Ephesians chapter 4, Ephesians
chapter 4 if you weren't with us last week we're continuing
in our book first by verse study through this great book of Ephesians
and we jump back in last week and we kind of picked up where
we had left off earlier in the year last year kind of looking
at this passage in one unit of Ephesians 4 11 through 16. And really this whole passage
of scripture talks about God's growth plan for the church. This
morning we'll be looking at the last part of it in verses 14,
15, and 16. And so the subtitle in your outline
title this morning is the building up of the body, the building
up of the body. So let me read the whole passage
in its context if I can, and then we'll be concentrating on
verses 14 through 16 this morning, the building up of the body.
And he gave the apostles, 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 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. 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 in deceitful schemes
rather speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in every
way into him who is the head into Christ from whom 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. Father, we pray this
morning as we dive into this text that you would teach us
what it means for the body to build itself up in love. This day, I pray, God, that we
would learn great things from your word so that we might do
great things as a church, exalting Christ, spreading Christ's love
to our community, and living Christ's love with each other.
And it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, in order to understand
how the body of Christ can be built up and grow into mature
manhood, I thought it might be helpful to take a moment and
to look at how God designed our human bodies to grow and develop. I mean, throughout the scripture,
there's all kinds of analogies between the body of Christ as
a growing living organism, and some of those can be deduced
from just our physical bodies that exist that God created.
For example, the human body has a total of 210 different cell
types. The majority of cells in the
body are classified as somatic cells, which are just body cells.
Somatic cells make up the skin, hair, and muscle tissues, and
they reproduce through a process called mitosis. which is the
most common form of total body cell growth. Mitosis can happen
when areas of the body are growing, when older cells are replaced,
or when an area of the body becomes damaged or injured. And so mitosis
aids the building up of the body when a cell duplicates its genetic
material and then splits in half to form two complete cells that
are identical to the original one. Overall, somatic cells are
designed to reproduce up to 50 to 60 times within a person's
lifetime before they die off. However, the skin and hair and
nail cells can reproduce much more than that. The actual rate
of reproduction for hair, skin, and nail cells depends on individual
body chemistry. Of course, without the life-giving
flow of blood, none of this would be possible. It is the red blood
cell that is the body's primary way of delivering oxygen and
nutrients to the body tissues. And red blood cell reproduction
is fascinating because it requires the coordination of many essential
organs in order to maintain balanced blood levels. Red blood cells
are also known as erythrocytes, and erythropoiesis is the development
process by which new erythrocytes are produced. You starting to
feel like you're getting a science lesson? All right, there's a
point to it, all right? Hang in there. The production is stimulated
by a hormone synthesized by the kidney. The main site for the
embryonic stage of the red blood cell, however, is in the liver.
And then the mature red blood cell, it matures in the bone
marrow of the large bones at a rate of 2 million per second
in a healthy adult. The most responsible agent for
growth of the human body, we've looked a little bit at some of
the cells and how they reproduce the blood and how it's formed
using both the liver and the kidney and the bone marrow. But
the most responsible agent for the growth of the human body
in general is HGH or what's called human growth hormone. It is HGH
that stimulates growth, cell reproduction, and regeneration
in the human body. The effects of HGH on the cells
of the body can generally be described as anabolic, which,
get this, means building the body up. And that's exactly what's
going on inside of the body. It helps increase your height,
and it also has other effects on the body, such as increasing
the calcium retention, which strengthens and promotes mineralization
of the bone. It increases muscle mass, it
increases protein synthesis, and it stimulates the growth
of all the internal organs. Now, why am I telling you all
of this? Well, I'm telling you all this because just as God
in His infinite wisdom designed the human body to grow and to
build itself up with complicated processes that depend on each
other, organ depends upon organ. Red blood cell depends upon other
cells in the body. HGH is what makes it all come
together. And so just as the human body
is reproducing itself organically, the church is to be reproducing
itself organically as well. By organically I mean from within. Like it's a work that the body
does within itself. And God has called us as a body
to reproduce ourselves, to grow, to build ourselves up in love. And so from Christ, the whole
body is gifted and each one of us uses his gift for the benefit
of others. And when we do that properly,
then the whole body matures. And so we must recognize that
we belong to each other. that we need each other, that
no matter how insignificant we think our contribution is, we
are dependent on one another as a church in order to properly
grow and to build each other up in love. There are no little
people in the church of God. as Francis Schaeffer used to
say, and there are no little jobs. Whatever you're doing for
the glory of Christ as you serve in the church in general and
then in the local church here at Placerita means a lot to God. And just as a physical body needs
red corpuscles and a liver more than it needs a handsome face
or a beautiful hair, so we all play a vital part in the lifeblood
of the church. We are all necessary. We can
all contribute. And when we do, we will see our
body grow in maturity into the head of Jesus Christ. God has
a growth plan for the church. And in this series, we've talked
about how God desires to grow his church, not through human
innovation or successful marketing campaigns or even cultural relativism
that God's plan for growing the church is in this passage and
it includes in verse 11 God giving gifted people to the church that's
why he gave the Apostles and the prophets and the evangelists
and the pastor teachers to help equip the church last week we
talked about just that that these gifted people are to equip the
Saints and for the work of the ministry. That the pastor elders
