Ephesians 4, verses 1-3. The Apostle Paul is speaking. He
was a prisoner at this time for the cause of Christ. And he says
this, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord, I beseech you, I
beg you, that you walk worthy of the calling the vocation wherewith
you are called, called of God, with all lowliness and meekness,
with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Now that
is what you and I have been studying on, keeping the unity of the
Spirit. in the bonds of peace. This is written to the church,
the body of Christ, every believer, that he should endeavor, that
he should make haste, always, first and foremost, quickly,
seeking to keep the unity. He doesn't make unity. He doesn't
establish it. He doesn't manufacture it. The
Lord Jesus has made it. He's brought both Jews and Gentiles,
male and female, every believer, no matter what nationality, what
culture he may be, every believer in Jesus Christ is one with Him
and they're one with one another. The unity is there. He's made
it. It's in Him. We're just exhorted
to keep it, to maintain this unity. The Christian life is
said here to be a walk. Paul likens it to a journey. I beseech you that you walk,
worthy. Lloyd-Jones made this statement
about this, and I thought it was very well said. He said it's
very significant that the Apostle Paul describes the Christian
life as a walk, because walk suggests activity, movement,
and progress. We are to walk worthy of our
calling. We do not stay where we are.
We do not say, oh, now the Lord has saved me. My sins are all
forgiven. It is well. And then spend the
rest of our lives merely talking about our conversion. Always
looking back and reminding ourselves of that. We never forget it.
We can never forget when the Lord called us and converted
us, but we move on, don't we? We take that with us and we move
on. The Christian life, Mr. Jones says, is one of progress,
of ever going forward. There are always fresh things
to discover. There are always fresh experiences
to enjoy. That's the Christian life. And
even though we walk it by ourselves, a Christian life is something
personally between you and the Lord. You seek Him for yourself. You experience His presence for
yourself. You have the witness of the Spirit
in your own heart. You walk yourself. But there
is that definite sense in which the Apostle Paul is speaking
of here, that we're members of one body. We're citizens of a
heavenly country. Fellow citizens. And we are of
the household of God. We as Christians, as believers,
belong to one heavenly family. So in that sense, we walk together. We walk as one. And as we walk
together, we seek to keep this unity. To maintain this oneness. And that's not always easy to
do. It's sometimes very difficult to do. That's why the Apostle
Paul here encourages us to endeavor. To endeavor. Endeavor to do it. It's not an endeavorment. It's
a labor. I doubt if there's been a time
in church history that these instructions are more needful
than they are in our time. Have you ever seen a time in
your lifetime where the whole attitude of our nation is so
divisive? If you watch any news at all,
if you listen to any of the talk shows at all, If you talk about
politics at all, then one thing that you realize that there's
a whole attitude today of divisiveness. It goes beyond whatever issues
that we face in our country, in our political realm. I don't
care if you're a conservative. I don't care if you're a liberal.
I don't care what your politics are. I think you would agree
with me this morning that the attitude is not so much about
the issues, but the whole attitude has become divisive. We can't
sit down anymore and talk about the issues with respect one for
another. We can't have a discourse that's
civil because of the attitude. And it's not only that way in
our country, but as I look around and talk to religious people,
Even people that I have all the world of confidence in, that
they're Christians, this attitude is within the church. It's not
over so much doctrine, it's not over so much practice, but I
fear that it's got in the attitude. It's a divisive attitude, a narrow,
fault-finding attitude. And this attitude has greatly
hindered the unity. Look what it's doing to our country. What's it doing to our country?
