Open—Bob Thonney
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Well, I'd like to go back to Ephesians.
I noticed that our brother that read in first and second Timothy.
Ephesians is mentioned in both.
First Timothy one and Second Timothy one.
And as somebody has mentioned, Paul spent.
Up to three years there. I'd like to go back to the end of the first chapter. We didn't.
Touch much on that, but there is a truth that is taken up in Ephesians that is very key to the Christian testimony. Notice verse 22 of.
Ephesians 1.
Says and has put all things under his feet.
And gave Him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of him that filleth All in all that amazing the church. His body is the fullness.
Of him that fills All in all, how could it be that we could be the fullness?
Of him that fills All in all. But that's what it says to us. And so.
It's the truth of the body of Christ. You and I are intimately connected with that man in the glory. Brethren, this is a reality, and more and more I am convinced of it. It's not something just merely to know. It's something to enjoy. The apostle Paul, the one who writes this.
Learned that truth the very day he was arrested by the Lord Jesus.
On the road to Damascus, remember what the Lord said to him.
Saw, Saw. Why persecutest thou me? I think he must have been shocked. Me persecuting somebody in heaven. What is this?
Who art thou, Lord? He said.
I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest, touching believers here in this world. He was touching Christ in glory. That is the intimacy of the union that exists between Christ.
In his people wonderful reality and so to meet up with other believers to realize that they too are members of that same body. So there's much that could be said in this epistle of Ephesians about the body of Christ. I just want to point out the fact that in chapter one notice in verse 22 where we read it doesn't say that Christ is head of the church.
It says he is head over all things. To the church it's a little bit different.
In chapter 4 notice and verse 15 it says.
Speaking the truth and love may grow up unto 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 supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase.
Of the body, and to the edifying of itself in love. So Christ is the head of the Church.
But in chapter one, it's head over all things to the church. In other words, everything that affects you and me as members of the body of Christ. He's in full control of that circumstance. And to me that has been a real lesson. I still remember as a fairly young brother, having a very heavy trial that the Lord allowed in my life.
A companion at work was killed right in front of my eyes, pinched between 2 trucks.
And I got blamed for the responsibility of his death.
Not the only one, but one of the ones and I got taken to law and sued heavily.
I still remember trying to figure this out, my mind going over it and over and over again until I thought man am I going crazy or what's going on?
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And a brother came to me and said.
Everything that happens.
In the life of a Christian comes directly from that man.
On the throne above, I still remember it hit me like a sledgehammer.
And I went into my room. I knelt down by my badge and said, OK, Lord, I know you're talking to me. I don't know what you're saying, but I hope I'm listening.
And I tell you, dear brethren, that the peace that came into my soul at that time never left. The trial continued. You know how legal matters are. It was only after Barb and I were married that the trial finally came to court and I was called back from the Dominican Republic to go into court.
And the fact was the Lord completely.
Took care of everything so amazingly I was amazed.
But.
It was the Lord and I say if we can recognize that things that happen in your life.
May be caused by fellow brethren, may be caused by your neighbors, may be caused by circumstances. You will never get peace in your soul while you're looking at other causes. Look to him who is head over all things to the church. That's where you're going to get peace and that's where you will profit. So just say that because I know every one of us has specific trials, but I want to go over to.
The 4th chapter and take up some of the practical exhortations that we have in connection with the truth of the body of Christ. To me it is amazingly wonderful truth.
And I want to point out if you notice the first verse of chapter 3.
For this 'cause I, Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles.
And then the first verse of chapter 4I. Therefore the prisoner of the Lord.
He says almost the same thing.
But it is because chapter 3 is a parenthesis.
And in chapter three, he takes up the question of the mystery.
Something that was not revealed in other generations to the sons of men.
As it is now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, it's the.
Apostles and prophets of the New Testament, and it's the truth that.
The Gentiles would be of the same body as the Jewish people. It's the truth of the body of Christ, wonderful truth of the body of Christ. That was a mystery that was not revealed in other generations. Nothing was known of it by those men of the Old Testament, faithful men of God, Abraham, Daniel, and so many others that we can mention Moses.
They knew nothing of the truth of the Church that you and I now know that we are united to Christ.
Really, brother, and we have the closest position of all God's people that lived at any time we have the closest position. So we are members of one body and to me it is a beautiful thing. Chapter 4, verse one. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.
We are called in one body. Now we need to walk like one body.
And brethren, I just want to encourage us to take interest of believers, not only where you live, in the whole meeting, where you are, but of your way God is working in this world at large. To me, it is amazingly wonderful to hear of how God is working in the Muslim world, saving souls and bringing them to the faith in Christ.
