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Word being preached, Lord, we just pray that you fill pasture with your Holy Spirit and bless this sermon, bless the teaching of your word and we just pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Ephesians chapter number four, and of course, oops, there we go. This evening I'm gonna preach through Ephesians chapter number four, and of course we're going through the book of Ephesians on Thursday evening, but I'm not gonna be here this Thursday, so just to stay on schedule, I am going to preach through the chapter tonight. And so look at verse number one of Ephesians chapter number four. He says here, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. Now notice first and foremost that again, he's referring to himself as the prisoner of the Lord. This would basically insinuate the fact that he is in prison, and this should come as no surprise because throughout the epistles of Paul, we see him referring to himself as being in prison, and it's not because he was going to prison for murder or for theft or anything like that. They're putting him in prison because he's preaching God's word, and so he's suffering for Christ's sake. We know that he's a prisoner of the Lord. We see that in chapter three and verse one where he says, for this cause I Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. And so he says there in chapter four, verse number one, as the prisoner of the Lord, I beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. Now what is a vocation? Well, vocation simply means occupation, okay, it's like a job. And I don't believe he's actually referring to the literal job that a person has here on this world. You know, if they're a plumber, they're a tent maker, or you know, they're an electrician, and I'm sure you can apply those principles to this. But when he says the vocation, he's referring to the spiritual occupation, okay? And keep in mind that in chapter two, he just got finished talking about that we're not saved by works, and he says, but we are, you know, his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So even though he's not referring to a physical job that, you know, of plumbing or being an electrician or whatever it may be, he's referring to the job, the occupation that he has given his servants to accomplish here in this world. And if you remember the parable of the pounds, that's what he tells his servants, his stewards. He said, he gives them the pounds and he says, occupy till I come. What does that mean? Work. Make sure you are working, you are laboring, you're winning souls to Christ, you're discipling new converts, you're baptizing them, you are serving your families, you're working for Christ at whatever capacity that you are in, okay? Now here's the interesting thing about this verse is that he's saying, I beseech you. What does that mean? It means I implore you, I beg you, I'm asking this of you. Now Paul, why would you do that if people just do these things naturally, right? If this is something that just comes natural to everyone, as soon as you get saved, batteries included, you just start serving God right away, you have all the right desires, you no longer desire to sin, why would he have to write in Ephesians chapter 4, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your, oh that's chapter 12, excuse me, Romans. I beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. You know why? A lot of people who don't walk worthy of the vocation. There's plenty of people out there that get saved, you know, they accept the free gift of salvation and then they just kind of live their lives, they don't really go into church, they don't start reading their Bibles, they don't even learn how to preach the gospel and they just kind of continue to go according to the course of this world, you understand? And so he's speaking to the church at Ephesus and he's telling the believers there, hey I'm begging you, I'm imploring you that you should walk worthy of the vocation wherewith God has called you, okay? You know that work that, you know, I spoke about in chapter number 2? Walk worthy of that. Make sure that now that you have these commandments and these mandates and these things that we see or these commissions that God has given to us, make sure you walk worthy of that. In other words, you know, you should try to live up to that expectation. We all fall short of the glory of God but we should seek and strive and place an effort into, you know, trying to fulfill God's expectation for our lives. God's not expecting perfection, he's just expecting obedience, you understand? And obviously we understand that not everyone's going to be obedient 100% of the time but we should strive to walk worthy of that occupation, okay? And here's the thing is that even if you have, you know, a job as an electrician, a plumber, a mechanic, you know, that's serving God as well, you understand? So whatever occupation you may have, even if you're not paid full time for the church, you're not a pastor, you're not an evangelist, you're not a deacon or whatever it may be, you know, God still considers your earthly occupation as serving him. He still translates that as you're serving God, why? Because whatever we do, we shall all do to the glory of God. Whether therefore you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God, the Bible says. And he's making a specific emphasis here that the vocation, the occupation that he's called us to, we need to make sure we do our best to fulfill that, okay? Look at verse two, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering forbearing one another in love. So he's telling them here, look, I beseech you, that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, be humble about it, be meek about it, have longsuffering, look what it says here, forbearing one another in love. Now what does it mean to forbear? It means be patient with people, okay? And this is a quality I think sometimes a lot of Christians are void of sometimes, okay? And they don't necessarily, aren't patient with people because maybe the people that they're working with don't grasp on to certain truths as fast as they did, you understand? Certain Christians when they get saved, I mean they jump right in. They don't feel the pool with their feet to see how cold it is or how warm it is. They can care less. They just jump right in, okay? How many know someone like that? They just go right in, whatever God says, we're just gonna do it and that's how everyone should operate. You know, that's kind of like their way of thinking. Whereas you know what, not everyone is cut from the same cloth, not everyone is like that. Sometimes it takes years for them to get committed and get grounded and rooted in the things of God and God says, hey, you need to be patient with people like that, okay? And not have this expectation that everyone's gonna be 100% in like you. Some people are gonna be 70% in, okay? So what do I do then? Be long suffering with that person before bearing towards them, okay? You know, bring them along in love. Now look, that's not to say that we're not gonna tolerate sin, we're not gonna tolerate sinful habits in the church and sinful actions. Obviously we're not gonna be long suffering towards that. We're not gonna tolerate that. Now here's the thing is, if someone is involved in drunkenness, for example, they're a brand new Christian, you know, they've been smoking pot or drinking or you know, I don't know, whatever other crazy drug. They've been doing shrooms or ayahuasca, you gotta call out all the new drugs nowadays, you know? They've been hanging out with Joe Rogan or something. You know, maybe they don't know any better until they come to church