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So we have read this afternoon from the third paragraph in what is column two on the bit of paper you were given this morning. The first, uh, passage in column, uh, uh, two uh, we found to be about, very prominently about, the ability of Christ to unite people that for four times were enemies, either on national and political grounds or on religious grounds. The particular example that Paul there quotes is the old enemy enmity that was between Jews and Gentiles. The Jews, because they would not join in, particularly in the Roman Empire, in a lots of the things that were culturally acceptable to the Romans, got themselves very much disliked, and by the Greeks as well, do you see? Uh, it is true also that the Jews, by that time, many of them didn't like Christians either. And what here Paul is saying in that, uh, first paragraph, in that second column, as we noticed this morning, is the ability of Christ to destroy those kind of enmities and bring people together in peace. And the way Christ does it is by the great salvation he offers. His death on the cross, the shedding of his blood that our sins might be put away has brought us first peace with God. And then having peace with God, we can have peace with those or those who have found Christ as their personal savior, whatever their nationality or background. If you owe your salvation, your eternal life, your hope of heaven to Jesus Christ, and you can say, the Son of God, he loved me and gave himself for me, and he is all my hope. Well, I say that too. That is true of me as well. How then could I possibly be hostile to you or you to me? And Paul, of course, the great preacher going around the Roman Empire preaching the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, had evidence galore how the old age bitterness between Jew and Gentile was overcome by those who found in Christ their personal savior to bring them, first of all, peace with God and then peace with all fellow Christians. But you'll find, we shall find this afternoon, as we come mainly to the third paragraph in column two, which we have just had read to us from Holy Scripture. That is likewise about the topic of unity. You'll see, as at verse four of chapter, verse three of chapter four says, giving diligence to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, one spirit, even as we were also called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. The unity of the body of Christ. Now that is a very big prob- uh, uh, qu- uh, uh, subject, and we shall have to pay some attention to it in a moment, you see. Unity achieved through the formation of the body of Christ. Unity, therefore, that is founded on the cross of Christ, on the redemption that he brings us, forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God and peace with God through his death at Calvary. Unity with Jew and Gentiles, says Paul, who have found the Savior, because finding the Savior, they find they have access in one spirit unto the Father. And if they're coming to the Father, so to speak, through Jesus Christ, and he might coming alongside them to the Father through Jesus Christ, we might collide, but might we? We might even join up. We might put our arms around one another's necks, you see. Unity of access to the Father. And then we're going to think later this afternoon about unity in the body of Christ. That great new spectacular thing that was brought about on the day of Pentecost by the coming of the Holy Spirit. Before we do that, however, I would like to take you to prison. Hold your nose a little bit, because that could smell a bit funny inside prison, do you see? We're going to prison, to Roman prison, and we're going to visit the Apostle Paul. Do you see? He reminds us of the fact, chapter three, verse one: for this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, in behalf of you Gentiles. He was at this moment in prison for the sake of the gospel. He was a prisoner, uh, on behalf of you Gentiles, because as a Jew, he had taken the gospel to Gentiles. He was the great apostle to the Gentiles, just as Peter was the apostle to the Jews. And from unconverted Jews, he got a lot of persecution, and very often from pagan Gentiles, he got a lot of persecution. And now he was arrested by the Roman authorities and was imprisoned in Rome. He'd gone there to defend the gospel before the highest authority in the world in those days, that was the Emperor Nero Caesar. So we're going to visit him in prison this afternoon, Josie. How shall we find him, do you think? You say, down in the dumps, I should think, being in prison. No, you don't. Uh, if it weren't for his chain, he'd be skipping around the prison. He's in a great state of happiness, not to talk about excitement, you see. And he tells us, to see why he is so excited and delighted here in spite of being in prison, you see. He says, you see, I'd like you to know, verse three of chapter three, how that by revelation was made known unto me the mysteries I wrote before in