So before we begin, let's seek the Lord in prayer for this very critical subject, perhaps the most critical subject of any consideration of church planting. So let's pray. Oh Lord, you have loved your church with an everlasting love and now we desire to learn from you about her care and her nurture and I pray Lord that you would give us a heightened understanding of how we would relate to you as the Head, as the shepherd, as the king of your own church, that we would be submissive in all things, that you would teach us now to find ourselves as as true under shepherds, looking unto you the great shepherd of the sheep in Jesus name Amen the supremacy of Christ in the church is the most important issue it's absolutely capital th e most important issue in planting a church, in growing a church, in participating in church life at any level at all. We're going to cover certain facts about the church. Christ is the head of the church, that He's the chief shepherd of the church, that He is the king of the church.

We're going to wrap around after covering these categories to give an illustration in history about how this works out and then we'll move through and deal with some passages of Scripture that'll help us to understand more deeply about what the headship of Christ means in the church and then I'd like to conclude with five applications of Christ's authority in the church, particular ways that his authority works itself out. You know we live in a day when the sufficiency of man's thoughts and the sufficiency of man's inventions and the brain of man operating with tremendous creativity, with pragmatism at work in a way that I believe are threatening the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Church is in desperate need of the Reformation doctrine of sola scriptura, which when it is embraced it is always reformational. The church has never ever completely reformed, but if she would ever be reformed then she would constantly need to be hearkening back to to this principle of sola scriptura. Of course, you know, you know, sola scriptura is one of the five solas of the Protestant Reformation.

Sola scriptura, scripture alone, sola deo gloria, all for the glory of God alone, solo Christo, by Christ's work alone we are saved, solo gratia, salvation by grace alone, and sola fide, justification by faith alone. All of these solas, I believe they stand in such sharp, dramatic contrast to the principles that guide modern evangelicalism today. These solas argue against the accretions that have attached themselves on to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to consider if the Church today is in a similar situation that the Reformers founded in the days of the Protestant Reformation. Has culture over swept biblical patterns?

Have we added practices? Have we added offices? Have we added things not found in Scripture to church life? I would suggest that we have invented a brand of Christianity that's unknown in Scripture and it's time for another Reformation. And this doctrine is always the battlefield of Reformation in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

John Knox said these diabolic inventions, crossing in baptism, kneeling in the Lord's table, mumbling or singing of the liturgies, must be addressed. And it's so critical that we understand that scripture fully contained the will of God and whatever man ought to believe or do is found there and if you want to invent your own brand of Christianity understand what you're doing And I've been amazed at the writing of David Wells in our time who has, in the last 10 years particularly, particularly has really called the church to evaluate what it has been doing in a very, very profound way. He just wrote a book called Courage to be Protestant in which he suggests that our problems today really can be seen in the days of the Protestant Reformation as well. And there are many reformers in the church today, but most of those reformers want to contextualize the church. They want to make the church look good enough so that people will participate in it.

They want to crack the code. They want to find that magic element that will make the church attractive to people so that they will come and they will find the gospel. And you know if we have these five solas of the Protestant Reformation I think today we we the modern church operates by a similar set of solas sola cultura let culture define church life sola successa you know let let numerical success legitimize all the activities in the church. Sola entertaina, let entertainment be the guiding principle of what we do in the church. Sola edificia, let the edifice be the center of all of spirituality in church life.

Or how about sola programa, let the programs dominate everything in the church. Or how about sola thrall doma, let the people be enslaved by whatever thrills them and make sure that the leaders deliver thrilling things so that people can get their hype up for the day and come back tomorrow. Or sola processa, let the church be managed by business philosophies and processes I I really fear that the churches today have been taken by the storm of cultural acceptability. They say they put Scripture first, but in reality it's only really a token. You know, these churches believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, but they do not believe in the sufficiency of Scripture.

They've made an idol out of inerrancy and have ignored the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture, which states that Scripture contains all that we need, and we do not need to add to it to make it better. I'd like to give you three considerations for understanding the supremacy of Christ in the church and you can see this first point in our outline here. This really forms the structure of the centrality of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Church. And the first principle is this, there is order and authority in the Kingdom of God. There is order and authority in the kingdom of God, and to begin our discussion about the church we always have to begin at the right place.

We begin with God, and the order and authority founded in heaven in the prototype of the relationship of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit defines the authority structure not only in the church but in all other relationships as well. In 1 Corinthians 11 3 we read that there is an order and authority in all of creation, and here's how it goes. God is the head of Christ. Christ is the head of man, and man is the head of woman. That is the creation order of authority that we find in Scripture.

