God’s Purpose for His Church, Part 1

Transcript

GRM 1179
04/15/2018
God’s Plan for His Church
Ephesians 4:1-16
Gil Rugh

Let me recommend two little booklets to you. Last week we talked about the interpretation of the bible which is God’s revelation. A little booklet that summarizes well the literal interpretation of the bible by Paul Le Tan. We have that booklet down in Sound Words. I mention it, its sound, its brief, it’s easy to read. A good reminder, so if you’d like more information.

Tonight, we’re going to talk about the Church, God’s purpose for the Church. This little booklet summarizes what we believe as a Church and how the Church ought to function. The Church, God’s program for ministry, it will cover some of the things we’ll cover this evening including the pattern for the Church to function and related things like para church ministry and so on. So, you can pick that up from the literature racks. You have to purchase the book from Paul Le Tan, but it’s only $3. You’ll want to have that, and this is free, so you can’t beat that.

Alright, we’ll talk about the Church. What is God’s purpose for the Church? Sometimes we talk about the philosophy of ministry of a church, or the theology of ministry. So, this will be review. There’s probably no other passage of scripture I’ve talked about more than the passage that forms the foundation for our approach to the ministry as a church. I look back and the earliest I could go was 1975 when I covered this. I may have done it before that, but I didn’t save the material that I used then but look down, we’ve been in this passage many times because we’re going to go to Ephesians 4 in your bibles. Again, we’re not going to be going into the detail of everything, but I want to highlight things. If you want more detail, that’s available at Sound Words, when one would move through the passage in a more detailed way over a longer period of time.

But Ephesians 4, we’re talking about the Church. Part of the problem we have, often when people go to find out what the Church ought to be and to be doing, they’re going to passages of scripture that don’t particularly relate to what the Church is to be and is to be doing. When we talk about the Church, we’re talking about that entity that began in Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost. That’s when the Church was established, it’s existence right down to our day, and will be until the rapture of the Church. It is distinct and separate from Israel, as you’re aware, as our literal interpretation directs us. We’ll talk more about some of those matters in a later study.

We want to talk about, what is God’s intention for the Church in this day. So, we don’t go to the Old Testament to find out about the Church. We don’t even go to the Gospels to find out about the Church and its function. That doesn’t mean there aren’t things we learn from the Old Testament and from the Gospels, but the Church does not have it’s beginning until the book of Acts chapter 2 and the epistles of the New Testament, those letters beginning after the book of Acts.

The book of Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians and so on, deal primarily with material for Churches. When we talk about the Church, we’re talking about believers from Acts 2 down to the Rapture. That’s what we call the universal Church, but the church is manifested in the world by local churches. I’ve shared with you before, out of about 114 references to the Church, the use of the word Church in the New Testament, around 90 of them are talking about local churches. When we talk about the Church, we’re talking about it being manifest in each local church. Each local church is a complete entity in and of itself.

Obviously, that’s not all there is to the Church, because every believer from New Testament times, Acts chapter 2 down to today, is part of the Church, the Bride of Christ. But the focal point of the New Testament is on local churches. They are a complete entity in each one. We’re just not a part of the Church, we are the Church meeting in this place. As every other Church apprised of true believers is itself. So, understanding something of that, the nature of the Church, we’ll talk about its organization and so on in more detail. We’ll talk about the gifts in more detail, because that all takes time.

But what I want to talk about is, how is the Church to function? That’s why we go to Ephesians 4. This is a letter addressed to the saints, as the letter opens up in Chapter 1, who are at Ephesus. It's the letter to the Ephesians and the Church meeting at Ephesus. In their discussion, is He talking about the universal church, is He talking about the local church? Really, the local church is a manifestation of the Church at this time. So, while there are truths about the universal church, what is said here about the local church is what we’re focusing on.

In Chapter 4 we focus on the conduct that is to characterize us. Paul’s letters usually start out in the first part of the chapters with the doctrinal foundation, then he talks about the practical application of that doctrine. You note Ephesians 4 opens up in verse 1, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.” That’s what he talked about in Chapters 1,2 and 3. The preparation in Chapter 1 that began before the foundation of the world in God’s sovereign choice of those who would come to salvation in Christ. Then the instruction, how we are to walk, verse 2 “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love.” When God saved us, He brought us into a family relationship, a body relationship is the analogy often used in the New Testament. It will be used here in Ephesians.

