R359 Rallying the Troops Pt.2

God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton as we open the Bible and study together.

Today we continue in this wonderful three-part series from Dr. Wilton called Rallying the Troops. We'll be headed to Ephesians chapter 4 in just a moment, but Dr. Don wants you to know we're here for you. We're connecting on the phone right now at 866-899-WORD. There's an opportunity to speak with someone. Let us listen and talk and pray and connect with resources. 866-899-WORD is the number. That's 866-899-9673. Or if you'd like to email Dr. Don and tell him what's going on in your life, he would love to hear from you. His email is Don at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. Just D-O-N at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. We would love to hear from you.

Now, Dr. Don Wilton. Please turn with me this morning to Paul's letter to the Ephesians, chapter 4, Rallying the Troops. Every now and again I hear people say that the Christian life is an easy life. I really don't believe that the Bible teaches us that the Christian life is an easy life, but the Christian life is certainly a most joyful life.

It is the greatest life. I have said many times when I have encountered people who are sick, those who've lost loved ones, suffered tragedies, those who are facing difficult decisions, that it must be very difficult for someone who does not know Jesus Christ to be able to live this life. Not that it's easy for someone who is in Christ. The Bible says that God is made available to us so much. He does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Watchman Nee wrote a short book and you might want to get it. It's entitled, Sit, Walk, Stand, and it's about Ephesians, Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Basically, he sees Ephesians divided into three parts. The first part is sit, who we are in Christ. We can be seated in our knowledge of Christ and everything that He does for us.

Second part is walk. We began that not so long ago, that in Christ Jesus we must not only take what God has given to us, but we must walk in Him. But the final part of Ephesians is stand strong. We're going to be looking at that, put on the whole armor of God.

God makes available to us the things that we need in our lives in order to enable us to face the world, to be able to make decisions. And so it is here in the first 16 verses of Paul's letter to the Ephesians in chapter 4, that I have entitled this mini series within a series, rallying the troops. Rather apropos with Veterans Day last Monday as we honored our men and women who have given so much to our nation.

You know, God tells us that in Christ He has rallied the troops. And in our first message in this mini series within a series in Ephesians, last week we understood that God has laid the groundwork. Now there is a real sense in which the groundwork which we discovered last week is somewhat akin to the solid foundation upon which we stand. Parents teach their children who they are and what they are so that one day when they face the hardships of life, that they're going to be able to find themselves standing on a solid foundation. Marriages, all marriages go through trying circumstances, but marriages that survive are marriages that have a solid foundation. They're based on a covenant relationship with God. They're based on prayer. They're based on an absolute conviction that God has brought them together for life.

And so there is a solid foundation. God has laid the groundwork. But in verse 7 of chapter 4, we're going to notice a shifting of gears. So let me read to you the 16 verses again. Ephesians chapter 4, beginning at verse 1. As a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

And then there follows these incredible practical things. Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Now, how's this possible? Verse 4. There is one body. Here God lays the groundwork. He says you be assured of something.

There is a solid foundation beneath your feet. One body, one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and he is through all and he is in all. And then in verse 7, he suddenly begins to shift gears. Having laid the groundwork, God begins to tell us about something that has been given to us.

But to each one of us, grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. And then he illustrates how this is made possible. This is why the Bible says when he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and he gave gifts to men. Verse 9, he explains that. What does he ascended mean except that he also descended to the lower earthly regions. He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens to do what?

In order to fill the whole universe. And then it is at verse 11 folks and we're going to be in verse 11 from next week. You see he's laying the groundwork here and then in verse 11 he's going to tell us something very special. He's going to say to us, listen, God has got no giftless children. He's going to point out across this congregation, across our television audience and he's going to say, I've got some wonderful news for you. Not only have you got God's grace upon you, but I'm going to tell you that every one of you that love the Lord, every one of you is gifted. God has given you gifts.

Every one. God has no giftless children. So look at verse 11 as an illustration of this. It was he, God, who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets and some to be evangelists and some to be pastors and teachers. To do what? Isn't it amazing how the scripture always explains things for us? What is the purpose of gifts in the church?

Here it is. To prepare God's people for works of service. Why? So that the body of Christ may be built up.

For what? Until we all reach unity in the faith. Now go back to verse three. Make every effort to keep the unity. How do you do this? By God's grace. Through what means? By means of the gifts that God has given to every believer. Now watch what happens.

This is the neatest thing. To prepare God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up. For what? Until we all reach unity in faith and in knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Now what will happen as a result of all of this? Verse 14. Then we will no longer be infants. We will no longer be tossed back and forth by waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up in him who is the head that is Christ.

From him the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. May the Lord write his word upon our hearts. Our first point in this miniseries was that God lays the groundwork. Second point, God gives us the grace. That's what I want us to focus on this morning.

