Which is His Body - Applications, Part 2

In this part of the sermon: Martin begins by reviewing the context of Ephesians 1 and the meaning of the church as Christ's body, highlighting its living, subordinate, coordinated, sympathetic, and…

Martin uses the Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12) to explain why he reviews previous sermon points, likening it to not wanting to be cheated when attending a service where the preacher gives no context.

As our studies of this first chapter are drawing to a close, our attention has been focused for several weeks upon the last verse of the chapter, Ephesians 1 and verse 23. However, since we do have a number of visitors, I do want to take a few minutes to give the thread of thought, and I would remind those of you who perhaps are tempted to grow weary occasionally with this matter of reviewing week by week. You see, if ever a preacher is bound by Matthew 7.12, it's in ever a Christian, it's when a preacher stands.

0:11 - 0:49 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin begins by reviewing the context of Ephesians 1 and the meaning of the church as Christ's body, highlighting its living, subordinate, coordinated, sympathetic, and…

He shares an anecdote about a man in a Bible study who asked about the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation, and received blank looks, illustrating that some listeners are not retaining the reviews.

And I hope that those of you who do have the review don't turn me off, because I had a very revealing thing told to me a couple of weeks ago that a certain man was in a certain Bible study and asked a group of people who have sat here, some of them for many weeks in Ephesians 1, where the Holy Spirit is revealed, referred to in the Scriptures as the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation, and he drew blank looks for too long a time.

1:13 - 1:39 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The very life of the Son of God has become the portion of every true Christian. The Christians then say, the life which I now live is not my life, but Christ liveth in me.

Martin explains the proper, though less common, transitive use of the verb 'sat' (as in 'He sat Him at His own right hand') by comparing it to 'seating' someone.

the measure of that power. And he measures that power by the mighty work of God wrought in Jesus Christ when He did four things, four things with reference to Him. Look at the text. When He raised Him from the dead, verse 20, when He sat Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, and I've checked the dictionary, and it is proper to use sat as a transitive verb, though generally it is intransitive, but it can be used when you put someone down in a chair at your right hand, and you are seating, and having seated them, they are now sat at your right hand.

2:24 - 3:08 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third implication is the necessity of a biblically active membership, meaning the church must function to carry out Christ's will for its increase and edification. Paul's life…

He uses the analogy of the human head sending impulses to the tongue, hand, and eyes to illustrate the functional relationship between Christ (the Head) and the church (His body).

Going back to this figure of the head and the body, you remember that we pointed out it is a functional relationship. When my head makes certain dictates, they tell us they may be electrical impulses, then the muscles that govern my mouth and my tongue frame certain dictates and form certain words and out come the thoughts that the head has thought by means of the function of the tongue. When the signals go out from the head that the hand should act in a certain way to point in a certain direction that the eyes should look up or out or into that piece of machinery on the back wall so the peopl...

7:43 - 8:26 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin emphasizes that all 'nerve impulses' for the church's activity must come solely from Christ through His Word, not from carnal wisdom, opinion polls, human tradition, or…

Martin uses the analogy of his voice volume not being controlled by the listeners' thoughts but by his own head's impulses to illustrate that the church's actions must come from Christ, not human desires.

Right now, your head may be sending out impulses. Why is the world that preacher doesn't talk? Why doesn't he talk more softly? Why is he going to holler so?

17:11 - 17:18 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Teaching them to observe whatsoever I and no one else has commanded.

He uses the analogy of a hypnotist needing to put notions into a man's brain to control him, to illustrate that the church must receive its 'nerve impulses' from Christ's Word alone.

You see, even under his head, hypnosis, this is true. When a man is hypnotized, the hypnotist must put the notions into that man's brain. He cannot control him apart from putting the notions into that man's central nervous system.

17:36 - 17:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Refuse the nerve impulses that come from human pressure to conform to what others expect or are doing.

Martin uses the example of wearing a striped t-shirt in the pulpit as 'kookish' and an unnecessary diversion, to clarify that rejecting human tradition doesn't mean being a 'nut' but discerning between cultural norms and biblical commands.

And by the way, I'm not saying that we should be coots. I'm saying that we should not be coots. I came into the pulpit this morning with a striped t-shirt. I'm sure you couldn't find a chapter and verse to prove it was wrong, but it would be kookish. It would be kookish.

25:04 - 25:18 Read in full sermon

The point: Resist all tendency to laziness in Christian service.

