Christ’s Pattern For His Church

Transcript

GRM 1042
09/20/2009
Christ's Pattern for His Church
Ephesians 4:11-16
Gil Rugh


I thought we would revisit an old friend, a passage that we've looked at many times. We were reflecting and will be reflecting this evening on 40 years of ministry. And one of the foundational passages for our ministry and one we've gone to many times is found in Ephesians 4. So I'd like to look at that passage with you again. All of the scripture is inspired by God and profitable, but there are certain portions of scripture that present in such a compact and clear way certain truths that we return to that passage again and again. And I find this passage in Ephesians 4 of great importance, it really sets forth the pattern that has guided us in our ministry together as a church over all our years. It is unchanging, it is Christ's pattern for His church, for church growth. It was the pattern that He gave through the Apostle Paul 2000 years ago when he wrote this letter to the church at Ephesus. And nothing has changed. It is frustrating for me as a pastor to read and see so much material dealing with the church that totally ignores the instructions set down by the One who is the Head of the church.

I was reading an interview this week by a well known Christian, one who travels and speaks and you would know them if I mentioned the name. And in the course of the interview this person revealed to the interviewer, I haven't attended a local church for ten years because I was hurt in a local church, and on to talk about that. Haven't attended a local church for ten years. You understand God's plan for growth and maturing His people in the world is the church. I just write it off because something happened to me? All kinds of new ideas on what the church is to be and how it is to function. It has become, of course, a profit driven thing. You come up with a new idea and if you get enough people gathered around your idea, perhaps a church that has many people in attendance, then that becomes a pattern that other people will want to follow. But there is no other pattern than the one set down by the Lord of the church.

Back up to Ephesians 1:22, and He, God the Father, put all things in subjection under His feet, referring to Christ. And gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. And so it says the head of the church that these instructions are given.

The book of Ephesians is broken down into a pattern that is somewhat normal for Paul. First he goes through the doctrinal foundation, the truths that are basic to our lives as God's people. He does that through the first three chapters of Ephesians. He started in chapter 1 talking about the doctrine of election and what God had done on our behalf before He created the world. And on as he proceeded through chapters 2-3 he talked about the church, Jew and Gentile alike being brought together in one body.

Now he starts chapter 4 by saying, therefore I the prisoner of the Lord implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. You understand something of that calling because of what he has said in the first three chapters. Now his exhortation is walk in a manner worthy of the calling. So the last part of the letter deals with our conduct in light of the doctrines that he has taught. He talks about the unity that we have as God's people, and we are to be diligent to preserve that unity. Verse 3, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. We don't create the unity, that's a work of God. When He brings salvation to our heart, makes us new and places us in the body of Christ, we have unity. Now we are to preserve that unity.

He talks about the oneness we have in verses 4-6, there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. That unity we are joined together in a relationship of oneness but to each one of us individually, personally as God's child is given a gift. So in the unity we have there is a marvelous diversity. And that diversity works together to develop and produce greater unity in our relationship in the marvelous plan of God. So he says in verse 7, but to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. And on the basis of the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Christ, gifts have been bestowed upon God's people. It says in verse 8, when He ascended on high He gave gifts to men. We're not going to do the details of this passage, but when He ascended on high, when was that? Acts 1, the ascension. Verse 9 tells us He ascended, what does it mean except that He had descended into the lower parts of the earth. And I take it he's talking about His burial as a result of His death. His death and burial followed by His resurrection and ascension. Remember what He told His disciples in the gospel of John that last night? He told them it was necessary for Him to return to the Father so He could send the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes, He brings gifts, the gifts that Christ has provided for us.

So verse 7, to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. I want you to note here, every single believer, each one has been given grace. A spiritual gift is a bestowing of God's grace of an ability to serve Him as a member of the body of Christ. It's not earned, it's not deserved, you don't seek after it, you don't pray for it. It's a matter of Christ as the Head of the church sovereignly bestowing in grace that ability to serve Him in the way that He has determined will bring Him honor. This grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. ____________ emphasis here. Christ is the One who has measured out these gifts. He has determined what gift each one of us would be given. He has determined the degree, if you will. In other words, just because you have the same gift as someone else does not mean you have that gift to the same degree. I use myself as an example, one who is teaching the Word. But that does not mean that Christ in His sovereign determination has given me as great a gift of teaching as He has given someone else. He has measured it out to what He determined He would give to me. He may have given me a greater gift than someone else in teaching, but not as great as another person. That's why it is futile to measure myself or for you to measure yourself against someone else in the exercise of your gift. You may learn from someone else who has a like gift, as I can learn. And a teacher who has a greater gift in teaching than I do, I have things to learn.