It's a marvelous subject. In fact, when the church was first began in the New Testament, you can go back and read in the Acts of the Apostles that one of the prayers that the apostles prayed for the church was that great grace would come upon God's people. That's my prayer for you. It's our prayer for one another, that the grace of God might come upon us as a people, that the grace of God might descend upon us as a nation. But when we get into verse seven, there's a little word there, but. Now most of us, and particularly I guess those who have studied English somewhat, would agree that that is a simple conjunction. But if you go back into the Greek text, there's something very interesting about that word. That word, far more than being a simple conjunction, ought rather to be viewed as an adversative.

And the reason for that, my friends, is because of its basic meaning. The word but there in verse seven literally means, on the other hand, in spite of what has just been said. And so in verse seven, it's as it were that the Apostle Paul is driving down the road in his motorcar and he gets to a hill or he gets to a valley or something and he changes gears. And he moves into a development of the thought that he's just said. He doesn't want to leave things just as they are.

Well, what is he about to leave? He made a statement in verse six. He said, one God and father of how many? All of us. Note there in verse six how many times the word all is.

Four times. He is father of all, he's over all, he's through all, and he's in all. But, and he uses an adversative, which is more than a simple conjunction, to bridge a gap. And he says, listen, he says, even though God is through all and over all, I've got some good news for you, because God is not just talking about everybody, he's talking about somebody.

Talking about you and me individually. And in fact, Paul even uses the word each one. Look at it there in verse seven. He says through all and in all, but to each one.

He narrows it down to little bitty old me and little bitty old you. And God begins to talk about his grace as it comes down upon each and every individual person who is born again, washed and redeemed by the blood of the lamb. And Paul begins to say to us, listen, before I can even begin to talk to you about the meaning of spiritual giftedness. I want you to know that as a born again believer, you have become the recipients of the grace of God that has been given to each and every one of you individually. People say to you, what is so unique about Jesus Christ?

You know, it's so unique. It's so unique that Jesus Christ died for everybody, my friends, but I'll tell you, he died for you and for me and for you and for me and for every single person, red, yellow and black and white. All people individually are precious in God's sight. And because he died for you, it means that you can come into a personal relationship with him. And when you come into a personal relationship with him, he pulls out his grace upon you.

That's what he does. So there's a shift here in verse seven. What we're going to discover, my friends, is that the irony is that Paul is going to teach us that the way in which we achieve the unity of verse three is ironically through diversity. In verse three, God's word tells us that we must strive to keep the unity.

Then in verse seven and following, he begins to tell us how we're going to do it. He says you attain and you achieve unity through diversity. That is spiritual diversity. That means that God gives his grace to every single person. And when he gives us his grace, he uniquely equips each one of us to play our part and do what God has called us to do for the good of the whole body of Christ.

Isn't that incredible? I don't think we could ever see that more well illustrated than in a congregation like this. You can imagine the diversity here.

We could talk about it and have a lot of fun, I should imagine. All the differences of opinions and way of doing things and all the habits and all the hee-haw's of all of us, it would be amazing to discover the diversity of people even in this very congregation and yet God's word says that the unity of the body of Christ is accomplished through the exercise of the diversity of the giftedness that God's people have. And when you bring the diversity of God's giftedness among God's people together and every single person plays his or her role and his or her part in the body of Christ, that's how you get down to verse 16. From him the whole body joined together by every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love.

Here it is, each part doing its part. That's diversity that results in unity in the body of Christ. What is he saying? Paul is saying that unity does not mean uniformity. He's saying unity, my friends, is diversity of giftedness brought together all with the common purpose of serving and of knowing Jesus Christ. And so Paul begins to move from the unity of believers to the uniqueness of the believer. He moves from the unity of believers to the uniqueness of the believer.

He tells us that we are somebody. He tells every one of us here this morning that we're very special in God's sight and in his presence and so into the picture comes God's grace. Verse 7, but to each one of us grace has been given according to Christ Jesus apportionment.

According to the apportionment that God has for us in Christ Jesus. And friend, I'm going to say to you that before we can understand the nature and the purpose of the gifts that God gives to his church, we've got to understand what God means by grace. Now all of us have a basic understanding of that, but let me share a few thoughts with you this morning. Number one, may I submit to you that the nature of grace is giving. That's the first thing that we've got to understand in the New Testament about grace. The nature of grace itself is giving. You can go right throughout scripture and you're going to discover my friends that the emphasis is far more in the New Testament upon giving than it is upon getting. What does the Bible say? The Bible says it's more blessed to give than it is to receive.

This congregation is filled with people like that who have come to know that this is absolutely true. God's nature is to give, his very character is in the embodiment of a giving God that found its consummation in the fact that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That whosoever believes in him should not die but should have eternal everlasting life. You see friends, the very nature of grace is giving. He is the God of giving.

Why? Because he gives freely to his church. Why do we have gifts in the church? Because God wants to give them to us.

That's why. But there's a second truth that we must note about grace. Number two, God is gracious and gives us grace because of who he is and not because of who we are. God is gracious and he gives us grace because of who he is. The emphasis is completely upon God. Why?

Because we undeserve it. What did Paul say? Paul really grappled with that. And he ended up saying, I am what I am by the grace of God. How many of you this morning upstairs and downstairs would be prepared this morning unashamedly to say, I am what I am by the grace of God. Raise up your hands. I'm putting you on the spot. Thank you.

