All right, let's get to the sermon. Now we're going to Ephesians 3, Ephesians 4, I'm sorry, Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4. Last week we left off observing a very specific and particular point that is of great importance here in this chapter, and it's sort of summed up in the first three verses which we've covered. which is very important, as you know, I've been emphasizing that. Therefore, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, I therefore beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit, in the bond of peace. So Paul, just to summarize again, is saying in light of this glorious truth that God has revealed to me, that I have just been revealing to you in chapter two and chapter three, the mystery of Christ, in light of this glorious vocation, this calling that God has given you, in light of the fact that As unbelievers, you Gentile Ephesians were without God and without hope in the world, and you were strangers and foreigners from the covenants of promise, and you had nothing to do with the promises given to God's nation Israel. You were without hope and without God in the world. But now you've been made fellow citizens in God's covenant nation, Israel. You're now recipients of the promises God gave to them. You have hope. You have an inheritance. You have everything. It was by God's grace. He's adopted you. He had his natural born sons. In other words, they were the sons of Abraham, according to the flesh. Of course, amongst them, there's the spiritual born because you can't get into the kingdom without being spiritually born. But they were the natural born that became spiritual born. But now he went outside the family and adopted strangers from other families, that's the calling of the Gentiles. And he's given you this high, he brought you into a noble household. You have a royal inheritance in light of what he's done for you. This is the mystery hidden in ages past. In light of what he's done for you, you need to live in a manner that is commensurate with his mercy and grace that he's shown you. That is commensurate with the high calling and vocation He has placed upon you as his sons and daughters, princes and kings in his kingdom. There's a reason to live a godly life out of appreciation. When you understand the magnitude of what he's done, it only should spur us on to greater godliness. And that's Paul's point. And so how do we live worthy of such a calling? So he says you need to live worthy. How do we live worthy? Well, he explains it in verse two and three. With all loveliness and meekness, with long suffering, for bearing one another in love. There's a reason you gotta do that. Because our job is to endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. So we are to humble ourselves and be of a meek disposition because God has adopted us into his family. We were the riffraff. He brought us into the royal house with the full inheritance. Now you get along with the brothers and sisters he gave you. The father does not want to see his children at each other's throats. You love each other. Honor your father. by loving and forgiving your brethren that he's given you. See, this is what Paul's argument is. And the reason we are to love and forgive and show mercy to our brethren and be of a meek and humble spirit is so that we can keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. That's what he says. Endeavoring, verse three, endeavoring or striving to keep the unity of the spirit. We talked about what that was. What is the unity of the spirit? It is the unity that is the byproduct of the indwelling and the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. We have to endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. And so, as we noted last week, if all doctrine is authored or inspired by the Holy Spirit, and it is, and the Holy Spirit is the author of true Christian unity, as he most certainly is, and as Paul is saying here, then that means that all doctrine, which is all given by the Holy Spirit, must tend towards Christian unity. Of course, if the Spirit is the one responsible for causing us to be united as people, then what the Spirit says should serve to unite us, because we unite around what He says, because He's changed our hearts. That's what we want to do. So there's an immediate connection we have one with another. And that is a work of divine grace. It's not something we do. It's a work of divine grace. So if the Spirit of God has inspired all doctrine, and the Spirit of God is responsible for genuine Christian unity, and thus all doctrine promotes Christian unity, then the question is, why is there so much disunity in matters of doctrine amongst Christians at large. Is Paul wrong? And as I said to you, I think I said it last week, I'll give you a hint. It's not the Holy Spirit's fault. So if you and I as brothers and sisters don't have unity, and it's not the Holy Spirit's fault, well, I guess that leaves you and I. And that's what I want to talk about. I mean, it's not that it's Paul's specific job here in this passage to talk about why isn't there unity. It's just