and they just hear me say exactly what I just said now and they're like, oh man, yeah, I'm involved with some of that stuff. Okay, then you need to repent of that, stop it, or what the Bible says, you can get excommunicated from the church if you don't, if you refuse to get that right in your life. And you know, you say, well, why should I stop? Well, because then if you don't, then you're forfeiting your right to be in a local New Testament church where you're gonna hear God's word, you're gonna be blessed with the Lord, and you're gonna have God's judgment on your life, you understand? So obviously there's a balance of long suffering and forbearing and also tolerance, right? Where yeah, obviously we want to accept people where they're at and understand people have issues sometimes, but after they know the truth, you know, at that point we expect them to make the right decision and to repent of that sin or just get right with God. But the point is, is that we need to be forbearing towards others, have loneliness, have meekness. And the reason he's telling them this is because the vocation that God has called us to is a great vocation. I mean, being a Christian is awesome, folks. Being a believer is awesome. It's legit. It's the best thing that can happen to an individual in this life. There's so many perks that you get for being a Christian. And you know, it's a superior religion. Christianity is a superior religion. We have the superior God. We have a superior Bible, okay? Everything that, you know, I believe being an independent fundamental Baptist, you're basically superior to a lot of the other churches that are out there. We're better off. We're not better, but we are better off. And so here's the thing, but with that in mind, we need to have lowliness and meekness, right? Long suffering, forbearing one another in love, and he says in verse number three, Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. So another thing that he emphasizes here is the importance of having unity in the church, okay? And you say, well, yeah, that's pretty obvious. You know, we're supposed to like agree with one another, believe like one another. Yeah, but you'd be surprised how many churches out there don't have that at all. I mean, they literally break up into three sections. This is repent of your sins. This is faith alone. And these are like the dispensational or whatever. You know, everyone who just has a different doctrine, a different Psalm, a different hymn, and there's all types of division in the church, and obviously that's wrong. And it falls, the fault of the person is really the pastor. That's his fault. You understand? Because he's obviously supposed to keep the flock in unity, but he's telling them here, hey, endeavor to keep the spirit of unity in the bond of peace. So if he's telling the church here, hey, endeavor to do so, that means it requires a considerable amount of effort to keep unity. Doesn't come naturally, right? Now why is that? Because everyone has their own opinion. Everyone has their own preference, their own opinion, sometimes even their own interpretation. And we're not saying that if you are in our church, you can't have a different opinion. Obviously you're supposed to. We're all autonomous people, autonomous beings, but we should be able to live peacefully with one another in spite of those differences and recognize that the most important thing that we should agree on are the essentials. Agree on the essentials of salvation, of the Bible, of church. And here's the thing, in a church like ours, we agree more than just on the essentials. Even the churches that we associate with, our independent fundamental Baptist New IFB brethren, we agree with a lot of non-essentials, like replacement theology, end times Bible prophecy, all these things. These secondary and third issues that are important to us, they're important to them as well. And so that's why we have great fellowship with them. But if it's like that with other churches, it should be so much more like that here. We should endeavor to keep the spirit of unity. And that's why it's important that if you have conflict with another brother or sister in Christ here, you need to deal with that immediately. Don't let that fester, don't become bitter, don't become angry with your brother or sister to the point where you have odd against them. Conflicts need to be resolved immediately. That's how you endeavor to keep the spirit of unity and the bond of peace. He says in verse four, five, and six, there is one body and one spirit, even as you're called and one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. So verses four through six is basically giving you the example of the type of unity that we should have. You understand? There's unity with the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. There's only one body, one spirit, even as we're called and one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is above all through all and in you all. Verse number seven says, but unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Therefore he saith when he ascended up on high, referring to Jesus, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now what does that mean when he says he led captivity captive? I believe this is referring to the fact that he conquered death. He conquered hell. He has the keys of death and of hell. Now in order for him to have the keys of hell, it would require for him to actually go to hell to retrieve those keys. Would you look at that? Look at the next verse here. Verse nine, now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended, look what it says here, first into where? The lower parts of the earth. Notice it doesn't say Abraham's bosom. By the way, go ahead and look it up in your Greek lexicon. Lower parts of the earth, you're not going to find Abraham's bosom there, which a lot of people believe. Now why is it that they want to believe in this false doctrine of Abraham's bosom where there's like a second compartment to hell, you know, there's some sort of like, it's like prison. You have this window, you know, and then you know, what's his name, Lazarus is making his phone call through the window and he's talking to the rich man or the rich man's making, you know, and he's just like, you know, it's weird. So to them you have this, you have hell where everyone's burning for all of eternity and then you have this second compartment known as Abraham's bosom. So this holding cell that's named after someone's body part, you're like, couldn't you figure something else out? Why'd you have to choose the bosom to name this thing? And why is it Abraham's bosom? I mean, I know Abraham's a special guy, but why not choose like, why not David's bosom or something, you know? Why not, you know, Jacob's bosom? Why not Israel's bosom? Why Abraham? By the way, if you read, I don't encourage you to do so, but if you read some of these Jewish encyclopedias before Abraham, because obviously Abraham is not eternal, he came on the scene later on. You know, before Abraham, because you kind of wonder like, what was Abraham's bosom before Abraham? Like what do they call it? The Jews called it Adam's bosom, okay? And he'd say, well, of course, Adam forfeited his right to have this bosom, this compartment, and so he was replaced by Abraham, who was the father of faith, which is nonsensical because here's the thing, why would Abraham's bosom even exist if Adam was around, you understand? Why would there need to be a holding cell for all believers if Adam is there and the reason why he even forfeited or revoked his license to owning the Abraham's bosom, you know, it really doesn't make sense, folks, okay? But why did they hold to this doctrine