a few words, whereby when you read, you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it hath now been revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit, to wit that Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. That is the message that has got hold of him. That, uh, not just Jews, but the whole world of Gentiles can be saved through Jesus Christ and united with Jewish believers in the one great body of Christ. But then the thing that's got him really excited is that he has a free gift. Now, don't look at the Bible just yet. Look at me. That's not so pleasant, I know, but look at me. Ah, Josie. Ha ha. Paul is going to tell us he has a free gift. I'm asking you to think what it is. Have you got a free gift? Free gift of God. You say, yes, of course I have. I'm a believer. Oh, I'm pleased to hear that. You're a believer. Good. So you have a free gift. And your free gift is what? You'll say, well, it makes it plain. Romans chapter six. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God, the free gift of God, the unconditional gift of God. Greek word is dorea, you'll see. Uh, the free, unconditional gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Marvelous to have a gift like that, isn't it? Romans six is the passage. End of the, uh, end of the chapter. So now, what is this free gift that's got Paul a dancing all the round of his, around his prison cell? He's got a free gift, he says. You say, well, that must be eternal life. Uh, uh, uh, come on, Paul, uh, you, you rejoice. We've got this gift of eternal life through faith in Christ, and you've got it too, and no wonder you're excited. Well, yes, I have it too, he says, but I, I've got another free gift. Absolutely free. It's got me really excited. Well, what is that? Well, you see, he tells us in verse seven. just have a look at it now if you care to. The gospel of Jesus Christ, whereof I was made a minister, a servant, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Do you get it? Why the man is so tremendously excited. He's just giving, he's been given a gift. What kind of a gift, you say? Well, it's about, as you hear in phrase, it's about unsearchable riches. But the thing that's got him is that it's not merely available to his Jewish compatriots, compatriots. It's to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. And I'm the least of all the saints, he says. He was not exaggerating, that's how he really felt, because he had persecuted believers in his early days to prison and to death, some of them, and stood by them while they were tortured to get them to try and blaspheme the Savior. He never forgot it. He felt himself to be the least of all the saints and the chief of all the sinners. And to think that he had been given the gift that he never did deserve, and it was a free gift, and given to him to preach the gospel of this unsearchable riches to the Gentiles. But he couldn't get over it, and never did he till he, till he died, you see. Does that sound to you a bit strange? Suppose some great inventor came to you and said, look here now, I don't know why I'm offering this to you, but I am. We have discovered an infallible cure for cancer. Anybody that takes this tablet is immediately cu- cured of cancer, and it has been proved in our laboratories. We're offering you to be the one to go and tell everybody around the world. What would you say? Oh, I can't be bothered. Well, who have I got to go and tell other people? I think, I think, I think some of you would say, what, me? Me have the honor and the joy and the privilege of going to these starving children in Africa or somewhere else and, and, and saving their lives and saving hundreds of thousands of people, and I'm the one to go and tell them? Yes. I think you might. I would, I think I'd grasp it. If you are a believer, you've been given a gift far greater than that. None of us, of course, as great as the gift that the Apostle Paul had, but we too are allowed to go and tell the world of the unsearchable riches of Christ. The Gentiles, whatever nationality or kind or sort or background or education or know, can have the free gift, forgiveness, peace with God, access to the Father, a certain place in heaven, and you have the right to go and tell them. How do you assess it? Not surely content to be saved yourself and couldn't bother about others. The grace of Christ is of such kind that when you really get it, you'll want to go and tell others. There's a story told us in the Old Testament, you know, it's in an obscure book, it's the book of Kings. And uh, there was a town, a city it was, called Samaria. It belonged to the Israelis. And it was besieged by the Syrians, and the siege was terrible. No one could come in or go out, and they were so short of food in the capital that some of them were resorting to cannibalism. One mother gave her a baby, and they killed it and cooked it for a next door neighbor, and the other woman p- had promised to give her baby too, and then she reneged on the promise. To say, bad conditions. Now, there