Zechariah 8 from verse 14. For thus says the Lord of hosts, just as I purposed to do harm to you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, says the Lord of hosts, and I have not relented. So I have again purposed in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Do not fear. These are the things which you should do. Speak the truth to one another. Judge with truth and judgment for peace in your gates. Also let none of you devise evil in your heart against another, and do not love perjury, for all these are what I hate, declares the Lord. Would you then please turn to Ephesians chapter four, verses 11 to 16, where this point about speaking truth to one another comes up again. perhaps with some allusion to these words in Zechariah 8, though not a direct quote, from Ephesians 4 verses 11 to 16. The text for the sermon is verses 14 to 16 in our ongoing series on the book of Ephesians. From verse 11. And he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ. until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." Now our text with the next few verses from verses 14 to 16. As a result, we are no longer to be children. tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ. from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, will you fill our hearts with delight in your word, with delight in the knowledge of you, in the good promises that you have given to us, and the profound truths that your word proclaims, as well as the good commandments given for our benefit. And Father, will you help us to listen as would be expected from those who do truly delight in your word. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen. Covenant people of God, when children refuse to act their age, it's not uncommon for parents to say, oh, grow up, act your age. It's the kind of situation where children act below the level of maturity expected for their age. And of course it's not only young children that do that. Sometimes those kind of statements may be made to teenagers. Again, quite often by their parents. And occasionally even to adults, though if truth be told, probably more often said to adult males. But we won't go into that. Probably not something anybody likes to hear. to have that said to them, unless of course it's said in jest, and then maybe you wouldn't worry, but otherwise nobody likes to be accused of being immature. But it is something that the Lord addresses with all of his people, something he says to all of his people with all seriousness, that we need to grow up. Sometimes that comes in the form of a call to turn away from childish and immature things, And sometimes it's put more positively in terms of growing in sanctification, which is another way of saying the same thing. Growing in sanctification, in holiness or in maturity, you can say it any of those ways. And no doubt that's something that needs to be said and said often because it doesn't matter how mature you are, even if you're the most mature saint in history, then still And the girls who have just met with the elders to be examined in doctrine and life, they know that very well. One of the things they had to learn, a definition of sanctification and the fact that it is progressive and lifelong. It's something you have to grow in. And so for those reasons, it is necessary that the scripture urges us to spiritual growth and maturity. And we look at that this morning under two headings. Firstly, don't be a baby. And secondly, grow up. Those are the two points. Don't be a baby, but grow up. In the first place, I'd like to note that the text here is introduced by the expression as a result. And I mentioned the other week that those little opening statements like that in the beginning of paragraphs or sections, they often tell us how the whole passage flows together and fits together. And this is another one of those cases. When you read words like that as a result, It means go back and look at the previous verses so you know what this is a result of. And in those previous verses, the Apostle had been explaining that the Ascended King, the Lord Jesus Christ, had poured out gifts left, right and centre to all of his people. And those gifts were given for the equipping of the saints so that they could be busy in works of service with the result that the whole body, the church, would be built up in a unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's the previous section. But in that previous section, he also implied that those are things that we need to grow in. Because you remember those words we looked at last week, until we attain to it, to a mature man, to the measure of the statue which belongs to the fullness of Christ. Fullness is not ours yet. It is in principle, but not in practice. Attaining or arriving, as we like to say, is something that we haven't done yet. We haven't arrived, and we often note that. And our text, as a result, therefore moves on to discuss this process of maturing. In that connection, the apostle first speaks against the opposite of maturing. He says we are no longer to be children. And the Greek language has a number of different words for children, mostly divided on the basis of what age groups are being talked about. And this particular word is one that is used of the youngest children. Literally the word means without speech. Talking about babies, talking about infants, those who are so young they're not even able to talk yet. So the passage says, don't be like a baby, don't be like an infant, the smallest of children. Now, of course, no one should expect a Christian to be fully mature in this life. That may be our goal, but we have to be realistic in recognising that as Christians, we have these areas of immaturity and other Christians do as well. We're not perfect in this life, but far from it. We're sinful still. We have to recognize that, but not to use that as an excuse to remain at the infantile level, spiritually speaking. There are, of course, ways in which we are to be like children. We're to have that simple and trusting childlike dependency on our father. In that respect, the scripture urges us to be like children and says the kingdom of God is composed of such people. but not in the ways that are being talked about here. Not in regard of spiritual naivety or spiritual ignorance or spiritual instability. In that respect, we are not to be like little children. And a lot of the words that are used in the text here reinforce