This is one of our favorite books in
the Bible, I'm persuaded, the book of Ephesians. And in Ephesians,
the first chapter, the Spirit of God led the apostle Paul to
write of the marvelous grace of God given to us through the
Lord Jesus Christ, which is evidenced in this great salvation that
we have in Him. To begin with, after introducing
himself as being the writer of this epistle, we find that the
apostle launches right into a doxology, a praise, an adoration of our
God for the wonderful salvation that we have in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He takes us back before time
ever began. And he speaks of God's everlasting
grace to us that is seen in His election of His people unto salvation. God chose a people in Christ
to be saved by His grace and to be totally conformed to the
image of the Lord Jesus Christ. He tells us that we were predestinated
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself. And then having honored the Father
in His election of grace, then the Apostle, after he says, to
the praise of the glory of His grace, he then directs our attention
to that one through whom grace and salvation comes to us, that
is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He speaks of the
redemption of the Savior, the redemption which necessarily
meant the forgiveness of our sins. You see, where God's justice
has been satisfied, the absolute necessity of forgiveness is set
forth. If the debt has been paid, If
the punishment has been issued and absorbed, then all those
for whom the debt was paid, all those for whom the wrath of God
has been suffered, they must experience the forgiveness of
sins, and it's all through the bloody death of our Lord Jesus. Our salvation is all in Him.
And that is to the praise of the glory of His grace. And then
toward the end of the chapter, he magnifies the Spirit of God,
who enlightens sinners who are in the spiritual darkness and
deadness of depravity. But the Spirit of God, he makes
us to know our need of the Savior. He reveals to us the wonders
of redeeming grace. of the death of our Lord Jesus
Christ and the reason for that death, that God might be just
and justify the ungodly, and the Spirit of God quickens us
by His grace. As it goes into the second chapter,
he begins by reminding the Ephesians and by reminding us that there
was a time when we were dead in trespasses and in sins. He says in Ephesians chapter
two in verse one, and you have he quickened, he made you alive. You'll notice in both of these
chapters as the work of salvation is set before us and the spirit
of God breaks it open for us to show us that salvation is
all of God. You'll notice that nothing, nothing
is of the center. Not our repentance. Is repentance
necessary? Yes, but you don't have the ability
to repent. You don't have the ability to
turn from your wrong thoughts about God, your wrong thoughts
about salvation, your wrong thoughts about the Lord Jesus Christ.
You don't have the ability to think yourself out of your depravity
or do anything that would remove your own sins. Because he says
in chapter two, verse one, and you have he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. In the first verse, he sets forth
our deadness. In the second verse, he sets
forth our disobedience. In verse 2 of chapter 2, he says,
wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this
world, according to the spirit, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience. The deadness pictures that which
we are by nature. The disobedience speaks of our
practical life, that we have been disobedient to God from
the beginning. And then the third thing he tells
us in the first part of verse 3 is our depravity. among whom
also we all had our conversation, our manner of living in times
past in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind." And then he tells us, on top of our being
dead, on top of our being disobedient, on top of our being depraved,
he says that we're doomed. We were by nature the children
of wrath, children deserving of wrath, even as others. That's our natural condition.
And what this does, it shows us how needful was the electing
grace of God in chapter one, the redeeming work of the Lord
Jesus Christ in chapter one, and the saving and quickening
work of the Holy Spirit that set forth toward the end of chapter
one. We have no ability to come to
God on our own. We have no desire to come to
God. And if in our minds we begin
to think, well, I do want to come to God, then we have wrong
ideas about how we can come to God with that. Well, I've got
to start doing better. I've got to live a better life.
