Which is His Body - Meaning, Part 1

Introduction: The Exceeding Greatness of God's Power and Christ's Exaltation

0:04 I ask you to follow in your Bibles as I read this great prayer of the Apostle Paul that we have been studying for some months now, Ephesians chapter 1, verses 15 through the end of the chapter, and I hope that by now most of you have unwittingly memorized this paragraph. If you haven't, shame on you. We've read it enough, we've looked at it in detail enough, that by now it ought to be part of your conscious retention, and with little effort I think that could be true of all of you. Ephesians 1, verse 15, For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which ye show toward all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom. And revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe, according

1:25 to that working of the strength of his might, which he wrought in thee Christ, the article is there, which he wrought in thee Christ, when he raised him from the dead. And made him to sit in his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all. In all, as a body of God's people, we hold as precious the truth that all who are once truly the children of God, will by divine grace be found glorified as the children of God in the last day. Or in the words of the passage before us, we hold as precious that all in whom there is the hope, resident in the bread. Yes, because they have been called. Who have set their sight upon the riches of the glory of the inheritance, will actually attain to that inheritance.

2:50 And why are we so certain that this is so? Because of this third thing in this trilogy of spiritual commodities, that the apostle treats in the passage, the exceeding greatness of the power of God exercised towards us, believers. And the apostle is concerned that the Ephesian Christians have a spirit-given understanding of these three great things, their hope, their inheritance, and the exceeding greatness of the power of God towards them. We are presently studying the third of those ingredients, the exceeding greatness of his power, and in particular the measure of that power. For the apostle, having described the power in itself, exceeding great, having described it in its working, it is that which is the working of the strength of his might, having described its recipients, its towards all believers, he then launches into this very detailed description of the measure of that power. And we've seen that the measure of that power pivots on these four things wrought in the power of God. The Lord Jesus Christ. That measure of power is to be found in what the Father did when

4:13 he raised him, made him to sit at his right hand, put everything beneath his feet, and then as we saw last week, gave him as head overall to the church. So he raised him, he placed him at his right hand, he put all things beneath his feet, and then this exalted Christ is then the Lord Jesus Christ. He has been given to the church as head over all things. He has given to the church in his capacity as head to the end that all that the Father has purposed in grace may be imparted to the people of God. John 17, thou hast given him authority over all flesh, that he should do what? Not merely offer eternal life to all, but that he might do something more than that. That he might give. Eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

The Contextual Connection: Why is the Church Christ's Body?

5:11 Now we come today to expound the little phrase, which is his body. And that's all we'll be able to do and only begin to do it this morning. To think our way through the phrase, consider with me in the first place its connection with the context. Why does the apostle introduce the little phrase, which is his body?

5:37 Having done that, we shall consider the meaning of the phrase. And then, Lord willing, next week we'll take up a third line of thought, the message of this phrase in its various and very essential implications. First of all, what is the connection of the little phrase of verse 23 with everything that precedes and with the little bit that follows in this prayer?

6:00 Well, let me ask you a question to put you on the track in answering that question. When you first heard last night, when you first heard last night, when you first heard last week, the proper rendering of these words in verse 22, and God the Father gave Christ as head over all to the church, the concept that the Father has actually given the exalted Christ as a donation to his people, what was your reaction? Well, I hope your reaction was mine. I had to ask the question in my preparation, what is the connection of the the world is the church that it should be so favored? The Father having given the Son in incarnation, partaking of our nature, the Father having given the Son up to death in crucifixion, that I might be forgiven, that there might be a just basis of accepting me as righteous before him. To think that now having exalted him and placed everything beneath his throne, that I might be forgiven, that there might be a just basis of accepting me as righteous before him. To think that now having exalted him and placed everything beneath his throne, that I might be forgiven, that there might be a just basis of accepting me as righteous before him. To think that now having exalted him and placed everything beneath

7:16 his throne, that I might be forgiven, that there might be a just basis of accepting me as righteous before him. To think that now having exalted him and placed everything beneath his throne, that I might be forgiven, that there might be a just basis of accepting me as righteous before him. To think that now having exalted him and placed everything beneath his throne, that I might be forgiven, that there might be a just basis of accepting me as righteous before him. To think that now having exalted him and placed everything beneath his throne, that I might be forgiven, that there might be a just basis of accepting me as righteous before him. To think that now having exalted him and placed everything beneath again as a gift to the church. I have to ask the question, what in the world is the church that she should be so favored? And it's as though the apostle anticipates that question and says, he has given him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. So then the train of thought is simply this.

