Address—C. Hendricks
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He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men.
Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
He that descended is the same also that ascended up, far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.
And he gave some apostles and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
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 fullness of Christ.
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.
But speaking the truth in love may grow up unto Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, 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.
The first 3 chapters of this epistle.
Give us, you might say, give us the doctrinal part of the Epistle.
Our blessings, individually and collectively.
And these are developed very wonderfully. And then the last three chapters we have exhortations as to our walk in connection with the truths that have been brought out in the first part of the epistle.
There are three areas in our lives where we move. We move in the assembly.
Sphere, and I've read the verses that apply to the assembly Sphere, the 1St 16 verses of our chapter.
And then from verse 17, chapter 4 to 5, verse 21, we have the sphere of the world, where we move many times.
And then from verse 22 of chapter 5.
Down through 9 of Chapter 6, we have the family.
Spheres. So we have the assembly sphere.
We have the sphere of the world and we have the family sphere. And then the epistle ends with a finally, verse 10 of chapter 6. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that she may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers.
Against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all, to stand. And then he develops at the end of the chapter, the the armor that the Christian has, so that he can walk worthy of the Lord.
In these three spheres.
The assembly sphere. We're always in one of those spheres in our life. We're either in the assembly sphere or we're in the world, a sphere where we have to do with those who are not the Lord. Some, some of them are, some of them are not. And then we have the family sphere where you have the wives, the husbands, the children, the fathers, the parents, the servants and the masters in the family sphere. Now for each one of those spheres.
For the Christian to live pleasing to the Lord, he needs the whole armor of God.
The whole armor of God. Well, I wanted to take up these first 16 verses of chapter 4. Well, actually I don't know whether we're going to get that far because we'll have to back up a little bit, but.
The sphere of the assembly.
Now you notice that the 4th chapter begins very much like the 3rd chapter. 4th chapter says I therefore the prisoner of the Lord, and chapter 3 starts out for this 'cause I Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles.
And then the rest of chapter 3 is a parenthesis from verse 2 to the end. And then he takes up again what he began with at the beginning of chapter 3. He begins again in chapter 4 as to his being a prisoner of the Lord, and then he develops.
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What he had set before us.
In chapter 2, before the parenthesis, the parenthesis, we have the mystery.
Mystery. And that's not my purpose tonight to take that up, but to look at.
At.
These verses in the end of chapter 2, because they form, you might say they formed the basis for his exhortations in chapter 4.
Starting with verse 11 of chapter 2, he says, Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called on circumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands. But at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise.
Having no hope and without God in the world.
That's the state that the Gentiles were in in the Old Testament. They were outside of all of the promises and all of the covenant blessings that were given to Israel. They were outside of that sphere. They were without God, having no hope in this world. But now, now that they had received the gospel, these Gentiles had come into a far higher blessing than the Jews ever had.
Old Testament. They were God's people then. They were dispensationally near, and the Gentiles were dispensationally far off. But now we have something that's more than just a dispensational nearness. We have that which is vital, founded upon the blood of Christ, now in Christ Jesus.
Verse 13. Ye, who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
That's very, very precious in this, this unfolding of the place, the blessings that we have now in Christianity, the Gentiles have been brought by the blood of Christ into a nearness never known before, not even known by the Jews. It was it was a national thing with Israel.
The The subject of new birth was not raised in the Old Testament.
Is a little bit hinted at in places, but it wasn't raised and developed wife. One was a Jew. Whether he was born again or not, he still was a partaker of the privileges that applied to that nation. God was dealing with that nation and they were to maintain a strict separation from the Gentile nations round about them. It was a national.
Physical type of separation. Remember when When Peter.
He saw the vision in Acts 10, and he went and ate with the Gentiles. Well, when he came back to Jerusalem, they called him to task for it, because he had gone in and eaten with these unclean Gentiles. And then he explained to them how that God had shown him through this vision that he was going to bring the Gentiles into a place of blessing. What God hath cleansed that call not thou common. And so he had to learn that.
