Union With Christ, #6

Introduction: The Practical Influences of Union with Christ

0:01 As we come to our final consideration of this vast and glorious biblical doctrine, Union with Christ, may I remind you of what I have attempted to do in this series of messages or lectures. First of all, I attempted to show you from the Word of God the place assigned to Union with Christ in the plan of redemption. We discovered from the scriptures that Union with Christ is central to the whole spectrum of God's saving design and the application of that design to needy sinners. Then we considered in our first evening together the place of Union with Christ in relationship to saving religion. It is of the very essence of true and saving religion. If any man be...

0:58 in Christ. And then we considered together the nature of this Union. We began that last night and we carried it on again this morning. And now what I propose to do this evening is to consider Union with Christ in its practical influences or the practical influences of the doctrine of Union with Christ.

1:24 Now let me first of all lay before you what I shall attempt to... do in tonight's study of the Word of God.

1:32 I am not attempting to be exhaustive as to the number of areas in which Union with Christ has practical implications.

1:46 All I'm going to attempt to do tonight is to focus upon a few fundamental areas in which Union with Christ is set before us as a powerful incentive for us to... to practical concerns of Christian life and Christian practice.

2:06 So I am making no attempt to be exhaustive as to the number of areas that are touched, nor will I attempt to be thorough in my treatment of any one of the areas that I do touch. So we're not going to be very broad tonight and we're not going to be very deep. In the third place, I want you to understand that I am not inferring in any way that the reality of our union with Christ is the only revealed truth which impinges upon the specific areas touched upon. For instance, we shall touch upon union with Christ in relationship to how we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ. Now, I am not saying that the predominant or the extreme exclusive biblical truth that impinges upon the relationship between believers among themselves is the doctrine of union with Christ. No. One of the things that I'm always suspicious of is any book, any lecture, any sermon that says, I have the key to this aspect of Christian experience.

3:17 I always counter by saying, no, God has given me a whole ring of keys. There is no one key that unlocks the circle. There is no one secret to any aspect of the Christian life. God has given us a whole ring of keys.

3:33 And there is no area of practical Christian experience that is not impinged upon by many cardinal truths and biblical perspectives. So please do not leave tonight thinking in your own perhaps fresh appreciation of this doctrine that union with Christ is the key to all of these areas. No. It is one of the keys.

3:57 And all we want to do is look at the passages in which God says, there's a key, one of the many, that fits this particular area of concern. So then, in a positive way, what I'm going to attempt to do is to take up a few matters in a relatively cursory way, hoping and praying. And here's my great ambition tonight, and I hope it's not a fool's ambition, that the result of our study will be that, you will then begin in a new way to meditate upon this whole subject, to trace out other areas that arise in your own study of the Word of God. And as you meditate upon them and seek to assimilate them, that you will be able to look back upon tonight as a catalyst that under the blessing of God sprang loose some independent mental and spiritual activity, on your part. All right, having charted our course, let us hoist our sails. Let us trust that the Spirit of God will put wind in the sails of preacher and listener, and that we may be carried to our destination. Let's call upon him once more, that he would be pleased to do that.

Prayer for Illumination

5:17 Let us pray.

5:21 Our Father, we gratefully acknowledge tonight that you have been gracious to us in these days together. We thank you that we have known your presence. And surely in thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand are pleasures forevermore.

5:45 We marvel that you have made us who once found no delight in the things of Christ. We marvel that you have made these things to be the highest delight of our hearts. And as we come to this last consideration of this doctrine, O God, may the same Spirit who revealed this truth in the Scriptures, who has been with us in our study of that truth in our previous sessions, O that he may be present tonight, gracious Lord, send upon us fresh and powerful effusions of your own life-giving, illuminating Spirit, and may we be taught of you as we open the Scriptures together.

6:36 Hear our prayer and answer us to the praise of your own name. Amen.

Union with Christ and the Individual Believer Before God

6:46 Now then, to the subject that is before us tonight,

6:50 that of the practical implications of union with Christ. And I want to consider these practical implications under three categories. Category number one, the believer as an individual before Christ, before God. What practical implications does the reality of union with Christ have with respect to the individual believer as a man or woman before God?