7:54 It's when we understand the nature of the church in this twofold description, the body of Christ and the fullness of Christ, that we'll begin to understand why Christ as the exalted Lord has been given to such a people, that church which is his body, which is his fullness. And it's precisely because the church is what it is in the purpose of God that we are able to understand the nature of the church in this twofold description. And it's precisely because the church is what it is in the purpose of God that we are able to understand the nature of the church in this twofold description. That it receives what it does in the provision of God. Let me give you that again. It's precisely what the church is in the purpose of God that it receives what it does in the provision of God. And what is it in the purpose of God? It is the body of Christ, verse 23, and it is the fullness of Christ. And so come with me and examine the glory of the true Jerusalem. Heavenly Zion, the place of the

8:56 people of God, described as his body, described as his fullness. And if this sounds like a boring study, my friend, it's only because you're not part of that church which is his body. For the scripture says the works of the Lord are sought out of all those that have pleasure in them. And you remember that psalm in which the psalmist says glorious things are spoken of the Zion city of our God. And the psalmist says I'm going to walk around and mark its bulwarks and I'm going to examine Zion because therein do I delight. And every Christian, everyone joined to Jesus Christ delights to examine Zion, city of our God. So much then for the connection of this little phrase with the context. Now the meaning of the phrase itself. What does this phrase mean? The church

What the Phrase 'His Body' Does NOT Mean

9:49 which is his body. Well, let's start out by saying what it does not and cannot possibly mean. It does not mean that the church that is the people of God, the church universal, all the elect of God, the true people of God, are the physical organism of the glorified Lord. They cannot be in that literal sense his body in the sense that these things waving in front of you this morning are part of my body. How do we know that that can't be so? Well, let's credit Paul with a little common sense. For he has just prayed, Father, give the Ephesians the spirit that they may understand the measure of your strength which is towards them. Strength measured by what reality? The reality of Christ being raised from the dead and being seated at the right hand of God. Now the Christ that was raised was a body,

10:51 soul, entity, the glorified God-man with a body that had limitations, when you came to the end of his finger you'd feel nothing more. There was no more finger. It extended only as far as the ends of his fingers when he stretched his hand this way and the last hair on the top of his head and the last toenail on the bottom of his foot. And if you get beyond that there was no body of Christ. Now that resurrected body had peculiar qualities. He could pass through walls. He appeared the doors being shut. The stone at the mouth of the tomb was rolled away not to let him out but to let some others in. To see what had happened. It's a body that could ascend up into heaven, but it has never lost its true identity as a body with its physical extensions and limitations. And the apostle says that body of that glorified

11:44 Christ is somewhere in the universe of God called The Right Hand of God. And if you were a blind man and were taken to where ever that body is right now, and you were to feel up from the shoulders, and you were to feel up from the shoulders, And if you were a blind man and were taken to where ever that body is right now, And you were to feel up from the shoulders, shoulders, up the neck, the ears, and come to the top of the head, you'd feel nothing but space beyond it. It's that real a body. Now why do I emphasize this? For the simple reason that we must never underestimate the power of the human heart to pervert God's truth to its own damnation. And some have taken this truth, the body of Christ, and they say, aha, you know what the church is? And this is partly Roman Catholic theology, that the church is actually the physical extension of Jesus Christ. It is an extension of the incarnation. It is the larger incarnation of Christ. And you know the foolish Romish

12:40 doctrine, that when the priest says his mumbo-jumbo over the elements, that they actually become the very body and blood of Jesus Christ. Just absolute foolishness in the light of the teaching of the Word of God. No. Upon coming into the world, Hebrews 10 says, verse 5, a body thou hast prepared me, sacrifice and burnt offering thou desirest not. In this body I come to do thy will, O God. By the which body, the offering of this body, offered up once for all, we are forever sanctified. And it's the body of Christ, His physical glorified body, that is the pattern of our ultimate destiny. Never forget it. Philippians 3, 20 and 21, he shall fashion the body of our humiliation into what likeness? After the likeness of the body of His glory. Now what are we going

13:41 to be like in heaven? We're going to have a body that when you come to the end of the fingers, that'll be all, the end of the head, the end of the toes, His glorified body is the pattern of ours. So what does the phrase not mean? It does not mean the church is some kind of a mystical semi-human body. It does not mean that the church is some kind of a mystical semi-human body. It does not mean that the church is some kind of a mystical semi-quasi-physical extension of Jesus Christ's physical body. Well, what does it mean? And as we come to let the Scripture open up the Scripture, I want you to keep two principles in your mind continually. Principle number one, we are dealing with a figure of speech.

Two Principles for Understanding 'His Body'

14:18 The church is likened to Christ's body under a figure of speech, or an analogy. The church is likened to Christ's body when it's within a outrageous compare and comparison, such as a boundary that anything is. A comparison. But remember, figures of speechesín leaders of 했던 history, the H company, and analogies and comparisons are given to convey realities, not mirages. You know what a mirage is? A mirage is something you think is there, but when you go to take a hold of it, it's nothing there. You know, the picture of the poor man in the desert, and he's got his beard down here and his eyes are sunken and his tongue is hanging out, and he thinks he sees the pool of water, and he thinks hesa he sees water and only finds it was a mirage. Now you see, figures of speech in the Bible are not given to be mirages. They are given to explain and to make simple and clear, substantial spiritual realities. And so the concept of the church being the body of Christ is a figure

15:21 of speech conveying some blessed and substantial realities. Keep that principle before you and principle number two, whatever is true of the church universal as the body of Christ, God intends should be the standard of each particular church as a body of Christ. Now if you missed that, then I want to fold my Bible and pack up and go home because we missed the whole thrust of the glory of this passage. Let me give it to you again. Paul is obviously talking in the context, we went over this last week and I can't re-preach the sermon, when he says, Paul said all things to the church, he was using the word church in its broadest sense of the totality of the people of God. That's what we call the church universal. There is but one church, but different manifestations. The church universal known only to God, and then there is the church local or the church particular. That's what we are this morning.

