If you will, take your Bibles
and open with me to Ephesians 5. Ephesians chapter 5. And while you turn it, let me
make a couple of announcements I've written down here so I won't
forget them. We've cleaned out the closets
and back there on the table where that back door is, there's a
whole bunch of stuff. people need to get, take it somewhere. We ain't got room for it here.
But it's all those things that hangs on the ceiling. And you
can either put them back up on the ceiling or take them home. And there's a couple microwaves
and a whole bunch of other stuff back there. And also, there'll
be a meeting next weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday up at Paul Mahan's up in Rocky Mount,
Virginia. And I know a lot of y'all go
up there and I pray the Lord will bless that meeting. All
right, I'm gonna start reading here in verse 25 and read to
the end of the chapter. Excuse me, verse 23, I'm gonna
start reading verse 23, I'm sorry. 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. Therefore, as the church is subject
unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husband, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that
he might sanctify it and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word, that he might present it to himself, a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. but that it should
be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives
as of their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. For no man ever yet hated his
own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it, even as the Lord
the Church. For we are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and
they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let
every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself,
and the wife see that she reverence her husband." I also wanted to
You can tell the floor's been laid out there in the kitchen.
Everything's ready. I get the floor mopped and I
appreciate all the work that everybody's done. Now we just
need to wait till the cabinets get here and put in the appliances. These fellas have been moving
on with it. Now turn with me back to Ephesians 5 and look
with me in verse 30. Ephesians 5, verse 30. Ephesians
5, verse 30. We are members of His body, of
His flesh, and of His bones. The title of my message this
morning is The Living, Loving, Lasting Union We Have With Our
Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostles stating an indisputable
fact that true believers Souls that's been quickened, saved
by the grace of God, and made alive under God, all of them
are members of Christ. Ain't that what it says? We're
members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. Sin separated
us from God, and the Lord Jesus, in undoing what sin had done,
joins us unto Himself, He joins us unto Himself more real than
any other relationship in this world, than any other in this
world. This union that He's talking
about, us being members of His body, of His flesh and of His
bones, is very, very near and very dear and very complete.
So we're nearer to Christ and nearer to God that we cannot
be than in God's Holy Son. We just can't be any nearer than
that. And so dear to Christ we cannot be than dear are we right
now. That's why Paul said, I'm crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet it's not I that live, but
it's Christ that lives in me. And the life I'm living right
now in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved
me. And it's a union more intimate
than any that ever exists among men in this world. Our Lord said
it like this. Greater love hath no man than
a man lay down his life for his friends. We were his enemies
when he died for us. We were without strength, we
were without hope, we were without God, and we were sinners when
Christ came to die for us. When he came to save us and make
us one with himself, And he did this that our life would come
from him, come from him, and that our life should be hid with
him in God. And the Lord Jesus himself made
this union and established this union. We didn't do it. We didn't
do it. We didn't join ourselves to the
Lord. He joined himself to us and made us members of his body. And one old hymn writer said,
oh, sacred union, firm and strong. how great the grace, how sweet
the song, that worms of earth should ever be, one with incarnate
deity. And I'll rejoice, I'll rejoice
in the blessed truth that the Lord Jesus Christ and His elect,
His people, are everlastingly one, everlastingly one. And the union of the believer
with the Lord Jesus Christ is set forth in many, many ways
in the scriptures. Lots of ways in the scripture.
And I want to talk about just a few of them this morning for
a little while, and I pray the Lord will be pleased to bless
it. The union between Christ and His people as described,
first of all, is described as a union of a foundation and a
stone. You know, look with me over,
you keep Ephesians, and look with me over in 1 Peter, chapter
2. 1 Peter, chapter 2. You know, Christ is the foundation,
and no other foundation can be laid than that which is laid,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're laid on that foundation. We're built on the foundation
of Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. And look
what Peter says here in verse 4 and 5. To whom coming as unto
a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, But this stone is chosen
of God, this living stone is chosen of God and precious. Now
listen to this. You also as lively stones or
living stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to
offer up spiritual sacrifices accepted acceptable God by Jesus
Christ, wherefore is also contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay
in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that
believeth on him shall not be confounded. You therefore which
believe, he is precious. And you see, he's the foundation,
and we're built on him, and we're joined to him. All my hope on
thee is stayed, all my hope from thee I bring. And as we talk
about stones resting, and the stone, all the stones are joined
to that chief cornerstone, and the stones does not lay themselves,
and they rest upon the stone upon the foundation itself. It
lays there and it rests. And I tell you in Ephesians 2,
let me show you this. Ephesians 2, 20 and 21, right
there where we are. You know, the stone is one with
the foundation and its dependence. You know, the weight of the stones
that's on the foundation rests upon that stones. We rest upon
the stones. We rest upon our Lord Jesus Christ. And over in Exodus, in Deuteronomy,
when they was fixing to build the tabernacle, and they was
going to build the, no, excuse me, I'll get it right in a minute.
In Numbers, they going to build the temple. It says that no hand
should touch the stones. No hand should touch the stones.
And our Lord Jesus Christ, He's the foundation. And the Lord
comes along and He puts us on Him. And we're joined to Him
and we rest on Him. The stone rests on the foundation.
And look what Paul says here in Ephesians 2.20. and are built
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, listen to this,
Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone in whom all the building
fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord. And you're built upon him. And
our weight rests upon him. The heavier our hearts, the weaker
we are, the more we rest our weight upon him, the more we
put all of our weight on him. And another thing about being
on this stone, we're built upon Christ. There's no other foundation
that we can build upon other than the Lord Jesus Christ. The
stone is one with the foundation as it's joined together. You
know, the longer a foundation stands and the longer it's together,
the stronger it gets. And we know that the cornerstone
and the foundation that God laid is right, it's strong, it's powerful. and we join to the Lord Jesus
Christ in our bond, our cement is his love to us and our love
to him. And the years just bind us stronger
and stronger and stronger to this foundation. That's why we're
persuaded that nothing will be able to separate us from the
love of God that's in Christ Jesus. Life or death, angels
or principalities or powers to things present or things to come.
Nothing is going to separate us. Do you know why? Because
we are joined to Christ. We are joined to Christ and the
cement that binds us together to Christ is His love to us.
And the stone is worn with the foundation, the stone that God
puts in the foundation. And all of us as we are joined
to the Lord Jesus Christ, built on Him as living stones, is one
with the foundation in God's purpose and God's design. God
designed and purposed this foundation. The architect, the great architect,
our Lord Jesus Christ, God himself, planned it that way and everything
in the building is placed in a particular place and is put
there by God himself. God's seen all the elect in the
Lord Jesus Christ and his purpose. And He is building a temple to
have the praise of the glory of His blessed grace. And every
stone that's put in God's, in our Lord Jesus Christ and built
on that foundation, God put every single one of them there. They're
all necessary to His building. And every stone is significant
because we're members of His body, of His flesh and of His
bones. And a temple and the foundation that's laid in that temple is
our Lord Jesus Christ, and we're laid on that foundation. And
anybody that's not on that foundation is on sinking sand. Is on sinking
sand. And wherever God places us, and
it bless His name, wherever He places us, we're joined to the
Lord, and this is what's so blessed. No one has the preeminence over
anybody else. We're all stones. We're all put
on the foundation. And so no one has the preeminence
over it. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
chief cornerstone, and then he's the foundation on which God lays
us. Nobody has preeminence over anybody else. And then look over
in John 15. Look in John 15. Here's another
union that we have with our Lord Jesus Christ. So many places
in the scriptures talks about our union with the Lord Jesus.
And here's one, the vine and the branches. The vine and the
branches. That's why you see it, everything,
this shows us the salvations of the Lord from start to finish.
We didn't save ourselves, we didn't put ourselves in the body,
we didn't put ourselves in the stone and on the foundation,
we didn't put ourselves in the vine. Our Lord said, I'm the
true vine and my father is the husband. Every branch in me that
beareth not fruit, he takes it away. And every branch that beareth
fruit, he purges it, he chastises it, that it may bring forth more
fruit. Now you are clean through the
word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you,
as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in
the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine,
you are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me you
can do nothing. You can do nothing. And so the
vine and the branches, a living union. Here you know, here we
have this living union. The vine is our Lord Jesus Christ. We're just the branches in the
vine. And you know, when we talk about this union, the branches,
where do they get their life from? They get it from the vine.
