So how would you build the church? If you were given the task of building the church, what model or what blueprint would you use? Would you do as so many so-called, I put the air quotes, churches do in our day, would you use a contemporary business model? Pattern your church after some business or organization that has seen a successful in today's terms. Would you begin with a good marketing strategy? Maybe that's what we need, a good marketing strategy. Maybe we start with some social media marketing. That's all the rage these days. Social media is the way to go. So, you know, if we want to reach the millennials, we have to have a good social media marketing campaign, something like a hashtag fun church campaign. Maybe you would pattern your church build after an organization like the NFL. They do a great job of bringing people into their stadiums, filling seats, pretty successful organization there. Maybe we need a good slogan like here at Grace Bible Fellowship every Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday. Perhaps you prefer the model of Walmart or Amazon.com. I think Amazon.com, that would be a great model for church. That would be the church at home model. Some churches advertise that you can attend from home in your pajamas. Just stay there in pajamas, turn on the television or the computer, and attend from home. Is that really attending church? Is that really what being with the body is all about? So in those cases you can just call in or go to their website and give by credit card. No fuss, no must no need to worry about being with God's people. You just stay home and tune in. So how would you build the church? How would you grow the church so often in our consumerist thinking? We see church growth as only a numbers thing. We hear talk in many church circles about how many decisions were made at a revival meeting or how many decisions were made at some evangelistic outreach. We talk of how many members a church has, or how many attend on the average Sunday morning. Even here, churches using the term giving units. People are giving units. How many giving units are in the church? That kind of talk is pretty sad, of course. When we reduce the body of Christ to a number of giving units, we see where that church's focus is. Giving units is not a biblical idea, and it is not biblical terminology. The problem is the modern so-called church has a consumerist mentality. We look at the church as a business and the people in the pews are consumers or customers. That's what folks that come and attend the service, they're just customers. We have to give them what they want if we want to keep them coming back. Deacons and elders are simply the board of directors for the business. Not biblical offices, but just a board of directors that directs the business. In the consumer world, the customer is always right. If we want to grow our business, our church, we have to give the customer what they want. Quite a few church growth websites that I looked at actually recommend having more than one service so that you can have a traditional music service and you can have a contemporary music service. Again, giving everybody what they want. It's about meeting everyone's desires, giving them what they want. Give the customer what they want, that's the way to build the church. If we are to cater to the customer, we have to entertain them. We have to meet their felt needs. We have to stroke their ego. We have to heighten their sense of self-esteem. We have to advertise health, wealth, and prosperity. Whatever the customer wants, we deliver. Your best life now. Maybe you've heard that before. Whatever the latest polls or surveys conclude, we'll bring the masses through the door. That's what we do. That's the Walmart model of building the church. Give the customers what they want and do it better than the competition down the street. Well, we should be clear that we need not come up with a model for building or growing Grace Bible Fellowship or any other church for that matter. God has ordained the method or model for building his church. Christ has said, I will build my church in Matthew 16, 18. I like what MacArthur says about this. He says, Christ is building his church and I don't want to get in the way. Christ is building his church and he has designed the methods and means for doing so. Rather than using a man-centered, consumerist approach to building the church, we should look to the scriptures and see what the methodology God has prescribed for building his church. And we can begin with the passage in Matthew 16, if you want to turn there, Matthew 16. Beginning in verse 13, it says, now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that I, the son of man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. And he said to them, but who do you say that I am? And of course, Simon Peter, always being the outspoken one, answered, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I'll point out a couple little things there about that statement there. I tell you, you are Peter. The word Peter there is petros. It's translated as a stone, a pebble. The word for rock, you are Peter, and on this rock, the word for rock is petra. It's a different word, it sounds very similar, looks, it's kind of a play on words that Jesus was using here. And the idea, the petra is a rock, it's a crag, it's like a huge boulder sticking out of the side of a mountain kind of thing, that's what that rock is. So when Jesus says, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, he's not referring to Peter as the rock on Pond, which he will build his church, but it was the statement that Peter had made. This rock that Jesus is speaking of isn't Peter the stone or the pebble. The rock is the proclamation that Peter made. The rock or foundation of the church is that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. That is the foundation upon which the church is being built. Not Peter as the Roman Catholic Church might want you to argue as he was the first Pope and so the church was built on him. That's not what this is saying. Christ is the foundation. Christ is the chief cornerstone. Christ is the principal building block of the church. Christ is building the church upon the foundation of who he is. Christ is building his church and he is using means and methods he has ordained to accomplish this. Not man's best schemes about how to build a church. Brother Jeff, a few weeks ago, shared one aspect of the means by which Christ is building his church, that being the message of the gospel. Christ uses the message of the gospel to