But to turn back to Ephesians
chapter four, in verse three, Paul says, we're called upon
to endeavor to give every effort to keep, to guard over, to preserve
the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Now, this is the responsibility
of every believer. None are exempt. We're all called
upon to give every effort, endeavor to keep, to guard over, to preserve
the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Proverbs chapter 6, 19 says that
God hates that one who soweth discord among brethren. And that is something, when I
read that, I fear. I don't wanna be that person.
I don't want you to be that person. We're called upon to endeavor,
to give every effort, to keep, to guard over, to preserve, the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now there is such a
thing as the unity of the Spirit. Now that's speaking of the Spirit
of God, the third person of the blessed Trinity. God the Spirit
is the author of this peace. But let me say this, it is a
unity of the Spirit and not a unity of error and a unity of sin. Now, I don't know how many times
in my life, and it's been numerous, that I've been talking to somebody
concerning the gospel and preaching the gospel and have been accused,
you're not trying to keep the unity of the Spirit. You're causing
God's trouble. You're trying to be a distraction. Why can't
we all just get along and believe the same things? Now, I repeat,
this is not a unity in error. This is the unity of the spirit. You may remember that when Paul
was being tried in Acts chapter 24, his accusers said of him,
we have found this man a pestilent fellow. He's a pest. A mover
of sedition among all the Jews throughout all the world. He
doesn't bring people together, he brings division. He's a mover
of sedition. And he's a ringleader of the
sect of the Nazarenes. Now Paul wasn't any of those
things they were accusing him of. I repeat, this is not the unity
of error and sin. It's the unity of the spirit.
You don't think of the words of our Lord when he said, I came
not to send peace, but a sword. Don't divorce this statement
from that statement. I came not to send peace, but
a sword. I came to set a man at variance
and division with the son, the daughter against the daughter-in-law
or mother-in-law. You know what I'm talking about.
He said, I came to send division in that sense. This unity is around something
we're unified on, something we believe, something we rejoice
in. When we talk about this unity,
and this is so important to endeavor to keep and to guard over this
unity, it's found around these seven things he mentions in verses
four through six. There's one body. one church,
the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I love the word one. We are
not given two things to make a choice between. We're not getting
given two things to get confused by, only one. There's one body and one spirit, even as you're
called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all
and in you all. Now that is the unity of the
Spirit that we're to preserve, that we're to guard over, that
we're to keep. And we're to do this in the bond
of peace. Now we've been considering the
last several weeks. He says to walk worthy of that
vocation wherewith you're called, first of all, in all loneliness
or humility, in all meekness, in all long suffering, in all
forbearing one another, putting up with one another, in love. Now, where you have that, you're
going to have unity, aren't you? What is the enemy of unity? Self. Self is the opposite of
humility and meekness and long suffering, self-righteousness,
self-indulgence, self-seeking, self-pleasure, selfishness. What
a word. I know something about it. Selfishness.
And that is the enemy of unity. But where you dwell with humility,
meekness, long-suffering, and forbearance, there will be unity. But where self rules, self is
ruled by pride. By pride only, the scripture
says, cometh contention. Self-denial and humility, meekness,
long-suffering, and forbearance of one another in love. And when
Paul makes this statement, this lets us know that this is a unity
that can be lost. Now, that's a scary thought,
but it's true. And that's why we're to be so
careful to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit This is a
unity that can be lost. Turn with me for a moment to
1 Corinthians 6. Here's an example of how this
unity could be lost and what our attitude is supposed to be.
1 Corinthians 6, dare any of you, having a matter against
another, go to law. before the unjust and not before
the saints. Now this was going on in the
church of Corinth. One was getting mad at another and they were
suing them at a court of law. I've been treated unfairly. I'm
not getting my rights. I'm going to make sure something's
done about this. I'm going to take you to court. Now that's
what was going on in this church. He says, Do you not know that
the saints shall judge the world, and that the world shall be judged
by you? Are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye
not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain
to this life? If then you have judgments of
things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least
esteemed in the church. least esteemed person could make
a better judgment. He says, I speak this to your
shame. Is it so that there's not a wise man among you? No,
not one that should be able to judge between his brethren, but
brother goeth to law with brother and that before the unbelievers.
