The Profile of Unity | Ephesians 4-6

Good morning again.

Good morning.

I grew up in a very large and very liberal Presbyterian church.

And we had an organist like Keith.

And being in this church is reminding me of those days, that organ booming, those bass petals vibrating your rump as you sat in the pews.

And uh the sevenfold Amen at the end of every service.

It's really glorious.

Keith, thank you.

Enjoying that very much.

Enjoying all the music.

Thank you very much.

Well, may I open up in a word of prayer and then we'll get into the last three chapters of the book of Ephesians.

Pray with me, please.

Father, we thank you for this day.

We thank you for your grace.

We thank you for your Son.

We know, Father, that if the Son has set us free, we are free indeed to obey what the Spirit is telling us to do.

And so we come this morning to this portion of Ephesians, asking you to help us to obey what you've told us to do and to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

We give it all to you now in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Last week we tried to lay a foundation for unity, or more accurately, we tried to understand what the great apostle Paul felt was critical to understand if they were to live in peace with their Jewish brethren.

Paul reduced it to two things, I think.

First, from chapter one, he said Gentiles needed to understand that they'd been given the same salvific blessings in Messiah by God the Father as the Jewish believers who were the first to hope in Messiah.

Those blessings in Christ were anchored in the Father's election before the foundation of the world, resulting in their redemption and inheritance through the Son, all of which was guaranteed and sealed for them in God's Spirit until that inheritance should be acquired.

And second, from chapters 2 and 3, Gentiles needed to be clear that they had been made fellow citizens with their Jewish brethren in the church, which is the new and permanent dwelling place of God.

It's the true temple, the true tabernacle.

Though they were formerly separated from Messiah, alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, thus having no hope and without God in the world, now they were fellow heirs with God's chosen people.

The Gentile wild olive branch had been grafted into the Jewish root, and through the cross, Gentile believers were now the apple of God's eye.

Well, this basis for unity, this foundation, had to be strong enough to unite two of the most hostile cultures that have ever existed in the history of humanity.

I mean North and South, black and white, Democrats and Republicans, contemporary and traditional worship advocates, North Carolina and North Carolina state supporters.

Those are all bosom buddies compared to Jew and Gentile.

And thus this foundation that Paul laid for us in chapters 1 to 3 is more than sufficient to produce unity here at TKC.

And so this morning we want to move from the basis of unity to its profile.

That is, what must a church do if it's to be characterized by unity?

If there's to be a true culture of unity in the local church, it's kind of like marriage, isn't it?

The question is, what must that couple do to live as a one-flesh entity?

I mean, the day after the ceremony, that is what they are.

They're a one-flesh entity.

That's their status.

The question is, what must they do to live it out?

And to live out that entity, that one flesh relationship in harmony.

So too the church.

The two have become one, Jew, Gentile.

What must they do to live in harmony as a new covenant community?

That leads us to our text this morning.

Now, first, we need to be clear, broadly speaking, regarding what's required of us to preserve the unity in the church.

Second, we must understand Christ's gracious provision for building and maintaining that unity in the church.

And finally, we must drill down into the specific day-to-day behaviors of a church and each of its members if it's to be characterized by peace and unity.

So if you will, take your Bibles with me and turn to Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

I'll read the first six verses, Ephesians 4, 1 to 6.

I, therefore, prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've 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 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.

But great let me stop there.

Let me stop there.

So what does Paul exhort these Gentiles to do in order to preserve the unity?

In light of their calling as fellow heirs with their Jewish brethren, Paul exhorts them to walk or to live in a manner worthy of that high calling.

And broadly speaking, he describes that walk, sort of a 30,000-foot view, if you will.

Two general characteristics.

First, the worthy walk is done with all humility and gentleness.

Well, that's intuitive, isn't it?

Humility and gentleness always improves relationships.

And second, it's done with patience.

And specifically, he says two things about that.

We live patiently with one another when we bear with one another in love.

Oh my goodness.

We could spend the next month of Sundays on this, couldn't we?

Forbearing and putting up with one another, stepping over not only one's sins, but our irritating idiosyncrasies, giving up our preferences.

Of course, Paul is not speaking to you this morning when it comes to those irritating idiosyncrasies.

He's talking to your spouse, he's talking to your children, he's talking to your roommate, he's especially talking to those in the pews next to you.

But we must move on.

And second, we live patiently with one another by being eager, by being zealous to maintain that unity which is ours in the sphere of the Spirit.

Let me ask you a question.

King's Chapel.

Do you view yourself as zealous for unity?

You know, I met a man one day on a flight, a red-eye flight from the West Coast, who turned out to be zealous for license plates.

In fact, for about two hours on that flight, he pulled out his iPad and he showed me license plate after license plate after license plate.

It was his business.

I mean, it's easy to be zealous, no critique of this particular fellow, though I thought it was an odd business.

It's easy to be zealous for all sorts of weird things, isn't it?

But God wants you and I to be zealous for the unity of the Spirit in our local church.

And this unity of the Spirit exhortation becomes the springboard for the rest of Ephesians, starting with verses four to six, which gives us the composition of that unity.

And that composition, we might say, is the ones.

It's one church.

I think one body, one spirit, one hope points in that direction.

And it's one way to associate with that church through one Lord, one faith, one baptism.

And finally, the greatest one of all, one God and Father of all, who was over all and through all and in all, that is, who fills all.

Now, I want to remind you of the Shema, the hearing from the Old Testament.

That's Deuteronomy 6.

Remember what it said?

It was a centerpiece of Jewish worship.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.

The Lord is one, one God and Father over all.

So what is Paul saying?

Gentiles have been included in the commonwealth of believing Israel, so that now at the base of this profound unity is a new Shema, a common confession by Jew and Gentile alike, that God is one.

He's the God of the Jew, He's the God of the Gentile.

And thus these Gentiles are to be zealous, to preserve the unity of the Spirit, that is, to preserve all the ones.

But how are they to do that?

Or to ask it another way, what provision has Jesus Christ made so that they might do that?

Let's pick it up in verse 7.

Ephesians 4, verse 7.

Ephesians 4:7

But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.

In saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?

He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried away by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Those are some sentences, aren't they?

What is Paul saying?

He's saying when Christ ascended, as it was predicted in the Old Testament, and we won't get into this is a Septuagint version versus the Hebrew version.

We just don't have time for all that.

When Christ ascended, he gave grace gifts to the church.

First to every individual, but more importantly, I think, in terms of this passage, to the gifted ministers of the word in verse 11.

Now, while apostles and prophets, I believe, are no more, they were the foundation stones of the church according to Ephesians 2.20, evangelists, pastors, and teachers are still in play.

Particularly pastors and teachers, their role is to build up the body into Christ-likeness through sound teaching so that the church will be protected from devilish false teaching.

And instead, the church, based on that sound teaching, is able to build itself up in love, even as the human body builds itself up by the proper working of all of its members.

Now, having given the command initially to preserve the unity of the Spirit, the ones of the church, and having made clear Christ's gifting to build up the church accordingly, Paul is now ready to drill down on the specifics of the unity walk.

So let's pick it up in verse 17.

Now, this I say, and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds.

They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart.

They've become callous and have given themselves to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

But that is not the way you learned Christ.

Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and it's corrupt and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

These Gentile believers, in order to preserve the unity of the Spirit, must no longer walk in the futile manner of Gentiles, the way they used to walk.

Instead, they must remember how they learned Christ.

Now that's an interesting phrase.

They must remember how they learned Christ.

What does Paul mean by that?

I think all he means is they must remember what change occurred when they were converted.

Something happened to them when they were converted.

They must remember what happened when they came to Christ.

The old self was put off.

It was put to death.

It was mortified.

And the new self was put on, which is being renewed according to the image of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Now, you know what we call this theologically?

We call this definitive sanctification.

When you hear the word sanctification, my guess is that most of the time you think of it progressively, the ongoing process of change.

You'd be interested to know that most of the occurrences of that word in the New Testament actually refer to definitive sanctification.

It's the once-for-all metamorphosis producing a new creation in Christ who is no longer a slave to sin, but now a slave to righteousness.

Do you know that's what happened to you and to me when we came to Christ?

There was this profound change.

