going to come and read the Ephesians chapter 4. We're going to look at 1-16 verses 1-16 as Brother Verne comes to give a public reading of the Word of God. Amen. I'm thankful that we belong to a church that puts such a high emphasis on the Word of God. Amen. Amen. The words you're about to hear, receive it as that, the Word of God. Amen. Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led captive a host of captives. He gave gifts to men. Now this expression, he ascended, what does it mean except that he also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is himself also he who ascended far above the heavens so that he might fill all things. And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Amen. Oh, Father, what a wonderful, beautiful mystery this is. Lord, we want to enter into this this morning as much as time will allow. and Lord, be able to contemplate and understand a little bit more about what Paul said in this passage about the unity of the spirit and the unity of the faith. Lord, I pray God that you open our hearts to your word. I pray God that those that you have gathered here this morning will have eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to believe. Those that are watching by means of the internet, those who will watch at some later point, visit them, God, that they may believe what is true about your word. I pray you give me unction and anointing, that I will teach only that which is true and right, and that, O God, that you alone will be glorified by all that is said here this morning. In Jesus Christ's most precious name I pray, amen. You may be seated. To the glory of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, amen. The Bible clearly and repeatedly teaches that Jesus set up one single church, and our Lord Christ is sovereignly and ongoingly building that one single church as people who have been chosen for salvation since before God created the world are born again, justified, and adopted, and become individual members of that one single body. And Jesus alone is the sole head of that one single church. And because he has purchased the members of that one single church with his own blood, Jesus is to have the preeminence in all that is said and done in that one single church. Rick Warren wrote a book and said that we need to cater to the felt needs of the individual people of the church. Find out what they want and then give them that. And I couldn't disagree with that approach more. Now, he's filled many, many, many churches with that. I may never have that many people listening to anything I have to say, which I'm going to just speak to one audience, which is God, but He's wrong about that. What we need to cater to is the needs and the desires of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the head of the church, and he's the one that needs to be pleased with what is said and done in the church, and everybody else has got to struggle to come up with that and agree with that, because he's the one that purchased us. The church belongs to him. The church does not belong to the people, does not belong to the elders, does not belong to the deacons. It belongs to Jesus. Amen? Now many people would agree with that statement, at least on the surface, and yet, because of unconfessed sin and the unwillingness of people to repent, we see that the modern visible church on the earth is very divided, very splintered, and is engaged in almost every conceivable activity except the unity that the apostle infallibly spoke about in this passage. And so 2,000 years after the resurrection, we have literally tens of thousands of different religious groups, denominations, systems, and organizations, all claiming to be Christian, all claiming to believe the Bible, all claiming to possess and to love the truth. And that is an abomination and an abject rebellion to both the tenor and spirit of Jesus's words in the high priestly prayer found in John 17, verses 13 through 23, where our Savior cried out to his Father and prayed, but now I come to you and these things I speak in the world so that they may have my joy made full in themselves. I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world. I do not ask you to take them out of the world." Hmm. I do not ask you, Jesus did not pray to his father to take believers out of the world. How about that? radical theology, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have also sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they may themselves also may be sanctified in the truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in me through their word, that they all may be One, even as you Father are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory which you have given me, I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one. To the same extent that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are one, that's the same extent to which you and I are to be one with each other and with God. How about that? I in them and you in me, and that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you have loved me. This is why I do not believe that we're going to be raptured by Thursday. I don't believe that at all. I believe that we've got a lot of work left to do because we're not anywhere near that. We're not anywhere near that. And so until that happens, God's not pleased with us as he could have been. Huh? The fact that as we are around 25 years into the third millennia of the last days of the church age, believers in Jesus are so divided, so splintered, so distant from the oneness that Jesus prayed about here should break our hearts because this brokenness is truly the great scandal of our day. And it should be the catalyst for each one of us to pray and speak and work as hard as we can to eliminate this horrific division. But what is even worse than being divided is that this division is hardly ever mentioned or talked about, much less prayed about among believers in the 21st century. This is what I call growing used to the darkness, that we think that the darkness that we're involved in right now is normal. And it's not normal. It's a sin. And so we should not tolerate it at all. We should rebel against it because it shouldn't be. Now I've been led to take a short vacation from our verse-by-verse journey through the Gospel of Matthew to begin this new year by preaching a series of messages concerning the communion of saints. And part of that series is the biblical truth about the unity of the Christian faith. And this all-but-forgotten truth about the unity of the faith is very important for us to comprehend because so many have grown used to worshiping God with their words while denying Him in