Ephesians chapter 3. If you have your Bibles, open to Ephesians chapter 3. We'll pick up reading in verse 1 and read through chapter 4, verse 16. Ephesians chapter 3, verse 1 through chapter 4, verse 16. For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you, that by revelation that was made known to me, the mystery, as I wrote before in brief, By referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit. To be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel of which I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things, so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Therefore, I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are for your glory. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. not to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us. To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says when he ascended on high, he led captive a host of captives. And he gave gifts to men. Now this expression, he ascended, what does it mean except that he also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is himself also he who ascended far above all the heavens so that he might feel all things. 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. 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 and 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 whatever 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. May God bless his word this evening now as we have read it and heard it and in a few moments as Jeremy comes to preach as well. Before that, let's stand together again and sing. Well can I begin by first of all saying thank you again for having me for these few days together. It's been a joy and a pleasure and a privilege to be with you all. Since my first visit we've been able to pray for you as a congregation from time to time. I hope with a measure of understanding about the blessings and the opportunities that God has given to you here, and please be assured of our continued interest in the work of the gospel and our desire for God's blessing. Thank you for all your kindnesses to me personally, all your generosity of time in these evenings, all of the kind words and the profitable conversations and fellowship that we've enjoyed together. I hope that this is a further expression of our unity together in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'd ask you to turn back with me to those verses that we've been looking at there at the more or less the front end of Ephesians and chapter 4, particularly verses 11, 12 and 13. I'll read them again in your hearing. And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying or building up of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Let's again seek God's face. Lord, we do thank you for every mercy bestowed upon us, both in these days and in all our lives. You, O God, have been so good to each one of us, giving us life and breath and all things. And you have granted to many of those who are here this evening the blessings of life everlasting in Christ Jesus. and to those who are still outside the kingdom, the blessing of hearing the good news of Jesus Christ, learning again of the joys and the privileges and the pleasures, the mercies that are to be found in Him. We pray, O God, that this night those who do not yet know those mercies would come to desire them and to obtain them. And those of us who have them, would be moved to enjoy them, to appreciate them, and to be properly thankful for them. To the praise of the glory of your grace, our great God. In Jesus' name we pray it. Amen. When God came to us, when he drew near in Christ. We were broken people. We were by nature, says Paul, children of wrath, just like everybody else. There was nothing in you to commend you to the grace and to the mercy of God, But nevertheless, God, in His mercy, having set His love upon you from before the foundation of the world, if you are a Christian, God reached out and He took you and He made you alive together with Jesus Christ. He put you into Christ Jesus. And that reality of being united to Christ, alive in Him, having the same power at work in you that was at work in Him when God raised Him from the dead, that life is expressed, as we have seen, in a life of communion with the saints of God. we are complete in Christ. We have all things needful in Him. We are fully supplied with all that is required. And yet, at the same time, we can say that while complete in Christ, it remains for us to be completed in Christ. That we are, because of that life, now works in progress. We are to be developing in our relationship with Christ and with one another, we are like children in a spiritual sense who are growing up in all things into Him. And so that that purpose might be carried out, so that God in His great kindness might bring us toward that, He has given to His church certain gifts. He's given, first of all, the apostles, and some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some also to be pastors and teachers. And those gifts are among the gifts that are given to the whole congregation. And those word gifts are granted so that the saints as a body may be equipped for the work of ministry, for the building up of the whole church of Jesus Christ. So these people are given. These gifts are provided. This process is to be carried out in the church of Jesus Christ. But what's the ultimate purpose? What's it all moving toward? Well, we could answer that question in measure by going backwards and saying that to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations. And you'd be absolutely right in saying that. The end result is always the glory of God in Christ. But what does that actually look like in the nitty-gritty of real life in churches like the ones to which we belong? What is it all tending toward? In verse 13, Paul says that this giving of gifts to the whole congregation and some of these specific word ministry gifts are for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ until... There's something that is in mind. There's an end that Paul has in mind as he thinks about what God's intention for the church is. We're trying to answer the question, what is the ocean into which all these streams of mercy and ministry are pouring? What is our shared progress towards? What's the common