Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 12. Let's have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank
you for this day. Lord, we're so grateful for this.
Time that we can be together. And Lord, we are so grateful
and honored to have your word and. We thank you for the opportunity
to open it and look into it. We realize that this is a great
privilege. And Lord, we. Thank you for laying
hold on us and bringing us here this morning. We give you all
the honor and glory for everything that every good and perfect thing
that happens to us. And Lord, we pray, if it be thy
will, you would bless your word to our hearts today. Lord, would
you prepare us right now? Would you lay hold of our mind
and cause us to not wander? And Lord, would you make us ready
to hear what you have to say this morning? And we pray, Lord,
if it be thy will that you would bless all of your sheep everywhere,
be with our loved ones who are not here with us. And we pray,
Lord, that you'll be with every congregation right now. We ask
if you would be willing, Lord, would you have mercy on our children?
Would you save their souls and open their eyes and plant a seed
in their heart? Cause them to bear the yoke in
their youth. Would you, Lord, forgive us and our children for
all of our sins? They're so great, there's so
many. And we beg for mercy, Lord. And we pray for our loved ones
who are going through trials and sickness right now that you
would be with them. Touch their bodies, raise them
back up, if it be thy will. We ask all these things for Christ's
sake. Amen. 1 Corinthians 12. Last week, we looked at the first
11 verses. And the apostle Paul was writing
about the different spiritual gifts that God gives to his people,
different abilities that God gives to his people. And the
reason he gives those different gifts is for the glory of God
and the good of his sheep. That's why he gives them that.
We, some of us, all of us, we've been given so much And the Lord
has provided us with jobs and everything that we have, and
it's all for the glory of God and for the good of His sheep.
That's the whole reason. And this world doesn't understand
that, but the Lord starts to lay it on the hearts of His people
to realize everything comes from Him. It's all His gift to us,
and He gives it for the glory of God and the good of His saints. And he gives every member of
his body a ministry in the Lord, every member. Look at verse 5,
1 Corinthians 12, it says, there
are differences of administrations. And if you have a center reference
in your Bible, you'll see that word means ministries. There
are different ministries, but the same Lord. So last week he
talked about these different gifts. This week he's going to
talk about the body itself, the body of Christ itself. So verse
12 is where we pick up. For as the body is one, he's
talking about the human body. He's given an illustration here
and he says, as the body is one and hath many members and all
the members of that one body being many are one body. So also is Christ. That's how
it is in Christ. The book of Colossians says Christ
is the head and the church is his body. We're his body. Now what does that mean exactly?
Who is the body of Christ? His sheep, his saints make up
the body of Christ. Is every soul on earth the body
of Christ. If people make up the body, is
every soul on earth the body of Christ? Well, turn with me
over to Romans 8. Back a few pages to Romans 8. Romans chapter 8 verse 28 says, And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. So all things work together for
good to them who are called on purpose. according to his purpose. Verse 29 says, for whom he did
foreknow, that means from the foundation of the world, from
before the foundation of the world, from a never beginning
eternity. We always think of eternity as
never ending, but it never began either. From a never beginning
eternity. Whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate, preorder. everything about that person,
to be conformed to the image of his son, his body, that he
might be the firstborn among many brethren, moreover, whom
he did predestinate, order everything about them on purpose without
their consent. Them he also called. There came a point in time when
he called them. Whom he called, them he also justified." You
know how a sinner is justified before God Almighty? They're
plunged under the blood of Christ. That's the only way. And whom
he justified, them he also glorified by putting them in the body of
Christ. And they're seated in the heavens with him. This word,
this scripture calls those people the elect. That's what it calls
them, the elect, the ones that God the Father chose. This word
calls those people the redeemed, the ones that God the Son, Jesus
Christ, paid the price in full for. Turn with me over to Ephesians
chapter one. Ephesians 1, look at verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God to every soul on earth. to the saints which are at Ephesus,
and to the faithful in Christ Jesus." That means, now I'm going
to tell you this, none of us are faithful. He is faithful.
