All right, brethren, we're going
to get started. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
4. Ephesians chapter 4, and we're
going to be looking at verse 1. Paul says there in Ephesians
4, verse 1, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech
you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. I want to speak to you today
about a walk worthy of our calling in the Lord Jesus Christ. This worthy walk is not to be
had by typical means, the way man typically would think about
a walk that is worthy of the religion that he professes. Rather, a worthy walk in the
Lord is to be had for Christ, by Christ. A walk worthy is by
the Lord Jesus Christ. Only in the Lord Jesus Christ
will we hear the exhortation by the Spirit in the Spirit. It's a spiritual word to the
people of God. The Lord is the one who called
us. He's the one who sought us out
and called us to himself. He continually draws his people
to himself. So if the Lord is the one who
initiated this salvation for his people, it follows that it's
the Lord who continues this work. in His people. It's a spiritual
walk. A walk worthy is a spiritual
walk given to us by the Spirit in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in our Lord that we press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus. I've titled this message, A Walk
Worthy. And first, we'll look at the
calling that we have of the Lord. And we'll see that this walk
is not of the flesh. It's not according to our former
ways before we knew the Lord, but rather our walk is spiritual. It's of the Lord. We'll see that
it's a spiritual walk by the Spirit. So first, we have a calling. We have a calling of God. It's
a spiritual calling in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's read verse
one again. I therefore, the prisoner of
the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
ye are called. That word vocation means calling. It means calling. It's always
translated as calling in the scripture except for this one
text. Now Paul isn't speaking about
our job occupation. Typically when you hear the word
vocation, people are speaking about what do you do for a living?
You may have heard of vocational school where some people send
their children to learn skills like welding, hairdressing, working
on engines, plumbing. Usually you go to vocational
school to learn the beginning of those jobs and then you go
out from school and you get a job in that field. But this vocation
that Paul is speaking of is of the Lord. It's a spiritual call. It's a calling of God unto the
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom God has sent to save his
people from their sins. It's a calling in faith. So I don't mean that outward
call. There is an outward call in which many hear the gospel. Some people are invited to church
services where the gospel is preached and they'll sit and
they'll hear the gospel being preached and they hear of what
they are in the flesh and of the coming judgment of God against
the sins of this flesh and the provision that God has made for
his people in Christ. But they don't believe they dismiss
it. They think little of what they're
hearing and they just ignore it. They just think it's just
a good thing. It's just a little religion, something that we hear,
but it's to be laid aside after we leave that building. For many,
it's a light thing, a little thing, because many are called,
many hear the gospel, but few are chosen. Few hear it in the
Spirit, by the Spirit. This calling here is an inward,
effectual call by the Spirit. It's spoken into the hearts of
God's people. He speaks it into the heart of
his people. He gives life and faith to hear
it and to believe the word that they are hearing concerning Christ,
concerning salvation that God has provided. Our Lord said over
in John 3 verse 5 that except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. He must be sanctified,
set apart by the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God gives that
one life so that they hear what the Lord is saying. They hear
their need of Jesus Christ and see Him to be all the sufficiency
that they need to stand before God, faultless before Him. It's a calling unto Christ for
all my salvation all of our salvation it's complete in him we believe
him who is made unto us a new and a living way a living way
it's no longer a dead form of religion a dead works, works
of this flesh, trying to be good, trying to be better, trying to
stop this and start that, that's all gone and removed in Christ. He is the way. He is the living
way whereby we hear his voice. We're given life by him. and
look to him in faith, believing, Lord, I believe you. You are
the Savior. There is no salvation apart from
you. And Lord, I need your salvation. Cover me in your blood, Lord.
