The Lowly Walk, Part 1

Ephesians 4:1

Take your Bible and let's look together at the fourth chapter of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 4.  We come now to the second great section of this marvelous letter written by paul to the churches, really, in Asia Minor.  One of which was the church at Ephesus.

And we've entitled this first section, "The Lowly Walk of Our High position."  It's a tremendous passage.  And we'll be spending the next few weeks just looking at the first six verses.  Its import and its impact, so rich, we're going to take our time in gleaning everything we possibly can.

When a person joins a certain organization or a certain society, he obligates himself to live or to act in accord with the standards of that society.  He obligates himself to function according to the aims and the objectives and the goals and the drives and the pur‑poses of that society to which he attaches himself.  Now it can be illustrated many ways.  As an American citizen, a person who chooses to live in the United States of America, you obligate yourself to abide by the principles, the standards and the laws that govern this society.  As a person who is permitted to work in the place where you work, whatever place that is, a business or a plant, shop, an office, a school, whatever it is where you work, you work there on the premise that you co?.form yourself and cooperate with the standards and the goals and the objectives and the principles that are a part of that particular organization.  If you choose to join a service club, you obligate yourself to function in reference to that service club in the manner that they subscribe.  If you join a secret society, whether it's the Elks or the Moose or the goats or whatever other things they've got, whatever you happen to join you automatically obligate yourself to cooperate with the standards that make up the organization.

If you want to become a part of a certain cult, a certain athletic team, a certain assembly line, a certain religious order.  a certain business, I don't care what it is, there are certain principles that you pledge loyalty to uphold.  That's the way human society is made.

And if you choose not to cooperate and if you fall out of the line of conformity you will lose your place within the framework of that organization.  If a person fails to become what that society feels is necessary, if he fails to fulfill its purposes and aims he becomes a hindrance to that society and is dismissed from it, set aside.  It can be seen, for example, in our own situation in govern‑ment.  If you do not conform to the standards of the government, the laws that the government has set down you will be taken out of the society and you will be incarcerated somewhere where you will no longer be able to hinder the ongoing of the function of society.

If you identify yourself with a certain organization in business and you fail to live up to that expectation that the organization sets and you fail to conform to their standards of operation you will be fired.  And that's the way it is in society.  You are called upon to function in accord with that with which you identify.  That's just standard fare.  I can't tell you how many lectures I've heard from coaches through the years in athletics that said ‑ Look, if you're not going to do it our way then get off the team.  Now that's a pretty standard approach to anything that we align ourselves with.

The old story of marching along with everybody else in the Army and keeping in step is a part of human society and mentality.  Societies which we identify with socially, economically, politically demand cooperation and conformity if we are to maintain a place within it.

Now this can become so binding on people that it's amazing of what they will do to conform.  I am utterly amazed at how people will become quote‑unquote ‑ the organization man ‑ to fulfill whatever the organization tells them to fulfill if &hey think it will get them a raise or push them up the ladder a little higher.  I'm amazed at the loyalty of some people to the various lodges and secret societies and things that they belong to and service clubs, so if they miss something somewhere they'll walk across a burning desert on hands and knees, twelves hours in a row to get to a meeting to make sure they don't violate the code.  It's amazing how people prescribe themselves into such binding things but that's part of human society.  We love to belong because belonging gives us acceptance.  From the time we're very little we're identified with uniforms.  We want to be a Cub Scout, not because we like what Cub Scouts do but because we like to have shirts like other Cub Scouts have with little things hanging on them.  We want to be in the Awana Program cause we get a little shirt, we want to be a part of the team because we get to wear the uniform.  I've been through it with my kids.  The greatest day in our house is the day they give out the uniform for the next thing.  Everybody wants to be a part of the team.  That's just part of the human desire ‑ to belong and to gain some acceptance in a sense of identity.  It's amazing how binding it becomes.

It can actually trap people in a very bad way.  Let me illustrate that by having you look at the 9th chapter of the gospel of John.  The Lord Jesus Christ had done a wonderful miracle in the 9th chapter of John, He had healed a man who was born blind.  And He had healed him for the glory of God.  And it was a wonderful thing that He had done.