that when I read that, it jumps off the page and people go, well, so what happened? I think it's a legitimate question. So I wrote down three reasons you could lift them out more numerously, depending on how you divide them and break them up. And I suppose there's other things I could say, but a sermon can only be so long. But three reasons why I think there's not more unity in doctrine amongst Christianity at large, when there quite naturally should be, naturally by virtue of the Holy Spirit. Reason number one, faith is weak. When we have weak faith, it will affect our willingness to yield to the Holy Spirit. Because sometimes yielding to the Holy Spirit represents a challenge. And when our faith is not what it ought to be, we won't be up to the challenge. And then what happens to the unity that is the byproduct of our submission to him? So I think one large problem is there's a weakness of faith. And where faith is weak, it's usually weak because there's a challenge to it in some way. When it's easy, do you know that the Bible says God is love? What a bold preaching. I don't think anyone has a problem with that. And most people are blessed by that thought, as well they should be. But there are things that the Spirit of God says that sometimes in certain ages, at certain times and sometimes in certain places, just isn't that likable, isn't that popular. Now you're challenged to see if you're going to stand with that. And the problem with modern day Christianity, and I think it's probably true in every generation to varying degrees, is that we are offered plenty of excuses and outs There's lots of ministers that say, and the Spirit of God says, you say, whoa, oh, we gotta, and you look around, and the path to stand at the back is way down. It's the last time I'll ever walk away from the public. And if I do, I'll walk that way, not this way. In other words, I got a back door that you can escape out. And I can present that back door in a very sophisticated way, because I went to Bible school, and then I went to three years of seminary, and I learned Hebrew and Greek and church culture. So let me give you a very intellectual reason of why you don't have to believe what the Holy Spirit's saying. And if that's what people want, that's what people get. And when they get what they want, they say that it satisfies them. And the most pathetic thing is, in some instances, it does satisfy them. That's the worst thing. Better off feeling a little guilty and wondering, am I playing a game with myself? And then denying it. But when they're satisfied with it, brethren. I don't know if that's reprobation necessarily or not. It's not a good place though. There's certainly a searing of the conscience. So when faith is weak generally in a particular generation or a particular place, the ministers leave excuses and outs for the Lord's people. And that's because the ministers and teachers that do that also have the same weakness of faith. You gotta go along to get along. I did happen to just yesterday, Paula can attest to it, she was in the bathroom doing something, in and out, and she could probably hear me going, oh, oh. I don't know if she could hear that. Oh, I'm sure she could hear it, because I'm right in the living room, oh. Well, it was Joe Osteen who was on, oh. For some reason, I said, I'm going to watch this for, it's been probably a year I've watched more than 30 seconds. I'm going to watch 10 or 15 minutes, and I did. It was so unbelievable. There's nothing different in anything he ever says. It's just a different story. But there he was, and he's got all sorts of back doors he'll open for you if the spirit of God makes you uncomfortable. And guess what? It's not just Joel's theme. It's to different degrees but I've watched it happen lots of times. So that's one reason there's weakness of faith and when there's weakness of faith we resist the Spirit. Well then we're going to lose some of the benefits of the Spirit because we're resisting Him. One of the great benefits is unity and the fundamental unity of the Spirit is we unify on what God has said because we're Bible believers. There's another reason why there's not as much unity in Christianity at large, and that's because, particularly nowadays, there's ignorance of the Bible. Much of the ignorance, unfortunately, that is found amongst many of God's people, certainly not all, but many of God's people, I think can be contributed to the people's ministers having been educated, and I'm not trying to be uncharitable, but really, I don't know how else to say it, but in weak-minded institutions. If they were trained for the ministry at a Bible school or in a seminary that was not serious, but they were serious about building the denomination, that's not the same thing as being serious about humbling ourselves and yielding ourselves to all the Lord has said, whether it's built or not. And so I think there's a great weakness in the training institutions of many ministers and they're more concerned with growing than they are being faithful to the word. And so the people get topical sermons. And it's topical