December 1929
573
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
The Brotherhood of Christ B y P . W . P h ilpott , D.D. (Sermon delivered at Church o f the Open Door, Los Angeles, Sunday Evening, October 6, 1929)
"For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.”— Heb. 2:11. f N these days we hear a great deal about frater nities, fellowships and brotherhoods; but I am to talk to you about the brotherhood of Christ, one that is really worth while. sented from numerous viewpoints. Sometimes it is a life of faith. It begins by believing on Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour. “We walk by faith.” “Without faith it is impossible to please him.” Again, it is a life o f service, ministering to others in the name and spirit of Him “who went about doing good.” It is also a life o f holiness. “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” And Jesus is made unto us “wisdom, righteousness, sanctifi cation and redemption.” You have doubtless observed, in reading the New Testament, that the Christian life is pre But again, it is a life of hope—“that blessed hope,” Paul calls it in his Epistle to Titus, “the glorious appear ing o f the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” But above all, the Christian life is a life of love, a life of intimacy and fellowship with our precious Saviour and Lord. T he F act of th e V ital U n ion B etween C hrist and H is C hurch One of the great and glorious truths of divine revela tion is the fact of the vital, eternal union that subsists between Christ and His Church. This truth is so im portant and blessed that the Holy Spirit has taken the most exquisite figure of human affection to describe the bond that binds His heart to the hearts of those whom He calls “His own.” It is not the love of a comrade, or the love of a brother, or even the more sacred love of a mother. But it is that love which links two hearts in an exclusive union that is all their own and into which none other dare intrude. It is the love of the husband and the wife, of the bride and the bridegroom. Even that beautiful figure fails to set forth this union in all its perfection; hence several other metaphors are used. For instance, in John’s gospel we read of the shep herd and the sheep. Christ is the shepherd and we are the sheep. In the fifteenth chapter we have the figure of the vine and the branches. He is the vine and we are the branches. In the epistles we have the figure of a building. The foundation is Christ and we are the material that makes up the whole. Then we have the figure of the human body. He is the head and we are the members of that body, “members o f his flesh and o f his'bones.” But the most sublime metaphor is that of the husband and the wife. The apostle Paul in his Epistle,, to the Corin thians, speaking of the marriage, bond, says when the twain are joined they are “one flesh, but he that is joined “Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness My beauty are, my glorious dress; Midst flaming worlds in these arrayed, With joy shall I lift up my head.”
unto the Lord is one spirit.” You may separate the sheep from the shepherd; you may cut away the branches from the vine; you may sever a member from the body; you may tear away the material from the corner stone and the foundation; you may divorce the wife or the husband; but there is no line o f cleavage in one’s spirit. Oh, what a sanctifying and satisfying truth! I have come to think that all real Christians are equally secure no matter what they believe, whether Calvinists or Arminians. But all Christians are not equally happy, and it is because this great truth has never gripped them. There is a tradition that comes down to us from the days ■of the Passover in Egypt, of two Hebrew maidens who, on the night that the death angel was passing through the land, were behind the closed door that had been sprinkled with the blood of the lamb. One was seated at the table feasting on the roasted lamb while the other was walking the floor in anguish of mind and agony of heart. She kept wondering if the death angel had passed by. Her sister said, “It makes no difference whether he has passed by or not. The blood is on the door and God has said, ‘When I see the blood, I will pass over you.’ ” You see, both were safe, but they were not equally sure. It matters a great deal whether we believe the Word of God or not-—it makes a difference in our happiness. In the first chapters of this wonderful Epistle to the Hebrews the writer suggests several blessed aspects of this glorious union. C hrist O ne W ith U s in O ur H uman ity Christ is one with us in our humanity. “Forasmuch,” we read in the fourteenth verse of the second chapter, “as the children are partakers o f flesh and blood, he also him self likewise took part o f the same.” And in verse six teen : “For verily he took not on him the nature of angek; but he took on him the seed o f Abraham.” In the first chapter the emphasis is upon the deity of the Lord Jesus. He is “heir o f all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness o f his glory, and the express image o f his person, and upholding all things by the word o f his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand o f the Majesty on high.” Here He is Very God of Very God. But in the second chapter He is Very Man of Very Man. In our day many are denying His deity. It is just as great an error to deny His humanity. There is a very popular religion that denies the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, that denies that God has been manifest in the flesh. John in his epistle tells us that we are to “try the spirits whether they be o f God.” Here is one of the tests: “Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is o f God: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not o f God ; and this is the spirit o f antichrist.” We all know of a religion that is very prosperous and popular today that denies that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. “This is the spirit o f antichrist.” The only way we can account for Jesus Christ is to believe the story of His incarnation as it is recorded in the Gospels; How cart I account for this Man except by believing that the Babe
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