But to turn back to Ephesians
four, I would like to read this passage of scripture again before
I attempt to preach on it. Verse eight, Ephesians chapter
four. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended
up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now this is talking about his
ascension. At this time, he gave gifts unto men. And he tells
what these gifts are in verse 11. And he gave some apostles
and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. And here's the reason he gave
these gifts for the perfecting, the maturing of the saints, for
the work of the ministry, for the edifying, the building up
of the body of Christ, till we all come, every one of us, in
the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God
unto a perfect man, a mature man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ. Now, we have a measure of his
stature. We're not Christ. Even though
we're united to him, we're not Christ. We have a measure of
the stature of the fullness of Christ. That we, verse 14, be
henceforth no more children tossed to and fro and carried about
with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men. And that word
slight is where we get, means actually loaded dice. there's
a attempt to deceive and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in
wait to deceive. Speaking of these false prophets,
but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things,
which is the head, even Christ from whom Christ, the head 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." I've entitled this message, The
Purpose of the Pastor. And let me say at the beginning,
The church is not for the pastor. The pastor is for the church.
The church is not for the pastor where he can show off his gifts
and so on. The pastor is for the good and
the edification and the blessing of the church. And this is what
God uses for the growth and maturity of the body of Christ. The gifts
he gives, he mentions them in verse 11. And he gave some apostles
and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints. Now he mentions five different
people. First of all, he mentions the
apostles. Now there were 12 apostles. Not
13, 12. And there are only 12 apostles. There are not other apostles
other than the 12. Paul took the place of Judas.
There were 12 apostles. And these are men who were witnesses,
eyewitnesses of the resurrection of Christ, whom he taught the
gospel directly. I think of Paul being brought
up into the third heavens, and the Lord taught him the gospel
while he was there. He was commissioned directly
by Christ. These were the only ones who
could lay their hands on people and transfer the gifts of the
Holy Spirit. You remember in Acts chapter 8 when it says,
they saw by the laying on of the apostles' hands, the Holy
Ghost was given. In other words, If I had this
gift, I couldn't transfer it to somebody else. It's only the
apostles that could do it. And that's why this entire charismatic
movement is phony. The only one who could transfer
the gifts are the apostles themselves. Now, there are no apostles today. They died out with the 12. And there are no apostles today.
And if somebody claims to be an apostle, they are phonies. Now, write that down. But we
have the writings of the apostles. You know, when Paul said in 1
Corinthians 13, verse 10, when that which is perfect is come,
I have no doubt he's talking about the full canon of scripture.
It hadn't been written yet, completely. When that which is perfect is
come, that which is in part shall be done away with. We don't need
the apostles, we have the word of God. What is better than that,
having the actual scriptures? Now, there are no apostles. Now, the next office that he
mentioned as a gift to the church were prophets. We read about
a prophet by the name of Agabus in the book of Acts, and he could
foretell future events. He could tell what was going
to take place. And a prophet is one who could say, thus saith
the Lord, and it was the Lord speaking through that man. Now,
once again, we have the scriptures. They didn't have the scriptures
at that time. We don't need to hear a man say, thus saith the
Lord, because we have God's word. This book, this canon is a closed
canon. There are no new revelations.
Oh, what esteem we have for the word of God. And I don't believe
there are any prophets anymore. People who can foretell the future,
people who can say, thus saith the Lord, it would have the same
authority as scripture. That is God. And then he mentions
evangelists. Evangelist is somebody who brings
the gospel to somebody who's never heard. A missionary, that's
the work of an evangelist. When we put out the gospel on
TV and on the radio, that is the work of evangelism. When
you witness to somebody and tell somebody that the gospel that
they have never heard, you're doing the work of an evangelist.
