All right, brethren, Ephesians
chapter 1. I want to mainly speak on verses
22 and 23. God has raised Christ far above
all power, given Him a name above every name. Verse 22 says, And
He hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be
the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the
fullness of him that filleth all in all. Christ is the head
over all things to the church, and the church is his body. The
church is the fullness of him, and Christ is he who filleth
all in all. He's the head over the body.
Being the head of the church is the glory that belongs to
our resurrected, glorified God-man mediator. This glory belongs
to Him. He's the head. He's the head. Over in Colossians, Christ's
glory is declared. And I want you to hear these
things that the Lord put side by side with His glory as our
head. Listen to this. In Colossians
1-15, the Son of God is called the image of the invisible God. That's His glory. He is God in
human flesh, the image of the invisible God. Then Colossians
1-15 says He's the firstborn of every creature. And here's
what that means. He tells us plainly what it means.
By Him were all things created. by Christ. Things that are in
heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, whether they're
thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created
by him and for him. He gets all the glory, being
the firstborn of every creature, being the creator of all things. All things were created by him
and for him. And right alongside that glory,
he says in Colossians 118, and he is the head of the body, the
church. He's the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence,
for it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. And our text tells us it's from
His glorious fullness that Christ Himself filleth all in all His
people. He fills all in all His church. So the glory of being the head
of the church, the glory of filling all in all, belongs to Christ. He's the head of the church.
The church is His body. He's the head and He fills all
in all His body. And it's so that He might have
the preeminence. This is God's will that all fullness
dwell in His Son. It pleased the Father and He
will have all preeminence. He's the head. He's the head. Now who's his church? Before
we get into my text and get into my message, who's the church?
Who is Christ's church? The word means assembly. Now,
some think that the local church is the only assembly, that it's
just the local church that is Christ's church. Well, indeed,
the local assembly that Christ has gathered, that Christ has
assembled, who he's regenerated, in whom he dwells, who believe
in him, those local members are members of his body. They are
his church. That local body assembled who
are regenerated and believe on Christ, that is his church. But
Christ's church is also universal. It's made up of all his saints,
of all his saints. Some are in glory with him, some
are alive in this earth. This is the universal church
spoken of in scripture. It's made up of all believers,
of all generations, called out of all nations and tongues. some in the earth, some in the
heaven. Listen, writing to the saints, writing to the saints,
this is what the Hebrew writer said in Hebrews 12.22, ye are
come unto Mount Zion. What's that? You've come to the
city of the living God, You've come to the heavenly Jerusalem,
to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly
and church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven,
to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
those that are already with him in glory, and to Jesus, the mediator
of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks
better things than that of Abel, see that you refuse not Christ
that speaketh. You see, the general assembly
here, that word means the assembly of all. It means the whole assembly. All his saints in heaven and
in earth. This is the church of the firstborn, the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ, his body. It's all his saints in
heaven and in earth. This make up his church. And
he says, see that you refuse not him that speaketh. It's Christ
speaking. He's the head, he's the prophet,
priest, and king we just sang. And he's the one ministering
through his preachers, through his gospel, into the hearts of
his people. And that's why he says, see that
you refuse not him that speaketh. Christ is speaking. I like to
think about the Saints in heaven and the saints in earth, when
we are assembled to worship the Lord, I like to picture the whole
church of our Lord, bowed down at his footstool, giving him
all the glory. And that's how it is. That's
how it is. One of the brethren texted me
back when I had sent out the email and said, let me know we
got the message and said, I look forward to meeting you at Christ's
footstool. That's what we're doing. We're meeting. All the
saints in heaven, all the saints in earth meeting at Christ's
footstool to hear Him and give glory to Him. If somebody asks
you, who are the members of your church? You can say, the Apostle
Paul, Apostle Peter, Apostle James, John. They're all members
of our church. That's right. That's right. So, there are some though who
belong to Christ who He's yet to call. He hasn't called them
out yet. They haven't heard the gospel
by His grace and been regenerated and brought to faith in it. That's
why the church is yet in this earth. That's why we're here.
It's to sound forth this gospel to call them out. That's right. He raised him from the dead.
He set him at his own right hand in heaven far above all. He's
given him a name above all. He had put all things under his
feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.
