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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/brandon-doll/the-unity-of-the-spirit/
Book of Ephesians, please. Ephesians in chapter four. Ephesians chapter four, verse one. I therefore, Paul writes, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body, one spirit, even as ye are 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. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Drop down to verse, I guess, number eight. Wherefore, he saith, when he is sent up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men, verse 11, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.
And Lord, bless to us the reading of his word and what we've listened to already this morning. I have verse three on my mind for a few days now, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
The unity of the spirit, what is it? How do we keep it? How did we get it? Where did it come from? What is the unity of the spirit? You'll remember in every dispensation, everything started really good and every dispensation failed miserably.
At Pentecost, when the body of Christ was formed, when the spirit of God was given, the unity of the spirit was given. This is not something that we make up. This is something that we keep. It is something that has been given and it is our due diligence to keep it, to keep it.
It's not something that we muster from within. It is something that the spirit of God has done. And so we are now at the end of the age of grace and what struck me was this. How much of the unity of the spirit do we know?
If we're like every dispensation and we are, we're going to fail. And as I examined my own heart and I cannot speak for you, I come to realize this, that the unity of the spirit is something that we're failing in.
The unity of the spirit. The body of Christ, the universal body of Christ, death and hell shall not prevail against it. Untouchable, it is preserved by God. But for you and I in local assembly testimony in our everyday life, do we, are we interested in the unity of the spirit?
For everything that God has, the devil has a counterfeit. You'll notice that as you go through the different things in the word of God, whether it is forgiveness, and generally the devil's counterfeit is something physical, something temporal.
And what you're seeing now in this world is the forgiveness of debt. Of course there should be some sort of forgiveness. The Bible speaks of forgiveness. And so you'll see the devil using these things that are real and genuine spiritually, he is taking them and confusing men in the natural, in the physical realm.
When it comes to the unity of the spirit, the devil's counterfeit is conformity. It's conformity. Conformity by definition is a process by where people change their beliefs or attitudes or actions or perceptions to more closely match those they want to belong or for the approval of others.
That's conformity. But the unity of the spirit is a oneness in the spirit of God. A conformity will breed legalism. It'll breed resentment. It'll bring bondage. But unity of the spirit brings freedom.
It brings liberty. It brings peace. So as you look at your assembly and I look at mine and wherever we're from, in the past couple years we have, by God's grace I want to add, we have been shown what we are.
What we professed and what we believed are different things oftentimes. And you'll find in most assemblies today, not all assemblies, but every one that I've traveled in in the last two years, there is a fault line.
And a fault line is where earthquakes come from. And they start to shift and they start to move. And so I wonder today, this word for my own soul is endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit. Unity of the spirit.
Uniformity is a quality or a state of being the same. So just a few things this morning very briefly that are going to have to be in me or, because this is going to be an individual thing, you know. It's going to happen one Christian at a time.
One individual at a time. And as one individual is endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit, I trust that it'll be contagious. You see, in the beginning of the dispensation for a brief period of time, there was unity.
It was a very brief period of time. But you'll remember there that how they cared for each other and how they cared for one another and how they shared their things. And there was sin that was dealt with.
It wasn't tolerated. Those that were living lies were gone. There was peace. God's people needed one another. They needed one another. It's not so in the attitude of Christianity today. You could just as soon get along without some of the people in your assembly and your own thinking more than likely.
I see a few smirks and a few eye rolls. I think I hit the nail on the head. But you see, when there was unity, it was because the people needed one another. Yes, it was all because of the spirit of God.
But for that brief time, there was a harmony. There was a beauty in the universal church of God that was marvelous. Now, I'm not going to speak about the universal church this morning. I want to talk about just you as an individual.
Just you, just me. That unity in the beginning was tremendous. They had all things common. They continued in one accord, et cetera. And now Paul, after giving the first three chapters of his epistle of all the things that we have in Christ, he's going now, hopefully the believers as they're reading this are appreciating what they have in him.
And now it's come time to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called. So endeavoring is a word that is translated in 2 Timothy 2 .15, to study, to study. This word endeavor has the idea of doing it with speed.
It has the idea of an agony to strive, to strive. So let's just use those words for endeavor. A study to keep the unity of the spirit. What is it that's going to produce the unity of the spirit in us, manifest in us?
Something that the spirit of God has already given? It's going to take study of the word of God. Study to keep the unity of the spirit, the oneness of the spirit. Brother John has already reminded us that the truth doesn't change.
It's going to take diligent study on your behalf and my behalf to keep the unity of the spirit. A study to show thyself approved unto God. That's the very same word, study. To endeavor here, very same word.
And so if there is going to be the unity of the spirit, if we're going to keep it, we're going to need to study. Why do we need to study? Because every single one of us, male and female, brother and sister in this auditorium today needs to know the truth for yourself.
