Let's go to our Lord in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, as we return to your holy word, to hear it proclaimed, we petition you, Father, that you will not let any of us hear it this day in vain. But we pray, Lord, to hear your word to adhere it to our most and greatest spiritual profit and benefit that the result of which will be a greater conformity to the image of Christ Jesus our Lord as we would be by the power of the Spirit sanctified by the Word of God preached. Lord, we earnestly with you for such favor and kindness that you would lavish upon us all today. In these matters, we hold before your throne of grace through faith in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, in his name, praying always for his sake. Amen. Well I invite you to take the Word of God and let us turn to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. This is obviously very familiar ground to anyone who has been here at Providence Reformed Baptist Church for over a year. And for those of you who have been here for several years, this ground is most familiar because every January of every year I take us to this great passage in Ephesians 4, verses 1 through 16 in particular, and then we'll leave there and go to Titus 3 by the end of the month as we consider the very important and I would say this go around the most important subject of keeping Christian unity. This morning we will begin reading verses 1 through 6, 1 through 6 of Ephesians chapter 4. So let us listen to God's word. I therefore a prisoner for the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. And so reads the infallible, the inerrant, The All-Sufficient Word of the Living God. I want to begin our study this morning by asking a very simple question. How do you think God looks on the unity of His people? How do you think God looks on the unity of His people? If fellow believers in Christ are communing together in a unified community that is visible and real, what do you think God would say about this? Okay? Well, the answer to this question is not hard to find. In fact, all we have to do is turn to Psalm 133. So take your Bibles and hold your place in Ephesians 4 and turn back to the Old Testament and turn to Psalm 133. Psalm 133 is a psalm about the unity of God's people. And this is what it says. Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. It is like the precious oil on the head running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron running down on the collar of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon which falls on the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord has commanded the blessing life forevermore. What does God think about His people living together in unity? Well, in this very short, beautiful psalm, we're given an inspired picture that we should never forget as the church of Jesus Christ. First of all, unity is a gift from God. It is a gift from God. This truth is what lies behind the image of the anointing oil running down Aaron's head and beard. This type of oil was given at God's direction in His way with His authority and any blessing it conferred was all from God. Thus with unity among God's people it is a gift of His grace given to His people who otherwise would be divided because of sin. Second of all, unity is for both the small and the great. Unity is for both the small and the great. This truth is captured by the image of the dew of Hermon falling on the mountains of Zion. Hermon was the highest mountain in Israel and it became proverbial to speak of its dew falling on its lofty reaches. But in this particular psalm, the dew of Hermon falls on the mountains of Zion which were not high at all in comparison. The point then of this picture as it relates to unity is that this blessing is given to all of God's people. no matter their stature, no matter their position or place in the world. This kind of unity is given to all the people of God. Third of all, the blessing of unity flows from one person to another. The blessing of unity flows from one person to another. We see this truth in the image of the anointing oil running down on the collar of Aaron's robes. This picture indicates the flow of blessing given to Aaron by God who was to proceed to all others he came in contact with. In fact, the oil used to anoint him was typically blended with myrrh and cinnamon and cane and cassia. Thus there was a rich and precious fragrance that would fill the air wherever Aaron proceeded under this anointing. Pertaining to unity then, when one believer is pursuing such a holy community among the brethren, that pursuit tends to be a blessing to those who come in contact with it. Finally, Psalm 133 teaches that unity is a foretaste of heaven. It is a foretaste of heaven. This is what the last verse in this psalm is telling us. For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore. Commenting on this truth, James Montgomery Boyce said the following, some things are good for us but not pleasant. Other things are pleasant but not good, but the unity we have as God's people is both good and pleasant. It is even a bit of heaven now. So what then does God think about unity among His people? God says in Psalm 133, it is good and pleasant. It is good and pleasant to the Lord because it's His gift that He expects to be guarded and preserved by His people as they pursue one another in fellowship. Now, with this in mind, I want us to turn our attention to the aforementioned Ephesians chapter 4. From a larger context in the book of Ephesians, the first three chapters centered mainly on the grand truth of what God has done to save