Now, I want to give you three things that why this is good
news to us, why it's good news that Christ is our head. First
of all, it's good news because of headship, because of what
headship means. Now, with our own body, we get
this. The head represents the whole
body. You know, if somebody says, get a head count, well, when
they go around and count the heads, you know what they mean?
The whole person. When they count the head, they
mean the whole person is present. We get that, don't we? With the
head, the head represents the whole body. So it is in God's
ordained purpose. God chose a people freely by
His grace, gave them to Christ to save, and Christ is our head. He has been from eternity. He's
our head. He's the head of His body, the
Church. Ephesians 5 says, verse 23 says,
Christ is the head of the Church, and He is the Savior of the body. He's the head of the Church,
and He's the Savior of the body. It's His body. It says we're
members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. This is a great
mystery. But I speak concerning Christ
and the church. We're one with him, have been
from eternity. This is why God, now God did
this. God made the first man, Adam,
to be the head of all his body. God did that, and he did it because
he had already made Christ the head of all his body. Romans
5 says, Adam is the figure, he's the picture, the type of Christ
that's to come in headship, in headship. First Corinthians 15.22
gives us this word, it says, in Adam all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made alive. Now with our human body, we get
this too. Whatever the head does, that's
what the body does. The head gives the orders to
the body, and what the head does, that's what our body does. Well,
so it is with Christ. In Adam, all die, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive. When you read all in connection
with Adam and Christ, these are the two heads, Adam and Christ.
When you read all in connection with them, it means all whom
each head represented. All who each head represented. It means all who shall be born
of those respective heads. All who each represented. With
Adam, it means all without exception because we're all of Adam. We
all were in Adam, we all came from Adam, so it means all without
exception. All without exception. But with
Christ it means all who the Father chose by his free unmerited grace
and gave to Christ in eternity. All who Christ, that's all who
Christ represented. That's what the word all means.
When it refers to Christ and his laying down his life. All
who he represented. Look back up there at verse 3.
It's plain that God chose a people. This is what he's saying to those
who, those saints who are called to faith in Christ. Here's how
this all began. He said, 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 had 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 unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ 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." So in eternity, God ordained what these two heads
did, their body would do. That's God's purpose. That's
how God set this whole thing up. What these two heads did,
their body would do. In Adam, all died. Adam sinned. And in Adam all died. He was
our head. All became guilty. All are born
with Adam's corrupt nature because Adam's the head of all men. What
Adam did, his whole body did. In Adam all died. That's true
of everybody in this earth. Everybody born into this world
all died in Adam. But in Christ all his elect shall
be made alive. In Christ, all his people fulfilled
all righteousness. When he fulfilled all rights,
that's why he came. When he fulfilled all righteousness,
under the law, he did it for God, to glorify God. He did it
for his people, to save his people. And all who he represented were
made righteous by Christ. All. In Christ, we died under
the justice of the law. The soul that sins, it has to
die. God's holy. And that's why Christ died on
the cross, no other reason. He laid down his life for his
people. He bore our sin and bore the wrath of God, the justice
of God, due to his people. He died for a particular people.
He knew who he was dying for. All his body, the members of
his body. And when he died, all his members
died under the justice of God. His whole body did. But when
he came out of the grave and arose and sat down at God's right
hand, all his body came out and sat down with him. All are alive
in Christ at the right hand of God, seated with him in glory. What Christ did, his people did. Christ being the head means Christ
is our redemption. It means Christ is our salvation.
He's our life. He hath made us accepted in the
beloved. In whom, verse 7, it says, in
whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of his grace. That's what he
accomplished. Now sinner, if you've never believed on Christ,
believe on Christ. If you've never cast your care
on Christ, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to the scripture,
through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him all that believe are
justified from all things from which could not be justified
by the law of Moses. Crimson is mighty red. And that
snow out there is mighty white. And we just read, though our
sin be red like crimson, in Christ, by Christ, through faith in Christ,
is whiter than snow. Whiter than snow. Believe on
Him. Now, secondly, the good news
of Christ being our head means Christ is our life. He's our
life. Verse 23 says, The church is
His body, the fullness of Him. Now, again, looking at our human
body, a man can't live without his head. And the head is not
alive without the body. We can live without a finger.
We can live without an arm. My dad just had a toe amputated.
We can live without a toe. We can't live without a head.
