The Bible Baptist Church located
at 2015 Beulah Road in Madisonville, Kentucky would like to invite
you to listen to a message of the sovereign grace of God in
the Lord Jesus Christ by their pastor David Edmondson. Paul writes in Ephesians 4, verse
1, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that
you walk worthy of the vocation, the calling, wherewith you are
called. Now, here's my subject this morning,
and it's in the way of a question. What is it to walk worthy of
the calling wherewith you are called? Or, what is it to walk
worthy of the Lord? When we think of that word worthy,
we immediately think of having or showing a quality or an ability
that merits some recognition or attention and respect. Our
English dictionary defines worthy as to be good enough. It means
to be virtuous, good, and ethical. And these are things that we
should strive for, no doubt. But honestly, when I think about
walking worthy of my calling, I'm often discouraged because
I feel so inadequate and ashamed of the way that I often walk,
the things that I think, the things that I often say. And
I would say that every true believer feels the same way, at least
to some degree. And the Apostle Paul most certainly
did. In 1 Corinthians 15 verse 9,
Paul wrote, For I am the least of the apostles, that I am not
meet, I'm not fit, suitable, or worthy to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church. And you see, that's the problem
with most folks today. We have a hard time forgetting
our past. We have a very difficult time
forgetting all the wrong that we've done. So how do we walk
worthy of our calling? How do we walk worthy of Christ
our Lord? Paul said it this way in Colossians
1, verse 10. He said that you might walk worthy
of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good
work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. So if you and I are to
walk worthy of the Lord in a way that's pleasing to Him, being
fruitful in good works, then we're gonna have to have some
knowledge of God. of who God is and of who and
what we are. And the only way that we can
be truly pleasing to God is in Christ. In our text, Paul said,
I beseech, I implore, I beg and plead with you to walk worthy
of the calling wherewith you are called. And I might add what
a calling we have. We're called to be saints. We're
called to be Christ's bride. We're called to be his church.
We're called to be his body. We're called to be his brethren.
We're called to be his children. We are to walk worthy of this
calling. So again, I ask, how can one
so wretched as I walk worthy of this calling? I want to walk
worthy of my calling. According to the Bible, not everyone
is called. The calling of God is particular. You know, I was thinking about
this. The Lord Jesus stood there in
that place of the tombs when Lazarus had died and Lazarus
had been in the tomb for four days. His sister said, by now
he stinks, Lord. And the Lord said, Lazarus, come
forth. Now that calling was distinct,
it was particular and it was specific. And so is the believer's
calling. If the Lord had not on this day
had called in particular to Lazarus to come forth, everyone and every
tomb would have come forth. And if the Lord had not distinguished
Lazarus by name, every corpse and every grave would have come
out. Someone said, well, what if there
was more than one Lazarus? Well, the Spirit of God knew
which Lazarus the Lord was speaking to. And here's the point that
I'm trying to make. None can resist Christ's will,
purpose, or calling. Your good shepherd calls his
sheep by name. And if you're a believer, then
you've been called by God. If God intends to save you, he
will call you. You can be certain of that. And
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1 24, unto them which are called, both
Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of
God. And here, in our text, Ephesians
chapter four, verse one, Paul said, walk worthy of this calling. We're with your call, walking
a way that becomes saints. Now, Paul gives us five things
that ensures the child of God that they'll do so. Paul said,
walk worthy by walking this way. Let me give them to you. And
we'll talk more in detail about them. The first, with humility,
he said, with lowliness. Walk with meekness, with longsuffering,
with forbearance, endeavoring for unity. So the first is humility. I love the words of Paul in Philippians
chapter two, verse three. He said, let nothing be done
through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, In
humility, let each esteem others better than themselves. Look
not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things
of others. And let this mind be in you,
which was also in Christ Jesus. Do you know what humility is?
This is a very good definition of humility. It's a just estimation
of yourself. It's a right estimation of yourself. That's humility. In Romans 12,
verse 3, Paul encourages us not to think of ourselves more highly
than we ought. Our attitude should always be,
if anyone ought to be humble, it's me. After all, the true
Christian sees themselves as the chief of sinners, as Paul
did. John Calvin once said, the three greatest evidences of being
saved is humility, humility, and humility. Oh, may God be
pleased to give each of us a real and just and a right estimate
of ourselves. We are not worthy, and seeing
this is the first step to walking worthy of God's calling. Second
thing, meekness. You know a good sign of having
meekness is to believe that everything that God sends our way is good.
Romans 8, 28, I'm sure you know that verse. It says, and we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called. according to His purpose. Now,
do we really believe that God is working all things together
for our good? We look at this world, the mess
it's in, and we say, is God really behind this? Well, according
to Romans 8, 28, He is. He works all things after the
counsel of His own will, Ephesians says, and all things that He
works together is for good to them that love God. Do we really
believe that? Is God working all things together
for our good? Well, if we do, that's an evidence
of meekness. No matter what it is, it's God
that's doing it. Do you believe that? You know,
David did. There was a man named Shimei
that cursed David. He cast stones at him. Do you
remember that story? He called David a bloody man.
He called David an evil, ungodly man. And one of David's servants
said, let me go and cut his head off. And do you remember what
David said? David said, let him alone, let
him curse. For the Lord hath bidden him,
the Lord hath said unto him, curse David. And then David said
this, it may be that the Lord will look upon mine affliction
and that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this
day. You see, all things work together
for my good and for your good. If I love the Lord, if I'm one
of thee called, and the sooner that I realize that, the sooner
I'll walk worthy of my calling. Meekness is to bow. It's to bow
to whatever God sends. It's to accept whatever God allows. Meekness enables us to resist
getting angry. Meekness teaches us to resist
being hurt. Meekness enables us to bear a
wrong without resentment. Meekness enables us to bear the
faults and injuries of others. Why? Because God is on the throne. He's ruling. He's reigning. He's
working all things after the counsel of His own will. And
meekness teaches us that that includes even the things that
we don't like. Peter said that a meek and quiet
spirit is in God's sight of great price. Thirdly, long-suffering. What is long-suffering? Well,
it's patience, it's endurance, and it's enduring the wrong of
others. It's being slow to avenge a wrong. Since the Lord is so
long-suffering to us, shouldn't we be long-suffering with others? You know, the Lord descended
in the cloud and he stood with Moses and proclaimed the name
of the Lord, saying, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious
and long-suffering in abundance in goodness and truth. Longsuffering
is one of God's glorious attributes. David wrote in Psalm 86, 15,
that thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion and gracious
longsuffering and plenteous in mercy and truth. Peter said the
longsuffering our Lord is salvation. all that God might enable us
to be long-suffering. Fourth thing, forbearance. Do you know how the Hebrew and
Greek dictionaries define that word forbearing? It means to
put up with one another. Paul said, forbearing one another
in love, put up with one another in love. That's what love is,
putting up with one another. I have no doubt that my wife
loves me because she's been putting up with me for 40 years. Why
should we put up with one another? Why should we bear one another's
inadequacies? Well, in verse 32 of Ephesians
4, it says, be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven
you. Oh, be kind to one another, not just to those who treat you
well, but also to those who offend you, to those that often anger
you, Forgive their shortcomings, just as God has forgiven yours. And we do this for Christ's sake,
he said. And then the fifth and final
thing, endeavoring to keep the unity, that being the unity of
the Spirit, that being the Spirit of God, that being the Holy Spirit,
which is God. Now that word endeavoring means
to attempt, to aspire, to labor, to toil, work hard, apply yourself
to keep the unity of the Spirit. After all, the only way we can
walk worthy of our calling, walk worthy of our Lord, walk worthy
of our God, is by our union with Christ. The Holy Spirit can be
quenched. God said in Genesis chapter six,
my spirit shall not always strive with man. Sometimes God can have
enough. He was long-suffering with the
world in Noah's day for 120 years, but then he had enough, and he
destroyed the world with the exception of eight souls. Dear friends, we cannot keep
the unity of the Spirit if we're not humble, meek, long-suffering,
and forbearing. And if I'm proud, then I'm not
humble. And if I'm arrogant, I'm not meek. And if I'm impatient,
then I'm not long-suffering. And if I'm intolerant, then I
am not forbearing. May God truly enable us to walk
worthy of the calling of which we are called. We are not saved
because we walk worthy. We walk worthy because God by
His grace has saved us. or log on to our website at FreeGraceRadio.com. If you would like to come and
worship with us, we meet at 2015 Beulah Road, Madisonville, Kentucky,
and our service times are Sunday morning Bible study at 10 o'clock
a.m., worship services begin at 11 o'clock a.m., Wednesday
evening services at 7 o'clock p.m. Please tune in again next
Sunday morning at 10 o'clock AM for another message of God's
free and sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.