Father we ask that you would help us today as we come to hear and to preach. God that your word might have the effect in us of moving us further down the path to attaining to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Father we have already acknowledged today in our service how your word that has been brought to us we have often spurned and turned a deaf ear to or a blind eye or willingly or even by neglect have forgotten to remember at those points in our life where we should call your word to mind to be our aid and our help in time of need. We neglect and forget your promises. We turn a deaf ear to your threatenings. And God, we act often as if we don't know your commands. God, your commands are very clear. and your threatenings are very real and your promises God are very rich and they are all given to us to help us grow up into our head who is Christ himself the one from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. We pray God today that you would help us as we hear your commands and your threatenings and your promises. God that we would not be neglectful to give them our full attention. to give them the full weight that they possess and that they deserve to be acknowledged as having. God, we ask that you would help us to preach and ask you to help us to hear, God, that we might offer in the preaching of the Word, the glorious promises and the terrible threatenings and the very specific commands that we might be conformed to the image of Christ, that we might be brought to the unity of the faith, that knowledge of the Son of God, that mature manhood, that stature of the fullness of our Savior and brother Jesus. God, one day he will return and we will all be changed in that moment, in that twinkling of an eye. We will be made like him, for we will see him as he is. We will be presented as the church, blameless and with great joy. And we do ask today, God, that you might use your word again to further us down that path. Make us more like Christ. Make us more like Christ in loving you with the fullness of who we are. For He loved you with everything that He had. Every ounce of His mind, every ounce of affection, every movement of His will was ever expressed in absolute and full love and devotion to you. God, make us more loving to one another. He loved His own to the end. There's nothing lacking in the love that Christ has for the brethren. But God, so often we fall so far short in loving one another as we should. We become self-absorbed. We become self-pitying. We become complainers and whiners and grumblers through the wilderness. And God, we wonder why our stomach isn't full, and our stomach isn't satisfied, and we forget about the stomach and the satisfaction of the One beside us. God, help us to have hearts that are consumed, not with our own neediness and our own weaknesses, God, but be consumed with with filling up the needs of others, God, and meeting them and seeing them as more important than ourselves. God, help us to grow in the love that we have for one another, because only in doing this will we be able to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace that Paul has exhorted us to do here in this text. And only in doing that, God, will the church display the triumph and the wonder of King Jesus. So the world can see that many might be drawn and that others that might be repelled might be justly punished when they refuse to come. God help us, help us to hear, help us to preach, help us to be encouraged and exhorted and reproved and corrected and trained in righteousness and the hearing of the word of God today. We pray God in Jesus name. Amen. Well, if you have your copy of the scripture, if you would turn with me to Ephesians chapter four, Ephesians chapter four, we're going to be today in chapter four, looking again, somewhat at verses 11 to 16 and We're going to back up just a little bit here all the way to verse 11. I know we covered somewhat through verse 12 a few weeks ago after taking a digression last week. But we need to get a little more of the context. We're going to back up to verse 11 and see again what it is that Christ has given to the church. And perhaps we'll even back up to verse 7. Let me just read the whole of that text again. I know Paul just read it to us, but I want us to hear a little more of it beginning in verse 7. Ephesians 4, verses 7-16. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, when He ascended on high, He led a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men. In saying He ascended, what does it mean? But that He had also descended into the lower regions of the earth. He who descended is the One who also ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things." And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love We are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow, so that it builds itself up in love. I tried to think about the best way to tackle this section today, and usually we try to have some kind of a neat outline, somewhat alliterated, somewhat united, so that you might take maybe a better outline and structure your thinking there. This is a passage that I have found personally to be a jumbled bunch of stuff on the page I have looked at it and looked at it and looked at it it continues to be somewhat of a jumbled bunch of stuff on the page in the sense that Paul isn't just moving as he often does sequentially from one thing to another to another to another where he builds one statement upon the one he made before and the next statement on the one he made before he's often speaking it seems to me here in a lot of circles and he makes a little progress and then he backs up and says the same thing over again and he tackles things from a negative angle and a positive angle and we'll see some of this as we go but one of the things that I've done to kind of work my way through the passage and I'm I'm kind of, well I'm stuck, that that's the way we're going to have