Christ's ascension to heaven, following his descent into the earth, empowered him to bestow gifts upon humanity for the building of the church. Drawing from Ephesians 4 and Psalm 68, it details the upward movement of Christ's ascension, the downward movement of the Holy Spirit's descent, and the outward movement of the gospel spreading through the apostles and early believers. The message emphasizes that God has sovereignly placed various spiritual gifts within the church, such as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, to perfect the saints and edify the body of Christ, urging believers to discover and utilize their God-given gifts for His glory.
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Shall we turn now to the Word of God, to the fourth chapter of Ephesians, verse four. There is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called, in 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. but unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he says, and he's quoting from Psalm sixty-eight verse eighteen, wherefore he says, when he ascended upon high he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men.
Now that he ascended, what is it, but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth, He that descended is the same also that ascended up, far above all heavens, that He might fill all things. And He gave some apostles, some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 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, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, make it increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. Now back to First Corinthians chapter twelve, which chapter we have referred to several times lately here on a Thursday night. First Corinthians chapter twelve, verse twelve.
For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body. Whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not of the hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, am I not of the body? Am I not of the body? Is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?
If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him? Verse twenty eight. And God said, some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing?
Do all speak with tongues, do all interpret, but covet earnestly the best gifts. May God bless us the reading of his own precious word. I think we pointed out here before that in the Acts of the Apostles there are three major movements in the early chapters. There's an upward movement, a downward movement, and an outward movement. In chapter one and verse nine it says, when he had spoken these things while they beheld, he was taken out, and a cloud received him out of their sight.
That's the upward movement. And then in chapter two, Suddenly, verse two, suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting, and they appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire, and it sat upon them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. That's the downward movement. The Lord Jesus went up, the Holy Spirit came down. And then in the eighth chapter, and we'll read verse one. and Saul was consenting unto Stephen's death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was in Jerusalem.
And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except for the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and hailing men and women, committed them to prison. Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. There's the outward movement. They that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. And I think in chapter eleven we pick up the same thought. Verse nineteen of chapter eleven. Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phineas and Cyprus and Antioch.
preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only. And then in the Thirteenth chapter, the Holy Spirit said to those at Antioch, Separate unto me. Separate unto me. Barnabasin saw, for the work whereon do I have called them, and they went out to the far ends of the earth, Paul did, as a missionary. So the upward movement was the Lord ascending up to heaven. The downward movement was the Holy Spirit coming down upon them, and the outward movement was the movement of the apostles in those early days, and of the Christians in those early days, to take out the gospel.
Now, in Psalm sixty-eighth, can read this over and over and I suppose apart from the revelation of the New Testament you would never never know exactly what it's referring to verse eighteen thou hast ascended on high Psalm sixty eight it's called a messianic Psalm because it's about the Messiah it's prophecies about the Lord Jesus and a messianic Psalm is a Psalm of some of the verses of which are quoted in connection with the Lord Jesus in the New Testament. That's the Messianic Psalm.
Verses from that Psalm, which might have been written about David in the primary sense, they are quoted in the New Testament as applying to the Lord Jesus. It's called a Messianic Psalm. And this verse makes Psalm sixty-eight a Messianic Psalm. Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God may dwell among them. And so we read in Ephesians four, quoting from that verse eighteen, Wherefore he said, quote, when he says he said it, I mean he said it in a sound.
Wherefore he said, when he ascended upon high, he led captivity, captive and gave gifts unto men. Now here's the picture then. The Lord Jesus had said, in Matthew sixteen, after Peter's wondrous confession, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. The Lord Jesus had said, Blessed art thou Simon, son of Bar-Jonas, for flesh and blood has not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. I say unto thee thou, Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church. Future tense, some people tell you, that the church started with Abraham. But the Lord Jesus said, Will I build my church?
Not on this rock I started to build my church with Abraham, but I'm going to start building my church. And we know very well the church started at the day of Pentecost. The Lord Jesus said, I'm going to build my church. And after his suffering, he descended, it says he descended into the lower parts of the earth. The Lord Jesus went down into death and down into the grave. and God raised him up, and he ascended up on high. But he has a great work to do. He's going to build a church. He's going to build a church. And he's left behind in this world just a few believers.
The eleven apostles and the whole group of them that was gathered together in Jerusalem at that time, it says the whole number of them was a hundred and twenty people praying every day. If you look at Acts, Acts one, very interesting. Acts one, I like the way the little words all comes here. In Acts one, verse fourteen. These all continued with one accord in prayer. Now who were these all? Verse thirteen. When they were coming in Jerusalem, they went up into an upper room where above Peter and James and John and Andrew and Philip and Thomas and Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon Zalodis and Judas the brother of James.
These all continued with one accord in prayer. And further down it says that the number of them was about a hundred and twenty, the next verse. In those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said, the number of the names together were a hundred and twenty. And Peter said, Men and brethren and so on. They all continued in prayer. And then in the second chapter, the Holy Ghost fell upon all of them. I like the way the little word all comes in. In verse seven, they were all amazed.
And they were all with one accord in one place. And here's the secret of the blessing of Pentecost. There was absolute unity. They were all together with one accord in one place. And the Lord's gone back to the glory of heaven. He's going to build his church. And what does he do? He sends down the Holy Spirit to indwell the hearts of the believers. And then he sends them out to preach the gospel. But the church, while it is not an organization, it's an organism, not an organization, yet God has his organization for the church.
He didn't leave the church fatherless and motherless. He didn't leave us without rules and regulations. He didn't leave us to make our own church or make our own plans and our own arrangements and rulings. He gave us all the rules here in the book. What did he do? He went up on high and then he gave gifts to men. He says, he that ascended up on high gave gifts to men. Now what were the gifts he gave? It tells us in Ephesians four. He gave some apostles. What was this for? This was for the building up of this church which he's going to build.
This is for the establishing of the church in those very early days, apostles. And for the building of the saints. That's one of the gifts he gave, the gift of an apostle. Now it's pretty clear to me that an apostle must be a person that is seen in the Lord Jesus. It says it in, it infers, and I think it means it, in First Corinthians fifteen, it says, verse seven, after that he was seen of James, then of all the apostles, and last of all, he was seen of me.
For I am not, I am the least of all the apostles, not me to be called an apostle, because I have persecuted the Church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am. But he emphasizes the fact that he had seen the Lord. Now he never saw the Lord in the flesh. He saw the exalted, glorified Lord, and fell at his feet and surrendered all he had to him right away. I have seen the Lord. Have I not seen the Lord? So he was an apostle. God gave, the Lord gave, first apostles and then prophets. Now this isn't not prophets in the sense of the Old Testament prophet.
This is a New Testament prophet. The prophet was the teacher, the minister of the Word of God in those early days of the church. I would suggest the apostles are God. They were the first century men who would sing the Lord, they passed off the scene. I would suggest that the New Testament prophets, that was a special gift which God gave in those early days to establish the church in its infancy, in its early days, the New Testament prophets. But he also gave this gift, some evangelists. Evangelist.
That's an absolutely Greek word. Ev means good. And Angelia means news. So, evangel is good news. And an evangelist is one who takes the good news, the gospel. He preaches the gospel. Now I think it's absolutely necessary that we should be clear in our minds that God gave to some men the gift of an evangelist. We can't all be evangelists. I've heard some people say, well, brother, so until you never hear him preach the gospel.
Well, God didn't give him the gift of an evangelist. There are other gifts, though. He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. Now, God has given to some men the gift of a pastor. He can visit in the homes, he can tend the flock and care for the flock. He's a pastor. We haven't all got that gift. He's given to others the gift of teachers. who can teach and expound the word of God. I look back on my life and I think of great men whom God brought into my life to teach me the word of God. Wonderful teachers. And yet I don't think I ever heard them preach the gospel.
Their business was to expound this word. And I used to, for many years, well, for five years I was in the same meeting with a very famous man of God called Walter Scott. And he was a great teacher, great teacher of the Word of God, particularly a great teacher of prophecy. But I remember him making a statement on several occasions. I remember making a statement, making this statement. He said, the evangelist has liberties which the teacher and the pastor has not.
He says the evangelist business is to go out into the world and preach the gospel. He goes out with the gospel. He wins souls to Christ and he brings them in and the teacher teaches them and the pastor looks after them. Now I'm not speaking of a pastor in the sense that we think of a pastor today as the one man that runs a church. I'm not meaning that. There should be many pastors in the church. Or not many, it depends on the site. There should be a number of pastors who can care for the flock. There should be a number of teachers. But the evangelist goes out and brings them in. Some people criticize Billy Graham.
And they say, why does Billy Graham go here and go there and do the other? Billy Graham's an evangelist. And the orders to the evangelist is to go into all the world and preach the gospel. And I don't care wherever Billy Graham goes in this place, in this world, is in the world. He hasn't broken God's command. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. That's his business, to preach the gospel. An evangelist can go into a cavern where there's a lot of men drinking and preach the gospel. But the teacher of the Word of God, and we ought to get out of place if you wouldn't do it. The evangelist goes and wins the men and brings them in. And the teacher, inside the fold, he teaches the Word of God.
And these are the gifts that God has given. Now, in Ephesians, he gave these gifts to men. Many times in my life, I've sat down and asked myself, What gift did God give to me? What gift did God give to me? I love to preach the gospel. And I don't know of any thrill greater than the thrill of leading a soldier Christ. And yet I love to expound the Word of God. You've asked yourself the question, every one of you. You ladies, your sisters, as you work amongst in the sisters' meetings and so on, and as you work from home to home, and as you have all through life, I mean we're all getting up in years, we look back on years of experience.
What gift did God give to us that we could use over these years? Was it the gift of teaching, pastoring, caring for the flock, preaching the gospel? God has given everybody a gift, and I don't think we can slip out of it, you know. We all have some gift God has given us. I don't believe that every man has to be on the platform. God's given to some men the gift of being able to express things in public. You know, this is heaven. They can still be teachers, they can still be evangelists, but they can do better talking face to face in conversation than they could on a platform trying to expand it.
But in this chapter, Ephesians four, he gave these gifts to men. Now let's go back to First Corinthians chapter twelve that we've spoken from so many times maybe. Verse eighteen. In chapter twelve of Ephesians, we're called members of the body of Christ. Members of the body of Christ. And in verse eighteen, now God has set the members, every one of them in the body, as it has pleased him. Now if we are in line with God's will for us, If our lives are wholly submitted to the Lord, and we've only moved when He's moved us, we haven't just had our own way when we've made moves and said, well, I want to go and live so and so, I'd like to live there.
I want to go to Florida. It'll be nice and bright and sunny down there. That's not our joy. God has to lead us to Florida. If we come to Parker the Palm thing, God has to be the one that leads us to Parker the Palm. And then we can truly say, He set the members in the body as He will. If God brought you here and God brought me here, then He set us here in the body of Christ here in Park of the Pound. That's how it works. But you know there's so many people planning their own lives. There's so many people that... I grieve sometimes to see some of our younger people. They get a chance of making another ten dollars a month and off they go.
Never one stop to think now, when I get to this new city, where am I going to be now? Is the New Testament church there? Will I be able to meet with the Lord's people as I always have? What am I going to do when I get there? Now let's go and get the ten bucks. That's what I want. And when they get there, they look around and say, oh dear, I can't find the fellowship that I've loved so many years. It's not here. Now I don't believe God moves us that way. unless he moved us to do that very job for him in that city. Now, for many years, I can say for many years, I have not made moves except the Lord has said, this is the way.
I would be afraid to make a move unless I felt sure that it was God's plan. And God always does show us. If we wait long enough, he will indicate in wonderful ways, God will indicate, this is the way. And so he set the members, every one of them in the body, as it has pleased him, as it has pleased him. Now then let's go over to verse twenty-seven. Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular. And God has set some. Some of the members now, we remember, God has given to some of the members the gift in those days of apostles, others of prophets, others of evangelists, pastor, teacher, and we'll see some more things here.
God has set some in the church. I take it that's in the local church where we are. God has put some in the church. First apostles, secondarily prophets, Thirdly, teachers, after that miracles in those days, they could work miracles for the establishing of the early church. Then gifts of healings in those days, they could heal the sick for the establishing, I believe, of the early church. Health, government, diversity of tongues.
