Alright, let's turn to Ephesians
chapter 4. Begin reading in verse 1 and
read to verse 3. I therefore, the prisoner of
the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation,
the calling, that's the calling, that you walk worthy of the calling
wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with
long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Paul begins
here and he says, I therefore, And that means that this exhortation
that he gives us here is based solely on what he said before. What came before this is what
he's basing this exhortation on. Our calling, brethren, you
who believe the Lord, our calling is by God's free and sovereign
grace alone from eternity. It's called a heavenly calling.
And truly we were called from eternity. Go back to Ephesians
1, and I'll just give you a little brief review here. But in Ephesians
1 and verse 3, it says, and this is so of every believer. This is true of everybody born
of the Spirit of God. He says, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessing, with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in
Christ. And He did it according as He's
chosen us in Him, before the foundation of the world, that
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Now
indeed, He's going to make His people holy and without blame
before Him in love by His Holy Spirit. But when He put us in
Christ and blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ,
in Christ Jesus, before God, we were holy and without blame
before Him in love. That's why He didn't destroy
this world when Adam sinned in the garden, because He had a
people He put in Christ. And there was no possibility
that we won't be conformed to Christ's image and called by
His grace, because look at verse 5. He's predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to
the good pleasure of God's will. of His will, to the praise of
the glory of His grace wherein," and all that He's stated here,
He's made us accepted in the Beloved. And then go to Ephesians
2. Now that's our calling from heaven,
our heavenly calling. Alright, look here then. Then
we came into this world and if God hadn't called us by His grace
and made us to experience His grace in our hearts, this is
what we were and this is where we would have remained. Look
at where we were here and look at what God did for us. In verse
11, He says, Remember, you in time past were Gentiles in the
flesh. Are you a Gentile? I'm a Gentile
in the flesh. That means we had nothing to
do with God. We were outside of Israel. We
had nothing whatsoever to do with any promises or anything.
He said, you were called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision
in the flesh made by hand. And he says, at that time you
were without Christ, you were aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, you were strangers from the covenants of promise,
you had no hope, you were without God in the world. I mean, what
can a dead man do? That's where we were, brethren.
That's what God said about us. But now look at this, verse 13.
But now in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far off are
made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has
made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, which
he says here is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, and
he did it to make in himself of two one new man, so making
peace. He made us one between God and
our Father. He made us one with all our brethren,
whether they're Jew or Gentile. He made broken down all those
walls that divided us, that we felt made us somebody by what
we had done. And He made us one by His blood. Christ did this. Now watch this.
He did it that He might, verse 16, that He might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.
Now we're dead in sin. We didn't even know He did this.
Now look what He did. Christ came and He preached peace
to you which were far off and to them that were nigh. Christ
came to His people in Israel and He preached peace to them,
and He came to His people among the Gentiles and He preached
peace to them. He's still preaching peace to His people right now.
He's doing it right now, right this minute. This is what...
I'm saying these words, but if He speaks in your heart and you
hear His voice, it's because He's preaching peace to you.
And look at this, for through Him, we both have access by one
Spirit unto the Father. Whether you're a Jew or a Gentile,
bond or free, rich or poor, male or female, all those distinctions
are gone. We got access one way, by the
blood of Christ, by one Spirit unto the Father. We're born again,
born of Him by one Spirit. Now therefore, you're no more
strangers and foreigners, you're fellow citizens with the saints. He doesn't say you're fellow
citizens with the Jews. He says you're fellow citizens
with the saints, because He's made us sanctified. He's made
us holy by what He's accomplished for us. And He said, and you're
of the household of God. We're of the whole family of
God, the whole family in heaven and earth. And he says, and you're
built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets,
Jesus Christ himself, that's the foundation, the chief cornerstone. And he said, in whom, in Christ,
all the building, you who are living stones, all the building
is fitly framed together, and it grows as he adds another living
stone, calling them out. grows. As He has another one,
it grows. And as He grows you in the inward
man, you grow. And it grows into a holy temple
in the Lord. The temple's not a building. The temple's not literal sticks
and stones. The temple's His people. He's
building His people up in the Lord. And it says here, in whom,
in Christ, you also are built together for an habitation of
God through the Spirit. So we're in Christ and God is
in us through the Spirit. That's union, brethren. That's
what's called union. That's unity. That's oneness.
