Page 22 - Ephesians

You might say, “There’s a lot in Titus about the Church.”
Everything in Titus about the Church is based on Ephesians. You
say, “There’s a lot in Corinthians about the Church.” Again based
on Ephesians. There’s a about the Church lot in Acts. But
nothing that’s not based on Ephesians. Ephesians is your full
mention and explanation. The Timothy’s and the Titus’s are
expressions of the Church. In the book of Acts you have an
illustration of the Church. In Corinthians you have the purpose
of the Church and some of its problems. But only in the book of
Ephesians and nowhere else do you have the doctrine of the
Church. The explanation of the Church; the foundation of the
Church; the nerve center of the Church.

Without the truth of Ephesians, the truth in Timothy, Titus,
Corinthians and Acts falls apart. Unfortunately in many cases,
that’s what has happened in the world. The Churches out there,
are not built on the truths of Ephesians. So they can’t stand. Let
me set this before you by way of principle, so you know exactly
what I’m talking about. What is the Church as the Spirit of God
gives it to us in Ephesians? Let me state it in these words, “In the
book of Ephesians, you only find, the spiritual Church.” You
don’t have a word in there about membership, officers,
sacraments, Church policy, Church government, organization,
meeting together and not a word about ministry. And yet
Ephesians speaks of the full Church.

You might ask how you can leave all those things out and still
have the Church. It’s because the Church in Ephesian, is a
spiritual Church. An invisible Church. Church in and of the
heaven- lies. The Church in Ephesians is every Christian,
regardless of their sectarian association. Every Christian, in union
with Christ. The Church in Ephesians has its roots in eternity past.
Even before the foundations of the earth. And it raises its head in
eternity future, at the throne of God. Right now it lives in
unclouded union and relationship with the living, ascended
Christ. That’s the Church in Ephesians.

What we can see with our natural eyes are only expressions of
the Church. Not the Church. To the degree that God burns the