to have you work through it too, because that's all I've got as I look at my notes, is I've asked a series of questions. I've asked a series of questions of the passage, and as we move through the text, we're going to move through verses 7 through 16 in order, but as we move through, I'm just going to use some questions to give some guidance. So if you're taking notes, Instead of like, you know, one, two, three, four with all starting with the letter P or whatever I'm just going to give you some questions. All right, so let me just give the questions and then we'll come back and fill in the blanks and we'll try to end with a few other questions that I'll save for later on. There's seven questions to be specific. All right. The first question is this, what gives Christ the right authority over the church to give her gifts? What is it that gives Christ the right or the authority over the church to give her particular gifts? Now we've touched on that a little bit over the weeks that we've looked through Ephesians 4. These first few questions are somewhat review, but hopefully we'll state them in such a way that it connects it to the questions that follow. So what gives Christ the right or the authority over the church to give her gifts? Secondly, what has, in particular, what has Christ given to the church? What has Christ given to the church? So first, what gives Christ the right to give the gifts? You know, we might even sit here and say, well, why even ask that question? You know, don't... Don't complain or question the guy giving you the gifts, just say thank you. But let's understand in our minds what it is that puts Christ in that position. Secondly, what does he actually give the church? Third, what do these gifts, individually but mainly considered as a whole, what do they do for the church? What do they bring to the church? What do they offer to the church? In other words, if we didn't have these gifts, what would the church lack? What would we be missing? Fourth, how long are these gifts to be necessary? How long do we need them? I mean, might we get to a point in our advancement, in our living of the Christian life, in our growing as Christians that we can like, you know, leave these gifts behind, as it were? You know, we've advanced It's kind of like when in grade school, you get to algebra. The guy doesn't stand up there and say, now 2 plus 2 children equals. And you're not still struggling with that. Hopefully you're not, or you're not going to do very well in algebra. Maybe that's why I didn't do well in algebra. There are some things that they just assume. This is why I dropped calculus in college, because she assumed far too much about my ability to grapple with those kinds of things that she called logarithms. To me, they just looked like Hebrew, and I didn't know what they were. So you advance past the scientific table in science. You're not trying to learn the scientific table over and over. They're assuming that you know certain things about these elements and compounds and what they make. Is there advancement in the Christian faith? Is there advancement in the Christian life that will actually one day get us past our need to lean upon these things that Christ has given to the church? Or are they something that are so intrinsic to the life of the church that for her to go along without them would be to her folly and be to her detriment and ultimately her destruction? That's number four. Number five, why is it that this ministry is needed? Because as we think about what this work is, what these gifts are, Christ's gifts to the church, many in the church are often just offended by the fact that we say you need them. So you can probably almost answer the question that I just asked before that, how long are we going to need them? By this, why do we need them? Why is it so fundamental that these gifts that Christ has given to the church are still absolutely necessary? You think of gifts that you've given to your kids. Your kids just begged you. They begged you for that gift, all right? They begged you for that, you know, Lego set or that, you know, Tonka truck or, I'm dating myself there a little bit probably, or that, I don't even know what the toys are sometimes. Legos, they seem timeless, all right? As long as you make them be something new, you know. When I was a kid they were just Legos. Now they make... you know, movies out of Legos. I'm like, can't you just get red, blue, yellow, green Legos and make your own thing? There's no more creativity. Now you just have to follow what it was already designed to be. So you build it, and then you're like, OK, done with that. It's built. $80. It's gone, all right? But they had to have it, all right? I was happy with just 500 Legos that I made into all kinds. That's a whole nother, I digress. I'm not bitter. You get the point, alright? Kids beg for something, and two weeks later they're begging for something else, alright? Well, the church is like that too. Christ has given her great gifts, but a few weeks later, she's begging for something else. Why is it that they beg for something else? Why is it that those gifts are so essential, alright? Well, I'm not going to give my sixth question, so leave a blank. Because my sixth question answers the previous question. So I'm going to hold that one in the bag. The last question, the seventh question, is what is it that Christ, in giving these particular gifts to the church, what is it that he's trying to do? What is his intention? in giving these gifts. So unlike, you know, you with your children, you're just trying to get your kids to be quiet, so you give them the gift. Here, have it. Well, Christ doesn't just listen to his whiny children and give them what they whine for. He actually determines what the gift is going to be, and he gives that gift that he's determined, he's not swayed, he is not, like you, chopped down by the little acts of your children's voices. And pretty