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10250 North Freeway @ West Road
Houston, Texas 77037
Tel: (281) 447-8484
KEEPING HOUSE FOR
THE LORD
Written by H. Frank Fort
This material is copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced without the express written permission of the Berean Baptist Church.
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House for the Lord,
please visit our Publications section.
"The
Lord's Supper" No. 4
"For
we being many are one bread and one body: for we are all partakers of that one
bread" 1 Cor. 10:17.
This passage teaches, clearly, that in order to
preserve the symbolism of the "one bread", those participating must
eat with the "one body" of which they are members. Notice the unity of
the one body". "For as the body is one and bath many members, and all
the members of that one body being many are one body: so also in Christ…For
the body is not one member but many…But now hath God set the members every one
of them in the body as it hath pleased him…Now ye are the body of Christ and
members in particular, and God hath set some in 1 Cor. 12:12,14,18,27,28
·
"God
set the members…in the body" 1 Cor.
12:18.
·
"God
hath set some in the Church" 1 Cor.
12:28.
The same act whereby God set members in "the
Church", members were "set in the body". How was this
accomplished? As to the Church it is written, "They that gladly received
his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three
thousand souls" Acts 2:41. The
order here is in perfect agreement with that of the commission. Notice:
"Teach all nations baptizing them" Matt. 28:19, that is, "disciple…baptizing". This is the
order observed by the Son of God before the giving of the commission,
"Jesus made and baptized…disciples" Jn. 4:1. It was thus that "God hath set some in the Church
first apostles" etc. 1 Cor. 12:28.
The Church which began with the apostles as "first set in" and added
to "this fold" Jn. 10:16,
were others of "the seed of Israel" Ps. 22:23. In this body made up only of "the seed of
Israel", has fulfilled the prophecy "I will declare thy name unto my
brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee" Ps.
22:22. Quoting this prophecy the writer of Hebrews said, "In the midst
of the Church will I sing unto thee" Heb.
2:12. This was the Church made up only of "the seed of Israel".
Now when Christ had instituted the Lord's Supper, it is written, 'When they had
sung a hymn they went out" Matt.
26:30. "Then says Jesus unto them, all ye shall be offended because of
me this night: for it is written I will smite the Shepherd and the sheep of the
flock shall be scattered abroad. But after I am risen again, I will go before
you into Galilee”, Matt. 26:31,32.
Here "the sheep of the flock" were being led by the Shepherd before he
was smitten, after which they were "scattered abroad". Christ
identified the sheep "scattered abroad" as "all ye".
Now the "all ye" with others of "the
seed of Israel" were together "all ye of one accord in one place"
Acts 2:1, "about an hundred and
twenty" Acts 1:15, "When
the day of Pentecost was fully come" Acts 2:1. To these were "added”, "as many as gladly
received his word", and were baptized", Acts 2:41. Now notice "and the Lord added to the Church daily
such as should be saved" Acts 2:47.
Now
remember what Christ had said in Jn.
10:16, "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, (consisting at
the time of "the Seed of Israel" only) Ps. 22, 23, them ALSO (as
I have these) must I bring. " Concerning this bringing into the church of
both Jew and Gentile, Caiaphas had prophesied "not of himself…that Jesus
should die for that nation, and not for that nation only, but that also he
should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered
abroad" Jn. 11:52.
Those "gathered together in one", notice were "the
children of God".
·
The
"Fold" is made up of "sheep" Jn. 10:16
·
The
"spiritual house" is made up of "living stones" 1
Pet. 2:5
·
The Church
is made up of "the saved" Acts
2:47
·
The
household of God is made up of "saints" Eph. 2:19
·
"God's
husbandry" is planted of "good seed" 1 Cor. 3:9, Matt. 13:38
·
"God's
House" is made up of "the righteous" 1 Pet. 4:17,18
·
"The
one" Nation 1 Pet. 2:9, is made
up of "the children of God" Jn.
11:52
·
"The
body" is made up of "members" 1 Cor. 12:12
Thus
"the sheep", "living stones", "the saved",
"the Saints", 'the good seed", "the righteous",
"the children of God", and "the members", had to exist
before they "could be fitly framed together", in order to become
"an habitation of God". Eph. 2:
21,22. The whole body fitly framed together", necessitates "every
joint" and "every part" Eph.
4:16.
"The whole body equals "the
Fold"," spiritual house", "Church”, etc., while
"every part" equal "the sheep ", "the living
stones", "the saved", etc. The joints, of course, equal that
which hold the parts together, that is "the unity of the Spirit", Eph.
4:3. And "the unity of the faith" Eph.
4:13. Thus "the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that
which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of
every part maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love"
Eph. 4:16.
This edifying, of course, corresponds with the means
of edifying as set forth in 1 Cor.
12:4‑11, that is, by the exercising of "the gifts" 1 Cor. 12:4, Eph. 4:8,
bait "the more excellent way" 1
Cor. 12:31 equals "the unity of the faith" Eph.
4:13. The estate of "children" Eph. 4:14, 1 Cor. 13:11,
obtained while that which was "in part" was confirmed, but when that
which was "perfect was come" 1
Cor. 13:10, that is, the "unity of the faith”, Eph. 4:13, or "the word of God completed", Col.
1:25, then the Church reached the stature of a "perfect man unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ", Eph.
4:13, and this was "the more excellent way", to which Paul
referred in 1 Cor. 12:31.
The Church to which members were added, called
"the whole Church" could and did "come together into one
place". But exactly the same thing is true of "the body of
Christ", for Paul said to the "Church at Corinth", "ye are
the body of Christ" 1 Cor. 12:27.
Therefore, "the whole Church" was "the body of Christ” at
Corinth, and both were made up of "members set in" 1
Cor. 12:18, 1 Cor. 12:28.
Now
as to "the body of Christ", how did the members get in? As to
"the Church", they were "set in" 1 Cor. 12:28, but we learned in Acts 2:41, 47, that this was done when the "saved" were
baptized. Now let us consider "the body".
"Now
hath God set the members each of them in the body…they are many members but
one body…ye are the body" 1 Cor.
12:18,20,27. How? "In one Spirit were we all baptized into one body 1
Cor. 12:13. Notice they were "in one Spirit" before they were
"baptized into one body". Paul says, "he that is joined unto the
Lord is one Spirit", 1 Cor. 6:17,
"ye are…in the Spirit, if so being that the Spirit of God dwell in
you" Rom. 8:9, "ye are all
the Sons of God by faith" Gal. 3:26,
"and because ye are Sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into
your hearts" Gal. 4:6. "The
Spirit" was "received by the hearing of faith" Gal.
3:2. Thus all who are "joined unto the Lord" are in one
Spirit", and fit subjects for baptism in which act they are set "into
one body". They who are not baptized are no more the members of "the
body of Christ" than they are of "the Church of God". He who has
been "added" to the one Acts
2:47 has been "set in" the other 1
Cor. 12:18, and baptism is the act whereby this is accomplished. "One
baptism" according to the "one faith " in the name of the
"one Lord" puts those who are in the "one Spirit" into the
"one body" Eph. 4:4‑5,
I Cor. 12:13, Those in "the one body" only, can eat
"the one bread" in the "one place”, and maintain the symbolism
of the one faith". Why? For "we all" who partake of the "one
bread" make up the "one body”.
Though a Church should invite you to eat of "the
Lord's Supper" in an assembly to which you had not been "added"
or "set in", thus not subject to the porter of that assembly to
"punish" 1 Cor. 5:4,5,13, 1
Cor. 6:4,5, 2 Cor. 2:6‑10,
you have sinned against God who has decreed the "one bread" for the
"one body": "The Church of God" 1
Cor. 11:22 is the place where the "members of the body" 1
Cor. 10:17 "come together to eat" 1
Cor. 11:33. "There should be no Schism in the body: but that the
members should have the same care one for another", 1
Cor. 12:25, which, of course, at least implies knowledge of the spiritual
estate of one another, so if" one member suffer, all members suffer with
it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it", 1 Cor. 12:26. To those
closely enough related to be mutually affected, Paul said, "ye are the body
of Christ…the Church" 1 Cor.
12:27,28, and though "many members" 1 Cor. 12:12 made up "that one body", they all could and
did "come together to eat" 1
Cor. 11:33 the Lord's Supper . Only the members of that one body are the
"one bread" in that assembly.
Prepared
by:
H.
Frank Fort, Minister.
Berean Baptist Church
Houston, Texas.
"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"