Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to continue preaching in John chapter
one. I started this last week on the
subject of Christ, the eternal word. And today we're going to
look at Christ, the creator God. Christ, the creator God. And
I'll go back, let's read the first few verses of John chapter
one. I'm not gonna go back over everything
I said last week. I urge you to get a copy of that
message or listen to it, download it on our website and listen
to it. But it says, in the beginning
was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. Now that's speaking of the person
of Christ as the Son of God, co-equal with the Father and
the Spirit in every attribute of deity. And it's speaking of
His office as the Son of God, God revealing Himself in the
Trinity of His person, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Not Father,
the big God, and Son, the lesser God, and Holy Spirit, the even
lesser God. No, they're co-equal in every
attribute of deity, but they each have a specific office.
The Father representing the sovereignty of the Godhead, the Son as the
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, God in
human flesh, we talked about that. And then the spirit who
is the plier of all the great blessings and graces of salvation
that Christ earned for his people by his obedience unto death on
the cross. Now in verse, and it says, the
same was in the beginning with God. How can he be God and be
with God? Well, that's the mind boggling
issue of the Trinity. And I mentioned that last week.
Don't deny the Trinity because you cannot fully understand it
in our puny minds. And I made this statement. Whenever
we come across scriptures that seem to be a total misunderstanding
on our part. That's what I'm trying to say.
Or even those that seem to be unfair to us, the Bible, look
at what God says. Believe what God says. Trust
in the Lord and lean not to your own understanding. That's how
you read the Bible, if you're gonna understand it. The Son
of God hath come and given us an understanding, 1 John 5 says.
Well here in verse three, now look at verse three. All things
were made by him. Now this is talking about Christ,
the eternal word, the second person of the Trinity. And without
him was not anything made that was made. Christ, the creator
God. Well, somebody might say, well,
didn't the father create us? Didn't the spirit have a work
in creation? The spirit of the Lord moved
upon the face of the waters. God said, let there be all of
them. Well, all three persons of the Trinity. Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit were active in the creation of this world. And
whenever you read passages back in the book of Genesis, and I'm
not gonna go over all of this, because we don't have time, but
in detail that is, but you look at Genesis one, in verse one,
it says, in the beginning, which will literally be In beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth, the heaven and the earth. And the term God there is the
creator God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and it's a plural.
And it's not talking about three different gods. I mentioned that
last week. The Trinity does not teach that
we believe in three different gods. The Trinity teaches us
that we believe in one God in three persons. Now, again, I
mentioned this, how there are some denominations that deny
that Jesus is God. And they call themselves Christian,
but they're not Christian at all. Christ proclaimed himself
as God. He's God manifest in the flesh.
There's others who deny the Trinity. It's called the Jesus-only movement. But they don't understand the
scriptures. And so what it's showing us back
here in John 1, 3, that the word of God, The eternal word who
was with God and who was God and always will be, always has
been, always will be, that's what that means. He was active
in the creation of the world. Now let me show you that over
in the book of Colossians chapter one. And this is speaking of
the glory of Jesus Christ and who he is. We need to understand
again, I emphasize this probably every time I preach, salvation
of sinners is wrapped up and conditioned on the glory of His
person, the glory of Christ's person, who He is. God manifest
in the flesh. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. God, His name is Jesus. He shall
save His people from their sins. His name is Emmanuel. He's being
interpreted as God with us. All of that, the great I am,
it's wrapped up in who He is, in the glory of His person, and
what He accomplished on the cross when He died for the sins of
His people. And that's important. You know, people say, well, I
believe Christ died on the cross to save His people. Well, what
did he accomplish when he died? Did he actually save them? Or
did he make them saveable? Did he actually procure and ensure
the eternal salvation and final glory of all for whom he died?
Or did he just make salvation a possibility if man would cooperate? They're not the same now. The
gospel says that he actually saved. His people from their
sins. Not just a possibility. Not just
some kind of a blanket pardon that goes on everybody if they'll
accept it. Because the Bible teaches that we're sinful people,
spiritually dead and depraved, and we'll not accept it unless
God intervenes in His sovereign will and makes us willing in
the day of His power. But look at Colossians 1. He's
talking about giving thanks unto the Father. This is verse 12.
Colossians 1 and verse 12. He speaks of believers giving
thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet or fit to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life. We're
made fit to share in an inheritance that all saints have. And what
is a saint? That's a sanctified person. And
who are the sanctified persons? God's elect. justified in Christ,
that is forgiven of all our sins based upon His blood, declared
righteous in God's sight, redeemed by His blood, declared righteous
in God's sight by Christ's righteousness imputed to us, and then born
again and called out by the Spirit in the preaching of the gospel
and brought to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works,
And those are the ones who have been made fit to share in the
inheritance of the saints in light. Now John 1 speaks of Christ
being the light. And that's who He is. He's the
light of the world. There's no light of salvation
except in Christ. There's light in the world. There's
the light of creation. There's the light of conscience.
But by nature, what do we do with those natural lights? The
light of creation, the light of conscience? We pervert them.
