To turn to the reading of God's Word, we'll go to 1 John
and I've just got one reading from 1 John, but a reasonably substantial reading.
1 John chapter 2 and beginning at verse 18, and we'll take it from verse 16.
And then we'll go through to chapter 4, through to 23, yes.
Okay, chapter 2, verse 18 through to chapter 3 of verse 23.
So that's probably about the normal length of our readings.
As we open the Word of God again at the selected passages
that we have been attending in Ephesians chapter 4.
Now if I may take these two verses together from verses 14 through to 15,
I want to concentrate on 15 today, but the context of verse 15 is indeed verse 14.
That we should become a perfect man, that is a mature person in Christ,
that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro
and carried away with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men
in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
but speak the truth in love, may grow up in all things into him
who is the head, Christ.
And then he goes on further that we won't be able to look at today.
Growing up in Christ in all things is indeed a spiritual work
that Christ establishes within us.
He establishes within us in two particular ways,
that we hold forth the truth and we hold forth with the passion of love in our hearts.
Those are the instruments that God uses to establish us to grow up in Christ in all things.
In other words, in a balanced, symmetrical and complete manner
at every stage of our growth in Christ.
As you know, the Christian life is a constant walk of growth in Christ
in every part of our life.
It never finishes until that last day that we are called to be with the Lord.
It is a constant work and as we do so, we are growing up in all things in Christ.
Now, when we come to this particular passage,
we come to this verse that must be held in context,
in exact contrast to the picture that we have of speaking the truth in love
and growing up in all things in Christ
is the exact opposite picture that we have to that in the previous verse.
A stable, immature Christian person has been tossed and turned by every wind of doctrine
and is able to follow the trickery of men's deceit and false doctrine
that the world is often posing to oppose the Christian Gospel.
You'll find this in every part of our society
that there is a doctrinal onslaught to the Christian Church
constantly and specifically focusing upon biblical Christianity.
They do it consciously as well as unconsciously
and they do it in many facets of ways.
But for us to see that we are going to speak the truth in love
is a contradiction of being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.
It is not simply just speaking with the lips that is spoken of here.
It's a very difficult word to actually translate
but most commentators it says it's more than just speaking although it will include speaking.
It has this idea of testifying, of demonstrating,
of holding forth the truth.
It is a more holistic word that is used here.
It is something that the whole lifestyle is speaking of the truth.
That kind of demonstration of the truth in love
is the kind of thing that is spoken of here.
And unfortunately this verse is being used as a slogan by the ecumenical movement in the Church
that speaks of a Christian spirit we must have
where we are nice to all people.
We are those that are not setting forth raw doctrine
because doctrine divides they say.
Doctrine kills churches and kills Christian spirit they all say.
But we have to have this kind of speaking and dialoguing with people
and we dialogue with the Buddhists
and we dialogue with those who would oppose us in their religious assertions.
And therefore we sort of find common ground
and we forget our differences
and we find a human unity of religious purpose.
That's the kind of ecumenical spirit
and we must use that kind of nice guy sort of approach.
This soft words, this kind of spirit
that is going to somehow come together with a multiplicity of opinion.
And they even would say that that multiplicity of opinion is a good thing
because in our unity there is diversity they will say
and diversity by having other gods.
After all, all good religion, all tolerant religion
will lead to Christ in the end.
Whatever your Christ is that's quite the kind of thing that they will say.
And this is the way in which we are going to find our saviour
or our saving as being involved with this world church.
This unified, testifying church
that is going to bring some kind of peace to the world
and justice to the world they will say.
Have you heard that kind of statement made by the world church?
And the emphasis is upon the world.
It's not a heavenly church, it's a world church.
Now in contrast to this the Apostle Paul says
that we are to speak the truth or hold forth the truth.
We are to be so transformed from within by biblical truth,
by propositional truth, by the precepts and the statutes
and the ordinances and the commandments of God.
So ingrained within our soul that we cannot live our life
without living according to a biblical framework
and a biblical centre even to our lives.
And so we find that we don't have to talk very often.
We just have to be.
And we are setting forth and constantly speaking.
It was interesting, I was over at the sailing club yesterday
and I determined not to speak about the things of Christ
because I was involved in a group of people
that were very self-assured people.
And one guy came around and he says,
Now would you buy a raffle ticket?
And I saw this young fellow there, he wanted to buy a raffle ticket
for the marine school.
And I said to him, I don't engage in games of chance
but here's a donation.
And everyone looked.
And then they said, Now can you be involved in the race committee?
And I said, Yes, I can be involved in the race committee.
