You would please remain standing and open your Bibles to Ephesians, chapter four, Ephesians, chapter four. This morning's passage will be Ephesians, chapter four, verses four through six, but. It's really part of the larger chapter four. So I want to start in verse one and read through verse six, and then we will focus in starting in verse four after that. So here are the word of the Lord this morning. I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you recall to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all. Let us pray. Father, we Come this morning and this part of our time together worshiping you to hear from your word. Father, we ask that you would speak to us through your word. We ask that you would send a spirit to work among us, that you would change us and mold us into the image of Jesus. You would make us more like him every time we come to your word, because we have come in contact with you. Father, we ask that you would change us today, that you would move and change us. We pray all of these things in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. Well, we've been in Ephesians for several months now. I'll tell you where we're going. It's going to take us the rest of the fall and probably all of January to finish up Ephesians. And then when we finish Ephesians, my intent would be to take a very, probably take a very short break just for a few weeks, and then we'll hop into Romans and we'll be in Romans for, I don't know, maybe till Jesus returns. I'm not sure. Everybody that I know that preaches Romans is there for it for some time. So we'll be in Romans after that, if the Lord tarries. And so that's where we are. So I want you to know. So we're in. Kevin said this last week. We're starting a new a new section of Ephesians. Paul, what he's done in the in the in the first three chapters is started with a very beautiful description of the amazing work that Christ has done for his people. If you remember, I'll try to sum it up the best I can that God has called those who were his enemies, those who are actively rebelling against him. He has changed them and brought not just change them, but the language is is that he's given those enemies, those Gentiles. The full inheritance of Christ made them fellow there's and we're going to see today has brought them into his family. It's amazing that God would not only forgive our sins, but then he would, I would say, not just stop there, but take it a step forward and bring us into his family and make us full heirs to the promise of Christ. Paul has unpacked that in the first part of this letter. Now, Starting where we label chapter four, there's a there's a shift in his content a little bit. Now, he doesn't abandon this very beautiful theology. But what he does is he is he moves into the application of this theology of this gospel of the theology of the church. He starts to apply that and flesh it out and helped the Ephesians and us see how it applies in different aspects of church life and our own lives together and individually. And so he's he's building on the, I would say, the practical nature of the theology of the church that he's given this this story of Christ's work, bringing people in and Christ building his church. And so now we get the practicalities that come out of that. So in chapters four through six, we have a lot of what to do, all right, and how to do it that flows out of Christ's work for us. Now, in this letter also, We don't have a major problem, per se, that that that Paul is addressing. It's not like the Corinthian church that had I lost count of the number of major problems that Paul had to address. He's he does address the Gentiles coming in and he's addressed some of those those things that he's he's really unpacking this this gospel. All right. And knowing full well. that there's going to be tension between the Gentiles and the Jews, anywhere that in the early first century, the early church, that there is a group of Jews and a group of Gentiles that believe and they come together. There's going to be tensions. They really didn't like each other. And so we know that. And so he's he's writing in such a way to help the Ephesians, the Gentile Ephesians understand their place in the local church. And I think also for us now, how we how we come together as different people in one church now. Ligon Duncan, he's the president of the Reformed Theological Seminary. One of the things that he says about this that's really interesting, Paul doesn't just come, he knows this potential problem is out there and he doesn't just come with the big floss water and tell them just to stop it or don't let this be a problem. He backs up a load of theology that backs up his teaching about being one. And he's done that in the first three chapters, the first half of this letter. He's dumped out on the Ephesian church and on us this load of very rich and awesome theology of God bringing people to salvation. And now he's going to unpack that and not just tell people what to do. He does that, but he does it riding on this wave of theology that he's had in the first three chapters. All right. And so the very start of chapter four, we saw last week with Kevin, Paul is calling for unity after explaining the diversity of the Jews and Gentiles in the church. All right. He's he's talked about some diversity. He said, you know, we're all fellow heirs. The mystery. This was the mystery in chapter three, verse six. The mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs. They're brought in. There's diversity in the church of Jews and Gentiles. And now he's going to he's going to call for unity. And actually, today's text is a creed of sorts that declares unity around a common faith. I appreciated Larry's comments on the Apostles Creed here, and as we were reading through it, I was thinking about the words here in this text. This is a creed of sorts. Now, in this in this creed of sorts to some of you, the idea of unity. Coupled with the diversity that Paul has already talked