But you know what the goal of my life must be? To be the best teacher I can possibly be with the measure of Christ's gift given to me. I may never preach and teach to thousands as others do, but that is not an excuse for me to do less than the best that I must do with my gift. And that's the same with you. And so we have the diversity, not only in the kinds of gifts of bestowed, but if you will in the degree of giftedness that varies within the various gifts. All as the Head of the church has determined.

You come down to verse 11, and He gave some as apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. So this grace was given as Christ measured it out as a gift from Him. Now He picks up, here are some of the gifts that were given for the church—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Obviously these are not anywhere near all the gifts. I Corinthians 12-14 are the most extensive discussion of spiritual gifts in our New Testament. Romans 12 is a full discussion, fuller than we have here. What we have here is a sampling of the gifts, what we have here is certain kinds of gifts.

Turn over to I Peter 4. If you read the first part of Ephesians 4 and the first part of I Peter 4, you'll see some similarities. And then he comes to mention spiritual gifts. Verse 10, as each one has received a gift. In the basis of the word gift is the word charis, which is the Greek word for grace. We have it in charismatic, grace gifts, gifts of God's grace. So here, each one. Again the stress is on each one individually. We find this stress in I Corinthians 12 as well, each one, every believer. When you become a believer in Jesus Christ, you become a recipient of the Holy Spirit and a gift from the head of the church to enable you to function. As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another. Here we're told, how do you use your gift. People are in the church and they are upset because of the way they are treated or not treated. Wait a minute. A church is a place where believers have opportunity to exercise their gift in serving another. That's my first concern with the exercise of my gift—how can I use it most effectively in serving others in the body. That's what it is for—employ it, use it in serving others, one another as good stewards of the manifold, multifaceted grace of God. Here we are with all our diversity, different backgrounds, different interests and so on. And you know what unites us? We've been placed into one body and there is a beautiful, diverse manifestation of God's grace because every believer has been gifted a little differently, perhaps with a different gift than another, perhaps with a different degree of giftedness than one who has a like gift. And this displays the multifaceted, multicolored grace of God. You understand we are stewards, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians in II Corinthians 4, the first requirement of a steward is that a man be found faithful.

So each one of us has been entrusted with the measure of grace in giftedness from God. He has required as a steward of that grace that we be faithful in exercising it. I take it when we come to stand before Christ, that will be a significant part of our examination. I've bestowed my grace on you in salvation, I've bestowed my grace upon you to gift you so that you can function in the way that would bring Me glory. Now we evaluate how we carried out our stewardship of the measure of grace entrusted to each one of us.

Next verse in I Peter 4, whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God, whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies. So that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. You see the purpose of these gifts is to bring glory to our God. And He supplies the strength to do it. So he doesn't give a gift and now you are on your own, work it out. He's the strengthener, the enabler for us to exercise our gift. You'll note all the gifts are a means of serving, he said in verse 10. Whatever your gift, you use it to serve others. But then in verse 11 he breaks the gifts down into two broad categories—speaking gifts and serving gifts. The speaking gifts would be the gifts involved in the communication of the Word of God and the serving gifts would be the other gifts that function as the result of the ministry of the Word of God.

When you come back to Ephesians 4:11, what you have with apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastors and teachers are some of the speaking gifts mentioned here. All these gifts were involved in the communication of the truth of God. We're not going to work through each of the gifts, we've talked about apostles and prophets before. I understand that they were for the foundation of the church, its beginning. Back in Ephesians 2:20 it says that the church has been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ as the cornerstone. And that's what we're doing, we're studying the letter to the Ephesians. Where does the letter to the Ephesians come from? It was truth revealed through the Apostle Paul. So we continue to be built on the foundation of the truth revealed to the apostles and prophets who were recipients of direct revelation. Evangelists, a gift not mentioned often in the New Testament, somewhat surprisingly, only two other times. In II Timothy 4 Paul tells Timothy, do the work of an evangelist. In Acts 20, Philip is referred to as Philip the Evangelist. That's the only other uses of this word. Evangelist, form of the word gospel, gospelizers. In Acts 8 Philip carried the gospel to new places and new people. So we come to think of an evangelist as one who carries the gospel, particularly to the lost.

