Alright, let's go back to our
text in Colossians chapter 1. Now in that last verse of that text
that was read, verse 23, Paul speaks of continuing in
faith. speaks of being grounded and
settled, speaks of not being moved away from the hope of the
gospel, which you've heard. Now, as faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God, and it does according to the
Word of God. And as the Word of God is unchanging,
As Peter said, it lives and abides forever. He said it endures forever. This Word, this Word of God,
it does not fade away, and it does not change. Oh, I know men
are always trying to add new meanings to it. It seems like
there's a new translation to the Bible that comes out every
few days. And most of them are not worth the paper or the print
of them. But the Word, that Word of God, that Word that's inspired
and breathed God through men that He raised up to right, it
lives, it abides forever, it endures forever, it doesn't fade,
and it does not change. And that's important because
it is that Word which is the foundation of our faith, of our
faith. It is that which is dug deep,
that digs deep and builds upon the rock Christ Jesus, so that
when the winds howl and the storm blows, the building stands secure. It's built on Christ, the rock,
who himself is also that chief cornerstone, chosen of God, and
precious. and to whom all the living stones
are joined. And that person, our Lord Jesus
Christ, he's the same. We sang that just a minute ago.
Yesterday, today, forever. He never changes. Now the point
that I'm trying to convey, I'm trying to get across this morning
is that, is very simply this, it is that true faith is grounded
It's settled and it's unmoved because it is founded and rests
upon our unchanging God. You know, all the way back in
Malachi, it's written, I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob,
are not concerned. Our hope and our confidence stands
to a great extent in this fact that our God does not change.
It's founded on the unchanging Christ. He is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. He does not change. And it's
founded on the unchanging Word, the unchanging Word. Irregardless
of what, how men may rest it, still the Word of God stands
fast. It abides forever. It still remains
that quick, powerful Word. What I'm talking about here are
infallible things. That is, things which are incapable
of error, things which are incapable of failure, things which may
be depended upon. I'm talking about the things
of God, for only that which pertains to God can be so. Only that which
pertains to God, which comes from Him, can be without error
and can be unfailing. that which God speaks of himself
concerning his person and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ,
his purpose and his word and his love and his promises and
his grace, what God speaks, what God sets forth concerning himself,
his son, his gospel, his purpose of grace, all of these things,
that can be depended upon, and that alone. It's not what we
say about the Word of God, it's what the Word of God says. And
that's what we trust, that's what we look to, that's what
our faith is built upon. I cannot overemphasize this point.
And I say this with this in mind, because this morning I want to
use just two or three verses here as a jumping off place,
in which I hope to point out to you three infallible facts. three infallible facts upon which
our faith is grounded and settled, and from which we will not be
moved." Now, let's get right to it. And I want to call your
attention to verse 18, to verse 18, and just the last part of
that verse, the last phrase of it. That, in all things, he,
my path, the preeminent. But in all things, he might have
the preeminent. The first infallible fact that
I want to draw to your attention. Now what, who's Paul speaking
of here? Well, he's speaking of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He's speaking about the majesty
and glory of both his person and his work. And when he writes
here that he might, that he might, that word does not speak of possibility. That word speaks of purpose.
It is God's purpose that He shall have all preeminence. And that
word preeminence means that He shall excel above all. Not just all people, but all
things. Above all. Whatever you can come
up with in heaven, earth, or hell. Our Lord Jesus Christ shall
have the preeminence. He excels above all. He is to
be first. First. He's to be at the top. He's the head. And that's what
these verses, which immediately precede this phrase, is talking
about. If you turn back and look at
one page, look at verse 15, he begins to talk about the person
of our Lord Jesus Christ and how He excels all. He does excel
all. Not that He shall, but that He
does. And he says in verse 15 that he is the image of the invisible
God. The image of the invisible God.
Our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh, in the flesh, is the exact
likeness of the unseen God. Do we really realize that? Do
we really? And when we talk about Him being
the image of the invisible God, we're not talking that He's a
mere likeness of God. Not like we take a picture and
say, this is the likeness of the person whom it represents.
Oh, no. No, no, no. That's not what we're
talking about here. That's not what the words mean.
Look at Hebrews 1, if you will. He is the image of the invisible
God. In Hebrews 1, verse 3, Talking about Christ says that
who being the brightness of God's glory and the express, that word
means the exact image of His person, the exact likeness of
Him, who is unseen. No man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, He hath declared Him. The only God we
will ever see is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. That's what he's
talking about. You see, this Jesus of Nazareth,
of whom he speaks here, is none other than God manifest in the
flesh. Great is that mystery of godliness. God, God, the eternal, omnipotent,
omniscient God, who is Spirit, was manifested, revealed, seen,
set forth in the flesh. Such a mystery as this that it's
hard for us to lay hold on, but nonetheless, it is declared in
the Word of God, and it stands true, and it shall never change.
John the Apostle wrote, in the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. That's who we're talking
about. And he goes on in verse 14 of
that same chapter, and he says, and the Word was made flesh.
tabernacled among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as
of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and of truth."
You remember in John 14, when our Lord getting ready to go
to the cross, He told the disciples He was leaving. And one of the
disciples said to Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it's
a pacifier. And He said, Have I been so long
time with you, and yet you don't know me? He that hath seen me,
He said, That's seeing the Father. That's seeing the Father. Oh,
the glory of His person. He's the image. He's the image
of the invisible God. And He's the firstborn of every
creature. What does that mean? That means He's Lord and King
of all. He's the first. He's the greatest. None shall ever supersede Him.
Paul, writing to the Romans, said, for whom God foreknew them,
He also did predestinate. to be conformed to the image
of his son, that he, his son, might be the firstborn among
many brethren. He has many brethren, but none
shall excel him because he has all the preeminence. He's the
firstborn of every creature. He's the first and he's the greatest
and he always shall be. None shall excel his person.
And then he goes on, verse 16 of this text, and he says, By
Him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth,
visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him
and for Him. Oh my! He excels in His person. He excels in power and dignity,
for He, He, the Lord Jesus Christ, has created all things. And not
only did He create them, they were created for Him, for Him,
for His benefit, for His glory, for the excellency and majesty
of His person. When John said, in the beginning
was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, he went
on and he said, and all things were made by Him, and without
Him was not anything made that was made. He's the Creator. God created all things by Jesus
Christ. And not only did he create them,
but it is by his power. Has been, is, and always shall
be by his power that all things consist, that they are held together,
that they continue to exist. Think of the majesty and the
glory and the excellency, not only of his person, but of his
power. Of his power. He's before all
things, and by him all things consist. In all, verse 18, he's
the head of the body. He's the head of the body, the
church. He's the beginning. He's the firstborn from the dead. The head of the body, the church.
What is this church? Well, it's the holy election
of grace in every generation, from the first believer until
the last elect vessel of mercy that shall be called. That's
the church. And that church, that church
called by many names in scripture, but it is the body of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the head of the body, the
church. And he's the head of it. He's
the head of it. He is the representative head
of the church. And beloved, I know you know,
you know that there came a time when he in the flesh, he came
in the flesh to represent that church, but he always has been
the representative of the church. There never was a time when he
was not the representative of the church. The church of God,
the people of Christ, the elect of every generation have always
been viewed by the Father in the person of their exalted head
and Lord. He said in the character of the
wisdom of God in Proverbs 8, he said, I was set up for everlasting. You can't go back any farther
than that. Huh? He always has been the representative. Always has been. You go over
to Revelation, you read in chapter 13, verse 8, that he is the Lamb
slain from before the foundation of the world. He always has been
the representative. always have been the substitutionary
sacrifice. He's the head of the body of
the church. He's the reigning head, the reigning head of the
church. He is through all eternity. Back
a little bit to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1, look at
verse 22. God hath put all things under
his feet. All things. Don't you just love
those complicated words like all little one-syllable words? Easy enough to be understood.
When he said all things, that's exactly what he meant. All things.
God hath put all things under his feet. And gave him. And gave him to be the head over
all things to the church. To the church. which is his body,
it's the fullness of him that filleth all and in all. He's going to have the preeminence,
the preeminence. In all things, he might have
the preeminence. The church lives the church lives. How does it live? It lives being
united to the Lord Jesus Christ, its head. I'm telling you what,
you separate this head right here from this body, and this
body will die. And you separate a child of God
from Christ, and it will die. You break a branch off the vine,
and it will wither and die, and men gather it up and burn it.
