Eph 1:1+2 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are also faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We are continuing the course of our consideration dealing with the grace of God actively instituted in the church, the Body of Christ. We are seeing grace in its aspect of building up the church, bringing the Body of Christ into its maturity and its purpose of showing forth the manifold wisdom of God. In our previous consideration, we began looking at this in terms of the Old Testament temple and its preparation as a type of the Church, created by God’s Grace and built on the foundation of Jesus Christ.
Last week we looked at several passages from Exodus that detailed the skill required and the wisdom needed, both supplied by God, to provide for the building of the temple and the making of the priest’s garments. We equated those passages with the activity of the Holy Spirit within the church today. Let us continue then with a further deliberation as to how God’s grace dynamically works within the members of the church to create the one Body of Christ.
Ex 35:34+35 And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oho'liab the son of Ahis'amach of the tribe of Dan. He has filled them with ability to do every sort of work done by a craftsman or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet stuff and fine twined linen, or by a weaver - by any sort of workman or skilled designer.
Here is another major aspect of the grace of God. Yes, there is the truth that God instilled Bez'alel with all the skills of a craftsman, a designer, and an embroiderer. He had prepared Bez’alel with the necessary wisdom to fulfill the strict and specific demands of building such a perfect temple unto the Lord God Almighty. While we see it here, in type, this is what the Lord, by His Grace, accomplishes in each one of the members of the Body of Christ. We are brought into the place in which our talents and our gifts are prepared, not for our purposes, but for God’s purposes. His wisdom guides us into the manner in which we are to be of perfect service unto the Church as a whole. 
We will not get into the specifics of this type of craftsmanship of the Lord in action, since we spent a good portion of last week in that regard. Rather, let us see a very precise element of the work of God’s grace in His wisdom. It is held in the first portion of the verse that we just read together, And he has inspired him to teach… For the Body of Christ to grow and to develop into all maturity there is the need of instruction, of teaching, of sharing in the wisdom that God has given each of us. In some, it is in the teaching of the Word to the assembly, to the children, to the men, to the women, to the youth, to all the members. In line with this, the Apostle Paul proclaims the following in 1 Cor 9:16-19 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. What then is my reward? Just this: that in my preaching I may make the gospel free of charge, not making full use of my right in the gospel. For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more.
Along with the instruction of the Word in a group setting, sharing together in the wisdom of God is also done in individual counseling and dwelling on the Word of God in fellowship with one another. In that fellowship of truth we also teach one another with constant encouragement in the Lord. This life in Christ in this world is not easy. This age is so vile and seductive that the flock must be guarded in its development unto the Lord. This is all for the sake of those so loved by God, and fully covered in His grace. It requires a constant stand of pointing to the Lord, day after day, after day, in the study of the Word, in counseling, in teaching, in visiting the sick, in comforting the grieving, in meeting the all the needs of the church, and in admonishing the momentarily distracted.
But that is not the only manner in which instruction takes place within the Body. Please note that Bez'alel was not teaching the Word, he was teaching his skills, his abilities, and his prowess with materials unto others in order for them to be so used by the Lord for the sake of the temple building. Such is still true in the church today. As Paul writes in Titus 2:1-10 But as for you, teach what befits sound doctrine. Bid the older men be temperate, serious, sensible, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Bid the older women likewise to be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or slaves to drink; they are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be sensible, chaste, domestic, kind, and submissive to their husbands, that the word of God may not be discredited. Likewise urge the younger men to control themselves. Show yourself in all respects a model of good deeds, and in your teaching show integrity, gravity, and sound speech that cannot be censured, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say of us. Bid slaves to be submissive to their masters and to give satisfaction in every respect; they are not to be refractory, nor to pilfer, but to show entire and true fidelity, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. 
Teaching is a call to all the members of the Body. Yes, obviously the minister has the responsibility as outlined in this passage, but it should be noted that there is another teaching that is taking place. The minister is to encourage each member of the body to share together with one another in that which is right before the Lord. This instruction is not just in the Word, but in deed, in obedience to the Word. The older members are to take the younger members into their hearts and to show them the manner in which they are to live godly lives as vital members of the Body of Christ. There is to be encouragement throughout the body unto doing that which is pleasing to the Lord. This is a matter of teaching by the life that we live before others, modeling the obedience unto the Lord that we seek for others within the church. There is the aspect of the established mentoring of the young, showing interest in them to the point of taking them under a guidance role. Spending time in prayer with each other. Spending time in the Word with each other, spending time in encouragement with each other. Spending time working together, eating together, fellowshipping together, singing together, and worshipping together.
To teach, to truly teach, is to live the life of obedience to the Holy Spirit, in line with the Word of God, in the purity of heart that has been established by the grace of God. Please note, in the Titus passage, each person is involved in this growth together into Christ. There are things that we all need to learn. There are things that we are all called to teach. That teaching is the life that we live. At the end of the passage, as Paul is addressing how the slaves are to act in fidelity to their masters, we find the manner in which we, as the Church, are to live before our Lord and Master. …that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. 
What a beautiful picture this paints of the manner in which our lives, as members of the church, adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. Think for a moment about what this means in the terms of the Grace of God. The lives that we live are seen as the practical realization of what the salvation of God has created in the church. The entirety of the whole of creation is seen in the immense richness and glory of God’s grace evident in the lives that we live, as the Body of Christ, on this earth. To adorn the doctrine of God Our Savior is to conduct ourselves wholly in line with the Word of God. It is to seek the Holy Spirit to be our wisdom and to listen and to obey His every guiding. Our lives should be the living evidence of the death of the old nature. We should live in the glory of the grace of God as seen in the new nature that is ours by the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Just as jewelry is used to adorn, to give beauty to the wearer, so our lives give beauty to the glory of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. 
