Address—Doug Buchanan
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Like to continue with chapter 4 of Ephesians.
We'll begin reading from the first verse.
I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation, wherewith ye are called with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling. 1 Lord, 1 Faith, one baptism.
One God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.
But unto everyone of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Wherefore he saith, when He ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now he that ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens.
That he might feel all things.
And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.
For the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
Unto a perfect man.
Unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie and wait to deceive.
But speaking the truth in love may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supply according to the effectual working in the measure of every part.
Maketh increase of the body.
Unto the edifying of itself in love.
We'll just read that far for now and begin our comments.
We have in this book unfolded to us the councils and purposes of God.
It's wonderful that in the New Testament and in this book.
First of all, God opens up.
What he is and what he has done and after he tells and unfolds it all and gives it all to us by grace and says this is yours.
Then he says, now walk in it.
Now that's just exactly the opposite, Is the of the order in the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament it was this Do and ye shall live.
The doing came first, and it was the measure of how much they possessed according to the law.
That that order has been done away with. It's changed now and throughout all the New Testament. This is a general principle of the New Testament. God gives to us out of his storehouse, out of his blessings what we could never attain on our own means. It gives it to us freely, abundantly.
By the Lord Jesus, by his Spirit, by the whole Godhead working together.
And it's guaranteed to be ours. Now we have the beginning of the exhortation, the putting it into practice.
I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. What is this vocation? This is the heavenly calling of the Church, being called out to be a special people unto himself.
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We have a wonderful vocation.
Heavenly people saved by grace through the Lord Jesus Christ and His what He's done on Calvary's cross.
Oh, as we consider this, certainly there ought to be a response in our hearts that would say, Oh yes, I would like to walk this life. It means much to me. Our lives show how much we do appreciate the things of God.
Doesn't mean that some are more blessed than others.
We're all blessed the same with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. God doesn't make any distinction in that respect, but some enjoy it more than others.
Some put it into practice more than others in their life.
And that's where the strength comes in, as we had this last prayer in Chapter 3.
There's where we get the strength to carry out this vocation that comes from the Lord, too. We have all the resources, beloved.
Paul speaks again of himself as the prisoner here who commented on that previously. He wasn't in prison when he wrote this. It was real with him. He did practice what he preached and he suffered the consequences of it. He would have liked, no doubt, to get out of prison, but God didn't allow that to very large extent anyway.
And so it is as the prisoner of the Lord, he doesn't say a prisoner of Rome.
No, he didn't look at the second causes You see in this book. You have God in control and His purpose is always being allowed and accomplished in this world. And that God who purposed eternal blessing for Paul and all the rest, allowed him to be a prisoner. If there are difficulties in your life, young people and we all pass through some difficulties, some more than others. Perhaps God alone knows how to mete out those things.
In our life, remember, it's still part of that purpose.
It may cause exercise and questions and we don't know what to do and we don't know how to get through the problem.
Never forget.
That God's eternal purpose.
Has a way.
Perhaps He wants us to search His way and find it. We all have to do that individually as we walk. And then there's the collective unity together, as we'll get in these verses that follow. Then it goes on in verse 2 with all loneliness and meekness.
I'm rather commented on this these those two words previously. Meekness and humility, loneliness.
I enjoyed it.
I look at it this way, why the Lord brings this verse in here?
In the Old Testament, if a man live righteously.
And if he fulfilled the law up to a point in a certain respect, he had a right and a place to look down on somebody else that hadn't walked his faithfully as that one had. And there were, there are many examples of those who walked in, in a certain measure of faithfulness and obedience to God, and they in a certain right.
But not before God, but before others.
Could look down.
And perhaps have a certain amount of pride in themselves for what they had done. But brethren, how did we get to where we are?
None of us got to where we are in this heavenly calling, being saved by grace through our own efforts, or anything that we ever did. It's been all of grace, beloved, that raised us up from being dead sinners to citizens of the household of God.
The family of God, the Church, the bride of Christ, everything that we have beloved has been given to us.
That leaves no room for pride or boasting.
But rather loneliness and meekness as we consider ourselves, having many of us the privilege of being gathered to the precious name of the Lord Jesus where He has placed His name. Does that make us better? Do we have a place of boasting?
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Rather the contrary, brethren, it's only the grace of God that has brought us where we are and revealed certain things to us and given us the strength to walk in it and go on.
Certain measure of obedience, and that's why loneliness and meekness.
Is becoming to us. O brethren, we are very, very privileged. We have been called to the most noble position there is, but there is no place for boasting in it.
