One, Eph, 4:4-6

We will proceed into this passage that Wayne read for us. We're looking here at Ephesians 4, 4 through 6. And it's interesting, this passage carries on this one theme, one, one, one. And it's part of a passage that we reminded people last week. There's a series of long sentences in the book of Ephesians. This is one of them. And we're actually looking at the second half. What you find here is here in 4, 1 through 6, It's kind of the latter half of the series of long sentences that Paul's used. Ephesians 4, 1 through 6 is actually the whole sentence in the Greek.

And what's been done in our English translations, the translators look at it and say, I just can't do that. And so what they do is they kind of break it up with English sentences into smaller bits than what's actually true in the original language. Last week, we looked at the first three verses. Today, we'll look at the last three, verses 4 through 6. Paul starts off here actually a little differently than what the English does in order to break it up into sentences that make sense in English. They begin with, there is, in many English translations. The truth is that those are words not actually supported in the Greek. In the Greek, Paul finishes off with verse 3, and what does he do? He just charges abruptly into verse 4.

He begins saying, one body, one spirit, and he begins laying those things out here. And so what we've done here, and you have it on your handout, by the way, if you're visiting with us, you'll see in the lower right-hand corner, that's the page number on your handout. And he says, one body, one spirit. And so we'll kind of follow this same sequence as we do our study this morning, okay? Now, one thing to keep in mind is, as Paul is saying, one body, one spirit, this singularity is in contrast to the culture.

In Ephesus, here was the Temple of Artemis, This is the idol of Artemis. The temple of Artemis was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. And spiritually speaking, however, Ephesus was very confused. There was a central focus on Artemis, and yet we know that there were something around 50 pagan deities that were worshipped at Ephesus.

It's possible even more. Those are the ones we know of. And so it was a very confusing situation. People would kind of grab this and grab that. It's somewhat comparable to our modern tendency to, that's true for you, but not for me. You've heard that, I'm sure. There was also a major influence there in magic and astrology and various kinds of occultism. There was that on top of it. So there was spirituality of every kind, but nothing specific.

What Paul comes off with, one body, one spirit. That whole message that we're seeing in this passage stands out as unique. because that's not what they were getting in the rest of what was being offered spiritually at Ephesus. So, Paul has a sharp contrast to the chaotic and divisive condition that was there for all the people at Ephesus who are not believers in Christ.

One is repeated in each case. Each and every point here. One body, one spirit, one hope. And one of the things that stands out here, there are seven of them. It's one of the numbers that we saw show up repeatedly in the book of Revelation as we were studying through it a few years back.

And here he brings up seven points of one body, one spirit, one hope, etc. And one of the other things that stands out in this passage is that you have the three persons of the Trinity mentioned in this one passage. As we brought up before, this isn't the first time that Paul has brought up the three persons of the Godhead. As a matter of fact, what we see here is the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the God and Father, who is the Father. So you see the three persons of the Trinity mentioned in the passage. It is also the seventh reference to the Trinity. So it's not only It's the seventh reference to the Trinity here in this passage, so it seems pivotal just from that standpoint.

We see a consistent reference in Scripture, and Ephesians carries it forth as heavily and as consistently as ever, to the three persons of the Godhead whom we put a term to, the Trinity, that are referenced in this passage. And we get the picture as we read through the pages of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. this consistent representation of who God is in the three Persons. Alright, so what's happening with these believers in Ephesus? Here they are, we've talked about how they have had these multiple gods, dozens of gods.

Can you imagine trying to keep that straight? Dozens of gods, all sorts of names, all sorts of images and symbols of different ones, and you've got to remember which one to see about what. When I pray about this, you go to that one. If you want to deal with this issue, then you go to this other one.

None of the gods were ever told, none of the people rather, were ever told that the gods loved them or blessed them. Completely different from what Paul is representing here. Not only that, we see that the believers, they were struggling with another issue, and that's that there was constant knocking of heads over the Jew and Gentile issue.

The Jews were saying, hey, you know, we'd sure like it if you folks join us, but we can't join you because your cloth is not the right kind of cloth. We can't join you because you're not eating right. When you do this, we can't do that. When you don't do this, we'd like to do that. There was always opportunity for trouble, and opportunity showed up, okay? Constant problem. In addition to that, Here is Paul, and he's coming across. He doesn't say, okay, you folks that have this thing dividing you.

