Walking Through Ephesians

The book that we'll be looking at this evening is the book of Ephesians. Before we go there, I guess, Pastor Steve, not everyone that was here this morning was heeding your admonition to be here this evening, and that their television watching would not affect the outcome of the game, but praise the Lord that we're able to be here tonight, to be able to worship together, and where else would we rather be?

The Lord is our vision. He is the true vine. Thank God He has grafted us in the wild olive plants, grafted in and partakers of God's divine nature, children of the heavenly King, and those who can say that they love the Lord because He first loved us.

Walking Through Ephesians: Why Believers Are Called to Walk

The topic that I'd like to look at this evening is one just to encourage the troops, to encourage those that are walking with the Lord, and that is exactly the word that is going to come out over and over again through the points that I go through.

I'd like to just give you a little bit of a background. This is coming from a study in Ephesians, which is the next Sunday school book that we'll be looking at when I teach, Lord willing, this coming Sunday morning.

And if I go back and look in the scriptures, consider these verses, Genesis chapter 5, you don't have to turn there, just listen to these verses. If you're taking notes, I'll try to give you the addresses.

Genesis 5, 22 and 24, Enoch walked with God and he was not. Genesis 6, 9 also says that Noah walked with God. Genesis 17, 1, Abraham was commanded to walk before God. Genesis 48, 15, both Abraham and Isaac walked with God.

Leviticus 18, 3, Israel was warned not to walk in the ways of the heathen. Leviticus 26, 3 and 4, blessings were promised to those who walked with God. In Psalm 1, 1, it speaks of those that are walking towards a happiness.

And in Romans 4, 12, walk in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham. Romans 6, 4, walk in newness of life, Paul teaches. Romans 8, 1, walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Romans 13, 13, let us walk honestly.

2 Corinthians 5, 7, for we walk by faith and not by sight. Philippians 3, 16, walk by the same rule. Colossians 1, 10, walk worthy of the Lord. Colossians 4, 5, walk in wisdom. 1 John 1, 7, walk in the light.

You remember that one, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And 2 John 1, 4, that we are the people of God to be people who walk in the truth. And of course, you can see a word that comes over and over again in those texts, it's walking.

And what I'd like to do tonight is to go for a walk in Ephesians. I'd like for us to look at six instances in this book where Paul deals with the expected behavior of believers. In these instances, he uses the word walk, as I have said.

And the word walk has to do with our behavior. It has to do with our conduct. It has to do with our way of life. It has to do with our actions. And thus, the message, the title message, taking a walk through Ephesians.

Because I'm coming here because, as again, I said, I want us to stir our memory. I want us to be careful because we live in a treacherous day. There are a lot of voices out in this world that are crying for our calling, for our time and for our attention.

There are a lot of pitfalls and traps. We have an enemy. His name is Satan. And his desire is to destroy the testimony of the believer. Can't have our souls. They're secure in Christ for all eternity.

But he does, as Peter wrote, walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And Peter's admonition is, be sober, be vigilant. And tonight, just to bolster us so that we might be more sober, that we might be more vigilant.

Let's take a look at some of these verses to keep us, as it were, on our spiritual toes. Because it's important for us, as I said. If you first turn with me to the book of Ephesians, you'll go with me to a passage that is known by all of us.

It's in chapter 2, verses 8 and 9, where the Word of God tells us, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And for many years, I, like you, may have just stopped there, and not really gone on much.

But the very next verse tells us something of the purpose for which God created us in Christ, whereby we were saved. Because it tells us in verse 10, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.

So the first walk is that we are to walk in a walk of good works, or walk in good works, and be careful to do so. Because the Word of God tells us that this is God's ordained purpose for the life of the child of God.

This is true from the beginning. This is not anything new. If you were to go back in Genesis and look in Genesis 1 .28 and Genesis 2 .15, you would see there that before the fall, God had ordained that Adam and Eve would subdue the earth.

They would dress the earth. They would labor. They would work. It kind of reminds me, when I was thinking of this, what kind of an illustration could I use for this, being created to do something. Some of you know of the type of dog that we have.

Our Sophie is a Welsh Corgi. And all you have to do is walk in the door, and if she thinks that she's got a friend in you, she's going to go get one of her toys, and she's going to engage you in a game called, you throw, I retrieve.

And she will do that until her tongue hits the floor, and until she's just all out of gas, and then she'll go and lay down for a few minutes, and then she'll come back, and she'll do the same thing over and over and over again.

Because she's created to be a herding dog. She's one that herds sheep or cattle. And that's what she does. And she's like the Energizer Bunny when she does this. It's over and over and over and over again.

