Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 through 6 this evening together, which is the introduction to the practical portion, the application portion of Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus. Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 through 4, please hear now the word of the Lord. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called, and one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. May God bless the reading and hearing of his word. As we mentioned, we are now coming to chapter four, which begins the practical portion of Paul's epistle to the Ephesian believers, which contains chapters four through six. In chapters one through three, Paul was laying out the groundwork of gospel indicatives, the truths that are to believe, the realities that are, and now he turns to tell the Ephesians how they are to build upon this foundation of glorious truth in Jesus Christ through obedience to gospel imperatives. Since these things are true, chapters 1 through 3, this is therefore how you should live as the church of God, chapters 4 through 6. In chapter 4 specifically, Paul shows how Christ's body, which is the holy temple of the Lord, as we saw in chapter 2 verse 21, the dwelling place of God in the Spirit, the Church, who though was once dead in trespasses and sins, and has now been made alive with Christ, according to the counsel of God's eternal will, to choose a people in Christ out of both Jew and Gentile to make them into one new man predestined as sons by Jesus Christ to be holy and without blame before him in light of all of that glorious doctrine and truth. This is how the church, this is who she is, this is how she is then to live in chapters 4 through 6. specifically in chapter 4 and specifically the first 17 verses, Paul focuses on the unity that exists within Christ's church. And he looks at the foundation of that unity and how that unity is to be maintained, how it is to be guarded and kept and fostered. They are not made up, the church is not made up of some believing Jews and some believing Gentiles. That's not how they should view themselves. Remember, they're one new man in Christ, and therefore they have one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father. overall. Therefore they must labor to maintain that unity that they have as the body of Christ, and they do this by the power of one spirit. They must therefore put off the old man, as Paul will get into in chapter 4, namely Adam. who is an image of death, of sin, of rebellion and faithlessness. And they must put on the new man, Jesus, who is a perfect image of true righteousness and holiness. We see that in chapter four, verse 24. Now, this can only be done, this putting off of the old man, of the old ways, the dead life, the life that is dead in sin, and putting on the new man that's alive in Christ, this can only be done by the power of God's Spirit at work within them, within the church, not just as individuals, but corporately as the body of Christ. If they were to give themselves over to nothing but carnal lusts and passions to bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking, as Paul says, then they will grieve the Spirit of God who dwells among them, and they will bring disunity and disruption and fracture and divorce to the body of Christ. But if they put on the new man, and in all lowliness and gentleness are kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God and Christ forgave them, then they will honor the Spirit who dwells among them and in them, and keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, as Paul says in verse four. Now verses one through six specifically form the introduction to a larger section on Christ's gift of the teaching ministry that is given to the church, given to foster growth and foster unity within the body of Christ. All right, let's walk through these six verses together. Verse one, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. Paul refers to himself as the prisoner of the Lord. He referred to himself this way in chapter 3, verse 1, as we saw. He says, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus. Now he just says, I, the prisoner of the Lord. This wording is slightly different in this instance, specifically in Greek. Most of the English translations in front of you will just say, of the Lord, or of Christ Jesus, but here it's using the dative. Paul is a prisoner in the Lord. Being united to Christ through faith, Paul is captive to do as the Lord requires. The prison which he's housed, if you will, is the Lord. He is a prisoner in the Lord, and as such, he is compelled not only to teach God's church what God has done for them in Christ, but also how they must live in response. What the ethical standard is that they are now called to and equipped to be able and empowered to be able to live up to by the gift of Christ. As the Lord's prisoner, Paul beseeches them to walk worthy of the calling in which they were called. Now, we don't often use that word beseech in our daily conversations, but it's an important biblical word. We might say plead, or urge, exhort, entreat, or even beg. That might be more of a modern equivalent of how we would say that, or at least a more common word we would use in our daily speech. But this word beseech is a favorite word of the Apostle Paul when he comes to show the ramifications that the truth of the gospel has upon the lives of those who have received it. The truth, the ramifications of the truth for those who are in Christ. Those who have trusted and believed in Christ and have been united to Him. He uses this word in Romans 12.1, which many of us are familiar with. After he lays out his most systematic treatment of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ for the church in Rome, he