Alright brethren, let's turn
to Ephesians chapter 4. Whenever the Lord Jesus gave
His pastors, we read in verse 12, He gave them for the perfecting
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying
of the body of Christ. And then we're told in verse
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 fullness of Christ. He'll keep giving his preachers
to each elect child called out, brought to a knowledge of the
Son of God, brought into that body of Christ so that his body
is complete. It's a perfect man, the fullness
of Christ. And He does this that we be kept
from the evil, from false preachers. He says that we henceforth be
no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every
wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness
whereby they lie in wait to deceive. Now we come to this last reason
that we'll see in this passage for the reason that Christ gives
His preachers. He says verse 15. but speaking
the truth in love, that we 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 supplieth,
according to the effectual working in the measure of every part,
maketh increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself in
love. Now here's the last reason that
we have in this passage that Christ gives his preachers for. It's so that his body might grow,
that Christ himself might grow his body through the preaching
of the gospel. You know, as with everything
that's created in this world, the scripture says all things
were created by Christ and for Christ. Everything that was created
in this world was created to glorify God's Son. And the body, the human body,
was created to glorify God's Son and His Church. We read here
that Christ is the head and His Church is His body. just like
you have a head and a body. Now the human body is an amazing
thing. It's put together in an amazing
way and held together in an amazing way and the way that nutrients
goes to every member of the body is an astounding thing. But it's
nothing, nothing compared to Christ and His body. It's nothing
compared to the pattern from which it was made, Christ and
His body. Let's look here now. First of
all, Christ gives his preachers to grow the believer in the inner
man. Verse 14 began, it says, that
we henceforth be no more children. And then in verse 15 he says,
but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things
which is the head, even Christ. When we're born of God, every
sinner that's going to believe God has first got to be born
of God. We're born a first time of corruptible
seed born of Adam so that we are conceived in sin and come
forth sinners. So we got it. We were dead. We
got to be born again. We're born a second time we're
born of incorruptible seed. But when we're born of God we're
babies. We're babies in the inward man.
We're babies. We're not born mature. We're
born as babies. Just like a baby born has to
grow. Now, it says here in verse 14
that he gives his gospel that we henceforth be no more children. It's good to be children in some
things. It's good to be children to be
weak like a child rather than strong in that which pertains
to our old man of the flesh. To our old fleshly man, it's
good to be a child. It's good to be weak. in the
flesh, and not strong and unruly and rebellious in the flesh.
But it's not good to be children, to be weak in understanding.
That's not good. In 1 Corinthians 14 20, he said,
Brethren, be not children in understanding, howbeit in malice,
that is in the depravity of the old man of flesh, in malice,
that malicious old man of flesh, be ye children. Be ye weak But
in understanding, be men. Be strong in understanding. That's
why he gives the gospel. Babes in Christ need two things.
If you look at 1 Peter 2, I'll show you what they are. 1 Peter
2, he says there, verse 1, Wherefore laying aside, putting off, doing
away with, having no more communion with, laying aside all malice,
and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and evil speakings. That's the same as saying, put
off the old man. Lay aside, put off the old man. Don't walk in malice and guile
and hypocrisy and envy and evil speakings. Lay that man aside.
And he says, verse 2, as newborn babies Just like a newborn baby,
desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. If so be that you've tasted the
Lord is gracious. If you've tasted the Lord is
gracious, Lay off that, lay that old man aside. He's malicious. He speaks evil. He wants his
way. He wants to, everything's got
to suit me just right or it's not right at all. That old man
is deceitful. He's deceitful. Lay him aside
and desire the sincere milk of the word that the inward man
might grow. Now this growth in grace, if you look back at our
text, Ephesians 4, this growth in grace is in the inward man. It's of the spirit and it's for
the purpose, it's the purpose for which Christ gives his preacher.
This is why he gives his preacher, to grow us in that inward man.