Now that's a great amazing call, isn't it? God the Father willed
it, He purposed it, He predestinated it from eternity. God the Son
came in human flesh and He obtained it, making us the purchased possession
of God by His blood. And in God the Holy Spirit applied
it and made us a habitation of God through the Holy Spirit.
Now that's some calling. And so Paul says in Ephesians
4.1, I therefore, for this reason, for the splendor of this calling,
I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you
walk worthy of the vocation, worthy of this calling wherewith
you are called. Our subject this morning is walk
worthy. walk worthy. Brethren, based
solely, solely upon the abundant blessings of God our Father in
Christ given us through the Holy Spirit, based solely on His grace,
we have the greatest of all motive to walk in a manner that is becoming
to this calling wherewith we've been called. To adorn the Gospel
of Christ. First of all, our motive for
this is the grace and love of God alone. That's our only motive. Notice Paul says in verse 1,
I beseech you. I beseech you. He doesn't command
them. He doesn't put them under the
law. He doesn't threaten or promise them. He uses no power, no force
of his own. He says, I beseech you. I entreat
you. I exhort you. And this is important
for each of us to remember. For every believer here to remember,
you men who stand up here and you preach in my place and you
read scripture, this is important for you. This is important for
all of us who believe toward our fellow believers and toward
all men. This is important for us fathers
and you mothers. There's no better way to exhort
a fellow believer or to exhort an unbeliever for that matter.
There's no better way to exhort a fellow believer to all lowliness
and meekness than to do so in the spirit of lowliness and meekness. No better way. Turn over to 2
Timothy 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2. And look at... Look at verse 24. 2 Timothy 2,
24. The servant of the Lord must
not strive. Now that's what we all are if
we've been called of God. We're servants of the Lord. The
servant of the Lord must not strive. He's talking about with
men. But be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient in meekness,
instructing those that oppose themselves. There's instruction
There is instruction in the spirit with which we teach somebody
just as there is instruction in the teaching itself. There's
instruction in the spirit with which we teach somebody. What
instruction is it when you teach somebody the gospel and you do
so in a gentle, patient, meek spirit? What instruction is there
in that? This is what we're saying. We're
saying that we have no power in ourselves. We're saying that
we can't constrain you to do anything. We're saying we don't
want your faith to be in the power of men. We want it to be
in the power of God. This is what we're saying right
here. A lowly and a meek spirit says this, verse 25. If God peradventure
will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.
We're saying we're depending on God to give them repentance
to the acknowledging of the truth. I know how you long for that
loved one to believe Christ. You long for your unbelieving
husband, your unbelieving wife, your unbelieving son or daughter
or mother or father. I know how you long for that.
I know how when a sister or brother is in error and you long for
them to turn from their error because it's just going to harm
them. I know how that you long for them to be turned. And there
is such a thing as righteous anger. There is such a thing.
When an unbeliever speaks against our holy God, he's speaking against
our Father, he's speaking against Christ, our Savior, our Redeemer.
But try to remember this. They oppose themselves. They're not opposing you. They're
opposing themselves. They're not opposing you. Listen
to this. Proverbs 25, 15 says, By long
forbearing is a prince persuaded, and a soft tongue breaks the
bone. We lose our patience, and we
get speaking loud, and we get speaking proud, and we think
we've affected something because we see outwardly somebody doing
what we say. but a soft tongue goes right
to the heart. It goes right to the bone, whereas
that's just outward. Paul told the Thessalonians,
he said, we were with you, we were gentle among you, even as
a nurse cherishes her children. Like a nursing mother with an
infant. That's how gentle we were with
you. I told you this before. Brother Henry, when I came up
here, he said, Clay, love them to Christ. Love them to Christ. Love them to Christ. And isn't
that how God deals with us? Look at Jeremiah 31 and verse
3. Look at Jeremiah 31 and verse
3. That's just exactly how God deals
with His people. He says, Yea, I've loved you. Jeremiah 31 3. The Lord hath
appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love. That's a love that don't stop.
That's a love that don't love you today and throw you in hell
tomorrow. This is an everlasting love. And he says, And therefore
with lovingkindness have I drawn you. With lovingkindness. Do
you remember, Gomer? She married Hosea, and wasn't
very long, she went back to her lovers. Hosea, picture Christ
the Savior, naming Savior. She married Him, and then she
went back to her lovers. We were married to Christ from
eternity, but when we came into this earth, we went after our
lovers. And God provided corn, and oil, and wine, and everything
she needed at her door every day. And she came to it, and
opened it up, and she said, all my lovers have given this to
me. All my lovers. She said, I'm going to go take
this and I'm going to go and thank the one who gave it to
me. So she went and she said, Lord, thank you for this. Lord,
thank you for this. But you know who she was calling
on in her heart? Baal. She was calling on an idol
the whole time and saying, thank you for giving me this. She was
patting herself on the back for all she had done. But this is
what God did. Surely he's going to come to
her and he's going to be rough with her. Yes, He's going to
take away the corn and the oil and the wine. He's going to take
away these things. He's going to take those things away from
her. And He says, but He said this. He said, I'm going to allure
her. I'm going to allure her. And
I'm going to bring her into the wilderness and I'm going to speak
comfortably unto her. You know what this word beseech
means? It carries the meaning comfort. It carries the meaning comfort.
Now listen to this. Listen to this. Paul is saying,
I therefore have spoken all this great and glorious doctrine to
you from chapter 1 to chapter 3 in this epistle. I've spoken
all this good news of God's electing grace, His predestinating grace,
His regenerating grace, His keeping grace, how He's made us one and
how He dwells in us and we dwell in Him. And I comfort you. I comfort
you. to walk worthy of the vocation
wherewith you're called." Doesn't that sound good? I comfort you. In all of this, I'm comforting
you to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called. Look
at Isaiah 40. That's what God calls on His preacher to do.
Look at Isaiah 40 in verse 1. He doesn't call on us to whip
and beat, beat, bring spine under the log. This is what He calls
on us to do. Isaiah 40 verse 1. Comfort ye, comfort ye my
people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she's received
of the Lord's hand double for all her sins." He says, go tell
them the work is done. Go tell them Christ has accomplished
the work. And you know what happens? We
don't have to try to make people hear. We don't have to try to
change it and shave the edge off of the message. We don't
have to do any of that. Because God will make his people hear.
He'll make his people hear in the heart. Now there's a place
and a time Paul told Titus, rebuke them sharply. But you know what
will rebuke a man sharply? This gospel. Preaching this gospel
in love will rebuke a man to his heart. When God starts dealing
with him, he's going to think the preacher hates him, he's
going to think the person sitting next to him hates him, he's going
to think his wife hates him, he's going to think everybody
in the world hates him. Because God's going to cut and cut and
cut and cut and he's going to rebuke him sharply. But he's
going to speak to him comfortably too. He is going to speak to
him promptly and He is going to draw him in loving kindness
to Him. He has got to take away all of His refuge. He has got
to take away all of His lives. He has got to take away all of
those things. And there is going to come a flood. It is going
to sweep away that refuge of life. That is not going to be
pleasant. But when He cuts and He kills,
He said, I kill and I make alive. And He is going to make alive.
That sword, this gospel sword has got two edges on it. One
is to cut and kill and one is to heal. One is to heal. Now
law demands, but grace beseeches. The only thing that's going to
motivate a believer, the only thing that's going to make a
believer and constrain him to heed this exhortation is the
grace and love of God working effectually in his heart. Alright,
here's the second thing. Let's look at this general exhortation
now. He says, verse 1, I therefore
the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the
calling wherewith you are called. This word worthy means live in
a manner becoming the calling of the Lord. live in a manner
adorning the gospel. He said in Philippians, only
let your conversation, your conduct, your manner of life, only let
it be as it becometh the gospel of Christ. Adorning the gospel
of Christ. Now understand the value of this
effectual call. Understand the worthiness of
it. Look at 1 Peter. I want you to
see this. 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 9. 1 Peter 2 and verse 9. This is
what He says we are, brethren. This is what all His people have
been called, but chosen, redeemed, called by His grace. He says,
verse 9, you're a chosen generation, a chosen race, God's race. He says you're a royal priesthood. That means you're a king and
a priest. You're a king and a priest. A
royal king and a priest. A priesthood. He says you're
a holy nation. God's nation. He says you're
a peculiar people. That means a chosen, separated,
called out people. That you should show forth the
praises of Him who has called you. Who called you. We're talking
about a calling. He called you out of darkness
into His marvelous light. See what a calling this is, brethren?
We're born again, we're called out of bondage. We had bondage
of our nature, bondage of our will, bondage of our works. Everything
we did we thought was right and just and holy and God loved it.
And all it was was bondage. All it was was trying to come
to God by our works. And we never could do enough.
We were always in bondage because we never could do enough to soothe
our own conscience. We just kept having to do something.