do the equipping, the saints receive that instruction and
that teaching and they begin to grow and to begin to work
and to carry out the function of the church. And so this morning
we're gonna be looking at the building up of the body. And
so I've broken our message into three simple headings this morning
that will help us better understand how the body of Christ is to
be built up in love the first major heading if you're following
along in your outline is just simply this you must not remain
as a child look at verse 14 we read 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 in
deceitful schemes and so here we're really learning your first
blank there if you're taking notes is that children are immature
It's what we're really learning here, just kind of a general
reference that we're no longer to be as children because children
are assumed as being those that are immature. In fact, turn with
me, if you will, to the Gospel of John chapter 3. John chapter
3 and let's look at this familiar story for just a moment about
Nicodemus who came to Jesus by night right now there was a man
of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews and this
man came to Jesus by night and said to him rabbi we know that
you are a teacher come from God for no one can do these things
these signs that you do unless God is with him verse 3 19 Jesus
answered him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. 20 Nicodemus said to him,
How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second
time into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered,
truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and of the
spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of
flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to
you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes
and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from
or where it goes. So it is with everyone who was
born of the spirit. Now you're familiar with that
passage being the marquee passage of the doctrine of regeneration
And it is it talks about how we're born again by the spirit
and not by the flesh This passage obviously has a premier focus
on the idea of being born In fact, the word born is used eight
times in those eight And I'm simply just taking a look at
that so that we can understand that the first thing that we've
got to understand is that we all start in the Christian life
as children. It all starts with the fact that
there's a day where you're born and so you are obviously immature. You were just born. You were
just born again and it takes time to grow and so the idea
of being a child Isn't one that we should think of as being all
the time Derogatory for we began the Christian life as a baby
and then as a child But sometimes we forget about that. We need
to remember that being a child is a good thing but You can't
stay as a child forever. In fact, there are many medical
needs where HGH is infused into the lifeblood of a growing child
to help them grow properly. And the idea is that God did
not design his body spiritually to all remain babies and children
forever. In fact, turn with me, if you
will, to 1 John, chapter 2 1st John chapter 2 is a passage where
it's labeled for us that God desires us to grow from little
children to young men to spiritual fathers and so here John writes
in 1st John 2 12 through 14 I am writing to you little children
because your sins are forgiven for his namesake and I'm writing
to you fathers because you know him who was from the beginning.
I'm writing to you young men because you have overcome the
evil one. I write to you children because
you know the father. I write to you fathers because
you know him who was from the beginning. I write to you young
men because you are strong. The word of God abides in you
and you have overcome the evil one. Now I wanted you to look
at this passage again because it clearly talks about distinctions
in spiritual growth between the children who simply know who
the father is. As they grow and mature, they
become young men who are strong and able to overcome the evil
one. And as they mature still more,
they're then referenced as fathers who are the most mature group
of all. In other words, the goal of the
Christian life is not to remain as a child, but to grow into
a young spiritual man and then into a spiritual father. Now turn with me, if you will,
to 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2 in verse 2. helps us see this as we now are
eager to grow as those newborn babes 1st Peter chapter 2 verse
2 Peter writes this like newborn infants long for the pure milk
it's pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation. And so there's a challenge for
all of us to realize like, wow, when I first come to Christ,
I am a newborn babe. I am an infant and God has commanded. And what ought to be the natural
reaction to a new regenerated heart is you begin to long for
the word of God. Nobody has to tell you to spend
time in God's word, you long for it. Nobody has to tell you,
hey, you need to read your Bible today. That's what Christians
do. Now those Christians that are growing and that are eager
don't see reading the Bible as a have to or I ought to. They can't wait to get into God's
word each and every day so that they can grow up in their salvation. So that they can grow up from
being that child to being that young man to being that spiritual
father. We need to be spending time in
God's word because we cannot remain as a child. And one reason
that you can't remain and stay as an immature child is that
your second point here on your outline is that children are
unstable. Children are, they're precious,
right? But they are unstable. I mean, the Bible repeatedly
tells us that we need to walk in wisdom. And if we lack wisdom,
as we all do, especially children, then we need to ask God for it,
right? Isn't it James 1.5 that says,
if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives generously
to all without reproach and it will be given unto him. In that
same text of James, which is familiar to us, he then says
this, but let him ask in faith with no doubting for the one
who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed
by the wind. For that person must not suppose
that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded
man, unstable, all of his ways a lot of the same words used
there in James 1 and here in our text in Ephesians 4 14 the
idea is that we're not to remain as children because if we do
we will be tossed to and fro there'll be no stability there
there'll be these waves that are carrying us around by every
wind of doctrine I think of children as being unstable because they've
not matured enough sometimes to kind of stick with their decision
of what to do. I mean, have you ever been with
a toddler and you decided for whatever reason you were going
to let him or her choose that day what they're going to wear?
Big mistake, right? That you might be there 10 or
15 minutes, do you wanna wear this shirt? Yeah, I wanna wear
that shirt. You start to pull this shirt down like, no, no,
no, no, I don't wanna wear that shirt, I wanna wear that shirt. And you could
go on and on and on because children are fickle sometimes when it
has to do with sticking to the choices that they make about
something as simple as what they're gonna wear on that day. Now,
I've known some grown women to do the same thing. but not in
our house, but that does happen in some houses. Some women change
clothes a few times before they head off to going out, right?
But the idea is that we've gotta be careful that we can't remain
immature. Have you ever taken a child or
played with some children, maybe you're babysitting, and they're
playing with toys, and all of a sudden this other child is
interested in this toy, and this child's interested in that toy,
and they go from toy to toy to toy to toy. They're unstable.
they move from one thing to the next. Or have you ever taken
a child to an ice cream shop where they have the opportunity
to choose from one of 31 flavors? How in the world would they ever
make the right choice? And the idea is that spiritually
speaking, a child can be the same way, unstable. They could be at risk, look at
the end of verse 14, from human cunning and craftiness and deceitful
schemes. You understand the devil and
his instruments of false teachers are hungry to eat up spiritually
immature children who don't stick with the truth. In fact, Romans
chapter 16, you see, I listed just a couple of verses there
to the side in your outline. You don't have to turn to all
of them, but Romans 16, 17 and 18 says this, I appeal to you
brothers to watch out for those who cause divisions. create obstacles
contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught avoid them
for such persons do not serve our Lord Christ but their own
appetites and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the
hearts of the naive so if you remain as an immature unstable,
naive, spiritual child, watch out, because there are those
who are coming to devour and to deceive. And so we're warned
here, don't be like a child. Be discerning about what is going
on. Be discerning about what's being
taught. Be discerning to take everything you hear, no matter
if it's from this pulpit or any pulpit, that you take it straight
to the word of God. You began to compare what you're
hearing and what you're learning from that preacher on the radio
or that Preacher on the internet or that book you're reading and
you bring it back to the Word of God Paul warns the immature
Christians not only there in Rome but also in Corinth listen
to 2nd Corinthians 11 3 & 4 it says but I am afraid As the serpent
deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray
from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes
and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if
you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or
if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you
put up with it readily enough. You know what Paul's saying?
He's concerned that the Corinthians would somehow listen to another
speaker, another spirit, another gospel, and they would somehow
accept it too quickly before they look into it with wisdom
and discernment as a mature Christian ought, that they might be led
astray. And then he warns the believers
in Galatia with the same warning, Galatians 1, 6 and 7. Paul says,
I am astonished. that you are so quickly deserting
him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to
a different gospel. Not that there is another one,
but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel
of Christ. And so Paul is writing to these
believers in Rome, and these believers in Corinth, and these
believers in Galatia, and he's warning them, be careful that
you don't get led astray to a different gospel. In fact, down in Galatians
3.1, he says, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was
before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed and crucified. And yet the Galatian believers
were tempted with a legalistic type gospel of having to keep
the Old Testament Judaism cultural law in order to somehow gain
favor with God. And so the idea is if this can
happen to believers at Rome, and if this can happen to believers
in Corinth and believers in Galatia, don't you think that this could
happen to you? It could happen to me that if
we remain as children, we can get off because Satan is cunning
and he's crafty and he's got evil schemes. And so we must
not remain as children who are immature, unstable. And third here, you see that
children are gullible. They're gullible. I mean, I have
to be careful with my own kids because sometimes I might be
joking with them and say something to them. And Lisa reminds me,
honey, don't tell them that they're just kids. You know, I might
be coming after one of them and say, I want to throw you in the
pool. And they're like, you know, and they start running around.