You would not think that a little dog of that size had that much energy, but she does. She's created for that purpose. We have never, and a sinner has never been saved by the grace of God to do nothing.

All Christians are to be a people who labor and serve God. Labor and serve others. We see this over and over and over again in scripture. But here, it's very clear to us that God has before ordained that we should walk in good works.

It reminds me of Paul's writing in the book of Titus 3 .8. This is a faithful saying, in these things I will that thou affirm constantly. Paul said, this is something that ought to be done in the church, that they which have believed in God, anybody who has believed in God might do something.

Sit back, have your ease, put your feet up, and coast. Noah says that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works, for these are good and profitable. This is good and profitable unto men.

It's profitable for us to do this, not only for the glory of God, but for us to fulfill the purpose for which we've created. Yes, to worship God, to love God, but also to serve God. God has always desired and has always purposed to have a people who would serve him, who would labor for the master from the dawn until the setting sun, as the hymn says.

And when we labor, I believe that we ought to labor in humility, and I believe that we ought to labor with great thankfulness. And I say that because of the first part of this chapter, which speaks of how we used to walk, what our lives used to be like, what the attributes and characteristics of our lives were before God rescued us in Christ Jesus his son.

Because back in verse 1, it says, we used to be dead in trespasses and sins. It says in verse 2 that in the time past, we used to notice the word walk. We walked in what way? Seeking God, loving God, giving all of our lives for the Lord.

No, it says that we walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience among whom also verse 3, we all had our conversation or our behavior or our manner of living in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath, even as others.

That's how we used to live as disobedient creatures before God, as those who were going according to the course of this world, doing what everybody else was doing, running from God and satisfying ourselves.

But it tells us, doesn't it? In verse 4, but God, who is rich in mercy, his great love were with, he loved us. Even when we were dead in sins, he quickened us together with Christ. He raised us up together, verse 6, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ, verse 7, so that he could show us off as trophies of grace when we are eventually brought to complete and ultimate glorification in heaven to be with the Lord.

And then, for by grace you are saved through faith, he reiterates it. Not of works lest any man should boast, verse 9. And then it kind of all fits together. Do you see how he goes back and he says, because you used to walk this way, now God, because we are saved in Jesus Christ, he has ordained that we should walk, and we should walk in such a way that we walk in good works.

But as I said, walk in a life and have a behavior that portrays labor for Jesus Christ, for his glory. But it should be humbly, and it should be thankful. And aren't you and I thankful that God did something to change the way that we walk?

That our life of walking is so far different than it was before, because before it was a waste. Before it was for self. Before it was worthless. Before it was a steps without hope. Before it was to be consumed upon the lusts of our own flesh.

It was without direction. It was aimless wandering. And it was a fruitless life as we heard this morning. Fruitless when it comes to spiritual fruit that God would look for. And if we had continued to walk in that way, and I can only think of this morning's message.

If our lives had not, if there had not become a time in our life when we were arrested by God, stopped, and God visited us, we would be like that branch that was cut off. Wither, die, and eternal torment was our endless future.

But praise God that he in his mercy saved us and called us to be a people who would walk in good works. And what would that be? It would be as our brother remind us this morning, Steve said, sharing the gospel with those who are in great need.

Helping people who are in need, seeing their need, and looking for every opportunity to meet that need. Relieving the burdens of others. Showing a care and a compassion in our heart. It would be encouraging the weary.

Showing hospitality. Building up the weak. And as I said, looking for every opportunity to serve others for the glory of the Lord. So first and foremost, it's very easy for us to see that if we want to know what our business is to be all about as believers, it has to be and it must be that we were not only created to love God, not only were we created to worship God and to enjoy him forever and for him to enjoy us as his creatures redeemed by the blood of his son, Jesus Christ.

But in that great work of salvation, God has purposed that when he saves a sinner and brings them to himself, that they will get busy in the kingdom. They will not sit idle. They will not waste and fritter time away, but they will do that they can with for the glory of God, with the giftedness that God has given them, the spiritual gifts and the abilities and the talents they have.

And they will harness all of that and focus all of that for the glory of Christ. Let me move on to the second walk here. The first one is to walk in good works. Secondly, notice in chapter four, Ephesians four in verse I'll read verses one through four.

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation or walk worthy of the calling wherewith you have been 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 and one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of our calling. And I'll just stop there. I may read some more as we go on. But the second walk is to walk worthy or to walk in a manner that is worthy of our calling.

That word worthy means appropriately. It means that when we walk, when we be, when we act, when we speak, when we go about doing what we do for the Lord, it ought to be an appropriate way. It ought to be in a godly way.

