Open up your copy of God's word to Ephesians chapter four, beginning at verse 11 page 977. If you're using the Pew Bibles, Ephesians chapter four, beginning at verse 11 page 977. If you're using the Pew Bible, I titled this sermon Woodside Community Church. a model of unity and maturity, a model of unity and maturity. Now, before some of you start getting goose bumps and feeling all gooey inside, this does not mean that we have arrived at a level of perfect unity and full maturity. It just means that we have begun to grab a hold of what the scriptures command concerning mature manhood and attaining to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Even if you've only been visiting for, let's say, 3 to 5 weeks, you've probably noticed a certain kind of unity and maturity that exists in this place. You have observed us eating together, praying together, and even playing together. I believe you would have to agree with me that this church, Woodside Community Church, is different. that we have grabbed a hold of the type of unity and maturity that the scriptures command. You've also probably noticed that at this church, for the most part, where you've come from doesn't matter. Your ethnicity, your background, your race, it doesn't matter. Now, I will say that it is good to hear your stories, to hear your culture, hear about your culture, where you've come from. That is a great thing to share at your leisure. but your culture, your background, your ethnicity, your education level, your financial status, it does not give you this place of glory in here. This is a place where we worship the Lord and we come to him as sinners in need of grace, in need of what God does to the poor, wretched sinner, placing him in his presence because of Christ. That's what matters. What Christ has done for wretched sinners that they could not do and cannot do for themselves. Instead of getting hung up on where someone has come from and their background and all these other things, what an encouragement, rather, that it is when someone comes and they see that this place is like a big pot of gumbo. Everything is in here, and it only adds more flavor. It only makes it better, and that's what we have here. It is unique, and it is hard to find. It is hard to find, but what an encouragement to look like the church that Christ gave his life for. The apostle John speaks of this when he has this vision, this heavenly vision, and in Revelation chapter five, verses nine and 10, here's what he saw. and heard. He wrote, and they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you, worthy are you to take the scroll, speaking of Jesus, and open its seals. For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have made them a kingdom and priest to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. I don't know if you're looking for that. I don't know if you're caught up in all of the things that are happening in the world today and you're watching the news and you have social media bombarding you and you don't have time to process, to take in what God has prepared for those who love him. A nation, a priest, a kingdom. What's better than that? What is better than that? This is what the blood of Christ was purposed to do. Take people from all over the world and make them a kingdom and priest to God. Here's the question. The big question that we all have to answer, and we're gonna think about it today, is where does it start? Where does it start? And I believe the apostle Paul helps to answer this question in Ephesians chapter four. So I'll ask you to please follow along as I read in Ephesians from Ephesians four verses 11 to 16. This is the holy word of God. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine. by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we ought to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. In order to take people from all over the world and make them a kingdom and priest to God, it starts with the local church. From this text, my goal is to help all of us see that there's no greater joy on earth than being involved in God's plan of building a kingdom and priest to our God, who shall one day reign on the earth. So I'm going to ask you at this time to pray for me and with me. Father. we ask you to fill all of us with your spirit. I need his power to preach with accuracy and clarity, and they need his ability to grant them the wisdom and the desire to learn what thus saith the Lord. May your spirit open our eyes to see the joy that comes from being there for one another and serving one another. This can only make this local church body grow and build itself up in love. Amen. In an act of grace and mercy. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit did the work that was needed to create this eternal unity between brothers and sisters in Christ. Through the predetermined election of the Father and the death of Jesus the Son, there is now this body of believers who are united through the bond of an eternal spirit dwelling inside each and every believer. Apart from the spirit of God, you cannot be a part of the body of Christ. Romans 8 9 says anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him to reflect this eternal body of Christ. Jesus established the local body of Christ, aka the local church. Now, if the local church is going to be a true reflection of the eternal church, There's got to be unity. There has to be unity. So in order to establish and further promote unity within the church, God gave gifts to certain men to lead, feed, and equip his people, his flock. Equipping the body of Christ is vital. As we'll see, it takes the whole church, everybody working together in order for the church to flourish as God intended. It's not just the pastor and five or six people working with the pastor that