Pastor Tom Horn's sermon, 'Speaking the Truth In Love,' delves into Ephesians 4, highlighting the importance of truth and love in the Christian journey. The sermon emphasizes that the ultimate goal for church members is to grow into the body of Christ, characterized by unity in diversity and a balance of truth and love. Pastor Horn explains that church members are called to embody Christ's love and truth in their interactions, both within their congregation and with the world, serving as His representatives on Earth. The sermon outlines the role of pastors and teachers in equipping the saints for ministry, stressing the need for doctrinal stability and spiritual maturity. It underscores the concept of 'unified diversity,' wherein God intentionally brings together diverse individuals to demonstrate the gospel's unifying power. The sermon calls for believers to pursue spiritual growth and maturity, aiming to reflect Christ's character in their lives, fostering a community of faith that builds itself up in love.

Ephesians chapter 4. I have been assigned the subject, Speak the truth in love, which is a declaration that is found in Ephesians 4, so let's begin by reading the immediate passage that it is found in. Ephesians chapter 4 and we'll jump in at verse 11. And he, that being Christ, he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in or come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive.

But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted or held together by that which every joint supply of according to the effect you're working in the measure of every part make it increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love so I would imagine that that most if not all of us are aware that this passage finds itself contextually within a letter written by the Apostle Paul to the Ephesus Church, a congregation of baptized believers that existed in Asia Minor in the first century. A New Testament church like this New Testament church, Sovereign Grace Baptist Church here at Cortance and the other New Testament congregations that are represented here today. And as we dig a little deeper into the context we can see that this passage finds itself in the application or the therefore or the so what part of Paul's letter. This letter is actually divided right down the middle. Chapter one through three are doctrine, glorious, glorious doctrine.

And chapter four through six are, okay, therefore because of this glorious doctrine, this is your duty, church. This is how this doctrine should mold your mind and your action and your lives. And that's the therefore part of this letter and that's at the beginning of that therefore that application part of this letter is where we find our passage today. It's obviously no mistake that the duty section of this letter begins with instruction of how to walk worthy of our glorious calling as God's people, that calling which is described in the previous doctrines in verses 1 through 3. But it begins, this application part of it begins with, how we are to walk worthy of this calling first together in the Lord's church.

That's no mistake. Well, if I could put it like this, if you are a believer of the gospel, if you are a Christ follower, then you should seek and desire to be a part of his church. In fact, the New Testament really doesn't know believers outside of the Lord's Church. I know somebody said, wait a minute, preacher, what about the Philip and the eunuch? What about the thief on the cross?

Well, those are exceptions, not the rule. I mean, do you really want your Christian life to be the exception instead of the rule? No, we want it to be the rule. We want it to be the Christian life, the common Christian life, the patterned Christian life that the New Testament lays out for us. The clear teaching and the clear example of the scriptures is that true Christ followers are church members.

But just to be clear, the clear teaching and the clear example of scripture is that true Christ followers are not just church members but they are faithful church members. Faithful church members. They are not just names on a church roll somewhere hoping that that qualifies them for some special heavenly position. Okay? You will not find anything like that in God's Word.

You might have it in your imagination, you might have it in your traditions, but you will not find it in God's Word, nor are they just religious bodies in a pew. Or here, let me ask us church members, we know that the Holy Spirit adds us to his churches, right? We should know that The Bible tells us that that is true. So why has he added you to one of his churches? Why has he added you?

Do you know? Do you know? Well, in the same letter, back in the doctrine part of the letter, back in chapter two and three, Paul talks about this great mystery, which a mystery, the mystery that is spoken of in the New Testament is something that has been hidden in Old Testament time, but it has now been revealed in New Testament time. Well, Paul tells us them and us about this mystery in which God has purpose to save both Jewish and Gentile sinners, he's purpose to save them from their sins and then put them together. And understand what that means.

Jew and Gentile, these are two groups which are the very epitome of diversity. They are not the same. They are different from one another. They were different from one another, but God in His purpose, in His wisdom, He has purpose to put them together in the same congregation. And he does so intentionally.

And he does so intentionally to put on display before the world the gospel principle of sacrificial, selfless, unified diversity. This is why the Lord has added us to His churches. Unified diversity. This is why the Lord has added us to his churches, especially with all the knuckleheads that he has put us together with, unified diversity. So the why, Why have we been added to the Lord's congregation?

The answer is gospel unity. Gospel unity. In fact, I'm saying all of this. I'm not just dragging all this out of thin air. No, no.

If you'll look back at the beginning of the chapter verses four through six, you will see all of these ones. One body, one spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, that's all about unity. Unity, that's what this chapter is really about. So how do we walk worthy church? How do we walk worthy church members of the calling, the gracious, merciful calling that God has wrought upon our lives?

This is how we pursue gospel unity. We pursue gospel unity together in the midst of all of our diversity. This this this book and this church is all about gospel unity. It's about gospel unity. And so then as we come to our section in verses 11 through 16, this may be a little backwards way of working through the text, But let's first look at the picture, this beautiful, amazing picture that the apostle draws for them and for us of the goal.

Okay, let's start with the goal first. What's the goal? The goal of what should be our pursuit as faithful church members. So here's the goal, church members, ready? Paul repeats it three times just to make sure that we get it, just to make sure that we don't miss it.

First, at the end of verse 12, the body of Christ. The body of Christ. The goal is that this congregation and every congregation represented here become the body of Christ Jesus himself at our specific locality, the body of Christ. That's the goal. But what does that mean?

Last half of verse 13, God has added us to his congregations so that together we may come or grow into a perfect man, and he's talking about Christ, so let's just say the perfect man, the perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. As the Lord's own congregations, we are together individually and therefore collectively, we are to be growing and maturing to think and act more and more and more like Christ Jesus himself. That's the goal. And then verse 15, but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things. Did you get that?

Did you hear that? You really can't say it any clearer than what he's saying. He says the body of Christ and then he gives us this language of growing into the perfect man, the measure of the stature of Christ and then he just simplifies it for us so that we may grow up into him. We may grow up into him in all things, which is the head. Who's the him?

Even Christ. We may grow up into him. So this is the goal. This is the ultimate goal of why the Lord has put you, Saint, into his congregation, so that his congregations may be his body. His, if I could put it like this, so that his congregations may be his heart, his mouth, his hands, his feet, all into this earth.

And by the way, specifically in this text, so that we may be his heart, his hand, his mouth, his feet to each other, To each other. So that we may, if I could just simplify it. So that we may be Jesus. Jesus is not here physically anymore, right? But he has filled us with his spirit.

And so in that sense, he is calling us to be him on this earth, church. That's the reason Paul uses this illustration and that's what it is. It's an illustration. It's not some mystical teaching that he alone is trying to teach. No, he's giving us an illustration, but it's a really good illustration if we'll just see it for what it is.

He's calling us, the goal is for us to be him on this earth while he's not here right now physically for us to be him physically filled with his spirit led by his spirit but for him to be for us to be him physically on this earth to the world around us and specifically here to one another. Church members are you pursuing to be Christ Jesus himself to your brothers and sisters in Christ in your local assembly? Are you seeking, are you pursuing? Again it's not perfection We've already seen that already. No, but at least are we trying?

Do we understand the illustration and are we trying? Are we pursuing to follow God's word to be the goal of what he has intended, what he has planned, why he has established his churches in the first place and placed them here on this earth and filled us with his spirit? Are we seeking to be him to one another? This is the goal, but is that even on our radar? So this is the goal, but now how is this goal going to be realized?

How is it going to be realized? Well, the apostle is sure to tell us in the beginning of the chapter that all of this has come and has come to us by the good and gracious gifts of our risen Lord. But notice the form that His good grace takes here. Notice what it looks like. Notice what this gift that He has given to us, what it looks like.

With the verse 11, and He, that being Christ, our risen Lord, He gave to his church, that's the context here, he gave to his church some apostles and some prophets, that's how it began, and now some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. So to reach this goal, God has gifted and God has given to his churches, he has given them men as evangelists and pastors, elders and teachers. So first let me ask you church members, do you see these men in your congregations as God's gracious gifts to you? Do you see them? Do you view them?

Do you esteem them as God's own gifts to you? Do we all understand that in God's good grace and in his perfect wisdom these men who have been given these gifts to, this is how He gets us church to this goal of being the body of Christ. Now I know all of us preachers are saying, Amen. Brother you get them. You get them church members.

Alright, but hold on because there's something for the pulpit here too. Verses 12-13, here's why he has gifted us as he has. Elders, teachers, evangelists, you see it, for, here's why, for the perfecting, for the equipping of the saints. By the way, according to the apostles, the apostles same usage of this word, the only two times that it's used in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 10, this perfecting, this equipping is unto unity. So pastors, teachers, elders, evangelists, he has given us to his church as a gift, his own gift to the church.

Why? To unify the saints. To unify the saints. To unify the saints, notice what the text says, for the work of the ministry. God's work, not ours.

To unify the saints for God's work on this earth, for the edifying, building up, strengthening, not tearing down, okay, Not tearing down of the body of Christ. Okay? So pastors, teachers, do you hear our mandate here? Do you hear our responsibility to unify the saints of God? To unify the saints of God, to unify the saints of God, to build them up so that they can be the body of Christ that God has intended.

That's our mandate. That should be our purpose. That's our work in this great goal of this body of Christ being made. Unifying the saints, building them up, not tearing them down. Okay, so now look at how we accomplish when you know how to do this, right?

Oh, we just give them cotton candy and candy bars and we just bring them in by the busloads, right? No, God, it's His work. He knows what the body of Christ is supposed to look like, what it's supposed to do, how it's supposed to act, how it's supposed to think, right? Well, Look at how we accomplish this mandate in verse 13, till we all come in the unity of the faith. Till we're all unified in the faith.

How do we become unified in the faith? What's the teacher, what's the pastor, the shepherd's responsibility of unifying this body, this congregation in the faith? How do we do that? We teach those that God has given us to the faith. We teach them this book.

We teach them this book. Notice also it goes on and here we go and something else and to we all come into the knowledge of the Son of God. So we teach them this book and we show them the Son of God. We show them Christ Jesus in all of the book. Christ centered exposition.

We teach them the book, we expose the truth of God's Word contextually in the book and we show them how we look at Christ through all of the different aspects of the book because He's the Son and the substance of it. He's the first and the last of it. Which is the only way that they will be brought individually and together unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. We teach them this book, we show them Christ in the book, and they become unified together more and more and more like Christ. In 2nd Corinthians chapter 3, Paul says this amazing thing, it's a great, great mystery, but he spells it out there so simply for us, he says, you know how you become more like Christ?

By looking at Christ, by seeing Christ. That's how you become more and more like Him. There it is. That's how we become the body of Christ. Through teaching the faith, showing Christ as the fullness of that faith.

Seeking Him, looking at Him as the fullness of that faith. And when we use God's good gifts faithfully, brothers, pastors, teachers, and when we receive God's good gifts faithfully brothers and sisters church members with the power and the help of the Holy Spirit according to God's good pleasure something happens actually according to this text three things will happen three things will happen first verse 14 let me let me state positively what Paul says negatively here. The first thing he says that will happen when we realize what this is all about and we are acting, functioning as we should as the Church both as in the pew and in the pulpit. Okay here's what's happening here's what will happen. First, doctrinal stability and discernment will happen.

His negative stop being tossed around with every wind waving, you seen the guy at the car, the dude at the car dealership, you know, that's waving all around. That's, that's, He said, stop that. That's crazy. That's not what the church is supposed to be about. No.

Doctrinal stability and discernment. And let me just clarify. This doctrinal stability and discernment that Paul was talking about, he's already told us, is founded on the faith and on the Son of God, verse 13. It's not founded on tradition, it's not founded on preference, It's not necessarily founded on the faith of your favorite preacher. It's not necessarily founded upon the faith once delivered to the saints for the last 50 years or the last 100 years, but this faith, this faith in this book that was once a for all delivered to these Saints that's me this Jesus that this faith rests upon the doctrinal stability biblical stability biblical discernment will happen when we do what is prescribed here in God's Word.

And second, if we uphold our mandate, something else will happen. Verse 15, a balance of truth and love will grow. A balance, do you hear that word? Don't miss that word. A balance of truth and love will grow.

And how we all individually and collectively as the Lord's churches desperately need this balance. A balance of truth and love. One commentator put it this way, he said, speaking the truth and love seems deceptively easy but it is extremely difficult. It is possible only for the believer who is thoroughly equipped in sound doctrine and in spiritual maturity. For the immature believer, right doctrine can be no more than cold orthodoxy, and love can be no more than sentimentality." John Stodd in his comments on this wrote, Truth becomes hard if it is not softened by love, and love becomes soft if it is not strengthened by truth.

We desperately need this balance, but we don't need it just because we need it. This is why this balance of truth and love is so important. It is God's good grace and it is His pleasure to make and use His churches as the body of Christ Himself on this earth. That is the clear teaching of the New Testament. So think about this.