the way they live their daily lives. I would encourage you to read about the sons of Aaron and how they offered God strange fire. They were adulterous in their hearts, they were evil men, and Aaron would not stop them, even as Samuel would not stop his sons. And they prayed to God, even though their hearts were wicked, and God fried them on the side of the road one day, sent down lightning and destroyed them right in front of Aaron. And then God looked at Aaron and said, now you worship me, while the smoke was coming up from his two boys. God does not want us to be hypocrites. He said, I would rather you be cold or hot, but because you're lukewarm, I'm gonna vomit you. So be real, be real, huh? Amen. Do not let the sun go down upon your wrath. Now, that may mean, as it has been in my life, that you just don't go to sleep that night because you just can't push a button and solve all the problems sometimes. So you need to stay up all night and pray and cry out to God so that by morning you're able to fix the problem. But don't let the sun go down. The little verses like that that we just read and put on our bumper stickers and in our ball caps and then totally ignore in our daily lives. It's ridiculous. You cannot, your prayers are not, God is not listening to the prayers of the husbands if they're at odds with their wives. Did you know that? Your prayers are hindered, God said. Your prayers are hindered. Don't be content with that. That's huge, right? Now, I don't know about the wife if her prayers are hindered too, maybe so, but I know the husband's prayers are hindered. Whoops, it just kind of slips out sometimes. For example, 971 years ago, The Christian Church of the Eastern part of the Roman Empire broke away from the Western part over what is called the Filiocae. Three words in Latin found in the Nicene Creed concerning God the Holy Spirit. And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. Three English words and the Son in Latin is Filiocae. Back in the 6th century, several of the Western or Latin churches began using that phrase to describe the third person of the Trinity. The Greek-speaking Eastern churches considered that to be a theological error and formally requested that the Bishop of Rome condemn its use as it was not found in the original drafts of the Nicene Creed. The problem continued to escalate through the centuries, and the succeeding popes refused to condemn its use. The Western Church considered then, as well as now, that the filioque is biblically correct, and it is. But this issue was actually about authority. The patriarchs of the Eastern Greek-speaking Church taught then, and still teach today, that authority rests with them. while the Pope asserted then and still asserts today that as the vicar of Christ, the Pope alone has the absolute authority to alter the Nicene Creed or anything else as he sees fit. And so in 1054 AD, the Pope formally and officially excommunicated the patriarchs of the Eastern Church, and they responded by excommunicating the Pope. There you go. This created what is now called the Great Schism, and that division is now almost 1,000 years old. 463 years later, on October 31st, 1517, a German Augustinian monk by the name of Martin Luther nailed a document to the front door of the church at Wittenberg which contained 95 items of protest against both the theology and practice of the Roman religious system that he saw as being patently unbiblical and even sinful. Luther thought his action would spur a discussion and an honest examination of those 95 theses. Instead, the spark of protest began a process that ended with the Pope officially and formally excommunicating Luther, which was the beginning of what we now call the Protestant Reformation, which is now into its 508th year. Now, while there may be many issues that created and fueled that split, there were two titanic issues that rose to the surface that summarized the many unbiblical teachings of Rome. Number one, who has final or supreme authority to bind the conscience of the believer? Number two, how are lost sinners justified? In other words, how are they forgiven and made righteous? The first issue became known as the formal cause of the Protestant Reformation, while the second issue was called the material cause. Rome taught then and still teaches today that when the Pope sits in the throne of St. Peter and speaks about matters of either faith or morals, what he says is infallible. In other words, at that moment, the pope does not possess the ability to be in error, even when he contradicts statements made by other infallible popes. The 16th century reformers who issued a protest against Rome's unbiblical teachings and those who label themselves as Protestants today categorically reject the doctrine of papal infallibility. We believe and teach that it is the scriptures alone that have that authority. 500 years ago, Rome also taught, and still teaches today, that lost sinners are forgiven and made righteous through a lifelong process that begins with infant baptism and extends over the life of the individual, including attending the mass, partaking of communion, and participating in the rite of penance. Now, I said this before, but in case you have forgotten, anybody want to take a guess as to what is the goal of the rite of penance, R-I-T-E, rite of penance? Why do they do that? What are they trying to accomplish in the rite of penance? The priest or the bishop or the pope himself tells the sinner to go do something that is of such amazing magnitude that they will make God look bad if he does not forgive them. That's the goal of the rite of penance, to make God look sinful if he does not forgive. In other words, they're going to do something so important, so powerful, that it's going to earn God's forgiveness. Now, that's not just a different persuasion. That's blasphemy. OK? Amen, brother. I'm a sister. Amen. Yeah, teach them, teach them. Amen. We'll raise them. Hallelujah. I believe in that. Yeah. You don't want babies in the church. There's something wrong with you. I don't have a problem with babies acting like babies. I got a problem with grownups acting like babies. Protestants categorically disagree with this and believe and teach that lost sinners are justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. Thus, the division. Keep in mind that Protestants are not merely divided from Rome. We are also divided from the Eastern group over the same two issues that brought about our protests 500 years ago. Eastern Orthodoxy categorically rejects justification by faith alone, which is the very heart and soul of the biblical gospel. Now, there have been many attempts at reconciliation over the