Welcome to the Reign of Grace
radio broadcast. My name is Bill Parker. I'm the
pastor of the 13th Street Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky.
This program is sponsored by the members of Eager Avenue Grace
Church in Albany, Georgia, located at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany,
Georgia. I'll be bringing you a gospel
message of the sovereign grace and glory of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ from God's Holy Word. And now, the message. Now today I'm going to be preaching
from the book of Ephesians chapter 4 and the title of the message
is One in Christ. One in Christ from Ephesians
chapter 4. Now last week I preached on the
subject of the walk of grace and concluded with verse 3, where
the Apostle Paul encourages and commands believers, those who
trust in Christ, saved by the grace of God, to endeavor to
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now he's
talking about the unity of brethren, the peace that should exist between
brethren in Christ within the church. And then he goes on to
describe that unity, how it all comes about. In several ways here, he mentions
the word one. He says in verse four, there
is one body and one spirit, even as you are called in one hope
of your calling. So the one, one, one. He says
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all. You
see all those ones. I told someone I started to entitle
this message one and one and one and one, however many ones
here, all equal one. Because that's what he's teaching
here. He's teaching of the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace. And it's all one in Christ Jesus. There is no oneness outside of
Christ that is oneness of the Spirit or unity of the Spirit
or bond of peace in this way. Now people can gather together
in different places for different reasons and be united for a lot
of causes. It could be entertainment, it
could be sports, it could be political, it could be economic,
social, there could be a lot of ways to keep unity and peace
among people. But this is the only eternal
unity and eternal spiritual peace that exists on this earth and
that is the unity of brethren. Now what brings about that unity?
When I look at the first one in verse 4 he says there is one
body. Now the body to whom he or to
which he refers here is the church. There's only one church. Now
you need to make a distinction here between what we refer to
today as churches and what people refer to as different churches,
different denominations. He's not talking about different
churches. And you need to understand this
too. Now, the true church is not a building. We talk about
going to church on Sunday or on Wednesday. And that's okay. I mean, that language, you know,
people use it. But you need to understand that really no one
goes to church. What happens is the church meets
together to worship. The church is the body of Christ. It's a spiritual body made up
of individual people. And these people are sinners
who are saved by the grace of God. They are believers because
they have been given the gift of faith by God to look to Christ. They are sinners, you see, who
look to Christ and trust in Him and worship Him. and their bond
of union is Christ and their mutual admiration and worship
and adoration of Christ. You see the true church is truly
a mutual admiration society but it's not admiration towards a
man who calls himself a pastor. Now there are pastors but if
you follow the pastor or worship the pastor you're worse off than
those who don't go anywhere. You see a pastor We'll see this
in a moment, is merely a messenger, a servant, a signpost to point
you to Christ and Him crucified for all of salvation. The pastor,
a true pastor now, who is God's pastor, is one who tells you
the truth about yourself and about your sins and about your
unworthiness, how you cannot deserve and earn the least of
God's favor. The true pastor, God's pastor,
is one who points you to Christ, His blood shed, and His righteousness
imputed as the only way and ground of salvation, the grace of God,
the sovereign grace of God, the sovereign mercy of God. Any pastor
who teaches you or encourages you to work your way into God's
favor or to work in order to preserve yourself or earn your
rewards is not God's pastor. The true pastor lifts up Christ
in the preaching and leaves you with no other hope, no other
way, no other refuge, no other salvation but Christ and Him
crucified. If the pastor puts himself between
you and Christ, he's a false preacher. That's what I'm saying.
You see there's one body and it's the body of Christ. And
this body is the church. Now the word church literally
means called out ones. In other words, they are those
who are called out of darkness and into Christ's marvelous light
through the preaching of the truth. They are called out of
the world and into the kingdom and household and family of God.