brings forth the unity and maturity that the church is called to have. It's every member serving, every member faithfully, sacrificially using the gift or gifts that God has blessed them with, that God has placed in them. From our text, we're going to look at two of the ways that God uses the entire local body to instill and then preserve a higher level of unity and maturity in the midst of the church. Way number one, through biblical leadership, through biblical leadership. And way number two, through the full body of Christ. the full body of Christ, a higher level of unity. Let's the world know that we are disciples of Christ. And that's what Jesus was relaying in John chapter 13 in verse 35 when he said by this, all people will know that you are my disciples. If you have love for one another, if you have love for one another, There's no greater way to express the love of God than a church that sees past all barriers and works side by side to give God and bring God all the glory. That's what it's about. So as I asked earlier, pray for me as we together dig into this text. So let me read verse 11 of Ephesians four once again. It says, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers. The first leaders the Lord gave to the body of Christ were apostles. An apostle, as many of you know, means delegate, messenger, one who is sent forth with orders. The term apostle is used in the New Testament both in the narrow sense and in the wider sense. In the narrow sense, it refers to the 12, to the 12. But in the wider sense, it speaks of people like Barnabas or James, the half brother of Jesus and Apollos. There's a few more But in the wider sense, there was a purpose for it at that time. And these men, what they did is they engaged in the special and unique ministry of laying the foundation, the foundation for the local church. When the Apostle Paul wrote his letter to the Gentiles in Ephesus, he stressed this to them. He said, So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation, the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. Apostles and prophets are labeled as the foundation of the church, with Christ being the cornerstone. Now, many of you also know that when builders begin building a house, they lay the foundation, but the chief cornerstone is the first cornerstone laid, which means it has to be precise. If everything is going to go up straight, that cornerstone has to be perfect. Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone. The church cannot be built on anything less than Jesus's, his stature, who he is, eternal, our rock, the one who saves, our redeemer, the one who's eternal, the one who gives life from himself. Once the house is in the midst of being built, you don't have to go back and lay the foundation again. In similar fashion, Since the church is in the midst of being built, you don't need apostles or prophets to lay the foundation once more. This is why many believe, as I myself do, that there's no need for apostles or prophets today. The foundation has already been laid. Before the canon of scripture was complete, God used apostles and prophets to reveal doctrinal truth through special revelation in order to lead the church and keep them from error. In those days, everybody had a dream. Everybody had a vision. Everybody had an interpretation. But apostles preached the truth directly from God, and prophets acted as interpreters of oracles, the hidden things of God. Next on the list, we see the Lord also gave evangelists. Evangelists were those whose primary duty was to proclaim the gospel. In Acts chapter 21 in verse eight, we see Philip is called an evangelist, but he was also one of the first deacons appointed in Acts chapter six. Operating in the capacity of an evangelist, he proclaimed the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter eight. And although evangelists were called to proclaim the gospel, they were never called to oversee the church. Apostles and pastors were called to oversee the church. And not only that, but they're also called to proclaim the gospel. Pastors are also called to proclaim the gospel as evangelists as well. And we see this in Second Timothy, chapter four, verse five, where Paul tells Timothy to do the work of an evangelist right after he told him to preach the word to be ready in season and out of season. When it comes to preaching the word, the Lord gave pastors slash shepherds to the local church, and these men were and are to lead, guide, protect, strengthen and comfort the flock. On top of these things, the shepherd is to feed the sheep. to feed the sheep. And I'm speaking about the word right now to make sure they're being, uh, fully fed by the truth of Scripture. According to Titus chapter one in verse nine, the pastor must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. men who are called to be preachers from God are not to be wishy washy. They're not to bend with the coach. I remember in 2020 when so many things were happening and some of you here and some people who have left, they were caught in the middle. Shouldn't we talk about what's going on in the world? And Pastor Matt and I, we sat down and what we did is we preached the gospel. And when the gospel came across those issues, we preached it without fear. But we stayed in the gospel. Why? So that people would have an anchor to hold on to the things of the world come and go. And if you come and go with it, how are you going to honor God? Full, uh, which a full Constitution, right? You may be able to handle this issue. But what about the other 95 issues in your life? You can't chase every issue. that pops up. You have to stay with the word of God. What I was thinking is what we do many times is we like to play whack-a-mole, right? So something comes up and we hit it, bang. But