We became new creations in Christ.

That foreskin of sin was circumcised.

The law of God was inscribed upon our hearts.

We're now new creations, no longer enslaved to sin nor death.

We're now enslaved to God, enslaved to righteousness.

That's the idea of definitive sanctification.

And Paul says, I want you to remember that.

I want you to remember when you learned Christ, when you got converted to Christ, when you came to Christ.

And it's this definitive change that then enables a believer to work out his salvation progressively, continually putting off, mortifying sin, and continually putting on love, which, as Paul is going to lay it out, includes purity and wisdom, all of which are critical for preserving the unity in the church.

So let's jump into those three, which is really an outworking of love.

Ephesians 4, I'll pick it up in verse 25.

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we're members of one another.

Be angry and do not sin.

Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice.

Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, as God and Christ forgave you.

Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

We could spend the rest of the time right here, couldn't we?

For obedience to the commands in this section would move any church significantly forward in resisting the devil and his discordant designs.

Did you notice the put-off, put on formula in this passage?

So there's a definitive putting off and putting on, definitive sanctification, and there's a progressive putting off and putting on, progressive sanctification.

God wants us, for instance, to put off falsehood, or actually he said, because you've already put off falsehood, and in its place put on truth.

He wants us to put off things like stealing and corrupt speech and bitterness and instead in their place put on sharing and edifying speech and forgiveness.

We could say this in some summary.

He wants us to put off sin and to put on love as Christ loved us.

In other words, based on that definitive work earlier in the chapter, we now have the power, we have the freedom to do just that.

Continually mortify sin, put off sin and put on love.

For to walk in love is to not only do what we normally think in walking with love, but it also includes walking in purity as children of light.

Let's pick it up in verse 3.

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place, because let there be and which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

For you may be sure of this, that every one who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ in God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Therefore do not become partners with them.

For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true, and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

But when any that when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible.

For anything that becomes visible is light.

And therefore it says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

What we're doing right now is we're getting down to the nitty-gritty of what must be done if we're to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

We must walk in love, put off sin, put on love, and I believe under that, subsumed under love, is this idea of purity.

See, these Gentiles are called upon to mortify all sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, filthy and foolish talk, and crude joking.

In essence, put off all the unfruitful deeds of darkness.

Since, by the way, did you know?

Notice all who practice those things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

You know, just because you're in the garage doesn't mean you're a car.

And just because you're in the church doesn't mean you're a Christian.

Amen.

And so Paul is warning them to put all these things off.

Now, by the way, when you read that list, are you a little troubled to think that he had to tell them to do this?

To mortify, to put off sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, filthy and foolish talk, crude joking?

I mean, that that kind of seems a little over the top, doesn't it?

Like, were they really struggling with these things?

Yes.

They were Gentiles.

They came out of an utterly pagan culture.

I mean, do you remember when James wrote that letter in Acts 15?

The letter to try to unify the churches?

I find that letter very intriguing.

Because he tells them to do things that you would say, okay, that makes sense to me.

You're a Gentile, so don't eat the food that has the blood still in it.

Don't eat an animal that's been strangled.

These were things from the Jewish law that would have offended a Jew.

And then it has one more prohibition.

Do you remember what it is?

It says, stop fornicating.

That kind of seems like a whole different category.

But not if you're a Gentile.

See, the Gentiles came out of fornication city.

Everything they did was sensual.

Everything they did was sexually immoral.

So Paul was having to be very pointed and say, look, you need to stop all sexual immorality, all impurity, all covetousness, all filthy and foolish talk, all crude joking.

Essentially, you need to walk away from your former lives.

And instead put on light and walk as children of light, even exposing those who continue to walk in darkness.

So Paul is saying, if you're going to preserve the unity of the Spirit, you can't live like that.

You have to walk in love.

And that includes walking in purity, and it also includes walking in wisdom.

Pick it up in verse 15.

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord and with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

These Gentiles are to walk in love.

That includes walking in purity and walking in wisdom.

There to walk as those who are wise.

There are to be people that redeem the time, and there are to be people that are filled not with wine, which is the mark of folly.

Paul is alluding to Proverbs in this passage.

