Again, and I'll read a few verses
here, verse 7, then we'll skip down to verse 7 and 8, and then
down to verse 11. But unto every one of us is given
grace. of the gift of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Wherefore, God says, when He
ascended up on high, He ascended victoriously, leading captivity
captive, and He sovereignly gave gifts unto men. Verse 11, And He gave some apostles,
some prophets, evangelists, some pastors, and teachers, four,
for this reason. And we'll look at verse 12 in
just a moment. Our great and glorious Lord Jesus
Christ is not a defeated Christ. He's the victorious Christ. The Christ of God is the exalted
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ finished
the work the Father had given Him to accomplish in this world,
and when He had finished all completely, to the satisfaction
of God Almighty, God raised Him from the dead. He was delivered
from our offenses and raised again because He did justify
us. And He ascended to glory. And
there He ever lives to intercede for us. Now make no mistake,
our Lord accomplished what God gave Him to do. He said in John
4, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me and to finish,
to complete, to perform all things for us. And He did so. In John 17, He prayed that way. Father, I've glorified Thee on
the earth. I've finished the work You gave
Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou
me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee
before the world began. I was looking at a scripture
here recently. Don't turn, let me just read
it to you. We had this in our study this morning at home. 2
Corinthians 5, 5, He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing
is God. God has wrought for us. That means He has accomplished
all things, He has performed all things, He has finished all
things, including all of salvation. He's the Alpha and the Omega
of salvation. It's all a work of grace. When
He had completed all His redeeming work, He ascended to the throne
in glory, there to ever live for us, to intercede for us,
and to continue to bless us. To continue to bless us right
now. The Lord Jesus Christ occupies
the throne of glory in sovereign majesty, interceding for us right
now. To enable us to worship Him,
to enable us to believe Him, to enable us to preach His Gospel
and to teach His Word. That is a comforting thought
to me. Because in and of myself, I am
totally helpless. As a matter of fact, our Lord
said that, didn't He? Without Me, you can do nothing. Nothing. And certainly that's
true when it comes to the business of trying to, in the matter of
trying to declare His Gospel. How helpless are we without His
assistance? He continues to intercede for
us and to live for us and to bless His body, His church, and
to give them what is needed to the establishment, to the edification,
and to their spiritual growth in this world. He doesn't save
us and leave us alone. He saves us and provides for
us in a similar way This may not be a very good analogy, but
in a similar way, as a father gives life, in a sense, a father
and a mother, are blessed of God to conceive and to give birth,
but the father and mother, as a loving, kind, caring parent,
doesn't give birth and then walk off and leave the child. Not
if they're a loving and caring parent, but they nurture the
child. They care for the child. They
make sure the child is going to have clothing and shelter
and education and nurture and nourishment. They care for the
child. And so much more, the Lord Jesus Christ, toward those
who are born of God, given of God. God nurtures His children. He cares for His children. He
ever lives to intercede for us. He gave gifts unto His church. He gave gifts. Our Lord, and
He gave some. Our Lord is not stingy. Our Lord
generously gives. He gives with an open hand. Our
Lord gives freely. Our Lord gives eternally. Our
Lord gives and He never takes back what He gives. That is,
He says, I give them eternal life. and they shall never perish. He says, I justify them freely
by my grace alone. God who spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with them also
freely give us all things, not most things, not some things,
but all things, all things in salvation, Our generous Lord
generously gives unto His people only as He can. Only as He can. He's able to meet all our need
according to His riches in glory through Christ Jesus. All our
need. Listen to this scripture. Our
Lord gives generously, freely, eternally. He's not stingy. He gives generously. 1 Corinthians
2 verse 12 says, Now we have received, we have received not
the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. God gives freely. Aren't you
thankful that salvation is the gift of God? The wages of sin
is death. The gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. I need that gift. I need God
in mercy and grace to freely give unto me what I don't deserve. I don't deserve one ounce of
His mercy. I don't deserve one ounce of
His love. But He generously heaps on His
people, on His covenant people, mountains of love, mountains
of mercy, mountains of grace. Overwhelming! Overwhelming. Who can count the number of God's
mercies toward His children? Now, specifically in our verses
this evening, he says in verse 11, and he gave. He gave. He gives as he gives. He gives
freely. He gives eternally. And my friend,
also he gives sovereignly. He gives sovereignly. Let me
show you scripture over here if I can find it. Here it is. 1 Corinthians 12. Turn over and
let's look at this. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 11. All these, he says, worketh that
one and selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man, every one, in the
body of Christ, severally, separately, as he will. God is sovereign
in salvation. Sovereign in creation, sovereign
in providence, sovereign in discernment, and God sovereignly gives gifts
unto His church as it pleases Him. As it pleases Him. Now, it says here, mentions several
things that God gave unto His church. He gave, first of all,
He mentions apostles. Now, if you look at the word
in a simple definition of what an apostle is, The word simply
means one who is sent of God. Sent of God. That's what it means.
God gave those who were sent of God. Aren't you glad that
God sent you a preacher? God sent the gospel to you. God gave some apostles. Apostles. Those are sent of God.
Even as we read a moment ago in Ephesians, or rather Hebrews
chapter 3 verse 1, We are told to consider the Apostle, the
Lord Jesus Christ. God loved so, loved that he gave
the Apostle, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Apostles, those are those
early chosen men, special men, Christ himself appointed and
gave gifts that qualified them to be Apostles. This was the
first in chief office in the church. Now, we can read about
these men as the Lord called them. You can read about the
calling of Matthew. Matthew was a publican sitting
at the receipt of customs. And the Lord Jesus Christ walked
up one day to that receipt of customs and said, Matthew, I
invite you to come and follow me. And no, he didn't. You see,
he commanded him, Matthew. Follow me." And the others that
he called, he called sovereignly, he called powerfully, he called
irresistibly. And these are the men that we
know as the apostles, Peter, James, John, these 12 men. Now, I want you to think about
this. Did the Lord Jesus Christ call them because of some special
quality within them? Or was there something innately
different in them than us? Not at all. They're just like
us, men of like passions, with a sinful nature, born of a sinful
parent who needed salvation just as we do. Now God made them what
they were by His grace. According to the testimony of
the Apostle Paul, I am what I am solely by the grace of God. So
God gave His church these special chosen men, including the Apostle
Paul. He calls himself an apostle.
The word inspired and given of God, God calls him an apostle.
And including the Apostle Paul, these 12 special men to to nurture
the church, to help the church as a springboard for the gospel
in that early church age. They were called directly by
Christ, received their doctrine directly from Him, And they had
special power given to them to work miracles to confirm their
doctrine. In other words, to confirm what
they said was so, and they proved that by these special miracles
that God gave unto them. As we read, don't turn, let me
just read it to you again. Over here in Hebrews 2, God also
bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and different
miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost. Notice this phrase, according
to his own will. He chose these men, these nobodies,
fishermen, tax collectors, these nobodies, and God made them a
somebody, a somebody in Christ Jesus. Now, this office as apostles
does not exist today. this office is no longer in existence. This office ceased when they
died. The Lord used those men in that early day to declare
His gospel and to proclaim to the fervent of the gospel, but
the Lord has no apostles today as He did in the early church.
Now, that is to say, The Lord does still yet call
men and give them special gifts and sends them in that sense.
But there's no apostles like Peter, James, and John and those
men. When they died, that office died
with them. Now, and then secondly, he mentions
he gave some apostles. He gave these 12 men. And then
he mentioned, secondly, prophets. Now, I don't think that's specifically
referring to the Old Testament prophets, although God did give
them, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, all those different prophets
of old, but I believe that this is referring to those prophets
in the early church. Now, I can show you some scripture
I think that'll help us. These prophets here that are
mentioned were not ordinary ministers of the Word. But they were unusual
men of God in the early church who had a particular gift to
interpret Scripture, especially prophecies of the Old Testament,
and the foretelling of things to come, such as this man we
read of in Acts chapter 11. Turn over there. His name is
Agabus. In Acts chapter 11, verse 27.
In these days, came prophets from Jerusalem.
And these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch,
the church there in Antioch, a Gentile church. And there stood
up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that
there should be a great drought, a dearth throughout all the world,
which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the
disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to
send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Jerusalem. Here is a Gentile church sending
relief, sending relief to those believers there in Jerusalem. Now, I can show you another reference
on that. I believe it's in Acts chapter
21. Let's turn over there. Acts chapter 21. Okay, here's
another reference to this prophet. In Acts 21 verse 10, tarried
there many days, or came down from Judea a certain prophet
named Agabus. And when he was come unto us,
he took Paul's girdle." Now, Paul is bidding farewell to the
church here at Ephesus, and he's headed to Jerusalem. And this
man came and bound his own hand with Paul's girdle, hands and
feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews
at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, as shall
deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. And certainly as
he said it would come to pass, it did. And when we heard these
things, both we and they of that place besought him not to go
to Jerusalem. That is, they told Paul, don't
go up there, there's harm awaiting you. But Paul answered and said,
what mean you to weep and to break my heart? For I'm ready
not only to be bound, bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem
for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So in this early church,
In the early church, there were apostles and these special men
called prophets. Now, whether there are those special
men today, special prophets today, I don't know. That's God's business. There may be some certain special
men that are called in a certain special way to provide certain
things for for his people. I don't know. That's God's business.
If he has some of those prophets like Agabus today, that's fine.
I've not met any. But if he does, that is fine. God is sovereign and he can do
as he will, when he will, with whom he will, as he sees fit.
Now, the third thing he mentions here, God gave gifts and he gave
some to his church, these men, prophets, evangelists, apostles,
And then he mentions this thing that's really been a kind of
a scourge on our society, these evangelists. Now, these evangelists here were
blessed of God and sent of God. These were traveling preachers. I guess Paul was an apostle and
he was an evangelist as well. He was a traveling minister,
a traveling preacher. What I mean by, we've been plagued
with these so-called Hollywood evangelists, these televangelists,
these TV evangelists. And they're not sent of God,
they're not called of God, they have no message, they have no
truth, they're deceivers. That's what they are, plain and
simple. They're deceivers. And I wouldn't send them a nickel,
a penny. I'd put them out of business
if I could. But these evangelists here were those sinners called
by God's grace, given a burning desire in their heart, a burning,
overwhelming desire in their heart to travel in hardship,
to travel in rough times, and to continue to preach the gospel
in the face of horrible opposition. They were beaten to be silenced,
and yet they kept right on preaching. They would run out of city after
city after city. The apostle was, Paul, and others
as well, but they kept on ministering to God's people because that's
what God called them to do. Evangelists, can you think of
some? As we read in Scripture, such
men as Timothy, Titus, Philip, gifted to preach the gospel,
travel into different places, who were usually directed to
go to different cities here and there, by the apostles or by
the overwhelming power and conviction of God the Holy Spirit. Now we
read in Acts 21, verse 8, talks about Philip. Philip. And we entered into the house
of Philip, causing Philip the evangelist. Philip the evangelist. He was one of the seven, one
of the seven deacons. And it says there that we abode
with him. Now, you remember Philip was
somewhere, I can't remember where, but preaching a meeting, and
God called him away from that meeting in that particular place,
I think it's Acts chapter 8, and sent him down into a desert
place to preach to one eunuch, the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I tell you, God will cross the
path of his sheep with the gospel, and with the gospel preacher.
And this is what we see in 2 Timothy chapter 4, we read this about
the work of evangelists. He's writing to Timothy in 2
Timothy 4 verse 5, he says, Watch thou, but watch thou in all things,
endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, and make full
proof of thy ministry. Full proof of thy ministry. Now,
the fourth thing that he mentions is this. We mentioned apostles,
prophets, evangelists. Then he mentions pastors, pastors. Now, there are some people who
think that this word should not refer to men. They think that
men should be called ministers. And that's okay if you call a
man a minister of the gospel. But God calls them here pastors.
I don't see anything wrong with using that word. in referring
to a pastor of a congregation. He is a minister, one who is
willing and ready, one who has been called to preach the Lord
Jesus Christ. As Paul said, we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servant for Christ's
sake. But these pastors are appointed
shepherds. Now we know who the chief shepherd
is. We know who the chief pastor is. The Lord Jesus Christ is
called the great shepherd of the sheep. He's called the good
shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep. And he's called
when the chief shepherd shall appear there in first or second
Peter. So the Lord Jesus Christ, he
is that shepherd. He is that pastor. But he has
appointed under shepherds, under shepherds. over the local assembly,
over the local congregation. Now, this is God's ordained means
to bless His people. They are appointed over the local
congregation. They are appointed to do this
specifically, to do this specifically. I know in this day in which we
live, pastors are usually, they usually walk up and down the
aisles of the hospital, And there's nothing wrong with visiting those
who are in the congregation that are sick, but there are men today
who spend their whole time at the hospital or at the funeral
home or doing anything and everything but what a pastor is supposed
to do. And that is to feed the sheep with the Word of truth
and to lead them in the way of salvation in Christ alone. Now let me give you Paul's instructions
to those elders at Ephesus. If you find Acts chapter 20,
when Paul departed from them, headed toward Jerusalem, never
to see their face again in this life, he's recorded, it's recorded
here in Acts chapter 20 verse 28. He said, I'm not shunned,
declaring to you all the counsel of God. Acts 20 verse 28. Now
take heed. These are the elders that he
called together, these pastors over these churches there at
Ephesus. Take heed therefore unto yourselves unto all the
flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you an overseer, an
overseer, to feed the church of God which he purchased with
his own blood. And not only to feed them, but
to watch over them. For I know this, that after my
departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing
the flock, Also of your own self shall men arise, speaking perverse
things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch,
watch, be on guard, be on guard. A wise shepherd will spot the
wolf and he'll sound the alarm. Therefore watch and remember
that by the space of three years I cease not to warn every one
night and day with tears. Now look at verse 32 of Acts
20. Now therefore, now brethren,
I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, the word of
his grace which is able to build you up and to give you inheritance
among all them that are sanctified." So we're to feed the church of
God. Now if you find another reference to that, if you'll
find 1 Peter chapter 5, so that's the principal business of the
pastor is to preach the gospel. Preach the gospel. That should
be his focus, that should be his time, his energy, all focused
on feeding the sheep of Christ and preaching the gospel of God's
grace. Now, 1 Peter chapter 5, here's
another reference to that about feeding the sheep of Christ.
The elders which are among you, here again he's writing to the
pastors, I exhort you, him also an elder and a witness of the
sufferings of Christ, also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed
to feed the flock of God which is among you. Now, that's an
awesome responsibility, to take the Word of God, the Bread of
Life, and to feed the flock of God which is among you, taking
the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not
motivated by money, by filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither
as being lords over God's heritage, but being an example to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall
appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away."
So, apostles, given apostles, prophets, evangelists, and some
pastors, some pastors. I thank God for the pastor that
God gave me, Pastor Mahan. I was blessed abundantly blessed
to sit under his ministry for 12 years, of which I counted
a great privilege. And the Lord used that man to
teach me the gospel and to instruct me in the way of grace. I believe
God uses pastors to train and raise up preachers in the church,
in the church. I believe that's what the Lord
has ordained. And then he mentions here these teachers, pastors,
teachers. Now, certainly we can say that
a pastor is a teacher. He's a teacher of the gospel.
He teaches one lesson, the Lord Jesus Christ. And these teachers
here, a teacher, a pastor certainly is a teacher, but a teacher may
not be a pastor. He may be at some point called
to be a pastor. That's actually how I was introduced
to the ministry, and in that sense, Pastor Mahan at one point
asked me to teach his Bible class. And that grew into other things.
So, I began as a teacher of the Word of God, and eventually,
a number of years after that, the Lord called me to the ministry. Teachers are those who are gifted
of God within the church to teach and instruct others in the way
of truth. Now, you know, that's a blessing
to have someone who has learned a lesson and learned a lesson
and really learned it and knows it, who has ability to teach
others what they know and what they have experienced and learned.
Now, that's a blessing. I believe it's a gift of God
to have that teachable spirit. And I covet that. I covet to
be a faithful pastor and I covet to be an able teacher of the
gospel of God's grace. And I don't know that I covet
to be an evangelist, For these last three years, I have been
doing a little bit of traveling and preaching for you folks here,
and it is my delight to do so. Now, look at verse 12, and we'll
probably wind up the study this evening with verse 12. God has
given these gifts for a purpose, for a reason, for the perfecting
of saints. Now the saints in Christ Jesus,
believers in Christ Jesus are perfect. They are sanctified. They are set apart. But here
I believe he's talking about our experience of growth in grace. I believe that's what he's talking
about. He mentions three things here. For the work, excuse me,
for the perfecting of the saints or for the growth or maturing
of the saints. For the work of the ministry.
Now notice that, for the work of the ministry. ministries of
work, the labor. And then he mentions thirdly,
for the edifying of the body of Christ. Now let's see if we
can cover those three things. God has ordained these things
and gifted certain of his people to the fervent of the gospel
and to the eternal good of his church. Now let's look at those
three things. For the perfecting of saints,
or to help believers grow in grace and in the knowledge of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I think it's the believer's
desire. If you'll find I Peter, I Peter
chapter 2, just as a young infant, you know, when we had our first
child in 1974, there was a real push on in that day to get away
from bottle feeding babies and go back to that nurturing of
the baby on mama's milk. And I remember we went to special
classes and all that about how to do everything. And, you know,
I was a little bit anxious about that process of the baby learning
how to eat from mama. And, you know, that desire is
instinctive in them. When that baby is held up to
mama's breast, something happens there. And there's that hunger
and there's that desire to feed. And they nurse at mama's breast
that milk that's specially designed for them. And that's the way
it is with a newborn baby in Christ Jesus. They desire that
milk of the Word, that special formula. Not man-made, but God-prepared
and given to them. Look what it says. In 1 Peter
2, 2, "...as newborn babe, desire the sincere milk of the Word,
that you may grow thereby. If so, be you tasted that the
Lord is gracious." I tell you, you want more of Him. You want
more of that milk, that milk of God. Although we stand complete
in Christ, we still need in our experience as a believer in this
life, We need to grow in faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. We need to grow in love. Don't
you desire to believe more and to love more? And we desire to
grow in our hope and our expectation. How about assurance? How about
confidence in Christ? These are things Yes, we stand
complete in Christ, don't misunderstand me, but there is this growth
of grace in Christ Jesus. I would like to think that I
have grown some in the last 25 or 30 years in my experience
of grace and in knowing Christ and loving Him and continually
desiring the sincere milk of the Word that we might grow up
in Him, to become a man in Christ and mature and a bulwark, a solid
believer resting on the rock. And then he mentions, secondly,
for the maturing of the saints. And then also God has given these
gifts to the church for the work of the ministry, for the work
of the ministry. Now, for the work of the ministry,
that is to labor in the Word of God, to study, to meditate
and prepare messages to preach to the Lord's people. It is a
labor of love. Nonetheless, there is a labor
to it. It is a work of faith. It is
a delight. And God has ordained this to
bless His people. Remember what our Lord said to
Peter and the others in John 21, Lord, Peter, do you love
me? Lord, you know, feed my sheep,
feed my lambs, feed them, feed them for the work of the ministry.
