Now in the text that Brother
Mark read, I'm going to, I had him read the first 16 verses
because I wanted you to see the context. of this passage, but
I'm not gonna get through all 16 verses today. I'm going to
divide this up. This is part one of unity in
the body of Christ. And of course, that's how he
starts out in this showing in what way the true body of Christ,
which is his church, is unified, brought together, as the scripture
said, fitly joined together. by God. And let's just look at
verse 1. He says, I therefore the prisoner
of the Lord. Paul was in prison, in chains
at this time, but he was able to preach the gospel and he calls
himself the prisoner of the Lord. That's Paul's way of saying,
God put me where I am, so why complain? And we all ought to
think that way. And it's hard, I know, especially
if our circumstances are dire and sad and whatever. But we
know if we're in Christ, if we're a believer brought by God to
God-given faith, washed in the blood of Christ, clothed in his
righteousness, God's not gonna forsake us. He's not gonna forsake
us. He's gonna bring us through and
take us home. And he says, I beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation And that word vocation is the same as calling. Paul's
not being repetitive here, but it's like saying worthy of the
calling wherewith you are called. That calling. Now, you know,
a lot of people reduce passages like this to trying to support
a heresy. And you know what the heresy
is that they use verses like this to support? Have you ever
heard this? I'd rather see a sermon than
hear one. I've heard that a lot. And they
use such ideas to excuse not preaching or speaking the doctrine
of the gospel because that truth, that doctrine, that teaching
is naturally offensive to unbelievers. Now we don't want to consciously
offend people. That's not our desire. When we
preach or witness the gospel, the good news of how God saves
sinners, by His grace, not conditioned on the sinner, but conditioned
on Christ who fulfilled those conditions and secured the entire
salvation of all for whom He lived and died and arose again.
When we preach that gospel, it is naturally offensive to people
and we desire that they hear it and believe it. And we know
it's the power of God that brings a sinner to believe it. We know
that's God's work. We're just the instruments. We're
just the mouthpiece, you might say. But it's also offensive. And what many who reduce this
passage to this heresy of I'd rather see a sermon than hear
one, they claim that all we as believers need to do is live
a good life, be kind and generous, and never be offensive. And that's
the best sermon we can preach. But nothing is further from the
truth. Now let me say at the outset,
there's no question that we as believers should live moral lives,
dedicated lives. We should be generous, kind,
and loving, not at the expense of the truth though. And when
we preach or witness the truth, we ought to be as kind as we
can without lying to people. He that believeth not shall be
damned. Isn't that right? Now, an unbeliever
may not want to hear that, but that's what the unbeliever needs
to hear. So there's no question about the character and the conduct
of believers, what we should be, but here's the truth. In 1 Corinthians, I'll give you
several verses. 1 Corinthians 121, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching. to save them that believe. Romans
1, 16 and 17, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believeth, the Jew first, the Greek also, for
therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith, from knowledge revealed to knowledge received, God-given
faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Preaching
the gospel, witnessing the gospel, telling them the truth, even
when it offends them, Romans 6, 17, and 18 speaks of those
who were brought under the doctrine, the teachings of Christ. Doctrine
is not a dirty word if it's true doctrine. Now there's a lot of
false doctrine, but they were brought under the teaching, the
doctrine, and God gave them a new heart and they believed it. and
they were liberated and became servants of righteousness, servants
of Christ. Sinners will not be saved by
looking at our walk. However, if they look at our
walk, it ought to be worthy of our calling. They need to hear
the gospel truth and this truth is offensive to unbelievers and
viewed by them as anything but loving and kind. All that being
said, as I said, it's important that our lives, our walk be consistent
and worthy. When he says worthy here, it
means in line with, appropriate to our calling. Worthy of our
vocation, our calling. Now to whom and to what are we
a sinner saved by grace as disciples of Christ? To whom and to what
are we called? Think about our calling. By the
Holy Spirit, in the invincible working of grace, we're called
to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works and idolatry. We're
called to obedience that's worthy of the glory of God and his grace
in Christ. So it cannot be that legalistic
mercenary type of obedience that's promoted in most so-called churches. In other words, you better do
this or you're gonna lose this blessing or God's gonna get you
some way. Or if you do this, you'll earn
your rewards and earn God's, that's not worthy of our calling.
