Ephesians chapter 4. Let's read verse 1 again. Ephesians
4 verse 1. Therefore the prisoner of the
Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation
wherewith ye are called. Talking to believers. that you
walk worthy. That's the title of this message.
A worthy walk. I beseech you to say it. A worthy walk. Dozens of times
Scripture talks about our walk. Many, many times. Turn with me. Now hold your place here and
turn to Colossians chapter 1. Let's just look at a couple of
places. Colossians 1 and then 1 Thessalonians. Colossians 1, throughout the
scriptures, throughout the epistles especially, speaks of our walk,
a worthy walk. In Colossians 1, verses 9 and
10, Paul says, Since the day we heard of your faith, for this
cause, since the day we heard, do not cease to pray for you
in the desire that you might be filled with the knowledge
of His will. in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being
fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge
of God." One more, 1 Thessalonians, chapter 2. 1 Thessalonians, chapter 2. A
worthy walk. Well, worthy. Chapter 2. Verse 12 says this, it says,
"...that you would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto His
kingdom and glory." Now the walk, go back to the beat, the walk
that he's speaking of here is our character, our conduct. and the direction we're headed.
It's our character, and it's how we walk, and it's where we're
going, where we're walking to. You with me? That's what the
walk is all about. All right? How we conduct ourselves
and where we're headed. That's the walk. Back when this
was written, Men and women used to walk everywhere. Everybody
walked everywhere. And when you'd see somebody walking,
you could see what manner of person they were, pretty much.
Tall, short, thin, not so thin, slow gated, fast gated. The way
they walked, I'll explain that for a minute. And you could pretty
much tell where they were going. If a person's heading up a certain
road, you say, well, he's going to the well. If he's heading
this way, well, he's going to the barn. So the wall back then was pretty
defensive, right? You could tell how a person
walked, who it was, how they were, and where they were going. Not now. Right? You don't have an idea of where
anybody's going. They don't either. You don't know what they look
like. But anyway, back then, everybody
walked. And that's the reason we use
this analogy of walking. You walk worthy of the vocation
wherein you're called. Back then, everybody walked.
When they worked, they walked. Whatever they were doing, they
walked. to work and walk while they were
working, carrying heavy loads or whatever. He says now to us,
as to believers, that you walk worthy of the vocation that you're
called. You're called to be something,
a vocation, a vocation. That's your life's job or work. All right? And you called to
Him. All right, now our Lord walks
on this earth. Oh, and you could tell what manner
of man He was. He walked upon this earth. He
walked everywhere. Everywhere He went, He walked.
And what He was doing was looking for His sheep. He was walking
everywhere, looking for and finding His sheep. I love the thoughts.
that our omniscient Lord, all-knowing Lord, never took an idle step,
not in one direction, not knowing where He was going or, let's
see, what are we going to do next? Hold on. He, being the
all-knowing Lord, every step He took, whenever He turned His
body in one direction, it was on purpose, and it was headed
toward fulfilling God's Word, He told his disciples one time,
they were walking along, they didn't know where they were going,
but they never knew where they were going. They were following him. He knew where
he was going every time. He was going somewhere to save
someone. He said, we must need to go through
some area. And they thought. Why did he
need to go through Samaritan? If one woman, he's going to go
sit on a whale on the exact day, time, and hour, and wait on one
of his sheep to come walking to come to him. So everything our Lord did, everywhere
he went, he walked, and it was on purpose. and for the purpose
of finding his elect. He walked by the seaside. Our
Lord spent much time by the ocean. If he wasn't in the garden, he
was by the ocean. I don't understand why I don't see him. It's lovely. It exhibits God's
glory and power. But he walked by the ocean, not
just to see it, but there was some fishermen
out there. He walked by the ocean. And there
were two brothers out there in the boat. Simon and Andrew. Simon.
Andrew. Follow me. What happened? They pulled their boat to the
shore and their dad was there. And got in behind him. Got in behind him. I don't know, but I've got to
go with him. I've got to go. Wherever
he's going, I'm going to go. He walked down a little further.
