Sheridan, Liddon: One Body ~ Rom 12

And that's no denomination, that's this body that's made up of all believers, the Holy Spirit having put us all into one body, which is the church. And therefore we have been e- emphasizing the word one and how we apply this in our own, uh, fellowship, in our own local church. We apply this by receiving, seeking to receive all that God receives, all that the Spirit of God have put into the one church. We want to make sure that we receive them into the local church, uh, because there's one body, and we are maintaining that truth. We are guarding it. We're endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit, the unity He has made by our seeking to receive all. Then we saw that the fact that it's one is also carries with it the sobering truth of discipline, because a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Since we are one bread, as it says in First Corinthians ten, one bread, one body, uh, this bread, if it's, uh, corrupt in any part of it, it, that corruption permeates it like leaven does. A little leaven leavens the whole lump, and that's why he says, purge out, therefore, the old leaven that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. Unleavened because we're in Christ, forgiven, justified, accepted, but at the same time, the sad truth is sin is still within every bosom here tonight. In every heart, there's that evil power of sin, even though we're saved and justified from it. And therefore, there's leaven in the church, and then when it is let loose, it has to be dealt with. When it's active, it has to be dealt with. And therefore, you notice it's because it's one body that we have to carry that oneness out by exercising discipline faithfully. And we notice some of the ways in which we, uh, do that in our last study. Uh, discipline is something that you don't do on the spur of the moment, but it's very reluctantly that the church exercises discipline. It's only when we are forced to, we never want to, and it breaks our hearts, and that should be the only way in which we ever exercise discipline, is in broken-heartedness and seeking the restoration of that brother or sister that's fallen by the way, seeking their restoration, and the very purpose of discipline is finally restoration. And Paul wrote First Corinthians in regard to, uh, discipline and told them to turn that man who was called a brother, who was living in such sin, he said, turn him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. And then in second Corinthians, he said, uh, receive him back. He's pleading with them to show mercy on him now. They finally disciplined in him, and now he's repentant, and and uh, Paul is pleading with them to show him kindness, lest such an one be overwhelmed, he says, with much sorrow. He would, he doesn't want us to beat a Christian when he's down, in other words, but we're seeking his restoration. And this is the spirit in which discipline is carried out in the church, and we are responsible for these things to the head of the church. The songs tonight just seem to sort of draw our hearts, uh, to the Lord Jesus, I felt, and I suppose you felt the same way, and it makes us, uh, take up these things not from a- an intellectual standpoint of just reading the word and letter for letter trying to do things, but it's that it's his church, and that the Lord Jesus bought it at such a price, and he loves it so, and it's his bride. And therefore, you and I should love the church and have it in our prayers and in our hearts. But since we can't deal with the whole church, other than praying for it, we can deal with his church in the local church where we are in fellowship. And we can take it up as his church, and like John who turned to hear the voice that's spoken to him, and we know very well whose voice it was. And you and I have been turning even tonight to, as it were, hear his voice as we've sung these lovely hymns about him. And as he turned to see the voice, what did he see? He saw seven golden lampstands. And I believe the point is, if we really care about what the Lord is interested in, rather than our own, even our own spiritual growth, our own development, but that which is on his heart, I believe we'll see the glory of the local church, and we'll realize we are part of it, and we've got a place in it, and we have a responsibility to fulfill in it. And it's for his sake that we do it. And that's why Paul said that above all the things that he suffered for Christ's sake, he said, beside all that which is without, that which presses upon me daily, anxiety for all the churches. You see his great care. Paul had a terrific burden for the lost, and surely he proved it by going all those many miles on foot and enduring all the sufferings to preach the gospel to the unsaved. But just as much he had in his heart the burden for the local church, and that should characterize you and me, dear Christian. Oh, let's reach out and hold with the Lord what he holds, what he is concerned about, and pray with our God about the local church and our place in it, and he'll really show us something if we will deal with him in those terms. God wants us to not only have a personal experience, but he wants us to have a corporate experience, that is, a collective e- experience of