The Word of Truth (Eph. 4:14-16)

Introduction

· Our message this morning is the last in a “trilogy” of sermons on church health and church growth. The “worthy walk,” “the work of ministry,” and today, “word of truth.” As a church exercises their gifts and speaks truth to one another in love that they will be built up to maturity and Christlikeness.

· Read Eph. 4:11-16.

· Now look back with me at v. 15, “speaking the truth in love.” This phrase is so important that years ago we built it right into our mission statement as a church. “Our mission is to magnify Christ by making disciples in truth and love.”

What Are We Supposed to Do?

· Truth and love. Both ingredients are absolutely essential. Truth speaks of accuracy and precision based on the Word of God. Love involves grace, kindness, and putting others above yourself.

· Several years ago a lady in our church said to me, “You know what, I’ve decided I’m just going to be honest with people. I’m going to tell them like it is. Life is too short. I’m going to shoot straight with everyone. If they don’t like it, they don’t have to listen.” I said to her, “Yes, but you still have to speak the truth in love.”

· In 1 Cor. 13, Paul says if you know the Bible and are extremely competent – I mean, you are like a 9 or 10 on the spiritual gifts scale -- but you lack love, you’re going to be obnoxious, like “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” On the other hand, if you try to do ministry with all love and no truth, you’re going to be about as effective as trying to slice an apple using a spaghetti noodle.

· The Word of God is a sharp weapon. Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. You must wield it with precision, but also with tenderness and delicacy. Discipleship is scalpel work, not machete work. Don’t hack your way to people’s hearts. Be gracious, patient, and let the Word of God do its work.

· I want you to think about your ministry right now. Maybe it’s helping in the office, or leading a Bible study, or playing a musical instrument. In some cases, maybe you’re still looking for ways to serve. This is the perfect time to get involved. We would love to help you with that. Whatever your ministry, what would it look like without love? What would it look like without truth?

· Take Sunday School teaching for example. Our nursery and children’s ministry is something that we need to begin to re-open soon, and we are actually looking for more helpers. What would it look like to minister with all love and no truth? The teacher would smile and greet each child as they entered. There would be fun games and cheerful music, colorful wall decorations and amazing crafts. But there would be little or no Bible. The teacher might include an entertaining story or a moral platitude, but kids would go skipping back to their parents knowing very little about God’s attributes, sin, salvation, or the importance of Christian character.

· Now imagine what it would be like to minister with all truth and no love. The teacher would take a last look through his or her notes as children enter. The bulk of time would be spent reading, or reciting, or studying Scripture, but there would be little time for building relationship. The teacher would deal firmly with behavior issues. treating them more as a project than as a person. They may view the child as an interruption to be silenced rather than a tender soul to be nurtured. The teacher spends time preparing the lesson ahead of time, but never stops to pray for their students.

· No, you cannot have just one or the other. You have to have both. Both truth and love are essential. You can’t hug people into the kingdom. But you can’t yell them into the kingdom either. Truth and love complement each other like two children on a teeter totter, keeping one another in perfect balance.

· >>What comes out of our mouths is one of the big ways we “walk worthy of our calling,” and Paul will have more to say about our speech in the coming weeks. But for now, we learn a very valuable lesson to speak the truth in love. But what happens when we fail to do this, and then what happens when we succeed.

What Happens When We Fail?

· The alternative to speaking the truth in love is found in verse 14 (read verse 14).

· Now, keep in mind, a childlike faith is a good quality. Matthew 18:4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Children are extremely trusting. They are weak and dependent on their parents. They will reach their arms out and let you grab them. They’ll even let you throw them up high in the air because they know you’re going to catch them again. Our faith in Christ should be sincere and absolute, like that of a child. A childlike faith is a beautiful thing. But a childish faith is a tragedy.

· Proverbs speaks of the fool, the wise, and the naïve. Prov. 1:22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?”

Prov. 14:15 says “The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.” Prov. 8:5 says, “O simple ones, learn prudence; O fools, learn sense.”

· When our kids were little, we would take them to the pediatrician. The nurse would have them stand on a scale. Then she would measure their height. When the doctor would come in, he would record their age, their height, and their weight as plot points on a graph, and would check to see if they were showing growth. You wanted to see gradual upward movement. Sometimes there was even a spike where a growth spurt happened. But sadly, some people -- even entire churches -- show very little growth spiritually.

· Our first year here at the church, we had a few people over for a Christmas party. Played a simple Bible trivia game. They did not know even some of the most basic stories and characters in the Bible. We realized that some of them had been church attenders their whole lives, and yet that didn’t necessary mean that they knew the Word well, or that they had grown in godliness.

· 1 Corinthians 3:1–3 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

· Hebrews 5:11–13 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 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, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child...

