching. Because
it's a help to the church. It's good. I don't envy your
gifts, brothers and sisters. I appreciate your gifts. I don't
care what it is that you do. Whatever the Lord sets you in
this congregation to do, I don't care what it is. I thank Him
for it. I bless Him for it. Because though
it may seem little, it's a help to this church. That's why He
gave it. That's exactly why He gave it. And thirdly is this, and I want
to compare this Scripture of where Paul got it from. Here
in verse 8, Wherefore he saith, when he ascended on high, he
led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now I want you
to turn over to where Paul quoted that Scripture from in Isaiah
chapter 68. And here's the third thing, why
we appreciate and thank the Lord for the gifts that He's given
His church. And they're diverse. They're
so diverse. Some of you are off to Psalm
68. Yeah, Psalm 68. I don't know what I said, but
Psalm 68. Here's where Paul quoted this verse from. Look in verse
18. He gave gifts to men. Gave gifts
to the church. Started out with those prophets
and apostles and went to evangelists. and teachers, pastors, deacons,
song leaders, those who helped and gave those gifts to the church.
And here he's going to tell us one of the reasons he gave them.
And here's why we appreciate those gifts. Look in Psalm 68. Speaking of the Lord Jesus, David
said, Thou hast ascended on high. Thou hast led captivity captive
Thou hast received gifts for men." Now, Paul quoted this this
way. He said, You've given gifts to
men. David said, You've received gifts.
Well, there's nothing inconsistent about that. The Lord Jesus received
these gifts, and then He gave them. I love the way the Scripture
interprets that, don't you? David's inspired, and Paul's
inspired when he interprets it. Where did Christ get the gifts?
The Father gave them. Then He gave them to His church
for this cause. Thou hast received gifts for
men, given men gifts, yea, I love this, for the rebellious also,
that the Lord might dwell among them. See that? The Lord dwells
in these gifts. He manifests Himself in these
gifts. I tell you, I was helped so much
this morning when Brother Barry talked about having a good attitude and not
railing for railing. I tell you, that helped me so
much. I needed that. If that wasn't for anybody else
this morning, that was for me. That's for me. And you know Christ was in that. Christ was in it. He dwells among
us. I'm telling you, wherever His Word is taught, And wherever
His Word is believed, somebody has received a measure of grace
from Christ to teach that Word. And as they teach it, Christ
dwells in our midst. He was here this morning because
He touched my heart. He opened my understanding. You
ladies sang that song this morning. Oh, Christ was here. Christ was
here. He gave you ladies that song.
He gave you a gift to sing it. And I'm telling you what, He
was in it. He was in it. When those apostles and evangelists
in the early church went preaching the Gospel, the Lord would save
multitudes. Paul in Barnabas went on the
Isle of Crete and a host of people were saved. And he sent Titus
back there. He said, you've got to go ordain
elders. Pray about this. The Lord's going
to call preachers. He's going to give gifts to these
churches. So it's necessary that you go back there and establish
these local congregations, because the Lord is going to dwell in
their midst by these gifts. What would we do, brothers and
sisters, if the Lord said, well, there's my church, but He didn't
give any gifts to it? It would be awful, wouldn't it? What if we didn't have a pastor?
as weak and vile and as cracked as he is? What if we didn't have
one? What if we didn't have teachers? What if we didn't have you and
the gifts of Christ? I'm telling you, it's essential,
ain't it? Because the Lord dwells among us by these things. Some of you and some people,
they've got the gift of prayer. Some people cannot pray publicly.
When they say, let's pray, they forget everything. They can't
pray publicly. They go in private, in their
closet, and they pour out their hearts to the Lord. But when
it comes to public, they can't pray. But I'm telling you, there's
other people. There's other people the Lord
seems to move upon. And I'm telling you, when they
pray, the Lord is among us. He's among us. And if that's
being so, I'm sure not going to be jealous of this grace and
this gift. Are you? Going to be thankful? Oh Lord, give more of it. Give
more of it. Bless our teachers. Bless our
helps. Bless our song leaders. Bless
Cindy if she claims to pour out her heart and pray for the rest
of us. Back over in our text in verse
7 again, Ephesians chapter 4, verse 7. There's a principle taught here. And as you study the Scriptures,
especially if you have to minister the Scriptures, one thing that
I've come to look for, and it's the most difficult thing
to do when you read the Scriptures, Look for the principle that's
taught in that passage. Not just look for the surface
meaning of it, but why is it there? What is it saying? Why would he even mention this
to begin with? And you begin to dig deeper and
get below the surface, and you begin to see these principles
that are taught. And it just seems to open up.
It gets broader to you. Let me give you an example of
what I'm talking about. Read verse 7 again. But unto every
one of us, each and every Christian, every one of us, is given grace
according to the measure of the gift of Christ. According to
the measure. Now, you say, Bruce, what are
you talking about? Well, there is a teaching that some people
believe That the grace of God is just a general influence. And that it's sent out over all
of this world. But that's all it is. It's just
a general influence. It's not anything particular.
It's not different towards one than it is another. And it's
not that influence even that saves. It's not that influence
that helps us. and strengthens us, and so forth. But it's simply our response
to this influence. We have some people that teach
that the grace of God is like that. It's just an influence.