7:21 Now I'm going to state a proposition, I'm going to explain it, and then I'm going to demonstrate the validity of that proposition from the Word of God. My main proposition under this heading is this. An intention, an intelligent, believing grasp upon the reality of his union with Christ will greatly assist the individual Christian in the attainment of spiritual stability, progress in personal sanctification, and growth in realized communion with Christ. Now that's quite a mouthful, but I've chosen every word carefully, and I'm going to expound the proposition, the main thesis of this first heading of our study tonight is that an intelligent, believing grasp upon the reality of union with Christ. Now what do I mean by an intelligent, believing grasp? I mean a relationship to this truth that involves the mind grasping the biblical categories of thought. By intelligent, I mean this is not some kind of a nebulous, misty, foggy notion.

8:48 There is, with the mind, this grasp of the teaching of the Word of God. Now I am not saying that we feel the mind has encompassed it so that there is no remaining mystery. No, the mind grasps it in all the glory of its mystery. We are aware there is an intelligent, but believing grasp.

9:15 You see, these truths concerning union with Christ are addressed to faith. They are to be the object of the believer's trust. And as Spurgeon said, faith may swim where reason may only wade. And we've been dealing with truths in the presence of which reason, reason can only wade.

9:41 But thank God, faith may swim. Now my proposition is that this intelligent, believing grasp upon the reality of our union with Christ will greatly assist. And I use those words purposely. I did not say this intelligent, believing grasp upon the reality of union with Christ is essential for these things.

10:10 No. God graciously deals with us in opening up His truth and part of progressive sanctification is growth in knowledge. I was a Christian with some degree, I trust, of spiritual stability, personal sanctification, and realized communion with Christ long before the concept of union with Christ ever dawned upon my mind, ever became the object of believing confidence. So I am not saying that these things are necessary.

Union with Christ and Spiritual Stability

10:50 I am saying they will greatly assist the individual Christian in the attainment of three things. Spiritual stability, personal sanctification, and realized communion with Christ. Now let me open up those three areas with the Word of God before us. The child of God must live with great conflict in his own heart.

11:17 Because of remaining sin, because of the pressures of the world system in which he must live, in which he must carry on much of his life, the child of God is a child of conflict and tension. As we contemplated that this morning, I made the statement that when we are born of the Spirit and sealed with the Spirit, given the down payment of our inheritance, God puts within the heart of everyone born of the Spirit birth pangs for that which he will ultimately be. And since he will ultimately be perfect, the birth pangs of perfection are within him from the moment of his new life in Christ. And therefore there is tension because he longs to be what he is not and what he knows one day he shall be. Now it is in the midst of that tension of having to reckon with the reality of remaining sin, sin that in a believer is no less odious in the sight of God than it is in an unbeliever. Sin in a believer that is no less a violation of the law of God than it is in the case of an unbeliever.

12:36 Now this tremendous tension tends to create instability in the life of an earnest Christian because when he seeks to approach his God he cannot deny that he sinned against him. He cannot deny that he has violated the law of his God. And though he does not doubt that he is in a state of grace, his mind and his spirit, as it were, become all tangled up. In the overtones of guilt and aversion to God because of the sense of that guilt and uncleanness.

13:15 And my thesis tonight is that an intelligent believing grasp upon the reality of his union with Christ will greatly assist that unstable troubled believer in coming to a posture of spiritual stability. And the passages which point in this direction are ones that we've considered in many respects this week. Romans 8 and verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are walking in a present sense of being overcomers. No. The state of no condemnation has to do with this great reality, this great constant, this great invariable, the invariable of our union with Jesus Christ. So that when the believer is at the lowest and at the highest reaches of spiritual vitality and vibrance, his standing is utterly unchanged.

14:38 And if the believer is to come to any degree of spiritual stability, he must not hold this truth as an abstraction. He must bring that truth with him into the place of prayer, into the place where he communes with God. Even if he has miserably sinned, even if he has acknowledged declension and coldness of heart, he will not attain to spiritual stability unless he comes to this intelligent believing grasp upon the reality of his union with Christ which involves no condemnation. Or we could refer to 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 30. But of him that is of God, by his activity, due to his working, but of him are ye Christ Jesus, who was made unto us. And may I say that the translation in the authorized Gospels gives a bit of an erroneous picture.

15:58 It is not he is made unto us these four things. The structure in the original lends itself to the translation given in the 1901 edition as being more accurate. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who was made unto us wisdom from God that which the world claims to have but which it does not have. Christ has been made to us wisdom from God, a wisdom answering to these great and pressing questions which bear down upon the conscience of every man, woman, boy or girl who takes the word of God seriously, who takes the very dictates of general revelation in the world without and in his own conscience seriously. The great question, how shall I find acceptance with the God who made me and against whom I have sinned? Jesus Christ is made unto us righteousness. He is the wisdom of God and that great question, in him we have a perfect righteousness.

