Ephesians 4:11-16

You have your Bibles turned with me to Ephes

ians chapter 4 in verse number 11.

Working our way through verses 11 through 16

different times, looking at different verses

in

this one context. And today we're going to

wrap this section up. So I want to begin one

more time

by reading this whole text verses 11 through

16. Russell Paul writes, "And he gave some as

apostles,

and some as prophets, and some as evangelists,

and some as pastors and teachers, for the equ

ipping

of the saints, for the work of service to the

building up of the body of Christ, until we

all

attain to the unity of the faith and of the

knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man,

to the measure of the stature which belongs to

the fullness of Christ. As a result,

we are no longer to be children, tossed here

and there by waves and carried about by every

wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by

craftiness and deceitful scheming. But

speaking the

truth in love, we are to grow up in all

aspects into him who is the head, even Christ,

from whom

the whole body, being fitted and held together

by what every joint supplies. According to the

proper working of each individual part, causes

the growth of the body for the building up of

itself in love." Now, last time we were here,

you look there in verse 12, we said that that

word

equipping, also in other translations, is

translated perfecting, same Greek word, and it

has to do

with the idea of bringing the saints of God to

spiritual maturity. That's God's will for all

Christians, that we are always to be growing

to greater and greater levels of spiritual

maturity

in the time that we have in these bodies on

his earth. That is what is involved in, from

Romans 8,

same thing, God's conforming us to the image

of Christ. That's the same thing, it's the

same

process as he's conforming us to the image of

Christ. We are growing to greater and greater

levels in our life of spiritual maturity, and

this is a lifelong process for every one of us

.

And we have learned in our study of this

section that in addition to giving all

individual

Christians spiritual gifts, Christ has also

given to the church as a whole, remember from

last time,

there in verse 11, "some as apostles, some as

prophets, some as evangelists, and some as

pastors

and teachers." What for, Paul verse 12, for

the equipping of the saints? That's why those

offices

are given, gifted men given for the equipping,

the maturing of the saints. And as we

discussed,

the office of apostles and those New Testament

prophets have passed away, they're done away

with, they were there for the beginning and

the foundation of the building of the church,

and now what do we have in the church? Evangel

ists and teaching shepherds, if you remember

that

little nuance, that pastors and teachers is

really in the great construction one office,

pastor-teacher teaching shepherd. And these

men down through church history, God has

gifted to be able

to equip the saints, synonymous again with

bringing the saints to spiritual maturity, how

? Through

the preaching and teaching of God's word on a

regular consistent basis. Again, the Creeke

word

there for equipping in verse 12, it means

fully equipped, full grown, complete, total,

mature,

all those words carry the idea of the original

meaning. And as you know, God is not demanding

out of Christians sinless perfection in this

life. If he was, none of us would be able to

deliver.

Right? I mean, we can all amen that one, right

? From personal experience, because we would

all

be in a lot of trouble on day one of that

endeavor, right? The only sinless perfection

that any of us have in this life is Jesus's

sinless perfection that he achieved in his

life on this

earth as our substitute. And that

righteousness, as I said earlier, is then imp

uted to us by grace

through faith alone in him. That's the only

sinless perfection we'll ever deal with until

we get to

heaven and we're in glory. And then we will be

practically sinlessly perfect. And as a result

of that sovereign grace that is extended to us

in salvation, God is now asking for fully

equipped,

full grown, mature Christians to spend their

lives and being conformed into the image of

his Son

with the time that we all have left. God is

asking that we mature spiritually

during the time that we live on this earth

from the very moment of regeneration until the

very

moment of our last breath. That is what God is

asking of every Christian. If you're a

truly a Christian, you should want that for

your life. When you hear me say that,

you should say, "Yes, that is what I want." As

I talked about last week, the purpose of the

church

and church leaders, again, is to help you in

this endeavor to bring you all to spiritual

maturity.

And as we saw, God uses all kinds of things to

bring us to maturity. He uses, of course,

the Holy Spirit. Remember last week Paul got

on to the Galatians in Galatians 3.3? "Are you

so foolish?"

He said, "Having begun by the Spirit, are you

now being perfected by the flesh?"