So you have, as it were, contrasted the highest vocation, and also rightly the very next words, loneliness and meekness, also long-suffering and forbearing one another in love.
Forbearing with one another in love we know.
Oftentimes in the world and those of you who have gotten out into the world and especially perhaps those that have gone away to school or gone away to jobs, it doesn't take very long usually to find out how cruel and how hard and how much strife there is in this world. Strife for attainment, for the 1St place, the best job, the most money.
All these things.
It's not too different from the wild world of of the Beasts where it says it's the survival of the fittest. It's really not too different in this natural world of strife.
Oh, there are many humble, gracious people out there, but brethren in the Church of God, it's not that way.
No, I look out on your dear young people and there's various degrees of capacities.
And I think how the Lord delights to look down and bless the most needy ones.
To care for them. That's been the way that he has chosen to make up his church.
Not of the most noble. It says not many noble are called, doesn't say none, but not many.
It's not the smartest, it's not the strongest, it's not the ones that even necessarily are most diligent, although God always blesses diligence.
God has chosen to call the poor, the needy, the weak, the blind, the lame.
Of them to make a people unto himself.
And so that leaves no place for struggle and of attainment in the things of God.
Now in the assembly it there there ought to be no strife of who is the greatest, like in that there was among the disciples no or bearing with one another. We didn't all get to where we are in one day. It's the grace of God that has brought us long step by step.
And so we need to be long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. God has a way of uniting us together, and it's by his Spirit.
It wasn't that certain brethren got together and agreed upon a certain creed or doctrine or way of meeting together or of order of who was going to be directing things and therefore the Church.
Was formed and blessed. It was the work of the Spirit of God not only on the day of Pentecost, but down through the churches history in the in the assembly where you came from. It was the Spirit of God that worked in souls and United a group of believers together that would begin breaking bread and fellowship together around the Lord Jesus in his name.
That is what holds us together.
And therefore we need to submit to that Spirit, that Holy Spirit in every aspect of our life, and He will always direct us along the right way in unity.
He keeps the Spirit.
He keeps the unity and in the bond of peace. That is, it's not forced, it's not a thing of force, but it it bonds us together in peace. I think what it was one brother said there's two ways to be joined together. We can either be melted together or we can be frozen together.
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Well, I think you get the picture. Here. We're melted together in the bond of peace.
And it's not just putting up with one another, no, it's loving one another and seeing the qualities that God has put in each and forbearing with what is not according to God and seeking to minister.
To that unity in the bond of peace. It's a beautiful way to be together. We have that wonderful Psalm in Psalm 138, I believe, right near the end of the Psalms of degrees. Behold how good it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. And so it is when there is that.
Bond there of of of peace.
Where love flows out freely.
It's very difficult for Satan to come in and to destroy.
But where at brethren are on edge together, and where there are unjudged feelings, and those always come from pride.
I'm going to repeat that those always come from pride.
Not forgiving one another.
Not bringing things out in the open before the Lord and.
Bringing peace.
There is an open door for.
Disunion.
Division problems and so on. This is the recipe here for going on together.
And so we continue on verse four. There is one body, one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling. It's so good to see this. This is a basic truth that will never change. There never will be more than one body.
Never will be more than one Spirit, never more than one calling. God isn't going to change his mind and make some substitutions here down late in the church history.
We have to go back always to these principles and our faith can always go back and lay hold of this. Do things look shaky in your life or is there much confusion in your life as to spiritual things, as to the direction that you should take?
As to where you should go to remember the Lord in his death.
And meet together.
There is one body.
One spirit. There are other spirits out there and we're told to try the spirits.
And there are many antichrists, there's many false voices, but there's only one Spirit, the true Holy Spirit of God. And He always is there ready to give his direction if we turn to Him. And so you have various onenesses here, and it seems as though they're, they're encompassing.
Circles increase as it goes out, but it's all one A1A oneness here. The difference between Christianity and the Old Testament has been described this way. In the Old Testament it's like a corral with the fence about it, or a wall, and then all the sheep are taken and put inside that and our our maintained in that corral.
That's like the law and all the ordinances, and they keep everything in control and contained.
Lest someone should go out beyond what God ordered, Thou shalt not do this and thou shalt not do that. But in Christianity it's different. God has reversed that. He has put one person in the center, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And there is one flock gathered around him, and we all gather around him. And if we gather to him alone, and if he we have the single eye to the Lord Jesus will be close together and will we will become of one mind about everything. So this is the order you have here in these verses.