Pastors/teachers, the most familiar to us and the most prominent among the gifts, exercised in the context of the local church. The way this is connected grammatically doesn't equate pastors and teachers, but it does closely connect them in such a way that all pastors are teachers, but not all teachers are pastors. There is the gift of pastor/teacher and there is the gift of teacher, because there are people who would have the gift of teaching but would have the gift of pastor. The pastor side of the gift in pastor/teacher would have to do with the leadership or oversight of God's people. A pastor is a shepherd. Old Testament passages referred to the leader, the king of Israel, for example, as the shepherd of God's people. And Acts 20 picks up the responsibility of the elders to shepherd the flock of God, among which they have been made overseers. It's the idea of responsibility for the flock, the oversight of the flock and to see that the flock is protected and cared for. Teacher part of that gift, prime role of the shepherd is involved in the feeding of the sheep. These gifts here, the communication of God's Word. That's foundational to God's plan and program for the church. This is what Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead and bestowed gifts on believers so that His truth could go out and accomplish His work in the lives of His people.

So we're going to work through the process here. These gifts involved in communicating the Word of God, in teaching the Word of God. Why do we come together and gather in the study of the Word of God, to be taught the Word of God. Why do we have classes for young people and older people? Why do we have Bible studies through the week? Because that's foundational to Christ's program for the church that He has established. And He is the Head of the church, remember. And so it is His plan that must be carried out. And foundational to that is the teaching of the Word of God. It seems simple and clear and it is, and I take it there will be no excuse for confusion on this. A church cannot carry out the plan that Christ has for it if it is not faithfully, accurately teaching the Word of God. That's basic to everything. Now if that is basic to everything, and you are the devil desirous of establishing a counterfeit plan and program, where would you begin? By trying to adulterate the teaching, right? Move the church away from a focus on teaching. Keep the church going but have it focus on things other than the teaching. And besides, preaching is passe. One of the great influences in the church today, the movement that believes preaching is passe. Teaching as we are doing now is out the door, it has no impact, no influence anymore. What we really do is we have interaction and we get together and share, because it's not just the Word of God, it's our personal experiences. And you share from your experience and your life story and someone else shares from theirs, and I share from mine, and we mix scripture into that and that produces growth. That simply is a way for the devil to corrupt the Word of God and prevent the process that Christ has established from being carried out.

Note what he says, you have these gifts involved in the communication of the Word, pastors who are to be teaching the Word for this purpose—for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ. And you have three steps, and they really follow one another and build on one another. You teach, preach the Word of God for the equipping of the saints. Equipping, a word that means to render them fit, to make them everything they need to be. It's used in Matthew 4 of mending fishing nets. What were they doing? Well as the nets got used they would get torn and torn nets with big holes wouldn't be effective in catching fish. They were being mended, they were being rendered fit, prepared to be useful in their task. That's the idea of the word. This is God's way of equipping His people, rendering them fit, ready, able to do what He intends them to do—the teaching of the Word of God. It's for the equipping of the saints. Note this, the saints, those who have been set apart by God for Himself, believers. As soon as we start to remake the church as a place where unbelievers will be comfortable and many unbelievers will want to come, pretty soon we just have an entertainment venue because that's what they like. And what they don't like is the Word of God. Well we want to be reaching the unbeliever so we don't give a full dose of the Word of God on Sunday morning, but we'll do it another time. And we just start down the slippery slope that replaces God's plan with our plan, and God's Word with our word.

This is God's plan for equipping the saints. What do you equip the saints for? Work, the work of service. Now wouldn't you think if you're going to get a supernatural gift of God's grace and God will provide the strength for the exercising of that gift, it shouldn't be that hard. But you know what we're equipped for? The work of serving. I mean, work. So exercising your spiritual gift will bring joy, should bring you pleasure knowing you are pleasing your Lord. But it will be work. And many, many of you are involved in a variety of ways in the functioning of this local body. And you know it is work. The work of serving. You do it not because there aren't other things you might enjoy more or find easier, because this is what God has called you to do. And so you do it. The work of serving.

