Scripture reading today is from the book of Ephesians chapter 4. I'm going to start reading in verse 1. I, therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness and patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your cause. one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who was over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he also descended into the lower regions of the earth? This is the word of the Lord. Amen, you may be seated and let's pray. Father, thank you for this time now, we just ask your blessing on it. Speak to our hearts, our Father, through the Word and Spirit. Change us, our Father, from the inside out. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Last week I asked the question, what does God intend to happen when we come together on Sunday morning? If you remember, the answer was three, all right? We speak to Him, He speaks to us, and then we use our gifts to help one another. Well, today I want to ask the same question, but with a different subject. Here's the question. What does God intend to happen in the church? Now, let me say first of all that I'm trying to make a distinction, alright? We don't come to church, we are the church, you understand that, right? The church is the body, it's not the building, it's the people, all right? And God has local New Testament churches all over the world where the people of God gather together, where the men of God that are called shepherd the people, and then everybody takes their gifts and uses them together. So I'm asking, what does God intend to happen in us? That's what I say, mean, you see, in making us into his body. Now, here's the answer. And it's important that you grasp this because everything else is going to be wrapped around it. The answer is this. In the church, God intends for there to be a purposeful joining together of many parts to reflect His glory and to accomplish His purposes. Listen to it again. In the church, God intends for there to be a purposeful joining together of many parts to reflect His glory and to accomplish his purposes. That is what being a body means. The joining of many parts to make something bigger. That's what we call the church. So what is the purpose? All these individual parts joining together to become the body. This is done so we can, number one, reflect his glory and then number two accomplishes purposes so how then do we as a body reflect God's glory that's a good question isn't it I want you to take your Bibles and look with me in Ephesians chapter 5 please very familiar passage of scripture all right verse 25 Well, let's look at verse through 27. Chapter 5, verse 25 says, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. So what do we learn from this text? Number one, that the church is the bride. And it's God's intention to present the bride someday pure, without spot, without wrinkle. glorious alright and that's gonna happen alright so christ then is at work in the bride moving her to that time so then we ask the question and how does that happen alright one of the major tools that he uses is he uses the work of other members within the body god's desire to present us holy pure clean And he uses us, the other people in the body, to get us to that point. Now, some of you are saying, well, how, alright? How does that happen? Well, let me show you how and why I see that. You're in Ephesians, so turn with me back, if you would, to Ephesians chapter 3. Now look at verse 7 with me. all says of this gospel i was made a minister according to the gift of god's grace which was given me by the working of his power so what do we see there paul describes the ministry that he has been called to the gospel ministry the ministry that he's doing later on in this chapter he starts praying for that ministry doesn't he If you look down, if you would, in chapter 3, start with me in verse 14. He says, For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breath and the length and the height and the depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. So what is he saying? Well, he's saying this, all right? I want you to do the same thing I do. I want you to take the gospel message. I want you to minister to others. But then notice how he closes this chapter. Look at verse 20. He says, Now to him who was able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power and work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever amen to him be glory where's that glory gonna be seen says in the church the church is a place where God's glory is to be put on display Now, notice how this just moves right along. Look with me in chapter four, verse one. He says, I therefore, in a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with another in love, eager to maintain the unity of spirit in the bond of peace. You see the logic? therefore you need them to walk in a certain way walk in a way that will specifically enhance the beauty of the bride and by so doing then reflect his glory in the church so that's how it happens now thankfully our beauty as a church is something that Christ will accomplish right go back with me to Ephesians five again Husbands, love your wives like Christ loved the church and gave himself for that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish. Now, aren't you glad at the bottom line it's God that's going to do it? Because if it was up to us, we would never get it done, would we? All right. He's the one that does the washing. He's the one that does the cleansing. He's the one that does the sanctifying. It's something that God accomplishes. But listen, folks. God uses means, though, doesn't he? And don't ever forget this. And one of the major means that he uses is our interaction in one another's life manifesting the fruit of the spirit like an Ephesians chapter four verse to look down again at that passage with me please. Ephesians four two says with all humility and gentleness with patience bearing with one another in love not just