All Together Now

There are two passages from the Word of God that we'd like to read for you this morning. The first is Ephesians chapter 4 verses 1 through 6 and the second is Psalm 133. First we turn to Ephesians 4 beginning at verse 1. I therefore the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the calling to which ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

There is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. And now Psalm 133, behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments, like the dew of Hermon, and like the dew that descendeth upon the mountains of Zion.

For there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. And may each of us strive to maintain that beautiful spiritual unity. Great truths are wrapped up in very simple words.

You take the word life, it's a word that a child can understand and yet a philosopher could not explain. Or you take the word that Paul uses five times in Ephesians 4, 5, and 6, the word walk. It's a very simple word, walk.

And yet wrapped up in that little word walk is a tremendous truth. In chapter 4, verse 1, he says, walk worthy of the calling to which you were called. Over in chapter 4, verse 17, he says that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, as the unsaved people walk.

Chapter 5, verse 2, walk in love. Verse 8, walk as children of light. Verse 15, walk circumspectly.

You see, when you turn the page from chapter 3 of Ephesians to chapter 4, you're moving into a different atmosphere. And the emphasis in chapters 4, 5, and 6 is the believer's walk. In chapters 1, 2, and 3, Paul has been spelling out for us the believer's wealth, our riches in Christ.

Now in the last half of this letter, Paul is going to talk about the believer's walk, our responsibilities in Christ. In the first half of the letter, he told us what God has done for us. And now in the last half of the letter, he's going to tell us what we should do in response to what God has done.

Many Christians are very happy to study doctrine, but when it comes to duty, that's quite something else. As the lady said to her pastor when she went out of the service, that would have been a great sermon except for all of those oughts at the end. I hope you won't feel that way.

Whenever Paul wrote his letters, he wrote them in this balanced way. He would lay down the doctrine, and then he would give the duty. He would give the explanation, then he would give the application.

He would describe our blessings, and then he would spell out our behavior. And this is what we're going to be doing throughout the rest of Ephesians, talking about the believer's walk. Now if you'll take these three chapters, you'll find that there are four basic walks that the Lord wants us to have.

Chapter 4, verses 1 through 16, walk in unity. The whole emphasis of these first 16 verses of chapter 4 is the unity of the people of God in the church. 1 through 16, walk in unity.

And then 4.17 to 5.17, walk in purity. And here he's describing the difference in the life of the believer from the life of the unbeliever. Walk in unity, walk in purity.

Then 5.18 through 6.9, we have walk in harmony. And there he starts talking to husbands and wives and parents and children and masters and servants. Finally, when you get to the end of the letter, 6.10 through 24, he talks about walk in victory.

And here he's explaining to us how we as Christians can fight the devil and the demonic powers in the world today. If I want to examine my Christian life, I think these four walks would make a good examination. Am I walking in unity? Am I walking in purity? Am I walking in harmony? Am I walking in victory? Now the first walk that he deals with is walk in unity.

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the calling to which you were called, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. I suppose some of you would have put walk in victory first, but I want you to know that unless you and I can walk together in unity as Christians, we're not going to have much victory in fighting the devil. Someone else says, well, it's far more important to talk about harmony in the home.

I have noticed that people who have home problems often have church problems. If you can't walk with believers in the church, you're going to have a rough time walking with people at home. Somebody else says, well, the great need today is for purity.

We live in this great city of Chicago and there's so much pollution around, morally, and you ought to preach more about walk in purity. Well, Paul does talk about walk in purity, but before he talks about purity and harmony and victory, he talks about unity. He is saying to me, if you want to have victory over the devil, if you want to have harmony in your home and your work, if you want to have purity in your life, the place to start is in your relationship with other Christians.

In other words, he's emphasizing the importance of the local church. Now, in order for you and me to be a part of unity, in order for you and me to walk in unity and to encourage the oneness of the church, there are three fundamental truths that we must get a hold of. And Paul gives us these three fundamental truths in these six verses in Ephesians 4. He gives us the meaning of unity, then he gives us the motive for unity, and then he explains the maintaining of this unity.

And believe me, friends, it's very personal and it's very practical. First, the meaning of unity. Twice in this chapter he uses the word unity, and these are the only times you'll find this word anywhere in the New Testament.

Now, the concept is there. Paul wrote to the Corinthians and he begged them to get together and quit fighting each other. He wrote to the Galatians and told them to stop fighting and devouring one another.

