Well, this evening we are continuing our series of studies in Paul's epistle to the Ephesians. And just to remind you, Ephesus was a coastal city of ancient Greece, although it now lies within modern-day Turkey. And we know from Acts 19 that Paul spent some years in Ephesus and his epistle to them was one of his prison epistles, those written by Paul when years later he was imprisoned in Rome. Now it's widely held, as I've mentioned before, that the epistle to the Ephesians was in fact an epistle intended to be read by many churches in the vicinity of Ephesus, in Ephesus and round about. And there are good grounds to believe that the epistle was the epistle to the Laodiceans referred to in the epistle to the Colossians. And there are great similarities between these two epistles. But unlike the epistle to the Colossians, which was written to counter a specific heresy known as the Colossian heresy, the letter to the Ephesians was written to highlight the grace of God in his election of sinners to eternal life. and to explain the blessings of the new covenant and what is expected of those included in that new covenant including all of us here this evening who are in that new covenant. In our last study we considered amongst other things Paul's prayer for the saints at Ephesus in verses 16 to 19 of chapter 3 which read as follows. that he will grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. And our last study ended with our consideration of this doxology. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. This evening we shall be considering just verses 1 to 12 of Ephesians 4 and we thus commence with verse 1 which reads as follows. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. And you will notice the similarity of the first section of this verse with verse 1 of the previous chapter, where Paul also identifies himself as a prisoner of the Lord. And we saw in our last study, did we not, that Paul was imprisoned because of his preaching of the gospel. He was imprisoned because of his service for the Lord Jesus Christ and this is why he refers to himself here as the prisoner of the Lord. Now I mentioned just a moment ago that the letter to the Ephesians was written to highlight the grace of God in his election of sinners to eternal life and to explain both the blessings of the New Covenant and the duties, what's expected of those in that New Covenant. And so having written about their election and that Gentiles were now able to be included in God's covenant people, Paul now goes on to show the Ephesian saints what is expected of God's covenant people, including ourselves. anyone here tonight who claims to be a born-again believer. And he began by writing these words, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. in our own day and age we might think of a vocation as something to which we are suited or qualified to do. And some dictionaries say that this can especially refer to a religious life. And this thought may have been in the minds of those who translated the King James Version since the Greek word translated here as vocation is exactly the same word that is translated as calling in verse 4 which we shall reach in a moment. In fact the word vocation is only found once in the scriptures and it's here in Ephesians. In any event, in my view, the translators no doubt had a good reason for using the word here. And it may be because it needs to be impressed upon us that it is no ordinary calling to which believers have been called. As we shall see as we proceed, there are callings for believers within this basic calling But it is expected of all believers that their lives should match up to their profession. Some of you may know that doctors take an oath, known as the Hippocratic Oath, whereby amongst other things they promise to do no harm. It's part and parcel of being a doctor. It goes with the vocation. And similarly there are things that should be part and parcel of a believer's location. And our attention is drawn to some of these things in verses 2 and 3 of the passage under consideration this evening. How we should walk. with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace." Now lowliness is viewed as a form of weakness by some people, as is meekness. We are told that we need to be assertive, are we not? We are told that we need to stand up for ourselves, to stand up for our rights, to be proud of our achievements. But here, we're told the opposite. The Lord Jesus is our prime example in these things, is he not? Just consider what he said about himself as we find it recorded in Matthew chapter 11 verses 28 to 30. Matthew 11 verses 28 to 30, the Lord said this, Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest under your souls for my yoke is eady and my burden is light. We must always remember however that meekness is not to be confused with weakness. And we see that lowliness and meekness are to be accompanied by long-suffering whereby we tolerate things patiently rather than reacting in haste. Some of you may have heard of a daily devotional work by Charles Spurgeon entitled The Checkbook of Faith. In America it's sometimes known as Faith's Checkbook. And in the devotional for May the 16th we have these words. This day let us try to give and to forgive. Let us mind the two bears, bear and forebear. Let us be kind, gentle, and tender. Let us not put harsh constructions upon men's conduct, nor drive hard bargains, nor pick foolish quarrels, nor be difficult to please. Surely we wish to be blessed and we also want to obtain mercy. Let us be merciful that we may have mercy. And we see, do we not, how this ties in with the latter portion of verse 2 of the passage we're looking at, forbearing one another in love. When we consider the forbearance of God towards us each and every day, surely we should be led to be forbearing towards others. So let us remember those two bears, bear and forbear. Now verse 3 of the passage we're looking at this evening reads thus, endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. And here we're given a reason as to why we should seek to be lowly and meek, to be long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. We must strive to preserve that unity amongst believers initiated by the Spirit of God by which believers are bound together in peace and love. the bond of peace. Now in this world we see disunity all around us but this should never be the case in the house of God. There should be unity in the church. Sadly we often do see disunity in the church and there can be more than one sort of disunity. For example there may be disunity if some people want to introduce things into a fellowship which others feel are dishonouring to God. For instance there may be believers who would welcome the introduction of contemporary worship or a less accurate Bible version or a less God honouring hymn book to name some of the