Now, therefore, this is utterly a fault among you because you
go to law one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer
yourselves or allow yourselves to be defrauded and ripped off?
Rather than bring such reproach on the gospel, you ought to allow
yourself to get ripped off. Keep your mouth shut about it.
Somebody said it's been a little fester up. Remember, God's the first
cause behind everything. That's the only way it won't
fester up. Remember, the Lord sent this for your good and his
glory. Suffer yourselves to be defrauded
rather than make a public spectacle of something. And that's what
would end up destroying unity. Seven things that this unity
is founded on. I've just read it, seven things.
Now remember this unity, there's something we have to be unified
in. Some years ago, there was a church here in town that would
have claimed to believe what we call the doctrines of grace.
They don't really, I've heard the man preach and it's in their,
what do you call it? Creed or But at any rate, they
put out a big ad in the paper. And it was telling you why you
should come to this church. And I mean a full page ad in
Lexington Herald-Leader. I mean, quite a bit of money
would have been spent at that some years ago. And in this ad, there
was not one mention of the name of Jesus Christ. There was not
one mention of how God saves sinners. There was nothing about
the one Lord, the one faith, the one baptism. And the next
day I was doing a radio program. I kind of stirred up over that.
And I said something about it on the radio program. There's
a church here in town that put up an entire ad as to why you
should come to their church, you know, and they gave all the
reasons for the family and all that stuff. But there was not
one mention of the name of Jesus Christ. Well, somehow the pastor
heard that. And he was upset. And he said,
we're supposed to be on the same page. You're destroying the unity
of the spirit. Well, I don't remember any statement
about the one Lord in this page. I don't remember hearing anything
about the one faith. I don't remember hearing anything
about the one hope. I didn't hear any of that. I
am not destroying the unity of the spirit in doing that. And
I think the guy had to some level a guilty conscience of having
done that. And he was going to call me and bawl me out over
it. But I said, I did not destroy the unity of the spirit. You
mentioned nothing about what the unity of the spirit actually
is when you made that accusation against me. Now, the first thing
he says in verse four, when he speaks of this, that we're to
endeavor to keep, he says, there is one body. One body. And that's talking
about the church. The church is called the body
of Jesus Christ. We're all members of his body. There's one body. Do you read
anything in there about different denominations? nothing in there about it. Somebody
says, well, we need to have denominations. You know, you want to have a
label on a can so people can tell what you are. You need to
have a creed. You need to have a confession.
You need to have bylaws to show everybody what you believe. We
got the Bible and the Bible has only got one
message. So it's not hard to stand for that. There's only
one body. That's the body of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That is every believer, everybody
for whom he died. There's one body. There's one
body. Somebody says, well, what do
you got to do for church membership? Be a believer. If you're a believer, you're
a member. Well, don't you have to come down? No. you're a believer,
you're in the body of Christ. Now, is there any arguing with
that? If you're a believer, you are in the body of Christ and
there's one body. Now, this one body manifests
itself in different local churches. I realize that. And in a local church, You have
wheat and tares, we know that. You have those who believe and
those who do not believe, but still the one body is the church
of God's elect, all for whom Christ died. The church that
he loved and gave himself for, according to Ephesians 5.27.
Feed the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.
That's the one body. That's the one body. Now, we
have unity. in this one body. We're all members
of that body. Look in first Corinthians chapter
12. I love this passage of scripture. Verse 12, for as the body is
one and hath many members and all the members of that one body
being many or one body, So also is Christ. I'm made of a head,
and hands, and feet, and arms, and whatever else parts I have. My body is one body. Many members, but one body. That
is the body of Christ. Many members, but one body. For by one spirit, we're all
baptized into one body. Whether we be Jews or Gentiles,
whether we be bond or free, we've been made all to drink into one
spirit, for the body is not one member, but many. If the foot
shall say, because I'm not the hand, I'm not of the body, is
it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, because
I'm not the eye, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of
the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?
