Let us please pray together once again. Our Father, many of us did quite consciously sing that hymn as our petition to you. We thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit. We thank you that you have not left us to our own native abilities and powers, but that you have given us the gift of the Spirit. And we do pray that he would bring his powerful and gracious and tender influences to bear upon us now. We pray that he would revive our drooping faith. We pray that he would cheer our desponding hearts. We pray that where need be, he would convince us of our sins and lead us to Jesus blood. We pray that he would reveal some dimensions of Christ to us and make him to be precious to us. We ask in the light of this great subject that we have been studying, that you would make it clear to us that you would help us intellectually to comprehend the statements of the Bible and that you would please dispose our whole inner being to be obedient to all that you have set before us. Father, we so desire, as individuals, as individual Christians, we desire this. Those of us who are members of this assembly, we desire this. We desire, Father, that in every way we would be conformed to the Bible. We especially desire that we would love Christ more and that we would love you more and that by your help we would love one another more and that we would be characterized by this great attribute of yours, that we would be characterized by righteousness and by love. Please draw near to us and open our hearts to your word. Our hope is in you because you are our God. You have committed yourself to sanctify us and you use your word to sanctify us. And so we pray with hope that you administer to us now. We ask you and we pray in Jesus name. Amen. I'd like you to turn, please, to Ephesians, to Ephesians chapter four. Some weeks ago, we commenced a study of the biblical doctrine of the church, and we said the reason that we wanted to engage in that study was because, on the one hand, the Bible put so much emphasis upon the subject of the church. It would not be an exaggeration to say that most of the New Testament is taken up with just a few subjects. It is taken up primarily with a presentation of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And perhaps as a subheading to that, it is taken up with an exposition in various parts of the Christian gospel. What else is in the New Testament? There's one other major thing that's in the New Testament. Now, there are a lot of other things. There's one other predominant emphasis in the New Testament. And that is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Most of the books of the New Testament were written for and about the church. It is an immensely important subject, not simply because so much biblical material is given to the subject, but because of the importance which God places upon the church and because of what the church is to actually accomplish in the world. The church is to be the pillar and the ground of the truth. The church has been deposited, the church has been established in the earth to hold up God's truth for the world. The church is to be the temple of God upon the earth. It is the one institution where God has promised to meet with his people when they assemble together. The church is to be that place where God in spirit and in truth and in the zeal of the Holy Spirit is properly worshiped. We have been looking recently at this picture of the church as the body of Christ, and that's what I would like us to come back to this morning. We took this up initially, number one, because of the immense material and importance that is given to this subject. But there was a second reason. It's because so many in the present time, especially in America, dismiss the church. The church to many is just a complex glob of meetings and rules and organization and programs. And it's largely dismissed because there's not much that's really helpful in that. Well, the Bible doesn't allow us to have that picture of the church, and so in order to have a biblical picture and hopefully a picture that will attract all of our zeal and all of our hearts, I've wanted us to study this subject. So this morning we return to looking at the church in the picture which Paul uses as the body of Christ. We've looked at three things under this picture. We've looked at the head of the body, and of course, the head of the body is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the ruler. He is the preeminent one. The church exists to hold up the Lord Jesus Christ. And the church is to be in every way subject to the lordship and mastery of Jesus. Secondly, we've looked at what the Bible refers to as the common life of all the members of the church. There is one common life that we all engage in, and that is the life of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is in every believer. We have all been baptized into the spirit. We have all been made to drink richly of the Holy Spirit. The spirit has regenerated us. The spirit has given life to us. The spirit has given gifts to us. The spirit enables us and empowers us to minister to one another. The common life of the church is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And then in the third place, we've looked at them, at the members of the body, the parts. The human body has all the parts it has. It has a nose. It has ears. It has elbows. It has kneecaps. It has all the parts. And the church is composed of all the parts. We've looked at how different the parts are from one another. We are different races. Different degrees of faith. Different gifts, different usefulness, different workings of God in us, all sorts of differences. And all sorts of areas where we are the same, we have the same savior, we have the same head, we have the same spirit. There's one Lord, one faith, one baptism. There's one body. We're united together. I'd like us to take up a last idea that the Bible