Ephesians 1 now. Ephesians 1. I remind you where Paul was when
he wrote this. He was in prison. He said he
was a prisoner of Jesus Christ. He knows that Christ put him
there. He knew and he believed. He knew that everything that
happened to him, he said, fell out of the furtherance of the
gospel. Remember him saying that? And
so he humbly, willingly submitted, meekly submitted, and cheerfully
submitted to all the things that he went through. And no man suffered
more. No man suffered more than Paul
the apostle. other than our Lord Jesus Christ.
You read it sometime. What all he went through is amazing. If you want to know the grace
of God sufficient for all trials, read what he put Paul through. What amazes me is he's writing
to the church to encourage us. To comfort us. Well, we're sorry
a lot. He's comforting us. He's the
one in suffering, as He is. He's writing to exhort us and
comfort us. And He begins by saying, endeavor
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. You know,
strife and division usually comes from someone being offended or
hurt, right? Almost always the case. Someone
gets their feelings hurt, someone offends them, or someone's not
getting the attention they need. Yet Paul was treated wrongfully
by everyone. Like our Lord. Our Lord was despised
and rejected. How did He treat people? Paul
had the faith of Christ in him. Paul was not some special super spiritual
man. He was just a man. Where did
he get this grace? The same place we get it. That's
why he keeps telling us to pray without ceasing. He did. The
Lord blessed him mightily. I want the faith. that this man
had, don't you? I want to witness the profession
that this man had, don't you? I want to live like this man
lived. I want to die like this man died,
don't you? He was beaten by the Jews and
Gentiles, and he still called them brethren. I haven't even beaten that. He said in one place, he said,
everyone is forsaken man. Everybody but Timothy is forsaken. He didn't forsake them. Sounds like our Lord, doesn't
it? He said to Corinthians, the more
I love you, the less I'm loved. He loved him more and more. He
laid down his life for him. Again, this is God that worked
in him. God gets the glory for a man
like Paul. And yet God gave him as an example. He's a man just
like us, a sinner saved by grace just like us, and yet we have
the same one to go to for this grace that
Paul had. He lamented one time, he said,
all seek their own and not the things of Christ. Everybody's
out for their own, out for themselves. And I think he meant churches,
too. It's supposed to be a united cause for one purpose. That everybody, you know, the
modern saying is, this is a church where everybody's somebody. And this church can't be a church
without you. That's not the church. The church
was a church without you a long time ago. And the church is where
everybody's nobody. Christ is somebody. If everybody
realized that, if everybody just realized that, we'd have such unity. If we all
really believe we're the chief of sinners and unworthy to be
a member of Christ's church, we would have peace. We would
really esteem others better. This is what Paul is, is endeavoring
to do in us to keep the unity of the Spirit. He said, I'm less
than the least of all disciples. I'm not fit to be called a disciple.
I'm the chief of sinners. Was he? Was he? No, he wasn't. He was, but not when he wrote
that. His whole life is spent in consecration
to the Gospel of Christ. See, I don't count my life dear
to me. No, he wasn't. But he esteemed himself as the
chief of sinners. Less than the least. And that
made him esteem others better than himself. So, this is what
he's teaching us. And in every epistle, he exhorts
everyone. The church. This is to believers. Unbelievers can't do this. Believers,
all believers can. Without Him, we can't. But with
Christ, by Christ, all things. Right, Brother John? So, He's
endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit Himself and He's
telling us that because He says in verse 4, there's one body.
There's one body. Verse 16, we're joined together
in every joint. is joined together by that which,
according to the effectual working of God in us, makes us part of
the body. And we're supposed to edify one
another, build up one another in love. It's all about love.
You know, my little toe loves my little finger. They're just vitally joined.
We're all the time, touching each other. It's not a part of
my body that's not in tune with and helpful to and supporting
the rest of the body. 1 Corinthians 12, turn over here. Paul wrote about this several
times. 1 Corinthians 12. One body remembers one of another. And
he said every member of the body has something to contribute.
And I hear somebody now. Not me. I'm not fit for nothing. I can't do anything. Hold on
now. Can you pray? Can you? That's the best thing you can
possibly do at the church. The best thing you can possibly
do. Can you love people? Well, if you give your body to
be burned, if you know all the doctrine and have not loved your
people, it's worthless. You can love, can't you? You can support, you can serve
one another, even if it's just giving a cup of water. A cup
of water. A lady in another church sent
us a check worth $900. And at the time, we needed it,
didn't we? We really needed it. I mean, it was exactly what we
needed at the time, a hundred dollars. And Mindy called her,
and dear sister, she's so dear, I hope she's listening. I bet
she is. And Mindy thanked her, and she said, oh, it wasn't just
a cup of water. Just a cup of water. Well, you
know what somebody gives a cup of water in a disciple's name
will get? A prophet's reward. What's that? Christ. Don't get something special.
