Well, good morning, everyone.
If you would open your Bibles with me to Ephesians chapter
four. Ephesians chapter four. We're delighted to have mom back
in the service this morning. January to June's a long time
not being the worship service, isn't it? Before we begin, let's
bow before our Lord together in prayer. Our Father, oh how
we thank you that this is the day that you've appointed that
we can meet together to worship your precious name. Father, I
pray that you would enable us by thy spirit to do just that
this morning, to worship thee in spirit and in truth. I pray
as we open your word that you would enable me and our teachers
this morning to lift up and exalt the name of Christ our Savior.
And Father, cause faith to be mixed with what we hear, enable
us to believe and lay hold upon the Lord Jesus Christ by thy
word that's preached this morning. Father, we're so thankful for
how you've blessed us over all these many, many years. Father,
we pray that you not leave us alone now, but especially, Father,
in this hour, speak to each heart here this morning. Father, what
we pray for ourselves, we pray for your people, wherever they
might gather together and meet this morning. Father, bless your
word in this dark, dark day in which we live. Cause your word
to go forth as a light that would call your people to Christ, enable
us to see our need, to see who Christ is, and to run to him.
Father, we pray that you'd cause your word to go forth in such
power that you'd give us a revival in the land, that you might reveal
your glory, your saving, redemptive glory in the person of our Lord
Jesus Christ. In all these things we ask, Father,
in that name which is above every name, the name of Christ our
Savior, amen. All right, this morning we're
gonna begin a study in Ephesians chapter four. Now in the first
three chapters of this blessed epistle, Paul has laid out for
us the doctrines of grace. He showed us how that the salvation
of sinners all comes from the covenant of God's grace. He told
us blessed be the father of the Lord Jesus Christ who elected
a people. He chose us and predestinated
us to be made just like his son. He told us that we have redemption
through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He told us how
the Holy Spirit has sealed God's people by giving them faith in
Christ. And he told us why he did it
all. He did it all so that Christ would be glorified. Paul told
us about the new birth. Now the new birth is the result
of God's covenant of grace. God chose the people, Christ
died for them, he must give them life. God's elect are born dead
in sin, but now God's quickened us together with Christ. He told
us, make no mistake about this, don't forget this. Salvation
is by grace through faith. And that in all of yourselves
is a gift of God. None of our works contribute
the first thing to our salvation ever. Either to earn it or to
keep it. He told us how sinners have peace
with God through the blood of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The blood of Christ took away the sin that caused the war in
the first place. And there's peace. So in these
first three chapters, the apostle laid out for us the way of salvation. Now in the last three chapters
of this epistle, Paul's gonna show us the walk of salvation.
And it has to be in that order. You have to have the correct
order. First is the way of salvation. Then is the walk of salvation.
You can't walk in salvation until God saves you, can you? So first
is the way of salvation. And the way of salvation, has
absolutely nothing to do with our works. What we do, what we
don't do, that doesn't affect the way of salvation at all.
Well, do you know the walk of salvation has absolutely nothing
to do with our actions either. When Paul talks about the walk
of salvation, he's not telling us to do anything. What he's
talking about is attitude and motive. He's talking about what's
in the heart. When Paul tells a believer how
to walk in this world, he doesn't give us a list of rules to follow. He doesn't give us a checklist.
You complete all these, you know, and you'll have the walk that's
worthy. I love to do to-do lists, you
know, the more they keep me on track, keep me from forgetting
what I'm supposed to do. But the believer's walk is not
a to-do list. When Paul talks about the believer's
walk and how we're to conduct ourselves, He talks about the
inward motives of the heart. The heart that directs our actions. And he does that because salvation's
a heart work. Salvation is an inward work of
God. And here's the reason that Paul
talks about the inward. You can't legislate morality.
Cannot do it. We can try, I'm all for laws
that punish people for doing the wrong things, trying to keep
things, people from doing the right, keep them doing the right
thing, but you cannot legislate morality. You cannot make somebody
be a moral person. You cannot do it. But if God
does an inward work of grace in the heart, it'll be done. It'll be automatic. It won't
be perfect now, but if God does an inward work of grace in the
heart, There's gonna be some evidence of it on the outside
because the heart is what directs our actions. So the believer's
walk is very important. Paul devotes three whole chapters
to it in this epistle. But don't ever forget this. You
cannot look to your walk, to a believer's walk, to anybody's
walk to determine their salvation. You can never find evidence of
salvation in our conduct. Ever. Ever. The only evidence
we have of salvation is God given faith in the heart. That's it. You just go through scripture
and you find men doing things that curl your hair. And if you
look at them that way, you look at Abraham. You look at Jacob. You look at David. You look at
Solomon. Look at Peter. You look at those
men at any given moment and you think, It's impossible that that
man knows the Lord. You can't look at the outward
actions, can you? Can't do it. The only evidence we have of
salvation is God-given faith in the heart. And where there's
faith in the heart, there's a new man. And with the new man comes
new motives and new loves. So the attitudes here, the motives,
the attitudes, this inward thing that Paul's talking about here,
those things come naturally to every believer. They're in the
new man that's born in every single believer. They're there
naturally, but they also have to be taught. Those things, these
attitudes, they're there naturally. God put them in us, but we have
to be taught to nurture those things and to act upon those
attitudes. In verse one of Ephesians four,
Paul says, now see you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're
called. Now that word worthy means as
becometh. It doesn't mean that you walk
worthy enough so that you earn something, it means as becometh. Walk in a way, conduct yourself
in a way that becomes a believer, that's becoming. Have an attitude
that's becoming of a believer. We can't do anything to be worthy,
can we? We can't do anything to be accepted
of God. We cannot do anything to be worthy of God's Son. We can't be worthy of Christ,
and understanding that will help us have this attitude. I'm not
worthy. I'm not worthy of the least of
God's mercies. I can't imagine saying I've done
something worthy of the sacrifice of Christ. Having that knowledge,
having that attitude will give us this becoming attitude of
a believer that we'll talk about here in just a minute. And the
word vocation, Paul uses. You know, normally we think of
that as your job. This is my job, this is what I'm supposed
to do. Well, the word Paul uses, translated vocation, doesn't
mean job or vocation like we use it. It means a calling, a
calling to a feast. Now, when you go to a feast,
There's a certain way that you conduct yourself in, a certain
way you dress, certain way you talk, certain way you conduct
yourself. So what Paul's telling us here is have an attitude that
it is becoming your calling, your calling to Christ. So let
me give you three or four things here on the attitude of a believer. This is a worthy walk. It's the
attitude of a worthy walk. And the first one, the first
attitude of a worthy walk of a believer is love. In verse
one, Paul says, I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech
you. He's not ordering us, is he?
He's not commanding us. He's not putting us under a burden.
He said, I beseech you, I'm begging you, I ask you that you walk
worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called. Now, Paul says,
I'm getting ready to ask you to have this attitude, to act
upon this attitude that a believer ought to have. And what's your
motivation for doing it? It's love. Paul says, I'm the
prisoner of Jesus Christ. I'm a prisoner here in Rome.
Now, if you love me, you'll do these things because you want
to do something to make my life here in prison a little bit easier.
You do that for somebody that you love. Paul says it would
comfort my heart if you take on these attitudes and act on
these attitudes because you love me and you love the Lord. Even
though I'm a prisoner in Rome, That would comfort my heart.
So walk in this attitude of love because you love others. He says
there at the end of verse two, forbearing one another in love,
in love. Love is the motivating, the driving
factor in the heart of a believer. Walking worthy of our calling
is seeking to do something to help somebody else. Just cause
you love them. Just cause you love them. Now
that love comes naturally to a believer. That love is in the
heart of everybody that God saves. But we also have to be taught
to act on that love. Don't just feel that love, look
for opportunities to show it to your brethren. Everybody here
knows that Janet and I are our new grandparents. When Savannah
and Clark bring that little baby around, Nobody has to tell me
and Janet what we're supposed to do. Love just acts naturally. That baby's crying, give me that
baby. I'll hold him. He's hungry? Give that baby to
me, I'll feed him. He's happy laying there in his
playpen doing nothing? Give him to me, I'm gonna love
on him. And we love Savannah and Clark. They come to our house,
you all know how new parents are. They're sleep deprived,
they're exhausted. Nobody has to tell us what to
do for those two. We say, your room's ready up
there. Go up there and take a nap. Let us take this baby. It's love. It's love. Now look to do that
for each other. Because you love them. Because
you love them. The second attitude of a worthy walk of a believer
is an attitude of lowliness. In verse two, Paul says, with
all lowliness. Now this is the worthy walk of
a believer with all lowliness. And that word lowliness means
to have a humble opinion of yourself and to have a deep sense of your
littleness. Just have a deep sense of how
little you matter. Now, if I have a deep sense of
how little I matter, then I'm going to know all my little desires
and all my little agendas and all these little things. They
mean very, very little. and what other people need is
very important. They have to be, because they're
bigger than me. Look over at Philippians chapter two. Philippians
chapter two. If I have a true sense of my
own littleness, I'm just automatically gonna assume everybody else is
bigger and better than me. Philippians two verse three.
