Would you take God's Word this morning, please, open to the book of Ephesians chapter 6, Ephesians chapter, excuse me, chapter 4. We're not 6 yet. We'll get there. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 7, and we're going to look at verse 7 down to verse 16. Would you stand for the reading of God's Word, please? We'll read a few verses here, starting at verse 7. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now he that ascended, what is it, but that he also descended first into the lowest parts of the earth. He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things. Thank you so very much, you may be seated. Would you pray with me? Father, thank you for your word today. Would you please help us to have understanding in what you want us to learn from this passage of scripture, Lord, and help me to be clear in communicating your precious truth. And may you receive honor and glory, and may the saints be strengthened and encouraged. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Did you know that you are a gifted person? You have been given a gift by the Lord Jesus Christ. Many Christians don't realize that as a result of the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ into heaven, that you have been given a gift by the Lord Jesus. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great British preacher, visited the home of a poor woman. She was living in an almshouse. That's just the expression for a poor house. She had nothing. and she was being taken care of by the authorities. And the Virgin was there just to visit her and pray with her. And while he was there, he looked on the wall and he saw a letter that was framed and it had his signature on it. And he asked her, he said, what is this? And she said, well, I used to take care of an old gentleman. He was an invalid and I was there nursing him and helping him along in his latter days. And before he died, he gave this to me as a gift and I've hung it up to remember him. And Spurgeon looked at it, and he studied it, and he finally persuaded the woman to please let him have it for a few days. And he took it down to the bank authorities, and you guessed it, it was this man's will. And he had left this woman thousands upon thousands of dollars, and she did not realize it. The bank authorities said, we were wondering who this man left his wealth to, and now we know. Well, I wonder how many Christians are like this woman. You've been given a gift and you're not really using that gift. You might wonder, how many Christians get this gift from Christ? Well, look at verse number seven of Ephesians 4, but unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Everyone, that includes you. If you're here and you're saved, you're a child of God, you have been given a gift from the Lord Jesus. And notice where it says, given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. The grace here is not saving grace. We know that he saves us by his grace, but thank God he also strengthens us by his grace and he helps us to serve by his grace. And so what this grace here means is that it's the enablement to use the gift that God has given us. With the gift that Jesus gives you, he gives you the enablement to exercise that gift. And notice it's the word measure according to the measure of the gift of Christ. This is the word metron, where we get the word metric. And the idea here is that Christ is the one who determines the gift that you get. He determines the enablement that he will give you as well. We could say that the gift is from Christ and the generosity is from Christ. And he, as the head, measures out the exact proportion of gift and strength and enablement that he will give you to exercise this gift. You see, you don't get to choose your own gift. He gives that gift to you. Now, in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 11, you might wanna write that in your margin, it says, all these are empowered by one, the same spirit who appoints to each one individually as he wills. Again, the expression as he wills. Again, it's the Lord, the God who determines what gift you will get and the measure of that gift. Just like, you know, when I was born, I didn't get to choose what I would look like. If I had the choice, I would look a little different than I look right now, but I didn't have any choice in that, right? Now, the Bible compares the church to a body, a human body, and it's the body of Christ, and we're all members of that body, just like I didn't get to choose my body, my parts. You don't get to choose the gift. That is all done by the head, the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, a parent can't order a child and say, I want a child who's going to be six foot five, blonde hair, IQ of 175, so he can take care of me when I'm old. You don't get the ability to do that. It is God who does that, and even so with the spiritual gifts. The Lord Jesus gives you a gift. And also notice that it's in the singular, not plural. New Testament scholars have debated whether each believer receives one gift or is it many gifts. For example, the Bible says about Timothy, 2 Timothy 1.6, wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift, singular, the gift of God which is in thee. And yet the Bible lists many spiritual gifts. If you read Romans chapter 12, it talks about prophecy, and serving, and teaching, and exhorting, and giving, and leading, and showing mercy. If you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 12, there's another list of other gifts and so on. And so some people think, well, do we get all these gifts, or do we get more than one gift, or how does all of that work? And I think that these are categories of spiritual gifts. I don't think the list is exhaustive. I think there are more gifts. But I think when the Bible uses the word singular, what it's basically saying is this. By the way, the word here, where it says he'll give severally or individually as he will, the Greek word is idios. It's where we get our word idiot from. And when you call someone an idiot, you're actually saying there's no one just like you. And that's really what the word here means. And what it's talking about is this, you have a spiritual gift and it's unique and it's individual and there's no other gift like it. Christians are like spiritual snowflakes. You know, they say there are no two snowflakes that are exactly alike. And the same can be said of a believer. There are no two Christians that are exactly alike in the spiritual gift that God gives you. And what the Lord does, I believe, is he takes these categories of gifts and he mingles them together and he gives you a portion of all these things and to mix it together to give you your individual gift. gift that is unique for you. He might take a little bit for in my case, he gave me a little bit of the gift of teaching and maybe a little bit of exhorting and maybe a little bit of mercy and administration. And the Lord just kind of mingles those gifts together and says, this now is your gift. This is you. It is the gift of God to the church. I'm giving it to you, but I want you to use it for the church. And every person in here, if you're saved, you have been given a gift from the Lord Jesus, and it is a very unique gift. There's no one exactly like you. If you don't exercise that gift, we are the poorer for it because you've been given that to enrich the body of Christ, the church. So don't go around poor-mouthing, saying, oh, I'm nothing, I'm nobody. I'm just, no, you're special. God's given you a gift. He's given you abilities. Now, there's some things I want you to learn about this gift. Just three thoughts here from this passage that Paul gives us. First of all, I want you to think with me about the victorious giver. The victorious giver. Christ earned the right to give you your gift. Look at verse number eight. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. And these verses here picture Jesus Christ ascending up into heaven, having secured the victory over his enemies. You say, what enemies? Well, the enemies were sin and Satan. Where did this victory take place? Well, it took place at the arena called Dark Calvary. It just boggles the mind when we try to think of everything that took place at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. But at the cross, that's where Jesus won this monumental victory. I read of the story of Napoleon and Wellington. They were getting ready to fight the decisive battle of Waterloo. This battle would determine whether Napoleon would rule the world, literally, at that time. The people of England were waiting to see how the battle went. They were waiting to get a message from it. And a ship came to the port and began to relay to the people in England by way of semaphore or lantern messages back on a big building in England. They were putting up letters so all the people could see. They were waiting for one letter at a time, and it spelled out the word Wellington. And then after that, Wellington defeated, and the people were looking at that, and their hearts sank. It said, Wellington defeated. He must have been defeated, and word began to spread, and a fog had settled over that building, and they couldn't read the rest of the message. But later, the fog removed, and they could read the rest of the words, and it said, Wellington defeated by Napoleon. Well, that's different. and no longer was there despair. It wasn't Wellington who was defeated, it was Napoleon who was defeated. And I'm sure that for some, when Jesus died on the cross, there may have been some who thought that Jesus was defeated, maybe a fog settled over the cross and the land of Israel and the hearts of the disciples. But it wasn't Jesus who was defeated, friend, it was Satan who was defeated. On the cross, Jesus didn't say, I am finished, he said, it is finished. The price for sin was paid for, salvation was purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the cross was a victory won by Jesus Christ. And this is what Paul's pointing out here. He's using the illustration of a victorious general who won a major victory and now he is marching in triumph. And he's distributing the spoils of war to all of the people. A parallel reference you might want to write down is Colossians 2, verse 15. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it. When a Roman general back then would win a major victory on foreign soil, he would send a messenger back to the city of Rome announcing the victory, and he would march in in a parade through the via triumphant, the archway that led into the city of Rome, and there would be a parade, and people would be throwing rose petals, kind of like a ticker tape parade. There would be burning incense all over the city. That's where you get the expression, the sweet smell of victory. And in this parade, there would be the captives that this general had freed from his, that were in captivity to the defeated general. And also there would be wagon loads of the spoils of war. And this general would begin to give out those spoils to the people as a gift and as a result of the victory that he had. Now, this is the imagery that Paul is using here. In verse number eight, wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, he gave gifts unto men. This is a picture of Jesus after dying and resurrecting, he ascended up into heaven, he marched into the gate of heaven, triumphant over all of his enemies, and because of his exalted position in heaven, he now has the right to give out gifts to his people, and that's exactly what Jesus did. What does it mean when it says, he led captivity captive? Well, here Paul is quoting from Psalm 68 verse 18. Let me read it. Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast received gifts for men. Now Psalm 68 is a hymn composed by David to celebrate God's conquest of the Jebusite city, which was later named Jerusalem, using David. And when David conquered that city, he later brought the ark in and he that ark he brought up to the top of Mount Zion, the hill there in the city. And so God literally ascended up on high through that ark of the covenant. And David's writing a hymn about all of this, the ark representing God being victorious over all of his enemies. And you know, when a king, even an Israelite king back then would win a victory, they would march into the city with the captives that were freed and recaptured by this king. And again, he would give out gifts. And this psalm now, Paul, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is applying to the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, after Jesus' death and resurrection, Jesus ascended triumphantly into heaven. The captives were freed. That's you and I, beloved. We were in captivity to sin and Satan. We were made free by the Lord Jesus Christ, and we were taken captive by him. I love it, the fact that Jesus is now my king. and I am his servant. This is his church that he freed. And then the Bible says he gave gifts to his church. And so the picture here, again, is Jesus, this victorious warrior, receiving the spoils of war and giving them out to us, his church. But notice verse number nine. Now, that he ascended, what is it? But that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth. And so Paul is reasoning that if Christ ascended, first he descended into the lower parts of the earth. Jesus said to Nicodemus, no man ascended up to heaven, but he which came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. Jesus claimed to come down from heaven to the earth, sent by the Father, of course, there in that passage. But what does Paul mean here when he says he descended into the lower parts of the earth? Scholars have struggled over what this means. It could mean one of three things. First of all, some say it means that it's simply a contrast between earth and heaven. He was in heaven and he had descended down to the earth. The second meaning is that it refers to Hades. And between the death and resurrection of Christ, Jesus, during that time, he went down into Hades, and there, in Hades, he announced victory over the imprisoned demons that were there. That's based on 1 Peter 3, 18 through 20, where it says that Jesus went and preached to the spirits in prison. there in hell, and the word for preached is not euangelion, it is the word caruso to announce victory. So the idea is that after Jesus died, maybe hell had a holiday thinking that Jesus was defeated, but Jesus goes into those regions to those imprisoned spirits and announces caruso victory during that time. Now, there are some who try to say, well, Jesus ascended into hell, he had to go to hell to pay the debt of sin. That's completely wrong, friend, because on the cross, when Jesus said it is finished, he meant it. Nothing else needed to happen for Christ to pay the debt of sin. But Jesus, it could mean then he went to the lower parts of the earth to announce victory. Others say, another interpretation of this is that, this refers to the womb of Mary, and this is based on Psalm 139, verse 15, where a baby is being formed in, quote, verse 15 says, the lower parts of the earth, referring to the mother's womb. And so Paul is making a reference to the incarnation of Christ when he was virgin born through Mary. And so, all these different interpretations are argued. You say, what do you believe, pastor? I think that this is simply a reference to the incarnation, the coming of Jesus Christ into this earth, and I think it really captures all of those ideas, really. He came to this earth, did he descend into those regions to announce victory? Yes. Was he virgin born? Yes. But I think the major idea, Paul's not really pointing out the specific place, he's giving a contrast to the fact that he who was highly exalted in heaven descended to the lowest part. And he did this, why? So that he could bring us victory. So that he could be the conquering king, the savior. Look down at verse number 10. He that descended is the same that also ascended far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. That's the whole idea. It's a contrast between how low he descended with how highly he now is exalted. as the victor. This is really also, this thought is captured in Philippians 2, verse 9, where it says, God has highly exalted him and given him a name that is what? Above every name. It's above every name. He's highly exalted now. He is the victor, Christ. And so Ephesians 4, 9 shows us that the risen, ascended Christ is now qualified to give out these gifts because of what he did, what he accomplished. We see the same thought. He's head over all things. He has now the authority to do all things. Go back to Ephesians 1.20. The same thought is there. Notice what it says in Ephesians 1.20. which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the what? To the church. God highly exalted him, put him over everything. Now he has the authority, being over all things, including