He describes the physical hardship of raking concrete in the boiling sun for hours, with aching muscles and parched mouth, to illustrate the strong Greek word for 'labor unto hardship' used in the Bible.

It's what you see when the kind of days we've been having, and I know what it's like because I did that for several summers to earn my own keep and put myself through college. When you're out in the boiling sun with a pick and a shovel, or worse yet, when you're having to rake concrete in the boiling sun, and the water is literally pouring off you, and the mouth is parched and dry and every muscle aches, and lo and behold, it's only one o'clock in the afternoon and you know you've got three and a half more hours to go, and you just grit your teeth and hang in there.

29:06 - 29:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Resist all tendency to laziness in Christian service.

He uses the metaphors of 'resting on our oars' and 'leaning on the shovel' to warn against using divine sovereignty as an excuse for laziness in Christian service.

Let us never take the doctrine of divine sovereignty and the certainty of the issue of the church as a subtle excuse for resting on our oars and leaning on the shovel, as we call it, in the construction work.

29:45 - 30:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Cultivate prayerfulness as the mark of understanding that the church's resources are heavenly and supplied by Christ.

Martin shares his personal experience from early Christian days where he and others focused almost exclusively on praying and preaching, contrasting its fruitfulness with other churches that prioritized promotion and entertainment.

Praying and preaching. And I look back upon those early days of my own Christian experience, and I very seldom refer to personal things of this nature. You know that. But I look back sometimes now, and I have to laugh that we didn't know any better than to do those two things.

40:35 - 40:51 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The mark of a church understanding its heavenly supply is prayerfulness and dependence on God, as exemplified by early Christians. Martin warns against grieving the Holy Spirit…

He recounts an anecdote from Oscar and Clive Affleck about a large, highly organized, and promoted evangelistic campaign in Jamaica that yielded no genuine converts, illustrating the ineffectiveness of carnal methods compared to spiritual dependence.

Some of you have read the glowing reports of the recent big juggernaut that came down to Jamaica. 7,000 decisions for Christ. I wrote to Oscar. I said, you've been down to Jamaica.

41:38 - 41:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Be careful not to grieve the Holy Spirit, recognizing His sensitive presence and the emptiness that results from His withdrawal.

Martin uses the analogy of the Holy Spirit coming as a dove, not an eagle, to illustrate His sensitive nature; a dove flies away at the slightest ruffling, while an eagle sinks its talons deeper, emphasizing the ease with which the Spirit can be grieved and withdraw.

You see, an organization can run and function smoothly without any necessity for considering that element that cannot be seen and fed into the computer. That element of the presence of the Spirit, of God, who, when He's grieved, withdraws. The figure of the Spirit in the Gospels was that He did not come as an eagle to rest upon our Lord. He came in the form of a dove.

43:50 - 44:19 Read in full sermon

The point: If you love Jesus Christ, you must love His body, the church, and not have a careless or indifferent attitude toward its doctrine.

He uses the analogy that one cannot claim to love a person without loving their body, to argue that one cannot truly love Christ without loving His body, the church.

However, there are many who claim to have this high regard for the person and work of Christ objectively and historically revealed who have little regard for the visible church. But my friend, listen, the church is His body. You can't love me without loving my body. Me as a whole person.

49:28 - 49:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not deceive yourself by claiming to love the universal church while having little to do with the visible and local church.

Martin uses the analogy of a man claiming to love 'the kingdom of the birds' while shooting sparrows with a BB gun, to illustrate the hypocrisy of claiming to love the universal church while being indifferent to the visible local church.

There's a man who says, Oh, I love, I love the kingdom of the birds. I just love the kingdom of the birds. And I see him out in the backyard with a BB gun shooting sparrows and shooting robins. And I say, Hey, buddy, wait a minute.

51:30 - 51:43 Read in full sermon

The point: If you love Christ, you will love that manifestation of the body where He has providentially put you, including membership in a visible church.

He shares his personal shame of having been a member of no visible church for five years and ministering without oversight, to underscore the seriousness of indifference to church membership.

Because I know the terrible teaching that's been abroad for the past 75 years that has downgraded the doctrine of the church. And I was once so foolish and besot in the church even with my own ignorance that I thought I didn't even need to be a member of a visible church. And I say to my shame for five whole years I was a member of no visible church and even dared to minister without the direction and oversight of some facet of the visible church.

52:48 - 53:17 Read in full sermon