Alright brethren, let's go to
2 Thessalonians chapter 1. I really want to look at something
in verse 1, but let's read verses 1 and 2. Paul and Silvanus and
Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians, in God our
Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace unto you and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Our subject here is the
church in God. The church in God. He says there,
the church in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I really didn't realize it until
after I was going over my notes this morning that we have a theme
in both the messages this morning concerning all blessings being
in the Lord. And so this obviously must be
something we need to hear because I didn't plan it that way. It
just, that's ended up being what both the messages are on. And
that is something we always need to hear. The church is the elect
of God, that's who the church is. We're not talking about the
visible assembly in the earth, we're talking about, there's
some of the church in that visible assembly, but we're talking about
the true church of God, the elect of God. And the church is in
God our Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. In his high priestly prayer,
look over at John 17. I want you to see this. You know
this, but it's good to look at this. In his high priestly prayer,
the Lord Jesus had this one petition that is so amazing, so wonderful
to us who believe. This is just, this is amazing
and it's a wonderful blessing right here. It assures us, very
assuring. He prayed that each of his people
might know this union that we have in God our Father and in
the Lord Jesus, and that we might be brought to the end for which
we have this union. Look here in verse 21. He prayed
that they all may be one. Now look what he's talking about. As thou, Father, art in me, and
I in thee, that they also may be one in us. That the world
may believe, he's talking about his people scattered throughout
the world, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
And the glory which thou hast given me, I've given them. And
if you look back up at verse 14, you'll see that's the gospel.
I've given them thy word. That's the glory given to Christ
to be the word, to be the gospel, the essence of the gospel, and
to make the gospel effectual in our heart. The glory you gave
me, I've given them. Why? That they may be one, now
listen to this, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me,
that they may be made perfect in one. and that the world may
know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast
loved me. That's perfect union. There's a perfect union between
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Perfect
union. As thou, Father, art in me and
I in thee. Christ said, I and my Father
are one. But the amazing thing to us, brethren, is We're in
God our Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in Christ we
are one as they are one. We're one as they are one. One
with God, one with one another. Now I wanna look at this in four
ways. It applies in four ways. Eternal
union, and then secondly, federal or representative union. Thirdly,
experimental union, and fourthly, glorious union. Now first, eternal
union. If you look over to Ephesians
1, I wasn't going to have you turn here, but I do want to show
you something. This union is eternal. The church
is eternally in God our Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have been united in Christ with God and with His Son when
there was no time. Eternally. Eternally. This is a union of sovereign
free grace. All of God's sovereign free grace.
It's all in Christ, all in Christ our surety. Look here, verse
3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ. according as He's chosen us in
Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be
holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated
us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved from
eternity. accepted in the Beloved. Everything
Christ is, His people have been in Christ from eternity. And
if you read on there, we're going to look at this as we go through
the message, but every blessing in time is in Christ. He says
there, verse 7, in whom? In Christ, with redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins. He said, He abounded toward
us in wisdom. And verse 9, He says, He made
known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure
which He purposed in Himself. Here it is, that in the dispensation
of the fullness of times when everything is said and done,
He might gather together in one all things in Christ. And He's
talking about all His people. people in heaven and in earth,
even in Him, in whom also we've obtained an inheritance, being
predestinated according to the purpose of Him who works all
things after the counsel of His own will. And this is all that
we should praise and glorify the one who first trusted in
Christ. See there in verse 12 that we
should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ.
That's the Father. In Christ you also trusted, after
you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
In whom, after that you believed, you were sealed with the Holy
Spirit of promise, the earnest of our inheritance, to the redemption
of the purchased possessions, the praise of His glory. Everything's
in God, our Father, and in His Son. All blessings, all blessings. And we've had this union. with
Him from eternity. God's never viewed His elect
anywhere but in Christ and any other way but in the perfection
Christ is. That's how He views His elect
from eternity. That's why we say, as Scripture
says, the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
That's why Christ is called the Lamb slain from before the foundation
of the world. God determined the end from the
beginning. And when creatures of time start trying to talk
about eternal blessings, eternal spiritual blessings, they want
to confine it to a certain point in time. Are we so carnal that
we can't think beyond time? Think spiritually. God's eternal. I had problems putting it in
language that This is eternal and we have always been in Christ,
always in this union. And even to say the word we have
been, that's an expression of time. It's just hard to express
it, but it's so. Never not been. So from eternity,
both he that sanctified and they who are sanctified are all of
one. For which cause he's not ashamed to call us brethren.