of Abraham's bosom? Well, because of the fact that the Bible over and over and over again talks about Jesus Christ going into the lower parts of the earth. So they have to like finagle their way through doctrine and figure out, okay, well, we got to come up with some stupid doctrine to kind of like, you know, make sense of this verse where it says that he went into the lower parts of the earth. Oh, you know, just call it Abraham's bosom. But folks, the reality is this, is that when the Bible says that Jesus went into the lower parts of the earth, it's referring to the fact that when he died, he went to hell for three days and three nights, okay? Go to Matthew chapter 12, if you would, Matthew chapter number 12, and then we're going to go to Acts chapter 2, Matthew chapter number 12. Now over and over again, we actually see, you know, we see it in Psalm 16, this prophecy, that one of the most famous portions of the scripture in the Old Testament prophesying of Jesus Christ going to hell is in Jonah, right? Because Jonah in Jonah chapter 2 is swallowed by the whale, and when he begins to describe what he's experiencing, what he's going through, he mentions himself being in hell. Now obviously that's prophetic of Jesus Christ because Jonah is in the whale's belly, it's not hell. You understand? Yeah, we know that the seaweeds are wrapped about him and he's experiencing that terrible place inside of a whale's belly, but he described it as being in hell because of the fact that he is foretelling, he's prophesying of Jesus Christ who would one day actually go to hell, okay? Look at Matthew chapter 12 and verse number 39, it says, but he answered and said unto them, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Now folks, if Jonah is saying, he's prophesying in Jonah chapter 2 that he went to hell and he actually uses the word hell, then Jesus Christ parallels that in Matthew chapter 12 saying that he's in the center of the earth. What can we basically conclude with that, that Jesus went to hell? He's saying he went for three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, and three days and three nights, you know what, Jonah came out of the whale just as Jesus Christ three days and three nights afterwards came out of hell. Go to Acts chapter 2 if you would, Acts chapter number 2. So before he ascended to be at the right hand of God, the Bible says that he descended into the lower parts of the earth, and why is that? So that he can conquer death. He made the full payment for you and I, he was delivered for our offenses, raised again for our justification, but the reality is this folks, if you really want to take it to that point, you got to understand that if you were to die without Christ, you would be paying for your sins in a place called hell. So it should come as no surprise that when Jesus Christ died, that's where he went to pay for our sins as well. I thought he paid for them on the cross, yeah obviously, but you know what, he also paid for them in hell. I mean is that so hard to believe? It's these people who think that only one aspect of Christ's work is what saves us. Oh it's only the crucifixion, like the Catholics right? It's only the crucifixion, yeah we obviously understand that he bore our own sins on his own body on the tree, but the Bible also says that he was raised again for our justification. It's both the death, burial, and resurrection that saves us, and in fact it's his whole life that saves us, because not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, the Bible says that he imputed his righteousness upon us. His righteousness is what? The works that he did, his perfection, his perfect life. We are saved by his life. So it's biblical and it's doctrinal to say that even him going to hell is a part of that salvation as well. If not folks, look, the Bible says that Jesus Christ is the lamb of God who should take away the sins of the world. Well study all the sacrifices of the Old Testament, the vast majority of them, it's called a what? A burnt offering, a holocaust, in Spanish, a la costo. Why would they burn the offering? Why would they do that? Because it's a foreshadowing of what Jesus Christ was going to do. And so look what it says in Acts chapter 2, just to add more credence to that, he says in verse number 25, For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad, moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. That was made known to me the ways of life, thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Now when David is speaking this in Psalm, in the book of Psalms, he's not saying it of himself because we know that David didn't go to hell. You say why is he saying that then? The same reason why Jonah would say it, as a prophetic statement to foretell the coming Christ who was going to suffer in hell, but knowing full well that God was not going to, the Father was not going to allow him to be in hell, he was going to allow him to come out of that, and of course he did. Let's go back to Ephesians if you would, Ephesians chapter 4. So this is not a hard doctrine to believe, this is something, and let me just make something very clear, is that I did not believe this doctrine when I first got saved, and in fact I didn't know about it until years later, and I was indoctrinated by Abraham's bosom, and that's what they taught us in Bible college, that's a doctrine because they teach dispensationalism in Bible college. But here's the thing, you say well didn't you read it, well yeah I read through the Bible many times, obviously, but you know what, when you have a preconceived idea, sometimes you read the Bible through those lenses and you just kind of overlook those things. You don't really question them, and if you don't have anybody challenging you on those topics, then there's no need for you to search it out, you understand? And look, a lot of people want to give Pastor Anderson the credit for believing or teaching that doctrine, but let me just be real honest with you, there's people in my previous church that believe that Jesus went to hell, there's people in Bible colleges that believe that Jesus went to hell, and in fact I remember one time we were on the tour group and we went to go sing for some church, and I remember we stayed at a church member's house, and he was actually a friend of mine, he actually used to be a staff member at North Valley Baptist Church, I know, I know, but he was cool though, he was a cool guy, he was a staff member there, and him and I were really good friends, he was probably like in his 60s, maybe 65 or something, he was a really good guy, we were really good friends, and he was always kind to me, and I remember this Saturday we were there, I was staying over at his house, and we were just kind of hanging out and fellowshipping, and I saw him at the computer and I went over there just to go talk to him, and I was like, hey, what are you doing, and he's just like, I'm just preparing my Sunday school lesson, and I'm like, oh man, that's great, and I'm like, what are you teaching on, and he's like, I'm teaching on Jesus going to hell, and I was like, what, and he's like, yeah, and he showed me all these scriptures, he's like, I believe that Jesus actually went to hell to suffer for our sins, because it says it multiple times, he says a lot of people don't agree with it, but I mean, it's in the Bible, you know, and I just kind of brushed it off as, alright, you know, whatever, and that was it, but that stuck with me later on when I learned this, I thought to myself, why are people making such a big stink about this, it's something that the new IFB, as if the new IFB brought this up or something, well there's preachers in times past that have fervently taught