Because our calling is the calling of God's grace, all in the Lord
Jesus Christ, who earned every blessing of salvation for his
people by his obedience unto death. We're blessed. He said that back in Ephesians
chapter one, that we who are in Christ, we're blessed with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And we
didn't earn one of them, not one blessing. Now it's true that
God channels those blessings many times through the walk of
grace. For example, we come to worship
and we're blessed in worship if we know Christ. We know the
God, but that's not because we earned the blessing. Nothing
we have by way of salvation, nothing can we say, I earned
that. I deserve that. It's all of God's
mercy. And therefore, when we walk worthy
of our calling, Paul described it in Philippians 3.14 this way.
He said, I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus. It's a high calling. I've often
said that true Christianity is what I call advanced citizenship.
I mean, it really takes a person whom God has ensconced in grace,
established our hearts with grace. And we should not claim to be
disciples of Christ, which is to be a follower of Christ, a
learner, and not follow him. and not follow his word and learn
from him. We don't want to be hypocrites. That's what I'm saying. And that's
what Paul's saying here. Don't say one thing and do another.
And somebody came to me one time and says, well, do you live like
you speak, walk like you talk? And I said, yes, I do. But what
do I preach? I preach I'm a sinner saved by
grace. And there are a lot of times
I don't act like a sinner saved by grace, I just act like a sinner. And that's a problem. But God
has told me that my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and righteousness. And I dare not trust the sweetest
frame. Let's say I go through a week
and I don't act like just a sinner, if that's possible. Well, I won't
say a whole week, because it's not possible. I'll say a day. He still tells me that I'm saved. And that doesn't give me an excuse
to sin. I don't need an excuse. You don't either. You're going
to do it anyway. And that's what this is all about.
I don't want to bring shame and dishonor upon my Savior. I don't
want to bring shame and dishonor upon you, my brethren. And I don't want to bring shame
and dishonor upon myself. And that's what Paul means, walking
worthy of our vocation, a godly walk, a worthy walk. And listen,
our walk, our lives as sinners saved by grace, our living day
by day, that's not our testimony. Our testimony is the gospel.
But you know, we can destroy our effectiveness in delivering
that testimony by an unworthy walk. First John chapter four
and verse 20, listen to this. Think about this one. Now this
will get to us. If a man say I love God and hateth
his brother, he's a liar. Don't hold back. For he that
loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God
whom he hath not seen? And this is the commandment,
have we from him, that he who loveth God loveth his brother
also. Now that puts us in our place, doesn't it? Well what
about, does that say I'm to love my brother or my sister when
they do what I think they should do? No, it says love them. And
look at verses two and three, he says, with all lowliness and
meekness, lowliness means humility, God-given humility. We're not
humble by nature. We may act humble. But let me
put it to you this way so you can understand, me and you can
understand this. Any sinner who seeks salvation
by their works or their will is not humble before God. When
God brings us down in humility by the power of the Spirit, we
see like that old publican in Luke 18, God be merciful to me,
the sinner. It's up to you, the old leper
said, Lord, if thou, or the blind man said, Lord, if thou will,
you can make me clean, you can make me see. That's the way it
is. And that's what humility is,
seeing that I have no righteousness. by which to save me or justify
me. Seeing that if God were to judge
me, now listen to this, don't let this get by you. If God,
I'm up here preaching, right? I got my Bible open, got my notes
here, I studied all week. If God were to judge me right
now, based upon my character and conduct, I would be damned
forever. That's the humility that God
brings us to. Well, what are you saying, preacher? You're saying it doesn't matter
what we do? No, I'm not saying that. Paul said we ought to walk
worthy of our calling. But our calling is to the grace
of God, sovereign grace in Christ Jesus. I'm telling you that I
need Christ right now just as much as I've ever needed him.
