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Walking With The Lord - Part 5

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• Well, let me mention today on Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 through 7, we are now at part 5 with walking with the Lord. Old Testament.

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• Here we go. I got it now. You see, had it not been as it was, Alice's fault. She knew it was lying there and laying there, she just didn't tell me. It was a laying or lying. All right, Ephesians chapter 4, beginning there with verse 1. The Apostle Paul says, "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're 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 and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."

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• But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. So I began this series and I pointed out how that walking with the Lord necessitates walking before the Lord, for He told Abram in Genesis 17, "Walk thou before me, and be thou perfect." And so walking before the Lord means that we're to walk as if we're in His presence; we literally walk before His face. And I pointed out how that walking, of course, signifies fellowship and communion, how it signifies a purpose, how it signified progress, how it signified agreement, and also, of course, resolution as well. God commands us to walk before Him and to walk pleasing in His sight.

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• Then we went to Hebrews 5, Hebrews 11 verses 5 and 6, where the Bible talked about Enoch. Before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. And then the Scripture says, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must first believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." So I pointed out how that walking in faith was absolutely fundamental and foundational. And walking in faith has reference first of all to the person of God—we must believe that He is. Secondly, to the promises of God—that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. And then thirdly, of course, to the providence of God, because that is what brings everything together in our lives for our good and for God's glory.

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• And the third message I began here on Ephesians chapter 4, where the Apostle Paul tells us that we must walk worthy. We looked at Ephesians 4 and verse 1 and Colossians 1 and verse 10, and compared these verses where God commands us to walk worthy unto Him, unto all pleasing. And so we came back and we looked particularly at verse 1 where Paul says that we are to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. And I pointed out that the word vocation occurs 10 times in Scripture. That is, it's translated 10 times from the Greek word kleisis. The verb is kleo. In fact, that verb is used in verse 1, the last word called. And I pointed out how obviously this refers from Scripture to our salvation. So the Apostle Paul is telling us that we are to walk worthy of our calling unto salvation.

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• And then he begins to tell us how. With all lowliness. I spent an entire message talking about walking in lowliness and I pointed out how the Greek word there literally means to walk humility or to walk in one's lowliness of one's mind or modesty, that is to understand one's own smallness, humility. And of course I pointed out how lowliness is the opposite of pride, arrogance, and haughtiness. It is the opposite of what you and I would call a spirit of domination, of lordship, and manipulation. And so if we desire to live a lowly life in the sense that our attitude is one of lowliness, then we need to look where and what we were when God saved us. And I pointed that out clearly in Ephesians 2 verses 1-3.

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• And then in Isaiah 51 and verse 1 God says, "Hearken unto Me, you that follow after righteousness, you that seek the Lord, look unto the rock from which you were hewn, and from the pit from which you were digged." So He says you've got to remember where you are. Once we understand our depravity, our sinnerhood, then there's certainly no reason for pride or arrogance in our lives at all.

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• And then last week we looked at meekness. He says we're to walk with all lowliness and meekness. I simply pointed out that meekness is not weakness. It is not poor posture. It is not a denial of our rights. Our Lord was the meekest individual, and yet He took a scourge of small cords and drove the money changers from the Temple. He was certainly not a 90-pound weakling. And I pointed to how Moses during his lifetime was the meekest man on earth. And you know all of the accomplishments of Moses, the man of God. Well obviously, according to the Scripture, the word meek refers to those who are broken to yoke. Meekness is nothing less than disciplined strength under Jesus Christ. So when He says, "Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me,"

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• He is saying, once you are yoked up with Me, then you're under My control. You're under My command. You move at My command. So it's just like when I was a boy, we plowed mules. We would holler "gee" and "haw," and those mules knew exactly what to do. We're deterred when we'd holler that same thing if we're yoked up with Christ; when He commands, we know exactly what to do because we have our disciplined strength under Him. Now today,

