Ephesians 4:11-12

I invite you to turn with me to Ephesians

chapter 4 and verse number 11.

We got into this 11th verse a little bit last

week and now what we're going to do is take

verses 11 through 16 as one unit in context

for our next study and what we're going to

get in today is I think really going to be

helpful particularly for a church like ours.

Religious are high that if you come here to

Providence and you stick around, you're

probably

most likely a person who is serious about your

faith.

If you come to church here, it doesn't take

long to figure out that we are not in the

business of entertainment.

We are definitely not in the business of

giving you self-help, feel good, light, and

fluffy

Christianity.

Also, we don't speak in babbling gibberish on

biblical tongues here.

Also, you will never, ever hear anyone as long

as I'm here saying from this pulpit,

the Lord told me as a phrase, I would take

somebody down from the pulpit if they got

up here if I wasn't aware that that was their

position but that probably wouldn't happen.

Also we don't run the prosperity scam either

from the money side.

But there's also the prosperity light that how

to be a happy, successful Christian in

Jesus' name.

What you get when you come here is simply

Bible, preaching and teaching the Bible,

singing

hymns and psalms as we did today that have

some bit of theological depth and meaning and

singing them and playing the music in a rever

ent way, showing reverence to God.

We read the Bible, we teach the Bible, we

preach the Bible, we sing hymns and psalms

that are in line with the Bible and that's it.

That's what we do.

That's what we're about.

It's not for everybody who's seen how many.

If we had every person who ever came here once

and never came back, we could buy that

property across the street if they stayed and

build a building bigger than this one.

It's not for everybody but it's for us.

If you stick around any length of time here at

our church, you demonstrate it's for you

too.

And the reason for why I say that this tax is

going to be helpful particularly for a

church like ours is what we find here in verse

number 12.

Now, after listening, listening those gifts,

remember I told you to the church in general

last week, we found it in verse 11, Apostles,

prophets, evangelists, teaching shepherds.

Paul next in verse 12 tells us what those

gifts are for.

Look at verse 12, "For the equipping of the

saints, for the work of service, who the

building

up of the body of Christ."

So if we want to build up the body of Christ,

then the saints have to do the work of

ministry

and if the saints are going to do the work of

ministry, they have to be equipped.

And that's the job of the teaching pastor.

And it's really something for me to think

about the fact that long before I understood

what all is involved here in this text we're

going to look at, what it is that motivated

me more than anything else to even enter into

the ministry in the first place.

And hindsight being 2020, I was probably a bit

presumptuous when I entered in, but it's

because of an urgency that I felt, of the

primary motivation for why I even entered

into the ministry in the first place, because

it didn't take me long as a Christian, a new

Christian in a Baptist church to recognize

that there was a problem in the church.

Life long churchgoers not having a basic

understanding of the fundamental doctrines of

the Christian

faith.

That shocked me, surprised me, but also

motivated me.

Now I would say to a young man in this day and

age, "Hey, if you want to go into the

ministry, don't follow my lead.

Find a good, solid seminary," and they still

have some.

Learn the original languages, the Greek and

Hebrew.

I'm kind of an anomaly in that way.

But I found early on in my Christian walk that

there were very many, well-meaning churchgoers

who were really swimming in the three-foot kid

die end of the biblical knowledge pool

of theological knowledge, having only just

like a surface level in a lot of ways, a lot

of error.

And it seemed to me that the primary reason

for that was because basically what they were

being taught is what we can characterize as

Christianity-light, L-I-T-E.

And we've talked about that a lot here over

the years, but I'm here to tell you that is

not what Paul is calling for here in verse 12.

Look again at verse 12 in this work of what he

calls the equipping of the saints.

I believe my primary job here at our church,

especially now, as we enter in this year,

fixing to celebrate our 15th year as a church,

and I celebrate my 15th year as your pastor,

my primary role, and a lot of us have just

grown together for a lot of years now, is

to equip you by teaching you, and the goal in

equipping and teaching you is to bring

all of us together to greater and deeper

levels of spiritual maturity.

And so for me, that works itself out during

the week as I'm preparing the sermon for

Sunday

as I did just last week, and I'm on the job

training ever since I've been in the ministry.