If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now God
has set the members, every one of them, in the body as it hath
pleased him. And if they were all one member,
where were the body? Are they many members yet but
one body in the eye cannot say into the hand, I have no need
of thee, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
Nay, much more those members of the body which seem to be
more feeble are necessary. And those members of the body
which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant
honor. And our uncomely parts have more
abundant comeliness. Now, when's the last time you
saw a liver? I mean, they're gross. They're not pretty. Kidneys,
it's not something that looks good, but it's more important
than your finger. It's more important in your ear.
The Lord has put more abundant honor on those parts that we
would not even consider beautiful. For our comely parts have no
need, but God has tempered the body together, having given more
abundant honor to that part which lacked, that there should be
no schism, no division in the body, but that all the members
should have the same care one for another. Now, before I read
on any more, there have been times where there's been trouble.
in our assembly, and somebody said, well, we need to get rid
of that person. We need to kick that person out.
Well, this week, I went to the doctor. I had some nerve damage
and my toe drags. When I try to run, I can't run,
and it just bugs me. Now, we talked about the different
things that we could do to fix this, you know, different tests
and so on. But, you know, he gave me several
options, but one thing we didn't talk about was toe amputation. That wasn't brought up. Toe amputation. And whether verse there's at
the same care one for another, and whether one member suffer,
all the members suffer with it, or one member be honored, all
the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ
and members in particular. Now regarding members of this
body, every individual member, every believer is an individual
member of the body of Christ. I want you to think about what
the Lord said in Matthew chapter 25. inasmuch as you've done it
to the least of these, my brethren, you've done it to me. And inasmuch
as you did it not to the least of these, my brethren, you've
done it not to me. Now, what that means is the way
I treat you is the way I treat Christ himself. And the way you
treat me is the way you treat Christ himself. Members of the
same body. Now that's unity, isn't it? That's
true union. Members of the same body. Now, endeavor to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And next he says in our
text, turn back to Ephesians 4, there is one body and one spirit. And he's talking about the Holy
Spirit of God. He has given every member of
this body life. Born of the Spirit. There was a time when you had
no interest in the things of God. You might have been religious,
but you didn't have any understanding of the Scripture. You didn't
have any understanding how that Jesus Christ did everything in
salvation. You didn't know what it meant to look to Him only.
Then something happened. You were born of the Spirit. You were birthed into the kingdom
of God. And every believer has been born
of God. born of the spirit of God, having
the divine nature, partakers of the divine nature. We all
have him indwelling in us. We're all saved the same way.
We're all taught the same things. And what is it we're taught?
We're taught that Jesus Christ is all. I'm taught that the only righteousness
I have is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The only thing
God requires of me is Christ himself, me being found in him. That's the one spirit. You know,
every believer is perfectly united. We believe the same thing. Christ
Jesus is all. Does anybody have any problem
with that? Christ is all in salvation and we're nothing? He gets all
the glory? He's everything? Everything God
requires of me, He looks to His Son for? Anybody gonna get a
fight over that? Not with believers. Not with
believers. And I'm called upon to earnestly
endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit. Christ is all. There's no reason for anything
but unity. And we also are warned in the
scriptures of grieving. This is a warning to every believer. We're warned of grieving and
quenching the spirit of God. Grieving him and quenching his
influence. And that's certainly done when
we don't endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit. in the bond
of peace. Now, look what he says in verse
four. There's one body, one spirit,
even as you're called in one hope of your calling. Now, this
is the third thing that we're united around. One hope. Law two, there's no blurring
of these lines. There is one hope. Every believer
has the exact same hope. Now, what is hope? Well, hope
is a confident expectation with regard to the future. It's not
something I see right now. It's something that I have confident
expectation that it will be. I have a hope. Every believer
has a hope that when I stand before God on judgment day, I'll be justified. there will
be no sin to condemn me for. That all my sin has been put
away and that I actually stand before God through Christ's righteousness,
having never sinned. Now you want to talk about something
that'll give you confidence. I stand before God, having never
sinned. You say, how can you say that?