us in Christ. That's the subject of chapters one through three in Ephesians. But beginning here in chapter four, Paul the apostle enters on the outworking of that saving grace in daily life. And the first step God directs us to take is in the matter of keeping Christian unity. In fact this theme covers directly the first half of Ephesians chapter 4. In this passage Paul labors to unpack the truth that because we are one in Christ, which is what Paul covered back in chapter 2 of Ephesians, that oneness or unity we have in Christ must be made visible for all the world to see. But the unity that should be seen in the church, and this is critical to our understanding, and never to forget this, the unity that is to be seen in the church is not a carnal or a worldly kind of unity. It's not a unity produced by the flesh. It is spiritual. And therefore, it is Christian. It is Christian, hence the reason for my very deliberate title to this sermon, Keeping Christian Unity. It's not just keeping unity. It's not just keeping unity. No, it's keeping a very specific kind of unity, that which is Christian. Because there is no other unity, beloved, there's no other unity that works in the church. because there is no other unity that honors Christ but that which is conformed to his will and purpose that is Christian unity. Now to begin this study on keeping Christian unity I want us to consider verses 1 through 6 here in Ephesians 4 and from this passage I want us to see three principal truths, okay? First, there is the character that keeps Christian unity. Second, there is the cause that creates Christian unity. And third, there is the charge to keep Christian unity. To begin with then, let's look first at the character. The character that keeps Christian unity. Look with me in verses 1 and 2. a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. The opening words here in verse one signal that Paul is now beginning to draw a deduction from everything he has written from the first 56 verses of this letter. I therefore, that's the word of deduction, I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk. the sense and effect of these words are in this, in light of all I have just written concerning God's grace in saving you and uniting you together in Christ, I strongly exhort you now to conduct the whole of your life in this very particular and peculiar way. And in what way is Paul urging us as the church to live? Well, he says it, I urge you to walk in a manner Worthy of the calling to which you have been called. Worthy of the calling to which you have been called. What we have here in verse one is the overarching theme for the last three chapters of Ephesians. It is to have a walk that is worthy of the calling to which we have been called by God in Christ. Everything that will proceed from this imperative will be to explain what this worthy walk is and how it must proceed in practice. From keeping Christian unity, to keeping Christian purity, to keeping a Christian family, to keeping the Christian armor in the face of the spiritual war we struggle with every single day. Ephesians chapters 4, 5, and 6 is an exposition, therefore, of what it means to walk worthy of the calling to which we have been called. Now, we should notice before we leave Ephesians 4 and verse 1, we should notice at least two important terms Paul uses here. They are the terms worthy and the term calling. The term translated worthy is the Greek adjective axios, which carries the basic meaning of that which balances the scales that which balances the scales that is the weight on one side always equals the weight on the other and here in the context of Ephesians 4.1 this word axios connected to the term calling which is a theological term incorporating everything Paul has just written pertaining to God's saving and sovereign call of God in us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we've been called is to therefore live in such a way that our life gives equal weight to what God has done by calling us to himself in salvation. Now let me say that again to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called is to live in such a way that our life gives equal weight, equal weight to what God has done by calling us to Himself in salvation. We are to be like the man who said, Christ has done so much for me, the rest of my life is a PS to His great work. A post script to His great work. So then as Christians, our lives in the whole are to be a constant testimony to God's calling in salvation. Yet this is not just a testimony on the personal level. But it's also a testimony to God's saving call on the collective, corporate level as the church. Paul the Apostle was not writing his letter to the Ephesian church to just an individual Christian. It was to a church. He wrote this to a local church. So it's to a local church that he is saying, that he's commanding, walk worthy of the calling by which you've been called. So when the world, when the world out there looks into a local church, a gathered assembly of professing Christians, they should see, they should see a community of people whose way of life gives equal weight to the truth and claim of what God has done in saving them. And listen, that means that whether Whether that gathered assembly of professing Christians, whether it's in small number or large number, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how many believers are gathered and assembled together that make up a local church. The number is not the issue. No, the issue is how are we together living before God in the world? What does the world see when they look into this