Walk and basically it's to walk in a way that corresponds with our high calling as children of our heavenly king. Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote this. He said the fact that the Christian life is described as a walk is significant.

Walk suggests activity. Can't walk and just stay seated and stay put or be lying down. Walk suggests activity, movement, progress. We ought to walk worthy of our vocation. We do not stay where we were or as we were.

We do not say, ah, now I am saved. My sins are forgiven. All is well and spend the rest of our lives talking about our conversion. Always looking back and remaining in that position. No, the Christian life is one of progress, of ever going forward.

There are always fresh things to be discovered and fresh experiences to be enjoyed. And when I read that, I was thinking of John Bunyan's book that he wrote. Remember about a guy named Pilgrim? And you remember the title he gave that book?

It was Pilgrim's Couch. Pilgrim's Plateau, right? Pilgrim's Backsliding. Pilgrim's Go Nowhere. No, it's Pilgrim's Progress. And every time you read a page after page, you see that, yes, though he does make mistakes and yes, though he does fail, Pilgrim is pushing forward.

He's striving to enter in at the gate. He's desiring to get to the celestial city. And he's not content to stay put. He's moving on, constantly going forward. And if you read the writings of the Apostle Paul, you get these words of like running a race.

And you get wrestling and striving and pushing forward and stretching yourself with all the energy that you have and all the capacity that you have to go forward. And that's the idea here. The Christian life and church life is supposed to exhibit progress.

Movement, activity. And as churches, we cannot move forward. And I think that's why Paul puts it this way as he writes this chapter. We can't move forward unless we walk together. And we see that as he stresses in these verses, how it is that we should make sure that we protect and we work out and we guard Christian unity that we have.

Because it is never supposed to be that one of us moves forward at the expense of others. It is that we ought to move forward together as a church. So important for us to be able to, as Pastor Mike says about what we talk about as elders when we get together, is locking shields and moving forward together and doing that even as a church.

It ought to be our desire to do this. Striving for unity then is key when it comes to being walking worthy of our calling. Walking worthy of the calling, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I mean, how important is it for all of us to go about tooting our own horn just so that we can see whose horn is loudest?

Wouldn't it be better, as I preached on a little while back, that we consider ourselves in an orchestra and we're to blow the horn or we're to play our tuba or violin or whatever it is together in a harmonious way?

Harmonious church living, laboring together. That's what's important. What's the focus of our lives? What ought to be really important? Is it our stance? Is it our position? Is it the fact that I am, like in the church of Corinth, the problem they had?

You know, it was Apollos that I used to listen to and he led me to the Lord and I am Apollos. But someone else says, oh, no, no, no, no. I am of Peter. No, I am of Paul. Ah, I got you all beat. I am of Christ.

If you think about Peter, Apollos, Paul, would they have all been together when it comes to doctrine? Would they have all thought the same thing? Yes. There is no way that they would have ever thought that it would be great for the church to split and or to have different cliques and factions underneath their name.

And it ought not to be in the in the church of God, people taking sides. And how do we combat this? How do we how do we protect unity? Well, the apostle Paul here says in verse two, he says, with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another.

I'm just going to look at these words just briefly, with all with all lowliness, with humility. This means to judge or to think with humility of mind, having a low estimate of ourselves, knowing that we are guilty and unworthy.

And yet God saved us and called us. And we should have a deep sense of how small we are, have a deep sense. Isn't that so contrary to the Christian thinking of our day? Because the Christian thinking of our day in the bookstores and in the publications is, you know, you have needs and, you know, you are something and you need to be catered to and you need self-esteem and you need the light, you need the light to be shining, the spotlight to be shining upon you.

But whenever whenever I read words and think of just the principle of our Lord, when he said, if you want to be great in God's kingdom, you need to be the servant of all and you need to be the least of all.

The problem is today is in order to become the greatest of all, you've got to have the name for yourself. You've got to you've got to be the one that has the light shining on you. You've got to be the one in the forefront.

You've got to be the one that everybody is looking at. But when it comes when it comes to the kingdom of God, we will be able to be in a position to be able to guard unity and to protect it and to give and to give a help towards furthering unity when we see ourselves as being small, if we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of the Lord.

So first, it's lowliness. But secondly, he says meekness. This idea, which is the opposite of vindictiveness, it is power under control. It is gentleness. It is having a self-control in our lives, meekness and unwillingness to provoke other people.

And true love is not easily provoked and doesn't readily provoke others. And meekness is not is not being resentful of other people is not looking. Here's a here's a good phrase that I always remember.

It's not looking to assert your own rights. Not looking to say, well, I have the right for this. I mean, isn't that the the motto of the day? I have my rights. I mean, it is amazing to me when I hear of the news of the things, the rights and the things that people are suing for because they feel like they have the right to that.

I mean, they have the right to be able to drive through a fast food restaurant and get a cup of coffee, although it says extremely hot on it to they have the right to spill it on themselves and not be burnt.

And if they do, they're going to they're going to start some litigation and sue because of that. It's foolishness, much of it, if you think about it and you look at it today, everything unraveling is because it's not even common sense when you think of the rights that people tout that they believe that they have.

And when it comes to the Church of God. The only right that we if we keep this in our mind, the only right that we have is to be banished from the presence of God for all eternity. We have the right to be condemned.

We have the right to be separated from God. But because of the love of God, of course, we understand that God, who is rich in mercy, he saved us and he's placed us in the body of Christ and he's put us together as a church.

And when we're together, laboring together, desiring to be united together, we need to be careful that we don't try to assert our rights and feel that just because I believe something, just because I have a preference, just because I have something that's personal to me and it really is important to me.

I'm not talking about something that's biblical. I'm not talking about something that's key doctrine. But if we try to push ourselves in front of other people and trample on and play king of the hill in the church, it's a disaster waiting to happen.

We must humble ourselves and we must not assert our rights. And what we ought to do is let each esteem the things of others better than our own selves, as Paul wrote in Philippians 2. Esteem the things of others better than our own selves.

Others first and us second. Then he goes on and he says we need to demonstrate some long-suffering. Whenever I see long-suffering, I remember once reading, and it might have been in one of MacArthur's commentaries, somebody used the word long-fused.

He said to suffer long with people, to be long-fused, to bear patiently when we're injured and we don't seek revenge. I'll give you an example of this. And you may have had this happen to you as a believer.

You'll have been speaking to somebody about Christ. You're desiring for them to be saved. You're sharing the gospel. They know you're a Christian. It might be someone over a long period of time at work or in your family.

And have you ever had the person who's going to try to push the button to make you explode? I mean, they're going to say everything and anything. They're going to twist everything that you've said. They're going to try to take the good that you've done and make something evil from it.

Push the button because what they want to see is basically the covering fall off and the old man come back out again and the anger and the spitting fire come out of your mouth or how it was that they remember that you used to act.

And I've had that personally happen to me. And in those instances, it's by the grace of God that God keeps us and gives us the grace to be able to have a long fuse with that person. Because you know, as sure as I do, that it doesn't take much.

I mean, all you have to do is take one trip to the grocery store and you see these firecrackers going off all over the place because people are short fuse. And I mean, there's no patience. I mean, I'm behind people even in traffic.

And a person can't even wait a half of a millisecond for somebody to be able to pass around before the horn is being blared out. And people are just so, so irate quickly. I mean, where are you going? I mean, and then, you know, have you ever done this?

Somebody who is upset like that and banging on the horn and yelling at the person because they, you know, we can't make a mistake sometimes when we drive. And they get to the destination at the same time.

You know, I mean, have you ever seen that? When somebody gets mad, you kind of follow the cars and or they do it to you. Somebody is just screeching behind you, flicking the lights and you have nowhere to go.

You're boxed in your lane. You can't get out of there. And you're just, you know, you're doing the speed limit. And somebody is blaring the lights at you, beeping the horn, and they go by with the windows open and they're yelling at you.

And then you get up to the light, the next light. And, you know, they're still right in front, still right in front of you. I mean, we live in a world that's it's wild, isn't it? And yet we, as the people of God, are to have a testimony that we walk in a manner that reflects the gospel, that we walk in a way that shows the world that we are Christians who have a as we as our heavenly father, our God, who is the great king of all the earth in that because he is holy, we are to live holy, because as as as he would so desire, if if we were living in the time of the New Testament, when the pages are recorded here and we could see how Jesus composed himself.

If we could see how when the the daggers of the Pharisees and the Sadducees came out and the and the slander and the the underlying current of what it was that they were trying to to bring towards his name to shame him.

And you will see over and over again that he would compose, be composed, and he would be at rest knowing that he's going about doing his father's business and that he walked in such a way that we are to, as John said, I was just thinking of this first and first, John, too.

I think it's in verse six, first, John, chapter two. It's right around in that area. I will get it. Yes. First, John, two, six, he that says he abides in him or abides in Christ ought himself also so walk even as he walked.

That ought to be our focus. That ought to be our desire. I'm not speaking about when it comes to key doctrine. We don't give up there. We don't compromise there. But when it comes to issues in life where the scripture does not explicitly speak to it, then there are times when we can suffer long that we can forbear.