build his church. We continue that theme, Christ building the church, this morning by looking at Christ building his church by building people. That's the title, Christ building the church by building people. So often in our consumerist thinking, we think that church growth is only in terms of numbers. How many members do you have? How many attend on the average Sunday morning? Like those things are the best measure of the success of the church. We would think that of successive football teams, whoever has the most people coming to their games, those kinds of things, you know, in a business sense, those would be the most successful. I don't want to totally discount that numbers are important, because numbers are important. Not as giving units, but because numbers reflect people. Numbers are a reflection of people. People are important. Numbers reflect souls transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. Souls saved by the grace of God, souls bought by the blood of Christ. That's why numbers are important. The scriptures speak of numbers added to the church. At Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 we read when Peter preached there were 3,000 souls that were saved. There was an accounting of converts. There was a specific number that were identified. One of the important concepts that we can conclude from this and from other passages where we see the numbers given of, and particularly in the beginning of Acts there. One of the important concepts we conclude is that there was some sort of role. There was a way of identifying or tallying these members. There was a tally that was kept. They knew how many there were. There was a number that could be identified and they could be counted. As numbers were added, people, numbers were added as people were saved, as they were baptized, and then they continued in the Apostles' Doctrine. Church membership is a biblical concept. Being identified with a local church as a card-carrying member with your name on a roll and being accountable and countable is a biblical concept. So numbers are important. Without numbers being added to the church from generation to generation, the church would cease to exist. I mean, if you just think about it, if there's never another person that comes to Grace Bible Fellowship in generations to come, we're all gonna We're not all going to still be here 100 years from now. This local body will cease to exist if there are no more members, no more people brought into this church, no more people brought into this body. That's true of the church in the universal sense. If people aren't brought into the church, even in the universal sense, of course, the local body is the representation, the manifestation of the universal church. But the same holds true, obviously, if there aren't numbers added, then the church will cease to exist. It will be no more in this day and age. But the church will not cease to exist because Christ is adding numbers to his church from generation to generation. When we think of Christ building his church by building people, we could say by building people numerically, by adding people to the church, by adding members to the body, adding numbers of people, adding individuals. Christ does this by means of giving the message of the gospel, which is what Jeff covered. This is the fulfillment of the first step of the Great Commission. Go into the world and make disciples, evangelize, share the good news of Christ. And then the second step, baptize them into the church. Baptism is identification with Christ and his church. That is the means Christ has ordained for building people numerically into the church, the first and second steps of the Great Commission. However, Christ's commission doesn't stop there, does it? He says, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And then what? Teach them. Teach them whatsoever things I have commanded. We have his commands revealed in scripture. We are to teach what he has commanded in the scriptures. Notice he didn't say that we are to teach them to feel what is being spoken into their heart. No, he says, teach them what I have commanded. You see, there's more to building the church than adding numbers. Christ is building the church by building people. Christ is building his church by building people is more than just evangelism. It includes evangelism. but it also includes teaching. It is not just sharing the gospel of salvation, but also the gospel of living and the gospel of loving and the gospel of learning to be like Christ. Certainly evangelism is important. We don't want to discount that. That is an extremely important part of what a growing healthy church does. It is a necessary function of any growing healthy church. You may recall, I've heard and I've even seen, I guess, in churches where oftentimes they will have above the door as you leave the church, it'll say, you are now entering the mission field. And I kind of get what they're trying to say there, but the truth is you're in the mission field. You're always in the mission field. Wherever you are, it is the mission field. The mission field is inside the church walls as well. because of this third part of the commission. That's part of what a missionary does, the whole great commission that we see here, including the teaching. So numbers are important. A church must grow in number or add members over time, but a healthy church grows in more than just numbers. MacArthur says that the first concern of the leadership of the church should be for the filled seats, not the empty ones. There is a biblical picture of Christ building the church by building people that has a non-numerical connotation. 