Thank you, Mark, for leading us again. Those are really good, appropriate songs for the message this morning. Good morning to everyone. Got that sun thing going on here. We need some leaves on that tree, I guess, eh?

This morning, in our study of Ephesians, we're going to move kind of in a transition in the book. We've been studying for several months now doctrine, truth teaching about who we are and what we have in Christ. And in chapter 4, verse 1, Paul begins the application section of this letter. He implores us to know and understand the great truths of what it means to be in Christ, to choose to believe God, and then to yield to his life and power in us. He beseeches us to walk worthy of the calling by which we were called. 

These words mean literally equal weight. The idea is that we should walk outwardly in consistency with who we are inwardly. This is the consistent command of the New Testament, the logical basis because of which we are to live new lives. You are new men. Therefore, live like new men. And we've seen this clearly in several scriptures as a central message of new covenant truth and application. This will certainly be the case through the rest of our study in this great epistle. 

So in the remainder of the book, Paul will flesh out what that worthy walk looks like, how it affects our relationships and our witness and our worship of God, as well as the battle we fight as we walk in this world, seeking to glorify God in all that we do. 

As vital and important as it is to know and understand doctrine, to have the understanding that these truths form the foundation for my living, doctrine is useless and pointless if it's never applied. The whole point of knowing and understanding who we are in Christ is that we might believe and apply these truths in our daily living in every aspect of our lives. And this is the consistent pattern of all the letters and instructions to the church in the new covenant time. 

I was thinking of 1 Peter. In 1 Peter 1, we see this tremendous letter to persecuted Christians. First, we see doctrine. We see a tremendous explanation of our great salvation in chapter 1 of 1 Peter. Then we see an exhortation to holiness in chapter 2, consistent with who we are, pilgrims and sojourners in this world, and this for an express purpose, to be witnesses by word and deed to lost men. 

We see Peter methodically apply these doctrinal truths to each relationship of our lives. In chapter 2, verse 13, he says to be submissive to those who are in authority over you. He applies this to governing authorities, to our work relationships with bosses and employees. In chapter 3, to the marriage relationship, and then our place in the world and the suffering we endure because of Christ through chapter 4. In chapter 5, he addresses our relationships in the church and how we should conduct ourselves there. 

You see, my brother and sister in Christ, we have been fundamentally transformed. When we believe Jesus, we were born again, we were regenerated, we were changed, and our whole view of the world, our whole view of ourselves, of God, of our purpose, of the meaning of life, and the fact of eternity changed. Now we live for him who died for us, and this affects every part of our lives. It's not a religious thing. It's not a Sunday and Thursday thing. Jesus is my life. He's my Lord. He's my hope. He's my all in all. Because I am in him, I am new. Every relationship I have in this world is new. How I live in every aspect of my life must be new. 

That's the message of our text, of the application of the truths of our salvation, of the whole of the New Testament, the new covenant in Christ's blood. Let's look at our text in Ephesians 4.1: 

"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 in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called in 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." 

I've given you five points on your outline this morning: First, why? Second, know, reckon, yield. Third, walk worthy. Fourth, lowliness. And fifth, unity and oneness.

In verse 1, we see the word therefore. This calls us back to the truths of chapters 1 to 3 and the things that we have studied in our last couple of messages. I want to briefly review these things to set the context of our text and to give a proper treatment of the word therefore at the beginning of verse 1.

"I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord." Paul wrote this letter from prison. As he suffered for the cause of Christ, he was experiencing persecution because of his association with Jesus, with the preaching of Christ crucified. In this sense, he was not a prisoner of Rome but a prisoner of the Lord. Again, the basis for this new life that Paul now exhorts, a life lived solely for Jesus, for the cause of Christ, and for God's glory, is based in the truth of who we now are in Christ, the why we can live a new life. 

We've seen that in Christ, we died. Our old man was crucified with Christ. We were united with Jesus in his death, burial, and resurrection. Thus, we are no longer in Adam, under law, sin, and death. We are now in Christ, standing in grace, unto righteousness, and possessing eternal life. We are new creations. Not only that, but we have the life and power of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, the very nature of God living in us, empowering us to live for him. 