And here's the good news, because his body is the fullness of him,
Christ won't be complete until he has every member of his body
called into oneness in his body. And he shall do this because
Christ is our life. Christ is the head of the body
and every chosen child is a member of Christ's body. And he's our
life. He said, because I live, you shall live also. That's good news. That's good
news. All Christ's church is risen
in glory with him right now, seated with him in glory at God's
right hand. The life of every member of Christ's
body is Christ. He's our life. We were dead in
sins just like every other sinner. We come into this world dead
in sins, hating God, unable to believe Him, not wanting to believe
Him, not willing to believe Him. Making all our excuses and all
our reasons for not believing on Him. And we couldn't. We just
couldn't. But here's the good news. Before
we knew Him, Christ was our life. Before we knew Him, Christ had
redeemed His people. And He's going to bring you to
know Him and make you know He's your life and give you faith
and life to believe Him because this is the point of the whole
passage. He's telling us here that the same exceeding greatness
of power that it took to raise Christ from the dead is the same
greatness of power it takes to raise a dead sinner to life to
believe on Christ. That's what he's declaring. And
our risen head, he's declaring here, gets all the glory for
quickening his people, sending the Spirit, giving us life, and
bringing us to faith in him. After he declares this, the very
next verse, Brother Greg Red says, and you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespassing and sins. That's what our Lord
does. We're spiritually dead sinners
as we come into the world, but it's by the power of Christ our
life that we're given life to believe that it might be all
of His grace. And that's how you know when
somebody's been given life, they're going to give him all the grace
for doing it, all the glory for doing it, by His grace. Brother
Greg just read it. but God, verse 4, who's rich
in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us even when we were
dead in sins. That means we didn't love Him
first. He loved us first. We were dead in sin and yet He
quickened us together with Christ and He's telling us there, by
grace are you saved. You know what grace is? Grace
is undeserved, unmerited, even demerited favor. We did everything
we could that if it wasn't for grace, it would have destroyed
any hope. But He, by grace, grace means it's all of God. Grace
means it's freely given by God. We're saved by grace. He says
on down there in verse 8, By grace are you saved through faith,
and that's not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any man should boast, for we're his workmanship. We're
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained, that we shall walk in them. That's what it means.
We shall. Why? Because Christ is the head
of his church and he's the fullness. He fills all in all. Not one
member of the church, not one member of Christ's body lives
by his own life. We live by Christ our head who
is our life. Here's the good news. Christ
shall regenerate each member of his body. He shall give us
life. He shall bring us into union
with him and make us know this because our head is our life.
And here's the good news for you who believe him, for you
who he has quickened and regenerated. Paul said in Colossians 3, you're
dead. Oh, that means so much. You're
dead under the law. You died at Calvary. Your body's
dead right now. But your life is hid with Christ
in God. And when Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall you appear with Him in glory. He
is the hope of glory. He is the life in you who believe.
And right now, your life is at God's right hand. And when our
life appears, you shall appear with Him in glory. You know,
don't you love how the scripture doesn't speak in maybes? It doesn't
speak in this might happen. Why? He has all power. He is
the power. He created this whole thing.
He upholds it by the word of His power. It's by His power
we believe. It's by His power we're kept.
It's by His power He's going to bring us to glory. It's not
maybe. It's yes and amen. It's yes and
amen. It's sure. It's ordered and sure
in all things. Now lastly, it's good news because
of headship. What Christ did, we did. This
is good news because Christ our head is our life. He's our life. Now here's good news right here
too. Christ being our head means Christ gets the glory fulfilling
all in all. Christ our head has the rule
over all. He's controlling everything.
The God man. We're talking about a man in
our nature glorified who is God and he's ruling everything. Everything. And so Christ our head shall fill all in awe." You know
on the day of Pentecost, on the day of Pentecost, whenever The
men, the spirit was poured out, and there was all different,
Galileans were there, and all these different nations, and
those men began to preach in languages they had never learned.
And the people that were sitting there with all those different
languages, they began to hear them in their own language, and they
began to hear the mighty works of God. That's what they were
preaching. And some believed on him. Some began to cry out
and believed on him. And you remember what Peter said?
Peter said, This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all
witnesses, therefore being by the right hand of God exalted,
and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost,
he hath shed forth this which you now see and hear. Christ
did every bit of that. Christ did every bit of that.
They wanted to leave. They wanted to leave Jerusalem.
They didn't want to go back there. Christ met them. And what did
he do? He said, go back and wait. Wait. Lord, are you going to
restore the kingdom? It's not for you to know what
I'm going to do. You go back and you wait. Till the spirits
poured out. And he poured out the spirit.
