Doctrinal Maturation - Brandon Scalf

All right, everyone, grab your Bibles and turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians chapter 4, and we will be continuing on in our series through Paul's letter to the churches in Ephesus.

Ephesians chapter 4, and the title of today's message is Doctrinal Maturation.

Doctrinal Maturation. And if you don't know what that means, I hope to explain that to you as we journey through this text.

Today, we will begin looking at verses 13 through 15,

Lord willing. And so if you would, please stand with me for the honoring and reading of God's holy, infallible, and all sufficient word.

For the sake of context, we will begin reading in verse one of chapter four, and we will conclude with verse 16.

Verse one, this is the word of God. Therefore I, the prisoner in the

Lord, exhort you to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, being diligent to keep the unity of the spirit in 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 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 fill all things.

And he himself 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 full knowledge of the

Son of God. To a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ so that 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 in deceitful scheming.

But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head that is

Christ, from whom the whole body being joined and held together by what every joint supplies according to the properly measured working of each individual part causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever, amen? Amen, go ahead and have a seat and get your eyes back on verse 13.

Verse 13, as we began looking at chapter four many months ago,

I told you a staggering statistic. And that statistic was this, that about 4 ,500 churches close every single year.

And while some of those churches need to be closed because of their doctrinal impriority and because of their issues as it pertains to how they run their church or because of moral failings, many of them close because of, and I quoted a specific article which said something to the effect of because of disputes, discord, and division, end quote.

The reality is that most churches close their doors. As a matter of fact, something

I was reading this week reminded me that church plants do not usually last longer than about five years.

And the reason for that is because of this same reason, disputes, discord, and division within the body.

The reality is, and this text is going to show us, is that we are all, at least at some point in our walk, theological and doctrinal infants, and we need to be brought to maturity both by Christ and by his church.

And so we are all sinners. That has been made clear as we looked at Ephesians chapter two, and we need to be reminded, now that we have been saved by Christ and brought into his body, that we must, as verse three has told us of chapter four, we must be diligent to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

We must guard and keep with fervor that unity which the spirit has purchased for us.

We must walk worthy. We must be humble in the body.

We must be gentle to one another. We must show patience, and we must bear with one another.

And more than that, we have to rest in the reality of who God is and what

God has done, which is why Paul transitions after saying that into a creedal statement of sorts when he throws down the doctrinal realities behind, there is one body and one spirit, right?

There's one hope and one calling. There's one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, and there is one

God and father of all. And so that's where it all begins.

And then as we journeyed through chapter four, we were reminded that God has given the body gifts to help us do just that, help us to guard and to keep with grit that unity that has already been purchased for us and applied to our body by the spirit.

It can't be taken away, but if we aren't careful, we can spit on it and call Jesus a liar, and we can make shipwreck of the unity that he has given us in our own sinful rebellion.

And so God has, in Christ, given each individual member in the body a gift to serve one another, to help maintain that unity.

And out of those people, he has given some as pastor teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for the work of service.

And we looked at that in the past weeks gone by, that the pastored shepherds are to, as men gifts from Jesus Christ, equip each and every saint for the gifts that they have been given to do the work of service, which builds up the body of Christ.

And what we're going to see today is the very real reality that if we are not careful, our church will become like many other churches and set sail to sea and get caught up in a storm.

If we are not careful, if we are not doctrinally precise, then we will fall into doctrinal immaturity.

Our goal should be to move from Christian infancy to doctrinal fidelity and maturity.

It's no surprise then that the most factious churches and the most transient churches are the congregations that are built up of people who crave spiritual junk food.

They love self -help messages. But the reality is the pastors that itch those tickling ears are only essentially giving way and promoting biblical immaturity and solidifying spiritual infancy to all who hear them.

So let us not be a church that is like a ship without a rudder, being tossed about, unanchored to the foundational truths of Scripture, because that's what's going to hold us together.

And so as we look at our text, what I really am trying to get you to see is that there are in fact realities to which these things are pointing, right?

What I mean by that is God did not in Christ just give you gifts so that you could say that you have them, nor is he given you gifts so that you could just show up at somebody's house sometime or serve them here in the church and pat yourself on the back for doing a good thing, but he's given it to you for the purpose of maturing the body.

Not just helping the body, and I want you to hear me say this because it's important, but maturing the body.

Because as we look at this text, it's not necessarily, although it's not divorced, it's not necessarily talking about individual maturity.

It's talking about corporate maturity, because the reality is our church is only as strong as our weakest link.

We only can preserve unity at the rate in which our weakest link is willing to preserve that unity.

And so it is the pastor teacher's job, not only to equip and not only to build up the body of Christ, but to see to it that the church matures.

And so the first thing that I want you to see as you look at verse 13 is the marks of doctrinal maturity.

The good news is that because God is the one who has given these men gifts is that he is going to see his operation to completion.

He is going to mature his churches that honor him and preserve and protect the unity that has been given to them and applied to them by the

Holy Spirit as it has been purchased by his blood. Look with me at verse 13.

He continues on, the apostle Paul here, speaking to the churches in Ephesus, and he says that these men were given for these purposes until we all attain to the unity of faith.

