UNITY IN CHRIST
   

   
Thank you, and once again, good morning to students and teachers of 
the word of God.  I know some of you get very tired of hearing that 
from time to time, week to week.  I don't know any other way to say 
it, because these articles are aimed at that particular class of 
people, I suppose a staggering minority in America these days.  These 
articles are for people who are studying the word of God and want to 
learn it, and for teachers who are entrusted with teaching the word of 
God to other students.
   
Now, today, we have a lesson from the book of Ephesians, Ephesians 
chapter 4, called, "Our Unity in Christ," which speaks of our unity of 
doctrine, unity of gifts, unity in growth, and unity in conduct--a 
very interesting lesson.
   
We often hear these days, along the ecumenical front, that all the 
churches should get together, because by getting together they're 
going to be one in Christ.  And, of course, this overlooks a very 
salient fact, and that is that the believers are already one in 
Christ.  When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, the believers were 
put into Christ at that time, and since that time.  And, as a 
consequence, the born-again believers have always had a unity in 
Christ.  What the church politicians and ecclesiastical, political 
bosses are trying to get is this:  They're trying to get a revived, 
Dark Age.  What they want is a medieval, political setup where 
everybody is in bondage to one political unit.
   
This, of course, is not the unity prayed for by Jesus Christ in John 
chapter 17.
   
Our unity in Christ is discussed very well in our lesson today in 
Ephesians chapter 4, and it has nothing to do with trying to get back 
into the same fold with a bunch of wolves and two-headed cobras, and 
getting under the false shepherd of Zechariah.  Sometimes people who 
don't know their Bible are kind of superstitious about these things, 
and they think the "one shepherd" is a reference to Christ--when the 
one shepherd is a reference to the Antichrist (Zechariah 13)!  In 
Zechariah 13, verse 7, you're told about the true Shepherd being 
smitten, and the sheep scattered.
   
And then, in Zechariah chapter 11, verses 16 and 17, you're told about 
the "idol shepherd" (notice the spelling:  I-D-O-L) who finally gets 
all the sheep into one zoo!  And this "idol shepherd," of course, is 
the Antichrist of Revelation 13.
   
Now, be sure and read about that--Zechariah 11:16-17.  That's the one 
shepherd of the coming Ecumenical Movement, Zechariah 11:16-17.
   
I'll say it one more time:  Zechariah, chapter 11, verses 16 and 17.
   
This week we heard a great preacher, a friend of our pastor's, come 
and preach to us in church.  It's really a blessing to hear the old-
time stuff and know it's still around.  There still are preachers in 
this country who call a spade a spade and don't fear anything that 
walks on two legs or four.  And there are still preachers in this 
country who don't give a flip what you think or the people who hired 
you think, or what your crowd thinks of anything, when it comes to the 
truth.  And we heard one last week.
   
All right, now, our lesson today is called the Unity of the Believers 
in Christ.  First of all, in Ephesians 4:1-6, we have the unity of 
doctrine.  Then, in verses 7-13, we have the unity of the gifts.  You 
will notice these gifts are not individual gifts to individual people 
as signs.  But these gifts are ministries given to the body of Christ.  
Then we have the unity in growth (verses 14-16), and unity in conduct 
(verses 17 to the end of the chapter).
   
Now there won't be any space in today's article, I don't suppose, to 
get beyond verse 16.  And, to get to verse 16, I'm going to have to 
"hustle," as they say.
   
But God forbid that we should ever waste space in these articles.  For 
example, on radio, I get so sick and tired and so fed up hearing the 
average religious broadcast, and hearing a man get up there and spend 
five minutes talking about his income and his outreach and his burden 
and his vision, and his money and his pocketbook and his family and 
his feelings and his baptism and his beliefs, and then ten minutes 
trying to get an appeal for funds--and the last three or four minutes 
trying to get a gift offer for some package he's going to send you.
   
And I think to myself that, when the Bible says, "Redeem the time, for 
the days are evil," and God gives a man 15 or 20 minutes to preach the 
word of God, he'd flat better take advantage of it!
   
So we try to do just that.
   
Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1:  "I therefore, the prisoner of the 
Lord." Notice that Paul looks on his imprisonment as a divine thing, 
and the leadership of God.  He looks at his incarceration in the Roman 
jail as the direct will of God for his life (Romans 8:28).  "The 
prisoner of the Lord." He doesn't give the credit to Rome.  The idea 
is, he couldn't have been a Roman prisoner if God hadn't wanted him to 
be.
   
"Beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are 
called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, 
forbearing one another in love." Now there is perhaps no passage in 
the Scripture that has been more perverted by the modern 
fundamentalists than passages like these, and the ones in Galatians 
that refer to the fruit of the Spirit.  When the Bible speaks about 
lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, the modern white-washed 
Pharisaical hypocrites in fundamentalism believe this is a reference 
to a fellow looking like he's humble, and speaking meekly, and acting 
like he's low-down, in a spiritual sense, or a sense of humility--when 
in actuality he thinks he's God manifest in the flesh.
   
Now, you mark what I'm telling you.  The smoothest, slickest-talking, 
smiling, soft-voiced religious politicians in America think they're 
smart enough to correct the Book--by which I was born-again and called 
to preach.
   
When the Bible talks about lowliness and meekness and lone-suffering, 
he's talking about our attitude toward the brethren, and our attitude 
toward.  It's our meekness in God's sight letting God use us!  It's 
being submissive to the Lord!
   
In long-suffering, it's putting up with things that ordinarily, people 
wouldn't put up with.
   
In lowliness, it's admitting that the Lord is in charge, the Book is 
in charge, we're nobody, we have never been anything, we never will be 
anything, and what we are, if it's any good, we are by the grace of 
God only--what we are by the grace of God!
   
Now this is the lowliness and the meekness he's speaking of in the 
passage.  The modern interpretation of this passage of a "humble, 
sweet, Spirit-filled Christian," is a wimpering, smiling, polite, 
hypocrite--"with good words and fair speeches deceiving the simple" 
(Romans chapter 16).
   
Very often, you'll find a sheep in wolves' clothing.  And the pity of 
it is, these dumb Christians in America today think that the wolf is 
the sheep in wolves clothing.  I've known a lot of roughnecks in my 
life in the ministry.  Men like Maze Jackson and Bob Jones Sr., and 
John Rawlings.  Fellows like B.B.  Crimm and J.  Frank Norris.  I 
never met one of those fellows in my life who, down underneath, wasn't 
soft and humble and sweet and submissive, and didn't have a real love 
for souls, and a real compassion for his brothers and sisters in 
Christ.  They just talk rough!  And they talk rough because God's 
people needed some rough talking.
   
I guess about the roughest talker America ever saw was Billy Sunday.  
Billy Sunday had more compassion for souls than any ten men you've got 
in this town--passing off as ministers.  You better look out for the 
"sheep in wolves' clothing"--and get the difference between him and 
the "wolf in sheep's clothing." The one that's going to do you the 
damage is the wolf that acts and looks and walks and dresses and talks 
like a sheep.
   
"Forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the 
Spirit in the bond of peace." Now he's talking about the unity of 
Christians, and he's saying, if you're going to maintain unity in the 
Spirit in the bond of peace, you have to agree on what you're going to 
believe and how you believe it.
   
And then he states briefly the nearest thing that comes to a creedal 
statement found in the word of God.  The Apostles' Creed, of course, 
is not in the word of God.  The Nicene Creed is not in the word of 
God, nor are the decrees and creeds passed by the Council of Ephesus 
or Carthage of Castledome or Numidia, or any so-called "church 
councils."
   
The nearest thing to it is what follows.  And the context, of course, 
is talking about the unity of the believers in Christ.  "Endeavoring 
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Now this is 
very important in what follows, because we have Bible teachers today 
in America called ultra- or hyper-dispensationalists.  And these 
people think the context of Ephesians 4:1-6 is two or three bodies 
with two or three baptisms.  The teaching of Bullinger, Standford, 
O'Hair and Baker is that there is one body in the early part of the 
book of Acts, and another body in the latter part of the book of Acts.  
Some of these people go on much further than this, and have one body 
in the book of Acts, and these other body not beginning until the book 
of Acts is all over.  This makes two bodies.
   
The statement given by Paul says, in verse 4, "There is one body." So 
these people are what we call genuine schismatics, and do disrupt the 
body of Christ, because they refuse to recognize one body.  There are 
not two.
   
Notice the context of Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1-6.  It's not exact 
details of what a person should believe about certain things, but 
"endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
   
Now the same people we call hyper-dispensationalists also teach this:  
that there is more than one baptism.  The Bible says there is one 
baptism, of course, and it's the baptism that puts us into Jesus 
Christ, which is mentioned by Paul in 1Corinthians chapter 12, verse 
13.  In 1Corinthians 12:13, every Christian has been baptized in the 
body of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit.
   
Now, one time this happened, it was manifested or revealed by speaking 
in tongues.  And, for that reason, many of the Charismatic people say, 
"Well, then, if you don't match the first time it happened in Acts 2, 
you have never been baptized to Christ by the Holy Spirit." That, of 
course, is nonsense.  First Corinthians 12:13 says every believer is 
baptized by one Spirit into one body, and they certainly do not all 
speak with tongues.
   
As a matter of fact, none of the converts in Acts chapter 2 ever spoke 
with tongues!  Did you notice that?  Not one of the three thousand 
people saved in Acts 2 spoke in any tongue!  But the Holy Spirit 
certainly put them into Christ.
   
Now, when you point out to the hyperdispensationalist these matters, 
he says this:  He says, "Well, when the Holy Spirit baptized those 
people into Christ in Acts chapter 2, they spoke in tongues"--which, 
of course, they didn't.  But the Apostles did.  Then, he says, "Well, 
then, obviously, that isn't for this dispensation, because when a man 
gets baptized to Christ by the Holy Spirit these days, he doesn't 
speak in tongues.  Having done this, they get not only two bodies, but 
two baptisms.
   
As a matter of fact, some of the hyperdispensationalists have three 
baptisms.  They have a baptism of the Holy Ghost which put Jews into 
Christ in the early part of the book of Acts--one body, a different 
body than the one you're in.  Then, another baptism of the Holy Spirit 
for power.  And then, another baptism of the Holy Spirit for believers 
after Acts 28!
   
Now this is exactly what the passage is militating against.  It says 
there is one body.  Every believer on this earth who ever got into 
Jesus Christ, got into the same Body that I'm in right now!  There is 
one Body!  And when Jesus Christ prayed for Peter, James, and John to 
be complete in Him and for Him to be complete in them, and for all of 
them to be complete in the Father, that prayer was answered when the 
Holy Spirit put Peter, James, and John in Christ, and they are in 
Christ exactly like I am in Christ.
   
And make no mistake about it:  The body of Christ certainly didn't 
begin in Acts chapter 9, because Paul refers to people in his own 
household who were in Christ before he ever got saved.  Romans 16:7:  
"Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellowprisoners, who 
are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me." 
People were in Christ before Paul was saved.  One body.  And one 
Spirit.
   
Now, we recognize, of course, there are many spirits.  The body speaks 
about the spirit of man, the spirit of the beast, the spirit of the 
devil.  But there's only one real Spirit for the child of God--that's 
the Holy Spirit.  By the same token, there may be many bodies--but 
there's only one real Body for the child of God--and that's the body 
of Christ.
   
"Even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord." Now 
Paul tells you plainly there are many lords and many gods in 
1Corinthians.  In 1Corinthians chapter 8, when Paul is talking about 
what a believer should believe, he says in 1Corinthians 8:5, "For 
though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, 
(as there be gods many, and lords many,) But to us there is but one 
God, the Father, of whom are all things,...and one Lord Jesus Christ." 
So, even though there are many lords and gods, to the child of God 
there is only one Lord.
   
Now this shows how the passage is to be interpreted.  And notice how 
the Scriptures with the Scripture tell you how the Scripture is to be 
interpreted.  You never have to look to an "infallible church" to 
pervert the word of God for you and give you their private 
interpretation.  You never have to look to a bunch of religious 
politicians who say, "Come to us, and we'll show you what it means." 
All you have to do is open that Book and believe what you read!
   
Verse 5:  "One Lord, one faith, one baptism." Now the Bible clearly, 
of course, delineated seven different baptisms.  The first of these 
baptisms is found in 1Corinthians chapter 10, verses 1-3.  And, in 
1Corinthians chapter 10, verses 1-3, you have baptism unto Moses in a 
cloud and in the sea.  The second of these baptisms is found in 
Matthew chapter 3.  In Matthew chapter 3, verse 11, John the Baptist's 
water baptism to Israel.  Also in Matthew chapter 3, verse 11, you 
have the third baptism--baptism with fire.  The baptism of unsaved 
people in the lake of fire.  Matthew 3, verses 10-12.
   
The fourth baptism in the passage is said to be the baptism of Jesus 
Christ, baptizing people with the Holy Ghost (Matthew 3:11).  The 
fifth baptism is a baptism of suffering.  For, three years after the 
disciples have been baptized, when Christ is on the way to the cross, 
he tells them--the disciples--"Are you able to be baptized with the 
baptism I am baptized with?" Matthew chapter 20, verse 22.
   
The sixth baptism is plainly Simon Peter's Jewish baptism in Acts 2 to 
Israel, and the seventh baptism is Simon Peter's Gentile baptism to 
the house of Cornelius, Acts chapter 10.
   
This clearly lays out seven distinct baptisms in that Book.  There 
isn't any way to deny it; they're right there.  Matthew chapter 3, 
1Corinthians chapter 10, Matthew 28, Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 10, 
and Matthew chapter 20.  They're there.
   
Now, the problem comes up, if there's only one baptism, which one is 
the real one?  Well, obviously, the Holy Spirit putting the believer 
into Christ is the real one, because Paul says in 1Corinthians 12:13, 
"For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." And there is 
one body, and one Spirit, and one baptism.
   
Now, there are two groups of Bible-perverting Christians raised up in 
America to get you not to believe that.  The first bunch tells you 
this; they'll tell you when you receive Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit 
doesn't put you into Christ, because you've been baptized in water 
wrong.  They'll try to get you to take the Jewish baptism of Acts 2:38 
in order to get the Holy Ghost--which you already have.  The other 
group will come up and say the Holy Spirit could not have put you into 
Jesus Christ, unless you talk in tongues like the Jewish apostles, who 
had the signs.  And, of course, the signs are for Israel (1Corinthians 
1:22, 2Corinthians 12:12), and tongues are said to be a sign 
(1Corinthians 14:22).
   
There is nothing like a King James Bible to give the heretic a fit.  
Nothing like it.
   
"One Lord, one faith, one baptism." Then obviously the baptism that's 
real is the Holy Spirit putting you into Jesus Christ.  And, of 
course, of that baptism, water baptism is said to be a figure (1Peter 
3:21).  "The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us 
(not the putting away of the filth of the flesh..." But what is it?  
The figure is "the answer of a good conscience toward God."
   
And that's why, when we baptize a man, we give him Gentile baptism, in 
the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost (Matthew 
28:19,20), as Peter baptized Cornelius (Acts chapter 10).  That's why 
we never baptize him in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of 
sins, because obviously he is not a Jew who lived in the generation 
that crucified their Messiah.  "One Lord, one faith, one baptism."
   
"One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in 
you all." Paul's a good Southerner.  He's from one of the two southern 
tribes anyway--Benjamin.
   
"But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of 
the gift of Christ.  Wherefore he saith..." And of course here he's 
speaking about the unity of gifts "...when he ascended up on high, he 
led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." This refers, of 
course, to the Lord Jesus Christ taking back up to heaven with him the 
souls of the Old Testament saints after their redemption was completed 
at Calvary.
   
"Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first 
into the lower parts of the earth?  He that descended is the same also 
that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all 
things." Referring to Christ's descent down to the lower parts of the 
earth, which is defined in Matthew chapter 12 as the "heart of the 
earth," and is interpreted by Jonah chapter 2 as being hell.  Hell is 
said to be in the heart of the earth, according to Jonah 2:2 and 
Matthew 12:40, and this is where Christ's soul goes (Acts 2:31, Acts 
2:27).
   
And then when He comes up, He does this, verse 11:  "And he gave some, 
apostles." That's how the Church Age starts out.  It starts out with 
the Twelve Apostles called out.  "And some, prophets." You have to 
have prophets until the New Testament is complete to prophesy and tell 
what's going to take place.  "And some, evangelists." From then on, 
throughout most of the history of the church, it's evangelists doing 
the work.  The local assemblies who try to get the work done under 
local pastors and bishops, of course, in the Dark Ages, are up against 
hell on wheels.  These people are called Paulicians, Donatists, 
Novatians, Bogamiles--and they're accused of being "minechians" and 
"Aryans" and God knows what.  The main work, of course, throughout the 
Dark Ages, is done by the roving, traveling preachers--people such as 
Tan Calm of Flanders, Berthold of Rumania, Yakum of Florence.  And 
then it finally winds up in the evangelistic work of Martin Luther, 
which is followed by the greatest evangelistic period the world has 
ever seen under George Whitefield.  And the Pietists and the Moravians 
and John Wesley and Charles Wesley.
   
"And he gave...some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers." You 
will notice the pastor and teacher are the same office in the passage, 
with no comma or semicolon between the two.  "Pastors and teachers."
   
With the final deterioration and degeneration of the United States 
after the Civil War, the evangelistic groundswell went out with the 
preaching of Billy Sunday.  The main thing that was responsible for 
this, of course, was the American people telling God they wanted to 
get drunk.  And in 1933, when they voted out the Amendment on 
prohibition, and then lost their gold standard under F.D.R., 
evangelism as a major force fell to pieces.
   
