Alright brethren, Ephesians chapter
4. The Lord Jesus is the Son of God. One with God. And He came down. He came down. He took the body
prepared for Him in the womb of a virgin. that he might be
the holy, holy, holy last Adam to represent his people. Holy
in the womb. That's what we read here, Ephesians
4. It says, verse 9, he, now that
he ascended, what is it? That he also descended first
into the lowest parts of the earth. He that ascended is the
same also that ascended up, for above all heavens that he might
fill all things. He came and accomplished the
salvation of his people. He came and bore our sin, and
then once the sin was laid on the lamb, then he bore the curse,
the lamb was slain. And he put away all the sin of
his people. We were captives under the devil,
under the power of the devil due to our sin. And the first
thing that had to be done to free us was we had to be justified
before God. And that's what Christ accomplished.
The second thing that has to be accomplished to free us is
we have to be born again of God and taught the good news of what
Christ has done and given faith to trust Christ. And that glory
was given to Christ by God. He ascended that he might fill
all things. That's what verse 10 says. He ascended up far above all
heavens that he might fill all things. So when he arose, he
led captivity captive. You and me who were captive,
he took us to be his captives of grace. And all powers he is
in heaven that he might give us, fill us with the Spirit,
fill us with faith, fill us with understanding, fill us with the
good news, and bring us to trust Him. And so when He ascended,
He gave gifts to men. This was His, He fills all things. So He filled the pulpit. He filled
the pulpit. And here's what He gave, verse
11. He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists
and some pastors and teachers. God said it, after that in the
wisdom of God, after that in the wisdom of God, it pleased
God to save through the foolishness of preaching. After that in the
wisdom of God, man by our wisdom knew not God and couldn't know
God. It pleased God by what we're doing right here right now to
save His people. Not just in the first hour, but
all our life as believers, this is how God is ministering to
us and saving us. And he gave this glory to Christ
as the same as all the work is his. He gave this glory to Christ
to give his preachers. And I want you to see how wise
this is. This is wisdom. This is wisdom. He said in 1 Corinthians 1, the
reason he saves through preaching He said he uses foolish things,
he uses weak things, he uses things that are despised, things
that are nothing, and that's talking about you and me. That's
talking about his preacher he uses to preach, and that's talking
about the people he called and uses to send forth the gospel.
There's nothing in us to make people wanna come and join with
us. Same as our Savior, there was
no form of commonness about him. Outward fleshly that would make
people want to believe him and trust him Well, the Lord's not
only use anything outward and fleshly to draw his people and
give his people faith He chooses foolish weak base things things
that are nothing to bring to nothing things that are so no
flesh glories in his presence He makes when he calls you he
makes you know, it's of God that you're in Christ born again in
Christ and It's of God you're given spiritual discernment.
Christ is made unto you. It's of God that he provided
Christ who is all in salvation. Wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. He's everything. So that we glory
only in the Lord. And that's not a one-time thing. He regenerates you, that's a
one-time thing. But the rest of our days, through
this gospel, he's teaching us more and more that we have no
reason to glory in our flesh, and that all glory belongs to
the Lord. He's showing us more and more
He is all salvation. And it's so wise, it is the wisdom
of God to save through preaching. And I want you to see that here
today. I want you to see this wisdom. I've called this God's
wisdom in preaching. God's wisdom in preaching. So,
The Lord ascended and he gave gifts to men. He gave pastors
and teachers and apostles and all the various offices of, but
they're all preachers. That's what he did, preachers
of the word. Verse 12, for the work of perfecting, for the perfecting
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying
of the body of Christ. He doesn't perfect us in ourselves
in this life. That's not what that means. We
are perfect in Christ. We are complete in Christ. That's
what he's teaching. His people. He is growing us
up into Him, though. He is growing us. He said, verse
13, how long will He give preachers? 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.
