Unity: Getting Low to See God
By Pastor Matt Black
15
July 2007
Lord's Day morning
Ephesians 4:2
Introduction: Open your Bibles to the book of Ephesians 4. The title of this morning’s message is “Getting Low to See God”. Once you’ve found Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, won’t you stand with me this morning?
Let’s read Ephesians 4:1-6, “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, 2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”
Outline:
I. The Foundation of Unity: one Body liberated by Christ
II. The Faith of Unity: one Body looking to Christ as Head
III. The Fruit of Unity: on Body living with Christ as Head
A. Lowliness (humility)
B. Meekness (ability to bear injury)
C. Longsuffering (patient perseverance)
D. Forbearance (persevering with others)
E. Love (1 Cor. 13:8—it never fails!)
Introduction: The message this morning is exactly the opposite of what the world is teaching. The world teaches self-assertion, aggressive self promotion. You need to market yourself.
A brother in our church told me the story the other day of how ruthless people are in today’s world. A guy had worked for the company for ten years, and within two weeks he was forgotten. All people wanted was the stuff he left behind. People were making deals for the picture on the wall, the stapler—we live in the era of self and me and my own way!
This world teaches us to make the most of who we are. Be all that we can be. God’s not interested in any of that. He’s interested in you forgetting yourself as you look at His awesome majesty. So this morning I’m not going to teach you to be all that you can be. I want to teach you how to be nothing. I want to teach you to forget yourself. My message to you this morning is the same as Jesus’: “Resist not evil”. When harm comes your way, don’t fight back. Take the plundering of your goods with joy.
Now we say that “faith without works is dead”. Salvation is by grace through faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone (Puritan John Owen). Jesus said you shall know them by their fruits.
Now, I wonder—what is it that makes you a Christian? Is it by how much of the Bible you know? Is it by what you wear or your ability to debate theology?
All of that in and of itself is quite superficial. We read here that the foundation is something much grander—it rests not on you, but on God!
I. The Foundation of Unity: one Body liberated by Christ
We read here that if you’ve been saved, resurrected from the dead, then you need to “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called.” Paul says in verse 1, “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called”.
The heaviness and massiveness of Who God is and what he’s done for you needs to weigh upon you. You need to feel and experience the awesomeness of God. When you do that, you know what it results it?
A. You see the Bigness (sovereignty) of God. I’ll tell you—you become small and God becomes big. Paul was in prison, and he was busy edifying the body. He was a uniter. How about you? Are you stuck on your own problems and the problems of others? Or are you like Paul—“I’m a prisoner of the Lord!”
Application: You must look to God first in whatever your problem is. He is the mover of every circumstance—“He worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” (Ephesians 1:11). If you will look at your life from God’s perspective and get your life on the sovereign purposes of God, then you will not be brought down by bitterness and pettiness. Has someone harmed you? God will hold every person responsible. Do you realize though the greatness and sovereignty of God? Paul was in a prison and he used it to edify and build up the body. How about you?
B. We see the Smallness of ourselves.
We have a corporate culture that is killing our churches that we truly need to excise and cut off. There is an attitude of competition and jealousy among churches, and it needs to end. We are not here today to build and mighty and proud empire, but we are amazed to be part of the meek and lowly Kingdom of Christ. We need to be humble people coming together to worship an amazing God. The main thing is not the building or the people in it. It’s not our programs or what we can offer. The main thing here is God. He is big here. We see His awesomeness and majesty.
We read in verse 4, that we are to endeavor “to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” We have a unity in Christ with all believers that we must always guard. We have unity—you were given it the moment you were saved. The moment you came to know Christ, you were united with Christ and with all His people. We have the unity, but we must protect it. It is precious. We are one with the Father and with the Son through the Spirit. How do we protect it? We lose ourselves in God and in each other.
Your body is a picture of the body of Christ. Your body is not an eye. It is not a hand. It is not a heart. It is a body, and it is one, and it is not about one part. Each part loses itself to serve the other. That’s the point of this passage.
In other words, the way to greatness is nothingness. The way to gain your life is to lose it. The way to life is to forsake your life. This is the message of Christ! Don’t live like the world trying to gain everything and as much as you can. Don’t live for this world’s fleeting happiness. It’s all vanity and deceitful shadows. This world has NOTHING to offer you but deceit and pain. Don’t take this world’s bait. Don’t try to make anything of yourself but a follower of Christ. Lose all and gain everything. Count everything as dung. This is Christ’s message. He gives all and willingly loses all as a substitute for us, and we lose all and gain all as a follower of Him.
There is a great poem, that was originally a prayer of one of the Puritans that really talks about we must go down to do up! Listen to it. The title of the poem is “The Valley of Vision”:
LORD, HIGH and HOLY, MEEK AND LOWLY,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.
Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive
that the valley is the place of vision.