Now, who is sufficient for these things? Who is sufficient for
these things? I want you to find 2 Corinthians
chapter 3. Paul, who is sufficient for these
things? We're not sufficient of ourselves.
I think the man who thinks that he is sufficient to be a minister
is really is... he has a lot to learn. Our sufficiency
is of God. Look what he says here in 2 Corinthians
3 verse 5, "...not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think
anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also
hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the
letter, not of the law, but of the Spirit. For the letter, that
is the law, killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." Who is sufficient
for such things? It's the work of the ministry.
For the work of the ministry, I want you to find another scripture,
1 Corinthians chapter 9. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. Now, oftentimes, notice this. 1 Corinthians 9 verse 13. Do you not know that they which
minister about the holy things of the temple minister about
holy things, live of the things of the temple, and they which
wait on the altar are partakers with the altar, even so hath
the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live
of the gospel." I think they should be supported by their
congregation in a full-time way. I believe that's what God has
ordained for the work of the ministry. Now, you might find
this rather amusing. I don't. But, oftentimes, when
I'm out in the community where I live, there in Zebulon, in
the Pikeville area, I'll run into people from time to time
that I know. And most of the people know that I'm the pastor
of Zebulon Baptist Church. And oftentimes I'll run into
somebody and they'll ask me, say, well, preacher, what did
you do today? I say, well, I've been at work
all day. I get up and keep regular office hours. I get up and go
to my study at eight o'clock, my normal work week. At 8 o'clock,
I come home at 4 or 4.30. I work and labor in the ministry.
That's my calling. That's what God has called me
to do in the ministry. And oftentimes, people ask me,
well, preacher, what did you do today? I said, well, I've
been at work all day. I just got off work. And they will look
at me and say, well, where do you work? And I look at them in a puzzled
way. Well, what do you mean? Where do I work? in the study. In the study. Well, preacher,
what have you been working on today? Well, Ephesians chapter
4. That's what I've been working
on. That's my work. For the work of the ministry. For the work
of the ministry. Now, it is a labor of love. It
is a work of faith. And it is a delight. But it is
a work. God called preachers are to put
themselves to work. As one old preacher used to do,
I forget who it was years ago, but he would get up and when
he went to work, he would put on his work boots when he headed
for the study. And they would often ask him,
why do you put your work boots on? I'm going to work. I'm going
to work. And that's what I do. I try to
make application and I study and study and right now my schedule
is out of whack. because of everything that's
gone on with all the flood business and my office being dislocated,
my office being, my study being destroyed, basically destroyed
and wiped out. But that's in God's purpose too.
I needed to get out of the basement. You've been in my study. Cold
in the wintertime, hot in the summertime. Never had a window,
never had air conditioning. Now I have both. The Lord has
sent this flood destroyed my study and moved me upstairs.
So now I have a window, Lord willing, they're supposed to
deliver the window tomorrow and we'll get it in and we'll be
able to get back to work. That's my desire, my delight,
for the work of the ministry. And then he mentions thirdly,
and I'll quit with this, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
We preach and teach for the edifying, that word there means the building
up, the building up of the sheep. edifying of the building, edifying
the building up of the body of Christ. We preach and teach not
to divide the sheep. We preach and teach not to divide
the sheep nor scatter the sheep, but to strengthen the sheep,
to build them up, to give them comfort and assurance in Christ
Jesus. That's the ultimate goal of all
these varied gifts, the building up, the building up of the church.