If I go out, and I had an old buddy from West Virginia, and
when somebody would go crazy in their life and do things they
shouldn't be, he'd always say, they run a wheel off. If I go
out tomorrow and run a wheel off, I'm in need of Christ, aren't
I? But I'm telling you, I'm just as in need of him right now as
I ever was. Paul said that, he said, this
is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Well, Paul
was sitting there writing when he said that. Writing the gospel
inspired by the Holy Spirit. Somebody says, well, I'm not
perfect, but I'm not as bad as some people. You know what you
just revealed? You revealed you're in pride
and self-righteousness. You reveal you don't know your
sins and you don't know Christ. Meekness, he says, all lowliness
and meekness. You know what meekness is? It's
a word we don't like. Submission. Submit. Submission to God, obviously.
You remember what Paul wrote in Romans chapter 10, that those
who are ignorant of God's righteousness are going about to establish
their own and not submitted to the righteousness of God in Christ,
no submission. He said, Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believe, that's
God's way. God brings his people to be submitted to his way. And that's what he's talking
about here in relation to God, salvation, in relation to our
fellow man thinking we're better than everyone else, or my way
is the only way. Submission to God's word and
God's way, it essentially means being controlled by the spirit
of God. Condescending, as it were. Paul gives us an example of that
in Philippians chapter two when he's talking about the lowliness
of Christ who condescended to become like his people in the
flesh without sin and obeyed unto death even the death of
the cross. Think about that. Think about
what submission that is. He submitted himself to the will
of the Father. To do what? to save us wretched,
unsubmissive rebels. That's why he did it. Somebody
said, you know, the very cross that he was on, he's the one
who created the tree from which they carved that cross. The nails
that they drove through his feet and his hands, he's the one who
made the metal. Everything about that was by
the sovereign will and purpose of God. And Christ submitted
himself for the glory of the Father, and not to try to save
everybody, but to save his people from their sins. That's what
the Bible teaches. Have you ever read the Bible? Have you ever
studied it? Think about it. And here's what
he says. He says, longsuffering and forbearing. Look at that in verse two. With
longsuffering and forbearing one another in love, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace, it ought
to be every believer's goal to be an instrument of unity, not
division, but unity grounded in the truth. Never unity at
the expense of the truth. Love grounded in the truth. Never
love at the expense of the truth. There is no situation in this
book, from Genesis to Revelation, that a true child of God is excused
for compromising the gospel of God's grace. No situation. And notice it says endeavoring,
well notice here in verse two, it doesn't say endeavoring, or
verse three, endeavoring to make the unity of the spirit in the
bond of peace. We don't make that, God did. That's what God
makes. We're his creation. We're Christ's
body. He's the head, we're the body.
We're his church, he built us. But it says endeavoring to keep
the unity of the spirit. This unity's been made by him.
This unity that exists in Christ is something made by the foundation
laid on the blood of Christ. And then the activity empowered
the Holy Spirit, who has through the baptism of the Spirit united
us together with one Lord. Now, being what we are, sinners
saved by grace, I gotta say, we give each other a lot of opportunities
to practice these godly virtues, don't we? We put each other to
the test often because of what we are. And it's not easy. This is impossible apart from
the grace and power of God the Holy Spirit. Now, in these next
verses, in verses four through six, He gives us these graces,
these items, these truths, whereby every true believer is a partaker
in which we can say we're all the same in these areas. And then beginning at verse seven,
he shows where we're all different. So we're all the same and we're
all different. How are we the same and how are
we different? Let me just get to the meat of
the matter on how we're the same and then I'll conclude the message.
And here's what he says. Look at it, he says, now look
at verse four, he says, there is one body and one spirit, even
as you are called in one hope of your calling. So he says first,
there's one spirit, one body, and what is that body? That's
the church. Universally speaking, all over
this world, there's only one true church. And that church is the pillar
and ground of truth. Now there are a lot of local
assemblies, this assembly here, other assemblies that we know
of. There are other buildings that call themselves churches,
people that call themselves churches. How do I know? And I know this
is offensive to a lot of people. How do I know that this local
assembly is part of this one body called the church? Well, it goes back to our calling.
Our calling. But basically, it's simply this. Are they preaching the truth
as it is revealed in the word of God? Now you say, but I've got a lot
of friends there. Well, that's okay. But that's
not the one body. That's no indication. You say,
well, they do a lot of activity and they really entertain me.