You can read about that in Romans 1, 18 and on, in Romans 2. That's what he says, that when
we had the light, what do we do with it? We darkened it. Man,
a creature of darkness and not light. And John 3 19 and 20 tells
us when the light comes, that shows the only way to God, it
exposes our deeds as being evil. And that's the deeds that we
try to make ourselves righteous. That we try to make ourselves
right with God. So we've been made, those who
believe have been made fit. Now who made us fit? We didn't
make ourselves fit. We didn't make ourselves meat
to be a sharer, to share in this inheritance. God by His grace
through the blood and righteousness of Christ made me fit. And my
only fitness is Jesus Christ crucified and raised from the
dead, seated at the right hand of the Father ever living to
make intercession for me, pleading the merits of His blood and righteousness. And that's my only fitness. And
so he says in verse 13 of Colossians 1, who have delivered us from
the power of darkness, you see there, that's our natural state,
fallen in Adam, spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, depraved
and in darkness, and have translated us into the kingdom of his dear
son. Now, some translations say the
kingdom of the son of his love, and that's okay. How are we translated
in that sense? When we're born again by the
Spirit, the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ
comes forth within our hearts and our minds. God revealing
Himself, the gospel being made the power of God unto salvation
by the power of the Spirit, To everyone that believed, the Jew
first, the Greek also, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith, knowledge, light revealed. To faith, knowledge,
light received. I was blind, now I see. That's what he's talking about.
And as it is written, the just shall live by faith. They live
by that light of the knowledge of the glory of God. And that's
the same power that it took to create the world. It's amazing,
isn't it? And so he says in verse 14 of
Colossians, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins. The forgiveness of sins is based
upon the blood of Christ. Many people believe that God
forgives sins on the basis of our repentance. It's not true. God forgives sins on the basis
of the blood of Christ. And once that light comes to
our minds and our hearts and our conscience, then God gives
us the gift of repentance in sorrow. And so he says in verse
15, he's talking about the forgiveness of sins and redemption through
Christ's blood, who is the image of the invisible God. Now think
about that. The image of the invisible God,
that means he is God. God has no image like a picture
or a statue. Christ is the image of God. If
you want to know God, you've got to come through Christ. Remember
he told Philip, he said, if you've seen me, you've seen the father.
I and the father are one, he said. No man cometh unto the
father, but by me. because he's the truth and the
life. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. He said in John 17, I believe
it's verse three, he says, this is life eternal, that they might
know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast
sent. In Matthew 11, right before he
said, come unto me all ye that are heavy laden, he said, it
is the Father who reveals the Son, and it's the Son who reveals
the Father. And so he's the image of the
invisible God, Colossians 115, the firstborn of every creature. Now, he wasn't born first into
the world in his humanity. I mentioned last week, we don't
know when he was born. I know it wasn't December 25th,
but if people wanna think about his birth on that day, that's
okay with me, but understand who he is. But he wasn't the
first one born, Cain was. Adam was created, Eve was created
out of Adam, and Cain was the first human being that was born. So what does firstborn of every
creature mean? Here's what it means. Back in
the Old Testament, there was the Law of the Firstborn. And
the Law of the Firstborn gave the firstborn son, under the
Old Covenant, the preeminence in the family. Here you had the
father, and the father's firstborn son was to take over leadership
of the family and governance of the family when the father
died. And what this means in Christ
here, Him being active in creation, He's the firstborn in creation. It means that He has the preeminence. And that's why we do not want
to exalt men above everyone. Preachers, popes, all of that. A preacher who preaches the gospel
is a messenger, a signpost of Christ, who is the God, who's
God of gods. He's the authority. He has the
preeminence, not the preacher. The preacher is just an old sinner
saved by grace, who's been gifted with the spiritual gift of communication. to point sinners to Christ, to
study the scriptures and interpret them in light of Christ. And
so don't exalt men. The Catholic church is so bad
about this, but other churches too. Don't get involved in that. He has the preeminence. He's
the firstborn of every creature. Now why? 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,
principalities or powers, all things were created by Him. Listen to this, all things were
created for Him. Not only was He active in creation,
and as our text says in John 1, 3, All things were made by
Him and without Him was not anything made that was made, but all things
were made for Him. Now, what that tells us, and
I know, you know, people understand this, that God is eternal and
God is immutable. He never changes His mind, never
learns. He knows all, He's omniscient.
But we're so restricted to time, and God acts in time. There was
a particular day that he created this world, and created in six
days, and people argue about that. I don't wanna argue about
that. There was a bishop named Bishop Usher who took a calendar
and tried to trace it back to give the date of the creation.
