Calvary Road Baptist Church
“KNOWING JESUS”
Ephesians 4.13
I am a pastor. I am as sure I was created by God and born into this world to be a pastor as I am of anything else I am sure of. So, when it comes to the pastor’s role in the Gospel ministry, I will be the first to admit that I am not objective. I am extremely biased regarding the call of God to the ministry, the importance of the ministry to the cause of Christ in general, and the critical role that the ministry plays in every one of your lives. And, just like the Apostle Paul did with his ministry, I seek to magnify my ministry.
In Ephesians 4.12, Paul explains the role in your lives the Savior has in mind for people like me:
“For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”
The verse we just read declares what preachers are supposed to do. Perfect the saints, who do the ministry’s work, and the congregation’s edification will be the result. But there are other things that need to be dealt with concerning the Gospel ministry.
Listen to what that great Princeton theologian of days gone by, Charles Hodge, wrote about this verse: Quoting John Calvin, he begins,
“They therefore are insane who, neglecting this means, hope to be perfect in Christ, as is the case with fanatics, who pretend to secret revelations of the Spirit; and the proud, who content themselves with the private reading of the Scripture, and imagine they do not need the ministry of the Church.”[1]
Hodge continues,
“If Christ has appointed the ministry for the edification of his body, it is in vain to expect that end to be accomplished in any other way.”[2]
We see that the ministry of the gifted man, the preacher, the pastor is intended by God to be of vital importance to every genuinely born-again Christian. But there are two observations to be made about the pastor’s ministry. And for that, we turn to our text for today, Ephesians 4.13:
“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 fulness of Christ.”
Some churchgoing people start in their Church attending well aware that they need to be taught God’s Word and prepared in a particular way to serve God. But after a while, some think they no longer need the pastor’s ministry. They imagine they are quite mature and seasoned. They seem to be superficially quite familiar with Scripture. They feel that Bible preaching and the gifted man’s ministry is not something they need as much as others might.
Our text shows that kind of thinking to be entirely foreign for Scriptural truth, in two ways: First, by showing us the duration of the Gospel ministry. Second, by showing us the goal of the Gospel ministry. Notice, first, the duration of the Gospel ministry with the ministry’s pastors and evangelists. Paul wrote, “Till we all come....” The word “till come” translates the aorist subjunctive form of the Greek verb katantάoo.[3] Meaning? Paul is referring to an as yet unattained goal. The Gospel ministry exists and is scheduled to continue existing until some time in the prophetic future when the goals described in this verse are achieved.
So, here you are, Christian. You have been saved through faith in the shed blood of Christ. Likely as not, you have been Scripturally baptized since your conversion and are immersed in Church life and ministry, which is the Biblical sequence of events. But you have not yet arrived. Though saved and sealed and serving and on your way to heaven, there are still some things the Savior wants to see accomplished in your life. And guess what? I happen to be integral to the process of those things being realized in your life.
What are those things? What is that goal? Paul describes a single twine through three separate strands that are inseparable. Here is what they are: First, the goal of coming unto the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. Second is the goal of coming unto a perfect man. And third, the goal of coming unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
In several passages in the New Testament, First Corinthians 3 and 13, Galatians 4, Hebrews 5, Second Peter 1, and First John 2, we are shown that Christians start their lives in Christ being spiritually immature, much like a newborn infant. God’s plan for the baby Christian is growing and maturing. But growth and maturing do not occur unconsciously and accidentally in the spiritual realm as it does physically. Humanly speaking, and through God’s abundant grace, spiritual maturity comes only as a result of diligence by the Christian, coupled with the careful and attentive involvement of a pastor as a mens of grace.[4]
This is where I think Protestantism went wrong. Recoiling against the errors of Roman Catholicism (which placed the priesthood as mediators between sinners and God), the Protestants overreacted for the most part (Charles Hodge being a commendable exception) by excluding, for all practical purposes, the role of the gifted men in the process of sanctification and growth that Christ intended.
Even when the Christian’s dedication to Christ is unsurpassed, and when the pastor’s spirituality and wisdom are unequaled, the goal of arriving at complete spiritual maturity is unattainable in this lifetime. Great strides can be made, and great strides are made in individuals’ lives. But final arrival to the goal described in verse 13 will not occur until that moment in time when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more, and the morning breaks eternal bright and fair, when the saints of earth are gathered over on the other shore, and the role is called up yonder.
