being Ephesians 4 this morning,
be looking at verses 14 through 16. The title of my message is
Growing Up. I thought about, if I was more
contentious, I guess it'd be grow up, exclamation point. Growing up. And you know, if
we have, in care of a child, if we have children or watching
after somebody's child, adopt a child, and that child is not
growing, we have a concern, don't we? There's something wrong.
We have a concern about that. And if that child grows too swiftly,
if they're five years old and they're six foot five, something
ain't right. Something's not right. And if
they're upset all the time, you got a small child that just can't
be consoled. It's always just upset and sorrowful
and sad. Something ain't right. And if
a child's happy 24-7, doesn't have no discernment of danger,
and have any cause for concern in anything, there's something
to be concerned about. That's what we're going to look
at today. Paul uses the Holy Spirit to teach us something
about our spiritual growth and grace, how we grow. But we'll
look there, begin in verse 8, Ephesians 4.8. We'll begin in
verse 7. But unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore
he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive
and gave gifts unto men. Now verse 11. And he gave some
apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors
and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we
all come into the unity of 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." Christ gave these ascension gifts to
His people. Remember, He ascended back to
glory. He gave the apostles for us to
write this New Testament. gave us pastors, gave us teachers,
preachers, to send His Word forth to His people. Why did He give
those? Why did He give those things? Verse 12 says, "...for
the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying..." That's the building, the framing, the instructing,
the caring. "...for the edifying of the body
of Christ." Some people have said, not too far in the past,
that God doesn't send any more preachers. That's over. They're
normally looking at the apocalypse, that this is the end times or
something, but God hasn't sent any more of His preachers. You
know how I know the Lord's raising up His pastors and preachers
and teachers? The sun come up this morning.
How long is this going to happen? How long is He going to keep
giving His ascension gifts to this world to preach to His people? It says in verse 13, "'Til 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, until his last elect is called
home. He will faithfully provide his ascension gifts to our generations." What are they going to do? How
are they going to further this gospel? What are they going to
preach? They're going to tell every man and woman of Christ's
accomplished work. He honored His Father. He fulfilled
the law and He saved His people. It wasn't an attempt. I try. God doesn't try. He does. Just
to tell them how the Father chose a people that were at enmity
with Him. Undeserving, unable, just vile
creatures. They were about to fall in the
garden and He knew that. And the Father said, These are
going to be mine. I'm going to make them just like
my son." And he entered into that covenant with his son that
he would be the surety for his people. He would be the substitute
for his people. And that in this gospel age we're
living in right now, all that has taken place. Did you know
that? The Christ proclaimed all throughout the Old Testament.
He has come and accomplished that which He was given to do. He said, call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people. And He has. It is finished. He's accomplished. And He's risen
and seated on His throne in glory. He ascended. He earned. He arose
to His proper place. His throne in glory. And through
these ascension gifts of that victorious Savior, We're told
of this mighty and holy salvation that's of the Lord. Of the holiness
and righteousness of Christ alone. And the Holy Spirit makes this
Christ, our Lord Jesus, revealed in our hearts. That's the first three chapters
of Ephesians. As I said before, it's as plain as the nose on
your face. It's in black and white. What will be the product
of preaching the free and sovereign salvation in the grace of God
through His Son's effectual blood? What will be the product of that? Look here in verse 14. 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 the
cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive, but
speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things,
which is the head, even Christ." Preachers sent of God are to
preach the gospel in truth and in love. Teachers, Lord gifts to teach
His Word. Their sin of God to tell this
glorious Savior in complete truth. and in love. You parents, your
friends, your loved ones, if you have Christ revealed in you
and you speak to someone who has not yet believed on Christ,
how are we to do that? We are to speak the truth that
we had revealed in us, the truth that we know, and we are to do
it in a spirit of love. Spirit of love. The sleight of
man, the cunningness, the deception, all wind of doctrine blowing
about, that tosses people. It does not unite them. It tosses
them to and fro. It's against the Word of God.
That's mankind's problem. Mankind does not, of our natural
flesh born of Adam, we don't believe God. We believe in God. Many people say they do, but
the devils do that. They believe there's one God
and they tremble too. They have some fear. I've had
people, you may have too, I've had some people that you show
them a scripture and you say, right here's what the Lord says.
