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I'd like to draw your attention at this time
to Ephesians Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians
and chapters 3 and
the time is going by so quickly I am
afraid that will not be able to do all that we'd like to accomplish
at this day but we ought to
and I'm sure we want to have our thoughts centered in our lovely Lord
of whom we have been singing the this morning
in the third chapter of Ephesians
the Apostle Paul
tells how in verse 3
that he received the knowledge the mystery ah
by revelation and then
he goes on to tell what it implies and then he mentions
at the Great Commission that was given to him
the Great Commission that was given to him
and I just draw your attention now to eight and nine
verses 8 ah and nine
his great commission and
8 is to proclaim among the Gentiles
the unsearchable riches of
Christ to proclaim among
the Gentiles the unsearchable that is beyond all measure
riches of Christ and in verse
9 and to make all see that is to enlighten all
what is the fellowship of the mystery
we're going to consider for a little while
as time will permit one
aspect of the fellowship up the mystery
for that word fellowship implies even more than our usual
concept of fellowship and communion
for it has inherent in it the meaning
of administration or
order just how this thing works
so to speak we're going to concentrate on that for a little while
as we continue our study of the great mystery have God
and of Christ and his congregation
let us pray our Father we look to thee to
give us great in like 10 min and I word
in order that we might understand Thy plan
and Thy purpose in our time and for us as individuals I pray in Jesus name
a man we're going to consider the practical
application of that expression the fellowship
of the mystery the fellowship
up the mystery you know
but the mystery is that which was in the loving heart of God
before the ages of time way back
and He had a plan and he had a purpose
but he didn't reveal it he didn't reveal it
to the sons of men until after
the great work of redemption at Calvary
and the Lord Jesus had desended back
into heaven then came
the revelation of that glorious
and grand a secret called a mystery
which gone hand in his heart now manifested
and by the Apostle Paul very clearly
revealed unto us some years ago
a shortened only a few years ago dear
pastor friend of mine was a fine Bible teacher
your said I heard him say it in public
that the sad part
above the current
contemporary training received in Bible colleges and seminaries today
make a man
useless useless
for Christian service consecrate me now
to die service lord we were singing
how unfortunate
yeah you speaking to me personally
and saying very much I'm the same thing
and then he said unless unless the young man has been very well grounded
in a home church that was really teaching the Word
how sad it is how sad it is
how many know what the mystery is
we look at christendom
when we've seen what is developed over the centuries
see what's going on now that is very very little left very little left
that even resembles
the blueprint that God has so
clearly given so I'd like to suggest
practical applications
for the local assembly the fellowship
learning the fellowship
of loving yeah
and the fellowship of caring
learning as in the class in the schools
we have found that people coming to a Bible Church are little bit surprised they
expect to be entertained as it were by
costumes walking back and forth and doing things
they're surprised to find that they have entered a classroom
a place so learning
the local assembly yeah
is the fellowship a school
as you have it in verse eighteen yeah
in to comprehend with All Saints
but it's also a fellowship
of loving especially
as a fam as is indicated in verse eighteen the family
at on earth many of us know
what it means to have family love to be loving
didn't as a family with the
mutual loyalty and respect one for another
but there is a third application to
getting the fellowship for the mystery is a
and fellowship in caring
as in the hospital or in a resthome
a place for healing
restoration
vigor you can and like to have you three keep those three things in mind
as we continue on in our series we're going to look more specifically
at the local assembly as a microcosm
of the whole body
which is known of course only to God but the local assembly is the audible
and visible body of Christ
in a particular locality
and we all ought to know what is
the fellowship of the mystery
would you try to keep these three things in mind
group so that as we go on an hour
studies you say to yourself
oh yes I i see it here is the fellowship of
learning, or we'll be looking at another passage
describing the local assembly and you say yes I see it
this is the fellowship from loving
as in a family and in some
other passage you notice Oh
this is the fellowship caring as in the hospital taking care of the injured
and the woonded so that as we go on in our
study and as we look
at the local assembly more what it really means to God
we want to see the practical aspect
what it means a to us let us then
consider the fellowship of
learning to be occupied
with the written word of God together
oh how we need it I do not think there are
any here who think that there's
anything but confusion in the whole religious
around today certainly in Christianity
and the denominations and in the churches and in the activities
how we need the word of God