being a part of the church, the house of God on earth. And as he bid Timothy, that you may know how to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of God, the pillar and ground of the truth. So this is why we're pressing these things on our own heart as well as on your heart. So now we're looking at the word body. There is one body. So let's look, please, at Romans twelve where he takes up the truth of the body. The church as the body of Christ. Romans twelve. You notice those first two verses that you and I are so familiar with, and, uh, they're the ones that changed my life. I, it was almost like I got saved on these two verses here, of yielding your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. It was the first time I ever had a real personal encounter with the Lord, and I did business with him sincerely as a teenager, and it changed my life from that point on. And I'm sure these verses mean much to you as a Christian. But I'd like to point this out, where he asked for this sacrifice, do you notice that he tells us in the next verses how to carry out this sacrifice of yielding our bodies to him for his will and his glory? Notice what he says, starting at verse three and going especially through verse eight. For I say through grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. Uh, most of us are inclined to think we are sharper than we are spiritually, and that we are more advanced than we really are, I suppose. And, uh, he's warning us not to go down that, uh, road, but, uh, notice he doesn't say just don't think anything of yourself. He says don't think more highly of yourself as a Christian and as a servant of the Lord and what you're doing for him. He says don't think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but, notice, but... to think soberly. In other words, he's saying, but think of yourself accurately, correctly, in the light of what God has given you and enabled you to do. What can you do for the Lord? You may not even know it yet, but at least know this, that he has, as these verses will go on to tell us, he has a place for you. I don't care who you are, if you're saved. He has a place a- and a gift for you personally, man, woman, boy or girl, if you're saved. All right. So he says, but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. Now he's not just talking to men. In fact, the Greek doesn't have the word man, it's simply eschato, which means to each. Each. So when he says every man, he's really saying to each, so it man, woman, boy, or girl, Christian, of course. Okay, how much faith do you have as to what, I mean real faith, that you can do for the Lord, what he has cut out for you to do? How can you live as a Christian and be a blessing to the local church, to other Christians, and to the world around. Think soberly as you have faith to think. What can I do? Sometimes Christians can help you see better than you can yourself. I used to think I was going to be an evangelist, and I told the elders in my home assembly that I thought I would be an evangelist, and they shook their heads and they said, no, you're not an evangelist, you're a Bible teacher. And so I kind of woke up to the fact that they probably knew better than I did, and I think they're right, that that's really my gift. As much as I love to preach the gospel, I don't have that gift for throwing that net out and hauling them in. I just can't do it. It's just my- not my gift. There are other brethren that have that gift, and praise God for them. Um, but I had to have help to discover my gift, and you may need help too, encouragement and guidance from the elders and other Christians. All right, so then he goes on. For as we have many members in one body. Now he's talking about your human body as a picture of this truth of the church. As we have many members in one body, he's talking about you and your body. You have one body, but you have many members in it. Fingers, toes, eyes, ears, those are the members. As we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same function. That is, your ears can't see. They weren't made to see. They were made to hear. Your, uh, eyes can't talk. Your mouth and your tongue are made to talk. So each member has its own function. All right, he's saying, we all know that's true. My body is made that way, and yours is made that way. You have many members, want just one body, but many members, and each member has its own function or its work to do. So we Christians, being many, are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another. I tell my foot to move, and it moves. Sometimes I have trouble getting down the aisle after a meeting. I'm so, I've gotten up so tight preaching, I get so tense trying to put the word across. Sometimes I can't walk a straight line to the door. My feet just don't, uh, do just right. But ordinarily, my feet pretty well do what my head tells them to do. And each, each member is a member of the others. We all work together. My eyes find the door, and uh, uh, I tell my feet, let's go, and so we head out, and the members are working together to get us to move and function as we should. So that's what he's saying. We being many are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another. Oh, Christians, that you and I would realize this, that