Let's do a little exercise here. I know you're sleepy, but this will wake you up, maybe. Think about Christ. Think about Christ the Lord. Think about Him in your mind.

Think about His perfections as we know them through His Word. Think about Him. Got it? You see Him? You see Him in His perfection?

You see Him in His beauty? Now think of Him without the truth. Think of him without the truth. Think of Jesus without the truth of God. Think of Jesus without doctrinal stability.

Why? That wouldn't even be Jesus, right? That wouldn't even be Christ. I mean, He is the truth, right? No, You're right.

That wouldn't be Christ. That wouldn't be Jesus. And neither can we be him, neither can we be his body without the truth, without this truth. Okay? And then think again of him.

Put him again in your mind. Think of him in his glorious perfections. Think of him in his gospel glory even towards you. Think of Him in His gospel glory toward you. Think of His great sacrifice, His mercy, His grace that is bestowed upon you because of Him, in Him, by Him.

Think of his sacrifice. Think about how he gave himself up to put away your sin by the sacrifice of himself. Think about how right now he sits at the right hand of the Father perfecting you before God the Father. Think of Him now. Got it?

Thank you. See Him? See His beauty, His radiance, His glory? Now think of him without love. That just destroyed everything we were just talking about.

Because everything that he's done for us, every action, every thought, every action, every heart, every mind, every part of his being that has acted towards us as his people has been motivated and moved by sovereign love. You wouldn't be Christ without love. After all, He is not only the truth, He is also what? Love. Love.

And we should all notice here that there's an emphasis on love in this passage. Don't miss that. We're not dealing directly with it here, but in verse 15, speak the truth in love. Verse 16, unto the edifying of itself in love. Not to mention verse 2, forebearing one another in love.

There's an emphasis here on love. And of course we know why this emphasis is here, right? We've already heard it this morning. The same apostle tells us in 1 Corinthians 13 that without love there is no way for us to be the body of Christ because without love we are just obnoxious useless noise and Jesus is certainly not obnoxious, useless noise, right? The apostle John wrote that if we don't love, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ, there's no way that we love God.

We are liars if we say we do. And certainly Jesus loved his father. Yes, Jesus possessed the perfect balance of truth and love. And we church members, we are called to do the same, pursue the same. We're called to pursue the perfect balance of truth and love that we see in Christ Jesus so that we can actually be Him.

So that we can actually be His body on earth. We cannot be His body on earth without this balance. This is so so important that we understand it. If we understand, we say that we know an awful lot about the church. Matter of fact, we say that we are the authorities on the subject, don't we?

Right? If we don't get this, we can't be. We don't get this first because the greatest of these is love. And the church in this same letter, Paul says the congregation is the body of Christ. The body of Christ is the congregation.

Well, if we don't possess this balance, if we don't possess these things that we see, we're not at the very best, we're a disfigured Christ on this earth, a distorted Christ to this earth. It's so important that we understand what Paul is trying to get at here. In fact, the Greek word translated speaking the truth, it's a really difficult word to translate in English because, yes, it does include speaking or talking, it's actually bigger than just speaking. It's truth and love speech, but it's born out of a life of truth and love. It's born out of something, it's born out of true experience, it's not just words, it's born out of actions, It's not just words.

Some have translated the phrase, speaking the truth in love, as truthing in love. Truthing in love. So, Paul was saying, we grow unto the stature of the fullness of Christ. We grow into the body of Christ, not by being tossed back and forth by every wind of doctrine, but by truthing in love. Truthing in love.

And actually, just think about Jesus himself, truthing in love. He spoke and he lived truth and love in perfect balance because he was both truth and love itself. That's the goal. That's the goal. And then just in case we need to be sure that we are thinking about love rightly, we've already been reminded of that this morning, but just remember how true love acts, okay?

So we are to truth, or we are to live our lives together in and from this word, the faith. We are to do so, how? First Corinthians 13. How? We are to do so patiently.

What does it mean? The truth and love. Well we're to live our life out of this word patiently. Got that one down? We always patient with everybody?

Let's not just talk about everybody. No, let's just get real close and personal right here. We're always patient right here. I can go to Elk Grove and I can say, we're always patient right here. And I would say, here, y'all do this.

No, because we ain't. We're not always patient with one another. We are to truth and love kindly. Kindly. We're always kind with one another.

Biblical kindness now. We are to truth and love with, oh here's a good one, without arrogance. Without arrogance. We are to truth and love selflessly. This is all in 1 Corinthians 13 when it's describing love, when it's defining what true love is.

