Thank you, Brother James. If
you would, go back to the book of Colossians, the first chapter. Colossians chapter 1. Look at verse 18. Colossians
chapter 1. Speaking of our dear Redeemer,
our Savior, the Apostle says, 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 My subject this morning is Jesus Christ revealed
as preeminent. Now the Lord God of glory, He has ordained that in all things
His Son, the Lord Jesus, the second person of the Trinity,
He is to have the preeminence. We are Trinitarians. We believe Father, the Son and
the Spirit. We recognize and we worship God
in the Trinity of His persons. And understand this, anybody
who denies the Trinity has denied the Gospel. God exists. He exists in three
persons. We extol this one true and living
God in His, what we might call, tri-unity. There are three distinct and
three persons in the Godhead, but these three are one. There is just one God. And so
we will say the everlasting Father, He's God. The everlasting Son,
He is God. The everlasting Holy Spirit,
He is God. There is but one person who is
God. There is but one God. There is
no way to explain the Trinity. There is no way to illustrate
the Trinity. Men have tried to illustrate that which cannot
be illustrated, and of course they always fail. This is a matter
of faith. It's a matter to be received
upon the basis of God's Word. It's a doctrine to be received
because God has said it. In 1 John chapter 5 and verse
7, we read these words, For there are three that bear record in
heaven. Who are they? The Father, the
Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these, these three are one. That's what the Word of God says.
Now listen to these biblical statements about the person of
God. I'll not ask you to look these
up. There are too many of them, it
would take too much time. Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse
4, the Lord our God is one God. Deuteronomy 4 and verse 24, God
is a consuming fire. Deuteronomy 4 in verse 31, God
is a merciful God. 2 Chronicles 30 verse 9, God
is gracious and merciful. Job 36 verse 5, God is mighty.
Job 36 verse 26, God is great. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 9, God is
faithful. Galatians 3 verse 20, God is
one. 1 John 1 verse 5, God is light. 1 John 4 verse 8, God is love. Now I want you to look at this
one with me in John chapter 4. We just went through this section
in John a couple of weeks ago on Wednesday night. But I want
you to look at this one again with me. John chapter 4 and verse
24. All of these statements that
I have read to you thus far give us a picture of exactly who God
is. Now I know He is beyond our ability
to understand. God is much greater than we could
ever imagine Him to be. God in the Trinity of His persons. But make no mistake about it,
we must receive the revelation that God has given concerning
Himself. I think it was Martin Luther
who said to one of his friends one time, your thoughts of God
are far too low. And I would bring that accusation
against most people in religion today. They have no idea of the
greatness of God. In fact, they make God to be
one who is dependent upon man. God who waits upon man. God who cannot act, who cannot
fulfill His purpose unless mankind gives Him permission to do so.
That's not the God of the Bible. And we need to understand who
the Lord is. The Lord is great and glorious
and He's God over all. There's nothing over which He
doesn't rule. If there is somebody or something
that rules over God, then that's the one we need to be worshipping
and not God. Whoever has all authority, whoever
has all of the rule, whoever governs the world, That's the
one we're to worship. That's the one we're to bow before.
And there is but one God and this one God in the Trinity or
the Triunity of His persons is to be adored and worshipped and
believed as He has set Himself forth in this book. Now listen
to what the Lord Jesus says about God. John 4.24. This is our Savior speaking to
the woman whom He met at the well, at Jacob's well, the woman
of Samaria. He met her by divine purpose.
He met her because she's a vessel of mercy ordained unto eternal
salvation and this was the time of love. The Savior arranged
to meet her. He drew her with strings with
bonds of grace. He drew her to Jacob's well,
and this is that time of regeneration. This is the time when He will
make Himself known to this dear lady who was a sinner, but yet
a vessel of God's mercy. And He says to her in verse 24,
God is Spirit. God is Spirit. And they that worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and in truth. God is spirit. God being spirit, therefore,
He is without a body. God is not made of material things. He is not like we are made up
of various parts. God is immaterial. And God is
invisible. Right here in this passage, or
in the passage we read back in Colossians chapter 1, our Lord
Jesus is said to be the image of the invisible God. That's what you read. The image
of the invisible God. You will not, you cannot lay
eyes on God the Father. You cannot see God. He is invisible. Listen to 1 Timothy 1.17. Now unto the King eternal, immortal,
invisible, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory
forever and ever. Amen. In the book of Hebrews
chapter 11 and verse 27, speaking of Moses, the Scripture says,
By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king,
for he endured it as seeing Him who is invisible. God is invisible. God is spirit. The nature and the essence of
God is spiritual and therefore God is a very simple being. Now don't misunderstand me when
I say that. When I say God is a simple being,
I mean this. He is not made up of various,
various sections or parts as we are. God is one. He is therefore indivisible.