we need each other. We can't walk on our own. We cannot be lone eagles. We can't belong to just a clique. We have to work together. Well, no matter how difficult it may be, we have to work together because we are a body, and each one of us is a different member, and everyone is needed, and we must cooperate, just like the members of our body cooperate with each other, and therefore we're able to get done what is needful. Same way in the body of Christ. Having then gifts. Now here's another. This is different, isn't it? He's told us we are members of one body. Now he tells us that we have gifts. Let's go back to the members of your body. Each one has his own gift, to use the picture that, that we have here. Each member of your body has a special ability, doesn't it? Just as we were saying, the ear has the ability to hear, and that's all. It can't do anything else. My eye can see, it cannot hear. So that is what a gift is. It's the ability to function as according to what member we are. For instance, if, if, uh, you have the gift of mercies, which is in the list of gifts here. If you have that gift, it's showing special mercy to those that are in trouble or sorrow or need of some kind. I- it's the thought of, of, uh, like visitation, like comforting people that need help, and, uh, um, maybe that's your gift, for that's one that he names here. this would be your spiritual gift. A lot of women have that gift of tenderness, and some can go to a bedside and just bring joy and cheer to a person who's in great trial. They just have a gift for that. I remember my mother had that kind of gift, and she would minister people, to minister people in, uh, to minister them in the hospitals and in the prisons, and she just had a way of cheering them up. I think that's included in the gift of mercies. Uh, that's the kind of thing he's talking about, having then gifts differing. So each, uh, member has a gift. Uh, this arm is not put on my body just to, uh, to hang there. It's there with a power to move, to do what I want it to do, for the good of the whole body. That's a gift, the gift of that member. And so you and I, every Christian, is a member, a living part of the body of Christ, of which he's the head, and you have a gift. Uh, verse six says, having then gifts. He didn't say we ought to have them, he says we have them. So if you're a member of the church of God, the body of Christ, then you automatically have a gift. Uh, look over in First Corinthians twelve, please. First Corinthians twelve, he speaks of these gifts. Verse one: now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. So you see he's saying he doesn't want us ignorant of this truth we're talking about tonight, spiritual gifts. By the way, this word, uh, gifts is, uh, different in First Corinthians twelve in two, uh, places. It's the word pneumatikos, which means spirituals. It's, it's, uh, talking about the gifts, but it's emphasizing the fact that they are manifestations of the Holy Spirit within you and me. And that's why he co- uses that word in, uh, verse one. and in chapter fourteen, he'll do it again. Chapter fourteen, verse one: follow after love and desire spiritual gifts. And he uses the word pneumatikos again, which means is emphasizing that the gift is of the Holy Spirit. He gives it to you at your new birth, when he puts you into the church, and, uh, it's an evidence, a manifestation of the Spirit of God in you, whatever that is that God has equipped you to do. A lot of times it's coincides with our natural ability, and they go together, but it's definitely a spiritual gift. Now, the other times that you find this word gifts in reference to the members of the body of Christ, uh, it's the word pneuma or pneumatica, and uh, not pneumatica, it's, that's the word I just, it's charisma, which is emphasizing the grace of God in giving it to you. So he calls it a gift because it's out of the grace of God. When you were saved, he put you in the church as a living part of this living body of Christ, and he gave you an ability, a spiritual gift, and it's the grace of God that has given it to you, and that therefore he calls it charisma, a gift of grace, to literally translate it. So you get those two words talking about gifts, and we should certainly look for our gifts, shouldn't we? He says, covet earnestly the best gifts. I just read it in chapter fourteen verse one. So you and I should covet our gift and seek to find what it is, and even to have another gift if God wills it so, but above all, to find out what it is and to get on with it, to, uh, use it for his sake. Now, you can tell, dear Christians, from what, uh, we're seeing here and reading here, that this takes a, a different kind of Christian. This doesn't, this, a carnal Christian wouldn't be interested in this. It takes a s- a spiritual-minded believer that wants to do something for God and doesn't want to just do something, he wants to do what God has ordained he should do or she should do. God has... Well, let's read it. Let's go back to First Corinthians chapter twelve again. Now has God set the members, every one of them, in the body as it has pleased him. That's in verse eighteen of first Corinthians twelve verse eighteen. But now has God set the members, every one of them, in the body as it has