Welcome to Mill Creek Church in Belleville, Texas, where our worship service is in progress. Today, Pastor Monty Byrd continues with his sermon series on the Book of Ephesians. And now, Pastor Byrd. Join me in prayer, please. Father, as we approach your word, we do pray that you would take our life, that we would humbly submit it, that we graciously would acknowledge that we need every part of you, that we can't live this life alone. I pray, Lord, that through the indwelling of your spirit today, that you would speak to us through your word, and that we continue to relinquish self to get more of you. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4 as we continue our study of Paul's letter to the Ephesians. And we've been in verses 11 through 13 for quite some time. We're going to add 14 to our focal passage this morning and look at it completely. It reads in verse 11, He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, to build up the body of Christ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son, growing into maturity with the stature measured by Christ's fullness. then we will no longer be little children tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. Over the last couple of weeks, we've been studying this idea, in fact, that Christ is our benchmark in verse 13. that we grow into maturity as measured by Christ's fullness. Our benchmark as we live our Christian life isn't our neighbor. It's not our fellow church member. It's not our friends. It's not our family. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our benchmark. And we study that, first of all, from a doctrinal standpoint. And then last week, we studied it from looking at it and applying that in regards to Christian discipline in our life, that we studied last week, Christ's life, the things that Christ did as an example for us regarding Christian disciplines, how we should live our life by looking at the model of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we should emulate Christ. And when we do that, when we emulate Christ, we mature. We mature and move towards the image of Christ, because after all, isn't that what Paul tells us in Romans 8, that we have been called and we are being conformed into the image of His Son? And so Christianity isn't just a static belief, it is a dynamic faith, and Christ is moving us to look more and more like his son. We're to grow in the faith, we are to mature. And when Christ isn't our benchmark, we're unstable in our beliefs. And in fact, if you'll look at verse 13 and 14, I want to point out the contrast to you. In verse 13, it says, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's son growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ's fullness, then we will no longer be little children tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. So if we first of all wanted to step back just a little bit and as we look at the current roles of evangelist and the pastor slash teacher, the role of both of those offices is to mature the flock and to grow the flock. And if the pastor or the evangelist isn't doing their job or they're a false teacher, we'll get to that in a moment. then what you end up with is you end up with the immature believer. And we have to recognize that immature believers are a fact within the church. And in fact, Paul, Peter, and the writer of Hebrews both dealt with immature believers. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 3, starting in verse 1. This is what Paul wrote the church at Corinth. For as my part, brothers and sisters, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ. I gave you milk to drink and not solid food since you were not ready for it. In fact, you are still not ready because you are still worldly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not worldly and behaving like mere humans? For whenever someone says, I belong to Paul and another, I belong to Apollos, are you not acting like mere humans? Were they believers? Yes. Were they babies? Yes. babies at the church at Corinth. The writer of Hebrews dealt with the same thing. In Hebrews 5 verse 11, he says, we have a great deal to say about this and it is difficult to explain since you have become too lazy to understand. Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God's revelation again. You need milk, not solid food. Not everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness because he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil. So there you have the example of Paul. You have the example of the writer of Hebrews. Now let's go to 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2, verse one reads, therefore rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander like newborn infants desire the milk of the word so that it may grow up into your salvation. If you've tasted that the Lord is good. As you've come to him, a living stone rejected by people, but chosen and honored by God, you yourselves as living stones, a spiritual house are being built to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Babies, infants, immature are a fact within Christian living. When we're a kid, nobody wants to be a baby, do they? When you're growing up, nobody wants to be called a baby. I saw it with my little brother when I was a kid, like, oh, you're such a baby. I'm not a baby. Saw it when I was raising kids and we'd tease the kids, say, you're a baby. I'm not a baby. Nobody wants to be a baby. And when you think about living the Christian life, I think some people go, what's the big deal? Okay, I still get to go to heaven. I'll just be a baby. I'll just be an infant. I'm okay with that. But I think we have to recognize that living a life of being a spiritual baby has consequences. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 3, verse 10. It says, according to God's grace that was given to me, I've laid a foundation as a skilled master builder and another builds on it. But each one is to be careful how he builds on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, everyone's work will come obvious, for the day will disclose it because it will be revealed by fire. The fire will test the quality of each one's work. If anyone's work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will experience loss, but he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. See in verse 11 where Paul says, the foundation is Jesus Christ. That's so important because it coincides with verse 13 of using Christ as our benchmark. Because the definition of maturity, if you look at our focal verse back in Ephesians 4.13, it says, until we all reach unity in the faith and the knowledge of God's son. the knowledge of God's Son growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ's fullness. If the foundation is Christ, if the foundation is Christ, if Christ is the benchmark in Ephesians 4, it means that there's an exclusive truth. There's an exclusive truth. I was reading in a commentary here a couple of months ago, and the person in the commentary was trying to appease people from different denominational backgrounds. So he was kind of dancing around a doctrinal issue. And it was really disappointing to me because, see, there is an exclusive truth. There is an exclusive truth. And that exclusive truth is built upon the teachings of Jesus Christ. And we mature according to that exclusive truth in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And when we drift from the truth, We are spiritually immature. And when you think about the characteristics of being spiritually immature, Paul tells us this in verse 14. He says, then we will no longer be little children tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness and the techniques of deceit. In other words, a spiritual baby, an immature person, is unstable. They're tossed back and forth from one belief to another. How do they do that? Through false teachers. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. 2 Corinthians 11, beginning in verse 1, Paul wrote, I wish you could put up with a little foolishness from me. Yes, do put up with me. For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy because I have promised you in marriage to one husband to present a pure virgin to Christ. But I fear that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your minds may be seduced from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if a person comes and preaches another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or you receive a different spirit, which you had not received, or a different gospel which you had not accepted, you put up with it splendidly." In other words, the church at Corinth was welcoming false teachers. They were welcoming them. Now, we don't know how Revelation is going to pan out in our modern world. But I do know one thing, the Antichrist isn't gonna go on TV with 666 tattooed on their forehead. He's going to deceive. And when you think about false teachers, false teachers don't walk into your church and go, hi, I'd like to introduce myself, I'm a false teacher. They don't do that, do they? They don't do that at all. They're good. They have skills. And what skills do they have? 2 Peter 2 tells us the skills of false teachers. If you look at verse 17, he said, these people are springs without water, mitts driven by a storm. The gloom of darkness has been reserved for them for by uttering boastful, Empty words they seduce with fleshly desires and debauchery. People who have barely escaped from those who live in error. Now let's stop right there just for a moment. I like in MacArthur's commentary where he wrote, it said, people who have barely escaped those who live in error. He said, the translation really should be trying to escape. In other words, these are people that are facing problems in life, and they're trying to get out of them. And unfortunately, false teachers prey on those type of people. And so when you look at 18 and it says, for by uttering boastful, empty words, they seduce with fleshly desires and debauchery. In other words, they are offering a soft gospel. Because if you look at verse 19, it says, they promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them. For if having escaped the world's impurity, the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these things and defeated. The last state is worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy command delivered to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, a dog returns to its own vomit and a wash shall returns to wallowing in the mud. Now, if you look at 21, 22, it tells us something. It tells us that false teachers come out of the church. False teachers come out of the church. Think about it. As we see denominations go completely contrary to the word of God, where did these people come from? They came from among the church. That's where they come from. And they come from the church and then they appeal to people who are in trouble because they're offering a gospel that allows you to keep a foot in the world while proclaiming that you're a Christian. That's what they do. In other words, just as we read Paul's words earlier, they preach a different Jesus. They preach a different Jesus. When I first got started in my business career, I had a business partner. He was a lot older than me. And there were some things that we'd go and we'd make these presentations. And there was one thing that he should have never presented. He just didn't have the skill set to do it or that wasn't his cup of tea. And I remember when he would present those, I'd think, wow, that sounds pretty good. I should buy some of that. But he wasn't explaining really, in truth, both the good and the bad of what we were presenting. And that's what false teachers do. They present a gospel that's easy to live in. It's a different Jesus. And I would say that there's lots of churches now that preach a Jesus that's not the Jesus of the Bible. And unfortunately there are people that hear that word and accept that Jesus and believe that they can still live whatever life that they want to live without repentance. If you look in Jude verses eight through 11, it reads in the same way, these people relying on their dreams, another sign of a false teacher, I received a word, I saw a dream, I had a dream. In the same way, these people relying on their dreams, defile their flesh, reject authority and slander glorious ones. Yet when Michael the archangel was disputing with the devil in an argument about Moses's body, he did not dare utter a slanderous condemnation against him, but said, the Lord rebuke you. But these people blaspheme anything they do not understand. And what they do understand by instinct, like irrational animals, by these things they are destroyed. Woe to them, for they have gone the way of Cain, have plunged into Balaam's error for profit, and have perished in Korah's rebellion. Let's look at those last three examples. Cain wanted God on his terms, didn't he? Balaam wanted to make some money. Korah offered strange fire. That's what false teachers do. And unfortunately, by listening to false teachers, and so as we take Ephesians four and we put it all into context, the role of the pastor teacher, the role of the evangelist is to preach the word, to preach the gospel, and grow the body into unity. And if we don't, if we don't, we have a lot of spiritual babies that are just tossed to and fro. And it's so important that we recognize as believers that false teachers exist. One of the things that drives me crazy is when people say, well, everybody is a Christian. Everybody's a Christian. Let me tell you something. If you stand on the side of LGBTQ, you're not a Christian. Saying that these people can serve in the church, you're not a Christian. I can say that without a doubt. I will say that all day long. I will say that until they're standing out on the sidewalks petitioning me. They're not believers. There's no way. When people wink at sexual sin and say, oh, you can be a Christian and you can live in sexual sin, what does the Bible say? It says adulterers and fornicators will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. That's what the Bible says. But you've got people that say, oh, well, you know, we've just got clay feet. That's not the gospel. They've listened to somebody preach a different Jesus. The words of Jesus are difficult, aren't they? That's why Christ told us to pick up our cross and follow him. The words of Christ are difficult. The words of Christ come at a cost. The words of Christ are difficult to live. And when false teachers come in and they say, oh, you can have all of your material wants. You can have everything you want materially. and your life is just gonna be full of wealth and health and happiness. That is a different Jesus than the Bible. And we have to start standing up and telling the world, you've got to discover the biblical Christ. There are a lot of people out there that are preaching a false Christ. You know, it's interesting when you think about Revelation and you look at the end of times, and there will be a one world religion, right? One world religion. How's that happen? There's a one world religion because there will be people who have professed Christ. and will come into the one world religion because they were not Christians, but someone told them that they were." Now, I think it's extremely important that we listen to Peter's warning in 2 Peter chapter 3. In 2 Peter 3, starting in verse 14, it reads, therefore dear friends, while you wait for these things, make every effort to be found without spot or blemish in his sight at peace. Also regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our dear brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him. He speaks about these things in all his letters. There are some things hard to understand in them. The untaught and unstable will twist them to their own destruction as they also do with the rest of scriptures. Therefore, dear friends, since you know this in advance, let's stop right there. Since you know this in advance, we do too, don't we? We know this in advance. We know that there are false teachers. False teachers existed in the day of Paul and Peter. They exist today. And to go around and just place a label of, oh, we're all good because we acknowledge the existence of Christ. We know them by their fruit, don't we? We know them by their fruit. And if they are teaching a gospel contrary to Christ, if they are teaching a gospel that says that you can be a Christian without the pursuit of holiness, it is a false gospel. And the people do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. They will not be accepted into heaven because they are a false teacher. And here Peter says, we know this in advance. So since we know this, what does he tell us to do? Look again in verse 17 at second Peter three, be on your guard, be on your guard. so that you are not led away by the error of lawless people and fall from your own stable position, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. I was listening to a sermon one day of Martin Lloyd-Jones, and he said this, and it's so true. He said, too many people spend their time studying things that they don't need to know versus studying the things that they should know. In other words, I could immerse myself in the false teaching of today. I could learn all about it, spend all my time there. But guess what? Next month it's going to be something else. Let me put that to you this way. If you know the truth, if you know the truth, you will always be able to recognize a lie. And if you spend your time as a believer, don't worry about, I've got to know about this cult. I've got to know about that cult. I need to know about all of these denominational things that are going on. I really don't get involved in that. Never have. You know the reason why? I need to know more of him. And if I spend my time dedicating my life in knowing more about Jesus, then I'll always be able to recognize a lie. Not only will I always be able to recognize a lie, but I will also always be able to be a witness because after all, doesn't the Bible say that we are ambassadors for Christ? I want to be an ambassador truly representing the king. And the only way that I can truly represent the king is truly presenting his truth, his truth, which leads us to our next verse next week in how to do that in a godly way. But may we study so that we may always know What is the truth of God? Join me in prayer, please. Father, we just thank you for your word. We thank you that you have given us your spirit so that we can understand it. I pray, Lord, that we'd embrace it. I pray that we'd be passionate about it. I pray that we would always realize that people come to a saving knowledge through faith in the word. I pray, Lord, that we would be ambassadors for you in presenting your word and your truth. I pray that when people look at us, they may see that we are living out our life according to your truth. And I pray that we'd be bold in our proclamation. I pray, Lord, that this church might be a witness here in our community a faithful witness, one that stands on the word of God. Lord, we give you the praise and glory in all things. Amen. Thank you for joining us as Pastor Bird continues this sermon series. If you wish to hear more, you may find him at millcreekchurch.org or go to sermonaudio.com slash millcreekchurch. Prayer requests may also be left at millcreekchurch.org. Our church services are as follows. Sunday morning Bible study is at 9 a.m., followed by our worship service at 10 a.m. We have Wednesday night prayer meeting and Bible study, and they are at 6.30 p.m. For more information and our mission statement, please visit our website millcreekchurch.org.