And so our life comes from somebody else. It comes from the vine.
Our life comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a life derived
from the vine. The branch derives its life from
the branch. We receive life from Him and
we continue every moment that we live, we get our life and
receive our life from Him. And I'll tell you another thing,
you know, about this consequences of being joined to the vine.
The vine grows. and the consequence of the life
that we have in Christ, we grow. He makes us grow to the praise
of the glory of his grace. And not only that, but beloved,
he says that the vine bears fruit and the branches bear fruit.
And fruit bearing is the ultimate end of our union with Christ,
that we bear fruit. You know, he says that there's
three levels of fruit, 30%, 60%, 100%. And I don't know, I've never
met anybody that had 100%. You know, I don't even, I don't
even know that I draw, I have 30% or whatever they say, 30,
30 fold, I guess what you'd say. But I do know this, that our
Lord Jesus Christ says, every branch in me beareth forth fruit.
Said he beareth fruit. And you know what the fruit is?
It's not us going out here witnessing for Jesus. It's not us wearing
things on our lapels. It's not us putting stickers
on our cars. It's not us wearing crosses. It's not us carrying
a Bible with me everywhere we go so everybody know we're Christian.
But fruit bearing is, when we talk about fruit, we're bearing
the fruit of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Love, joy, peace, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, Against such there is no law. And this
fruit bearing is the ultimate end of it. Ain't that what our
Lord Jesus Christ said? Every branch in me that beareth
fruit. And if the man doesn't bear any
fruit, it's evident that he's not joined to the vine. And you
know what God does to them? Just cuts him off. When you see
people leave the gospel, you see people walk away from the
grace of God, you see people live in Christ and not interested
in the gospel, God just, they just go. And you know, why do
they leave? I don't know. I guess they didn't
love the gospel. And that's what happens if you
don't bring forth fruit. God just, that's why Paul said,
I don't want to be a castaway. I don't want to preach the gospel
and then be a castaway. And then let me show you another
one over here in Ephesians five, where we were at. The vine and
the branches, a living union, that's a living union. Joined
to Him, we derive our life from the Lord Jesus Christ. And then
here's the union of a husband and a wife. Look what it says
in Ephesians 5.23. Here's the union of a husband
and a wife, and the only reason that God gave this union, this
marriage, is to show us our union with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what the union, that's what the marriage is about. It's about
being joined and becoming one. And as we are joined to Christ,
we become one. And ain't that what he says here
in verse 23? For the husband's the head of
the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church. And Christ
is the savior of the body. He saves the whole body. And
then down in verse 28, he says it like this. So ought men to
love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife
loveth himself. And no man ever yet hated his
own body or his own flesh. But he nourishes his flesh and
he cherishes his flesh. And this is the way the Lord
Jesus Christ nourishes us and cherishes us. For we are members
of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause,
Shall a man leave his father and mother and wife, and shall
be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh?
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and
the church. Nevertheless, let every one of
you in particular so love his wife even as himself, and the
wife see that she reverends her husband." Now here is a union,
not just of love, a life, but also of love. Here's a life,
we got it in the vine, but here's a union of love. Love and life
go together because of God's love for us. God sent life in
his blessed son and he sent a life and he gave us this life in his
blessed son. And because of that, he sent
life and because of life, we now love because he made us one
with himself. And that's what he talks about
us having this union. And that's what he says. He said,
you know, The Lord cherishes his body even as a man cherishes
his own. And as a man is to love his wife,
Christ loves the church even more than that. The union between
our Lord Jesus Christ and his people is also set forth here
as that of the head and the members. Ain't that what he says in verse
30? In verse 23, he's the head of the church. He's the Savior of the body.
And it says down, we're members of His body and of His flesh
and of His bones. He's the head. We're just the
members of His body. And the first figure that I used,
the first thing that I used was the foundation stone. That gives
us this blessed truth of rest. We rest on Christ. The stone
rests on the stone. And the second is the vine and
the branches. That's our life. Joined to Christ.
