Turn with me, if you would, back
to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. You know, we really do only have
one message to preach. Every time we stand up here,
we preach the same message. Same message. But we look at the same message
from different angles. And we see different things in
it. Sometimes we look at deep things. Deep to me anyway, I'm
not a very deep person, kind of a shallow person, but deep
to me. Sometimes we look at dogmatic things, very dogmatic things. Sometimes we look at loud things. Sometimes I feel like a message
is just loud. But sometimes we look at quiet
things, relaxing things, peaceful things. Those are the kind of
things that I thought would be enjoyable to look at tonight.
Like Brother Henry Mahan said one time, he said, you must have
the meat and potatoes of the gospel every time it's preached. In every message that is preached,
you must have the meat and potatoes of the gospel. But he said a
little salad and ice cream sure is nice too. being in that frame of mind,
that salad and ice cream frame of mind. I settled on Ephesians
four and it has been a little while
since I've preached from this chapter, especially the verses
that we're gonna look at tonight, but I did say to myself when
I came here, I said, now, you have preached from this chapter
many times. I went to Sermon Audio to see,
when was the last time I preached from this chapter? And it's been
quite a few years, it's been a while. But I said to myself,
you've been here many times, and then this thought went through
my mind. I don't think you all will mind
if we're in Ephesians 4 again. I'm telling you this because
this was a real blessing to me. I literally was sitting in my
study and I thought, I don't think they'll mind. I don't think
you'll mind if we're in Ephesians 4 again. Ten years from now,
if we're still looking at Ephesians 4, you wouldn't mind, would you? Think about this, okay? 20 years from now, 20 years from
now, if I am still having you turn to Romans 8, or Ephesians 1, or Isaiah 53,
or Psalm 23, or Psalm 27, or Psalm 51, you wouldn't mind,
would you? That's amazing, isn't it? That's
amazing, isn't it? I was talking with one of the
brethren Sunday night about this in the hallway there. We have
one message to preach, and to God's people, it is alive and
fresh every time we hear it, every time we preach it. Don't
you love God's Word? Don't you just love, aren't you
so thankful for God's word? It stands alone. Whether a man
comments on it or not, all we need to do is read it. We're so blessed to have it,
but I just wanted to tell you that because that really is a
blessing to think about. All right. Ephesians four. I just ask our brother to read
the first 16 verses. for our scripture reading, because
that's what I thought our text was gonna be tonight. As I started
into this, I didn't make it that far. Let's go down through the
verses, and I'll show you how far I got. Ephesians 4, verse
1, it says, the Apostle Paul said, I therefore, the prisoner
of the Lord, That's about how far I got. I
did get a little farther than that. Do we realize what a blessed
statement that is? Honestly, do we realize what
a blessing that is? We read that and we just passed
right over it. And the reason is because we
know that Paul was an actual prisoner in Rome. We know that
this was written from Rome. He was sitting in a prison cell.
And he said, I, therefore, the prisoner. And that just, okay,
well, he's a prisoner. And it passes right over our
head. But if we stop for just a second and really think about
what our brother just said spiritually. Every physical thing in this
book points us to a spiritual thing. Every physical thing points
us to a spiritual thing. And he just said, I am the prisoner,
not of Rome, but of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that word of in my center margin, it says that word means
in, he said, I am the prisoner in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm
a prisoner. in the Lord Jesus Christ. If a sinner gets a hold of that,
that will sound pretty good to him or her. If God ever reveals
that to a man or woman, that'll sound pretty good. What is a
prisoner? You say, well, a prisoner is
someone who has committed a crime. No, people commit crimes all
the time who are not prisoners. A prisoner is someone who has
been caught, laid hold of, and put in a place where he can't
get out. That's a prisoner. Thank God,
Paul said, I am a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a
prisoner in the Lord Jesus Christ. He caught me. He laid hold of
me, and He put me in a place where I can't get out. What a blessing. What a blessing. He put me in a place where I
can't get out. Because of my sinfulness, if
I could, I would. If I could, I would. But thank God I can't. I'm being
held in the hand of Christ, and Christ is being held in the hand
of the Father, and no man can pluck me out of the Father's
hand. Not even myself. Not even myself. All of God's people can say that.
Thank God. All glory and praise to God. I am and will forever be the
prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what I want to be. That's
strange, isn't it? That's strange. But that's what
all of God's people want to be. Verse 1, he said, I therefore,
the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith you are called. What is a vocation? I have three
questions here. What is a vocation? Number one,
I beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation. What is a vocation? The word means a calling. That's what the word means. A
calling, people use that word in reference to their career,
what they do for a living. That's what their vocation is. This is my calling. This is what
I do. Paul said, I beseech you that you walk worthy of the career
that you have been called to. All right, the second question
is, what is the career? What's a vocation? It's a career.