then something up here, over here, comes up and bang. But what the gospel does, it gives you the ability to go right through whatever comes up. That's what the gospel does. It changes your heart. It changes your thinking. And it gets you looking eternally to the Lord God. And you trust that God has brought you this far for a purpose. And you trust that no matter what, we win in the end. And we honor God like that. And our testimony only grows. And those who are flailing with the wind, and those who are fainting because this person won the election, and that person is now in charge, They're looking at you and say, saying, Why aren't you worried? Because Christ is King. Christ is my savior. That person is not going to take away my salvation. That person cannot take away my peace. I love the Lord, my God, and he cares for me. And I pray we can get there as a body because we need one another. That's what this text is about. We need one another. Last on the list are teachers. Now, due to a grammatical principle in Greek called the Granville Sharp Rule, the Granville Sharp Rule, whenever you have two nouns and they're connected by the word and and the second noun does not have the article the before it, those two nouns must refer to the same person. to the same person, right? Many believe that that that that teachers are a separate office. But I want you to follow this with me. I want you to look at the text again. Notice in verse 11. Notice in verse 11, right? Paul didn't say the pastors and the teachers, but the pastors and teachers before every other office. You see the article the but not before teachers. Thus, it's referring to one office pastor with one of his roles as teacher. This could be translated pastor, teacher, pastor, teacher. So to sum it up, there were the offices of apostles and prophets who laid the foundation of the church. But since the foundation has already been laid, those offices are done away with. Evangelists, as we have seen, can fall under the office of deacons like Philip or pastors like Timothy, which means we're left with two offices pastors who must be able to teach and deacons who must be willing to serve from first Timothy chapter three. And God uses these two offices to bring men, women, boys and girls to a higher level of unity and maturity that better reflects the character of Christ. That's what we're after, the character of Christ. However, it's not just the leadership who are given this mission, which brings God builds his church through the full body of Christ. through the saints themselves. Let's look at the text once more, specifically verses 11 and 12. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to do what? To equip the saints. For what? For the work of ministry. Now, I don't believe everybody who comes to church week after week month after month, year after year, and refuse to lift a finger to serve their brothers and sisters in Christ is a lazy lima bean. Not everybody, not everybody. People have their reasons for not using their gifts to serve their brothers and sisters that they sit next to week after week, month after month. They have their reasons. However, some will say things like, I just don't know what my gift is. And they'll say that for years. Here's my advice. Speak to one of the deacons. Find out what needs to be done and do it faithfully. faithfully. Be faithful. Find something that needs to be done and do it faithfully. Let God use you for his glory. The first thing that Paul writes to this church, this very church, the first thing he says in Ephesians chapter one and verse one, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. He doesn't say to those who are loving, compassionate, kind, generous. He says who are faithful. Why? Because if you are faithful, in the house of God, the people who need you to be faithful, you already are showing that you are loving, compassionate, kind and generous. Being faithful in the house of God encompasses all of those things. Paul also tells the saints at Corinth in first Corinthians chapter four and verse two. Moreover, it is required required that stewards be found faithful. If you are a child of God, you are required to be faithfully stewarding all the gifts that God has giving you. The big question we have to ask ourselves is, am I faithfully pouring into others what God has faithfully poured into me? That's the question. Am I faithfully pouring into others? people who need me to be faithful, people who begin to look towards me so that I can point them towards Christ. That's important. That takes priority so that these people who are beginning to look at your faithfulness don't stop there because when you stop, they'll stop. But they look at you so you can point them to Christ and learn that Christ never stops. That person was a tool to bring me to Christ. So that if you should fall off the end of the earth, they still are looking to Christ. Why? Because Christ used you faithfully. find something to do through the people who know what needs to be done and do it faithfully. That's what Paul is saying. That's how we build up the body of Christ. In first Timothy chapter one in verse 12, Paul declared, I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus, our Lord, because he judged me faithful. How is Jesus judging you right now? As we see in Revelation chapter two and three, the Lord walks through the midst of the churches. And you remember from the text, some, very few, were found to be faithful. Others had their candlestick, lampstand, removed. The Lord is not ignorant of what's going on in his church. He's not ignorant of what's going on through his people. When judging and comparing the other prophets with Moses in Numbers chapter 12, the Lord said to Miriam and Aaron, hear my