Walking in Godliness

Transcript

GR 2321
6/27/2021
Walking in Godliness
Ephesians 4:1-6
Gil Rugh


We're going to the book of Ephesians, which we have been studying together, and we're coming to the fourth chapter. While it is characteristic of Paul's epistles, the book of Ephesians is broken down into two pretty clear divisions. The first three chapters, the Spirit of God directs Paul to lay the doctrinal foundation. He has talked about in chapter 1, as we have reviewed several times, the sovereignty of God, the One who before the foundation of the world, in Ephesians 1:4, chose us in Christ; the wonderful salvation that God would provide in Him. He predestined us, verse 5, to be His own sons—the adoption as sons and all the blessings that that brings and the inheritance that will be ours in Christ. These are unfolded in chapter 1. Paul prayed for the Ephesians that they might grow in wisdom and knowledge and understanding and greater appreciation of God's sovereignty and what He has accomplished on our behalf, which is His own doing. Chapter 2 reminded us of how serious our lost condition was. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. He was writing to the Ephesians, and he tells them they were. He is drawing attention particularly to their condition as Gentiles, cut off from all the promises that God had given to the nation Israel. They were under the control of the devil, they were led by the course of this fallen, godless world, and they lived in the lust of their flesh—totally given over to that. That's the description of everyone apart from Christ. We are without hope in the world, as he goes on to talk about it. But God is rich in mercy, and He intervened. In Ephesians 2:8, “By grace you have been saved through faith,” that says it very succinctly. It is by God's grace through faith in what God has done and provided for us. It is not of ourselves. Sadly, to this day, 2,000 years after Paul wrote this letter to the Ephesians, people still think they will be saved by their works, by going to church, by being baptized, by partaking of communion or sacraments, or doing the best they can and on and on. That is sad because God has already done everything that could be done. He provided His Son Jesus Christ to go to the cross to pay the penalty for sin so that He could give us the free gift. A redundancy—a free gift. It’s eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.

Our salvation is not of works, so that no one can boast. Note verse 10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” Now we have to keep the order here. The order is so important because it determines where you will spend eternity—heaven or hell. It is not faith plus works results in salvation. Paul wrote a letter to the Galatians and said anybody who teaches that is cursed to hell, anathema. But faith in Christ results in salvation which leads to good works. Good works are the result of having been saved by faith in Christ. Now that's not to minimize the importance of works. The salvation that God brings to a life transforms the life. That's where we are going in chapters 4-6. If you have experienced the salvation that God in His sovereignty has provided and brought about, if that has truly happened in your life, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation. The old things have passed away; new things have come. That's what Paul wrote at the end of 2 Corinthians 5. We are new creatures, we are new creations, and God has done the work.

At the end of Ephesians 2 and into Ephesians 3, He put us together. God saves us individually, but that salvation is not just individual. When He saves us, He places us into His family, which is a total new entity that did not exist before Acts 2 as we have it in our Bibles. It is called the church. He brings people, whatever their nationality. Before, God was working specifically in and through the nation Israel, but now, because of the rejection of the Messiah by Israel, Israel has been set aside. They’re not rejected by God, but they are under God's judgment and the work of God in salvation is no longer focused in that physical nation Israel. Some Jews individually are saved, but God has put together a new entity for this period of time when Israel is under God's judgment. It is called the church. Ephesians 2:15 said that “in Himself He might make the two,” Jew and Gentile, “into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross.” The body of Christ is the church. Paul will go on to use the analogy of a building—He has placed all the pieces, the building blocks, together. The diversity comes together, and your nationality is not important, nor is your social standing—master, slave, rich, poor. We are brought together in a relationship of oneness in Christ. Paul told us in chapter 3 the reason he knew that is because God revealed it to him.

Now what he wants to do in chapters 4-6 is show how that work of God in our salvation has also planned and brings about a new life and good works—works that are consistent with the character of God. One of the ways you see this… In the book of Ephesians, verbs that are in imperative mood, an imperative is a command… You can tell this because the Greek verb, when it is in an imperative mood, has its own form. So, you know that it’s a command. In English we do it by inflection, by putting an exclamation point at the end of that statement so it is known to be a command or something forceful. There are 41 commands in the book of Ephesians—one command in the first three chapters and 40 commands in the last three chapters. I tell you now, here is what we must do, how we must live in light of the salvation that God has brought to us. This is very important. Sometimes dispensationalists, which we are because we take a literal interpretation of the Bible consistently, including the prophetic portions. We believe that Israel is separate from the church and God's work in this day is focused in the church. This is the time of the fullness of the Gentiles as Romans 11 talks about. Some Jews are saved, but primarily, it is a work focused in the Gentile world. There will come a time when the rapture of the church will result in the removal of the church from the earth and God will resume and complete His program with the nation Israel. We are sometimes accused of being antinomian, that's a word, if you look it up in the dictionary, you'll find it there. It means to be without law, lawless, because we do not believe we are under the Mosaic Law. The Mosaic Law was given to Israel to govern their conduct until Christ came. Paul talked about it in the book of Galatians. With the coming of Christ, the Mosaic Law served its purpose, but when Israel rejected their Messiah and His rule over them, then a new part of God's plan… We noted this is not new to God. God didn't have to come up with “plan B.” This is something that was planned in eternity past as we saw in Ephesians 1, that the church would be established. A new entity would bring Jew and Gentile together and their nationality would not be a focus nor important. That's why Galatians 3 says that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave or free, and so on. Those distinctions are not essential.

How do we live? Now even those of us who hold to these distinctions sometimes go light on the commands. I mentioned there are 40 commands in chapters 4-6, and that doesn't tell the whole story. When God simply makes a statement, not even in an imperative mood, it's authoritative. If you are in the military and your commanding officer tells you to do something, whether he does it in the form of a command or a simple statement, it carries authority. There is authority in everything God tells us to do, whether He does in the simple indicative statement or He does it in the form of a command. The form of a command is just to remind us how important it is. I say this because it is not optional. We say we are not saved by works, but works are a necessary result. A changed life is a necessary result of the work of God's salvation.

You'll note Ephesians 4 opens up, “Therefore.” That “therefore” builds. It means as a result of what I have said in the first three chapters, as we have it. Obviously there weren't chapter divisions when Paul wrote it because it was a letter without chapters and verses. But referring to those first three chapters—in light of that. The problem with many, even evangelical, Bible-believing, Christians, is they are always starting in Ephesians 4. Because I want something practical, I want something that tells me how to live, how to have a better family, how to raise teenagers, how to, how to, how to… But if you don't have the doctrinal foundation, you are building on sand. We saw what happens when something in the foundation of a building gives way. Jesus warned about that in the Sermon on the Mount. We must have sound doctrine, solid teaching. And now we are being built on that. We saw that at the end of chapter 2 that the church is being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the cornerstone, the central foundation stone from which all the building is constructed. So if you are not familiar with the first three chapters, if you haven't been here, you ought to keep them in mind, so keep going back and reading and rereading them. You'll note he says, “I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.” That was the discussion of chapters 1-3. Now how we walk, walk in a manner worthy of the calling. We saw this word walk earlier.

Come back to Ephesians 2:1. “You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly,” there it is, “walked.” It denotes the conducting of your life, how you live, what you do, or the characteristic of your life. “You formerly walked according to the course of this world”; your thinking was shaped. Remember Romans 12:1 came to the same point: “Do not be conformed to this world.” That's the way we formerly lived. The world shaped our thinking, and our behavior was according to the prince of the power of the air. There are only two kinds of people in the world—those who are the slaves of the living God, or those who are the slaves of the devil. Before salvation in Christ, everybody is a slave and does the will of the devil. Remember in John 8 Jesus talked to the very religious Jewish leaders and said, you are of your father the devil and you do his will. Being religious doesn't free you from the authority of the devil. Only Christ can do that. You walked “according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath,” deserving of wrath, destined for wrath. That's where you are apart from Christ.

But you'll note the change. We noted that down in verse 10 as a result of God's saving grace. “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would,” here we go with our word, “walk in them.” Justification and sanctification are distinct, but they are never separate. The great Reformer John Calvin made that observation. We distinguish between justification and sanctification, but we must never separate justification and sanctification. When God brings His salvation to you, He cleanses you within. It's the heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things, Jeremiah tells us. God cleanses us from our sin. He makes us new. Romans 6 develops that as it moves in to talk about our sanctification, living out now a new life, a holy life as saints of God, God's holy ones. God prepared these walks as the outgrowth, the outflow, result of our salvation. Anyone who claims to have placed their faith in Christ but is living according to the pattern of the first three verses of Ephesians 2 is a liar. God's salvation is a package, and it includes new life. That's Romans 6, which we studied recently in our study of the book of Romans. We die with Christ, and we are raised with Christ to new life. I stress this because you can grow up in a church like this, a Bible-believing, Bible-teaching church, and you can go to the Bible school from youth up and be on your way to an eternal hell. Have you placed your faith in Christ? Have you truly trusted Him? If you have, your heart has been changed and your life is now different. It is new. Many times over the years I have had people come and say, I know I'm a Christian. When I was at Bible school I prayed and trusted Christ. Well, what is in your life? What is the evidence? Well, I haven't been living for Him. Go on. Well, somewhere when I got to high school, I got off track, but I know I'm saved. Well, God better know it. When He saves you, He changes your life. He makes you new. We want to be clear on the biblical doctrine. No, your works don't help you get saved, but when God saves you, you become His child and partake of His nature. You don't become deity, but His character is produced in you and in me. That's the amazing thing.

The walk we are talking about, that contrast… Ephesians 2:2, “You formerly walked” one way, “but now,” verse 10, we walk a totally different walk. What he is doing in chapter 4, and he'll do through chapters 4-6, is tell us what that new walk is like. None of us are perfectly there yet, but there is to be progress. We are a work in progress. You ought to see it in your life and others ought to see it in your life because what Paul is talking about in the book of Ephesians is God has put us together in a body called the church, and our relationship together is part of His purpose and program for our growing together. There is no place in the plan of God for that isolated “I go my own way.” I've had people, believers, say, I am a believer, I have the Holy Spirit, and I have my Bible, so I don't need to be part of church. When you start telling God the way it is going to be, you need to back up and reconsider. Do I really know Him? A child of God obeys God, he doesn't tell God.

We begin Ephesians 4, “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord.” Paul, remember, is a Roman prisoner as he writes this letter. We call it one of the prison epistles. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon are the prison epistles. He mentioned this in Ephesians 3, “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles.” Paul kept it in perspective. He is not moaning as we talked before about, I'm a prisoner, it's so difficult, it's hardship, it's unpleasant, I can't be free to go and share the Gospel in other… That's not what Paul talks about. I'm a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and I'm here because I'm faithful to Him. I'm carrying out His will; He is sovereign still. He put me here for His purpose. I'm thankful Paul was imprisoned—not glad, but I'm thankful for what God did because he wrote the letter to the Ephesians while he was in prison. That has contributed immeasurably to my growth and the growth of His church. We don't want to miss God is using you where He puts you.

Here Paul says in Ephesians 4:1, “a prisoner of the Lord.” It's a little different preposition used there. Earlier he said he was a prisoner of Christ Jesus, but here he says he is a prisoner in, and uses a little different preposition for “in the Lord.” And that's the sphere in which he lives. I live my life in the Lord and His will for me, inseparably to my relationship. The chains are Roman chains, and the limitation is imposed by the Romans but brought about by Jewish influence. But I don't lose perspective. God's never out of control in my life. The things that come into my life are what He planned for me. My focus is to be used in the greatest way possible, the way He has chosen for me. That takes some of the frustration. We bemoan what has happened—oh this, oh that, oh if it were only different, oh… Wait a minute, we go back to chapter 1, and who is sovereign? That is my security. Everything is under control. The Romans aren't in control here, nor are the Jews in control. Paul's God is in control. He is right where God would have him for God's purposes at that time. That doesn't mean any less sinful for what has been done to him… What was Paul going to do? Give up being used of the Lord? God is in control. He's a prisoner of the Lord.

“I implore you,” I exhort you. The King James Bible says, “I beseech you,” and that's alright but that's too soft a word. He's exhorting them—this is not an option. I am exhorting you “to walk in a manner worthy,” consistent with, “the calling with which you have been called.” Now again, when the evangelical church gets weaker in its doctrine, in its clear teaching of biblical truths, they lose the standard. You walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called. That word called, we're not going to go back because we've been through it before, refers to the Effectual Call of God that draws you to salvation. You get it pictured in its completeness in Romans 8:28-30, starting, “All things work together for good to those who are the called according to His purpose.” And that call, it is intervened. He planned our salvation before the creation. We saw that in Ephesians 1:4, the opening verses, before the foundation of the world. He predestined us, but in time He reached out and He called us with a call that is always effective, a call that draws us. This resulted in the salvation and all that Paul has unfolded in these first three chapters—that brought us from spiritual deadness to spiritual life, set us free from the control of sin and the devil, and brought us under the authority and control of the living God. Walk worthy. You don't walk like you were before. You don't live like you live before. We are to stand out like the proverbial sore thumb. The church, we want to fit in. We're not like them anymore; we were like them, don't forget that. Paul told Titus to remind them, don't forget you were just like them. Otherwise, we get that spiritual arrogance—I don't know how they could live like that, they are so dirty, I hate to go to work, I don't like to be around them... Well, la-de-da. What were you like before God intervened in your life? How did God see you? We're told we were dead, conformed to the world, and consumed by our ungodly lusts. That's the power of His salvation. Now that you have experienced it, you don't continue to live like the pig in the mud.

You want a little more detail, so he's going to give that. Look at verse 2. You walk worthy, what does that mean? You walk “with all humility.” Not just with a little dab of humility in there, but with all humility, all gentleness. Words together here. Humility is just being humble; we never outgrow the need for more of that. That's a process and it ought to characterize our lives. Not that oh I walk, I know I'm a nobody, what do I have to contribute. That's not humility, that's selfish arrogance. All about me. That's where the world is, but that's not what… Humility is realizing how amazing and wonderful it is that God has saved me. I was a wretched, undeserving sinner. I had no claim on God, and He didn't owe me anything, but God in His grace saved me. As we'll see when we get further in our study in chapter 4, He also gifted me to serve Him in the way He chose. He has put me in places and a job and a place, in a relationship, wherever it is that I might honor Him. So there is no place for this passive, self-absorbed whatever. True humility... As he wrote in Philippians, let each of you consider others as more important than himself. If we're going to function together in a body as God intends us, I have to have an appreciation for you, for what God has done in your life, for how God is using you, and for how important it is that God has placed me in a body like this so that I might grow with what others can contribute to my life. That doesn't mean I become selfish because then I'm looking for a place and Lord, I want to be used. I don't have to be in an important place—I just want to be where You want me in this body to be used in the way You want me to be used. That's humility. He's not standing aside and observing. We talk about the Bible school; people pour themselves into different ways. Some of the contributions are more noticed, but others aren't. Obviously in this body, as we'll talk about the gifts, I get more notice than almost anybody. The importance, though, of every part functioning... I tell you, there would have been no Vacation Bible School if it all depended on me. In fact, there wouldn't be much going on in this church except Sunday morning, and then I don't know about that. We all contribute. So, humility, a proper recognition and appreciation of God's work in my life. It's an ongoing work and it's an ongoing work in your life. That's humility.

Gentleness. King James, I think, has “meekness.” That's too soft a word. One described it as strength under control. I think what one Greek commentator said, and he was quoted by others, he said a person who is gentle is always angry at the right time and never angry at the wrong time. There is a certain strength in that. It's the word used if you were training a horse. When you're going to break, they call breaking a horse, the horse's power is brought under control. The horse learns when to do what. He doesn't lose his strength; strength is just brought under control and used properly. That word gentleness would carry that. There were times when Jesus was angry and He went into the temple with a switch and drove the money changers out. He was angry at their sin. That was not uncontrolled anger, it was a time to be angry. That time, He is gentle and understanding.

Come back to Matthew 11. There are many verses we could look at in this section, I've limited them. Invitation here, Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” That is the world of misery, uncertainty, unhappiness, and discontent. I need to work through all the details of that, I can't solve that for you, but I can invite a person who can take care of it all for you... “Come to Me, all who are weary and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Peace of soul, of heart. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am,” and here are our two words in reverse order, “gentle and humble.” We have humble and gentle in Ephesians. We are to be like Christ, humble and gentle. “In heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” You find it in Christ. You place your faith in Him, and your life becomes His life. You are no longer your own because you've been bought with a price. He brings that peace to a heart. That's why I always start here. People profess to be believers, but they are unhappy, they are miserable, they are discontent, they are up, and they are down. Let me invite you. I've trusted Him. Yes, you are sitting here with your miserable life by your own testimony, and you want to tell me… How could you dare to make an accusation against the living God like that? Well, it's not His fault. Then don't tell me that you belong to Him. When you come to Christ, He gives you rest in heart, and He brings you humility and gentleness. He is humble and gentle. That's where I get it because I become a partaker of the divine nature. It is something new He has done in me. We want to be like Christ.

Come back to Ephesians. “All humility and gentleness, with patience.” There is another great word: patience. Words don't always just by their derivation give you their meaning, but this one does. It is just a compound word for long and tempered. You are long-tempered—you don't lose your temper, and you are patient. This is talking about how we get along together with one another. We are humble, we are gentle, we are understanding, and we are patient with one another. Patience, we don't give up on each other. We don't lose patience with one another, and we don't get exasperated with one another. We realize we are all at different stages, we're all going… Our goal is to help one another. We don't all agree on everything. The doctrine and our common faith in Christ and the truth He has given is what binds us. These other things… I have so many people who have become upset with the church and I just took a whole week and went through it. But do you know what they all started out? This is not about doctrine. We don't have any disagreement with doctrine. Well then, it's not something we have to fight about. It’s nothing we have to disagree on. You can have your opinions, I can have my opinions, and we go on together. If this is the church for everybody of the same opinions, we're going to be down to just me and just you in your church. The whole thing is God put us together so we're patient with one another. I don't have to be patient with the person who is just like me and likes the things I like and orders their pizza with no cheese like I order my pizza. We're good for each other. Likes the same cars… We have so much in common. It's the people we disagree with, it's the people that rub you a little bit the wrong way. A Jew and a Gentile… A Jew can still have a ham sandwich, but he has to be comfortable sitting there eating his lamb sandwich while the Gentile is eating a ham sandwich. Neither one is upset with the other. That's fine. You don't have to stop being a Jew, and you don't have to be everything I am. And we are patient also. We realize there are going to be things spiritually we have to grow in.

“Showing tolerance for one another in love.” You see this is one of the “one anothers”... Because God has put us together. If we don't realize that, we're not really clear on our salvation. What has he said in the first three chapters? God has given specific, clear revelation. What He is doing today is He is putting the people together with all their diversity, the most significant at this time being Jews and Gentiles, together in one unified entity called the church, the body of Christ. All those external things are not relevant. That doesn't mean Paul quit being a Jew. He could tell on occasion, I am of the tribe of Benjamin, I was a Pharisee. He has certain things that are his. That's fine. But you can't make that a dividing issue in the church. We start churches for different things. We start churches because we want the people like these to be comfortable there, but God is bringing people that would never be comfortable together, together. That's what He said. He didn't say, let's start a Jewish church, then let's start a Gentile church. That would have taken care of a lot of the problems, except it wasn't God's plan. So, part of that conflict that keeps going on that Paul has to address is both Jew and Gentile have to learn that the spiritual work that God has done has made you one with your differences, so show tolerance for one another.

Then he switches to some participles here, we have them as “ing” words. “Being diligent,” zealous, spoudazo, have a zeal, a diligence. You are going to apply yourself to this. “Being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Note he doesn't say to produce the unity. Who produced that? Back to chapters 1-3; the Spirit who put us together in one body. Beginning in Ephesians 2:11 and following into Ephesians 3, Paul developed that. God revealed it, so there is no excuse for us not understanding it. No matter what you think about the different people and who you like better in the congregation, we're all going to, maybe, feel more comfortable with one than another. That is fine, and even if you want to be as close to everyone, you can't be. There will be people, maybe, you are close to, but you don't want to have a clique that excludes others. We have to be comfortable serving and functioning together. We preserve the unity of the Spirit. That's why I say anytime we begin to fracture the unity, we're not fighting against one another, we're fighting against the Spirit of God and what He is doing and what God's purpose and plan is. We minimize this and we become selfish in our outlook. This is a serious matter. God says if we are walking worthy of our calling, we are applying ourselves diligently to preserve the unity that the Spirit has created among us. Anytime I am working against that, I'm working against God. The Scripture is not fuzzy on this, but somehow, we become comfortable thinking we are justified in doing what God says is the opposite of what He says we are required to do. We must careful, I have to be, and you have to be. He wouldn't put it here if it weren't a reminder we need—that we are to be diligent to preserve the unity.