In China, in other parts of the world. Do you take interest in them? They are fellow members with us.
In that same body. So we're to walk worthy of that vocation. But notice verse 2. With all loneliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
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So we are to walk and this is the way it says with all.
Loneliness and meekness.
Anybody here profess to have all loneliness and meekness? Please raise your hand. I don't think anyone dare to do that.
There was only one who could say I am meek.
And lowly in heart. And you know what he says.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me or from me.
Because I am meek and lowly in heart. There is one who is meek and lowly. And to study him, to be yoked with him. You know, we don't use oxen in this country. Like perhaps it happened in the first days of the history of this country.
But they still use it down in South America.
Oxen.
And to me it is was very interesting. One time we were giving out the gospel in an isolated area.
In the department of Sucre and to the South of Bolivia, in the Bolivia, and they're at a kind of a outdoor fair. They were training a new ox for the yoke. I'd never seen it happen before, but was it ever instructive?
What they did was they put an old ox in one side of the yoke and then they put this new ox in the other side and then they just simply let him go.
And I watched it happen. And that new ox, he didn't like that yoke. He shook his head, he rushed forward. He's backed up. He charged all over the place. And that poor old ox just took it all. I watched that and I said, Lord Jesus, I must make you suffer tremendously at times.
When I charge forward, when I pull back, when I don't like things.
It took about a whole hour, and finally that new ox realized he wasn't getting anywhere and he simply bowed his head and accepted the yoke. This is an invitation to each of us on an individual basis. If you're going to get along with your brethren, you have to learn.
These qualifications.
All lowliness and meekness.
Long-suffering, forbearing one another in love.
What is loneliness and meekness, somebody has said.
Loneliness doesn't cause offense.
Meekness doesn't take offense.
Moses in the Old Testament was called the meekest man in all the earth.
And it was in that chapter where?
Aaron and Miriam, his sister and brother, spoke against him and said as the Lord only spoken by Moses, hasn't he spoken by us too?
And they complained.
You notice what Moses reaction was?
Was there any self-defense?
No.
The Lord had something to say to Miriam, I think the reason she was smitten with leprosy.
Probably brilliant is because she started the complaining about Moses.
I don't know, doesn't really say that's a possibility. But what did Moses say when Miriam got leprosy?
You'd think, well, maybe you'd say now you'd better be careful what you say next time. Nothing of that. You know what he said.
Lord, heal her now. There wasn't any resentment.
In his heart towards his sister. I think that is a beautiful example of meekness.
O brethren, if we're going to go on together as brethren in one body.
We must learn these characteristics with all loneliness and meekness, with long-suffering. I'm sure many of you from New Jersey area.
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Remember our brother ****? Gorgeous.
And he used to say, we don't pronounce that word very well.
It's long-suffering.
And that's true. Sometimes we want everybody else to learn what in a few minutes, what it took us several years to learn.
Brethren.
Let's meditate on what it means to be long-suffering.
And then forbearing, what does that mean to for bear? You know, I look at it as a self-discipline. We like to talk about the discipline of others, how important that is. And yes, there is such a thing as discipline in the House of God.
But this is self-discipline.
There's something that just bugs me in that brother. What am I gonna do about it?
You know what I'm going to do about it? Bear with it.
For Bear, that's so important to do if we're going to go on together, then that word in love, that's one of the in loves we were talking about yesterday in the reading. We are in love.
Forbearing in love. Oh, how important it is, this question of love.
And this is divine love. This is love that loves no matter what.
That loves because God is loved, not because the person is lovable.
But because of the source of love that's God is love. And then it says in verse 3.
Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
The unity of the Spirit important.
To understand that.
It is a unity that the Spirit of God is responsible for. You and I are exhorted to keep that unity in the bond of peace. Is that the characteristic you take amongst your brethren, dear brother and sister, in the Lord Jesus, in the bond of peace, seeking to keep that unity?
You know, sometimes a comment has been made. In fact, I must say I was.
I made it one time, I remember as a younger person, and her brother stepped up to me after the meeting. Well, what I said was we have to be careful not to break the unity of the spirit.
The brother stepped up to me and said.
Brother, we don't break the unity of the Spirit.
I said what?
Did he mean?
And so it is sometimes we don't understand like our brother was saying right off hand. Don't get discouraged when you don't understand right off hand. Keep it in your mind the Lord in his time will make it clear you know was three weeks after that I was in a completely different part of the country and a brother in a meeting made this clarifying statement.
The Spirit, the unity of the Spirit, is never broken.
Either we keep it or we don't keep it. That was a helpful to me to understand that the unity of the Spirit is not broken. Either we keep it or we don't keep it. So are you keeping the unity of the Spirit and your relations one with another, the your dear brethren, where you are or wherever you meet up with them?
Now I want to point out to here in this chapter 4 that from verse four down to verse 16.
We don't really have exhortation. You'll notice it's really instruction. It's the doctrine of the epistle again. And so he says in verse 4, you notice in our King James translation, there is is an italics. It really isn't in the original. So we could read one body and one spirit even as you're called in one hope of your calling.
Verse 5.
One Lord, 1 faith, one baptism, verse six, One God and Father of all, who is above all and through all in you all. So we have the Trinity in those three verses. It's the unity.
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The of the Christian circles, first of all is the unity of Christian reality, the body of Christ in verse four. In verse five is the unity of Christian profession.
Because by baptism we outwardly profess to take the position as Christians of that one faith. And then in verse six we have the unity of all creation, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all. And then in you all refers back to verse 4.
So it's the truth.
Rather than one body. I love this because.
Remember in Bolivia there was a sister who was a dentist. She liked to come to our house for an evening meal. Sometimes she had the custom of wandering around from one church to another to another, to another. And she said to me one day, Brother Robert, we should all be one body.
Why are we all scattered around like this?
I said to her sister, it's not that we should all be one body. The truth is we are one body. We're just not acting like it. It's the truth. We are one body. And so it doesn't matter if it's a day of Pentecost in those early days of the church when it was so evident that there was.
Oneness amongst the people of God today.
It is not outwardly evident. There is one group over here, another group over there, another group over here.
And so there is.
The testimony is in ruins, but the truth remains. There is one body, and I think that is such a precious thing to hold. Remember, up on the High Plains of Bolivia we stopped in a little town one time.
To give out tracks and in giving out tracks met up with this believer. I don't know what group he might have been with.
But he comes up to me and he made it clear that he was a believer in the Lord Jesus and.
He says to me, what church are you with? I said.
Well, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus and I am in the believer in the Lord Jesus, I think.
We belong to the same church. And he looked all confused and he says, see that building down there?
That's my church, Ohio, I said. That's interesting. Tell me, do I belong to your church?
And again, he was confused and we have to be careful. We have to be patient with dear brethren who perhaps have not had the clarity of teaching that we have. But just to remember, there is one body. Doesn't mean we all meet together, but if there has been faith in the person of the Lord Jesus once you and I believe in the Lord Jesus as we had this morning.
The Spirit of God sealed.
US and we are united to that one body.
As true today in 2019 as it was when the church was first formed. What a precious truth. One body and one spirit, even as you're called in one hope of your calling. Well, there's a few other things that are here. And I just like to mention before we get to the end of our time here, notice in verse 7.
Unto everyone of us is given grace.
According to the measure of the gift of Christ. In other words, Christ is given gifts in his church.
How many of these young people have gifts?
What would you say, Clement?
Yeah.
Let me read this again and I'll ask you again.
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Verse 7.
Unto everyone of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. How many?
Everyone isn't that nice to realize. You young people. If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus, you have a gift. Gift is something that is developed over time. Timothy was a timid person.
And he was kind of scared I was supposed to speak up, especially in Corinth, where there was a lot of preeminent gift.
But he had a gift, and Paul had to exhort him stir.
Up the gift of God that is in thee, so everyone of us has a gift.
And I like that verse that our brother read in John chapter 2.
It's because you say, well, I don't know what kind of gift I have. I don't think you have to determine what kind of gift you have.
Let me quote what our brother Dave read. Whatsoever he tells you to do, do it. So if he lays something on your heart, do it to be a help to somebody else, an act of kindness. You young sisters have gifts just as much as the brothers, and so to the exercise to use whatever gift the Lord may have given you. Notice he.
Five specific gifts in verse 11. He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. There's five mentioned. There are more in other scriptures. Apostles and prophets in the context here are the foundation work of the church.
Then the evangelists are the one that go out and call bring in new souls.
That have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and then pastors and teachers are the ones that build them into the church and so these are gifts that Christ is given. So I just mentioned these things. I just find it in a real challenge to even today.
In 2019, continue to act according to the truth that there is.
One body in Christ. Maybe we should just close because I went over a few minutes.
Father, thanks for thy precious word.
Thanks for the exhortations we've had this afternoon. We pray for blessing that we better have ears to hear and profit. Commend the rest of this afternoon into thy hands in the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.