says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable or spiritual service. Believers, according to Paul in the book of Romans, are not made joint heirs with Christ, Romans 8, 17, so that they can just continue living in the world as though nothing has changed about them at all. Rather, the mercies of God laid out in the previous 11 chapters of the book of Romans are given to transform its recipients. into living sacrifices, as those who are not conformed to this world, but have renewed minds, which are able to discern and obey that good and acceptable and perfect will of God, Romans 12, 2. Likewise, here in this passage, the Ephesians have received a calling that they might walk worthy of that calling. Gospel Indicatives, you see. Gospel Indicatives, Gospel Truth, Gospel Doctrine, Gospel Statements bring with it the summons of God. That it be received, that it be accepted, that it be rested upon, and that it be obeyed. A gospel which does not transform, a gospel which doesn't make any claims upon those who receive it, a gospel indicative that is without a gospel imperative, is not a gospel at all. Christ didn't come to leave us in our sins, he came to save us from our sins. Not just the condemning power of them, but also the corrupting power of them, to make us a new man in himself, that we might join in his resurrection, having died to sin in his crucifixion. The gospel does not bring with it some new law, though. It doesn't bring with it more things that we have to do. Okay, now add in this to your life as though it's some external thing that the gospel is dragging along with it, No, the gospel is itself a calling which must be walked worthy of, according to the Apostle Paul here. To walk worthy of the calling of the gospel is to walk in accordance with its transforming reality, to obey the summons, to repent, and to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, not just one time. I done did that when I prayed the sinner's prayer. No, it's every day. Just as Martin Luther said, the entire Christian life is one of repentance, it's also one of faith, in which we die to ourselves daily and rise again in Christ daily, even moment by moment. We rest on Christ entirely, turning from ourselves, from our old life, and seeing our new life in Christ, and that our new life isn't just in Christ, that our new life is Christ himself. They are not to walk as those, as they formerly did, these Gentile Ephesian believers, not to walk as those who have their understanding darkened, who are alienated from the life of God, who walk with darkened hearts and the futility of their mind, as he says in chapter 4, verses 17 and 18. Rather, they are to walk as those whose eyes are enlightened, who know the hope of his calling, and the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, as he said earlier in chapter 1, verses 18 and 19. One of the primary signs of a false teacher in scripture, as we've mentioned before, is their lifestyle. False teachers can actually teach true things insofar as it goes. But the fruit of their life, if it's contrary to the truth that they proclaim, and contrary to the truth of Scripture, then they are a false teacher. So too, a gospel that seeks only to fill the mind with certain facts, but then leaves the life unaffected, is a false gospel. The book of Ephesians didn't end at chapter 3. We didn't read verse 21 of chapter 3, and at that amen, that's the end of it. No, he continues on to, what do we do with this? How does it change our lives? What do we see the impact of the gospel in our lives as? Is it just to educate the mind? Well, if it is, then it's not a gospel at all. Paul is not a false teacher, though, and he doesn't preach a false gospel. As a prisoner of the Lord, he insists that the Christians in Ephesus must walk worthy of their calling. The evidence that they are walking worthy of their calling or not will be seen in their life in the church, in their life with one another, their brethren in Christ in the church. Will there be unity? Will there be love, patience, forgiveness? Or will there be division, bitterness, wrath, and malice? Paul's burden in the previous section of the epistle, the first three chapters, was to inform their minds of the truth as it is in Jesus. Now his burden in these last three chapters is to urge his readers to apply that knowledge to their lives, specifically their lives in the church and as the church. They had heard about their calling in the first three chapters. Now they are told they must walk worthy of that calling. Too often we can fall prey, I think especially in Reformed circles, that we just need to know more. When in fact, we need to get busy applying and walking according to what we have already learned from the gospel. Yes, seek to grow more in your understanding of the Bible. Seek to know theology better, that's good. But don't let all that you think you still need to know stop you from applying what you already know. to whom much is given, much is required. And if we're faithful with the little that he has given us, he shall give us more." Christianity is not just about knowledge. That's Gnosticism. Jesus told his disciples to observe and do what the Pharisees taught them out of the Law of Moses. The Pharisees knew a lot about the Law, and they taught a lot of true things about the Law. But he also condemned and warned his disciples against them from doing their works. Listen to what they say and obey what they say out of the law of Moses, but don't copy them in their works, don't imitate them in their works, for they teach and yet do not do. We see this in Matthew chapter 23. So the Pharisees knew a lot about God's law, but they didn't obey it. They didn't walk worthy of it. Christianity brings an ethical claim with it. Christians are bound to live a certain way. It's not just every man does what's right in his