Until we all attain to the unity of faith. So how long are pastor teachers supposed to equip and build the body of Christ?

Until, until we as a community project attain to the unity of faith.

Well, how long is that? Well, forever, until Jesus comes back, right?

Because we are sinners all and church and people are messy, including myself. And so we must labor on, you must labor on, but you must understand that it is in fact attainable to be matured.

As a matter of fact, the word here in the Greek signals a reality that can be completed.

So what is the first mark of a doctrinally mature church? Firstly, that they are united in the faith.

They are united in the faith. Here we see that he says that until we all attain, and how many?

All. How many is all? Every one of us. Till we all attain to the unity of faith.

Now, this is not a new word. We've encountered this word faith many times in the book of Ephesians up to this point.

And we've talked about it in two different ways. The first being a subjective way, that you have faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ, and you have, because of that instrument, been united to the finished work of Jesus Christ, the righteous, and you have been counted justified in him.

That is not the way that faith is being used here. Faith is being used here much like it was being used in verse five of chapter four, which is speaking about the objective faith, the faith that we hold to as Christians, the content of the

Christian faith. And so when Paul calls for a unity of faith here, or says that we will be sitting underneath these men gifts until we attain to this unity of faith, he's referring to the body of Christian doctrine.

In context, he's speaking of the truth that he has already laid out in chapters one through three, but more specifically even, the truths found in verses four through six.

These are the foundational truths that we must hold to if we are going to be a doctrinally mature body.

And so what is a mature church? What is a mature believer? It is one who is not fragmented in their beliefs, but stands in unity, both with the faith that we promote here in heritage, but the historic

Christian faith. I just had a conversation with this last week, maybe the week before.

I don't do timelines very well, but some of you know that. But I was talking about a passage that we had just went over as a church, which was the passage regarding Jesus descending into Hades.

And I got into what would be considered somewhat of a debate. And essentially what

I asserted was, look, you can think whatever you want to about this passage. I can't make you think the way that I'm thinking about this.

But what I would challenge you to think through is that for 2000 years, people have believed this thing.

And it was in the Apostles' Creed, which was the first creed that was ever written.

And so if we are to disagree with that, you have to have a really good argument.

And if you sit down to study the Bible, and you sit down to read that creed, your default position should not be one of skepticism, but rather it should be one that says there must be something right about this because the church has believed this for a very long time, way before my great great grandparents were even a figment in their parents' imagination.

The church is the faith once for all handed down to the saints, Jude says. So a mature body is one that understands that, and it's not trying to create new doctrines, and it's not trying to promote new doctrines or allow new doctrines to even enter into these walls.

Some things are not open for debate, right?

We can quibble about certain texts, but for example, we're not going to discuss whether or not

Jesus was actually God. That's off the table to debate.

You come up to me and you have genuine questions about that after the service, I will answer them, but if you try to convince me

I'm wrong, then we've entered into another sphere because you've just jettisoned orthodoxy, and you are now promoting damnable heresy.

And so we must, as the church, if we want to protect ourselves against discord, disputes, and division, if we want to guard unity in the bond of peace in the spirit, we must, in fact, stand our ground as it pertains to the faith, the faith.

I want you to think about the church as an army. Imagine that a church is an army.

And in some ways, the Bible alludes to such language, but everybody in the army or in the military is, when they're together, marching in unison, each soldier stepping in time to the same beat.

This is the type of unity that we ought to have as we are moving forward as Christ's church, a shared commitment to sound doctrine, walking in step with the truth of the gospel at all times, at all.

Friends, unity apart from truth is fake unity.

Unity not rooted in the truths of Scripture is a lie.

It's dangerous, and it will be the quickest way to ruin what it is that God has given to us as such a gracious gift.

So how do we do that? Well, you listen to your shepherd teachers.

You listen to your shepherd teachers. When they are walking you through verses of the Bible, when they are walking you through different things like that, give them an open ear.

You are here for a reason. Be shaped by, be willing to be led by, be willing to follow those who stand before you and will have to give an account to God for you.

But please do not stop there because all we're trying to do is get you to and help you to understand the word of almighty

God. I don't want you to follow me. I want you to follow Christ. I don't want you to care about my words.

I want you to care about God's word. That is what separates shepherds from wolves.

Wolves want you to follow them, whereas shepherds want you to follow

Christ and hear his word. So you must immerse yourself in the word.

So be Bereans. I say something, don't dismiss it outright. Listen, be willing to be corrected and go back to your

Bible and listen. And read and study.

And don't just read individually, but corporately. And what do I mean by that? I mean, study dead men.

Read commentators who have talked about these things for 2000 years. Interesting fact, heritage is not the first church to receive the spirit.

Shocking, right? The American church is not the first church to receive the spirit. And so when we read corporately, we read men of the past to help us understand what it is that the

Bible is saying. And oftentimes the dead men are the best men because they weren't distracted by their phones and they weren't trying to come up with new novel ideas that haven't already been talked about.

But not only that, we must hold to the faith. You cannot waver. It's been once delivered and handed down to the saints, as I said, which is found in Jude three.

