We want to turn in your Bibles to the book of Colossians chapter 1. I want to read with you from verse 13 through verse 19 today. From verse 13 to verse 19, Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1 verses 13 through 19.

It says, actually I'm going to read from verse 12. He says, giving thanks unto the Father, this is a prayer the Apostle Paul has prayed. and has written to the Colossians and telling them that he's giving thanks to the Father. And this is an important instruction to us, isn't it? The Apostle Paul is thanking God the Father for certain things. We are instructed by this. we also should thank God as our Father for these same things.

So he says this, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet, enabled us, or made us, qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Now to be an inheritor means to be an heir. You have been designated by God the Father as an heir of the inheritance that He has prepared for the saints in light. What Brad just read to us from Psalm 36 says, In thy light we see light. That with thee is the fountain of life. In thy light we see light. And so that's significant here. Because he mentions the light in verse 12 and then in verse 13 he says, who, and he's talking about God the Father, hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom, in his Son, we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

So it tells us what redemption has purchased for us, has delivered us from the the guilt and the condemnation and all of the burden of our sin by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in verse 15, he says, who, and he's talking about Christ the Son still, he says, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him, by Christ, 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, for it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.

And I want to stop there today. I want to go back through these verses with you. So what we're seeing here is that in this short epistle to the Colossians, the Apostle Paul is given grace to teach the Colossians, and not just the Colossians, but all of God's people throughout time, who would read this epistle and would receive the message of it, that everything in our salvation is to be found in Christ alone.

Now, if you just remember that, then you can read these verses with that summary in view, and you will see that this is what God is saying here, that everything, all the parts of our salvation are in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. And this is important for us. It's important that we understand this because true faith believes that. True faith understands that. And true faith, God-given faith, causes us to rest in the Lord Jesus Christ because everything in our salvation is in Him alone. If it's in Him alone, then it's not in us. If it's in Him alone that God accepts Him for His people and receives them with Him, and receives them as Him, so that our confidence is not in ourselves, it's in Christ the Lord. All of our salvation is in Him. That's what this is saying here in Colossians. And so what we see is the way that the Lord opens this up for us when I read through this here. He says, verse 13, the Father, God the Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, His Father has delivered us. He's rescued us. That's what that means. He's rescued us from this dominion, this rule of darkness. and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son.

Now, scripture speaks of us being darkness itself. In Ephesians 5, it says, you were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the Lord. And the result is, the meaning there is that we've been delivered from darkness, from our own darkness, from the darkness of this world and from the darkness of Satan's kingdom into a liberty, a freedom, a light that is light in our souls and from the present evil world and from the kingdom of Satan. All of those things which God describes as darkness in the world. and in our hearts. We've been delivered from that by God the Father. It was by His authority that He took us out from what our sins deserved and placed us under the reign of His Son, the rule of His Son, His Kingdom, over us as our King.

Now, the significance of this is too hard for us to really grasp unless God gives us this grace. Because to be made under the reign or the rule of God's son is, I would say, the highest blessing possible. To be under the son of God's love, That's a completely different rule than being under the dominion of darkness where the intent of the devil is to deceive and to take away our life for all eternity. And here the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the one reigning over us, the Son of God's love, in order to bring us into eternal life.

And then verse 14, he says this, speaking of the Son, he says, in whom? In the Lord Jesus. We have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. So the one who rules over us is the Son of God's love. The one who rules over us was given by the Father in love, and given in such a way that he delivered him up. to judgment, to bear our sins and to endure our judgment, to deliver us from our sins and from that judgment. So the Father in love has given His Son, and in love He did that in order to make us His children. But the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself. He gave himself in blood. He gave his life. He gave himself an offering and a sacrifice to God for our sins. That's what scripture says in Ephesians 5, verse 2, for example.

Here we see that because he did that, he delivered us from our sins and from this darkness, and he's brought us into not sins, but the forgiveness of sins. He's delivered us from the dominion of our sins, from the guilt of our sins, the condemnation of our sins.

And he did this by his blood so that the one who rules over us is the one who loved us and gave himself for us. And so we should take this truth so plainly revealed here to our heart that if the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, gave himself for us, to bear our sins and to suffer for our sins, even unto death, in obedience to God, that He did this out of love, out of His grace, what will He not give us?

The scripture argues from this that because God has done this for His people, He will withhold nothing from them, but in fact give them everything that He has given to His Son as the Lord Jesus, our Mediator. Everything he gives to Christ, he gives to his people with him because he gave Christ for them in love, in death.

And the Lord Jesus gave himself so that we can take now these things together as our greatest assurance. greatest joy, greatest peace, greatest comfort, and cause us to adore and to magnify and to take delight in God, whom we previously thought ill of because he had his wrath against us because of our sins. We thought in our minds it was unjust and unfair for God to treat us so.

Now we see how his justice required, even that when sin was found on his son, He delivered Him up to death, and He did that in love in order to deliver us from that death and give us all things with Him.

And the forgiveness of sins, who can describe the peace that passes understanding to know that our sins are forgiven us for Christ's sake. God doesn't consider us, He considers His Son. And now he goes on to build on this in verse 15. We covered this last time. What I've said so far, we've pretty much covered it. But I want you to look at this here in verse 15 through 19 because this is... taking what the one who is our Redeemer, who redeemed us by his blood, the Son of God's love and God's love for us and how he's delivered us from the reign of darkness into the reign under the rule of Christ, who gave himself for us in love. And now he's going to describe us, he's going to describe him further here.

He says this in verse 15, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. So these are both phrases that are very significant, and I wanna spend most of our time on just these two phrases here, using the verses that follow in order to understand them. First of all, he says that the Lord Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God. And I want you to understand that the one spoken of here as the invisible God is God the Father. God is a spirit, the Lord Jesus said in John chapter 4 verse 22. God is a spirit. Can you see a spirit? No. In John chapter 1 verse 18 it says, No man has seen God at any time. No one has seen the Father at any time. But the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. He's made Him known.

So when we understand those truths declared to us in verses like John 1 and verse 18, then we see that the image of the invisible God is telling us and teaching us that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one in whom we know God, in whom we see with understanding given to us by God and believe in who God is in truth. And it also teaches us that there's no way for us to know God except in His Son. We can't see Him, not with our physical eyes, certainly, but not even with our understanding unless we understand Him and see Him with God-given faith in His Son. So that's what this is saying here.

Now, he uses this word image. The invisible God, that's God the Father. Certainly the Holy Spirit is included, but he's speaking specifically about God, our Father. But here he says, who is the image of the invisible God? Now, what is an image? Well, I think the best thing I could think of to understand this, as it's being explained here, is that this is really, the word image here is an illustration of It's an explanation of what Christ is to us. It's an explanation of what he is to us. And when we say an image, we understand an image to be whatever depicts or shows us the likeness of something else. When you look in the mirror, for example, when you look in the mirror, what do you see? You see yourself, don't you? You see your own appearance. Can you see yourself apart from that reflection? No. Other people can see you. You look in the mirror and you say, oh, that's what I look like. Or you see your reflection in a pond, for example. or shiny object. You see in the mirror, it's you, but it's really just an image of you, isn't it? It's a likeness of you, and it's an exact likeness. The clearer the reflection, the more precise the true appearance of yourself is represented by that, isn't it? That's what an image is.

Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who, as a mirror, reflects the person, the nature, the character, the attributes of who God the Father is. So that when you look in the mirror, you see yourself. When you look at Christ with God-given spiritual eyes, you see the Father. And we need to really let that sink in, because what God is saying here is, seeing Christ is seeing God, the Father, who is otherwise invisible. He's invisible.

And when we think about this, we might even think about how God, in the beginning, in Genesis 1, verse 26, He said, let us make man in our image. in the likeness of God. And he made them in the likeness of God, male and female. So, man and woman were created in the likeness or the image of God in the beginning. But here it says Christ is the image of the invisible God.

And if you were to think about it a little bit, and using the scripture as our guide, what we'll see is that to be created in the image of God, That means that, as Adam and Eve were, it means that they were made in such a way that they knew some truth, to some extent they understood the truth about God. So that their thoughts were true thoughts of God. But of course, Adam and Eve both fell in the garden, didn't they? And when they did, what was lost was the image of God. And that's why verse 13 says, we were translated from the kingdom of darkness, the image was lost, into the kingdom of God's dear son, the kingdom of light.

So that in Ephesians 5, or is it 5 or 4? I think it's 4. He says this, In Ephesians 4 verse 23, speaking about the image of God, that we lost in Adam, but now when we're translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son, it's restored. He says in Ephesians 4 verse 23, Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. You see, so something was lost in Adam and something was created in Christ. And that, what was lost in Adam and what was created in Christ was the image of God, the understanding, the spiritual understanding of who God is.

And then also he says the same thing, let me see if I can find it here in Ephesians Chapter 3, he says in Ephesians 3 verse 9, lie not one to another. This is, I'm sorry, Colossians 3 verse 9. He says, lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds. This is another way of describing what we were under the dominion of darkness. We were darkness itself. In our souls, there was no light. and the light of the gospel had to come to us. And when the Spirit of God commanded, or Christ himself, commanded the light to shine in the darkness of our heart, what happened then is a new man was created. And that's what he's talking about here in Colossians 3.

Why not one to another, seeing you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which, notice, is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him? So what God gives to us in this translation, from darkness to light, the kingdom and the rule of Christ, is the image of God. But our image of God that we have, that given to us, that new spirit that we have, is nothing less than our spirit being joined to Christ in His spirit. So that what we have now is that the Lord Jesus Christ comes to dwell in our bodies and join to our spirits. And in this union with Christ, by his spirit, we're given a new man. And that new man now has a mind, the mind of Christ. As he says in several places, for example, Romans 7 verse 25, we have the mind of Christ. And that mind of Christ is the Spirit of God dwelling in us, revealing Christ to us.

The image now that we have is Christ revealed to us. But Christ himself is the precise, exact, express image of God the Father. So when you look at Colossians chapter 1 and verse 15 here, it says the Lord Jesus is the image of the invisible God. And some people would say, well see, he's not God because he's just the image of God like man is just the image of God. But he's not describing to us here what Christ is in his essence as God. What He's describing to us is what Christ is as our mediator in what He does for His people in revealing God the Father. And He does that through His Word and through His works and through the revelation of Himself given in the Gospel.

In fact, what we know of Christ, we know of Him as He has revealed to us in His saving work. And this is why throughout scripture, when the light of Christ is made known to us, we see him in his saving work. Remember Thomas? I refer to this often, when he saw the Lord Jesus, and he said, I will not believe until I see the nail prints in his hands, and touch them, and the pierced place in his side where the spear went in, and touch that. And the Lord said to Thomas, behold, my hands, reach hither your finger, and thrust your hand into my side, and be not faithless, but believing." And immediately Thomas declared, my Lord, my God. He understood with greater clarity than ever before that the one who died for him and redeemed him, who now stood before him in his body, resurrected, was the very Son of God, his Lord and his God.

The revelation of who Christ is was made known to Thomas then. And that's what happens when a believer is given the knowledge of the truth, either initially or in the renewing of his mind. Christ, again, is made known to us in who he is to us from God. So I say that when it speaks of the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, being the image of the invisible God, that Christ is himself the revelation of God the Father. that He's describing to us who He is to us as He performs this role as our mediator.

God speaks to us, but how? He speaks in His Son. God comes to us, how? He comes to us in His Son, in our nature. And Christ revealed God to us, how? Stooping, taking our nature, bearing our sins, enduring the punishment for our sins. So in all these things we see Christ, but what we don't realize is that the image that God created in Adam in the beginning was not an image of God that any man... I mean, it wasn't the image of God that Christ is to us. Christ is the image of God, the revelation of the Father in such a way that no mere man could reveal God the Father to us. He couldn't just be man and reveal God the Father to us. He had to be man and God. So as our mediator then, God the Father speaks to us in Him. And all that God is, He is in Him. But all that He is as God, He is to us in His manhood. And in all this, what we have is that the Lord Jesus Christ is the revelation of the Father to us in such a way that no creature could ever be. Angels couldn't. They were never designed to do this, nor could they. Man couldn't, either Adam or fallen man. Because Adam couldn't conceive, he wasn't even proved until he fell. And then when he was proved, when he was tested, he was proven not to be the image of God.

And what this image is now, and I want you to get this clearly here. is that the image of God the Father that Christ is to us in His role as our mediator is a revelation of God's goodness, of God's righteousness, of God's holiness, of God's justice, of His truth, of His grace, of His love. These things could not be known to us except we see them in Christ and Him crucified.

So the significance of this. as we see now, follows what was said before of the Lord Jesus Christ. triumph over our sins, over the death, over even the demands of God's justice. So that God in His justice now, God in His justice now is pleased, satisfied, delighted with Christ and His people with Him.

How could we know God? How could we otherwise know God than in this way? So if you take these words, who is the image of the invisible God, and you twist them and distort them to make them seem like, well, Christ is somehow less than God, you've missed the message of these words. He's saying that, no, the one who died for us in love and shed his blood for us in love by the will of God the Father is also the one who reveals the Father to us. in his person and in his work, in a way that no man, no angel could ever do. And that therefore shows us also the fact that because God's goodness, his righteousness, and justice, and truth, and grace, and love, and long-suffering, all the attributes of God that we see in the Lord Jesus Christ, his humility, His giving of Himself, His joy and His fulfillment in giving Himself in death for our sins. That delight that He took to do that, not to gain anything for Himself, but to give Himself for us and to have us, to present us to Himself as holy and without blame before Him in love.

That, when we see that in Christ, we're seeing the very heart of God the Father. And if that doesn't move us to adoration and awe, then we haven't understood these words. It should. It shouldn't compel us. It should compel us to do what the Apostle said, giving thanks to the Father who has made us capable, enabled us to be the partakers of all that he gives to his own children as heirs together with Christ.

If God has given His Son for us to deliver Him up and not spare Him in order to find Him to be so precious to God in all of His holiness, because He answered His own justice and fulfilled it in righteousness, to display and to set forth His grace, to save a people who were His enemies and to make them His children. Without that, if God the Father has done that, then He will give us everything, you see. It's all based on what came from His heart, based on what He received from His Son, what He purposed to do in His Son for His people to save them from their sins.

And now we see something about what it means to be the image of the invisible God. That the Lord Jesus Christ precisely reflects God the Father in Himself, in His Word, in His will, in His work, in His glory. We'll never see anything of God the Father, nor do we need to see anything of God the Father more than what we see in Christ. He is the image of the invisible God. And I deliberately took time in order to try to explain this because it's difficult. Unless we see the terms that are referred to here in the light of what Scripture says about Christ.

He told his disciples in John 14, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. In John 12 verse 45 he says, He that seeth me seeth him that sent me. Okay, so it's clear. Christ is the one who precisely, He's the expressed image of the Father. There's no... There's not one thing about Christ that's true of him that is not also true about the Father. In his attributes, in his character, in his person, in his will, in his glory, in his work, it's all his. His people, his power, his authority. He has the authority of God the Father because he is the one who is, as our mediator, he has all these things.

Okay, so I wanna go on to the next phrase here in verse 15. So if you understand something about a mirror, I think it helps us to understand what God means here. It's the function of Christ in revealing the Father to us that's being spoken of here. And I'm reluctant to use that word function, but it's the way, it's what he does for us. because of His role as our mediator, and because of His two natures as God and man, that He is the perfect image, the perfect reflection, the express image of the Father's person. He's one with His Father. He shares the same nature as God. He's equal with Him in power and authority, and His being has the same eternality. and everything about him, but we wouldn't know him unless he was also our mediator as man.

In 1 Timothy 3, verse 16, it says it this way, great is, I'm sorry. He says, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. And what is that mystery? God. was manifest in the flesh. And he goes on and says many other things justified in the spirit and so on, but that first one, God manifest in his son.

All right, so now I want to go on to this next phrase that's in verse 15. who is the image of the invisible God. We see that negatively, that means we can't know God unless we see him in Christ. And remember what John 14.6 says, what Jesus said, no man comes to the Father but by me. Remember? That's another way of saying the same thing, isn't it? If you can't come to the Father apart from Christ, then how can you know him? You can't come. You can't see Him, you can't come to Him, except in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the same thing.

And positively, so negatively you can't know God, you can't come to Him, you can't understand Him, you'll never see Him apart from Christ. Positively, all that can be known of God the Father is perfectly seen in Christ and in Him alone.

But now he says here in verse 15, the firstborn of every creature. And once again, I think we have to read the verses that follow because this is the way that God reveals to us what he means in scripture. He says, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, and then he says in verse 16, for by him were all things created that are in heaven, and 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," and notice these words, 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. And then finally, for it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. I want to talk just about verse 19 a little bit, and then I want to go back and explain what verse 15 is saying when it says, the firstborn of every creature.

Verse 19 says, it pleased the Father that in Christ should all fullness dwell. He's saying here that everything God has for His people is found in His Son. Everything. And not only everything, but everything in completeness and in perfection. Everything that God has for His people, it pleased the Father would be in His Son. And not only in Him, but comes to us from Him. So what does that teach us? Come to Christ, doesn't it? Doesn't it say look to Him? It does, doesn't it? That's where all of the fullness for all of God's people is. It's in His Son, in the Lord Jesus Christ as our mediator. Come to Him. Look to Him. That's the only place you'll find all that God gives to His people. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we don't come to Him, then we have nothing from God.

Okay, now I want to back up here. In verse 18, he says he is the head of the body. The church. So we know who he's talking about. These are God's saints. These are God's elect, redeemed people. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. The Lord Jesus Christ did not love and give himself for every person in the world. Throughout scripture, there's a lot of words that are used that are words we would use in a universal sense. But God clearly says in scripture that his salvation is not a universal salvation. He speaks, for example, of the nation of Israel. He says, out of that nation, even though The entire nation is cast off, yet a remnant, according to the election of grace, would be saved. So not every individual.

And why is it so important that we emphasize that? Why is it so emphatic in Scripture that God says, God's elect, he says, for example, in 1 Peter 1, verse 2, he says, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Or in 2 Thessalonians 2, 13, he says, Beloved of God, I can't remember exactly, I've got the words tangled up in my mind, but he says, said it this way, in 2 Thessalonians 2, just so that you hear these words about the elect of God. He says, verse 13, we're bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved, the loved ones of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. And then he goes on describing how he would do this through the sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth.

So God has a people. They're chosen out of. out of the large universal group. And so these words are used in scripture in this way to designate some out of the whole, apart out of the entire mass of humanity.

God, it says in Romans 9, has mercy on whom he will, and whom he will, he hardeneth. And he says, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. So there's a distinction. There's a distinction God makes, and it's seen throughout scripture.

God separated the land from the sea. He separated the light from the darkness. He made clean beasts and unclean beasts. There was some things that were created for good, and some were created for destruction. And that's the way He did it. And it's right that God do what's right to Him, isn't it?

If God is true, if his word is true, and if he's the judge of all the earth and shall do right, then it's right for God to do. God is good. He's only good. He's only good. And for God to do what seems good to him, it is therefore good. It has to be holy. He does nothing but what is holy and right and just.

Now we have a hard time with it, but what we see is that when God delivers someone up to wrath, it's always because of their own sins. The wages of sin is death. It's not a payback for something you haven't done. And so even though God saves his elect and Christ died for God's sheep and the church, It means that the rest of humanity was left to receive what they would obtain by their works.

Who can complain about that? You're getting what you wanted. You're getting what you earned. Isn't that fair? That's fair. What's not fair is for us to get what Christ earned. Oh, but it is fair because it seemed good to God, you see.

Now, I only touch on that briefly, because what we're looking at here is that he's the firstborn of every creature, and he speaks of him being the head of the church, the body, and that's who he's talking about, his redeemed ones. But notice in verse 18, Colossians 1.18, he says, he's the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, Christ is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. Notice that he uses the same word here, firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. And he goes on and describes the fact that it was the father that was pleased. It seemed good to him that in him should all fullness dwell.

Now, take these things with a big gathering in and pile them up on the end of verse 15. He's the firstborn of every creature. What God is saying here in explanation in the verses that follow here, is that Christ is not merely, He's not simply the creator, although He is that. But He is to creation, and He is to creation in heaven and in earth, and He is to His people, as He speaks here, the firstborn of every creature. And what we see here in verse 18 is it includes mainly the emphasis of Him being the firstborn from the dead.

Now, in the first verse that follows verse 15, verse 16, it says, By Him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth. That means there was nothing, or there's nothing outside of God but creation, right? Angels have not been from eternity. Devils have not been from eternity. They were created. They were spirits that Christ created. That's what he's saying here. And through them, God accomplishes his authoritative power in the world, doesn't he? And heaven, the spirits of God, I mean the spirits of angels, are sent into the earth to accomplish whatever God's will is. They bear the authority of God, and so they're called here in this way, powers and principalities, dominions. They were all created by Christ.

But when he gets to the church, he speaks about them as being created from the firstborn who was the firstborn from the dead. And so in this sense, what we see is that the firstborn, in being the firstborn, again, like with the image, is describing who Christ is to his people. and to everything else. So that if you take these things, we see then that it's describing to us the Lord Jesus Christ in what he performs for others, and others in creation. With regards to spirits in heaven, angels, with regards to spirits in hell, the angels that fell, Christ created them. With regards to the angels that were elect and were not allowed to fall as the devils, Christ created them to be his servants, his ministers to the heirs of salvation. With respect to devils, spirits that fell, Christ created them to accomplish his will in the darkness. To hold those in darkness who have never seen Christ. And then to deliver, and Christ created them in order to show his power, like Pharaoh, to deliver his people from that dominion.

But with respect to his people, now, the Lord Jesus Christ was the firstborn from the dead, and he created them out of his resurrecting power. Because he conquered sin and death and the devil, therefore he has the power to give them life at his will. He's the firstborn from the dead. He's the resurrection and the life.

How could he be the resurrection? He had to first die. He had to take his life up again. This was by the will of God. He didn't do it just to show that He could rise from the dead. He did it because He conquered the sins of His people. And He became the firstborn from the dead. Firstborn meaning that all those who would rise from the dead, created in Christ Jesus, would be created and risen by Him.

All the fullness of God given to His people is in Him and from Him. And so he speaks about creation here in the build-up in verse 16. Everything that's not God was created by Christ. There was nothing. And then the Lord Jesus Christ created all things.

But I thought God the Father created all things. He did. I thought God the Holy Spirit created all things. He did. But notice he says, In the beginning of the world, from the beginning of the world, this mystery was hid in God, this is Ephesians 3, 9, who created all things by Jesus Christ. It was the will of God and the purpose of God that in His Son, who would be our mediator and was our mediator from eternity, because He was our mediator, because in Him God determined to put all the fullness of the Godhead in Him bodily, for us and give to us all that He is and everything that God has for us is in His Son and we come to Him and we ask Him and we praise Him and we thank Him and we say unto Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood unto Him be glory and honor and power and blessing and everything forever and ever.

And that's our song. That's the truth of Scripture. And so he's telling us that to us, he's the firstborn, he created us, he raised us from the dead in his own resurrection. But to all of creation, he's the creator, he's the absolute sovereign. He's the sovereign. Over creation, he's the creator. Over creation, he's the sustainer.

His word has established, for example, the law of gravity. Or the electromagnetic laws that control the communications in your cell phones. Christ is the one who by his word orders those laws of physics and chemistry and light and everything else, because it seems good to him to bring about his will in creation and in providence, to order all the events of providence, to bring about his will to save his people and to bring them to himself.

When something happens in our lives, it's just the unfolding of what God determined to do in His covenant of grace for His people in order to exalt His Son. This is the reason why He's the firstborn of every creature, because everything is ordered by Him and brought by Him, not only into creation, but in all of its activities. To sustain that creation and bring about His will in all things by the word of His power.

You see how great He is? Something about His greatness here? Who else but He could be the exact reflection, expressed image of His Father's person in His righteousness, and holiness, and goodness, and wisdom, and power, and all that He is to us in His grace? Who else but Christ? And He is the one who redeemed us by His own blood. And He did it in love. He's the Son of God's love. God's love is towards Him and all that are in Him. And Christ's love is towards His people. This is the love of God. That He gave His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And how can we not then have all joy and peace and assurance and comfort and gladness of heart and thanksgiving and praise and honor and blessing for the Lord Jesus Christ, our great God and our Savior.

This is amazing, isn't it? Here in these verses, the Apostle Paul tells the Colossians, These he had never met, but had heard the gospel through Epaphras, the minister to them. And he goes on to describe how thankful he is to God for them, for the faith given to them and the hope given to them, which he declares in the gospel to be laid up in Christ in heaven. And the love that he gave to them for one another.

And you know what happened in history? This church, was destroyed shortly after this letter by an earthquake and by the armies that came in after that. These people to whom such a letter was written and perished from the earth, but did not perish in the Lord Jesus.

And what do we have because of this letter? We have it here, written from God our Father, by His Spirit, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the revelation of God in His exact nature. All that we ever know of Him, and we see it in our Redeemer. Our Redeemer has loved us and given Himself for us.

I have entitled this message, Oh, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray.

Father, thank you. Thank you, Lord, help us, give us this grace. We lack the grace even now to adequately express the thanksgiving owed to you from our hearts, unless you give it to us. And how we depend upon you and rely upon you to give us this from your son and our savior, our great mediator, the one who is God and man, the one who is the perfect revelation of yourself, how we revel in this revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We're so delighted to find that your delight, God in all of his holiness delights in his people with joy that is infinite, with love that is infinite and everlasting, because We have been put in Christ and made in Him all that He is to God. And all that God is, He is to us in the Lord Jesus.

Help us, Lord, to take these things into our hearts day by day and live upon them and to be strengthened with all might in the inner man so that we might endure patiently looking for that hope and that glorious appearing of our great Savior, Jesus Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.