Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 46 in your hardback timbrel, number
46, O for a Thousand Tongues, to sing my great Redeemer's praise. Let's all stand. Oh, for a thousand tongues to
sing my great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King,
the triumphs of His grace. My gracious master and my God,
assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth abroad
the honors of thy name. Jesus, the name that charms our
fears, that bids our sorrows cease, tis music in the sinner's
ears, tis life and health and peace. He breaks the power of
canceled sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest
clean. His blood availed for me. Hear him, ye deaf, his praise
ye dumb, your loosened tongues employ. Ye blind, behold your
Saviour come, and leap, ye lame, for joy. ? Glory to God and praise
and love be ever, ever given ? ? By saints below and saints
above ? ? The church and earth and heaven ? Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 34. Psalm 34. I will bless the Lord at all
times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. That's the believer's
desire. and it is Christ's accomplishment. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof
and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me
and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he heard
me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him
and were lightened and their faces were not ashamed. This
poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all
his troubles." What a promise. That's exactly what the father
did for his son. And because of that, it's exactly
what he does for his people. Verse seven, the angel of the
Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth
them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord
is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. Oh, fear the Lord, ye his saints,
for there is no want to them that fear him. Can't read that
without thinking of Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall
not be in want of anything. He's all I need, provides for
me everything. The young lions do lack and suffer
hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good
thing. Come you children, hearken unto
me. I will teach you the fear of
the Lord. What man is he that desireth
life and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue
from evil and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil and do
good. Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon
the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. The face
of the Lord is against them that do evil. To cut off the remembrance
of them from the earth, The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and
delivereth them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto
them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite
spirit. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all. He keepeth
all his bones, not one of them is broken. What a picture of
Well, a prophecy of what happened to the Lord on the cross. The typical means would have
been to break the legs of one being crucified so that they
could not hold themselves up and would be brought to a quick
death. But when they got to the Lord,
saw that he had already died and no need to break his legs. The body of Christ is not broken.
It's all one. Evil shall slay the wicked and
they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. The Lord redeemeth
the soul of his servants and none of them that trust in him
shall be destitute. That word destitute can also
be translated guilty. None of them that trust in him
shall be guilty, should be no charge against them who trust
in Christ. Jorge is having surgery tomorrow
on his back, and so I want us to pray for Jorge. And Adam,
you can thank Adam for our new handrails. He welded those for
us, and we got them installed today, and they're solid. Thank
you, Adam. All right, let's pray together.
Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that we have Christ, that you give to us in Him all
that we need, forgiveness of sin, righteousness, justification,
holiness. Lord, you give to us peace and
hope Lord, we pray that in this hour that you would cause us
to look to him, that as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness,
Lord, cause the Lord Jesus Christ to be lifted up in our midst
and cause us who have been bitten with the viperous snakes of sin
to look and to live. Lord, we pray for Jorge and thank
you, Lord, for the medical advances and the procedures that are available
and we pray that you would use the hands of the physician and
the nurses and bring a strength and healing to his body. We pray
especially Lord that in these times of trial and trouble that
you would cause our hearts to look in faith to Christ and that
we would be able to say with the psalmist, you took away our
fear and we ask it in Christ's name, amen. Let's stand together again, number
five from the Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn book, number five. five. ? Come ye sinners poor and wretched
? ? Weak and wounded, sick and sore ? ? Jesus ready stands to
save you ? ? Full of pity he joined with power ? ? He is able,
he is able ? He is willing, doubt no more. He is able, he is able. He is willing, doubt no more. Come, ye needy, come and welcome,
God's free bounty glorify. True belief and true repentance,
every grace that brings us nigh. Without money, without money,
come to Jesus Christ and buy. Without money, without money,
come to Jesus Christ and buy. Let not conscience make you linger,
nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requireth
is to have a knee. This he gives you, this he gives
you, tis the Spirit's glimmering beam. This he gives you, this
he gives you, tis the Spirit's glimmering beam. Come ye weary, heavy laden, bruised
and broken by the fall. If you tarry till you're better,
you will never come at all. Not the righteous, not the righteous,
sinners Jesus came to call. Not the righteous, not the righteous,
sinners Jesus came to call. Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles to Colossians
chapter 1. I've titled this message, The
Preeminence of Christ. The preeminence of Christ. Pre-being first and eminence. The prominence, the the loftiness,
the distinguished person, character, and work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
he's first. And we'll begin reading in verse
16, for by him, the Lord Jesus, were all things created
that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
all things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things,
and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. Notice in verse 18 that the Lord
Jesus Christ is called the firstborn from the dead. This firstborn
and firstfruits is a very prominent theme in the Old Testament. And in every case, it points
to the Lord Jesus Christ, primarily here in His resurrection. The
firstborn son had preeminence over the other children. The
firstborn was to receive a double inheritance. A priest had to
be firstborn. And these things were consecrated,
these individuals and these fruits from the labors were consecrated
to the Lord as a symbol of faith, saying, Lord, what you began,
and what you've provided, you're going to continue to its perfection. And so the Lord instructed the
children of Israel to dedicate the firstborn and the firstfruits
unto the Lord as a demonstration of faith. But more so than that,
more so than that, it was a picture pointing to what the Lord Jesus
Christ would do as the firstborn from the dead. Notice in verse
15, we didn't read that because we dealt with the Lord Jesus
being the image of the invisible God, Sunday. But notice the end
of verse 15, the firstborn of every creature. He is the first
cause of all things. He gets all the preeminence. What a glorious savior. Turn
to me to Exodus chapter 13. Exodus chapter 13. Here's the Lord instructing the
children of Israel in the law to dedicate or consecrate the
firstborn. unto the Lord. And in chapter
13, beginning at verse one, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying,
sanctify unto me all the firstborn. Whosoever openeth the womb among
the children of Israel, both of man and of beast, it is mine. So whether it was a man or whether
it was a beast, it belonged to the Lord. It was to be consecrated
to Him in faith, saying, what you have begun here, we believe
you're going to finish. And that's the testimony of the
resurrection, the firstborn from the dead. We're saying, as we
look to Christ, Father, we believe that what you began, in the resurrection
of your son, you're going to complete, or he's the head of
the body, and the entire body of Christ will be raised from
the dead. That's our hope. Our hope is
in the resurrection. And the proof of the resurrection
is the resurrection of Christ. He's the, you know, wicked and
perverse generation seeketh after a sign. No sign to be given unto
it except for the sign of Jonah. What was the sign of Jonah? He
spent three days and three nights in the belly of the whale. And
then he was brought forth alive onto dry land. It's a picture
of the death and resurrection of Christ. That is our sign.
That is the evidence that what God began, he's going to complete. He's going to perfect his work. He says that He will not leave
His Holy One to see corruption, and those that are found in Him
looking in faith to Christ, they'll not see corruption either. Their
mortal will be made immortal. This corruptible will be made
incorruptible. We'll see Him as He is and we'll
be made like Him. That is our hope. Notice that the opening of the
womb, metaphorically, is the birth of a child. But technically
speaking, the womb is not opened in birth, the womb is opened
in conception. And so this opening up of the womb, you see that,
look at verse two of chapter 13. Sanctified to me all the
firstborn whatsoever, openeth the womb among the children.
There's only one baby that was ever born that opened the womb,
literally opened the womb, and that was Christ. And he, you know, the miracle
of, the conception of the Holy Ghost and the picture of spiritual
new birth. This is where we look and hope
for our life, that just as the Lord Jesus was conceived of the
Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary, that we'll be conceived in our
new birth, in our spiritual life, by the same Holy Spirit. And
that, and that the miracle of the, there'll be no, there'll
be no participation of a man in this birth. I'm talking about our spiritual
new birth. There's no participation of a man. We didn't participate
in it on ourselves, and we didn't depend upon another man to participate
in it. Even in the preaching of the
gospel, we cannot say that there was a participation of a man
in the new birth. The message of the gospel was
the means by which the Spirit of God opens the eyes. But one
man is as good as another man as far as the participation of
a man is concerned. The voice of a man, well, what
John said, I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness. The
man is insignificant in the new birth. We are in our own new
birth and every other man is. And so just as Mary was conceived
by the Holy Spirit and opened up the womb miraculously in his
birth, he was the firstborn. And the firstborn means that
there's others to be born. That's the significance of the
firstborn. You see, that was the, that was the, the, the demonstration
of faith and consecrating the first gifts and the first fruits
and the firstborn to the Lord to say, Lord, you're going to
perfect what you started here. What you began, you're going
to complete. And so we're looking to Christ
as the firstborn, believing that what he started in his birth
and in his resurrection the Father's going to complete miraculously
in the new birth and in the resurrection of everyone that is found in
Christ, everyone. What a beautiful picture. Turn
with me to, you're there in Exodus, I think still. Turn with me to
the book of Numbers chapter three, Numbers chapter three. And we'll begin reading in verse
11. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, God speaking. God speaks, God's people listen. We often quote that the Lord
knows his sheep. He calls them by name and they
hear his voice and they follow him. Are we talking about an
audible voice here? No, we're talking about God speaking
in his word. And when Scripture says, thus
saith the Lord, the ears of God's sheep perk up. What does God
say? I want to know what God has to
say. That's how we hear his voice. He speaks to us by his word,
empowers his word by his spirit, and gives us faith to believe
everything that he has said. And I, behold, I have taken the
Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the
firstborn that opened at the matrix among the children of
Israel. Therefore, the Levites shall be mine. The Levites shall
be mine. In another place when Moses.
went before Pharaoh, he said, let my people Israel, who is
my firstborn go. And if you don't, I'm going to
kill your firstborn. And that's exactly what happened.
And so the nation of Israel is called the firstborn. But here,
the Lord chooses the Levites, the priestly tribe to represent. the intercessory work of the
Lord Jesus as he goes before the Father on our behalf and
intercedes for us and offers himself. You know, the priest
not only interceded on behalf of the people to God, but he,
the priest took the offering. And so the Lord Jesus takes himself
as that offering for sin. And he's seen in the Levitical
tribe. Look at verse 13. because all
the firstborn are mine. For on the day that I smote all
the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I hallowed unto me all
the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast, mine shall they
be, for I am the Lord." And this firstborn theme is carried on
all the way through the Old Testament, pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. who was the only man to literally
open the womb as the firstborn, as a demonstration of God's miracle
of grace in the new birth for all those who look in faith to
Christ and He be in the firstborn from the dead. Because of that,
he gets all the preeminence. He gets all the preeminence.
He's the first. We often say nobody ever remembers
who came in second. It's only the winner. And that's
so true. Nobody remembers. the second
and the third, it's Christ. He's the first. He's the firstborn
among many brethren. He's the one who God has given
all the preeminence to. You know, you and I are proud
and competitive people, aren't we? We like to be first. We like
some preeminence. We like some recognition. We
like to be acknowledged and we often, get offended if we don't
get acknowledged as we think we ought. How shameful and sinful
that is. We are that way. I wish we weren't. But, you know, it's looking to
Christ as the firstborn that puts us in our place. We love the praise and approval
of man. Mark it down. Strife and vainglory
always go together, don't they? Whether it be in your home or
whether it be in the church or whether it be in government or
at your job or in nation, when there's strife between individuals,
it's because somebody's not getting the glory and the credit, the
recognition and the preeminence that they think they deserve.
They've been slighted. and they're offended by it. Everybody
wants to be a big fish in a little pond, don't they? Everybody wants
that acknowledgement, strife and vainglory. Notice what the
Lord calls it, vainglory, empty glory. Know the healing of that
sin in your life and in my life. is the grace that God gives us
to look in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ as the preeminent
one. Let Him have all the glory. I
am the Lord. I'll not share my glory with
another. Amen. Lord, we love it that way. We
want it that way. We're ashamed that we're so full
of vain glory. But in truth, Lord, we want You
to have all the glory, not just among men, but most especially
before God. The disciples sought after vainglory,
didn't they? And what'd the Lord say to them?
You know, when disciples are arguing about who was going to
be first in the kingdom of God and who was going to sit on the
right hand, the left hand of the Lord. And the Lord said, many
that are first shall be last. And many, and the last shall
be first. The last shall be first. You
know, that primarily speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
He made himself of no reputation. He became last. He became the
servant of his people. And as a result, God gave him
the preeminence. He gave him a name that is above
every name. Might we? Be reminded of that. Turn to me back. You have your
Bibles open at Colossians still. Turn back just a page or two
to the book of Philippians, chapter 2. We'll begin reading at verse
3. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory. Oh, how embarrassed, how ashamed
we are of our vainglory. And the Lord will put us in situations
where we get slighted, we get, you know, things will happen
that aren't right. I mean, they're not, what's the
Lord doing? It's a good thing to be humble,
isn't it? Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory,
but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than
themselves. Look not every man on his own
things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this
mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in
the form of God, he's the fullness of the Godhead bodily, it pleased
the Lord that in him should all fullness dwell. God incarnate,
God with us. And let, though he was in the
form of God. You remember, before we go any
further, go back to the passage in Colossians, because I want
you to remind you of verse 15 of chapter one, who is the image
of the invisible God. That's the same word, the image,
the form, the substance of God. being in the substance of God,
the form of God, the image of God, thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. He wasn't robbing God of his
glory by declaring his equality with God. You would be, I would
be, if we even suggested any way that we were equal to God. But here the Lord Jesus Christ
said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. What man can
say that? He did. He thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. He emptied himself. You know,
the scripture says, man at his very best state is altogether
vanity. Now that's true of you and me.
The very best thing that we can produce is the emptiness, isn't
it, before God. We're required of a righteousness
that we cannot produce. And so man at his very best state
is altogether empty. He's altogether vain. This made
himself of no reputation is made himself empty. He emptied himself. You see that verse in the Psalms
that says, man at his very best state is altogether vanity. It
speaks the truth about you and me, but it also speaks the truth
about Christ because the Lord Jesus Christ is the man at his
very best state. And he emptied himself on Calvary's
cross. He made himself of no reputation. He became last in order that
he might get the preeminence. He humbled Himself. Look at the
rest of this. He took upon Him the form of
a servant, was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion
as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. What lower place could He take? And yet, that's exactly what
He did. Why? To be the firstborn. To get the
preeminence. He had to be last. He had to
be last. And here's what God did. Wherefore,
because he emptied himself, because he became last, wherefore God
also hath highly exalted him and given him a name that is
above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should
bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under
the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Oh, might the Lord Move
our hearts and our tongues to make that confession. Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God. He emptied himself. He became
a servant. He took my place on Calvary's
cross. He suffered unto death. He took
the lowest place of a servant, that which I deserved, and suffered
the full wrath of God's judgment. God now has given him a name
that is above every name. God has said to him, come sit
down here at my right hand until I make all thy enemies thy footstool. And that has a double meaning.
All the enemies of God that refuse to bow will find themselves under
his feet in judgment. but also has a meaning for us
as the people of God, because we come into this world at enmity
with God, and He causes us to do what He caused Mary to do.
You remember Mary when Martha was complaining about, you know,
Lord, tell my sister to help, and the Lord said, Martha, Martha,
you're encumbered about so many things, but Mary has chosen that
one thing needful. She's sitting there at my feet,
at my footstool. Sit thou here at my right hand
until I make thine enemies thy footstool. They'll sit here and
they'll listen and they'll rejoice and they'll give glory to God
for Christ having taken the lowliest servant's place and suffered
the death of the cross God has given him the preeminence. He's
exalted him. He's made him head of the body,
the church. This is illustrated so many times
in the scriptures. You remember the parable that
the Lord told about the man who was hiring workers for his field
and All day he would hire workers
until he hired someone the last hour of the day. And then he
told his foreman, he said, bring them all in and I'll pay them.
But bring the last one in first. Bring the last one in first.
And he brought the last one in and he gave him his wages for
the day and the rest of them thought, wow, he got a full day's
pay for an hour's work. Surely he's going to pay me more.
They all got paid the same. They complained to the Master.
The Lord said, there's two pictures there. The last was first. The
last was first. And the reward is the same. It's
the same. Christ is our reward. You know, this idea that some
people are going to be rewarded with greater blessings in heaven
than others. I don't know what all that means. I know it's not true. I know
it's not true. The last shall be first. Child
of God, you feel as if you've never done anything to really
serve the Lord. You feel like you've just been
a taker when it comes to spiritual things all your life. The last
shall be first. It's a good thing that we're
not proud of thinking, well, you know, look what I've done.
No. You see, every child of God feels
like they're just an unprofitable servant. Every child of God feels
like, you know, the last is going to have to be first if I'm going
to be first, because I'm definitely at the end of the line. That's
the way it is. That's the way it is. The Lord
did that by example. And then He showed us in so many
ways. I mean, look at Look at Joseph,
the last of the brothers, being made first and being given preeminence. David, the last of the brothers,
the little boy out in the yard taking care of the sheep, and
yet God gave him the preeminence. It all pictures Christ. He took
this lowly place. He made of himself no reputation. He became a servant. He was obedient
unto death. And the last shall be the firstborn
among many brethren. And God has given him the preeminence. Oh, might we be content and satisfied
to be last. The Lord often reversed the order
of the firstborn. He did that with Esau and Jacob.
Esau was born before Jacob. Jacob loved Esau, hated. You remember when Joseph was
seeking the blessing of his father Jacob on his two sons, Ephraim
and Manasseh. Manasseh was the elder, and when
Jacob was blind, and when Joseph brought Manasseh and Ephraim
to his father to be blessed of them, he brought Manasseh over
to Jacob's right hand, because that was the firstborn blessing.
That was the one that was going to get the preeminence. And what
did Jacob do? He did this. And Joseph objected
and said, Oh, no, father, Manasseh is the firstborn. Put your right
hand on Manasseh. And he said, No, what I've done,
I've done. Ephraim got the blessing. And
so the Lord reverses that order and in order to show that You
know, the last will be first. The Lord told the publicans and
the, I mean, the Pharisees, He said, the publicans and the harlots
are gonna come into the kingdom of God before you. Men exalt themselves above one
another in the world is shameful enough. But when men exalt themselves
above God, When they make their decisions to be the deciding
factor in their salvation, they set themselves up on the throne
of God. They make themselves to be God.
When they make their works to be the things that would merit
God's favor, they're obligating God and setting themselves up
as God. What, what, well, It's shameful
and it may cause strife for us to seek preeminence among one
another, and we ought not to do it. But you seek preeminence
above God in your salvation, and it'll cost you your immortal
soul. It'll cost the eternal life.
The Lord is not going to share that glory with another. He's
going to get all the glory, isn't He? And we love it that way.
We love it that way. Oh, I want Him to be the firstborn
What is the opposite of needing recognition and preeminence? Worship. Worship is to bow before
Him and to acknowledge Him for who He is, to sit before Him
humbly, to be submissive to Him, to believe on Him. Faith in Christ is the opposite
of us seeking our glory and our preeminence in salvation. We worship God in the spirit.
We rejoice in Christ Jesus. We have no confidence whatsoever
in our flesh. He gets the preeminence. He gets
the praise. He gets the glory. God has chosen
the base things of the world, the foolish things of the world,
the things which are not. Why? that the Lord Jesus Christ
might get all the glory. Now we'll just send our text
quickly that the Lord is the firstborn. Chapter Colossians
1 verse 16. For by him were all things created
that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
all things were created by him and for him. And he is before
all things. And by him, all things consist. John chapter one, verse three
says, all things are made by him and without him, nothing
was made that was made. without Him. We ought not to
be surprised that the world has come up with this theory of evolution. The root of it is so clear to
the believer. It's an attempt to deny God,
His preeminence, to deny Christ, His glory and creation. It was
the Lord that said, let there be light. It was the Lord that
separated the day from the night and called the light day and
the darkness night. It was the Lord that fashioned
man from the dust of the earth. Man thinks he's so brilliant,
he thinks he's so intelligent, and he doesn't know. that in the beginning, God, God. We join our voices with the angels
and the saints in heaven who said in Revelation chapter four,
verse seven, thou art worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory and
honor and glory. power for thou has created all
things and for thy good pleasure they are and were created he
is the creator and the sustainer of all things physically and
spiritually and just as he created man from the dust of the earth
and breathed life into his nostrils now I think I mentioned this
some time ago I never really understood why the breath of
life went into the nostrils of man. You know, the mouth of man,
when God said, when I look down into the mouth, it's like an
open sepulcher. He's looking through the mouth
into the heart and he's seeing the corruption of it. But the
nose is only used for breathing. You don't talk out of your nose. You don't blaspheme God out of
your nose. God breathed the breath of life
into Adam through his nose. We have the same thing true.
You see, all these things in Genesis are a picture of the
spiritual life that we have in Christ. It's not by our words,
something that we speak. God doesn't breathe life into
us because we prayed a prayer. I've seen these advertisements
of these religious hucksters on TV saying, well, if you'll
just pray this prayer, You've got to do something. You've got
to say something in order for God to be able to save you. He's
waiting for you to say the right words. No, if God's going to
bring life into your heart, He's going to do it through your nostrils,
not through your mouth. He's not dependent upon us to
say anything. We come before Him. The Lord
brings a spirit of brokenness and humility and submission,
a broken spirit and contrite heart. He will not despise. And
he breathes life. And if we ever speak a word of
confession, if we speak a word of repentance, if we speak a
word of faith, it's because we've already been given life. The
breath of life has already come in. That's the evidence that
life has been breathed in through our nostrils. Now the mouth speaks,
and it speaks of things to His glory. And it gives to Him all
the praise. and it acknowledges that God
has given to him all preeminence. Through faith, we understand
that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things
which are seen were not made by those things which do appear. That is a complete reversal and
denial of man's theory of evolution. The things that are seen are
not made by those things which appear. One thing did not evolve
into something else. By faith, by faith we believe
that the worlds were framed by the word of God. And the same thing's true spiritually,
by faith. By faith, we believe that the
new heart is formed by the word of God. He begat us of his own will,
begat he us with the word of truth. God speaks, God speaks,
that's it. He does the speaking. He shuts
the mouths of his children and he speaks. All the firmaments
declare His glory. We look at creation and we see
all the demonstrations of His omnipotence and His omniscience
and His omnipresence and we see the the things in creation. Well, the Bible brings those
things out. All the things that the Lord uses to illustrate spiritual
life are found in creation. The trees and the fruit and the
sky and the clouds and the water and the wind and the sea and
all these things, all these things God is pointing. I wish I could
see more. of the glory of God. Be more
aware of His glory every time we look at creation. Every time
we look at a beautiful sunrise, think about the rising of the
Son of God. Every time we see a seed, think
about that seed that had to die in order for life to be made.
Well, that's what our Lord's telling us here. He is before
all things, and by Him all things consist. Look at verse 18, and
I'll close. He is the head of the church,
the body of Christ. Oh, here's a... Your hand doesn't
say to your foot, I don't need you. Your eye doesn't say to
your ear, I'm more important than you are. No, every member
of the, every member, every part of your body responds to the
commands of your head. And so it is in the body of Christ. He's the beginning, the firstborn,
and he gets all the preeminence. Without him, there is no church. Church is born out of Christ,
even as Eve was taken out of Adam. And he gets the preeminence. He's the firstborn among many
brethren. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, thank you for your word. Lord, remind us by your spirit,
from your word, all the demonstrations of Your glory and move our hearts
to speak words of faith and rejoicing
that Christ is the firstborn and that He gets all the preeminence. For it's in His name we pray,
amen. Number 33 in the spiral. 33, let's stand
together. number 33. Let's all stand. ? Behold, I come, our Savior said
? ? The Savior promised long ? ? I come to do thy will, O
God ? ? And thus our hope was born ? ? Behold, the virgin has
conceived and born a son ? His name is called Emmanuel. God dwells in human flesh. The angels left their high abode
to see this mystery. ? The great almighty sovereign
God ? ? The babe of feeble clay ? ? Mortals beheld his lovely
face ? ? The Father's only son ? ? How full of truth, how full
of grace ? ? Christ came to save his own ? His spotless life of
righteousness and sin-atoning death fulfilled His Father's
holy will and satisfied His wrath. Our glad Hosannas, Prince of
Peace, your glory shall proclaim. Enthroned in heaven as our King,
we love to praise your name.