Unity is not built on compromise, but conviction. What you believe when we started

Heritage Church is what you should believe unless scripture, you know, convinces you otherwise until the day you die.

Don't be entertaining all of these really cool new concepts, looking for theological novelties.

Hold fast to the truth. Secondly, a mark of a doctrinal mature church is not just one that is united in faith, but also one that is instructed in Christ.

If you look with me back at 13, it continues on and says, not only is it until we attain to the unity of the faith that we are to be equipped and built up in the body of Christ by these shepherd teachers, but of the full knowledge of the son of God.

So we are to attain to the unity of the faith and attain to the full knowledge of the son of God, the full knowledge of the son of God.

Here, Paul speaks of, of course, the knowledge of the son of God. And this is the first time and it will be the only time that he calls

Jesus in this book, the son of God. And what he's wanting us to do is the same thing that he's wanting us to do, or wanting the

Ephesian church to do rather, just earlier when he has prayed in chapter one, that we would come to a full knowledge of who

Jesus Christ is and what he has done and the power that is directed at us, those of us who believe.

And so it is imperative that the pastor's shepherds teach the full knowledge of God.

It's imperative that you give yourself over to the teaching of the full knowledge of God, but it's not here just speaking of a informational, transactional type knowledge, but actually an experiential or an experimental, as the

Puritans would say, knowledge. It's not superficial. It is one that continually grows in understanding, but of Christ, his person and his work and of him.

And friends, this is the heartbeat of a doctrinally mature church.

When is the millennium? What eschatology is the most biblical?

Well, that's an important question to answer. Maybe it shapes the way in which we think about how to engage the world, but on the grand scheme of things, it's not.

And it's nothing worth building your church around because it will crumble. And the reality is, as somebody

I have listened to over the last few years has said, you will understand eschatology.

You will understand everything that happens on the last day, on the day that it occurs.

There will be no ambiguity and then you will have known it, but you will never, hear me on this, saints, you will never exhaust until eternity ends and it never will,

Christ. His love for you, what he has done, who he is will only drive deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper into your heart.

And your worship will always and continually increase the longer that you are with Jesus here and in the eschaton.

And so the reality is, a church that is focused on the knowledge of the son of God is a healthy and mature church.

The ones who build their church around these peripheral things will not stand to the last day.

Churches that divide on eschatology, churches that divide on whether or not women should wear head coverings, churches that divide on specific, understandings of, you know, who the

Nephilim were, it won't hold the water of a hard life.

It won't help you stand tall on the day of trouble. But you know what will?

Christ. And you know what will sustain you even now as hardship finds you?

Christ. If you haven't figured it out as we've been looking through the book of Ephesians, and it's not a

Christian cliche, it's not a Jesus juke, but everything's about Jesus. Everything's for Jesus.

And Jesus has made it possible for us to be one with him, and he's done so at great cost to himself, namely the blood, his atoning, wrath -absorbing blood that was shed for us on Calvary's Hill.

This is why the apostle Paul has said elsewhere in Philippians chapter three, after many years of devoted apostleship, where he has been brutally beaten and broken and has had friends abandon him, and you know what he doesn't say that sustained him?

His view about what that thorn was in his side. No. He says this,

I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ.

Not just knowing things about Christ, but knowing Christ. Now you can't know Christ without knowing things about Christ, but knowing things about Christ is not the same thing as knowing

Christ, because you could know a whole lot about Christ and not know Christ. But he says this,

I count it all loss for the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I might gain

Christ. And may be found in him, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings.

Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also

I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. So for Paul, knowing

Christ isn't as much about learning things about Christ, but having been laid hold of by Christ.

You see, when you get to learn about Jesus, and you get to see him clearly and beautifully in the scriptures, it's as if Christ is laying hold of you.

And there's nothing better than that kind of knowledge. What this helps us to understand is that though we wanna be a doctrinally mature church, and though we wanna make sure we all rest in the faith, doctrine is not merely an academic pursuit, it's not just about getting the answers right.

If your doctrine and your pursuit of it is not leading you to know

Christ on a deeper level, more intimately, then you're studying in vain.

You don't study theology to fill your mind, but through your mind to ignite your heart and to grow your affections for the

Lord Jesus Christ. So it must be instructed in Christ.

The third mark, it's not only that we would be united in faith, not only that we would be instructed in and come to a full knowledge of Christ, but that we would mature to manhood.

Look with me again at verse 13. Until we all attain to the unity of faith and of the full knowledge of the

Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

Well, once again, we need to make sure that we are saying this, and that is this, that when

Paul is speaking here to the church about the unity that they must preserve and how they are to go about it and what kind of church they are to be in light of the gifts given them, he's speaking about the whole body.

And so when he's speaking about this mature man here, he's not saying you individually mature man, he's saying this new man that has been created.

Remember back in Ephesians chapter three, there's one new man created in Christ Jesus out of the

Jews and the Gentiles. And that one new man is the church. Well, that man needs to grow up and he needs to mature to manhood.

Manhood, and women, if that upsets you, that you are underneath the umbrella of what is called manhood in this moment, first of all, remember that's how corporate headship works, firstly.