And he said, Now what days can you come?
You know, Saturday, you can come on Saturday, can you?
Yes, I can come on Saturday.
And Sunday, he looked at me.
And he said, I'm not available on Sunday.
Now, I didn't say a thing and a day will come
where I'll have to speak it all out and tell them as it is.
But they just quietly observed things that I would not do
and things that I would do.
And all the day they were swearing under their breath all the time
and seeing whether I swear along with them.
I didn't.
See, it's setting forth a biblical foundation.
And I would say that this is exactly what I was speaking about.
Setting forth the truth.
It might be an undercurrent in your lifestyle,
but it is something that is very distinctly Christian
and will not come from any other spirit than a Christian spirit,
a biblical spirit.
And here, far from this kind of spirit of personal sincerity,
many people say, among religious people,
as long as you are sincere to what you believe,
that makes you true.
Even though, according to the Scriptures,
you are so definitely wrong
in terms of biblical foundations of truth.
But as long as you are sincere
and you honestly believe in what you hold to
and that you are a good man because you hold to your convictions,
then you are a true person,
even if you are the Dalai Lama
or if you are the Mula of the community.
You are sincerely believing.
These guys, when they blow themselves up in the name of Allah,
I tell you, they are taking up their cross daily
and following the God of their religion.
They are sincere.
They mean that they must do battle with the decadent West.
They must do battle with those who allow sexual perversion
everywhere in their society
and people rip each other off and are only living for the good life.
We've got to deal with that, they say.
They are sincere in their views,
where people seem to dress in lewd manner.
The so-called Christian West, they will say,
we must do battle with that kind of lifestyle.
They are sincere and therefore they are regarded as true men.
But they are sincerely wrong
because they are not following a revealed Christ
that has saved their souls
and established the work of the Kingdom of God amongst them.
You see the difference here.
There is nothing more unpopular
than holding definite biblical views.
You only have to hold them for a little while
and just see how unpopular it is.
If you start holding to the Ten Commandments
in the places you do your work,
you will find that people will distance themselves
from you very quickly.
They might respect you
but they will see you as being a threat
to the situation that they are facing.
Holding to biblical doctrine even in the Church
is an unpopular thing.
If you just talk about some of the clear doctrines
of the Scriptures among many Christian people,
just talk about holding to predestination, for instance.
Oh, terrible thing.
The authority of God is exalted in this situation.
Are you one of those Calvinists, they say?
Are you one of those people that kills churches, they all say?
And it's not popular to hold to these doctrines.
If you hold to exclusive atonement in Christ
and say all other religions are on the basis are wrong
because they hold to the atonement of Christ
exclusively in Christ
no one could be saved except through the Lord Jesus Christ
and that's faith in Him alone.
And if you can't serve any other basis of life at all
you will soon find that you are in the minority.
Even with inside the Church
I had the audacity to say that to some of my Masonic people
who do not hold to Christ
as the exclusive sacrifice for our sins
and the substitutionary atonement idea.
So holding these things forth
is first of all life transforming in ourselves.
It sets us definitely apart from anybody else
and we are very much set apart by these things.
So as we hold forth these truths of the Scriptures
whether in preset or in commandment
or in a good sound tradition that comes from biblical
historical exercise of truths that are found in the Word of God
you will find that we must give a clear demonstration
and holding forth of this truth
and we cannot help
but testify to these things because they are life to us.
They are what we are
if we are genuinely Christian.
And therefore the truth is absolute.
It is a declaration of a proposition
that God reflects the very character
and the design and purpose of what God is doing.
And what God is doing is very much opposed to what this world is doing.
We've got to take it basically as being what it is
if this world believes in it is mostly wrong
because the spirit of this world is implacably opposed to the spirit of Christ.
And we will find that as we hold to these truths
we will become those that are light and salt of the world.
There is nothing relative.
A truth is a truth yesterday as it is today.
There is no beating around the bush.
Murder is murder today as it was in those days
and days gone by will be always that way.
Today when we've got adultery as being basically
the common day thing today in marriage relationships
whether it's through the use of pornography
whether it's through the people just experimenting
with biblical standards of marriage
you find that adultery is somehow accepted
as long as we're not hurting each other.
That's what they'll say.
As long as I'm not hurting you that's alright.
And so we find all sorts of aversions.
So it's not even considered as a grievous sin today.
It is something that we seem to hold to loosely.
But not only that, we are to be active in it.
We are to hold to it.
Many Christians believe certain things they say
but when it comes to actually making a decision to live by it
somehow excuses are made.