Kept having to do something. But He called us out of that
bondage into liberty. Into liberty. He said where the
Spirit is, there's liberty. And if the Son sets you free,
you'll be free indeed. He made us now to where... Here's
what liberty is, brethren. You're brought out from under
the bondage of being yoked and commanded and whipped and either
having a carrot of reward baggled in front of you or a whip of
the law on your back. You're brought out from that
to where you're given a heart now constrained by the love of
God to where you actually want to go to church, you want to
hear the gospel preached, you want to serve Him, you want to
walk worthy of Him, you want to honor Him. You just want to.
That's what it is to be made free, to be brought out. And
then he tells us this, in 1 Corinthians 1.9 he says, God is faithful,
by whom you were called unto the fellowship of His Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord. We've been called into fellowship
with our Lord Jesus Christ. We've been called into fellowship
with Him. We've got communion with Christ
our Lord, in our hearts, in this new man. And then he says in
Galatians 1-6, he called us unto the grace of Christ. This is
what we're under. We're under the law of grace.
Free grace. The unmerited grace. He called
us unto His grace. He didn't choose us based on
anything in us. He's not going to forsake us
based on anything in us. That does not make you want to
go out and, as men say, that makes me want to go out and sin
all I wanted to. What a man is saying by that
is, I really would like to be sinning a whole lot more. Well,
you ain't serving God then. A man that's doing that's not
serving God. He makes you want to serve God by His grace. He says this in Hebrews 3.1,
Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. He says in
1 Peter 5, The God of all grace has called us unto His eternal
glory by Christ Jesus. We're not waiting on eternal
life. We got it. He's got it because He called
us to it. He's made us holy children of
our holy God and Father, members of the whole family in heaven
and earth, and we're wearing Christ's name. Just imagine. I'll try to illustrate this calling.
Let's say there was a king, just a renowned, well-known king in
this earth. And this king called you. He
called you up in Newtown, Eric. called up Scott, Art, and Cheryl,
and said, come to my palace, come to my kingdom, come to my
table, and in this palace, at this table, is going to be famous,
renowned dignitaries. People that are just admired
the world over. Now let me tell you something.
You know how you're going to go to that place? You're going
to go there with your very best. You're going to go there with
putting your best foot forward in every single way that you
can put your best foot forward. That's how you're going to go
there. Well, let me tell you something. The King of kings
and Lord of lords has called us into His kingdom into his
palace, to his table with the most famous renowned dignitaries
that ever walked this earth. With Moses and Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob and Paul and James and Peter. Now how are we going
to come to this kingdom and to this palace and to this table?
Putting our very best forward. putting our very best forward.
More so than we would for that earthly king that called us.
More so. This is what it is to be called,
brethren. Walk, live your life at all times
in a manner becoming unto Christ who's called you into His kingdom
as holy children of God. Paul put it this way in another
place. He said, walk worthy of God. walk worthy of God who's
called you unto His kingdom and glory. How can we live in a manner
becoming one so altogether lovely? How can we live in a manner glorious
before one so glorious that's enriched us so rich? How can we do that? Well, if He left us to our imagination,
telling us all of this that He's made us, kings and priests unto
God, you're a holy nation, you're a holy generation, you're a chosen
priesthood, you're redeemed from all iniquity, you're robed in
His precious righteousness. If He left us to ourselves, you
know what men say when they hear you preach that? They say, you
think you're somebody, don't you? And if He left us to ourselves,
we'd walk around with our chest poked out going, yeah, I'm somebody. But it's just the opposite of
that. Look here. He tells us how to do this walk.
Look at verse 2. With all lowliness and meekness. With all lowliness and meekness.
Lowliness means humbleness of mind. It means having a low opinion
of myself as opposed to being proud of myself. And with meekness
it means gentleness of spirit, mildness of disposition. Now
let's look to Christ. Let's look to Christ. He said,
take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly
in heart and you'll find rest unto your soul. He's the Lord
God of all. He's God. He's God. Equal with God. God the Son Himself,
in order to highly exalt God His Father, in order to do the
will of God, this is what we're talking about here by this wall.