LORD, in the daytime stars can be seen from the deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;
Let me find thy light in my darkness,
thy life in my death,
thy joy in my sorrow,
thy grace in my sin,
thy riches in my poverty,
[and] thy glory in my valley.
In Ephesians 4, Paul tells us that the greatest place to see the glory of God is in the valley—when we get down low we can see God in these five attitudes: lowliness, meekness, patience, forbearance and love.
II. The Faith of Unity: one Body looking to Christ as Head
In this passage, we read in verse 4 thru 6 of this great unity, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”
I begin here with the one body. We are as a people one with the Person of Jesus Christ. He is our exalted Head, and we are His Body. We are to live our humanity as He lived His. He was despised and rejected of men. He was lowly and meek. He was humble. He lived a life that was perfect and without sin. He is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
Now we are His body. We are to live as Christ lived. As we live in union with Christ, we will have unity. Unity is what we have with Christ and with each other.
Two parallel idea run together in these verses. It has to do with effort and exertion. He says “Walk worthy” of your calling, and paralleling it, he says “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit”. There is this great effort on our part that results of the great effort on God’s part. We would have no ability had He called us. There’s a hymn that speaks of “all your ransomed powers”. You don’t have any natural powers, but you do have ransomed powers. Power that is the result of your spiritual union and resurrection with Jesus Christ.
III. The Fruit of Unity: on Body living with Christ as Head
All of the Marks of the Spirit come from having your eyes opened and seeing eternity and God as He is and seeing yourself as you are.
Another way to look at these five marks is to see them as entering into the life of Jesus. Before God created one thing, He knew you and planned to redeem you as a wicked rebel worthy of His fiercest wrath, and instead to save you and conform you to the image and likeness and resemblance of His most precious treasure: His dear Son. So the greatest thing that God can give us is the ability and grace to be like His Son.
That’s where unity in the church comes from: it comes from being like Jesus.
So the purpose of this morning’s message is not to make you a better person. It is not to make you all that you can be. No! It is not so that you can “Live Your Best Life Now” (Osteen). No, we reject the humanistic philosophies that are man-centered and God diminishing.
The purpose of this message is to urge you to be like Jesus. To walk, to endeavor, to be diligent as the Scripture says, in reflecting Jesus.
We are getting ready to look at two of the five Marks of Walking in a manner that is worthy of your calling—the first two are lowliness and the meekness.
Now think of what the Lord said in Matthew 11:29, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
There are five pillars of unity. These are the pillars of Christlikeness. You want to be like Christ? Here they are:
1. Lowliness (Humility)
2. Meekness
3. Longsuffering
4. Tolerance
5. These four are wrapped in the one mark that is greater than all: Love.
A. Lowliness (humility)
2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Lowliness (Humility)
1) the having a humble opinion of one’s self
2) a deep sense of one’s (moral) littleness
3) modesty, humility, lowliness of mind
Christ-- " I am meek and lowly in heart," (Matthew 11:29).
He was a man of sorrows and aquainted with grief (isa 53). Now all humanity must be lowly in heart. We are in a position of lowliness.
Humility is the total awareness of your dependence on God.
Humility has to do with looking at God and then looking at ourselves. It has to do with my opinion and actions toward myself.
Humility is the ability to see that everything you have ever experienced is by grace. Every breath comes from God. Any ability, my possessions, everything I have is a gift. It is to see myself as I truly am and to set aside the deception of pride. All pride is a lie. All pride is idolatry. All humility is worship to God. Humility is to see oneself as small and God as big. Humility comes when I shudder at the shear powerlessness of humanity.
B. Meekness (ability to bear injury)
2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Meekness is the reception of injuries with a belief that God will vindicate us. "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord," (Romans 12:19). It little becomes us to take his place, and to do what he has a right to do, and what he has promised to do. Meekness is recognizing that bad and good come from God. It is to submit to the worst wrongs with joy. Can you do that? Do you have a meek spirit? What comes out of your when you are wronged? Do you want to scrap and fight? Or can you lovingly and with the joy of eternity set before you submit to the will of God? This may entail someone telling blatant untruths about you. How do you respond to that? Is God sovereign enough to defend your cause? Or must you defend it for Him?
Matthew 5:5 is the Lord’s promise, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” The meek submit to wrong. Sometimes they have their reputations taken from them. The Lord was meek—he was also crucified as a criminal. Some people have their earthly possessions taken from them and they “resist not evil”. They are the meek, and they are blessed, and they shall inherit the earth!
Meekness produces peace. It is proof of true greatness of soul. It comes from a heart moved with the greatness of God to be moved by little insults. It looks upon those who offer personal injury with sweet compassion. Christ was meek going to the cross— “as a Lamb before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not His mouth.”
The Lord illustrated meekness in the Sermon on the Mount.
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary, “a calm temper of mind, not easily provoked (James 3:13).
