Ephesians 4, verse 7, but to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Now this, he ascended, what does it mean? But that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is also the one who ascended far above the heavens that he might fill all things. And he gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ. So in this message, I want to continue to speak with you about the reason that pastor teachers were given by Christ to the church. They were given for the equipping of the saints in relation to the truth of the word of God. And they were given for three reasons, according to verses 14 to 16. First, that we should no longer be children. Second, that we should learn to speak the truth in love. And third, that we should learn to effectively work together to see the growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. All of these things that are mentioned here are mentioned so that we might grow up into all things, into Christ. For our Lord is head over all things. to the church. And so let's think together of how this truth affects each one of us personally. First of all, pastor teachers are given to the church so that we should no longer be children. What does it mean to be a child in the faith? Verse 14 says that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men. in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. Well, it means that spiritually we start out as babes in living our Christian life. And we are weak in terms of our knowledge of the Bible, in terms of our wisdom, in terms of our experience that is necessary to live a righteous and a godly life. And I want you to look over with me at 1 Peter 2, in verses one to three. It says there, therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. coming to him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. Now you can see here that Peter mentions many things which a babe in Christ might unconsciously or unknowingly bring in to the Christian life with him. That is, old sinful attitudes of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking, And Peter says that you're to lay them all aside and desire the pure milk of the word that you might grow by reading it for yourself and hearing it preached. So it's when you're tasting of the good word of God, desiring the pure milk of the word in terms of the graciousness of the Lord to supply you with every good thing for Christ's sake, I'm trying to show you this greatly promotes your spiritual growth. The pastor feeding you the word of God is like a mother giving you her breast as a little child. Psalm 81, perhaps you remember these wonderful verses in Psalm 81, verses eight to 10. It says, here, O my people, and I will admonish you. O Israel, if you will listen to me, there shall be no foreign God among you, nor shall you worship any foreign God, for I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. So this is where it all begins, for the babe in Christ, It's in hearing God's voice through the preaching of the word by the pastor teacher that this voice of God's voice and the word being ministered by the pastor is speaking to you personally. Sunday by Sunday, there's a real growth that is taking place in your heart and mind and even in your experience when you pay attention to the words of your pastor teacher, giving you the word of God. You realize that by hearing good preaching from your pastor, that you are to be exclusively devoted to God, to worshiping and serving him alone. At church, you open wide the mouth of your mind and your heart, and God gives you the pure milk of the word. So over time you begin to grow up to be a mature Christian. You see the importance of being taught sound doctrine and you see that God wants all of your attention, all of your heart. And so you come to know that God is the one who feeds your soul through his word being preached to you. He is to be daily worshiped and adored. You are learning to trust in him You are learning to walk with him and you are praying to learn from him and to grow up in all things into Christ who it says here is the head of the body. So you realize that you have an assignment from God that you will learn from the pastor teacher of your church. That is that you'll learn all the sound and good doctrines of the Bible which will make you spiritually strong and discerning. You come to understand from your pastor that you must learn all the practical applications of doctrine in terms of your responsibility as a Christian. Now, sometimes Christians don't grow. They don't grow up as they should. They remain babes. in the faith. And there are definite reasons for this. I want you to turn with me over to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verses 1 to 7. It says here, And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, and not with solid food. For until now you were not able to receive it and even now you are still not able for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, I am of Paul and another, I am of Apollos, are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase." So you see here, that Paul could not speak to the Corinthian church as to spiritual people. He could not feed them with the meat of the word of God. And the reason for this was that they had not laid aside certain sinful attitudes and old worldly ways of doing things from their old life before they came to Christ. They were still, as he mentions here, Carnal. They were fleshly in their thinking. Now, this does not mean that there are three categories of people in the world. Unbelievers, Christians, and carnal Christians. No, it means that when Paul knew that the believers at Corinth were acting in these carnal ways, he knew he was going to have to go back to the basics in his teaching. He could not go on to feed them the more difficult doctrines, the ones that were more difficult to chew on spiritually, the