And what a chapter in the Bible, chapter 2. What a book, Colossians. I am benefiting tremendously from this book. And I guess if I were to summarize everything that Brad just read to us in that chapter of Colossians, it says so much there. But a summary of it is the title of the message, Anything that displaces Christ nullifies faith. It makes faith of no value.

Anything that displaces Christ, and you saw there in that reading, whether you realized it or not, there's three things that we're tempted to do. The first one is philosophy. The Colossians were tempted by the intellects, the arguments of men, rather than the revealed truth of God. And he tells them, and this is built up in this opening of Colossians, that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in the Lord Jesus Christ. That makes sense, doesn't it? Because he's the one that was spoken of in chapter one, the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. by whom all things were created that are in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. Can you say more about anyone? He's before all things, by Him all things consist. He created all, He upholds all, and He's the head of the church, the head of the body, the church. He's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, even death itself. He's the firstborn from death, that in all things He might have preeminence. So it necessarily means that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Him.

And the second thing that we're tempted to do is to consider, as Brad was even praying, consider what we've done, consider what we've not done. consider what we've done to gain acceptance, or to consider what we've done to remove ourselves from acceptance and approval with God. Anytime we look within at ourselves and try to assess ourselves, we're looking in the wrong place, and we're going to find nothing but cause for despair, or for pride, self-ambition, and so on. So everything connected with our own tendency to trust ourselves and our works and our worth, all that is natural to us. We're tempted by it. And the apostle is building up the church here in Colossians, as he was faithful to do, because he's trying to First, hold forth Christ. Hold forth the work and the will of God in the Lord Jesus Christ to them. And then he exhorts them in chapter two not to depart from him. Anything. that would separate or suggest that something more than Christ, in addition to him, anything else but him, is to nullify the whole basis of faith. And so he's teaching us that in chapter two.

And then the last thing he mentions in chapter two is this tendency for us to be mystics. He says these men who want to speak about things they know nothing about. He calls it worshipping, voluntary humility, worshipping angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. That's a tendency we have too. I'm going to go out in the field, I'm going to get close to God, and then we think, look how close to God I am. That's mysticism. This attitude that I'm going to become closer to God by my meditative you know, asceticism, meaning removing myself from society and from ordinary people and becoming somehow untouchable because compared to others I'm really more spiritual. Spiritual pride is the root of all of this. is this grasping ambition that seeks to bring something to God in order for God to recognize me and to reward me, instead of realizing that in my emptiness and nothingness and my sinful wretchedness, the only hope I have is what God has done in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So I want to look back with you at chapter one. Because that's what the apostle is doing in chapter two. He's saying, based on these things, stand fast in the faith. As you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk ye in him. Where you started is how you walk, and that's how you finish, in Christ.

One of the truths of the gospel is that faith looks to Christ alone. Faith does not look at self, does not consider self, it does not look to any but Christ, it looks to Him alone. Remember Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. Not your will, not your works, not your worth, not your imaginations about who God is and all this stuff. No, what God thinks of Christ is your only hope. what God has done in him.

And so when we consider these things, we see this laid down firmly in this gospel, and it's reiterated over and over again so that faith in Christ, faith in him as the washing, the cleansing of my sins before God, as the one who presents me in his own righteousness, the one whose life is my life, The one whose presence in the presence of God is my presence there. The one who put me in relationship to God as his child and made me an heir of God. He's the one that we look to. And in looking to him, what we have is all that he is. The fullness, it pleased the Father, it says in verse 19, it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. All the fullness that God is and all the fullness that his people need, he's the mediator. He's the one in whom God has been pleased.

It became necessary, therefore, that everything for his people to God's glory would be found in Christ alone. And this is what this exhortation, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Faith at the beginning is the same faith at the end. When we enter glory, when we enter glory, we don't see a radical change because we receive what we have believed. We have the mind of Christ, the apostle says. That means that we think as God has revealed himself to be, and when we enter glory, we're simply going to be entering into the unveiled truth that we now hold fast to in our lives.