the church, to do what? To hand out gifts. To give out gifts to the church. So we see number one then, the victorious giver. But then right down number two, the various gifts. The various gifts. Look at verse 11. And he gave some apostles. and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers." He just names a few of the gifts. These are some foundational important gifts that he names first. Apostles, the word apostle here is the idea of a specific calling Jesus called uniquely some men in the beginning to be his apostles. The word apostle here, apostolos, simply means messenger. It's used in a broad way in the New Testament to speak about a general messenger. But when it's used in a narrow, specific way about an apostle, capital A, someone called by Christ, that's referring to this special office. We owe a lot to the apostles. You know why? We wouldn't have the New Testament without them. They were foundational in the infancy of the church. In fact, the Bible says they were the foundation of the church, Jesus Christ being the cornerstone, the apostles and also prophets. The word prophets here is talking about New Testament prophets who were given the word of God. This was before we got the complete revelation of written scripture. There were certain prophets that were given messages from God to the church. Again, they were foundational. We are indebted to these prophets. Even though there are no more Apostles, capital A, or prophets in the truest sense of the word used here, They were foundational at the beginning part of the church. They were God's gift to the church at that time. You say, why are there no more apostles today? Well, because the qualification is you had to see the risen Lord. And you had to be called specifically by Jesus to be his apostle. And it also means you have the authority to speak for Christ. There's no one here that has that authority, beloved. And Paul called himself the last of the apostles. And so we have the apostles and the prophets, but also evangelists. Look at verse 11, he gave some evangelists. That's literally those who announced the gospel. And probably the gift that Paul had in mind here as a church planner, someone has the ability to go to a place and preach the gospel and bring people together and plant a church. This might be what missionaries do nowadays. It's certainly what they do. He might have had that in mind as well. Thank God for these gifted missionaries and evangelists. But also, in verse 11, he mentions pastors and teachers. This literally reads teaching shepherds. It's referring to the same gift. You see, the gift of a pastor is that of a teacher. His major function is to teach the church the word of God. Why does God give men like this to the church? This is the third part of the sermon. We see the victorious giver, we see the various gifts, but here's number three, what I call the virtuous goals. Because Paul's gonna tell us, the goals that Christ has for giving these gifts to the church. Look at verse 13 where it says this, till we all come in the unity of the faith. That expression till we all come is one word in the Greek. It means to reach a goal, to arrive at a goal. And so what are some of the goals that Christ has in giving these gifts? Well number one, just write down equipping. Look at verse number 12, back up to verse 12. For the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry. Now the word perfecting here has the idea of equipping. This word is used sometimes to speak of mending a bone that is broken. It is used to speak of preparing something to be what it is designed to be. That's the whole idea. And this is the idea, God gives to the church pastor teachers so that they can equip people to use their spiritual gift so they can be what God designed you to be in the church. Now we have the wrong idea about church ministry today. This is one of the most crippling ideas to pervade the church over centuries, really, is that we're divided up into two class. There is the clergy and there is the laity. The clergy is paid to do all the work of the ministry. The laity lay back and they just watch it all. It's like one person said, the clergy are paid to be good. The laity are good for nothing. I know that's harsh. I didn't say that. I'm just quoting somebody else. All right, but that's not the biblical pattern. You see, Christ gave you a gift because he wants you to employ that gift and use that gift for his glory, for the good of all the church. The pastor is to equip you, he is to teach you the word of God. Pastors are to teach you so that you can go out and you can do the work of the ministry. This idea that the pastors and the staff are to do all the work and everyone else is to watch, that is hurting the church, and that is wrong. And by the way, there are some pastors who perpetuate this idea, perhaps out of a desire to just control everything, and they wanna do everything, and try to micromanage everyone and everybody, but that's not the pattern of the Bible. And we have to trust God in this. Pastors have to trust God in this, that God has given you a gift and equipped you, and therefore to unleash you and allow you. to use that gift for the glory of God. That's why Christ gave you this gift. And for you to ignore that gift, that is a monstrous insult to Christ, who died on the cross, ascended victoriously in heaven to give you this gift so that you can use it in the church. Many local churches look like what one football coach described The coach, Bud Wilkinson, he was the coach of the Oklahoma Sooners when they were in their heyday. They were a football powerhouse. And a reporter, a young reporter said, coach, what has football done to help health in our country? And the coach said, it's done nothing to help health and fitness in America. And the reporter said, well, what do you mean by that? He said, well, let me tell you what football is. Football is 22 players on the field working and playing so hard in desperate need of rest, being watched by 22,000 people in the stands who desperately need to get in shape and get exercised. See, that's the problem. And sometimes that's the problem in the church. 