That doesn't mean unity at all cost. We know the strong things that Paul writes and says, we studied the book of Jude. But you know what Jude says as he gets near the end of that letter; it's the unbelievers who have infiltrated the congregation who cause divisiveness. We can't be tolerant of false doctrine. So many of the issues that come are not doctrinal. This is not about doctrine. This is about something that should not be a dividing issue. That doesn't mean the Lord doesn't lead people to a different church at different times, because you want to be where God wants you to be. But I want to be careful. Why am I going? Why are you here? Are you here because you needed the teaching and you thought this is where you could grow? This has happened not too long ago, I had people come and say, we’re going there… The doctrine is weak and the teaching, I would have to say, is not very good. What are you doing there? Why would you be there? That's not true of every… We have Bible-believing churches in town that teach the Word wonderfully. These people are telling me the teaching is poor. What are you doing there? The church is the pillar and support of the truth, and we're called to defend the truth and you're going where you say they are pretty weak? Then get out. You don't have to come to Indian Hills. Go to another place. Fine. People say the teaching is clear, it's strong, or it's what we needed at this time. Wonderful, pour yourself into it. As believers, we claim we are Bible-believing Christians. The things that start, the cracks that come, these kinds of things, we just weaken.

We are preserving the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. That word bond is basically connected to the same word prisoner in verse 1. Paul is the prisoner of the Lord because he is in bondage. That's what a prisoner is, being chained. He's confined. So here the bond holding us together is the bond of peace. That unifies us; we are not at war with one another. We're tearing each other apart, sometimes things go on that hurt, like misunderstandings or unfairness; but we are in a process of growing. Sometimes we say things, do things, or treat people and it wasn't thoughtful. If that happens to you, you have to say God, maybe this is an opportunity for me to grow in grace. But what is concerned is my responsibility. The only thing we can control in all these situations is what I do. Maybe God has brought that into my life so that I could grow and learn to handle it. Maybe I wasn't treated fairly and maybe what they did was unthoughtful or unkind. I can't change them, but I can be sure that I handle it in a way that is honoring to Him. I wouldn't need to do all these things—humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance, preserving unity—if everybody always did just the perfect thing to me. I don't always do that to others. We understand and we concentrate. Lord, this is an opportunity for me to grow. What they did was mean-spirited, I think it was unkind, and I think they intended it to hurt me, but that doesn't change how I have to conduct myself or what I have to do. It takes the pressure off me because if I'm always upset about what somebody else is doing, or I'm always upset about something, I can't change. So I say Lord, this is the opportunity for me to grow, and maybe through that they'll grow. And that's the process. We're showing tolerance in the bond of peace.

Then there is a series. Seven times God uses the word one. He could have just lumped it all together in verse 4—one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one... He could have just said one body, Spirit, hope, Lord, faith, baptism, and God, but he uses the word one seven times; and He uses even three different Greek words for one. That just reminds you here, and he gets your attention so you don't lull in. These ones join us all together because if there is only one of each of these things, where is the division coming from? They shouldn't come from the externals, Jew and Gentile. It shouldn't come over whether you eat a ham sandwich or not. Both can give on this and either one can give for the good of the other. If eating causes my brother to stumble, I won't eat, and the other brother has to realize it's a freedom they have. Each one is responsible for how he handles it, not for how the other person does. When that happens, we grow.

“There is one body.” That’s the body of Christ, the church. We talked about that at the end of chapter 1—Christ is the head of the body. The Spirit has put us together in one body, Ephesians 2:16, “that He might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross.” Now I realize there are a variety of local churches, and that's fine. Each individual local church is to be a representation, I take it, in fullness of what the complete body is. He is writing to the church at Ephesus, telling them about the fact. When he says one body it doesn't mean the only body. There is one universal body that all the local bodies are part of—true, a part. But each local body is to manifest that. Remember in the letter to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3, each one is evaluated individually, held accountable and responsible to be all that God intends them to be. So, we are accountable here and responsible. “There is one body.”

“One Spirit” that brought about the one body and put us into one body. Okay, the one, that means two so if I am out of step, I'm of step with the Spirit. Something is wrong here. “Just as also you were called in one hope of your calling.” Our calling came with a hope and an inheritance that chapter 1 talked about. We keep going back. Hope is that which we yet anticipate. It's not doubtful and it's not uncertain; it's just not realized. Romans 8, the whole creation groans in anticipation of the unveiling of the sons of God. It’s part of our salvation that we have not experienced yet, but we will enter into. And then the glorious reign with Christ in His kingdom… We all share the same hope, the same goal, and the same assured ending.

