Now, if you would, let's turn
in our Bibles to the book of 3 John. The third epistle of
John. And I'm going to continue through
this short letter, this short book of the Bible on the subject
of together in truth and love. That's a good description of
what the church, the local church where the truth is preached should
be. There should be a togetherness in truth and in love, and that's
what this book is about. Now, I'll admit to you at the
outset here, my intention was to finish this short book today,
but I've got so much scripture that I want us to look at in
light of the truth that's brought out here, and I want you to be
ready to use your Bibles this morning. I know it's early, but
you can do it. I've got every confidence in you. to turn to
these scriptures and read them because I don't want to belabor
the points that are in this short epistle, but I don't want to
short sell them. And I have to, you know, when I study for a
message, I have to keep reminding myself that my goal is not to
just get through a book of the Bible. My goal is to worship
the Lord in the preaching of Christ and in the study of his
word. And if we get through the book
and we don't really understand the truth that God has for us
there, what good have we done? I mean, we can walk around and
say, well, I've studied that book, but, you know, that's just
like the student in school who reads the material and he can't
comprehend it, and we don't want to do that. So let's take some
time here and look at this. Now, the Apostle John had well
established in all three of his epistles here, 1 John, 2 John,
and 3 John. that love, godly love, and truth,
gospel truth, Bible truth, go together. And we need to constantly
remind ourselves of that, because we have a tendency, sometimes
if we don't state it, but in our attitude, to pit one against
the other. I heard a preacher say one time
on a tape, it was a real old tape, and he said, he talked
about the Pharisees. And he said their doctrine was,
they had their doctrine straight as a gun barrel, but they were
just as empty, implying that they had right doctrine, but
what they didn't have was love. Well, let me tell you something.
The Pharisees did not have right doctrine. Christ told the disciples
to beware of their doctrine. He called it leaven. You know,
leaven, the stuff you put, the yeast you put in bread that spreads
all through the lump of dough. Well, that leaven in the scripture
is a type of sin and wickedness. It takes a little leaven to leaven
the whole lump. And when he said, beware of leaven,
he had to teach his disciples in the parables that he wasn't
talking about a loaf of bread. He was talking about the doctrine
of the scribes and the Pharisees. Their doctrine was evil. Their
doctrine was wicked. Their doctrine was false. They
preached salvation by the works of man. That's what they preached.
That was their doctrine. Now, that's not straight doctrine.
That's crooked. That's as crooked as it can be.
So we have to understand these things as the Scripture teaches
them. Now, sometimes people say, well, I would rather see a sermon
than hear a sermon. And what they're talking about
there is they'd rather see a godly life than to hear one get up
and talk about godliness but not practice it. And I understand
that, but now let me tell you something. Salvation is by what,
as the Holy Spirit put it in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, by the
foolishness of preaching. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Now, certainly he wasn't
calling the preaching of the gospel foolishness, but that's
the way the world sees it. That's the point that Paul's
making in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Whenever the gospel of God's
grace is preached, the natural man cannot receive the things
of the Spirit of God. He can't know them. They're foolishness
to him. It's foolishness to tell me that
I cannot in some way meet some condition and work my way to
some degree into God's favor. It's got to count for something.
That's the way the natural man thinks. But you see, the gospel
is the power of God unto salvation. It's the power of God unto salvation,
for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. So don't get
caught up in trying to pit truth and love against each other,
because in the Bible they're not. They go together. You can't,
listen, a profession of the truth without love is dead faith. That's
what the Scripture says. And without obedience, dead faith.
But any love or perceived love that is not founded upon truth
is really poison, it's deadly. It'd be like the parent who teaches
her children or his children things that would harm them because
they don't want to offend them. That kind of thing. It'd be like,
I mentioned last week, like the doctor who holds back the news
that you need to hear about the disease that you have because
he does not want to make you sad or get you upset. That's
not the kind of love you need. You need love that is honest.
And that's the way God is. He's honest with His people.
Let God be true, and every man a liar, the Scripture says. God,
listen, God saves sinners, but He saves them in the truth. And
it's His love that provided Christ to come and die for our sins
and to establish our righteousness before God. Well, John's well
established that. And the greatest expression of
love that we can give to anyone is to tell them the truth. Speak
the truth in love. Don't beat them over the head
with it. Don't just argue with them. Don't just debate. Don't
just try to win an argument. You're not trying to win an argument.
You're trying to win a person. But tell the truth and don't
hold back. The message of the cross, as
I said, is foolishness to the perishing. It's hated by those
who love darkness. That's what John wrote in John
chapter 3, in verse 19, when the Lord said, this is the condemnation
that life has come into the world. And men love darkness rather
than life. They hate the truth because their
deeds are evil. You see, the preaching of the
gospel, the preaching of God's grace in Christ, not only does
it reveal the right way, But it also exposes all wrong ways
as being wrong. It shows the straight truth of
how God saves a sinner by His grace through the obedience and
death of Christ and Him alone. It tells me that God will save
me, not based upon what I do for Him, but based solely upon
what He has done for me in His Son. But it also shows me that
my natural thoughts of work salvation, of trying to earn my way into
God's favor, are wicked and evil in God's sight. That my deeds,
as far as attaining or maintaining salvation, will earn me nothing
in the kingdom of God. In fact, they put me in the negative
column. They don't even put me on ground
zero. They put me in the negative. And that's an offensive message.
That's the offense of the cross. That's why Christ, when he stood
and preached the Sermon on the Mount, now this is the Lord himself,
who is love incarnate. And he stood there in the Sermon
on the Mount, speaking to the multitude, and he made this statement
now. And he called out a denomination. He said, Accept your righteousness. Exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and the Pharisees. You shall in no wise enter into
the kingdom of heaven." Now, could you imagine what shot through
the minds of those people when he said that? Think about it. I mean, these guys were the most
respected religious group of the day. These were the leaders.
These were the ones they all looked up to. The scribes, they
were the students and the studiers of the law. They wrote the commentaries. They did the word studies, the
scribes did. They had the scriptures, the
general population didn't have. If you want to know anything,
go to the scribes. The Pharisees, they were the religious zealots.
They went above and beyond the call of duty in their obedience,
in their activity, in their worship, in their prayers. And everybody
who was anybody knew that if anybody saved these guys' war,
and Christ stood there and in love told them, except your righteousness
exceed theirs, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. That's
a shocker, isn't it? He said, seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness. And all these other things that
you're so worried about and pursuing after will be added unto you.
So that's the love of Christ. The Lord stood and told a man
like Nicodemus. He said, Nicodemus, I know you're
a master in Israel. I know you've studied the Scriptures.
You're a member of the Sanhedrin, which is the highest court in
the Jewish land. But look, Nicodemus, except you
be born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Me? Nicodemus? Do you know who I
am? And this is real appropriate
to what he's teaching here in the first time. Do you know who
I am? Yeah, I know who you are. You know who I am. Remember when
he went to the next, in the next chapter, when he went to the
woman at the well, that adulterous woman, that Samaritan. She had,
she had so many strikes against her, the religious world wouldn't
even name her name probably. We don't even know her name.
And he told her, he said, you don't even know what you worship.
Now, I know your lifestyle. You had four or five husbands,
and the man you're living with now is not your husband. Look
at you. But he said if you knew who it
was who asked you for a drink of water, you'd ask him, and
he'd give you living water. What do we need? Who are we? Listen, if we're saved, we're
sinners saved by the grace of God. That's it. And if you're
not saved, you're a sinner in need of the grace of God. You
may be a religious one, or you may be an immoral whatever, but
whatever you are, you're in need of the grace of God. And that's
the issue. So truth and love do not deny
each other. They're not enemies. They're
friends. And this, I tell you, this message is hated by the
world because it will not exalt men. This message of grace will
not exalt and brag on men. As one old preacher said, if
you want to preach the gospel, just stand before people and
brag on Christ. But you see, that doesn't fit
with the natural man because he likes to be bragged on. He
wants to hear his name. He wants to hear you talk about
it. I know because I'm there, you see. I know this is a battle
we all fight. This is an issue, see. But here's
the issue today. Christ must have the preeminence.