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness
of mind. let each esteem other better
than themselves. You have the attitude that what
somebody else needs is more important than my comforts and my recognition
and my agenda to promote myself. Do what it takes to help others.
Just do what it takes because you know they're more important
than me. Look at verse four in Philippians
two. Look not every man on his own things. Don't look on your
own little things. Don't look and consider those
things. Don't let those things drive
you. But every man also on the things of others. Think about
what others need first. Now that is an attitude of genuine
humility. And that does not come naturally
to a human being. Not at all. No, God the Holy
Spirit has to put that attitude in us in the new birth. And then
we have to be taught to cultivate it, seek to act upon it. And
here is the preeminent thing that will cause the believer
to want to act on this littleness of my own self. That was the
Savior's attitude that he took upon himself in order to save
me. Verse five, let this mind be in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus. Oh, how he humbled himself. Now
that's a mighty good reason to want to have this attitude and
to act on it. That's what the attitude that
the Savior took to save me. Then the third attitude of a
worthy walk of a believer is an attitude of meekness. Back
in our text, Paul says with all lowliness and meekness. Now that
word meekness, we kind of tend to think, or at least I do, kind
of think of that as being shy and backward. But the word means
gentle. Gentle. Be gentle with people. You want to walk worthy of your
calling? Be gentle with people. You know,
I am so sick of our society being so hard and so divisive. I mean, one strike and you're
out, buddy. I mean, just all hard. Don't
be so quick to be harsh with people. We got enough of that
out there in the world. Let's not have that amongst ourselves.
Don't be so harsh with each other. And again, what is the motivation
for you to be gentle with others? Think how gentle the Lord has
been with our weaknesses. Oh, He's gentle. Even His corrections
are gentle. When He corrected His disciples,
oh, ye of little faith. It's so gentle. Look over Galatians
chapter six. Here's another way to be gentle.
Don't be so quick to be judgmental and to separate yourself from
somebody like they're your enemy. Galatians six, verse one. Brethren, if a man be overtaken
in the fall, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit
of meekness, gentleness, restoring gentleness Considering thyself,
lest thou also be tempted. Before you deal too harshly with
somebody, because they did something wrong, just remember this. You
might do the very same thing one day. You might do the very
same thing. And when that day comes, maybe
you didn't mean it. Maybe you didn't mean to do it
that way. Maybe you didn't mean to say it that way. popped off
without thinking. And if you took a moment to think
about it, you never would have said it that way. You never would
have done it that way. This one act is just not indicative
of what's in your heart. You'd want somebody to be gentle
with you, wouldn't you? You want them to cut you some
slack. Do that brothers now. Be gentle with each other. That's
a worthy walk. And the fourth attitude of a
worthy walk is long suffering. Verse two, all lowliness, meekness,
and long-suffering. Now that word long-suffering
means patient. If you want to walk worthy of
being called a believer, be patient with people. Be patient. Don't
be too quick to write them off just because they did something
in a certain situation you don't agree with. Somebody makes a
mistake. I mean, maybe it's a walker.
But you know what? Well, be patient with that person.
Every one of us here understands what it's like to make a mistake.
