Ephesians 4:1

Thank you to the music ministry of Providence

Baptist Church. If you have your Bibles,

turn with me or look on the screen to Ephes

ians chapter 4 and verse number 1.

We come now to this second half, as I've been

telling you about, of this tremendous

epistle from the Apostle Paul. And the first

set of verses that we're going to focus on

is verses 1 through 6. And if you have a Mac

Arthur study Bible, you'll notice these

sections that are broke down the context of

each set of sections you'll see in that study

Bible

about walking in unity, being in the first six

verses. Sometimes go with that as a section,

sometimes not depending on the verse, but we

're not going to get past verse 1 today,

so don't get excited about anything. Whenever

a person joins a certain organization or a

society,

they obligate themselves thereby to live or

act in line with the standards of that society

.

I mean, that's true in the workplace. You

think about it. No matter what kind of

business it is,

you work there at that place of business on

the premise that you conform yourself,

you cooperate with the standards and the goals

and the objectives and the principles

that are a part of that particular

organization. Now, some of them are looser,

some of them are

tighter, some of them are well-run, some of

them are not as well-run, but they all have

standards.

I mean, that's true in all schools. That's

true. You join the Kiwanas or the Lions Club.

That's true

even in the cults. It doesn't matter really

what kind of organization you're talking about

.

There are certain principles in each

organization that you pledge your loyalty to

uphold. And if you

choose not to cooperate, if you fall out of

line with the conformity, you will at some

point lose

your place within the framework of that

organization. That's true even with government

.

If you don't conform to the standards of the

laws, both state and federal, in our land,

there in place, then you will find yourself,

if you do it enough times and at a severe

enough

level, you will find yourself incarcerated in

prison. I found that out a number of times in

my life. And you do it enough times and to a

certain severity, you will be taken out of

society

and no longer able to hinder the function of

an ongoing normal society, however you want to

define

that. If you fail to live up to the

expectations that your place of employment

puts on all its

employees, at some point, you're going to get

fired. Coaches on football teams will let kids

know real quick. If you don't do things our

way, get off the team, right? This is how our

society

works. No matter what we're involved in,

socially, economically, politically, there is

an expectation

of cooperation and conformity if we are to

maintain our place in that organization. Now,

this can be very negative. This can be very

binding on people. And it really is amazing

what in some cases people will do to conform

to a negative situation. I had some friends

in my high school years who became members of

the Southern University marching band,

the Human Jukebox. They played in that band

all the way throughout their college years.

And when I heard the stories from them of the

initiation process that they had to go through

,

as freshmen, they called them crabs, my

perspective, even as a lost person was

Noé José. And not that I would ever be a

member of the Southern University marching

band anyway. And we've seen that in fratern

ities, the hazing, right? We've even seen kids

die

as a result of trying to conform to the

initiation process of that fraternity. I had

one here at

LSU not long ago. It was a big case in the

news. But I've learned that that is just a

part

of our natural human desire to belong to

something and to gain acceptance and to have

a sense of identity in some particular group

or organization. Everybody wants to be a part

of

the team. Now there's positive aspects to that

. When Jordan was a cheerleader and when Trent

on

played football, it was a big deal at our

house when they came home for the first time

with the

uniform. The uniform laid it out on the couch.

It was a big deal. That was a good thing. And

like

with most things, there can be good and

positive things that come out of certain

organizations

and groups. But also, there can be very bad

things, depending on the team and depending on

the rules.

In John 9, when Jesus healed the man born

blind, remember? He was from birth. He was

born blind.

All his life, remember Jesus spit in the clay,

made some mud, and he told him, "Go wash in

the

pool of Siloam." And the man came back for the

very first time in his life and he could see,

that was a great scene in Jesus of Nazareth of

that, when the man could see if you ever

watched

that movie. And then, of course, the Jewish

leaders had to investigate what was clearly a

miracle. The man was born blind, now he could

see. What do you got to investigate? Well, you

know,

they hated Jesus' guts. And so, they go to the

man's parents to find out what the parents

knew.

And if you look there in John 9, 21, they said

, the parents said, "But how he now sees we do

not know,

or who opened his eyes we do not know." Ask

him. He is of age. He will speak for himself.

And then,

the very next verse, verse 22, his parents

said this because they were afraid of the Jews

,

for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone

confessed him, Jesus, to be the Christ,

he was to be put out of the synagogue. They

knew everything that happened.

But they wouldn't acknowledge anything about

how he was healed. They didn't even want to

discuss it.