about might seem contradictory, but they are not. They are not. In Christ's church, we can be unified around the person and the work of Christ and still be very different people. And not just different people in our backgrounds, but different roles that we have. And he's going to he's going to unpack those in the coming verses, starting in verse seven, going through the next verses through 11 and 12. These these different roles in the church of apostles and prophets and evangelists. So we see this these this diversity, but also this unity. So but today is specifically about the unity in the church. And I know probably some of you are thinking there are like 10 churches on North Park. alone. There is not a lot of unity. We'll talk about that. But Paul's making an argument for unity in God's people. And the first argument that he makes, he actually argues from three different points. The first one he makes is this common identity we have in the spirit. The second argument he makes is a common testimony that we have of Jesus Christ, our Lord. And the third argument that we have is that we are part of a shared family with the same father. So he he marched through. And if you'll notice, he has a common identity, a common testimony and a common shared family. He uses these to argue for this unity in the church. So let's walk through these three points and hopefully they'll build upon each other and give us a large picture of the unity that Paul is calling for in the church. So first, a shared identity in the spirit. Paul wants the Ephesian church to see that they have unity in this work of salvation. And this first argument is that there is one body and one spirit. So if you look at verse four. Paul says there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. There's one call, there's one hope, which means there's one body and there's also one spirit. There's one body group when church all and dwell by the one and the same spirit. Paul is telling them. I think he's pointing out to them that you are all Ephesians, Jew or Gentile. and dwelled with the same Spirit. You're called to the same hope in Christ. They aren't saved by varying means. The Jews are not more saved because they're Jewish. They're not. They're all saved through this common work that is given to them that Christ has done. There's one way to salvation. There's one hope. And He says, you are united together. You have a new identity. There's one body and one spirit, not many. It's all tied up with being part of the body of Christ joined together by this indwelling of the spirit. Now, there's a there's a commentator by the name of Dr. Arnold. He's at Talbot School of Theology, and he writes this. The Holy Spirit marks believers as God's property and is a deposit on their future eschological inheritance. And what Dr. Arnold means by this and what he is suggesting that Paul is saying is that you have one spirit church, Ephesian church. All of you are indwelled by the same spirit. And that same spirit is a deposit for this common hope that you have in the future. You have unity around that. Brothers and sisters, because We, too, share this same spirit. We are part of this one body. Being tied up with Christ's people together, we are united and have a shared identity as ones who will inherit Christ in full. I think this is really important for us to understand in our own culture. You may have noticed on your way here this morning that you passed multiple smaller congregations. Many different churches. And if you were to notice, most of them have their own distinctives about them. There's a reason that they're there and we're here, isn't there? There is. And that's OK. There is there is a there's distinctives, but if we were to if we were to drive out of here and go on our way home and we pass churches, there are many churches that are full of Gospel believing saved spirit indwelling people that are part of a larger body that are part of this common salvation that we have. We are called to a larger body that stretches across this world and throughout the ages. And we are united around this now, we'll talk about our differences in a few minutes, I think those are important. We'll talk about those. But the first point that Paul is making is that we have a shared identity in the spirit. I think particularly he was pointing to these Gentiles going, you are every much as saved as those who have a Jewish background because you have one in the same spirit as them. So unity in the gospel, number one, is a shared identity in the indwelling, this one spirit. Secondly, Secondly, Paul says in verse five, he's going to he's making a second argument that they have a shared testimony in the Lord Jesus. Verse five, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. You put these together, this is a testimony that Christians have one Lord. One faith and one baptism. So why would Paul use three? I'll say three words here, Lord, faith and baptism to paint a picture of a greater testimony that we have. Well, he talks first about one Lord in this. This is important not only in our time, but in the Ephesians times. Or maybe I should say the other way, it's not only important in the Ephesians time, it's important in our time. In Ephesus, during this time when he's writing this letter, there were other prominent religions and so-called deities that were worshipped. In Ephesus was the temple of Artemis. Artemis was claimed to be the lord over the entire cosmos, heavens, earth and underworld. And the title Lord was used in the inscriptions that were made in stone about her. Paul is making sure they understand. There are many deities that claim this title of being Lord over all. And Paul says, you are not. They are wrong. There is one Lord, the Lord Jesus. There is one. He is really what these others falsely claim. There is one Lord. It's not Artemis. It's not any other God out there. It is the Lord Jesus. And you are united in this because you claim that you serve the one risen Christ and you are united regardless of your background, regardless of where you live. You are united in this. Now, we In Houston, don't have a lot of competing deities, do we? They're out there. You can go find them, but they're not the most prominent thing in our culture. We have other lords that like to compete in our own lives, don't we? We have these these idols of our heart and these other areas of our life. And so as we as we think about Paul saying you worship and you follow the one risen Lord, he is your Lord. I think we have to ask ourselves, do we have any other controlling factor or any other lords in our own lives? I see. When I'm out and about, I hear people talk or if I'm talking to neighbors or whoever may be for some, it's careers, jobs and success. For others, politics has become their lord. For some, it's American culture. Others, it's leisure. Others, it's a it's a whole spattering of things that become the what they bow down to. And then we have to ask ourselves, is there something that rules our life other than the Lord Jesus? And while we don't deal with a pantheon of gods that claim to be deity here in Houston, we do deal with idols inside that strive to rule over us. Listen to Paul's words, brothers and sisters, there is one Lord that we worship. Now, secondly, that is our testimony, by the way, that we are as one Lord. Our second part of our testimony is one faith. Now, when Paul mentions faith. In his writing, he very oftentimes uses the term in a sense of active belief. All right here in this context, he is using it in a shorthand to refer to a common set of beliefs and convictions, as well as the act of faith. When he says one faith, he's talking about the belief in this common set of convictions and beliefs that Christians have. We could boil this down. He's referring to the gospel message. The faith that we still today hold that Jesus came, He died, He rose again on the third day, He ascended into heaven, and one day He will return. That is our one faith. He is referring to the essentials of the Christian faith. This common faith that the Ephesians held to and that we hold to. There's only one. And brothers and sisters, we must hold to that very closely and dearly. Because let me tell you, there are those in our culture, even some that claim to be Christians, that are trying to chip away at that. Very slowly trying to chip away at that. And do it in such a way that we don't even realize what they're doing. But Paul is saying to the Ephesians and to us, you have one Lord and one faith that you believe about that Lord. And then thirdly, we have one baptism. This is part of this testimony, and he is referring directly to water baptism that signifies as a public expression that people who undergo this baptism are publicly proclaiming that they are God's people. Paul is saying, Ephesians, you have made the same declaration that Jesus as Lord By undergoing baptism as others have, regardless if they're Jew or Gentile or live in another town. You have we as believers have this common faith. And in baptism, we claim that publicly, that we have this this common testimony in Christ. Now, I think the application for this goes far. And we could spend hours here. I won't do that. But let me encourage you to think about the way that this gets gets played out. And I want to I'll give you some examples of of application, I think, particularly in this one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Ron Chapel notes that verses like this, and I'll say this because not not all of us are in this type of setting, but verses like this have been used in ecumenical settings. to minimize the importance of individual churches, denominations, and I will say the very important distinctions that those churches and denominations hold. So here in this text, Paul is calling us to affirm that there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. This is what everything that Paul has said in chapter one, two and three, all of this beautiful gospel. There we affirm that. This is not Paul saying you can go in and have an attitude of anything goes and that we shouldn't hold any distinctions or that you can say any theological assertion. And it's OK because we have one Lord. It doesn't matter what you believe. Some in ecumenical groups have tried to do this, have tried to minimize and try to get people to to not hold on to their distinctions anymore. I don't think Paul is saying that. Paul is saying that we have one one Lord, one faith in the gospel, and we've undergone one baptism that shows this. This is our testimony to the world. And we don't let go of those, period. And there are people. There are people who will try to get you to let go of those. Is Jesus really the only way? That's the questions that they may ask. Did the Bible really say that? Is it really God's word? Is it really sufficient? Is it? These are the top questions that they ask. And they run counter to what Paul is saying here. Brothers and sisters, Paul is not giving us and justifying to have an attitude of anything goes when we start talking about Christ and his work. We must absolutely hold firm to Christ's work. This is what we are unified around. And when people try to pull us away, What they're doing is exactly what Paul warns about later in Ephesians 4. It's what John warned about in 1 John with the false teachers. They're trying to pull us away and not be unified around the gospel of Christ. So how should we handle statements of unity like this? Because I tell you, when people start talking about unity in churches, I like almost twitch a little bit because I don't know where it's going, right? I don't know where they're going with it. These waters are hard to traverse, they're difficult. Sometimes it's not clear how to how to wade through some of these these statements. How do we hold fast to the faith in these very important doctrines and and maybe maybe, you know, have charity in other places? How do we do that? Well, let me first offer up a couple of extreme ways that