While you're turning to the fourth
chapter of Ephesians, I want to read something to you. Those
of you who are signed up to receive Brother Jeff Schwinn's Grace
Gems every day, had this quote from John Newton in your inbox
this morning. It was written about 250 years
ago, but it could not be more applicable if it had been written
this afternoon. Newton wrote, the whole system
of my politics is summed up in this one verse. The Lord reigneth,
let the people tremble. The times, Newton wrote, look
awfully dark indeed. And as the clouds grow thicker,
the stupidity of the nation seems proportionally to increase. If the Lord had not a remnant
here, I would have very formidable apprehensions. But he loves his
children. Some are sighing and mourning
before him, and I'm sure he hears their sighs and sees their tears. I trust there is mercy in store
for us at the bottom. But I expect a shaking time before
things get into the right channel, before we're humbled and are
taught to give him the glory. The state and the nation, he
continues, the state of the nation and of the churches rather, both
are deplorable. The nation and the churches,
deplorable. I can't think of a better way
to describe the nation in which we live. and the churches of
this nation. Deplorable, deplorable, deplorable. Those who should be praying are
disputing and fighting among themselves. Alas, how many professors
are more concerned for the mistakes of government than for their
own sins. Hallelujah, for the Lord God
omnipotent reigneth. I can think of no better way
to introduce my message for this evening than that. I want to
talk to you about Christ Our Head. Christ Our Head. My text is Ephesians chapter
four and verse 15. In this chapter, the Apostle
Paul is anxious to promote unity among all true believers. To
him, there seemed to be no surer way to secure that unity than
to convince us that all believers are members of one mystical body
with one head, Jesus Christ the Lord. He begins this chapter
by saying, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord. Or as you read in
the margin, the prisoner in the Lord. At the beginning of chapter
three, he calls himself the prisoner of Jesus Christ. Though he was
a prisoner to Roman government, Paul looked upon himself as a
prisoner of Jesus Christ. Christ was the warden. Christ
was the guard. Christ was the prison from which
Paul could make no escape and wanted no escape. He was the
prisoner of Jesus Christ, blessed security. No matter whether he
were standing at liberty or whether he were in prison, no matter
whether he were among friends or among foes, he said, I am
the prisoner of Jesus Christ. A prisoner, yet a fully free
man. He says, I therefore the prisoner
of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation
wherewith you're called. What is the necessity for this
admonition? What necessitates such an appeal
as this? That you walk worthy of the vocation
wherewith you're called. You who are fathers and have
lived long enough to raise your children to their teen years
and they begin to get out and mingle more than you really are
ready for them to get out and mingle. on their own more than
you're ready for them to get out on their own. And you, before
you let them out of your sight, and a crowd of other teenagers
who are as insane as those teenagers with which you were raised, before
you let them out of sight, you warn them how to behave. Not as one who stands in austerity
and harshness over them, but as one who understands what they're
about to face, what they're about to deal with
because you've been there. Paul doesn't here stand on the
pinnacle of self-righteous assurance and look down with harshness
upon God's church, but rather he speaks as one identifying
with God's church. And he makes this appeal to walk
worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called. Because this man
understood that you and I, who are God's people, true believers,
often are far too careless regarding our walk, regarding the way we
live, regarding the way we behave. And I don't mean to imply that
in any way, with regard to things that people in the religious
world generally speak of those things. Paul speaks here with
a deep sense of identity, because those who know most about themselves
in the experience of God's grace, by the teaching of God the Holy
Ghost, are most conscious of their own faults, failures, and
follies. He says, with all loneliness
and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love.
Now this is what he's talking about. Walking worthy of our
high and holy calling of God in Christ Jesus. How lacking
we all are in this matter. We are, every one of us, every
one of us, I'm not talking to folks who aren't here, I'm just
talking to this congregation right here tonight. Bobby Estes
and Don Fortner, Bill Raleigh, you ladies, you men, I'm talking
to you. We are, every one of us, no exceptions, horribly lacking
in this matter. We're all far too quick to catch
the failings, the falls, and the iniquities of others while
we're too quick to excuse our own wickedness and ungodliness.
We're far too severe with others and far too lenient with ourselves.
We ought to reverse that. In our judgment, we ought to
always be severe with ourselves and lenient with our brethren.