Is it not tearing it apart? And it's not so much the attitude,
it's not so much the issues, it's the attitude. And it's the
same way in the church. I fear, if we're not careful,
that We'll, instead of seeking to win someone, we'll only seek
to defeat someone. That's the divisive attitude
that I'm speaking about this morning. The Lord Jesus said,
if a kingdom be divided against itself, it cannot stand. And He said, if a house be divided
against itself, it cannot stand. You take a husband and a wife,
and they can have issues, and they can talk those issues out. They can reason them out. One may convince the other and
may win them over and let them see that they're wrong, or they
may just have to agree to disagree. But those issues are secondary. And the reason those issues between
the man and his wife are secondary is because they are indeed husband
and wife. There's something more important
to them than their issues. And that's they're one. They're
one in heart. They're one in their souls. They
are one. They're in the holy bonds of
marriage. They're bound together as husband
and wife in love. And where that unity is there,
where that love is there, then all of these other issues, whatever
they may be, can be worked on or laid aside. But where there's
that attitude of divisiveness, where it's my way or no way,
then there's such an attitude that destroys the unity and destroys
the peace. Paul said, what God has joined
together, let not man put asunder. And that word, put asunder, means
to separate or put a place or room between. And he said, I'm
not only speaking concerning the husband and the wife, but
the church. The church. God has joined Jesus
Christ and His church together. But not only are they joined
together, the church itself is bound together. It's compacted
together. Since Christ and the church cannot
be divided, don't let the members be divided. We are one body. And God has set the members in
that body as it's pleased Him that there would be no divisions
in the body. That's what we've been studying
today. For some time now, we've been studying about this unity
and the bonds of peace. Now, this morning, I want to
look at the means. We looked last week at the nature,
week before last at the nature, last week at the first means
of keeping this unity. You say, Bruce, you keep talking
about the unity. Tell us how to keep it. Well,
that's what we're going to look at just for a minute this morning.
the means of keeping the unity. We looked at it last week and
you remember there in verse 1, I beseech you that you walk worthy
of the calling wherewith you are called. And Paul begins here
with this calling for us to consider our calling. Consider God has
called you to repentance. He's called you out of darkness
out of the ignorance of sin and self-righteousness and lust. And He's called you to light.
He's called you to Christ. He's called you to give you an
inheritance that's incorruptible, undefiled, and fades not away.
He's called you to partake of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful, marvelous calling
that God has called you to. How would this affect you if
you really considered that you've been called with such a glorious
calling? What would a man's attitude be
if he was convinced that his best part, that is his soul and
its eternal happiness has been secured? That it's been fixed
by the decree of the everlasting God? And when He calls me, that
lets me know that. He lets me know that He's called
me to faith in Christ, and before the world ever was, God Himself
fixed my eternal happiness. Now brothers and sisters, you
think about that. And how in the world would that
affect you to know that? When you walk through this temporal
world, whatever troubles that you may have to face, whatever
difficult circumstances you may be in, no matter how someone
tempts you to react in a negative manner and persecute you, how
would it affect your attitude and your actions if you knew
that God had already fixed your eternal destiny? And it was one of everlasting
happiness. Wouldn't that be wonderful? You
see, Paul doesn't set these things forth in a haphazard manner.
He has a reason for saying what he says, and he has a reason
for the order in which he gives them. The Holy Spirit is leading
him on to say these things. So he begins with this calling
and says, look what God has called you to. Disconsider the fact
that He has called you, and that that calling can never be reversed. The gifts and callings of God
are without repentance. He'll never take it back. He's
called you into His eternal glory, and that's fixed. It's settled.
Your eternal happiness. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, just
thinking about that. Then now we can go on to the
second thing. We've got that down. We've settled
that. And it's a wonderful thing. And now he goes on to the second
thing. Consider your calling. Now in
verse 2. Now he tells us to consider ourselves. Stop and consider
yourselves. Look within yourselves. Very,
very seldom I would tell anybody to look within themselves. But
here Paul tells us to consider ourselves. Our whole attitude. Our disposition. And here's what
it's to be. with all lowliness and meekness. That's what's to be within us.