that doctrine, in fact, Marcus' old pastor, Pastor Hampton, taught that Jesus went to hell, I knew people personally that taught that Jesus went to hell, and they don't make a big stink about it, those guys, you understand, he said, why are they making a big stink about it, I'll tell you why, because it's just new IFB who's saying it, this is why a lot of people get upset when we teach once saved, always saved, and by faith alone, because that's automatically in their minds attached to the new IFB, well good, amen, I'm glad to be, I'm happy to be associated with good doctrine, amen, and so we see here that he ascended, but that he first descended into the lower parts of the earth, this is referring to the fact that he died and went to hell for three days and three nights, and look, the Jews teach something similar, the only difference is this, is they teach he's still there, they actually teach that he's in hell burning in his own excrement, okay, and you say, why'd you say similar, well because anything that the devil tries to put forth is just a perversion of the truth, any form of salvation, doctrine about the trinity, about God, about heaven, about hell, you know, it's always a perversion of what the truth really is, okay, so instead of these dispensationalists who are saved getting mad at us, you know, why are they getting mad at us for teaching that Jesus Christ went to hell when we could actually prove it, why aren't they getting mad at their Jews who actually teach that he's still there, hey what's more blasphemous, teaching that he went there for three days and three nights to pay for our sins and that he resurrected, or is it more blasphemous to say that he's still there burning in his own excrement because he deserved it, I mean think about that, oh but these dispensations, no, you know, we want to teach Abraham's bosom, these heretics, these Andersonites, they teach that Jesus went to hell, hey your Jews teach that he's still there, hypocrite, why don't you make some videos exposing these Jews who are blaspheming the name of Jesus Christ by teaching that he's going there to pay for his own sins, well they don't know any better, then why are you following them for that, it says in verse number 10, he that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things, I believe this is referring to the fact that he put the blood on the mercy seat in heaven and that's when all things were accomplished, look at verse number 11, and he says and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ, I believe this is synonymous with what we see in verse number 8 where he talks about giving gifts unto all men, I believe the parallel there is verse number 11 where he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, now I want you to notice here that it says he gave some, okay, he said why is that a big point, well because today you have people who teach that apostles still exist, you have La Luz del Mundo, have you guys ever heard of that religion, where they literally believe in a modern day apostle who is a pedophile by the way, you know, who is a mediator between us and Jesus Christ, you know, he's a wicked person teaching a workspace salvation, pedophile, wicked sexual deviant, and they'll try to say well you know apostles still exist today, well no wrong, here it says he gave some apostles, what does that mean, some of the churches that were here during this time didn't even have all these apostles, there were churches that were started during the New Testament that were started by just regular people, right, you know, for example, you have the churches that are in Crete, people were run by Christ by the apostles, but you know those churches were planted by Titus, he was the one who was ordaining pastors there, that island didn't necessarily have apostles there leading the congregation, leading the church there, etc, and so we know for a fact that this isn't referring to today because the apostle Paul was the last apostle, he said he was the last apostle according to First Corinthians chapter 15, so apostles don't exist today, they're not, that's not an office that is open for any individual to fulfill, okay, in 2021. He gave some apostles and some prophets, another word for prophet is simply a preacher, okay, pastors and teachers, why did he give these offices to a local church? To perfect the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, so take this into account, when he says for the perfecting of the saints, what does that mean, what does it mean to be perfect, what does that mean, it means to be complete, okay, so when you come to church, what is your pastor doing for you, I'm trying to complete you, I complete you, we complete each other, okay, I'm trying to complete you, I'm trying to complete that which is lacking in your faith, but see here's the thing, in order for me to complete you, that would require you doing something Monday through Saturday, right, to give me something to work with, you understand, so it's like you gotta be reading the Bible, you gotta make sure you're living a Godly life, you're fulfilling, you know, your vocation, you're walking worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called and then what happens is you come on Sunday, I preach and I see all the areas that you might be lacking in and I try to perfect that which is lacking in your faith, you understand, you know, you have your Bible reading down, you got your prayer life down, but you know, maybe you need to be a little nicer to your wife or something, maybe you need to be a little more submissive towards your husband, maybe you need to spank your children a little more and discipline them a little more, maybe you need a little more help on your soul winning, maybe you need a little more help as an employee, what is my job, my job is to preach the word of God to help perfect that which is lacking in your faith, perfecting of the saints, so what this means here is this, what this, I'm sorry, what this doesn't mean is that you don't work on your Christian life and you just come on Sunday and then you just, you leave red and made or something, you know, I just, I'm supposed to just give you everything that you need in order to be a successful Christian, it doesn't work that way, you kinda already have to come with some substance already ingrained in you, okay, this isn't the Catholic church, this isn't some sort of church where it's just like I have to spoon feed every single person here and fix all your problems and fix that which is lacking in your faith, no I'm supposed to perfect you which means I'm supposed to complete something that's already been in the works, you understand, something that you've already been working on, I just come and I just add that little piece of the puzzle and be like alright, you're good to go, you know, you come, you got some pieces missing of the puzzle, you know, you generally have that London bridge already made there, you're just missing about 20 pieces or something, come on a Sunday and we're just adding another one here, you're adding another one there, you're adding one here until you're perfected, you understand, but what I'm saying is this is it requires for you to do your part, okay, don't expect to come to church and say well, I'm coming here to learn the word of God and this is the only place I learned the word of God, I don't learn it on my own, I don't read the Bible on my own, I don't try to work on my Christian faith Monday through Sunday, I just kind of try to come here and make sure that we're good to go, no, it doesn't work that way, in fact, you're not going to grow if that's your attitude, okay, take what you take, take what's given to you on Sunday, perfect that and when you