James and John, sons of Zebedee, out there with their dad. John,
James. This is the front page. See, this is what they were fishermen
for. And now the Son of God, King Walking, calls them. to
a different location. What is it? I don't know. For what? For what? James, John, what happened? He left his home, left his dad,
left everything and everyone to do what? To a different location. To a walk worthy of the location.
Where is it? What is it? It was told every
believer, every believer had heard the gospel. Christ came
to you in no less a miraculous way, no less compelling, and
no less sovereign power, and said, Dan Ockel, he didn't call your
name, but he said, sinner, I knew that was you, follow me. following every believer, has
been called by the Lord to walk with him. Enoch, it says. It will say it up. Enoch did
what? Well, Enoch may have been a carpenter,
Enoch may have been a blacksmith, Enoch may have been a hitter.
Do you remember that study of Enoch? He lived 365 years. He
had thousands of descendants, thousands and thousands of these.
And, uh, he had a lot to do, did he not? He had to work only
four or five jobs. Don't you think? Think about
it. How in the world do you know
how tough it is to feed, uh, feed children? What about two,
two thousands? What you gonna do? Uh, every
waking hour of the day you're gonna have to do something. You're
gonna have to work. But that wasn't his vocation. And like somebody asked a believer,
said, what do you do for a living? He said, well, I'm a plumber
to meet expenses. But Christ is not like that. He didn't walk with God. He walked
with God with His vocation. He walked with Him. Where every
believer is called by the Lord Himself to walk with Him, to
follow Him. He does the leading. It's not
like, you know, And He takes us wherever. And we're disciples.
We're students. We're students. Every believer
is a student in the school of Christ. That's what disciple
means. That's what disciple means. We're
students. We're learning. Being led by His Spirit. If any
man be not led by the Spirit of Christ, he's not a Jew. But
we'd be led by the Spirit of Christ. of Christ, to walk with
Him and walk with Him. You know, the more you walk with
somebody, the more you'll be like them. Walk with them. Can two walk together except
they be a group? Walk with and pace will be the
same. All right, let's look at this thing of a worthy walk. There's a vocation. Do you understand
what our vocation is? We're disciples of Christ. and
walking with Him, followers of the Lamb. That's what it said
in the Revelation. Who are these people that are
followers of the Lamb? These are they which followed
the Lamb everywhere He went. Who is this coming in? Well,
it's the King of Florida. Well, who's that following Him?
His followers. They're following Him. They believe Him. They walk before
His Word and get way ahead of themselves. All right, there's
a worldly walk. Two points. A worldly walk. That's a worldly walk. We're told to walk worldly. That's
a worldly walk. Look at verse 17 of this same
chapter. Paul says, This I say therefore
and testify in the Lord that you henceforth walk not as other
Gentiles walk. Don't walk like the world is
walking, he says. Everybody is walking similarly. The world is walking. Now, this walk, as I said, is
character. This walk is your character and
where you're going, okay? So he says, don't walk like other
Gentiles. We're Gentiles here. This is
talking to us. Don't walk like the world. Not, don't walk like them, or
you go where they're going, you'll end up where they're headed.