soon, you fall. There you are. You got up in the morning like a sequoia. Nothing was going to stop you. You fell. Does that testify to anybody's life? Yes, every day. Every day. Montgomery homes, sequoias are falling all over. Actually, Janice and I are more like little shrubs. We fall with one thing or whatever. Oh, no. I'm digressing quite a bit. Alright. What's Christ's purpose? Why is he giving these things to us? What's his plan? So let's go back and let's look at those a little bit. And I'll fill in the blank with that sixth question. What gives Christ the right and authority over the church to give her gifts? Well, we've already noticed this back in chapter 4, verses 7 through 10. grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift therefore it says when he ascended on high he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men and saying he ascended what does it mean but that he also descended in the lower regions of the earth he who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things now we're not gonna Harp on that again very much. We've talked about that extensively, that in the back of Paul's mind is the 68th Psalm, speaking of the triumph of God over His enemies, where He has come, if you will, into the camp of the strong man, and He has bound the strong man, and He has taken his possessions, and He has then awarded His people with that booty, or that spoil. Well, Christ is the one who has come into the world, and he has bound the strong man, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that's at work in the sons of disobedience, to borrow from Paul in Ephesians chapter 2. He's come in, he's bound Satan, and he gives evidence over and over and over of his power over Satan throughout his ministry. What does Jesus do? He preaches. He preaches powerful sermons that bring people to a point of absolute anger, and they're so angry they want to kill him after the sermon. You know, I mean, so much for the preacher today who stands at the door and shakes hands while everybody says, wonderful sermon, Pastor. Wonderful sermon. What my old pastor used to call the glorification of the worm. It was a wonderful sermon. Nobody was shaking Jesus' hand there in the early Gospel stories. They couldn't wait to grab that guy after he got out of the seat of the teacher there in the synagogue. And they usher him out to the precipice of the cliff, intending to throw him off the cliff. And what does he do? He just walks through. Can you imagine? And they're all looking at each other when it's all, what happened? Oh, we had him! He was right here! What happened? What happened is that Christ is triumphant over the plans of the enemy, and He displays His power. Young men cast themselves into the fire and foam with the mouth, and Jesus says, Come out of him. What happened? Jesus displays His power over demons. We know who you are, the Holy One of God! Well, then be quiet. he has power over them He has power over their chief, over their lord. He heals people. He raises Lazarus from the dead. He stands and says, Lazarus, come forth! He shows his power over death! We might sit there and think, well, poor Lazarus, he had to die again. But just be amazed at the fact that this guy was dead, and he was dead for what? Four days! And Martha says, and the good King James there, surely he what? He stinketh But he did. Four days dead, wrapped up in grave clothes, and here he comes. I can just envision him bouncing out a little bit. You know, he's all wrapped up. And there he stands, as a testimony to the power of Christ over the enemy. He has bound the strongman, and he has come into the strongman's house, and he's dragging out his spoils, and he's giving the triumph treasure chest to his people. And in this text here in Ephesians 4, Paul is saying that the glorious treasures that he gives to his people are for their good. And we're going to get to what they are here in just a moment. But that's what gives Christ the right. And that's what gives Christ the authority. Because He is the one who has come in as God of very God, and has come into the house of the strong man, bound the strong man, tied him up as it were, cast him down, and said, watch me work in your world. Because in truth, your world is not yours. It's mine. He is the one who has the right. He is the one who has the authority. Well, what is it exactly that He's given to the church? Notice where it says there, in verse 7, grace was given. Grace. That's what He gave. He gave grace. Now, in particular, He gives a ministry to the church of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, that their primary responsibility will be the communication of His triumph to His people about His work over all their enemies. Because if you would just keep in mind, when Jesus was about to leave, the disciples begin to what? Well, they begin to worry. They begin to get afraid. And what does He say to them? I'm going to go, but I'll come again. I'm going to go and prepare a place for you so that where I am you might be also. In this world you'll have what? Tribulation, philipsis, difficulty, pressure. You'll have trouble. But take heart, I have what? I've already overcome the world. I've already bound the strong men. I've already cast them down, as it were. Haven't you seen, throughout all my life, I have displayed my power over the enemy? And I'm leaving you not as orphans, I'm going to send what? I'm going to send the Comforter to you. He sends the Holy Spirit to be with His people. And this Holy Spirit takes His Word in the messengers that He has given to His church and continues to communicate the wonderful blessings of the Gospel to them. Notice what it says. and saying that He ascended. What does it mean? That He also descended in the lower regions of the earth. He who descended is the one who ascended far above all things, that He might fill all things. Jesus is now exalted on high. He is filling all things. But He is still