But what saves you is your response. And you ask them, well, why are
you saved? Why did you come to Christ when
somebody else didn't? And they say, well, it was up
to me. there's this general influence.
And it's not even the influence, it's us responding to the influence. Well, here is a principle in
verse 7 that refutes that. Grace is not just a general influence,
alike to all. Grace is something that God has
put in His Son, and His Son measures it out. See that? It's not to
everybody the same. As a matter of fact, it's to
each individual in particular as Christ measures it out to
that person. To some, He gives more grace
than others. But if you have grace, it's not
a general influence. Christ has given you grace. He's
given you a measure. It's not the same to all. Sometime read Revelation chapter
5. You'll remember this. Where John
got this vision of heaven. He was caught up into heaven.
And he saw God sitting on the throne. And he had this book
in his right hand. And a strong angel proclaimed
with a loud voice, Who is worthy and who is able to take this
book and open these seals. It was sealed with seven seals.
And to look on these things. And to bring these things to
pass and to reveal these things. And I think that's the book of
God's decree. It's a book of God's purpose.
It's a book of history. And no man was found worthy to
take that book. No man had the power to do it.
And John began to weep. Oh, what's going to happen if
somebody can't take this book and unseal it? And he began to
weep, and these tears were running down his cheeks. And he wept,
and he wept, and he wept, wept much. And this angel came to
him and said, John, don't weep any longer. One has been found. Well, who is he? You said search
was made in heaven, and in the earth, and under the earth, and
no man was found. Well, there was one. He's the Lion of the tribe of
Judah. He's the Rood of David. He has
prevailed to open the book and to loose these seals. And John looked there, and in
the midst of the throne... Now, who's in the midst of the
throne? That's God, isn't it? And he said, and in the midst
of the elders. Who's that? That's a man. So in the midst
of the throne and in the midst of those elders, there's the
God-man. And he was like a lamb that had
been slain. And he took this book and he
opened these seals and brought it all to pass. And what is that
telling us? Just what you and I studied in
Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 11. That God has an eternal purpose
which He purposed in Christ Jesus the Lord, and by Christ Jesus
the Lord. The Father loves the Son, and
He's put all things into His hand. He's put all this grace,
all of this authority in Him. And Jesus today, on the right
hand of God, is seated there. And He's reigning, and He's judging,
and He's measuring out this grace to give to each one according
to the will and the purpose of God. But it's not an influence. No, it's not a general influence
the same to all. It's the measure of the grace
of Christ as He measures it out. The Apostle Paul saw this in
his conversion. He said, I was a blasphemer.
I was injurious. But I obtained mercy. And the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ was exceeding abundant with faith
and love. Now, there's a great measure
of grace there. He said nothing about this influence. No, he
said, Christ came to me, a vile sinner, and stopped me on the
Damascus road. And he said, in effect, how much
grace is it going to take to save this man? And he measured
it out. And Paul said, there it was.
And it was exceeding abundant. And it brought with it faith
and filled my heart with His love. How much grace did it take
to save you? How much grace? Do you have any
apprehension of how much He had to measure out? Of whatever it
took? It was in His heart. I mean,
He has a long measuring rod. And His heart's full of grace.
Ain't that what the Scripture tells us? John said, we beheld
His glory. The glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace. He's been measuring out this
grace now for thousands of years. And He's still full of it. He
hasn't diminished at all. They which receive abundance
of grace and of the gift of righteousness, who do they receive it from?
From Him! And He measures it out individually
as God wills it and as you need it. And that's the way we exercise
our gifts. That's the way we follow Him.
That's the way we edify one another. He gives grace. You know to say
that grace is just a general influence and it's just you'll
respond to it, that's like saying this general influence went out
that everybody would be an apostle, but only twelve responded. See
how silly that is? No, it's not a general influence.
Christ measures it. He measures it out. And whatever
measure it takes, God has put enough grace in him that it's sufficient. I was looking
at Barb's book just the other day. Thy grace. My grace. My grace is sufficient. My grace
is sufficient. And I tell you, brothers and
sisters, when I feel like I need more, I go ask Him to measure
me out some more. There are times when He says,
I've given you enough right now. Use what I've given you. Don't
abuse what I've given you. He knows when it's time to measure
out some more. And when you come to the throne
of grace, where grace is given, to find grace to help in the
times of need, and you really need it, I'll tell you what He'll
do. He'll measure out some more. And He'll give it to you. And
whatever valley you're in, there's grace to get through that valley.
Whatever hill you're climbing, there's grace to get up that
hill. His grace is sufficient. And He'll measure it out. He'll
measure it out Himself. God has put it all in Him. So
Paul is saying here, we're all different. Our gifts are different. The measure of Christ's grace
to each one is different. Yet, we have unity. Unity, but
not uniformity. And I'm glad for that, aren't
you? Somebody's always said, you know, what if all the flowers
in the garden were the same kind? Same color, same height? Wouldn't
be very pretty, would it? You know what makes the church
so pretty? Diversity. Diversity. And what makes it
so pleasant to be around? is unity. We're all different,
but we're all the same. Lord bless His word.