Paul elaborates on it in his letter to the Galatians and it’s used in other passages as well. In verse 3 we are to be “diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Something that sometimes we take more lightly than we should and the responsibility we have in this. Verse 4, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.” That oneness that characterizes God. If we are all joined together in a relationship with the living God and a relationship with oneness with Him, the one Lord, we have one faith, one baptism, basically the baptism of the Spirit that placed us into the body of Christ. One God and Father of all who is over all, through all and in all. You have the picture here of God being the Father, then we’re going to talk about the analogy of a body. Other places there is an analogy of a building with the church, so different images portray the Church. What is always characteristic, is where we’re going in verse 7, “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”

So, we’ve all been brought together in a relationship with God and a relationship with one another. Practical outworking of that is our local church. God did not save us to be independent on our own. Our salvation is personal and individual. The Spirit works in each of us individually, but we cannot grow and develop and be what God intends without being part of a local church. That’s the pattern that He is establishing. “And to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”

When we talk about spiritual gifts in a future study, we’ll talk about that. There’s misunderstanding about that with the charismatic movement and understanding the gifts and so on. But, each and every Christian was given God’s grace, that’s why we call them charismatic gifts. They are gifts of God’s grace. Charis is the Greek word for grace, as you’re familiar. So, this grace is measured out by Christ, so that we can function now with one another in our relationship with Him. That’s why he started out talking about the unity, the oneness, the one body, because there’s one God, one Lord. So, we’ve been bound together.

Now each individual in this relationship has a contribution to make. He talked about the gifts given as a result of the ascension of Christ. That comes with the giving of the Holy Spirit. Remember, Christ ascended in Acts 1 to heaven, to await the time of His return. The Spirit is given in Chapter 2. It begins the Church in Acts 2, with that will come the gifting. Because the Church is to function together as a relationship of oneness. And in the analogy of the body, you need all the parts in your body to function, so that the body can develop and grow. This is God’s plan for us. This is what the Church is to be. A person gets saved, they are brought into relationship with Christ. If That’s true, it makes him part of a universal church that exists through the whole church age and forms the bride of Christ. But each individual Church is a manifestation of the body of Christ in that place.

So, He gave gifts to men, as a result of His ascension. Verse 11, He gave various gifts. We have a summary here, we’ll talk about the gifts and temporary gifts and permanent gifts at a future time. We’ll leave that go and assume certain things here. What’s important right now is these gifts and what they emphasize. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Now, if you keep your finger here in Ephesians and come over to Peter, the letters of Peter, and we’re going to chapter 4 of 1 Peter, the first letter of Peter. We’re almost back to the book of Revelation. In verse 10, “As each one has received a special gift”, a gift, but it’s a grace gift. So, they have added the word “special” here. Note, it’s this gift that came from Christ, what we just talked about in Ephesians 4. “employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” It is not optional. You are entrusted with the stewardship, a responsibility. When you trusted Christ, the Spirit of God took up residence within you, and gifted you with an ability from God to function in an important way as a part of the body. Otherwise the analogy with the human body wouldn’t work. A baby’s not born, you don’t just have a pile of parts come out. They have to have all the parts necessary so it will fit together.

This is true with what Christ does with the Church. Amazing as it is, 1 Corinthians 1 says, when Paul writes to the church at Corinth, you have every gift necessary. So, that local church had every gift necessary for it to function as a complete entity in the purpose and plan of God. We have to be good stewards. We will give an account of our stewardship and the exercising of our spiritual gifts. We’re stewards of that gift, entrusted with it. We must use it as God has intended it to be used when He gave it to us. 1Peter 4:11, “Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies.”

Now, all the gifts are for serving, verse 10 said. Each one received a gift in serving. But He divides the gifts into two categories. That’s why we’re here. Just to note the two categories of gifts, the speaking gifts and the serving gifts, and that general classification. The way we came to denote that, come back to Ephesians 4 when He mentions the gifts in Ephesians 4:11, they are speaking gifts. We’ll just leave that general categorization for now. Apostles, Prophets, evangelists, Pastors and Teachers. They are involved in the verbal communication of the Word of God. When we talk about spiritual gifts, we’ll talk about the distinction between the gifts, but, as leaving it as just the general categories that Peter drew for us.