17:12 The second question that men will ask is how, how can I be delivered from the pollution of sin that adheres to me like the very skin with which my body is covered? He is made unto us sanctification, separateness. In Christ I have been set apart from the dominion and the polluting influence of sin. And then the great question, how shall I break my chains?

17:44 The bondage to the power of sin, sin not only defiling but sin binding. Christ is the wisdom of God telling us that there is redemption. There is release by the payment of a price. And you see that righteousness, that sanctification and that redemption are not found in you or in your present walk or in any dimension of your own spiritual experience.

18:17 They are found in union with Christ. And I say it is in the interest of the believer's spiritual stability to have a believing, a grasp upon that reality so that when he has sinned and when a specific area of sin seems to be asserting a measure of bondage over him, he does not go back and begin to doubt the reality of redemption and the reality of imputed righteousness. No, no. He stands upon these realities and claws his way back into a state of spiritual vigor by the grace of God.

18:59 Well, we could bring many passages to bear upon this matter. Let me just mention one other. Colossians chapter 2. The believer is not only plagued by sin within, the world without, but his mind is bombarded by all kinds of advice and counsel about what he needs to do and what he needs to be if he is to go on in a state of grace.

19:28 And so many poor Christians are like that person described in Ephesians 4. Tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine like a cork on an ocean. That's the history of some Christians. Never a place of stability.

19:48 What's their problem? They've never been intelligently grasped the reality of union with Christ. For we read in Colossians chapter 2, verse 6, As therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in unity with him, rooted and builded up in him, and established in your faith even as you were taught abounding in thanksgiving. Then he gives this negative exhortation.

20:18 Let no one spoil you with man's thoughts and man's theories. 4, verse 9, In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and in union with him you are made full. When the believer has this intelligent believing grasp upon the nature of his union with Christ and realizes that in Christ he is made full and that for the rest of his days he looks for no new experience, he looks for no Christ plus, but he looks, as it were, to penetrate more and more all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are treasured up in the beloved one, then you see he's reached a point of stability, or at least he has come to a greater measure of spiritual stability. Now let me ask you as you sit here tonight, not have you attained this degree or that degree of personal sanctification, this degree or that degree of personal knowledge, but are you stable at the point at which you now find yourself, and in the direction in which you're moving? That's the most important question to wrestle with.

Union with Christ and Personal Sanctification (Romans 6)

21:44 It's not so much where you are, but what are you, where you are, and where you're going. Are you still hoping doctrine, some new teaching, some new prayer? As the apostle prayed for the Ephesian believers that God would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, that you might know what is yours in union with Christ and what you are by virtue of that union with Christ. I say then that the first great practical implication of this doctrine for the individual believer has to do with spiritual stability, but in the second place it has much to do with personal sanctification. As we emphasized this morning, whenever saving union is established with Christ, the dominion of sin is broken in every single instance. Romans 8 and verse 9. Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of Christ dwell in you.

23:04 But though the dominion of sin is broken wherever there is saving union with Christ, the presence of sin is not eradicated. And anyone who claims it is, God calls him a liar and the truth is not in him. First John chapter 1. Well then, what is the believer to do as he reckons with the reality of remaining or indwelling sin?

23:28 Well, when the Apostle Paul would give instructions on this matter, he brings the doctrine of union with Christ to the forefront again and again and again. I direct your attention to only two of these passages. Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6.

23:51 Having extolled the grace of God, that brings free justification by the doings of another, that is, in Christ we are justified, as in Adam we are condemned. Furthermore where sin abounds, grace super-abounds. And there is no mountain of sin that is greater than the grace of God in Christ. Well, someone takes the down the stairs devil's logic to that truth and says, verse 1 of chapter 6, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein? He says, we who are joined to Christ and in that union we have the imputed righteousness of Christ, in union with Christ we also died to sin. Now, he says, or are you ignorant of this

25:00 great reality? And from there to verse, down to verse 10, he opens up this whole subject of our union with Christ in Christ's death, Christ's burial, and Christ's resurrection. And the great emphasis in this passage is Christ died for sin. We died to sin. In other words, in union with Christ, all of the claims of sin were exhausted.