That is an overwhelming truth that we need to be taught in our relationship one with another. There is a manner of looking at each other that needs to be set aside and considered completely dead. It is that manner of elevating ourselves in the faults that we see or imagine in others. We tend to concentrate on the flaws that we see, the imperfections, the residue of self, rather than the glory of the Lord that is seen in His work of Grace. Such is the course of our education as those who were lost to the mores of this world. Now, since we are made the members of the Church, a vital change is needed. We need to learn to see one another in the light of the glory of God that is highlighted within the salvation ministry of the Holy Spirit. We are the adornment of God’s glory as we each find our lives now set into place within the framework of the church. We are livingly made one with each other in Christ. As that mosaic of lives becomes formed, the glory of God will be brilliantly shining forth in the beauty of His holiness and grace in Jesus Christ. He is the cornerstone of the creation of God’s church, His bride, His Body.
Continuing then with the temple as the type of the Church, in Ex 36:1+2, we read Bez'alel and Oho'liab and every able man in whom the Lord has put ability and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the Lord has commanded." And Moses called Bez'alel and Oho'liab and every able man in whose mind the Lord had put ability, every one whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work; 
It is incumbent on all the members of the flock to be seeking after the Lord in all manner of interaction and relationship with one another. Notice that there was a stirring of God in the hearts of those called to minister through their abilities. It was not enough that they knew how to do the work. That can be easily learned in any craft with practice and due diligence and determination. This call of God in the heart goes far beyond that. There is a huge difference in one’s ability to do the work for one’s own glory as opposed to the obedience of a life that will respond without hesitation to the call of the Lord, to His Glory Alone. There are many ministers who see their ministry not in terms of a call, but of a profession, a job, a way to show the various abilities that they possess in preaching and knowledge. A true minister, as we have seen, is called into that service by the Lord. There must be a heart, prepared by the work of God’s Grace, which is willing to obey the call. 
And, we must not limit this call just to ministry at this point. This obedience to the call of God must be true in any service unto the Lord. There are those people who will do a tremendous work that will showcase their abilities and their talents and their skills. Sadly that is the focus of their efforts, themselves. They strive to raise the consideration of their work to a higher level of awe in the audience to whom they present themselves. That is not service unto the Lord, that is self-service and a complete lack of understanding the heart of the Love of God shed forth in His Grace. 
On the other hand, there are those who desire nothing from the gifts that God has given them. They only live to serve, to serve God and to serve His Church. These are those quiet ones whose hearts have been instructed by the grace of God, in the contriteness and the humility of constantly standing before His throne of Grace. These are the ones that Christ identifies in comparison to the ritualistic Jewish leaders in Matt 25:31-46 "When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.  Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. Then the King will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.' Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?' Then he will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.' And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." 
This is the expressed call to each member of the church. It is the church that will be seen in the service that is rendered unto her Lord and Husband, Jesus Christ. Please consider the fact that our daily actions in the relationship that we share with others are to show forth the divine measure of the Grace of God on this earth. That requires that we no longer live in the manner of the old life. We must be transformed into the newness of the life of Jesus Christ.  
The Apostle Paul goes right to the heart of this matter in Eph 4:20-32 You did not so learn Christ! - assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus. Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, putting away falsehood, let every one speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his hands, so that he may be able to give to those in need. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
 	Here is the manner of living that is to be true in each member of the church. It is not enough that we want to be a better person. We need to put off that old nature. This is a command of the Lord to us. We are to no longer live in the foulness and corruption that was our deathly walk on this earth. Now, in Christ, we are called, we are told, we are instructed, we are admonished to live lives worthy of the call of God’s grace. We are His church on this earth. The issues of the old nature are to have no avenue of corruption within these lives that are hid in Christ Jesus. 
One might ask how are we able to behave in such a radically different manner than that which was our old nature. We are to live our lives in direct obedience to the Holy Spirit and fully in line with the Word of God. That takes the grace of God. It is His grace, so called forth upon us in the blessing of Eph. 1:1+2, that is issued from the heart of the Apostle Paul unto each member of the church. It is God’s Grace that will make this happen within us as we obey the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is by the Grace of God that we will be strengthened in our inner man to desire to be obedient. Our former self life was at enmity with God. Our new life in Christ, by the Grace of God, is at peace with Him and now vitally in union with Him. We obey more and more as we desire to obey Him. There needs to be welling up within us a craving after the things of God, a yearning to know more about Him, a longing to please Him in everything we do. If that utmost desire is not the focus of our lives at this moment, let us ask the Lord, beseech the Lord, to bring our hearts into that place where we cherish Him above all things. As we read the scripture, and reflect upon its truth, let us seek the Holy Spirit to make His Word the very sustenance of our lives. As declared in Deut 8:3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. 
The course of this life, the focus of this mighty work of God’s grace is declared in Col 1:3-6 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing - so among yourselves, from the day you heard and understood the grace of God in truth, and Rom 6:17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.
At that point, in that manner, with the focus of our hearts and lives set in Him, The Grace of God will flood forth in the full victory of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Our lives will become those living evidences of the goodness of the Lord in every aspect of our beings. We will know that God has established Himself in His church and He has made us fully a vital part of it. We will see the grace of God and realize the truth of the church, as declared in type in the Old Testament temple in Ex 29:43-45 There I will meet with the people of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by my glory; I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar; Aaron also and his sons I will consecrate, to serve me as priests. And I will dwell among the people of Israel, and will be their God. Amen
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are also faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

This morning’s benediction is from the heart of David as recorded in Ps 51:6-17 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Fill me with joy and gladness; let the bones which thou hast broken rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners will return to thee.  Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of thy deliverance. O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou hast no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldst not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Amen