He's our life. In the third, the union of a
husband and a wife, then we have this blessed truth of God's love,
this blessed truth of love. And here we have identity. We
have identity with the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, in a husband
and a wife, there's two. There's supposed to be one, but
there's two. There's two lives, a husband
and wife. But there's only one life, one life in the head and
the body. And this shows us the true, true
relation of our Lord Jesus Christ and His people more than any
other. In a marriage, there's two people and that God intends
us to be one. But in this union that we have
with Christ, the members of His body and Him, the head of that
body, just one person, just one person. And it's an everlasting
union. And you cannot separate the body
from the head. If you do, you don't have a body
or you don't have a head either one. And so it's a perpetual
union. We have a oneness with our Lord
Jesus Christ. It's an everlasting union. And
He can't be without the members of His body. He cannot be without
members of His body. He just can't do that. You know,
Jimmy Swagger said long ago, I remember him saying this, that
the body of Christ has a cancer and needs healing. Ain't nothing
wrong with the body of Christ. Never has been, never will be.
You know why? It's His body. You reckon he's
got a blemish in his body? What does he say here? He says
that he's going to present it to himself a glorious church
without spot, without wrinkle, or any such thing. There's nothing
wrong with the body of Christ. There's things wrong with us
personally, but not the body of Christ. Not the one that he's
the head over. And he cannot be without the
members of his body. And as members of His body, of
His flesh and His bones, we have this union of life, this relationship
of union and service. The head never, never, never,
ever worries about its own body. I mean, you know, if my hand
is not concerned with my body, my head, excuse me, my hand is
not concerned with my head. My head tells my hand what to
do. And that's the way it is with
Christ. We're the body and He was the one that tells us as
this body how to move and how to function. There's no deliberation
or discussion in what my hand's going to do or my foot's going
to do. I don't have to stop and think about it. What's my hand
going to do? What's this one going to do?
What's my foot going to do? I don't have to think about those
things. The head does it for me. And Christ is that way as
we're joined to Him. And I tell you what, we're one
with Him. One with Him. You know, it's
like if you're falling, if you start to fall, your hand will
always try to keep its head from hitting the bottom, hitting the
concrete, hitting the floor or whatever it is. Somebody strikes
at you and the first thing you do is you put your hand up to
protect your head. And that's the way we as believers
do with our Lord Jesus Christ. We do everything we can to protect
and honor our blessed head, the Lord Jesus Christ. We save him, we put up our arms,
we put up our minds, we put up our words, save him from being
shamed. We don't want him to be despised
on our account. We don't want his gospel to be
insulted or derided because of us. We don't want His blessed
person dishonored. We protect our head. We honor
our head. And we want our head to be honored
in such a way that we don't want to dishonor it by how we act
in this world, what we say in this world, what we do to one
another in this world. We are so one with our Lord Jesus
Christ, when one strikes at our head, our hand goes up to protect
His blessed honor and His glory. And also, between the head and
the members of our Lord Jesus Christ when He says we are members
of His bones, body of His flesh and His bones. There is a union
of feeling. We actually feel. You know, it
says, so look over here in 1 Corinthians 12. This explains it better than
I could ever say it. Ephesians 12, excuse me, 1 Corinthians
12, 26. When there's a member of the
body hurting, the whole body feels it. The whole body feels
it. Ain't that what he says here? And whether one member suffer,
all the members suffer with it. If my finger gets hurt bad, then
my whole body feels it. My whole body feels it. If my
foot gets hurt or my ear gets hurt, any part of my eye gets
hurt, it affects the whole body. And then if one member's honored,
Christ is honored, and one member's honored, the whole members are
honored with it and rejoice with it. Now you are the members of
Christ and body of Christ and members in particular. And I
tell you, that's what happens when, you know, if one part of
our body starts hurting, the whole body feels it. And our Lord Jesus Christ especially
suffers with the members of His body. One hand may not suffer with
the other hand, but the head suffer with both. Our Lord Jesus
Christ suffers. He said He's touched with the
feelings of our infirmities. And Isaiah 63, 9, I hope I can
preach from this one of these days, where it says that in all
of our afflictions, He was afflicted. In all of our afflictions, He
was afflicted. And our Lord Jesus Christ, in
every affliction we bear, everything that we go through, our Lord
Jesus Christ was afflicted. In all our afflictions, He was
afflicted. And when this body suffers, He
suffers with the body. He suffers with the members.