And they are members of his church. The Apostle Paul over in 1 Corinthians
chapter 12, he used the symbol, the metaphor of the human body
to describe the church. Just like the human body is made
up of many different members, I have eyes by which I see, ears
which I hear with, a nose that smells, a mouth, tongue that
tastes, I have fingers that manipulate things, legs and feet that walk. Now, you can't take one part
of my body and say, now this finger here, now that's the whole
body. And so that can exist without the rest of it. No. You see,
we're many members but one body. Now who's in this body? Now I'm
telling you, not everybody who claims to be a Christian is in
this body. There are many who claim to be a Christian but deny
Christ. They either deny Christ in their
doctrine or they deny Christ in their walk. It's possible
to do both. For example, a person who claims
to be a Christian, which is the same as claiming to be a member
of the body, but one who claims to be a Christian but who denies
the deity of Christ? No sir, they're not a member
of this body. There's one body. A person who claims to be a member
of this body who denies the humanity of Christ? Who denies the sinlessness
of Christ? They're not a member of this
body. A person who denies the power and the ability of his
finished work to save his people from their sins? Christ didn't
come here to try to save anybody. His name shall be called Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. His blood shed
on the cross is the total cleansing of all the sins of all His people.
His righteousness alone, His obedience unto death, His perfect
work is their only standing, right standing and acceptance
before God, nothing else. And anyone who denies that is
not a member of this body. The church is the body. There's
one body. Now, there are people who talk about many denominations.
They believe different things, but all in this body believe
the same thing. They believe salvation by grace.
And then he says in verse 4, there's one body and one spirit.
Now, I believe he's talking about the Holy Spirit here. And what
he's talking about is the Holy Spirit, saved in the new birth,
always leads sinners to be convicted of their sins and to rest in
Christ and Him crucified for all of salvation. In other words,
John, you think about it today. There are a lot of people who
talk about the Holy Spirit. They say, well, the Holy Spirit
is here, but He's not here. Or they'll say, well, I went
to, I'm trying to find a church to go to and I walked in and
I just didn't feel the Spirit there. Now listen to me. Listen
carefully. There's a lot of different spirits.
There's evil spirits. There's lying spirits. When you
go to a place to sit down and worship, to see if that's the
place for you, it's not, it cannot be based upon what you feel.
Whether you feel the Spirit or don't feel. It must be based
upon what is being preached from that pulpit. And let me tell
you something, if it's the Holy Spirit who pervades and dwells
in that place, in those people, in that body, The thing that
will be preached and majored on is the gospel of God's grace
in Christ. Christ will be lifted up in His
glory, in His finished work. Christ will be lifted up in His
person. Christ will be lifted up as the
only way of salvation. That preacher will stand up there
and brag on Christ and what he accomplished, and that's the
Holy Spirit's presence. You see, the Holy Spirit will
point sinners to Christ. There's one Spirit. Now if you've
got a Spirit that's pointing you any other way or inspiring
you to go any other way, it's not the Holy Spirit. One Spirit. And then he says, even as you
are called in one hope of your calling. Now that's what the
Holy Spirit does. He calls the church, remember they're the
called out ones, that means they're the chosen of God, they're the
redeemed of God, they're the justified of God, they're the
called of God, regenerated. Well, the Holy Spirit calls the
church in one hope, not in any hopes. What is that hope? It's
the certain expectation of all of salvation based on the person
and work, finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood
and righteousness imputed. And that's the calling. Now verse
5 says there's one Lord. That's speaking of Christ. He
said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the light. No man
cometh unto the Father but by me. There's not many ways. There's
the broad road that leads to destruction and then there's
the narrow way that leads to eternal life. There's one Lord. One sovereign Lord. And not many. You see, Paul wrote to the Corinthian
church in 2 Corinthians in chapter 11. He spoke of those who would
come to deceive them by preaching another Jesus, who is not another. Those who would come preaching
another gospel by another spirit. You see, there are many false
counterfeit Christ. And this is what you need to
understand. You say, well, how do I know the difference between
a counterfeit and the true Christ? You must go to the Word of God
to find out. What does this book say of Jesus
Christ? Who is He? He's God and man in
one person, one Lord. He's both very God of very God
and very man of very man. He's the God-man, He's the Word
made flesh and dwelt among us. As I said before, His name shall
be called Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins.
And then it went on to say, His name shall be called Immanuel,
which being interpreted is God with us. That's who He is. He's everything this book says
He is. And any man who takes that away
and denies any of it is not preaching the one Lord. He saves His people
from their sins. Again, Christ didn't come here
on this earth and try to save anybody. He's not trying to save
anybody now. He did save His people from their
sins. You say, well where does that
leave me? It leaves you where you need to be with no hope but
in Christ. Now run to Him. Rest in Him. Believe in Him. Look to Him. And then it goes on to say one
faith. Now that faith there is not our believing. We do believe. He'd already talked
about that. But one faith here means one
doctrine, one truth. Now the Bible speaks many things
of truth. many things, but there's only
one truth of how God saves sinners, not many, and that's one gospel. And that's what he's talking
about, one gospel. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek, Then he went on in Romans 1 17 and he says, For
therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith, for it is written, The just, or the justified, shall
live by faith. One gospel. How do you know it?