I'm too busy or out of my circumstances I want to keep my job
and therefore I can't hold forth this truth.
Or there might be many other excuses.
And I find particularly upon people that hold to a biblical framework
and they intellectualise constantly about the doctrines of scripture
but when it comes to their family life, their work life
and wherever they might be type of life
they live just as the rest of the people do in the world.
The only thing they might be a little bit more cultured about it.
They might be able to explain away the reasons why they don't do
certain things they ought to be doing as Christians.
I've noticed in the years of my ministry
that in the days gone by people will say
if it is doubtful in scriptures we will not do it.
Today in the evangelical church
if it is doubtful do it to express your freedom
until you find otherwise not to do it.
That's how they think these days.
Because freedom, personal freedom
is the alter by which everyone makes their decision.
Because we are free in Christ they say do as you please
because after all if it's slightly wrong
God will forgive us and understand us.
He is merciful.
God is not like that.
If we play fast and loose with His word
there is consequences that which you sow you shall reap.
There are consequences of holding loosely to the doctrine of scriptures
and not really obeying the word of God.
And I must admit there are areas of my own life
that I find myself falling short in that area.
And there's probably areas I'm not conscious of
that I'm also falling short in that area.
We need to be on a constant vigilance
and making spiritual inventories of our spiritual life.
Are we actually doing the word of God?
Are we doing what we say we believe?
And heying the consequences
in terms of what might happen to us if we hold to these things.
We must throw ourselves upon the reliance of our Saviour Himself
and the God, the Holy Spirit Himself.
And how we are to do this?
He says we are to do it in love.
Now how are we to demonstrate this truth?
It is in love and our love if it is misplaced
we are loving things all the time.
There's no lack of love in any one of our souls.
But the trouble is we misplace that love
and we find ourselves so misplacing it
that we are also misplacing the truth as well as a result of it.
What is the first thing we must do in terms of our love?
And we must get this clearly settled in our soul
and say that this is an inviolate truth
and it must be absolute in our life.
It says in Matthew chapter 22 and 37 to 34
and let us not lose sight of this verse.
And it must be the first verse that we come to
in anything that we consider.
34 to 37.
And he says this.
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees
they gathered together.
And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question
testing him and saying,
Teacher, what is the great commandment of the law?
And Jesus said to him,
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the first commandment and the second is like it.
You shall love your neighbour as yourself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Mostly we do the wrong thing in our lives
because we do not keep this first commandment.
To love the Lord your God with all your soul,
with all your heart and with all your soul
and with all your mind.
It is not with portions of your mind
it is not with portions of your soul or your heart.
We must seek the Lord with all our heart.
We must place our love on the basis of our love of God.
And I want to say that is the beginning and the end
of all our failure.
Now you might say, Well, how can I take my affections
and my feelings for God when they're not there?
Well, God demonstrated his love by doing.
Love is a doing word.
Love is something that we do.
We can determine to do it or not to do it.
And if we are ready to say,
This is what the Word of God says that I must do
and because I must do it, I must do it in such a way
that I am going to express my love for God.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
Now this is what we must do.
In every decision you make,
am I giving precedence to God in this decision?
Or am I concerned about my own personal reputation
or my own personal welfare,
as though God can't help you in your own welfare?
Now that is something we need to ask ourselves constantly
because wherever your love is, there is your heart.
And we find ourselves having to make decisions
on the basis of whom we love.
If you love God, you will drink deeply into the Word of God.
You will look into the doctrines of the Scriptures
and you will keep his commandments.
If you love me, you will keep my commandments,
says John the Apostle.
Now anybody who is not keeping the commandments of God is not loving.
Just basically say it as it is.
If we haven't got a heart to search the Scriptures
on a particular doctrinal position
and we simply haven't wanted to do it,
the fact is, you don't want the implications of that
because you'll have to obey it
when you understand what it really means.
And sometimes you'll have to say,
well boy, this is going to make a very big difference
to my lifestyle if I hold to this doctrine
because I know a lot of people are going to oppose me
if I hold to this particular precept and position.
Now I don't need to say this any more than I've always said it.
With young people, very often you are making decisions
in the kind of people you're going to go out with
and you'll know that the Word of God says quite clearly
that if you're a Christian,
you must marry somebody who is a Christian
and not just professing to be Christian
but somebody who is genuinely got a heart for the Lord
and will predictably make decisions
on the basis of the Word of God alone
in practical areas of their life.
The kind of church you will go to,
what sort of church you're going to go to.
