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Are you a Christian? Have you been born again? Has God called you and redeemed you through the blood of Christ? Does this describe who you are? Then if I may paraphrase the Apostle Paul, act like it. If you call yourself a Christian, then act like it.
It's a pretty simple concept to understand. Act according to who you are. But for the Christian, applying this concept and living according to this concept is a daily battle, isn't it? Yet I propose to you that for the Christian, this ought to be one of the highest priorities in your life.
This ought to be one of the greatest pursuits of your life that you are striving for, because the glory of God and the good pleasure of God himself are dependent upon it. The scriptures say that to do otherwise would, in fact, grieve the Holy Spirit.
Because you see, if you are a Christian, your walk, your entire way of life can be described in one of two different ways. It's either worthy or it is unworthy of your calling from God. It is my hope and my prayer for each one of you this morning, this evening, that as you submit yourselves to the Word of God, that you would take a step back, that you would evaluate your life, how you are living before God, the patterns of your life, that you would compare those to the scripture that we will look at.
And if the scripture would classify your life, the patterns of your life as unworthy, that you would repent, that you would turn, that you would seek God's forgiveness and start living in a manner worthy of your calling.
It is all too easy for us to sit under solid biblical teaching here at this church week in and week out, yet never reflect it in our own lives. Let us not do that tonight. Tonight I want you to take a good look at yourself in the mirror of scripture.
And if you see areas of your life that need to be fixed, that you would remember that when you leave this place tonight, that you would not delude yourself, but instead be determined to do the Word of God, whatever it may be.
So let's now look at a few of the standards that God has given to us for the Christian life in the book of Ephesians chapter four, if you would turn there with me now. And as you're turning, let me tell you that this book was originally an epistle written by the Apostle Paul, presumably from a prison in Rome to what he calls the faithful believers at Ephesus.
And as we pick up nearly halfway through the letter in chapter four, verse one, it says, therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.
Now I'm sure as good Bible students who have been faithfully trained at this church, that you're already asking yourself, what's that therefore, therefore? And that's the right question to ask. Because this is an adverb that demands that you understand this passage in light of the larger context, specifically what came before it.
And like all scripture, unless you understand the passage in the context, you will never get to the meaning of the passage. It's the meaning that we're after. Let me tell you that this therefore is pointing back to the first three chapters of this letter, which almost exclusively contain indicative information.
About the call that's referenced later on in the verse. Throughout the Bible, you see indicative information and you see imperative information. Indicative information contains the facts. Imperative information contains the application, specifically what you're supposed to do in light of the facts.
And in this case, right in the middle of the two, the very first word of chapter four, verse one, is this word, therefore, which kind of acts like a hinge, bringing you from one to the other. It's a very simple way you can all remember the book of Ephesians from now on.
Chapters one through three, primarily indicative, primarily facts, and chapters four through six are almost all imperative, the application of those facts. Like I said, right in the middle is this word, therefore, that brings you from one to the other.
It's also important to recognize the order of the two, that you have the facts before the application. Because only if you have the facts does the application make any sense, and that you're freed from legalism.
So what are the facts? Considering we're picking up in chapter four, like I said, the facts are chapters one through three. These chapters are so rich. If you are a Christian, you cannot, I'm convinced that you cannot, read the first three chapters of the book of Ephesians and just not be overwhelmed with praise to God.
And if you can't, I would say go back and reread them because you didn't understand them the first time. They just are saturated with declaring the wisdom and the power and the graciousness of the Lord and just leave you thinking, we have a great God.
Let me do my best to summarize them for you. Before God called you, your entire walk, everything about you, everything you thought, everything you said, everything you did, could all be described with one single adjective, one word, dead.
You were dead in your trespasses and sins. Obviously you were still physically alive, but spiritually you had not a single breath of life in you. You were walking according to the course of this world and according to the prince of the power of the air, the enemy, Satan.
You were living in direct opposition to God. You disobeyed his word. You were indulging in the lust of your flesh and the desires of your mind. You were repulsive in God's sight. And by your very nature, you were a child of God's wrath.
You were alienated from God. You were hopeless and you loved it. You were not searching for God as if you had a God-shaped hole in your heart that you were trying to fill. No, you hated God and you would have eliminated God had you been given the opportunity so that you could have been freed from your guilty conscience.
