Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Ephesians, chapter four, Ephesians four. God's people know that the Lord is able. Jude 1, 24 and 25. Jude 1, 24, 25. Says this, now unto him that
is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only
wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty dominion and power
both now and ever. Amen. Unto him that's able to
keep you from falling and to present you faultless before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Second Corinthians
nine eight says this in God is able to make all grace bound
toward you that ye always having all sufficiency in all things
may abound to every good work. Turn to 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy
1. 2 Timothy 1, verse 8 to 12. Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of thy Lord, nor of me, his prisoner. But
be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling. Not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest. by the appearing of our Savior,
Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and hath brought life and
immortality to light through the gospel, whereunto I am appointed
a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles, who
has saved us and then told us about it, called
us with a holy call Well, the passage I want to deal with is
in Ephesians 4. Just preceding Ephesians 4, in
Ephesians 3, verses 20 and 21, there's something else that we
consider concerning the Lord's ability. Ephesians 3, 20, 21,
now unto him that's able to do exceeding abundantly above all
that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in
us. Unto him be glory in the church
by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. And then the apostle says,
after considering the Lord's ability, he is able, he's able,
he's able, Then the Spirit of God moved the Apostle Paul to
say, I, therefore. I, therefore, the prisoner of
the Lord. A marginal reading says, in the
Lord. I, therefore, the prisoner. Here's
the Apostle Paul who was powerfully arrested. on the road to Damascus. He was made a willing servant,
bond slave by the importation of a new heart. He was regenerated
by the grace of God, called by grace. I therefore, the president of
the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
ye are called. Now, every believer admits and
confesses his unworthiness. Like that centurion in Matthew
chapter eight, who told the Lord about his sick servant. The Lord
said, I'll come and heal him. And that centurion said, I'm
not worthy. Thou shouldest come under my
roof, but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed.
But here the apostle Paul exhorts God's people, therefore
the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith you're called. Paul is speaking to those that
have affectionately, been summoned by the Lord, called and revealed
to be the recipients of His mercy and compassion according to His
eternal will and purpose. He said, I beseech you that you
walk in a way that's worthy, that's suitable, that's worthily,
in a manner that's worthy of. He said that I exhort you, beseech
you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith You're called. You know, every exhortation like
this, what does it do? It just drives us back to Christ. I beseech you that you walk worthy. Lord, help me. Help me. This is what a believer wants.
This is what I want. I want to walk consistently. The Lord calls his people through
the hearing calls them by His Holy Spirit, leads them and guides
them and directs their steps providentially in His divine
dealings with them. And Paul tells us, walk worthy
of that summons, of that calling, that vocation wherewith you call
by faith, giving heed to our conduct that our behavior might
be a credit to the Lord who's called us into the glorious light
of his son. Titus chapter 2 verse 7, in all
things showing thyself a pattern, an example of good works. Obviously not for salvation but
because of it. This is what drives a believer
because they hear this and they think. I am a miserable failure, miserable. Paul said in verse two, walking
this way, I'm gonna say, he said, I want you, I beseech you, verse
one, that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're
called, comma, and now he's gonna give us some help here, with
all lowliness. and meekness with long suffering
for bearing one another in love. Have you ever met a believer
that's just really satisfied with his obedience? I haven't
either. I've never met one like that. A believer is never satisfied with what he
sees in himself. He wants to. He wants to walk
with a spirit and a mind of humility and gentleness. He wants to have
the best thoughts of others and the lowest thoughts of himself.
He wants to be continually patient, mild, and long-suffering with
others. He doesn't want to be provoked
easily to anger or offense. He wants to be patient and forbearing,
making allowances for all that's necessary because he loves the
Lord and he loves his brethren. He loves them. And he sees in
himself failure on every corner. That's what Paul said, I keep
going back to this. I see in me, I see in myself,
there dwelleth no good within. But this is what he wants. I
beseech you to walk with all lowliness and meekness and longsuffering,
forbearing one another, forbearing one another. holding each other up and sustaining each other, enduring
with them. Colossians 3.13 says, for bearing
one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel
against any, what do we do? Even as Christ forgave you, so
also do ye. We're living in a body that wars
against this truth, and when we feel that our rights have
been violated or we've been mistreated, we lash out, we're ready to do
battle. That's us by nature. I might be able to hide it within,
and you may not know it, but if you only knew what I was thinking,
I'm thinking, Lord, keep me from me. In a believer, there's a new
ear to hear the gospel that's preached. There's a new spirit
of teachableness that receives instruction from the Lord. And
there is a longing to control that our emotion, it surrenders
to the will and good pleasure of God. And we know that this
is the right thing. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Verse 3, endeavoring to keep
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Endeavoring to
exert oneself, to make haste, endeavoring to keep, to guard,
to attend to the unity of the Spirit, the agreement of the
Spirit in the bond of peace. binds us together. God's love,
God's peace, God's mercy. Now this unity of the spirit
which Paul speaks, what is it? That unity of the spirit. Well
I can tell you that a lot of times to come to the truth of
something is to know what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean
trying to unite all denominations together thinking as the world
does that we all believe the same thing. looking and I saw
this, I've seen them, you've seen them, it's signs or, you
know, pieces of plastic or they have a carve, it just says, believe,
believe. Well, that sounds spiritual,
doesn't it, Dave, that you believe? Believe what? Scripture says,
James 2, 9, thou sayest that there's one God, thou doest well,
the devils also believe. The devils believe there's one
God, and they tremble. But the unity we're talking about
here is the unity of the Spirit, of God's Spirit. God's Spirit
that binds God's people together. Sinners saved by the grace of
God, saved and kept, directed, taught. Those that have a heart
for Him and for each other. Paul says in verses 4 through
6, he says there's one body, one body, Jew and Gentile. We're a people of God's choosing.