Christ justified everybody He laid down His life for, and so
we all must be given faith to trust Him, because justice, the
justice of God demands it. And so he's gonna send these
preachers till he's called every single one of his people who
he redeemed. Till we're all brought to the
unity of the faith, to the knowledge of the son of God. And he's gonna
keep growing us up. We're not gonna be perfect in
this life, but one day we're gonna be perfectly conformed
to him. But also what this is saying is, is as he adds people,
that he's called their members, Just like you have bodily members,
they're members of his body. And as he adds members, his body
is getting fuller and fuller, and one day will be complete.
The full measure of Christ, the fullness of Christ, Christ as
the head and every member he saved being his body. And so
he's going to keep us safe from false preachers. He said in verse
14, He sends these preachers with the gospel that we henceforth
be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with
every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men and the cunning
craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive. He describes
them as robbers by the road, lying in wait, so when they come,
we pass by, they rob us, using deceit and cunning craftiness
in what they preach. But look, but here's how these
preachers preach. speaking the truth in love. We
speak sincerely, truthfully, the truth of God, the word of
God in love. We do it, you know, people get
mad when you preach, but I'm not here to try to offend you.
I'm here in love as representing my savior to declare what he
says and what he's done and who he is and how he saves. So we
speak the truth in love, the gospel of Christ, that we may
grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.
Now this is what I want to focus on. Christ is the head, verse
16, from whom, from whom the whole body is fitly framed together
and compacted by that which every joint supplieth. That means every
member, whatever member brings to the table, that's how we're
compacted by whatever member supplies. And how do we get this
supply? Where does this come from? According
to the effectual working in measure, in the measure of every part. It's according to Christ our
head from whom he's effectually working in measure in every one
of his people. That's where the supply comes
from, by which he compacts us together, and thereby he maketh
increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. The body increases as he adds
those he calls, and we increase as he grows us, and we increase
with one another as he compacts us together. All this is done
through the preaching of the word by him bringing us together
in his body. Wisdom, wisdom, I mean, this
is wisdom. And on top of that, as he's doing
this for us here, he's calling out more of his lost people that
he's redeemed. Isn't that wonderful? I mean,
that's, it's the wisdom of God. And I'm gonna show you why, try
to show you why. Now, first of all, he describes
the church as a body, and his people as members of his body. Christ is the head. That's what
he says here, Christ is the head. And we're told in scripture that
each one that he calls are his members. They're his members
of his body. We saw then in verse 13, that
he's doing this to we all come in the unity of faith, to the
knowledge of the Son of God, and to a perfect man, to the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Go back to
Ephesians 1 and look at verse 22. When God raised him, raised
him above all the heavens, above everything, everybody, and it
said he gave him to be head over all things to the church. See
there at verse 22, gave him to be head over all things to the
church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth
all in all. and you hath he quickened who
were dead. See, when he's called and quickened the last one, his
body will be full, complete. So he's calling, he's adding,
he's making an increase of the body. Look over at 1 Corinthians
12, and I want you to hold your Mark 1 Corinthians 12 to the
left, 1 Corinthians 12, because we're gonna come back to this
again. 1 Corinthians 12. He's using the human body again,
and he's describing the church, the body of Christ. Verse 12,
he says, as the human body is one body and has many members,
and all the members of that one body being many are one body,
so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all
baptized into one body. It sounds like what he's saying
in Ephesians 4, doesn't it? One body, one faith, one God,
that's what he is saying. Whether we be Jews or Gentiles,
whether we be bond or free, nothing about our flesh matters in this
thing. It doesn't contribute, and it
doesn't hinder, and it's not to be looked at. Be treated like
it's dead, because that's what it is. So whether you're Jew
or Gentile, bond or free, from the North, the South, the East,
the West, speak Spanish, English, or Russian, it don't matter.
You've been all made to drink into one spirit. Verse 27 says,
now you are the body of Christ and members in particular. So
Christ is our head, and every member he calls are his body,
and he's the one filling all in all. If you think about that
statement, brethren, he filleth all in all, you can't take that
statement too far. He fills all in all. He is all
fullness. All fullness comes from him.
