Truth For Life

Alistair Begg: Being in a church regularly or even being in membership at a local church doesn't necessarily mean you are in Christ. Today on Truth For Life, Alistair Begg explains the difference by describing the unique bond shared by genuine believers and why this union should cause us to stand out from the surrounding culture.

I invite you to turn to Ephesians and to chapter four as we continue our studies in Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus. Well, let's read verses four, five, and six, which is where we are. We won't get into this hardly at all, but at least we can break in this morning.

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. You'll notice that this is a trinitarian passage. Verse four refers to the Spirit of God, verse five to the Son of God, and verse six to God the Father.

Now, interestingly, having belabored the point that he is moving from the doctrinal to the practical, in actual fact, when you look at this, he's actually right back at the doctrinal again, isn't he? Because he's now giving us instruction on the nature of the church. And we're going to have to wait really until verse 17 until he gets back to, "Now I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do."

He started that in verse one. "Walk in a manner worthy of the calling. Do it like this and this and this." And then he starts to give instruction about the church. And many of our problems as Christian believers is because we don't understand the church. We don't understand the nature of what it means to be placed in Christ and embedded with one another.

It's not something that is an added extra to Christian experience. The fierce individualism of our nation is such that we view most things in that way. "Well, do I feel that I will gain from this? Do I feel that I would like to participate in this? After all, it's really about me and what I want and how I'm doing and where I'm going and how I'm spending my time."

No, it's not. It's actually not. Because the same grace that reconciles us to God brings us into relationships with one another. The relationships which then define our existence. It's a truism, but it's true because it's true that God is working to put us all together in a new heaven and a new earth together. You're not going to live in your own little parcel all by yourself, excluded from everybody. No. So now we're supposed to be getting ready.

Now, if we wanted to work our way through the 16 verses, I'll just give you a possible outline here, which we're not going to use. In verse three, he's called on them to maintain the unity. Down in verse 12, he's going to encourage them in relationship to the works of ministry. And by the time he gets to the conclusion of this section, he is reminding them that they are to be growing in maturity.

First of all, maintain this unity. Get involved in ministry. Grow up to maturity. If you want to grow up to maturity, then get involved in ministry because it is involvement in ministry that gives expression to the nature of our unity. So let's begin. "There is one body. There is one body." That's as far as we'll go.

He provides, you will notice, a sevenfold foundation upon which the unity is built. Seven times he uses the word "one." One body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. Now let's just make the point, small point, but an important point, that he is stressing unity, but he is not calling for uniformity.

Unity and uniformity are not necessarily the same. You can put a group of people all in the same uniform in a basketball team and yet not have unity out on the court. You can ask people to all dress in the same way and yet not in their heart of hearts be united. The beautiful thing about the church, as we'll go on and see later in the chapter, is that the unity is not by the diminishing of diversity, but it is in the embracing of that diversity.

Hence the picture of the body, and we can all understand that. The various parts of the body are absolutely vital because there is only one body and no one part has prominence over the others. Now, Paul uses the body, I think, as his favorite metaphor. He's already mentioned it twice in chapter one and again in chapter two, and now he comes to it again.

He uses other pictures of the church. Here in Ephesus, he has referred to them as fellow citizens and as members of the same family, as living stones in the temple that God is building, and as we will see in chapter five, he's referring to the church as the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. But this body metaphor, I think, is uppermost in his writing, and actually, I think it may well be unique to Paul.

I wonder why. There's no good answer to the question. I'm just letting you know that I wonder why. And as I wondered, I wondered whether it is not directly tied to his own conversion experience. Because you will recall that when he was on his way to Damascus, breathing out threatenings and slaughter to the followers of Jesus, that he encountered Jesus on that road.

And the word that came to him from heaven was, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" And of course, Saul's reaction would necessarily have been, "Well, actually, who are you, Lord? I don't know. But I wasn't persecuting you. I was persecuting them." And then the dawning realization that for Saul of Tarsus to be involved in the persecution of the followers of Jesus was to be involved in persecuting Jesus.

Why? Because of the unique union between Christ who is the head of the body and the body itself. You cannot make an impact on one part of the body in isolation from the rest. If the body is fully functioning, you can't say, "I have a problem with my thumb, but it's nothing to do with the rest of me." It's got everything to do with the rest of you. It's localized there, but it impinges upon all.

Now, when Paul works this out for his readers in writing both to Corinth and also to Rome, he makes it very clear. This is Romans 12. "For as in one body we have many members, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another." So there is only one body. You only have one body, and so do I. And you have life which animates your body.

When that life no longer animates your body, your body will be dead and it will be dispensed with. That's his picture. When he says there is only one body, what he's saying is there is only one church. There is only one church because there is only one Spirit. And the same Spirit that indwells you as an individual in Jesus indwells the person next to you who is also in Jesus. The same Spirit. You don't have your own. It's the same.

But even greater than that, the same Spirit that indwells us this morning is the Spirit that indwelt the reformers 500 years ago. The same Spirit that is at work in the people of God in a locale here in North America is the same Spirit that is at work in Northern India and in North Korea and in the heartlands of Europe and so on. That's what he's saying.

There's nothing like it in the entire universe. This is not just like you can't find an analogy here in simply organizational structure or in visible unity or in external things. No, it is far more fundamental than that. There is only one body, only one church. Well, how can that be? You drove here this morning, how many churches did you drive past?

You drove past a whole ton of churches, didn't you? And you're sensible people, and you're going, "Well, there are church buildings all over the place." Of course there are. And Paul knew that there were churches in Ephesus, there were churches in Crete, there were churches in Corinth and so on. So what's he saying? Well, clearly, he's not talking about the visible entity. He's talking about the invisible reality.

He's not talking first about the external expression. He's talking about the essential nature of the church. One body that is made up of all kinds of people from all kinds of places living at all kinds of time in history. That's why when we say, as we often do, that God is in the business of putting together a company that no one can number from every tribe and nation and language and tongue, a people of his very own, when we say that, this is what we're referring to.

Now, who are these people that make up this one body? Well, that's why the doctrinal precedes the practical. You say, "Well, who is he talking to? What is it that makes them this one body?" If you were here this morning, you're saying to yourself, "Well, I don't know if I'm in it or I'm not in it." Don't confuse a question about where your quotes membership is in an external structure for the moment.

Just go back to the beginning and you'll have the answer to your question. All who are in Christ are in this body. Chapter one, the way he begins, verse three, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing." We've said this again and again, but it's important to note that Paul would not have asked somebody, "Are you a Christian?"

He would have asked them, "Are you in Christ? Have you been united with Christ? Are you in union with the Lord Jesus Christ?" That's the way he drives this home all the way through the opening chapter. "In him," verse 11, "we have obtained an inheritance." In him. There's no inheritance outside of him. Our inheritance is in him. Our adoption is in him. Our security is in him. Our salvation is in him.

The Lord is my salvation. What does that mean? It means that there is salvation only in him and is known only by those who are placed into him. Who places us into him? God does. How does he do it? Miraculously. Will we know? Absolutely. Will it be the same in every case? Probably not. But everyone will be able to say the wonder of it is in this: that I, who was once outside of Christ, I once was a stranger to God and to grace, once I was proud and believed I saw everything, but that has changed.

And the relationship into which we are brought in Christ is a relationship with one another. You see how at odds this is with any attempt on the part of any church to claim that they are actually the only true church. Every so often when you're traveling in certain places and you'll come on a church that's got so many adjectives in its name that it's basically trying to make sure that it's got everything completely covered and it's excluded everybody else that doesn't like the adjectives.

So it's not simply Roman Catholicism that has done this, although Roman Catholicism has done it traditionally. Because traditionally, the Roman Catholic Church has claimed throughout all of history to be the only true church. Read Roman Catholic dogma. And consequently, that other visible churches, if they are to have any hope on the basis of real Roman Catholic theology, must somehow or another find their way back to Mother Church. For in Mother Church, which is the only true church, there is security and hope and peace.

Well, of course, the Bible is not saying that. It's clearly possible to be members of a visible church and yet not members of the body of Christ. Somebody gave me a Steph Curry t-shirt for my Christmas because I like to wear that just to annoy people around here. Well, I can wear it and like represent, but anyone who looks at me says, "Well, I'll tell you what, you're not a Warrior. You may wear the jersey, but you're clearly not."

You can get involved in the externals of a church and not be in Christ. That's why Paul is saying what he's saying. "I urge you now to walk in a manner worthy of the calling by which you have been called." So that God does not just justify those whom he does not sanctify. So that the outworking of the final three chapters of Ephesians provide indications to both the believer and to the watching world that that which is there as the doctrinal basis of being united with Christ is now seen and worked out in the everyday life of this person.

Well, let me just work this out at one more level because I think some people stumble over this. If I listen carefully, I'm sure they do. And that is because few of us, if any, would be able to answer the question, "So tell me about how you became a Christian?" and we answer in terms of Saul of Tarsus. You know, "Well, I was going down Euclid Avenue and all of a sudden there was a light shining," and so on.

If you come in and tell us that, we're probably send you for a little help somewhere. But few would be able to answer in terms of Saul of Tarsus. But some of us have had a very dramatic conversion. Some of us have come out of a real mess, and we have to be honest and say this is what I was. Others of us have not and we're unable to speak in those terms.

Some are able to say, "Yes, it was on the 29th of October, I was in such and such a place and I was with my friend," and so on. And somebody else couldn't even tell you the day or the time. And the danger is that if you make a form of expression of what it means to be in Christ as a means of being identified with an external local church such as our own, then actually we probably create a potential barrier that ought not to exist.

Some of us have come to faith quietly, gradually, almost unobservably. It's happened over a period of time. Some of us as men were change-jinglers. You know who you are or who you were. When we sang the songs, your mouth never moved. I used to see you. I can still see you. You just jingle your change, just do something, make a small contribution. But there's no singing. Why would you sing? Why would you take words like, "The Lord is my salvation"? You're an observer. You're a bystander.

But you began to listen, and you even surprised yourself. You started to sing just a little bit, and then you found yourself saying, "You know, I think actually I should get a notebook here and make one or two notes about the Bible." Before, you used to tell your wife, "Why do you even bring that Bible?" What happened? Well, you see, you're beginning to get cultivation in your heart. The Spirit of God is at work.

Now, just because you weren't a Hell's Angel and fell off your motorbike and banged your head and were converted, it doesn't mean you're not converted. I know not how the Spirit moves, convincing men of sin, revealing Jesus through the Word, creating faith in him. Constituent elements will always be present, essentially however it is expressed.

The person will say, "Well, you know, I actually discovered that I began to be convicted. I used not to really pay much attention to the stuff about the sin or anything. I figured, yeah, there's plenty of sinners, but I'm not one of them. And then I realized, yes, I am. And then that conviction began to burn into me, and then I realized and became convinced that this death of Jesus on the cross was because of the sin of which I'd been convicted."

"And then I realized that it was one thing to know that and it was another thing to believe that, and I believed it. I'm not sure I believed it right, but I certainly got started on believing it, and I was converted. And then I discovered that this thing about the church and the body actually meant something. It mattered. And I was brought into communion with those who similarly believed."

I'll finish in this way to make this point in a way that perhaps that hasn't. Martyn Lloyd-Jones tells a story of an old minister who, in making this observation, contrasted two men who were blind and who were healed by Jesus. One who's recorded in John chapter nine and the other who's recorded in Mark chapter eight. You can do it for homework.

And in John chapter nine, Jesus spits on the ground, makes clay, rubs it together, puts it on the man's eyes and sends him to the pool of Siloam to be washed, and he comes out seeing. In Mark chapter eight, Jesus puts spittle on the man's eyes and he says to him, "Can you see anything?"

And the man says, "Well, I can see men, but they look like trees walking." And Jesus lays his hands on him again, and he says, "Can you see?" He says, "Yeah, I can see good now." So the old minister says, "Can you imagine these two guys meeting one another in the street? The John nine fellow and the Mark eight guy."

And the John nine man says to the Mark eight guy, "Hey, what was that like when he spat on the ground and started making that clay?" And the Mark eight guy goes, "Well, he never did that." "Oh, oh. Well, wow. Well, well, how about—tell me how you felt when he said, 'Go wash in the pool of Siloam.' What were you thinking about when he said that?"

"I wasn't thinking about anything because he didn't tell me to go wash in the pool of Siloam." The guy goes, "Oh, I think—yeah, I think you have to—you got to get washed in the pool of Siloam. It's absolutely of vital importance." And as he presses him more and more, eventually he says to the guy, "Look, I don't actually believe that you're healed at all. You've got to still be blind."

Because you see, he took the way that Jesus had dealt with him as the mechanism whereby Jesus was going to deal with his friend. And the old minister said, "And on that occasion, two new denominations were established: the Mud-ites and the Anti-Mud-ites." You see, we're so prone to do that, aren't we?

Guest (Male): You're listening to Truth For Life, and that is Alistair Begg with a message titled One Body, One Spirit, One Hope. We'll hear more tomorrow on this subject. If you're enjoying our current study in the book of Ephesians, you can watch or listen to Alistair teach through all six chapters of this book. All of the messages in the study can be streamed for free on our website at truthforlife.org/ephesians.

Or if you'd like to own the complete study, you can purchase it on a USB for just five dollars. That USB contains many hours of Alistair's teaching verse by verse through this letter from the Apostle Paul to the church in Ephesus. You just plug it into your car's USB player and you can enjoy working your way through the study on a road trip or each day as you drive to and from work or school. You can purchase the USB at truthforlife.org/store.

By the way, today is the last day we are recommending to you the 30-day devotional featuring Charles Spurgeon's sermons on suffering. If you haven't already requested your copy, you'll want to do that right now. The book is titled Your Only Comfort: Devotions for Hope in Suffering. It's yours for a donation to Truth For Life, and you can give online at truthforlife.org/donate or call us at 888-588-7884. Thanks for listening. Is the Holy Spirit at work in you and in your church? Tomorrow, we'll find out how his presence is revealed. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth For Life, where the learning is for living.