The way to God is Christ Jesus. And that's the only way that
is not natural to us. That which is natural to us is
do good and God will receive you. Try to live by the Ten Commandments
and you'll be welcomed by God. But that which is the furthest
from our minds is salvation by the deeds, the work, and the
worth, and the bloodshedding and death of another. That never
enters our minds until the Spirit of God quickens us. And he shows
us that the one we need, the only one who can rescue us, is
the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he goes further into the
second chapter, setting before us the way that God draws us
to himself. The means by which he works in
our hearts is through the Savior. He identifies the Redeemer as
being the head of the church. In fact, he did that toward the
end of chapter 1. You see in chapter 1 verse 21,
due to Christ having finished the work of redemption, He has
been exalted far above all principality, chapter 1 verse 21, and power
and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only
in this world but also in that which is to come, and hath put
all things under His feet. That's the reward of His work
of redemption. and gave Him to be the head over
all things to the church." You see, the church of our Lord Jesus
Christ is likened to the body of Christ. But we only have one
head, and the head of the body is the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is repeated not only in chapter 1, because it says in 22, "...and
hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the
head over all things to the church." But that's also repeated, look
a little bit further over in chapter 5, in verse 23. Our Lord Jesus is the head of
the church. And if you look up the word head,
it means Lord, the Chief, the Ruler, that one who has all authority,
that one through whom the body lives. Look at chapter five in verse
23. For the husband is the head of
the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church. And he is
the savior of the body. There is our Lord Jesus and there
are his people. He's the head, we're His body. What is a body without a head?
It's dead. There's no life. There's no understanding. There's no wisdom. All we find
is in the head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
head. Christ's headship is also mentioned
in a kind of a, I'll call it a twin, book and that's the book
of Colossians 1. Look at Colossians 1. Look at verse 14, in whom, Colossians
1.14, in whom, that is in Christ, we have redemption through His
blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, For by Him
were all things created that are in heaven and that are in
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him
and for Him. And He is before, He has the
priority, He has the preeminence over all things. And by Him,
all things consist, verse 18, and He is the head of the body
of the church. There's one head of the church,
and that's our Lord Jesus Christ. If you've paid any attention
whatsoever to the news of late, the Pope passed away. They referred to him as the head
of the church, as the vicar of the church. as God's representative
on earth. He may be the head of a denomination,
excuse me, he may have been the head of a denomination, but he's
not even in God's church. And I don't wanna be cruel, but
when he passed away, he met a greatly unexpected end. Anybody who worships
Mary, anybody who neglects the Lord Jesus Christ and his work
of redemption, anybody who promotes and preaches a salvation by works
doesn't know a thing about the gospel of God's grace. He's not
the head of the church. To say that any pope is the head
of the church is to say that the pope is the savior of the
church. He can't save anybody. He couldn't
save himself, much less could he save anybody else. And when
they elect a new pope, I was reading this morning of Franklin
Graham, what he had to say about the pope's passing. He said,
let's all pray for the Catholic Church. as they seek a new head. That tells you how much he knows
about the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. To say that the Pope is the head
of the church is to say that he redeemed the church. That's
a falsehood. And I'm not trying to be mean. I'm not trying to be deliberately
uncooperative. But we have, God's preachers
have a responsibility to say what is true and to warn people
of the untruths, the false religion that's out there. Those of you
who have read anything at all of preachers of the gospel from
years gone by know that the Pope was always spoken of as being
the Antichrist. I don't think he is the Antichrist. In fact, I don't think the Antichrist
is going to be a person at all. It's a system and it's operating
in our world right now. It's the system of free willism. It's the system of really anti-Christ
and His work of redemption. It's the system of salvation
by works, salvation by baptism, salvation by decisionism. That's all anti-Christ. False
religion is totally against our Lord Jesus. Was the Pope, and will the next
Pope be the Antichrist? Not the Antichrist, but definitely
Antichrist. Our Lord said, He that is not
with Me is against Me. That's what He said. Anybody who tries to go to God
through Mary is in direct opposition to the Word of God. The Savior
said, do His words mean anything to this generation? The Savior
said, I am the way. Not the Pope, not Catholicism,
not Baptists, not Methodists, not Presbyterians, no earthly
preacher. He said, I'm the way. That's
a definite article. Those of you who have taught
English, that's a specific way, just one way. There are not many
ways. Heard some other preachers say,
let's pray for all faiths. My Bible says there's one Lord
and one faith. It's the faith of God's elect.
