As for wretched sinners, no God
and no hope It seemed there was no one to help But God in His
mercy salvation supplied Emptied heaven and hanged down Himself
And a ransom was found Yet the ransom was found Love paid the price On Calvary's
mound Judgment was made And the Lord
satisfied And mercy was born When the ransom
was found Yes, judgment was made And the
Lord satisfied And mercy was born When the ransom was found Amen. That song was written by a man
named Ed Hale that I believe you told me he taught you your
first guitar chords, didn't he? He was a preacher down in Louisiana
and wrote hymns like that. Seemingly a very simple country
fellow and seemingly simple songs he
wrote. But how many people understand the depth of what he wrote there?
Judgment was met. The law satisfied. You don't
hear seminary professors talking about that. That's the heart
and soul of the gospel. And mercy was born when a ransom
was found. You just don't hear those things.
Those people don't know. They just don't know. But you
know, don't you? Oh, how blessed. Colossians 1. Colossians 1. The Lord Jesus
Christ. came riding into Jerusalem there
in the last days of his life on this earth. In Matthew 21
it says that all the people said as he came riding in, they all
said, Who is this? Who is this? That's the question. of all questions. You know that? In reality, anyone's life, any human
being that's ever lived, is not of any real consequence. But now, this person was. Who is this? Who is this? This is life eternal,
to know me. That's what he said. Life eternal.
My, my. You know, the reason most folks
don't gather together like we're doing right now to worship Jesus Christ, the reason most
folks ignore Him, and they do, most do, The reason most people
take him or leave him is because they don't know who he is. They
don't know who he is. They don't know who he is. They
think he's just a man, a great man, named Jesus. A great man like other great
men, Gandhi or, you know, but just a man. But if we find out
who this is, To know who He really is, we
will bow to Him as God. God. Our Creator. We're going to look at this Creator. We'll repent to Him as Judge. Judge. We'll believe on Him. We'll call on Him in whose hands
our breath is. that our very next breath depends
on Him. We'll call on Him. We'll study Him as being everything. This book of Colossians, oh,
the depth. In Christ, it says, are the treasures,
hidden treasures of all wisdom and knowledge. Somebody really knows To know Him is to know why we
do what we do. Why are we here today? To know Him is to know why. To
know Him is to know why we sing this song. Why we do what we
do. Why we do this. Most do not know. First John, he said this. Scripture
said to his people, to believers, he said, We know that the Son
of God has come and has given us an understanding that we might
know Him. We wouldn't if He hadn't, wouldn't
we? We wouldn't know who He is. We
wouldn't care, like most people, had He not come and given us
an understanding that we might know Him that is true. And that
we're in Him. That is true. In His Son, Jesus
Christ. This is the true God in eternal
life. And the last verse says, Little
children, keep yourselves from idols. Meaning, everything is
just a dead idol but Him. It's all going to perish. It's
all going to fade. It's all going to die but Him. And those in Him. It's all, every
person, everything is going to perish. But, Him. Like that ark. So that's how important is Him. You know, when we use the term, we use this term for salvation,
we say, when the Lord revealed Himself to me. Don't we? People in religion say, when
I got saved, or things like that, you know. But we say, when the
Lord revealed Himself to me, like a person came and said,
hey, I am. Well, that's exactly what happened.
A real person. And I'm not saying at all that
anybody in here has heard an actual voice or seen a vision.
Nobody has. Anybody says they have, they're
lying. But now, Irene, the Lord did say, My sheep hear My voice,
didn't He? Yes, He did. He said, Whom have
you not seen, though you love? Though having seen Him not, Peter
said, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, a real person.
Yes. When the Lord reveals Himself,
And He's come, Scripture says, and we know He's come and given
us an understanding that we might know Him as truth. No less than
that day He came to that woman at the well. Irene loves that
story in John 4, the woman at the well, who was religious and
thought she knew some things. but didn't know God, didn't know
Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
to her and revealed her sin to her. And she said, Well, we know. I know that when Messiah's come,
he'll tell us all things. And he looked at her and he said,
I that speak unto thee, am. He made himself known. I am. And she dropped her water pot,
didn't she? And went running home. And Irene, that's exactly
what happened to you, didn't it? You didn't hear a voice.