This is his word. Here's what it says. It's in
black and white and it's in English. We can read. And they say, I
don't care what that says. I know what I believe. Isn't
that horrible? And isn't that every one of us,
before the Lord does a work in our heart? To be given a heart that loves
the Lord, who first loved us, to believe the cross that saved
us. So right there is what it says, I think, I believe. The Lord has to bring us to that
point. We bow to Him. That's not bowing, is it? There
are many who say that they did not hear the Gospel of Christ,
our Lord saving His people, by the preaching of the Gospel.
They say they heard it under their own selves. They discovered
it themselves. And they get mad about that.
They get angry. I guess the Lord's Word doesn't
apply to them, does it? Paul told us there in Romans
10, it says, How shall they call upon Him who have not believed?
And how shall they believe of Him who they have not heard?
How shall they hear without a preacher? And how are they going to preach
except they be sent? That's what that rich, wise Ethiopian
eunuch was doing on his way back home, wasn't he? Reading Isaiah. And Philip came up and said,
You know what you're reading? And he said, how can I except some
man show me? That's not something I get angry
over. That's what the Lord says. That's not to be disputed and
debated. That's to be declared. That's what He says. Or that
they were saved under a false gospel. Listen to a gospel of a God that
can't save and wants to and can't do anything unless you let Him.
Nonsense. That's not God. That's not what
the name means. He does all that He wants. He
is God. He's capable and all-powerful and all-present. They say, well,
I was saved then and now I came along to know the doctrines of
grace. And they get angry over the matter. That's the thing they get mad
over. I've been asked, said, can God save someone under false
preaching? Can He save them when they're
listening to a lie being preached to them? The better question
is, does He? Does He? He told Jeremiah, He
said, I didn't send them and therefore, because I didn't send
them, they're not preaching the truth of Him and of man and of
Christ that saves man, they shall not profit this people at all. Kevin, that's harsh. Saith the
Lord. He ain't mad at me. I'm mad at
him. Many say that the wind of doctrine,
whatever's blowing down the street that day, that they're fighting
for or they're fighting against, that's really what matters. This
is what really matters. They got one spoke of the wheel
and they make that a saving position, not Christ. You have to believe
this. No, that's not right. You must believe Christ. That's
who you must believe. Christ our Lord. I've been called
a heretic in my day, throughout my life, and that what I believe
and what I preach is wrong and it's damning, but never has one
of these people ever approached me in love. Did you know that?
Not once. Only in anger, not in love. Only
in aggression, not compassion. Only in demands, not in grace. condemning me, not merciful to
me, and patient with me, not waiting on the Lord to correct
His child. They didn't come with the truth
of the Word. They didn't come in love, did
they? That's a double whammy. It didn't come in truth. It wasn't
in love. These things do not grow the
Lord's people. It bites and devours them. It
doesn't promote unity. It promotes division. So how
can we, we that know Christ, we that have been saved by His
blood, we that look to Him and trust Him alone, how can we spread
the Gospel throughout this world? How are we to expose that crooked
stick, the falsehoods, the heresies? How are we supposed to deal with
that? He says in verse 15, but speaking the truth in love. What will the truth of God's
Word, of His salvation, of His love, what will that produce?
It will make us grow up in Christ in all things. What are we growing
in? We grow in a lot of things, don't
we? We grow in grace and knowledge. We grow in faith. We grow in
love. We grow in humbleness and meekness. John wrote there in 1 John chapter
2, He said to little children, I'm writing to little children,
because your sins are forgiven for Christ's namesake. Those
that just have heard the gospel, John was writing to them. And
he said to young men, because you're strong. He's also writing
to young men, little children, young men, and to fathers, for
you have known Christ from the beginning. Why would John be? That's a good spread, isn't it?
Children, young men, and fathers. We all start out as children,
don't we? You know what I wanted more than anything? Whenever
I was a kid, I wanted to be grown. I wanted to be a grown-up. I
wanted to make my own decisions. I wanted to be an adult, didn't
I? That's all I wanted to be. I wanted to be grown. I didn't
know what I wanted to be. I just knew that's what I wanted
to be. And then we grow up a little bit, don't we? And we get strong. Get a little strength to us.
We're 20-somethings. We have a little knowledge. We
have a little strength. What do we want to do? We want to wear
a tight shirt and show it. We want to flex a little bit.
Look what I know. And then when we're grown-ups,
when we're fathers, when we're mature, that's what he's saying,
we've been with Christ from the beginning of our salvation, and
we see that He is what's important. He outweighs growth, though we
will grow. He's more important to me grow.