We don't want anything special. We do it out of love. Well, she
did that out of love. 1 Corinthians 12, look at verse
6. It says, there are different operations, but the same God
worketh all in all. Verse 14, one body, the body's
not one, the body's not, the body, our physical body's not
one member, but many. It goes on to say, but it's all
one, one body. What if the foot said, I'm not
the hand, I'm not of the body, I'm not made it. Oh, hold on. What if the ear, verse 16, said,
because I'm not the eye, I'm not the body. My dad, you see,
I'm the, I guess I'm the mouth, I'm the spokesman, and you're
the ear. What good am I if there's nobody
to hear me? My dad one time, I told you this,
maybe somebody hadn't heard it, but a man called him from West
Virginia, had a little country church, just a handful of people.
He called dad, dad was on TV at the time, and he thought he
was just one of these big televangelists. And he asked my dad, he said,
we got a little small country church up here. And he said,
we'd love for you to come preach to us. He said, how many would
it take for you to come up here and preach? Like he had to have
a big crowd or something. Dad said, two. Me to preach and
you to listen. If you come, I'll be there. Right? Well, the Lord sent Philip all
the way out on a long trip, didn't he, to preach to one man. Is
that worth it? Oh, my. What if that man was your husband?
What if that man was your brother, your son? What if that man was
your son? It's not too far to go, is it?
Well, read on. 18 but now God has set the members
every one of them in the body of it yet, please Be honest with you, I'd rather
be sitting where you're sitting I really would I'd like to shut
my mouth and never open it again. I mean that But he's put me here so I've
got to continue okay Verse 19 if they were all one member what
where were the body but now they're Now, are they many members, verse
20, yet one body? I can't say in the hand, I don't
need you. Head to the feet, I don't need
you. No, these members of the body,
which seem to be more people, are necessary. Little toe. Who needs a little toe? Try doing
it without it. You have to learn to walk all
over again. Right? Tooth. Anybody lost any teeth? Oh, my. Any of you old people have any
teeth? Hair. Who needs hair? Well, try
losing it. You'll see. Seriously. This is how the Lord, go back
to the text now. This is how the Lord has dealt,
put us all, according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
It's His will. Put us, Virgie Jones, I tell this all
the time, but it still thrills me. She was old when I first
met her, and she was always saying, I can't do nothing. I don't do
nothing. Well, she was in every service,
wasn't she, Dad? Every, wasn't she, Steven? Every
service, right over there. Right over there. Every service. Well, she talked to her family,
didn't she, about the gospel. I can hear her now. But she hemmed
every pair of pants I had. She said, I don't do nothing.
But just her presence in the service, every service, that
meant something to all of us, didn't it? It encouraged all
of us. So we do. We have a place in the body,
and even if it's just Be faithful in attendance and prayer. We can do that. So he says in
verse 4, one body is one Spirit, one Holy Spirit, even as you're
called in one hope of your calling, one Holy Spirit. The Spirit of
God calls. God gave all the people of God,
His elect, to Christ to come down. and save them, die for
them, live and die for them. And then Christ said, I'm sending
the Holy Spirit. Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit, who
takes this gospel and calls them. They all are going to hear the
gospel, which is Christ's voice. And the Holy Spirit's the one
that does that. Every single child of God hears
And our Lord said, this is what he does. He said, when the comforters
come, I send from the Father, he'll testify of me. That's how
you know a spirit-filled church and a spirit-filled people. That
church is full of Christ. They preach Christ, who is the
fullness of God. And he said, the Holy Spirit
will reprove the world, that is, people out of every kindred,
nation, and tongue under heaven, will reprove them of sin. Every one of them will think
they're the biggest sinner on the topside of God's earth. Everyone
of them. Righteousness? They all know. The Holy Spirit teaches them
this. They need a righteousness. to get to God, and they don't
have one. The only way they get it is Christ,
His righteousness. There's no exceptions to that.
