Episode Transcript
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Let's turn again to Ephesians chapter four. I will be preaching from versus fourteen
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through sixteen. Let me begin,
however, in verse seven. Fesians for
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verse seven, as were all begin
reading tonight. If you have a Black
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Bible from the cart, in the
back its page nine hundred and seventy seven.
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But grace was given to each one
of us according to the measure of
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Christ's gift. Therefore, it says
when he ascended on high, he led
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a host of captives and he gave
gifts to men. In saying he ascended,
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what does it mean but that he
also descended into the lower regions the
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earth. He who descended is the
one who also ascended far above all the
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heavens, that he might fill all
things, and he gave the apostles,
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the prophets, the evangelists, the
shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for
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the work of Ministry, for building
up the body of Christ, until we
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all attain the unity of faith,
of the faith and the knowledge of the
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son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of
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the fullness of Christ, so that
we may no longer be children tossed to
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and fro by the waves and carried
about by every wind of doctrine, by
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human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful
schemes. Rather speaking the truth in love,
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we are to grow up in every
way into him who is the head,
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into Christ, from whom the whole
body, joined and held together by
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every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly,
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makes the body grow so that it
builds itself up in love. I'men maybe
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seated well as we come to effusions, for we've gone over this passage once
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before, but I want to look
particularly tonight with you versus fourteen through sixteen.
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In Verses Fourteen through sixteen, we
have a picture of the goal of
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our church. What kind of place
are we supposed to be? What kind
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of places the Church of Christ supposed
to be? What kinds of things might
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describe what the ways in which we
are growing, in what we are growing
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to? Let me pause right there
and just to point something out. Even
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in the very way that we begin
talking about this, in talking about growth,
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we are talking about something that is
not static. Our faith in Christ,
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our position in Christ, is not
at attic thing. It's dynamic,
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it's moving it's growing. As I
mentioned this morning, sometimes people will think
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about Christianity like a kind of information
dump. They imagine perhaps that they have
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a file folder in their minds where
they were, where they put into that
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folder anything that relates to God,
Church, religion. It goes right in
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that folder and it's filed away.
Are All kinds of article, some read,
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some not, some halfread, some
maybe just scratches on Napkins. They
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might say things like the Trinity,
various proofs, or how ought one to
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confess his or her sins and the
dangers of Roman Catholic pen and system,
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or maybe the Holy Spirit question mark. So we have, of course,
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we have these questions in our minds. We have these various things that we
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believe or don't believe. There's no
denying that there is truth and doctrines that
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can be listed, can be analyzed, taught, systematized, but that doesn't
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necessarily describe our faith. It describes
in a way it's content, but it
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doesn't describe exactly what faith is.
Faith which is that instrument by which we
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receive the blessings of God, faith
which is active in that sense us.
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We don't merely think about the things
of the Bible, or we ought not
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to think about the things of the
Bible, is as something static, because
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what we see here in Ephesians,
for is that we have been brought into
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a relationship with Christ, a relationship
so dynamic it can be described using the
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metaphor of a body. Notice what
he says. He says that we are
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these gifts of ministers of the word, apostles, prophets, of angelist shepherds
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and teachers are given to the church. One is the read one reason is
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for the building up of the body, the building up of the body.
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It's an active sense. There's a
growing thing that happens and there's a goal
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too. It's not a wild kind
of growth and out of control growth.
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It's a growth with a point and
a destination, as it says, to
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mature manhood. There is such a
thing as Christian maturity, and maturity not
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just of an individual but within a
body, to the measure and the stature
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of the fullness of Christ. That's
pretty specific right. The maturity that we
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are called to grow into, or, to put it another way, the
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maturity that God himself is growing us
up into, is the measure of the
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stature, of the fullness of Christ. We are being made in more like
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him, we are becoming more and
more like our savior. There is a
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progression that he talks about in verse
fourteen, so that we may no longer
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be children, tossed back and forth
by this thing or that thing, but
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instead growing up into what, into
him, who is the head. So
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this is the way that the Christian
life is described. We don't think about
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our faith, or we ought not
to think about our faith, as a
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stack of papers to be pulled out
and read or reread from time to time.