An evangelist is not a pastor, but he is involved in the work
of the spread of the gospel. And everybody in here is to be
an evangelist. Everybody that believes the gospel
is to be involved in this work of evangelism. And then he speaks
of the pastor teacher. And I don't think these two can
be separated. A pastor, teacher. Now, what
are we doing here? There are a lot of other things
you could do. Why are we here? Because this is God's ordained
way of feeding the flock through the pastor teacher, bringing
the word of God. And there is such a thing as
being a true God-called pastor teacher. Now, I'm a God-called
pastor teacher. You know what I think about myself?
The same thing Paul said, I want you to look at this scripture
with me because I despise the idea of clergy lady where preachers
try to make themselves different than the people. Look what Paul
said in verse 11 of 2 Corinthians 12, I've become a fool in glory. You've compelled me. 2 Corinthians
12, verse 11, I've become a fool in glory in trying to commend
myself You have compelled me for I ought to have been commended
of you rather than trying to commend myself for nothing. Am I behind the very chiefest
apostles? What's it say next? Though I
be nothing. And if anybody sees himself in
any higher light than that, I don't care what kind of pastor or evangelist
he is. If he sees himself in any higher
light than that, He has deceived himself. I love what Paul said,
if a man thinketh himself to be something when he's nothing,
he deceives himself. Yes, I am a pastor. What does
that make me think of myself? I'm nothing. I'm nothing. You know, one of the things I
love about the church of Christ, Christ is all and everybody else
is nothing. I'd like to, we're not going to have a slogan, I
realize that, we preach Christ crucified, but I'd like to have
a slogan saying, the church where everybody's nobody and Christ
is all. That'd be a good slogan, wouldn't
it? So when we're talking about the office of a pastor, and it
is a God-called, God-ordained office, it's not to exalt the
preacher. Now the purpose of the pastor
is clearly stated in verses 12 through 16. for the perfecting
of the saints. The equipping of the saints is
what that really means, the equipping of the saints. For the work of
the ministry, for the edifying, the building up of the body of
Christ, till we all come, this is what we're moving toward,
till we all come in the unity of the faith, the oneness of
the faith, and the knowledge, the recognition of the Son of
God. Now this is what the design of preaching the gospel is, so
you'll recognize the Son of God. You know Him when you hear Him,
and you know when you're not hearing Him. You're given that
recognition. And this is the unity of faith,
what we believe concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. I love to
remind everybody, faith isn't what you believe about yourself.
Faith is what you believe concerning Him. It's what you believe concerning
His person, and His work, and His offices. Somebody says, well,
I believe I'm a Christian. That means nothing. It means
nothing. I believe He's the Christ. That
means something. That is saving faith. Whoso believeth
in Jesus Christ is the Christ is born of God. Now that's the
purpose of what we're doing right now. To the measure of the stature,
to the measure, that's not all. It's just the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ. We're eternally, I don't understand
this, I just believe it. Every believer is eternally united
to the Lord Jesus Christ and is one with Christ and has been
so eternally. One with Christ, but that doesn't
mean we're Christ. There's only one child who was
born and son who is given. only one in whom the government
is upon his shoulders. He's the only one who is wonderful,
counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. Now, we in union with him have
a measure of the stature of his fullness, but it's only a measure. We're not him. I like what Joe McSherry used
to say, I know two things. I know God is, and I know I'm
not him. I like that. I like that. And I say the same
thing. I know who Christ is and I know
I'm not him. And here's why we do this. Verse
14, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and
fro. carried about with every wind
of doctrine by the slight of men and the cunning craftiness
whereby they lie and wait to deceive, but speaking the truth
in love. That's what preaching is. That's
what we want to hear. That's what we want to do. Speaking
the truth in love may grow up into him. I love that language.