It's one spirit. And judgment is a judgment to
face. Paul said, we're all going to
stand before the judgment seat of God. Now how are we going
to stand there? If you ask every single, I bet
you every single person in this room would say, if I ask for
one word, your standing, your hope, how God called you and
what He taught you, where you stand, where you hope to stand
in judgment, every single person in here would say, Christ. You're in the body. Oh yeah. You're a member of this body.
Holy Spirit has been sent by Christ to you. He's called you
by the gospel. You're just as much a member
of the body of Christ as Moses. Just as saved, just as accepted,
just as loved. Somebody smile. You're going
to be sitting with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all the same. Right
beside Rahab and the thief and Tamar and Mary Magdalene. What's
their hope? Spirit of God called him by the
gospel. All right, read on. It says, there's one Lord, verse
5. One Lord, one Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is Lord. King of kings and Lord of lords.
Aren't you glad? The Lord reigneth. Our Christ
is the Christ and he's Lord, not a figurehead, mind you, he
is Lord. Figurehead, back in the old days
of wooden ships, remember they had these figures on the head
of the ship, figurehead, and they used those to ward off evil
spirits and this and that and the other. Worthless, an image,
an idol, a dead wood. Our Lord is not a figurehead.
He's the head. He's the captain of that ship.
He is the ship. Not a figurehead. He's Lord.
We don't make Him Lord. How many times do I have to say
that? I've said it thousands, and I'm going to keep saying
it. You know this, don't you? You know you didn't make Him
Lord. You know God made Him Lord. You know the reason you know
He's Lord because He came to and revealed Himself to you.
He said, I am your Lord, aren't I? You said, yes, you are. He
didn't accept you. He didn't ask you anything. He
told you. He revealed himself to you. This is life eternal,
he said, that they might know thee the only true God. That
means there's other gods that aren't God. And thus, Woods is
full of them. Churches, so-called churches
are full of them. Not the church. The church has
one Lord, one God, one faith. One faith. I love preaching this.
You like hearing it? One faith. It's the faith of
God's elect. That's what scripture is called.
The faith delivered to the saints. That's what it says. It's not
of yourselves. It's a gift of God. Those who
have obtained like precious faith, given this gift of faith. You
didn't drum it up. You didn't decide to believe.
God said, He gave it to you. Believe. You can't help it. One thing, I remind you that
this modern generation talks about the ecumenical movement.
You've got all these places that are joining. You've got down
here on 122, what is it, the Catholic Episcopal Methodist
Baptist Trinitarian. Fooey on that. There's not many
faiths. That's what they say. Many faiths,
we're all going to get to God. We all believe the same God.
No, we don't. One faith. What is the faith
of God's elect? One word. One thing. One thing. One baptism. Verse
5. One baptism in Christ. Baptized into Christ. Immersed
into Christ. Of God are you in Christ. Like in that ark. You love to hear those two words,
don't you? In Christ. In Christ. In Christ. Don't you
love that? You see it everywhere, don't
you? It just pops out at you, don't you? Yeah, blessed you are. You know what that means. You
know what that means. And you know how you were in
Christ. God put you there. And you're so glad. And you know,
like Noah and everybody in the ark, you know why you're there,
and you know why you stay in there. You know how you're kept
in there. Shut you in. Paul said, we're
shut up to faith. Shut up to faith. We can't believe anything else.
Here I stand. Don't you love Luther? Here I
stand. I can do no better. To whom shall we go? These are
words of life. Who do men say that I am? Lord,
we believe. No, we're sure that thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God. Can you say that with silent
feet? I know you can't. I've heard you too many times. This is my favorite passage in
all of the Bible. One faith. One baptism. And there's
one mode of baptism. One mode of baptism. Immersion. Immersion. That's what it means.
Dead, buried with Christ. Crucified, dead, and buried with
Christ. You don't sprinkle dirt on somebody
when you bury them. Right? You bury them. Cover them over. That's what
baptism in the picture is. And all, one baptism, we all,
all of God's people confess the same Christ. Many in here were
in false religion and confessed that other Jesus. And when later
the Lord revealed Himself to be the true Christ, you confess
the true Christ, which means you never were baptized before.
You're just now. People say, I want to be re-baptized.
No, you're not re-baptized. If you confess another Jesus,
you aren't baptized. Because there's one baptism,
and that's confessing this Christ, this one Lord, this one faith,
this one baptism, one myth. And you're not christened as
a child. You have to believe, don't you? That's heresy, to
christen children. You know that people died for
that. People laid down their lives.
refuting that and denying infant baptism. I'm serious. Many did not. Those of y'all
know something about churches. Is it doctrine? No. God's glory
is at stake. God's Word, the truth is at stake.