You're going to go to church because you love your friends
and there's a lot of people there
and I'll need to have the buoyancy
and the happiness of worldly worship
or worldly get-togethers.
Now quite frankly you know that that kind of decision making
is a very unpopular decision making
but eventually you're going to have to make that decision.
The kind of decisions you make
particularly in the areas of boy-girl relationships
is enormously important for the rest of your life.
I come across people that are desperately unhappy
because they've made bad decisions
in the turbulent period of their teenage lifestyle
and they're drifting and whirring around.
That's why it's good advice to get,
Dad, Mum, this person I'm going out with at the moment,
do you approve?
Absolutely important because you know that your emotions
with Harry the hormone running around in your system,
it is hard for you to make those kind of decisions.
Go to your pastor and say,
look, this relationship is looming
and I don't know whether it's right.
Can you give me advice?
And we can see from the outside how things are going.
What sort of church does he attend?
What sort of books is he reading?
Does he have a quiet time in the morning?
Does he delight to be amongst those
who are worshipping God in a biblical manner?
Those kind of things are the kind of decisions
we need to be making.
And you'll know, you'll see it clearly.
Is this person a person I can submit to?
And know reliably I will be guided in the way of truth
and my welfare will be guarded
because of the integrity of this man's life
according to the word of God
and vice versa.
Those are imperatives.
And I know we're making decisions at teenage years
about who we're going to spend the rest of our lives with
and you know there's not many out there
that hold to biblical things
and you say the field has been shortened
and the pool of people I can draw and associate with
at this level, I'm not saying in the general level
but at this level is very small.
You say is there any possibility for me to really get somebody
that is trustworthy and worthy of my love?
So that's the kind of thing we've got to look at
and we need to hold that forth, this kind of love.
Because if we love ourselves we will be guarding reputation.
This has been something that I've had to deal with as a minister
and I must admit at times for many years
I took the pragmatic view that it's better to just hold the party line
because I didn't mind being poor,
I didn't mind not having opportunities
but one thing I did mind is losing my reputation.
There are people I went through college with
who would have nothing more to do with me
because I'm outside their circle of people
and that's a very hard thing.
If I love myself then I love my reputation
and my integrity, you know I used to hold it to that so carefully.
Now integrity is something you've got to foster
but in the end you must be those
who are not holding it for selfish purposes
but for the glory of Christ.
If you love this world you will probably love its music,
you'll probably love its dances and its pubs
and all the lifestyle that goes with that.
If you love the world you will love its parties
and you'll love the culture that comes with it
and you will be sophisticated sort of prigs
rather than disciples of Christ.
See I'm saying whatever you love determines what you're going to do
and whatever you do is going to be your doctrine
and what is your doctrine in the end?
Biblical or unbiblical?
That's what we need to say.
And also if we are genuinely loving God
with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind
we will love our neighbour as ourself
and Christ gives a new commandment that you'll love one another
as I have loved you, as Christ has loved me.
And I would say to you that if we are denying ourselves
if we are genuinely giving ourselves the denial treatment
and come before God and begin to say
I'm going to make sure that that which God is going to show compassion
I will show compassion for
and I will live for others rather than myself in this regard.
Whatever you do to your brother is your doing to Christ.
If you neglect your brother who is making a stance for the things of God
and you don't support your brother or sister in that
you don't identify with that person
in the very unpopular decision making he has to make
you are not with him, you are against him.
And therefore we need to be careful about who we support
and who we don't support.
Are we supporting those that hold to a very strong Sabbatarian position?
Are we supporting those that hold to strong family values?
And you may go on and on.
Martin Luther said a man has not been converted until his wallet has been converted.
How do you give?
Not only do you money but also how do you give to those who are in desperate need?
If you see your brother in need
make sure that you empty your pockets for the name of your brother
and the care of your brother even while it hurts and you do without.
In this way we are to grow in Christ it says.
The main spring of growth is life.
It's not reordering our life but it is life itself that gives growth.
Now I know that's obvious
but I would suggest that the legalist is somebody that gathers together
that which is good in his life and he constructs a religious life.
He builds a religious life.
But a person that is growing in Christ
the main spring is the life of Christ within him
that brings these holding forth the truth and holding forth the love of God.
And as we are those to which we come
it's not religion that is going to be the most prized thing to us.
It's going to be that we know full well and we know clearly
that eternal life has taken hold of our hearts.
Many people start the Christian life by association
and by learning how to be a Christian
rather than coming to Christ and knowing what it means to be born again from above
and to receive eternal life from Christ alone.