Don't do it, he said. Now look at what he says about
the worldly walk. Verse seventeen, they're walking
in the vanity of their mind. See that? You can pretty much
say, empty-headed. The popular phrase today is,
it doesn't have a clue. That applies to this world. Everybody is headed somewhere. And they're headed there real
fast. Hurry, honey! There's one thing that characterizes
this world more than anything else. Just as there's one thing
that characterizes the believer more than anything else. One character, one thing that
characterizes the world, and one thing that characterizes
the believer. The thing that characterizes
the world, the vanity of their mind, let's
put it this way. They walk in the vanity of their mind. Men
think they're something. Isn't it amazing when you think
about it, and how foolish it is, that men and women actually
think they're something. I mean, that they are somebody,
something special. When there's two, three billion
just like them, how can you go anywhere and find somebody just
like them? The woods are full of them. Well,
I'm something special. Do you know? Vanity of the mind. Pride. Men
and women. This is the thing that characterizes
the world more than anything else. Pride. They're proud of
themselves. Proud of what they are. Proud
of what they can do. Proud of what they've done. Proud
of where they're headed. Proud of how they look. Proud
of how they act. Proud! And their walk shows it. Watch
the world swagger. Huh? The youth today. It's not cool. It's indicative of the vanity
of their mind, thinking this, watch me. That's the reason I
hate, I despise all these models, all this body building, all this
show of the flesh. God hates it more than anything
else. Proverbs 6 says this, Six things
that the Lord hates. Yea, seven are abominations to
Him. Number one, God said, number
one, the thing I hate more than anything, a proud look. He said in Isaiah, He said, God,
the Lord of hosts, hath purposed it. That means He's going to
do it. To stain the pride of all glory
and bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth. That
which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to God. Why does God hate pride so much? Women are so proud of their beauty. Men are so proud of their strength. Educated people are so proud
of their intellect. Rich people are so proud of their
attainment. Why does God hate that? Because what do you have that
you have not received? Now, he said, if you have received
it, why do you gloat at it as if you didn't? Paul said, I am what I am by
the grace, the gift. Christ said, without me upholding
you, giving you breath, giving you legs to walk, giving you
a mind to work, Give Him whatever you have. Without Me, you can
do nothing. In Him we live and move and have
our being. Let not the wise man gore in
his wisdom. Let not the strong man gore in
his strength. Let him that glory, glory in
him. If you're pretty, for God made
you so. But you might not be pretty.
You might be pretty on the outside, ugly as the devil on the inside. As a matter
of fact, that's what the most beautiful people are, so-called beautiful people. This is the world they want to
strike. This is why the Scripture says
God's going to blame everything on me. No more strike. It's going
to bring everyone together. Vanity of their mind. Vanity. Walk in, look at the next time.
It says, walk in the vanity of their mind, in darkness. Walk in darkness, verse 18. Having the understanding of darkness.
Why? Alienated from the life of God.
without understanding, don't have a clue. Men actually believe. And worldly
wise men, smart men, with a lot of education, actually believe
we came from a pool of slime. You're talking about ignorance.
You're talking about utter fools. This is why God's Word said,
The fool has said, No, God. That absolute, utter, ignorant
fool could look at this beautiful planet, this glorious creature
that God made in His image, that's the most magnificent and stroke
of genius of anything ever created. David said, I'm fearfully and
wonderfully made. God hath made things. If He made
me, that means He's infinitely higher than I am. As glorious
as I am, He's in there. He made me like a piece of clay
in the hands of man. But the world says no. They think
I'm soup. That's what's in their heads,
you see. That's why they think that. That's what's floating
around in there. Soup! Darkness without understanding,
he said, in ignorance. Verse 18, alienated from the
life of God through the ignorance that's in them, because blindness
of their heart. Why is this ignorance? Why is
it there? Why are men ignorant? What gives
light? What gives understanding? They're
ignorant. They don't have understanding. They're in darkness. Not light. What gives the light to God? What enlightens God? And the word ignorance, the root
of that is ignore. It's not that men haven't read
this. It's not that men don't read this. It's that. Ignore.
Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance.
Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance.
Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance.
Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance.
Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance.
Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance.
Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance.
Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance had given
themselves over unto lasciviousness, past feeling. And that's what we said earlier,
the reason God destroyed this planet in Noah's day, you remember
the account, in Genesis 6, God said man's imagination was only before he came. The man wakes up in the morning,
he goes to bed, and all day long he accomplishes it. He goes to bed. What's the next day? And God said, I'm going to destroy
you. And when he's destroyed Sodom, God said to Abraham, if
I can find five months, just five, I won't destroy that city
of America. Just buy it. It has to be given over to it. Romans 1, the whole first chapter
of Romans, is an accurate description of mankind, and never more clearly
than that. Never has it been more descriptive
of an age than now, with all the homosexuality in it. They
said God gave them hope. Given hope. Past feelings. No
conscience. There is no right or wrong. And it ain't done. Now, that's
the character of this world. What about the course of this
world, the direction? Chapter 2, look at chapter 2
of Ephesians. Chapter 2, look at there, verse
2. Chapter 2, verse 2, it says,
In time past you walked according to the course of this world. Now, that was me. That was you,
past me. Consciousness didn't bother me. Where they were headed, he headed
there. Whatever they were doing, he
was doing it. Without thinking. What's this word? Where is it
headed? Our Lord said there is a broad road. Wide is the gate
and broad is the way that leads to destruction. Destruction. There is a way that seems right
to man, but in destruction. The whole world is heading in
just as fast as they can go. He's moving up the ladder of
success. Would that he were moving up
Jacob's ladder. He's not moving up the ladder
of success. He's getting further from God. The richer he gets,
the further he gets. He's moving up in the
world. He is. He's up and down. Now, let me just say this before
I go on. There's a difference, let me
say this, you young people listening, future, out there, not knowing
what you want to do, where you want to go, and all of that. There's a difference between
personal ambition and worldly ambition. It's a difference. If a young man is a smart young
man, he'll do everything he can to get ahead, whether it be education,
hard work, both. In order to provide for your
own, it takes a lot of money to live, right? You told me 10,
15 years ago that it takes $30,000 to serve. That's a lot of money. You've got something on the bottom. You've got to get
to work. You've got to get your education.
You've got to do whatever it takes in order to provide for
your own. It's another thing to have some
personal ambition in order just to You take them to meet and
provide for your own, take a while so that you won't have to work
and have a family and raise them up. The worldly ambition out
there, that's walking every time you can get. Whether it be education,
I want to get my doctorate, that's all that matters. I want to get
more degrees. I want to get the biggest, biggest,
biggest, fastest, best. That's the world. All right, the world, that's
the walk of the world. That's a worldly walk. Manatee,
darkness, pride, ignorance, and where their head is is destroyed.
All right, here's the worthy one. I took you wrong. You walk
worthy, he said. Chapter 4, verse 2. You walk
worthy of this vocation wherein you're called, verse 2. Chapter
four, with all lowliness and meekness. You see the difference
between the world and the believer? That which characterizes the
world is pride. That which character, the principal
character of the believer is what? Lowliness, meekness. The meek will inherit the earth,
not this one. the pride of having it and get
it before they get rid of it. That's what God's going to do
with it. But the meek inherit new life. John Calvin, I think he was,
said, the three greatest Christian virtues is I quote, the three
greatest Christian virtues, he said, are humility, humility,
and humility. And that's fitting, is it not?
Because we are what we are by the grace of God. This is the
thing that gives God glory, doesn't it? When a believer says, somebody
brags on his, ah, I like that. Oh, but look at what you've accomplished.
Oh, no! God gave it to me. When those coal miners were extracted,
I didn't hear anybody. I didn't hear anybody say, God
saved me. Generally, you'll have at least
heard somebody say, God saved me. This is what gives God glory,
the humility of His people, the meekness of His people. John
said, a man can receive nothing except to be given. They came
to John, they came to John and said, you sure are something.
John said, oh, he must increase, I must decrease. He said, a man
can receive nothing except to be given. Didn't I tell you? I'm nothing. There's somebody. No human being's ever lived as
anybody. But look there, there's somebody. There's one worthy. Isn't this the clarion cry of
all redeemed people throughout eternity in heaven? He is worthy. Every one of us, we're a bunch
of ants, unworthy. Thou hast made us worthy of choosing
us, calling us, redeeming us, sanctifying us, teaching us,
leading us, guiding us, separating us, washing us, leading us, guiding
us, teaching us, every, does it all, salvation of this world. He gives all humility. Peter said, Brethren, humble
yourselves in the sight of God. And if believers, they are, they
are honest. They share a heart. Peter also said, he's able to
do a better service. You ask Peter, and everybody
will leave you but me. He was the first one to do it. He was the first. And now that
Peter's sufficiently humbled and broken and converted, he said,
now do it. Now that you realize you have
to do it, strengthen yourself. Tell them. Humble themselves. Tell them,
Peter, humble themselves. Oh, my, lowliness and meekness. I got to hurry. Verse 2 says,
"...with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing
one another in love." This is glorifying the God we're meeting.