What I learn as I study during the week, I

bring to you.

And so we literally are learning together, and

the more spiritually mature we all become

as we look at the rest of that verse, the more

we will be motivated to do the work of

the ministry, which always results in the

building up of the body of Christ, as it says

here in verse 12.

And you are all in a great position to do this

, what we're going to learn from this

text, because more than likely, what keeps you

here every Sunday coming back is what

got you here in the first place, sound

doctrine, verse by verse, expositional

preaching.

Now we get used to it here, because that's

what happens here, but it's really kind of

hard to grasp, but this is rare in the church

in America.

If you put the numbers together of churches

that do this, versus churches that don't or

are just topical, there's a lot of us, but we

're much in the minority for sure.

My theological knowledge and preaching are

definitely far away from the deepest that

are out there, even amongst my pastor friends,

and here we stand, but I think that we

definitely

would not as a church be considered in the

three-foot kiddie pool end of the biblical

knowledge and theological pool, and I don't

think that's a boast at all.

I think that's just the truth when we compare

ourselves to the majority report in the church

,

and with that, definitely comes a serious

responsibility on our part to strive to live

out what we learn Sunday after Sunday in our

verse by verse exposition of the Word of God,

and that's why today we want to start our

focus on that phrase in verse 12, again, equ

ipping

of the saints.

That's what's happening right now, this moment

, in this sermon.

Saints are being equipped, and when the saints

are equipped, what flows out of that is, again

,

we will do the work of service, verse 12,

which results next in, again, the building

up of the body of Christ, so those things flow

together, and then guess what comes next,

verse 13, the unity of the faith, and then

next in verse 13, the knowledge of the Son

of God, and then next in verse 13, a mature

man to the measure of the stature which

belongs

to the fullness of Christ, and then in verse

14, as a result of all that, as a result,

we are no longer to be children, tossed here

and there by waves and carried about by every

wind of doctrine, and then verse 15, we will

be speaking the truth in love, and then next

in verse 15, we will grow up in all aspects

into him who is the head of Christ, so that's

the motivation of all this, and in other words

, all that comes down in this couple of verses,

even next at the end of verse 16, the growth

of the body, of the building up of itself

in Christ, all of that that I just read to you

is dependent on verse 12, and the equipping

of the saints, that's where it starts, the equ

ipping of the saints is the primary issue

here, as I said earlier, we're not here to

entertain saints, we're not here to coddle

saints, we're not even here to evangelize

saints, if you're a saint, you've already

been evangelized because you believed the

gospel, and if someone comes in here and they

are an unbeliever and they are evangelized,

praise God, because I'm always going to put

enough gospel in there, and especially when

somebody comes in here that's a visitor that

I know, if you notice, in my prayers I'll pray

the gospel, in my sermon I'll inject

the gospel, and certainly we're going to do it

today in the celebration of the Lord's

Supper, but we are particularly here, and

especially at this stage of the life of our

church, more than anything, to equip you, the

saints, and that really has two aspects.

Number one, to bring each of you individually

to spiritual maturity, and then number two,

to take all of you, collected individuals, and

bring you together in this collective

unity as the whole body is brought together as

one, as we are all growing towards spiritual

maturity.

One, functioning, sound, biblical, New

Testament church, with spirit-filled,

spiritually mature

believers, that's what the goal is here, a

church comprised of believers who are all

striving in their daily life towards deeper

and higher levels of spiritual maturity, that

's

what we're talking about, there are not many

tragedies greater than an infantile Christian

who stays an infantile Christian for all their

years in their walk, like in verse 14, there's

an example, they're tossed here and there by

waves and carried about by every wind of

doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craft

iness in deceitful scheming, that's not a

spiritually

mature Christian, spiritually mature

Christians are discerning Christians, we're

not fooled

by the false teachers that permeate our

culture today, spiritually mature Christians

will

evangelize, will serve God with the gifts that

God has given them and the opportunities

that he places in front of them, and equipping

the saints to bring them to maturity again

results in serving and ministry and this was

very, very important to the apostles.

