Address—C. Hendricks
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Abolished in his flesh the enmity.
Even the law of commandments contained in ordinances for to making himself of twain of Jew and Gentile. 1 Newman. So making peace. I think peace here has a double significance. Peace between Jew and Gentile, and peace between US and God himself, that he might reconcile both Jew and Gentile unto God in one body.
By the cross. The cross is the foundation for this.
Having slain the enmity thereby by the cross.
And he came and preached peace. To you which were afar off, that would be the Gentiles, and to them that were nigh the Jews were dispensationally near.
They had the law, they had the services, they had the priesthood, they had the Tabernacle in the temple.
They were the people that were in relationship to God and the Gentiles were far off. They did not know God. They were without God and without hope in this world.
But now in Christianity, that's all changed.
Completely new one, Newman, composed of a body on earth, composed of Jews and Gentiles, united to the glorified man in heaven by the Spirit of God sent down. We had some of this before us in our readings on 1St Corinthians 12.
I don't want to spend much time in Chapter 2. Let's go on, he's preached peace.
He's been preaching this piece since he ascended to heaven.
He didn't preach this when he was here on earth.
He said when he was here on earth, I have many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. But when he, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you.
Into all truth.
And that's what we have in the epistles, the truth that he has guided us into by the epistles.
What a tremendous loss Christians have when they do not read the epistles.
And in many places in the Christendom today, all they read is the Gospels, which is good in itself, but it doesn't give the distinctive truth of Christianity.
So how does he preach?
He's not preaching personally, but he's preaching through his servants, these precious things.
And then we have a beautiful verse 18 through him, the Lord Jesus Christ, we both.
Jew and Gentile have access by 1 Spirit unto the Father.
Access by 1 Spirit to the Father. You have the whole Trinity in that verse. Very precious, wonderful verse access.
They didn't have that in the Old Testament. They could not approach God like we can at all times, at any time.
You have access to the Father by the Spirit through him.
And then he goes on. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners. That's what the Gentiles once were. But fellow citizens with the Saints, we belong to another country now where fellow citizens of a heavenly country.
And another family and of the household of God. We belong to God's household now. We've been brought into that by the grace of God and we're part of this building that is still going on and are built upon the foundation.
Of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.
Whenever you get apostles and prophets, it's always New Testament apostles and prophets.
And then it goes on, in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. The end result of this building, which is in process of being built, is a holy temple in the Lord.
But what is it right now?
The last verse tells us in whom ye also are builded together.
For inhabitation of God through the Spirit. We had some of this before us in our meetings. This is presenting it again from a little different point of view.
Now God the Holy Spirit dwelling on earth in his assembly.
He does not dwell in Buddhist lands. He does not dwell.
Muslim lands or any of these false religions does not dwell in Judaism.
He dwells in Christendom, the house. The Spirit of God has taken up his abode there. That's characteristic of the truth of Christianity. Well, we've mentioned a number of things from this 2nd chapter, but chapter 4 exhorts going to chapter 4. Now I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation or the calling.
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Wherewith ye are called is especially looking at the truth of being called to be members.
Of the body of Christ.
I think of the Apostle.
He was Saul of Tarsus, you remember.
He was.
Hebrew.
He was educated at the feet of Gamaliel.
He was a strict Jew.
He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
And touching the righteousness which is in the law, he was blameless.
He kept the law, all of the ceremonial laws and all of the things that were laid out there in the mosaic economy.
And he regarded the Jews as dogs, the Gentiles as dogs.
And he was above them.
This was the way he was trained, the way they looked upon the Gentiles roundabout. They were without God.
And the Jews had the true God in their midst. They were to maintain a strict separation from these nations round about.
We know they failed in that miserably and they even became idolaters and went after the worship of the gods of the nations roundabout.
But a strict Jew was taught to look down upon these Gentiles as something very inferior to themselves. Now this man Saul of Tarsus was strict in this kind of thing, and he was the one that God selected out of the all the Jews to save him.
And to use him to.
Preach the unsearchable riches of Christ to these Gentiles.
I can almost hear Paul say when he was instructed to do that, not them, Lord.
That He would bring these precious things to those that He had by nature looked so down upon. He is an example in scripture of the tremendous effects of the grace of God, how it can completely change a person.
