The assembly's function in the body of Christ is explored, emphasizing that Christ is the head and believers are members, each with a unique and necessary role. The sermon contrasts Christ's headship with his saviorship and lordship, highlighting that headship specifically relates to the function of the body. Drawing from Ephesians and Colossians, it explains that believers are equipped for the work of the ministry and the edifying of the body of Christ, not to be passive spectators but active participants. The message warns against a 'one-man ministry' model and encourages each believer to discover and exercise their God-given function within the church.
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kind of nice to get up and get a little rest from those benches. That's one of the advantages of being a teacher. You get a chance to get up and stretch a little bit. I was thinking about the little kid that came in with his mother a little bit late for a meeting down south and when you come in late you have to take the seats in the front. The woman got up to the very front row with her little child. The preacher was one of these men like myself that never knows when to stop. He kept on and on and on and on and on.
And finally, he reached for a glass of water. And there was a little moment of silence while he was sipping the water. And as he did so, the little kid was heard this. quine in a plaintiff's voice, Mama, are you sure there isn't some other way we can get to heaven? So my old isn't going to be that bad. Now I want to start out this evening by asking you a question. This question will be meaningless to you unless you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. Appreciate it that you're here if you don't know the Lord. You should know him.
I knew this girl's daddy, this girl who was murdered. I've heard about the tragic circumstances. I knew her father at the time of his conversion, and he was a boy about her age. Time is swiftly set along, and now he's the father of three children, and one of them already in heaven. It's pretty hard sometimes to realize that some of these grotesque things that happen in the world happen to people just like you and me, and that we're not exempt. I remember Tom told me when he was in the throes of that red disease cancer.
He said to me one day, he says, Len, he says, none of us are exempt. We don't know. And maybe it's the mercy we don't know what's going to happen in a day or a year. But I'll say that if you're sitting here tonight and you don't have a genuine living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ so that you can say He's your Savior, your Lord and your Master, then my friend and I certainly feel very sorry for him. You haven't got anything really worthwhile to look for in this world and you've got absolutely nothing in the next. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus tonight, my words are mainly directed to you, I want to ask you this question.
Just what is your function in the body of Christ? Just what part is your function in the church, the local body of Christ? The expression. What is it? I have on my hand four fingers on the thumb. And if I could speak to these little members here, and they could speak back to me, they would be able to tell me that they have a function. But they don't speak, but they have a function. These fingers on my hand were not placed there to my own wisdom and at my own discretion.
I didn't go down to Gibson's discount and saw some nice fingers in a showcase and say, I'd like to nail a few of those on. God very graciously and in great wisdom has provided every one of us who come into this world with members that function in our body. And they function because we have a built-in functioner. I'm glad I don't have to wind up some kind of spring that gets my lungs pumping, pulling in the air and expelling it. I'm glad I don't have to put in a battery to keep my heart going. I'm amazed that my stomach works as well as it does. We sure do a lot to ruin it.
But we are aware of the fact that our body is wonderfully made and put together. But the body of Christ is just as wonderfully made and put together and made to function. And wouldn't it be a tragedy if I were to go through all of my life and never know the function of my hands or my fingers? just think what a fix I'd be in my life. If I were going to try to wash my hand tomorrow and just use one hand, wouldn't I have an awful time? Sure. I get the water in the basin and I go around like that.
But if I have another hand available, my head tells it what to do, why I can go like this and my hand seems the way it goes. But to have a body with members in it that never functioned through our life would be a strange thing indeed. And yet we have that in Christendom. We have Christians in the body of Christ that don't really know why they're there or what they're supposed to do in a way of functioning. And this is what I'd like to think with you about for a little while. Now there's three great studies that we can direct toward the Lord Jesus. First of all, I think we did study to profit his saviorship.
I don't know whether that's in Webster's dictionary or not, but you just have received a new word for your vocabulary, perhaps saviorhood, but the second one is his lordship. The third one would be his headship. Now, I have heard a great deal about his saviorship, and if I hadn't, I never would have been saved. I have heard considerably less about his lordship. and I've heard intimately less about His headship. I dare say there's hardly a person here tonight, but you know what I'm speaking about when I speak about the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
I think even the children know something about that. You've learned that in Sunday school. But there are less that have heard anything about His Lordship, and there are even a fewer number than know anything at all whatsoever about the headship of Christ. They don't know what you're talking about. They cannot possibly conceive what you're babbling about when you talk about the headship of Christ. Now, when we speak about His Savior'ship, this brings me to the importance of the gospel, and I know that through the gospel I am brought into relationships with God. That's wonderful. It's eternal.