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• what I want to do is I want to finish verses 2 through 7. I realize I could probably take a longer period of time and deal probably with just each verse and have another 3 or 4 messages, but I think you're getting the idea of what it means to walk worthy. And the Apostle Paul has given us four or five other points that I've got to cover as well. So I want you to look in verse 2. We'll take up where we left off. He's still teaching us how to walk worthy of our calling and he says in verse 2 that we're to walk with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering and forbearing one another in love. So, thirdly, if we are to walk worthy of our calling, we must walk with longsuffering. Now, longsuffering is a unique Greek word. It is the word makrothumia. Literally, it is translated in our Bibles as longsuffering 12 times, and it is translated as patience 2 times. So the word longsuffering then relates to patience, to endurance, to constancy, to steadfastness, to perseverance, to forbearance, and let me put it to you like this: slowness in avenging oneself.

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• So here's what longsuffering is. Longsuffering is a self-restraint which we're enabled to exercise by the grace of God, which does not hastily, easily, quickly, and readily retaliate when one is wrong. In other words, if we have longsuffering in our lives, we do not immediately turn to wrath and anger and revenge. So longsuffering then literally means that we never permit a trial or a provocation to bring us to the end of our patience. We're suffering long with it. John Gill said it like this: "with longsuffering, bearing much and long with the infirmities of each other, without being easily provoked to anger by any ill usage and not immediately meditating and seeking revenge for every affront given or injury done." And so to walk is to walk worthy of the grace of the calling or agreeable to it, to God that calls us by His grace, who is longsuffering both with wicked men and His own people. Now, interestingly, he says that longsuffering once again means that we bear long with each other's infirmities, that we're not easily provoked, and I love this part: "and not immediately meditating and seeking revenge for every affront given."

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• What does that mean? It means when Steve does me wrong, I don't immediately say, "Now let me see. How can I get him back? How can I return evil for evil?" Of course, we used to do that as children, you remember. When something happened to us, we immediately started trying to plan on how to get somebody back for what they had done to us. Well, that's not longsuffering by any stretch of the imagination.

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• Now, I want you to hold Ephesians 4, but look in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 6. And I want you to see what the Apostle Paul is talking about. And we're going to have to begin in verse 3. Because he says in that verse that we're to give no offense in anything that the ministry may be blamed or censured. So notice if you would 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 3: "Giving no offense in anything, that the ministry be not blamed." Well, how do we live a life where we do not provide censure upon our ministries? Well, here it is: "But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings, by pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering,

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• by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned." So, one of the ways that we make sure that the ministry is not to be blamed is by longsuffering. So, we are to learn longsuffering. So, here are some questions. I want you to think about these questions. From where are we to learn longsuffering? How should longsuffering affect us? How do we apply longsuffering in our lives? Now I can answer those questions for you by asking you a couple of questions myself. Now here's what I want you to do. I want you to get ready to answer my question in your mind, not out loud. So here it is: from where do we learn longsuffering? How do we apply it in our lives? So here's my questions to try to teach you this.

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• Which one of you in this room would have desired for God to slap you down, run you over, and destroy you for the very first sin that you committed? No takers? How about for the second sin? How about for the third sin? Or the fourth sin? Or the fifth sin? How about for the millionth sin? You see what I'm saying? God did not instantly smite us when we sinned against Him. He did not just simply destroy us, and the Scripture teaches that that is His longsuffering. For He said in Romans 2 and verse 4, "Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" So God could have

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• easily and quickly smote us and before we ever found His grace, because we deserved it. But He did not. He was longsuffering. Now, I could spend an hour going through the Bible and showing you how God was longsuffering with Israel. Do you remember how many times they provoked God just in the wilderness? Look at the times He was longsuffering with the heathen. You remember there He told Abram in Genesis chapter 15 the reason Abram's seed was going to go into Egypt for 400 years was because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. So He waited another 400 years before He destroyed them. And look then at God's longsuffering with us. So let me just show you a principle.