showering, if you will, His church with blessings and assurance and mercy and grace, and reminding them regularly about His triumph over the world. the prince of the world and all of his minions and the sin that plagues them and the struggle they have. He is showering his people with regular reminders of the good news of his reign and triumph. This is one of the things that we need. Every week we go out into the world and we face what? We face our flesh, we face our sin, we face the flesh and the sin of other people, we face the world system, we face difficulty, we battle with spiritual forces that we don't even see or understand. Satan himself prowls around like a roaring lion and all week long we're what? It's like that sequoia. We're chopped. We're worn. We struggle. We go through that wilderness of life, yes, and God feeds us with the daily manna of meditation upon the Word of God, and prayer, and you may have wonderful times of reading the Word of God, but so often it's so difficult because we feel often alone. calls us to gather together again on the Lord's Day. And what does he do on that day? He showers us again with reminders of the gospel, with reminders of the triumph of Christ. It was such an amazing blessing to me this past week to be able to attend a few days of a conference. where I had preaching that was washed over me, and I was reminded of the glories of Christ and the triumph of Christ. It was wonderful. On Friday night, Baruch Maoz got up and preached an overview of the book of Revelation. about how suffering is such a, it's so part and parcel of this world, but Christ reigns from heaven and he has triumphed and that glorious message is given to those churches in Asia Minor and it's given to us today that the victory is sure and that Christ does triumph over the enemy. And I just got to listen to that and sit and hear that. And I was so tired Friday night. I sat there. Avery was right here beside me. And my sympathy goes to my wife. I have to hold little people with eight arms and try to keep them all where they're supposed to be. And I'm sitting there going, oh. I'm having my little moment as a father and my exposure to it all. And I'm sitting there, but I'm just so tired. And I think I missed half the sermon, because I probably dozed off. I was so sleepy, and I felt so bad about that. I was trying to stay awake. But what I heard was so encouraging. But I don't usually get that. And you don't usually get those kinds of opportunities during the middle of the week. But that was an encouragement to me, to get to hear preaching in the midst of difficulty myself. What he communicates in this is that his grace, it will be and is absolutely sufficient for his church. He gives grace. Verse 7, note that again, grace was given. When we think about the ministry of the preaching of the word, what is being given to you over and over and over is grace. In fact, what do we often refer to preaching as? The means of what? a means of grace. And it's what we often refer to as the primary means of grace. Secondary means of grace being things like the ordinances, baptism, and the Lord's Supper that we'll come here and partake of in just a moment on a regular basis. We take the bread and we take the cup. What's he giving you? He's not giving you calories. That's not the point. You get a few, not many. We're not here for a meal in that sense. We're not here to get full. We're here to remember what? We're here to remember Christ. We're here to have the grace of Christ and the gospel wash over our hearts and souls once again. Well, what is it that these gracious gifts do for the church? This brings us up to where we were a few weeks ago in verse 12. They equip the saints. They outfit the saints with everything that they need to live the Christian life they've been called to live. They, those gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher, they do the work of ministry, the work of ministry being the ministry of the Word, bringing the Word of God to the church. They are given to build up the body of Christ, and they build up the body of Christ by washing her with the Word and bringing her the Gospel over and over and over again. A sermon in this sense, friends, is like a Christian workout. All right? If you want to grow as a Christian, if you want to grow in your faith, what do you need? You need the preaching of the word of God. Let me see where I put it over here. This is a, we're going to come back to this statement again later on, maybe in the message, but also in Sunday school today, it was so interesting to me that there's such an overlap. The chapter we're going to be looking at in the confession, It's chapter 14. And listen to what it says. The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts, and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word. And that's preaching. By which also, and by the administration of baptism, and the Lord's supper, prayer, and other means appointed of God, it, that is faith, is increased and strengthened." So, for example, where Paul says in Romans chapter 10, faith comes by what? Hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. That's not just initial faith. People can't be saved without hearing Christ. People can't be saved without being brought the Gospel of Christ. And in hearing, Christ comes to them through that preached Word. He comes to them in preaching, and He confronts them in their sin, and by the application of that to their heart, by the Spirit of God, they are brought to a point of faith and trust in the Gospel. What you and I need to remember is that's what happens every week when we come together. If the Gospel is preached, if the triumph of Christ is held out to you in such a way that it's clear and the Word of God comes to you, that ministry of the Word increases and strengthens saving faith. It builds you up. So if you're into working out on a physical level, if you run or if you lift weights or