It's the belief of salvation all together by grace. Dependent
upon the doing and the dying and the rising again of one person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I'm the way. I don't
know how it could be any clearer than that. I'm the way. I'm the truth. I'm the embodiment
of all truth. And he said, I'm the life. And
then he said this, and he's speaking to Thomas and all of the apostles. He said, no man cometh unto the
father, but by me. Is that clear to you? The Savior couldn't make it any
clearer, I don't think. He's the way to God, he's the
truth of God, and he's the life of God. Make no mistake, if you wanna
talk about the Pope, the Pope who's deceased, or whoever the
next Pope's gonna be, they are the head of Babylon. And in the Bible, listen up now,
in the Bible, The word Babylon is God's name for all false religion. For you see, in the Old Testament,
Babylon was always the enemy of Israel. Babylon was diametrically
opposed to the people of God. So in the New Testament, the
word Babylon is used for all false religion which has set
itself against God, against Christ, and against His people. And you
get to the three chapters of Revelation 17, 18, and the first
part of 19, describes Babylon and then her great fall. when
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the judge of all, casts all of
Babylon into the lake of fire. And then the saints of God, in
the first part of chapter 19, start singing hallelujah. When
the mouths of the final false prophets are shut forever with
their blasphemy, with their anti-Christ false gospel. When every mouth
of every false prophet has been silenced forever, the church
breaks out in singing, hallelujah, praise the Lord. Their mouths
are shut. I would say that the Pope, if
he's the head of anything, he's the head of Babylon. He is Antichrist. He is not the
vicar of Christ. He is not the earthly representative
of Christ. I'm not trying to be mean, and
I'll repeat that. But Roman Catholic doctrine is
deadly. But so is also the doctrine of
most Baptist churches. and Methodist churches and Christian
churches. And you go all the way down the
line because they're really opposed
to salvation altogether of grace. So let this be established. Our
Lord Jesus is the head of his church. Now, what are we to understand
by the word church? The Bible uses various words
to help us understand. The church is, therefore, the
family of God. The family of God. All who are saved by the free
and sovereign grace of God throughout the world constitute the family of God.
If the Lord has brought you to have some understanding of salvation
by grace only, and of the necessity of and the triumph of the death
of the Son of God on our behalf, and the Spirit of God has quickened
you and brought you to cast your soul upon the Lord Jesus Christ
for salvation, recognizing none else could rescue you but Christ. If God has made you to be a believer,
you're of the family of God. You're my brother. You're my
sister. I'm sure there are people who
are watching who love this gospel of substitution and satisfaction,
love the gospel of sovereign grace. I may not even know you,
but men, you're my brothers. Women, you're my sisters, because
we're the family of God. The church is called the kingdom
of God. Because all who are in the family of God bend the knee
to King Jesus. We recognize He's the Royal One. He who laid down His life for
us is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He reigns over all things. He
doesn't need you, you need Him. He's not pleading with you to
let Him come into your heart. If you have any spiritual sense
whatsoever, you'll beg Him, please come in and rule over me. Create
life within me, because Lord, there's only death in me. We're
the kingdom of God. We're the body of Christ. We're
joined to Him. And we're spoken of as being
the whole assembly of the elect of God. We're the true Jerusalem, the
city of peace. We're at peace with God. We were
at enmity with God, but we're at peace with God through the
doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're the true Israel of God. There's much confusion concerning
the meaning of the word church as used in the scriptures. And
almost every religious denomination has this claim, we're the true
church. There's one denomination that
is so brazen it says, we are the church of Christ. And I'm sure you've seen signs
inviting you to the Church of Christ. Well, preacher, what's
wrong with them? They deny the substitutionary
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they say, be baptized and
wash your sins away. Well, that's a work salvation.
