There is Only One is a sermon that presents wonderful truths about Jesus Christ, the body of Christ, and the Gospel of Christ.

Key verses:
Ephesians 4:4-17

 

One God, One Savior, One Truth

May I ask you to take your Bible and join me in turning to the Book of Ephesians, Paul’s epistle to the church in Ephesus, chapter four? Ephesians chapter four, we’ll begin reading the fourth verse. But before we read, let me share with you a couple of thoughts. Each book of the Bible has a primary theme and purpose. All 66 books of the Bible come together to present to us God’s message to mankind, how we can know God, how we can know how to have our sins forgiven, how we can enter into a relationship with Him, how we can know Him through Jesus Christ – all the Bible talks all about that.

Somebody wisely said, “If you study your Bible carefully, you’ll find Christ on every page.” That would be true. You may say, “Well, I don’t see the name on there.” No, you don’t see the name on every page, but you see Him portrayed on every page.

The primary theme of the Book of Ephesians and there are other themes underneath the umbrella of that primary theme, but the primary theme of the Book of Ephesians is the church and the doctrines of the church. Now, you’ll find the church mentioned in other places of the Bible, and you’ll find other teachings about the church, but it is the primary theme of Ephesians. You will find other themes in there, subthemes, but they all relate back to that.

And so this morning, I want us to take a look at just a portion of chapter four. If you come back this evening, we’ll continue where we leave off and go down to the end of the chapter. But I want us to see some of the clearly presented truths here that are just wonderful about Jesus Christ, about the body of Christ, and about the Gospel of Christ. So, let’s take a look at it, chapter four, verse four:

Ephesians 4:4: “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;”

Ephesians 4:5: “One Lord, one faith, one baptism,”

Ephesians 4:6: “One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

I want to pause there, and we’ll pray again. But I want to talk to you this morning on the subject – there is only one.

Ephesians 4:4 is obviously well into the book and there have been other things discussed prior to chapter four and after chapter four. But I want us to look at this section this morning and this evening and I think it will help us. First of all, as we said earlier, there are some great truths that are clearly presented here.

If you were to go to Isaiah 43, we’re not going to turn there, but if you go to Isaiah 43 you would find that God says, “I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour.” Who is speaking there? God. We would say Jehovah, or some would prefer the different pronunciation of the vowels and say Yahweh, but God is saying, “I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour.”

If you go over to the Book of Acts, Peter says this, he says regarding Jesus Christ, “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Do you know what both of those passages are saying? There is only one. There is only one God, there is only one Savior. Somebody says that there are so many religions in the world. There are many religions and there are many gods, little “g” but there is only one true God and there is only one Savior. Therefore, there is only one truth.

Jesus, in John chapter 14, talking to His disciples, most of you know this passage, He said:

John 14:1: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.”

John 14:2: “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”

John 14:3: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

John 14:4: “And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.”

John 14:5: “Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?”

Thomas is logical there [paraphrasing], “I don’t know where you are going. If I don’t know where you are going, how will I know how to get there?”

John 14:6: “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

There is only one. There is only one. So, there are not many ways to God. There are not many ways to Heaven. There are not many gods. There is one God and there is one way to approach God and that’s through Jesus Christ. There is only one Bible.

“I’ve read books of many different religions.” You know what? I have too. “You have? I thought you were one of those guys who read nothing but the Bible and nothing else.” No, I primarily read the Bible, and that is true. I read lots of other books. Reading three different books currently. I should be reading four, but I haven’t worked on the fourth one yet. The truth of the matter is, I’ve read other books.

“What have you read?” Well, I’ve read the I Ching. How many of you read the I Ching? Okay, one, two, okay. I’ve read that. What is that? That is the writing upon which Taoism is based. I say it is the writing on which Taoism is based because the author of I Ching had no idea he was starting a religion. He really didn’t. He wrote down a bunch of proverbs because he was asked to and then people took that and made a religion out of it. And that’s a historical fact. I read that and actually read two or three translations of it. I read the Koran and I read the Book of Mormon and I read a few other books on world religions.