And that's what happens to people outside of Christ. The church
lives being united to Christ its head in the same manner as
that branch lives being united to the vine. And he's the beginning. He's the beginning. You want
to know about the beginning of all things? Then learn about
Christ. Then learn about Christ. I've told you this before. You
go back to the first book of Scripture, Genesis 1-1, and read
the first few words, and you remember what it says? In the
beginning, God. in the beginning, God. And then
you come up to the gospel of John, and you read, in the beginning
was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Christ
is the beginning. He's the beginning. And He's
the firstborn from the dead. Oh, there were others who were
raised from the dead before Him, but they died again. He's the
first to rise from the dead by his own power, and he rose from
the dead to immortality of life, never to die again. He appeared
to John on the Isle of Patmos when he said, I am he that liveth
and was dead, and behold, I'm alive forevermore. He died once, but death has no
more dominion over him. That's all for you. And because
he lives eternally, we, we who are joined to him, will live
eternally also. That's what he said. Because
I live, because I live, you shall live also. And by grace through
faith, the child of God acknowledges and bows to and loves the preeminence
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Don't you? Aren't you glad he's
the preeminent one? Aren't you glad he doesn't just
have a part of the preeminence, but he has all the preeminence? All of it. Oh, like the Apostle
Paul, when he wrote to the Romans. When he said as much about him
as he couldn't contain himself any longer, he just burst out
and he said, He's God over all, blessed forever. Amen. Can you get more preeminent?
I don't think so. Oh, no. He's the first in our
minds, the first in our hearts, the first in our affections,
and the first in our lives. In all things, He has the preeminence. And you know what? Whether you
like it or not, whether you believe it or not, it's an infallible
fact because God has declared it. That in all things, He might
have the preeminence. Second fact, verse 19. For it pleased the Father that
in him should all fullness dwell. Remember that little word, all
again. Our God is sovereign at all things.
And He does, He does what He pleases. They said to David,
David, where's your God? We know where our God is. He's
where we put Him. He does what we let Him. We set
Him up on a shelf here, and He stays right there until we bring
Him out, and He only stays out as long as we're willing, and
then we put Him back away until we want to bring Him out again.
Where's your God? Our God's in heaven, David says.
He hath done whatsoever He pleased. Huh? Come on now. That's our
God. And in light of that, we have
to ask this question, what is God pleased to do? If He's done
whatsoever He pleases, what's He pleased to do? Well, it behooves
us to find out, doesn't it? Does it not? Should we not find
out what God is pleased to do? Oh, yes, we should. You know, even that old Baal,
you know, he's held forth as the example of a false prophet
all the way from early in the Old Testament. that even he came
to that conclusion and declared it. Did you know that? That God
does what he pleases. This old heathen king tried to
hire him to curse Israel. He was going to curse Israel. If you want to look at it, you
can look at it in Numbers, chapter 24. Numbers, chapter 24, verse
1. He'd been trying every way he
could think of to get God to curse Israel. So he collected
the reward of that old heathen king. Numbers 21, 24-1, when
Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he went
not at other times to seek for enchantments against them, but
he set his face towards them. He just gave up. it pleased the Lord to bless
Israel. He saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel. Wonder
why God did that. That rebellious, stiff-necked
people who were always disobeying God, wonder why God would bless
Israel. They didn't deserve it, not in
the slightest. And God was under no obligation
to do it, because they forfeited all right. Why did God bless
Israel? Why was Baal made to see that
it pleased God to bless Israel? I'll tell you why. I'll tell
you why God did that. It pleased Him to do so. It pleased
Him to do so. I'll tell you what. Some of us
have been blessed here, haven't we? God blessed us. Boy, how He's blessed us. I wonder
why. I wonder why. Oh, Paul said,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ, according
as he hath chosen us in him from before the foundation of the
world. I wonder why he blessed us. Because he's pleased to do
so. He was pleased to do so. Sir,
if you will, to 1 Samuel chapter 12. 1 Samuel 12, verse 22, Samuel, the prophet Samuel speaking
here, the Lord speaking by the prophet. But here's something the Lord
pleased to do. Verse 22, 1 Samuel 12, 22, For the Lord will not
forsake his people for his great namesake. because it hath pleased
the Lord to make you his people." Are you the people of the Lord?
