In this sermon, the speaker discusses the importance of our behavior and conduct in our relationships with others. The sermon is based on the teaching in the first verse of a chapter, which emphasizes the need to go up slowly in teaching. The speaker then explores our relationships with others, both within the church and in the world. The sermon also touches on the unity of the spirit and the importance of working together towards a common goal. The speaker uses the analogy of taming an animal to illustrate the process of building relationships and gaining control over our behavior.

There may be many ways to achieve this, but seeking the truth in love may grow up into many more things than just a head, even a trunk, from whom a whole body, quickly joined together in a compact and connected every time for time, according to the essential working of the nature of every one, may make instances of the body up to eighty-five of its kind. Everyone. Now, if we just take this section as a sample section of what we have in the left or the right section here, it's somewhat different to that that follows. It all has to do with our behavior, our conduct, or the method or the way by which we may fulfill the command or the exhortation given to us in the first verse of our chapter that we should walk worthily of the quotations read into the book. What is given to us in this section is essential for a proper relationship with the other members of the body's class. What follows is that our relationship with others, those in nature, in the world, and then in the latter section is due to our relationship with others in our clothes, husbands, wives, children, servants, matters. These are exhorted in various ways to the same thing, or worthy of that call that is therefore. For everything that God has given us in the law, Jesus Christ, should affect every part of our life. God does not speak to us in His word in order that only certain periods of our life might happen. He desires that the whole man should be thankful not only when we pray in a church and attend His services and go through the motions of the book, if that's what we might be guilty of doing, not at such times alone, but rather in His home, in the domestic sphere, and in His business life. These are areas where I must learn to treat Him to walk worthily of that call that I am called to, thus glorified by the Lord who has chosen me. And if I walk worthily of the Lord, and I meet Him, I don't want to suggest to you that my life will become better because it can't possibly. It won't be because I speak necessarily. Some of us aren't as gifted at speaking. Some of us are not able to express ourselves in the way that others may. And if I feel, by reason of that, that we haven't got a lot of work to do, I want to assure you that I'm saying this not just as a speech of praise for saying the simplicity of this audience, some of whom may not be able to speak to see that. I am just saying this in spirit, that speaking is only a very, very small part of the system of teaching. Our system is formed by our everyday, the very system we live in today, by our attitudes, by the way we do things, by the way we conduct ourselves in our lives. And that's the epitome of the Ephesians, Acts 4, 5, and 6. It deals with a very clear, wonderful way. But leave with this section, this first section, verses 1 to 16. I want to stress again the outline that I gave you before, that in the first six verses, we have the exhortation to speak to death. Now, that deals with the unity of the spirit. This requires an attitude, and that working of this spiritual attitude in me as I rule the lungs of people of God in the ascended days of church. For you will notice that it says I'm to endeavor to teach the unity of the spirit in all my speech. There is a responsibility right away that I must endeavor, I must be diligent to teach the unity of the spirit. Now, that unity of the spirit that is maintained is maintained by love, by love. Then I want you to notice from verse 10 on through to verse 11 to 9, we are exhorted not only to teach together, but we have a project before us, we have a work to do, we are to work together. And we may call that, under that section, we may speak about the unity of the body. You notice, as we begin in verse 4 really, it says there is one body, and then it shows how various members of that body are to function and work together. And to everyone what is said in verse 10 is given grace according to the nature of the gift of Christ. So the word theory is that we are not simply to teach together as a company, but we are to relate together and to serve each other, and that's to work together. And that is a unity not of the spirit so much as a unity of the body, which is a unity of life, a unity of love, and now a unity of life, because in each member of the body is the Holy Spirit active, working through us, enabling us to relate properly to each other, and thus this unity is given practical expression in our extended life. Then we come to the last section, which says that there is love together, verses 12 to 16. Well, the whole purpose of the previous section is that there might be but the faith being of the saints, verse 12, and in the case of Jesus the believer, for the love of the ministry. The love of the ministry, I might say, is not applied to platform work or public speaking in any way, but the love of the ministry is simply the love of the work of serving. And the idea here is that what is given is that the work of serving is serving the upper-mind, paraphrasing our homony, and a happy way to the glory of God. And it is for the abiding of the body of Christ. So if we had to teach together in the first section and work together, we have the thought of growing together, and that is a unity of the faith. You'll notice that one's called there. Till we all come, let's proceed in unity of the faith. Now, that will not actually be reached in its fullness and in its maturity until the coming of the Lord. But we are to be together, work together, and to grow together in expression of unity of the spirit, the unity of the body, until we all come to the unity of