Why? Third step. To the building up of the body of Christ. This is where we are going. So the Word is being taught so the saints can be equipped and prepared and rendered fit and ready to do the work of serving, serving their Lord and serving His people, so that the body of Christ can be built up. Here is the plan of God for church growth. I've read many books on church growth, I've taken courses on church growth. I received a lovely brochure, professionally done this week so I and others could go to a conference and learn about church growth. You know what? It wasn't God's plan for church growth and building up the church. I couldn't find anywhere in it that they talked about the teaching of the Word. They have all these methods, all these plans, all these programs. And let me tell you, the devil can build quite a church. But only Jesus Christ can build His church, and He does it according to the plan He has set down.

To the building up of the body of Christ. We understand what we're talking about with the body of Christ. Back up to Ephesians 1. We read verses 22-23, Christ has been given as head over all things to the church which is His body. That's the church. The local church is the manifestation of the universal church in the world. Thousands and thousands of local churches of all sizes in all places gathered together, manifesting the church of Christ in the world in that place. So the church is His body. And we're talking about building up the body of Christ, the local church here. How do we do that?

Well Paul wrote this 2000 years ago, but you know people aren't interested like they were then. We live in a different culture, people don't relate to preaching, they won't sit and be taught. God's people will. Now we try to squeeze unbelievers into the mold that God has made for believers, it doesn't work. I understand unbelievers have little reason to come here week after week because the don't belong to the God that we serve. His truth is not alive and meaningful to them. It irritates them, it bores them, it aggravates them. That's understandable. But for us the Word of God is precious. Like Jeremiah said, your word was found and I did eat it; your words were found and I ate them. Your word became the joy and delight of my heart. Why? Because I am called by your name, oh Lord God of hosts. That's all the difference in the world. Now I have precious truth about my God, His Word spoken for me. That's the joy and delight of my heart.

And that's God's plan for building up the body. The Word is taught, people are saved, people are nurtured and nourished and thus prepared for the work that God has gifted them for. As they exercise their gift in serving, doing the work of service, the body of Christ is built up. What a plan. How will pastors, to use myself as an example, stand before Christ at the Judgment Seat and say, Lord, I couldn't understand it. Christ might say, turn to Ephesians 4 and show Me what you didn't understand. Teach the Word ot equip the saints so they can do the work of service and that will result in building up the church that belongs to Me. What didn't you understand? Well, I thought this worked better. Whose church is it? We're building up the body of Gil. No, the body of Christ. Who is the head of it? It belongs to ............. We call it our church, my church in the sense we belong to it, but not because it belongs to us. The church is the body of Christ, He is the head of it. We talk about building up the body of Christ. People using all kinds of tremendous intellectual thinking to try to come up with a plan so the church can grow in this day and age, when Christ the Head of the church is saying you just follow My plan. You understand I'm not building the church. Jesus Christ said, I will build My church. I'm an instrument He is using, you are an instrument He is using, but He has not called me to come up with a plan to build a church. He has given us His plan for building His church. All we have to do, is do it. There it is, teach the Word, proclaim the Word. That will equip God's people to do the work of serving and exercising the grace gift they have received. And as everyone exercises the grace gift they have received, the body will be built up.

Built up, edified. Used of a building being constructed. The body developing, maturing. It will become what Christ the Head of the church expects and requires it to be. That's the plan. I come back to this passage, I've preached it here many times. I come back to it more times than I would ever be able to keep track of because it helps to keep me focused. And all that comes by and you look and see and this is happening here, this is happening there and this person seems to have written an effective ............ But what did you say, Lord, is your plan. I must not veer from that.

Where do we go from here? What's the result? Look at verse 13, until we all attain to the unity of the faith. That's His plan for His church, until all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. We have three more statements here. The unity of the faith, he talked about up in verse 5 of this chapter, there is one faith. The faith that we have in Jesus Christ that has brought us into a relationship of oneness with Christ and His Father and one another as fellow members of the family of God. That's what will produce that unity and the knowledge of the Son of God, that full knowledge. The word knowledge here with a preposition on the front, epignosis, the full knowledge that He intends. Maturity is what we are talking about, of the body of Christ. Now this will go on until that happens, it's not done. And the ultimate, final realization of this will be in the presence of Christ when the church will be everything—it will be the bride of Christ that has no spot, no blemish. That work continues on, will continue on, continues on in our local church and all faithful local churches across this city, across this country and around the world as Christ continues His work. It is to go on until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.

