Gospel Driven | Ephesians 4:13 - 16 (July 31) Myles Holmes

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Father, we raise our voices now with this specific purpose, Lord, to declare your greatness.

Lord, we declare it to each other, but ultimately we declare it to you, God, because you are great.

Lord, we believe this and we know this because you sent your son.

And the perfection of his righteousness, and the fullness of his grace, the steadfastness of his love for us, you sent him.

Being living truth embodied in flesh, being love himself, you sent him for us that we might have life.

And so we give you all the praise, Lord.

Truly you are great.

You do wondrous and marvelous things.

And God, as we have submitted our hearts before you as a church, to declare your greatness in corporate worship, God, as we sit under your word, I pray in this moment your Holy Spirit would be working in us to break up the hardness of our hearts.

That as your word goes forth, Lord, that the ministry of your spirit would be so active in us, to change us, to transform us, to even save among us, God.

Lord, we declare in this time, each of us in our own hearts, Lord, we need you.

We need you so desperately.

We need your word.

We can't live in this dark, broken world full of so much air.

Lord, we can't live apart from your word of truth.

And so help us, God, as we open up your word to submit to it, to be changed and transformed by the power of your word, by the presence of your Holy Spirit among us.

God, we pray this all in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Amen.

You guys can grab your seat.

So thankful for Brandon joining us this morning.

Maybe give a little hand for Brandon leading us in worship.

Praising God also that it's only three songs.

I think if we sang four, I don't know that I'd have a voice to preach right now.

You guys can open up your Bibles to Ephesians chapter four.

We're gonna be continuing part two of a message that we started two weeks ago called Gospel-Driven Church, where we were also in Ephesians 4.

I want you to know as you're turning to Ephesians chapter 4, we'll be in verses 13 to 16.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

I want you to know that never ever in my life have I been described as someone who is naturally able to build things.

There are people who are like that.

My father-in-law is one.

I don't know how this kind of knowledge comes to these people, but somehow, no matter what they want to do, they're able to build it with their hands just from scratch.

That's not me.

Now I say that I'm not naturally able to build things because about 10 years ago, a project manager came into my life, and that project manager's name was my wife, Amber.

And the honeydew list doesn't pay any regard to your natural ability to build things.

And so I find myself over the years having to build things.

And you could look around my house and I could point you up.

I wouldn't want you to look too closely, but I could point you to a number of things that I have built.

And so I've found myself seeking instruction.

And to do that, I've turned hundreds of times, if not thousands of times, to various YouTube videos that instruct me in the way of building the things that I need to build.

Now, two weeks ago in Ephesians chapter 4, we discovered that the gospel-driven church is made up of saints who do the work of ministry.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

We discovered that the work of ministry is not just the call of the pastor, it's not just the call of the select few in the church, the work of ministry is for all those who are called by Christ and saved by the gospel.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 14, sorry, Ephesians 12, that our job is to equip the saints for the work of ministry, and this is what the saints do, listen to this, for building up the body of Christ.

If you're saved by the gospel, then you are driven by the gospel to build up the body of Christ, to grow the body of Christ.

This is our gospel commission as a church.

And so our question this morning is the same question that I've had countless times sitting in front of a YouTube video.

Our question is this: how do I build this?

Jesus has called us to build this church, called each and every one of us who have placed our faith in him to build the body of Christ.

And so, how do we do it?

And this question becomes all the more important in our day and age, where there are countless books, countless seminars, countless sermons on building the body of Christ.

Countless sermons on what it means to, or what needs to happen in a church in order for you to grow in it.

And people might point to a preacher.

Well, if you want to grow in a church, you're just having to find a church with a charismatic preacher, preacher full of charisma.

Or you need to find a church where the worship is bumping.

If you find a church where the worship is amazing, the lights are on point, you really feel the presence of the Spirit, then you're gonna grow.

Or maybe they point to the programs of the church or the building of the church.

Are these the things that build up the church?

Even worse, there's the argument that's very present in alive today that you don't even need the church to grow, that as long as you're kind of doing your own thing, maybe watching a sermon here, watching a sermon there, you're good.

It's important that we ask in this day and age, especially, what's Christ's method for our growth in the church?

What's Christ's way of growing the church?

And Paul answers that in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 15.

Ephesians 4:15

I want you to see what he says in verse 15 and 16, especially, as we consider our work to build up the body, look what he says.

Rather, speaking the truth in love.

Let me say that again.

That's so important, church.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

That's really clear here, isn't it?

Paul has called us each, if you are a saint in Christ, if you place your faith in Christ, then the call is to be driven to build up the body of Christ.

And here it is in verse 15.

Here's how you build up the body of Christ.

You speak the truth in love.

I really only have one point this morning, and the point is this that if you want to build up the body, you need to speak the truth in love.

You need to speak the truth in love.

But you know, as a preacher, I can't just have one point, and so we're gonna kind of break that down into three points.

And so, really, it's a hidden sermon.

It's one point, but it's really three sub-points.

And I want to ask a few questions about what this means.

What does it mean to speak the truth?

How do we do this?

And why do we need to do this?

Well, first I want you to see what that is.

We're called to speak the truth in love.

I want you to see what that is.

Notice first that Paul shows us the action that builds the church.

The church is driven to build the body of Christ by Christians speaking.

Do you see the verb there?

Look at verse 15.

Paul says, rather, speaking.

Speaking.

First thing that you do when you have a project around the house is you make sure that you have the tools that are needed.

And so, sure enough, this week, you know, God needed to give me an illustration.

And so I think he sent this trial into my life, destined just for me.

