Well, I apologize for offering such an old hymn. People did not know it. It is a good hymn: “O to Be Like Thee.”
If that is all you remember, in that last part of the refrain where it says, “Stamp Thine own image deep in my heart,” then at least you get the essence of the burden I continue to be burdened with.
So let us turn to the Word of God. There are some verses we would like to read. These are familiar—I hope not too familiar.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are called according to His purpose.
For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son,
that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called,
with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering,
forbearing one another in love;
giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.There is one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all, Who is over all, and through all, and in all.But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Wherefore He saith,
When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts unto men.Now this, He ascended, what is it but that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth?
He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.And He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ:
till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a full-grown man,
unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine,
by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;
but speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him, Who is the head, even Christ;
from Whom all the body, fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth,
according to the working in due measure of each several part,
maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love.
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us,
that we should be called children of God;
and such we are.
For this cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be.
We know that, if He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him;
for we shall see Him even as He is.And every one that hath this hope set on Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.
Lord, Your Word is holy. We come to You with no other desire but to see You, because we know that when we see You, we shall be like You. For we shall see You as You are.
Lord, stamp Thine own image deep, deep in our heart. We do not want to be those who have lived this life, walked this journey, heard of all the great promises that You will never break, and not somehow be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus—no lasting impression, no likeness to bear.
We come this morning. We offer back to You the Word we have read, and we remind You that You alone have the words of eternal life. To whom shall we go?
Speak, Lord. Speak to us something that is meaningful, something that is real, something that has eternity. Do not waste these dear ones’ time speaking of nothing, leaving no impression, leaving this new year without meaning.
Speak, Lord. Thy servant hears. For we ask this in the precious name of the Lord Jesus, for His glory, for His sake, until You fill all things. Amen.
I have been drawn back to these few verses in Romans 8:28-29, dealing with this matter of being conformed to the image of His Son. I cannot think of a more important subject.
I thought maybe I was finished, but I do not feel, as I wait before the Lord, that I can pass by without at least one more opportunity to consider this great theme, especially as we start the new year. This continues to be my burden.
I think most of you know that I have shared previously on two occasions on this subject. Once it was “Likeness: Purpose.” We need to see the great purpose of God.
As we read these verses in Romans 8:28-29, we begin to see unfolded in Scripture, in a deliberate way and in a comprehensive way, what the purpose of God is. It says all things work together for good to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose. We read on that the purpose of God is that we would be conformed to the image of His Son, and that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
This is the purpose of God. We talk much about it. Sometimes I think people tire of it. But we need to see it, or we will not know what life is about.
I have admitted before that I have used that verse wrongly, as some sort of general encouragement to those who might be suffering, or in want, or in need: “All things work together for good.” Thank God, that is true. We heard about His great and precious promise this morning. It is true, but it is more than that.
There is an end in view. There is a purpose in view. There is a sight in view. And that end in view is that we would be conformed to the image of His Son.
We cannot forget that, or there is no real meaning to life. People ask all the time, “What is life? What is life all about? What is the meaning of life, the purpose of life, the hope of life, the end of life?”
For every born-again child of God, this is the purpose of life: that you and I, and us together in a corporate image, may be found in the image of His beloved Son and reflect that glory.
The second time I shared on “Likeness: Produced.” It is God’s intention that everything works to that end. He is the One who has promised. He is the One who takes up the task to produce that. He is the One who has given the exceeding great and precious promises, as we read in one of Peter’s epistles, that we might be partakers of the divine nature.
Thank God, it is His work. If it were your work—or worse, my work—how discouraged you might be. But praise the Lord, it is His great purpose and His great intention, and He has provided every resource that it might happen.
That is how we have been sharing: likeness purpose and likeness produced. Now, this final one—you know I am a fan of alliteration. It drives some of you crazy, but bear with me. Today I would like to look at “Likeness: Perfected.”
When you come to that thought, and you think about yourself, you may think, “Well, boy, that is a far reach. How can we ever be perfected in the image of the Lord Jesus?” We think this is the impossible dream, like Don Quixote: the impossible dream.
But brothers and sisters, it is more than possible. It will happen because it is His Word.
This is what we need to stand in. It is our destiny, and it is our end. It is the reason, the explanation, and the outcome of all things. All things work together for good.
You want the reason behind everything? That is the reason: to be conformed to the image of His Son. If you want an explanation of everything, that is the explanation. If you want to see the outcome, that is the outcome.
This is likeness perfected—where we will go today. Maybe it will be the last part; I am not going to make a promise I cannot keep.
Last night I felt a bit overwhelmed taking up all of this great thing. But I think sometimes, when we come to this view of likeness perfected, we stumble because we have a wrong idea of biblical perfection.
Biblical perfection, in regard to the saints and in regard to the church, is not sinless perfection. That is why we stumble. We look at ourselves and say, “This is impossible. You do not know me.”
God knows you. He is not surprised at all your faults, imperfections, and shortcomings. But nevertheless, He has determined that in the end you will be conformed to the image of His Son. Together with a people, you will be conformed to the image of His Son.
One day—if you can imagine it, if you can take it in—He will look upon His church and He will say, “Bone of My bone and flesh of My flesh. She is like Me. She is like Me, just like Me.”
To me, that is likeness perfected.
The conundrum is this: it has nothing to do with sinless perfection, but it has everything to do with the maturing of the saints, the growing up of the saints, the perfecting of the saints, and the making of the saints in His image—into that full-grown man, into that mature man, those mature sons.
We are going to try to look at most of Ephesians 4:1-16. I may just follow a lead. I have seen our brother Jerry stop somewhere in the middle. I do not know; we will see how we go.
Ephesians 4:1-16 is, first of all, a word of exhortation. The Apostle Paul says, “I exhort you.”
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called,
with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering,
forbearing one another in love.
This first part of Ephesians 4 is a word of exhortation. Those of you who know something of the book of Ephesians know that the first three chapters deal more with doctrine—specifically with the purpose of God. Not just Christian doctrine in general; it is the high-water mark of the teaching of Scripture.
When you read the first three chapters of Ephesians, you begin to take in the greatness of God’s purpose. How often we have read Ephesians 1:9-10: it is God’s purpose that He has determined, He has willed, to sum up all things in His Son. That is His purpose.
Then we read again in Ephesians 3 that He might make known the all-various wisdom of God according to the eternal purpose of the ages. This is the great purpose.
The first three chapters deal primarily with doctrine. But when you come to this fourth chapter, you begin to deal with practice. First of all, we are exhorted to walk worthy of our calling wherewith we have been called.
I wonder what you think of when you read that. So often, when we read those words, “Walk worthy of your calling,” we think on the individual level. But if you read the first sixteen verses of Ephesians 4, you begin to see that this is a corporate walk.
I do not want in any way to demean the individual walk. If you do not have an individual relationship with the Lord, if you do not have an individual walk before the Lord, you have nothing to bring into the corporate realm.
But we need to understand that the context of these sixteen verses is the corporate walk. It is the corporate man.
From the beginning, God has been looking for a man who would walk with Him. We have been reading Genesis, studying Genesis. It has been a delightful study so far. We keep hearing from the saints.
But you remember Enoch. It says of Enoch in Genesis 5:22, “Enoch walked with God.” And then Genesis 5:24 says:
And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
God was looking for man to walk with Him, and He found a man. Back when all seemed lost, He found the man, and that man was Enoch. That man was translated from this domain into an eternal domain with God.
That is what He has in view for the church. We are to walk with Him—together walk.
During that walk, that journey, this life’s journey, we are to be conformed into the image of God’s Son. In the end, we are to be caught up with Him in the air to be with Him forever. In that moment, we will be changed and be like Him forever. Is that not glorious?
God is looking for a man who will walk with Him.
We just studied Genesis 6, and it speaks of Noah. Genesis 6:9 says:
Noah was a righteous man, and perfect in his generations: Noah walked with God.
Once again, facing the destruction of mankind, God found one—Noah—who walked with Him.
This is the sense we come to when we read Ephesians 4:1-16. We are called to this walk. We are called to this journey. The end of this journey is being conformed to the image of God’s Son.
Look at verse 13:
Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith,
and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a full-grown man,
unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
That is the end: until we arrive. We are on a journey. There is a goal set before us, and the end of the goal is being conformed to His image. It is a walk, but it is a walk with an end in view.
Recently, we had the pleasure of seeing our youngest grandchild walk for the first time. Oh, grandparents get all gushy and sentimental about these things. You know that cute little Frankenstein walk kids do—like their legs are in braces and they are singing the Hallelujah Chorus. I do not know how else to describe it.
But she always walked with something in view. She walked toward her parents. She wanted her parents. Maybe it was a toy—it is often a toy—but there was an aim, an end, something in view.
Unless we have that something in view, life is meaningless. You will live, and you will read, as we read in those early chapters of Genesis, that you may have children and you will die. And that is life. Is that the life you want?
God wants someone to walk with Him, to be like Him, to be transformed into His image, to bear His resemblance. That is what He meant when He said, “I have created man in My image, in My likeness.” He was to take of the tree of life and to be like Him.
That is the word of exhortation. What encourages me so much is that it does not say, “If we arrive.” It says, “Until we arrive.”
You see the difference? The Word is very deliberate. We often do not think how deliberate the words are that were used, but the Word is very deliberate. It is His problem, as we heard this morning. It is not if we will arrive; it is until we arrive, because it is His work that He is doing, and it will come to pass.
Not only is this a word of exhortation, it is a word of encouragement—a great word of encouragement. What we see in these verses is that our God has made every provision that this thing could happen. He has not slackened on one provision. Everything has been provided for in the Son, that this would be able to happen.
We think things are impossible. We think of this great subject as being so high that, when we think about ourselves, we think it is impossible.
But remember the story of the rich young ruler in Luke 18. He came to the Lord and asked, “What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” The Lord spoke of keeping the commandments, and the young man said, “I have done all these.”
My, my. If there were ever deception, that was probably the mark of great deception: “I have done all these.”
The Lord knew what he had not done. So, in His wisdom, He said, “There is one thing, by the way. How about selling everything you have, giving it to the poor, and coming to follow Me? How does that work for you?”
And it says he went away grieved.
Brothers and sisters, I am not here to give you a message about selling everything you have and giving it to the poor to follow the Lord, because that was not the point of the story. The Lord went on to describe the point:
The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.
With us, it is impossible. But with God, nothing is impossible. That is the good news. That is the encouragement.
When we come to this word of encouragement, the first thing we need to see is that nothing is impossible with God. This is the highest reach in Scripture—to be conformed to the image of God’s Son—yet with God, that is not impossible.
Every provision is made. First of all, we read:
Giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Brothers and sisters, the first thing the Lord has given is the unity of the Spirit.
Can you imagine if we all sat together in some great spiritual committee and came up with all these things to make us one? We would be ecumenical about it and say, “Well, we can agree on this, and we can agree on that. You can agree on this, and you can agree on that. And you certainly disagree on that—good grief, do not ever bring that up!”
But brothers and sisters, the first thing is that He gives the unity of the Spirit.
We start with unity. We do not seek unity. We do not look for unity. We stand in unity, because unity was the first thing the Lord Jesus gave.
Remember His great prayer in John 17. I have often read it wrongly—I admit it. Linda says I do not like to say when I am wrong, so I will say it: I am wrong.
I have often looked at John 17 as a future promise, but it is not. He said:
Father, that they may be one; even as We are one;
that the world may know that Thou didst send Me,
and lovedst them, even as Thou lovedst Me.
He gave the unity from the beginning, that they might be one. Brothers and sisters, what we need today is to keep the unity of the Spirit, to stand in the unity of the Spirit, until we arrive at the unity of the faith.
We often get the camel going in the wrong direction. We start with the unity of the faith and do a survey of people: “What do you believe? Tell me, what do you believe? If you believe the same things I believe, then we are one.”
That is the wrong place to begin.
We need to begin with the unity of the Spirit—the sevenfold, wonderful unity of the Spirit that is perfect.
There is one body, and one Spirit,
even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all, Who is over all, and through all, and in all.
Some people get hung up on “one baptism.” They say, “Well, it is water baptism, and unless you were immersed like me, you are not a true Christian.”
It has nothing to do with water baptism. It has to do with the baptism of the Holy Spirit, whereby we have been baptized by one Spirit into one body in Christ. Oneness.
