I want to thank you for being here tonight.
It's great to see each one of you and I appreciate so much
your presence. I know when a hot evening it is
perhaps easy to stay home and stay out of the Heat and kick
back and relax. But you've chosen to be here and
I certainly appreciate that because I think it shows your
interest in spiritual things and things that ultimately will
endure forever. You know, this life is fleeting
this life is passing and of course, the things that many
times we hold so dear and near in this Sly freely at the end of
the day and at the end of life's little day, really means so
little. And so you're here tonight,
we're going to study God's word together and certainly, we
believe that what we're going to study is indeed the mind of God.
You know, I think we're blessed tonight that we can actually
hear the words that God had in his mind, you know, a long time
ago, God placed man in the Garden of Eden and God began to
speak to man that point God gave them the rules the laws so that
they might be protected and of course so that they might come
to know him man. Violated that man, still
violates God's laws today. In fact, it seems that the
history of our world is a violation of God's law.
But we're here tonight, we're going to look at some things
that the word of God says. We're going to look at some
things that the Apostle Paul has to say actually in the book of
Ephesians and of course Paul as he began Ins to speak the mind
of God in the book of Ephesians talks about how God predestined
a great plan so that we might be saved.
You know, the book of Ephesians is one of those books that I
love to preach from because it's a book that really, I think cuts
through all of the nonsense and gives us a theological
perspective, a clear perspective of really God's love for us, you
know, on chapter 1 Paul begins and Ephesians and speaks of His
plan that he in his mind long before he created, man had and
of course he created, man, he placed man in the Garden of Eden
man. Sinned and fell from that
initial state of Covenant relationship and even from that
point on God began to prepare the coming messiah.
In fact, one of the greatest passages and I think all the Old
Testament is Genesis 3:15 were God says that the seed of woman
that's Christ the seed. Of woman would come and crush
the head of the serpent. That's the devil.
And, of course, we know that that happened at the cross
because Jesus, the seed of woman, born of a virgin born of
Mary, when he died, Satan had bruised him.
But when Jesus arose, he crushed the head he crushed as it were,
the main power of Satan, you see Satan has always been about
death, the devil is always been about destruction, but Jesus
overcame. That he overcame, death Hades
and the grave, and he arose again the third day.
So the first chapter of the book of Ephesians, Paul speaks of
this great plan, this providential plan where he
predestined those, that would be in Christ, they would be saved.
And then in Chapter 2, you remember that Paul speaks of the
grace of God that very famous passage.
Where Paul says by grace are you saved?
Not of Works. Lest any man should boast now of
course, That doesn't mean that we don't have some
responsibilities as individuals, but it is truly by God's grace
that we are saved now. Grace is God's unmerited favor.
In other words, Grace is something that we don't deserve.
It's something that we did nothing to earn.
And of course, when we look at Ephesians 2 verse 8, in the
context of Ephesians 1, it's this great plan.
That Paul is still. Speaking of it's the grace that
God Long before we were around so we can't claim any any any
credit in it. It is that plan that God set in
motion out of graciousness out of pure love for us so that we
might be saved. You know, the very famous
passage in John 3:16 Says that God.
So loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, you know
again, when man was so evil. In fact, her Romans 5, when we
were yet without strength, Paul says Christ.
Died for the ungodly. That's one of the most
incredible passages I think of all the New Testament because
there we are shown that while we should have died while we
deserve nothing from God Christ came and God gave us eternal
life. Well, of course, in Ephesians
chapter 3 we begin to see this great mystery.
That Paul begins to elucidate where the Jews and the Gentiles
and all of those of the world can come into the church, you
know, you Today, we talked about the church.
You know, Jesus promised to build his church, he promised to
build the Church of Christ if you will, and he said, Upon This
Rock, I will build my church in that rock.
We discussed was the great truth that he was the son of God.
And of course, that great promise, Jesus fulfilled, on the
day of Pentecost, when he built the church.
But, you know, in the Old Testament as God began to
prophesy about the church, he did that to the Jews.
You remember the old Nation of Israel.
They were God's chosen people. They were the ones that he had
formed out of this ragtag group of slaves that he had brought
out of Egypt under the hand of Moses.
And they became this great nation of Israel and to them, he
gave the covenants and to, then he gave the temple and to them,
he gave the priesthood. But the Gentiles, the others,
the pagans in the world were left out but, you know, God had
a plan even there, didn't he? God planned to bring the Jews
and all of the world together. Ian.