Apply your blood to me and deliver me from my sins. and iniquities. So by His grace and power, the
Lord Himself gives spiritual life to His people. He describes
it as being given a new heart, and He says it is being given
His spirit. We're given a new heart because
our old heart of flesh is wicked, it's defiled, it's unbelieving,
it cannot please God, so we're given a new heart that believes
Him And he says that he gives us his spirit because before
that, we have no spirit. We're spiritually dead. Spiritually
dead. Look at Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel 36,
and we'll pick up in verse 25. So after Psalms, you'll have
Isaiah, Jeremiah, a little tiny book called Lamentations, and
then Ezekiel. Ezekiel, the three biggest prophets
largest books in the Bible of the prophets. Ezekiel 36, 25
The LORD says to his people, Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you, and ye shall be clean, ye shall be sanctified and set
apart by the LORD for the LORD's use. and you shall be clean from
all your filthiness and from your idols will I cleanse you."
Those foolish ways that we sought after God in darkness by our
flesh, He removes all of that from His people. A new heart
also will I give you and a new spirit. will I put within you,
and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and
I will give you an heart of flesh, and I will put My Spirit within
you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep
My judgments and do them." So our Lord is describing a new
creature, a new creation. He's calling us to Christ. We
didn't know Him before. But now we do. We know Him by
His Spirit with a new heart, believing all that He says to
us that He's accomplished for us in Christ. We are a new creature
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're called to serve Him. were called to know Him, were
called to confess Him, speak of Him before men and women,
and were called to feed upon Him for all our salvation. The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians
5. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new." So it's not a calling which is of
this flesh. It's not something that we hear
and just turn things around for the Lord. Our Lord doesn't receive
the things of this flesh. He's not looking for strength
of our flesh, strength of our grip, strength of our will and
resolve to turn things around and to do better for the Lord.
He's declaring to us we cannot save ourselves. It's a calling
in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's an effectual calling by
our Lord. He says, turn over to Ephesians
1. Ephesians 1 verse 18. Ephesians 1 18 down to verse
20 says the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. He gives light
to a spiritual light that ye may know what is the hope of
his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the Saints. And what is the exceeding greatness
of His power to usward who believe? And how do we believe Him? According
to the working of His mighty power." Not my mighty power,
not your mighty power. We don't have mighty power with
God. He gives us Christ. He reveals
Christ to us and it's all by His power which He wrought in
Christ. not in us apart from Christ,
but in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him
at His own right hand in the heavenly places. So our calling
of God in Christ is the hope that He gives to us of eternal
life in Christ, just as the Lord Himself said, that in Him is
life, and all who look to Him and believe Him have eternal
life. So that is a spiritual calling
of our Lord. Next, let's read Ephesians 4
verse 1. Paul says, I therefore the prison
of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation
wherewith ye are called. The walk of the believer is different
than it was before Christ. Our walk is different than it
was previously before our Lord gave us spiritual life. There in Ephesians, look at chapter
two. Chapter two, verse one. There our Lord says, and you
hath he quickened. you hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. Understand that we had no spiritual
life until the Lord gave us spiritual life. He had to quicken us. We were dead in trespasses and
sins, unable to do that which is pleasing to the Lord. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
had to come, being sent of God to this world, to die our death,
the death that we earned by the sins we committed. that which
we practiced in ourselves. Our Lord had to die to put away
the enmity that is in us by nature in Adam that fights against God
and resists God and denies the truth of God, believing ourselves,
counting ourselves more worthy and more trustworthy than the
Lord. He's got to deliver us from that
enmity and put it away. Christ had to die to reconcile
us to the Father, to take away the enmity and to establish us
in our Lord in peace, in his grace, mercy, and kindness. Christ had to die so that we're
no longer servants, laboring in fear under the wrath of God. laboring, worrying that somehow
we're going to mess this thing up, because left to ourselves,
we would. We're not even in it to mess
it up, honestly. We're nothing. We're outside
of the Lord. But no longer are we servants
laboring in fear, but now in Christ we are brethren. We are
friends like Abraham was the friend of God. We are children
in the beloved family of God. You hath he quickened. Meaning
that apart from Christ, we weren't alive. We had no spiritual life. We weren't quickened. We had
to be given life. And that life is given by the
Lord Jesus Christ himself. We may have been a spiritual
people. Many people act and pretend to be spiritual. They light candles
or go around with incense or carry crystals or do all kinds
of things to invoke some good vibe or something like that.