And to me, that was silly. Don't try to do that. We don't
know. That's God's business. But there
was a date and time that he said, let there be light. And there was light. So God acts
in time, but you can't restrict God to time. He's the eternal,
immutable God. And so When we say that all things
were created by Him, there was a time He didn't. But all things
were created for Him. Even before this world was created,
God had purposed in His eternal unchangeable mind to save a people
from their sins by sending His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into
the world to become incarnate, made flesh, to walk this earth
in a particular span of time, to go to the cross, and he obeyed
the law perfectly, sinlessly perfect Christ, and he went to
the cross, having the sins of his people charged to him, he
suffered, he bled, he died, he was buried, he arose again the
third day, and he ascended up unto glory. And now he reigns
and rules and governs over all things, for the glory of His
Father and the salvation of His people. It's all for Him that
He might have the preeminence, and that's what Colossians 1
tells us. Now look at verse 17 of Colossians 1. And He is before
all things, and by Him all things consist. He's before all things. That's His eternality. And by
Him all things consist. That's His governance. That's
His providence. This old sinful world, you know,
we talk about how bad this world is. We talk about how sinful
it is and how worse it's getting in our eyes. Since the fall of
Adam, this world has been sin-cursed on a downhill slide. Man has
made some improvements technologically, scientifically, Medically, all
of those things are true. Mechanically, we have conveniences
now that we didn't have back in the New Testament, early New
Testament days. Those are improvements, but man
himself in his natural spiritual death and depravity has made
no progress at all. Now that's the case. Modern man,
with all of our knowledge and all of our explorations and all
of our improvements, is no closer to God than the first people
who were made. And that shows us the spiritual
death and fall that we took place in Adam and our depravity, that
by works there can be no salvation. By works there can be no righteousness. Just because we can ride in a
car or fly in a plane or even if we could cure cancer, we cannot
cure sin. There's only one cure for sin
and that's by the God-man who has the preeminence, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He shall save his people from
their sins. And the reason that this world
goes on, now somebody says, I'm surprised that God hadn't struck
this world down. Well, listen to me, if you don't
know Christ, you'll be struck down with it. But the reason
this world consists is because Christ has a people yet to be
brought into the kingdom. And when that last sheep is brought
into the kingdom, it'll be sometime around there that this world
will stop and it'll be destroyed. But he is before all things and
by him all things consist. Now look at verse 18 of Colossians
1. And he is the head of the body, the church. His preeminence
is first in him being the creator God, Christ, the creator God,
along with the Father and the Spirit, one God in three persons,
And his preeminence is seen in the church, his body. He says
in verse, Paul writes in verse 18, who is the beginning, the
firstborn from the dead. That's his resurrection. That
in all things, he might have the preeminence. My friend, anyone
who goes to any place that they call a church, if they're not
preaching the glorious person and the finished work of Christ.
And if he doesn't have the preeminence in all things, that's a false
church. It's not the church that is his
body. Christ has the preeminence in this sense. Christ is the
foundation of the church, built upon the foundation of the glory
of his person and the power of his finished work. When he asked
Peter and the disciples, who do men say that I am? And they
brought back those answers. And he said, whom do you say
that I am? Peter said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living
God. And he said, blessed art thou
Simon Bar-Jonah, flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to you,
but my father, which is in heaven. And then he said, and you, Peter,
are a little rock, but upon this rock, this big rock, not Peter,
but Christ himself, I will build my church. It's built upon the
foundation of Jesus Christ and the glory of His person and the
power of His finished work, His blood, His righteousness. That's
what the church is built upon. That's the foundation. That's
the solid rock. On Christ the solid rock I stand. It's not Peter, not the Pope,
not the preacher, not the denomination. It's Christ. who is the solid
rock. All other ground is sinking sand.
Christ is the builder of the church. Every brick in that building,
every stone, and who is that stone? All the elect of God who
were given to Christ before the foundation of the world, whom
God adopted into His family and justified by the righteousness
that Christ would come in time and work out on the cross, all
whom God gave to Him and conditioned their salvation on Him, made
their sins charged to Him, all whom He came and redeemed on
the cross. He died for His sheep, John 10
tells us. That's every brick and every
stone in this building. of the building of the church,
and all who are born again and called unto the truth of Christ,
unto Christ, by the preaching of the gospel. And all who are
kept by the power of God under glory. That's the church. And he has the preeminence. And
then verse 19 says, for it pleased the Father that in him should
all fullness dwell. All the fullness of the Father,
the Son, and the Spirit dwells in the person of Christ as God
manifests in the flesh. And what that means is that the
only way we can know the glory of the Father, the glory of the
Son, the glory of the Spirit, is through Christ, God, manifest
in the flesh, the Word made flesh. Verse 20 says in Colossians 1,
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 heaven or in earth or things in heaven. And
verse 21, and you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body
of his flesh That is His sinless humanity, suffering on the cross
to death, through death, to present you holy and unblameable, that's
sanctified, and that's justified, unblameable, and unreprovable
in His sight. And then He says, if you continue
in the faith, grounded and settled. That's not a conditional if,
that's an evidential if. gives evidence of a child of
God, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which
you've heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under
heaven, whereby Paul had made a ministry." Now, all of this
began in eternity past. The Word was God, the Word was
with God. And it began in time, as far
as we're concerned, in the creation of this world, because Christ
is the creator God. And He who is our Creator, talking
about believers, is our Savior. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today, and may the Lord be with you.