Please be seated and take your Bibles and open them to Ephesians chapter four. Brother Gene, thank you for that prayer. On Sunday nights, the majority of Sunday nights, we've been taking a journey through Paul's letter to the Ephesian churches. And as pastor is away and traveling back, I have the opportunity to continue along in our journey. And where we had finished last week at the end of chapter 3, We will pick up this morning in Ephesians chapter four. Our text we'll consider verses one through 10. But I want you to understand this morning, there is a very real and present danger that we all face. Today at this very hour, in this very room, at this very time, we stand behind enemy lines. There is a war going on all around us. It is a war for the souls of men, for the minds of children, and the hearts of humanity. We cannot be silent. We cannot sit on the sidelines or go about thinking that it is somebody else's problem with what we face in our world today. We have been called as the Church of Jesus Christ to stand firm. To be a voice of truth. To be a light in the midst of darkness. To proclaim liberty to captives. Good news to the poor. Hope to the hurting. Truth to the lost. This is our calling. The enemy is at our gates. The enemy has made its way into the church. And it manifests itself in many different ways. In godlessness, in broken relationships, enmity, strife. You name it. And we must stay focused in these days. We must be focused. We must not get complacent. We only have one life to live. You have been given one life and we want to spend it well and we want it to count and we want to finish well. And as a result of the war that we are in, we must stand together. What is one of the most used tactics that the evil one uses to render the church ineffective? What is this tactic that he uses? to cause the church to crumble. It is division. It is breaking from within. Quite simply put, it is disunity in the church of Jesus Christ. Some of you are familiar with C.S. Lewis's book, The Screwtape Letters. Screwtape writes to his understudy, Demon Wormwood, and he says this to him, He says, think I warned you before that if your patient, because he's talking about a church man that he's working on, he says, if your patient can't be kept out of the church, he ought to at least be violently attached to some party within it. I don't mean on really doctrinal issues about those. The more lukewarm he is, the better. And it isn't the doctrines on which we chiefly depend for producing malice. The real fun is working up hatred between those who say mass and those who say Holy Communion. And all the purely indifferent things, candles and cloths and whatnot, are an admirable ground for our activities. We have quite removed from men's minds what that pestilent fellow Paul used to teach about food and other unessentials, namely that the human without hesitation should always give in to the human with hesitation. C.S. Lewis knew what he was writing about here. How do we render the church of Jesus Christ ineffective? Fight inwardly, disunity. So this morning's message from this text we'll consider, I've titled, Together We Stand, Divided We Fall. And I would ask you to stand for the reading of God's word from Ephesians chapter four now. From the Apostle Paul, picking up in verse one, therefore, I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope at your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. For it says, when he ascended on high, he took the captives captive. He gave gifts to people. But what does he ascended mean except that he also descended to the lower parts of the earth? The one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens to fill all things. Father, we pray that you would bless the preaching of your word, that it would be effectual by your spirit to our hearts, applied in our lives, and lived out as we would go from here. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. The main idea for this message and the main idea here for Paul's passage of scripture that we have just read, is that as Christians, we are to preserve the unity in the church through love, submission, through love, truth, and submission to Jesus Christ. Now, to bring us all up to speed, if you are sitting here now and you have not taken part in our study through Ephesians, we have come to the door hinge, as it were. This is the shifting of focus in the book of Ephesians. The book can neatly be drawn out into two sections. Chapters one through three are doctrinal, theological. There's no real imperatives. There's no do this. It is remember this, know this. And it is all about God's sovereignty and uniting the church and bringing the church visible to what we see today. And so now Paul has developed this thick, robust theology through chapters 1, 2, and 3. And then in chapter 4, 5, and 6, he turns on the hinge, as it were, and it is the so what. Theology leads to practice, or a way that I like to say is orthodoxy leads to orthopraxy. So the truth that we know, the truth of God's sovereignty, the truth of our salvation, the doctrine of the church, the truth of who we are in Christ, leads to a practice. It leads us to do something. We are not Ephesians 1 through 3 Christians. We are to be the whole of Ephesians. And so now that we get into chapters 4, 5, and 6, we are getting into the imperatives. We are getting into the action items. Now the danger becomes that you become Ephesians 4, 5, and 6 Christians. And that is a