It's all dead works. We have nothing with our God
except he give it to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. While we were
spiritually dead, our walk was described there in Ephesians
2 verse 2 and 3. We walked according to the course
of this world. It's not the living way. It's
a way, but it's a way of darkness. It's a way that goes unto eternal
death. We walked according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation,
our walk in times past and the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we were by nature,
the children of wrath, even as others, we were in darkness to
the things of God. We walked according to our nature,
according to our flesh and what we thought was right and what
pleased God, what kept us in a good standing with God. It was all darkness. We were
groping about in spiritual darkness, feeling after, trying this, trying
that, seeing if this worked, seeing if that worked. And thankfully,
none of it did. None of it worked. because God
had some better thing for us in grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody doesn't know how foolish
and ignorant they are. Everybody doesn't realize that
their works do not please the Lord. But you that see that it's
not me, it's not my works, it's not my goodness, it's not my
looking to the law, it's not my coming even to church and
reading my Bible and saying prayers and being nice to people. That's
not our salvation. Our salvation is a person, the
Lord Jesus Christ himself. And that's who the Father brings
us to, to behold in him all the glory of God. everything that
God is pleased with, and it's all fulfilled for his people
in that one, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who he's bringing us to.
That's who he's brought us to. That's in whom we have life and
standing with our God. So we weren't children of light,
but he gave us light. He enlightened these eyes, these
spiritual eyes to see, oh Lord, you've provided everything. in
your son. Thank you, Lord, for destroying
my works, for breaking me and bringing me low in self and showing
me my sin and my wickedness and how undone I am in this flesh
and how perfect your salvation is in your son. So being called
to walk worthy, is it going to be a walk in this flesh? Is this
flesh ever going to do a worthy walk in the Lord? Are we going
to turn things around and get this flesh improved and do better
for the Lord? Never. This flesh is full of
disappointment. This flesh is weak and foolish
and always sinning. Always sinning, except for the
grace of God, we can't do anything to please Him. So nothing we
do would be a walk worthy of this vocation wherewith we are
called. Paul actually said, shun those
things. Turn away from the things that
you did formerly. Look there at chapter 4, verse
17. Chapter 4, 17 through 19, Ephesians 417, this I say therefore
and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other
Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind. When we try to please
God by improving ourselves, by doing less of this sin and more
of that which we thought was good, it's vanity. He says, we're
gonna learn to lean on Christ, cry out to him, ask him for forgiveness
and mercy and beg him to keep us. We're gonna lean on the Lord
because before we had our understanding, verse 18, darkened, being alienated
from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them
because of the blindness of their heart. That's how we were. That's how we were, and because
the Lord left us in that for a time, that we might see what
we are and how undone we are, that's where man just goes and
practices his wicked, vile sins and his iniquities, as if it
doesn't matter. It's in that foolishness and
darkness. Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto
lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. Our Lord delivers
us from that. but it's in Christ. It's looking
to Him and finding all our help, all our forgiveness, all our
comfort and assurance in Christ. All right then, so what is our
walk to be? We're going to have a walk in
Christ. Now that life has come, what
does a worthy walk look like? What is a worthy walk? Well, understand that our walk
is in the vocation, the calling of God, which is in grace. It's
in grace. It's all of his son in grace,
and it's common. What I'm about to say is common
to every child of God. Every child of God. I'm gonna
give you six things that describe a worthy walk, a walk worthy
of the vocation wherewith you're called. First, if we are born
of the Spirit and all of God's children are, they're all effectually
called by the Spirit, then our walk must be by the Spirit. A worthy walk is a spiritual
walk. It's not a fleshly thing. Therefore, it's never going to
be accomplished by the flesh. Never going to be accomplished
by the flesh. Turn over to Romans 8. Romans 8, 13. Our Lord delivers us from trusting
this flesh. Our Lord delivers us from having
confidence in this flesh. This flesh is deceitful. It's
vile. It can put on a pretty show.