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There is one body. The Lord is the center of all of this.
The oneness here.
He is the head of the body, one spirit. He sent the Spirit down, one hope of your calling. He has called us together with this one purpose.
To gather a people unto himself.
To be his bride through all eternity. 1 Lord, 1 Faith, one baptism.
The Lordship of Christ is so important in our lives, and it's, it's important for us to submit. You know that the word Lord here is a title and it, it, it means that we acknowledge him as the authority over our lives.
We can't go on for the Lord if we don't acknowledge His Lordship. 1 faith, one baptism, and then one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all. And in you this would include all that this is that God made all.
It doesn't mean that they're all children, but He is as God and Father over them, and He never loses His place as our Creator God.
Verse 7 But unto everyone of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Now we're coming down to individuals here.
We're all different. God didn't make us all alike. It's wonderful he did. I'm so thankful he didn't make anybody else like me.
He has a purpose in making you what you are, and He has a place for you, and He gives you grace to do what He purposes you to do. Unto everyone is given grace. There is no temptation passed right over verse 131013. There is no temptation taking you, but such as is common to man.
But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
The Lord only allows beloved.
Temptations or trials or testings in our life?
Into the up to the measure that he sees is fit and it's according to as he sees. Our flesh needs to be tried to manifest something there and to reveal it, to get it out where he it can be judged and where we will acknowledge it for what it is.
And so these things do, He does allow these things to come into our lives, to test us, but it's only as inasmuch as we have the flesh in us that is drawn away after such temptations. If we walked always in the Spirit, there would be no temptation that would draw us away.
So the Lord, He gives us grace to function as a member here of His body.
And what he has given us to do. You know, sometimes we look at one another and it's easy to become envious of what God has given other people to do and say, oh, I wish I could do that or what? Or maybe we have doubts in our mind, Well, what has the Lord given me to do?
We don't all know what the Lord has given us to do from day one and justice start out and and go down that path and fulfill what he has. We learn by trial and error. A lot of things we learn by proving ourselves. I remember the case of Moses. You know how he.
He had to learn first of all that when he came into his heart to deliver his brethren, and when he saw the affliction then there in Egypt, and he went out and he tried to set a a quarrel right, and he slew an Egyptian. And he had to run away for a long time and learn a lot of lessons. And then God taught him some things there, and afterwards he gave him three signs.
That were proof proofs that he had.
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The power of God in his life, practically he had the he had the first sign of the casting his rod down and it became a serpent, and then he took it up again. It was a testimony to his power, the power God had given him over Satan. He had the power to put his hand in his bosom and we drew it out. It was leprous, and then he could put it back in and it became clean.
Power over his own flesh.
Demonstrated there before the people of God and then he poured the water out his blood well I've enjoyed that is a picture of our over the world you know God has given us as believers strength to go out and conquer these three great enemies and Moses practiced that before the elders of Israel before he began any work of.
Carrying them out. And so it was only as he was in control of those 3 great enemies that he could be useful.
To God in delivering the people from Egypt. And I believe there's a parallel for us too.
We need, brethren, to prove in the little things what God has given us to do.
Then become victorious in that way by faith in the Lord and strengthen by the Spirit of God to walk the the path of faith in this vocation of being heavenly citizens, not dragged down to the level of the world and becoming worldly minded people while we're talking about having a home in heaven, you see.
Our We'll lose our power when when we.
Lose that distinction of walk a separation, but God gives us grace according to the gift of Christ and then we have the gifts following down here.
Verse 8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he left lead captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. This is the Lord Jesus, the one who ascended up on high. We have a man in glory, with power and authority.
And control.
Up till this time the world was was controlled by Satan and his host. There was no man that perfectly was able to resist Satan and to form a Kingdom.
He that committeth sin is the servant of sin. And if you're going to be liberated from Satan, you have to walk a sinless life. Otherwise you will become a puppet of his hand. And all he has to do is dangle a few things out before a person, and that person is going right after those things because he doesn't have the power to resist those things.
But the Lord Jesus when he came.
I want to write at the very beginning of the ministry of the Lord Jesus. It says He was led in the wilderness to be tempted of Satan and we all know those 3 great temptations that were put before him and the Lord Jesus was victorious. There was nothing in him that responded to those temptations. He was perfect. He could not sin and He did not sin.
And Satan had no hand or leverage against him. But not only did he do that here on on earth as but also he did it even a greater thing, the Lord Jesus.
He caught the enemy by surprise by going down into death.
Which was the power that Satan had?
Or through sin, and the Lord Jesus went down, died and rose again, came forth victorious with power over death, the the greatest strength, the sword that Satan had and had wielded for years, a soul that sinneth it shall die, have been, it says, And there wasn't anybody that hadn't died. But when the Lord Jesus as a sinless one went down and died and rose again.
He led captivity captive.
Oh, there is a place of refuge and safety where Satan can no longer touch the believer, and that is on resurrection ground. That is our deliverance. And that is the way that the Lord can pour out these gifts and He can send down to His church these various gifts and.
Do His work right in the midst of a scene. A world where Satan still is working. Yes, but the Lord has power.
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And that's what he said at the time of his ascension. All power is given me on heaven and in the earth. Go ye. Therefore he thought his disciples, and then he sent them out with power and authority. Well, that was his that was still here on earth. And baptism was one of the things that he he commissioned at that point, teaching and and in baptizing.
But not only has he done that, but I believe even through the apostle.
From heaven itself He has given gifts.
And so here you have the Lord, not only has the risen man here on earth, but you have him as an ascended one in glory, dishing out gifts to the Church in order to build it up, in order to make it function, in order to have a people unto himself in the end, in glory.
That's why he ascended on high. The same one who went up in heaven is the one who went down first into the lower parts of the earth. You can't get too low, beloved, where the Lord can't reach you.
Death is as low as anybody can go, and it's a comfort to those who have lost loved ones to think that the arms of the Lord Jesus are able to reach down and to bring that one up again.
In all your problems of life, difficulties, decisions, you can't get in a position where God cannot or the Lord Jesus cannot help you. He went all the way down and he went all the way up and he's given gifts and many times he uses those gifts. So those those Saints of God.
That he is raised up to do that and so we have all different gifts here.
This all came from Ascended Christ. This was something totally new.
It's interesting that once on the when the Lord was even here, before he had ascended up in heaven, when the Lord was doing all these miracles and the scribes and Pharisees saw it, they said they asked him, by what authority doest thou these things? Where did you get this power? Who gave you this ability to do this? They couldn't understand it because he hadn't graduated from any of their seminaries. He hadn't been one of their disciples in their schools.
Oh, he got it from God himself. He was God himself.
And he had great authority. Now from heaven as a man, he dishes it out and he gives it out to us here on earth, on the earth. And so don't forget, the Lord is in high, He's on heaven and he is in control.
And he gave some apostles, verse 11, and some prophets, and some evangelists.
The apostles and prophets were the 1St, and as we know from Corinthians and other scriptures, they are the ones who began the work and laid the foundation, brought out the first principles, Paul himself being one of those chosen especially to do that.
Then you have the other gifts too that have continued on today. I believe we don't have apostles and prophets in the same sense as they were given here.
Today we do have profits in another sense, like in Corinthians.
But the prophets were specially to help those first believers when they didn't have the Word of God and situations arose and they needed prophets, those who could communicate the mind of God to their needs. Right then, present today, we have the whole Word of God. And so we do have the apostles and prophets in the sense that we have their writings, the book, the Word of God here.
But we do have the others that continue on today, the evangelist, pastors and teachers.
I really believe these are the three principal gifts that are used of God to form church at the assembly or assemblies in different localities. And you notice in reading through the book of Acts how that first may be an evangelist would go out and preach the Word and souls would get saved, and then along would come a pastor and comfort and exhort them to go on for the Lord.
Barnabas was one of those.
And we need that kind of people. We need those that will help us and shepherd us along, help us when we don't understand everything about Christianity yet. And then last of all, you have the teachers. They are the ones who unfold the scriptures and make it known to us. And so it's nice to become a full grown Christian where you understand why you do things the way you do. God didn't just lay out.
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Plan here and expect us to just to follow along, really not knowing why we're doing this and so forth. When you begin in the Christian pathway, that ought to be enough and just to be attracted to the Lord Jesus and gathered around him for many souls in the beginning, it's enough to realize I can remember a case of a brother down on Lima, Peru, who.
Walked in the meeting room for the first time in his life, he was already a believer.
But he had been in various places and and didn't seem content to. He walked in there and sat down in the I believe it was the the breaking of bread and possibly a reading meeting following.
And he said to me afterwards, I knew after that meeting that this is where the Lord was.
He didn't wait. Nobody had unfolded to him the truth about how to gather only to the name of the Lord Jesus or the apostles. Doctrine hadn't been ministered in the truth of the Church. But no, he had a sense in his soul the Lord Jesus was there.