It's, we grow up into him. in all things, which is the head,
even Christ, from whom the whole body," this is speaking of the
church, "'fitly joined together and compacted by that which every
joint supplies.'" This is talking about every member of the body,
the ear, the eye, the nose, the little toe. All are interdependent
members in need of each other. And that is what is going on
in what we're doing right now. It's the feeding of the body. I think of what the Lord said
to Peter, Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep
with the word of God. Now, There is such a thing as the
office of the pastor. It's a God-ordained office called
a bishop, called an elder, called a shepherd. If a man desires
the office of a bishop, the scripture says, he desires a good work. And like I've already said, pastors
are for the church. The church is not for the pastor. Now, This thing of a pastor is
a calling, it's not a profession. This is very important. You know,
I think it's amazing to watch men go to, and I'm gonna call
it specifically this, cemetery, and get their credentials. And
now I've got credentials, and they send out resumes, and a
church hires them, and they've got a job. That's not a pastor. Has nothing to do with the God-called
pastor. You know, what that is, you know
how you, is there anybody in here that likes career politicians?
I don't think so. Well, these preachers that are
trained and apply for jobs, they're career pastors. Not God called
pastors. That's their job. Somebody makes
his living as a plumber. Somebody else is a carpenter.
Somebody else is an insurance salesman. Somebody else is a
pastor. They send out resumes. They might decide, I want to
live somewhere else. So they'll send a resume to some
other area to get a job. That is not a pastor. That is purely manmade. It's
a hireling is what it is. It's a man who's doing what he's
doing for gain, for his position. Now, the pastor is for the perfecting
or the equipping of the saints. And this is the only time this
word is used in the New Testament. Verse 12, for the perfecting
or the equipping of the saints. And what is this equipping for?
For the work of the ministry. I despise it when a preacher
talks about my ministry, my ministry. I've heard that so many times,
my ministry. Every believer is in the ministry. And somebody says, well, I want
to be full-time in the ministry. Is there any other way? If you're
in the ministry, you're full-time in the ministry. Every believer
is full-time in the ministry. Now, I love the different ways
the ministry is described. We read in Acts 6 of the ministry
of the Word. Isn't this what we want to do?
We want to preach the Word. We want to understand the Word. We want to hear the Word from
the Word that reveals the Word. Oh, it's the ministry of the
Word of God. It's called in the Scriptures,
the ministry of testifying the Gospel of God's grace. Now, that's
what we want to do, isn't it? I want to give testimony to the
Gospel of the grace of God. the electing, redeeming, justifying,
preserving, glorifying. Every part of salvation is by
grace. We want to give testimony to that. And you know, we need
to hear it over and over again, don't we? I mean, I'll forget
it. You'll forget it. I guarantee
you will. That's the need of this ministry of the gospel of
the grace of God. It's called the ministry of the
spirit. Only God the Holy Spirit can
bless what we're doing. It's a waste of time if we don't
have God the Holy Spirit making himself known to us through the
preaching of the gospel. It's called the ministry of righteousness
in 2 Corinthians 3. In the ministry, we're telling
sinners the only way one can be righteous before God. The
only way you or I can be righteous for God is for God to remove
my sins and place them upon His Son and to take the righteousness
of His Son and give it to me so that I'm the very righteousness
of God. That subject isn't even addressed
in most so-called churches. And they're not churches, they're
religious institutions. Church, you gotta have the gospel
preached for it to be a real church. And something that doesn't have
the gospel shouldn't even be called a church. It's the ministry of
reconciliation. How God can be reconciled to
a sinner. Reconciled by the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's called a ministry to the
saints. And like I said, full-time Christian service, is there any
other kind? No, there's not. Now this work
of the pastor is for the equipping of the saints for the ministry. Every believer is in the ministry. Look what he says next, for the
perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for
the edifying, the building up, the growing of the body of Christ. Now, in this thing of growth, don't you want to grow in the
fruit of the spirit? Don't you want to grow in love to him,
love to the brethren? Don't you want to grow in joy,
truly rejoicing in Him and walking in the joy of the Lord? Don't
you want to grow in peace, the peace that comes from knowing
that Christ is our peace and I rest in Him? Oh, what a joy
it is to know that everything God requires of me, he looks
to his son for. That gives me such peace. If
I start thinking of him looking for me for something, I lose
all my peace. I need to hear the gospel. What about longsuffering? I want to become more longsuffering
and patient. gentleness, graciousness, goodness,
faith. Don't you want your faith increased?
