Now if you'll take your Bibles
and turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4. Last week I kind of
gave you a subject type lesson where we were talking mainly
about verse 1 and 2 and dealing with this thing of walking worthy
with a vocation and so on. But today I just want to start
over up here in verse 1 of Ephesians chapter 4 and just kind of Read
through these verses and make some comments as I go. Ephesians
4, verse 1, I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech
you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. Now, what he's talking about
here is what James talked about in his book, and that was walk
a walk that justifies the faith that you profess. James said,
now you say that you have faith, and you say that based on facts. He said, that's how you're going
to show me your faith, by your profession, by your confession
of your mouth. You're telling me I'm a believer.
He said, I'm going to show you my faith by my works. And that's
how true faith is justified. He said, listen to this, James
chapter 2, verse 18. He said, yea, a man may say,
and many do, Thou hast faith, and I have works. Show me thy
faith without thy works, and I'll show thee my faith by my
works. Now he's going to give us an
example. Thou believest there is one God. Thou doest well. The devils believe that. So your
faith, if that's all you have, your faith's no different than
his, because the devil believes that. You see what James is saying? Both believed in one God, and
the facts alone are what you hope in. There's no difference
in you and the devil. Do you believe in election? Here's
another example. Do you believe in election? Well,
sure you do. So does the devil. The devil knew that Job was hedged
about by God, didn't he? Yes, he did. And he knew who
Peter was and desired to sift him like wheat. And if he hadn't
been God's elect, he would have sifted him. But he needed permission
to sift him, which the Lord did give him. Now listen to this. But wilt thou know, O vain man,
that faith without works is dead. It's alone. It's by itself. Nothing distinguishing about
it. Believers and people called of God, called out of ignorance
and darkness, called out of bondage, called out of the curse of this
world into what Paul calls the glorious liberty of the children
of God. He's a new creature in Christ.
He's got new motives. He's got new affections. He has
a new mind. He has the mind of Christ. That's
what he said. He said in I think it's 1 Corinthians
chapter 2 after verse 14 where he talks about the natural man
receiving not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he
know them because they're spiritually discerned. But he said, and we're
not understood of anybody. We're not understood by anybody.
But he said, we have the mind of Christ. We have a new mind. Believers have a new mind and
a new heart. And as I preached to you a few
weeks ago, he's God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus on two
good works, which God has before ordained that he should walk
in them, and therefore he does walk in them. He repents. He believes. He worships. He
bows. He perseveres. You know, worldly
preachers talk about that all the time. But here's the way
they say it. Believers ought to repent. That's
not what the Bible says. The Bible says believers repent.
That's right. The believer ought to believe.
Believer does believe. And when you go through there
and you look at all of those, I think it's in Matthew chapter
5 where he gives this The Sermon on the Mount, he said, blessed
are. He didn't say, blessed will be. He said, blessed are. Blessed
are those that mourn. Do all believers mourn? Well,
sure they do. Sure they do. He repents. He believes. He worships. He bows. He perseveres. And so
Paul's saying here, if you're an heir, walk like an heir. If
you're a son, act like a son. Walk like a son. Believe like
a son. Live like a son. If you believe,
walk like you believe. Too often we say, well, here's
what we believe. And there's not a bit of difference
between you and the devil, and you both walk the same way. That's
right. So this is what Paul exhorted
them to do. And he, doing this, gave himself
as an example as a prisoner, as a prisoner in a Roman prison. Verse 2, Ephesians 4, verse 2. Walk with all lowliness. Believers believe God. They believe
God's testimony of who and what they are. They believe that. There's nothing visible in you
that you can look... I can't look at you and tell
if the spirit of Satan operates and works in you. I can't see
that. All I can see is its effects.
I can see that by what you confess with your mouth. I can see that
by how you live your life. I can see the effects of it,
but I can't see in your heart. I can't see in your heart. And so believers take God's testimony
of what they are, and they believe Him, and they act accordingly.