Now somebody that makes mistakes all the time ought to be patient
with others when they make mistakes, shouldn't they? You know, like
I said a minute ago, maybe somebody did something that we didn't
like, but, you know, they didn't mean it the way that we took
it. Or, you know, who knows what, you know, maybe they're already
sorry. Oh, they're so sorry for it.
And they're praying about, they're praying for forgiveness. They're
just before the Lord in prayer, they're so sorry. Maybe we should
be patient with them, huh? And pray for them too. Maybe
we should. You know, be patient with them.
Wait on the Lord to cause somebody to grow in grace and knowledge. Be patient. We all know by experience
how long that takes. Now growth and grace, just boy,
it's not an all upward movement, is it? Sometimes it's up, sometimes
it's down, sometimes it's sideways. Be patient. I tell you a good
rule of thumb. Be patient with others like we're
patient with our children. You know, in vacation Bible school,
in our classes here, Sabrina, you taught a very, very different
lesson than Eric taught. Because she's teaching four,
five, six-year-olds. He's teaching high school kids. She taught
a very, very different way. You know, they come out and have
these crafts, and you know, in Sabrina's class, it's so easy,
and you know, you can't be very complicated, and they're helping
them all, you know. You didn't mind helping them,
did you? Now, Eric's class, they come
out, nobody's opened up their snack for them. Nobody's opened
up their, they can do that themselves. But nobody minds doing it, you
know, for these little ones. And next Sunday, we don't expect
Sabrina's class to go in here to Eric's class. No, they need
time to grow up, don't they? They need time to be taught.
Sabrina's going to teach them on their level. They're going
to get a little older, and Tara's going to teach them on their
level. Then they're going to Eric's class. They're taught on their own.
Be patient with them. We're patient. We don't expect
them three-year-olds that just jump right in there. No. Strive
to be patient with others like we're patient with our little
ones. And if you look over 2 Peter 3, if that's not enough to motivate
you to be patient with our brethren, boy, this will. Think how patient
The Lord is with us. 2 Peter 3 verse 15. An account that the longsuffering,
the patience of our Lord is salvation. Even as our beloved brother Paul
also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto
you. The longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. We could have
no salvation if the Lord wasn't patient. with us. Now, if the
Lord's been so patient with me, how could I not be patient? Because
if I esteem you better than me, I have to figure you haven't
done as bad as me. You haven't done something as awful as me.
If the Lord's been so patient with me, that's going to motivate
me. That's what's going to cause
me to want to cultivate this matter of being patient with
you. All right, the fifth attitude
of a worthy walk. Now if you want to walk worthy
of the call of a believer, be forbearing. With all lowliness
and meekness and long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. Now I'll tell you what this word
forbearing means. It just means put up with it. Just put up with it. I mean,
yeah, somebody's got a fault, put up with it. Yeah, somebody,
they're always doing this wrong, put up with it. That's all it
means. Put up with it. And it also means
hold them up. Maybe they're falling all the
time. Hold them up. That's what this word forbearing
means. And I tell you why we need this so much is forbearing.
Because every believer still has plenty of faults, plenty
of weaknesses, because we're still in this sinful flesh. We're
just going to do things that You know, like I said earlier,
maybe we didn't mean to. Maybe we don't want to. Why did
I do that? Why did I say that? Just put
up with it. Put up with it. You know, we
see our brethren do something. Well, you know, maybe they all
have not done that. Ignore it and go on. Ignore it and go on. We do a real good job of that
with our faults and our weaknesses, don't we? I put up with my faults
real easily. That's what Paul's telling us.
Put up with the faults of others and hold them up. Hold them up.