the faith. And that's the purpose that is outlined for us here in this section. That's what is before us here. Now, let me go back again to those first three chapters. The Apostle has outlined our blessing, and he has lifted us up. He has elevated us. And the wonderful thing about the truth of God is that if I meditate upon it, it elevates me without inflicting it. And that's tremendously important. The Word of God has a way of doing that. It elevates me and lifts me up without inflicting it. It doesn't limit me to myself, because all that I have is what I have in the Lord Jesus Christ. I have it because of my union with him, my relationship with him. I do not have it because of what I am in myself. I have it because of what he is, and because I am united with him who is raised from the dead, even our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, we come to this first verse of the fourth chapter and the fourth walkworthy of this quotation. You will notice that immediately it says we're all lowly and needy, and on some reason forbearing one another in love. Now, the very exhortation that is given to me in verse two shows me that in order to walk worthy, I have to relate to other Christians. Now, how am I to relate to other Christians if the Lord is not telling me to walk in this way? He says, no, I want you to relate to the other people of the faith. Now, in God's program, and I say this kind of way, there is no generation gap. And I do not believe that Christians need to promote what is called the inert generation gap that I was talking about, because it will not really be an end among us. If we find that such a thing does exist in practice, of course we shall have to deal with it. But let me exhort those of us who are older here, and those of us who are younger, to realize that the last verse is that we relate to one another properly. That once we come into the Church, we leave behind the context of the world. That the world says, in effect, these be the certain departments of life, certain areas of life, we love people, that's their business. But we're going to be over here, and we're going to carry our convicts. When we come into the Church, there is to be no such thing. The believers, young and old, are to move together. They are to receive together, and to work together, and to grow together. And there will be no proper growth in any Church, or any assembly, if we simply divide up into sections. There are to have younger people and older people. There must be plenty of opportunity for the believers to relate to one another, to have those opportunities to express themselves, so that we can get the benefit of the other series. This is essential to Christian growth. Now, I'm not prudent. I take the necessity of time, or having special meetings, or special groups of people, divided according to their age. That may be so. But I am simply saying that I believe that on the Lord's Day, when the believers gather together, we should, in effect, have plenty of opportunity for the believers to relate to one another, with nothing that is to fit the generation gap. All those who love the Lord Jesus should be together, bringing the message that He has to give to the others. Now, in order to do that, I must first have an attitude toward myself, so I believe it would be an important task for me. For instance, there's an old letter in it, and I'd like to suggest to you that that is self-worth. That is, it's an attitude that I have toward myself. If we go to Romans chapter 12, we find a similar thing to what we've been taught there. After having told us that we have to present our bodies to God, He tells us, in verse 3, that we are not to think of ourselves more highly than we are to Him, but to think humbly, according as God has said to every man in every place. Now, I'm just making the point here that the first thing that is essential for growth in a person's life is low thoughts about life, high thoughts about life, realizing how wonderful He has made His people, and how wonderful His people are in Him. I must then look at myself and, with all the love in it, walk before the people of God. And that is truly what was taught before us at the beginning of this conference, when we had that ministry on the grounds of John chapter 13, where we had the example of the Lord Jesus, what He used to try to teach, and tell us that as He had done so, they were to do so well enough. So, there must be a spirit of low limits. That is, first I must have low thoughts about myself. I can't come into the assembly and be a breakfast of the assembly if I stick out my chest and say, Here I am, folks. Look what God has done to my life. I'm going to be a wonderful person of grace. Now, use me. Give me a place in the assembly. Give me work to do. And I'll show you what kind of Christian I am by coming with that kind of attitude, not only will the things presented come back away from me, but the Lord will not put me on the shelf. I have to come in with a very low, humble way, and be willing to learn rather than to teach and to tell others. And that is the thing that might hurt you. If you've just been changed, you might feel that you have so much to contribute. I don't say this by common sense. You might feel that you have so much to contribute to the people of God, and indeed you do, potentially. But you won't be able to do it unless you come into the assembly with a low spirit and walk humbly before God and before His people. Then, so it is, with all means. Walk with low limits. I walk with low limits. That's my attitude towards myself, and I want to get in this context of meekness into offering. It's offering. So, we sometimes use this word, and this is our tool, I believe, this word in relation to our actions, to our business. But I want to suggest to you here that the thought is my attitude to myself is one of low limits. My attitude to God and His Word is one of absolute meekness, for that is the thought behind me. I understand that this word, meek, was used as a cult. One should go to meekness. You know when they're going to break a hand in and I don't know a great deal about it, but I understand they're going