But through the preaching of the gospel, and every person
in here who knows the Lord, who He revealed Himself to, that's
exactly what happened. It's a mystery. It's what the
world calls foolishness. But to those that believe, the
power of God. It was a day, right, Brother
Stephen? Same to you. A day when you didn't
really care. You were just here because Mama
brought you. Right? And then one day, He spoke to
you. Not a voice, but through His
Word. And that's what He said He'd
do. Through the preaching of the Gospel, by the Holy Spirit,
through the preaching of the Gospel, speak just as real as
you heard a voice out loud through His Word. You say, I am. And
it happens. Yes, it does. Most human beings
are confused. Most human beings are unbelieving
because this man who came, how can a man be God? Now, come on.
How can a man be God? That cannot be, can it? Yes,
it can. And it is. It is. And we're not called to,
we can't make anybody known. Religion likes to use that, say,
to make him known. We can't make him known. We can't make him known. We can
declare him. We can preach him. We can talk
about him. We can't make somebody know him.
What man knoweth the things of a man? 1 Corinthians 2 says.
What man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of that
man? In other words, you don't know me until I introduce myself
to you. What about him? We can't make
him known. He has to make himself known. He has to make himself known.
He has to reveal himself to us. And so I say to everyone in here
who does not know him, He said, seek me. He said, call. Call on me. Brother Barnard,
we sure are thankful for that old man. He wasn't that old. When he started preaching, Dad,
you said he was about 45 years old when he came and you heard
the gospel from him. They called him Old Brother Barnard.
My dad was 25. My old brother Barnard. Anyway,
he came into a town one time and some parents had a young
girl who had no interest in the gospel and was out in the world. And they came to Brother Barnard
and said, Would you talk to our daughter? He said, Okay, I will. And he said to that young girl,
he said, Young lady, I want you to go home tonight, and I want you to ask the Lord
to show you yourself. Ask the Lord to show you yourself. And you know she went home and
did that. She actually did. She actually prayed, maybe for
the first time. Lord, show me myself. And He
did. And it wasn't good. Maybe she
was like my sister. My sister was very moral and
upstanding and a daughter of the American Revolution and,
you know, a model young person and didn't know she was a sinner.
That's where it starts. There's a day when the Lord revealed
to her, you're a sinner no less than a streetwalker. Well, that young lady was troubled. Barnard left town, came back
in sometime later, and the same parents came to Barnard and said,
Brother Barnard, ever since you left, our daughter has been just
torn up. Would you talk to her? He said,
I will. And he said, in his wisdom, Young
lady, I want you to go home tonight, and I want you to ask the Lord,
to show you Himself. And you know she did? She was born again. My, my. Who is this? Who is this? In our text of Colossians
1, it says He's the image, verse 15, of the invisible God. Firstborn of every creature.
The invisible God. The image of the invisible God.
When God made the world. God. There's three persons in the
Godhead. Okay? We know this from the Scripture. He told us. He taught us that,
didn't he? The Lord Jesus Christ taught
us that. He said, there's the Father. He said, I'm the Son. And he said, there's the Comforter.
Didn't he? Who would deny that? An unbeliever, that's it. Jesus
Christ told us that. And we wouldn't know had he not
told us. But he did. All right? And in the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1-1. And God said,
In chapter 2, let us, not talking to the angels, he's
talking to his son. He's talking to his Holy Spirit,
isn't he? Let us make man in our image, isn't it? What? But God doesn't have an
image. That's what Jehovah Witnesses
say. That's what they all say. Oh no, no, God, He can't be a
God. He's a man. He's got a body. He that is of God, heareth God's
Word. Let us make man in our image. What image? The image of Jesus
Christ. I don't know. Here's a mystery.