Second of all, here in just a few chapters, we will be talking about how we're the bride of Christ, so it's a little tit for tat, all right?

It'll work itself out, and all of us, all of us are gonna feel a little uncomfortable, but it helps us to understand what's going on here in the church.

This word here, the translators here, translate mature, and I was tripping over my words there.

I apologize for that. The word that has been translated mature actually comes from the Greek word, the same

Greek word that Jesus uses on the cross when he says it is finished. The Greek word, of course, is to telestai, and the idea here is complete or perfect.

Complete or perfect. The adjective, telios, literally means having reached its end.

Oftentimes in the Bible, it is used of sacrifices that are perfect and without blemish, of animals that are fully grown, and of a person who is fully grown or matured as opposed to a child.

The thing that we need to understand is it doesn't matter how much our brains get filled up with, we can still think like and act like children if we are not growing to maturity.

As a matter of fact, many of the immature people that I know, the most immature people that I know, oftentimes, surprisingly enough, are some of the smartest people

I know because they're not actually living in light of the stuff that they're filling their heads with, but that's not

Christian maturity. Christian maturity is not knowing more facts about Jesus. It's being inflamed in your affections for Jesus and living in light of those things.

So when it's speaking here that we must mature to manhood in the full stature of Christ, it's saying that we need to grow up to Christlikeness.

And this maturity is not partial growth, but a striving toward completion in Christ.

There's coming a day, it won't happen until we see Jesus, that we will be glorified, we will be perfected, we will not sin anymore, and we will not be sinned against.

But while we are here on the earth, we need to be continually striving toward that end because Christ has given us, by the power of His Spirit, and because of the work on the cross, the ability to do just that.

And we do not want to, again, crucify our Lord by continuing to use grace as a license to sin.

Colossians 128, Paul says, "'Him we proclaim,' talking about Jesus, "'admonishing every man and teaching every man "'with all wisdom so that,' right?

"'They're to be taught and admonished "'so that we might present every man complete in Christ.'"

Everyone. So the work of the pastor shepherd is to make sure that the body is able to be handed over to Christ on the last day as one who has been matured, as one who has been perfected in Him, as one who has been completely and utterly influenced by their knowledge of Christ.

Hebrews 5 .14, and the author says, "'But solid food is for the mature, "'who because of practice have their senses trained "'to discern both good and evil.'"

So even the author of Hebrews seems to suggest that there's a growing that needs to happen. Sometimes we have to look at things in a way that is helpful to us as infants.

But sometimes we need meat. Sometimes we need milk. And other times we need a full course buffet.

Friends, growing up in Christ is literally, literally the reason that you are still here on this earth.

And what I mean by that is the reason that you are still breathing is because God is sanctifying you and making you ready for the day that you will stand in front of Jesus.

And of course, by grace alone, through faith alone, you will stand in front of the

Lord Jesus Christ and be pardoned of your sins and justified in Him. But He does require holiness.

And He is making us holy. And Hebrews chapter 12 says there is a holiness without which we will not see the

Lord. And it says that the reason that He even brings suffering and trials to our front door is so that we could be what?

Conformed to His image. This is why

Romans 8, 29, Paul says, "'Because those whom God foreknew, "'He predestined to become,' what?

"'Conformed to the image of His Son.'" Did you know, or were you aware, or had you thought, since it's been a while since we've been in Ephesians 1, that Christ did not just save you?

Or God did not just save you in Christ and through His work so that you could get out of hell? But that you would be made holy and blameless before Him so that He would be the firstborn among many, brother.

Now, this is why Christians are therefore called to walk in the same manner in which

Jesus walked. The knowledge of God produces a maturity in God, or knowledge of Jesus produces a maturity in Jesus that enables us to live and look like Jesus.

1 John 2, 6 says, "'The one who says he abides in Him "'ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked.'"

So we're after, both individually and corporately, we're after looking like Christ.

That's what this means. To the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

It's not saying that you're gonna become little Christs. It's not gonna say you're gonna be little gods. It's not saying that you're going to possess some sort of deity as you are grown in sanctification, but that we, as a body, as we mature doctrinally, as we hold to the one faith, and as we are instructed unto the full knowledge of the

Son of God, we mature and become more like Jesus.

Now, this means practically, and I want you to hear me on this. We are not called to measure ourselves against one another.

Now, that might go without saying. That might not seem all that profound, but in a church, it's important to remember that your barometer as to whether or not you're looking like Christ and living like Christ is

Christ. It's not your neighbor sitting next to you.

It's not your spouse. It's children, it's not your parents. Now, of course, as the

Bible says, right? Imitate me, Paul says, as I imitate Christ.

So much as your parents and the people around you, non -children, imitate

Christ, imitate them, sure. But Christ is the one whom we measure ourself against.

Against the full stature of Christ. And that's a lofty goal, that's a hard goal, but it's the goal we must pursue nonetheless.

Christlikeness in thought, word, and deed is what is required of us all.

And together, we are to have and pursue the mind of Christ.

Now, this does not imply that we will ever achieve completeness in Christ, this side of heaven.

Rather, as the gifts from Christ are used in the context of the local church, we will begin slowly to measure up to Christ's full stature.