Wonderful, wonderful.
But then there is the teaching, and it's wonderful to have times like this where we can be over the Word. And so the Lord he gives teachers to.
Verse 12. For the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
This is the body of Christ. Remember, the head is in heaven and He cares about his body, He cares about his Saints. And he sent these gifts. He sent these different ministries, these services that we too can be occupied in and helpful in, and He has a place for you.
The perfecting of the Saints, the work of the ministry, the edifying, the building up of the body of Christ. Oh, it's so nice to see growth. It's so nice to see as we as we as the years go by, you know, and I here, I've been coming here to last four years now.
And it's so nice to see the same ones come back from year to year and you see growth.
We see growth, we're thankful for it. We realize the Lord is working in your hearts, and I hope you see it in our hearts too. We don't stop growing. Us older ones ought not to. We never arrive. When we are going to arrive is when He calls us home. We're all there in glory around Himself. Yes, we are going to come to a perfect man. This thing is going to work out perfectly.
How often people?
When they set out on a big project, you know, building the house.
A job project.
Complicated thing, you know, sometimes.
You get all get an architect and so on to drop all these things and you get lists of all the material and all the job allotments and who has to do what and go along the way. And all of a sudden you find out, oops, you forgot about something and you have to go back and maybe redo something.
But God isn't that way.
No, he's working all this together.
And he's going to have every single one of his Saints there in glory, with him in perfection.
In perfection we know the end of the story. It says in Romans are all things work together for good to them that are called.
All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.
He has told us the end of the story. He has told us how it's all.
So we spoke about that the other day a little and of the need to help in this. It is delightful, brethren, that the Lord would allow us to play a role in all of this, in helping one another. And he delights to and the love of our hearts delights to share in the what the Lord is doing.
With His people. And how wonderful it is then to function with the gift that the Lord has given us. And there's no need, beloved, to be occupied with what gift you have. Maybe in a certain sense, we might have some idea what our gift is.
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I I think of that verse, Whatsoever thy hand find us to do, do it.
Not through being occupied. What your gift is that you're going to perform well. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it. And you'll learn to do it better maybe. And you'll go on and there will be growth. And I believe there is such a thing as improving one's ability or one's gifts, what the Lord has done through use. But if you sit back and just let everybody else do it.
You're not going to really prove what the Lord has given you to do.
Will suffer and others will have to fill in and do what perhaps you could have done much better.
Than they can and oftentimes.
Since there is so much disorder here in in Christendom, we do have to fill in, you know, and do those things which have been left undone.
Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
Oh, how wonderful. We're going to know God.
I'd like to turn back just a verse in Matthew 6 just comes to mind right now. Matthew 5 rather verse 8. Matthew 5/8.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
The next one too. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Well, perhaps those verses are a little bit different than ours. Here it's no God.
We shall know, as we are known.
Wonderful. There's not going to be any limitations or in glory we're going to know as known.
To the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that is the whole body, Christ and His Church, one together there in glory.
That is the end and that's how all things are going to come out. Well I'd just like to make it 1 little more brief comment on a a verse down below. It says verse 15. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head even Christ. And then notice the 21St verse we didn't read. If so, be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus.
So we have the truth as it.
The truth in Jesus.
And we have speaking the truth in love. This is the way the truth of God is communicated. It's communicated in love.
Not harsh commandments, but in love. And it's communicated in Jesus. The truth as it is in Jesus, it's always associated with a person.
Now there are many other ways to communicate truth or good things. There are many philanthropic organizations and things to improve society, to improve ones own life in this world. And in a certain sense, there's a certain benefit from those things. But what I'd like to point out here, beloved, is that.
In the Church of God.
God wants His truth communicated in Himself, not independent of our Head, the Lord Jesus.
And so to use human techniques to get things accomplished or get things across to people to make their lives better, it may produce a certain amount of change in somebodies life. But is this really what God wants? Does he want a lot of people here that are behaving real well but separate from Christ?
There may be a certain amount of that accomplished in organizations here on earth, but what He wants in His people is that these things be learned in connection with Christ, the truth as in Jesus. And so I believe this is the way that we ought to communicate the truth of God.
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Always associated with the Lord Jesus and and and in in the.
Really, I believe it's only through Him that there will be real, true blessing. Well, may the Lord bless these comments.
And may he fill us with Christ.
And realize that all is centered in Him, and that He is going to have us all there with Him in glory. Shall we close with prayer?