And when Paul says speak the truth and love or truth and love here, well we've got to know what love is. That means we're to do this, we're to live out of God's Word, we're to live from, in and from this faith, patiently, kindly, without arrogance, selflessly, steaming others greater than ourselves. I think we'll hear something about that tomorrow. We have to do so mercifully. Mercifully.

Well, you just don't know what they've done to me. You know what you did to Christ? You know what you still do to him sometimes? Calls his spirit to grieve, mourn over you? We are to do so rejoicingly.

Rejoicingly. Truth and love rejoicingly. We are to do so enduringly. Well, I've about had it. Well, then just endure.

No, I mean, I've really about had it with them. Oh, just endure. This is the last straw. This is the seventy times seven, right here. This is it.

How many more times do you want me to forgive them Lord? Just endure. Endure. Endure. Truth and love enduringly.

Truth and love hopefully or expectantly. Expectantly. Do you believe that troublesome brother or sister? Maybe it's you. Maybe it's me.

Did you believe God can change that person? Or are you just ready to throw them away? There's no hope for them. That's not love. That's not love.

We are to truth and love and love means that we do it hopefully, with hope, expectantly. We expect God to accomplish His plan and His purpose in their lives. Now, I wish I could go on, but I'm almost out of time. So, churches, by the gifting and power of the Holy Spirit, Be unified in the faith, unified in this book, the clear, consistent, contextual meaning of this book. Be unified in that.

Love God's word being taught to you that way. I know it's not popular in our day. I want to tell you a story. I had an insurance suggestion come the other day and got to talking about the Lord and he started telling me about his church woes, he had some, you know all those things. He was mad at his pastor because he was preaching series.

All he wanted to do was preach series. I said, what do you mean by series? You mean like topical series? Well, it's always series like in a book or something like that. And I go, oh boy, here we go.

Yeah, we've been fed cotton candy and what we want to hear every Sunday, really a hobby horse that passed the road, we rode with him every Sunday the same thing, same thing. And I'm not saying some of those things weren't great, aren't great. Listen, the doctrine of election is a great glorious doctrine. Paul deals with it at the front of this letter. Perhaps more clearly here than anywhere else.

That's not the only thing he taught. It's not. Matter of fact, he's teaching us here how to live out of that. And you know how to live out of it? One of the ways we cannot live out of it with our hearts filled with pride over the fact that God chose us and he didn't choose anybody else.

You know, What could you want more than the word of your God taught to you? The meaning of God's word taught to you consistently, persistently. God's word taught to you in such a way that the power of His Word is being poured over you. The sufficiency of Scripture is enough. If you're being taught that the sufficiency of God's Word is enough, is enough, is enough, Why would we want anything else?

So we, by the gifting and the power of the Holy Spirit, be unified in the faith in this book. Be students of Jesus Christ himself. As we mentioned, when this book is taught correctly, Christ will be the center of it. Don't be tossed to and fro by the shifting winds of religious deception, but be like Jesus and truth in love." Because when these things take place, the third thing happens in verse 16. The legacy standard translated like this, it's a very difficult verse in any translation really.

But in verse 16 it reads this way, from whom the whole body, that means the whole congregation, being joined and held together by what every joint or every member supplies as we truth and love together, according to the properly measured working of each individual part, as we all do our part, Church, as we all do our part, church, as we all do our part, it causes, he causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. The saints, this is what God intends. This is His plan for His churches. This right here is a healthy, mature body of Christ on this earth. It is a body of believers who actively demonstrate the gospel glory, the gospel unity, the saving, sanctifying power of Christ Jesus, not only to this world, but also to those who are most dear to our hearts, to our brothers and sisters in Christ to one another, church.

And as we do so, we are built up into what God would have us to be. And what would God have us to be, church, like Christ? What else do you want? We say, oh, we love Jesus, He's the greatest, he's the real superhero, he's the only superhero, then why do we want to be so much like the world? Why don't we want to be more and more like him?

If he is the greatest and he is the highest, if he is the first, if he is the last, if he is the alpha, if he is the omega, What should our aspirations be, Church? He is all those things, by the way. He's the greatest of all goods and the delight of all delights. Don't you want to be like him? Christian, don't you want to be like him?

Church, don't you want to be like him? This is how. What an amazing miracle, what an amazing gift of God that a true, faithful, biblical body of Christ is. May the Lord help us to see and understand and to desire and to pursue this glorious gift.