The truth of the matter is, I didn’t find any truth in them. Somebody asked me if I had found any truth in them. I did. I didn’t find any truth in them that I hadn’t already found in the Bible. All those books I just named and think about this, the Bible predates all of them.

Some of the hymns we sang this morning were old hymns, you know that. They’re old hymns, don’t I know there are new songs? I know there are new songs but some of the hymns go back 100 years, some of them longer than that. We’ve got in our hymnal a couple of songs that go back to the Middle Ages. Most of them are not that old. But for a song to be 50, 60, 70, 100, or 150 years old is not unusual.

Why do we sing those old hymns? Listen, that’s nothing. Can I tell you something? The Bible that we use isn’t 150 or 200 years old, it’s thousands of years old, thousands of years old. The truth that we are proclaiming is thousands of years old. So why are we using all of this old stuff? Because there is only one. It’s not that you don’t know there’s anything else out there. I’m well aware there is plenty out there. I could go on with that, but that’s not our main thrust today. So, let’s get to the main thrust.

One Body

In verse four, Paul says:

Ephesians 4:4: “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;”

In the Book of Ephesians, the body refers to the church of Jesus Christ. Now, what is “the church”? Let me give you a couple of definitions. First of all, it is presented in Ephesians as the body of Christ. A body in this case is not an individual such as you or me who has a body. But we have one body. But the body in this case is an organized body, a group of people together.

If you went over and read Peter’s writing, you are going to find that it means those who have been called out of darkness unto the light of Jesus Christ. Those who have come out from the darkness of sin, those who have come out of the darkness of this world, and they have come to the light and the truth of Jesus Christ. How many churches are there? There is one body, and that body is those who are believers in Jesus Christ who have trusted Him as Savior, who have been born again, and who are followers of Christ.

When the church started in Jerusalem nobody asked what kind of church it was because it was the only one, the church in Jerusalem. Now, as time went on, and according to God’s will and that’s very important to understand, according to God’s will, because the Lord never intended the church to only be in Jerusalem.

So, they began to form other churches, the disciples spread out, the apostles spread out and they started other churches, not only in that region, but just as the Lord commanded them, in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and in the uttermost parts of the earth. So, then we have churches. And a church such as this, and a local church is, and I’ll give you a definition of that, it is an organized body of baptized believers in Jesus Christ gathered together for the carrying out of the Great Commission. That’s what a church is. It’s organized, it needs to be organized.

I was out one day not far from here and trying to talk to some people door to door and there was a man out watering his grass in his front yard. And I stopped to talk to him and he said, “Well, I wouldn’t be interested, I don’t like organized religion.” I said, “Well, you’d like our church, we’re not very organized.”

But the truth of the matter is, a church is organized. It is an organic entity. It is an organized body of baptized believers. Twice he said baptized. Why do you need to be baptized? Because the Lord told us to. He said, “Go ye into all the world baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”

Listen to that, “In the name,” not names, “of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,” – there’s only one. It’s not three different names, it’s the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost – not the names, THE name. “You make a big deal about putting an ‘s’ at the end of a word.” Well, it’s not me making a big deal out of it, it’s the Bible that makes a big deal out of it under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit.

So, there is one body, one church, and then there are local churches. How can that be? How can there be one true church and yet there are many local churches? Many years ago and some of you will recognize this. I was in Chicago, and we decided to go see the Sears Tower, which at that time was the tallest building in the world. It’s not the tallest building in the world anymore. It’s not called the Sears Tower anymore.

I was in the lobby of it just a few months ago. But we went to the top as far as you could go. There was an observation deck. There was a roof on top of that and they didn’t let you go up there. But we wanted to go as high as we could go on the tallest building in the world. And that was the headquarters of Sears. Sears, at that time, was the largest retailer in the world. That is not the case anymore but at that time it was the largest retailer in the world.