We're sinners. all the way through the scripture,
tells us what we are, rebels whose minds are enmity against
God. Titus chapter 3 verse 3, Paul
said, for we ourselves also were sometimes, now listen to this,
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. Paul
writes to the Corinthians, and he gives this ungodly description
of natural men, fornicators, both fleshly and spiritual, idolaters,
adulterers, effeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind, thieves,
covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners, and then he says,
and such were some of you. such for some of you, but you're
washed, you're sanctified, you're justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. The believer sings
the song of grace, and he sings that song on a high lofty branch. Christ is that branch, and he
sits on that branch, and he sings that lofty song of grace, but
he remembers the pit from which he was dug. That's what this
lowliness is all about. And there's one thing stated
time and again in the scriptures and all the way through this
book. And I know without question that
this is going to be so. No flesh is going to glory in
His presence. It's just not. And if that's
where you find yourself, glorying in your righteousness and glorying
in your good works and glorying in your church attendance and
glorying in all those things. And that's, I'm telling you,
there's nothing that whets the appetite of this flesh like that.
Anything. Just give anything. Give anything. And boy, immediately that old
heart just swells up. So proud of what you did. You say, well, I don't really
believe that. Then tell me, what in the world are these people
talking about at judgment? When his judgment comes on them,
what do they tell him in return? Have not we done? Huh? That's
exactly right. Have not we done many wonderful
works in thy name? Have not we preached in your
name? Have not we cast out devils in your name? All the stuff that
they done. He said, depart from me. I never
knew you. There's no flesh going to glory
in his presence. It ain't going to happen. And
we take God's word at that. We believe these things. These
things are what dictates the tenor of our life. The believer
believes God. He acts on these things just
as surely as he was born with this knowledge because he is.
He's born again. It tells us God hates a proud look. He don't dislike it. He hates
it. He hates it. Listen to this,
not of works. How come? Lest any man should
boast. I don't care. If you gave the
believer this much to do in this whole scope of salvation, if
you give the believer that much to do, he'd completely said,
oh, the glory of God over here in the corner somewhere, and
he'd stand up in heaven with his thumbs in his lapels and
brag on that one little thing he did. Not of works. lest any man should bolt. Not
of works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost." I remember reading an Armenian writer one
time. I didn't know one from the other. And I just recently heard something
about the absolute sovereignty of God and His purpose of predestination
and His election of a chosen people. I just, and I didn't
know, I wanted information on this and nobody had any. All
these elders in the church, all these preachers, all these people
that I trusted in and thought were wise over the years, didn't
have anything to say about it, didn't know anything about it.
Told me it was dangerous to even look into it. I went over to
the bookstore and I started going through books and I'd just take
like Romans chapter 9 or something like that or Ephesians chapter
1 and I'd look through the book and just look and see the comments.
I could tell in a few minutes he didn't have nothing to say
and I'd put him down and go get another one until I found somebody
dealing with that subject. Well, I found this Arminian who
was strong in God's sovereignty and mentioned some things about
election and that. And so I got his book and I remember
reading this Armenian writer, and he said, God's foreknowledge,
talked about in Romans 8, what is it, 29 or 30 there, we're
talking about God's, whom he did foreknow, them he also did
predestinate. And he said, this is God's looking
down through the telescope of time to see who would and wouldn't
choose him, who would and would not live and reform his life,
who would and would not make these decisions. But now here's
what the scripture says. God has saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace given us in Christ Jesus, now listen,
before the world was. That kind of eliminates that
telescope of time thing, don't it? Sure it does. Lowliness comes from a conviction
of sin, and we're all full of it, full of it. And the man who
knows he is, that he is a sinner, knows that he is what he is by
the grace of God and has no claim to anything that has not been
freely given him by the grace of God. Now the man who knows
that is lowly. He's not puffed up. He's not
going to stand up here looking down. And if he's truly God's
child, and he is and stumbles and stands like Peter did before
those Gentiles, God's going to take a man and put him in his
place. Paul said, I withstood him to
the face because he was to be blamed. And Peter took his place. He took his weapon. With all lowliness, Ephesians
chapter 4, verse 2, and meekness. Believers are meek because they
know something about the living God. They know who sits on the
throne. They know who rules. They know
who the potter is. They know these things, and they're
meek. They're meek. They've got no power. I've got
no power to resist evil. It takes grace in the heart to
resist evil. That's something God does in
you. That ain't something you can do of yourself. You never
could. Meekness. And then he says, long-suffering. Anybody in here know what long-suffering
is? It means putting up with. That's what that means. Putting
up with. With all long-suffering. Forbearing one another in love. Forbearing has to do with overlooking
the faults and infirmities of one another. Pastor, did you hear what Winston
said? Yeah, he just being Winston. Did you hear what Russell did?
