Christ and the Church

Address—D. Andersen
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General Meetings, Toledo, November 1974, Addressed by Dan Anderson.
Word afford and in connection with that him, Before we sing it, I want to read one portion of scripture in First Corinthians.
Chapter 6.
Verse 17.
He that is joined unto the Lord is 1 Spirit.
210.
One Spirit.
With.
All.
It seems that.
The Lord has.
Laid it upon my heart.
To talk with you, dear young people.
About Christ and the Church.
Now this is a large subject.
And we'll be able to touch upon only a few things, I'm sure.
But if we can carry with us away from this meeting one important thought in connection with Christ and the Church.
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It will not have been in vain to be here.
Now the speaker does not profess to know everything about Christ in the church.
But I do thank God for the little bit that he has showed me.
I suppose it started way back years ago.
When the Lord began to exercise my soul about separation.
I saw things going on in denominational circles.
That disturbed me.
And there came a point when I was still a young man.
In college.
To take a stand for Christ and his truth.
To take a stand against doctrinal evil and moral evil.
That I saw was allowed to go on in the circles.
Where I was.
It wasn't easy to take that stand.
But I believe God by his grace, enabled me to do it.
I didn't realize at that time that God was beginning a work in me.
In connection with the truth of Christ and the Church.
But God knows how to teach us.
And God knew where to begin.
Well, I was exercised about separation, but the kind of separation that I entered into at that time was only.
Separation from 1 sect to another one.
But God had begun it.
And as he led me on, I began to see other things I remember.
One time being in Chicago.
And I attended.
I attended a big denominational convention in the Coliseum in Chicago.
And the Lord put me through some exercise there.
That was good for me.
I saw one man get on the platform.
And he gave a good sound gospel message.
But there were two speakers that afternoon.
And the next one got on the platform.
And actually, by what he said, he tore down everything that the other one had said.
It was not the truth.
And I wondered at that time how it could be that from the same platform?
And under the heading of the same denomination.
We could get.
Truth and error from the same platform and seemingly nobody said anything or did anything about it.
It wasn't until years later over in the Belgian Congo.
When the Lord began to show me something of the truth of the one body.
And membership of the one Body, and headship of Christ of the body it was until then.
That I began to realize why there could be a condition like that where evil and truth.
Could stand alongside one another in a convention like that.
The particular denomination I was connected with had forged principle, the independency of churches. Every church was independent of every other church.
And so I found that sometimes in a fundamental, godly church.
They might find their preacher was teaching error. They promptly dismissed him.
But what I saw happen over and over again was that this particular one, or particular ones who were dismissed from one church, they were hired by the next church.
Why? Because there was not an acting upon the fact that we are one body.
They had not seen that blessed truth.
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They had not seen that if a man was dismissed in one place, he should be considered dismissed everywhere.
I became deeply exercised about that, especially when I began to see the truth of the one body and that our responsibility was to act as members of one body.
There is one body and one spirit we read in Ephesians chapter 4.
There is one body and one spirit.
Well, it took some time before I came out into more light, but oh, I thank God for those years.
In Africa, as it were in the backside of the desert.
Having God speak to me and show me from his own precious words something.
Of the truth of Christ and the Church.
Now let us turn to 1St Corinthians chapter 12.
Verse 12 For as the body is 1 and half many members, and all the members of that one body being many or one body, so also is Christ.
For by 1 Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into or of 1 Spirit.
Paul writes to the Ephesians There is one body and one spirit here. We have the same thing, don't we? But something added.
Whereas the body is 1 Speaking of the human body, and the Apostle Paul uses the human body as an illustration of the body of Christ.
And when we're Speaking of Christ and the Church, Christ and the Church are the one Body.
Christ is the head and we the body, and all of us members.
Of that one body together with Christ are viewed as the body, and here in this portion of Scripture.
It says so also is Christ.
Christ and the Church together are one, and it has a name.
And the name of it is Christ.
That's all we know. We belong to Christ. Join to the Lord one spirit with the Lord.
And we have his name. What a privilege to have his name. And how wonderful to see that there's no confusion in Scripture about this.
Not confusion like we see in Christendom. Different ones, different groups having different names.
We have only one name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is what the Lord was referring to when he said, Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them.
Do we reverence that name? Do we make much of that name? Does that name mean anything to us?
What a name, The name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That name which is above every name, and when it speaks of the name which is above every name, it's the name of Jesus. But at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.
Now there may be some young people here this afternoon who have not yet accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. They have not confessed him as Lord. They haven't bowed to the name of Jesus. Now is the time for that.
Now is the time to bow to the name of the Lord Jesus. Don't wait because every knee should bow. Every knee will have to bow to the name of Jesus, whether now or in the future, whether now or at the Great White throne.
And those who bow at the Great White Throne will find that it only means their doom, because it will be too late to benefit by bowing.
It means that they bow and receive the judgment from the Lord. Oh what a solemn thing. Oh bow to the name of Jesus now, confess him as Lord now.
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But I believe most of the young people here this afternoon have received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.
When you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
Was it sort of a formal thing with you?
A routine thing.
Or did you have the assurance in your soul that by faith?
And the Lord Jesus Christ, you received eternal life and the forgiveness of your sin.
And wasn't an experience which caused you to bow before the Lord, the name of Jesus? Anonymous law?
Well, I believe that there are those who have really bowed to the name of Jesus.
And He is your Lord. Perhaps there are others that haven't really entered into what it is to have Jesus as Lord.
You can enter into it now, and if you haven't entered into it, ask the Lord by His grace that you might enter into this, because it's so important to own Jesus as Lord.
The Lord of your life.
One Spirit.
With the law he that is joined to the Lord is 1 Spirit. Why does it say that? Why doesn't it say join to Christ? Because that is true. Well there in that particular scripture it says join to the law.
And I believe when we enter into being joined to the Lord, what it means to be joined to him.
Will bow to him as our Lord.
Now we have here brought before us the illustration of a human body, whereas the body is 1 and have many members.
And all the members of that one body that is human body being many are one body.
Everyone of us.
Has a body a human body.
It has a head.
And it has members.
But the whole is spoken of as the body.
There we have a picture of Christ and the Church, the body, the body of Christ.
The body of Christ has a head, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The saved ones are members of that body, and all together they form the one body together with Christ the head to whom they're joined.
Now it says in that verse of scripture in First Corinthians 6 he that is joined unto the Lord.
Is 1 spirit.
Here in this scripture it tells us for one by one spirit.
Are we all baptized into one body? We find that the Holy Spirit.
Acts in connection with joining us to Christ, the head of the body.
You say you're saved.
What does it mean to be saved?
Well, it's a little different from having life.
Leavers in the Old Testament had life. They were children of God.
But it couldn't really be said that they were saved because they did not have the Holy Spirit.
And they had not been joined to Christ.
And they were not united to Christ in the heavenlies as we are, and blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in him.
You say you're saved. You have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and accepted him as your savior.
And you are conscious of the fact that your sins are forgiven and that you have eternal life.
You call God your Father.
The Holy Spirit has come to dwell in your heart.
And it's that Holy Spirit that has joined you through the Lord Jesus Christ ahead in the glory.
Not only that, but that Holy Spirit has joined you to every other one who is saved.
And as the Holy Spirit joining us to Christ and joining us to one another.
That makes US1 body. Surely This is why it says there is one body.
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And one spirit.
The One Spirit. The Holy Spirit.
Would occupy us with Christ. The gospel is preached. The Spirit of God is at work.
To impress your soul with the fact that you need the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior.
He is the one that's come into this world to convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
And He is the one that makes you see that you need the Lord Jesus Christ, that you need His sacrifice on Calvary. You need His precious blood to wash your sins away.
The Holy Spirit is the one who is at work, and I trust that the Spirit of God might be free to work.
In these meetings, in the gospel meetings, In the reading meetings, in the ministry of the Word.
In such a way that we will be really impressed and helped and encouraged.
And that we might grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Oh, what a work the Spirit of God did on the day of Pentecost when he came down.
And he baptized all those believers there in that upper room into one body.
And join them to the Lord Jesus Christ who had gone to glory.
And that was the day that the body, the Church of God, was formed.
Here on Earth.
Those 120 believers in that upper room were all joined together into one unit. They had not been that way before. They had been individual believers, individual children of God.
But they had not been joined together into one unit.
Nor had they been joined by the Spirit of God to Christ in glory.
But that's what took place on that day, the day of Pentecost.
Now I'm sure that most of you here have heard these things before, but.
There's always the chance that some have not heard it, and it's like with the gospel.
I don't believe it's in vain to go over and over again.
Because we have a tendency to forget these wonderful truths.
And some of the things that go on in Christendom, and even among ourselves, tells me.
That.
These truths are being forgotten. We may have them in a certain way in our heads.
We may have been exposed to them intellectually.
But all what's needed is for them to get hold of our hearts.
And to get down into our feet.
That we might have Truth in Boots, as one late brother expressed it, Truth in Boots.
It's not enough simply to talk about the one body, that we're members of one body and we're responsible to act as one body.
But we must see it for ourselves, each one individually.
That we have responsibility to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.
To act as members of one body.
Now getting back to the illustration we have here of a human body the.
You know very well.
Why? You have the different members of the body? They're all necessary because this is an expression we get further down in this chapter, verse 22. Nay, much more. Those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary. All the members of the body are necessary.
And maybe a man has lost his right arm.
Or his right hand.
As long as he had two hands, he could easily wash his hands, one washing the other.
But now he doesn't have a hand over here and he has just one hand. How is he going to wash this hand? It becomes increasingly difficult, doesn't it, to wash that one hand? How can it wash itself? How is he going to get it washed?
All the hands need each other.
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And as you sit and meditate upon this, you can see how the different parts of the body need each other.
How about the person that doesn't have any hands?
And he sits down to a nice supper. How is he going to eat it?
How is he going to eat it?
The hands serve the head serve the mouth.
And the more feeble members are necessary.
And I noticed down here in verse 21.
The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee.
The eye.
Cannot say to the hand I don't need you.
What when you if you get a piece of dirt?
Into your eyes and if you didn't have a hand.
How would you attempt to get it out?
And if you didn't have a hand you wanted to shield your eye from the sun, how would you do it?
Well, these are just simple things, but I think we need it simply to impress upon us how needful the various members of the human body are. But what's the Apostle Paul teaching us?
How necessary the members of Christ body are.
The members of the one body.
You need me and I need you.
We need one another.
All that we might see this, all that we might feel it, and I trust that the Spirit of God will bring home to our hearts.
Something of what it means to be a member of the Body of Christ, to be part of Christ and the Church.
It tells us here.
So also is Christ. In verse 12 so also is Christ.
Been telling us about the human body. It's one has many members, but all those members are one body.
Being many are one body.
So also is Christ. That's a mystical body. That's the new man that Paul speaks of in Ephesians chapter two, made-up of Jew and Gentile believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Newman, the Mystical Man, One Body, the Mystic Body, the Body of Christ, Christ in the Church.
So also is Christ.
Oh, I trust that we might get a vision of that this afternoon.
To see what it is to be members one of another part of that one body, and to be joined to Christ the head and the glory.
Now notice further in that 21St verse.
Nor again the head.
Through the feet. I have no need of you when I first saw that.
When that came home to me with power.
It moved me.
The head. Who's the head? Christ.
He cannot say to the feet the lowest member. I have no need of these.
The Lord Jesus Christ needs everyone of his members, everyone of the members of his body. He needs them. He needs you.
You, dear child of God, dear young person, who knows the Lord is your savior, concealed by the Spirit of God, joined to Christ.
And joined to all other believers. He needs you. Christ needs you.
Now if you were looking.
At the context of that verse in First Corinthians 6 that I read.
You would notice there that it speaks about being joined to a harlot.
Dear young people.
The harlots, often in Scripture, speaks of or symbolic of the false systems of religion.
If we're joined to these things, we're not true to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Think of a man who's married.
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And he joins himself with a harlot. Is he true to his wife? No. You say that that's infidelity.
But when it comes into the spiritual realm, so often we act in a similar way. We act on the same principle. We're careless about, but we're joined to.
What we get linked up with, what we're associated with.
This is being true to Christ.
Oh, I trust.
But we might see something in the Scripture that will really stir us up.
And want us, make us want to be true and faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Just think of all he has done for us. Christ loved the church and gave himself for.
Christ loved the Church and gave himself for.
Speaking of the truth of Christ and the Church, we actually find it all the way through Scripture.
However, we didn't know it was in the Old Testament until we had the New Testament revelation through the Apostle Paul. Nor we didn't know it was there in the Old Testament. It was hidden there. In a sense, it tells us in Ephesians chapter three that it was hidden in God because the truth of Christ in the church was a mystery or secret thing, or it was a hidden thing hidden in God, hidden in the counsels of God.
He hadn't revealed it in the Old Testament.
But when you come to such a scripture like we have in chapter 2 of Genesis.
Where it speaks of Adam and Eve, and how Eve was formed and given to Adam.
We find out that that's a type of Christ and the church.
In fact, the Apostle Paul, if you turn to Ephesians chapter four or five.
Ephesians chapter 5.
You'll find that the Apostle Paul makes, reference or quotes a scripture that's found in that second chapter of Genesis.
Ephesians chapter 5.
31.
And I'll read verse 30 with it.
For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Can you think of anything more intimate than that when we're joined to Christ?
We are made members of his body, of His flesh, and of his bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife.
And they too shall be 1 Flesh. That is a quotation from Genesis, the second chapter. Well, what does this mean? It means that the Apostle Paul, by the Spirit of God, is taking that chapter back there, and he's connecting it with this truth of the church that He's bringing before us.
He's really saying Adam and Eve are a type of Christ and the Church.
And then there are other types in the Old Testament.
You think of Isaac and Rebecca.
Type of Christ and the Church.
And Joseph down there in Egypt, taking a gentile bride, Asana.
And there are others.
This truth was hidden in God.
And God was keeping it.
In his counsel.
But God, saying it reverently, was so full of this precious truth.
This precious thing.
He was so full.
Of this precious thing, that Christ his Son was going to have a bride, that he must tell it out.
Not so that men could see it or understand it.
But for his own enjoyment. And so he pictured Christ and the Church.
And Adam and Eve.
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I believe this tells us how wonderful this truth was as far as God was concerned.
But there was a time for it to be revealed, and God didn't reveal it before time. God knows just when to do things.
And oh, what a day it was when God could open up his heart.
And tell us about Christ and his church about Christ.
And you and me, all of us together, who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, this was a wonderful day for God when he could give this revelation.
And it came through Paul's servant Paul.
In Christendom generally.
The epistles of the Apostle Paul are not read.
And this is one reason why this blessed truth is not more known than it is in fact. In some places, it's unknown altogether. In many places they read only the Gospels, if they read any of the New Testament.
I realized that when I first began to see the truth.
I found out that if I had to learn the truth concerning Christ in the church, I'd have to get into the Epistles.
I translated the Gospel of John into the native tongue in Africa, and I got many good things from that. If this from that gospel.
Oh God, used it to speak to my soul. Then I remember when I translated.
The Epistles to the Corinthians.
God began to speak to me more.
This truth is here. I didn't know it before, but it was in the word of God, and God was showing it to me.
Then our translated Ephesians.
The Lord kept showing me more and more until I realized.
I could not stay with denominationalism anymore.
There was only one body, and I wanted to acknowledge that I belong to that and that alone.
And was joined to Christ the head and the glory. I had no human head.
Well, this went on until I finally wanted to find those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ on the ground of the one body.
The first ones I came in contact with were some who professed to be gathered, professed to be brethren, gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What I found as I went on with them and learned more of their principles and ways.
That they were really not gathered on the ground of the one body. They were gathered on the ground of independent churches.
And that is what I had left when I left the denomination the ground of independent churches.
And I found myself on the same ground with these who profess to be gathered.
On the ground of independent churches.
And they would give out that doctrine right in their meetings. When they were pressed to it, I questioned them and they said, yes, we're gathered on the ground of independent churches.
Because I had put before them in a certain meeting.
When we were reading in the book of the Acts, and very seldom they had reading meetings in those independent assemblies.
And most of you will recognize that I'm Speaking of those who are commonly known as open brethren.
Rather speak of them as independent.
Brethren or independent assemblies because that's the ground they take.
So I put before them a case.
I said we'll take, for example that in one assembly.
They become exercised about a certain one in their midst who's going on with iniquity.
Going on instead, I didn't specify any respect particular scene.
But I said this assembly becomes exercised about putting them away from among them, this putting this person away from among themselves.
And they put him away.
This particular person goes over to an adjoining community where there's another assembly that's supposed to be in fellowship with them.
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And they are acquainted with the facts of the case. Know what this assembly has done in putting him away? He goes over there, and he wants to break bread with him.
What are they to do with him?
The responsible Brethren there in that meeting were loath to say anything.
Finally, one of them.
Became the mouthpiece for the rest of them.
And he said when that man goes over there.
They can do what they like with him.
Every assembly is in independent of every other assembly. If they want to receive him, that's that's up to them.
It was like a bombshell.
I knew I was in the wrong place.
I've been looking to the Lord to show me.
Seen these principles at work?
And I was afraid that that's the kind of thing I was connected with, but I didn't want to leave there if the Lord really was there in the midst.
And we were gathered on the ground of the truth. I didn't want to leave, but there and then I saw, no, the Lord can't be there.
They're not on the ground of the one body. They're not really gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're not subject to His authority in their midst.
I can't go on with them any long.
Well, it was really a sad day because there were many dear brethren there, there.
Amongst those assemblies.
But I couldn't go on with them. I tried to help some of them and they were. Some of them were exercised.
But they never moved. They thought more of brethren than they did of the Lord. And this is 1 principle that we'll have to learn dear young people.
To think more of the Lord than a brethren. To honor the Lord, To put him first. What does the Lord want? What does the Lord say?
Or that we might bow to him as law.
Well, the Apostle Paul goes on here in Ephesians chapter 5 and after he has made this quotation from Genesis chapter 2.
He says in verse 32. This is a great mystery.
But I speak concerning Christ and the Church.
He has just finished quoting that portion of Scripture in connection with Adam and Eve.
And then he says this is a great mystery.
But I speak concerning Christ and the Church. You see how he by this is giving us warrant to go back to the book of Genesis and use Adam and Eve as a type of Christ in the Church.
And if you study that, we might turn back there for the little while that's left.
And notice.
Some things in connection with Adam and Eve.
Genesis Chapter 2.
And what the apostle Paul is quoting in that chapter is verse 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be 1 flesh.
You see how the New Testament in the Old Testament are linked together. It's this way time and again.
And what a thrilling meditation and study it is to just go back and forth.
New Testament to the Old Testament Old Testament to the New Testament. They're constantly linked together.
And once you see a few of these things, you see, well, it's one book. It has one author.
Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
All. There are many who have attempted to read the word of God.
With man's wisdom, with man's eyes.
And they've seen only a jumble.
But when the Spirit of God helps you to read the word of God, meditate upon us. You see how it all dovetails together.
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Marvel to see how it's all linked together in the Old Testament. You get the figures, especially in the Pentateuch.
What's the Pentateuch? The five books of Moses? What are the five books of Moses?
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy in some Bibles.
In some languages into which the Bible is translated, you will find that Genesis is called the first book of Moses.
Exodus is called the second book of Moses and so on 3rd book of Moses, 4th book of Moses, 5th book of Moses, the Pentateuch, 5 books in that really one book.
God used Moses by his Holy Spirit to write that book.
And don't let anybody tell you anything else. There will be those who will be trying to tell you something else.
But when I see how in the New Testament the Lord Jesus Christ himself, when he was here on earth, quoting from the Old Testament and from Moses, he quotes from there, and he puts his shield of approval upon the whole thing. And then in the revelation from the Lord to the Apostle Paul again we see the Lord putting his seal of approval upon the Old Testament as the word of God.
This is one thing. The linking of it together shows us the design of God. God is behind it. No one else could ever have put a book together like this, written by men of different temperaments and different ways of life and so on. And you would think you would get a hodgepodge, but it isn't.
It's all cunningly put together by God himself with the Spirit of God. Move these men to write. Isn't it marvelous?
Oh, let's have more confidence in this word. Let us trust it. It's God's word, and let us have our lives ordered by.
Let's look at this second chapter of Genesis.
It says here in verse 18 the Lord God said it is not good that the man should be alone.
Don't you see now what God is talking about?
He's talking about the man Christ Jesus. All true. He was talking about Adam as well.
But can't you see in that that Adam now is merely a type of the Lord Jesus?
God did not want his beloved Son as man to be alone. It's true that when he came into this world, he was alone.
A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him. Nobody wanted anything to do with him. He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
All alone.
Why? Because there was #1 here like Christ.
He was one-of-a-kind.
The human race was another kind. All had sinned and come short of the glory of God. A fallen race, earthly race.
The Lord Jesus Christ was a heavenly 1 The heavenly mind, and he stood alone here in this scene.
But he was looking for companions.
Just like we find Adam here.
God says I will make Him and help me for him.
I don't know if you told Adam this or not.
But nevertheless we find that.
Adam was doing the work and he named all the creatures and.
And in verse 20 it says, And Adam gave names to all cattle into the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam now watch this language there was not found.
And help meet for him.
Who's looking for a help meet?
Who was looking for companion, it would seem from this?
Adam was looking for a companion, but there wasn't any.
The Blessed Lord Jesus came down into this world and he was looking for companions.
But there wasn't any.
The companion had to be made. The companion had to be formed. The companion had to be shaped.
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That was the only way the Lord Jesus could get a companion.
That's why the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus you must be born again.
You'll never be fit for heaven. You'll never be fit for the heavenly man until you're born again.
Our work has to be done.
But isn't there note of sadness here? There was not found and helped meet for him. Adam looking didn't find one.
I suppose there would be those who would think, well, if he looked at the monkey or the ape, he could find one.
But no, it didn't make any difference what the creature was. It wasn't suitable.
Why? Because Adam in that creation stood alone.
And all the animal creation was of a different order.
He was of the heavenly order as Christ. Yes, he's a type of the heavenly one. He was above the animal creation. Adam was the Adam the creation. The creature was down here on this level. Adam was up on a higher level.
And it wasn't possible to get a companion from that lower level of creation.
It wasn't possible for the Lord Jesus Christ to find a companion from the lower level.
Of the sinful race of mind.
That's why I had to go to the cross and die.
So that's what we get pictured down here now in the next.
The Lord God caused the deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
What a lovely picture.
Of that verse Christ loved the Church and gave himself for.
Christ loved the church and gave himself heart. Look at Adam going into a deep sleep.
I don't know if God told Adam what he was going to do.
But we don't need to know that.
But there's one thing about it.
Adam submitted to what God did.
And he slept that deep sleep.
But a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ going into death, laying down his life.
Voluntarily laying it down, he says. I'll lay down my life that I might take it again.
Why did he do that?
For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shape.
Well, one of the joys set before him surely was that he was going to have a bride. He was going to get a companion out of going into that deep sleep of death.
Laying down his life and his precious blood was shed there at Calvary.
And what came out of that open side?
Yes, the blood in the water came out.
But that came out from that open side dock which is the foundation of the building of the church.
Like this rib that came out of Adam's side was the foundation for the building of a companion for Adam.
In the Septuagint version.
Of this particular verse it says he built.
Up a woman on the rib.
Which emphasizes the fact that.
That rib was the foundation for the building of the woman. What came out of the sight of the Lord Jesus Christ His Precious Blood and the water is the foundation.
For the building of the church.
And then we think about the love that was poured out.
It was a rib taken from the side of Adam.
The place of the affection. The place of love.
And when you transfer this to the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see him hanging there on Calvary's cross?
You see that spear piercing aside, and out came the blood in the water.
Oh, you can see the love, the Lord Jesus Christ being poured out upon us. Poor wretched sinners.
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He poured out his love.
On the church.
And there is one thing sure.
About those who are saved, who are members of the body of Christ. They've been loved.
They have been loved with a love that's supreme and there's no love like it.
You know what happens.
When you and I get saved.
The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. That same love is shed abroad there. We love him because he first loved us.
Have you seen the love of the Lord Jesus Christ poured out upon you their Calvary?
Surely it must do something to your soul to see it.
How stirring it is?
And think about his love poured out upon us, and we didn't deserve a bit of it.
By grace are you saved through faith and not not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should force.
Oh, what? Love. Christ loved the church.
And gave himself for, pictured here in Adam.
The fact of it in Christ.
What a lesson to get from this second chapter of Genesis.
How thankful we should be that God did not keep this blessed truth hidden.
Knowing the truth, the Revelation in the New Testament, we can go back and we can get some precious things.
From these types and shadows in the Old Testament.
And then it says in the end of verse 22, and brought her unto the man.
Oh, what a day that must have been for Adam.
To see that companion, that woman, Eve.
Brought to him.
Now God didn't call her Eve. It was Adam that called her Eve, because she's the mother of all living.
Actually is because Adam had faith in God that even though sin had come in and brought in ruin.
This companion of his was to be the mother of all living, not of all dying.
And we get a precious prophecy in connection.
With all of this too, after the ruin has come in.
But all that it did must have been for Adam to have that companion.
What a day it is for the Lord Jesus Christ when a soul gets saved and is made part of his body.
Of his church.
And we're brought to Christ.
Given to him.
And oh, what about that moment when we're caught up to meet the Lord in the air? And then we'll be acknowledged by him.
As his wife, the wife of the Lamb given to him to be his for all eternity.
What a moment of joy for him.
And his joy will be. Our joy will be associated with him in his joy. Are you looking forward to it? I am.
Looking forward to being with him, to being if officially presented to himself in the glory. There's his wife and the wife. The term wife means relationship. It signifies relationship. And we're going to be in in relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ in a special way, forever.
Now notice in verse 23.
She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.
Now woman and man are virtually the same word. I understand that the one is feminine, the other masculine, but really they have the same name and it's borne out in chapter 5, which says he called their name Adam.
He called their name Adam.
What is Christ in the Church called? So also is Christ.
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May the Lord help you, dear young people.
To meditate further on this, we've just touched on the high spots, perhaps just here and there.
But I trust it might stir you to read for yourselves and meditate for yourselves, and pray over the word of God. Get into the Lord's presence.
And let him make these things more precious to you, and may he make them more precious to all of us.