As I was preparing my message
for this morning from Leviticus 22, I found myself directed many,
many times back to the book of Colossians chapter one, and read
the chapter, and read the chapter, and I want this evening to make
one more attempt at declaring that which is revealed to you
in Colossians chapter one. Just hold your Bibles open, here
at Colossians 1, and we'll look at these 29 verses together. This letter to the church at
Colossae was written by the Apostle Paul about 30 years after the
death of our Savior upon the cursed tree. It was written while
Paul was a prisoner at Rome. He wrote this epistle about the
same time that he wrote Philippians and Ephesians. We are not told
for certain who first brought the gospel to Colossae, but Luke
tells us in the book of Acts that he and Paul went through
the region preaching the gospel of God's free grace and many
were converted and turned to worship and serve the living
God from their idols. And after Paul had sown the seed
of the gospel, Satan came as he always does and sowed his
tares among the wheat. Tares that threatened to choke
out the very good seed of the gospel. As it was then, so it
is now. Wherever the gospel of God's
grace is preached, Satan comes with a false gospel and seeks
to subvert the gospel and turn men and women away from the simplicity
that's in Christ Jesus. Whoever Paul preached the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ, the fiend of hell
sent missionaries preaching another gospel, the gospel of free will,
works, religion. When Epaphras, the pastor of
the church here at Colossae, came to visit Paul at Rome, he
gave a report to him concerning these saints at Colossae, of
their faith, of their hope, of their love. He spoke admirably
of them. He spoke of them, highly commending
them to the Apostle Paul. And he also expressed his concern
for their souls because of those heretics who sought to subvert
the gospel and turn them away from the simplicity of Christ.
Those men came in the name of Christ. They came pretending
to be the servants of Christ, but they were in reality messengers
of Satan. They were Judaizers who tried
to mix law and grace, mingling Moses and Christ, teaching that
works must play some part in the business of salvation. In
fact, if you read the New Testament epistles, you find it obvious
that every heresy we have confronted in the church throughout the
ages was already prevalent during the days of the apostles. Others
came and sought to corrupt the gospel by mixing vain philosophy
with the revelation of God, teaching for doctrine the commandments
of men, the superstitions, and the reasonings of men. Some even
taught the veneration. That's a fancy word for worship.
The veneration, the worship of angels and saints, along with
the worship of God. They even taught that in order
to mortify the flesh, You had to make the body hurt. You were
to beat your body, subject your body to pain and difficulty,
just as men do today. Still others crept in among the
saints, teaching the proud Gnostic notion that men and women arrive
at the knowledge of God through their own learning, by their
own brilliance. If you just study enough, and
you give yourself to enough study, and you have a bright enough
mind, you can arrive at the knowledge of God. Still others came and
preached righteousness. They all preached righteousness.
All of them preached righteousness. Everywhere you go, every church
in the world preaches righteousness, not the righteousness of God.
Not the righteousness of God accomplished in Christ Jesus,
but rather the righteousness of men, by which men make themselves
acceptable with God Almighty in His holiness. Always making
righteousness in some way dependent upon and determined by men. Paul
was inspired by God the Holy Ghost to write this epistle to
confirm God's elect in the gospel. to warn them and us of the heretics
by which Satan's messengers would turn us away from the simplicity
of the gospel, urging us to continue steadfast in the faith, grounded
and settled, and not be moved away from the hope of the gospel.
Now let's look at these 29 verses together. Excuse me. Verses 1 through 8, Paul gives
us his common salutation, but let's not read it as just a common
thing. Verses 9 through 14, the Apostle
Paul speaks of our perfection in salvation in Christ. And then
through the rest of the chapter, he speaks of the glory of our
Redeemer. Let's begin in verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God. Paul here refers to himself as
an apostle, not the apostle, an apostle, one among 12 others. Paul was that man who was ordained
of God to take the place of Judas. He was that apostle born out
of due season. You'll remember that Peter led
the apostles in the book of Acts to make another apostle, called
him Matthias. Obviously, Matthias was a man
chosen of men, not by God. Paul was that apostle born out
of due season. Apostles were a special class
of men. They are God's messengers. That's
what the word principally means. But these apostles were men specifically
personally chosen by Christ. They were men who saw the Lord
personally. They wrote the scriptures by
divine inspiration, giving us the infallible revelation of
God in scripture. That does not mean the apostles
were infallible. They were not. All of them made
mistakes, errors in things that are plainly revealed to us in
scripture. They were not infallible men. They were men who were sinners
saved by grace, just like we are. But as they penned the scriptures,
as they wrote being inspired of God, they wrote with absolute
infallibility the very word of God. They were gifted. to perform miracles by which
they were confirmed with signs and wonders as the messengers
of Christ. And when the last of the apostles
went to glory, the apostolic age, along with all the apostolic
gifts ceased at that time. Those gifts that identified these
special men, they ceased. I stress this because today,
And this has been the case at various times throughout history.