And drunkenness would be a chief mark in the book of Proverbs of the fool, of the scoffer.

There to walk in a way that is not filled with wine, the mark of folly, but with the spirit, which is the sign of wisdom?

Now, there's much debate as to the meaning of that phrase, to be filled with or in or by.

There's even translational differences.

To be filled with or in or by the spirit.

And here's the question.

Is the spirit the means of filling?

Or is it the sphere or realm in which the filling takes place?

Or is it the actual content of the filling?

Now we don't have time to go into those details.

We've still got another chapter to cover.

But I opt for content.

I think we're being commanded to be filled with the person of the Spirit.

And that for a couple of reasons.

First, God is a filling God.

Is he not?

I mean, think about it.

He filled the earth at creation, commanded Adam and Eve to do likewise.

He filled the wilderness tabernacle in Solomon's temple, and he filled the first disciples at Pentecost with his spirit.

And Paul's prayer at the end of chapter 3, we saw last week, culminated with the purpose that God might fully fill believers with himself.

God is a filling God.

A day is going to come when his glory is going to fill the earth like what?

Like the waters cover, like the waters fill the sea.

He's a filling God.

And we're commanded to be filled with God the Spirit.

But secondly, I believe that the Spirit is the content because of the parallel passage in Colossians, where we're commanded to be filled with what?

With the Word.

With similar outcomes in both passages.

The Word is the content of the filling in Colossians, and I believe the Spirit is the content of the filling here.

So you might ask, well, haven't we already been filled with the Spirit?

Are you getting into some kind of second blessing work, some sort of higher life or pseudo-Pentecostal charismatic kind of thinking?

I don't think so.

Yes, we have already been filled with the Spirit.

The moment we believed, we were filled with God's Spirit.

But that doesn't necessarily preclude an ongoing filling.

I mean, we've been saved, and we're being saved.

We've been sanctified definitively, and we're being sanctified progressively.

We've been forgiven, and we're being forgiven.

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

We've put off the old self definitively, and we're putting off the old self day by day.

We've been filled with the Spirit, and we're being filled with the Spirit until finally we're filled up with God Himself.

That's the process of sanctification.

And what's the result of that filling?

There's at least three manifestations.

Singing, singing to God and to each other, thanking, thanking God for everything through Christ, and submitting, verse 21.

Submitting to proper God-ordained authorities.

Wives to husbands, children to parents, slaves to masters.

Now I need to say a word about verse 21.

Verse 21 is not commanding everyone to submit to everyone else.

That's not what that is saying.

Submission is a one-way street.

Rather, it's the topic sentence for the household code dealing with husbands and wives, parents and children, and slaves and masters.

Now, to be sure, though the thrust of 521 through 69 is submission, Paul gives a strong word to those in authority.

Husbands, parents, masters.

He gives a strong word not to abuse that authority.

And the operative word is nurture.

The operative word is nurture.

Husbands are to nurture and cherish their wives.

Parents or fathers are to nurture their children in the gospel.

And masters were to treat their slaves with respect, ceasing all threatening.

So what do we have?

These Gentiles and all believers, including TKC believers, by extrapolation, are to walk in a manner worthy of their calling as God's holy dwelling, specifically by walking in love, which includes the walk of purity and wisdom.

This, my friends, is the antidote to discord and disunity.

And again, I'm not up here on the assumption that we have discord and disunity of any special nature in TKC.

But all churches have it, don't they?

You know why?

Because all churches have people.

Like the minister said one time, I love the church, it's just the people.

It's a bad joke, I'm sorry.

Now Paul closes this section by employing a warfare metaphor to summarize the worthy walk.

Let's pick it up, verse 10, and we'll go to verse 20, chapter 6.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

Put on the whole army of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over the present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand firm.

Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.

And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.

Paul concludes this practical exhortation to unity by commanding the church to protect itself from the devil's schemes.

And how do they do that?

Well, by putting on God's armor.

That's how they do it.

And though we've not time to delve in deeply, a few things must be mentioned.

First of all, the spiritual warfare imagery is the only proper way to close out a treatise on unity for the simple reason that we're not fighting against each other.

Our war is not against flesh and blood.