To a mature man. That's what we're talking about—maturity, growth. That's what it means, unity, knowledge of the Son of God, a mature man. Up to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. We become like Him, we are His body. It is to be a manifestation of the beauty of His person, His character. Again, the full realization of that will come when the church, the bride of Christ, is ultimately glorified in His presence. But that is the plan going on now in His church in the world, manifested in all the various biblical local churches. That's the process we're in. So the work goes on. I've been doing this a long time, and we have. But are we done? I'm perfectly like Christ. We as a church are like Him in every way in all aspects. That's our goal, we have not yet arrived. We continue on. Paul wrote in Philippians, I don't consider myself to have arrived, but one thing I do, forgetting the thing behind and pressing on, he strives for the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. The maturity, the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ, the One that we saw in Ephesians 1:22-23, who fills all in all. We are becoming like him.

Now we're talking about, that's true individually, as we grow, but the emphasis here in this section of Ephesians is on our growth as a church, as a body. It happens as each one of us individually is functioning as we should. And we're growing. Together we as a church reflect that. But he is focusing on the growth of the church.

Ephesians 4:14, as a result. What happens when you grow like this? When you become mature, when you attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, you become Christ-like as a body of believers. As a result we are no longer to be children. Here is where we are going, this is what God intends to be accomplished. We no longer be children. You see it stands against opposite verse 13. We become a mature man, not children. What's the characteristic of children in contrast to maturity? A lack of stability, immaturity. We talk about someone that even though they may be 25 or 35, we say, grow up. We sometimes say they are unstable. They should be. It's one thing for a five-year-old to be unstable, be influenced easily led here and there. We recognize that. Your 5-year-olds go to preschool, you walk them there, you take them. You don't walk your college student to class. You expect they'll have grown there, matured to that point. They won't be as unstable, as easily influenced. You don't tell your college student going off to college, now don't talk to strangers. They already have matured to that, but you tell your 5-year-old. That's what we're talking about, the contrast here, what God intends. He intends His church be mature, not be parked in immaturity like children, and children tossed here and there by waves. You go to the ocean and you watch the waves crashing in and you'll see some seaweed or piece of a branch there and it's just a wave goes this way, the branch goes that way. It is just driven wherever the waves are going, no stability in and of itself.

Carried about by every wind of doctrine. Tells you the immaturity of the church today. Every new thing that comes down, there are churches piling on and think it's the best thing yet. Every new doctrine comes along, a church that is not mature carried here, carried there. By the trickery of men. We have two things going on here—the supernatural plan and program of Christ for accomplishing His purposes and building His church, and we have the supernatural plan and program of the devil to build a counterfeit and hinder the growth of Christ's church. Both are supernatural, both are powerful. We don't want to lose sight of that. So when we talk about the trickery of men here, remember unbelievers, John 8, Jesus said you always do the will of your father the devil. We have some men who are building great “churches” that don't even know our Lord and Savior, never experienced His salvation. But there is supernatural power at work in that ministry and people are being drawn in droves. We say, something must be going on. Of course, the devil is at work, just like Christ is at work. He is the god of this world, you know. Don't think that the only supernatural thing going on is what Christ is doing. The only work of God is the work that Christ is carrying on in the world through the Spirit. But there is other supernatural work going on, other teaching going on. Trickery of men. That word trickery comes from the word for dice, loaded dice. That's what trickery, deceitfulness comes to mean. Craftiness and deceitful scheming. He's just piling it up here. Every new thing that comes down, churches lack stability because they are not anchored in the Word of God, in the Christ who is the same yesterday, today and forever. Heaven and earth will pass away, My word will not pass away. But they are grabbing on to the floating branches in the waves, and the waves drive it this way and they go that way. And they think they are keeping up to date. And they are carried about by the craftiness of men in deceitful scheming.