and fathers and mothers
need the word of God
and God is so arranged that we should have the fellowship
of learning together as in the classroom
or in a school were will also be stimulated
to do our own a homework
and do some reading for ourselves and to follow up in that context
and so forth the and two
be together between to be edified by
what the Holy Spirit teaches us there is only one interpretation of Scripture
but there can be and usually will be many
applications made by the Holy Spirit
to my heart and to your heart
we need this kind of teaching in order to be reminded of truth
that is so easily for gotten the Bible's a pretty big book is net why they're a
is
as it is divided in our English version we have sixty-six books that's quite a
library
and it's easy to forget many many things and so
as we coming together we are refreshed and strengthen
for instance recently are we've had some folks mention the fact that
a doesn't seem so very long ago that they were going through some studies
with me on the subject of the great mystery
but how easily those things begin to fade
from the active thinking and we need to be reminded of it
a again to
be reminded of things that we may have for gotten
and also to say in the text things that we
overlooked that is new when precious
to us and wonderful and
to be an enlightened really
and what is new to us and strengthen their by
many people do not understand that that true
New Testament assembly or that tries to be
will
show this and evidence this this is part of the program
listening to the choir today of course our hearts for
stirred with the music whenever they saying and
and that's one of the favorites of course
but I wonder how many people realize that the Ministry of the choir
is a ministry of teaching
in that what the Apostle Paul said teaching
and admonishing one another with songs and hymns
isn't that right and I want you choir members to bear that in mind that when
you're singing your teaching
you're presenting doctorin your reminding us of precious truths
how precious and wonderful it is the fellowship
of learning
I attended a school as many have you know
and I believe that that school was very close
very close to amounting to something
but it didn't it didn't
that no longer exists and why
it turned away from the blueprint that God given in his book
here we have all kinds of organizations
and schools denominations
activities mission boards
a mass meetings evangelism and so many many things
there's very little evidence that the leadership
as even taken no look at the blueprint
that God has given for this dispensation
and for the local assembly
the fellowship for the mystery is also a fellowship
in loving between as a family
where each member feels a belong
do feel a or is there something wrong here
ours is something wrong with me review you see the point
if you know what it is to have a nice family
where they're loving one another it is not something that you analyze you just
feel it is right in here right in here
and if it isn't there is something wrong
and it aught to be corrected and a
each family member is very very happy
over the others progress
if one of the boys as well in the athletic field the whole family is
hopping and skipping and yelling and happy
and if somebody comes home with them a
very good report card well everybody's happy
you see this something wonderful and there's a loyalty
in that love for the family a real loyalty
to the family sure young people can get very excited
about their home team
football team and yell and scream but its
it's just nothing compared with the loyalty that's right
built right in to the family it's part of our
being part of our and
living together and presenting any
any slander
in our kid can teases sister
sometimes he can be obnoxious
and he can tease his sister but I tell you something
if anybody should raise a slander against his sister
that guy had
better take out insurance on his teeth
why? because an
tense loyalty that's there you know it's good for us to take a look
at what is a New Testament Church
not because some people carrying their Bibles to a meeting
but because they're what's in their, a fellowship of
learning and an appetite and a hunger to learn and to grow
and the fellowship loving as a family
really the warmth of belong
been you know when you're out in the world new
meet all of this we used to talk to the man
talk to the man about what a change it is and what a welcome thing it is
if you've been out no world and then to get into the fellowship of God's people
but I guess now we have two say that to the women to
because there is so many women
working today and out in that world
and you know it's sticky its dirty
it's unpleasant there are times when you feel as though
all if you could somehow get away from that garbage
that you had to put up with is something wrong
if there isn't the family love the local assembly where you can come in just feel
that warmth
you see how important
this really is
we
need to be loved
I grew up on a farm
and I knew what it was to have to work on Sunday
and you know there were some people that didn't understand
they didn't understand that you had to feed
cows and horses
and pigs to and chicken
and there was work to be done Barnes to be clean
the things that had to be done some
sometimes there would be a dig
and a barb because they thought that
we were working on Sunday too much
what legalism you don't find much love and that sort of thing do you.