Please put your hands down. I am what I am by the grace of God. That's what makes coming into God's house so special, doesn't it? That we're sinners saved by the grace of God.

That's exactly what it is. Please forgive the interruption. We'll be back with more of today's message, rallying the troops in just a moment. But Dr. Don wants you to know we're here for you. You know, throughout this opportunity, we have to open God's Word together to study, to grow. We also want you to know that as this pricks our heart to change and to grow, it's good to be able to pray with one another. And we consider it a great part of our ministry to be able to take your calls at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. 24 hours a day you can speak with one of us. Let us pray with you and for you or connect you with resources. Just know we're here. Jot it down.

Store it in your cell. That's 866-899-9673. But for many, the web is the place to connect and our website is www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org. Not only are there great resources like the books from Dr. Wilton about Dr. Billy Graham, his most recent, Saturdays with Billy and others, but there's also opportunities for you to get connected on a daily basis by signing up for the daily Encouraging Word email. It'll supercharge your day. It comes in about 6 o'clock every morning from Dr. Wilton, an application of God's Word to our daily life.

Again, the details are online at tewonline.org. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. Paul said, I am what I am by the grace of God. He put it like this elsewhere. He said, there but by the grace of God go I. All of us born and conceived in sin, sinners by nature and sinners by choice, all of us deserving death, separation from God, none of us deserving to have any fellowship with a holy and a righteous God, yet by His grace, not because of who we are but because of who He is, we have been reconciled to the Father through the shed blood of the Lamb. Number one, the nature of grace is giving. Number two, God is gracious and gives us His grace because of who He is. But I want you to note a third thought about the grace that we read about in verse 7. The greatest gift of grace, according to the Scripture, is self. The greatest gift of grace is self. Grace is therefore God's self donation to man.

Just think about it for a moment. The greatest gift of grace is the giving of oneself. Grace is therefore God's act of self donation. What does God give of Himself?

Well, the Bible is full of it. He gives His salvation. He gives His power. He gives His peace. He gives His inheritance. He gives His kingdom. He gives His throne. He gives His spirit. He gives His wisdom. He gives His love.

He gives His glory. And He gives every other spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, according to Paul's letter to the Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3. Paul now is beginning to tie our walk and our stand back into our sit, where we are seated in Christ.

Paul takes the one and he drives home the point into the seat and the foundation of our very existence in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, listen, he says grace is ultimately giving of oneself. The Lord Jesus Christ gave of Himself to a sinful world according to the Scriptures. He gave of Himself to His disciples. He gave of Himself to those that He healed from sickness. He gave of Himself to those that He raised from the dead. He gave of Himself to those who had been released from the power and control of demons. He gave of Himself to those that He forgave of their sin.

Listen carefully folks. What is this grace? Look at verse 7 again. But to each one of us, grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. Now we got to make another little subtle shift in gears here because from verse 8 through verse 10, God explains to us how the giving of grace and the giving of gifts is the right and the authority of God.

Would you come today? Perhaps it's not coming down an aisle. Perhaps you're listening to this in your earbuds, exercising or in the car or wherever you might be receiving this word from Dr. Don Wilton. Our prayer is that it's more importantly a word from God's Word. His living Bible itself and the call is to respond, not to stay the same but to change, to grow in our faith or for some to say yes to Jesus for the very first time.

You've heard Dr. Wilton has been preaching from the pulpit. Now as he steps into the studio, open your heart to what he wants to say next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ?

I'm so happy to hear that. Why don't you pray this prayer with me today? Dear God, I know that you love me very, very much and I know that the Lord Jesus Christ came and died on a cross so that I might be forgiven of my sin. Today I repent of my sin. I confess my sin to you and I invite you to come into my heart and into my life by faith. In Jesus' name I pray. If you prayed that prayer, let me be the first one to welcome you to the family of God.

This is wonderful. I hope that you know how much I'm going to be praying for you and how very important this is for me. Call us so that we can talk to you and connect you in the right place so you can begin this wonderful journey. Perhaps you just prayed along with Dr. Wilton and gave your life to Christ for the very first time or rededicated your life to Christ.

We are so excited to see what God is going to do next. We believe that the Lord might allow us to encourage you to pray with you and for you as you call us at 866-899-WORD. We also have wonderful resources Dr. Don wants you to have absolutely free if you gave your life to Christ or rededicated your life if you'll just ask at 866-899-WORD. Again, the number is 866-899-9673. We love to connect with you and help you grow in your faith.

Speaking of helping you grow, we have wonderful resources on our website like this. Our nation needs prayer more than ever. Our founding fathers understood that everything that we have and everything that we are is rooted in all that God is.

And without Him, we're on our own. God has a very serious message for America. This month, for your gift of any amount to the Encouraging Word broadcast ministry, you will receive Dr. Wilton's powerful message, Free Indeed, along with the bonus book, 31 Days of Prayer for My Nation. This resource set will provide encouragement now and for the days ahead.

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