local church and they see this gathered assembly of God's saints? Do they see a people who are walking worthy of the calling by which we've been called in Christ? That is a great, critical, challenging question. And the answer to this question begins in Ephesians 4 with the call to keep Christian unity. Since God has united us together in Christ as one new humanity, which is what we're told in Ephesians chapter 2, the way we live together as the church should give equal weight to that unity which is true of us all because of our union with Christ. But what does this look like in practice? What does it look like? Well, this is where Paul begins his large exposition on keeping Christian unity. He starts by unfolding the character that keeps Christian unity. The character that keeps it. Look in verse two. We see four virtues in Christian character that always work together in keeping Christian unity. They are humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing with one another in love. Let's look at each of these in detail. In the first place, for genuine Christian unity to be truly visible in the local church, there must be humility in how we relate to each other as God's people. There must be humility. This word, humility, in the original Greek can be defined as lowly thinking or having a lowliness of mind. As a Christian, humility is the grace of the Holy Spirit that is manifested first by not thinking more highly of ourselves than we should think. That's one biblical manifestation of the grace of humility. Now thinking more highly of ourselves than we should think. And second, by esteeming others as more significant than ourselves, whereby we put the interests of others before our own. True Christian humility is always selfless. It is selfless. There is nothing selfish, nothing conceited at all in that precious grace of the Spirit. Well, needless to say, there will be no unity among Christians where humility is absent. None. None whatsoever. As John R. W. Stott put it, he said, humility is essential to unity. Pride lurks behind all discord while the greatest single secret of concord is humility. But to repeat myself, humility is a grace. It is a grace of the Holy Spirit. Hence, to relate to each other with humility cannot be achieved by our own carnal efforts. We're not teaching moralism here today. For one thing, and hopefully we all understand this about ourselves, there's nothing more instinctive for us than our own pride. Nothing more instinctive for all of us than our own pride. Do you understand, beloved? Without any effort, without any effort whatsoever, we always like to think of ourselves as better than others. That takes no effort. That takes no grace whatsoever. That's the native air we breathe. Due to our remaining sin, we naturally pitch ourselves in a light where our interests, wants, and needs come first. That is natural, and it is sinful. It is sinful. But by God's grace, and thank God for this, by God's grace, our sinful pride can be put to death. It can be put to death. And this is done by making all strides to walk in humility. Well, how does this begin? This begins, first of all, with a proper self-awareness. With a proper self-awareness where we become very conscious of our own unworthiness. We become very conscious of our own unworthiness. We see ourselves as we really are in the light of God's word, which teaches us that we deserve nothing but hell due to all of our sin. That's what we all deserve. That's what we all deserve. Nothing but hell because of our sin. It is only God's grace in Jesus Christ that has made the difference. Only His grace has made the difference. Why do you think the Apostle Paul in Ephesians, excuse me, not Ephesians, but 1 Corinthians, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Why do you think Paul wrote of himself in this way? In verse 8 of 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul writes of himself very personally and directly. He says, Last of all, as to one untimely born, he, and the he there is referring to Jesus Christ, after the resurrection, he appeared also to me. And then listen to how Paul describes himself. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace toward me was not end. The difference, what made the difference in Saul of Tarsus, who would become Paul the apostle. The only thing that made the difference was the grace of God. That's why Paul said, but I am what I am. In spite of what I used to be, I am what I am by the grace of God. And this is where we, as Christians, this is where we think, and this is where we live, and from where we must relate to others. And so, again, like Paul, to use his example, we see ourselves as the chief of sinners, and then as less than the least of all the saints. That's what Paul said about himself, right? First Timothy 1.15, he said, I am the chief of sinners. And then in Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 8, Paul describes himself as, and think of how he words this, not just less than all the saints. He says, no, no, no, less than the least of all the saints. Okay, how much lower can you get here, Paul? I'm getting down to the very bottom. When it comes to all the saints and all the church, here's what I really think of myself. I'm less than the least of all the saints. You cannot get any lower than where I'm at. But when it comes to being a sinner, I'm at the very top, the very top, the chief. You see, that's how humility speaks. That's how the grace of humility thinks. and that is a proper self-awareness. Second of all, to walk in humility involves an overwhelming God-awareness. It involves an overwhelming