1 Peter 2, verses 1-5. Peter writes, so put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good as you come to him a living stone that's Christ the living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, that's Christ. You, speaking to the church, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. We are to desire the pure milk of the word so that we may grow. And as we grow, we are being built up as living stones into a spiritual house and a holy priesthood. We grow as individuals and as a community of believers. We are living stones, each individual, a living stone, each an individual living stone being built up into a spiritual house with many stones joined together. That is the picture of the church that Peter is bringing across here. We see the same emphasis here in Ephesians chapter 4, our passage for today that Mike read for us. Let's take a look at what it says about how the church is built. The main concept of this passage is the body, of course, and of course the body being a metaphor for the church. And if you remember that in our early days when Pastor Hill was here, he taught on this passage and taught on unity in the church. And he taught on the unity of the body, and one of the points that he made was that we have unity, we are given unity, we are unified when we come to Christ, we are unified in Christ, but then we must work to maintain that unity. And that's what Paul is exhorting us here Our unity was established in Christ at our salvation, but we must work, and that's what Paul is getting at here in verse 1. He says, I therefore a prisoner, and of course the therefore is looking back at the doctrine that he's been laying down in the first several chapters, Ephesians chapter 2, this doctrine of salvation, as clear as you will ever see it. He says, I, therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Paul here is urging the church at Ephesus and all churches who would ever read these words to be unified. He says that the spirit of that by the spirit of God, that we should be eager to maintain the unity that we have been given in Christ. We maintain the unity that we have been given, already given in Christ at salvation. We are given unity, but we must work eagerly to maintain that unity. So the context of the passage is emphasizing and encouraging unity in the body. If we look down at verse 11, we're gonna jump a few verses here, but we see here where he begins talking about building the church. He gives us some information about building the church. He gives us names of several offices that Christ ordained or gifted to the church. These were offices, people if you will, that were gifted in those roles to the church. They were gifted, they were given to the church for a purpose. Some of these we recognize were for a specific time in a specific place in the history of the church, the apostles and prophets. We recognize that those do not continue today and there's about three messages just in that. These were those who had, in the apostles case, had seen Christ. We can find a description of who apostles were and again, I don't want to get off on a rabbit trail there too far. Paul says that he was the last of them, that he was one born out of due time. So we can understand that there are many reasons we can understand why those offices were not for this time. But the important thing we want to look at is look at what, in verse 12, the next verse, look at what the text says about what these men in these offices were gifted to the church for. What was the purpose? Why were they given to the church? Verse 12 says, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. The important point here is that these men were not gifted to the church to do the work of the ministry, but to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. The word for equipping has the idea of perfecting or making complete. The pastor is to make complete or perfect the saints. Obviously God's not talking about sinless perfection here. We could not do that, but he's asking us to be fully equipped, full grown, mature, complete as Christ-like in this world and in this life as we can possibly be. That's what he's saying here is we are to grow and be Christ-like. It is such Christians who do the work of the ministry. The pastor is to equip, the saints are to do the work of the ministry. And to what end? What is the purpose of the equipping the saints for the work of the ministry? Says it is for the building up or the edifying of the body of Christ. Christ builds his church by building people. Here the text states specifically that it is the pastor who equips the saints to do the work of the ministry, which results in the building up of the body of Christ, which is the church. Christ uses the means of the pastor's equipping and the means of the saints doing the work to build his church, to build his people. So as members of the body are grown and equipped and matured, resulting in the building up or the edifying of the church. And I would submit that that is true both spiritually and numerically, that as people grow and as they are matured, that the church grows both in number and we grow in spiritual ways. If you have been saved for any amount of time, you should be better able to articulate the gospel now than when you first came to Christ. You should be better able to understand and apply the scriptures now than when you first came to Christ. You should be better able to disciple others now than when you first came to Christ. In other words, this is saying that mature Christians develop mature Christians. Where have we heard that concept before? Does that sound familiar? How about E.N.W.' 's theme, verse 2 Timothy 2.2. What we have heard from, Paul's telling Timothy, what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Notice again, Paul is saying, what you have heard from me, what you have learned from me, you are to teach. He's not saying, telling Timothy to teach people to feel what God is speaking into their heart or anything like that. So we see that faithful men teach faithful men who teach other faithful men and so on and so on. Mature Christians make mature Christians. Now verse 13, our next verse, makes it more clear that this is not about the numerical building of the church. It is about building up people within the church. Verse 13 reads, 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. That's our goal. Verse 13 says that this passage so far is saying that the pastors equipping of the saints to do ministry is for the purpose or the goal of building up the body until it reaches the unity of the faith and the knowledge of Christ. That is our goal, the unity of faith and knowledge of Christ. That is the goal of ministry. That is the goal of the pastors equipping and the saints working. People are added to the body and unified as a body. The goal is our unity. Again, we must have members if we are to be unified. It is a unity of the faith and is a unity in the knowledge of Christ. We have our individual faith, we have our individual knowledge of Christ that makes us unified. We grow in faith, we grow in knowledge, we do so as individuals. This is the inner spiritual growth in faith and in our knowledge of Christ. It is personal growth, it is progressive sanctification. It's not about adding numbers to the church per se, but it is about our spiritual growth. Paul actually prayed for this in the previous chapter, chapter 3, verses 14 through 17. It says, for this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his power, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power. through his spirit in your inner being, speaking about growing, strengthening the inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Paul prayed for the church to be strengthened in their inner being, and that's what he's talking about here in chapter four, this inner growth, this progressive sanctification. On verse 14 of chapter four, Paul continues that this goal, this growth, is that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by a human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. These are the things that are not part of our growing. These are the things that hinder our growth. These are things that we are growing out of. These are the old man ways that we're putting off as we put on new man ways. These things, in fact, as I said, hinder our growth. We are tossed around and unanchored in doctrine. When we are tossed around and unanchored in our doctrine, we don't grow. When we follow man's ideas, we follow man's worldviews, we fail to grow. When we mix man's psychology, man's sociology with theology, we fail to grow. Psalm chapter one. Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, the teaching of the Lord. His delight is in the law of the Lord, in his law, in his teaching, in the scriptures doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. We are not like the tree planted by the rivers of water when we are carried about by every wind of doctrine, when we are like the chaff that the wind drives away. Doctrine is important. Doctrine is teaching. That's what doctrine, it's just teaching. That's what we're talking about here, teaching. That's what pastors are to do, is to teach so that it edifies the body, builds up the saints so that they might do the work of the ministry. Doctrine is important. Some have said that doctrine divides, that doctrine can be divisive. I like what one commentator says, that doctrine divides. It divides from error. It divides truth from error. We must not shy away from doctrine. Truth, the truth, true doctrine of the scriptures divides from error, but it unites and strengthens the body. Christ was settled and grounded in doctrine himself, wasn't he? I mean, Christ did not waffle in his doctrine, his teaching. He was firm, steadfast, perfect in his doctrine. We're not quite so perfect sometimes, but we're growing. Doctrine is simply teaching. Christ was all about teaching. He said in the Great Commission, teach whatsoever I have commanded. That is doctrine. We teach doctrine. We are to be teaching Christ's doctrine. And that command in the Great Commission is for everyone to be teaching. As we grow and are built up, we become settled in our doctrine. We are not able to be led astray by man-centered teaching and man-centered thinking. We are grounded in our theology. Theology is more deeply understood. Again, I appreciate what Jeff said about reading good literature because it helps you to think deeply. It will help us to think deeply about theology. It will help us to think deeply about the scriptures, be able to better understand and better articulate and better disciple others if we are growing and understanding more deeply that theology matters. Theology does matter. Doctrine matters. We must know what we believe. How are we going to share with someone else what we believe if we don't know really well what we believe, if we don't know well what the scriptures teach? How do you share your faith if you don't really understand it, if you don't really understand the faith once for all delivered to the saints? 1 Peter 3.15 tells us to be able to give a reason to everyone that asks a reason for the hope that is within you. How do we do that if we don't understand why the hope that is within us from the scriptures? As we grow, like a tree planted by the rivers of water, we are deeply rooted and settled on the teaching of the scriptures. We know how to study, we know how to come to right conclusions about the truth of the scriptures. We recognize the errors in false teaching. We're better able to question teaching that we hear. We're better able to search the scriptures like the Bereans to see if the things that are being taught are so. We are less susceptible to false teaching and false doctrine. We are built up and we are matured in Christ. In verse 15, we begin to see how real growth is accomplished. We see the elements of our growth in Christ likeness. Verse 15 says, rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ. This can most literally be translated truthing in love. It's more than just speaking truth. It's more than about just speaking, but it's also receiving the truth in love. It is acting upon the truth in love. It is putting truth and love in practice in speaking and in every other way. It encompasses more than just speaking. It's also receiving and maintaining the truth. Truth must be spoken in love to grow the body. Truth or doctrine must be spoken and it must be spoken in love. Speaking truth in a harsh, condescending, or arrogant way does not aid in the building up of the body. That puts people off. It does not show Christlikeness. But speaking the truth in love will grow the body. That's what this verse is telling us. Speaking the truth in love will grow the body. We do that among one another as we speak to one another in love the truth of the scriptures. Verse 15 speaks of growing up into Christ. This is building people. It is progressive sanctification. We are to be growing in Christ likeness. We are to become more and more and more like him as we grow. There's a cliche out there we've talked about before. What would Jesus do? Well, if what would Jesus do lends us to thinking, well, Jesus would probably do whatever I think I would do. We're going the wrong direction. We don't want to fall into the trap that thinking that Jesus would necessarily do it our way. What we need to be asking ourselves is what does the scripture say about what Jesus actually did and what he commanded and what he taught about how we are to live. Verse 15 says that we are to grow up in every way into him. Growing up in every way into Christ is not talking about growing numbers. It's not talking about adding numbers to the church. It is talking about spiritual growth. It's talking about growing in the faith. It is talking about growing in our understanding and practice of Christlikeness. We are to grow in love. We grow in love. We grow in faith. We grow in grace. We grow in knowledge. We grow in all the manifestations of the new man that we become in Christ. We grow