You might as well lump them with those who believe Catholic doctrine,
and most Baptists as well. If salvation is by baptism, then
Ephesians chapter two and verse eight, go back over here. If
salvation is by baptism, then verse nine of chapter two,
not of works, lest any man should boast, just do like Thomas Jefferson
did, just cut that verse out. If you can wash your sins away
in the waters of baptism, pray, tell me, why did Christ come? Why did the Son of God willingly
lay down His life and expose Himself to the full vengeance
of the wrath of God? If you can go in the waters of
baptism, and when somebody puts you under the water and brings
you up, if your sins are washed away that way, why was it necessary
that Christ come and die? Somebody tell me that. Baptismal regeneration ranks
right alongside decisional regeneration. It's all wrong. The Bible says salvation is of
the Lord. And you know what? When I read
the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord, that gives me
peace. because God does not look upon
anything I do as being necessary for acceptance with Him and the
removal of my sin. All of my salvation was dependent
upon my representative, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the head of the church. In the New Testament, I'll give
you this and I'm going to continue the message tonight. In the New
Testament, the word church used in three distinct ways. Number one, the word church is
applied to the whole body of God's elect. Turn with me to
Hebrews chapter 12. Look at Hebrews chapter 12. And I'll read two verses, 22
and 23. Hebrews chapter 12, 22 and 23. Before this, he says, you're
not come to a mountain that smoked, a mountain that was quaking.
What's he talking about there? The law of God. That's not the
mountain we've come to. There's no hope in the law of
God. The law of God is good and holy,
but it was given to shut our mouths and make us to see our
guilt. That's why God gave the law.
It's not a means of salvation. It has nothing to do with salvation. It has nothing to do with giving
you life. The law of God was given to you
and to me according to the Word of God to shut our mouths and
it declares unto us we're guilty. We're guilty of sin. We're not
coming to that mountain. You can run to that one if you
want to. But there's no salvation there, there's no peace there,
there's no help there. It just says you're guilty. Well then, what mountain have
we come to? Well, in a way, we've come to
Mount Calvary, right? That's where the work of redemption
was accomplished. But he says here in Hebrews 12,
22, but ye are come unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living
God. Another name for the church.
the heavenly Jerusalem, another name for the church, and to an
innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church
of the firstborn. See, every person in the church,
the elect of God, the redeemed by Christ, the called by the
Spirit, every person in the church is a firstborn member. A firstborn
family member. And the firstborn in the Old
Testament of every family got a double portion. They were especially
blessed. That's all of God's elect. That's
you and me and everybody else who's of the family of God. We've
come to the general assembly and church of the firstborn,
which are written in heaven. Our names are written in heaven.
In the Lamb's Book of Life, written there before the world began,
Revelation 13, verse 8. And to God the Judge of all,
and to the spirits of men made, or having been perfected in Jesus
Christ. This is the church of our Lord
Jesus Christ. It's all true believers of every
age. Old Testament and New Testament.
The very first member of the church of our Lord Jesus Christ
that died was Abel. Abel. And on down the line to
the very last member of the church of our Lord Jesus Christ is born
again and brought to faith in Christ. That's when I believe
the end will come. And then all true believers,
so that's first thing. All true believers of all time.
The second thing is all true believers of the Lord Jesus Christ
in any one given location is called the church. That's why
we have in Romans the Church of Rome, 1 and 2 Corinthians,
the church which is at Corinth, The church of Galatia, the church
of Ephesus, the church of Philippi, the church of Colossae, and on
and on. All true believers of the gospel
in any one location is called the church. This is the Lord's
church, not the building. And I know we say, hey, I'm not
going to fuss at you and say I'm going to church today. I
know what you mean. I ain't going to jump on you
about that. But the fact of the matter is, we are the church. We are the living body of our
Lord Jesus Christ in this immediate location. We're His church. He chose us. He redeemed us.
