Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
4. Having looked at the unifying
prayer of Paul for God's people, we now look at the practical
results of our unity in the body of Christ. Now, given all the
blessings of God for us in the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul puts
the brethren, and by that I mean us today, as we read this, as
the Church of God, we read this word which is recorded here for
us, for our learning, for our hearing, for our faith and belief
in following him. He puts the brethren in mind
of our part and care of the body. the body of the Lord to which
we are called in the grace of our God. And he says in verse
1, Ephesians 4, 1, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord. And he's saying as one who knows
the suffering of the Lord and am called to make sacrifices,
it's fine, he says. But as one who is a partaker
with you, in the afflictions of Christ, I beseech you, I call
on you, that ye walk worthy of the vocation, of the calling
wherewith ye are called. And then Paul goes on to describe
what this worthy walk looks like in us. What this worthy walk
looks like in us. So first let me state this, that
the believers walk, you that profess Christ and believe him,
our walk is a walk of faith. It's a walk in faith. It's a
walk of faith. The just, you that are justified
by the Lord Jesus Christ, you live by faith. And Paul even
used these words in the letter to the Corinthians saying, we
walk by faith, not by sight. And so we live by the faith of
Christ. We live by His faith, His work,
His spirit, His grace, His power. We live by Him, not of this flesh,
but of our Lord. And here's how we walk by faith,
beginning in verse 2 now. Paul says, with all lowliness
and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love."
And so, as I read that, I want to try to put a little meaning
behind those words, a little context to what he's saying regarding
these words. So, by defining these words,
so first of all, lowliness, it means that we have a humble opinion
of ourselves. And by nature, we don't have
a humble opinion By nature, we don't typically
have that humble opinion of ourselves. Be in prayer about it. Pray,
Lord, help me to see what I am before you, to see what I am
in your service, according to your will and your purpose, Lord. Reveal yourself to me, show me
the truth of these words. So he says that we're to have
a humble opinion of ourselves, and that's a deep sense of our
own littleness. And the more we see of God, the
more I see of the true and living God, of His power, and of this
wicked world which is passing away, the more I see of His glory,
of His name, of His power, of who He is and how deserving He
is of our worship and adoration, the more little I see of myself. And so the more we see of the
Lord, the more we see ourselves in that right perspective of
our own littleness and our great need of him and how great he
is. Often that word lowliness is
translated in scripture, in addition to lowliness, but as humility,
as humbleness of mind or lowliness of mind. It's having a right
understanding of who we are as sinners saved by the grace of
God and how we need His grace and how He's given that grace
and given us an understanding of what He's done for us that
we would know Him. And it's a good thing to seek
to know the Lord, to want to hear the Lord as Mary sat at
Christ's feet to hear Him speak when Christ came into the house
of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. When he came into their house,
she wanted to hear the Lord. I pray that the Lord give me
that heart and that He give us that same heart and desire to
hear our Lord speak and to hear His words and to follow Him,
our Shepherd, who says, my sheep hear my voice and they follow
me. We hear Christ. Meekness, he says, with all lowliness
and meekness. And that signifies here gentleness
or mildness. And that amazes me that we're
soldiers in Christ's army. We are described in this letter
to the Ephesians in chapter 6 as putting on the armor of God,
the whole armor of God. him looking at a soldier, most
likely, and describing that armor that he saw him in as the armor
that we're in, as believers, as soldiers of Christ. And yet,
thinking of a soldier and what soldiers go through and the hardenedness
that they develop in battle and what they do in warfare. And
Paul here says, in meekness. And that word signifies gentleness
or mildness, rather than being harsh with one another. but being
gentle towards those that are without. Paul did say that our
warfare is not the warfare of this world, that the weapons
of our warfare are not the same. We don't pick up a physical sword
to conquer, but we wield this sword, the sword of the Spirit,
trusting and knowing that God conquers the hearts of his people
wherever they are. And he draws them into his family,
to his army, to his body. And it's not through harshness
that that's done, but be in patience and gentleness, teaching those
that oppose themselves against the truth of God. Even in Proverbs,
it says, a soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words
stir up anger. We know the truth of that. If
we speak harshly to another, it stirs up anger, just as if
they speak harshly to us, it stirs up anger and wrath, rather
than opening the ear of someone to hear what you're saying. Then
he speaks of long-suffering, saying, with long-suffering,
and that suggests to us the truth that we know, that people are
not changing. People don't just change. People
don't just adjust or improve in any sense of that word. But people continue to do things
that try your kindness, try your patience, try your forgiveness. They do things that disappoint.