like the tree planted by the rivers of water and we bring forth fruit, the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, all those things, we are growing in those ways to be more like Christ. We are no more, as the verse says, no more children being led astray and carried about with false doctrine, but we are grown and built into the solid foundation of the church, the church being the pillar and ground of truth. We are growing up into him who is the head. Christ is the head of the church. He is the head, we are the body. Those men that we read in verse 11 that were gifted to the church for teaching and equipping, they are still the body. The pastor is not part of the head, he is part of the body. Christ is the head, the body needs a head. The body can live without some parts. We can lose a finger, we can lose a toe, we can lose an appendix. We can't lose our head. A body may not function as well as it could if it were complete and healthy, but it can continue to live and function without some parts. But it must have its head. The body is dead without its head. How's that for a church growth slogan? There is no function, no growth, no fruit. Indeed, no life at all without our head Christ. Verse 16. Goes further and it actually reads better when it's connected with verse 15. As we understand that chapter and verse divisions are not inspired and so you know people did that and so the original it's actually fascinating. The original Greek manuscripts were actually written in all capital letters with no spaces and no punctuation. How you would ever begin to read that, Folks can. So. If we look at this verse number 1615 and 16 together. We read speaking the truth in love. We are 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. Paul liked to write long sentences. Verse 16 begins, from whom, it's referring to Christ. Referring to Christ from verse 15. From whom is referring back to the head of the church. It's referring to Christ as the source of all this growth. Christ being the source of everything that follows. Christ is the source, he is the body builder. Interesting that we are growing into him and yet he is the source of that growth. So we're growing into Him, but yet He is the source of that growth. Christ is the goal, and Christ is the source. Christ is building His church by building people. He is the source. He is the primary mover. He is the one that is building the church. He is doing it by building people, by edifying the body. And He is the source of that growth, or the building of the people, the body, the living stones that are being fitted together. Christ is the source, he is the vine, we are the branches. We've heard that before, John chapter 15. We bear fruit only when we abide in him. John chapter 15, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself. Unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Separate head and body, vine and branches. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing. He is the source, not us, not the pastor, not some celebrity preacher on TV. Christ is the center, he is the source, he is the power center, he is the thermonuclear core that fuels our spiritual engines. So Christ is the source and the goal. We grow, or are built up into Him. And He gives us the ability to do so. Romans 11.36, for from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen. From Him, through Him, and to Him. Christ is the source and the end. So, here in verse 16, again this is a very long sentence. It's a very complicated sentence. There's a lot happening in there. It sounds very busy as we read through it I'm gonna read through it again Verse 16 from whom speaking of 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 We see all this activity all these things going on here Well, what's the point of all this activity that is empowered by Christ, the source, the head? Well, to emphasize the point of that verse, let's simplify it a little bit. We'll take out those couple of phrases in the middle there where it says, from whom the whole body And then there's a comma, it says joined and held together by every joint, we'll skip that. And with which it is equipped when each part is working properly, another phrase there, we'll skip that. So we'll put those two together. From whom the whole body makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. That's sort of emphasizing the point of the verse. That's the subject and the verb. This is saying that from Christ, the whole body makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. In other words, it is through the empowering of Christ that the body makes the body grow. So how do we grow the church? What grows the body? The body grows the body by the empowering of Christ. Christ builds his church by building people. Christ builds the body by means of the body. It is not that we just let go and let God. How many times have we heard that phrase? We just need to sit back and wait on God to move. We need to wait on God to enlighten me or do something. That's not what this is saying. And we don't just sit back and do nothing and wait on Christ. Nor do we say that it is, you know, I've got to do this. I've got to find the clever marketing scheme. I've got to find the business model that's going to work to build the church. It's not up to me to use my ways. It's not up to me to just sit back and wait on God to do something. But no, it is Christ building his church by the means of the body, just like The message of the gospel does not go out unless we give the message of the gospel. It must be spoken, it must be preached. This is Christ building his church through the growing and building of its individual members. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15 that it is, speaking of himself, he says, it is by the grace of God that I am what I am. I worked harder than any of them, speaking of the other apostles, yet it is not I but the grace of God that is with me. Paul says, I did it. Paul did it. Paul worked. But Paul knew that it was the power and grace of God that enabled him to do what he did. He was not taking credit. He was glorifying God through what he was able to do or what God did through him. So the pastor doesn't grow the body, the missionary doesn't grow the body, the celebrity TV preacher does not grow the body. The body grows the body by the empowering of Christ, the head of the church. The body grows the body. The church is built by the building of its people. Christ builds the church by building people. But what is there about all this stuff that we skipped in verse 16? What about all that activity, all those phrases that we passed over there? Well, those phrases, it describes the condition of the body as it builds the body. It describes the condition of the people being built who constitute the church. We read again in this verse, 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. We are joined and held together by every joint. We are joined and held together. We are unified. Paul's whole theme in this passage is about unity. We are to be unified and we are joined and we are held together in Christ. A healthy body is unified, it is joined and it is held together. So if someone gets mad and leaves the church, and we see this happen all the time in churches everywhere where people go from one church to another every time they get offended, every time they get angry. Well, that's like cutting off a sore toe. People leave churches all the time is because they get sore. A healthy body heals the wound. Rather than amputating a sore toe, a healthy body will heal itself. It may require the ointment of the scriptures. We may need some help from a doctor of the scriptures to apply God's truth and help in the healing process. But a healthy body continues to heal and grow together. They continue to heal and grow together. That's why the body is a perfect metaphor for the church. The immune system You know, our bodies heal themselves by our immune system, by regenerating cells, by the way God has designed us. If we get a cut on our finger and we put some antibiotic or something on there, well, that might help to keep it from becoming, you know, infected or whatever, but that does not actually heal that wound. The wound is healed by the regenerating of the cells. That's what heals the physical body. And in the same way, the spiritual body is also, should be healed when there are wounds that occur. Bill Mounce translates these phrases, he translates it, joined and brought together by every supporting ligament. We are joined and we are brought together and held together in unity by every joint or every supporting ligament. Joints and supporting ligaments are parts of the body. We are not the head, but we are all parts of the body. This means that we have a responsibility. Are we joints and supporting ligaments who hold and bring the body together, or are we those who divide and gossip and spread discord and bitterness within the body? As body parts, we should be holding the body together. We should be giving each other support. If we are not in unity with the body, it is like we are a dismembered hand or foot. We can be the best figure of a foot the world has ever seen, but if that foot is separated from the body, it's dead and it's decaying. There's no life in a single cell that is not connected to the body and to its head in a healthy way that allows nourishment to flow, just like food that nourishes us, the spiritual food of the scriptures nourishes the body as well. Just as our physical food nourishes every part of our physical body, so the spiritual food of the Word of God nourishes the whole body of the church, and it does so as it flows among the members. The body is held together by every supporting ligament, every one. This means that you are part of that support. Every part must give support. Every part must provide for the other parts. If you are in the body, you either do this or you sin. If you just come to the service to get your dose of churchianity and you don't provide anything to the body, you're like a leech. You're like a parasite that takes and takes and gives nothing for the good of the physical body. Christ said, deny yourself, not indulge yourself. He said, take up your cross, not take what you can get from others. He said, follow me. He didn't say follow your heart or your fleshly desires. Though the consumer church in America would say that the customer is right and we're here to meet your needs. So just put something in the offering plate and we'll tell you exactly what you want to hear. Think about the role or place that you have in the body. Are you exercising and growing your giftedness? There are many passages of scripture that talk about the giftedness of the body, the gifts that are given to each one of us. This particular passage speaks of the gifts that we are given in verse seven. How important are you to the body? If you think about our pastor, we would say that he's pretty important to the body. If he came in late to the service, walked in, You know, when we were singing, we'd probably have a problem with that. If he left right after the service, didn't stay for fellowship meal, didn't stay for the afternoon service, we'd probably have a problem for that. But this verse is saying that every part is important. Certainly, yeah, we all agree the pastor is important, but pastor is part of the body. This says every part of the body is important. If you are not among the body ministering your gifts, if you're not doing the work of the ministry, if you're not present and in fellowship with the body, then the body is not whole. It is missing some part, it is missing something that it needs. It's missing you. And you are not getting the full nourishment that is necessary for your growth and the building up of your body into the body. We must be in unity. We must be held together by the support of every part. We are held together by every part. We are held together by our unified faith. We're held together by our unified doctrine. We're held together by the grace of God. We're held together by Christ. The word that we see here, the word joined, the word that's translated joined, it's the exact same word that Paul uses in Ephesians chapter two. He writes, again speaking of the church, he's speaking of the church as the household of God here in Ephesians 2. He says that this household of God is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. Here, Paul is using this idea of being joined or fitted together. It's the idea of being fitted together, fashioned and fitted and joined together like the stones of the temple. Back when the temple was built, there was no mortar and concrete to build things. And so the stones had to be chipped and chiseled and have the hard edges knocked off and they had to be fitted so that they would fit together properly so that they could be built together into a structure. This, if you think about that, that's how we are often fitted together in the body. There can be a lot of friction. We need to get our hard edges knocked off sometimes. We need to be formed and fitted into the body ourselves. We need to be built into the body by the master builder. That is Christ. Christ is the master builder who chips and chisels and fits us together and forms us into the church that will glorify him. Sometimes that hurts a little. Sometimes it's a little uncomfortable. Sometimes we don't like the chipping in the chiseling in the forming together that Christ is doing, but we should be grateful for that. We should be praising God for the difficulties even. as we rub shoulders and elbows and there is friction among us, because God is using that friction to grow us. The friction that we often feel between us is Christ shaping us and fitting us into a unified temple. Paul uses the same word in his letter to the Colossians, chapter 2. I think maybe this is what Jeff might have read earlier. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism, And the worship of angels going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind. In other words, don't let this false gospel kind of thing disqualify you. And not holding fast, we are to be holding fast to the head. He says, so, and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together. That word knit is the same word here, being knit together. We are nourished and knit together through the joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God. So the whole body is nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, that is, its members, that is, you and I as members. And it grows with a growth that is from God. Again, Christ is building his church by building people. The Holy Spirit really wanted to get this message across to the churches because obviously he's writing it through Paul to a number of different churches. Look at the next phrase in verse 16 then. It says, when each part is working properly, each part, again, emphasizes that each member has their part. Each one has work to do within the body. Paul repeats the point. He wants to make sure that we get it. He says that each part is what? Working. Working is an activity word. This is something we do. We are to be working. We are to do something in the body. In verse 7, Paul writes, as I mentioned, about the giftedness, but grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. We all have a gift that we are to be exercising in the body. We, each one of us, have been given grace to work for the cause of Christ within the body. What are you doing for the cause of Christ within the body? Are you focused on your own needs, your own comforts, your own bank account, your own pleasure, your own fun? Or are you working for the cause of Christ as your first priority? Any member of a body who is not exercising their giftedness within the body is like a finger or toe that has an infection. If a finger or toe has an infection, it affects the entire body. The body's not healthy. The body is not healthy if one member is infected or ill. Having one member who has continuous sin in their life, who gossips, who sows discord, who is simply unconnected to the body and is just out doing their own thing, that person could be like a cancer to the body. It takes and it takes and it contributes nothing. That does not make for a healthy body. So to get the whole picture of this A couple of verses we've been looking at here. It is from Christ whom the whole body, when it is joined and fitted together and working properly, each doing its part that results in the growth of the body. These things make the body grow. Every part of the body must grow. Every part of the body must grow. Think of a body that is mature, except it has an arm that didn't grow. Think of a six foot tall, 190 pound guy that has the arm of a two year old. We would not consider that necessarily a healthy body. That's not the picture of a healthy body. It's not the picture of a healthy church. But yet that's what oftentimes the church is. That's the way the church looks. That is the picture of a body with a part that has not been attached. Think of that in the church sense. That six-foot, 190-pound guy with the arm of a two-year-old is a picture of a church with an unattached member that is not nourished, not nourished the way that the body is meant to be nourished, that has not been connected to the life-giving head and to the flow of spiritual nourishment that comes through the unified body of Christ. So look at what this verse says about the head Christ. Through the body, properly fitted and properly working, grows the body so that it is built up. But built up in what way? In what way does this say that the body is to be built up? Built up in love. It doesn't say built up in number of giving units. It says being built up in love. This is talking about building up the inner man and is talking about being made like Christ. This is Christ building the church by building people. Jesus said in John 1335, by this all people will know that you are my disciples. If what, you have love for one another. We are built up in love so that others will recognize the love of Christ in us. Christ builds his church by building people up in love. The love of Christ in us should be evident and God will use that to attract his elect to himself. What is the standard by which we measure the health of the church? Is it the number attending on a Sunday morning? Is it the number of dollars given on an annual basis? We often judge people or companies to be successful if they make a certain income or they have a certain stock value, in the case of the company. What about the church? How do we gauge the health of the church? If a church had 1,000 people on a Sunday morning and a seven-figure budget, would that make it a healthy church? Well, consider that of that 1,000 people, 90% of them might be lost. and the rest of them might be engrossed in a life-dominating sin. That's not a healthy church. So that type of thing is not the standard. Love is the standard. Love is how we gauge the health of the church. Love is what makes the church healthy and growing. Even if it is just 10 people meeting in a basement or in a hidden shack in some persecuted country, China or something like that, that church would be a healthier church than the mega church with lots of money and entertainment driven gospel. No, love is the standard. So here's a question. Why does the church not grow? No love. If we are not growing, it is because we do not love. What would motivate us to do something that we would find uncomfortable? What would cause us to share the gospel with an unbeliever, knowing that we might get ridiculed in the process? Love. Love for Christ and his message? Love for the lost sinner whom we're sharing the gospel of Christ with. If we don't do that, it's because we don't love. What would motivate us to do something uncomfortable like reach out to someone struggling emotionally or with a sin issue? What would motivate us to come alongside and encourage or admonish someone? Love. What would motivate us to respond properly when someone confronts us with a sin? Or someone questions us about something they see in our life that might be displeasing to the Lord? What would cause us to respond properly? Love. What would motivate someone to give their vacation savings to meet the needs of the body? Love. We see that in the beginning of Acts where folks gave houses and lands and whatever they had to meet the needs of the body. It's because they loved. What would motivate us to spend our time learning what the scriptures say about raising children or how to handle a marriage relationship? Love. Love for God and love for our neighbor. The two great commandments. What motivated Christ to go to the cross? Love. What motivated God to give his only son? Love. Christ modeled biblical love for us. We love him because he first loved us. We must grow in our love for him. We must put off the selfish old man ways and put on the new man that loves the way that Christ loves. Paul said in his letter, this in his letter to the Colossians, he's telling the church to put off the old man and to put on the new man, and he writes, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Doesn't that sound like what we've been talking about, the church being bound together, being knitted together, being unified? And we do that by putting on love. We are to put on love. We are to put on love by denying ourselves and by putting others first. And it is this love that binds us together in perfect harmony. That is the goal of the church, to be unified and in perfect harmony. And that is accomplished as we grow in putting on love for one another. We are called in one body. We are called together to be worshipers and to demonstrate the love of Christ within a unified body. That's what Paul is trying to get across to the church at Ephesus. That's the passage that we're in today. That is what Paul is telling that church and our church. And what happens when the church fails to love? What happens when we fail to grow in loving God and loving our neighbor? What happened to the church at Ephesus? Is the church at Ephesus still there today? It's not. What was the apostle John told to write to the Ephesians in Revelation chapter two? He writes, Speaking for the Lord, I know your works, your toil, and your patient endurance. The Ephesian church did works, the works of the ministry, perhaps. They did works. And how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but I've tested those who call themselves apostles and are not. They were firm in their doctrine. The Ephesian church was firm in their doctrine. They knew what they believed. They could discern false teaching He says, I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. God was commending them, the Ephesian church, for their steadfastness, their firmness in doctrine. They recognized and tested false apostles, false teaching. But what does the next verse say? Was their doctrinal firmness enough to keep the church healthy? Verse 4 says, but I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. They lost their first love. They lost their love for Christ and their love for one another. It says, remember therefore from where you have fallen and repent and do the works that you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand, remove your candlestick, take your light away from its place unless you repent. They are told to do the works you did at first. That is the work of love. Love is work. Love is active. Love is selfless, others focused action. It is focusing on others. It is doing for others. Love is demonstrated and lived and spoken. Love is active and we actively grow in love as we renew our mind in the scriptures. What is the result of the Ephesians losing the love that they had first and not repenting? Jesus says that he will remove their lampstand. They will lose their light of the gospel. They will cease to be a gospel church. A church that does not love does not grow. A church that does not grow does not live. It dies, its candle is snuffed out. MacArthur once said that the greatest threat to the church is not persecution. Persecution strengthens the church. The greatest threat to the church is its own people. Those are sobering words. It should be a sobering thought as we think about the future of Grace Bible Fellowship. Thankfully, our hope and our encouragement comes from the understanding that it is from Christ, the head of the church, that this growth occurs. We can grow in love. We are empowered to do so by Christ. We are empowered by Christ to change and grow and to be built up in love. Christ is our source. Christ is our hope. He provides through his word, through his people, and through his spirit all that we need to glorify him as we are built up in love. Christ is our source and Christ is our goal. Christ said, I will build my church. And indeed, he is building his church. He is building his church by building his people. Let's pray. Father, we thank you. We thank you that you are building your church. We thank you that it is not up to us to devise clever schemes or to find some Marketing plan some. Business model that would build your church, but we are thankful Lord that you are the one who is building your church. But we know Lord that you have given us responsibility. We see responsibility in this passage. And we are thankful Lord that you empower us to meet those responsibilities. We thank you, Lord, that you have been so gracious in giving us your word that teaches us. It teaches us how to grow. It teaches us how to put off old man ways and to put on new man ways and how we can grow in love for one another. It's hard to stand up here knowing that I'm a hypocrite in this regard. So often fail to love as I ought to. Father, we pray that you would grow us. We thank you that you are building your church by building people, and we want your growth. We want to grow to be like you. We want to love you and love our neighbor as you loved your father and your neighbor. Help us that we would grow in that regard. And Lord, not for our own gain, not for our own purpose, but may we do this for your glory so that your church might grow, so that your bride might be completed, so that you would be glorified for all eternity by what you have accomplished in your church. We ask it in Christ's name for his glory alone. Amen.