Yeah, he just being Russell. Overlooking the faults and infirmities
of one another. That's what that forbearing and
that long suffering. We're long-suffering for the
same reason God is, because we know the end. We know that eventually,
when God comes, we're going to be just like Him, just like Christ,
just like Christ. And we know that this whole accomplishment
of God in us is altogether of grace. And so we overlook one
another's fault. Well, you don't have to look.
I tell you what, my fault's all over me. I told somebody one time, I felt
like somebody drew bull's eyes all over me. Everybody's always
shooting at me. But my faults are obvious, so are yours. We walk worthy of this vocation. We walk by grace, by grace, forbearing one another. I'm not suggesting that we look
lightly on sin. I'm simply saying to realize
that we are, each one, being saved. Folks talk about when they got
saved. I'm still being saved. I'm not
going to save yet. That's what Paul said. I haven't
arrived yet. And something else he said. I
want to point this out to you while we're on this subject.
He said, it doth not yet appear what we shall be. Now that's
how full of sin and self we really are. You can examine a believer
and you can't tell what he's going to be, John. He don't even
have a hint of what he's going to be. It doth not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know this. When he shall appear, we'll
be like him. We'll be like him. And so we
need to walk that way. Walk with that understanding.
Live with that understanding. Long-suffering and forbearing
in love does not seek vengeance, retaliation, or reward. It seeks
to help and to give a sympathetic ear and to comfort and consult. Ephesians 4, verse 3. Endeavoring
to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Let's just
talk about that for a minute. There's a spiritual union between
God and his people. A spiritual union. This is something
I never heard mentioned the whole time I was in religion. They
talk about being born again, but if you'd listen close to
what they said and listen to their definition, it don't make
sense. They were talking about people being saved and then lost
and then saved and then lost. If you can be lost, you've never
been saved. Otherwise, you're not saved, are you? Well, no. You can't be saved and be lost.
You're either saved or you're not saved. And those that He
saves are being saved. But there's a spiritual union
between God and His people. There was a covenant union. agreed
on in the council halls of eternity by the triune God in which the
Father chose a people, appointed the Son as their surety, and
the Holy Spirit to be the one who makes this covenant known,
who comes and enacts this covenant, manifests this covenant to the
hearts of men. And then there was a bodily union
when the Word was made flesh and took to Himself The seed
of Abraham. Not the nature of angels, but
the seed of Abraham. He took on himself in permanent
union flesh and blood. Flesh and blood. And then there's a spiritual
union when the gospel of Jesus Christ comes in the power and
demonstration of the Spirit of God. Convincing us of sin and
of righteousness. His righteousness. And of judgment. judgment satisfied. And it's
that covenant He spoke of by the prophets, saying, this is
the covenant that I'll make with them after those days, saith
the Lord. I'll write my laws in their mind and on their hearts. And I'll be to them a God, and
they'll be to me a people. That's what He's talking about
here. It is a union of spirit, and
therefore, it brings us into harmony with God's purpose and
will. to manifest the glory of His
great name, the God of glory. The God of glory. You think about
that. Purpose to save a people who by their own will and choice,
by their own will and choice, by their own nature and practice,
deserved absolutely nothing, nothing but judgment and wrath.
And to save them through a representative head and the substitutionary
work of the Lord Jesus and being brought into harmony with the
will and purpose of God, they find themselves on common ground
with one another. Believers are on common ground. They're not opposed to one another.
Don't fight and argue and divide with one another. I mean, you
couldn't find two more radically different people than the Apostle
John and the Apostle Paul. One of them a proud Pharisee,
the other one a humble fisherman. They were poles apart. Or Peter and Paul. But they were
in harmony with one another. In harmony. We're brought in
harmony with the will and purpose of God, and we find ourselves
all on common ground and on the same footing and the same shape
as every other adopted son of God. God came to me in sovereign
grace. That's how He came to me, in
sovereign grace. And He brought peace and comfort
into my heart and showed me how my sins were put away and showed
me how He He provided me with a righteousness acceptable to
God and a sin offering sufficient to put away my sins. Is that
what he did for you? Huh? We got common ground. We're standing on the same footing.
We're both sinners saved by grace. We both worship one God. We both
know Christ who manifests God. You know, in discovering these
things, we discover a bond, a common ground, a spiritual union. And
I come to see that there's a great body of believers out there,
men and women of every nation, tribe, kindred, and tongue, called
out of every kind of junk that there is under the sun. And there's
no enmity between us. God has taken away that enmity
of self-righteousness. He's taken that out of the way.
And he's made peace between us. There's no color distinction.