whatever, running is going to, it's more what? Aerobic. It's going to strengthen your heart and your ability to breathe and take in oxygen and all those kinds of things. And then there are things like lifting weights, which I think they call that anaerobic. It strengthens your muscles and things such as that. Preaching is a workout. It's not just a physical workout for me. It can be tiring. It's a mental workout, a spiritual workout for you. And to the extent that you're really giving attention to the preaching of the word of God and laying hold of what's being offered in the gospel, your heart will be what? Your faith will be strengthened in the gospel of Christ. Well, that comment there almost answers the next question. How long do we need this? How long do we need these gifts? Now, again, we've talked about apostles and prophets being foundational gifts for the church. We're not looking for apostles and prophets. We've looked at evangelists as being somewhat missionary-type gifts people sent out with the specific gifting and purpose of proclaiming the gospel, planting churches and having people gather together. But pastors and teachers are much more of a local kind of a ministry assigned to local churches. But that's not really been our purpose in looking at this. What we have done is we've looked at them all together as a whole. They are gifts that sum up the ministry of the word. They are all gifts that were given to the church for the purpose of bringing the gospel and preaching to her. Well how long do we need this? Verse 13. Verse 13. Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. These gifts of preaching and bringing the Word of God to people are often seen today as inadequate in themselves. That's good, but let's try something else. Sometimes they're seen as antiquated. Well, that's the way it used to work, but we don't need that today. Sometimes they're just seen as absolutely foolish. In fact, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1, does he not, that men saw him coming, preaching as foolish. Some see it as insensitive. It's just too confrontational to preach to people, to reprove and rebuke and exhort. That's just too insensitive. It's irrelevant. They're talking about things that we're not talking about. In other words, the things that you're talking about during the week are not the things that we talk about on Sunday through the preaching of the word of God. So therefore, it's already deemed irrelevant. Maybe it's seen as uninviting. Other approaches are sought to reaching and training people. Maybe people will put up with something like preaching for a little while, but then they'll trickle off to something else. But notice what Christ says in this particular passage. These gifts are given to the church until. So that gives the element of time. that there actually is going to come a time when we're not going to need apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers anymore. Until she comes, notice, to unity in the faith, or the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood to the measure of the fullness of Christ. Well, we could say here in short, that's not today. We're not there. It's not going to be tomorrow. In other words, we're going to need these kinds of things being washed over us until the day that we die. We're going to need them throughout this wilderness journey, if you will, of the world. Now, I wrestled with this passage. It seems to have four different phrases in it that were tempted to squeeze, I think, for more than their worth. I don't mean that to sound derogatory toward the scripture at all. The unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God, mature manhood, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Normally you read Paul and he's building one thing on another. It's almost like he's made groceries of four things, one moves to the next. But I think in many ways he's simply, he's looking at something in the middle of the intersection. And he's standing on four corners making observations about it. And what he sees there in the middle is the church brought to what he refers to, from looking at it this way, the unity of the faith. Then he comes over here and he looks at it and he says, yeah, that's the knowledge of the Son of God. Then he comes over here and he says, that's mature manhood. And then he looks at it from that fourth angle and says, that's the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. In other words, I think he's saying somewhat the same thing in each one of these. What is the unity of the faith? Well, it's when the church is brought to the unity of the faith, she's going to be at a point where she has a full, a fullness of knowledge. And the word knowledge there is the Greek term for the fullness of knowledge. She's going to have a full knowledge of the Son of God, a full, satisfying knowledge of Christ. She is at that point going to be brought to a point of manhood that is maturity. Now, what is the idea of maturity? When you reach maturity, you're through what? You're through growing, you know, in the basic sense of the word, alright? You know, we often talk about, I'm not growing up anymore, I'm just growing out, you know, and I'm trying to, you know, stop that or whatever. But, you know, you probably haven't this past week, those of you who are adults here, you probably didn't stand up against the door frame and, you know, measure your head. You know, Jeff, you don't do that anymore, right? I don't do that anymore, all right? I'm just happy to fit through the door frames. You know, that's a good thing. That's good news right there. But your kids are still probably doing that. Oh, man, I'm a little bit taller. Or they'll come up and stand by. Here, Mom, stand here. My boys love to do that one. Here, Mom, stand here. You know, but you know, Avery's almost taller, you know. The boys love that idea. I'm taller than Mom. This is so cool. Ben, are you taller than Mom yet? It's happening, real soon, don't worry. It'll be there. It just seems like such a big thing for a boy to be taller than mom. And I love the thought when I was a kid, I was walking around the house in my dad's shoes. Now my shoes, my dad could swim in. It might be bigger than it is. And so we get through with that passion about growing because we reach a point of, physically speaking, maturity. We're not looking to grow anymore in that sense. There is going to come a point in time in your Christian life, in the life of the church, where she is going to finally reach this, what we see here as manhood that is mature. She's going to be ready. She's going to have, in that sense, arrived. That's not going to be, though, until the day that we come to stand before the Lord. Let's look at a couple of texts here. Look over in 1 John. 1 John 3. 