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Well, God may be the object
of our faith, we are also
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the subjects on which he is acting. The True Christian, therefore, is
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one who has changed in the deepest
parts of himself or herself when the spirit
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is at work, and that's because
of the reality of who Jesus is.
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This passage teaches us that Jesus is
not a theory or a myth or an
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idea. He is the son of
God who became man and has now ascended
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into heaven and is reigning over all. Through him, the father is bringing
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these elect into the kingdom, he's
causing them to grow, he's protecting him,
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protecting them against the deceitful schemes that
are in the world. Now,
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with that being said, those who
like to downplay doctrine will perhaps rejoice at
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my words and overstep their bounds in
order to cling to a god of their
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own making, and this is dangerous, for while the son of God relates
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to us as a true person,
living and active, there are things about
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him that are true and things that
are not true. Those that ignore those
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truths, those that ignore those doctrines, fail to reject him himself. Imagine
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it this way. If I told
you that you now have access to a
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million dollars free and clear, and
all you have to do is access them
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with this account and routing number.
But if I give you the account the
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wrong number, if I give you
the wrong account number, the wrong routing
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number, do you really have access
to a million dollars? I could say
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it over and over and over again. I could say you have a million
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dollars free and clear, here's the
account numbers, here's the account numbers,
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here's the account numbers. But no
matter how many times I say it,
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no matter how fancy I make it
sound, if the account numbers are wrong,
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you ain't accidents. Saying the million
dollars. It's like that with doctrine.
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The same is true of Jesus.
In a way. In order to
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benefit from him, you have to
know him. You can't just make up
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something, a god of your imagination, call it Jesus, and then hope
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that somehow you'll be saved by,
quote unquote, Jesus. Right. There's
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things that are true about Jesus.
Born of a virgin, born under the
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law, live, died, rose
again. Was the son of God who
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had come into the world to bring
about the glorious consummation of his kingdom,
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and he has particular ways that he's
doing that in particular ways that he's not.
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There are things that are true about
him and there things that are not,
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and that's important because Paul is telling
us that we are growing, not
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up into an idea of religion,
he says we are growing into Christ.
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You need to know who Christ is. Also note that not only is this
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goal, not only is this our
goal, but this is also the way
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that we come to this. The
way in which we are grown is by
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God giving to us himself more and
more through the word. That's why he
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gives us these ministers of the word. That's why we base everything that we
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do here in our church on the
word of God, because this is where
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God promises growth. This is how
we grow stronger and stronger. Knowing these
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truths about Jesus is how you know
Jesus. Anyone who wants to divorce doctrine
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in life doesn't understand really either.
So then it's because of god, whom
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we receive powerfully and personally through his
word in spirit, that we are changed.
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That's what's described here in this passage, as well as the changing that
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goes on. And as we consider
that, then we can we are ready
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and we're ready to think about well, what is it that we are changing
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exactly, or what is it that
we are coming into and growing up?
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Here's another way to ask the question. What is a mature Christian look like?
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What is a mature Christian Church look
like? Well, the first thing
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to say is that maturity is a
category that we ought to be thinking about.
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Right. Paul uses that word,
about growing up into the into mature
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manhood. Sometimes people talk about young
kids. I don't know if that's the
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right if I'm allowed to use that
word yet, but young kids, as
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we have this phrase, fail to
launch right. Have you heard this phrase
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right. A young person who is
supposed to be at that point of maturity
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where they are ready to launch and
become independent, but it's sort of like
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using a guess spatial little analogy,
sort of fails to launch because they don't
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have the things necessary and in order
to do that, they never quite reach
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the strage where they're strong enough to
be independent. Similarly, in our social
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and physical lives, the the body
is meant to mature. The body of
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Christ is meant to mature. We
are to become independent in a way,
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but only in a way that is
always dependent on Jesus. Will come back
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to that later. So what does
spiritual maturity look like? Well, I
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think we could boil it down from
this passage to a couple things. Knowledge
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and love. In the first place. Spiritual maturity is being able to see
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the truth from a lie, right, being able to discern and have wisdom
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about what is and what isn't.