gives us regarding the church under the picture of the body of Jesus, and that is that the church is designed to grow. As the body, the human body is designed to grow, so the church is designed to grow. And I'd like us to look at that biblical theme of the church as the body of Christ growing. Now, the human body. As a whole grows, does it not, but it only grows as a whole, as each part grows properly and proportionately, it's supposed to be that way. It's not supposed to be that the hand grows to a 10 year growth growth spurt and the foot stays at the 10 month growth level. All the individual parts are to grow proportionately and properly. And as each individual part grows, the whole body grows. The same is true in reference to the Christian church. The whole body is to grow. But the corporate growth loses its point altogether unless we think in terms of the individual parts growing. Each individual Christian, each individual member of the body of Christ is to grow. And as each member grows properly, then the whole body grows. It's this concept of growth that I'd like us to look at. The text that I'd like us to read is Ephesians chapter four, Ephesians chapter four. Please turn there. In Ephesians, chapter four, Paul says in verse seven, but to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. And then, as we've talked about on other occasions, he identifies some of those gifts which the risen Christ gives. In verse eleven, he gave some to the apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. Verse twelve, 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. from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Now, this passage focuses upon two themes connected to growth. One is the goal of growth. What is the church grow to the goal of growth? And the other theme is the means of this growth. How does the church grow? Well, this morning, I'd like us to look only at that one aspect, the goal of growth in the body of Christ, which is, in fact, the church. How are we to measure? If we are growing as God wants us to grow, what is the goal that we're supposed to attain? What is the object? What is the point? What are we growing forward? What what is the goal? And that's what I'd like us to look at in this passage. The goal for growth in the body of Christ, the goal for growth. In this individual congregation, whatever that is, whatever the goal is. That should very much determine what we are. The goal of our growth should determine our diet. The goal of our growth should determine our exercise. The goal of our growth should determine the type of meetings we have. The goal of our growth should define us and determine what we are. If the goal of the church's growth is to have a profound impact in the social structures of society, then that's going to govern us in a certain way. If the goal of the church is A, B or C, then those goals are going to mold what we should be. What is the goal of growth in the Christian church? Well, Paul sets it forth in these verses, first negatively and then positively. Let us take it in that order. First, negatively, what is the goal for growth in the Christian church? Negatively, it is that we be no longer children. Paul descends to use a word picture. What is the goal for growth? Negatively, that would be no longer children. The point is that we're not any longer be immature, that we as a church and we as individuals are to no longer be children. Now, notice three things about that, please. Number one, there is an assumption that many in the Christian church are like children. There's that assumption that many in the Christian church are like children. Many in the Christian church are actually quite immature. Secondly, notice that like children, immature Christians are prone to instability and vacillation. Verse 14, that we should be no longer children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine. Immature Christians, like children, are prone to instability and vacillation, tossed to and fro, back and forth, carried about. The commentators say that the picture here is not of a great ocean liner with a rudder and tons of weight out there in the ocean, moving slowly with the seas. The picture here is a little boat, no rudder, no weight, just a little canoe type boat just tossed to and fro by the waves, driven about by the wind, unstable and vacillating like children. There are many wonderful things about children. Their innocence is wonderful. At certain ages, their native submissiveness is wonderful. Jesus referred to the humility of children as being wonderful. We should all be like that. But not everything about children is wonderful. Little children are fickle. They like to play with one toy for a while, then they lose interest in that one. At one point, they want to be firemen and next day they change and they want to be policemen. At one moment, they're full of fun and energy. And then at another moment, they're tired and cranky. Children are moody. Children are fickle. Children change. Children lack self-control. Their moods and their impulses cause them to easily change and they're not able to resist their moods. Children often react excessively. If they lose their favorite blanket or their favorite toy, they might react as if the world has collapsed. They're unstable. They're vacillating. React excessively. And so it is with many immature Christians, they're unstable, they're unreliable, they lack self-control, they lack knowledge and perspective, they react excessively frequently, they change their views and they change their churches and they change their perspectives. Immature Christians. Are unstable and vacillate. A third thing to notice, the first was the assumption that there are many childlike Christians in the church. The second is that, like children, immature Christians are prone to instability. And the third is that, like children, immature Christians are easily misled and easily