That preacher can keep me away. He lets me laugh. Okay. But that's
no indication of being part of this body. The church of the
living, you know what the word church means? It means called
out ones. Ekklesia is the Greek term. Those
who have been called out of the world and its ways, even its
religion, and into the body of Christ. Look over at Ephesians
1 and verse 22. Just cross the page there. It
says, In whom you also are builded together for inhabitation of
God through the Spirit. Think about it. Built upon, verse
20 says, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. This is what
it's all about. What you need to be concerned
with when you enter the doors of any religious gathering is
do they preach the gospel of Christ? Are they telling me the
truth? Because they're just one body. And that body is the body of
Christ. It's not where a false gospel
is preached. You know, over in 2 John, I was
preaching on this on TV this morning, where he talks about
those who transgress and abide not in the doctrine of Christ
hath not God. They may claim to be Christian,
they may claim to believe salvation by grace, but if they're not
preaching and abiding in the doctrine, the teaching of Christ,
the true gospel, they don't have God. They're not saved. And he
says, do not let them enter into your house. Now he's not talking
about our homes where we live. He's talking about the household
of God. They're not members of the body of Christ. They give
no evidence. Now maybe one day they will be,
but they'll have to be called by God into it. They'll have
to be brought to see the righteousness of Christ freely imputed by which
God justifies the ungodly. That's what it's about. He says
there's one body. And then he says there's one
spirit. He's talking about the Holy Spirit there. Specifically
because the Holy Spirit is the one who is sent by the Father
and the Son to call out His elect under the preaching of the gospel.
We all have the same spirit. Now there are other spirits in
this world. There are evil spirits. How do I know it's the Holy Spirit?
Is He telling you the truth? Is he preaching? How do you know? People will say, they'll go into
a religious organization, I know this, because I grew up in it.
And you go into a place, the people are real friendly, they're
all smiling, and that's okay. I mean, we ought to be friendly
and smiling, we ought to do all that. And they'll sing, and they'll
get up and jump up and down, all kinds of stuff. And somebody
will walk out of there and say, boy, I just really felt the spirit.
Well, I've got news for you. That's no indication of the Spirit
of God. The indication of the Spirit
of God is what's being preached from that pulpit. If they speak not according to
this word, there's no light in them. Now that may sound hard
to people, but my friend, let me let you in on a little secret.
I didn't write this book. I'm just preaching to you what
it says. if they speak not the gospel.
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And I hope when
you leave here today, you have that friendly feeling and smile
and happy and all that. I'm gonna try my best to be friendly
to you and to be happy. I may not be able to get to you
today because I'll be getting dried off after the baptism.
But the thing about it is, the measure of the power of the Spirit
of Christ is the truth as it is in Christ. And here's, let
me give you this thing. Christ said in John 14, six,
I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh under the
father, but by me. Now do you believe that? Now
you go into another religious organization and they might say
something like this. They might say, well, Christ is the way
of salvation, but there are other ways. Well, that's a lie. How do I know it's a lie? Because
the word of God doesn't back them up on that. Do you understand
what I'm saying? There's one spirit. He goes on,
he says there's one hope. Now we all have hopes and dreams
for this life. You young people, you're growing
up and some of you graduated from high school, you're getting
ready to go to college, you have hopes and dreams for yourself. But this hope that he's talking
about here is the hope of the gospel. And I quoted it in one
of my favorite hymns. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
Is that your hope? That's the hope of God's people.
It's the certain assurance of salvation, spiritual life, the
blessings and benefits of God's grace and eternal glory, all
based upon the merit, the worthiness, the work of one person, Jesus
Christ the crucified, who was raised unto glory for his people. That's our one hope. We don't
have any other hope of salvation but that, but Him. That's what
that Him says. This is all my hope and peace.
This is all my righteousness. You see, that's where we're together.
That's where we're all the same. Believers. And then He says there's
one Lord. Well, that's obvious. One Savior,
one Lord, that's Christ. Not, it's Christ, Jesus Christ,
as he's identified and distinguished in this Bible. Who is Jesus Christ? The Bible says he's God, manifest
in the flesh, without sin. And it has to do with what he
accomplished when he died. Did he make us savable if we
would cooperate? If that's the truth, we're all
doomed. The Bible says we won't cooperate. What did he do on
that cross? His name shall be called Jesus,
Matthew 121, for he shall save his people from their sins. And
he said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Now, who
is it's going to come to him? All that the Father giveth him.
When did the Father give him to him? Before the foundation
of the world. And he stated that in the high
priestly prayer in John 17. And he said, I finished the work
which you gave me to do. He says next, there's one faith.
Well, what is that faith? It's what we believe. It's the
gospel truth again. Paul said, if they come preaching
any other gospel than that which we have preached, let them be
anathema. There's one gospel, one good news for a sinner. And
it's not how it's up to you. It's how it's up to God. You
say, well, what should I do? Seek the Lord in his word, in
Christ. Because there's one faith. There's
not many faiths. There's only one, let's put it
this way. There's only one true faith. And all other faiths are
false. And then he says there's one
baptism. Now what he's talking about there is baptism of the
Holy Spirit. Do you know what baptism of the
Holy Spirit is? Many people believe, well, that's
some graduated second tier of Christianity that really sincere,
serious Christians reach. And it's known by them speaking
in tongues and doing all kinds of different crazy things. That's
not the baptism of the Spirit. You know what the baptism of
the Spirit is? It's the new birth. You must be born again. That's
when you are immersed into Christ spiritually by God-given faith
and repentance of dead works. That's what it is. That's when
you're given new life from the dead. By nature, we're spiritually
dead and depraved. The Holy Spirit, under the preaching
of the gospel, imparts life and knowledge, new knowledge, a new
heart, gives us a new will. By nature, we're unwilling to
come to Christ God's way, come to God in the way that He's commanded. But the Spirit of God in Holy
Spirit baptism makes us willing. And you know how He does it?
He shows us the truth, and He convicts us of the truth. He
gets it so that when we hear it in the power of the Spirit,
we cannot deny it, we cannot ignore it, and we cannot leave
it. We've got to have it. That's why you're here this morning.
If you're a believer, you're here because you know you need
to be. Now, let me say this. I tell young people all the time,
because I know what it is to be a teenager. Believe me, I
do remember that. You get up in the morning. You
don't necessarily want to jump out of bed with a smile on your
face and say, man, I get to go to church. I know how it is. You may say, well, I need to
take a break today. I just, you know. But here's the point. Do you need to be here? Because
this is where the only hope you have of living forever is preached. You say, well, I'll face that
later. Give it a try. Some, it comes sooner than later.
But here's the point. It's like going to a doctor when
you're sick. You don't want to be sick, and
you don't want to go to the doctor. But if you get sick, you're going
to go to the doctor because you see your need of it. Well, that's
the way it is with this gospel. It's my only hope. And there's
no other hope. I need to be here. It's my life. And then he concludes this part,
verse six, by saying, there's one God and father of all who
is above all and through all and in you all. Turn to John
six and I'll conclude here. One God and one father of all.
This is where the Lord said, all that the father giveth me
shall come to me. and him that cometh to me, I
will know why he's cast out. He went on to say that all that
he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again
at the last day. There's not gonna be one person
for whom Christ died who will perish in damnation. Well, how
do you know about yourself? It's because he'll draw you to
himself. How do you know if he's drawing
you to himself? Well, look at John 6, 44. No man can come to
me except the Father which has sent me draw him. And I'll raise
him up at the last day. Now here's how he draws his people.
This one God and Father of us all. It is written in the prophets,
and this is quoted from Isaiah 54, and they shall all be taught
of God. He teaches us. How does he teach
us? Through the preaching of the
gospel and the power of the Spirit. Do you believe this is true?
You really believe this is true now? Because if you do, he's
taught you something. And then it says, every man therefore
that hath heard, then the Bible say, faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God, and hath learned of the Father,
learned how God can be both a just God, a righteous judge, and a
loving, merciful Father. How can he be both? Well, if
you've learned of the Father, He says, cometh unto me, you'll
come to Christ. You'll see that the only way
God can be just and justify a sinner like yourself, you'll see that
it's only in Christ, in the glory of his person and in the power
of his finished work, his blood, his righteousness alone. May
the Lord bless his word to our hearts.