He called us. We meet together for God's glory. We read His Word. We seek His
face in prayer. We sing hymns that are honoring
to Him. and we hear his gospel. And then thirdly, and for this
I want you to turn to the last chapter of the book of Romans. And maybe sometimes we don't
think of this particular group as being a church of the Lord
Jesus Christ, but it is. The word church is used to describe
a very small number of professing believers in a particular family. Here in chapter 16, Paul is speaking
of Priscilla and Aquila. Aquila the husband, Priscilla
the wife. Look in verse 5 of Romans chapter
16. Likewise, greet the church that is in their house. They
didn't have a church building. They met in their house. Salute my well-beloved Eponitis,
who is the firstfruits of Acacia unto Christ. I feel confident right now watching
by way of the Internet, assuming that our Internet is still up
and running, I feel confident that there are families, maybe just a husband and wife,
maybe a husband and wife and kids, maybe two or three families
gathered together, who love the gospel of grace, and who are
hungry for the Word of God, and they are watching this morning
with ears attuned to hear the right message, with hearts that
beat for the glory of God, longing to honor the Lord Jesus Christ,
just perhaps a husband and wife meeting. Let me tell you something. You're a church, according to
this passage of Scripture. Doesn't it say that? The church
that is in their house. When we were in Honolulu, We
didn't meet in a public building. We met in somebody's house. And
I know there's some people say, well, I want to go to a real
church building. Well, I'm not interested so much
in the building. Hey, I'm thankful for this building.
A lot of people sacrificed quite a bit that we'd have this comfortable
building. Been here, what, 60 years or
maybe more than that. I'm thankful for the building,
but this is not the church. This is where the church gathers
to honor the head of the church, our Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps I'm speaking to an Aquila
and a Priscilla and maybe your children. Just a few folks. And maybe you wonder sometimes,
you know, nobody even knows that we exist. Here we are in our
house with our Bibles open. Well, know this. You're the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you are precious in His sight. He gave His Son to redeem you,
and the same One who gave His Son to redeem you, gave His Son
to redeem us. And when you can't be here with
the rest of the family of God in this area, and you listen
to, you watch a service where Christ is being honored, know
this. God brought you to love the truth
and to find it on the internet. I'll tell you a quick story and
then I'll quit. When I close my Bible, I'm getting
close to quitting. We had, and I'm sure they don't
mind me mentioning this, we had a couple visiting with us Wednesday
night from the upper peninsula of Michigan. David and I had the privilege
to take them out to breakfast Thursday morning. And I asked
him how they came to hear the gospel of the grace of God. And
they were part of a branch of the Lutheran church, which I
forget now. I don't remember. But anyway,
and they were He and a buddy of his were going to a board
meeting. I think that's what they were doing. But anyway,
they had a meeting that night, and this other fellow said, I'll
pick you up such and such a time. So, picked him up. And the guy who was picked up
is Cal, Cal. I said, is that short for California?
He said, no, it's just Cal. I said, is it short for Calvin?
He said, no, it's just Cal. So just count. And so he was telling us that
when this guy picked him up to go to the board meeting, he said,
as soon as I got in the car, he said, I was looking forward
to fellowship. He said, I want you to listen to something. He
said, OK. He said, I'll tell you. This
shook me to my very foundation. And he put in one of those things,
little things that, what No, not a cassette, but whatever
it's called. What? Could be. I don't know. It's just about
this wide and about that long. What is that, Matt? Oh, he doesn't
know either. Anyhow, put it in, and this guy
was preaching up in the upper peninsula, and
Cal said, Who is that? He said, it's a guy by the name
of Henry Mahan. You see how far reaching the
gospel is? It will go where it is needed. And he said, he listened, he
said, that guy's got it. He's got it. Who do you think
worked it out to where The messages of Brother Mahan would wind up
that far away. That's many hundreds of miles
away. The gospel of the grace of God
to sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ, if you are appointed,
ordained to eternal life, that gospel will find you. Because it's the shepherd's voice
that is being set forth. The gospel of grace is the voice
of the shepherd. And now they rejoice in the gospel. In fact, Brother Cal told us,
he said, you know, he found out, that's how he found out about
our church. And listening to me. But he said, I wanted to
meet Brother Mahan. So I drove to Rocky Mount, Virginia,
and he said, did you know he's deaf? I said, yep. I knew he was deaf. Of course,
Brother Mahan's with the Lord. I knew he was deaf. He said I
wanted to talk to him, tell him how much I appreciate the messages.
You see how God used his word. Don't ever despair. The gospel will always be successful. The Lord says he'll send forth
his word. It won't return to him void.
Oh, may God give you an ear to hear and a heart to believe this
true gospel of grace. Well, let's get our songbooks.
Joe isn't here today. That's why I'm kind of filling
in for him up here. Number 298.