Notice how he puts it. He says,
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so that they will no longer be
children tossed to and fro by the
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waves, carried about by every wind
of doctrine. Have you ever seen something
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on the ocean or the sea that's
just blown about, carried about by any
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little thing. We aren't to be
like that. A spiritually mature person is
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someone who knows God's word, what
it says and what it doesn't say,
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in its part, in its hole. It understands the specific details ails of
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the Bible and its connections to one
another. Think about to go back to
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a sea analogy. You think about
a mature a fisherman who can read the
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waves, the seasons, the weather
and then catch a net full of fish.
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Amateure Christian is like that. They
can see what is of God and
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what is not of God. What
pretends to be true piety, what pretends
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to be religion that is a helpful
and advancing and what actually is true piety,
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what actually is godliness, what actually
does lead to true godliness? And
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this is important, not just because
we want to grow stronger and better,
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but because there are very real dangers
in this world. Paul says, there
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are those who wish to do the
church harm. That's an important part of
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wisdom, isn't it? Understanding that
there are very real dangers in the world.
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You look both ways before you cross
the street, not because it's just
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feels good. You look both ways
before you cross the street, because there
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are very real dangers. You can
lose your life if you don't do it.
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We are called to grow into maturity, to grow through this feeding of
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the word into Christ, more and
more from Christ the word, so that
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we might not fall into danger.
Sometimes, Nimes, we pretend like everything's
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okay when it's not. There are
those who, I have to tell you,
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pretend to be leaders, spiritual guides, faithful to the savior, savior,
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but are in fact wolves in sheep's
clothing, demons praying on the week,
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those who wear fancy clothes, perhaps
have fancy titles, but in fact
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deserve, and I'll put it in
Jesus's words, to have millstones tied around
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their necks and cast into the sea
and actually worse. Why? Why that
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drastic language? Because they are deceiving
the little ones, evil doers who use
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smooth talk, flattery, fine and
say fine things. They lie about Christ
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to lure us in. They try
to take the place of Christ in our
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lives. They teach us that all
we need to love is fear of them.
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Love them and will be okay.
Follow me, they say, and
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I will take care of you.
Follow me and I will watch over you.
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Follow me and everything will be fine. And of course, children are
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easily deceived kids. I don't mean
that to be mean, it's just true,
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and that's why your parents and and
other people God has put in Your
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Life Watch over you and protect you
and warn you and train you to look
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both ways across the street, to
not talk to strangers and various other things
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that we are teaching you. The
sad thing is, when it comes to
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our spirituality, our faith, sometimes
even very old saints never made it out
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of infancy, if they are saints
at all. Those who should by now
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be protectors, Warriors, faithful fighters
for the truth, are confused, they
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stumble, they don't know the word
of God, they don't understand it and
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are likewise fooled. This is what
happens when the word of God is displaced
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for the traditions and truth of men, when the ultimate and practical authority for
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all things is not the risen Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, but people
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and their ideas and their selfmade religion. Well, how do I know what
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is selfmade religion and what is actually
given to me by God through his word?
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That's how we know. That's why
we keep coming back to his word
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again and again. Paul even commends
the Brillans, for example, after teaching
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them, for going to the word
and testing whether the things he says are
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true. Paul doesn't say, I'm
so glad that you trusted my authority and
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on that alone you accepted all these
things. Now he commends them for going
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to God's word, and we all
must do that. Paul says that we
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are to grow, through the word
of God, into maturity, through Christ
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himself, into Christ himself. That's
how we become spiritual adults, capable of
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perceiving the truth from the lie and
capable of protecting others. To this he
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adds a second thing. Knowing the
truth enables us to speak the truth and
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therefore build one another up in love. Truth is not something true truth is
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not used to beat people over the
head, to be proud and mean true
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truth, the truth of God,
the Truth of Christ, the Gospel.