sermon. By the way, many of the reforms say, well, you've got to go through the Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. Anything else is backsliding. It's not biblical. It's not systematic. That's false. And that's a lie. And that's to charge Paul with bad teaching. It's to charge Peter with bad teaching. It's to charge Jesus with bad teaching. When you read the New Testament, they're not saying, OK, now in Genesis chapter 4, we're going to come to the next 10 verses and tell you how it applies to Christ. There's a lot of exegetical application from the Old Testament scriptures, but there's a lot of topical preaching. So the problem with topical preaching today is it isn't systematic. They stay away from the subjects that scare them, and they completely emphasize the subjects that everybody will love, and they find a thousand different ways to preach topical sermons on the ones they love. They don't give you everything. Now, I think a ministry should always be teaching through the Bible. We should be going through a book of the Bible or something like, you know, all the time, but there's also room, like when Paul's teaching in one of his epistles, he's teaching something doctrinal, thematical, and then all of a sudden he breaks away and then he gives a list, oh yeah, and don't do this and don't do this and don't do this and don't be this, and he gives this little list, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, there, threw that in at the end of my epistle. He must be a backslider. No, sometimes you got to do that. In a real life, the Reformed I found, there's so many, Julian was right, there's so many straitjackets they end up finding themselves in. They've got to have structure and you hold to the structure and they've deified the structure that they came up with and that's the problem. The problem is in a real life ministry things happen. trouble happens in the assembly, bad thinking enters in, dishonorable conduct, or there's maybe just a malaise, and a minister perceives these things and he has to say, okay, this has to be addressed. He can't say, well, I'll address it five years from now, because I've got to finish going through Leviticus and then Deuteronomy. And I think that will come up when I go to the New Testament and I get to Timothy, but I still get two New Testament books to go. You can't do that. Ministers shouldn't plan their sermons out a year in advance. I know it sounds very scholarly. It's cowardly, brethren. Do you realize you can preach through the whole Bible, every single verse, and avoid everything you need to avoid by doing that and feel very systematic? You need a proper combination. You say, well, how do you discipline it so that it comes out right? Well, you've got to trust the man of God to be one who's led by God's spirit and who's serious about the word. He'll know what to do. And if he doesn't do the right thing, the Lord's got his number. Well, you don't believe that's true. Well, I happen to believe it's true. Ignorance of the Bible. There's a third reason why there isn't more doctrinal unity in the body of Christ generally. And that's because there are many professors of Christ, but not possessors of Christ. You know, the old school way was they're false professors. Maybe modern day, particularly younger people, what's that? They teach at some school? No, no, no, professors, they profess a thing. But it's a false profession. In other words, they believe they're Christians, Maybe in some instances they don't, but they say they're Christians. Probably in a lot of instances they do. They believe it. They can tell you how to be born again. They can tell you what John 3.16 is and 1 John 1.9 and Romans 8.28 or wherever. They've never been regenerated. Now, when I bring that subject up, I so often go to Matthew 7. I just say Matthew 7, Christians, and I know that you know what I mean. Let me do it again just for a second here, but let's go to it rather than me referencing it. Matthew 7. And Jesus just says it. It's so plain, direct, and eloquent in its simplicity. There's no backdoor to what Jesus is saying here. You just have to go busting through the wall if you want to try to find a way out of this one. But Matthew 7 verse 21, Jesus said, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. So wait a minute, there are some, there are, there are not everyone that calls Jesus Lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven. That is correct. According to Jesus. Well, then who does enter into the kingdom of heaven? But he that doeth the will of my father, which is in heaven. Now, immediately you've got ministers with big, wide back garage doors for you to go driving Humvee out because they're easy, the easy believism crowd. A lot of these groups I kind of complain about, they're from that place. Soteriologically from that place. Their understanding of regeneration and conversion is horrible. It's not horrible, it's unbiblical. They don't know what they're talking about. Well, this is what Jesus is saying. Look, these people exist. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Well, who does? But he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. And these false teachers say, well, you know what? We're not saved by our works. So if you're gonna say, I'm not saying it. Well, Jesus can't be saying we're saved by our works. No, he's not saying that. And stop pretending you don't know how he can't be saying it, because you're pretending there. Anybody that preaches a true gospel of genuine conversion, they are labeled as legalists who believe in work salvation, and it's a false I'm sure there are people that believe in a work salvation, right? The Roman Catholic Church does. And you'll have some Protestant legalists that will do that too. But they are probably make up 5% of the people that actually get the charge that actually are that. The vast majority, no. They're insulting the true people of God who care about the doctrine of regeneration. And the people attacking them have never been regenerated. Jesus says in verse 20, because by the way, when you're saved, when you're born again, the Lord says, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. We all know that means it's not in perfection. We all have our faults. We all have our sins. I do and you do. We know that that's not what Jesus is saying, but in spite of our failures and faults and weaknesses, We actually do strive to serve them. We're not who we used to be. We want to make them happy. And there's a lot of victories we have in our lives. Our lives change. So when we do fall into sin or lethargy, it's not our normal way. It's an aberration where it used to be our way of life. Conversion is real. The ones that genuinely know me follow me is what he's saying. Well, it's true. Now look, he says verse 22, many, it's an awfully important word. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, that day, the day of judgment, when they have to give an account for the deeds done in the body. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? We can find that in the book of Acts. They're trying to prophesy in the name of Jesus. And the devils would laugh at them and say, Jesus, I know, I don't know who you are. That's these guys. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name in the name of Jesus and in thy name have cast out devils? Maybe that guy who says I decree has cast out devils in the name of Jesus. But there are people that have cast out devils, or at least they claim they have, in the name of Jesus. And well, and in thy name have done many wonderful works. And then will I profess unto them, those people, I never knew you. You cast out devils in my name. I don't even know who you are. And how many of these people are there? I don't know. But Jesus says there's many of them. If what Jesus says is true, then I would think one of the reasons, probably a big reason, why there is such disunity within the Christian community at large in matters of doctrine is because there are many in the Christian community at large that never knew Him. If many that lay claim to the name of Christ don't have the Spirit, because they never knew Him, if many don't have the Spirit, And if the Spirit is the author of all Bible doctrine and the author of all true Christian unity, then we cannot expect a great unity of the Spirit, verse three, within Christianity, because many of these people don't have the foundation upon which such unity can exist, because their hearts haven't been changed. It's just that simple. That's why Jesus said in his prayer to the Father, I pray not for the world. Can we go there for a second? Go to John 17. John 17. See, now I'm watching myself preach when I'm not talking. So something went amiss. John 17 and verse 8. Now this is the prayer of the Lord just before Peter denies him, and the disciples are with him. Verse eight, for I have given unto them, that is to his disciples, he's praying to the Father, he says, I have given unto my disciples the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them. I pray not for the world. but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. Jesus is going out of his way to say, I'm not praying for the world, I'm praying for the ones you've given me, my disciples. And then we jump forward to verse 20, continuing in that prayer, the Lord says, neither pray I for these, his disciples, alone. but for them also which believe on me through their word." Well, we believe on Christ through the words of the apostles that we read in the New Testament. They put the doctrine together for us. They've ministered, you know, 2,000 years later, they still minister their word. They were meant to be the teachers of God's people, the apostles' doctrine. Jesus is praying for us as well, even 2,000 years later. Neither pray I, verse 20, neither I pray for these alone, but for them also which believe on me through their word. And what's his prayer? Now, he's praying only for the elect. He's not praying for the world. He's not praying for the people in the church that say they know him, but they don't know him, and Jesus never knew them. He's not praying for the visible church, as they like to say. He's praying