Although this passage does not specifically call attention to that particular aspect of arriving at the goal that we shall all come to who possess new life in Christ, but rather focuses on the fact that the goal will be arrived at, and that the gifted man’s ministry is engaged in meeting that goal, a valid conclusion to draw is this: The ministry of the pastor is important to you because the pastor’s ministry is one of the important factors used by the Savior to prepare you for the Rapture, at which time this goal mentioned in verse 13 will be realized.
So, yes, I do magnify my ministry. I think my ministry is vitally important in your life. I do not think the Bible teaches that Christians can safely do without their pastor’s ministry. I think the Bible teaches, on the other hand, that Christians cannot safely do without their pastor’s ministry. And I think this country we live is sufficient illustration of what happens when pastors forget the critical nature of their ministries, when Christians forget the critical nature of their pastor’s ministries and go it alone, and when that great throng of unsaved people who think they are Christians think they can do without pastors.
I urge you, friend. Do what must be done to be here whenever your pastor preaches and teaches. It is a vital part of the Savior’s plan for working in your life and blessing you. And those people who seem to do okay without their pastor’s ministry in their lives? They are not doing okay. It will just take some time for the truth to come out.
I turn now to a famous man who was religious but lost. His name was John Wesley. He was an Oxford University-trained minister in the Church of England. I have heard it said that he was traveling on a British vessel bound for the British colony of Georgia. His goal was to work as a missionary among the population of what had originally been founded as a penal colony for convicted criminals.
While crossing the Atlantic Ocean, a great storm rose up and beat the ship unmercifully, putting Mr. Wesley in fear of his life. Because of his obvious fear, John Wesley was approached on the ship by a Moravian pastor and asked, “Sir, do you know Jesus Christ?” Wesley, easily identifiable as a Church of England minister by his clothes, indignantly replied, “Of course. He’s the Savior of the world.” The Moravian pastor replied, “Yes, but is He your personal Savior?”[5] That Moravian Gospel minister, relying upon his experience in the ministry, which told him that genuinely saved people typically react differently to the imminent threat of death than unsaved people, suspected that John Wesley was not genuinely converted.
Then, when Wesley bristled at the idea that someone would question the genuineness of his Christianity, the Moravian pastor asked him the second question, which served to expose whether or not this Church of England minister was relying upon his knowledge about Jesus to give him confidence concerning his soul, or whether he was relying upon the fact that he actually knew Jesus personally to give him confidence concerning his soul’s salvation.
There is a difference between knowing facts about Jesus and knowing Jesus. You can know a great deal about Jesus and still be as unsaved as the wildest reprobate. There is a difference between knowing facts about someone and knowing him. The Lord Jesus Christ made this very clear in Matthew 27.22-23, where He said,
“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
So, you see, folks, salvation has nothing to do with what you know. It has everything to do with Who you know. For the next few minutes, let’s consider the situation a sinner finds himself in.
First, SINNER, YOU DO NOT KNOW GOD
How do we know this? We know that sinners do not know God because you do not want to know God. Using the Word of God as our infallible guide to show us the inner workings of the sinful heart, here is what we know about you.
First, you do not know God because you, and all other sinners, love sins. If you define love as that which is your first concern, where the affections of your heart lie, then what do you love? The Bible describes sinners as lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. Sinners are also described as those who love vanity, those who love slumber, and who love sexual sins. Is there any doubt that the druggie loves his drugs? Is there any doubt that the drunkard loves his booze? Is there any doubt that the thief loves the thrill of stealing what belongs to others and the excitement of living outside the law? Is there any doubt that he who dishonors his mother or father rejoices at the feeling of power and rebellion over those who once exercised authority over him?
How about the religious hypocrite, with all his prancing and posturing? Does not he love sin who loves to publicly worship God but who hates to privately obey God, who loves to stand up and give testimonies for the praise of men, but who secretly clings to his coins and refuses to tithe to God because he loves his meager treasure more than he loves honoring God with the first fruits of his increase? Hey, folks, I’ve been there. And so have many here today. Some of you are still there. People wallow in their sins because they love it. And you commit sins because you enjoy them. You enjoy the thrill of the argument won. You enjoy the pleasure you derive from forbidden fruit. The hidden magazines, the secret videos, the surreptitious glance, putting on makeup and clothing designed for allurement and enticement. Deny it if you will. Protest if you feel you must. But remember what Shakespeare said: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”[6] You do not know God because you love sins.
