That is not a misprint. We are taking a break from the plagues of Egypt because it is the Sunday before Reformation Day. Happy Reformation Day. Happy Reformation Day. I've already mentioned that is October 31st. It is good for you to remember your history, to remember some of the things that have gone on. and come before us. Now, as I mentioned before the Song of Mighty Fortress, which you guys did a good job on, by the way, we do not wish to celebrate the people that God worked with. We wish to celebrate the working of God. I didn't do it. I didn't even move. Which means we want to celebrate the same things that the reformers would have celebrated. That is how we honor God. That is how we honor the work that they have done. So, what we want to do this morning is have a little fun and point to the good work that God has done in history by explaining how God does his good work in history. That is where Ephesians chapter four comes in. Now, remember our rules for Bible verses. What do we never do? Never ever ever read one verse. What else do we not do? We don't just airdrop into a passage of scripture without kind of knowing what's going on around it. Well, what are we doing this morning? We're kind of airdropping in. So, let's rewind a little bit in Ephesians to know what's going on. Paul has discussed the mystery of salvation. He has asked that the church, in light of that salvific work of Christ, that they would walk in unity. After this passage, he is going to go on to discuss the walking and following after the new man, the new man in Christ, as opposed to the old man in Adam. He's going to warn them against grieving the spirit and urge them to walk in love with one another. And then you'll get to the passage that all the husbands know, which is your Ephesians five. And then the book will finish with Ephesians chapter six, explaining the other side of familial relationships, the full armor of God, and again, the walking and standing firm against this world. So we are smack dab in the middle of the portion of this letter. where Paul is seeking to apply the work of salvation. Okay? Not just how you walk, but sometimes more importantly, how we walk. And that is where we will find ourselves this morning. So, with all of that said, let's read Ephesians 4, 7 through 16. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift Therefore it says when he ascended on high He led captive a host of captives and he gave gifts to men now this expression he ascended What does it mean except that he also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is himself also he who ascended far above all the heavens so that he might fulfill or that he might fill all things And he gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping 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, 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. Oh, I forgot to set that right. Do you remember how to fix that or do I need to walk you through that so they can see? Rewind all the way back to verse seven and then right click on that slide and it'll say add cue and then keep highlighting at the top until it says clear all and that'll get rid of that background. I'm sorry. See, right click, add queue, and then eventually, as you follow the little menus, it'll say clear all to the top. There, oh, isn't that so much better? Now we can actually read our Bibles. What a novel idea. Sorry about that. As soon as I started reading, I wondered if I'd done that, and then I looked up, it's like, oh, I'm sorry. Because I either have to do one of two things. I either have to edit the passage so that it fits above that, or, and I'll do that for the reading part that we do at the beginning of the service, but for this part, it's just easier to do this and make life easier. Nicer on your eyes. So, but to each one of us, back to the beginning, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Now, before we go anywhere else with explaining what we're talking about here, realize that Christ gifting his people is according to his promise. John 15, when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me, and you will testify also, because you have been with me from the beginning. The Helper, the Holy Spirit, the one who will come to empower the disciples, empower every believer, so that they will know, understand, and think rightly. This is John 15, you see this also in John 14. And this is probably a good time to remind you because we have visitors, hi. All of these Bible verses are on the back of your bulletin, so you can double check me later because it's easier than trying to put them all up on the screen. This is not just a New Testament idea, and I always like pointing this out to you guys, because remember, we do not have an Old Testament salvation and a New Testament salvation. We do not have an Old Testament God and a New Testament God. We have a story of salvation beginning to end, and we have the working of God from beginning to end. So Jesus is promising the disciples that the Holy Spirit will come because God has always promised his people that his spirit would come. Ezekiel 36. I will give you a new heart. Put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you. causing you to walk in my statutes, you will be careful to observe my ordinances." He repeats this in Ezekiel 37. That's the Valley of Dry Bones vision when it's explained at the end of the chapter. Notice how much that describes the work of the Holy Spirit in sanctification and salvation. Old, gone. Heart of stone replaced with a heart of flesh. New thoughts, new emotions, new direction. Now, able to walk in God's statutes. Able to please God. This is your sanctification. What do we encourage believers to do? This is Romans 6. Shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound? May it never be. You seek to do what in a new life in Christ? To walk in holiness. First Peter points you to that. Paul will point you to that. Jesus points you to that. Luke 6, why do you call me Lord, Lord and not do what I say? Hey, what do you know? Novel idea. You follow me. You should listen to what I'm telling you to do. This is not new stuff in the New Testament. This is promised going back to the Old Testament. You also see the same promises in Jeremiah 31 through about 33. The redemption of God's people, the new heart. New motivations so that they will be secure in the kingdom that he