for the invisible church. It's kind of a weird description, but all that means is the ones that, see, in every congregation, I shouldn't say in every, but probably in most every congregation, There's all the professed believers who are members. And then there's the ones that actually are. And the Lord knows exactly, although we don't, he knows exactly who they are. And those are the ones he's praying for in this prayer. So in verse 21, he says, he prays that they all, that he's praying for, and he's clear on who he is and who he isn't praying for, that they all may be one. As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. Well, it looks like Jesus got a no answer to his prayer. Or did he? If the fervent prayer of a righteous man is effectual, I can only imagine what the prayers of the Lord himself would be like. Is there more unity? amongst God's people than perhaps we know, and I mean in doctrine and in practice. Well, I'd say based on Jesus' prayer, the answer may be, yeah, maybe there is more unity than we think. I'm very slow to think the Lord prayed outside the will of his Heavenly Father. Now, go back to Ephesians 4. Now see, all these things are hard words. Particularly, you know, there's a lot of Christians, if they heard me say these things, they'd say, see, they're the only ones. Do I ever say that? I have no idea who they are. I'm just giving you the principles from the scripture. And sort of explaining why, when every time I turn on the TV and I see these very famous Christians get out there, Paula can hear me on the other side of the house. It's like, dah! Stuff like that. And then when she's sitting right next to me, she goes, you know, I am sitting right here. Okay. Okay. So, oh, I gotta go to Ephesians. So Ephesians four. In verse three, endeavoring, striving to keep the unity of the spirit, the unity that is the byproduct. But we can't, this unity isn't of the flesh. Most of the unity in churches is of the flesh. It's like the unity in your family. They're all coming over Thanksgiving. Don't talk about religion or politics. See the unity. The unity is structured over the denial of your own disunity. You say, you're talking about family. Well, family comes before the principles of God's word, then you've sinned. If a man puts his children or his husband or a wife or any person in front of the Lord, they're not of him. and we're pro unity in families to be sure. But what he says here is very interesting because I can only imagine the Calvinist misinterpretations of verse three. Now when it comes to Arminian misinterpretations, like we've completely left the farm, I have to go back and start at Genesis one. So I'm kind of bypassing all that. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit. that can only be about, come about, by the change in a person's life, by the spirit dwelling in them, and causing them to love Christ and see his word, and then want to serve him, and that creates an instant unity that you have with every other believer. As soon as you know they're a believer in Christ, and that you must be born again, and that they actually mean it, and that they're saying it, the best of your ability to discern that quickly, you feel, don't you feel this immediate connection to them? Like, oh, so you wanna talk. And so you start talking, and we can have that with anybody from anybody in the world, as long as we can speak their language. And so where did that come from? That isn't something we've manufactured. He changed our heart to love his word and his truth and want to serve him. That's why we have instant unity, which is the gift of God by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It's the unity that is the byproduct of the reality of the Holy Spirit changing lives. That's verse three, the unity of the Spirit. However, The unity that believers share of the Spirit is of God's Spirit, yes, but we're told that we are to endeavor, to strive, to keep it. The Calvinist wheel's not turning. No! You've misunderstood the apostle. Yes, yes you have. Well, it's the gift of God, your right to begin with. But wait a minute, we can't keep it if we keep the unity of the Spirit by our own efforts. Well, that's works. That's to say that that unity is the byproduct of us, maybe us in conjunction with the Lord, but we're sharing with the Lord the glory that is due Him for the unity that exists. The unity is the gift of God by the indwelling spirit. You're right. We can't keep anything. You're wrong. It's the Lord. But wait a minute. That's what he says. So stop talking and learn how to integrate what Paul says with the truth of God's sovereignty. See, they're thinking when they read that, well, if we have to keep the unity of the spirit, then we're the ones responsible for maintaining it. And there's a little bit of credit to go to us for that. And we're kind of robbing God of the glory because he's the one that maintains it, right? The Lord will keep his people. Peter said so. So they think, no, you have to read this some other way. No, you don't have to read it another way. And that's what I want to take some time to