I like, I still like, the Craftsman tools which were sold only and exclusively by Sears. That’s not true any longer either. But I liked the Craftsman tools, they had a guarantee on them. One day, I was changing the tire on my car, and I had a lug nut that was really tight, and I could not get it to break loose. I was using a socket ratchet to try to get it to break loose. I had the socket on the wheel, and I had the ratchet out there and I had a long extension so I could get leverage in there, but I could not budge that thing. So, I positioned the ratchet handle so I could do this and I got up and stood with both feet on the ratchet handle and jumped up and down on it. Sure enough, the lug nut came loose, but I cracked the socket.

I took that socket and wanted to replace it. I was here in South Florida and I took it all the way up to Chicago to the Sears Tower to get another one. Do you think so? No, I didn’t do that. I went down to what was called Pompano Fashion Square, I walked into the Sears store with the socket in my hand. The salesman saw me coming, but he didn’t say a word, he just turned around, grabbed another socket, and gave it to me. I didn’t even have to ask for it.

What am I saying? I’m saying, just as there was a Sears corporate headquarters in Chicago, there were Sears stores all over the country. If you wanted to do business with Sears, you didn’t have to go to Chicago. Do you understand what I’m saying?

So, just as there is one body of believers in Christ, there are local churches. We don’t have to go to Jerusalem. As a matter of fact, I’ve been there and I’ve looked for the original church there, and you’ll be disappointed. It isn’t there.

I talked to a man who was the pastor, and he was an Israeli man, of the First Baptist Church of Jerusalem. That’s pretty good, huh? I talked to him and said, “Do you say that your church is the original church that was here?” He said, “No. We don’t say that.” And he was honest.

Now, should we have a connection with that original church? Absolutely. What is the connection? Jesus Christ and God’s Word. That’s the connection. We don’t have a national or international headquarters for churches or churches we can go to. So, we have what? Local churches. Does that make sense to you? But in reality, there is only one church. Having said that, to be part of the one church, you must believe what God says and what the Bible says about Jesus Christ and how to know Him and how a church should be.

One Spirit, One Hope

That takes us to the next thing. There’s one body and the second thing it says is there’s only one Spirit. There’s one Holy Spirit. If somebody is following a different spirit other than the Holy Spirit, then they are not part of God’s family. They are not part of God’s church. There is only one Holy Spirit and that is the Spirit of God. We just sang, “Holy, Holy, Holy, God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

Then it says, “Even if you are called in one hope of your calling.” There is only one hope. That one hope is faith in Jesus Christ. There is no other hope. I have done more funerals than I’d like to remember. I don’t remember all of them, and I really don’t want to remember all of them because some of them have been very sad and tragic.

I do remember one that I did right in this auditorium. It didn’t matter how we sang, how we prayed, or what I shared from the scriptures. Nothing would bring comfort to those people. Do you know why? Because they had no hope. What do you mean? I mean they didn’t, they hadn’t trusted in Jesus. They hadn’t come to accept Him as Savior. They didn’t follow the Bible, they didn’t even know what the Bible says. They had no hope.

“Didn’t you share anything with them?” I did. I gave them the truth of the scriptures. I showed them how there is hope in Christ. I showed them how they could turn to Jesus and know that they had eternal life – all of it. But they had no hope. In this room, there was literally weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth because there was no hope. And that’s because there is only one hope.

You can go to the world’s religions as we referred to a while ago but you won’t find hope. You will not find any world religion telling you that you can know that you have eternal life. They’ll tell you ways that you can hope to have eternal life, maybe you’ll have eternal life, maybe if you follow everything they say and all their teachings you might have eternal life, but you will not find a way that they guarantee you will have eternal life. You find that in Jesus Christ.

John writes in 1 John, and he tells us about it. He says you can know that you have eternal life:

1 John 5:11: “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.”

1 John 5:12: “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”

Listen, “He that hath the Son, hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” It’s pretty simple, isn’t it? You have Jesus, you have life. You don’t have Jesus; you don’t have life. Because there is only one. John says:

1 John 5:13: “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”

You can know that you have eternal life because you have trusted Christ as your Savior. There is only one. So, there is one body, one Spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord. Now, again, we talk about God in three persons, we talk about the Trinity, and we were talking about this in Sunday School hour this morning.