“One Lord.” Well, if two slaves are fighting against one another something is wrong. There is only one Lord. Are we both doing His will and His way as He instructed? Then what is the fight about? There is one Lord, and that means He is in charge and not me. “One faith.” I take it that's the faith that we place in Christ, the faith that has brought about our salvation. Let me read you a verse out of Romans 3:30, but starting with Romans 3:29. “Is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes of Gentiles also.” It’s the same idea, remember. We're going to be brought together, Jew and Gentile. “Since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.” So, you see the salvation, the same faith. The Jew must place his faith in the finished work of Christ, and the Gentile must place his faith in the finished work of Christ. We have one faith that has bound us all together. Everyone here who is truly a member of the body of Christ has God's salvation and shares the same faith. We placed our faith in Jesus Christ as the one and only Savior, the One who paid the penalty for our sin. There is only one faith.

Come back to Ephesians 4:5. There is “one baptism.” Some people go drifting off here because every time they see the word baptism, they think it's talking about water baptism. There is a place for water baptism; it is important. Let me read you 1 Corinthians 12:11, where you see the similarity in context. “But one and the same Spirit works all these things.” We'll get to that later in Ephesians. It's the Spirit who gives the gifts; it's one and the same Spirit who is doing the work. “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” That's what he is talking about with the one baptism—it's the one Spirit, it's the baptism of the Spirit, and it's that work of the Spirit, Romans 6, that identified us when we placed our faith in Christ with His death, His burial, and His resurrection. That was a spiritual transaction so that God could justly declare my penalty paid because He views me through the death of Christ. And His death is credited to me as my death, payment on my behalf. We have the same thing in the Colossians 2, in that context you'll know. Some take you there to defend water baptism for salvation. Read the context. He talks about circumcision, but he says it is not a circumcision with the hands—it's a circumcision of the heart without the hands. He's talking about spiritual reality. Then he uses baptism, another spiritual reality. Water baptism only gets you wet; it can't wash away your sins. But it is a testimony that you are being identified with Christ and the cleansing He has brought to your life. The Bible knows no such thing as a believer who hasn't been baptized. So you need to take that seriously.

Come back to Ephesians 4:6. “There is one God and Father of all.” We would agree with that, and we read that in Romans. Since there is only one God, there is only one way of salvation and that's through faith in Christ. “There is one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.” He's talking about believers here because we're talking about the church. You could say in a sense He’s sovereign over all, but that's not the context Paul is talking about. The context is for believers to understand the unity and the oneness and the importance of right conduct. “He is over all and through all and in all,” the one God. You note all those ones. Now that shows the unity that has been brought about because it is true of everyone who is a child of God. If you have placed your faith in Christ, you are part of this one body, the work of the one Spirit, and you have one hope. It's all there. Now this is serious business because what God is doing today in the world is building His church. We as a local church, along with other believing local churches in Lincoln and other parts of this country and other parts of the world are to be a testimony of the power of God's salvation to do what we can't do. “Our country is being torn apart more and more by its diversity and differences and we're going to fix it, and the more we fix it the worse it gets.” But do you know what? They ought to come to the church and see that we have people there who are very poor, very rich; people there of one race or another. I wish we had more diversity. We don't want to start a church in a part of town for this race and a church in a part of town for the people who are this social standing. It's a denial of what God says. I want to put you together, and your togetherness with your differences are a testimony to the world of what I have done. And do you know what? You love each other, and it's a love that… The fruit of the Spirit is love. That's a testimony to the world. We are a work of God. We're not perfect, and God is still at work in us and through us, but we want to be contributing and being what He created us to be so that we can bring Him the honor and the glory. His work in us will produce the testimony for Himself.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of Your Word. Thank You, Lord, for speaking to us with clarity and truth to be understood. Thank You for Your Spirit, who dwells in each believer individually and dwells in us as a body of believers corporately, a truth that is true of every group of believers gathered as Your church wherever they are in this city, in this state, in this country, and worldwide. And Lord, pray that we as a local church here would be careful that these truths, so rich, so precious, the truth of the salvation that You have accomplished for us and provided for us in Christ is clearly manifested, and is evidence as we continue to grow together. Pray Your Word would be worked out in our lives even as we go out today. Bless the day before us, whatever You have for us. In Christ's name, amen.