It can make itself smell good, but it's vile. It's deceitful. He says in Romans 8.13, for if
ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. You shall die spiritually. You shall remain in that spiritual
death. That's our former conversation,
trusting the strength of this flesh. But if ye through the
Spirit do mortify, which means to put to death, if you by the
Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. It's the Spirit that mortifies
the deeds of this flesh. It's the Spirit that teaches
us, that turns our eyes away from this flesh, having any confidence
in this flesh at all, even in things that seem good. We don't
have confidence in this flesh. The Spirit turns us from this
flesh to look to Christ and believe Him, to stay upon Him and trust
that He's all my righteousness. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. So if we are born of
the Spirit, It's going to be a spiritual walk. It's going
to be a constant, continual life by the Spirit, in the Spirit,
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. Second, our walk is as children
of light, meaning we're not walking in darkness and in ignorance
to the things of God anymore. We know the will of God. The
will of God is revealed to us. It's to look to Christ, to believe
Him. That is the will of God for His
people. Not to do X, Y, and Z. Not to
do A, B, and C better. The will of the Father is to
look to Christ, to behold Him, and believe Him. He said in John
6, 40, this is the will of Him that sent me. that everyone which
seeth the Son, and we see him by faith, everyone which seeth
the Son and believeth on him, may have everlasting life. Our Father sent his Son into
the world to gather together his scattered people into his
fold. He's our shepherd, we are the
sheep, we follow him. His will is to bring us to Christ
and to look to Him by faith. And children of light are thankful. They're thankful because God
showed them everything I was doing was trying to please God
by the works I did. Even in my religion, it was to
please God by something I did, rather than being content and
satisfied looking only to Jesus Christ because that's who my
Father is satisfied with. He's satisfied with the Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he gives us to look to
him and to make us thankful in the Lord. He says in Colossians
1, 12 and 13, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us
meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness, And that translated
us into the kingdom of his dear son. So the children of God are
children of light, not walking about and knocking about in various
things of religion to improve themselves, picking up books
to be more disciplined and to do better next time. It's looking
to Christ, believing him. When we sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. the righteousness
of God given for his people, the salvation of his people. And we're made thankful to God
for it, crying out to him. Third, to walk worthy is to stand
in the liberty of Christ. We stand in that liberty. We're
not turning back again to the law. We're not turning back to
the law to make improvements, to tweak things and get them
a little better because Christ didn't do them sufficiently for
us. We're not turning to the law. We're children of liberty. We have liberty in Christ. Now, he says, the Lord is that
spirit. This is 2 Corinthians 3.17. The Lord is that spirit. And
where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Liberty. Don't look back to the
law, brethren. The law is not going to improve
your standing before the Lord. If you see holes and gaps and
insufficiency and weakness in you, you're not going to find
strength in the law. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why God has provided him.
He sent him because he is the salvation of his people. Fourth,
it's to walk by faith. Believe him. He's given you His
promise that you that look to the Lord Jesus Christ are saved,
you have eternal life. That one who's looking back to
the law to improve himself, to get better at things, His spirit's
lifted up in him. He's in pride, he's in arrogance,
he's as a Pharisee. Habakkuk 2.4 says, behold, his
soul is lifted up. His soul which is lifted up is
not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. the faith which the Father works
in every child of his, looking to Christ. That soul that can
look to the law for righteousness is yet in ignorance, yet in darkness,
not hearing what the Lord is saying. concerning His Son, concerning
who we are. He's not giving any glory to
this flesh. All glory is to the Son. Either Christ is all my righteousness
or I've got to seek out a righteousness myself by the law, trying to
make myself righteous. And that one that does it shall
perish in their sins except God give them repentance and turn
them from those dead works and turn them to the living way. A walk worthy of the vocation
wherewith we are called is a walk by faith, believing Christ. Fifth, it is a walk believing
the promises of God to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. This flesh
is never going to be rid of sin. This flesh, we still see it.
