If you'll turn here to the first
chapter of the book of Colossians, and we'll begin reading at verse
number nine of this first chapter. I said that I haven't got much
to say by way of words, but I think what I do say will be weighty. and be well worth our time here
this evening. 9th verse, it says, For this
cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to
pray for you, and desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge
of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that
ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful
in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened
with all might according to his glorious power, unto all patience
and long-suffering with joyfulness, giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sin, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
of every creature. 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 And he is before
all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of
the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.
For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross, By him to reconcile all things unto
himself, by him I say whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven. And you that were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. If ye continue
in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made
a minister, 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, whereof I am made
a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for
you to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which has been
hid from ages and from generation, but now is made manifest to his
saints, 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, whom we preach, warning every man
and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every
man perfect in Christ Jesus, whereunto I also labor, striving
according to his working, which worketh in me mightily." Now,
that first chapter, 29 verses there, and about all of the 29
verses, any way you look at it, points to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think that A verse which
is highly significant here in this chapter, which kind of is
a capstone for all it said, is found in this 18th verse. The latter part of this 18th
verse, well, I'll read it all again, but it says, And he, that's
the Lord Jesus, is the head of the body. The church, who is
the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that he, that's
the Lord Jesus, in all things, he might have the preeminence. That he might have the preeminence.
Now this is what I want to remind you of. Now, if our Lord Jesus
did so bear our sin, then we have a firm and joyous confidence. If he bore our sins, which That's
what's been said here in this first chapter of the book of
Colossians, and it's not just confined to this chapter, but
throughout the New Testament as well as the Old Testament,
that the Lord Jesus Christ did bear somebody's sin. Now, that's
all they are to us. He bore somebody's sin. Now,
if he did so bear our sin, then we do have a firm and joyful
Now, God would not accept a substitute in our place and then punish
us. Now, that's not theory, but fact. God would not accept a substitute
in our place and then punish us. Now, if Jesus Christ suffered
in my stead, I shall not suffer. Now, that's not theory, but that's
a fact. Now, if another, the Lord Jesus,
if another has gone to prison and to death for me, then it
is evident that I shall not have to go there. Now, if the axe
has fallen on the neck of him that took my place, then it will
not fall on me. Then justice is satisfied, the
law of God is vindicated and honored, And I'm free and happy
and joyful and grateful and therefore bound by Him to forever serve
Him and to love Him and to obey Him throughout every day of my
life. Now, I don't know how you look
upon this doctrine. I think I know how most of you
look upon this doctrine, but some say I assume too much, and
that may be right. But anyhow, let me put it this
way. I don't know how you look upon
this doctrine, but it seems to me to be something worth telling
everywhere. And I've given myself unto God
several years ago for that purpose, of telling that story. Telling
the story that he who was born of a virgin, under the law, died
under that law, satisfied and honored and vindicated that law,
and provided a righteousness for a people whereby God might
be just and justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. And
I tell that story everywhere I go. Any time, place, whether
it's a funeral, whether it's at a high school program, or
whether it's the old folks' home, or whether it's someone on the
street, I tell them that story because I think it's worth telling. I think it's worth telling. I
tell it all the time. I never grow tired of telling
that story. I think it's worth telling. I read one time something that
Mr. Spurgeon, Mr. Charles Spurgeon,
had to say about this blessed gospel, this blessed Lord Jesus,
relative to it be worth in value of telling everybody that will
listen. He said, wafted on its crest. And I think
it's that important too. There is a just and righteous
way for God to forgive sin by the Lord Jesus Christ bearing
the death penalty in the sinner's stead. That whosoever believeth
in Him should be justified from all things that the law could
not do. I think it's worth telling, don't
you? It says that in all things, in all things, the Lord Jesus
Christ might have the preeminence. Now let me remind you of a few
other things here, and then we'll observe the table of the Lord.
In light of this verse, Christ in all things might have the
preeminence. We are gathered here as His church. He says that He is the head He
is the head of the body, the church. And we are the church. We are His body. I want you to
notice this in light of the fact that the story is worth telling
because everything in the Bible points to Him. Every doctrine
in the Bible is directly related to the Lord Jesus Christ. You
cannot preach any doctrine in the Bible apart from the Lord
Jesus because It's so designed in the purpose of God that He
might have the glory or the preeminence. Now we talk about the church.
But I want you to remind you, it's not my church. It's not
your church. It's not the state church. It's
His church. It's His church. It's God's church. It's the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the head of the church.
It's His church. It's not mine. The church wasn't made for preachers. It's His church. So we are His
church. We're His people. The Lord's
people. We belong to Him. You're bought
with a price. He purchased your redemption.
Not with vain things such as silver and gold, but He purchased
you and paid for your debt reconciled you, delivered you, translated
you, regenerated you, quickened you by and through His own blood. We are His people. We are His
church. We are His people. We don't belong
to ourselves. I told you here the other day
that you have no rights. What rights do you and I have? We don't have any rights. He
has rights. We're His church, we're His people,
we're His sheep, and the gospel that we preach is His gospel
in all things that He might have in the preeminence. It's His
church, we're His people, we're His sheep, and the gospel that
we preach is His gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ. Everything
points to Him. There are two ordinances in the
church. I don't care about these arguments
of various sacraments. There's this and there's that.
As far as I can understand and determine, there are two perpetual,
visible statues or ordinances in the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and that's the Lord's Supper and baptism. And both
of these ordinances are centered and focused upon the person of
Christ. We drink of that blood. We drink
of that wine which represents His blood. We break that unleavened
bread which speaks of His body. We are to do this. The object
of this is to what? Remember Him. As often as you
do it. ye show forth his death, his
agony, his suffering, the preciousness of his person, till he come again.
You see? That in all things, he might
have the preeminence. I want him to have the preeminence
in my life. I want him to have it. I want
him to have the glory, the honor. I want him to get it. I don't
want it. I don't want it. Honestly, I don't want it. I
don't want to be exalted. I want him to have it. He's worthy. He's worthy. We're His church,
His people, His sheep, and the gospel that we preach is His
gospel. It's not my gospel. Folks say,
well, He preaches this and He preaches that and so forth. Well, if I preach the gospel,
it's His gospel. It's not mine. I've got no authority
to change. I've got no authority to add
to or take from or to minimize. It's His gospel. It's the only
gospel. There's not any other gospel
apart from His gospel. All right, we know that our sins
are against Him. When you sin, who's it against?
Not your neighbor. Not your neighbor. You sin against
Him who made you. When I sin, it's not against
you, it's against Him. It's against the Lord Jesus Christ
who made me. So we ought to be very careful. We ought to tread very lightly
in this matter of disobedience. Every time you disobey, it shows forth your rebellion against
Him. You're not hurting yourself so
much, you eventually do. It's not that you're going to
hurt somebody else because they don't care. No one else cares
what you do. That's right. That's the honest
truth. No one really cares what you do. Your neighbors don't
care. That is, there may be a little pretense there. They may have
about that much concern and care about you. That is the world.
But really, they don't care. So you're not hurting them in
your violation and rebellion. It's against Him. That's what
I'm trying to emphasize. It's against the Lord Jesus Christ,
who loved you and gave Himself for you. See? You know, I said
the other day, people go around cursing God. I'm not going to
do that. I'm not going to curse Him who
loved me and gave Himself for me, who delivered me, who translated
me from the devil's kingdom into the kingdom of His own dear Son.
I'm not going to go around cursing Him. Oh no. I'm going to be very
careful, very careful. I'm going to think three or four
times before I say anything that would tend to reflect upon the
honor and the glory of His glorious name." Oh, no. We know that our
sins are against Him, and we are invited to come to who? For mercy. Our sins are against
Him, and we're invited to come to Him for mercy. So you see
what I'm talking about? That He might have the preeminence
in all things. Alright? It's His face. that we seek. And we're here
tonight because it's His presence that we covet. We covet the presence
of the Lord Jesus in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the
true vicar or vicar. I don't know how you pronounce
that. Vicar, is it? The Holy Spirit is the true vicar
of God Almighty, of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus
Christ, if He's here, He's here in the presence of His only representative,
and that's the Holy Spirit. He said, if I go away, it's expedient
that I go, because if I don't go, the Spirit of God won't come.