16:25 Now everything said of the church universal. The church universal should be the standard of every particular church. And I base that assertion upon many things, but one text will bear the whole weight of it, even in isolation. 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 27, where the apostle is dealing with this concept of the body of Christ and the various function of its members, and notice his word in 1 Corinthians 12, 27, Now ye, that is, you at Corinth are the body of Christ, the article is not there in the original, so we could translate it, ye are a body of Christ, ye are body of Christ, and severally members thereof. You see what he's saying? It's as though someone said, ah, but Paul, the concept of the body of Christ, it spreads out throughout all the people of God. What relevance can it have to us functioning as a church here at Corinth? He says, whatever is true of the body of Christ universal is to be governing,

The Meaning of 'His Body': A Vital/Organic Union

17:30 and true of you as the body of Christ local and particular. All right? Having given those introductory principles, having cleared away the negative, now we come to the positive. What does the phrase mean? Why should such a gift be given to the church, an exalted Christ given as donation to the church? Because it is his body. What does that phrase mean? Well, the very phrase itself is a dominant Pauline concept. You will find it only explicitly stated by the Apostle Paul. You will find the same thought hinted at by the other biblical writers. But it's to Paul that the concept comes through by the Spirit with great clarity and with continual emphasis and with much repetition. me give you the key text for some of you taking notes and want to look into it in the interest of time we'll not go over these texts because they're going to come out as we break down the study but the key text right here in Ephesians itself 2 16 4 4 4 12 and 4 16 5 23 and 5 30 to

18:55 33 just within this one book the concept the church which is his body then you have in the parallel book Colossians chapter 1 verse 18 and verse 24 Colossians 1 18 and 24 Colossians 2 19 Romans 12 5 Romans 12 5 first Corinthians 10 17 and first Corinthians 12 24 to 27 now there are many other references where the term just the body is used these are ones where the very concept the body of Christ is before us now what substantial reality does this figure convey when the apostle says oh dear Ephesians I long for you to know the exceeding greatness of the power of God towards you power manifested not only when he raised his son placed him in his right hand put everything beneath his feet but gave him to you catch the glory of what you are hence the reason why he's given him to you you are the body of Christ now under that figure what substantial concrete reality lay behind it what facts of the relationship of the church to Christ of Christ to the church of the members one to another what realities are bound up in that

20:19 figure and if time permits I want to give you four this morning and I think all the biblical teaching can be collated under these four headings number one it speaks of a vital or living union you want something that sounds a little more technical, it speaks of an organic relationship. First of all, the phrase the body of Christ speaks of a vital or living union or an organic relationship that exists in two directions. The church to her Lord and the members of the church to one another. Now you see the relationship existing between a head and its body is not a wooden, lifeless, structural relationship. It is a living, pulsing, organic relationship. The same life which flows through the head flows into and through the body.

21:29 Hence, when God would convey this substantial truth that the relationship between his people and the Lord Jesus. Who is given as head over all things and also as head of the church, Colossians 2.19, that relationship is not merely that we have teaching from Christ to which we bow. We have regulations from Christ to which we conform. We have instruction from Christ to which we subscribe. No, no.

21:59 It speaks of something far deeper. Something far more intimate. There is actually a shared life. His life.

22:08 His life is my life. Now notice how this is emphasized in Ephesians 5.28-30. Ephesians 5.28-30. Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies. That doesn't mean love your wife in the same manner you love your own body. No, no. That's not the thought of the original. The original thought is this. Men ought to love their wives as being their own bodies. In other words, once I have been joined to my wife, God says the two shall become what? One. She now is an extension of me. I'm to love her as myself. Now he goes on to say,

22:57 look, for no man ever hated his own flesh. See, he picks up the thought but nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ also the church, because we are members of his body. For this cause shall a man leave his body. For this cause shall a man leave his body.

23:14 The father and mother and cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. That's why in caring for his wife he's caring for his own flesh. The two are one flesh. This mystery is great, but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church. What is the relationship between Christ and the church? They have become one. There is shared life. There is identity of life. Now notice I did not say merged life, but shared life.

23:45 You have all kinds of weird mysticism in the past and in the present where people get the idea, since I share in his life, my life is merged into his and his into mine and you get the funnel concept of the Christian life. Lord Jesus, live your life through me. Your will be my will. Your ways, my ways, as though his will then is overlaid on mine so I no longer make choices.

24:08 I just get rightly adjusted and he makes my choices for me. All my friends, that's a foul heresy. It's not merged life, it's shared life. It's the pattern of marriage. The two shall become one. Are they one will? You ain't married if you think so. One mind? You're not married if you think so. No, they maintain all their own individual identity and yet wonder of wonders. God constitutes a life that is one. I don't understand it and Paul didn't either.

24:46 He said this mystery is great. I always feel comfortable when I try to analyze the mystery of the union of two yet one and one yet...