explain here. So my fundamental answer to that objection is wrong. Now, three courses of just as I am, we can go home. Let me give you a couple of examples. Let's take Lazarus, but let's force Lazarus into a very terrible hypothetical situation. imaginary example that I hope Lazarus, I can apologize to him one day for using him in this way. I think you'll understand. Lazarus, we know from the scriptures, was sick unto death. His health was waning, it was gone, he had grown sick. It was over, obviously, a few days, we know from the narrative, and then he died. Christ came to his tomb after he's been dead, and he raised him from the dead. gave him his life back, restored his health, and we would presume he went on to live many years after that. But in our imaginary example, and again, we hope Lazarus will forgive us of this false illustration, just to make a point though, let's say immediately after Lazarus was raised from the dead, he was just so beside himself with happiness, Then he just started to say, you know what, I'm going to live life to the fullest. And he started drinking heavy. And he started drinking heavy every night to the point he got drunk every night. And he just became addicted to alcohol and was ruining his liver moment by moment. And let's say he decided he wasn't going to go to work anymore. He got too much to celebrate. He's got his new life. So he sat around all day drinking and doing other things that were not good, not healthy. Maybe he consumed unhealthy food or dangerous food. He just did whatever. He became very Slaven-like, lost his discipline, his passion for life, and engaged in all manner, eventually, of debauchery and sin, which would smite his conscience, which would put stress on him. And then that made him feel bad, but he'd try and cover it up, and he fought, because now he's in this zone of living this way. And six months after he was resurrected, he died from his own consumption of sin. Let me ask you a question. Who's at fault for that? The Lord for raising him up from the dead? No. It would be Lazarus' fault. I think we can all agree. Let me ask another question. What would such ungodly and unhealthy living on Lazarus' part, if that were the case, what would those kind of actions tell us about his appreciation and thankfulness to the Lord for raising him from the dead to begin with. Wouldn't it tell us something? It would tell us that Lazarus was irresponsible and ungrateful to have done that, his life was given back to him. We would judge that Lazarus was a man that did not respect what the Lord had done for him, he was an ingrate and his early demise after his resurrection is on his head. Does the Lord still get the glory for raising him? Of course he does. It was an act of mercy and grace. Well, you see, if Lazarus had actually cherished what the Lord had done for him, and he cherished his new life that was given back to him by the Lord, and he understood what he's being given a second chance, and so he decided, you know what? I'm going to live zealously for the Lord. He didn't drink, he didn't pursue sin, and he continued to work hard and discipline his life and tried to make the most out of his life that Lord had given him back to him. He did right by what the Lord gave him. Does his doing right by what the Lord gave him steal from the Lord the glory that is due him for showing him the mercy to begin with of raising him from the dead? No, it doesn't. In fact, it would be the very least that Lazarus could do to live that way. It would be the bare minimum that any of us would expect of him in light of such grace being bestowed upon him. And so he has an obligation to maintain his life in a way that is commensurate with the grace that God has given him. But is that merit? So wait a minute. So the Lord gave him life, but he maintained it. He had to strive and do what was right in order to live out the balance of his days. And by golly, he did it. Let's say he did it and he was faithful. Well, then what are you saying here? So is he sharing, is he somehow stealing a little bit of the glory that is due to the Lord for resurrecting him to begin with? No. It's a ridiculous argument. Let me give you another example, maybe to make it a little clearer. You've lost your job. They've outsourced your skills. So all the skills you learned have no application in the country you're in anymore. And you're too overqualified. You're in, you know, a phase of life where it's not so easy to get a job now. All the young bucks get them. And things are getting desperate. And your wife has threatened to leave you. You're on the verge of losing your home, and you're about to go out into the street. And a rich benefactor comes along, whoever he is, and he says, here, for my accounts, is $30 million. You don't owe me a thing. There's no strings attached. I just don't want to see you and your family come to this. Take care of yourselves and have a good life." And that was it. You would be overwhelmed with gratitude for, you know, being that low and, you know, you taking care of the rest of your life, no worries, financially. But then