own eyes, and as long as we have a theological minimalism that we believe just the bare, minimal essentials of Christianity, then that's okay. No, Christianity has a claim on our entire life. It decides how we are to live. We are bound to live a certain way as Christians. Christians are not free to sin, as Paul says, just because grace abounds. Rather, as Paul says here, Christians must walk worthy of the calling with which they were called. This is to be seen especially in their life in and as the church. Look at how they're supposed to walk in verse two. With all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love. Walking worthy is to conduct oneself in a manner that is fitting. that is appropriate with the calling of Christ. That's what it means to walk worthy, to walk fitting and appropriately. Bitterness, wrath, anger, divisiveness, and malice are sometimes the way Christians behave, but when they do so, they're not walking worthy of their calling as Christians. They're not walking in a way that is fitting and appropriate for their calling as believers in Christ. The calling of Christ is defined by other words. Paul says that the worthy walking is defined by lowliness, gentleness, long-suffering, and bearing with one another in love. That's what worthy walking looks like. That's what it looks like to walk worthy of the gospel. when the pattern of our lives, when the walk of our lives cannot be described with these words, then we are not living in a way that is fitting to our Christian calling, in a way that's worthy of our calling. Now, that doesn't mean that we're not Christians. Paul's not saying that if we ever deviate from these, if we ever fall short of this calling, then we're not Christians. That's not what he's saying. Nor is he saying that this is what we must do in order to become Christians. No, Christians have been called in Christ. They've been summoned by God in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is what walking worthy of that calling is supposed to look like. We must aim for this perfect standard, knowing that we will fall short and then rest in the grace and mercy of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The Christian walks worthy of his calling first by the possession and exercise of lowliness or humility. You could translate this word either way. The new King James has lowliness here. The Christian's call, in other words, is to imitate Christ, who is himself lowly in heart, as he says in Matthew 11, 29. The word Paul uses here is related to that same word that Jesus uses in Matthew chapter 11. But this time it doesn't mean lowly in heart, it means lowly in mind. Having your mind set in such a way that you think of yourself in the proper light, namely as a servant of Christ. as bound to walk worthy of your calling in Christ as a servant. Humility, as C.S. Lewis famously said, is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. That's what humility is. That's what lowliness is, lowliness of mind. The Christian's lowliness, functioning in the life of the church, should be understood in light of Paul's command to the Philippians to be like-minded, to be of one accord, to be of one mind, namely, to let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, that's the same underlying word that we have here in our text, let each esteem others better than himself, Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Philippians 2 verses 2 through 4. That's what lowliness looks like. It looks like esteeming others as greater than yourself. because someone can have a very low, degraded, and depressed view of themselves and still not be lowly, not be humble. Sometimes it might appear on the surface that it's humble, but it's actually not humble at all. True humility puts the interests of others first, not self first. One can just as easily fail to do this by being negatively self-absorbed as they can by being arrogant and proud. I'm not good enough to do anything for anyone else. I'm not worthy to serve Christ. I'm just such a dirtbag. I can't lay down my life for others because my life isn't worth anything, so why would I lay it down for anyone else? Or, on the opposite extreme, I'm too good to serve others. I've reached this high zenith of Christianity, and now people need to serve me. In both cases, self is the focus, not others. Self is what is esteemed, whether that's low self-esteem or high self-esteem. Either way, it's self being focused upon, not others. Christians are called to all lowliness, Paul says, taking the worst seat at the table to be called higher, considering the needs of others first. The Christian is also called to gentleness, we see. Again, the Christian is to imitate Christ, who said that he is gentle, Matthew 11, 29. The Christian is not to be coarse, he's not to be abrasive, he's not to be domineering and just seeking to smash everyone around him. Gentleness is something that comes in handy when you're dealing with other sinners. Paul tells the Galatians that they should deal with other sinners the way that Christ deals with them in Galatians 6.1. If any man is overtaken in a trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. So Christians are to exercise gentleness toward one another in the church. The opposite of this would be to operate in bitterness and wrath and anger with all malice. To be gentle is, as Matthew Henry said, quote, unwilling to provoke others and not be easily provoked or offended with the infirmities and sins of others. It, being humility, is opposed to angry resentments, end quote. Christ is not easily provoked by us. Therefore, we should not be easily provoked by our brothers. Jesus isn't waiting for us to just mess up so that he can smash us with his hammer. That's not what he's doing. Christ is patient with us. He's gentle towards us. So we should be towards