is building So Paul has not come up with this out of thin air He has paid attention to what Jesus spoke because what Jesus taught was in accordance with with what Jesus has always taught Because it is what is contained in our Old Testament. So according to the grace of the measure of Christ's gift therefore it says When he ascended on high he led captive a host of captives and he gave gifts to men now You'll notice the font is a little weird here Paul is quoting from the Old Testament, and the reason why he's doing this, he's taking a slight aside here. So he said, Jesus is going to gift men, and later on he's gonna get to the gifts, but if you're paying attention, you might ask yourself a question, what makes Jesus so special that he gets to give gifts? Paul is anticipating that objection, giving you this little Old Testament quotation, it comes from Psalm 68. So, let's read that. "'A mountain of God is the mountain of Bashan. "'A mountain of many peaks is the mountain of Bashan. "'Why do you look with envy, O mountains with many peaks, "'at the mountain which God has desired for his abode? "'Surely the Lord will dwell there forever. "'The chariots of God are myriads, thousands upon thousands. "'The Lord is among them as at Sinai in holiness. "'You have ascended on high. "'You have led captive your captives. "'You have received gifts among men. even among the rebellious also that the Lord God may dwell there." Now, why would Paul quote from that? And he also, he paraphrases it slightly. The reason he's quoting from this, and bear with me because this is going to help make sense in a few minutes and explain a whole lot of your New Testament, especially the tricky parts of your New Testament. This is a Psalm of David, Psalm 68, celebrating God giving David victory. Now, In the ancient world, they committed war crimes by our modern standards. And it was okay, that was the world they lived in. Well, I don't know if it was okay or not, but when you defeated another army or another nation in battle, typically it's too much effort to kill everyone. There's always some guys that don't want to die at the end, so what do they do? They surrender. Now, what do you do with them? You could kill them, or you could do the humane thing and not kill them, but do you just turn them loose? No, you take them captive. They become slaves in your kingdom, you sell them to somebody, they work for the rest of their lives, however this works. Beforehand, though, what you will do is, all of the captives that you have taken, you will design your military parade, go back to your capital, and what will you do? You will parade all the people you have captured before your people to show them how you have defeated this foreign army. you will also parade your soldiers who were captured and have been set free as part of your victory. So there'll be multiple groups. There'll be the conquering army going through, there will be the people that you have captured going through, and the people of your people that were captured that you have now set free that you are showing how you have redeemed and rescued them. You with me so far? That is what David is talking about in this psalm. This is helping to explain why Christ gets to gift the members of his kingdom. Because what has Jesus done? He has accomplished the exact thing that is being talked about by David in this psalm. what every conquering king would have done at victory. Remember this because we're going to come back to it in just a minute, all right? Verse 9. Before we get there, though, we have to make sure that Jesus is the one to do this. Now this expression, he ascended, what does it mean except that he also had descended into the lower parts of the earth. Paul is drawing an equation based on Psalm 68. David in Psalm 68 is celebrating the work that God has done. Why is David successful in battle? Is he just smarter and stronger than everybody else? No, he has Yahweh, Sabaoth, that was in the song. Sabaoth means hosts, all the starry hosts, the angelic beings, the things of the sky, everything. So he has the Lord Sabaoth, God of hosts, everywhere, the one who is and was and is to come, fighting on his behalf. Therefore, when David celebrates his victory, he doesn't celebrate his victory, he celebrates what? Or who? The God who gave him this victory. What Paul is now going to do is draw an equation. Jesus is the same as Yahweh who gave David victory. That's what he's talking about here. What does this expression mean? He ascended, except that he had also descended. See, what goes up must first be where? It has to be down. Things that are up don't go up. They are already up. Can Yahweh go up? No, he is up. In order for Yahweh to go up, he must first do what? He must therefore come down. That is helping to explain the importance of what we call in theology the incarnation, the birth of Christ, the eternal second member of the Trinity putting on flesh and dwelling among us. Hebrews 2 kind of gives you an explanation of this. We do see him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for him from whom are all things and through whom are all things. Now catch this, he's talking about Jesus. It is fitting for Jesus who has through whom all things have been made and for whom all things exist. to bringing many sons to glory to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one father, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren." What Hebrews is trying to explain is how is Jesus the firstborn among many brethren? How are we standing with him before God while he himself is God? And the answer to that is the incarnation. Christ has come down as one of us. This is why Hebrews 4 refers to him as he who is tempted as we are in many ways and yet is without sin. Does that mean Jesus was tempted with every possible sin humanity could come up with? No. We didn't have the technology. Look, isn't that one of the great curses of technology? For every time technology makes our lives easier, you know what it does for sin? Makes sinning easier, too. Does the same. So Jesus wasn't tempted in the exact same way, but was he tempted in the same manner, with the same temptations, the same lusts of the flesh, desires of the heart and the eyes? Yes. Yes, he was. Maybe not to the same extent or in the same way. This is true of all humanity. Some of you have vices that are different from mine. I might have