Not man. Not any man for any reason anywhere
at any time. Christ must have the preeminence. And this gospel exalts. Now listen
to me. This gospel exalts the crucified,
resurrected, ascended Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we do. And
people who are not interested in that do not want to hear it.
But they should. They should. That's their only
hope. He's their only hope. Now, however, we know any profession
of this truth with love to brethren, without love to brethren, rather,
is false. And this is a problem here. Look
at 3 John, verse 9. Now, here's what we're going
to talk about this morning. I'm going to talk about a man
who loved preeminence. A man who loved preeminence.
His name is Diotrephes. He says in verse 9, I wrote unto
the church. John wrote unto the church. He
wrote a letter. Some say, well, he's talking
about the letter of 1 John there. He may be. I don't know. But
he said, I wrote unto the church. But there's a man here, Diotrephes,
who loveth, that's present tense. That means this is a continual
thing with this guy. This is not just a slip up one
time. This is not just a bad day. This
is his lifestyle. This is how he's known. Just
like I told a fellow one time, he said, well, we all got egos.
And he said, we all, you know, we have to kind of stroke our
egos. And I said, yeah, but filling yours is like trying to fill
the Grand Canyon with a spoon. You know, you can't do it. There's
no end to it. Now, yeah, we all have egos.
We all have egos. Well, Diocrates had one too.
But he said he loves literally, presently, continually love to
have the preeminence. And that word love up there,
it's, you know, there's different words for love in the Bible,
in the Greek. The divine love is the agape love. That's what
John was speaking of, the love of the brethren. That's the love
he spoke of in 1 John 4, 10, when he said, herein is love.
Not that we loved him, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation, the satisfaction for our sins. But the word love
here is the word phileo. You've heard that term. You know
the city of Philadelphia. That's where you get brotherly
love is what that means. And it's the kind of love that
a person would have for their country or for their loyalties. And what it's saying here is
this man, Diocrates, has such a love for himself that he continually
lives a lifestyle and attitude that he has to be first. That's what he's saying. He's
got to have the preeminence among them. Now, that means this. That means he's not just content
with having the preeminence as he looks in a mirror. Everybody's
got that. Everybody sees what they want
to see. He's got to have it among the church members. He's got
to have it in the assembly. He's got to have it to those
people that John, he's got to have it among you. He's got to
be first. And then it says, he receiveth
us not. He won't receive John. Won't
receive him as a brother or as an authority, as an apostle,
the word of God. And he won't receive brethren.
He goes on, he says in verse 10, wherefore, for this reason,
if I come, now John says, if I come down there, yes. It's
kind of like talking to a mother or father, you know, who's hollering
at her children and says, now, don't make me come down there.
And John says, well, now, if I come, here's what I'm going
to do. I'm going to remember his deeds.
Now, what that word remember there means is I'm going to call
to mind his deeds. I'm not going to forget this.
This is serious. This is not something you can
just sweep under the rug. This is a real problem that has
a real potential of danger here. This is like a poison in the
church that you cannot, you know, a lot of times in churches we
have a tendency to say, well, you know, I know they got a problem,
but let's just, let's just sweep it under the rug. Let's just
not talk about it. Well, John says, I can't do that. I'm going
to call it to mind. Because this is a real problem.
He won't receive me. He won't receive brethren. He
won't, he won't recognize the need of love and fellowship here.
And John, what he's talking about here, he says, I send these fellows
down who are going out in the name, that is, they're going
out to preach the gospel of Christ, these missionaries, these evangelists,
these preachers, who I know love the Lord, who preach the truth,
whose goal is to glorify Christ in the salvation of sinners.
And this man, Diotrephes, won't receive them. He won't support
them. He won't pray for them. Now, if they weren't preaching
the gospel, it would be another matter. You're not to receive
those who don't preach the gospel. You're not to receive those and
support those and pray for those who have a poisonous, deadly
message. If they come preaching salvation
by works, don't receive them. Don't be a partaker of their
evil deeds. Remember back in 2 John, if they
come, bring not this doctrine. Those who come to you, if they
bring not this doctrine, receive them not into your house. Don't
have religious fellowship with them. But you see, Diotrephes'
problem here is not their doctrine. His problem is his own desire
for preeminence. He sees these fellas, and John
is a threat to his getting the attention and the power and the
honor and the prestige that he thinks he deserves. That's who
Diotrephes is. So he says in verse 10, Wherefore
if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth. You know,
perverted attitudes always lead to perverted deeds. That's the
way of things. And so his deeds, what were the
deeds here? He wouldn't receive the brethren.