Jesus Christ. And of course the Old Testament
is really the working out of the beginnings of that great plan.
God begins to deal with the Patriarchs or the fathers of
families and then he deals with a nation.
And then of course, the nation of Israel gives way to the
tribes of Israel and to Jesus Christ who then through whom God
begins to deal with the world. And so we're in the Christian
age now. God is giving all people.
All the Races, the world, the chance to be saved.
And of course Paul speaks of that in Ephesians chapter 3, he
calls it. A great mystery and by mystery
he doesn't mean something that can't be understood.
He doesn't mean something that is that is difficult necessarily
even understand, but he revealed he refers to something that was
not revealed until the time was, right?
And of course, Paul in Galatians 4 says that when the time was
right, God sent his son made of a woman made under the law to
redeem those That were under the law.
And so the point is this, Paul in Ephesians 1 and chapter 2 and
chapter 3 is preparing the minds of his readers.
There at the church at Ephesus to understand and to truly
appreciate this great Plan of Salvation for them in Jesus
Christ, you know, today, we can enjoy that same plan.
We can be saved today. We can be saved from our sins.
We can have that same relationship with Jesus and With
God that they had back in the first century and of course that
is a wonderful thing for us today because when we heed the
gospel and when we obey the gospel, when we obey the good
news of Jesus coming to this world when we hear it, and we
believe it. And we repent of our sins and we
confess Jesus as Lord and Savior and deity and then have our sins
washed away in baptism. We are added to the Lord's
church. We are added to the Lord's body.
We are added to that group of saved that poor.
All the speaking of in Ephesians ones when he said, God
predestined those in Christ to be saved and to be part of
heaven with god. Well, we can go on through the
beginning fusions and look at the other chapters.
He'll chapter 5, the book of Ephesians is a wonderful chapter
chapter 5 speaks to the analogy of the Christ and the church.
He speaks their of the husband wife and Allergy and gives the
parallels and then a chapter 6, you remember the book of
Ephesians speaks of the Christian Army.
Armor and how that we put on the word of God, and other things to
keep us strong against the devil.
But I want us to look this evening just for a few moments
at Ephesians chapter 4, you know, if these receptor for is
one of those chapters that I think is pivotal in our
understanding of the basics, you know, we were talking yesterday
about going back to foundational principles, going back to the
basics because it is the basics on which everything is based
every structure. Every career everything that we
do in life has to be based on the basics.
You know, if you want to learn piano or you want to learn to do
drawing or writing, you have to learn some Basics and I believe
the basics for Christian Living. And even for the church, and
what it really is, is found here at least in part, in Ephesians,
chapter 4, verses 1 through 4. Now typically, when we preach on
this, or when we study it, we realized is that Paul is
speaking of the ones, he mentioned, seven ones in these
four short verses, he speaks of the Oneness of God system and
you know, that makes sense. Because really what he's talking
about is Unity, he's talking about the the the system that
God is created that is complete and cohesive and always holds
together and so then Paul begins to tell us about that system.
Now he does that in a very interesting Way, he begins.
First of all, with relationships in the congregation.
You know, the Church, of course, is about relationships, isn't
it? First of all, the church is
about relationships with God. You know, when we were separated
from God, we come to God in Salvation and through obedience
to Salvation and the Waters of baptism.
And we are united. We are at one with God.
We are at peace with God. And, of course, once we get into
the church, and we become a member of the body of Christ, we
Began. Then to work out our differences
in our differences, in culture, and maybe languages, and and
other things in the church. And so there is a, there's a
point of unity in the church, and, of course, being humans.
Sometimes we strive, we struggle, we struggle with that
note. We sometimes, you know, we had
Crossways with one another. In fact, you know, as I've lived
my life. As I've looked around that, you
know, various congregations that have had problems.
Sometimes it is over doctrinal issues.
And of course, Doctrine must be maintained at all cost.
But many times the difficulties that we experience as Christians
in congregations, many times stem, at least for my
perception, from personal grievances, we have with each
other, we have personality conflicts, we have difficulties,
we're human, we get on each other's nerves and it's kind of
like a family, you know? We again, sort of picking each
other and sometimes that can be even lead to division not, oh, I
want to dwell on that, can I? But that's not my main point and
I see no reason here in this congregation.
I know of nothing that I need to speak on about that.
But nonetheless, Paul begins with the church at Ephesus and
he tells them. Listen, you need to be United
because ultimately God is United, and he's going to get to
these seven ones. The one Lord, One Faith, one
baptism, one God. And Father of all, you know,
that, you know, the seven. Once you've heard them preached
on, I'm sure before, but let's begin.
And 4:1, and as we like to do, we're going To go expository
through the first four. Verses, the Paul says this.
He says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord beseech.
You now, that sets up then the overall context for the book of
Ephesians. Now, the book of Ephesians is a
book that is called a prison Epistles.
The Apostle Paul found himself on this occasion in prison and
he writes the book of Ephesians the book of Philippians and
probably a couple of other letters as welcome.
Washington's. And they need another letter or
sothe high Lehman to individuals and the churches while he is
under house arrest or while he's in prison.
And so, then he begins to write this letter, A begins to focus
upon his own authority and his own situation.
And I think he throws this in there, to make them understand
what he was willing to go through for the cause of Christ
in other words. Jesus was so important to the
Apostle Paul that he was willing to even go to prison and to
death. In fact, of course, tradition
tells us that that's exactly what happens.
Most of the Apostles except for, maybe the Apostle, John, at the
end of the first century died through a martyrdom of of life
because they held onto the tenets of the Gospel will Paul
says listen, I'm a prisoner. He says, I'm a prisoner of the
Lord and then he says because of this or this being who I am and
my willingness to dedicate my life to Christ.
Here's what I want you to do. He says I beseech you or I beg
you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were
called now you know the idea of walking is an idea of continuing
in something, it's idea of maintaining a status in
something. You know, the gospel of our, the
Epistles of John speak, a lot about walking.
You remember John for example, says that if we walk in the
light as He is in the light, we have Fellowship one with another
one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from
all sins, John speaks of this continual walking and of course
in the Greek it's in the continual type tense which
indicates that we don't just take a few steps in Christ.
We have to walk we have to continue walking long term for
Christ to be pleased with us. Well Paul says, listen you
church at Ephesus. I want you to walk in Christ.
I want you to walk worthy. Worthy of Jesus Christ.
Now, of course that would imply, would it not that it is possible
by Our Lives, to walk in an unworthy manner, you know, when
we sin and when we live, you know, riotous wives and our
communities are we don't uphold the gospel we, in reality are
walking in a way that brings shame and reproach upon Christ.
And so Paul says, I want you to hold forth the torch of truth
and light to your community, I want you Wall daily in the way
that you should walk and I want you to be a good influence to
those around you. Now, of course, on a practical
level of the season, that's exactly what we are the news.
Well, we are to go out everyday in our Walk of Life, and we are
to shine forth the Praises of him who has called us into this
glorious life and that others see the light of Jesus Shine
through us you know Jesus in The Sermon on the Mount said, let
your light so shine before. Before men that they may see
your good works and not boy for you, but glorify your father who
is in heaven. And so Paul begins to remind
them that he wants them to walk in Christ, be strong in the Lord
and continue in this. Strong relationship with Jesus.
You know what I think about walking with Jesus, I think
about hand-in-hand that song hand in hand, we walk each day
hand in hand along the way walking, thus, I will not stray.
Hand in hand with Jesus, you may remember that as long as it's
very picturesque, a path that leads off into perhaps the
distant Hills and you with Jesus walking along that road of life,
knowing that you're safe and knowing that you have everything
you need spiritually. Because Jesus is by your side
and you had put your hand and he is.
Now, Jesus won't hold your hand. If you want to go, Jesus will
not force you to follow him by his side.
He let you go and many times we do.
Go astray. But Jesus always has His Hands
Extended just like he did on the cross to engulf our hands and
golf us and bring us back to him.
But that's not the point that I want to continue with this
evening. I want to go on to see what Paul
begins to say. He says, I want you to walk with
this calling, I want you to do it in a worthy Manner, and then
he says with all lowliness and gentleness, you know, that's
something that all of us need to learn because we live in a rough
world. You know, we live in a world
where It is dog, eat, dog. We live in a world where, you
know, someone slaps us on the cheap we want to turn slap them
on the other cheek. You know, that's what Jesus
really was dealing with when he said turn the other cheek.
He's talking about. Being Meek and gentle.
He's talking about being those who are, you know, unafraid to
take abuse upon themselves for the cause of Christ.
