Message 3: The Hope Of Our Calling
Scripture Verses: Eph 4:1-6, 17-24; Eph 1:17-19 (Additional
References: 1Pet 1:21-22; 1Cor 13:7-8a; Heb 11:1; Rom 10:17; Eph 2:10,15; 2Cor 5:17; Col 3:9-11)
I
therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the
calling wherewith ye were called (Ephesians 4:1)
Even
though we spent three weeks on Ephesians Chapter 4, I still cannot get away
from Ephesians 4:1. This chapter begins with Paul's beseeching to walk worthily
of the calling of our Christian life. In Ephesians 4:4, calling is mentioned
again:
There is one Body, and one Spirit,
even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling (Ephesians 4:4)
It
is the hope of our calling that I would like to fellowship with you.
Faith, Hope and Love
In
Ephesians 1:17-18, Paul prayed for the saints in Ephesus then, and as well as
for us today, saying:
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge (full
knowledge, Darby) of Him (Ephesians 1:17)
Having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that
ye may know what is the hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory of
His inheritance in the saints (Ephesians 1:18)
And what the surpassing greatness of His power
towards us who believe, according to the working of the might of His strength
(Ephesians 1:19)
So
to know the hope of His calling requires a spirit of wisdom and revelation in
the full knowledge of Him and the opening of the eyes of our heart. In other
words, it is not so simple. For myself, the more I ponder over this portion,
the more I realize that I need the unveiling of the Spirit and the opening
of my eyes to be enlightened in
order to have the full knowledge of Him; and to know what is the hope of His
calling; and to appreciate the surpassing greatness of His power according to
the might of His strength to us, the believers.
In the New Testament, what is hope is not
easily understood. But it is NOT wishful thinking. It is generally mentioned
together with two other very important items, faith and love. Paul in Ephesians
1:17-18 clearly mentions hope and
faith together. The apostle Peter in 1 Peter 1:21-22 also mentions faith, hope
and love together:
Who through Him are believers
in God, that raised Him from the dead, and gave Him glory; so that your faith
and hope might be in God (1Pet 1:21)
Seeing ye have purified your
souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love
one another from the heart fervently (1Pet 1:22)
To
those of us who are familiar with the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 13 is a
chapter on love; in particular 1 Corinthians 13:3-8 is generally referred to as
the definition of love:
And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be
burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing. (1 Cor 13:3)
Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not
puffed up, (1 Cor 13:4)
Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its
own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; (1 Cor 13:5)
Rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth
with the truth; (1 Cor 13:6)
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth
all things, endureth all things. (1 Cor 13:7)
Love never faileth: (1 Cor
13:8a)
In
1 Corinthians 13:7-8a, Paul says love bears (the same word for 'covers' in
Greek) all things, believes all things, hopes in all things, and endures all
things. Love never fails. Then at the end of the chapter Paul mentions:
But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three;
and the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor 13:13)
Therefore,
hope must be seen in the context of these three things - faith, hope and love.
These are the three pillars of our Christian life. I would like to fellowship
with you the hope of our calling in the context of these three items.
When one brings up the subject of hope, it
sounds distant and in the future. But the Bible tells us that hope is very real
and very present. Paul in Ephesians chapter four says:
With all lowliness and meekness, with
longsuffering, forbearing (bearing, Darby) one another in love (Eph 4:2)
Giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace. (Eph 4:3)
There is one Body, and one Spirit,
even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling (Eph 4:4)
One Lord, one faith, one baptism (Eph 4:5)
Paul
here mentions love in verse 2, hope in verse 4, and faith in verse 5. Faith,
hope and love are the three
essential elements of our Christian worthy walk Paul besought in verse 1.
Now, Hebrews chapter 11 is a chapter on faith;
and Hebrews 11:1 gives us its first definition:
Now faith is assurance (substantiating, Darby) of
things hoped for, a conviction
of things not seen. (Heb 11:1)
Here
you see faith and hope are related. Faith is the substantiation of the things
hoped for. In other words, hope is not something vain, not something empty, not
something distant and far away, and not something that you cannot relate to;
but rather our Christian hope is very substantial, very solid and is founded on
very sound basis. It is not some fancy distant wish list but is something very
solid. Romans 10:17 says:
So belief (faith, KJV & Darby) cometh of hearing, and hearing by the
word of Christ. (Rom 10:17)
From
these two verses, you can see the foundation of our Christian hope, that is the
hope of our calling, is our faith; and our faith comes from God's Word. Hence
the hope of our calling is solid, sure and substantial and founded on our faith;
and our faith is based upon the eternal, unchanging, and immoveable Word of
God.