But I went to turn on, and you know, if you know me well enough, you know that this is a real trial for me.

I went to turn on my beloved latte machine, and no light ever turned on.

And I said, Oh no, this is not gonna be good.

And so I went to YouTube and I type it in.

What do you do when this machine doesn't turn on?

And a video came up, and there's really one common problem.

And so the person started talking about how to fix it, and you need to order order this part that's gonna take weeks to in to come in, but more importantly, you needed tools, and one of the things I needed was a pair of wire strippers.

And I don't have any of those, so I thought, well, I'm gonna have to bring this into the Sunday sermon illustration so that someone in the church will pity me and give me their tools so that I can finish this job.

And so here it is.

But I came to recognize that if I wanted to do the work, I needed the proper tools to do the work.

And here's the tool that Christ has given the church.

Here's the tool that Christ has given you to build the church.

It's your ability to speak, not just to speak words, really, but but to communicate.

Our response, if we're being honest, as Christ calls us to build the church by speaking the truth in love, our response is really, that's kind of a weird tool to build the church, isn't it?

I mean, we live in a day and age where people say that talk is cheap.

And they say a picture is worth a thousand words.

And yet the fact that the church is built by saints speaking the truth is not odd at all because we serve a God who loves speaking the truth.

Do you know this, church?

And you know that God loves speaking?

Well, think about it for a moment.

The very first page of scripture, we find in the beginning, God.

Before God is even creating the universe, we find that for all of eternity, God and his triune being has been speaking to each person of the triune Godhead for all of eternity, speaking and communicating their love to one another.

So that when God speaks in Genesis 1 to bring the world into existence, it's not a surprise.

And then think about how God creates the world.

He doesn't create it with his hands, he creates the world by speaking it into existence.

And then think about once God creates Adam and Eve, how he relates to his people, he speaks to them, he gives them commands.

And the Bible says that God would walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of day and speak to them.

You imagine as a friend speaks to a friend.

Adam and Eve's relationship, our relationship as human beings was built on the words of God speaking to us.

And Satan knew this so that when he attacked Adam and Eve, what did Satan go after?

Do you remember what Satan said to Adam and Eve?

He went after the word of God.

He said, Did God really say?

Did God really speak to you this way?

And Satan knew that if he was going to destroy God's relationship with man, that he needed to target the words of God, the speaking relationship that God had with his people.

And yet we find in Genesis 3 that after the fall of humankind, God in his grace and love and mercy, despite our disobedience, still speaks.

And all through the Old Testament, thousands of times, we hear thus says the Lord.

God loves to speak so much so that one day a man appeared who was the very word of God Himself, and his name was Jesus Christ.

And the disciples, those who walked closest to Jesus, knew that to hear this man named Jesus Christ speak was to hear God speak.

To see this man preach was to see God Himself preach.

And Jesus spoke with the same power and authority that only God had that could stop the wind and the waves.

And the content of his speaking was that of good news.

It was gospel news, that he was the Lamb of God who came to deliver the world from their sins.

It was a message of salvation and deliverance that Jesus spoke that captivated the apostles, that really was the foundation of the church.

So then in the book of Acts, what you see is the church is exploding.

And what's it exploding by?

What's the tool that God is using in the book of Acts for the church to explode in growth?

Well, it's the preaching of the apostles, speaking the gospel truth.

And 2,000 years later, that tradition has been carried on.

So that if you're sitting here and you've placed your faith in Jesus Christ, it is because someone has spoken that same truth to you.

It is a truth that saves.

God's love for speaking is the reason that if you're in Christ, you've been saved.

That's why Romans in Paul in Romans 10, verses 14 to 17 says this.

Romans 10:14–17

How then, Paul says, how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?

And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?

And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

How are they to preach unless they are sent, as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.

But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?

So listen to this church, verse 17 of Romans chapter 10.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

You see, our God, our God is a God who loves to speak, because our God is a God who loves to save.

So that if you're in Christ right now, you can point to a time where God sent a servant, whether it was in person, to explain with words the gospel to you, or maybe you were listening to a message, or maybe you were reading the words that someone wrote.

Think about this for a moment.

If you're in Christ, it's because God loves speaking.

God loves to speak.

He spoke to create this world, he spoke to reveal himself to us in his word, and still he is speaking through his servants who are carrying the gospel news to those who do not believe and to those who have not heard.

And so this is what we need to understand that if we're going to be a gospel-driven church, the first thing that we must do is seek to build the kingdom of Christ by speaking the gospel, the truth.

Don't miss the astounding reality here.

You are commissioned by Christ to speak the good news, to call on believers to faith and repentance.

But you don't go empty-handed.

You go with the words of a God who loves to speak.

And as you speak these words of truth and life, they carry more weight than any other word.

Because God told us that this book is a sword, and that this sword is living and active.

And as you speak the truth, it is God's prerogative, it is God's desire, it is God's will to use that truth to save.

And so Jesus tells us the parable of the farmer.

What's the farmer do?

He sows the seed, and then what does he do after he sows the seed?

He goes to sleep.

And Jesus tells us, God gives the growth.

And we're reminded that as we are commissioned to carry the good news to those who have not heard, to those who do not believe, all we do is sow the seed.

We speak the words that God has spoken to us, trusting that God will use that word to give growth, to give salvation.

I wonder if there's someone that God has placed into your life right now who needs to hear this word, who, like you needed one day, you needed a servant to come and declare words of truth to you.

I wonder if there's someone in your life who needs to hear these words of truth from you.

We serve a God who loves to speak, saves by his word.

