Ephesians chapter 4, and let's
begin in reading in verse 1 and read down through verse 6. Ephesians
chapter 4, verses 1 through verse 6. We began our study in this
chapter last week, and we'll continue hopefully several weeks
concerning unity. There's 32 verses in this chapter,
16 are concerning unity. And my text this morning is in
verse 3, and I want to look just for a few minutes at the nature
of this unity. The nature of unity. We'll be
dealing with many things concerning this unity. I'm concerned about
it myself. I have many questions that arise
in my mind as a child of God concerning unity. And I trust
that as we study week from week on these verses that we will
be helped. Now, we take these messages,
but I'm not concerned with that in my preaching. I don't prepare
a message for someone outside this congregation to listen to.
I'm not concerned at all with that. Most preachers who have
studied and outlined messages would probably tell you that
the way that I'm preaching through the book of Ephesians is not
the way to preach to the public. If you want to preach to send
tapes out, messages out, you really don't preach like this.
I'm going in detail in these passages. If you're going to
preach to folks out there, then you deal with 8 or 10 or 12 verses. You get in that flow, but we're
not been there. I'm taking my time, and we're
going at it a different way. I'm preaching to you. I'm preaching
to you. If you want to take these tapes,
these messages, and hand them out, that's wonderful. Brother
Larry sends many tapes out. But I'm preaching to you. You're
my concern. I study, I pray to get the message
to you. I'm preaching to you. So let's
read my text concerning unity. I therefore, the prisoner of
the Lord, beseech you, I beg you, I pray you, that you walk
worthy of the calling, the vocation, wherewith you are called with
all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one
another in love, endeavoring To keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace, there is one body, there is one Spirit,
even as you are called in one hope of your calling, there is
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God the Father of all, who
is above all and through all and in you all. Now that is the
passage that you and I will be studying on for the next two
or three weeks or so. And next week we probably will
go back to verses 1 and 2. But I want to speak to you this
morning concerning the nature of this unity. Endeavor. Be at haste. Give all diligence. to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bonds of peace. That's the nature of this unity.
It's a spiritual unity. The secular world and the religious
world is speaking much in our day about unity. They have gone to great lengths
to secure it. They have spent much money on
promoting unity. We have it among the nations
of the world. If you know anything about history
after World War I, the nations got together and came up with
a League of Nations. And that committee, the League
of Nations, was to stop all wars. It wasn't long until World War
II came, and then we got the United Nations. That was to bring
peace, unity among the nation. Europe has NATO. So the countries
of this world seek unity. They want to be unified. There's
strength in numbers. But it's not only the secular
world. The religious world wants unity. We see it in our newspapers. We see it in religious magazines. There's books being written about
it, messages being preached concerning unity. We have the World Council
of Churches. We have denominations that have
united, and they put it in their name, the United Baptists, the
United Church of Christ, the United Methodists. All of these
things tell us that the world desires unity. They're promoting
unity. Not many years ago, you'll remember,
when many, several of the Protestant and Catholic denominations and
non-denominations got together and they formed a group of religious
leaders and their intent was to spread morality through our
nation, especially in politics. They call themselves the moral
majority. Remember that? And their desire
and their aim was to promote unity in our country. You and
I have heard for years now that there is a real need to come
together in unity and peace. And usually if you listen to
those who are promoting this, they have two reasons for doing
so. The first reason, they say, we need unity because our society
is in so much trouble. Look at the wars. Look at the
violence. Look at the troubled homes. And
the church needs to come together in unity. We need peace in our
society. And religion tells us That to
accomplish that, they know that we have to adapt. We have to
integrate into one another's religion. They tell us that there
are certain things in certain religions that we cannot receive. But there are other things in
those religions that we can receive. And we ought to adapt what we
can and seek unity and peace among all religions. Because
the world is in trouble, and they're leery of all the bickering
and the fussing that takes place in the religious realm. So they're
calling for unity. They're calling for unity. But
the second reason they give is this. Since there's so much trouble
in society, if religions of the world would come together, we'd
be more apt to solve society's problems. We may even cause wars
to cease. Disease and pregnancy and abortions
among our young people would be abolished if we could only
get the religions of the world to unite, and then our problems
would be solved. But I don't have to tell you
what's wrong with that, do I? The Apostle Paul must have seen
through these sorts of things. I say that because he doesn't
even comment on such unity. He doesn't even address such
unity at all. The only thing that he hints
at is here in verse 17, and it's a negative way. He says, This
I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth
Walk not, as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of your minds. The unity of this world, the
Scriptures calls a confederacy. The unity that the world craves,
the unity that religions of this world desire and promote, the
Scriptures calls sin. And while the world encourages