And the implication is, if you began in the

Spirit, if you were born by the Spirit, if you

went

well by the Spirit, you could never get to

maturity through the flesh. That only happens

by the power of the Spirit. And then remember,

God brings trials and testings into our life

to bring us to spiritual maturity. Whether you

like it or not, that's

how he works. James 1, 2, and 3. "Consider it

all joy, my brethren." How crazy is that?

"Consider it all joy when you encounter

various trials." Only Christians say, "Yes,

joy, trials,

knowing that the testing of your faith

produces endurance." Remember, we went through

that in

James. Only we think like that. And in line

with trials and tests, right in line, involved

with

that, God uses suffering to mature us. 1 Peter

5, 10, "After you have suffered for a little

while,

the God of all grace, who called you to his

eternal glory in Christ, will himself," look

at that

word, "perfect." Same thing as mature, confirm

, strengthen, and establish you. So also, God

uses

his word to bring us all to spiritual maturity

. 1 Peter 2, "Like newborn babies." Kind of

like my

little grandson, Lawson. He's still, "I want

to buy," he calls it, his bottle. Long. He

longs for that

bottle when he doesn't have it. "Long for the

pure milk of the word, so that by it you may

grow."

That's spiritually grow in respect to

salvation. So think about it. The Holy Spirit,

trials, testing,

suffering, and the Word of God all play a role

in God working to bring you and to bring me

to greater levels of spiritual maturity in our

Christian life. So as your pastor,

I don't need to help the Holy Spirit, right? I

mean, he can handle his role perfectly by

himself

without any help from me, correct? And I don't

need to make you suffer and bring trials into

your life.

God will take care of that perfectly by

himself, right? But I want area that I am

involved in,

in bringing you to spiritual maturity, Sunday

in and Sunday out, bringing you the preaching

of the Word of God. That is where he has

called me to do this work, to assist you. And

that's what

Paul is getting at here in our text. Today, in

our day, it's evangelists and teaching pastors

equipping you, maturing you for the ministry

of the preaching of the Word. As I said,

especially

at this stage in the life of our church, folks

, and who we have here Sunday in and Sunday out

,

really, this is my primary goal, to bring you

and to bring myself higher and greater levels

of spiritual maturity through my pulpit

ministry of the Word. My ultimate goal is not

to get more

people in the building here. It's really not.

I mean, we'd like to see that, right? We'd

love to

add a bunch of more chairs and have a bunch of

more people in here. But that really is not

the model

of ministry that I follow. Brother Moeke

taught me this long time ago. Success in the

ministry

is not measured by numbers, but by faithful

ness to the work that God has given you to do.

Faithfulness determines success. Now, some

might say, well, that's exactly what I expect

a pastor

who has a church of 25 people on Sundays to

say. It's not about the numbers, right? You

expect

me to say that. But as far as I read here, you

can really double check it. You can look at it

right now. God didn't say he's given some as

evangelists and teaching pastors to fill the

building. Do you see that anywhere in this

text? That's not the purpose. Let me tell you

something

else. The purpose is really not even to get

people saved. That's a shocker. Although if

somebody

comes in here to our worship service on Sunday

, which is designed for the saints, not for the

world,

and they get saved, hallelujah. Praise God. We

will be so glad. But the primary purpose in

the

church is for the saints of God to come here

and worship and for the saints of God to come

here

and be taught and be brought to maturity. And

if in the process of that, someone who is lost

comes

in here and gets saved, hallelujah. Let's bapt

ize them and get them in the fold. A young

preacher

once said to Charles Spurgeon, my congregation

is too small. And Spurgeon said, well, perhaps

they

are as large as you'd like to give an account

for on the judgment day. Now I can feel that

answer.

The reality here with us is I'm not

responsible for how many. You know what I'm

responsible for?

What kind of ministry do I have with who it is

that God brings in our door?

What kind of ministry is in this building when

you come here and when others come here? I don

't

have any programs. And I'm not here to

entertain. I am here to equip the saints more

than anything

else through the preaching of the word of God.

Paul understood this, of course, better than

anybody. He said this, look in Colossians 1.28

. We proclaim him admonishing every man

and teaching every man with all wisdom so that

we may present every man complete. Same word.

Mature in Christ. He got it. Paul told Timothy

and 2 Timothy 4 verses 1 and 2,

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God

and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living

and the dead and by his appearing and his

kingdom preach the word. Be ready in season

and out of

season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great

patience and instruction. Other translations

for instruction is doctrine there. Our exhort

ation in preaching must always be built upon

doctrine.

We have to continually, from this pulpit, from

the TV screen and Sunday school, we have to

continually provide you sound doctrine. That's

how you mature the saints. And in order to do

that,

look at what Paul says in 2 Timothy 2.15. Be

diligent, not lazy. Be diligent to present

yourself

approved to God as a workman who does not need

to be ashamed accurately handling the word of

truth.

That has to be the commitment of every

faithful pastor more than anything else.

So we've seen here this progress to maturity

through gifted men equipping the saints.

And now I want you to notice in this text,

this progression is just going to keep going

like this.

Next, we're going to see you, the saints, do

the work of ministry. Look next in verse 12.

The evangelists, again, and the teaching

pastors, what are they for? Verse 12, for

the equipping of the saints, for what? For the

work of service. Also translated for the work

of the ministry. Okay, so you're reading that.

So who does the work of the ministry right

there?

The preachers? Saints. A lot of people,

especially older Southern Baptist,

and everybody knows I'm telling the truth,

think that the pastor is supposed to do

everything in

the church. He's supposed to cut the grass, do

the sermons, visit all the people and do it

all.

That's not what the Bible is teaching here, is

it? I mean, do you see that anywhere here?

Do you follow the progression of this verse?

The pastors are to concentrate on preaching

and

teaching the Word which matures the saints,

and the saints do the work of serving one

another,

and the saints do the work of ministry outside

the church. Remember back in Acts 6,

they had the Greek widows were not getting a

fair shake out of the food that was being

passed out.

So they sent a report back to Jerusalem, hey,

we're not getting what we're supposed to get.

Those Jerusalem Jewish widows are getting the

first dibs, and they're getting more food than

we are.

So the apostles heard this, and they said, "

Man, we can't get by down at issues like that.

We don't

have time for all that. Choose out of this

group seven men to handle this." That's where

Deacon

started. And then in Acts 6 verse 4, what did

they say? "But we will devote ourselves,

apostles,

to prayer and the ministry of the Word." So it

's clear their task was to equip the saints,

mature

the saints through their ministry of prayer

and preaching the Word, and then the saints

were to do the practical work of the ministry

and tend to these widows who were not getting

a

fair shake with the food. Every Christian is

called a minister. Every Christian has been

given spiritual

gifts to do the work of the ministry. You all

have callings and administrations that the

Holy Spirit

of God enables, empowers, and wants to see you

functioning in. Every one of us is called to

serve

in the Church of Jesus Christ in a multitude

of ways. Peter, Peter makes this very clear

in 1 Peter 4-10. Look what he says. "As each

one has received a special gift,

employ it in serving one another as good

stewards of the manifold grace of God." God

has given every

Christian a gift. We talked about that I think

two Sundays ago, and it could be a gift of

multi-faceted

levels of that gift that can branch out into

all kinds of things that you're gifted to do.

And God has made you all stewards of this gift

, as Peter just said, which means, guess what,

if you're a steward, you don't own that gift.

You're a steward of it. God owns the gift. You

only

manage the gift for God. And so it goes

without saying that if he has made you a ste

ward over

the giftedness that he has given to you, he

wants you to use it. He wants you to use it if

you don't

know what your gifts are. Find out what they

are and start using them. It's not hard. Every

Christian has a spiritual task, so get to

doing it is what I'm saying. We are here in

the pulpit

ministry with our gifts trying to equip you

through the preaching of the Word so that you

can serve

effectively. And then really, when you think

about it, really, the gifts that you have,

they're not really for you. They're for others

. And so if you don't use them,

then somebody else doesn't benefit from them

because you're not using them. If you go back

and dig into the book of Acts, it's

interesting. You will actually find that

Christianity started out

as a layperson's movement, really. There weren

't any professionals in the early church.

There were laypeople serving each other and

witnessing to the world. And over time,

things changed to what we have today. The

pastorate has become a profession. You get a

degree from a

seminary and then you get called to a church

and you're basically paid by that church to

this body

of lay spectators to watch you work. And

especially in big churches, even when they

need to get something

done in the church, well, they just hire

somebody to do it is what they do. Instead of

somebody

within the church that has the ability of

getting the job done and serving in that way,

well, just hire somebody outside and pay them.