25:33 And the apostle opens up that great truth and then and then does he come to the exhortation of verses 11 and following. Even so reckon, and that word reckon means to regard as a reality, we might say to consider in cold face the facts and live accordingly even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin he doesn't say reckon sin is dead unto you that's never taught in the word of god sin is very much alive and you allow it and it will be a usurper he says reckon yourself to have died unto sin how in union with christ but alive unto god how in union with christ jesus and on the basis of that intelligent believing grasp upon my union with christ in his death and in his burial and in his resurrection let not sin then your mortal body that you should obey those thereof will bark out its orders lust will skirt out its dictates passions will die

26:51 belch and foment and see the train of their own liars he says don't let them do it let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey the lust thereof neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness unto god but present yourselves unto god as alive from and your members as instruments of righteousness unto god for sin shall not lord it over you sin shall not lord it over you sin shall not lord it over you sin shall not lord it over you Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under law, but under grace. As long as you were in a state of nature, the scripture says, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. You were the willing bond slave of sin. Sin was your master. Law, sin, slavery, death, they're all.

27:48 But he says, by union with Christ, you've come out from underneath the condemning power of the law. The law can no longer exert its condemning, binding claims over you as an instrument of death and condemnation and bondage. You're alive with Christ. Now he says, think, understand, think, believe, and act in that reality.

28:17 Now, time will not permit me to open this up further. You have a thousand questions, but I said my purpose tonight, and there's a reason for my madness, is simply to give this broad overview. I want you to go back and get on your knees and pray in this sixth chapter of Romans. Ask the Holy Ghost to stamp upon your mind and to write upon your heart its great truth.

Union with Christ and Personal Sanctification (Colossians 3 & 1 Corinthians 6)

28:40 But certainly you see, there is this most intimate connection between personal sanctification in terms of dealing with remaining sin and the doctrine of union with Christ. And you have a similar emphasis. You have a similar emphasis in Colossians chapter 3, but there the focal point is not so much on our death with him, but our resurrection and our ascension with him. If then ye were raised with Christ, seek the things that are above.

29:12 Set your mind on the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth. For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Put to death, therefore, your members which are upon the earth. Fornication, uncleanness, that's it.

29:26 Boliviousness, covetousness, which is idolatry, for which things... And he goes on to talk about the condemnation of God upon them.

29:34 But you see, the emphasis is the same. Child of God, have an intelligent believing. Spoke upon the reality of your union with Christ. This is not a notion.

29:45 It's a reality, but a reality. By faith, I'm not to wait till I have a celestial flutter in my soul to believe I've been raised with Christ.

30:01 This truth is a dream. Rest to faith. Faith embraces it. And then the entire man lives in the light of what he believes.

30:10 Now, there's a little different wrinkle in the emphasis of union with Christ and personal sanctification in 1 Corinthians 6. There, the apostle puts the focus not so much upon our co-crucifixion with Christ as releasing us from the law, as releasing us from sin's dominion. He doesn't put the emphasis upon our...

30:32 being raised and seated with Christ, but he still draws a practical implication for personal sanctification from the doctrine of union with Christ. We read in 1 Corinthians 6, verse...

30:48 Start with... Well, to get the thread of thought, we better start with verse 12.

30:53 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Meats for the belly, belly for the meats, but God shall bring to naught both it and them.

31:10 You see, there is this natural and God-ordained relationship between food and your tummy. Food was made for your tummy, tummy was made to take the food. But, he says, in contrast, the body was not made for fornication. No, no.

31:26 You Corinthians, you act as though fornication was, in the realm of male-female relationships, what eating is in the presence of a hungry... Tummy and food.

31:37 When you see food and you've got a hungry tummy, you take the food, put it in your tummy. Why? Meats for the belly, belly for the meats. You see an object upon which your lust burns, and you gratify it.

31:48 You think that that body exists to gratify that appetite in a way that does not respect the law of God. He says, no, the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord. The body was given to be the instrument of bringing honor and glory to God. For the body, that is, the Lord, in his authority, in the regulative directives of his word, changes upon the activities of the body.

32:20 He who gave the body is the Lord of the body, the one who can rightfully direct its legitimate activities.

32:29 And God is the Lord and will raise up us through his power. Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? You Corinthians, now stop. Think for a minute.

32:43 Have you been united to Christ in your effectual calling? Then your entire redeemed humanity has been united to Christ. You are joined.

