Let's go before the Lord in prayer and ask for his blessing. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we honor you again because you're worthy of all honor in spite of us being sinners. We thank you for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for revealing the matter of salvation to us, having accomplished it by his own faithfulness and obedience unto death on the cross. We thank you for the righteousness that you have freely given us, eternal life, adoption as children, all the inheritance rights that we have, that we did not earn and were not looking for. We thank you, Lord, for this time that we go on your word, that we may learn some more, grow in the truth of Christ. Lord, we thank you. May you speak to me and speak to your people and as many as you listen to this message. We pray and thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Let's go to Ephesians chapter four, 11 to 16. Ephesians 4, 11-16, Paul writes by the Holy Spirit and says, and he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the 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. By 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. And that is the word of the Lord. And it looks to me like that's just one sentence. in the Greek. It's one long sentence. Paul would be in serious trouble if he were to take an English class of our time. Like, your sentences are too long. You need to cut them short. Seventh title, No Longer Be Children. No Longer Be Children. There's a lot of stuff to talk about. I'm going to have to introduce a whole lot more other things that I was not able to speak to in this message in the next message. So we continue with our teaching in the book of Ephesians, having taken a brief detour last week in the book of Luke for our communion message. And we enter into the section of the Lord's teaching that makes us uncomfortable as believers, depending on where we are with our understanding of the gospel and the relationship between the different parts of the gospel. So this matter is about really understanding the different pieces and how they come together. But the Lord would have you to trust Him. That's the issue. He would have you to know that it's okay because he did it. He did it all. But then you have the reality that you see yourself still falling short of the ideal and what do you do with that? That's a big thing. So religion's answer to that is do more. Work harder. Strive some more. Bring more money, pray more, fasting. That's religion's answer to security and assurance of salvation. But the Lord's answer is for you to know what the cross means. That's the answer. The answer to every one of your shortcomings is to understand what the cross means and what Christ accomplished. So we need to speak to these things in their appropriate measure so that you can understand them. And once you understand them, you're going to have so much freedom that people will be going crazy that you have such freedom. So speak to some things that we, in our flesh, do not want to hear or be reminded of, because they do remind us of our shortcomings. Okay? We still fall short. And that's still in need of grace and never outgrowing grace. We cannot outgrow grace. Once you feel that you are righteous, guess what? You don't need grace. The Pharisee in Luke 18, as he was praying, he prayed as one who had outgrown grace, as someone who did not need grace. because he came and talked about himself. Lord, look at me because I do these things. One, two, three, four, five. I am not like everybody else. And that is to say you've outgrown your need for grace. The text collector, on the other hand, knew it was a grace case. Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner, right? But since the Lord has given us the teaching, we are under obligation to declare those things. But speak to them in the appropriate measure of how we are supposed to understand these things. Because people will come and think, oh, they are a house church, so it's a cult and stuff. No, you determine those by the content of the teaching. We don't have any verse in the Bible that we shy away from teaching. There's not a single verse. The very offensive stuff we go to, we speak everything because we're not trying to deceive anybody. Anybody who is listening should go and check our interpretation of the text and all the teaching. that we have put out there. A cult would not be out in the public who try to hide away from people as much as possible, but we expose all our teaching to the whole world to see if anybody disagrees, they show us why they disagree. So we have to rightly divide these things so that those who have come to the knowledge of the truth do not despair because of their shortcomings. But also to make sure that people do not get their assurance from what they do, because that's the other side B of things. Either you're going to despair because you see that you're falling short, or if you think you're really kicking it, You're going to start thinking that, oh, you're righteous in yourself. So we have to kill both ends of the situation. But the Lord does not mean to harm us by all these commands and stuff if we rightly understand them. So it is important that we speak to the differences again between the indicatives and the imperatives. And by the time that we finish Ephesians, you guys are going to be the masters of indicatives and imperatives. That's the goal. Because if these are not understood or distinguished properly, we end up not preaching or believing the gospel. We have already established in previous messages that we cannot preach or teach on imperatives, which are the commands, the instructions, the exhortations, without grounding them in the indicatives, because that becomes a wax gospel, wax salvation. And we also said there's a weighting, a proper weighting between the imperatives and the indicatives that has to be appreciated that the indicatives are along the basis of your standing before God. The imperatives are given to those who are already the redeemed. The imperatives are only given to those who are already served, not for them to be served, but because they are already served. So doing the imperatives does not recommend anyone to God. Doing the imperatives, no matter how well you do them, does not recommend you before God, because that is not the basis of your recommendation before God. The indicatives, on the other hand, are along the basis of your salvation, of your righteousness, of your standing before God. Because of the matters that are at stake, there are a lot of issues around your salvation that you have to appreciate. You're seeing is a big problem. But sin is only a problem because of who God is. God is holy and righteous and that is the problem. So your sin by itself naturally would not do anything if God was not holy. But the fact that he is holy means he won't accept anything that is below his own perfection. That's the issue. Okay? So Your sin and God's absolute holiness leave only one option for you to not be condemned. One option, not two. The free imputation of the righteousness of Christ. That's the only way. So the indicatives then speak to that which is true about us as God has made us and sees us. in Christ. God has made us into something in Christ. Something that we were not by ourselves naturally. And that we could not do by ourselves. God has made us accepted in Christ. He did not make it possible for us to be accepted. We are already accepted in Christ. So what is true about us? Let's go to 2 Corinthians 5. 