What is the career? What is the vocation of God's
people? What have all God's people been
called to? Here's the answer. Prisoners of the Lord Jesus Christ. Prisoners of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We live and move and have our being in Christ. Only in Christ. All in Christ. Christ is our vocation. Christ
is our vocation. Being in Christ is our calling. What's our calling? Being in
Christ. That's the calling of all of
God's sheep, all of God's people. We have been called into Him,
called into fellowship with Him, called into life with Him. called into the family of Him. That's something that just strikes
me every time I really get a hold of that. God's people have been
called into the family of God. How amazing is that? As the family of Christ, as the
people of Christ, we worship Him. We gather together around
Him. That's why we're here right now.
We're here for Him. We're not here for us. We need
this, but we're not here for us. We're here for him. We gather
around him. We gather around his word. This is our calling. This is
our calling. This is our vocation. This is
our career. If you really think about it,
that's what this is. This is our career. This is not just a big part of
our life. That's a cliched statement for
false religion. You know, that's what people
say. You know, it's a big part of our life. This is not just
a big part of our life. This is our life. This is our
life. And we need to see it that way
and we need to guard against not seeing it that way. You say,
well, only, you know, people who haven't seen Christ see it
that way. Not so. That's not that's not so. This is our life and we need
to guard seeing it that way and fight against not seeing it that
way. You know, we get the mindset of, well, I got this going on.
I got that going on. I'm, I gotta be over here. I've got a lot of, I'm involved
in a lot of things right now. I'm just involved in a lot of
things, but I'm involved in Christ too. No. That'd be like a prisoner saying,
well, I got this going on and I got that going on and I got
to be over here for a while and I'm going to be over there for
a while. I'm just involved in a lot of things right now, but
I'm involved in prison too. Being in prison is the life of
a prisoner. That's the life of a prisoner.
And being in Christ is the life of a child of God. That's the
life of a believer. Prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ is our vocation. Christ is our life. So what is a vocation? It's a career. It's a life calling.
What is our career? What is our life calling? Being
in Christ. Being happy, being blessed. This is where the This is where
the illustration parts. What is life in Christ? Happiness. Blessed. Thankful. Paul said, I beseech you as prisoners
of the Lord Jesus Christ that you walk worthy of the vocation
wherewith you are called. Here's the third question. How
do we do that? How do we do that? How do we
walk worthy of this glorious career that has been given to
us? This glorious career, this glorious life. This glorious
calling. How do we do that? Verse two,
he said, with all lowliness. And meekness. With long suffering. Forbearing one another in love,
doesn't that sound so restful? Quiet, relaxing, peaceful. We live and move and have our
being in the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we live and move and have
our being in the Lord Jesus Christ? We do, but how? How do we live and move and have
our being in the Lord Jesus Christ? Here's how. With humility. with
humility, not with high-minded pride, with lowly humility. He said all lowliness. Again, this is where the illustration
parts, but a prisoner in an actual prison has every right to be
there. Every right. He or she has committed a crime
worthy of being there. They have done something worthy
to be there. That's not how it is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's not how it is with prisoners
of the Lord Jesus Christ. In order to be a prisoner of
the Lord Jesus Christ, a great blessing has to be bestowed.
A great blessing. A great blessing has been bestowed
on each one of God's people, a great honor, a great gift,
like when the angel came to Mary and said, thou art highly favored
of God. You are highly favored. That
means you have been much graced. Much grace has come to you. No prisoner in the Lord Jesus
Christ deserves to be there. Not of his own doing. No prisoner
of Christ has the right to be there. Not of his own doing. Not of anything he or she has
done. No prisoner of Christ has anything worthy of being there. They have committed nothing worthy
of being there. Because in Christ, the only thing
prisoners receive is blessing, and honor, and redemption, and
forgiveness, and justification, and glorification with Christ.
That's all they receive. Every soul locked up in Christ
gets the same thing Christ gets, freely. Freely. Graciously bestowed. There's
no room for pride in that, no room for pride at all. Verse
one, he said, I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech
you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called.