you get that money and say, you know, when you get to thinking about it, I've never had anywhere near this kind of money. And I realize what I can get with $30 million, but wait a minute, if I doubled it, Do you know how much more I could get, and how much more good works I could do? That's true, and you convince yourself, and now the money bug gets you. And there you are at Foxwoods, and six months later, $30 million is all gone. Your wife left you, and you're now drinking out of a tin can over a garbage barrel that's burning garbage in the train yard. Whose fault is that? It's the fault of the man that didn't use that money wisely. Let's say the man did use the money wisely. Let's say he didn't have to make smart investments. He just stuck it in the bank. He got minimal interest, but with 30 million, he had nothing to worry about. And he kept working, and he kept, you know, maybe he would donate stuff to proper causes and for the work of Christ and things like that. The family grew. He just did responsible things. He doesn't have to be a wizard. He just did what was responsible. The only reason he got that long-term benefit from that gift is because he maintained the benefit of the gift himself. By doing so, has he robbed his benefactor of the honor that is due him for giving him the $30 million? Well, he put it in the bank, so you can't put all the glory on the benefactor for being so gracious, because this guy did put it in the bank. You see my point? He can't steal from the benefactor the witness that he has of his mercy and grace by doing right with that money. No. In fact, by doing the right thing with that money and keeping it safe and watching over your family and living a good life with this guy's giving you a new lease on life, what you're doing is you're honoring that benefactor's generosity. You're showing you appreciate what he's done with it and you're going to make the most use of it. It's like the parable of the talents. But in the parable of the talents, the guys that use their money wisely have not stolen the glory of the one who gave them the talents. They just appreciated what he did. There's no stolen honor. And I hear many Calvinists, usually the Calvinists, they don't understand it, that argue that way. It's like, well, it's all the Lord. We don't do anything. I can't get weary with that sometimes. The gift of unity, and of love is given to us by God's grace through the indwelling of the spirit. And the way we honor the Lord in that free undeserved gift for whom we can't remove any of his glory for that because we didn't deserve it. But the way we honor him in that gift is by complying and yielding to that spirit that he gave us. And that's just the minimal standard and expectation that God expects. There's no glory in saying thank you to the person who gave you 30 million dollars. You know, you might want to say thank you. Well, you see, he's still a little bit of the glory. Well, he's a little bit of merit there. See, he did the right thing and said thank you. No, that's the bare minimum to not bring shame upon yourself. That's what the Lord expects. Our keeping of the unity of the Spirit, as he says in verse three, our keeping of the unity of the Spirit. We're not saying by that, oh, we also authored our own unity. We're partially responsible for our own unity. No, because no matter how much we tried, even in our success in keeping that unity, We couldn't do it no matter how hard we tried unless the Lord changed us and gave us his spirit and caused us to love him and his word and to just, with all of our hearts and all of our souls and all of our minds, seek to serve him. So that was all a gift from God. There's no credit in it for us. When we have to keep and maintain that precious gift that he gave us, that's just appreciation. We're not declaring, so therefore we get a little credit. You better do that, you no-good bums. The letter of that perfect gift, not a very sophisticated way to say it, but that's the way I said it. Our keeping of the unity that God, by His grace, has given to us only serves to honor Him in that gift to begin with. So in verses, well, what do I do? So in verses, so endeavoring, verse three, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. We have a responsibility there. We have to keep it. We didn't get it by anything we did. We got it because he caused us to repent and believe. He took out the stony heart and put in the soft and pliable heart that says, I appreciate what the Lord has done for me and I'm an unworthy sinner and he's forgiven me in Christ's sake. How can I serve such a great God? What can I do to honor him? That doesn't come from us. That changed heart. is given to us by God. The only reason we can even think that way for a second is the gift of God. So you see, the glory belongs to Him. But we have a responsibility because we have the Spirit within us and we have those desires. We have the responsibility to now maintain it. But it's by the power of the Spirit of God in us and our changed lives that we maintain it. Yeah, but thing is, we can quench the Spirit and we can resist