We have a lot of folks who claim to have apostolic gifts, claim
to have the ability to speak in tongues. They claim to have
the ability to have visions from God by which they give prophecy
and foretell things. It always these days seems to
have something to do with your money and them getting it, but
they claim to have visions and revelations from God. Those things
ceased when the last of the apostles died. They ceased because those
gifts were given for a specific age to confirm and identify men
as God's apostles, men who wrote for us the book of God. But now
that which is perfect has come. This book, this book, we need
no other revelation from God. We want no other revelation from
God. We will receive no revelation
which men claim to be from God except according to this book.
What do the scriptures say? That's our rule of faith. That's
our rule of doctrine. That's our rule of life. This
was all done by the will of God. There are no apostles in the
church today, But there are many preachers. Preachers sent as
God's messengers to his people. Read on. And Timothy, our brother. Paul was the apostle. Timothy
was not. Paul was the apostle. Timothy
was his son in the faith. Paul was the elder. Timothy was
the younger. But Paul speaks of himself and
Timothy as brothers, as laborers together, workers together in
the vineyard of God. Not rivals, not in competition,
but laborers together with God. Look at verse two. To the saints
and faithful brethren in Christ. How could Paul say that? There
were lots of these people he didn't know. He had never seen
them. They had never seen him. But
he says, you're saints. Here's the answer. If you're
gods, if you believe on the Son of God, if you've been born of
God, you are saints, sanctified. Sanctified by God the Father
in election. Sanctified by God the Son in
redemption. Sanctified by God the Holy Ghost
in regeneration. Saints. All of God's people are
saints. holy ones, saints. This is a
word that the papists have seized and we tend not to use it. And
I don't know that we should go around calling each other saints
so and so, but the fellow who just finished leading the singing,
that's St. Lindsay. The one who just read
for us, that's St. Jimmy. The one talking to you
now, that's St. Don. God's people are all sanctified. Saints, because we're one with
Christ. And God's people are all faithful. They're faithful. Faithful. Faithful men. Faithful women. I wrote to Brother Terry Worthen
earlier this week, pastor down in Canton, Georgia. Terry has
been pastor there for longer than I've known him, and I've
known him for better than 40 years. He's now in his 80s. I think he'll soon be 90. I think
his next birthday will be 90. And I received his bulletin.
I wrote to him and said to him, Terry, there's nothing that I
admire in God more than I admire his faithfulness. And there's
nothing I admire in men more than I admire faithfulness. Faithfulness. And you have been
exemplary in faithfulness in your labors as pastor of that
church. Faithfulness to the cause of
Christ. God's people are all faithful. Faithful to God. Faithful to Christ. Faithful
to one another. Made faithful by the faithful
God. And they're all in Christ. In Christ. Oh, what magnificent
words. In Christ. In Christ. In union with Christ, one with
Christ. In Christ, united to Christ. In Christ, that's where we are. In Christ Jesus, what a blessed
place to be. And then he says, grace and peace. Grace unto you and peace. Grace
and then peace. Grace saves you. Peace is knowing you're saved. Grace is the root. Peace is the
flower that makes life sweet and fragrant. Grace and peace,
grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. There's no grace and no peace
for anyone except what God gives and He gives it through Christ.