Speaking gifts and serving gifts, these are primarily speaking gifts. He gave these gifts that involve speaking, giving forth the Word of God. Those entrusted with the responsibility to communicate God’s word, to pass it on, to instruct in teaching. For Apostles and Prophets, they would be adding to it, as Paul did in writing the letter to the Ephesians. But, these gifts primarily were the communicating of God’s word. Now, what purpose? Ephesians 4:12, “for the equipping of the saints.” So these gifts, communicating God’s Word, are for equipping.

That word equipping, we’ve talked about it in Ephesians, we talk about it on other occasions. In Galatians 6:1, when we talked about a believer who stumbles. “You who are spiritual, restore such a one”, that’s this word translated, equipped. It means to render fit, to complete. It would have been used in Greek outside the bible of mending a broken arm, for example. It’s used in the Gospels, in the gospel of Matthew 4:21, where they were mending their nets. In that sense, were equipping them, they were rendering them fit. Putting them in proper working order, to be as efficient as possible.

That’s what’s pictured here with this word, katartismos. Some of you study Greek, it meant to put into proper order. So, God’s plan is, that His truth be communicated and taught, so the Saints can be prepared and fitted, equipped for the work of service. We’re talking about saints here. Saints, true believers, the holy ones, those set apart by God for Himself. I’m talking about the Church that is comprised of believers, not just churches that have a name. Like we might say of churches that don’t really preach and believe the gospel. They have the name “Church”, but I’m talking about biblical churches.

This is God’s plan for us. We ought to understand it, that it’s simple, it’s clear. We’re not fishing around looking for what should we be doing? How should we do it? We want to do it better. Well, we want to be sure we stay with the plan, God’s plan. Because it’s the church that Christ purchased with His own blood. It’s the church of God. It belongs to Him.

In Ephesians 1 he ended that chapter by saying, Christ is the head of the church. We want to be careful we stay with God’s plan. The word is taught so the Saints are fitted and prepared to do the work of service. For the work of service, serving the Lord. Carrying out the gifts that they have. Every believer has a gift. You might say, I don’t have much to contribute. You do, or God didn’t tell the truth! Or you’re not really saved. Now, we all contribute in a different way. Just like our body, there’s diversity, but there’s unity. And the body, when it begins to work against itself, begins to malfunction, something goes wrong in the body for example, the body begins to attack itself with some kind of disease or something. You might have cells multiplying that shouldn’t be, something is going wrong.

So, we’re to be able to serve and we’re serving the Lord, and in that, we serve one another. Our gifts were given for the benefit of others. As we exercise our, and others exercise their gifts, all the gifts work together, that’s where we’re going. So, to be rendered fit for service, we must be fitted with the Word, for the work of service. What will this do? To the building up of the body of Christ. How are we going to grow? We’re talking about spiritual growth here. This is the pattern, the body functioning as it should, being nourished it the Word, enables every believer to function more effectively, growing in effectiveness and the body becomes more effective. It’s a process, it’s growth. We’re not ever done growing, because we’ve not yet been perfected. That’s in our future.

So, how do we build up the church? How do we build up the body? Over the years I have notes where I’ve preached on this chapter. I’ve been invited and gone to other places, another church, talk about the philosophy of ministry. Are we on track or not? Let’s do the foundation. People come and say, what do you do to have a growing church? Just get to the basics. What does God say the church is to be? Well, the foundation is, the Word must be ministered. Keep your finger here and come over to 1 Timothy 3, Paul says in verse 14, “I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long; but in case I am delayed, I write so that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God.” There’s a picture of it as God’s family. “Which is the church of the living God.” As we talked about, it belongs to Him. It’s His church, it’s His family. “The pillar and support of the truth.” That’s what the church is. It centers in the truth. We sometimes refer to it as a truth center, where we gather together to hear the truth. To proclaim the truth, to be nourished in the truth. So, we’re equipped to function as God would have us function.