The very power that raised Jesus from the dead works in and through us. The Holy Spirit imparts strength to our inner man as Jesus settles down and lives his life out through us. This is the reality not only of who we are but what we have in Christ for the express purpose of living a new and holy life for his glory, for his purpose. We've spent a great deal of time studying these truths and the why we can live a new life. 

Last week, we endeavored, in chapter 3, verses 14 to 21, to more fully understand the means, the how, God intends to work this new life out through us for his glory. We saw that the discipline of the Christian life is to know, to reckon, and to yield. To first know the truth of our salvation, to continually study and renew our minds to these truths, to choose to count them up, to reckon them to be true, and to choose to believe what God says about who I am and how I should live, and then expect that to be the pattern of my walk as God expects me to be holy. 

We do this solely by the grace and power of God, the Holy Spirit in us, Jesus' life out through us, the divine nature present in us. This we do through the Word, by his power, as we abide one day at a time by faith in total dependence on, focused entirely on, looking unto Jesus as we run this race. 

In this, we come to the grand conclusion that it is God and only God that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think for his purposes and for his glory. The therefore in our text captures all of these things, and this basis is the sweet reasonableness by which we see the commands of practical application in the rest of this letter. 

Never are the imperatives divorced from the indicatives. Never does God ask us to do something that is contrary to who we are or what we most want because of the salvation we have experienced by his grace. There's a logical basis, a sweet reasonableness, based on these doctrines for how I should live as a regenerated child of God with the fullness of his power working in me and the promise of his purpose for me in this world and in the age to come. 

He who has begun a good work in you will carry it to completion. We see that process in our lives as we look to him and trust him each successive day. Now we quickly come to point three in our outline, walk worthy. 

Ephesians 4.1: "I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called." The word beseech in our text has the connotation of begging. I beg you, I plead with you, I beseech you, I implore you. This is the passion with which Paul implores his beloved saints. This is no academic exercise, my friends. The very souls of men are at stake. The very cause of Christ, the glory of God, is at issue. 

This is a war of utmost importance with the greatest potential for glory or for tragedy. A battle not against flesh and blood, but against Satan and his demons, a battle of truth versus error, a battle for the very eternity of our loved ones, our co-workers, the souls of the men of this world for whom Christ died. 

Paul is not just teaching facts or engaging in some academic pursuit. He has not taught us these grand and glorious truths of who Jesus is and who we are in him for the sake of the facts themselves, but onto a grand and glorious cause, a purpose for our lives, the plan of God for his people, the church. In this spirit, Paul says, I beg you. 

Do you ever feel this way? Do you see your life and ministry in this way? When you think about the lost people you know, your loved ones, is there an emotional pleading, a desperate begging for their salvation in prayer to God and in witness to them? When you think about your life, is there a great desire to live for Jesus, to glorify God, to see the value and importance of your life each day for the furtherance of the gospel? 

Do you see your relationships and your family, your business, your hobbies, your choices on what to do, where to go, how to live, why you live as absolutely urgent and necessary to the cause of Christ? I beg you, Paul writes, I plead with you. 

Walk worthy of the calling by which you were called. "Walk" is to walk about, to conduct oneself, to order one's behavior. "Worthy" is an adverb meaning in a manner worthy of. The adjective form means having the weight of or weighing as much as. 

So Paul exhorts the Ephesian saints to see to it that their Christian experience, the Christian life they live, should weigh as much as the profession of Christianity which they make. In other words, they are to see to it that they practice what they preach, that their experience measures up to their standing in grace. 

The word here is vocation, as one is called to a vocation. But it's more than just the idea of being called to a certain occupation. You have, in a sense, been called in your life to a vocation. Let’s say you're a salesman. Your vocation, your job is to sell, say, real estate. Now think about that with me. Your job, for all of us, is a very large part of your life. In time, and energy, and mental time allocated, planning, thinking, worrying, you spend a great deal of your waking hours engaged in your vocation. 

If you sell real estate, then you're constantly working, striving, giving yourself to the furtherance and success of your business, looking for opportunities, networking, building relationships so that you might find leads and gain access to opportunities to sell houses or lands so that you might be successful in your career, and make money, and provide for your family. We could apply this to any vocation, any career. You spend a lot of time and effort in that realm. 

If it is your passion, then you strive after it with great effort and allocation of your resources to become the best in that field and to have success for a variety of reasons and to meet a variety of goals. Well, Paul draws that realm of thought into his exhortation here, but it's so much more than that. 