Now you need to know and I think you already

do that different English words are used in

the New Testament to describe spiritual

maturity, words like perfect and complete, we

already

know when we see that word we're not ever

going to be talking about spiritual sinless

perfection in this life for believers, we

already doctrinally know that, we know that

from experience but we also know that from the

Bible, but let me give you an example,

the 2nd Corinthians 13 verse 11, Paul's final

words to the Corinthians include this, finally

brethren, rejoice, be made, and here's one of

those words, complete, that means mature,

be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace,

so clearly again Paul wants the saints there

at the church at Corinth to be spiritually

mature over in Hebrews chapter 13 verses

20 to 21 at the very end it says this, now the

God of peace who brought up from the dead

the great shepherd of the sheep through the

blood of the eternal covenant even Jesus our

Lord verse 21 equip you in every good thing to

do his will, other translations say perfect

you which of course means mature you, that's

what Paul wants to see happen and the writer

of Hebrews does as well, we don't know who

wrote Hebrews, but James White just as an

aside note has a pretty interesting theory on

who wrote Hebrews, it seems to be Paul's

theology but it doesn't seem to be Paul's

literary style so James White done a lot of

study on it and he thinks that Paul dictated

Hebrews to Luke but as it's closer to Luke's

literary style but Paulian theology, that's

just a side note I don't know, he can't be

dogmatic on that none of us really knows but I

think that's a pretty good guess anyway

first Peter 510 after you have suffered for a

little while the God of all grace who called

you to his eternal glory will himself perfect

confirm strengthen and establish you the word

for perfect as is in many cases is mature same

meaning I can give you many other verses

that demonstrate this that's a job of the

ministry for the saints is to equip the saints

with

the goal of making saints spiritually mature

Christians 2 Corinthians 7 verse 1 therefore

having these promises beloved let us cleanse

ourselves from all defilement of the flesh

and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of

God and of course perfecting there is not

sinless perfection in this life as I said the

idea for Paul here hey let's move on to

spiritual maturity now let me be clear on this

in the big picture perspective here how

do we get as Christians to spiritual maturity

will understand this first of all the agent

of spiritual maturity is the holy spirit make

sure you get that foundational in your

thinking

not for one second am I saying or will I ever

say that any human being alone can bring other

saints to spiritual maturity I am not saying

that I mean that goes double time for a

discount

preacher like me the only impact that that I

can have or any other pastor can have for

somebody else's spiritual maturity is when the

spirit of God is working through me or

another pastor in equipping the saints that's

the only way it's going to happen is the same

with anybody who does the work of teaching the

word of God a good example of this would

be in Galatians the Galatians had been

ministered to initially by the apostle Paul

and they

were fantastic results in the church at Galat

ians many people were saved and then Paul moved

on and in the middle of all this after Paul

leaves some legalists came in and they said

hey Jesus is the Messiah but it's not enough

for you to have faith in Christ alone you have

to have some mosaic law added to this deal as

well and you you men you need to get circumc

ised

but I'd have been out right then I'm going to

the next town but so they started to follow

this this path of faith plus works in order to

to grow in spiritual maturity and so Paul

has to write this letter after he's gone back

to them and look what he says to them about

this subject in Galatians three three are you

so foolish having begun by the spirit are

you now being perfected by the flesh how

foolish are you to think that that you could

be born

of the spirit and dwelt by the spirit placed

in the body by the spirit energized by the

spirit have the word of God allumin to you by

the spirit and then you're going to be

brought to maturity with your flesh he says in

second Corinthians three verse 18 but we

all with unveiled face beholding in a mirror

the glory of the Lord as being transformed

into the same image from glory to glory just

as from the Lord the spirit being transformed

there in the same image of the glory of Christ

the goal being Christ likeness same in game

goal of spiritual maturity same thing and that

doesn't happen of course in its fullness

until glorification even even to get your glor

ified body in its fullness but but we

are still working through this process right

now of being transformed of growing in

spiritual

maturity and the agent of this maturing

process again is the Holy Spirit he just uses

pastors

like me as a means to do the equipping

necessary through the preaching of the word of

God to

bring it all about so this process of the

growing in spiritual maturity can can only

occur now listen in the life of any believer

when you and I are yielded to the working

of the Holy Spirit in our life and we talked

about what that means a lot before that means