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• I want you to hold Ephesians 4 but turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 18. And I want you to see how Peter's question is tied to a rather lengthy answer. Notice if you would please Matthew chapter 18 and we're going to begin there with verse 21. Matthew 18 verse 21: "Then came Peter to Him and said, Lord, how oft shall I forgive my brother or how oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Till seven times?" Well, you know that seven is the number of perfection and Peter thought, well, you know, putting up with him seven times, that's pretty good. Verse 22: "Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, until seven times, but until seventy times seven," which would be 490 times. But let me point out that does not mean that the 491st time that you forgive that you can slap him down. That's not what He's talking about at all. He's just saying it's basically to be an unending thing. Now Peter is asking, "How many times am I to put up with my brother sinning against me?"

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• Now watch if you would verse 23. Our Lord now illustrates His answer: "Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened to a certain king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed him ten thousand talents," which is millions. "But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him a hundred pence," which was a few pennies. "And he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. And his fellow servant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, I will pay thee all. And he would not, but went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry and came and

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• told unto their lord all that was done. Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me. Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses." Wow!

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• So here is the analogy. You think of all the sins and the wickednesses and the rebellion that you've cast in the face of God. And God forgave you all of that. And I don't care how ugly David gets to me. He cannot do to me what I've done to God. He really can't, because I'm not God and I'm not holy as He is. And therefore, even if he sinned against me greatly, it's still not the same as sinning against an infinitely holy God. Okay, now watch this. So then if God, from whom we have sinned against very greatly, was longsuffering and forgave us, can we not then turn around with longsuffering and forgive someone else who sins against us in a minor degree? So here's the principle: freely you have received, freely give. And that's simple. Freely you have received, freely give. Now, we're to be longsuffering to each other.

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• I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Galatians chapter 6 and verse 10. I want you to look at this. Galatians 6 and verse 10. Here's an interesting thing. To show you how widespread of an application this should be, our Lord tells us in Galatians 6 and verse 10, "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith."

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• So, let me put it to you like this. If I have an obligation to be longsuffering and forgiving to all men, how much more of an obligation do I have to be longsuffering and forgiving to the household of faith, to my brothers? So, obviously, He tells us, therefore, that we are to walk not only in lowliness and meekness, but also in longsuffering as well.

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• Now, I want you to go back to Ephesians 4, because I'm going to try to tie these things together for you. Look if you would in verse 2. He's still telling us how to walk worthy, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering.

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• Now he says, "forbearing one another in love." Now, going to walk worthy we must not only walk in lowliness and meekness and longsuffering, we must also walk with forbearance. Longsuffering and forbearance are intimately connected.

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• Now the Greek word for forbearance here is anechomai, which literally means to suffer, to bear with, to put up with, to forbear, endure, to hold up, and to sustain. Now, let me just try to tell you where this word is going to come into play. If you were to read in Romans chapter 14, which we will do so in a little bit, but if you were to read in Romans chapter 14 and 1 Corinthians chapter 8, you will find that the Lord speaks about weak brethren and strong brethren. By the way, if there are weak brethren and there are strong brethren, obviously there are some in between there somewhere as they are progressing to being strong. Moreover, when you get to 1 John chapter 2 you will find the Lord there divides Christians into three groups. He divides us into babes, into young men, and into fathers.

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• Everybody in this room understands a babe does not have the characteristic of a young man. A young man does not have the characteristic of a father. There are certain things about each one that we admire. We admire a baby because he's cute and cuddly and loving and what we would say is innocent. We admire a young man because of his strength and agility and ability. We admire our father because of his wisdom and his gravity and that kind of thing. You understand? There are differences. The interesting thing is this, when you look at Romans chapter 14, which we shall do so in just for a moment, there is a tendency of a weak brother to judge a strong brother. So the weak brother, he looks at the strong brother and he asks, "How can you do that? What are you doing?

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• I could never do something like that. That's got to be sinful." Why? Not because it's contrary to Scripture, but because he's weak and he doesn't understand Christian liberty. Here's the strong brother. The strong brother has a tendency to look at the weak brother and disdain him, despise him for his weakness and his lack of understanding and his lack of what you and I would call knowledge of Scripture and principle. Now, so there is a tendency to each one.

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• I want you to go ahead and turn to Romans chapter 14. You could find the same thing in 1 Corinthians 8, but look in Romans chapter 14. You see, teaching is one thing. Arguing, disdaining, and cutting off are quite distinct from teaching. I could patiently teach someone and that's no problem. But if I take the attitude, "Look, look, I'm just tired of this. You're whining, you're complaining, it's driving me up a wall. Don't ask me any more questions." Is that forbearance? No, that's not forbearance. That's cutting him off. That's telling him, "I don't want to mess with you anymore." Look in Romans chapter 14 verse 1. Here it is.

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• "Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations." There's not to be any arguing, any fussing, and any fighting. "For one believeth that he may eat all things," that's the strong brother, "another who is weak eateth herbs." God says in verse 3, "Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not." That's the strong despising the weak. "And let not him which eateth not," that's the weak, "judge him that eateth," that's the strong, "for God hath received him." So the tendency then for the weak is to judge the strong and the tendency of the strong is to despise the weak. So forbearing then, forbearing one another in love, puts up with each other's weaknesses, puts up with our infantile thinking, and sometimes puts up with our zeal without knowledge.

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• I want you to look back in Ephesians chapter 4. Watch carefully. Verses 1 and 2: "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love."

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• Now I want to give you a quote from Matthew Henry, listen to me. He says, "Forbearing one another in love signifies bearing their infirmities out of a principle of love, so as not to cease to love them on account of these, that is those infirmities. The best Christians have need to bear one with another and to make the best one of another, to provoke one another's graces and not their passions. We find much in ourselves which it is hard to forgive ourselves; therefore we must not think it much if we find that in others which we think hard to forgive them, and yet we must forgive them even as we forgive ourselves." So, what he is saying is everybody has their own infirmities, everybody has their own problems, everybody has their own idiosyncrasies. And if they are a brother we just have to bear them, we have to put up with them.

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• I have known one woman particularly, who was a good woman and a godly woman, but she had a sharp, penetrating voice. And every time she spoke, everybody thought that she was angry. She wasn't angry. That was just the voice that God gave her. I also had a preacher friend. He's now with the Lord. He had a high-pitched voice, and it would drive me up a wall.

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• But he would visit with me, and I would sit down, and I would listen to him. And when he would leave, I would just quietly say, "Lord, thank you for the fellowship, and Lord, thank you the fellowship's over." I mean, you know. But he couldn't change his high-pitched voice. You follow me? All of us have our infirmities. So when you see a young Christian that is headstrong and proud, he thinks that he has the world by the tail and he impresses you as a know-it-all, just stop and think back. You used to be exactly the same way, because you progress from a babe to a young man to a father. We have to understand that there were times when we were just as immature, and just as ignorant, and just as impulsive as others when we had a zeal that far exceeded our knowledge.

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• Isn't that what he is saying? Forbearing one another in love. In other words, what he is saying, forbearance enables you to put up with each other without writing each other off. "I'm not going to have anything else to do with Francis. I'm not going to have anything else to do with Gary." No, no. Forbearance enables us to say, "Well, they're human. They're sinners. So am I. We'll just put up with this because they're infirm just like I'm infirm." That's what forbearance is.

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• Now, I want you to watch together. Let's go back to verse two and then go to verse three. I want you to see the connection. He says, if we are going to walk worthy, we are to walk with all lowliness and meekness and longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now I think it is important that you understand, he says endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit, not endeavoring to make the unity of the Spirit. Only God can give unity. Only God can produce unity. The unity that He gives, however, is based upon our common salvation. Each saint possesses this common salvation. So He says, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Endeavoring literally is pointing out that it is our duty, it is our obligation, it is our responsibility, it is our privilege to do whatever is necessary to maintain this unity and the bond of peace. By the way, the Greek word for endeavoring here is spoudazo, which literally means to endeavor, to be diligent, to labor, to exert oneself.