James wrote to some believers and says, what's causing wars and fightings among you? When Paul wrote to the Philippian church, he was begging two women, please, to get along with each other. As you read your New Testament, you find this problem of disunity crops up almost everywhere. Our Lord had this problem with his disciples.

They were constantly fussing over who was the greatest, who was going to have his way. What is the meaning of unity? Well, perhaps the best way to explain it is to tell you what it is not. Unity is not uniformity, where everybody is alike.

Now, there are some churches and some organizations that turn out what I call cookie-cutter Christians. Everybody wears the same uniform and everybody salutes in the same manner and everybody talks in the same way. That is uniformity and that's not what Paul's talking about.

Unity grows out of the inner man. Uniformity comes from pressure on the outside. You do this or else.

Unity comes from liberty and love. Uniformity comes from law and pressure. Now, unity is not uniformity.

Unity is not something organizational. I must be careful here because I know some people who say, well, pastor, I don't believe in the organized church, and my answer is always that means you believe in the disorganized church. Well, no, pastor, what I'm saying is this.

The church is not an organization. The church is an organism, to which I reply, if an organism is not organized, it dies. My body is an organism, but it's also an organization.

Each part has its place and each has a function to play, but unity is not organizational. The fact that we all have our names on the same line, unity is of the Holy Spirit. James says, as the body without the spirit is dead, the thing that organizes my body and energizes it is the spirit, the human spirit.

Now, when the spirit leaves the body, the body begins to fall apart. When a body begins to decay, it's dead, and so it is with the church. The church is organized.

Wherever Paul went, he organized local assemblies of believers. They had elders and deacons and they were organized, but they realized that organization is not unity. Every once in a while, some pastor somewhere in the world writes to me and says, dear Brother Wiersbe, would you please send me a copy of your church constitution, which I'm always happy to do.

We're not ashamed of it, but I always write back and say, my brother, please remember this, a church constitution can create as many problems as it solves. If the Word of God doesn't solve the problems in our church, the Constitution will never solve it, because the Constitution was written by men. The Word of God was written by God.

So unity does not mean organizational. Unity is not something that we manufacture. Let's all get together.

Let's have a slogan and a flag and wear a button on our lapel. No, that's not what Paul's talking about. He's not talking about the preacher becoming a cheerleader.

No, you don't have to manufacture this unity. It's already there. Paul doesn't say, endeavoring to make the unity of the church, endeavoring to create the unity.

He says, endeavoring to keep, to guard that which is already there. Unity is not uniformity. Unity is not something organizational.

Unity is not something we manufacture. Unity is that oneness of God's people through the Holy Spirit. It comes from within.

That's why Psalm 133 says, Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren, not enemies, brethren, to dwell together in unity. He says it's like the anointing oil that they poured on Aaron when he was made the priest. Remember that ceremony? They took the oil, Moses took the oil and poured the oil on Aaron's head, and it came down as beer.

Now, I'm glad the psalmist told me it came down his beard, because that tells me something important. Aaron wore over his heart the ephod. It was a special garment, and on this special garment were twelve jewels and the name of one tribe on each of those jewels.

So when the oil went down his beard, that means the oil bathed all of these jewels on the ephod. That is a picture of spiritual unity. Each jewel was separate.

Each one was precious, and yet they were all bathed together in the oil, which is a picture of the Holy Spirit. Then he talks about the dew. He says when the dew comes down, it's so fruitful.

It's so wonderful how it helps things to grow and to be beautiful. You see, the oil came down. The dew came down.

Unity is not something you work up. Unity is something God sends down, which leads me to say nowhere in the Bible are we taught that every church has to belong to the same organization. Nowhere in the Bible are we taught that each local church has to do exactly like every other church does.

I think it's a sin always to be comparing this church with that church or some other church. God never meant it to be that way. Unity, yes.

Uniformity, no. Paul wrote to one of the churches he founded, Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Now Paul pictures unity for us here.

For example, down in verse 4, there's one body. Now there's a picture of unity, but not uniformity. Here is my body.

It has millions of cells and different parts to it, and yet it all functions together in unity. If I were to have a heart attack or a stroke, it would mean there was disunity in the body, one part of the body working against the other part. He pictures the church as a body.

Over in chapter 5, he pictures the church as a husband and wife. Now there's a picture of unity. It ought to be.

Here is a woman and here's a man, and men and women are different from each other in every way, and yet they love each other, and so they live together, and they labor together, and they sacrifice together. What maintains the unity in that home? Love. You see, love is the circulatory system of the church.