You will seek in vain for peace. except as you find grace from
God in Christ. You will seek in vain for peace,
except as you seek that peace in Jesus Christ the Lord. Verse
three, we give thanks to God. We give thanks to God because
grace and peace and faith and love, all things pertaining to
God, all things pertaining to salvation, all things pertaining
to eternal life, are gifts of God alone, and God alone is to
be thanked and praised for them. The Apostle Paul wrote well,
I am what I am by the grace of God. faith and hope and love. These are things that always
go hand in hand. Look at verse five. Whereof ye
heard before in the word of truth, the truth of the gospel, which
is coming to you as it is in all the world and bringeth forth
fruit as it doth also in you since the day you heard of it
and knew the grace of God in truth. We do not know the grace
of God in truth unless it brings forth fruit, unless it has an
effect on our lives. The fruit it brings forth is
faith and hope and love. These are not things that we
work up and produce. These are things given to God's
people when Christ moves in, when the Lord Jesus makes us
partakers of his nature, when he gives us his spirit. A mere
head knowledge is of no value to me. I want to know my savior
in my heart. I don't merely want to know about
him, I want to know him. Oh, that I may know him, Paul
said, in the fellowship of his sufferings. Be made conformable
to him in his death. Now watch this, in verse seven.
And eight, the Spirit of God inspired Paul to commend the
church, to the church, their beloved pastor, Epaphus, and
encourages them to highly esteem their pastor and hear him. Verse
seven, as he also learned of Epaphus, our dear fellow servant,
who is for you a faithful minister of Christ, who also declared
unto us your love in the Spirit. Epaphras is a man whom we would
know nothing at all about, except that the Apostle Paul mentions
him three times. He's mentioned in the book of
Philippians. His name is there called Epaphroditus, it's the
same man. And here he's called Epaphras. This man Epaphras,
as far as I know, never wrote anything. He didn't leave behind
him any works for others to study. No one tells us anything about
him historically. He was just a pastor of a local
church. And the Apostle Paul, that man
that we look at as just great and imminent, that man whose
name is known around the world as the preacher of the gospel
to the Gentiles, that man who wrote the bulk of the New Testament,
Paul speaks of Epaphras as his fellow laborer. You see, in the
church and kingdom of God and among God's true servants, there's
no such thing as big I and little you. God's people are one and
God's servants are one in Christ Jesus, the Lord. And Paul commends
Epaphras to these people at Colossae as a faithful minister of Christ. What a commendation. What a commendation,
a faithful minister of Christ. In making that commendation,
he urges these saints at Colossae to know their pastor and to highly
esteem him in love for his work's sake. And then he tells us that
Epaphus spoke with glowing terms about these Colossian saints.
He loved them and spoke well of them. They were his people. He loved them and spoke well
of them. I find it disturbing to hear
preachers speak ill of those for whom and with whom and among
whom they labor. Epaphras came to Paul, he said,
Paul, I know you've been to Colossae, but most of our folks down there
weren't around when you were there. They don't know you, but
let me tell you about them. They are people who love God
and love one another, love the cause of Christ. They're people
who faithfully serve the cause of Christ. They walk before God
in hope. And Paul said, since Epaphras
came and told me about you, I haven't ceased to pray for you. You see, grace teaches men. Grace teaches women who experience
it to honor their brethren, to cover one another's faults. We need to learn that. Cover
one another's faults. At this day, age, most people
seem to think that godliness is pointing out weaknesses in
men. That's ungodliness. Folks have
the idea that godliness somehow is pointing out the failures
in men. That's ungodly. It's never godly, it's ungodly. Love covers a multitude of evil. Love does. If you love somebody,
you don't speak about their ill points. If you love somebody,
you don't tell about their weaknesses. If you love somebody, you don't
talk about their failures. I mentioned this morning, I talked
to Rex a little bit about Alexis, and he may know something about
her that I don't know. He probably does. But how old
is she now, Jenny? 22 years old? 22 years old. That girl been around here for
22 years. I have never heard Rex or Jenny or Debbie say anything
bad about her. Isn't that amazing? Why no? Not amazing at all. They love
her. You understand what I'm telling
you? Grace teaches people to cover faults, not to expose them. Grace teaches people to forgive
offenses, to help one another, to pick them up when they're
down, to lift them when they fall. Now, look at verses 9 through
14. Here, Paul declares that the
Lord God, our Savior, by his almighty effectual operations
of grace has made us fit for heaven. Now, lest you imagine
that I've overstated that, read it for yourself in verse 12.
Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Oh, children
of God, rejoice. God has made us already equal
to, worthy of being inheritors of the saints in light. You and I in Christ are right
now as fit for heaven as we shall be when we're there. We are right
now as holy as we shall be when we're with Christ in glory. We're
right now as righteous as we shall be when we're with Christ
in glory. The only difference will be we
will drop this body of sin, this body of flesh, the old man. I'm not just talking now about
this physical frame. I'm talking about the old man.
He must and shall die forever. but we are fit to receive the
inheritance of God's saints, fit in the light of God himself. Now look at verse nine. For this cause, since the day
we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that
you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all
wisdom and spiritual understanding. that you might be filled with
the knowledge of God's will, His revealed will, His purposed
will, His decrees, His providential will, His redemptive will. Oh, that you might be filled
with the knowledge of God's will, filled with His will, with all
wisdom and spiritual understanding, given wisdom. to understand and
discern the things of God. Wisdom, to understand and discern
the work of God and the ways of God. As you're filled with
the knowledge of his will, have understanding in his revelation
of his word, as you know God and know Christ, that you might
walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. What's that mean? Walk so that you have earned
God's favor? No. Walk so that you win rewards
for yourself in eternity? No. That's Christ's work. But
walk as men and women who belong to God. Walk through this world
as men and women who belong to God, believe in God, living for
eternity. Those who walk with God in faith. and walk worthy of such a profession
are many women who walk through this world seeking God's glory,
God's honor, God's will in all things, and leaving things in
God's hands, and waiting for God to bring us to glory, being
fruitful in every good work. Fruitful in every good work. God declares us to be branches
in the true vine. He's the husbandman. He prunes
the branches and he makes them fruitful. He teaches us to believe
God. He teaches us to trust our Savior. He teaches us to be patient. How is that? With tribulation.
He teaches us to live in hope. How is that? With struggles here. He teaches us to be fruitful. Fruitful in every good work. Those good works to which God
has ordained that we should walk in them. Increasing in the knowledge
of God. My business as your pastor is
to proclaim the gospel of God's grace to you, to expound his
word, but I don't know how to say this
and say it like I want to. It's important that you learn
history and facts. It's important that you know
the history and facts revealed in the word of God. But my business
as your pastor is more than teaching you history and facts and doctrine. My business, Merle, is to introduce
sinners to the Savior and to keep on showing you about Him
so that you grow in the knowledge of God our Savior. so that you
leave here seeing some excellence, some beauty, some magnificence,
some grace, some glory in Christ that you had missed before, and
thereby strengthened with all might according to the glorious
power that works in you. We can't attain these things.
We can't do these things by our strength and power, but by His,
we can. Whatever it is that God puts
in our hands to do, whatever it is God puts in our hands to
endure, whatever it is God puts in our hands to perform for Christ's
sake, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I
didn't say, I can do all things. I said, I can do all things through
Christ who strengthens me. Walking with God by faith, whatever
obstacle he puts in my way, he'll take me through it or over it.
Whatever the difficulty, he will see me through it. Whatever the
responsibility, He will see it done. I can do all things through
Christ who strengthens me. And look at verse 12 again. Oh,
how I wish I could expound this marvelous wonder of grace as
it ought to be expounded. Giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath already done, made us meet to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in light. By nature, we are, and you who
are God's acknowledge, by nature, we're worthy of hell, nothing
else. But God has made us meet to be
partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. Of Him are
you in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. God from eternity put us in covenant
union with His Son. More than that, in real union
with His Son. And before the world began, made
Christ to be our wisdom before God. He describes himself as
such in Proverbs chapter eight. He spoke with God for us before
ever he spoke the world into being. And he is made of God
unto us righteousness. All the righteousness God requires,
all the perfection, all the holiness by his obedience unto death.