among other things we're not working against

the spirit by walking in the flesh when you're

yielded to the spirit you're not working

against the spirit walking in the flesh I can

preach

till I'm as royal blue as the suit on I have

in my face sound doctrine to you all that

I want and you can even study all that you

want but unless your life is yielded to the

working of the spirit of God there will be no

spiritual growth in your life it all works

to get it all works hand in hand so so let's

talk about for just a moment what kind of

tools the Holy Spirit uses in our spiritual

growth this won't be exhaustive but but but

some of this we don't necessarily like but it

's necessary nonetheless so here's some

of the tools James 1 to consider it all joy my

brethren when you encounter various trials

verse 3 knowing that the testing of your faith

produces endurance verse 4 and let endurance

have its perfect result so that you may be

perfect and complete lacking in nothing

perfect

complete lacking in nothing means spiritual

maturity and how do you get there James we'll

go back to verse 3 the testing of your faith

so the Holy Spirit uses trials and test to

bring us to greater levels of spiritual

maturity and also isn't it interesting that

the Spirit

of God will bring opportunities into your life

and into my life for us to do right in

the sight of God at the moment of choosing as

opposed to wrong and when you what way

you choose is an exercise of your spiritual

muscle one way or another maybe it's not every

time you choose a right thing over a wrong

thing every time you hit the crossroads of

a decision and you go the right way that's

pleasing to God you've just stretched and

strengthened your spiritual muscle now it may

not be easy what you're going through but

it's true that the Spirit of God will put in

your way obstacles test opportunities for

you to exercise faith in God as opposed to

going through that hard thing with faith in

yourself which is a ditch that we can easily

fall into opportunities for you to put your

confidence in God against all opposition to

the contrary the way things look and whatever

the particular problem is you need to

understand that he will do that to test your

faith he

will spring you out for example let's say on a

prolonged prayer that you it never seems

to get an answer to test your trust and your

confidence in God and your faith when these

things happen folks these things stretch and

strengthen your spiritual muscles and then

there's another thing very closely linked to

this these tests sometimes they bring about

tremendous suffering first Peter 510 you know

this verse after you have suffered that's

a strong word right after you have suffered

for a little while that's how Peter looks

at our whole life a little while which it

really is in the context of eternity after

you suffer for a little while the God of all

grace who called you to his eternal glory

in Christ will himself there's that word again

perfect what does that mean mature confirm

strengthen and establish you these tests can

turn into hard things these tests can turn

into sad things sometimes the maturing of

Christians demands pain and hurt and suffering

but if the response is right and you see your

way through the hard thing and you come out

on the other end with your faith still intact

and you have an abandoned Christ and you have

an abandoned God or the faith then there's

going to be victory on the other side for

you and there's going to be again a

strengthening of your spiritual muscles and a

confirmation

to you of the genuineness of your faith as I

always tell you now keep telling you by

the rest of my days here behind this pulpit is

the testing of your faith the trials the

troubles the tribulations as you come through

and you come out the other end intact with

your faith intact is not to show God your

faith he already knows it he gave it to you

is to show you is to give confirmation to you

hey this faith in Christ I have is real

or else I wouldn't be here after going through

that and let me add that trial that suffering

that hard thing that's God's business God

doesn't call me to make you suffer although

you may suffer through some of my long-winded

sermons but I don't bring about the trials

and sufferings in your life that's God's work

okay and listen to me the quicker you

accept that as a reality that you cannot

escape in your Christian life as something

that God

regularly does on a regular basis in all of

our Christian lives the quicker you just

accept that as what the word of God is clearly

saying over and over and over again in the

New Testament the farther along towards

spiritual maturity you will be if you fight

against it

the farther away from spiritual maturity you

will be so just accept it it's part of our

growth process now there's one other element

of spiritual growth that's important and

this is where I come into play and other

preachers come into play look at 2nd Timothy 3

16 you

know this all scripture is inspired that's God

breathed by God and profitable for teaching

for reproof for correction for training and

righteousness what's the result verse 17 so

that the man of God may be adequate equipped

for every good work so that the man of God

may be spiritually mature and how do you get

there verse 16 well here's another method

all scripture is given the greatest tool

beside the Holy Spirit that the Spirit of God