That is who you were. You were dead. Everything you did reeked of death. But God, two of the best words that you will find throughout all of scripture, but God, chapter two, verse four, did not leave you like this, did he?
He was rich in mercy. Even though he had every right to leave you as dead and ultimately to pour out his entire wrath upon you forever, for all eternity, he was gracious to you. Instead, out of his infinite grace, he did the unthinkable, the unfathomable that God would do such a thing.
He sovereignly chose you of all people before the foundations of the earth had even been laid. And in time, he called you from the dead into life. This is the effectual call of salvation through which God lavished you with grace and made you alive with him.
You were once alienated from God and you should have stayed there. But instead, God has brought you near to himself. You deserve God's punishment, but instead he gave you an inheritance with his son. You deserve to be condemned to hell for all eternity, to bear the full wrath of God.
But instead, God has called you into his own household. Incredible that God would do such a thing. He has sealed you with the spirit and he has given you hope. Once covered in guilty stains, God has cleansed you from every last one of them.
He has now declared you to be righteous and you now stand holy and blameless in his sight. But let me remind you that your call was not free. Yes, to you, it was free. You were dead, you didn't have anything to offer God.
But to God, in order to call you, it cost him everything. In fact, for God to call you, God had to pay the highest price that could ever be paid. The very life of Jesus Christ paid for through his blood laid down at Calvary for you.
Imagine that, that God would do such a thing. If it wasn't in the Bible, I would never believe it. I don't think any of us would. Because you, just like myself, did not deserve to be called in any way, shape or form.
But God purchased it for you through the life, death and resurrection of his only son. Incredible that he would do such a thing. God's ways are indeed higher than our ways and his thoughts are certainly not our thoughts.
Praise God for that. So how do we respond in light of what God has already done? What should we do now? Let me respond by quoting the Apostle Paul himself as he directly answers his question. Therefore, I implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.
Tonight, we're gonna look at four specific ways in which you can do just that. In the military, you wait for your marching orders so that you know where to go and what you're supposed to do. Likewise, as Christians, God has given us walking orders so that we know how we are to live.
So Christian, here are your walking orders. Walking order number one, in order to walk in a manner worthy of your calling, your walk must be humble. Verse two, Paul says, with all humility and gentleness.
Humility is a characteristic that literally means to think or to judge with lowliness. And in this context, it's to think or to judge yourself with lowliness. This concept was completely foreign to first century Greek culture.
It's actually believed that this word had to be coined by Christians, possibly even the Apostle Paul himself to describe this concept that was undescribable at the time. Needless to say, humility does not come natural to fallen man.
Yet for the man who is called by God, it ought to be one of the primary characteristics of your life, if you are to live in a manner worthy of your calling. If you truly are walking with humility, then you will have no room for pride.
You will have no room for conceit. You will not seek recognition or praise from other men because you are satisfied in doing the will of the Lord alone. Understand this, if you are walking with humility that is worthy of your calling, you have no self-esteem.
Why? Because you esteem one who is greater than yourself. How's that for counter-cultural? God is the one whom you are to esteem because it was God who called you from the dead. It was God who paid the ultimate price to redeem you.
Understand that and consider what rights would you be entitled to? How could you possibly justify having any pride in your life? Now, if you get recognition from men, it's not something that you're supposed to run away from, but just do your best to reflect that recognition to God who rightfully deserves it.
If you do not get recognition, then you should be just as satisfied knowing that you do what you do to please the Lord alone. Once you realize who you would be apart from the grace of God, then I'm convinced that you could not help but walk with more humility.
Your salvation was a gift from God that cost him everything. And he did not choose you because you were pretty or because you deserve to be chosen in any way, certainly not because you deserve to be called or because you had more potential than others.
God chose you according to his good pleasure, and that's it, nothing else. Understand that and you will not only walk with more humility, but your humility will naturally give way to gentleness, which can also be translated as meekness.
This word implies a mild spirit with self-control. And in other texts, it's used to describe a wild animal that had been tamed. The characteristics of humbleness and gentleness are very closely related.
I believe that our natural sinful tendency is to fake humility. We act humble when we want to be humble, specifically when we're in the presence of somebody who we think is more important than ourselves.