He outweighs the strength because He is my strength. And we rest
and mature knowing that He has loved us and given Himself for
us from the beginning of time. He's all that matters. That's
what we grow into. Just getting stronger, more knowledge,
more wisdom, getting more faith does not matter as much as seeing
Christ more. We truly gain strength, we truly
gain wisdom and faith looking to Him. That's right. That's
to grow. Us growing up is us growing down,
isn't it? Bowing to Christ, coming to His feet and praising Him
for it. Wanting to know more of Him. And a believer, if the
Lord is glorified and pleased to let us have a long life on
this earth, if He lets us grow in Many years, we will grow in
grace and in knowledge. We're going to grow in love.
We're going to grow in faith and in patience. We're going
to experience this. We're going to get some experience
in these things, through these trials, these sins, and we're
going to grow in hope. And through all that, we're going
to grow in meekness. We have totes in our basement for Josiah. You know what's in those? Jared's
old jeans. Why would I keep those? If he's alive, he's going to
grow, isn't he? Henry used to say, you can take
a set of post hole diggers and dig a hole, and you can put a
fence post in it, and he'll stay there for years and years, but
it ain't going to grow, is it? You can dig the same hole and
put a sapling in it. That tree has life in it, and
it's going to grow. There's going to be some growth
that takes place. There's going to be a product
taking place. We are made alive in Christ and we grow in grace
in Him. In what? In all things. In Him,
in all things. Turn over to 1 Peter chapter
2. First thing we're going to look at, we're going to grow
in grace. 1 Peter chapter 2. We'll be there in verse 1, 1
Peter 2, 1. Wherefore, laying aside all malice,
and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speaking,
as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that
you may grow thereby. If so be that you have tasted
that the Lord is gracious. And we see there, we see what
Peter just did. Paul did the same thing, didn't he? He said
all those evil things that he dealt with, those winds of doctrine,
those things that toss us to and fro, Peter says, lay that
aside. Get rid of it. Pay no mind to
it. Lay it aside. Desire the milk
of the Word. Desire the basics. Desire the
basics. The simplicity of Christ. Our first love. Look to Him.
And that way, doing that, now you may truly grow. And people
say, well, I'm a father. I'm a great-great-grandpa in
the gospel. I know a bunch. Been around a
long time. Desire the sin-sealing milk of the world. You know what?
As we age, we may be living off liquids anyway. Do you know that? My nephew was in a car wreck,
and for, I think, a year, almost a year, he had a feeding board.
And he grew, and he healed off a liquid. That's what we need to do whenever
we have all these winds of doctrine blowing around and all these
divisions. Desire the sincere milk of the
Word. Desire the simplicity of Christ. Look to Him. But this
can only happen, how are we going to do that? This can only happen
if we've tasted the grace of God. A man cannot grow in grace
if grace has not been bestowed in him. Everything is given of
God. Our lives are given to us. Our
faith's given to us. Our knowledge is given to us.
And He gets all the glory for it and the glory for the increase. Whatever He's given to us and
any growth it has, He gets the glory for it. Look over in 2
Peter chapter 3. You know, sometimes if you're
sick, if you're ill, A T-bone steak, you don't want
to eat it, do you? What do you want? A lot of times
we're sick and don't know we're sick. That's a problem. What
do you want? Chicken noodle soup, don't you?
I want something soft. I want something easy to digest.
How often am I infirmed? How often am I ill and think
I'm healthy? But it says there in 2 Peter 3, verse 17, You therefore,
beloved, seeing ye know these things before, Beware, lest ye
also, being led away with the air of the wicked, fall from
your own steadfastness." He said, lay those divisions aside, turn
from it. Verse 18, but grow in grace and
in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to
whom be glory. both now and forever. Amen. He gets the glory for it. That
growing in grace, it's not our doing, just like everything else.
It's like our natural birth, just like our salvation, and
just like our faith and our growth in grace, He gets the glory for
it. One more and we'll go to another point. Turn to Psalm
92. Will we be grown in spite of ourselves? We're still living
as wicked flesh, don't we? This flesh of sin is still all
around us. Is the Lord still going to grow
us though? Because we're still in this body of death. In spite of our
sinful flesh, we live in this earth. If the Lord does the work,
we will. If the Lord does the work, we
will. Psalm 92, beginning verse 11. Mine eye also shall see my
desire, on mine enemies. And mine ears shall hear my desire
of the wicked that rise up against me." I see the sin of others
and I see it in myself for wanting vengeance. Verse 12, the righteous
shall flourish like the palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar
in Lebanon. Who? Those that are disciplined? Those that water themselves?
No, no, no. Look at verse 13. Those that be planted. And the
house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of God. They shall still bring forth
fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing."
Why? Why would the Lord do this? Why
would He grow us and make us our whole lives bring forth His
fruit even into our old age? Verse 15, to show that the Lord
is upright. He is my rock and there is no
unrighteousness in Him. He's going to prove it to us.
He says, prove your faith and prove His perfect will. We're not proving that to Him.
He's proving it to us. He's showing us. Any growth we
have is in Him. Our Redeemer said if that tree
does not produce fruit, it will be cut down. Who planted the
fruit tree? He did. Who feeds it? He did.
Who makes it to grow and bear fruit? He does. He does that
and He'll receive the glory for it. And what was that first fruit
of the Spirit? Remember? The first fruit of
the Spirit is love. Love. We're grown in grace, we're
grown in love too. He said in John 13, little children,
yet a little while I'm with you, you shall seek me, and as I said
unto the Jews, whether I go you cannot come, so now I say to
you, he's about to ascend, so now I say to you, a new commandment
I give you, that ye love one another as I have loved you,
that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that
you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. If you have love. Turn to 1 John
4. A loving heart and a gracious
heart are in every believer that our Lord is loving and gracious
to. God is love. We can't know how
to love unless He's loved us first. We can't know anything
about grace unless He's been gracious to us. We can't be merciful
to others unless the Lord's been merciful to us. We're made to
know this, too. Made to know. Look here in 1
John 4, verse 13. Hereby know we that we dwell
in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. Love will grow because it's of
God. He is love. And it will grow
because it is the fruit of His Spirit. Not the fruit of my spirit. Not the fruit of my hands. The
work of my hands. It's the fruit of His Spirit
in us. And it will grow because it's proof to you and I. It proves
to us that we're born of God. Look here in verse 20. If a man say, I love God and
hateth his brother, He's a liar. For he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen... You can go look at them. You
can go hug them. You can go shake hands with them
and say, I don't want to have nothing to do with them. I think
what they're doing is wrong. I know better. They've done worse
than me and I'm going to correct them. Not in truth and not in
love. That's not loving your brother,
is it? He that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? Love will grow and it will mature
because the Spirit of God is working in His people. It's working
in His people. And through the preaching of
the truth and in a spirit of love, through truth and the spirit
of love, knowing God who first loved us, we will grow in grace
and we'll grow in love. We'll grow in both. So seeing
this grace bestowed on us, seeing this love of God bestowed on
His people, shed abroad in our hearts, knowing that we love
our fellow heirs in Christ. We believe God. We love Him who
first loved us. We love our brethren, our brothers
and sisters. Knowing that grace, knowing that
love, now we're grown in peace and contentment. We're grown
in peace. Paul wrote to that church at
Philippi. He said, I don't speak in respect of want. I'm not talking
about things I want. For I have learned, I've been
grown, I've been matured in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. He grew in contentment. The Hebrew
writer said, Let your conversation be without covetous, and be content
with such things as you have, for He hath said, I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee. Why? Why should we be so content?
Because the Lord said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
So that, be content with these things, so that we may boldly
say, The Lord is my Helper, and I will not fear what man shall
do unto me. We have to be brought there.
That's growing. That's growing in patience. Growing in peace.
Looking to Christ the whole time. Knowing Christ will not forsake
those He foreknew. Those He loved before. And knowing
He is always with us. We are content and at peace with
whatever His perfect will brings us in Providence. He is my shepherd. I shall not want. How am I going
to learn that? How am I going to grow in that?
It's going to hurt. There's going to be some trials
in his flesh. There's going to be some trials in his emotions.
I don't know what the Lord's doing. He does. I don't have
to know. That's why I didn't touch on
that, but the sufficient grace. He told Paul, he said, my grace
is sufficient for you. You know what that's also sufficient
for? The understanding of the trial.
I have no idea how the Lord's going to bless this. I don't
have to. His grace is sufficient for my understanding of the trial,
just to trust Him, to be grown towards Him. He said in Matthew
6, Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or
what shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be clothed?
For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. That's what
heathens seek. You're worried about yourself.
You're worried about that mammon, that unrighteous mammon, worldly
riches. For your Heavenly Father knoweth
that ye have need of these things. But seek ye first the kingdom
of God, and His righteousness. Seek His righteousness, and all
these things will be added to you. Lord, save me from eternal
damnation that I earned. You think He'll feed me till
tomorrow? You think He'll keep me till tomorrow? Give me a little
bit of bread and rice to make it through? I think He'll give
me the water I need. They could give me the bread.