That's to be our attitude, our disposition. And then thirdly,
he says, our attitudes towards others with long-suffering, forbearing
one another in love. See, this calling settles the
whole issue and gives us rest. And it gives us confidence as
we face this life in all of its problems. It secures our soul. And what do we do to keep unity
with others? Well, first of all, we are to
have this attitude of lowliness. Lowliness. The word means humility
of mind. And sometimes we make that statement.
be humble in our mind. And we've said that so much that
it doesn't mean anything to us much. But there is another definition
of this lowliness, and it's just a little bit deeper. It's a humiliation
of mind. That gets your attention more,
doesn't it? Humbleness of mind, it seems like we almost get proud
of that. How humble we are. I heard a
fellow say one time that old so-and-so was like himself, sort
of humble. Well, what about humiliation? I'm humiliated at myself. I'm humiliated at my own sin,
my own utter weakness. I'm humiliated. That's what this
word lowly means. It means modesty. You know what
modesty means? It's not showy. It's not aggressive. It means you don't want to be
seen. You don't exert yourself. You don't put yourself out front
like an immodest person does. Look over just to your right
a couple of pages. Look on Ephesians. Look in Ephesians
chapter 3. I think sometimes the best definition
of a word is found in the Scriptures itself. And sometimes it may
not be a definition. But it's just the way he comments
on a particular word. Look here what he says about
lowliness, and he gives us the opposite meaning. And by seeing
the opposite meaning of lowliness, he tells us what lowliness is.
Look in Philippians chapter 2 and look in verse 3. Let nothing be done through strife
or vainglory. Now what is strife? If you're
striving with someone, what are you doing? You're struggling
with them, aren't you? You're contending with them.
You're wrestling with them. And we're talking about in a
bad way. Not in a good way. But you're
being contentious with them. You're being aggressive with
them. You're wrestling with them. There was a lady, I was driving
the other day down Interstate 70 going someplace, and the lady
came around me. And I mean, she got right in
front of me, right on my bumper, and cut right back in. I thought,
boy, she almost got me. And you know the first thing
I did? I accelerated. I didn't even have to think of
that. I just did that. And you know what came to me?
Why are you being aggressive? Why are you being so contentious?
Why are you wanting to struggle with this person? That's what
strife is. Road rage is nothing but strife. But it's not only that, but what
else he said. Let nothing be done through vainglory. And this
word vainglory is simply self-esteem. It's self-conceit. Self-promotion. Self-worth. Thinking more highly
of self than we should. Let nothing Listen to what the
Apostle Paul said. Let us not be desirous of vainglory
provoking one another. What do we do when we promote
ourselves? When we speak of ourselves? It's
vainglory. And when we get in that attitude,
we always strive with other people. Because we esteem ourselves and
we put them down. That's vainglory. If a man thinks
That a man think not more highly of himself. I tell you, here's
the most difficult thing in the world. And once you think you've
got this down pat, you find out you don't. Here's what Paul said. If a man think himself to be
something when he's nothing, he deceives himself. If you ever
just for a moment reach the place Will you say, I'm nothing, and
have your heart to agree with it? That's the blessing of God.
But I assure you, it won't last but a few moments. One of the
most difficult things it is for a man to think rightly of himself. And when we begin to think that
we're anything above nothing, we're not thinking rightly of
ourselves. Lowliness. Lowliness. What is it? Well,
it's the opposite of strife and vainglory. Our strong conceit
of ourselves causes divisions. I promote my talent. I promote
my ability. I promote my work. I promote
my knowledge. I promote my worth. I promote
my accomplishment. I promote myself. And what an
opposite thing lowliness is. Look in Philippians 2, verse
3. Let nothing be done through strife
or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other
better than themselves. What is lowliness? It's putting
self down. It's being low yourself and lifting
others up. I was preaching somewhere two
or three years ago. Charlie Pennington's, I think,
in a Bible conference. And Brother Mayhem was there.
And I preached the message. And I could tell he was rejoicing.
He'd pastored a church, you know, for 52 years. Retired from the
pastorate. And here he was, said and rejoicing
under a message that I was preaching. And I got finished preaching
the message, and he tucked me down there and he hugged my neck.
He said, that's the best I ever heard. And I said, Henry, one
of the points you lack most was the one I got off of you years
ago. And he said, no, no, no. He said, I never preached that
that good. Here's a man that has more abilities, God-given
gifts and graces than anybody I know. And here he is telling
me What a wonderful message! And that he never preached it
that good in all of his life. What would lead a man to make
such a remark? Lowliness. Lowliness. Putting himself down. Esteeming
his brother better than himself. I tell you, brothers and sisters,
you can't fake that. That's not a show. That's not
a pretense. This is of the heart. This is
the attitude. This is the disposition. It comes
spontaneous. If you start faking it by some
outward show of humility, by just crouching down and humbling
yourself, I tell you, people will see right through us. People
will see right through us. It's of the heart. It's a natural
thing. So first of all, he tells us
there in our text, with all lowliness. And then he goes to this word
here, meekness. Let me say while I'm here. Let
me go back. I was going to read this, and
I don't want to miss this. Philippians 2. I was going to
read on, because here, look here. Here we have the perfect example
of lowliness. Look what he said in Philippians
chapter 2. Verse 4, Look, not every man
on his own thing, but every man also on the things of others.
Look at this now. Let this mind be in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, because He was, He is God, but made Himself
of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and
was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as
a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross." That's humility. He was displayed in
the Savior Himself. Do you remember when He was eating
supper with the disciples? and the supper being ended. And
the Lord Jesus, it was said that He arose from supper and laid
aside His garment." I wonder if there's not a message in that.
I wonder if there's not something in that that goes deeper than
just physically laying aside His garment. What all did He
lay aside? But he laid aside that garment
and girded himself with a towel, and he got down on his knees
and washed the dirty feet of his disciples. And he said, Do
you know what I have done to you? You call me Lord and you
call me your Master, and yet I have humbled myself and esteemed
you above me. I have become your servant. I
have washed your feet. I am indeed your Lord and Master,
but I've left you in an example of humility. I've left you in
an example of what it is to be lowly. You know those disciples
had a problem with that, didn't they? Oh, they had a problem
with that. Lord, what are you going to give
us when your kingdom comes? What are you going to make us?
Governors? Mayors? Are we going to sit on
the throne, one on one side and one on the other? Oh, they got
so lifted up in themselves, didn't they? And the Lord said, I am
among you as one that serves. And you, when you think you are
the greatest, then stoop down and serve My people. Esteem them
better than yourself. Be lowly. I am meek and lowly
in My heart. You see what these are? This
business of being lowly, it's an attribute of Christ Himself. It's just being like Him. When
we get high and we look down upon our brothers and sisters
in any sense, then we're not like the Master. He is meek and
He's lowly in His heart. Consider this next word. Meekness. Look at it in chapter 3, chapter
4 and verse 2. With all holiness and meekness.
This word meekness, it means an inner mildness. A gentleness. Meekness is perceived as weakness
by this word. Inner mildness. A gentleness. Paul talked about the gentleness
of Christ, didn't he? I beseech you by the gentleness
of Christ. The meekness and gentleness of
Christ. I was talking with a fellow over at the prison the other
day, and he was telling me, he said, we were talking about this
very thing. And he said, boy, you don't display
meekness in here. He said, if you display meekness
in here, you're in trouble. Because they perceive that as
weakness, and anytime they perceive weakness in you, they take advantage
of it. You know the world perceives that as weakness. These are attitudes for God's
children. The world doesn't perceive them
as good. Do you believe that Jesus Christ
was weak? If the world says the spirit
of meekness is the spirit of weakness, well, the Lord Jesus
Christ was meek in His heart. Was He weak? Oh, He's far from
it, wasn't He? No, it's not weakness, brothers
and sisters, not at all. All power in heaven and earth
is given to Him. You see that sun come up this
morning? What a beautiful sunrise in this beautiful sky. You know
who commanded that sun to rise? Jesus of Nazareth. And He is
gentle. He is meek. He's mild. You can approach Him. He's so
meek and He's so mild. Do you believe the Holy Spirit
is weak? Meekness is a fruit of the Holy
Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, meekness, long-suffering, and goodness and gentleness? No, meekness is not a weakness,
but it is a mildness. It is a gentleness within. Those
dear old martyrs, those dear saints of God that
have suffered for the cause of Christ, they face their persecutors
with this inner mildness and this inner gentleness. If you
want to read about it sometime, read John Foxe's Book of Martyrs.