24:57 Paul found it a mystery. It is not merged life, but it is shared life. John 15. I am the vine, he are the branches. Shared life. Hence Paul could say in Colossians 3.3, when Christ who is our life shall appear, we shall be manifested with him in glory. I myself with my own mind, my own will. I shall be manifested with him in glory. I myself with my own mind, my own will. I shall be manifested with him in glory. I myself with my own mind, my own will. I myself with my own will, my own affections, my own emotions. Yet I can say with the Apostle Paul humbly and revelingly, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me. What this mind does and what this will does and what these affections do has no explanation but that they have been touched and are being presently animated by the very life of the Son of God. He said that's a mystery. Yes, it is, but it's a reality. The Church is his

Practical Implications of Vital Union: Membership and Resources

25:56 body what does that mean there is organic relationship the believer with his lord now this has some very practical implications my friend and i can't wait till next week to hold off all of them i got a lot of them for next week but i gotta give some this morning it tells us something about what constitutes membership in the true church what is the church it is his body it is the assembly of those to whom the very life of the son of god has been imparted supernaturally by the holy ghost if you're not a member of that church my friend you're as lost as the devil himself if you cannot say christ who is my life i have my own mind my own will my own affections but i know the way they act as the dominant direction not to perfection but in the overall pattern i know that they would never love the things they love my affections they'd never hate the things they hate my mind would never think the thoughts it thinks my will would never make the choices it's made this past week except they had all been touched by the life-giving power of the son of

27:13 god my friend if the pattern of membership in the true church is to regulate membership in any particular church if the local local is to reflect the universal do you see what is absolutely essential to be a true member of a true biblical church you must give evidence that you have an organic relationship with jesus christ that he has imparted his life to you you've been born of the spirit of god and the spirit when he comes in the new birth is never dormant his seed of life is never dormant the Bible says iscca unknown is because he identify who baptized in him and he cannot practice sin because he is born of God as many as our led by the spirit of God they are the sons of God now do you see dear people why we refuse to acknowledge our children as members of the Church do you see and people feel well you Baptist are just nasty in you no no no no beloved to see why вос sizes men were thumbnail. iors and saw on my difficult church and i made doing our conversion in the same waymania Te ambiguous boundaries so many time that Indra still is the other way you we're thinking this was all the time all this way because what will we learn and supported you if you listen to the Bible Eat good will gamadam and Why? If the church is the body of Christ, and all who are in the true church must have His life,

28:40 and all who are in any particular church are to reflect that same standard, who amongst us would say that our children are vitally united to Christ simply because they're born of us?

28:54 I don't know a person here that would make that claim today. Therefore we say to our children, we shall give you all the nurture of our love in our homes, the instruction of our Sunday school classes, the entreaties from our pulpits, until it becomes evident that God has given you life through the Word and the Spirit, and you're willing to declare that to the elders, and declare it in the ordinance that also demonstrates it. I've died with Christ. I've risen to newness of life in Christ.

29:26 We say the doors of the church are closed to you as far as membership. Now, are we cruel? No, no, dear ones, it's because we have this vision of what the church is. And we refuse to prostitute the nature of the church by having it include believers and their unconverted children, whom we hope shall be converted.

29:50 It is the body of Christ, organic relationship.

29:55 Hence we have church discipline. Because when it becomes evident that one is not walking, so as to indicate the life of Christ is there, we must excise that member lovingly, and yet firmly. Why? Otherwise we say there's a lie.

30:15 We're living a lie. Here's something that seems to have no life, and yet we maintain it in the body of Christ? No, no. See the great implications of this?

30:29 It says a word about membership in the true church, a word about membership in each particular, and thirdly, it says a wonderful word about the resources of the church. The church is the body of Christ. It's organically joined to her great exalted head. And who is he?

30:48 He's the one in whom there's a plentitude of grace, overflowing grace. Look at this very passage. He's been exalted far above all principality and power and might and dominion, in every name that is named. He was described in the first chapter, as the reservoir of all spiritual blessing.

31:07 Oh, dear ones, here is the great resource of the church. Not her carnal gimmicks. Not her business cleverness and acumen. Not her earthly resources.

31:23 It is the plentitude of His grace that is the great reservoir of all the church needs for her life and her ministry. Now do you see why some of us, who are so testy and so adamant in refusing to adopt methods to attract people that have nothing to do with spiritual resources? It's not because we've got a bee in our bonnet. It's because we've got love for Jesus in our hearts.

31:58 The body of Christ. And knowing we're joined to Him, we dare to face this proud generation, which, by the way, God's beginning to humble. The money market upsetting the weather, snowing when it ought to be, sunning and floods, although we may bear the pain of it and feel the sting of it, beloved, I'm rejoicing. In the sense that God is saying, all right, you proud know-it-alls, we'll see what you can do.

32:32 That's just a little aside. But we dare to face this generation and say, we come to you with no weapons, but the love of Christ in our hearts, the word of Christ in our hands, and the spirit of Christ in our hearts. The love of Christ upon our life and labors. And in His name, we beseech you to hear the word of God.

32:54 Oh, but this generation won't hear preaching. Well, then let it go to hell. Won't hear authoritative proclamation. Then let it damn itself in its pride.