And we do the exact same thing. And so he says, with long suffering
with one another. And Paul said to Timothy. As Paul labored in the ministry,
as he was called into the ministry, Paul told Timothy, preach the
word, be instant, in season, out of season. Meaning sometimes
I wake up and I'm excited to know that I'm preaching the gospel
today. And it's a joy and it blesses
my heart. But there are some days where
I wake up and I'm more grumpy and just not feeling it. Just
not, I don't know, just down or just have my mind on other
things. And Paul says, be instant in season, out of season. Reprove,
rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. And it makes me
think of the fact that I'm called to labor. This is the labor that
I've been called to in the word and to preach the word to my
brethren. as a helper of your joy, as one not lording over
you, but as a helper here, as a brother with my brothers and
sisters here in the body of Christ, I preach the word, and many times
I don't know what fruit it's producing. I don't see what's
going on in the heart or the mind, but I trust the Lord, who's
your Lord and your God and your Savior, and I believe that he
sows that word. All right, there's oftentimes
And it's the same thing over and over again. And that's okay
with me. I'm fine with declaring to you
the same things that bless my heart and bless the people of
God because I know that that's what the Lord does is He teaches
us, feeding us the bread of life, the bread of heaven, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And He's able to accomplish His
will in your hearts. And it may not be the first time.
It may not be the 20th time we hear it. it might be the 222nd
time that we hear it. But we declare it because the
Lord brings that word to bear on our hearts, to fertilize that
word, to water that seed, to bless that word when it pleases
Him and how it pleases Him. And so it reminds me of what
Paul said, to write the same things to you, to me indeed is
not grievous, but for you it is safe. It is safe. And that's
true, right? We declare Well, Christ has taught
us, and it's all about Christ. And yet through that word, he
blesses that word and brings glory to his name in the hearts
of his people, in the minds of his people, in what you do and
what you're called to do in Christ, in this world. And so he does
it. And he says, forbearing, forbearing one another. And that
means to sustain, to bear up, to endure. to endure whatever
it is that you're called to suffer of your brother and sister. To
endure that and the way we do it is in love. In love. To forbear one another in love. Turn over to First Corinthians
13. It's always good to read about
love in this context. This love that whereby we understand the love
of God for us and the love that we are to have for one another. It doesn't mean that we get everything
that is being said here all at once, but it does speak to us. It does teach us in the new man
how to love one another. And Paul uses the word charity
and that word charity means love, but I'll read it with the word
charity here because charity It by its own meaning speaks
of generosity, of being generous, of giving. Charity has that connotation
of giving to another there. So 1 Corinthians 13, and I'll
pick up in verse 4, where Paul says, charity suffereth long
and is kind. Charity envieth not. charity
vaunteth not itself." It doesn't seek to steal from another who's
rejoicing and blessed in something and they're sharing that. Let
them had that time to just declare what the Lord has done. And whatever
it is that they're rejoicing in, that they're happy about,
let them have that time. You don't need to steal it from
them. Is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh
not her own, is not easily provoked, Thinketh no evil. It's not suspicious
of those that they love and always questioning what their motive
is. Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. And we can teach one another
and be taught by one another in a loving manner. Because we
don't know all things and sometimes we do need to be corrected. And
so it could be done, but let it be done in love. That is,
always seeking the best for your brother. And that's what love
is, right? You're speaking to one another and helping one another
in the spirit of love. And people can sense that too
when you're well-meaning versus you have an ulterior motive.
