Discipleship

06 September 2026

And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am always with you, to the end of the age’.

(Matthew 28:18-20)

So, we're continuing our study in the church membership, what it means to be part of a church. This week's topic is the local church and discipleship. So, the focus will be on what discipleship looks like in the context of your local church and the importance of it. It's not specifically a line-by-line exposition of any particular text, but we'll spend most of our time in Ephesians 4, but before we go there, let's look at Matthew 28. Matthew 28:18-20, as Jesus gave this great commission. From Matthew 28, verse 18.

“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am always with you, to the end of the age’.” Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we come now to your presence, to your word. We ask that you would open our minds, our hearts, enlighten us here today. Pray for your help, your strength to preach your word faithfully in a way that is honouring to the text. And we pray you would help your people, be with them, open their hearts, give them understanding. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

So, as we look at church membership and discipleship, the truth is when a Christian joins a church, they are placed under the teaching of God's word, and they come into a community of people, of sinful people, where they are shaped, they are corrected, they're encouraged, and they're held accountable as followers of Christ.

You've likely heard people say, as you've spoke to in the past - I don't need to attend the church. I don't need to be a member of a church to be a disciple, to be a follower of Jesus. Or you may have people say - I already have a relationship with God, so I don't need to be in organized religion. And they will use this kind of language to avoid any accountability or joining a church. Or perhaps I've even heard people say - well, the street is my church. We've heard people say that before when we've been out evangelizing these men who are preaching the gospel and trying to win converts, but have no church to direct them to.

So, as we've read in the text that Jesus says we are to go make disciples, that was an apostolic command, an instruction given to the apostles to build the church. It's the context of the church. Evangelism, preaching, teaching, discipling is in the context of the church. It's not a private thing. It's not something done in isolation from other believers.

Others have attended churches for many years perhaps and yet seem to not grow, seem to have little understanding of sound doctrine, shallow perhaps, compromised half-truths they've heard all their lives, and they're kind of spiritually malnourished all their days. And this is an issue for many of us today in the life of Christianity in this land. Perhaps even you, that we do not realize how vital and how much of a blessing your local church family is for your growth as a Christian, for your life as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Because let's face it, many come into churches and they get frustrated with things, they leave, they hold grudges, they reject accountability, they fail to see what God is doing in their life, and they fail to see that God often uses very difficult circumstances in their life to grow them, and they get fed up, they get tired of it, and they say, we're leaving, we're going. They don't stay because they fail to realize that difficult people, difficult circumstances, trials, are the means that God uses to grow his people and disciple us.

Throughout Scripture, there's constant commands to grow, to walk in holiness, to submit to Christ, to be equipped for the ministry. And these are all addressed to local congregations. They're addressed to a body of believers. They're not addressed to isolated individuals with some private faith. No, the New Testament assumes that believers are all gathered, they're all committed, they're all accountable and present.

They're not at home watching sermons online or sporadic attendance while avoiding the very people that God intends to use for their sanctification and growth. Because Christ commands His church to make disciples and equips His people through His word, you must be rooted in the local church to grow into a mature and faithful, obedient disciple of Jesus Christ. So, first of all, why is it important that you be rooted in a church for you to grow as a disciple?

Well, first of all, as we looked at Matthew 28, Christ commands His church Christ has commanded his church to make disciples. So that's the first point we'll focus on. We'll spend just a brief time in Matthew 28, as we read at the beginning before we go to Ephesians 4.

So, first of all, we must note that Christ said that All authority in heaven and earth is given to him. So, it is he who is building his church. We must take comfort first and foremost that the Lord Jesus is the one building the church. It's not left to us. It's not left to any individual pastor or group of elders to build the church and make sure people get saved. The Lord is doing this work. He begins this great commission, not with some task, but with a declaration by saying - All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples. He's commanding His church, but he's reminding them that He alone possesses this power and this authority as the risen and exalted Lord of heaven and earth. We are not the ones doing the building. We are not the ones producing the disciples in our own strength. We are the instruments in His hand as the exalted Son of God.