Some call this the creation order ordinances, or at least part of it, where Christ, where God is the head of Christ, and Christ is the head of man, and man is the head of woman. Now, it's a, we need to understand that it is a terrible wickedness. It is an apostasy to rearrange the chairs here. Like, for instance, it would be a great apostasy to take man and put him over Christ because it upsets the authority structure that God has ordained. You know, it's really interesting, we've seen a rash of firsts in the history of our nation, just in the last two years, And each one of them completely contradicts and violates the creation order that is established in 1st Corinthians 11.3.

For example, we have taken women and we've put them over men. That's what we're doing in this culture. Last year was a banner year for this. For the first time in Harvard's history they installed a female president. A week later, Yale did the same thing.

We saw our first female presidential candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, on January 20th of last year announced her candidacy. That same year in January 4th 2007 we had the very first female Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and and now we have the first female vice presidential candidate for the Republican Party in history. These are all, these are first people. People do not understand how dramatic this is. What a massive shift from historic government and from a historic understanding of nature.

Our founding fathers would be appalled at these firsts in these just last two years in our country's history. Why? Because they had a worldview that believed that God was the head of Christ, Christ was the head of man, and man is the head of woman, and if you mess up any of those you have committed an apostasy. But you understand how all of this fits together. You can't change any one of them on your own, and it's remarkable to me that, you know, the Christian community is not in an outrage in an outcry of these firsts that have tripped over here just in the last two years.

These are stunning historical reversals and they really reverse the theological base of understanding that we've had in our nation for so long. You know, there's a reason that women did not vote in the United States of America until 1912. It wasn't because people thought women were dumb. It was because people always thought that man was the head of woman and he was the representative head, that he would vote for the family, that the family was united under this headship. But all of these things are blown away and they're not just blown away in the political scene, they're blown away in the church as well and we feel very free to, you know, to invent the church any way we desire.

And so Christ's headship is established in the creation order ordinances and Christ has authority over his church. You know, you've heard of the Emergent Church. You know, many in the Emergent Church say, well, there really are no patterns. There's no biblical pattern. We can do whatever we want.

Let's morph ourselves to be as attractive as we possibly can, and Let's have a little conversation. Not conversion, not transformation to the image of Christ, but conformity to the world in order to speak to it, which actually translates into not speaking to anybody but yourself. And this has been a natural outgrowth of what people call the seeker-sensitive movement over the last 25 years, which I'm old enough to have seen the birth of it. A church built on neighborhood surveys. This is how this movement was launched, by people saying, we'll go into the community and find out what people want and we will create that church.

And what they found out is that people didn't want a church that made them say anything, sing anything, or give anything, and so that's the kind of church they created, and they wanted to be entertained, and so that's what they did. Now after 25 years the leaders of that movement are saying, this did not work. Well, you know, and it did not work because it did not have Christ at the head of it. And now that same, the leaders of that same movement are saying, well now we need to get out another sheet of paper, blank sheet of paper, and start all over again. No.

This is the, this is the, it's the words on the paper of our Bible that are critical for us to reference in all these matters, because there is an order and authority in the church, And so if we're going to understand the supremacy of Christ, the first thing we need to understand is that there is order and authority in the kingdom of God, and we are creatures. We are His people, and we are the sheep of His pasture. We are not the creators. We are the followers and that's the overwhelming principle that guides everything else that comes next in our defining what it means that Christ has supremacy in the church. The first thing that we need to acknowledge is that there are a number of words that describe this.

The first word that we're going to deal with is the word head. There are three words that give definition to this order and authority. Head, shepherd, and king. Let's take the first word, head. He is the head of the church.

In Colossians 2, 8 through 10, we see that Christ is His head over all principality and power. And Paul says to the Colossian church, he says, beware lest anyone cheat you, because if Christ is not head you will be cheated. If he is not head over your life you will be robbed and so will your church. He says, beware, let anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ. You see what the Apostle is doing here?

He is placing philosophy and deceit and traditions of men and he's putting them in juxtaposition with Christ. Those are two separate things. Christ transforms culture. That's the principle. And so he says, beware lest anyone cheat you.

And then he says, for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power." Christ is the head of all principalities and powers. In Colossians 2, 18 and 19, Paul speaks of the dangers of being cheated, of the reward. Again, this word cheat comes up again in the same chapter just a few verses later. And this cheating is all about not holding fast to the head, verse 19 in Colossians 2, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments grows with the increase that is from God." So how does the church grow rightly? It grows by being knit together and being nourished and having a fast hold on the head of the church and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Ephesians chapter 4, Paul teaches us that, teaches us of his headship in the context of his resurrected glory and that our connection with him as head makes us grow and he holds us together. He says that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro carried about by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning and craftiness of deceitful plotting but speaking the truth and love may grow up into all things into him who is the head, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share causes the growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Here Paul is saying growth is dependent upon connection with the head And our churches have no hope unless Christ is the head of these churches. In Ephesians chapter 5 verses 22 to 33 we learn that marriage is an illustration of Christ's headship. And the apostle says, wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord for the husband is head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church and he is the Savior of the body.