And then it says in verse seven, love beareth all things, believeth
all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things, charity
never faileth. And it just says to me, Lord,
be gracious to us and help us to love one another in that manner,
because that's not of the flesh. That's not of the flesh, but
of the spirit taught in the new man. And so That word about love,
what I like to think about when we're here in this chapter, well,
at the last verse, in verse 13 there, 1 Corinthians 13, 13,
where Paul says, now abideth faith, hope, charity. these three but the greatest
of these is charity and I'm reminded that you know right now we live
by faith but one day we won't live by faith faith will be sight
and right now we hope but one day we won't hope because we'll
receive that for which we hope for now but one thing that will
never change is love we will love one another for all eternity
in Christ. That never changes. Now, the
reason for this drive to love one another here is defined in
this manner that we've looked at here is for the purpose that
there be unity of spirit. So let's look back in Ephesians
4 verse 3. Paul says, endeavoring to keep
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. That is the Spirit
of God which is given to us and poured out upon the people of
God. It's given to give us an understanding
of the mind of God, to make known to us God's mystery, God's purpose
in the Lord Jesus Christ and what He's done and accomplished
for us to reveal His will and His purpose, His eternal will
and purpose for us in Christ Jesus, and to show us how that
we share in the blessings of God in Christ. How we share in
these blessings. And so we see this spoken of,
we looked at Psalm 133 at the opening of tonight's service.
Psalm 133, and it says, I'll read it again, behold, how good
and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. And then David here, as the psalmist,
he gives an example of oil being poured out upon Aaron. And it says, verse two, it is
like the precious ointment, which is oil, upon the head that ran
down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard that went down to the skirts
of his garments. And I encourage you, just think
about that, what that's saying and how that is compared to unity
among the brethren. And as I thought about it, what
struck me is that that oil covered him from head to toe, his whole
body. The whole body was touched with
that oil. And it speaks to the body of
Christ and us in Christ, that we have that oil, which is a
picture of the Holy Spirit, poured out upon us, that unites us in
the body of Christ, that we're all touched by the Lord, by that
Spirit, by what He's done for us to unify us. as the dew of Hermon, verse three,
it says, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains
of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. And that's what the Spirit of
God, which is given to us, reveals and imparts to us. Life evermore
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Spirit is given to reveal
and to give the blessings of God. in Christ to the people
of God to make these known to us how that he's blessed us richly
out of his or according to his riches in in Christ and so let's
look at these back in Ephesians 4 these blessings because it
Paul goes into it picking up in verse 4 where he begins there
is one body and again we're talking about unity these are things
of which we're all partakers of There's one body. And that body is the body of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We see it first in the early
church there with both Jew and Gentile. That we are brought
in under the blood of Christ into one body. One church. One body. The body of Christ. It's not divided, it's one body.
One body which our Lord loved, cared for and that body is the
church whom he calls his bride. Christ is the head of the church
and he is the Savior of the body. He's the husband of the body,
the head of the body. He purchased his church with
his own blood. I think it's in Hosea that talks
of Jacob, where it says Jacob served for his bride, and it's
a picture of what our Lord did. He served for his bride, and
he purchased his bride with his own blood. He redeemed her out
of darkness. He redeemed her out of slavery. He redeemed her out of eternal
death for her sin, her wickedness, her rebellion, her evil against
the Lord. He purchased us for His purchased
possession, whom He loves, whom the Father gave to the Son before
the foundation of the world. And he loved us then before the
fall, and he loved us after the fall, and came and laid down
his life while we were in enmity and rebellion and sin to deliver
us from the death and the destruction of what we brought upon ourselves
in Adam and in our own works in this flesh. and so He redeems
His people. It says in Colossians 1 verse
20-22 that having made peace through the blood of His cross,
by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, by Him I say whether
they be things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were
sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,
yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight." And so there's one flock and one body of which
we are all partakers of. We're partakers of that body,
members of that body. And just as my body or your body,
how it works together. It doesn't work against itself.