These Gentile dogs, these unclean ones, were now to be brought in to blessing, and today the church is mostly composed of those that used to be Gentiles. There are some Jews still but that have come to faith, but it's mostly Gentile.
Now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes ye who once were far off.
Are made nigh by the blood of Christ, for he is our peace.
Now.
The the subject of peace is developed in a number of passages. Take Romans 5. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That applies to each one of us individually. But here he's he's talking about an enmity that existed between Jew and Gentile, which has been removed by the cross.
By the death of Christ and what God has ushered in and brought in.
Has removed that enmity. He is our peace, not just peace between US and God, but between Jew and Gentile. And notice how he mentions that who hath made both Jew and Gentile 1.
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And hath broken down the middle wall of partition between the Jew and the Gentile, between us. Now that's what happened. That's what existed before the light of the Gospel was proclaimed by the Holy Spirit, sent down from heaven.
And using his the servants of Christ to proclaim this wonderful truth.
Having abolished in his flesh.
The enmity, this enmity that existed between Jew and Gentile has now been abolished. When Christ went into death on the cross in His flesh, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in Himself one of twain, of Jew and Gentile, one new man, so making peace that new man.
Is altogether a new truth never known before. It's been 2000 years now, so we know it well.
But when this first came out, it was a truth that caused the apostle to go through great suffering as he presented the truth of the one body.
That the distance between Jew and Gentile has been removed, the enmity has been removed, the separation has been removed. God has removed that, and now he has united in one body, making peace between these two opposing groups of peoples, the Jewish people, Israel and the Gentile peoples. And there were many, many of them, but the distance between them was enormous.
And now it says the Gentile has been brought into a nearness. That is also true of the Jew today. But it was even a nearness much greater and more wonderful than what the Jew enjoyed in the Old Testament. It's a nearness that is vital by the blood of Christ brought to know God as our Father. Well, He develops all that in this chapter. He is our peace, peace between Jew and Gentile, not only between Jew and Gentile and God.
It includes that, I would say, but especially between these two hostile groups of peoples on the face of the earth, who have made both 1 and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in His flesh the enmity.
Even the law of commandments contained in ordinances for to making himself of twain of the Jew and Gentile. 1 Newman, that Newman is composed of a body on earth, composed of Jew and Gentile, united together and united to the man in the glory. So this body is heavenly it it has its character from the head. The body is united to the head by the Spirit.
As we sang, the Spirit doth unite our souls to him, our head.
And that's that one Newman, Christ and the Church.
And so she is called in First Corinthians 12. We don't have to turn to that, but she is called. Even so is the Christ. The church is called the Christ. As the body is 1 and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, Even so also is the Christ. And so she has given his name because she is united.
To him, but the church is composed of these two groups.
Jews and Gentiles that were hostile to one another, that all has been removed now and they are one in Christ. When we think of that, beloved, when we think of the the tremendous distance that existed between Jew and Gentile, they wouldn't walk on the same side of the street, they wouldn't eat together, they wouldn't even salute one another. They had nothing to do with one another if they strictly observed it.
The Jew looked down upon the Gentile as a dog.
You remember the Lord, he said to the Syrophoenician woman when she came to him, and he said it is not need to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. And that was the position that the Gentiles had in that dispensation, that the Gentiles were unclean, they were dogs. And she said, yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat from crumbs that fall from their master's table.
And he said, Great is thy faith. And then he healed her. He never turned faith away.
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Even if it came from a Gentile, but he shows that there was that distinction and that difference. And when he was here on earth, he didn't preach to the Gentiles. We're going to read about him preaching in this chapter. But that's from the heaven. That's from the glory that he's been preaching for 2000 years.
Well, let's go on.
Verse 16 And that he might reconcile both Jew and Gentile unto God in one body by the cross, that the cross is the foundation of it. The cross has done away with that which separated the two, and has removed the distance, remove the alienation.