We're talking about exalting God. We're talking about honoring
God. We're talking about doing God's
will. In order to do that, to magnify and make honorable the
law for His people, to completely fulfill the law for His people
and justify us from all our sin, He did just the opposite to what
natural men thought the Messiah was going to do. The natural
man thought he was going to come in all that pride, in all that
regalia, in all that majesty. And you know how he came? Look
over Philippians 2.5. This is how he came. Just to your right there, Philippians
2.5. One or two pages to your right
from Ephesians. Look at Philippians 2.5, "...let
this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being
in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God." He's God. "...but made himself of no reputation,
took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness
of men." That's the worst thing of it all. He was made in our
likeness. Look, "...and being found in
fashion as a man, he humbled himself." That's what we're talking
about, this meekness, humble of mind, and He became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross." Now, this was the
mind of Christ when He walked this earth. Now listen, because
God the Father was in Christ, and Christ was in the Father,
because God the Father was in Christ and Christ was in the
Father, this was His mind. Being one with the Father, being
one with Him, Christ held His Father in high esteem. in the
highest esteem, so much so that He came to do only the Father's
will. He spoke the word the Father
gave Him to speak. And He finished the works the
Father gave Him to finish, redeeming His people from all iniquity
by laying down His life on the cross. He said this in John 6,
38, I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will
of Him that sent me. Now, that's the lowliness of
mind and that's the meekness of the Holy Spirit that He puts
in the heart of His child when He enters into you and makes
you to see that you're in Him. Just like the Father was in Him
and He was in the Father, He makes you one with Him. He says,
I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one.
He makes us one in Him. And when He does that, brethren,
that's our will. We quit saying, well, what about
my will? What about my will? We say, not
my will be done, but Thy will be done. That's when God's given
you a humble heart and a meek mind. That's right. And then
in John 14.10, He said, Believest thou not that I am in the Father,
and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you
I speak not of myself, But the Father that dwelleth in me, He
does the works. That's the lowliness of mind.
That's the meek spirit He puts in us when Christ enters in through
the Holy Spirit and makes us one with Him. We stop going around
speaking our words and we speak His words. Have you ever noticed
how much of what religious folks say is not even in the Bible? It's not even in the Bible. Not
a word of it. 99.9% of what preachers say is
not even in the Bible. If they wouldn't use the Bible,
it would be a good motivational talk. It would, but they use
the Bible and throw in a little bit of the Bible and make it
a religious thing. We stop speaking our words and
we speak God's Word. We want to know what does God
say. You men, when you stand up here and preach, don't talk
for 15 minutes and then get to God's Word. Nobody cares what
me and you have to say. Get to God's Word right off the
bat. And I guarantee you, read it little phrase by phrase, little
bit by little bit, accenting what needs to be accented, and
God will speak to His people. He sure will. Listen, in John 8, 28, He said,
I do nothing of Myself as My Father has taught Me. I speak
these things. He that sent Me is with Me. The
Father has not left Me alone, for I do always those things
that please Him. Isn't that what He said about
us? He said, You keep My commandments. He said, and My Father and I
will come to you and we will dwell in you. Now, what's His
commandments? What does He bring us to obey
when He calls us by His grace? This is His commandment, that
you believe on His Son. And when He makes you really
believe on His Son, and He fills your heart with love to love
your brethren, He's come into your heart and He's made His
abode in your heart and He'll abide in your heart. He'll stay
there. And when He does that, we stop
talking about our works. We stop talking about what we've
done and we say, I can do nothing of myself. I can't do anything
of myself. We start saying, as my Father
has taught me, that's all I speak. That's all I know is what He's
taught me. That's what we say. And we say, and He that sent
me, He's with me. He's with me. That's why we're
not fearful anymore of men and what men think and what, you
know, that's what made us come out of the darkness and come
out from being fearful of men and come into His marvelous light
is He made us to see I'm with you, I'm for you, I've accomplished
the work for you, I'm not going to leave you. And He melts our
hearts into submission to Him and we start speaking of Him.
We start talking about His effectual grace. We start talking about
how He redeemed us. We start talking about how He
regenerated us. We stop talking about us and
we start talking about Him. And He said there, I'm in them
and you're in me that they may be made perfect in one. He's
speaking to the Father. And He said that the world may
know that you've sent me and has loved them as you've loved
me. What makes us distinguished from
other folks? Most folks I come in contact
with, we get along great until we start talking about the scriptures,
and then we're not getting along so great. What makes us, what
distinguishes us? This right here. That's it. That
right there. We say what God said. Remember
I read to you Thursday night, I think it was Deuteronomy 32,
where God said this, He said, Our rock is not like their rock. Our enemies being judges themselves. Our enemies being judges themselves.
