God's Purpose, Plan and Providence for the Church

Christ Reformed Baptist Church

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It is my honor and privilege to stand before you on this beautiful Sunday morning as we celebrate a huge milestone in the life of Christ Reformed Baptist Church.

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As some of you may or may not remember, on August the 11th of this year, which almost seems like a lifetime ago in some ways, by the grace and provision and plan of God, we gathered together for our very first Lord's Day worship.

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That Sunday morning, that first morning we gathered, we knew two things. One, that God had brought each of us and our families through a variety of circumstances and situations to a place where we could come together as a body of like -minded believers with a desire to see a church under the

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Lordship of Christ, centered around and subject to the sufficient and authoritative

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Word of the living God. And secondly, we also knew that there was a lot of work ahead of us to achieve the vision that God had given us to plant a

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Reformed Baptist church in this area. Today, by the grace and to the glory of Almighty God, although there is still much work to be done, we have, with the affirmation of our

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Constitution and bylaws, formally created the framework for this church and thus crossed a major hurdle in its young life.

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In the Gospel of Matthew, we are introduced to a profound concept.

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This particular concept given to us in Matthew's Gospel in the 16th chapter, this word, term, ecclesia, which we translate into the

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English as church, literally means a calling out, emphasizing the idea of a people called out of the world by Christ for Christ.

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These are the ones he describes as those given to him by the

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Father, the elect, those chosen for his glory and his purposes.

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In Matthew 16, 18, we read just a few moments ago, Jesus provides that foundational description that says that upon this rock, the rock being

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Christ, it's not Peter, it's Christ.

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This rock is the foundation and on that foundation, he will build his church.

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Now, of course, as we also mentioned earlier, this is the universal or the invisible church, the collective body of believers throughout time and space.

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This is beautifully summarized in the 1689, which states in the first and second paragraphs, the

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Catholic, that is universal, not big C Catholic, little c, that is universal church may be called invisible with respect to the internal work of the

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Spirit and the truth of grace. It consists of the full number of the elect who have been, are, or will be gathered into one under Christ her head.

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The church is the spouse, the body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

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All people throughout the world who profess the faith of the gospel and obedience to God through Christ in keeping with the gospel are and may be called the visible saints, as long as they do not destroy their own profession by any foundational errors or unholy living.

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This truth reminds us the truth that we find both in scripture in Matthew's gospel and in the confession reminds us of this universal body.

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However, scripture also makes it abundantly clear, very clear that we are also called to be part of a local congregation.

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In fact, from this point forward, and then all action, everything following when, when scripture talks about the church, it is predominantly speaking of the local body of believers, the community that gather for the purpose of the gospel being proclaimed, the ordinances observed, and a mutual care and accountability are its practice between the members.

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However, regardless of whether we are talking about the universal church or the local church, there is a truth by which the entire true church is bound.

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And I intentionally said true church because unfortunately there are a lot of social clubs that gather that aren't true churches.

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But under the true church, we are bound in the fact that we are the body of Christ.

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Listen, the church is not a human institution. It is, it is not a building, whether we, where we gather once or twice a week, it is not the people, it is the people of God redeemed by the blood of Christ for Christ united under the headship of Christ.

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The church is the visible representation of Christ rule and reign on earth and is a foretaste of his eternal kingdom.

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And so as we consider these truths, as we pause for just a few moments and think about what the responsibilities of the church are, what these truths teach us in regards to the fact that we are united together universally and locally as the body of Christ, united to the head,

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Christ, and exactly what implications those have for our lives. And so we begin to ask ourselves, or we must ask ourselves, what does it mean to be that Christ is the head and we are his body?

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How does this shape our identity, our mission, our relationship one with another? How do we respond to this glorious reality that the church, listen to me for a second, is not about us.

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I know, I know, and that is not what people want to hear today, is it?

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We do not want to hear that church is not about us because listen, if the temperature ain't right, if the lighting ain't right, if the mood ain't right, if the music ain't right, if the preaching ain't right, if the prayer ain't right, if somebody smells funky, we want to go because it's about us.