Well, that's the gospel. Christ put my sin away. It's
gone. I have the very righteousness
and merits of Jesus Christ, and I stand before God having never
sinned. I don't have anything to feel
guilty for. Nothing to feel bad about. Nothing to fear on judgment
day. I'm not worried about, well,
you did this. You're going to lose this reward,
but when he did that, he's going to gain it. No! That's completely
contrary to the gospel. Listen to me, there's hope, there's
hope. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. That's my hope. It's Christ that
died. Now 99% of religion, in Lexington,
Kentucky and everywhere else, they say Jesus Christ died for
all men without exception and made salvation possible for all
men but it's up to you to accept what he did to make it work for
you. If that's true, I have no hope. My hope is that when Jesus Christ
said, it is finished, that my salvation was completely finished. Is that your hope? Do you have any other hope? Do you ever have some hope in
something you've done? Something you quit doing? Something you
intend to do? Oh, from now on, I'm going to
become a better person. I'm going to... Salvation is
not anything you do. Salvation is it's done. It's
done. There is nothing for you to do. It's done. Every believer shares that hope. There won't be any argument with
any believer about that. Our hope that we'll stand before
God accepted is because of what Christ accomplished in our behalf
without respect to our works. Hebrews 1.3 says, when he had
by himself, with no help, no contributions from me or you,
when he had by himself purged He sat down, the sitting Savior. He sat down, having accomplished
the work, nothing left for him to do. Now, that's the one hope.
That's the one hope. And then he says in verse five,
here's the fourth thing he mentions, there's one Lord. One Lord. And this is talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I've heard preachers say,
won't you make him the Lord of your life? He already is your
Lord, whether you know it or not. The scripture says he's
the Lord of the dead and the living. He's the Lord of the
unbeliever. They don't know it. They're not
happy it's that way. They would say, he's not my Lord.
Yeah, he is. Yeah, he is. You just don't know
it. He still is because he is the Lord. Whether you accept
Him or reject Him, doesn't have anything to do with His Lordship.
He's the Lord. I've heard of the Lordship controversy. There ain't no Lordship controversy.
He's the Lord. He's the Lord of the dead. He's
the Lord of the living. He controls everybody and everything. Now, the Lord, and this is what
we're united in, this thing of unity, endeavoring to keep the
unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. The Lord is the one
whose will is done. Amen. The Lord is the one whose
will is done. Now, if I willed to create a
wedge of gold that would make everybody here rich, how much
power would I have to do that? None. None. I can't will anything into existence. But he created the universe as
an act of his will. He willed it. Now, He's not only
the Lord of creation, He's the Lord of providence. That's talking
about everything that happens in time. I don't care what it
is. He's the Lord of it. He's the
cause of it. It happened because of His will. Now, I've heard people try to
break that down. Well, there's the permissive
will, there's the will of decree, No, it's His will. It's His will. Whatever it is, it's His will. He is Lord of Providence. Whatever
happens, He's in control of. Whatever you've gone through
today, it was His will. He is in control. He's the Lord. He's the Lord.
But most especially, salvation. is according to his will. You
know what that means? That means if you're saved, it's
because he willed your salvation and saved you must be and are. If he willed your salvation,
you're saved. By the witch will, by God's will,
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. He's the Lord. He's the Lord
of creation. He's the Lord of providence and
he's the Lord of salvation. Now there's no fighting over
this, not among God's people. Now, goats will object. I don't agree with that. You're
saying this, you're saying that. They'll come up with all kinds
of, well, you know, like Henry Mahan once said, sometimes you
need to throw the goats out of the can. But this is not something
God's people our disagreement about. Ask that leper. That leper
came into Christ's presence. What did he say? You remember,
Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. I can't make myself
clean. I can't will myself to be clean. There's nothing I can
do. It's utterly in the hands of
your sovereign will. You will, you can make me clean. And oh, how I love the Lord's
words to him. I will be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was
cleansed. Now he really is the one Lord. And we're all in agreement there,
aren't we? That's what we have unity around, one Lord. And next he says in verse five,
there's one faith. There's one faith. You don't
have two things to choose from. Well, no, it's called in the
scripture, the faith of God's elect. The faith that all of
God's elect possess. The common faith. That which
is general to all. Every believer possesses this
faith. This one faith. Now, would you turn with me to
Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16. Verse 30. Or verse 29. Then he calls for a light. this
Philippian jailer after the Lord had brought an earthquake and
opened up all the doors and he thought all the prisoners were
going to escape. And they didn't, they stayed there. Paul said
he was getting ready to kill himself. And Paul said, do thyself
no harm. We're all here safe and sound.
Then verse 29, he called for a light and sprang in and came
trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them
out and said, sirs, what? Must I do to be saved? Now notice he doesn't say, what
must I do to save myself? What must I do to be saved? Good question. Excellent question. I hope everybody here is asking
this question. What must I do to be saved? And I love Paul's
answer. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Believe. Now what does believe
mean? It doesn't simply mean believe there is one named the
Lord Jesus Christ. It means you trust him only as
everything God requires of you. You don't look anywhere else.
If you look anywhere else, you're not believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's to rely completely on Him as the only reason God
would accept you. But knowing this is everything.
He is everything. Believe on the Lord. We've talked
about Him being the Lord. You believe He's the Lord. You
believe He's the Lord. Do you really believe that Jesus
Christ is Lord? Believe on the Lord Jesus. That's
his name is Savior. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. Jesus means
Savior. Do you believe he's the Savior?
Do you believe that he's the Savior? And then it's called,
he's called the Christ. That's God's offices, God's offices
as prophet. He's God's word. He's God's prophet.
He's God's priest. If he brings me into God's presence,
I must be saved. He's God's king. He's the one
whose will must be done. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Now listen real carefully. The
Philippian, I mean the Ethiopian eunuch, after he heard Philip
preach the gospel, He said, here's water. What hinders
me from being baptized? I wanna know if there's a reason
why I shouldn't. Do I need to understand more?
Do I need to have more victory in my life? What hinders me from
being baptized? And Philip answered, if you believe
with all your heart, you may. And he answered, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Now that's what saving
faith is. Somebody says, well, I know people
who believe that he's the son of God who don't believe like
you do. No, they're believing in a different
Jesus. He might have the same name, but it's a different Jesus.
It's a small g God. It's not the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll believe
that he must be successful in whatever he does. You'll believe
that if he died for you, you must be saved. You can't be anything
but saved because his death, his life, his person, he is salvation. If you believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God, God the Son, the second person of the blessed
Trinity, the creator of the universe, the one who must save, the one
who has saved, the one who is salvation. My dear friend, you
have saving faith. Right now, you have saving faith.
Saving faith doesn't have anything to do with what you believe about
yourself. It has wholly to do with what you believe about Him. That
is saving faith. Somebody says, well, I don't
know if I'm a Christian. Do you believe He's the Son of God? Yes, I believe
that, you're a Christian. If you believe He's the God of
the Bible, the Son of God of the Bible. That is the one faith. And then six in our text, back
to Ephesians four. Now this is what this unity of
the Spirit is around this one Lord, one faith. And the sixth thing he mentions
is one baptism. There's one baptism. Now the word baptism means immersion. That's all it means. Immersion. I think it's interesting that
when they translated the Bible, I love the King James Version.
I won't read another one. I love the King James Version.
It's by far my favorite. I think it's by far the best,
but it's interesting. They did not practice baptism
by immersion. They'd sprinkle infants, they'd
do things of that nature. And so instead of translating
it, immersion, they translated it baptism. It's called baptizo
and they just, it's what was called a transliteration. So
they translate it because if it said immersion, people say,
how come you're not immersing? So they translated immersion.
Remember, it's only the original that's inspired. Every translation,
including the King James, will have some problems. But the Lord
uses his word. Somebody says, well, do you need
to know Greek? No, you don't need to know Greek. You know
how to read. Read the Bible. It's a great book. But what I'm
saying is any translation it's, well, I don't even know why I'm
going through it. Just let me go on with something else. There's
only one mode of baptism and that's immersion. There's only
one subject of baptism, believers. An infant should never get baptized.