Did He always have an image? Dad, would you tell us, did he
always have an image forever? We don't know, do we? But he
had one. That's a mystery. But he had
one, an image. And he has one now. We'll never
see God. No man has seen God at any time,
nor can see God. God is a spirit. We're flesh
and blood. We always have been, we always
will be. We will never be disembodied
spirits. No, we are flesh and blood. When the Lord took James, Peter,
and John up on the mountain to show them who He was, light, there appeared with Him Moses
and Elijah, didn't they? Bodies, men. They were what they
always were. You say bodies hadn't been resurrected
yet. They were there in a body. And
I'm speaking things that I don't understand, right? But it's the
same. They were there. Flesh and blood.
Alright? In Proverbs 8, and we looked
at this at length one time, it says His delights, He said, I
was ever with Him in the beginning. I was before Him always. Before
the world was made. Before anything. I was with Him. His delights. Father, Son, Holy
Spirit. But then there came a time, in
the fullness of time, His delights were with the sons of men, rejoicing
in the habitable parts of the earth with men. And He would
come and He would appear to men. He walked in the garden. This first man, Adam and Eve,
walked in the garden, enjoyed the garden. Who is that? Jesus
Christ. The same yesterday and forever. Body. Low in the volume of the
book it's written of me. A body has to have prepared me.
An image. I'm image. God. Manifest in the flesh. And he's called the firstborn
of every creature. You know, that's what that means.
I think, best I can tell, the firstborn of every creature. In other words, before there
was any material thing, any embodiments of anything, he had a body. Jeanette, do you understand that?
I don't either. But somehow it's so, isn't it?
Before he created everything. Why? Because he's going to have
the preeminent. The second Adam's really not second, is it? The second covenant's really
not second. It's the first. Well, the firstborn of every
creature, before anything was made that was made, I am. In this same chapter, or same
book, Colossians says, in Him dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. Bodily. Bodily. In a body. God. John, all John
could say was, life, we beheld life, light. And we touched him. We touched him, handled him,
life. Amazing. But he came, Scripture
says, in the fullness of time, in God's time, made of a woman. Though He existed before, and
this is what John said, try the spirits. Try them. Test them. Those that don't say He was before
He came as Jesus, are not of God. And many believe that. Most, if not. And Hebrews says
this, that He came for the suffering of death. We see Jesus made a
little lower than the angels. He wasn't before. Mac, He wasn't
before. Unto the Son, He said, Thy throne,
O God, is forever. Let all the angels worship Him.
But He left that throne, set aside that glory and entered into the
womb of a woman. This is why the angels came,
that holy thing. I'm not sure, Brother Stan, that
they knew why this was happening. Do you? They do. Most people don't believe that
Christ was born of a virgin. You know that? Most people in
religion don't believe that. Oh, my. We know it. We know it, don't we? We know
why. Why? Because this is the holy one,
the sinless one. And really, the woman had nothing
to do with His birth. Her egg wasn't... No, no, no,
no, no, no. That holy thing was of God. She said, how can this be? This
can't be. I can't give birth. I've never
known a man. Well, that holy thing is going
to be a God, Son of God. You're just a borrowed womb.