Never attaining, never being in competition, but we will begin to look more and more and more like Christ, more and more like Christ.

So Christ is our measurement, but also, one thing that I want you to consider before we move on is years.

Spiritual maturity is also not measured by the years that heritage will exist.

If we survive five years, praise God. If we survive 10 years, praise

God. If we survive 100 years, praise God. If we survive 300 years, and this is a legacy that we built as a heritage for our children, which is the goal, right, praise

God. But if he does it for two, praise God. But no matter how many years we progress, and no matter how many years any other local body progresses, years are also not our litmus test, because we could fumble the ball for years to come.

Many churches do. Many churches that haven't already died, who are a part of the visible church, are like zombie churches.

They should be dead, but for some reason, they're walking around, they're doing things, but they're not actually, they just exist.

So maturity then is measured by the depth that we have in our knowledge of Christ.

That means we must seek to grow in every area. That is doctrine, devotion, and discipline until we reflect the fullness of Christ in everything that we do.

That's the goal. The second thing that I want you to see as we look at our theme verses here is the dangers of doctrinal immaturity.

The dangers of doctrinal immaturity. So this is what the ideal church looks like in its spiritual buffness, if you will, in its doctrinal maturity.

And the reason that we want to zero in on this idea of doctrinal maturity is because there is an incredible danger in doctrinal immaturity.

Look with me again at verse 14. He tells us why we need this equipping, why we need this building up, and why we must attain, with the help of his spirit and his men gifts, to unify in the faith, to have a full knowledge of the

Son of God, and to be mature. And specifically, this last part here, being mature, is what leads him to bring up this new purpose clause.

In verse 14, he says, so that, very important set of words, including us in on what he's getting at.

So that 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 the craftiness in deceitful.

Scheming. As we look at verse 14, we see here that Paul is warning the

Ephesian church, and us by extension, the peril of remaining as spiritual infants.

Here's what you need to understand. There is nothing wrong with seeing yourself as or being a spiritual infant.

I need you to hear that this morning. Right? The only problem is not recognizing it when you are.

But just like children, we can grow up.

They grow up, we grow up. But we have to be intentional about growing up.

And it's important that we, in fact, are doctrinally mature, so that we're not easily swayed by every wind of doctrine.

Why does Paul say here that we need this so that we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine?

Why does he say that? He says that because immature Christians are very gullible. Let's just put the cards on the table.

Boom. The worst part about it is that immature Christians don't think they're very gullible, right?

Because immature Christians who don't admit their immaturity, let me qualify there, right? Not just immature

Christians, but immature people who do not recognize their immaturity think they have it all figured out.

They think they have all the answers until the next guy who seems to have a better argument comes along.

And then all of a sudden, they have it all figured out again. And then those people start telling everybody that they've been in community with for the last five years that they are now heretics because of some new guy he read that just put out a

PhD on a pet project of his. And that begins to chew away at the unity in the church.

The discord, the division amplifies. The greatest threat to this church, friends, hear me on this, the greatest threat to heritage, the greatest threat to ecclesia, which is our sending church, the greatest threat to any biblical church seeking maturation is unsound people trying to promote unsound things as sound.

Is doctrinal heresy and immature people who don't understand their immaturity and who have not guarded themselves against that by sitting under and listening to their shepherd teachers and being

Bereans and devouring their Bible.

One commentator says it this way, in the history of the church, no group of believers has fallen into more foolishness in the name of Christianity than has much of the church today, despite our unprecedented education, sophistication, freedom, and access to God's word and sound

Christian teaching. It seems that every religious huckster can find a ready hearing and financial support from among God's people.

The number of foolish, misdirected, corrupt, and even heretical leaders to whom many church members willingly give their money and allegiance is astounding and heartbreaking.

I think that's true, but why? Because they don't have members in the body who are living as the church with one another and they don't have men behind their pulpits, though imperfect and though not able to communicate as well as some of these great podcast preachers, but they have men standing behind their pulpits who are not doctrinally sound themselves.

And they're not actually trying to equip or build the body up. They're not actually trying to bring a church from biblical infancy to doctrinal maturity.

You need that. You need that. And sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it hurts.

And sometimes it really stinks to be the guy that's trying to get other people to quit acting foolish.

Because people don't usually like that. That's what shepherds are to do.

That's what you're to do with the people around you as they begin to think about what might be a cool novel idea to go around on being.

The idea here is that they just go whatever is the new hot topic, you know? And I've been a pastor and a

Christian long enough to see how this goes. And I haven't been around all that long, but I've read enough books to know how this goes as well.

I have a group of friends that I became a Christian with essentially, grew up with, went to seminary with, and I'm not gonna name any names, but essentially every popular thing that like came about, like they just kept chasing.

They got on the train of what's cool and they've never gotten off, right? And so like during the new

Calvinist explosion, which we thank God for, amen, okay, right? The whole Mars Hill thing and, you know,

Acts 29, everybody jumped on that wagon and we were going down the railroad tracks and it was a good ride and it got a little bumpy and then, you know, some people got ran over.