more common causes of division. My own view is that those seeking such things will be better off moving to a different fellowship where they can have those things that they want rather than continuing to find fault with their present church whenever the opportunity presents itself. Yet another cause of disunity is where for whatever reason people have fallen out with one another. And sadly sometimes this falling out continues through generations of families and ought not to be so. People in fellowships need to pull together. to work together, to pray together and to serve God together. Believers should be at one with one another and Paul now proceeds in verses four to six of this evening's passage to set out seven aspects of uniformity with regard to the Christian faith. And this may have reflected an early confession of faith, we can't be sure. And those three verses read as follows. There is one body and one spirit, even as you 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. The Church of Christ is one body to which all believers belong. It consists of both Jews and Gentiles, of both Old and New Testament saints, of saints below and saints above. There may be any number of different congregations but all true believers are part of the one same body of Christ. Christ is the one and only head of the body and every saint is part of that same body. And just as parts of a physical body act in concert and for the benefit of the whole body, so it is that believers should conduct themselves for the benefit of the whole body rather than just for themselves. There is one Spirit, one Holy Spirit who indwells all true believers. Earlier in our studies in Ephesians when we considered verse 18 of chapter 2, we saw then that all believers, whether Jew or Gentile, have access through Christ by one Spirit unto the Father. a commonality we could say, for through him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. And this commonality is also seen in the letter to the Romans, Romans 8 verse 9, which reads thus, But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelling in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And also in 1 Corinthians 3 verse 16 we have Paul reminding those to whom he wrote of the commonality of the indwelling of the spirit. He wrote this, know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you. And the theme of commonality is continued when Paul wrote these words, even as you are called in one hope of your calling. Now we've already encountered the word hope twice in our studies so far in Ephesians. We saw it in verse 12 of chapter 2 which spoke of how the Ephesian saints were at one time, and I quote, without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope. and without God in the world. And we saw it in chapter 1 and verse 18 which reads thus, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And now here in chapter 4 we see that believers share one hope and it's a certain hope. a certain hope, that certainty that we shall receive everything that we have been promised, having been called from death unto life. Praise God, we are on our way to heaven. We have been sealed by the Spirit, the earnest of our inheritance. And we read more about the believer's one hope in Romans chapter 5. and the first five verses. Romans 5, the first five verses. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. Wonderful hope. Now the next common or shared thing listed by Paul is one Lord. And we are given to understand that early Christians testified to the uniqueness of the one in whom they trusted with these words, Jesus is Lord. And there are some verses in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians and also his letter to the Philippians that seem to substantiate that fact. Verse 3 of 1 Corinthians 12 reads thus, I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. Then Philippians 2 verses 10 to 11 we have these words that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. There is only one true Lord and consequent to this there can only be one faith, one true faith and only one way of salvation. Now you may have come across the claim that many people make that there are many ways whereby men and women can get right with God. I say there are many paths but they all lead to the same summit. But true Christianity is exclusive. In as much as it admits of there being only one way for sinners to get right with God and that one way is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in him alone. The Lord said this, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh under the Father but by me. Now, you may have heard of multi-faith events where people of different faiths seek to find common ground. And although it can be said that certain views may be held in common, it's so important to declare and to maintain the exclusivity of Christianity. Now the next thing listed as being common to believers is baptism. One baptism is what Paul wrote. And this refers to the rite of baptism which is undergone by those coming to faith in Christ. Baptism of itself has never saved a single person, not one. but it's a witness to others by those who come to faith. It's a public confession, if you like, of an inward change. And it's a command rather than an option, as we can see from Acts 2 verse 38, where the apostle Peter was addressing a multitude of people. And that verse reads thus, Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. By being baptised, believers are identifying themselves with their saviour. And this is apparent from Colossians 2, verses 10-12, which read thus, and ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power, in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. We also have Romans 6 verses 3 and 4 which read thus, Know ye not that so many of us as were baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Finally we have Galatians 3 verse 27, For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Now although there is only one baptism, to be baptised in the name of God the Father and of God the Son and of God the Holy Spirit, it is a fact that some of us believe that only baptism by immersion is in accordance with scriptural practice, whereas others believe that baptism by sprinkling is also acceptable. including the sprinkling of babies. My own view is that baptism is only for those old enough to make a true profession of faith for themselves, which rules out, does it not, the baptism of infants. And I believe that nowhere in the scriptures do we read of sprinkling as opposed to immersion, although there are those who will try to make a case for this. In any event, we now move on to the last of the seven aspects of uniformity that we're considering. That there is one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you. Now there is a verse in the Old Testament in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 