The reason we minister the Word every Lord's
Day, and pass out weekly morning watch sheets with verses is for the saints to
get into the Word every day of the week. This is to strengthen our faith. The
Word of God strengthens our faith, which in turn assures us of the hope of our
calling, and the hope of our calling is for our Christian worthy walk as
Ephesians 4:1 shows.
To Walk Worthily of Our Calling
The word 'walk' is composed of two parts. One
part defines the boundary, the realm; and the other describes our movement. In
our Christian worthy walk, Paul emphasizes not so much our movement, but more
about where we walk. He describes two realms in which we do our walking.
As
Christians, we have all been called out. The children of Israel in the Old
Testament is an illustration of being called out. When the Israelites were in
Egypt, they were under slavery and bondage and had to labor to make bricks for
Pharaoh. They cried out to the Lord and He had mercy on them. So He sent Moses
to bring them out of Egypt into the Good Land so that they could be free. This
was the calling out from one realm into another.
Put Off the Old Man, Put On the New Man
That ye put away (put off, Darby), as concerning
your former manner of life, the old man, that waxeth corrupt after the lusts of
deceit (Eph 4:22)
And that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind
(Eph 4:23)
And put on the new man, that after (according to,
Darby) God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth (Eph
4:24)
In
Ephesians 4, Paul uses another illustration to show the walk worthy of our
calling is to come out of one realm into another. He describes it as 'to put off the old man and put on the
new man'. To put off the old man is to come out of the old realm, and to put on
the new man is to come into another realm. This is the basis of the hope of our
calling.
As Christians, we all have a wonderful hope of
our calling because we all have the potential, the ability, to put off the old
man, be renewed in the spirit of our mind, and put on the new man. It is very
important for us to see this and not rely on our experiences because they can
be very deceiving and may not be based upon the Word of God. Even books which
we read may not be reliable because they are based on someone else's
experiences which may not be so clearly grounded upon the Word of God. Hence
they could be discouraging.
His Masterpiece
Paul
first introduced the term 'the new man' in Ephesians chapter 2. He wrote:
For we are His workmanship (masterpiece, New
Living Trans), created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared
that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:10)
Having abolished in the flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; that He
might create in Himself of the two one new man, so making peace (Eph 2:15)
Notice
that in Ephesians 2:10, Paul said we are His masterpiece (NLT) created in
Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared before that we should walk in
them. What does the word 'masterpiece' remind you of? It should remind us of
Genesis chapter 1!
In
Genesis chapter 1, when God started His creation; He created, and He saw that
it was good. Then He created something more; and He saw that it was good. Then
in Genesis 1:26 & 31:
And God said, Let Us make man
in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of
the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all
the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (Gen 1:26)
And God saw everything that He had made, and,
behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning,
the sixth day. (Gen 1:31)
We
have often said, God kept His best for last. So when you see the word
masterpiece, it should remind you of
Genesis 1:31.
However, the masterpiece referred to in
Ephesians 2:15 was not created in Genesis 1. It was created in Christ Jesus on
the cross after abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments in ordinances.
He created in Himself, out of the two, into one new man. Then Paul added in
Ephesians 4:24 that the new man, according to God, 'was created in
righteousness and holiness of the truth'.
The Second Man
When the Lord Jesus came as a man, His
incarnation was God becoming a man. In Matthew 3, before the Lord came out to
minister, He went to John the Baptist to be baptized by him. John's reaction
was, 'I should be baptized by You'. However, the Lord answered him:
But Jesus answering said unto
him, Suffer (Permit, NKJV) it
now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. (Matt 3:15)
Why
did the Lord answer John this way?
Genesis chapter 1, God created man in His
likeness and according to His image, and He said it was very good. Genesis
chapter 2, tells us God formed man out of the dust of the ground. Adam means
red, signifying from what he was made of, red earth. Then God breathed the
breath of life into man's nostrils. The word breath is the same word as spirit;
that is to say, God breathed the spirit in Adam; and Adam became a living soul:
And Jehovah God formed man of
the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and
man became a living soul. (Gen 2:7)
So man was made with a body, soul and spirit.
Then God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden and told him of all the trees in the
Garden he could eat, including the tree of life; all except for the tree of
knowledge of good and evil. God's intention was for Adam to take the tree of
life which symbolize God as life. He had already equipped Adam with a spirit to
receive Him as life; and to depend on Him in all his movement. This was why man
was God's masterpiece - up to that point. But we all know the story. Before
Adam could take the tree of life, he was seduced by deceitful Satan who disguised and camouflaged himself as the
serpent.
Ephesians 4:22 says, 'put off as regards your former
manner of life, the old man which is corrupted according to the lusts of deceit'. Where did that
deceit come from? It came from Satan, God's enemy, who caused Adam and Eve to
doubt God's word saying, 'Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in
the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God,
knowing good and evil' (Gen 3:4-5).
So you can see the old man was corrupted in Genesis.
However, Ephesians 4:24 says 'put on the new man, which according to God has been created in
righteousness and holiness of truth'. 1 Corinthians 15:45 tells us that the
Lord Jesus came as the last Adam and 1 Corinthians 15:47 refers to Christ as
the second man. Do not mix up the two, He is NOT the second Adam because He was
not corrupted like Adam was. He was the last Adam.
When the Lord Jesus was born of the virgin
Mary, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and He was born exactly like Adam in
Genesis chapter 2. That is, He was born with a body, with a soul and with a
spirit. And before He came out for His public ministry, He was baptized by John
the Baptist and said to him to permit it now because He must fulfill all
righteousness. In other words, this meant that He had no confidence in His
natural soul and depended on God for everything. By living such a life, God's
life (represented by the tree of life in Genesis), was in His spirit. This is
what is the meaning of Christ is the second man. He was not of the earth, He
was from heaven (1Cor 15:47).
We all have our natural parents. No matter how
wonderful they are, and what a good environment they bring you up in,
unfortunately, all they can give you is the old man. But when we believed in
the Lord Jesus, we were regenerated in our spirit; we had a second birth, a new
man. Because of this, every believer has the potential to put off the old man,
be renewed in the spirit of the mind and put on the new man.
Adam and Eve was corrupted by Satan through
lust and deceit in Genesis 3. That realm which Adam and Eve were seduced into
passed on throughout all the generations and races, to our parents, and to
everyone of us here today. Based on Ephesians 4:22, we all received the old man.
If we must remain in this realm, there would be no hope. But as believers,
we all have hope because we were
called to come out of this realm!
In Ephesians 4:22, to 'put off' (the old man)
means that you possess it, and to 'put on' (the new man) means that it is
available to you. You cannot put off something you don't have and put on
something that is out of your reach. Hence we can put on the new man which
according to God was created in righteousness and holiness of truth. This is
the basis of the hope of our calling - God's Word.
The reason we mention Genesis 1 so often
regarding God's eternal purpose is because it is related to the hope of our
calling. If we are ignorant of God's Word then our Christian walk would be
extremely difficult. It would be like what the Chinese idiom says - like a
blind cat catching a dead mouse. That is to say, the success of our Christian
walk would be by trial and error; and success is only by luck stumbling upon it
once in a while. But the success of our Christian life is NOT by trial and
error! It is based on God's Word.
Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature (creation,
Darby): the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new. (2Cor 5:17)
When we believed in the Lord, this was our
second birth. We are a new creation so we should not remain in the old man.
However Ephesians 4:17-19, Paul still had to remind the Ephesians of this:
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye no longer walk
as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind (Eph 4:17)
Being darkened in their understanding, alienated
from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the
hardening of their heart; (Eph 4:18)
Who being past feeling gave themselves up to
lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. (Eph 4:19)
But ye did not so learn
Christ (Eph 4:20)
This
shows many Christians do not walk worthily of our calling and walk like the
Gentiles do in the realm of the self, and the flesh. Gentiles here refer to the
unbelievers who cannot help but walk in that realm. But for us believers, 'no longer' means
we were there in that realm before, 'in the vanity of the mind'. In the fall of
man, the way to the tree of life was shut off from him, but when the Lord Jesus
came, the way was opened again. 'The ignorance that is in them' was because
they still thought that the way to the tree of life remained shut because of
the hardness of their heart. Ephesians 4:19 shows the condition of man in the
old realm. "But you did not so learn Christ"! (Ephesians 4:20)
But to be able 'to no
longer walk in the vanity of our mind', in the realm of the old man, is altogether
because Christ is the second man! He was tempted but He never sinned. He was
fully obedient to the Father. He was the One that lived fully according to
God's purpose. We can learn of Him! He created us on the cross when He
accomplished redemption. So now we who have been walking in the old realm, can
walk in the new realm, in the new man.
Paul uses some very
practical examples of how do we put off the old man and put on the new man. It has a lot to do with our
speech:
Wherefore, putting away falsehood (lying, KJV),
speak ye truth each one with his neighbor: for we are members one of
another. (Eph 4:25)
Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down
upon your wrath: (Eph 4:26)
Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth,
but such as is good for edifying as the need may be, that it may give grace to
them that hear. (Eph 4:29)
And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye
were sealed unto the day of redemption. (Eph 4:30)
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and
clamor, and railing (evil speaking, KJV), be put away from you, with all
malice: (Eph 4:31 )
Thy Sacred Name, A
Thousand Times A Day
A
brother mentioned that there is a hymn in the Chinese hymnal that is based on
Ephesians 4:30 asking the question, have we grieved the Holy Spirit? The author
of this hymn is Frederick Faber who lived in England about 200 years ago.
Although we do not have this particular hymn in our English hymnal, we have a
number of other hymns written by him. The most familiar is Hymn 208. The first
stanza goes like this:
O Jesus, Jesus,
dearest Lord!
Forgive me if I say;
For very love, Thy
sacred name
A thousand times a
day.
I was enlightened when I found out the author
who wrote do not grieve the Holy Spirit is also the one who wrote forgive me if
I call on Your name a thousand times a day. How do we grieve the Holy Spirit?
The most common way is by our loose talk; lies, corrupt words and evil
speaking. To walk worthily of our calling is not to do a noble deed once in a
while, but it happens 'a thousand times a day' by putting off the old man and
putting on the new man.
To most of us, our old man, is revealed in our
quickness in forming an opinion, the quickness of our response to something
disagreeable to us; often reacting even without thinking things through. How do
we prevent this? It is by calling on the name of the Lord! By calling on the
name of the Lord first prevents us
from opening our mouths and saying something wrong.
I did not arrive at this conclusion lightly. I
have shown you the hope of our calling is based on our faith which is grounded
in God's Word; it is also based on our putting off the old man and putting on
the new man; and it is also related to love. 1 Corinthians 13, a chapter on
love, begins with:
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. (1Cor 13:1)
And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge;
and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am
nothing. (1Cor 13:2)
And if I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and if I give
my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing. (1Cor
13:3)
This shows that
love is not some heroic acts. From 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 shown previously, 8 out
of the 15 items says 'love is not'; and 7 says 'love is'. Most of these items
like 'does not provoke', 'endures all things', 'bears all things', all have
much to do with our not speaking up. In other words, majority of the time, the
definition of love is silence, or rather our 'silent speaking'!
To practice being
in the right realm, to put on the new man, to be in our spirit, starts with our
speech. "O, Jesus, Jesus, dearest Lord, forgive me if I say; for very love
Thy sacred name, a thousand times a day". I believe that if we check by
calling on the Lord every time before we open our mouth, much less harm will be
done and much more building will issue forth. Our silent utterance will issue
in more building than our hasty words.
On the other hand, sometimes we need to speak
in truth. Gossiping is not love, but speaking truth is love. Sometimes we don't
need to ask too many questions; love believes all things; love endures all
things. The surest way not to grieve the Holy Spirit, I believe, is to practice
what the hymn says, " Forgive me if I say, for very love Thy sacred name,
a thousand times a day". This is also how we live by faith, hope and love.
No matter how long we have been a Christian we can practice this and experience
putting off the old man, be renewed in the spirit of our mind and putting on
the new man. It is a good way to test which realm we are in by calling on the
name of the Lord.
So
may the Lord be gracious to us that we all will walk worthily of our calling
this coming week because we have this hope of our calling.
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