our brethren. The Christian is also called to long-suffering. This literally means long-passioned or long-angered. The Christian must not have a short fuse, in other words. Brothers in Christ will sin against us in many ways, and sometimes will even commit the same sin against us over and over and over again. We all know people like that. We must therefore outlast each other's infirmities. We have to seek to outlast each other's infirmities. We must be willing to suffer long with others, and not just outwardly grit and bear it, but do so patiently, knowing that we too are great sinners. The way to be long-suffering is to be forgiving. keeping in mind all that God has forgiven us of in Christ and how longsuffering he is toward us. God's longsuffering leads men to repentance, Paul says in Romans 2.4. And so our longsuffering will lead our brothers to repentance. And you see how this then fosters mutual love and unity in the body of Christ if its members are longsuffering towards one another. The key to the whole is contained here in Paul's words where he says, bearing with one another in love. Again, we can merely grit our teeth and put up with one another, just outwardly going through the motions, saying, yes, I forgive you, yes, I accept your apology, and move on, but we're inwardly bitter, we're inwardly angry and full of resentment and malice towards our brother. But this is not worthy of our calling. This isn't what we're called to as Christians. It would not be in accordance with gentleness, with meekness, with patience and long-suffering to simply put up with each other while being irritated the entire time. We must bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ, Galatians 6.2. And this can only be done out of true love for one another. As Paul tells the Romans in Romans 15 verses one through three, we then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification, to building up. For even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. Again, Christ is the standard for how we are to treat one another. So both there in Romans 15 and here in Ephesians chapter four, Paul has transformation in view, not just outwardly ticking off the boxes and going through the motions. He has transformation in view, unity in the body of Christ. That's what he's aiming at. Love should not be merely outward. True love goes from the inside out. It's transformed hearts and transformed and renewed minds in Christ, living out their lives in submission to Him and for His glory. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, a passage we're all familiar with, love beareth all things and endureth all things. That's what love is called to do. Love ties all of this together. Brotherly love enables us to view each other through the eyes of Christ, to see one another, other Christians, as Christ. When we see other Christians, we're looking at Christ, and therefore we should love them as Christ. and to see ourselves as Christ ministering to each other as Christ. Christ is again the model that we are to imitate. Jesus says in John 13, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. As I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Little Christ's disciples love like Christ loves. and they love one another. This is how we are enabled to be lowly. This is how we're enabled to be gentle, long-suffering, and to bear with each other. By loving one another as God and Christ has loved us. By freely forgiving one another, as Paul will later say in verse 32, even as God and Christ forgave us. We are to imitate Christ in our life, in the church, in the body of Christ. If we are to live like Jesus, as the body of Jesus, then we must imitate Jesus by the power of Jesus, working in us through His Spirit. The realization of our dependence upon Jesus to live like him begets lowliness, it begets humility, which enables us to love the body of Christ. The spiritual gifts that we have received, as was covered in chapter one, were not given to us to puff up our own egos or for us to use for ourselves. Rather, these were given to us to enable us to serve others as Christ has served us. The meekness and gentleness of Christ, you recall, was the grounds upon which Paul pleaded with the Corinthians for unity in the church, 2 Corinthians 10, 1. And so he beseeches the Ephesians to imitate Christ in all loneliness and gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love, for the very purpose of maintaining and keeping and protecting unity in the church. Verse three, he says, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Now it's important to highlight that word. keep, which means guard or protect. Paul is not telling the Ephesians to go out and create unity. That's not what he's saying. He's rather saying to keep and preserve unity. Their unity as the body of Christ, as the church, as Christians, is something that has already been created, something that has already been given to them by his Spirit, who has united them into this one body. All Christians, as we read in 2.18, all Christians have access through Jesus Christ by one Spirit to the Father. Christians are built up together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit, 22. The Holy Spirit has already unified believers. And Paul tells them they must be diligent and make every effort to maintain what they have received. Namely, this spirit-wrought, spirit-given unity that they have in the body of Christ. We don't have to be clever and try to find ways to make unity. We have unity in the Lord. This is why Paul stressed the previous attributes so much. Loneliness, gentleness, long-suffering, and bearing with one another in love. The unity between believers will be shattered a thousand times a day if everyone just seeks his own. If everyone puts himself first. If the individual members of Christ are unwilling to bear with their brethren in love, then there can be no unity. It cannot be maintained. and cultivating brotherly kindness and preserving unity, we must therefore begin with humility. We must begin with lowliness. And from lowly and gentle hearts, we are unable to overlook. We are unable to forgive the many faults and sins of our brothers. The unity we are called to preserve is itself a gift of the Holy Spirit. which we have received, and is maintained by what Paul says here, the bond of peace. He calls it the bond of peace. Now this word bond is related to the word that Paul uses to refer to himself at the start in verse one, a prisoner. In Greek, that word is one who's bound. Paul is a man bound in the Lord, and thus he must obey his Lord. So too, all Christians are bound together by the Spirit of God. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, binds believers together in unity to guard it. The kingdom of God, Paul says in Romans 14, consists in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And Christians must therefore, he goes on to say, pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. So do you see in those passages and in the passage before us how humility, how lowliness, and how peace go together? Humility and peace go together in the church. That's how it is maintained, with a bond of peace. The focus is off of self and onto other members of the body of Christ. Again, we are called to maintain unity that already exists by the Spirit. Our unity is not something we must first go out and try to create. Some in the ecumenical movement have appealed to this verse, actually, in verse 3, with the goal of bringing Protestants and Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics and Unitarians and Jehovah's Witness and Mormons and Jews and Muslims together. But this is not unity. This is fabricated unity. It's man-made unity. It's not unity of the spirit and therefore there can be no bond of peace. The unity of the church is maintained by the bond of peace, a bond which already exists. in Christ through the Spirit. And this bond of peace binds all Christians in peace toward God, first and foremost, Romans 5.1, and also toward one another. Not towards people of other religions, of other faiths, but people in the body of Christ. Unity must be kept by the truth, not contrary to the truth. Verse four, there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling. Paul returns again to the subject of their calling. They were called in one hope, namely the hope of the full redemption in Christ Jesus. The full redemption of their bodies. Remember, we looked at that in chapter 1, verse 5. Their adoption, which they will receive the fullness of their adoption on the last day when Christ returns and their bodies are raised. In verse 7, we talked about the redemption of Christ. and verse 18, their inheritance that they have. That's the hope that all Christians have. The Ephesians were called individually, yes, just as many of us were, but not to remain as individuals, not to remain as little atoms that all create something else. No, they've been incorporated into one body, which is filled by one spirit, Paul says. As Paul says elsewhere in Romans 12, verses four and five, For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. effectual calling unites us to Christ and to one another in Christ, not as individuals, but as one body, the body of Christ. If we were to put an arm and a torso and a kneecap and six toes on a table, we would say that we have body parts. We wouldn't say that we have a body. Each individual Christian, every local congregation like ROPC, each denomination and every communion are all parts of one body, namely the body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, the Church. It is in this that Christian unity exists and consists. that we are the bride of Christ. Jesus doesn't have many brides. He has one bride, the church, as we will look at in Ephesians chapter five. All Christians are called in one hope. the full and final redemption that we have in Christ. And so we have all received one spirit and make up one body. This is why Baptists and members of the PCA and the OPC and the URC and Lutherans and other communions and denominations can have fellowship They're not individual brides of Christ. They're all part of his one bride, his one body. The church cannot be made to be synonymous with any one human denomination or institution. That would be wrong, because the church consists of all those who have been called. consists of all those who have been filled with the Spirit of God, who have been baptized into one body by that one Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12, 13. Called in one hope, filled with one Spirit, and made into one body. This is the unity which the members of Christ partake in, all the members of Christ. And so, this is God's standard for fellowship. Our standards for fellowship should not be higher than God's standard for fellowship. If someone is a member of the same body, if they have the same spirit, if they possess the same hope, then they are our brother or our sister in Christ, period, full stop. Calvin, in fact, goes so far as to say on this, commenting on this spot, he goes, so far as to say that since we are called to one inheritance and one life, it then follows that, quote, we cannot obtain eternal life without living in mutual harmony together in this life, end quote. Christians must, quote, render every kind of assistance to each other, end quote. We must beware of all sinful tendencies, he says, that bring animosity, that bring division, that bring wrath into the church. Calvin adds that whatever separates us from our brethren in the church also estranges us from the kingdom of God. So to be in union with our brethren, Calvin's hitting on, is to be in union