We talk sometimes how there are different things going on in the body, all contributing to us being more effective and us growing, accomplishing what God would have us do. So, if it’s the pillar and support of the truth, no wonder, then we come back to Ephesians 4, and it’s the proclamation of the truth, with those gifts in verse 11 that are crucial to the enabling of other gifts to take place and function as they should. So that the body can grow and mature. The picture in a different analogy would be like taking in good food. No matter how healthy a baby is when it’s born, if you don’t feed it, it’s going to become malnourished and other problems will develop. And soon, death comes. Sort of what happens to the church where the Word is taught less and less. Less and less the focus and pretty soon the next generation comes and there’s no truth presented, and the true church has died. It is just a social meeting place.

We want the body to be built up. The body of Christ. You see how important it is. This is Christ’s body. We are to manifest His leadership as the head of the body, as chapter 1 said, of Ephesians. And the health of the body, because of the work of His Spirit in and through us, that we work in a testimony of harmony. No wonder the Devil is constantly at work. If you want to break the process, don’t have the Word taught. That way people won’t be nourished. Then they won’t be equipped to function. Since they’re not functioning, then the body won’t be built up. Constantly it needs that process to go on. How long? Verse 13, “until we all attain to the unity of the faith.” God’s intention is, we grow, we mature. That’s building up the body. Building up the body is the body developing. The reason God uses these simple clear analogies is because they’re so clear to understand. I have a grandson, he’s just the cutest grandson. There’s no one who’s been as cute as he is. But, we were at lunch today and he’s just learning to do things. You see the process that there has to be growth, there has to be development. It has to be in each part of the body. If one part of that body doesn’t function, the development of the body will be affected. If that malfunction begins to spread, then you get into more serious situations.

God couldn’t make it any simpler to us. We all experience it, we all see it. That’s simply the picture that is being portrayed. “until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God.” Where’s that knowledge of the Son of God come from? It comes from the ministry of the Word, and our growing and knowledge. And then as we have it implemented by exercising our gifts, we put it into practice. We’re growing more. We’re growing in unity. We’re growing in the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man. There’s completeness there.

How do you say that another way? Verse 13, “To the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.” We are to become more and more like Him. The beauty of His character is seen in us, the fruit of the Spirit, as we’ve talked about in our study of Galatians, the character of God. We are partakers of the divine nature by the new birth. Not that we are deity. But God’s very character and making us new is implanted in us. That should be seen more and more. Since each of us are a part of that body, the body ought to be growing together in unity and harmony, or something is wrong.

As a result, the purpose in this, the purpose clause, verse 14, “As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine,” Every new thing that comes down the pike. This is part of the problem of the church. It’s always looking for something new. We need something fresh. We need something else.

You know how that is, many of you here have been believers a long time. Been in the word a long time. If we’re not careful, we think we need something fresh, something new. We have a variety of teachers, but we have the same book. Churches begin to think, oh man, and that’s when they begin to move into other things, social programs. No, we’re part of a body, we’re growing. Verse 14, ”We’re 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 in deceitful scheming.”

You know, the Devil is relentlessly at work to divide the church. It just is the truth. It is relentless. The more mature we are, the more stable we are. It’s just like maturing from that infant through the stages. We talk about different stages. And we think, oh boy, it’s that stage, that’s a challenge. There are areas of growth taking place. You expect when a person has been a believer for many years, just like for an older person, you expect more maturity, more stability characterized. More of the character of Christ being manifest in their lives. We older believers ought to be examples for younger believers. That’s the picture here.

It is disappointing, and you realize we’re never done. How easily we get sidetracked, distorted and carried away with winds of doctrine, deluded by the trickery of men, the Devil’s craftiness and scheming, just like a disease that infects the body, turns the body against itself, then disorder. It’s not a characteristic of maturity, it’s not characteristic of true growth. So, verse 15 says, “Speaking the truth in love.” We’re back to what we said in verse 11, the communication of God’s truth. We do it out of love, because we are bound to a love relationship with God and one another. Verse 15, “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 that which every joint.” We don’t think of joints supplying something, but it’s the connections. Every part is connected to another part, is the point, rather than just like a physical joint. Every part is contributing. It’s amazing how intricate the body is.

I was reading, because I have a cell that quit functioning properly, so it’s created a little bit of a problem. I read, and it says, you have over 20,000 cells in your body. One cell doesn’t function like it should, and now there needs to be some adjustments made. I mean, how important has God made every part? That’s just a little part in the body. So then He brings the parts now spiritually together, and you see what can happen if all the parts don’t function as they should, then the body is hindered. The whole body can be affected, then one part is not functioning as it should. That’s true for the parts.

