We're going to bow in prayer together before we turn to the Word. Let's all unite our hearts in prayer, and let's for the time that is before us now really dedicate ourselves in concentration and in worship before the Lord, really seeking Him for His blessing to be upon us, His power to be known in our hearts and our lives. Let's all unite our hearts in prayer. Let's have that quietness and stillness the whole way through. Our Heavenly Father bless us as we come now to the Scriptures of truth. Grant Thy presence and power and Thy grace and Thy help as we worship Thee together now. May Thy hand be upon us. May Thy grace be round about us. And may the help of the Holy Spirit be our portion. Abide with us. And help us in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. We're turning to Ephesians chapter 1. We were considering the final part of this chapter last week, and we turn to it once again today. Ephesians chapter 1. And we'll read the final few verses of the chapter just to refresh your minds with what Paul is saying here. It's a great prayer that he's offering for the saints at Ephesus, and he wants them to know and to understand certain truths, and therefore he prays for them to that end. We'll break into verse 19, really into the middle of a sentence, but we'll just come in there. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe? According to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body. the fullness of him that filleth all in all. And we know that the Lord will bless the reading of these verses. As I say, in these verses the Apostle Paul records that he was constantly engaged in prayer for God's people at Ephesus. In addition to that, his particular request for them was that they would be given an understanding of the greatness of God's power toward them in enabling them to believe the gospel. Paul's objective, therefore, is very obvious. He wants these Ephesian believers to see who they are and what they are as Christians, and to realize that they owed all that to divine power alone. That human power had no place whatsoever in their conversion, in their believing the gospel, in their being brought to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in order to bring that home to them, Paul uses by way of illustration the great truth that the power that enabled them to believe, that is these Ephesian believers to believe, and of course all believers in any generation, is the very same power that raised and exalted the Lord Jesus Christ. In these verses Paul states that Christ was exalted to the right hand of God by the exceeding greatness of God's power. And the point there is very obvious. No human power could resurrect the Lord Jesus Christ. No human power could exalt the Lord Jesus Christ to the throne of glory. That tremendous event of the resurrection, succeeded by the exaltation of Christ, was brought about by the exceeding greatness of God's power, or as it literally reads, the energy of the strength of God's might. But the application of that truth is also very obvious, because just as no human power raised or exalted Jesus Christ, so no human power is able to enable a sinner who is spiritually dead, of course, because of sin, to believe the Gospel, come into union with Christ, and be legally and positionally joined to Christ, in His exaltation. That great experience, in other words, of being saved, is brought about alone by God's mighty power, by the experience of that power in the heart and in the life and in the soul. And therefore Paul could have used no greater illustration of the power that saves a sinner than this power that brought Christ from the dead and brought Him right up to the very right hand of the Majesty in high. And we looked at that last week in a lot of detail. We know the seat of the Lord's exaltation. He's at God's right hand. We considered also the scope of His exaltation. It is universal. It is also eternal in scope. All things are already under the Lord's feet. So, therefore, it's a universal reign that He exercises. And He exercises that reign in that exalted seat or position right into eternity. For it's not only in this world It is in the world to come that our Lord is at the right hand of the Majesty and High, that our Lord reigns. So it extends into eternity. The scope of His reign or His exalted place, it is universal, it is eternal. And then we also considered the scheme of his exaltation, which really I had no time to deal with in closing last week, but it's found in those words toward the end of the chapter where it says that the Lord Jesus is head over all things to the church. In other words, the scheme or the purpose of the Lord's exaltation is that the church will benefit ultimately. In fact, the church is always and only the beneficiary of the exalted and the glorified reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is for the good of the church and for the blessing of the church that the Lord is on the throne. He's over all things. Universally and eternally he reigns. But here is the grand scheme coming before us. He's head over all things to the church. And therefore, in considering Paul's reasoning here, his line of thought is very, very clear. His reason for referring to the Lord's exaltation by God's mighty power is not only for the purpose of illustrating, How we have been raised up as believers from the deadness of our sin and into a state of grace is also to show that the saving of the sinner can only take place on the basis or on the foundation of our Lord's resurrection and our Lord's exaltation. In other words, God's people can only experience the working of God's mighty power in their lives because of the working of that power in the experience of their exalted head. Do you see the line of thought there? Because Christ has been raised up from the dead and exalted to the right hand of