Just borrowing your womb to be born of a woman made under the
law. Why? Why did He become a man? To redeem them that were under
the law. God's people under the curse. God's people under the
penalty. Breaking the law. Holy God can't
just forgive sin. He's got to punish it. Yeah,
He does. He's got to punish it. Man's
got to glorify God. And we haven't. We've all come
short of that. Christ didn't. He said, no, I
come. The mediator. The substitute. I come. The head. The covenant head. Surety. of
the everlasting covenants. Christ said, I've come to redeem
them. I've come to live for them. They
can't. They're altogether unprofitable. I am altogether profitable. Christ
came. Live. It's not a doctrine. It's
a person. He came. He said, now, by my
knowledge, I'm going to justify them all. By which they cannot
be justified by the law of Moses. John, he said, I'm going to do
it. I know the law. They don't. They broke it all. I haven't broken any of it. I'm
going to keep it. And God, by Christ doing that,
charged that, reckoned that to their account. God made Him then
to be sin for us. Laid on Him the iniquity of all
His people and put Him on Calvary's tree and punished Him as a sinner. Me. blotting out all the handwriting
of ordinances against me, nailing them to His cross, making His
people holy without blame, holy, unblameable, unreprovable in
God's sight. The Holy Spirit comes and reveals
this to them, and they're born in new creatures. By Him, I say. By Him. They look at Colossians
1. You don't think we're going to
get through Colossians, do you? What difference does it make? Seriously, I mean, why do we
need to go on? We're going to look at this throughout
eternity. We're going to look at maybe
Genesis 1-1 for 300,000 years. Maybe. Time will be of no essence
then. We can't bear it now, I know,
but anyway. He's the firstborn, verse 16,
by him were all things created in heaven, in earth, visible,
invisible, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, angels,
devils, cherubs, seraphs, stars, moon, sun, earth, humans, animals,
plants, everything was created by Jesus Christ. This is who
this is talking about. Boy, I was looking at this again
this morning, again and again, and I looked at it again this
morning, and it kind of dawned on me. It really kind of struck
me. That man that walked this earth
named Jesus, born of a woman, grew up twelve years old, grew into being thirty, Three-year-old
man, and that's not very old, is it? That's young. Most in
here think that's real young. Thirty-three. He created the earth. You can't get a hold of that
now. I'm trying to tell it and you can't get a hold of it. These
disciples, you know, who were his age, seemingly, or maybe
older than him, 40 years old. Maybe Peter was around 40 or
whatever. Here this 33-year-old man came up. I'm God. I created this earth. This is
mine. I created devils. Angels. I. That's preposterous. Isn't that
what the world says? That is preposterous. No, it's
not. It's true. Do you believe that? Sherry Anderson,
do you believe that that man that walked this earth 2,000
years ago named Jesus of Nazareth, born in a stable, created the
very earth that he stood on? You're either a fool, or a child
of God. Right? How do you know? He revealed
Himself to you. And every time the sun comes
up, period, He reveals Himself to you. How many people think
of the S-O-N when they see the S-U-N? Huh? Very few. Do you? How many people, when
they sit down to eat bread, think of the bread from heaven? Do
you? How many people, when it thunders,
think, I've glorified it, I've both glorified it, and I've glorified
it again? How many people, when they see
the clouds in the sky, think, that's the dust of His feet?
Huh? All God's people do. They see
him in all things. The heavens declare his glory.
The pyramids showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech.
Every time the sun comes. Night unto night knowledge. His
fingers. His handiwork. That man? That's right. That's right. And
you better believe it. Because he owns this place and
he owns you. You know, if he made everything,
he owns it, doesn't he? He owns it. He owns it. And we answer to him. Verse 16,
whether thrones are by him. Now look at this. It says things
created by him and for him. For him. For him. For his glory. That's why we
come here. For his glory. That's why He
did all things, for His glory, for His purpose, for His pleasure. They are and were created for
His pleasure. Whether thrones, dominions, all
things. Now do you see why we come here?
We're worshiping our Creator. We're worshiping our Redeemer.
We're worshiping our Lord. We're worshiping our God. We're
thanking Him for the breath we breathe. We're thanking Him for
the bread we eat. We're thanking Him for life.
And we're thanking Him more than anything for His mercy that is
new every morning. His compassions, they fail not.
For His mercy in revealing Himself to us or else we would not know
Him. We would not care. We wouldn't be thankful. We wouldn't
be. That God made Himself known when
the Lord revealed Himself to us. Who He is. Verse 17 says He's before all
things. That is, He was before the I
Am. In Revelation, He said, I am
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord,
which is, which was, which is to come, the Almighty. I don't rightly know what I am
means. But we have to qualify. If I came
up to you one day and said to John, I said, John? Yes, Paul? I am. You would say, you am what? Wouldn't you? I have to qualify. I am a man. I am 55 years old. I am whatever. He just says,
I am. That I am. Always the same. Indescribable. What is he? Name something. He's
not. I am that I am. Light, I am. Life, I am. Fire, I am. Meat, I am. Bread, I am. Life,
I am. That I am. I am all things. It's me and Him. We live and
move and have our being. You are because He is. I've got to go on. I don't know
what I'm talking about. But that's what he said. I am
the for all thing. By Him all things consist. Right
now there's a man in glory seated on a throne that we cannot see,
reigning and ruling, controlling every single particle, precept,
principality and power, everything throughout the known universe.