Verse 15, “speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head.” That’s how the growth is taking place, and that’s the point. We’re becoming more like Him. It is His body, He is the one who rules over it. So, we better be careful, we have to decide what is wrong, that the head is not fighting against itself. If our body physically malfunctions, some part of it’s not functioning in the order it should in connection with the instructions given by the head, which is the decision maker and the authority over the rest of the body. We’re growing up into Christ, to be more like Him. And thus, more conformed to Him, more obedient to Him. Verse 16, “according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” It’s an inbuilt process that God has made.

You minister the Word, which is the nourishment. As the body takes in the nourishment, each individual part is nourished, enabled to function, in contributing what it has in the picture here with the gift, so that the body functions smoothly, harmoniously, and manifests the work of God in our lives. It’s a supernatural process. We come up with all kinds of plans, all kinds of processes, this is what is needed. This is the simplicity of God’s plan.

We mentioned a couple of things that I think work against this, but first let me show you the model. This is just what we looked at here, there are pastor-teachers, we have evangelists, pastor-teachers, but we’ll focus on this. We have apostles and prophets also. All involved in the ministry of the word.

Here, with the gift I have, ministering the Word, that’s to equip the saints. There are other teachers in the body that are involved in this ministry. Also, our bible study hour and the various classes and the ministry to kids, in our home studies. Everything would be built around the Word and the giving out the Word and the giving out of the gospel to the lost with the evangelists. But that equips the saints to do the work of service, to the building up of the body. How are we going to tell God, “well, we as a church didn’t understand what the plan was? We thought we had come up with a good idea.” Well, it’s a bad idea to replace God’s ideas with our ideas. He said, here’s how the body functions, it’s the pillar and support of the truth. Anybody who comes there ought to get the truth, get the truth, get the truth!

That’s why we started out by talking about the Word of God, the importance of handling it properly. This is serious business, the Word of God. A book I read recently with some of the other staff, not necessarily together, but different times. Discipleship ministries, how do they fit in to this? I think discipleship ministries are a misunderstanding of the church. I’ll explain a little bit.

Number 1, the word disciple, I have it written down someplace, is used 268 times in the bible. Books are written, churches talk about having a discipleship making ministry. You know the verb to make a disciple is only used 4 times in the whole bible where you’re told to make a disciple. They are all in the Gospels. Three of them are in the Gospel of Matthew and 1 is in the book of Acts. There is no use of the noun or the verb, to be a disciple or make a disciple after the book of Acts. Now we ought to stop and think, why don’t we use disciple in any of the church epistles if this is what it’s all about? I read a review of a book, and it’s about the church ought to get into disciple making. It talks about how we ought to be making disciples. The authors see the church’s mission as a commission that makes disciple making the normal agenda and priority of every church and every Christian disciple. If you’re not into disciple, well I think a part of it comes, there’s a certain element, I agree, make disciples. But they often develop a model out of the Gospels.

I put one of those up, so why don’t you put that up. Here’s the model of disciple making. Often you have the discipler, because it’s modeled after Christ. You have Christ, He was the discipler when He was on earth. And then you had His disciples. He had 12, but I just put there so we don’t crowd the screen, you can see, this is the model they pick. Well, this is what we ought to be doing. We ought to be getting a group and pouring our life into them. The problem is, that’s not the model for the church. Why wouldn’t the epistles be telling us to become disciple makers? Furthermore, the disciples never made disciples for themselves.

This is Christ, but we’re not Christ. I’m not Christ. This is the model He said. Remember what He told His disciples? I’m going to leave you, and it’s better for you that I go to heaven. Because if I go to heaven, I’ll send the Spirit. Now, what gets better? When you think, often as you work through the gospel, what a privilege it would have been to be one of these inner circle of Christ’s disciples, walk with Him every day, sit and hear Him teach, ask Him your questions. Yet, He says to those disciples, it’s better for you that I leave. Cause if I don’t leave, the Spirit won’t come. When I leave, I’ll send the Spirit to you. Now, that’s better! There’s a change in the model and what is used.