What that right there means is those that God has made to be
full of faith, the faithful. Verse 2, grace be to you, and
peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. If we want to know where every
spiritual blessing from God is found, it's in Christ. Every goodness, all salvation,
every bit of that, if a man wants to find that or a woman wants
to find that, it's only found in Christ. That's it. Verse 4
says, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world. Only after I made my decision
though. I was not around before the foundation of the world. He chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love, having predestinated us. This is saying
the exact same thing Romans 8 is saying, isn't it? Having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of my will. his will, it's all according
to his will. So those are the souls that make
up the body of Christ, it's a very particular group of souls, it's
the ones that God the Father chose, predestinated to be conformed
to the image of Christ, put under his blood, adopted into his family,
those are the souls that make up the body of Christ and it's
all in his hands. And it's all in His will and
His purpose, and we're just at His mercy. That's why we always
talk about mercy. Everybody is always talking about
mercy. Mercy, here's what mercy is.
It's not getting what you deserve. That's mercy. Not getting what
I deserve. And I deserve punishment, hell,
and death. And mercy is found in Christ.
So it's all at His mercy. All right, now go with me back
to 1 Corinthians 12. I'm going to try to move on because
I'm taking too long. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 12 says,
For as the body is one, and hath 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. That right there is true baptism. There it is. If a person wants
to understand baptism, there it is. By one spirit Are we all
baptized into one body? That water right back there,
we have this pool that we fill up with water every now and then,
that is not baptism. That's not baptism. The one true
baptism of God is when God's Holy Spirit lays hold of a sinner
and immerses that sinner in the blood of Christ. That is baptism. When a sinner is put in Christ,
that's baptism. My only hope of eternal life
is being found in Christ. That's my only hope. I must be
in Christ. And the scripture says, of God
are we in Christ. How's a person get in Christ?
You know, the Lord told Nicodemus, you must be born again. And Nicodemus
said, can a man enter into his mother's womb a second time?
You tell people, if you want to have eternal life, you must
be in Christ. And people think, what does that
mean? How do you get in Christ? Well, the scripture says, and
it's in first Corinthians. of God, are you in Christ? God's Spirit lays hold of a sinner
and puts him in Christ. It's all of God. And the actual
baptism is a work of God Almighty. Alright, well then why do we
have water? If that's the case, why bother? Because God told
us to. Isn't that what he said? Whenever a person gets married when two people
get married which one comes first love or a marriage ceremony which
one comes first love or marriage you know we talk about being
in Christ we could talk about being in love something from
the heart you know Which one comes first, love or a marriage
ceremony? Hannah and I, we had a marriage
ceremony. Did we do that so we could start
being in love? Did I tell her, now honey, on
May the 8th, 2004, for the first time, you and I are going to
start being in love. And I can't wait. And on May
the 7th, I didn't love her. But May the 8th, I loved her.
That's crazy. We got up in front of everybody
and we told everybody in that auditorium what was already going
on. I love her. I do love her. I
have been loving her. And we didn't need a ceremony
to start loving each other. And no believer needs water to
be in Christ. Why do we do it then? Why do
we have it? The reason is because God told us to. Why did we have
that marriage ceremony? God told us to. That's the whole
reason, God told us to. Somebody asked a wise preacher
one time, does a person have to be baptized to be saved? He
said, no. A person has to be baptized to
obey God. Does a person have to be married to be in love?
No. A person has to be married to
obey God. That's the whole reason. Verse
13 says, for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body. Whether we be Jews or Gentiles,
whether we be bond or free, and have all been made to drink into
one spirit. We all are fed and nourished
and satisfied by one spirit, God's Holy Spirit. Those of you
that the Lord has dealt with, and when I say that, you'll know
what I mean. Those of you that the Lord has dealt with, do you
find yourself not only believing the gospel, but craving it. Like you crave food and water.
Go a little while without water and see what happens to your
body. Your whole body starts to crave it. We feed on it. We drink from it. It's life to
a believer. Really, I'm not being silly here.
Take away my air, but don't take away my good news. Verse 14 says, For the body is
not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, because
I'm not the hand, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not
of the body? And if the ear shall say, because
I'm not the eye, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not? Just
because it says that, does that mean it's not of the body? Some
might say, I don't do much. I just, you know, I can't do
much. I don't do, I'm just not a necessary part of this congregation. I want every believer here to
know and really understand, I dwelt on this, I dwelt on what I'm
about to tell you, and I mean every word of it. I want everyone
here to understand what a vital part of the ministry just coming
to worship God is. Just what gathering together
with the body, when the body comes together, I want everybody
to understand what a vital component of the ministry that is. One of the great ministries that
we have in the Lord is to exhort one another daily. Encourage
each other. It's just such a wonderful ministry
to encourage each other. And the greatest encouragement
we can give to each other is the encouragement that comes
through worshiping together. That is the greatest one. When
we are present for worship, number one, God receives glory. We're
here to glorify God. His people all come together
to worship Him. We're not here for social reasons. We got the YMCA for that. We're
here to worship God. And when we're present for worship,
God receives glory and He gets all the glory for bringing us
here. We wouldn't be here if He didn't bring us here. But
when one of us walks through that door right there, every
time one of God's sheep walks through that door right there,
every other believer here is encouraged. Every time. Every single time. When we see
God's faithfulness to bring each one of us. You know, the only
reason I'm here today is because God was faithful to bring me.
And when we see that, it encourages the entire body of Christ, the
entire body. And when one of the brethren
is not here, I mean one of the brethren, when they're not here,
something is missing. Something is missing. A piece
of our collective heart, it'd be just like if I lost a finger,
I mean really, or a toe, my little toe, I don't want to lose it. I just don't. There's a couple
of organs, maybe gallbladder. I don't know. There's a couple
of things that they say. I don't even really know what that does. I don't
care. I don't want mine taken out. I want it. And I acknowledge that there's
so many circumstances that are out of our control. We all have
to work. We get called out from time to
time and get sick. Everybody needs to take a vacation.
You need to go travel to the other churches and hear the other
preachers and meet your brethren. But aside from those things that
are out of our control, When God gives us a heart to be here,
I just want us all to understand what a vital component of the
ministry that is. And whenever we come to that
fork in the road, should I go, should I not go, may the Lord
remind us what an exhortation it is. It's a real exhortation
to our brethren. When the entire body of Christ
comes together with one mind and one heart to worship one
Lord, we're all here together, all together. Somebody might
say, well, you know, I don't stand up here and do anything.
Nobody will notice whether I'm there or not. It doesn't matter.
That's just not so. It's just not so. Every member
of the body of Christ is a vital member of the body of Christ.
And this is what I titled this Bible study. We need each other. I mean, we need each other. We
need each other badly. These four fingers right here
need this thumb. And this thumb, what if it said,
I don't need to be a member of the hand. They're all fingers.
I'm not a finger. Verse 17 says, if the whole body
were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where
were the smelling? If there were no hearing, if
God did not make a hearing and bring a hearing, there would
be no speaking. There would be no speaking. And
again, I have yet to make my point on how vital it is for
the ministry, but I'm going to try to right here. There is a
direct connection between the mouth and the ear. There's a
direct connection between the mouth and the ear. When a person
is deaf, their speech is, you ever heard a deaf person talk?
Their speech is muted. I mean, you can kind of understand
a little bit, but their speech is muted. And if God does not
create, and if he does not bring a hearing, the speech is muted. It really is. The speech is muted.
Now, God blesses his message as he sees fit. It's in his hands. It's by his control. But I want us to understand what
a ministry hearing is. That's what I want us to see.