Those dear saints of God, they were so gentle and so mild. Some of them kissed the stake
that they tied them to to burn them. They prayed while their
bodies burned for their persecutors. Is that weakness? That's the
power of God, my friend. When they were stoning Stephen
and he lifted up his eyes to heaven and he said, Father, forgive
them. Lord, lay not this sin to the
charge. When the Master on the cross
looked out over the crowd and said, Father, forgive them. They
know not what they do. That's not weakness. It takes
the power of God to be meek and lowly and gentle. This is the attitude which is
in the sight of God of great price. This is the attitude that
we are instructed to adorn ourselves with. And it's the attitude that
adorns the doctrine of God. And it's the attitude that's
more than apt to remove the prejudice from the heart of the lost man. and cause him to listen to you
while you teach him the gospel. Listen to what Paul said, The
servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle to all
men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that
oppose themselves. Speak in the truth in love. Have
this inner mindless. Forget about winning an argument.
Forget about wrestling and debating over God's Word. There's a better
way. Begin by this gentleness. Have
you ever noticed this? I've noticed this through the
years. If there's someone who is converted under a contentious
ministry, that person becomes contentious themselves. Have
you ever noticed that? You'll take the pastor, the teacher,
and he'll get up, boy, he's mad, and he's just thrashing and beating
everybody up. And you take somebody that's
converted under his ministry, he begins to act just like the
pastor. Uniqueness. Inner mildness. Now, thirdly is this. Paul mentions these two things.
Look at ourselves. Thirdly is this. He mentions
The means of keeping unity with not only our inner attitude and
our inner disposition, but our attitude towards others. Our
attitude towards others. Somebody will say, Bruce, you're
having us to look at ourselves and work work ourselves and do
ourselves. Not at all. I tell you this morning,
if your whole disposition is one of heart loneliness and heart
meekness, and you're going to keep such an attitude, you'll
find yourself often on your knees. You'll see that it's going to
take a strength, it's going to take a power that you don't have.
That you cannot live the Christian life in yourself. You cannot. And there's where
you'll see the absolute necessity of God working in you to will
and to do of His good pleasure. Our attitude towards others.
Look what he says here. With long-suffering, suffer long,
exceeding patience, And you know something here, as I read this,
the Holy Spirit never lets us consider others. He don't stop
and say, now, I know somebody may mistreat you, and I know
there's a limit to all of this, and if somebody says something
or somebody defrauds, He doesn't even say what people may do to
you that will cause you to have to be long suffered. He just
says, it's about you. It's about you. It's not what
people do to us, brothers and sisters. It's our reaction to
it. That's what he's talking about. What if somebody mistreats
me? What if somebody's hateful to
me? What if somebody cheats me? What if somebody slanders me?
You see, it goes back to what I've said before. We want this
little book. We want this little book. And
it tells every detail in there of what we're to do and not to
do. And then it's got this little line that's drawn. It says, no,
you don't have to step over this line. If it comes to this, bud,
that's enough. And then you can let loose. It
never says that, does it? The Spirit won't even let us
consider such a thing. Because it's not about them.
It's not about what anybody may do to us. It's not about the
circumstances that you and I are in. But it's about us and our
attitude towards it. Someone's trying to provoke you.
They want to make you retaliate. They want to make you get angry
and lose your temper. They may do it willingly or they
may do it ignorantly. Most of the time it's done in
their ignorance, especially among brothers. There are some folks
that can irritate you to death, and they don't mean a thing by
it. They don't mean a thing by it. They do it in their ignorance.