17 to 19. Second Corinthians 5, 17 to 19, Paul says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Everyone who is in Christ is a new creation. That's who they are. It's a statement of fact. They are new because of what Christ did for them. Because they are in him, God put them in Christ. So salvation is the work of the new creation. Being made anew, not after Adam, but after the second Adam, that is Christ Jesus. We are the new creation that has passed from death and to life because those are the only two categories there is. Death or life. The first Adam, the old Adam, that's death. The new Adam Christ, that's the new creation. That's where God has put you. So everything said and done, the matter of life and righteousness comes down to, are you in Christ or are you not? It's not about your behavior. As much as we're going to be talking about those things, but it is not about your behavior. Your behavior does not change you or translate you from the old to the new. It does not, cannot. The old that is passed away is our old status in Adam. the status of sin, death and condemnation that has passed away, it has passed away. Verse 18, still in 2 Corinthians 5. Now all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ. and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their sins, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. God has reconciled. us who believe, not the whole world, us who believe to himself. He did not reconcile us to the devil because we never sinned against the devil. He did not reconcile us to ourself but to himself because we sinned against him. He reconciled us according to his terms through Jesus Christ. He had terms of reconciliation. Every time countries have war, go to war, or if there's a civil war, and if there's going to be a truce to be signed, there are going to be terms of reconciliation. And God has settled all those terms for you and I in Christ. If people knew how to teach this gospel, it would be good news. God has absolutely nothing against you. In spite of everything that you know you have done and still continue to do, God is 100% reconciled to you in Christ. He will never ask you about those things ever. We have been reconciled to God through Christ. Christ is the mediator of that reconciliation. Not through our obedience. Pay attention to things that are said or are not said. We were reconciled through Christ, not through our obedience, not through our law keeping or keeping of the imperatives because those things do not make for the propitiation for our sins. They don't propitiate. They don't make satisfaction for your sins. There's no reconciliation with God apart from the shed blood of Christ. So how did God achieve this reconciliation for us, the church? The text says, by not imputing their trespasses to them. God did not impute our trespasses, our sins to us, not even a single one. He did not. That's scandalous. He did not. What happened? What did he do? He imputed all our sins to Christ, to another, and the righteousness of Christ to us, to our account, that we may be made the righteousness of God in him. So the gospel, the gospel message is a declaration of something that already happened, of the non-imputation of your sin because of Christ, because of God's grace. That is the only basis for you to meet God in peace. That is the only way to meet this God was from the beginning in peace. Don't bring any other testimony than Christ Jesus. non-imputation of your sin to you. Imagine everything that you have done, the things that you still remember, and God says, I did not impute that to you. Zero. It's not on your account. It's only in your head. And the imputation of your sin to Christ, and Christ making satisfaction for it by his death and God reckoning, which means crediting that satisfaction to you as righteousness, as the only grounds for your approach, for your standing before him. So you are the blessed man who is spoken of in Psalm 32, the blessed man to whom the Lord does not impute sin. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute the sin. You can't beat that. There's nothing that beats that. Because if God imputes your sin to you, guess what? You're going to hell. 100% guaranteed. But the gospel says, You are the blessed man, you are the blessed woman, because God did not impute your sin to you. He did not. There is a zero record of your sin. That's scandalous. So you cannot be condemned. You cannot be condemned. And no one can bring a charge against God's elect because it is God who justifies. And because it's Christ who died, it is He who even sits on the right hand of God and makes, ever makes intercession for us. Always standing to make the arguments. That's what He's doing with the intercession, to make the arguments that no, no sin can stick on her because I paid. I died for her. So that is the scandal and the offense of this gospel that we preach. And many do not want to speak to that truth, fearing that people will go hog wild. You can't just tell people that their sins are not impeded to them because they'll be walking everywhere naked. No. No, that's not what that is saying. But that's how the religious people who don't understand the gospel will hear us as saying. The true believer has 100% been reconciled to God. They have peace with God and are doing nothing to try and recommend themselves to God. You should stop trying to recommend yourself to God. But going back to the context of our standing Paul says, let's go back to Ephesians 4 verse 7. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Each believer was given grace in salvation. Every one of us was given grace of salvation. Sean does not have 10% more grace in salvation than myself. the Church of Christ was served by the same grace. But in the context of their work, they also have been given a measure of Christ's gift. As he purposed to build his church, this has nothing to do with you doing anything in the church. to cause your salvation, but it is so that you can minister, do something to the effective working of the body of Christ. Just skills, abilities, things that you bring to help in the cause of the building of the church. It's an area that will work sometime on spiritual gifts and stuff like that, but it's very important. In Pentecostal circles, the first thing that you do... I remember we went to a church in Cincinnati somewhere with Ella in 2008. The first thing that they gave us the very first day was to fill in a form with our gifts. They didn't even tell us what the gospel was. They wanted to know what gifts we had. So the grace that Paul is speaking to here is not the grace of salvation itself, but is the grace as to the work of the ministry, which grace is expressed in the diversity of the church body. the building and functioning of the church body. And you'll be surprised that in this context, you actually have a lot of gifts that you may not be aware of. It just depends on the context. Once the context that applies to you shows up, guess what? It's going to show up because it's already there. So after Christ had come, died and was buried, resurrected and ascended to heaven, having accomplished our redemption. He gave man gifts as the conqueror of his and their enemies. I developed this teaching more last Sunday's teaching about the context of what Paul is teaching coming from Psalm 68. So he conquered his enemies and he gave gifts because he conquered. So salvation is given to us as a spoil of war because he conquered. It's a sign of victory. But then as he has established his church, he gave them a variety of gifts, verse 11 Ephesians 4, and he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. These are not all the offices or areas of gifting that God has ordained in the history of the church. Hear this from 1 Corinthians 12, 27 to 28. 1 Corinthians 12, 27 to 28, Paul says, now you are the body of Christ and members individually. Yet the body and yet members individual. And God has appointed these in the church. First apostles, second prophets, third teachers. After that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues. And I don't think that is even exhaustive of the gifts that are in the body. Why? As Paul would expound more on the matter of gifts and using the example of the body that we have hands, we have eyes, we have ears, we have a lot of the organs that cause the body to function are not even visible. So we have a lot of organs in the body that are necessary to the body functioning that are not visible. So that also is true in the context of the church. These are things that we expound more when we get to that. But these offices are or were given in their appropriate time in the context of the church as the Lord was establishing and building it. And I will not speak in detail to what offices are still there, but I do not think we have any more apostles and prophets in the proper sense of the Bible. I don't think we can find those people. Yes, we can find people who call themselves prophets and apostles, but I don't think they're in the proper context of the Bible. Those offices have come and have fulfilled their function and God has done away with them, he has gotten rid of them. The miracles and gifts of healing are also very tricky offices because they gave us Benny Hill and company. Okay? They're very tricky. Because those who claim to have them or do them believe in a false gospel, that's my issue. Everybody who claims to be going about and healing people believes in a false gospel. That's how I measure if the Holy Spirit is in them. Because I do not think that the Lord would work miracles and healings to authenticate a false gospel. When the apostles were working miracles, it was to authenticate the true gospel. So I don't think that has changed. If anybody is going to come and say they're healing and stuff, they also first and foremost have to give testimony of the true gospel. False teachers hoodwink people with false signs and wonders. The Lord Jesus said it, Paul said it, in the name of Christ. But those who are deceived And who die in that deception are they who have no love for the truth. God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe a lie and be condemned. Thus Paul, the Thessalonians, I think it's Thessalonians 3 or somewhere, And that is the heart saying that God sends people who do not love the truth a strong delusion that they may believe a lie so that he will be just to condemn them. God does that, not the devil. God does that. So this is very important that we hear and hold to the truth. And once God puts you under strong delusion, you can't come out. You can't overcome God. You can't come out. But all the elect will be delivered from false gospels. It doesn't matter where they started from, they will be delivered from all false gospels. They'll come to acknowledge the truth of the gospel. But if we do not see people with some of these gifts, it does not mean that God does not heal people anymore. No, he surely does. But I'm very suspicious of those who claim to have these gifts of the Holy Spirit and yet the Holy Spirit in them does not ever testify to them about the truth of God's righteousness. These very same people are notorious for resisting the gospel truth because they know the truth will expose their craft that it is bogus. It will. Also, related to this, these people tend to exalt the Holy Spirit more than they exalt Christ. They are always talking about the Holy Spirit, this, and the Holy Spirit say that. The Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit. I was in the Holy Spirit, and in all that testimony, it is never about Christ. when we know from the words of Jesus in John 14 and John 16, that the Holy Spirit, when he comes, he does not talk about himself. He will talk about me. He will bring to you, bring to remembrance the things that the Lord spoke and taught. He testifies of Christ. So how do we know that the Holy Spirit is there? We hear more of Jesus because that's what he talks about. When we hear more of the Holy Spirit and more of the Holy Spirit, then the Holy Spirit is not there. The Holy Spirit talks about Jesus. As I have said before, the Holy Spirit has no self esteem issues. He is fine just talking about Jesus. Because that's what God intended to do when the Lord was introduced to us. Testimony was given, pointing to Him. The Father was speaking and giving testimony about the Son and pointing people to the Son. And the Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove and the Spirit was descending, giving testimony on the Son, pointing to the Son. God the Father points to the Son, the Holy Spirit points to the Son, the Son talks about himself. Why? Because the Godhead is centered on the Son. It's crystal centric, centered trinity, if I may go big. Because Christ is the revelation of the Godhead. So these things are very serious. That's why teaching