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Book: Ephesians
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Ephesians 4:13
I. The purpose of the church.
A. To perfect the saints for the work of the ministry.
B. To build up the body of Christ.
C. The goal is to bring them into a unity of the faith.
1. The church has been divided through the years more over
our differences in belief than anything else.
2. One might question whether the unity of the faith is
even a possibility.
a. Protestants differ with the Catholics.
b. Presbyterians differ in form of church
government from the Episcopalians, who both
differ from the Congregationalists.
c. The Baptists differ from the Nazarenes and the
Church of Christ seem to differ from everybody.
3. There is one thing that I think is more important than
the unity of the faith, and that is the unity of the
Spirit, of which Paul speaks in verse 3.
4. Even if we differ from another in forms of church
government, or positions on baptism, or gifts of the
Holy Spirit, or when the rapture might take place, we
still need to realize that there is one body, and one
Spirit, and one Lord.
D. The second goal is to bring them into the knowledge of the Son
of God.
1. That you might by knowing Him come into a full
fellowship with Him.
a. When Paul was writing to the Philippians, he
spoke of the excellency of the knowledge of
Jesus Christ, and he expressed His desire to
know Him and the power of His resurrection and
the fellowship of His sufferings.
2. That you might know all that you have by possessing
Jesus.
a. The resources that are available to you through
Him.
b. The future hope that you have in Him.
c. Thus Christ should be the central theme of all
of our ministry.
d. It is by Him, through Him, for Him that we
exist.
e. He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning
and the ending, the first and the last, the
author and the finisher.
E. "Unto a perfect man."
1. Again the Greek work signifies fully mature.
2. Paul often expressed his concerns because of
their spiritual immaturity.
a. He called the Corinthians babes in
Christ. He said that he fed them milk
not meat.
b. The writer to the Hebrews who I believe
to be Paul, rebuked them for at a time
when they should be mature enough to be
eating strong meat, they still had need
of milk.
c. So many believers never grow beyond the
bottle stage. They still sit in their
play pens throwing their temper
tantrums. They are in a state of
arrested spiritual development.
d. Much of the blame must be put on the
pastors who
are not giving them the kind of
spiritual food that prompts real
spiritual growth.
e. Only the word of God can prompt
spiritual growth. It is alive and
powerful, able to pierce and divide
between the soul, and the spirit.
f. You cannot grow spiritually on
experiences, no matter how exotic they
might be. It takes the solid teaching
of the word to promote spiritual
growth.
F. To the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ.
1. Our goal is to see you conformed into His
image.
a. Pure as He is pure,
b. Holy as He is holy.
c. Righteous and He is righteous.
d. Loving as He is loving,
e. Forgiving as He is forgiving.
2. Jesus Christ is the model that the Father is
using as seeks to conform you into the image of
Christ.
3. If you desire to know the finished product,
just look at Jesus.
a. David said, "And I shall be satisfied
when I awake in thy likeness."
b. John said, "Beloved, now are we the
sons of God, and it does not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know that when
He shall appear, we shall be like Him,
for we shall see Him as He is."
II. That we be no more babes.
A. This seems to be the prayer and desire of Paul for the people.
1. Grow up. Become mature, quit acting like immature
little babies.
2. Quit being ruled by the desires of your flesh, and
begin to walk after the Spirit. No more temper
tantrums, if I can't be the king, I'm not going home
and I am not going to play with you anymore.
3. Paul was tired of changing their diapers.
B. One of the marks of a babe.
1. They are tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.
a. I want to commend you people for your spiritual
maturity.
b. The Christian T.V. is promoting all kinds of
spiritual hodge poge, every kind of weird
doctrine, it is as though they are lacking and
devoid of any spiritual discernment whatsoever.
c. You have been mature enough that you have not
chased after all of these so called men of God
who are espousing all of these unscriptural
practices and beliefs.
d. There are constantly new winds of doctrine
blowing across the church.
e. It was happening in Paul's day, it is happening
today.
f. The teaching that everyone ought to be healed.
g. The shepherding doctrine.
i. The faith teachings, of commanding God and
writing your own ticket.
j. The "You are god."
h. The deliverance doctrines. Your overeating
disorder is the demon of gluttony that needs to
be cast out.
i. The slain in the spirit.
j. The spiritual auras.
k. The laughing hyenas, or Toronto blessing.
2. The spiritual babes are deceived the cunning craftiness
of these charlatans who lie in wait to deceive.
a. They spend their time trying to think up some
new and novel gimmick whereby they might draw
the crowd that they might then fleece them.
b. There are idea men who make their living by
thinking up new money begging appeals, and they
get a percentage of funds that come in by their
clever ideas. The man who thought up the idea
of seed faith made millions off of that
gimmick.
III. "But speaking the truth in love may grow up into Him in all things."
A. So it is the duty of the pastor teacher, the evangelist, the
prophet of Apostle to speak the truth in love.
1. I have heard some speak the truth, but they seemed to
be very lacking in love.
2. They always seem to have a chip on their shoulder, some
ax to grind.
3. Their tongues are like a sharp razor by which they seek
to shred anyone who disagrees with their position.
4. They use their pulpits like a sledge hammer to destroy
all differing views.
5. They come off as loving as an atomic bomb.
B. May God help us to present His truth in a very loving style, so
that the people may grow up in Him.
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