us to unite, the Scriptures warns us to separate ourselves from. Listen to this passage in 1 Corinthians
chapter 6. Be not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers, for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion has light with
darkness? What accord has Christ with the
devil? What part do believers have with
unbelievers? What agreement does the temple
of God have with idols? For you are the temple of the
living God, therefore come out from among them, and be ye separate,
saith the Lord." So when you and I talk about unity, It's
not a unity of nations. It's not even a union of families
or relatives. But Paul tells us here that it's
a spiritual union. A union brought about by the
Holy Spirit putting us into Christ and dwelling in our hearts by
faith. It's a spiritual union. Chapter
4 is dealing with unity. But unity among believers. Unity among saints. Unity in
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not friendship. It's more. We all have friends,
don't we? And we should cultivate that
friendship. We should desire more friendship
with more people. Make friends of your neighbors,
your co-workers. We need friends. But this unity
is a spiritual unity, and it's deeper than the unity that one
friend has with another friend. This unity among saints is not
a natural or a biological association. We have families. All of us have
families, and we love them. And we ought to seek to keep
our families close knit. We ought to call our moms and
our dads. Fellowship with our brothers
and sisters in the flesh. Seek as much as we can to keep
the family together. But this is not speaking of biological. This is not speaking of natural
friendship. This is speaking of spiritual
union. Endeavor to keep the union of
the Spirit, unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. The life of a believer is a spiritual
life. It goes much deeper than family
relationships. It goes much deeper than blood.
It reaches the very soul, the very spirit. Listen to these
passages. If we live in the Spirit, let
us also walk in the Spirit. And the Apostle Paul makes this
amazing statement. He says you are not in the flesh.
What does he mean by that? You are in a kingdom that is
outside of a fleshly realm. You're not walking. You're not
warring. You're not living after the flesh. You're not in the flesh. Flesh
has nothing to do with your spiritual relation with God. Listen to
this. You're not in the flesh, but
in the Spirit. In the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, He is none of His. The believer is born
of the Spirit. He is sealed with the Holy Spirit. He is taught by the Spirit. He
is guided by the Spirit. He is comforted by the Spirit.
He is strengthened by the Spirit. He takes this Word of God, which
is the ground of his faith and practice. This is the sword of
the Spirit. He has the fruit in His heart
of love and joy and peace and goodness and long-suffering and
so on. This is the fruit of the Spirit. The believer is instructed to
live in the Spirit, to walk in the Spirit, to be filled with
the Spirit, not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God. The church
is a spiritual entity. The church is in a spiritual
kingdom and a kingdom that's not of this world. This unity
is the unity that the church enjoys. It's not meat, it's not
drink, it's not carnal ordinances, it's not physical relationships,
it's not worldly affiliations, but it's a kingdom of righteousness. It's a kingdom of joy and peace
in the Holy Ghost. See the nature of this union.
It's a spiritual union. If you'll notice sometimes as
you're reading Ezekiel chapter 36, the Lord is speaking there of
taking His elect people from all over the nations And He says,
I'm going to bring you back to Myself. And I'm going to wash
you. I'm going to wash you from all
your uncleanness. And then He says, I'm going to
put a new heart in you. And then I'm going to put a new
spirit in you. And then He makes this statement
when He says, I'll put this new heart in you and I'll give you
a new spirit. Then He says, I will put My Spirit
in you. See what He does? He first must
give us a new heart. Then He gives us a new spirit.
And then He puts His Spirit in our new heart to cry, Father,
Father, and to bear witness with this new spirit. Why doesn't
He put His Spirit in the old man? Do you remember what He
told us about the wine bottles? That you don't take new wine
and put it in old bottles, old wine skins? Because if you do
that, it will burst the old bottles. So he said you put new wine into
new bottles and they are both preserved. And what he does,
he gives us a new spirit and a new heart and he puts his spirit
within that new heart and within that new spirit. He makes us
new. And it becomes a spiritual union,
a spiritual fellowship, and a spiritual association. And these are the
people that the Apostle Paul is instructing here to endeavor
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. Dear child of God, listen to
me this morning. If God the Father has chosen
you to salvation, you are one with all the elect of God of
all ages. And you have one Father. He is
in all His elect. If you are redeemed by the Son
of God, you are one with all the ransomed of the Lord. And
you have one Lord and one Savior that you look to for all your
salvation. If you've been quickened by the
Spirit, if He's given you life this morning, then you're one
with all the others who are living and breathing this spiritual
life. This is a spiritual union, therefore
it runs much, much deeper. than biological unity, our human
friendships, our nationalities, our political unions. This is a spiritual union. And notice this about this unity
that Paul makes mention of it here. It's not something that
we establish. They tell us, come and let's
establish unity. But unity is not something that
you produce. It's something that we already
have. Endeavor to keep the unity. We don't manufacture unity by
joining ourselves to other people and other associations. We don't
establish it. We don't manufacture it. We merely
guard it. It's already been made for us.