pleased him. So he has put you there and given you an ability, and therefore it's your and my responsibility in our prayer life to constantly talk to God about this and find out where we are and say, Lord, what is my gift, and will you help me to serve you faithfully in the use of my gift for the good of the local church first of all, and then for any others that is possible for me to minister to. But it does take a Christian that means business, doesn't it? And isn't that why I, as I was explaining in Romans twelve, he starts off with, I beseech you therefore, brethren, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. He wants a total surrender of my whole being to him as a redeemed one, willingly and gladly to do his will. And then he tells me how to do it. And that's what we're reading in Romans twelve verses three through eight. All right, verse six: having then, Romans twelve six, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, now we don't have prophets today, but I think this word prophecy can be, uh, made to include just preaching, preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit. Uh, I'm not positive of that, but I, uh, think that's quite possible. Uh, it could be that it was a gift that was done away completely, uh, and I wouldn't be dogmatic about it. But, uh, let's go on and read others, though, that we know haven't been done away with. Prophecy, let us prophesy if that's your gift. According to the proportion of faith. That is, you've been with the Lord and you've talked to him about what you can do, what your gift is, and you feel that this is it, and you're going to do what you can. And that's what he's saying. Get on with it. Do it. If it's prophecy, prophesy according to the proportion of faith, according to your faith toward him as to your gift. Or here's another gift, ministry, and that's not preaching, that's the Greek word to serve, and it can include any service you do. It can include preaching the word or being a deacon, or, or it can just mean serving the saints in whatever, uh, capacity you can. And, uh, that's the word in the original there. Or ministry, let us wait on our ministry. That is, get with it and do it. Uh, serve in that gift that we have. Or he that teaches, if you have the gift of teaching, uh, on teaching, that is, let him study, let him know what he's talking about from the word of God, let him thoroughly search it out and pray it out and live it and then preach it or teach it. Uh, that's the one that has a gift of teaching is to give himself to it. Do it, is what he's saying. Get on with it. Uh, verse eight, he that exhorteth, that's a lovely gift. There's some people that are just good encouragers, you know. They just know how to encourage other people. I knew an elder in, in the, the States that, uh, just, uh, sat back in the meeting, a man that knew the book and could teach well, but he was always trying to encourage younger men, and he would teach them and help them, and he could tell them their blunders, and it wouldn't offend them. He just had that gift, and to me, that's that gift of, of somewhat of it, of the gift of exhortation, and that's what he did. You don't have to, uh, be a great teacher to do it, but Christians can in many different ways, but that's one of the gifts, encouraging, exhorting. He that giveth, let him do it with liberality, is the way this translation reads. Let he that giveth, let him do it with liberality. That's a gift. Some people, God just blesses with the wisdom and ability to make money, and therefore they're able to give more abundantly than others can, and this may be their gift, and so they should do it liberally. You see, every one of these is saying, do it! Get on with it! That's your gift, then use it. All right, then he that ruleth. I don't like the word ruleth because it's just not in the Bible for elders and leaders. It's the, the word here is he that leadeth. And there are those of, you get any group together, and somebody becomes a leader. It just works that way. Some just have that ability. Sometimes, uh, in a crowd of, of men, for example, a man doesn't even want to be the leader, but he just falls into it, and others look to him for that leadership. And I thank God for those in the assembly that, uh, uh, get the ball rolling, you know. They make suggestions, and they're willing to push it too, as well as to suggest it, and others fall in line, and they say, yes, this ought to be done, and and they get on with it. Uh, we need that gift, don't we? Uh, someone that can suggest what to do and in wisdom lead us. Uh, we don't one man, want one man to be our pastor, but we do have leaders, and elders are actually leaders. When we get to that subject, you'll see that's the language used for them. He that leadeth with diligence. In other words, don't take it lightly. Don't l- lie down on the job, even though saints are hard to get moving and hard to get together sometime on something. Be diligent with it. Keep on doing it. He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. I mentioned that gift of mercy a while ago. Uh, going to those that need comforting. I have a book, I'd like to leave it out on the tables or somewhere that, uh, people can read it. It's by a brother in the States named Gene Hollingsworth. Uh, he