And he has made both, reconciled both unto God, and one body by the cross having slain.
The enmity thereby by the cross he has slain the enmity.
So the distance has been removed, the enmity has been taken away, and we are made one in Him. And that's a tremendous truth, the one body.
Truth. We are very familiar with it, and we're going to see in that 4th chapter how he builds upon this and gives practical exhortations as to our walk in light of these truths that we're looking at here.
Now here's the verse 17 where it speaks of Him preaching. He came, Christ came and preached peace to you, which were afar off. That was the Gentiles. That's dispensationally. They were afar off, and to them that were nine, that's the Jew. They had a place of dispensational nearness. And He's preached, but where has He preached to them? When has He done this? He never preached to the Gentiles.
When he was here in the flesh, He preached to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. He says, I'm not sent but unto them. But now he's been preaching for nearly 2000 years through his servants, through the apostles and the other servants that he has, He's been preaching and witnessing to this wonderful truth.
Verse 18 for through him.
For through the Lord Jesus Himself, we, both Jew and Gentile have access by 1 Spirit unto the Father. Beautiful verse has the whole Trinity, and it's through the sun.
We, both Jew and Gentile, have access by 1 Spirit unto the Father. Now that's a truth never known in the Old Testament.
They didn't know God as their father, and certainly the Gentiles didn't know God at all.
And even the measure in which the Jews knew Him, they didn't know Him in that way. That is a revelation that waited the coming of the Son, the eternal Son who could reveal the Father as he had been with the Father from the past eternity.
Well, it's through Him the Son, we both have access by 1 Spirit unto the Father.
The distance in the Old Testament, you remember only the high priest and once a year on the Day of Atonement could enter into the presence of God, into the holy of Holies, and he couldn't go in without blood. He went in in a cloud of incense, and he sprinkled before and on the mercy seat the blood and made atonement.
But no one else dared enter into God's presence.
It would have been certain death if they had ventured to do so.
But what a change has taken place now, both Jew and Gentile, united, reconciled to God by the death of His Son, brought into that place of oneness together. We both have access by 1 Spirit. To the Father He is given the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament the Spirit of God came upon prophets for the occasion.
They came. He came upon them. Sometimes he even came upon a wicked prophet like Balaam. He forced Balaam to utter wonderful prophecies. Not that he was in the good of it, in his own soul he wasn't. He was a wicked prophet, but the Spirit of God used him to utter some wonderful prophecies as to Israel.
Well, today, in this present day of grace, it's been almost 2000 years now.
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The Spirit of God has been dwelling on earth in His assembly.
And in everyone of us individually. And He will never leave us.
Never be taken from us. This is not an occasional visit. It's a permanent residency that he has taken to be in US and with us. We get that in John 14. He shall be with you and he shall be in you.
Now, therefore, now he's drawing some conclusions. Verse 19. Ye are no more strangers than foreigners. That's what they once were. He says. You're not that anymore, but your fellow citizens with the Saints. Now to be a fellow citizen, that suggests a country, doesn't it? We're citizens of a country and their fellow citizens with the Saints of a heavenly country, not an earthly one, but a heavenly country.
We've been brought into association with the heavenly man and we're fellow citizens with the Saints and we're of the household of God. We're part of God's family. God has a household and we're brought into that. It's not a nation like it was Israel of old, but it's it's a new citizenship. They're not citizens of Israel.
Who were citizens of heaven? Our Commonwealth, Philippians 3. Our citizenship is in heaven.
From whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's coming soon. He's going to take us to our to our home above, but we're also of the household of God, each one a member of his family as a family. Here he has a household and those who have been brought into intimate nearness and relationship with respect to himself.
And the Spirit of God indwells each of us.
Into bringing us into this wonderful nearness and then he says and you are built now he talks about a building that's being built he's talked about a citizenship a country he's talked about a household a family. Now he talks about a a building verse 20 and they and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and.