God-awareness like Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 6, we see God thrice holy, high, and lifted up with perpetual praise given to his majesty as the Lord whose glory fills all the earth. And when Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, what was his response? Hey, you know, God, that's pretty cool. Was that Isaiah's response? Pretty cool, Lord? I like how you got the cherubim going around there. No, what do we read in Isaiah 6? What was Isaiah's response? He became unglued. He cried out in judgment on himself, woe is me, for I am undone, for I have seen the Lord. I am a man of unclean lips, he said, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. Isaiah in that moment had a real God awareness. And with such a very stupendous vision of God before us like that, listen, we immediately know our place and we immediately know our smallness immediately. You see, it's in our pride, it's in our pride that we're always comparing ourselves with other people. That's what our pride does. We're always comparing ourselves to other people, but it's in the grace of humility that we look at ourselves from only one perspective, and that is in comparison to God. Compare yourself, Christian, to God. And then like Job, You'll say to the Lord, I know that you can do all things and the no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. That's the God awareness involved in the grace of humility. And it's when we're walking in this humility that Christian unity is actually preserved. In the second place, For genuine Christian unity to be visible in the local church, there must be the grace of gentleness. There must be the grace of gentleness. This word can also be translated, and I would say translated even more accurately as meekness, meekness. And like humility, this too is part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and thereby it is what the Holy Spirit grows in us as God's people. Now, when it comes to keeping Christian unity, gentleness or meekness is absolutely mandatory. It is absolutely mandatory. Why is that? Because in meekness, we deny the assertion of our personal rights, turning the other cheek when we're personally insulted. Meekness, beloved, meekness guards us from giving in to a bitter rage where retaliation, revenge, and a vindictive spirit would consume us. With meekness, there is always the willingness and readiness to forgive, always. This grace of the Holy Spirit, therefore, is not weakness, but it is power put under control. power put under control. As John R. W. Stott, to quote him again, he said this, it is the quality of a strong personality who is nevertheless master of himself and the servant of others. The meek man thinks as little of his personal claims as the humble man of his personal merits. The meek man thinks as little of his personal claims, his rights, as the humble man of his personal merits. In the third place, for genuine Christian unity to be visible in the local church, there must be the grace of patience. There must be the grace of patience. This term is the translation of the Greek word makrothumia, which can be better understood as long-suffering. Long-suffering. And again, like humility and gentleness, patience or long-suffering is a grace of the Holy Spirit that is worked in and through the character of a Christian. The distinctive quality of this grace is the ability, now listen closely because this is frankly what we don't want to hear, but we need to hear this. This is, it is the ability to be inconvenienced or taken advantage of by a person over and over again, and yet not be upset or angry. And at this moment, no one thinks they're a Christian. You see, this is why macrothumia can also be understood as being long-tempered. Long-tempered. It's the grace to be very, very slow to anger in spite of how aggravating and irritating someone may be. Thus, in keeping Christian unity, we have to make allowances Allowances for people's shortcomings, overlooking many faults, and even in many cases, their sins. In this light, in this particular light, I want you to think, okay, just think for a moment. Think of how our Lord treats us. Think of how He treats us. And with what patience, with what long, infinite suffering, Jesus is always showing by not handling us as our sins deserve. That's patience. That's patience. This is the same grace we have to give to each other if Christian unity will be evident. It takes the grace of patience. In the fourth place, for Christian unity to be visible in the local church, there must be the grace of bearing with one another in love. bearing with one another in love. This graceful virtue is another manifestation of the Holy Spirit's fruit and it is the practical expression of macro thumia. It's the practical expression of patience. The phrase bearing with one another indicates having patience with someone till the provocation is passed. This means that in the midst of tensions and conflicts we are enduring and thereby putting up with the weaknesses and failures of others. We're bearing with them. We're bearing with them. But such endurance and toleration is not carried out begrudgingly. It is not carried out with gritted teeth. Paul the Apostle writes and says it is always done in what? Love. It's always done in love. And this love, we need to understand, this love is hagape. That's the Greek word for this word translated love. It is hagape love. What is that? Well, it is unqualified and unselfish love that willingly gives whether it receives in return or not. It is unconquerable benevolence. It is invincible goodness. And it is this grace of the