Ephesians chapter 4. Let's read these first six verses
again. 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 with long-suffering,
forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and
one Spirit, even as you are called, in one hope of your calling.
One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who
is above all and through all and in you all. I think that
is just a precious portion of scripture. Verse three, he said,
endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of
peace. As you know, this subject of
unity and peace has been heavily on my mind lately. very heavily
on my mind and on my heart. The word unity means, when you
look up the word unity, it means oneness. That's the definition
of it, oneness. I love thinking on the oneness
that we have been called to. God's people love the oneness. They do. They love the oneness. It warms my heart to know that
everything concerning Christ and everything concerning glory
and everything concerning God's people, it's all one. It truly is one to the point
that the mind can't even fathom it. But it truly is one, even
the Trinity. The three separate persons of
the Godhead, three separate persons of the Godhead, Father, Son,
and Spirit. They said, we are one. We're
one. I love the single eye, the single
focus, the single goal that God gives to his people. It's a singleness,
it's a oneness, it's a simplicity, a singularity. This is what David
said. I love that man. I'm looking forward to talking
to him, but this is what he said. One thing have I desired of the
Lord. One thing. That will I seek after. What is it, David? That I may
dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold
the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. Can we
say that with David? One thing have I desired of the
Lord. I want to be in his kingdom. I want to be in his presence. And I want to sit there and do
nothing but look at him. I just want to look at him. Can we say with our Lord, while
Mary was sitting at his feet, he said, there is only one thing
needful. That's what God's people are
brought to. They all believe in their heart there is only
one thing needful. One. One. The Apostle Paul is
exhorting us to endeavor something. That's what he said. Endeavor.
That means make the effort. Be diligent. It means labor. It means study. It means work
at keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. He said
keep that. Keeping means guarding. It means preserving this unity
that we've been given in Christ. Guard it and preserve it. Verse
1, Paul said, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord. He was
the prisoner of Rome. Paul wrote this letter to the
Ephesians from Rome. He was sitting in a prison in
Rome, but he said, I'm not the prisoner of Rome. God put me
here. God is the one who is keeping
me here. And he knew from personal experience.
How many times did the Lord break those men out of prison? How
many times did he send angels and just knock all the chains
off and earthquake everything, the doors would fall off the
cells? Paul said, I know from experience, God put me here and
God is keeping me here. And the moment he wants to bring
me out of this, he'll bring me out of this. I'm just going to
sit here being the prisoner of the Lord. Verse one, I, therefore
the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith you are called. He said is God's people. We've
all been called to a vocation. We've all been called to a career,
a work, a labor. What is it? Oneness, unity, the bond of peace. Where's every bit of that found?
Where is all of that found? It is all found in Christ. All of it is in Christ. We, God's
people, God's elect people, we're all called into Christ. Our vocation, we have a vocation
as God's people, our life. He said in verse one, walk worthy. The word walk means live. live
and our life is in Christ. Our life is completely in Christ.
We live in Him. Everything that a believer does,
everything that a believer strives for is in Him. And the believer knows it. It's
in Him. Everything we do is because of Him. It's in the blood God
put us in. It's in the work Christ accomplished
for us. It's in the calling and the quickening
of the Spirit. It's all in Him. He's the reason. He is the motivation for everything
a believer does. So He says in verse 1, 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,
with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Lowliness. Meekness. Paul said, I beseech
you. to lowliness, to meekness. Now I love this. I remember the
first time I read this verse. I believe you'll like seeing
this. Go with me to Numbers chapter 12. Numbers chapter 12 verse 3 it
says, Now the man Moses was very meek
above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. Moses was the meekest man standing
on earth in his day. And that is amazing to me because
I consider him to be the boldest man in the Old Testament. Can
you imagine the boldness that it takes to walk into the palace
of Pharaoh and demand that his slaves be set free? Absolute
boldness. It doesn't say the man Moses
was very weak. Not at all, not weak at all.
But it does say that he was lowly like no other. He was humble
like no other. He was the meekest man standing
on the earth at that time. Moses was the meekest man that
walked the earth in his day. But Moses was not the meekest
man who ever walked the earth. Let me show you the meekest man
that has ever stood on the earth. Turn with me to Philippians chapter
two. Philippians chapter two, verse
five says, 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, but made himself of no reputation
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. That is meekness. That is meekness. That is humility. That is lowliness. If we would like to see all the
motivation we need to be lowly and meek and humble, endeavoring
to keep peace, endeavoring to keep unity, all we have to do
is look at Christ. Look at the highest man who brought
himself down to be the lowest. Look at 2 Corinthians 8. 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9, it says,
for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though
he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor, that you through
his poverty might be rich. What does he mean by that? If
you look one page back, it's 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21. It says, He hath made Him to
be sin for us. who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him." You think about
the absolute depth of humility and service that our Lord went
through in bringing Himself down to bring us up. A complete trading
of place. Though He was rich, infinitely
rich, He made Himself to be poor that we, through His poverty,
might be rich. That is meekness. That is humility. He never committed one sin. You know, somebody does something
and we get blamed for it. And we don't keep our mouths
shut, do we? I didn't do it. He never committed one sin. But
he humbly took the blame for all of them, all the sin the
father laid on him. The scripture says when he was
reviled, he reviled not again. Peace. The scripture says he was led
as a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb done before his shearer,
so opened he not his mouth. You know, just seeing who he
is and what he did causes us to fall in love with him. We
fall in love with him. There's no man like this man.
There is no man like this man. You've never met a man like this.
That woman at the well, boy, she met a man. She met a
man and she went and told everybody, you've got to meet this man. And that's what the gospel cries
to all of his people. Come meet this man. And one day
soon, all of his people are going to meet this man. There's no
man like this. There's no man more humble. You're
going to be standing in the presence of true humility, lowliness,
meekness, peace, love. Our Lord, He never opened His
mouth, all those accusations, while they were railing everything
out on Him to the point of spitting in His face and ripping out His
beard. He never said a word. He stood
there boldly, a rock for His people, and He just took it all.
Alright, now turn with me to Matthew chapter 11. Here is our vocation. This is
our calling. Matthew 11, verse 28. Our Lord said, Come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn
of me, For I am meek and lowly in heart. And you shall find
rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden
is light. When we come to him for everything
we need in salvation, when we come to him And we find his blood
and we find his righteousness. It gives us so much peace and
rest before God. But he said, if you take my yoke
upon you and you learn of me in this humility, in this lowliness,
you'll find rest to your souls right here. You'll find peace
and you'll find unity right here. He said, my yoke is easy and
my burden is light. Humility. Now how are we that
way? How can we possibly be that way?
Only in Him. Only in Him. So with that being
said, He is our source and He's our motivation. Go with me now
back to Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4 verse 1 says, 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
with long suffering. And that means patience. Our
Lord is and has been so patient with us. And may the Lord give
us patience with each other. May he truly give us patience
with each other. It's one thing to know that we
need to be patient with each other, but it's another thing
to be patient with each other. We husbands need to be patient
with our wives, wives be patient with us husbands. We parents
need to be patient with our kids. We need to be patient with God's
children. We need to be patient with His
congregation. With all lowliness, verse 2 says,
with all meekness, with all longsuffering, forbearing one another, it says. That means holding up. That means
supporting. holding up one another. We are
so prone to fall. We are so prone to wander. We're so prone to the weakness
of the flesh. And Christ is the one who holds
us up. Christ is the one who strengthens
us. All of our strength is in Him. And may the Lord enable
us to hold each other up and strengthen each other. He said,
forbearing one another in love. I looked up the word love in
the concordance. You know what the word means? It means love. Love, true love. True affection. Oh, the love. that God has shown
to us. The affection that He has shown
to us. Do you know where all true love
is found? You know the answer to this.
I could just tell you the answer to this, but I'd rather show
you. Go to Romans 8. Romans 8 verse 38, For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come. nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Nothing can
separate God's people from the love that He has given to us
in Christ. Nothing can separate us. It is
all in Him. It's all in one, one man, one
God. So back in Ephesians 4 verse
1 says, 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, with longsuffering Forbearing one
another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace. That's our exhortation. That's
our calling as God's people. That's what we endeavor to do.
Why? Because verse 4 says, there is
only one body. There's only one body. Unity
of the Spirit. And the bond of peace must be
made because there's only one body. Among the Godhead, Father,
Son, and Spirit, there is only one body. In all of the Godhead,
there's only one body. In Christ dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. He said, if you've seen me, you've
seen the Father. There's going to be one throne
in glory. And Jesus Christ is sitting on
it. All of the Godhead is in that one body. He prayed to His
Father in John 17. He said, I'm in you, you're in
me, and they are in us. So among the Godhead, there's
only one body. Among God's people, there is
one body. And among God and His people,
there's only one body. There's only one body. There's only one body. It's not
that His people are a body separate from Him. There's only one body.