I'm like, hey, I'm just kidding. You know, it's just dad here.
You know, you know, so the idea is with kids, obviously they
could just believe anything. I mean, you could tell them,
hey, it snowed last night and they go look out the window,
you know, that would be cruel, right? Especially here, Southern
Cal, but you know, the idea is that you could just tell them
anything and they'll believe it. And so all of us, if we're
spiritually immature, we could be so gullible to believe almost
anything. Maybe turn to this one with me,
if you will, in Colossians chapter two. In Colossians chapter two,
we read really about this warning of not listening to the arguments
of the world because you don't wanna be gullible, like an immature
child who just believes anything the world says, just because
they seem to be all scholarly or respected. Colossians 2, four
through eight says this, I say this in order that no one may
delude you with plausible arguments. You see the world uses human
reasoning and their argumentation can seem somewhat plausible.
But the Bible says, continuing in verse five, for though I am
absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see
your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. So he's
saying, hey, I'm not with you to help you discern all that
stuff, but you've got my spirit and the spirit of God lives within
you. And if the spirit of God lives within you, then you ought
to remain firm in Christ. not in what's popular culturally. Verse 6, therefore, as you received
Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in Him. Be a follower of Christ. Walk as He walked. Verse 7, rooted
and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were
taught abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you
captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition,
according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according
to Christ. Friends, this is not just some
passage for the church in Colossae. While it was written originally
to those who were struggling with an early incipient Gnosticism,
it still applies in principle to each one of us today, and
you've gotta beware. I mean, I just feel like in the
evangelical world today, we are so gullible. Somebody tells a
story about something they saw. Somebody writes this about a
vision they had. Somebody writes a book about this, and the Christian
church just gobbles it all up. We need to be more discerning
than that. We need to be careful that we're rooted and we're grounded
and established in the faith, the faith that was revealed once
for all, the faith that was revealed the whole body and doctrine of
the Christian faith. We need to be careful that we're
paying attention to that which Christ taught, which the apostles
elaborated on, which the prophets also proclaimed. We have a responsibility. In fact, you're there maybe in
Ephesians four, our main text. Look at the end of Ephesians
chapter six. Ephesians chapter 6 warns us talking about how
be careful for those those human cunning craftiness and deceitful
schemes that word schemes is used of the devil in Ephesians
6 11 where we're warned put on the whole armor of God that you
may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil and
so the warning of verse 14 is no longer to be spiritually immature
like a child because of human cunning or trickery. We're warned
here not to be affected by the craftiness which could be translated
also as treachery or deceitful schemes. These are all really
synonyms describing what could happen to that immature child
who was unstable and gullible. And so in a sense here he's telling
the church grow up You cannot stay immature. You can't keep
doing what you're doing spiritually and grow. You gotta put forth
a little bit of effort to get into the word of God and to do
some study yourself. And in order to build up, you
have to grow up. So this passage is all about
building each other up, but he's saying, hey, you can't build
each other up if you're immature. You gotta grow up first so that
you're now ready to build up the body by speaking the truth
in love. transitions us into our next
heading if you will you must grow up into Christ you must
grow up you cannot remain as a child you must grow up into
Christ verse 15 rather speaking the truth in love we are to grow
up in every way into him who is the head into Christ we are
called to grow up into Christ. These last two verses, verses
15 and 16, tell us about the proper process of growth in the
body of Christ. And the first part of that process
would be A there in your outline. It's about speaking the truth
in love to each other. speaking the truth in love to
each other. Now, if you have your ESV, notice
that the first word in verse 15 is rather. If you're reading
from NASB, it probably says but, right? So the idea here is there's
an adversative day, which is a conjunction to show that there's
a contrast here. Don't be like the immature children
who are getting led astray and deceived by the cunning and the
craftiness and the deceitful schemes of the world, rather,
but, in other words, there's a contrast, don't be like that,
but rather, you need to be, I need to be, we all need to be doing
what? Speaking the truth in love. Now, in the original language,
speaking the truth is all just one word. It's the word truth,
aletheia. It's the word truth, aletheia,
in the verb form. Literally translated, it could
be truthing. You need to be truthing one another. That's what we need to be doing.