His basis is not just what you do. It's not just for temporal gain and material wealth and social status like a career or job in this world. Think about this — we all want our lives to matter. We want to build something, provide for our family, our children and grandchildren, to have a legacy. All of these pursuits are worthy and good. But in a material sense, in a carnal sense, they will never last. 

Even the greatest men who have built the greatest empires and material wealth and who wielded the greatest power and influence have come to nothing. Our impact in a temporal, physical, worldly sense does not last. A couple of generations after our death, and no one will remember us. 

When I drive across this country through the rural areas, I see everywhere I've ever been, fallen down barns, a chimney standing in a field, remnants of life. A man bought that land. He had a family. He worked every day. He built a farm, he produced food, he cared for the land. It's all gone now. Consumed by the earth, back to the dust, and no one remembers. No one cares. 

My point is this, my friends: if a vocation is your life, if building wealth and leaving a legacy in only a temporal sense is your sole passion and pursuit, it will come to nothing. What Paul's saying here is that your life in Christ is so much more than that. 

It's not just what you do; it is the very essence of who you are. Walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. This calling is not just your career. Your job is a part of it, but this calling encompasses who you are, everything you do, every relationship you ever have. The fruit is not just temporal in life and fulfillment, and sustenance and enjoyment of all the riches that God gives you by His grace in a material sense, but the fruit of this life in Christ is eternal, is lasting, is a legacy, will be remembered forever in the salvation of the souls of men and the manifestation of the glory of God and the eternal reward and forever worship. 

This is not a carnal pursuit for earthly gain for my own glory. Think of all the great and powerful men who have gained the world but lost their souls. Men of power and influence, endless resources. Think of a Rockefeller who, when asked how much money makes a man happy, responded, "Just a little more." Or how about Hitler, who nearly ruled the world? Or Napoleon or Alexander? Or we could go back to Nebuchadnezzar, the head of gold. 

What about our current leaders? How about Joe Biden, who spent his life in the political realm scheming, pulling the levers of power, gaining the wealth and influence of men, becoming the most powerful man in the world? Look at him now. Our brothers and sisters, tell me, what does he have to look forward to? What has he really accomplished for eternity? 

It's all vanity. When Paul talks about our calling, he's not just talking about a vocation. He's talking about the very call of God with which he called you to a new life, to a new vision with a new and eternal and truly valuable purpose. Job talks about the extreme efforts of men who dig into the dark recesses of the earth and give their lives to find a little gold or silver or diamonds. 

Think of all the iron ore mines. Think about what men did just where we live 100, 150 years ago. The efforts that they went to, the multitudes of people that died to gain riches. And yet how much passion and effort is there by men, even Christian men, to live a life worthy of their calling? To seek to know and enjoy God and live for Him in righteousness and holiness and to bring men to Him so that they might be turned from darkness to light, that they might gain eternal salvation. 

This is your calling. This is the grandiose nature of your life in Christ, and this includes everything that you do, every relationship that you have, every interaction and influence in your life in this world. Yes, your job, but not just your job, everything you do, even when you eat and drink, do it all to the glory of God. 

Every facet of our lives, every thought and passion and pursuit, all of our resources, how we think, what we want, where we spend our time, how we spend our mental energy, our planning, our dreaming, our goals should be wrapped up in the salvation of men and the glory of God. Because here, my friends, is life, is meaning, is fulfillment, is something that really lasts and affects eternity. 

I do this in my work, in my family, in my world, even in my hobbies, in my leisure, in every part of my life, how I conduct myself and why, as Paul says: how I walk. So when Paul says, "walk worthy of your calling," he means in every aspect of our lives, how we live. This living is in consistency with who we are and the purpose that God has given us. 

In the rest of our text, Paul lays out what this walk looks like, what characterizes how we live. We see the lowly walk. 

Ephesians 4.1: "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 in the bond of peace." 

Paul says that this worthy walk is marked by lowliness. Lowliness is crucial to the Christian walk. This word means humility, but it's more than humility. The real meaning of the word is, as Expositors translates it, a true estimation of ourselves. A true estimation of ourselves. 

