Our text is found in Ephesians chapter one, both hours, Ephesians chapter one. And this morning I would like to talk on the subject Christ over or Christ above all. Those words are found in our text. That's their title, Christ above all. Many see Jesus Christ as nothing like he is. They see him as needy. Our God doesn't need anything. Our God has no need whatsoever because Jesus Christ satisfied the need, the demands of the Father on the cross of Calvary once and for all. Most see the Lord as needing them to do something, to contribute something, to choose something. But he doesn't have need of men. He told his disciples when he was on the face of the earth, he said, if I wasn't hungry, he said, I wouldn't tell you. If I was hungry, I wouldn't tell you. What makes us think that the Lord would come to us if he did have a need and he doesn't have a need? That song just said, children of dust and feeble as frail. He's not going to come to you and I in need us to do something. And if he did, we wouldn't be able to perform that which he required. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ came to fulfill the demands of the Lord. So this morning I want to look at Christ above all. We would be of all men most miserable if we had hope only in this world. And if, but if we only saw Christ as weak and feeble, we wouldn't just be miserable in this world. We'd be invisible in the world to come because Christ is not weak and feeble. He is God. He is above all. Let's read Ephesians one verse 18 through 23. the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion in every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come. 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 and all. Christ is above all. That's our title. What do I mean by that? Well, first of all, He created all things. He created all things for His glory, for His honor, and for His purpose. We're gonna turn to John chapter one in just a second, but it tells us there that without Him, the Word of God, and that's Jesus Christ, the Word was made flesh, that's Jesus Christ, He created all things. Without Him, not anything made that was made. He not only created all things, but He's sovereign over that which He created. And it says here, if you'll notice, far above all principalities, verse 21, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named. Do you have a name? Name something that doesn't have a name. That's what I thought about whenever I was writing this. Everything has a name. Maybe it's a species of fish that nobody seen before. It doesn't have a name. Yes, it does. It's fish. Lord knows its name. He has dominion over everything that's named. That means every single human being, he has dominion over. He is sovereign over. None can stay his hand and say to him, what doest thou? doings were finished from the foundation of the world before time ever began. This is who our God is. This is who Jesus Christ is. He's the sovereign creator and sustainer of all things. Now turn with me to John chapter one. Book of Genesis chapter one starts with these words. It says, in the beginning, God. Here in John chapter one, it says this, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. Whenever he appeared unto Moses through the burning bush, Moses asked him, said, Lord, you're going to send me to Egypt. They're going to ask me, what is your name? That I may tell them what your name is. You know what he said to him? I am that I am. I am. To a believer, we understand that that encompasses his isness. Now we can't understand the magnitude of that, but we understand that his isness is a reflection of his character. It's a reflection of all of his attributes, his holiness, his righteousness, his truth. I am all these things. And here we see that in the beginning, God, and if he hadn't done that, if he hadn't decided to create, nothing would be created. In the beginning was the word, the word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. A lot of people talk about different theories about how we arrived on this planet. They talk about different theories about how everything got here in different ways. And you've heard stories about science and different things like that. This right here is the final word on where everything came from. Now, how he did it, some things maybe we don't understand or know, but we do know this. All things were made by him and without him, not anything made. Without him was not anything made. That was made. That's his sovereignty. That's his right in creation. He made all things, therefore he owns all things. You're saying I'm God's property? He can do whatever he wants to with me? Absolutely. Absolutely. None can stay his hand or to say unto him, what doest thou? Hath not Potter power over the clay to make one lump of honor and another to dishonor? He's sovereign. He purposed all things. Verse four, and him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. The light shineth in darkness, the darkness comprehended it not. I just mentioned Genesis chapter one, and I would remind you, it goes on to say, and the Lord said, let there be light. So he spoke light into existence. And it shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. The darkness had to flee. They couldn't go together. That's us. That's him coming forth by his gospel, and shining his light forth into our heart, causing us to see his son, bringing us to life because that light is life. Look at verse 10, skip down to verse 10. He, the word, the Lord Jesus Christ was in the world and the world was by him and the world knew him not. He came to his own and his own received him not. But to as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. Many will take everything that's in this chapter, And they'll say, okay, but here's where we have to make a choice, right here. Because it said, as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. That's what they'll say. Okay, now we gotta believe. That's accurate. But they don't use the word believe, they a lot of times use the word receive. And receiving's a choice that you made. The opposite of receiving is rejecting. But the opposite of believing is unbelief. Do we see that? Believing, is passive. Believing is a gift bestowed by grace. The faith of God given causes us to believe. It causes us to see our need in him. Otherwise, we wouldn't have that. But here's the part that's most important. John chapter one, verse 13 says, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. His will and purpose. Not my will. Not your will. His own will. He created all things as He is as God. He is sovereign over all things. He is God in the flesh. The Lord Jesus Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He is The reason all of this exists, he's the light of men and that light is our life. So without him, we have no life. There's no life in us. Without him, there's only darkness. There's no life. There's only death. There's no hope. There's no peace. There's only despair and fear. There's no joy. There's only heartache and misery. Without him, there would be nothing good at all. The scripture says that all good gifts come down from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." All good gifts? Just like He said, all, right here in this passage, all things were made by Him. Well, all good gifts, that encompasses all. When we read our scripture, remember to focus on the words that it says, and when I say let it say what it says, pay attention to what it says and what I mean by that. We don't let it do anything. But oftentimes we get caught up and we miss that word all. This is a direct reflection of his isness. This is a direct reflection of his power. All things were made by him. All good gifts come down from him. He is all our salvation. He's all. Christ is all in all and he's above all. Here's what he said in James chapter one to go with. Verse 13, which were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. James 1.18 says, of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, by his own will. See, he's not just a babe in a manger. He's the sovereign creator. He's not just baby Jesus, meek and mild. He's the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He's the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. He is the author and finisher of faith. He is God. I love the thought that the Lord said that he had highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus Christ, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. This is who he is. He's above all, above all. And I go back to our text in Ephesians chapter one and look at verse, let's read it again, 18 through 23. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us word who believe well who's the us word well we just heard they were. born not of the will of blood, nor of the will of man, nor the will of flesh, but of God. So who are they? We'll look over here at verse four. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. It's the ones he chose into eternal life. That's who he's speaking to here. Well, I have to start over. I lost my place. So verse 18, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he brought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above. far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named. He could have just said everything right there, couldn't he? I mean, there's nothing left to be, he's above all. He's above all. Not only in this world, just to make it more clear, but also in the world to come. Not just in this world, one to come as well. He's over all. And he hath put all things, now he does say it now, doesn't he? All things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, wherein his body, where it is his body, which is his body, the fullness of him that fulfilleth all and in all. He's over, he's above all. Christ above all is our title this morning. Now I do want you to notice, remember before we were talking about the word all, to pay attention to that? Well, look at this word right here, verse 21, the word far. Far above. It's not just that he's barely above dominions and powers and barely he's barely sovereign enough to know that he's far above. How far? Well, the scripture says exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think. We can't fathom how far above he is. And then look what it says. Every name that is named. Let's read that together, 21. I said this already, but I want to repeat it. Far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named. I said before, I'll say again, I can't think of anything that's not named. So he's over, he's above everything. And we can just put a period there. He's over everything. So first, he is sovereign above all things, every creature he has made, they're subject to his will and his purpose. But secondly, he's above all my will. He's above all your will. What people don't realize, whenever you hear that they, when they hear that salvation is a choice, they think, okay, well, I need to exercise my will. The problem is that salvation is a choice. It's just not mine or your choice. We're bound to our nature. Our nature is a sinful nature. Our nature is a corrupt nature. Our nature will not choose God. Lord told the Pharisees, you will not come to me that you might have life. You will not come to me that you might have life. Why? He said, because you're of your father, the devil. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. Why are they his sheep? They were elect from the foundation of the world. God chose them into eternal life in Jesus Christ by his own will and purpose. Why? Because Christ is above all. Even in salvation, even in salvation. So my will is subject to my sinful nature. All I can do with this will that I have is commit sin. Doesn't matter what I'm doing. I'm committing sin. What is my hope? That Christ Jesus took that sin out of the way, nailing it to his cross. that he gave me his righteousness by imputation, that he gave me his holiness by imputation, that he took my sin out of the way by it being imputed to him, he gave me righteousness in return. That's my only hope. That is my only hope. If I don't, if I don't, if that didn't happen, I have no hope of salvation whatsoever. I have no salvation. So he is above my will. He is above everyone's will because we're bound to our nature. What about God? Is he bound to his nature? Absolutely. Absolutely. We don't say it in a way that it makes him sound like he's constrained. or make it sound like he's limited, but he can't, he cannot sin. That's something I preached to measure one time, seven things God cannot do. One of them is he cannot sin. Another one is he cannot lie. Why? He's bound to his nature. He made it that way. He's God. And you and I are bound to our nature. What do we need? We need a substitute. We need a surety. We need Christ to show us he's over our will and that we would never choose him. We would never choose him. There are those that suppose and believe that they can prevent God from doing something, that they can constrain Him or restrain Him, that I can obligate Him if I do this, or I can prevent Him if I do this, and it's not true. He cannot be prevented. He cannot be stopped. He cannot be threatened. He cannot be constrained. He cannot be constrained. He's above all. That's the message this morning, is it's not, it's not, the problem is not how we, It's not that we just think that we're bad and we need to be saved and so he's going to have to save us. But a lot of times preachers say things like that and then turn around and say, so do your part. That's the problem. He has to do it all because he's above all even in salvation. That's the hope that we have. The majority of people look to something they have done that determines their salvation. But remember what James, I read this just a few minutes ago, James 1, 18 of his own will begat he us. If you preach the gospel, if you preach the truth, it's just a matter of declaring what God has said. It's a matter of declaring simply what he has declared in his word. Not changing it, not watering it down, not making it more palatable. The gospel will never be palatable to our flesh whatsoever. When you tell the flesh that it has no power, there's no such thing as free will, you tell the flesh that Jesus Christ is over and above their will, people start getting mad. People want a part. Why? Because they want glory. They want their own glory. Well, if I believe what you believe, I've been told this, if I believe what you believe, I would condemn everybody in my family. They're condemned or they're not. That's not, you believing and not believing doesn't determine that. I would say that because if that's the excuse, then we're using that as our own righteousness, what I believe in. It's just, Self-righteousness is confusing. You know what's not confusing? The gospel. The gospel is not confusing. How God saves sinners. It is not confusing. Not confusing whatsoever. Men believe in free will, but everyone born has a nature. It's bound to that nature. We have a lot of people today that are pretending to be something that they're not. And some of you all know this, and I'm not getting political, but I'll just say it this way. If I pretend to be a cat, does that make me a cat? That sounds kind of dumb, don't it? Well, a lot of people believe that. Did you know that? I'm not kidding. Lord, help us. I don't know what to say about that. It doesn't matter what I pretend to be. If I pretend to have a free will, it doesn't give me one. If I pretend, it just doesn't matter. I'm acting. All false religion men and women act as though their will has made them righteous. They act as though their choice has saved them. It doesn't matter the false religion, whether Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, whatever false religion it is, it doesn't matter. It's all about what they have done in order to obtain favor with God or to make the blood of Christ effectual. They're saying that the blood of Christ didn't accomplish nothing until I do my part. What blasphemy, what blasphemy? Somebody told me recently, what do you preach? And I said, well, what about your congregation? And I mentioned, we preach Christ and Christ only said, what about your congregation? What do you preach about them? I said, I'll tell them they're dead dog sinners. He's like, well, I'm not a sinner. It's like, I used to be, I'm a saint now. What he meant by that was, is I guess he could see evidence of salvation in his life. And what the Lord may call us saints, but he calls us righteous too. Do you feel righteous? No, but according to what he says, we've been made the righteousness of God in him by what Christ did on the cross. So they're saying God made a way, but by their will, they choose that way and make it effectual. Now, everything God has accomplished in salvation is theirs because he he'll accept them because he'll accept me because I accepted him first. Aren't you thankful, brethren? This even says here in this chapter that he's made us accepted in the beloved. By his own will begat he us. Remember John 1, but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. Whose will were they born from? Gods. What does my will have to do with salvation? Absolutely nothing. What does my part have to do with salvation? Absolutely nothing. Salvation was accomplished by Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. Salvation was accomplished in eternity past and in time, in the fullness of time, Christ became a man. He lived 33 years living perfectly under the law, the law that we could not fulfill. He was born under the law, born of a woman. to redeem those whom he chose in the covenant of grace to save by his grace alone. And he did just that. He redeemed us from under the law by going to the cross of Calvary, by shedding his precious blood, by drinking the cup of damnation, by being made sin for us. God hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. You know what that's called? It's imputation. That's what the Lord did for his people. That's what the Lord does lets us in on, I guess is the best way to say, he shows us what he's done. You remember David in Psalm 23, he said, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. That's what he says. He tells us to look back and you'll see goodness and mercy that he's already done. That's exactly what it is. And that's called repentance and faith to believe on him. Whose will were they born of? His will. I wanna say this again, just to be clear. Believing is not the same as rejecting. Unbelief is the opposite of belief. Therefore, the opposite of rejecting is accepting. I can choose to accept or reject, but you don't choose to believe or not believe. Believing comes by the gift of faith, and faith cometh by the word of God. Faith come by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. The Lord's gonna have to call us to hear by giving faith to believe. Most people believe because they accept Jesus, God forgives their sin and saves them. But in the word of God, you'll never find that language used. You'll never see anywhere where the Lord did say, come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. You know what that word reason means? It'd be like looking at your child and saying, I'm fixing to straighten you out. I'm fixing to tell you how it is. That's what he's saying. That's what like he talked to Job and he said, appeared to him out of a whirlwind. Where were you, Job? laid the foundations of the world, hung the stars in the heavens, divided the sands of the sea from the ocean. Where were you? Answer me. Gird up thy loins like a man does. Answer me, if you will, Joseph. Behold, I'm vile. I'm vile. I shall speak only because you are telling me to, and then I'm going to put my hands over my mouth and not talk anymore. Shall the thing form say to the thing that made it, why hast thou made me thus? So the creature look at the creator and say, why have you made me this way? He's God, he's above all, above all. Let's read our text one more time. verse 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance to the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at high on heavenly, I'm sorry, set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality 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 and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. What is the exceeding greatness of his power? Christ is above all. Christ is above all. First, he's sovereign over his creation. Second, he's sovereign over my will and your will. And lastly, Christ is above all in salvation. I've already said a lot of times I think you will find and you probably know as long as I've been the pastor here. All of my points not only go hand in hand, but they're pretty much the same exact points in different ways. Why? Because the gospel doesn't change. I've already said he's all in salvation multiple times this morning because people don't realize, unless the Lord reveals it to us, salvation is of the Lord. That's what Jonah said, Jonah chapter two. But that didn't just mean that the Lord made a way for salvation. It literally means it's his salvation. In Psalm 51, David said, Lord, When he had sinned with Bathsheba, this is his prayer of contrition. He said, Lord, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. He left it where it belongs. It's his salvation to give to whomsoever he will, to whomsoever he has purposed. And the glorious news is he says, I will. have mercy on whom I will have mercy. That's good news. If you find yourself a sinner needing mercy and the Lord says, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Well, none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? That gives me hope because if his purpose is to have mercy upon me, the sinner, nothing can stop it. Nothing can change it, not even my unbelief, not even my sin, not even my worst effort or my best effort. I can't mess it up. Salvation is of the Lord and Jesus Christ is above all, even in salvation, even in salvation. He accomplished salvation. I'm looking over my notes and I think I've said 90% of this already. That's okay. That's okay. When I say Alpha and Omega, what I mean by that, that is the first and the last letter of the Greek alphabet. That means he's the beginning and the end. The verse says he's the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. But that's not just in creation. And that's not just in time. That's an eternity. And that's in salvation. He's the author. He's the finisher of faith, not my faith, his faith bestowed. It's his faith. Yeah, he don't give me faith. I'll never believe. I'll never believe. But Most will deny him in either the Alpha or the Omega role. What do I mean by that? Well, is he the first cause of your salvation? If he is, he's the Alpha. Is he the last cause of your salvation? If he is, he's the Omega. So some believe that by their choice, they're saved. That means we've denied him his lordship as Alpha. And there's others who say, well, you have to look for evidence of salvation in order to see if you're saved. You have to examine yourself. You have to make sure you're living right. And so now they're denying him the Omega portion by saying that they're keeping their self. But the scripture is very clear on this. By his own will begat he us. He's the Alpha. And we are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time. That's Him keeping His people. That's what He promised to do. I will never leave you. I'll never forsake you. I'll go with you all the way even to the end. So He is both alpha and And he's Omega. What does that mean? He's above all in salvation. And he's every single bit, but in the middle too. Don't don't misunderstand that it's his salvation and salvation is of the Lord. He chose to save his people from their sin. He chose to redeem. And just to stop and slow down a second, he chose to redeem. That was his choice to make. The only reason that he had to is because he said he wanted to. I mean, nothing, you can't obligate him, but he chose to redeem. He chose, in Psalm 22 it says, and it's prophetical of Jesus Christ on the cross, it says, I'm a worm and no man. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He's quoting the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Our Lord became a creature of dust to save wretched, vile creatures such as us out of love. The love that the son has for the father in the church, the love that the father has for his people, he chose to die. And to say God died makes us shudder, but that's exactly what happened on the cross of Catholic, what it took for us to be redeemed. The death of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the only way that righteousness could be imputed to us. It's the only way that we could be made the holiness of God. It's the only way we could be saved from our sin. It's the only way that we could be justified is freely by His grace. There's no other way. He's the Alpha and Omega. In closing, I'll say this. There's nothing you and I can do to change what God has accomplished. Christ Jesus saved everyone he died for. He redeemed everyone he loves. He's coming back for them. He's coming back for them. And I love the thought that David was praying in Psalm and he said, if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I ascend up into heaven, behold, thou art there. He kept going. And what he was saying was, is no matter where I go, no matter what I do, you can't get away from him. There's nowhere that you can hide from him. To a sinner that doesn't know the truth, that has to be a frightening thought to know that you can't escape his eye. You can't escape his gaze. You can't escape the judgment of the law. But to the believer, to know we can't escape his sight, that's comforting. That's comforting. Now I know, because he's Alpha and Omega, I can't mess up his salvation. And if I am his, I know that I can't escape him or lose his gaze. As a matter of fact, he says, you're the apple of my eye. You're the apple of my eye. You know how you treasure your children, some of you that have children, or your spouse? You look at them, you love them. Some of them, it's a love-hate relationship. I know that, but you understand what I'm saying. You care for that person, the person you cared for the most. You're devoted to them. The apple of the eye, that's the most tender portion of the eye, you protect that. That's what he's saying, I'm protecting you. He said, he's gonna hide you under the shadow of his wing. See, he's above all. Now what can get to you if you're under his wing? What can get to you that doesn't pass through his hand? What can touch you that he has not ordained and purposed? Nothing. Nothing. See, this is the God that we worship here. This is the God we believe in. This is the God we glorify because this salvation is accomplished by him alone. The glorious part is our Lord said that we have been predestinated to be conformed to his image. So all the ugly that we are, We're going to be conformed to His image. All the sin that we have, and He's already made us the righteousness of God in Him. We don't see the sin. He says, what sin? It's gone. Cast it as far as the east is from the west. This is an accomplished salvation with a successful Savior, with a sovereign Lord. We don't, I hope I've made it clear. We don't choose Him. He chose whomsoever He would. And I already said in closing, the last thing I want to say is this. I wrote this down last night. It was kind of an epiphany. I've never thought of it this way. And people don't talk about this this way. But if you really want to know the truth, this is it. Can you imagine saying that you chose your mother and father and then you chose the time to be born by your mother? Does that sound like I've lost my mind? Does that sound crazy? Because it is. Can you imagine saying, I chose Jesus Christ to be my Lord and Savior? Here's a newsflash, brethren. He already is Lord, and he already is the salvation of his people. He's above all. He's above all. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. We ask that you would take it and bless it to our understanding for your glory. In Christ's name, amen. Let's take a break.