This union, this oneness, Jesus Christ has made. And we have
it by virtue of being in Him. Look what He says, and let me
read it to you again in chapter 2. Look in chapter 2 and verse
14. Look what He says in chapter
2 of Ephesians, verse 14. He is our peace, who hath made
both one. See what He's done? Jew and Gentile. He's made us both one, and He's
broken down the middle wall of division that separated us. Here's the way He makes Jews
and Gentiles one. He takes away everything that
separated them. And he makes them one in himself. Look what he says in verse 15.
He abolished in his flesh the enmity, that is the law of commandment
contained in those ordinances, for to make in himself of two
one new man. And because there is only one
man, there is peace. If you're only one, there's no
division. You have to be more than one
to be divided. This is a unity that you and
I are to guard. We don't establish it. We don't
manufacture it. We guard the unity that we have
by virtue of being in the Lord Jesus Christ. If He told us,
to get together, get your friends together, get your relatives
together, get your community together and meet in this specific
place and see if you can come to terms upon which you can establish
unity. I doubt we could do it. I wouldn't
want to be in charge of it, would you? You'd want your little quirks
and I'd want my little convictions. And after a while we'd go our
separate ways. There'd be nothing but divisions.
But that's not what he tells us to do. He says, I've already
accomplished this unity. Peace has already been made at
a great cost to myself. You just guard it. You just keep
this unity in the bonds of peace. Unity has already been established,
already been made. Now we just earnestly We're quick
and diligent about guarding this spiritual peace and unity. And you know sometimes just talking
about it as we are now, talking about the nature of it, the quality
of it, who has it and why, don't that make it valuable to you?
Even before we get into great details, just talking about the
nature of this union that is spiritual in its nature. It cheers
you up. It makes you more willing to
guard this unity, knowing that it's been worked out and established
by Christ our Savior. You and I have been brought into
it. Not by anything we've done, but by virtue of being in Christ. And it just makes you more willing.
It makes you more alert. It makes you value this unity
more. I want to guard it. And I appreciate
that it's already established. And I want it with the Lord's
people. It's so profitable, how good and how pleasant it is for
brethren to dwell together. in unity, a unity that has been
established by the Lord Jesus Christ. You read the dear saints,
read their articles and their books and their testimonies and
their songs down through the ages, and you can see how great
men and great women profited and delighted in this union,
this unity. I've quoted this to you so many
times, but I love John Fawcett. He was the one that wrote the
song, Bless Me the Tie That Binds. And I've told you something of
the account of this man, but he was such a gentle, precious
man. And he loved this thing about
unity, unity of the spirit. And he was a poor man. He pastored
a church in northern England, Wainsgate Baptist Church. And
the most he ever made by pastoring, they had him on a salary, and
the most they could ever pay him was $200 a year. That's the most he ever made.
And Brother John Gill, that great theologian, had passed away.
Dirk Carter Lane's Baptist Church, a very influential Baptist Church
in London. And they called Brother Fawcett,
and they said, we want you to come and pastor us. He accepted the call. And they
packed up the wagon. All their furniture was on one
little wagon. And they were ready to leave.
And John's wife broke down to begin to weep. And she said,
John, I can find no way to leave. And he said, neither can I, my
dear wife. And he gave instructions to unload the wagon. And he went
back in and eventually sat down and wrote this song. Blessed
be the tide that binds our hearts in Christian love, the fellowship
of kindred minds." That's it, ain't it? That's the unity that
we're talking about. That's the nature of it. The
fellowship of kindred minds are like to that above. And who did
the Lord Jesus say, said, my kinfolks are? Who did he say
my sisters are? He pointed down at Mary Magdalene
that he had saved. He said, there sits my sister.
She's one with me. And he pointed over to the fellow
that he had healed of all those legions of devils. And he said,
there's my brother. It's a spiritual union. A union
of those who have lack-mindedness. Kindred minds. One Father. We have one Father. He is in
us all. We have one elderly brother,
Jesus Christ our Lord. One sovereign Spirit that indwells
our hearts. One body. One body. Many members, but dear soul,
one body. And you may feel like you're
nothing. You may feel like you're the
smallest, insignificant member on the body, but you're just
as vital to making up the body as the largest member. And if
you hurt, the body hurts. If you suffer, the body suffers.
Why? Because you're one. We're one. We're one. Kindred minds. Brother Fawcett knew something
about that unity of the Spirit. And listen to this verse. Listen
to the second verse. Before our Father's throne, we
pour our ardent prayers. Our fears, our hopes, our aims
are one. Our aims are one. Our purpose
in this world is one. We're one. There's no two churches. We're one. In the last verse,
listen to how he says it in the last verse. When we asunder part,
it gives us inward pain, but we shall still be joined in heart
and hope to meet again. We shall still be joined in heart. That's union. That's the nature
of this union that I'm speaking about this morning. We shall
still be joined in heart when we part, when death takes one
of us away. Brothers and sisters, there's
one church. There's the church militant that's
in this world fighting the battles. And there's that church that's
triumphant, that's in heaven, they're at rest. But we're one. The church in heaven and the
church in this earth are one. And it may seem like a great
distance between us, but we're one in heart. That's union. And she'll never be separated.
And I love what the Apostle Paul says here in chapter 3. He speaks
of this in the last verse in chapter 3. And look how he says
it. Unto Him be glory. There's the
church's aim. Unto Him be glory in the church
by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end. Our aim here this morning as
a church who are in Christ is the aim of the Ephesian church
who was in Christ. And it's the aim of those saints
in heaven who are in Christ. And what is that? To Him be glory. The worship. Look here with me
in Revelation chapter 7. And I'll close with this scripture.
Revelation chapter 7. Here is the consummation. Here God's purpose has been accomplished. Here heaven and earth are joined.
John is in heaven. The church is in heaven. There
is a new heaven and a new earth. And here is what the church is
doing. Look at it in verse 9. Revelation 7 and 9. After this
I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number. They
were of all nations, all kindreds, and people, and tongues. And they stood before the throne
and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in
their hands. And here's what they said. They
cried with a loud voice. And notice that voice is singular.
You have all of these people. And it didn't say they cried
with loud voices, but they were so united in heart that their
voice was one. They cried with a loud voice
saying, Salvation to our God which setteth upon the throne
and unto the Lamb. What is our aim now and in heaven? Glory unto Him. We will be there as one to worship
our triune God and Savior. I had a fellow one time talk
to me and he said, don't this prove that there's a difference
between God and the Lamb? That there are two? No, it proves that there's only one.
Did you notice this? John said there in verse 9 that
he stood before the throne and before the Lamb. And he said in verse 10, salvation
to our God which setteth upon the throne and to the Lamb. God
was upon the throne. Where is the Lamb? Where is the
Lamb? Look down in verse 17. For the
Lamb which is in the midst of the throne. Who is the Lamb? He's God. He's on the throne. He's in the midst of the throne.
He's God the Lamb, as well as the Lamb of God. And the church
is united in praise as one. That's her aim here, and that
will be her goal yonder. But not only that, look in verse
11. And all the angels stood around about the throne and about
the elders and the four beasts. And they fell before the throne
on their faces and worshipped God, saying, Amen, blessing and
glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might
be unto our God forever and ever. What has happened here? earth
and heaven has become one. Angels and men join as one to
give glory and honor to God the Lamb and worship Him forever
and forever. This is my Father's world. The battle is not yet done. Jesus
who died shall be satisfied and earth and heaven Be one. O-N-E. One. That's unity, brothers
and sisters. That's the nature of this unity.
We're one. We're one in Christ. And the
Lord Jesus' purpose is this, to bring heaven and earth back
and make them one again in perfect harmony and unity. For what reason? To worship Him throughout all
eternity. When you find a dear man or you
find a dear woman who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, make
haste to guard this unity that's already been established. Are
you in Christ? That's the question that we should
ask ourselves. That's the question we must answer. And may God help us to answer
it. But if you're in Christ, And you find a dear man or a
woman that you believe to be in Christ, then make haste to
guard this unity that's already been established. You don't establish
it. You just guard it. You keep it. As much as in you is, be at peace
with that person here and now, because you're going to heaven
together. You're going to heaven together. Don't let nationalism, don't
let cultures, don't let customs, don't let your personal convictions,
don't let your preferences, don't let denominations stop you from endeavoring to keep the
unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Let's pray.