He says, I want you to walk with loneliness and gentleness.
In other words, we don't have to always have our way.
We can defer to others and of course in matters that are not
gone for an old. We certainly should defer to
others and he says, with long-suffering bearing with one
another in love, the idea of long-suffering is to literally
suffer long. In other words were patient with
others. You remember the Apostle Paul in
First Corinthians chapter 13 gave this as one of the
characteristics of true love. Love suffers long and is kind.
It's patient. It's all of those wonderful
characteristics that Others first.
So Paul says all of this. Don't why would he say this?
Because whether or not they were problems, then at the church of
Ephesus, Paul certainly knew that people have problems and he
wants to show them that they need to be United.
And he's going to do that, not only by beseeching them with
these, very emotive, sort of arguments, but now he's going to
switch and show that God in everything is United.
God is a god of unity. God is a God that has a system
that holds together very well. God is a god of order.
You know, we look at course the universe and we think about the
universe and the stars and the planets, and how they all work
in their orbits. You see, God did all that God
placed order, he placed a pattern in the world, God is a
god of order and that's what Paul.
Now is going to address in the spiritual realm as well.
What does he say? Say he now begins to talk about
the church and so he says in verse 4 he says there is one
body and one Spirit I'm going to read through down to verse 6
action and read this. Then come back and we'll analyze
each of these seven ones. He says there is one body and
one Spirit just as you were called in one.
Hope of your calling one Lord, One Faith, one baptism, one God
and Father of all, who is above all Through all.
And in you all now, again, there are seven ones here, there are
seven proofs that God system is United that God's plan of
providence is one. And that we then should be one
as members of Christ's body the Paul begins.
And he says, first of all, there is one, body know, what does
that mean? What is the body?
Well, of course, when we think about the body, we think about,
Jesus Christ, don't lie. And, of course, Jesus did have
one. Physical body.
But now if we let the text explain the text, what Paul is
dealing with here is not the physical body of Jesus Christ,
but the spiritual body. You see when we are baptized, we
are baptized into Christ. We become part of his spiritual
body and it is as if we were grafted in to a physical body.
But the scientist spiritual body.
We become one and part and parcel with Christ.
Body spiritually. Now in chapter 1, Paul says this
in verse 22 he speaks of the power of Christ and he says he
put all things under his feet and gave him to be head, over
all things to the church which is his body Solis, use that.
And let's go back in and plug in what Paul says in Ephesians 4.
He says there is one bottle now. What is Paul saying?
He's saying there is one Church, there is one spiritual body of
Jesus Christ. Now, I think we need to develop
that just for a moment because I think that concept is created a
lot of division and misunderstanding especially
amongst the denominational world.
Now, of course, when we think of the body, if we think of a large
circle. Now of course the biblical
pattern, the biblical Paradigm in picture of the one body.
Is that first of all, there is a one universal body in Matthew 16
passage and we looked at yesterday when Says, I will
build my church. He was speaking of the one
universal body, composed of all the faithful Christians of all
time. And of course to the end of time
that body though is composed of faithful congregations.
When you look at the New Testament, the Apostle Paul was
writing for example to the Church of Corinth.
He wrote to the church at Ephesus, he wrote to the church
at Philippi. Now all of those congregation
Ins look to Jesus as their head, all of them look to the apostles
Doctrine just like in Acts. 2:42 the Jerusalem Church, did they
continued steadfastly in the apostles Doctrine and they did
those things which the apostles having been Guided by the Holy
Spirit late down, and of course, the biblical Paradigm then is
that we have this body of Christ.
This Universal body, composed of faithful, we want to underscore
that faithful congregations. Congregation.
So for example, there is hopefully the congregation in
Bakersfield on that Circle. There's the congregation locally
at home, we call it 85th and Euclid.
Our street on that Circle. Maybe there's another town Lodi
or something that would have different, you know, different
Congress different towns with congregations, all of whom are
looking to the Bible, all of whom are worshiping according to
a Biblical pattern and that then consists of the one body.
And that's what Paul is speaking of.
He says there's one body or there's one church now, the
denominational world and I think this is where we need to see the
distinction does not look at the one body or the church as being
the universal church with faithful congregations in it,
but they look at the one body as a universal church with
denominations in it. So what you do then is you take
that big circle and rather than having the little Has of the
faithful congregations within it, you then replace that with
denominations and so when you talk to your friends in the
religious world really, they will say, you know, we're all
going to heaven. We're just going by different
roads. I've had people tell me that
that not long ago. I was sitting on the plane and
the man said, you know, we all pray to the same.
