Well, I want to look again with
you this morning at Ephesians chapter 4, and I want to look
at a very large chunk, because you're aware that's my style,
but these words are so obvious, they're so obvious in their meaning,
nevertheless, it's necessary that there be some comment upon
them, that you read them in the right context. The epistle to
the Ephesians, like so many of the epistles, is basically the
story of a journey, of the believer's journey from a state of wrath,
which is how we're born, in the flesh, a state of wrath, even
though we're the objects of God's sovereign grace, when you come
to believe, you know that that's always been the case, but there
was a time when you were children of wrath, even as the others,
under the just condemnation of God. And you lived in the futility
of your mind like other Gentiles, other godless people, others
with no sense of the true eternal God. And it's a journey from
that to glory. It's a journey. It's a journey
from the state of being Gentiles. I know we're Gentiles by the
flesh, but Gentiles in the mind. Godless. Without any knowledge
of the true God. You see, Israel, although they
were frequently wayward and strayed and were under the judgment of
God, nevertheless they had the oracles of God. and they had
the truth of the salvation of God. They knew right from the
beginning in the Word of God that God was the God of salvation,
so that as Jonah wrote, salvation is of the Lord. They knew that.
They knew there was a need of salvation, but salvation was
of the Lord, whereas we, by nature, in the flesh, were Gentiles.
We had no knowledge of these things. We'd never even heard
that there was a need for a Savior. We had no knowledge of these
things. but it's a journey from that state of being Gentiles
to being God's Israel because God's Israel is not just that
Israel which is of the flesh for they are not all Israel which
are of Israel but the Israel of God is the elect of God from
before the beginning of time brought to that position The
deceiver, Jacob, is brought to be Israel, a prince of God. Is that you? Is that me? A deceiver,
by nature, brought to be a prince with God. Why? Because of the
doing and the dying of the Son of God. The sinner's substitute. So it's from being a state of
being sinners. I know we remain sinners in this flesh. But it's
sinners to saints. What are saints? Oh, they're
holy people who the Pope needs to canonize to make them... No,
they're not. Stuff and nonsense. Ridiculous
historical trivia that's caused so much trouble. No. Saints,
according to the Bible, are those that are set apart by God for
His purpose. You know, the vessels in the
temple were sanctified. They were set apart. You didn't
just eat your dinner off them or drink your drink out of it.
They were set apart for the special service of God. That's what saints
are. Set apart from the rest of humanity for the service of
God. From a state of being ignorant,
ignorant of the things of God, to a state of spiritual light.
His marvellous light. What does it say in 2 Corinthians
chapter 4 verse 6? God who caused light to shine
in the darkness of creation has shined in our hearts to give
us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. You only know that knowledge
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. When you see him, I don't mean
physically, I mean spiritually. See him. Who he is and what he's
done. and he saves. This book is about
him saving individuals and bringing them from that state of children
of wrath to children of God. It's about his sovereign grace
because it is all of sovereign grace. It was all done by the
sovereign grace of God, and not of works, lest any man should
boast. It's about particular redemption, because I know I
keep hammering this point, but it's so important, it is such
a touchstone of the difference between the error that's all
around us in religion, and the truth of the gospel. Christ came
to save his people from their sins. And he didn't go to the
cross for everybody, he went to the cross for his people.
He lived as the righteous, holy substitute of his people, that
they might be counted holy in him. Particular redemption. He paid the sin debt specifically
in full of his people. And then his Holy Spirit comes
in time. And those who were children of wrath, the light goes on.
that the ears are unblocked. They hear the sound of the gospel
preached. By the foolishness of preaching
it pleased God to save those that believe. And he gave belief.
He gave that faith to hear and to see and to believe the things
of the living. He gave new life. And a new man
was born inside. Born again, that's what it is.