come back the following week, we'll add another piece of the puzzle, you understand, he says there for the perfecting of the saints and look what it, notice what it says, for the work of the ministry, so what's the point of making you perfect, complete, whole, is so you can be effective when you work for the ministry, God wants you to be a vessel unto honor, meet for the master's use, prepared unto every good work, right, and so, you know, if you are incomplete as a Christian, as a husband, as a wife, as an employee, you know, you're not going to be a very effective Christian anywhere else, okay, so it's important that you're perfected so you can do ministry, work and edify the body of Christ, notice it doesn't say just for your own good, just so you can enjoy life and, you know, just succeed and no, it's actually so you can be a blessing to someone else, okay, it says in verse 13, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, now I actually believe that this is referring to the resurrection, okay, because in reality, we will never be, or should I say, we will always be incomplete until we die or until the resurrection, right, the rapture takes place where we're completely perfected and it actually says there, until we come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so it's basically, it's an ongoing work, so you can't expect, well, the month of August is where I'm going to be perfected all the way or 2021 is where I'm going to get everything down pat, no, it's a lifelong process, okay, you know, this is a, it's a marathon, it's not a sprint of a race, okay, and so, you know, you're going to have things to work on in August, you're going to have things to work on in September, in October, in November, in December, in 2022, the work is ongoing, okay, and you say, when is it over, it's over when you die, okay, that's when it's over, Dr. Rita, if you could get my wife to, because he's making a little too much, my son, my boy's making a little too much noise back there, he's getting a little too happy, thank you, verse 14, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men in cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Now this is a pretty interesting verse here, because one of the applications that we apply, that we get from this, and it's not bad, it's correct, is the fact that we come to church so that we mature spiritually, right, we know what we're talking about, we know doctrine, so we're not deceived by false prophets and false doctrine, but in context of what we see in verse 13, what this is actually potentially referring to is the fact that when it says be no more children, it's referring to the fact that we're no more children of disobedience, as we saw in chapter two, because once you get resurrected, you're no longer a child of disobedience, you're no longer a child of wrath, because the flesh has been removed, now you're a complete perfect man, and we will no longer be carried about with every wind of doctrine, you understand? You see, today, even though we believe right, we have the right doctrine about salvation, about the trinity, you know, we still see through a glass darkly, and no one in this world has perfect understanding of the Bible yet, you understand, I don't have perfect understanding of the Bible, your favorite preacher does not have perfect understanding of the Bible, why, because we still see through a glass darkly, okay, and the Bible is so deep, it's inexhaustible, there's so much to learn from the word of God, we're never gonna learn everything in a lifetime, you understand? And so, because that's true, there is potential to still be deceived in certain aspects of the Christian faith, you know, when it comes to, you know, if you're learning something or hearing something, you might believe something wrong, I'm not talking about something that's essential when it comes to salvation, but other teachings and other doctrines of the Bible, you understand? But there's gonna come a time when you're perfected, when you are raptured, you receive a resurrected body that you will no longer be tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, you're gonna be complete, okay? But this definitely applies to just coming to church and making sure you're not doctrinally off, okay? And look, this is important, folks, this is one of the reasons why it's important that you're in church. I've met people who are not in church consistently, and they believe in weird stuff. Cute people, saved people, cool people, nice people, but they're just way out there doctrinally sometimes. I'm not talking about salvation, I'm just talking about, like, other stuff. You know, there's Christians out there who are saved, they believe in the flat earth. You know that, right? There better not be anybody in here, no, I'm just kidding. Don't let me find out. There's people out there who are saved who believe in the flat earth. And look, one of the reasons for this is because they're not even in church. So they don't have a leather lung preacher talking about the stupidity of the flat earth and helping them to get right in that area, to get some smarts, to get some intelligence and some knowledge to reject that stupid teaching, okay? Folks, there's people out there that believe in aliens. I'm serious, I'm not joking, why are you looking at me like that? There's people out there, Christians, who believe in aliens, and it often happens when they're just not in church. Let me just say this, folks, church normalizes you. It makes you normal. Did you know that? You're all, I don't know, because there's some pretty weird people here. Well, be forbearing, long suffering, okay? Hey, I'll say this, there's some of you who when you first came to church, you were a little weird, you know what I'm saying? You were a little weird, a little strange, you know? And you know, now that you're here for the last whatever, like I say, how long, you know, you've been normalized a little bit. Amen. I can finally look at him, no, I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding, it wasn't Damian, it wasn't Damian. I'm just joking, no. Some people, you know, they got normalized. That's not a bad thing, it's a good thing. And look, if we were out of church, we would be weird too. As saved individuals outside of church with no compass, no leader, no direction, no purpose, you would be a weird person too, folks, okay? I'm telling you, people get off on the weird stuff when they're not in church. They're carried about with every wind of doctrine. They're carried about with every YouTube video. By the slight of men in cunning craft in this whereby they lie in wait to deceive, you know, there's plenty of weird teachers out there that will take up all your time. But you know what, if you're in church, you really don't have need for those things. Now look, all of us, myself included, I listen to preaching basically like every single day throughout the week. I'm always popping on preaching, you know, as soon as I get home or on my way home, I pop on my pastors, Pastor Anderson, see what he's preaching, pop in Pastor Jimenez sometimes, you know, because I'm always listening to preaching. Even though I just got done preaching, I love preaching, so I'll just pop in some preaching after a church service or something, you know? Or tomorrow, even when I'm here working, I pop on preaching or I'll come here, Brother Elise is listening to preaching. I mean, we're obviously going to listen to preaching on YouTube and thank God for that that it's available to us, amen? However, we do have a cap though, you know, like I don't expect anybody here to go listen to like Robert Breaker or something like that, or some alien specialist or something, you know? Why? Because