God, we were talking about religion.
Well, you see that's the that's the kind of postmodern.
I'm okay. You're okay view.
It comes out of a Vision and a denominational mindset of what
the church should be Beyond. Again, Jesus says there's these
as our Paul says, there is one body, and, of course, that one
body is not composed of denomination.
It's why because those denominations all teach
different things. In other words, it would be as
if a body had divisions within it.
You know, when you look at the denominational world, it is
filled with the Visions, you've got some denominations, or
having kids. Borders over here.
You have some denominations and have a headquarters over here or
the other place. You have some that look to this
law or some to this catechism and it's really a religious
mess. No wonder people are confused in
the religious world today. You don't think Jesus was
praying in John 17. Jesus, pray for Unity.
Why so That Others May believe that his Apostles, having said
you see the you disunity in our religious world tonight.
Is an indication, of course that something is wrong.
Will you say when people go back to New Testament?
And of course, that's what the church is.
A priced of always plan, go back to the Bible, go back to the New
Testament when we go back to New Testament, and every
congregation whether it's here, or whether it is in Kansas City,
or whether it was back Ephesus time, go only to the New
Testament and see, only the New Testament as it spatter and law,
then we can have that biblical. Picture that Paul speaks of, we
can have that one body, you know, Paul wrote to Corinth who
was a divided. Sure.
And he says is Christ. Divided was Paul crucified for
you. You know, there were people in
that congregation apparently who are beginning to have factions
or denominations if you will. They begin to follow different
individuals and Paul conditions that he says?
No, the church is one, the body is one and it is consistent of
those who are Faithful in their worship, faithful in their
lives. Who go back to the biblical
pattern. So, when Paul says, there is one
bottle, he speaking of the one church.
He speaking of the one spiritual body of Jesus Christ.
And of course Jesus had one spiritual body.
He had one physical body, and that do we not remember that
every Lord's day, with the single Blow from the Lord's
table, as we think about the one body of Jesus Christ, you see?
The unity, the Oneness is throughout the New Testament
system. But Paul says, there is one body
and then he says, there is one Spirit.
Now, what is he thinking of your well?
Obviously he speaking of the Holy Spirit now there's a lot of
things we could say about the Holy Spirit and we get perhaps
even discuss and maybe even argue over how the spirit works
and he dwells and all of those other little Nuance stains.
But what does the spirit do? A spirit in life?
Has a spirit gives life in fact, you know, Our own bodies have a
spirit, do they not? You know, James makes the
argument that the body without the spirit is dead and he goes
on to say that faith without works is dead.
In other words, if you just have a body without a spirit of that
some life in it, it's a dead body.
Will the spirit the holy spirit in livens?
The church. Now, without getting into all
the nuances of how it interacts, with the individual, how does it
interact with the church? Well, through the written word,
In fact, the word of God has always been that, which the Holy
Spirit brought, you know, Peter said that even in the Old
Testament, Holy men of God were moved Along by the spirit, as
they wrote, and as they gave, the things that then would guide
God's people back then. And of course, in John 14:26,
John 15:26, John 16 verse 13. Jesus Promised, the holy spirit
to guide the apostles into all truth and So you see when Paul
says there is one Spirit what he's saying is there's only one
source of spiritual life and that ultimately is going to come
through, what the spirit revealed which is the word of
God. In other words, any other doctor
any other teaching that is brought by another spirit.
So to speak is certainly not that which Paul would agree
with. In fact, in Galatians, Paul even
reprimanded. The churches of galatia about
going off for another gospel and he said, even We or an angel
from heaven, preach any other gospel to you and that which we
have preached, he says let him be accursed.
And so when Paul says there is one Spirit he's saying there's
one source for that which enlightens the church and that
Spirit brings the mind of God. In fact, the First Corinthians 2
Paul speaks of the spirit which knows the mind of God and he
goes on to say that we cannot know what's in the thoughts of
another man and last Batman reveals it to us and so it is
With God, God through his holy spirit, has revealed it to us
those things that he wants us to know.
And so Paul says there's one body and one spirit and then he
says, just as you were called in one, hope of your call.
Now the book of Colossians Paul speaks of this hope as being
found in the gospel, but what is the ultimate hope that we have?
Well, the ultimate hope that we have is eternal life with God,
in heaven and Paul says There is one.
Hope we only have one way, you know.
Jesus, in John 14 said I am the way the truth, the life.
No man comes to the father, except by me and so Jesus is the
only way the only hope of Salvation.
So, again, Paul indicates the unity and the Oneness of God's
beautiful system. There is one body, one Spirit,
one hope. And then he says, there is one
Lord now, of course, when he says, Lord here, he means Jesus
Christ. He means the authority.
Remember the convention Peter made yesterday, as we study
that, you are the Christ, the son of the Living, God that
Authority that God had bestowed upon Christ Jesus.
In Matthew 28:18 said, all authority is given to me, that's
from God, on Heaven and in Earth and he says, I have all
authority. What Paul says that there is
again, one more there is only one with all authority.
They know that's very important, it's important.
First of all, personally, as we pointed out yesterday because
Jesus wants to sit as Lord on the throne of our hearts.
You know, many times, when we think of Jesus, we see Jesus
hanging on the cross. That's a wonderful beautiful
picture. That's a necessary picture
because without the shedding of Jesus blood, there would have
been no remission of sins. And sometimes we see Jesus with
a basin and how kneeling to wash the disciples feet.
That's a very necessary picture because we see there, the
humility of the god man and his lesson to us.
But, you know, we often don't like the picture of Jesus as
Lord. You see, Paul was living in a
day when there were literally slaves and where the Lord had as
Master every right to do whatever he wanted to the
slaves. Now, Jesus is not a hard
Taskmaster. In fact, Jesus in his own day
said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me for.
I am meek and lowly in heart. Jesus is as easy task master,
but he is our Lord, he's not just our friend.
Although that is true. But he is our Lord.
And in the, the times of Paul, when a boss or a slave owner,
our lord said something, it meant that individual, who was
listening had to do, Do it. Well you know many times we were
building and Star-Lord don't we? We rebelled against the lordship
of Jesus, we rebelled against Jesus having total control of
our hearts. You know we used to sing the
song have Vine own way. Lord have I Long Way You Are The
Potter and the clay mold me and make me after your will while I
am yielding waiting still. And you know, many times we
don't like that, you know, we are on as it were the the the
the The Wheel of Life and Christ is wanting to mold us and he's
wanting us to lay still what he makes of us a vessel to his
glory and we fight to get off the will we fight so that we can
do and be what we want to be and look like what we want to look
like? Well this is only one Lord,
there were many mores back at that time.
For the pagans. They have many gods.
They have many goddesses. They had many things that they
worship. Hall says, None.
He says, there's only one more and then he says, Is there is
one Faith, you know, many times when we talk of they'll say What
Faith are you? We know Paul says, there's only
one Faith. Now when we speak of faith and
I'll have to hurry here, but faith can be used in two ways.
It can be used in a subjective way referring to our own
personal faith. Our own personal convictions or
it can be used in an object of way referring to something
outside of ourselves. And I believe that's what Paul
is referring to here when he says, there is one Faith.
What he is thinking of, is that body of doctrines, those things
that we must believe in order to be saved?
You know, Jude says in Jude verse 32 earnestly contend for
the faith that was once for all time delivered to the Saints.
You see what Judas righty there is.
He's writing to Christians who had the word of God, the faith.
The Truth that had been delivered once for all.
There was not going to be anymore and he says, content are
holdfast lie to it in spite of everything that comes your way.
Well, Paul says, there's only one Faith, there's only one
system in other words by which we can be saved and yes, it
includes the baptism that Jesus taught, and yes, it includes the
doctrines of worship. Yes, it includes our Holiness of
Life Style, One Faith. And then he says, there's In
baptism a very quickly if you do a study on baptism in the New
Testament it's really quite interesting because really you
know while Paul says there's one baptism you know you really you
can read about more than one baptism in the New Testament,
you can read about the baptism of John, you can read about the
baptism of Jesus, you can read about Holy Spirit, baptism, you
can read about the baptism of fire, you can read about the
baptism of suffering. So what in the World is Paul
mean when he says there's only one baptism.
Well, it is that baptism contextually, I think.
Paul will show this over and over, not only in his missionary
Journeys. But also in his writing such as
in Romans 6 that that one baptism is the baptism immersion
in water for the remission of sins.