It works together. It tries to take care of itself. If I get sick and my head's woozy
and foggy from sickness, I lay down. My whole body lays down
and rests. that my body get well. My foot,
I have a little pain in my foot from a particular footwear I
like to wear. I like the footwear, but you
know what? While the body's hurting, that footwear isn't being worn,
even though I like it. And sometimes I don't even lean
on that foot, I lean on the other foot. If I have a hurt finger
and I do something, I pick up a glass typically with that hand,
I'll train myself to use the other hand till that finger gets
better and it stops hurting. It's what the body does. It adjusts
and takes care of itself so that there's not that pain or that
sorrow. If you have a joy, the whole body participates in that
and rejoices in that. Well, we learn from that. That's
how the body is in Christ. That's what the body does and
that's what the body does in Christ, brethren. We labor and
serve one another for good. For good. to glorify Christ,
to exalt His name, to testify of what He's done for us, to
adorn His gospel, to adorn His doctrine, His grace, His power.
Then it says that there's one Spirit. Again, because all of
God's children, redeemed by the blood of Christ, are made partakers
of the gift of the Holy Spirit. every one of us. That's what
we see when we read this. It's to show us these are our
blessings that each one of us is all made a partaker of. So
we're in the body of Christ. and were made partakers of the
One Spirit, One Spirit of God, whereby we are regenerated, given
life, raised from the dead, delivered from darkness, taken out of the
prison of this flesh, of this world, of this darkness and wickedness,
and brought into the light of Christ, and it's by the Spirit. Our Lord said it this way, And
I love to think of this verse, it's John 3, verse 6, where our
Lord tells Nicodemus, that which is born of the flesh is flesh,
and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. In other words,
this flesh isn't producing anything eternal. It isn't producing anything
spiritual. It doesn't give rise to the spirit. It produces carnal things. fleshly things, but the spirit
which is given unto us produces those fruits of the spirit in
us. And he says, marvel not that
I said unto thee, he must be born again. The wind bloweth
where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst
not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is everyone
that is born of the spirit. And so we've received that spirit
which called us out of darkness, which passed by some but revealed
the light of Christ to us and made us to hear His voice and
drew us to Himself and brought us together and assembled us
in this one body. And so we see here that This
Holy Spirit is given to regenerate the people of God. Two, the Holy
Spirit is given as a demonstration that we are God's redeemed people. The Spirit is given to show you,
to reveal to you that you are the child of God. Ephesians 1
verse 13 and 14 in whom ye also trusted, after
that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise." In other words, God gives the Spirit to
demonstrate to you that you are His, one for whom Christ laid
down His life, revealing faith in you. Opening your ear to hear
what the Spirit saith unto the churches again That's not of
the flesh. It's of the Spirit that does
that of the Spirit and so and then he says verse 14, which
is the earnest and that word means down payment It's an earnest. It's a down payment of our inheritance
until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of
his glory In other words, He gives that Spirit to testify
that we are His and He is ours, and that just as He promised
He's coming again, He shall come again for that which He's purchased.
And the Holy Spirit is given as a down payment, whereby you
speak of what Christ has done for you. Not what we've done
for the Lord, but what He's accomplished and done for us. We glorify Christ
and we glory in Christ and testify of His grace and power. The Holy
Spirit is given to reveal and teach to us the very blessings
of God, what he's done for us in Christ. John 14, 26, but the
Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send
in my name, he shall teach you. all things, and bring all things
to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you." And so
that one spirit given to regenerate us, given as a demonstration
and a down payment unto us that we're His, and given to reveal
and teach Christ to us. We're made partakers of that
one spirit. Next, our being made members of Christ's body and
receiving His Spirit gives us that one hope, that one hope
of our calling, that we are His, that He's done this for us, that
we have that which is the will of God Christ in you, the hope
of glory. what the Lord has done. And so
we have that hope that God has justified us for Christ's sake,
that he receives us for Christ's sake. Then he says in Ephesians
4, 5, there's one Lord, one Lord. And one of the ways that I was
thinking of this tonight, because again, there's many blessings
in these scriptures here, many, many, joyful thoughts to think
of what that means for us. But he says one Lord, well, you
know, the Lord has given us, he who is our Lord has given
us one law, one law, right? The law of faith, the law of
liberty, the law of love, so that wherever you are in the
world, if you're visiting a church in Pakistan, we have one law,
that no one's going to have anything negative to say to you. That
law of love, that law of faith by which we serve one another
and are kind and gentle toward one another, how we are toward
one another, that's one law that no one, doesn't matter where
you are in the world as believers, they'll receive you because we
have that one law from our one Lord whom we all serve, whose
voice we hear, trusting, believing Him. Our Lord, well Peter said
it this way in Acts 2 36, Therefore let all the house of Israel know
assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucified,
both Lord and Christ. And so we hear his voice and
we follow him. He's our Lord. Paul says there's
one faith one faith not different versions of of the faith of Christ
but one and and we all confess as Paul wrote in in Romans 10
we all confess with our mouth the Lord is Jesus and we all
believe in our heart that God hath raised him from the dead
that by his sacrificial death on the cross he accomplished
our redemption he delivered us from death and he now makes known
through this word to his people calling us out of darkness into
that light in making us partakers of his salvation There is one
faith which he calls us to. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Then he says there's
one baptism and that baptism declares to the world that we
are dead to the world and alive to Christ. And that's what we're
testifying in baptism that he is my salvation. He is my hope. He is my Lord. I follow him. And that's what we're declaring
in baptism. We're dead to the world. We're
dead to the to the way of this world. We're alive unto Christ.
Galatians 2 20 I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live
yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live
I live by the faith of the Son of God by his faith again it's
a spiritual work not of this flesh I live by his faith of
the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Paul also said in another place
that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized
into his death and so our baptism as believers is declaring our
great confidence that he is the Savior that he is the one whom
the Father sent to save me from my sins, to justify me from the
things which I could not be justified by the law of Moses or any religion,
but to be justified by Christ, that He is all. And then there
is one God and Father of all, who is above all and through
all and in you all. There's not many gods, there
is one God. There's not God manifesting himself
one way to this people and manifesting himself another way to those
people over there. There's one God and Father of
all His people. And He has given His Son to save
His people from their sins and to gather us together into one
fold, one flock, one people, one body in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we have all these things
in common with one another as the body of Christ. That we walk worthy of the calling
wherewith we are called. These things should influence
that and how we walk and how we love one another and how we
bear with one another. and how we serve one another.
And so be mindful of those things. Now someone might ask, and this
is the final verse, someone might ask, if we share all these things
in common with one another, why are there such vast differences
in us? Why do we have differences in
perspectives and opinions and the way that we go about things?
Well, Ephesians 4, 7, But unto every one of us is given grace
according to the measure of the gift of Christ. And so our Lord
distributes His gifts as it pleases Him in the body to create these
things, to cause us to be different in the way that we are. We're
men, we're women. Some are strong, some are weak.
Some have this function in the body, and others have that function
in the body. But that's how the body functions.
Not everything is the same. Not all is an eye, not all is
a mouth, not all is a hand, not all is a foot. We are different
because that's what a body is, having many members. Not one
member, but many. We have parts of our body that
are prominent and shown forth. We have parts of our body that
are more private. We have parts of our body that
bear hard burdens and difficult burdens and parts of our body
that can't handle those burdens. You wouldn't put that weight
on that part of the body. The feet carry the burden in
one way, hands carry a burden in another way, but we're one
body, and so it's according to the measure of the gift of Christ. And God set the members, every
one of them, in the body as it hath pleased him. So I pray that
this be an encouragement to you, that we be encouraged by this
word as you endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace. The Lord bless that word to our
hearts and teach us by his grace. Amen