It's not surprising then that when it comes to building his truth, that sorry, building his church, that God wants us to speak the word in truth.

It's not surprising that we build up the body by speaking.

This is the task of the gospel-driven Christian.

To build up the church by speaking the truth in love.

Now, the verb here, the verb speaking, what Paul says in verse 15, when he says rather speaking, this verb has been pretty heavily debated by translators.

And there's been some debate whether speaking is really the best way to translate this word from the Greek.

There are some who say a more fitting translation of this word might be something like to hold fast to the truth.

So that the church is built up when the church holds fast to the truth, or something like confessing the truth, so that what Paul is really saying here is that when the church really believes the truth in their inner being, in their heart of hearts, then the church will grow.

And I say that both those things can be true.

That this word, I think, is properly translated speaking, but the speaking comes from this heart belief.

The speaking, the truth in love, comes from this inner belief that's overflowing and overwhelming you.

So you've heard of the phrase walking the talk.

Well, this is what Paul's talking about here is really talking the walk.

It's you have this walk with Christ, you're abiding in Christ in such a way that he's filling you so full of his Holy Spirit that it's beginning to overflow in you.

And the truth is beginning to rattle you in such a way that you have nothing to do but to share it.

You need to.

It's this impulse.

This is what happens.

The truth takes hold of us in such a way that the overflow is our speaking.

We speak the truth in love.

And I would contend with you that one of the reasons so few of us are willing to speak in the truth, the truth in love, is because so often, so few of us are really captivated by the truth of God's word.

So few of us really rarely stand in awe of who Jesus Christ is.

Because we're so busy with the things of this world that we leave no time to be captivated and in awe with the things of God.

So many of us have no time to commit to a thing like a small group in which we get to speak the truth in love week in and week out for the spiritual benefit of others in our church.

Really, because we're so committed to other relationships where we're speaking not truth, but maybe frivolously or fruitlessly.

Reality is that we're not speaking the truth, it's because we're not captivated and held by the truth.

And until the Spirit of God moves in us in a way that he really starts to ignite a flame in our hearts for the truth that is his word, for the truth that is his gospel, we will never be used to build up the body of Christ.

Because Christ calls us to speak the truth from a place where our heart is so gripped by the truth.

But what happens when the truth really takes a hold of your life?

Don't you find this?

Don't you remember a time in your life where the truth was so meaningful to you?

It was doing so much in your life that you could not help but to speak it to those around you.

This is what happened to the woman at the well that Jesus met, when Jesus pointed her to the spiritual truth that he's living water, that when she drinks of him, she will never thirst again.

Then the woman doesn't care about the well anymore.

All the pursuits of her life are gone.

And you know what she does?

She goes to the city and tells everyone of this man named Jesus Christ.

And it's the same truth that has captivated us, I hope, at times in our life, that out of the overflow of all that God is doing inside of us, we can't help but speak the truth in love.

See, church, this is what we need.

This is what the Spirit of God needs to work in our midst.

And I pray, Spirit, that you would do it.

We need a greater awe at God's truth.

We need a deeper captivation with the gospel.

Deeply we need the Spirit to do this in our midst, to light a flame, the kindling of truth that's already in us, to draw us deeper into our understanding of how great and worthy the Lord is.

This is a sign of true growth.

If you're looking to ask this question, God, am I really growing in you?

Well, a real indicator that you're growing in the Lord is that you just feel this overwhelming desire to be used in other people's lives, to speak the truth in love to them.

I'm not talking about preaching.

I'm talking about in your conversation as you speak to people, you desire to speak of the things of the Lord, to encourage them, to exhort them, to be used in their life, to build them up for the body and the glory of Christ.

And so we notice all throughout scriptures that there are so many different ways that the churches to function with one another, so many different one another, but so many of the one-another really have to do with how we speak to one another.

And this is because this is how we build up the body of Christ by speaking the truth in love to one another.

And so there are times where we must exhort one another, and there are times where we must encourage one another.

There are times where we must teach the gospel to one another, and there are times where we must just remind the gospel each other of the gospel.

There's times where a strong reproof is needed, and there's times where great comfort, maybe even silence, is needed to build up the body of Christ.

Times when we testify of God's goodness to each other, times where our silence is the greatest comfort we can give.

But all is to say that if we want to engage in building up the body of Christ, if we want to do the work of ministry, then we must be speaking.

And so let me ask you this, Christian.

What environment, what environments are you in in your life where you are given the opportunity to speak the truth in love to other believers?

See, the first thing that must happen is after salvation is you that you must be in fellowship with the believers.

And this is what church commitment looks like.

It looks like to be in the presence of believers who are building you up as they speak the truth in love to you.

And so you need to understand that church commitment is not just showing up here for a Sunday service, not just participating in the hour long.

Service that happens here.

But if you want to build up the body of Christ and if you want to be built up yourself, then you need to participate in the fellowship of the church and the opportunities that the saints of the church have to speak the truth to one another in love.

You put yourself into the life of other believers so that you can speak the truth in love to them.

You need to have the opportunity to do this.

This is why it rejoices my heart to see fellowship happening before the service.

For 15 minutes or for half an hour for some people, showing up early for no other reason just to speak to each other, to encourage one another, because they recognize I need this fellowship.

I need other believers speaking the truth in love to me.

This is gonna build me up.

This is gonna be for my good.

This is why I love to be here for so long after, encouraging one another, fellowshipping with one another, speaking to one another, sharing what was impactful from the message or the service to one another.

That's why I love to see people in the church fellowshipping outside of the Sunday morning worship service, taking all these informal opportunities to speak the truth in love to one another.