The apostle describes it in Romans two this way, accusing or else
excusing one another. That means we excuse in ourselves
the very things we accuse and condemn in others. We're quick
to rebuke, quick to set in judgment over others while we carefully
screen and cover up our own wretchedness and evil deeds. That should never,
never be the case. As we're brought by God the Holy
Spirit to know our own sin, and to know that our standing before
God is altogether a matter of grace flowing to us through the
blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior,
we ought to delight to be forbearing, gracious, kind, and forgiving
in love. Forbearing one another in love. That is, let there be no lording
over God's heritage. but kindness, tenderness, patience,
forbearance, long-suffering. Oh God, teach me to bridle my
thoughts and to bridle my tongue. in all things to speak and think
in a edifying manner of his people. Now look at the next line. Endeavoring,
endeavoring. I like that word. I like that
word. Paul doesn't say we must keep
the unity of the spirit, but that we ought to try. We ought
to earnestly strive to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond
of peace. That is, we ought to each We
constantly strive to esteem other better than ourselves. Brother
Rex Bartley said something to me Sunday night back in the office
about something clearly revealed in scripture. He said, that's
easier said than done. And before he left, I said to
him, Rex, everything with regard to this matter of walking by
faith in Christ, everything, every part of it, is indescribably
easier said than done. It's easier said than done. But
it is our business, our responsibility, and ought to be our earnest desire
and delight, each to esteem other better than himself or herself. We ought to strive not for the
highest place, but willingly take our place in the lowest
of the low in God's family. That Christ alone may be exalted
and his name glorified. And Paul then gives us a marvelous
reason why we should do so. He says, you're just, you're
one in Christ. You're one with Christ. Look at what it says
in verses four, five, and six. Here's great reason to be forbearing
and kind and loving with one another, endeavoring to keep
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Because there's
one body and one Spirit, even as you're called in one hope
of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and
Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.
I sat and looked at those verses for the longest time preparing
this message. I can think of nothing more profound, nothing
more mysterious, nothing more difficult, I might say impossible,
for us while we live on this earth to comprehend than the
unity, the union of God's elect with Christ and with one another
in Him. I just, I can't find words to
express it, but God can. Here, the Apostle Paul, writing
by divine inspiration, declares this most profound of divine
revelations with one word, one. Just one, just one. There's one
body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God, just one, just one. Now it's the pastor's work to
seek constantly the edifying of the body of Christ. To this
end, our Lord Jesus put each of us in our place in his body
and gave his church the regularly established ministry of the gospel.
And that's what Paul describes in verses 7 through 11. It should
be the relentless business of every gospel preacher to pursue
the edifying, the building up of the body of Christ. That is
the building up of the family of God. As you raise your sons
and daughters, A father who cares for his family is anxious to
see them grow and mature and become men, to grow and mature
and become young ladies. That's every father's desire.
I recall well, when our daughter graduated from college, actually
her second year in college, the first year she left to go to
school, she graduated from high school She and Shelby had a ball,
just boo-hooed. I about got started and so I
went upstairs and left them. I went upstairs and left them.
And Shelby Faith went off to school and she came home. She
came home every Friday night. She'd get off work five o'clock,
six o'clock. You could start tracking her through the house
wherever she dropped her clothes. It's amazing how things change. She
never did that when she was living at home. But to this day, She's
45 years old now. To this day, she'll hit me when
she, no, she won't hit me, I'm just joking. She'll not like
me saying it. But when she comes home now,
to this day, I can tell you where she is. All you gotta do is just
follow the trail, because she dropped stuff everywhere. Dropped
stuff everywhere. But she came home every Friday, every Friday.
Sunday afternoon, she'd leave and go back. And then the next
fall, she left to go back to school. And she didn't bawl,
and Shelby didn't bawl, and I thought I was gonna bawl myself to death.
I said to Shelby, I said, she'll never live home again. Shelby
said, oh yeah, she'll be back when school's over, back in the
spring. I'd never again. I said, she's as independent
as you and I both are, and she will never live in this house
again, I promise you. And she never has. And that's
painful. Oh, that's painful. But delightful. Oh, how delightful. She grew
up to be a mature, well-established lady. Mature, well-established
wife. Mature, well-established mother. That's what we wanted all along.
That's the ambition and the purpose of the faithful gospel ministry
God has established for his people in this world. It is our business
and responsibility to be always speaking the truth in love so
that we may all grow up in him in all things, which is the head,
even Christ. And then Paul tells us that he,
the Lord gave us this ministry for this purpose in verses 12
through 15, for the perfecting of the saints, the edifying of
the body of Christ. Here God, the Holy Spirit tells
us that our Savior's reason for establishing the ministry, a
standing ministry in his church, and he has always had it and
always will. He has established a standing
ministry in his church so that his church always has his messengers
through every part of the world in all the ages of time and will
have until the end. because nothing can accomplish
this great goal except the ministry of the gospel. God saves sinners
by the preaching of the gospel, and God teaches and corrects
and nourishes and grows his people by the preaching of the gospel,
so that he gathers us together in this place, gathers us together
as the house of God, the assembly of God's saints, and he meets
with us. And when he does, oh, when he
meets with us, there's no leanness, no lack, but only life and pleasantness
and vitality. The body is edified when the
good will of him that dwelt in the bush dwells in our midst. Now, we get to verse 15. It is by the preaching of the
gospel that God causes his people to grow up into him in all things,
which is the head, even Christ. Now this is a matter of significance. Christ, our head. Paul mentions
it three times in the six chapters of the book of Ephesians. He
mentions the same thing twice in his epistle to the Colossians.
He's telling us, you need to understand. I need to understand. We need to always have this in
mind. Christ is our head. And he who is our head is the
head of all things to the church. He's the head of all principality
and power to the church. He's the head of all nations
to the church. He's the head of all people to
the church. He's the head of all things to
the church. He's the head of every king,
every ruler, every politician, every power, every authority
to the church. Christ is the head of everything
and he who is the head of everything is distinctly our head. the head of his body, the church. What does that mean? What's the
significance? Now I remind you when I speak
of the church, the word church simply means assembly. And we
live in this area where there's all kinds of landmark fellows
of one degree or another, and they spell badness with a capital
big B written in bold letters, and they think badness are the
only church. And they're the nearest thing to not being a
church you can imagine in New Testament terms. But the word
church, doesn't refer just to a local assembly like this. We
are a local assembly. But the word church assembly
speaks of that assembly of the whole host of God's elect, of
every chosen, redeemed, called sinner, everyone who believes
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Both those who are in heaven
and those who are on the earth, wherever they're found, in all
the ages of time, both the Old Testament and the New Testament,
in the first century and in the 21st century, the Church of God
is one. One. I know folks get upset and
say, well, Faulkner teaches that all the churches go together
and make up one big church. Anybody who ever heard Fortner
say anything about church knows that's not so. That's just not
so. I do mean for you to understand
that every saved sinner is a part of one church called the General
Assembly and Church of the Firstborn in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse
22. We are all one in Christ Jesus
the Lord. Oh, how blessed is that company
of redeemed sinners who can call the Son of God their head. I can think of no more dark, foreboding, miserable election
day than this day in my lifetime. I can't think of one worse. I can't think of a time when
things were any worse. The results the last two times
were just as bad as what the results are gonna be this time,
no matter who gets elected. The results were just as bad
then. This man who's in the White House now has got to be the worst
president the world has ever known. And I hope the whole world
hears I said that. Absolutely the worst the world's
ever known of any kind anywhere. Just the absolute worst president.
But we got, this is the first time in my lifetime that I can
recall when Shelby and I went and voted weeks ago. I consider it a matter of responsibility
and privilege. But I kind of felt like Charles
Krauthammer said in one of his comments a few weeks ago. He
said, when you go to the polling booth this time, the voting booth,
he said, you better hope there's a shower there, because you're
going to feel dirty. That's a pretty good way to describe it. You
just feel dirty. You feel dirty. And I find consolation
and I have throughout the whole process in this one thing. Jesus Christ our God and Savior
is head of all things. And he sets whom he will in the
high places of the earth for his church, for the saving of
his elect. for the blessedness of His chosen,
for the increase of His kingdom, for the glory of His name. And He graciously, wisely manipulates
them in their thinking and in their deeds to accomplish His
good purpose of grace for His chosen. And let me try to raise
and answer three or four questions with regard to this matter of
Christ's headship. What is meant by Christ being our head? When
the scriptures tell us that Christ is our head, what does that mean?
It means that he is perfectly, totally competent as our head. Our Lord Jesus Christ is our
sovereign, supreme head. head of all things. The triune God has made Him the
God-man, our mediator, to be head over all things, both by
right as God He is such, but He has earned the right to rule
over all flesh by His obedience unto death as our substitute.
Because of the things he accomplished for us, when he came here in
our nature, descending from heaven into the dark, deep, dark parts
of the earth, in the womb of the virgin, and finally descending
into the very wrath of God, into the very pit of the dam as our
substitute, the Lord Jesus then ascended up into heaven as head
over all things to the church, ruling everything as our competent
mediator. As God made Christ the head of
all things, our Lord Jesus Christ is that one that we each who
believe him make to be head of all things
in our lives by our willful consent. Now that's easier said than done.
That's easier said than done. But blessed be his name. He knows
how to make us willing to bow. He knows how to make us willing
to bow. I just caught Brother Bill Raleigh's
eye, all the pain that you and Vicki went through when Tony
was a baby. I wept with you. And I watched
Him make you willing to bow. And you never would if He didn't
make you willing to bow. Is that so? That's just the way
it is. Oh, thank God. He makes us willing
to make Him the head of our loves. the head of our desires, the
head of our hearts, the head of our wills, the head of our
ambitions, the head of our delights, so that he is that one of whom
we speak like David and say, whom have I in heaven but thee,
and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. In
all things, the Lord Jesus is a suitable head for us. In order
to be our substitute, in order to suffer the wrath of God in
our stead. The Lord Jesus had to take on
himself our nature. He had to become one of us, so
that he came here and took on him the seed of Abraham. He took
on him the nature of fallen man without sin. He took on him our
nature, that nature of mortality that had no sin. He came into
our nature that he might live as one of us all the age of a
full life and suffer everything we suffer. Brother Don, how can you suggest
that he suffered everything that any of his people in this world
suffer? Read the book of God and then
tell me something any of us suffer in this world he didn't endure. Tell me something. And he did
this so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, so that he might be touched with our infirmities
and thereby be able to succor those who are troubled, tried,
tempted. He who sits yonder on the throne
of the universe He helps with sympathy, his children
in this world. He helps with compassion, you
who are his while we live in this world. Our Lord Jesus, being
our merciful and faithful high priest, supplies us with everything
we need, with grace, with forgiveness, with our daily provision, guides
us in all our ways, guides us with his eye, protects us as
the apple of his eye, and when he's done, he will give us glory
as well as grace. And all this while, touched with
the feeling of our infirmity. So he bids us, to come boldly
to the throne of grace. Come to Him, come to Him, child
of God, with whatever care you have, with whatever need you
have, come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. In all their afflictions,
He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them. In
his love and pity, he redeemed them and bare them and carried
them all the days of old. But that's not all. That's not
all. Our Lord has put himself in such union with us and is
so identified with us that those things we enjoy, and benefit
from, those things that make us happy, that cause us to rejoice,
our Lord takes as being done to himself. You remember Matthew
25? He says to those on his right
hand, he said, I was hungry and you fed me. I was naked and you
clothed me. I was thirsty and you gave me
something to drink. And they say, Lord, when did we do that?
He said, inasmuch you've done it unto the least of these my
children. You've done it to me. So that
he takes anything done against us as being done against him
and anything done for us as being done for him because we are one
with him who is our head. He is the head of the church
who is the savior of the body. And being our head, he is a complete
perfect 10. There are many ways in which
he feels this, but let me give you just one or two. First, Christ
is our representative. He's our representative. When
you count up a bunch of people in one place, and somebody's
to see you doing this, say, Brother Don, what you doing? Counting
heads. What's that mean? I'm counting the people here.
Well, how do you say counting people? That's the same thing.
That's hard to count heads without counting people. And the Lord
God deals with us in all things in one head. in one head, in
Christ Jesus the Lord. Read Romans chapter five. So
that when our Lord lived, we lived. When he obeyed, we obeyed. When he died, we died. When he
arose, we arose. When he sat down in heaven, we
sat down in heaven with him. One with him. He is our representative
head. That one in whom we have life
and acceptance with God. He is the head. in a mystical
vital sense. Paul explains it in Ephesians
4 verse 16, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and
compacted by that which every joint supply according to the
effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase
of the body under the edifying of itself in love. What's that
mean? So real is this wondrous union
that we have with Christ, that He can't be separated from us
and we can't be separated from Him. We're one with Him, really
and truly one with Him. We are the fullness of His body. who filleth all in all, so that
without his people, without even one of his people, without even
one member of his body, he is not complete as the God-man,
our mediator. And without him, we are nothing,
have nothing, and can do nothing. Paul says you're dead, and your
life is hid with Christ in God. That one who is Our head. Being our head is the one who
is our governor. Somehow or another, by the impulses
that go on inside here, by the impulses that go on inside here,
I know it's time to get up. And I know it's time to go to
bed. And by the impulses going on in here, I know it's time
to eat. By the impulses going in here, I know it's time to
take a drink of water. By the impulses going on in the
head, I'm gonna walk down that aisle here to the back door just
a little bit. The head governs everything. Christ, our head,
is the seat of government for his church, for every member
of his church. And the head, the head is the
glory of the body. We'll talk about ladies, because
men don't like to admit it, but most of us, I dare say, and I
know you ladies do, and I'm thankful you do, you spend the bulk of
your time getting dressed, taking care of your body from here up.
From here up, put on the makeup just right, fix your hair just
right, take care of your eyebrows just right, take care of your
eyelashes just right, from here up because that's the thing that
everybody sees immediately. And that's where a person's beauty
resides and their glory resides in a physical sense, in a physical
sense. Christ is our head, our glory
and our beauty. He said, he says concerning his
church that she's fairer than all women. And it's a just and
an accurate description of his people. Because he said, I made
you beautiful through my comeliness, through my beauty that I put
upon you. So that you who are gods have
all the beauty of Jesus Christ the Lord before God Almighty. He's our head. He's our head.
And as our head, the Lord Jesus Christ makes us complete in him. Christ is our head in another
sense. He's our head in a conjugal way. As the husband is the head of
the wife, Christ is the head of the church. As Eve was taken out of Adam's
side when God put Adam into a deep sleep. God's church is taken
out of Christ's side when God punished him as our substitute
and slew him and put him in the sleep of death for three days
in the tomb. And as Eve is married to Christ. we are married to him who betrothed
us to him from eternity. And in the language of scripture,
we generally have a marriage feast before or just after a
wedding. In the language of scripture,
we've been betrothed to him from eternity and wed to him when
he conquered our hearts and compelled us to embrace him with faith. And he and we anxiously await
the wedding feast, the marriage feast that awaits us when all
this is over. Paul speaks in chapter five and
tells husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church
and gave himself for it. And he speaks of a man leaving
his father and mother and being joined to his wife, and they
too become one flesh. He says, oh, this is a great
mystery. This is a great mystery. Mitch and Steffi back there,
y'all been married two weeks or three? Four already. Three, three weeks. Oh, three
weeks. Boy, it's wonderful, isn't it?
They're just wonderful. Hang on. Hang on. You don't know anything yet.
Just hang on. With a lot of pain, I promise
you, with a lot of pain, God will weld your hearts together
and melt you into one. But not really. Not really. Still be two different people.
Still be two different people. But I'm talking about Christ
in the church. They too are one. One. Christ in his church. Christ
in you. Christ in me. One. One in him
who is our head. That one who is crowned with
a royal crown as our head by God Almighty is him who is the
head of the body. Now, what implications are to be had from this? Nobody but the head makes the
rules. Nobody but the head. We have
no head except Christ. Don Fortner's not the head of
Grace Baptist Church, nor is any pastor the head of the church
he pastors. The head of God's church is Jesus Christ the Lord. Not that old man in Rome, Jesus
Christ the Lord. Not that fella in Canterbury,
Jesus Christ the Lord. He alone is the head of his church. He makes the rules. He's given
them to us in his word so that our doctrine is found only here in the written
word of God. Our ordinances are found only
here in the written word of God. We endeavor, as God teaches us
and gives us grace, to govern everything in his house by his
word, nothing else. Not by history, not by tradition,
not by the whims of the day, not by the fancies of men, but
by the word of God alone. We have no right to make laws
for ourselves, and we have no right to make laws for one another.
None at all. God has given us the law for
his people. It's called the law of faith,
the law of love, the law of liberty. The easiest and the hardest law
there is to live by. Give me some commandments, at
least I can start to measure up to those if I measure myself
by you. Give me something to do, and
tell me how to do it, and when to do it, and I can give it a
stamp, and I can do it better than somebody. I'll guarantee
there's somebody I can do it better than they can. But this
law, this is the easiest, most difficult thing. Love, faith,
and liberty. Loose him and let him go. Isn't
that a good law? Loose him and let him go. Believe
on the Son of God. Isn't that a good law? Isn't
that a good law? Believe it. I want to tell you
something, Sammy. You won't go much astray if in
every aspect of life you believe on the Son of God. You won't err greatly if in every
aspect of life you trust the Son of God. Love one another as I gave you
commandment. It'll just be next to impossible
for you to hurt somebody you love. Just be next to impossible
to injure somebody you love. Yeah, well, boy, I've sure done
that. Not while you're loving them. All on your anger, full of wrath,
vindictive, spiteful. That's on time, it don't matter.
But if you're walking in love and exercising love, you just
can't do it, you just can't do it. Let us then follow our master
who is our head, our only lawgiver, our only ruler. the head of his
church and worship him so that we bow before him and know that
all things are well because Christ is the head. I'll wrap this up
with just one statement, just one statement. Christ is head. Jesus of Nazareth sits on the
throne of glory. I'll tell you what that means.
I'll tell you what that means. All is well. Everything's going just exactly
like I want it to go. Everything's going just exactly
like I want it to go, even when I fight against it. My carnal, depraved, vile nature
fighting God all the time. God forgive me. Everything is
going just exactly the way I want it to go. Christ is head. He's my head. He's your head. He's our head all as well. Amen.