You and I, we are made up of parts. We're body and spirit,
or body and soul. And the body has flesh, the body
has bones, the body has muscles, the body has blood. We're made
up of several different parts. God is the most simple of all
beings, for He is one. He cannot be divided. He's not
made up of several different portions. God is one. And He is invisible. God therefore being one and invisible,
He is immortal, He is everywhere. You cannot confine God to one
location. It was Solomon who said, Who
is able to build Him a house? Seeing the heaven and the heaven
of heavens cannot contain Him. Who am I then that I should build
in my house except or save only to burn sacrifice before Him? In other words, Solomon understood.
He said, this house that I'm building, God can't be confined
to four walls. God is invisible and God is everywhere. You can't go anywhere except
you'll find God there. He's already there. It's over
in the book of Proverbs. Solomon said this, If I ascend
into the heavens, thou art there." And that's no surprise. It's
no surprise to find God in heaven. But then he said, behold, if
I go to the very depths of hell itself, behold, thou art there. And that deserves a behold. He doesn't use the word behold
when He says God's in heaven, because that's exactly where
you expect God to be. But when He says God's in hell,
He says, Behold, thou art thereto. In other words, God is everywhere. He's everywhere by His power.
He's everywhere by His providence. He's everywhere working His own
will. God is in all places at one time. He is indivisible and He is invisible. He is everywhere. Now because
God is a spirit, follow me now, because God is a spirit, it is
absolutely impossible for us to know God or to be spoken to
by God except by mediator, who must himself be God and man. Because you see God is spirit,
since God is spirit, you can't communicate with God, you can't
draw near to God, who is the eternal spirit, except by this
mediator. In John 5 and verse 37, look
over at that, John 5 and verse 37. Our Lord is presenting witnesses
of His identity. He says in John 5 and verse 37,
And the Father Himself which hath sent Me hath borne witness
of Me, ye have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen
His shape. as his voice has never been heard,
so his shape has never been seen." He has no shape because he is
everywhere. God has never assumed any visible
form nor spoken out loud except and only through the second person
of the Trinity. The only shape of God men have
ever seen, and the only shape of God men will ever see, is
the second person of the Trinity. And the only voice of God anybody
has ever heard, and the only voice of God anybody will ever
hear, is the voice of the second person of the Trinity, the Lord
Jesus Christ. John 1 says, "...in the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made." And in verse
14 it says, "...and the Word was made flesh." The invisible. The invisible was made visible. Oh, hallelujah! Because we can't
know God, we can't speak to God, and God's not going to speak
to us except through this One who became visible. This Word
made flesh who dwelt among us, John said, and we beheld His
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full
of grace and truth. 1 Timothy 2 verse 5 says, For
there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus. So understand this, we come to
God, we know God, we worship God, we serve God only as we
come to and know and worship and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God. There is
no other God in this world but what Jesus Christ is in Himself. And when brother Thomas said
to that man who stood in front of him after our Lord's resurrection,
when our brother Thomas said, my Lord and my God, he's exactly
right. He's my Lord. And He's my God. He's all of the Lord and all
of the God these eyes will ever behold. You'll never see the
Father as the Father, nor the Spirit as the Spirit, but seeing
the Lord Jesus Christ, you see the Father, the Son, and the
Spirit. Grasp that if you can. The believing thief as he hung
dying on the cross for sins for which he was worthy to die. As
he looked at that one dying on the middle cross and he said
to his friend, his accomplice in crimes, when he said to him,
this man hath done nothing amiss. You see, the sins for which our
Lord died were not his own except in the sense that they were imputed
to him. They were charged to his account.
He had to pay the debt. But that thief said to that one
dying on the middle cross, Lord, remember me. Lord? There is but one Lord, don't
you know that? Oh yes, he knew it. And he is
addressing the one Lord of heaven, earth and hell. And he said,
Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And no convicted,
desperate sinner has ever gone to the Lord Jesus Christ with
that cry in his soul. But what he doesn't hear in response, I hear you. And today you will
be with me in paradise. And those of you who from your
heart of hearts have called on the Lord Jesus Christ and said,
you're the Lord, remember me. I know I'm sinful. I know I'm
wretched. I know I deserve to die. I deserve
to perish forever. But you're the Lord of glory.
You can do whatever you want to do. And you can show mercy
on this poor sinner. Oh, God help us to come to Him
like that. Oh God, show me mercy for Jesus'
sake. Oh Christ Jesus, You're the Lord
of glory. You can do whatever You want
to do. Would You remember me? I'm not worth remembering, but
would You remember me? When you come into your kingdom,
I believe you're in your kingdom glory. I believe you're set upon
the throne. You're God and man. You're the
only Savior of sinners. Oh, blessed Redeemer, remember
this poor, vile sinner. And you hear the words by faith
coming from His lips, I remember you. I remember you. In fact, if God puts that cry
in your heart, it's because the Lord Jesus Christ did, in fact,
Himself put that cry in your soul. Go to Him for mercy and
for grace and for salvation. Look at Colossians. Go over to
Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2. We are
Trinitarians. But God has been pleased to reveal
Himself through the second person of the Trinity. And I'll tell
you, God will not speak to And he's not going to be spoken to
except by that second person of the Trinity. And if you try
to bypass the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll spend eternity in hell.
Just being honest with you. And if you do, you'll deserve
to endure God's wrath forever. If you refuse to come to Jesus
Christ, there is no other Savior. There is no other Redeemer. There
is no other righteousness. There is no other life. There
is no other salvation but that which is in King Jesus Himself,
the second Person of the Trinity. Come to Him! Come to Him! The
Savior says, Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy
laden. I'll give you rest. And if there's anybody here this
morning laboring under sin. You want rest in your soul. Rest
that all is well with God. Rest that your sins have been
washed away in the flood of Jesus' precious blood. Rest that all
is well between you and our holy God, that you're justified by
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I say, come to Him. He'll give
you rest. He'll give you rest. Look at
Colossians chapter 2 and verse 9. For in Him, in Christ Jesus,
In this second person of the Trinity dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. So when you deal with the Lord
Jesus Christ, you're dealing with God. You're dealing with
God. You're coming to God. Well, let
me tell you something. Who can save you but God alone?
Whose blood could be effectual to put sin away but the blood
of the Son of God? Whose righteousness should be
imputed to you? The righteousness of somebody
else, though everybody else's righteousness is just as filthy
ragged just like yours is. We need the righteousness of
the Son of God imputed to us. While you see the righteousness
of the Son of God being imputed to us, it means that we stand
in Him safe and secure and accepted and justified forever. As long
as He stands, that's how long we'll stand. We're accepted in
the Beloved. In the God-Man Jesus Christ,
all that God is. Father, Son and Holy Spirit perpetually
and forevermore resides. And in this book of God, in the
Scriptures, Jesus Christ is revealed as being the preeminent One. All of the Scriptures speak of
Him. When you look in this Bible from Genesis 1 to Revelation
22, you'll find that somebody stands out preeminently. Somebody
stands out on every page. It's all about Him. And the one
who is preeminent in the Bible is Jesus Christ the Lord. It's
a book about Him. I read to begin with there in
Luke chapter 29, He opened the understanding of those disciples
who walked with Him on the road to Emmaus. He opened their understanding
in all the scriptures which speak of Him. Moses in the Law, and
all of the prophets, and David and Solomon and Moses in the
Psalms, and all of the New Testament, they all declare Him, His identity,
and the work that He accomplished for poor undeserving sinners,
and His exaltation which is the result and the reward of His
redemptive work at the cross. All of the books of the Bible, They're about Jesus Christ. He's
got the preeminence in the Bible. Nobody else deserves the preeminence,
save Jesus Christ alone. And I'll tell you this, the preeminence
of Jesus Christ is seen not only in all the Scriptures, but it's
seen in the covenant of grace. Go back before the world began,
when God made a covenant of redemption. When God made that solemn and
irreversible contract of mercy and grace in which He determined,
He arranged, He decreed, and He secured the salvation of His
elect. Oh, it was a covenant made for
us, but it was a covenant made for us through our surety, through
our representative who stands out preeminently in that covenant. We are the beneficiaries of the
mercies and the blessings of the covenant. But that was a
covenant made with our representative. And he is preeminent in that.
In Hebrews 7.22 it says, By so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament or a better covenant. David in his dying
words in 2 Samuel 23 and verse 5, he said, although my house
be not so with God, yet He has made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things, ensure, for this is all my salvation
and all my desire, although He maketh it not to grow. The Apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy
1, 9 and 10, who had saved us and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works. according to His own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior
Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel." Look with me over in Psalm 89.
Let me read you a little bit about this covenant. made with
David's Son and David's Lord. In Psalm 89, and so often in
the Scriptures, certainly not all the time, but a good many
times, especially in the Psalms, whenever you see the name David,
think of David's Lord and David's Son. Think of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look at Psalm 89, the first four
verses. I will sing of the mercies of
the Lord forever. With my mouth will I make known
thy faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, mercy shall
be built up forever. That is, mercy shall be established
forever. Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish
in the very heavens. Now listen to what God says.
I have made a covenant. with my chosen. I have sworn
unto David my servant." God made the covenant. Who did he make
the covenant with? David, that is David's son and David's Lord,
the second person of the Trinity. Certainly, like I say, we are
the beneficiaries of the covenant and we reap the blessings of
the covenant, of that last will and testament of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We had somebody acting on our
behalf in that covenant, you see. That's our covenant head,
Christ Jesus. He's preeminent in the covenant.