vices that are different from yours. That's just how this world works. All are tempted in many ways. So is Christ. Why? So that he may stand before the Father, not as someone who cheated and just walked as God among us, but as one who walked through the muck and the mire of this world and told sin, no. Who walked through and overcame all of the trials, all the struggles, and all the difficulties that every human being faces day in and day out. God has come down, as Philippians 2 would put it, he has condescended to us. so that he would be as us and walk among us. That's what Paul is getting on here. He who was up has come down first before he can ascend. That's why he now continues in verse 10. He who descended is himself also he who ascended far above all the heavens so that he might fill all things. So what Paul is trying to lay the foundation of in verses eight and nine Excuse me. He is now explicitly telling you in verse 10, Jesus is God. Now, I say that out loud because the angry atheist, and we're coming up on Christmas time, so there's going to be all those History Channel specials I warn you about every year, is going to tell you about, well, you know, there's just nowhere in the Bible that explicitly says that Jesus is God. Ephesians 4. It's the whole crux of Paul's argument. Jesus is doing these things, why? Because he is God, therefore he is capable of doing these things. Jesus is God and therefore his work matters. Let's actually read Philippians 2. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. But he emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant, being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason, so the work of Jesus matters, for this reason, God highly exalted him, bestowed on him the name which is above every name. So that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven, on the earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Notice the reasoning. Jesus' work matters. Jesus is able to ascend, able to lead the captives, and able to deliver the captives because he is the conquering king. See, now we actually go back to Psalm 68. I told you we were going to go back there. This is where we're going back there. Jesus is the one who does this because he is the only one who could do this. Can you bear an infinite amount of sin? Can you sin infinitely? The answer is no, because you are what? You're a finite creature, you're limited in time. Can you atone for sin infinitely? No, sound system agrees with me. Maybe not. If that's the case, you're wrong, sound system. I'm right here. You cannot atone for your sin infinitely for the same reason. You are a finite creature. In order to atone for sin once and for all, you needed an infinite sacrifice. You needed an eternal sacrifice, one that has no beginning and will have no end. You needed God to be the sacrifice on your behalf. But if God dies, have you accomplished anything for you? Same reason I asked, can the angels be redeemed? The answer is no, because they do not have a sacrifice. Humanity does. Humanity has a sacrifice. God took on flesh. Got the effects going. God took on flesh and was us, was our representative before God, both as God and as man. Big fancy term we use for this in theology is the hypostatic union, contained within the...natures. One is fully God, one is fully human. Do you want me to explain that? Because I can't. Nobody can. It's one of those divine mysteries. You just have to kind of go with it because it's how Jesus presents himself in scripture. Now, about that Hey, I don't know, maybe that's better, maybe that's worse. About that parade helping to explain some of the odd parts of your Bible. Colossians chapter two. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us. which was hostile to us. He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. And when he had disarmed the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through him." You ever wonder what that was all about? What is this public display of the enemies? This is the language of Psalm 68. Jesus conquers sin, conquers the devil, and does what? Parades them both before everyone. He parades them before God, saying, these are the vanquished foes. These are the defeated enemies. Not only that, if you read things like 1 Peter, is it 1 Peter 3? I just went right out of my head. Read 1 and 2 Peter, it will do you good. If you've ever wondered about that part where he descended and made testimony to the spirits who were then in prison, That's part of this language of Psalm 68 as well, is Jesus doesn't just parade the defeated before God, he parades what before God? The redeemed. Whereas the conquering king would release his people who had been taken captive and parade them in front of his people saying, look what we have rescued. Look who we have rescued from the enemy. When you go before the father, who does that on your behalf? It's Christ. He says, look, they were dead and now they are alive. They were lost, they were now found. They were of the kingdom of darkness, now they are your children. They were my enemy, now they are my brother. This is the work that Christ does for his people. It is Psalm 68 language. It is the language of the conquering king who has defeated the enemy. In this case, sin and evil. Cool, huh? Now, with all of that said, because this is who Jesus is, he therefore has some rights. I think we can agree to that, right? When you conquer, you get to go, all right, you don't get to be released from prison and go, okay, awesome, I wanna be in charge of the cannons now. Who gets to tell you what your job is? The guy who got you out of prison. Just like when you go into slavery, you don't get to say, well, when you sell me off to somebody, I wanna work in a cornfield. Who gets to tell you what you do? The guy who beat you in battle. Same idea here, so verse 11. He, talking about Jesus, gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers. See, because of who Jesus is. Because of the status he attains as conquering king and savior, he therefore gets to gift people. You see this in Acts chapter 2 in Peter's sermon at Pentecost. When Peter's trying to explain everything, he says this, having been exalted to the right hand of God, talking about Jesus, having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this, this which you both see and hear. See, Peter says the Holy Spirit coming forth is in fulfillment