In Lordship, I brought face to face with my responsibility, my allegiance to Him. When it comes to headship, this brings me face to face with function in the body of Christ. Lordship is individual. You don't go into a group of Christians and say, well, now I know something about the Lordship of Christ. This is just as personal as salvation. But when it comes down to headship, we find that that brings us into another sphere. And this is very seldom invaded by many Christians.
Many Christians, I believe, know so very little about it. And I think this is one of the reasons why so many testimonies today are staggering when they should be walking and they are stumbling around when they should be running in the race for God. Many Christians simply are bench warmers. They don't know any more about their function in the assembly than to come and sit in a meeting and listen to a preacher either doing well or not doing well, as the case may be. I know more about one phase than I do the other. But whenever you speak about function, it always has to do with the body.
Headship has to do with the body. The lordship of Christ has to do with with me and him as an individual. I'm brought into a relationship with him and as Lord in Lordship I see that I have got responsibilities and I have things that tie me in to him in an individual way. So when it comes to headship this speaks about the function of the body. Now there are two epistles that deal with this subject very thoroughly. One of them is the epistle known as the Ephesians, and the other is the letter to the Colossians.
And out of the ninety-five verses in the letter to the Colossians, seventy-eight of them are found almost verbatim or at least in substance in the epistle to the Ephesians. Isn't that interesting? There are three great references to headship in the letter to the Ephesians. They are in the first chapter, verse twenty-two, and in the fourth chapter, verse fifteen, and in the fifth chapter, verse twenty-three. When we go to the book of Colossians, there are three outstanding references to his headship. Colossians one, nineteen, or eighteen.
Colossians two and ten. And then Colossians two and nineteen. And yet these two epistles give us different views on the subject of the headship of Christ. For example, when we turn to the Ephesian epistle, we find that the emphasis there is that the church is the fullness of Christ. So when you go to the Colossians, we find that Christ is the fullness of the church. It's just in reverse, the emphasis. And when we come to the Ephesian letter, we find that it's the church which is his body. But in the letter to the Colossians, it's Christ who is the head of the body, you see.
And in Ephesians, the exhortation is for the believer to walk worthy of his vocation. That's his responsibility. In Colossians, he is to hold fast ahead. That's his privilege. And there are some contrasts, like in the letter to the Ephesians, there's numerous references to the Holy Spirit. There's not out to let there be verse eight in Colossians one. There are no references to the Holy Spirit there. It might be that the Holy Spirit is essential for the functioning of the body, but in the letter to the Colossians, why we find that Christ is magnified before us and the Holy Spirit true to his ministry concerning the Lord Jesus is in the background, he's out of sight, and Christ is preempted.
And in all things he might have the preempted, and the Holy Spirit is at work set aside so that we might fasten our eyes upon the preeminence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we have in the headship of the Lord Jesus, we see that he is sufficient for the believer's authority. He is sufficient for the believers develop. He is sufficient for, he is the sum substance of supremacy. You see, in the letter to the Colossians, Paul was dealing with a very terrible teaching that had been encroaching the minds of the believers there that Christ wasn't enough.
That's what they were trying to say. They were trying to say, well, we have got information from outer space We have got, we know something about the order of angels, and we know something about things that you don't know, and unless you know these things, well, you don't know very much. And then Paul turns around and says that Christ is all and in all, that he is everything. And they said, if you don't have these things, you don't have very much. And Paul says, well, he says, let's put it like this. Christ is everything. And if you have him, you've got everything. Christ is not only sufficient, he is enough. And that's what he's bringing up. Now, my purpose tonight is to speak a little bit about the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ in relation to your and my function in the body of Christ.
Shall we turn now to Ephesians chapter four? Verse seven. but unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of a gift of Christ. Please know it. Paul says, Unto every one of us is given grace. There are no exceptions. This body of mind has received grace through the wisdom of the Creator. so that I don't have unless it would be my appendix and maybe someday they'll find out what it was there for and for nothing else to help the physicians to make a living.
So they don't even need the appendix that they do. But all of these members are in their place to serve a function. and he says every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ wherefore he said when he ascended on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men verse ten or verse eleven and he gave some apostles some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers now some see pastor, teacher as being one and the same. Other able men see there could be a difference here, but be that as it may.