Don't you want to become more meek? Don't you want to be by
the grace of God more temperate to grow in this thing of temperance?
Every believer does. What about the beatitudes? That's what a believer is. Poor
in spirit. Don't you want to become more
poor in spirit? Don't you want to become, don't you want to
mourn more over your sin? Not be so hard-hearted toward
it. Don't you want to be more meek before God? Don't you want
to hunger and thirst more after righteousness? Don't you want
to be more merciful? Don't you want to be more of
a peacemaker? Don't you want to be pure in heart? Don't you
want to be persecuted for righteousness sake? You know, I do. I don't
want to be persecuted because I'm being a jerk and make people
mad, but I want to be persecuted for righteousness sake, for the
gospel sake. there's growth involved, the maturing of the saints. And
this is what this is about. The edifying, the building up
of the body of Christ. Verse 13, till we all come in
the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God
unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ. Now, this is what a pastor is
to do. He's to preach the gospel for
this reason, till we all come into the unity of the faith,
which is the knowledge of the Son of God. Now, that doesn't
just mean knowing things about it. It means you know Him. You know Him. And you know His
Word. And you know when He's preached.
And you know when He's not preached. You are like the sheep who hear
not the voice of strangers. Now this comes through the preaching
of the Word. This thing of coming to understand
and recognize the Son of God. This is the perfect man full-grown,
adult, mature, having a measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ, and I'll repeat. We're united to Christ, but we
only have a measure of Him. We're complete in Him, but we're
not Him. That's the point. We are not Him. I've talked about
united to Christ and some people say, you think you're a little,
you think you're Christ. No, I don't. I guarantee you
I don't. I know I'm a sinner saved by
grace. I know I'm complete in Him and I know I'm united to
Him, but I'm not. I don't think I'm Christ. I think Christ is
Christ. And I think He's the altogether lovely one and I love
Him for it. Now here's why we want this maturity. Verse 14, that we henceforth
be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about by
every winded doctrine, by the slight of men and cunning craftiness,
whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Now this maturity is needed to
withstand this deception. I think of where John said, try
the spirits. Believe not every spirit, but
try the spirits, whether they be of God. And he gives us this
simple, I hesitate to call it a formula, but every spirit that
confesses not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not
of God, is antichrist. Every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. Now in that
statement, somebody says, well, everybody believes that Jesus
Christ came in the flesh. Well, let's examine what that
statement actually says. Christ was before he came. That's
his eternal sonship as the son of God, the creator. He was before
he came. He came in the flesh. God was manifest in the flesh
and he did what he came to do. Thou shalt call his name Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins. When he said
it is finished, they were all saved from their sins. Turn to Acts chapter 20 for a
moment. We'll look at a couple of scriptures. And while you're turning there,
what is the first thing the Lord said after he said, enter ye
in straight gate? Do you remember? First thing
he said, beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly they're wolves that desire your destruction. Now look here in Acts chapter
20, Paul is speaking to the Ephesian elders and he says to these pastors,
take heed, verse 28, take heed therefore unto yourselves and
to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers
to feed the church of God. which he hath purchased with
his own blood, that's the job of the preacher, to feed the
church with the gospel. Now that just means preaching
the gospel. And preaching the gospel is what is every believer's
food. I have to hear the gospel. Now
look what he says in verse 29. For I know this, that after my
departing, after I die, shall grievous wolves enter in among
you, Not sparing the flock, also of your own selves shall men
arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after
them. Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years,
I cease not to warn every one night and day with tears. Turn
to 2 Corinthians 11. Verse 13. For such are false apostles.
There are a lot of people claiming to be an apostle in that day.
Such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves
into the apostles of Christ. I'm coming in the name of Christ
and his gospel. And this is no marvel, nothing
to be amazed by, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel
of light. Therefore, it's no great thing
if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness,
whose end shall be according to their works. Now, Satan's
main sphere of operation is the pulpit. That's his main sphere
of operation. And he's going to somehow cloud
the issue of righteousness. That's his job all the time. Now, you know people, perhaps
you're one of them, that bend to every winded doctrine. You're
not like the oak tree, but the willow. Go back and forth, back
and forth. Whatever you hear, that's what
you're influenced by. I want to be the oak tree, don't you?
Not somebody who's bent back and forth, but I want to be the
oak tree. One of the scripts on this, turn to Hebrews 5. Hebrews 5. Now the writer of the Hebrews
had been talking about Melchizedek. Verse 10, called of God and high
priest after the order of Melchizedek, of whom we have many things to
say and hard to be uttered, seeing that you are dull of hearing. For when for the time you ought
to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again, which
be the first principles of the oracles of God. and have become
such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. For everyone
that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness,
unexperienced, he's a babe. But strong meat belongeth to
them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have
their senses exercised to discern both good and evil, to know the
difference. Therefore, leaving the principles, the ABCs of the
doctrine of Christ. Let us go on to perfection, maturity,
not laying again the foundation. Now, here's what he's saying.
Here's what the problem is. We're always having to lay the
foundation. And these things ought to be automatic. And until
they're automatic, I'm always going to be dull of hearing and
I'm not going to be able to take the meat of the Word. Now, he's
not saying we don't preach on these things anymore. He's saying
we shouldn't have to always be laying in this foundation. You
ought to be clear on this foundation. And he named six things. First thing, the foundation of
repentance from dead works. A change of mind. regarding your
dead works. Every work that you had before
God gave you a new heart was a dead work. There wasn't any
goodness to it. That old religious experience
you have, repent of it. It's no good. Every experience
you had before God revealed himself to you is a dead work. And then next he says a faith
toward God. Well, faith toward God and faith
in Christ is the same thing, isn't it? Yeah, we have faith
toward God. Faith. We rely on what God has
done in Christ Jesus. Right now, I am relying on God
seeing Christ as all that I need. I'm relying on that. I'm not
looking anywhere else. There's nowhere else to look.
Now, if I have to be laying that foundation again and again, I'm
not going to grow any. You know, if you don't know the
ABCs, you're not going to be able to read. You got to get
the ABCs down and the phonics of the ABCs or you're not going
to be able to read. Next thing he mentions is the doctrine of
baptisms and the doctrine of baptisms. We had a couple of
baptisms last week means one thing, union with the Lord Jesus
Christ. Whatever kind of baptism it is,
when Christ was baptized with fire from the wrath of God, our
hope is we were united to him. Water baptism, our hope is that
it shows union with the Lord Jesus Christ. The baptism of
the Spirit means we look to Christ only. It's union with Christ.
And then the next thing he mentions in verse two is the doctrine
of the laying on of hands. Now that's not talking about
some preacher laying hands on somebody and all of a sudden
they're healed from the sick. That's talking about the great high
priest laying his hands on the head of the sacrifice and the
transference of sin, going to the scapegoat and the goat going
away. And because of that, you have
no sin. It really is that simple. My sin, God can do this. He gave it to Christ. It became
Christ. He became guilty of it. He died for it. His righteousness
becomes mine. And then we read of the resurrection
of the dead, the bodily resurrection of Christ, the resurrection of
the dead. When you're born from above,
you are dead in sins and God gives you life. And the final
resurrection of the dead. And then we read of eternal judgment,
and don't miss that word eternal. Everything God does, and you'll
understand the gospel, and I'll understand the gospel more clearly
if we understand this. Everything he does is eternal.