It's fascinating to me to hear good, solid preachers work through the depths of Ephesians chapters 1, 2, and 3, expounding the great truths of who we are and what we have in Christ, exalting us to great heights by our salvation in Christ. When they get to 4.1, to the practical section of the Epistle, and particularly to the word lowly, they forget all that they just studied. 

This is true of many Baptist preachers; definitely true of Reformed preachers. Lowly here in this context to them means vile, wretched sinners. Worthless worms, I heard a preacher say the other day in this text. They say that for us to understand how lowly we are is to know what great sinners we are. We are sinners and no more, a well-known preacher said. 

Now, brothers and sisters, that undermines everything that Paul just taught us in the first three chapters. Much the same as a wrong interpretation and application of Romans 7 undermines all that we learned in chapters 5-6. So I want you to think this through with me. 

Paul just spent three whole chapters and some magnificent language and lines of argument to clearly convey to us that we are totally different in Christ than we were in Adam — that we have a great salvation and awesome power and a new heart and a new spirit and all that goes with regeneration. We have amazing promises for life now and for the future, even that God Himself lives in us and empowers us to live for Him. He laid this great foundation and then begs us to live in consistency outwardly with who we are inwardly. 

That's the whole point here. So let me ask you: if you are a sinner and no more, if you are a worm and vile and wretched, if you are still depraved in your nature and no more than positionally righteous in Christ in the sense of justification, my friend, if this is who you are and Paul begs you and exhorts you, in fact, to walk in equal weight with who you are, then what does this mean for your daily living? What should you expect? What does God expect? 

If we're just sinners and nothing has changed, what's that mean to live in consistency with who we are? That's not hard. No, my brothers and sisters, no. The word lowly here certainly includes the idea of humility, but what it really means is to make a right estimation. I submit to you that this right estimation can only come by the truth of God's Word and what He says about us — what He says about who we now are because of His grace and mercy and what we have because of His life and power in us. 

We've spent a great deal of time laying down this foundation in the why, the how, and the conclusion is that we are new creations. We're not who we were but totally transformed, no longer in Adam, but in Christ and all that this means. Only in this right estimation can the exhortation of Paul make any sense at all. 

So what is the lowly walk? What is the right estimation? It involves an understanding of who we are, not just sinners, but now saints and all that we've studied. It also involves an understanding of our total inability apart from the grace and power of God. This is why the law is not the answer to holy living — because the law is something I try to keep by my works and my power, and I cannot. It's not a killing of my old man, a dying to myself, for my friend, I cannot do this anyway. 

How is it you're going to kill your old self? I need not. Why? Because it's already done. We looked at this in Colossians 3, Ephesians 4. Paul uses the aorist tense when speaking of the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new, for this has been accomplished one time fully and finally in the past. No, these things are not the way to holiness, not a focus on myself or my accomplishments or even my failures, but rather a focus on the one who can live the Christian life, who can produce holiness in my life. 

We must be looking to Jesus. The right estimation that I must come to concerning myself and my walk is that I am in total dependence on Jesus Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit to empower me to live a holy life, to produce fruit through me as I abide. 

Turn over to John 15 with me, please. We'll look at Jesus' description of this life. John 15, 1. Jesus said, "I am the true vine." So get this picture. He's giving you an illustration here. "I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit." 

"You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you." Now here's his instruction for our life in Christ. He says, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing." 

I need Jesus every day. I cannot produce holiness, righteousness, consistent victory in this life. I cannot, but he can. So my focus cannot be on myself; it must be on Jesus. Looking unto Jesus as I run this race, remaining in him, close to him, dependent on him, needing him every day. I want to live a holy life. I want to bring glory to God and men to Christ. 

God has poured his love out into my heart and his spirit witnesses with my spirit. We are in agreement. I am not against him; he is not against me. He has given to me all things that pertain to life and godliness. He has imparted to me his divine life and nature. I am in Christ. I am a child of God. I am not a sinner; I am a saint. Therefore, by his grace and power, not my own, I should expect to live a consistent of equal weight life with who I am. This is what it means to walk with all lowliness. 

The word translated gentleness in our text means meekness and here speaks of our attitude towards God. That is, we submit ourselves to him, trust him, and know that he deals rightly with us, that he does what is best for us. The word also expresses our dependence on and trust in God. It literally means to place ourselves under, to place ourselves under God. That is to trust God in all things. 