It is a great blessing when God makes a message clear and plain. And you know what I'm talking
about. Sometimes it's like, man, that was clear. Sometimes it's
like, yeah, yeah, that was a gospel. He preached the truth. But it's
a great blessing when the Lord makes a message clear and plain
and He gives that liberty in the declaration, the liberty
of His Word in the declaration. And that's something that is
totally in His hands. We have no influence on it and
our emotions are not necessarily, they don't necessarily say whether
or not God's Spirit is working. I mean, I walk out of here sometimes
ready to get under my vehicle. And I'll, you know, somebody,
man, that's a great blessing. And then the opposite is true
too, you know, I'm ready to get on top of the vehicle. But it's not an indication of whether
or not his spirit is moving, but here's what I do find. I
really do find that usually our Lord makes the speech plain when
he makes the hearing plain. when he gathers a hearing and
when he makes a hearing ready. We pray, Lord, make us ready
for this. Tune our ears to what I'm listening
to. I'm listening to. And here's
my point. All right. After this is over,
we're going to load this on the internet. We're going to load
this on the internet. And all of our desire in doing
that is that God might bless it. That's our whole desire.
That's the whole reason we're doing it. Our desire is that
God might cross the path of a sinner with the gospel, open his eyes,
save his soul, and our prayer is that God might be clearly
glorified and the truth clearly declared. None of us, not one
person here, wants to send out from this ministry a muted and
unclear gospel. None of us do. The burden of
this declaration, and it is a burden, the burden of this declaration
has been committed to us. Not me, us. And we are declaring
this message together. Here we are together. I've been
called to speak. We've all been called to hear.
And your role in this declaration is just as vital as my role.
Isn't that something? Just as vital as mine. One member of
the body cannot function to its fullest without the other members
of the body. Somebody would say that right
there needs to be picked up and moved, something heavy. Could
you imagine trying to pick up something heavy without a thumb?
You just can't function to your fullest without all the members
of the body. So we need each other. God has
made us to need each other. Verse 18 says, But now hath God
set the members, every one of them, in the body, as it hath
pleased him. And if they were all one member,
where were the body? But now are they many members,
yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the
hand, I have no need of thee. I'm going to tell you something.
I need you. I need you. I truly do. You know, I'm the preacher, you're
just the hearers. No, I'm nothing. Christ is all. And I say with
the Apostle Paul, this is what the Apostle Paul said. He said,
I'm the least of all saints. He said, I'm less than the least
of all saints. That's what he said. And I need
you. I really do. Verse 21, the eye
cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee, nor again the
head to the feet, I have no need of you. Now we're the body, Christ
is the head. And how sweet and how special
and how comforting is it that Christ our head will never say
to one member of his body, I have no need of you. Isn't that wonderful? He'll never say to one member
of his body, I have no need of you. Now, he doesn't need anything.
He does not need any. God is self-sufficient, self-sustaining. But he, for the joy that was
set before him, endured the cross. He bought us. He made us his
bride. He embraced us. And he lovingly
whispers into our heart right here, I need you. Isn't that
something? I need you. Just listen to this. Just listen
to this. This is Psalm 139. I've always
loved this. Psalm 139 verses 17 and 18 say,
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God, thy thoughts
unto me. How great is the sum of them. We just said that from never
beginning eternity. How far back can we think? Eternity has no beginning. And from all that, it's not even
time. I don't know what it is. He has
been thinking on each member of his body, every single one
of us. And this says, how precious are
thy thoughts unto me, O God? How great is the sum of them?
If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. We have a beach we like to go
to. Long beach. A lot of grains of sand on that
beach. But that's not the beach he's
talking about. He's talking about every beach in the world. And
he didn't say beach. You know how far inland the sand
goes? And he didn't say inland. Do you know how much sand is
under the ocean? Of all the oceans in the world? He said the sand. That's just amazing. That's amazing. Verse 22 in our text says, nay,
much more, those members of the body which seem to be more feeble
are necessary. The ones, those of us who are
not leading the worship service. Those that might be newer to
the gospel, you know, the Lord brings us in as He sees fit.
He adds daily to the church such as should be saved. And they're
necessary. We're all necessary. And I'm
going to tell you why. This wicked flesh right here, this sinful
flesh right here, after a while, it grows cold to the gospel.
It's so sad, isn't it? It grows cold to the gospel.