Verse 15 says, But speaking the truth in love, that we may grow
up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. Now,
it tells us here how this growth is accomplished. He says here,
speaking the truth in love. That's how this growth is accomplished,
by speaking the truth in love. Who's the truth? Christ is the
truth. He said, I am the truth. Christ
is the truth. The gospel of Christ and Him
crucified is the truth. This is the good news. This is
the nourishing, growing, edifying meat for the believer is Christ
and the gospel of Christ in Him crucified. Christ is formed in
the heart and the gospel is made effectual in the heart through
the Holy Spirit of truth. Christ is the truth, the gospel
of Christ is the truth, the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit of
truth. When God edifies, He does it
in truth, in truth. He said when the Comforter has
come, Speaking of the Holy Spirit, when the Comforter has come,
whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of
truth. That's His name, the Spirit of
truth. He says, He will proceed from the Father, He says, and
He will testify of me. Here you got the Spirit of truth
speaking of Christ the truth. This thing is going to be done
in truth. He says, when He, the Spirit of truth has come, He
will guide you into all truth. And he shall not speak of himself,
but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he shall
show you things to come. This thing is going to be done
in truth. Now Christ's preacher is sent
forth to speak the truth. To speak the truth of Christ
through the preaching of the gospel. Speaking the truth, and
he is to do it in love. Speaking the truth in love. Constrained
by Christ's love, he's going to speak the truth in love. And
for the love of Christ, he's going to speak the truth in love.
And for the love of his brethren, he's going to speak the truth
in love. For the love of sinners in need of mercy, he'll speak
the truth in love. It's only when God abides in
a sinner that he has the love of Christ in him. And it's only
then that he'll speak truthfully of Christ. No man can confess
Christ until Christ abides in him. And it's the love of Christ
that constrains him to speak the truth. He won't speak the
truth about himself. He won't own that he's a sinner,
desperately wicked. He will not speak the truth about
Christ. declaring that Christ is all his righteousness and
the only way he can come to God. He won't speak that about Christ
either. And he will not speak the truth
of himself and of Christ to anybody else. He won't do it. Look at
Ephesians 4 verse 21. But the man in whom Christ abides
will, he says in verse 21, if so be that you have heard him,
heard Christ, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus. The truth is in Christ the Lord.
Look at verse 25. He says, Wherefore, putting away
lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for he remembers
one of another. This doesn't mean just being
honest about the fact you stole his newspaper. This is talking
about telling the truth about Christ. This is talking about
speaking the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ is what this
is talking about. He will speak the truth in Christ.
Turn to 1 John 4. I want to show you something
there. The love of Christ constrains his preacher to preach the truth
of Christ in love. And that's what John says. That's
how we try a preacher. Is that preacher preaching? Is
he declaring that God chose whom he would before the foundation
of the world? That God did the choosing? That
God must do the choosing? Is He declaring Christ came forth
and redeemed them from the law by His own blood? That He's not
afraid, that He's satisfied justice so that they must be born again,
they must be given life, they must be saved from their sin?
If He's not speaking the truth, there's a reason. Look here,
let me show you this. 1 John 4. 1 John 4. I'm sorry, 1 John
3, look at verse 23. This is Christ's commandment,
that we should believe on the name, or God's commandment, that
we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and
love one another as He gave us commandment. And he that keepeth
his commandments dwelleth in Christ, and Christ in him. And
hereby we know that he abideth in us. By the Spirit which He
hath given us. Now be sure you understand what
it's saying here. Hereby is how I'm going to know Christ is abiding
in my fellow brethren or in the preacher that Christ has sent.
It's not so much talking about here's how I'm going to know
the Spirit dwells in me. Here's how I'm going to know
the Spirit dwells in you or in the preacher He sends. Right
here. By the Spirit which He hath given us. That's how I'm
going to know. By the Spirit which He has given
us. Now the context here, keep reading the context, he's saying
here, if a man has the love of Christ in him, he's going to
preach the truth. Look, read on verse 1 of the next chapter.
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they
are of God, because many false prophets are going out into the
world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Now didn't he just say
that? He said, here's how you're going
to know if a man If Christ abides in a man, it's by the Spirit
which He's given us. He says, here's how you're going
to know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. You know,
I've told you what this means. It means that you confess who
He is, that He's God. Why He came? He came to redeem
a particular people. He confessed what He accomplished.
He put away the sin of His people by the sacrifice of Himself.
What He's doing now? He's risen and He's sending forth
the Gospel and He's calling out His sheep effectually. You declare
it. This is what it is to confess
Christ. And every spirit, verse 3, that
confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of
God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist. We're not looking
for some boogeyman that's Antichrist. Antichrist is folks who stand
up in the house of God and say, I saved myself by my faith. I saved myself by my works. I've
saved myself by standing in the house speaking as if you're God.
That's Antichrist. And he says here, whereof you've
heard that it should come, and even now already is it in the
world. Now what? You are of God, little children,
and have overcome them, because greater is He that is in you
than he that is in the world. They are of the world, therefore
speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We're
talking about if a man has the love of Christ about him, he's
going to speak the truth in love. He's going to speak the truth
of Christ in love. And he says, they are of the
world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth
them. He says, We are of God. He that
knoweth God, heareth us. And he that is not of God, heareth
not us. Hereby know we the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. Do you get this? Is it too much
distractions? Can you all get this? I'm very
distracted right now. Do you all have this? We are
of God. He that knoweth God, heareth
us. He that knoweth not God, heareth not us. Hereby know we
the spirit of truth. You see that? Hereby know we
the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love
one another for love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. He's saying here that the man
that has the love of God in his heart is going to speak the truth
in love. Alright, go back to the text
now. That's the first thing. This growth is accomplished through
the gospel spoken in love. Now here's the second thing.
This growth is into Christ our head. Verse 15, Ephesians 4,
verse 15. He says, But speaking the truth
in love, that we may grow up into Christ in all things which
is the head, into Him, even Christ. Collectively, believers are Christ's
body. Individually, we're members in
particular. And so we're growing up and Christ
is our head. We're growing up into Christ
our head. What is it to grow up into Christ.
One it is to grow more assured of our union with Christ. Whenever
God chose his people he chose his people in Christ. This is
the most thing that blesses your heart makes you rejoice because
he didn't choose us for because of anything in us. He chose his
people by grace. and he chose his people in Christ.
So what he does for his people, he does by his grace for Christ,
for the sake of Christ. Christ entered a covenant with
God to redeem his people and bring them to God perfectly righteous. And Christ established that covenant
in his own blood. He said this when he took the
wine and he said, now when you take this wine, this is what
you're symbolizing, this is my blood. This is a token, a picture,
a sign of my blood. The new covenant written in my
blood. The new testament written in
my blood. The everlasting covenant of grace
written in my blood. He fulfilled everything in that
covenant. And when he did so, he purchased his people. He bought
his people with his own blood. He's coming again and he's going
to redeem that which he's bought. He's going to redeem the purchased
possession. He's going to bring it to himself,
bring it home to himself, because it's his. He paid the price,
his own blood, and he bought the possession. It's his possession.
You, who believe, are his possession. His purchased possession. So,
the more we hear this, the more we're taught this, we understand
that he's not going to lose anybody. This is what he promised the
Father. This is what he promised the
Father. When He walked this earth, He
said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him
that cometh to me I'll in no wise cast out. Because I didn't
come down to do my will, I came to do the Father's will. and
this is the will of my father he said of all which he has given
me I should lose none but raise it up again at the last day and
he will lose not he will fulfill the will of his father he will
and he will raise up everyone that he came to save in the last
day and then to this growing up into him is teaching us is
to teach us that we have a not only union with him we have communion
with him communion with his spirit the scripture says the fruit
of the spirit is love and joy and peace and longsuffering and
gentleness and goodness and faith meekness temperance against such
there's no law the more you hear this gospel he's doing it through
the word this is what he's saying I've given my preachers that
speak the truth and love that through this gospel we might
grow up into him this is how he's going to grow us just like
we eat our food and and all our old man our fleshly man grow
from eating earthly food. Well, this is the spiritual food.
And this is how he growing the inner man through the gospel,
through the gospel. And notice, he says, this growth
will be in all things, in all things. An infant, when they
start growing, they don't just the arm grow and this arm not
grow and this leg grow and this leg not grow. They grow all over
the whole. Every member grows and every
member grow. And, you know, it all grows and
full. So it is with Christ's body.
He tells us to give all diligence. He says, add to your faith virtue,
and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and
to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness
brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. Because if
these things be in you, he says, they make you that you'll never
be unfruitful in the knowledge of God. This knowledge of God's
grace will show that it's produced this fruit, that it's brought
forth this fruit. And so he tells us, he says,
make your calling and election sure. How do I know I've been
called of God and elected of God? Make your calling and election
sure. Are you growing? It's quite that
simple. Dead folks don't grow. Dead things
don't grow. Living things grow. If we're
growing, We're alive. We're growing, we're alive. Alright,
so, knowing all this is done through the gospel. That's conveying
to us, brethren, how important the gospel is. It's telling us
how important the gospel is. Now, this last thing is astounding.
You've got to see this. Look here now. This growth is
not by us. It's by Christ. Alright, verse
16. He says, From whom? From Christ,
the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every
joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the
measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the
edifying of itself in love. Now let's just take it phrase
by phrase. I don't want you to miss anything
here. He says from whom, that means from Christ our head. He
says the whole body, that means his church, in this earth. That's
you and I as the church of the living God. From Christ the whole
body is fitly joined together and compacted by that which every
joint supply. Christ has fitly joined us together
here in this body. Because Christ laid down his
life and he redeemed each one the father gave him. God the
father has raised him from the grave and given him the right
to do this work, giving him to be the head over all things to
the church, which is his body, the fullness of him. And Christ
is the one who is filling all in all. So here you got, here
you got these elect children that he's redeemed. And they're
that body that's scattered about in the valley of dry bones. And
they're all dry bones. They're broken apart, scattered
like an old, dry, white part skeleton. Christ is going forth
in this earth through the preaching of the gospel and He's quickening
those dry, parched bones. You and me who were dead in trespass
and sin, He gave us life. And it says we're fitly, fitly
joined together. He didn't put me in Tennessee. He put me in New Jersey. And
He didn't put you in Kentucky. He put you right here. And he's
fitly joined us together. Bone to bone. Just like your
shoulder bone fits in your skeleton. And your hip bone fits. Everything
fits just where he put it. Fitly joined together in his
body. And we have life from him. And he's joined us together.
And now we have the same life from the same head. We've got
the same light. You're talking about us who believe.
We have the same righteousness. We have the same holiness. We
have the same grace. We have the same strength, the
same joy, the same peace, the same comfort. We've got the same
source of all fruitfulness. Christ our head. And so we depend
on Christ to sustain us and to feed us and protect us and grow
us. As the body is one and hath many
members, Scripture said, and all the members of that one body
being many are one body, so also is Christ. Here you got a human
body, and all these different members, yet it's all just one
body. He says, so is Christ's body.
You got all these different members that make up one body, and He's
the head, but it's just one body in Christ. One body in Christ.
Christ, it says here, has not only fitly framed us together,
it says He's compacted. He's cemented. That's what it
means. Cemented us together. He continues
to do so and He's doing it through the Gospel. He's doing it through
this Gospel we hear preached. The Gospel of what He's accomplished.
The bond is the grace He gives of faith. We're all looking at
the same Christ. The bond is the love that He
put in our hearts. We're bound, cemented together.
Compacted together. Now look at this, and we're compacted
by that which every joint supplies. Now get this now, when he says
which every joint supplies, he's talking about every member of
the body. You, who believe. Every joint supplies this nourishment
to every part of the body. Use your natural body as an example.
Alright, food goes in the head. Take food in right here. It goes
in the head and then it is distributed throughout the body. All right. Each member is used to distribute
that food to every other member of the body. I got to have my
throat. That's a member. My stomach.
That's a member. My liver. That's a member. It's
going through my bloodstream. That's a member. It's going out
into my every member. Everything is used. to get it
to every member is used to sustain every other member in your body.
Christ put that body together to glorify his church, his body.
That's what he is. Now, so that's how it is with
Christ's body. Christ our head is the one from
whom the nourishment comes. All the nourishment comes from
him. But each member, each believer is used to distribute that nourishment
to one another. Each one is. to distribute it
to one another so that the other members of the body have nourishment
brought to them. And this is all done through
the gospel. The gospel is the nourishment.
The gospel, the word of Christ, is the food. Now give me an example. Well, one way this distribution
is made is this. By each of you here, each member
here is supporting the gospel. so that the gospel is proclaimed
in this place so that each other member gets the gospel. That's
one way. That's an example of it. Here's
another example of it. Christ gives me a word to preach
to you and I come and preach that word to you. And now that
word is delivered to you. from one member to another member,
and so it's distributed to the members. From Christ our Head,
using a member to distribute it to the members. Here's another
way. You go home and study the Word, and you're talking to one
another, and Christ has given to you the Word, and you're talking
to another member, and he's distributing that food to another member of
his body. So, the bread is conveyed from
Christ our Head to one member, then another member, then another
member. But by this means of distribution, He makes it so
that all the members of the body are absolutely necessary for
the health of the body. There are some members of your
body that if they are cut off, that's it. Your body is not going
to function anymore. Well, Christ makes it so that
each member of His body is necessary. each member. And it means each
member has his or her own part in the body so that each one
is just as important as the other. No one part is even more important
than the other. But none is this important. Look, verse 16. It says it's
done according to the effectual working in the measure of every
part. Christ may use me, Christ may
use you to communicate His Word to each other. But he's saying
here, it's only Christ who's making it effectual in the measure
that Christ is pleased to make it effectual in each part. Christ
is making it effectual in each part. So we're made to need each
other, each member of the body. And all together, each member
together is made to need Christ our Head. So this thing, that's
how he's cementing this body together. And he says, and by
all this effectual working through the gospel, we hear a priest
and communicate to each other. Look at the end there. He says,
so he makes increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in
love. Now that's amazing wisdom, brethren.
I can't get over this. I know I'm not conveying it and
I'm about ready to. give up trying but this is this
is just amazing I mean if you think of the human body and how
the human body does it this is how Christ is doing this through
through the gospel through each member of the body so that just
like you need every member of your body he makes us to need
each other and to need him preeminently and to need his gospel priest.
This is how he keeps his body together, keeps his church functioning,
keeps his church going towards the same goal and nourishes it
and edifies it and increases it in itself in love. These vain
preachers that go around talking about a healthy church, a healthy
church. This right here is how a church
is made healthy. Christ, this is how he does it.
He does it through the preaching of the gospel. And I said to
you that the human body is an amazing thing. But it is. I mean it's nothing compared
to the wisdom of God in doing this in his church. This is amazing. The body is the body is made
after that pattern. Our human body is made after
this pattern. It's the glorious pattern. All right. Let's let's
take a break. Let's stand together brethren. that you'll continue to bless
it in our hearts and nourish, give us this nourishment, make
it effective, use each member, and show us the value, Lord,
of you, of one another, and of this world, so that we love each
other and that we lay aside all malice and guile and this vain
thing. and truly, truly desire the sins
here and everywhere. Lord, forgive us of our sins.
We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.