Christ, now seated at the right hand of the Father, ruling His kingdom, saving His elect, commanding His church throughout history through the apostolic doctrine He has entrusted to His apostles, to His church. Discipleship is not our invention. Discipleship is Christ's mandate that he's given to his church. Therefore, his church makes disciples in Christ's power and in Christ's authority. Because Christ builds His church, He's the one building this church, we go into this world with confidence as we sang in our first hymn. We are to go into the world with this message. We're going out with confidence. We're here confident that the Lord is doing a work in us. out of desperation, hoping and pleading that people will come in and somehow people will just hang around long enough to be a sort of disciple of Jesus. That's not the way we look at this work. We look at this work as a sovereign work of God, as a work that He is beginning and He has continued to do. And indeed, to the very end of the age, He has promised to be with us, His church. We're not begging people to be saved. We're not trying to manufacture some sort of spiritual life and atmosphere here. We are obeying the risen Christ, who we trust is already gathering his elect people and adding them to his church.

The apostles were instructed how disciples are to be made, and Jesus gave us a pattern here in Matthew 28 of how, indeed, this work of discipleship is commanded to be made. Before we look at Ephesians 4, which will give us what that actually looks like, let's look at some of that discipleship patterns, which is involved and essential to the life of the church.

So, discipleship involves hearing and preaching. As he says – Go therefore and make disciples, baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. So, there's a preaching and teaching element here.

The gospel is preached in every nation, in every tongue, in every local congregation. It's not a matter of you hearing the gospel once each week, perhaps, and think, well, I don't need to hear that anymore. I've moved on. No, you hear the gospel week after week. You're reminded week after week why you are here, that you are a saved sinner. You are now called to follow Christ in his church. And we see also that Jesus commanded them to baptize as well. So, although baptism is not salvific, we don't teach that you must be baptized in order to be saved, but where opportunity is given, such as the life of this local church, we say to those who have been saved that baptism is an important and essential part of you declaring your allegiance to the Lord Jesus now. In your baptism, you stand before a world declaring you are now a disciple, you are now a follower of Jesus Christ the Lord. So, the church is commanded to baptize. It's not an optional extra, it's not some add-on, but it's a public mark of your life now belonging to Jesus Christ. And anyone who would claim to follow Jesus but refuse baptism, well they're rejecting Christ's very command here, what a disciple, how disciples are made.

First and foremost, they hear, they are taught, and they are baptized. Why? Because they're now saved. They're added to the church. They're saying, I'm now Christ. I follow Him. I'm now looking to somebody else as my teacher, and I'm submitting to a church. I'm coming under a preaching and teaching ministry in order that I may grow.

So, when you were baptized, you publicly declared to your unbelieving friends and family, and indeed to the church, to each one of us, that you belong to Jesus, and you're no longer following the world. So, as we've seen, the discipleship involves preaching, teaching, baptism, you're entered into a church, you're taught the word, you attend the Bible studies, you attend the fellowships, you attend the Lord's Day services, because this is how Christ grows you, through His word. You follow the teaching of Christ, you're following the teaching of the word, His apostles, the full canon of Scripture.

If you neglect the things God has given you in your life, if you're neglecting prayer, neglecting gathering, making excuses because, you know, things aren't as exciting as they once were, or things aren't as interesting as they once were, well, then you're neglecting the very means God has given to grow you, to disciple you as a believer in Christ.