Somebody says, “Well, let me tell you, something, preacher. That word ‘Trinity’ is not in my Bible.” And you know what? It isn’t. “Then what you are saying isn’t true.” I go to the Book of Colossians, and I find the word “godhead” and that is the Bible word for Trinity. That’s what it means: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Him, in Jesus Christ, dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So, you have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit dwelling in Him bodily.

When Jesus was baptized, the heavens were opened, and the Spirit of God descended upon Him like a dove. And a voice spoke from Heaven and said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” All of that happened. So, what you have at the baptism of Jesus was the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all there at the same time. What you have in Jesus Christ is God himself in human body form.

Where do I get that? I got it from Philippians chapter four and chapter two, among other places. You can get it in Hebrews chapter one, get it from Colossians chapter one, and many other places. How about John chapter 14? We were talking about that a while ago. Jesus said:

John 14:6: “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

And Philip spoke up and said:

John 14:7: “Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.”

John 14:8: “Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?”

That’s pretty clear, isn’t it? Check that out in John chapter 14. “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” That’s chapter 14. Go back to chapter 10 in the same book, verse 30:

John 10:30: “I and my Father are one.”

I have had people say, “Wait, you’ve got to stop right there. I know what you think He meant there but it’s not what He really meant. What He really meant there was ‘the Father and I are so much alike that sometimes people mistake us for each other. We’re like one. We’re so similar.’” No, that is not what He meant. How do I know? I read the rest of the chapter.

Jesus said, “I and my Father are one,” and the religious leaders who were standing there picked up stones to stone Him again. What do you mean again? They were going to stone Him previously in chapter eight for the same thing. They were going to stone Jesus, and He said:

John 10:32: “Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?”

John 10:33: “The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.”

They understood what He meant. Do you know what Jesus didn’t do? He said, “Hold on fellows, you didn’t understand me right. I don’t want you to stone me. You got it wrong.” He didn’t. He never turned that away. Why? Because it is true. There is only one Lord. There is only one faith.

“Well preacher, I know a good church down the road here and they say you’ve got to be baptized.” Well, that’s not what the Bible says. The Bible says there is one faith. “Hey, I know another group over here. They are good people.” And by the way, all these folks probably are good people. I’m not saying they aren’t good people. I’m saying there is one truth.

And what I’m saying is this. There’re others that say, “If you worship on Sunday, that’s the mark of the beast, and you can’t possibly be saved.” There is one faith, and that’s not it. There is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.

One Faith

The one faith is this. Paul and Silas are in Philippi. You’ll find this in Acts chapter 16. They got locked up. For what? Preaching the Gospel. As they were imprisoned, at midnight, there was an earthquake and the whole prison was shaking, the doors swung open, and the jailer who worked for the Romans felt that his prisoners had escaped. Under Roman law, if your prisoners escaped, you were responsible, and if you couldn’t get them back, you would be executed.

He said he was going to save the Romans time and pulled out his sword and was about to kill himself. Paul said, “Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.” He got down in the dungeon where they were. How do you know that? Because he called for a light and sprang in. If he was just walking through the door he didn’t need to spring in, did he? He jumped down to where they were.

He fell on his knees before the Apostle Paul and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said, “Get down here at the church and we’ll schedule your baptism, and you’ll get baptized. By the way, don’t you come on Sunday, come on Saturday because we’ll do it that way. And then, we’ve got a whole long list of other things you need to do. And if you do all of this you’ll be saved.” Is that what they said? That’s not at all what they said.

What did they say? They said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, thee and thy house.” What do you mean by “and thy house”? Your family will be saved too if they believe in Jesus Christ. That’s what they meant. How do I know that? I read on in the chapter. And that’s exactly what happened. They went to the fellow’s house, and the whole family got saved, and then they got baptized. They didn’t get baptized to be saved. They got baptized because they had been saved.