to break an animal in, that is a cult, they're going to break it in, or a cult, a pony, they're going to break it in, they're going to have them all meek. And they let the animal go around in a circle in plainer, all comfortably, and the animal just simply goes around as far away as possible from the one who is controlling it, and goes around and around in a circle. And then gradually, day by day, the owner brings the animal in closer to himself, so that plants begin used to being near to him, that is, the animal becomes used to being near to its owner. And it becomes, gradually, a little more responsive to the call of the rose, or the rose. And then, eventually, of course, the purpose is that the animal should be so close to the owner that he'll be able to look at it on the back and get up onto it and control it. And when the owner has got to the place where he can ride the animal on his back, and can control it, which happens to fall on the back of the animal, or fall there, when he can do that, there's an element of peace. Because it has now, so to speak, no will of its own. It's not come to do its own will. It's come to the place where it's doing the will of another. And this will all be retrieved back to that. So you have to notice, I am told not to do my own will, but the will of the individual. I am me, and only I can't learn to be me. He is out of sense. So if I'm going to relate to others in the assembly, number one, I must have no thoughts about myself. I must be submissive to the will of another. Now, that will of another is expressed to me through God's word. It isn't that I become submissive necessarily to the will of other people in the assembly, though it may be in that order. For becoming submissive to God's word, I may learn that what I am being told is according to the word of God, and we do not, those of us who are older, expect young people to submit to things. We should be able to genuinely find out, or with authority, find out from the word of God that this and that is found in Scripture, and we should be patient, and be ourselves, willing to instruct those who are not yet instructed in the things of God. But we must use the Scripture in order to do it, otherwise we cannot expect that a person will submit to this because we haven't known, or because we have accepted that particular tradition. We must be able to point to the word of God and to show them that it is there, and young people today have rightly so, want to know what authority we have for claiming this or that thing, and my personal experience has been, I don't know about yours, that in almost every case where I have been able to show a young person, a young believer from the word of God, that this is in the Bible, and that this is what the Bible says, there's been no problem. But won't decide anybody who decides to tell a young person that this is what we do in our extensive religious life. We ought to be able to give a letter to the Lord. It takes a lot of patience, and that's what we come to mean. For it says, with all patience of God, not suff'ing the word of God, forbearing one another in life. Because along with the low thoughts that I had about myself, and the submissiveness of God's word to me then, there must be an attitude of patience or long-suffering in dealing with those with whom I come in contact. Whether I'm speaking to Jesus, whether I'm speaking to her, there's a need for long-suffering and for care. Oh, how we need these things in our lives, and in our hearts. How practical these things are. We've just come out of the heavens. We've just been blessed with all the fruit of that which we've got, which now brings us out of the diminished life through which things depend on the spiritual path. And we've been blessed with both dreams of unity, of spirit, and of all the things. Now, I want to suggest to you that the way you do that is simply outlying for us the word truth. I cannot dwell on that anymore. Now, it's said very decimately that there is one body, one spirit, even as you call in one hope of your voice. There is one body. Now, what does the apostle exactly mean by that? Well, if we come back to this very image, very simple, I should say, in chapter 2, you will notice in verse 12 that the apostle sees of this one body. Chapter 2, verse 12, it reads, that at that time, that is, before you were saved, you were outside. Now, particularly here in this passage, let me say, and this is where it's so important to relate the text to the context, the apostle is speaking to those who attend us. It is true that all men in the faith before they ascended to hell were outside. But in the sense in which it uses it here in verse 12, it was not true of the Jews. They did have an aside. Well, that's what aside means. They did have an aside. They were not enemies of the commonwealth of Israel, or members of the commonwealth of Israel. They were not strangers to the covenant of prophethood, but rather to the master there. They were not without hope, because the hope of the Messiah coming and setting up his kingdom would come through that which handed it among those people who were known as the people of God in old Testament times. And they were not without God in the sense that God was their God, thankfully. But this is particularly true about Gentiles. Now, even without God. We were angels in the covenant of prophethood. We were not strangers to the covenant of prophethood, having no hope of a life in the world but now. In Christ Jesus, being the son of man, we're a part of Amen, and I, by the blood of Christ, who were far off. The Gentiles were far off. The Jews were not far off in the context that we have here. There is nothing of being here. Now, of course, spiritually, I'm not saying that the Jews may have been as far off as the Gentiles were. But point is that the Jews were not as far off as the Coptics, nor as far off as the Protestants, but they were very near. So then, we now, in some way, be seen here as Gentiles. Now, as Christ Jesus, we who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ, for he is our King, who has made both, both Jew and Gentile, one. Now, how has he done that? He has broken down the middle wall of partition into three parts, having abolished in his place, eternally, even the law of the land, and claiming to be more than it is, for to making itself up to one new man, so let him be. And has denied heaven's trial, both by the blood of God, and by the blood of God, and by the cross, having claimed, by the cross, having claimed the end, hence the above account. I would like to suggest to you here, then, as we move a few closer, that he is telling that the Gentiles were far off, the Jews near. And there is a reason for this, and it was a divinely ordained reason. It wasn't something that had just grown up in the Coptics' mind. There is a reason why Jews and Gentiles were divided. It was a biblical reason. There was a law of the land contained in Ordnance Biblical, which said that the Gentiles were not near, but the Jews were far off. And indeed, there was a claim for the Gentiles in all sections of time, because the Jews, the Angels, the Precious, associated themselves with the Jews among the Copticites, and still was an authority over the Jews. Now he says that there is completely doubtless God, now in his pride, has abolished the Gentiles. This difference is a logical difference between Jew and Gentile, because we are so close to one. This tells me that when the Spirit of God speaks about there being one body, speaking of the Church, that there should be no division recognized now along racial lines. The only divinely ordained and committed division has been abolished. There was a division between Jew and Gentile. Racially, this was the thing to be carried out. Now there must be no division in the Church, practically, because of racial divisions, because of the color of the landscape, because it comes from a different part of the world. These things do not go together. And I was in St. Paul, and I was tempted to say that among those Jews there, there were all sorts of divisions that existed. And one of them, most unfortunate, I thought, and I can say that it was the British, there was a division between the British people and the American people. And it really happened. There are not more than that. And I'm speaking about Christian people. People with convictions, the prostitutes have convictions, are on a certainly polytheistic line, but that is that their association with a certain denomination at one time in the old country would jump over this denominational barrier because it happened to be conducted by somebody who was American or a Britisher, and they were the opposite. And so they would go to a church, which literally did not agree with such a division, but altogether fine with what they had in stock, and they would associate with me that there simply was part of the difference that existed between the British and the Americans. Now, that also goes to the very lower level of the Church. But it was not the Jews. It doesn't make sense. It was allowed a long way from home, or it was often publicized. Nobody said, well, this is an American church, and Britishers don't come here. Nobody said, this is a British church, and Americans don't come here. So it was very open. But this is what was happening. Now, it's only going to be the limited experience of being a volunteer. You can't recognize him as any kind of God. You can only surmise what it means to him on a racial line, practically. It wasn't announced. It wasn't publicized. It was there. And this can happen because of color, because of skin. It can happen because of the cultures in which they come. And this must not be allowed to develop in the Church, and so easily will, because the flesh dwells on our origins. The flesh dwells on our personal family. The flesh dwells on that which I inherited from my parents, and that's the difference between me and my brother. The flesh loves the world, doesn't it? But you know that even though God is not where I come from, it's where I'm going as a result. Sometimes I'm supposed to, and I wouldn't call it a privilege if I understand what you mean. I'm not making this up. I think it's a word, you know. Sometimes I'm supposed to lift my hand if they're supposed to meet me and say, oh, it's good to hear you all the time again. Personally, I try to shake it off, but I can't. Not because I'm ashamed of it, but because I'm here in Canada or the USA, and it's likely to, because South African accents will be more used than British. And I'm always thinking I'm getting paid for it. I think it's all right. You just think you all talk. That's the only way I talk. Sometimes shaking hands is the answer, but as a whole it's easy place for us to say, oh, it's good to hear the old country accent again. And that's also the way I got the old country accent. In everything I say, and in what I say, it's the Jesus way I got it. It really doesn't matter where we come from, does it? It matters where we come from, where we go. And that's Jesus. It doesn't matter where we come from. The land of origin is not the source of it. It's the land of existence. In fact, all we have is one hope that we've got, and there's one body. And we ought to generate the unity of the spirit in the bond of truth. Now, remember 1 Corinthians chapter 12, please. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Now, just as we begin with the subject of the one body, there is a time to go into the other. Then we need to say, well, maybe that's the body of life in that section in chapter 4, doesn't it? 