He gave them that ability to speak. the gospel in languages
they'd never learned. And he blessed it to the hearts
of those they preached to and brought them to believe. And
that's where he united all those saints together. And we see that
early church start out from there. All by Christ. He worked all
that. And he's doing it now. He's doing it right now. Christ
our head gets the glory for filling all. Fill in all. He's fulfilling
the scriptures. He gets the glory for fulfilling
the scriptures. And it's what the scriptures are all declaring.
All these various things Christ shall do. And he gets the glory.
He's fulfilling all. He said, I must fulfill the law
and the prophets. And he's fulfilling all. So what
all does he fill? Well, Christ our head gets the
glory of filling his pulpit in his local assembly. He promised,
he pleased God to save by the foolishness of preaching. Well,
who's going to get the glory for the preacher? Christ is.
Christ gets the glory for giving his preacher, fulfilling the
pulpit with his preacher. He said in Jeremiah 3.15, I will
give you pastors according to my heart, which shall feed you
with knowledge and understanding. The church at Danville right
now is in need of a pastor. They're waiting on a pastor.
There's more churches that are going to be needing pastors soon. But men do not fill a pulpit.
Men do not make a pastor. Men do not make themselves a
pastor. Christ makes his pastor. Christ gives his preacher. He
fills the pulpit. That's the glory that belongs
to him to fill all in all. Look at Ephesians 4 and look
at verse 8. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended
upon high, he led captivity and gave gifts unto men. Look at
verse 11. And he gave some apostles and
some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ. I put an article in
the bulletin about Moses. Moses was called, he was a pastor,
one of God's preachers. And there's a big difference
in Moses' spirit from when he began to see that God was going
to use him. He made some very bad mistakes
in the beginning because he supposed his brethren would understand,
but they didn't. But 40 years later, when the Lord had prepared
him and humbled him and on the backside of the desert made him
a nobody, he had a whole different spirit. He said, Lord, who am
I that you should use me to preach this gospel? That's Christ's
doing. That's his doing. And then Christ,
our head, gets the glory of fulfilling the pews. He gets the glory of
fulfilling the pews and fulfilling the hearts of his people. Christ
said, where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them. It's not just people coming in
and sitting down on their own. When it's truly done, it's Christ
himself gathering his people together by his power and his
spirit, his sovereign hand, gathering his people together. That's where
he's in the midst. Men don't create the church.
Men don't make pastors. Men don't make a church either.
Christ does it. Christ gathers his people together
and he makes his people the church. Not everybody that gathers together
is his church. but he's the one that gathers
his people together and keeps them together. Listen to this.
It's Christ the head, Ephesians 4.15 says, it's Christ the head
from whom the whole body is fitly joined together and compacted. He's the one that does it. You
know, somebody out of the blue will walk in, sit down, and they
start hearing, start hearing. Next thing you know, they say,
They believe on Christ, they believe he's their only hope
and they want to confess him in believers baptism and identify
with his people and unite with his church. How does that happen? Christ
does it. He's far above all power, all
principality, all dominion, rule, and everything in this world.
And he brings his people together. He gathers them together. Colossians
2.19 speaks of Christ the head from which all the body are knit
together. Knit together. And not only does
he assemble his body, he knits us together in heart. in Him
by one Spirit. He takes sinners from every tribe
and kindred and nation from all different backgrounds that would
have nothing in common otherwise. And He gathers us together under
the preaching He's provided and He speaks into the heart and
He makes us one. He makes us one by what He does
in His body. Ephesians 4.4, when He's done
this work, there's one body one Spirit, even as you call in one
hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God
and Father of all who's above all and through all and in you
all. That's Christ's glory. That's
what Christ works. He filleth all in all. And then
Christ our head gets the glory for growing each member of his
body, for growing us by his Spirit, through his gospel, by his sovereign
hand in providence, And he gives you and me the privilege of being
used by him to speak the gospel, the truth of the gospel of Christ
through which he works in the hearts of his people. That's
a great privilege. It's a great privilege, but it's
Christ our head's glory to minister gifts of grace which Christ has
procured for us by his death on the cross, by his burial and
his resurrection. This is not an exclusion of God
the Father and God the Son. God the Father, I mean, God the
Father and the Holy Spirit. The three persons of Godhead
are working the Son of God, Christ our Redeemer, and he gets the
glory. He's the head of the church who filleth all in all. Ephesians
4, 7 says, unto every one of us is given grace according to
the measure of the gift of Christ. Christ is the one giving in measure
as he will. Through the preaching of the
gospel, Ephesians 4.15, we preach the truth in love, and it says
we grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ,
from whom 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." It's his working in every part
by that measure of the gift of his grace that he gives to each
member. He's working. He's using each member. He's
working in each of us and making increase of the body unto the
edifying of itself in love. Christ speaks, or Paul speaks
in Colossians 2 about men who don't know anything about this.