Since that time you've had one or two major evangelists, men like 
Billy Graham.  But, of course, where these men preach, there's no 
change in the socioeconomic or political life of their field.  It goes 
right on downhill.  When the old-time evangelists preached, the town 
would clean up, the liquor stores would close, the theaters would 
empty, the jails would empty.  And when men would cuss in the street, 
they would lower their voice, because they didn't want to be heard.  
There hasn't been an evangelist wave like that in the United States 
since 1935.
   
And from that time on, the pastor who set up the pastor's way of doing 
things was a man in Fort Worth, Texas, named J.  Frank Norris.  And he 
is responsible today for 3,000 independent Baptist churches that are 
premillennial.  And out of those there are probably at least a hundred 
of them that still believe this Book I've got in my hands.
   
"Pastors and teachers." What for?  Not for soul-winning.  Pastors and 
teachers and evangelists are not for soul-winning.  They're for "the 
perfecting of the saints." Our job is to get the saints perfected to 
do what?  To minister.  "For the perfecting of the saints, for the 
work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:  Till we 
all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of 
God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the 
fulness of Christ."
   
Now there couldn't possibly be space to finish this lesson here in 
today's article.  I'm down here in verse 12, and that subject matter 
alone in verse 12 would run 10 pages at least.  I'll be as brief as 
possible.
   
Pastors, teachers and evangelists are, first of all, for the 
perfecting of the saints.  Our job is to minister to the saints so 
they'll grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.  They become 
mature Christians (verse 13), and they're no longer deceived.  Our job 
is to raise Christians who can not be deceived by cunning craftiness 
or the sleight of man (verse 14).  Our job is to raise Christians who 
can't be blown about with every wind of doctrine.  Our job is not to 
avoid doctrine.  Our job is to root and ground Christians in the 
doctrines of truth, where they can't be moved.  That's our job.  
"Rooted and grounded in Christ." That's the first part.  "For the 
perfecting of the saints."
   
Our job is to take that Christian and so raise him, that when some 
slick, smooth, promotional executive, twice-dead, plucked up by the 
roots, backslidden reprobate gets up and begins to quote Scripture and 
talk like a Christian, he can spot him thirty miles off upwind.  
That's our job.  "For the perfecting of the saints."
   
Number two, "for the work of the ministry." To train Christians to win 
souls.  To train Christians to minister to each other.  To train 
Christians to help each other out when they get into trouble, and pray 
for each other.  And minister to each other.  If you've been called as 
a pastor or an evangelist or a teacher, you are God's gift to the body 
of Christ.  You're not only not your own, you're bought with a price 
like any Christian.  You are also a special gift that God gave to the 
body of Christ, and you better exercise that gift.
   
"For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry." Woe 
be to the Christian who tries to build his own ministry!  Woe be to 
the pastor or teacher or evangelist who tries to build his ministry!  
God never told you to build nothin'!  He told you to perfect the 
saints for the work of the ministry.
   
And, finally, "for the edifying of the body of Christ." According to 
the New Testament, in Ephesians chapter 4, in our unity in Christ, it 
is the job of those who have been given as a gift to the body of 
Christ, the pastors, the teachers, the evangelists, the apostles and 
the prophets--our job is to edify the body of Christ, give it light.  
That is, when a thing comes up, put light on it.  Whatever makes 
manifest, Paul says in this same epistle, is light (Ephesians 5:13).  
But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light:  for 
whatsoever doth make manifest is light."
   
That's what edification is.  It's turning on the light and searching 
out the dark corners.  It's going after the bugs.  Bedbugs can't stand 
sunlight!
   
We'll have to stop here for today.  We'll be closing the passage, and 
I wish you good progress in finishing the passage today.  I hope that 
you'll go on and go right through it to the end of the passage.  It's 
a great chapter.  And study, further, here the unity of growth (verses 
14-16) and the unity of conduct (verses 17-32) that should exist in 
the body of Christ--the relationship of Christians to each other.  
They should be united in what they believe, and they should know why 
they believe it.  They should be united around those who have been 
given to them as God's gift to help them out, and help them to grow in 
the grace and knowledge of Christ to minister.  They should be united 
in growth, and continually grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus 
Christ, and continually accept advanced light on things, and accept it 
and act upon it, and not turn it down.  They should continually grow 
in grace, and not stay at the bottle-fed, spoon-fed level.  And, 
finally, they should be one in conduct--unity in conduct, which, of 
course, has to do with telling the truth (verses 21,22,25) and being 
angry at the right things (verse 26), and watching the speech (verse 
29), putting away anger, clamor and strife (verse 30), and, above all, 
as Paul says, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are 
sealed unto the day of redemption.
   
May the Lord bless you, and good day.
   