Don't retaliate, Paul said. Keep yourself under control. Suffer with it. A good definition
of this word, long-suffering, is fortitude. Webster gives the
definition like this, that strength or firmness of mind or soul which
enables a person to encounter danger with coolness and courage,
or to bear pain or adversity without murmuring, or depression
or despondency, and I will add, retaliation. End word, fortitude. All of these things are attributes
of Christ. They're attributes of God. Long-suffering,
meekness, gentleness, forbearance, forbearance. Despises thou the
riches of God's goodness and forbearance? God is forbearing. He endeared with much long-suffering
the vessels of wrath. God is not slack concerning His
promise, as some men count slackness, but His long-suffering. Account
that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. See those
attributes. The very same thing that He tells
us to have within are the very attributes of our Lord. Long-suffering. Forbearance. And how much forbearance,
how much long-suffering have you experienced from the heart
of your God? Be like your Father in heaven. And the reason our Lord Jesus,
through the Apostle Paul here, instructs us to long suffering
without going into any detail of what we're suffering, is because
there is a power working in us and on our behalf that is greater
than any cause. that is against us. See what
I just said? He doesn't have to go and say,
now when you've reached this point, that's enough and you
don't have to take any more. Then you can retaliate. He doesn't
even consider things like that. Why? Because the power that's
working in us is unlimited. Man has a limit as what he can
do to you. The Lord Jesus said they may
kill your body, but that's all they can do. He has a limit. There is a limit. But the power
of God that's working in you has no limit. Ain't that what
He said in chapter 3? He said in verse 16 that He would
grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened
with might by His Spirit in the inner man. And look in verse
20. Now to Him that is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above
all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in
us." Unlimited power. Sovereign power. Working in the heart of the Christian. Colossians 1.11, strengthened
with might according to His glorious power and to all patience. and long-suffering with joyfulness." Forebear one another. To bear
up long under, to bear the burden without negative reaction. That's
what that word forebearing means. To bear long. But to do it without
any negative reaction. I may do it, but I'm not going
to like it and you're going to know about it. You're going to
know it by my looks, You're going to know it by my sharp words. You're going to know it by my
attitude. Yes, I'll be forbearing, but I'm not going to like it.
That's not it. Forbearing one another in love
without the negative attitudes. I heard a dear sister the other
day got a call from her husband. He should have been here to pick
her up, but he wasn't. And I hear her say to him, no, don't want
to bother you. No, don't want to bother you.
And I could tell. And he could tell, I bet you. Negative attitudes. This is not a stoic attitude.
It's not saying, well, what will be, will be, and we just bow
and submit to it. It's not that at all. We're not
robots. We're living people. Living in
the world with our emotions and our feelings. But this is the
power of God working in the heart. Developing these things. Increasing
these graces. And I tell you brothers and sisters,
when a Christian walks through this world in this way, what
a happy life it is. What a holy life it is. What
a God-honoring life it is. You'll not only make yourself
happy, you'll make those around you happy. Glenn, I don't know
what we would do, dear brother, without you. Not because you're
just the song leader, but when you're here, things just ain't
the same. I've noticed that. And some of you have made mention
of that. And why is that? Because of his whole attitude.
He just settles things down. Some people have an act of thirst,
stirring things up. Brother Glenn has an act of settling
things down. Meekness and lowliness, forbearing,
not negative. What a wonderful walk. What a
God-honoring walk. Brothers and sisters, if this
unity of the Spirit is not kept, if it's lost, whatever else we
have, it will profit us so little. There's no unity without truth. We know that. But Paul hasn't
even got to that yet, has he? He's emphasizing the importance
of the unity of the Spirit, because he knows if we lose that, what good's truth going to do?
I say that at the fear of being misunderstood. will glean so
much less comfort from the truth if we lose unity. And I tell
you, if we lose this unity of the Spirit, what good does truth
do to those around us? The loss that comes. It begins
with unity of the Spirit. These kindred minds, one in Christ,
one in love and in peace. God grant us, for his sake, to
maintain it. Let us pray.