We turn this morning to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4, where we have been considering these verses from verse 11 and following. And as we turn to that portion, we will read again from verse 11 through verse 16. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11 through 16. 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. So 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. that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. Amen. Our risen Savior Jesus Christ has purchased our redemption, and he's purchased all the means to that end. so here in this portion we discover that he has received gifts which he freely bestows upon the church chief among those Paul highlights in verse 11 those gifts of the ministry of the word he has given some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers and so the ongoing gift of pastors and teachers as shepherds to feed the flock in the church is, in a real sense, the greatest gift that you as a believer receive in this world. Not in and of themselves, but as a gift that comes to you from Christ, through whom Christ ministers to your soul on the way to heaven. And so we have this chief gift of the ministry of the Word. And then in verse 12 through 16, Paul begins to explain just why this is so great through telling us of the design of the ministry. What did he give this ministry for? And therefore, why ought you to appreciate that ministry, and how are you to use the ministry of the Word? Last time, we looked at verse 12, which was a kind of summary statement, and from there he will fill things out in verse 13 through 16. But in verse 12, it was to the perfecting of the saints, to the equipping of Christians for service and to the building up of the body of Christ, both numerically, by bringing new souls in, and also by maturing Christians through the ongoing work of sanctification. So he's made that clear—perfecting the saints unto ministry, the edifying of the body of Christ. In verse 13–14, he goes on to paint a picture of maturity. Indeed, he takes us to the very end, the final form of the church in glory, its perfect state. And then he uses that to challenge us about what ought to be taking place in time as we sit under the ministry of the Word. That we ought to be no more children, but on a progressing journey to ever-increasing maturity as Christians, and also collectively as the church of Jesus Christ. So our theme this morning is On or Onward to Maturity. The first thing to note here is the goal in verse 13. Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. what Paul is saying here is that the ministry of the Word will continue in the church until we all come to this perfect unity. The word he uses here for perfect man describes a fully mature adult. He goes on to explain that that perfect man is unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. In other words, it is fully formed and conformed to Jesus Christ and to his likeness. Well, that is the ultimate end of our redemption. Romans chapter 8 and verse 29 begins that great picture of from eternity to eternity, the salvation of the Christian. And Paul says, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. To what end? To be conformed to the image of Christ, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. He doesn't say that we are predestined unto the forgiveness of sins, though we are. Predestined unto the adoption of sons, and again, we are. But he takes us to the ultimate end. That we might be found in Christ and conformed to his image. Every individual believer and the church of Jesus Christ as a whole. Well, back to our text, verse 13, Paul tells us that this perfection will be a unity in faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God. Doctrinal knowledge is no doubt included here, it's vital, and Paul will turn his attention to that in verse 14 when he talks about false doctrines coming into the church and our need to be on the lookout for them. But this unity in faith and knowledge is beyond doctrinal agreement. It's a spiritual unity in the experience of the truth so that we believe in and know Jesus Christ in a life of communion and fellowship with him. So every Christian and all Christians come together to believe in him, to love him, to adore him, and to walk in fellowship with Christ. Well, we have that now, in part. But we know that there's a day coming when our experience of that is going to be way beyond what we've ever enjoyed, in this world. When he is revealed at the last day, we shall see him, and we shall like him. And if you turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and look there at verse 12, Paul has reference to this, where he says, we have an experience now, and we will have an experience then. And he describes it in terms of knowledge. Corinthians 13, verse 11, when I was a child, I speak as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known. Here's the picture—the final perfection of the church in the unity and knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord. All of the elect will be gathered in. But how? In the way that the apostle Paul is setting before us in Ephesians chapter 4, through the ministry of the Word. By the ministry of the Word, the souls of sinners who abide in darkness are going to be called out of that darkness into gospel light. By the ministry of the Word, Ephesians 2 verse 1, dead sinners are going to be quickened unto new life in Jesus Christ. by the ministry of the Word. Ephesians 2, verse 8-10, sinners who are given over to unbelief will be brought by the Spirit to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and to trust in Him without their works for the salvation of their souls. They will come to receive Christ. freely, and in Jesus Christ, they will receive everything that he has purchased for their redemption. Paul tells us this in many places. Think of Romans chapter 10. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Wonderful truth. But then there's a series of hows. How is this going to happen? shall they call upon whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent?" Do you see what he's saying? He's saying that the ministry of the Word of God is key until we all come to this perfect unity and glory, because through it, every elect sinner will be brought to faith in Jesus Christ. All the elect will be brought in. All the elect will be perfected. Now the end is here, final. Perfection. Glorification, or to put it another way, perfect sanctification. When every believer will be presented to the Father, perfect in soul and body. Christ's mystical body, the church, complete. Christ's glorious and holy bride, presented before all the world, before angels and men, unto the Father." Paul speaks of this in the next chapter, chapter 5, verse 27, that he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. All the elect are gathered in through the ministry of the Word. All the elect are perfected in the church. through the ministry of the Word. And at the last day perfected, when Jesus Christ appears, and they see him, and we are like him. Now, here's a pointed question for you this morning. Will you be part of that glorious body on that day? You're here today, and that is good, But you cannot conclude from the fact that you are here today that you will be there then. Will you be part of that body? Or will you gaze in a terrified but yet jealous wonder At this body Jesus Christ has redeemed out of the world, and they've washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Will you gaze in wonder and regret forever the fact that Jesus Christ was offered to you, and yet you would not come to him that you might have life? All the elect are gathered in. All the elect are perfected. all the elect are perfected together in heaven. Paul says, till we all come, not just one or two believers, but till we all come into the unity of the faith and knowledge of Christ. Don't you see not one of Christ's children will be lost? They will all be gathered into the everlasting fold, and when they're there, what a glorious thought, so attractive to us in this world. There will not be one missing, but there will be no disagreement, no disagreement forever among the saints in glory. Perfect unity in knowledge and in truth. what's the content of that truth? Look again at verse 13, "'Til we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.'" Brethren, that's our heaven. This is the final goal—a united body of redeemed sinners taken up in the knowledge of the Son of God forever." The perfect experience of fellowship with God through Christ and with one another in Jesus Christ. when every Christian is at last fully formed and mature in their glorified state, and the whole church together at last is fully formed in its perfect and complete glorified state forever, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, without distracting thoughts, without sinful affections, but taken up in adoration of Jesus Christ forever. Paul says that's the end. That's where we're going. Secondly, the growth. Verse 13, till we all come. In other words, we have not come yet. Till we all come together to this great end. You see how he begins with the end and our final maturity? but he does it so that he might stress our growth to that end. You see, Paul is saying to us here very simply that God's children are always growing. They're always growing. We said this last week and made application in another way. We said every Christian begins as a baby, and part of the problem is that we become impatient and we judge ourselves by others. And a baby Christian looks at a Christian of many, many years and thinks, well, I'm nothing. How can I ever come to the level of maturity that they have? And we said, well, the only way is through growth. As God's building the building of our soul, he doesn't start on the 10th floor. He starts from the bottom and he gradually builds us up. But what we're saying here is, while we need to be patient, we better be growing. Your children are born over here. And something that's different to me, as a British person, is when you send out the details of the child. You say, child was born healthy. You give the name, you give the weight, and you give the length. We never give the length of the baby back in the UK. What's the point, though? Right from the beginning, you are concerned about the size of the child. And then, as the child begins to grow, you take it back to the doctors, and it gets weighed and measured, and there's supervision of the growth of the child. You'll be able to say, well, my child was on the 50th percentile, or the 90th percentile, or the 5th percentile. And if there's a growth defect noted, then immediately things have to swing into gear to address the problem. All of God's children are to be growing. Every one of them begins as a child, but Paul is saying here, we must not remain as a child. He goes further to emphasize this in verse 14, that we henceforth be no more children. The end is glorious, the beginning is small. But you're not to say, well, just because I'm not going to be perfected until I get to glory, that I'm not going to strive to grow while I'm in the world. The Bible doesn't tell us that perfection will not happen until glory to dissuade us from pursuing holiness, but rather to strive towards it. Think of the child as he grows up. You'll hear this from the