deceived. Again, look at 14 be. Tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. It's true, is it not that little children. Little children will believe almost anything, no matter how outlandish if it's presented in a most compelling manner. Sadly, some little children believe there really is such a thing as the Easter Bunny. And sadly, some children really believe there is such a thing as Santa Claus. Children are easily misled. Little children are easy prey for kidnappers. because they're easily misled. Now, why is that so? Well, lots of reasons. One is because little children lack experience in the world. Another is because little children did not understand the cruel nature of some people. Another is because they're not able. Little children are not able to properly evaluate the true intention of adults and because they are curious and love novelty. and are easily drawn off to some fun. Those who can entertain children are like the Pied Piper and can lead them almost anywhere he wants to lead them. Well, many immature Christians are just like little children in this regard. They lack experience in Christian things. They lack knowledge of the Bible. They lack knowledge of church history and theological history. They lack a knowledge of the history of various errors in the church. They enjoy novelty. They enjoy freshness. They enjoy that which promises spiritual exhilaration and excitement. It's attractive. And so, because they're unable to evaluate various teachings and don't know the end fruits of various teachings, immature Christians are easily misled. Someone wrote this, the nature of children's immaturity is graphically pictured in these clauses and phrases. They're unstable. Lacking direction vacillating and open to manipulation like small rudderless boats They are tossed back and forth by the waves and driven this way and that by the prevailing wind Unable to come to settled convictions or to evaluate various forms of teaching they fall an easy prey to every new theological fad this passage assumes that the church is full of childlike Christians and Their immaturity is shown in lack of stability and quickly vacillating, and their immaturity is shown in the fact that they can be easily misled and they're gullible to cunning, crafty teachers. Because this is true, The New Testament, just almost throughout the epistles, the writers are continually warning the people of God about false teachers and false teaching. It's because there are so many in the church that are susceptible to false teachers and to false teaching. Listen to just some representative passages. Acts 2030, Paul says to the Ephesian elders from among yourselves, men will rise up. speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. It could have been translated speaking misleading things. There's going to be people who rise up among the elders of Ephesus speaking misleading things to draw away the disciples after them. That was a concern that he had for the Ephesian church. Listen to what he writes to the Galatian church in Galatians, chapter one, verse six. I marvel that some of you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another. But there are some who would trouble you and twist the gospel. Oh, foolish Galatians, he later says, who has bewitched you? There are some teachers that came in and in crafty, subtle ways presented things in such a way that the Galatians says, that's right, that's right. Paul didn't really. That's right. Well, we could read lots of passages and for the sake of time, I won't. But the reason all those passages are there is because there is this assumption by the apostle Paul that in the Church of Christ, there are many immature believers. Now, why are there many immature believers in the in the Church of Christ? Why would Paul make this general statement to the Ephesians about the goal negatively is it would be no longer little children? Why are there so many immature believers in the Christian church? Well, there's at least two answers to that. One is because. In a healthy Christian church, there are many new converts. There are many immature believers in the first place because there are many new converts. It's a wonderful thing. It's a wonderful thing to see a new convert. Of course, it's a wonderful thing to be a new convert. But for those who have been Christians for some period of time, it's it's just exceedingly wonderful to see a new convert. Well, think what happens when someone becomes a Christian, what what is true of a new convert? All the years before they came to Christ, what was true of them? All the years they came before, all the years that they lived before they came to Christ, they lived under the influences which Paul describes in Ephesians chapter two. They were dead in their trespasses and sins. They were mastered by evil influences. Paul is very plain to say that they were mastered by Satan himself, by the prince of the powers of the air. And whatever number of years they lived like that, they honed their skills, the lovers of self and lovers of pleasure and not to be lovers of God. And so they developed habits, in some cases, decades worth of habits. Habits, methods, ways of living where they were accomplishing their goal, they were living for pleasure and they were living for themselves. And then. God begins to do something in their life. Somehow, God interrupts their life. Somehow, God begins to make communications to them, and somehow in the course of God's dealing with them, God will make them begin to have a sense that they need him. And he'll do that in various ways, perhaps the most very common way is that God will make people begin to sense that they really are sinful and that they really are guilty. And that God really will punish them for their sins. And depending on various things, depending on the work of God, depending on the sensitivity of the conscience, various degrees of shame and anguish of soul will set in