Good morning. Good morning. Good to see everyone
this morning. Let's open this morning's service
with hymn number 18 in your Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn book, number
18. Let's all stand together. ? God gave his holy inspired word
for only one great hand ? ? The prophets and apostles too revealed
the sinner's friend ? The Bible is a book of Christ, it only
speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ,
it only speaks of Him. The prophecies of old record
God's wondrous mighty deeds. Those deeds of power and of grace
set forth a woman's seed. The Bible is a book of Christ,
it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ,
it only speaks of Him. The prophets all reveal our Lord
as prophet, priest, and king. ? The types the great redemption
show ? ? Christ's blood and grace now bring ? ? The Bible is a
book of Christ ? ? It only speaks of him ? ? On every page it shows
us Christ ? ? It only speaks of him ? Behold the Lamb, the
Baptist said, the sin-atoning One. As it was promised long
before, God's Son as man has come. The Bible is a book of
Christ, it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ,
it only speaks of Him. ? Our substitute obeyed the law
? ? Then died and rose again ? ? And in his word our Savior
said ? ? Rejoice, I come again ? ? The Bible is a book of Christ
? ? It only speaks of him ? On every page it shows us Christ. It only speaks of him. Please be seated. Good morning. Let's open our
Bibles together to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter
1. What a sweet grace it is to believe
what we just sang. Most of the religious world does
not believe that. They look to the Bible as a rule
book for Christian living or some doctrine or some historical
information. They don't believe that in the
volume of the book it is written of me. For lo, I have come to
do thy will, O God. The Pharisees searched the scriptures
because they thought in them they had eternal life. And the
Lord said to them, but these are they which testify of me. You miss the whole message of
the Bible if you miss Christ. And if we look at any passage
of scripture and fail to see the glorious person and accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, we've not understood that passage
properly. And if we are able to see the
glorious person, and accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
it will be by God's grace. It'll be by divine revelation. Only the Lord can show us those
things. We can't come to see them and
understand them on our own. So our hope and prayer this morning
is that the Lord would be pleased to send his Holy Spirit in power
and to show us Christ. Let's pray together. Our heavenly
Father, we thank you that you have in
your good providence brought us here to this place where we
might open thy word and look by your grace to thy dear
son and find all the hope of our salvation in him. Lord, we do ask that you would
bless us to that end. We ask that you would cause us
to find in the Lord Jesus Christ the forgiveness of our sin. and
to find in him our all, and to find him to be in all. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. The deity of the Lord Jesus Christ
has always been the offense of the gospel. that Jesus Christ
is God has always offended men. It did when the Lord was here. The Lord asked the Pharisees
who were taking up stones to stone him, for what good work
do you stone me? And the Pharisees or the religious
leaders said, not for your good works. We're happy for you to
do those, but because you being a man make yourself out to be
God. Blasphemy was the charge against
our Lord when they crucified him, that he was blaspheming
the name of God by claiming to be the son of God. The deity of the Lord Jesus Christ
is still the offense of the gospel. And it is the glorious truth
that divides the true gospel from the false gospel. It is
the one truth that makes the difference between
those who are saved and those who are not. Let me show you
that. Turn with me in your Bibles.
You hold your finger there in Colossians chapter one, and turn
with me to 1 John chapter four. 1 John chapter four. And look with me, if you will,
at verse 15. 1 John chapter four, verse 15.
Whosoever." Now, do we need to be reminded that this is God's
perfect word? Whosoever. Who's that? Anybody. Whosoever. Shall. Confess. Now, I don't try not
to make a habit out of giving you the original language But
I will in this case because it's the same word confess that's
used in 1 John 1 verse 9. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us
of all of our unrighteousness. This word confess comes from
two words that you're familiar with. The first word is homo,
which means the same. The second word is logos, which
is the word. Okay? The word, the logos, the very
essence of God was made flesh and he dwelt among us. And so
this word confessed is a conjunction of those two words. The Greek
language is the word homologia. Homo logos. The same word. That's what it is to confess.
So when you confess, you are speaking the same word that God
has spoken. You're agreeing with God. Even
if it means taking sides with God against yourself, which it
will mean that, it will mean that. So whosoever, whosoever
shall speak the same word that God speaks, whosoever shall agree
with God. Total agreement with God. Let's read the rest of this verse.
That Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in
God. That's That verse does, I mean, I gave
you one word out of that verse that needed maybe some explanation,
but there it is. Whosoever shall speak the same
thing about the Lord Jesus Christ that God has spoken about him,
agreeing that he is the son of God, then God dwells in him and
he in God. This is the one glorious truth. that divides all men. Who is Jesus Christ? Who is He? And it is the one glorious truth
that when God is able, is pleased, I won't ever put God unable.
God is able. When God is pleased to reveal
His Son, It will be the one glorious truth
that will evidence us being in God and God being in us. How oftentimes we waste our time
trying to figure out if we're Christians, trying to figure
out if we're saved by looking for evidence in our lives for
our salvation. And what does that result in?
A loss of assurance. If looking for evidence of salvation
in your life gives you assurance of salvation, there's probably
a pretty good chance that you don't really believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. But if you believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God, then looking for evidence of
your salvation will only cause you to doubt your salvation. The only way you can measure
the evidence of your salvation is by putting yourself under
the law. The law is the measurement, that's the standard. And so we're
back under the law and there's no peace, there's no comfort,
there's no hope. Do you believe? that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. You say, well, doesn't everybody
that claims to be a Christian believe that? Well, they say they do. They
say they do. Every Christian denomination
in the world will have in their statement of faith that Jesus
Christ is the second person of the triune Godhead. They will
all confess him to be God with us, Emmanuel, the eternal son
of God. You'll find that in every statement
of faith of every Christian, and I use that word very broadly, group. So does that mean that
they're all have God in them and them in God? Well, it would, except there's
a problem. They've redefined God. They've redefined God. They will
say that Jesus is the Son of God, but they will make that
God dependent upon man in order for him to be able to save. A
God who depends upon man for anything. Paul speaks in 2nd
Corinthians chapter 11 at verse 4 of another Jesus. Another Jesus. There are lots
of Jesus out there. But there's only one who is the
Son of God. Only one. And A Jesus that's
dependent upon man for anything is not God. He's another Jesus. Any Jesus that is not 100% successful
in what he came to do, save his people, is not God. He's another Jesus. Any Jesus that's not absolutely
sovereign is not God. It's another Jesus. And so they
can say, well, yes, Jesus is the son of God, but they're stripping
him of the very essence of deity and making their little Jesus
to say that he's God, having made God in the image of themselves. The Lord said, you thought that
I was altogether such a one as thyself. Do you believe that
Jesus Christ is the son of God? I remind you of Philip's encounter
with the Ethiopian eunuch. And the Ethiopian, after hearing
Philip preach the gospel from Isaiah chapter 53, which is all
about the Lord Jesus Christ, as is all of scripture, but this
so clear and so concise, such a glorious revelation of him
in Isaiah 53. And the Ethiopian said, what
doth hinder me to be baptized? I want to follow that Jesus that
you just preached unto me. And Philip said to him, if thou
believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. Now, what does that
mean, to believe with all of your heart? That mean there can't be any
shred of, worldliness or whatever you got
to be. What did the Ethiopian say? I
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And at that point,
Philip, they stopped the chariot, they got out and Philip baptized
him. Ethiopian eunuch didn't say I
believe I'm saved. I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God is in him and he in God. In making that confession, let
us be careful not to redefine God. These other Jesuses that are
in the world and particularly in religion are very nice Jesuses. They are. I mean, they will inspire
you to live a better life. They will warm your heart. They
will excite your emotions. They may even bring a tear to
your eye. But they're not God. and therefore
they cannot save. They can't save. Jesus Christ is the son of God. Do you believe that? All that that means. We haven't looked at our text
yet. Let's do that. Colossians chapter one. We'll begin reading in verse
12, giving thanks unto the father which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints of light. God had
to make us meet. Now that word meet is first found
in Genesis chapter one, speaking of Eve, a help meet for Adam. And oftentimes that is translated
to help meet. or a helpmate as if, you know,
she was Adam's property. Women are not men's property.
That word meet means suited or fit. And so God, after Adam saw
all the animals and saw that there was nothing there that
was fit for him or suited for him, God made E from his rib
a picture of God making the bride of Christ out of the very, put
Adam into a deep sleep, a picture of Christ's death on Calvary's
cross and drew Eve from his rib. And we come out of Christ. God makes us. He has to make
us to be meet, to be suited, to be fit for the inheritance
of the kingdom of God. Otherwise, we can't be partakers
of that kingdom unless God makes us meet. What does he do to make
us meet? Look at verse 13. First of all,
he must deliver us from the power of darkness. We come into this
world unable to believe God. We come into this world spiritually
blind. And God has to open the eyes
of our understanding. He has to reveal Christ to us.