the Father, then so also His people experience that, and they experience it because of Christ's resurrection and exaltation. His being raised up is the ground and the basis of our being raised up. even to that wonderful position that we already have in Christ, and that glorious position that the saints will have throughout all eternity. Now, in coming to the final words of this passage, we find therefore that Paul, when he speaks here of the church in verse 22, does so in this setting, in this context, of wanting God's people to recognize the greatness of God's power toward them. I want you to understand the connection of thoughts here. Paul refers to the church, which he describes as Christ's body. Do you see it there in verse 22 and 23? The church, which is his body. So he's talking about the church, the body of Christ. But he makes reference to the church, the body of Christ, in this setting where he is talking about the exceeding greatness of God's power. Therefore, he is teaching that the Lord's people will be able to see something. of God's mighty power toward them in terms of this doctrine, this concept of the church as the body of Jesus Christ. Now, dear believer, get this clearly into your mind. Here we find brought before us, as we do in so many places in the New Testament, what is called the doctrine of the church. That is a doctrine, that is a teaching, the doctrine of the church. It is sometimes called in a theological formula, ecclesiology. The word ecclesiastical, you're familiar with it. We talk about ecclesiastical gatherings and ecclesiastical matters, and the word ecclesiastical comes right from the New Testament, the word that refers to the church. And therefore, there is what we call the doctrine of the church. And we find here this wonderful thing that the church is called the body of Christ. We need to study the doctrine of the church. We need to understand that great doctrine, that great truth. But let me tell you, our approach to it must not be merely academic, as it were, or theoretical. In other words, we're not dealing with a theory. We're dealing with a living organism. We're dealing with that which is called here the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. And according to this context in which we find our text line today, we are to study this truth or this doctrine in order to see how God's power actually operates in our hearts and in our lives as we study and we realize the doctrine of the church, then, my dear friend, we are in the position to see something about the power of God in our lives and to see something of our relationship to Christ. And therefore we can best understand that relationship by taking note of what the Holy Spirit says here, the church which is Christ's body. Now, we're coming, therefore, to these verses again today to look at this particular line of thought, the church as the body of Christ. And there are three principles that lie in these verses to which I want to bring your attention as we consider the Word before us today. The first principle is that of union with Jesus Christ. It says here, they head over all things to the church, verse 22, which is His body. Notice the terms, the head and the body. And it's very obvious that the Lord here is moving Paul to use the analogy of the human body with its head as he speaks of the church and her relationship with Christ. And of course the apostle does that many, many times. in his writings. He does it here, he does it in Romans, he does it in Corinthians. You'll find also by suggestion that the same thought is in other epistles. Christ and the church, the head and the body, using that analogy. Now of course the apostle also uses many other analogies throughout his writings as he deals with this great relationship. This marvellous principle of union between Christ and His church. He uses other analogies right here in this book of Ephesians. You'll see a number of them. For example, in chapter 2, at the end of the chapter, he uses the symbol of a building and its foundation. Christ, the chief cornerstone on which the building, the church, stands. And there's a thought of union there, very obviously. Or, in chapter 3, he refers to believers as being members of God's family, the family in heaven and on earth. And in the family, men and women, there's a head. And in the family, there's union. And then you come to chapter 5. As I say, it's everywhere in this epistle, really. In chapter 5, you have the church, the bride, and Christ, the bridegroom. I would encourage you to look at all those analogies, all those figures and metaphors that Paul uses as he seeks to get home to God's people the great importance of this truth and the truth itself. I would say to you, when you start to think about it, in this little epistle, as I've just shown you, there is a number of these metaphors used. I would say to you that Paul was very anxious. that the Ephesian Christians would understand, as I said, not a theory, but rather that they would understand the truth, that they were joined to Christ. And therefore, where he couldn't find enough examples to get that home to them. You see, the Word of God teaches us, doesn't it, that things need to be repeated. Truths need to be enunciated time and time again because we're so dull of hearing and we're so slow of learning that the Lord must come and give us a little at a time, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little, the Bible says, because we're so stupid. The Lord has to deal with us. In the way a teacher deals with her class, here it is, write it out a hundred times, get it into your soul. That's the way people used to be taught in school. I can remember, I'm digressing here, but what odds. I can remember as a boy in school, and to get it into your heart, the teacher said, do this. I can't remember how many times I had to do it, but it had to be done. And that principle of teaching has been lost, and it was based on the Bible. God knew what he was doing when he told his people something over and over and over again. Here's a tremendous truth. drawn up by this analogy of the head and the body, and it underlines this great principle of union. Now, my friend, that union between the Lord and His people is a vital and a living union. You see, if you take the analogy of the head and the body, it makes it clear that believers are not joined to Christ in some loose or mechanical fashion. but are in a vital, living, organic union with each other. Christ and the church in a living, vital, I put it well, I put it correctly to you, an organic union. We are dealing here with an organism. Christ and the church, the head and the body. It is not a club. which you join. Many people have the impression that this is what religion is all about, as they put it. This is what the church is all about. You join the church as a kind of a club and you go along to socialize and that's all there is to it. You get your name on a list. Now there are things like that that are right and true. I mean a membership list or a membership role, but my dear friend, that is not what the Bible means when it uses an analogy like this. It's talking about the fact that between Christ and His church there's a living, there's a vital, there is an organic union. It's as real, it's as real as the union that there is in your body right now, between all the parts of your body. Isn't it true? That since the Holy Spirit moved Paul to take the body, the human body, and use it as an analogy of this great truth, this truth of union, and the fact that it's vital and living and organic. Isn't it true, therefore, that you and I need just to look at our own bodies and see what Paul is saying? Let me put it to you this way. The parts, as I said, of your body are not loosely joined together, are they? You take your fingers. Are your fingers merely stuck on the ends of your hand? Are they loosely connected with the palm of your hand? No, of course they're not. You look at your hand, and my dear friend, you cannot really tell where the palm ends and the fingers begin, because such is the union between those two parts. And there's just an example. You could go to any other part, but such is the union between those two parts. The fingers and the palm of the hand. It's so real. It's so true. It's a living union. You can't really tell where the fingers end and the palm begins or the other way around. You can't tell. Look at your upper body. You have your shoulders and your neck and your head. Can you really say Can you really determine exactly where the one begins and the other ends? You see, our bodies are not parts, randomly, loosely thrown together. Doesn't the Bible say, we are fearfully and wonderfully made? And indeed when God says that, He is giving us a lot of light here on this marvellous thought that between Christ and His people there is a union, and the union is real and it is living, and it is an organic union, it is a bodily union. Now, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, because here we see it being brought out, again using the analogy but going on then right into the depth of the spiritual truth, that that analogy underlines 1 Corinthians 12. You see, believers are not somehow or other loosely attached to Christ, but they are joined to Him. They are part of Him and He is one with them. 1 Corinthians 12, look at verse 12, for as the body is one, this is a human body. The human body, as the body is one. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 12. And have many members. And all the members of that one body, being many, are one body. Now there it is spelled out for us. You know, the Holy Ghost, put it this way, knew more about anatomy and physiology before the modern medical world ever came along. Because here is the Holy Ghost laying down a truth about the human body. He says the human body is many parts, and yet it's one body. And then he comes to this great conclusion, the application now. He says at the end of verse 12, so also is Christ. And I think that's remarkable. Because what the apostle here is doing, he is speaking of the church under the symbol, the analogy of the body. But he doesn't forget that there's a head to that body. And furthermore, he's stressing the union that there is between the head and the body. So when you come to the end of the verse, you might have thought that Paul would say, so also is the church. But he doesn't say that. He says, so also is Christ. And what he's stressing there is that so close is the union. Between the Lord and His people, that what's true of one is true of the other. So also is Christ. Just as in your body there are many members, and yet there's only one body. Many parts, but there's a great union throughout your body. Everything connected, everything joined together. Every part living and vital to the whole body. This is true of the church of Jesus Christ. This is what we mean by this union. Here's this principle coming out, and we see that it's a living thing. So go on to verse 13, and here he applies it a little more. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body. whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bombed or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. And the point is so clear, so living, so real, so vital is that union between Christ and the church, that here you find that the believer has been said to be baptized into that one body, into union with the entire body of Christ, and therefore, into union with Christ Himself. And my friend, this is supernatural. By one Spirit this has happened. Do you realize that the day, the night, the time you were saved, this happened to you? God's people need to see that. They need to reflect on what happened to them. They need to be taken up with the thrill of it. and the wonder of it. They never need to lose the thrill and the wonder of what it is to be saved. Because here it is. You're now in union with Christ. It's living. It's real. It's a spiritual union, and you were brought into that union by the work of God the Holy Ghost. As I said earlier, no human power could do this. Only the Spirit of God could do this. What a demonstration of the greatness of God's power to us who believe Christ and the Church. the head and the body in this vital, living, spiritual union because of the supernatural power of the Holy Ghost. But that union between Christ and His people not only is living, being a spiritual union, it is permanent. And whenever the apostle, whether in 1 Corinthians or anywhere else, talks about the church and Christ under this symbolism of the head and the body, he is stressing not only a living union, but he is also stressing a permanent union. Because from this analogy of the head and the body, we can see that so clearly. You see, the connection between the head and the body is not something that exists today, but not tomorrow. The union is not haphazard, is it? We talk about people losing their heads, and we're speaking there, of course, figuratively. But every day of our lives on this earth, our head and our body are joined together. And therefore, because the Holy Ghost uses this analogy, this simple analogy or symbol. He's teaching that the Christian doesn't pass out of and into the body of Jesus Christ or out of and into union with the Lord Jesus Christ. It's permanent. Now think about that. There are those who teach you who will tell you that you can lose your salvation. Do you understand I don't think they do, but do you understand what that really is saying? That is saying that if a Christian loses his or her salvation, supposedly, just imagine a moment or two that did happen, that would mean that there comes a severing of the union between Christ and that individual. And to see the grotesqueness of that, To see the awfulness of such an idea, that would be under this analogy for someone's leg to be cut off, or someone's eye to be plucked out. My dear friend, the Lord Jesus Christ loves the body of His people, and He doesn't cut them off. And thank God, He won't allow them to be cut off. It's against the whole principle of union with Jesus Christ to believe that nonsense. It's a permanent union. And the very analogy that's here so often in Scripture makes it clear that it's permanent. I want you to go to 1 Peter chapter 3 and look there at a few verses. 1 Peter 3, verses 3 to 5. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively." And the word lively simply means living. 1 Peter 1 verse 3, I said the wrong reference, unto a lively, living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. There's Christ exalted again, raised from the dead, exalted. And you see, through this, through the fact that He has been raised up, His work is done. We saw last week He's raised up, and that's what constitutes the ground of our spiritual resurrection. Because here we're told that we're begotten again unto a living hope. That's resurrection from spiritual death. In Inheritance, verse 4, and then verse 5, kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed. in the last time. The union, my friend, is permanent, because here we are told by the Holy Ghost that that union will continue right to the very day of final deliverance. For what speaks here of the day of salvation is talking about the day of the Lord's coming, which will bring in the final deliverance of the saints, and thank God it extends beyond that. Right into all eternity, the union is permanent. The head and the body will be in that living, vital union forever. That's the first principle. The second principle in our text is that the Lord is the source of life to His body. Go back with me to Ephesians chapter 1, and look at verse 22 again, and let's see what it says once more. "...hath put all things under his feet." and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all." Now, notice those words in verse 22, which state that God gave Christ to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body. And the point is that Paul makes in that statement is that Christ is the head of the body, only in the sense of being her authority. Yes, that's true, but let me say it's not really here. It's seen in many other places. But right here, he's speaking of Christ as the head of the church or the body, not in the sense of being her authority, but in the sense of being the source of her spiritual life. Now again, you will see this if you just keep in mind the analogy that Paul is using here. In the human frame, the head is the source. of the energy that flows through the body. The life in every part of the body is conveyed as the result of the functioning of the nervous system. And the nervous system in our bodies which, as I say, results in the functioning of the body, is to be traced right back to the head or to the brain, in other words. And I tell you right now, this is what the Holy Ghost has in mind here when He says, Christ is the head and the church is the body. And the church needs life. And from what source does she get it? From her head. From her living head. Just as from the brain Through that nervous system, all life is dispensed to the human body. So, my dear friend, from Christ, this life comes to us. Do you not understand that without Christ the Head, the church has no independent life? Turn to John 15 a moment, and look at that verse that is often quoted by us in prayer and at other times, and it's a great verse. I don't think we really understand the import of it, the depth of it. John 15, verse 5. And here's one of those other analogies in Scripture showing this union between