The worthy walk. I don't really know how to introduce
this message in that I have been looking over my notes, thinking
about what I'm going to say, thinking about what Paul says
is the worthy walk, and thinking about how little I know about
this. I want to. And I pray that the Lord will
bless this and teach us something about this worthy walk that every
believer is called on. Paul says in verse one, I therefore, the prisoner of
the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy in a way that honors
the calling wherewith you are called. Now, if a man or woman
loves Christ, and every believer does love Christ, that man or
woman wants their walk to reflect their love to the person of Christ. You want that, don't you? You
want your walk to reflect your gratefulness to Him, your love
to Him. There is such a thing as a worthy
walk. Now, what I want to do is look
at this whole passage tonight, these first six verses, and then
we're gonna look at each part of what a worthy walk is in the
weeks to come. So we'll spend six or seven weeks
in this passage of Scripture that Paul calls the worthy walk. And in this worthy walk, we're
going to learn something about calling. You know, Scripture says make
your calling an election, sure. We're going to learn something
about humility, what it is. We're going to learn something
about meekness, what that is. We're going to learn something
about what long-suffering is. And we're going to learn something
about what it means to forbear one another in love. and what it means to endeavor
to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. And that's
what Paul calls the worthy walk. And he deals in verses four through
six in just what that unity of the spirit is. Now, he says,
I therefore, That's the same therefore Paul used in Romans
chapter 12, verse one, after he had clearly set forth the
gospel. He says, I beseech you therefore
by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. Anything else is unreasonable. And be not conformed to this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that
you might prove what is that good and perfect and acceptable
will of God. Now he says, based on everything
I've said, I therefore, same thing here, after everything
he said in these first three chapters and oh, What glorious,
sublime truth he set forth to us. And he says, I therefore,
the prisoner of the Lord. Now he was writing from a Roman
prison, but he's saying, I'm not that prisoner. I'm a prisoner
of the Lord. And he counted it a great honor
to be a prisoner of the Lord. And I want to be the Lord's prisoner,
don't you? Somebody says, I want freedom.
No, I'd rather be a prisoner. I'd rather be the Lord's prisoner.
And I would like for him, and I pray for him to cause me to
walk worthy of him. I therefore, the prisoner of
the Lord, I beseech you. You know, he wasn't talking down
to these people. I don't like it when a preacher
talks down to me, to straighten me out. It just rubs me the wrong
way. I don't like that. And that's
not the way to preach. He didn't, he's not coming down
on them. He's beseeching them. I therefore
the prisoner of the Lord beseech you, not coming at you as a superior
and trying to get you straightened out. Paul believed himself to
be the chief of sinners. He didn't look at these people
and think, well, I'm better than they are. I have more experience
in grace. No, he's calling them to his
side. I, therefore, the prisoner of
the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the calling wherewith
you are called. I want you to think about this
calling that every believer has. I'm called of God. What a high calling. You're called
to be one of His dear children. You're called to be saints, holy
ones. We're called to be His bride,
His wife. What a high, heavenly, holy calling. We're called to be His body. We're called his brethren. To
think of the Lord only, he's not ashamed to own any of his
people as his brethren. Now, you wanna talk about a reason
or meaning to life or whatever you wanna call it, think of your
calling. There's nothing mundane about being a believer. Everything
we do is to be done for the glory of God. And what a calling. And he says, you walk worthy
of that heavenly calling by which you're called. And I love to
think of the call of the Lord. You know, not everybody's called. Not everybody's called. Lazarus,
come forth. If he would have just given a
general call, come forth, everybody in that grave would have been
raised from the dead. Lazarus, come forth. Matthew, follow me. He rose, forsook all, and followed
him. Zacchaeus, I love the way the
Lord calls personally. He calls his own sheep by name. Zacchaeus, make haste, come down. Today I must abide at thy house. And you know, whenever the Lord
calls, people respond. What Zacchaeus do? He made haste. He came down. It's always a call
downward. And he received him joyfully. What did Matthew do? He rose
up, forsook everything and followed the Lord Jesus Christ. What did
Lazarus do? He that was dead came forth. Now, if you're a believer, you've
been called by God. We preach Christ crucified unto
the Jews a stumbling block, unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto
them which are called." What a privilege to be called of God. And I don't want to presume about
this. I think of what Paul or Peter
said, make your calling and election sure. You know, you can't make
your election sure until you make your calling sure. If your calling
is made sure, He calls by the gospel, you believe the gospel.