90% of the work is being done by 10% of the people, and everyone else is just watching, but that's not the biblical way. Pastors are to equip people to do the work of the ministry. And notice also, not only equipping, but edifying. Look again at verse number 12. For the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. So the word edify is a word that means to build up. This is the word used to speak of building a house, construction on a house. Remember, Paul compared the church to a temple that is being built up. And as people are equipped and they begin to use their gift, what happens in the church? Well, the church is edified. People are built up in the church. That's God's plan. Again, look at verse 13. Till we all come to the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God into a perfect man under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." Now, Paul has emphasized unity a lot in this epistle. In fact, it's the whole context of this chapter here. But he says, what unites us is the unity of the faith. The faith he's talking about is the faith of the of Christianity, of the Gospel, of the Word of God. There's only one faith, and as we learn God's Word, that is what unites us. We are united together by doctrine, by theology, what the Bible teaches us about the Gospel and Jesus Christ. There's a oneness in fellowship that's impossible to have without understanding the Word of God. That's what brings us all together. Disunity comes from an ignorance of the Bible, and an ignorance of theology. There's unity that will take place, but also maturity. Again, verse 13, and of the knowledge of the Son of God. Look at that expression, and of the knowledge of the Son of God. Paul's referring to spiritual growth. And we grow spiritually as we learn more about Jesus Christ, as we learn more of him. This is not a knowledge of salvation, this is an intimate knowledge that comes through studying God's word, through praying, through obedience to Christ. It is a lifelong process. And look at the rest of 13. Unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The perfect man is Christ. He is our standard, he is our measure. You wanna know how much you have matured spiritually? Don't compare yourself to others, compare yourself to Christ. He's the standard. The word measure here in verse 13, metron, again, same word, where we get the word metric from. He's the measure. He's the standard. A little boy came running to his mother one day and said, I'm nine feet tall. She said, that's nonsense. He said, no, Mom, I measure myself, I'm nine feet tall. She said, well, show me how you measure yourself. He took off his little shoe, and he measured himself by his shoe. He was nine shoe lengths. I'm nine feet tall. She said, you're using the wrong standard. Paul said in 2 Corinthians, they that compare themselves among themselves are not wise. If you want to know how spiritually mature you are, don't compare yourself to yourself or to others. Compare yourself to the measure of Christ, the perfect man. The goal of the church is Christlikeness. There's unity that comes through. When we're edified, there's maturity, but also stability. Look at verse 14. That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Another goal of edification is stability. Sadly, there are so many believers that are so unstable, they fall for any ear-tickling false teacher that comes down the pike. and they're allured by that, and they're running after any new fad that comes along, or some new doctrine. Let me tell you something, if it's new, it's not true. There's no new theology or new doctrine. And they're blown around like a leaf in the wind, and they never grow strong spiritually. That reminded me of the Arkansas pig farmer who was wondering why his pigs never got big. And every time he would feed them, he would take a hammer and knock on the wooden trough and they'd come running to eat. What he didn't realize is that his pig farm was right in the middle of a community that was going up. Houses were being built all around. And so there was this hammering going on all day and the pigs were running toward the noise. They were running around the pig pen all day long, running after the false noises, promising to feed them. Some Christians are just like that. They run after any noise they hear and it's causing great instability in their life. They never grow in the faith, they never get strong. And Paul's saying here, look, part of edification is you're no longer children being tossed to and fro and being blown around by every false doctrine that comes along by the cunning craftiness of men. But you have a stability, a spiritual growth based upon good, solid doctrinal theological teaching from the word of God. That's part of it. But then also integrity. Look at verse 15. You see, we will be a church that speaks the truth in love. When edification takes place, we will be committed to speaking truth and love to each other. keeping each other accountable, encouraging each other with speaking truth to each other. You know what, what I'd love to see is after church, Christians standing around