You can be sprinkled till the cows come home, and I do not really care. I will disagree; I do not think that is what the Scriptures teach. But nevertheless, this is not our standing unity. He has given the unity of the Spirit. That is what we need to stand in. Anything else will divide us.
What a provision He has made: “That they may be one, even as You, Father, and I are one.”
It reminds me of a story about Benjamin Franklin. I did not personally know Benjamin Franklin. Some of you children may think I look that old, that I may well have known him, but it is honestly not the case.
At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, at the end of all the deliberations, a lady came up to Benjamin Franklin as he was leaving the building. She said, “Doctor, what have we: a republic or a monarchy?”
Benjamin Franklin looked at her and said, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Do you understand? A republic, if you can keep it.
Our founding fathers gave us something precious, and the test of time would prove whether we could keep it. I wonder how well we have done.
Now, this is not a speech on America. I do not want to upset any of you who are not natural-born citizens. I do not want to get you stirred into a huff. It is an illustration.
The Lord said, “I give you the unity of the Spirit. Keep it.” That is all He said: keep it.
Praise the Lord, that is all we have to do. That is the word of encouragement: He has given it, and all we need to do, by the grace of God, is keep it.
The next thing you notice, if you look in verse 7, is this:
But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Notice this word of encouragement. You may say, “But, brother, you do not know me. I do not really have any gift or grace.” But the word of encouragement is, “To each.”
The Holy Spirit is deliberate: to each has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Sometimes we look at people and say, “Boy, they are gifted. Boy, look at the grace that is upon them.” But in this corporate walk, the one thing the Holy Spirit wants to make sure we see is that each one of you—I do not care if you are six years old and you are the Lord’s, or if you are ninety years old and you are the Lord’s—each one of you has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
We will never be able to stand before the Lord and say, “Lord, I did not have the grace.” Can you imagine? “I did not have the Christ.”
The Holy Spirit says each one of you has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Very deliberate.
How deep and great is that measure of grace? I began to look back at the early, doctrinal chapters—the chapters about purpose. Ephesians 1:7 says:
According to the riches of His grace,
which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence.
Some people have the idea that they have been given a drop of grace. But not according to Ephesians. There has been poured down upon us the riches of His grace.
Ephesians 2:7 tells us His grand intention:
That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace
in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, in eternity, even when He has finished this work of this age, we will be His display case.
Do you have display cases at home? You put things in them that you want people to see. “Look at that. Look at that.” Linda has a bunch of fairies in hers. I do not know why she has gotten hooked up with them. Now, I know that has a whole different meaning in this modern age, and please forgive me—I do not want to go there.
But we put certain things on display and say, “This is precious to me.”
The God of glory, throughout eternity, will point to those conformed to the image of His Son and say, “This is precious. This is what is on display.”
What a word of encouragement.
Ephesians 3:8 says:
Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given,
to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Unsearchable. Immeasurable. You cannot measure it. That wonderful song says, “The love of God, so measureless and strong.” How can you quantify the surpassing riches of His grace?
But brothers and sisters, this is the word of encouragement. This has been poured out for the church, that we might one day know likeness perfected.
We read in verse 8:
When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts unto men.
You may think about the impossibility of this great purpose and say, “You do not understand all the bondages I have. You do not understand all the problems I have.”
I will issue you one guarantee at the beginning of this new year: if you begin to look deep in yourself for all the problems you have, they will be limitless.
But here is the word of encouragement. It does not just say that when He ascended, He broke some bondage. It says, “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive.”
Do you see the point? This is supposed to be a word of encouragement. If you are not encouraged with that, please check your pulse.
He did not just take care of this problem I have or this shortcoming. You may say, “Lord, You know how meek I am. I cannot stand to be in the public eye. You know all these things. You know how I dare not pray in public. You know my history.”
You may have many issues. But this is the word of encouragement: He has led captivity captive. Do you get it?
A stronger word could not be in the Scriptures. He has taken bondage itself, and when He descended into the lowest parts in those three days, He took captivity itself captive—a prisoner—and He sets the prisoners free.
It is no wonder the Word of God says in John:
If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Is that not good news?