the Lord and His people. The vine and the branches. And you're all aware of a plant like a vine and how it grows and out of it go the shoots. And they're united. In other words, the branches aren't stuck on. And I don't say that crudely. I just make it clear to you today, we're not stuck onto Jesus Christ. We're part of Christ. We're joy into Him. We're in union with Him. Living, vital, this great union, this permanent union. Look at it, I am the vineyard, the branches. He that abideth in me, that means the man who's in union with me. And I in him. The same bringeth forth much fruit. Now listen, for without me ye can do nothing. The words there, without me, mean this, severed from me. You can do nothing. What he's saying is, a person cannot be a Christian until he's in union with Christ. The gospel is here from that perspective. It's not saying to the Christian, you have to try to keep yourself abiding in Christ. That's how this is often preached. And Christians leave the house of God, leave a preaching service, and a preacher has told them a hundred times, you've got to abide in the Lord. You've got to abide in the Lord. And the believer goes away thinking to himself, well, what am I doing wrong? How do I accomplish this? And all the while, my friend, these verses are talking about something that already is in existence. You are in the Lord. You are abiding in Him. You are in union with Him. And He says, listen, unless that's the case, no human being can do anything that's spiritual or right or true. Without Me, you can do nothing. It shows you the folly, doesn't it, of organized religion today. Oh, so much of it. Here they are, many, many places, many, many gatherings, and they come together and they make all their little plans, and they say to themselves, we're really functioning well. And then they say, oh, we'd better ask the Lord to bless this. And what they're doing, therefore, is this, my friend. They've got the mentality that they can do the work of God without the Lord, without the head, without the Holy Ghost. And may God save us from that. Because it's very easy to fall into that trap. It's very easy for you as a Christian to entertain that idea. You can get on without the Lord. And when you're in that state, my friend, you're like Samson. Samson had lost the power because he had sinned. And he said, yet I will go out as at other times. And he wished not that the Lord had departed from him. In other words, the power was gone, he was weak, he was useless, and it soon was proved. And many Christians wonder why it is that if they rise in the morning and they never get into the book and they never pray and they go out into the world, out into their day's occupation, they wonder why. Why am I so weak? Why am I so powerless? Why have I no strength to witness? But then the answer is very obvious. You haven't taken time to draw life from your head. The head is there. The life is there. And through this blessed union with Him, you are able to draw life from Him. That means that it is Christ's life that fills the whole body. Look again at these words in 23 this time. Verse 23 here of Ephesians 1. And notice how they run. It says, which is His body, the fullness of heaven. Now look at the last words. I want you to see them right now. That filleth all in all. That is, Christ fills all of His people. And He fills all of His people in every area. in which they need Him. He filleth all, all the body, in every part of the body. And thank God, Christ fills the body. It will only live in closeness with Him. In that sense, He'll fill the body with all the body needs. And here's the great truth here. The Lord is the source of life to the church, and it's His own life. He fills the church with His life. There's a fullness of spiritual life in Christ. John 1,16, of His fullness of all we receive is full of grace and truth. He is inexhaustible in His fullness, unlimited in His fullness. Every spiritual grace, every spiritual quality, every spiritual gift is found in Jesus Christ to an infinite degree, an inexhaustible degree. Think about it. from the very beginning of time when God saved Adam and Eve and Abel and all the rest ever since. All of those people, countless billions of the elect of God to this very moment have been drawing from their head all that they needed and all, thank God, that we need today. And yet, he remains as full as ever because he is inexhaustibly full. Dear Christian, and dear company of Christians, you as an individual and we as a congregation can never exhaust Christ. He fills all of the parts of his body with everything. that they need. It extends to the whole body. We're all partakers of the divine nature. We're all partakers of the Holy Spirit. We're all partakers of the life of Jesus Christ. Now, it's important that Christians recognize that. And furthermore, that you live in the enjoyment of that truth in order to function in the body as you should. This is the vital application of all this. Christ is the source of life to His people. We're seeing here it's his own life, and every Christian has it available to him or her, and every Christian must live on the enjoyment of that in order to function in the body as you should. Over in 1 Corinthians 12, we'll not go to the verse, but let me just tell you what it says in verse 27. Ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. Now what Paul is saying in that little statement is this, just as it is in the human body, so it is in the spiritual. There are many members, each with its own role, but every member contributing to the functioning of the entire body. And that life that we need to function comes from Christ. Now dear Christian, Are you living in the knowledge of this? And furthermore, are you living in the experience of it? What are you contributing to the body of the Lord, to the body of Jesus Christ? Turn to Ephesians 4 and look at verses 15 and 16, where it's spelled out again in the wonderful language that is there. Ephesians 4, verse 15. It says, But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth. according to the effectual working in a measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." Now, my friend, that I know is a long verse, and I would encourage you to go through it again and again and again. But what does that long verse say? It's saying simply this. You have the head Christ, you have the body of the church, and everything is joined together, it says, compacted. Knit together, in other words. And there's this effectual working in every part. And as this all goes on, what's the end result? The end result is that the body is edified. Now let me just stop there for a moment, because that is so important. You see, what so many Christians want is not to edify the body, but jealously edify me. You ever think about that? What's your goal as a Christian in being part of this congregation, in coming to the house of God, say, on a Sunday morning like right now to worship the Lord? What's your goal? Is it your goal to be a blessing to other Christians? Because that's simply what we're talking about here. My dear friend, you as a Christian must never see yourself as a kind of an island. And there you are, a way out on your own. And you're living only for yourself. And you want to do your own thing. And whatever happens in the work of God, if it doesn't please you, well, then you say to yourself, I don't want nothing to do with that. And you're not really interested, therefore, in edifying the body. You see what I'm saying? These verses tell us very clearly that whatever you experience, and I certainly agree, I know, that every one of us today needs to draw life from Christ. Every one of us today needs to be blessed personally, meet with the Lord, enjoy the Word, hear His voice, speak with Him in prayer. All of these matters that we need personally to enjoy. But they say it doesn't stop there. I could just I'll illustrate it this way, and I don't mean to bring myself into this. How would you feel if I studied all week, and the Lord showed me certain things from Scripture, and it came to Sunday morning and I said to myself, well, I'm going to stay at home and enjoy all this. And you'd come into the service and wait for the preacher to come into the pulpit, and I wouldn't appear. There I am, sitting up in the manse, reading over the Word and what I've seen and found and saying, I'm keeping this to myself. I don't want anybody else to know this. How would you feel? Well, turn it around. How do other parts of the body of Christ feel when you don't function as you should? are blessed, when you're strengthened, whatever the case might be, and you do not seek to reach out. This is so important. That brings right into the area of fellowship. God's people helping each other, encouraging one another, praying for one another, witnessing together, standing together. This is what it's all about. The life, this principle is that through union with Christ there's life in Christ for the whole body. And I say that leads me on to say this, that is what gives unity to the body. Now, again you take the human body, and isn't it true that all the parts of the human body are essentially bound together by the same life that courses through them? I referred a while ago Not that I'm in any way knowledgeable, and I stress that when it comes to the human anatomy. I haven't got the faintest idea about those things, but I know enough to know this. That, as I said a while ago, the nervous system is a function in our bodies so that every organ and so on and so forth, every muscle is actually activated because of that nervous system telling it from the brain what to do. And you take the blood supply, it carries life to the whole body. And therefore, the whole body is actually, while it's of many parts, it is that union. This marvelous unity exists within the human frame because of the life that unites all the parts together. And my friend, that's exactly what the Lord is telling us here. And we come to deal with this principle of Christ being the source of life to the church. And we discover that that life is His own life carried to every part of the church and to be enjoyed by every part of the church, every member of the spiritual body. Then this is what gives the body unity. And again in Ephesians, Paul puts his finger on this. Ephesians 4 again. And look with me in that chapter of the opening verses, Ephesians 4. He says in verse 1, toward the end of the verse, "...what worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavouring," listen, "...endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." There is one body and one Spirit, and it is right there I want to pause. Because here's Paul talking about the church and her members, that is the spiritual body. And he tells us again, there's only one body. And then he makes the next little statement, or little phrase, he brings it in, Spirit, and the point is this, that the Holy Ghost indwells the entire body of believers, and therefore He brings them, imparts to them the life of Christ. And as He does all that, He joins them together, and He unites them together. It's the Holy Ghost, my friend, through whom this life of Christ, the living head, is dispensed to the whole body. It's the Holy Ghost who constitutes that life. It is who produces it, and who sustains it, and who causes it to continue, so that there is this unity of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. And let me tell you this, it's as the Spirit of truth that He does that. I emphasize that for this reason. We've just read here, there's one body. The Church of Jesus Christ is one. We need to get a hold of this. In a day like this, of increasing ecumenism, of