33:08 We will not accommodate ourselves to what it wants. We shall stand lovingly and firmly and compassionately and zealously and say to this generation, Oh, my man here, the word of the Lord.

33:24 Proclaim His message. And if it stops its ears, we're not about to dance a gospel jig to get its attention.

33:33 Leave the jigs to those who have nothing but their jigs.

33:39 But if we're the body of Christ, then let us plead with Him who is the plentitude of grace that He would pour out of that fullness upon us, that with His resources, we may confront our generation, with His message, and see Him receive of the travail of His soul.

34:03 All right? That's the first thing that's embodied in this wonderful little phrase. The body of Christ. Now you see why God's given Christ to such a people?

The Meaning of 'His Body': A Subordinate Relationship

34:13 Unless Christ were given to us in the fullness of His authority, what would we have to do His work? Secondly, it speaks not only of organic relationship or one of vital union, but it speaks of relationship with God. It speaks of a subordinate relationship, or if you like the term, practical submission. Organic relationship, vital union.

34:38 A subordinate relationship, practical submission. Now notice, Paul has just stated, Christ is given how? He's given to the church as head over all things. Now, when he is given to the church, does he step down from that position as head?

34:59 You see, some commentators have had a problem here. They say the imagery, Christ is head and everything beneath his feet, is not endearing enough, not intimate enough, in terms of the picture of Christ's relationship to the church. But not so in the Apostle's mind, because he picks up that very thread of thought in the fifth chapter. And notice how he describes it. Let's look at it.

35:21 Ephesians 5, 22-24.

35:26 Wives, be in subjection to your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, being himself Savior of the body. Isn't that beautiful? We say headship, no headship, compassion, and saving relationship.

35:53 Paul puts the two together, weds them right together beautifully. Head, Savior, and there's no contradiction between his absolute authority. And his tender, compassionate work of salvation. Hence he goes on to say further on, that he nourishes and he cherishes the church as his own body.

36:17 But he never cherishes and nourishes from any other posture than that of absolute head. Absolute headship. So when Paul used the figure, Christ head over all, given to the church, the body of Christ with Christ as head, bound up in that figure is this substantial. Not only is there vital union or an organic relationship, there is a subordinate relationship.

36:44 There is practical submission. For he is not only the life-giving head, but he is the administrative, ruling, and governing head as well. And he's called that in Colossians 2, 19, in explicit terms that cannot be gainsaid, and not holding fast the head. And he's called that in Colossians 2, 19, in explicit terms that cannot be gainsaid, from whom all the body being supplied and knit together through joints and bands increases with the increase of God.

Practical Implications of Subordinate Relationship: Recoiling from Heresy

37:16 Now that's the principle. What does it say to us? My friends, it ought to cause some recoil in our hearts this morning. Do you know a Christian is known not only by those things to which he's drawn instinctively, but he's known by those things from which he recoils instinctively?

37:33 And if we catch this substantial reality, behind the figure of the head and the body, that it means a subordinate relationship, he alone is head, then you will recoil in the first place, recoil in horror, from the abomination called popery and Romanism, which makes a man the victor of Christ and head of the church. And every time you see him with his tiara, and every time you see him with the throngs of people, always in the posture, or being at his feet and beneath him, and you recognize that that man regards himself as head of Christ's church, everything in your soul defects.

38:23 You'll hate what it stands for, though you would be willing to give your life for that man if in so doing you could lead him to know who the true head is. See the difference? You have no venom to the man. You would willingly give yourself for his salvation.

38:39 But when you see him not as a private man, he doesn't appear with his tiara and with his rings and with all his fanfare as a private person. He appears as head of Christ's church. My soul recoils in horror, and so should yours.

38:58 There is but one sovereign in head, and that is our blessed Lord. Secondly, you should recoil in horror from the heresy that says men are saved, that is incorporated into the body, without a basic, and do acknowledge, of the head. The whole save your Lord dichotomy business, you know what that's saying? You can get into the body without getting related to the head.

39:23 It's exactly what it says. It says you can come into the body as another head until you're ready to take your place in subordination. That's exactly what it says.

39:37 When you strip away all the fancy terminology, those who teach it is not only possible, but in most cases an actual experience, that Jesus Christ is trusted as saviour while he's not acknowledged as Lord from the heart, and yet you're saved, your sins are forgiven, and sometime later, at your option, you may bow from his lordship. That's saying you can be in the body of Christ and not be part of that which is subordinate to the head. And I say the Holy Ghost who alone brings people into the body never brings in a rival head. The Father made one head, and the Holy Ghost brings everybody in.

40:16 And if you haven't acknowledged it, the Holy Ghost hasn't brought you in, my friend.

40:24 Some say, oh, you're stickler about terms. No, no, beloved. We recoil in horror from anything that says he is anything but head.

40:35 Thirdly, we recoil in horror from the heresy that regards the church as operating in the light of human wisdom, human power, human programs.

40:47 He is the head. And what does that mean? It means that he is the head. It means that he is the head.

40:50 It means that he is the head. It means that he is the head. It means that he is the head. It means that he is the head.