These are the gifts that God has given through the Lord Jesus Christ to the church. I want to say here that what we have in verse eleven are men gifts. They are men gifts. Later on we're going to see that we have gifted men, but these are men gifts. These men in themselves are God's gift to the church. They are the evangelists. Now the apostles and the prophets have passed off the scenes. They were in the foundational work of the church. But we have with us yet the evangelists, pastors, teachers. And their function and their ministry is worldwide.
If a man is an evangelist in Iowa, he will be an evangelist in Nebraska. Now there are some aspects of the function in the body of Christ, which are purely local. Elders are local. If a man is an elder in Eddyville, it doesn't necessarily mean that if he goes to Atlantic, he will be an elder there. I believe that in every local situation, You have those who are functioning as elders who are the best qualified in that particular place. Many have got the idea, well, I don't know whether any of us is qualified to be an elder. Read the qualifications of an elder. You say, well, I don't know whether we got an elder in the place.
I don't know whether there's an elder in the United States. Well, that may be that very few people. I don't think I can recall very many that I could say have fulfilled the qualifications to see, but there are those that come the closest to it. I knew a man who functioned as an elder and an assembly down south, and he smoked and chewed tobacco, and he could hit a pan under a stove that twelve feet never missed. He was an elder. And all of the rest of the Christians were just light. They were just light, Pastor.
Not only was he at the back of a smoker and chewer, but he didn't have any teeth. How did anybody in the meeting had teeth? He could put a walnut between his nose and his chin and he could walk around all day with him. And they said one day about me, they said, you know, that link that he sure is a Yankee. He sure is a Yankee. And I heard them talking, discussing me, you know, and they said, he sure is a Yankee. Yeah, he sure hates Tabaki. He sure hates Tabaki. So next time I had a little Bible study, I said, well, I said, I was glad to see that all you brethren here are Israelites. But I said, you are modern Israelites.
And they looked at me, now they knew their Bible. I said, you know, in the olden days, when the pillar of cloud got up and moved by, everybody picked up the stakes of his tent and got up and followed the cloud. I said, you're modern, there's a light. Wherever you go, I said, I see the cloud following you. Now, that dear man, if he were to come to Eddyville or Atlantic or Lyman's, I don't think that he would be considered an elder there. But he was the best they had on where he was. God gives us the pattern for what he expects an elder to be or a deacon.
And tell me why we don't hear more about deacons in the ascendant. We were discussing it at the table today and we come to the conclusion that the reason so little is said about deacons is because we've got our wires crossed and we've got elders doing deacons work. and going underneath the name or a designation of an elder, and consequently we're not getting the work of elders that should be done. They're running the assembly from a business meeting, and that's disastrous. There's nothing more fatal to an assembly than to quickly call a huddle on the five-yard line and say, well, you know, Uncle Frank, he did this and that.
Well, what are we going to do? Well, I don't know. How long do you think we get this job over? About ten minutes, we all get it done, and you know they get it done in the business room. That's not the way that elders run to take care of God's work. But anyhow, these are men gifts. Then, we notice in verse twelve, for the perfecting of the saints. Now, there are three things here. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, that's the second thing, and for the edifying of the body of Christ. Now I believe these are in exact order. I believe that these are in divine order for the perfection of the saints. That doesn't mean that they're to be brought into a state of sinless perfection. Not a bit of it.
This word perfection means for the completion of that which is lacking in belief. Now when a person is saved, he definitely needs a lot of help. and the teaching should be directed with the idea of supplying in the areas where he lacks. He needs to know about the assurance of the believer. He needs to know about the security that he has in Christ. He needs to know about his... His nature, that there's two natures, there's the old nature and there's the new. He needs to learn something about baptism, about the Lord's Supper.
He needs to know something about giving, stewardship. He needs to know something about witnessing, testimony. And these things are things that he has to know because if he doesn't know them, he is not complete. But when he knows these things, is that the end? No, no. Next thing says, for the work of the ministry. Now these things are to be brought to the believer to encourage completeness and development so that the work of the ministry can be carried on. And then it says, for the edifying of the body of Christ, for the building up of the body of Christ, there is supplying that which is lacking.
This is on the part of teachers. And then there is that part which is essential for the work of the ministry and then this building up. And this is a complete sight, as I see from the scripture. Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God and to a perfect man under the measure of the stature and the fullness of Christ. This is God's goal. This is his purpose. This is what the church is to accomplish in its function, in its ministry. This is the internal ministry. that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and cared about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning and craftiness whereby they would lie in wait to deceive.
This was also a bulwark against the onslaught of the enemy. But seeking the truth in love may go up into him in all things, which is the head even crest. Now what does this mean? This means that Christ the head is complete and glorified as the body is developing and ministered within itself and is that applied. From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies according to the effectual working in the measure of every part that takes in you and me.
making increase of the body unto the edifying, notice this please, of the edifying of itself in love. Now there is a ministry in verse eleven which is to the body by the men gift. Then in verse sixteen we find there is a ministry within the body. That's where you and I are. Are you functioning? in the body of Christ? What do you supply in that body? This is very important to see. I want to go now to First Corinthians chapter twelve and see this in a little greater detail.
Now when you've got the gifts, the men gifts, I call them that, so we can make a little distinction, the men gifts, evangelists, pastors, teachers, then we have gifts within. People, Christians, believers function in a slight joint. Each part of the body functioning and playing an important role with the development of that body. And it's the ministry within the body. Now let's see a little more about this in the twelfth chapter, first Corinthians, in verse fifteen and sixteen. If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, Is it therefore not of the body?
And if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? Now, we're going to notice three things that Paul brings before us here in connection with the function of the body. First of all, he says there's no room for a discouraged spirit. Because, you know, people look around and say, well, because I'm not this and I'm not that, well, then I guess I'm not in it. I can't preach. How many times I've heard Christians say, well, I can't preach. I guess all I am is a bench woman. Well, I can't do this and I can't do that. John Wallen made one of the most classic statements I ever heard a long time ago.
He was ministering and he'd gone to see a woman who was very ill and couldn't get out. She says, John, I don't know why God lets me live. And John looked at her. She was all crippled up, crippled up with arthritis and everything like that. Couldn't get out to meeting. Had to go and read to her and pray with her. And they talked along. She says, well, I don't know why God lets me live. And John said, well, I began to wonder too. Sitting there just all scribbled up. So John was about to leave and She looked up, she says, John, she says, I just wanted you to know something. There's never gone a day by, but I've prayed for it.
John says, I knew why. God let her live. You see, there's not one, but he can exercise something for the building up of that body. Everybody looks. Now, there's no room for a discouragement. Because he said, just because one member said, well, I'm not the foot, I guess I'm not of the body. I can't do this. That's a discouraged spirit. How many Christians could we put on a rap category for nothing? You're not doing anything because you look around and say, well, I can't do what my life can do. I can't sing. I can't do this.
I can't do that. So consequently, a lot of them have gotten onto the bench of do nothing and say, well, I guess I can't do anything. And I've never really seriously considered what they can do. There are things that you can do. If every member, and I don't think there's a member in my body, but every one of them is functional, or I couldn't be on this platform tonight. I've never seen my leg bone. I felt it different times. But I'll tell you, if I didn't have bones in my legs, I'd look like a jellyfish up here tonight. I don't know what good my skull is. I don't know whether I have very many brains to protect or not, but if somebody removed my skull and just had a skin like a banana hanging over the top of my shoulder blades wouldn't look very good either.
But everything has got a function, it's got a purpose. And there's no reason for anybody to say, well, I guess I'm not out of the body for if I can't do this. Then the second thing that he brings out is in verse seventeen. If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members, every one of them, in the body as it has pleased him? And if they were all one member, where was the body? It's a good question. There's no room for a superior spirit, don't you see? No room for a superior spirit here.
because one land doesn't have it all. Now wouldn't it be great if I were all nose, almost damn, my wife constantly reminds me how big the nose is. J.J. Rouse had an awfully large nose. He was sitting on a train one time and some person sitting by him kept looking over his nose and finally had the nerve to ask him, how come your nose is so big? And his brother Ralph says, because I keep it out of other people's business. But we would be a monstrosity body if we were just one man. Now what member would you like to be?
A great big eye? and just roll along the street? No. All these members together constitute one's own. Now, I don't think there's any member I would like to buy a thought. I had very bad habit when I rushed around my room upstairs of straddling the bed, the legs of the bed with my little toe and the toe next to it. And I'll tell you, I don't know of anything more excruciating than the straddle that bedside. I've had my toes turn black and blue, and I do an Indian ward end. You know, when I stub my little toe, that little bitty thing, I grab that toe, and I sit there, and I fold.
I say, oh, my, my, my, my. Either that you rashly told you are to cut you off. Oh, no, I got both hands around. And I put all my toe, my toe, my wife says, what happened now? I said, oh, I stubbed my toe. And I go, and then I get some linen. I get some morning, and I put on all of the tenderness. And I was just careful when I put my sock on. I didn't go to walk with it. My whole body was sympathetic with my little toe. Isn't that amazing? There's only we can realize that we need each other. There's no room for a superior spirit in the body of Christ.
There's not one man that's got all in the ability, all the gift to carry on the function of an attempt. Now I'm going to start with somebody with something that I copied out of my commentary, written by some men that I don't suppose have any connection with any assembly such as he knows. I want you to know what he says in connection with that twelve person in Ephesians four while we're on it. He says, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, the two uses of the word for, represent two different prepositions in the original.
Boy, my ears picked up when I come across that. These gifts were given by God to the church for the perfecting of the saints. It says for the work of the ministry, but he says that second word for would be better rendered unto. Read it like this. For the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry. That is, there are to be perfected and helped and strengthened and taught unto the work of the ministry. That is, every believer is to be edified and built up unto the work of the ministry. Isn't that a far cry from Christ? What do we got?
We got one man. He's the minister of the church. One big toe or one big mouth or whatever you want to call. He marches in there and everybody's great big ears. Big mouth and big ears. That is, it is the business of all the saints, not a few leaders only, to carry on the work of the ministry. The leaders are for the purpose of perfecting or equipping believers to carry on this work. Most local churches today do not follow this New Testament idea. This was written in a commentary by a man. I say that probably won't. Nothing about the way you gather.
It is. It is a common practice to let the pastors do the minute. And it's okay. While we're on that, I'm going to read you something from the Moody Monthly magazine. Brother, the clerk, he said something he was a little bit concerned. I don't know if I can find a place I have in here. I have a little something I want to read from this article. I wish he wouldn't make that line of Jesus. Here it is.
This whole article blocks all of this about church renewal. It's an interesting thing here about the man by the name of Stedman. He says the work of the ministry lies primarily in the hands of laymen, not the pastor. Now, that's the way he puts Sedman, for instance, reminds us that over the centuries the ministry drifted into the hands of professionals. Is that right? When this happened, he says, there was nothing left for the people to do other than to come to church and listen. They were told that it was their responsibility to bring the world into the church building to hear the pastor preach the gospel. Soon Christianity became nothing but a spectator's force.
very much akin to the definition of football, twenty-two men down on the field desperately in need of rest, and twenty thousand people in the sand desperately in need of exercise. Pretty good? The fifth undivocal distortion, he contends, has placed pastors on an unbearable burden. They have proved completely unequal to the task of evangelizing the world, counseling the foreign needies, relieving the oppressed and the afflicted, expounding the scriptures and challenging the entrenched forces of evil, in increasing the darkened world, they were never intended to do it.
We even attempted it to end up frustrated, exhausted, and emotionally drained, and so on. He brings up, in this article, and I think it's rather striking that In the fundamental circle today, there is an awareness on the part of many Christians that the way it's being carried on is unscriptural and not even New Testament teaching being carried on. So that they see in these areas that the one man hasn't got the answer. And this is what certainly strikes me. That in the assemblies where I first learned these truths forty years ago, I find the truths that these men are beginning to discover in the practice, in the fundamental circles, are the early truths that some of our men are abandoned.
How can you explain that? Known for a superior spirit. The football team of eleven quarterbacks now isn't going to win many games. We don't need that increase. We need a body that's functioning, each one contributing what he can. And then there is no room, of course, here for an independent spirit either. In verse twenty-one, and the I cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee, nor again the heads of the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more, those members of the body which seem to be more people are necessary.
No room for an independent spirit. But I don't need you. That's a cool thing. I remember sitting about Taylor and Cloakman, who was out on a lion hunt. You know, he was a missionary in Africa. And somebody told me this. I don't know where I'm doing this. He was out on a lion hunt, and he fired at this big lion, and he just moved it. Well, that's disastrous when you move the lion, and you don't kill him the first shot. It's just, I'm going to close. I have been very alarmed as I move around in various places to see how that there is a growing tendency today to try to bring in something to make it easier for the assembly to function, and that is to bring in one man, even if you have to hire him.
hire that man and let him do all the preaching, let him do the praying, let him do the visiting, and you do the paying. Be sure to do the paying, because if you don't pay, he's not going to preach. I'll guarantee you, he's not going to stay around very long. I remember how in Gothel, Kansas a number of years ago, the preacher that had at the Alexander Wall Church, very politely died, left eighteen hundred and fifty members without a pastor, and they were desperately trying to to hire someone to be the pastor, and they asked me, what are you telling you to get a good pastor? He said, all of them want to know what salary is first. I said, I'll tell you how to find out if you get a pretty good one.
You say, well, we've got eighteen hundred and fifty people that need help. We've got a lot of sick people to call on. We've got a lot of people that are in trouble. We've got a lot of this and mention all of the needs. And don't say one word about the salary. Just say, as far as the salary goes, we'll just leave that with the Lord. Oh, they said no need come there. No need come. But it's alarming when I see how that in some quarters, the drift is to get one man in that's going to do it all. There's three conditions, I think, that are conducive to this sort of a setup. First of all, I think the little tiny discouraged assembly is a sitting duck for this sort of thing.
There's only one thing in its favor. There's not too many men that want to assume the pastures are a little broken down, little run-down meat with a little handful of discouraged Christians. But these are the ones sometimes that are looking for somebody, and it will only, if you just come in and give us a hand, it's still destined. Those are the ones I think that are in the position of becoming victims of that sort of thing. The second condition, I think, arises out of the testimony that's lazy. They've got enough Christians.
There's enough gifts in that assembly, but they don't want to be bothered with the responsibility. You remember that Esau sold his birthright for a morsel, just a little bit of vegetable soup. Now, why did he do this? It says that he wanted to inherit the blessing. He wanted the blessing, but he didn't want the responsibility that went along with being the firstborn. That's what. Everybody wants the blessing today, but how many want the responsibility? And this seems to me to be the downfall of numerous places that are looking for a way out so they can go out and do their thing and tend to their business, tend to their pleasure.
And there are not too many men that want to exercise their gifts. Not too many men that knock off and go and call on people in the hospital and visit these and pray with them and so on. I tell you, you don't find too many Christians in the average assembly that are doing this. I say, shame. There should be men to do those kinds of things. And it left us to watch. Even back in Wichita, they'll wait. Well, Len's coming home. He yields it. He yields it. And that's why I'm gone so many times and make it. Just show them that you can't depend on one person. And then, of course, I think the third condition is the keeping up with the Jones idea.
We want to pay off our billing. You know, we got a new billing and got a lot of payments. We want to step on anybody's toes. We want to get it as big as we can. And so in order to do that, we want to get in the best people we can. We don't want anybody up there that's just a working man. And I've met some of these brethren and they're calling themselves the pastor of that assembly. They're the pastor. Isn't that a strange thing? You know, when the Lord Jesus was coming down the road in John's song that day, he says, Behold the Lamb of God, which bears away the sin of the world. Why did he say that? Because when he said he was the Lamb, it meant there weren't any other lands.
You can quit looking. He was the answer to man's needs. Jesus says, I am the way. That meant there aren't any other ways. He says, I am the way, the truth. He is not only true, but he embodies all that truth ever could be in it. He says, some... substance of all truth. He is truth. And he says, I am the light. The light, the way, the truth. And you never meet any man even in denominational circles who say, well, I am the evangelist. Bill Jones, evangelist. Or so on so, a Bible teacher. But isn't it strange that men will say, I'm the pastor?
I talk to these men and they're greatly disturbed because they want to take that title. They want to be the pastor over the group, over the flock of God. I've had people say, are you the pastor of this place? Many a time after the message goes, oh, you're the pastor of this and all. I'm not the pastor anymore. And I can see their shoulders drop. a little bit disappointed. I say, you see that man over there? I said, he's attached. I said, you see that one over there? He said, oh, you've got more than one? Oh, yeah. Why, we've only got, I've only seen one. We've got more than one. It gives me a chance to explain something about the New Testament order of things.
Why, I hope that we don't abandon these truths that are workable because our head, the headship of Christ, means that I am in obedience to what he wants to do in and with his body. Are you functioning in the body of Christ? Talk with the Lord of us. Have a talk with us as to what your part is in the body of Christ. And then let's function. And if we did that, And neither would be a great deterrent to the encroaching of these truths and to be pardoned from them.
And it would be for the blessing of many, many little attendants. Don't wave around for somebody to come and push a magic button. I know most of you are from, small attendees. But you get in there and function in the way God wants you to do. And God will bless you. You will see that his way is the best way for me.