We got all this money. We can do that.

And what's really wrong? I really think this

is really wrong. It's a lot of churches do

this.

You've been in churches that do this. When a

church loses a pastor, what do they do to go

get

another one? Well, they go steal one from

another church. They send a pulpit command out

and they

sit in the back and they listen to them and

they steal that pastor from that church. And

lo and

behold, he gets a calling to come. It seems

like it's never to a smaller church with a

lower salary.

Always the calling is to the bigger church

with the higher salary. It seemed like funny

how that

works out, right? So they steal another church

's pastor instead of already having leadership

available that they've trained up within their

own church who's ready to step up to the plate

and take over. That's the way they did it long

ago. They didn't go steal pastors from other

churches.

I mean, that's what we got right here in our

church. Look, if Christie's uncle would have

been

successful in totally running me over with the

forklift a couple of years ago, which was a

very close moment to death for me a few years

ago. And I met the Lord that day. You got Dr.

R.D. Peters right there ready to go next

Sunday. Next man up. You don't have to have a

pastor's

search committee. You don't have to go steal a

pastor from another church. You've already got

somebody raised up ready to go. That's the way

it's supposed to be. The setup now of having a

professional pastor or a group of them to do

all the work of the ministry totally. You know

what

that really does? It really robs the saints in

serving in the church. And really all it does,

especially in these giant churches, it just

makes people Sunday morning spectators.

And the ministry staff does all the serving

and then they just go to the house. One

commentator

says this, "The distinction between clergy and

laity is unscriptural and perhaps the greatest

single hindrance to the spread of the gospel."

It's quite a quote. Now, keep everything

balanced.

In reality, the Bible does call for special

honor, give honor to whom honor is due for

those who

serve as pastors in the church. We know that.

But in the big picture, guess what, man? I'm

just one

of you, especially me, the old oil-work

warehouse preaching pastor. Okay? I'm up here

and I'm just

using certain gifts that God has given me to

the best of my ability, the best way I know

how.

I'm not educated, but it's not for me to visit

the sick or the shut-ins any more than it is

for you to visit them. You can do that just as

well as I can. It's not for me to call and

check

on people any more than it is for you to do

that as serving the church. Instead of asking

me, "Hey,

have you heard from so-and-so in a while? We

haven't seen them in church in a while." Well,

you'll call them. We got the numbers. We got

everybody's number. You haven't seen them in a

while. Don't call me. Call them and say, "Hey,

what's going on?" Guess what? When you do that

,

you represent the church just as well as I can

. You do it just as well. It's not just for me

to do.

Guess what? It's even the same thing with

discipling new Christians.

Those of you who have some maturity, you got

some time walking in the Lord, guess what? You

can

disciple a new Christian just as well as I can

. And you should do that. The same thing with

helping

people with their problems. I don't care

whether it's spiritual or physical. You run

into a snag,

you don't know the answer to the question.

Yeah, come see me. But you can do that just as

well as

I can, praying for people, encouraging people,

witnessing to people outside the church. The

list is long. And you can do all those things

just as well as I can. And listen to this. If

our church

is functioning at really that kind of optimum

level in the way that Paul is talking about

here,

you all together will be serving in those ways

and more than I just listed for you. And I

mean,

I'm already doing my primary work of service.

The old plate is full if you catch my drift.

All right? If you think it ain't, just come

follow me around for a couple of days. I got

an extra bedroom. You can watch what I do. But

again, look at verse 12. It's very clear. The

equipping of the saints is happening right

this minute. It's happening. You're being

equipped

right now. What is it for? For you? For the

work of service. That's you. My primary work

is equipping

you through the prisoner word to do this, to

do the work of ministry, to do the work of

service.

God has designed the church not to be a place

where you just come on Sunday as a spectator,

to be served by the pastor who has prepared

all week this sermon for you to hear. And then

you

just go to the house. Look, my task in

studying in prayer or anything else is to try

to develop in

all of you full grown, fully mature, equipped

saints, including myself, in order for you to

do

the work of the ministry in the church. That's

how this all works. If everybody in here

is fully functioning in the way that God

intended for all churches to function, let me

tell you

something. We will have a really healthy

church that makes an impact in this world no

matter what

our size is, no matter how many people we have

. If everybody's functioning at this level, man

,

there's no telling what God may do. All

pastors really just love when somebody comes

up to them

after church and they say, "I think we need to

do this or that," which in the Greek really

means

"I think you need to do this or that." Really?