more weighty doctrines and duties of the faith. He had to keep feeding them the elementary truths of the Word of God, the milk of doctrine and teaching. So the reason that he had to do this was because they had not laid aside behaving like mere worldly people, people who would be carnal in their attitudes and their actions. I want you to look at Hebrews chapter five with me, verses 12 to 14. Paul says, for though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk. and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age. That is those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. So the problem with these Hebrew Christians was that they weren't acting upon the teaching that they had received by exercising their spiritual senses to discern what was good and evil. They just didn't see it as being all that important. That was a real problem. Sound doctrine is not simply knowing the elementary principles of Christ, the doctrines of our total depravity, our total inability to save ourselves. It's not simply your knowing the doctrines of laying a foundation of repentance from good works of faith toward God and laying on of hands and of the resurrection of the dead, as it says in Hebrews 6, 1 and 2. It's going on from there to learn the meat of the Word, the doctrines of grace, most especially, and how God saves people from their sins from beginning to end, how he washes us, how he cleanses us by the water of the Word and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. So I'm trying to show you that the Spirit is working in your heart to bring you to a better understanding of God's ways so that you'll be more consistent. in godliness, righteousness, holiness, and truth. It's your learning how to exercise kindness and love toward all the brethren. I want you to look with me also at Titus chapter 2. Titus chapter 2 and verses 1 to 8. But as for you, Paul says, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine, that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience. The older women, likewise, that they be reverent in their behavior, not slanderers, not given too much wine, teachers of good things, that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works, in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you." So you see, when you're living like that, you're making progress toward maturity. When you as a young Christian are tossed about, you're tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, it breeds uncertainty in your heart. about how you should live. And Paul says that this happens to Christians sometimes because of the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful scheming. Usually it's when people add something to the gospel of the free grace of God that's in the gospel that this takes place. I want you to look at Titus chapter one. You're probably already there. And verses 10 to 14. Paul says, For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not for the sake of dishonest gain. One of them A prophet of their own said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth. So you see, you're really growing up into Christ when you do not give heed to such false teaching as we read about here. Sometimes it can be that a person or persons are licentious in their teaching. That is, it to them is permissible to be lazy and to be sensual in the way that you think. Other times it's legalistic teaching which adds It adds the commandments of men to the commandments of God. So when this happens, then what I'm trying to show you is that you're bound up in your spirit and you're not really set free to serve the Lord in righteousness. Now, we all need to learn to grow up into Christ. Now, second, the saints are to be equipped, it says here, by pastor teachers so that they can learn to speak the truth in love. Verse 15, but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ. So the context implies that both individual Christians and also the whole church will grow up into Christ together. And this will happen as the whole church is united in this exercise of speaking the truth in love. It's evident here that if the truth of the Bible is unitedly spoken in love by those who love Christ, that they will most certainly spiritually be growing up into Christ who is their spiritual head, two simple but profound truths are set forth here. The first is, it is your speaking with other Christians about the truth of the Bible, which will help you to avoid error, both individually and also us corporately as a body. And you should understand that speaking the truth in love is also the way to preserve others around you from error. This is just the opposite of what is just before been mentioned in verse 14 about the trickery of men and their cunning craftiness. A faithful Christian must be straightforward in every way about the truth. The truth that individual Christians speak and the truth that they speak together as a church should revolve around their relationship with Christ, who is the truth personified. I want you to look with me at 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 1 and 2. It says here, therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the hidden things of shame not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." So these verses are a perfect description, not only of what the pastor of the church should be doing, but also what those to whom he preaches should be doing. as well. It's because you believe that Jesus died and rose again on your behalf that you believe that you can speak about your faith in him in the midst of all of your trials and your difficulties. It's your faith, you'll say to people around you, that sustains you. I want you to look at verse 13 of this same Chapter four of 2 Corinthians, and since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I believed and therefore I spoke, we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will present us with you for all things are for your sakes. that grace, having spread through many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God." Now that quote, I believe and therefore I spoke, is taken from Psalm 116. Verses five to 10, let me read it for you. Gracious is the Lord and righteous, yes, our God, is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple. I was brought low and he saved me. Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you, for you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. And I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed, therefore I spoke. I am greatly afflicted. I said in my haste, all men are liars. Yes, this may be true that all men are liars, but David could trust in the Lord. In this spirit of faith, he would speak the truth in love. And therefore the apostle Paul is saying that he could do the same and you and I can do the same. And the church in Corinth that he was writing to could do the same. So it's enough for you to be able to speak the simple and plain truth of what Christ has done for you. by his power through his gospel and by his word. It's by this means that both you and the whole church here in this place will grow up in all things into Christ, learning from his word, sustained by his presence, helped by his power to do all things to the glory of God. And in the process, you will speak of his glory in what he helps you to do to follow him. Let me ask if you do this. Dear Christian, do you speak of Christ's glory in what he helps you to do when you are trying to follow him? You see, that's how people get to understand that salvation is by grace through faith. And it's not from yourself, it's the gift of God. But even then that your whole Christian life is based upon the grace that Christ is giving you on an ongoing daily basis. I'm trying to show you that it's enough for you to be able to speak the simple and plain truth. of what Christ has done for you by his power, through his gospel and by his word. Are you doing this? Because you will grow up in all things unto Christ when you do this, when you're learning from his word, this will take place in your life because you want to follow Jesus and you want to make progress as his disciple. You'll speak of his glory and he will lead you on to eternal glory. That's where we're all moving, my dear friends, to eternal glory. We're only here on this world, in this earth for a few short years, and then we shall forever be with the Lord. Yes, it's true that you will suffer with Christ, but you will be in that time when you're suffering, glorying in him even so, You may also die for him, but you'll be preaching the truth of your belief in the future resurrection from the dead and the eternal weight of glory that you will find there being in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's because you know him and have found his promises to be true that you also can speak the truth and love to people around you. Now, this is very important. You speak of his love, of his perfect righteousness in everything that Christ did, in everything that Christ said. You speak of his love for you in his dying for your sins. You speak of the love of the father in his raising Jesus from the dead because the work of your redemption was complete. when Jesus rose from the dead. You speak of his love, which goes beyond knowledge as you know him better. You speak of the love of God, which the Holy Spirit pours out into your heart so that you can learn to minister to others in this body of believers and to sinners around you. You speak of your love of his word and your love of his dear people. And over the course of your life, I'm trying to show you, you're going to grow up into Christ. And you will become satisfied, by the way, with His work in your heart and life, making you over into His image and likeness. Speaking the truth is of the utmost importance in living the Christian life, and yet, It is essential, Paul says here, that it be done in love. You should grow up into Christ in all things being deeply rooted in him, which means that you will be growing in your knowledge, your love, your faith, And in all the graces of Christ, which are worked into your heart by the Holy Spirit, growing up into him means that you will consciously seek to leave behind the sinful things of your past. That's a good part of the Christian life, dear brothers and sisters. These wrong ways of thinking that you once engaged in, these sinful ways of doing things that you were once addicted to. But you have come through Jesus Christ now to a new and living way, to learn a better way, which Christ himself teaches you when you come to him and learn from him. Because you remember what it says in Matthew chapter 11, verse 29, the Lord Jesus says, take my yoke upon you. and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Let's pray together. Oh Lord, we truly do desire to grow up into you, our Dear Christ, our dear Lord Jesus, we greatly want to be able to be useful to you for service. We greatly desire to be holy and godly people of God. We greatly desire to know your love, which surpasses knowledge, and be able to endure persecution if need be. We dearly desire, Lord, to glorify you with our time here upon the earth. We know that we need grace, but we also need to be faithful. And so teach us, O Lord, by your grace to be faithful so that we will grow up into you and keep all of your commandments out of love for you and love for the Father and love for the working of you, our Holy Spirit, in our heart and life. So be gracious to us. Even today, as we talk about these things following the service, as we go away from here, may we think about them. Think deeply upon them so that we might truly grow up into you. Oh, our Lord Jesus, we pray these things in your blessed name, amen.