But is that type of humility worthy of your calling? Would the God who called you from the dead be pleased with a selfish humility? Absolutely not. We are called to a selfless humility. And we can see this through one of the greatest acts of humility ever displayed in all of history.
When Jesus Christ himself, the Lord, who is rightly to be esteemed, who is rightly to receive honor and praise, washed the dirty feet of his sinful disciples, as recorded for us in John 13. And that society foot washing was reserved for the lowliest of the lowly slaves, not just a servant, not just a lowly servant, but the lowliest of servants.
Peers didn't even consider washing each other's feet. Yet Jesus set the standard for us by washing the feet of his sinful disciples to exemplify the type of humility that would be worthy of your calling.
And after Jesus washed their feet, he said to his disciples, do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right for so I am. If I then the Lord and the teacher washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
For I gave you an example that you should also do as I did to you. And so I challenge each one of you tonight to follow the example that Jesus Christ himself set, that you might walk with a humility that is worthy of your calling.
Walking order number two. In order to walk in a manner worthy of your calling, we've already seen that your walk must be humble. Paul adds in verse two, it must also be with patience. The word patience literally means long-tempered.
It can also be translated as long-suffering, which is a natural corollary to humbleness and gentleness. The patient person walks in adverse circumstances, but he is not overcome by them. When the patient person is sinned against, he does not retaliate.
When he is provoked, he doesn't explode with sinful anger. When he is let down time and time again, he endures. He doesn't hate his enemies. He prays for his enemies. He doesn't give up on his brother or sister in Christ.
He endures for their sake and for the sake of the Lord, and he prays for them as well. These long-tempered, long-suffering characteristics ought to describe your life as well if indeed you are to walk in a manner worthy of your calling.
Consider the patience that you have already received from the Lord himself. It is only by God's patient, long-suffering, that he could have ever endured you while you were dead. Remember that the Scriptures say that you were indulging in your flesh, you were indulging in the desires of your mind, reveling in disobedience to God.
You were an enemy of God. You were at war with him under the power of the enemy. Each one of you rightfully deserved quick and severe punishment from the Lord. Yet did you not receive patience from him instead?
Consider that and cherish the patience that you yourself have already received from the Lord, and reflect that towards others. John MacArthur reminds us that the patient man remembers that God the Son left his heavenly home of love, holiness, and glory to come to earth and be hated, rejected, spat upon, and crucified without once returning evil for evil and not once complaining to his Father.
That is the patience of God himself revealed through the person of Jesus Christ. Likewise, if you are living in obedience to the Word of God, you may never be hated to the extent that Jesus was, but you will in fact be hated.
You may never be spat upon as Jesus was, but people will certainly slander you and say all kinds of evil against you. And you may never be murdered as Jesus was, but if you are indeed walking according to the Word of God, people will certainly want to do that to you at some point.
So if Jesus, though sinless, did not once return evil for evil, did not once complain to his Father, then think about it. What right would you have to do otherwise? We have no right. Just as Pastor Mike reminded us this morning, to complain about anything in this life is to complain directly against God, who is sovereign over all circumstances.
When I think of this virtue of patience, I'm reminded of the Apostle Paul himself as I'm sure the Ephesians were also. We see this in the book of Acts chapter 20. We read of the Apostle Paul calling to himself the elders of Ephesus to come and meet him at Miletus.
And in verse 18 it says,. And when they, the elders of Ephesus, had come to him, Paul, he said to them,. You yourselves know from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews.
And going on in verse 31, Paul says,. Therefore be on alert, remembering that for night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. Paul was a patient man. And for three years he ministered to the Ephesians unceasingly through trials and through tears.
And hopefully you're asking yourself, How can I serve with the same patience as the Apostle Paul? How did Paul do it? He tells us in verse 24, he says, I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course in the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.
Friends, if you too are partakers of the gospel of the grace of God, you should serve with the same exact mentality. I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself. And it is only with that mentality recognizing that you have no rights, that you have no privileges, that you are the least priority in your life, that you can then be freed to serve Christ with the kind of patience that would be worthy of your calling.
Walking order number three, in order to walk in a manner worthy of your calling, your walk must be humble, it must be patient, and it must also be tolerant. And we see this again in verse two where Paul says, showing tolerance for one another in love.
The word tolerance can also be translated as forbearance. This word describes a person who permits the ideas, the opinions, or the actions of another, even though he or she does not personally agree with them.