Well, that's ridiculous. And if you're baptizing an infant,
you think somehow that somehow that's helping that infant. Well,
I do not, but why are you doing it then? You can't find anything
in the Bible about it. There's nothing in the Bible about baptizing
infants. But when he's talking about this
one baptism, I don't think he's talking about water baptism at
all. Although it should be by immersion and it's for believers
only. When the Lord said, whoso believeth
and is baptized, the same should be saved. What's saying is you
shouldn't be baptized unless you believe. It's a believer,
someone who actually believes the gospel. But what he's talking
about is found in Romans chapter six. Let me read it to you. You
can turn there if you want. Verse three. Know ye not that so many
of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his
death. Therefore we're buried with him
by baptism into death. He's not talking about water
baptism here. He's talking about what water baptism represents.
Union with the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, when Christ lived, I
lived. When Christ died, I died because I'm united to him. When
Christ was raised from the dead, I was raised from the dead because
I'm united to him. Now that's the only baptism,
is union with the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't claim to completely
understand union. Of course I don't, neither do
you, neither does anybody else. How I could be eternally united
to Christ, I've always been in him, but I believe it. I believe
that there's one baptism that's being baptized into Christ, united
into Christ. All of our salvation is being
united to him. Let's do this scripture. Hebrews
2.11, both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are
all of one. Not just real close, one. And I think the Lord gives the
clearest illustration of union when he talks about the vine
and the branches. Those stems that run through
the vine and the branches, there's no connecting point. They're
one. The same stem that runs through
the branches runs through the vine. There's no point of contact
where they become one. They're always one. And that
is the heritage of every believer. And that's what we're united
in, isn't it? But somebody says, well, I don't believe that. Well,
you don't believe the gospel then. I mean, this is the gospel union with
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then finally, he says in
our text, in Ephesians chapter four, there's one God, the God
of the Bible. He's already talked about the
Spirit and the Son when he talked about the Lord. He's talking
about the Father. There's one God, the Father of
all, who's above all, and through
all, and in you all. Now, he's the Father of all.
That doesn't mean all men, you know that. The Lord said in John
8 to the Pharisees, you're of your father the devil, and the
less of your father you will do. So obviously, he's not saying
he's the Father of all men, but he's the Father of all believers.
We pray our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And he's above all, utterly unique. There's nobody like him. Nobody
you can compare him to. Nobody you can say, this is like
God. No, God's other. God's other, God's holy. He's
above all. And then it says he's through
all. That means there's nothing that's independent of him. You
know, he is utterly and completely independent. He has no needs. And every body and everything
is completely dependent upon him. And he works through all
things. And he is in all. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now what unity exists in this
one body, What a blessing to be a member of the body of Christ.
You want to talk about significance so much as my life's mundane. Not if you're in the body of
Christ, it's not. Whatever you do, do to his glory. What a blessed privilege to be
called out to be part of the body of Christ, a member of his
body. One spirit. God the Holy Spirit
being made partakers of the divine nature. You're looking at someone
that is a partaker of the divine nature. Every believer is to
have that one spirit, one hope, what union we have there. Our
hope is that Christ died for us. That's why that message that
Christ died for all men without exception is a false message. It's a, no one is saved through
that message because that's making salvation dependent upon something
you do rather than something he did. There's one Lord, the
one who's the Lord. There is one faith, one baptism
and one God who is father of all, who's above all and through
all and in you all. And that is the unity of which
we're called upon to endeavor to keep. This is what we're to
guard over. This isn't, I repeat, this is
not a unity of error. This is a unity of the spirit. And may God enable me and you
to always endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond
of peace, in all lowliness, in all meekness, in all longsuffering,
in all forbearing one another in love. Let's pray. Lord, give us the grace to keep
to endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit. In the bond of
peace. Lord, cause us. To walk in all
loneliness. And meekness. In long suffering. and forbearing one another in
love, endeavoring to keep this blessed unity of the spirit of
which thy spirit is the author in the bond of peace. And Lord,
as we prepare to take the Lord's table in obedience to your command,
enable us to do this in remembrance of you. And we're going to take
the Lord's table.