In church, this is also why I love small group ministry.

Because there are a lot of informal ways that you can speak the truth in love, but small group ministry is really the formal way that we do this.

And at our church, the furnace of ministry, and therefore the furnace of growth for the disciple is really small group ministry.

We really believe firmly that small groups is the furnace for growth of our church.

Why?

Well, because we're looking at Ephesians 4 and we're seeing that if the body of Christ needs to be built up, then the saints need to speak the truth in love.

There needs to be opportunity to do that.

And so it's not just me speaking the truth in love.

What needs to happen in your life, if you're gonna grow as the way Christ intended you to grow as his body, then other believers need to be speaking the truth in love.

Not only that, you need to be speaking the truth in love.

This goes both ways.

You need to be spoken to and you need to have the opportunity to speak.

And so you'll notice that our church really isn't that program driven.

If you're looking for programs in our church, you'll just find that we're not a very busy church like that.

But our church really is small group driven because we believe that ministry happens.

Again, why do we believe this?

We're looking at God's word.

The ministry of the saints is to speak the truth in love.

And so, what can we do to get the saints together to speak the truth in love?

And the answer for us is small groups.

It's not the only way, but it certainly is a very good way to do what the Bible calls us to do.

See, to join a small group is to take up this commitment to understand that Paul and really Jesus calls us to build up the church by speaking the truth in love.

And what you do when you join a small group is you say, I'm gonna, every night, every maybe Wednesday night of every week, I'm gonna show up, and for a time, I'm gonna have the opportunity to speak the truth in love, and have the opportunity for others to speak the truth to me.

It's this formal commitment to build up the body of Christ.

And it's a commitment that when you make formally leads to great accountability that leads to great growth.

Let me ask you this question.

Suppose, you know, it's January, and you're hanging out with your friend, and it's that time that we all make New Year's resolutions, and you're with your friend, and they say, Oh, I'm making a New Year's resolution this year.

This year is finally gonna be the year, I'm gonna lose some weight.

And you say, That's great.

How are you gonna do that?

And they say, Oh, well, I mean, I'm just gonna do it.

It's gonna happen at some point.

You know, maybe I'll drink some water and eat some good food and might go on a walk every once in a while.

And I just like, it's definitely gonna happen.

I'm just gonna do it.

Well, you might look at that friend and and maybe you won't speak the truth in love to them and tell them the harsh reality that it's likely not gonna happen.

But you're gonna walk away from that conversation and say, Well, I don't think I'm gonna see much change from that person.

And I'll actually be pretty surprised if, with that kind of level of commitment, taking that goal with that sort of informal commitment, I'm I'm not I'm actually gonna be surprised if they do change at all.

But imagine you have that same conversation, you say, Oh, well, what are you gonna do to fulfill that resolution to lose some weight?

And they say, Oh man, well, I just signed up for the gym, I have a personal trainer, they're gonna meet me at the gym every morning at seven, and they're putting me on a diet plan.

I'm gonna eat this, this, and this, and I'm committed to it.

Well, you might start to take that resolution a little more seriously.

You would expect to see some change because this person is formally committed to this goal.

And really, this is what small group is.

See, growth can happen outside of a formal small group ministry, but to join a small group is to say formally, God, I want to speak the truth in love.

And God, I need the truth to be spoken to me.

And so I want to make sure every week this happens.

And I want to make sure that if I don't make it one week, there are people who are praying for me, and there are people who are caring for me that are reaching out to me.

If I fall off the radar, I need this accountability because I need this to grow.

This is the power of a small group and why we're so adamant about it, because we believe it fulfills our biblical commitment to each other to build up the body of Christ, to speak the truth in love to one another.

This really solidifies what it means to be committed to a small group.

I'm showing up to build the body of Christ.

I'm showing up to speak.

Well, this is what we do.

We speak the truth in love, but the next thing I want you to see, and really the second point of our one-point message, I want you to see how it's done.

You notice what Paul says there?

He says, speaking, but what are we speaking?

Paul says, the truth in love.

We speak the truth in love.

Now, in verse 15, as Paul talks about the truth, really he's kind of contrasting that to what he said in verse 14.

Look what he says in verse 14.

I hope you're looking at your copy of God's word with me.

He says, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

What Paul says is we live in a world that is full of falsehood.

We live in a world that's full of human cunning.

We live in a world that is full of air.

And there is a present danger to each of us because we're constantly bombarded with whether it's advertising or our workplace or social media, we're constantly spoken falsehood.

We're constantly bombarded with claims of truth that are not truth at all according to God's standard.

And we live in this world, and what Paul is saying is we need a break from this world, and that when you enter into the doors of the church to be ministered by the saints of the church, what should happen is you should get this breath of fresh air.

Ah, this is the place of truth.

And historically, this is how what the church has been in the world has been the place of truth.

Paul breaks into the midst of our life and the noise of all the distracting voices speaking falsehood to us to say that we need the church.

We need the clear voice of brothers and sisters in Christ speaking the truth in love to us.

We need this because of the world that we live in.

Constantly bombarded by falsehood.

So we enter into the fellowship of the church to hear the truth.

And we don't just hear the truth in the church because as a church we're like bragging, oh, we found the truth.

The reason why in the church we hear the truth is because God has revealed the truth to us.

That's why in all the ministries of this church, our aim is to be unapologetically about the truth.

That's why in our preaching ministry we always preach from the word.

That's why in our worship ministry we always sing songs that are true to God's word.

That's why in our kids' ministry we always teach God's word.

That's why in our youth ministry we always disciple according to God's word.