One body. He is our head and we are His
body. Keep that in mind the next time
you read verses of scriptures that are talking about things
like receiving crowns on your head. If you do this, you'll
receive a crown on your head. Remember, that's not talking
about you. That's talking about Christ,
your head. Yes. Send them on. Crown after crown after crown.
Put it on my head. Christ. So verse 4 says, there is one
body and one spirit. Look with me if you would at
1 John 5. 1 John 5 verse 6. This is He that came by water
and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water
and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth
witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that
bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one. And there are three that bear
witness in earth, the spirit and the water and the blood.
And these three agree in one. The spirit is truth. And when the spirit comes to
God's people, that's what he brings to God's people. The truth. When the spirit comes, he brings
the truth. He brings the truth about sin
first. the truth of what we are in our
fallen condition. When the Spirit comes, and that's
what our Lord said, the first thing He does is He convinces
of the truth of sin. Absolutely convinces men of it. And then this is the Spirit of
God's people in return. After he convinces of that, this
is what they say in return. Oh, wretched man that I am. The
Spirit comes in truth crying, you're a sinner. And the sinner
says in return, oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver
me? That's the cry of God's people.
Who shall deliver me? The Spirit says, I'll tell you
who. Let me tell you what you are. Alright, now let me tell
you who. Look to the Lamb of God. He brings
the truth. Don't turn over there, but this
is what John 16 says. It says, When the Spirit of truth
is come, He will guide you into all truth, for He shall not speak
of Himself. And our Lord went on to say,
He shall glorify Me. When He comes, He'll glorify
Me. He'll point God's people to Christ. And this is what He
tells them. If you'll look back at our text,
Ephesians 4. The end of verse 4 says there
is only one hope. There is one body and one spirit
even as you are called in one hope of your calling. What is
that one hope? Here it is. There's one Lord. That's what verse 5 says. Capital
L, lowercase O-R-D. That means one Savior. One Redeemer. There is one Mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, the Lord, who gave
Himself a ransom for His people. One. People so sadly and so ignorantly,
they're going around trying to make Jesus their Lord. Peter
said in Acts chapter 2, He already is Lord. God made Him Lord. God made Him to be the Savior.
God made Him to be the Redeemer. And all of His people believed
that because verse 5 goes on to say, There is one faith. There is only one thing to believe.
Christ and His Word. This one faith is Christ's faith. This one faith is given by God. This one faith causes all of
God's people to see and believe that, verse 5 says, there's one
baptism. There's only one baptism. There's
only one thing to be immersed into. Christ Himself. His life. Don't you want to be
immersed into His life? Don't you want His life to be
your life? His death? Oh, God's people so
desperately want His death to be their death. It's appointed
unto man once to die. And God's people want His death
to be their death. We want to be immersed into His
body. We want to be immersed into his blood and we are. God's people are immersed into
him. Verse six says, there is one
God and father of all father, son, and spirit. One God. There is one Sovereign, one ruler
and controller of all things in heaven and earth. And God's people know that and
they bow to him. This is what binds them together. They bow to one God and they
know him and he knows them. And all of God's people say,
not only is He the God, He's my God. Just like Thomas said. When Thomas said, I don't believe. Our Lord, after He rose from
the grave, He came in and Thomas wasn't with Him. And He revealed
Himself. And they said, Thomas, He was here. And Thomas said,
I won't believe it unless I see the Prince and touch His side.
And the Lord appeared. And said, here they are. And
Thomas cried, my Lord and my God, my Savior, my Redeemer,
my Sovereign. My Lord and my God. Verse 6,
it says, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through
all, and in you all. And that's such good news. For
that reason, because of what this one God has done for us,
this one God, because of what He purposed to do for us, I pray
that He would give us humility. I pray that He would, in turn,
give us humility with all lowliness and meekness. With long suffering,
I pray He would cause us to forbear one another in love, as He has
done for us. Let's endeavor by His grace,
by His doing, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace. That is something that is just
so fervently on my heart. that we need, every congregation
needs this, but it is so fervently on my heart to acknowledge before
the Lord, we need this, we need this, we need to be united in
Christ, and we need to strive for that, and I pray the Lord
would teach us to. Teach us to strive and endeavor
for that love. May he give us the love of Christ
here. All right, let's all stand together.