these a practical things that we need to bear in mind
in speaking at that I think I could mention what happened to my own dad
he had invested a goodly sum of money in that
what was called a bottling machine that was
a big tank that had an adgutator
in it and it had little fossett's
so that you could pull handle you bring in a box a
bottles in those days they were glass bottles were built and
and you'd and you'd fill each Bottle
a there was no refrigeration and as we have it now
by electrical means so that
ice had to be brought in and kept in a compartment
so as the milk from the dairy was put into this great big
a tank that there would be a cooling process
and then the bottles I would be filled
it so happened that there was a malfunction
in that tank for a short time and
we didn't know I I was just a little fellow at the time
and in those days we were delivering milk
at to the homes, it was a home delivery
and a every day seven days a week
and
in you can imagine how busy how much work had to be done on Sunday
so that you can get the church on Sunday morning and again
and Sunday night which of course we did the
in the state had inspectors
went around and checked and those who were D
delivering milk to determine
the percentage of butterfat a
in each bottle and that was a
very very good thing and a
they would come you never know when they'd stop you
and they'd want to take out a
one or two samples and
to be analyzed and then you'd be notified
was there enough butter fat
in each bottle this was not homogenized milk
you understand and when that stands for any period a time the
cream will rise to the surface
so my father was notified
that the samples that had been taken been
where a little bit short up the butterfat
that was required by law and a
as a result he had to pay a small fine I think or something like 25
dollars as soon as he got the notice
Anna hiya he did something about it
he called the company that from which she had bought the bottling
machine uh it seems that my brother had somized
that something was wrong but they came in they found out
that there was a in paddle supposed to be moving all the time and
that tank
to keep that milk moving so that
the cream wouldn't all go to the to the top
and if that wasn't functioning right and sometimes just wouldn't turn
then the milk standing there little while it wouldn't take very long
than the first bottles that you filled
I had less a butterfat
in them than the other at the end of the month
between the end of the month that came out these little notices in the
newspaper
out people who had been to court
this one and that one nap when somebody didn't have a dog license or something
like that
and there it was in that small print and
know that he had been fined or pleaded guilty I guess that's the way they put
it
a for lower a
a butter content a in the milk
it was devastating and is very very unpleasant
but where do you go when you feel
hurt like this you want to be with God's
God's people but you see what happened was that
somebody a.m.
pass the word around the congregation at
haven't you seen in the paper that mister Helgerson has been pouring water
into his milk
you know you only take
one person to tell a lie to 6 people
and then somebody hears from six different sources
there very very unpleasant and my father was teaching
few in the Sunday School class
always had that good will of the
man of the church and I remember
is taking me with him to the Sunday school picnic
my brother had been left home to look after the farm in the dairy
because everybody couldn't leave at the same time
to go to the picnic so we had to take turns as a strange thing
my dad would walk over to our group of men were standing around talking
an of a sudden the conversation cease then they went in different directions
how did this man feel how did this man
feel you know its a fellowship
of loving as a family being understanding there was a
been a young mother
that we be friended over a period of time
I remember going over to our house with potatoes and
groceries & at other vegetables from the farm
and a milk was delivered to her free
without any charge and that many times she would be
invited to her home with the two little kids
for sunday dinner but what did happen
was that her husband had
left her and it was well known that
he had no profession %uh he might show up but
Christmas server some special time like that but
%uh he didn't care he took off
but you know what often happens in that case like that
is that there are those who are trying to protect
the guilty one by putting the blame on the wife
and so it got around the net little congregation
that there's something very very wrong with that with that women
at when her husband had to leave her and turned to drink and that sort of thing
it's an old old story of course when a man wants to take off
to pp prepares for
by passing the word around two is work companions and others that