Whenever you get that apostles and prophets mentioned in Paul's epistles, it's always the apostles and prophets of the New Testament. Of course, when it's in that order, when the prophets follow the apostles, never talking about Old Testament prophets, you will not find the truth of the mystery. You will not find the truth of Christ in the church in the Old Testament. I know in our King James Bible there are notes at the headings of.
Psalms and some prophecies saying the church does this and the church does that. And when you read the prophecy or the Psalm, it's not the church at all, it's it's Israel or Jerusalem.
Well, the translators did not understand dispensational truth, so we have to realize that when you use the King James, they did not understand dispensational truth. So you have to ignore a lot of those notes that they placed at the head of their translation.
Wonderful to know.
That we are not under law, we're not in that dispensation, but we're in what the Scripture calls the the dispensation or the administration of the grace of God.
That's chapter 3 verse 2. If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, that has given me to you word.
Dispensing now the grace of God, not, not God, requiring not God as a lawgiver, but God dispensing his goods on the principle of sovereign grace. Well, it's not my intention to to go into chapter 3, verse 20. Now of chapter 2. We are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
Now they're mentioned in chapter 3 on verse 5, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. And again they're mentioned in chapter 4, verse 11. He gave some apostles and some prophets, and so on. Well, we learned from this 2nd chapter that the apostles and prophets.
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Actually, 5 gifts mentioned. Let me read them all in verse 11 of chapter 4, he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Of those five, the first two mentioned were foundation gifts. They were given in the 1St century. And then the evangelist pastors and teachers. They are with us still to this day.
But what we learn in chapter 220.
Is that that we are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone? Well, the apostles and prophets aren't here any longer, so how do we take that? Well, we have their writings and the writings in the Epistles, remember?
In John 16 he said, I have many things to say unto you.
But you cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he, the spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth. And and so this is what we have in this in this present day of grace. It's going on now for nearly two millennia, 2000 years of gospel witness and the truth of the mystery is being developed and fulfilled in this present day of grace, the angels in heaven.
Are learning the manifold wisdom of God as they see God's eternal purpose being accomplished in Jew and Gentile in this present day. And it's wonderful sight for the heavenly beings to to behold, in spite of the fact that the enemy has succeeded in dividing the Saints of God and in in ruining in a practical outward sense.
The testimony to the truth of what we're looking at here, but the truth still stands.
And the one body still is true. There is one body and nothing that we do, all the failure that we commit can't change that. And the unity of the Spirit is still available. It's still formed by the Spirit of God. And we get to that in the in the 4th chapter.
Verse 20 says that ye are built upon the foundation.
Of the apostles and prophets. Now if you come across a church today that says that they have apostles.
You know that's wrong because there are no apostles today.
They were foundation gifts. They laid the foundation.
And now we build upon that. You don't relay and relay and relay a foundation once it's been laid.
And it is Jesus Christ. He tells us that in first Corinthians 3, no other foundation can be laid than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And it was the apostles and prophets of the New Testament that laid that and established the principles upon which the church is to be built. You remember the first time in the New Testament when the church was mentioned, was mentioned was Matthew 16.
And the Lord speaks of himself as the builder, he says to Peter, he says.
Thou art Peter, and on this rock he had just confessed that Jesus was the Christ.
The Son of the living God, he says on this rock, Christ is the rock. I will build my church.
It was not in building when the Lord said those words. It was not Him building when He was here on earth.
It was not in building when he was a risen man, 40 days after he rose from the dead, He appeared to many. It was still not in building until he ascended to heaven, and then ten days later, making 50 days between his resurrection and the descent of the Holy Spirit, that's when he began building his assembly down here.
The coming of the Holy Spirit, John 7 clearly tells us.
That the well he's let me go back and quote. In the eighth day, the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the Lord stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.
And the water that I give him shall flow, the flow out of his belly rivers of living water. This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. So until there was a man in the glory who would be the head of this church, the church on earth composed of Jews and Gentiles, the initial church was all Jews.
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On the day of Pentecost there were some Gentile proselytes that were there, but they had embraced Judaism, so they were all Jews. And then in Acts 10, when Peter preached the gospel to the Gentiles, Cornelius household, the Spirit fell on the Gentiles.
And then the, you might say the second part of the Church of God composed of Jews and Gentiles, was brought in and the baptism of the Holy Spirit was complete. It started there on the day of Pentecost. And in Acts 10, the Gentiles were also brought in. We're told in First Corinthians 12 That by one spirit are ye all baptized into one body.
Whether you be bond or free, whether you be Jew or Gentile. So until both Jew and Gentile were brought into the church, the baptism of the Spirit was still was not complete, and it was complete in Acts 10.
It started, of course, in Acts 2 and now we don't talk about the baptism of the Spirit.
When we believe, we receive the Holy Spirit and He brings us into an already baptized and formed body composed of Jew and Gentile well.
This building is still in process of being built.
Issue in and result in a holy temple in the Lord. Notice how that is given in verse 20 and 21. Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building, fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. So here you have this building, Christ.
Building it and it's growing. This is what Christ is building. This is not what man is building. This is what Christ is building and it will result in a holy temple in the Lord. Every stone in this particular building is the Lord's, I believe. But then you have in the last verse of the chapter, you have what applies today.
In Christendom, in whom he also are builded together.
For inhabitation of God through the Spirit.
So the House of God today is composed and we learn from Second Timothy 2, it's become like a great house and it's it's composed of vessels of gold and silver and some and earth and pottery and so on. Some to honor and some to dishonor. But the Spirit of God dwells in that house. He dwells here, and the Saints of God constitute.
The dwelling place of God. Now there may be some that are in that.
Sphere that are not real.
There's no one that's in the one body that's not real. If you're a member of the body of Christ, you are real.
And you can never be lost again, but you can be outwardly associated with the house.
And not necessarily be real, that doesn't change the fact that the Spirit of God is there dwelling in his house on earth. It says in Hebrews 6, it says of of those that had once tasted of the heavenly gift and so on, and they were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and they turn away.
Then they apostatize. He says it's impossible to renew them again unto repentance.
That expression they had been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, has stumbled a number.
Well, that means that they're saved. They're truly saved. No, it doesn't there. It means they were outwardly partakers of that, that presence of the Spirit of God they've come amongst. I don't know if everyone in this company is truly saved. If you're not, you're still a partaker of the Holy Ghost because the Spirit of God dwells here and you might be in the company and passing as a Christian and not be real and you are.
Of the Holy Ghost. It doesn't mean that you've been born of the Spirit, or sealed by the Spirit, or indwelt by the Spirit, but you're made a partaker of the Holy Ghost. Now that's a different word than the communion of the Holy Ghost. If you if the communion of the Holy Ghost were used there, then you have a real problem.
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But it's not, it's not that it's partaker of the Holy Spirit, you know, And 2nd in Second Corinthians, the Lord, the apostle, he gives us these, these wonderful words. He says the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Now, that's of course for those who are real.
And but it's possible to be in the house.
And not be real the sphere of profession. We'll see a little bit more about that in chapter 4, but this building that's being built in verse 2120 and 21 I believe is composed of all true believe. It's what Christ is building and what he is building is real. What man is building. 1 Corinthians 3 is.
Not all good material, and some of it is not real at all, and we see that today in Christendom.
So the last verse of our chapter, I believe would include it's a broad sphere. It would include those who are real and those maybe who are not. And yet the Spirit of God dwells there.
Dwells in that building. So we have these wonderful truths, and then we have in the 3rd chapter a parentheses where he develops the the truth of the mystery who compose the the bride and so on. And then we come to our 4th chapter.
And maybe we can just say a few things on the 4th chapter.
I therefore the prisoner of the Lord.
Beseech you.
That ye walk worthy of the vocation. That word means the calling wherewith ye are called.
Now we've been called to be to a place of nearness, to a place of access. We all have access by 1 Spirit to the Father. We've all been brought nigh by the blood of Christ. We've been called into that. We've been called to be.
How does it read?
Fellow citizens with the Saints and of the household of God, A heavenly citizenship, a heavenly country, and a heavenly family.
And then a building where part of the building where members of that one body, that's the first thing that he mentioned is in this 2nd chapter. And we're united with Jews, Gentiles are Jew and Gentile united together. All the enmity and the alienation and the distance removed and we've been brought together.
And united to the head in heaven by the Spirit of God.
These are precious things we say that we're gathered on the ground of the one body.
Now these comments I'm about to make do not suppose. Let me let me put it this way, they do suppose that the the ones we're going I'm going to be Speaking of are walking godly, have good sound doctrine, and are not involved in any evil associations.
If.
When I'm not looking at anything that would require discipline here, I'm looking at the principle and the ground upon which we're gathered. We say we're gathered on the ground of the one body. What does that mean?
It simply means that if you are a member of the body of Christ, you have a place at the Lords Table.
Do you have a place among the Saints of God?
The only membership that Scripture speaks of is membership of the body of Christ.
It does not speak of church membership of a local church like a member of the Baptist Church, of the Presbyterian or Methodist or went on and on and on. All of these individual things of membership in in an independent local church, you sometimes pass a sign and they'll boast in it. They'll have a sign saying another.
Independent Baptist Church or whatever it is. I'm not picking on the Baptist. It's it's a it applies to any of the denominations.
But they they seem to want to boast in the fact that it's independent and that's a denial of the one body.
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We are not. Every local assembly is not independent of the whole or of other assemblies. We are all together in that one body, and so everything that is done in a place affects the whole.
It isn't just for the protection of if the discipline is called for or reception. If you receive someone here in Richmond, that person has been received to the Lord's table and there's only one Lord's table and it's they're received on the ground of the fact that they're members of the body of Christ. That's the only membership scripture knows about. And if you're a member of the body of Christ and receive to the table here in Richmond and you come to Alan to.
Saint Francisville, Lawrenceville, IL You have a letter and you're received to the table there. It's the same table.
It's the same table. We don't have our table, and you have your table and another group has their table. No, it's the Lords table, and it's at the Lords table that the truth of the one body is expressed.
In many denominations, take for instance, we have a loaf when we come together Lord's Day morning, we have a loaf on the table. We have a cup Speaking of his precious blood.
And the love Speaking of the body in which he suffered for our sins, it also speaks of this mystical body that we're members of that were brought into by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And the sealing of the Spirit now brings us into that baptized body.
In many denominational groups they have little biscuits or crackers or individual.
Bits of flour that have been bacon little wafers.
In the Catholic Church they have wafers. They don't even pass the cup. That's left just for the priests. And of course that's not a remembrance with them. It's a blasphemous mass, a repetition of the sacrifice of Christ, which is blasphemy, denying the eternal efficacy of the once for all, never to be repeated sacrifice that he offered on the cross. But the very way they do it is a denial of the truth of the one body. And that's true.
Many of these groups, very few I believe, have a fully solid loaf on the table which says there is one body.
And it's not several loaves. Now with Israel, there were 12 loaves on the table of showbread because there were 12 tribes, and that set forth the unity of the nation, 12 tribes, but one nation. While in Christianity it's just one loaf because all are brought into this one body. Precious, wonderful figure that God has given to teach us what the church is and the practical ramifications of that for us.
And how we go on together are indeed wonderful to look at. So what does it mean to be gathered on the truth of the one body? Well, there's two ways you can deny that truth. You can have a fellowship that is broader than the one body. Take the Church of England, for instance. The Church of England will admit to her fellowship any Englishman, whether they're saved or not, whether they're a member of the body of Christ or not. If you're an Englishman, you can take part in that communion.
Well, that's a fellowship broader than the one body. There's been a lot of needless and senseless discussion as to whether Judas Iscariot was there to partake of the Lord's Supper. I don't believe he was, but the point is that the Lords Supper is only for those who are members of the body of Christ.
The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? And it uses the word communion there.
Having a vital part in that one body, and only those who are vitally united to the head in heaven and to all other members has a place there, A place there to remember Him and His death. No unsaved person should be there. And if you come into a group where unsaved ones are allowed to partake of the elements, that is a serious denial of the.
That we're looking at and obviously they're not gathered on the ground of the one body.
There's another way you can deny the truth of the one body, and that is to have a fellowship which is narrower than the one body.
In other words, you set up rules and regulations that are man made and the the one that's applying for fellowship would like to remember the Lord and to be received can't be received because you don't subscribe to certain of their rules and regulations. You may be a member of the body of Christ going on well and there's no scriptural reason why you should be excluded.
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I often say about someone like that, I said. On what grounds?
Could you exclude them?
If they're a member of the body of Christ, living godly and.
With sound doctrine and not any evil associations, you can't refuse them. If you do, you're just another sect, like all the other denominations. You have your own rules and principles of reception, and they are something narrower than the truth of the one body. So we can we can have a fellowship which is broader than the one Body, like the Church of England.
Are narrower than the one body which you see in sectarianism.
And conditions are set up that would limit the one from being received because they don't subscribe to your particular.
Teachings or whatever it might be that are not of a fundamental nature. I'm not talking about fundamental, basic, sound truth that all Christians must acknowledge or they wouldn't be received, such as the Trinity and the deity of Christ and the impeccable humanity of the sun and the resurrection and the inspiration of Scripture and on and on. And the fundamental truths, those of course, are assumed that the person holds those.
And if he does, to refuse such as Mr. Darby says, to refuse those who are going on godly as well as those who are going on ungodly, is to lose the distinction that we should be making, that those that are going ungodly should be indeed received to the table. Well, that's the principle of the one body.
It can be denied either by the ground of reception being too broad.
Or being too narrow.
The Spirit of God forms that body.
So he says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith your call. We're called number one, we're called to be members of the body of Christ on a walk worthy of that truth, to give expression to it in a practical way.
And then the assembly is also the habitation of God by the Spirit. The Spirit of God dwells among us.
And he dwells among Christians everywhere in the house.
We have no.
We have no.
Special claim on the Spirit of God as gathered to the Lord's name.
That's not the same truth. The Spirit of God is among all Christians.
That's not the same truth as the Lord in the midst. That's another truth, and I'm not talking about that this evening. I'm talking about the presence of the Spirit of God in God's house. Whose house are we?
And you can be in the house and not be necessarily be real. And there are things that have gone on in the house that are not of God, but the Spirit of God has not left the house. And if you have to leave the house, then you cease to be a Christian because the house is the sphere of profession.
And there's real, and there are those that are not real in that house, but the spirit is there.
And he is to be looked to, He is to be the leader and the guide in all of our assembly functions. He should lead us when we make a decision as to receiving someone to the table. And they should be on the principle. The reception should be on the principle of the one body. And of course, holiness in walk and doctrine and associations.
The Spirit of God is there. He should be relied on.
I think one of the great sins of Christendom has been the ignoring of his presence to lead and guide. So man has set up his own rules and regulations and elected someone to to be the head of the local church, called the pastor and and so on in the Spirit of God is set aside.
We we often think that we can't, we can't do that. Yes, we can set the Spirit of God aside too. And it's it's something we should be exercised about constantly that he's looked to and the Lord is the head of the church is relied on.
00:50:14
And he has given his spirit to guide us and to lead us. He's the one that.
Guides and leads in ministry. He's the one that guides and leads in the worship meeting.
And there's nothing pre arranged. It's it's the leading of the Holy Spirit.
I remember a brother said to me once he had he came to a reading meeting and he kept looking around and trying to figure out who it was that was running the reading meeting and asking different ones to take part and so on. And a brother made a comment and another brother said that's wrong.
And he corrected it. And then he realized, well, that couldn't have been programmed in that that has to be something that's real. And he realized that this was the Spirit of God that was leading. And when error was given out, it was corrected. I think sometimes we're of the mistaken idea that because we're gathered to the Lord's name, no erroneous statements can be made by us. That's not true.
We all need to be taught.
And the Spirit of God is there to correct us if needed. But the wonderful thing is our resource. In anytime there are problems amongst the Saints, there are resources. The Spirit of God is there.
To be looked to and to guide and lead and direct us.
So to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called is to walk consistently with the truth of the one body. It's to walk consistently with the truth that we are the habitation of God by the Spirit, the Spirit of God dwelling amongst us to lead and guide in all the functions of the assembly. If it's a question of discipline, it's the Spirit of God that should lead the assembly to the right.
It's not controlled by by a particular leader and it's the it's the leading of the Holy Spirit. I think it's very beautiful and I'll close with this.
In Acts 15, where they had that very serious question of whether the Gentiles were to be placed under law, Jews came from Jerusalem to Antioch, and they said, except ye be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, you cannot be saved. Now there were two apostles there at Antioch that could have settled the question. Paul and Barnabas, they're both called apostles. They were both there.
But Paul had it by revelation. He tells us that in Galatians 2.
To go up to Jerusalem and there get that matter settled. So they went up to Jerusalem.
And.
Paul had a meeting with the leaders there in Jerusalem, and he communicated to them privately the gospel which he preached among the Gentiles so that they didn't run into a public confrontation which would have been a disaster. And he says, lest I have run, had had run in vain.
So he communicated the gospel that he preached. I believe that he knew far more than any of the leaders at Jerusalem. He received his gospel by revelation and.
The revelation of the mystery and all these truths. And he knew more as to the Gentiles.
Than the others, but the beauty of it is, it says after there had been much disputing.
Peter stood up.
And he said, You know how God used me, and he was talking about the House of Cornelius, and to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. And they received the Holy Spirit while I was yet speaking. The Spirit fell on them. And he says, why put she a burden upon the Gentiles, which we neither we nor our fathers were able to bear?
So he says, I we believe that we Jews shall be saved even as they Gentiles. A tremendous statement. Normally a Jew would have said, we believe that they shall be saved as we are. The Jews were usually the standard, at least in their eyes. But he says it's just the opposite. He says we Jews shall be saved as they Gentiles. How were the Gentiles saved? They were saved by pure sovereign grace. They never were under law.
They were saved by pure sovereign grace. And he says we Jews are saved that same way.
The same principle. And then James stood up and if there was anyone there at Jerusalem that was a legalist, it was James and he.
00:55:08
He gives his sentence, he says at the end of the discussion. He says, My sentence is that she trouble not those from among the Gentiles put them under law, but that you write to them that they abstain from fornication and from blood, and from things strangled, and from eating things sacrificed to idols.
From which, if they keep themselves, they will do well.
Well.
That was decided then the apostles, the elders and the assembly. And it says when they wrote the letter to Antioch, it says James had said my sentence is. But when the letter was written, it said it seemed good to the Holy Ghost.
Don't miss that.
It seemed good to the Holy Spirit.
And to us to lay upon you no greater burden that she abstained from, from meats offered to idols and fornication from blood and from things strangled. And when they got that message, they rejoiced. The point is that after all their discussion, there was there was arguing, there was disagreement, but it the Spirit of God formed the unity.
That they arrived at and they issued a decision that was.
Produced by the Spirit of God.
And that's the way.
That's the way it ought to be.
Unfortunately, that isn't always the way it is.
But that's the way it ought to be. We are.
Indwelt collectively as well as individually by the Holy Spirit, and He is the one that is to lead and guide in all functions of the assembly. Well, that's enough for tonight. Let's sing 210 in closing.
One spirit with the Lord, O blessed wondrous word, what heavenly light, what power divine, doth that sweet word afford?