The circulatory system of my body maintains the health of my body. The love that is shed abroad by the Holy Spirit in the body, which is the church, maintains the health and the unity of the body. In chapter 6, he compares the church to an army, and some folks like that.

They like the fighting part of it. But in chapter 6, the Christians aren't fighting each other. They're fighting the devil.

Now, an army is a beautiful picture of unity. If you go to watch an army on parade, and you see them marching, and they're all in step, and they swing their arms exactly, you say, my, what marvelous unity. That's not unity, that's uniformity.

They may hate the drill sergeant. That's right. They may hate the general, but they have to obey, and so they're all marching in uniformity.

But that's not unity. You watch that same army out on the battlefield, when there's no one around even to tell them what to do, but they have one goal in mind, win the battle. They have one concern, work together, and here they are in unity out on the battlefield, uniformity out on the parade ground.

Now, Paul expresses to us in verses 4, 5, and 6 the unity of the church. We won't go into detail on this, just look at it with me. Verse 4, what is the meaning of unity? There's one body.

Now, there are many local assemblies, but there's one body. All Christians belong to that one body, which is the church, the church universal, and one spirit. The Holy Spirit of God brought this body into being.

In Luke chapter 2, Luke says the Holy Spirit brought the body of Jesus Christ into the world, his physical body. In Acts chapter 2, Dr. Luke says the Holy Spirit brought his spiritual body into the world. So there is one body, even though there are many assemblies, many local churches, there is one spirit who indwells each one.

Even as you are called in one hope of your calling, that's the blessed hope of our Lord Jesus Christ coming back, all Christians everywhere, regardless of denominational label, all true believers are looking for that blessed hope. There is one Lord. Now, he's the head of the church, and through his word, by his spirit, he directs his church.

There's one Lord. There's one faith. Paul means by this, the faith that was once and for all delivered to the Saints, that body of truth that makes up the gospel, and what he told us in chapter 3, the mystery, that today the Holy Spirit of God is calling out a people for God's name, and Jews and Gentiles are united in that one body, which is the church.

And so there is one hope, and there is one Lord, there's one faith, there's one baptism. Now, as far as the one body is concerned, which is the church universal, there is one baptism. As far as the local assemblies are concerned, that one baptism by the Spirit, which you experience at conversion, is pictured by water baptism.

Paul is not talking about one baptism numerically, he's talking about one baptism historically. The Holy Spirit of God united Jews and Gentiles into that one body. Nowhere in the Bible are we told to seek for a baptism of the Holy Spirit.

In chapter 5, Paul is going to say, I want you to be filled with the Spirit, but nowhere does he say we seek a baptism, because there's only one baptism. That one baptism of the Spirit that formed the body, and now every time a sinner turns to Christ, that sinner is identified in that body by the Holy Spirit. And so there is one baptism.

There is one God and Father of all. We have the Trinity here, we have the Holy Spirit in verse 4, one Spirit. We have the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 5, one Lord.

We have God the Father in verse 6, one God and Father of all. This is a problem to people who do not believe in the Trinity. If this is what the Church is, then all of the Godhead is involved in it, called by God the Father, purchased by God the Son, indwelt by God the Holy Spirit.

This is the meaning of unity. This means that whenever a Christian meets a Christian, he feels at home. This means that we are not building walls of denominational labels, but we are one in the Lord Jesus Christ.

That is the meaning of unity. Now it's obvious that the whole Church around the world could never get together. This won't happen until the Rapture, but that we get together in local assemblies.

And these local assemblies are patterned after the one body. So that when Paul is describing here, here's the one body, we as local bodies are to be led by the Holy Spirit, headed by God the Son, called by God the Father. That's the meaning of unity.

Whenever I find a who is sowing discord among the brethren, whenever I find a Christian who for one reason or another causes trouble, I wonder if he really understands what happened when he was saved, how that he was taken out of that life of fussing and fighting and hatred and variance and death and decay and destruction and put into that marvelous, wonderful, miraculous body, the Church. The second truth that Paul shares with us is the motive for unity. Why should you and I endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit? Why not just go our own way? I had a letter a few days ago from a lady who had listened to a radio broadcast, and I appreciate when people write, and she said, I don't believe in joining a local church.

She said, I can sit home and watch television or listen to the radio or read my Bible. And I wrote back and I said, Madam, there is nothing you can tell me about the local church that I don't already know. I've been a pastor for 25 years, and I know my faults, and the Church knows my faults, and I know the Church's faults.