And in many ways this virtue is similar to the one that we just looked at, patience. However, the main difference between patience and tolerance, grammatically speaking, is that patience is passive and tolerance is active.
For example, the virtue of patience is displayed when you are provoked to act in a certain way. You're provoked to respond, yet you choose not to. Whereas tolerance is displayed when you are actively permitting, you are actively allowing something that you do not personally agree with.
And we can see from the context that this tolerance should not only be directed towards unbelievers, but believers as well. Now it would not be fair to say that if you have tolerance, that you have the ability to put up with somebody, because you can put up with even a brother or sister in Christ on the exterior, yet on the inside you could be frustrated, you could boil with anger against them.
That is exactly why the Apostle Paul modifies this tolerance with two specific words. He says, in love. If your tolerance is to be worthy of your calling, it must be a tolerance in love. Commenting on this passage, Martin Lloyd-Jones says that if you love people, you will be long-suffering and forbearing toward them, because you will have their best interest at heart.
You will not be so much concerned to show that you are right and they are wrong. Friends, if you love a brother or sister in Christ and have their best interest in mind, will you not tolerate him or her, accept any annoying tendency that they might have?
Will you not tolerate their difference of opinion, even though you might have very strong opinion about the subject? Let me remind you that before you were called by God, you were enemies of God. You were at enmity with God, and did He not tolerate you in love?
So, too, tolerate your brothers and sisters in Christ. Now, understand correctly, though, that the Scriptures make it very clear that there are some things that we ought not to tolerate. Generally, sin, specifically false teaching and immorality.
Even in the same book of Ephesians, Paul makes this distinction very clear later on in chapter 5, where he says in verse 8,. Obviously, this is referring to unbelievers who are still in the darkness, who have not been called by God, who only do that which is disobedient.
But in a similar way, you are also not to tolerate the sin of a fellow believer. You are not to rationalize their sin. You are not to ignore their sin, because the Lord has given us very clear instructions on how to deal with that also.
You might say, but doesn't love cover a multitude of sins? And I would say, yes, it absolutely does. But I believe that takes place after the sin is dealt with biblically, going through the process of confrontation and repentance, forgiveness, and even, if necessary, church discipline, which we see in Matthew 18, 15 through 17.
Let me remind you of this passage. It says, If your brother sins, what are you supposed to do? Cover it up, ignore it, look the other way? No, if your brother sins, you go and show him his fault in private.
If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.
And if he refuses to listen to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Sin, even though it may manifest itself in many different ways, is not to be tolerated under any circumstance, because it is offensive to the God who has called you.
It is repulsive to Him. Now, it's true that God does not need you to stick up for Him. But is it not also true that if you have been called by God, that you understand your calling, what it costs God to do that, that you would not be zealous to protect His name, that you would not desire to make His name great and holy here on earth, to do that which is pleasing to Him?
Apart from sin, walk with tolerance. We'll see why in our final walking order for tonight, number four. You've already seen that in order to walk in a manner worthy of your calling, your walk must be humble.
It must be patient. It must be tolerant. And in verse three, Paul adds that your walk must also unify. Paul says in verse three, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.
The inevitable outcome of the called who are walking humbly, patiently, and tolerantly, will be the preservation of the unity of the Holy Spirit. Consider trying to preserve unity among individuals who are each factious and prideful, conceited.
It would be impossible. The last virtue that we will look at tonight will force you to take a step back and see the big picture, specifically how you play a vital role in preserving this unity that God is calling for.
This unity is completely foreign to the world. It's completely foreign to natural man. This unity that Paul is calling for here is the preservation of the unity of the Holy Spirit who dwells inside each individual whom God has called.
This unity is certainly nothing of our own creation, but of God's creation. We are not called to create this unity or establish this unity, are we? We are called only to preserve the unity which God has established himself.
God does the choosing, not us. God creates the unity and calls each of those whom he has united to preserve the unity, not passively but actively, being diligent with full dedication and commitment, and in the bond of peace, which is being of the same mind, being of the same love, intent on the same purpose.
Maybe you disagree with a brother or sister in Christ. Maybe your brother does or believes something contrary to what you believe or do. Then again, if it's a matter of sin, just follow the protocol that God has already given to us very clearly in Scripture.