40:51 He is the administrative head of his church. He is the governor. He is the ruler. All that my hands are doing this morning, and all that my tongue is doing this morning, all that my feet are doing this morning, they are doing at the directives of the head.

41:09 And some of us know the tragedy when something happens in the system from the head to the members. When the head says, articulate the word church, and the mouth goes, and I'm not being funny, dear ones, don't anyone snicker.

41:29 What's happened? The tragedy of a spastic child, paralyzed person. Messages are going from the head, and they're not being obeyed by the body. It's a tragedy.

41:42 It's never beautiful. It's always grotesque and ugly, and the occasion of great pity.

41:50 And oh, beloved, we should weep this morning that that which claims to be Christ's church, doesn't obey the message of the head. The head says, let women be women. Let men be men. We read the passage this morning.

42:09 And yet in churches all across our land, the bodies of... Women don't take their rightful place.

42:17 Men don't take their rightful place.

42:21 That makes us weep. Why? Because the head is being insulted by that which claims to be his body. See why some of us are such sticklers about church government?

42:33 Why? Because we're concerned about having proper, biblically qualified elders and deacons? Why? Because the head of the church has said, this is how men are to behave themselves in the church.

42:46 And if the head is spoken, and we claim to be members of the body in that subordinate relationship, we must obey. That's why some of us are so concerned about methods and evangelism and worship and the life of the church. Why? Because we believe the Bible gives us not only the divine message, but the principles to govern our methods.

43:11 Oh, do you see this, dear ones? I don't know what your reason is, but I know what mine is. Being a stickler about the Word of God is because I'm only a member in the body charged to obey my living head as he speaks through his written Word.

43:31 You and I ought to recoil in horror from that abomination that puts a man in his head. Potpourri. Recall in horror from the heresy, that says men can be in the body and not subject to the head. The Savior-Lord dichotomy.

43:47 Recoil in horror from the heresy that regards the church as operating in the light of human wisdom.

43:55 The power of God to usward operates in this framework of practical submission to the headship of our Lord Jesus Christ. And may I say, and I must say, or I'd be delinquent, what a privilege to be a ruling and a teaching elder in a church. Where the word of the head is all the persuasive you need as you seek to give direction to the members of the body. And oh, beloved, I thank God for you again and again because I spent a whole day this past week with a group of preachers to whom the Word of Christ was not enough.

44:39 When we tried to talk about methods and message, it wasn't enough that I presented the Word of Christ. I had to descend to listen to arguments based upon mere pragmatism. And I thank God for your submission to the Gospel. And when the time comes when you won't obey the nerve impulses that come to you as a church through the Word as it's expounded, you have my notice right here.

45:06 I'll no longer be in this booklet.

45:10 And if the time should ever come when I try to trigger the muscles and the organs of the body by any other nerve impulses than the directions that come from the head, then you push me. Get me out of this pulpit.

45:25 Oh, God, help us to be faithful both directions.

45:32 Oh, you say that's radical. Thank God for biblical radicalism.

The Meaning of 'His Body': A Coordinated Relationship (Unified Whole)

45:40 Well, I've got time to touch just one more.

45:43 What's behind this concept, the body of Christ? What's the substantial spiritual reality of which it is a figure? Organic relationship. There is life union.

45:57 Submissive relationship. He is head. We are members as the church is subject unto Christ. Thirdly, there is what I'm calling a coordinated relationship, or if you want another term, the body is a unified whole.

46:14 So it's not only organic relationship with the Lord and one another, submissive relationship, the church to Christ, but a coordinated relationship. Think with me for a minute about the whole imagery of a body, and then we're going to look at several verses. You see, a body is not just so many members all related to the same source of life and direction. Right now, downstairs, there is a panel, a power panel, if you want to call it, where a lot of tape recorders are all plugged into the same power source.

46:46 They're all receiving electrical energy from the same line, the same source. But they're not a body of tape recorders. It's just a bunch of recorders. Because you see, to be a body, they must not only be drawing from the same source of life, they must be coordinated one with another.

47:08 You see, what makes this thing in front of you this morning, six feet, two hundred pounds of it, a body, is not just that I have an arm that is related to a source of life, the nerve life in the head and in the spine, my chiropractic friends, and to the life of the blood pumping through that four-chambered muscle called the heart, no, no, it's that this is related to this. In the words of that old, you know, knee bone connected to the thigh bone and thigh bone connected to the hip bone and hip bone connected to the back bone and back bone to the shoulder bone, that's what makes a body, you see. There is a coordinated relationship, a relationship in which all the faculties deriving the same life under the same headship are coordinated into a functioning whole, that's the thing Paul's getting at. You say, how do I know? Well, because of what he's told us in other places. Let's look at two of them.

48:11 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

48:15 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

48:31 Now notice verses 12 and 13. For as the body is one, you see his line of emphasis, the body is one organic coordinated whole and it hath many members and all the members of the body being men, many are one body coordination, so also is Christ, that is, Christ's body. For in one spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free, and were all made to drink of one spirit. You see what he's saying?

49:09 It's not only that we have one common source of life, we've all drunk of the spirit, not just a little esoteric few who've gone on to something better, he says all of us who are Christians and in the body, we've all drunk of one spirit. But he says in so drinking of that spirit, we've all been coordinated into one living organism called the body. See it? Same line of thought is found in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 4 and 14.

49:41 Just establish it briefly and then we'll flesh it out with some explanation and application. Ephesians 4, verses 4 and 14. Ephesians 4, Ephesians 4, 4 and 16. Urging them to maintain the unity of the spirit, he says you have a basis for maintaining unity.

50:02 God has already established it by his own work. Now you preserve it and maintain it by your sanctified efforts. Notice, I beseech you, verse 1, walk worthily of the Lord, wherewith you're called, with lowliness, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, in love, giving diligence to keep, the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. And it's as though someone said, Paul, on what basis shall we seek to maintain unity?

50:28 Is there any substantial unity to maintain? And he said, yes there is. There is one body, one spirit, even as you're called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. Do you see what his emphasis is?

50:43 Surely you have grounds to maintain unity amidst all your diversity of personality, racial, identity, likes, dislikes, habits, perspectives, amidst all the diversity that's here this morning. To the extent that we are a body of Christ, oh, what great things we have in common. God has made us a coordinated whole. One faith, one Lord, one baptism, one body.

51:12 So also is the body of Christ. Christ places us in His body with great diversities, but forms us into the coordinated, coordinated whole.

Purpose and Implications of Coordinated Relationship: Showing the World

51:25 Now why does He do this? Why does He not just save us in isolation and let us go on with our Bibles and our devotions and tape recorders and listen to sermons and come to maturity? Why is there so much emphasis upon the gathered people of God, coordinated, functioning as one? Well, you see, it's by His body that He's showing to the world what man should be and what man would have been had sin never entered.

51:53 He's showing us that. He shows that amidst all the diversity there can be a coordinated whole. So you don't have the white finger pinching the black finger and you don't have the rich hand slapping the poor hand and you don't have the educated foot stomping on the toe of the uneducated foot. God brings them all together a motley mass and He coordinates them into one functioning body who with one heart and mouth praise their God.

52:28 With one heart and mouth serve their God. And the world looks in and says that's what man was intended to be.

52:38 You see it?

52:40 He doesn't obliterate their distinctiveness. And that's why, again, some of you wonder why in the world you're so testy and so careful about this matter of constantly reminding us if you're the type of temperament that when you get blessed you've got to beller out a hallelujah. Beller out! Don't drown me out when I'm making a point, but at the right place give your amen.

53:00 And why do we say to others of you if it's not natural for you to beller out of there? Don't try to be spiritual by being something else. Why do we...

53:09 Is this just some kind of a a kooky element of person? No, no! It's this precious principle divided into one the shouter and the non-shouter brought together the one who when he sits there and slobbers like a baby and cries. The other one when he gets happy wants to dance with his feet and clap his hands and say glory.

53:35 God put them all together. God have mercy on us if we say Lord we don't like what you did. We want to have them all shouters or we want to have them all quieters or we want to have them all weepers or we want to have them all...

53:47 You see that blessed diversity? We don't obliterate each other's individuality.

53:53 When you can tell what church or school or group someone belongs to just by the way he talks and walks you know they've they've absolutely butchered this wonderful principle.

54:05 God have mercy on us if you can ever tell somebody who goes to Trinity Church by the way he prays or the way he walks or the way he talks or walks we've missed it. We've missed it. Who made us such distinct individuals? No two of us alike.

54:19 The devil or God. God did it. Now sin has taken what is peculiar to us as individuals and has capitalized on it and made it the servant of the devil. Now what does God do?

54:30 He takes the sinful elements of individualism and he purges them to make them the channel of his grace. Not to obliterate it.

54:42 Some people say how come you got people with beards? Thank God if a guy wants to grow a beard let him grow it. Use the time that I have to use for shaving, praying or something else. Listen to good music.

54:54 Memorize in scripture.

54:57 Or just sitting there and thanking God that he can grow a beard. I don't care. However he uses the time that's his business. That's his business.

55:05 How come some people come to church and don't wear ties because I can't find chapter and verse that says if you're in the body of Christ you've got to accept every single more of a limited friend. The name of middle class society you're not in. I don't see it and if it's not there don't you impose it on the people of God.

55:27 Why don't you have a little list? You can't go here because the book doesn't.

55:32 Some people happen to like classical music. Some of you can't stand it.

55:37 Some of you can listen to classical music and some of you don't want it. Some people happen to like certain forms of innocent amusement and diversity that others don't. Diversion. You see the principle dear ones it's the body of Christ.

55:52 It's the body of Christ and the finger is the finger but it's not a toe and even amongst the fingers there's the index finger and there's the pinky and there's the thumb.

56:05 Oh may God give us the vision of this. It is a coordinated relationship and this is why as the people of God we're to show the world what man should be and secondly we're to show them what grace can do in the world. Every occasion of difference or every expression of difference becomes the occasion of tension but in the church every expression of difference becomes the occasion of what? In honor preferring one another in love and everything I see different about you gives me a chance to say I bow to you my brother and I hope you bow to me and people look and say what in the world keeps those people together? It's grace. Grace that has constituted them one body. Now do you see why there's so much stress laid in the New Testament on horizontal relationships?