has

for the maturing of the saints is nothing more

nothing less than the word of God itself

God will take care of the trials God will take

care of the suffering but Sunday in and Sunday

out he uses this great transaction between me

and you me teaching you the word of God

you sitting under the teaching of the word of

God taking it in and learning it and then

making application of it in your life because

combined with the agent of the Holy Spirit

bringing you to maturity right alongside the

Holy Spirit is the word of God bringing to

you to maturity is happening right now and

what you're learning here today in these

verses

so overall the big picture the purpose of the

church aside from worship and bringing glory

to God is to bring the saints to spiritual

maturity because when they're mature that's

when everything else happens in line evangel

ism service all forms of ministry now we get to

our text here Paul lays out four things here

that are going to bring us to spiritual

maturity

and the first point of our outline we're going

to spend the rest of our time on it today

the preachers of spiritual maturity last week

in verse 11 we touched on some of these gifts

remember we talked about the gifts that Jesus

gave and leading captivity captive and back

in verse 8 but these are not the individual

gifts these are the gifts that that Jesus

gives to the church in general look at verse

11 again and he gave some first as apostles

now stop right there and let me remind you

that all these listed in verse 11 are for

verse 12 the equipping of the saints the mat

uring of the saints but as I said last time

thank

God for the apostles we wouldn't have the New

Testament without them remember again

Ephesians 2 20 the church having been built on

the foundation of the apostles and the

prophets Christ Jesus himself being the corner

stone remember we talked about this these these

apostles in particular prophets in the early

church they don't exist anymore they had their

time their time is done their time was

foundational to the church their time was for

the starting

of the church they had a revelatory ministry

they had direct revelation from God even

apostles

able to do miracles and to get the church

started to get the church up and on its way

and look at the results it's 2025 and we are

still here the church of Jesus Christ is still

here started by this obscure Jewish carpenter

from Nazareth and a small group of mainly

fishermen and we're still here added by the

very educated apostle Paul and since Jesus

called Paul on the road to Damascus there has

been no personal appointment by Jesus to the

apostolate there is no such thing after that

as apostolic succession cardinals can vote

all that they want to for popes no pope has

ever or will ever be a part of the apostolic

succession ever any more than the TV preachers

who claim that they are in the line of the

apostles you ever see those guys on the bill

boards apostles so and so don't be fooled there

are

no more and so definitely pay no attention

ever to anybody who claims to be a part of

the apostolic succession don't listen to them

now verse 11 or text and some as prophets

remember we talked about these we're not

talking about Old Testament prophets these

guys kind

of came behind the apostles here's how it

worked the apostles would move around they

were itinerant they would go to a new area

they would establish a church and then they

would move on and these particular New

Testament prophets would stay behind and they

would

preach to these newly organized churches and

they preached of course the apostles doctrine

and now and then they would get direct

revelation themselves in the early church but

it would

always be in line with the apostles doctrine

and both of those offices were used by God

to be the foundation of the church now made up

of Jews and Gentiles together believing

Jews and Gentiles in the world and they were

very needed to get the church up and running

they were very strategic but again let me

remind you over time just like the apostles

this unique office passed away but then we saw

a little bit last time I think they were

replaced in the church by evangelists and

teaching pastors when we hear the word evangel

ist

in our day in a bygone area era we might think

of a guy with a tent and a bunch of sawdust

on the ground and he's up there railing about

liquor and you know going on and on maybe

in more modern times you might think of Billy

Graham I remember at my grandfather's house

my mom's dad it really didn't go to church but

the last years of his life he was very

faithful to go to church and I'm going to tell

you this if a Billy Graham crusade was

on television that's what was on television

till the end and then how much has changed

in America that America is no longer I mean

that was network primetime TV anytime Billy

Graham had a crusade that was you would never

see a Christian evangelist on network

television

at any time right now like it was a big deal

back then in America and even if you didn't

believe you respected Billy Graham right he

was America's pastor but he was an evangelist

but let's talk about a big picture definition

of what an evangelist really is it's this

somebody who presents Christ in his gospel in

an area where Christ is not known that's

a big picture understanding I mean it can

happen here in the States as well but but