All right, now secondly, we have federal representative union.
This is the union we have in Christ so that everything Christ
accomplished in time as the God-man, we did it in Him. You know, we
were in the first Adam, and due to our union with Him, we disobeyed
God in the garden. When He disobeyed God in the
garden, we disobeyed God in the garden. God imputed sin to us
because Adam made a sin by his disobedience. Romans 5 is so
clear on that. Romans 5.12 and then Romans 5.13
tells you clearly God won't arbitrarily impute sin to anybody. He won't
impute sin to an innocent man. God will not impute sin where
there is no law. That means unless a man's been
made sin under the law, God won't impute sin to him. And there
was no law from Adam all the way to Moses. So those that sinned
from Adam to Moses, they didn't sin like Adam did in the garden.
Adam had a known law, knew he was breaking it and broke it.
They had the law written on their heart. In their conscience they
knew it was wrong. We all know that. But they didn't
have a written law until Mount Sinai. And yet God imputed sin
to them and they died. Why? Because in Adam all have
sin. God only imputes what's righteous.
And He only does what's righteous. Always. But just like we were in Adam,
we were in Christ. We failed due to federal representative
union. We're saved by federal representative
union in the last Adam, Christ Jesus. Everything Christ did
as the head and representative of His people, His people did
in Him. We've been in God the Father
and in Christ in everything Christ did. Christ said the Father was
in Him when He walked this earth. And we were in Christ. And so
we're in Christ and in the Father, everything Christ did, we did
in Him. When He obeyed, we obeyed. By the obedience of one, shall
many be made righteous. Being in Christ, when He worked
out a perfect righteousness that was so pleasing to God, that
the almighty, all-knowing God looked at Him and said, I am
well pleased. We worked out a perfect righteousness. Say, I wasn't there. over 2,000
years ago. If you're Christ, yes, you were.
You certainly were. You were in Christ. Certainly
were. When He was crucified, we were
crucified in Him. Paul said in Galatians 2.20,
I am crucified with Christ. We were in Him. When He died,
we died with Him. Romans 6.8 says, if we be dead
with Christ, that's so of all God's people. We died when Christ
died. Whenever they buried Him in that
tomb, we were buried in that tomb. See, the old man of flesh that
you and me see and that we see in one another when we fall in
sin or say something or give a wrong look or whatever it is
that offends us, that man died and was buried. before the eye
of God. And that's what matters. That's
what matters. He died and was buried. He that's
dead is free, justified from sin. That's what happened in
Christ. And when he was raised from the
dead, we arose brand new in the Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 2.12 says, wherein
also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of
God who has raised him from the dead. And when he sat down at
God's right hand, glorified and accepted for all eternity, every
one of his people sat down in him at God's right hand, accepted
for all eternity, glorified already in Christ. He raised us up together,
Ephesians 2.6, He raised us up together and made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ. And so being in union with Christ,
everything our Lord did, in every act of obedience, in everything
He suffered, in everything He endured unto death, in His burial,
in His resurrection, in everything He did, His people did it in
Him. And here's why. Here's why He
accomplished all of that for His people. That in the ages
to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. So Christ promised this. He said,
because I live, you shall live also. In that high priestly prayer,
he said, I pray not only for them, Lord, that you've given
me while I've walked this earth and them that you've called to
me, he said, I pray for them that's gonna hear their gospel
preached and gonna believe on me through their word. And I'm
praying for mine elect that's in me that's gonna hear through
their word and through their word and all down through the
ages, I'm praying for them. I pray not for the world, I'm
praying for them you gave me. You think there's any possibility
God's people are not gonna be called to faith and kept by the
Lord? That's His prayer. I want them
to know how one they are, just like you and I are one, Father. I want them to know how one we
are. And that's the whole purpose of God, that at the end of time,
He gathers in one all His people in Christ. And all glory and
praise goes to one, God our Savior. That's the purpose. Thirdly,
we come to experimental union. This is the union whereby we
experience this. This is the union whereby we
are brought into a conscious understanding of what he's done
for us. This is where most people begin. Most people can't get past this.
They think this is when they was justified. This is when everything
took place right here. Some think this is when they
were elected. Some think when they believed,
that's when they was born again. No, no. God did it all in Christ
before we ever knew anything about it. This is when He brings
you to see what He's done. What He's already accomplished.