that point. Verse 14 especially shows us the sense in which the apostle is speaking, the sense in which we are not to be like little children, in that we are not to remain babies with respect to being tossed about. I hope babies don't get too tossed about, but please recognize the metaphor is changing here in these verses. We're not to be tossed about. We're not to be by the waves. We're not to be carried about by every wind of doctrine. And this now is a sailing metaphor. So we've moved from the baby analogy to a boating analogy. And the apostle paints a picture here of a small boat. Those of you who have boats or have been out in them perhaps fishing, you know how this goes. If the water gets rough, the boat can be tossed up and down by the waves. And also if the wind is strong and variable, the boat can be swung back and forth. So you have that complex motion of being tossed up and down and swung side to side at the same time. And that's the picture that's given here, a very graphic picture. that kind of situation where a person or people in a boat are in serious danger of the boat being swamped, in danger of going under, in danger of their lives because of the storms of life. That's the picture that's being painted here. And the point of this change in illustration is that God's people are not to put themselves in a situation, as much as that lies within us, where we are going to be more open to error and sinful practices through the manipulation of the devil and his human agents. Those who put pressure on God's people to compromise the truth and to depart from God's ways. And you see the devil is highly skilled in that kind of manipulation. And again, you see that point being made here in the language. There are three words that are used to make this point about the manipulation of it. First, there is the word trickery, a word that literally means dice throwing, playing with dice. In other words, it's giving you a picture of maybe a con man with a load of dice, making the point that the devil, and sadly, it's often his agents can be those within churches, even sometimes famous theologians. And the picture here is that the trickery is such that it's like someone with a loaded dice, a con man with a loaded dice who is trying to manipulate and fool others for his own advantage into doing what he wants. And so if you find yourself slipping into error, if you find yourself slipping into sinful practices, or worst of all, even departing from the faith because of the influence of others, and behind that, the influence of the devil, the fact is that you have been conned by the arch-con man. That's the warning here with this language. And then the second word used to make that point, craftiness, a word that means the behavior of someone who is willing to do anything or to say anything to get his own way. And he's willing to do that without any scruples. And then the third word translated here, deceitful, scheming. which means wily and crafty ways of introducing error. And we need to be alert to the schemes of the devil and his agents, including those within the church. And the problem is that the more immature you are, the more difficult it is to stand against con men. We open ourselves to con men if we stay in that infantile level. So what does that mean to be infantile in this sense, to be a baby? Well, there are at least two ways in which this dangerous immaturity can manifest. One is through lack of knowledge. If you make little effort to know God's word and to grow in it and to understand it, and you make little effort to apply that word with Christian discernment, And the Apostle John says, test the spirits. And he gives advice on what to look for, how to do that, how to recognize when someone is not speaking faithfully to the Scripture. So someone who doesn't have that knowledge, who doesn't have that wisdom or discernment, you put yourself in danger if you don't try and grow in those things but remain at the infantile level. Of course, if you tell a two-year-old that the sun goes to sleep at night, there's probably some chance that that child may take it literally, rather than realising that it's a metaphor. Because a two-year-old doesn't have the knowledge in order to discern the difference between an actual fact and a metaphor. And so as Christians, if we stay at that level spiritually, it becomes difficult for us to distinguish between fact and fiction, truth and lie. And then the other way this manifests is lack of stability. This is the kind of person who hears the truth and maybe they even have sufficient knowledge and sufficient discernment to recognize the truth when they hear it, and they hear it from one person and they say yes and amen to that, and then they hear it from another person, someone who says the opposite, and they say, oh yeah, I'll go with that too, because they're people often who are easily led. That can be for all sorts of reasons. Some people like to be led by and to please others for deep-seated personal and psychological reasons. And either of these problems, either the lack of knowledge or the lack of stability, make one susceptible to every wind of doctrine. And certainly the winds of doctrine are blowing pretty fierce at the present time. used to be significant areas of agreement between Reformed and, say, Evangelical churches. Issues like creation or women in office or homosexuality, even to some extent issues like word and spirit issues, the Pentecostal sort of issues, or even infant baptism. You had a lot of the mainstream churches agreed. And now that seems to have vanished since the 1960s. It's disintegrated more and more even among evangelical churches and even many that call themselves reformed. Now it seems you never know what people are going to come up with in different churches and what they believe. And part of that, no doubt, is also more recently especially, because ideas are coming with authority, human authority anyway, thick and fast on the internet, creating whole new, what are essentially virtual Bible study groups, involving people from all sorts of backgrounds, or even virtual synods, in effect, where online theological issues are settled and people agree without any involvement or reference to their own elders, their own church, no, it's settled online. And in that kind of environment, it becomes very difficult to tell who's right and who's wrong for many people. including in our churches. It's like with fake news. I've said it myself very often, and perhaps you felt the same thing too, that you hardly know what to believe anymore with the news. Is it fake news? Or are those who are saying it's fake news the ones who are fake? It becomes very difficult to tell. And you end up, you hardly know what to believe. And unfortunately, the effect of these things in church circles is rather similar. People hardly know what to believe anymore. And for these reasons, the call to avoid spiritual immaturity is at least as relevant as ever, if not more so. Well, it's all very well to tell someone to grow up. It can be easier said than done. How in the second and final place is this growth and maturity accomplished? And in answer to that, I'd first like to note that verses 15 and 16 is one very long sentence, and very, very complex sentence. As Bible sentences go, this is one of the more complex ones. But nevertheless, the indication of how we are to grow in maturity is there in the text. We just have to tease it out a little bit. And a lot could be said on that subject, and this passage doesn't say everything, but it does tell us some important things. And the first of those, and the chief part of the answer to this problem, and the chief solution, and the way of growing in maturity is through the Lord Jesus Christ, which might seem so obvious that it's hardly worth saying, but I would suggest to you that it is worth saying and repeating. For we cannot make ourselves mature, not in the spiritual sense, we cannot make ourselves mature apart from him. We cannot do it in our own strength. An adult might be told that he is an immature person, but if you're steeped in certain habits, you've grown up for a long time in certain habits, some of which may be immature, but because they're habits it's not so easy to change. And if there is immaturity that also makes it hard to change because you filter what's said to you about your immaturity and how you evaluate it, you filter that through immature eyes in certain places and certain areas. So it's not that easy for us to change. We need the Lord's help to put infancy behind and to grow and to mature in sanctification. And I want to draw out how much the text points to the Lord Jesus Christ in this respect. because he really is central in this text as he is in every text. So notice in that connection, verse 15 says, we are to grow up in all aspects into him. And it then goes on to point out that he is the very source of this strength as the head, the head of the body. And here the apostle switches to yet another metaphor, and this time it's a body metaphor. So we've got the three Bs here in this passage. We have the baby metaphor, the boat metaphor, and now we've got the body metaphor. Where the point is made that the Lord Jesus is the head of the body, and we are to grow up into him who is the head. It is the head who causes and directs the growth of the body for the building up of itself. That language means first that growth comes from Christ, he is the source of it, but when he gives it, there is something also for the body to do to facilitate and encourage its own growth with God's help. And so there is that responsibility for us here as well in this. It is the Lord Jesus, he is the one who fits and holds the whole body together. The head brings these things to be, the head sends his spirit to work in each part, in each member of the body. The head is really the one, the Lord Jesus Christ is the one through his spirit who actually creates members of the church, who in fact creates the church itself. And then those various members are gifted by the Spirit and they are equipped by the Spirit, sent by the Lord Jesus to do so, built up by the Spirit, and in the process of that also fitted together like joints and ligaments holding the whole body together. You can imagine someone assembling one of those kits that you can get of a human skeleton. And they take all the bits, all the bones, and they start clicking those various parts, snapping those various parts together until you have the whole skeleton of a human being assembled. All the bones put together at the joints. And that is what the Lord does in a spiritual sense with all of the individual members of the church. He snaps us all together to make a whole skeleton, a whole body. the church. And the Lord Jesus then directs the benefit that comes from each of those different parts, the members with their gifts, every joint, every part, supplying their contribution to the whole, according to the proper working or function of every part, causing the growth of the whole body. This little word supplies where we read in verse 16 about these different parts, these different joints or ligaments supplying their contribution. That word supply may seem quite an ordinary one in English. But the original language has a lot to tell us too. Because it refers to a supply that is full and abundant. It's not a meager supply, but it's full and abundant. And it is especially a supply that is given to a stage chorus. A chorus singing group, type singing group, on a stage, that is another metaphor for the church. We're a chorus group where the Lord Jesus Christ is the conductor and also the benefactor who pays for the whole stage act. Now this all means that if you want to grow in maturity, you need to ask God. You need to ask him for the growth through the Lord Jesus, through what the Lord Jesus has done, And through what the Lord Jesus is doing, through his word and spirit, pray for sanctification. Ask the Lord to help you grow in maturity, in wisdom, in discernment, in godliness, in the knowledge of his word. Learn about the Lord Jesus Christ, because as you learn what he has done for the church, you understand better what that maturity involves. As you read about the Lord Jesus, not only his works, but the things he said, what kind of person he was. As you learn about those things, you see perfect maturity there in him. As you read God's word, you see what it looks like to be a maturing Christian. So as you grow in knowledge of God's Word, Lord willing, the Christian maturity and wisdom and discernment increase. But the giving of that growth doesn't happen in a vacuum. We are dealing here with a chorus, and we're dealing here with the growth of a body. And that means that we have a collective group that is growing through the growth of its individual members. Each member contributes to the body and therefore to the other members. But the other members and the church as a whole collectively also contribute to each individual member. So it goes both ways. And so we teach and we encourage and we admonish and we help and we strengthen each other so that we grow in knowledge and wisdom and grace together. And the church collectively has a ministry aimed at giving the same kind of things to the individual members. Not only so, but we also help warn each other against error. People don't like to do that today. They don't like to confront. They don't like to dogmatically say, brother, you're doing wrong, or you're in error, because that's dogmatism. And it's against the spirit of the age. And I suspect that more and more in our churches, and perhaps in our own congregation, people find that harder and harder to do, to confront, to speak the truth in that way, in love. That's a difficult thing. It is a difficult thing to do. But that's also part of alerting each other to the schemes of the devil and the craftiness of them. It's part of alerting each other to the winds of doctrine that are blowing and the violent waves that are threatening to toss us overboard. And that is very, very important. We do that for each other, or we ought to. And the church collectively does it, for example, through the process of discipline. We need the church and we need each other to help us grow up together. One other important point that is made about this growth, as I said, it doesn't say everything in this passage, but it certainly says some important things. That this growth comes by members speaking the truth in love, verse 15. which results, we're also told in verse 16, in the building up of the body in love, and although it doesn't mention that in verse 16, we could add that when members speak the truth in love, they build up the whole body, the whole church, in love and in truth. Those things go together. And it is possible, of course, to speak the truth without love. It tends to be ineffective. The lack of love undermines the speaking of truth by the individual. So, you can speak the truth without love, but you tend to undermine yourself. But to love without speaking the truth is actually impossible. It's not love. In the overall scheme of things, if you withhold the truth from someone and don't say what they need to hear, that actually isn't loving and it's not helping them. not in the way that they need. So there needs to be a balance in this to bring the two things together. We live in a society that wants love without truth, and that affects the church. It can lead to a preaching that doesn't really feel good, but doesn't offer much by way of knowledge or teaching or discernment. or what's sometimes called polemics. Polemics means showing the difference, in this case, between the reformed faith and those who err in doctrine. That's polemics. The great, brilliant theologian, Klaas Skulde, once said that the reformed faith is always polemical. There's always an element of this, of saying This is what we believe from God's word. It's summarised in our confessions so that we know what we don't believe. We know what is wrong and we can recognise the schemes of the devil once again. Of course that can be overdone, that polemics, but nevertheless it's an important part, warning against error. The modern approach also tends to lead to members who know very well how to offer a hail fellow and well met approach. where church life is ever so jolly when everybody gets together and has a nice cup of coffee. But don't admonish one another, don't rebuke one another. Well, that leads to churches that may be jolly for a time, but not when sin gets out of hand because it's not being dealt with and not being confronted. and it tends to lead to the loss of the mark of discipline in the church. And the net result from this one-sided approach is to weaken rather than to build up the body. But the solution to that is not to react to the opposite extreme, all truth with no love. The two need to be kept together. And that means that when you are sharing or teaching the knowledge that you have, say in a Bible study group, when you are sharing what you know, it is done out of a genuine desire for the welfare of your brethren, to help them grow up and not be babies. And when you use polemics, pointing out what's wrong with the views of others, in order to encourage people to be discerning, Genuinely doing that in order to help us all recognize error and Satan's wiles and the dangerous seas and winds that are around us so that our brothers and sisters can steer clear of those things. And also at the same time, encouraging each other to stick to the truth and being willing to admonish and even discipline those who don't for their welfare. not simply to punish, not to get rid of someone who's a headache, but out of a genuine love, a genuine desire for their welfare. As well as helping and assisting each other by the use of your gifts, the gifts that the Lord Jesus has given you, not just for self-aggrandizement or some reason like that, but again for the welfare, for the benefit of your brothers and sisters and for the good of the church collectively. And if each of us will seek the Lord's help to grow up in these ways, then Lord willing, the whole body can grow and mature as well. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, will you grant us growth in the knowledge of your word, in discernment, in wisdom, and also the courage to act on what we know. Will you grant us stability against the many winds of false doctrine blowing across the world? And Father, will you help us to help each other with these things? And in this way, Father, will you grant us collective growth in maturity as well, for your own name's sake? We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. to grow in knowledge, discernment, and maturity, so that the church, that is to say, Zion, to use another term, is prospered. We need daily renewal and help from God's spirit, along with study of his word. Psalter hymnal 95, we'll seek that daily renewal, number 95. We stand to sing, and would you please remain standing afterwards for the blessing and doxology, 95. ♪ All praise the Lord ♪ After the blessing, our doxology is number 301, stanzas one and four. The God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. you God, for help, will make the end. We shall find him at the end. O come, O come, O come, Israel