They gave no credit to Jesus at all. And why?

They feared that the Jews would put them out

of the synagogue. They were so clamped down by

the desire for acceptance in that particular

society and in that synagogue that they would

not confess, think about it, their son that

they had to deal with all from a baby being

blind. They would not confess that he was

actually given

sight by Jesus because they didn't want to

lose their social status in the Jewish

community in

which they lived. So, on the negative side,

people can identify with things that become so

binding

that they become blind to the reality of what

they ought to know and ought to be a part of.

I mean, if they had been thinking straight,

after with their own eyes that they could see,

with seeing this miracle, they should have

immediately wanted to identify with Jesus,

who had just made their blind son to be able

to see. I mean, who really had the power here

in

this situation? No wonder that Jesus or wasn't

these Jewish leaders. They never made any

blind

man to see from then to this day. But the

drive in the heart of people is very strong

to belong, to be a part of something, even in

clearly bad situations. If they lock into that

situation, they will do anything to conform

because they need that acceptance. And when

you

translate this reality over into the church,

oftentimes, something can go very wrong.

People

come in the church and they want all the

blessings. They want all the rights and the

privileges of

the church, but they never really want to make

the commitment to conform to the standards of

the

church. And the thing is, the church and the

head of the church, King Jesus, has standards,

just like every other organization. When you

come to Christ on His terms of repentance and

faith,

and you are a part of His church, He gives you

all the rights and the privileges by grace

that come with being a Christian. And He

expects us to conform to His standards.

Remember, I tell you all the time what He said

. If you love me, keep my what? Not my

suggestions.

And in the New Testament, if anybody in the

church doesn't conform to the standards

by committing known public outward sin, what

does the New Testament say after the process

of Matthew

18 has been gone through fully, go do them one

-on-one, then bring two or three witnesses and

they still don't repent, bring them before the

church. They still don't repent. When you

bring

them before the church, what do you do? Put

them out. You not repent, you're out. You

haven't conform

to the standard. In fact, sometimes the Lord

puts people out on His own. We read that every

time we

have the Lord's Supper. Some of you are weak,

some of you are sick, and some of you are

asleep,

you're dead, you died because they were not

acting right at the Lord's Supper. So my point

in telling

you all this is that if people can join

organizations that are a part of the world

and conform with such rigid conformity, and

like in our example, if people can be so

fearful

of being excommunicated by the Jewish superst

ructure of their day that they literally

damned their own souls and blinded their own

eyes to the reality of the Son of God,

healing their blind from birth son, if people

can make those kind of commitments to things

that ultimately don't matter, don't you think

that as Christians, we can make a high-level

kind of commitment to walk in the way that God

has asked us to walk within the framework

of His own Church? Don't you think we should

be able to do that? Well, that is what Paul

is calling us to do here in these last three

chapters of Ephesians. Look at how he starts

out

here in verse 1. "Therefore, I the prisoner of

the Lord implore you to walk," that's how you

live

your life, walk in a manner worthy of the

calling with which you have been called.

So in the first three chapters, along with the

theological foundation that we've been talking

about, we were taught all about the rites and

the privileges that we have as a result of

being in

Christ, and now we get to the last three

chapters, and he says, here are the

requirements.

Do you want to be a meaningful part of the

Church? Do you want to advance the kingdom

of Jesus Christ on the earth? If you really

believe in this, then here are the standards

by which you are to walk. Think about all the

blessings that we learned are ours in the

first

three chapters as we've gone verse by verse,

letter by letter, through every one of them,

starting with every spiritual blessing in the

heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and then it

just

goes on from there. All these amazing things

that we have learned that are true about us

now that we have been adopted by grace into

God's family, and Paul gets to chapter four,

and he starts here with a "therefore." So what

do we do, Bible study guys? We got to

understand

what this "therefore." So in other words, "

therefore, on the basis of all that I just said

to you in

the first three chapters, now walk worthy of

such a calling." That's what the "therefore"

is there for.

This is who you are. So what I just taught you

, now walk in line with that.

Live up to that standard with your daily life,

and it's the highest standard there is

in the universe. Verse Peter 2, verse 15 says,

"For such is the will of God that by doing

right you

may silence the ignorance of foolish men." In

other words, we ought to be silencing the

critics

by the way that we live. I mean, how would it

look if I go to work in my secular job and

everybody

knows if I'm a pastor, if I'm up there cussing

all day? Huh? And how sad is it in our daily

life

when we don't do this, when we don't silence

the ignorance of foolish men? How terribly sad

is it

when Christian leaders don't do this, and they

fall publicly? One commentator said this, "The

whole

Christian life is simply becoming what you are

." What you already are. It's a daily process,

living up to who you are in Christ. Not easy,

but it can be done, and we've already learned.