years between the three main branches of Christianity, Rome, Orthodox, and Protestant. But all of those efforts have eventually failed. And there's a reason why they have failed. They don't address the primary issue. There can be no unity unless we agree about what we must believe and teach, right? And as long as the efforts to unify Christianity center on social issues and other peripheral issues while ignoring the real problem that caused the divisions in the first place, the efforts at reconciliation will continue to fail. What divides three main branches of worldwide Christianity has to do with theology and doctrine, what the Bible teaches, and what it means by what it teaches. So it is important to understand that we are not divided over personalities. Now, let me just put another bug in your craw that maybe it's gonna bother you, I don't know. If you're learning or being a part of a ministry, a parachurch ministry, that is catering their information so it attracts both Catholics and Protestants, You're in trouble. You're going to believe falsely. We are as different as night and day. There is no middle ground. There is no area of commonality as it pertains to who has final authority and how are lost sinners justified. And to any attempt at trying to bridge the gap, John Wesley, who created Methodism, which is a horrible theological system, even though there are godly people within Methodist churches. There's godly people all over the place. There are people who are genuinely saved all over the place, but that's in spite of the fact of what those organizations are teaching, not because of what they're teaching. And that's weird. We ought to be godly because of what we're being taught, not in spite of what we're being taught. We shouldn't have to fight against what the leaders of the church are teaching in order to be godly. That's just weird, right? We don't agree on who has final authority. We don't agree on how lost people are forgiven and made righteous. And those are weighty and serious and eternal issues that cannot be solved by using shallow, superficial means or by pretending that those issues don't exist. I run into people all the time. Well, brother, I know a lot of Catholics that are saved. I said, really, name them. Give me their names, because I'm going to go talk to them. Well, just a lot of people, they don't have to agree with you. I said, amen to that. They gotta agree with God. Well, it's bound to be a lot of, and I see you changed your tone. It's bound to be a lot. How do you know that? Let me tell you how a Catholic can be saved. He's a bad Catholic. He either doesn't know or doesn't believe what his church is teaching, and he can be saved. But if you know what Rome teaches and you believe what Rome, you're not a Christian. Now, I know that sounds terrible to say that. That is the truth. I'm not helping anybody by lying about this. So, let's just hold hands and sway back and forth and close our eyes and sing Kumbaya. I bought into that for a period of time in my life. I thought that was the way to go. No, it's not. Because after you get through singing, you open your eyes again, we're still divided. I'm just telling you that's the reality, and we can't operate in fantasy. We've got to operate in truth. For example, back in 1994, several leading evangelicals, Chuck Colson, Bill Bright, the President of the Assemblies of God, J.I. Packer, joined with leaders within the Roman religious system and produced a document called Evangelicals and Catholics Together, called ECT. This movement categorically stated that the Protestant Reformation was over. Now, they really didn't get into any detail about why it was over. And that, because both Catholics and Protestants could honestly recite the Nicene Creed, that the 500-year-old division between them was resolved. This document also stated that the Protestant sola gratia, which is by grace alone, was infinitely more important than sola fide by faith alone. I guess they would say that because that doesn't make them have to believe in order to be saved and destroys their systematic approach to salvation. In response to this effort, a conference was called by theologian John Ankerberg to discuss whether ETC was correct. All Protestant signatories of ECT were invited. None came. But D. James Kennedy, John MacArthur, and R.C. Spruill did attend. The group correctly stated that nothing had been done by the Roman religious system to either apologize, rescind, repent of, or correct the anathemas of the Council of Trent against both the Protestants individually as well as Protestant theology. Maybe you don't know what that means. Here's what it means. At the end of the Council of Trent, they wrote a summary statement. And there's like 33 or 35 or 38 anathemas, meaning eternal damnations without the possibility of forgiveness. And one of those says, anyone who believes or teaches that justification is by faith alone and not by works is hereby anathematized. At that moment, the Roman system pronounced an eternal damnation on the biblical gospel, and they ceased to be a church. They're not a Christian church. These men were also used by God to state that ECT, quote, attacks the very foundation of absolute truth by concessions to relativism and postmodernism, belying its profession of joint commitment to the gospel, thus rendering that gospel moot. They also stated, quote, ECT falls lockstep into line with our culture's minimalist approach to truth issues. In other words, it doesn't matter. Who cares? Now, if you've ever studied the struggle of the church against Arianism back in the fourth century with Athanasius and Alexander and Arius and Constantine and Eusebius and all those guys, you'll understand that's exactly what they said back then. Who cares whether Jesus was of a similar or exact substance of the Father? What difference does that make with the average person's life? And thanks be to God, it does matter, and thanks be to God that Athanasius stood against all of them. So much so that on his tombstone in Latin is written, Athanasius Contramundo, meaning Athanasius against the world. In other words, he'd argue with a fence post. Thank God for him. He's the father of orthodoxy. We must understand, dear friends, that at the very moment, which was 1563, that Rome formally and officially agreed with the anathemas of the Council of Trent, specifically concerning justification by faith alone, what they condemned was the biblical gospel. And at that moment, they ceased to be a Christian church. And from that moment until today, they exist and operate as an apostate religious system that has isolated themselves from the authority of scripture. And you know