Second, you do not know God because God hates sins. Make no mistake about it. God passionately and perserveringly, God eternally and incomprehensibly, God rightly and wrathfully, hates sins. You do not know God because God hates what you like. You do not know God because God hates what you love. You do not know God because God stands opposed to everything you stand for, everything you live for, everything you connive for, everything you scheme for.
God hates wickedness. God hates divorce. God hates the man that sows discord among the brethren. God hates the proud look. God hates the lying tongue. God hates the heart that devises wicked imaginations.[7] “Oh, no, pastor. I don’t love those things. I admit that I’ve done those things. But I don’t love those things.” That’s a wicked imagination right there. Your own heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.[8] It will lie to you and convince you that you hate what you love and love what you hate. And you will believe your wicked heart before you’ll believe God.
The bottom line is that you don’t know God because you hate God. “Pastor, you’re being mean to me. You’re being hateful.” No, my friend. I am attempting to tell you, perhaps passionately, the truth. You see, it’s the truth that will make you free.[9] You must be told the truth. And you must believe the truth. Before you can ever be saved, sinner, you must know the truth that you hate God.
Listen to a portion of the Second Commandment given to Moses:
“For I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity (which is another word for sins) of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”[10]
Did you hear that? Since sin is a striking at God, a rebellion against God, a violation of God, a shaking of the fist at God, what else is God to surmise, but that those who commit sins against Him hate Him? Perhaps you don’t know it. Maybe you are not aware of it. Possibly, it is so deeply ingrained in your subconscious mind that you are oblivious to it. But by the very nature of your being, because you are a sinner, you hate God. And because you hate God, you cannot know Him, because to know Him is to love Him. And to love Him is to obey Him. Amen?
Next, SINNER, YOU CANNOT KNOW GOD
Why can you not know God? Because sinners are incapable of knowing God. God is a spirit. But you are not a spirit. You are physical. You have five senses with which you perceive and come to know reality around you. Being physical, how are you to know God, Who is spirit? You cannot see Him. You cannot hear Him. You cannot feel Him. You cannot smell Him or taste Him. Oh, you can learn things about God, such as His power and wisdom and goodness. But how can you possibly know Him? How can someone whose mind is perverted by sin, whose thoughts are a complete and total contradiction to everything God stands for, who is hopelessly alienated from God, possibly know Him?
Even if you could know God, you would not. Because you are unwilling to know God. To know God, you would have to seek after God, yet Romans 3.11 declares that “there is none that seeketh after God.” In Romans 3.18, we are told that sinners have no fear of God in their eyes. How can someone know God and not fear Him, Whom to know is to fear? If you protest that you do seek after God, when God’s holy Word says you do not, it is yet more proof that you do not know God and will not know God. By protesting the accuracy of the Word of God you question God’s truthfulness, God’s honesty, and God’s integrity. Oh, my friend, it is a tragic thing. It is a soul-damning thing. But it is a truthful thing I say: You cannot know God.
Third, YOU CAN, HOWEVER, KNOW YOUR SINFULNESS
You do have that spiritual capacity.
You can know your sinfulness by means of the Law. God gave the Jewish people His Law. And He gave it only to them. His Law is summed up in the Ten Commandments. Why, precisely, did God give to the Jews, a sinful people in their own right, the Law? Romans 3.20 provides a portion of God’s reasoning: “For by the Law is the knowledge of sin.” So there would be a witness of their sinfulness. And even though the Law was not given to Gentiles in the way it was given to Israel, we too can benefit from the Law as a witness to our sinfulness. Do you bow down to statues? That is a sin, according to the Ten Commandments. Do you honor your parents? Failure to do so is a sin. Do you covet? Do you steal? All these things, which sinners do, are sins. Have you committed fornication or lusted in your heart?
So, sinner, you can know that you are a sinner by the testimony of the Law. And be careful should you think of resisting and denying the testimony of the Law, for the Bible says that the Law is good and true and perfect.
You can also know your sinfulness by the ministry of the Spirit. The Spirit, of course, is the Holy Spirit of God, the Third Person of the triune Godhead. With regard to sinners, He has a particular ministry. From the book of Genesis, we see that the Holy Spirit’s ministry is to strive with people regarding their sin and to resist their sinful tendencies. In John 16.8, the Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples that one aspect of the Holy Spirit’s ministry would be convincing sinful men that they are sinners.