If your calling is sure, your election is made sure. Now he
tells the church at Ephesus, walk worthy. Walk worthy of your calling. Walk in such a way that enhances
your calling, that makes beautiful. your calling. Your walk has to
do with your conduct, your character, your life, how you treat other
people, how you view yourself, how you view God's providence.
It is that faith that worketh by love. I love what Paul said,
faith worketh by love. If I'm walking worthy of this
calling, this special call of God where he's called me out
of the world to be one of his. Oh, it's Faith which worketh
by love. Paul said to the Romans to receive
Phoebe as becometh saints. That's the same word in a way
that would be worthy of a saint to receive her. In Colossians
chapter 110, we read, worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing,
being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge
of God. Paul said to the Philippians
in Philippians 1.27, only let your conversation be as becometh
the gospel of Christ. How's that? That whether I come
to see you, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast
in one spirit, striving together for the faith of the gospel.
Now that's a worthy walk, to stand fast, to not be moved,
to stand fast in one spirit, in this spirit of unity, striving
together for the faith of the gospel. Now that has something
to do with us being together in this thing of making known
the faith of the gospel and not being moved. And he says, I therefore,
the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation, the calling wherewith you're called. And then he names
five things that make up this worthy walk. First, he names
humility. Then he names meekness. Then he names long suffering. And then he names forbearing
one another in love. And then he names endeavoring
to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. And this
is what makes up that worthy walk. And the first thing he
mentions is humility. And before I go on with talking
about humility, There's only one truly humble
person that's ever been, and he still is, the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, with regarding himself,
I am meek and lowly. That's the word, humble, in heart,
the Son of God, the creator of the universe, the one who controls
everything, the absolute sovereign of the universe when he describes
his heart. He says, I'm meek and lowly in
heart. Do you know, I'd love to think
of that scripture where it says, then drew near all the sinners
for to hear him because they didn't feel judged by him. They
didn't feel threatened by him. Yet here he is, holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners. Yet sinners would come into his
presence and not feel judged. Isn't that beautiful? the beautiful
character of the Son of God, lowly, lowly. Now, what is humility? He says, with all lowliness,
and that's the word humility. What is humility? It's to have
a just estimate of yourself. That's the best definition I've
ever heard. It's to have a just estimate of yourself. Well, If
you ever forget that you're a sinner, present tense, right now, you
won't have a just estimate of yourself. You'll have an inflated
view of yourself. But humility is a just estimate
of yourself. It doesn't mean that you're all,
all the time, so I can't do anything. And I can't, Paul said, I can
do all things through Christ was strengthened for me. It's
not this attitude of, oh, I can't do anything. No. but it is a just estimate of
yourself, a low opinion of yourself, esteeming others as better than
yourself. Now, if you know your own heart,
you really believe in your own heart that everybody is better
than you. You see, you're the only one
that really has insight into your own heart. You know, the
Lord knows a lot more than you do, but you know, and knowing
yourself, You can, by the grace of God, actually esteem everybody
else as better, more spiritual, more Christ-like than you are. You look at yourself with a just
estimate. You know how sinful you are.
You know what you would be apart from his restraints. and you
know what you are right now, present tense. I tell you, every
time I think of that scripture we considered this morning, thou
art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judges for you
that judges, doest, present tense, right now, the same things. Whatever you're judging anybody
for, you yourself are doing it. Not you would do it, And believe that because that's
what God's word says. Somebody says, well, I don't do some of
those things. Well, God's word says you do. So you better not
say that. That is humility. Now I just quoted Romans. Hold
your finger there and turn to Romans chapter 12. Now, I've already quoted these
first two verses where it says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God. Now, I want us to notice the
first thing he says when he talks about proving that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God. Verse three, for I say through
the grace given unto me to every man that's among you, not to
think of himself more highly than he ought to think. That's
the very first thing he said. not to think of himself more
highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according
as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." Now, if anybody ought to be humble,
it's me. If anybody has a reason to be
humble, It's me. And that's what every believer
says about themselves. You see, the chief of sinners
and pride do not go well together. Humility. You know, I was thinking
about this. I was thinking about something
that actually demonstrates a whole lot about our character is the
way we treat, say, clerks in a store or waiters and waitresses
in a restaurant. How you treat people like that
says so much about our character. If you treat people with arrogance
and condescension, oh, that's so ugly. It's pride. That's all it is, is pride. Everybody
that deals with us We ought to be dealing with them from a point
of lowliness on our part and graciousness. And anything that's
not like that is just wrong. It's just wrong. It's just ugly.