You see all of those other baptisms are either obsolete
such as John's baptism. Or they were things that were
never commanded you. Baptism the Holy Spirit was
never a command. It was something that was poured
out by God on a couple of occasions to demonstrate the
coming of the Kingdom but he was never a command to people.
So what is the baptism that was commanded to every single person
that was ever said? All you have to do, is read the
book of Acts in every example of conversion, every single one
without exception. They were baptized in water for
the remission of sins, by, and mercy.
Ian, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
just exactly like Jesus had commanded in Matthew 28 just as
Jesus had said in Mark 16 460 when he said he that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved, you know, it really boggles my
mind tonight as I talk to a lot of my friends and again I have
these discussions over and over about baptism and its necessity
or lack thereof. You know, Paul says there is one
baptism now, why would Paul even talk about Out baptism, if it
were not necessary, you know, Peter says in First Peter 3:21,
that the baptism that we go through the like figure unto
Noah, he said, saves us. He says, it is not the washing
of our bodies as we go under the water, but it is the answer of a
good conscience. You know, those old sacrifices
in the Old Testament, never totally cleanse the conscience,
but when we are baptized into Jesus Christ, we have our sins.
Totally taken away because Jesus is the perfect sacrifice.
He is as Johnson and John 1:29, the Lamb of God that takes away
the sins of the world. He is the perfect lamb.
The one that every other sacrifice pointed to Wars, he is
the Lamb of God. And so when we are baptized in
water for the remission of our sins, it is there that we
contact the death of Christ and it's there that the blood of
Jesus Christ cleanses us from our sins.
Well, let's go great. At the in some up with what Paul
then continues, he says one God and Father of all, who is above
all and through all, and in you all now, he's already spoken of
one. Lord, that's Jesus, he's already
spoken of the one Spirit. That's the Holy Spirit.
Now, he speaks of God, the Father, you see, he speaks of
the godhead. There is Oneness and the
godhead, they, you know, one of the great Mysteries of the
godhead or what some people call the Trinity.
I tend to shy away from that term because it carries you so
much baggage. But one of the great
difficulties is, how can three V1?
I don't know. I've tried to figure it out.
Theologians have tried to figure it out for 20, centuries.
I don't know. But yet there is such Unity
between God, the Father God, the son, and God the holy spirit,
that there is never a disagreement.
They are one, they are one in. Thought they were one in
purpose. They are one in essence, they
are one. And so Paul now gets to that
third part of the god yet, God, the Father, can you imagine can
you think of anything more absurd than for Christians, or
for, even a Jew for that matter to say?
Well, you know, there's a lot of God, the father's.
There's a lot of God's out there.
That's polytheism. Know, God is one, we are a
monotheists and Paul says there is one God one God.
And Father of all, who is above all and through all and in us
all now again he's above Paul because he has all power.
He's the one again that came up with the plan, he's the one that
sent his son to instigate the planet.
The Holy Spirit to tell about the plan, he is the one God,
anything beyond Oneness, would be absurd and he says, he's
through all, and he's in assault.
Now, I don't take from this. That, he literally means that we
are deity. I don't take from this, that he
means that we literally have God running around in US.
But he means, he's in Us in his influence.
He's in Us in the sense that we give our lives to him, and he is
in us and the sense that, you know, we espouse his word and we
become like him. And so, then the Oneness of this
great system that Paul deals with in Ephesians four verses
one through, six is so incredibly evident now.
What's the point? Well, there's a lot of points,
really, because one of the points that he begins with is
leave the point that we should be United amongst ourselves, but
the other points are theological One Lord, One Faith, one
baptism, one body. And I think if we look at those
things and really study what Paul is saying, we'll see that a
lot of the denominational things that we hear simply cannot be
true the, you know, in Africa, and other countries where it go,
we spend a lot of time we're not criticizing our friends that are
denominational, but we are tweaking.
Not tweaking. We are critiquing rather the
plans that they offer. Because what the Church offers,
what Jesus offered was simply the word we want to go back to
the word, we want to go back to the principles of the Bible and
probably at this meeting at some point.
We'll talk about that pattern that God has given us through
his word. Well, those are the thoughts
this evening and again, I would encourage you to read the entire
book of Ephesians. You can do it within really a
few minutes or one evening. Anyway, it's only six chapters
long as a great book and it really gives us the higher Her
thoughts. I think of Paul on the church
and the gloriousness of God's remedial system as found through
his son Jesus Christ. We thank you for listening to
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