I would like to speak to you for a few minutes from Ephesians chapter 4 and the first six verses Ephesians 4 verses 1 to 6 this will be a short talk on a short passage but I plead with you not to misread this although it's a short passage and a short address it's dealing with a very very important subject If you've been listening to what I've said before on the first three chapters, you will know that there has been a massive amount of doctrine set before us. Paul has taken us way back into eternity past, with God the Father decreeing the salvation of all his elect, Christ coming into the world, and by his life and by his death, supremely by his death is shed blood on the cross earning redemption for all the elect and God the Spirit coming and working in the elect to bring them to faith join them to Christ and pour in all the grace that they need to live the life that pleases God God has joined the elect from Jew and Gentile into one great body bringing them to faith in Christ uniting them together under Christ and in Christ and thereby getting glory to himself and glory for his people too but as I pointed out several times there is no command or duty as it were to believers in those chapters it's all precious truth the bedrock of truth but now in chapter four Paul changes mode entirely well not entirely but he makes a great switch here immediately he moves now into commanding believers urging believers pressing believers these believers who have been brought out of the world the kingdom of darkness brought into the kingdom of Christ the kingdom of light made into this one great holy temple for God writes to these believers having laid down this foundation of doctrine and then he begins now to urge, as he says in verse 1, urge them to live a life worthy of the calling they have received. In other words we are now into the area of sanctification. Now this is a very important subject and I want to make several important points in that subject from this passage. The first is this. You will see that having laid down all this truth, Paul is completely definite, dogmatic, assertive here, strong. There is no option here. He's gentle in the way he speaks, he's pleading with them, urging them, beseeching them, but nevertheless there is no doubt about it, the believer has to live out this Christian experience, this experience of the Spirit. They're in Christ, and Christ is in them, and they must live it out. They must live as Christ would live. They must reflect Christ in this fallen, pagan world of darkness. Live a life, says Paul, worthy of the calling you have received. Now I stress this. There are people in this world who believe that faith is merely assent to the truth. You assent to certain doctrines. That is diabolical rubbish. Of course you have to assent to certain doctrines, but real faith is more than assent. It is receiving Christ in the heart. It is, as we have seen in the first three chapters, an utter change, an utter bringing into Christ, out of the world, and making the sinner to be a saint from the heart out it's not simply a brain work accepting certain doctrines or ethics or principles it's the work of God's spirit changing the man heart soul and mind and will and it has to show this idea that you can just assent to the truth and live as you used to live is I say again diabolical rubbish it comes from the pit of hell And it's utterly wrong. If any person who believes in mere ascent is listening to me, I tell you, you are a modern day Sandemanian. Now that's the long name. But I tell you this, if you are thinking that ascent to the truth saves you, you are quite wrong. You have to be converted from the heart and within the heart, within the soul. It is a heart work. Man believes with the heart. and Christ must be formed within and it must show if any man or woman is listening to me saying well I'm a carnal Christian are you a carnal Christian what that means is 1 Corinthians 3 you are a pagan quite wrong to think that Paul is commending or allowing the Corinthians for being carnal you are carnal he says and if you go on like that you are pagans and you will live like pagans and die like pagans and for eternity you will be punished as pagans no sanctification is no option now let me stress that I have stressed it but there's another point that's dealing with the Sandemanians if you like but now what about the law teachers What do I mean by law teachers? The Reformed and many evangelicals, many of them do not know where it comes from, but it comes from Calvin, the Westminster Confession, the 1689 Particular Baptist Confession, the Savoy Declaration and so on and so on. What is that? That once a person is converted you take them back to the law. You get them converted by preaching the law to them and once they're converted you take them back to the law to get them sanctified. The law is the whip. It drives them to sanctification, believers to sanctification. It's the spur, it's the motive, and it's the standard. Now, what do I say about that? Well, read this passage, my friend, the first six verses, and what do you see of the law here? What do you see of the law in the first three chapters, except that it was taken out of the way by the work of Christ? The law accomplished no salvation for us. It's possible to speak of preaching the law to sinners to get them saved, or to bring them to Christ. Nor does he preach the law here. I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Live a life worthy of Christ. Live a life of this electing love, this saving mercy of God, this spiritual work of the Holy Spirit, this powerful, effective work. Live according to the gospel. This is what we have. Not the law. Not the law. I hope I've stressed these two points well enough. Sandemanians are wrong, thinking it's just a scent and you can live as you want. The legal teachers are wrong. It's not the law, my friend. It's the gospel. And it's not a whip. It's the life worthy of Christ. It's love and mercy. It's the gospel. So there is inevitable, unbreakable connection between coming into Christ and living for Christ. But it's not by law. It is by grace. It is not looking to the law. It is looking to Christ. That's what Paul says. He says it here and everywhere. You may say, well he mentions the law in chapter 6. So he does and we shall come to it. He uses it as an illustration. But over and over again, as you will see in these three chapters, 4, 5 and 6, as you will see over and over again, he links duties to Christ. as Christ loved the church as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you read it and see and it is here live a life worthy of the calling you have received and that takes us back to the first three chapters well believer how do we have to live by God's spirit how do we live for Christ completely humble why should we be humble for God has dealt with us in such mercy what grace he has given us what mercy and kindness he has shown to us we haven't deserved anything it's all of grace our salvation I'm referring to the first three chapters be gentle Hasn't God been gentle with us? Be patient. Hasn't God been patient with us and kind to us? Romans 2, 4, don't you know the patience of God that led us to repentance? God was patient with us. He dealt with us. How many times did you refuse Christ, my friend? How many times did you hear the gospel and not repent, not believe? But God still went on calling you, drawing you, and eventually, by His grace, you were brought to Christ. Therefore we must be patient with one another, bearing with one another in love. How many times we have seen in the first three chapters that God has dealt with us in love. He's not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. But on the basis of Christ's work, through Christ's work, the Spirit has brought us to bask in the love of God. He has shed abroad the love of God in our hearts. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit. He has joined us into one body, Jew and Gentile, all the elect. It's a pretty wonderful thing, my friend. I might be speaking to you in Australia now, or Japan, or China, Australia, America, South America, anywhere in Africa. It could be anywhere. And in all probability, we shall never meet in this life. But I grasp you by the hand, my brother, my sister. If you are in Christ, we are one in Christ Jesus. make every effort says the apostle to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace there is one body there's only one church i'm not talking about churches i'm talking about one body of the elect one holy spirit who brought us together you were called to one hope that means confident expectation we have the same hope my brother and sister we shall be raised to everlasting glory in christ at the last day we were called we have one calling One Lord. We have the same Jesus. Am I speaking to you in Africa? Am I speaking to you in America? Or in China? We have the same Lord Jesus Christ. One faith. It's the same gospel. We're brought the same way trusting Christ. And it's the same truth. It's the same Lord Jesus Christ. It's the same glorious gospel. One baptism. Now does that mean water baptism? Or does it mean spirit baptism? Well it could mean either. If it means spirit baptism, it's our union with Christ and our union in this body. There's only one body, only one spirit, only one union to Christ and that is by the spirit in the work of the gospel. If he means water baptism, there's a very interesting point there. Those of you who are infant baptizers, you all agree, don't you, that in the New Testament the baptism was the baptism of believers. You can't find one infant baptized in the New Testament, can you? Not in the entire scriptures. You can try and bluff your way through with the household business, but you can't find a case, can you, of one infant baptized? And you say, ah, that's because he baptized Converse. And Converse, adult Converse, you would say them, say, must be baptized by immersion. Yes, that's right. Well, shall we agree that is one baptism then? We agree that's a New Testament baptism, shall we say? Well, it's more than a New Testament baptism. It's the only baptism in the New Testament. Believers are immersed. There's only one baptism, my friend. So infant baptism must be wrong, wasn't it? There is only one baptism. And if you're talking about water baptism here, there is only one. There isn't believers baptism by immersion and infant baptism by sprinkling. Not at all. So will you stop your infant baptism? Will you stop your sprinkling? And if you haven't been baptized yet as a believer, if you are a believer, then arise and be baptized by immersion. That's the New Testament way. One faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all is all of God. Go back to say Genesis, but I meant the beginning. Go back to the beginning of Ephesians and go through again. And it's all of God. It starts with God. It was God working it out in Christ. It was God the Spirit applying it all. And it's all for the glory of God, the praise and the honor of God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. There's only one God and Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. If I speak to you in an Islamic country, Muhammad is no God, Allah is no God Christ is the only way to God the Father there is no way except through Christ to the Father and there is only one God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and this passage is working on the whole triune Trinitarian salvation that the Apostle has worked out in the first three chapters and he's applying it here of this. This is sanctification by the gospel. This is not law. This is grace from beginning to end. Unbeliever, if you're listening to me, you're outside of all this. But you can come in, my friend. Come in! How do you come in? It's been said time and again through this passage, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Come in, and you will be an inheritor of all these blessings, I assure you. but the main thought here is of course to the believer can I read a hymn to you by Isaac Watts this is what he said so let our lips and lives express the holy gospel we profess so let our works and virtues shine to prove the doctrine all divine Thus shall we best proclaim abroad the honours of our Saviour God, when His salvation reigns within and grace subdues the power of sin. Our flesh and sense must be denied passion and envy, lust and pride, where justice, temperance, truth and love, our inward godliness, approve. the gospel bears our spirits up while we expect that blessed hope the bright appearance of the Lord and faith stands leaning on his word and let me close by reading his word here and may as I read these things may they come home with power to you my believing friend unbeliever these can be yours if you look to Christ At the moment, they're not yours. Don't try and live like this, unbeliever. You can't do it. Look to Christ first. Come to Christ. Don't start halfway through the book. Start at chapter 1. Come to Christ first. But believer, if you are in Christ, then these things are true of you. Praise God for them. Talk of them. Think of them. Sing of them. And live them out. And may we do so for the glory of God. As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.