you're in church. And when you're in church, church gives you buoyancy, you understand? It gives you balance. It gives you buoyancy. It helps redirect your mind, your attitude, your thoughts, your beliefs. It kind of helps redirect you as a person, as a Christian, so you're not getting off on weird stuff, you understand? So we can get on YouTube and listen to a preacher and benefit from that, but there's people who are not in church where, yeah, they'll listen to Pastor Anderson or Pastor Jimenez or Pastor Thompson or something like that, and you know what they'll do? They go off into some Doka stuff. They'll go off into some false prophet because they have one little corner of truth. Of course, I don't believe that Doka has any truth whatsoever. That guy is void of all truth. But I'm saying, you know, they'll get off on the Dr. Hovind, Ken Hovind. Oh, I'm sorry that I offend you. Yeah, they'll get off on Ken Hovind for a while. Oh, it's getting kind of quiet in here. You know, they'll go listen to Ken Hovind because of his great creation science, even though that guy believes some weird stuff now. You know, he's promoting books that teach that Christians will go to the lake of fire. Yeah. But you know what? If you're not in church, you'll tolerate that stuff. Because why? Because church gives you boundaries, folks. Oh, you guys are so restrictive, then if you don't like the restrictions, then just go somewhere else. Church gives you boundaries. They don't force boundaries on you. They just tell you, hey, Hike, you need some boundaries. I just picked him out of the crowd, he's not. You know, Hike, I'm going to use Hike as an example, okay? You know, you need some boundaries, you know, and then he's like, you know what, I'm just going to stick to preaching. I'm going to stick to reading my Bible. I'm not going to get involved in that. Because then you begin to see how stupid that other stuff really is. You begin to recognize the foolishness and the stupidity of the winds of doctrine that are out there. Because you have someone telling you that's stupid. You have a group of guys, hey, that's my young guys, it's good for you to be in this church. This church is good, it's great for everyone. But it's really good for like young men though, too. This church is too young, we're all going to get old, so it doesn't matter. Because I've had people that are like, oh, this church is so young, so many young people. Yeah, but years pass by and then they get old, so don't worry about it. What was I saying? Oh yeah, it's good for young men to be here because, you know, they get around other men and then, you know, they slip up and they say, yeah, I think, you know, lizard people are real and all this stuff, you know? Hollow Earth, I think there's some truth to that Hollow Earth stuff. And you know what's going to happen? Verse 15, speaking the truth and love is going to happen to you. They're going to be like, that's pretty stupid actually. Well, do you have proof that that's not true? I mean, do you have proof that it does exist? Well, I've seen some YouTube videos. And then you have a group of men that would just kind of, you know, just help mold that person and rid them of not believing in gravity. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You know, we help them to understand that these things, you know, it's just like, hey, put away from yourself this stupid teaching, these winds of doctrine. Let me just bring you down to reality here and what the Bible actually says. This is what the Bible says about gravity, not what the Bible says about gravity, but these are the facts about gravity. This is what the Bible says about a sphere of an earth that we have. This is what the Bible says about aliens, nothing. He's like, oh man, I think you guys are just a little rough with the young people. That's good folks. Stop being so, you know, just watered down and milk toast where you just can't offend anybody. We all need a good offending every once in a while. A good rebuke is good for us to get right with God and get the stupidity out. And then, you know what happens? It normalizes you. That's what it does. That's why church is important. And I guarantee you there's people in our church who maybe came with a weird belief and maybe no one knew about it, but after church we're just like, stupid, this thing is dumb. Idiots believe this. And they're just like, well, yeah, I'm not going to believe that. I don't even know that. And they're put away from themselves that stupid thought. Because the thought of foolishness is sin. So they came in children and they were transformed into mature men. You think to yourself, oh man, I'm the child then right now because I believe certain things. Well, you know, give it some time, stick around for a little bit. You know, have some fellowship, hear some preaching, and I promise you, you will be normalized. Because God, look, folks, let the world say that we're not normal. Let's us determine what normal is because we're the Christians. We're the believers. We have the word of God. We have the unsearchable riches of Christ. We know what normal is. No one's going to tell, no one out, some unsaved atheist out there is not going to tell me what normal is. Not some unsaved Republican is not going to tell me what normal is. I know what normal is because I have the Bible. And I'm glad they think we're not normal because what they think is that we're peculiar. And that's exactly what we are, amen. We're peculiar people. But that's why it's important to be in church, okay. And look, for various reasons, you know, think about this. Think about this. You know, if you've been in the world, under the world system and school system as a young lady, you know, submitting to your husband seems like a radical idea. It's like, what is this, Little House on the Prairie or something? What is this, like Leave it to Beaver or something like that? But the reason you think it's weird is because you've been tossed about, carried about with every wind of doctrine of feminism, right? Whereas if you are in church long enough, hey, it sounds like you're trying to brainwash me. Yeah, I'm trying to wash your brain from all the stupid feminism that is seeking to destroy your life and try to convince you that you're happy being independent. Whereas now, that's not what the Bible says. So who are we going to go with? Are we going to go with God or are we going to go with what the world says? You know, how about this? How about, you know, young men who come to our church and they're literally effeminate? That's a sin according to the Bible. But you know what? Effeminate men are accepted and embraced and it's encouraged in this world. When they come to church, they see what the Bible actually says and we wash their brain from that ideology that teaches, oh, it's okay to be a little soft. No, it's not okay to be a little soft. I can go on and on about this, but what I'm saying is this, that's why it's important to be in church because it helps you to redirect your mind, okay? It helps you, it gives you buoyancy, it normalizes you so you're not tossed about with every wind of doctrine. You're just like, I already know what I believe. So that when you talk to people around the world, you can speak with certainty and authority. You can speak with bluntness. I talk to people with bluntness all the time. They're just like, oh man, aren't you accepting of various views? No, it's just, this is what the Bible says and that's it. I'm right. So basically there's a wrong person and there's a right person and let me just give you a hint here. I'm the right one. That's it. That sounds prideful. No, it just, we have the word of God. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 that we have the mind of Christ. So if we have the mind of Christ, that means we're right, they're wrong. But that can only happen if you come to church to become perfected, okay? To be normalized. I don't think church is important. The Bible says that Jesus Christ gave his life for the church and you're going to undermine the church and say that it's not important? It's ridiculous. Look at verse 15. Speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head even Christ. So I think I already explained this verse a couple weeks back, but when it says speaking the truth in love, this is not referring to how you're saying something. Because I was speaking the truth in love right now, but I was a little rude. I mean, not as rude as I've been in times past, but you know, a little curt, a little sharp. When it says speaking the truth in love, it's not talking about how you say something, it's actually referring to with what motive are you saying it with? Okay? Because love is not how you say something. It's not referring to your speech. Love is referring to the motive. Speaking the truth in love is referring to the fact that you're speaking out of a heart of charity, unfeigned faith. You know, you speak out of the desire to help people and that's why you're telling them the truth, okay? Paul said, though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge. Verse 16, for whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplyeth, according to the effectual working and the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body into the edifying of itself in love. It's referring to the edification of the spiritual house. This I say, therefore, in testifying the Lord, look what it says, the henceforth from here on out, walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their minds. What are you talking about, Paul? There are going to walk worthy. It comes naturally. Why are you telling them these things? Because it doesn't come naturally. He's saying, don't live like other Gentiles live. And when he says Gentiles, he's just referring to unsaved people, okay? Because he, I mean, I don't know if you noticed, but this is the book of Ephesians. The book of Ephesians, the church at Ephesus is made up of Gentiles. But there are no more Gentiles because out of 20 was made one new man. So when he says Gentiles, he's just referring to other unsaved individuals. He says, don't be like them. Don't walk in the vanity of your mind, okay, of their mind. Verse 18, having the understanding darkened, being alienated, there's that word again, from the life, there's the proof text right there, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. So, you know, it's kind of vague here, but I would say that obviously he's putting them all into one pot, all of unsaved people into one pot. But I would say, you know, verse 17, when he says the vanity of their mind, he's just referring to regular unsaved people. You know, he said, what does it mean by the vanity of their mind? Just the emptiness of their mind. I don't know how to put it into words. Just go on Instagram and go on Reels. That's what it is. People just doing stuff into the vanity of their minds. They're just like doing just mindless things, okay. By the way, if you haven't followed me on Instagram, make sure you do so. I put biblical content on Instagram, okay. It's definitely not a vain mind of what I'm doing. There's this biblical content that's being put forth, amen. I think this is just referring to just people who just, I guess a good way to put it is this, like they give you that fluoride look. It's like this mindless look. You understand what I'm saying? But verse 18, I think he's delving a little deeper and he's really talking about wicked people. Because the terminology that he's using to describe this group of people is very specific. And we see it used in other portions of scripture such as Romans chapter number one. So let's read it again. He says, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. And verse 19 says, who being past feeling. Now what does it mean to be past feeling? Well, this doesn't mean like they're just numb, okay. Because there's times when you and I, like for example, after tonight, I'm pretty numb. Like I'm just beat. I'm tired, okay. I go home with my family. Obviously we fellowship. We have a good time. But tonight I'm just like, I'm spent. I think Brother Will mentioned a phrase like, you know, you feel like virtue has gone out of you. That's exactly how I feel after Sunday night, okay. And you're just, you know, there's some times when you work a certain amount of hours or you do a certain amount of activity, you're just kind of spent. You just don't really feel like doing anything. You're just kind of tired. Your mind is tired. Your body is tired. You're tired spiritually, emotionally. This past feeling, this is describing someone who has a seared conscience, okay. A seared conscience. This is a person according to 1 Timothy chapter number 4 when describing false prophets having a seared conscience. In other words, they don't know right from wrong. So it doesn't mean you're just numb. You just have no love in you or you just don't have any hate. You just don't feel anything. No, what it means is that you have a seared conscience. You don't know the difference between right and wrong. Your conscience has been just completely removed which, by the way, the conscience is the seat of your moral compass. So let's go to Romans chapter 1. That's what it means to be past feelings. Like you're beyond that ability to discern between good and evil, okay. And this is what the Bible refers to as a reprobate, okay. False prophet, reprobate. Now look at Romans 1. Let's look at the same wording here. Verse number 21 says because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations. You know, like the vanity of their mind, right. He says and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Go to 2 Timothy chapter number 3, 2 Timothy chapter number 3. Now obviously we understand that Romans 1 is referring to a specific category of reprobates known as sodomites because it goes into, it delves into the wicked sexual deviants that they involve themselves with but when it comes to the subject of a reprobate this is not only referring to sodomites, it could be referring to false prophets. You know, for example, Judas Iscariot was a reprobate. But he wasn't a pedophile. He wasn't a sodomite. He was a reprobate. He had his conscience seared. He was past feeling and the sin that he gave himself to was greed which is exactly what we're going to see in Ephesians 4. Look at 2 Timothy 3 and verse number 5. It says here, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away for of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive, silly women laden with sins led away with diverse lusts ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now this isn't referring to someone who just like can't get math down or something like that. They just can't seem to learn the dates on their history, you know, test or whatever exam. This is referring to someone who can just learn a lot of information but they never come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. It's impossible for them to get to the truth. It's impossible for them to get to the truth. Verse 8, now as Janus and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith, the Bible says. Now this morning, I made a mistake when I said something. I was talking about our corruptible bodies and I said our corruptible minds. That's actually not correct. The appropriate term would be a carnal mind because the biblical term corrupt mind is a term that is used in the Bible and it's a term that is used