It's pretty easy to let the other guy do it, isn't it? Do we know the truth for ourself? That's the idea, study. To keep the unity of the spirit. You see, in order for there to be a unity of the spirit, first of all, the person has to be indwelt by the spirit of God.
There needs to be a moment of salvation. There's not going to be the unity of the spirit when there's no new birth, when there's no indwelling of the spirit of God. And so we're indwelt with the spirit of God.
That's the first thing. And then there's going to be the fellowship with the spirit, the agreement, the agreement with the Holy Spirit. People are wondering oftentimes what is right and how do I know I am right?
Well, when you agree with God, you're right. It's very simple. When someone is always right and we agree with them, then we're right. We're justified, we're declared right because we agree with the one who is right.
It's a very simple concept, really. But the problem is we don't know what's right because we have not endeavored. We have not endeavored. And I'm just speaking for myself. We have not given speed. We have not given effort to know what the spirit of God is trying to tell us.
When you come to the book of the Revelation, the Ephesians is the first church that is mentioned in chapter two. Overall, a pretty good report. They were doing the right things, but their first love was gone.
They had left their first love. Their first love hadn't left them, but they had left him. How did that happen? Formality. Going through the motions. They were doing the right things. They were going through the motions, but there wasn't the love.
And so when we're thinking of the unity of the spirit, there must be fellowship with the spirit. A person must be filled with the spirit. That means that he has control of me. To be filled with the spirit is to be controlled by the spirit of God.
At the moment of your salvation, you were indwelt by the spirit of God, the earnest of our salvation, and you are not getting any more volume of the spirit of God. It isn't that we're filled with the spirit of God up to our ankles, and then at spiritual maturity, it's all the way through to the top of our head.
But the idea is that he has control of us more and more. To be filled with the spirit of God is to be under the control of the spirit of God. He has control of me. And he says it's endeavor to keep it.
The word keep means to watch it, to guard it, to prevent it from escaping. It's like a soldier keeping someone under watch. Such is the value of this thing called the unity of the spirit that Paul is beseeching them.
In the first three chapters, he's praying for them, and now he's making requests from them. Keep it. Don't let it get away. Don't let it escape. And so, striving, giving speed, studying, to keep the unity of the spirit, the oneness of the spirit.
Just to remind you that the spirit of God can be grieved. That is not oneness with the spirit. When we do something to grieve the spirit of God, that is not oneness. The spirit of God can be quenched.
That is not oneness of the spirit, the unity of the spirit, the unanimity, the oneness. We speak of autonomy. Every assembly is autonomous, and this is true, but sometimes it seems as though we use autonomy for leverage, to do what we want to do.
How is it then, with one head, just a question, that there are so many different views on different things? And we just throw that out there as autonomy, endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit. If we have the same head, and we do, why do we not have the same thoughts?
Maybe we have not endeavored to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. So, you've got the bond, you've got the band, you've got a joint that is tied together, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
Then he goes into the seven different ones here. There's one body, and there's one spirit. Even as you're called in one hope or one expectation of your calling, we're all looking forward to the same ending.
So, we have all these things the same. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. So, here we are, all different levels of spiritual maturity, and yet we are exhorted to endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
We read down here that forbearing one another and love. I appreciated our brother John's illustration how the brethren dealt with him on how he prayed. Patience, love. What do you expect from young Christians?
What is a spiritual Christian? I wondered this for years. I would look at the brethren in our assembly that knew the Bible inside and out, upside and down, and did that make them a spiritual Christian?
And I would listen to those brethren, and they would pray, and they would bring us right into the very presence of God, and you wondered if they didn't pray all night and all day. Oh, is that a spiritual Christian?
For you young Christians here this morning, listen. A spiritual Christian, very simply put, is one who obeys what they know. God is not expecting you to be a spiritual giant, but he is expecting you to obey what you know.
Have you been saved? Yes. Are you baptized? No. Do you know that you should be baptized? Well, yes. Obey what you know. If you're wondering what to do, study and obey what you know. Just because someone leads us in a long and beautiful and in-depth and seemingly in-touch prayer, if they're not obeying what they know, not good.
Because someone knows the Bible inside and out, and we all should, we should all be going for that, striving for that, and we don't obey what we know, there won't be unity of the Spirit. The Spirit must have control of us.
We must be in fellowship with the Spirit and guided by the Spirit. And so we're going to just go over all of these ones, but they are an encouragement to us that unity is possible because we share all these things in common.
There is one body. There is one Spirit. There is one expectation. There is one Lord. There is one faith. There is one baptism. There is one God who is above all and through all and in you all. And in all of this, God is working for the furtherance of his own glory.