but he's not so he's not only that but he is

that and of course I have to think about

Ed Lacey think about all the countries where

he went Africa Cuba Russia India Romania all

around the world and then all kind of churches

here in the States preaching the gospel and

making Christ known that there are an untold

number of churches that have been planted

all across this world as a result of Ed Lacey

and many other evangelists just like him first

going into an area and first preaching the

gospel where Christ is not known and the

people

being saved and then a church get implanted in

that area I remember when he started to

go to Cuba and churches begin to get planted

in Cuba they're still day fair today money

from our budget goes to churches that are just

like that where they first got started

as a result of brother Ed's preaching thank

God for evangelists like him and so many they

do this great work of building up the church

and advancing the kingdom of God but then

that last category here in verse 11 look at

that last phrase and some as pastors and

teachers

and I told you last time that the Greek

construction here is really not two different

offices or

words pastors and teachers really it should be

put together pastor teacher or maybe even

better translated teaching our shepherd

teacher same as elder same as Bishop same as

overseer

all of those are describing one office using

different words to describe what I am pastor

teacher your teaching shepherd now how is that

different from the evangelists well the

evangelists

wins people to Christ the preaching of the

gospel gathers up the flock and then the

teaching

shepherd teaches and shepherds the flock I

remember Ed used to tell me I I catch him

you clean him that's what he used to say and

there are some parallels here with the early

church days if you think about it the evangel

ist is like the apostle more itinerant he's on

the move confronting people in the world

whereas the teaching shepherd is more like the

prophet

who applied doctrine to the local situation he

builds the flock he's permanently settled

in one place teaching and shepherding the

people of God in Acts chapter 20 verse 28

Paul is giving instruction to the shepherds of

the flock at Miletus and he says this be

on guard for yourselves and for all the flock

among which the Holy Spirit has made you

overseers

to shepherd the church of God which he

purchased with his own blood so there's two

things

there oversight and shepherding what does it

mean to pastor so synonymous with those

two words very simple lead and feed sit pretty

easy to remember taking oversight and feeding

the flock that Jesus purchased with his own

blood how intimidating is that reality to be

added in there in that verse for all pastors

to read for all time very intimidating the

flock of God is so important that Christ

himself has purchased that flock with his own

blood

so the teaching shepherd is to feed and to

lead first Peter five one therefore I exhort

the elders among you as your fellow elder and

witness of the sufferings of Christ and

a partaker also of the glory that is to be

revealed verse two shepherd also translated

feed in other translations the flock of God

among you exercising oversight same thing

feed and lead that's the two things that I am

primarily committed to as your pastor

and again this March will celebrate 15 years

as a church and I'll celebrate 15 years as

your pastor and pretty much over the last 15

years I really hasn't changed much and what

I do in feeding and leading definitely not

perfect by any stretch of the imaginations

many mistakes along the way but always

striving to serve under the umbrella of those

two goals

of leading and feeding synonymous with what

brother Mote told me priest of word love the

people that's the job in a nutshell and in

feeding you the word of God and in leading

you by example to the best of my ability

hopefully prayerfully what I'm doing here and

what we're

all doing here Sunday in and Sunday out is

that I'm helping you and I'm helping myself

to grow more and more toward ever increasing

levels of spiritual maturity that's what

it's about here now the best part of this

message I left out so you got to come back

next time to hear what the best part of it is

but for now we're going to turn our attention

to the Lord supper turn over to 1st

Corinthians 11 with me and we always read this

walking

and chewing gum at the same time is a good way

to think about why we read this particular

passage I'll explain that in a moment but look

at it with me beginning in verse 27

therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the

cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner

shall be guilty of the body in the blood of

the Lord but a man must examine himself and

in so doing he is to eat of the bread and

drink of the cup for he who eats and drinks

eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does

not judge the body right for this reason

many among you are weak and sick in a number

sleep they die it's powerful and I'm going

to keep hammering this and hammering this and

hammering this every time we have the

Lord supper that we hold these two things

together in our hands on the one hand but

they're equally together I mean by walking and

chewing gum at the same time that you

recognize the weightiness of the obedience to

this ordinance that's why I read this every

