The church is presented as a glorious entity, a new creation distinct from Old Testament Israel, characterized by its union with Christ as His bride, His body, and His building. This union is loving, living, and lasting, with Christ as the foundation and chief cornerstone. Local churches are seen as golden lampstands, reflecting the divine nature of the true church, and should embody its oneness through reception and discipline. The sermon emphasizes that believers are living members of Christ's body, each with unique spiritual gifts and functions, and that leadership within the church, whether elders or deacons, is about loving service and example, not ruling. Ultimately, believers will stand before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of their works, whether good or worthless, for the purpose of receiving praise from God.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 2.21 → restored 4.34
Thank you, dear saints, for the lovely time I've had this week. It's just been a real refreshment to my own heart. I wish that I could express what I feel. If you folks only knew what you do to a speaker, to a visitor, as it's just a love and a want that radiates from you saints here that that I can't express. I can't tell you what it does to my own heart. But you sure have warmed my heart, and I thank you for it. And for all your kindnesses, I've enjoyed the hospitality of the Harold Myers.
It's been so nice to be in their home and enjoy that good cooking. I've just had a lovely time from start to finish. And you even pulled me through this real bad cold ahead and I'm very grateful. And I trust that the Word will have really an effect on our hearts of stirring us up and building us up and just challenging us to go on for the Lord in a new and fresh way. First of all, tonight I would like for us to read our two verses and then I would like to review very quickly what we've been considering this week and then concluded by some added thoughts.
Ephesians chapter five, verse twenty-seven and verse thirty-two. This is what we've been considering this week. That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Verse thirty-two, this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. The church is a glorious thing, and so are the churches, according to God's word.
We've considered, first of all, that the church was a new thing. that the church didn't exist in the Old Testament. The Lord Jesus said, on this rock I will build my church. Future tense, which shows it didn't exist before then. Then we considered the definition of the church. What is the church? And we saw that the word itself means a called out company. That's what the church is. It's His called out company, called out from the unsaved, from the world to be His.
Then we notice the church in its real nature, its real character and its calling, so different from Israel. Israel were and will be again a nation with Jesus as king. But we, the church, are in a union with Christ. We notice that union in three different ways presented in the Scripture. A loving union for the church is the bride of Christ. And that's what we were reading just then in Ephesians chapter five. It's a loving union.
Oh my God. You know, your heart bleeds to see Christians obey the Word of God, and I must pause here to mention this. If a Christian man will say, Oh God, I'm going to be your kind of husband, and read Ephesians five, verses twenty-two through the end of that chapter, and set out by the grace and power of God, to be that husband that this scripture describes a Christian husband should be. And if the wife, a Christian wife, will say, Lord, by your grace and power, I'm going to fill my place, my role as a Christian wife, all the beauty of it, all the wonder of it, it's in It is unbelievable.
What exquisite joy this kind of a marriage is. And it's so far beyond just a good marriage that there's an unmeasurable gulf between the two. But it sure takes a person fulfilling two things. What you see in verse seventeen of Ephesians five, wherefore be you not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. In other words, this is prefaced by that command. And it's prefaced by verse eighteen, be filled with the Spirit.
So what I gather here is the only way I'll ever be able to accomplish this, to be this kind of a husband. is that I am determined by God's grace to do His will in my life. If I'm not determined to do His will, then I'm going to blow up. I won't be able to carry this out. It's impossible. It takes a complete decision in a person to say, I'm going to do the Lord's will. if the wife doesn't fill her part of the bill maybe she won't obey the husband maybe she gives him a hard time the husband has just one choice and that is he's got to do the Lord's will no matter what his wife does and unless a man makes up his mind to that he's going to be running a fifty-fifty deal again and that'll never work never It's got to be one hundred percent you in your marriage.