We

have all the resources necessary at our

disposal. They're already there in the church

of Jesus Christ,

He, the boss, He expects conformity. And

listen very carefully.

Not a conformity to rules and regulations out

of fear. No, not a conformity to rules and

regulations

out of legalism or legalistic pride. What we

're talking about here is a conformity

to righteousness in your life out of a love

and true desire to be obedient to Christ with

your life. You truly want that because we

realize and we understand the tremendous

reality

of God's sovereignly granting to us that which

we don't deserve, His grace in salvation.

And then we want to do what God wants us to do

because of what God has done for us in saving

us.

The natural outworking of that reality is that

we want to be what God wants us to be.

We want to walk worthy in saving us. As you've

heard me say many times, God changes our want

to.

He changed my want to big time in 1997. And if

you're a Christian, again, you've been adopted

by grace into the family of God. And that says

something about how we ought to live every

single

day. Paul said in Philippians 1-27, "Only

conduct yourselves," here's the same phrase, "

in a manner

worthy of the gospel of Christ." In other

words, match your conduct with the gospel.

As we've learned, the first three chapters of

Ephesians are filled with positional truth,

who we are in Christ. And then that long list

of incredible riches and resources that are

ours

as a result of being in Christ. And I won't go

back over all that again. If you missed any of

those messages, they're all online. You can go

back or go back, just read the first three

chapters.

And after giving us three chapters of

incredible truth, incredible blessings and

resources that

are available to us every single minute of

every single day as the Christian, Paul gets

to chapter

four and very simply, pointedly,

straightforwardly, directly says now, walk

worthy, how you live your

life. This is a very typical pattern for Paul

to make this kind of transition in his ep

istles.

He loves to go from doctrine to duty, not a

begrudging duty. Okay? Like, I have to cut the

grass

of begrudging duty. Some of you may like it. I

'm not particularly fond of it, but it has to

be done.

No, for a Christian, our duty is our delight,

right? For all believers, there is never a

random

transition in Paul's letters. It's always

doctrine, the building of a theological

foundation of truth

in our thinking. And that is always the basis

then for our conduct, for our daily living.

How are you going to understand the basics of

Christian living without first learning the

principles for it? You can't have a genuine

Christian lifestyle unless there is a robust

biblical theology taught and understood that

undergirds your Christian lifestyle.

Again, verse one, excuse me, verse one starts

with that, therefore, it's there to take us

back.

It's the transition on the basis of all the

doctrine that you have just learned.

Therefore, this is your duty. Same thing in

Romans, the constitution of Christianity.

Read Romans, 11 straight chapters of magnum,

opus, doctrine, and theology. And then you get

to

chapter 12. Verse one, what's the first word?

Therefore, therefore, I urge you, brethren,

by the mercies of God to present your bodies a

living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God,

which is your spiritual service. And then he

goes off with here is how you are to live

through the

rest of Romans. So I set up the same way. For

the Christian duty is always a response to

doctrine.

Behavior is always a response to precepts. Our

life is always a response to our theology.

You have all the theology in your head. You

can know as much theology as our sea sprawl,

but if you don't live it, it's more of nothing

. That is why with our verse by verse exposit

ory

preaching, we are heavy on doctrine and

theology here at our church, both in Sunday

school and

from the pulpit. We are to work worthy of our

calling, Paul says here in our text.

We know who we are. We know what Christ has

done. We have the principles clearly laid out.

And guess what? It's on us to walk his way and

not our way. Paul says this in 1 Thessalonians

4

and verse number one. Finally then, brethren,

we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus

that as you receive from us, look at that word

, instruction as teaching as to how you ought

to

walk, live your life, that you excel still the

more. You see the, you see the point he's

making?

We have taught you how to walk and I'm exhort

ing you now to do it, but the teaching comes

first.

How in the world can we expect Christians to

function on what they don't know?

You can't live out the principles that you've

never been shown, that you've never understood

.

You can't behave in a way that you don't

understand. You have to dig into the word of

God

to learn and understand the principles of how

he wants us to live.

Proverbs teaches us this, that you will know

the wisdom of God when you desire the wisdom

like you desire gold, like people search for

silver is the example it gives.