He said, be one, get together. He doesn't just do that. What does he do? He explains why they have been made one. He lays that out, and that's what we've seen in these first several chapters. He's not done carrying that message across, is he? Here as we go into chapter 4, he's continuing to lay it on consistently. This is the basis that he appeals to the believers from, and it is that they are one. Seven times here he makes the point.

One body and... This one body point is also a point that he made with the church at Corinth. And you know as well as I, they had divisive issues, didn't they? They had all sorts of things. Paul gets through writing the very opening verses of 1 Corinthians First letter to the Church of Corinth, and what does he do? He says, I hear that there are divisions among you.

Okay? Immediately addressing the divisiveness issue, and one of the things he brings up with them before he closes the letter, the body is one. One body. There's also there, the word we'll look at, baptizing, and a double focus on one spirit. He begins to lay out with them a similar kind of message, doesn't he? Alright, now.

As Paul speaks to these groups here, Ephesians 2, 11-12, we looked at Paul addressing the issues between the Jews and the Gentiles. How Christ died on the cross to put the law out of commission. To put the law out of commission in order to create one body out of the Jews and Gentiles. It was the dividing wall between them.

And in Ephesians chapter 3, that we saw in recent weeks here, All the believers had an equal participation in sharing the glory of the Lord and in glorifying Him. He made no distinction between Jews and Gentiles in that. Both Jews and Gentiles equally participated in sharing the Lord's glory and glorifying Him.

We who believe aren't just a body simply because we just happen to you know, say, hey, you know, I kind of believe that too. It isn't a coincidental thing. It's something instead, as we look at these passages that we've seen in chapter 4, and we'll continue to look at it in chapter 5, we are indeed the body of Christ. We have an incomparable unity, because we have a unity that isn't based on earthly coincidence. It's a unity based on a position that we have in Christ, It is eternally true. It is based on who God is and who we are in Him. Now, not only is there the one body, but one spirit.

One of the things we brought out here on the handout, this is on page 3 now, we have the Holy Spirit indwelling believers. This was not true, by the way, of the believers in the Old Testament. They didn't have a continuous universal indwelling of all who believed. The Holy Spirit would be given at certain instances. As believers now, we can count upon the Holy Spirit continuously indwelling each believer.

I recall several years back when Nancy and I were still in Carson City, we had a friend of ours who considered a great discovery in her life to learn that the Holy Spirit was constantly and continuously dwelling in her. She'd grown up in a church background where the Lord was kind of conveyed as coming and going all the time. And so when she learned that the Holy Spirit was continuously indwelling her, this was a tremendous revelation and one which she grew in and has continued to grow in since then.

The baptizing, and this is one we'll be looking at in more detail, a placing into, an immersion in, We have been placed into the body of Christ, and that is not incidental. That's not, okay, we'll put your name down on the list. It is something that has spiritually occurred. When each person becomes a believer, they are placed into, by the Holy Spirit, the body of Christ. It is a ministry of the Holy Spirit at the point of belief. By the way, we don't go in and out either. It's a permanent placing in. And finally, a ceiling.

We've looked at that in the book of Ephesians so far. We're going to see it again. It also shows up as Paul writes to the church at Corinth. The folks in the Second Corinthians class looked at this some time back here. Now, last week we had this chart here. We didn't reproduce it, but you're certainly welcome, if you weren't here last week, to pick that up.

And this lists a number of the ministries of the Holy Spirit. These ministries of the Holy Spirit are those that are focused upon the Church. We have one body and one spirit, and that one spirit has a plurality of ministries. All these ministries going on. Interesting, the ministries of the Holy Spirit are by one spirit who has a ministry that is uniting to believers. Isn't that interesting? The ministry of the Holy Spirit is uniting to believers. If something else is going on, it's not the Holy Spirit's ministry. Make sense? The Holy Spirit's ministry is because we are one body and there is one Spirit.

And so Paul's focus here is on unity, and that's on purpose. Now, just as also you were called into one hope of your calling, Interesting, prior to this, it's just been a pair of words, hasn't it? One body, one spirit. Now all of a sudden, in this third point, he breaks out with a longer explanation of what it is. Still one hope, but he puts more description around it. Let's take a look here. This one hope, what's that all about? Christians have a hope that is singular. He makes that point. We have a hope that's singular.

Now, you've been in situations where you say, well, I hope this and I hope that, or you've heard people say that. What we're typically doing is looking for some outcome. There's usually one or more things that can happen, usually a plural set of possible outcomes. And we're saying of all the different possible outcomes, I sure hope it's this one, right? That's the way we commonly talk.

That's not what he's saying, though, is it? We have one hope. It's a singular hope. And that's the other aspect of it. It's certain, and that's something that this world doesn't know anything about. It is a hope that is singular, but it is also certain. We don't have a single hope, and that didn't pan out, so we hope for another one. But instead, it is a certain, fixed, absolute hope.

It remains the hope of believers. The believers who are living during the first century have this same certain, singular hope as we. Paul is already written. Remember, we brought out the point that there are two places here where Paul prays for the believers. We saw it in chapter 3 just recently. The first place it shows up is in chapter 1.

He doesn't want us to say, I want you to have hope even if you have no idea what it is. He says, I want you to know it. You have a singular hope, you have a certain hope, I want you to know it. I will pray to the Lord that you know it." That's Paul's heart and mind in the midst of this. He wants them to know the hope that they have.

And then he goes on in the rest of that prayer and does some explaining of what that hope is. Now, so the question is, which hope is it? Alright, those who are believers in Christ, have been spiritually redeemed, but we also have something we're waiting for, don't we? As believers, we still have a part of our hope that we're waiting for, and there will be a time when hope is fulfilled. Something that Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. There's faith, hope, and love. The love will remain. The love will continue. Hope will have a point of fulfillment. Our bodies will be redeemed.

I don't know about you, but this thing here is getting a little bit short of what I'd like it to be. The Lord says, that's okay, I've got a new one in mind. As a matter of fact, every time something drops out on you with this one, that's just to remind you, you've got another one coming. There is still an anticipation. Why? Because the Lord is not just here to save us spiritually. Ultimately, He does have a new body for us. Spirit, soul, and body, all saved. That's the ultimate hope. It's a new body that's our hope.

Believers now behold him by faith, but then there will be a time, as John writes, where we shall see him as he is. We will see him face to face. As we get a new body, it won't be just, hey, this is great, I got a new body. That old one was getting pretty tired. But it's also a matter of, in that new body, beholding the Lord face to face. Now we behold Him through His Word. We behold Him by faith. Then there will be a face to face beholding. We'll behold Him directly.

That is a part of the singular certain hope that we have. We'll also ever be with the Lord. Always with Him. Always with Him. Now, We do, as we've mentioned before, share His glory. That's part of God's eternal purpose, that we share the glory that is His.

We have a fixed position, but our condition, that is, from day to day, can change, can't it? We can go through a period of time, we may go through a period of time when we really lose track and lose our mindset. about the position that we have in Christ. We can stray from it. That's something that we wrestle with, isn't it? We can stray from the position that we have, and there can be a disparity, a conflict, between who we are eternally and how we walk daily. There can be a difference between the two.

The believer here on planet Earth can walk with the Lord or not. When we go to be with the Lord, when we have the new body, when we see Him face to face, there will no longer be any disparity between our position, which is fixed in the heavenlies, and our condition, which varies from day to day. Our wills will be fixed. Now, our position and condition will be the same. You see, when we get through heaven's gates, when we walk heaven's halls, we won't have phrases like, Or, I hate it when that happens.

And you won't have bumper stickers that say things like, you know, this happens. Anyway, I won't say that. But you won't have stuff like this spiritually happening, right? You won't have that. We can look at it and laugh, but there won't be anything like that. You won't have somebody dropping through the golden floor. Now, you won't have oops in heaven. That's a part of the one hope that we have, isn't it?

Now, One Lord. That's to keep you awake, by the way. Something goes skating by. I've had several people tell me, I can't quite tell what it is because when it goes by, I have no warning, and it goes flash, and it goes zooming by. Well, let me tell you something. I have no way to adjust it. All I can do is either do it or not do it. Okay, all right. One Lord. Let's take a look here.

The Roman Empire had a situation where in order to prove your loyalty to the Roman Emperor, you had to go into the Emperor's temple from time to time. And as time went on, they made this more and more strict. You actually had to have a certificate that said you had done this, called a libelous. You had to actually have the certificate. But what they would do is they would say, all right, you've got to go into the Emperor's temple.

And here's one in Ephesus built during the time of the latter part of the New Testament era. and you would say some things that would call the Emperor Soter, Savior, how about that, and Lord. So to say that there is one Lord automatically put you in conflict with the Roman Emperor worship, didn't it? This was a choice that the believers had to come to. And so here was the people at Ephesus as the believers were hearing this, were saying, This is great having one Lord, it also puts me in conflict.

Because isn't it true that this world would very much like us to have various Lords, various things, and various people call the shots? We have a situation that may not be exactly like this, but in truth, isn't all the advertising that you see thrown at you intended to have you look upon the product or service as a Savior? It really is putting that focus, isn't it?

The reality, we have one Lord. We have one Savior. We don't need to call upon any other. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Jude, who is writing there in his brief one chapter letter, says in verse 25, "...to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Singular, isn't it? One Lord. One Savior. Him alone. One faith. He lays it out here. Now that one faith has a specific and singular content.

That's it. There is a tendency among believers in our era, and they struggled with it in the New Testament times as well, to say, oh, it's okay for Christians to have sort of a plurality of different teachings. You can have this one, I'll have that one, and over in this church we have this other one. Is that what God intended? No. One faith. One set of beliefs. The belief set is the one faith.

That's it. Paul writes again to the church at Corinth, and like the church at Ephesus where there are issues of division, he gets through saying, Hi, I'm Paul, and what does he write in verse 10? He says, I urge that you say the one same thing, that there be no doctrinal divisions among you. How about that?

The one same thing. a singular message. That's why in Jude 3, made reference to here, Jude says, I was writing to, initially, with the intent of writing about our common salvation, but some things have come up, and now I need to urge you to contend, and he uses a word that you could carry across into English, I urge you to carry out a super Olympic effort on behalf of the one faith, once for all, delivered to the saints." A singular and specific content.

Here are the references, and you have it on page four of your handout, to references to the faith in the New Testament, referring to a specific set of teachings. It wasn't, hey, I've got a certain set of teachings over here in this church, we have another one, over here we've got a different one altogether. No. all these to different churches, but saying one set of teachings, one THE FAITH, singular. By the way, this isn't an exhaustive list. I picked through them to fit them on one page. The list could be made longer. Now, there's not only a characteristic of, here's the set of beliefs, one single set of beliefs, there is also a specific and singular object of our faith. We don't just say, hey, here's the stuff we believe, sign here.

But the object of that faith and a focal point of that set of teachings is the person of Jesus Christ. That's the challenge point, isn't it? We brought up before how Paul was there with Silas in the jail at Philippi, and the jailer was right at the point because Earthquake had kind of shaken a lot of things loose The jailer is right at the point of shoving a sword through himself, and he says what must I do to be saved and Paul didn't come up and say hey We've got a whole bunch of things to teach you and it's going to take you lots and lots of books And you have to study it for a while, okay? Certainly scripture teaches a consistent set of teachings, but he said what's the focal point is the person of Jesus Christ and so he shouts out to this jailer who's not in for some delayed lengthy response with a sword at his stomach.

He says, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. It's that simple. Let's boil it down to what is essential. Believe in Him and you'll be saved. It's not just a doctrinal statement, but that doctrinal statement itself puts the focus upon Jesus Christ. It is the focal point, the specific and singular object of our faith. the person of Jesus Christ. Now, one of the things we also find is not just reference to the faith, but also repeated reference to the faith that is in Christ. We see that all the way from Acts, where the church is just beginning, towards the very end of the New Testament, the faith is in Jesus Christ consistently. And one of the questions you might ask is, why faith?

Why didn't God make some other criteria? If you're 52 years old and losing your hair, then you're saved. Or something like that. He said, no. No. He says, I'm going to make a criteria, and that criteria will be specific. I'm going to make one criteria, and that's faith. So the question is, why faith?

Faith isn't something for which we can take credit. It isn't something I can say, hey, you know, I just had to write genealogy. It's not something we look at and say, boy, I've really worked at this. We can't take any credit for faith. Human beings are made to put faith in something or someone. But it's not something we can take credit for. It isn't like intelligence or cleverness, knowledge, good looks, whatever you want to put on the list. It isn't something that some combination of just fortunate genetics and my best efforts. None of those will count.

It's something that the person who is highly intellectual and very well educated or simple and uneducated, both can have in common and they can both put their trust in Christ. Simple as that. It's basic to human beings to put their faith in something or someone.

It's not a work, it's not a gift. Someone will not stand before the Lord at the end of time and say, well, I wanted to believe, but you wouldn't let me. You didn't give me the gift. Faith is something that each person may exercise, but it's not a work and not a gift. You don't get credit for it. It is, positively, because notice we've said it's not something all the way along here up to this point, it's confidence in the reality and the capacity and capability and the accomplishments of somebody else.

It's faith in another. It's faith in who another is and what another has done. The other thing is that God determines the outcome of that faith. And that's what we've seen in Ephesians chapter 1, where Paul starts off, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, and his pen just won't stop. is listing God's determination. What are the outcomes? What are the consequences of that faith?

So the question is, are we there yet? Not yet. Sorry about that. One baptism still has that. This word baptizo means to place into it in the sense of immersion. The word that we have in English for baptize or baptism tends to make us conjure up in our minds somebody being dunked under water, but the word didn't always and oftentimes didn't have that sense in people's minds in New Testament times. The basic idea is to place into in the sense of immersion. And so Paul is using the word here, and he's not just saying dunk under water, but he's saying one placing into. one placing into. That's the point that he's trying to get across. Now, let me give you a for instance of how the word would be used.

Here's a Roman short sword. The Roman short sword was the sword that, along with the rest of the Roman soldiers' equipment, allowed them to take over this empire that, at some prior time, we noted you had to get out in space a fair distance to get the whole Roman Empire in one picture. Here's this Roman short sword.

And what would they do? They would first heat the sword to a high level of heat, white hot. That would be step one, because they got this sword formed, but they want to harden it. The next thing they would do, once they got this thing heated to a white hot heat, is they would plunge the sword then into water, and it would case-harden the outside, so that when they went and struck the sword against the enemy's sword, it wouldn't just dent up and start bending and fall apart. it would instead be very hard on the outside. And when they would do that plunging into the water, that would be baptizo. They would say, we're going to baptizo the sword. They would place the sword by immersion into the water to harden it. Another example, they would take the dye, put it in water, and take the fabric and shove it down completely into the water. That was also called That action was baptizo, to completely place into.

That's the word that he's drawing upon here, as he is writing to the believers at Ephesus. There is one immersion, there is one placing into. So, that brings us to a question. Now we have to think this one through. As you read through various commentators and interpreters, Different ones will say this means different things. Now wait a minute, we've got one baptism. How come we have a whole bunch of different things? We've got to figure out which one it is, don't we? Someone says, well, it's baptism in water. You've got one baptism in water. Another one will say, well, it's baptism by the Holy Spirit in which you are placed into the body of Christ. Someone else will say, ah, it's baptism into Christ's death.

That's it. Now wait a minute, we've got three on the list so far and we're maybe not done. Remembering this, the word doesn't basically mean dipping into water as we think of a ceremony or a ritual, but the word focuses instead upon this placing into or immersion.

The other thing, we see that we have been placed into Christ, and one of the points that Paul has made repeatedly here throughout the book of Ephesians so far, and he's not done, As he said, believers are in Christ, in Him, in whom, in the Beloved. He again and again and again made that point.

In Christ, we were identified with Him at His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating, as we were placed into Christ, baptized into Christ. In Christ, we were also placed into the body of Christ, by the Holy Spirit. we observe water baptism not because it accomplishes something, not because, alright, now we've got you in water and we've just done something spiritually that wasn't true before you were put in the water. It is instead baptism as a picture, as a testimony, a proclamation to others of what has already taken place spiritually. The baptizing we do in water is to express the spiritual reality, not to create a spiritual reality. Paul makes the point in Romans 6, 3-6, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized, that is, placed into Christ Jesus, have been baptized into His death?

What's the primary thing? We are placed into Christ. Therefore we have been buried with Him, excuse me, Yeah, therefore we've been buried with him through baptism that is being placed into his death The primary thing is we are in Christ and that's the point that Paul has been making in Ephesians all the way along, isn't it? We're united with him. We're crucified with him Repeated points. We are in Christ. That's the placing into Okay, that's the placing into we are immersed in him Paul writes to the church at Galatia and And he says in verse 27, for all of you who are baptized, placed into Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ.

It's in Christ that is primary. That's the point. That's the one baptism. Everything else flows from that. If you've been placed into Christ, you've been identified with Him in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. If you've been placed into Christ, you've been placed into the body of Christ. If you've been placed into Christ, it then makes sense for you to be water-baptized to proclaim and represent what has taken place spiritually already. So that's the one baptism, being placed into Christ.