· What does it look like to be moving toward a solid food spiritual diet? Here are a few practical questions. Do you know the books of the Bible? Do you have some basic Bible verses memorized? Would you be able to show a person where the Bible teaches that Jesus is God? That salvation is by grace alone, and not of works? Do you know the Fruit of the Spirit? The armor of God? The Lord’s Prayer? Can you lead a person to Christ? If you just became a believer in the past year, I can understand if you might answer “no.” But if you’ve been a Christian five, ten, twenty years, why not? What excuse do you have? What are you waiting for?

· When it comes to theology, we cannot afford to stay childlike. We have an enemy who is cunning. Just look at the language here. Paul stacks one word on top of another to describe the danger of false teachers (see v. 14). That word “human cunning” is particularly interesting. It comes from the Gk word kubos, referring to a cube or die. It spoke of dice-playing, trickery, sleight of hand. Like a loaded pair of dice. The word “craftiness” is the same word used over in 2 Cor. 11:3. “I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”

· False doctrine rarely shows up in raw, undiluted form. It’s usually some truth mixed with error. It is poison that has been watered down. Paul said that wolves would come in sheep’s clothing. You won’t find a warning on the label, “Caution: The contents of this book are known to cause eternal death.” Just talk with a Mormon or a Jehovah’s witness and you’ll see what I mean. They spend most of their time showing how much you have in common. They want to lure you in.

· False doctrine is like the wind. I was just talking with Eddie yesterday about the strong winds we had earlier this week. He said he was driving on the highway and there was a gust so strong it blew a trailer partly into his lane, and he had to swerve into the shoulder to avoid it. Wind can be fierce, and somewhat unpredictable. We know all about wind in the desert, right? The wind can push and pull, twist and turn, roar and swirl, die down to a hush, then suddenly swell to a violent gust. Well, the Bible says false doctrine is like a stormy wind. Those who are not rooted in Christ will find themselves tossed around like a tumbleweed, or a ship at sea.

· The history of the church is the history of the spread of the gospel. But it’s also the history of Christian doctrine coming under attack. Satan frequently targets the Word of God and the Person and Work of Christ. There are many winds of doctrine, but let me share with you a few of the prevailing winds today. I’ll mention just three of them: pragmatism, scientism, and sensationalism. Pragmatism is the idea that the end justifies the means. You can live however you want, and do ministry however you want, as long as you reach the desired results. Many church growth models are built around it. Scientism is another big problem in the church. Scientism elevates science above scripture. When you spend more time reading doctors and consulting psychologists at the neglect of your Bible, and you start using worldly terms to describe your problems, you are starting to embrace scientism. Do you believe Scripture is sufficient? Lastly, sensationalism. These past few years, I have seen a rise in end times prophecy and doomsday scenarios. If you are preoccupied with conspiracy theories, always looking for that next nugget, spending vast amounts of time trying to connect all the dots, and meanwhile you’re not loving your neighbor or serving your church, then you’re guilty of sensationalism. There are many other winds of doctrine, but these are three I think we need to especially be on guard against.

· >>If we do not speak the truth in love, we will surely become battered and tossed by the winds of doctrine. But what happens if we do speak the truth in love? What if the church does exercise the spiritual gifts?

What Happens When We Succeed?

· The alternative is provided for us in vv. 15-16, and this is what we should strive to be as a church. We are to be “growing up in every way.”

· 1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

· When a little boy sits in his high chair on his first birthday and smashes chocolate cake all over his face, it’s cute. Everyone has their phone out taking pictures. But if that boy does the same thing at his 18th birthday, something would be wrong.

· I mentioned last week how Jesus grew up in four areas: “wisdom, stature, favor with God, man.” That is, his growth and development was mental, physical, spiritual, and social.

· Paul has used a number of metaphors to describe growth and maturity. Ch. 2 a building being fitted together. Ch. 4 a body being build up. Ch. 5 a bride being washed and sanctified and made ready for her groom.

· We were predestined to be conformed to his image. It means that we will increasingly resemble him, and will become more like him. How he handles temptation. How he loves others. How he prays. How he counsels. How he speaks the truth in love.

· The “Clearing Storms” painting on Anita’s wall. Same painting I have. Both are replicas.

· When does this “growing up” occur? There should be continual progress in this life, though we will not reach full manhood and maturing and manhood, if you will, until Christ returns. Parallel with ch. 2 on the building and ch. 5 on the bride.

· This work on earth is never done. For even if we as believers grow toward maturity, we know we won’t reach perfection until Christ returns. should constantly be bringing in new believers, raising up another generation. We must each exercise our gifts, that God can accomplish his work in the body, until the promise of 1 John 3:2 becomes a reality...

· 1 John 3:2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.