You know, if you're going to be called by God and given grace
to believe Him, He's already done something for you. Or He
wouldn't be calling you to tell you about it. Isn't that right?
He didn't just do it for you when He called you. He already
accomplished it. That's why He's calling you.
Well brethren, what about those saints back there? What about
Adam? Why'd he call Adam? He's already done in Christ,
that's why he called him and told him. He told him, I'm gonna
come and do it, but he's done, that's why he called him and
had mercy on him. Same with us. It's already done. It's vital
union. That's what the old preachers
called it, vital union. Because we can't be created and
we're not created. We don't have an existence. Now
get what I'm saying. We don't have an existence. We
do not have eternal life until this work has been worked in
us and we've been given a union in Christ. You say, well, some of you might
say, I was 30 years old when the Lord called me. You didn't
have an eternal spiritual existence until He called you. That was
your birthday. That was your birthday. Nothing
about our first birth is life. It's only death. Nothing about
our first birth had anything to do with this. Christ does
it all. Nothing about our first birth is going to inherit eternity. Everything about the new creation
is the creation of Christ Jesus in His righteousness and His
holiness alone. We didn't have, in the mind and
purpose of God, He saw, Christ said, when I was formed in the
lowest parts of the earth, in the womb, He said, you saw all
my members when as yet they were not written. They were in your
book. And He's not just talking about His bodily members, He's
talking about all His people. But as far as us having been
created yet, We were in Christ, we had a union with Him, no doubt
we would be, but we wasn't born yet, created yet. He creates
a new heart, a new spirit. Everything's new about this creation. That's why it's vital. And it's
vital because Christ is the head of the body, the church, and
He gets the glory for doing this. It's vital. And He gets the glory
for this, and so, God said he put all things under his feet,
gave him to be the head over all things, the head over all
things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him
that filleth all in all. This is what's another amazing
thing. Christ says, my body won't be
complete till I have called every member into my body. Then it'll
be full, the fullness of him. But he gets the glory of doing
that. He gets the glory, he's the prophet, who teaches us,
he's the priest who interceded and reconciled us to God, and
he's the king who sovereignly works it all to bring it to pass.
He's everything, and he's the substance of everything about
our salvation and everything we need to be accepted. Christ
promised we'd know our union with Him and with God our Father
in the new birth. He said this too in John 17.
In verse 18, He said, I will not leave you comfortless. I
will come to you. Yet a little while, the world
seeth me no more, but you see me, because I live, you shall
live also. At that day, talking about this
new birth, talking about being born of the Spirit of God, at
that day, you shall know that I am in my Father and you in
me and I in you. You'll know it. Not only was
the church in this eternal union with God our Father and with
the Lord Jesus from eternity, not only were we in Him when
He came forth and worked all the works and lived and died
and rose again and sat down, but each of His redeemed shall
be brought into this experimental union with Him, and just like
everything else is in Christ and by Christ, this will be in
Christ and by Christ too. If any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he's none of his. He that's joined to the Lord
is one spirit. One. That's union now. He that's
joined to the Lord is by the Spirit of the Lord, and he's
one spirit. You know what that means? That
means this new man, this new heart, that God's created in
you. is one with Christ. Christ is
the righteousness and the holiness of the new man. Christ illustrated
this union by saying, I'm the vine, you're the branches. That's
how he illustrated it. You look at a vine, and one day
you start seeing these little shoots on it, and they start
growing out of that vine. What's happened? That vine has
given life to those branches, and they grow out. And then in
a little while you start seeing some blooms on those branches.
What's happening? The vine has started creating
fruit in that branch. And in a little while there's
fruit there. Everything grows out of Christ in this spiritual
kingdom. Christ is the life. And the sap
comes from Him, the life comes from Him, the Spirit of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the vine, we're the branches.
We don't have any existence spiritually, but by Him, through Him, and
in Him. That's why He said, without Me
you can do nothing. If you read the margin there,
it says, without Me, it says, severed from Me. You can do nothing. Severed from Christ, this is
how helpless we are without Christ. We just be like a vine that you
cut off of the tree. I mean a branch you cut off of
the vine. You just sit there and watch it and little by little
by little it just shrivels up and shrivels up and shrivels
up and dies. That's what happens when men
reject Christ and they're severed and they just Wither, wither,
wither, wither, wither. But until this union of the Christ,
we don't have a spiritual existence. Christ is our life. That's why
we have it. He produced us. He's our strength. He's our wisdom. That's how we
know God. That's how we know all these blessings. It's Christ,
our wisdom, who teaches us these things. And He's the holiness
of the new man. That's why we don't preach man
sanctifying himself and making himself holy, because Christ
is the holiness of the new man. The new man is meet to be a partaker
of the inheritance of saints and light. And in that state
of holiness, He grows you. But all the fruit, just like
all the fruits produced in the branch by the vine, all the fruits
produced by Christ. This is why you're not going
to find God's people boasting about our fruit. All of it is from Christ Jesus.