Ephesians 1.3, what is it that Paul wrote as he was first writing to these saints at Ephesus? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. is by placing us in Christ that we have been blessed. It's that placing us in Christ that the Lord says, that is the mechanism that I will use to bless you. It is in Christ that we are a new creation, a new creature, in Him. That's the One Baptism.

Now, the last phrase or set of words that he uses here, One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all, This phrase, God and Father, is one that is used not only by Paul, as we see in multiple times there in his letters, but also in the right-hand column, James, Peter, and John also use this phrase. It's a way of saying God the Father, God who is the Father. He is God and he is the Father. So God and Father.

But one of the things that stands out, we've noticed previously that there's one, one, one, one, one, one, one, and I'm not sure I've got the right number, but seven times, okay? And now in this last one, we've got four places where the word all pops up here. So the question is, what or who is this all referring to? So think about this.

The content of this passage, all the seven points here, from everything we've seen before, is focused upon the Church, the Body of Christ. Those words that are not talking about the three persons of the Trinity are all referring to the Church, aren't they? Apart from these references to the Trinity, every single one of them is focusing on those who are believers and are therefore in the Body of Christ.

The last thing we see there in that phrase is in all. Unbelievers are not in Him. And He is not in unbelievers. That's the key point here. To be in, you must be talking about believers here. Let's look at these phrases, overall, through all, and in all.

We've got overall, and we saw in Ephesians 1.3, Blessed be the God and Father who has blessed us, that is, all those in the church.

Unbelievers aren't blessed that way, right? So it's all those in the church, with every spiritual blessing. The Father then, as Paul goes through Ephesians chapter 1, is credited with all the blessings. So he's overall, every believer, all the blessings. He's the one to be given great thanks for those blessings. One of the other things we see is he's the one who makes the choices and determinations as to how you're to be blessed. Jesus Christ is the instrument.

It is made effective in us through the Holy Spirit, but the Father is the one given credit for these things. Notice it's also through all. In 2 Corinthians, boy that book keeps coming up a lot, 2 Corinthians But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and manifests through us." Ah! You see, it's not just what God has done to us, it's also what God is doing through us. Manifests in us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.

One of the other points, and frankly I had several people who were kind of surprised by this, but we brought this up in Ephesians 3.10, the Lord is using the church as the instrument of teaching and revelation to the angels. One of the points that got brought up. It is through the church, another point of things happening through the church. The church is the instrument for teaching angelic creatures. How about that? When the angels go to angel college, you're the focal point. Not because of you, but because of what the Lord is doing in and through you.

Finally, in all, here's John 17, 23, Jesus is praying to the Father, and he says, I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that you sent me, and love them even as you have loved me. Now, look at this. If the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the believer, then the Father is in the believer, right? There's another passage there in 1 John 4 that you can look at as well.

Now, so we see this focus here, one body and one spirit, and he goes on, this unity is founded on who God is and what God has done. See that? If we dispute that unity of the church, it's on the basis of something else. We have every reason based on who God is and what God has done to be unified in Him. We go through here, there's a focus on one body. We have been made that one body by Him. There is a focus on one spirit. Multiple ministries, but one spirit for the one body.

You are called to one hope. Every believer, we come from all kinds of different backgrounds, don't we? One hope. A singular hope. One Lord. One Lord Jesus Christ. The one in whom we put our faith and trust. One faith, that set of beliefs and one focus of belief. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. One baptism, one placing into Christ from which all the other baptisms, if you will, flow.

And finally, one God and Father of us all. It is the Lord Himself who introduces us, as we saw in chapter 2, who gives us access to the Father. So Paul's point to the church in Roman and Galatia, Abba Father, we have an intimacy and an approach and an access to him that comes from that working of the Lord.

He works through us in so many ways, doesn't he? He works in us in so many ways. He lives in us. And that's his point here. As we look at it here, we have Ephesians expanded and explained. I'm going to leave it for lack of time to you to look through, but it's intended to give insight, pulling together all the things we've seen here this morning. And so let's close with prayer.

Lord, thank you. As we look at this, you have indeed made us one. It is who you are and who you have made us to be in you that makes all these one and singular things possible. And they're indeed wondrous, Lord. Because we're not one in you for five years, or ten, or fifteen, or twenty, but for all eternity. What a marvelous and tremendous thing. Thank you. We praise you, Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen.