in Colossians chapter one. So if you want to turn to Colossians chapter one, we're going to focus especially on verses 13 through 14 in Colossians chapter one.

Now, the book of Colossians was written obviously by the apostle Paul with Timothy. It was written for a purpose. And the purpose is going to be the subject of, obviously, our message today.

But if you just read through this book of Colossians, you'll see right away that Paul is telling the saints, he's telling these people who believed Christ, about Christ. He tells them about, first of all, the work, the will, actually, of God the Father, and his work by his son, by the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he begins speaking to them and writing this epistle to them, he takes note of the fact of who they are in Christ when he calls them saints and faithful and in Christ in verse 2. And he tells them that grace and peace from God the Father is given to you. And he declares that to them. And then he goes on and he thanks God. He thanks God for them. He thanks God for their faith. He thanks God for the hope God laid up for them in heaven in Christ. And that's in verse five. And he speaks about the gospel as bringing forth the fruit of them believing Christ. The gospel itself is what produced their faith in Christ.

And so what we see here then is that the apostle is setting forth the things of God, and he's doing that in order to increase, to mature them in faith, hope, and love. Faith, hope, and love. He speaks about their faith. He says in verse four, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, there is no such thing as faith, not saving faith, except it be in Christ Jesus, the Lord. People on TV will talk about faith. Oh, you just gotta have faith. But they never mention Christ. That can't be faith then, not God-given faith. It might be confidence in something. I remember Julie Andrews played in a movie called The Sound of Music, and she sang a song there that says, I have confidence in confidence. That's baloney. That's pure, I can't describe it in words as it ought to be described. It's nonsense, it's foolishness, stupid, ignorance. But that's what the devil would like for you to believe. Just have confidence in yourself. That's constantly drummed into you in this world. That's the world's philosophy. That's not the truth. It's not the truth because it's not of God.

So that's not what he speaks about. He speaks about their faith in Jesus Christ in verse four. And he talks about their love to all the saints. And he talks about the hope that was laid up for them, not only the objective hope that God has set up for them in Christ, but also the hope given to them in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because hope is not only objective, but we feel it. When God gives us faith, it gives us this assurance of a future performance--expectation of God bringing His promises in Christ to pass in consummation. Our confident expectation that God who promised in Christ is able to perform what He promised, that is our subjective hope. But Christ is our hope (1 Timothy 1:1)--the hope laid up in heaven, our objective hope, the One in whom all of God's promises are sure (2 Corinthians 1:20; Galatians 3:16-19).

But even though we have faith in Christ and we expect in anticipation, we look for Christ and the things God has promised us in him and we love because he loved us, yet our faith and our hope and our love are never complete in this life. They never reach a perfect state. We might believe, and yet we always have to confess, Lord, help my unbelief. I believe, yet help my unbelief. So, therefore, we can never base our confidence on our confidence in Christ. We can't base our hope on our sense of hope in Christ, and we can't base our love to God, our sense of God's love, I mean, we can't base God's love to us on our sense of our love to Him. And this is something that's difficult for us to accept, because we live in a world of sense. We see, we hear, we smell, we touch, we taste, all these things, we experience things. But God's word is not an experience. It's a truth declared. This is the way God thinks. This is the way God is. And this therefore is the foundation. It's not our perception of it. It's what God has said. It's God himself who is the foundation.

And so when the apostle is writing here in the book of Colossians, it's not like social media. It's not like television or movies. It's not like the news that you hear on channel whatever you listen to. This is the news of heaven. This is important. This is true. This is eternal. This is spiritual. This is real. This is the news that gives you peace and hope. It gives you faith. It produces faith. It's what God uses to give spiritual life. That's how different and how important this is. It's nothing like public news. It's nothing like social media. Those things are just the collective observations or opinions of people. It has nothing to do with the truth of God.

God's Word stands alone even if no one believes it. Even if no one believes Christ, Christ is still the Savior. He's still the Lord. He's still the Son of God. He still came in the flesh. He still sits on heaven's throne ruling and reigning. So these things are objectively true because God is describing what is when he speaks, how he is as God, who he is, how he thinks, what his will is. And that's what gives us faith. God declaring to us the way things are with God. And we need that. We need Him to tell us.

I wake up, I was telling Rick and Barbie when we were out there, we were talking about a lot of things. One thing I was telling them is that I wake up in the morning and sometimes I feel so disconnected with the truth of God. And I need His Word to come again, to tell me again what's true, because I lose it so easily, like the dew in the morning, it just seems to evaporate. I need it again and again and constantly. And that's what the Apostle Paul is doing in this letter. He's declaring to us what God has said concerning Christ. His will in Christ to save a people who in themselves are sinful and helpless and doomed and condemned in themselves. And yet in the Lord Jesus Christ, they're given all that God requires to have them as his own children and to bless them and to give them eternal life. and to bring them to eternal glory and give them all of the blessings that are His in heavenly glory to them with Christ. And this is declared to them. And this is done for that reason, to build up their faith and hope and love. Because they're God's children. And God is going to teach his children. He's gonna bring them to himself to see that Christ is all. That's the message here. Christ is all.

In chapter three, if you wanna look over there. Chapter three in verse 11. Look at this, it says, in these things, He talks about it, he says in verse 10, you've put on the new man, not the flesh, not what you were naturally. This is something new, God given, God created, birth of God, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. In other words, the knowledge about Christ who created the new man, where there is neither Greek nor Jew. It doesn't matter to whom you were born, what nation you belong to. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision. It doesn't matter what rituals you've gone through. Not barbarian, not Scythian, not bond, nor free. None of that matters. What is the only thing that matters? Christ is all and in all. He's in everything that God requires of us. He's everything from God to us. All that God is, Christ is to us. And all that God requires from us, God has provided and given and received again from Christ for us. So Christ is all, and this is what this book of the Bible is about.

Now, the other thing you see here is that the Apostle Paul himself talks about his own commission. He talks about his prayers. He talks about what he believes. He talks about his labors. Look at verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. That means sent by Jesus Christ, chosen, called and sent by Christ to declare this gospel. That's what he was doing. And this was by the will of God. So he talks about the commission God has given to him, Jesus Christ. This is God's will. Jesus Christ himself sent him.

And then notice, he says in verse three, we give thanks. And then he goes on in verse Let's see, he says in verse, I thought it was verse four. Yes, in verse three, he says, we give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. So the apostle was not only sent by Jesus Christ to declare the gospel, but he had a heart for the people to whom he was sent. What did he do? Well, he depended upon God to do everything for them. But he didn't just say he depended. He actually expressed his dependence in prayer. And he expressed this dependence in gratitude and thanksgiving for them. He acknowledged God to be the one who gave them this grace, who called them by his gospel, and gave them faith to believe, and gave them hope in Christ, and caused them to love. These were the fruits of God's work. And so he talks about it that way. He prays for them. And this is something we learn.

Why was the apostle telling them these things? Why did he tell them he was giving thanks to God, the Father, and praying always for them, without ceasing, he says. He says, we pray without ceasing. In verse nine, for this cause, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you. Why did he tell them that he was praying for them?

And then later, look at verse 24. He's talking about, in verse 23, how he was made a minister, a servant of Christ to declare the gospel, to preach it. He says in verse 24, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you. I rejoice in my sufferings for you? Why is Paul telling them this? to fill up that which is behind of the affliction of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake for the church. Then he goes, whereof I am made a minister, verse 25, according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. And look at verse 20. 28, he says, whom we preach, Christ, warning every man, teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ. And look at verse 29, where unto I also labor, striving according to his working which worketh in me mightily.

Why would Paul do that? Why would he tell them about his labors and sufferings and prayers and thanksgiving to God for them? Because His objective here is to encourage them in the faith and in the hope of the gospel and in love towards one another. And He's showing them that this same faith and hope and love that God has placed in them through His grace and the gospel is in Him also. And it's not to be considered an anomaly or something that's out of place for a Christian who trusts Christ and hopes in Christ and loves the brethren to suffer and to labor and to express his desires to God in prayer. In fact, this characterizes the life of every believer.

So he's emphasizing that in order to encourage them because they're facing a significant temptation by these false preachers, these philosophers, and they need to hold fast to Christ. And Paul is saying, and it is for this very reason that Christ has sent me and equipped me with the gospel for your sake. And so he prays for them and he expresses that there.

So we see then that the Apostle Paul wrote this in order to build them up in the faith and their hope and love. And he did that by declaring to them the will of God concerning Christ for their salvation and that he expresses his own labors and his own sufferings and his thanksgiving to God in dependence an active prayer and dependence upon God in order that God would perform in them what he had placed in Paul as a desire, because that was Christ's desire.

So he prays according to the will of God, according to the very heart of God. He doesn't presume, well, if this is God's will, it'll get done somehow. No, he doesn't. He takes what God has revealed to him and he takes it back to him with his own word and promise and he prays accordingly.

It emphasizes, doesn't it, to us our need not only to say we trust Christ, but to actively be in dependence upon him and going forth in our hearts towards him and to him and clinging to him in prayer and supplications and praise and thanksgiving. This is what God works in his people through faith. And so he's teaching them these things.

The apostle is teaching them. He's a man. And he's teaching them by the will of God sent by Christ, obviously breathed out here in this scripture through the spirit of God. So he's showing them that this is God himself teaching his people of Christ, sending him to teach them, writing it down in scripture, and God himself expressing his will and praying for them. And this is all consistent, isn't it, with the love of God and with his purpose to save a people by himself. And so we see these things here.

And then we see the way that the apostle also, he begins with God the Father. He speaks about this even in verse one, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, the will of God the Father. And then in verse nine, as we looked at this a couple of weeks ago, he says, I desire, I cease not to pray for you, in verse nine, and I desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

Spiritual understanding. spiritual understanding. You can't get this at an academy. You can't get this in college. You don't get this at a seminary. You don't get this by intellectually wrestling the truth and figuring it out. It has to be given to you. It says in 1 Corinthians 2, no one understands the things of God, but the spirit of God. And God has to give us his spirit that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God. God has to give his spirit to us.

And the Lord Jesus taught in that parable about the man who had a son and he said, if his son asked him for an egg, would he give him a serpent? No. And if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall my heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

And so if we understand what it means for God to give us his spirit, it means that he shows Christ to us. And so we are constantly asking him, give me more of Christ by your spirit. Show me the things of Christ. And that's perfectly consistent with what the apostle's aim is in this chapter, in this whole book of Colossians. And that was his ministry, to bring these people to see the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, one thing before we get to verse 13 and 14, I want to ask you a question here. And I raised this question in the bulletin this morning. Sometimes I wake up with these stupid questions because they're so fundamental. You shouldn't even have to ask them. But I figure if they come to my mind, maybe they've come to yours also. Why is it so important that we believe the truth? Why is that so essential? I mean, can't God just do His will without us being connected to it by faith? Isn't it okay for Him to just save us without us being engaged at all? Why does he say it's so essential? Doesn't he say that through his word?

Jesus said in John 3 verse 36, he says, Whosoever believeth on the Son of God has everlasting life. But he that believeth not the Son of God shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. It's important, isn't it? Just by that declaration, it's essential. The Philippian jailer cried out to Paul and to Silas, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. So this faith, this is not a take it or leave it thing. You can't enter heaven without God given faith in Christ. It's important.

But why? Why is it so important? Well, it's important because God's truth is important. It's important because God's Son is the revealed truth of God, the revealed will, the revealed mind and work of God. Everything that God is, is revealed in His Son. If we don't believe His Son, what do we believe? Well, we believe something that's not true. Can God honor what is not true? Wouldn't it be wrong for a judge to justify the wicked? Wouldn't it be wrong for the judge to condemn the righteous? Of course it is.

And so we learn that That God isn't going to, when He saves the people, He's going to teach them. And what He's going to teach them is Christ and Him crucified. The truth. He's the truth. And He's going to convince us of that. And that, being convinced and persuaded by God of Christ, is God-given faith in Him. Faith is being persuaded of the truth concerning Christ and concerning His work as our Savior and our salvation. And this faith that comes to us from God is a gift, a gift of His grace. It causes us to honor God according to the revealed truth of who He is.