Huh? Look, I've told you this before a bunch

of time.

If you come up with an idea to minister in a

certain way, whether it's inside the church

or outside the church, you come up to me, you

know what I'm always going to say? Well, that

's

insane. I say, "That sounds great. Get to work

, head it up, gather some people, get a team,

and I'll support you in whatever you want to

do." That's how I roll, okay? Look, I'd be

doing you a

disservice if I said, "Okay, give me that. I

'll do all that." That would rob you of your

opportunity

to serve, right? That's what this is about. Go

back to verse 12. Pastors are from the equ

ipping

of the saints for the work of service and then

looks next. What happens to the building up of

the body of Christ? That's the next thing in

the progression. When we all do our part and

the whole

church is maturing properly and we are serving

one another with our individual gifts, God's

will

is fulfilled and we demonstrate, hey, this is

a spiritually mature church. Look how they

function

in serving with one another and outside the

four walls. I mean, we don't want a church

that can,

we should strive for a church that can stand

tall with maturity and represent Jesus Christ

to the

outside world. And when people come in here

and get a little dose, they say, "Wow, this

place is

different." And it doesn't stop there. Keep

going. Next, verse 13. What happens next in

this progression

until we attain to the unity of the faith? Oh

boy. Remember, we said God wants a united

church.

God wants a mature, working, serving, unified

church. If you have a church full of immature

saints,

which many places are, that's where you get

all the strife in the church. That's where you

get

all the fights and the problems and the

arguments between one another. And that

usually leads to

church splits as some of us are very well

familiar with from days gone by where David

Miller used

to say one group goes down the road to start a

new church and they call it a manual Baptist,

God

with us. Remember, Paul is still not done with

this train of thought. When we are functioning

properly, folks, not only will we come to the

unity of the faith, but look at this next one

in verse

13, "And of the knowledge of the Son of God."

We definitely want the church to grow up into

the

knowledge of the Son of God, right? Let me

tell you something. This knowledge right here,

this isn't just basic knowledge. This is deep,

personal, experiential acquaintance with

Christ,

which only comes about in your life when you

are being equipped through the preaching of

the word

and not only that, your own personal study for

yourself. Both of those things have to happen.

Look at what Paul says in Philippians 3-10

that I may know him. That's the goal and the

power

of his resurrection and the fellowship of his

sufferings being conformed to his death.

Again, if you have some time under your belt

living the Christian life,

do you not recognize what a joy it is to know

Christ at the depth that you do now than when

you first believed in Christ? Don't you know a

lot more about him now than you did when you

first believed? How fulfilling is it in your

life experience to come to know Christ more

and more

and more as the days go along? That's the best

thing in life. And this is what Paul is saying

.

The results here in this progression are unity

and an ever-deepening knowledge of the Son of

God

as you're being equipped as you're doing your

own study. Paul's not done though. Look next

in verse

13. What does that result in? To a mature man,

man and woman, to the measure of the stature

which

belongs to the fullness of Christ. That result

is the primary goal to become more like Christ

.

San Corinthians 3/18. But we all with unveiled

face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the

Lord

are being, this is what's happening to us,

transformed into the same image Christ from

glory to glory

just as from the Lord the Spirit. There it is

right there. That's the goal. Transformed into

the same

image, the glory of the Lord back to verse 13

of our text to a mature man. We want our

church

to represent a full-grown Christ when people

come in here. Mature saints verse 13 to the

measure of

the stature which belongs to the fullness of

Christ. It's very clear from all this that God

is not satisfied that people just go to church

, just show up at church and that's it. I've

done

check the box off. I'm done for the week. Let

me tell you something that's necessary.

In fact, it's a command, not a suggestion to

forsake not the assembling of yourselves

together.

And if you're a Christian and you're regener

ate and you've been born again and you have the

sovereign

grace of God in your life, there's no place on

earth you might rather be in your heart on

Sunday

than in God's house. But he wants more out of

us than just participating in a spectator

sport.

He wants his will is to have full, grown,

mature, robust, vibrant, strong saints to be

functioning

in his church the way that he has designed

them to function. That's what he wants.

