Let's turn to Ephesians chapter
two. Ephesians chapter two. You know, every man by nature
is dead in sin, separated from God. He's without God, without
Christ, without the Spirit, completely deprived of any spiritual ability
to do anything good. That's why God said here in chapter
two, verse one, And you hath he quickened who were dead in
trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in
times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath. even as others, but God. Thank the Lord for but God. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
are you saved. And in the margin it says, by
whose grace are you saved. And he hath raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ, that in the
ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace
and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are
you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For
we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Wherefore remember that ye, being in time past Gentiles in the
flesh, who are called uncircumcised by that which is called the circumcision
in the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers
from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God
in this world. But now, in Christ Jesus, ye
who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
See how precious he is? For he is our peace, who hath
made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even
the law of commandments contained in ordinances. For to make in
himself of twain one new man, so make in peace. and that he
might reconcile both to God in one body by the cross, having
slain enmity thereby, or in himself, and came and preached peace to
you, which were far off, and to them that were nigh. For through
him, through Christ, we both have access by one spirit unto
the Father. Now, therefore, ye are no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God. and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are
built together for the habitation of God through the Spirit. Let
us pray. Good singing, good service. Open
your Bibles with me to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four. Let's
read these first seven verses together. I therefore, the prisoner of
the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with a 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, but unto every
one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of
Christ. There in verse one, Paul said,
I beseech you, brethren, that you walk worthy of the vocation
we're with you called. I want to talk walking worthy
of our vocation. If you look at a concordance,
you'll find dozens and dozens of scriptures that deal with
a believer's walk in this world. He read tonight that we once
walked according to the prince of the power of the air. And
walk has to do with your manner of life, what you do, your life,
where you go, what you do. It just means Enoch walked with
God. And then there was we walked
according to the course of the prince of the pair there. Two
different opposites. Walked according to the course
of this world, Enoch walked with God. And on how we are to walk,
it says we're to walk worthy of that vocation we're with,
we're called. Look over here in Ephesians 5.1, 5.2, excuse
me. Or verse 1, be ye therefore followers
of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also has once
loved us. And you know why we'll wind up
walking the way we do? Because God said, I'll be their
God and I will walk in them. I will walk in them. God hath
created us in Christ Jesus and ordained us unto good works
that we should walk in them. He ordained that, that we're
going to walk in good works. And he said, it's God which worketh
in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. So if anybody
walks according to their vocation, and this vocation means you're
calling. It just means you're calling. We're unto your call. Vocation means you're called
to this. You're called to walk according to your calling. And
it wants you to walk according to your calling. And it just
means our activities. It just means moving. It just
means, you know, a person, Enoch walked with God and he got up
and went to work every day. Raised a huge family. And he
didn't have chairs to sit in like we do and cars to ride in,
but he walked with God. Walked with God over 300 years.
And it just means how we live in this world. How we conduct
ourselves in this world. How we go through our lives.
And then how believers, let me give you just a few things about
this. How are believers to walk worthy of their vacation? And
I'm gonna say not only how they are to walk, But they do walk
this way. You know, they do walk this way.
First of all, look over with me in Romans chapter 6. Romans
chapter 6. We walk in newness of life. Newness
of life. You know, when God regenerates
us and saves us by His grace, He makes us new creatures in
Christ. He makes us, He gives us new
natures. He gives us a new heart. That's
what He calls a new nature, a new heart. He said He gives us a
wheel, a new wheel to follow Him. And look what He says here
in Romans chapter 6 and verse 4, Therefore we are buried with
Him by baptism unto death, that when we are baptized we are identified
with the Lord Jesus Christ in His death. And that like as Christ
was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, As Christ
was raised up from the dead and walked and raised up to set in
glory, even so we, since we're raised up with Christ, raised
up even so we also should walk in newness of life. And that's
what we do. It's a new life. Our life is
new life. It's a new way of thinking, a
new way of walking, a new way of feeling. Everything about
our life as believers is new. When we're first regenerated,
it's all new, and we're still walking in newness of life. This
life is still more than I can... I'm just amazed at it. Amazed
at it, you know. We sing Amazing Grace all the
time. Look with me in Galatians chapter 6. And you know, that's
just... You know, if you're in Ephesians
4, you know, it's the next book to your left. But there he says,
you know, when we walk in newness of life, There we was walking
the course the course of the world and then all of a sudden
God puts us in Christ We walk a different way our lives all
together different, but look what he said here in Galatians
6 15 For in Christ Jesus, and that's
what we're talking about Neither circumcision that means being
a Jew being dedicated being committed and veils anything, nor uncircumcision. I've got liberty in Christ. I
can do what I want to. I've got great liberty in Christ.
That don't profit anything. But you know what does? None
of these things avail anything but a new creature, a new creation. And listen to what Paul said
here. And as many as walk according to this rule, what rule? A new
creature in Christ. Peace be on them and mercy and
upon the God of Israel. So you see, here we are, we're
blessed of God. Blessed of God. That's the rule
that we walk by. And then we walk in the steps,
not only in newness of life, but Romans 4.12 says we walk
in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham. Believers
walk by faith. They walk in newness of life,
but they walk by faith. And Shirley and I was talking
about on the way to service tonight. You know, if you can't trust
God in the dark, when you don't have no light, when you don't
have no comfort, when you don't have any, you know, and you can't
feel the presence of God, and you feel like you're in this
darkness that you're in, and you're depressed, and life is
full of darkness and troubles and heartaches and sorrows. He
said, if you can't trust Him then, you can't trust Him in
the light either. And so we walk by faith. And
I tell you, this faith that we walk by, And he read it tonight,
for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
It's a faith that works, walks and works not out of fear of
being punished of God or not out of believing that God's promised
us a great reward when we get to the end of the way. But Galatians
5, 6 says that faith worketh by what? By love, by love. That's how faith works. It works
by love. We love Christ. Why? Because
we first loved him. And then Paul said, our hearts
are purified by faith. You know people that says that
the pure in heart shall see God. And people go through this life
trying to purify their hearts. And Paul said we start out with
a purified heart. We're not going to end up with
a purified heart. We start with one. God gives us a purified
heart at the beginning. How does He purify it? By faith. And He makes it pure and that's
why we see God. We see God now. We're not going
to just see Him but we see Him right now. We see God as He is.
Sovereign, holy, immutable, gracious, having mercy on whom He'll have
mercy, having compassion on whom He'll have compassion, that He
saves by grace that He sent His Son into this world. Oh, listen,
and our hearts are purified by faith, and that faith is a gift
of God. You just read it. For by grace
are you saved. Just let it go at that. By grace
are you saved through faith. And that faith is not of yourselves. Would you get it? It's the gift
of God, not of works. Works don't enter into it. Not
before salvation, not after salvation. Not of works, because if you
did, just as sure as you live, you'd brag about it and you'd
boast in it. For we are God's workmanship. God done this work. God started
this work. He which hath begun a good work
in you, he shall perform it under the day of Jesus Christ. And God hath created us, and
we're His workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good work,
which He hath ordained that we should what? Walk in Him. And
I tell you what, and I'm going to tell you something. If God
ordained that you do it, you're going to do it. But I've yet
to meet a believer. I've yet to meet a believer in
the grace of God that ever, ever said, that's a good work I've
just done. I've never met one. I've met
religious people. I've met Armenians. I've met
Pentecostals. I've met Reformed Baptists. I've
met Presbyterians. I've met Methodists. I've met
all kinds of people. that they'll talk talking about
their works and how much they love Jesus and how much they
gonna walk for Jesus and all and they'll talk about their
works but I've never ever met a believer who ever talks about
their good works. Have you? Did y'all do a good work today? Did you do a good work and you
gonna look at God? If you bragging, it is not a
good work because I tell you what God works in us. God works
in us both to will and to do. And faith is a gift. And then
it says not only do we walk by faith, but we walk after the
spirit. Look over in Romans chapter four,
excuse me, Romans chapter eight. I remember Scott Richardson one
time was in a meeting up there and
this preacher came and he started talking about, you know, a man to righteousness,
you know, the righteousness of Christ and then living the righteous
life. And he used an illustration.
And he used this illustration and said, now it's just like
a believer. If he lives next door to a fellow and the fellow's
having a yard sale or something, he's got his furniture out in
the yard and it starts raining, he'll run over and help him,
the righteous man run over and help him get his furniture back
in his house. Scott got up and said, righteousness don't have,
that's not a, righteousness don't have nothing to do with it. He
said, anybody'd help a man get his furniture in and out of the
rain. Anybody'd do that. What good is that going to get
you? You don't have to be righteous
to help a man get his furniture in while it's raining. The fellow wants to feel good
about that. If it's raining, You've heard
people ain't got shit enough to get out of the rain? I tell
you what, if a fella's got his furniture in the rain, if you're
there, if you're just driving by and seeing somebody trying
to, somebody dragging their furniture out, and it was pouring down
in the rain, you'd probably stop and say, let me help you real
quick and get this in there. But he was wanting to make a
big issue out of it. God said, there's no righteousness in that.
You don't have to be, instead of heathen to do that, they help
one another. And all of us, look in Romans
chapter 8 verse 4. Look what he said here in verse
4, Romans 8. He said, the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us. Now listen to what he says here. Who walk not after
the flesh, but after the spirit. Oh, listen. Why don't we walk
after the flesh? What's the flesh ever profited
us in anyway? Huh? There is in me, that is
in my flesh to us no good thing. Huh? And look what else he goes on
to say. We walk not after the flesh. We don't walk after our
fallen nature. We don't walk after the dynamic
nature. We don't walk according to the
desires of this flesh right here. But who do we walk after? We
walk after the Spirit. The Spirit of God. And the things
of the Spirit of God. Look what he says down in verse
14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the
sons of God. Now let me ask you something
about this, and look in verse 16 before I do it. The Spirit
itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God. Now listen, if you're walking
after the Spirit, and you're led by the Spirit, where in the
world does the Spirit of God lead you? Where does He lead
you to? If you're a son of God, where
does the Spirit of God lead you to? He leads you to Christ. He takes the things of Christ
and shows them unto you. He leads you to Christ. He leads
you to the things of Christ. He leads you to love Him, obey
Him, honor Him, and if we walk after those who walk after the
flesh, they don't care for us. And then the Holy Spirit gives
us assurance that we're in Christ. Oh, I tell you, this walking
after the Spirit, you know, people say, well, I was thinking about
this the other day. You go to services and things,
and people say, it's all hearts and minds clear, you know. And
you know, they get up first, they first thing say, brother,
you got anything you want to say for the Lord today? You know
what, ain't got nothing to say. And they say, it's all hearts and
minds clear. Somebody will sit there a while,
and then they'll get up and say, well, I don't want to disobey
the spirit of the Lord, so I just ought to say this. You know,
if I don't want to get a whipping from the Lord, well, I'll tell
you something. That's not mind in the Spirit.
That's not mind in the Spirit at all. You know what mind in
the Spirit is? Following Christ. Believing Christ. Loving Christ. Calling on Christ. Fleeing to Christ. Finding Christ
to be your refuge. The Spirit don't lead nobody
to no place but Christ. It don't lead you to speak in
tongues and act like a fool. It don't lead you to walk the
aisles. It don't lead you to altars to get down here and make
a profession of faith. What it does, it leads you to
Christ. to trust Him. And that's how
you know the difference whether you're in the Spirit or out of
the Spirit. If you're in the Spirit, you're looking to Christ.
You're trusting Christ. You're here to hear about Christ.
You're here by God's grace to trust Christ and embrace Christ
in every way there is to do it. Is that not right? And I'll tell
you something else talking about walking right. Look over in 1
Thessalonians, right to your right. You got Philippians, Colossians,
and 1 Thessalonians. Look in 1 Thessalonians 4, in
verse 11. And then walk honestly, and walk
in honestly. Paul told the Romans, he said,
walk honestly before all men. And look what he says here. In
1 Thessalonians 4, 11 and 12. That you study to be quiet. And that quiet there means is
to be restful and peaceful. Don't let your mind be in an
uproar. Don't let things in your home be in an uproar. Just live
your life in quiet assurance and not with chaos and things.
And then do your own business. Take care of your own business
and work with your own hands as we commanded you. And he said,
this is the reason we tell you to do this. that you make walk
honestly toward them that are without, that you have lack need
of nothing. In other words, make a, be honest,
work, take care of yourself, your home and your family, and
then you can walk honestly out in the world and you don't lack
for anything and you don't have to be begging and pleading and
trusting somebody to do something for you. God says you do, you
walk honestly. You can do that when you live
like that. You can walk honestly. You don't need anything from
anybody. And then, I tell you, we done said it, look in Ephesians
2.10, we walk in good works. And I
tell you something, I've already said of this, for we are His
workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. And we're predestinated to do
this, so I know God's people do it. I know beyond a shadow
of a doubt that they do it. That's why in the world you end
up bragging on other people and never brag on yourself. Because
they do things for you and think nothing of it and yet you brag
on them because you don't feel like you do anything. But you
know the story when the Lord Jesus Christ comes and he looked
at people and he says, you know, said, when I was hungry, you didn't feed me. When I was
naked, you didn't close me. When I was in prison, you didn't
visit me. And a bus jumped up and said,
Lord, when didn't we do these things? When didn't we do these
things? And another group says, Lord, when did we? We didn't know it. He said, and he told another
group, you did visit me in prison. You did clothe me when I was
naked. You did feed me when I was hungry. And they said, Lord, when did we do these things?
He said, as often as you did it to me, you did it to others,
you did it to me. That's what he said. And then
let me give you this in Ephesians 1. Not Ephesians 1, Ephesians 5,
excuse me. And then here's what he says.
Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children, dear children. Oh, what a way for God to speak
of us. Dear children, be ye therefore followers of God as dear children. And walk in love. How are we going to walk in love?
As Christ also has loved us and loved us. How do we know how
much he loved us? He'd given himself for us an offering and
a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. Oh my. And he says, you know, God said,
I'll be their God and I will walk in them and they shall be
my people. And when we talk about walking
in love, what love to who? First of all, we walk in love. It's God. Walk. Be ye followers
therefore of God, his dear children. Walk in love towards God, our
Father. who's given us all things in
our Lord Jesus Christ. Walk in love toward the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh, how we love Him. Oh, how
I love, how I love Jesus. Why? Because He first loved me. And love to our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul wrote to the Ephesians here
and he said, to them that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Christ is all and in all. And
then walk in love towards one another. And you know who our
example is? The Lord Jesus Christ. Let me
show you something in 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3. Look over here. Let's look at
this and see what he says here. 1 John 3 and verse 16. Talking about love towards one
another. Oh, if a man Have not charity, he's a sounding brass,
he's a tinkling cymbal. And look what he says here in
1 John 3, 16. Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because he laid down his life for us. And since he laid
down his life for us, we ought to lay down our lives for the
brethren. Lay our lives on the line for
one another. Oh, listen. Put yourself, when
somebody's getting after one of God's people, you stand up
for them. You put yourself in their place, you stand up for
them. You lay down your life for them. You lay, you know,
when somebody's attacking somebody's character, you put yourself on
the line for them. You lay down your life for them.
You lay down your life for them. Lay down your reputation for
them. And then let me show you this one in Colossians, right
over to your right. Colossians chapter 4. Walk in
love as Christ did. In Colossians chapter 4 and verse
5, look what he says here. Walk in wisdom. Walk in wisdom. In verse 5. Walk in wisdom toward them that
are without, people that's outside the faith, outside of God, outside
of Christ. that's outside the faith. Walk
with wisdom toward them that are without. Redeeming the time. Use the time because it's precious. So when you have an opportunity,
you walk in wisdom toward people that's outside of Christ, outside
the gospel. And here said, when you do talk
to them, when you do have anything to say, let your speech be always
with grace. Don't attack them. Don't get
mad at them, don't get upset at them. Let your speech be always
with grace. Seasoned with salt. Oh my, you
ever try to eat anything without any salt on it? It's awful. He says, you let your words be
seasoned with salt that you may know how to answer every man.
Walk in wisdom. And you know where true wisdom
comes from above? It comes from above. Comes down
from the Father. And wisdom is the right use of
knowledge. Right use of knowledge. You got
knowledge and you know how to use it. That's just what it means.
Just the right use of knowledge. Let me give you one in Ephesians
5. Ephesians 5. Verse 15. Ephesians 5, 15. See that you walk circumspectly,
not as fools, but as wise. Walk circumspectly. What does
that mean? Don't walk like a fool. What
does walk circumspectly mean? It means walk carefully, walk
diligently. It means walking with an accuracy
with the outcome which is careless, carefulness. And you know that
means to watch You people's watching us and walk circumspectly. That means everything around
you, you walk with diligence, walk with care. And I tell you, you don't have
to go around telling everybody you're a believer. They'll figure
it out sooner or later. They'll figure out there's something
about you that's right and real and just and true. They will.
And then look what he said up in verse 8 here. Ephesians 5,
you are sometimes darkness. But now you're the light and
the Lord walk as children of light. We're not walking in darkness,
we're walking in the light and walk circumspectly. Well, let
me give you a few things here before I get through. How in
the world can we walk like this? How can we walk in love, circumspectly,
walk in faith? How can we do it? How can we
do it? Walk in the spirit, walk in newness
of life. How are believers able to walk
this way? Well, Philippians 2.13, I'm gonna
show you. You know, Amos 3.3 says this,
how can two walk together except they be agreed? And that's right. Two can't walk
together unless they be, that walk together means have fellowship,
union, and communion. And you walk together. You're
walking along in fellowship. You're walking with somebody.
How can you walk together except you be agreed? And that's why
he's talking about walk. How can you walk with God unless
you agree with God? Agree with the way He is. How
can you walk with God unless you know who you are? And look
what he says here in Philippians 2.13. For it is God which worketh in you both to
will and to do of his good pleasure. And I tell you how we walk this
way because we received Christ Jesus the Lord. Over in Colossians,
right to your right in Colossians chapter two and verse six, You
know, I'll tell you why we walk is we've received the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's Christ in you, that's the
hope of glory. In Colossians 2.6, look what
he says here. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Well, how in the world
did believers receive the Lord Jesus Christ? In what ways did
we receive him that we would walk in him? We received Him
in our minds, in our knowledge, in our understanding, in our
affections, in our trust. And how did we receive Him? We
received Him thankfully, so thankfully, the Lord Jesus Christ. The first
thing we say, Oh, thank you, Lord. Thank you. We received
Him by grace. We received Him by grace. When
we received Him thankfully, oh, thank God. When men pray, thank
God for the Lord Jesus Christ that God sent Christ into this
world. Very thankfully because we have
no claim to His grace. And we received Him in humility. We received Him humbly. So we're
gonna walk in Him humbly. We received Him with a broken
heart and a contrite spirit. And we received Him with joy.
You remember the joy there was when you first believed? Oh,
there's still joy in believing. When you understand that salvation's
all of grace, oh, the joy there is in believing! The peace that
goes with believing! And oh, my, we receive Him very
graciously, very thankfully, and we say, Lord Jesus, come!
Come, take the best seat in the house. Come, sit on the throne
of the heart. Whatever, oh Lord, take me. Do what you will with me. I'm
yours to do as you please. And we received Him unreservedly. We received our Lord Jesus Christ
wholeheartedly. And we received Him by faith.
And that's why we can walk in Him the way we received Him.
We didn't deserve Him, but we walk in Him. He gave us grace. We never earned it. We didn't
have it coming. But we walk in grace. He gave
us faith. We walk in faith. I'll tell you something. Oh, how else do we walk? We walk
by the power of the Spirit of God. Christ the Holy Spirit's
in us, works in us. Our Lord said, I won't leave
you comforted. It's the Holy Spirit that quickened
us and regenerated us. And when it says walk in the
Spirit, you know what it means? It says walk in a row. You know
how when we was in the military, you'd have to, they'd put us
four abreast and you'd march four abreast. And you'd be in
a row. And I mean if somebody's out
of step, drill instructor knows it that quick. But you'd march,
and you'd march in a row. And that's what he says here
is walking by the Spirit regenerator. Walk in a row. Walk in unity. Walk in a row. And everybody
walking with the same steps, the same walk, walking in a row. Keep step with one another. Keep
in submission of heart to the Holy Spirit. keeping step with
Christ. That's the great means that God
uses to bring harmony and unity and peace in the church. Us walking
all together in this, just walking in a row in the same steps. And oh, look what he said in
Galatians 5. Galatians 5.25. Oh my. You know, and that's what he,
he'll walk in a row. Walk, walk in spirit. This is
what he said here in Galatians 5.25. If we live in the spirit,
and how else can we live? We certainly can't live by the
flesh. So let us also walk in the spirit. And let me show you one other
thing and I'll be done. Acts chapter nine. This is how
we walk. We verse first because Christ
walks in us. The Spirit of God walks in us.
God walks in us. God works in us. Look in Acts
chapter 9. And then we walk in the fear
of the Lord. We walk as we receive the Lord Jesus Christ. God works
in us. God walks in us. And look what
he said here. And verse 31, then had the churches rest throughout
all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and were edified. And watch this,
walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy
Ghost were multiplied. We walk in the fear of the Lord,
huh? Might that be our state and condition, walk in the fear
of the Lord, huh? And you know, I'll tell you something,
You can't do any of the things that I mentioned tonight, not
one of them, not one of them, unless Christ be in you, unless
you're regenerated. I beseech you therefore, brethren,
walk worthy of vocation, we're with you called. And the first
thing he said, in all lowliness of mind and meekness, forbearing
one another in love. endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit and the bond of peace. One Lord, one faith, one
baptism, one God, one Father of all in all through all. One. Very simple, ain't it? Very simple. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, we bless you and thank you for the grace
given us in Christ for being so gracious to us, so kind to
us, so pitiful towards us. Our Father, we look to you for
all things. We have no confidence in this
flesh. We have no confidence in ourselves.
Our confidence is in you. Our trust is on you, state. We
have no one to look to, no one to go to, no one to trust. No
one that would do for us what you do. And Lord, you taught
us these blessed things, and our very heart and soul finds
rest and comfort and assurance in you working in us, you keeping
us, preserving us, enabling us to walk in love and grace and
faith and humility. Bless you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Bless your holy name. Amen. Amen.