There's no male and female. No Jew and Gentile. No bond or
free. Just sinners saved by grace. That's it. Sinners saved by grace. All with the same story. All
with the same calling. All with the same hope. All with
the same rejoicing. Any of that getting through? We're all one in Christ Jesus.
That's what He said. All one in Christ Jesus. Now
watch this. He said there's just one body.
See it there in Ephesians, folks? One body. 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, through
all, and in you all. In these verses, verse 4 through
6, Paul establishes the basis of our union. That's the basis
of it. These are the things that every
child of God has in common. These are the things that constitute
the spiritual union. And these are the things that
we endeavor to strive to maintain and that we do it in love. One
body, the body of Christ, that's the church. One body. Colossians 1.18, he's the head
of the body, the church. And the church is composed of
every man, woman, and child chosen in and redeemed by the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I personally don't see how
any man can be ignorant of election and still be saved. I've heard
preachers say that, preachers that I have a lot of confidence
in, but I don't understand that. Because the very foundation principles
that bring, that cause us to trust in Christ, the very, I'm
talking about his sacrifice now, talking about his righteousness.
Now, if Christ died for all the sins of all men and only some
will be saved, then His blood and righteousness were all in
vain. I can show you that in Scripture.
Totally in vain. All right? If Christ died for
some of the sins of all of mankind, then nobody is going to be saved
because their sins still have to be paid for. There's no other way to view
the atonement of Christ except as a particular redemption. You follow me? Then who are those
people and how did they get to be there? Are they there by their
own will and purpose or did God call them? You see what I'm saying?
This election, if you follow it back to the crucifixion of
Christ, follow it back to the atonement, it necessitates a
particular redemption. Otherwise, it didn't buy anything.
Oh, wild love doesn't mean anything. I read these books on universal
love, and I just want to tell them, when you go home, you tell
your wife, you just hug her neck and say, I love you just like
all other women in the world. See how far that gets you. If I was you, I'd hold my hand
up. But that's exactly what they
say about God, isn't it? He just loves everybody. He died for the sins of all his
elect, and all his elect are justified in Christ, who was
delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification.
One Lord. Christ is Lord. He runs the show. He's the King. He gets the glory.
He dictates the ways and the means. One faith. Somebody said,
we're all just spokes in a wheel. No, sir, just one faith. Just
one faith. And one baptism, you see. One
baptism. Just one baptism. Baptism means
submersion. There's no way. That's what the
word literally means. That's what it is. Baptism, it
means immersion. How do you immerse somebody when
you sprinkle them? That's ridiculous. It's a total contradiction of
the term. It has to do with submersion,
to be buried beneath. And sprinkling is not baptism.
A man with a master's degree in theology told me one time,
he said, if you'll read these books and the founding principles
of these Presbyterians, he said, you'll find out that they've
got good solid ground for this thing of sprinkling and baptism.
That's absurd. That's absurd. It said Philip and the eunuch
both went down into the water. Ain't that what it says? Well,
you reckon he dunked him and then brought him up and then
sprinkled him? He immersed him. John the Baptist, same thing
with Christ. And then he tells us just plainly
over in Colossians 2.12 that we're buried with him in baptism,
wherein also we are risen with him through the faith of the
operation of God. And there's just one God and
father of all. And this is not teaching the
universal fatherhood of God. It's simply saying that there's
one God who's father over all his sons. That's what that's
saying. He's the source and reason for
their being. He is the image they are predestinated
to bear. And it's his house where they're
called to live. And he's above all, and he's
through all, and he's in you all. Philip said, show us the
Father. He said, Philip, have you been
so long time with me? Have you not seen the Father? He's in us all. But we all have different ways
to do this and to teach this and show this. We're not all
apostles. We're all not missionaries and
evangelists and pastors. Most of us are not. But he said
in verse 7, unto every one of us is given grace according to
the measure of the gift of Christ. He's the Lord. He's the head
of the body. He's the one on the throne. He's
the one with the wisdom and power to distinct these things and
to do it for the glory of God. And the end of this whole thing,
if you'll skip down to verse 16, I'm trying to hurry. Here's
the end of this whole thing. from whom the whole body fitly
joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies,
according to the effects of working of the measure of every part,
makes increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love."
That's how it runs. That's how it operates. That's
how it works. And what's called for in me and
in the whole church, universal, is demonstrated in every local
assembly. God give us the grace to understand
it and walk that way.