And he did it before the world began. Because that which he
pledged to do as our mediator and our surety, God Almighty
declared was done before the world was. And he is made of
God unto us, sanctification. Sanctification, holiness, holiness. That's a hard word for me to
use with reference to myself. It's a hard word for me to use
with reference to you, except for one thing. Bill Raleigh,
your holiness is not your doing. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Holiness is Christ in you. It's the new birth. It's being
made a new creature in Christ. This too was done before the
world was. We are accepted of God in Christ.
And then in the fullness of time, we're made to experience it.
And redemption, redemption. The word redemption, as it's
used in 1 Corinthians 1.30, refers to more than the work at Calvary.
It refers to the total deliverance of our souls from all sin and
all evil. Total salvation. Jesus Christ
is made of God unto us, wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. And with Christ as my wisdom,
my righteousness, my sanctification, and my redemption, I claim none
other. I look for none anywhere else.
Christ is my wisdom, my righteousness, my sanctification, my redemption. And with him as that for me,
I'm prepared to meet God. In all the strict scrutiny of
his omniscient justice, God can require no more than perfect
righteousness, perfect sanctification, and perfect redemption. Verse
13. who hath delivered us from the
power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood. What does
that mean? The forgiveness of all sin. Now, having just mentioned God's
grace, and God's great salvation in Christ, Paul seems to take
off on a tangent. Beginning in verse 15 and going
through verse 29, as you read this, you would think you were
reading something that a man was speaking, like I'm talking
to you now, just out of his heart, just speaking something rather
than writing an epistle. Paul seems to be writing like
a man whose hand's on fire. I can't get it said quick enough.
He speaks to us here of our all-glorious Christ. Throughout this chapter,
he plays a one-word symphony. He, he, he. Look at verse 15. The Lord Jesus, our all-glorious
Christ, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
of every creature. This one who is our Christ, He
is God. He is God. He is the image of
Him who is invisible. No man can see God. No man's
ever seen God. But Jesus Christ comes in the
form of a man, and He is the image of the invisible God. And when God made Adam, he said,
let us make man in our image and after our likeness. He has
in his mind's eye, Jesus Christ, the God man. He said, let's make
a man like this man, a covenant representative man, and make
him in the form of this man, an upright man. And Christ Jesus
is exactly what God is. even in the flesh. In him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He is the firstborn of
every creature. That is, he's the beginning of
the creation of God. That's what is called Revelation
3, and that's what Paul means here. We know that if you look
at 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. He's the creator of the universe. And when I was a young man, I
used to get intrigued studying about all the arguments for creation
and against evolution and studying about all the statements the
scriptures make about creation that are just beyond the grasp
of the human mind. But I'm a little older now, and
sometimes old men get a little wisdom. Silly questions don't bother
me a bit anymore. They just don't bother me a bit.
Now, wasn't I older? He created all things. Now how that jives with your
understanding of things is totally insignificant. He created all
things by the mere word of his power. Not only did he create
the physical universe, he created all dominions and principalities
and powers. You see, he's God, the eternal
one, verse 17. and he is before all things,
and by him all things consist. He's the one who holds everything
together. He's the glue of everything.
Verse 18, and he's the head of the body of the church, who is
the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things
he might have the preeminence. He is the head of his body. The head of God's church and
kingdom, not the Pope and not Don. Not another man, not a bunch
of men. Christ is the head of his church. And God put him in this position,
head of the church and head of all things, so that he in all
things might have the preeminence. So that in all things concerning
God and redemption and salvation. in all things concerning providence
and creation, in all the covenant of grace, in all the purpose
of God, in all the providence, in all the book of God, in all
the worship of God, in all true preaching, in the hearts of God's
people, Christ has preeminence. Verse 19, for it pleased the
Father that in him should all fullness dwell. And I've tried to preach on that
19th verse, I guess, dozens of times, and I haven't come close
yet. All fullness. What does that
mean? All fullness. All fullness. Take it just as far as you can
take it, and you will come up short. all the fullness of God,
all the fullness of grace, all the fullness of mercy, all the
fullness of love, all the fullness of redemption, all the fullness
of salvation, everlasting fullness, and yet an undiminished fullness. You see, he takes all fullness
and all that he earned and is given to him. He says, Father,
this I give to my people. so that he gives you his fullest,
and yet he retains it all. Verse 20, and having made peace
through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things
to himself, by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven, he made peace, made peace for man with God. He alone gives peace. He reconciles
sinners to himself. We preach the gospel and we urge
people to be reconciled to God, urge sinners to quit fighting
God, and we can't win the battle. We can't persuade anybody to
do so, but Christ comes and makes Himself known, and when Christ
comes, He just disarms the sinner. He takes away all opposition
to Himself. Verse 21. and you that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind, that's where the problem
was, by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. How is that? In the body of his flesh through
death. By his death, he reconciled us
to God, and by virtue of his death, soon will reconcile all
things in heaven and earth unto God. And he will present you,
look at it, holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. if you continue in the faith.
Now, that little word, if, is interpreted by most people as
being a condition. Now, all these promises are so
if you hold on and hang on and hold out to the end, and you
must continue in the faith. But if you trust Christ, every
time you run across this word, if, You remember what Brother
Rupert Rivenback told us here years ago? Standing right here,
he said, anytime you run across that word if, if you trust Christ,
read it as a promise, not a condition. Read it as a promise, if you're
in Christ. He said, I give it to them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. Yes, I to the end shall endure. Yes, I to the end shall endure. And I know that I'm his because
I've not yet been moved away from the hope of the gospel.
Verse 24, who now rejoice in my sufferings
for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions
of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church.
Now understand what Paul said. There's nothing lacking, nothing
behind in the atoning efficacy of our Redeemer. But there is
much yet to be endured by us in order that all the elect may
be brought to Christ. And whatever it is that God's
purposed for us, we will endure and we will accomplish for the
glory of his name. Verse 25, whereof I made a ministry
God makes preachers, not men. God makes preachers, not churches.
I made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which
is given me for you to fulfill the word of God. I have a dispensation from God. I'm on a mission, a mission from
God. And that mission is the preaching
of the gospel of God for the saving of his elect, for the
benefit of you, his people. And when I have finished that
mission, I will gladly lay it down in the hands of another
and move on to higher ground. But here, I have a mission from
God and I will continue until the mission is accomplished.
Verse 26, even the mystery, to make you know the mystery which
hath been hid from ages and from generations, but is now made
manifest to the saints. What is that mystery? That mystery,
here's the mystery, how that God comes into the world in human
flesh, accomplishes redemption. And that same God ascends into
heaven in human flesh and sends his spirit in the omnipotent
power of his grace and steps into you. Steps into you. What it says,
verse 27. What is this mystery to whom
God would make known? What is the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles? which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory. A good many years ago, I was
reading a biography of George Whitefield, and he mentioned
that he had been blessed of God to read a little pamphlet read
by a fellow named Henry Scroggill back in the 1600s, just a short
little pamphlet. And God used it to reveal Christ
in him. And I decided I had to get that pamphlet, and I did.
I managed to find a copy of it. It's called The Life of God in
the Soul of Man. Oh my God, that's what salvation
is. It is the life of God in the
soul of a man. It's the life of God in you.
The life of God in you. God comes in the person of his
son and takes up residence in a man. Whom we preach, whereunto
I also labor. striving according to his working,
which worketh in me mightily. I fully agree with Mr. Spurgeon's
comment on this 29th verse. He said, there will never be
any mighty work come from us unless there be first a mighty
work in us. No man truly labors for souls,
unless the Holy Ghost has first wrought in him mightily. As Paul put it, our sufficiency
is of God. And I had no idea how many times
I preached on this chapter to you and other places. I didn't
bother to count them. But about 23, 24 years ago, Brother Merle Hart read this
chapter back in the office. Merle, you'll probably remember
it. And he got done reading it, and after he prayed, Brother
Bob Pontzer said, what a great Savior. What a great Savior. That's the
title I give to the message. What a great Savior. Many years ago, a couple from
the United States went to London. While they were in London, on
Sunday morning, they went to hear the famous Joseph Parker,
who was a great preacher, preached to thousands of people. Well-known
orator and a Congregationalist preacher. And when they came
out after the service, that man said to his wife, what a great
preacher. That night, they went across
town to hear Mr. Spurgeon. And when they came
out of the service, that woman said to her husband, what a great
savior. Oh, God, thank you for our great
savior. God make him yours. Amen.