Let's turn in our Bibles to the
book of Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. The subject this morning, I believe,
is if not at least one of the most important. things in a true
believer's life, I would really say it is the most important
thing in a true believer's life. And that's this, the preeminence
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The preeminence. Christ has the
preeminence in all things. And the reason I say that this
is the most important thing in a believer's life is this. As long as Christ has preeminence
before God and within our hearts, we're safe. We're secure. And at any point that a person
who claims to be a Christian or claims to believe in Christ,
at any point where they fail to give Christ the preeminence,
and that's it. They're not safe. They're not
secure. They're lost. Their hope is gone. I wrote an
article in the bulletin about this very subject on the back
of your bulletin about the preeminence of Christ. And you've heard this
too, you know, people will look at religious people, religious
nobility among men, and they'll call that person his eminence
or your eminence. Well, that's blasphemy. That's
blasphemy. Nobody has the eminence or preeminence
but Christ. How can I prove that? Well, if
you refer back to the passage that Brother Jim read in Revelation
5, you know the reason I had him read that is because that's
what that chapter's about, the preeminence of Christ. Worthy
is the Lamb, that was slain. But it also says there in verse
three, listen to this, and no man in heaven nor in earth, neither
under this earth, was able to open the book, neither to look
thereon. Now that's the book of God's
sovereign purpose, to glorify himself in the salvation of his
people through the lamb that was slain. And there is not a
man on this earth or in heaven or below this earth who's worthy
to open that book or even to look at it. So who are you going to say your
eminence to? Who are you going to say his
eminence? And all the 24 elders, that's the church, and the four
beasts, that's the ministers, servants of God. They said worthy
is the lamb that was slain. Glory and honor belong to him
and to him alone. Don't give it to anybody else.
Don't give it to me, don't give it to anybody. I said happy Mother's
Day. I thank God for our mothers,
especially our godly mothers who raised us under the truth.
But if you had a godly mother that raised you under the truth,
here's what she taught you. Worthy is the lamb. Isn't that
right? We don't give our mamas or our
daddies the preeminence. Only Christ. Now what is the
preeminence of Christ? It's His excellency. It's His
superiority. Over all things. Because of two
things. Because of who He is. And because
of what He accomplished to save His people from their sins. That's
His preeminence. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. And he is God manifest in the
flesh. That's who Christ is. Who am
I? Who are you in that article? On the back of the bulletin,
I made the statement to conclude John the Baptist had the right
idea about it, didn't he? He said, behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin. Don't look to me, behold him.
Don't look at me, look at Christ. He said, I'm not even worthy
to tie his shoes or untie him. He said this, he said, I am not
the Messiah. I'm not your savior. Christ is. He said, now I can baptize you
in the water. I can take you back here and
baptize you in the water. And that's what I'm commissioned
to do to any believer who wants to confess Christ publicly. But
there's one coming, John said, who has the power to baptize
you with the spirit. That means to give you new life. to give you a new heart. That's
something I can't do. That's something no man or woman
can do. Mama can't even do that. She can't give you a new heart,
new life, new spirit. She can't give you faith to believe.
She can't make you honor Christ. John the Baptist, he said this,
he said, I must decrease, Christ must increase. And I always love
that passage in John chapter three where it says his disciples,
John's disciples, they heard John speak and they followed
Jesus. That's the goal of every gospel
preacher, that you're hearing me speak. But I don't want you
to follow, I want you to follow Christ for salvation. He is preeminent because of who
he is, God. Manifest in the flesh. God with
us. God, man. The Word made flesh. That's special. That's unique.
Nobody else can say that about themselves. There's no other
eminence or preeminence but Christ. Because of who He is. He's preeminent
because of His death as the surety and substitute of His people,
where He purged all of our sins and brought forth the very righteousness
of God, His righteousness, which has been imputed to all who believe
in Him and ensures our new birth and our final glory. It's all about Him. I have no
other righteousness but Him. And again, we know that as long
as Christ has the preeminence in our hearts, we're safe and
secure, I'm telling you. You say, but I don't feel safe
and secure. Thank God it doesn't matter how you feel. You might
feel good some days, feel bad other days, but Christ, Jesus
Christ, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But again now, understand, at
that point, where Christ is not given the preeminence, then sinners
are doomed and without hope. I want to show you that. You
see, as long as my whole salvation is conditioned on Christ and
Him alone, and in light of the fact that He alone fulfilled
all those conditions, whereupon He was raised from the dead and
ascended unto the Father, and is ever living to make intercession
for His people, in light of that fact, I'm safe. I'm secure. I'm righteous. God will not and cannot impute
sin to me. He can't charge me. Listen, God's
wrath can never fall upon any sinner to whom he does not impute
sin. And if he doesn't impute sin
to you, he imputes righteousness. But at any point where we believe
foolishly that salvation is conditioned on ourselves, then we fail. Look
at Colossians 1 verse 15. The first point that he makes
here is that Christ has the preeminence in both creation and in providence. That means he created it and
he controls it. He made it, he governs it. That's what that means. I heard
a preacher say on TV one time, he said, many Christians have
bought into a big lie I listen, my ears perked up. I want to
hear what he said. They believe God's in control.
And I thought, I thought you idiot. God just controlled what
you just said. There is an unbeliever. What an idiot. That may sound
harsh, but that's, that's right. Christ has the preeminence in
creation in Providence. Look at verse 15. He's talking
about Christ. Who is the image of the invisible
God. He's the image of the invisible
God. You know what that means? That means He's the exact likeness.
Now back over in Genesis it says man was created in the image
of God. Meaning with those attributes
of God that can be communicated to creatures. You know God, His
attributes. He has some attributes that can
be transferred or communicated to creatures. such as his love,
his knowledge, his wisdom, rational thought, though not to a degree
of the perfection that God has it. But there are certain attributes
of God that cannot be communicated. For example, his eternality. God's eternal. You'll never be
eternal. It can never be said of us that
we have no beginning and no end. Now, we have eternal life, from
God, but we had a beginning. God created us. God Himself is
not created. His immutability, He never changes. What a thought. We change all
the time, every day, every second. God is infinite. God is omnipotent,
all-powerful. We're not. He can't communicate
that to us. So we were created in the image
of God, in Adam, but we fell into sin and death and lost that
image. And by nature, as we're ruined
by the fall, we're born dead in trespasses and sins. We have
no spiritual life. We're children of the devil by
nature, the scripture says. But Christ, it says here, He
is the image of the invisible God. That means that Christ himself
is the image of the invisible God, he's the exact likeness,
that's what that means. Christ is the exact likeness
of God in the nature of his deity. He's equal with the Father, equal
with the Spirit in every attribute of deity, and he's the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. That's what the scripture says.
Jesus Christ is God. He is God manifest in human flesh
without sin. Now his humanity had a beginning,
but that's his humanity. But in himself, he's the exact
image of God. Now God, the invisible God, God
cannot be seen. God is spirit. So how are we
going to know God? How are we going to see God?
In Christ, who is the image of God, who is the fullness of the
Godhead bodily. It says in verse 15 that He's
the firstborn of every creature. That means this. In His nature
of deity, He was not created, for He is God. His humanity was
created for Him by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin. It's
said in Hebrews 10, 5, A body hast thou, God prepared me. But
this speaks of His preeminence over all creation because of
this. The world was created for the
glory of God revealed in this person. And his finished work. That's why it was created. Why
was this world even created? Why was man ever put here on
this world? You know why it was? It was for
him. It was for Christ. That God would reveal his glory
in this person. What a preeminence. It's all
about him. It wasn't all about Adam. It was all about Christ. It was the eternal mind and purpose
of God to glorify himself in the salvation of his chosen people,
his elect, by his grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. It was
all to the praise of the glory of his grace. It was salvation
given to his people in Christ before the world began. The reason
that this world was created, the reason that this world exists,
is because of Christ. The glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. In verse 16 it says, for by him
were all things created that are in heaven and that are in
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, and all things were created by
him and for him. Now that's, who can that be said
of? But Christ himself. By him, in beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. And you know, you may have studied
this in Genesis 1-1, the word for God, the name for God there
is a plural. Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. All of this
for Him, by Him. Listen to this, John 1-3, all
things were made by Him, that's the word, Christ. And without
Him was not anything made that was made. John 1.10, he was in
the world and the world was made by him, and the world knew him
not. The world didn't even know its creator. Ephesians 3 and
verse 9, listen to this, and to make all men see what is the
fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world
hath been hidden God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. He's the creator. You see, to
deny the existence of God as creator is to deny Christ. And
to deny Christ is actually to be an atheist, a practical atheist. It's to deny the Creator. Hebrews
1 and verse 2, God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he
made the worlds. And did you notice there in Colossians
1.16, it says whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities
or powers, Now think about that in the history of mankind. You
know what man by nature says, well, now the good thrones, the
good powers, the good principalities, well, he created those, but now
the bad ones, the devil created those. No, sir. He created all
things for himself, for his purpose. We don't actually understand
it all, do we? You know why we don't understand
it all? Because we're not God. Somebody said, well, when I get
to heaven, I'll understand it all. I doubt it very seriously. I really do. I don't think we're
capable of understanding it all. We'll know more than we know
now. Bible says we'll see him and know him as he sees and knows
us. We'll see him more perfectly.