upon some people. God will begin to make them sense that their sin is real, their guilt is real, be just for them to be damned by him. Or he'll make them sense their need in a different way. He may bring them into circumstances where they become so aware of their incompetence for life. They're not able to make their marriage work or they're not able to make their vocation work that they begin to realize they really are not competent to be the master of their own destiny in the captain of their ship. And with an arising sense of incompetence and inability and need for God himself to rule their lives. He makes them aware of need. And then what does God do in some way? And he has lots of possibilities in some way. God will make Christ known to them. And God will work in their hearts to make them want Christ. They will be like the merchant who finds The treasure to be of such value that with joy he sells everything that he has so that he can buy it so that he can have that treasure. God will work in people's hearts in such a way that they find Christ to be so attractive that with joy they'll give up whatever he wants them to give up so that they can have him. They will see God will make them to see that Jesus receives sinners. God will make them to see that Jesus is willing and able to forgive all sins. They will. The Lord will work in such a way as to make Jesus so attractive and the forgiveness that he offers and the work which he has accomplished so attractive that they'll want him. And then the Lord will do something else. He'll give them life. And the outworking of that life is that they will believe in Christ. They'll repent of their sins and they'll run to him. And in the context of giving them life, he makes them new creatures and they happily acknowledge Jesus as Savior and Lord forever. And that's wonderful, is it not? But there are two wrong views of conversion. I just described conversion. But there are two wrong views of conversion that have a bearing upon this issue. Why are there so many immature Christians? Two wrong views of conversion. One view of conversion is simply too low. That is that some regard conversion as when you simply accept the fact that you're a sinner and you ask God to forgive you. And if you do that, if you sincerely accept the fact that you're a sinner and you sincerely ask God to forgive you, that's conversion. That's the whole package. Well, that's wrong. That's too low of a view of conversion. People who believe that will also say that if you sincerely walk forward at a meeting or if you sincerely repeat the sinner's prayer after the counselor, or if you if you sincerely confess your sins and ask Jesus to forgive you in a moment of sincere panic, they say that's it. That's conversion. That's too low of view of conversion. That's not biblical conversion. To walk an aisle, to have a moment's sincere desire for pardon, to have a genuine panic, sincere expression of desire to be forgiven, that is not conversion. That view does not include the radical and permanent change of heart and life that is a part of conversion. To be converted is to be born again, is to have a new life. It's no longer have only the life of the flesh, but it's to have the life of the empowering of the spirit. To become to be converted is to have, according to Paul in first Corinthians five, to become a new creation in Christ Jesus, where all the old things have passed away and behold, all things have become new. To be converted is to have been brought from darkness to be and translated into the kingdom of God's son. To be converted is to be permanently and radically changed. Some people misunderstand conversion because they have a low view of conversion. But other people misunderstand conversion by having a too high view of conversion, and that might be true of some in this room. Some people seem to think that if you're truly born again, if you're truly a new creation in Christ Jesus, if that's really happened to you, then you'll be so filled with love and so filled with desire to please Christ that you'll virtually be a model Christian. There's such a high view of the powerful dynamics of grace in the life that some people think if you're really born again, you'll just be virtually a model at the beginning. And that's not true either. At conversion, we do become new creations. We are born again. We are changed. We do love God and we do not love ourselves in the way that we did before. We love God and we love righteousness. We love God more than we love ourselves and we love righteousness more than we love sins. But. In many cases, it will take years to overcome all those habits. All those successful habits that we became entrenched in those habits that were successful for us to love, to find our pleasure and to find and to express our love of self. It may take years to change a lifetime of previous habits. It may take years to learn the Bible well enough to know how to obey it in every case. It may take a very long time for us as new converts to learn the self-control which is necessary to properly love. It may, for some people, take years to overcome false religious teachings. Some people that have grown up, grown up with the Roman Catholic Church find after their after they've been reborn, they find spots in their track years down the road. Oh, I've always believed that. And here the Bible says this. Sometimes it takes years to overcome. the influence of false religious teaching. And sometimes it takes years to overcome the influences of the philosophies of the world. My point is that real conversion with all the radical changes that do take place in a real conversion do not quickly make us to be model Christians. We begin the Christian life as spiritual children who need to grow up. We begin the Christian life as spiritual children who need to grow up. We begin as spiritual babies and progress finally to mature adult Christians. We are always at various