words. If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make myself known to him in a vision. I speak with him in a dream, not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. Where was Moses faithful? In all God's house. The Lord gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip who? The saints. For what? For the work of ministry. Where? In God's house. In God's house. Faithful attenders and members of Woodside, you have been equipped by one of the most faithful pastors I have ever met, Pastor Matt. But his faithfulness is based on Christ faithfulness, and his faithfulness is to act as inspiration to get all of us busy in God's house. According to our text, his job is to equip the Saints. And here the word equip means to strengthen, to perfect, to complete. It's to make one what he ought to be. Literally, it's to completely furnish. The root word is used also in Luke chapter six in verse 40, where Jesus said a disciple is not above his teacher. But everyone when he is fully trained, that's our word frequent whenever when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. The pastor's job is to fully trained the members that God has placed under his stewardship. If you are in Christ, and you're even just just faithfully attending this church, you are being trained and equipped to build up the body of Christ. Romans chapter 15 verses one and two backs this statement up. It says, We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to do what? To build him up. If you just happen to be one of those who are strong in Christ, you have an obligation to bear, meaning to sustain, to carry, and to even suffer with the weak. The pastor equips the saints. That's where it starts. And then the saints do the work of the ministry. That's sacrificially giving God your best as you bear with those who can sometimes be hard to bear with. And they're hard to bear with only because we think we're something that we're not. We think we're way up there until we see somebody higher. And then we want to run to them, hoping that we can get what they have. Look to Christ. If they're faithful, you ask for help, but always look to Christ. He's the end all, be all. Someone may ask, how long, Pastor Mike? How long must I bear with the failings of the weak? Paul said, till the body reaches mature manhood, till the body of Christ reaches mature manhood. And mature manhood, in verse 13, literally means to be fully grown. It's someone who is no longer acting or reasoning like a child. In 1 Corinthians chapter 13, in verse 11, Paul said, when I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. When someone is fully grown, they begin displaying the qualities of Jesus Christ on a more consistent basis. We will never reach Christ-like perfection till we see him face to face, but we strive for it. That's what we want. We will never be satisfied with whatever level of holiness we are able to attain in this life, that sin will always eat at us. We'll have a good stretch. When I say a good stretch, I mean maybe five hours before something happens. It's like, why did I fail in this area? And the closer you get to Christ, the more you feel that. The more you stay connected to the body, the more you're able to see and talk about it. And somebody can bring you back down to earth and say, Listen, brother, with sinners, with sinners saved by the grace and power of Jesus Christ, his perfect righteousness imputed to us. Jesus Christ has to be the standard by which we measure our holiness, not the person in front of us to the left and right of us or in back of us. Because if you keep looking at people, you're going to begin to think you're better than you really are. The stature and measure of our fullness has to be from Christ. And let me read that again. Because in verse 13, I like this. In verse 13, by saying to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, I want you to get the metaphorical picture that Paul is saying. To the measure of the stature, looking at the height of Christ eternally. If you can just grow all the way to heaven, can you measure that, right? Grow to the stature. And then he says the fullness, the wideness, the breadth of Christ. That's how we're growing. measured stature, fullness, stature, fullness of Christ. That's what we're aiming for. But we recognize, once again, we're not preaching sinless perfection. But we want it. We desire it. Why? Because God has placed that in us by giving, once again, Romans 8, 9, every believer the spirit of God. So you want perfection. But you cannot, you must not sink so low whenever you can't attain it that you cannot serve. You can't use that for an excuse. Oh, I messed up, so I'm done. You confess that sin, and you repent from that sin, and you allow people to enter and speak into your life, and you begin serving God again. You find out what needs to be done, and you hop on board, and you be faithful. it is. If it needs to be done in the house of God, you be faithful in the house of God. Amen. Bless the Lord. At least three of you are with me. Praise the Lord. But I'm so glad the spirit of God spoke through the apostle Paul to add that right to the measure of the fullness of the statue of Christ, right to the measure of the statue of the fullness of price. Because because if someone may begin to think that they've got it together, Pride is no joke. Pride will creep in and it'll begin causing this division between you and the brethren because you begin looking at people and saying, how come they can't get it together? But those who are strong are able to see that. But the thing about those who are strong and humble are able to help those in that condition until the body as a whole reaches mature manhood. We continue to help those who need help until we see Christ face to face, because that is the only way we all