why they're praying in Novena for me over in Biloxi. They hear me on the radio and they gather together. They're trying to get me saved. They're trying to get me to convert to Roman Catholicism. That's what that means. Beloved, we will never, it's not working. Beloved, we will, it's not gonna work by God's grace. Beloved, we will never become unified by simply holding hands while singing tear the walls of division down. That's a real song, by the way. We must face those serious divisions head on and fully embrace what the word of God clearly and repeatedly teaches. when it departs from the divine authority of Scripture. We must remember that the battle cry of the Reformation was not tradition, tradition, tradition, but Scripture, Scripture, Scripture. Now, my question to all these other people is this. If you're born again, you're blood-bought, you're spirit-filled, you're a Bible-believing Christian, why in the world would you disagree with God's Word about salvation? Why would you disagree with God's Word about salvation? Why would you hold to tradition rather than Scripture, especially when they're at opposite ends of the scale? They're not even close. But more importantly than any of that, here's what God the Holy Spirit moved on Moses to write about this. In Genesis 15 verse 6, then he, talking about Abraham, believed in the Lord and he, God, reckoned it to him as righteousness. Abraham was made righteous at that very second because he believed. Huh? That's what that says. And what the Apostle Paul, he expounded on that verse in Romans 4, 1 through 13, what shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about. But not before God. The only people Abraham would have fooled if he was justified by works is other people. God would have never bought into it. He quoted the Old Testament. Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now, to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, look at this, his faith is credited as righteousness. Huh? His faith is credited as righteousness. All the difference in the world. Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the man on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account. Is this blessing then on the circumcised or on the uncircumcised also? For we say faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it credited? While he was circumcised or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. And what that means in Paul's day, if you're going out to try to make new Gentile converts, that they have to become good Jews before they can become good Christians so they have to be circumcised, they have to follow the dietary law, ceremonial law, the feast days and all that, it's in the law. If you tell people that you're sinning, you're sinning, that is over. That is over. And any attempt by anybody to resurrect that is to deny what Jesus has done. That's how serious it is. All right. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised. Why? That righteousness might be credited to them. And the father, because people say, well, that just pertained to Abraham. No, it pertains to everybody that believes just like Abraham believed. And the father of circumcision are those who are not only of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham, which he had while uncircumcised. For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. The only people who are children of Abraham are those who believe. Nobody else is a child of Abraham. So as much as it should trouble us that Rome and the East are divided from Protestants, we must not compromise with what the Bible clearly teaches in order to have a measure of feel-good unity that is neither genuine nor eternal. What needs to happen to fix the division is that both the Pope of Rome as well as the patriarchs of Constantinople should repent of teaching contrary to sacred scripture, and they should formally and officially reject the anathemas of Trent, and begin to openly confess and believe that justification is by faith alone, absent any and all human works. Dear friends, the Bible absolutely commands that genuine believers engage in good and godly works. And we are sinning against God if we don't do that. Having good works, bearing godly fruit, following Jesus, walking with God, loving Jesus, all of that is simply different ways of displaying the outward invisible sign that we have, in fact, already experienced God's mercy and grace in the new birth, in being justified, and in being adopted. So the Bible teaches that all of our good works flow out from a humble and grateful heart of love precisely because we have already experienced the miracle of the new birth, already been justified, already been adopted. So we do not engage in good works in order to find favor with God so that he will forgive us and make us righteous. We engage in good and godly works in response to having already been justified by grace through faith alone. Rome and the East must also categorically reject the false teaching that the Pope or the Patriarchs have final authority or are infallible. They're not. Only the Bible, rightly and fully interpreted, is infallible. And if they are willing to repent and conceive those two huge issues, then we will know that God the Holy Spirit is sovereignly bringing genuine biblical unity to the Christian Church. But if they refuse to repent and recant, there is no basis for any unity at all other than with a few social issues. So while we may stand shoulder to shoulder with both Eastern Orthodox and Rome against many of the social perversions of our day, even to the point of being arrested and going to jail together, we cannot go to heaven together with those who reject and condemn the biblical gospel. Those who categorically and repeatedly and proudly reject the primacy of Scripture and who embrace qualities that they have no right to lay hold on are not saved. They are not Christians. They are not going to heaven. They are not our brothers and sisters in Christ. Now look, I realize that I'm preaching a sermon on the unity of the faith this morning. And I also realize that some will condemn me for what I just said. But what I just said is the reason every one of us are not Catholics, are Eastern Orthodox this morning, and why we say we are Protestants. But I am also perfectly in line with what the Holy Bible says and teaches about these issues. So what I just condemned was not individual people, but what those people believe and what they reject. They are free to repent and believe the Bible. And I call them to that and pray they will. But what I will not do is ignore or even minimize the distinctions between us and then pretend that we are all one big happy family when they continue to peddle false doctrine because we are not. But Brother Blair, can't you just meet them halfway? Can't we find some area of commonality between us? not when it pertains to essential truth. We could agree against homosexual marriage. We can agree about abortion. We can agree about transgenderism. We can agree about the sanctity of marriage. There's a lot of other issues we can agree about. We can't agree about eternal issues. We cannot agree about sacraments. We cannot agree about salvation. We cannot agree about authority, because we don't. And I know, because I talk about this a lot, people think I invented the division. I promise you I didn't. I'm just not ashamed of it. Because I think we're right and they're wrong. And so I call them to repentance and I don't hesitate to do it. I've been in the living room with the Bishop of Mobile. I've been in the living room with the Bishop of Biloxi. I've been in the living room with the Bishop in Jackson, calling them to repentance, begging them to believe the biblical gospel. And you should hear what they respond to me with. And I will tell you this, if it wasn't for a piece of paper in Washington called the Constitution, they would be killing Protestants in the streets. Because they did it in Europe when there wasn't a Constitution. That's the, I don't know if you've ever heard about the, I'm not gonna tell you what it says, you go find out. The Knights of Columbus, they had an oath that they take, it's not just a social organization. They're the army of the Pope. And you go find out about the little curved dagger that they hold in their hand while they take the oath and what the oath says about that curved dagger and what they will do with that curved dagger when the Pope tells them. I didn't make any of this up. So I don't give money to the Knights of Columbus. I'm not going to cut my own throat. Whoops, I just kind of told you what happened. Okay, look, let's say that I'm just crazy. What would meeting them halfway look like? By accepting two or three different ways that lost sinners can be born again, justified, and adopted? By saying that the Western Pope or the Eastern Patriarchs are superior to Scripture? By saying that the Bible isn't true or that it is subject to the office of those leaders? Never. unity, true unity, will automatically come after there is confession of sin, unconditional repentance, and full submission to the authority of Scripture. Because we must agree, dear friends, that the leaders of those groups do not have the right to believe or teach contrary to what the Scriptures teach. And that is the problem and the source of our division. But that is precisely why we have the Scriptures in the first place. as the means of grace by which God can correct all of us when we fall into error. And that reality does not change because I dress up in a colorful robe or sit in a fancy chair or wear a goofy hat. Look, I want unity. I pray for unity. I cry out for unity. I want real unity, true unity, biblical unity, and not some facade or make-believe fairy story. Okay, so what do we do? Are we doomed to always be divided? No. Both Rome and the East could repent tomorrow. But that is totally up to God to sovereignly move on them. So we should ask God to do just that. I know in my travels that the overwhelming majority of people I talk to don't even think about God bringing unity to the other two major branches of Christianity. They never talk about it. They never preach about it. They never sing about it. They never pray about it. I wonder why we got used to the darkness. And that tells me that they are certainly not praying or asking God to bring about what Jesus prayed about in John 17. So we can and we should pray. But until God answers those prayers, we do not have to do nothing. We should concentrate and pray and work on what we can do and what we can influence. We should never miss an opportunity to speak out about unity and what it would take to achieve it. and we should labor together with the other Protestant churches here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast with which we have already have a relationship. So I'm working very hard to join in with them in different efforts and to facilitate godly fellowship. And so I pray that this year, 2025, we will hold a joint conference on just what the Protestant Reformation was all about, why we are called Protestants, and that will center on the primacy of scripture. But even more specifically, we should lead the way here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast as to what true, genuine biblical unity looks like right here among the people of the Covenant of Peace Church. And to do that requires that we understand what God has said about the many one-another verses that are found in God's Word. So in Ephesians 4 verse 1, the apostle gives an apostolic command for all genuine believers to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. And then in verse two, he told the specific way we are to lead a life that is worthy of the divine call on our lives, with all humility and gentleness, with patience and showing tolerance for one another in love. There's that one another, right? So verse two tells us how to lead a life that is worthy of the call of God on our lives. And then in verse three, Paul ended that part of his teaching by saying, we must live our lives like that by being diligent to preserve, what? The unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Is that what it says? Now, this does not mean that we should try to deserve or earn God's favor. It means that we should recognize how much our place in God's favor deserves to receive from us. So the focus here is not on our worth, but on the worth and value of our calling. So you'll come to, sooner or later you'll come to this. I am not an important person, but what I'm doing is very important because I'm preaching God's word and laying a foundation in this church. Now if we go back to Ephesians chapter 1 through 3, we can catch a glimpse of the calling that Paul meant. Ephesians 1 verse 4, God chose us for himself before the world was created. Chapter 1 verse 5, he predestined us to be his children, and that means heirs of all our father owns. Chapter 1, verse 7, he sent Christ to atone for all our trespasses. Chapter 1, verse 13, he sealed us with his Holy Spirit to preserve us forever. Chapter 2, verse 7, he promises to spend an eternity increasing our joy in the immeasurable riches of his grace. Chapter 3, verse 10, he has given us the mission as a church to display his wisdom even to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. Or as chapter 1 verse 12 says, we are chosen and predestinated to live our lives for the praise of His glory. And then in Ephesians 4 and 3, Paul told us the way for us to lead a life that is worthy of our calling is to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. So what is the kind of unity that will bring honor and credit to our high calling? Here Paul says that Christ has given to the church, some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers. Now, I don't know, I was taught that this is called a five-fold ministry, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Okay, that is a terrible interpretation. It is a four-fold ministry, apostles, prophets, evangelists, and then one calling called pastor-teacher. Now, that is a terrible interpretation. That's the way the original Greek is written. And why did God give us those gifts? For the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ. How long? Until we all attain to the unity of the faith. The unity of the faith. Not the unity of faith, but the unity of the faith. And of the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness which is not the unity of my faith or your faith, as in the gift of faith or our ability to believe, but rather the unity of the Christian faith. So Paul was not talking about the unity of faith, as in the fruit or gift of faith that God grants to individuals, but the unity of THE faith, which Jude said was THE faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. THAT faith, which is the Christian faith. So we already have an already given, already defined, already organized, and already established faith called Christianity. The ancient church called it the religion of Jesus. And that is the faith that was once for all handed down to the saints, which is the only faith that Jesus has anything to do with. That is why we are on a journey in this church to first rediscover the once-for-all handed-down-to-the-saints faith, and then to articulate it in such a way that we comprehend what this faith looks like in the 21st century. And then by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, we pray that we will struggle against the lust of our flesh until we are humbly and joyfully submitted to this already established religion of Jesus, all to God's glory. And that is simply another way of understanding the unity of the Spirit or the unity of the faith. Now, we recite creeds that say the Church is one, the Church is holy. The church is universal or Catholic with a small c. And the church is apostolic, that we believe that the church is those four things. And the first thing out of the gate is the church is one. that we are not to believe or teach anything different than what Paul or Peter or James or John or Jesus or Moses or Isaiah or David or Daniel or Joseph taught. We are to have the same teaching that is being apostolic. I categorically reject The term apostolic is meaning that Peter laid hands on Linus, and Linus laid hands on Cletus, and Cletus laid hands on Bugaboo, and Bugaboo laid hands on Leroy, and Leroy laid hands on do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. I categorically reject that nonsense. Because at one time, there was four popes at the same time. For 400 years, the French family bought and sold the papacy with their own money. And so it's just a confusion. Being apostolic means you believe and teach the same thing that the apostles taught. That's all it means. And if you don't do that, you're not Christian. You might be a nice social church. You might be, you know, like the, like the Welks Club or, and people in there may be loving and kind and nice people, generous, but it's not a church. A church, the primacy of the church is that Jesus Christ is his head and he has the authority and he is exalted in all that is said and done, right? Amen. Now, you know, while we have such an overwhelming crowd here, Right, because this is going to require every one of us to not agree with certain things that we run into every day. And that puts you on the spot, and that makes you like an odd man out. And nobody's comfortable with that, because we all want to watch the Super Bowl, and we all want to say Donald Trump is the savior of the United States, and we all want to do everything like that. And I just don't believe any of that. I think God can use an evil man, and I'm not even saying he's evil. I'm just saying, I think the savior of the United States is Jesus. Because people are still looking at pornography in the United States, even with this guy and all. People are still divorcing their wives willy-nilly. There's sin abounding. Children are still being molested. Soul, bought and sold. The mystery to me is not that God is going to judge this country. The mystery to me is why he hadn't already done it. You think eggs at 15 bucks a dozen is going to be bad? Gas $25 a gallon is going to be bad? That you have to eat or hate your home because you can't do both? You think that's bad? Wait till the United States goes bankrupt. We're not, you said 33, baloney. 33 trillion, drop in the bucket. We're way over 100 trillion in debt. There's not enough money in the world to fix this problem. When George W. Bush was president, we had a $5 trillion debt. From George Bush till now, we've grown by, what, what does that mean? Whatever it is, I can't count right. Unbelievable irresponsibility. So he said, well, each person in the United States, your little girl, has already $185,000 in debt to the federal government. And she ain't even got a job yet. By the time she gets a job, it'll be $450,000 in debt. Because everybody wants to cut old Charlie's program, but nobody wants to be old Charlie. That's the problem. People were talking to me the other day, and they said, oh, wait a minute. He's stopping that? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's going to lay people off. How do you think you're going to cut spending without laying people off? Uh-oh. We voted for it. There it is. Hallelujah. We're on the road to success. But, you know, we can always start trading clamshells again or bartering with cows and pigs and donkeys and chickens, you know. Don't worry. And somehow God's going to move in the midst of it, and somehow God's going to get victory, and the church will thrive. The church of Jesus will expand. The church of Jesus will grow. And when Jesus comes back, the church of Jesus will welcome him back, because we're going to be here on the earth when he comes back. And we're going to celebrate and be in awe of him when he returns. Hallelujah. Amen. Thank you, Jesus. Yay, Lord. OK. Now, one difference between verse 3 and verse 13 is that in verse 3, we are told to preserve this unity, and in verse 13, we are told to attain it. So in verse 3, unity is a reality to be preserved, while in verse 13, it is a goal to be attained. Now, they're not two different kinds of Christian unity, but this one single unity has, in one sense, already been accomplished. And in another sense, it is yet to be accomplished. Look at Ephesians 2, 13 through 16. He's not talking about Roman Catholics and Protestants. He's talking about Jews and Gentiles here. by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in himself he might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. Alright, this passage tells us that in a sovereign and decisive act of both atonement and reconciliation, Jesus has already made every genuine believer one. And so that which Jesus alone accomplished on the cross, we should preserve by the Spirit. But in another sense, the unity that Jesus has already bought and paid for, and the unity that He alone is already guaranteed with His blood, must now be lived out in our daily lives and brought to complete reality in the lives of the people of the Covenant of Peace Church. And so in that sense, the unity that has already been paid for and is still a goal to be attained. Now, what that means is that if the unity that is spoken of in Ephesians 2, 13 through 16, and again in chapter 4, verse 3, and yet again in chapter 4, verse 13, is the same unity, which it is, then we can now define it. So according to what God the Holy Spirit spoke through the apostle Paul about unity in Ephesians, this amazing and somewhat elusive unity involves three things that we should already have in common. Ephesians 4 and 13 speaks about the unity of the faith, which Paul then defined as being the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. So this talks about the common convictions that all genuine believers already possess about Jesus Christ. Now, this means you have to believe correctly about Jesus. Huh? Because what happens if you believe falsely about Jesus? You're not saved. You can't believe in a man that didn't exist. So you have to believe correctly about who Jesus was. So I'm not telling you you can push a button, and all of a sudden that's just crystal clear. I would suggest to you that belief happens first, and then rational understanding comes over a period of time. But you can't believe falsely about Jesus and be a Christian. That's insanity. that's not saved. Amen. And we're not going to fix that problem by encouraging them in their false beliefs. We've got to tell them they're wrong. And I promise you they won't think that's good. I promise you they'll think that's terrible that you had the audacity to tell them that. Who do you think you are? Well, I think I'm quoting the Bible as who I think I am. I think I'm a wicked sinner. I think I'm a wicked sinner. They have to believe correctly. That's what the Bible is for, is to correct our false beliefs. Huh? Okay. So it is the common confidence that all genuine believers already have in Jesus. Then Ephesians 2 and 14 speaks about the end of hostility, the death of the enmity that existed between us and God before God graciously imposed on us the miracle of the new birth. And Paul said this enmity, this hostility, was replaced with love. And so when that happens, when the enmity is put to death, and when this hostility is replaced with love, we now have a common bond, a common care, a common covenant that already exists for each other. We're in this thing together. Huh? Therefore, I would, you know what helps people get into unity? Persecution. When they're hunting you down to kill you, you're not going to argue with your brothers and sisters about silly things. I promise you. Therefore, I would define Christian unity, or the unity of the Spirit, or the unity of the faith, from Ephesians 2, chapters 2 through 4, as every genuine believer having common convictions about Jesus Christ, common confidence in Jesus Christ, which automatically produces a common bond, or a common care, or a common covenant for each other. And Ephesians 4 and 3 calls this the unity of the Spirit. So it is the Holy Spirit himself who frees our hearts from irrational, self-defensive prejudices and biases so that we are both willing and able to fully embrace true convictions about Jesus Christ. It is God the Holy Spirit who enables us to hope in God and to have faith in Jesus and to cry out to God with confidence, Abba Father. And it is God, the Holy Spirit, who bears the fruit of love in each of our lives and establishes in all of us that common bond, that common care, and that common covenant for one another. So our common convictions, confidence, and covenant are all from God, the Holy Spirit. And that is why Paul called it the unity of the Spirit. And when we go back to verse 2 to see how we preserve this unity, we see two stages of love. And neither of these stages is natural or normal to human nature, both of the precious fruit of the work of the Spirit in our lives. Look at each one. He said, humility and gentleness. Look what he said. Walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. How? With all humility and gentleness. The knowledge of our high calling should make us feel very humble. Christian humility is a disposition to think lowly of ourselves and highly of Jesus Christ. Christian gentleness is the demeanor of the person who is actually humble. So precisely because they have been granted the incredible privilege of knowing, loving, and enjoying God forever, the genuine believer is someone of great humility. They regard their own knowledge and strength as small and lowly because they have beheld the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ. They regard their own personal righteousness as small and lowly, because they have encountered the Holy One of Israel. And since the true Christian is oriented on God and not man, they are not puffed up by any supposed superiority they may have over other humans. If an ant would measure himself by the Freedom Tower in New York, he would never boast over the flea. Christian humility causes a person to feel awkward receiving any praise. It makes him recall from the contemporary counsel of self-assertiveness, self-esteem, and self-confidence. The great delight of the lowly Christian is to enjoy and celebrate the free unmerited mercy of God. Because of this humility, all his longings are satisfied in God. God is the one he esteems. God is his confidence. God is the one who will assert himself someday to vindicate the poor in spirit and to make the last first. In the meantime, the humble believer is the servant of all. This is the first stage of love, and it is a work of the Holy Spirit, opening our eyes to see the majesty of God's holiness in the minuteness of ourselves. Number two is patience and tolerance. It says, walk in the manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love. The second stage of love results from the first. It is called patience, and that means that humility is a prerequisite of patience. Haughty, prideful, and arrogant people are not patient. The more highly you think of yourself, the more quickly you will think you should be served rather than become the servant. So human pride is the foundational enemy of unity. But if you have a disposition of humility, it won't feel so inappropriate when you are not treated like a dignitary and when the fruit of your labor are slow in coming. If you have ever one time seen the majesty of God's holiness, you are fully aware of your own minuteness and abject sinfulness. You will not presume to deserve special treatment. And if you have ever one time seen the magnificence of God's grace, you know that God will give you the strength to wait and will turn all your delays into strategic maneuvers of victory. Another way of describing the results of humility is with the term tolerance. It says, walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with patience showing tolerance for one another in love. Biblical tolerance is not that warped and perverted thing we see out in the lost and pagan world, where everything except divine truth is supposed to be accepted. Biblical tolerance is best understood as enduring. So just like gentleness is the demeanor of humility, endurance is the demeanor of patience. And that is our first one another. Now personally I'm thrilled that Paul said we must endure one another because that frees me from the hypocritical notion to think that I or anyone else in this church is sinless. Because sinless people don't need to be endured or forgiven. Yet we do. Often. So Paul was not naive. He knows that there are people here at the Covenant of Peace Church who are grumpy. critical, unreliable, and finicky. He knows the pastor has gaping holes in the fabric of his own sanctification. So his counsel to us is not how perfect people can live together in unity, but how real imperfect, genuine believers can preserve the unity of the Spirit by enduring each other in love. We must understand that the focus in verses 2 and 3 is not so much on how to preserve our common convictions or our common confidence. Those are assumed. The focus in those verses is on how a group of imperfect people can preserve a common covenant that already exists with each other precisely because we have all experienced the miracle of the new birth. But how do we care about someone? See, I've been told this for years. You don't need to join the church. You're already a member of God's church when you were born again. Okay, fine. If that's true, which I think it is, then you also are already involved in this common covenant with each other. If you're part of the church, you have a covenant with each other. And you have commandments that dictate how you to live your life, right? Right, and that is the one another verses that's all throughout the New Testament and even in the Old Testament. But how do we care about someone who has nothing in common with us except the fact that he is a covenant brother or sister? How do we patiently endure the ways of a person who lives his life so differently than we do? You ain't seen nothing yet. Where do we start having fellowship with about half the church is black? Or half the church is from Korea. Wouldn't that be great? Yeah. Yeah. Because they're different. They're not inferior. They're different. They're supposed to be different. Totally different culture. That's right. Are we going to receive them as full, equal brothers and sisters? I hope so. Because God already did. Huh? Now we've had this through the years here, believe it or not. I know some of you that hadn't been here long don't know that, but we've had that lots of times. They just didn't want to stay because they didn't want to walk that close to God, just like a bunch of white people don't. But I'm telling you, God may do this. And I'm just saying, that would be more, that would be a better way to build the church than everybody go to their own corners. because we're gonna all be together in heaven, right? How do we resist the temptation to politely nod our head at them on Sunday morning and then ignore them the rest of the week? Paul's answer, be humble in spirit so that you can patiently endure their differences and their sins. A man of godly humility is keenly aware of the immensity of his own debt toward God and how he has dishonored God repeatedly through unbelief and disobedience. He is also keenly aware of God's amazing grace that has forgiven and saved a wretch like me. Therefore, the primary key to this patient enduring that leads to biblical unity is humility. Because the man of humility cannot easily or quickly retaliate when he is wronged. He knows that before God, he doesn't deserve anything better. And he knows that if he returns evil for evil, he would be telling God, you're a fool for being patient with me and enduring my sin and returning good for my evil. And that would bring far more disgrace and discredit upon our high calling than the homosexual prostitute brought upon the Harrison County District Court last week. See, I want sinners to come and be saved. I want people with horrific backgrounds to come and be saved. Now, I want them to be saved, and I want them to pursue holiness. But I don't have a problem at all with fellowshiping with bad, bad people that used to be bad, bad people, right? So if we actually hope to obey all of those one another verses that we see throughout the Bible, we must guard our hearts and resist the natural inclination of our fallen flesh to be puffed up. And we must sincerely cry out to God that we may be both humble and gentle. and that our Lord Christ would be good to us, to bathe us with both the desire and ability to not be impatient or resentful with each other, but patient and willing to endure, then the blessed unity that Jesus Christ died to create will become real in our church, and we will not bring any disrepute upon the great God who called us into His kingdom and glory. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. As we now are going to get into the very detailed accounts of the one another verses, I pray, God, that you help us keep our minds that the primary thing that we need to be careful about is that we are humble and gentle and that we are patient and that we are willing to endure with each other. And, oh, God, please visit us with this, I pray. Write it upon the tables of our hearts. In Jesus' holy name, amen.