If we were to honor the lie, we're honoring the father of lies. We're idolaters. We're servants of Satan. We love the lie and hate the truth. We love death and hate life. But that's not acceptable. God will teach his children. He'll bring them to Christ. Not to another, but to Christ himself. And so it's important to see that the reason that faith is so important is that God honors faith because faith honors God. Faith acknowledges who God is and who he has revealed himself to be in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, faith looks to Christ. Faith finds, according to God's gospel, everything for sinners in Christ. ascribes to Christ all merit, all righteousness, all of his sin-cleansing blood. It's only in Christ that God can accept and love me. Faith sees that. Faith acknowledges that this is God's work, it's not mine. And faith relies upon Christ. So you see, Faith is consistent with God's own mind. Faith is taking what God's thoughts are and thinking those thoughts. It drives our motives, what we think, the way our faith drives everything, doesn't it? If you believe you're saved by works, you're going to get to working. If you believe you're a sinner and you can't save yourself by your works and that you need what God has declared, you're going to look to Christ, you're going to call on Him. You see, so faith is gonna drive everything, our motives, our actions, that's why faith is so important.

So when we look at this here in chapter one in verse nine, Colossians 1 verse nine, he says, for this cause also since the day we heard, do not cease to pray for you and desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will, which again is Christ and him crucified to the honor and glory of God and to the honor and glory of Christ and the salvation of his people. That's the will of God. Then I want you to be filled with this knowledge of His will in all spiritual understanding, an understanding given to you by God Himself, which is received and is expressed and is realized, is known, is in its essence, that's what faith is, a spiritual understanding, a spiritual God-given understanding of the truth concerning Christ.

If you understand, if you truly spiritually have this understanding of Christ and who He is, what are you going to do? Well, you're going to trust Him, aren't you? You're going to believe Him. God has persuaded you of this. If you think that you're going to run out of food next week, you're going to go get some food this week, aren't you? You're going to act accordingly. If you think that you won't be able to eat unless you go to work, you're going to go to work. Aren't you? I mean, if you think that if you can do something to gain the attention of someone you're interested, you're going to do it. If you want to be friends with somebody, you're going to be friendly towards them. It's what you believe that drives these things, that motivates you and causes you to act.

So the apostle is trying to align our thinking Our persuasion with God's revealed truth concerning Christ and his work and his glory. We want to know him. We want to know him because knowing him by faith, God's spirit revealing to us who he is in Christ and being persuaded of the truth of God, his glory and all that he is in the Lord Jesus. This causes us to think differently, doesn't it?

I was telling Rick and Barbie while we were there, as we were flying out, and you're on the plane a long time, you have time to think things through, I thought, you know, I'm everything that the Lord isn't. Or God is everything and I'm not. I'm proud, He's humble. I'm ignorant, He's all wise. I'm disobedient, He's righteous and holy. I'm weak, He's almighty. You see all these things? What would he have to do with me?

Peter said when he was sinking, Christ had called him, step out of the boat, walk on the water. Sure, come on. And he does. And here he is walking on top of the water. And he says, what are these waves? Wow. He's sinking. Lord, save me. He cries out. And another time he saw the Lord and he said, Lord, depart from me. I'm a sinful man. What would you have to do with me? You see, God convinces us of what we are in light of who He is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that causes, that raises up our sense of our need for Him. And we call to Him and we look to Him. And the more, the greater our need, the greater we call, the greater we make our supplication to the Lord, save me.

And yet we find that when we do that, it was always God's work bringing us to see that our salvation is in His Son. It's not in ourselves. It's not in what we do. It's not even in our faith. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why when it says in scripture, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, it's emphasizing not on you, not on yourself, not on your perceptions of what you are or will be someday, but on the Lord Jesus alone. And that's what we're getting to here.

He says, I want you to have this deep, being filled with this spiritual understanding of God's will, that you might walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. You see this constant heavenward path? Through faith in Christ, just keep looking to Him, growing in faith.

And sometimes we sense that we're doubtful. Sometimes we lose our way and we're wondering, what happened to me? I haven't talked to the Lord in prayer in so much time that how could I even think that I'm a Christian? Or my faith is so weak, I kind of wonder, how can I have any confidence? Well, where are you going to find that confidence? Where are you going to find it? Are you going to find it in yourself? Or are you going to find it in what God thinks of Christ?

You see, God-given faith looks to Christ and finds that God required Him, God provided Him, God received Him, and God declared Him. It's not about you. You're depraved, you're a sinful, you're a wretch. And it's only when we realize that we are wretched that we call on the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we recognize that also is God's work. And what a blessing it is to find through the declaration of these things in scripture, this is what the Lord is teaching us.

See my son, hear him. He by himself has purged our sins. He always brings us to the Lord alone. Now, that's what he's saying here in verse 13. Verse 12 says, giving thanks to the Father, which hath made us meek, qualified us, he's made us suitable to be the heirs of heaven. That's what this is saying, partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. We are able to receive the gospel. God qualified us for that. God did this.

Notice in verse 13, He's delivered us, He's rescued us from the power, the rule of darkness. the authority of darkness, and he has translated us, taken us out of that rule and that kingdom and put us into, notice what he put us into, the kingdom, the rule, the reign of his dear son, the son of his love. You see that? What better place can there be in all of creation, in all of eternity, than to be ruled by the one who is the son of God's love? God the Father did this. God the Father did this, I was thinking last night. I was awake several hours, it seemed like. And I was thinking, you know, you hear that phrase, you'll see a son, I met a man back there, his son was 65, and I thought, he's just like his father. You've heard that phrase, he's his father's son. And when people say those kinds of things, they mean he's just like his father. He looks like him. He walks like his father. He likes the same things as his father. He followed his father in his profession. He has the same wisdom his father had. His father taught him well. He's just like his father.

The Lord Jesus Christ is exactly like His Father. There's no way of any difference. They are one. One mind, one will, one people, one glory, one power. They're one. God the Father and God the Son. And when you see the Son, you are seeing God the Father.

Now, we're talking about God the Father. We see what He's done here. He's delivered us, and notice in verse 14 how He did this. He has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, so that we're now ruled by Christ, and we're not ruled by the authorities of darkness. We are ruled by the Son of God's love, and I don't want to be ruled by anyone else. No one else. And to know that I'm ruled by Christ means I'm ruled by Him to the exclusion of all others. No one else can do anything to me. but what the Lord Jesus Christ has decreed and purposed and works together for my good. That's to be ruled by Christ. Ruled by Him to save me to the uttermost, to give me all that God has promised. Ruled by Him.

And notice he says, speaking about the Son of God's love in verse 14, In whom? In the Son, in the One who is just like His Father, equal to God. Notice what he says, in the One who is the Son of God, we have redemption through His blood. Amen. Praise God. Notice the redemption is not anywhere else except here, in His blood, in the blood of God's Son.

Now we need to let that sink in for a while, don't we? What is redemption? What is redemption? Well, people talk about redemption in casual ways, but I'm not even gonna talk about that. I'm gonna talk about what the Bible says about redemption. One of the things the Bible says about redemption is that we're redeemed by the blood of the Son of God. And the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 20, verse 28, he says, I didn't come to be served. I came to serve and to give my life a ransom for many.

Redemption is the payment of a debt by the payment of a ransom to the one, the creditor to whom the debt is owed. The one who is in debt is under a bond of enslavement. They have to pay and they can't pay. They have nothing to pay. So someone else has to pay. In Psalm 49 it says, the redemption of their souls. No man can give to God a ransom for his own soul because the redemption of their souls is precious and ceases forever. No man can do it. It doesn't matter how wealthy or how good you are. You cannot redeem your own soul, and you certainly can't redeem anyone else's soul.

But the Son of God, He could. And the price that God required to whom we were indebted as our creditor, to whom we owed our life, an eternal debt of eternal death, the wrath of God. That debt had to be paid by someone who was able to redeem us. He had to be God the Son. But he couldn't redeem us as God only, he had to be a near kinsman. He had to have a relation to us so near that there was none nearer than he. And so he took on our nature. He took our nature, He came from heaven, He took our nature and He took our obligations. He stooped under God's law. He took our obligations for obedience. He took our obligations to satisfy God's justice. He took the obligation to bear our sins and He bore them. And He took the obligation to bear the curse for our sins and He bore that. And then because he was our near redeemer, our kinsman, he actually obtained what he purchased with his blood. He purchased us. He purchased us out of that debtor's prison, our debt to God. He paid God and God was so pleased with his debt. He considered his blood precious because it absolutely satisfies God's holiness. And nothing is more precious to God than His own holy nature and character and glory.

And so the Lord Jesus Christ in His life and in His death so pleased God in His obedience and in His blood that He paid the debt of His own life given sacrificially for our sins. And God looked upon Him in His obedience and in His love and is laying His life down in our place for us. And He said, is the expression of God's own glory. That's the fulfillment of His own law. That's the fulfillment of all that He requires from us. And He received all for whom Christ died.

He redeemed us. He paid with Himself. He paid God and He received from God full and eternal redemption by His blood. Look at Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9 tells us how the Lord Jesus did this, that it was He who did it. He says in chapter 9 of Hebrews, verse 11, Christ, being come an high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, His own body, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy place, in the presence of God, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

There's so much to be said about that verse, but notice what was offered. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, no other offering. Who offered it? The Lord Jesus Christ entered into the holy place. Who did he offer it to? He offered it to God. The holy place is where God is. Nothing else was offered. He offered it who had been given this body in this tabernacle called the tabernacle of his body. And what did he obtain in offering his own blood? Eternal redemption. Eternal redemption.

Redemption not only includes the payment, but it includes the setting free of the debtor, the declaring that the debtor's debt has been fully paid and that all that the creditor expects from the debtor has been received and liberty is granted to that debtor. That lawfully imprisoned debtor is now set free lawfully. God receive the blood of Christ from Christ on behalf of His people, and having received it from Christ, the Father gave to the Lord Jesus Christ the freedom, the forgiveness, and all the blessings that come with ultimate liberty as the children of God. He gave him not only our justification, but he gave him his own spirit to give to us and to birth us as his children.

This is what Christ did in his redemption. He obtained it because the work was finished. When it's obtained, it's done because the work of redemption was complete. And this is what we see. Look at Romans chapter three, look at Romans chapter three. I want you to see what this redemption has obtained for us. Romans chapter three and verse 23, he says, all have sinned, all have sinned, not one excluded, no exceptions. God looked at your heart. He looked at my heart. And you know what he said? Sinner. And all have come short of the glory of God. We didn't honor God. We just did not honor God. We didn't give him the credit due to his name. We served ourselves. We worshiped the self-idol. We worshiped the idol of the lies that we wanted to believe instead of the truth God declared of himself and his perfections. So that's our condition. What did we contribute? Nothing. We're sinners. We've come short, and verse 24 tells us what God did, being justified freely, without cause in us, and abundantly by His grace, God's grace, through, here's where it all got accomplished, the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

How are we justified before God? On the basis of Christ redeeming work. on the basis of what God provided, on the basis of what God received, what Christ accomplished and what God received and what God thinks of what His Son has provided in His own sacrifice of Himself. God looks upon the sacrifice of His Son and He justifies His people only on that basis.

This is something that you must be persuaded of this in your own heart. You must believe this truth. This is imperative. It's essential. There's no options here, no other way of salvation. You, as a sinner, must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your only righteousness. You must believe that what God said, He declared to be righteous those who were redeemed by the blood of His Son. That's what this verse is saying. Freely, by His grace, He justified them. He looked upon the obedience of His Son and He said, they are righteous. That's what justification means. God declaring to be righteous because they are. because He arranged for it to be done this way in the redeeming work of Christ.

Look at Romans 5, where Brad just read this to us a few moments ago. Romans chapter 5. I want you to look at a couple of verses here. Start with verse 18. It says, Now this is a conclusion. We might not understand a lot of the things said before this, but this is the conclusion. Therefore, as by the offense of one, that one is Adam, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. So what happened? Sin, a disobedience, a failure, an offense to God, transgression of God's law by Adam. What happened because of that? Well, judgment was made, God's judgment. What was the judgment made? Condemned, worthy to die under the wrath of God. That's what came by Adam. One man's one offense, all judged to be condemned. Do you see that? That's what God said. Can you feel that? No, of course you can't feel it. Can you experience it? Of course not. Well, you might experience the corruption of your nature, but you can't experience this truth. How do you know it? God declared it. How do you know it's true? God said it. All right, so we may not even like it. It doesn't matter. It doesn't change it. You might not believe it. It's still true. As by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation.