It's a hackneyed, cliched term that is so abused, but it's scriptural. Born again. Born again. You cannot
see, said Jesus to Nicodemus, the kingdom of God, unless a
man is born again. You must be born again. Like
that woman said to Mr. Spurgeon, why do you keep preaching
that you must be born again? And he said, because, dear lady,
you must be born again. It's essential. You cannot see
the things of God unless that Spirit of God comes and makes
you alive. And we've been reading about
not just individual salvation, but God saving a church, and
building a temple. Temple not built of stones, and
of wood, and of bricks and more, but built of living stones, which
are his people, made alive, and cut out of that quarry, that
rough quarry, and brought together to build that beautiful temple,
which is the church of the living God. And now he goes on, to talk
about renewing the demeanor of life that we live in conformity
to that gospel. so that the life is different
it truly is that old word conversion it truly is a change you know
is there any sign of a conversion renewing the demeanor of life
from what we were by nature and the desire the selfish desires
of the natural heart into the desires of the children of the
living God because as the scripture says in the Old Testament as
a man thinks so he is To live out certain things, you must
think them and feel them and know them in your heart. Just
like the apple tree produces apples because of the rootstock
that it's grown on, because of the genetics of the tree. That's
why it does what it does. Well, so it is. With the children
of God brought to this position of saving faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ, then there's a change of life. Now we saw last time,
the message was entitled, the strength for the walk, because
Paul exhorted the people at the start of chapter four that they
walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they're called, that they walk
worthy of it, that they live differently. And he gave them
strength, he showed them what the strength was for that walk.
And that strength is scriptural ministry because we saw there
in verse 11 he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists
and some pastors and some teachers all gifts of scriptural ministry
that they might grow and be strong for the walk but what I want
to do this week is first of all before we delve into this second
half of the chapter is Think just for a few moments about,
a bit more about this journey. Because here's another way of
looking at it. It's a journey from the state of the first Adam
to the state of the second Adam. Now turn over with me to the
passage we read earlier in 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I know you've probably read these
verses many, many times. They bear reading many more times
before you've properly plumbed, you'll never plumb the depths
of them, but you've got into them. Basically, God deals with
all of us on the basis of just two men, the first Adam and the
second Adam. The first Adam is Adam who was
created in the Garden of Eden, the first man created, who fell,
who was not deceived by the serpent. Eve was deceived, but Adam was
not deceived. He knew what he was doing. Adam
went into it with his eyes wide open and you know why I believe
he did what he did? He said, to the woman, what have
you done? What on earth have you done?
But rather than lose her to the condemnation that was her just
dessert for that being deceived and disobeying God, Adam, knowing
full well what he was doing, took it and ate it, that he might
not lose her, but that wherever she was going, he would go with
her. And with him, all of his posterity fell into sin, and
that's all of us. As in Adam, says this chapter,
a few verses earlier, verse 22, as in that Adam, that first man,
all die, even so in Christ. Now Christ is the second Adam.
He is the second Adam. Shall all those who are in Christ
be made alive? As in Adam, all that are in Adam,
and that's everybody that ever lived, shall die. But even so,
in Christ, the second Adam, shall all who are in Christ, the second
Adam, be made alive? Because look what it says in
verse 45. The first man Adam was made a
living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening,
a making alive spirit. How be it? That was not first,
which is spiritual. Christ was not, he didn't come
first. The fleshly one, the natural
one, Adam of the flesh was first, but afterward, that which is
spiritual, Christ came later in time, in history. The first
man is of the earth. What did God make Adam of? The
dust of the earth. Earthy. The second man, who was
the second man? The second man. Do you remember
we read a few weeks ago in Isaiah 32, a king shall reign in righteousness
and a man, a man shall be as a hiding place, a man. The first
man is of the earth, the second man is the Lord from heaven. This second man, Christ, the
second Adam, is God himself. He is the Lord from heaven. As
is the earthy, the first Adam, so are they also that are earthy. That's us in our flesh. As is
the heavenly, so are they also that are heavenly. And as we
have borne the image of the earthy, we also shall bear the image
of the heavenly. We're descended from Adam. It's
in our genetics, it's in our physical makeup that we're earthy.
We bear the image of him but also, this is the point, at regeneration,
at the new birth, God gives that new man. A new man is born inside
and so then the believer becomes one no longer with just one nature
but with two natures. The nature of the old and the
nature of the new. The earthy image and the heavenly
image reside in the one man. So that the Song of Solomon says
in chapter 6 and verse 13, what do you see in the Shulamite?