Change Saul of Tarsus from an insolent, overbearing man to a compassionate, loving father of his children in the faith from among the Gentiles.
That's Grace. That's what Grace can do. How did he do it?
He did it as it says in verse 2, with all lowliness.
And meekness.
With long-suffering.
For bearing one another in love.
Can we?
Begin to imagine the adjustments that he had to make.
He who was a strict Pharisee.
And observe the law. Now he's going to a people that knew none of those things that were saved out of paganism. And he brought the gospel of the grace of God to those those people and they were saved and he had to teach them.
The truth that he had learned by revelation.
He learned his gospel by revelation. He learned the truth of the mystery by revelation.
He did it with all lowliness and meekness.
With long-suffering forbearing one another in love.
And that is the only way that you and I can go on together too.
With all of our differences and varied opinions and upbringings and nationalities and all of the things that distinguish US1 from the other, how can we possibly go on together when we learn this magnificent truth that we are all members one of another?
One body in Christ, 1 Newman, united to the glorified.
Head in heaven by the Spirit of God.
Well, it can only be by those moral qualities outlined in the second verse.
And then he goes on endeavoring to keep.
The unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Now you can't keep, I can't keep the unity of the Spirit if I don't know what it is.
What is the unity of the Spirit?
Well, we were reading.
In one Corinthians 12, that by one spirit we were all baptized into one body.
Whether Jews or Gentiles, bond or free.
And have all been made to drink into one Spirit. Each one individually has received the Holy Spirit, but He has united us by the baptism of the Spirit into one body. And a unity was formed. It's called the unity of the Spirit.
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We're not called to keep the unity of the body. That would mean we'd have to walk in fellowship with every member of the body of Christ the world over, no matter what they were connected with, no matter what their practices were, no matter what their doctrine was. We'd have to walk with every member of the body of Christ. But it doesn't say the unity of the body.
It says we're to get keep the unity of the Spirit.
In the bond of peace, Spirit is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the Spirit of truth.
So to walk in fellowship with the Spirit of God down here is to walk in separation from evil.
And to hold uphold the truth of God and the holiness of God.
There are three kinds of unities I want to talk about a little.
The first one I remember when I was in a brother's meeting in the fellowship I came from.
And they were considering.
Uniting with another group of brethren.
And an older brother said to us.
We have to agree to disagree.
We have to learn to disagree and to agree to that.
Well, that's that. That's a principle of unity, which is a man made unity based upon compromise.
You can have your view, you can have your view, I can have my view, but we can be united together under the umbrella of Christian love.
And there's a lot of movements today in Christendom that are just that way. Doctrine is not considered.
Doctrine is not important. In fact, it's shelved to the back burner. And it's not pressed because as one statement was made in our readings, doctrine divides.
It does.
If you do not have sound doctrine.
And another does. You can't walk together.
Unless you are agreed.
But this kind of agreement is agreement by compromise.
A good illustration of that. That's the ecumenical movement.
We can be together under the truth that we're all Christians.
But it's not based upon sound doctrine.
You notice in Acts 242 it says they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine.
And fellowship in breaking of bread and in prayers. If the fellowship in which they continued was not based on sound doctrine, it was not the Apostles fellowship.
And that's what counts, is it not sound doctrine, but agreeing to disagree. You have your opinion, you have yours, I have mine. That's all right. We can still walk together because we're all Christians. That's the principle of compromise, and that's the principle of ecumenism.
There's a movement in the United States. I think it's come here to some extent. It's called Promise Keepers, and they're based on that principle. They don't press sound doctrine.
But they they have a unity that is formed on the basis of love and being Christians without pressing doctrine.
Because if you see the different groups that are involved in that.
Amalgamated.
Mess. If I can put it that way, it is anything but sound doctrine.
And yet it's a kind of unity. It's a man made unity based on compromise, agreeing to.
Disagree.
But there is something worse than that. Far worse than that.
And that's a unity founded upon agreeing to agree.
Now what do I mean by that?
If you're.
If you are a Roman Catholic.
You don't have any right, according to the teachings of the Church of Rome, to interpret the Bible for yourself.