And then he gives us an illustration that is a dual, it has a dual meaning. It has to do with every individual in the church and it also has to do with every wife because the submission of a wife is a picture of the submission of the church. And he says, therefore, in verse 24, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands and everything. Why is it so critical that a wife is subject to her own husband, not another husband, her own husband? Why is that so critical?

Because it's a picture of the way that every individual is meant to relate to God himself. And when you have a wife who's submitting to someone else, You have contradicted this principle that individuals should be submissive to Christ Himself. These double meanings in which there's a connection between the natural relationships in life and our eternal relationships with God should tell us much about our own lives, our own relationship with our wives, and also our own hearts of submission toward Christ. These principles are amazing. It's fascinating to me to see how God has interwoven nature with His own kingdom and He's given us illustrations for it.

Well, next in Colossians 1, 16 through 20, we learn that Christ's headship is absolute over everything in the universe. It would be very unfortunate, it would be very unwise to step out of the authority of Christ. Because Colossians 1 16 says, For by Him all things are created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him, and he is before all things, and in him all things consist, and he is the head of the body, the church. And so here we've just covered a number of passages of Scripture that give us this image of Christ as head of the church. And then there are many illustrations in earthly relationships that picture it and but there's more than that he is just the head he is also the great shepherd He is the Shepherd of the Church.

Hebrews 13 20, in this beautiful prayer at the end of the book of Hebrews, he prays, Now May the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant." So here Christ is that great shepherd of the sheep. And this gives us, I think, a tender picture of our lives before him, that we in the church are sheep, and he is our great shepherd. And he is the only wise Shepherd as well and 2nd Chronicles 18 16 we see that that sheep can be scattered because the supremacy of Christ has been lost. 2 Chronicles 18, 16 says, then he said, I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains as sheep that have no shepherd and the Lord said these have no master." So this is a picture of sheep without a shepherd. Ezekiel says a similar thing in Ezekiel 34 12.

He says, as a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day, he is among his scattered sheep. So I will seek out my sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day." You know how easy it is for sheep to be scattered, how easy it is for us to lose our way, how easy it is to get out from the the kind authority of the Shepherd of the sheep. Of course the Lord Jesus Christ used this exact same imagery in Mark chapter 6 verse 34. The feelings of Christ toward the multitudes, their status and then His response to teach them are so beautifully and really unforgettably given to us. Mark 6 34 says, and Jesus when He came out saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them because they were like sheep not having a shepherd.

So he began to teach them many things. What do sheep need when they have no shepherd? They need teaching. And this is how God shepherds his people. He shepherds them by teaching them through his word.

And the Lord Jesus in his, in really a high moment of compassion turns to the thing that would be such a blessing to the church. And that is to teach them, to help them understand how life is really structured and how things ought to be and how they have gone astray. In Matthew chapter 2 verse 6 we read that Christ means to rule his church, which means that you know we are not the rulers but we are the followers. He says in Matthew 2 6, but you Bethlehem in the land of Judah are not the least among the rulers of Judah for out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. And of course that ruler, that ruler was Christ.

Christ is a head, He is a shepherd, and as shepherd He is a ruler. In 1 Peter 2, we learn of returning to the shepherd when he says in 1 Peter 2, 25, "'For you were like sheep going astray, "'but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls." And so the Apostle Peter turns in chapter 5 verse 2, and he says, "...Shepherd the flock of God, which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly." There's this connection between the shepherding and oversight of the Lord Jesus Christ and the shepherding of the oversight of elders in a church. And elders in a church are under shepherds. They are not the heads of the church. They are not the rulers and the kings of the church.

They are overseers, but their oversight is a derivative of what Christ has given. Elders can only lead in what Christ has already said, and that's how the authority of Christ is expressed in the church. We come to the end of the Bible and Revelation, and there are some very amazing words about the beauty of the shepherding that Christ has for His church. In Revelation 717, We read, for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Now that's, this is the kind of shepherd that we have.

We have a shepherd who would wipe our tears from our eyes. The Bible says that he keeps our tears in a bottle And then he wipes them from our eyes at the end of the age. This is why David could say, oh, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside the quiet waters. Isaiah 40 11 shows his intentions, his wonderful shepherding toward us. In Isaiah 40 11, he says, he will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those that are with him. Do you see the the pathos?

Do you see the loving kindness? Do you see the tender mercies of the Lord Jesus Christ as the shepherd of the church? He is the great shepherd. He is the chief shepherd. He is the shepherd with all of the authority, but yet he cares for the tears and the tribulations of his people, and he carries them in his bosom and gently leads those who are with young.