stages of growth from immaturity to maturity. That's one of the reasons why there's Paul assumes that there's so much immaturity in the church, there are new Christians in the church really converted. But then the very beginning stages, they're just babies, they're infants, they're changed, they're alive, they have faith, they love righteousness, they love God, but they're just beginning to work out all the commandments and to work out all the changes, the moral and ethical changes that they have to make in their lives. They're just beginning. And the point is that. God, God knows that God appreciates that, and so he's established the church. For new Christians, because they're immature and he has established established the church as, among other things, a nursery for them, a nursery into which there to be placed, a nursery into which there to be loved, a nursery into which there to be administered, a nursery from which there to grow out of childhood, there to be no longer children. There's another reason, though. Why? Paul assumes there's a great deal of immaturity. There are many immature Christians in the Christian church. It was because of his sad experience. It was because he had observed among the churches that men and women who had been Christians long enough to be mature, who had been Christians long enough to be exemplary, were in fact still infants in Christ. I'd like you to look, please, at two passages where Paul says that. The first passage is in First Corinthians, chapter three. You'll turn there, please, to First Corinthians, chapter three. First Corinthians, chapter three. And I, brethren, verse one, 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 they are in the strife and divisions among you. Are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For one says I am of Paul and another I am of a polis. Are you not carnal? Now, Paul everywhere talks about the two broad categories of human beings. There are those who are spiritual, that is, those who are born again by the Spirit of God and live under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and those that are carnal or fleshly, that is, those who have never been born again by the Spirit, who live under the dominion of sin and of the flesh. And there's some people that come to this passage. So Paul's introducing a third category that you have those who are carnal and sold under sin, and you have those who are spiritual and live under the influence of the Spirit. And then you have these people who are born of the Spirit, but they're not governed by the Spirit. So they're carnal. That isn't what Paul's saying. There's still two categories of people. Paul's concern here is that these people who, in fact, profess to be born again and who should be in every way spiritually minded people. The truth is they're not living that way. And he's not saying you constitute a third class. He says you're living like the first class. You're living like the unregenerate. You're living like those in the flesh. And what's the problem? The problem that he identifies here is that they're full of division. Love has not triumphed in their in their Christian community. Discernment, kindness, generosity, affections have not triumphed. They're divided. They're critical. Their means spirited to one another. And in other places, he shows other evidences of their living like they're not converted at all. But here they were. They had been subject to his ministry. They had been subject to find ministries other than Paul's. They had opportunity and opportunity. But he can't feed them solid meat. He can't. He couldn't recently. He can't now, he says, because you're just babies. And notice the other passage, which is in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews, chapter five. Hebrews, chapter five, beginning to read in verse eleven and the previous verses, the writer has begun to Open up an aspect of the priesthood of Jesus, and he wants to use something from the Old Testament. He wants to use something about that mysterious figure Melchizedek from the Old Testament. He wants to explain something about Jesus by making reference to Melchizedek. And he starts and then he stops. You can almost imagine him sitting there with his pen or dictating to his scribe kind of throwing of his hands. This is pointless. They won't get it. They won't get it. I can't talk to them about something so profound they won't they won't get it. And this is what he says, then, with something like that disposition of mine in verse eleven of whom, in reference to Melchizedek, of whom we have much to say and hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. It's not that the subject is so hard to explain. That's not the problem. The problem is you've become hard of hearing. So, something that you ought to be able to understand, something that I ought to be able to open up to you, is now hard because you've become dull of hearing. 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 or of maturity. That is, those who, by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. We'll just notice these things briefly from this passage. They have become dull of hearing. Secondly, they have been Christians long enough that they should be teaching others, but they still haven't got the basics. That's really a remarkable assessment. He doesn't say how long they've been believers. But they've been long enough and their exposures have been good enough and their teaching has been good enough that they should be teaching others. But they still don't have the basics. He says also that they have need of milk. They can't handle solid food. What would that say about you if somebody if you went home to dinner and your wife put a baby bottle on your plate? And said, you can't handle anything else. This is what you get tonight. Well, that's what that's what this writer is saying here. You've been Christian so long, your exposures have been so