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• Let me give you a good illustration. When you look at this, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, let me give you an idea that might really impress you. Here is what it means: breaking your neck to keep the unity of the Spirit. In other words, doing everything within your power. You are exerting yourself. Wow. So God then has given us this unity, but He is now telling us it's our responsibility to keep the unity. We don't keep unity by fussing and fighting. We don't keep the unity breaking up into parties and factions and cliques. We're not to be like the Corinthian church

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• that was full of divisions and discord. And many times they divided over preachers. Some said, "I like Apollos." Others said, "Well I like Paul." Some said, "Well I like Cephas" or the Apostle Peter. And some tried to be more spiritual and said, "We just like Jesus." You know what does Paul say? "Come on. It's God who gave each one of them. One sows, one waters, but God gave the increase." And here are all these divisions, all these cliques over preachers and then sometimes over other things as well.

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• And so what He is telling us is this, there are differences. We have to understand these differences. There is always the danger of discord among the brethren because we are different. And we come from different sections of the country. People up in Michigan have different culture and habits than I have down in South Georgia. Certainly in New York, that is for sure. And I get tickled because occasionally Alice and I will get invited out to dinner. And I always do this purposefully.

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• I will say, "Thank you for the invitation. We'll be glad to accept it.

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• Now, do you want us there about 11 or 11:30 in the day?" And you can see the shock on their face. And I said, "Now, what you meant is supper. Because in Georgia, it's breakfast, dinner, supper. And a lot of the northern states, it happens to be breakfast, lunch, and dinner." You see? So I have to correct all of that. In fact, one of our ladies after church, I use this illustration.

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• She said, "Let me tell you something." She said, "We bought some dinner tickets, six of them to go to a dinner." And she said, "Well, we got there about five o'clock and they were cleaning up." She said, "Their dinner was, you know, at noon." Well, that's the way it goes. I mean, there are differences and people have cultural differences. People have personality differences. There's all kind of differences. And every one of you sitting here will say, and have said at times, "Well I don't like that person." And the reason you don't like that person is not because his person is bad per se, but there is just something about him, maybe his culture, or his speech, or something that you just don't particularly like. Well this is what God is saying. God said, "No, we can't divide like that."

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• We have to endeavor, we have to break our neck to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now, I want you to look at the word bond. It is a very wonderful word. It is the Greek word sundesmos, and it literally means a bond or a band that binds us together. It refers to a bundle as well as the ligaments by which our muscles are held together. Now, I want you to watch this. He says, "endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond" or in the ligaments "of peace."

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• How many of you have ever had a torn ligament? It is painful. It hurts. And if you have a torn ligament here it basically renders that member useless until it heals. So here's what God is saying: unless you want to be useless, and unless you want to make everybody else useless or others useless, then you do everything you can to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. God has given us that unity. We must keep it. Now He said in Romans 12 and verse 18, let me just quote it: "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." So God then expects us, if it is possible, as much as lies within us, to live peaceably with everybody. And if God requires us to live peaceably with everybody as much as we can—and He understands there are some that we probably cannot live peaceably with, that's why He said, "as much as in you"—but if God requires us as much as in us to live peaceably with all men, how much more does He require us to live peaceably with each other?

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• Obviously. Now here's what Matthew Henry says, listen. Talking about verse 2 and verse 3. Listen: "Now without these lowliness, meekness, longsuffering, and forbearance unity cannot be preserved. The first step towards unity is humility. Without this there will be no meekness, no patience, or forbearance, and without these no unity. Pride and passion break the peace and make all mischief. Humility and meekness restore the peace and keep it. Only by pride comes contention. Only by humility comes love.