Jesus Christ. Most people say, I don't believe
that. All his people say, I do. He is. He is. And it says he's
the head, verse 18, he's the head of the body, the church
that is. He's the head of the body. The head, you know, is the one,
the head is really the one which your body receives everything
of. Light. knowledge, nourishment, everything. Right? A head. And that's Christ. That's Christ. The head. And
He's the head. What does this say about all
these pretended church heads? What about all these so-called
head potentates and popes and cardinals and all that? What
does that say about these exalted ones? Huh? A bunch of impostors. In this same book, Colossians,
it says some don't hold the head. Some don't hold the head. Not
holding the head, but the body. They've got it all backwards,
don't they? They're exalting the body, not the head. Oh no,
the body. The church exalts the head. Always,
in all things. The head. The head. Who? Jesus
Christ. The head. The head of the church.
The body of Christ. Who is the beginning? Verse 18,
the firstborn from the dead. Oh, here it is again. He's the firstborn of every creature.
Now it says He's the firstborn from the dead. He rose from the grave. He said, I am the resurrection. Everyone in Him will be raised. He that seeth the Son, I will
raise him up. Firstborn from the dead. And
here's what we come to. That in all things, verse 18,
in all things he might have the preeminence. In all things. All things. Jesus Christ must have and will have the preeminence. In all things. If we haven't
heard anything yet, hear this. That in all things, all things,
He's going to go on to say He's all and in all. And in all things,
Jesus Christ has the preeminent. The word preeminent means superiority. The whole book of Hebrews says
that. He's better than everybody and everything. Superior. Vastly
superior. Superiority in all things. The
word preeminence means stands out. Like the sun, huh? Stands out
in rank, in dignity, in importance. In all things, he might have
the preeminence. You know that that's a term they
use for cardinals, these Catholic cardinals, his eminence. That's
what they call them. That's the term that they use
for those guys dressed in red. His eminence. I pity the poor people that think
that those men are. I guess I pity those fellows,
but mostly I I despise him for taking Christ's
glory from him, his eminence. What human being could actually
take that title? Who that knows Jesus Christ could
actually let any other person call them anything of the sort,
whether it be eminence or holy one or holy father? Nobody. Nobody that knows who this is,
you see, could take that. Would take that. No, no, no,
no, no. His eminence. Oh my. I'll tell you who that
belongs to. His eminence. Jesus Christ. Pre-eminence. All things. In
rank? God. In dignity? Holy One. The Holy One. There is no other. In importance? All. That says it all. Who is Jesus
Christ? All. What do you mean? Go learn what
that means. All. All you need. All power,
all glory, all beauty, all wisdom, all riches, all salvation. All. That it pleased the Father, verse
19, God the Father in that purpose Before the world began, before
anything was that is, it pleased Him to purpose all this, put
everything together, create it all, and put it all in Jesus Christ.
That in Him all fullness should dwell. Now, we're going to look at that
another time. All fullness. As if we haven't
gone farther over our head and we're going to go further. We've just dipped our toe in
the ocean of His fullness. All preeminence. Why do we meet
here? We're here to worship our Creator.
We're here to ask Him for things. We're here to call upon Him. We're here to bow down. We're here to acknowledge Him. We're here to give thanks. We're
here to learn of Him. We're here to study of Him. We're
here as sinners to ask Him for His mercy. We're here to ask
Him to reveal more of Himself to us. Who is that? Who are we
talking about? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. That's it. OK. All right. Brother Gabe, you come.