of prophecy. It is in accord with Jesus gifting his people. This is the firstfruits come down. Paul repeats this list in multiple places. If you ever want, easy way to remember this, you ready? Where are your spiritual gift passages in the Bible? It's Ephesians 4, it's 1 Peter 4, it's Romans 12, and it's 1 Corinthians 12. See, two 12s and two 4s, it's good for you. Just stick it in your head, you'll never forget it now. 1 Corinthians 12, God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues. Now, why go to the trouble of numbering them? He doesn't number them here, but he kind of gives the same order, doesn't he? First apostles, then prophets, then evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers. Why do we care that there's an order or an understanding of this? Ephesians chapter 2 helps you out with this. You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together is Growing into a holy temple in the Lord in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the spirit see What is the foundation of our faith? So this is a tricky one Christians get this wrong all the time. What is the foundation of our faith? Let's see if we get it You're close, say it loud, I heard it over here. Jesus, Christ is the foundation of our faith. How do we know anything about Jesus? Through scripture. What is contained in scripture? The testimony of the apostles. I've done this before. We do it again every time because I always assume you guys remember everything I say verbatim, right? Exactly. You can ask me on Monday, hey, what did you say on Sunday? And half the time I'm gonna go, ah, blah, blah, blah. I'm lucky at 2 o'clock I'm going to remember what happened. We go through this every time because it's a valuable lesson and worthwhile, and I figure if we do go through it enough times it might sink in with some of you guys. Sometimes it even sinks in with me. All right, so Matthew, apostle, 1 of the 12. Mark, not an apostle, but traveling companion of Paul, who is an apostle, and Peter, who is an apostle. It is universally recognized by actual Bible-believing people that study this sort of thing. that Mark's gospel is the testimony of Peter. That's why when you read Mark's gospel, it reads differently. It's punchy, it's quick, it's short. Almost think about Mark's gospel as if it's being preached to a crowd, and it will make a whole lot of sense, because how is Mark recording it? He's recording it as Peter's doing what? preaching it to a crowd, which is why when you get to the end, Mark has that weird cutoff because the last 11 verses of Mark, Mark didn't write, 9 through 20, Mark didn't write it. It just ends with the women not telling anybody why. Because they think Peter would have ended his sermons not worried about the testimony because who is the testimony? Peter is, and he's standing there. That's kind of his transition to the invitation period of his work. So Mark, associate apostles. Luke, not an apostle, but he tells you what? That he went, he interviewed these people. He traveled with Paul. By Luke traveling with Paul, he goes from, what is it? Ephesus and Corinth, all the way to Jerusalem, all the way to Rome. Do you know how many people he gets access to in that process? He gets to talk to James and Jude, the brothers of Jesus when he's in Jerusalem. He gets to be with John around Jerusalem in Ephesus. That's important because who is John taking care of? Anybody remember the end of your Gospels? Mary, mother of Jesus, is put into the care of John. So Luke gets to interview Mary. That's where you get the stories of Jesus at the temple. Who would have had that information? Mary would have had that information. Who would have been telling you the story about Jesus getting lost when he was 12? Mary would have told you that story. What's the only gospel that's recorded in? Luke. So Luke gets to interview the people and travel with Paul. He gets to meet Peter. He gets to meet James. He gets to meet John. He gets to meet Mary. He gets to interview all these people and put this all in a gospel. John, an apostle. Acts, written by Luke. We've just covered him. So, let's see Romans, 1st Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, 1st and 2nd Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. Paul, an apostle. Hebrews, Anonymous letter, we don't know who wrote it, but I'm gonna solve this for you. This is the official position that I will take and I will fight you on this one. It is a sermon of Paul written by Luke. The reason I say that is read Hebrews and you'll notice there's a whole lot of things where the author is quoting something from the Old Testament, but he doesn't know where it is. So there's a whole lot of places in Hebrews where he says, and somewhere it says, and then he quotes the Old Testament. You know what that's Paul's equivalent of? It's in the Old Testament, read the Old Testament, it'll do you good. Because when you're speaking, you don't always remember every single Bible verse, but you remember about where it is. So you'll see in Hebrews where it says in the prophets, or it says, that's what he's doing. And Luke is writing this down, and Luke just, rather than Luke go do the research, what did he do? He wrote down what Paul said. James, leader of the Jerusalem church, one of the associates of the apostles. He is not an apostle, but he's basically counted as one as a leader of the church. 1st and 2nd Peter, written by Peter, he is an apostle. 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, written by John, he is an apostle. Jude, other brother of Jesus. Same thing as James, he was an evangelist in and around Jerusalem. And then you get to Revelation, written by John, an apostle. So there you go. The New Testament is written by the apostles or the close associates of the apostles. So, if you would like to know what the apostles taught about Jesus, you know what I'm going to say next. Read your New Testament. It'll do you good. We have the foundation of Christ handed to us in the apostles in Scripture. So, Why then do we have the other ones, evangelists, pastors, and teachers? because now you get to the crux of what Paul is laying out here in Ephesians 4, the work of the church in real time. Verse 12, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ. This is literally Paul's exhortation to Timothy in action. All scripture is inspired by God. The literal phrase there is God breathed. It is the breath of God. It is profitable for what? For teaching, reproving, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate and equipped for every good work. Teaching, telling you how you should do things. Reproving, telling you when you have done something wrong. Correcting, telling you how you should now do it rightly. Training, disciplining your mind and your body so that you don't have to do that step every single time. In what? Righteousness. That is why you have evangelists, teachers, and pastors. the foundations of the apostles in scripture now going forth. So think about things like Romans 10. How does faith come? Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the words of Christ. Some translations will say God. There is some debate on whether or not the Greek there is theos or christos. Depending on which section of the Greek New Testament you are looking at, which edition will determine whether or not your Bible says God or Christ. So that's just a fun little thing on translations that's good for you. That's the work of the evangelist. That is the work of the evangelist, proclaiming the truth of Christ, going out into the world to convert the masses. But you also have things like Titus 1.9. Why does Titus have to appoint elders in the church? So they will function as pastors and teachers. So they will do what? Hold fast the faithful word, which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able to both exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict. That's important. Exhorting you in sound doctrine. You know what that looks like? What I'm doing right now. Trying to explain to you how does this work? Why is this important? How do you know that the History Channel is lying to you in December? because you have been exhorted in sound doctrine. This is the old example. This was the biggie in church like 20 years ago. So you've probably heard this example. And I don't even know if they still do this. I just know that they used to. You know how they train treasury agents to spot counterfeit bills, right? They spend all of their training handling real bills. handling the actual money. I mean, go bug a bank teller, go quiz Becca. The minute you see a counterfeit, it's just like something explodes in your brain because you've done what? You handle money all the time so that when someone hands you something that's fake, you're just like. Really? Do you think I'm stupid? I can see this! Now, those of you that don't handle money all the time, you would miss it because it's not just burned into your mind what an actual bill looks like. Welcome to Christian living. This is what you're supposed to be doing. Renewing your mind daily, taking up your cross daily, walking in the truth. Daily disciplining your body, making it your slave so that you will not be rejected at the end. So full of solid, faithful Christian doctrine that the second somebody puts something else in front of you, you go, and that's technical terminology. You refute it because you know the truth, you are grounded in the truth and you can clearly see the error. This is why years ago, I don't know if this is still the case or not, I haven't checked the numbers on this in a while. We've been doing other studies lately because there's other things going on. I know around the turn of the millennium, right around 2000, do you know which denomination was the number one group that converted to Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormonism? Southern Baptists, we were the worst. We were the absolute worst. You know why? Because we had spent the last 20 years not teaching the Bible. So Mormons come along and go, well, there's this Kolob, and there's another planet, and you too can be like God. And they went, really, tell me more. And see, you're laughing at that because that sounds ridiculous. Well, it should sound ridiculous. You've been grounded in the truth. You're like, no, there's a Genesis 1.1 that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. There's no Kolob. There's no ye be like God. As a matter of fact, I'm told not to do that. So yeah, that's called idolatry. Bye. We didn't do that in mass because we weren't grounded in the truth. We were not exhorted in sound doctrine. This is what is supposed to happen. We have evangelists, pastors, and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ. There's a goal here, verse 13. Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. That is a long, fancy Pauline way of saying one simple word. Sanctification. growing into Christ-likeness. I dance around here like an untrained monkey every Sunday so that I will exhort you in sound doctrine so that you will hopefully remember some of what I said so that on a random Tuesday when you go to Walmart and he will hit you and you'll go... I have a foundation upon which I live. That's the goal. That's what I want. I want to attain to that fullness of Christ. I want you as fellow believers in Christ to attain to the fullness of Christ. You want fellow believers to attain to the fullness of Christ. I mean, isn't church better when people are mature in godliness in church? I mean, I have been in churches where they're not. I mean, knock down drag outs over the color of paint. On the third floor, which is the attic. I'm not kidding, Cameron can vouch for this. You did what? We painted it. When was the last time you went up there? 1972, and that's how it's going to stay. Or we were digging through closets one day, and our church, we still had a choir with choir robes. And I don't hate them, I hated wearing them, but I didn't hate looking at them. They're miserable to wear, they're uncomfortable and they're hot and it's like... But we had the cream colored robes with the burgundy sash. And I was digging through a closet and we found the purple choir robes with a lighter color purple sash. And I was like, I remember those, I've seen those in pictures from the 80s. At the time, that was 20 years ago. And then I moved those out of the way and moved a couple boxes. You know what I found in the back? I found the blue choir robes with the purple sash. And I've never seen those before. So I got my father-in-law, who was in his 50s and was born in that church, and he hadn't seen those either. I'm like, I'm gonna throw these away. And his exact words were, don't tell anybody. Because they have been in here since before the earth was cooled, but we can't tell anyone we're throwing them away because no one has seen them for 60 years, but that would have been a big deal. See, that's a lack of maturity in faith. That is majoring on minors and caring about things that Christians really just shouldn't care about. That's the danger of not filling your heart and mind with good things every day. I've said this before, I'll say it again. The world does not want you to be sanctified. The world wants to push, pull, tug, trip, and smack you in any way that it can as long as it gets you off a path of godliness. Why? Because they're not on that path. And you know what the most convicting thing in the world is? Seeing someone else do the right thing when you don't want to. And what happens and an unsanctified person, and a person that does not have the Holy Spirit when they see you doing godly things and encouraging them to do the same and they don't want to. Well, I'm not gonna change, so that means what has to happen? You have to change. I don't want to be godly and I don't want you to remind me that I'm ungodly. Therefore, you need to stop being godly. This is why the world spends all of its time telling you you don't bring your Christianity into politics. You don't bring your Bible into the realm of public debate. You don't bring the Christian worldview into the realm of the public sphere because we don't want to hear it. That's the real reason. The lie is that's not fair. Well, no, it's not fair. It's the sword of the spirit. Of course it's not fair. That's why I'm using it. Like, when you were a kid playing video games and they told you, you know, there's a cheat code where you can win, what did you do? I'm not going to use that. That would be dishonest. You were like, hmm. And that's why to this day, 30 years later, I can still look at you and go, oh, oh, 73735963. You know what that is? That wasn't my phone number. That's how you get to Mike Tyson and Mike Tyson's punch out without having to fight all the other guys. How pathetic is that? I'm 39 years old. I can still remember that. Or it was up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, select, start. That was a cheat code on Contra so that you could get all the fun guns to blow up the aliens to win the game. No, I don't want to play fair. And Christian, when it comes to the realm of public discourse, you shouldn't either. Bring God to bear. Proclaim the truth of scripture in the public square. It is the only way by which we can actually refute the world, change the hearts and minds, and encourage our own spirits. This is our goal. Go back to Ephesians 3. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breath length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses all knowledge that you may be filled up to the fullness of God. Yes, I want that. I don't wanna argue with you about who you're voting for. I wanna ground who I'm voting for in the wisdom of God so that I can give a defense and stand before him blameless and go, these are the principles. These are the truths with which I warred against the darkness and I used your word and I stood in your spirit and I fought the fight until the end. That's what I want to do. And that's what we should want to do, and that is what we must do in the public. Otherwise, guess what? Already lost. Already lost. If I leave the Bible behind, if I leave the foundation of Christ behind, if I leave my godliness at the door, I've already lost the fight before it's had, because whose mind can I change? Nobody's. Whose heart can I redeem? No one. In whom will the spirit dwell, because I am so wise and mighty and brilliant? No one. I'm a new-it. I should put that on my business cards. Certified nitwit. I can't change your mind, but God can. By changing your heart with the Holy Spirit, and the only way that happens is, as we said, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the words concerning Christ. Where, pray tell, may there be words concerning Christ? Where might they put those important words? See, this is why we bring it to bear. Now, this belongs not just to you. This belongs to us. And this is why we are the last line of defense. This has belonged to the church throughout the ages. This is why I can read about guys like Martin Luther, and John Calvin, and Erwick Zwingli, and Martin Booser. Fun history names. Go look them up. They all have Wikipedia pages. They actually have pretty good history on there. It's good for you. And I can celebrate the good things that they did while recognizing that, are they perfect? No, of course not. Am I perfect? Of course not. Not even Jonathan is perfect. I'm throwing you under the bus before you even get there. But we celebrate what? The work that God has done in their midst. And we rejoice in that work, and we apply that work, and we stand unapologetically upon that work. This is how we do this. And again, it's a we. That is why, again, I say we are the last line of defense. What do you do? I mean, is there a place in the Bible that actually lays out what should happen if someone is, say, I don't know, caught in sin? What do you do? You go talk to them, right? You point them in the right direction. You show them from Scripture where they are wrong and where they have error. And what happens if they don't listen to you? Oh, well, I did my best. No, you go get other people. You say, hey, you understand the scriptures. You see what I'm saying. You see that I'm right now. Let's go together. And we now go and we run through. This is a problem. This is where it says in scripture where you were in sin. This is the right path that you should walk on. This is your approving and your correcting. And they look at you and go, yeah, no, I'm good. Oh, we tried. We did the best that we could. No, what do you do? You go before the church. This is your Matthew 18 in action. Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth, catch the language here, shall have been bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. See, if we go before you, and you disagree, and you argue, and we can show you from scripture where you are in sin and you continue on in that endeavor, and then we bring you before the church. This is not the church saying, you're a sinner and you're going to hell. All the church is saying is, God is saying you are in sin, unrepentant, you are walking a dangerous road. We're not declaring anything. We're just telling you what God has already said. We're not binding, we're not loosing, we're telling you what God is binding and what God is loosing. Why? Because where are we standing? the foundation of Christ, delivered by his apostles, handed down through the church, through the ages, so that we may overcome the world. If you want a good example, free book. Everybody loves free, right? This one's free on the internet, there you go. Matthew Meade lived from 1630 to 1699. That's a simpler time, right? No iPhones, no transcontinental railway, gunpowder is still a new invention. It's an easier world to live in, right? Matthew Meade's enduring gift to the church is a book called The Almost Christian Discovered. the almost Christian discovered. And in that book, he actually lays out, it's short, you can download it for free, it's part of the public domain, it's about 120 pages. He lays out the person who has self-deceived themselves to believe that they are on the road to righteousness when in fact they are not. And he lays out how you go through scripture to show this person that they are in the wrong so that they would do what? Repent, the Holy Spirit would indwell them and then they would walk on the right path. 400 years ago, not quite, close enough. That was a problem even then. As Ecclesiastes tells you, there is nothing new under the sun. I've made mention of this before. You want to talk about how similar humanity is down through the ages? The name just went right out of my head. It's not, maybe it is Martin Busser. We'll just go with Martin Busser. German sermons from the 1500s. I read them in English because they're translated, but I got such a laugh that I was reading one No, no, I'm sorry, I got the name. The decades of Heinrich Bollinger. Henry Bollinger was the pastor in Germany in the 1500s. And in one of his sermon illustrations, you know what he says? He says, seniors, he's talking to the elder people of his congregation, do not say about the young people that the world is worse off because of them. His literal advice to his seniors, don't say the world was better when you were younger. It wasn't. 500 years ago. Do you know what the elder people of church were saying? You kids today. Can't believe you. 500 years ago they were saying this. Everybody who's under 50, you know what you're gonna say in about 20, 30 years? You kids today. And you know what they're gonna say in about 60 years? You kids today. Because that's what we do. We lie to ourselves about who we are, what we did, and how innocent and sweet we were. It doesn't work. That's why dads look at boyfriends of daughters and go, uh-uh. Because what do we know? We know what we were thinking at that age. And don't make me cut your hands off, because I'll do it. That's why you're like that. And that's why women are like, you're overreacting. No, he's not. No, he's not. Trust us on this one. Now, this is important, verse 14. As a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. See, this is part of the how and the why working itself out. See, 1 Thessalonians gives you the same example. Examine everything carefully. hold fast to that which is good, abstain from every form of evil. That's what Paul is saying again right here. We are no longer to be children tossed here and there. See, in regards to Christ, you should be a child. You should have a simple, trusting faith. You should then build upon that faith with knowledge and understanding. But in regards to Christ, you should be simple and childlike. When it comes to the rest of the world, you know what you should be? You should be angry old man yelling at them to get off my lawn. That's how you should be to the rest of the world. Children are tossed here and there. I lived this. I grew up in Connecticut. Milford, Connecticut is the house we lived in was just a stone's throw away from Long Island Sound. So I'd go down to the beach every single day. I discovered that beaches are different in different places when I was about six, because we used to go see my grandparents for a week every year in North Carolina. And one year, my parents took two weeks off, and we went and saw my grandparents for a week, and then we went to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Now, I had been on a beach my entire life. Long Island Sound in Connecticut is a lot different than the Outer Banks of North Carolina. There aren't waves on Long Island Sound like there are in the Atlantic Ocean. And I got to playing, and my father, to his credit, walked with a limp because of me. because I got to playing and wandered into a rip current. at about six years old. Do you know where I went? I went under, my butt hit the ground, and you know the next thing I remember? I went that way. The beach was that way. Do you know why I went that way? Because dad was close enough to me and he weighed enough that he didn't get swept out, and when I did, he grabbed me, yanked me back, pulled me, my head hit him in the knee. He cursed, grabbed me by the bathing suit, and then threw me back on shore. That was my father. My father had hands like this big. It was the most frightening thing on the planet. I don't know how he made it in medicine, but he did. And why? What's the difference? The child is tossed around by wind and waves. What does the adult do? Christian, we are the adults in this place. If you don't believe me, watch the news for five minutes. Just what are you seeing? Children screaming and yelling at each other. I wanna do this. I wanna do that. I wanna do this. Uh-uh, uh-huh. This is how children argue. I'll just scream louder than you. This doesn't work. We test the spirits. We evaluate them wisely. This is what 1st John 4 would tell you. And then we say, this accords with scripture, it is good. This does not accord with scripture, it is bad. Oh yes, stop yelling at me because I'm not listening to that. That does not accord with scripture. This is the standard, therefore you are out. That's how adults act. No malice, no anger, no hatred, simply truth. Verse 15, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow in all aspects into him who is the head even Christ. This is replete in Ephesians, this is Paul's formula. Should you stand firm? Yes. Should you tell evil that it is evil? Yes. Should you do it as meanly as possible? No. Ephesians 4, the next section after this. Laying aside falsehood, speak the truth, each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry and yet do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. Do not give the devil an opportunity. He who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with the one who has need. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification, according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. He goes on in Ephesians 5, do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them. Now, have you ever been in sin and someone told you that? Didn't you love that conversation? Wasn't that the greatest thing that ever told you? Or you were like, shut up and leave me alone. That's usually how that conversation goes. We still have to do the work. We still have to stand firm. Does sin love that? No. but we have to do that work. And Paul lays this out, stand firm in love, rebuke evil, cautiously expose the darkness everywhere. There's no quarter here, there's no middle ground, there's no running away, but there is a love of Christ. There is a faithful living in godliness. Be angry and do not sin. Believe it or not, you can pull that off. Because let's be honest, if you are a Christian, and something is bad for you and causing you to sin, do you think I like that? No, does that make me happy? No, now let's use our English language properly. That which does not make me happy probably makes me what? Sad or angry. I should hate the things that are no good for you. I should hate sin. People go, you shouldn't hate anything, hate sin. Sin is no good. Hate what sin does to people because what the sin does is no good. Love people, hate this world and what it does. Expose the unfruitful deeds of darkness, Ephesians 5, 11. Show them the fruit of wickedness. Show them the mercy and grace of Christ. Walk with them in love, but do not give a quarter to the lies, the deceit, and the evilness that goes on in this place. We can't because if we do, Once again, we've already lost. We have surrendered the ground upon which we are demanded to claim. So, Paul finishes up. From whom the whole body, not the partial body, 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 keep in mind, all of these things that we are to do are to be done by all the members of the community, and they are supplying to the members of the community. Where do all these gifts come from again? From Christ, from God. So who is the one who is building the body, strengthening it, and preparing it? God, in Christ. There's no other kingdom. There's no other power. There's no other group. There is just one people of God. They are progressing towards just one kingdom of God. They are given but just one foundation of God, and they are given just one standard from God. Colossians 2, let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement. The worship of angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God." Don't do that. I'm being fact-checked. What am I, on CNN? So yeah, notice this, not in self-abasement, not in the worship of angels, not in visions, not in your own mind, but on what? Christ. How do we know what he said? They put it in a book. See, this is the love that we have been given. This is the love that we show. How will they know to whom we belong? They wrote a song about that, right? They will know we are Christians. Now, I pointed out, this is the work of us as individuals. This is the work of us as a community. This is the celebration and the joy we actually have from history. This is why days like this are fun and why I always take time out around the Reformation to point these things out. Because while we know there are no perfect people now, outside of Jesus, any perfect people running around in here? Yeah, not even you. I've said this before, never fall into the trap of the heroes of the Old Testament, because there aren't any. You know what you get over and over again in your Old Testament? Examples of people walking and stumbling and God picking them up and bringing them to completion. Look at your church history and you will find the same thing. No perfect people, but people who loved God and were perfectly loved and redeemed by God. This is good news, because if he can save those wretches, you know what else he can do? He can save this wretch too. He can, and we can learn not just from us, but from them. Mentioned earlier, Ecclesiastes tells you there is nothing new under the sun. This is a beautiful truth in our world because you see Jehovah's Witnesses. Oh, look at this, this is a new group, right? They popped up in the 20th century, early 1900s, Watchtower Society. Council of Nicaea in 325 condemned to heresy known as Arianism. You know what Jehovah's Witnesses are? They're modern day Arians teaching the same heresy and the same doctrine 1700 years later. It's not new. You see people talking about unhitching the Old Testament and ignoring what God has said throughout the beginning of Scripture. Marcion in 160 did that. 160 A.D., almost 1900 years ago. He's like, we don't need all this Old Testament stuff, that was an angry God. No, that was a righteous and holy God, because it is a righteous and holy God. There is nothing new. We learn from our history, because look, as a history major, this is our quote, right? Those who do not learn their history are what? Doomed to repeat it, not because the world is cyclical, but because we don't learn from our elders, we don't learn from our ancestors, and the trap that they stepped in, if we're not paying attention, what do we do? We step in the same hole, and then we go, oh, I should've listened to that. You've watched this with your kids and your grandkids, right? Don't do that! I did that, and I know where it goes, and you did it anyway. Listen to me, please. This is why we instruct our children. This is why we disciple fellow believers, because we have stepped in holes, we have fallen in ditches, we have been cleaned by Christ, and we can now look and say, no, over here, see that big pothole? That's a nasty one, you don't wanna do that, so walk this way, and let's get out of that, and let's follow rightly. That's what we do, that's what happens. That's why we can celebrate our history, not because they were awesome, but because the God who saved them is awesome, and he worked through them, and he works through us, and he will continue working until his kingdom comes and we are fully redeemed. Let's pray.