Back up to II Corinthians 11. This is not new. The plan of Christ is not new, the work of the devil is not new. We should not be confused on this. Look at II Corinthians 11. And already it was getting to be old hat. People said, I've heard that, I know it. Paul was having the same problem with the church at Corinth. I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness, that indeed you are bearing with me. Be patient, hear me out. I know, we're going over the same things I taught you when I was there, now here we go again. I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. The church is the body of Christ, the church at Corinth was the body of Christ in that place, he says you are the bride of Christ. My passion for you is to be a pure bride. When you are presented to Him you are all that He said you are to be. How would that be carried out? Ephesians 4. The teaching of the Word to equip them to function, to build the body. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. You see what we have here. The serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness. He is always working to deceive, always working to delude. He is already at work in the church at Corinth trying to turn them away from sound teaching. If one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully. If somebody comes along with a different teaching about Christ than I've taught you, you're ready to receive it, you are open, you want to learn from everyone and everything you can. You bear that beautifully. The problem is you can't be faithful to Christ and be a pure bride and be following that kind of teaching.

Verse 13, such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, even satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. They are on their way to hell. What in the world is the church of Jesus Christ listening to people going to hell for? Trying to shape their practice and their teaching according to what these kinds of teachers would tell them to do.

You see the plan of Christ for the church hasn't changed, and the work of the devil hasn't changed either. He keeps saying, you don't have to stay with that, some things become outdated. People don't want to sit and be preached at today, they certainly don't want to be told they are going to hell. They certainly don't want to hear that this is the only way because then they think you are proud and arrogant and exclusive. So we have to think like the world thinks, and what do they want to hear. And how do they feel. And then we'll build from there. And you know what? That's the plan of the devil. Build the church around what my people want to hear, the devil says. And I'll pack it out for you. And we do and he packs it out and we think, it works. When we go through it like this it seems like nobody is going to fall for that. But we want to be careful, the devil is brilliant. We never want to underestimate his ability to bring confusion. That's why we have to be anchored in doing it God's way.

Come back to Ephesians 4. As a result we are to no longer be children, we have a stability. We've been privileged to minister and serve together, teaching the Word. The Lord has blessed us with those He has gifted to teach. We have teaching going on in classes before this hour, it goes on at different times today, it goes on through the week in Bible studies and other settings. God has richly blessed us and we want to keep that as our emphasis, keep on teaching the Word so that the body is equipped so that it can function. And it's not teaching alone, this is not a school. The teaching of the Word is to equip the saints to do the work of service so the body can be built up. This is not the teaching of the Word builds up. Period. No, the teaching of the Word equips the saints to do the work of serving so the body can be built up. Some think, I can study the Word on my own. You can, but you can't be a body on your own, the analogy Paul develops in
I Corinthians 12ff. One part of the body cut off from the body loses its effectiveness. We still meet mindless people who say, I don't have to go to church, like this Christian leader I mentioned. He says, I haven't been to the local church in ten years. Makes me wonder whether he is truly saved. How confused can you be about what God's plan is.

What are we to do. Verse 15, speaking the truth in love. We come back to this issue, it's all about truth. Literally it's a participle—truthing in love. Every part of us is characterized by truth, the teaching is teaching of truth. The work of serving, whatever your gift, it is done in the context of truth and the truth being manifested in your life and being lived out in your life, the body being built up, manifesting the beauty of the character of the One who said, I am the way, the truth and the life. The truth of God is the characteristic of our lives, as the church which is the pillar and support of the truth.

Speaking the truth in love. In love, not in arrogance, not in self-righteousness. We do it because we are serving our Lord that we love, serving one another that we love. We live our lives in truth. We are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ. We're growing up, maturing. And the measure of maturity is Christ who is the head. We become like Him. You are not my disciples becoming like me, you are His disciples becoming like Him. That's what the Word of God does in the context then in the fellowship of the ministry of the body. We're growing up in all aspects as a church into Christ who is the head. And He's the One from whom the whole body, the whole church here, being fitted and held together by that which 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.

So He is the head, the whole body is under His authority. He is the One who has made provision for this body being fitted and held together. The whole body is fitted and held together by that which every joint, every connection, every contact supplies. According to the proper working of each individual part. You see the seriousness of this. Each individual part must function correctly. Back up to verse 7, to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. He has measured out the right gift for you to have, the right degree of that gift. Now when you exercise that gift as He intends, then the body is caused to grow in love. All the parts have to function, just like our physical body. That's why it's called the body. Some parts of the body are more prominent than others, some parts of the body are more important. The speaking gifts, the teaching gifts are held out to be more important. Paul sets that out in I Corinthians 12-14 where he says the first gift of importance, the second gift, prophets, teachers—the communication of God's Word because that's foundational to everything. But all the gifts are necessary. A non-functioning Christian _________________. My little finger is not as important in the overall scheme of things as perhaps a more major part of my body. Does that mean the little finger just says, I'm parked, I'm done. And that's not as bad as being a little toe stuffed away in a shoe in a smelly sock. It still has to function.