were four lepers. Now, they weren't inside the city because they were lepers, and being lepers in those days, they had to live outside the city, you see. So they were outside the city, and there they sat. But one of them suddenly said to the other, hmm, um, you know what? If we stay here, we're going to die anyway. So why do we not go over to the Assyrian army? Because the worst they can do to us was to kill us, but we're going to die here anyway. Why don't we go and try it and see if he'll have mercy on us and, and, and, and give us some food? So they hiked off to the Assyrian lines, and the Assyrians saw them coming. Did you see? Well, they didn't actually, because when they got there, there was nobody there. God had caused the Syrian army to panic. They heard what they thought was the sound of chariots, a thousand coming at them, and they panicked and fled. And the tents were all empty. And these beggars came to these tents, and there was all the stuff and the silver and the pay of the soldiers and the, uh, uh, and the food and whatnot, and they crammed their pockets full, you know, and stuffed their mouths until their stomachs were fit to burst, and everything they could take. Until one of them said, hey, wait a minute. We mustn't carry on like this. Back in Samaria, our friends are dying. We just content ourselves staying here and filling our pockets and eating all the food. Some evil will fall upon us, surely. We must go and tell the news to the vill- to the town that the siege is broken and there is food supply. My brethren, my sisters, my Christian fellow believers, we have come into unsearchable riches. We mustn't hold our peace, must we? We have a duty and a responsibility according to each one's gift, now gifts all vary, to help towards the spreading of the wonderful news of the gospel to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. But then, do you see, um, uh, Paul realizes that this is very difficult sometimes for even Christians to take in. Loving those that once were our enemies. United. Jew and Arab, both converted, sitting down at the Lord's Supper of a Sunday. Possible? Difficult for some. And so Paul stops what he was going to say and tells them in chapter three verse fourteen to nineteen what he prays for his fellow believers. Just let's look at his prayer. He says he bows his knees to the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. The whole idea of fatherhood and family derives from God, you know. It is not the other way around. It isn't merely that we have had fathers and mothers and, and know what it is to live in a family, and then we think, well, that might be a good, uh, title and, and metaphor to use of God. Perhaps God is also a bit like a father. No, it's the other way around. God invented fatherhood, you know. He is the father. And when it comes to human fatherhood and motherhood, it was God who invented them. They are pale shadow of God's fatherhood. He is the Father from whom every kind of family in heaven and earth is named, and he very rich. And Paul prays that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, not merely his grace. That you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man. Now I ask you to notice exactly what Paul is praying for. He is not praying that the Holy Spirit may be given to these believers. He has told us in chapter one, we may remember, that all believers, upon believing, were sealed with the Holy Spirit. Upon our believing in Christ and receiving him and being given forgiveness in Christ, upon believing, we, God seals us with his Holy Spirit and marks us out as his property and thereby grants us security. We have the Holy Spirit. What Paul is praying for here is the work of the Holy Spirit within us. For the Holy Spirit is given us for all sorts of reasons, and one of the reasons is to work in us certain states that we need to develop. We need therefore to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit, strengthened with power in our inner man. What for? That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Christ is in every believer. But then he seeks access to our heart, to the deep levels of our personalities. That's an ongoing work. It is fostered in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. He strengthens our hearts so that Christ may dwell in them, take up his residence in every part thereof, we need the power of the Holy Spirit for that to be realized. It's an ongoing, developing thing in life. You'll see, when we come to the Savior, we are forgiven. But people bring all sorts of psychological memories, don't they? Take fatherhood, for instance. I had a friend in, in, uh, in, uh, uh, Scotland, in Glasgow, who was a prison visitor in Bellini Jail. That's where they keep the tough boys. He also used to go to the, uh, uh, places for unwanted and battered children, do they? Used to have a Sunday school with the children. He told me that he went into the place once, he opened the door and went in, and there was a nurse with a child of about nine years old. And