is important and working the text and showing people what the text is actually saying. So we're not saying these things because we had for people to be healed. We want everybody to be healed, especially with this COVID. I saw Mimi a few days ago or some prophet saying, we are waiting for COVID to go away so that we may begin our ministry of healing people. Well, if you're a prophet and you're healing, this is the time to show that you have some healing powers. Not waiting for COVID to go. There's another one again. I think last week in Zambia, there were presidential elections and the incumbent president lost. And there was a prophet who came and said the incumbent, he had been told by God that the incumbent was going to win. And then, of course, he lost. And then he turned around and said, oh, you people rejected God's will. It's foolishness. And these guys don't get in trouble for it. They still have their numbers come into church. They still collect money. I'm like, what is happening? That's a strong delusion. But the Lord did give man ordained these offices himself with a purpose in mind. He says, verse 12, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. That's the purpose. To equip is to provide or supply the necessary tools, resources, to enable a particular task or purpose to be done. So he ordained these offices and gifted man that he may work through them to continue to build on the foundation that is Christ and building with the gospel. Because proper gospel teaching is the mortar and the bricks of building God's people. You can't build people by just pushing them and falling to the ground. That's not how you build people in the context of the gospel. Building on the foundation that is Christ in the context of the church body to the service of his church, that he may accomplish his purpose in the church. And this he calls the work of the ministry. In many countries across the world, cabinet positions have ministers appointed to them. For instance, they'll have the Ministry of Education and that is the department that deals with education. That's the ministry. That's what they do in service to education, to the provision of education. You have the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labor, Women's Affairs, that deals with labor or women's affairs. And in the USA, we would have secretaries in the equivalent positions, the secretary of labor, secretary of human services. But in the matter of Christ, the work of ministry means the gospel ministry. The advancement and promotion of God's truth as it has been revealed in Christ and the cross being the centerpiece of that ministry. The issue is the cross. The issue is the person of Christ and the work is the cross. That is the work of the ministry. So what are they supposed to do in this work of ministry to edify the body of Christ? What is to edify? It means to build up as opposed to tearing down. to edify is to promote growth and maturity in Christians through gospel truth and in such things that promote the knowledge of Christ and grow unity in the faith. You have to grow in the things of Christ. We can't remain where we used to be My job description is so that you continue to know these things and grow in them. That is the growth. And if there are things that promote growth, there are things that stunt growth. And Christ works in his teaching to remove such things that stunt the growth and maturity of his people. He does some work of weeding. weeding the garden or the flowers so that the flowers have a chance to grow. Because you are his flower. And what is the assumption in growth? That we are starting from a position of being weak and being infants or children and needing to be fed that we may not suffer from spiritual immaturity and malnutrition. Now this is very important understanding. We have a very, very good message if the Lord would grant me the ability to deliver it. Poorly fed children suffer from developmental diseases. rickets, diabetes, kwashiorka, standard growth. And there are a million things that may stunt the spiritual growth of redeemed people which things will certainly cause disunity or divisions in the body as was happening in the Corinthian church. The Corinthian church was like a church of infants. There was a lot of foolishness going on in the church at Corinth because they were still children with respect to the knowledge of Christ. Remember also that in chapter four of Ephesians, Paul is pushing for the oneness of the body of Christ. He is telling us about the one body. He is laboring this point of unity in the body. And he is saying the Lord purposes, desires for there to be unity among the redeemed. And this unity happens when people are being fed the proper food and are growing and are discarding away the things that do not edify. Discarding away the things that do not edify. You can eat a lot of McDonald's and Burger King, but that is not the best food, though your belly may be full. They have too much of the wrong things in them. Yes, it may be meat. Yes, it may be Sunkist. I think McDonald's used to have Sunkist. I don't know. Back in the day when I used to do drive-thru. sugar, fat, salt. That's the hallmark of fast food. And sometimes it does taste good. It does, but it's not good for your overall long-term health. So in the book of Romans, there was an issue discussed. about meat offered to idols and the exercise of Christian liberty and maturity. And how, if not handled properly, was causing spiritual harm to the weak. We want to work the understanding of the indicatives and the imperatives as they affect your maturity and stability as a believer in Christ. Things that gives you a lot of discernment and joy and not worry about things that you should not be worrying about. And not be afraid of anybody who says, Oh, but Paul says this here and Paul says that here. You should not be afraid of that. We have here a matter that we need to understand as God shows us what happens if people remain as infants because they are not properly fed. Let us work that text because it is instructive to our teaching to the importance of understanding of the indicatives and how they relate to commands and how these foster unity or disunity in the body. This is very, very important. This is very important because I've been around the church business for a while now and I've seen people come and people go and mostly they go for things that have nothing to do with the gospel itself. They were looking for other things other than Christ Jesus and we can't do that. So we need to understand this. Romans 14 and we're going to dwell in there for quite a while. Romans 14 begin at verse 1. Paul says, receive one who is weak in the faith but not to dispute over doubtful things. He says, receive those who are weak in the faith whose