problem because now all you are is a moralist with no theology. So we want to be holistic, and it is the theological bedrock of chapters one, two, and three that leads to our practice, where we get to today. I would encourage you, if you have not been following along in our sermon series, go read the first three chapters. It is your position, it is who you are, it is what God has done, it is our unity, it is gospel faithfulness, and as a result of all of these things, this great prayer that he ends with in chapter three, We get down to the action items now. So what? And it is interesting, Paul's first place that he begins is that we would be a unified people. That we would be unified as the church of Jesus Christ. Our effectiveness largely hinges upon our togetherness. And so let's look here as Paul would describe this unity. Together we stand. Under the first heading I provide for you, if you're a note taker in your outlines, it is a commitment to care. In order for us to effectively be unified together in obedience to the word of God, we must be committed to care for one another. Verses one through three here. And take notice of the responsibility that Paul has given each and every one of us as believers in Jesus Christ. In the original language here, the first word in chapter 4 verse 1 is urge. There's, like, call on you. It is not, therefore, I, the prisoner. It is, I urge you, I call upon you to do this. The very first word is a call to action. In translation, we would render it so it sounds a little smoother in the way that we read in our text. But Paul says, I call upon you, I urge you to walk worthy. This is our responsibility. It is to have a worthy walk. What he really means here, verse I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, the one who has been captive by Jesus Christ, the one who has been apprehended, arrested by Jesus to do his bidding, I, the Apostle Paul, I call upon you, I solemnly charge you, I urge you to live worthy. Your Christian walk is your life. Live worthy. This is not the first time Paul would use this language in Philippians 1, verse 27. He says, as citizens of heaven, as those that are belonging to Jesus Christ, those that their names have been deposited in heaven, as blood-bought children of God, live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ, then whether I come and see you or I'm absent, I will hear about you, that you are standing firm, here's how he talks about living worthy, that you are standing firm in one spirit, in one accord, contending together for the faith of the gospel. There's a direct connection with us living worthy and us bonding together in unity. I would even argue that you are not living a life worthy of the gospel if you are in fractured, disunified relationships in the church of Jesus Christ. Colossians 1.10, Paul would say, That's living out what we see written up here, right? Pleasing God. Bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. So to live worthy, our responsibility is to be unified together. and also to be growing and bearing fruit in the knowledge of God. Theology applied. We are to live in such a way that God has commanded and desires us to because of our calling. He would say, I urge you to live worthy or walk worthy of the calling you have received. What he's saying here is that God has given you a name. This calling to which you have received your translation, the calling to which you have been called, He's saying here that God in this calling, this is the root word for church, the called out ones. And he's saying that God has given you a name. God has given you an identity and you are to live up to that name that he has given you. And it is child of God. It is son or daughter of the king. We like to use the word Christian to identify. This is your calling and it comes with a responsibility. Understand this, brothers and sisters, for us to live worthy or walk worthy of our responsibility, our calling, this means that as professing Christians and members of the Church of Jesus Christ, we represent more than ourselves. You represent your family. You represent your church. You represent your Savior. And you represent my Savior. You represent your God. There is a weightiness here. that we must understand our responsibility. So let's look at how we are to demonstrate our commitment to care because this is our responsibility. Paul would give us here in verse two, virtues. Here's how we are to commit ourselves to care for one another in the church of Jesus Christ. And the first is by virtuous living or by manifesting the virtues that Paul gives here. He says, with all humility and gentleness, with patience. One of these should be a gut punch to you. How about with all humility, not some, not a portion, not 95%. How about all humility? That is how we are to demonstrate our care to one another. What does this mean? It means put others first, quite simply. To esteem yourself small in a literal sense of the word. I was talking with somebody earlier this week who's struggling with humility. And I was having a conversation with this individual and I said, listen, here's your problem. You're putting yourself first. And you're wondering why you have all these problems in your life. You keep making yourself first. And by doing so, you have turmoil in your life. You have struggles in your life. Do you understand that the people that put themselves first are the most lonely people? There's no one else around them. I was telling this