grow, that we all begin to look like Christ, because the weak are able to grow by the power of God through consistent service, faithful servants, and the power of God working through the whole church, working through the whole church. If the righteousness of Christ is our goal as a church, then we will see how far we fall short, and it will cause us to humbly fall at the feet of Jesus Christ, asking for forgiveness and asking for strength to turn, for strength to get up and serve faithfully. in spite of what's going on in your life. Things are always going to come come into your life. If you're waiting to serve because of this thing is going to be the next thing. You find out what needs to be done. You ask to the people who are serving, how can I help? And you be faithful at it, be faithful. According to verse 14 of our text, Reaching a level of mature manhood also means we are no longer tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine. As an infant in Christ, I had to learn that just because a preacher spoke well and used big words, that didn't mean he knew what he was talking about, right? Someone gave me dozens of cassette tapes. Yes, the Stone Ages, but someone gave me dozens of cassette tapes of this popular pastor in Brooklyn named A.R. Bernard from a Christian cultural center. Most of you haven't heard of him, praise God. But when I heard him, I said, wow, this guy is good. I love the way he preached, right? He just, you know, he can break it down. I said, wow, that's good. until I began to grow in my understanding of biblical doctrine. Biblical doctrine, not a scripture here and a scripture here and linking them together and making it say what you want. But what biblical doctrine is, it's a body of teachings and scripture and lessons that you see, it brings out the Christological nature of the text. every text from Genesis to Revelation. You have to learn how to see Christ is the hero of the story, not man. That's the test. You go somewhere, you listen, and if man is the center and the hero, wrong. Jesus is always the hero of the story. He has to be. When we hear a sermon Our conclusion must be, I'm low. Christ is high. I need him. You coming off the street? You never heard anything about scripture? You coming here? I'm low. Nothing. I deserve nothing good. Christ reigns in heaven, and he's able to give me eternal life. I must seek him. I'm a sinner. He's holy. I have tons of sins. But Christ is omnipotent. Featherweight to him. I have to seek Christ. Genesis to Revelation. Genesis 3 to Revelation 20 to be specific. sin, righteousness. Jesus is the hero. He has to be at the end of every sermon. We have to be able to test what's being taught. Second Peter 2 15. Do our do your best to present yourself to God as one approved a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. When you rightly handle the word of truth. There's no need to be ashamed. You could take scripture and hold it up to the greatest bishop in the world and say, no, this is truth. This is truth. This is where I stand. Doesn't matter the robe or the hat. It doesn't matter. This is where I found eternal life. This is where I found truth. But what Paul does, praise God for Paul, as he describes what happens to those who really spend the necessary time that it takes learning how to rightly handle the truth. He uses the image of a sailboat with no anchor, a sailboat with no anchor. When up against the raging sea, that sailboat does not stand a chance is tossed to and fro by the waves and the wind. And the word for wind that Paul uses in verse 14 is not referring to some little gentle summer breeze. It's a violent storm. It does damage. damage to everything that comes across. The immature believer is like a small ship in the midst of the storm with no anchor. The immature believer cannot stay planted on solid truth once the strong winds of false doctrine begin to blow. For those of you, and I pray there's none of you, but for those of you who still listen to those imitation pastors on TV like Joel Osteen, T. D. Jakes, Joyce Meyer, Kenneth Copeland, the list goes on and on to you. They may sound good, But here's the thing. I want you to listen to them. If you do listen to them, I don't want you to listen to them. But if you insist on listening to them, keep your Bible open as they're going from scripture to scripture. Mark the text. Take the time to see what they're saying. And if you do, you will notice that every single one of them use the methods that Paul mentions at the end of verse 14 human cunning and craftiness and deceitful schemes. Human cunning, cunning, it literally means cube, cube, like dice for gambling, for fraud. The implication is to gain by sleight of hand. Craftiness here is trickery by subtlety. They don't come out and say, I'm going to rob you. No, it's subtle. It's take us first here and a verse here and they make you do anything they want you to do. All who will not study the word and hold on to that word will be susceptible to slight of hands and subtle trickery of the false teacher. They will remain like that small ship that's tossed to and fro in the midst of the storm for 5, 10, 20 years because they're missing the remedy that scripture provides. Studying the word and holding on to that word. Studying the word and holding on to that word. How? By sharing it, by going back to it. Many of us will get in scripture and we'll study for a month and then we won't think about it again for the rest of our lives. You hold on to it. You go back to it. You tell it to someone. You call them up. Hey, have you ever read Second Timothy 1? Oh man, we have to go over it. You hold on to it. That's dropping your anchor in scripture. That's being ready for this violent storm of false doctrine that is only going to increase as we get closer