in the Bible and it's a term that is used in the Bible and it's a term that is used in the Bible because the biblical term corrupt mind is actually associated with reprobates. So I made a mistake there so I'm correcting that right now. When it says men of corrupt minds it's referring to a person who has a seared conscience and what is the result of that? Well, their reprobate concerning faith in other words, they can no longer believe. God removes their ability to believe. So there's all kinds of factors and elements and categories that go into making a reprobate. Remove their moral compass, their ability to believe, they have a seared conscience, it's a corrupt mind, they can no longer believe. They are people who are ever learning, never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, et cetera. Go back to Ephesians chapter four if you would. Ephesians chapter number four. So he's saying don't be like the reprobates of this world. Don't behave like them, don't act like them, don't be involved with their crowd and look folks, there's people who, there's Christians out there who are like that. They have sodomites for friends or they have, you know, they just are around people like this. They may not even be sodomites but they might be psychopath reprobates. Okay. They have their understanding darkened, they're alienated from the life of God to the ignorance that is in them. They have the blindness of their heart, their past feeling, look what it says, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. So I believe that, Christians can get involved in the things that a reprobate would so to speak just not the sexual deviant things that a Christian would, that a reprobate would get into. Like a Christian could become very greedy, very covetous, very greedy, they could become thieves, you know. But I don't think that we'll ever get to a point where they'll get involved in the perversions that reprobates will get involved with. Okay. Because I believe that Christians can get involved in the things that a reprobate would so to speak because at that point that requires you to surpass the boundary that is already in your mind, your conscience that you can't surpass. But Christians can definitely be greedy, they can definitely become thieves and covetous, they can get involved in a lot of different sins. And how do we know that? Well because of the fact that the works of the flesh are made manifest the Bible says. So according to Galatians, Galatians chapter six I believe, it gives us a list of things that a carnal man can get involved with. One of the sins there is not sodomy. You ever notice that? When the works of the flesh are made manifest in Galatians chapter six, sodomy is not mentioned in that. You know, people want to say, oh yeah, they can, you know, Christians can get involved in that. Well that's funny because God didn't list that sin in Galatians chapter six. When he talked about walking in the spirit and not fulfilling the lust of the flesh, he's referring to Christians and one of the works of the flesh he didn't mention was sodomy. Okay, a saved person. He says in verse 20, but ye have not so learned Christ. If so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. Isn't that interesting? Doesn't that go with what we just read earlier? He says, look, you haven't learned this from Jesus, this type of behavior of greed, of covetousness or of other sins, you didn't learn that from Jesus if so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him. Because look, Christians get involved in all kinds of sin, fornication, adultery. I mean, they get into some pretty bad stuff. They can't. Look at David, right? Murder, conspiracy to murder someone, adultery, I mean, they got involved in some, he got involved in some bad stuff and he's saying here, you haven't learned this behavior from Christ that's why it's important to be in church because in church is where you learn to have the right type of behavior. Right? We see that in First Timothy, chapter number three, okay? Where he talks about that the church is the pillar and ground of truth and he says that thou mayest, that thou oughtest, sorry, that thou mayest oughtest to know how to behave thyself in the house of God. So he says, you know, when you're in the house of God, you're gonna learn how to behave, you're gonna learn how to have Christian conduct, have Christian conversation. These are good things to learn, okay? He says there in verse number 22 that ye put off concerning the former old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. So really there is the summation of the Christian life right there. If you want to learn how to, if you want that one key you know everyone wants, what's that one thing I have to do, what's the one key to the Christian life? Well there's many keys but if you really want to sum it up, love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, love thy neighbor as thyself but if you want something very practical, here it is. You put off the old man right, the former conversation which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust and you put on the new man. So where do I start pastor? Tomorrow's Monday, it's a new day, it's a new week. Where do I start? Start by putting off the old man. Conscientiously putting off the old man, putting on the new. In the spirit of your mind okay. I'm going to stop there because we're out of time. I might finish this the following week. So it's a great chapter but it has so many elements to the chapter, there's so many things to talk about but if you walk away with anything from this sermon, walk away with this is the importance of being a church and what church does for you. This isn't just a place where you just come so you can come and create virtue. You're coming to add that which is lacking in your Christian life okay and come with that attitude and look if you feel like nothing was added to you well you know what something was reinforced then. You know you do that puzzle and you know you look at that corner piece or that middle piece and you're just like did I force that piece in there or is that is this legitimately where it's supposed to be. It's like that's not where it's supposed to go. It looks weird now you know well sometimes you got to go and reinforce the other piece you know you're making the puzzle and some parts if you got a cheap puzzle some parts are going to like pop up a little bit you know and what do you got to do you got to push it back down you got to flatten it out a little bit you know or sometimes you mess up and this corner you know just decimates the puzzle and you're like all right this is what's with this lump here you know you just like push it down and it's all pop and you put that back in it's a work in progress you understand so what do you do when you come to church we're pressing you down we're adding a piece here we're putting another piece there you know until you're conformed to the image of Christ. Let's end on that note because that was good let's pray Father some great truths here Lord and I pray God that you'd help us to apply it to our lives Lord help us to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called and help us to appreciate church and understand the importance of being in church Lord if we're not careful it's good possibility that people can just get out of church and start following and emulating the Gentiles of this world who walk in the vanity of their minds Lord and help us to put ourselves in the mood Lord guide and direct our steps and help us Lord to continue to add to our faith virtue to virtue knowledge and so on Lord and help us to continue to grow and bless the fellowship and all there is to follow in Jesus name we pray. Amen.