We see things in ourselves that grieve us, that trouble us, that
worry us about ourselves. The unbelief and the foolish
things we do and say and just what we are. This flesh is is
going to be a disappointment. We're going to see how weak we
are. We're going to come into chastening. We're going to be brought low
at times in ourselves so that we don't get lifted up with pride
and arrogance and think more highly of ourselves than we ought
and begin to judge our brethren and to think ourselves better
than they are. We're going to walk according
to the promises of God which are given to us in Christ. Even
though in me I see sin, if I am still able, by His grace, to
look to Christ, to confess my sin, to ask for forgiveness,
and to lean upon Him for all my help and all my salvation,
I'm going to praise God for that. That's believing the promises
of God who turns us and keeps us from trusting the flesh. Galatians
3.22, but the scripture hath concluded all under sin. that the promise by faith of
Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. So that we're saved by the faith
of our Savior, not our faith. Our faith is given to us of God
to look to Him, but it's His faithfulness, it's His faithful
work that saves me, it's His blood that saves me. Six, it's
a walk that perseveres unto the end. The walk of the child of
God, that one who is called to the Lord, that walk worthy perseveres
unto the end. The child of God shall never
depart from his Lord and Savior. Not because we're strong. Not
because we figured it out. Not because we're so disciplined.
Not because I'm good and worthy of salvation. He's worthy. He's our salvation. We'll never
depart, we'll never be able to depart because it's our God that
keeps us. It's our God that humbles us. It's our God that teaches us.
It's our God that leads us, ever looking to Christ. Jeremiah 32
40 he says I will make an everlasting Covenant with them. It'll never
end never end that I will not turn away from them to do them
good But I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall
not depart from me We're never going to be able to deliver ourselves
out of that covenant and we never want to We don't want to because
we're made willing in the day of his power. So this brethren
is a walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called. It's
a spiritual walk. It's a spiritual walk. It's a
walk of faith. It's a walk believing the promises. It's a walk being turned away
from the law. It's a walk of Liberty in Christ
and it's a persevering walk. We continue. to the end. And those that walk in Christ
and look to Him and believe Him, those good works that men try
to push first in religion, they'll follow. The Lord does teach His
people. He does bless them and comfort
them. He does make them low in themselves,
as it says in verses 2 and 3. We will be low in ourselves. We will be delivered from judging
our brethren. We'll be seeking their good and
the unity of the Spirit and the peace of our God. Those good
works follow. There is love and forbearance
with one another in the Lord Jesus Christ. They shall follow,
but it's a spiritual walk. It's a spiritual work in us by
the Lord himself. We seek to encourage one another
in the Lord, to encourage that faith which he's given to us,
to edify one another in his son. And I pray the Lord bless that
word to you, to ever keep looking to him, believing the promises
of God to us in Christ. You that believe Christ have
eternal life. Believe him, believe him, amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your mercy. We thank you, Lord,
for your grace, your power, your glory, which works mightily in
us by the spirit of your Son. Lord, we thank you for your mercy
and grace. We pray, Lord, that you indeed
teach us, that you call us and lead us by that living way in
our Savior. by your Spirit, that we would
not walk according to this flesh, but be delivered from that continually,
and be delivered unto the arms of our Savior, ever looking to
Him, believing your word, believing your Son, having life and faith
in Him. It's in the name of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, that we pray, amen. All right, brethren, we'll come
back in 15 minutes. So five minutes after the hour,
we'll begin.