Rochester Conference Part 5: Ephesians 4 – The Equipping of the Saints (1996)

Now then, what on earth is it that belongs to Christ which can be measured according to the fullness of Christ? And the answer is, it’s the new man: this person who’s come to maturity. How mature is this person? Well, we read the Bible, we pray, and we give missions. Well, this man belongs to Christ. You want to measure this man who belongs to Christ? Then measure the fullness of Christ. And how much fullness of Christ is there in this man? And the answer is that all the pieces need to be full with the experiential knowledge of the Son of God, and if each of the pieces are being filled with some part of Christ, then that body of believers has the fullness of Christ. And there is maturity in that body of believers, and you measure that body of believers’ maturity according to the fullness of Jesus Christ. If there is a lacking, there is not a total fullness. If there is a shortness, there is not a total fullness. But if all of them are into an experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ and each support is supplying, as we will see in a moment, then you can measure and discover that when parts are full of Christ, there is unity and there is maturity. And again, the measuring rod is Jesus Christ in all His fullness. If that is not what this passage says, go find a Bible teacher who will explain this to you, because that’s the best I can do until Paul and I sit down somewhere, and “Paul, would you please explain this to me?” I was going to ask him two questions. This is one of them. I don’t have to ask him the other one anymore. I got it resolved.

And then there is a result. We are no longer to be children, tossed about by all the waves and winds and carried about by every wind of being taught too much by the trickery of men, which always will come after being taught too much. I am sorry, but those are synonymous. The craftiness and the trickery will always come after an overabundance of doctrine because doctrine doesn’t work; therefore, you start to have to use smoking mirrors in deceitful schemes. I don’t know how in the world it could be any clearer what we have been exposed to because the body doesn’t function. And when we sit and get taught and taught and preached and preached and all the gifts are thrown upon us, and all we can do is sit and listen and sing, and if you’re Pentecostal, you get ahead of the Baptist this much. You can move this far, and you can get your hands over your abbey. Now that’s functioning folks. That’s where the Pentecostals outstrip the Baptists. There it is, right there. You got it. And we continually have no functioning of the body of Christ; you’ve got to start having schemes.

Carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by the crafty and deceitful schemes. Boy, I don’t even want to touch that. I’m going to skip it. But speaking the truth in love, forget it. You just take your New Testament and get yourself an opaque and mark that out. There is a passage of scripture that has been corrupted so much that I personally stand in fear of it. Anytime anybody comes up to you and says, “I want to speak the truth to you in love,” you grab whatever you’ve got, and you head for the door. No, we’re not going to count anything here, folks, because it actually says not speaking the truth in love, and brothers and sisters don’t speak the truth in love. They may speak the truth, but it’s not love. Okay. The result is that we…can we have that “we” now, brother? We are to grow up. Can you have that one? You’d already haven’t read it yet. This is 15. I’m skipping the first one, the “speaking the truth in love.” Okay. I’m sorry I didn’t. We count it. We are growing up into all aspects, or forgive the aspects. We’re growing up all into Him, and that is absolutely true. We will know the unfathomable riches of Jesus Christ as a body, as the pieces of that body experience and touch Jesus Christ. And we will grow up to Him, and you will be able to measure according to how much Christ is the centrality of that body of believers, and we will grow up, and we will begin to say to others, this is a little bit of what Christ is like. How’d you know that? Well, because He and I have had some experiences together, and we’ve touched one another, and I’ve known Him in the body of Christ, and I’ve watched what’s happened in other people’s lives. And I watch that in the body, and it’s far clearer and far more focused, far easier to see Him and understand Him in a body of believers who are centered on experiencing Him, not on knowing about Him.

Now, there’s one thing to find out that He moved from Jerusalem back into Judea and over into Galilee in the spring of 29 AD, and that He brought three parables there. I’m talking about knowing the living reigning Christ experientially. Who is, my goodness, alive, look here. Who is the head…Christ, head of what? Head of your local body of believers. Praise the Lord.

Now, I want you to know that Paul of Tarsus, when he comes to this next line, actually doubles back on himself. He doubles back on himself and brings up this whole subject all over again. The man is obsessed. We grow up in all unto him, who is the head, even the church. And this sentence goes on and on and on. And I’m just gasping for breath here. From Him, the whole body, having grown up and all those pieces beginning to fit and are holding together by that which every joint supplies. What’s holding this girl together? What’s holding you to her? And what’s holding you to one another, and how is it that you can stand each other? And that is this body is literally being held together because everyone of you is experiencing Christ.