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• The more lowly-mindedness, the more like-mindedness. We do not walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called, if we be not meek and lowly of heart. For He by whom we are called, and He to whom we are called, was eminent for meekness and lowliness of heart, and has commanded us therein to learn of Him." Wow. There is a song that we sang. The title of it is "Bind Us Together." It goes like this: "Bind us together, Lord, bind us together with cords that cannot be broken. Bind us together, Lord, bind us together, bind us together with love. There's only one God. There's only one King. There's only one body. That is why we sing." And then the chorus: "But bind us together." So the truth is this: He has bound us together. We must endeavor to keep the unity by not tearing the ligaments of lowliness, meekness, longsuffering, and forbearance. Okay. Now I want to show you this. I want you to look at verses 4 through 6.

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• I told you—I'm sure you do not remember—but I told you in the first message dealing with Ephesians 4 that these verses 4-7 here relate to the first three verses. You wouldn't think so just by reading it. For in verse 4 he says, "There is one body and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ." So what has that got to do with verses 2 and 3 particularly?

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• Well, we must consider now how Paul emphasizes this unity and also consider how it is evidenced and encouraged. So, these three verses, especially 4, 5, and 6, go together. So, verse 4, first of all, there is a threefold unity that is evidenced internally. Watch: he says in verse 4, "For there is one body and one Spirit, even as you're called in one hope of your calling." Now, I want you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and let's begin reading there with verse 12 and read down through verse 27. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Remember now: one body, one Spirit, one calling. So in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul is using an illustration about how we have one body but many different members. He says this, 1 Corinthians 12 verse 12: "For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ." So just like our physical body has many members—toes, fingers, arms, legs—is still one body.

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• So many different members in the body of Christ and yet still one body. Now watch verse 13: "For by one Spirit"—remember now one body, now one Spirit—"for by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are there many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee.

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• Nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of thee. Nay, much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor. And our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need. But God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked, that there should be no schism or division in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. One member rejoice or be honored, all the other members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." Now if you do not believe that when one member of your body suffers the rest of the body suffers with it, just lay your hand flat on the table and with the other hand pick up a hammer and hit your fingers.

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• You will find out very quickly how the entire body hurts and that hand will usually go to your mouth or go somewhere or in the other hand because your body is now suffering. Now, I want you to note he talked about one body. He talked about one spirit. He talks about one calling. For instance, look in verse 11. He says, "But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit,

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• dividing to every man severally as He will." Skip down to verse 18: "But now God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him." So one body, one spirit, and one calling. The Bible says in Romans 1 and verse 6, "among whom also ye are the called of Jesus Christ." So what Paul is doing in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 4, he is saying here is an external evidence of our unity. Your members of your body function together; if they do not function together, something is wrong. I got tickled last week after church. One of our men who is very thin was talking to another believer who was kind of chunky and big, and the big man said he surely would like to lose weight. And the skinny man said, "Well, I'll tell you what I heard." And the bigger man said, "What's that?" He said, "If you really want to lose weight, just drink your pint of Jack Daniels before dinner." He said, "How will that help me lose weight?"

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• He said, "Well, you'll still be hungry, but your hand can't find your mouth." Well, the point being, your members have to function together for the better part of the body. If your members do not function together, then the whole body suffers. So that's exactly what he's saying. Now, look if you would please in verse 5: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism." Now verse 4 is internal, verse 5 is external. We acknowledge, we confess that there is one Lord, and consequently there is one faith and one baptism. Now listen to me. The word Lord is kurios in the Greek, which means boss, owner, master, sovereign. There can only be one ultimate. There can only be one absolute. There can only be one sovereign. If there is one Lord, that means by necessity, there is only one faith. They're not two faiths; there's one faith because there's one Lord. And there's only one baptism. And if you look in your Bibles to Romans chapter 6 you will find that is mentioned again, which was also mentioned in 1 Corinthians

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• chapter 12, but look in Romans 6 beginning there verse 3. And the Bible says, "Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life. For we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, so shall we be in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." So there is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.