How come? It pleased the Lord to make you
his people. Why did God choose Israel to
be his peculiar people, his typical people? Because he was pleased
to do so. He was pleased to do so. You
know, he says that in Deuteronomy chapter 7. I know most of you
are familiar with these verses, but boy, they never get old.
Deuteronomy 7, verse 7, Moses speaking here, he said, The Lord
did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were
more in number than any people. For you were the fewest of all
people. I hear people say all the time, you know, if what you're
preaching is true, how come more people don't believe it? You're
small in number. You can't measure God by numbers. No, you can't
do it. I'm telling you, the people of
God, you search the Scripture, you'll find out the people of
God have always been in the minority at any given time and place.
You were the fewest. You were in number fewer than
any people. But because the Lord loved you,
and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto
your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and
redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the house of
peril, king of Egypt." And, oh, my dear friends, why did the
Lord choose some to salvation and pass by others? Why was that? Because He would. Because it
pleased Him to do so. It's according to His sovereign
purpose, to His sovereign will and pleasure. Our Lord on one
occasion lifted His eyes to heaven and He prayed, Father, I thank
Thee, O Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things
from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes, even
so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight. That's where we can trace our,
we can trace the love of God, the favor of God, the grace of
God, the mercy of God in Christ. We trace it all back to the sovereign
will of God because He was pleased to do so. He said through the
prophet, He said, I have loved you with an everlasting love,
therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you. Is that how
you got here? Is that how you got to be a child
of God? How I got here, and how I feel
here, and how I hope to remain here. I'll tell you something
else. I'll tell you something else it pleased the Lord to do.
And you're familiar with, in Isaiah 53 verse 10, it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. God was actually pleased and satisfied. to punish His
own dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, as our representative
head and substitute in our room and in our state, in order to
redeem us from all iniquity, in order to deliver us and make
us His children. He went to the furthest extreme,
to the extreme that you and I believe with all our hearts, and yet
we cannot explain it or understand it, to the point where the Word
of God emphatically declares, that God hath made him to be
sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the very
righteousness of God in him. That's why it pleased God to
bruise him. That's why it satisfied God to
bruise him, because of the excellency of his person. Therefore, his
sacrifice was sufficient. It pleased God. And you know,
in Matthew, one of the very first things we read, as our Lord began
His ministry, was a voice spoke from heaven, which said, This
is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Well pleased. God's pleased with His person.
God's pleased with His obedience. God's pleased with His sacrifice. God's just pleased with Him.
Are you? I am. I'm pleased with Him. I'll tell
you something else God's pleased with. He's pleased that all fullness,
all fullness dwells in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we
read, isn't it? Pleased the Father that in him should all fullness
dwell. All the fullness of a perfect
redemption. All the fullness of a perfect
righteousness. All the fullness of a perfect
salvation and deliverance. dwells in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Down in chapter 2 of Colossians here, verse 9, he says again,
In Him, in the Lord Jesus Christ, dwells all the fullness of the
Godhead in a body. And bless God, you're complete
in Him. Don't you like that word, complete?
Nothing left to add. Nothing like it. Complete in
Him, which is the head. The head of the body of the church.
the head of all principality and power. Like our Lord said,
as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. It pleased
God that in him should all fullness dwell. And then the third fact. The third fact has to do with
the effectual work of redemption. by the Lord Jesus Christ. Look
at verse 20. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross, by him, by Christ, to reconcile all things
unto himself. By him, I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven. Talks about what he did. Well,
what did he do? What did he do? Well, he made
peace. He made peace. He made peace. He didn't propose peace. He didn't
propose a ceasefire. He didn't say peace is possible. He made peace. And who did he
make peace with? He made peace with an offended
God, a God who's angry with the wicked every day, a God against
whom we've sinned, a God who will in no wise clear the guilty. He made peace. He's reconciled. Reconciled. How did He do that? Through the blood of His cross.
Through the blood of His cross. Verse 22, the first part, in
the body of His flesh through death. That's how He did it.
That's why He became a man. Our eternal God, who is from
the beginning. who was with God, who is God,
who was manifested in the flesh. He became incarnate and identified
with his people to the purpose of making peace with God on their
behalf. Why did he do that? For as much
as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he likewise
took part in the same. By man came sin. By man has to
come redemption from sin. By man came death. By man has
to come resurrection from death. He had to become a man. That's
why those animal sacrifices offered all the way through the Old Testament,
just tons and tons and tons of blood. Every day those animals
killed. Every day the blood was poured
out. Every day the blood was brought into the altar, to the
tavern. Now, every day. But it never
put away one single sin. You know why? There's several
reasons. Well, one of them is it's of
the wrong nature. It's the blood of an animal because the animal
was not guilty of actual transgression like man. Picture Him. Our Lord
Jesus, who had no sin, who did no sin, who knew no sin. He's
the perfect One. But He had to come into the flesh
and be that way. Because by man came sin. Sin
came into this world through that man, that first representative.
That representative man. And righteousness has got to
come the same way. The same way. He made peace by
the blood of His cross. He became incarnate, identified
with His people. He rendered a perfect obedience
for them. He obeyed the law in every jot
and tittle. Every single thing that the law
of God demands of me for acceptance with God, He performed it. That's why the Word of God emphatically
declares, that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that what? Believe it. Believe it. Oh, our Lord Jesus Christ, though
He's a man, though He's bone of our bone and flesh of our
flesh, yet He is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,
made higher than the heavens. And He suffered He suffered the
penalty that was due his people hanging on that cross. All that
he did through his whole incarnate life on this earth, all that
he did was for his people. But especially that time when
he was made sin and made a curse for us and hung upon the cross
under the wrath and justice of Almighty God and died for us. Especially that. Especially that. I know there's, in our day and
in our time, there's controversy over whether Christ was made
sin, to what point He was made sin, or whether it was merely
charged to Him. But the Scriptures are, the Word
of God is emphatic. He was made a curse for us. It
doesn't say He was made like a curse. And he was made sin
for us. It doesn't say he was made like
sin. It doesn't say that sin was charged to him, merely. He was made a curse. He was made
sin. He that was holy, he that was
holy actually had, and I don't know how this took place. This
is a transaction that took place between God and God. But all
the sins of all that is left of every generation was laid
on him, and he literally was made sin. He literally, because
he was found to be a sinner, and only a sinner can be cursed,
he was made a curse for us, and that's how he died, as a common
criminal. You know, there's a verse back
in Job. I'd have to look it up, the exact
reference, but it just sheds so much light on that. Job asked
this question. He said, innocent. Well, let me ask you something.
Did Christ perish? Huh? Come on now. Did he or didn't
he? He did, didn't he? He died. Was
he innocent? If he was, God was unjust to
punish him. Is God unjust? God forbid. Then how did he suffer? He was
guilty. Mark it down. You mark it down. Beloved said, I don't understand
that. Well, I can't explain all that to you, but I'll tell you
that. My hope rests in it. Because in that same manner,
in that very exact same manner, the way he was made sin is the
way I'm made righteous. And if that first be not true,
neither is the second. And we don't have any hope. Huh? Come on now. Let's quit trying
to defend the position of a man, and let's stand up for the position
of God, huh? Let's be grounded and settled,
and not move from the Word of the truth. Isn't that right?
If God didn't say it, I don't believe it. But if He did, I'm
telling you, I'm going to hang on to it with all I'm worth,
with all the power and grace He gives me. Aren't you, Bob?
You, Chris, you going to do that? Faith? All the rest of us? We
are our way. We are. In regards to what anybody
else, I don't care if I'm the only one that believes it, I
intend to believe it, till my dying breath, because our Lord
said it. And I tell you what, it's exalting
and honoring to Him. He made peace by the blood of
His cross. Don't you know that the God of
peace was brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, that
Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of that everlasting
covenant? take away his death, take away
the blind, take away his making peace, reconciliation for sin. I tell you, you don't have a
gospel to preach. And the result of his making
peace is that he has reconciled us to God. He's reconciled all
things to himself. There's that word all again.
All. Brother Carroll was talking the
other night after the message, talking about how long he'd been
taught this thing of dispensationalism. I don't know why people come
up with stuff like that. Now, when and by whom were all
things reconciled to God? By the Lord Jesus Christ through
the blood of his cross when he died. Is that not what it says?
Is that not what it teaches? That's what it teaches. You know
what that means? Well, that means Old Testament saints were reconciled
to God in the exact same manner as New Testament saints. That
means Abraham was saved exactly the same way that you and I were
saved. That's what that means. Now, you call that what you will,
but I'll tell you one thing you can't call it is a different
way God saved sinners. Uh-uh. He made peace, and He
reconciled all things. He reconciled the whole election
of grace. black and white and Jew and Gentile
and bond and free and male and female, and any other division
that you can come up with, he reconciled them all! And he did
it when he made peace by the blood of his cross. And you know
what that word reconcile means, don't you? Look it up sometime. It means to reconcile fully.
It means to remove all obstacles and differences. and restore
to divine favor by way of atonement. That's what reconciled men. Think
of that when we talk about being reconciled. And all beloved,
we had to be that way. Because by nature, by birth,
and by practice, we're all sinners. We're all aliens and enemies
of God. Now what it says, verse 21 here,
And you that were sometime alienated, at one time alienated, and the
enemy's in your mind by wicked works, even you, yet now have
you reconciled. You ever been an enemy? Hide our face in shame and confess
up, yeah, we were enemies. Enemies. Enemies. Paul, when
he wrote the Ephesians, listen to this, Ephesians 2, verse 12. He says that at that time you
were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,
and strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope, and
without God in this world. But now, but now, end of Christ
Jesus, you who sometime were far off are made now by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ." Paul told the Romans that we were
reconciled to God by the death of his son. I'll tell you something
else, though, and I'm going to wrap this up with this. Reconciliation
means something else. It means something else, and
I challenge you. I said it a minute ago, but I challenge you, get
your concordance and look these things up. I'm not telling you
to take my words. I hope you believe what I'm saying
here, because I'm saying what the Word of God said. Look it up. See for yourself. Reconciliation also means to
change. It means to change. What do you mean by that, preacher?
Well, it means to take those described here in verse 21, alienated
enemies, wicked works, and change them by the power of His grace
and Spirit, and present them to the Father as they are described
in verse 22. Present you holy and unblamable
and unreprovable in God's sight. And I'm telling you, beloved,
that's a change. That's a change. And that change
only comes about by the grace of God through the reconciliation
and the peacemaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this change
takes place through regeneration and faith. We don't have time to go into
it a lot, but I'll just mention it anyway. Let me show you something. I didn't
have this written down here. Turn over to 1 Peter. I'm sorry,
2 Peter. In verse 4, he talks about, he says this.
He says, "...whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that's in the world through love."
Now, that's the change we're talking about. That's the change
that has to be effected. What are these great and precious
promises? Well, very simply, they are the
promises of that eternal covenant of grace and peace made between
the triune God from all eternity, where God chose a people. set
up Christ to be the Redeemer and the Spirit of God to call
and to keep, to quicken, to give faith. All of that's contained
in those covenant promises which were ratified by the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. All of that, so that's covenant
promises. Of which are included a new heart will I give you,
and a new spirit will I put within you, and I'll give you my spirit,
and you'll be my people, and I'll be your God." Covenant promises. Covenant promises. And by these
covenant promises, fulfilled by Christ, and ratified by Christ,
and by the Spirit of Christ, and the power of Christ, and
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, We are actually made partakers
of his divine nature. That's a change. That's a change
that's not affected by man. It's not of the flesh, because
that which is born of the flesh is flesh. But it's of God, of
God's Spirit, because that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. A preacher, you just told me
more than I could soak in this morning. more than I can understand.
Well, I hope you can soak it in. Just soak him in. Because
if you have him, you have it all. But I'll close with this. Now, listen. This salvation,
these infallible facts presented in the Word of God, the Gospel
of God, this salvation is to all who hear of Christ and believe
Christ and receive Christ. as their God and Savior. He that
believeth on the Son hath life, and he that believeth not on
the Son of God shall not see life. Believe him. And this is the hope. This is
that hope of the gospel, in which we are grounded and settled and
not moved away from, in which we continue in. That's simple
enough, isn't it? Simple enough. Well, I pray the Lord will make
it a blessing to you, all that He's undertaken for us, and reveal
the preeminent Christ, the fullness of Christ, the fullness of Christ,
the completeness of His redemptive work, that His peacemaking His
reconciliation, and oh, that He would bring about this change
in us. Our Father, once again, we thank
You for Your Word. We pray, our Father, that You'd
be pleased to apply it to the hearts of Your people, to the
glory of our blessed Lord, in whose name we give thanks and
ask these things. Amen.