I don’t think this passage, which is very complex and extremely difficult to follow, could actually be any clearer. Where is the measure? Where is the fullness? Where is that which belongs to Him? What is it that is in unity? All of these things pour back to the fact that a body of believers literally supplies Christ to one another. And in the supplying of Christ to one another, you’re not only built up, but you’re also held together. Your unity is in the fact that each one of you in the church of Jesus Christ is experiencing Him and giving Him to the other part. This little cell gives to that little cell. This bone gives to this bone. This muscle gives to this muscle, but all of it is pouring down from Christ. I got a little of Christ. I got a little of the head. You have got a little of the head. You touched a little of Christ. I touched a little of Christ. And that’s what’s literally holding us together. And to every church that is going through a dry spell, it’s okay to go through that dry spell, but brother, gimmicks won’t work. Teachings won’t work. Schemes won’t work. Somewhere or another, whether by fasting, I don’t know, whether by stopping for a few weeks, I don’t know, by writing some new songs, I don’t know, by getting alone with the Lord, I don’t know, but somewhere those parts of the body are going to have to again touch Christ, so that the whole body will be supplied because the parts touch the head. This is body life. This is a church. This is that girl.

Every joint supplies according to the proper working of each one of those parts. My wife cannot prophesy, but boy, she can be Helen. For all the world, I cannot carry a tune, but Tim Shannon can. On the other hand, Tim Shannon cannot do something else. And I can share the Lord, but I can’t sing. Tim Shannon can sing to us and share the Lord. A sister can care for a sister. A brother can care for a brother. But that’s not good enough. I just want you to know that there is a mystery in the fact that you have something nobody else has. And forget the caring and forget the sharing and forget the speaking and forget the prophesying and the gifts and all that; there is a part of Christ I can’t touch. I might make a bigger show of that part of Christ that I could touch, and I’m not ashamed of that. I’d make a bigger show out of it. I told you about Tim Odell. I’m using his name. It’ll be on this tape. I did it deliberately. I can never be Tim. I sometimes look at that brother and the respect with which he’s held by the sisters. I’m actually…I don’t mind telling you I’m jealous. I’m just not Tim Odell. Tim’s been given some portions; mine looks bigger. That’s the truth. You don’t know Tim Odell. I wouldn’t want to run a race locally with Tim Odell, but you’re not Tim Odell; you’re something. Your name’s in the Lamb’s book of life. You belong in the church, and you’ve got something from the head. Open our eyes to see this passage of Scripture the way it was really written, and know it, live it, and experience it. The working of every individual part causes that growth to come up, so that we can find out what belongs or what belongs to us, and then we can measure, and we grow up by the supplying of each part of the body, and the body grows up.

I want you to know that there’s an element here: brothers and sisters, that’s a little bit frightening. The last part of this passage says that she builds herself. I think that’s the whole point of this conference. I can’t build up “me”. I don’t know if you know this or not, but that’s very close to idolatry. She builds herself up. I know I’ve scared you all off here, and your minds will stop talking, but listen, she builds herself up. This is a spiritual thing. What is her source then if it is not God? What’s going on here? She builds herself up. Well, how does she build herself up? By every joint supplying, by every piece supplying. And what is every piece handing to the other pieces? It is handing – you’re handing – Christ, and she builds herself up into a measure of the Lord Jesus Christ because He is what has been supplied to her, and she grows up and somehow with all this atomic energy inside of her, all this radium and U234 and all of this Christ inside and each part exchanging, she’s building herself. What is she building herself into? She’s building herself into Christ Himself. How? By Christ Himself.

It’s time for this meeting to end. This conference just ended, but I got something to say that’s totally off the subject. That’s the other question. Does anybody want to say anything right now? Did that help any? It’s the point of the conference.

I just want to add something to that, and that is true. That egg builds that child from out of herself, but I want you to know that that egg had a God, and that God is the entire body. Now, don’t let me take this too far, but that egg which the church supplies herself, that egg has a God and is Christ, and Christ has supplied that egg, and that egg builds up.

Now, this meeting is over, and I’m just going to take a minute to say. We’re not over either, are we? I’m glad we got this far. I wish we could have gotten all the way through, but there is a passage in the scripture that I was once going to talk to Paul about, and some of you now have heard me say this, but most of you have not.

Did you know that there is no place in the New Testament where it teaches that a woman, a wife, has to submit to her husband? There is no such verse in the New Testament. Let no man ever tell you, sister, that you have to submit to your husband; that passage is not in the scripture, and it’s in Bible classes, and it’s in books, and it’s in seminaries, and it’s in Bible schools. But what does a Bible school, a seminary, and a Bible class know about the church of Jesus Christ? This passage will show our utter independence of the church, as well as anything, which will show our total lack of understanding of the body of Christ. And you can’t steal what I’m about to say and put it in the First Baptist Church because it won’t work, because there’s no protection there. But there is no place that says a woman is supposed to submit to her husband; sister, you are free, and you just go spit in his eye and just you tell him, “Honey, this doesn’t apply to you and to me, because there are no safeguards in it.”