And then we have a main spring within us
where all things come alive from within
and all our attitudes and our views of life
are transformed into the likeness of the scriptures themselves.
Now as we do that very many people say
well I'm just finding the Christian life too hard
and when we sort of whittle back and diagnostically see where that person has come
he has never started with Christ.
He has come from another way other than the narrow way that lead us to eternal life.
He has never come to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Instead he has tried to reform his life
and reconstruct his life according to the Christian teachings
rather than coming to Christ who is the source of life itself.
That's why he's not growing.
That's why he's been forced to build his life
in a manner that's going to be pleasing to the church that he belongs to
and the Christian people he belongs to.
He wants to conform rather than be transformed from within.
No one's told him the gospel.
He thought the gospel was that I'll have to bring up the pieces of my life together
and somehow order them in a Christianized manner.
And so the man is not living by faith in Christ.
He's living by faith in teaching in the church or in people.
And as a result he's less than Christian.
He looks like a Christian but he is merely an outward show of Christianity.
And sometimes they become very, very skilled at this.
But we need to make sure that we start with Christ
so that we are growing from within by the power of the Spirit of God
and by the strength of God himself.
And as we do that then we will find that our love for the Scriptures will be spontaneous.
Our address to God in prayer will also be spontaneous
and we'll find that we will be from within
and desiring to serve God as the graces of Christ become more and more evident within our lives.
And so we need to see that also in our lives.
This growth will be characteristically Christ-honoring.
It will be symmetrical. Yes, it will be gradual.
And there will be a necessity for us to persevere and to press on in what God has given us
and the graces that he allows us to day by day be sanctified
and be able to choose God's way each day.
But as we do so, I notice that there's one thing.
Even though we are growing in Christ,
the reason why we know it is of Christ, it is balanced in every spiritual and biblical truth.
It's gradual. Yes, there is immaturity.
We come to greatest levels of maturity in the Christian faith
even to what is called the perfect man, a settled, predictable lifestyle
that there is a roundness of biblical truth.
Now, not all scriptural truth has the same priority.
We'll learn by the spiritual wisdom that God gives us.
There are commandments that just cannot be broken.
There are truths that are all part of the framework that make over the whole.
And there are certain priorities that God gives us within scripture itself.
All of these things grow on a diet of doing the truth
and expressing ourselves in our love for God.
And as we grow on this diet, everyone who practices righteousness
will know that we are born of God.
We know that we've passed from death to life
as we have love for our brethren and love for other Christian people
that also have experienced what it means to walk with Christ.
We know love because Christ has expressed that love toward us
in many and varied ways, not only in his sacrifice
but in the manner in which he leads us on a daily basis.
And we find also that as we come to maturity in this love
there is a sense of God's working within us that gives such deep assurance
that we don't even mind losing our life for the sake of Christ.
We don't even mind losing our reputation in terms of this world's achievements
for the sake of Christ.
And this balance is at all stages I find among new Christians
as they first come to know Christ.
They might be a bit radical in certain areas
but essentially they are stayed upon the person of Christ
and the stability in their lives has never been the same in their lives beforehand.
They quietly and zealously with their first love embrace the things of Christ
and it is true even though they will learn more about these things
as they go on their Christian life.
It is equally true except the depth becomes deeper in their life.
And so as we do so, he says, in all things
very often we find Christians falling off the precipice
because they've got one particular view that must be held above other views.
I had a friend of mine who claimed to be converted under my ministry.
I don't know whether he was or not.
And he had strong views about the millennium.
He had strong views about what Bible we should read
and strong views about this or that.
But then when it came to the Lord's day, he attended infrequently.
Instead he went to his four-wheel drive church in the mountains somewhere
and he'd drink in the things of God up there
just because he wanted to do his own thing.
See, he was a man who was not in all things growing in Christ
and Christ be the head of his life.
If he was, he'd be among God's people on the Lord's day at least
and at the Bible study amongst his people and he would delight to be with them
but instead he chose to do his own thing.
He was a person not growing in all things,
symmetrically, balanced and with a full-albed Christian approach.
So I want to say today that we are to speak the truth,
we are to hold forth the truth in love.
We are to hold forth in love.
It's often a problem among reformed Christians
is we have intellectual appreciation
and we say we believe certain things but we don't do them.
We are to hold them because our love for God is really not there.
We have a love for truth but we don't have a love for God in it
and we need to be very careful about that
because we can become very intellectual
although even these days intellectual Christians are far and wide not found.
But in doing that we are to grow up in Christ
and we've got to do that in all things, in a balanced and full-albed manner.
May God give us the grace to do so.