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But let me just crush your dreams for a moment. The church isn't about us.

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It's about him. And so our text this morning actually comes from what some may consider to be an odd place, and honestly, it's a text that's kind of tough to deal with in the way that it's written.

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It actually comes from the opening or from the initial chapter of Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus.

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And so the opening section of this particular passage is a beautiful reminder of the spiritual blessings of who we are in Christ for those who are faithful.

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It is written for those who are faithful in Christ Jesus. And so that we have the full context, we're actually going to read the entire first chapter, and that's important because when we narrow down our focus to verse 22 and 23, you will see how

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Paul walks us up to this place and then expands on exactly what it means.

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And so we'll see three key truths coming out of this. One, that the church is united under Christ's headship.

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Two, that the church is the fullness of Christ. And three, that the church exists for the glory or to display the glory of Christ.

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And so I will ask you to stand as we read together God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative, and sufficient word beginning in the first verse of Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus and following.

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The word of God writes, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our

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Father in the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

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Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him in love by predestining us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he graciously bestowed on us in the beloved.

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In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our transgressions according to the riches of his grace, which he calls to abound to us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in him for an administration of the fullness of the times, that is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on the earth in him.

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In him we also have been made an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, to the end that we who first have hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory.

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In him you also after listening to the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed in him with the holy spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance unto the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of his glory.

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For this reason I too having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers.

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That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give to you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the full knowledge of him, so that you the eyes of your heart having been enlightened will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of the might of his strength which he worked in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at the right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion in every name that is to be named not only in this age but also in the age to come.

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And he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church which is the body the fullness of him who feels all in all.

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Let us pray. Father we thank you for your holy word. We thank you for its principles.

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We thank you for its promises, its directions, and its light. Lord as we partake of your word this morning may we learn more of Christ.

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Remind us of how dear he is to us by the washing of water with the word. We are one with him by faith according to your word.

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Lord we humbly ask that our hearts are formed according to your word in the image of thy son.

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We pray that your words are written on our hearts and inscribed upon our lips. We simply ask this morning that as we gather in this place for the purpose of uniting under the banner of Christ in tender ties to one another that our instruction, our discipline, our example, our devotion may be sanctified so that our church be a garden of the

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Lord enriched with trees of righteousness of your planting for your glory.

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Lord grant us the strength to be attentive to our condition and to our character.

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Let our speech be edifying. Our hearts be diligent. Let us flee from temptation.

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Let us mortify our sin. And let us be concerned about the salvation of others.

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For your name's sake and your glory above all we ask these things in the blessed name of Jesus Christ.

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Amen. You may be seated. Our consideration this morning regarding the church begins actually with the very first phrase of verse 22.

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And so as you look at verse 22, the very first thing that we have there for us is, and he put all things in subjection under his feet.

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Now this is obviously a declaration of Christ's supreme authority.

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After the death, the burial, the resurrection, the ascension, God the Father exalted

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Christ above every power and every authority, both in heaven and on earth.

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And there is absolutely nothing that is outside of his, one of those words, sovereign rule.

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He is Lord of all. There was no corner.

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There was no speck. There was no spots within the entirety of the universe to which his dominion does not extend.

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Verse 21, just above verse 22 reads, all above, all rule, all authority, all power, all dominion.

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A name above every name, both now and in the age to come. For all eternity, infinite authority, and in God's infinite wisdom and grace, after he appointed him supreme dominion over all things, he put everything in subject to him.

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He gave him to the church, a people set apart for his glory to be its head.

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Now, I don't know about you. I don't know about the way that you react to truths, but this is a truth that should absolutely humble anyone who approaches and desires to worship

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God, who would like to be a part because of his drawing of the body of Christ.

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We have, unfortunately, in so many cases, dumbed down church membership to literally, if you want to be a part, hey, come on in because we need numbers.