my wife doesn't love me my wife doesn't understand me
why it says all this the devil and yet people believe it
and that poor woman suffered
and she couldn't go out and didn't and and get a job is
as she would like to do she had to take in washing and
doing things like that to try to keep the family together in
bring up those little kids
and instead of getting love
and the warmth of a Christian congregation
she was deeply deeply hurt
I'm thankful that I had some %uh those
experiences in my youth
because I think back upon and that's helped me to understand
what is real and what is phony
the fellowship with the mystery is not only a fellowship
learning mean and loving as a family
but it's a fellowship in caring
far each other
I'm not talking now about ever running with
assistance if somebody breaks a leg has a physical
ailment but I'm talking event spiritual
at injured and being concern
the local church should have every member concerned
event be tenderness and I love the Lord Jesus Christ
who comforted us it is written in all our tribulation
that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble
by the comfort where with we ourselves
are comforted of God
now these words by Joseph Hart written as an invitation him
are equally appropriate to sinning
Saints come ye weary
heavy laden bruised
and mangled by the fall
the tenderness of Christ is prophesied
of God's the servant as you have it
in isaiah forty 42 and
and three is affirmed in Matthew 12
20 concerning the Lord Jesus
a bruised read
show did not break
Saints sin don't they unless you have a congregation of Pharisees
you've got a congregation of people were failing the Lord many times
an I right? unless you have a congregation no
holier-than-thou hypocrites you have a congregation
of sinning Saints didn't we see that in Romans
6 how often the flesh takes over
sometimes some things are done that
may get greater notice
but you know a bruised Reed
he'll not break, He'll not break
and we should see one another
as well as ourself as those who sometimes
get bruised sometimes by our own fault
sometimes because I've the sin nature
sometimes because a carelessness are having
drifted away from close fellowship with the Lord
but where do we go for healing where do we go
where is the spiritual hospital isn't it the local assembly
there should be caring there
instead of that in a carnel
Fundamentalist Church the attitude is
let's make an example out of her
you can see the farases and
priest standing around can't you and Jesus said now
any of you that and got a perfect record
you can pick up the first stone and throw it at that women are we like Jesus
Jesus declared that he was sent
to heal the brokenhearted and to set at liberty
them that our Broosed
is anyone more
bruised than one who has failed to maintain a good testimony
mmm and
I'm talking to some unsaved people here today you don't even know what I'm
talking about
but if you're a child of God
if you're born of God and you belong to him
you understand the sentence I wrote it down here
in the form over rhetorical question
is anyone more crushed
than a believer who diserns
the pressure of conviction see the unsaved don't know anything about that
they're on their way to hell and
and and kidding themselves that everything's going to be okay
but the true believer get into real misery
even in the old dispensation listen to David for day and night by hand was
heavily upon me
my moisture is turned into the drought of summer I'm dehydrated are drained
why because I failed God
I failed God what a tragedy
if you don't have a New Testament Church what a tragedy
if it's a caramel fundamentalist church
where everybody pretends that they never sin
there never attempted they never fail
but if you when ever you fail the Lord you know what don't you
the joy is gone
the piece is gone and as time goes on the Missouri increases
Thy hand is a heavy upon me
what a blessed
thing to know that I can come together with God's people and they know exactly
what it's like
because they have felt that to and they care
they want to have an atmosphere that's I healing
atmosphere for the saint
that has been bruised even by his own
carelessness the fellowship
of the mystery
is not just a fancy term its a very
real thing in the Fellowship of
Christ Himself as we began another year
I trust that you'll hang onto these will you
and as we look at the descriptions as we go on
you see all there's the learning
there's the loving there's the healing in the careing
I think we're going have a wonderful time
continuing our study
in the great mystery god bless you let's pray
father God we pray for one another that each of us might
search his or her own hart and understand
am I a learner am I loving and caring
then causes our Father to settled it before Thee
that this is what we want to be and this is what we know that you would have us
be
learning and loving
and caring
I pray in Jesus name a men