How many times have you heard, you quote scripture, you're reading
scripture, and men will say, well that's not what I believe.
Our enemies say it, they judge, that's not my God, that's not
my rock. That's the only thing that separates us, brethren,
is the Word of God. And the reason that we speak
the Word is because Christ is in us, and we're in the Father
and in Him, and He's done it so that this world knows these
are the people I love. These are the people I love right
here. And brethren, speaking the truth
is love. That is love. When you speak the truth of the
Gospel, that's love. That really is love. He gives
us the mind of Christ just like Christ had the mind of the Father.
In Hebrews 13.21, let me sum that up to you. This is what
it says. It said, God makes His child in every good work to do
His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His
sight through Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2.10 said, were His
workmanship created? Created. in Christ Jesus unto good works
which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.
What are these works? What is it that He foreordained
that we should walk in? These things I've been telling
you about. It begins with lowliness of mind and meekness of heart.
We're given a low opinion of self as opposed to pride because
now we're given a high opinion of God. A high opinion of God. In lowliness of mind and meekness
God makes us willing for His will to be done rather than our
own. He makes us cease speaking of our words and speak of God's
Word. He makes us willing to renounce all our works, confessing
we're nothing but sinners, and we confess and do nothing of
ourselves even as Christ confessed that He did nothing of Himself.
He makes us have the mind of Christ. That's what He does.
We cease making ourselves a reputation and we start giving God all the
glory for every aspect of our salvation. He chose us, He redeemed
us, He regenerated us, He preserves us, and it's all by His free
grace. And we begin to marvel at the depths of God's wisdom.
At the depths of God's wisdom. You say, somebody might say,
that's not a work. Yes, it is. It's called repentance
and faith. And it's only by God's grace
that we do it. That's what he said right before that verse
in Ephesians 2. By grace are you saved through faith in that
night of yourselves. It's the gift of God. Night of
works, lest any man should boast. For we're His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which He's foreordained that
we should walk in. What do we walk in? We walk in
faith. The just shall live by faith.
And then toward our brethren, this lowliness of mind, this
meekness makes us to stop exalting ourselves over one another. You
know how we begin to stop exalting ourselves over one another? We
stop boasting of how we came to God. You know, you ever heard
folks get up in one of these testimonial deals and one, he'll
give his experience of what he did for Jesus. The next one get
up, he gonna top that one. The next one get up, he gonna
top that one. Before you know it, that last one, you think
he is God. We stop exalting ourselves over
one another and we esteem the other better than ourselves.
This fruit of the Holy Spirit makes us prefer our brother above
ourselves. Gives us a heart to serve rather
than to be served. To rejoice with brethren when
they rejoice. To mourn with brethren when they
mourn. Lowliness of mind and meekness restrains a man from
ambition beyond his calling and his gifts. It makes him content. Envy makes a sinner desire the
gifts and calling of another brother. You let a preacher rag
on somebody in the congregation. And everybody sitting around
him in that congregation, I'm talking about in a, you know,
one of these religious organizations. You let everybody sitting around
him are going to be in their heart thinking, he ain't that
good. I'm a whole lot better than him.
He just don't preach, don't know what I've been doing. I need
to let my little light shine by blowing my trumpet and letting
him know what I'm doing. Tell me that ain't so, brethren.
I'm not speaking something that I don't know. Pride makes a man
presumptuous to think he can do the other brother's business
better than him. Ain't that right? Ain't that
right? A proud spirit causes division. It causes division. David said
this, Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor are mine eyes lofty. Neither
do I exercise myself in great matters or in things too high
for me. That's a humbled man. That's
a meek spirit. You know, I'm going to tell you
this. One time, my preacher asked me
to preach for him. And I preached for him. And then
some other preachers asked me to come and fill in for them.
And I went and filled in for them. And I began to fill in
for preachers every weekend. And it got to be like four times
a month. I was gone somewhere preaching. And it got busier,
busier, busier. And I was gone all the time.
And while that whole time was going, I really wasn't content.
Because I wanted to be a preacher. I wanted to be a preacher. And
then God, by His grace, gave me a heart not to want to travel
anymore. I just wanted to be at home.
I wanted to support my pastor. I wanted to work a secular job.
support my pastor, support my brethren, support the preaching
of the gospel and the missionaries and things like that. And I was
still content though. I still wanted to preach the
Bible class. I did that. I still preached
the Bible class in the first hour for the adults. That's all we had was adults.