Sanctification from ourselves is by Christ. The only way we
stopped looking to ourselves and trusting our works and boasting
and bragging about ourselves was because Christ separated
us from us. He made us see what we are. And
He separated us from every vain way, every vain gospel. Repentance
and faith is of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Hope in His mercy. Continual hope in His mercy,
a good hope, where is it? It's entered the veil, it's Christ
Jesus at God's right hand and the only way we have that hope
is from the vine giving us that hope in our heart. Love to His
name, where did that come from? God is love, that's God our Father
in our Lord Jesus Christ and you have that love when you're
born again and He's in your heart. The fear of God in our conscience,
where does that come from? It comes from Christ being formed
in you, giving you a reverential heart for God, a broken and a
contrite heart. This is what it all does. When
He makes you see Him and it's all in Him and all by Him and
all through Him, your heart's broken that you ever boasted
that you did anything. That just breaks your heart.
I've been going around bragging that I made myself righteous
and holy and did all this, that'll break your heart. And it's all
by Him. And He keeps that heart broken
and humbled and contrite. The desire to please Him in everything
we do and say, it's all from Him. Every bit of it's from Him. From being united with the vine.
And listen, because you have this in nature, when you fail,
whether it's inwardly, outwardly, however it is you fall, and you
fall both ways, Whenever you do, the only thing that saves
you from just falling away and being severed and withered like
a branch withered from the vine, the only thing is Christ, the
life in you, keeping you. That's the only thing. And forgiving
you. God forgiving you for His sake.
Another illustration we have, we touched on this, is the head
and the body. Colossians 2.19 it says, Christ
is the head from which all the body by joints and bands have
nourishment ministered and knit together and increases with the
increase of God. That says the same thing I just
said about that Christ said about the vine and the branch, but
it just says it in using the head and the body as an illustration.
All nourishment comes from the head. You think about it, our
head governs our body. Our head governs what we do.
In our head are eyes to see, ears to hear, some of us can
hear, smell, taste, that's in your head. And it's communicated to our
members from our head. And that is teaching us out of
Christ's fullness, He ministers to us grace for
grace. By grace He gives you the gifts
of grace. He gives you seeing. He gives
you hearing. He gives you smelling. He gives
you tasting. Spiritual senses. And it's all
different in all His people. Every member, not every member
in your body is the same, but every member in this body is
not the same. Scripture says, unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Every one. It's illustrated by
one member being a foot, one member being a hand, another
member being an eye, another member being an ear. That's how
the Lord illustrated it, through the Spirit. But now listen, 1
Corinthians 12.18 says, But now God hath set the members, every
one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him. And if they
were all one member, where's the body? But now there are many
members, yet but one body. And I cannot say unto the hand,
I have no need of thee, nor again the head to the feet, I have
no need of you. Now remember, who Paul's writing that to? He's writing it to the Corinthians,
who were saying those exact things. I don't need you. They were so upset with one another,
they said, I don't need you. And Paul began that letter calling
them brethren. He began that letter telling
them that Christ had called them and Christ had gifted them so
that they came behind in no gift whatsoever and that Christ would
confirm them all the way to the end. That's how he began the
letter. And then he tells them here, you're all members in the
same body. all members in the same body.
What do you reckon the Lord's going to use? What message do
you reckon He's going to use to set aside all the carnal divisions
in His people and make us one? He's going to exalt His Son,
the Head, to make us know we don't have a thing but what came
from Him. And He set us in the body as it pleased Him and He
gifted us as it pleased Him so that Though one member is not
the other member and doesn't have what the other member has,
none of us can say, I don't need that member. One's an eye, another
ear, having clear spiritual discernment. And there's some hands to minister
to the needs of God's saints. And then there's feet to run
the errands of the church. Everybody is a member, and everybody
has a function, and every function was put there by the Lord. I
can't play the music like Sarah and Kalen can. Everybody can't sing as pretty
as I can sing. Everybody has their own gift.