We’re not in a discipleship model like this. We’ve moved to the church model like the body model we just went through. It's almost reversed, where every individual disciple now is exercising their gift and pouring it into every other disciple as part of the body. It’s true, when you get to the book of Acts, chapter 11, we are told that the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. I think talking about what is involved in becoming a disciple, that’s biblical, becoming a follower of Christ, becoming a believer in Christ. But to try and talk about a model, like Christ’s work with His Disciples, that’s not what carries over. So, that distracts the Church, the book here and they all have it, it’s a favorite of para church ministries. Then they create a whole thing, they’ve created a whole printing operation and a whole series of materials you can get in disciple making. Here’s the steps you go through and how you train people. It’s through this, and the first question they ask, is there a culture of one to one disciple making in your congregation? As though you ought to be the discipler and you ought to be pouring your life into some.

Why do we go to the Gospels to find out what the Church is to be and how it’s to function? That’s not the biblical model. That’s not what we try to pattern after. What happens in para churches, and I want to mention para church ministries get off the track with this. Disciples are believers, so I don’t have any problem, I go to the Gospels and I talk about what Jesus talks about what it means to become His follower. The book of Acts says that’s a christian. They get this out of the Gospel of Matthew, go make disciples of all the nations. And often they emphasize the word “go”, but you understand the only true verb there, and the imperative, is the word, disciple. The other three words are participles, go, baptize and teach.

So, make disciples, yes. How do you do that? The end of the Gospel of Luke, and then we’ll have to stop. I can’t get into everything I guess. Luke 24, and here you have the instruction given, how to make disciples. Verse 46, “He said to them, ‘thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day.’” Luke 24: 47, “that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations.” This is the unique thing in what takes place at the end in Matthew’s Gospel with the great commission. You are going to make disciples of all the nations.

Remember we’ve done this is previous studies, the disciples were told up to this point, you don’t go outside of Israel. You don’t go to the Gentiles. You don’t go to the Samaritans. You go only to the lost of the house of Israel. I remember recently mentioned this, the Canaanite woman came to Christ and asked for something from Him, a miracle. He said, “I don’t give the bread of the children,” meaning Israel, “to the dogs,” meaning you, a non Israelite, non Jew. That’s a terrible thing to say, we don’t tell that. No.

Now this truth of salvation in Christ will be carried to the nations. They take their, “make disciples,” and they back up and think that means, use the model that Christ used of you gathering a group, one or two or three around you, and pouring your life into them. So, I question them, who are you pouring your life into? We’re pouring our lives into one another as every part of my body has every part pouring its life into the other part. That’s the picture, so, that’s why we’re not into discipleship models.

Para church, I have a problem with para churches. Para church ministries, are by definition – para, they’re along side the church, they are not part of the church. I have an issue with that because God’s program today is the church. Para church ministries came into their own and flourished after World War 2 when entrepreneurial kind of men came up with the idea that the church wasn’t getting the job done in certain areas. So, we’ll start ministries outside the church geared toward that. I think that creates it’s own problem, but we’ll talk about that another time.

One question I want to start out with, and then there’s another question maybe we’ll address. I want to give you a chance to ask some questions. I had a question though that I want to answer because it ties to today and last week, but it came in last week.

How will we be held accountable for mis-interpretations of the Bible in eternity? For example, pre-trib verses post-trib. Well, if you’re post-trib, you can’t go to heaven, I mean it’s simple. No, you know the Lord will have to sort out some of this, but 2 passages, just to answer it. James 3:1, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgement.”

I’m going to be held more accountable than many of you at the judgement seat, because I’ve been entrusted with the responsibility to teach God’s word accurately. That’s why I see part of my responsibility when men come to me and say they think they’re going to go into the ministry. Sometimes I verbalize it, sometimes I just go ahead and do it. My job is to discourage you. I want to tell you why you shouldn’t. And tell you what I think the problem would be if you do go into the ministry.

Now, I’m not trying to be mean, but you consider this seriously. When I told my Mother, in high school, I’m going to go into the ministry. My Mother, Oh son! That’s wonderful! No, she said there are already too many men in the ministry that don’t belong there. Well, that’s not nice. Mom. I just told you that I’m going into the ministry! And she said, I just told you there are too many men in the ministry that don’t belong there. You better be sure that’s where God has you!