But if it is not a sin issue, then consider this. Who would you be to slander, to malign, to gossip about your brother and sister in Christ, whom God in his sovereignty chose to unite you to? Who would you be to try and destroy the unity that God himself has created through the Holy Spirit?
Who are you to try and separate what God has united, to do so and to show that you think you are wiser than God, to think that you know better than he does? It's all too often our tendency to search for the flaws of other people, to use them as some kind of ammunition against them, even when that person is a brother or sister in Christ.
For some reason, we tend to take more interest in what others are doing wrong rather than what they are doing right. This is a behavior that you must avoid if you are to be diligent to preserve the unity of the Holy Spirit.
Let me emphasize again that if it is sin, false teaching would be the exception here. That is not to be tolerated. Keep this in mind as you deal with others who have different opinions than you. If you cannot confront them with Scripture, you cannot confront them at all.
It is only by the Scriptures that you have any right to confront them. It astonishes me that today in the world there are over 30 ,000 different denominations underneath the Christian umbrella. 30 ,000 in the world.
I'm sure together we could go through, we could cross off thousands that we agreed were imposters. But I bet we would still be left with thousands. Yet even in spite of the thousands of different names, thousands of different statements of faith, even in spite of theological differences, there remains just one single church in the eyes of God whom he and his sovereignty has united through the Holy Spirit.
I'm going to let the Apostle Paul describe this church for you under the inspiration of God himself starting in verse 4. If you would read along with me. Ephesians 4 .4 it says, There is one body, this is referring to the church, and one spirit, the Holy Spirit.
Just as you also were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, referring to Jesus Christ, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all, meaning he is sovereign, he is through all, omnipotent, and he is in all, omnipresent.
Each member of the Trinity distinctly present in each one of those three verses, yet in perfect unity. God is one, and the church that he has established is one. Be diligent to preserve it. Your walk must unify.
Today, as in all days, we live in a twisted world that hates the things of God where people naturally do only that which pleases themselves, indulging in the lusts of their flesh, the desires of their minds.
But we can expect that from people who are spiritually dead, who are living in the dark, can't we? Their hearts are hard, and they walk according to the futility of their minds. Having become callous, they have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
They are excluded from the life of God. But Christian, God has called you from this. We ought not to expect this type of behavior from you. You must lay aside your old self, even though the world, Satan, even your own flesh are going to try to reel you back to live in the way you once lived.
You have no business going back there because to do so would be most unworthy of your calling from God. It would be an offense to God himself who has called you. Your primary goal is no longer to please yourself, but to please God who has given you life, purchased through the blood of Christ.
God has called you to a life of righteousness and has equipped you with all that is necessary. So walk in a manner that is pleasing to him. Walk in a manner that is worthy of your calling. Chapter 1 of the book of Ephesians, we see that the Apostle Paul, when he was chained and when he was in prison, he prayed on his knees for the Ephesian church that the eyes of their heart may be enlightened so that they would know what is the hope of God's calling.
What are the riches of the glory of God's inheritance in the saints? And what is the surpassing greatness of God's power toward us who believe? I too have been praying for each of you today that you also would know the hope of your calling and that you would walk in a manner worthy of it, that you would act like a person who has been raised from death into life through the grace of God, being humble and patient and tolerant and diligent to preserve the unity of the Holy Spirit who dwells in every member of the church of God.
Tonight you have seen yourself in the mirror of Scripture, in the mirror of Ephesians. Remember what you look like when you leave this place. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you now, we thank you, we praise you, Lord.
We can do nothing but praise you for how gracious you are. Knowing what we are apart from your grace, Lord, is scary to think. To think of how many out there are still in that same state. Lord, of all people you chose us, we don't know why.
It's according to your pleasure, and we praise you for that. Lord, we ask that we would not return to the life which we once lived, that we would not walk according to the way we once walked, according to this world, according to our own flesh.
Lord, that we would be dedicated, that we would be committed to do only that which is pleasing to you, knowing what you have done for us, that you lay down your life for us. Lord, help us to be doers of your word, even tonight.
Help us not be satisfied with half-heartedness. Help us to be disciplined, Lord. We thank you and we praise you through Christ, because it is only through him, Lord, that we have any hope. It is only through him, Lord, that you have purchased our salvation.
We praise you in his name. Amen.