Which is a picture of the people of God. I see as it were a camp
of two armies. the earthy the heavenly and Galatians
tells us that these two are in constant opposition as long as
we live in this life in this flesh they're in constant opposition
the flesh wars against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh
and these two it says are contrary to one another and Paul says
in Romans chapter 7 the things I would do I don't do. And the
things that I don't want to do, I do. The spirit of the new man,
because he's fighting against the flesh constantly. Now that's
the context in which we come to this passage back in Ephesians,
and read the rest of it again for yourself, because there's
much more depth there. You see, in the terms of eternity,
outside of time, we are already raised with Christ, and seated
in heavenly places in Him. But in time, and in our experience
now, in this flesh, living as saved people in the flesh, we're
not there yet. It doesn't feel like we're there
yet. We know that as far as the scripture is concerned and the
judgment of God, we're seated in heavenly places in Christ.
But in yours and my experience as we go through this life in
the flesh, we're not there yet. That's how it feels, doesn't
it? Gospel seed has been sown, The gospel seed as the sower
went out to sow, the gospel seed has been sown and thank God that
some of it, oh how we'd love to see it here in Nebworth, some
of it fell on good ground. Good ground was that which was
prepared by God. Good ground was that which was
foreordained by God. But that seed needs to grow in
that good ground. It needs to mature in that good
ground if it's going to bear fruit. And so Peter says, the
last verse that Peter wrote that we have in the scriptures, 2
Peter 3, 18, but grow in grace. It's an exhortation, but you
grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. And grow into the second Adam. Grow from the image and the characteristics
of the first Adam, which is earthy. grow, grow into the second Adam. And it's necessary growth, necessary
growth because of this. You see, When Paul was writing
Romans, he faced this obvious conclusion that natural fallen
reason would come to. The natural fallen reason was
this, oh there's this glorious gospel. You see, I know we're
sinners, I know God is holy, I know he's a judge, I know it's
appointed to man to die once and after this the judgment,
I know that the soul that sins it shall die, I know that I'd
be condemned to a dreadful hell, I know all of these things, but
this one called the Savior has come and done all of these things
in the place of his people and now his people are counted and
judged entirely in him from beginning to end and therefore nothing
can change that because that's fixed in eternity and who shall
bring any charge to God's elect for Christ has died and anything
I do doesn't alter the fact that Christ has died so if I want
to commit adultery or I want to steal or I want to do all
of these things I can do it with impunity I've got a license to
sin because what does Paul say about that Romans 6 verse 1 shall
we sin what shall we say then he says shall we sin that grace
may abound shall we go on sinning deliberately because there is
this grace of God that has saved his people God forbid what a
dreadful thought how utterly incompatible with the true gospel
that I should think that because Christ has dealt with everything
and I'm never going to be judged for anything that I am or do
because he is the one who is judged and I'm judged in him
that therefore I can go and live exactly as my sinful flesh wants
I can degenerate to lie and steal and be dishonest and do whatever
the flesh wants to God forbid says Paul God forbid Because
Ephesians 2, as we've already been reminded, verse 10, says
that we, his people, are created in Christ Jesus unto, why? For a purpose, unto good works
which God hath before ordained. that we should walk in them there's
some good works to do on this road of growth from the first
Adam to the likeness of the image of the second Adam from the image
of the earthy to the image of the spiritual the heavenly there's
some growing to do do some growing for good works before ordained
that we should walk in them and so we have this exhortation here
in the second half of Ephesians and especially now in this passage
before us in chapter four This exhortation to fruitful living. The strengths of the walk, we've
already talked about. The gifts of scriptural ministry
that God gives to his church to build us up, to feed us. You
know, like you eat food to get strong. You grow and you mature
and you get strong and you grow in mental maturity and physical
maturity. You get bigger and stronger and
you become more able to deal with life. Well, this is an exhortation
here. to bear the characteristics of
maturity. And so it's a conscious, it's
an exhortation to consciously suppress the old man, the characteristics
of the first Adam, and to promote and to walk along with the desires
of the new Adam, the second Adam. You see, the scripture nowhere,
nowhere does it talk about passive fatalism for the child of God. We're never to sit back passively
and fatalistically to say, what will be will be. Never ever to
do that. Because why else? Now, there's
some things here which fall down when you just apply human logic
to it. You have to say, thus says the Lord. And he says this,
and he also says this. And in the eternal purposes of
God, they're not in the least incompatible. But to human logic,
they seem incompatible. So don't apply human logic. Ask
God to teach you. The Word of God nowhere, because
of the grace of God and the sovereignty of God, nowhere does it encourage
us to passive fatalism. Live as I want. Do what I want.