when the child saw him, it shrieked. And the nurse said, oh, please, sir, would you mind going out while I pacify the child? So he went out, and when he came back, the child was now calm, and the nurse asked the child to tell him, uh, uh, his story, you see. And in his Scots lingo, little boy said to my friend, my feather eye burns me, my father always burns me. The father used to heat a iron poker in the fire red hot and beat the child with it. That's what the child would understand by the term father. Now we not- we don't have those hideous wounds that necessarily in our memory box, do we? But we have all sorts of conditions and complexes within our hearts. It's a gracious work of the Holy Spirit to spread the love of God in our hearts so that, um, we might be absolutely certain, whatever we feel, that God is for us. For he gave his son for us while we were still his enemies, while we were still sinners. He'll certainly not throw us out now, whatever we feel. But then the Holy Spirit's work here is to strengthen our work, our hearts, so that we might know the conscious indwelling of the Lord Jesus. To what purpose? To the end, the G being rooted and grounded in love. That again is a lifetime's process, isn't it? That is God's ideal, to have us rooted and grounded in love, that we may be strong. The strength that comes from grounding in the love of God. And And the a strong to do what? Verse eighteen: to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth. Do you notice that, the emphasis? To come to the position where we think not merely of ourselves and our personal salvation, but the glory that binds us together with all the saints in every nation. Well, that love needs to be quite strong, doesn't it? And, uh, uh, and, uh, uh, uh, to know what is the height and length and breadth and depth that is of God's love to us, and as we enjoy it, that we might have the same love towards our fellow believers. To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God. That is not a once-off experience. This is the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. It will take a lifetime, of course. We shall never be able to say, I have arrived and don't need any more. We need to keep praying it. So this prayer and the first one in chapter one of Ephesians, the prayer that God would cause us to know the hope of his calling, what's the point of being saved, what has God in the future for us? To know the riches of God's inheritance in the saints. That is to realize God's riches in us. I don't know what kind of a concept you have of yourself. As a believer, perhaps you'll say with Paul, I'm the worst of all sinners. Yes, I, uh, well, I grant you that for the moment. Eh, uh, I can tell you how God looks at you. He thinks of his riches, his wealth in having you as a believer in his dear son. Why is that riches to him? Well, it cost him a lot to get, you see. It cost him the death of Christ to get your heart's affection, loyalty to the Lord Jesus and peace with God. And God thinks you are of infinite value. To him, that is. I don't know what you think of yourselves. That's another story. We should need our eyes open to see what is the riches of God's inheritance in the saints. To know what is exceeding greatness of his power and energy and dynamite towards us that he wrought when he raised Christ from the dead. But that power that raised Christ from the dead is rippling to us too still. You know, we're told by the scientists that our universe began with a big bang, do you see? That is the current theory. And there are clever scientists about thirty years ago, they did all a lot of host of experiments and discovered that the ripples of radiation from that big bang can still be identified and measured now. After all those years and centuries. For there was a bigger bang, you know, not eh, not to be heard, but a bigger event when God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. The power involved in that great action was beyond computation, of course. The power is still rippling towards us who believe. And is available as we learn to make use of it. So that we may live to fulfill the purposes God has for us in our individual lives. And Paul closes that prayer, now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations forever and ever. So these are big things, aren't they? And if you make, if you say to me, sir, you make them too good to be true, and I can't think they're as glorious as you make out. Well, there are some Tuesdays and then Thursday afternoons and some Saturdays, uh, but I find it difficult to grasp the wonder of it. Get too much occupied with cooking and burning the potatoes or whatever. Just say. We do seriously need the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts to make these things real to us. It is as those become real to us that we shall find ourselves valuing more and more our fellow believers, because that same love comes to them as well, and the secret of you enjoying unity with, union with them. But now in chapter four, this is the third paragraph in this middle column. We are once more brought to this matter of the unity of the body of Christ. Let's read the list again. Giving diligence, verse three, to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is, after all, only one spirit, you know. Don't go and invent others. Let me repeat that. There's only one spirit, that's the Holy Spirit. Don't meddle with other spirits. There is one spirit, there is only one body. There's only one body of Christ. Pray don't behave as if there were two or three or four or a multitude. There's only one body. There's only one spirit, even as you were also called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. You'll forgive my being, sounding critical, won't you? I shouldn't be as critical as I am often at times, you see, I'm a critical kind of a chap, you see. You'll have to excuse me sometimes being critical, but, um, I do think it's a pity when we Christians advertise to the world our differences, don't you? I sometimes look at church notice boards, so it's a private occupation with me, and I say to myself, you know, if a man came from Mars, I don't know if there are any men on Mars, and if they came here, whether they could read English, I don't know. I mean, it's hypothetical. If a man came from Mars and looked at our notice boards, sometimes the last one he'd see, the last name he'd see on them is Christ. Curious that, isn't it? All sorts of other terms, what kind of a church we are, we're not the same as the other one, and we're different, and we're this, and we're that, and the other. Christian doctrines or church methods or this, that, and other, whole lot of names. Uh, last, sometimes the last name he would see on is the name of Christ. Don't you think that's a pity? Why should we Christians advertise to the world... these kind of differences? There's only one Lord, isn't there? So we are end- to endeavor, not to make it. Notice that we're not asked to, to produce the unity, but to keep it. There's only one body. Whatever you do, there's still only one body. But pray keep it, says Paul, and behave like it. In that body, he now explains there are members in the body, and uh, they all have different gifts. There are teachers, and there are apostles, and there are prophets, and there are evangelists, and a good many more beside. Many different gifts in the body of Christ, but only one body. How do we get into the body of Christ? Paul doesn't actually tell us here, but I'm going to ask his permission to cite what Paul says in another part of scripture, and that is in one Corinthians and chapter twelve. If you want to check up on me, as you surely ought to, uh, do you see? You can take the reference now. It's one Corinthians chapter twelve. And that says, first of all, it starts off with the human body, by way of analogy and illustration, you see. And it says, look at the human body. Uh, do you see? Look at this one, if you can bear the sight for just a few minutes. Eh, do you see? Uh, and it's many members, but it's only one body. So the members had many me- and body has many members, but it's only one body. What keeps the thing together? Are you a nurse or something? Trainee doctor? Mother? What keeps the, the members of the body, fingers and toes and ears and things on the body and in the body? Blood. You know anything? He says the blood. Yes, someone down there says the blood. That's jolly good. If the blood were c- uh, stopped flowing, the thing would go gangrene, wouldn't it, and fall off. Yes? Anything else? Pardon? Air! Yes, you'll hear that. Uh, uh, air. For my body to hang together, two things must be, uh, true and true both at the same time. Do you see? Can't have one without the other. For my body to hang together, I must be in the air, and the air must be in me. Yes? Well, let's have an experiment. Do you see? I'm in the air at the present moment, and you come along and put a little leather strap around my neck and tie it tight so I can't breathe. So I'm still in the air, but the air isn't in me. Anybody know what happens then? Well, I die, of course, and start to disintegrate. It's no good being in the air if the air isn't in you. Yes? Agreed. But then the other condition is true. Uh, I may have the air inside me, but if I'm no longer in the air, then I die as well. They took me to, uh, NASA's place, they, uh, you know, in America last, early this year, where they launched the rockets out into space, and I could see the point of it. Suppose they said to me, Gooding, would you like a ride in space? Yes, well, you have no room inside, but we're going to put you, strap you on the outside. And, uh, uh, uh, take a deep breath because you're going out into space and there's, there's no air out there, you see. So, uh, take a very deep breath and we'll light the match and turn the switch and send you into space. Well, I will have the breath, uh, the air in me, but out there, I shouldn't be in the air. What would happen now? You say you'd go pop, old boy. Yes, for this body and the members to hang together, I must