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.