And I mean, he is all fullness. He's the fullness of creation.
Creation depends upon him to uphold it by the word of his
power, to feed and provide for creation, all the animals, everything
he created. But for us in salvation, he's
fulfilled everything. He's filled all. He came to fulfill
the law of God for God to declare God just and justifies people,
and that's what he did. And he fulfilled that law for
us, made us the righteousness of God in him. So since it pleased
God to save through this means of preaching, he fills the pulpit
with his preacher. He said, I will give you pastors
after mine own heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. That's Jeremiah 3.15. He said
of these false preachers who lie and wait to deceive and use
cunning craftiness to twist the word, try to make it appealing
to everybody and take the gospel slap out of it. He said, I didn't
send them. And he said, they won't profit
you. If they speak not according to this word, to the law and
to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it's
because there's no light in them. He said, I didn't send them.
But he fills his pulpit with his preacher. And he fills his
preacher with his word, with the gospel. Gives you the message
to preach. I preached a message Friday night to the church, to
the men for the preacher's class. And I mean, when it was over,
I felt like the Lord sat me down and poured this message into
me. That's what it felt like. It
just came as fast as it could. I wish they all came that way,
but they don't. But that one came, this one came
quick. And he does that. He fills his preacher with a
message. And then when you go to the church
building, I can't bring anybody here. I can't make anybody come
here. He fills the church with his people. He'll make you take
a wrong turn and end up coming to the building he intends you
to be at. That's what he'll do. And he fills the members with
the message in our hearts. In doing so, he shows you he's
fulfilled every office, prophet, priest, king, creator, righteousness,
holiness, sanctifier, sanctification, redeemer, captain of our salvation. He's fulfilled everything. That's
who he is. So he's the head, we're members
of his body, and he fills all. Now secondly, Christ fitly frames
us together. It's him who fitly frames us
together. Consider the body. He said there
in verse 12, he sent these preachers, Ephesians 4.12, he said, for
the perfecting of the saints. That word in the Greek means
the resetting of dislocated bones. Now you know exactly where I
went when I read that. The resetting of dislocated bones. Go to Ezekiel 37. By our sin in Adam, by Adam sinning,
and by us being born of Adam's corrupt seed, we are dislocated
bones. Every one of us in particular
are a dead, dry bone by nature, separated from God by our sins
and separated from each other. Now listen to what he tells his
preacher to do. He told him, set him down in a valley full
of dry bones. He said there, verse one, the
hand of the Lord was upon me. He fills all, doesn't he? He
was upon me and He carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord
and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full
of bones. And He caused me to pass by them round about, and
behold, there were very many in the open valley, and lo, they
were very dry. And He said to me, Son of man,
can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou
knowest. And again, he said to me, prophesy,
preach upon these bones and say to them, O ye dry bones, hear
the word of the Lord. Now listen to the message that
the Lord filled his preacher with to tell him to preach. Is it about the works of man?
No, it's about his works. He said, thus saith the Lord,
of God to these bones. Behold, I will cause breath to
enter into you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon
you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with
skin. And I will put breath in you,
and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord. He's
saying, I'm going to make you a new man. One new man. By bringing all these bones together
and uniting them, I will make one body. That's what I'm going
to do. That's what God said, and when
I do it, you're going to know I did it. That's the message
of 1 Corinthians 1. You're not going to glory in
yourself, you're going to glory in me. You're going to know I
did this work. This is the wisdom of God in saving this way. This
is why he saves through preaching, because this is what he's accomplishing.