If you love them, hold them up. Look at Colossians chapter three. Colossians chapter three. Verse 12. Put on, therefore,
as the elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercy. This is the N word in it. Vows of mercy. Kindness, humbleness
of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving
one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Mm-mm-mm. How did Christ forgive you? Fully
and freely. Do that for others. Now look
at Romans chapter three. This is what will motivate the
believer to want to cultivate this attitude of forbearance. This is the attitude of our Savior
to his people. Romans chapter three, verse 25. Whom God has set forth to be
a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness
for the remissions of sin that are passed through the forbearance
of God. God put up with us and put up
with our sin and he held us up, didn't he? He held us up by his
mighty hand and sacrificed himself to put away our sin. Now that's
forbearance. Now seek that, seek opportunities
to put that into action with our brethren. All right, now here's the sixth
thing. It's the last thing we'll look at this morning and it's
vitally important. This is an attitude of a worthy
walk of a believer. It's unity. Verse three, Ephesians
chapter four, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit
in the bond of peace. This attitude of unity, of seeking
unity is the most important one of all. Unity is something very lacking
in our day. It comes from being so harsh
with one another all the time. But I'm talking about believers
here. I'm talking about God's church, God's people. Something
is very, very, very seriously wrong when there's not unity
in a congregation. or there's not unity amongst
believers no matter where they live. It's either pride or somebody's
an unbeliever. Every time there's some sort
of division, I'm not saying somebody's an unbeliever, it's pride. Every believer still has plenty
of pride left in us. We act in pride, it's either
pride or somebody is not a believer. We're to seek unity, unity. See, all these other attitudes
that Paul talked to us about, love and lowliness and meekness
and long-suffering and forbearing, he talked about those things
first because all those attitudes work together to promote this
unity, unity of spirit. And here's why. We're to have
all the lowliness of mind, just my own littleness, meekness,
gentleness, kindness, forbearing one another. is so that Christ
is worshiped in peace. That's why. Don't seek to walk
in these attitudes so somebody will notice you and say, oh,
you know what, what a good Christian walk you have. The believer seeks
to walk in these attitudes, to act in these attitudes so that
the Lord will be worshiped. So that his gospel is preached
in a public worship service and people can sit and listen and
worship Him. I'm telling you, we cannot worship. We can't worship God without
a spirit of unity and peace. We cannot worship God fussing
and fighting with each other. You can't do it. Somebody starts
in on that business before the service, and I'm, you're done. You hear it, you're done. Nobody's
worshiping God that way. Just wait till the service is
over. Somebody goes out there, you know, in the vestibule, in
the parking lot and starts in on it, you know. You're done. You've forgotten everything that
you heard. Haven't you? We cannot worship God without
this spirit of unity and peace because we're going to be thinking
about this matter of division instead of looking to Christ
on the throne. Paul says, endeavoring to keep it. That word endeavoring
means exert yourself to accomplish something. And it also means
to make haste to do it. Exert yourself and do it right
now. There ought to be an urgent attitude
about keeping this unity and the bond of peace that we have.
Exert yourself, put some effort into it. See, my little desires
don't matter. I need to just set those things
aside before they become divisive for this reason, so that Christ
can be preached. That's what I need the most,
and that's what everybody else needs the most. I go back to
the first attitude of love. If I love you, I'm gonna care
about this matter, of you being able to worship God, be able
to hear the gospel. Do whatever it takes so that
the focus here, and the Lord's given us this now, the Lord's
given us this, Guard it carefully. Do whatever it takes so that
the focus stays on Christ. So that the focus stays on His
glory, not mine. Do whatever it takes so that
Christ saving His people and feeding His people and strengthening
His people and teaching His people and comforting His people is
the focus here. It's Christ and Christ alone.
We won't be blessed without it. What good would it do for me
to get my way if we lose the worship of Christ here? What
good would it do? None whatsoever. And this unity
is to be peaceful unity. Paul talks about the unity of
the spirit and the bond of peace. See, this is not just hiding
my animosity. This is seeking genuine peace
in the heart. So genuine unity of heart, genuine
unity of purpose. Our purpose here is to preach
Christ. Now if we're unity of purpose
in that, this is everybody's purpose. Christ will be preached,
he'll be glorified, and God's people will be blessed. Now they
just will. You know, the Lord's given us
the honor and the privilege of having the gospel of Christ be
preached here. That's an honor. It's a privilege. It's a blessing. And it's also
a responsibility. The responsibility, not just
of me, mine, but this whole congregation, is to preach Christ to our generation. Now you think of the horror of
letting some little personal spat get in the way and cause
us to lose that. I've seen it happen. Seen it
happen. God forbid that it happened here. Endeavor to keep it. Endeavor. Pray about it and seek ways,
whatever it is you can do, to keep that unity here, that Christ
be preached and he be exalted. All right, I hope that'll be
a blessing to you.