And this is one thing that if we understood more of this, you're
talking about more love and more understanding and less criticism
and less judgment. and less judgmental attitudes
and things like that. If we understood that how we
are to one another affects our head, affects our Lord Jesus
Christ, we'd be a whole heapsight different to one another. We'd
be much more, much more understanding. When we understand that how we
are, we're members of His body, and we have two members that's
not in union, not feeling right, not going together, then it affects
our head. It affects our head. And then
it's a union not only of feeling. He actually feels with us. And
it's a union of necessity. It's necessary that the head
have a body. It's necessary that the head
has a body. He's got to have his body. Our
Lord Jesus has to have it. What would a head be without
a body? What would a Redeemer be without
the redeemed? What would a living Christ be
with no one to live by His life? The Lord Jesus with His body
would be incomplete. The Lord Jesus without His body
would be incomplete. And you know that can't be right.
The church, which is His body, is the fullness of Him that filleth
all. And boy, I tell you what, if the Lord Jesus ain't got a
body, then there's no reason for Him to come. He's the head
of the body, the church. And between the Lord and His
people, there's a union of possession. He actually possesses the body.
And I tell you, let me put it this way. Nothing belongs to
my head, the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't belong to my hand.
Whatever belongs to Christ, my head, belongs to my hand. Both
of my hands. Belongs to me. Belongs to my
head. Whatever belongs to my head belongs
to me. What belongs to Christ belongs
to believers. Is he rich? We're rich. Is he
powerful? We get our strength and power
from him. His Father is our Father. His
heaven is our heaven. What He has belongs to us. Everything
that He has belongs to us. We are the members of His body
and as we are members of His body, whatever the head has,
whatever He possesses, how wealthy He is, then we have it. It belongs
to us too. And then, oh, what a union of
recognition. God says, This is My beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. God delights in His Son, rejoices
in His Son. He says, this is my beloved Son.
And not only that, but He delights in those that are in Him. He
delights in those that are in Him. I've said this so many times
and you know it. As God views us, He don't view
us as we are. He views us as in Christ. How can He view us as in Christ?
Because we're His body. He is as pleased with us as He
is with His own blessed Son. For when He sees us, He sees
us in Christ and Christ in us. And then let me give you the
last thing here. The last thing, look back here
in verse 27 of chapter 5, Ephesians 5. There's a union of future,
future, we have a union of future destiny or predestination, whichever
way you want to put it. He says that He's going to present
it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Huh? Whatever our Lord is to
be in eternity, that's what we're going to be. He said here He's
going to present His body without a spot, without a blemish. Nothing
wrong with it. Well, you know, He said without
wrinkle. Most of us got wrinkles. Not all of us, but some of us
got some wrinkles. There ain't gonna be no wrinkles
in the body of Christ. There ain't gonna be a perfect
body. There ain't gonna be no age in the body of Christ when
he comes to take us home. Ain't that what he said? Ain't
gonna present to himself glorious church. Not having spot or wrinkle. And oh, we're gonna share in
everything that Christ is. Can we possibly die while our
Lord Jesus Christ lives? Can the waters that come over
us, the waters of trial, can they overflow us unless they
overflow our head? No. How can our future, how can
our future be bleak when the Son of Righteousness belongs
to us and is over us? And we can't be conquered We
can't be conquered because Christ in Christ, we always triumph.
Then we're united to Him in the purpose of God. He said, because
I live, you shall live also. And I got this, I forget where
I got it from, but I wrote it down. We are so one with Him
that when the sun becomes burnt out coal, and the moon is turned
into a clot of blood, When the stars fall as the leaves of autumn,
and heaven and earth shall melt away, going back into nothing,
from which omnipotence hath called it, you shall live, for he shall
live who is your head. And when this world is gone and
nothing, we'll still be in our head, and we'll still be the
body of Christ eternally. Father, in the blessed name of
Christ, thank you for allowing us this privilege, this glorious
opportunity to speak of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though we cannot
begin to address, deal with the blessed truths, with the love
and earnestness that it deserves, but Lord, nevertheless, it's
the truth. We ask you to bless the word, bless the truth today. And God strengthen you, blessed
people. Meet the needs of this body of Christ. this local assembly,
this local body. Lord, help us to always consider
you as our head and do nothing, nothing to bring shame or dishonor
to you. In your blessed name we pray.
Amen. Amen.