With all lowliness and meekness, that means gentleness. Our Lord said, learn of me, I
am me. I make, I want to do that. He said with long suffering,
that means patience. How do we walk worthy of this
vocation? How do we walk and live and move and have our being
in Christ? With humility, with gentleness,
with patience. Verse two says for bearing one
another in love, that means holding one another up. Not tearing each other down.
lifting each other up, encouraging one another, encouraging each
other in love, he said. We love because God first loved. That's the reason that all of
God's people, every prisoner in Christ, that's the reason
he or she loves God first love. God commended his love. Greater
love had no man. Herein was love, not that we
love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
of our sin. By this shall all men know that
we belong to God. We love his brethren, our brethren,
every other prisoner in Christ. Every prisoner in Christ loves
each other, loves each other. Look down at verse eight. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended
up on high, He led captivity captive. The margin in my Bible
says a multitude of captives. Captive. When He did that, our
Lord led a great multitude on the cross of Calvary. When He
ascended up, in the shedding of His blood on Calvary, in the
victory of the cross, in His defeat over sin and death and
hell, By the sacrifice of Himself, through the accomplishment of
His death, He led a chosen multitude, a particular multitude of sinners
who were captive to sin and captive to the adversary. He took them captive to Himself. That's what the Lord did. That
was His accomplishment on the cross. He led captivity captive. And in doing so, when Christ
did that, He set all of His captives free. He led captivity captive.
Took them captive to Himself. And in doing that, He set them
all free. A sinner being made captive to Christ is a sinner
being made free. Every prisoner in Christ is a
free man. Being captive to Christ is being
captive to love. Being captive to peace. Back up in verse 3, it says,
Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond. In the bond. Thank God for the
bond. Endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. That's what being bound
to Christ is. It's being bound to love. Bound
to love. Shut up inside of love. Shut up inside of peace. Sounds
like the place I want to be. Can't get out of it. Can't get
out of it. Being bound to prison is a horrible
thing. Being bound to Christ is heaven. It's heaven. All of God's people have been
given a life sentence. A life sentence. Aren't you so
glad? All of God's people have been
given a life sentence to love. In peace and joy and goodness
and happiness. We don't know that down here.
Honestly, that's not how I would describe life on this earth.
How would you describe everyday life on the earth? Well, love
and peace, joy, goodness and happiness. Does that sound like
life on this earth? No. That's what it is in Christ. And by faith, we know and we
believe that's what we have been shut up to and that's what's
coming. That's what's coming. Romans 8.35 says, Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? We are bound to it. We're imprisoned
to it. And I'm so glad. Romans 5.1 says,
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. We're bound to it. And it's because we're bound
to him. Ephesians 2 verse 14 says he is our peace. We're bound
to him. He is the one that broke down
that middle wall of partition. So making peace. He's the one. And what Paul is saying right
here is because he did that for us and gave that to us, that
love, that peace, that unity, And because we're shut up into
it and can't get out of it, let's nurture it. Let's embrace
it. Let's endeavor to cherish it.
Because verse four, he said, there is one body. There's just one body. And we have been included in
it. We have been included in it. Christ is the head. We're the body. One day real
soon, we're going to know what that means. We're going to experience
what that means. We're going to. Completely enjoy what that means.
Verse four says there's one body. In one spirit. In this glorious
saving captivity of Christ. There's only one spirit here.
The scripture says it's the spirit of truth. It's the spirit of
holiness. It's the spirit of life. It's
the spirit of adoption. It's the spirit of meekness.
These are The different ways that the scripture refers to
the spirit, the spirit of grace, the spirit of glory, the spirit
of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. One spirit. Verse four says there's
one body. And one spirit, even as you're
called in one hope of your calling, there's one hope that hope is
Jesus Christ. Verse 5 says, there's one Lord,
that Lord is Jesus Christ. Verse 5 says, there's one faith,
that faith is Jesus Christ. There is one baptism, that baptism
is Jesus Christ. Baptized into Him, immersed into
Him and can't get out. That's my favorite part about
this. Can't get out. Verse six says there's one God
and that God is Jesus Christ. And father of all. Is there a
heavenly father? Yes, there is. But he is seen
and known in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. You want to
see the father? Look at Jesus Christ. He said, you've seen
me, you've seen the father. And if you're in Christ, this
God and father of all, verse six says, who is above all and
through all is in you all. We're in him. He's in us. We're in Christ in Christ. Everything
is one. There's one one. That's what
he keeps saying. There's one. Everything is one. We are in Christ. The Father
is in Christ. Heaven is in Christ. You want
to know what heaven is? In Christ. Salvation is in Christ. The world hears this and will
say, I don't like this. I don't like that. I don't like
the sound of this. That sounds like I'm a puppet
on a string. That sounds like I'm a prisoner in a cell. God's
people hear it and cry, Lord, incarcerate me. Lock me up to Christ, lock me
up to Christ. There's a song and how tedious
and tasteless the hours. One line in the song says, while
blessed with a sense of his love. A palace, a toy would appear. And prisons. would palaces prove
if the Lord Jesus would dwell with me there? He's not in a
palace, it's nothing. And if he's with me in a prison,
then that's a palace to me. Lord, keep us by the power of
God. Keep us right there in the safety
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray God will call all of us
and bless all of us to be prisoners of the Lord Jesus Christ. All
right, let's all stand together.