have, and must have simultaneously. I must have the air in me, and I must be in the air. What puts us as members in the body of Christ and keeps us there? Paul indicates, this is one Corinthians twelve— the secret of the unity of the body. One body of Christ, many members. How is it formed? Well, verse twelve, one Corinthians twelve, for as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ. Start with the literal body, as the beginning of that verse does, and then draw the analogy to Christ. And this is how the body of Christ is formed. For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free, and were all made to drink of one spirit. Yeah? Did you notice the two operations, not just one? We were baptized in the Spirit. We were made to drink of the Spirit. Get that? Two operations. You say, why, w- w- w- why has there to be two? Well, when you're baptized in the Spirit, let's remember what it means. Christ helped us to understand it by making a contrast between him and John the Baptist. John the Bapti- John the Baptist baptized people in water. So if you came to John the Baptist to be baptized, he got hold of you and put you in the water. When the Lord Jesus baptizes, it's the Lord Jesus that baptizes, not the Holy Spirit doesn't baptize you. It's the Lord Jesus that baptizes you. He's the one, said John the Baptist, shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit. And so our Lord said to the apostles in Acts chapter one, do you see, reminding them of what John says. It's the risen Lord that when we come to him and accept him, are forgiven and reconciled to God, he takes us and he baptizes us, not in water like John did, but in the Holy Spirit. When John baptized people in water, he put them in the water. When Christ baptizes somebody in the Spirit, Christ puts them in the Holy. Yes? And secondly, you were made to drink of one Spirit. Yes, now, take my finger, that will do for the rest of me. If you baptize my finger in this water, do you see? It goes into the water? Yeah. If I'm made to drink of the water, where does the water go now? Well, it says, oh boy, it goes into you. You've got it, you see. How is the body of Christ formed? By those two processes, Christ puts us in the Holy Spirit, and he makes us drink of the Holy Spirit. The two things necessary, like the air in me and me in the air, or to change the analogy, a fish in the water and the water in the fish. Yes? So, the body of Christ, every member baptized in the Holy Spirit, Christ puts us in the Holy Spirit and causes us to drink the Holy Spirit, and both must happen simultaneously. You can't have one and then wait for the other. Both got to be at once. Otherwise, we're not alive spiritually, and we're not in the body of Christ. But this is not a something we do to ourselves, it's not a something we work up. It is the gift, not the gifts, the gift of the Holy Spirit that Christ gives us. And so when we trust the Savior, back to Ephesians, we are sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. God's mark that we now belong to him. He's given us as the earnest, the guarantee, the part payment of our eventual inheritance. And he is our way into the body of Christ, as Christ puts us in the Spirit and puts the Spirit into us, and thereby the body of Christ is formed. When the body of Christ is formed, however, Ephesians chapter five— uh, chapter four and the rest of that chapter reminds us that the body of Christ is only one body, but it has different gifts, like a human body has different gifts, hands, feet, ears, and everything else, you see. So the body have of Christ has different gifts, you see. He gave some, verse eleven to be apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints unto their work of serving, unto the building up of the body of Christ, till we all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men in craftiness after the laws of error, but speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into him, which is the head, even Christ. These are tremendous wor- words and worth a year or two to ponder their significance. But let us just take the few moments to grasp their essential points. Christ is forming, God is forming the body of Christ. Now this is colossal notion, isn't it? We like to think, of course, that Christians nowadays, uh, uh, are the body of Christ, and so they are, you'll see. But it's not just a temporary thing for this life. These two epistles remind us that Christ is risen above all principalities, powers, mights, and dominions in this whole universe. And we are, to use the terms of Ephesians, once we are saved, we are united with Christ, and in God's idea, we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies. We're joined to him. That is our position, joined to him. Now, for the purposes of running the great ages to come, and I can't tell you what schemes God has on in the future. God is not hard up for ideas, you know. Yeah. When this new earth is done and the heavens are done, there's going to be a new earth and a new heavens, and I'm waiting anxiously to see the fun and games of all that God will yet do in the, uh, uh, uh, in his good pleasure, you see. Not hard up for ideas, but for running it. It's not going to be subject to angels. This present world is, to some extent, subject to angels. So Hebrews chapter two tells us. Not that world. How will Christ run it? Christ will run it through his body. You say, what do you mean his body? Well, you see, the genius of the idea is this. Uh, angels, even the biggest old angel that was, Michael the Archangel, is but a creature of God. Like the wind, says the Bible, like a flame of fire or something. That isn't, uh, uh, what God is not going to be content with that forever. God's got a much more brilliant idea. They're going to be run by his son, but his son, and with him joined as though a body to its head, by all true believers in Christ, redeemed, forgiven, given eternal life, joined to the Savior, having the spirit of God in touch and under the control eventually completely of the head of the body. It's through that he's going to organize and run all the great developments of God in the eternal ages yet to come. And that's why it is exceedingly important that we learn as believers that we are already the body of Christ and how we ba- become the body of Christ, and then seek God's grace to find out what gift we have in that body, so that we might learn to use that gift. And there is one thing, almost above all others, that we need to do as believers in Christ, and this chapter tells us the great thing is for us to grow. Grow up to the stature of Christ. A big head with a tiny body would be a sad sight to see, wouldn't it? The body of Christ is asked to grow. So it will form for its head a suitable executive for him to use to govern the unending ages and all the purposes of God therein. Yes? And so the story is told here of Christ, who came from glory. He descended from him. He fought for us the fight against the principalities and powers, against Satan himself. He won the victory at Calvary. Since then, he's been winning over many once-time enemies of his. And Paul uses the metaphor. He says, you know Christ, the great exultant king, victor in the battle. Ask Saul of Tarsus. You were against him once, weren't you, Saul? You tried to eliminate his name from the earth. I was, he says, I'm the worst of all sinners. But Christ defeated me, brought me to my knees, and then in his amazing grace, he put me in his service. I wouldn't have done that to Paul of Tarsus, would you? I don't think I would. Not if I'd been God, I wouldn't. I would say, you utter wretch, you persecuted those Christians, you stood over them and saw them tortured, tried to make them blaspheme Christ. You were intent on obliterating the name of Jesus from the world. And God, the Lord, the risen Lord in glory, appeared to him and put him on his knees on the road to Damascus. And marvel of marvel, he forgave him. But if I'd have been Christ, I would have said, now, Paul, I've forgiven you. But now get every idea of greatness out of your head. I'm going to keep you by the door of heaven in one of the drafty seats. Well, I don't think there are any drafts in heaven, but you know what I mean, do they? You be content with that. Christ didn't. He took this persecutor, whom by his grace and mercy he had defeated, pardoned him, forgave him, and installed him as a leading apostle. How he worked thereafter and suffered for Christ. In a sense, we owe our salvation as Gentiles to Paul. We've been reading his book this afternoon, haven't we? He loved us Gentiles, and he wrote for us Gentiles. And he points out that in the body of Christ, we all have a gift. For these great prominent gifts, like apostles and pastors and teachers, shepherds and teachers, and evangelists, being prominent gifts. But the point of them, he says, is for developing every member in the Christian church for their service. That is a very important part to get across, isn't it? It's not just the public minister, teacher, evangelist in the church that counts. Their job is to get other folks converted, growing, so as all the members of the church develop their particular service. Service. John Stott, who is a very famous Anglican preacher, in one of his books says it won't do to have a parson perched on a pulpit. That's his, that's not my words, that's his. He's an Anglican minister, very famous, dear brother in the Lord, he is. He says, you'll say, when you read on a church, minister, uh, Joe Bloggs or whatever, he said, that can't be right. That ought to read j- uh, uh, uh, minister all the members of the church. That's what John Stott says. And that's perfectly true, isn't it? In the body of Christ, prominent gifts, yes, but we all have some gift, and the task of the prominent gifts is to encourage the rest of us, like me and you, to develop the gift that God has given us for the building up of the body of Christ, so that the body grows up to a full grown body and we don't remain spiritual infants. There, let's leave it for the moment. For your