Now notice, here's the gospel. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But notice what's next. Even so, this was done with regard to something greater, infinitely more glorious. He says, even so, by the righteousness, not the disobedience, the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. Not all men without exception, but all those who were considered by God in Christ, who were given to Him, who were chosen in Christ, those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. All who belong to Adam were in Adam. All who belong to Christ are in Christ.

Therefore, By the righteousness of Christ, that's what this verse is saying, by the righteousness of Christ, God justified all in Christ and gave them that life that results from being righteous. You see that? Are you persuaded of it? Is this your only hope of salvation? Is this all of your confidence? because there can be no other contribution. It's not your feelings of this. It's what God said about what Christ did and what he thinks of what Christ did that saves us. It's not our sincerity. It's not our commitment. It's none of those things.

This took place in heaven itself. When Christ offered His blood, what did He obtain? Eternal redemption. And that's the basis of our justification. God didn't look to us. He justified us freely without cause found in us. Freely. We were sinners. We were condemned in Adam. We sinned in our own selves. And yet He freely justified us because He looked upon Christ and He said, there is righteousness. And he saw his people in Christ. He passed judgment based on his obedience and said, they are righteous. And he justified us.

Now, this is something that happened because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Romans 5 and verse 9. Much more than being now justified by his blood. Do you see that? When did God justify His people? We might ask that question. Maybe a more important question is, how, on what basis does God justify them? What does Romans 5 verse 9 say? What is the basis of God declaring us to be righteous? What is the righteous foundation? What will be to the glory of God in heaven when He declares, these are righteous? When He says to those on His right hand, come ye blessed of the Lord. Enter into the kingdom prepared for you by my Father from the foundation of the world. Or when He says to them, well done, thou good and faithful servant. What is God considering? What is He recognizing? He's recognizing the obedience and blood of His Son. He's looking upon Him for us. That's the way God deals with us, only in Christ.

Faith lays hold on this. Faith says, I cannot come to you any other way. God has persuaded me of the truth declared from the throne in Scripture concerning His Son. And this, you see, is the reason that Paul is writing this to the Colossians and to all the saints. to give us the object of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified, to take away all dependence on anything but Christ, especially our dependence on ourselves. Ourselves and our obedience, ourselves and our feelings, ourselves and our senses, nothing about ourselves is the basis of our confidence, our hope, or our love. It's what God has done in Christ.

This is the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ, being justified. But when did God do this? Well, he says now. Now, being justified now. Because, you see, the work of God is eternal. God's work is from everlasting to everlasting always the same. What God does at the end of time, He already decreed before time. It's very important that you understand this. All of God's works are known to Him before the foundation of the world from eternity. And there's nothing more central to all of God's work than His work by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Can you see that? When everything is said and done, and God's people are standing around the throne, and they're all there, and then there are the wicked who are cast out, and it's all done, and we're now living in everlasting life in eternal ages, what will be done? What will finally be done at the end? Everything, without exception, with no failures, of all that God determined before time. Not one thing will fail. Not one thing will be left out. Everything will be perfectly right according to God's thoughts and His will and His decree.

That's why the Apostle is telling us this. Our confidence is in God's ability to perform His will, His power, His holiness, His name, His honor, everything about Him. It's not in ourselves. And we see this in the Lord Jesus Christ.

God was so pleased, he considered the blood of his son to be so precious because he answered God's own holiness. And he sees that we think of things as precious.

Oh, look at that cute puppy. Such a precious little baby. You know what God thinks of as precious? The blood of his son. He considers His Son precious because He is just like Him. His heart beats one with Him. His will, His love, His desires, His work, everything, His glory is the glory of His Father.

What a blessed thing this is. In whom, in the Son of God's love, we have redemption through His blood, the blood of the Son of God, the eternal Son of God, even the forgiveness of our sins.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for this. Help us never to stray. Help us to always be overwhelmed in infatuating admiration and adoration of the Lord Jesus Christ, who by himself has both purged our sins and clothed us in his own righteousness and made us holy and without blame before God the Father in love as his dear children.

What a Redeemer, what a Savior. Help us not to trust another. Help us to glory in this grace and in His work alone and to trust Him and hope and love because of Him. In His name we pray, Amen.