Well, that’s the kind of thing I need to hear. You know often we say, “that’s wonderful, let’s encourage people to go teach.” God’s Word says, “do not let many of you become teachers.” This is serious business. I am accountable and we’re all accountable for handling the Word of God. That’s why Timothy is told that we must be diligent, apply ourselves zealously to the study of God’s Word, that we handle it accurately, so we might be approved by God. God will have to do the judging at the bema seat. But there will be accountability for handling His Word accurately. I mean what would it be for God to say, well, I gave you My Word, but you all have your own opinion and it will all be fine, just as long as you’ve done what you thought was best. It doesn’t matter what I think is best, it matters what He says. That’s why it’s important for us to be careful, to be serious. It’s hard work!

But if we’re going to be approved by God, we have to handle His Word accurately. So, I think we will be judged, the scripture says that. The out-working of it, be judged personally on how diligent I’ve been to do the best with the gifts God’s given me, to be accurate with it. That takes work. I don’t sleep on Saturday nights. I was up all night, last night. You know, I think, I’ve got to teach the Word, you know I can’t get to sleep because it’s on my mind. I get up, walk around, oh my, it's three O clock, I gotta get to bed. It’s on your mind. Have I done all the work I should do? Is it done? You know, how am I going to explain this? What’s the best way to get this? Did I consider this? Teachers, some of you teach, you know what it’s like. It should be pressure. That’s the way it is. I used to think that when I started out in ministry, I used to think, in the front row in the front seat, if Christ came in and sat down there. Now if He physically walked in the building, sat down there, would I preach what I prepared to preach? I gotta get this right! I’m not going to just slop around with His Word. It has to be acceptable to Him, that I’ve handled it accurately and He approves. So, yes, teachers must be careful before you jump into teaching. You better be sure. And you better work hard at it.

Alright, I had another question that came in, but let me open it up to your questions. You’re here, maybe you’ve got a question about what we talked about. We have a question that pertains to the message tonight that came in on Facebook live.

The question is, how does a discipleship ministry compare to a mentorship ministry? You know, I want to be careful, we have variety in the body, and at different times in the body we are involved in more personal ministry. We may take a new believer and walk through studies with him. We may work with a group of men and do that. We have to be careful though, that that just doesn’t become my little group. I want to see that the body is drawn in. There’s a place for the personal, we have home bible studies and it’s a way for us to get in the Word together in a smaller setting. I want to be careful about mentoring in that sense. I pass on my strengths, I pass on my weaknesses, so it’s good to be developed, more rounded in the body. Everybody doesn’t have to do their preparations for a sermon like I do for example.

But we all have to be accurate, so we can interact. And we may give people input. I don’t mind answering people who ask, how do you do your study? How do you get to this point? How do you work through a text? I can tell them how to do it, but I don’t want to just say, I’m pouring my life into them so that they’ll do it like I did it. I learned from other men, then over time it’s good to learn. My homiletics professor in seminary was outstanding. He’d keep saying, teach the text! Teach the Text! If I turned in an outline and there was something in there that wasn’t in the text, it came back with a big red circle. Where did you get that in the text? So, you know, you learn. He was pouring his life into me in that sense.

So, there is a balance. I’m not saying we don’t have personal ministries where we’re not involved with each other. But, I want to be careful. What I want to draw people into is in the body. How, now are you going to carry this on? What are you doing in the body? Reach out. I like to meet together with men, but I also want to encourage these men to be getting involved in their varieties of ways. So, there’s a process and a balance going on.

Had a question, and this ties to what we did this morning, but this was a question from last week. What knowledge can we glean from Psalms 109 and similar Psalms? How do we reconcile God’s command to pray for our enemies, and David’s condemnation of his enemies? Why don’t you turn to Psalms 109. The imprecatory Psalms. You know you’re supposed to love your enemies, and sometimes it seems David has a strange kind of love for his enemies. Depending on the situation, sometimes we want to come. Psalms 109, a psalm of David, “O God of my praise, do not be silent! For they have opened the wicked and deceitful mouth against me; they have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They have also surrounded me with words of hatred and fought against me without cause. In return for my love they act as my accusers; but I am in prayer. Thus they have repaid me evil for good. And hatred for my love.”