6, one that's considered by practicing Jews to be one of the most important verses in the Old Testament. It's verse 4 of Deuteronomy 6 which reads thus, Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And this verse is the opening verse of what is known as the Shema. The Shema, which is the central prayer in the Jewish prayer book and is often the first piece of scripture that a Jewish child would learn. And during its recitation in the synagogue, Orthodox Jews pronounce each word very carefully, and cover their eyes with their right hand. And many Jews recite the Shema at least twice daily, once in the morning, once in the evening. And Judaism is a monotheistic religion, believing in a single god in one god, as opposed to those religions which believe in multiple gods, such as Hinduism and many of its offshoots. Islam, which has some shared beliefs with Judaism, is also a monotheistic religion and these, together with Christianity, are often referred to as the three great monotheistic religions of the world, believing in only one God. Now we know from the Old Testament that not only is there only one God but that he is a jealous God and has given a specific commandment that we are not to worship other gods. But of course there's a vital difference between Judaism and Islam on the one hand and Christianity on the other since a central tenet of the Christian faith is that although we believe that there is only one God, we believe in a Trinitarian God, a God who exists in three persons, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. And when here in Ephesians Paul writes of one God and Father of all, he is in particular referring to the person of God the Father and of his relationship with his children, with us, all of us here this evening if we are true believers. And when Paul writes of how God is in you all, He is referring to the fact that all believers are indwelt by God the Holy Spirit. Verse 16 of 1 Corinthians 3 reminds us of this. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? Well, having looked at seven aspects of uniformity, things that are the same for all believers, we now come to some verses which show us that there are differences between Christians. Differences that God in his wisdom has decided on, whereby he has gifted certain talents and responsibilities to some people. and other talents and responsibilities to others. And Paul begins with these words. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. However many gifts or graces we may have are such as Christ himself has blessed us with, the gift in is according to his measure. And then Paul makes reference to the first part of Psalm 68 verse 18 which reads as follows, Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captively captive, Thou hast received gifts for men. What Paul wrote was slightly different in that he wrote these words as recorded in verse 8 of the passage we're studying. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. As we have seen before, there are Old Testament scriptures which have a dual relevance, being relevant to the time in which they were written, but also to later times, particularly in respect of the Lord Jesus, messianic prophecies. And Paul certainly believed that about verse 18 of Psalm 68. And so verses 9 and 10 of Ephesians chapter 4 speak about Christ's descent to earth as a man, and to his ascension after his resurrection. Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descendeth is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things. Now some people have supposed or proposed, particularly the Roman Catholics, that Christ's descent to the lower parts of the earth is a reference to his having gone, before he rose again, to a place which they call the Limbus Patrum, a place where they say the patriarchs were detained until Christ's coming and from which he released them. Of course, this is pure fiction. And we do better to understand the Saviour's descent as his condescension in leaving his heavenly home and lowering himself in coming to earth. Now there is an apparent contradiction between what we have in Psalm 68 and what Paul wrote inasmuch as Psalm 68 speaks of gifts for men whereas the Apostle refers to gifts unto men. However, this is a case of Paul expanding what was originally written to make clear its fuller meaning. What Christ is gifted as a result of his achievements he then bestows on others. And included in these gifts are gifts to the church by way of people being gifted to the church to fulfil certain roles. As Paul puts it, 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. Now before we look at the roles referred to here and for what they are intended, I'd like us to briefly consider what Paul wrote to the Corinthian church about diversity of roles. So turn if you will to 1 Corinthians 12 and then consider with me verses 4 to 11. 1 Corinthians 12 verses 4 to 11 which they read thus. Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit. To another, faith by the same spirit. To another, the gifts of healing by the same spirit. To another, the work in the miracles. To another, prophecy. To another, discerning of spirits. To another, diverse kinds of tongues. To another, the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh that one and the self, same spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. Then if you go a bit further to verses 28 and 29 of that chapter we see that they read as follows. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, Thirdly, teachers. After that, miracles. Then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? That was what Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. They had a particular problem there, we know about various gifts. But now we return to Ephesians to consider those specific roles which Paul writes of here. And we shall see that some of these roles can and do overlap. The original apostles were the twelve disciples. But following the death of Judas, after he had betrayed his master, we see from Acts chapter 1 that he was replaced by a man called Matthias. Famous name, Matthias. And verses 21 to 26 of that chapter read as follows. which have accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. And they appointed two, Joseph called Barthabas, who was surnamed Justice, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, Lord, thou Lord which knowest the hearts of all men, show whether of these two thou hast chosen, that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. And they gave forth their lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias. And he was numbered with the eleven apostles." Well from those verses we can conclude that an apostle had to be someone who had seen the risen Christ, who was a witness of his resurrection and who had been commissioned by him. And because the apostle Paul saw the risen Christ on the Damascus road and was commissioned by him, it's felt that he certainly fulfills the criteria. He refers to himself as an apostle and we have no reason whatsoever to doubt his apostleship. And because of these two requirements, to have seen the risen Christ and to have been commissioned by him, it follows that there haven't been any further apostles since those original apostles. There are people today who may claim to be apostles, particularly in charismatic circles, but these are false claims. There have been false claims to apostleship from the earliest days of the church as is evident from what we read in Revelation chapter 2 concerning the church at Ephesus. So verses 1 and 2 of that chapter read as follows. Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write. These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil. And thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars. There has been no higher office of men in the church than that of an apostle. And perhaps this is the reason why it's the first office listed here in our study passage. Those who were real apostles were few, as may have been those next in the list, those who were gifted to be New Testament prophets. Well, we haven't the time this evening to consider New Testament prophets in depth, but I would like to say just one or two things about them. Firstly, we need to understand that there is a difference between those who may occasionally make authoritative statements those forth-telling, as opposed to foretelling, and those who are extraordinarily gifted to speak of things to come. For example, consider verses 27 and 28 of Acts chapter 11, which read thus, And in these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch, and there stood up one of them named Agabus, and, signified by the Spirit, that there should be great dearth throughout all the world which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. These were obviously men gifted by God but as we have already seen when considering apostles there can be men who lay claim to an office but are merely impersonating the office. We see this from some verses in Matthew's Gospel where the Lord Jesus foretold things that must come to pass before the end of the world. Matthew 24 verse 11 reads thus. And many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many. Then verse 24 of that same chapter reads thus, For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. So a question arises for us here. Are there men in Arundei who have the gift of prophecy? Unfortunately we know that there have been men in Arundei who have claimed to have the gift of prophecy but some of them have misled believers for financial gain. In some circles there have been men claiming to have all sorts of gifts including the gift of prophecy and there have been cases where believers have been told by men claiming to be prophets that, just as an example, God wants them to leave all their money to the church when they die or sometimes even before they die. In reality, those men have access to church funds and they want to get their hands on the money. Or they might try something more subtle, but with the same aim in mind, to get their hands on someone's money. Now such people may seem very plausible but you know that's often the case, is it not, with confidence tricksters. One thing we ought always to bear in mind, to ask ourselves, why is it that God would ask a man or a woman to give us a message from God when God is perfectly capable of giving us that message himself. How we need to be on our guard against such false prophets. But we move on quickly now to the office of an evangelist held by those to whom God gave the gift of preaching the gospel of his grace. And we see some of these men in the Acts of the Apostles. For example, Acts 21 verse 8 reads thus, And the next day we that were Paul's company departed and came unto Caesarea and we entered into the house of Philip the Evangelist which was one of the seven and abode with him. Earlier I mentioned that some of the roles listed in Ephesians 4 can and do overlap and we have an example of this in 2 Timothy 4 verse 5. where Paul gives Timothy, who was a pastor, the following exhortation. He wrote, but watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. Now we come to the last two offices listed in Ephesians 4, that of pastors and teachers. And many feel that the construction of the original Greek is such that these offices ought to be considered as joint rather than separate offices. And we can see why this might be so, since should not pastors also be teachers of their flocks. Surely pastoral care should include sound teaching so that the flock is safeguarded from unsound teaching. But the labours of a pastor include more than just the teaching of a flock. The spiritual oversight of a church is in mind here and all that that entails. Well, time constraints preclude me from going into detail regarding the responsibility of a pastor or an overseer, but could we not summarize those duties by saying that a pastor should care for those in his flock? He should lead them in God's ways. He should teach them the whole counsel of God and should be an example to those in the flock. Having considered the offices listed here in Ephesians 4 we come to verse 12 which summarizes why it is that these offices have been gifted to men. We see that men were and are appointed for the perfection of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Gifts were and are given to men so that they might use those gifts in God's service. They are not given so that men can take pride in them, but are to be used for the benefit of others. All the gifts that we have considered this evening today are gifts for the benefit of God's people in one way or another. And there are other gifts that we have not looked at in any detail which you may have. And the question that arises is this. Do you realize that any good gift that any of us possesses is from God? And any ability, any strength to exercise that gift is also from God. And another question, are we using any gift that we may have for the benefit of God's people? However, we have no reason to boast about any gifts as is evident from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians in chapter 4. Verse 7 of that chapter, chapter 4, reads thus, For who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? Well as we come to a conclusion this evening we can perhaps conclude in no better way than to be reminded of the oneness of the Christian faith. There is one body and one spirit, even as you 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. Well, may we praise God for this oneness. Amen. Feel free to contact us at Sovereign Grace Church in Tiverton. Email us at grace2seekers at gmail.com. That's grace2seekers at gmail.com. Alternatively, you can visit our website at www.sovereigngracereformedchurch.co.uk.