And then the preacher would preach. And then the Lord gave me a heart.
We got some kids that came to the congregation. And the Lord
gave me a heart that was a door open to go in the back out of
sight and preach for those kids. And I was content to go back
and do that. Now I'm not seen by anybody but these kids. Now
I'm not in the front of anybody and I was more content than I've
ever been. And you know what happened? Y'all
called me to come be your pastor. God called me to be your pastor. Lowliness of mind and meekness
of heart makes you honor God in the gospel and in your life,
making you willing to serve God by serving your brethren, and
He makes you content to serve God right where He's put you. Right where He's put you. You
know why? Because we see Christ, and He
didn't make Himself of a reputation. He served in lowliness and meekness. Let me look at this last thing.
A walk worthy of this calling is to be a peacemaker. It's to
be a peacemaker. He said, and walk with longsuffering
forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. With all longsuffering
means to persevere. It means to patiently endure
whatever comes our way. It means to be slow to avenge
wrongs. It's first toward God and then
it's toward our brethren. And Christ Jesus patiently endured
everything the Father would have Him to suffer. Everything. Remember
when He'd come out of the Garden of Gethsemane and there the soldiers
are and they're ready to arrest Him. And Peter pulls out his
sword and Peter's going to stop this thing from happening. And
the Lord said, Peter, put your sword up. He said, put it up.
He said, the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink
it? Shall I not drink it? He makes
us to know, brethren, that whatever comes to pass in our life, God
is ruling the whole thing. Now, we may get like Peter, and
we may try to pull out our sword and get ourselves out of it.
But before it's over with, He's going to bring us down to say,
this is the cup of my Lord. Shall I not drink it? Shall I
not drink it? And why does He do that? Because
He's made us to see Christ Jesus our Lord, who for the glory of
God, to highly exalt God and for the love of His brethren,
went forth into that cross and took our sin and bore the wrath
of God in our broom and our stead and put our sin away forever. He makes us to see that He used
some nobody And somebody that wasn't, didn't have all these
credentials, he didn't have all of this stuff, the world looks
funny, he used nobody, an empty earthen vessel that he had filled
with his treasure to declare the unsearchable riches of God's
grace to us. Or He worked so many other ways
in His providence to bring us to be with God's people and to
put us under the sound of the Gospel and to make us see that
His people and Him are not recognized in this world. They're not of
reputation. And He just brings us down to
be honest with one another. To really serve Him and to just
keep our mouth shut. Remember when Nadab and Abihu,
they decided they're going to worship God like they wanted
to, so they go in and offer strange fire, and God brings fire out
and destroys them. You know what Aaron did? He didn't
say a word. He didn't say a word. Eli, he
was supposed to be teaching his kids, he wasn't teaching his
sons, and they were coming to the temple and doing all kinds
of sinful things at the door of the temple. And God came to
him and He told him, He said, He said, I'm going to bring judgment
on those boys. And it's your fault. You're not going to have any
priesthood in your household. You know what He said? It's the
Lord. Let Him do what seemeth Him good.
That's where God brings us to. And then there's longsufferings
also in our dealings with our brethren. He says, with longsufferings
for bearing one another in love. It makes us overlook one another's
faults. We got all kind of differences,
we got all kind of things that separate us as far as our personalities
and our flesh and our likes and our dislikes and some in doctrine. Some of us, some don't know,
are more immature in what it is to have liberty. Some are
more mature in what it is to have liberty. We're all different
phases in childbirth and child growth by His grace. But you
know what He makes us to do? He makes us all to sit down and
wait on the Lord to teach our brethren. And to strengthen their
hands and to lift up their hands as we can, as He enables us to.
Remember when Amalek attacked the children of Israel? Came
up from behind, he attacked the children of Israel. And the Scripture
says, when Moses held up his hand, the rod of God, he held
up the rod of God. Picture the Gospel being preached.
Gospel of Christ. When he held that rod up, It's
Joshua. Picture Christ our Savior. He
prevailed out there and defeated the enemy. And when He let that
rod down, Amalek prevailed. Well, he's sitting there trying
to hold that rod up and Scripture says, but Moses' hands were heavy.
They got heavy. And so they took a stone. They
took a stone. His brethren. They took a stone
and they set him down on that stone. And then Aaron got on
one side of him and Herod got on the other side of him and
they just held his hands up. They just held his hands up. And Moses' hands were steady
to the going down of the sun and it says, And Joshua discomfited
Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Christ won
the victory. All our enemies, brethren, within and without,
are going to be defeated one way. The gospel that declares
the salvation and grace of God by His grace alone. That's how
all our enemies, within and without, are going to be defeated. And
we're each trying to heed this gospel and hear this gospel and
walk after this gospel. And you know what happens though?
Our hands get heavy. Yours do. Mine do. We get weak
in our flesh. We do some boneheaded thing.
We embarrass ourselves and one another. But you know what brethren
do? Brethren set a stone under their
brethren. Christ the foundation. How do
we do that? We don't come to them and deal
harshly with them and scold them and threaten them and do all
these things. We do what Paul did for the first
three chapters of this letter. And we pray for them like he
did in Ephesians 3. And then we leave the whole thing
unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we
ask or think. And all the while, He blesses
it by His grace and He sets us on Christ, that solid foundation,
and He uses our brethren to hold our hands up. And Christ prevails
every time. Brethren, that's what we're called
to do. That's the love of Christ. Bear the burden of your brethren.
That's the love of Christ. But sadly, sometimes we do have
to forbear a brother speaking a critical word of us. You and
I, we get in our flesh, we get to talking about one another.
And when we do that, it's sad. A brethren ought not ever criticize
another brother to another brother. That ought not to be. That ought
not to ever happen. But it happens sometimes. But
this is what we know. Do we avenge ourselves? Do we
come back and We can fight fire with fire. This is what we know. If God blesses us in our heart,
this is what we know. They told a half of what could
be told. They might be criticizing me
to others, but I'm just glad they're not telling everything.
I'm glad they can't see my heart. I'm glad they can't tell what
I think. I'm just glad for that. And so we forbear. We forbear. Forbearance doesn't make us seek
to avenge ourselves, it makes us want to wait on God. David
said this, But I, as a deaf man, heard not. He said, I was as
a dumb man that opened not his mouth. Thus, I was as a man that
heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs. For in thee,
Lord, do I hope, and thou wilt hear, Lord my God. You say, well
I don't know, everybody's listening to what they're saying about
me. The Lord is too. The Lord is too. He's going to
deal with His child that's talking about you, and He's going to
deal with you. He's going to correct him, and He's going to
strengthen you. So just let it go. Just let it go. Where do
we learn that from? Look at 1 Peter. I promise you,
I'm done. Look at 1 Peter. Chapter 2, verse 21. Where do
we get that from? For even here unto where ye called..."
Aren't we talking about being called? Even here unto where
you called. "...because Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example that you should follow His steps."
Well, what did He do? Well, He did no sin. "...neither
was guile found in His mouth, who when He was reviled, reviled
not again. When He suffered, He threatened
not, but committed Himself to Him that judges righteously."
And by doing so, he is also by our sins and his body on the
tree, that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness
by whose stripes you're healed. Now what is all this I'm talking
about doing? Verse 3 in our text. Endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Let me tell you what that
does not mean. That does not mean you to lock
arms with will, works, religion, who's preaching law and works
instead of the grace of God. It does not mean that. That's
common in our day. Men will say, for the sake of
love and charity, we lock arms with everybody. And I even heard
a man say this, we don't let a minor doctrine like particular
redemption get in the way. Particular redemption is the
gospel, brethren. It is the gospel. No, this does
not mean that. Christ said, I came not to send
peace but a sword. And that sword is going to have
to conquer the lies of the natural heart and bring it into the unity
of the truth. And that's going to be done by
the truth. So no, it's not saying that. We speak the truth. But
it's saying this to us, brethren. The bond of peace is the blood
and love of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the bond of our peace.
We're bound by blood. We're bound by the blood of Christ.
We're bound by the Spirit of God. We've been washed in Christ's
blood. We've been made to see that His
love is everlasting, redeeming, saving love. We're filled with
the love by the Holy Spirit. We're bound in the peace of our
great peacemaker Christ Jesus. And He makes us to be one blessed
family. Look here real quick. We'll look
at this next time. Look at verse 4. There is one
body, one Spirit, even as you're calling, one hope when you're
calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father
of all who's above all and through all and in you all. So brethren,
if you've been called, if you've been called by this holy calling,
this heavenly calling, walk to adorn this calling. With our
lowliness of mind, in meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing
one another in love and endeavor, diligently strive. to keep the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of Christ our peace. I pray the
Lord will bless it. Amen.