It's contrary to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to be somebody that's
humble. And one of the things that was killing me about preparing
this message, when I thought of humility and I thought of
meekness, I thought, well, if I'm a believer, I know I had
that, but I don't see it. I don't see it. You know, these
things are fruit to the Spirit. You know, meekness, why, that's
one of the Beatitudes. Blessed are the meek, they shall
inherit the earth. Longsuffering is a fruit of the Spirit. The
fruit of the Spirit is longsuffering, and so on. So if we're believers,
we possess these things. But I tell you, every time I've
looked over these notes, I've cringed. I've cringed, thinking
how contrary I am personally to these things. That's why when
we were driving over here, I said, Lynn, please pray for me. I don't
feel like preaching. I just look at this passage of scripture
and it just makes me feel bad. I'm encouraged in grace. I'm
encouraged that God's on the throne, but I want to be somebody
who knows something about this thing of humility. The opposite of pride and self-seeking,
esteeming others as better than yourself, giving deference to
others, humility. Then the next thing he mentions
is with all lowliness, I like the word all, not just with lowliness,
but lowliness in every aspect. I love what Calvin said when
they said, what are the three greatest Christian graces? He said, number one, humility,
number two, humility, number three, humility. And the next thing he mentions
is meekness, with all lowliness and with all meekness, the second
beatitude. And what is meekness? We find
a lot in the scripture about it. You know, it said of Moses,
he was the meekest man on the earth. And you know, you read
about the stuff he does, he didn't seem all that meek, did he? So
that lets us know that meekness might not be exactly what we
think it is, but meekness is an attitude toward God. that makes you believe that everything
that he does and sends your way is good because he did it. No
matter what it is, it's him doing it. Therefore, you bow. I think a wonderful example is
David when he's being cursed by Shemai. And Abshah comes up
and says, let me go take his head off. And David put his head
down. He said, no, the Lord said, curse
David. The Lord told him to do that.
The reason he's cursing me is because the Lord told him to
do it. How often is that my attitude
if somebody's cursing me? The Lord told him to do that.
I need to bow before this. It's best. It's right. It's for
my good. It's for his glory. The Lord
is in absolute control. When I think of that, I think,
do I know anything about meekness? It's a part of the clothing of
God's elect. Look in Colossians chapter three, just a few pages
over. Verse 12, put on therefore as
the elect of God, holy and beloved, 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. Now I read this
from Charles Hodge, and let me read this to you, I'm quoting.
He said, meekness is that unresisting, uncomplaining disposition of
mind that enables us to bear without resentment the faults
and injuries of others. Now let me repeat that, that's
worth repeating. Meekness is that unresisting, uncomplaining
disposition of mind that enables us to bear without resentment
the faults and injuries of others. You see, you believe that God
is on the throne and those people that you're becoming upset with,
why they're better than you. And God moved them to act this
way. Now that's what meekness is,
and in reality, it's great strength. I love that passage of scripture
where Peter said, he talked about women submitting to their husbands,
and he talked about a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the
sight of God of great price. Oh, this attitude. It's totally
my attitude towards the Lord himself and what strength it
is. The worthy walk is that of humility
and meekness. It's still true. God resists
the proud and gives grace to the humble. And isn't humility
and meekness beautiful? It's the way the Lord described
himself. I am meek. and lowly in heart. And how contradictory, how inconsistent
is it for me and you to have proud, arrogant attitudes about
ourself and to not have a meek attitude towards God's providence.
It's all just the old man. It's part of unbelief, but this
is the worthy walk, the walk of meekness, the walk of humility. And the next thing he mentions
in verse two, of Ephesians chapter four, with all lowliness and
meekness, with long-suffering, long-suffering, patience, endurance,
constancy, steadfastness, slow to avenge wrongs. Long-suffering
is the fruit of the Spirit. Same word. It's the fruit of
the Spirit. And in this thing of being long-suffering or patient
or enduring, number one, God's sending this. He's in control
of it. Number two, that person I'm called upon to be patient
with, whatever they're doing, I'm just
as bad or worse. And I've done the same things. And God is the author. of this
province, I'm called upon to be patient and wait on the Lord. And then he says, at the last
part of verse two, forbearing one another. And you know what
that means? Putting up with one another. Putting up with one another.
You know, in a marriage, you're gonna have to put up with one
another. I mean, there's times when it's great. There's times
where you're putting up with one another. And you do it because
you love one another. Forbearing one another in love. And, you know, people, we get,
most things that we get upset with ought to just be overlooked.