Listen, there wouldn't be a covenant if it were not for Him. Because
in that covenant, all the stipulations for our salvation were laid out. And it all depended upon Him. He had to be the shepherd to
whom the sheep was given. He had to be the substitute who
would die instead of the guilty. He had to be the Lord of Glory
who would come down from heaven above and become the despised
Nazarene. It all rested on Him. He was
the one who would have to suffer and bleed and die, bearing the
sins in His own body of those that He came to save. He was
the one who had to feel the heat of God's wrath in his soul. He
was the one who had to satisfy divine justice. We couldn't do
it. He's the one who had to save
us. He's the one who had to buy us from the claims of the law. He was the one who had to answer
to God for all of our indebtedness. It all rested upon Him and He
has always borne the responsibility for our salvation. In that covenant
of grace, see the second person of the Trinity standing in His
preeminency. See Him exalted in that covenant. Look down at verse 19. Then thou spakest in vision to
thy Holy One, and saidst, I have laid a help upon one who is mighty."
Thank God help has been laid upon one who is mighty. Mighty
to save. Mighty to keep. Mighty to bear
our sins. Mighty to endure the infinite
wrath of God. God said, I've laid help upon
one who's mighty. I'm so grateful he did. And watch this. I have exalted
one chosen out of the people. God chose him. And you know,
he became man, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, the man
Christ Jesus. God said, I chose him. He said,
I have found David my servant. With my holy oil have I anointed
him. God ordained him to be the Savior. He said, With whom my hand shall
be established, mine arm also shall strengthen him. The enemy
shall not exact upon him, nor the son of wickedness afflict
him. And I will beat down his foes
before his face, and I will plague them that hate him. But my faithfulness
and my mercy shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn
be exalted. I will set His hand also in the
sea, and His right hand in the rivers. And He shall cry unto
me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.
And I will make Him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the
earth. I'll exalt Him, the Father says. He says in verse 28, My
mercy will I keep for him forever, and My covenant shall stand fast
with him or in him. The covenant of grace. And all
of our salvation, you must understand, is tied up in that covenant.
It stands fast because it stands fast in Jesus Christ the Lord. That's why it's sure. That's
why this covenant can't be broken. Because you see, there are no
conditions for us to meet in this covenant. In that old covenant,
God said, I will bless you if... You are faithful, and if you
keep my commandments, and if you do what I say, then you will
reap the blessings. But in this new covenant of grace,
all the stipulations, all the conditions of salvation were
laid upon our representative, Jesus Christ, the second person
of the Trinity. Therefore, our salvation is secure. You know why? He cannot fail. That's why. He can't fail. It's steadfast. Steadfast. Look what he says in verse 29. His seed also will I make to
endure forever in his throne as the days of heaven. If his
children forsake my law and walk not in my judgment, if they break
my statutes and keep not my commandments, I'll visit their transgression
with the rod, with chastisement, their iniquity with strength.
Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from
him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not
break, nor the thing that has gone out of my lips. God says,
once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie to Christ. He says, His seed shall endure
forever and His throne as the sun before me. It shall be established
forever as the moon and as a faithful witness in heaven. And that word
Selah means, now you just stop and think about that a little
bit. You just think about how everlasting this covenant is
and that it will never be broken because all the stipulations
rested upon our Savior. He's preeminent in the covenant
of grace. Preeminent in the covenant of
grace. He's the mediator of the covenant. He's the messenger of the covenant.
His blood is the seal of the covenant. And He came and fulfilled that
which He promised to do in the covenant. And in the covenant
of grace, He is preeminent. God the Father said, I place
help upon one who's mighty. Mighty to redeem. Mighty to save. Mighty to preserve. Mighty to
be with us and to hold us up. Some of the people of God now
are going through some severe trials. God's laid help upon one who's
mighty. The one who holds you up. The
one who is your refuge. The one who is your strength
and who is your shield. He's the second person of the
Trinity. Isn't that glorious? My Savior
is God. God. He holds me up. I can't fall. His blood has redeemed
me. I can't be lost. His grace preserves
me. I shall not fall irrevocably
or forevermore. Oh, I fall and skin up my spiritual
needs, but He is there to pull me back up. He is preeminent. And I'm going to follow this
trend tonight, this note of the preeminence of Jesus Christ.
It's what I'm going to talk about again this evening. And you know,
we just can't talk about Him enough, can we? We can't preach
His preeminence enough. Every time we gather together,
we preach about the preeminence of Jesus Christ. He's all to
be known. He's all to be loved. He's all
to be worshipped. He's all to be believed. He's
our blessed Savior. our blessed Savior.