One baptism. One God and Father of all. You know, no man has seen God
at any time. And we're going to see God. Who is it? Somebody. Christ. Wait a minute. We don't believe
it. We don't believe He's God. We do. Ask Thomas. I mean, ask that Thomas. He'll
tell you Jesus Christ is God. He's the Father, called His name
Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father.
That's Jesus Christ. The world says, that can't be.
Well, it is. He is. He that hath seen me,
Christ said, hath seen the Father. Do you believe that? You don't
completely understand it, but you believe it, don't you? At least three for one. So one God, one Father of all,
who's above all, our God reigns. Our God is in heaven. You know
what we say about His name? Hallowed, holy, holy, holy. We unite our hearts to fear His
name. In a day when men are blaspheming
the name of God, oh no, God's people aren't. They call Him
holy. They fear His name. See the difference? This is not to everybody. This
is to His church and sisters and all. Above all and through all, works
through all, and in you all. Oh, don't you love Romans 11?
Listen to this. Of Him, through Him, and to Him
are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen. He's all. Christ is all. He's all. And that's all there is to it.
All right, so read on. Unto every one of us, though,
is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Every one of us is given grace.
The grace of faith. It's not yourselves. It's the
gift of God. The grace of love. You didn't love this God before. You do now, don't you? You do
now, don't you? Not like you want to. If you
love Him at all, that's grace. Joy. Who do you joy in? Christ. Rejoice in Christ. Don't you? Joy in the Lord. That is Lord.
Don't you? Joy. Peace. Where do we get our
peace with God? Every one of God's people know
that. By the blood of His crowd. On and on it goes. Grace. Every one of us is given grace.
Read on, it says in verse 8, wherefore he saith when he ascendeth
up on high, he led captivity captive. He gave gifts to men. And I'd love, I probably will devote
a lot of time to verse 8, that's wonderful, Psalm 68. But I'm
going to close, let me close. Turn with me to Romans 12. Romans chapter 12, I'm just going
to end here. Let's stop right there. I can't
just pass over. Romans 12, let's just read these
verses. He's saying the same thing to
the church at Rome as he said to Colossians. Romans 12, verse
1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, remember that? Ephesians 4, by
the mercies of God, you present your bodies a living sacrifice.
Holy. Acceptable unto God. Walk worthy,
he said in Ephesians 4. It's your reasonable service.
He presented his body a sacrifice, didn't he? Didn't he? He sure did. Acceptable? Did
God accept the sacrifice? He sure did. How do we accept
it? In the blood. And he counted that his joy,
the joy set before him during the crowd. Verse two, don't be
conformed to this world. Is there anything in this world
you want? Anybody in this world you admire? I can't think of
one single person in this world that I admire. Be transformed. by the renewing
of your mind. Let this mind be in you which
was in Christ Jesus. The world is so full of pride
and vainglory and self-conceit. Oh, be lowly in me, the mind
of Christ, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God. That's the Word of God, of which
the world has nothing to do with. I say, verse 3, through the grace
given unto me, every man is among you not to think of himself more
highly than he ought to think. You know, he tells us to be lowly. Why should we be lowly? Because
we are. Why should a dog think of itself
as a dog? Because he is. A worm? Why should a worm bother a worm
to be called a worm? Isn't that what he called Jacob,
didn't he? Oh, he loved Jacob. Called him a prince, but yet
he said, you're a worm. You never forget that. You'll never take the gospel
for granted. It lifted you off the donkey. Verse 3, but to think soberly. Right thoughts, according as
God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. That's how
you're going to think, right thoughts. We have many members of one body,
and all members have not the same office. So we being many
are one body in Christ, and every one member is one of another.
We have gifts, according to the grace. You know, I hear people
say this all the time. He's a gifted speaker. I don't
like that term. Everything's a gift. He's a good
speaker, isn't he? Yeah, fine. But anybody who knows
the gospel is gifted. Right? What we think of is he's
real eloquent and all that. They called Paul a vain babbler.
What he said was he embassed himself. He didn't preach the
gospel with wisdom of words. Didn't he? Nobody called him
a gifted speaker. There was never a man with more
gifts. But don't say that. Don't ever say that again. You're
gifted. He said that in 1 Corinthians
1. You come behind in all utterance. You don't come behind anybody
in all utterance. Every believer in here could tell this world
who Christ is, who God is, and what the gospel is. Our children could tell that.