We're fighting against the spiritual forces of darkness in the heavenly places.

That's where the real battle line is.

Second, this armor imagery that's employed comes initially from Isaiah and pertains to our all-conquering Messiah.

Isaiah 11, Isaiah 59.

Those are places where you'll find this armor mentioned.

But this armor imagery pivots off various imperatives in Ephesians related to the devil.

For instance, the first one, the belt of truth.

That flows from Ephesians 4.25, where we were told to put off falsehood and to put on truth.

We were to speak truth to one another, and in the context, not let the sun go down on our anger, giving the devil an opportunity.

You ever notice, by the way, how that works?

You go to bed and you're angry at somebody.

You don't wake up the next morning feeling all hunky-dory about that person.

Now it's had a chance to fester overnight, hasn't it?

But that's the devil working.

And so he's giving us imperatives using this armor so that we'll fight spiritually against the devil's attempts to divide us.

And then finally, this armor is corporate armor.

We're not really talking a valiant for truth kind of image.

You know, the individual used to have Halloween costumes when my kids were little.

You could dress your kids up as valiant for truth soldiers.

But this is a corporate armor.

The local church is to don this armor as a body, and each member is to work within the community to keep this corporate armor in place, lest the devil succeed with his schemes.

This is all second-person plural verbs in this passage.

So we're talking about what we do as a church to insulate ourselves against the devil's fiery darts.

That's what we're talking about.

So the question is: well, how do you put on this armor?

How do we do it so that we'll be able to effectively resist the devil as he seeks to divide us?

Paul's answer in verse 18.

Through prayer.

In essence, we're praying in the realm of the Spirit, in the realm of that new reality for the church.

We're praying that God might help us to be unified, giving us grace to walk in love, a love which includes purity, a love that includes wisdom.

For this is what the armor protects.

It's protecting our unity, and we're asking God to help us to don this armor, really to help us to obey the injunctions in the second half of this book.

That's what we're asking.

We could say it this way: based on the unifying indicatives of Ephesians 1 to 3, God has commanded and equipped us to obey the exhortation to walk in unity, resisting the devil's schemes by petitioning our Heavenly Father to help us do that.

That's what we're doing.

Kind of simple.

We're back to basics, aren't we?

We're on our knees asking God to protect us from the devil's division.

We need his help, don't we?

So there you have it.

The book of Ephesians.

In just two weeks, it's not even noon yet.

So what's the cash value of our speed walk through this wonderful little book?

Let me close with two things.

First, praise.

Praise that you and I are fellow citizens.

As we're praying and asking God to protect us, don't forget to praise God that He's made us fellow heirs with the Jewish saints.

You know what I think of?

I think of that woman in Luke chapter 7.

Luke 7 · chapter mention

We don't know for sure that she was a prostitute, but probably she was.

And you remember what she did to Jesus as Jesus reclined at dinner at Simon's house, the Pharisee's house?

It was kind of an open invitation system, and she comes in, not welcomed, but she came in and she begins to wash his feet, which Simon failed to do.

Wash his feet with her tears.

And then she bowed down and dried his feet with her hair.

Remember that?

Remember that story?

Now those tears, those really weren't tears of repentance.

As I read the story, Jesus makes it clear, the one who's forgiven much loves much.

Those are tears of joy.

Because this woman, again, probably a prostitute, this woman has been forgiven much.

And she's praising her Savior.

She's lavishing praise on her Savior, kissing his feet.

She anoints his head with expensive alabaster perfume.

You and I, we should be over the mood when we think about our salvation.

I mean, we were children of wrath.

And God would have been entirely just and eternally glorified to have sent each and every one of us straight to hell.

Do you understand that you didn't even deserve a chance to hear the gospel?

That was a grace in and of itself, that you heard the gospel.

Millions die and never hear the gospel.

And God allowed you to hear the gospel, and he diffused that quickening ray.

And you woke, the dungeon flamed with light, your chains fell off, your heart was free, you rose, went forth, and followed thee.

That's all grace.

That's God's grace to us.

And then he placed us by his spirit in the church.

We're now Christ's body.

He's brought men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

And of course, we must sing.

And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood?