Not fifty-fifty. Not if she does her part, I'll do my part. Nor the wife saying, if he'll love me as Christ loved the church, then I'll be in subjection. No, no, no. That is not what this book teaches. It is for me to do my part one hundred percent, regardless of what my mate does. and do it for him. And oh my, God is no man's debtor, and I pretty well guarantee you, if you fulfill your part of the bill, something's going to happen on the other side. But I just had to stop and bring that in because it's so important in these days when even Christians run their marriage pretty much the way they want to.
instead of patterning it after this example in the Word of God. A loving union, a husband and wife picturing Christ and his church, for that's the union that we enjoy with him, a loving union. The second union we have with him is a living union, and that is We're not a nation under Christ, and He's the commander, the king. But we are His body. We are living members of His living body.
The Holy Spirit is forming that body. And here I go preaching it, and I'm just trying to review. It's a living union, a body. Then the third... view that we have of our union with him is a lasting union. That is, the church is a building. In Ephesians two, verse twenty, he says, in whom you are built together into a holy temple in the Lord. The Lord said, I will build my church. We are a building. And he is the foundation of it.
as First Corinthians three nine says. And he's the chief cornerstone of it. That piece that fits and gives the whole reason for the existence and the whole glory of the building. He's the chief cornerstone. And the building is a temple, a holy temple in the Lord. He said, I will build my church. and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. It'll last. Oh, the powers of the underworld can never take it. The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
It's a lasting union. Well, then we saw the glory. That's the glory of the church. And by what glory that is. Isn't it wonderful to belong to such a creation as this? The church. then we notice the glory of the churches first of all why churches when he said I will build my church not churches for a simple reason we can't get the whole church together it's physically impossible down here so we have churches where believers gather together and every where you have a group of believers gathered In his name he's in the midst and that is a church and it is complete with him in the midst.
And do you remember what he called them? Seven golden lampstands. Gold being the symbol in the Word of God of that which is divine. Don't you see the glory of the local church? Golden in his eyes, mind you, with all their failures. He called them golden lampstands. The glory of the churches. And we've seen that the church is really half of the work of the Lord that we're seeking to undertake today. All of us who say that we're engaged in some degree in the Lord's work.
and every one of us should be every one of us has a part in it we've seen that part of it is preaching the gospel spreading this good news to this lost world and on the other hand establishing those believers in scriptural churches that these two go hand in glove for the two are the work of the Lord and I think we prove that night before last when we went into scripture after scripture which shows the Lord's work is twofold and we dare not just preach the gospel we must establish those believers in the ways that be in Christ as Paul said I teach everywhere in every church so the local church has a terrific importance and the local church we've seen should display the true church, the one church.
Every local church should be an expression of the church. And so we've noticed that some of these things that stand out about the church have to be carried out by the local church. If there's anything that's prominent about the church, the church, It's that it's one. It's oneness. In the parables in Matthew thirteen, the one that pictures the church is one pearl of great price. The pearl out of the sea.
Israel was pictured by the treasure found in the earth, hid in the earth. That Israel, she's of the earth. She's promised a land. But the church is out of the sea, for the church is largely by far Gentile. And so the pearl pictures the church. It's out of the sea. And it was one pearl, the scripture says. And that's one of the chief characteristics of the church, is that there is only one church. On this rock I will build my church. the Lord Jesus said.
Ephesians four, four, there is one body and one spirit. Ephesians, first Corinthians twelve, verse thirteen, by one spirit were we all baptized into one body. So one, the oneness is one of the characteristics of the church. Therefore the local church should display this. Every local church should display what's true of the church. That is our oneness. And so we do that by reception.
We receive all true believers. We don't say what denomination do you belong to. We don't say whom do you know. There's some places you go to and they'll say, whom do you know? And you say, well, I don't know. And they'll say, I don't know whom you're talking about. They'll say, well, do you know brother so-and-so? And they start naming off some of their preachers. And if you don't know those people, then they ask you to sit back. Oh, my friend, that's not displaying the body of Christ, the oneness.
There's not but one person I'm supposed to know to be in fellowship in a local church, and that's the Lord of Glory. If I know him, then I should be received in any company of God's people. In Romans, he says, Him that is weak in the faith, receive you. Even a brother that's weak in the faith, But he does say, but don't receive him to the settlement of questions of doubt. There's a difference between giving a man the platform, letting a man get up and teach, and receiving him wholeheartedly into fellowship.