But you know what? We love each other just the same. My family has faults. I have a lot of them.

That's why they have them. But we love each other just the same. And so I wrote and said, you'd better find yourself a local assembly, because it can be awfully hard when there's sickness and you're in the hospital to have a TV set or a radio come and pray for you and try to encourage you.

Now, we aren't against the gospel on radio or TV, but they don't take the place of the local assembly of God's people. Now, why should I as a pastor strive to maintain the unity of the Church? Why should you as members, as associates in the body of Jesus, in the local body of which is the Church? Well, the word therefore tells us, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord. Therefore, because of all that God has done for us, because of what I have told you in chapters 1, 2, and 3 about the grace of God and the Church, therefore maintain the unity of the Spirit.

Now, may I review this for you? I hear people say, well, the secret of unity is love. It takes more than that. It takes intelligent love.

Paul doesn't say, oh, just love each other. That's a part of it. He says, I want you to know what God has done.

Duty is based on doctrine. Responsibility is based on revelation. Living is based on learning.

And he says in chapters 1, 2, and 3, here is what God has done for you. He says, God has called you. He saved you.

Why? Well, if you look at chapter 1, verse 10, here's God's purpose, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, God might gather together in one all things in Christ. Chapter 1, why has God done all of this for us? He has called us. He has blessed us.

He has chosen us. He's adopted us. The Holy Spirit has indwelt us.

He has sealed us. God the Son has redeemed us. He's forgiven us.

Why has he done all this? Because he's gathering together all things in Christ. So his first application is, since this is what God is doing, this is what you and I ought to be doing. God is gathering all things in Christ, chapter 1, therefore walk in unity.

Now in chapter 2, the first 10 verses, he tells us how we were raised from the dead. We used to be rotting corpses, dead in sin. But he says, God has raised you from the dead.

You're alive. Now get rid of these grave clothes. That's why over in chapter 4, he says, walk in purity.

God is putting everything together. Walk in unity. God has raised you from the dead.

Get rid of the grave clothes. Walk in purity. The end of chapter 2, he talks about how Jesus Christ is reconciled.

He's reconciled Jew and Gentile. Now, since God is in the reconciling business, walk in harmony. Chapter 3, he tells us about the power we have to defeat Satan.

And so in chapter 6, he says, walk in victory. You see how it goes together? The Holy Spirit wrote this so beautifully. God's gathering all things in Christ.

Walk in unity. You've been raised from the dead. Walk in purity.

You've been reconciled. Walk in harmony. You've been given power.

Walk in victory. So the motive for unity is simply not to undo what God has already done. God's not asking me to create something.

He's already created it. Paul doesn't say manufacture the unity. He says, maintain the unity.

It's already there. Our motive for unity is to work with God in cooperation with what he is doing. You see, God the Father called us.

We should walk worthy of our calling. God the Son died for us. We should walk worthy of that.

God the Holy Spirit lives in us. We should walk as those who have been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'm going to read your mind at this point because somebody is saying down inside, but Pastor, you've not said a word about evangelism.

Is it not the job of the church to get out there and win souls? It certainly is. And unity is a part of it. In fact, this is what Jesus prayed about.

When you read that high priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus in John 17, he has something to say about unity and evangelism. Here's what he says. Verse 20, neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe on me through their word.

That's soul winning. That they all may be one. Now, not one big organization.

As thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. That's spiritual unity. Now, why? That the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

You see it? You know, sinners don't want to get saved when they see Christians fighting each other. When I go visiting in the city of Chicago and unsaved people in the high rises say to me, Pastor, how come there are 50 different churches within 20 square blocks? Can't you Christians, don't you agree? Now, I'm not talking about ecumenicity. I don't think the Lord ever meant for us all to get together in one big organization.

I'm talking about spiritual unity. Friends, we're going to be together in heaven. It'd be nice if we'd start getting together and learning to love each other here.

There'll not be any places to hide up in heaven when your enemy comes along. It's a hard thing, I know. But the motive for unity is to maintain what God has already done, which leads us to our third truth, the maintaining of unity.

How do we do it? Well, he tells us how. Verse 3, endeavoring. It's a hard job.

This word endeavor means being diligent, sweating, trying hard, doing everything we can do. It doesn't mean sitting praying. Prayer is a part of it.

Endeavoring means doing everything we can, being diligent to maintain this unity that God has already produced for us. Now, he tells us how we can do it. Watch it.