So Ezekiel preached, verse seven, I prophesied as I was commanded,
and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a shaking,
and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I
beheld, lo, sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin
covered them above. They were united, but there was
no breath in them. And then he said, now you prophesy
to the wind, you speak to the wind, you pray to Christ to send
the Holy Spirit. He's the only one that fills
all. Prophesy, son of man, say to the wind, thus saith the Lord
God, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these
slain that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded
me, and the breath came in unto them, and they lived, and stood
up upon their feet an exceeding great army. And then he told
me what this was all about, what all this meant. He said, son
of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. This is my elect
Israel, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, bond and free, male
and female, that I'm calling from the four corners of the
earth. Behold, they say our bones are dried and our hope is lost.
We're cut off for our parts. Therefore, preach. Say to them. Thus saith the Lord God, preach
this message, Behold all my people, I will open your graves, and
I will cause you to come up out of your graves, and I will bring
you into the land of Israel. That's His heavenly design, His
church. I'm going to set you in the land. and you shall know
that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves, O my people,
and when I have brought you up out of your graves, and when
I shall put my Spirit in you, you shall live, and I shall place
you in your own land. Then shall you know that I, the
Lord, have spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord." You see
the wisdom of God? He's given preachers for Christ
to get the glory, for filling us with a preacher, filling him
with a message, and then filling his people with his spirit and
resetting the bones, bringing us together and fitly framing
us together as one body, his body. Back over there in 1 Corinthians
12, look there with me. See, Paul preached the same message
to every church, and so we see the same message in 1 Corinthians
12 as we see in Ephesians 4. He says here in 1 Corinthians
12, 18, now hath God set the members, every one of them, in
the body as it pleased him. You know why a believer is united
in the local assembly he's united in and with the brethren he's
united with? Because Christ set him there.
He fitly framed Him there, that's why. And He makes us know we're
all one in Christ. Back up there in verse 3, in
Ephesians 4 verse 3, He teaches us the gospel of what He's accomplished. And He makes us know we're one
because of what He did for us. Ephesians 4 verse 3, He calls
it the unity of the Spirit, the unity of the Holy Spirit. Those
bones came together in that valley by the Spirit of God. And it's
the bond of peace, peace Christ has accomplished for us. There's
one body, one spirit, even as you're called, and one hope if
you're calling. There's one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one God and Father of all, who's above all and through
all and in you all. You see the wisdom of God? He
fitly frames you together, and he makes you to know he did it
all. And he makes you know that by what Christ has done, we are
one. One body, one man, Christ the
head, and we members of it by one body. That's so of this local
assembly, but that's so of all his elect people in every local
assembly that he's called to faith, and one day when he brings
us home, he's gonna bring all the members from each local assembly
together into one body, and we're gonna be perfectly conformed
to him. That's what he's doing through
this preaching. through the preaching of the
word. So see, we have no reason to look at ourselves. We have
no reason to put confidence in our flesh because our flesh didn't
do anything. We did not do this. We were the
dry bones. We couldn't do this. He did it
all. So he gets all the glory. That's
why he's saving the tray. You shall know I'm the Lord.
I performed it. That's what he said. Okay, lastly. This is where I see the wisdom
of God so much in saving this way. He says, verse 7, unto every
one of us, Ephesians 4, 7, unto every one of us, each of us individually,
is given grace. This means, here it means gifts
of grace. It means it has to, it's faith
and grace. the gift of fruit of the spirit,
but it's also individual gifts. Somebody's a preacher. Somebody
plays an instrument. Somebody leads singing. Somebody
can build things. Somebody is good at whatever
other job, cleaning. Somebody's been gifted to pray. Somebody's been gifted to give.
Somebody's been gifted everything the body needs He's given a measure
of grace to each member to do what that little member is supposed
to do for the good of the whole body. All right, now look, and
it's according to the measure of the gift of Christ. He fills
all, he did it. Now look at verse 16. He says,
not only does he fitly join us together, he says he compacts
us by that which every joint supplieth. And how do we get
the supply? According to Christ effectually
working in the measure of every part, given that measure of grace
in every member of the body. And so by this, he makes increase
of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. Now he's gonna
use our natural body for the example. Go back to 1 Corinthians
12. He uses our natural body as the
example. And look here in verse 12, verse
21. Well, let's read more of this.
I want you to see this. He said, verse 14, the body's
not one member, but many. Come out the human body. If the
foot shall say, because I'm not the hand, I'm not of the body,
is it therefore not of the body? If the ears shall say, because
I'm not the eye, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of
the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing?
If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now
hath God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it
is pleased him. And if they were all one member,
where would be the body? But now are they many members,
yet but one body. And I cannot say to the hand,
I have no need of thee. He's compacted, cemented us together
by showing us we need each other. Just like every member of your
human body needs the other member of your human body. He says,
I can't say I have no need of the hand, nor again the head
to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more, those members
of the body which seem to be more feeble, they're necessary. And those members of the body
which think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant
honor. Who put them there? Who put these
feeble members in your body? The Lord did. Why did he give
more abundant honor to other members of your body to take
care of the feeble member of your body. And our uncomely parts have more
abundant comely as we put more honor on the feeble part. And for our comely parts have
no need, but God has tempered the body together, compacted
it together, having given more abundant honor to that part which
lacked, that there should be no schism in the body, no division,
but that the members should have the same care one for another,
for whether one member suffer and all the members suffer with
it, or one member be honored, all members rejoice with it.
Now you're the body of Christ and members in particular. He
said some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets,
thirdly teachers, after that miracles and gifts of healing,
helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles,
are all prophets, are all teachers, are all workers of miracles,
have all the gifts of healing, do all speak with tongues, do
all interpret? He said no. He's given the measure
of grace to each one and you just saw why. So there's no division,
the body has, You don't hit your human body. It's amazing. Everything
you need is provided. Every member brings something
to the table, and it's needed. And the members that are more
feeble, you protect them more. I think about like the apple
of your eye. It's a very tender spot of the
body, and you protect that part of your body. You wear eye protection
if you work in or whatever. You protect it. That's what he
means. And so it is in the church. He's
compacted us together. And so what he's doing for us,
brethren, is he brings you here and you're hearing this gospel
preached. And he's telling you everything's of him. It's all
of his grace. He's worked out the righteousness
for His people. He's made His people holy. He's
come and redeemed us from our own sin nature, delivered us
from the captivity by giving us a new spirit and faith. And
He's going to keep doing it through this gospel. He's done it through
this gospel, and He's going to keep doing it through this gospel.
And He teaches you this, and you hear it. And as you're hearing
it, you hear it's all of grace. God elected you by grace. He Christ redeemed you by grace. The Spirit regenerated you by
grace. You're being kept by grace. All grace. We didn't do anything
to merit. We, if anything, well, truthfully,
we demerited it. But it's all of grace. You hear
this over and over. And he teaches you that he's
going to keep you and he's going to keep growing you. And he teaches
you how that through it all, God's been long suffering to
you. Christ has been lowly and meek towards you. He's God of
very God. He's been lowly and meek toward
you to condescend to help you and save you. And he shows you
how God's forgiven you for Christ's sake. All this has been done
for Christ's sake by Christ. And it's all grace and it's all
the love of God. The love wasn't based on anything
in you. Love was in Christ, it's for His sake and for His honor
and glory, and it'll never change. All of this, you hear it preached
in the Gospel. And here's why He put us together.
Because by putting us together, we still have an old sin nature.
You're going to sin. I'm going to sin. I'm going to
offend you, you're going to offend me. We're going to offend each
other. So you heard it preached, you've
heard it preached. And then he makes you experience
what grace is. He makes you experience what
it is to be long-suffering towards your brother or sister. He makes
you experience what it is to be merciful for Christ's sake. He makes you experience what
it is to give grace that's undeserved to somebody. He makes you experience
what it is to forgive for Christ's sake as God's forgiven you. He
gives you the experience of what rejoicing is. When one member
rejoices, we rejoice with them. We see when the Lord calls one
of his people, scripture says there's glory and rejoicing in
heaven for that one that's brought to repentance. And we here get
to experience that rejoicing over that sinner called to faith
in Christ. We rejoice in it. And then when
a baby's born, we rejoice for one another in that. These good
things that happen, we rejoice. And through it all, when we do
sin and offend, okay, let's say you haven't sinned, you haven't
been the one that's fallen, haven't been the one that offended the
other. Somebody did it to you. or a brother or sister just flat
out fell in sin, it's obvious, everybody knows it, they sin.
And you get in this spirit of, I just, I'm not gonna be able
to forgive them. They're gonna have to do this,
that, that, the other before I can forgive them. And the Lord
keeps bringing you to hear this gospel preached, and he tells
you through this gospel, you've sinned. That's sin. And in your zeal against sin,
you have sinned in not being merciful to your brother and
not forgiving your brother. I'm just giving you an example.
And then he's, through this gospel, he spiritually, he works in your
heart and brings you to see your sin and brings you to him and
he says to you, He's faithful and just. If you confess your
sin, He's faithful and just to forgive you your sin. Faithful
to do it and just to do it. Why? Because when any man sins,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He's the sin atoning, perpetuating
sacrifice that made us one with God, and that'll never change.
And He renews you to know that, and when He does, He makes you
to see that you've done this to one for whom Christ died.
And thus you've done it to Christ. And he brings you to that brother
or sister. Now, mind you, you've been offended.
They offended you, they sinned. And he brings you to wrap your
arm around them and have mercy on them and love them and tell
them you love them and you want to help them, you do whatever
you can. And then you find out he's worked
that in their heart too. And they're begging forgiveness
and you forgive one another. And through that, you know what
he's done? He's increased you spiritually in love for Christ,
because you see, you're forgiven entirely for Christ's sake. He's
increased you because he's done what he says here at the end
of that verse. Look at the end of chapter four, verse 31. He
said, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and
evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. You couldn't
put off that old man. You was tangled up in that old
man. He done made you sin and you was just not gonna forgive
and he come and by this gospel made you put off that old man.
and he made you put on the new. Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven
you. And by that, he's increased you in love for Christ, because
you see how merciful God is and how unchanging his grace is to
you. And through this offense between
you and your brother, and him reconciling you together and
showing you he fitly framed you back together and compacted you,
he compacts you even more. He increases you more in love
for one another because you see, he's one with me. That brother,
that sister's one with me. We're one in Christ's body. The one spirit did this in his
heart and did it in my heart. And you see how truly one we
are in Christ. You wouldn't get that if you
wasn't in a body of believers. I feel so sorry for brethren
and you know, Maybe the Lord saved them after they had gotten
all these roots in this world and got tied down, and so they're
not under the preaching of the gospel with a local assembly.
And I feel for them because they get to hear, I have many people
contact me and call me, and I'm very thankful that they get to
hear the gospel through the internet, and the Lord's given us a wonderful
means for them to hear. But I feel for them in that not
being with a local assembly and not experiencing this friction
and rubbing each other the wrong way and getting offended and
then reconciling and the Lord teaching it, they don't get to
experience it. And I would say to them, I would
say to any of them, I've had brethren tell me, I really want
to move where the gospel is. I'll tell you something, if God
put that in your heart, He didn't put it there to disappoint you
and make you ashamed for trusting him. I've had brethren on the
west side of the country say this to me. And I said, is there
a place you could sit under the gospel? Is there a preacher you
could sit under? And they said, yeah. And they told me where. And I said, make arrangements
and go there. And they did. And they're sitting
there now in Florida under the gospel. And the Lord's provided
everything for them. If he put that desire in your
heart, he will provide. It won't be easy. Nothing in
this life is easy. He said, in this world, you're
going to have tribulation. But he'll provide every need
you have to get you under that gospel. And let me show you,
I want to show you just a couple of things. I'm going to go a
little long, but it'll be all right. I want you to see three
things he teaches you by this. Philippians 2, go with me there. First thing he teaches you is
this, Christ really is the head of his church, Christ really
has accomplished our redemption, he's really in the midst of his
people. He's in your brother and sister,
he's in you, and he's right here collectively with us, and he
is working his will and his good pleasure. Look at Philippians
2.12. Paul said, love it as you've always obeyed, not in my presence
only, but now much more in my absence. I'm gonna tell you what
this means. When you've offended one another,
work it out with fear and trembling. When you've got some great task
to do in the church to build something or whatever, work it
out with fear and trembling. When there's a need and you've
got to provide, work it out with fear and trembling. That's what
he's saying. But why? Because it is God right there
in your midst, working in you both to will and to do of His
good pleasure, So do everything without murmuring and disputing,
that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without
rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom
you shine as lights in the world. You're the light. He puts you,
you're the candlestick. You're holding forth the word
of life. So I may rejoice in the day of Christ. I haven't
run in vain nor labored in vain. That's what he teaches. The second
thing he does is he increases you. He humbles you. to know
we have nothing in which to boast, our flesh is flesh, we didn't
contribute, we're gonna fall and stumble in sin, he's gonna
keep teaching you about that, that it's all of Christ, it's
not of you. And then thirdly, he teaches
you, you need the gospel. If you hadn't experienced the
power of God through the preaching of the gospel, you won't need
the gospel. but when you experience it through
his power, and then he works these things amongst you and
your brethren in a local assembly, he makes you need the gospel
more. You see, this is really the bread. Man doesn't live by
bread on your table alone. True, that just sustains your
physical life, but your eternal life is by the word of God out
of his mouth. And he shows you when Christ
is present, he's the one doing the preaching. when he's speaking
to your heart. He feels all things, and you
need him, and you need this bread of life more than you need the
bread on your table. And so he gives you this heart
back up there in verse one. He says, walk worthy of the vocation
wherewith you call with all lowliness and meekness, with all longsuffering,
forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit. Everything he teaches you and
me, people want to get, you know, works preachers want to preach
on don't steal, don't cheat, don't lie, don't commit adultery,
and that's all needful. Paul deals with that in Ephesians
4. But there's something far, far worse. And it's the spiritual
sin of those things. Adultery against Christ and stealing
His glory. And here's where it comes in.
This is where the test is. You've got to be long-suffering.
That means you're suffering along with somebody because they're
making you suffer. And it's sin. And you're forbearing
because you're having to put up with them. And all of these
things. is toward our brethren being
long-suffering and forbearing and patient and meek and forgiving,
waiting on the Lord to work. All of this is the true test.
And this is where we mess up most and try to steal Christ's
glory and commit spiritual fornication because we're trying to be oppressive
and afflict and all the things we do when somebody stumbles
and falls. The Lord just keeps showing you.
He keeps showing you. And by it, he increases you,
making you meek and lowly, long-suffering. And he keeps doing this in you.
And I'm telling you, brethren, I've seen elderly brethren who've
been sitting under the same gospel with the same brethren in the
same assembly for 30, 40 years. And the Lord has taught on this
over and over and over. And what you find out is true
growth in grace, it's a lot like our physical body as we go through
the years. You get weaker and weaker and
weaker and more bent and weaker until you die. And that's inwardly
the new man is growing and growing and growing in spiritual life. While this physical carnal flesh
that doesn't contribute a thing is getting older and dying and
withering and withering. And those older brethren will
tell you, this flesh don't contribute a thing. It don't contribute
a thing. Treat it like it's a dead thing.
Christ is life. He fills all. And he's been so
wise to work this through the preaching of the gospel. And
on top of all of this, this is what's amazing. He's calling
out other lost sheep and making them join together with his people.
While he's teaching you in the midst of all of it, he's calling
out other sheep as we hold forth the gospel. Don't you find that
to be absolutely the greatest wisdom there is? I think that's
just, I just, I think it's amazing, amazing wisdom. I really do. I pray he'll bless that brethren.
Brother Greg.