destination that we're all laboring for as those who are in Christ Jesus? How do you bring glory to your God in the church to this generation and all generations? And the answer is, by a manifest or an evident, a clear and advancing spiritual maturity. Until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect or mature or complete man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. If there is in the church inactivity, in the sense that we looked at from verse 12, then the result must be immaturity. But where the church is engaged in this work together, then the outcome is designed to be the maturity of the whole congregation. You know the same principle yourself. If you don't exercise, you won't become strong. Unless you get the body moving, it won't get used to moving. And so it is in the church. It's as we exercise these gifts and graces in communion one with another, that we do this growing, this strengthening, this developing, and this maturity. How then can the Apostle speak of the progress and destination of the church? It is this, that we might all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And before we look at the substance of that, just note those words at the front end. Until we all come. Brothers and sisters, the design of God in Christ is that none of us should be left out of this process. That you should not exclude yourself, perhaps out of a doubt, perhaps out of a sense of false modesty, that you should not exclude anybody else, perhaps out of an unbelief or a cynicism. Well, I can understand how your brother so-and-so and sister so-and-so might come to maturity, but you know that other guy, You know, that man, that woman, how are they going to... No, my friends, God will bring all His church, by these means, to maturity. And you can, with confident expectation and with joyful assurance, properly assume that God's means, faithfully embraced and employed, will secure God's ends. My friends, do not doubt God's power and grace and mercy toward you in Christ. Don't presume that you will be left on the sidelines, that you will be lagging behind. The glory of the church is that it works together so that Christ may be glorified in her midst. You should not exclude yourself from this. You need not exclude yourself from this, and you should not exclude anybody else. God intends that by the use of these means, we should all come, first of all, to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, then to a perfect man and to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The end in view is the development of unity, the attainment of maturity, and the expression of identity. First of all then, the development of unity. As we do these things, that we should come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. You see, as the Word of God is preached, as the whole congregation is exposed to the whole counsel of God, there ought to be a growing grasp of the truth. Paul spoke about those things in the first six verses of this chapter. He wants that we should walk worthy of the calling with which we were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering or patience, bearing with one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. because there's one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in you all. As these things are made clear, as these great central realities of what it means to be in Christ are expressed, explained, and pressed home into your souls, it ought to give rise to shared conviction and shared action. It ought to bind you together. There ought to be a sense that we are together entering in to the glories that have already been revealed to us. That we are together galvanized into action that carries us in the same direction, expressing the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. So that the doctrine that we hold, the teaching to which we hang, the lives that we live, reveal a common treasure. By common I don't mean one that anybody can get, but one that we have in common. A mutual interest and a shared experience. So that when the Word of God is proclaimed, when Christ is placarded before us, when we begin to dive into these things, that we come to increasingly know and to feel and to demonstrate those blessed ties which bind the hearts of God's people together. Now it doesn't mean that you sort of move forwards as an undifferentiated mass, that there's no distinction or difference. There ought to be. We've said before that if you've been a Christian for five years, there ought to be something that you think is going wrong if you haven't learned things yet that a five-day-old Christian has yet to learn. There ought to be distinction. But there ought to be no difference in direction. You are learning, if you've been a new Christian for a few days or weeks, the very same things that carry you in the very same direction as those who've been in Christ for five decades. You're still being united. You're moving on together. You're entering in together. And as the same truth is preached, You may be going in a little deeper, but it's the same excellent truth. It's the same divine majesty. It's the same inexplicable and unfathomable glory that is being revealed. The unity of the faith and the knowledge, the knowledge of the Son of God. Now what does it mean to know the Son of God? My friends, this is so much more than memorizing facts about Jesus Christ. It is much more than an orthodox statement of faith about He who, being in the form of God, did not consider it a thing to be grasped. to be equal with God, but who came into this world, who suffered and died, who laid down His life on behalf of His people, that He might exhaust the wrath of God toward them for their sins, that He might reconcile us to God, that He might make us sons of His Father and then therefore by adoption that we might become sons of God. That's true, but you can say that that's true and not still know that it's true. We're talking about a growing acquaintance with the Lord Jesus. Is that more precious to you than it used to be? Do you plumb the depths of the wonders of the person and the work of the Son more deeply now than you used to? Is there a developing service? Is your heart more bound to Him than it used to be? Is there a deepening appreciation of the wonders of His saving work toward you? What it means for you to be alive together with Christ? what it means for you to be seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. In short, friends, do we gaze at our Savior as He is made known in the pages of this book until our hearts burn within us like the disciples on the road to Emmaus. You say, now I begin to see Him. And as I gaze upon Him with faith and with love, I am being transformed into His image from glory into glory. And not me alone, but those with me who are also hearing these things, who are coming to know by degrees the majesties and the beauties of our Redeemer. And it is as then we grow together in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God that this directs our fellowship and our ministry. You see, all of these things express our unity in Christ and a growing sense of our nearness to Him. How well acquainted are you with your Saviour? My friend, are you acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ at all? You might know His name. If you've been part of this church, congregation, this gathering for any length of time, I hope you could tell me things about Him. But it's more than that. Have you seen Him so as to be captured and enraptured by Him? That you have become taken up with Jesus Christ. That you have rolled your soul upon Him as the one who can deliver you from sin and death and hell. That you have felt your brokenness and you've come to Him to make you whole. That you have known your alienation from God and you've cried out for the blood that is able to wash you clean. that you've trusted in Him to provide the righteousness that you yourself cannot provide, that you may have peace with God, that having come to know Him, your earnest desire is to know Him better. Christ is a sweet thing which once tasted you crave for more. Perhaps you've heard it said, I don't know that it's true, but the suggestion's been made that a very famous American brand of fried chicken has a special ingredient in it. that doesn't just make it taste good, it makes you keep going back for more. You know that rumor? Urban myth? It's kind of addictive. Not just the one, but you need more and more of it. My friends, Christ ought to be truly spiritually addictive to us. Once you've tasted, you need to taste again. Once you've seen, you want to keep on looking. Are our views of God too low because our eyes are not sufficiently full of Jesus Christ. It is in knowing Him that we know the Father. What do you think of God? Is He distant from you? Is He snarling towards you? Is He suspicious of you? You have a God who is perhaps always ready to leap on you and punish you for the things that you're not doing quite right. Or do you see the heart of God revealed in Jesus Christ toward you? So that even His discipline is the discipline of a father in love. That His hand is open toward you to dispense to you all those good things which He has ordained should be purchased by the blood of the Lamb. You need to know Christ and then to grow in Christ. Some of you perhaps need to come to Him now and to ask Him to make you whole, to take away your sins, to bring you to God in peace. and then that you may grow in Him." And the preaching of the Word is designed to do that, so that as you are stirred up to love and good works, as you learn how to invest in one another to the end of spiritual building up of the church, that the whole body together, with their eyes and their hearts full of God in Christ, knowing and loving and advancing in the truth, come together to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of God's only begotten Son and to a perfect or mature or complete man. If you have children, or perhaps you remember this in your household, do you have that wall or that door post where you mark off how tall your children get, the years or the half years or however often you do it? And you can see where they were when they were one year old, and then when they were one and a half, and two, and two and a half. And you can maybe see how they're doing against one another. And you learn to look at them as they grow up. They're getting bigger. They're maturing in mind and in body. You're looking at the stages of development. You see, when the teeth fall out and when the adult teeth come in, you see where the body begins to change. The physical and the mental and the emotional development over the passage of time. In the very same way we should look for and be able to see such development physically and mentally and emotionally in our children, so it ought to be in the saints. God does not intend us to remain static. God does not intend that we should simply drift along, but rather that we should grow up to a mature man. That every one of us in the church together should come to a full-orbed spiritual maturity. that we should be a fully developed person in the prime of life, in the peak of capacity. Perhaps you've seen somebody like that. You might say, that's a fine specimen of humanity. It's a fine figure of a man. You know, he's in his prime. He's healthy, he's strong, he's fit, and he's able. He's well balanced across his humanity. This is the image that Paul brings before us of a body well balanced and complete in real righteousness, so that the whole and its parts are everything that they ought to be. You ever seen somebody who's worked too hard on one part of their body? A friend at university used to do a lot of weights at the top end. The waist up, he was Adonis. He'd just do big abs, the works. These two little legs that used to hang out from underneath. That's not what it's supposed to be, man. You've got to work the whole of your humanity, the whole body together. You know what it would be like if someone pumped iron with one arm and never used the other one. You know, he's got a beast on this side, he's a twiglet on this side. It's not right. It's not what it should be, and it's not what it should be in the church. We ought to be growing into a full-orbed, well-balanced, properly rounded body in Christ Jesus, in which every member is contributing to and revealing the health and the strength of the whole. And if there is a problem in one part, then the other parts are caring for it and investing in it and protecting it, so that it is not cast out or left behind, but carried along. And in some circumstances, it's the strength of this part that helps the rest to prosper And then on another occasion, it's the strength of this part that keeps the other in health and in good condition. So that together, it is clear that a mature or complete or perfect body is being formed with all the members in their proper place and demonstrating their proper role and function. And this is why the Word of God is preached to you. And this is why as it is preached, and as you learn these things, you are bringing them to bear on one another as we saw last night. Until we all come together to this unity of the faith and of the knowledge of God's true Son, to a perfect man, and to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Not only the development of unity, not only the attainment of maturity, but also the expression of our identity. Remember what we read on Wednesday evening in chapter 1. At the end of that chapter, God put all things under Christ's feet and gave Christ to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Paul is now talking about something that brings the church to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. My friends, this is how this is realized. This is how it is brought into evident existence in real time and real space among God's redeemed people. As the Word of God has its influence upon you, as it resonates out from the pulpit and through the members of the congregation, there ought to be a sense in which each one of us, as we hear it, we rise to it, we respond to the Word of God. It calls us onward and it calls us upward so that we increasingly reflect and express the attributes and powers of our risen head. Remember that God has saved us so that we might be conformed to the image of His Son, that every one of us might show more and more what it means to be holy as God is holy, as we see it in the life and in the ministry of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. You cannot disconnect your maturity from your identity. It is because you are in Christ that you grow up in all things into Him who is the Head. You come to the full stature, the complete demonstration of your relationship to Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior. That's a glorious prospect, that the church should become increasingly what God in His mercy has intended us to be. That Christ, because of His love for His blood-bought bride, should work in us that beauty that at the end he should present her to himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she should be holy and without blemish. You do realize don't you that that's what Christ is doing with you and to you and for you. That you if you're a Christian are the object of His constant love, His care, His concern, His investment. The Word of God, in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 16, the Word of God is to dwell in us richly. So that these things are carried out in us. So that each one of us is by degrees conformed to the image of the Son of God. And the whole body by that means revealed as the sphere in which the power of the age to come is gloriously operative. What do I mean by that? We'll go back to one of the portions that we read this evening in Ephesians and chapter 3, verse 8. To me, says the apostle, to me who am less than the least of all the saints, Paul's so determined to express his own sense of his felt unworthiness in himself that he makes up words to communicate just how little he thinks of himself by nature. He's sort of less than the least of most. He's the bottom of the pile. And yet to Him, in all His innate and natural sin and wickedness and transgression, to Him this grace was given. That He should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable, the unfathomable riches of Jesus Christ. and to make everyone see what is the fellowship of that mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom, that multicolored isn't good enough, greatly various isn't good enough, it's the glorious spread, multifaceted wisdom of God might be made known where? By whom? By the church, to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places according to the eternal purpose which God accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. My friends, that's what we are. If we are true believers, joined together with other saints, God has ordained us to be the stage on which he reveals the glory of his saving wisdom, not just to a watching world, but to the principalities and powers in the heavenlies. So that if, as it were, there were an angel, Or if, as it were, even the devil himself were to challenge God, where then is your wisdom? Where is this so great salvation that you have wrought? God could, as it were, point to His people and say, it's there. where I take these wretched, broken, vile, miserable sinners, and I bring them to myself by my Son, and I put away their sins once and for all, and I turn away my wrath from their transgressions through my Beloved, and I make them mine, and having made them mine, I build them up so that my saving wisdom, my power, my mercy, my justice, my truth are seen in them. In you. Do you feel like saying in us? Really? Have you seen us? And this is our good day. You know, we've come out for the preaching on a Friday and everything. This is us at our best and you're saying that this is where God intends, as it were, to point and say, there's my wisdom at work. There's my saving glory displayed. Yes, my friends, it's the Word of God does its work in us as it is preached and applied, as we begin to take it in and work it out. It is so that we might all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. that we may bring glory to God in the church to all generations. If that doesn't entice you, then it's quite likely that there was much wrong with what I've tried to say. There may be something wrong with you in the hearing. Because even the faintest taste and sense of these things ought to at least tantalize the healthy spiritual taste buds. To say yes. wonderful as it may seem, amazing as it is that a wretch like me should have such prospects laid before us. This is something ardently to be desired and earnestly to be pursued. My friends, do you have any appetite for this? Does that sound like something you want to be and to do? To be honest, if you say no, I could take it or leave it. then that's an indication that you have nothing of Christ in your soul. If there's no response to this prospect, if there's no appetite for the Lord Jesus, if there's no desire to grow in the unity of the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, if you've got no concern about spiritual maturity across the whole, if the prospect of growing into the fullness of the stature of Christ Jesus Himself doesn't give you any stirrings of soul, then you don't need so much to learn these things as to learn Christ in the first and truest sense. My friends, if you don't want this, then you need to learn how desperately you need this. You need to understand that that very lack of desire is a revelation of the fact that you are still dead in your trespasses and sins. Now some of you might say, but I don't want it enough. I think that's the way most true saints feel. But if you say, I couldn't care at all, that's a dreadful state to be in. True believers desire this. Healthy believers desire this earnestly. And there's a sense in which as you get healthier, you become almost more fearful that you don't desire it enough You realize more how much you don't realize. You get to know how much you don't know. You realize, you feel that you've only just begun and with the Apostle Paul, you're pressing on, you're letting go and leaving behind the things that are there and you're stretching out. Christ Jesus has laid hold upon you and you're now reaching forwards to lay hold of that for which He laid hold upon you. Do you want this? Do you desire this? God in Christ holds out these prospects to His church. And He says, Pursue these things by My appointed means. By My Spirit I have undertaken that those for whom Christ died shall attain to the ends for which He laid down His life for them. You may long for this progress. You may groan for this progress. If you don't, repent of the fact that you don't and plead with the Lord that you might. Ask God to give you a growing appetite for Christ. A little like the man who prayed, oh Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Cry out to God, I want this. Oh God, give me a greater appetite still. Ask Him for what you lack and He is pleased to grant it. Do you understand now, I hope, a little better why I've been saying each night, what do you think about the prospect of hearing the Word of God preached? because those are God's means to accomplish these ends. What do you think about the Lord's Day and the prospect of gathering with others who are joined together in the same pursuit of the same goals, to hear God speak through His Word that Christ may be formed in you more and more? How do you prepare for the Lord's Day? How do you plan for it? I had a delightful conversation a few days ago with a man who's been coming to our church for a little while. He's learning some of these things. He's facing particular challenges and difficulties with regard to his pursuit of these matters. And so we talked together. about planning ahead of time, making a principled decision before any difficulties come. I know where I will be when God's Word is being preached. God helping me, I will be there with my eyes as open as I can get them and my ears pinned back and my heart made tender by preparatory prayer. Lord, speak to me that I may hear. Lord, teach me by your gifts to your church. Do you plan that interaction with the saints? You're trying to find ways and means whereby you can stir one another up. Are you reading and praying the word of God? When it's preached, do you rise up to it or are you sliding back from it? You see, the purpose of preaching is not to maintain the status quo. It's not just to keep things the way they are. It's not a stroking process to just try and make sure that the church cats can go on purring with their heads tucked up nice and safe and warm. It's designed to stir you. It's designed to equip you. It's designed to move you onward and upward. To press Christ into your soul so that you reflect the excellence and the beauty of Christ as your Redeemer. To move you always towards spiritual maturity. Brothers and sisters, don't come to church to get by. Come to church to get on, to move forwards, to press on into Jesus Christ. This is what it means to be a disciple, and this is what is involved in discipleship. You remember the terms of the Great Commission. We know it so well in our minds, but do we understand what is involved? Christ sends out His followers. He says, Make disciples of all the nations, then baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And having made them disciples through the preaching of the good news, go on then to teach them all the things that I have commanded you. Being a Christian, coming into the church is the beginning of a glorious reality that is going to blossom in the glory to come. So that you are instructed, so that all these things that Christ has spoken for your comfort, for your encouragement, for your blessing, for your development, for your growth, they are brought to bear upon your soul, Sunday by Sunday, like a master craftsman with the great block of granite before him, and the chisel in one hand and the hammer in the other, bringing the Word of God to bear, so that the image of Christ springs into existence and into ever clearer expression in your soul. That's what we're pursuing. That's what we're investing in, both for ourselves and for one another. You understand your privilege, that you are not then spectators. You are participants, first of all, in receiving the Word of God. but then again in as it were reflecting it back out towards one another so that you and others obtain the blessings and the benefits of growing up into Christ. Do you understand more what a church is? That it's not a religious club. There's not a gang of people who happen to be united by the way that they dress, or by the coffee that they drink, or by the places that they happen to go, or even by the words that they sing together. That there is this profound spiritual reality at work. That being in Christ, we have committed to one another. We have covenanted together. to help one another on toward heaven. See, the church is never an option for a true Christian. It is God's appointed environment for you to advance toward unity and maturity and Christ-likeness. Now there are circumstances and situations in which people might legitimately not have the opportunities afforded by a healthy biblical church. But that, for you, is not the problem. God has provided for you the environment in which He has designed everything for you to grow up in all things into Him who is the head. Christian, if you isolate yourself from other believers, you cut the nerve of spiritual growth. If you hold back from the church of Jesus Christ, If you ask, how much can I get away with, as opposed to how much can I invest, then you will go on being shriveled in your soul. You will not grow as you might. I'm not accusing anybody here, and I don't want you to imagine that I'm pointing a big gun at the congregation that I serve back home, but far too many Christians are pursuing a practical theory of minimal exposure to God's Word and God's people. they'll do just enough to keep their head above water, just enough to soothe their conscience, just enough to keep the pastors and teachers off their backs, just enough not to give the impression that they've wandered too far away and become too isolated. But my friends, that is not the path to spiritual maturity. How can you invest and receive investment? What can you do to pursue these things for yourselves and for others? How can you and others grow? Don't you desire that? Isn't that a glorious prospect? I think it was Andrew Fuller who said, if things were with our souls the way they ought to be, the question with us would not so much be what must I do as what can I do. Too many of us, perhaps because of bitter experience, perhaps prior poor teaching, maybe because of the assaults of the devil, for various reasons, our own carelessness and laziness, we ask, what do I have to do? rather than, what can I do? Not about doing more. Not about appearing busy. Please don't misunderstand this as a call to mindless activity in the hopes that people think that now you're moving, things are well with you. No, it's the pursuit of genuine spiritual maturity, likeness to Jesus Christ. My friends, flee the inactivity that leads to immaturity. cast an eye over your life as a whole. Consider your priorities. What are the things to which you give your time and your energy and your money? Think about your practices. What do they reveal about the things that are of first importance to you? Think about the patterns of your life. What do they reveal about the things that are precious, the things that are prime for you? Get under the Word of God. Give out the Word of God. Do it cheerfully. Do it deliberately. Do it willingly. If you cannot do it well, then at least do it as well as you can that Christ may be formed in you individually and corporately. Friends, when we understand these things, I cannot imagine that many of us do not think we have to repent of our coolness and our dullness, our carelessness and our distance. Where might we be now to the praise of the glory of His grace were it not for such carelessness and dullness in our souls? The marvel is God does not wash his hands of us. If you behave like this toward me or I toward you, wouldn't we become impatient, stroppy, frustrated? Why do I bother? Why do I keep on going? Why do I keep on trying? My friends, divine patience, divine love, divine mercy and divine wisdom continue to hold out to us these appointed means. God has not taken away His Word. God has not taken away His gifts. In the face of all our foolishness and all our failings and all our transgressions, God calls us again. Listen to the voice of the Shepherd. Hear Him. Follow Him. Listen to the voice of Christ as it echoes down to you by means of the Apostles and the Prophets, the Evangelists, and now standing before you, flesh and blood, modeling and teaching these things, those pastor teachers, who are equipping the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ, and always with this definite, deliberate, and glorious end in mind, that you might come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that this privilege may be yours. that among these living stones built up a holy temple, a dwelling place of God in the spirit, the glory of the God of your salvation may shine forth to the exaltation of his name and to the praise of the glory of his grace. How I long to know it more myself. How I long to see it in the church which I serve in United Kingdom. And what a joy it is to see it taking place where the Word of God is preached. And what a prospect lies before you, brothers and sisters, to come more and more to these things, to the honor of your Savior, to the glory of your Heavenly Father. Let's pray together. Merciful God, great and gracious, greatly to be praised, whose greatness is unsearchable, high and lifted up, full of long-suffering and tender mercies, stooping down to us in Christ Jesus to raise beggars from the ash heap and to seat us with the princes of your people. O Lord, we come to you because of all that you have shown yourself to be in our Redeemer, and we ask once again that you would forgive us for our many sins, that you, Father, would blot out our transgressions as we come again to the fountain open for sin and for uncleanness. O God, our eyes have been too often filled with foolish and vain things, our hearts too often drawn after the things of this world. O God, we have clung to the dust. Revive us according to your word, we pray. Fill our hearts with an appetite for Christ. Give us an ever-increasing knowledge of him. Bring us together to the stature of the fullness of Christ Jesus. And glorify your name in this place. Thank you, O God, for the saints that you have saved here. joining them to Christ, bringing them out of darkness into your marvelous light, calling those who are not a people. your own beloved people, the apple of your eye, the treasure of your heart. Oh God, what a marvel of mercy it is that we who were dead in sin should be made alive in Christ and called to this glorious purpose that among us your majesty might be seen and known. So God, we pray, grant your spirit to us in increasing measure. work likeness to Christ in our hearts. Glorify your name in the midst of your people here, O Lord, for we ask it through our Savior's name. Amen.