You know, there's more to that little quote there than you might realize, but for those of you who know, that was pretty good.

But people got ran over and, you know, there was a lot of holes that revealed in that situation.

Turns out just a reformed soteriology, not enough. Who would have thought, you know?

You need a lot more than that, right? And then all of these other things started popping up, you know, and everybody just follows along.

Then there was like the big Thomism thing and, you know, then there was the post -millennialism theonomic thing.

Actually, I think that came before the Thomism thing, you know, and then now it's like the Christian nationalist thing and everybody's just on the train.

Now, I'm not saying there aren't good things in some of these tribes and what they're talking about. So don't hear what I'm not saying, but what I'm saying is be weary of people who are always embracing the new thing, okay?

If there's biblical arguments to be had, it's probably already happened, okay? There's nothing new under the sun and if it sounds new, it's too good to be true.

We're looking for substance. And the reality is all of us will fall prey to groupthink and get on these trains unless we are not given over to theological novelty and how do we guard ourselves against that?

By being trained in the word, by growing to maturity. And so we can look at all of these different movements that pop up and they're the new cool thing and we can say, that's good,

I appreciate that, that's good, I appreciate that, that was very helpful. I'm very thankful for this person in this area and also, that's insane,

I wish he wouldn't speak on that topic again and it'd be the same guy in the same tribe, right?

Mature people do that, mature Christians do that. Immature Christians go,

I like this guy so nothing he ever says is wrong and everything he says is amazing. There's not a single preacher out there, including myself and including

Pastor Corey, that's going to say everything right all the time. Now, I think

I do, right? But I'm just, I'm only human and so not everything is worth listening to, only that which is true is worth listening to and you should remember that as you're engaging with other members in the bodies as well.

Not every idea you have is awesome, right? The only awesome ideas are the ones that come from the

Bible and we need to be formed to it. And so instead of jumping on theological trains and being gullible, let us be

Christians who understand that if we do not give ourselves over to teaching and being cared for by the shepherd teachers and living in community with one another and being

Bereans that we're going to be tossed to and fro. As the body matures, unity then results, right?

Unity is the direct result of us growing in maturity. So this is a long way to answer the question, how do we do this preserving unity piece aside from just being humble, gentle, patient, bearing with one another, walking worthy as it were, not just understanding what church and the church leaders are for, not just understanding that we need to be united in one faith, that we need to come to a full knowledge of the

Son of God, but really, as we do those things, we mature and it's that maturity which produces unity.

Truth divides most certainly, but when we're unified in the truth, then we're not going to be divided.

Sometimes truth divides and that's good. There's other times when what we think to be truth divides and then that's not okay, or there's secondary or peripheral truths that do not on the grand scheme of things matter that much, at least as it pertains to the gospel, its content and so on and so forth.

In other words, what we're looking to do is avoid being doctrinally turbulent. We don't want to be tossed around like a rag doll in an ocean by everything that pops up.

In other words, what we're trying to guard against in believing what the Bible says about the nature of the church and what its leaders are seeking to do and commanded to do is we are seeking to be stable instead of unstable, able instead of unable, to anchor ourselves in the truth of who

Christ is and what he has done and the God whom he reveals.

Hebrews 13, nine, the author says, do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings. This is the, you know, obviously the temptation of everyone for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, though, through which those who were occupied were not benefited.

Children, would you look at me? I know it's been a second, but I want to kind of help you understand maybe what I'm saying here.

You notice how this verse here is talking about being tossed about. It's speaking about waves.

And so what I want you to do, I want you to think about this like a little sailboat. Our church is like a little sailboat, but it is without a rudder.

You know what a rudder is? A rudder is a thing in the back of a boat that keeps it moving and helps it to stay on track, helps it to turn when it needs to turn.

It's like a little fan. And if you put that in the ocean, and it's just a little thing, you put it in the ocean and the wind is going crazy.

Like it's one of those days that kites would just get ripped off the string and you never see it again.

Well, what happens to that boat? That boat begins to lose control.

It has no way to alter its direction and it gets engulfed.

It gets destroyed. Maybe the waves break it into a hundred different little wooden pieces.

That's what Paul is saying here. If we do not mature in Christ, and you can do that.

You're doing it every day as you sit under family worship, as you sit under what we're doing here on Sundays and in fellowship group.

As you mature in Christ, it becomes harder and harder for the outside waves, that is bad doctrine, bad teaching to destroy you, to get into you, to change you.

That's what he's saying. So if we all want to avoid being swept away by false teaching, if we all want to be anchored in scripture underneath our pastor teachers and with our pastor teachers, then we must study with depth and discernment, testing everything by the plumb line of God's truth.

The plumb line of God's truth. Not only that, but we will refrain from being naively deceived.

That's what he goes on to say here. So we don't want to be doctrinally turbulent, but we also don't want to be naively deceived so that we no longer, verse 14, are to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine.

And here it is, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming.

Here, Paul describes immature believers as being carried about both by every wind of doctrine and by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

Does that remind you that language of anything? The devil in the garden. We are so easily enticed and false teachers know exactly how to bait the hook.

False teachers prey on the spiritually naive, using trickery to lead them astray.