So they're talking about other things. They're talking about
things that are vain jangling. But he says, it's Christ, the
head from which all the body by joints and bands have nourishment
ministered and are knit together and increased with the increase
of God. Now, one member of the body might
begin to say, well, I don't have gifts that another has. I'm weak. I'm a sinner, and I'm weak, and
I don't have near the gifts another has. I'm not needed in the body.
And sadly, maybe another member in the body will start thinking
that same thing about that weak member. But that's not so. That's on purpose. That's Christ
working on purpose. Look at 1 Corinthians 12. Go
back to your left there. 1 Corinthians 12. Christ has provided each member
of His body, put us in the body together, framed us together,
knit us together in the body together, and it's through these
members Christ provides for every other member of His body. For
every member of His body. Just like in our human body.
Listen to this, 1 Corinthians 12. For as the body is one, he's
talking about the human body right there. As the body is one
and has many members, and all the members of that one body
being many are one body, so also is Christ. It's just like he
made your human body to illustrate this. That's why he made it.
All things are made by him and for him. It's to illustrate.
You know, our human body is amazing. It is amazing. Christ made it
that way. But it pales in comparison to
the glory of Christ's body, because Christ is dead and he's working
in his body. And he gets the preeminence that
this is certain. What he's saying here, he works
in his people. Watch this, verse 13. For by
one spirit are we all baptized into one body. Whether we be
Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, have been all
made to drink into one spirit. For the body's not one member,
but many. If the foot shall say, because
I'm not the hand, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not
of the body? And if the ears will say, because
I'm not the eye, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of
the body? If the whole body were an eye,
where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where
would be the smelling? But now, hath God set the members, every
one of them, in the body, as it hath pleased him? And if they
were all one member, where would be the body? But now are they
many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the
hand, I have no need of thee, nor again the head to the feet,
I have no need of you. Ooh, that's a good word right
there. Because Christ is the head. We're the feet. And we
need the head, don't we? Nay, much more those members
of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary. They're necessary. And those
members of the body which we think to be less honorable, upon
these we bestow more abundant honor. And our uncomely parts
have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no
need. The beautiful parts don't have a need. But God hath tempered
the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part
which lacked, that there should be no schism in the body, but
that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer,
all the members suffer with it. Or one member be honored, all
the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ
and members in particular. You get what he's saying. You
take one of the members of your body, Your human body, when it's
maimed in some way, say a finger broken, you give more care to
it. All the other members of your
body are caring for that broken member. Every member. That's the uncomely part. The
parts that aren't broken, that are comely, they don't need more
abundant honor. That broken part does. And so
we bestow more on it. And then when there's rejoicing,
we rejoice. When we suffer, we suffer. This
is how he's put the body together so that Christ successfully works
this in those that are members of his body to make us care for
one another so that there's no schism in his body. There is
no schism in his body. Because Christ is working. He
filleth all in all his people. This is the glory we have, the
good news we have. Christ shall work this. What
does that mean? Well, one, it means we should
not live like the heathens live in sin and rebellion anymore. And it means we should put on
the new man and walk according to Christ our Lord, Christ our
head. It means we should walk as dear
children, as children of light. But it also means that he's going
to give us ample opportunity to have to bear one another's
burdens. That is, bear one another's sins and faults. He's going to
give us ample opportunity to have to go and do what we can
as he opens the door to minister to one another. That means even
when somebody's haughty and acts like they don't need you and
they don't need your grace, that's hard to do. But they are uncomely
and they need more abundant honor. That means one that has fallen
in sin, they're uncomely, they need more abundant honor. Both
of them need to be ministered to and pointed to Christ and
reminded, Christ is our head. He's our head. He's our head. He's filling all in all his people. And it's this word of grace,
this word of the gospel, he's given us to speak in every occasion. The same word by which he quickened
you in the first hour and called you to faith in him and made
you see his glory. This is what we sing in every
song we sing. This is what we preach in everything
we preach. Christ our life, our head, our
resurrection, our redemption, our all, him. And it's this we're
to speak when we're bestowing that more abundant honor on an
uncommonly part because this is the word he's going to bless.