individual, if you just put yourself second, that means there's someone else there. Put others ahead of yourself. People that seek to put themselves first are the most miserable, the most lonely, and the most discontent. They always want what they cannot have. They're always dissatisfied because pride has an insatiable desire that can never be filled. But humility, humility is attractive. Humility is beautiful. So how do we demonstrate our care? We put others first. Humility is to be, Hendrickson says this, humility is to be the first, second, and third essential of the Christian life. That's such a good statement. First essential, second, third. Who here would say they're humble enough to trick question? Not me. So, in our commitment to care, it is with humility. Others are more significant than ourselves. And now gentleness in this virtue. Gentleness. Quite literally showing kindness. Being mild-mannered. You're not quick to get fired up. Some of you are a little quicker than others. I belong to that category. But you're not quick to get fired up. You prefer the path of peace, not the path of least resistance, but you seek peace. There's a tenderness about you. You're not calloused over. There's not a hardness of heart that stems from you. We are gentle with lambs. I played golf. I used to play golf and then I had a bunch of kids. But when I, in a lifetime ago, played golf, I remember when I first started playing, I would take that club and I would just, I mean, like a baseball bat, I would squeeze the living daylights out of that thing. And I figured I got a firm grip on this. You know, I'm gonna hit this thing 300 yards and it's gonna be amazing. Well, it would be like, you know, 150 yards and out of bounds. And someone told me, You're not supposed to squeeze the club. You're actually, it's like you're holding a bird in your hands. You're supposed to gently hold that club. And as you gently hold it, you get a feel for it. You get a feel for the head and the club head speed. And some of you are golfers know what I'm talking about and others are, listen, If you hold it lightly, it's a game of opposites, and you swing slowly, it goes further. And so, as I think about gentleness, it is that soft holding. It is as though you are holding a baby in your arms. We are gentle, we are kind, we are caring, we are gentle towards one another. Listen, if we are doing these things, there is no division. It's the absence of these virtues that causes hostility in the church. Third one, patience. With all humility and gentleness, with patience. As if the first two weren't enough. Long suffering. You suffer long with and for people. Often I think about this one and you have to ask the question when you look in the mirror, how patient has God been? How patient is God being? He has called me to the same thing. Nobody has ever forgiven you more than you will ever forgive. Nobody's ever forgiven you more than God. And so as a result of that, you have an abundance of forgiveness that has been deposited into you. We are to forgive, we are to be patient. It is the opposite of shortness of temper. And when I think about this person, the virtuous, the gentle, the humble, the patience, I think, man, this is the person I want to be around. And by God's grace, I married this person with the humble, gentle wife that I have who is always patient. But this is a beautiful person that is being described here and this is what God calls us to be. And in reality, this is the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, who is filled with all humility, gentleness, and patience, demonstrated to those around him and to us. But let us continue here as we think about our commitment to care. It is to be virtuous, and it is to show forth these virtues with those that need it, because that is us. But he would also say, here's another one, selflessness, verse three, making every effort, no, I'm sorry, the end of verse two, bearing with one another in love. This meaning here that we are willing to shoulder the load, that we don't just let somebody carry their own burdens. As the body of Christ, we are to shed the load with one another. We are to carry each other's burdens and even the failings of our brothers and sisters. third here, intentionality, verse three, making every effort to keep the unity of the bond, the unity of the spirit, making every effort. This means that we are not to passively care for each other. We cannot care for each other in isolation. We cannot care for each other by only tuning into a live stream. We cannot care for each other from a distance. Well, we can, but not effectively, not according to the New Testament. And so what we have here is that we are to be intentional. Intentionality in our commitment to care for one another. What does this mean? Ask someone how they're doing. But don't be satisfied with just a one-word answer. Hey, can we get coffee sometime? Hey, you know, what can we do? Can we get together? Let's plan a time. Let's be intentional. Let's do life together. Listen, being a part of a church comes with strings attached. And that strings are people and we are attached to one another. We are called to be the organism in this place as we are an organization and an organism. So we are to be intentional maybe making every effort to keep the unity of the spirit. There is a direct connection here to how we treat each other and to our unity. You cannot expect a church to be unified in purpose, passion, and pursuit if they all treat each other bad. When we are brought into the family of God, we become members in the church of God and we share in the unity that generates from us. We share in a unity that comes through the Holy Spirit. We share in the same Holy Spirit. That's what he says here. Making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit. I have the Holy Spirit, you have the Holy Spirit. We are to be unified in this through the bond of peace. The issue is that we have been called to a unity, we have been given this unity, and it is incumbent upon us to maintain it. That's what Paul is saying here. The parallel passage of Ephesians chapter four is Romans chapter 12. And in Romans chapter 12, Paul would say in verse 18, if possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. We do recognize that there are times that You have done everything that you possibly can do, and there cannot be peace. But as far as it depends upon you, live with peace. Unity here in the bond of peace is an absolute necessity for us in the 21st century church. When we have to devote our attention to putting out fires, Reacting to problems within the church, dealing with disgruntled sheep, all of that, all of that serves to keep us off mission, to keep us off the purpose for why we are a church. We become ineffective. Screw tape and wormwood are accomplishing their task. The church then is viewed as nothing more than a social club by which we come and we get the skinny on the weekly drama and the gossip. How serious is the apostle Paul about unity in the church of Jesus Christ? You would look at Titus chapter 3 verse 10, one of the strongest statements Paul has for unity in the church. And he says, as for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with them. He says, expedite discipline. Remove that person from among you. One warning, two warnings, they are gone. Because unity and cohesiveness in the church of Jesus Christ is an absolute necessity for the mission of the gospel. He says, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful, he is self-condemned. Many of us would take issue with Paul and say he doesn't have grace. If we understand the beauty of the bride of Christ, Christ did not die for us to fight over silly trifles. Brothers and sisters, we must be committed to caring for one another, preserving unity through sacrificially loving one another. That means you might have to lay your preference down at the altar. Preferences are oftentimes what cause the division. And the same goes for me. We are committed to caring for one another, esteeming others more significant than ourselves. Here's a second under the second heading here. standing together, caring for one another. People will forgive you if you show them that you care. If you invest in people, you will be forgiven when you fail. And we need to be forgiven often so that we forgive often. Second thing concerning being together or unity is that we are united in truth. We are united in truth. Adrian Rogers said, it is better to be divided by truth than united in error. It is better to be divided by truth than united in error. I will tell you that true biblical unity comes when, or true unity comes when biblical truth is the source. Today there is an ecumenical movement among many evangelicals or people that just use the name of Jesus. They want to be inclusive and as though to start and create some broad multinational super church that could be established. And in order to create this large ecumenical movement, in order to do this, upon the altar of compromise is laid biblical truth. that we must lay aside cardinal doctrines, we must lay aside biblical morality in order to come together as though we are actually doing something more noble. That is digression, that is not progression, as they would say. So what happens here? Biblical marriage, well, we don't have to agree on this. We could just, you know, it's not an essential. Sexual ethics, the roles of gender in the church, family, society, biblical authority, and ultimately, when you go down this path, it ends in the sufficiency of Scripture. When we cannot agree on the sufficiency of the word of God, that God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him, then if we cannot agree there, we will not stand together. The greatest challenge that we are facing among those, it's not outside, it's not the secular world. Don't worry about that. They got their own problems, they'll just eat each other up. The biggest problems that we face are there are people that use the label of Christian, they use the name of Jesus, and they do not believe in the sufficiency of the word of God. That is our problem, and it is subtle, and it is divergence of truth. And you are looked at as a bigot, narrow-minded, somebody who is divisive because you say, we must agree on the sufficiency of the word of God in all things. And you were labeled as divisive when you were saying, no, this is true unity. True unity is we see that the Word of God binds us together and we submit ourselves to the authority of Scripture. We submit ourselves in obedience to the rule of Scripture. We are servants. We are under the Word of God. It is the supreme rule and authority. That is why even in this very moment we are practicing that. I stand between you and between me and you is a Bible and it is the Word of God that comes. We uphold the sufficiency of scripture. We are united in this truth. Biblical unity comes from and finds its starting with biblical truth. What does Paul say to the Philippians, chapter two, verse two? He says, make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. So Paul is saying here that our unity comes when we have the same mind. when we have the same affections, when we are united in the same spirit and tent on the same purpose, this is our unity. This is our mission. Now I would argue that we are not to be isolationists as Christians. Yes, we are an independent church, but we should be in association with other churches, healthy churches. There is a healthy framework for broader associations that we are to have. But consider here verses four through six. This is the truth that unites that Paul would give here. And this is an early first century creed. This is Paul's usage of a creed. If you're in church history, we talked about some confessions and creeds even this morning. Here's an example, verses four, five, and six of a first century creed. It has the resemblance of an Eastern creed with the repetition of the word one in it many times. And it is a Trinitarian triad, as it were. So follow along here. He says there is one body and one spirit. It's broken out into three lines. Line one, one body, one spirit, one hope. Line two, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Line three, one Father, above all, through all, and in all. And what is he expressing here? What is the apostle getting at here? This is the truth that binds us together. This is the glue. This is the two part that comes together and hardens that cannot be broken. Paul says that there is one body. This means one church. He's saying there's not two distinct different bodies, but one. And what Paul is meaning here, especially into the context of the Ephesians, Paul is saying here that there is but one gathering of those who have been effectually called by God, by Christ, and that have been born again by the Spirit of God. He attaches one body with one spirit. Why? Because the Spirit is the agent. of the visible church, the means that gathers the visible church together. The true, I'm talking the believers in the visible church. As the spirit has caused us to be born again, draws us to like-minded brothers and sisters, and it is the spirit at work in us that keeps us together. There is one body, there is one spirit. We understand here that not all churches are perfect. Chapter 26 of the Second London Baptist Confession says that the purest churches under heaven are subject to mixture and error. Some have so degenerated as to become no churches of Christ but synagogues of Satan. Nevertheless, Christ always hath had and shall always have a kingdom in this world to the end thereof as such as believe in him and make profession of his name. There is a visible body of Christ. There is one body, one spirit. What does this mean? That the true churches of Jesus Christ do not compete with each other. There's no competition. Oh, this church down the road has this, so we need to do that. That is foolishness. That is a waste of time. True churches do not compete with each other, but they help to serve each other for the greater good and the advancement of the kingdom of God. There is a healthy associations that we are to have with other churches. Furthermore, when we talk about one church, this is why I personally have come to the conviction, I do not believe that a church can have two services. Because when you have two church services, especially on a Lord's Day morning, and the models where they have the contemporary church service, and then they have the traditional hour of church, and it's all based off of music, which is the great divider, you know, in many churches. You can't have the contemporary service and the traditional service unless you're willing to say, yeah, we have two churches that meet in one building, and they share a pastor, and they share elders. That's all you really have there because whoever goes to church A never meets with church B, but you call yourself the same church because you just can't do it. You can't do it. There's one body. We are to come together and if your church gets too big for the building, you either plant a church or you get a bigger building. You can't have two churches meeting in one building and calling it one church. Furthermore, here, as we would see, there's one church, there's one testimony. Verse 5, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. We affirm this. This is our testimony. This is the creed that binds us together as the people of God. And what is this creed? Jesus is Lord. And only by faith in him can there be unity. Jesus is everything. We testify Jesus is Lord. Jesus is the head of the church. Jesus rules all things in heaven and all things under heaven. Jesus is the sovereign over all things and everything is in his control. Jesus is the object of our faith. And brothers and sisters, we do not just simply believe a story. We tell the gospel story, but understand, it is not the story that we believe. Yes, we believe the story, but that's not the central point. We believe in a person. We trust in a person. There are many who assent to facts about a story. There are many who understand that there was a historical Jesus. That is an undeniable fact. It is an undeniable fact that Jesus of Nazareth, born of Mary and the son of Joseph, died on a Roman cross 2,000 years ago. That's not a disputable fact. That's not disputable. That's not what binds us together. It is that this Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary, the very Son of God, only begotten from the Father, descended from heaven, submitted himself in humility to the infirmities of this earth, lived a perfect whole life without sin in full obedience to God the Father, loving the Lord his God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind, with all his strength, never once, never had a thought of not loving his neighbor with all of his heart, totally fulfills all of the law of God, the only hero, the righteous one, this one. is nailed to a Roman cross, treated as the most heinous of criminals, though he's done nothing wrong, and dies in our place, fulfilling all the sacrifice of the Old Testament, hangs in our place, bearing the penalty of our sin, stands in our place as our substitute, and takes upon his shoulders the fullness of the wrath of God against our sin. I am trusting in this person who bore my sin and three days later rose from the dead and proclaims victory. This is the creed that binds us. And if this is not the Jesus that you believe in, we will not have unity. But this Jesus is the one who brings us together. Let me ask you, what Jesus are you trusting in? Who do you say that he is? Are you trusting in Jesus the genie? Jesus the fire insurance salesman? Are you trusting in the Jesus that pays a lot for you so that you can live however you want? Are you trusting in the Jesus who offers cheap grace? that based off of a profession of faith, and no evidence in your life, and no repentance of sin, and no conformity to the image of Christ, but you've got it all, right? Is this the Jesus that you are trusting in? Are you trusting in the weak, pitiful display on the crucifix? What about the prosperity Jesus, the one that will give us all things according to our... our own heart's desires? Is this the Jesus, the therapeutic Jesus? Is this the one that you are trusting in? Who is it that you believe in? Are you trusting in the Jesus who laid aside his divinity while on earth? This is the dangerous heresy. The argument goes that Jesus did everything he did as a man in full reliance upon the Spirit at his baptism that descended upon him. This is dangerous. This is all throughout the church. This is absolute heresy. It was condemned in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th century. It's from the kenosis debate that comes from Philippians chapter 2. It is 100% wrong. It is not truth mixed with error. The people who promote this view, that Jesus did everything in the strength of man, under just the reliance upon the Holy Spirit, the endgame is this, those that postulate this view, is that they say, you can do everything Jesus did because all you have to do is rely on the Spirit and live by faith. And we say, absolutely not, that is not the Jesus, that is not the Jesus I preach, that is not the Jesus I trust in, that is not the Jesus that saves. We believe there is one Lord Jesus Christ, again, the only begotten, 100% God, 100% man, never ceasing or compromising the fullness of his deity, the God-man full of grace and truth. When they confused him and they asked, who do you say that I am? And some say John the Baptist, why? Because Jesus preached with the fire of John the Baptist. Some say Elijah because he had the fervency of Elijah. Some say Jeremiah because he was the burdened prophet. but he loved only like God could love. Our faith is in the triumphant king who reigns and is coming again to judge the living and the dead. This is our creed, this is our Christ. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Consider here verse six of this creed, one family. One God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in all. If we are to trace Paul's flow of thought here through this creed, it is miraculous. It is marvelous. This is just an awesome piece of literary structure here that Paul does. The Spirit gathers the visible church Christ is the shared confession of the visible church, and the Father is the one who has masterfully brought it all together from eternity past, and now it has come to fruition. That's where you get all of chapter one, two, and three, is the sovereignty of God over all of this that we see. We believe in one God, and this is Trinitarian here. Spirit, Lord, Father. manifested in three persons. He is God the creator here in verse six. He created us and the beauty of redemption is that God the Father has recreated us as well. One commentator writes that he recreated what he had created so that we are his in a double sense and therefore all the more owe him full devotion. If you are in Christ right now, it is because God the Father, through the effectual call of His Spirit, has caused you to be born again, recreated anew, that God took your heart of stone that you were born with and took it out and replaced it with a heart of flesh, caused you, made you willing to come to Christ. God has done all the work. And we are thankful. This is our creed. This is our confession. We have all entered now into the season of gatherings, family, holidays, extended family, in-laws, outlaws, in between laws. And just because there's sometimes minor or medium disagreements during these gatherings, if you've ever experienced them, I think I have. I have great in-laws, though, which is also a wonderful thing. It doesn't mean that that family at the table stops being your family, because you don't agree with them, right? In the same sense, we might not always agree all the time. Someone might rub you the wrong way. What are you going to do? Well, you got one option. You're going to forgive them. That's what we're called to do. We're one family. We have one father. I'm not going to pick up and run because, oh, you said this or you didn't say hi to me or something. We're going to forgive. Love covers a multitude of sins. It is the same as I think about the table at Thanksgiving, and there's all these different people, and you know the big three, don't talk about coronavirus, race, or religion, and you won't have any problems at your table. But you talk about any of those things, you're ready for a fight. It's the same, but when I think about that, and I think about the diversity even at the tables, it's the same for us in the local church. I look out right now, I see the diversity, and I love it. It is sad when we see Low levels of covenant commitment. And people just wanting to leave. You see in the world, you see a greater commitment among people that have no faith to their marriages. And over the most minor things, people are ready to pick up and go. We are a family here, brothers and sisters. We are a family, we are united in truth. We are one body with one testimony. Together we stand. And we rest in the sovereignty of God, who, as Paul would say, is above all. What he means here is that God, in verse six, God is the one who exercises control over all things. One God and Father who is above all and through all. This means in and through Christ, the Father has blessed us. You have all the blessings of the Son's obedience. because of his obedience, and God has blessed you with that. I just encourage you to read the covenant. Curses and covenant blessings of Deuteronomy 28. All of the covenant curses that are to fall upon the disobedient, which is me and you as covenant breakers, fell upon the head, our second Adam, Jesus Christ, as he bore the covenant curses for our disobedience so that we would receive all the blessings of his righteousness. God has blessed you in Christ through all and in all. Paul is not saying that in this sense of verse 6, he's not saying that God is in all things, some forms of animism, but Paul is saying that God is in his family. This is through the indwelling spirit that we have received. We have the spirit of God within us. This is our creed. This is our confession. Brothers and sisters, I want you to understand you never compromise truth in the name of unity. You never compromise truth in the name of unity because in that you are compromising both. It is false. to compromise, it is shallow and it will only crumble with the wave of difficulty. The further away from truth you must go in the name of unity, the more shallow your unity gets. The closer you are to truth, the greater your depth of unity is. It's like being in the center of a pond instead of on the edges. We are to gather in the middle, in the depth of our unity. Let truth and right theology and sound doctrine be what bring you together. And finally here, verses 7 through 10, as together we stand, we are all gifted by Christ. Now this passage here, verses 7, 8, 9, and 10, it's kind of, again, like a hinge. It could play into the next part, which will be done next week, of the passage, or we can consider it today. And I think it's right that we would consider it today. One, because there's something about the rules of three, and three points makes a good sermon, I guess. So we'll just consider being gifted by Christ. today, but it leads into the next part. So the cliffhanger will be you need to come back probably next Sunday evening and hear part two of this message. But we are all gifted by Christ. Paul begins to shift gears now to his readers, and he wants them to understand that while we are unified, while we are unified in our commitment to care for one another, while we are unified in truth, we are also different. We are also a diverse body of people. Though we share in the same church, the same testimony, and we are the same family, we are different. And this is a good thing. We do not all want to be the same. We are different in our personalities. We are different in our temperaments. We are different in our genetic makeup, our cultural upbringings, our ethnic background. We're also different in the giftings that Christ gives to his people. And so notice here in verse seven, Paul says, now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Here's what I want you to see. The word each one of us. Paul is incorporating himself. He's not saying each one of you as though he's the apostle and he's just saying, well, you all got something. He's saying, I'm one of you. And my gift is my gift and your gift is your gift, but it is all from the same giver. Jesus Christ. Christ gifts his people in diverse ways in order to accomplish three things on earth. Maybe more, but I'll give you three things that Christ does by gifting his people. First, it is the advancement of the church through missions. Christ gifts the church. Christ gives people to the church, for the church. It is the advancement of the church through missions, both local and international. The second, Christ gifts his people for the growth of the church through edification. Christ gifts his people for the growth of the church through edification, and you can have many subcategories under that, preaching, teaching, whatever. And then the third, that Christ gifts his people for the health of the church. So it's the advancement of the church through missions, it is