The man had been blind all his life.  Jesus spit in some clay and made a little bit oi a mud and put it on his eyes and told him to wash in the pool of Siloam.  And he did and he came back seeing.  And it was a wonderful miracle.  And then, of course, the leaders began to try to investigate the miracle.  It's pretty sad when unbelief investigates a miracle.  You never get the right results.  And they were very antagonistic to what& Jesus had done.  And, of course, they first of all wanted to talk to the blind man's parents to find out what they knew.  We come to verse 22.  "These words spoke his parents because they feared the Jews."  What had they said?  Verse 2l; "We don't want to answer for him, he's of age ask him, he'll speak for himself."  In other words, they wouldn't acknowledge anything about how he was healed.  They wouldn't discuss how he was healed.  They wouldn't give credit to Jesus Christ.  They wouldn't give glory to God.  They didn't want to get involved in it at all.  And the reason is here‑‑they feared the Jews for the Jews had agreed already .

that if any man did confess that He was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.  They were so structured by the desire for accept‑ance in the society they had chosen that they would not confess that the sight of their own beloved son had come at the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ for fear that they would lose their social status.  Now that's a pretty binding thing, isn't it?  They would not confess the reality of the miracle of their own blind son because they feared they would get, the Greek says, unsynagogued, excommunicated.  And the thing that mattered most to them was not the truth but it was belonging to the society which they had decided to identify with.

And people can identify with things that become so binding to them that they literally become blind to the reality of what they ought to know, and ought to be a part of.  Had they had been thinking they would have immediately wished to identify with the son and with the One who had made the blind to see.  For there was the real power.

Over in the l2th chapter of John and the 4?nd verse we find a similar occasion, John l2:!2.  And, of course, the Lord has come and fulfilled prophecy and all of this and it says in 42; "Neverthe‑less among the chief rulers also many believed on Him.  But,"  and that's a tragic but, "Because of the pharisees they did not confess Him lest they should be put out of the synagogue for they loved the praise of men more than,"  what?  "The praise of God."  The same thing again.  They had made such a firm commitment to 1he society they had chosen that there was no way that they were going to restrict the function they wanted within that society, they actually damned their own soul to adhere to the code.  Incredible.  But that's how it is .

with mens willingness to conform to the standards of the group to which he makes his allegiance and from which he gains a sense of identity.  That's the negative.

I can look back in my youth and see myself wanting to belong to fraternities and certain clubs and athletic lettermen's clubs and they made us go through some of the most incredible initiations you can ever imagine, that I wouldn't even talk about cause you wouldn't feel good if I did.  You..you...and you look back and you say ‑ Why would I even bother with that kind of thing.  ?ut the drive in the heart of a man is very strong, and of a woman, to belong, to be a part of something.  And in the world it amazes me that when people identify they lock in and they'll do anything to conform.  They want to abide by the principles.  They want to be what they need to be.  They want to get that acceptance.  And you know what happens?

When you translate that into the church something goes wrong.  You get tons of people who come and a lot of people who want the blessing and the rights and the privileges and the honors but somewhere along the line they never make the commitment to conform to the standards.

It doesn't seem to be nearly as binding.  And maybe it's because in all of the world's things Satan is in there holding it together.  But in the church be's there trying to rip it apart and it's tough to stick with it.  But you know, the standard isn't any different.  And when you come to Jesus Christ, you enter His church, the body, you receive His salvation, He gives you all the rights and honors and privileges that come with being a Christian, and then He says I want you to conform to My standards, doesn't He?  And the New Testament says if there is anybody in your midst who doesn't conform to these standards, put him out.  If there is somebody in your midst, I Cor.

chapter 5, who is living in an immoral manner in your midst, put him out.  If there is somebody, in II Thes., who is walking disorderly, who is doing what they ought not to do and they don't respond to you, .

put them out.  If there is somebody, paul said to Timothy, who is seeking things that are not consistent to what we know to be the truth of God, put him out.  Listen, God has it that way in His church.

He says if you're not going to conform and cooperate with what the church is doing then you are better off to be out.  In fact, sometimes the Lord puts people out on His own.  And He said to the Corinthians get tons of people who come and a lot of people who want the blessing and the rights and the privileges and the honors but somewhere along the line they never make the commitment to conform to the standards.

It doesn't seem to be nearly as binding.  And maybe it's because in all of the world's things Satan is in there holding it together.  But in the church he's there trying to rip it apart and it's tough to stick with it.  But you know, the standard isn't any different.  And when you come to Jesus Christ, you enter His church, the body, you receive His salvation, He gives you all the rights and honors and privileges that come with being a Christian, and then He says I want you to conform to My standards, doesn't He?  And the New Testament says if there is anybody in your midst who doesn't conform to these standards, put him out.  If there is somebody in your midst, I Cor.

chapter 5, who is living in an immoral manner in your midst, put him out.  If there is somebody, in II Thes., who is walking disorderly, who is doing what they ought not to do and they don't respond to you, .

put them out.  If there is somebody, paul said to Timothy, who is seeking things that are not consistent to what we know to be the &ruth of God, put him out.  Listen, God has it that way in His church.

He says if you're not going to conform and cooperate with what the church is doing then you are better off to be out.  In fact, sometimes the Lord puts people out on His own.  And He said to the Corinthians because of the way you have acted within the church, some of you are weak, some of you are sick, and some of you have died.  And in I John chapter 5 He says there is even a sin unto death where the Lord literally excommunicates the believer, not losing salvation but being put out of the church fellowship because they're are more of a hindrance than a help.

beloved, if people can join athletic teams and do businesses, and the Royal Order of the Goats and everything else and can conform with such rigid conformity, if people can be so fearful of being un‑synagogued by the Jewish super‑structure of their day that they literally damn their own souls and blind their eyes to the reality of the Son of God, if people can make those kinds of commitments to things that don't matter, do you imagine that we as Christians can make a high level kind oi commitment to walk in the &fashion that God has asked us to walk within the framework of His own beloved church?  I think we should, don't you?

I think that is what paul is calling us to do in the last three chapters of Ephesians.

He starts out in verse i by saying this, and here is the heart of the matter, "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation to which ye are called."  In other words, listen, you have in the first three chapters the rights and the honors and the privileges and now in the last three chapters he says ‑ Here are the requirements.  II you want to be a meaningful part of God's church, if you want to be somebody that matters in His church, if you want to adorn the doctrine of God, if you want to advance the Kingdom.  if you really believe in this then here are the standards by which you are to walk.

And when you and I entered the church of Jesus Christ, and we entered the body of Christ, when by faith one day I put my trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and He became my Savior and Lord, that day I became a part of His kingdom, I became a part of His household, I became a part oI His family.  I became one of the branches that extends from THE branch, the Lord Jesus Christ.  I became a part of Him.  It behooves me to live up to it.  He gave me the rights and the privileges and the honors, He made me unsearchably rich.  He ‑gave me not out of His riches but according to His riches.  He blessed me wi&h all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

He has set aside the future for my benefit and in the ages to come He will pour out His grace and His kindness toward us who believe.  He has done all of this for me.  And now in chapter 4 there is a therefore here and I have to turn the corner and say ‑ On the basis of this kind of promise to me, what are you asking of me?  The apostle paul comes through ringing loud and clear, ‑ Walk worthy of such a calling!  This is who you are!  Walk in accord with that!  Live up to that standard!

The Lord expects us to act like members of His body.  He expects us to aim at what He aims at.  He expects us to set the goal where He set the goal, to have the objective that is His objective.  He expects us to be like Him.  I peter 2:I5, peter said ‑ That the will of God is that we with well doing would put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.  In other words, we ought to silence the mouth of the critics by the way we live.  And I guess that's why I say this so often, it's so sad that most Christians don't walk worthy of their calling.

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I remember Dr.  Ralph Kipper saying to me one time when I was just young in seminary, he said ‑ The whole Christian life, John, the whole Christian life is simply becoming what you are.  It's simply becoming what you are.  This is who you are and this is how you are to live.

Living up to who you are.  And he's right.

In the body of Christ God expects conformity.  Not a conformity to rules and regulations out of fear.  Not a conformity to rules and regulations out of legalistic pride.  But a conformity to righteousness out of deep love and affection for Jesus Christ.  But nonetheless, conformity.  I want to do what God wants me to do.  I want to be what Cod wants me to be because of all that He has done for me.  I want to walk worthy.  I want to be a worthy son, a worthy child.  The believer calls himself a child of God, a believer has joined God's family, belongs to the heavenly Father and that says something about how he ought to live.  If I'm my Father's child then I'll honor my Father.  It's a sad failure in our commitment, it is indeed, not to live up to such an identity.

philippians l:27 paul put it this way, "Only let,"  now listen to this, "Only let your conduct be as it becometh the gospel of Christ."

You see.  In other words, match your conduct with the gospel.  The exalted reality oi the gospel demands an exalted life style.

And that is precisely the issue we come to in Ephesians 4.  The first three chapters are positional truth.  The resources, the riches.

the things God has done for us.  We've been through them all.  Absolutely staggering and incredible things.  We found that He blessed us with all spiritual blessing.  He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.  He made us to be holy, to be blameless.  In love He even predestinated us.  He adopted us.  He made us to the praise of His glory.  He made us accepted in the beloved One.  He has given us redemption, forgiveness.  He's given us wisdom, prudence.  He's made known to us the mystery of His will.  He has in the dispensation yet in the future to lift us up to heights we haven't even dreamed of to give us an inheritance that was preplanned before the world began.  He has granted to us the Holy Spirit.  He's given us resurrection power.

He's made us alive from the dead.  He's taken us who are afar off' who are lost, who are cut‑off and He's made us one new man in Himself.  He's given to us the great mystery.  The truth of the gospel, the truth of the church.  And He's made it possible for us to capitalize on all of this by giving us His Holy Spirit who can strengthen the inner man so that Christ can settle down and be at home.  So that we can be filled with incomprehensible love, so that we can have eternal fullness, the fullness of God.  So that we can know the power that is in chapter S verse ?O.  And He's done it all for His own glory.  He's done every‑thing for us.

And simply, pointedly, directly does paul say ‑ Walk worthy!  Live up to it!  It's high time that we circumscribe our living to our identity.

Great New Testament truth.

Now listen, beloved, the transition here between S and 4 is not a random one.  It is the typical pattern of paul to make this kind of , transition.  It is a transition from doctrine to duty.  From doctrine to duty.  From precept or principle to practice.  From theology to life.

It is not a random transition.  He doesn't say ‑ Well, that's all for that first three chapters, now I think I've got something else I want to say.  It is a transition that is inseparably linked.  Doctrine, now watch this, always is the basis of duty.  Duty always flows out of doctrine.

There can be no living unless there are principles for it.  There can be no life style unless there is a theology at the bottom of it.  There can be no practice if there are no precepts.  Doctrine and duty are linked as closely as the flower and the stem.  as closely as the branch and the trunk.  As closely as the trunk and the roots.  Doctrine and duty.

Notice the word in verse l ‑ therefore.  We know what the therefore is there for.  To take us back.  It's the transition, on the basis of all o& this doctrine therefore this is your duty.  That's always paul's approach.  In all of his letters, beloved, he does this.  In all of the letters he wrote to churches you'll find these therefores.  In fact, if you want an interesting study sometime just go through paul's epistles and study all the transitions where therefore appears.

Let's go back to an illustration of it in Romans chapter i2.

Romans chapter i2.  Now we're all familiar with this great text.  It's one that we know and love.  This is what it says..."I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual service or reasonable service."  Now I want you to notice something.  He is beseeching people and he is beseeching them to present their bodies as a living sacrifice, this is duty he is asking for.  He wants duty out of them.  In fact in verse S he talks about the gifts they are to manifest.  Down in verse g he talks about the love that they are to manifest.  And then further on that they are to not be lazy in verse Il, that they are to rejoice in verse i2.  That they are to give to the needy in verse 13.  They are to bless their persecutors in verse l4.  Rejoice with people who rejoice and weep with those who weep to show sympathy, etc.  All of these are practical things.

Then in lS he talks about how you are to respond to the government.  How you are to respond to God's standards.  How you are to respond to the weaker brother, in chapter l!.  How you are to respond to the weaker brother in chapter l5.  How you are to carry out your ministry in chapter l5.  Chapter l8, how you are to relate to people in &he ministry.  It's all practical.  But notice, before he gets into this practical section he says ‑ Therefore.  Now listen to me, in chapter l2 you have the first practical instruction of the book oi Romans, the first eleven chapters are theology.  Before he ever says anything about what you are to do he gives you eleven chapters of the doctrine.  Notice what he says..."I beseech you therefore, brethren, on the basis of the mercies of God."

And what are the mercies of God?  They are the great theological truths that he has recited in the first eleven chapters.  On the basis of these great realities about God which mercifully have been extended to you, this is your duty.  On the basis of the righteousness of God, the use‑lessness of law and works, the saving power of faith, peace with God, ??‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑ ‑??  1o1o ‑ p= 12 standing in grace, the promise of glory, the gift of love, the indwelling Spirit, adoption, reconciliation, union, slavery to Christ, deliverance from sin, freedom from judgment, sanctification, justification, glorification, security, unfailing promises on the basis of all of these great mercies of God dispensed &o sinful man.

Therefore, brethren, I beseech you ‑ present your body.  See?  It's always that way.  Duty is always a response to doctrine.  Behavior is always a response to precepts.  Life is always a response to theology.

And I want you to know this because I want you to know why we teach doctrine.  people say ‑ Well, you know, you get into such heavy teaching, you're teaching doctrine.  Well, listen, I have to do that.

That's what God has called me to do.  To teach you the principles of life so that you can live life.  The therefore is there for a reason.

Look at Galatians chapter 5 and I'll give you another illustration.

And we could go to any of paul's epistles, really to do it.  but I'll pick out a couple here.  Galatians...in the first four chapters of Galatians paul is discussing the liberty of the belie