He's God. He's not bound by space or time. He doesn't think linear the way
we do. This event is a sequence of events. It's all before him. He decreed everything. He controls
everything. His judgment is an eternal judgment
because Christ is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Never forget everything about
God is eternal. Back to our text in Ephesians
chapter four. Verse 15. rather than being deceived, speaking
the truth in love. Speaking the truth first. I want
to tell the truth concerning the true character of God in
the Trinity of his persons. I want to be honest and speak
the truth concerning the true character of man. dead in sins,
completely unable to save himself. I want to speak the truth regarding
salvation. Christ Jesus is salvation. And I want to speak that truth
in love. In love to the one I'm speaking of. In love to the ones
I'm speaking to. Speaking the truth in love. If love's not there, really,
the truth's not there. Speaking the truth. in love,
love to Him. You've heard preachers who love
to preach. I'd rather hear a preacher who
loves the ones he's preaching to and loves the one he is preaching. Speaking the truth. Now, there's
no salvation apart from the truth, hearing the truth, believing
the truth. Speaking the truth in love, and
look at this next phrase, may grow up into Him. We grow up into Him who is the
head. That's the only kind of growth
there is, growth into Him. Now, gifts are needful. I'm thankful for the
gifts God gives, but this thing of love and growing up into Him
is far better, isn't it? I don't even know how to explain
what it means to grow up into Him. I think it's something you
just kind of, you see it and you believe it. Our growth is
into Him. Whatever true growth is, it's
into Him in all things. I want to grow in every grace.
I want to be more faithful, more humble, more generous, more meek,
that's growth. And here's the last, here's this
amazing statement regarding to the church in verse 16. Now,
from whom, from the head, the Lord Jesus Christ, here we have
this description of the church, from the head, 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. The church is the body of Christ. There's eyes, there's ears, there's
hands, there's feet. What good would blood do you
if you didn't have a heart to pump it? Wouldn't do you any
good at all. You couldn't get anywhere without
your feet. You couldn't pick up anything
without your hands. You couldn't smell anything without
your nose. You need your liver. It's not
very pretty. Nobody says, I want you to see
my liver. No, it's not very pretty. But what would you do without
it? It's the great body filter, I guess. Every time I talk about
something like that, I think, you don't know what you're talking
about. I think it's a filter. The point is that every part
is dependent upon one another. And every part is important. receiving their strength from
the head. And I suppose that maybe the most insignificant
part of my body is my little toe. Ask me if I want to cut
it off. No. And ask me what I feel about
when it hurts. It all of a sudden becomes the
most important part of my body. Whatever part's hurting, that's
the part I want to address. Now, the church is this one body
with all these different parts. And there's no such thing as
a mundane existence for a believer. You're in the body of Christ.
You're in the body of Christ. And there's no one member that's
more important than the other. Well, you're a pastor. That doesn't
make me any more important than anybody else. I mean, the Lord's
called me to be a pastor, but that doesn't make me, I'm clergy,
you're all just laity. Well, that's foolishness, and
that's something that Christ hates. The body is interdependent, and
the effectual working of the Lord in the measure of every
part maketh increase of the body and to the edifying of itself
in love. Now, all of this that the body
does is because of the head in it. What is a body without a
head? It's a dead body. And when you
look at a person, I like this, you look at them, you identify
them by their head. You identify them by the face. You just look
at a body without a head, you don't have any idea who it is.
You can guess, but you have no way of knowing, but you identify
a body by the head. Now you know how you can identify
somebody that's in the body? By what they think of the head.
That's how you identify somebody that's in the body. Well, we're going to take the
Lord's table together. And one of the things I think
is special about the Lord's table is you can't take it by yourself.
You take it with the body. And what a blessing. Who should
take the Lord's table? Anybody and everybody who looks
to Christ alone, that person is to take the Lord's table.
Somebody who believes and works to any measure, to any degree,
don't take it. You're hurting yourself. But
if you believe the gospel, the Lord's table is for you. He said,
this do in remembrance of me. So let's pass out the bread and
wine.