Holy Spirit that turns our forbearance of others into a service that seeks nothing but their welfare and the good of the community as a whole. So here then are the building blocks, if you will, in Christian character that promotes true Christian unity, humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing with one another in love. Where these graces are absent, all right, listen closely, where these graces are absent, no external structure of unity can stand at all, not at all. All we will see in a local church without these graces at work, all we'll see will be pride, arrogance, backbiting, sowing discord, vindictiveness, intolerance, and hatefulness. That's what we'll see in the place of those graces. That's what we'll see. But when these graces of the Spirit are growing in the character of fellow Christians, then we can have a very strong hope and assurance that a visible unity can be kept. It can be preserved. It can be maintained. Because this is the character that keeps Christian unity. But moving now to our next major point, let's consider the cause. The cause that creates Christian unity. Look with me in verses 4 through 6. There is one body and one spirit just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. What this passage teaches us is that true Christian unity arises from the unity we see in the eternal God. In other words, the perfect unity between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit actually creates and gives birth to the unity that is present and should thereby be visible among fellow Christians. This is the principle doctrine revealed in this passage as it connects to the call for the church to preserve unity. Now, how do we know this? How do we know this? How can I be so sure? That is the correct interpretation. Well, three out of the seven unities in these verses, three out of the seven, point to the three persons of the triune Godhead. One Spirit, meaning the Holy Spirit, one Lord, who is Christ, and one God and Father of all. So three unities out of the seven point to the Father, Son, and Spirit, while the remaining four unities point to our Christian experience in relation to each person in the triune Godhead. First of all, we see there is one body because there is only one spirit. We see there's one body because there's only one spirit. The church is the one body that is the body of Christ, and the unity of the church as the one body of Christ is due to the one Holy Spirit who has placed us into this one body and indwells us, giving us new life. Secondly, there's one hope. belonging to our Christian calling, one faith and one baptism because there is only one Lord who is Jesus Christ our Savior. It is Jesus Christ our Lord, therefore, in whom we have believed, into whom we have been baptized, and for whose coming we wait with expectant hope. Third of all, there is one Christian family embracing us all because there is one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. Now summing all this up, let me turn you again to John R. W. Stott. who added some very, very insightful and very helpful layers to what I have just explained to you. John Stott wrote this. He said, the one father creates the one family. The one Lord Jesus creates the one faith in baptism. The one spirit creates the one body. Indeed, we can go further. We must assert that there can be only one Christian family, only one Christian faith, hope, and baptism, and only one Christian body because there is only one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You can no more multiply churches than you can multiply gods. Is there only one God? Then he has only one church. Is the unity of God indestructible? Then so is the unity of the church. The unity of the church, therefore, is as indestructible as the unity of God himself. It is no more possible to split the church than it is possible to split the Godhead. And some of you right now especially are thinking, John Stott, you've got to be kidding. Well, With this latter claim made by Stott as to the impossibility of splitting the church compared to the impossibility of splitting the Godhead, we do have to ask the very honest question, is this claiming too much? Is this claiming too much? While we would certainly agree that it is impossible to destroy or split the eternal Godhead between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Yet, can we connect this same impossibility to the church? Well, I believe this is a fair question since we've all seen plenty of local churches split. But what Stott is claiming, listen, what John Stott is claiming is not the indestructibility of a local visible church. That is not what he's talking about. Let's turn to Stott again and consider how he answers this because his answer is going to set us up for our final major point in this exposition of Ephesians chapter 4, 1 through 6. So Stott makes this observation. Listen very, very carefully to what he writes. How then can the evident phenomenon of the disunity of the church be reconciled with the biblical insistence on the indestructibility of its unity? At this point, a necessary distinction needs to be drawn. It is not just between the visible and the invisible church. It is between the church's unity as an invisible reality present to the mind of God, who says to himself, I have only one church, and the church's disunity as a visible appearance, which contradicts the invisible reality, causing us to say to ourselves, there are hundreds of separated and competing churches. We are one for God says so. Yet outwardly and visibly, we belong to different churches and different traditions. We are