That's why in our small group ministry we always speak the truth of God's word and love to each other, because we believe that in this world that's full of falsehoods, that's full of deceit, that's full of human cunning, what we need is this book.

This book is a f breath of fresh air to us because every word is true.

We need this.

We need this.

We're all about truth here because truth has been given to us in a book, it has been presented to us in a living person, Jesus Christ Himself.

This is a sad reality though, church.

We are all about the truth here, but the reality is that we live in a world that is a post-truth world.

That even as I'm speaking right now, that if your definition of truth according to the world's has been defined according to the world standard, we're not even really speaking about the same thing.

See, what I'm speaking about right now is true truth.

That's what Francis Schaefer called, and I think it's really helpful.

It's true truth.

I'm talking about a truth that is objectively true over all other truths.

But the reality is that in a post-truth world, especially when it comes to religion, the argument, really the prevailing argument, is that there is no truth.

That each person is kind of entitled to their own personal belief system, and that can be true for you, but it doesn't have to be true for me.

And if you're a Christian, you might have heard this as you've explained your faith to someone and someone has said to you, Oh, that's good for you.

I'm really glad for you.

There's a fine line we walk, isn't there?

When it comes to objective truth versus subjective truth, because some things are subjectively true, aren't they?

For instance, it can be, it can be, let me just really italicize that word, it can be true for you that pineapple is good on pizza.

Now, I don't want to start like a church split here, because I know this is a really divisive thing that we can talk about, but we can at least all acknowledge, some of us just can't even do this, but we can at least all acknowledge that pineapple, some people like it.

That's too hard for some of us, but we can believe it.

That's a subjective truth.

And with something like that, we can stand back and say, okay, okay, fine, I concede it is true for you.

But we also must understand that there are many things in the world that are objectively true.

And one of my arguments against the post-truth world is that those of those people who say that there is no truth don't expect that reality to be true when their kids' math tests are being graded.

We live in a world where one plus one is two.

I'm really glad I got that right.

I went to Bible college for a reason is to get away from math.

There is objective truth.

Now, the prevailing worldview says that when it comes to your belief in God, that there is no objective truth, that whatever your truth is, that's your truth.

And you've likely heard this worldview illustrated by the illustration of the blind man and the elephant.

And kind of the way that this no-truth worldview is described is if you could imagine an elephant standing in this room.

What an odd worship service that would be.

But just imagine for a moment it's in this room, and that blind men start coming and trying to figure out what it is that's in this room.

And so one man starts feeling this object and says, Oh, this feels like a tail, it's long and bushy.

Another person comes and starts feeling around and says, Oh, this feels kind of like a tree.

Feeling the elephant's leg.

It's broad and hard and must be a tree.

And another person comes and is feeling a trunk and in the mouth, and it's it must be a swamp, it's wet and slimy.

The reality is, the argument goes, is that all these people are experiencing the same truth.

And that for each of these people, their truth is truth.

This is the prevailing worldview of our day, that there is no truth, that all truth is subjective.

Now, here's the problem with that illustration: that if you really believe that there's no objective truth, if you really believe that the answer for why there's all these different worldviews, why there's all these different religions, is that everyone's just experiencing the truth, what you're saying is that in that illustration there is one person who can see.

What you're saying is that you're the person in that illustration who can see.

And you can see that all these people who are, whether it's the faith of Islam or the faith of naturalism or the faith of Christianity, all these people are feeling the same elephant.

And you're saying, in this room, I can see perfectly clear, I can see that all these people are experiencing the same thing, and so my worldview must be true because I can see everything.

There is no truth.

It's a very objective statement, isn't it?

It's very objective to say there's no truth.

That's an objective truth.

And yet to stand at that position to say all these other people are blind, that's also really exclusive.

You're saying these people don't understand, but I do.

It's a very exclusive truth that you believe.

It's also a very prideful belief that you believe that you, above all these other people, you've come to this knowledge by yourself.

You know, the amazing thing about the truth of the Christian worldview is that we have nothing to brag about.

I'm not standing here saying that I've discovered truth, that I'm the one who's figured it all out.

I'm standing here saying that the God who created this world has spoken his truth.

That I don't need to figure it out because God has spoken in this world and he has declared what is true truth.

And it doesn't come down to the opinion of man, it doesn't come down to the argument of man, it comes down to the word of God.

See, in this book, God has declared, I am here.

It's as though God were in this room and yelling to us, I exist.

And not only does he declare that in this word, he also says, This is who I am.

He declares his existence through his word, but he also teaches us about ourselves in his word.

And he teaches us what we must do in his word.

This is why, as a church, we need to be desperate for the truth.

Because God has spoken in this world, he's revealed himself to us.

And if this church for a moment ceases to be about this book, if this church for a moment ceases to be about the truth, we cease to be a church.

We cease to be God's church.

Built on the foundation of God's word.

And as a church, what we need the most is to be desperate to hear God speak.

You know how that should inform every morning.

I love what Brandon said this morning, that so often we can come to a church service and just it's kind of the same old thing.

It's another morning.

It's good that I made it on time.

And yet, really, our hearts should be in this place of God.

I need this, I need to hear you speak.

I need this ministry in my life.

I can't live apart from your revelation.

You desperate for the word of God.

You desperate to place your feet on the firm foundation that God has given us in his word, you desperate to find refuge.

And God Himself, the reality is so many of us lack this desperation to hear God speak.

Our life is so busy with so many other things.

We have so many things to do.

I can't take time to read God's word.

Too tired, too busy, too many kids.

Too many kids making too many noises, too many items on the to-do list.

I'll just put God's word to the side.

And God's right now, in this moment, speaking to you, saying, There's nothing you need more than the revelation of Himself.

There's nothing you need more than His word.

See, it's only when you're desperate that you'll really turn to God and say, God, I need you to fill me.

I can't live this day without me.

I need your word.

I can't live apart from you speaking to me.

That when when God fills you up with that, the answer of that prayer, it's only then that you begin to overflow and speaking the truth to love in a way that builds up his church.

And so, really, this is what the church should be.

It should be a bunch of desperate people coming together on a Sunday morning saying, I need this.

I love this def this kind of illustration of church that church is just beggars telling other beggars where to find bread.

That's really what it is.

None of us is greater than the other, but each of us have found God's word, and we speak the truth in love to one another when we say, Hey, you gotta see how God is speaking to me through his word.

We're hungry beggars telling other hungry beggars where to get food.

We've tasted the food of God's word, it sustains us, and now we want our brothers and sisters in Christ to know this.

This is the truth that we speak.

It's the true truth.

But notice that Paul also says that we speak the truth.

And this is gonna be hard for some of us to hear who like to treat truth kind of like a baseball bat, but it Paul says, we speak the truth in love.

In love.

And speaking in love and truthfulness are so tied together that if you speak truth without love, you've actually not spoken truth at all.

I love what one pastor says.

He says, if you're wrong in the way that you're right, you're wrong even though you're right.

That's helpful, isn't it?

If you're wrong in the way that you're right, you're wrong even though you're right.

And what that communicates is that there's a way to share truth where the message of truth is lost because you lack the love to deliver that truth.

Truth requires love.

Love can't be separated from truth.

So many of us need to hear this because we have a tendency to speak the truth in the name of being truthful, in the name of being right.

We have the tendency to speak the truth without love.

At any moment, we're willing to stand up, crack someone over the head with a baseball bat of truth, tell them they're wrong, tell them we're right, and declare it that we've done that in the name of truthfulness.

And yet, so often our truth lacks the gentleness of Jesus' truth, who always spoke in a spirit of love.

To those who needed comfort, he was gentle.

To those who needed rebuke, Jesus was stern, yet he always had a desire to restore.

Church, let me ask you this.

As you speak the truth, as your desire to do it in love.

Let's do a heart check right now.

Probably each of us have spoken truth at some point in this week.

Have you done it in love every time?

Have you spoken to build up the kingdom of Christ?

You know, it's really possible to speak to build up our own kingdom, isn't it?

Or sometimes, in an even more evil way, we'll speak just to tear other people's kingdoms down.

Whether it's through gossip or slander or lying.

We'll speak just so we can tear other people's kingdoms down, but Christ is calling us to speak to build up his kingdom, to build up his body.

We can't speak truth if we don't speak truth with love.

You know, it's also true that you can't love without speaking truth.

See, there's two sides of this.

It's on the one hand, many of us struggle to speak the truth with love because we speak the truth like truth's a baseball bat to crack over people's head.

On the other side, some of us fail to love because we never speak the truth.

And what Paul's saying here is that these are two sides of the same coin, that you need both of these things.

And so some of our error is to try to love without telling the truth.

Love spoiled without truth.

Very definition of love requires truth.

Love is seeking the well-being of someone else before you're seeking your own well-being.

And that requires at times that you tell the hard truth.

And so the parent who loves their child, you know this parents, sometimes more than any other truth, it's required out of the love of your heart to discipline your child.

To tell them that the way that they're living is wrong.

Now, whether we always do that in love is another question, but we know that the parent who loves their child will tell them the truth.

So God disciplines those that he loves.

So in our friendship, we won't let another friend live in a way that we feel to be wrong because we love them.

We feel the need we're compelled to share the truth with them despite the fact that it may hurt.

Friends, you need to know this is increasingly difficult in our day and age.

We live in a world where not only are we under immense social pressure to love people by not speaking what we believe to be true.

We live in a world where we are under immense social pressure to apparently love people by speaking what we believe not to be true.

And there is pressure on a Christian to accept the things that are so counter to God's word in the name of love.

And Paul says it can't be so.

We know this from the love of our parents, the love of a friend, and ultimately the love of God.

True love speaks the truth, even when it hurts.

Isn't this so true of Jesus Christ?

Isn't he the ultimate example of this?

Jesus could have stayed in heaven.

He could have left us on our hellbound race.

But love it beat in Jesus' heart too greatly.

And so he was compelled to leave heaven, to come to this world as a man to speak the truth to us, to call us to a gospel of repentance and belief.

What was the cost to Jesus?

Well, the cost was his very life.

Because Jesus loved you so greatly, he was willing to speak the truth in a way that it would eventually lead to the cross.

Maybe you're here this morning and you know you haven't lived up to God's standard of truth.

You know that before a holy and righteous God, the only thing that you're deserving of is his wrath.

And you know that God has sent his son to this world, the living embodiment of truth, to declare the truth to you that you are a sinner, but not to stop there, not to leave you in condemnation, to declare the truth that he is going to die for your sins, in a way that if you place your faith in him, there is therefore now no condemnation on your life.

It is true that you are a sinner, but it is also true that the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ is greater than your sin could ever be, so that if you place your faith in him, you can find life.

We find life ultimately because Jesus spoke the truth in us.

Lastly, I want you to see this.

This is why we speak, why it's necessary for us to speak.

We see this in the other verses.

We've spent most of our time in verse 15, but I want you to see that it's necessary for us to speak because when we speak, the church progresses.

The church can't progress without the body of Christ speaking the truth in love.

And so Paul says in verse 13 that we are to do this work of ministry, which in verse 15 he'll say is to speak the truth in love.

He says, we do this in verse 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.

Now, this is really interesting in the book of Ephesians, because if you know Ephesians, you know that all of chapter 4, especially in verses 1 to 3, Paul has been arguing that the necessity of the church is to maintain unity that's been given to us.

And so Paul talks about our one faith, our one baptism, our one Lord, and he calls us as a church, maintain this unity.

But look what Paul's saying now.

He says that you need to attain this unity.

That there is a unity that needs to be found in the church that you do not yet have.

And so, on one hand, we're told to maintain the unity.

On the other hand, we're told to attain the unity, to find unity that's not yet there.

On the one hand, we're given full unity in Jesus Christ, who's our one Lord, full unity in our one baptism as a church.

On the other hand, there's still more unity to be found.

What's Paul telling us to do here?

Paul's reminding us that the Christian life is a life of progressing to attain what we already have in Christ.

Church, it is true that in Christ you are fully righteous.

Your sin has been cast as far as the East is from the West.

God has forgotten your sin if you are in Christ.

You've been totally cleansed, and yet don't you know that it's true that there is so much sin at war in your heart?

We battle daily with sin.

And what Paul is saying here is that we need the church to progress into the fullness of what Christ calls us into.

We speak the truth in love because we need help to grow.

This is why in verse 15, Paul gives us this promise that when we speak the truth in love, you see this promise?

We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.

Because when we speak the truth in love, we're progressing other Christians' growth.

And so understand this: you need the church, you need the ministry of the church for growth.

You can't do it alone.

You notice something interesting about this text?

You notice that it doesn't say just that you need to speak the truth in love.

It doesn't say that you need to put yourself in context where other people speak the truth in love to you.

It says both of those things.

Paul says speaking the truth in love, which means on the one hand, you're the one speaking, on the other hand, you're the one who's being spoken to.

And the reality is that if we're going to grow in our Christian life, we need both of those things.

You know, often what I hear Christians emphasize is their need to be spoken to.

And when that's what you think church growth is all about, you know what happens?

You start to not really value small group, you start to not really value church because you just think, well, I mean, it's only really affecting me if I don't show up.

If I don't go to small group, okay, I lose the game.

But Christ wants to reorient our understanding to say that you're actually needed in the church.

And so let me speak to you very directly.

If this body of Christ that God has called together here is to grow, we need you.

You need to be speaking the truth in love.

You say, Oh, I don't know what to say.

Well, just testify of what God's doing in you.

You don't need to be a scholar, you don't need to be a preacher.

You just need to be able to speak the truth.

To progress the church.

We need to both speak and be spoken too in order to progress the church.

There's also another reality that happens when we speak the truth.

Why do we speak the truth?

Well, it's in order that we might perfect the church, that we might perfect the church.

Now, unless, or unless you call me a heretic, look what it says in God's Word.

In verse 13, it says, we speak until we attain the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God.

But look what it says.

Here it says to mature manhood.

We speak to mature manhood.

This idea of in verse 14 that we might be children in this world, but Paul's calling us to something greater, to maturity, to being a another way you could translate that is to mature adulthood.

That we are to mature as Christians into who God is calling us to be.

That we're to progress until we are finally everything that Christ has saved us to be, to mature manhood.

He says, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

When do we need to progress until?

When do we need to grow until?

Until we are fully like Christ, until every ounce of our heart is consumed with a desire to serve Jesus Christ as Lord.

And our kingdom isn't our consideration anymore.

We are aiming for perfection.

Notice the kind of play on images that Paul's doing between children in verse 14 who are being tossed to and fro by the waves and the mature man in verse 13.

This is the mark of maturity.

Then we are maturing as the believers, as believers in Christ.

As we get older, one of the things that we realize is that you start to wake up with like things not working the way that they're supposed to.

Have you had this experience before?

Like when you were young, you woke up, everything always worked the way it was.

Then one day you start waking up and you take your first step and you're like limping.

You're like, why is my leg not really working?

And it's you're kind of like this, you know, rusty machine that needs to be oiled in order to start moving correctly, and things start not working the way that they're supposed to, and like you're kind of like offset, and muscles are pulled, and you just you're getting old.

Your body's not functioning the way that it's supposed to.

What Paul is saying here is that each of us are gifted by Jesus Christ to be the body of Christ.

And if you're not involved in the process of speaking the truth in love to build up the body of Christ, the body of Christ limps.

That each one of us are required to speak the truth in love so that the body can work the way it's supposed to.

And so again, let me speak really directly to you.

And maybe this is more of a word for you.

If you're kind of like half in, foot's half in, foot's half out.

Maybe you attend this church some weeks, but then other churches at other weeks, and you're just kind of here, but never really a part of the family that God has called us to be.

Let me say that the church needs you.

And maybe you're in the process of deciding between this church and another church.

And let me just tell you, quite honestly, you don't need to come here.

This isn't the only healthy church in this area.

There are many churches.

Praise God, there are many churches that are bringing such great glory to God as they preach the word, as they believe the gospel.

We can point you to some of that churches, but that some of those churches, but this is all to say that you need to be a part of a local church.

You need to be a part of the body of Christ.

The body of Christ needs you.

Whether it's this body or another body, we need you.

But we don't need any body parts that aren't working properly.

You don't need any limp limbs.

We need you to serve the church and build it up as you speak the truth in love.

We speak for the progress of the church, we speak for the perfection of the church.

The last thing I want you to see is that we speak for the protection of the church.

Something really interesting is happening here.

It's interesting that in verse 13, when Paul talks about maturity, he doesn't say that we'll become mature men and women in the plural.

Wouldn't that make sense?

Like you speak the truth in love, and as a church, as you do that, we are made up of a plural plurality of people.

It would make sense grammatically if Paul said, You're gonna grow up into mature men and women.

Paul doesn't say that.

Look what he says.

He says it in the singular.

He says, You're gonna mature to mature manhood or mature adulthood.

And that's to emphasize really the unity that our maturity as individuals comes in our recognition that we need the body of Christ.

We need to be a part of the body of Christ, we need to be unified with the body of Christ so that the church's growth is our growth.

This is maturity to say, I need the body, I can't live apart from it.

But notice what happens in verse 14 when Paul starts to talk about immaturity.

You see what he says?

So that we may no longer be children.

He speaks of in the put of it in the plural.

And the image that Paul's kind of setting up here is you're on a boat, and all these individual children are being tossed to and fro from the waves.

They're not united at all, they're not together at all, they're not a part of a body.

They're out on their own doing their own thing.

Isn't this so countercultural?

We live in a world where the self-made man is glorified.

I did it on my own, I did it my way.

And that has crept into the church so that we often, so often have this aura about us that says, as long as I don't need other people, I'm good.

I'm mature.

I'm mature if I don't need the body of Christ.

And here is Paul saying that that is the opposite of maturity.

That if you think you can do it alone, you're like a child.

The maturist believer will be the one who most deeply confesses their need for the church.

Our maturity, your individual maturity is in this truth, that you need the body of Christ, that you can't live without it, that you need other people speaking the truth in love to you.

This is what Paul is calling us to: to build up the body by speaking the truth in love.

And to do that for the progress, for the perfection, and for the protection of the church.

All this to say that we need each other, and that when we live like this, look at the promise church in verse 15.

We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ.

This is the promise.

We'll grow when we speak the truth in love.

So I want to do something here.

Maybe as a little application of what we've been speaking right now, as a way for us to declare, I just need the body.

I need the body of Christ.

I need the people in this room to be speaking the truth in love to us.

I want us to take a moment, in a moment, to stand up and just greet one another.

Usually we do this at the beginning of the church, but I think that doing the beginning of our service, but doing this at the end kind of gives it a different flavor, doesn't it?

And take a moment to stand up and greet one another.

And as you do this, meditate in your heart that this person that you are greeting is part of the body of Christ, called to speak the truth in love to you, that you are called to speak the truth in love to them, that you need this person's ministry in your life, that they need your ministry in their life.

This is what we are, the body of Christ, called to build each other up in love.

Let's take a moment just to greet those around you, and then I'm going to close our time by praying.

That's so good.

So good.

We need the body.

We need the body.

All right, you guys can make your way back to your seats.

You can stand with me.

You can stand with me as you make your way back to your seats.

We could do this forever, and I love it.

We're gonna sing a song and worship God.

And we can stand together, we're gonna pray together as a church.

We're gonna worship God in this moment, continue to fellowship.

Hey, continue to speak the truth and love to one another as we sing these words of truth, and then we're gonna have an opportunity after to continue to fellowship with coffee.

Isn't fellowship so much greater with coffee?

And continue to speak the truth and love to one another.

But it's so good to recognize us.

We need the body.

Those people whose hands you just shook, we need them.

We need people speaking the truth in love into our life.

So let's pray together and then let's sing together.

Father, God, we so practically feel your love in the presence of other believers, Lord.

That each each of us, you have individually done a work of salvation in us.

But God, you've brought us to this moment right now by the power of your sovereignty, by the working of your grace, you brought us to this moment to acknowledge that we need the body and that we need to be a part of the body in order to grow.

And so, God, we give you praise.

Lord, you want us to grow.

You want us to change, you want us to experience your love and your truth in a deeper and deeper way.

And so you call us to this body of believers.

And God, we look around this room, and God, we confess this, we're messed up.

Lord, we have so much sin, so much waywardness.

We struggle so greatly.

Things we feel like it should be so easy, Lord, they're so hard to us.

God, we want to follow you, but constantly the flesh is battling against us.

It's so hard, Lord.

And yeah, God, we sense your love and that you have given us a body of believers that want to speak the truth in love, that want to care for us, that want to build us up in love.

And so, God, would we not be so foolish as to not to lean not lean into the church that you have provided for us?

God, would you work in our midst, even as we sing this song, God, that this would be a declaration, Lord, that we want to speak the truth.

We want to be a part of the calling that you've given to each Christian to build up the body of Christ as they speak the truth in love.

God, we pray this in the name of your son.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Just pray with me right now, Father.

Lead us in love, Lord.

Lead us in love.

God, we need you so desperately.

Fill us with truth.

Lead us with love.

God, those words that we've saying, we just long for them to be so true.

And God, I just sense that it can't be true apart from your working in us.

So work, God, we pray.

We depend so greatly on you.

And God, we love you.

We pray this all in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Amen.

That's so good.

That's so good to hear God's word, sing God's praise, and to be reminded that we need this.

This is God's love, the ministry of the church.

This is the way that he shows us his love, so the ministry of other people.

And so good.

Um, if you're new here this morning, we're so thankful that you're here, praying that you've really experienced God through our worship service, that you've sensed his presence, especially his love for you.

And we'd love to meet you.

And so we're gonna have some leaders up at the front here that would love to introduce ourselves to you and answer any questions that you have about our church.

I want to remind you just to continue to worship the Lord throughout the week through your faithful giving.

You can find all the information to do that at our website, redemptionnewmarket.ca.

I want you to go this week knowing that you are loved.