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Well, this is something that is
full of love. It's all about love
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from beginning to end, and it
should be spoken in love. Truth and
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Love, love and truth, they
go together, and this is why the
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deceits of the devil cannot only be
detected in the in comparing what he says
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to the word. Not only are
his lies evident this way, but also
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in his lack of love, True
Love, love for others, love for
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God. Let me put it this
way. Do those who pray on the
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Church love the church? Of course
not. What do they love themselves?
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Their lusts, their power, their
pride. Where is Christ? Where are
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his people? You will find them
where the truth of Christ is proclaimed and
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where the love of Christ is evident, not in dark secrets, power plays,
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manipulation and fear, not in pride, sinful secrets, shame and guilt
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and hatred. Jesus is not in
these things. The True Church, you
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see from what Paul is saying here, is not a church that is held
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together by traditions and power, structures
and bureaucratic lies, no matter how old
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or seemingly important they are. The
church is a body that is held together
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by God himself, by the spirit
of God working through the word, a
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spirit that is of love and is
of the truth. The True Church,
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a mature church, is a church
where the Gospel is preached so that each
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member grows in the power of the
spirit of God, being empowered in his
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or her calling to fulfill and be
a good steward of their gifts and then
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build up one another. What in
love? What kind of church do you
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want to be? What kind of
church are we called to be? Most
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importantly, what kind of church is
God making us to be? If our
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faith is in Christ, he is
making us to be a church that is
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all about loving him, living in
him and learning him. The Christian Church,
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or a Christian church, is one
that sees its great needs, that
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sees its sinfulness, sees its danger, sees its weakness and, instead of
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reaching deeper and deeper into itself,
instead of loving itself, finds the love
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of the Lord in Christ. It
reaches out to Christ for everything, for
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the forgiveness of our sins, for
knowledge of the truth, for lives marked
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by holiness and love. In everything
that we need and everything that we want,
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in every way in which we desire, to grow and grow and grow
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into the measure of the fullness of
Christ, it must always and only be
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about Christ and Christ alone. Christian
maturity, therefore, is not about becoming
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strong longer in yourself, but it's
about becoming stronger in Christ. It's about
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putting all your trust in Jesus and
in nothing else. That's what makes a
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mature Christian church. But note that
this kind of maturity is never a lonely
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one or and alone one. It's
not like Christ makes sort of this individual
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mature and that individual mature and that
individual mature. We are, as he
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says here, one body. This
kind of maturity is one that comes all
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together. He strengthens you and through
you he strengthened others, and through others
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he strengthens you when you I just
a quick still example before we end.
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Perhaps you've gone and decided that it's
time to work out and then you go
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and you go to do a pull
up or something like that. You realize
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this is this is gonna happen.
You realize that there are certain muscles that
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simply aren't strong enough to do the
job. But what happens? When one
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of those muscles get stronger, it
helps the others, which helps the others,
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which helps the others. There's this
living body that grows stronger and stronger
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as the individual parts grow stronger and
stronger. And that happens because the spirit
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is in the body, the spirit
of Christ. As I said, he
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strengthens you as he strengthens others,
and he strengthens others as he strengthens you.
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That's why Paul puts it in this
way. He says, from the
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whole body, joined and held together
by every joint with which it is equipped,
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when each part is working properly,
makes the body grow, so that
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it builds itself up in love.
So what is the point of our Christian
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maturity? What is the point of
growing stronger and stronger and more and more
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healthy? Is it so that we
can stand proud and tall in the world,
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so that we can stand above other
people and say, look how strong
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I am? Of course not.
It's so that we can speak the truth
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of Christ and love, so that
we can be servants of men, even
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as our savior was. We're not
growing up into ourselves, we're growing up
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into him. Our strength and Christ
is not so that we can sit in
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the high places and be worshiped,
but so that he can be and that
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through us, more seeds would be
sown, more hardships would be endured and
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that we would love more and more
deeply. Let's pray