Sometimes I think we go about it the wrong way. We look for all that is wrong, and we go back digging into the past trying to find out what is wrong, to undo what is wrong, that one day we might be in His image. I think it is the wrong end.
He has led captivity captive. Will you, this new year, stand in that promise, that truth, that Word from God? For me, it is true. For you, it is true. For every one of you full of shortcomings, it is true.
He has led captivity captive. The one whom the Son sets free is really free.
We look at that word differently. We say, somewhat in disbelief, “Really?” No, really. Really free.
There is not a bondage He has not broken. There is not a past He has not covered with the blood of Jesus. There is not a sin He has not overcome. There is no darkness He has not blotted out.
This One who descended into the lowest parts is also the same One who ascended to take captivity captive. That is the best I can do with a word of encouragement. Stand in it. Believe it. It will change lives.
There is more in this word of encouragement. Not only that, He gave gifts to men. This is a quotation from Psalm 68:18.
Thou hast ascended on high,
Thou hast led away captives;
Thou hast received gifts among men,
Yea, among the rebellious also,
that the Lord God might dwell with them.
This One who descended, who tasted the bitterness of death for us, ascended on high and led captivity captive. He gave gifts to men—or, as Psalm 68 says, He received gifts among men—special gifts to His church.
There is a purpose behind it: for the dwelling of the Lord God.
He is so jealous that His bride would be prepared. He is so jealous that she will be conformed to His image. He is so determined that this likeness will be perfected that, in addition to all the encouragements, He has given gifts to men—special gifts for the building up of His church, for the perfecting of the saints, for the building up of the body of Christ.
Where would we be without these gifts?
And He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.
Shepherds and teachers—it is one person. That is what He has done. That is what He has given.
For the perfecting of the saints,
unto the work of ministering,
unto the building up of the body of Christ.
Here is the issue I want to leave you with. We sometimes make these special gifts the ministry. You hear, “Well, I am in the ministry.” I have no issue with callings from God; do not take that from what I am about to say.
But the ministry that is in view here is the ministry of the body of Christ.
These gifts—the special gifts that the Lord gave when He went back to the Father—are for the building up and perfecting of the saints. These ones are not the ministry; they are for the ministry. Do you get the point?
I believe people stumble with this. We make the gift the ministry, and we do not see that the ministry in view here is the ministry of the body of Christ.
Thank God, where would we be without apostles? I believe there are still apostles. You may think I am crazy; others do already. You are in good company.
Where would we be without those who could, today, utter a prophetic word to His church? I do not believe these are merely ancients in the grave. Where would we be without evangelists who have a heart for the lost? Where would we be without shepherds and teachers?
I am not talking about one man. I am talking about all the gifts in the body of Christ. I believe there are numerous ones here. Thank God for that.
With one thing in view: for the dwelling of the Lord God, with a view to the ministry.
I will probably end just about here. I want to share that this word is also a word of warning. This word of exhortation is a word of warning. We need to be warned.
Not only that, it is a word about corporate exercise. Unless we are really exercised, the body will not build itself up in love, and this impossible dream will be delayed once again until God finds a people whom He can work through.
That is where we are headed. Maybe this is my last time sharing about this, but that is the burden on my heart.
In this first part, we see one thing: in this word of exhortation, it is a great word of encouragement.
I liken it to Hebrews 6:18:
That by two immutable things,
in which it is impossible for God to lie,
we may have a strong encouragement.
That is what I believe Ephesians 4:1-16 is all about: a word of encouragement.
May the Lord have mercy on us that we could hear those words, and then likeness perfected would not be an elusive dream, but in our corporate walk together, we would work it out in our present reality.
I asked Keen if we could sing that hymn. I apologize; it was hard. But I will read to you again.
Thomas Chisholm wrote “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” perhaps the most famous hymn in Christian life. This little vessel—maybe he did not think of himself much; he hardly had any education—but what a legacy, what a gift to the church.
How many millions upon millions of times has “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” been sung? Oh, if I had a legacy like that, left one thing that made an eternal impression and moved the saints to be conformed to the image of God’s Son, it would be enough.
He wrote “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” and here is another hymn he wrote. We sang it:
O to be like Thee! O to be like Thee!
Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fulness;
Stamp Thine own image deep