I know there are many pastors here in this room today and there are many, there are many young, aren't there? And how would you lead them? Would you lead them? Would you carry them in your bosom and gently lead them the way that the Lord Jesus has done? He as a shepherd is unmatched.

And If Christ would be supreme in the Church, then his tender heart of shepherding would be so felt in the Church that it would be a very nourishing and precious place. This is why it's easy to say the church is the sweetest place on earth because she has a shepherd like this. So not only is Christ the head, not only is he the shepherd, he's also the king. In 1st Timothy chapter 1 verses 12 through 17, after considering Christ's grace upon him, Timothy acknowledges Christ as king. In 1st Timothy 1 12, he says, And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and an insolent man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

And the grace of the Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Jesus Christ." So the Apostle Paul is recounting the tenderness and the mercy of Christ toward him as King. In his kingship, he has blessed him and he starts out by giving thanks and then he says this, verse 15, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all long suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life. And then he says, now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be glory and honor forever and ever. Amen.

Out of this language of kingship, now to Him, the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, you'd think that would be some far-off thing to the Apostle Paul. No, not at all. He is nearby and has cared beautifully for him and taken the chief of sinners and put him into service. This is what a king does. A king takes the imperfect of the realm and he puts them into service.

Isn't that amazing that he has done that? Paul was marveling at the goodness of this King who would do such a thing to put a sinner into service. This is the most remarkable thing. And then we read in 1 Timothy 1, 6, Paul uses Christ's kingship as a means of encouragement. He says, I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ appearing, which he will manifest is in his own time.

He who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power." Here the Apostle is using the kingship of Christ, the only potentate, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and all of his good government to encourage a young pastor, Timothy. And then finally in Revelation chapter 15 verses 1 through 4, we see that He is the King of Saints. I love this term, King of Saints. And these saints worship Him as King. In Revelation 15, 1, we read, Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete.

And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name standing on the sea of glass having harps of God. They sing the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb saying, Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are your ways, O King of Saints. Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy, for all nations shall come and worship before you for your judgments have been manifested he is the king of Saints and those who have known His kingship can relate with the question, who shall not fear you, O Lord? Who would not glorify you because you are such a good king?

And so we have these brilliant images to help us understand what it means that Christ has supremacy over the church. He is the head, He is the shepherd, and he is the king of the church. Those things, those terms should guide us in all of our leadership of the church and it should tell us that the church is not ours. We cannot create it in our own image. We have no right to invent.

We have no right to add or subtract to the words that He has given us. This is His church, and so we must have a fidelity to the way that he has said it would be, we must use the language that he has given us to define it and to lead it. And it's not for us to reinvent the church in every generation, but it is for us to find ourselves as humble children of God who look to the head, who follow the shepherd, and who find themselves under the subservient grace of this great king. So these are great images and so the first consideration for understanding the supremacy of Christ in the church is the order and authority in the kingdom of God, which begins in the Trinity and its application in human life. God is the head of Christ, Christ is the head of man, and man is the head of woman and don't rearrange any of those chairs lest you be found apostate to the creation order.

It's interesting that the relationship of the Son to the Father is instructive to us. Because the Son says, I only do what I see my Father doing and nothing else. The Lord Jesus said, I only say what I hear my Father has said. That is the order and authority from creation. It has nothing to do with culture, that we must subscribe to if we would be leaders in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We need to understand our place, that we are not inventors, we are sheep. And so this first consideration that there's order and authority in the Kingdom of God leads us to an illustration. I'd like to give a historical illustration of how this works out. The Scottish Reformation was about the authority of Christ in the Church. There are two realities that brought about this Reformation.

First of all, the inventions, the thousands of inventions that the Roman Catholic Church had foisted upon the people of God. And secondly, was a movement in the governments to take authority over the Church and tell the Church what it should do. And so, in 1562, royal authority was pressed against the church in the 39 articles which said, which the government said, this our kingly office and our own religious zeal to conserve and maintain the church committed to our charge in unity of true religion and the bond of peace. We are the supreme governor of the Church of England. Now, So you had fighting words here for those who began to read their Bibles.

Tyndale's Bible was printed and distributed, and people began to see that Christ was the head of the church. The Pope was not the head of the church and neither was the civil government the head of the church. And so this this great Reformation rose up. Now John Knox was the key figure in the Scottish Reformation, here's what John Knox has said that is critical for us in the Reformational times that we are in today. And I've got it quoted there at the top of your sheet.

All worshiping, honoring or service invented by the brain of man in the religion of God without his express commandment is idolatry." John Knox, the firebrand of the Scottish Reformation, understood the heart of the matter. Knox was summoned before the Bishop of Durham to present his views and to defend himself. And he was asked, he was asked if it was indeed true that he was saying that the Mass was idolatry, and there Knox was and he gave a vigorous defense saying, yes, the Mass is idolatry because it is nothing but one invention after another. It is an invention out of the brain of man, and therefore it is idolatry. When Knox stood before the Bishop of Durham, he said a number of things that we should also ask ourselves in any Reformational time.

The first thing that Knox said to the counsel there was this, he says, if our arguments are not founded in Scripture then we deserve to be censured. That was his fundamental point. If you can come to me with Scripture and refute what I'm saying then I will keep my mouth shut." But he said the argument must come from Scripture, and if If arguments do not arise out of sound exposition, then they are no arguments for the church. The second thing he said was that we're addressing forms and practices that have become popular and adored, and that they are part of the successful image of the church. And I believe we're in similar kinds of times.

John Knox said that the tumult from challenging these practices would be significant. And when he was standing before the Bishop of Durham, he said to challenge these things is to challenge and have a similar reaction that we saw in Acts chapter 19 in Ephesus, where the Apostle Paul was preaching. And the people were burning their idols and their magic books. And it was harming the economy of the city. And Demetrius the silversmith rose up.

And there's a crowd of 20, 000 people screaming, great is Diana of Ephesus of the Ephesians. And Knox said, what we're saying here is going to cause this same kind of uproar, because the affections of the idols in Ephesus are nothing different than the affections toward the idols of the church, and it will cause an outpouring of rage just like it did in Ephesus when the people entered in the streets and said, great is Diana of the Ephesians. Knox said this is a possibility. And then he also acknowledged that these forms had become so comfortable that they had become woven into the very fabric of faith. And this is the problem with idolatry.

This is the problem with inventions. We invent something interesting, something creative, and then it becomes part of the conscience of the Christian. And then to change it is like changing the faith, but you're not changing the faith at all. You're just withdrawing something that was added to the faith. So Knox is standing before the Bishop of Durham and he makes these arguments in his introduction and then he begins to move into Scripture to prove that all worshiping and honoring or service invented by the brain of man in the religion of God without his express commandment is idolatry.

And he brings three passages of Scripture that I just want to bring before you this morning. He brings 1 Samuel 13, 1 through 14. This is Samuel and Saul on Mount Gilgal. The key verse is verse 13 in 1 Samuel 13, where Samuel says to Saul, you have done foolishly, you have not kept the commandment of the Lord our God as he commanded you. And so this is the heart of the matter that Knox is using to prove the inappropriate nature of inventions in the church.

So what was the offense that that Saul committed? The offense was this, the enemy was approaching, the people were against him, and he did not consult the Lord, and he did not consult Samuel as he was commanded. And Saul was not authorized by the law to offer sacrifice. He was not part of the tribe of Levi, and it was not lawful for him. He was not appointed to offer sacrifices for the people.

And so he usurps the office not do to him he usurps the authority and an axe on his own but you might say well he was sincere he offered a sacrifice he was in trouble he did what any man would do. And Knox, Knox says this, that there really are no excuses admitted by God in this situation, and he lists the excuses. The enemies are approaching, his own people had departed from him, he did not have a lawful minister on site, and he was seeking the Lord and desired to be consulted by him. And the conclusion of the matter is this, because he did not have the express, explicit command of God, he was not authorized to sacrifice, and as a result, he's deprived of all blessing in the future of his life. Saul's good intentions are not enough to legitimize the action.

And so in the same way, our own good intentions are not enough to certify going beyond Scripture. Knox brings this example up to say that nothing justifies departing from the express commandment of God. And Knox sums it up this way. He says, Here is the ground of all his iniquity, and of this proceeds the cause of his dejection before the kingdom, that he would honor God otherwise than was commanded by his express word." And I would just like to make it very clear that our position is that unless God has commanded it by His express word, it is not appropriate for us to incorporate into the worship of God in the church because He is the head, He is the shepherd, and He is the King of the church. And the King has something to say to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So Knox in this very dramatic scene moves from 1 Samuel 13 and he jumps two chapters ahead to 1 Samuel 15 and he takes the story of Saul and Agag and the sacrifices that were offered. The story goes that Saul saved Agag and permitted the best and the fattest animals to be saved so that they would be sacrificed. But if you read the text you know that this was a variation from the express commandment of God. And Knox analyzes the situation And he uses the situation to define disobedience in the Church. And so, disobedience is not only when a man does starkly wicked things, like lying or slander or murder or adultery, but it is also when he does anything to the honor and service of God that is not commanded by the express Word of God.

And all Saul did was save an old king. All Saul did was keep some good animals alive for sacrifice. For Saul, it was an act of mercy toward Agag, and for the animals it was an act of worship. And who could find fault in that? Who could find fault in rescuing a defenseless captive and making plans to worship God?

That's the question on the table. And Knox asserts that disobedience can happen in, quote, good zeal and good intent. So what Saul did was called idolatry, and it was called idolatry because of the following. He did what was not commanded by the express Word of God. And so Knox says things done in the church are not approved just because we think they are, quote, good and laudable and pleasant.

Think about that. Think about what we do in the church. There's so many things that we can invent that would seem good and seem laudable and seem pleasant. And so Knox quotes Deuteronomy 4 2, and he says we are not authorized to add rights. In 4-2 Moses says, you shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you." And so Knox says, disobedience to God's voice is not only when man does wickedly contrary to the precepts of God, but also when of good zeal or good intent, man does anything to the honor and service of God not commanded by the express word of God as in the manner plainly to be espied." In other words, Saul and Agag.

For Saul transgressed not wickedly in murder or adultery or like external sins, but he saved one aged and impotent king, which thing who would not call a good deed of mercy, and permitted the people, as is said, to save certain beasts to be offered unto the Lord, thinking that God should wherewith stand content and appeased, because he and the people did it of good intent. But both of these, Samuel called idolatry because they were done without the commandment of God first and second, because in doing them He thought He had not offended God. And that's the principle of idolatry. When our own inventions we defend to be righteous in the sight of God are carried out because we think them good and laudable and pleasant. Knox says, we may not think us so free or wise that we may do unto God and unto his honor that we think expedient.

No. The contrary is commanded by God, quote, unto my word shall you add nothing, nothing shall you diminish therefrom that ye might observe the precepts of the Lord your God." He's quoting from the Geneva Bible and Deuteronomy 4.2. And then he says, which words are not to be understood of the decalogue and moral law only, but of statutes, rights, and ceremonies for equal obedience for all his laws requires God." In other words, you just can't pick and choose whatever laws you want to obey. They're not for you to choose. That would make you God.

That would make you the divine interpreter. If you cannot choose, you take them all. And so this is our logic in our ministry here, and that is that there are many inventions in modern church life. We invent them because they seem reasonable to us. We have a zeal for them because we have a zeal for God, and they come from good motives, and they address a problem.

They meet a need. I mean, isn't the church supposed to find a need and meet it isn't that what the church is supposed to do that's what we've been told all of our lives but first Samuel 15 contradicts it And then the third illustration from Scripture that Knox gives as he's standing before the Bishop of Durham arises out of Leviticus 10, 1 through 3, in the story of Nadab and Abihu. And Nadab and Abihu offer fire that they were not authorized to offer, and they're punished by this fire, and they're punished by the fire, and they died instantly. And they offered what he had not commanded them. And Knox makes makes the following points.

He says, first, these were Aaron's sons. Second, they were not killed for adultery or covetousness or desire for worldly honor, but a good and simple intent. They were making a sacrifice. And so Knox says, it doesn't matter how prominent you are, how good your motives are, or you know who you're connected to. If you're doing things that are not specifically admitted by His Word, you are in danger.

And so Knox states, for nothing in the religion, nothing in his religion will God admit without his own word, but all that is added thereto does he abhor and punish the inventors and doers thereof, as you have heard in Nadab and Abihu, by Gideon and diverse other Israelites, setting up something to honor God, whereof they had no express commandment." So this was the perspective that we find in the Scottish Reformation and It's the question that we need to ask, and that is this. Are we authorized to make inventions in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ? And because He is the head of the Church, because He is the Shepherd of the Church, and because He is the King of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, the answer that we would give is no. It is not appropriate for us to bring the inventions of the brain of man into the church. It's not the authority of pastors that should be the building of the church.

It's not the kingship of the culture. It is not the kingship of the church. And so, we have to be very, very careful with what we do in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ? Consider this, It's not appropriate to build a family integrated church. It is appropriate to build the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ all over Scripture was age-integrated. So this feature is a biblical feature, but it's not, it's not the whole. It's a piece to something greater. If a church would be age-integrated, it should only be age- integrated because of the explicit patterns and commands of Scripture. It's the only reason.

Not because the family's falling apart, not because we're losing our children. That's not the reason that we do anything in the Church. We do what we do in the Church because it is of the express command of God and fulfills the principles that are given to us in Scripture and is a mirror of the godly patterns that we see there. And we have to make sure that we understand who is the head of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, when we think about the presence of the church in the world, we have to make sure that we really understand what we are doing.

And here's what we're doing. We are to be a people who, of whom the world will know that they are Christians because we love one another. And If Christ is head, if Christ is shepherd, if Christ is king, then there will be that love in the Church. This is the key demonstration of the kingdom of heaven in the world, that there is love in the Church. And then there are also the application of the biblical commands and patterns that are in Scripture.

This is how churches ought to be governed and created. I'd like to give five applications of His authority in the Church. Again, there are three considerations for understanding the supremacy of Christ in the church. First, there's order and authority in the kingdom of God. Second, I've given an illustration from history and perhaps help for our own century to guide us into the future.

And then lastly, five applications for his authority in the church. Later on in the conference, Jason Dohme is going to give some tremendous detail here, so I'm just going to breeze, I'm going to breeze over these. But what are the applications of his authority? First of all, his authority in the government of the church, his authority in the government of the church. It matters how the church is governed.

And we as sheep, as servants, must hold fast to the pattern of the government of the church and the government of the church is Presbyterian in the sense that there are presbyters who govern the church. There are elders, that's one office, and there are deacons who govern the church. That is the biblical pattern. We don't see anything else in Scripture. And so if we are going to plant churches, His authority in the government of the church must be present.

We must listen to Him and have these churches ordered in the way that He has called for them to be ordered. Secondly, His authority in the practices of the Church, that in our practices we look to Scripture and find our practices there instead of creating our own and adding them. The practices of the church are teaching, prayer, singing, fellowship, evangelism, communion, and baptism. And so it's appropriate for us to appeal to those in our churches to come and sing with us, come and study with us, come and fellowship with us, come and evangelize, come and take communion, and come and pray with us. This is what we do.

And you know what? We should just be satisfied and do that until He comes again. God has told us what to do. We don't have to create it, and He knows how to save those who would. He would, and it is for us though to do these things here.

And then thirdly, his authority in the relationships in the church. His authority in the relationships in the church. In Romans chapter 16 We come across a statement, treatment according to the manner worthy of the saints, and that manner of course is love, and there are ways that we treat one another in the church. There are many commands. There are over 51 anothers.

There are so many different ways that we relate to one another. My fellow elder Dan Horne a couple weeks ago gave a fantastic sermon I think everyone should listen to on Romans 16, 17 through 20 where the Apostle Paul tells the people in Rome what they should do when someone is being divisive in the church. What do you do? And he just, there's a way that you relate to one another in the church, That's right. But his authority in our relationships that we are governed by his laws in all of our our conversations, in all of our actions, and in all of our heart attitudes toward one another.

The Bible addresses all of those. There's a way that there is a manner of the saints. There's a way that the saints function together. And the way that they function together should be summed up in the observation behold how they love one another. That's it.

We will always find ourselves disagreeing with one another there on certain points. I doubt seriously that there is one single man in this room who I agree with on every item. I just don't... I think we have disagreement here in this room, okay? Now what do I do with that?

What do I do with that? We will forever be in disagreement with our brothers for a number of reasons. First of all, we have intellectual deficiencies. Amen? Everybody else does.

Yeah, everybody else doesn't get it, right? Not only do we have intellectual deficiencies, we also have spiritual deficiencies. Our hearts are hard, we are sinful, and we are self-serving. And therefore we will always find ourselves in some position of being crosswise. With all of our brothers everywhere in the world, it will never end.

We will always be crosswise with our brothers because of a spiritual defect. And then we also have natural defects. And with certain kinds of friends. And you may, if you grow up in one family you might be crosswise with more people than you would if you grew up in another family. We have problems right There is not one single person on the planet who I can find who agrees with me on everything.

That's the truth and it'll always be that way. But what do I do? What do I do with my brothers? Well, there is a way that I conduct myself in the household of God. And at the end of the day, the watching world should say, well they may disagree with one another, but behold how they love one another.

And that's possible. It is possible. And so not only is his authority established in the relationship of the Church, but his authority in the work of the Church, the things that the Church has before it by way of objectives, Evangelism and equipping, worship, those things that the Church does. And then the fifth application of His authority is His authority in the identity of the Church. The church is a building, it is a body, it is a family, it is a pillar, it is a flock.

The church in its desire to be so cool wants to give itself different images today, But those are the wrong images. And so we must not be like Nadab and Abihu who offered fire, that they were not authorized to offer. And they were punished by fire. They offered what he had not commanded them. I don't, I don't, I don't know.

I don't I don't believe personally that the church in our day is all that much different than the church in Scotland when the Reformation broke out. The Pope's continued to add one thing after another to keep the people and the money coming in. The inventions that enslaved the people of the church were what the reformers called thralldom. The church had become thralldom central. And the leaders of the church knew what modern mega churches know today.

If you can enrapture and thrill the people they'll keep coming back and they'll become addicted to your inventions and like modern evangelicalism the Roman Church created itself as it went along and did whatever did whatever worked, if it was candles or programs or pilgrimages or whatever it might be to make the thing more fascinating and also to the people and profitable to the bishops. And the Reformers would have nothing of this, so it was a time of cleansing. Out went the litany, out went the pilgrimages, out went the benefices, out went the indulgences, out went the sacrodotalism, out went the altars, out went the kneeling at communion, out went unleavened wafers, out went auricular confession, the cult of Mary and the Saints, the celebration of Holy Days and Feast Days, prayers for the dead, pictures of Christ, icons, crosses, out went purgatory, out went the sign of the cross, out went the crucifixes, the images, the elaborate ritual, the surpluses, the Eucharistic vestments, out with the organs, out with the choristers, the plainsong, out went the popes, out with the bishops, out with the archbishops, out with the monks, the friars, the canons regular, the cathedral dignitaries, the archdeacons, the rural deans, the cannon lawyers, the chaplains, out went the hierarchical titles from archbishop to acolyte, Out went the tauncher, those funny haircuts.

Out went the obligation of clerical celibacy. Out went the clerical dress. Out went clerical lifestyles and clerical privileges. And in came a Reformation of simple preaching, Bible study, prayers, the Psalms being sung, and an active participation of the people who were no longer spectators, but they were encouraged to praise God with their own mouths. Church government began to follow the biblical pattern again, and the congregation gave consent for appointing elders and deacons, and there was no clergy laity distinction like there was before.

There were no more priests, all were ministers, and with a stroke they challenged the whole system. So consider the need for reformation in our times. Consider that we have in the modern church an accretion of unbiblical practices like movie clips and dramas, like women teaching men, like youth groups, like solos, like multiple services, like Coke and chips for communion, like rock and roll bands? How about unbiblical offices, unheard of in Scripture? Offices like singles pastor, children's minister, youth pastor.

These offices do not exist in Scripture. How about unbiblical church government with unqualified ministers? How about unbiblical methodology like age-segregated methodology that you do not find anywhere in Scripture. In fact, you find arguments against it in many, many places in Scripture. And so, here we are in the 21st century and the Lord Jesus Christ is still head of the church and also he will build his church.

The future is not dim at all. There is nothing that can stop the building of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing. I'm as far away from being discouraged about the church as I possibly could be because I know that Christ has promised to build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. I'm praying for a recovering of biblical preaching in the church today.

I'm praying for a return of biblical practices, simple ones that are there in the Bible. I'm praying for a revival of biblical family life in the church. I'm praying for a recommitment, a real recommitment to holiness that we not learn the way of the Gentiles, that we stop learning the way of the Gentiles, that we stop thinking it's okay to send our children to be educated by pagans. That's a pagan practice. It's not authorized in the Bible.

We are only authorized to bring our children up in the training and the admonition of the Lord, and if we are bringing our children up in the training and the admonition of pagans, We are sinning against the commandment of God. It's critical that we understand what God has said and we trust it completely. There's a wonderful book that was just recently written by Sam Storms. It's on the letters to the churches in Revelation, and I'll close with this. He quotes Revelation 2, verse 1.

And there's some stunning words there for us because we desire to express love to the Church of Jesus Christ. To the angel of the Church of Ephesus write, these things says he. Notice that Christ has something to say to the church. Who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. Christ is always walking among the churches.

Christ is observing the church. The head of the church, the shepherd of the church, the King of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is walking among His church, and he never ceases to do it. Sam Storm says this, he is present in among his people. He guards and protects and preserves the church. He is never ever absent.

No service is conducted at which he fails to show up. No meal is served for which he does not sit down. No sermon is preached that he does not evaluate. No sin is committed of which He is unaware. No individual enters an auditorium of whom he fails to take notice.

No tear is shed that escapes his eye. No pain is felt that his heart does not share. No decision is made that he does not judge. No song is sung that He does not hear. How dare we build our programs and prepare our messages and hire our staffs and discipline our members as if He were distant or unaware of every thought, impulse, word, or decision.

How dare we cast a vision or write a doctrinal statement or organize a worship service as if the Lord whose church it is were indifferent to it all." And then he says this, Do you care what Christ thinks of the church? Or are you just more attuned to the latest trend in worship, the most innovative strategy for growth, the most relevant way in which to engage the surrounding culture. Yes, Jesus cares deeply about worship. Of course, he wants the church to grow, and he longs to see the culture redeemed for his own glory. All the more reason to pray that God might quicken us to read and heed the words of the church of the words of Christ to the church in Ephesus.

Then and to the church now whatever its name denomination or size it obviously matters to Him. Ought it not to us as well? And it is so critical for us as we touch the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ that we look in the right direction. And I would just submit that we are living in days when we need to recover the principle that we find all over in Scripture, that all worshipping and honoring or service invented by the brain of man in the religion of God without his own express commandment is idolatry. Let's pray.

Oh Lord, I thank you again for the precious church that you have sent your son Jesus Christ to redeem and the shedding of his blood for all of our sins. Oh thank you Lord for this great salvation. Thank you for your headship. Thank you, Lord, for your shepherding, and I thank you that you are the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Amen.