As we see in passages like 1st Peter 2, when our example, Jesus, did not revile or defend himself in his great trials but entrusted himself to him who judges righteously, so we must entrust ourselves to him who judges righteously. The word long-suffering goes hand-in-hand with the next phrase, bearing with one another in love. Long-suffering speaks of patience with men. 

I'd like for you to be long-suffering toward me. This is patience with men. Thus, we are not easily provoked, but we are constantly seeking the good of others and the glory of God in our lives, and this is manifest by bearing long with one another. Bearing long with one another and manifesting God's love through our lives by his power. His love is poured out through us to others as we abide in him, as we seek his will, as we seek his help, his grace, his power in our lives, particularly in our relationships with one another. 

The result of this right estimation and living in light of it brings the result of unity and oneness in the Spirit. Paul says we must be endeavoring, and this speaks to effort exerted, focus, and intent. We must be striving, agonizing for unity in purpose. We keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 

When we seek unity and peace, when we think the same thoughts, when we have the same mind, this is clearly portrayed in Christ and exhorted for us in Philippians. Turn over to Philippians 2, at verse 1. We'll look at that passage. 

Listen to these words in Philippians 2. Paul writes, "Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind 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." 

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men; and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." 

Think about the things that tend to distract and divide us. Earthly concerns, temporal pursuits and woes, a focus on ourselves, selfishness, a desire to have my own way. These are typical things for the Christian world, not for the world. We must have the same mind as Christ. 

We must be focused on the will of God, dependent on the Word and work of God in our lives for his purpose. We must be seeking the good of others and the glory of God. This is a willingness to live for him, and again to trust his will just as Jesus did — to have this mind, to trust him and do what he says, even to the point of death on the cross. 

Look at verse 4 in our text with me again. He says there is one body, one spirit, just as you were called in 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. 

These verses build on what we've already seen. Vincent gives us the connection between what is preceded in these verses. He says the connection with the preceding verses is as follows: "I exhort you to unity, for you stand related to the church which is one body in Christ, to the one Spirit who informs you, to the one hope which your calling inspires, to the one Lord, Christ, in whom you believe with one common faith, above all to the one God and Father." 

This is your life. This is who you are. This is your eternity — oneness in all these things, commonality. Expositor says it’s a positive statement giving the objective ground or basis in fact on which we walk in lowliness, meekness, long-suffering, and loving forbearance as urged, and of which it should be the result. 

I mean, if we're all working together for one endeavor, if we're all thinking the same way and we have the same plan and we have the same passion and we have the same love, there should be unity in that purpose in everything we do, and nothing should stand in the way of that. 

The one body is the church, calling us back to the great truths of chapters 2 & 3 of Jew and Gentile in one body, the church. One Spirit is the Holy Spirit who drew us and called us to this salvation. One hope refers to the calling, and this hope encompasses all that this call of God to salvation includes. 

One Lord, our Lord Jesus. The one faith is the principle of faith by which we enter the body, the Church, and I believe as we are talking here totally about the supernatural salvation we have in the mystical body, the church, that the baptism or placing into that is spoken of here is the work of the Holy Spirit, placing us into Christ, into the one body, the Church, when we believed. 

These great truths speak to unity — the unity in salvation in the church, in calling, in purpose, in hope, in this new life that we now walk. 

And our all-sufficient, always faithful Father, God of all, Creator of this salvation — the one who brought it to pass in the work of Christ and in us through our union with Christ — He is all in all, one Father, our Father, God. 

Our brothers and sisters in Christ, let me be quick to point out you are in Christ. Let us seek to know the Word of God, to know our loving Savior Jesus more and more, to walk in consistency by His life, His grace, His power, with who we are because of His salvation that He accomplished in us. 

We are now part of His body, the Church, and we are called to walk in holiness that we might be a witness, that we might bring glory to our Father, by Christ Jesus forever and ever in the Church. 

This is the point of the church, and you are part of that body because of the salvation you have in Jesus. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank you for these practical words, this encouragement, the great consistency of your Word, the logic, the foundation that you establish in truth, and the practical application we can make of that daily in our lives. Help us, most of all, have a desire for You, to know You, to need You, to live for You. Let the world fade away as we fix our eyes on Jesus. In His name, we pray, Amen.