with Christ. Therefore, if we don't keep unity, if we don't maintain the unity, if we don't guard the unity of the church, then we are not part of the body of Christ. Calvin closes that section saying, quote, and yet, strangely enough, while we forget the duties which brethren owe to each other, we go on boasting that we are the sons of God, end quote. To be a son of God is to seek the unity of the brethren, Calvin says. And I think that's Paul's point here as well. The evidence that one truly belongs to the body of Christ is that he loves his brothers in Christ. He lays down his life for his brethren. If we don't love the brethren, we cannot say that we are God's sons, as John says in 1 John 3.10. In this, the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. Those who are called into one hope, namely Christians, they are then part of one body, and they partake of one spirit. They must therefore walk worthy of that calling, with all loneliness and gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Christians are made sons of God in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And so, they must love their brothers just as Christ has loved their brothers, and just as Christ loves them. 1 John 3, 16, By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for our brethren. But this doesn't mean that there is true unity of the Spirit with just anyone who professes to be our brother, for just anyone who claims the name of Christ. Just as there is one body, one spirit, and one hope, there is also, verse five, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Our standards for fellowship, as we said, should not be higher than God's. Well, he's not the right kind of Presbyterian. Well, he's not the right kind of Baptist. Well, he doesn't believe the way I do on all these other tertiary and secondary issues. So our standards for fellowship should not be higher than God's, but they should also not be lower than God's. Many of us living here in Mesa and Gilbert and Apache Junction and in Arizona have Mormon friends. and our Mormon friends and neighbors and co-workers profess the name of Jesus. But they are not our brothers. Unity is only found in common faith, a common faith that is in a common Lord. There are many Jesuses, contrived by many groups, come up by many individuals, but only one of them is Lord of all, namely the Jesus who is revealed to us in Holy Scripture. Unity is therefore founded on the person of Jesus Christ, who he is and what he has accomplished, not just in his name and using his name. Well, I believe in Jesus. I read the Book of Mormon, I'm a Jehovah's Witness, we believe in Jesus too. No, that's not unity at all. We can't have unity with those who don't believe in the true Jesus, the one who has the Lord. Unity can only be had with those who are part of Christ's body, and the only members of his body are those who are united to him by one faith, and that faith is expressed in one baptism. The faith, Paul mentions, is contained in various creedal statements of the New Testament, which we're familiar with. We don't have time to go through them, but you can find them in 1 Corinthians 15, Philippians 2, the famous Carmen Christi, or 1 Timothy 3.16. Mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. this one faith that the church has been given, receives, embraces, confesses, trusts, and rests upon the proclamation of the incarnate, crucified, risen, and ascended, and reigning Jesus Christ. If it's another Jesus, if those can't describe the Jesus that you're claiming, then you're not part of his body. This faith is outwardly expressed, as we said, in water baptism. There's not many baptisms, but only one baptism. Baptism is not an entrance into a human institution. Rather, it's union with Christ himself. It's initiation into the visible church of Christ. Baptism represents the person baptized as in union with Christ in his death and resurrection, and thus all who partake of that one baptism are thus of the same body. They are members of the same crucified, resurrected, and reigning Christ. Paul is not referencing how many times baptism should be performed here by saying one baptism, though we don't believe that it should be repeated frequently. but the objective nature of baptism is what he's talking about. There's one baptism that's been given, just as there's one Lord, there's one spirit, there's one faith. Now, some might do this baptism by pouring or sprinkling or immersion, which, when I was a Baptist, I said, well, that's the only baptism that's valid, so there's only one baptism described there, it's one by immersion. They might do this baptism in a Lutheran, a Baptist, a Presbyterian, or a Methodist church, But Christ has given only one baptism to his church, to be performed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, in which baptism, its recipients are represented as baptized into his death and resurrection to walk in the newness of life. Matthew 28, 19, and Romans 6, 3 and 4. Baptism, in other words, makes us one body. For by it, the one faith in the one Lord is expressed and declared. This is the unity of the Ephesian church, consisting of both Jews and Gentiles. And it is the unity of the whole church till Christ's return. 1 Corinthians 12, 13, for by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks. As Calvin said, by means of this baptism, we begin to form one body and one soul. We truly become, in Christ, one new man, as Paul had said in Ephesians 2, 15. Christian unity, therefore, is to be maintained on the grounds of a common faith and a common Lord expressed in a common baptism. That's the foundation of unity. There can only be one Lord, one faith, and one baptism because there is only, verse six, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. Paul prayed for the Ephesians to be filled with all the fullness of God in chapter 3, verse 19. And as the church, they are Christ's body, the fullness of him who fills all in all, chapter 1, verse 23. As there is only one Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus, the Son of God, so there's only one God and there's only one Father who fills all his people with his own fullness, as we saw last week, by their union with his Son through the Spirit. Paul here stresses again that familial reality that is their unity. They have one Father, and thus they all are brothers, fellow sons of God in and through Jesus Christ. God is their Father who is sovereign above all and is at work through all and in all. That's how the unity will be established and maintained by the power of God. Now, Paul is not here speaking of the universal government of God over all things when he's using these descriptions about God who is above all and through all and in you all. He's not talking about the universal sovereign governance of God over all things. He does that in Romans chapter 11 verse 36. For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Remember again this section, chapter 4 in general, but especially verses 1 through 17 are about the unity of the body of Christ. This is the introduction to it. Paul is speaking of God's powerful government in the church and for the church. The Ephesians are one body in Christ and they are therefore to labor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace that is theirs through Christ. the one true and living God who is also their Father through one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, is sovereignly above them all. And he's also at work through and in them all. You see, God is our Father in the church, members of the church, God is our Father. He's not distant, he's not far off like a deist God. No, he's active and at work in us. Yes, he's sovereign over all things, But we being the body of His own dear Son, He's at work for us, and through us, and in us. That almighty power that He has, that inexpressible power that He has is employed for the good of His church, for the building and edifying of the church. God works through the gifts that he has given to the church through the ascended Lord Jesus Christ. We'll see that in verses seven through 10 next week. Namely, the teaching ministry of the church. That's the way God works in the church, is through the ministry of the church. Verse 11. This ministry of the church is a gift that has been given for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, a mature man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. There's that fullness language again. That's verses 12 and 13 of chapter four that we'll get to next week. So keeping, guarding, maintaining unity is not left to us as the members of the church to accomplish all on our own. Yes, we have to labor, we have to work, but it's not all on us. God, as our Father, who is above all, is also at work through and in us all, keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Working in us by his Holy Spirit, Calvin says this, quote, by the spirit of sanctification, God spreads himself through all the members of the church, embraces all his government, and dwells in all the members, end quote. Thus, God brings all the members who have been united to Christ into one body, and then works union with them. works out and protects and guards union by that same spirit that has brought them together in that one body. The work of maintaining unity is empowered, in other words, by God himself. Recall Christ prayed for his church in John 17, verse 11, saying, Holy Father, keep through your name those whom you have given me, that they may be one as we are one. And so, the church is made one body, by one spirit, with one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father who is above all, and is working through and in all of its members, filling them with the fullness of God in Christ Jesus. This is the beautiful and mysterious mystery of the unity that we have, that we share together, not just with us in this room, but all Christians everywhere. And we are called to walk worthy of it. We are called to protect it, to guard that unity. Now, on a practical level, yes, there's certain things in the church, there's certain things that we disagree on as the body of Christ that will divide up where we attend church on Sunday mornings. But that doesn't make us any less part of the same body. Just because we're not worshiping at the same location together doesn't mean we're not part of the same body. We must maintain the unity that we do have in Christ. It's not something forced. It's not something we fabricate. It's not something we invent or make up. It's found in what God has done by His Spirit in His Son. As we continue through Paul's practical applications throughout chapters four through six, we should keep in mind the reality of the Christian life, that it was intended to be lived out corporately, not just individualistically, not just as individuals, but in the church and as the church. As we read last week, God is glorified in the church by Jesus Christ to all generations. Christians have been placed into one body, and we are called to keep unity within that one body. And sometimes that's difficult. Sometimes that looks kind of ugly. But as we read in verse 21, that's exactly where the glory of God is displayed, is in the church, is in the midst of the chaos and the sin, also the repentance and the forgiveness and the long-suffering and the gentleness and the love and the imitations of Christ that are displayed in his body. The power to accomplish this task of maintaining the unity that flows through the body is the power The Spirit is the power, is the gift of Christ. The grace that is given to each one of us, which we'll look at in verse seven next week.