1 John 3, verse 1, See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God? And so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. And he's speaking here in the plural and very corporate language, we language, we will see him. We together as the church, we will see him as he is. You might think of the book of Romans in Romans chapter eight, where it says that those He foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers, or that great doxology at the end of the book of Jude. who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy." One day He's going to present the church blameless with great joy before Him. Or, over in the book we're reading here, Ephesians 5, verse 27, He might present the church to Himself in without splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish." He's washing us, if you will, and the imagery there is very indicative of what He's doing here. Remember in verse 28, Ephesians 5, 28, in the same way husbands love their wives as their own bodies, he loves his wife, loves himself, no one ever hated his own body. Here we go. I've gone past it. Here we go. Verse 25. I'm sorry. Ephesians 5, 25. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the what? With the Word. Christ sanctifies His bride by washing her, if you will. He uses the image of washing. Washing her with water by the Word. Jesus says in John 17, Sanctify her in the what? In the truth thy word is Truth. So, to help her grow up into the unity of the faith, to help her to attain the knowledge of the Son of God, to bring her to mature manhood, to bring her to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. He's just heaping one image on top of another. And to do this, He graciously gives her gifts that primarily bring her what? The Word. They bring the Word. This is why Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 4, verse 2, preach the what? Preach the Word. Bring them the Word. That's what she needs. She needs the Word of God to wash over her over and over and over again. There's a wonderful image there, an encouragement for you husbands to be washing your wives and your family with the Word of God. in your personal relationship with her, in times of family worship, in times of gathering around the family altar, if you will, be washing your family with the Word of God. Why? Because the Word of God sanctifies us. It washes us. It sets us apart from all the stuff that we got on our feet throughout the days. It's like that image of Jesus and Peter. And Peter has dirty feet and Jesus comes around to wash Peter's feet and Peter's like, no way, I'm going to wash my feet. All right. And Jesus says, if I don't wash your feet, you have what? You have nothing to do with me. You have no part of me. And Peter says, well, if that's the case, then give me a bath. And Jesus says, well, no, you're already clean, but you've, you know, basically picked up a little bit of dirt out there in the world. So we'll wash your feet. All right. The washing of the water of the Word sanctifies us and sets us apart all again, until we come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of Christ, to mature manhood, to the measure of Christ's fullness." Notice that this unity of the faith, coupled with the knowledge of the Son of God, this mature manhood, and then coupled with the idea of measuring up to the stature of the fullness of Christ, What tells the church when she arrives at that point, is when she matches what? When she matches Christ. 1 John 3 there, we'll see Him, what? As He is. We're going to be changed, we'll be like Him, for we'll see Him as He is. This is what Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 15. We'll all be what? Changed. In the twinkling of an eye, at the trumpet of God. be changed into the image of Christ there in Romans chapter 8 so that Christ might be the firstborn among many brothers that look like Him. Notice, let's go back to John 17 for a moment. The image that Paul brings out in Ephesians 4 is the knowledge of the Son of God. John 17 tells us something about this knowledge of the Son, to what it equates with. John 17, verse 3, and this is eternal life. that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Eternal life is equated here with the knowledge of God, the knowledge of the Son, knowing Christ. That's the full inheritance of life. When you and I arrive in heaven, stand in the presence of God, we're changed to be like Him. At that point, and at that point alone, can we fully say that we really know Christ. Now we know Christ today, and we know the Father, and we know the Spirit. But the fullness of knowledge, the full manifestation of what that knowledge is going to be like, and the intimacy, and the wonder of it all, has yet to dawn on us. Everything about the Christian life is summed up in Jesus Christ Himself. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Look there for just a moment. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30, it says, Because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. And we've looked at that passage before, and in essence here, he's saying that Christ is for us the wisdom of God. And He is sufficient wisdom for righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Or justification, sanctification, and full glorification. Everything about the Christian life that comes to us through Christ is fully adequate for everything we need for our initial justification, our continuing sanctification, and our ultimate glorification. There is no time in our life where we ever get past needing in this world exposure, if you will, to the word of Christ. We need it over and over. Calvin made this comment. He said that Paul adds now that this must not serve us for a short time only, but that we must continue in it all the time of our life. For had he not added even further what we see, a man might say that we ought indeed to conform ourselves to the rule that God gives us, but only for a while. As if a man should send little children to school, but they do not spend their whole life in school. And aren't you thankful you didn't spend your whole life in the second grade? Or high school, for that matter. People say things like, don't you want to go back and do it? No. No. I never want to go back and do any of it again, even the good parts. I have no desire at all to go back and do it again. Oh, sends terrors down my spine. And so, it would have seemed that what has been spoken so far was a mere temporary arrangement, and that when we have been trained in it for a year or two, that ought to suffice for us, and every man would be a scholar sufficiently taught so that he might forego all instruction afterwards. Saint Paul tells us that so long as we are in this world, we must continue to profit in God's school and have our ears, I love this, beaten daily with his word. that we may on the one hand be checked and on the other hand be strengthened to set forward more and more. For suppose we were of such good ability as to learn all that is for our profit within two or three years, yet we are so fickle that each one of us would soon be going astray if we were not restrained. Therefore God's vouchsafing to have his word preached to us, even to our dying day, serves to make our faith firm and steadfast." It is always needed. One illustration I was thinking of this was this afternoon we'll be going to the nursing home. Why do we go to the nursing home? Because they need the what? They need the word of God. They need the word of God. What a sad thing for someone to look at someone who's 80 or 90 or 95 years old in a wheelchair on the verge of dying maybe some months away and they just think, oh, they'll be okay. All they need is a little visit and maybe a card. and a song by a preacher who impersonates Elvis. That's what they need. And you sit there and think I'm kidding. That's exactly what happened every month at the White Settlement Nursing Center that we went to for almost 11 or 12 years. Every month a pastor would come in and sing old Elvis songs to them. Friends, what you and I need till our dying day is the preaching. of the Word, of the triumph of Christ. John says in 1 John chapter 2, this word, I am writing to you little children, because your sins are forgiven for His namesake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one." John writes. It's a sermon in written form. And he writes, as part of and implying all of the Word of God is written to children, to young men, and to fathers. No matter where you are in your Christian pilgrimage, just starting out in the vibrancy of young manhood, or maybe you're a father. Maybe you're one who's aged. Maybe you're one who has reached almost the apex of your Christian experience in this world. Do not forget that these things are what? Written for you. And they need to be preached to you. Because somehow in our sinful weak flesh, we so easily have a tendency to what? To go astray. And we need by the word of God and by the sacraments to be brought back over and over again to the triumph of Christ. Well, we're not going to answer the rest of those questions today. We're going to come back and look at them later on, but let your heart be encouraged to give attention, regular attention and priority to the word of God, to the preaching of that word for the good of all children, for the good of all young men, and for the good of all fathers. Wherever we may be along that journey, we need the Word of God. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the privilege that we have of hearing every week. God, in this age even more so, we can have access to sermons. God, we thank You for the Lord's Day where we give priority to the preaching of the Gospel and the preaching of the triumphs of Christ. And we pray, God, that our hearts would be stirred to fight against any kind of tendency to think that somehow we've arrived, we're past that. God, we're never past our need for the Gospel. We're never past our need for preaching. We're never going to evolve somehow in the life of our own Christian experience, or the life of our church as a whole, that we can leave that behind, or we can relegate that to the side. That needs to be growing in our affections and in our practice of being primary. Of all that we do of coming to hear from Christ, hear of Christ, hear about Christ and be stirred by seeing him and to savor him more fully and be satisfied with him more fully all the days of our life. God, help us in this. Help us to make that a priority. Help us to keep it in that preeminent position, God, where Christ is exalted in preaching, where Christ is exalted and his word is lifted high in our gathered worship for the good of our souls as children and as young men. and his fathers. God help us in that. Help us as we come, God, now to the table of Christ. Help us to be nourished by it. Help us to keep Christ even central in the breaking of bread and the taking of a cup. May we proclaim his death, his triumphant death, until he comes. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.