I had a relative who got gangrene in a toe. Before it was done they amputated his leg. The toe was important, should have paid more attention to the toe. Every part is important, every part is not of the same importance. So we're not in a competition to see who can be the most important. We're in a competition with ourselves to see that I be the best that I can be with what God has given me to use in serving Him as a gift. And each individual part working causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. What a plan. How are we going to build the church? Well, we're going to start by teaching the Word and as the Word is taught to God's people, which of course is a follow-up of carrying the gospel to the lost, they will be equipped. And as they are equipped the Spirit of God will move on them and their service and they will see areas and say, I can maybe help with that because it is needed. And pretty soon you serve one another and you find that the Lord really uses me in this area, I think this is where I can contribute. And the body begins to grow and we keep on truthing in love, taking in the truth and having it become part of our lives so we are serving Him, manifesting our commitment to the truth. And in the process, we grow.

The plan for church growth—preach the Word. Does that mean your church will grow large? You have a picture in the bulletin of me and the church I pastored in Palestine, Indiana. You know I preached the Word the best I could, there for almost three years. We didn't grow one person. We think, if I went someplace we'd grow a church. The Lord put me in Palestine to remind me that any growth will be grace, because I preached away there and I knocked on doors and I shared the gospel. And when I left I think there were two less people than when I came. Was that the measure? Was I successful there? Well it depends on how you measure success. I mean, what I attempted to do there is the same thing here. It's God who gives the growth and what He measures is faithfulness. We are stewards, remember?

Now one more thing, turn back to I Peter 2. My gift and my responsibility as a pastor teacher is to be one of those responsible for the oversight of the ministry and also the teaching of the Word. If you are the devil and you want to thwart the plan of God, we've already seen what you do. An example in II Corinthians 11. He brings in false teachers, those who change the truth so it is no longer truth but truth mixed with error. But that doesn't save, it's the Word of God that saves. I Peter 1:23, you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable but imperishable. That is through the living and abiding Word of God.

The way salvation occurs is the gospel is presented. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ. It's by an instrument that God raises up who carries the message of the gospel to a lost person. How shall they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent? That's the plan. You know a person is born again by hearing the gospel. We come up with all these plans and programs that are going to be effective. Do you know what God's plan is? Tell them the gospel. I tried that, they got upset. Tell another one, tell another one. That's God's plan. It doesn't change. Look at I Peter 25, the Word of the Lord endures forever. This is the Word which was preached to you. Everything else comes and goes. The Word of God is not like that, it endures forever. What was written here for us 2000 years ago we still are implementing today.

Then you come to I Peter 2:2, like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the Word so that by it you may grown in respect to salvation, if you've tasted the kindness of the Lord. This is only applicable to believers. The pure unadulterated milk of the Word. Christians can become passionate and excited about so many things. They complain and criticize about something in the church and then they'll go to a church where the doctrine is shoddy. We must be careful that we are committed to the truth of God. If the Lord doesn't come for another 40 years I guess I'll be preaching the same thing. I won't be here, neither will most of you. But what will the church need to be doing? The same thing. Well you don't know what the world will be like. I do, it will be sinful, and the plan of Christ for building His church won't have changed. Isn't it nice to be part of something that is eternal, that represents the Savior who is the same yesterday, today and forever. And the word that He has given is an eternal word, and that's the ministry of this local church.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your grace. Thank you for the plan you have set down in your Word. Thank you for the many, many that you've drawn to yourself, brought to be part of this local fellowship of believers. Thank you, Lord, for the many, many gifted people who do the work of service, often unrecognized, unnoticed, but faithfully day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. Faithful in their service, faithful in the ministry you have called them to. Lord, you have blessed us a local church and we give you praise. Lord, our desire is that we would be faithful. We have been entrusted with a great stewardship of grace. May we be committed as stewards to be found faithful, that this local church might continue to grow and mature to be a testimony of the power of Christ in manifesting the beauty of His character through us. We pray in Christ's name, amen.