After a while, our ears grow dull of hearing. We hear, Christ
died on the cross to set you free. And this flesh goes, yeah,
I know. I've heard that a thousand times.
But when God brings in a new member to his body, And when
that new believer is hearing everything for the first time
and they're just soaking up the gospel, growing in grace, growing
in the knowledge of him, when that happens, every other member
of the body starts listening through their ears, don't they?
Every other member, somebody who's heard it a thousand times,
it's like they're hearing it for the first time again. It
brings a newness, a refreshing of life to the entire body. Verse
23, those members of the body which we think to be less honorable,
upon these we bestow more abundant honor. And our uncomely parts
have more abundant comeliness, for our comely parts have no
need, but God hath tempered the body together, having given more
abundant honor to that part which lacked. If one believer thinks
another believer is less honorable, the believer who thinks that
is less honorable. We do esteem each other better
than ourselves, don't we? All right, let me move on up
a little bit. Verse 25 says that there should
be no schism in the body, but that the members should have
the same care one for another. Schism means division. Behold
how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
in unity. May God take away all envy, all
jealousy, all pride, I'm about to have one of you men come up
here in a minute and read scripture for us. And that's such a weighty
task. And may the Lord give us a heart
to do it like we're alone in our closet, forget everybody's
listening. May the Lord cause all of the
other men to not have a heart that says, now wait a minute,
I think he asked him twice before he's asked me again. This could
be the third time he's done it. What about me? May the Lord just
take all that away from us. In just a minute, we call it
a special. I call it a not so special. I'm
going to sing and it's not so special. It is because my sister
is going to sing. But if the Lord raised up some
singers, if he would raise up singers to sing specials, may
it never become a competition. Never. May it never become a
concert. You know, who was more moving?
Who did a better job, you know? May we all gather together to
worship God. May we just all gather together
to worship God. May he give us a spirit that
just looks to Christ. We're all one. We don't want
to be divided by schisms. Not at all. Verse 26, whether
one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. Next time you
stump your toe really hard, I mean really, really, really hard,
you watch what your whole body does. Boom. Oh! What are my hands doing? They
didn't stump my hands. suffering with it, and that's
what happens. Well, one member suffer, all the members suffer
with it, one member is honored, all the members rejoice with
it. Now, you are the body of Christ and members in particular,
and God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets,
thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing,
helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Now, this was written
back whenever miracles were being performed, but that's not the
first thing he mentions. That's not the first thing. Paul,
they were amazing miracles. Paul raised a man from the dead.
But he said, God has given first apostles. They wrote the word
of God. The word of God is first priority.
He said, secondarily, prophets, they preach the word of God.
He said, thirdly, teachers, they teach the word of God. And then
he said, after that, after all that, Then you have miracles
and gifts of healing and helps and governments and 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? The answer
is no. The Lord is going to call some men to do some things and
women to do things that he's not going to call everybody to
do. And I believe he'll give each of us a heart for what he
calls us to do. And we're not all gonna receive
the same gifts, but he says in verse 31, covet earnestly the
best gifts. This is one of the only times
I find where it's okay to covet. He said, you see what somebody
else has and want it. You covet earnestly the best
gifts, and yet show I unto you a more excellent way. There are
some gifts that God gives to every child of his, every member
of the body. And they're the best gifts. First,
he gives his spirit to every member of the body. No matter
what gift he gives us, let's covet that gift. His spirit brings
faith to believe on Christ. And that's life. That's life
eternal. And with that gift, there comes another one that
he's going to mention. We'll look at it, Lord willing, next time
we're in the Bible study together. Chapter 13 is all about love.
It's all about love. Love for God Almighty, love for
His people. And outside of the gift of his
spirit, that's the greatest gift we could receive. That is the
greatest gift that a child could receive, is love for God, love
for Jesus Christ, love for his people, a heart that truly says,
I esteem you better than myself. And it's because I love you.
That's the best gift. May the Lord make us members
of the body of Christ and give us a love for Christ and his
body. We need him and we need each other. We really do. All
right, you're dismissed.