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It's not about anything else in this world anymore. It's about the numbers. You go to a pastor's conference.

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You go have a conversation with the group. The first thing they want to know is, how's your church going? They're not asking you about the spiritual growth of your people.

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They're not. They're asking you how many people have come in the door. What's your numbers?

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Now, there's some exceptions to that. Don't misunderstand me, but by and large, if you go to some of the mainstream groups, that's what you're looking at.

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Annually, you complete a profile to turn into this group of people that's not concerned with the spiritual growth of the individuals within your churches.

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It is concerned with how many people came in the front door. They don't even care how many went out the back door. You may have had a net loss of people.

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All they care about is the positive number of people who you say now have joined your church.

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Yet, they join without this real understanding that they are becoming a part of the body of the sovereign

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Lord of all things, who has dominion over all things.

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You are going to be a part of where you are joining. You are unified.

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You are united with him in this task. There is a reverence and a gravity that must be considered.

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Simply, we do not do this anymore. Listen, the same

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Jesus who upholds the universe by simply the power of his word is the head of the church.

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The church is the body. It is inseparably connected to him.

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It is filled with his presence. It is empowered by his spirit to carry out his mission.

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Remember, I did tell you it wasn't all about you, right? It's all about him.

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In giving Christ as head of the church, God reminds us not only that he has dominion over all things.

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He demonstrates for us the very provision that he has given the church. Coming down through this passage as we approach verses 22 through 23,

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Paul takes great care in laying down a foundation and ensuring that we have this structure that defines who we are as individual believers.

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That is a key element because, get this, I may also be a shock to you, but the individual members, the individual people within a congregation are what makes up the church.

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If you don't have care at the individual level, if there's not an understanding at the individual level, if the people in the house of God are not raised up in the knowledge of God, grown in spirit, grown in truth, grown in grace, then listen, the whole body suffers.

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That's what happens. It's necessary that Paul lays all this before us.

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He begins by reminding, first of all, that God has chosen us. Now, what's awesome about this, and unfortunately, what has been messed up, that's probably the nicest word

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I can think of at the moment, regarding this is that we have this picture out there that, well, we were plan

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B, right? That Adam and Eve were placed in the garden as perfection, and that was

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God's plan, and so when they failed, God had to scramble and come up with something else. But listen,

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Paul teaches us that we were chosen in him, verse four, before the foundation of the world.

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Get this. You weren't just chosen before the foundation. Note your state.

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You were chosen in him that we would be holy and blameless before him in love.

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Listen to me. The blood of Christ that cleanses us from all unrighteousness is the very thing, the imputation of that righteousness is the very thing which places us before God as holy and blameless, and all of this was completed not secondhand, not thirdhand, not as a afterthought, but before the very foundation of the world.

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Now, as Paul continues, he draws out that not only have we been reconciled to God, adopted through Christ, that we have received every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

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We have been redeemed. We have been made an inheritance. We have been sealed. We have ultimately been indwelt by the

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Holy Spirit all to the praise of his glory and according to his good pleasure. Now, this is the foundation that Paul has been laying for us the entire first chapter, and as he lays this, he then tells the church after he has heard of their faith in Christ and seen their love for the saints, and he lifts them up in prayer, that ultimately will culminate in this demonstration that we who believe in the church are united under the headship of Christ.

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But we need to talk about verse 15, and the reason we need to talk about verse 15 is that there is a recording here, there is a truth here about the people to whom

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Paul is writing and about whom the people, about which people

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Paul is saying he does not cease giving thanks, and he defines those by two very specific conditions that are distinctives of each individual, and they are one, their faith in Christ, and two, their love for all the saints.

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Now, we can read this and we can, oh, that's not a big deal. I have faith. I love people, but let's take a moment and just evaluate real quickly.

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It's always important to evaluate where you are, who you are, what you read, how it means.

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So, let's talk first about this faith that Paul refers to. This is not just saving faith.

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This is also sustaining faith. This is the faith that you are justified through saving faith.

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You're fully and wholly justified before God, but however, you didn't die the moment you were saved, so then you get to go through this wonderful process that we all love called sanctification, and as you move through sanctification,

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I'm just going to give you a heads up in case you didn't know, it's going to be tough, and it requires a sustaining faith to be maintained.

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But listen, we acknowledge, it is imperative that we acknowledge

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Jesus as Lord, but let me be quite frank and quite clear.

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Jesus is Lord, with your acknowledgement or without your acknowledgement.

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That fact doesn't change. We don't grant authority to God to be

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Lord. Listen, we've come up with this statement in church, right? We want to make

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Jesus Lord of our lives. Now, I get it. I understand where we're trying to go, but the idea here is that there is something in God that needs our permission to be

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Lord. He doesn't need our permission. He needs no such permission.

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He is Lord. Look at verse 22, which actually refers back to the psalm.

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Everything has been put into subjection under his feet. We are subjects in a kingdom under his feet.

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The lordship of Christ is given and maintained by the authority of the father. That being said, faith means that we acknowledge or we recognize the truth of Christ's lordship.

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It's not that we are giving him a permission. It's not that we are granting him something that he doesn't have.

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We are simply admitting to ourselves that he has this position.

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Romans 10 verse 9. If you confess with your mouth

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Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

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You know how many times I've heard that verse quoted and they leave that part out? If you confess Jesus with your mouth and believe in your heart, you'll be saved.

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But what does it mean to confess Jesus? That's what it means. It means to acknowledge him as Lord of all.

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Acts 16 31, as they were teaching, they said, and they said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.

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You and your house. He didn't just say Jesus. He said the Lord Jesus, because there is a piece that you have to acknowledge his lordship.

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The church is the body of individual believers must be founded on faith in the

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Lord Jesus Christ and is only sustained and continues in that same faith under the lordship of Christ.

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If you remove the lordship, if you take that authority away, if you try to remove him from the church, the church dies.

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It's no longer the church. But then we have the second mark.

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The second defining quality that Paul gives us here in Ephesians 1 15, and that is your love for all the saints.

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Now we need to qualify a couple of words here. First of all, let's qualify the word saint.

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The word saint is a believer. If you go back the passage we read from the

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London Baptist Confession says that it's a believer, any believer who truly has faith, right?

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Who doesn't diminish their witness. That's a saint.

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This is not sainthood as in Catholicism. This is a saint as in one who believes in God.

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The second word that we need to qualify, because this is a word that trips us up oftentimes in scripture, is the word all.

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Who is God referring to when he uses the word all? Well, thankfully in this passage, Paul helps us a little bit.

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He says all the saints. There are other passages where he kind of leaves that the saints part out, and then we all get into a tizzy because we can't figure out who all is, even though it's clear as you study the whole thing that he's still talking about the saints.

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Paul's writing the letter to the saints. He didn't write this to every Tom, Dick, and Harry walking down the street. This letter was written.

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Go back to verse one. To the saints who are Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus. This is why the letter can come forward to us now because we are still considered saints.

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We don't end Ephesus, but we are faithful in Christ Jesus, meaning the letter still has application to us as believers.

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A lot of times in churches, however, when we start talking about this, when we start talking about this love, what we get to is a place where we equalize love for all.

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Now follow with me for just a minute because this may not be what some individual wants to hear.

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God does not love everyone equally.

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That is a scriptural foundational truth. God does love everyone in the sense that he didn't strike us dead overnight for our sins.

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In the sense that he woke those of us up during a pandemic who exist out here who are not believers.

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They're still breathing air, right? They still exist. They're not in the family of God, but his love, this love that we are focusing on here is designed and held for those who have faith.

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As we step outside of that, it becomes a dangerous step in the church.

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Why? Because what happens is the love for the outside becomes so overwhelming that we forget to love the people inside.

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John 13, 35. In John 13, 35, Jesus did not tell his disciples that everyone will know that you and how much you love everybody.

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What he said was, by this, all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

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Meaning the disciples themselves loving each other the way Christ has loved them.

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Now I'm not, we're not into a whole gospel. We're not talking about how you present the gospel. We're not talking about any of that.

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We're talking about the love that has to exist within the body of Christ. And it's different. Yes, that love, that love generates something else.

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I'll talk about that in just a minute. But the primary love, the foundational love within the church is love for God, which has been displayed within the body.

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First John 3, 16. The other John 3, 16, 3, 16 through 18 says, by this, we have known love that he laid down his life for us.

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And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?

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Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and in truth. In fact, in John letters, he literally writes, do not love in one situation.

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And then he goes on to qualify that and tell us that what we are not to love is the worldly system, right?

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That is absolutely evil and against God. The love that is within the body, the love that is within the church must be a genuine and a sacrificial love.

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In Revelation chapter two, Jesus writes a letter to the church at Ephesus.

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To me, it's one of those kind of almost very sad things because Paul writes this amazing letter to the church at Ephesus, giving them all of this beautiful instruction that we find in the book of Ephesians.

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And then we get to revelations and Jesus is writing them a letter and he says this. Revelations two verses two through four,

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I know your deeds and your toil and your perseverance and that you cannot bear with those who are evil.

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And you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and they are not. And you found them to be false and you have perseverance and have been doing for my name's sake.

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You also have not wronged me. And then we're going, they got it. Paul sent them this letter. They figured it out.

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They got it all straight. And then Jesus says, but, and as with every bet in scripture, things take a left turn, but I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

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The believers at Ephesus ultimately became so hyper -focused on action and observance that they failed in their love and ultimately became nothing more than a noisy gong or clanging cymbal.

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John MacArthur sums it up this way. True salvation goes from the head and the heart of the believer out to other believers and then out to the world to touch unbelievers in Christ's name.

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True salvation produces true love and true love does not love with word or tongue, but in deed and in truth.

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Again, the church as a body of individual believers must be founded and sustained by faith in Jesus Christ, out of which love naturally grows within that body to the point where we become one under his headship, not just with each other, but one with Christ united with him as a head is united with the body.

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And this is why we can say that this love is not talking about a love of the outside because we know that those who do not believe are at enmity or at war.

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They hate God. Yet once they become believers, this changes.

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Note though, he, Christ, the one to whom all things have been placed in subjection, was given to the church, defining and describing for us how vital this union is.

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Care must be taken to understand that in no way is a universal church ever in danger of failing.

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But listen, one of the things that we should recognize is that God will always, always, always have a church.

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The universal church of Christ will not fail. Local churches, local congregations, those that would qualify as one of the six of seven churches that we read about in Revelation, they are, however, in danger of failing and falling.

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And there are a lot of different symptoms, right? There are a lot of different things, but there's a root, there's a root rot in the problem of all of these situations.

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The right of the room is always the same. They have cut off the head, they cut off the source, and they proclaim that Jesus is in the church.

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They may use his name. They may read from the scripture. The reality is he's not there because he's not

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Lord. They don't acknowledge him. They don't bow before him.

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They don't come to him in humility. But then

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Paul, in regards to the body, us, in verse 22, makes a statement that honestly has been the source of a lot of debate throughout church history.

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And the debate doesn't stem around, you know, did Paul say this or did Paul say that? The debate stems around what

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Paul really meant. And the statement here is the one that we find in verse 23, not 22,

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I'm sorry, verse 23, that says his body, the fullness of him who feels all in all.

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So what Paul says here is that the church is the fullness of Christ, and Christ is the one who feels all in all.

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Maybe you see the problem that people have with this verse. It's a little bit challenging to understand how we, as broken, fallen people, could ever be the fullness of him.

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And so for the purposes of our conversation this morning, we're actually going to start at the back and work our way to the front.

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You see that the acknowledgement, the intellectual understanding around the statement, him who feels all in all, is much easier to understand.

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Intellectually, we aren't challenged as much. Now, we may be challenged in the sense of grasping it in its fullness, but we intellectually get it.

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It makes sense, right? We've all read in Isaiah, in chapter 6, where Isaiah encounters a holy

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God, and he says that his glory filled all of the earth, right? We understand the concept of God being everywhere, in all places, in all times, filling everything.

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We grasp that. However, what we need to recognize is that what we fail to do quite often in our churches is to seek to fully understand what this means.

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Now, what do I mean by that? In today's church, it is not uncommon to hear a request asking for more.

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Up in verse 17, Paul, talking about and praying for the church, makes a statement.

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He says in verse 17 that he asked that the Father of glory may give to you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation of the full knowledge of him.

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He goes on to say he does this in the bottom half of verse 18, so that we can understand what is the hope of his calling, what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saint, because our hearts have been enlightened.

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In the ancient world, the heart, as we've talked about before, is not just the center of emotions.

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That actually was the gut, where we would consider the heart to be emotions. That was actually the stomach.

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They fed everything in their tummies back then. Then, they invented antacid, and it moved up to your heart. The reality is they understood the heart to be the center of not just of all things, but the center, the core of knowledge, the core of understanding, what we would consider the mind to be.

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In this situation, Paul is asking that the eyes of the heart be enlightened to understand this.

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The first thing Paul's not doing is asking for more of anything. One of the things that happens here is he says, well, he's asking for the spirit of wisdom.

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Well, obviously, we don't have the spirit of wisdom, so we need the spirit of wisdom. That's not what Paul's saying. He's not saying that we need the spirit of revelation.

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We've been given both of those things. Go back up to verse 30. Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.

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He didn't say some of them. He didn't say part of them. He didn't say a portion of them. He says every spiritual blessing.

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We've been given all of it. We have received the fullness of the Holy Spirit. It has indwelt us from the moment that we believe.

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Now, this is a challenging thing for us to understand. If that is the situation, why does Paul here seem to ask for us to be given something that we don't need because we already have it?

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Because of that section, he's going to reiterate Christ's all -in -all saying again that demonstrates that we've received everything.

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Peter wrote in 2 Peter 1 .3, seeing that his divine power has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the full knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and excellence.

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This also again demonstrates. So, Paul and Peter both have written that we don't have need of anything else, that we don't need to ask for more spirit, that we don't need to ask for more enlightenment, that we've received the fullness of those things.

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What exactly is it that Peter is talking about? What is he praying for? What is he looking for? Listen, it's not a matter of us needing more of Christ, more of the spirit, more blessings or higher and deeper life.

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It's a matter of, in the words of MacArthur, a lack of insight and wisdom to understand and use what we have already been given.

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Listen, asking for more spirit is not giving you more spirit. Asking for more

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Christ is not giving you more Christ. You've received all of him. Paul is asking for understanding for enlightenment.

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First Corinthians chapter 2 verses 9 through 12 says, but just as it is written things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which has not entered into the heart of man.

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All that God has prepared for those who love him but to us God revealed them through the spirit for the spirit searches all things even the depths of God for who among men knows the depths of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him even so the depths of God no one knows except the spirit of God now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit who is from God so that we may know the depths graciously given to us by God so this comprehension or this lack of comprehension that we see here is an understanding of this lack of comprehension that we have literally in everything that we need this is the very thread that the serpent pulled in the garden think for just a moment about the the event surrounding the garden of eden the serpent energy he questions the word of God but he questions it in a very specific way right he pulls the very thread that they have that God has reserved for himself this one tree now in the grand scheme of things

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I don't know how many of you've ever walked through a forest ever noticed how many trees there are and yet how many were placed in a garden they were given everything that they could possibly need the surface the serpent holds in on that one tree that God said don't eat them the very same question that we we think we need more it's also the same thing the calls that that began that caused peter to begin to sink when he was out of the boat walking on the water think about it for just a minute peter gets out of the boat stands on the water fine he's focused on Christ as soon as he takes his eyes off of Christ he begins to fall so this lack uh this this lack of comprehension that we have been given everything causes us to remove our focus from the source of our provision and we become focused instead on the provisions themselves let me let me give you a modern day example you all know my situation right now it is easy to instead of focus on the provider the sustainer the giver to focus on this spot here and the provision that begins to dwindle right and so the focus becomes something other than God it pulls you away from God we begin to feel as what we have been given what has been provided to us is in some way inadequate in second corinthians 6 verse 12 paul writes to the church at Corinth you are not restrained by us but you are restrained in your own affections you see what happens is we get caught up in our feelings and our emotions become the restraining factor as we can quote scripture instead of to our feelings once again

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MacArthur is helpful he writes these words instead of their emotions being controlled by God's truth their emotions distorted their understanding of his truth so Paul prays for this spirit of wisdom and spirit of revelation so that we can understand more deeply but listen we see these things happening all across our country in these social clubs that are disguised under the heading of the church it's about emotion it's about feeling it's about this desire for more but Paul is simply asking here that our eyes are open to the reality of what we have already been given that the church understand that it has been given a head and that head is

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Christ and Christ himself has dominion over all things there is no lack there is no depletion there is no worry because the provider that we have is over all the provisions and then

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Paul leads into that final clause of the statement that just before he says he is the all in all to the fact that the church is the fullness of him now as intellectually simplistic as Christ feels all in all is to understand this statement is the exact opposite in fact it's paradoxical language a language that appears to present a contradiction when in reality it is expressing a dual truth you'll think for a minute regarding twin truths that run parallel to each other example the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man we don't understand the way that these things work

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God has placed them there this is how he intends for things to work the reality is they run they run side by side there are pieces of both of them they will never intersect and at the same time we will probably possibly never completely understand in fact this is the basis of the theological discussion and disagreement here is that what does this mean when we say that church is the fullness of Christ some would say that Christ is incomplete without the church that part of writing here somehow diminishes who

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Christ is some say that well no what this really says is that Christ who is who fills all in all fills the church here's my argument it's both he said wait a minute preacher how can it be both well the analogy here of the head and the body is that they complement each other and so in a in a manner of speaking one does not exist without the other now follow me through till we get finished here don't jump ahead of me

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Spurgeon wrote this you know how the union stands I in them and thou in me and we must be like our head is he crowned we must be crowned too is he a good husband he will enjoy nothing without his spouse when she is poor he became poor for her sake when she was despised he was spit upon too now that he is in heaven he must have her there if he sits on a throne she must have a throne too if he has fullness of joy and honor and glory forever then so must she he will not be in heaven and leave her behind and he will not enjoy a single privilege of heaven without her being a sharer with him now again listen

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Christ does not need us I want to make this clear God has no need for that doesn't mean he doesn't want us it just means he doesn't need us he is by definition by his own statement he is self -sustaining and needs nothing however he has made a choice to include us to bring us in and if you think about it that fact makes this truth all the more glorious Calvin wrote it this way this is the highest honor of the church that until he is united to us the son of God reckons himself in other words he himself is seeing himself in some measure imperfect what consolation it is for us to learn that not until we are along with him does he possess all of his parts and wish to be regarded as complete later on an assignment about the same passage he asked these questions what are we how can he fare better by being joined to us it is just as if the son were joined with a stinking mire for what have we but infection and filthiness we are so corrupted by Adam's sin that it is horrible to think about it how then can we bring any such perfection to God although there is nothing but frailty in us although we are perverse and evil although there is nothing in us but all manner of filth and in short although we are lonesome in his sight that makes you feel really good doesn't it in spite of this it is his will to have us joined to him yes even on the condition that he should be perfected in us by our being united in that manner as if a father should say my house seems empty to me when i do not see my child in it a husband will say i seem to be only half a man when my wife is not with me after the same manner

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God does not consider himself full and perfect except by gathering us to himself and by making us all one with himself he takes his whole pleasure in us and will have his glory shine forth in us so that his beams may shine out on all sides and although the whole glory is in himself yet he will have it seen that it is his will that we should have our part and portion of it best you see in effect what

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Saint Paul meant by calling the church the fullness of God and of Jesus Christ ultimately the church is currently the visible manifestation of Christ on this earth the body under the headship of Christ responsible for faithfully faithfully faithfully representing

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Christ and as the visible representation of the head we are to be careful to guard that image we the church exists the purpose of displaying the glory of God to the world this truth this knowledge this responsibility should give us pause especially when we consider the effect that the glory of God has on people as they enter its presence throughout all of scripture as one example we've been talking about Moses in the wilderness

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Moses comes into the presence of God and is so infected by God's glory that he radiates it even after he has left his presence so much so that he has to veil his face exodus 34 29 through 35 says that would happen when

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Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai but Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with him then

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Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses and behold the skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come near him then later it says

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Moses whenever Moses went in before Yahweh to speak with him he would take the veil off until he came out and then he would come out and speak to the sons of Israel what he had commanded and the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses the skin of Moses's face shone so Moses would return the veil over his face until he went in to speak with him they were terrified

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Moses would enter the presence of God come back into their presence and they would be absolutely frightened and it wasn't the fact that Moses entered their presence it wasn't the fact that Moses's face was shiny it was the fact that he was reflecting the very glory even in a very diminished capacity the very glory of the most high

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God when his glory enters into the presence of sinful fallen humanity there is always a visceral reaction a recalling from that glory you don't want to stand in the presence listen we see it demonstrated in the gospels

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Christ encounters the legion before he ever really does anything the legion come what do you have to do with us they are frightened afraid they were cornered from Christ in an entry in humanity

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Christ's glory was veiled but the demons saw it and they were terrified 2 corinthians 3 18 paul tells us but we are with unburied faces behold as in a mirror the glory of the lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as from the lord the spirit listen as individual believers we are being transformed into his image for his glory and as that transformation occurs we should be reflecting and radiating the glory of God on all those around us and as we gather for the glory of God the church should be reflecting and radiating that glory to the world because our reason for existence is to make known his glory as we close this morning we are left with a stunning truth the church is not a peripheral entity in God's plan and not in other words it's not just something off to the side that doesn't really have a lot to do with anything it is central to his purposes

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Christ who has all authority in heaven and on earth the head of the church his body we are his fullness we have a representation of his rule and his reign we exist for one ultimate purpose and that is to display his glory so let me ask you are you living in light of this truth do you see yourself not merely as an individual but as an integral part of the body of Christ are you striving to make the local church a reflection of his love his holiness and his mission you and I have been called out of the darkness into his marvelous light in order to proclaim his excellencies but we get distracted we let personal preferences we let pride and even apathy creep into our hearts and divide us from one another or decrease our devotion to Christ and when we neglect our calling to reflect the glory of Christ we obscure his light in a world desperate so here's your challenge take a hard look at your relationship with Christ and with his church as we have signed this morning our covenants of membership one with another ask yourself are you fully submitted to his headship in your life or are there areas where you are still trying to cling to control are you committed to loving and serving the body of Christ in tangible sacrificial ways or has your participation in the local church become superficial and even self -serving are you intentional about reflecting his glory in your daily life or have you allowed the concerns of the world to dim that reflection remember church is not about us it's about him he has called us together as a body to show the world his beauty his power his redemptive grace this is a calling that we cannot take lightly this week i ask

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God to enlighten the eyes of your heart as to where you need to grow in faith love and devotion pray for wisdom and power to help you live in alignment with the truth that Christ is your head that you are part of his body as we each commit to this to each as we each commit to this and to each other we can be a church that truly displays the glory of Christ a church that not even the gates of hell can overpower let us be that church for his name's sake and for his glory alone let us pray almighty father