The word that gives him the glory. The word that reminds us what
he's done for us and what he's doing for us and what he shall
do for us. The word that reminds us Christ is ruling all effectually
and shall not lose one member. That's the word we're to speak.
That's what breaks your heart. You don't break another's heart
by lashing them with the law. You don't do it. You don't do
it. I saw a good illustration of
this yesterday. A man was doing a demonstration in some sort
of business meeting. And he had a guy, and he said,
stand here by me. And he said, now walk with me. And the guy
started walking with him. And they walked across the room.
And then they said, now stand here and face me. And the guy
stood there and faced him. And he bent over and he started pushing
on the guy's hands. And the guy started pushing back
on his hands. And the point was, when he just said, come walk
along with me, the guy just freely walked along with him and had
no problem walking with him. When he started pushing against
him, the guy pushed back. We need this gospel to say, come
along, walk beside me. I'm pushing. I'm pushing. Bulls and goats push. God gives
His people grace to lead His dear children along like He does. And He does this for us every
day. Every day He's giving you grace. Every day He's giving
you mercy. Every day He's forgiving you. Every day He's showing you
He is your righteousness and your all by your constant continual
slips of the tongue and things you think and things you say
and things you do. And yet He keeps on ministering
in your heart. He's making you personally know
this. Why? So you can minister to one another. He's working
everything and nothing's happening by accident. It's all on purpose
to show us He really is everything and all. And it's to give us
the grace in our hearts to remind each other this is so. So here's the point. Christ by
our head is the power who gets the glory, fulfilling all in
all his members. This is why God the Father has
put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over
all things to the church, that Christ might get the glory, fulfilling
all in all. If you do anything honoring to
him, he's getting the glory. If he did it, you're going to
give him the glory, gladly, willingly. Want him to have it, because
he did it. So let me repeat the good news one more time. Christ
our head, this is the good news. It means headship. It means what
he did, we did. We're righteous by him. Christ
being our head is good news because he's our life. He's the life
in his body, the life of each member in particular, and he'll
see to it we have this life. It's good news because of Christ
our head is Lord ruling all, filling all in all in each member
of his body. Now how long will he do this?
A few years back somebody started, some man started preaching saying
the church age is over, Lord's not sending his preachers anymore,
just stay home. Listen to me, that's what he
was telling everybody. Stay home, listen to me. How long is he going to
keep doing this? Turn over to Ephesians 4.13. Till we all come in the unity
of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect
man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Remember, his body is the fullness
of him. The good news of that is, brethren,
if one member of his body, one elect, redeemed child is left
out, his body won't be complete. You think that's going to happen? No. He shall not fail. And because He shall not fail,
we shall not fail. He shall continue to work this
work till He's called every one of His members of His body to
the unity of the faith and grown us up into Him so that His body
is full and complete. And in that day, He's going to
present us to the Father, holy, without spot, without blemish,
perfect, all created by His righteousness alone. Now this power, brethren,
you remember when our Lord came to his disciples, this power
of his to work all this, this was the thing that he spoke of
to give them the confidence to go forth and preach the gospel.
He said in Matthew 28, 18, Jesus came and spake to them saying,
all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore. and teach all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded
you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world."
That's our confidence. He shall not fail. So He has
set judgment in the earth, therefore we shall not fail. He shall fill
all in all. Christ is our head, brethren.
Let's bow to Him and worship Him. Father, we thank you that
you've made Christ our head. We're thankful that he is all
these things unto us. What good news we have. Lord,
help us, give us that power and that grace and the gifts of your
grace to minister to one another, to be useful in your church,
to preach your word to one another and to this world. What a privilege. You don't need us, you don't
have to have us, and yet you've given us this privilege. not
only of saving us by your grace, but using us to preach your word,
to help your brethren and one another. Lord, thank you for
this privilege. Keep us and use us for this purpose,
and give Christ your son all the glory. We want him to have
it, and Lord, help us to glorify him in everything we do. We're
thankful you made Christ our head. It's in him we pray. Amen.