So in that sense, entering glory is not a discontinuance. It's an opening up, a fuller revelation of what we walked by on earth. And that's the way he exhorts us here. Do we look to Christ as our righteousness? Do we believe that He is our righteousness? Has God given us faith to lay hold on Him alone and to come therefore to God by His blood and come boldly into the presence of God and to transparently unmask ourselves? in our conscience before God, and to express in the presence of God our only hope that Christ is all to us. Has God convinced us this? Has that judgment, that end and final judgment, already occurred in our conscience, considering that judgment that occurred on the cross? That's what faith does. And faith says, according to God's word, that looking to Christ, I have all that Christ is before God. That's what faith does.

And so, therefore, when we enter glory, we're entering into the experience of that in its fullness and consummation. And the Holy Spirit is given to us now as the guarantee and the revealing of these things to us in our minds and our hearts so that we could walk in the truth of it day by day. And one of the truths of it is this defense that the apostle gives on the basis of the truth established in the gospel. No, no to philosophy, no to works, no to mysticism, no to these things that men seek after. They want to grapple with these things and present themselves to God, or they want to show their own labors, or whatever it is, their own spiritual worth. All of this stuff is just foolishness, and it's actually hostility, because Christ is all. And so that's what this is speaking about here in chapter two. We'll get into that more next time.

But I want to look at this with you in Colossians 1 and verse 12, because perhaps I didn't. feel as if we'd covered this well enough. But look at verse 12, Colossians 1, verse 12. He tells us that he wants us in verse 10, he wants, in nine, he says, he wants you to be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. So this is essential. The way we come to wisdom and spiritual understanding is by the gospel. It's not by another revelation. It's not by becoming law adherence. It's by coming to embracing Christ in all of his all-sufficiency as our sufficiency before God.

He says, so, verse 10, that you might walk worthy of the Lord. The only way to walk worthy of the Lord is by faith. Unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Fruitful because of Christ. Fruitful because of faith. Strengthened with all might. Not by your might, but with God's might. According to His glorious power. Unto all patience, enduring, and long-suffering. Suffering long. with joyfulness, notice, giving thanks.

And this is the theme in Colossians, in verse three, he says, we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here he says, giving thanks to the Father. And this is going on in chapter two, verse seven, he says, abounding therein with thanksgiving, So in chapter three, he speaks about this in verse 15, the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which you are called in one body and be ye thankful. And verse 17, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. So you can see there's a huge emphasis here on the life of faith results in something internal. What is it? Thanksgiving, thanksgiving to God.

How can you be thankful if you haven't arrived yet? You're going to be thinking, well, I've got to do all these things. I've got thrashing about and wrestling with these things in me instead of looking to Christ and finding rest and peace in him. So he says, giving thanks to the Father, which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. So the word meet here means God has qualified us And so my question today is, how does the Father qualify us? Because he says here, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us, or as it says here, who has made us meet. And so that's what that word meet means. It means to be made qualified.

You see, the qualifying work of the Father is not some abstract, work that we can't understand. He tells us what it is. It's a coordinated action by God. It's centered entirely in His Son. And so we need to look at this in this chapter, in this book here. He doesn't say that the Father found us qualified. Sometimes you're looking for a product and you wonder, does it meet the specs? You look at the documentation. Yeah, look, it does all these wonderful things. Yeah, but does it really do that? And someone says, yeah, it's certified. We measured it. We qualified it. That's not what he means here. He doesn't mean God found us to be qualified. It means he made us. He himself qualified us.

And so the apostle explains how by a chain of God's acts, a chain of divine acts, the works of God the Father. In verse 13, look at what he says. This is how he did it. He says, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his son. So there's two things here. God has rescued us. He delivered us from the power of darkness and he has relocated us. He didn't improve us, he relocated us. He put us where we belong. We belong somewhere else. We don't belong in the kingdom of darkness. Where do we belong? We belong in the reign, under the reign of the Son of His love, in the kingdom of Christ.