Verse 2, Paul, how in the world can I, as an individual Christian, help to keep the unity of the Spirit? Well, it all begins with my attitude with all lowliness and meekness. Lowliness, that's humility. Paul says, let each esteem others more important than themselves.

If I go to church and my program and my ideas and my tastes are the important thing, then we'll have a fight. But if we get together and pray and have lowliness and meekness, meekness is not weakness, meekness is power under control. Long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

That little phrase in love, forbearing one another in love. Notice that, in love. Look at verse 15, speaking the truth in love.

Verse 16, the body edifying itself in love, in love. In other words, love is the circulatory system of the body. Love is the atmosphere of the family.

Love is that which keeps us together as we obey God, we speak the truth in love. Sometimes somebody gets up and says, I'm going to say this in love, but it doesn't turn out to be in love. Oh, how we need this, how I need this.

With all lowliness, a proper attitude toward myself, not making me the most important person in the world. Meekness, a proper attitude toward other people, not wanting to hurt them. Long-suffering, that word means long-tempered, not having a short fuse.

There are some people who have a very low boiling point. Forbearing one another, that means putting up with some things they aren't important enough to fight about, so we'll just put up with it in love. Now, Paul's not telling us to sweep things under the rug, he's not telling us to whitewash sin.

Oh no, speak the truth, but do it in love. Edify the church, but do it in love. Keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

In other words, if I'm walking in the Spirit, and you're walking in the Spirit, there's no reason why there can't be that unity. And so we maintain the unity by our daily lives. We can't separate our church life from our daily life.

If I'm walking in the Spirit on Monday, and on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, when I come to church on Wednesday night, I'll be a part of the unity of the Spirit. If I'm not walking in the Spirit, I'll be a part of the problem and not a part of the answer. I suppose James is the one who tells us best what this is all about.

Over in James chapter 3, and I'll not read this whole passage, it would be worthy of our hearing it, but James chapter 3, he puts it this way. Verse 13, who is a wise man, endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good life his works with meekness of wisdom. That's not how much Bible he knows, it's how much Bible he lives.

That's the important thing. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, that's where it always starts. Somebody comes to a meeting, he's got something that's chewing at him down inside.

If you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above. It's earthly, that's the world.

Sensual, that's the flesh. Devilish, that's the devil. Wouldn't you hate to have the world, and the flesh, and the devil giving you your wisdom to run a business meeting? For where envying and strife are, there is confusion in every evil work.

It's why churches split. It's why people get mad and say, I'm going to a different church. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable.

See, it's not peace at any price. First pure, then peaceable. Gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy.

And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by them that make peace. Now, you don't sow fruit, you sow seed. But the fruit of righteousness, like the fruit of the Spirit, has seeds in it for more fruit.

And this is what Paul is talking about. Paul is saying that you and I are either going to be peacemakers or troublemakers. We're either going to be a part of the problem or a part of the answer.

It's up to us to decide. But we had better be a part of the answer. We'd better be peacemakers, because if we're troublemakers, we are working against the very thing that God is doing in this world.

What's God doing? Gathering everything together in Christ. You're either gathering or you're scattering. And one thing that God hates, he names this over in the book of Proverbs, one thing God hates is those who sow discord among the brethren.

On March 11, 1830, a long time ago, a little ten-year-old girl was doing her homework. Her tutor was watching her, and they handed her a book. And her lesson that day was the monarchy of Great Britain.

And she was sitting there looking at the book and tracing the chart of the kings and queens of England. And all of a sudden, when she looked at the chart, she realized that she would be the next queen of England. It was young Victoria, and she started to cry.

And then she got over her little crying spell, and she looked at her teacher, and she said four words, I will be good. Now, you and I are already kings. We're seated on the throne with Christ.

We're a part of the body. We belong to his church. We're a part of God's gathering.

After all he has done for us, and considering what he is going to do for us, I wonder if we can look up from our book and say, I will be good. In as much as God has built a church that is one body, I will be a part of the unity, and not a part of the division. Heavenly Father, we get so short-sighted and selfish, and for this we're sorry.

Instead of seeing the total ministry of your church, we see our own little area, our own class, our own office. And Father, for this we're sorry. Help us to realize how big all of this is, that we're a part of something so eternal and so vast, that it's going to take all eternity for us to enjoy it and appreciate it.

Because of all you have done for us, Father, and because of all you will do for us, we will be good. We will walk worthy of the calling, and help us especially to walk in unity. For we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.