And the Lord said it all and gave us every bit of it. All
the members are said and gifted by Christ as it pleases Him,
however different from one another, and all are governed and get
in every grace from Christ our head. Now, here's the last thing. One day, one day, this union will be perfect. Glorious
union. glorious union. Our Lord's prayer
is heard by the Father and it's answered by the Father. He and
the Father are one in workiness and the Spirit. And one day we're
going to be perfectly one in God the Father and in Christ
Jesus. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Who's
going to separate us from the love of God in Christ? Sin can't
break this union. Sin can't break this union. Christ
already dealt with our sin. And He'll deal with it in us
so that it can't break this union. Never. Satan can't break this
union. He tries. He barks and howls
and does everything he can to break it. He can't break this
union. Not even death can sever this
union. Death severs every other union, but it can't sever this
union. To be absent from the body is
to be present with the Lord. Christ is the righteousness of
His people, and Christ is the holiness of our new man. And
He's going to raise us with a perfect body, and He's going to present
us to Himself, in Himself, by Himself, by what He's done Himself,
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and unblameable
and unapprovable in His sight. He's going to present us to Himself
that way. It's that we saw in Ephesians
1.10, that in the fullness of time he might gather together
in one in Christ all his people, whether they be in heaven or
they in earth. Some are already there, but we're
all going to come together in Christ in that final day. It's
in Him that we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of God that works all things after the
counsel of His own will and we're gonna all praise and glorify
God the Father who trusted Christ first to do this all for His
people. And then we'll be the church in God our Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ in perfect glorious union. Then Christ's intercessory prayer
is going to be fulfilled in perfection, and we're going to know it in
perfection. Then we're going to know it in perfection. We're
going to all be one as the Father is in Christ, and Christ in the
Father. That's how one we're going to
be. And we're going to be one with
Him in us, and us in Him. We're going to be one. Christ
said that they may be one even as we're one. That's how one
we're going to be. I in them and thou in me that
they may be made perfect in one. Where are we going to be made
perfect? In one. In Him. In Him. And we're going to know really
know, like we've never known it until then, we're going to
know that God sent Christ and loved us with the exact same
love as He loves His Son. That's true right now. It's so
hard for us to grasp that, and we can't anywhere near fully
grasp it, but in that day we're going to know it perfectly. God
loves His people exactly like He loves His Son. I want to give
you a hymn by John Kent. "'Twixt Jesus and the chosen
race, "'between Jesus and the chosen race, "'subsists a bond
of sovereign grace, "'that hell with its infernal train "'shall
never dissolve nor rend in vain. "'This sacred bond shall never
break. though earth should to her center
shake. Rest, doubting saint, assured
of this. Rest, doubting saint, assured
of this, for God has pledged His holiness." That's the guarantee. God's holy. He swore, but once
the deed was done, it was settled by the Great Three One, Christ
was appointed to redeem all that the Father loved in Him. Hail,
sacred union, firm and strong. How great the grace, how sweet
the song. The worms of earth should ever
be one with incarnate deity. Us worms of earth shall forever
be one with incarnate deity. One in the tomb, one when he
arose, one when he triumphed over his foes, one when in heaven
he took his seat while seraphs sang all hell's defeat. This
sacred tie forbids their fears, for all he is or has is theirs. With him, their head, they stand
or fall, their life, their surety, and their all. The sinner's peace,
the days when he, whose blood should set his people free, on
them his fond affections ran before creation's work began. Blessed be the wisdom and the
grace, the eternal love and faithfulness that's in the gospel scheme revealed,
it is by God the Spirit sealed. That's as good a guarantee as
you'll ever get. One with the Father and with
the Son. Let's go to him. Father, we thank you for this
word. Oh Lord, thank you that you trusted your Son. made us one before you did anything
else and it's always been and shall ever be. Thank you, Lord, for everything
Christ accomplished for us and thank you for all the work you've
worked in us. Lord, we doubt and split off
and separate We're more unnatural than a branch. A branch knows to stay in the
vine. Lord, we depend on you to keep
us in you, make us abide in you. We trust your promise, Lord,
that you will. Don't let us doubt. Don't let
us doubt one another. Let us trust you and know this
union can't be severed. You will. Always keep your people, always
restore your people. Give us fresh courage and fresh
strength, fresh faith to wait on you and trust you know it
so. Lord, thank you. In Christ's
name we pray, amen.