We can be merciful and we can be sympathetic. We can, as he says, he uses the word back in Ephesians, chapter four, to forbear one another in love out of the principle of love. We don't stop loving each other just because of maybe the personal differences that we have in convictions, maybe because of the weaknesses or the shortcomings or the differences.

But true love bears all things. True love esteems others better than self and true love does not seek her own. And I'm speaking about matters. When I talk about this, there are some things that ought not to come between us that we should divide over.

And our pride could make us think that we're better than someone else. And as I said earlier, anyways, who are we really? Who are we? One of the prophets said that we are like the drop in a bucket. When God looks down upon all of the human race, we are like the drop in the bottom of a bucket.

We are really nothing without Jesus Christ. We even heard that this morning in the text. Without Christ, we can do nothing. Without him, we will become nothing. Without him, there will be no fruit because he is the vine supplying the life to us so that we can bear fruit.

He is the one and the father is the gardener who's pruning us so that fruit would come out of our lives for the glory of God. Think about it. Who are we? Reading the first part of chapter two, we would see that we were nothing but convicted and condemned spiritual criminals who have been declared righteous by God to the praise of the glory of his grace.

That's what God has done for us. We've been saved by the grace of God, not by our own works. We have nothing to boast in. And if we think that we've contributed any portion of our salvation, we do not understand grace.

And we're together. We ought to strive to avoid to guard the oneness that God has given the body of the church when we gather together. Think about it. Unity is something not that we that we generate.

Unity is not something that we create. God has united our hearts together. We are one in Christ. We are one in the family of God. And when it comes to the unity that is to be in the body, we either harm it or we guard it.

We either maintain it or we do something to try to put wedges between each other. We don't generate it. We just protect it. And here he says that we in verse three ought to endeavor this. I'm back in Ephesians four, verse three, endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

We ought to be a people who guard. That word is a military term. It has to do with being a sentinel. We should be the people who guard. We are looking about to see if there's anything that is striving or trying to come between us and do all and everything that we possibly can by the grace of God to guard and make sure that we maintain Christian unity in the local church body.

I like how Paul fires off in here when he says this word here in verse three, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit. That word endeavor comes from a root word which means to use speed or to make an effort or diligence.

It has to do with earnestness. Just this week at work and for the past few weeks, we have a huge project that is underway. I work at an insurance company. And because of the Massachusetts insurance reform that's coming, we have to get our systems in order and ready and changed to be able to handle the transactions that are being required of us as mandated by the state.

In order to do that, we have 15 projects that kicked off in about January 1st. For us to work out of this, we could not do it as a company. So we're hiring contractors. I was given the job to interview them by phone.

And even by phone, you can tell whether a person really wants the job or not. And what I'm looking for when I speak to people is, yes, that they're technically qualified to that, that maybe they could fit into the culture and work.

And according to what their resume says, that they can do those things. But another thing that I'm looking for when it comes to a candidate or even with one of our own staff members who's looking for a promotion, and I use this phrase, I look for a sense of urgency.

I look for somebody who really wants it, somebody who is chomping at the bit. One person over the phone, I asked the contractor, I said, what is it? We're interviewing about 30 candidates here. What is it that sets you apart from all the other candidates?

Now, wouldn't you think that you would kind of be ready at least to sell yourself as a contractor? This gentleman had been doing this for years. What sets you apart from all the other contractors? One long, silent nothing.

He had nothing to say. And then I think duty, duty, yeah, I'll do a good job. I mean, to me, he wasn't ready. I interviewed a person for an internal position, a full-time position, and it was a young college graduate.

And he sat at the table, back in his seat, at times folding his hands. And at one time, he was crossing his legs. He came in with no tie on. And to me, he wasn't ready. He wasn't hungry. He didn't have this sense of urgency.

And that's the word here. When it comes to guarding, when it comes to protecting the unity in the church, it's not a lackadaisical way that we approach this. It is diligence. It is this urgency. It is to make every effort to make sure that we keep or guard the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace because a divided church is a powerless church.

A divided church is a church that is going to have little fruit. And a divided church is a church that can be attacked because the shields are not locked and the enemy can come in like a flood. We must be careful to guard the unity of what God has given us in the church.

And Paul, as he says it this way when he talks about this, he says, I beseech you or I beg you that you walk worthy of the vocation or the calling or the manner in which you have called. Be sure that you walk that way and do that with humility, striving for the unity within the church.

Thirdly, let's go over to chapter 4 and in verse 17 where we read, this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness and with greediness, but you have not so learned Christ.

And I've titled this one that we are to walk separately. We are to walk separately, different, opposite from those who do not know God, opposite or in the other direction of the way that we used to walk.