R357 Living A Worthy Life, Pt.2

God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton as we head to the book of Ephesians, chapter 4. Today Dr. Wilton continues in this concept of what it is for us to live a worthy life. As we do so, know that we're here for you. Happy to pray for you 24-7 at 866-899-9673. We'd love to connect with you.

And now, Dr. Don Wilton. Please open your Bibles with me to Paul's letter to the Ephesians, chapter 4. Ephesians, chapter 4.

There is nowhere in Scripture that the Bible says that being a Christian is easy. In fact, the very opposite is true. Now in America, we struggle to understand that.

We rarely do, not because of our own doing, but because God has blessed us. We have beautiful churches. They're air-conditioned and heated. We have buses. We have ministries. We have budgets. I was talking about the budget a minute ago. What an incredible privilege, folks, just to have a budget. Just think about it. It's not the amount.

It's just to have a budget. It's hard for us in America sometimes to really understand that the Bible teaches that being a Christian is not an easy thing. In fact, Jesus put it like this. He said, if any man or any woman would come after me, he must deny himself. I'm going to ask a rhetorical question. Don't raise your hand or anything like that this morning.

This is a personal thing. How many of you, how many of us this morning can genuinely say that because of Jesus Christ, we have denied ourselves? Well, he goes on from there and he says, if any man will come after me, he must not only deny himself, he must take up his cross.

How many of us this morning can genuinely, before God, can say, Lord Jesus, I have taken up the cross of Christ. Now, what does that mean? That means that you're willing to suffer the same suffering of Christ upon the cross. You're willing even symbolically to have a crown of thorns placed upon your head.

You're willing to be spat on. You're willing to be rejected for righteousness sake. If any man will come after me, that's what Jesus said. Ephesians chapter 4 and verses 1 through 6, the apostle Paul begins to talk about the challenge of being a born again believer. In fact, he talks about it in such staggering terminology, he even begins with the captivity of the born again believer.

The subservience of one who is in Christ Jesus, the willingness of the disciple of Christ to be willing to go all the way for Christ. That's what Paul is saying. Let's just read these few verses. As a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Now, I don't want to preach on the next few verses. Because when I begin to understand what Paul is saying here, folks, I'm going to say to you as your pastor that I have failed you completely. I'm going to say to you that if we understand a life worthy of the calling that God has called us to, this pastor does not measure up to that.

I have failed you miserably. All too often I find my old man rearing his head and I have to continually remind myself that the apostle Paul teaches us that when we trust Jesus Christ, we put to death the old man. We are crucified with Christ. Paul put it like this. He said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I am living, but Christ is living in me. And I'm going to jump the gun and I'm going to go to verse seven, which I'm not preaching on today. And I'm going to say to you, Paul says, but to each one of us, grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.

Wow. Is there any one of us in here today who could ever stand up and say that we understand the grace of God? Let's read together the first six verses as a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient, bearing with one another in love, make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called one Lord and one faith and one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all. May the Lord write his word upon our hearts this morning. How can we ever measure up to a life worthy of the calling God has placed in our lives?

How can we do that? What Paul is saying here is we can do it for three reasons. Number one, because we can respond to God's love for us. Number two, we know that we have been called by the Lord Jesus Christ.

And number three, because quite frankly, we understand the urgency with which he shares this. He said, I urge you, I beg you with everything at my disposal, don't you understand the height and the depth and the vastness and the extent of God's love? That's what Paul is saying. When he talks about a worthy walk, perhaps Paul is talking about a walk which represents the quality of life that God has designed for the believer.

It represents God's summons to the believer in full response to the full meaning of the gospel and it's called a Christian service. That's what Paul is saying. Paul is saying, my friends, that a worthy walk qualifies us to be engaged in divine action. Perhaps the reason why God doesn't use me as well as he ought to use me or could use me is that I'm not responding to God the way I ought to respond to him in terms of my walk. What he is saying, my friends, is that Christian grace that is the manner of your walk certifies you and it certifies your pedigree among your fellow man. It's your testimony. It's not your talk, it's your walk. I know that there have been many times in my own life that my talk has been damaged by my walk. I've said this is what God says, but then the practice of my preach doesn't match up.

It breaks down my testimony. It's the greatest challenge that any person can have and what God is saying, he's saying, listen, I want you to put you into my finishing school. When Paul writing to the church at Philippi, he said, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. He was saying, listen, why don't you allow the grace of God to finish you and to complete you according to God's standards of grace?

But God, how can this be? How can I take this and apply it into the daily transaction of my life? Well, what characterizes a Christian walk?

That's the question. I'm going to submit to you that if we understand verse two, we're going to find ourselves flat on our faces before the throne of grace. As a pastor of a local congregation of believers, I have such difficulty appropriating and applying verse two to my own life. It is a continual struggle.

Perhaps the apostle Paul said it best of all, he said, the good that I would that I do not and the evil that I would not that I do, a wretched man that I am, and he found himself in this constant tug of war. So what do we do? Beloved friends, do we just give up? Do we just say, well, it's over. It's like a married couple who find themselves at an impasse and they don't know where to turn and things are not going well and the romance has gone out of their marriage and they have no communion and communication together.

What do they do? Just say, I give up. It's like a man who's 60 years of age and has lived a life of sin and degradation and he comes before the throne of grace and he says, God, I'm 60 and it's over. There's nothing more to me for me to do and God says, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, excuse me, I died for you and I want you to know there is a tomorrow.

That's right. There's a new day. There's a new beginning. You can do all things through Christ because I strengthen you. Isn't that marvelous? Isn't it amazing? I love that hymn, Amazing Grace.

How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was blind, but now I see God takes my lostness and he makes me what I cannot make of myself. Well, what is the Christian walk? Number one, the Christian walk is characterized according to verse two by humility. One writer that I've been reading told me in his work that this is a progression of thought. One of these characterizations is going to lead to the next. It's almost like building blocks when we were little kids.

I mean, you build one on top of the other and eventually when you get to the final product, you built the building and you hope it doesn't fall down. The Christian walk is characterized by humility. Perhaps humility is the foundation of the worthy walk. It's a compound word. It's a long Greek word.

I can hardly even pronounce it, but it literally means to think or to judge with lowliness. That's what Paul is trying to say. He's trying to say to us, beloved friends, that we cannot even begin to please God without humility.

Now why? Jesus Christ gave us the ultimate example in his relationship with the Father. In fact, the Bible tells us in Philippians chapter two that Jesus Christ emptied himself, taking the form of a bond servant, and he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death upon the cross.

That's what the Word of God says. And what Jesus was trying to teach us, my friends, is that you cannot claim humility if you try and claim humility. You walk over the edge into pride, and pride is the opposite of humility. It is that which breaks us down, and Paul is saying that humility is an ingredient of all spiritual blessings.

That's what he is saying. Every virtue has its root in humility. Please forgive the interruption. We'll be back with the rest of today's message, Living a Worthy Life in just a moment. But Dr. Don wants you to know that we're here for you, happy to talk and pray, connecting keyboard to keyboard on our website at www.tewonline.org and on the phone at 866-899-9673. And it's our prayer that you're getting the Daily Encouraging Word, a bit of insight from Dr. Don, every single day. The Encouraging Word's most requested resource is the Daily Encouraging Word. The Daily Encouraging Word is a daily devotional made available in a quarterly booklet or delivered each morning in your email inbox. If you would like to request this free devotional, please call 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673 or online at www.tewonline.org.

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Thank you for listening today. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton here on the Encouraging Word. It allows us to see ourselves as we are, according to the Apostle Paul.

Why? How is this possible? Because it shows us before God as He is. And perhaps what Paul is trying to say here in verse 2, and then he begins to develop this, my friends, is that just as pride is behind every conflict, so humility is behind every harmonious relationship.

What a challenge. Now we're not talking about, oh Lord, it's hard to be humble when you're perfect in every way, kind of humility. It's tough when you're at the top. Paul is talking about humility, which basically means two things, my friends. It means, first of all, that you're dependent, and secondly, it means that you and I are lowly. Dependency involves a sense of human limitations, and it also involves a sense of unworthiness, and lowliness means an honest recognition of our personal inadequacies, and lowliness is an honest appraisal of our personal assets.

That's what dependency and lowliness mean. The two constitute humility. Paul said, be humble. But there's a second characteristic of walking a worthy life. The Christian walk is characterized by gentleness. Now this one scares me to death, gentleness. I read that and my immediate response is, well, God wants me to be a powder puff, and I don't know how well I could respond to that.

See, I live in a man's man's man. I mean, I don't want to be a powder puff, and if that's what it means to be a Christian, I think maybe he's going overboard, and so as I began to look at this, I began to think that perhaps what he was saying is that one of the signs of humility is gentleness. The word for gentleness in the Greek is the word proates. Proates, and it's the opposite of vindictiveness. It's the opposite of hostility.

It's one of the fruits of the spirit that we read about in Galatians chapter 5, and what Paul is saying, my friends, is that gentleness or meekness is the power of God under control in the life of a believer. Now just think about that for a moment. It's the rod of God under control in the life of a believer. It's like a big fine horse. I used to ride a lot of horses when I was in a British boarding school. We used to play polo, if you know what horse polo is, and we used to ride in Jim Connors and all kinds of things when I was a boy in a British boarding school, and I'll never forget all the times that we spent around horses.

We live in some of the most beautiful horse country here in the Carolinas, and you can get a fine, fine animal that has all the components and the potential to be the greatest animal that you've ever seen, and yet when you put a rider on its back and a bit in its mouth, that horse becomes fine-tuned. It is power under control. That's what God's gentleness is all about. David showed this kind of gentleness when he refused to execute King Saul at En Gedi in the cave, even though he had an opportunity to do so in 1 Samuel.

We can go right through Scripture. You see, my friends, a gentleness in terms of God's standard is controlled. It can be righteous anger when God's word or His name is maligned. It is anger that is controlled.

We're gonna read about this. It's hard to understand, but you can be angry and sin not according to Scripture. That's a tough one to try and understand.

It's the power of God under control. What happened to Moses? Do you know that the Bible says Moses was very humble in Romans chapter 12? Moses was very humble.

He was meek and gentle. I can't wait to meet brother Mo, because I don't see him like that really through my own eyes, but the Bible says Moses was meek and gentle. Yet it was Moses in Exodus 5 through 12 who confronted Pharaoh and said, Pharaoh, old boy, it's not gonna work this way. It was Moses, my friends, who confronted Israel with their sin in Exodus chapter 32.

It was Moses who even confronted the Lord to forgive Israel for their sin. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones put it like this. He said, to be meek or to be gentle means that you have finished with yourself forever.

I like that. It means that you have subjected yourself to the control of God. What are the marks of gentleness?

Self-control? Listen to what the Proverbs tell us. He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who captures a city.

Wow. Self-control, a willing response to God's word, a peacemaker, someone who has the right attitude to lost people. That's what it is to be gentle. Gentleness tolerates injustice without irritation. Gentleness tolerates injustice without resentment. Gentleness submits to circumstances without bitterness. Gentleness submits to circumstances without complaint. Paul said, we must be gentle. We must be gentle.

I have failed you so much, my friends, in this area. But there's a third thing that Paul tells us the Christian walk is characterized by patience. Well, if every God all over Don Wilton, it was of patience.

Macrothemi, a compound word, a big jawbreaker in the Greek New Testament. He was talking about having patience. I'm not patient, Pete. My wife will tell you it's a proverbial struggle in my own life, even when I go up to a drive-in. And from the time I get to the little walkie-talkie to tell them which side and which way up I want my burger to the time I get it at the door had better be 2.3 seconds.

Otherwise, I'm all bent out of shape. We live in an instant coffee generation. They're just too slow.

That's their problem. If we want a cafe latte with froth on top, they need to do it in 30 seconds. Otherwise, we'll go somewhere else. When we go to McDonald's, we want our coffee just right. If it's not hot enough, we complain. If it's too hot, we'll sue them.

We live in an instant coffee generation. That's what we're taught. That's what we grow up to be. What did Abraham do? The Bible says Abraham, having waited patiently, received the promise of God. God came to Abraham and said to him, Abraham and Sarah, you're gonna have a baby. She laughed. That's why Sarah means laughter. She was beyond childbearing age.

She thought this was hilarious. That's the word in the Hebrew. It means hilarious. It means laughter, it means just laugh until your head falls off.

Kaboom! I mean it's over, I mean this is impossible. But what does the Bible say about him? Listen to what the word says. The word says, yet with respect to the promise of God, Abraham did not waver in unbelief, but he grew strong in faith, giving glory to God. That's patience, isn't it? Patience, patience exercises restraint under provocation, keeps cool when unjustly accused, forgives when misrepresented.

These things are hard, folks. Patience perseveres when discouraged. Is there anyone discouraged here this morning? Patience, that's what Paul's talking about living a worthy life. Patience perseveres when discouraged and perseverance according to the scripture is essential to my progress. Perseverance is essential to my integrity.

God will never allow you to be the captain of the ship until you've steered the ship through the storm. Are you patient? Are you sticking to what God is doing?

Are you holding up that flag? Are you keeping to what God has said? That's what Paul is telling us. He says, be completely humble and gentle and patient and I'm almost becoming exasperated because he gets onto the next one and he says, the Christian work is characterized by forbearing love. What a challenge, forbearing love? Forbearing love, my friends, is a reluctance to condemn other people. That's what forbearing love is. It overlooks the mistakes of others and it tolerates the weaknesses of others. Forbearing love bears with the failures of others.

It refrains from evil intention and it absorbs embarrassments created by other people. That's forbearing love. When I think of forbearing love, I think of our moms, mothers. Well, our congregation just filled with mothers with forbearing love.

They absorb the embarrassments of even their husbands, of their children, of their circumstances. I wonder how many wives and mothers have denied themselves and done without and God's word says if you're going to walk worthy of the calling, you've got to be characterized not just by humility and by gentleness, but you've got to be characterized by patience and forbearing love. But there's one other that he closes with. He says the Christian walk is characterized by peace. By peace, look at verse two, verse three. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit. I'm going to be talking about that next week. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. What does that mean?

We're going to get into some real stuff next week. It's the fundamental basis upon which the apostle Paul speaks and sets out this biblical agenda, the foundation upon which we operate. But he says here that if you are going to be someone who walks worthy of my standards, you have to be characterized by peace. You see, peace, my friend, according to the Scriptures, is initiated by the Spirit of God. The Spirit proclaims peace and the Spirit preserves peace. That's what God's Word says.

But Paul takes it a step further. He says this peace energizes human effort. Keeping the peace involves cultivating these Christian graces in us, but keeping the peace also achieves incredible Christian unity. Brings us together.

That's what's so special. We're going to find it right throughout the next several verses, the body of Christ. You see, the body of Christ, my friend, is the reciprocal value of Christian grace, the exercise of the Christian walk. What sets us apart? What makes us what we are?

It is that which God has invited us to become participants in. And it's a tough order. In fact, quite frankly, between you and me, it's impossible. But you know, God says with me, nothing's impossible. I am what I am by the grace of God.

His grace makes all the difference. You've been listening to the preaching of Dr. Don Wilton from The Pulpit, but as he steps into the studio, I pray you'd open your heart to what he wants to share next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin, and by faith, I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. Perhaps you just prayed along with Dr. Wilton moments ago to give your life to Christ or rededicate your life. Perhaps you still have questions. We're here right now at the other end of 866-899-WORD to answer those questions, to pray with you and for you, and more importantly, to help you take the next steps in growing in Christ.

Dr. Don has some wonderful free resources he wants you to have if you just gave your life to Christ or rededicated your life to Jesus. Would you give us a call? 866-899-WORD is the number. That's 866-899-9673. Or if you'd rather, let's connect on our website at www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org. 24-7, we're connecting you with resources that will help change your life and encourage you to be all that God has called you and called all of us to be in Christ.