We're a remnant according to the election of grace. There's
multiple congregations, but we all believe the same thing. I
promise you, I promise you. If you go to the church in College
Grove, Tennessee, or you go to Frank Tate's, or you go to Todd
Nybert's, you know what you're going to hear? Same thing. Believe the same
thing. There's one body and one Spirit. There's one body and one Spirit,
one Holy Spirit that shall surely, effectually, powerfully, irresistibly
Call out God's people, make them willing in the day of God's power. Those to whom one spirit is going
to give faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and not themselves. One spirit. A spirit who seals and teaches
and guides and comforts the sheep of God. There's one body, there's
one spirit, even as you're called in one hope, we got one expectation
of eternal salvation. Got one, one hope. What does
that mean? What are you saying when you say we got one hope?
Well, there's no degrees in heaven. Let me say it like that. The
hope, the expectation of every believer's calling is the same. The hope that the Apostle Paul
had was the hope of Rahab the harlot. It's the hope of Abraham. It's the hope of the thief on
the cross. It's the hope of Moses. It's the hope of every believer
in this congregation. It's Elijah's hope. We have one
hope, it's Christ. We have one hope, no degree.
We've all been chosen in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no
degrees. I mean, believe me, I came up
being taught that things that we were doing here on this earth,
our crowns are gonna be so high is that you probably couldn't
even hold them up. We got one hope, that's it. Verse five says there's one Lord,
one Lord. This is our Lord. He's God Almighty
in human flesh. He's the controller. He's the
governor of all things. He's the creator of all things.
He's God's prophet, priest, king, the redeemer of the sheep of
God's heritage. He's the husband of the bride.
He's the wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption
of His people. all that were given Him in electing
grace. He's the one who came into this
world to save His people from their sins. He came into this
world to save sinners, not to give them a chance. We have one
Lord. We have one Lord that comes into
this world and shall save His people from their sins. He will.
That's the Lord we serve. We got one Lord. There's one
faith. One faith. It's the faith of
God's elect. It's that faith that's given
from heaven that believes and trusts on the Lord Jesus Christ. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son hath
not life. Faith that has no work of man's hands upon it. It trusts
in the Lord Jesus. Jesus Christ. Salvation's of
the Lord, not me and the Lord. Any faith that's spoken of that
adds man's work to it is not the faith of God's elect. There's
one faith, one faith. There's one baptism. It means
immersion or submersion. One baptism. Now here the Apostle
Paul is speaking of the confession of the faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ, not for salvation, but because of it. I want you to
turn to Acts 8, Acts 8. This, this right here, this was
really, really bore witness to my heart. This is what we believe
about baptism. Acts chapter 8 verse 26. And the angel of the Lord spake
unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the
way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And
he arose, and went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of
great authority unto Candacy, queen of the Ethiopians, who
had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for
to worship, was returning, and sitting in his chariot, reading
Isaiah the prophet, Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near,
and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him,
and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, Understandest
thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except
a man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he
would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which
he read was He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a
lamb done before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth. In
his humiliation, his judgment was taken away, and who shall
declare his generation, for his life is taken from the earth?
And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom
speaketh the prophet this, of himself or some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. What did he say? He preached
the gospel to him. Paul said in Romans chapter 1
that the gospel is concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Who he
is, what he's done, where he is. He preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way,
they came unto a certain water. And the eunuch said, see, here
is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? Well, actually, I'll tell you
this. Philip is getting ready to say there's one thing concerning
baptism. Philip said, if thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the son of God. What did he just say?
I believe that Jehovah has sent his only begotten son into this
world to accomplish just what you were just preaching to me.
That's what I believe. I believe he's the Savior. I
believe he's the Messiah. That's what I believe. What does
hinder me? Philip said, if you believe,
if you believe thou mayest. If thou believest, thou mayest. Not in order to be saved, in
order to believe, in order to be made alive in Christ. No,
if you believe. Let me ask you something. Whenever
two people, I've asked you this before, use this as an illustration.
I think it's a good one. I'm going to do it again. When
two people openly confess their love for each other in a marriage
ceremony. Okay, you two recently, back
to back. He asked me to perform a wedding
ceremony. We had it. We came here and had
some vows, exchanged some rings, stuff like that. Let me ask you
something. Did that confession before all of us, the Lord, of
that wedding, was that what initiated Their love for each other? Or
was this ceremony an open confession? We love each other. Baptism. Is that what is the initiation
of life? Or is it the confession? Is it
the confession before the Lord saved me? And this is how the
Lord said to confess it before men. That's what that's what
Peter said. I mean, Philip said. What doth
hinder me to be baptized, do you believe? Do you believe? He said, I believe it. There's
one baptism, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. And then in verse
six, one God and father of all, who is above all and through
all and you all. Every believer is settled in
the truth that there's one God. One God. One God, sovereign,
manifest in three persons. God Almighty, the eternal, omnipotent,
omnipresent, omniscient, all-sufficient God. God. The Father who chose His people
in Christ, the Son who bore their guilt in His own body and answered
before God's law on their behalf, and the Spirit of God who effectually
will call them all out of darkness as one God and Father of all. Brethren, the Lord has bound
us together as brethren. Paul says, walk worthy, vocation
wherewith you're called. For the spirit of lowliness and
meekness and long-suffering, forbearing one another, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. We're sinners, saved by the grace
of God. but we're sinners that love each
other and love Him and enjoy our company together. I pray
the Lord teach us afresh. Help us today for Christ's sake.
Amen.