consciences are still vulnerable to certain things because of where they have been with sin. Some of us have been to very far away countries like the political sun where we dined with the pigs and so may easily be prigged by certain things. Everybody has made some distant journey, we've seen. They've gone somewhere, and they're coming back. He says, do not dispute over doubtful things. And that is a big statement, it's such a big statement. Do not dispute over doubtful things, things that you don't really know about, speculative things. Not in the context of the gospel. Why? Because only the matter of Christ and what he has done is undoubtful. Only Christ is true. Only Christ is sure. Only Christ is unchangeable. In other words, only Christ matters. Everything else is doubtful things. And in America, we always find ourselves in seasons of doubtful things. And the media raises the dust, they kick up the dust, they catalyze and polarizes opinions, and people fall for it. Red meat. The weak latch onto their narrative and are overtaken by their foolishness. and the weak in the faith can form very strong opinions on things that are not important than they actually have conviction in Christ, than they actually have conviction in Christ. If it is not Christ Jesus, then God can easily overturn or cause it to lose power, make it irrelevant. God is able to make everyone irrelevant in his time. Christ alone remains relevant. That's why people get elected to mayor, governor, president, and they're gone the next election cycle. They're not going because they necessarily had a poor campaign, but because God has made them irrelevant. So do not be over invested to the point that your opinion injures one who is weak in the faith, because you shall always be with them. They are your brethren in Christ. And that is the matter with the present conversations around the vaccinations. Whether one believes that it is a vaccine or not, whether they should have it or not, the Holy Spirit puts that discussion, the present discussion, in the category called the doubtful things. To not be disputed about, to be a matter of one's conscience and freedom. Let's skip here. Verse 2 of Romans 4, 14. For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Do you see the exercise of choice? The one who is mature and strong in the faith may not see any problem with approving some things, but one who is weak may want to limit their exposure. And now, to how we ought to judge one who takes a different opinion or position than ours in doubtful things, verse three. Paul says, let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats for God has received him. The one who eats is the one who approves of something. the particular action, whatever it is. This is not limited to just eating meat sacrificed to idols. In our example, it is the one who gets vaccinated because they approve it. That is what is in the context of our season. The Holy Spirit says, do not despise the other because of what the other person has decided to do or not to do. The one who approves and the other who disapproves are to hold off their judgment of each other. Why? Paul gives the reason. For God has received him. And that is an indicative statement. So Paul is using the indicative statement to put order in the way that people are thinking. The instruction or exhortation is given in the context that God has already accepted this person. He has sanctified and justified them from all things. So do not despise them for lesser things because you are condemning them. when God has made them clean from even bigger things. Possess and idle is nothing. Do not call unclean that which God has made and declared to be clean. It is an offense to him. All those that Christ has justified are clean. do not come then and call them unclean because they approve of something that you don't approve. That's what Paul is saying. So the Holy Spirit continues to sort things out and says, let us speak to the pecking order and authority of things. Verse four, who are you to judge another servant? Who are you to judge another servant? And that is to say, what power and authority do you have to bruise the conscience of another over doubtful things, someone especially whom God has received as righteous to himself in Christ. God has not imputed their sin to him or to her, but you want to impute sin to them. This person who is approving certain things, contrary to your opinion, is not your servant. They are Christ's servant. They don't belong to you. To his own master he stands or falls. To his own master. To his master he stands or falls. And that is to say, Christ is his master, or her master. But then, indeed he will be made to stand. For God is able to make him stand. That's what verse four says. Indeed, God is able to make him stand. God will not make them fall because of something that they approved. God will not make you to fall just because you approved of something that some other person does not agree with. because that's not the basis of your falling or your standing. He will be made to stand, that's Paul's conclusion. He will be made to stand because once in Christ you cannot fall. So do you see how Paul is weaving the indicative to work the imperatives, to sort out the imperatives and correct wrong attitudes. He uses the gospel to straighten things out. And this is the building of the church. Because if we had 2000 people in here, some vaccinated, some unvaccinated, we have a civil war in Christchurch. And that's how you put it down. That's how you put it down. This is the building up of the church of Christ, the weeding out of unfruitful conversation that is not edifying to the body. And Paul did the same thing with the Corinthian church. With all the commotion there, the very first thing that he came to them and told them to put out the civil war was, you did not choose Christ. God chose you. You were foolish, you were nothing. Consider your calling. Okay? So Paul had to go to the indicatives to bring sanity to the church body. Let's skip to verse 12 of Romans 14. Paul continues and says, so then each of us shall give account of himself to God. So do not worry about what is in someone's box. party in your own box because if you keep looking into what is in someone's cup you are going to end up saying you do not like the smell of their coffee it's not your coffee and you get distracted away from Christ Paul by saying each of us shall give account of himself to God was not saying you're going to go into God's judgment to be condemned. That's not what he was saying. He means to say, the redeemed do not give account to anyone, especially over matters of freedom of choice. God alone is the qualified judge, Christ alone the judge and mediator. Verse 13, therefore let us not judge one another any more, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. Pause his resolve not to put or lay stumbling blocks or a cause to fall in our brother's way. Learn to govern your own freedom and leave the cross alone to be the cause of stumbling. Do not judge your brother anymore. Why? Because God has already judged them in the highest court in heaven, in Christ. And he found them to be righteous and clean. Don't judge them. I love the statement, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall or a cause to fall in in our brother's way. Do not be setting up a trap that causes other people to fall, especially those who are the body of Christ. To say, don't bring these conversations. You have to know what conversations to bring where, because you're just going to be reckless and say things that upset people unnecessarily. That's what poetry is. This tells me that this is God speaking. I mean, this teaching there, that is very consistent with the message of God's free and sovereign grace. Verse 14, I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself, but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. It's up to you. Paul says he was convinced by the testimony of the Lord Jesus that there was nothing that is unclean in itself. All things are lawful, Paul says. but not all things are profitable. I can do whatever I want as far as my standing in Christ is concerned. Everything is lawful, but not all things that I may approve of are good for me. That's what Paul is saying. So it is a matter of one's opinion and their conscience approving or accusing them. Verse 15. Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Do not grieve a brother or sister on account of things that perish, because then you are not walking in love. And to grieve them over such matters of one's opinion is to destroy the one for whom Christ died and that's something serious. That's a serious matter. Christ saved them by his blood and you want to destroy them by your food. Christ died on the cross. for them. And you want to bring an opinion of something that is fleeting, that is passing away. For all we know, five years from now, the conversation around COVID may be gone, but the damage may be long lasting, depending on what was said or not said. Verse 16, Romans 14, therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil. because your good can be in service to things that don't build up anyone, but destroy. If your good becomes something that destroys a brother or sister who is weak in the faith, then that becomes an evil. Verse 17, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. And that means it's not about things that enter into the body. Things that enter your body do not defile a man. Jesus said it. It is not what enters a person that defiles them, but what comes out of the mouth, out of the heart, from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who saves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. The matters of God's kingdom are righteousness, which means the gospel, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, spiritual realities, and the one who serves Christ in the righteousness of the gospel. Speaking of what Christ accomplished instead, that is the righteousness of the gospel. speaks of the peace and joy in the Holy Spirit is the one who is acceptable to God. See the distinction? You are not being accepted because you are for vaccines or you are anti-vaccination. That does not commend you a bit before God. God is not even interested in that. His concern is, do you have the blood of his son? Do not be unnecessarily contentious. That's what Paul is saying. Do not be unnecessarily contentious, especially with the brethren, because it is contrary to the spirit of the gospel and our acceptance in Christ. So what are we to do? Verse 19. Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. See the contrast. Let's pursue those things which make for peace. And that actually builds someone up in the truth of Christ. Let's continue. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. Do not destroy. And these people who come and they're so loud, they think they're doing it for Christ's sake. But Paul says they are actually destroying the work of God for the sake of that which is perishing. They are not even that loud when it comes to the actual gospel message. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. Everything is pure. Why is it pure? Because none condemns you before God. whether I do it or not, does not condemn you. So for that reason, it's pure. But it is evil for the man who is with offense. It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak, if you approve of wine or whatever kind offered. You know that someone used to be an alcoholic who has come to Christ. That's not what you're going to serve when they visit you. You don't do that. You wait for them to go, but you have the freedom to do it without feeling condemned. But for them, it is, it reminds them of the faraway country where they've been. It causes them to have a bad conscience. Yet they have been called to a clear conscience in Christ. So controversial things are not necessarily sinful things. And so we have to throw in that disclaimer. What you approve or not approve is not necessarily sin. It's just a matter of freedom, how you exercise it. But when you begin to impose it on people, using that as a wedge, And when you're talking to people, the first thing they come and say, so do you, were you vaccinated? Or the one thing that Ella just despised, do you homeschool? Guess that question like 99.99%. She has it, she doesn't like it. If I don't, so what? Am I less served? Or if I do, so what? That's not the matter of the gospel. What is your gospel? You tell me. What do you actually believe about Jesus? Verse 22. Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Paul was firing. I'm not even kidding. Paul was firing. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. but he who doubts is condemned if he eats because he does not eat from faith for whatever is not from faith is sin. Whatever is not of faith is sin. These are strong exhortations, needful exhortations for steering us to maturity as the body of Christ so that the conversation in the body of Christ is such that it exalts Christ. And it brings for unity and peace. You shouldn't be thinking, oh man, it's Sunday tomorrow. Brother so-and-so or sister so-and-so is going to bring up the foolish conversations again. Oh yeah, we used to go to church like that. We dreaded the weekend. We dreaded the weekend because of the conversations that would happen before and after church. Not edifying. Always guilt tripping because they were doing something that you may not have been doing. It's unhealthy. You can't be looking forward to that because Your heart is not in the right place. You are coming to learn about Jesus and yet you are already feeling, you're having trepidation. Man, I'm going to church. You should come here to be edified and be happy and be reminded of what God has done for you. So the things that build up in Christ are necessary and are to be taught and are to be proclaimed. Why? Verse 13 of Ephesians 4. Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. You see where the pointers are going? This is why all this other foolishness needs to be taken away till we come to the unity of the faith, to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Christ is the centerpiece of this. The unity of the faith is not speaking to false doctrine, agreeing with that which is It is not saying, let's go get the next crazy church up the street and let's just join together because we meet on Sunday. It is saying until all the true believers have come to the knowledge of the same truths, that's the unit of the faith. We agree and give testimony that all men are fallen in Adam. Agree that none can achieve righteousness. Agree that by the deeds of the law no man shall be justified. Agree that Christ died and by his death he fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law for us. No condemnation for those who are in Christ. Accepted, adopted, all those things. That's the unity of the faith. There's a growing in this matter which comes through faithful and consistent gospel preaching. You can't preach the gospel some of the times if you feel like it. The gospel is preached at every opportunity that we have. So the unity of the faith is in the knowledge of the Son of God. And that is to say, the faith has content. The faith has content. It is not just blind or ignorant or undefined faith. It is not about a Jesus and gospel that is not defined, but is about the truth and in the spirit. Hear what Paul said of himself in Philippians 3, 8 to 11, with respect to the matter of the knowledge of Christ. Philippians 3, 8 to 11. Paul says, yet indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. The knowledge is excellent knowledge to know Christ. It's the most excellent thing there is to know Christ. Paul says, this knowledge of Christ is so superior that I consider all things loss. for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as dung, as rubbish, that I may gain Christ. So you have to lose some foolishness for you to gain the knowledge of Christ. That is why it's important to teach the imperatives the way that we are learning them, so that people don't come and disturb the peace of Christ that he has put in his people over foolish things. And be found in him not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, which is from me doing things. That's what that means. But that which is through faith in Christ, I actually for that part, I like the rendering of the NET and the King James. that which is through the faithfulness of Christ. The righteousness which is from God. You see where it's coming from? The righteousness is from God. It is not from you doing anything. The righteousness is not from you doing anything, but it is from God by faith. The righteousness of not doing anything. the lazy boy chair righteousness, I love to call it. That I may know him, that I may know him. You see, that I may know him. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. If by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. being conformed to the righteousness that came by his death. That was his prayer. That was his gospel testimony. That everything else is lost and dung. And may God cause us to know the excellence of the knowledge of Christ. That we also may know him. And call our things lost and dung, or things that belong to that pile. Let those things go to that pile, the dung pile. Because people want to go and dig the dung and bring it back and cause trouble and cause a stink. Paul says to a perfect man, going back to Ephesians 4, to a perfect man. To a perfect man is not speaking to sinless perfectionism, to the holiness movement. Seedless perfectionism has its roots back maybe with the Westlands and with a number of Pentecostals who believe that if you work it good and hard and long, you can become seedlessly perfect like Jesus was in this life. So they work it to some serious disappointment. But here what Paul is actually saying, here's the thing. The Ephesians had been or had been pagans all their life prior to the gospel coming to them. And thus they were in the state of being infants with respect to Christ and the gospel. And in this state, they could not continue. They had to grow up to maturity. That is what the perfect man is saying is to the mature man. It is maturity, not sinlessness. So the ordained offices in the church are for the purpose that infants are raised to become mature people in the faith. That's the purpose of teaching. How mature? To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That is the standard. But what does that say? is a saying we are mature to be like Christ as to be perfect as Christ was perfect. The temptation is there to say so, but our experience is contrary to that. So I think that the maturity is in the knowledge of God's mystery of Christ and what he accomplished in our salvation. We are being grown to the measure of the stature of the knowledge of what Christ has done and who he is. Because it is a matter of knowing Christ that is being discussed. Knowing Christ and his gospel. And it is this knowledge of Christ that enables them to judge or weigh things correctly in the church body so that they bring unity and not disunity. Knowing what is important and what is not important and exercising the right judgment. Some things you just keep quiet. Infants or children do not judge things correctly. If they go to the store, they run aimlessly in the aisles. I used to have one when she was an infant. When you took her to Maya, better have your running shoes on. want to pick up everything that is closest to their reach. Infants, children, they get their diapers wet at inconvenient times. They throw tantrums, and the list is endless. But over time, they begin to grow and mature. They get potty trained. They start making their own sandwiches. And that is the idea that Paul is saying. So the end of the gospel ministry, the purpose for which God has raised gifted man in the church body is verse 14. So 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, that we should no longer be children, no longer infants. And the picture of children here is used negatively, but they also carry a very positive aspect in the matter of the gospel itself, as we learn from the Lord in Matthew 18, 3-5. I just want to read that. Matthew 18, 3-5, the Lord said, Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and have become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Converted and have become like little children. Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, whoever receives one little child like this in my name, receives me." See what the Lord is doing. He says one has to be converted and become as little children or as a little child. So all believers are to come and be received as a little child in the name of Christ. Converted believers are to be like children because they are found as infants and they are made infants and that means they have no merit or righteousness or anything to claim of their own before God. That's the idea. Little child, they have no fam, they didn't go to school, they can't even write their name, they have nothing to their name that they have accomplished. So that is every converted believer, every converted person becomes like a little child. They don't hold grudges for long, very forgiving, but they also ought to grow up They can't continue to believe in bedtime stories, fairy tales. Why? Because to remain as children is to remain immature and vulnerable. It is to remain impressionable, to force teaching. Like kids love anything that has sugar in it. Kids will have ice cream, popsicles, and Kool-Aid for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if it was up to them. But it is not good for them, for their long-term development. So believers need to mature in the knowledge of Christ so that they cease to be children and not be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine that's the we have a painting of some real picture there of the tossing to and fro and being carried everywhere by every wind of doctrine. That imagery is that of a wind-tossed vessel that is in water. And it speaks or gives the picture of instability, of not being anchored to something, in this context, anger to the truth. So immature believers are unstable and impressionable. They are prone to tossing by every wind of doctrine. In other words, they latch onto everything like magnets still, because they're not yet rooted and grounded in the truth. And this is a matter that I'm going to expound more in the next message because I realize with everything else that I had, I wasn't going to be able to really speak it to my satisfaction in just this message. So it's going to be my introduction with the next message. But there are many doctrines that toss people around. Some of the doctrines are just human philosophy, but many of these doctrines have Bible verses behind them. And that's what makes them dangerous. These false doctrines create movements around certain causes with Bible verses tagged to them to clean up the foolishness in the name of God. So if you're someone who can discern the truth, you're going to say, Oh, this is something that has God in it. It has Christ in it. So I'm in. So they give you enough talk of Jesus, enough talk of God, even gospel terms are used, thrown in to draw the unsuspecting and undiscerning religious crowd. But these are only being used as bait. And people who are untaught will hear this and that doctrine, the latest thing, the new thing, and try it out. lots of religious fads and God is saying we are all prone to that foolishness if we do not sit down to learn the real meat and substance of Christ and the gospel. So how is the unity and growth to happen? And that will take us to the last two verses. Verse 15. But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head that is Christ. Speaking the truth. What truth? The gospel. But how? There's a prescribed way. Not throwing bomb grenades, but in love. Love is the overarching commandment for God's people, together with faith in Christ. To speak the truth in love is to speak it with gentleness. Otherwise, it can be used as a weapon of war. Christ does not want us to use his truth as a weapon to divide his own body. but to build it up. That's the contrast. And when this happens, there's a growing up and maturing in all things into Christ who is the head. So what is growing in the body is the body, not Christ. That's why when people even get eat too much food and they get obese. Rarely does the head grow big. It's just the body that grows big. Christ is the head. He does not grow. That is why even when we are born, we are born with bigger heads than we have other members. The head is bigger in proportion to the rest of the body. and we have to grow into the head. Our arms, our legs, they grow into fit into the size of our heads. And that is to preach Christ who is the head. Here is verse 16, that's our last verse. 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. Every part of the church body does its share in the promotion of unity, unity in the faith. That is the doctrine of Christ. exercising whatever gifts the Lord has bestowed in the body to that end. We have been very purposeful, as I've indicated before, that we did not want to go into texts like this before we had really worked the matter of what the gospel and defined things. Because if you just go to areas where you have a lot of imperatives, you may not even be able to teach them correctly, even though you're reading the verses. Okay, so for the body of Christ to relate to one another and mature and have the peace and have the unity is gonna come if they understand and have been grounded in the indicatives of salvation. Their body must mature in the truth. They must mature so that they cease to be children. who are always fighting. My kids will just be fighting over some useless things. Tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. So proper teaching gives us proper discernment of what religious people are saying or not saying, what they are avoiding. You can tell when someone is avoiding to tell the truth. So it is important that we speak, that we teach, that we declare this truth in love, noting the differences between the indicatives and the imperatives. And we shall hear more of this teaching in the rest of Ephesians. Okay? Amen. We're done. Let us pray. Dear Holy Father, Lord, we bless you. We thank you for the many words that we have heard. from the pen of Paul by the Holy Spirit, about the matter of the unity that you desire and purpose in the body of Christ, of the matter of us no longer being children but growing in the knowledge and wisdom of Christ through proper teaching and understanding of the differences between what has caused us to have righteousness and the things that we have been commanded to do or to be because we are already served. We thank you for this teaching. We thank you for everybody whom you have gathered. We pray that you keep us in our going in and out, keep us safe, and also may you cause meditation of this truth and also teaching others who may be ignorant of this matters. We honor you. We thank you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.