Now, to some degree, and in large measure, we've never, as Heritage Church, ever had an issue with people coming in here and trying to spread heresy.

And why is that? Well, because God is gracious, for one, but for two, because there's nothing better to fight people who want to spread heresy around than strong doctrinal teaching and strong Christians, which

I believe Heritage is producing, ones who are not naively deceived by the trickery of men, by their scheming.

But they see it, they're discerning, they've heard what their pastor teachers have said, they know what the word of God says, and they don't let it fly.

In love, right? But we'll get to that in a moment. 2 Peter 2 .1 says that false teachers will come in and we're not to be so easily deceived.

False prophets, he says in 2 .1, also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you.

He's, of course, speaking to the churches in the dispersion, but also it can be applied here today.

There's always false teachers who will seriously introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them.

For those incredibly inquisitive, we don't have time to get into that. Bringing swift destruction on themselves.

This is something that is going to happen, it's something that was happening and will continue to happen.

Romans 16 .18, Paul says, for such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ, but of their own stomach, and by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.

You have to be careful who you listen to. You have to be careful who you read.

Practically, how can you do that? Trust your shepherd teachers. Trust what the word of God says, know it in and out.

But even more than that, practically, for those of you who like to read, maybe find some trustworthy publishers.

And if you're looking for a particular subject to study, maybe start with those publishers that you trust first.

That's not to say you can't read outside of those publishers, right? And it doesn't mean that those publishers won't change their direction.

Crossway, a lot of emails for that one, but that's okay.

It's worth it, it's worth it. But what it does mean is it enables you, for instance,

Founders Ministries, great. Books as far as I'm concerned. I want to know more about covenant theology as it pertains to my specific set of core beliefs.

Founders, Broken Wharf, right? Why, because I think they're infallible?

No, but I know they're trustworthy. I know they're not going to likely lead me into error.

Now, sometimes you want to read error because it'll help you guard against the truth. And also, you don't want to just believe the first thing that you hear either.

Some of us will spend the rest of our lives trying to sort out particular doctrines.

I've got a few, right, that I'm still working on. I go back and forth, flop like LeBron James, like depends on the moment, okay?

Not the important stuff, but the reality is we need to make sure that we're listening to people that we trust.

Don't just be listening to every single thing everybody sends you because it's been sent to you. Be discerning because there are spiritual predators out there who are both deceived and deceiving.

If you have been attending our Sunday evening services, we went into great detail speaking of what was happening in the church in Ephesus under Timothy's charge.

So grow in discernment. Grow in discernment by listening to your pastors.

Grow in discernment by reading the Bible and good books that have been properly vetted by your theologically, your cherished theological positions.

And of course, branch out at times, but just lean into people that you trust. Because not everything that sounds spiritual and holy is.

Not everything that sounds smart is. Not everything garbed in academic language is written by someone who has a clue what they're talking about.

N .T. Wright. But there's an antidote. There is an antidote.

The third thing that I want you to see in this text is the antidote to doctrinal maturity, doctrinal immaturity, rather.

Of course, it's everything that we just said, but he gives us more pointed help as we look at verse 15.

He says, but alternative way of living, instead of being tossed to and fro, instead of listening to deceivers and being deceived, speak the truth in love.

Speaking the truth in love. We are to grow up in all aspects, into him who is the head that is

Christ. Here, Paul provides, as I said, the antidote for immaturity.

This is both the method and the manner of growth. You speak, you speak the truth, and you speak the truth in love.

And that is a sermon all in its own. But the truth is that truth must be proclaimed.

It must be said. It must not sit in your brain or on your heart. It must come off of your lips.

And here's the deal, though. If we want to maintain unity, it has to be done so in love.

That is crucial. It doesn't mean being limp -wristed.

It doesn't mean not being courageous. It doesn't mean any of that. It means being loving.

And being loving, even in the face of certain types of heresy, is not pietistic or pietism.

It's just called biblical Christianity. It must be proclaimed with love.

And the reason for that is a church that only speaks truth, or Christians that only speak truth and do so without love, they become harsh and legalistic and unhelpful.

And a church on the other side of the ditch that only loves without truth becomes weak and compromised.

And so truth has the tendency to sound unloving. And you can be right at times and be very wrong because of the way in which you've delivered that information.

The truth's still true. No one's gonna hear it, though, because the only thing they're walking away thinking is what a jerk, what a horrible human being.

Why do I want to believe his truth when he doesn't even believe his own truth because he's not loving, he's not loving.

A perfect example of this is we just went on to preach the gospel at the

LGBTQ plus rally yesterday. And we went last year.

And there is always a different display of gospel preachers.

There's the people on the right -hand side who will say, and by right -hand side, I don't mean the right side, I just mean on that side of the ditch, and they go, we love you, you're not doing anything wrong,

God loves you, horrible message, horrible message. And then on the other side of the ditch, you have people going,

God hates you because you are sinning in this area. And they had a lot of vile things, and essentially it was like AIDS is

God's judgment on you right now. And it was just all judgment, and no hope, and no love.

And then you had us, stark difference between the two, who believe that we are to speak the truth in love.