one. There's only one church. Only one. And we're one church because who says we're one? God. God says there's only one church, okay? Yet outwardly and visibly, as Stott writes, outwardly and visibly, we belong to different churches and different traditions. And living in Alabama, or Georgia, or the Carolinas, or Tennessee, or Mississippi, or Louisiana, you know, the Bible Belt, there are lots of churches and lots of traditions on every corner. But yet, in the sight of God, One church, one body. So based on what Stoddard's claiming, and I do believe what Stoddard's claiming is very biblical, what we see physically and outwardly is a real disunity and thereby we see a fragile body of believers who need to work really, really hard at keeping unity. That's our world. That's what we see. But to the Lord our God, who not only sees our present state of imperfection, but he already sees us all in perfected glory, bearing the same indestructible unity that has always been the indestructible nature of the eternal triune God. That is what the Lord sees. And this is why we're told here in our text that there is only one body, hope, faith, baptism that makes up one eternal family. One. One. Ephesians chapter 4 verses 4 through 6 is giving us then the eternal perspective on Christian unity to show us the cause that creates it. living as we do. On this side of glory where remaining sin still gives us so much grief as Christians, the unity we have in Christ is a unity that we must make every effort to preserve. And this truth leads us to our last major point. And that is what I'm calling the charge to keep Christian unity, the charge to keep Christian unity. Look with me in verse three. Eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. What we must first notice about this exhortation is that we're being called to maintain a unity that has already been created and namely in this immediate text by the Holy Spirit. So Paul describes Christian unity as the unity of who? The Spirit. It's the unity of the Spirit. So this is the Spirit's unity. It is not man's unity. Okay? It's the Spirit's unity. Secondly, since Christian unity is not what Christians create, then what is our responsibility as it pertains to this unity? If we're not the ones that create it, produce it, well then what do we do? What does the Bible say here? We are to be eager to maintain it. That's what we do. Eager to maintain it. This means that we are to spare no effort but with all zeal, guard and keep the unity created by the Spirit that every Christian shares in because of our union with Christ. But how do we keep the unity created by the Spirit? I mean, like, how do we do this? We do so in the bond of peace. The bond of peace. That is, by the peace which binds us together, we maintain the unity of the Spirit. Listen to that again. By the peace which binds us together, We maintain the unity of the Spirit. And the peace that binds us together as the church is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. As we're told in Ephesians 2.14, Christ is our peace. He is our peace who has made us one. So in Christ we make every effort to keep the unity we already have by the Holy Spirit. And then how is this done practically? How is it done practically? It is by walking together with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. This is how every local church, by God's grace and power, preserves visibly in concrete relationships the Christian unity we already share in Christ by the Spirit. Well, in closing our study of Ephesians 4, 1 through 6, I want us to return to the question which opened up the sermon as a whole. How do you think God looks on the unity of his people? That was our opening question. How do you think God looks on the unity of his people? We answer this question by turning to Psalm 133, where this strong affirmation was made, behold how good it is, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. So what does God think about the unity of his people? Well, in Psalm 133, he calls it good and pleasant. He calls it good and pleasant. But now we must add Ephesians chapter four, one through six and answer to our leading question as well. What does God think about the unity of his people? Well, he not only, listen, he doesn't only call it good and pleasant, but the Lord also calls us as his church to fervently, eagerly, zealously guard and keep the unity he has created and given us as his people. In other words, keeping Christian unity should never be something that we are indifferent or apathetic about. Never. Furthermore, keeping Christian unity should never be something that we treat as someone else's responsibility. This is not a calling of God that we can just pass on to another Christian and say, well, you know, that's just not my calling. I mean, that's good for you. If you want to be eager to maintain the Spirit's unity and the bond of peace, that's good for you, but you know, that's just not my thing. That's just not my calling. No. Beloved, listen to me. When it comes to the unity of God's people, Keeping and preserving this unity visibly is the responsibility and calling of every single Christian, period. Every Christian. No one is exempt from this. No one. And according to Ephesians chapter four, one through six, this means therefore that actively treating one another Actively treating one another with all humility and gentleness with patience bearing with one another in love listen That's not just the character that you should expect to see in pastors Okay, it's you know, I'm not the only member of this church Because I'm the pastor I'm not therefore the only member of this church that this is called for. Well, pastor, we should see humility and gentleness and patience and forbearing love in you. I mean, always. In fact, I would even say with perfection. But now for me, I don't have to. I don't have to. Hmm. No, beloved. God's Word is so very clear in Ephesians 4. It's the character we should see in every Christian. You claim to be a Christian, you profess to be a Christian, well then we should see this fruit in you. We should see this in you. Because keeping the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace is what God expects to see in all His children pursuing together. So, we must ask ourselves then, in light of Ephesians 4, 1 through 6, and here's the tough question. Are we actively pursuing to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace? That's the great question for every one of us. Are we actively pursuing to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace? That's a question I would love to ask when I think about nearly 30 years of pastoring all those who've left churches where I've pastored. That question. Oh, excuse me. Before you head out the door, I just have one question. Are you eagerly maintaining the spirit's unity in the bond of peace? Are you? I mean, is that really what you're about as you're walking out? I was thinking about this this very morning and I was reflecting on 10 and a half years ago at another church where I pastored in the summer of 2015. Six families exited that summer from our church and they gave absolutely no biblical reason whatsoever for leaving. They rarely ever do. It was all subjective, all very emotional. Well, we just feel like that it's time for us to leave, feel like. They never came forward to ask, well, to overtly say directly, well, this is why, this is why. Four years, four years following that, These same people, they were in a different church, and I knew the pastor of that church, and he actually had a very bold meeting with them to sit down with them and say, you know, it's always baffled me that you would leave a church where the word of God is faithfully and clearly and soundly preached, but you would up and leave that church when you know that churches like that in our county are so rare. They're so few and far between. You have to travel miles and miles to find a church like this, and yet you left that church. I mean, what really was your reason for leaving? And what they said to him, I mean, they finally said it. They finally just put it all out there on the table and said, well, we left because Pastor Kurt wasn't doing what we wanted him to do. He wasn't doing what we wanted Him to do. Now let me ask you a question. Based on that answer, does it sound like those people who left that church ten and a half years ago, do you think that preserving and maintaining the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, do you think that even came to their mind at all? Do you think that was even a category in their thinking? Do you think that they honestly were pursuing that? No. No, they weren't. No, the truth is they didn't care. They didn't care. There was no humility among them. There was definitely no meekness among them. There was no patience, no long-suffering among them. They definitely were not bearing with the rest of us in love at all. No, they were just mad and upset because their personal selfish agenda was not being met. I was not doing what they wanted me to do. Well, the last time I checked, I'm supposed to be doing what God wants me to do. That's what I'm supposed to do. I don't serve you, I serve Christ. I serve Christ. And I have to be obedient to His Word and fulfill the calling He has on my life that He makes very crystal clear in His Word. But those people tragically did not care. And I will tell you this, that in nearly 30 years of pastoring and having seen things like this again and again and again, over 90% of the people that leave, leave for the same selfishly, ambitious, conceited reasons. It's all about themselves. They don't care about preserving and maintaining the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. That is nowhere in their thinking. Reminds me of a family six years ago that left right here, PRBC, that left our church. They never became members, okay, they were never members, but they attended faithfully here for one year. And the reason they finally left, here's what the husband, the father of the family told me, and he was very overtly honest with me. He said, well, Pastor Curt, you're just not fulfilling the vision that I have for this church. You're not fulfilling the vision that I have for this church. Are you serious? He was very serious. Very serious. So, where's the active pursuit to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace among people like that? It's not there, folks. But now that brings us to all of us here. Because I'm talking about people in the past, so what about us in the present? What do we care about? What do we care about? Do we care about what God demands we do care about? Are we actively pursuing to preserve, to keep, to guard the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace? People from the past, People who've left, they've left, they're gone, and I mean, their actions speak louder than their words. They're not about pursuing and maintaining the spirit's unity, the bond of peace. But what are we about? You see, that's the question because we're still here. We're still here, so we need to be searching our own hearts and saying, am I really and truly about maintaining the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace? I can tell you that for myself personally, I definitely want to be about that. And I would venture to say, and I hope in the Lord that all of you here would say, yes, I want to be about that too. I really do. I really do. I want to be about that. So can we say then that we are walking in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called when it comes to keeping Christian unity? And to answer this question calls us to examine our character in the light of what God has revealed that it takes to maintain the Spirit's unity in the bond of peace. And what does it take? It takes humility. It takes gentleness or meekness. It takes patience and forbearing love. Now, I'm very certain that if we're all honest with ourselves and with each other, we would have to admit that these are graces of the Holy Spirit that need much greater growth and maturity in our lives. We would all have to admit that. We'd all have to admit that. You know why? Because none of us have arrived. None of us have arrived. None of us can claim perfection, none of us, in any of these graces. And we all know this, okay, we all know this. But knowing our imperfections in these graces does not relieve us from the responsibility we have to pursue them with all diligence in the power of the Holy Spirit. And so I bring this study to an end by calling on all of us to take to heart, in act of pursuit, the worthy walk God has commanded His church to have When it comes to eagerly maintaining the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, where do we need to grow? We need to grow in humility. We need to grow in more humility. We need to grow in gentleness or meekness. We need to grow in patience. We need to grow in a greater long suffering with each other. We need to grow in forebearing love. forbearing love. But what is so very encouraging about this kind of growth, and I leave you all on a very high note here, what's so encouraging about this kind of growth is that God doesn't leave it to yourself to make it happen. He doesn't leave it to yourself to make it happen. As we are striving to work it out, Okay, according to Philippians chapter 2, 12 and 13, as we're striving to work it out, we do so by what God is already doing, by working in us the power to be what He's called us to be. Therefore, keeping Christian unity as the church can only be done by the grace of God. This is not moralism. This is not pull yourself up by your bootstraps and just try harder and do better. Don't you dare hear that coming from me because that is not at all what I'm saying. I'm not telling any of you brethren to try hard and do better. I'm telling you depend on the Lord for your life, for his grace and power to carry out what he's called and commanded you to do and to be. Maintaining the spirit's unity and the bond of peace is an act of grace. And so it takes full reliance on the Lord to bear the fruit necessary to keep that unity. And so may all of us this morning, afresh and anew, cast ourselves on the Lord to that holy and righteous end. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, Lord we beseech you, we plead earnestly with you for the grace that each one of us needs individually, personally, and collectively Lord as your gathered church. to fulfill the calling that you have set upon our lives as a whole to maintain and to guard and keep the Spirit's unity in the bond of peace. Holy Father, we do ask your forgiveness for where we have each come short of this in so many and varied ways. We pray, Lord, that where we have Let pride and conceit and selfish ambition overtake us in any way at any time as members of this particular local church of our Lord Jesus Christ where we have stifled the visibility and the demonstration of the unity of the Spirit. because of our sins, Lord, we plead earnestly by the blood and righteousness of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, that you would forgive us and cleanse us. And we trust in you today, Lord, for full on repentance. We pray that those sins of the flesh that are in us all that we have to daily fight against and conquer and combat, that Lord, in the power of the Spirit, we will do so even now, that we will flee from these sins. And we will pursue and we will put on, we will clothe ourselves by the power of the Spirit with those graces the Spirit works in us as your people, Lord, that our humility and meekness and patience and forbearing love Holy Father, we pray, let us not come short in this. Let us not fail in this, Lord. We cast these cares earnestly upon you. And we pray that remaining and being steadfast in this place where you have planted us providentially, that, Lord, we will prove before you and to one another That we are really about keeping the main thing the main thing. That we will put to death our selfish ambitions and our conceit. That we will count each other as much more significant than we do ourselves in all humility of mind. That we will walk and clothe ourselves in great meekness, not given to personal retaliation or vindictiveness. that we will be most long-suffering with one another, not being quick-tempered, not being easily provoked, and that we will therefore, Lord, bear with one another in Your love, the love that the Lord Jesus As for us that he has commanded, we love one another with that very same love by which we are told in your word, Lord, all men will know that we are the disciples, the followers truly of Jesus Christ our Lord. Lord, we pray for these, these blessings. We pray for this favor and this gift that can only come from you through the mediation and by the merits of Christ Jesus our Lord. In his name we pray. Amen.