We're gifted. We're a gifted bunch of people. You know, Paul said, that's carnal
to say, I'm a Paul. I'm a Paul. I like Paul's preaching
better than Paul. He preached something different
than Paul. He preached better than Paul. If he preaches Christ,
he's not better than Paul. I'm a nice person. One time, Charles Spurgeon's grandfather,
I think his name was Jane, I think, but Spurgeon was late getting
to the service and nobody knew where he was. His grandfather
got up, was a former preacher, and got up and started preaching. Well, Spurgeon walked in and he said, well, there's my
grandson. He said, he may preach better
than me, but he doesn't preach a better gospel than me. And
you know this virgin got up and continued right where his grandfather
left off at the exact same time. He just threw his notes aside
and started where his grandfather did. At the mouth of two witnesses,
this thing was established. Who's a better preacher? If you're
preaching Christ, you're a good preacher. If you hear Christ
preach, it's a good message. Gifted. Romans 12, it goes on
to say, gifts differing. See that? Verse 6, according
to the grace given to us. And it goes on, and I'll not
go into all this too much. Prophecy. Verse 7, a ministry
that's serving others. Teaching. We've got some teachings. I mean, we've got some good ones.
You need to thank them. Right there sits one, there's
one there, born back there. I asked Melanie one time to record
one of her lessons to our children. Brothers and sisters, if she was a man, she'd be preaching
in this pulpit right now. And you'd be blessed. Gifted. Our children are gifted to have
her. You just don't know. Can I give them that tape, Ellen?
No. She said, no. I'm telling you now. No, I didn't
tell you. God damn it. He's given us teachers,
examples in the faith, old men, young men, babes. We're so gifted. This church
is gifted. Read on. Verse 8. Exhorteth. Who among us can't exhort? Let
us exhort one another. Forsake not the assembling of
ourselves together, but exhort one another. So much more as
we see the day approaching. Some of you say the exact same
thing after every message. You know that? You do. Earlene. Irene. Tammy Jo, exact same thing. And I look forward to hearing
it every single time. Ellen Fralin, wasn't she a vital
member of this church? And she'd say, I didn't do anything.
Oh my, she did. She's here 30 minutes before
every sermon. She's here before me. After a while, I thought,
I can't let her be there before me. But every time after I preached,
she'd meet me right there with the biggest smile on her face.
She said, now that's the gospel. Same thing every time. And I
look forward to it. She knew the gospel, didn't she?
Anybody, maybe everybody in her did. This is one of the best, the
most thrilling things I've ever heard in my life. Nancy and Joe
and Mindy and I went to see Ellen in an assisted home where she
was. She had Alzheimer's. She went
real fast. Her mind was gone real fast.
Right after the worship service, we all, the four of us, went
to see Ellen. Walked in, said, hi, Ellen, how
you doing? Fine. She didn't know me. I said, I'm Paul Mahan, your
pastor. She said, oh, how is he? I said,
he's fine. I said, Ellen, Joe, Nancy, Mindy
and I have been worshiping the Lord this morning. I preached
the gospel. She didn't know anybody's name,
faces, anything. She didn't know anything. I said,
Ellen, what is the gospel? You remember this, Nancy? I said,
Ellen, what is the gospel? She said, Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. What else do you need to know? That's to have eternal life,
isn't it? That woman died, it's the last
thing I ever heard her say on earth. Let me die like that. Can't do
nothing. I'm still repeating that. Like
the woman with the alabaster box that filled the room. That
just filled us all with amazement and wonder, God's grace. She's
a nobody from nowhere. Sewed collars on sweatshirts
all her life. And did it faithfully, didn't
she? She said, I love my job. That's a saint, boy. Saint Ellen. Read on, verse 9. Let love be
without dissimilation. That is, be... Love all equally. Abhor that which is evil. Cleave
to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned. Verse
10. One to another with brotherly love and honor, preferring one
another. Verse 16. Be of the same mind one toward
another. And it goes on and on. You can
read it all for yourself later. So, endeavor. to keep the unity
of the Spirit in love, because we want. We all need this gospel, don't
we? We all need Christ. We need this gospel. And you
may not think so, but we need you. I need to see your face
in there. And you don't need me more than
I need you. Like the little toe and the big foot. We all need
a chance to pray for one another. Okay? All right, stand with me.