We said that humility has to do with looking at God and then looking at ourselves. It makes me feel small when I feel God’s bigness. But meekness is me looking out at God and then looking at others. It essentially means to be able to rest securely and to be at peace in the will of God, not to fight back, or to take the bate of someone accusing you, but to rest in the sovereign plan of God. God will work it out when someone falsely accuses you. If someone rips you up one side and down the other, then I will say, you need to get used to it. Don’t respond in kind. Love. Be humble. You deserve worse than what you got even if you were innocent. You deserve hell. Be meek. To be meek is to not be easily provoked.
We see this in the life of Moses and in the life of Jesus. Let’s look at Moses.
Look at Moses Example of Meekness. Moses’ siblings, Aaron and Mariam were backbiting—questioning Moses’ authority. Now if there ever was a preacher called with the voice of Heaven, it was Moses! And the people that are hurting him are his own brother and sister. Now the next verse explains how Moses put up with this. It says in Numbers 12:3, “Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.” Moses was constantly getting battered by the complaining griping people, and then there was an inward coup against his authority. But because he was meek, he responded in peace and love and kindness.
We see this in David’s life. David was not ruffled by opposition. He had such amazing strength, but he did not use that strength even to harm his enemies. He like our Lord was meek and of an easy, modest attitude.
Albert Barnes said, “He that is constantly ruffled, that suffers every little insult or injury to throw him off his guard, and to raise a storm of passion within, is at the mercy of every mortal that chooses to disturb him. He is like the troubled sea that cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.”
Barnes, “Meekness is patience in the reception of injuries.”
Christ was the very model of meekness. It was one of his characteristics, " I am meek and lowly in heart," (Matthew 11:29).
He was a man of sorrows
Isaiah 53:4-7 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
C. Longsuffering (patient perseverance)
2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Longsuffering is patient endurance. Again, we look to Jesus. We want to be like Jesus. Jesus “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).
Christ avenged no one’s wrongs, but even while on the cross said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Christ had the rights to destroy the world. But He suffered long.
D. Forbearance (persevering with others) We are in this together. Don’t think your sin is any better than any one elses sin. Kindly bear with one another! Now if there is a problem in the body, does the body attack itself? No! It bears!
E. Love (1 Cor. 13:8—it never fails!). This is the word agape. Total sacrifice of self for the loved one! 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.8 ¶ Charity never faileth”
Conclusion: To conclude, let me apply some of these things.
1. Don't major on minors. That's certainly included in these exhortations. Don't strain at gnats, because if you get too concerned at straining at the gnats, Satan will get you to swallow some camels. The Pharisees would go to their gardens and make sure they tithed on the littlest piece of herb, but they totally forgot about mercy and love to others. Remember we are a body in Christ. There are real people involved here. Let’s turn our eyes upon Jesus! Don't major on the minors.
2. Strive to forget all personal offenses. The Bible in numerous places, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "If a man slaps you on the cheek, turn the other cheek." What is He saying? If there's been a personal hurt or insult to you, why don't you just forgive it and forget it and go on? You're doing pretty good for a person who ought to be in hell. You can have that humble attitude. Now when it comes to scandalous sins or somebody who has a factious and divisive spirit, they haven't just done one or two things wrong to an individual. They're working to be divisive, then those things have to be dealt with. The Bible says if you drive out the scoffer, contention will cease. Unfortunately that has to be done in the church. But all this little nit picking, tattle tailing, fault finding, critical spirit is just not of God. So as far as persona offenses, man, we can forget those.
3. Don’t engage in slander and gossip. 99% of what is said and spread in churches is mischaracterized. A lie is a lie even if it seems to have an element of truth wrapped around it. One of Satan’s greatest tools is the sensational—the tidbit of news that entertains you but destroys a brother. People will say false things to you. It happens They did it to Jesus. They did it to Paul. They did it to the early church fathers. They did it to the reformers. They did it to Spurgeon. They did it to Whitfield. They've done it to everybody. It's always gonna be. Don't let that shock you. But expose it. Live by Matthew 18. Go to your brother alone if there is an offense. ALONE! Don’t share it with someone else to see if you should go! You should just go! And if you don’t have the guts to go, then you’d better drop it and cover it with love.
Gossip is evil. Proverbs 20:19, “He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.” “You’ll never imagine what so and so did at church!” “I heard this and that about so and so”. That’s evil. The word says “meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.” Are you trying to flatter someone with the juicy bit of information you have? Don't participate in it, and don't listen to it. And that's hard. And I know some of you are in tough, tough situations, and it's hard, but it is better to but into a sentence and say—do not gossip. A lot of the time, a person will say, but its not gossip. Don’t believe it—don’t listen to it. Don’t give lies a home in this church. U
Let’s get our minds off of meddling and onto the great and glorious doctrines of grace that make us more love God, more in awe of God. Endeavor! "Be diligent," he says, put on humility, meekness, longsuffering, forbearance, and love! Get low—as low as Christ got when he came to this earth. And you’ll be able to see the awesome God that unites us as one together!!
Closing Hymn: 134 And Can it Be?