people have thought about unity that I would say are contrary to this passage, passage here and the richness of God's work that Paul has outlined. There are people, even those who claim to be Christians, who say there are many ways for people to be saved. That there is salvation from those from other religions or that they don't really have to hold to the foundations of what Scripture teaches about Christ. They say things like believing Believing that Christ is the only way is not really what the Bible teaches. That's not unity, brothers and sisters, that's the nine of the gospel. There are people that deny that. And they will say, well, God saves his people. I'm like, yes, God saves his people, but he also saves them in the way in which he's ordained to do it. And the way that he does that is through Christ's work, period. When people say, oh, you can't hold to that to that doctrine, you should you should have unity for anyone that claims to be Christian or you should let go that of Christ's exclusivity or you should you should let go of Christ's divinity. That is not unity, brothers and sisters. That is denying the gospel. That is not the unity Paul is talking about. Paul is talking about having unity around all of this beautiful picture that he's that he's explained about God's work through Christ. So that's one extreme. And it's prevalent. It's prevalent in our culture. The second one is on the far extreme side. There are those who will say that the only ones that are saved are the ones in their own local church or their own local denomination, and that to be saved, you have to believe every little thing exactly like the pastor tells you, you have to believe it. And if you don't believe one little small thing, then obviously God has not saved you. And you may think there's people, there's not really people like that. There is. I've met them. They came to A&M's campus when I was there and they had big signs and they picketed and they told us that we were not saved because we were in college. Not because we denied the gospel, not because we denied any other thing that would make you not saved. Their salvation came only if you believed exactly what they believed and not believed in the gospel of Christ. They perverted it. They perverted it. That is not unity of the body of Christ that Paul is referring to. It's not. Now, I wish that everyone believed the same things. I really do. And I have great hope that one day when Christ returns, we will all believe the exact same things. It will be revealed to us and we will see Christ for where he is and we will repent of the ways that we were wrong. Because I'm convinced that when we get to heaven, there's not going to be Baptist, Presbyterians, Charismatics, Methodists, whatever. It's going to be Christ's people, period. So narrow definitions of unity are not really unity. That is not what Paul is talking about here. He is referring to the basic beliefs of the gospel in the way that God saves his people. Now. I'll be the first to admit that is like a low hanging fruit, what I just did. Both sides, those are pretty easy application. The hard part is what do you do in the middle? The middle ground to where it gets really difficult. And I think there's a couple of areas that we need to think about unity. in greater Christendom. And when I say that, I'm talking about in the greater family of Christ and God's kingdom of his people that he has saved through the work of Christ. We must, including us here in this church, must be true to what God says about the one who saves. We must absolutely affirm is that he's the one that saves his people through the work of Christ. And we don't get to pick who that is. And he does it through this very specific means of the proclamation of the gospel. Now, brothers and sisters, there's room for disagreements in some places that I don't understand why God has has allowed us or demands that we have unity around the gospel, and he still allows his people to disagree about other aspects of what the Bible teaches. But even in those disagreements, we need to readily affirm our brothers and sisters salvations if they are true believers in Christ, even though we may disagree enough that we would never be able to be members of the same church. Now, on a large scale, I think this means we need to be charitable. We meet people that we may disagree with on some aspects, but we find out that they really do hold to the same Lord, faith and hope and are indwelled by the same spirit as us. And we need to readily affirm that they are one of God's people. That doesn't mean we don't get to disagree with them. Oh, we do. And that's OK. Disagreement in some areas is fine. There's a reason that we aren't Presbyterians. There's a reason for that. There's a reason. That even though we're Baptists, we're here and not in other Baptist churches. There's a reason that I know many of you, including myself, grew up as Methodists, aren't Methodist anymore. And it's not because this was convenient. Because we read scripture and we are convinced by what it says. And there are places where we can disagree with our brothers and sisters and we can tell them that nicely. I love the model that is the example that has been set by men like Ligon Duncan and Al Mohler. Those brothers preach the gospel very clearly. I have benefited from both of them very much. They will never be able to be part of the same church unless one of them changes their view on baptism. They're very close friends. They work together in the gospel on many things, but they'll never be able to be together because they disagree. There are some places it's OK to disagree and still call the person a believer. I read this quote as I was preparing for this sermon. We must affirm that there are differences that are honorable, but not vital. There are believers with whom we differ on matters important, but not essential. Brothers and sisters, we must first and foremost have unity around the gospel message and the work of Christ. And then outside that, we should always be examining ourselves, our church, our traditions, what we believe and make sure that they are directed towards scripture. Now, I want to offer up a and we've mentioned this multiple times here at this at this church, remind you again of Dr. Al Muller's. He's again, the president at Southern Seminary offers a three tiered series of triage. All right. So he says, number one, and he's talking about this unity that Paul is talking about here, the essential orthodoxy that must be believed to be a Christian. Some of those would include the Trinity, which I think is in this common faith that Paul talks about, the humanity and the deity of Christ, justification by faith alone, the authority of scripture. And we can add it. We add in those are some examples of these essential one faith that we have. And then there's second order issues. They can be disagree to bond by Christians that will create very significant boundaries. I love my Presbyterian brothers and sisters. I think they're really, really wrong on baptism. I can't I can't understand their arguments. I think they're reading the scripture absolutely wrong on that. And maybe one day I'll get to heaven and I'll find out I'm totally wrong. I don't know. But I know that many of these many of these these Presbyterian reformed Presbyterian brothers and sisters are dear Christians that we will not worship together because there are significant, important distinctions that we have. And then there's third order issues, those that we can disagree on and we can remain in close fellowship. For example, over the years, from the very beginning of G.R.B.C., we have had some very lively is the right word debates on eschatology. And we've sharpened each other and that's OK. We can still fellowship together and disagree on that. But ultimately, what Paul is saying that when you when you look out across Christendom, when you look out from the Ephesian church or other churches, you must first and foremost be unified around the gospel of Jesus. So he's made two points. There's unity. There's one body and one spirit. There's new identity. Secondly, there's this one common testimony that we have. And then thirdly, he says we share a family. Now, look at the text. You're probably thinking, I don't see the word family dirt. Verse six, one God and father of all. Fathers are in families. We have a shared unity in this identity and this in the spirit. We have shared unity in this common shared testimony we have with the Lord Jesus. And now we see that we have unity around a shared family. We have one father which makes us all brothers and sisters. Now, I think on the surface reading, we can read past this and go, OK, that's cool. But this is significant. We're all pretty different people looking around this room. We have small differences. Some of us live in Crosby or Slyndor or Kingwood or Humboldt or Atascasita. And then there are also some pretty big differences, too. Some of us come from different cultures. We speak different languages. We have different backgrounds. But despite these differences. We have one father. Despite Not knowing each other, maybe for most of our lives, we are now part of a family. Brothers and sisters, that's significant. That means that we aren't just neighbors or acquaintances or friends. We aren't just partners in the gospel that we may meet once and go on, we are family. Family, brothers and sisters. Now, even if you're looking around this room and you go, I don't I don't may not know everybody in the room as well as others. Or maybe you look around the room and you go, I don't get that person. They come from a totally different background than me. I don't understand the way they think their personality is different. Outside of all of those differences, we are now family. We are related. We are brothers and sisters. And through Christ's work, he has torn down these walls between us and brought us near to himself and has made us a family. I know some of you may not have ideal siblings and families that you like to spend time with. Paul speaking about the ideal family where you would love your brothers and sisters with a deep seated love because you're bound together. This is amazing work. Now, one last point I want to make about this. Oftentimes, I think we read through this passage, we preach through it or whatever it may be, and we read past it quickly. And it, yeah, OK, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're brothers and sisters. And it oftentimes doesn't seem that profound. But if we look at the three arguments together, I think it helps us see a larger picture. Do you see that not only unity in this, this common identity and this common testimony in this common family, do you see that he's marked these, that there is one spirit One Lord Jesus and one father. He's made a Trinitarian argument here for us. Our unity in the body of Christ and God's family, this unity around in salvation around the gospel is an extension of the unity of the Trinity. We, as God's people, reflect that. We get to reflect that out, that while we're all different, we have our own specific purposes, that we are now unified around the gospel. And when we are all unified and we are confessing this one gospel message, we are reflecting God's very nature and character. So Paul in this in this letter so far has made claims of diversity in God's family. This is a mystery. Even the Gentiles, even you and I get saved. But now in chapter four, he's made an argument for having unity amidst this diversity. Unity and identity because we have one spirit, unity in the testimony of our Lord Jesus and unity because Christians are made part of a larger family that God has made with himself being the father. So, brothers and sisters, let us strive to be unified around this gospel and may God continue to bring unity around the gospel in our midst and around this world, even amongst our differences and disagreements, we would be unified to the glory of the name of Jesus. Amen.