And that scripture shows there's a difference. He said, him that's weak in the faith, receive you. But then he said, but don't receive him to the settlement of questions of doubt. In other words, he's weak in the faith. He's not a man that's mature and solid in the word. And you wouldn't want to let him air his weak views and get upset Christians with him. But he's in fellowship. That's the big point. Receive him, he says. And in verse five of that chapter, he says, For God hath received him. Ah, that's the basis, isn't it?
If God has received that person, how dare we refuse that person? We ought to display the oneness of the Church by our reception of all those that we have reason to believe belong to Him and therefore to the Church. then we notice this also affects, this is matter of the one body, is displayed in discipline. First Corinthians five, verse six, he says, a purge out of the old leaven.
Let's see, I don't think I'm quoting that verse right. First Corinthians chapter five, note that verse six, Your glorying is not good. First Corinthians five, verse six. Know you not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Now the context of this verse is a man in the church who's living in immorality, persevering in immorality, and they haven't done a thing about it. And so he's saying, don't you know since you're one lump? that a little leaven leavens all of you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
This is our oneness. We are one. And therefore, if we allow evil to go on unjudged in our midst, it contaminates the entire assembly. And we are defiled by it. And the Lord Jesus is taking note of it, as we'll see a little bit later on. in this study tonight. So we display the oneness, the truth of the oneness of the body of Christ by purging out evil. Certainly we don't just throw a man right out for sin, but we deal with the question.
We go to him and plead with him, explain and pray with him in meekness and tactfulness. but firmness and if he won't hear then we go farther with it and you know what the procedure is till finally if he will not repent then finally he is put out of the fellowship which is a horrible thing for when you put anyone out my friend you have turned him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh For that's all in this same chapter here.
They all go together. And this is only the final thing. To put anyone out of the fellowship of the saints is a drastic measure. It's only the final measure. But it's necessary when there is absolutely no repentance after every resort has been tried so you see we're displaying the oneness of the body even by our discipline for we're one and we realize that evil will contaminate us all defile the whole assembly like an agent in the camp just one man had sinned but God said Israel has sinned and it's the same principle with the church Then we noticed that statement, there is one body.
Speaking of the church, we focused on the thought of it being the word body. We've just been thinking about its one body. Now, there is one body. This answers the question, as we've seen, why don't we have one man as the preacher, the teacher, the pastor, the one who visits, the one who administrates, the one who's, you know, the big wheel. Why not? The answer? There is one body. The church is a body. And that means it's made up of members, not people with their names on a roll.
That's true, but that isn't the church. A member of the church, a member of the church is a living part. of a living body as my arm is a living member of my living body and you and I believer we are members in that sense we are living members with a function to perform in the church and one man just can't do it and he goes into leaps in first Corinthians twelve to say The members that are the more feeble are the more necessary. The eyes are a very feeble member.
It needs to be protected. And why hasn't God protected that eye marvelously? Have you ever considered how he built your head here so that these heavy bones are all around that eye? Have you ever considered that eyelid and how it comes down automatically? You don't have to tell it to come down here. It just does it. When anything tries to go in that eye, it's the more necessary. The feeble numbers are the more necessary. And every number has its own place in the body. And thank God has its own power to operate in the body. According to what it is.
The eye can't hear. Because it wasn't put in the body to hear. It was put in the body to see. so it's given the power to see and this is nothing but what the scripture uses to picture you and me as members of the body of Christ we are living parts of this living body and he's the head of it in heaven and he sends the commands to the members by the Holy Spirit and he enables us by a gift a spiritual gift and he says The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each to profit with all.
First Corinthians chapter twelve. So you have a gift from the Holy Spirit if you're saved. The book says that. I don't care who you are, man, woman, boy or girl if you are saved, the Holy Spirit has set you in the church as a definite part. of this body of Christ and you have an office to fulfill you have a function to perform and you have a power with which to do it that's your heritage that's your birthright privilege as a Christian every Christian and therefore one man can't do it all the members must function and whatever gift each Christian has, exercise it for the good of the whole body in obedience to the head in heaven, to please him, to glorify him.
And one man could never do it. That would be like my eye trying to do my hearing, trying to do my feeling, trying to do my walking, It's just that ridiculous. It's impossible. One gift cannot fulfill the needs of an assembly of God's people. That it is one body, my friend. And therefore, one man is not the head of it. But God raises up among us those that have a heart for the sheep. And we notice as we look at The church as the house of God.
This building becomes not only the temple where God is worshipped and where his presence is, but it becomes the house of God. And there's order in his house. And so we have elders, never the pastor. The elders are the pastors. For whenever he describes the work of the elders, every time he describes it as shepherding the flock. That's pastoral language. The word pastor in the Greek is nothing but the word shepherd.
And Paul calls these elders from Miletus in Acts twenty verse seventeen and in verse twenty seven he says, Take heed unto the flock. The flock. And in Peter, First Peter chapter five, he says to the elders, shepherd the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not of constraint, but of a ready mind. You see, it's the flock. Elders then are pastors. They are the shepherd.
Now, you and I have a responsibility toward these elders, and I'd like to call this to your attention before I pass on. What is your and my responsibility toward the elders in our local assembly? First Thessalonians five, verse twelve. Know them that take the lead among you. It never says that have the rule over you. That's first Thessalonians five in verse twelve. Well here it's know them which labor among you.
I'm sorry I was quoting another place. Know them which labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you. These of course are the elders and we are to know them. I believe personally that elders ought to be officially recognized in some way or other, that the saints ought to know exactly who the elders are and be able to go to those elders in times of need. Know them. The second thing is to esteem them very highly. That's verse thirteen. To esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake.
So we are to not to elevate these brethren like we do so often in the denominations and call them by titles and bow and scrape before them as if they were you know something set apart from the rest of us never that but we are to esteem them highly respect them for their work's sake and the third thing is in Hebrews thirteen and verse seventeen what we're to do with regard to elders. Hebrews thirteen, verse seventeen. Obey them that have the rule over you. There's that expression, have the rule over you.
And that's used a number of times, like verse seven. Remember them which have the rule over you. But I was mentioning that it's never have the rule. That's too harsh, too strong. The Greek says, them that take the lead among you. Isn't that what a shepherd does? He leads his flock. He doesn't drive them with a goad. You might do oxen that way, but the shepherd leads his flock. And so the elders don't drive, they lead.
They are examples. They lead by example and they lead by precept, by teaching the word. An elder has to be one that's apt to teach. That doesn't mean that he's a great teacher, but that he can, in a decent sort of a way, teach a person who needs help at least that much. And so an elder leads. It never rules leads. It's just like the husband in the home. That headship of the man, you know what it really boils down to? It's not that he's boss. Oh, I looked at it that way so long, and no wonder my wife wasn't about to give it.
I wanted to be the boss, but I found out that headship is loving leadership, and that takes quality, my friend. That takes a man that's right with God through and through. And that's going to lead his wife and his family into God's ways. Loving leadership. That's what headship is. And it's the same thing in the church. The elders take the lead among us. And we obey. For that's what verse seventeen says. Obey them.
that have the rule over you, and that's not the government that take the lead among you. It's they watch for your souls. These are godly elders among us. Then you have deacons who take care of, as I see it, more the secular side of the needs of the assembly, the material side of things, but they also must be godly men with those qualifications that we don't have time to go into. We're looking at the ordinances, but for the sake of time, I won't touch on that third ordinance, baptism. I would like for us to just quickly now look at our responsibility in all of this that we've been considering.
You see, you and I have a part in this work of the Lord that we consider the other night. We saw that he does have a work, an unfinished work, as well as that great finished work. The unfinished work is that of spreading the gospel and of establishing believers in scriptural churches, golden lampstands, to set forth this marvelous truth not only here on the earth but to the powers in the heavens who learn the manifold wisdom of God in the church Ephesians three and verse ten tells us your part and my part in this is going to come into judgment Let's look at some verses along that line.
First of all, Romans chapter fourteen. Romans chapter fourteen. And verse ten. For we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Darby translates that stand as placed. We shall all be placed before the judgment seat of Christ. That saying that you and I won't have any choice in this, we don't just come there willingly.
We are going to be placed there one day. Then in verse twelve, so then Every one of us, notice men, women, children, every saved person, every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Oh, what a sobering thought. This is to Christians. Every one of us, he said. And Paul uses that pronoun carefully. He'll say they, them when he's talking about the world. But when he says we, us, he's talking about the saints, every one of us shall give an account of himself to God.
Oh, thinker, one of these days you and I will be placed before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of ourselves of what we have been since we were saved. Look again, Second Corinthians. Well, stop at First Corinthians four on the way. First Corinthians chapter four and verse five. Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness. And this is First Corinthians four, verse five.
and will make manifest the councils of the hearts. We'll make manifest the councils of the hearts. Oh, dear saints, nothing's going to be hidden. You see, here he's talking about our motives. Why are we doing what we do? The motive is all important. Why did these saints come out like they did this morning and worked so beautifully there, so many of them, so that the job was done, a job that would have taken a few all day long to accomplish was done in two hours and beautifully done with perfect cooperation?
There must have been some right motives there for it to work like that. He knows the motives. Why did we do it? why do you do what you do why are you faithful to this assembly the motive is going to be exposed who will make manifest the counsels of the hearts but isn't he a gracious master read the rest of that verse and then shall every it doesn't say man in the greek then shall everyone have his praise From God. The way you read in the King James you might think it means everyone of us is going to praise God.
That is not what it's saying. It says, Then shall everyone have his praise from God. Imagine it. Won't that be glorious to hear him praise you in that day? He'll find it. He'll find that which is worthy of praise. and praise you in that day. But look still further. Second Corinthians chapter five and verse nine. Second Corinthians five, verse nine. Wherefore we labor. Actually, that word labor is not the word to work at all.
It's we are ambitious. Paul was an ambitious man, you see. But notice what he was ambitious for. We are ambitious that whether present or absent, that is whether we're in the body or out of the body, we may be well pleasing to him. You know, that's why I love the Greek so it's so exact and it saves you from error also. You might think as you read this, he's working so he can be accepted. And we already accepted. accepted in the beloved it says in Ephesians one six so he's not laboring to be accepted he is ambitious that he might be well pleasing unto him for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone notice how emphatic these scriptures are as we read each one that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to
that he has done whether it be good or bad this is saying that from the day I was saved I'm going to meet him and give account for everything done in this body but wait a minute good or bad Again how I thank God he had his word the New Testament written in Greek. This sounds like I'm going to face my sins. But you know how this reads. The word bad. The word bad can be one of three words in Greek.
In the Greek it uses kakas which is bad in general, evil. Then poniras means malicious. terrible, vicious evil. And then there's a third word, phallos, which means worthless. You look it up in Vine's dictionary of New Testament words, and he'll tell you, worthless. And thank God, that's the word for bad here. It's not evil. It's according to that he has done, whether it be good or worthless. I'm not going to give account of sins at the judgment seat if I did.
What could I do? How could it be forgiven? It would be hell if I met my sins. The Lord said, shall not come into judgment. And he's talking about the judgment of sin, certainly. But we will come into the judgment. of our works. And that's what he's speaking of here. Whether they are good or worthless. Again, verse ten, for we must all appear. Now as you read that, you get the idea that it simply means you're going to make your appearance at the judgment seat.
But that's not what it's saying. It's saying we shall all be manifested. That's the word. manifested it's the same word used of him that he will when Christ who is our life shall appear and the Greek is when Christ who is our life shall be manifested one day this universe is going to see you in all his glory manifested and that's the meaning of that word manifested exposed revealed And that's what it is here. We must all be manifested before the judgment seat.
Not only my motives, not only my deeds in the body since I've been saved, but I'm going to be exposed. You're going to see, I'm sorry to say, Lidden Sheridan as he really is. You're going to see really how big a Christian living sharing was. I don't know whether I want to be there or not. For what we really are, we shall be manifested. And there won't be any cover on then. Oh, what you and I really are for Christ is going to be exposed.
And every saint in the universe will see us for what we really were.