I'd like for us to turn to begin
with to Colossians chapter 2.
If you were here last week, our brother
Brian Stewart introduced us to this subject of
Christ Loved the Church.
And what we're endeavoring to do is to
review and go over what we believe are
very important parts of the whole doctrine of
the church, teaching regarding, as our brother started
out last week, reminding us and describing for
us what the church is all about, or
how you would define it.
And he did give us a good start.
We're taking some of the material and the
outlines from this book, and I ask if
any of you would like to have it.
And some hands were raised.
Charles ordered some of these books.
They're on the table in the rear, and
we've never taken this.
It's in the form of a Bible study
from a Maus Bible course, and it's been
around quite a while.
It's been used very effectively, and a lot
of folks have been helped by it.
So if you raised your hand, you'd like
to have one.
They're on the table back at the back.
The downside of that is, put six bucks
in the box.
These things, we were a little shocked.
This was a fairly old one, I think
about three dollars for this.
The price has doubled.
All printed material, as you well know, has
gone up.
So avail yourself of it.
In Colossians chapter 2, and I'd like to
read verses 18 and 19, Let no man
beguile you of your reward in a voluntary
humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those
things which he hath not seen vainly puffed
up by his fleshly mind, not holding the
head from which all the body by joints
and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together
in creases with the increase of God.
I think I'll let that suffice for that
reading right now.
In the Ephesian epistle, I'd like for us
to look at several passages, but if you
recall, Brian made mention of the fact that
this word ecclesia, a Greek word as I
understand it, means assembly.
It describes that spiritual body of believers.
It's made up of those that have been
born again into the family of God, and
they are placed in this spiritual body, the
body of Christ.
You must be born again.
If you want to get into this church
fellowship, you've got to be born again.
I thought about Romans 10 and 9, For
thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as
Lord.
This acknowledgment as an individual that our Lord
Jesus Christ is worthy of that title.
He is God, manifest in flesh.
His lordship is something that we acknowledge gladly,
but I don't want to take anything away
from him.
It seems strange that when you get into
the whole matter of the headship of Christ,
establish him from the scriptures as being the
head of the spiritual body.
It's a spiritual body with many members, and
Christ is the head.
We have the mind of Christ.
We receive our instructions through this person, our
Lord Jesus Christ.
How to behave ourselves in the house of
God.
How to keep your feet on the pathway
of righteousness for his name's sake.
It's important to acknowledge that.
I believe I will right now just turn
to Ephesians 1, verse 22.
Here we have, if you have a Scottsdale
Bible, it is titled, Christ as the exalted
head of his body, the church, and hath
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.
Now, Brother McDonald, in approaching and dealing with
this subject, makes mention of the fact that
something has happened.
Men are not satisfied with what the scripture
says about this matter of Christ being the
head of the body, the church.
You know, it's a strange thing, but I
read some comment where there's no more ignorance
around as far as spiritual things concerned as
exist in this one area of the church,
the body of Christ, and him as its
head, and individuals as its members.
A lot of strange stuff has been introduced
into the picture.
It goes way back.
You take one of the largest, best organized,
I suppose, religious groups in the whole world.
They have established somebody as being head of
the church.
They've given him a title, they've given him
a position, they've given him authority, they have
vested in him the kind of authority that
indeed seems almost unreal.
Because this body of Christ is made up
of spiritual members, and every member in that
body has a role and a part to
play, but it is not the head.
The head is already in place.
That's the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Isn't it strange that already someone, this goes
back several hundred years now, goes back quite
a while, that someone would establish a human
being in that role of being the head
of the body, the church.
And of course, they have developed out of
all of this a number of different groups
of believers, so-called.
I'll use that expression.
But it seems like it has an appeal
to man, natural man, human speaking, to place
someone, another human being, in a role that
is only reserved for the Son of God.
You know he can't do it.
He can't do it.
They are doing it.
They are making a very feeble attempt at
it.
Around the throne of God in heaven, it
is well known who is the head of
this spiritual body.
If you are not here tonight, aren't you
thankful you know who is the head, and
you are not bowing your knee to a
man, and you are not giving place to
a person that doesn't deserve that place nor
that title.
If someone were to tell you or me,
we are going to install you and put
you in that place as the head of
that particular body, that religious body, I would
run.
I would flee, because it is just abhorrent
to think of someone, a human being, taking
upon himself.
And think about it now.
It is with the endorsement and approval of
so many people that have believed a lie,
when it is so plainly taught in scripture
that the Lord Jesus Christ is the head
of the spiritual body.
The spiritual body being the assembly, the church,
made up of individual members, and each member
making a contribution.
Let's turn to the 4th chapter.
This will enlarge to somewhat on this, Ephesians
4, and verse
15.
It says, 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 supplieth according to
the effectual working in the measure of every
part, maketh increase of the body unto the
edifying of itself in love.
Now I know what I do in the
body.
I am a member, I am there, I
can make a contribution.
I am looked upon and described here as
a joint that supplieth a need to the
body.
That's one of the tragic things today in
the body of Christ, that there are those
that do not recognize their role as a
joint that can supply something that is sorely
needed in the body and is not being
provided.
I tell you what, when one member in
the body doesn't function and work right, the
whole body knows all about it, and it
suffers from it.
I've watched some people with strokes, and it's
a sad thing.
Here is a member who looks perfectly normal,
everything looks all right, but it won't work.
It just won't work.
It won't do what it's supposed to do.
The hand won't do what it's supposed to
do.
The arm won't do.
The leg won't move.
Isn't it sad that we have that condition
in the body of Christ today?
There are members that are joints that should
be supplying, working very effectually in a way
that would bring about increased edifying and building
up of the body, but they're not doing
it.
Let somebody else do it.
That's not my gift.
Oh, you just get so many answers that
are really not legitimate, and it's not scriptural,
because it says every joint, every joint, every
one of us as a member in the
body of Jesus Christ have a role that
we're to play.
Brother and sister, we'd better do what he
has equipped us to do.
Don't try to do something he didn't equip
you to do, but do what he equips
us to do.
And always keeping foremost in your mind, I
know who my boss is.
I know who is the head of this
body, and it is the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Colossian epistle, the Apostle Paul puts
a strong emphasis upon the person of the
Lord Jesus receiving the place that is first
the preeminent place.
If anybody is going to be seen, if
anybody is going to be exalted, it's him,
not another man, not men, not women that
are a part of this spiritual body.
Now, when you think about human organization, and
you sometimes wonder, how did men first get
off of track as far as establishing things
that are not true to the word of
God?
Well, they didn't use the word of God
as a guide.
They didn't use the word to establish what
was set down at that time as being
correct, that was appropriate, was according to the
truth that God would have you and me
to practice in this matter of being a
member of the body.
Anybody ought to recognize pretty soon on that
human headship is not according to Scripture.
The exaltation of a man and giving a
man a prominent place, it may be in
that place that I referred to where this
individual is really exalted and given a special
place.
He is reverenced.
He is identified as being holy, and would
to God that that's true, I don't know.
I know one thing.
He's out of place when he claims that
he is the head of the church, and
anyone associated with him claims that he's head
of the church.
You know, if you and I, and there's
not a theologian in the group, if you
and I can read these things and interpret
them aright, they can too.
That particular religious organization has some very prominent
theologians in their midst, and they know better
than that.
But here we have human headship, but according
to the word of God, that's not accepted.
There's no such office open to man.
There's nothing in the Scripture that says it's
there for man, and he should desire to
be the head of the body.
I'm going to say this.
I've seen some preachers that would scramble around
like they wanted to be a head of
the body.
They want to tell everybody else what to
do, and that's sad, but that's happening all
over.
I'm acquainted personally with some of that.
I know some people, and I thank God
I'm not associated with them, and I don't
have to be a part of it.
And people cry about it and talk about
what this individual has done.
You know, if you read that passage there
in 3 John, it's in the 9th and
10th verses about this solidiocracy.
He wanted the first place in the assembly.
He wasn't going to stand for anybody to
make a decision that he didn't approve of.
Do you know there are preachers like that
today that so control and rule a local
body of believers that nobody dare do anything
unless they ask him?
They won't have it any other way.
Now, brother, if you think I'm exaggerating, you
just haven't been there, and you just don't
know what happens in some of these places.
I've had people talk to me about this
and weep.
Why do they do that?
That's not right, and he has hurt us
by what he's done.
And finally, some men, some people have to
get together, and you have a big blowout
about it, and they get rid of this
fellow, and they go out and hire somebody
else.
A lot of times he comes in with
about the same attitude.
That's bad, but that's true, and that's what's
happening so often in Christendom today.
There's only one body.
You say, well, we've got many local churches.
That's true, but there's only one body.
Part of that body is already home in
glory.
In fact, someone has remarked something about the
church going through the tribulation period.
Well, that's true.
I would think it would be safe to
say that most of the church, the body
is already at home.
Are they going to be brought back to
this place on earth and go through the
tribulation period?
I don't think so.
I think we're going to be delivered out
of here very soon, and I believe that
that one body with the one head is
so well established in Scripture that that's exactly
what God had planned and purposed, and that's
what he wants us to acknowledge.
And brother and sister, don't bow the knee
to no man.
No man.
Don't bow the knee.
Don't even begin to give someone the opinion
that they have that kind of authority over
the people of God.
It doesn't need a human name, and yet
many people seem to be very comfortable with
taking another name other than the name of
Christ.
That's strange.
They wouldn't want to call themselves I'm a
believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and immediately
if you ask someone about the matter of
their spiritual status, well, you put the name
in there, and you say, well, I'm going
to tell you something.
I don't believe that has anything to do
with it, really.
I ask you a question.
Are you a Christian?
Are you a true believer in our Lord
Jesus Christ?
And you may be a member of something
that I've never heard of, and that won't
make a bit of difference.
But I'll tell you something that makes all
the difference in the world, and that is
whether you've accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as
your Savior and Lord or not.
And it does matter if you acknowledge him
as Lord.
He is the Lord Jesus Christ.
God has raised him from the dead.
There's authority and power in him, and that's
God's plan and purpose.
And I thank God tonight that we believe
it from the word of God.
We take no human name.
Matthew 18, 20, where two or three are
gathered together in my name, they are mine
in the midst.
He's here, brother.
That's what I believe.
We've gathered together to the person and the
name of our Lord Jesus tonight for prayer,
and he's here.
The Lord Jesus Christ is here.
I believe that.
And it's comforting, and it certainly adds some
air of mystery, but it's real.
It's real.
It's not something in fantasy world.
It's according to the scripture.
And we're not ruled by human government.
The order that we have in scripture is
so well established on how to order the
affairs of a local assembly.
It's in the word of God.
How spiritual leaders are raised up, and how
they are.
We were talking about this even today.
Human leaders are servants.
That's all they are.
They're servants.
We've got seed boys, and we've got water
boys, and we've got servants.
Servants of the true and the living God.
Not some exalted place, but serving every member
in the body.
The assembly is to be governed by thus
saith the word of God.
No human authority.
No human head.
No human pattern.
No.
We simply gather together again to that person,
our Lord Jesus Christ.
I tell you, I wouldn't want to go
to a place that he wasn't acknowledged to
be in there.
We're going to meet with the Lord.
We're going to sing hymns of praise to
him.
His name being the preeminent name.
Some pattern being established whereby certain rituals, certain
things that are even the kind of importance
is attached to them.
And unless you do this, you're not well
pleasing to the Lord.
And it's maybe human ordination or something else
that man has introduced into the whole scheme
of things.
It's not controlled by human ritual.
I think about the priesthood of the believer.
Turn to 1 Peter chapter 2, and let's
look at that just for a moment.
This is what we believe, brother.
This is what we believe, and this is
what we rejoice in, that this truth, this
truth has been shared with us.
I know men.
I know people.
I know one woman in particular that was
isolated and read the word of God.
Now, this just tells you the power of
the Spirit of God in being able to
teach.
And that dear lady learned to the letter
what God had planned and purposed in the
person of Christ as to the establishment of
the local church and the universal church, and
that it was comprised of living numbers, and
those numbers were...
This lady did this all on her own.
She didn't have any help.
She had the word of God.
The Spirit of God was helping her as
her teacher.
But listen to this passage, and this certainly
is something that's comforting.
Let's read from the first verse.
This Spirit wherefore lay inside all malice, and
all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all
evil speakings, that newborn babes desire the sincere
milk of the word, that she may grow
thereby.
If so be ye if tasted that the
Lord is gracious, to whom coming is unto
a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but
chosen of God and precious.
Ye also as living stones, or lively stones,
are built up a spiritual house and holy
priesthood.
That's what we are.
We're a holy priesthood, sanctified, set apart from
judgment, set apart for a blessing, to offer
up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus
Christ.
For if also it is contained in the
scriptures, Behold, I lay in thine a chief
cornerstone, elect precious, and he that believeth on
him shall not be confounded.
Unto you therefore which believe he is precious,
but unto them which be disobedient, the stone
which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner, and a stone
of stumbling and a rock of offense, even
to them which stumble at the word being
disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed.
But ye, thank God for this, you are
a chosen generation, you are a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you
should show forth the praises of him who
hath called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light, which in times past were not
a people, but are now the people of
God, which had not obtained mercy, but now
have obtained mercy.
What does the thought of a priest bring
to your mind?
I'm thinking about somebody that goes into the
very presence of God.
I think about that great day of atonement
when the high priest went right into the
Holy of Holies.
You know, that's what we can do.
We can go into the very presence of
God.
You don't have to ask me.
I don't have to ask you.
All I've got to do is get on
my knees and say, Lord, I want to
have some sweet fellowship with you.
I want to tell all my troubles to
you.
I want to praise you.
I want to worship you.
And as a royal priest, I function and
I praise God and I give the person
of our Lord Jesus Christ his rightful place,
first place, head of the body.
Well, this is just an introduction to this.
Brian will be back with further studies concerning
the church, the body, and then there will
be others on Wednesday evening that will be
taking up further studies in this book, Christ's
Love of the Church.
So if you'd like to have one, get
it and use it.