Job makes the comparison of it being the same

as men who will go to every length possible to

mine treasure out of the ground. Proverbs

again makes it clear that when you put as much

effort

to know the wisdom of God as men will do to

find gold and silver, then you'll know God's

wisdom.

And there's only one mind to dig in, God's

book. That's the only place the treasures

found.

Again, back in Colossians 1 verse 9, Paul says

, "For this reason also,

since the day we heard of it, we have not

ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may

be filled."

Look at this, "with the knowledge of his will

in all spiritual wisdom and understanding."

What I'm telling you is this is a matter of

the mind, wisdom and understanding.

And then look at that very next verse in verse

10, "so that you will walk in a manner worthy

of the

Lord to please him in all respects, bearing

fruit in every good work, and increasing in

the knowledge

of God." And then he just keeps going from

there. You can read it when you get home.

This is why we are different, I would say,

from a large majority of churches in our

nation.

I absolutely refuse to ever get up here and

tell you stupid stories that go on and on and

on,

and wind up with some kind of shallow little

point when you get there.

That happens every Sunday in so many churches.

I refuse to ever get up here and give you

life-coaching self-help principles with Bible

verses attached that are delivered to you out

of

context. That happens in churches all over our

land all the time. If I fear God and I love

you,

I am going to do every time I get behind this

desk what Paul told Timothy to do in 2 Timothy

chapter 4 and verse 2, "Preach the Word, be

ready in season and out of season,

reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience."

And what? Instruction, teaching. King James

says doctrine.

That's my job. If I just get you in here and

tell you tear-jerking stories and get you all

whipped

up into an emotional frenzy or just constantly

fire-hoes you with feel-good, light-shallow

teaching that does not have the text of

Scripture as the subject matter of the message

, guess what?

I have just committed a dereliction of duty as

your pastor. And I just can't do that.

My duty and your duty is predicated on

doctrine, on teaching from the Word of God.

When April 15

comes around, you don't say, "And I think this

year I'm going to send a large check to the

federal

government." I mean the government has done so

much for us. I mean all these great smooth

roads

that we have to ride on, all these great

programs they have for the needy. FEMA does so

much for

us when disaster strikes. I think I need to

send the federal government a couple extra

thousand

dollars just because they do such a great job

up there in D.C. I mean only if you're

mentally ill

do you think that way. The real reason that

you send that check is because there's a

doctrine,

there's a law that says you're going to send

it or you're going to be fined and you may

wind

up in jail. That's the only reason why you

send it. That's one of the rules here in

America and

it's the same in the Christian life. We don't

do anything arbitrarily. And unless the people

know

the reason, you have a hard time getting

people to make a commitment to duty.

And part of my job is to convince you that you

ought to operate on the basis of the

theological foundation that we are given in

the Word of God. And again I don't want you to

conform

legalistically. Oh biting my fingernails or

God's going to strike me with lightning. I don

't want

you to conform emotionally. Okay? Emotion for

emotion's sake is useless. As we talked about

this morning in Sunday school, emotion that

you have should be the reaction to what you've

learned

with your mind and theological truth. And then

the emotion that you should have is thanks

giving

for the fact that you know these things and

you've been saved by God. That's where the

emotion comes

in. And I don't want to intimidate you into it

either. What I want to do is teach you the

Word

of God and then the responsibility is on you

whether or not to obey it or not to obey it.

And that's out of my hands after that. And

then it's between you and God Monday through

Saturday

after you walk out that door. If the preacher

gets up to the pulpit again and whips up

people

emotionally and gives them lists of things to

do without giving them sound theological

reasons

for doing those things, not only does it miss

the whole point of Christianity, not only does

it

actually eventually leave them empty, it also

produces in them a works-based righteousness

because they think that if I just do these

things the preacher's saying out in the

community by way

of service or whatever it is, then that means

I'm a Christian and that is completely antith

etical

to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The dumbest

thing that you will ever hear in any church is

, well,

we don't get into all that theology and

doctrine, we just preach the love of Jesus and

love our

neighbor. That is the stupidest thing that you

could say in the church. I'm here to tell you

if that's all they've got, that's not even a

true genuine church. That's a social club

in Jesus' name is what it is. We got far too

many of those in America today.

Folks, we live in desperate times. This is a

nation clearly under judgment and we deserve

it and it's time for the church to step up and

be the church, preach the word. As I've said

many

times, we don't need all the contemporary

music and the seeker-friendly programs to

attract people

that whole term seeker-friendly. The Bible

says no man seeks after God.