Now, there's another result here that Paul

lists and this is very important. Again,

we're in this progression. One thing leads to

another. Look at verse 14 as a result. The

result

of all that we just read. We are no longer to

be children tossed here and there by waves

and carried about by every wind of doctrine by

the trickery of men by craftiness in deceitful

scheming. So with all that we just learned

leading up to this verse, when you are

spiritually

mature as a result, you will have the

knowledge of sound doctrine. You can't be

mature without having

this knowledge of sound doctrine. And let's

look at that verse again. Who is it there in

the verse

that gets carried away by every wind of

doctrine by the trickiness of men by craft

iness and deceitful

scheming? Who is it? Children. Children. What

does that mean? Spiritually immature

Christians.

People, Christians in the church who lack

discernment. They are gullible. They fall

for the TV preachers. They fall for them for

the craftiness and trickery and deceitful

scheming

of the false teachers that permeate our

internet, that permeate our airwaves on

television. When

you are mature, when you are equipped, when

the Word of God abides in you, when you study

to show

yourself approved on the God of workmen who's

not ashamed in your personal study, guess what

you're

like? You're just like what it says at the end

of 1 John 2.14 at the end there. You are

strong.

And the Word of God abides in you and you have

overcome the evil one. That's what you are.

So many Christians get pulled into false

doctrine. You know why? Because they're

infants

in the faith and they stay as infants and they

don't study the Word and they are not equipped

properly with sound doctrine at their church.

They just up listening to man-centered dribble

in Jesus' name. Walter Martin is an important

author. He's dead now. Back in I think it was

the

70s or maybe the 80s. It might have been the

70s. He wrote a very important book called The

Kingdom

of the Cults. And what he did is he wrote the

basic teachings of all the major cults that we

have,

especially here in America. He said in that

book this, "Isn't it amazing that a 90-day

wonder out

of the Jehovah's Witness can take apart the

average Christian in 30 minutes?" Let me tell

you

something. That's so true. But Christians who

don't know their own doctrine well. But to not

be

that kind of Christian, not only do you have

to be in a sound biblical church, let me tell

you,

also you have to do the study for yourself.

You can't just rely on only the equipping that

happens

here on Sunday. Becoming a theologically

knowledgeable, discerning Christian takes work

on your own

part in your own study. Let me tell you

something. I don't have any more education

than anybody else

in here. I've got a high school diploma. I

didn't go to seminary. I'm not smarter or have

a higher

IQ than anybody in here. But I discipline

myself to do the work to know what I know. You

can do

the same thing as me. You can do exactly like

I have done. Turn off the TV. Put the phone

down is the only way you're going to get there

. Get in the word. Put the phone down. Put the

computer down. Turn the TV off and get in some

good sound theological books. If you don't

know

any, come ask me. I got a whole bunch of them

back there and at my house. Let me tell you

something.

You can even study the doctrine of the cults

that come to your door so that you can witness

to them

in an effective way. And generally in America,

there are only two that's going to come to

your

door, right? Mormons and Jehovah's Witness.

Primarily 99.999% of the time, the only people

that are coming knock on your door are them

too. Let me tell you something. It doesn't

take a lot

of time at all to understand the basics of

what they teach about who God is and how he

operates

in salvation from their unbiblical perspective

. It doesn't take a lot of time. I can take you

through it myself. Last time Jehovah's Witness

came to my house, Christie took a picture and

she posted it on Facebook. Boy, was that an

interesting day for them. I'm sure they didn't

have anybody else's house that day. It was

quite like the visit that we had. But what I'm

telling

you is when they knock on the door, don't be

hiding behind the curtain. Oh, look out Martha

,

they're here again. Be quiet so they don't

hear us in here. Oh, arm yourself. Get a

little booklet

back there right down that shelf. Eight things

or something you need to learn about Jehovah's

Witness. It don't take much so that when they

do knock on the door, you open it. Come on in.

I'm

glad to see you. Have a seat right here on the

couch and then you can present the true

accurate

biblical gospel to them as opposed to what

they're teaching and wonder of wonders the

Lord might use

that to get them saved. I can't tell you. I

can't. James White can't even count the number

of Mormon

missionaries that have been saved in him

comparing the biblical gospel to the Mormon

God. It's just

unending numbers and they come back to him and

they tell him, oh man, that night you spent

that time

with me and now I see the truth and they get

saved. Let them in the door. Every single one

of you in

this room should be able to do this. Every one

of you should. And that's in line with 1st

Peter 315.