Therein is the righteousness of God revealed. What is that
righteousness of God? He defines it in Romans 3 in
verses 21 through 27. It's the perfect work of the
Lord Jesus Christ to shed his blood as the payment, the full
complete payment for the sins of all his people and it's the
righteousness that he worked out and made by his obedience
unto death on Calvary to be imputed or charged or accounted to his
people. When Christ went to the cross, The sins of his people
were laid to his account and his charge and he suffered and
bled and died for those sins and he drank damnation dry. He
finished the work. And upon doing that, he brought
forth an everlasting righteousness of infinite value whereby God
could be just to justify the ungodly. You see, God must be
both a righteous judge as well as a loving father. How can he
be both? How can he be a righteous judge
and judge righteously and still let us off the hook who are sinners? How can he be a loving father,
a savior, a just God in a second? Only based on the blood and righteousness
of Christ. If he does it any, he cannot
do it any other way. Sins must be punished. Sins must
be paid for. Righteousness must be established.
You can't do it. I can't do it. The best men that
ever live on earth cannot do it. Only Christ, the God-man,
did it. So there's one faith. He says
in verse 5, there's one baptism. Now, baptism here is not referring
to water baptism. The word baptism has to do with
union. It has to do with being, in this
case, union with Christ. Baptized into Christ. In other
words, the Bible uses the term, for example, being baptized into
Moses, referring to the nation Israel. In other words, they
were following Moses. They were one with Moses. And
that was a picture and type of how the church, the true church,
is one with Christ. Now let me say this. What about
water baptism? Two things about water baptism.
Number one, there is only one way scripturally of water baptism
and that is by immersion. Sprinkling, pouring, dousing
babies is not scriptural baptism. There's only one way and that's
by immersion. That's the New Testament way.
The second thing about baptism is it is for believing adults. It can be for believing children
too, not babies and infants, you see. But it can be for children
who truly believe, and you know, people may argue about how old
they have to be or what age of a kid. That's not what the scripture
teaches. What the scripture teaches is this. Any person who has been
brought to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has been saved
by the grace of God, you see, any person who's been saved by
the grace of God, is to confess that salvation and to confess
before men their union with Christ in Believer's Baptism, by immersion. And in immersion, we identify
with him in his death, going down into the water, burial,
going down into the water, and resurrection, coming up out.
And that's what water baptism is. Now, water baptism does not
save anybody. And in water baptism, the blood
of Christ is not applied to you. Water baptism is an outward confession
of something that has already taken place on Calvary first
and in the heart by regeneration and conversion. In other words,
the blood of Christ, you see, is applied at Calvary and that
then life is given unto new birth, and those who have been redeemed
by the blood and regenerated by the Spirit are to confess
it in believer's baptism." Now, but this baptism here refers
to our union with Christ. And what he's saying here is
this. There's only one union that saves. and that's our union
with Christ. Now I can go join this group
or I can go join that group or I can go join myself with this
preacher or that preacher or that philosophy or this philosophy
but my friend the only union that'll save a soul is union
with Christ. One baptism. You can be united
to a lot of people and feel good about yourself. You can go to
support groups and they'll talk real good and they'll help you
along and sometimes they have their place but that will not
save you. only union with Christ will save
you. When were God's people united to Christ in union? Before the
foundation of the world in God's sovereign divine electing grace. And then we were united to Christ
at the cross when our sins were laid upon Him. And we were united
to Christ by the new birth when the Holy Spirit gave us life
and called us into union with Him. There's one baptism and
that's what he's talking about. In verse 6 he says there's one
God and Father of all who is above all and through all and
in you all. One God. One Father. Now you remember I quoted John
chapter 14 and verse 6 earlier where the Lord Jesus Christ makes
this statement and it's a bold statement. We quote it quite
often but sometimes we don't stop to consider the impact of
it. And it goes like this, Christ said, now here he is standing,
speaking to his people, his children, his disciples. And he said, I
am the way, no other way. I am the truth, no other truth. I am the life, no other life. Then he went on to say, no man
cometh unto the Father but by me. Now here's what he's saying,
there's no way to the Father but through the Son. The Son
of God incarnate, Christ in Him crucified. You think there's
any other way? You're sadly mistaken. You see,
all other ways are ways of lies, not truth. All other ways are
ways of death, not life. You see, the Bible teaches that
God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That they are one God. He says it here in Ephesians
chapter 4. There's one God. That they are
one God who subsist in three distinct persons. Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. One in nature, but three in person. Not three gods now, but one God. And the Triune God, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit are revealed in their effulgent glory through
the Son of God incarnate, Christ the God-man. Scripture says in
Colossians chapter 3, chapter 2 rather, verse 9, for in Him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are
complete in Him. So what he's saying here is this,
if you call God your Father, and it's really true that he
is your father he who is above all and through all and in you
all the one body of christ if god is your father it's through
the son through the son the lord jesus christ and so he says in
verse 7 he says but unto every one of us is given grace according
to the measure of the gift of christ now in this one body you
see this is one in christ now and there is such a unity here
But in this one body, there's a distinction and a variation
of gifts. Now, first of all, we all who
know Christ now, who are members of this one body, we are all
given the one gift of salvation by grace equally. In other words,
in this body, there's not one person who is more saved than
another. There's no variation in their
forgiveness. They're washed clean from their
sins in the blood of Christ equally, equally forgiven. There's no
variation in their acceptance before God, their justification
before God. They're all equally justified,
equally righteous in Christ. That's one and that's equal.
But there are spiritual gifts. And one may have more knowledge.
One may be more mature. One may have a gift that somebody
else doesn't have. Just like the human body. My
hands have the gift to grasp things. Now my feet couldn't
do this. Or my heart could not do this. It has another function. The
heart inside of my chest pumps the blood that goes through my
body. So that the organs can have oxygen.
So, my hands have one task, one gift, my heart has another. And
in the body of Christ, there's also gifts of knowledge, gifts
of preaching, gifts of teaching. There's all kinds of gifts that
God gives. And this gift is given according
to the measure of the gift of Christ. In other words, you don't
earn your gifts, and your gifts are not natural to you. Christ
gives them out by His Spirit as He sees fit. So he says in
verse 8, wherefore, or for this reason, he says, when he ascended
up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. In other words, when Christ was
lifted up on high, he was lifted up as Lord and Savior to dispose
over all things, to give gifts as he would sovereignly dispose
them. And he says in verse 9, now that he ascended, what is
it? But that he also descended first
into the lower parts of the earth, He that descended is the same
also, that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill
all things." And what he's teaching there is this, Christ is the
Savior of the Church, but He's also the Sovereign of the Church. He's the Sovereign Savior. He
not only redeemed His people, but He rules over them. And I'll
come back and explain some more of that next time, but He is
the Sovereign Lord. He didn't just save his people
and say, now you're all on your own. He didn't just pay the price
and buy them with his own precious blood and marry them as the bridegroom
marries the bride in order to just set them out on their own.
He's the sovereign. He's the ruler. He works in the
life of the church, for he is the life of the church. I've
often said it this way. He's the foundation of the church.
He's the chief cornerstone of the church. He's the head of
the church, but he's also the heart of the church. He said,
where two or three are gathered in my name, there I'll be in
the midst of them. And he gives gifts, he preserves his church,
he guides his church, just like a shepherd with the rod and the
staff guides the sheep, and he feeds his church, he provides
for his church, and he gives gifts to his church. So this
is the issue of one in Christ. Now I hope this message has been
helpful to your understanding of the scriptures. And again,
if you'd like to get a copy of this message, listen to the announcer
as he'll give you the instructions and details that you need. The
title of this message is One in Christ. And I hope you'll
join us next week for another message from God's Word. We're glad you could join us
for today's message. If you would like to receive
a copy of this message or if you would like more information
about Eager Avenue Grace Church, remember we are located at 1102
Eager Drive in Albany, Georgia. You can call us at 229-432-6969. or visit our Reign of Grace website
at www.rofgrace.com. Thank you, and may the Lord be
with you.