One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One Father

Ephesians 4:5-6

As we’ve been studying these aspects of our unity, it has reminded me about how narrow the road is to salvation.

Pilgrim’s Progress - Christian and the narrow way.

Christianity is exclusive in that - if a person doesn’t believe these essential doctrines, there’s a chance that they might not be a Christian at all.

That’s why it’s so important to know what you believe. Don’t adopt your faith from someone else. Don’t automatically adopt the faith & creed of a church that you attend. Don’t adopt your doctrine from anywhere except the Word of God itself. That is a big deal. You need to be informed. Why are all these people today being led astray into various cults and strange followings?!?! It’s either because they don’t know what the Bible says or they don’t believe it. Either way you are in big trouble if that’s the case.

Know the Word for yourself!

We talked last time about the One Hope and we touched on One Lord.

Let’s go back to the One Lord.

I want to start off talking about this “one Lord” point with a question that Jesus asked the disciples. He asked them “who do people say that I am?” and their response was “some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” OK - that’s a fair answer.

Then what does Jesus ask? “Who do YOU say that I am?” Isn’t that the most important question of all??? If you don’t realize it - it is the most important question of your entire life. It’s the most important crossroads that you’ll ever come to.

What did Peter say to the question? “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”

WOW. What a response. What a way to answer that question.

Lord here refers to Jesus Christ. Jesus the Christ.

What was Peter saying when he answered Jesus that way?

He was saying - Lord, you are THE DIVINE SON OF GOD.

It is so important that we recognize Jesus as THE Lord. It makes a difference who you say Jesus is. If you say Jesus was just a righteous man who made a difference in the world, if you say he was just a good teacher, if you say he was just A prophet among the rest of the prophets - If you say any of those things are THE entirety of His being and existence here on this Earth - You are wrong and you don’t know Jesus.

Who is the Jesus Christ of the Bible?

In the Old Testament He was promised and foreshadowed. In the Gospels his story was told and He is the Savior of the World. In the Epistles he is lifted up and shown as the Head of the Church, our High Priest. And in Revelation He is coming again.

He is fully God, fully man, existed with God before the foundation of the world.

He was born of a virgin, immaculately conceived by the Holy Spirit.

He lived a perfect, sinless life.

He died as a substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of those who would believe in Him.

He was resurrected from the grave on the third day (as promised) defeating death once and for all.

He arose to the Father, sitting at His right hand where he now intercedes for us.

He is coming again on the clouds with the blast of a trumpet.

He is King. Make no mistake about it. He is King. You can choose to believe it or you can deny it, but HE IS KING.

So I go back and I ask you - Who is Jesus to you?

Listen - He’s either Lord of ALL in your life, or He’s not Lord AT ALL.

Did you get that? If Jesus is your Lord - then He’s the Lord over every aspect of your life. He’s the Lord over your relationships, your money, your work, your kids, your possessions, your stock portfolio, your hobbies, your mouth… ALL of it!!

Jesus isn’t a buffet line that you can pick and choose which things He is going to be Lord over! You can’t say OK Jesus - you can have this, but you can’t have that. It doesn’t work that way.

Is there an area of your life that you haven’t turned over to Jesus today???

One way to determine a false teacher or religion

Also - when you think about how to decode whether or not someone is a false teacher or whether or not they are a false religion - this is the ultimate acid test.

Who do they say Jesus is.

In Islam - Jesus is a messenger. Muhammed is seen as a higher prophet than Jesus.

In Judaism - Jesus is rejected as being co-equal to God. They say that He was not the Messiah

Buddhists - don’t give two thoughts to Jesus

Hindus - Jesus was a spiritual teacher among many others. Jesus is considered A God, not THE God.

Jehovah’s Witnesses - believe that Jesus was “created” by God. He is a representative of God, but not co-equal and co-existent

Catholics - get close on who Jesus is - but they deny His Lordship by praying to Mary, they deny his once-and-for-all atonement (you can lose your salvation). They believe in a works based salvation approach, thereby defaming grace by faith alone in Christ alone. They go off the rails in so many other places...

One Faith

As we transition to “one faith” it’s important that we understand what is meant here by the word “faith”.

We refer to faith mainly in the sense of “subjective faith”. What is meant here by “faith”?

What is subjective faith?

This is how we refer to our faith on a daily basis. When we say “have faith” that is what is meant when I say subjective faith. And we know that our faith ebbs and flows right? Our faith sometimes is stronger than at other times in our lives.

This cannot be the definition, because we see that this is ONE faith. So a subjective faith cannot be in mind here.

Subjective faith can come and go somewhat - there are different views of subjective faith.

Sometimes people think we must have faith in faith.

That’s not faith. Why would I have faith in something that is fickle like my feelings?

We are not to have faith in faith. That’s grasping for something that isn’t there.

What is objective faith?

The GOSPEL! There is only ONE gospel. It is THE truth.

Not faith in faith.

What is the difference?

Romans 1:16-17 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.””