mouths of your children. They'll say, when I grow up, I want to be... What are they doing? They're not saying, I want to be a child forever. You go into the house sometimes, fathers, and what do you discover? You discover your little boy putting your shoes on. You think, tiny little feet in my shoes. Why? He's wanting to grow up. He's thinking about the future. He doesn't want to stay like a little boy whose feet don't fit in his father's shoes. Now, when the Bible says, Here's the end, it tells us this is the end so that you might be stirred up to pursue growth in this world. Well, then, first of all, every Christian is to be growing Individually, Paul says, till we all come—that is, every one of us—built up, as we said last time, brick by brick. But built up in what? Brethren, the same thing that is going to be our occupation in heaven forever. till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God." How does a Christian grow? Paul says we grow in knowledge that's, say, off the Word, we grow in holiness of life, but it is all in Jesus Christ. It's all in Jesus Christ. So, Paul, what is Christian growth? Well, church, he says, Christian growth and maturity is increasing knowledge of Jesus. Increasing knowledge of Jesus. How many times Christians get this wrong? We get sidetracked. We make the peripheral central. And because of that, we don't grow. We major on the minors, and we miss the main things. You apply that to your own physical diet. There's a host of options that you have to choose from about what you're going to eat on any given day. And if you're a calorie counter, you may have a chart or an app on your phone, and you might plug in what you're going to eat. Is it a bowl of pasta? Or is it a salad? Or is it a rice cake? Or is it a stalk of celery or something? You might plug it in, and it'll tell you the nutritional value of what you're going to eat. You say, well, I want to bulk up. I want to put weight on. I'm going to eat a plate of celery. No. Because it doesn't have the nutritional value to do what you want it to do. What happens in the Christian life? There's so many things that we can give our time and attention to. And each one of those, in a sense, has a calorie count. And too often, We choose to eat that which isn't going to give us the spiritual nourishment that we need to grow. Side issues. Oh, how people run after side issues. Paul doesn't. Paul says you want to grow as a Christian. It's the knowledge of Christ. the knowledge of His person as the eternal Son of the Father, in the infinite glory and perfection of His being, the wonder of the incarnation that He was manifest in the flesh for our redemption, the wonder of His teaching we hang upon His words, the glory of His miracles as we behold Him walking upon the waves as the everlasting God, everything under His feet. meditating upon him as the one who invites the broken and the weary and the heavy laden to come to him, who's described as the friend of sinners and criticized because he eateth with publicans and sinners. The holy, perfect, spotless lamb of God who goes willingly to the cross when the thought of the cross itself crushed him. Yet nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. the risen and exalted Christ, reigning as King from the right hand of the Father, all power and authority in his hand, a name which is above every name, that at his name every knee will bow. the great High Priest who ever lives to make intercession for us, so that we, sinners in absolute need, can be saved, not in part, but to the uttermost, through Him that ever lives for us. And the great Prophet who gives these gifts of the ministry of the Word, so that He Himself is the One who is shepherding you and feeding you, In His church, as you grow in maturity unto this perfection of the great day, get your eyes fixed upon Christ. There are growing pains here. And the cry of the Christian in these growing pains is the cry of the Apostle Paul, that I might know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings. and that I will count all things but dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." Christian maturity is increasing knowledge, experiential knowledge, heart-ravishing knowledge of Jesus Christ. Paul, what else? Oh, he says Christian maturity is not just increasing knowledge of Jesus, it's increasing likeness to Jesus. Increasing likeness to Jesus. Look at verse 13 again. Till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man. Listen. Unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. You are to be perfect, mature Christians as the fullness of Christ is given over to you in measure." Well, it's a challenge, but there's wonderful encouragement here, because that fullness in Christ is what you go to draw from so that you might be conformed into the image of Christ. What's the purpose of the Father? Why did He for no one predestinate us? To make you like His Son. Am I growing as a Christian? Is my mind becoming more and more like the mind of Christ? Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you might increasingly think the thoughts of Christ? Is your well-being made like unto the will of Christ, the one who said, Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done? The one who anticipated his own coming in the Old Testament, saying, To do thy will I take delight, O thou, my God, that art. Yea, that most holy law of thine I have within my heart, are your affections becoming increasingly like Christ. Compare what you love to what you know Christ would love. Do you love the world? Christ didn't love the world in the sense that you love it. Do you love the Father? Are your affections set upon things above where Christ sits at the right hand of the Father? Or are you like a pig with its snout in the earth, face down, eating mud? Paul says, here's Christian growth. the increased knowledge of Christ and the increasing likeness to Christ in a Christian. But then we grow collectively into this unity of faith and knowledge. This is a picture of church growth. And so you find Paul here, and indeed the Bible as a whole, not merely concerned with individual piety, God will redeem individuals, of course, but he does not redeem them separate from other Christians. And so his stress here is upon the whole. So the church is growing together, not just in its doctrinal understanding, though that is vital, but together we grow in that knowledge unto increasing fellowship with Jesus Christ. Remember what we were saying about heaven, what it's going to be there? Christ is central, and we have perfect adoration and fellowship with God and with one another. Heaven on earth is that in part. Where we, as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, grow in our spiritual communion together with God. There may be activities. That's good. We need to be active. But it is not, in essence, activity. Sadly, when we look at much of the church today, it is infantile in this regard. And I'm not asking you to look out at all of the churches that you disagree with. Just look at Reformed churches. Infantile in this regard, though they be orthodox and creedal, so often it is all head and no heart and no hands. That is not a mark of maturity. You can have the most glorious creedal document in the world, but it does not guarantee that we are growing to maturity in Christ. We can be divided. We can hold grudges. We can bicker with one another just the way the church in Corinth did. Oh, they had true doctrine. They had an abundance of spiritual gifts. What does Paul tell them? You're like children. You're carnal. You're worldly. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 1, And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes. in Christ? Are we growing? Growing individually, growing collectively in experiential knowledge and enjoyment of Christ together as Christians. So we grow individually, we grow collectively, but we grow instrumentally. And this is Paul's point with regard to the importance of the ministry. Perfection, being in glory, does not persuade us to grow in time. And Paul's saying, this is what Jesus Christ has given to you for your growth. There's fullness of him so that you can grow. And you go to him for that fullness in the means that he's appointed. ministry of the Word is therefore sufficient. More than that, the ministry of the Word is absolutely necessary for you to grow as a Christian. And so we come to this as a church, and we say, well, we must therefore persist in the ministry of the Word. We can bring in the sacrament as well. Paul says, do this until we all come to the unity of the faith, finally. He says of the sacrament, we do this until Jesus Christ comes again. But don't you see we continue persisting in this ministry unto the end, not doubting its sufficiency? Sometimes we might want to see more fruit in the life of the congregation. We don't start meddling with the ark and imagining that we've got better ideas than God. If you think you've found another way to maturity in the Christian life, you haven't. This is God's way. So the church persists. And the Christian recognizing says, I'm going to attach myself. No, I'm going to addict myself onto the ministry of the Word. Let me give you a picture. We're on a journey. The end is called perfection. And we come to a junction, and the junction is pretending all different ways to that end for the growth of a Christian. And there's one signpost that says, Ministry of the Word. And God says, that's the path you take. Call it perfection way, or perfection road. Not that we attain it in this life, but it's the way that we walk toward heaven, growing in Christian maturity, individually and collectively. Well, that brings us thirdly to the guard. Verse 14, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and tied about with every wind of doctrine. by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive." We're growing to maturity. We're walking this perfection way. Understand, when I say that, we don't believe in Christian perfection in this world. But we're walking in this way, and Paul says, now, you need to understand there's danger on the road. There's danger on the road. Keep to the path because you will discover that false teachers lie in wait, and they particularly find spiritually immature children are easy prey. These are the ones we will easily corrupt, easily deceive, turn aside out of the way. Well, let's consider two things here. The first is the character of children. Children are children. They're immature. We look down at them there today, and we imagine if we could give some of these four-year-olds the task of running a household. And you say, no way. Why? Because they don't have the maturity for it. They're children. Children are fickle. Maybe you find this about yourself, children. You find you want to do this, and then, very quickly, you're not interested in that, you want to do something else. You go into the store, you never thought about it before, but you see this thing in the store, and you say, I've always wanted one of those, and you take it home, and next week, you always want something else. We were all children like that once. fickle. We pick things up, we leave them off. Children lack discernment. And Paul is saying here, you have to stop being children. You have to strive to put off immaturity. Now, this is something that is said elsewhere. Please, first of all, to 1 Corinthians 14. 1 Corinthians 14, and look at verse 20. There are some things we are to be children in, very naive and innocent about, but there are other things that we must not be children in. 1 Corinthians 14, verse 20. Brethren, be not children in understanding, howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding. Be man. Be man. Then turn to chapter 5 of the book of Hebrews, and here Paul is lamenting their immaturity. Chapter 5, verse 12, for when, for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye of need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become as such as have need of milk, not of strong meat. For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are full of age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to, note this, discern both good and evil. Paul is saying to us in Ephesians 4, Don't be children. Because if you continue in an immature state, you're going to be like a little boat in the storm with no anchor or rudder, at the mercy of all of the various and contrary winds of false doctrine. And there are legion of them. And you live in a particularly dangerous day because our fathers before us didn't have access to all the nonsense on the internet. They were preserved from much that you were exposed to. Paul says the mature have stability. You want to discover maturity in a Christian? What will it look like? It will look like a person who does not shake, who does not move, when all of the winds of change blow across the face of the church. It will look very ordinary. People will come to him with the latest new and great thing, and he will say, what's the big deal? And he'll just hold the line. Steadfast in the faith. Some people never learn. Some people never learn. And they become a prey to everything and anything that passes by. And then other people appear to learn. Maybe you've met people like this. And they're very impressive. You know, an older Christian looks at this person and this person seems to have zeal for the truth and everybody's buoyed up, wow, so encouraging. And he comes from this position to this position to this position. He never stops. He never stops. It's always the next thing. He's always in perpetual motion. That's not maturity. It doesn't matter what he can talk to you about in high, fluting terms. It doesn't matter if he's constantly on that trajectory. It's because he has no stability. There are others who constantly surf controversies and opinions. They have to be up on the latest dispute on some stupid internet site. All their time and focus goes there, and it becomes a large part of their Christian life. But they're never doing what Paul says, increasing in the experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ and likeness to him. And because of that, they bind themselves to stunted growth and immaturity. And they become a prey. How many times Paul emphasizes this in his teaching? You need to be rooted, grounded. established, not tossed about and blown with every wind of doctrine. You need to be like a flagpole that is bolted down into concrete, and the flag might blow off the pole, but the pole is going to stand. Maturity. Paul prays that we might have it. Here's a prayer for yourself, and here's a path for you to walk as a Christian. Philippians chapter 1, verse 9. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more. It's not some kind of ephemeral, hard-to-define love. No, he says that love is to grow in knowledge and in all judgment. that ye may approve things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Jesus Christ. He's saying, I'm praying for your Christian maturity in knowledge and discernment so that you're not swept away by nonsense. The character of children. But then we have the craft of heretics that plays off that. Ephesians 4 verse 14, he says, they come and they work by slight, They lie in wait to deceive. The basic level Paul is saying truth matters. He's saying error is evil. It always dishonors God. It always destroys souls. Error never builds up a Christian. It can't. But here's the method that they use. The sleight of men, very interesting word, is taken from trickery with dice. Maybe like you would go into the market and there's a guy there and he's got the three cups and he's got a, I don't know, a coin under one of the cups. And he's like, do you want to choose which cup the coin's under? And he's doing all this and of course, invariably, you choose the wrong cup. The whole thing is set up to deceive. Paul's saying that's what these false teachers do. It's the working of Satan. This word slide is only used one other place. Indeed, it's in Ephesians chapter six, where it's in the plural, and Paul warns us of the wiles of the devil, the trickery of the devil. Well, here's one of Satan's devices. He sends his seducers. so that he might deceive people from the truth. And Paul says they pray particularly on the ignorant and the unstable. Some of them are more obvious than others, but none of them turn up at your door and knock it and say, hi, I'm a heretic. If you were to ask Arius, Arius, you're a heretic? No, I'm not a heretic. I'm teaching the truth. They don't come to you and say, I'm a false teacher. They lie in wait. Jesus says they come though they are wolves, but they're not dressed like wolves. They're dressed in sheep's clothing. They come with a winsomeness of the liberal who pretends to be showing the love of Jesus, and people swoon at this pathos that they seem to be presenting, but underneath they are ravening wolves. Or they come with academic trickery. This is a problem in the Reformed church, and I want to highlight it to you. There's a resurgence in the study of classical theism. And Thomas Aquinas is key in this study. And you can go and read parts of Aquinas to profit. But something else is happening. People are being wowed by the academic scholasticism of this work, and before you know it, they're on the hook, and they're being dragged into something else. I want to simply say this. Can Thomas Aquinas really be so profound if he gets the gospel so horrifically wrong? Okay? That should be pretty obvious, shouldn't it? You need to be very, very careful. They come with charismatic, sometimes bombastic personalities, and whatever way they come, Paul says, they're deadly. Mark them. Know what they are and avoid them. Colossae had to deal with it with the vain philosophy, falsely so-called. Galatia had to deal with it with the Judaizing undermining of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and Paul spoke vehemently to them concerning that. But we read earlier in the service, you recall, in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, and there Paul goes right back to the working of Satan, and he says, but I fear lest by any means is a certain beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which we have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him." He's saying, I'm afraid of you, that you're so immature, that if someone comes preaching another gospel by the deceitful working of Satan, you will swallow it hook, line, and sinker. You need to be careful, Corinthians, verse 13 and 14, For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel! For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness." People are being allured to the Church of Rome. The Church of Rome is the epitome of heresy. The religion of Antichrist, the man of sin that we're told in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 comes after the working of Satan. It's the biggest deception in the religious world. I can't urge that enough upon you. People hate to hear this kind of thing today. It's deadly. Deadly. Shadows of it come into the Reformed Church with the Federal Vision Controversy some two decades ago. Redefining terms, election, redefining the doctrine of the church, redefining the doctrine of justification, removing the imputation of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, including faith and works, and projecting it forward to the final day. Deceiving the simple. The thing gains traction. And nearly every credible reformed church in this country condemned it. And you go online, and you know what you'll find? You'll find people laughing and ridiculing and telling you, there's no such thing as federal vision. It doesn't exist. Really? Just read the material that they put out. It's not a joke. It's not a joke. And see the people who ridicule and pretend it's a joke? They are the immature children who were deceived by it in the first place. And yet they project themselves to be some kind of teachers in the church. Any basic understanding of creedal Christianity in the Reformed Confessions was enough to blow that nonsense out of the water But oh no, the simple were deceived. Then we have Christians and they go online and they've got a contrarian spirit and they'll latch on to the wackiest theory imaginable. And before you know it, they're swept away. I had this in air. A guy full of zeal and he kept moving and he came to us and we were encouraged but he didn't stop moving. started with Flat Earth Theory. Then all the conspiracy theories about the One World Government and New World Order, then that took him in to all the conspiracy theories about the false gospels and how Christianity was corrupted in the beginning, and he made complete shipwreck of his soul. But he thought he was mature. He thought the problem was with everyone else. tossed about and blown, preyed upon by Satan. What's the antidote? Paul says it's really simple. The ministry of the Word in the church by those called and equipped by Christ to minister it. And when you give yourself to that, what happens is your taste for truth matures, and alongside that, your sense of error. I close with this. When the Free Church of Scotland was liberalizing in the end of the 1800s, there was a split between North and South. The South was very much impressed by the new academic theories that were coming over from the German universities. And up in the North, you had all of these crofters. None of them college-educated, but brought up on the catechism. And you see, when all this nonsense started to make its way up into the North, the people sent it packing. The poor, unlearned people. Do you know why? Because they sat under a rigorous, consistent ministry of preaching and teaching and catechetical instruction. Paul says that's the way to grow. That's the way to glory. May God bless his word to our hearts. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we praise and thank you for the ministry of the word. Deliver us from being deceived through the deceitful workings of Satan. Deliver us, O God, from swallowing error like children who get preyed upon so easily. We could tell our children anything and they would believe us. Lord, we pray that we might be growing up in love, increasing with knowledge and all judgment so that we might approve the things that are excellent and discern between that which is good and that which is evil. keep our feet in the path of truth, and give this gift of the ministry increasingly to your church, that the word would go forth, your people would be sanctified, prepared, equipped for every good work, and Lord, that heaven would increasingly enter our hearts in this world through the knowledge of Christ and his likeness in our lives. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.