And he says, which he does. He says, prating against us with
hateful, malicious words. That word prating, and what he's
talking about, he's bringing empty accusations. In other words,
Diocletes was not just content to not receive brethren, but
he had to attack them. And the picture here in the language
is like a pot seething and boiling, bubbling over, and the bubbles
come up. And his malicious words are like bubbles. You know what
bubbles are, don't you? They're empty. And so it's empty
accusation. So it's obvious here that diatrophies
did not do what the Scriptures command. If you've got an accusation
against a brother, what does the Scripture tell you to do?
If you've got a matter against him, here's step one. You go to him personally and
say, I've got a problem. And here it is. And let's try
to work it out. That's number one. Now, if you
don't do that, you're just ignoring, you're like diatrophies, you're
just ignoring the Word of God. I don't care who you are. You
go to him personally. You say, let's keep it between
us first. And let's deal with this and
let's see if we can work it out and get it over with and go on
in the ministry. and in the worship of God. Now,
if that doesn't work, here's the second step. Take two or
three witnesses. If you've got two witnesses or
three witnesses, take them and go to them. Now, you know what
a witness is in the Scripture? Most people think a witness is
just, if I can find somebody that'll agree with me. No. A witness is an eyewitness. It's
like a trial. It's like a court trial. Here's
two fellas. They know it's true. They've
seen it. And we're coming to you as a group now. And then
if that doesn't work, third step. You know what he says? Take it
before the church. Say, church, here's the problem.
Here's the witnesses. And this man won't repent, or
this woman won't repent. So what are we going to do? And
then you go to the fourth step. And if that means exclusion,
that means exclusion. But those are the steps. Well,
Diotrephes wasn't going to do that. He just preached. He's
a praetor. And he does it with malicious
words, with empty accusations. And it's sort of like the equivalent
of gossip. Now, my friend, don't talk about
how much you love a person that you gossip about. Just stop that. Me too. If we spread gossip,
that shows one thing. We don't love them. So don't
go out here, I see people bragging about their love and they just
spread gossip. You know, those empty bubbles. And that's just
not going to work. And this is the problem with
this man, Diotrephes. Now, look at it. He says, and
he's not content therewith. Now, he's not content with just
bringing the accusations and not receiving brethren himself.
Neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth
them that would, and casteth them out of the church. In other
words, Diotrephes is not just content doing this himself, he's
got to get everybody else on the bandwagon with him. He's
got to go get other people. He's not going to receive John,
and he's not going to receive these brethren. He's not going
to let you do it either. And if you do, he's going to
cast you out of the church. Now, this sort of indicates that
this is a man who has some power and authority in the church.
Maybe he was an elder or whatever. I don't know. But he had an influence. People listened to him. Because
you're not going to just throw out somebody out of the church,
you know, without people listening to you, getting agreement with
you. So he was affecting the whole church. That's the way
this kind of leaven is, you see. Remember? A little leaven, leaveneth
the whole lot. That's all it takes. That kind
of attitude. That kind of spirit. What was diatrophies? Now, remember
I told you last week that a lot of preachers, they'll talk about
diatrophies, and it's just anybody who disagrees with them. But
that's not Diotrephes. Diotrephes was a divider of brethren. That's it. He was a divider of
brethren. Remember that. And the reason
he divided brethren was not a noble cause. For there is no noble
cause in dividing brethren. That's it. He divided them because
he loved the preeminent. And John says in verse 11, look
here, he says, Beloved, follow not that which is evil. Don't
follow diatrophies. Don't follow that attitude, that
method. It's evil, he says. Just like
those who come preaching another gospel, if you support them and
have religious fellowship with them, he says you're a fellowshiper,
a sharer, a partaker of their evil deeds. Well, don't be a
partaker of diatrophies evil deeds either. Don't share in
his evil. Don't follow that evil. But follow
that which is good. What is that which is good? Follow
the truth. Follow the doctrine of Christ.