good, you should be able to teach others. All I can give you is a baby bottle because you can't handle anything else. He also says, and this is all, of course, it all flows together. They're unskilled in the word, he says. They're unskilled in understanding and applying the word, and the reason is because they do not exercise their senses to discern good and to discern evil. I'd like to come back to some of that later if time allows, but just appreciate what he is saying here. There is immaturity in the church, which is not because someone is a new believer. There is immaturity in the church, even among some who have been Christians for a very long time, and their immaturity is the result of sin and laziness and unwillingness to exercise their senses to discern good and evil. It's a tragedy, but it's true. It's a tragedy to see so many Christians. who should be teachers and who should be mature and who should be discerning and who should be fruitful disciples. But instead, they're infantile and selfish and indulgent and useless. Many true Christians of Jesus are very immature, they're like children. And God in his wisdom and God in his kindness has ordained the church for them. Now, the truth is that in one way or another, We're all like children. The truth is that in one way or another, even the most mature about mature of us are very far from real maturity. The truth is that all of us are somewhere on that continuum from being absolutely immature. Here is perfection. We're all most of us are clustered right in here somewhere. Most of us are so far from the mark that it's hard to imagine that any of us really could be recognized as solidly mature. God knows this, and God has provided a nursery. In which we are to grow up. I may run out of time at the end, so I'll stress now something that I would like to have planned to say at the end. I think it's really important that we see the church in this perspective, the church is the gift of love. The church is the gift of God's fatherhood to his infantile people. The church is God's gift to those of us who are like children, to those of us who are vacillating and stable and easily deceived. The church is the gift of God for our good. It's not the gift of God just to restrain us. It's not like a corral around wild horses. It's like a nursery. We're very tender nurses are to care for us and bring us from our state of infantile immaturity to a state of full grown adulthood. What is the goal of the church? Well, negatively, it is that we stop being children. Positively, of course, the goal of the church is that we grow up, that we grow up. That's the goal. And Paul, in this passage, from the positive standpoint, says there are three aspects to this growing up. And I'm going to list them just briefly. Look again at our passage in Hebrews chapter four. I'm sorry, Ephesians chapter four, verse 13, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the son of God. That's that's one positive goal. It's one phrase till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. The second is that till we all come, number two, to a perfect man. And the third is till we all come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Now, these are immense subjects. Let me just try to highlight some ideas about them before we're finished. The first positive goal is the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. Now, those two things, the faith And the knowledge of the Son of God are put together. The focus is upon unity. It's until we all come to unity in these two things. Now, what are the two things? Do we all come to unity in the faith? That's not a reference to our subjective believing. That's a reference to what Jude refers to in the passage that most of us memorized once in Jude chapter and Jude, verse three. That faith, which is once which was once for all delivered under the saints, that objective body of truths of doctrine that we're supposed to contend for because there are people that are rising up trying to shake it and change it and pervert it. The saints of God are supposed to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints. That's the idea here. The goal for the Christian church is that we all as individuals become united in the faith, that we become united in the doctrines, in the objective standards and teachings of the Christian church. And if that's true. Then there has to be a tremendous emphasis upon objective truth in the Church of God. There should be in the real church a great deal of emphasis upon many subjective things. There should be a great deal of emphasis upon us developing joy. There should be a great deal of emphasis upon us developing affections. There are lots of subjective things that ought to get a great deal of attention in the Church of God. But basic to all that are the objective doctrinal truths of Christianity. That's the goal of the church, that we all come to the unity of the faith. But notice also it's unity of the faith and the knowledge of the son of God. And the word that is translated knowledge is epigenosis, the idea of full knowledge. And Paul is not referring to some kind of academic knowledge of the Lord Jesus. This is not like the first statement. He's not saying that the goal of the church is that we all come to a perfect, common academic understanding of the truths about Jesus. This is that knowledge that Paul himself refers to in Philippians chapter one, where Paul is determined to give up everything that he might know Christ, that he might know him. You remember from previous sermons, we talked about the difference between knowing somebody in terms of having an accurate knowledge of their biography on the one hand and knowing somebody from the standpoint of being married to them on the other. You might imagine if you're a young girl and pick out some male hero, what's it like to know that person from the standpoint, reading all of his biographies and having a full database of everything that's true about that guy? That's one kind of knowledge. When you're married to him, you have a whole different kind of knowledge. Well, that's the knowledge here. Paul wanted not merely to have his mind full of right ideas. He wanted that, of course, but that was to be the foundation for experience. Paul wanted to know Christ. He wanted to know the power of his resurrection. He wanted to know the fellowship of his sufferings. He wanted to know him in such a way that it would be conformed to his death. And we don't have the time to go into what all that means, but the focus is upon everything that's experimental. That is the goal, the first goal, that all of us would finally be united In the faith and in this experimental knowledge of the Son of God, what a lofty goal. The second, the second goal is that we come to be a perfect man, and the word that is translated man is not the normal term for male. It's the term for an adult man. A full grown, mature man and the word that is translated perfect has the idea of completed, finished, a finished man, a completed adult man. The idea is of maturity. Go back to Hebrews chapter five. The writer to the book of in the yes, the writer to Hebrews uses the same Greek phrase in verse 14, Hebrews 5, 14. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age. That's the same term that was used back in the passage in Ephesians, chapter four, a perfect man, the man, the person of full age. Well, in this passage, Hebrews five, what is a person of full age? What is a full grown man, according to this passage? Well, we've read the passage. Just notice these two things from this passage that are true of a full grown man. And think to yourself, this is what the church is for. The church is to bring each one of us to the posture of being a full grown adult as opposed to a child. In this passage in Ephesians five, it involves two things. Number one, he has the ability to rightly understand and teach basic truths. The full grown man in this passage in Hebrews five does not need to relearn the basics, he knows them. And according to Ephesians five, he's experienced in the word and is able to teach others. Somebody who's really mature does not find the Bible to be a mystery. The Bible is mysterious, is it not? Those of you who are new Christians, those of you who are older Christians, can't you remember this Bible so large and you think it's going to take you forever to read it and it just how in the world we ever get it straight? How will you ever understand what those things are really doing? There is an immense book. And when we start as little children, as spiritual babies, it's just it's just huge, it's just overwhelming. Well, it's never that we exhaustively comprehend it, never. But those who become mature become familiar with the Bible. They understand its parts, they understand its history, they understand its theology and they understand how to apply it to ethical situations. That's part of the goal of the church, to bring us all to such a posture in reference to the Bible. But according to this passage in Hebrews, chapter five, I'm sorry. Yes, he was chapter five. The full grown man not only has the Bible, has the has the ability to rightly understand and teach the basic truths. Secondly, it says in this passage, he has the ability to rightly use the truth in all the ethical areas of his life. You remember what was the evidence that they were not full grown men? The evidence was that he could not discern good and evil. They could not discern what was right and wrong. They didn't know what to do in ethical situations because of what they didn't exercise their senses to discern good and evil. Well, a mature person, a full grown spiritual man is somebody who has been doing that for a long time until it's become his habit. Every day you face an ethical situation. The immature Christian just somehow breezes through them. The immature Christian just does what seems right. The immature Christian just does what other people in the church do. But the mature Christian is somebody who comes into those ethical situations and he discerns what does the Bible say and he exercises his sense. Is this right or is this right? Does Proverbs 315 imply this or does it imply that? What am I supposed to do here? What is this text? Exercise, exercise, exercise. And over the course of years, the person who's eventually a mature Christian is somebody who's so comfortable with that exercise, so familiar with the text, so familiar with thinking through right and wrong, so familiar with devising ways to do what's right in the mix of a very complex society. He's so familiar with that process. He's become strong. He knows the text of the Bible, he knows himself, he knows the circumstances, he knows how to apply it. He has exercised his senses to discern and to do that which is good and to avoid that which is evil. That's a mature man. Well, Paul says that's part of the goal. The goal, number one, is that we have unity in the faith and experimental knowledge of Christ. The second positive goal is that we all become mature adults. And the third goal is that we attain the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That's a complicated statement, is it not? What a stature, the English word stature, it can refer to a person's size. Somebody is really tall. You say he's big stature. It usually actually refers to somebody's character. So and so is in person of stature, the old word would imply. And if you used it that way, you're talking about as a man of high quality, of high moral fiber, of a high character. Well, he's saying that the goal of the people of God is to attain this fullness of the stature of Christ. The goal of the church is that the individuals and then ultimately the whole body, the whole group, Reaches the fullness of the stature of Christ, it simply means that we become like Christ in every way. You know how some little boys admire their fathers, some little boys want to be just like their fathers, they want to dress like he does, they walk with the same swagger that he has or lack of it. They just want to be like him in every way. They admire him. Well, there is something of that dynamic in the people of God toward the Lord Jesus. We so admire him. The more we know him, the more attractive he is to us. And we really want to be like him. We want to be like him because he is so attractive and we want to be like him because we know that's what God wants. God wants every woman, every man who believes in Christ to become like Christ. There's that wonderful passage in Romans 8, 29, says we've all been predestined to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the great goal for us. And how is that goal to be attained? This passage says it's to be attained in the context. Of the church. Let me say these things in closing. This is the goal of the church, that the people of God are placed by God's sovereign will into local churches. So that they would no longer be children. Isn't that a comfort to some of you? Some of you have lamented to me and lamented to others that you feel so mature. Well, God is infinite kindness, knew it, and he ordained the church for us. This is what the church is. It's to be a nursery to take the immature out of childhood. It's to be a place where all of us grow. It's to be a place where we become united. In the doctrines of Christianity and an experimental knowledge of Christ is to be a place where become a mature adults, especially in reference to the Bible, and is to be a place finally. Where we become like the Lord Jesus Christ and all of his fullness. Isn't the church a wonderful thing? If we think of the church, like I said earlier, as just a just a clump of meetings and rules and officials and stuff. Well, then the church is a turnoff. But if the church is conceived as the Bible sets it forth, it's hard to imagine anything that's more wonderful than the church. And the second thing I'd like to say is closely connected to that. God has ordained very few means to accomplish the goals that we've just been talking about. You think you search through your mind in the Bible. What has God ordained to accomplish these goals? Nothing. There are some things that he's ordained to accomplish some private individual goals. He has ordained your private use of the Bible and your private prayers and your relatively private involvements with other Christians. He has, in fact, ordained them for individual good. This isn't about individual good. This is about how the Lord wants us all to be gathered together in a body. And there's nothing else that he's ordained to accomplish these things, that we would all be one, that we would all be united in the faith, that we would all be united in this experimental knowledge of Christ that doesn't take place in isolation from one another. This is supposed to be corporate. It is as the individual parts grow together. that the whole body becomes glorious and beautiful to God. God hasn't ordained the family for this. God hasn't ordained our friendships for this. God has ordained the church for this. God has ordained the family for very much good, and you won't find anybody who wants to honor the family more than me. And God has ordained our Christian friendships for very much good. But God has ordained a church for these goals. And for the sake of our souls, we mustn't dismiss the church. And for the sake of not insulting God, we mustn't dismiss the church. And then I'd like to say, finally, something that I said last Lord's Day. It's you who are not Christians. You so need the Lord Jesus. And I hope that God, in various ways before coming here, has made you begin to realize that you need the Lord Jesus. And maybe you wanted to hear a sermon about the Lord Jesus. And here you get this stuff about the church. Well, you need the Lord Jesus and then you'll need the church. You need the Lord Jesus because he only can save. His work upon the cross is the only work that takes away our sins. His obedience to God's law is the only obedience that's adequate to please God, and he gives that to us through faith. His intercessions are the only thing that are adequate to save us to the end. You need the Lord Jesus Christ. But for you to remain connected to the Lord Jesus Christ and for you to grow in the ways that these texts say you need the church. And so we want you to come to Christ and we want you to come to his church. That we might together in this little nursery stop being children and grow up in all things into Christ. Let us pray together. Almighty God and Father, you do display your love in so many ways. And of course, the greatest display of your love, which we gladly acknowledge, is the gift of Christ. But it is, and we receive it as such, as a gift of love that you have ordained the Church. And we thank you for all the ways that you have used the Church for the good of our souls. And we pray that you would help us to devote ourselves to your Church in all the ways that you desire, that this Church and all the churches of yours in the earth would be truly glorious. where we would really, in the fullest sense of this language, finally become united in the faith and in the knowledge of Christ. Where we would really become mature adults, and as a body, a mature adult body. And where we really would become like the Lord Jesus. Thank you for subduing our sins. Thank you for creating a longing within us for these things. Please bring them to pass. Father, we earnestly pray for the dear ones that you have brought into this room who are not born again. And we pray that you would make Christ precious to them and give them faith to love him and believe in him. And we pray that you would unite them savingly to Christ and that you would set them in one of your churches for their good. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.