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and I want you to read from verse 23 to 25. Again, it's speaking about the body, but a little bit differently. Those members of the body make two things to be made common, of course. That is, it's speaking about our own human body, the unity of the spirit. Those members of the body make two things to be made common, of course. One is to be shown more abundant common. And our abundant common has more abundant common, for our abundant common has no need. Our common has taken the body together, having given more abundant common to that part which lacks. That has to be denoted within the body. But of the members who have the same share, one is called another. Now, I want you to notice that word, that's rather temporary, but rather together. That's a very important word. I understand that, again, I'm dedicated to help, like I'm designed as part of the dictionary, because that's the word that has already had its momentum. I guess I'm the line I'm supposed to take. But I understand to help such a way that there could be a choice of two big words here, or the idea that there's a second word for verse 24. There is a word that's been used in Scripture, and it means to mix things up, mix things together very much. And that word could have been used here in verse 24, if that's what Moses said it means. You could have bet for a hundred and a half that no need, that God hath mixed the very things together with His proper word. He uses the word temporary. Now, let us make a difference. Let me suggest that Jerusalem, and I've got to be careful here, I've rubbed up the other direction on it. Let's suggest you're a farmer, and you've got the types of grain, and you've got, you know, barns, foodstacks, you know. And there might come a time when you're able to haul in some sacks. Now, as a result of this, with the way he's laying them across and so on, there's a little bit of greenery there, and there's a little bit in the barn, and as a result of it, much of the grain is in sacks sometimes, and there's many little grains. So it's very, very hard to see where this was. And things, trees, and types of grain, they should be very careful. And you get down here, you can't even see it. Well, how do you have things? And if it's your desire to do so, you could sit down in the corner of your barn and spend many hours, you take each piece and separate each piece, because they've only been mixed together. They haven't been mixed. They were still in separate pieces of grain, although they were mixed together so that on the surface of the ground, you do not see that there were two types of grain there. They were only mixed together. Now, that's not how we are in the Christian God. We're not just a lot of people that are mixed together. We're a case of togetherness in the body of God. Now, what does that really mean? Well, if you take some wine, and you add some water to it, and you mix it up, now, separate it again, you can't do it again. Why? Because it's temporary. It's mixed in such a way that you can't do it again. It's joined together in such a way that the drink has to come in one piece, the wine and the water, and that's the way it's used. And that's how we are as God's people, in the body of Christ. We're not simply separate members, all related to one another, but rather both can become unrelated again, at will, or at grace. We are members, tenfold together, in the body of Christ. Now, in this context, it tells us that, by illustration, that in our human bodies, we show more abundant form and honor on our common parts, so that they might have more abundant communion. I think we understand that. That's a very natural thing to do. We cover up those parts with less communion, and we guide, essentially, those parts that are more common. We try to give more abundant honor in the sense of covering it, of providing for it, and caring for that part that is not common. This is what is done in the human body. This is a very natural thing to do. Now, God says in His Word that that is how we are to do the body of Christ, that we are one. But we are not to despise one another, because one should be revered for being somewhat uncumbered towards us, or an uncumbered type of person. What I'm trying to say is that if the passage in Ephesians tells us that there's to be no division along racial grounds, because God has destroyed the lowly barrier that ever existed on racial grounds, if there is to be no division on those grounds, here it tells us that there should be no division on the ground of inferiority, socially, or even just intellectually. And I am prepared to debate with every other believer regardless of his intellectual ability, or his educational status, or what have you. There is to be no division on those grounds. Now, I'm going to take you to Romans chapter 12, and this is the last, because I don't want to speed it up without any news. Romans chapter 12, and these are the verses four and five. For as we have many members in one body, and all members are not the same of us, so we in many are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another. But we have gifts according to the grace that is given to us, and there are gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. Each man is to wait upon his own ministry in his work of Jesus. Each man is to do his own work by faith and humility, and allow him to exert his heart because of the gifts of a man. There is such a thing as, generally, a man who is able to do what we tell him to do because of Christ. I'm not going to tell you often that we tell him that that's his work, the most important thing. We say, well, we must have a man who is to see work. And, of course, as long as there's such a man in the assembly, there's a tendency for a division to arise over them, and perhaps we find the Communities doing that very thing. They would be liking him to get from the assembly to a certain person if there was a policy that would help them. And we put him over against the Apostle Paul, who was a man whose appearance was not very impressive, whose bodily presence was weak, though his words were weighing him out. And there's always a tendency for people to participate in development and go to God. There were a group of Christians that are hunting for us today who, a number of years ago, encouraged among themselves the gifts of Father Jesus to neglect the gifts of the Daniels. So much so that the Daniels would actually weaned out of their fellowship, and they had comfort for it in this. They had become too low. Their women fell out. Their companies were very small, because there are divisions, as we've seen, over the matter of the three gifts. Now we will all help out each one in our own way, in our own perspective, to attempt to use these gifts in the wrong ways, and we shall all grow in that hope. Let us use this hope.