talking, encouraging, fellowshipping, speaking truth to one another. That is a big part of your spiritual growth. That fellowship, that encouragement, the speaking truth and love, iron sharpens iron, the Bible says. Such an important part of your edification, your spirituality, and then also there's efficiency. Look at verse number 16, the last verse here of this passage for today. From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, making increase of the body under the edifying of itself in love. And really this verse circles back to what Paul said in verse number seven, which was that God's given to every one of us this gift so that we'll use it so that the body will function correctly. In order for me to be healthy and my body to be working correctly, all of my members have to be working together, submitted to the head. When the alarm clock went off this morning, the head said, get up. And my foot said, no way. Not getting out of this bed. No, my members all have to be submitted to the head. And they all have to be working together in harmony in order for there to be health and efficiency in this body. And this is what Paul's talking about right here. The verse has two really practical applications where it says, fitted jointly together. This implies we have to be close to one another. We have to be together. In order for the body to function, we have to be here, be together. You know the prisoners of war in Vietnam, they would say that the worst torture was being isolated away from the other men. They said together we could endure anything, but when they isolated one of us, that's when we crumbled. The same could be said of the church. We need each other. The devil tries to isolate Christians before he tries to deceive them and pull them astray. That's why you need the church, you need each other. Paul says we're fitted together. Again, he's using the illustration of a temple with stones. We are put together as stones, cemented together in this building, in this building up. But then also, every joint supply, notice that expression. Again, this means that each individual part of the body has to be working properly, functioning properly. That means that the gift that Christ gave you, you have to use it. If you're not, This body called grace isn't functioning properly unless you are using your gift and doing what God has called you to do. Christ gave you a gift, it's a special gift, it's a unique gift, he gave it just for you. It's a result of the spoils of war, the war that he won on Calvary and saved your soul and then gave you this gift so that you could serve him. Again, for you to ignore that gift and not serve him is the ultimate disrespect, it's the ultimate apathy. So we see then the victorious giver, the various gifts, the virtuous goals. The question is, what are you doing with the gift of Christ? What are you doing with the gift that he gave you? Are you using it for the church and for his glory? I've read that when geese migrate, we can look up and see them in a V-shaped pattern. We've probably all seen that. It's kind of beautiful for us to look at. But for the geese, it's a matter of survival. The only way they're able to fly long distances against the wind sometimes is to have this V-shaped pattern where the front bird will basically break up the wind and the flapping of the other birds together will lift them higher. They can fly longer and higher together than any one of them could individually. In fact, to make that migration individually, they couldn't do it. The only way they could get to the place they wanna go is if they fly together. They're stronger together. And the same is true of the church. The only way we're going to be able to get to where the Lord wants us to be in godliness is if we all fly together. We all work together and be all that Christ called us to be using the gift of Christ. Let's bow for prayer together. Heads are bowed and eyes are closed. And I want to ask you while you're here, friend, do you know Jesus as your savior? The first gift that he wants to give you is the gift of eternal life. If you're here today and you don't have that gift, then really none of what I said applies to you. The first thing you have to do is to settle whether or not you have the gift of eternal life. You say, how do I get that gift? Well, Jesus paid for it. He paid for it with his death on the cross. The Bible says the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. You're saved by coming to Jesus in faith. Realizing that you're a sinner. Realizing that Christ won the victory for you on the cross. He paid your sin debt. And now because of what Jesus did, salvation is a gift that you can receive by faith. If you'll just come and say, Jesus, I'm a sinner, save me. Please save me and give me eternal life. The Bible says, him that comes to me, I will in no wise cast out. And if you're here and you have been saved, what are you doing with the gift of Christ? He's given a gift to you just for you. It's the spoils of his victory. What kind of soldier are you now? Are you gone AWOL like a lot? Not using a gift or are you using it? Maybe you're here today, maybe you need to say, God, forgive me for not realizing this. Help me, direct me and guide me to use what you've given me for the good of the church and for your glory. Let that be your prayer this morning. And if you're here today and you're putting your faith in Christ, let us know. We wanna help you along in your Christian faith. Father, bless again your word to hearing hearts. Thank you, Lord, for this precious passage. Help us to apply it for your glory, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.