So, this is where we hear and we now sit under the preaching and where our minds and thinking are now realigned week after week and we realize, yes, this is good. It is good for me to be here this morning. It's good for me to hear the word this morning because the Holy Spirit is doing a sanctifying work in your life through the preaching of the word. Even though sometimes people can look like they're disengaged from the preaching, our minds are not in it, we're not fully attentive, be attentive, hear the Word of God, because it's not my words, this is the word of God, this is God's word, this is the preaching, this is the means He's used, this is not me giving some ideas that I had, this is nothing original, this is from the Scripture, this is from God's word. And as we realize if we neglect our means that the Lord has given to us, we'd be like a plant. A plant, when it is deprived of sunlight, of water, of good soil, well, what happens to that plant? It withers. It slowly starts to die. We buy basil from the supermarket. And I put it on a little plant pot. You have to take the polythene bag off. And often, the basil withers within a day or two. So, I have to put water in it. And for some reason, the basil comes back to life. And about two days, I'm like, wow, that thing was a withering mess two days ago. It looked like it was dead. Water it. And it came back.

Sometimes in our lives as Christians, we feel that way. We feel withered, dried, and perhaps not following Christ as we ought to. And we come under the watering of the word. We hear the word. We commit again to reading our Bibles, to praying, to gathering. And the Lord continues to grow that. We come back to life again. So don't neglect the means of grace. Don't neglect that water. Christ nourishes you through His word. What is preached and taught in the local church, your growth might be slow. It's like a sapling. I remember looking in my mum's garden as we recently sold our house, and I remember moving to the house in 1989 as a seven-year-old boy, and there was nothing in the garden. It was bare soil. There was just seed tossed in the garden. And looking around, I saw these mighty trees, solid trees that have taken over 30 years to grow. And it reminds me spiritually of sometimes a Christian life can be very slow in growing. But like a sapling, it can grow into a mighty oak. So don't despise what you see in your life or in the life of others. You think, well, that person's not very committed as me, or they're slow at learning, they're slow at hearing, they're slow at growing. God can still use that. And slowly over the years of continual faithful attendance to the church, committed to hearing the word, you start to grow.

Is it not true that you're more mature now than you once were when you came here? When you first attended here, isn't that a maturing and a growth that you've seen in your own life? Well, praise God for that. Praise God that we have seen growth in our lives. I can testify to my own self as well, coming here seven years ago, over seven years ago. There's been a growth, there's been a development, there's been a greater understanding of doctrine, of things in the life of a church, of how we live together at home as a family, as how we raise our children, our wives. These things are all the means that the Lord uses through faithful attendance in a church. So, you start to see, we're starting to see what Christ has given us here, this command to be in a church, to be part of that apostolic mandate growing us. So, we see that Christ has given his church this mandate to preach, teach, baptize people, add them, bring them in. And these are the means of discipleship.

And they only operate when you are rooted in a local church present among the body of Christ. You can't be somebody who's hopping about from church to church. Well, this church has got a good music ministry, I'll go there tonight. Or this church is livelier, I'll go there next week. Or my kids like this church because it's got a better youth program. But that's rejecting the means that God has given us. Must be rooted, committed in a church. So yeah, we live in a day and age where people don't see it, they don't see the beauty of it, because church life can be difficult. Let's be honest, let's face it, church life can be difficult.

But yet the Lord blesses it, uses it, and grows us together in this. So be present, come, commit. Then the question is, well, what does this look like in practice then? This is where we would see more of that in detail in Ephesians chapter 4. So, if we turn over to Ephesians chapter 4, as we see that Christ indeed has given us a ministry in the church to equip and build the saints. So, what does this look like in your life? and we see what Christ is doing in the life of His church. First of all, let's just read verses 11 to 16.

“And He, that's the Lord Jesus, has gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that you may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves, to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

We see that beautiful illustration the Apostle Paul gives us there of the church. That's the church, that's your church, that's Grace Baptist Church, that's other churches, other congregations in this city who are following the Lord.

