I want to talk to you about the
preeminence of our Lord Jesus Christ. There can be no mistake
about the person of whom Paul is writing under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit. It is Jesus of Nazareth, the
incarnate Son of God, the one who was crucified upon a cross
on the hill called Golgotha. The one who laid down his life
to save us from our sins. The one who died and shed his
blood in order to reconcile us to God and in order to satisfy
God's justice. In this book, not only the book
of Colossians, but the whole word of God, we read of the person
of our Lord Jesus and his great works. the works of the Son of
God who loved us and who gave himself for us. I didn't read
the first couple of verses, but it begins with the apostle identifying
himself as being the writer and being an apostle of God, a minister
commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ to preach the gospel. Up until this time, Paul had
not ever visited the city of Colossae. There is some indication
in the second chapter, in the first verse, that there were
a few perhaps who had met him, who had seen him, and maybe they
traveled to Rome where he was in prison when he wrote this
epistle. Perhaps Philemon and Onesimus
and Epaphras and perhaps some others, but he had not yet visited
the church in Colossae. So receiving a letter from them
must have, first of all, surprised them, and it must have greatly
encouraged them that one of God's apostles would write to them
a letter, and they would read it. Epaphras, the pastor of the
congregation, would read it to the group and say, I hold in
my hand a letter. from one of God's preachers,
the apostle named Paul, whom you folks know that he was converted
on the road to Damascus, and God, by His almighty sovereign
grace, saved him under the preaching of a man by the name of Ananias. So he is a messenger, this man
Paul, He is an apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ, and He writes
this letter to present to them this glorious truth of the preeminence,
the preeminence of our Lord Jesus Christ. It pleased the Father
that He has all preeminence. And He has all preeminence over
all things. Now as the Son of God, He's always
had the preeminence. But as the Son of Man, as the
incarnate God, as the obedient servant to our Lord, he earned
the right to have the preeminence over all things, for he of himself
took upon Himself all of our sins, and then endured the justice
of God, the fire of God's wrath in His own soul, thereby saving
His people, and therefore He's been exalted. We've studied before,
you've read on many occasions, there in Philippians chapter
2, He was faithful, He was humble, He humbled Himself, Christ did,
and He was obedient to the cross of Calvary. And therefore God
highly exalted him. And now Paul writes to the Colossian
believers and he says he's got the preeminence over everybody
and over everything. Two people can't have preeminence. Only one can have preeminence.
And our Lord Jesus has the preeminence as the God-man who faithfully
served God and faithfully entered into the conflict with the powers
of darkness to do something about our sins and satisfy God. He entered into the conflict
Himself and He was the great successor and victorious Redeemer
of His people. The apostle shows, especially
in this first chapter, that it is the will and it is the pleasure
and it is the determination of Almighty God, of the Trinity,
that all the fullness, all the fullness of the Godhead dwell
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's been highly exalted and
honored and magnified. It's only right that he should
have the preeminence because he's the only one who can bring
us to God. And he did bring us to God. He's
the only one who could satisfy every demand of God's law. He's the only one who could endure
the wrath of God in his holy soul. He's the only one who could
put away our sins. He's the only one who could establish
righteousness for His people. He's the only one who could honor
God with a whole heart and with a pure heart. Therefore, He has
been given the preeminence over all. Now, let me stress again
that which I've alluded to already. that this universal preeminence
of the Savior has been given to Him, not as the Son of God. He already had that. He was already
the Lord. He was already the King. But
He has been exalted and given a name which is above every name
because He is the one who saved His people from our sins. He now has the preeminence over
all. His Father decreed it. It was
ordained before the world was made that when God the Son joined
Himself with human flesh and when He fought the battle that
had to be fought against the powers of darkness. When He put
away our sins, it had been ordained, it had been decreed of God that
He would have the preemptance. And I'll tell you, He fully deserves
it. We have but a shallow idea, really,
of what it costs to save us. we have just a little bit of
some comprehension of it. Only when we get to eternity,
I'm persuaded, will we begin to more fully understand all
that was involved in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ
in being our substitute to save us from our sins. He fully deserves
to have the pre-emptives. And you know what? Not only has
God the Father decreed it, and not only does He deserve to have
the preeminence, we desire it. And we rejoice in the fact that
our brother, our friend, one who is not ashamed to be associated
with us, he did all that he had to do. to save us from our guilt
and our iniquities, and we desire Him to have all the preeminence.
And we long for the day when every knee will bow to Him, and
every tongue shall confess that He is indeed the Lord of glory. And I'll tell you, His satisfaction
in doing the work of redemption demands it. And so in this first
chapter, This apostle, he presents and he declares Jesus Christ
to be, first of all, the King whose kingdom we've been brought
into. Look back with me at that verse
13. who have delivered us from the
power of darkness. And when I read this, I told
you, I just kind of inserted this. The word power means the
strength and the authority of darkness. We were under the authority
of the prince of darkness. That is Satan himself. But we
have been rescued. Salvation is not a choice we
make. Salvation is not a decision that
we make. The salvation that we enjoy was
a rescue. It was the deliverance. And we
were delivered from our sins and made the righteousness of
God 2,000 years ago when our Lord Jesus suffered, bled, and
died for us. And when the Spirit of God came
to us in quickening power through the preaching of the gospel of
Christ, we were translated from the power of darkness into the
kingdom of God's dear Son. This past Lord's Day evening,
I preach to you from that which is commonly called the Lord's
Prayer. It's really a model prayer that
he gave us. And we pray, we're taught to
pray in this, thy kingdom, See, when the Jews heard about
Jesus of Nazareth and people were calling Him, saying He was
the Messiah, their view of a kingdom was of conquering Rome, running
all the enemies of Israel out of Jerusalem and out of the boundaries
of Judea and being an earthly kingdom. That's not the kingdom
we've been translated into. We've been translated into a
spiritual kingdom and our Lord Jesus, indeed, He's the King
of all the kingdoms. But we've been translated out
of the power of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. He is the one. He is the one
by His Spirit who quickened us. And He's the one who took us
out of darkness, put us in the light. Who took us out of a state
of death and put us in a state of life. He's the one who took us out
of the state of ignorance and gave us understanding. He's the
one that took us out of foolishness and put us in a state of understanding
of how God can be just and justify the ungodly. It is the kingdom
of God, our savior. So it's the kingdom of grace.
It's the kingdom of life. It's the kingdom of light. It's
the kingdom of salvation. It's a spiritual kingdom. And
where there is a kingdom, there must be a king. And our king
is the Lord Jesus Christ. And we give all glory to him. We bow down before him. We sing
crown him with many crowns. That lamb of God upon his throne. He deserves to be worshiped.
He deserves to be honored. He deserves to have the preeminence
because He rescued us out of the jurisdiction of darkness
and sin and error and death and brought us into the kingdom of
Christ. When were we brought out of the
darkness into the kingdom of light? When we were regenerated. when we were quickened from the
dead by the Spirit of truth. You remember our Lord speaking
to Nicodemus in John chapter 3, and I'm sure you remember
that. He said, except a man be born again, that is, except a
man be born from above, he cannot see, he cannot perceive, he cannot
understand, he cannot discern, he cannot give his attention
to The kingdom of God. Why, Jim, won't people believe
on Christ? Perhaps some who come and hear
the word preached here. Or they watch over the internet. Why won't they believe? Why won't
they believe? They have to be born again. Have
to be born from above. It's going to take a power from
above. From above. There's no power
in my words. If you talk to somebody in your
family about the Lord Jesus Christ and God's eternal salvation and
what it means to be righteous before God and to be forgiven
of all sins, they can't really perceive what you're talking
about. And they never will unless they're
born of God, born from above. And then the Savior also said
to Nicodemus, except a man be born again, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God. How did we enter into the kingdom
of God? Actually, we're brought into
the kingdom of God by effectual grace. That's how we entered
into the kingdom. There must be a revelation to
the heart of the power and the glory and the wonder and the
sacrifice and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. You remember
what the thief, the believing thief, you know, and back in
Luke chapter 23, all of you here are familiar with that, and most
of you probably who are watching tonight, that believing thief
said, Lord, remember me. When you come into your kingdom,
your kingdom, that's not a kingdom of cities and towers and fences
and armaments and things like that. It's the kingdom of grace.
It's the kingdom of God's salvation. Remember me when you come into
your kingdom, when you have laid down your life, when you have
finished the work of redemption, when you have been raised from
the dead, when you enter into glory itself. Remember me, Lord. Remember me. When you enter into
heaven and you rule over all things, remember me. And so the apostle describes
the preeminence of Christ as being a kingdom. And then in
verse 14, he describes Christ, who is preeminent, as being the
Redeemer. In verse 14, in whom we have
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
And this is virtually a quote from what Paul wrote to the Ephesian
church in Ephesians chapter one in verse seven. You turn back,
it's just a very few words that are different in Ephesians chapter
one in verse seven. in whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins, but here Paul adds this,
according to the riches of His grace, to what do we attribute
or ascribe the redemption of Christ Jesus that resulted in
the forgiveness of our sins, to what do we ascribe that? To
what do we point to as the source of that? The riches of God's
grace. And know this, wherever you have
redemption, there must be the forgiveness of sins. Now, over
the years, I've listened to a lot of preaching. You all have listened
to a lot of preaching. But every once in a while, I'll
hear somebody say, well, you know, God doesn't really forgive
us of our sins. Well, and I think I understand
sort of where they're coming from. God does not forgive sins
except upon the basis of a suitable sacrifice. But for you or me or anybody
else to say, you know, God doesn't forgive sins, is to fly right
in the face of the clear word of God. So don't ever say that. We have the forgiveness of our
sins. God forgives us. He's forgotten
our sins. Now, in doing that, he had to
satisfy himself. And as I've said on many opportunities,
and you've heard this before too, God had to do something
for Himself before He could do anything for us. And really, the death of our
Lord Jesus Christ, it was first and foremost for God. There's
a law to be obeyed. There's a penalty to be poured
out. For the wages of sin is death. That's what God demanded, and
that's what He got. in the death of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Paul here describes that office
that belongs to Christ, he's the Redeemer, so we have redemption. We have redemption. The Lord's
not redeeming anybody now. Redemption is past. It's a finished
work. And then he says in verses 15
and 16 that Christ is God incarnate, and He's the Creator of all things. Look at verse 15. Who is the
image of the invisible God? He is God. If you want to know what God's
like, study the Lord Jesus Christ. because he is God. And as others
have said, the only image you'll ever have of God is in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's the firstborn of every
creature. He's the one who came back from
the dead to life immortal. Others He raised from the dead,
but it was not to a life of immortality. It was to another life of mortality. He raised Lazarus. He raised
a young girl. He raised the widow of Nain's
son. He raised them only for them
to die again. But our Lord Jesus, He was raised
to immortality by His own power. He's the incarnate God, and He's
the Creator of all things. Everything that has been made
is made by the Lord Jesus Christ, and all of creation proclaims
with a loud voice, this is the Great Preeminent One, the Son
of God. Christ is God incarnate, and
He's the Creator of all things. John 1, and I read this a while
ago, all things were made by him, and without him was not
anything made that was made. In Hebrews 1, in verse 10, we
read, and thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation
of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy hands. Then he says this in verse 17,
And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. He's before all things in existence. Get this, John was His forerunner, and
yet our Lord dwelt in eternity. He created John, but John was
His forerunner. So how in the world can that?
That's confusing. It is confusing unless you have
some understanding of the fact that our Lord has existed from
all eternity, but in fulfillment of His covenant promise, He came
to this earth and His path was foreordained and foretold by
John the Baptist. ahead of all things. All things were made by Him and
all things were made for Him. And then He's the King of Providence. Not only is He before all things,
but by Him all things consist. And I had a professor years ago
who said, he used this word, by Him all things were congealed. That is, all things were made.
And he likened it to his wife making jello. And you mix it
up, you know, and then it congeals. And maybe you've decided to form
it into stars or whatever. but you're the one that made
sure it was in the design that you wanted. And the mold kept it that way.
Well, our Lord Jesus, he has created all things and he has
molded everything according to his good pleasure. And he holds
it all together. The furthest star, Nancy and
I were last night looked out the window and I said, look at
the full moon in the North Star. And of course, that North Star
looks mighty small compared to that moon. That's because it's
a whole lot closer to us. but the North Star and every
star in the heavens, stars that we will never see with these
eyes, galaxies that are beyond the view of any telescope that
man has got. Our Lord Jesus keeps those heavenly
bodies where they are, just as He designed them, They're right
where He put them and they'll stay right where He put them
unless He's pleased to move them. You see, by Him all things consist
in the heavens and on earth. All things fulfill His design. He's executing His will on this
earth. He is before all things in existence. and he's before all things in
dignity. He's preferable to all the angels
and to all men. He is God incarnate. He is the preeminent one. He
upholds all things, the scripture says, by the word of his power.
The heavens have their stability and their continuance from the
Lord Jesus Christ. The earth, it stays rotating and all the
intricacies that are necessary to keep us floating in the Milky
Way. He takes care of all that. I know there's some people, they're
biting their fingernails, and, oh, we're going to destroy the
earth. That's foolish. And if you feel that way, I pray
that God will give you faith to see Christ holds all things
together. And we're not going to destroy
anything. Only the Creator could create,
and He alone can destroy. And He's not going to destroy
the heaven and the earth. That is, he's not going to renovate
it till he takes us out of here. Oh, if you're gonna be concerned
about something, that's nothing to be concerned about there.
You worry, you worry, your worry is worthless. Actually, worry
is worthless about anything. Because by him, all things consist,
and that's you and everything in your little world too. And
then he says, and he's the head of the body of the church. Not
merely the head of the local church, but he's head of the
holy election of grace, the general assembly, and church of the firstborn
that Paul talks about in Hebrews chapter 12. He's the head of
those whose names were written down in his own book of life
called the Lamb's Book of Life. the church for which he gave
himself, the church which the Father chose and gave to him
as a covenant gift, he's the head of the church. He says in verse 18, not only
is he the head of the church, he's the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things, and the word things is italicized,
you can see that, which simply means that the translators put
that in to make it a more complete sentence and more complete thought. And I have no problem with that
because he has the preeminence over all things, over all things
physical, over all things spiritual, over all things eternal. In other
words, there's nothing over which He doesn't have the preeminence. And therefore, what He does cannot
be changed. And it says in verse 19, it pleased
the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. All fullness
of grace, we read that in John 1. You need grace? Well, all
fullness of grace dwells in Him. Saving grace, go to Christ. Keeping grace, go to Christ.
Grace in time of temptation, go to Christ. Grace in time of
trial, severe trouble, go to Christ. There's a fullness of
grace to be found in Him. Oh, that we would learn to tap
into His fullness because He's so full of grace and peace that
even when we tap into His power and His grace, it doesn't go
down any. There's no less there than it
was before. Of His fullness, John wrote,
have we received and grace for grace. Are you needy? Come to Christ. You say, I feel so empty. Well, He's full. He's full. I'm so down in the dumps. He's
full of joy. Maybe we'd have more joy if we
come to Him. Maybe we'd have less worry if
we look to Him. There's a fullness of delight
and love and grace and encouragement in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
receive of His fullness. Do we need righteousness? We
sure do. Come to Christ. There's a fullness
of righteousness in Him. Are you diseased with sin? There's
a fullness of healing in Him. He's a great physician. Do you
find yourself to be filthy in sin? I'm so dirty. I'm so dirty. Come to him, there's a fullness
of cleansing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says in verse 20,
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, he's the peacemaker. You want peace with God? Well,
I sure do. I do want peace with God. I run to Christ. In a world of
trouble, in a world that people are filled with anxiety and worry,
run to Christ. Take your troubles to the Lord.
What's that song, Take Your Burdens to the Lord? And I believe the
rest of it goes, and leave them there. That's our problem. We take them and then when we
leave, we take them back with us. I'll take them back home
with me. There's a fullness of help in Christ. The hymn writer said, Oh, what
peace we often forfeit. Oh, what pain. Oh, what needless
pain we bear. all because we do not carry.
Everything to the great reservoir, the great Savior, and in Him,
we find everything we need. And I know we don't realize that
nearly as full as we're going to, but we need to realize it
some, and we can have some peace in our hearts as we travel through
our earthly pilgrimage. Thank God for our preeminent
Savior, and we're thankful that He is the Rock of Ages. And that's
our last song tonight, 126.