So, my friend, you are a sinner. We know this because all have sinned. But because you are a sinner you do not know God. Because you are a sinner you cannot know God. But through the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit works to convince you that you are a sinner by showing you that you stand in violation of God’s holy Law. This you can know. This you must know. Until you know that you are a sinner, and conceive in some way in your mind and heart that the wages of sin is death, eternal and unending damnation, there is no hope for you.
Finally, SINNER, YOU CAN KNOW JESUS
Because you cannot come to God, my friend, God sent the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, to you. Indeed, the Lord Jesus said about Himself that He “came to seek and to save that which was lost.”[11] So, when the Lord Jesus Christ presents Himself to you through the preaching of the Gospel, that He died for your sins and shed His blood, that He was buried, and that He rose from the dead after three days and nights, and that He did all that to save you from your sins, how do you respond? Let me emphasize that you will only respond properly when you are thoroughly convinced of your sinfulness and the complete hopelessness of your lost condition. If you have been so convinced by the Holy Spirit, here is how you will respond to the Lord Jesus Christ’s offer to save you from your sins:
By turning away from your sins, Second Corinthians 7.10-11:
10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
11 For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.
This is the Apostle Paul’s explanation to the Corinthians of the attitude a person has who is really repentant, who is really disgusted by the sinfulness of his sins, and who realizes how very horrible it is to sin against God. How different this is from the sorrow of the world.
Duke Snider, the famous retired Hall of Fame Dodger center fielder who was convicted of tax evasion in July of 1995, said these words to reporters in response to his conviction during a television interview: “I’m sorry I got caught. I hope my fans will give me a second chance.” Isn’t that typical of the sorrow of an unsaved man who is not really convinced of his sinfulness? Sure it is. He’s sorry all right. Sorry he got caught.
What about Pete Rose, one of the greatest of all baseball players, expelled from baseball years ago for gambling on baseball while he was still in baseball. Then, after years of denials, he suddenly confessed to what he had done. Why did he confess? To sell his tell-all book? Likely. To hopefully be reinstated into baseball’s good graces because the time limit for his election into the baseball hall of fame was running out? Certainly. Pete Rose is not sorry he bet on games he was involved in. He is only sorry he got caught.
Real sorrow, godly sorrow, results in repentance, which is simply a turning away of the mind, a complete change of the mind toward something. By the way, you can only turn away from sin, really turn away from sin, by turning to Jesus.
Which is to say, by trusting Jesus. Jesus is the Savior. He is the One Who left heaven’s glory to be born of a virgin. He is the One Who died on the cross and shed His blood to wash away your sins. He is the One Who rose from the dead and then ascended to heaven to the right hand of the Father, where He now is.[12] And He is the One you must come to by faith to be saved from your sins. What will happen if you do that? Then the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, will cleanse you from all your sins, First John 1.7. And God will remember your sins and iniquities no more, Hebrews 8.12 and 10.17. When you are washed clean in the blood of Jesus you will be a saint, not a sinner. You will then know God through His Son Jesus. And you will come to hate what He hates and will not want to sin anymore.
Friend, won’t you come to Jesus today?
He’s not mad at you.
He loves you, and His arms are open to receive you as you come to Him to have your sins washed away in His precious blood.
__________
[1] Charles Hodge, A Commentary On Ephesians, (Carlisle, PA: The Banner Of Truth Trust, 1964), page 164.
[2] Ibid., pages 164-165.
[3] Fritz Rienecker & Cleon Rogers, Linguistic Key To The Greek New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Regency Reference Library, 1980), page 531.
[4] The twice-mentioned diligence integral to spiritual growth is seen in 2 Peter 1.5-11
[5] https://www.moravian.org/2018/07/a-brief-history-of-the-moravian-church/
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_lady_doth_protest_too_much,_methinks
[7] Proverbs 6.16-19
[8] Jeremiah 17.9
[9] John 8.32
[10] Exodus 20.5
[11] Luke 19.10
[12] Psalm 16.11; 110.1; Matthew 26.64; Mark 12.36; 14.62; 16.19; Luke 20.42; 22.69; John 3.13; 13.1; 14.2-4; Acts 1.9-11; 2.33, 34-35; 7.56; Romans 8.34; Ephesians 1.20; 6.9; Colossians 3.1; Second Thessalonians 1.7; Hebrews 1.3, 13; 8.1; 9.24; 10.12-13; 12.2; 1 Peter 3.22; Revelation 19.11
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