Makes no difference. won't alter anything. Why should
I try? Doesn't matter anyway. Doesn't alter whether I'm going
to heaven or not, if I'm in Christ I can live. Nowhere is passive
fatalism encouraged. You see, you've got the sovereignty,
you've got the unchangeableness of God. You've got the predestination
of God. How else does He cause all things
to work together for good to those that love God, who are
called according to His purpose, if it were not for the fact that
He controls all things? Therefore, fear not, children
of God. How is it that the heart of the king is in the hand of
God unless he is absolutely sovereign over all things? How is it that
everything that he prophesied in this book has in history come
about exactly as he wrote it? And there's virtually nothing
left to come about apart from Christ to return when all of
the elect are called in and the church is complete. Everything,
everything, the probability of it happening, as I've told you
before, is so remote, it's utterly mind-boggling. You cannot get
your mind around how utterly mind-boggling is the prophecy
of this book. And that can only be because
the God who inspired it He's the God who orders all things
according to the counsel of his own will. Yes, we believe in
the sovereignty and the unchangeableness and the predestinating will of
God. He's unchangeable. You just glibly
say, oh, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today. What is it
to be unchangeable? I change all the time. I don't
stick on one opinion for five minutes about many things. I'm
flitting around from one thought to another. He's unchangeable.
Somebody says something to me and it upsets me and it changes
my feelings and I'm changeable. He's not. He's absolutely unchangeable. the logical implication of that
the logical implication of that is that we can just let everything
go because he controls it anyway the scriptural implication of
that because of what it says here is not to have a laissez-faire
passivity to the way that we live we can't just say oh it's
not my fault God didn't order my steps to be holy no look at
verse thirty there's an interesting phrase there Don't ask me to
explain it because I can't understand it. This God who I've just been
describing is holy and unchangeable and absolutely perfectly pure
and determined in his will and purposes. His emotions, he is
never, never, never changed in his view of me as a child of
God by what I do. You know, that's clear. But,
look what it says there. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of
God. There's a sense in which we can
grieve the Holy Spirit of God. He's a person. You know, this
is the third person of the Trinity. He is God. You can grieve the
Holy Spirit. You can grieve the God whose
feelings cannot be changed. I don't understand that, but
the scripture teaches it. You can grieve. How can you grieve?
In experience. In your experience you can grieve
the Holy Spirit of God who comes and takes up residence. Think
about Psalm 51 about David, when he committed that dreadful sin
of adultery and murder. In Psalm 51, that Psalm of repentance
and penitence. that psalm there, he grieved
the Holy Spirit by what he did. And he was conscious of that
in his repentant heart, he was conscious that he grieved the
Holy Spirit by what he had done. And he pleads there, take not
your Holy Spirit from me. So you see, in preaching what
this passage clearly teaches us, I am not preaching what we
might call free will-ism. There's lots of hyphens in that
so that your spell checker doesn't come up and say you've spelled
it wrongly. I'm not preaching free will. I don't believe in
free will, which is contrary to sovereign predestinating grace
of God. No, I'm not preaching that. Somebody
once heard me on one of these messages on Free Grace Radio
talk about choose you this day whom you will serve and he said
you sounding like he's preaching like Billy Graham and not like
a preacher of sovereign grace that wasn't the case at all.
I try to be scriptural you know it's not a creed it's not a set
of written down confessions that is our rule of life and it's
this book it's what this book teaches I wholeheartedly 100%
believe in the absolute sovereignty of God but at the same time this
exhorts me to not live in one way but to choose to live in
another way and so therefore we have to balance that and take
that on board. So I'm not preaching free willism.
And at the same time, as so many do, oh they rub their hands with
glee when they get to the second half of the epistles, oh now
here's some things, what people love to be told, they love, they're
sheep, they love to be rounded up like sheep, get the sheep
dogs out, go snapping at their heels, let's round them up and
put them in pens, let's come up with this idea that the law
of Moses is the believers rule of life and here it is and let's
give them a whole set of laws that they must live by and that
they mustn't do this and if we take our guard down think of
the dreadful things that will happen in the church if people
think that they're not subject to law and that they're allowed
to live as they want we must we must do this you see I'm not
preaching legalism either I hate the doctrine of legalism it's
it's an abuse of the Word of God The law has to be used rightly,
says Paul to Timothy. you know to use it like a whip
with which to beat believers that's that's the abuse of the
law of Moses that's abusing it the right use of the law is to
show people sin this is the reason for the law was to reveal sin
to make it obvious to make it manifest to show it as it really
is to draw the line to show clearly what was sin that's the purpose
of the law not to conform people's behavior the child of God doesn't
consciously decide not to murder because there's a law that says
thou shalt not kill it's out of love it's out of it's out
of compassion it's out of the selfless fruit of the spirit
that those things come and it isn't either for progressive
sanctification you know you hear them say and uh... I read books
of some people, I mean no doubt we all make mistakes and no doubt
people in future generations will be able to point out the
error in things that we've said and done but you know reading
books of people that have written some very good stuff but there's
one particular one where he says justification is the work of
God from beginning to end but sanctification is our work it's
what we do, no it's not Christ is made unto us wisdom from God
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Christ is made
unto us. He is my sanctification. I am
chosen in Him from before the foundation of the world. I am
judged in Him. I am sanctified. He is my sanctification. So I'm not talking about progressive
sanctification either because do you know what the error in
that is? those that talk about the law being the believers rule
of life and they talk about the need for progressive sanctification
do you know what's the basis of it? degrees of reward in heaven. Oh, one's going to be a better
Christian than another because they're going to go into heaven
saved by what Christ did. Yes, we all know about that.
We all know about that. But they're going to get to the judgment
seat of Christ and oh, you were a good Christian. Oh, you built
all of these good works on what Christ had done. So you can have
a special big crown and you can strut around heaven showing how
much better you are judged than these others. What does the parable
of the laborers say? How much did the ones that turned
up with just half an hour left to work get? Exactly the same
wages as those that had worked since six o'clock in the morning.
Isn't that Christ's way? So I'm not preaching legalism
either. What I'm talking about is growth
in grace, growing grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. What does Peter in that same
epistle, his second epistle, right at the start of it, he
exhorts believers, he says, and so, and this is, I forget the
grammatical term, you know, the second person, you know, where
it's the exhortation, it's the injunction to, let us, it's you
do it, you do it, you know if I say to Ariane, go out of this
room now, I'm not saying that to your dog so don't get up and
go, but if I was to say that, that's a command you know, well
this is a command, add to your faith. Peter says, add to your
faith virtue. Who, me? Yes, you. Add to your
faith virtue, patience, and so on. Other fruits of the Spirit.
Why? Because what will be the result? Peter says this, and
by so doing, now here, this blows my mind, this concept. Remember
what I've just said about sovereignty? He says this, he says, by adding
these fruitful virtues to your faith, you will, you will make
your calling and election sure. Can you get your head around
that? That's what God's Word says. You see, there are exhortations. Exhortations. I always remember
when I was being taught my physics degree that there was some lecturers
who were dreadful. They were so dry. All they could
ever do was write a formula on the board and talk about it and,
oh dear, it was so dusty. But there was another guy, there
was a Canadian guy who was a really good lecturer, and he could make
you see the concept straight away. And he was teaching us
the physics concept of entropy. Now, many of you may not have
heard of entropy, but he said it's like this. He says, back
at home, you clean up the house and it takes effort and conscious