Many of them could speak in foreign tongues in those days. They evidently spoke languages that could be understood anyhow, not gibberish like some people call tongues today. It makes no sense. Are all apostles? No, they're not all apostles. There are only twelve apostles. Are all prophets? No. They're gone anyhow. Are all teachers? No, they're not all teachers. Are all workers with miracles? No. Some in those days could work miracles. Others couldn't. Have all the gifts of healing?
No. Do we all speak in tongues? No. Do all interpret? No. But he says, covet earnestly the best gift. It seems to me in this hour day the best gifts are those gifts are these gifts of the evangelist, the teacher, and the pastor. He says, you covered these gifts. Now I know it's late in life for some of us to talk about gifts and what we can do for the Lord, and yet there's still opportunity. Really, I'm not... Fooling, when I say, as you've heard me say many times, I believe we'll yet live to see part of the Palms of Centre, and that from part of the Palms we'll go out with the Gospel, evangelists will go out from this place to other towns around.
I believe from part of the Palms, teachers will be able to go out and establish groups around here in Northern Florida. In the not too distant future, this is my thought about it. This is what I believe God has brought me here for. and brought you here for it. Together we should get built up to go out and do something for him. Let's be praying that God will send the right men. If he's given gifts to men, then he can send teachers here. He can send those for the pastors, shepherds, hearts here. He can send just whom he will hear. He can send evangelists here so we can get out with the gospel. Some men can win more people to Christ by personal conversation.
I don't know how it is. They can just make contacts and get people in. Others of us, we don't know where to start. But that's because God has given different gifts to men. Don't let envy somebody else, but let's find out what God wants me to do and let's do it with all our heart. Blessed God, we thank you for thy word. We thank thee the ascended Christ. has given gifts. And we pray that each one of us might find out exactly what those have us do and help us to do it for thy glory as we seek to function in thy church. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. Now we have our usual time for prayer.
Several visited Mrs. Morgan's day. I think Mr. and Mrs. Steck were there. Vera was there. And Mrs. Bernice McCarty went in with Vera and the I was in there last night until quite late. In fact, I didn't leave here till seven. I went in to see Mrs. Morgan. I'm so happy to say they've taken away this awful contraption that was on her arm. She had an awful, uncomfortable thing. It's gone. And now her arm is down by her side. It's probably strapped down there, but she hasn't got this awful, uncomfortable bracket sticking out here in the air. And she looks much happier and more docile and more content.
And we talked about the will of the Lord last night, that after over seventy years of wonderful Bible teaching, now is a wonderful chance to exhibit what we've heard and learned and be patient. And she smiled and she seemed to fall in with what we were saying. Now, today is her birthday. She's eighty-seven today. So just be praying tonight for Mrs. Morgan. We don't know how long before they'll move her to the other place, but she seems to be making progress. I understand that Mrs. What's her name?
Mrs. Lindsay, that she's coming along. She certainly had a stroke, but her daughters who've come down from New Jersey say she is not so bad as she was in February when she had a stroke in February. And they seem a gravely surprised to see that she's no worse than she is. So let's pray for her that God will deal with her and restore her. Let's see, what other news can I give you? Mrs. Elder is in the railroad train now, in the railroad train now, coming down from the north and will arrive at Waldo tomorrow morning about nine something. Mrs. Elder is coming back after her vacation.
Let's pray for her for a safe journey. Mr. and Mrs. Livingstone are up at Hendersonville, as far as we know. They got there yesterday. Hendersonville up there in North Carolina, up in the mountains, trying to have a rest. And surely, if anybody deserves a rest, it's Mr. Mrs. Livingstone, particularly Mrs. Livingstone. She's worked tirelessly for months. Let's pray for them that God will build them up and do them good. I've not heard from Mr. Frank Wardenburg since I saw him last Thursday. And he's pretty busy. I don't think we may not see him for another week or two. I don't know. He may be here tomorrow, I couldn't say. I think these are the main items of news as it affects us around here.
Many are traveling, many are away. Our brother Mr. Geddes is still very poorly. This emphysema job is a bad worry for him. Let's pray for him. And brother Lamont, he's gone down with his niece and her husband to Fort Lauderdale for a day or two. That may do him good. So let's pray for one another. We know all the great big problems of the government international situation and the terrible effects of the hurricane and so many problems in the world. Let's lay them at the feet of the Lord. Let's pray briefly if we can, please.