Today, we want to continue studying in the book of Ephesians. We're going to get into chapter four today, the first half of chapter four. We've already read chapter four, verses one through 16. That's the reading, and that's the text. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, may you help our minds to focus on your words today, that we may understand them and apply them. and apply them to our hearts and minds for the betterment of our walk, for your glory, and for our good, in Jesus' name, amen. So first of all, we want to just quickly, because mostly everyone was here last time, but just quickly introduce to the subject here by reviewing chapters 1, 2, and 3, which we reviewed chapters 1, 2, and 3 last week. But really quick review now, starting with chapter 1, verse 2, which sort of gives us a heading for the whole book. where he says in verse two, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace, grace and peace. That's a lot of what the book is about, grace and peace. He's not just saying, oh, you know, grace and peace to you. Hey, you know, like, hey, how are you doing? I don't really wanna know how you're doing. I'm just saying, how you doing? I'm just saying grace and peace, because they sound good. But actually, grace and peace are central topics in the book. And then he talks about grace and peace in chapters 1, 2, and 3. And then the pivot point is chapter 4, verse 1, where he says, therefore. So this is the implications of chapters 1, 2, and 3. Therefore, 4, 1, therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. So walking worthy of the calling with which we've been called means walking in a way that's consistent with how we were called. How did we get to where we are? Let's walk in a way that's consistent with that. Your calling is how you got here. Now, some think of your calling as where you're going. Okay, that's your calling, right? You called to go somewhere. But in this, just read the verse again. What can a man worthy of the calling with which you have been called? Okay, so it's how you got to where you are. That's the way he's using that word. He called you to where you are. How did we get where we are? Well, just quick, quick review here in this introduction. First of all, you were saved by God's sovereign grace, right? Grace and peace to you, he said that in verse two. Well, grace is the main subject of chapter one and then the first half of chapter two. And peace, grace and peace. Well, peace is the subject of the second half of chapter two and the chapter three, okay? So just detailing that a little bit. So you were saved by God's sovereign grace. God chose you, he predestined you, and he saved you by his resurrection power. You were dead, personally unqualified, but God made you alive. You deserved hell and were no better than anyone else. So that's God's sovereign grace. Then the question of peace. You were a Gentile. Legally disqualified by the law. The law disqualified us because we're Gentiles. We were excluded from the kingdom by the law. But Christ's blood brought you near. So that's the second but. The first but was God's sovereign grace that gave you life. God made you alive. You were unqualified being dead. Now we're looking at the fact that we were legally disqualified by the law because we weren't Jews. But Christ's blood brought you near. Christ made peace. So here's where peace comes in. Grace and peace. God's sovereign grace and God made peace between Jews and Gentiles by abolishing the law. That's what this book says. And he says, And then he gets to chapter four, verse one, he says, now walk in a manner worthy of your calling, or to read it more literally, therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. So that's verse one in our text. The first part of this, okay, first of all, I wanna tell you what the title is here. Maintaining Unity for Attaining Maturity. Maintaining unity for attaining maturity. What do we need to maintain? Unity. Why? So that we can attain maturity. And the subtitle for this, this little subtitle, is Peace for Grace. Now, the word grace I'm using in a slightly different sense here. I'm not meaning that God's saving grace is based on you maintaining peace, okay? But see, grace continues throughout our lives, all right? It's not just when you're saved that you get grace, but grace is also giving us the gifts that we need in the church, and then also maturing us to a level of maturity. That's all God's grace that's doing all that. So peace leads to that. attaining maturity, which is God's grace that's doing that. So peace for grace. So once again, it's peace and grace in this section. First of all, we will see here the maintaining of unity, which is peace, maintaining unity, which is peace. He says in verse 1, therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you've been called. So when he says that, he's referring back to everything in chapters 1, 2, and 3 about God's sovereign grace and Christ abolishing the laws, making peace between Jew and Gentile. So walk in a manner worthy of that calling. And how is it? Verse 2, with all humility. I mean, obviously, when you talk about sovereign grace, you realize if God's grace didn't depend on me, then I'm humbled by the fact that God did it. God chose me. God predestined me. God could have sent me to hell, but didn't. So that gives us humility. It gives us gentleness because of our position before God. It gives us patience because God was patient with us, and it makes us tolerant for each other in love because God was tolerant of us, right? When we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly, and so he gave us love. And so in line, you know, in a manner worthy of the calling, in line with how we got where we are, he says he's imploring us to walk this way. Humility, gentleness, patience, tolerant, and in love. Now, notice how he implores us, right? Not exactly an Old Testament term, right? The law demands, okay, but the new covenant implores. Based on what you've received, Paul implores us, okay? It's a command, but we need to see it as a command, okay? But it's a little bit in the way it's presented. It's a little different, right? Imploring us to do these things. Verse three. being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. So you see the word peace comes back. It's all about peaceful coexistence with each other. If God can put Jew and Gentile together, then surely we Gentiles could live together. We're not even Jew and Gentile, okay? We should be able to live together in peace. And it's the spirit that put us together. Verse four, there's one body, right? So there's not like Jews and Gentiles, male and female, slave and free. There's all one and one body. And there's one spirit that's in all of us, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling. So we're all going to the same place. There's one hope, which is to be like Christ and then to live forever with God. worship God forever. So we all have the same calling, whether Jew or Greek, whether slave or free, whether male or female. And verse 5, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. This There's one faith, all right? And faith is sometimes with the idea of a system of beliefs as opposed to simply believing, right? So the faith, okay, or one faith is referring to the body of truth that's in the Bible. There's only one body of truth. It's not like there's your truth and my truth. There's only one body of faith. And there's only one Lord, obviously. And some say, well, you know, you can get to God one way and I can get to God another way. Well, no, God came down to us. There's only one God and there's only one way. It's Jesus. And he came down to us. One Lord. One faith, one baptism. Now, baptism, is this talking about water baptism or is this talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit or being baptized into Christ? So I would say one baptism into Christ. We're all put into the church by the Spirit. But you might look at it another way. But let's just say for the minute that it's water baptism, OK? If it's water baptism, then what does it mean, one baptism, OK? And it could be water baptism, right? Does that mean that someone who was baptized as a Buddhist is in this one baptism? No, right? So that doesn't mean that every baptism is this baptism. Okay? If this is talking about water baptism, it means that there's one baptism, but it's the right baptism, not baptized for some other God or baptized the wrong way, okay? But there's one baptism, right? And if you've been baptized that way, in recognition of repentance and salvation, you know, to God, faith in God, then that's that baptism, the one baptism. It doesn't matter who baptized you. It doesn't matter, you know, various things, but what matters is the essentials, and that makes it one. You know, if you're baptized as some other religion, that doesn't mean you're participating in this one baptism. But I would say that this is really referring to being baptized into Christ in the spiritual sense, and it means that we're all baptized into the one Lord, the one that we all have faith in, and we're all immersed into the body of Christ. One God and Father of all. who is over all and through all and in all. So once again, there's one God. And if we're all worshiping the same God, we should all be able to be united and therefore have peace with each other. And remember that if there's a need to, we can be humble, we can be gentle, we can be patient, we can be tolerant, right? Because we want to preserve the unity in the bond of peace. So that's this idea of having peace. And we want to maintain that unity. We want to maintain peace. And there's a purpose in that, which is the rest of this section, which is that we want to make advances. It's not like you're saved and then that's the end of it. There's more to life than just being saved, than just becoming alive. If a baby's born and didn't progress any, you would think the baby is dead. It would be. Everything that's alive grows and matures. And so, you know, having peace is so that the body, which is multiple people, can make progress as a body and we can all mature. And that's our life. That's our life. We're living. We're having eternal life right now. The next section is about attaining maturity. We maintain unity to attain maturity. Because if we split up, we're not gonna grow, okay? Together is how we grow. We grow in grace and by grace. We're not, as I say, we're not, this isn't peace to receive God's saving grace, but it's peace to receive God's maturing grace, all right? We have to have peace in order to mature in God's grace, growing in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. So let's look at this next second section, verses 7 to 16. First of all, we want to see that, and this is something that he referred to earlier in the book about how Christ fills all and in all. This section is about Christ ascending to heaven in order to fill up the heaven and the earth, okay? He's gonna fill up both places, Christ fills it all. Verse seven, but to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. So we're talking now about not just saving grace, but the gifts that God gives to us for the benefit of the body, right? God's gonna give you a gift for the benefit of the body. Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. So captive, what's captive? Well, death, right? He, he put an end to death. He terminated death at the resurrection and ascension. So that was all kinds of things ended at that. It's finished, he said. So he led captive, a host of captives, but he also gave gifts to men. Okay. He ended some things, but he, but he gave some things. And, Now he's gonna talk about the ascension a little bit. He says in verse nine, now this expression, he ascended, what does it mean except that he also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? And some people take that to mean he descended into hell, but most say no, he descended to earth to be with us, right? So he filled the earth and then he gave the spirit to men, right? And then he ascended to heaven. And so he descended and he ascended. That's all that means. And he who descended is himself also he who ascended far above all the heavens so that he might fill all things. So this whole point here is that Jesus is filling up everything, okay? So he creates the church and he says, okay, church, now pull together and mature so that you're full of me in its fullest sense. Because I'm filling everything up with me, with Jesus. Jesus is filling everything up, okay? So that's why he wants peace, that's why he gave gifts to men. So the body would be united and filled up with him, with Jesus. So here we go, verse 11. He gave us equipers to fill up the church. God's grace gave us equipers to fill up the church, equipers. Verse 11, and he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers. There you go. So that group of people, they're equipers, okay? They're not the doers, okay? They're the ones that equip the church to fill the church up with Christ, okay? Look at the next verse, 12. For the equipping of the saints. That's why he gave those. For the equipping of the saints for the work of service. So it's not the pastors and teachers and evangelists and prophets to do the work. It's you who do the work. That's what this says, all right? I'm an equipper. I'm here to equip you so that you get filled up with Jesus and you can do the work of service, all right? To the building up of the body of Christ, right? You're the body. We're building that body up here in this meeting. Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, okay? You know that one doctrine, which is in the Bible, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, knowing Jesus fully, this can all, I think the, there's the word true here, true knowledge, literally, okay? True knowledge of the Son of God, not just a knowledge, but what is revealed in the Bible about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. See, he wants us to be full of Christ. Christ descended and he ascended to fill up the earth and the heaven with himself and he's filling up the church through the equipers and then you will also help to equip the church yourselves, okay, and are doing that, okay. So the point here is that Teaching and understanding and learning and applying is central to this concept of filling up the church. As a result, verse 14, the goal is that every saint, just look at the heading here, the goal is that every saint is matured and Christ fills the church, verses 13 to 16. Duran verse 14, as a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves, okay? And carried about by every wind of doctrine. So there's waves that push us away, right? If you put stuff in water and then you start making the water vibrate, the stuff gets separates, right? You got to have some kind of unifying thing that pulls that stuff together so that it doesn't get drift apart from waves so that some believe one thing, some believe something else. Same with wind. You pile your leaves up, you know, and if you don't bag it or put it in a place or get rid of it or burn it, I don't like to burn it, but some do. If you don't do that, well, then the wind's gonna come and scatter them again, right? So they won't be all centrally located in unity, right? So there's waves and there's wind that's pushing every different direction in various teachings that aren't true, right? But we want to have true knowledge of the Son of God. We wanna attain the unity of the faith, right? So we're not gonna be tossed here and there by waves and carried by every wind of doctrine, Verse 14, continuing with verse 14, by the trickery of man, by craftiness in deceitful scheming. And some may say, well, this is the reason for some idea. Well, if the reason isn't in the Bible, then no, okay? The reasoning for our understanding and beliefs are in the Bible. So there's deceitful scheming and craftiness and trickery that's not from the Bible. But instead, let's see, verse 15, but speaking the truth in love. So truth and love, two things that go together, right? Speaking truth, but in a loving way, right? Speaking truth with a good purpose in mind. Not speaking truth to cut down, but speaking truth to build up in love. Truth from the Bible, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ. We're gonna become more and more like Christ, all right? Verse 16, from whom, okay, the whole body, from whom? Christ, from Christ, the whole body being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies. So now, according to the proper working of each individual part. So that's where we get the idea that the equipers are to equip you to be the joints and the other parts of the body that each individual part will properly work, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies. And so it's all been held together. It's one body. The church is one body. Each part's working according to being equipped for that purpose through the teaching from the word. Proper working of each individual part causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. So that's, you know, so Christ is filling up the body. That's Christ's goal. Guess what? Christ deserves the glory, and he intends to receive it. And he intends to receive it in the church. And that's why he gave equipers to build you, to fill you up, equip you. And then the other parts of the body can all work together for the growth of the body and the strengthening of the body in love. So there you have it. The grace and peace. Here it starts with peace, unity, peace, that leads to the use of God's grace in the building up of the body of Christ and the filling of it with Christ so that we're like Christ. And Christ fills all in all. So going back to verse six, there's one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. And verse 10, he who descended is himself also he who ascended far above all the heavens so that he might fill all things, right? In verse 13, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, or true knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. And verse 15, but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ. So Christ is filling up the church and then Christ is glorifying himself in the church. That's, it's going to depend on the, walking in a manner worthy of the calling with which you've been called, with humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we're grateful, Lord, for your word, for the masterful demonstration and exposition of an explanation of your grace and the peace that you accomplished and your goals in us for your glory, Heavenly Father, through Christ and by the Spirit. Lord, we thank you for your words penned by Paul, sent by messenger to Ephesus, and then copied and spread throughout the church for your glory and our benefit. May you help us, Lord, to remember our calling. How did we get where we are, Lord? And that's by your grace and by the blood of Christ uniting Jew and Gentile, making peace. Lord, we thank you for that calling. May we walk according to it in humility. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.