thought and lots of organization to clean all the dirt up. And
he says, you get all of the junk and the dirt and the dust in
a pile by the front door, and you've put all of that effort
in for hours to clean the house. You've reduced the entropy. You've
increased the order of the house. And he says, what happens? Somebody
comes bursting in, opens the front door, and a gale blows,
and it just goes everywhere. It takes no effort, it takes
no conscious thought whatsoever for it to go everywhere. But
it takes effort to tidy it up. so it is here, the exhortation
don't just laissez faire don't just leave it to passive fatalism
there are things to do use the gifts now I don't think we're
going to get very far this morning but I want to come back again
to the verses that we looked at very briefly last week and
then in a future message we'll come back to the more detailed
application but look in verse eleven first of all first of
all in this exhortation Use the gifts. Use the gifts that God
has given. He's given apostles and prophets
and evangelists and pastors and teachers, scriptural ministry
gifts. Apostles laying the foundation
of doctrine in the early church, the God-ordained channels through
which he delivered this doctrine that we have in our New Testaments,
this clear, explicit, making that which is implicit throughout
the Old Testament, the things which speak of Christ, absolutely
explicit. We've got that. They're never
to be repeated, but we've got that. Read your Bible. Use it. It's there, it's the Word of
God. This is the Word of the Eternal God. Read it. And some
prophets, oh how I thank God that he's given prophets. What
do I mean by prophets? I don't just mean those in the
Old Testament who prophesied things to come. I mean those
with a particular detailed knowledge of the scriptures and of doctrine
and an ability, a God-given ability to make it plain. So I'm thankful
for prophets whose writings we have. John Gill and many others
and those in our day. I'm so grateful for the fact
that they have time to shut themselves away in their studies and do
deep study and get into this so that we can be helped because
these are the gifts that he's given to help us with the scripture. He hasn't left you alone. He
hasn't left you alone. How do you learn to play the
violin? Well, you can Buy yourself a
violin and you can buy yourself a book and you can go away in
a room on your own and you can scratch and scrape and squeal
away with the violin and six months later I doubt whether
you'll be any better. Somebody might be able to point out to
me, somebody who's self-taught the violin and is now competent.
I very much doubt it. In nearly every case, it's because
of a teacher. A good teacher. Somebody who
knows. Somebody who's experienced. Comes
and teaches. And so it is with the Word of
God. Yes, read it for yourself, but make use of these gifts.
these gifts of prophets, and evangelists, these are the geographical
itinerant preachers of the gospel, and then locally. God gives these
gifts to his church, pastors and teachers, those with an ability
to expound and explain the word of God. How can I understand
it? Remember I said this last week, the Ethiopian eunuch, do
you understand what you're reading in the book of Isaiah? How can
I understand it unless a man explain it to me? So, Philip,
the preacher, sent by God, comes up in the chariot beside him
and expounds to him in that book of Isaiah what it doesn't mention
the name of Jesus in Isaiah does it tell you what he preached
Jesus that he is the Christ to him from the book of Isaiah and
why were these things given for the perfecting of the Saints
verse 12 for the perfecting of them, for the completing of them.
There's two ways that you can look at this. There's a number
of the saints, the elect of God, that is not complete yet because
there are some who are still living as children of wrath.
There may be in the eternal purposes of God generations yet to be
born, we don't know. But there are those who are children
of wrath even as others, and yet they need to be brought.
The full number of the elect needs to be called in. perfecting
of the Saints for the work of the ministry. To do that work. What's the work of the ministry?
The bit that you supply in the body. Look down at Verse 16,
from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted
by that which every joint supplies according to the effectual working
of the measure of every part. Verse 7, Christ has given us
gifts according to the measure of the gift of Christ that he's
given to each one, making increase of the body. It's so that the
body together works well. You know I had this problem with
my back and it made my left leg very, very well. I never used
to think about my left calf muscle. Not at all. I just used to regard
it as an irrelevant part of my body until it stopped working.
And when I discovered it had stopped working, I was aware
of the fact that it actually made a significant contribution.
You may say in the Church of God, oh, I'm only the left calf
muscle. No, you're not. You're a vital
part. I can tell you. Now that my left
calf muscle is starting to work properly, and I can now stand
on my left foot after a long time of not being able to, I
can tell you how important your left calf muscle is. Can you
translate that into, you haven't got a lowly position in the Church
of God, you've got an essential position. It's a part that Christ
has gifted you for. And these ministry gifts a perfecting,
building up for the work of the ministry, for the edifying, for
the strengthening of the body of Christ. Building it up till
we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of
the Son of God to a perfect man. That's not to say that we're
ever sinless in this life. Not at all, that's not what it
means. It means complete. It means complete in the knowledge
of the doctrine of Christ and it's a process of growth. A process
of growth, as Paul says, not that I have attained, not that
I have attained, he says this in Philippians. I haven't got
there, but I press toward the mark of the high calling. If
I'm quoting that correctly. To the measure, verse 13, of
the stature of the fullness of Christ. This is it. reflecting
him, growing more like him, that we henceforth be no more children. The idea here is maturity. You
see, thinking about children, what's the very first thing that
babies take for nourishment it's milk and so Peter says in his
epistle about spiritual children taking and feeding on and growing
with the pure milk of the word he talks about the pure milk
of the word but you don't stay on milk come on Strong meat,
sound doctrine, maturity, that you'd be no more children because
we care for our children and we love our children, but when
they're children, they're subject to dangers that they're unaware
of, and so we protect them. They're tossed to and fro and
carried about by every wind of doctrine. Somebody says, oh,
there's a good idea over here, and they go running over to it.
oblivious of the fact that there lies potential danger. And parents
step in, and we want them to grow and be mature so that they
can, as soon as possible, be left on their own in the house
or whatever else the trust is that goes with growing and becoming
more and more mature. The whole body Sorry, I've missed
a verse. And not being subject, verse
14, to the slight of men, the deceit of men. The, you know,
the slight, the idea there is, you know, the magician with his
conjurer's tricks. And his, the hand is faster than
the eye can see. And so he deceives the eye and
makes you think things are one way, when they're actual fact,
they're another way. And thereby, with his cunning
craftiness, he lies in wait to deceive you. Yes, with packs
of cards and the conjurer's tricks, it's entertainment, but when
it comes to doctrine, it's serious. But speaking the truth in love,
knowing you have to speak it, you must know it. Speaking the
truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which is the
head, even Christ. How is this put into practice
practically? I'll give you an example, and
I think I can now because it's now moved into history. But if any of you ever went to
13th Street Ashland in the days when Henry Mahan was preaching
there, and he preached there for 50 years or more. Apologies
if anybody knows details better than I do, I'm sure. There are
some who will listen to this who know the details better than
I do. But we visited there and we know
several people who have visited there. And you know like when
the inspector turns up unannounced to check for standards of hygiene
or the way that they're treating the old people in the NHS and
stuff like that, you know how the unannounced visit shows up
what things are really like, I tell you, you could pitch up
unannounced there and you would not find a more gracious set
of people on this planet. There were probably 250 there
in membership, you would not find a more gracious set of people
because the ministry gifts of that pastor and teacher had taught
them down all those years and it was in, they'd fed on it. they fed on the meat of it, they
fed on the truth of it, and they, you know, they say, oh, you must
preach the law to people, otherwise they'll be full of sin and their
behavior will be outrageous. You never find a more gracious,
compassionate, loving, self-sacrificing group of people than those people
were under that ministry. That's what this is talking about.
That's what it's talking about. They're still sinners. Whilst
we're in the flesh, they're still sinners. But what can we do? Make every attempt to make use
of the gifts that God has given. Make every attempt. to hear. We've got such blessings now
with the internet and these sermons on the internet. Make use of
them. It's food for your soul. Use them. There's DVDs where
you've got sermons on DVD, four or five on each one. Take them,
use them. I'm not saying that there's nothing
else to do in this life, but oh, let's get our priorities
right. Let's choose to switch off the TV and to do something
like that, to listen to some ministry. okay so the fruit of
scriptural ministry gifts faithfully exercise that's that's what you
get that's what these are for and you if you ignore if you
despise if you neglect these scriptural ministry gifts Then,
what does he say? The word of Christ will dwell
in you less richly. And in the process, this thing
which is amazing, you will grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby
you're sealed unto the day of redemption. Now, I had a lot
more to say, but I'm going to leave that for next week, which
is all the practical details. Read it for yourselves. But this
is the basis of it. We're on a journey growing. If
you're a child of God and in Christ, this is how you must
view yourself. You're in the process of growing
in grace. Make use of that which God has
provided. Listen, heed the exhortations. Don't passively sit back and
do nothing, but say, God helping me as far as in me is with God's
help. Like they did, Joshua 24, choose
you this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will
serve the Lord as long as he helps us. Amen.