32:55 Your bodies are members of Christ. Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Shall I join that which is joined in fornication?

33:16 Bid. Or know ye not? He says, is it that you're ignorant of your union with Christ? Well, if not, is it that you're ignorant that fornication is not just some kind of a biological sneeze?

33:32 Your relationship involves a deep... So he says, Or know ye not that he that is joined to a harlot is one body?

33:45 For the twain said he shall become one flesh, but he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Conclusion? Flee fornication. And flee it.

33:58 How? In the consciousness that though lust may burn in this body in which there is remaining sin, this body is for the Lord. And the Lord is for this body. And in union...

34:27 Friends, listen. Living in this sex-soaked age, arm your mind and your spirit with every legitimate weapon against the sins of sexual impurity.

34:43 In the past few months in my own study, there are times when I felt... Like I needed to have a bath.

34:50 Preacher's wife from out of state coming and confessing adultery. And a reformed preacher no less.

34:59 Excommunicating homosexuals who claim to be Christians. Fornication. Premarital intercourse.

35:10 Into pornography.

35:13 And I... Legitimate weapon to be extricated and then to be preserved.

35:38 And here's one of them. Your body belongs to Jesus Christ. And you need to self-consciously think of that. When you get up in the morning and you're washing it and shaving it and getting up enough courage to look at it in the mirror,

35:53 start telling yourself, that body is joined to Christ. Shall I take the members of Christ, my tongue, and make it an instrument of gossip? He's to be Lord of that tongue that under the influence of the Spirit it may minister His own grace to those who hear. That's the language of Ephesians.

36:16 Shall I take the members of Christ and make them peace to walk in? Make these eyes...

36:41 The reasoning of union with Christ to the whole matter of sexual impurity. See how practical it is? You see how intensely practical is this doctrine as it touches upon the whole subject of personal sanctification? Well, I'm never going to get through unless I speed up the rate at which we're going.

Union with Christ and Realized Communion with Christ

37:04 Let me touch briefly this third area of the implications for the individual believer. It has to do with what I've called realized communion with Christ. And what do I mean by realized communion with Christ? Well, I mean exactly in the realm of the spiritual what every husband and wife who have any kind of relationship understand in the natural human relationship.

37:28 Realized communion, when there's that delightful flow of mind and thought and affection, there's no tension, there's no unresolved point of conflict, and you could no more deny the existence and communion you need, and you could no more deny the existence and communion you need, and you could no more deny the existence and communion you need, It's realized communion. You might lose your marriage license, you might have your ring torn off your finger, you might get a bump on a head so you don't remember anything up till today, but you know what realized communion with your wife is. It's a reality in which you live. Now that's what I'm talking about.

38:09 Realized communion with Christ. To use Whitfield's favorite term, experiencing a felt Christ. That was a Calvinist who said that, not a Pentecostal. Again and again Whitfield said, I fear most ministers preach an unfa...

38:28 He meant precisely this. Realized communion with Christ. God is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of His Son, or in the language of John, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. You see, the Bible says we're married to Christ.

38:56 Romans 7, 4. We are dead to the law that we should be married to another, that we might bring forth fruit unto God. And the whole imagery of Ephesians 5. And isn't that the great emphasis of John 15?

39:14 Abide in me, and I in you. Well how does He abide in us? Again, it's tangible. He says, if ye abide in me, then my words abide in you.

39:28 I hold communion with Christ not in mystic flights of subjective experience, but I hold fellowship with Him as He comes to me in His Word. Don't ever look upon your devotions as some kind of a legalistic duty that you've got to do so you can tick off your good deeds for the day. That's Phariseeism. But you come to the Word that there you might meet your Lord.

39:57 He comes in His own Word. He abides in us by His Word, according to John 15, 7. And we abide in Him by loving obedience. He said, I keep my Father's commandments and abide in His love.

40:13 He says, abide in me. Well how do I abide in Him? By walking in obedience. And how does He abide in me?