the growth of the church through edification, and it is the health of the church through various means of encouragement and administration. And all of these gifts meet at the intersection that we call the glory of God. That all of us together are advancing one single cause, and that is the glory due His name. It is the glory of God. And so that means wherever you have been uniquely gifted, you matter. You matter significantly. As Paul would say, each one of us, there's no hierarchy of giftings. It is just diverse, and you matter to the whole. You are a part of a whole, and you are necessary. So let me ask, where do you fit into the body of Christ? The advancement of the church through missions, the growth of the church through edification, the health of the church through means of encouragement and administration. Each one of us plays a part. Oh, that we would be the church of 100 ministers. that our reputation would be, go to Quintesset, there's a hundred ministers there, through various means, doing various tasks, building each other up in diverse ways. Consider the triumph of the giver as our final point. Paul here quotes Psalm 68, when he ascended on high, he took the captives captive, and he gave gifts to people. Paul quotes verse 8 and then verses 9 and 10, he gives his commentary. The best commentary on Paul is Paul. And so we would see that in verses 9 and 10. And what he is talking about here is the ascension of Christ and his great exaltation. He says here, when he ascended on high, he took the captives captive and he gave gifts to people. Paul changes a little bit of Psalm 68, but he does it in good measure. And so what does he mean here? He ascended on high, he took captives captive. What he's really saying is that when Jesus ascended up into heaven, he did not return empty handed. He did not come in just empty-handed. He took, what he says here literally, he took the captives captive. Literally what he means here is that he brought the names of the redeemed with him. He brought the names of all for whom he died with him to heaven, sealed forever in the Lamb's book of life. Imagine that day some 2,000 years ago. Imagine that you were one of the blessed ones sitting on that hillside. As Jesus looks out over the disciples and he gives his final command, go therefore. And as there he has finished his final commission, charged them as apostles, he begins the glorious and triumphant ascension into heaven. Oh, to be at that spot that day in history, as you look at the triumphant God-man ascend back to where he came from. And he begins his triumphal ascent into heaven. And then for the first time in the eternity, first time in the history of eternity, something was about to occur on that day that has never happened before and will never happen again. And imagine being there, and as you gaze up into the sky, and you see the figure of Christ as he ascends higher and higher, and to where now, with the naked eye, you cannot even see him. He has disappeared into the clouds. And as he begins to approach the pearly gates, there's a commotion even in heaven among the angels. And the commotion arises, and they begin to say, there's somebody coming here. Who is this one approaching this heavenly dwelling? And as he gets closer to the gates, he is recognized. It is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the one, as the angels would say, this is the one who descended 33 years ago to accomplish the task. This is the one who took on the form of humanity. But what is happening even in that very moment is something greater than just him making his way back to heaven. For the first time in the history of creation, somebody is about to walk through the gates of heaven on his own merits. Someone is about to open the gates of heaven based off of no righteousness of someone else. It is his own righteousness that as he flings the gates open and triumphantly walks down the center aisle there, straight to the throne room. It is on his own merits. He enters. He needs no reason to claim anyone else's. For he has accomplished in full and help held the law of God. He needs no righteousness from another. He is sufficient, but he is also not empty handed. Carrying with him is the ransom of the redeemed. The full pardon of everybody who will ever walk through those gates are carried in his hands. As he triumphantly walks into heaven, bearing the marks, the scars on his head, the holes in his hand, this is the ransom for the redeemed. And he takes a seat at the right hand of the Father and looks out with a smile. Redemption accomplished. And now we wait until the full number of the church of God comes to faith in him as he sits there. And the day is coming when he rises up and he returns, but not until the full number are brought in. He has gifted us, brothers and sisters, to be part of seeing this happen. You have been gifted for the advancement of his kingdom on earth. In diverse ways, let us give thanks. by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. This is the triumph of the giver. Together we stand, divided we fall. Father, I pray that you would unite our hearts together. Give us a love for your Son. Oh, give us a great appreciation for what you are building in among us. Oh, that we would be committed to caring, sharing each other's burdens, loving, being patient, humble, kind, gentle. Lord, that we would bind ourselves together with truth, and we would glory in Christ Jesus our Lord. We pray this in his name. Amen.