We need to be constantly grabbing the truth and helping apply it
to each other's life. And so here is a great emphasis
on the fact that we all need to know truth. Notice that the
word here is not 06.20 Caruso, which would have been preaching
the word here isn't restricted only for an elder that we know
we have gifted men given to the church in verse 11 the word here
is rather to be applied to the whole body as we're truthing
one another we're speaking the truth in love to one another
which means we need to be knowing Biblical doctrine in order to
truth somebody in order to speak the truth to somebody you have
to know and understand What God's Word says we have to remain staunchly
Biblical listen, you can't always just say well, I'll go check
and see what Adam says or what? Dr. Barrett has to say I'll go
check, you know with one of the elders at the church now That's
a good thing to do But I'm just saying you want to grow up and
mature enough to where you can say, you know what? I'm gonna do a little
study on this myself because you're your spiritual mentor
can't be at every place at once with you in that ministry that
you lead or that conversation that you're having at work or
that hard question you get at home. You need to be a godly
man and a godly woman to say, you know what, let me study that
and get back to you. We need to be truthing one another
because the pastors and elders and the gifted people to the
church can't be everywhere at once, which means we're all required
to be growing and to be truthing one another. this word truthing
is used one other place in the New Testament. Hold your place
there in Ephesians and turn back to Galatians. So turn to the
left, if you will, to Galatians chapter four, and look at the
context that's used here. Galatians chapter four and verse
16. here in kind of this context
of a false gospel. Maybe I'll just start reading
in verse 12, okay? So it says, brothers, I entreat
you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did
me no wrong. You know it was because of a
bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first. And though my condition was a
trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me
as an angel of God. as Christ Jesus, when then has
become the blessing you felt? For I testify to you that if
possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them
to me. Have I then become your enemy
by telling you the truth? So in other words, he's just
saying, look, I was trying to warn you guys about some false
teaching. That's what Galatians is all about. I was gonna tell
you the truth. 13 says clearly that he was preaching
the gospel to them. And then he says, because I'm
truthing you, are you going to get angry at me or upset at me?
Are you gonna come after me because I'm truthing you? In other words,
Paul was being very careful to stick to the gospel to the Corinthians. And you would think that would
be an overly simplistic thing. Like, well, everybody knows the
gospel. Well, my friends, it's the gospel today that is under
attack. It's not about peripheral arguments
far to the left or far to the right. It's about the simple
gospel. And if we're not equipped to
truth one another or speak the truth to each other in love,
then we're gonna fail on the opportunity to build each other
up as a body. Let me give you an example. This
week, I had the opportunity to preach or teach at a Christian
school camp. And the gospel was the focus
of our two or three days together. Inevitably, one of the biggest
questions that came up from some of these young junior high students
was, can you be a practicing homosexual and go to heaven?
Now that's a very hot question in today's culture. And most
Christians kind of skirt that issue big time by saying, well,
who am I to judge? Or only God knows what might
happen in a situation like that. But when those questions come
up, you have an opportunity to do some truthing. You have an
opportunity because that question messes with the gospel. And the
question that's being asked is really, can I continue in unrepentant
sin and be a believer? In other words, do I come to
Christ when I get saved, abandoning all of my sin and all of my sinful
desires to embrace Christ and to accept all that he says about
all of my life? Or is the gospel about you can
keep certain sins active knowingly, ongoingly, and unrepentantly,
and yet still claim Christ is Lord? My friends, that's a question
about the gospel. That's what the question is about.
It's about, we need to speak the truth and love in the context
of the gospel, because that's a gospel question. And so that's
part of how I answered the students with what I just said. And then
I just had them, well, look, let's look at what the Bible says,
right? Because we don't wanna be deceived by what's popular or different
people say. So what does God's word say?
Turn with me quickly, if you will, to 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians
6, and look at verses 9 and 10. 1st Corinthians 6 9 and 10 here
we read this Are do you not know that the unrighteous? Will not inherit the kingdom
of God Do not be deceived Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters,
nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor
the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will
inherit the kingdom of God. So really, the answer to the
question of does an ongoing practicing homosexual go to heaven or not
is the same answer that would be given to any of these sins
listed here or any sin listed in the Bible. If anyone is an
ongoing adulterer or an ongoing idolater or an ongoing theft,
or ongoing struggling with their greed, or being drunken, and
they're not repenting of their sin, but continue to live in
it day in and day out, then they're not going to heaven. We cannot
continue in our sin without repentance and go to heaven. Then I asked
the students this, I said, hey, what if I told you that I'm a
believer, and I love Jesus Christ with all my heart, but every
day I kill somebody? Every day, that's just what I
do. That's just, you know, I just have a desire to kill somebody
like every day. So I'm a Christian, I go to church,
I say my prayers, but every day I find somebody and I'll pick
them up. You're dead today, you're dead tomorrow, you're dead the
next day, you're dead the next day. I couldn't do it to you,
Dr. Mays, but anyway, you know, the idea is if every day you
kill somebody, if that's your habit, if that's what you do
and that's what you embrace, would you call me a Christian?
But I said, I love Jesus. And I just, I mean, I'm not perfect.
You're not perfect. But if I kill somebody every
day and I don't repent of that and I embrace that lifestyle,
I will not inherit the kingdom of God. Or what if I was a thief? And so every day I rob a bank
of five grand, like every day, every, that's just what I do.
I go in and I take five grand from the bank every single day. Am I a Christian? But I say I'm
a Christian, I try to do the right thing, but every day from
here to the rest of my life, I'm robbing a bank. Well, according,
you guys are hesitating. According to this passage, I
will not inherit the kingdom of God. Repentance is a change
of lifestyle. Repentance is, God, I'm sorry,
please forgive me for, help me to never do again. Now, if that's
the heart of anybody in this list, then it could be very well
they're on their way to heaven. But if the person in this list,
whether it's homosexuality or one or the other, Sins that are
listed here has embraced that as a lifestyle and part of their
identity and who they are The Bible could not be more clear
that they will not inherit the kingdom of God Turn with me if
you will to Romans chapter 1 Romans chapter 1 and we'll start in
verse 26 just so you can see a little bit more of an addendum
thought on that Romans chapter 1 starting in verse 26 you know
the passage well but basically we have here that people exchange
the truth of God for a lie and then in verse 26 for this reason
God gave them up to dishonorable passions for their women exchanged
natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. And the
men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were
consumed with passions for one another, men committing shameless
acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for
their error. And since they did not see fit
to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debase mine to do
what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner
of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy,
murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers,
haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil,
disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Again, here's the whole list.
It kind of started off with homosexuality and idolatry, but now he adds
to that a whole list again of ongoing unrepentant sins to which
he says this about in verse 32, though they know God's decree
that those who practice such things deserve to die. So the
answer to the question is anybody who practices any sin without
repenting and asking for God's help and constantly fighting
against so that they might attain God's help and strength to overcome
temptation deserves to die with that is implied the judgment
of God. Then notice this, the very last
phrase then says, they not only do them but give approval to
those who practice them. In other words, not only do those
who practice these sins deserve to die and deserve the judgment
of God, but those who give approval to those who practice them. So
if you or I were to give approval to somebody to live an unrepentant
sinful lifestyle, and then at the same time, tell them that
they may still be a Christian, you have been deceived. You are
a spiritually immature child. You have given yourself over
to human cunning, craftiness, and deceitful schemes. You no
longer understand what the true gospel is. My friends, it does
not take a pastor to say that. It does not take an elder from
your church to speak so clearly and so passionately about what
the Bible says about this issue. It is your responsibility and
my responsibility as we grow up to speak these kinds of truths
to those that we interact with in love. It's necessary that
we speak these truths, that we're all truthing each other, but
notice also the idea is to do it in love. We don't just speak
the truth with emphatic anger or out of sheer hate because
the Bible commands that we love our enemies. And so in light
of this, in James Montgomery Boyce's commentary on Ephesians,
he gives a great challenge of the importance of including with
the truth of biblical doctrine, that idea there of speaking it
in love. And so look at these five truths
that were listed there in his commentary. Number one, truth
without love is bitter orthodoxy. So if all you're about is the
truth, and as I was just saying what I said about that subject,
you were like, amen, amen, you preach it, bro. But there's no
love in your heart because of a situation of someone you know
of who maybe struggles and something that's close to you that you
can have a little bit of patience and understanding that dealing
with sin can be tough, then you're getting too caught up in this
orthodoxy that could become bitter in your heart. Truth is a principle,
but so is love. And so truth without love is
bitter orthodoxy. We're told to love our enemies
and to say these things in kind and loving ways. Hey, I love
you, but I think what you're doing dishonors God. And I don't
believe that you'll go to heaven if you continue in an unrepentant
way. You say it lovingly, but you say what you say truthfully.
It's speaking the truth in love. Or look at number two, if you're
not careful and you only speak the truth, but you remove love,
sanctification without love is self-righteousness. In other
words, if you're trying to grow in your faith, without depending
on the Holy Spirit to empower you to grow in the fruit of the
Spirit, but you're doing these things on your own strength and
you are becoming self-righteous, thinking somehow you're getting
closer to God based on the truth of your own effort, but you're
not really understanding the true love of Christ. Or how about
number three, joy without love is hedonistic reveling. If you
are overjoyed about something, but the focus is on ourselves
and how it makes us feel instead of on the gospel and on God and
His glory, then it's really a hedonistic pursuit. Or number four, mission
without love is starch colonialism. Your effort to convert people
to your culture instead of to your Christ, could be accused
of being starch colonialism if you're not doing it with love,
that it's Christ that you wanna bring them to. And number five,
unity without love is ecclesiastical tyranny. In other words, if we're
lording over people and forcing people to do things at church
with a selfish or a sinful motive, then that's not true identity.
It's ecclesiastical tyranny. The idea is that we want to speak
what we speak and lead how we lead with love, loving one another. And so Jesus here is telling,
or Paul rather, is obviously telling us to speak the truth
in love. And then notice it says, we are to grow up in every way
into him who is the head into Christ. And so the next blank
in your outline there is growing into Christ who is the head.
Isn't this how Jesus did it? He spoke the truth, but he did
so at love. He spoke the truth to the adulterer who was thrown
at his feet. He spoke the truth to any sinner
who came up to him. He told them the truth, but he
did it in love because he's the head. He's the example. That
word head we've talked about a few times already in our studying
Ephesians, but it's the word kephele. And it simply means
that he has the ultimate authority it's used in Ephesians 122 and
he put all things under his feet and gave him as the head over
all things to the church it's used again in Ephesians 5 that
wives are to submit to their own husbands as unto the Lord
for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the
head of the church his body and he himself is its Savior so part
of following the head of the body is speaking the truth in
love and as we're doing that we're growing we're maturing
in every way into Christ who is the head. Let's move on to
our last point if we can. Number three, you must be joined
together. Verse 16, you must be joined
together. Look at verse 16 again, it says,
from whom the whole body, so that's connected to Christ who's
the head, and now from whom the whole body joined and held together
by every joint, which is equipped when each part is working properly,
makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. So notice first here, your first
sub point is that the whole body is joined together. I mean, you
understand if you're in Christ, you are joined to the head. You
don't have a different body. You're not somehow disconnected.
You're joined together. The word joined simply means
to be joined together with something else, that there's two parts
that are joined. And part of what's being described
here is maybe even Paul's thinking of that joint of the body. And
those joints that you have in your human body, they fit perfectly
together, don't they? You have different kinds of joints.
You have a ball and socket joint. like the shoulder joint or the
hip joint where it's kind of like you know here's the socket
and that end of the bone fits in there but if it's perfectly
so it can turn just the way God designed it to you have a hinge
joint like your elbow or your knee they're just they're just
a function like that simple hinge but those bones the way God designed
the end of those bones they're shaped just right so that with
the cartilage and the other things that are involved there and the
synovial fluid, but they fit together so well. It's how God
designed it to be. You have a saddle joint, which
describes the joints of the vertebrae, that they sit there and they
rest and sit on each other like a saddle. And God just kind of
designed each one of those vertebrae in your backbone to fit together,
they're joined together. You're all shaped like that.
You're created in a special way. And guess what? You fit right
here at Placerita Bible Church. You fit right here. You fit in
God's kingdom generically. And I would appeal to you, if
you're here and you feel like you don't fit, you do. Because
it's the gospel that makes us fit together. We're joined together,
not only that, but secondly, the whole body is held together.
Not only are we joined together, but we're held together. That
word held means to bring together or to unite. Here, I'm thinking
a little bit about ligaments and tendons, right? I'm not saying
that Paul was as scientific as maybe I'm being, but I'm just
saying he's using that body analogy. And we all know and understand
these things about the body, that you have ligaments and tendons.
Ligaments hold bone to bone and tendons hold muscle to bone.
So here we're told that every joint here is held together by
every joint, which is equipped. Now that word equipped is not
the same word that we looked at last week, which meant training
or instruction or mending, but rather it's the simple word of
assistance or support. And so the idea is that each
joint is assisted and supported so that it works properly. And
that leads us right into our third sub-point here, the whole
body is working together. So God joins us together, He
holds us together, just like the physical body's joints are
held together so that we can work properly. Look again at
what it says. It says, they're joined and held
together by every joint with which it is equipped. When each
part is working properly, So that word working means energy
or action. In other words, we're all in
the body to be doing something. There's to be some action. Remember
verse 12, we're equipping the saints for the work of the ministry. So whenever the body is lined
up like it ought to be, then you begin to work properly. That
word properly means measurement, or it could even mean poetic
meter. It's almost like, man, when it's
humming and it's all working well, it's a beautiful thing. When the body of Christ is humming
and working together, it's a beautiful thing. But if you get your joint
out of joint, it is painful. You ever thrown a shoulder out
of joint? a hip out of joint, you don't want to, all right?
I have popped a shoulder in, and I've done a hip in the ER
before when I was a PA, and it takes a lot of pain medication,
all right? You can pop a shoulder in pretty quickly, but the idea
is it's pretty painful. And when it's out of joint, it
doesn't work properly. You can't really move your arm
or that limb properly because it's out of joint. So the idea
is that God desires that we as individuals are all shaped and
fashioned by the love of Christ to where we fit together perfectly
so that we can do the proper work that God has designed us
to do. I love that quote that I gave
you in the bottom of the discussion questions from Brian Chapel says
this, the church community functions because we are all called to
be love contributors, not just love consumers. Don't you love
that? So the idea is that we're all
to be contributing something, speaking our true thing, each
other in love, speaking the truth in love. We're not just to be
love consumers, but we're contributing so that the body may work the
way it was designed. And that leads us to our last
point here. The whole body is building itself up in love together. the whole body is building itself
up together. Well, wait a minute. I thought
it was Christ who built up his church, right? Christ is the
one who causes you to be born again. And obviously Christ matures
us through his word and by the spirit of God. Well, that's true.
But notice the emphasis here on the end of the passages, the
body also has a responsibility to build itself up in love. Just like the human body regenerates
itself. You're no longer attached to
your mother through the umbilical cord. You are now a complete
individual that is growing organically. And while we would never wanna
think of our body as functioning without the head, who is Christ,
in a sense here, there's this emphasis of that we build each
other up. that we do. We do it in Christ,
in his strength, with his word, but in unity, we build each other
up in love. And so as we finish this passage
this morning, I thought it might be appropriate to give you these
five take-home challenges, which really summarize verses one through
16. So back to a big picture of Ephesians,
one through 16 is all about walking in unity. And so let me just
summarize this sermon by summarizing this whole greater context this
way. Number one, do not forget that
we are all one in Christ. That's what verses one through
six was all about. Don't forget that we are all one in Christ.
That's why we're part of one body. That's why we can build
each other up because we're right here so close. to each other
because we're one in Christ. Number two, do not forget that
we have all been gifted differently by Christ. We have different
gifts and different abilities and verses 7 through 11 talks
about that to some degree. That we're all different, that's
okay, there's different joints. different parts to the body. We're all
different, but we're still one in Christ. Or number three, do
not forget that we must all be about equipping of the saints
for the work of the ministry. I mean, your job here at the
church is either you're equipping or you're working. And it should
be that we're all doing a little bit of both. We're all equipping
someone else and we're all working together to accomplish the work
that God has called us to do. It's not just that the elders
do the work or just the body. Remember from last week, we are
working together. And then fourthly, do not forget
that we must all do what we do by maturing in the fullness of
Christ. We must be not remaining as children,
but we must be maturing into that head Jesus Christ and then
lastly do not forget that we must all be dependent on each
other we must depend on one another to properly build up the body
in love I hope that as a result of this message and this whole
Series in this whole greater context of verses 1 through 16
that we could grow closer together as a body and that we could understand
our role and our Responsibility and that God would do great things
this year at Placerita Bible Church. Let's pray together father
Thank you for the opportunity to just look at such a clear
passage that has so much to Truth and so much application for us
to think about this morning And it's all because of Christ and
the fact that we're seated with him in the heavenly realms that
we've been blessed With every spiritual blessing in Christ
and so therefore God I pray that our conduct would match our calling
I pray that we as a church would walk in unity Thank you for the
gifts you've given to our church and gifted men. Thank you for
the fact that this church is all about equipping the saints
for the work of the ministry. And I pray God, as we focus now
on building each other up in love, that you would allow us
to leave this morning with a great focus and a great desire and
an incredible passion to love each other, to serve together,
to build each other up, to speak the truth in love to one another. For Christ's glory, we pray in
Jesus' name, amen.