You know this verse, but sanctify as the Lord

in your hearts always be ready to make a

defense

to everyone who asks you to give an account

for the hope that is in you yet with gent

leness and

reverence. That person shows up your door with

some false doctrine. You ought to be able to

defend

the faith and tell them, here's what the Bible

says. But notice it's right in line with where

Paul

goes next in this progression in Ephesians 415

, but speaking the truth in love. Oh, stop

there.

This is one of the big purposes of being

spiritually mature, that you develop the

ability

to speak the truth. Yes, uncompromisingly, don

't leave anything out. Yes, but you do it in

love.

When we make a defense of the faith, when we

present the true gospel, we're not trying to

win

an argument. We're not trying to beat somebody

down verbally with our theological knowledge,

so we can just wipe them out with what we know

and make them feel bad. We're trying to

present the

gospel in order to see another sinner like us

adopted by grace into God's family. That's

what

we're trying to do. The motive is love. Speak

the truth in love. What's the method Peter

just

told us? Gentleness and reverence. You're not

up there hollering and screaming at them that

they

go into hell for what they believe. No, gent

leness and reverence. Be smart. Be smart in how

you do it.

There are two great enemies to evangelism.

Number one, not speaking the truth. In other

words, not giving an accurate gospel

presentation. God loves you and has a

wonderful plan for your

life. It's not the gospel. Number two, indif

ference to people. Second greatest hindrance.

Cold indifference

to people where you just don't care. You just

want to go to battle and you just want to show

them how superior your belief system is to

theirs. Don't even do that. Don't even do that

if that's

what your motive is. Paul is saying mature

saints will speak the truth. They will care

about the

person they're speaking to and they will do it

in love. Sound, effective, evangelism is just

a

byproduct. When you do it right, spiritual

maturity. As brother Ed used to say, doing God

's work,

God's way. God's way for God's glory. So we've

walked our way through this progression of

maturity for the church today. Gifted men,

teaching pastors evangelists, equip the saints

. Then what

happens? The saints do the work of the

ministry. What happens then? The body is built

up and the

results of a mature body are unity within the

body, deep fellowship with Christ, Christ

likeness,

the knowledge of sound doctrine, and a loving,

truth-telling evangelism to the world around

us.

And then Paul's going to conclude all of that

with the back into verse 15 and on into verse

16.

Let's look at them together. We are to grow up

. That's us in all aspects into him who is the

head,

even Christ. Verse 16, from whom the whole

body, that's us, being fitted and held

together by what

every joint supplies. Look at this. According

to the proper working of each individual part,

so each individual part of the body of Christ

has to be working together, causes the growth

of the

body for the building up of itself in love.

And that's how Paul concludes this section.

Simply put,

Christ is the head from whom the whole body of

Christ in all its individual parts working

together

is how the body functions properly. And the

power for all of this is not ours. It's Christ

.

All the parts individually come together

because of Christ's power. Notice the emphasis

so far

in our text has been on our effort, our

responsibility, our service. And that's right.

All of that is

absolutely clear and unmistakable what Paul is

meaning. But when we come here to the end of

this

section, who does it all come back to? Jesus.

It all comes back to Jesus. As we say on the

time,

if we are the place here where Christ is

building his church, not us, certainly don't

look to me

to build it, Christ is building the church.

And you know what will happen more than

anything else

here? Christ will be on it. Christ will be

magnified. Christ will be glorified. All the

glory,

all the emphasis will be put toward him.

Scripture will be fulfilled. And then we will

know the fullness and the fountfulness as God

designed it to be in his church. Is that what

you

want? You can get to it. Let's pray. Father,

we thank you, Lord, for this convicting

section

from the Apostle Paul. Oh, you feel it from

Paul, that he's just trying with all his guts

to get

his point across to what God's design is for

his church. Lord, help us. We get weary in our

struggle

with the world of flesh and the devil. But

take this message, Lord, and help it, starting

with me,

to invigorate and motivate us, Lord, to serve

you at optimum level and live in such a way as

you

are brought on the glory. In Jesus' name we

pray. Amen.