Union with Christ and the Believer as an Organic Part of the Body of Christ

40:20 By His Word. Spirit taking the Word and bringing Christ home to the heart by faith, to feed upon Him, to eat of His flesh and to drink of His blood, and thereby to have eternal life. Well you see, when you come to such passages as John 15, Philippians 3, 8-10, you realize that the whole doctrine of union with Christ is central to enjoying realized communion with Him. Well now I must hurry on to touch this next broad area of the place of union with Christ in a practical way, no longer thinking now of the believer as an individual before God, but secondly, the believer as an organic part of the body of Christ. What does the truth of union with Christ say by way of practical implications to the believer's thought and conduct as an organic part of the body of Christ? Now the basic issue before us as we try to discuss this aspect of the truth is this. When by the Spirit we are joined to Christ,

41:45 we are immediately joined to all the existing members of His body. Let me try to use a crude illustration. If I had been born with just three fingers and a thumb, had no little finger, and lived to age thirty with that constituting the organic whole of my body, if they were to take the finger from someone who had willed a finger to anyone who might need one, and if they had operations by which they could attach fingers where there are none, the moment the doctor would perform the operation which would attach that finger to the rest of the body, and the moment they sewed together the blood vessels and all the rest, the life of the body would flow into that finger and it would become joint participant in the totality of that organic whole called my body. Well in the same way, the apostle says in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body and have all been made to drink of one Spirit. Therefore, when the Bible describes believers it uses this terminology at least twice in the New Testament. We are members one of another.

43:11 Now it doesn't say we're members of the same organization. That's an external relationship. But it says we are members one of another. Ephesians 4, 25 and Romans 12 and verse 5.

43:23 We are members one of another. Now that's not poetic license. That is real organic living relationship. Now this is brought out very, very carefully or very forcefully in several other passages, but I trust these two will suffice to convince you.

43:49 Now in that organic relationship, follow with me now, every member that is joined to the head is joined to the other members. In that organic relationship, the Lord Jesus regards our treatment of all or any of the members as our treatment of him, the head. He regards the treatment of the members as treatment of himself because it is Christ's body. And we are members one of another in that body.

44:27 You remember in Acts chapter 9 how this truth is stamped on the very face of the text. We read in the first two verses that the activity of Saul of Tarsus was this. Saul, breathing threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest and asked him letters of Damascus unto the synagogues that if he found any that were of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Paul's sights have zeroed in upon those described as the disciples of the Lord, the people of the way.

45:12 But when the Lord accosts him on the road to Damascus, he does so with these words. Verse 4, And he fell upon the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom thou cutest.

45:38 Well, he couldn't get his hands on Jesus. He would love to have done so if he could. But he was back at the right hand of the Father. So he had to do the next best thing.

45:50 He had to go after his disciples. If I can't get the impossible, I'll get his followers. Jesus said, When you touch my followers, you touch me. Because their relationship is not an external relationship.

46:03 It is not merely a relationship in which they follow my teachings. It is a relationship in which they are joined to me in common life. One of the phrases Luke uses in the book of Acts is this, Believers were the more added to the Lord. What a strange set of words.

46:23 Believers were added... Of course, those well-known words in Matthew 25 underscore the same truth.

46:35 That awesome picture of the judgment of the last day. All the nations gathered before the Lord the Judge. And in that context we read that there are those who are blessed and who are invited into the kingdom in its consummate glory. The reasons given as vindication of this judgment, not the ground of their entrance, but the vindication of the righteousness of their entrance.

47:13 Come, he says, verse 34, Ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat. I was thirsty, and ye gave me to drink. I was a stranger, and ye took me in naked.

47:28 And ye clothed me, and I was sick, and ye visited me. Then shall the righteous answer, saying, Lord, when did we ever see you hungry, and feed you, or thirsty, and give you a drink? And when did we do these things in our Lord's words? Verse 40, And the king shall answer and say, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even the least, ye did it unto me.

47:57 Now that again is not just a sort of sentimental idea. Touch my kids and you touch me, someone says. Touch my wife and you touch me. Well, there's a sense in which that's true, but we all understand what that sense is.

48:10 Our Lord is not speaking that way. These are matters of truth. We are vindicating the justice of inviting these people into the kingdom. Those who have not only been accepted in the beloved, but transformed and made fit to dwell with him.

48:27 And he says, In ministering to the least, member of my body, you ministered to me. Now do you see the point? Union with Christ is the rationale behind this language. Without the doctrine of union with Christ, this is just poetic, poetic, sentimental language.

Practical Implications for Inter-Believer Relationships

48:49 Now what does that say to us in terms of our relationship to our fellow believers in the body of Christ? Well, it says this, An intelligent, believing grasp upon this aspect of our union with Christ in his body will produce an attitude of sensitive caring, jealous guarding of the unity, and resolute refusal to take advantage of one another. If we can live and think and pray and act and react in the light of this great reality, we are joined to Christ and therefore joined to all the members of his body. I say it will be productive of a sensitive caring one for another. 1 Corinthians 12, verses 25 and following. 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 25. He's speaking of the diversity among the members of the body and how rather than ignore the less attractive parts, we care for them.

50:01 What gets cared for? Like a corn on your toe or the toe that has a corn or a bunion or some other kind of affliction on a foot that's not a very pretty appendage. Well, Paul saw that in his day and probably much more because of having to walk in sandals over rough terrain. He says in verse 24, whereas our comely parts have no need, but God tempered the body together, giving more abundant honor to that part which lacked that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another.

50:38 And whether one member suffereth, all the members suffer with it. Or one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ and severally members thereof. He says don't allow the individuality and the identity of the member ever to cause you to think that there is an absence of organic unity.

51:08 No, no, there is diversity, there is individuality, but it is diversity and individuality in the context of organic unity. And he says get hold of that and you'll have the same care. One for another. You won't be so irresponsibly filled up with your own interests that you cannot, when you gather with God's people, try to see that one who seems to be excluded from the little groups of conversation after the service.

51:41 You won't irresponsibly talk and enjoy fellowship with well-known friends if you see that more retiring person who is in the agony of social, lack of social grace and it's pain to that believer. You'll see that and you will seek lovingly to care and to reach out and to incorporate that person into a fellowship of sharing, of concern. Now you can trace it out in a thousand directions, but I say if we get hold in our churches of this truth of union with Christ and the union with one another that flows out of it, it cannot help but produce this sensitive caring. It will also produce a jealous guarding of our unity. When Paul would speak to the problem of Corinthian division, what does he do? He goes to the doctrine of union with Christ and he says in 1 Corinthians 1, verses 10 to 13, I don't have time to go through the whole passage, but he brings his argument to a climax and says, is Christ divided?

52:51 Is the body of Christ rent into three large segments or four? The Cephas segment? The Paulus segment? The Apollos segment?

53:04 And then the real spiritual group, the Christ segment? Well, the answer is obviously no. He says, well then, why should you be divided? You're his body.

53:17 The truth of union with Christ, you see, would put a check upon the irresponsible abandonment which are productive of church splits and schismatic groups within the church. Then I hurry to the third area in which it will work in us in this broad category. Resolute refusal to take advantage of one another. Ephesians 5 and verse 25.

53:54 The apostle is dealing with some of the barnacles that still cling to the holes of some of these Christians. Some of the appendages that are hanging on from the old life. And he says in Ephesians 4, 25, Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak ye truth, each one with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. You see what he brings to the fore in giving motivation for honesty?

54:30 We're members one of another. If we believe that, how can I look at my brother if I really believe he is joined to the same Christ to whom I've joined, the same life of Christ that is his is mine? We're members one of another. How dare I take advantage of him by dishonesty?

54:50 How dare I take advantage of him in any way that my flesh would seek an opportunity to take advantage? Oh, how we need this practical perspective working itself out in our churches. And I tell you, it's costly. You begin to open your mouth and speak about a brother or sister and you say, wait a minute, that's a member of my body or his body and we are members one of another.

55:20 Dare I pick and wound and stab another member of the same body? What would you think of a man that stood on a street corner with a lance picking at his own body all day, scraping scabs off when it just begins to heal, scrapes it off. You'd say something wrong. Isn't that what some of you do with your brothers and sisters in the body of Christ?

55:52 Your lance is your tongue and you pick and you prod and you scrape. And Christ says the way you treat the members of my body is the way you treat me. I tell you I know of nothing that has been a more powerful incentive in my own life in seeking to develop a loving relationship to anyone who in the judgment of charity I must regard a brother or sister than this truth. There have been times when I've been weary, I've been tired and I said Lord I can't talk to anybody else, I can't listen to anyone else's problem and along came one of the Lord's children, seemed to be one of the Lord's children, a bit odd, a bit difficult, socially awkward and then he starts to talk and weary we with all kinds of innocuous details about this thing and I'm almost tempted to say look will you just leave and it comes back to me the way I treat him. My Lord regards as my treatment of himself and time after time when in the agony of seeking to be a pastor amongst my people I've come to the point where I said I can't take one more problem another problem. This has been the truth that God has brought back with power to my heart and I've just had to say

57:22 Lord Jesus give fresh strength because in ministering to this soul I minister to you. In as much as you've done it unto the least you've done it to me and then I tremble at the negative in as much as you did it not you did it not unto me. They're damned for what they didn't do. In as much as you did it not you did it not unto me.

Union with Christ and Ministers of the Word

57:50 Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire. I'd hoped to give a third area and I'll just tell you what I'd hoped to do. I wanted to show something of the implications of this truth for the ministers of the word of God who are Christ's ambassadors and I suggest to you my fellow ministers I do not preach down at you but I entreat you as my brothers I exhort you as my fellow laborers draw much comfort from the doctrine of union with Christ draw much in the way of a prod from this doctrine. It's the doctrine of union with Christ that was in great measure the source or Christ was the source of the apostle's strength but it was Christ in terms of this doctrine of union with him. You read 2 Corinthians 4 7 to 12 we who live are always delivered unto death. Why? That the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

58:54 He says in union with Christ God is continually bringing us to the borders. To the very brink of a graveyard. Where with pressures without and within we say I might as well die as far as having any strength or wisdom for that situation and God says good step over and die and out of that death I'll manifest my life. And that's the whole cycle of the apostle's ministry you read it in 2 Corinthians 4.

59:25 It's a tremendous incentive to fidelity in our message 2 Corinthians 2 17 we are not as the many who corrupt the word of God but as of sincerity but as of God in the sight of God speak we how? In Christ we speak in union with Christ if he's the head the great anointed one the great prophet if we are the members who in that sense by that unction speak in his name prophets little p not upper case p how dare we how dare I then speak in his name in union with him and speak anything other than his word that's why Paul said we're not as the many who corrupt the word but as of sincerity as of God in the sight of God we speak in conscious recognition of our union with Christ it's the basis of boldness we are ambassadors on the behalf of Christ I cannot understand timid preaching I can understand quiet relatively quiet preaching the man who shares the pulpit with me in our own assembly could not be any more different from me in personality if he tried he's quiet he's gentle he's not animated in his natural bearing in his preaching but he preaches and teaches with authority

60:54 he teaches and preaches with holy boldness so I'm not talking about volume or animosity or volume or animation those matters will vary in terms of personality and many other factors but I'm talking of that consciousness that I stand in to herald his word and then it will also form the ground of holy optimism thanks be unto God 2 Corinthians chapter 2 14 and 15 who always leads us to triumph in Christ Paul said in union with Christ as a minister there's no defeat oh yes there's no defeat there's unbelief but even where there's unbelief he said we're a sweet fragrance of Christ unto God in them that are saved and in them that are perishing and oh God knows some of you sitting here tonight need this note of holy optimism and confidence well it will come as you feed upon the glorious truth that you serve the Lord Jesus in union with him well as I close tonight I have one final word and I would not be true to my commission if I did not bring it could it be that sitting here tonight there's some people who say what in the world is that crazy preacher getting so excited about union with Christ and all these things and all it's just gone clean over my head you know why it's gone clean

A Plea to Unbelievers

62:22 over your head the problem's not with your head my friend the problem's with your heart and the problem with your heart is it's so full of self and sin that Christ that Christ and the provisions of God in Christ are not attractive and glorious to you and you see God has decreed that if Christ in his person and work is not attractive to us in time we'll go out into eternity without the benefits of that saving work my friend you ought never to congratulate yourself that you've sat through another service unmoved it ought to shock you that you've been able to sit once more where the water of life was dispensed and you've let it pass by where the bread of life was set forth and you've despised it you're hastening on to judgment woe be unto you if you stand in that day severed from Christ my friend if this is all been humdrum and boredom to you I would lovingly plead with you in the name of my savior seek the Lord while he may be found tell God what a promise that you have that you have a proud blind dull insensitive heart

63:51 you have and then cry to him to give you a new heart a heart of flesh a heart in which Christ will be enshrined as God and savior loved and cherished and then these things will become the most wonderful things in all the world to you and you'll grieve that you went so long and you'll grieve that you'll grieve to the overtures of his grace well I feel like I feel when I have to leave home and leave my wife and my children this has been a wonderful companion these days this doctrine of union with Christ I trust under the blessing of God the Holy Spirit himself will bring to remembrance the truths we've considered and that we may be found in the last day to have profited from the blessing of the spirit upon the word let us sing as our closing hymn tonight hymn number 112 how sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear it soothes his sorrows heals his wounds and drives away his fear the hymn number 112