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• That is an external evidence of our unity. I don't care if believers are in Michigan, I don't care if they're in Timbuktu, I don't care if they're in Georgia. If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you acknowledge there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Okay?

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• Now, if you'll look at verse 6, he says it like this. And I want you to see this circle of unity grows even wider with a heavenly application. He says, "One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." One God and Father of all. So every believer, whoever they are and wherever they may be, they acknowledge the one God who is the Father of us all. One God. Deuteronomy 6 verse 4: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." It is that one Lord who is our Father. In 1 Corinthians 8 and verse 6 our Lord says it like this: "But to us there is but one God the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him." So He says there is one God and Father of all, who is above all—He is sovereign—and through all—that is providentially He rules and reigns—and in you all—that is by grace through faith.

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• So, Paul says, look at this, we have a unity that is evidenced internally, externally, and heavenly. And therefore that unity is to be maintained.

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• Now, I want you to look at verse 7, I'm going to tie it together here. Look at verse 7, he says, "But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ." He now describes the manner in which God establishes and preserves us in a mutual relationship. There is no member in the body of Christ that is endowed with such perfection that he's enabled to stand alone. Here's what he means: watch carefully. "But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ." So here it is.

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• The weakest believer is just as much a believer as the strongest believer. If you were to look at the thief who died on the cross, he looked at our Lord and said, "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." And our Lord responded, "Verily I say unto you today, thou shalt be with Me in paradise." Now here's my question. How long did that dying thief have to live for our Lord? An hour? Two hours?

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• Maybe three until they came along and broke his legs. And that was it. Was he saved? Yes. You can be the newest saint and you can be the weakest saint, but you're still a saint and God has given you gifts. You can be a young saint, you can be a mature saint. God has given us gifts. And the answer that I want you to see is this: we need each

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• other. Pat can do things I can't do. He understands things I don't understand. Steve understands things I don't understand. I understand some things that you don't understand. But if we work with each other and work together, we combine the gifts and we combine the knowledge that God gives us and we function as one body. We move as one body. It's just like after benediction. And we get up to leave. Your whole body functions together. You push back. Your hands move. Your legs move. You stand up. You all work. And your body works together.

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• So here's what he's saying. No matter how weak and how insignificant the childish saint is, he's needed in the body of Christ. No matter what your position in the body of Christ, you're needed in the body of Christ and God put you there and gave you the gifts that He gave you as it has pleased Him to do so. So He's given us, to each one of us, the ability to function in the body. And what our responsibility is, if we're going to walk worthy unto the Lord, is that we function the way we're to function. And we walk in lowliness and meekness, longsuffering, forbearing each other in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. We use those gifts and we use those graces and we use these attributes to hold that unity together and live for our Lord and honor Him.

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• Can you imagine just for a moment? Can you imagine what it would be like if just all the Christians in Suwannee County came together and said, "We're gonna work together"? Can you believe that? Could you imagine what it would be like if just the pastors came together and said, "We are going to work together"? Something you hardly ever see. And the reason being everybody wants to be the chief and nobody wants to be the Indians.

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• But if you have lowliness and meekness and longsuffering and forbearance, yes you can do that. Without those things you cannot do that. The reason we're so divided is because we have never learned to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we've been called. And we need to walk pleasing unto the Lord and the way to do that is by learning to walk worthy. Now next Sunday, Lord willing, I'm going to show you in Ephesians 4 how He commands us to walk differently. You cannot please Him unless you walk in faith, you walk worthy, and next, walking differently.

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• Father, in the name of Jesus Christ we bow to Thee. We ask for Your grace and Your mercy that You would teach us. Help us, Lord, to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Help us, Lord, to walk in lowliness and meekness and longsuffering, forbearing one another in love and enabling us to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. In the name of Jesus Christ we ask and pray, Amen.

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T15:10:44Z