But if I go, the Spirit of God will come and dwell in you and
with you, Christ in you, the hope of glory. So it's the Holy
Spirit of God, it's the Lord Jesus Christ, the representative
that we covet. We covet His presence to be with
us when we meet, to go with us when we leave this place, to
go with us on a day when we work or play or whatever we do. We
covet the presence of Him that He might have the preeminence.
Listen, it's not the church visitor who's the honored guest, but
it's Christ who's the honored guest. I said there in my little
article that we put in the paper, sometimes the Lord Jesus Christ
is not the guest of honor. We meet in the name of Jesus
Christ many times, but He's not the guest of honor. He ought
to be the guest of honor. Why? Because all things are His
and are related to Him. His people, His church, His gospel,
we sin against Him, we covet Him, we seek Him. He ought to
be the guest of honor. the Lord Jesus. We don't have
to have all the frivolities and additives and we don't have to
have this group, that group, and another group and all that.
All we need to do in the simplicity of the worship of the New Testament
is to come together and covet, and covet His presence and desire
in our hearts to worship Him and Him alone. And we'll be a
successful church as far as success is concerned. We'll be successful. God will meet with us. God will
bless us. There's not a group of people
on the face of God's earth who purpose that in their hearts
and in their minds that God will not use for His good. God used
this church. I know some of you don't think
that God used this church, but God used it. Some of you don't
think His church is doing anything. You think we ought to be doing
more of this and that, but I'm sure that's right. I'm sure that's
right. We've got a lot of failings and all of that, but God used
this church. Whether we believe it or not,
whether we can understand it, God's used us for His honor and
for His glory. Hadn't been because I'm such
a wonderful preacher, I'm not. I've got no education and a lot
of people let me know that real quick like, I have no education. I'm as dumb as dirt. I have a
hard time reading even. I don't know the English language.
People point that out to me very frequently. But God is not pleased,
necessarily, to use the educated. And I believe that God, somehow,
through my ignorance, has been pleased to use me. I admit it. I admit it that brethren, in
myself, I don't know how in the world that we've come as far
as we have if it was up to me. You see? But I believe that a
people who join together and seek his face and be determined
in their hearts that in all things he might have the preeminence,
God somehow is going to use him. In spite of themselves. In spite
of me. And in spite of you. God's going
to use us for His glory and for His honor. Alright? It's not
the church visitor then who's the honored guest. I said, well,
you should tell me. He said, well, people are not
friendly up there at the Katie Baptist Church. People don't
run around and this and that and so forth. Well, maybe they
don't. Maybe they don't. greet people at the door and
wring their hands and put their arms around them, and like honey
dripping from heaven, we're this and we're that. But they're not
the honored guest. He's the honored guest, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the honored guest. He has
the high and exalted seat and place in our assembly. It's not the guest. The Lord
Jesus Christ. That He might have the preeminence. Alright. He's the honored guest. It's the Lord's table. Is that
right? Whose table is it? It's the Lord's
table. That's what the Bible calls it.
The Lord's supper. It doesn't say anything about
the sacrament or the communion. The Bible doesn't call this the
communion. Communion has to do with fellowship. This is the
Lord's table. It's the Lord's supper. It's
His. It's not mine, it's not Glenn's,
it's not Neil's, it's not Carl's, it's not Bob's, it's the Lord's
supper. And our object is to show forth
His death till He comes again. He's the object of worship, and
it's to Him that we bring our sacrifices of praise and our
gifts. Moses said, If thy presence go
not with me, carry Us not uphands. Don't let us go if you don't
go with us. God, our Heavenly Father, if you don't go with
us, don't let us go. We want you to go with us. We
want you to lead us and direct us. We want you to have the honor
and to have the glory for all things. Oh, the significance
of this verse, in all things. He might have the preeminence. The Lord Jesus. That's what I
want, and I think that's what you want. Let's pray to that
end, that He might have the preeminence. In this church, and in our individual
lives, that He might have the preeminence. It'll start with
you, and it'll start with me. It starts right here, in our
hearts. Desire Him to have the preeminence.
Be jealous. for his glory and for his honor.