increasing apostasy, when the great cry is, we've all got to come together, the ecumenical spirit permeates all society. It's everywhere. It's in the political realm. That, my friend, is what really was the producer of the Belfast Agreement and every other kind of iniquitous bond that we have witnessed in our country, ecumenism. And it pervades everything in society. This cry is across the world. It's a symptom of the times. It's a harbinger of the end days. When one world government and one world religion will be the prevailing factors in the universal scene. My dear friend, it comes from the wrong thinking. that men promote it in religious circles. Do you ever stop to think about that? The United Nations and the League of Nations and all these amalgamations and so on and so forth, they all are imbued with the same spirit. And they all have come together into existence because of this ecumenical thinking of the last 100, 150 years that is growing at pace, as I say. And what gave birth to that was the churches that departed from the Bible. Churches that lost the spirit of truth. Churches that kept on saying, by the Holy Ghost we are taught to come together and we want to come together. And they said it was all of the Holy Ghost that was alive. Because the Holy Ghost is the spirit of truth. And I come back to what I was saying there. The Holy Ghost is the spirit of truth, which means that the unity he creates and sustains is resting on truth. But ecumenical unity rests on rejection of the truth. It is no stretch of mind to say this right now. There are many, many bodies across our country and across our kingdom and across our world, and they come into existence in the following manner. A group of men sat down and they said this, we don't believe anymore in the virgin birth. We don't believe any more in the blood atonement. We don't believe any more in the new birth. We don't believe any more in the inspiration of the Bible. We don't believe any more in the deity of Christ. And on and on it goes. And they said, now that we have thrown all these things out, we can get together. What spirit brings that about? It's the spirit of antichrist. It's the spirit of error. because their unity exists on the basis of rejection of the truth. Therefore, when we come to see that it is the Spirit of God that gives unity through the life of Christ, we must see that it is the Spirit of Truth who is at work. And then the closing thought is this. The third principle is that the church is Christ's fullness. Look at those words again in verse 23. It says, "...the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him." Now, I've dealt with the last words there, that filleth all and all. That's Christ filling us. But listen, my friend. The church, His body, the fullness of Him, the fullness of Christ. Here is a most amazing thing. Here we are shown that the church or the body of believers is the fullness of Jesus Christ. Now, what that means is very, very obvious. Christ is the head, a head most of a body. Therefore, the church is Christ's fullness in that sense. Now, this is spoken of Christ, remember, as the mediator, the one who came into the world between God and man, the mediator. And he is the head of his people in that role, in that capacity. But remember, my friend, the Holy Ghost is telling us here, we are the fullness of Christ. Christ could not and would not be complete without his church. As I just said, physically, a head alone is not complete. And in the spiritual realm, Christ as the mediatorial head would not be complete without His body. And the Lord is telling us something wonderful here. And it's this. The day is coming when the whole body of believers will have been saved, and they'll be brought home to heaven, and Christ body is going to be presented as His fullness. The Old Hymn says, He will not be in glory and leave me behind. And while that puts it simply, it puts it beautifully. The Lord Jesus Christ needs His body. and must have His body, His people, because they're His fullness. They complete Him. The same is seen in the bride and the bridegroom analogy. A bridegroom is one who has a wife. And did not the Lord say at the very beginning, it's not good that man should be alone. And the Lord Jesus Christ as the bridegroom would not be a bridegroom without a bride. And He can't be a head without a body. And therefore, we are His fullness. And my dear believer, see yourself as one of those who constitute the fullness of Christ. What an encouragement that is. You might say to yourself, Who am I? And I take it through your being genuine. I was not mock humility. Who am I? I'm so weak. I'm nothing. I'm nobody. That's right. So am I. Nothing and nobody. My dear friend, let me tell you something. You mean something to Christ. He says that you are part of that body that constitutes His fullness. Therefore, He needs us. In that sense, He has us here, and one day He'll have us with Him. What a marvelous thought. All I'm saying here paves the way for what I intend to say in weeks to come. Let's bow together before the Lord in prayer. Everyone bowed reverently, quietly in God's presence. as we come to the end of our service. O Lord, use Thy Word this day. We pray that the Holy Spirit will take it and apply it. We pray that He will use it and that there will be a work done for eternity. We thank Thee for this great passage. We thank Thee for this great thought of the head and the body and the union between them and the life of Christ flowing through the body. and the body being his fullness. O Lord, help us to understand these principles, and in doing so, help us to see, therefore, the greatness of God's power to us who believe. Bring others in, save them, we pray. Glorify your great name. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Spirit be with every believer today and forever. Amen.