You have to accept the Church's teaching on it.
They will allow you to read it.
But you can't interpret it.
And you have to agree with their interpretation.
And so you are agreeing to agree.
To their interpretation.
If you're a Jehovah's Witness.
You have no right to disagree with the teachings of the hierarchy of the Watchtower Society.
Whatever they teach, you agree to agree with that.
That is the worst ******* conceivable.
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You've given up your conscience. You've given up your right to that which was recovered at the Reformation, individual conscience to operate before God. So God has the right to speak to me personally.
And not through some organization.
If you are a Mormon.
You have to agree with the hierarchy of the Mormon church. They'll tell you what you should believe and what you should not believe. And that's the principle of agreeing to agree. You have given up your individual.
Right, to have God speak directly to you through His Word.
And you must believe whatever the hierarchy of the organization that you're a part of tells you.
That's the worst ******* possible.
Is it possible that something along that line can?
Be amongst us? Well, I think either one of these two things can be amongst any company of Christians.
We can adopt the principle of compromise.
And go on together in that way.
Or we can adopt the principle of justice, submitting without any reservation to a leader or someone of that nature. You remember the Jim Jones's?
Catastrophe when people just gullibly did what the leader told them to do.
And they ended up dead.
Is there such a thing that we have to deal with? Yes. Turn to 3rd John.
It may happen we have this epistle so that we could have God's warning about this kind of thing.
In the third Epistle of John in verse 9.
John writes, I wrote unto the Church, But Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
Wherefore if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth, praying against us.
With malicious words, and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbidden them that would and casteth them out of the Church. Now how one man like this Diotrephes could have such power?
Is hard to say.
But he evidently did.
I know of one assembly amongst us where the leader in the assembly the teacher there.
He did not want any laboring brother or other brethren to come and visit.
And teach them anything that might be contrary to what he had taught them.
He didn't want to have his teachings in any way contradicted by the teachings of another.
Well, it's possible that a man might have that kind of power and authority.
I remember once in a brothers meeting, it was going on quite nicely and peaceably, and the brethren were in harmony together and the door opened and a man went in, a brother went in who was a Diotrephes kind of a character, and the whole character of the brothers meeting changed.
The liberty that they had been enjoying by the Spirit of God.
No longer existed.
Because there was this kind of oppression.
Well, it's possible that this can happen.
What is the third kind of unity?
The kind which is of God. Those first two that I've described are of men.
Third kind is the unity of the Spirit.
It's the unity which is formed by the Spirit of God who is among us.
Producing oneness of mind, oneness of thought.
And sometimes it may be after much discussion and arguing.
Our dissension.
Take the case in Acts 15, where these legalists came from down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and they taught the brethren and they said about these Gentiles. They said, except you be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.
Now there were two apostles there in Antioch. They could have decided the matter.
Paul and Barnabas. They are both apostles.
They could have decided it.
But they didn't.
And they didn't, because a revelation was given to the Apostle Paul that he had to take this matter up to Jerusalem.
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And so they went to Jerusalem.
And the apostles and the elders in the church were there.
But the important thing, and I've heard a lot of exposition on this chapter and what I've heard, they have missed the main point of the chapter.
Let's just turn back to it for a moment. Acts 15.
I'll start with verse 5. This is verse 4 when they were come to Jerusalem.
They were received of the church and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them.
And there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees, which believed, saying that it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.
And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.
And when there had been much disputing.
Peter rose up and he gives some wonderful words.
He said, Men and brethren, you know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe.
And God, which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us.
And he put no difference between us and them, between us Jews and them, the Gentiles, purifying their hearts by faith.
Now therefore, why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
But we believe, here's the wonderful statement of Peter's we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, even as they normally a Jew would say. They shall be saved even as we, the Jews, considered themselves the standard.
But Peter says it the opposite. He says we shall be saved, we Jews shall be saved, and even as they Gentiles.
How were the Gentiles saved? They had no claim on God at all. They were without hope and without God in the world. They were saved by sovereign grace.
That's how they were brought in, sovereign grace. And he says we Jews, that's the way we have to come in too.
Are being under law has nothing to add to our salvation. Not a bit. It's all grace.
And then James.
Makes the final pronouncement. Now James was the Lord's half brother and he was not an apostle, but he was a leading man among the brothers. You hear a lot about him in the book of Acts.
And let's hear what he has to say. Verse 13.
After they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken to me.
Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name.
And to this degree the words of the prophets. And he quotes the prophets to show that Gentiles would be blessed. Let's pass over that and go to verse 19, which is the conclusion that he arrives at. Wherefore my sentence is that we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles are turned to God, but that we write unto them that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
Now notice how he pacifies the Jews there that were at Jerusalem.
All he's doing is giving pronouncement as to the gentiles.
And he says let's just put those 4 restrictions on the Gentiles, but not put them under the law of Moses.
And then he pacifies the Jewish element that was there at Jerusalem, which was so strong by these words. Verse 21. For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him.
Being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day.
So the decision arrived at in Acts 15 was not a complete decision. It was only with respect to the Gentiles. The Jews were still left under law.
And it took.
A lot of forbearing on God's part before they were delivered from that.
But notice.
When they write.
To the church at Antioch. Their conclusion?
Verse 25.
It seemed good unto us.
Being assembled with 1 accord to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas.
And Paul?
Men that have hazard their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth. Now notice this. This is what has been missed so often, for it seemed good to the Holy Ghost.
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And to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things.
That she abstained from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication.
From which, if you keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well. So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch, and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the Epistle.
And when they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation.
Notice that verse 28 it seemed good to the Holy Ghost.
And to us, they had much disputing. They did not arrive at this conclusion easily.
The Judaizers were there in force, you would say. That would be the last place you would want to have a decision in favor of the Gentiles up there at Jerusalem.
But God said that's where you have to go, that's where it has to be resolved.
And it was resolved in favor of the Gentiles. And who did it? The Holy Spirit did it.
It wasn't some apostles that did it, it wasn't the elders that did it, it wasn't the church at Jerusalem that did it, but the Spirit of God did it.
And that's the important thing in Christianity, the Spirit of God is a person that lives.
And dwells among us. And he is to be looked to, and he is to be relied upon, and he is to be the one that guides and directs our decisions.
Whatever they might be, and it might be through much disputing.
I'll never forget the time I was in a brethren's meeting in Addison and I said to myself, this is going to be a stormy one because we were not in agreement.
At the end of the brothers meeting.
We were in perfect agreement.
The Spirit of God had changed.
Those that were of a different opinion from the other brethren.
I was one of them.
I remember it very well.
Because I was brought to.
The same.
Agreement.
As the others.
Matthew 1819 says if 2 of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask.
It shall be done for them of my Father, which is in heaven. Now that agreement is not calling a brother up on the phone and saying let's agree on this.
That is, that is an agreement that the Spirit of God produces in the hearts of the Saints.
As they consider these difficult problems, don't think that because apostles were among them.
That they came to easy decisions? Not so.
After much disputing.
We have one who is greater than he that is in the world, and that's the Spirit of God. Greater is he that is in you.
Than he that is in the world sometimes the way we act with our tail between our legs as though we're whipped puppies.
And the enemy is stronger than.
The Spirit of God, not so.
We have the one on our side, the head of the Church, the Lord Jesus. He's the victor. He conquered Satan and He directs from on high and those directions are carried out here below through the Spirit of God to His assembly. And He's to be counted upon. He's to be relied upon and a decision is not to be forced on an assembly against their wills, against the consciences of other Saints because of some strong minded diotrophies.
Whenever you have that, you do not have what it says.
Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond or the anointing bond.
Whenever you have a forced decision, you don't have peace and you don't have unity.
But if the Spirit of God makes the decision.
Brings us around to his mind when you read the Epistles to the Epistle to the Corinthians, the first Epistle to the Corinthians. Paul is laboring and correcting one I'll after another.
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He does not make the decision for them, but as a true leader.
He is exercising their consciences by the Word of God and the teaching that they needed to hear so that they would be brought in tune with the mind of God by the Spirit of God.
And that's this. That's the unity of the spirit. That's a unity which is not a man made unity either by compromise or by agreeing with some diatrophies or some organization or some hierarchy.
Those man made unities like the Church of Rome.
Is that's potpourri.
That kind of thing is submitting to an authority other than the Spirit of God and the authority of Christ the head of the church.
So I've dwelt a little upon this because I think it is so tremendously important.
Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit. Now we can't break that unity. He maintains it.
We can fail to keep it though.
And so we are exhorted to endeavor to keep that unity. What is it really? It's to walk in company and in fellowship with the divine person on earth, the Spirit of God.
As He leads and guides us, He leads us each one. If we have different views, we are by the leaders in the assembly and using the Word of God, and not by some high pressure tactics, but by the Word of God bringing the understanding of the Saints to the same conclusion and that is the mind of the Spirit.
That's the unity of the Spirit, the Spirit of God working in each of our hearts. No pressure, but working in love and by the Word of God.
I remember a statement Mr. Darby made in connection with the troubles that occurred in 18798081, a lot of stormy weather they were going through at that time and the statement he made, he said if there was an ounce of spirituality among us, this could be settled in a moment.
It's quite a statement.
It was a comment on the low spiritual state of the Saints at that time.
Our failure to handle discipline problems according to God.
Has resulted in more problems than anything else.
What we need to do is to get in tune with the mind of the Spirit.
And He will lead us if we are subject to his leading.
In the case of this brothers meeting that I cited, it was I that was out of tune with that, and I don't know if others were too. But the Spirit of God wrought and we were all in happy harmony when the meeting was over.
Then if you pray.
You're praying in agreement.
Not a man made agreement.
But made by God.
And then you have power.
Then there's power. There's the power of the spirit. We have the greatest power at our disposal in the universe. The greatest power.
The greatest weakness of the Christian testimony is.
The divisions that have come in amongst us.
The greatest weakness to the truth of the one body.
Which we speak so much of and we should hold it fast.
Is the divisions that have come in.
And an onlooker says impossible.
I remember a German brother.
From the Continental Fellowship where I used to be, he got a hold of the truth of the one body.
And it thrilled him.
And then he learned.
Of the divisions.
That had come in.
And he set up in this people.
It can't happen.
It can't happen with those that hold one body.
But it has.
That's a contradiction, isn't it?
Contradiction.
Brethren, if we entered into this, we ought to weep.
Over the divided state.
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Just this last problem that we've gone through.
Ought to cause us to weep.
Every time there's a division.
Both sides lose.
We've lost some very valuable brethren.
They've lost some very valuable breath.
Satan's principle is divide and conquer.
And he's done a job of it, hasn't he?
The Lord said in John 17 Father, that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that the world.
May believe that thou has sent me. Why doesn't the world believe it? Because we're not united. We're not one.
We're all divided. Why should the world believe us when we can't get along among ourselves?
That's the way they reason.
The most powerful gospel witness would be the unity of believers.
But that can't be based on compromise.
It has to be based on sound doctrine. It has to be based on truth.
Because it's the spirit of truth.
It has to be based on holiness, because he's the Holy Spirit.
And if it's the unity of the Spirit, it must be truth and it must be holy.
They must be separate from evil.
Let us hold fast.
To these precious truths.
I think of the verse in Jeremiah. He that goeth forth is it Jeremiah? And weepeth bearing precious seeds, shall come again with rejoicing.
Well, that's we play that in the gospel, but to go forth.
With these precious truths and weep.
At the same time.
Because of our failure.
To walk in these things.
Collectively.
Our failure to resolve the problems.
Our failure to.
Handle matters in the spirit of grace.
And.
Not legality.
Well.
Let's go on.
I'm spending too much time on this verse 4 There's one body.
And one spirit, even as ye are called, in one hope of your calling.
That's there's three circles here. In verse 4, you have the circle of reality.
In verse 5 you have the circle of profession.
And in verse 6, the circle of creation.
Verse 4 There is one body and one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling. The one spirit forms the one body and everyone who is a member of that one body.
Is real.
Every member of the body of Christ is real, a true believer. There are no mere professors in the body of Christ. There are in the House of God.
But in the body of Christ, you're real if you're a member of the one body.
1St Corinthians 10 we have the Lord's Table spoken of. I won't turn to it because of time.
But that loaf on the table we had this morning, it represents that one body, all believers the world over and everyone that is real.
Brought into it by the one Spirit, with the one hope being with him like Christ.
For all eternity then we have profession in verse 51, Lord 1 faith, one baptism. There are many that profess the one Lord and say I believe in Christianity, the one faith, and I've been baptized.
And there in the sphere of profession, it's a little broader than the first sphere. All in the first sphere, of course, are in the second sphere, reality, but there's some in the second sphere that are not real. They're mere professors, and there's a lot of them in Christendom today.
And then the last spear, one God and Father of all, who is over all and above all, and through you all.
In you all I should say that goes back to the first circle, but that's the sphere of creation.
And God is the Father of all as the Creator.
Now let's go on.
But unto everyone of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. We have that before us in our readings, that everyone has a gift. You cannot say as a member of the body of Christ that you have nothing to do, that you have no gift, nothing to do.
Under everyone of us is given grace, given a gift.
According to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high.
He led captivity captive. That is, He led the power that had held us in ******* in captivity. He led it captive. Power of Satan.
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He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men.
So from his ascended place in glory, he gifted different ones.
Gifted up, gifted each one of us.
Now that he ascended, this is a parenthesis. What is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He went down into the stronghold of Satan's power, death.
And rose again.
Vanquished him. He that descended is the same also that asks ended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.
And from that place in glory.
He gave some apostles.
Some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.
In a connection with gifts, we have Romans 12 and the gifts that are mentioned there are spiritual powers and they're given by God.
That's God the Father.
In One Corinthians 12 They are given by the Spirit.
And in Ephesians 4 they are given by Christ, the head of the church. So you have the whole Trinity in connection with the giving of these gifts.
In Ephesians 4, the gifts are persons, not spiritual powers, but you have the three persons.
Of the Trinity in connection with this, as you do in everything that God does.
He gave some apostles and some prophets. These were foundation gifts. We saw in chapter 2 That the building is laid upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. So these were foundation gifts. They don't exist today.
The apostles and prophets spoken of here laid the foundation.
But the ongoing gifts are some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. We have them today till the Lord comes.
What are they for?
For the perfecting of the Saints.
For the work of the ministry. For the edifying of the body of Christ. Now unfortunately, this verse in our King James translation does not bring out the two different prepositions that are used here. Let me read it as it is.
More literally for the perfecting of the Saints, with a view to the work of the ministry, with the view to the edifying of the body of Christ.
The main purpose for these gifts?
Is the perfecting of the Saints.
What does that mean?
Bringing the Saints to a full understanding of the truth of the gospel of our individual. Standing before God in Christ, justified from all things, redeemed by his precious blood from ******* reconciled to God by the death of His Son, quickened by the Spirit, sealed by the Spirit, anointed of the Holy Spirit. All of these blessings.
That are ours individually. That's the perfecting of the Saints.
The full growth.
Bringing us into a full growth. For instance, if someone doesn't understand eternal security.
He could never be helpful in the work of the ministry, in the edifying of the body of Christ. He could never be helpful in the collective aspect of things until he is clear individually.
And so the perfecting of the Saints is the main purpose of these gifts.
That we understand our standing. I remember a letter of Mr. Darby's. He was in Canada for three months and he said I haven't touched church truth yet.
They needed to be established in the truth of the gospel and we do harm to souls by.
Bringing them into church. Truth to soon.
Until they understand their standing in Christ.
If one doesn't understand eternal security.
You don't preach church truth to such.
That would be injurious.
They have to know what their standing is. It is in Christ and no condemnation.
They are in a new state before God, in the spirit indwelt of the Spirit of God. They can never lose their salvation. They are eternally secure. They have eternal life, the forgiveness of all their sins justified from all things. All of these truths are theirs.
And then they are perfect in the sense of this passage.
Full grown, mature.
Understanding what Christianity really is.
Then they can be used in the work of the ministry. What's the work of the ministry? Everyone of us has received a gift.
00:45:04
Take the human body. Every member of my body has some function to perform.
Last year I had one member. It wasn't even a member, it was a joint.
And the cartilage in the joint had been eaten away by arthritis and my whole body suffered.
I thought of the verse so many times. If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it.
And I knew what that meant.
You might think you don't have a gift. You might think it's not important if you're in the meeting.
When the assembly comes together, you are absolutely important, whether you have a word to say or not. If you're a sister, you don't say anything.
But you are as important as the brothers. You have a function to perform. Remember that little word in First Corinthians 12 helps. What would we do without the helps that the sisters provide?
Absolutely essential.
Sometimes I think those of us who stand up and give addresses like this are the least important.
Those that are so important in the body are those that are unnoticed, and yet without them it wouldn't work.
It just wouldn't work.
I just had one joint.
That was awry.
And I couldn't walk straight.
Couldn't sit without pain. It affected everything, just one joint.
And you think you're not important? You are vitally important to the.
Functioning of this body.
If you've been brought to a state of perfection individually, then you can function collectively in the work of the ministry. The work of the ministry doesn't mean standing up and preaching or it includes that, but it's all the functions that have to be done by Christians as we interrelate one with another in assembly character.
Don't ever think you're not needed.
What would happen to your body if one of your members decided I'm not going to do anything anymore, I'm just going to, I'm not important, I'm just going to stop functioning?
Well, you know what would happen.
Your whole body would suffer from it.
And that's what happens when.
The Saints don't come to meeting.
They don't feel it's important.
You are important.
Everyone of us is important.
Each one has received a gift, and each one has something to do for the building up of a whole.
And so that 12TH verse is for the perfecting of the Saints with a view to the work of the ministry. Once the Saints are perfected, then they can work in the ministry and perform the function.
That God has for each one of us to perform for the end result, the edifying, the building up of the body of Christ.
When everyone of my members is healthy.
And I'm receiving good nourishment.
Then it can function as intended by God for the growth.
And well-being of the entire body.
If something happens to one of my members, then my body gets sick.
And if it's serious enough.
The body may die.
This is the picture, this is the figure that the Spirit of God uses to teach us the importance of everyone of us as a member of the body of Christ.
Everyone of us needed for the working.
Of the whole body. I remember when I was a kid they took my tonsils out because the doctors had discovered that according to the evolutionary theory, the tonsils had no need and no importance. There wasn't anything wrong with my tonsils, but they took it out anyway. I'm sorry they did.
But I can't get him back.
And they've done that to other members because in their stupidity, in their not believing that God knew more than they did when he gave us tonsils and and all the other parts of the body that we need everyone.
And because man, in his ignorance can't figure out the use of the member.
He thinks it's not needed, so just cut it out.
Yes, we're all needed.
And if you think you're not needed, you are.
And if you learn anything from this conference, learn that you're important.
And you if you don't function as you should, the whole body is going to feel it.
Everyone of us is needed.
How long are these gifts given for? Till we all come? Verse 13.
00:50:01
In the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, till we arrive at that.
The unity of the faith. He spoke about the unity of the Spirit earlier. Now he talks about the unity of the faith. We're going to be brought to that when we reach home.
The full knowledge of the Son of God.
Unto a perfect man.
Under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, what is it to prevent? He wants us to be full grown. He wants us to be functioning together in intelligence, in our place, in the body, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men in cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. He wants us to be perfect, so that we can function properly for the good of the body.
But speaking the truth in love, holding the truth in love or in our love, being truthful.
I like that rendering too.
May grow up unto him.
Christ in all things.
We're growing up to Him. We're still in the process of growing. He is the head Christ.
Now, verse 16.
From whom? From the head the whole body fitly joined together.
And compacted by that which every joint supplieth, you may be just a joint.
Supplying what is needed.
According to the effectual working and the measure of every part here is a body of it's going to be healthy. Every part must work as God intended it.
Maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
That's the wonderful end result that he's working towards and we need everyone to do it. I'll never forget the time I was in quality assurance. We tested the products that were done by the development and design engineers and oftentimes we rejected them and sent them back and said fix this. It doesn't work right.
Or it can't stand this and that abuse. And I said this one engineer once and he was getting back his product because we had rejected it and I don't know how many times they'd have to submit it until we received it and approved it. I said, just think the first man that God ever made worked the first time perfectly.
Infinitely complex.
But he worked perfectly.
Only God can do that.
Man has to try and try and try and try and finally he'll get something that works.
And when God does something, it's perfect.