started an orphanage, uh, to take in, uh, children from broken homes, and I never saw a work of faith like that. Now, I've been there, and I know he wasn't pulling something on anybody by saying it was by faith. I know, I've been there. I've even sat on a rock pile and, and chipped the, the cement off of old brick to help him build another building. He, he's, he was worked, and yet he trusted God to meet the needs of those children in that home. And if you ask him if he had a need, he would not tell you, because he made a covenant with the Lord that he wanted God to get the glory for this work, and he would never tell a need to anybody but to the Lord. One day somebody asked him if he wanted a piano, if he needed a piano. He said, I made a vow to the Lord I'll never tell my needs, so I can't tell you whether we need a piano. But he, he leaned over backwards. I used to laugh at him about it, but I quit laughing after a while because I saw that was a man of real faith, and I was glad I knew of a work that wasn't just blowing hot air about, this is a work of faith, please send us a hundred dollars. Nonsense. His was a work of faith, period, and he never asked anybody or hinted or said what he needed or what the children needed, but God provided, and I sure would like for you to read it. I think that's one of the gifts called mercy, and that is for those, uh, children from broken homes to take them in and give them Christian training and love and guidance, and they have seen wonderful results from that work. And I honor that brother for, and his wife, for their faithfulness in that gift of mercy. Yes, they're different gifts. Now, he doesn't try to name all the gifts, and, uh, in First Corinthians twelve you'll notice a, a different list. He repeats a few of them, uh, but he names about twenty gifts in all, uh, different gifts, that is, not counting those that he repeats. Uh, in Romans twelve and in First Corinthians twelve and Ephesians chapter four, he names about twenty gifts, and he's not trying to name all the gifts. How could he when every Christian has a different gift? You, you couldn't even write the whole Bible if you put all the gifts in the list in it. Uh, there would be so many, millions and millions of gifts. So each one is different and special, and he said they were differing, these gifts. uh, since the time's slipping by, I would like to take you over to First Peter on this matter. Uh, First Peter chapter four and verse ten: As every man hath received the gift, so he's talking about our spiritual gift that we receive, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. What a lovely thing this is, to be in this body and to have God in his grace to give us a gift, and to have the Holy Spirit to be the one that imparts that gift and gives the power for it and the desire to do it for the Lord. And this word manifold grace of God is the variegated or all-varied grace of God. Uh, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. I, I, though I tremble when I preach, I'm trembling before God, not before man. I'm not afraid of man, but I tremble at the tremendousness of the responsibility of a declaring the utterances of God. That's what he says I'm doing. If any man speak, let him speak as the utterances of God. No wonder preachers tremble. My father said that when he was, uh, in it, had preached over fifty years, he said, I still get nervous every time I preach. Billy Graham, we heard him just recently on TV, and he said, I still get nervous every time I preach. And God help us when we don't get nervous, when we think we can handle it. We are doing a tremendous thing when we declare to people the utterances of God Almighty. And what I especially turned to this scripture for was this word stewards. In other words, Christians, you and I have a responsibility. The Lord is going to hold you and me responsible for the member that he made us in the body of Christ and for our use of our gift. Oh, how awful it would be if we buried it, like the man with the talent. And the Lord says, oh, wicked and lazy servant. Oh God, help us not to waste it, but to find what it is. What can I do? Maybe if needing help, I'll find it by asking the brethren and by praying, and God will show it to me, and then get on with it because we're going to give account. And Romans fourteen verse twelve says, so then every one of us shall give account of himself to God, and we shall be saints. And may we do it with joy and not be ashamed. Shall we close in a word of prayer? O Father, how we thank you for this precious book and for having fellowship with thee, dear God, in so many ways as your children, to just walk with you and trust you, to know the Lord Jesus as our shepherd, and to know him as our Lord, and to walk with him in obedience. And then, Lord, to fill our place in regard to this wonderful, glorious creation, the church, in all that it means to you, Father, the church of God, in all that it means to him who loved the church and gave himself for it. And Father, we pray that we might enjoy this added, uh, dimension to our Christian life by finding our gift and using it to the best of our ability by thy help. We ask it in order that we may give account in that day with joy and not with sorrow. We ask it in his precious name. Amen.