So, the mandate of the church is to equip and disciple the saints through the word of God. So, this is our second point is Christ disciples his people through his church. So, Christ has given a command to his church to disciple people, and now Christ disciples his people through the church, through the means of his church. So, first of all, we see the mandate of the church is to equip and disciple the saints through the word of God. Paul teaches that Christ himself has designed the discipleship of his people to come through the teaching ministry of the local church. It's not a private project. It's a church-shaped, a church-delivered work, the preaching, teaching of God's word. He's established a pastoral and teaching office, as we see that He has given us apostles, prophets, the evangelists, and now in our day, shepherds and teachers, pastor, teachers, elders, for the equipping of the saints and to the work of the ministry.

The apostolic office is gone, but now the extraordinary office of apostle, of prophets, of evangelists has gone. It's now the ordinary office of pastor teachers, of shepherds, of those who lead flocks, of those who teach and equip people. Christ's disciples, his people, through these shepherds, through pastors who would preach and teach the Bible. And the purpose of this teaching ministry, of hearing the word of God, is to equip you, is to equip the saints for the ministry, to equip you to serve in your local church.

Many people treat church as a preaching station. They like to come. They like to hear sermons. Well, it's a good sermon. How many times have we heard people say, well, the preaching's good in that church. It's a good sermon. I like the sermons there. That's all they treat the church as, as a preaching station. The church is not designed as a preaching station for you to drop in, hear your favourite teacher, sermon, pastor, and then go elsewhere. No, it's to equip you to serve. The saints, or the sinners called by God, now called saints, now equipped. It's not something you just turn up simply every single week and you don't leave unchanged.

Every believer has a ministry. You have a ministry here. You have a role here. Do you realize that this morning? Are you fulfilling that role the Lord has given you? You have a part to play in Christ's church. You're called to build up the body. So, are you serving in this congregation? Are you doing something for the Lord? Are you now growing? Are you seeking to serve? Not merely attend, but to contribute to the life of the church. We should be beyond the point of thinking, well, I could just attend. I don't need to go to the prayer meetings. I like coming on a Sunday morning. Well, I might come on a Sunday afternoon if I feel like it. No, this is the means that God has given you to grow. You attend; you serve.

Many people don't want to do that. They don't want accountability. They don't want to serve a church. They just want to tick a box each week, turn up and go. That's not the way God has designed things. That's not the purpose of discipleship. That's not the purpose of the teaching office. The teaching office is to equip you. But if you're only coming to hear the word preached and then you disappear and are not committed to that church, then the teaching office can't equip you. It's not going to work in your life because you're not sitting there each week being equipped, being built up under the ministry.

And we see the purpose of this; this equipping work is ongoing. It's ongoing in your life until Christ returns. It won't stop. You're saved, you're regenerate, you're sanctified, but you will still battle indwelling sin. You still battle sin in your life, yeah? Is that a reality? Does anyone here say, I don't battle sin, I've arrived at perfect holiness and sanctification? If you say that, if you think that, the word of God said the truth is not in you. Indwelling sin, weakness, ignorance, immaturity, all of us struggle with these things. And this is why we continually need the word of God to sit under the teaching ministry to instruct us, to build us up in how we are to live. Not only in the church, but in our homes, in our workplaces, in family contexts, anything, everywhere. The sphere of discipleship is not just here once a week, it's all of life. How do I live now as a Christian at home? How do I love my wife as a Christian? How am I meant to raise my children as a Christian? These are all the things we start to ask as soon as the Lord saves us. We start to grow, we start to know these things, we start to put them into practice. Sometimes it looks messy, it's not pretty at times, but we continue, we fail, we get up, we go again, we do the work, we continue raising our kids at home in the Lord, teaching them the word of God, loving our wives, loving our husbands, loving one another, warts and all. With all the flaws, with all the irritations, with all the annoyances, the hang-ups that we have with, well, I don't like that person.

The Lord doesn't give you an excuse to have that attitude in the church. The Lord says, love that person as I have loved you. That's what he says. He doesn't allow us to have grudges or to be irritated constantly and walk in some sulky mood where we're just not, I don't want to talk to that person anymore. No, we come here to be equipped to realize those things are wrong. And we need to bear in mind; we need this ongoing grace. We need an ongoing rebuke. Don't rebuke me. People don't like being rebuked by the pastor or challenged or exhorted by elders. That's overreach. That's heavy-handed shepherding.

This is the language that the word of God uses for the word, to rebuke, to correct, to exhort. Many don't like that many don't want to be rebuked corrected and exhorted in a church by a teaching ministry but we need to realize this is a perfecting work it goes on it continues in this age until Christ returns and gathers the fullness of his elect people into his church so we're starting to see that the means god has used is that that preaching ministry, that teaching ministry under the word to grow you as a disciple. And the purpose of this discipleship is an ongoing maturity. You need to keep growing in maturity. Just as children grow in their understanding at home as they listen to the instructions of their parents, they grow in maturity in their own families. So, a Christian must continue to grow mature in Christ. The longer you have been in Christ, the more mature you should be, if you are faithful to the means of grace, if you are faithful to the word, to prayer, to fellowship, to Bible study, to pastoral instruction.

There should be others in here who are more mature Christians than others. That's the case. That is the reality in church life. There will be those who are mature Christians, not always the pastors or the elders, but others in the congregation who have been Christians many years. We even heard from John last night, many years being a Christian. So, there would be others we can go to in the congregation who we know or maturer in Christ who we could ask for. It's not a case of well everyone needs to just constantly come to the elder or come to the pastor of all the problems but there are others in here we can share we can speak to who are mature in our ongoing maturity. So, we don't remain spiritual infants. We don't remain spiritual babes in Christ, but we're growing in our understanding of the gospel. We're growing in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and our ability to defend and explain the faith. Can you now explain the gospel to an unbeliever? Can you now defend the faith when challenged? Can you now point people to where in the Bible you would get the answer for?

This is part of your growth. This is part of your understanding. This only happens when you're properly equipped and faithfully discipled in a local church. Many people say, well, I can just get my discipleship from a course online. We need online courses and we need websites that can tell us how to be a disciple. There's been umpteen books written on discipleship over the years. How to, how to do this. Many of it's disconnected from the life of a church. But Paul has given us here a healthy picture of a body, as he gives us that imagery in verse 16, from the whole body joined and held together by every joint. You know, every joint in our physical body holds us all together. When it's equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow, so it builds itself up in love. When each of us are working properly, as we should as disciples, the body is healthy. The body is growing together in unity.

When people are in churches and they're doing their own thing, we have this group over here, well they're doing their own thing and this group's doing their own, that's a mess. The body isn't functioning properly. When there's a disunity, even over what the gospel is, some people don't even know what the gospel is and can't agree on it. That is not a healthy functioning body. So, a picture Paul's given us here is a functioning, healthy body, submitting to the word, submitting to the true gospel, believing it, and growing. Only when it's healthy, functioning, unified, does it grow together. This is what we want to see. This is what the church is designed for, working together in unity.

And Paul's reminding us so that you're not tossed about by every wave and wind of doctrine. When you come in here and you say, well, no, we are a confessional church, we are a Reformed church, I'm Calvinistic in my beliefs. Then I'm not going onto the internet and hearing some new preacher teach me something, and I'm going, well, hang on a minute, this guy's got an interesting idea. No, because I'm submitted to the word, I'm taught and equipped to not be tossed about by every wind of fancy doctrine that you hear, or every teacher who sounds funny or who's got clever words. We should not be tossed about, we should be discerning, and that comes from discipleship, from sitting under the word.

But there's a danger, of course, because growth can sometimes feel slow. Progress in your life, you might think, wow, I'm not growing the way I should. Growth is slow. In fact, I think I'm going backwards. I think I'm not as zealous as I once was, or I'm not as committed as I once was. Frustrations can arise from that, and you can often become impatient, and then you take your frustrations out on the church, on other people. And we've seen that. We've seen that happen in the life of our own church. Frustrated people taking their frustrations out amongst the church. It does great damage. It does great damage. And they withdraw from the body entirely or neglect the very means of the body of Christ that God has given us to grow. And this is how discipleship must shape the way we live in the church. We're continuing to learn Christ. Who is He? Who is Christ? And what has He done for me? And now, how does He call me to walk?

Our lives are reflecting this ever-increasing, constant learning of who Christ is, of what He requires of me, of who these people are in Christ. This person over here, well, he's a brother. This person's a sister. Yes, they're from a completely different walk of life. They're from a completely different culture. They're completely different to me education-wise. But that doesn't matter, because they're my brother. I'm going to learn to love them. Lord, help me love them. Lord, help me serve them. Lord, help me be patient. This is when we are constantly, our minds are renewed. We're learning Christ. As Paul says here, that we are to learn Christ and grow in Him.

And that brings us to the next section in Ephesians 4, which is verses 17 to the end of the passage, where our third point. Christ's people grow as disciples when they continue to learn of Christ. So, we see Christ's command for the church to disciple. We see the means, the church of discipleship, which is the preaching of the word. And we see Christ's people now growing as disciples as they continue to learn of Christ and his ways. The disciple embraces their new identity in Christ.

If we look at verse 17 – “Now I say this and testify in the Lord, that you must not walk, no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have allowed themselves to become callous and given themselves up to sensuality, greed, to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ.”

So, a disciple now embraces their new identity and they say, I'm no longer darkened. I'm no longer ignorant of God. I'm no longer giving myself up to every single passion and sensuality that I once did, because I'm learning Christ. I'm learning, I'm growing in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, Paul moves from the purpose of the church, that is equipping the saints, to the practice of the Christian life now within the church. You're equipped, but you're also to practice this. Put it into practice It's not just head knowledge. We're putting it into practice practically in the life of the church, equipping the saints, practicing these things. He's showing us what this looks like in the life of the real church. And he does this by going through contrasts. What you once were, who you once were, but what you once were is no longer who you are. This is who you are now. That's what he's saying to us. You're not like that anymore.

Verse 22 - put off your old self. Again, that's it. He's saying, putting this new life into practice as a disciple. Put off your old self. What was the old self like? Well, the old self still needs putting to death. The old self is still there. It's in our flesh. Paul says - wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death (Romans 7:24)? Speaking of his fallen flesh.

What does he require of you to walk in this new identity as we see in verses 17, even all the way down to verse 24? Well, we've read down to verse 20. So, let's read from verse 20 down to verse 24 – “But that is not the way you learned Christ!, assuming that you have learned about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

So, he's saying here now to walk in this new identity. The church, again, is not a place to come and have a gossip or for some casual attendance or some social club. It's the body of Christ made up of God's elect joined to Christ by faith. And here we see that description of what that looks like in practice in a church. He's not addressing an individual. He's addressing people, congregations, a body of believers. You're no longer darkened or ignorant of God's ways. You're not alienated from Him anymore because Christ has died for you. Christ has borne your sin. Christ rose again. Christ now clothes you in His righteousness. He now calls you holy. He now calls you righteous. You walk in this manner because of what He's done.

You're not given over to the dominion, the power of sin anymore, and to wickedness. Is this not true of you? Were you not once an ignorant person, darkened in your understanding, alienated from the life of God, an alien from the gospel? But now you know Christ. Now you have learned Christ. Now you continue to learn Christ. God has called you to himself and to his church. So, Paul commands us then, as we read in these verses, put off the old self. Put off your former manner of life. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

And this happens through the preaching of the word, through fellowship, through the means of grace, putting on that new self. The new self is Christ. The new self, which is created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness, is Christ. You're now in Christ, righteous and holy, empowered by the Holy Spirit to walk in a new manner of life as a disciple. And we see in verses 25 to 30 what that actually looks like then. Verse 25 – “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbour, for we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labour, doing honest work with his own hands, so he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only that such is as good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger, clamour and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

That's what it looks like. That's what it looks like in a church. Don't lie. Stop lying. He says, speak the truth in love. Don't indulge in sinful anger, he says. And if you do, you give the devil a foothold in your life. Put away bitterness. Put away unforgiveness. Don't steal. Work hard. Share with others if you can. Don't speak corrupting words. Don't slag off other members of the church. Don't gossip behind their backs. Don't backbite them. Don't tear others down. Don't be arrogant. Don't be proud. Everything your flesh is, he's saying, don't do it. Don't do it anymore. Don't live that way. That's your old self. Put it off.

Your speech, your ethic, your relationships, your temper, all of these things must reflect your new identity in Christ. This is hard. It's hard, brethren. It takes much effort to continue the rest of your life to put off these old ways. Put on the new, and you are, by the grace of God, able to do that, are you striving to do this then? Are you repenting? Are you confessing these sins and seeking to walk in the call of God now in your life as a disciple?

It's not easy. It's hard. It's a toil. There's much groaning. There's much heaviness at times. There's much failings. But we cannot make peace with these sins in our hearts. These are the sins that Paul is speaking to our congregation. Why do you think he has to say these things? Because he knows. There's an old man there. He knows the flesh is still present. He has to remind us, don't do those things. If you live that way in a church, you will destroy the church. You'll tear down and a fellowship will not function with people like that. That is a toxic and demonic environment to have in a church. But yet, this is sadly and tragically the life of many church fellowships, because they do not heed the word of God to do these things.

He's saying, put it away. Put away this bitterness that you have, this wrath, this anger, this malice, this slander. And he says, instead, do which is contrary to your flesh. Be kind. Be kind, he says, be tender hearted. That means have a soft heart, tenderness about you. Patient, he says. Forgive not reluctantly but freely not if they jump through all the hoops you make them jump through in order to earn your forgiveness. There's no conditions here. He doesn't say oh it's okay if you don't feel like it. He is saying - do that. Put them away. Stop doing those things because he says you're now part of the body of Christ. You belong to Christ's body. Every single person in this room belongs to Christ. You're a believer. He died for them. And that's why Paul's saying, treat them in such a way that you realize that, that you're treating a fellow believer, one whom Jesus died for, in such a way that reflects this new nature.

And he gives us the motivation. Be kind to one another, tender heart, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. That's the motivation. Do you need a motivation to be kind, to be tender-hearted, to forgive one another? Well, he says here, as God in Christ forgave you. That's it. Build your life upon those very words. Build every single thing in our Christian life and how we respond to one another, how we do life together as a church on those words. Christ forgave you. Christ died for you. Christ bled for you. Christ saved you from the wrath to come. It's the fruit of salvation. These are not the conditions of salvation; they're the fruit of it. The life of someone already redeemed.

As we think of a child, when they're a baby, they're trying to walk. First, they have to crawl, then they stand upon the table and try and pull themselves up. They're wobbling at first, and they need constant help to begin with. But over time, through practice, through correction, encouragement, and growth, they begin to walk with confidence. So, it is with the Christian life. It takes time. You will stumble. You will fail. You will sin. You will need correction. You will need encouragement. You will need much patience. But as you continue to learn of Christ, through His word, through His church, being with His people, you grow into maturity. You walk more steadily, more faithfully, more humbly, more lovingly, more Christ-like. Growth takes time, but growth is certain for those who learn Christ.

And isn't it true? How can you learn patience? How can you learn to be tender-hearted? How can you learn to forgive unless you're with a bunch of people that test your patience, that cause you to need to forgive them? That cause you to need to be tender-hearted. That's the only way you're going to learn it. Because you're around people that will push your buttons, that don't agree with you on everything. And you need to learn that patience. That's the way God's designed it. But yet, how we see, people say, I have no patience with this person. I don't like the leadership. I don't like this person. I'm leaving the church. I'm going. That's it. They are not learning Christ in the way He calls them to walk. The easy thing to do is to leave when things are hard in a church.

The hard thing to do is to stay and slog it out with people that sometimes you think, Lord, please give me patience with this person. But you know, you know you need to. You know you need to love that person because Christ has died for them. That's the reason, because Christ has died for them.

So, our final closing applications, be rooted in a church and serve. It's not a casual spectator sport. It's not something you just attend when it's convenient. It's not something to just merely participate in on the peripheral, but actively participating in the life of the church. Growing as a disciple, commit to the body, love the body, come under the preaching of the word, come under the fellowship of the saints, serve in the body. Don't come to church just to be served, but serve in the church. Don't come to consume and never grow. Christ has placed you here, sovereignly ordained you to be here in Grace Baptist Church this morning that you may contribute to the health of the body.

Secondly, being a disciple is going to take time, as we've briefly touched on. You're not going to grow overnight. It's not going to be something instant. It's going to take years, perhaps decades of continual growth until the Lord calls you home to glory. And learning these things, learning to grow in difficult circumstances, learning to grow when challenges come. These are things that expose our weak spots. They're means of grace God uses to sanctify us. Don't run from these very things that God uses to mature you as a disciple.

And finally, most importantly, trust in the Lord for your growth as a disciple. Thank God you're not left to yourself. Philippians 2:12-13 reminds us – “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

So, discipleship, working out our salvation's hard work. That's what Paul's saying. He's saying God is working in you. It's hard. It takes effort, but don't fear because it's the Lord working in you to bring about His good pleasure. It's His work. Thank God. He's sovereign over your growth. He's placed you here exactly where He wants you right now. Don't disregard this. Don't say, I don't like leadership. I don't want the church. I want a better place. I want a better atmosphere or whatever excuse we can make. There's a hundred reasons why we could use to say, ah, I'm just, I'm going elsewhere. But the Lord's placed you here till he clearly indicates otherwise or moves you in his providence. Commit to stay in then. Serving, slogging it out with our brothers and sisters. Love them for who they are. Christ loves them. and He's using you to grow. He's using them to grow you.

And then be prayerful about that as well. Let's not just shrug our shoulders, make excuses about sins and our lack of growth. Be earnest in prayer. Ask the Lord to show you where you need to grow and how you may serve his church. Don't complain about things not going your way. Too many times we complain that things aren't going, things aren't growing quick enough, things aren't happening quick enough, and we give up. God is teaching you to be patient in these slow things, in these mundane things. Trust Him. Trusting God. He is teaching you patience in these things. He is teaching you endurance in the slow, ordinary, mundane rhythm of church life. This is how disciples grow.

So, continue to follow the Lord. Commit to his church and his design for your growth. He's the one who will continue to do this work in you, to grow you, to make you a disciple, to make you a follower of Christ. Come under the word. Come into a church. Learn to be patient, learn to forgive, learn to love, learn to grow as you have learned Christ. As he's forgiven you, as he's saved you, then therefore come under his word and learn how to walk in love as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we come now into your presence where we can be thankful that you indeed have done the work of salvation in us, that the design of a church is your wisdom, it's in your great plan, and our discipleship, our growth is here, rooted in this local church of all of its difficulties, struggles. But we do it together, Lord. Help us, therefore, to come under the word, to learn, be instructed, even today, that this would be an instructive time, a time that is sanctifying to us, that we say, yes, amen, I agree with that, I need to do those things, I need to work at that in my life. Let us all walk away from here, realizing there is still much effort to be made to grow, to continue, to walk in the purpose you've called us to do, Lord. We thank you; we praise you that you have saved us, that you love us, that you use this means to grow us as disciples, Lord. We continue to pray for this in the life of our church. In Jesus' name. Amen.