manifesting the fruit of the spirit but exercising the gifts of the spirit look down at verse seven but grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ gift by those means then we are being used to contribute to the gradual beautification of the bride You and I, all of us, together, as we exercise the spiritual gift that God gives us, are having an effect on each other's lives. We're growing and becoming more beautiful. And we're doing that individually. But there's more. This is happening in the church. And as this happens, we then begin to reflect the glory of God. Now, some of you might be saying, all right, Pastor, what kind of things are you talking about? Well, let me leave you with three things this morning. Now, there's more than that, obviously, but let me just look at three things, all right? These are some things that, within, reveal the glory of God. The first word I want to use is the word unity, all right? Look again in your Bibles, chapter 4, verse 3. Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit, in the bond of peace look at verse 13 a chapter for until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ listen it's a beautiful thing when these things happen Paul wants it to be visible he wants the people around us to know that within the body within the local New Testament church there is this great unity everybody singing off the same sheet of music all right we're marching to the same drummer all right yes there's a difference is but we're all united for one thing and that's to bring glory and honor to the Lord Jesus Christ and I think we intuitively get this don't we Isn't there a deep down desire for this? This unity. Think about it for a second in the culture in which we live. Doesn't the culture want unity? They talk about it all the time. You remember Rodney King's famous words? Can't we just all get along? Why did they resonate so much? Because that's what we really want, isn't it? We want everyone just to get along. This is gonna date me, so some of you younger kids, you won't know this, but for some of the people that are older, you remember this little jingle? I want to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. I can't do it, but I'll try. Where'd that come from? That was the Coke commercial, wasn't it? You remember they had people from every nation, they're all standing there together? It just made you wanna go drink a Coke, didn't it? Listen, the people who made that commercial knew that within us, intuitively, there's a desire that we be unified, isn't there? And wouldn't it just be wonderful if all the nations could get along? And so what Jesus says is to us, look, alright, I want you to use your spiritual gifts in such a way to minister to each other that there is a unity. Because when it exists, it's a beautiful thing, it's supposed to happen. And ladies and gentlemen, this happens in the body of Christ, doesn't it? How about prejudices? That's bad stuff, ain't it? But when we see things from God's perspective, and we realize that every individual are created in the very image of our great God, and he's an image bearer of Jesus. Then it's a lot easier to get along, isn't it? And then within the body of Christ, we don't see those differences. And so he says, I want you to be unified. The second word I want you to see is the word maturity. Look with me down in our text at chapter 4 in verse 13. He says, until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Listen, things are most beautiful in their full maturity. Over our fireplace in our house, Arlene picked out a picture for us, and it's a rose. And there's four scenes. And you start with the bud, and then it's a little bigger, a little bigger, until you have the beautiful rose at the very end. And when you look at that picture, it doesn't take you long to glance over to that last section, because that's the beauty of the maturity, right? Take a little maple sapling. I got one in my yard. I had to cut down all my Cleveland pears because of the blight that went through, and I had to start all over. I had some nice shade. I'm all in it again. I got a maple on one side, and I got a river birch on the other. River birch because in this area, you can't hurt them, all right? They'll take the heat. They'll take the water. It doesn't matter. Just pour it in them. They'll just keep growing. But I got this little maple sapling. You remember the other day when we got that wind? I saw that little maple sapling almost touching the ground. It ain't much to that maple sapling. But have you ever seen a mature maple tree in the fall? It's nothing like it is. As the leaves change, you can almost feel the Christmas in the air, can't you? Not quite today. And then you know what? I can just say this. I thought about my wife when I was thinking about that. I've known her for a long time. In fact, this November we'll be married 39 years. But you know, she's changed a lot. And as she matures, that's a beautiful thing. The beauty of maturing. Paul says, listen, I gave you these gifts so you might minister to each other. So you might be unified, so that you might be mature. But then there's one other word I want you to see, and it's the third word, it's the word purity. Maintain your purity. Look with me if you would at Ephesians chapter five and verse 27 again. So that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish. Listen folks, in Christ Jesus, God is cleaning us up and bringing us into purity. Ain't this great news Because purity is a beautiful thing, isn't it? One day God is going to make us perfect and He's going to present us the way it's supposed to be. Well, folks, there was no purity in our lives to start with was. Remember what it says in Ephesians chapter two. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins and what you once walked following the course of this world following the prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passion of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature Children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But then you have one of the great butts in the Bible, don't you? But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. so that at the coming age he might show his immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus when he presents us as a bride without a spot, without a wrinkle, with no flaws whatsoever. How can you not read Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 27 and not rejoice? Listen to it again. So that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Purity is a beautiful thing. Listen, when you go diamond shopping, you want sparkle, right? You want clarity. You want purity. And then you want that diamond to be mounted in a gold ring. That is pure. God wants purity of truth, purity of doctrine, purity of conduct. Look again at Ephesians chapter four look at verses fourteen and fifteen so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine by human cunning by craftiness and deceitful schemes rather speaking the truth and love. We want to grow up in every way into him who was the head into Christ Jesus. by purposely joining together and ministering to each other in this way we are contributing to those very things that make up the beauty of the bride unity maturity here's the point and increasingly beautiful bride increasingly reflects God expects there to be a purposeful joining of parts to reflect His glory. But God also intends there to be a purposeful joining together of many parts to accomplish His purposes. Look with me again in Ephesians chapter 4. I want to start reading in verse 11. And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelist, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." So what's God's purpose? Well, the work of the body is the building up of the body. You say, but how does this happen? Well, Paul suggests two ways. First, he suggests by addition, or bringing in new members. And then secondly, he suggests by strengthening. Let's look at the first one by addition. Again, look at Ephesians 4, 11. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. Now you're thinking, Pastor, how did you get to that? Well, there's two words in there I want us to look at. The first word is the word apostle. What does that mean, do you know? It means someone who was sent out with the gospel. And then the next word I want you to see is the word evangelist. What's the idea behind evangelism? Someone being sent out to proclaim the gospel, right? So then God wants us to proclaim the truth of the gospel. The fruit of their labor then is people being added to the church, right? In fact, look back at Chapter 3 for a second. Verse 17. So what happens to someone who is full of God's love? Who's experienced this forgiveness of sin? Who's experienced the guilt being eradicated in your life? What do you want to do with that? Just sit on it? You want to share with others how they can have the release of sin, how they can have guilt wiped away, how they can have a relationship with the God of the Bible through Christ Jesus. And so you share the gospel, right? The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Listen, I was in sin. God showed me my sin. I repented. I put my faith and trust in Jesus and he saved me. My life has been turned upside down. I have a purpose now to live. And what happens when we get that? People begin to be added to the church. In fact, folks, read the book of Acts and see what that looks like. You remember how the church started in Pentecost? They waited for the Spirit. The Spirit came down. Peter got up and he preached. And what did he preach? That Jesus was the Messiah. That He came to save them from their sins. That if they repent and believe, they could have life. And a bunch of people did, didn't they? And then Peter walks into the temple. And all of a sudden, he sees a guy there who's crippled. He said, I don't have anything to give you, but pick up your mat and walk. The people flock to find out what's going on. What's Peter do? You remember? He preaches. He tells them about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. How forgiveness of sin is available to them if they repent and believe and trust in Christ and Him alone for eternity. do it. And a bunch of people did it and the church began to grow, didn't it? They began to gather together and minister to each other. But even in the church, sometimes there's problems, isn't there? And the ladies that were Greek-speaking, the Hellenist, weren't getting taken care of like the Jewish people were. The ladies that needed assistance, the widows. Do you remember Acts chapter 6? In fact, let's just turn there for a second. In those days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because the widows were being neglected in the daily distributions. and the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the spirit and of wisdom, whom we'll appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Procorus, and Canor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. Now listen to this next verse. And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. it was the building of the church with the preaching of the word powered by the spirit of god and those who respond to the gospel trusted him were baptized in the church grows so how does this happen by addition by new members but there's something else the body is also to be built up by the strengthening of the parts or as we said earlier by purposely joining together we're asking brothers and sisters to encourage each other to challenge each other to push each other in their walk with Christ now listen if you're not connected to the body that no one can help This is how it happens, all right? Look, Ephesians 4, 11. He says and he gave the apostles and the prophets the evangelist the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry for building up the body of Christ until we attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro. by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful screams, where they're speaking the truth of love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who was the head, even into Christ. So when we encourage one another, when we bear with one another, when we speak to one another, as we minister to one another, See, as this happens, the body is strengthened. God's purposes are accomplished and his glory is put on display. So here's the point. It's all about purposely joining together. And that's why we do membership here in this church. Membership is the purposefully joining together with others. It's a public display, right? I'm with you. I want to do it I want to join arms I want to push the glory of Christ further into this community I remember joining the church doesn't save you right what saves you is is you are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone through the scriptures alone to the glory of God alone but God does intend that there be a purposeful joining together of many parts to be connected, to be linked together, to be knowingly and intentionally a body. And you know something? I used to think I could minister to everybody in the church. And once in a while I still want to think that. But the beauty of the body is while the hands may not be immediately connected to the ear, they're still part of the same body, right? And my point is we are all immediately connected to different parts of the body. Look again at chapter 4 verse 16 from which the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. There are joints specific places where we're connected together. but we're not all connected at the same place in the same way are we but we will not be but when each part does its work when the joints are perfectly connected people serving together people fellowshipping together all of us ministering to one another the whole body is building build up isn't it and isn't that what verse sixteen says with each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up so what does God want to do he wants to show his glory through his church and the way that happens is you and I use the gift that God gives us and encouraging moving others forward in our walk with Christ. And as that happens, then we become more like Jesus. And the more we become like Jesus, the more beauty it shows. And the more beauty it shows, the more the Father is praised because we're doing what God wants. We're reflecting the very glory of God in our lives and as a church. Let me just conclude by addressing a couple of different groups. Maybe you're here today and you're not a Christian. You're curious. You're even wondering. What's this all about this life of faith? Well, let me just say, first of all, we're glad you're here. We want to give you an opportunity to explore this life he offers. But listen, there's a matter more important than being joined together, and that's being joined to Christ. You've got to start there. And so if you're here without Jesus, listen. Jesus says, turn from your sin. Turn from trusting in yourself. Turn from that and trust in Jesus. Listen to what Jesus says in John six, verse 37. All that the father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will never cast. So if you're here without Christ, Christ has come. Secondly, if you're a believer and you're visiting New Covenant Church looking for a church, you're welcome here. All right. We want to serve you. And listen, if I can answer any questions, I'm always available. But the local church is God's way. In the community in which we live and in the world in which we live. And then listen, if you're here and you are a believer and you've already purposely joined together, here's my question. Is my participation, my engagement meaningful along these lines? Am I contributing to the beautification of the body of Christ? Am I contributing to its unity, to its maturity, to its purity? Am I exercising my gifts in such a way that I'm helping to build up the body of Christ and because of that it's growing? You see, I did this little series on Back to the Basics because I'm afraid sometimes we forget the basics. And God has us here. And the reason He has us here is He wants us to purposely join together to reflect His glory and accomplish His purposes. and if we're going to it's going to take each and every one of us. Because I can't do it alone. Because you might join up where I don't join up. And when you exercise your gifts and you encourage and exhort and even sometimes rebuke out of love and speak the truth in love, what happens is the body then begins You know, as I was thinking about this, it's one of those things you do, anything you do after it's all done, you think, you know what, I should have said this, right? You ever been there? Last week I thought to myself, when I closed the message, why didn't I use the church axiom? Well, today I'm going to. All right, how do we say it? God is most honored and we are most happy when we worship him serve one another, and take the gospel to the nations. We're part of something bigger than ourselves. We're part of the body of Christ, locally manifested in Glen Carbon, and we're here to reflect God's glory and to carry forth His purposes. Let's pray together. Father, thank You for this time together now. We're thankful for Your Word. We're thankful for the local New Testament church that You have started and you are continuing to build and you will continue to build until that day when you finally present your bride to the Father without a spot, without a blemish. Father, help us to look into our hearts and see where we're at in that spectrum. Are we doing all that we can to make the body beautiful? And then, Father, I would pray that there'd be someone here without Christ today. they would see their need for a savior and they would repent and believe and trust in christ and that they would go to jesus and receive the forgiveness of sin father we pray this all in jesus name