Not taken personally, just overlooked. Forbearing one another. We got plenty of reason to be
forbearing toward one another. If we're going to get along,
we're going to have to forgive one another and bear with one
another. We all have faults. We all have
inconsistencies. We all have contradictions. We
all have, I could just go on naming that. And you know that
person, they're upset with themselves. They really are. Forbearing one
another in love. Now here, listen to this scripture,
Ephesians 4.32, we'll get to that in the next few weeks, but
it's one of my favorite scriptures. Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven
you. for bearing one another in love,
verse three, endeavoring, giving every effort to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now he's talking about
the unity of God, the Holy Spirit. Now we read in the scripture
where God, the Holy Spirit can be grieved. We read where he
can be quenched, where he'll withdraw his influences because
of things that grieve him. And here we have what grieves
him if we don't endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the
bond of peace. Now, I am not able to keep the
unity of the spirit if I'm not humble, if I'm not meek, if I'm
not long-suffering, If I'm not for Barry, I will not keep the
unity of the spirit. If I'm holding a grudge, if I'm
out of sorts, if I fail to forgive, if I fail to take the lowest
seat, if I'm being impatient and self-willed, having to have
my way, protecting my rights, I know something about this.
I'm pulling out my claws. If I perceived I've been done
wrong, I'm certainly not endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit
in the bond of peace. Now he says, endeavor, give every
effort, give all diligence. Don't think this as a matter
of unimportance. It's very important. endeavor,
give all effort to keep the unity of the spirit. And he tells mainly,
and that's what we're gonna close with in just a minute on verses
four through six, what that unity of the spirit is. But he said,
give every effort to keep, to guard over, to preserve the unity
of the spirit in the bond of peace. You know, one of the Beatitudes
blessed are the what? Peacemakers. The peacemakers. And Paul said in Romans 12, in
as much as is possible live peaceably with all men. Now I realize sometimes
it's not possible to live peaceably with men when they are contrary
to the gospel, when they don't believe the gospel. I'm not going
to keep my mouth shut. I'm not going to try to be peaceable
with those people and cry peace, peace when there is no peace.
But most of the time it is You can live peaceably most of the
time. If I'm persecuted for the gospel
sake, I thank the Lord for that privilege. If I'm persecuted
for being a jerk, that's not good. That's not good in any
respect. If it's possible, as much as
life in you is, live peaceably with all men, especially they
who are the household of faith. Now, this thing of the unity
of the spirit, The word unity comes out of the word one. One. Oneness. Oneness. Now, look what he says
in verse beginning, in verse four. There is one body. That's talking about the church,
the body of Christ. There's one body. Paul said over
in 1 Corinthians 12, you're one body and members in particular.
There are different members in a body and none of them are more
important than the other. He can't say the hand because
you're not the hand, I don't need you. And as a matter of
fact, the members that are not as pleasant to look at actually
are more important, the liver, the kidneys, They don't look
too good, but they're actually more important, aren't they?
There's one body, and there's not to be any schism in the body. Not one more important than another,
or the clergy lady to you. There's the clergy, the up here,
and the lady down here. No, there's one body. And isn't
it a blessing to just be a member of the body? Not thinking of
yourself more highly than you ought to think, but a member
of the body. There's one body. Every believer is a member of
the body of Christ. And that makes them very special.
Every single one of them. There's one body. Then he says, there's one spirit. God the Holy Spirit, and this
is what is so glorious about thinking about this one body.
Every believer has been birthed into the kingdom of heaven by
the Spirit of God and given a new nature, a holy nature, partakers
of the divine nature. And he teaches us all the same
thing. Believers don't believe differently. If the Lord is my
teacher, he teaches me. And if the Lord is your teacher,
he teaches you. And he teaches us the precise same thing. He
teaches us that Christ is all. When somebody believes Christ
is all, you know what they believe about themselves? They believe themselves
to be nothing. And Christ is all. And they're so happy with
that. And someone that really looks,
you find me somebody who all they have is Christ. Because
the only time Christ is all to you is if he's all you have.
If you have anything, To add to that, of your own, he's not
all to you, he's nothing to you. But if he's all you have, he
really is all to you. And anyone who you see that they
really believe that Christ is all in the scriptures, all in
salvation, all their hope, all you. You love that person. You
see, they've been taught of the spirit of God. There's one spirit,
and he teaches all believers the same thing. And look what
he says next. This is part of that unity of
the spirit. There's one hope. There's one
hope. Now, if the hope expressed In
Romans 8, if God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared
not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. How shall
I not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies.
Who is He that condemns? It's Christ that died. Now, stop
right there. The only hope I have is that
Jesus Christ died for me. That's it. I don't have any other
hopes. That's one of the reasons why
I so despise the teaching that Jesus Christ died for everybody.
And there's people in hell for whom he died. I despise that
teaching. I hate it. It's so contrary to
the gospel. And it also tells me that my
hope's not good enough. If he can die for somebody and
they wind up in hell anyway, then I know sure as I'm talking
to you, I'll end up in hell. I'm sure of that. My only hope
is that Jesus Christ actually paid for my sins, put them away,
gave me his righteousness. That's the one hope. There is
no other hope. What makes you think you're a
Christian? Because I, you done flunked. You done flunked. You didn't pass the test. If
I came in there, you didn't pass the test because Christ, that's
the only hope you have. There's one hope. And you know, this hope, it includes
a confident expectation and desire. You know, a hope is a confident
expectation. And I love what David said in
Psalm 17, 15. He said, as for me, I will. behold thy face in righteousness. I'll be satisfied when I awake
in thy likeness. That's the expectation and desire
of every single believer. And then he says in verse five,
one Lord, one Lord, Him who is Lord of lords and King of kings,
the Lord Jesus Christ. I love, I imagine, I say this
almost every time I preach, and I imagine I'm going to say it
about every time I preach until I die. He's Lord. He's Lord. He's the Lord. That means He's
the Creator. That means He's in control of
everything that's taking place. He's the Lord of believers. He's
the Lord of unbelievers. He's the Lord of the dead and
the living. He's in absolute control. He's the first cause
behind everything. He's the Lord. Most especially,
He's the Lord of salvation. That means I realize that my
salvation is totally up to His will. It was His will that created
the universe. It's His will that causes everything
that happens in providence. And it's His will to save whoever
it is He saves. Like the leper said, Lord, if
you will, you can make me clean. One Lord, he's your Lord. The psalmist said, worship him.
And then he says, there's one faith. One faith. Now, the gospel has a particular
content called the faith of God's elect. Titus 1.1, the faith of
God's elect. the acknowledging, the embracing
of the truth. The truth concerning the character
of God, the truth concerning my own character, and the truth
concerning salvation. Christ is all in salvation. Every believer acknowledges,
believes, and embraces the truth. I love the way Paul calls it
the faith of God's length. I love that. It's the faith that
the elect possess. Somebody says, well, I don't
believe that. Then you're not one of the elect because the elect do. The faith
of God's elect, the acknowledging, the full embracing of the truth,
which is after or which is caused by godliness, that new nature. There's one faith, not two, but
one. And then he says there's one
baptism. And the only kind of baptism there is is believer's
baptism. And remember what baptism represents. It represents and teaches union
with the Lord Jesus Christ. When somebody's baptized, they
go under the water. When Christ died, I died. When
they come back up again, they're saying, when Christ was raised,
I was raised. That's the gospel. That's the
gospel, union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's only one
mode of baptism, immersion. It is ridiculous that people
sprinkle, that they sprinkle infants, that baptism is by immersion
and the word actually means immerse. And it's what it represents.
And to have some other kind of baptism is, well, it's just evil,
really. There's one baptism, one baptism,
not two, there's one. And there's one God, verse six,
one God, the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God
of the Bible, one God, father of all, father of every believer. It's not talking about all men,
because the Lord said to a group of people, you're of your father,
the devil. Not talking about all men, but it's talking about
every believer. Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name. He's father of all. He's above all. How high He is. He's above all. And He's through
all. If you believe, it's His work
through you. It's Him doing something for
you. And He's in you all. Christ Jesus, Christ in you,
the hope of glory. Now that's the unity of the Spirit
that we're called upon to endeavor to keep. These ones we see in
verses four through six. So what is it to walk worthy
of the vocation wherewith you're called? To walk in humility,
to walk in meekness, to walk in long suffering, to walk in
forbearance, endeavoring, giving every effort to guard over, to
keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you will enable us to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
you've called us with all lowliness and meekness and long-suffering
and forbearance, endeavoring to keep the unity of thy spirit
in the bond of peace. Lord, we're by nature so selfish,
so self-focused, so self-indulgent, so self-centered. We ask that
you would deliver us from ourselves, enable us to deny ourself Take
up our cross and follow thy dear son. Work this in us by your spirit
for Christ's sake. And Lord, teach us what it is
to have only one faith, one Lord,
one body, one spirit. Bless this message for Christ's
sake. In his name we pray. Amen.