Follow that which gives Christ the preeminence. Follow love
to the brethren. Follow peace, endeavoring to
keep the unity and bond of peace in the fellowship of the Spirit
in the gospel. And he says, He that doeth good
is of God. That person is born of God. He's inspired by God.
He's filled with the Spirit. That's Christ in you. Don't talk
about Christ in you and then go out and gospel on everybody.
Don't talk about Christ in you and then follow diatrophies and
be a divider of the brethren. That doesn't fit, you see. That
won't get it. That's empty talk. That's bubbles.
They'll burst. Eventually, some last longer
than others, some are bigger than others, but they're all
going to burst. Some is just a foam. Some flies through the
air and gets attention for a while, but they won't last. But don't
do that, see. Follow that which is good. But
he that doeth evil hath not seen God. Now, I hear preachers arguing
over whether Diocletes was a believer, a saved person. Well, verse 11
indicates that he's not. He that doeth evil, that is,
That Diotrephes now hath not seen God. He's not seen the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He's not seen the grace of God
in salvation, saving a sinner like me who doesn't deserve it
and cannot earn it. Because that kind of grace is
not just talk. It's not bubbles. It's a dynamic.
It's a power. It's a reality. It's a spirit. It grabs hold of a person in
their mind and their affections and will. And though they're
still sinners, and though they still struggle, and though they
still battle and war, it's one that motivates them to love the
truth and to love the brethren. That's what he's talking about.
So you see, here's a very serious problem. You notice here, John
mentioned this fellow by name. That's not a very popular way
of doing things these days, is it? Don't call names. Turn to
Romans chapter 16 with me. You see, this was such a serious
problem. Dividing the church. It's a bad
witness. It's a bad testimony. It's really
a blight on the kingdom of God. This division. This kind of attitude,
this kind of empty talk, accusation, because either one man or a group
of men or whoever wants to be first, wants to be recognized,
wants to have the preeminence. And really, they come in the
guise of nobility, but they don't care what happens to the sheep.
That's the problem. You know, when Christ talked
to Peter about the ministry and the other disciples, he said,
Peter, do you love me? And Peter said, yeah, Lord, I
love you. And he said, feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my
sheep. He never said, now, Peter, well,
if you love me, it's OK to divide them. It's OK to scatter them.
It's OK to gossip on them. Just so they can name it St.
Peter's Baptist Church. No, no, no, no, no. Feed my sheep,
he said. Now that's what he's talking
about. Look at Romans chapter 16 and verse 17. Look at verse
16. He says, Salute one another with
a holy kiss. That was an expression back in
that culture of love and fellowship in the faith. Just like back
over in Psalm 2, I believe it is, it says, Kiss the son lest
he be angry. That means lay hold of Christ.
And love Him, rest in Christ, rest in His blood for all the
forgiveness of all our sins. Rest in His righteousness alone
for my whole salvation. Believe in Him, kiss the Son,
embrace Him, love Him. And then he says, greet each
other with a holy kiss. He said the churches of Christ,
that was the local bodies of believers, salute you. He says
in verse 17, now listen to this, he says, now I beseech you brethren,
mark them which cause divisions and offenses. Now that word mark
there doesn't mean go around and put a mark on them, like
paint or a marks a lot. It means, the word mark there
means to name them. In other words, if this is going
on in the church, you deal with it. Don't you ignore it, and
you name those who are doing it. Why? Well, if there's a wolf
among the sheep, it's good for the sheep to recognize the wolf.
Because you know what's going to happen if they don't? Especially
if that wolf is in sheep's clothing, they're going to get eaten. Because
that's what the wolf is there for, to devour them. Remember
Paul said to the Galatians, if you bite and devour one another,
they weren't literally cannibals. He was talking about how they
were acting toward each other in division and inattitude. And
so he says in verse 17, now I beseech you, that means I beg you, brethren,
mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the
doctrine which you have learned. Now that's contrary to the gospel.