We were there to confront, most certainly. We were there to preach a gospel we know that they were going to be hostile to.

We told them that they were sinners. We told them that they were on their way to hell. We told them, unless they reprinted and trusted in the

Lord Jesus Christ, that they would, in fact, taste the wrath of Jesus.

And we told them that God has provided a way of escape, that if they would repent and believe in him, fall on their knees, and throw down their self -made crowns, the same self -made crowns that every single one of us who bear the name of Jesus Christ carried around before he ripped them out of our hands, carried, identifying with them and their struggle, although we have much different struggles, and showing them that there's a better way.

Not a third way, or a compromising way, but a way that takes truth and love and marries them together.

And this is one of the weaknesses of our own camp. And I'll say it. You know, I'm not afraid to tell you when our family's breath stinks.

We are really good at truth. And we are not always so good at speaking that truth in love.

And it makes everything harder than it needs to be. God will still get his people, his church will still grow, and it will still mature, but sometimes it's in spite of us and not because of us, and that is important to remember.

So we are to speak the truth in love. Proverbs 27 .6,

faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. People are willing to receive correction if they know you love them.

Now, I'm not arguing for, you know, evangelism rooted in, you know, becoming someone's best friend first, but I am saying that, yeah,

I mean, it's a general principle the Bible teaches that if you do something in love, people are more likely to respond in kind.

Colossians 4 .6, let your words always be with grace, seasoned with salt so that you will know how you should answer each person.

And in 1 Peter 3 .15, which is, you know, of course the go -to apologetic text, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.

Set him apart as Lord in your hearts before you even begin talking about anything else. Always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness, with gentleness and fear.

Gentleness and fear. The Christian economy is upside down and those scare tactics, puffed up chests and hostility work for leaders in the world.

They will not be honored by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's like a surgeon with a scalpel.

The truth is like a blade. It cuts deep and it brings healing, but it must be wielded with care, with precision and with love.

Because if it's not, that person is just a serial killer. He's just a flesh mutilator.

So how do you speak to others? How do you speak to others? About spiritual matters, about doctrinal issues.

Do you stand firm in the truth while showing compassion and love? Not seeing the other person as an enemy to defeat, but as a brother to win?

Because you must let your words build up rather than tear down. And your job is to always what?

Point to Jesus Christ. Our job here is to point to Jesus Christ, to his full knowledge.

And lastly, and finally, and quickly, the end of doctrinal maturity. Verse 15, but in speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up, right?

Being matured in all aspects, in everything, into him, that is Jesus, who is the head of our body,

Christ. Paul here envisions for the church a growing that happens in every aspect, doctrinally, morally, relationally, livingly, if you could say, into the image of Christ.

There is no area of life where we must remain stagnant.

Every time we gather, we should be spurred on to continually grow in maturation.

Think of a child growing into adulthood, every part of them, mind, body, everything, develop into maturity.

Likewise, the Christian is to grow holistically in every aspect of life into the likeness of Christ.

Now, as I say that, I want you to consider, are there places in your life where you have just ignored and stopped actually growing?

Now, I'm just not gonna deal with that right now, but I know that's a problem, but that's over here. Don't do that.

Are there areas of your life where you refuse to keep walking down the road of repentance and growth? Are there places you're unaware of because you're not living in community enough to know what those things are?

Something to consider because you need it for the maturation growing up in Christ and finally in him.

It's in him. The final goal is not merely personal growth, but conformity to Christ, who is the head.

This is a, I said it already in the sermon, a community project. A community project that we're on together.

Christ is the standard, he's the source, and he's the sovereign over our growth, but we must put one foot in front of the other.

Paul says in Colossians 1 .18, and he is the head of the body. The church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, and he himself will come to have first place in everything.

The body must match the head, and the body is formed and shaped by its connection to the head.

Remember, we can do nothing without Jesus. Apart from him, we can, he says in John 15, do nothing.

And so this is all kind of encapsulating this reality that the church is shaped by Christ, into Christ, for Christ.

It's all about the Lord Jesus Christ. Your growth, then, is not just about you, it's also about your neighbor, and it's not just about your neighbor, it's about Christ.

So we must seek to believe everything that's being said here, and grow in a way that glorifies him, submitting every area of our life to his lordship, and being governed here in this church by him.

He's everything, he's everything. That means the stakes are high.

Friends, doctrinal immaturity leads to spiritual ruin, but doctrinal maturity leads to Christlikeness.

As we have seen in his words here to the Ephesians and us by extension, it's urgent that we continue to keep the unity and the bond of peace.

We cannot afford to be filled to the brim with immature, unstable believers who have no desire to grow, because Christ has purchased for us growth.

We must press on to maturity, growing in unity, growing in knowledge and love, and we must do that together.

Your pastor's with you, and it must be the aim of every single church.

It's okay to admit you're a spiritual infant. It's just okay not to stay there.

This is why Hebrews chapter six, the author says in verse one, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity.

Our church needs maturity. The world needs maturity, which means we need believers here at Heritage rooted and grounded in the truth, unshakable in their faith, and reflecting the glory of Christ in every area of life, because Christ is worth it.