Now we look through a glass darkly. But to know it all, that means
omniscience. Only God in Christ is omniscient. But did you notice there, it
was created by him, but not only by him, it was created for him. That's for his glory. Why are we here? My goodness,
we don't have to worry and... go through the time of angst
over that issue. We don't have to climb the Himalayan
mountain and speak to the old father in a white beard, the
man of wisdom. We don't need to see the high
llama for that answer. We don't need to go crazy because
we don't know. It's for Him. It's for Christ.
It's all for Him. For His glory. That's what that
means. For His preeminence. He's the reason. He's not the
reason for the season. He's the reason for everything.
Isn't that right? And then look on, verse 17. He
is before all things, and by Him all things consist. Now what'd
I say? He's not only preeminent in creation, He's preeminent
in providence. He's in control. This is not
a world in chaos. It looks like it to us. You've
heard the illustration of the tapestry. If you look at the
bottom of the tapestry, it looks like a jumbled, colorful mess. But when you look at the top
of it, you see how those colors come together to make a beautiful
pattern. And that's the way it is. The reason this fallen, cursed,
sinful world goes on until God's appointed time is God's purpose
to do what? to glorify His Son in the salvation
of His people by His grace based upon His righteousness alone.
That's what it's all about. That's the reason God works all
things for good to them that love God who are called according
to His purpose. That's the reason that God works
all things after the counsel of His own will. Nothing's taking
him by surprise. Nothing's out of his control.
He's preeminent. Well, look at verse 18. Here's
the second thing. Here's Christ's preeminence in salvation. Not
only do we derive strong comfort from the fact that he created
us and he's in control of it, but boy, we draw comfort from
the fact that he's preeminent in salvation. And here's what
I'm saying, if everything that Paul had written here before
about Christ's preeminence in creation and providence is true,
and it is, then it stands to reason that in the salvation
of sinners, Christ alone has the preeminence. Look at it,
verse 18. He is the head of the body, the
church. The head of the body. the church. Oftentimes in scripture, the church is represented as
a body, like the human body. You see that, I believe, in 1
Corinthians chapter 12, it mentions that. How the body has different
parts, the human body has different parts that come together to operate,
to make it so that we can live a normal life. Well, my friend,
Christ is the head. He's the brain trust. Not only
is he the foundation of the church and the heart of the church,
he's the head of the church. He thinks for us in essence because
we have the mind of Christ. And let me give you these aspects
of salvation. Think about this. Where Christ
has the preeminence, First of all, Christ has the preeminence
in our election before the foundation of the world, which includes
all blessedness. He has the preeminence in our
election. The Bible says in Ephesians 1-3 that we're blessed, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And then he goes on to show us
how it was before the foundation of the world that we're chosen
in Him, we're accepted in Him. You see, election is not just
God choosing a people. Election is God choosing a people
in Christ, giving His people, the people of His choice, to
Christ, and putting all of the conditions and responsibilities
and requirements and stipulations of salvation upon Christ, making
Him their surety, imputing their sins to Him, in light of what
he would in the future come and accomplish on the cross by redeeming
them from their sins and bringing forth righteousness which is
imputed to them. That's what election's all about.
Now the moment somebody says this, you know how people are,
they don't like the doctrine of election. They don't think
it's fair. God says it is. And they say,
well, God looked down through the telescope of time and He
foresaw what you would do and made His choice based on that.
Well, if that's the case, Christ doesn't have the preeminence
there, you do. You understand that? Christ has the preeminence in
our election. The election of God's grace,
our blessedness. Here's another one. Christ has
the preeminence in our justification before God. How is a sinner justified
before God? It's not based upon their works.
It's not based upon their decisions. It's not based upon their believing
or their repenting or their persevering. It's based upon the righteousness
of Christ, the righteousness of God freely imputed to them.
Nothing else. Nothing added to Him. Nothing
taken away from Him. He has the preeminence. He is
the Lord, my righteousness. You see what I'm saying? And
I have no righteousness but him. As old Bunyan said, my righteousness
resides in heaven. It's mine because God gave it
to me by a divine act of imputation, but Christ is the one who worked
it out. He has the preeminence in our
justification. He has the preeminence in our
adoption. Look over at Galatians chapter 4. This is something
we don't talk a lot about adoption, but God adopted His people into
His family. You know what adoption is. It's
a legal act where parents choose a child and then bring them into
their family. Look at verse 4 of Galatians 4. But when the fullness
of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, that's his deity,
made of a woman, that's his humanity, made under the law, that's all
salvation conditioned upon his obedience unto death, to redeem
them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption
of sons. There's no adoption apart from
Christ. He has the preeminence in our
adoption. And he goes on to verse six, says, because you are sons,
not in order to become sons, but because you are sons, God
has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying,
I have a father. Christ has the preeminence in
our adoption. Another thing, Christ has the
preeminence in our redemption. How are we redeemed? What is
the redemption price? What do we give to contribute
to that price? Nothing. We're redeemed with
the precious blood of Christ. It's not with silver and gold.
It's not with works. It's not with decisions. It's
not with baptismal waters. It's not with church membership.
We're redeemed totally, 100%, completely, exclusively by the
blood of the Lamb of God. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. Nothing else is worthy. He has
the preeminence in our redemption. Christ has the preeminence. and
our regeneration and calling by the new birth. We just read it there in Galatians
chapter 4, because you are sons, Christ sends forth His Spirit
into your hearts to enable us to say, Abba Father. That's that
special relationship with God that a justified person has,
a sinner saved by grace has by God's grace and mercy through
Christ. That life-giving spirit comes forth from Christ to give
life out of His righteousness, Romans 8, 10. This body is dead
because of sin. You know what that really means?
It means I'm dying. It means I don't look like I'm saved. It doesn't look like I have eternal
life. It doesn't look like that. Wrinkles
and gray hair and all that stuff. Weak legs. Hurt back. Clogged arteries. Good night. So it doesn't look that way,
but I do. You know why? Because I don't have any preeminence
in this. It's not conditioned on me, it's
all Christ. So that spirit, this body is
dead because of sin, but the spirit, the Holy Spirit is life
because of righteousness. And where does that come from?
It comes from Christ. Sin demands death, righteousness
demands life. Here's another one. Christ has
the preeminence in our preservation. The only reason that we're saved
and continue in that state is because Christ has the preeminence.
I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. He
is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto the Father by
Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for us. What
is the ground of His intercessory work that preserves His people
unto glory? John said it in 1 John 2. He
is the propitiation for our sins. He's the sin-bearing sacrifice
that brought satisfaction to God's justice. His name is the
Lord our righteousness, Jesus Christ the righteous. That's
the ground of it. He has the preeminence even in
my preservation. You know people who say you can
be saved and then lose that salvation? Christ doesn't have the preeminence
there. They do. They do. Christ has the preeminence in
our perseverance. We persevere because He preserves
it. It's all by His grace. And what
do we do in perseverance? Let me just make it short and
sweet. We cling to Christ and hold on for dear life. We don't
cling to ourselves, we don't cling to our mamas and daddies,
we don't cling to our brothers and sisters. We stay with them,
we fellowship with them, we stay with them, but we cling to Christ
for salvation. We abide in Him, continue in
Him, follow Him, rest in Him. He has the preeminence in our
perseverance. And then He certainly has the
preeminence in our glorification. Isn't that right? When we leave this life, we go
to be with Him in spirit, awaiting that time that He will return
to earth, and He will gather us all up together, and what
will happen? We'll be made like Him, perfectly
conformed to His image in every way. We'll be free from sin,
the presence of it, the contamination of it, The influence of it, the
thought of it. Now, that's something that I
really can never explain, because I don't know what that'd be like. His preeminence and our salvation
is all based upon one thing, and that's the righteousness
that he established. Look back at Colossians 1, let me close
with this. He is the head of the body, the
church, Verse 18, who is the beginning, the firstborn from
the dead, that's his resurrection, which was based upon the fact
that he put away our sins and established righteousness which
God has imputed to his people. It's the merits of his obedience
unto death as our surety and substitute. He is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have
the preeminence. He has it verse 19 for it pleased
the father that in him should all fullness dwell I'm gonna
pick up with that verse next time but Let me just conclude
it why is it this way? Why did God plan and purpose
and work it all this way? Well here it is verse 19 it pleased
the father that in Christ should all fullness dwell You know by nature People want
a God who will act according to their pleasure. But that's
not God's way, is it? It's all according to his goodwill
and his pleasure. And you know what? Aren't you
glad that it's that way? I mean, how in the world? Knowing
what we know as believers, How in the world could we exist with
any calm or any peace if it wasn't God's pleasure and God's goodwill,
God's sovereign work, and all bound up in the preeminence of
Christ? Knowing what we know, we couldn't, could we? We'd be,
as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, we'd be of all people most
miserable.