Contrary to the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of grace, but it's
also contrary to the doctrine of love, the doctrine of obedience,
the doctrine of fellowship. And he says, and avoid them.
He says, for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ,
but their own belly. That's a way of saying they serve
their own appetites, like diatrophies. You see, he wants to have the
preeminence. That's his appetite. He's not
hungry for the word. He's hungry for the ego. He's
hungry for the recognition. He's hungry for the power. He's
hungry for the following. You see that? And we don't want
to do that, you see. He says, and by good words and
fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. Those who he deceives
are called simpletons. That's what it is. They're not
established. They're tossed to and fro. They're
taken up in these things. It's not unloving or hateful
to mark those who cause division. It's love for Christ and love
for the church. And I'm going to tell you something.
I guarantee you, unless the Lord changed the heart of Diotrephes,
I know this man, because I know human nature, looked upon John's
letter here as being probably one of the most hateful things
that ever came through the line there. But you know what, John,
in doing this was showing Diotrephes himself a great expression of
love. Diotrephes, you need to stop.
You need to repent. You need to come to Christ. That's
what you need. You don't need to persist. We're
not enemies to those we tell the truth. This man loves the
preeminence. That's his problem, his pride.
That's all it is, his pride. And it's self-righteousness.
I know what's good for everybody. I know better than everybody.
My way is the best way. That's self-righteousness. He
wanted power, fame, honor from men his own way. He would not
receive John or the preachers sent out from John as he saw
them as a threat to his getting to preeminence. And obviously
this is so contrary to true Christianity, to true grace and humility and
love in the ministry of Christ. Turn to Colossians chapter 1.
Let me ask you this question, and you know the answer to it
already. Now, in all things, who is to
have the preeminence? Diocretes? No. The pastor, the
preacher, the elder? No. Who is to have the preeminence
in all things? Christ is to have the preeminence. and Him alone. Do you know you
cannot have the preeminence along with somebody else? That word preeminence, it means
to be first. There can only be one first.
There can't be two. You can't share preeminence. Well, only Christ deserves the
preeminence. Only Christ has earned the preeminence. And only Christ must have the
preeminence. Isn't that right? Not any man. The crucified Christ has the
preeminence. The resurrected Christ has the
preeminence. The ascended Christ has the preeminence. Look at verse 12 of Colossians
1. Paul writes, "...giving thanks unto the Father which hath made
us meet." He's made us fit. To be partakers, sharers of the
inheritance of the saints in life. We are fellowshippers with
the inheritance of the saints in life. What is a saint? He's
a sanctified one. He's a sinner saved by the grace
of God. Made so, made fit by the grace
of God in Christ. I am what I am by the grace of
God. We are what we are by the grace
of God. We don't have anything spiritually
and eternally. by way of goodness, by way of
blessedness, that was not freely given to every one of us in Christ
and by virtue of His obedience unto death, what He accomplished
at Calvary. There's not one of us who deserves
more than the other. Did you know that? I know people
talking about, well, I'm working hard because I want to have a
bigger mansion than you. You can work as hard as you want,
but your mansion... Our reward is Christ. He has
the preeminence. We're not going to be walking
down the streets of heaven or on the new earth and looking
up there and saying, man, that fellow must have really worked
hard. Look at that big house. That's crazy. That's not scriptural. Salvation is by grace. We don't
deserve it and we don't earn it. So who among us, based on
that, who among us can have the preeminence? Nobody but Christ. You see? My righteousness is
His righteousness because He gave me His righteousness. And
if you're saved, He's your righteousness. Now, who has the preeminence
in that? Christ does. I'm saved and justified. I'm entitled to the whole inheritance
of God's glory and grace based upon the shed blood and the righteousness
of Christ that's been imputed or freely charged in my account.
And if you're saved, that's your salvation, too. Now, how could
you or me have the preeminence there? We couldn't. It's not
our work for him, it's his work for us. He has the preeminence,
you see. And so he says in verse 13, "...who
hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated
us into the kingdom of his dear Son." Who made the difference
between saved and lost? If you're saved, who made the
difference? Was it you? Now, if it was you, you can have
the preeminence. But it wasn't you. Christ. There was a thief on the right
who railed on Him. There was a thief on the left
who railed on Him. And then all of a sudden, the
thief on the right began to praise Him. And to admit of his sin
and his depravity, I deserve, we deserve what we're here for.