They followed the Lord in the believer’s baptism. That picture, that testimony of death, burial, and resurrection, that testimony of faith in Jesus, it’s that public statement that I’m leaving the old life and I’m starting the new life following Jesus. There’s one Lord. There’s one faith, faith in Jesus Christ. There’s one baptism. There’s one God. There’s only one God. There aren’t millions of gods. There aren’t dozens of gods. There aren’t three gods. There’s one God. One God and Father of all.

“Oh, good, I’m glad you got that part in there.” I didn’t get it in there, it’s in the Bible. “I know what it means. It means everybody is God’s children.” It’s not what it means. How can I say that? Because Jesus said it.

In John chapter eight, I made reference to it, at the end of that chapter they wanted to stone him, because of His claim of deity. But in chapter eight, Jesus is in the temple in Jerusalem. He’s talking to the religious leaders of that day. These men He was talking to, you couldn’t find more religious people if you searched for centuries. Do you know what He said to these religious leaders? He said, “Ye are of your father the devil.” Did He say that? John 8:44, look it up. He said:

John 8:44: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of the father ye will do.”

He is a liar from the beginning and the father of it. If they, some of the most religious men that ever lived, are of the father the devil, then evidently not everybody is God’s child, are they? No. So, how do you get to be a child of God? You need to be born again. Who said so? Jesus.

John 3:3: “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 3:5: “Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”

If you are not born again, you are not a child of God. How do you get born again? Same chapter, He said this:

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

John 3:17: “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

John 3:18: “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Who is the name of the only begotten Son of God? That would be Jesus. So, not everybody is God’s child, those who have been born again. How do you get born again? You believe in Jesus Christ and trust Him to save your soul, forgive your sins, make you a child of God, and give you eternal life in Heaven forever and ever. There is only one. One God who is Father of all, above all, and through all, in you all.

The Gifts

Now look at verse seven:

Ephesians 4:7: “But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.”

We all have gifts from God and He gives us grace by measure. What is the measure? The measure of the gift of Christ. How do you know that is what it means? I kept reading, verse eight:

Ephesians 4:8: “Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.”

Jesus, “when he ascended up on high” – after death, burial, and resurrection, spent 40 days on this earth showing that He was alive, that He was resurrected. And then after 40 days, He ascended to Heaven to be at the right hand of the throne of God. That’s what it means when it says, “Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.”

“He led captivity captive” – what an interesting phrase that is. I wish we had time to expound on that. We don’t but let me just share with you, He took others with Him. There’s more to it than that. But just suffice, for now, He took others with Him. “And gave gifts unto men.”

Ephesians 4:9: “(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?”

That has to do with leading captivity captive.

Ephesians 4:10: “He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)”

And He gave. What did He give?

Ephesians 4:11: “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;”

Apostles, by definition, go to Acts chapter one, you’ll see this. The word actually means sent one or anointed one. Those who are sent out. That’s an apostle representative. But there are “the apostles,” commonly referred to in the Gospel as the Twelve. But Acts chapter one, tells you what you had to do to qualify to be an apostle. Number one, you had to be an eyewitness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Number two, you had to be personally trained by Jesus himself, and personally sent out by Jesus. That’s the apostles.

Many of us are sent out. If you are a believer, we are all sent out, but we are not one of the apostles. So, He gave some apostles and some prophets who are preachers. We think of prophets who tell the future. Yes, in some cases in the Bible prophets told the future but in all cases, prophets in the Bible – Old Testament and New Testament – proclaimed the truth. They are proclaimers of the truth. If that truth includes future events, then they do that. But they proclaim the truth.

So, He gave some apostles, some prophets or preachers, and some evangelists. An evangelist is a person who specializes in trying to win people over to Jesus Christ. Giving the evangel which is another word for the Gospel to those who haven’t heard. We can all be evangelists.

But there are some that have the gift of an evangelist, and some, pastors and teachers. A very famous, very well-known, very popular preacher says that’s altogether “pastors” and “teachers,” he would put a hyphen in between there to make that one thing, but it isn’t all one thing. First of all, it is not one word in Greek. Secondly, it’s not one word in English. Thirdly, all pastors must be teachers but not all teachers are pastors. So, it’s not one of the same things. Yes, all pastors must be teachers, part of the qualifications for the job. But not all teachers are pastors.

The Purpose of the Gifts

But He gives gifts – apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Why did He give these things? Look at verse 12:

Ephesians 4:12: “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:”

So, what is the purpose of the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor, and the teacher? All of them have the same job. They all work together. They don’t all perform the same function, but they all have the same job. What is it? The perfecting of the saints and the work of the ministry and the building up of the body of Christ.

“Perfecting of the saints” means helping people grow spiritually. Helping people to grow to be more like Christ. Come back tonight, and we’ll look at what it means to live a Christ-like life – the perfecting of the saints.

Number two – the work of the ministry. The work of the ministry has to go on, we must carry it out. Does that mean preaching the Gospel? It does. It also means teaching them. It means baptizing them and teaching them to observe all things “whatsoever I have commanded you.” Teaching them to grow in Christ.

The edifying of the body of Christ. What does that mean? Building up. This room we’re in we call a building, this has four walls, a roof, and a floor, and it’s a good title for it, because that is what it is, a building. Another word for a building is an edifice. An edifice is a building, a building is an edifice. So, what does it mean to edify the body? It means to build up the body of Christ. That’s what it means.

So, the gifts are given for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ.

Be Mature in Your Faith

There’s no period at the end of that verse so the same thought continues in verse 13:

Ephesians 4:13: “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:”

Why do we need to come in the unity of the faith? Because there is only one. There is only one faith. “And of the knowledge of the Son of God” – only one.

Ephesians 4:14: “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;”

Ephesians 4:15: “But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:”

Now, let me take you back to verse 13.

Ephesians 4:13: “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:”

Look at verse 15 now:

Ephesians 4:15: “But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:”

You know, verse 13 and verse 15 talk about the same thing, verse 14 fits in there obviously. Verses 13 and 15 are telling us our goal is to grow up and be like Jesus. That’s what it is talking about. What’s the Christian life about? It’s about growing to be like Him.

Now, in between there in verse 14, he says, “That we henceforth be no more children,” – what does he mean by that? Being mature in your faith and your understanding. “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine.”

Many years ago, I used to teach Sunday School classes for children right down here. I still teach Sunday School but just not down here. We had just finished a book study. We were going through a book in the Bible. We were about to finish, and I asked the class, “What would you like to study next?”

Here’s the question that came back. “Where did all these denominations come from?” I said, “Well, I can answer that question but it’s going to take a while.” It took a year. We spent a year looking up the origin of every major Christian denomination. Not their whole history. If we did their whole history, we’d still be doing it. But we looked up the origin of every Christian denomination. Why are there so many different Christian denominations? Again, got a year? We can answer that question more thoroughly.

Let me try to put it in a nutshell for you. One reason you have different groups going back hundreds of years, a couple of thousand years, is persecution. As believers were persecuted they fractured into other groups. The bigger and more historical reason is this. Some of them, under persecution, formed into groups they called synods, and in those groups, one church, usually, a larger congregation, would take authority over the others. That was the beginning of denominations.

Now, the bigger and more recent factor, still going back many, many years, centuries, was different in doctrine, some of which we already said: worship on the Sabbath, you must be baptized to be saved, there are others, other differences in doctrine. That’s where verse 14 comes in.

“That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine” – every wind of teaching that comes along, somebody goes off and follows it – “carried about with every wind of doctrine”.

“By the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness” – sleight and cunning synonyms – by those who are deceivers – “whereby they lie in wait to deceive.” Why would they want to deceive people?

Let me tell you a story from history. I don’t have time to go into it, but let me just give this to you as a quick illustration. There was a certain group of people who had a certain teaching. I’m not talking about church now. I’m not talking about Christians. It was a group of people who had a certain teaching, and they wanted to keep it among themselves. They didn’t want to go out and reach out to the world with it. They wanted to keep it quiet and private. They wanted to keep it within their group. It wasn’t a terrible teaching or anything; they just wanted it for their people only.

But somebody, after a long, long time, broke tradition and they started teaching these lessons to people who weren’t part of that group. At first, the people were angry and said, “Oh, my goodness!” But then they saw that this person was going out teaching and earning a lot of money. They thought maybe it was not such a bad idea after all. So, they started teaching other people too. Why? Money.

Now, that’s not a Christian group. I’m not talking about a Christian group, but I will say this I’ve made this statement many times and I have yet to have anybody come back and say, “I’ve got proof that you’re wrong.” If you do, I’m open. I want to hear. It’s never happened, I’ve been in this pulpit for over 40 years, and I’ve been in the ministry for over 50 years.

If a religion has its origin, if it was started, founded in the United States of America, and I love our country don’t get me wrong, I’m about as patriotic a fellow as you’re going to find, but if a religion has its origin or founding in this country, it was started as a money-making proposition. That’s the truth. Go back and look up the history of it and you’re going to find it was a money-making proposition. Some of them had done quite well. I don’t want to take time to go into that. I think you have the idea. So, why would people do this?

Ephesians 4:14: “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;”

Why do they want to deceive? Some do it for money. Some do it for prestige and power. Many do it because they are against Christ. There is a Bible term for that. You’ll find it in 1 John called antichrist. They are against Christ, and they would do anything to get you and anybody else they can to get you away from following Jesus and knowing the truth about Jesus. Well, that almost sounds satanic, doesn’t it? Take “almost” out of that, and you’ve got the idea.

So, we are to take the truth in love, grow up into Him, and be like Him, “which is the head, even Christ:”

Live Differently Than the World

Now, verse 16:

Ephesians 4:16: “From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”

In other words, we are supposed to be working together, we’re supposed to be unified in Christ, we’re supposed to be working for the cause of Christ, the spread of the Gospel, growing up to be like Him, and as we work together, we build each other up.

Verse 17, and we’re finished:

Ephesians 4:17: “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,”

Lord willing, come back tonight, and we’ll pick up there. What Paul is saying here, you’re a believer, a follower of Christ, and live like someone who is born again. Live differently in the world. Don’t live like those who are lost. There should be a difference in your life. The Holy Spirit makes a difference in your life. Jesus Christ makes a difference in your life. Your relationship with God the Father makes a difference in your life. Don’t live like somebody who never came to know God. Don’t live as you did before. Live a new life in Christ. How do I do that? Come back tonight, and we’ll talk about it.

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Right now, we are going to pray. Father, thank you so much for your blessings. Thank you so much that we can know the one true God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Father, it may be that somebody is listening today or somebody who will be listening later who has never come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

They heard the name, and maybe they may know Him as a historical fact, figure. They may know Him as a religious figure, but they’ve never put their faith and trust in the living Savior, Jesus Christ, who loves us and gave himself for us, who paid for our sins at the cross, who rose again the third day. And who said in John 6:47, “He that believeth on me has everlasting life.”

Lord, if there is a soul listening today who has never trusted in you as Savior, it is my earnest prayer that you would help that one, that they would open their heart and realize that they, like all of us, are a sinner and have come short of the glory of God. And yet, like all of us, you still love us. You still love that one so much that you paid for their sin at the cross.

Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures. He was buried and rose again on the third day, according to the scriptures. So, Lord, we are not asking them to put their faith in someone who is dead but in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is alive. He was dead, but He rose again. He was dead because He paid for our sins, but He is alive today. He that believeth in Him hath everlasting life.

Put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Call on Him right now and say, “Lord, I believe. I believe that you love me. I believe that you paid for my sins at the cross. And right here, right now, I’m trusting you to forgive my sins, to save my soul, to give me everlasting life. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus’ name.”

Now, our Father, help us as we close and come to the invitation time we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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