This is the character of Christ, is it not? Forbearing one another
in love. The word forbear means to carry,
to lift, to remove, to help with a burden. It's like somebody
going along with a heavy load, and you say, hey, help me. I'll
help you. Tell him that. I'll help you
bear that. We'll bury one another in love.
Our walk here, now turn over to Hebrews 10, quickly. I'm running
out of time. Hebrews 10, our vocation here
is to do what? Apologize. Apologize. Do you like it? It's the glory
of God. You're in with the Father glorified,
which is very much so. Did you try it? Didn't glorify
the Father? Oh, no, no. The Father has glorified
Himself. I've finished the work. Now,
I've given it to these women, and these gay men have it. They're not of the world, even
as I'm of the world. Glorify them, and you'll sanctify them through
baptism. All right, our Lord, what did
He do while He was on this earth? What was His vocation on this earth? Saving
His people. What did Calvary do? It didn't include it. Neither did He love them. Father made sure He would have
me. He loved me. Our walk here, our vocation here,
is to help the brave. Come on, my son. Let's put your
world first. Put your world first. Love yourself. Love yourself. Listen to me,
never put this first in light of this little song, what he's saying. By this shall all
men learn to do nothing. The world loves itself.
It needs its love for itself. The world lives for itself. Here it says our vocation is
to obey one another in love. Hebrews 10, verse 24 and 25,
he says, let us consider one another. Don't consider yourself.
Don't disrespect yourself. But consider one another to provoke
unto love. James said we provoke everybody.
We, that just comes naturally, we do. In many things we provoke. So, our needless. We can provoke you one day, because
we're all sinners. But here he says, provoke one
another to love. In other words, that means you'd
like to make somebody love you. A man who has friends is going
to beat himself up and show himself crazy. Provoke one another to
love. He talks about exhorting, verse
25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. And this
provoking under love and good works. People, what you're doing
right now is the work of God. You know that? This is the work
of God that you believe. I'm telling you the truth. This is good work. God, this
is the best. God rejoices. God is pleased
with this right here moment. This is worth it. Thanks be to Christ. Oh yeah. And you coming here
provokes everybody else. Those of you who work hard and
long hours and it's difficult sometimes to get here, by getting
here, It provokes everybody else to make, to make the attempt.
Is it worth it when you get there? Come on. I guarantee you, every
one of you here that's been a pastor and thought about going to Mount
Atonement, whether it be your husband or your wife or just
any boy that's going to go, you come and you're so blessed that
I thank you. You're so blessed. And we provoke the virtue of
coming. She used to tell me, when she
was in her eighties, she'd say, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I
don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know,
I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know,
I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know,
I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know,
I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know,
I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know,
I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I
don't know, I And it provokes everybody else. Read the next
thing. Not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together, as the
manner of some is. Those some are those that are
not of us, because if they were of us, they no doubt would be
with us. And that's something that's just incredible. But exhorting
one another. Not only provoking one another,
but exhorting one another so much more, as you see the day
approaching. What day? What did you study? The Bible. The day of Christ. It's here. provoking one, exhorting
one another. Walk. Exhorting one another.
You walk. Don't quit. Don't quit. Christ is here. Don't quit. That's what we're doing here.
Lifting up the brethren. We're all prone to wander. Lord,
I feel it. Prone to leave the gut. And a
brother who bears on us. Get up! Dr. Fellow back in the Army,
his brother's been shot, he's bruised, his belly falls in a
hole. Come on! My brother and I will carry the
fellow on his back. That's what we'll do. I know you've heard this illustration. It's still the best I've ever
heard. It's my illustration, that's
why. I mean, it's my experience. Something
means something to you. It's experience. Do you remember
me telling you about Brother Don Cabell coming to visit here?