He has to deliver us from the power of darkness. Secondly,
he has to translate us into the kingdom of his son. He can't,
he doesn't just deliver us from Satan. He puts us into the kingdom
of God. He makes us kings and priests
and the children of God. Thirdly, thirdly, he must redeem
us. You see that in verse 14, if
we're to be meet, if we're to be fit, to be partakers of the
inheritance with all the saints in light, We must be redeemed
and the only redemption is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And fourthly, we must be forgiven of our sin. Four things that God does to
make us meet or suited or fit for the kingdom of God. We can't
do any of those things ourselves. We can't deliver ourselves from
the power of darkness. We can't put ourselves into the
kingdom of God. We can't redeem ourselves with
whatever sacrifice that we could make, and we cannot forgive our
sin. Only God can do that. Only God
can do that. Who is this that says that he
forgives sin? Your sins are forgiven you. Ain't
that what he told the Ambalad? Your sins are forgiven you. And
the Pharisee says, who is this man? Think he is. Only God can
forgive sin. And what'd the Lord say? In order
that you might know that the Son of Man has power to forgive
sin, I say unto you, stand up and walk. And he stood up and
walked. And the Lord proved his deity,
his power, his ability to forgive sin. Look at the next verse. Who, speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ, is the image of the invisible God. You can't see God. Not with a natural eye. You know,
we err when we start looking for physical evidences of God. We see God in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Philip said in John chapter 14,
Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth us. We just want
to see God. And the Lord, after three years
of being with the disciples, I'm sure that this was probably
one of his saddest moments. He looked at the disciples and
said, oh, Philip, have I been with you so long that you don't
know by now that if you've seen me, you've seen the Father, for
I and the Father are one. The Lord Jesus Christ is God. He's God. Can't prove that to
you. We just declare to you what he
has said. And if the Lord gives you faith
to believe that Jesus Christ is God, God is in you. You confess that. You speak homologous,
speak the same word that God speaks. Agree with God about
all that that means. That He is the sovereign, successful
Savior of sinners. How could He be anything less
if He's God? How could there be a God who
wasn't able to accomplish that which He's sent to do? How could
He be God if He failed And yet that's what all these people
say, oh yes, Jesus is the son of God. And then they turn right
around and accuse him of having failed in his desire to save
men because he could not overpower the will of man. He could not
persuade man. He was bound by this gift of
free will that he gave to man. He abdicated his throne as God
and allowed man to be set up on the throne of God. That's
not God. You see what I'm saying? If you
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, then God is in
you. And you're in God. And here is the offense of the
gospel. It's always been the offense
of the gospel. It was the offense of the gospel
that the Lord Jesus Christ preached. It was the reason they crucified
Him. And it's still the offense of the gospel. And it is the
dividing truth between those who know God and those who don't. For whosoever shall believe,
and confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. God is in
you, and he in God. Turn with me over to Colossians
chapter two and look at verse eight. Colossians chapter two,
verse eight. Beware. Lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and empty lies. That's what religion is. It's just moralisms and philosophy
and empty lies. Vain deceit. Empty lies. After the traditions of men.
After the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. For in
him, in the Lord Jesus Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. Jesus Christ is God. All the
glorious attributes of God, the eternality of God, the uncreated
essence of his nature and person, We can't, we can't understand
that. How could there be something without a beginning? God is,
God is. Here he is, the glorious, infinite,
eternal I am. He's God. We speak the same thing about
Jesus Christ. We rejoice in him being God.
We love the fact that he's God. If he's not fully omnipotent,
which is an attribute of God, all-powerful, then I can't be
saved. If I have to depend upon my ability
to save myself, my strength? When we were yet without strength,
Christ died for the ungodly. You remember what that word ungodly
means? It's the word worship with the
Greek alpha in front of it. So don't think, well, you know,
ungodly means that you've just spent your whole life living
in debauchery and some sort of, or maybe you have. Maybe you
have, that would be ungodly too. But when Christ died for the
ungodly, he died for those, when you put an alpha in front of
a word, it's just like in English, it reverses the meaning of that
word. It puts a negative in front of the Word. And so what the
Lord is saying is, when we were yet without strength, Christ
died for those who were unable to worship Him. Unable to come
into the presence of God. Why? Because they didn't have
Christ. They didn't believe that Jesus
Christ was the Son of God. If you believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God, then God is in you. And you are in God. And
if you're in Him, then you have acceptance before God in the
Beloved. And you can go into the very
throne of grace and worship God. For in Him, verse 9, dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Look at verse 10. Don't miss this. If Jesus Christ
is the Son of God, then you are complete in Him. That means that He's all your
righteousness. He's all of your justification.
He's all of your redemption. He's all of your wisdom. He's
all of your holiness. He's all your sanctification.
He's all and He's in all. Why? Because He's God. He's God. This is the simplicity of the
gospel, brethren. And this is the glorious truth
that men won't have. When they hear about this Jesus
who is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, what do they
say? They still say, I will not have that man reign over me.
I'm not going to bow to him. I'm not going to submit to him.
I'm God. I'm on the throne. I'm the one who gets to decide. If you believe that he's God,
you have found yourself prostrate before his feet. praising Him
and thanking Him and rejoicing in the fact that you have a God
who is able to save. He's able to save. Why? Because He's God. He is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, and you are complete in Him. It's complete. You can't add anything to that.
Why do we go about trying to add to our righteousness, trying
to add to our acceptance, trying to add to our reason for God
to accept us and love us? We look in faith to Christ, who
is the Son of God, who is all and in all. This is the evidence of our salvation,
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting Him and Him alone. He is the image of the invisible
God. Hebrews chapter one says, that
He, being the brightness of His glory and the express image of
His person, upholds all things by the word of His power, who
by Himself purged our sins. Purged our sins all by Himself.
He didn't count on us to hell. He didn't need our help. Any
help we would have offered would have Any help we continue to
try to offer robs him of his glory. He's God. Now, whosoever speaks the same word about Jesus
Christ that God has spoken, God is in him and he in God. He is the express image of his
person. He is the brightness of his glory. He has sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on high. He is the image, the likeness
of the invisible God. No man has seen God at any time. The son has. The son has. And we're going to be like Philip.
If we know anything about the father, we will see it in the
image, the likeness of his son who possesses the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. This image. Let me show you something. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
5. Genesis chapter 5. Say, well, isn't man made in
the image of God? Adam was. Scripture says, let
us make man in our image. And when Adam was created, he
was created innocent, without sin, until the fall. Look at verse one of Genesis
chapter five. This is the book of the generations
of Adam in the day that God created man in the likeness or image
of God made he him, male and female. Who would have ever thought
that a society would come to a point where we would have to
say there are but two genders. Who would have ever thought that
a society would become so degraded that we would have to make that
point, but that's where we are. That's where we are as a society.
How shameful is that? God created man in his image,
male and female created him. and blessed them and called their
name Adam in the day when they were created. And Adam lived
130 years and begat a son in his own likeness after his image and called him
Seth. When you were made, You were
made in the image of your father, who was made in the image of
his father, who was made in the image of his father, all the
way back to the image of fallen Adam. Now here's the glorious
truth of the gospel. That in salvation, God recreates
us into the image of God. Let me show you that. In the new birth, the new man
is made into the image of God. You have your Bibles. Turn with
me to Romans chapter 8. I want you to see this. Romans
chapter 8. Verse 29, for whom He did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among
many brethren. All that God foreknew, He did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. The new nature in the new man,
the Spirit of Christ, the mind of Christ, who confesses happily, gladly, and in faith that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God has been recreated in Christ, to the image of His
Son. John goes on to say in 1 John,
this is our confidence in the day of judgment, for as He is,
so are we. This is our confidence. How can
we have any confidence of being able to stand in the presence
of a holy God unless we are found in Him, not having our own righteousness
which is by the law, but that righteousness which is by the
faith of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the faithful one, the
faithful one. This is our confidence in the
day of judgment. As He is, so will we. Believing
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Hebrews 9, verse 12 says
that He hath obtained eternal redemption for us. He hath obtained eternal redemption
for us. Eternal redemption. I remind
you that eternal doesn't mean it starts now and lasts forever.
Eternal in the Word of God means it never had to be and never
have been. So this is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ as the
Lamb of God that was slain before the foundation of the world.
The one who entered into the covenant relationship with his
father to be the Savior of God's elect. And he hath obtained eternal
redemption for us. Why? Because he's God. He's God. He cannot fail. He didn't return void. He accomplished
that for the purpose for which God sent him. What was his purpose? To save his people from their
sins. Did he do that? If he's God,
he did. If he's depending on anything
else from anybody else, then he's not God. Someone else is
God. And that's man's problem. That's fallen man's problem.
That's man who is still in the image of his father Adam, wanting
to be God. Only God, you know, we speak
of creating things or a person being creative, you know, whether
it's music or art or architecture, all we're doing is moving stuff
around. We're not really creating something. We're just putting
things in order, aren't we? The word create in its purest
sense of the word means to make something out of nothing. And
that's what God has done. And only God can do that. And we say that He makes everything
out of nothing, but He actually makes it out of Himself. He makes all things from Himself. Only God can do that. Only God
can create a man from the dust of the earth and breathe life
into his nostrils. Only God. can invade a man's
heart, stop him in his tracks, and reveal himself and make in
him something that wasn't there before. New nature, a new man,
faith that Jesus Christ is the successful, sovereign Savior
and Son of God. That's who he is. That's who
he is. Brethren, this is the offense of the gospel,
always has been, and it still is. And this is the one glorious
truth that determines whether or not God is in you and you
in God. Do you believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God? The image, the express image,
the revelation of the Father, of the invisible
God. And what comfort this is, what
comfort this is. If my Savior is God, if God be
for me, who can be against me? It is God that justifies. Who
is He that condemneth? No, it is Christ that died, even
rose again from the dead. He's God. If He did it, then
it's done. It's done. I can't be against myself. I
can't take myself out of the hand of God. Not if He's God. You see, here ends the problem,
isn't it? Nothing's too hard for the Lord.
He's God. He can deck a dead man and make
him alive. He can give us faith in Christ. Provide for us whatever needs
we have in this life. All the righteousness we need
for the life to come. He's God. Can you believe that? Jesus Christ is God. Whosoever
confesses, speaks the same word that God
has spoken about who Jesus Christ is and what he has accomplished.
And what he has accomplished is the result of who he is. You
see that. He could not have done what he
did if he wasn't who he is. God is in him and he's in God. He is the image of the invisible God. Let me close with one passage
of scripture. Turn with me to Philippians chapter
three, because you might be wondering, you might be wondering right
now, how do I know if I really believe that Jesus Christ is
the son of God? How do I know if I really believe
that? Everybody says they believe it. How do I know if I believe
it? Philippians chapter three, verse
one. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. I'm thankful that he's God. I rejoice in a salvation that
was accomplished from beginning to end, the Alpha and the Omega,
the first and the last by God Almighty himself, How could that
salvation fail? I rejoice in that. To write the same thing to you,
to me, indeed, is not grievous. I'm preaching the same thing
to you, but we preach every time, isn't it? And to me, it's not
grievous to declare this wonderful truth about who the Lord Jesus
Christ is. And to you, it is safe. Now let me tell you something
about that word safe that we saw in ungodly, the alpha in
front of worship, unable to worship. The word safe here is the word
fail with the alpha in front of it. So what Paul's saying
to us is, what the Lord's saying, to me it's not grievous to preach
the same thing unto you, and to you it cannot fail. It is certain, it is safe, it's
the only safe place to be. The only safe place to be is
to be in Christ. Beware of dogs, beware of evil
workers, beware of the concision. That word concision means to
cut up or to mutilate. It's a reference to circumcision.
And what do men do? They think, well, if I can cut
this thing out of my flesh, if I can cut this thing out of my
life, then I can earn favor with God. Those are the mutilators,
and they mutilate the gospel because they rob from Christ
His glory as God. For we are the circumcision,
circumcised in the heart by the Spirit of God, convinced that
there's no cutting away of the flesh that's going to save us. We are the circumcision which
worship God. How do I know if I believe that
Jesus Christ is the son of God? I cannot worship God. I am ungodly. Alpha worship. I am ungodly.
I cannot worship God unless he gives me his spirit. I am dependent
upon the Spirit of God to be able to enter into the presence
of God and worship Him. You believe that? You're dependent
upon the Spirit of God for your ability to worship God. We are
the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit. Rejoice in
Christ Jesus. I have nothing else to rejoice
in but the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't rejoice in my life or
in my faith. I rejoice in Christ. Rejoice in Christ Jesus. And
here's the catcher. And have no confidence in the
flesh. I can't find anything in my life
that gives me assurance of my salvation. The closer I looked,
it's like going down in a well. You go into your heart to try
to find something. It's like going in a well. The
deeper you go, the darker it gets. I have no confidence in my flesh. I can't find anything in my life
to give me assurance of my salvation. And I'll repeat what I said a
moment ago, if you can, then you're not rejoicing in Christ
Jesus. If you can find something in your life, I've heard people
say, well, you know, I used to do this, I don't really anymore.
Well, good, you probably shouldn't have done it to begin with. But
that doesn't mean you're saved. That could be another Jesus that
took that away from you. There's lots of them out there.
And they will inspire you to live a better life. But they
are not God, and they cannot save. And when I see Jesus Christ
as God, woe is me. I am undone. I am a man of unclean
lips. Isn't that what Isaiah said when
he saw Jesus Christ? High and lifted up and seated
upon the throne, and the seraphim hovering over him, crying, Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. That's how we know. have no confidence
in the flesh. None. Amen.