Can that really be?

Died he for me who caused his pain for me, for you, to uh to to death pursued?

Is that possible that he could have loved us?

I'm wondering this morning if you, unbeliever, or you who are not sure that you're in Christ, have you ever really faced what you deserve?

Or have you bought the American drivel that wants to tell you that you're really a pretty good person?

You're not.

Not in God's eyes.

He's the only one that really matters, he's the only one whose score counts.

Have you faced what you deserve?

Do you understand that Jesus Christ had to die to satisfy God's fierce and just wrath because of how much you had offended him.

And now, through this lisping voice, he's offering you life.

He's offering you life.

He's bidding you come and find rest for your weary, sinful soul.

I want to say to you, if you're here and you don't know Christ, what are you waiting for?

What are you waiting for?

Do you want to really play Russian roulette with end times?

We don't know when Christ is going to come back.

We can't boast about tomorrow.

We're not in any position to do that.

I'm not trying to scare you, but if you're hearing what I'm saying, you should get scared.

That's right.

Come to Christ.

Trust Christ.

Why would you wait?

Why would you want to sow more to the flesh so that when you come to Christ, it's a much harder rehab?

Come to Christ now.

Experience life now.

And dear believer, let me ask you, are you filled with praise for what God has already done for you?

When was the last time you cried tears of joy as you just considered your forgiveness?

As you rejoiced over being included.

In Christ's body, the church.

Oh, let the weeping TKC begin.

And second, zeal for unity.

I asked you in the intro if you were eager, if you were zealous to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

So I'm asking you again, are you?

Are you eager?

Are you zealous to preserve the unity at all costs, save foregoing the truth?

You know, there's a lot of inferior, might I say, even stupid things to be zealous for, aren't there?

I confess I'm a little zealous for my lawn.

There's a stupid thing to be zealous for.

I carefully mow it.

I weed it.

I make sure it's watered.

We don't have to water much up in Vermont.

It's pretty green.

I pay to have it fertilized.

So when my neighbor, who happens to be my son-in-law, recently asked me if I would mind if a forklift carrying a pallet of pavers for his new backyard patio could go through my yard.

I said yes on the outside.

But inside I balked.

It was clearly not my preference for some forklift to tear up my lawn as it lumbered down the hill to my neighbor's daughter's son-in-law's yard.

Now, why do I tell you this story?

Because if we're to be zealous for unity in the church, you and I must be willing to forego our preferences.

Now, based on my 35 years in the pastorate and 25 years as the president of Nets, planting and revitalizing in churches in New England and beyond, I've concluded that tensions in the church are largely, largely not matters of doctrine.

Now, to be sure, we try to make our preferences doctrinal issues.

But largely the problems in the church are not matters of doctrine, but matters of preference.

Things like worship music, child care policies, decorating the church.

These far too often become sticking points that can cause disunity.

So what's the antidote?

What does a real zeal for unity produce?

I think it produces self-denial.

Jesus said, if anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

That's the lubricant.

Self-denial is the lubricant that minimizes friction in the church when each member is willing to deny his or her preferences in order to keep the peace.

We're not talking about foregoing biblical mandates.

I'm talking preferences.

I mean, husbands, wives, you know how this works.

You know how this works.

No happy marriage exists where there's not a lot of that going on.

And the same is true in the church.

Unity is greatly facilitated by self-denial, letting go of my preferences to prefer the other in order to preserve the peace.

You know what they are here, TKC.

And I say to you, identify in your own personal life what those preferences are that might threaten the unity of the church.

And let us be willing to put them to death, even those that are near and dear to our hearts, in order to see God glorified by this unified new man, the church.

Would you pray with me, please?

Father, we thank you for your grace.

We thank you for this word out of Ephesians.

We thank you, Father, how we are helped to live for your glory and for the church to be seen as the place where God dwells through following its admonitions.

We pray that you would give us grace, that you would help us, that you would enable us to put on the full armor of God, that is, to obey the injunctions that you give us in your word, to walk in love, which includes purity, it includes wisdom, so that the church might be seen as the ultimate display of your wonderful glory here on earth.

We commit it all to you now, in Jesus' name.

Amen.