Necessity of Active Church Membership for Sanctification

57:02 Why are the epistles filled with the horizontal relationships? Husbands, wives, parents, children servants, masters, masters, servants people to the government government to the people why so much emphasis? Because the church is the body of Christ.

57:18 And this whole idea that if you love Jesus and have your Bible you go sailing to heaven a spiritual Christian is downright ignorance.

57:26 My friend if you're not actively involved in a visible body of Christ taken up in its shared life your sanctification is suspect. Anybody can be pretty holy living in isolation but you have to start living with me and it will put tests on the depth of your sanctification. I'll pick on myself. Alright?

57:47 You see the principle? That's why God puts us in the body. He says I want to make you like my son. That means you'll be loving gentle, meek, forbearing, long-suffering.

57:58 How do you learn those things?

58:00 Sitting out in the woods on a log with your Bible having devotions? No sir, my friend. You learn it when God puts you right down next to somebody who's just like sandpaper and every time you're near him.

58:16 And you say Lord if I've got to go spend five more minutes with that guy I'm going to blow my stack. God says I know it.

58:23 And all your own natural resources of patience are done. Now you're going to start looking to me.

58:30 You're going to start looking to me. You're going to start getting grace to be patient that is not human in its source. That's growth in grace my brother.

58:40 See anybody can be spiritual in isolation. Now you see why we emphasize so much the necessity of becoming a church member and being a church member being involved in the life of the church? Is it because we've got a statistical list that we're sending off to a denier? No, no.

58:54 A thousand times no. It's because we long to see you grow. And you're not going to grow in isolation. There's some of you members of this church that still keep pretty much in isolation.

59:07 You're crippling yourself.

59:10 You need the sandpaper influence. Of your brothers and sisters. But not only the sandpaper. Graces are imitative.

59:17 Paul says, whatever you've seen and heard in me, do. And the God of peace will be with you. Thank God for the graces that I've, by His grace, have been provoked to imitate as I've beheld some of you. And as I see the grace perhaps of patience or love or zeal in some of you, it gives me a standard by which to judge myself as long as I can.

59:42 And as long as I was just looking in the mirror, looking at myself, I didn't know how lacking I was in that grace until I got next to someone who was just bursting with that grace. And then I've had to say, oh God, your son must be something like brother, sister, so-and-so in that area. Give me more of that grace. You see?

60:03 The coordinated whole. The concept of Ephesians for the body making increase of itself through that which every joint supplied. Now some of you married people understand why marriage is such a blessed, sanctifying relationship when you face it biblically.

60:21 Rare is the man, thank God there are exceptions, but rare is the man who really makes much progress in sanctification beyond what we'd call the level of his basic maturity, age 30, 35, if he isn't married. Thank God there are exceptions. Thank God there are exceptions. And if I'm talking to a single man who's beyond that age, I hope you're one of those exceptions.

60:42 But it's rare, it's rare, because there's something about the intimacy of a married relationship and that constant exposure to another life that has its tremendously sanctifying effect upon us. Because there is a coordinated unit. Now just multiply that into the number of the church. Well, I had hoped to deal with one other facet, but my time is gone, so we'll hold it off God willing next week.

Sober Note: How to Enter the Body of Christ

61:11 It's a functional relationship. We want to show the head without the body can't accomplish its will. But I do want to close this morning with one very sober note because in a group this size there are no doubt here in this building, downstairs in the television room, there are some of you who are not joined to this body. I don't mean this particular local body.

61:34 I mean the body of Christ, which is His church.

61:38 And my friend, if you're not in that body, you're not saved because Christ is saving His body. Ephesians 5. He is the head of the church, Savior, of the body. And you say, Pastor Martin, how in the world can I get in that body?

61:54 And my answer will be very simple and biblical. Three principles. Get them. Nobody gets in that body unless the Holy Ghost puts them there.

62:02 1 Corinthians 12.13 By one spirit we're baptized into the body. Only the Holy Ghost can put you in the body of Christ, give you vital union with Jesus Christ, bring you in subjection for no man can call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Ghost.

62:19 Second principle. The Holy Ghost never places anyone in the body apart from the preaching of the gospel.

62:28 Now what He does with imbeciles and infants, I don't know. Bible silent. But what He does with people to whom I'm speaking, that's the sphere of reference. Only the Holy Ghost can put you there.

62:37 The Holy Ghost never puts anyone there apart from the gospel. How do we know that? Well, for the simple reason that we're begotten again by the word of truth. The third principle is the Holy Ghost never puts a man in the body of Christ through the gospel unless it is the gospel received in faith.

62:56 Having believed, Paul says, look at Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, having heard, having believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. How can you get in that glorious body of Christ? My friend, despair of getting yourself in. Despair of having any man put you in.

63:18 And then look away to that great God who in the gospel of His sons, says, repent and believe. And be assured that in repenting and believing the gospel, you will be incorporated into that body by His sovereign grace.

63:35 Why does God give such a gift to His church, the gift of an exalted Lord? It's because the church is His body.

63:46 Thank God for being in such a glorious body. Let us pray.