Now, I want to touch down here of these gifts. Verse 11, he gave some apostles and some prophets. Are there apostles today? No, there are no apostles today. There is no apostolic succession. This is being taught.
It's been taught for a long time. But the foundation of God is laid. The apostles of Christ, those with the specific qualifications, having seen him, being called by him, they laid the foundation. There's no new foundation.
How many foundations does your house have? Now, don't get technical and say we did an addition so we've got two foundations. No, it's got one foundation, just one. That foundation was laid, it is laid, it is done.
We have one foundation. The word of God is given us. The apostles have done their work. There is no apostolic succession. As far as prophets and those that are predicting the future, we have teachers.
We do not have men who says, oh, I heard from the Lord today. This is gonna happen. We have the word of God and we have the teachers. But why do we have these things? These, actually, it is the men that are the gifts.
What's it all for? It's for the edifying of the saints. It's to promote the unity of the spirit. It is for the growth and the benefit and the blessing of God's people. So there are no apostles. You watch TV.
I hope you do not watch TV preachers. You know, there's only two qualifications for a good TV preacher. They need to know how to cry and they need to know how to sweat. But that's what you're seeing there.
And some of God's people are watching these things and they're being led astray. So there are no apostles. There are the prophets that foretold the future are done. Some evangelists, what's his role with the spirit of God?
You see, the apostles and the prophets were given what to say by the spirit of God. The foundation is laid. The evangelist, he is bringing the gospel. He is seeking to see souls won to the Lord Jesus through the workings of the spirit of God.
It is the spirit of God that even brings a person to a meeting. I'm convinced of that. Totally convinced of that. And every thought that they ever have regarding eternity or their soul, it is because of the workings of the spirit of God.
However excited we might get, no. It is the workings of the spirit of God. It is to build the unity, to keep the unity of the spirit, to see souls saved, to see them indwelt by the spirit of God. And that is the work of the evangelist.
Do we have evangelists today? Yes, we have evangelists today. We should have more evangelists today. Those that take the message of the gospel to the lost and to the perishing. Being an evangelist, I might just kick the can on the way by.
Evangelist's primary purpose is, could I put it this way, pioneer work. Local assemblies have gifted men to preach the gospel. And we are thrilled to go to assemblies. Don't get me wrong today, brethren.
But you can count on two hands in America, less than two hands, the number of evangelists in the whole country under the age of 65. There's not very many. In our state of Wisconsin with 10 assemblies and there's some assemblies I haven't been to in years and I confess that is wrong in our own state.
Three evangelists in the state commended full time. We wouldn't have time if we just stuck to our own place. Maybe there's someone that the Lord is calling and laying on your heart, even at this conference, the work of an evangelist.
So an evangelist, he is a gift. He has a gift and the Lord has given these gifts to the church. What else do we have? Some pastors, shepherds, those that feed the flock, that watch over God's people, take care of them, pour their life into them.
They are a gift and they endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Teachers, our good brethren who have minds like steel traps. Seems like they remember everything that they've ever read.
I envy them, brethren. I can't remember what I had for breakfast. But they open the word of God and by the spirit of God, they feed us of the finest of the wheat. And it just rolls out of them, one scripture after another, and they all tie together and at the end of their message, you just sit back and you think, that was delicious.
For the purpose of keeping the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace, for the purpose of local assembly testimony going on in truth. That's the idea. The Lord Jesus rebuked the Pharisees in his day.
He rebuked them for teaching for doctrines and commandments of men, the washing of pots, the washing of cups, the washing of hands and their corban. And you know what his estimation of that was? Their whole thing was for worship.
He says, in vain do they worship me. In vain. Teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men. The unity of the spirit is not interested in the commandments of men. He is not interested in that. He is interested in the word of God.
And those men there trying to make things better by their own estimation, their worship was empty to God. It was empty. Endeavoring to keep the spirit and the bond of peace. So you've got now the teachers.
Verse 12, for the perfecting, the bringing to maturity of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith. Another unity here.
A oneness of faith. All believing the same thing. You see, we are learning. We are growing. Every single one of us. And there is something that maybe we thought was what this passage meant, and it really wasn't.
And we're learning, and we're continuing to grow until we come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
You see, this endeavoring is lifelong. It's lifelong. Oh, we need one another. We do. We need one another to be in the Word of God, to be in touch with the Spirit of God, to keep that which has been already given.
You see it, don't you? We've lost a lot of unity of the Spirit. It was God's intention in the beginning that the universal church would all be in the same place, teaching the same thing. We're not there, but we are here.
Where are we going to go from here? Just a challenge for us to endeavor. Yes, to strive. Yes, to give speed. Yes, to study, to keep what has already been provided, the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.