And so what we see here is that qualification occurs in the Son, not in us. This qualification is what we are in Christ, not what we are in ourselves. And so this is why in verses 15 through 20, which I read just a minute ago, he talks about the Lord Jesus Christ in such elevated terms. And I'm just gonna read this to you again in verse 15. He's the image of the invisible God. We can't know God or see God, Christ has made him known.

And how is the Lord Jesus Christ made known God to us? What do we know of God when we look at the Lord Jesus Christ? And this is a startling answer to that question, because this is not what we normally think. The way that God has made himself known is what he told Nicodemus. He says, no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down who descended from heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up.

How did God the Father glorify himself in the Son? He lifted him up on the cross. You see, the glory of God and the excellency of his nature, the majesty of his person is seen in the glory of the cross. And this is phenomenal. This means that the one who sits in glory is exalted by God as he is and has revealed himself in the work of his atonement for sin. In his self-sacrifice, giving himself as he told us to do, he says, love your enemies. The Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled that, didn't he? When we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. How could that happen? That's the glory of God. This is the revelation of His majesty in His uplifted glory on the cross, there giving Himself for those who were the most undeserving.

Now that's intended for us to just worship and honor and be thankful to our God and Savior for who he is and has revealed himself. And so he says this, verse 15, he's the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. God has set him in the covenant of his grace first and last. Christ, the firstborn, in God's purpose. For by him were all things created, and this is how this flows out. He's the creator, and he is given this to do. Created all things in heaven that are in earth, visible, invisible, whether they are thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. He rules over all. The one who died for his people is the ruler of the universe, the ruler of heaven and earth. Everything was created by him. Everything was created for him. There's nothing that He has done that doesn't serve His will. Everything that He would have done, He has accomplished by His Word, but in our salvation, He accomplished it by His blood. These things are meant to overwhelm us with a convincing persuasion that Christ is all, all in everything and all sufficient.

He's before all things, by Him all things consist. By His word, not only physical universe, but the spiritual universe, especially His people, we're upheld by His word. And He's the head of the body. This is the pinnacle. He's raising up Christ's glory and showing that He's all these things, the image of God, the creator, the sustainer of heaven and earth, the ruler over all things for the church.

Now, with that as the foundation, no wonder he says, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And as you have received Christ the Lord, so walk in him by faith. And so this is how the Father has qualified us. How did the Father qualify us? He rescued us from Satan and he relocated us in Christ. He put us where we belong according to God's eternal will. It pleased the Father, it became necessary. He therefore did this, the Father did this. He moved us into the kingdom of his dear Son.

And so in these words here where it says, in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. God was pleased that all the fullness would dwell in him and through him reconcile all things to himself. We can see that if all fullness dwells in Christ and we are in Christ, then qualification is not in us, it's in him. It's what God has done in his son. And this is saying we are fit because Christ is fit. We're qualified because Christ is qualified. And so that's the foundation here that God is laying in these words.

And secondly, we see this in verse 21 and 22. Notice this in chapter one, and you, You that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. This is the second part of this qualification. This verse is telling us how the Father has qualified us. How did he do it? By reconciliation. And how did that occur? Through the death of his son. What was the reason for it? What was the end goal? To present us to God. In what way? How does he present us to God? Trembling and full of sin and some good works? No, no. He tells us here. He says, You were alienated and enemies in your mind, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy, unblameable, unreprovable in his sight. God himself can't find a reason to reprove you. God finds no blame in you. He has made you holy. He has united you to the Lord Jesus Christ. And He's called the Holy One of God. How can you be united to Christ and be unholy? You can't be, because you're one with Him who is holy. And so you see this here. The Lord is telling us here, the way He did this was in Christ by the reconciling blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the death of His Son, with His goal to present us

So the Father, in qualifying us, is preparing us for this presentation. He's making us fit to stand in His presence. Holy, having no blame, having no fault. As it says in Jude, verse 24 of Jude. Let me read that to you. It's such a wonderful verse. And I hope you have these things. So you've run to these things in your own conscience many times so that they're becoming so familiar. He says in verse 24 of the book of Jude, now unto him, who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. God is able to do that, the Lord Jesus Christ. To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. Amen.

The church responds, yes, it's true. Let it be so, even as God has declared it. Lord, do your will in all of this.

And so this is how he does it, through the blood of his son, to present us to himself without fault, without blame, in Christ. and to his exceeding joy."

Can you imagine what the joy of God is like? He says also this, in his qualification of us, the Father has dealt with our guilt. He has dealt with our sins. He's removed our sins from us as far as the East and from the West, and he's dealt with our alienation.

He not only has removed our sins from us and forgiven us our sins, but there's nothing there to disqualify us, and therefore we're qualified. And he's taught this to us. He has brought this reconciliation to us. He's brought us near, as he says in Hebrews chapter 10, let us therefore draw near with the true heart in full assurance of faith.

Faith that sees what Christ has done and what God has done in His Son to qualify us, to make us fit to stand in His presence and be presented by the Lord Jesus Christ to Himself, spotless and without blame before Him in love.

So now we're reconciled. And reconciliation restores us, not just in innocence, but in belonging. And this is important. The alienation is removed because now we have a relationship of reconciliation. And what is that relationship? Children and heirs.

Notice how he says this in verse 12. He says, giving thanks to the Father which has made us fit or qualified us to be partakers of what? The inheritance of the saints in light. The only one who inherits is an heir, and that is the son. The children inherit because they're heirs.

And so reconciliation by the blood of Christ, which qualifies us to be presented in God's presence as holy and without fault, also makes us fit as his children to know our sonship and our heirship, that both are in Christ, that he is the firstborn among many brethren.

You see, the gospel comes to us. God gives us faith, and this faith recognizes with persuasion that God gives that because of what Christ has done, We have been brought near to God, not just as those who have our sins taken away, but as in relation to Him as His children. And so He deals with us as children.

So we can see here that there's this judicial aspect to it. Our sins are forgiven. All sins are canceled. And we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And there's this aspect of a covenant where we've been transferred from one kingdom to another and been made heirs and not servants.

And there's this aspect of our Inheritance as sons that we've been made children of God. God is our father and we belong in his presence, in his house, in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are there. We have been qualified as the children to share in the inheritance and only sons can share in the inheritance.

And how does God the Father do this for us? Well, he tells us here, he says in Colossians chapter two, where Brad was reading, buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who raised him from the dead.

You see, this is another emphasis here in the book of Colossians, is that our qualification is by our union with Christ. We're brought near, so near that we're one with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so God the Father has included us in Christ in all that he did, so that Christ's death is our death, and Christ's resurrection is our resurrection, and his life is our life. Christ is our life, and his place is our place. We are in him where he is. And we are as He is. Remember in 1 John 4, verse 17, as He is, so are we in this world.

Now, this is a present possession. This is our state before God, because God has done this. He has made us fit. He has qualified us. He has rendered us this way. And this qualification is not fragile. God Himself takes care to make sure this, that His qualification brings us all the way to glory. Philippians 1, verse 6 says, He began a good work in you, He will bring it to completion. He who has begun a good work in you shall perfect it unto the end.

And so if we were to summarize this, we could say that the Father has qualified us by rescuing us from darkness, by transferring us to the place we belong, which is under the rule of Christ in his kingdom, has forgiven us our sins through the death of his son, and has removed the alienation because he's made us his children, uniting us to Christ in his life and presenting us in Christ, already fit in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing is left to add. Nothing is left to earn.

And so we can see this here. But look at verse 23 of Colossians chapter one here. He says, if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you heard and which was preached to every creature under heaven. You see these words, if you continue in the faith, do strike some timidity and fear and doubting in our minds, don't they? But notice, Paul is not saying, he is not saying that your qualification by the Father is somehow provisional based on what you do, or that it's suspended and your inheritance is suspended until you fulfill your part. He's not saying that your reconciliation is reversible. He's not saying that, because that would contradict everything he said. He has qualified you.

Notice in verse 12, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet, has already qualified us in Christ. If these things were either provisional or suspended based on something that we needed to do or reversible, then it would contradict the fact that He has qualified us and that He has delivered us from the kingdom of darkness and has translated us and transferred us into the kingdom of His Son and has reconciled us. So, no. He does not dismantle what he already built up, does he, in this. He doesn't take away the ground and the foundation of our assurance in Christ by adding something that we do.

So what does the if mean then in this? Well, it means since this is the case, because it is true of you, That's what he's saying here. This is the way it's done. It's provided that you have this standing before God, therefore you believe, you continue in this faith. So the Lord is describing here to us the life that flows from our reconciliation, not what creates the reconciliation. You see, it's always from the standpoint, the gospel always begins and ends with an accomplished work and faith in Christ who accomplished it. So this continuing in the faith means stay where you are, where God has put you, in Christ, and know that you belong there because it was God's will, and that you're going to be presented in Christ at the end, even now as you look to Christ for all of your righteousness, even at the present. So He's describing to us what flows from this realization of our reconciliation. It's not that we go about trying to produce things that will reconcile us. We stand firm on the blood of Christ and the life of Christ that He, by His blood, reconciled us and His life is our life now. So Paul is saying not that we continue and then we're qualified and then God presents us. He's saying, no, you were already reconciled and therefore you continue and you're presented in what God has done when he reconciled you. The order matters.

Perseverance in faith doesn't secure our inheritance to us, it reveals. That inheritance has already taken root in us by the Spirit of God. God has given us the Spirit of His Son that we might know our adoption. So perseverance is not striving, it's staying, you see. It's staying. He doesn't say, achieve and advance and by your efforts, climb. He says, continue. Don't drift away from this. Stay here. Abide in Christ. Don't abandon the truth you once held, the hope of the gospel. If you do, then what he's saying is that you don't have Christ.

Perseverance is remaining where God has put you. By the gospel, he tells us where that is. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's remaining what God has done to qualify you. He's taken away your sins and established an everlasting righteousness. So the object of perseverance is faith, Christ, not our performance. It's not drifting away or letting slip what the gospel has told us we are in him. It's not our behavior, it's this confidence of faith in Christ and what God has done in him.

So to persevere then is to continue trusting Christ by the same gospel that saved you. That's what he's saying here. Do we find that burdensome? No, of course. No, of course not. We don't find it burdensome. We find it encouraging. It builds us up, doesn't it? It causes us to look again to Christ as He says in verse 6 of chapter 2, as you have received Christ the Lord, so walk ye in Him.

God never leaves perseverance in human hands. He says this in Colossians 3, verse 16. He says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. You see, you can't sing if you think you have something to yet accomplish. The work is finished. Your standing is secure. God has done it, he's gonna complete it.

The one who sits on the heaven's throne, who is the image of the invisible God, who rules over all things and created all things and everything was created for him is the head of the church and the fullness of God dwells in him according to what God sees is necessary for you. And so it's by God's power, you're kept by the power of God, 1 Peter 1 verse 5. So faith perseveres because God perseveres. We are saved because God saved us. We continue in faith because God preserves us in the faith. He keeps us in this by His Spirit, looking to Christ.

Now, this results in many things. One of the things it does is it changes the way that we come to God, the way that we come to Him in prayer. You know, we used to think, may I approach? But the gospel says through Christ we have access in one spirit to the Father, Ephesians 2 verse 18. Access is granted because access is given. God has given access. Christ has accomplished it by his blood and we, knowing this, come to God by him. So Colossians 1.12, God, the Father, has qualified us. It removes this silent anxiety. Am I accepted here? Do I belong here? The Father himself, by qualifying us, says, yes, this is where you belong. This is God's will from eternity. And he's provided for everything to make you fit in Christ the Lord. And so confidence is commanded because our qualification is real, it's true.

Hebrews 4 says in verse 16, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace. It's not emotional. It's not some kind of a, you know, I worked up this attitude of being able to enter my pride or my self-confidence, no. It's the obedience of faith to the revealed truth. You see, that's what coming to God is. It's that truth that is in Christ that access has already been provided and given to us and declared to us in the gospel. And we are to confidently know that we have this boldness to enter only and fully by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

To come to God timidly, as if we're still unqualified, is not humility. It's unbelief, isn't it? It's unbelief. When we come to God timidly, we're thinking that something in addition to Christ or something in myself is what's needed, but that's not it at all.

Prayer, based on the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, shifts our minds and thinkings away from self-justification to worship. because we have total dependence on Christ and Christ is our all-sufficient Savior, then we're completely confident that God has settled it once for all. We're made fit. Prayer doesn't rehearse our worthiness and wait to be worthy. We don't hope someday to be worthy. We find entire and perfect worthiness in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. And so prayer becomes honest, and prayer doesn't perform. Prayer doesn't try to make the words sound good. We just pour out our hearts. God says that groaning is prayer. And the Lord looks at the things that we consider insignificant, the silent enduring under the daily activities of life. while we look to Christ, knowing what he's done for us, walking by faith in him. And he says, that's his work. God perfecting in us the work he began. Nothing is at stake here in prayer. We trust the Lord. We come boldly because of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul doesn't ask the Lord in prayer to make us acceptable. He tells us, he asks us in prayer that God would enable us to live as accepted. He says in Colossians 1, chapter 1, verse 9, notice how he says it, he says, For this cause also, since the day we heard it, we do not cease to pray for you, to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Filled with the knowledge of his will, and God's will was to bring us to himself, qualifying us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And this steadies us in weakness, doesn't it? This qualification that God has done, it steadies us in our weakness. In fact, it's in our weakness that faith is most exercised.

The Spirit also helps our infirmities, our weaknesses. He intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, too deep for words. Prayer doesn't fail when our words fail because the qualification doesn't rest on the clarity of our prayers. but on the presence of the Spirit, because He's brought us into the presence of God. And prayer is not, prayer is not somehow separate from the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the thing about prayer. Prayer is praying with the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our intercessor. He pleads for us. He makes our prayers acceptable to God. So Christ himself is the one who prays. He prays for us and he brings us through. And so this also, this qualification in Christ that the Father has made removes this fear of rejection in prayers that seem to be unanswered, doesn't it?

When prayer feels unanswered, we somehow think in our conscience, perhaps it's because I'm not saved. or unworthy or unaccepted. But our hearing is not contingent on the outcome, but on the relationship, the relationship we have with God in Christ. And that's the relationship of children. And he hears his children.

It's not presumption to pray with confidence in Christ. It's faith, isn't it? It's faith. Presumption says, I need an outcome. Presumption claims entitlement. Presumption tries to get around this heart of submission and humility. But faith rests on Christ and trusts the Father and yields itself as one who's been laid open and has no hope unless God saves him. And that's called submitting to his will.

Remember the Lord Jesus Christ? If possible, Lord, deliver me from this, but not my will, but yours be done. One of the things that surprises me is that the Lord Jesus Christ, when he was on this earth, so subjected himself to the Father in the place of his people that it became necessary for him that God save him. He so subjected himself to the Father as a man and with our sins that if God didn't deliver him, he would be lost. And that's called the vulnerability of knowing that you're in the hands and at the mercy of God. And that's what we are.

In everything, we submit to God's will as the Lord Jesus Christ. Not my will, yours be done. And this kind of prayer flows from a perfect sonship, a perfect sonship. God has made it so. And it reshapes the way we think about God at the end of our lives, doesn't it? It does.

We don't think of, you know, this is one of the things that we have difficulty with. And I know as we get older, it becomes more and more important to us. Will I finish what I need to get done? Will there be things that I should have done that I didn't do? And I'll be regretful of those things. And so much that I didn't get done with relation, comparison, you know, to what I should have done. The things I didn't give myself to in faithful attendance, good stewardship. And we regret these things, don't we?

What about my children? I didn't tell them what I should have told them. Or I didn't persuade them as I should have persuaded them. I just didn't speak as I should have spoken. I didn't act the way I should have acted. But God directs us to the Lord Jesus Christ and to His work. And He teaches us that the work of our lives is His work.

And even though we think of all these things that we left undone and look on with regret, in glory, the Lord's gonna show us that through all those things, even though it's true, yet it was all covered. It was all brought by God to serve as the way in which he would point us to Christ and cause us to rest on Christ and see that it was his work alone and that we were kept by the power of God.

And that God actually fulfilled his will through all the ups and downs and sideways. so that we come in the presence of God, exactly as he designed us to be, in the Lord Jesus Christ, without fault, without blame, having no regrets, because it was all brought to pass according to the will of God, as open transparency.

Lord, bring me into your presence. Remember what it says, the last words of scripture. It says, Even so, come, Lord Jesus. We're ready. God made us ready. We don't make ourselves ready. The last words of scripture is not some kind of a defense or an explanation or regret or presenting our accomplishments. It's just this, amen. Lord, come. It's true. I agree. Everything's done by Christ, and I rest in Him. Just as we began looking to Christ, we're going to finish this race. Everything that was true of us in the beginning is true of us at the end, because God looks to His Son and finds everything in Him.

people of God, they're waiting for the Lord to perfect them and to bring them into the conformance of the Lord Jesus Christ. We always think, I should just do a little bit more, but scripture continually points us to the fact that we enter in to be met by the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, if I'm going to go and prepare a place for you, if it were not so, I would have told you. But I am going now to prepare a place for you.

God the Father has qualified us in the Lord Jesus Christ. He did it by His Son. He did it by blood. He did it by His Spirit, by bringing us into an awareness through the Gospel that we stand in relationship to God as children of God. God did this according to His will. He paid the price. We don't pay it. We don't fulfill the conditions. We look to Christ who did. This is a covenant God made with His Son, and He made that covenant in His blood, not ours.

And the Apostle Paul is telling the Colossians, look, I'm laboring for you, I'm suffering for you, but I count it joy. I want you to know this because if you realize that this message, think of this as a parent. There's one thing I want more than anything for my kids is to know the Lord Jesus Christ in this saving grace through the gospel. I can't make it happen. The Apostle Paul tells them, I'm laboring for you. I'm suffering for you. I count it joy. I want you to know this. Because if you know the message comes to you at the cost of my life laid down, then you'll see something about the preciousness and the importance of this.

And so we do this, don't we, as parents? Oh, that my kids would hear the gospel. They would understand that my life was lived for one objective, that they would come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Before they were born, I thought, if my children could be born and be the Lord's children, Lord, have mercy upon them. And when they were littled in their beds, in their cribs, Lord, save them. And when they're old and they seem, as the prodigal son, they've taken everything they've been taught and they seem to have wasted it on riotous living, we say, Lord, bring them back. Find joy in heaven over the sheep that are lost. Bring them back, Lord. The Lord can do it. And so he does. He does. He qualifies us. He brings us to where we belong. He made it so. And he's going to finish it.

What a life we live now, a life of faith. When we enter glory, it won't be such a discontinuity as we expect, will it? Oh yes, this world will be gone and our sins will be gone. But there we will stand in the full light of the light we received in our hearts by the grace of God through the gospel. God convincing us through his word of what's true and we receiving it. Not performing it, not making it happen, just receiving it by grace through faith in Christ. This is amazing, isn't it? The righteousness we hold to now in Christ is a righteousness in which will be seen then in the Lord Jesus Christ.

As you received Him, so walk. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your work. Thank you for your will, for your love, for your faithfulness, your power to perform your will, the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ who can bring us to himself. Lord, thank you. Thank you. for your goodness, that you would do something so unbelievably wonderful to reach a sinner like we are, and to lift us up to be with you in glory as children, dressed in the beauty of your son, and given an inheritance that you give to your son. Give us this faith even now, this life which produces this faith in us, the Lord Jesus Christ himself living in us, the hope of glory, in his name we pray, amen.