So finally, we grow in grace, we grow in love, we grow in peace,
but we grow in humility. We grow in meekness. Solomon
said in Proverbs 6, these six things that the Lord hates, yea,
seven, are an abomination to Him. A proud look, is the first
thing, and a lying tongue. You ever had a proud look? He
ever had a raised eyebrow at the will of God, what He's doing
in and for His people. I wouldn't have done that. I
don't know why the Lord's letting this happen. That's a proud look, isn't it?
I thought I did a little bit here and there. I thought I'm
a little bit prideful here. I'm a little bit prideful there.
But you know, as I age, as I grow, as I mature, I see more and more
of my just self-righteous pride. Not what I do. It's not my actions.
It's who I am. It's all flesh that wars inside
of me. And I also see myself more low
in the Word and myself in the Word of God more magnified. It's
all in the self. A proud look and a lying tongue. I don't try to justify that.
I don't try to excuse it. I try to bow to the Word of the
Lord. How do I know when I'm lying?
There's a lot of lawyer jokes could come up. How do I know
if I'm lying? So, well, I don't lie too much,
or it's only little white lies. What does our God say about a
lying tongue? What sayeth the scriptures about
lying? He said in Matthew 5, But let
your communications be yea, yea, nay, nay. For whatsoever is more
than these cometh of evil. Have I ever answered a question
more than yes or no? Well then, evil has had a wide berth to
come out of my mouth. I want my thoughts and my opinions
to be silenced. and the Lord to be honored. I
want a humble spirit. Let God be true and every man
a liar. I don't want to just say that. I want to believe it
and know that I'm the liar. That's where He found me. Solomon
also said there in Proverbs 16, Pride goeth before destruction
and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better it is to be of a humble
spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoiled with the proud.
It's a good thing to be humble. It's a good thing to be meek.
We're grown in grace and love and peace, and do we see this
more? As time goes on, as we walk with
the Lord and look back a little bit, have we experienced a humbling
trial and we see Christ from the trial? Do we see His glory
more precious than ours? Do we see that He is faithful
to be gracious to those that He has humbled? James reminded us of this text.
He said, God resisteth the proud, but He giveth grace unto the
humble. He has to humble us. And people
slam their fists down and say, but I know some things. You didn't
hear what I got to say. What did our Lord say? The meek
shall inherit the earth. I'm backing our text here and
I'll wrap it up. As the Lord grows us in grace, He grows us
in love and faith and peace, and He grows us in meekness,
we're not tossed around to and fro like little children anymore,
are we? Like a small child just carried away with the next word
that comes. Ooh, what's that? Squirrel. Take off running. We're
not carried around. We lay those arguments aside.
We speak the truth to folks, and in the spirit of love, because
that's the spirit that's come to us, the spirit of love. And
that joins the hearts of His children, that joins the hearts
of His local assemblies that He's gathered together, and that
joins Christ's whole body, His whole church together. Look here
in verse 14 again. Ephesians 4.14, "...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 and wait to deceive, but speaking the truth
in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head,
even Christ, for whom the whole body fitly joined together and
compacted By that which every joint supplyeth, according to
the effectual working in the measure of every part, making
increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love."
From Christ, we're joined together. We're not scattered. Do you know
that? I'm over here by myself. We ain't
scattered. We're joined together. Well, I disagree. God says he
joins his people together. We are compacted, we are squeezed
together by every member's love of Christ in Him. And this is
according to the working of the measure of His grace, which is
the fullness of His power and glory. And we're not going to
be lacking in any measure. We'll be willing in the day of
His power. And He makes us to grow in grace, love, peace, and
meekness, each member of His body. If this hand was five times bigger
than that hand whenever I was a teenager, well, we need to
get that checked out, don't we? He grows us together, every member.
And that's good for the whole of His body. It's for the edifying
of itself. It's for the encouraging, the
instructing, the caring for of itself in love, in His love. I pray that we can remember Christ
who is our wisdom when our wisdom is questioned. I pray that we
can remember the Lord our righteousness when some strange wind of doctrine
blows upon us, that He's our sanctification, that He's our
redemption, and that we can love in truth and in love, in the
spirit of truth and love, and tell those opposed to us the
same thing, just as His Word tells us. in a patient, meek,
humble spirit, in love, in peace, and in grace. Tell the truth. Tell it in love. I hope that's
a blessing to you. Let's pray together.