to the return of Christ. It's the eternal word that keeps us. and equips us for ministry. It's the eternal word that builds us up within the body of Christ. It's the eternal word that helps us to attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. It's the eternal word that will bring us to this mature manhood and helps us reach the stature of the fullness of Christ. Once again, by calling Woodside a model of unity and maturity, I'm not saying that this church is perfect, but I am saying that when you look at the remedy that Paul gives in this Ephesians four text and compare it to what you see here, and what you hear here at Woodside, you realize you're surrounded by the cure to CSIS, CSIS, Chronic Spiritual Infancy Syndrome. You see the cure here because the word is preached here. Coming here and not taking advantage of the remedy that this church provides for chronic spiritual infancy syndrome is like a sick person sitting in a hospital and he's observing doctors and nurses go by. Yet he remains quiet. But that's not the worst part. The worst part is after seeing doctors and nurses go by for roughly 45 minutes, he gets up and leaves. without seeking any kind of care for their sickness. There's no communication from them about their condition, so there's no communication towards them on how to get better. Therefore, they remain in the same sick condition. There's no remedy, no cure, no help granted to them. There must be some communication from the sick in order to get well. And that communication must be true communication. Even if it's hard to hear, necessary truth needs to be spoken. That's for the believer, the believer who comes here and refuses to spend time studying the word and holding on to what they've studied. Now I want to take a small detour to address the unbelievers in the room. Coming here on a regular basis and not taking advantage of the cure for your condition is like a dying person, not just a sick person, but a dying person who goes to the hospital and yet just sits there observing doctors and nurses walk by and remaining quiet. And just as in the first illustration, that's not the worst part. The worst part is when they get up and leave without seeking any kind of care for their terminal condition. There's no communication from them, so there's no communication towards them. Therefore, they remain in the same condition. But here's the difference. If they receive no help, they will die in their sins. If you are unsaved and you leave here today and you get hit by a bus and die, you will be separated from God in torment throughout all eternity. That's hard to hear, but a necessary truth that needs to be spoken. All who do not trust in Christ alone for the washing away of their sins will receive no help, no benefit from Jesus's substitutionary atonement on the cross. and will die in their sins. Jesus told Nicodemus, John chapter three, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. If you do not receive Jesus Christ as your savior, you will not see the kingdom of God. You will die in your sin, and your memory won't die. You will remember hearing this sermon. You will remember hearing sermon after sermon from this pulpit. You will remember. Now back to the message from our text. The necessary truth for the believer is that now that you are in the kingdom, you must strive to grow, seeking more and more to become like Christ in every part of your life. That's what Paul is stressing in verses 15 to 16 of our text. He wrote, Speaking the truth in love, we ought to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every kid is equipped when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Paul declares that speaking the truth in love, which is the gospel truth spoken in love, helps the formerly weak to stand unshaken against all the attacks from the world, the flesh, and the devil. Speaking the truth in love means sharing difficult truths of the gospel in a humble manner. That's how submissive infants in Christ become fully grown servants of Christ. We all must grow up in every way, in every way, meaning in all areas or aspects of our lives. We must grow up into Christ. We must become more like Christ. Why? Once again, because Jesus is the hero, not us. Not us. Week after week, the truth of the gospel is preached from this pulpit with a heart of love. and that has transformed the selfish, prideful, and mean-spirited into self-sacrificing, humble, and gracious servants of God. That's what the building up of the body of Christ looks like. That's what growing up in every way into Jesus looks like. May Woodside Community Baptist Church continue on that path never strained from the blessing of being joined and held together by every joint with which God has equipped it. Each part, every member working properly so that this local church grows, building itself up in love. Amen. Let's pray. Father, I thank you. I thank you. I thank, I can't thank you enough for giving the world the local church. It is through the local church that you have brought leaders such as pastors and deacons to work through people from all backgrounds, cultures, nations, languages together to hear the word and to see the word in action. to hear the truth of the gospel, and to see the gospel change lives. Thank you, Lord God. We cannot thank you enough. Thank you, Lord Jesus. At any moment, you could have came off of that cross. At any moment, you could have destroyed the people who were seeking to destroy you. But because of love for your people, you stayed, you suffered, you died. And praise the Lord, you rose on the third day. You conquered death, Lord, and now those who died in Christ, though they die, they will live because you live. Praise your holy name. We thank you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.