And I told him about the Peaks of Honor up the hill. Those huge,
huge peaks. Several thousand feet high. And I'd never been up in the
wind, and we hadn't. And we were looking for something
to do. We came into a beautiful place
to sit. And I said, let's go to the Peaks
of Honor. Let's climb up the Peaks of Honor and see it. John
said, sounds good to me. So he drove up there. All right,
we got to the foot of the mountain. Now, there's two ways you can
get up there. You can ride the bus. You can sit there. No sacrifice, no difficulty,
air conditioning. Really, you know you've made
a trip. I said, Donnie, let's walk. The
way we can talk, spend more time together, we can talk as much
as we want, spend more time together. Okay. So we start walking. And we'd be, Don and I, together,
we're all, we'd just, we'd just have that great time. Later, finally, when Jordan went
back, on the road walk with Jordan, we walked about, I guess, four
to five miles, you know. It's not a road. It's not a level
path. It's not smooth. It's not wide. It's narrow. It's rough. It's uphill. And it's winding. We take the bus. I said, oh, we can make it. We've
made it this far. I said, let's go. Look, there's
a sign. Let's go see what the sign says. Can't do much further. We walk. We are walking again. I told Don, let's go. There's
a sign. We're doing, what's the sign?
He said, we've come an eighth of a mile, and now we're a mile
and a quarter to go. I said, let's get the bus. He said, no, you brought me this
far. We're going up this thing. And we'd walk in. That's the
way we were the whole time, talking, edifying one another, discussion,
good reason. But he didn't want to quit. And I opened him up. Oh, he quit. Then I didn't quit. And he didn't
want to quit. When I want to quit, we're sorting
one another. Come on. Come on. We're all ponies. You don't think I want to quit?
I get tired of standing here ponies. I get so tired of hearing
my own voice. I do. I would love, I thought
this morning when I woke up, I thought I'd love to sit in
a pew. Somebody's up there. And I love
it when the Lord blesses me. I enjoy this more than anybody
when the Lord blesses me. Paul said this, he said, you're
weak and I'm not weak. You need comfort and I don't
need it. We're all prone to, from the preacher to the hearer,
all prone to quit. And we exhort one another so
much more as you see today. We're walking with Christ. Where
are we headed? Remember Don and I walking? Somebody said
the view was beautiful. That's the way I kept it, so
Don, I hear it's worth it. I hear it's all worth it. I kept walking. Enjoyed one of
the windy weeks. Didn't I? There was this most glorious
sight this Saturday afternoon. You know what? I forgot the time. I totally forgot the news that
there was rain. Can you do anything about it? It's not below the budget. The
former things should not be remembered when they come to mind on certain
occasions. When we reach the top, oh, you
won't come back. You know, you get to the top
of the Senate, but you're all alone. All right. See? Which is not
very nice. And so it is, with the walk of
a little bit now. And I hope that you're not going
to cry. There we have it. To the promised land. To the
promised land. That's what he did in Barbados,
just to show you how. He said, you must do much for
the country. And you leave on nothing. That's downward here.
That's your vocation for marriage. If you have it, use it as strong
as you can. If you're not willing to talk
like a person, talk like a person, I hear that you work it. When we see things, we don't.
Work together. Work together. What a job. It was a wonderful job. Just
a wonderful job. So that's a worthy wife. We're
going to walk to him. Who is worthy? Athena. What a
job. We're going to walk right on in like Athena did. Walk right
through the gate. Who is worthy? Now Athena. Come walk with us. Come walk with us. All right, let's sing and praise
him. Number 337. 337. So John came up to me and he was praising
him. Let's just sing the first and
last verse, okay? 337, let's sing it. Teach me thy way, O Lord, teach
me thy way. Thy guiding grace, O Lord, teach
me thy way. Help me to walk aright, for by
faith bless my sight. Keep me, help me, love me, teach
me thy ways. Last part. Long as I'm thy slave,
teach me thy ways. Where'er my love be cast, teach
me thy ways. Until the rain is gone, until
the cloud is gone, until the cloud is gone, teach me thy way. you.