So how are you going to be seeker-friendly?

You know who the only people there are on

earth who

seek after God? The people who are already

regenerate, who are already saved, those are

the only

people who are seeking after God. The rest of

the people are seeking the benefits they can

get from

God or who they think God is, but it's usually

a God they make up in their own mind. The

church

needs to be uncompromisingly proclaiming the

whole council of God in sound biblical verse

by

verse expository preaching and if that's not

what you're looking for in a church, don't

come to this

one because that's all we're ever going to

have here. Even if it gets down to just me and

Christy,

that's all we're ever going to have here. Paul

prays in Ephesians 1-17, look at this,

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the

Father of glory,

look at these words, may give you a spirit of

wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of

Him. Are you getting the point here? God knows

that the whole heart of the matter is to know

the

truth in your mind and we get to know His

truth by digging into the doctrine and the

theology of

the Bible, Ephesians 4-23 and that you be

renewed in the spirit of your mind. Again,

that has to be

the foundation of our duty of how we live.

Philippians 1-9, and I pray that your love may

abound

still more and more and a lot of times people

stop right there in quoting that verse that'll

stop right there, that your love may abound

still more and more but keep reading, keep

going. What

does it say? In real knowledge and all discern

ment, finish the verse and keep going next.

Knowledge,

discernment, so that you may approve the

things that are excellent in order to be

sincere and

blameless until the day of Christ with the

knowledge and the discernment, that's how you

get there.

You have to understand love, knowledge, and

discernment in order to get the behavior of

verse number 10. Colossians 1-10, here we are

again, so that you will walk, you will live in

a

manner worthy of the Lord to please Him in all

respects, bearing fruit in every good work.

How

do we do that, Paul? And increasing in the

knowledge of God. Colossians 3-10, "And have

put on the new

self who is being renewed to a true knowledge

according to the image of the one who created

him." Knowledge, to know Christ, to know His

Word through the renewing of your mind. That's

the

issue. 2 Peter 3-18, "But grow in the grace

and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus

Christ."

The critical subject of knowledge is all over

this New Testament. You have to study and you

have to know the Word of God. As I told you

last week, you're going to starve to death. It

's all

that your input is just here on Sunday. You're

going to starve to death. In order to live the

Christian life in a manner that's pleasing to

God and brings glory to God, you've got to

study

also on your own. Now, with all that in your

head, you just got a bunch of knowledge. Go

back to

Ephesians 4-1 and we'll close with this. Let's

read it again. "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, let me ask you, is that a goal for you

with your life? Is that important to you?

Do you want to walk in a manner worthy of this

high calling with which you have been called?

If you are a Christian, you have all the

resources you need to do that

on the inside. And guess what else? You have

all the resources that you need on the outside

.

One of the resources is the means of grace of

the church. That's why you need to be here on

Sunday

morning. There's so many aspects to why you

need to be here with your church family,

worshiping God

on Sunday morning. Not the least of which is

the preaching and teaching of the Word. Week

in

and week out. That's what we focus on. But you

also have on the outside, you also have every

one

of you a Bible in your hand. That's the

ultimate treasure of all treasures right here.

Dig down

in the treasure is what I'm telling you. Keep

digging on your own for the rest of your life

till your very last breath. If you go blind,

Bible on your phone, just listen to it. What

technology has done for us, right? In order

that you might be able to walk worthy of your

calling

and bring glory to God with your life. Isn't

that what you want as a Christian?

That should be what you want. If it's not,

then there's evidence that you don't know him.

But if you do, that's the program. And Paul is

putting us in the plan for these next three

chapters. That's what we're going to be

learning all about. Boy, we got all kind of

stuff in here

we're going to learn about. But that's not

till next time. Let's bow our heads and close

our eyes.

We just thank you, Lord, that Paul, under the

inspiration of the Holy Spirit,

lines things up so easily for us to be able to

understand doctrine, teaching, knowledge,

based on that. Now, here's how you live. It's

so wonderful. It's so wonderful to have

a life of true meaning and true purpose and

true fulfillment. Only a Christian knows those

things.

Lord, outside of Christ, people run after

everything under the sun and never fulfills.

It never fills them up. It never scratches the

itch and goes from one thing to another.

But what a grace and a blessing it is to know

why we're here, to know where we're going.

Of all the blessings that you give us, Lord,

it should cause us to desire to walk worthy,

help us, Lord, to do that in spirit and in

truth. We pray that all that we've done from

your house

today has been done in such a way as to bring

you maximum glory today. Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.