Well, that may be all true. You’d think the next line would be, Father forgive them, bring them to know you. Next line: verse 6, “Appoint a wicked man over him; and let an accuser stand at his right hand.” Verse 8, “Let his days be few.” Give him an early death, if I can paraphrase. Verse 9, “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.” Take him to an early grave, Lord. Serves him right and let his family suffer. Verse 11, “Let the creditor seize all that he has; and let stranger plunder the product of his labor.” Oh, boy! I don’t know, there times I’ve felt like praying that about people.

But you know, you question, is it right? I think that what is happening here, David is writing under the inspiration of the scripture. Remember in our study of the book of the Revelation, God is a God of wrath. His enemies are His enemies. You understand, we were the enemies of God until we became His friends by His grace. Ephesians talks about that in chapter 2. That’s what we were, we were the children of the Devil. We were just like the rest of them. So, what the Psalmist is reflecting, is the attitude of a godly man toward the ungodly. Their treatment of him is the treatment of him, because he is a godly man. So, in that sense, it’s similar to what we see in the book of Revelation where the martyred saints are rejoicing that now the unbelievers, who persecuted them, maybe killed them, are going to be paid their just deserves. So, there’s that balance in scripture. We have to become careful that this doesn’t become personal in a sense, someone who does something against me, I view now as someone I hope…but there is a balance. What did Paul say about Alexander the coppersmith? He’s done me great harm, the Lord will reward him according to what he deserves.

There is that recognition, so there is a balance. I desire the salvation of the lost, but I rejoice to know that God is going to bring His judgement on the wicked. Is there anyone who wouldn’t think, I mentioned Hitler this morning since he is such a well-known enemy of the Jews and guilty of murdering millions. Anyone who isn’t glad that the wrath of God comes upon him?

So, I think the Psalmist is reflecting the character of God. And as a child of God, those who hate you, hate Me. I hope those who hate God go to an eternal hell if they don’t come to find the salvation in Him. Then they won’t hate God anymore. They won’t hate me. So, that’s where the Psalmist is, he is God’s representative on earth, writing God’s Word and he’s reflecting God’s attitude toward the wicked. The wicked are manifesting their attitude toward God by their attitude toward him. So, I think that’s where the imprecatory psalms fit. Those Psalms, calling for judgement on his enemy, it’s not just the personal-ness of it. But it’s the personal-ness of it because he belongs to God and serving God, he is the object of their hatred and they deserve all the destruction and judgement they get.

Okay, anybody have anything else? Let me say, oh, it’s almost 7:30, I won’t get into that. I was going to say a little more about para church ministries, but I’ll save that. We’ll do that for an evening.

Our concern is not to criticize everyone. I want to just remind us of what we are as a church, and why we are not what some other people think we should be. We dealt with the disciple issue back in the 1970’s so, most of you weren’t here then, but many of the para church ministries from the campus were involved here. Came to Indian Hills and then there became questions about involvement and the discipleship model of ministry, and should we be doing discipleship ministry and how we should do it. They want to bring materials in that will follow the pattern of discipleship ministry.

So, these are things that maybe we dealt with in the past and haven’t come up again in more current ways. These things tend to circle around. I want you to understand why we’re where we are. That’s why I’m doing more summaries than details, because I want to highlight for you and remind you that you can go back and get the detailed studies. We’ve done like Ephesians 4, I’ll talk more about para church ministries.

I want to talk about missions and the mission of the church and where we should be in a missions program and how that should be carried out, and our relationship to ministries that are known as para church ministries. We’ll do a little bit of that, but I wanted to be sure we were clear on the church.

I want to talk about the gifts, because the charismatic movement is rather prominent in our city. What are the gifts and how they are, just to remind you, so we’ll be looking at a variety of things.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for Your Word. Thank you that we have something that is sure and settled. That every word is truth. Your Word is truth. We are not on a search to find truth, we have truth. Because of Your grace and the salvation we have in Christ, the indwelling presence of Your Spirit who teaches our hearts and minds, even as we’re instructed by mortal men. We grow and mature and are privileged to know truth. Lord, that truth is to shape us as a church. Lord, how important it is, that we be the pillar and bulwark of the truth. We support the truth and stand for the truth. Because this is what You have established in the world that opposes the truth. If the church drifts from the truth, Lord, then that just brings more confusion. We want to be faithful with this truth. Faithful to the truth. Use us this week to honor You where ever we are. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.