time that the Lord is serious about how we

celebrate the Lord's supper with reverence

that's what they were doing that's

particularly to them they were all the way

they were on

the struggle bus with the Lord supper they

were all out of bounds with what they were

doing and Paul had to get on to them about it

to the point that he says that we got so

bad that the Lord brought sickness into some

of their lives and even death he will do that

in a Christian's life if you don't act right

for a prolonged period of time he'll take

you out I don't know what happens after that

and I don't want to know what happens after

that but you hold this seriousness and the

weightiness of that in the one hand but you

can do that at the same time that your heart

is filled with joy your heart is filled with

thanksgiving your heart is overflowing with

the reality that it is not your performance

in this Christian life that makes you right

with God or keeps you right with God but it's

Christ's performance on your behalf that's

what you're looking to yeah you recognize

you deal with your sin as we take that moment

of silence you should acknowledge and repent

that repentance should be daily you should

work out your salvation with fear and

trembling

right here in this service as we're about to

do the Lord supper all of those things

can be true but then at all the same time you

turn toward the cross and you see Jesus

and there he is your only hope there he is

your only hope in this life in the next there

he is the one who bled and died for you there

he is I was reading in Leviticus hadn't read

in Leviticus you try to read one chapter first

thing in the morning every morning man they

had some blood going on outside that tabern

acle I mean they were sacrificing some blood

and

I read the verse this morning that says that

the the life of the flesh is in the blood

well the most important theological statements

and all of the of the Old Testament because

it demonstrates that there is a penalty for

sin death that is the penalty and the

sacrifice

of those animals in the Old Testament was

demonstrating somebody has to be punished

with death that is the shedding of the blood

because the life of the flesh is in the blood

and all that blood and all those sacrifices of

those animals were pointing to the ones

for all sacrifice that we learn about in such

detail in the book of Hebrews and it's that

once for all sacrifice on your behalf when you

come to faith in Jesus Christ that pays

the penalty for you you're either going to

people all people are either going to pay

the penalty themselves in hell or Christ will

have paid the penalty for you when you place

your faith in him last week was a huge moment

in a culture is a young man named Wesley Huff

you probably never heard of him most of us had

never heard of him to just a few weeks

ago Wesley Huff is a young man only 33 years

old with biblical expertise in the original

languages and literary style and the

manuscripts equal with James White in that

regard from

what I can tell and he got into a debate with

a guy who believes that there's this ancient

civilization that was on the earth that we

forgot about and the Bible is not true and

all this kind of stuff well he got into a it's

not really a technical debate but everybody

kind of looked at it as a debate and he just

slaughtered this guy with his biblical

knowledge

of the ancient text to the point where the guy

wants to sue him and take to take the

thing down because he made him look so bad

well that got the attention of Joe Rogan the

number one podcast in the world by far

millions and millions of people listen to

every Joe

Rogan podcast well that caught his attention

and he put Wesley Huff on his show for three

hours and Joe Rogan who's known as an

evolutionist and started out as an atheist but

he's starting

to come along here lately from what we see he

listened to 20 hours of Wesley Huff's teaching

on YouTube of how you can know the Bible trust

the Bible to be the word of God one of the

points I thought was just so brilliant by

Wesley Huff if you're familiar with Dr. Jordan

Peterson Dr. Jordan Peterson the young people

just especially young men just flock to his

teachings and he does whole long drawn out ex

odus and the gospels but all of it is from

a philosophical lens and so it was so

brilliant that that Wesley brought up that he

has an

issue with Jordan Peterson and Rogan says well

how so he says well Jordan Peterson sees

Jesus as the archetype of the of the example

we should follow to how we live our lives

but that's it and Wesley said if that's all

that Jesus is as a good moral example then

then we don't have a savior we don't need a

savior we can save ourselves that's not

what Jesus is he is a good example yeah

absolutely but he is the God man who is your

substitute

your prophet priests and king who paid the

penalty for your sin who bore the wrath of

God upon the tree in your place that you and I

deserve that's what Dr. Peterson needs

to see Joe Rogan needs to see and all people

who have not bowed the knee to King Jesus

and what Jesus did on the cross on our behalf

is what we celebrate today in the Lord's

Supper so now we want to place all of our

thoughts our focus and our attention upon

the person at work of Christ and where we

stand in regards to that so let's bow our

heads and close our eyes and take a moment of

silence with that.