We deserve what we're getting, he said. But this man on the
middle cross, he had done nothing amiss. He didn't deserve it.
Even that thief, who wasn't a great theologian, knew that Christ
was not made a sinner on the cross. Isn't that interesting? And then he looked at him and
he said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. He
knew his whole salvation was dependent upon Christ and him
crucified. And he knew he was going to be
risen. Remember me when you come into your kingdom. Now, who has
the preeminence? Who made the difference between
the thief on the right and the thief on the left? Christ did. And what he's saying here is
that if you've been translated out of the power of darkness
and into the kingdom of his dear son, you didn't have anything
to do with it. That's not what translation is.
It didn't say you got up and walked out of the kingdom of
darkness and into the kingdom. You've been translated, transported. Somebody went and got you and
picked you up and took you out of the power of darkness and
brought you into the kingdom of His dear Son. Now, who has
the preeminence? You? No, the one who got you
and picked you up and brought you out of darkness and brought
you into the kingdom of His dear Son. You see that? And then he says in verse 14,
"...in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness
of sins." Who has the preeminence in redemption? Well, it's through
His blood. Not yours. You say, Preacher,
I've done a lot of suffering. Well, you may have. And you may
have some to come. But redemption is not by your
suffering. I've heard people say at funerals,
I've heard this literally. Well, I know he or she's in heaven
because they suffered here on earth. My friend, you're giving
them too much preeminence. And I know people suffering.
Listen, I sorrow for them. And I'm sad for him. But it's not our suffering, no
matter how hard it is, that's going to get us into heaven.
If we don't have that kind of preeminence, only Christ does.
It's His suffering that will get His people into heaven. And
He has the preeminence. And there's not a degree of suffering
that I can go through in this life that can even compare to
the suffering that our Savior went through when our sins were
charged to Him. And he died on that cross, a
man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, suffering, suffering,
but it's his. And the forgiveness of sins is
by his blood. I heard a preacher say on TV
one time, he said, he said, the forgiveness of sins comes at
the cost of your repentance. And I thought then, oh no, the
cost is higher than your repentance, the cost of the forgiveness of
sins, my friend, is the blood of the crucified Son of God. God doesn't forgive you because
you repent. You repent because God forgives
you by the blood of His Son. You see, the religious world's
got this thing backwards. You can do all the penance in
the world. You can do all the confession. Shouldn't we confess
our sins? Yes, we should. But not in order
to be forgiven. We don't have that kind of preeminence.
We confess our sins because we already are forgiven by the blood
of Christ who has the preeminence. You see the difference there?
That's important now. He goes on, he says, in verse
15, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. That refers to his resurrection.
He has the preeminence in resurrection. Do you know nobody was resurrected
until he was resurrected? You say, well, what about Lazarus?
Lazarus was raised from the dead, but he died again. This resurrection
is resurrection unto life. This speaks of Christ as the
representative and substitute of his people. After having put
away our sins and established righteousness because of our
justification, he came forth out of that grave never to die
again. That's resurrection. He has the preeminence. Verse
16, for 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 power, and all things were created by him
and for him. Now, is that preeminence or not? He's the preeminence in creation
as the first cause, the prime mover of creation, and as the
goal of creation. And look at verse 17, and he
is before all things. That means he has the preeminence.
Doesn't mean that he just came first. It means he is first.
And by him all things consist. Everything is held together because
of him. And he's the head of the body,
the church. Not diatrophies now. Not the
pastor. The church is not a memorial
to a man, is it? It's a memorial to him who is
the head of the body, the church. Who is the beginning. This church
exists because of Christ and Him crucified. The firstborn
from the dead, again His resurrection, that in all He might have what? The preeminence. Not diatrophies,
not me, not you, not any man, but Christ. Who's to have the
preeminence? Christ. Let's talk about Him.
Let's look to Him. Let's rest in Him. Let's keep
our eyes upon him who has the preeminence.