the Spirit. It's like He gave us all we need to get the job done. He says, no, get the job done. And then we just drop all the tools and stand there. Well, your big dope, what did you do? Those are the things you get it done with. Use them. Well, but all the glory will go to me. If I give you a key to open the door, you sit there, you drop it. What's the matter with you? Okay, I want to open that door. So you open the door with the key. Oh, see, trying to steal the glory from the guy who gave you the key. There's no end to the kind of examples you can give on that. So this unity, you could do a series on this, maintaining of unity on the part of God's people, it only is maintained through the power of the Spirit. The way we maintain it is we need to get out of the way of God's Spirit in our own lives. We have to give ourselves up and over to Him, which is an exhibition of faith. So we go right back to where we started. The reason there isn't more unity in the body of Christ is because faith is weak. It's always the answer. There's a problem. There's a problem. And as I said to you before, I can't fix people, but I can tell them how and where the fixing takes place. It's all found in the Word. And ultimately, it's all found in the person of Jesus Christ, who indwells us by the presence of His Spirit and changes us. See, I don't know about you, you know, I can say this, it probably only, well, I think you understand, but for a lot of people, they hear me say it. If I said, look, I wanna be here, well, you're the pastor. Well, I know, but you know, before I was the pastor, I wanted to be here. I heard Pastor Gugino, did you hear what he said? Wait a minute, I can't be looking at, oh, he's right. Did you hear what he said there? Wait a minute. Finally, I realized there's a pattern here. I said, wow, I'm not quite running to such freedom. I've been involved in lots of Christian circles with genuine Christians who had real passion for the Lord And I can't speak to every one of them about their personal situation, but the generic groupings, there was always like a glass ceiling. There's an invisible thing. You're not allowed to go beyond this line because that makes most of the group uncomfortable. And I come in here, a batch of Virginia's crossing lines all over the place. And I said, is it right? And then when I found out, no, he needs a cross of limes, because that's where the Lord is walking. He says, follow me. I said, okay, I found home. Not that I never saw that in other men of God, but not to that degree that that just increases my love. And I feel that in some small measure, This is why we investigate the intermediate state, not even really having an answer in mind, knowing the Lord will provide as He sees fit. Where is the sacrifice? The Lord will provide. And we go into the first century Parisia, where everybody's going to roll their eyes and say, that is just so ridiculous, it doesn't even need refuting. And I know that. But you know, it was a question that cropped up when I was 15 years old. Nobody ever had an answer. And now the Lord's supplying reality that actually stemmed from very simple portions of scripture. And that's why I came to Clayville. I watched Pastor Cugini do it, and he expected me to do the same. I've told you this before, but one time he said to me, I taught something that was a new thought in the meeting. He gave me a sermon one night, and next time I saw him, I think I went to his house, and he said, now, Brother Jim, you were talking about this subject, and it was a good message, he says, but it was new truth to Clayville. He says, now, as long as I'm the pastor, I bring new truth, but if the Lord gave that to you, you save that. for when it's your turn. Now some people would say, whoa, see, he just doesn't want to share the glory and they completely, they don't know how to read them, they get an axe to grind. I completely understood that. Immediately it said, I understand that and I agree with it, I just didn't think of it in those terms. I was just like, oh, I got this late, I'm sure Pastor Kudrini is going to love to hear this. I think he did like hearing it but It could be interpreted as subversive to his authority as the pastor. I understood what he was saying, but he wasn't saying you shouldn't have taught that, teach that, because I never heard that before. It's not what he was saying. He was saying, look, I think what you're saying was true, but you save that for where it's your time. You know what, brethren? It's been my time now for whatever it's been, 20 years. And not everybody's gonna appreciate what's happening. And when I came to Clayville, I was shocked by how many empty pews there were when Pastor Kuljini was here after 40 years! It's just the way it is. Never regret it. Still don't. And I hope you don't. And what Paul is bringing out here is basically saying, if we love and appreciate what the Father has done for us, we're just gonna learn to follow Him. Unreservedly. I don't know, there's a Christian that should be able to disagree with that. Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer.