Ephesians 4:15-16

-There is a famous saying - a picture is worth a 1,000 words. Pictures capture important moments, help to preserve memories. I love pictures because they show how a lot can change, found a picture the other day with our kids from one year ago, I had short goatee, alot can change in a year, I also noticed our kids and how much they had grown in a year, how is it that beard grew like it did? I took care of it, washed it, put beard oil in it, how did our kids grow like they did, we provided for their physical needs, we as the body are to grow in Christ, but how? Paul answers that in the text

-connection between grow up and children v.14

-grow into Him, for Him

-into the likeness of Christ

-How do we grow up?

1 Speak Truth in Love

-Often thought of as - helping a brother or sister who is living in sin, confront them in love, speak truth to them to help them out of their sin

Galatians 6:1 ESV

1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

-Not the case in this text, it does not fit the context

-false teachers lead others astray by deceit, the body grows and stays clear of being led astray by speaking the truth

-v.14 - speak doctrinal truth, so that we all may know the truth and grow in the truth

Ephesians 4:25 ESV

25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

-this goes beyond preachers and pastors, we each are to speak right doctrine, that’s right we all should know right Biblical doctrine

Purity of doctrine is the soul of the church.

John Calvin

 4   We must not regard what or how the world esteems us, so we have the Word pure, and are certain of our doctrine.

Martin Luther

Table Talk (16th century)

Martin Luther

-we each must study the scriptures and know right doctrine, the benefit is not just for our own spiritual lives but so that we can help protect straying from the truth and lead one another to grow in Christ

Hebrews 3:12–13 ESV

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Hebrews 5:12 ESV

12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,

-we speak the truth to one another in love

-two functions: we speak Biblical doctrine in the love of Christ, the way we teach, the way we speak about Biblical doctrine, we do not speak about Biblical doctrine to force someone to obey the truth

-we also speak Biblical doctrine because we love one another

-think about our kids in this regard, I do not want to ever teach my kids falsehood, I would not want to lie to them, but to speak truth into their lives

2 Christ has Equipped the Body to Grow the Body

-Paul often describe the church as the body, a body has many parts, held together by Christ and equipped by Christ

-notice the body makes the body grow

-But we cannot miss the fact that the only way the body can make the body grow is because Christ has equipped us to help one another grow

-How?

-saved by grace through faith

-protestant reformation - Martin Luther - five solas summarize the protestant reformation well

-scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, glory of God alone

-gifted us

-when each part is working properly

-when each member of the body is working properly, using gifts, context - speaking truth in love - healthy church

-unhealthy churches - there is an absence of speaking Biblical doctrine

Ephesians 2:18–22 ESV

18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

But there is nothing that so proclaims the glory of God as the Christian Church, the body of which Christ Himself is the Head.

The Unsearchable Riches of Christ, 314

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones

There is no independence in the body. Each part derives its meaning, its essence, from its relationship to the rest. That is the truth about the body; and it is equally true, says the Apostle, about the Church. Each organ needs the others, and each one benefits by the functions of the others.

Christian Unity, 55

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones