I love this psalm, this song that we just sang. But the first verse says, beneath the cross of Jesus, I feign would take my stand. That's not a word I use very often, feign would take my stand. So it means content for lack of anything else. That's it, isn't it? I'm content with the cross if I have nothing else. Content with Christ. Don't you want that? What a glory that is. I want to ask you to turn in your Bibles for the sermon today to the book of Colossians again. Colossians chapter one.

I really appreciate what Art said to me after the service last week. You don't realize sometimes little things you say, how it encourages me. But he said something to the effect that, you know, if you preach the same thing next week, I would really like it. Because it was encouraging.

When I was a little kid, I used to play in the dirt with things that either were cars and trucks or things that I made pretended were cars and trucks. And I had several brothers, and so we had these little games we would play in the dirt, making little cities of whatever. Each person had their role, gas station man, the lumberyard man, and so on. But I remember driving my car and truck back through the dirt, back and forth, back and forth. That's probably because that's the way I am. I have to re-go back over those things that are so encouraging, and this is one of those things.

I don't think there's a greater place in all of scripture than what we tried to cover last week in our message about the Lord Jesus Christ in his person and in his work. And I don't want to re-go over that in the same detail that we had last week, but I do want to take you through the flow one more time. Because it's important as we look forward in this book that, as we're going to try to do today, that we have this as the foundation. This is the foundation of everything in the book of Colossians. And as I was trying to understand this so that I could explain it, I think the book of Colossians does this very well.

It layers our foundation upon the Lord Jesus Christ, but it does so in this way, the beginning opens with God the Father. And so thanksgiving is expressed to him for his will, for what he has done for us in Christ. And then the next layer is the Lord Jesus Christ. And that layer begins at verse 14. And notice how it begins, in whom in the Lord Jesus Christ and he's called God's dear son.

God's dear son. God thinks very highly of him. He thinks more highly of him than he does of any other. There's none who he can even compare to what God thinks of his son. So he calls him his dear son, the son of his love, his beloved son in whom he's well pleased.

And so he says this, that it is through his dear son in whom we have, notice, this is the next layer, redemption through his blood. There's no greater way to express the magnificence of our salvation than to say, God's Son shed his blood to redeem us. And this is the way, this is the way that God has qualified us.

He says it in verse 12 that way. He says, giving thanks to the Father which hath made us meet or qualified us to be partakers. of the inheritance of the saints in light. So the book of Colossians, as all of Paul's letters do, he interjects and introduces things, and then later builds upon them, and then builds upon them, and then builds upon them. So you see that there's, as I tried to say last week, there's a genius in this. Of course, it's the Spirit of God. But the genius is the way that he unfolds these things upon the sure foundation of God the Father and God the Son in his redeeming blood. And when we say his redeeming blood, we really mean Christ offering himself. Because his blood means he gave himself for our sins. He gave himself to God in sacrifice for our sins.

And it was a gift of love. Who says in Ephesians 5 in verse 2, Christ also hath loved us and given himself for us. I'm looking it up as I say it. He says, has given himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. God fully delights, took great delight in the offering of Christ. And you know why?

Well, this is what we're going to get into today, as I've tried to in the past, is because Christ fully expresses the precise, exact person of God himself. in His redeeming work, and that's why we start here. Look how the Apostle through the Spirit of God has done this in verse 14, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, and then He tells us who it is that died for us. He's the son, he's the son of God's love, God's dear son, the one who is equal with the Father, the one who is so dear, so near to God the Father that there can be none nearer, none dearer than him, eternally equal with God.

And then he says in verse 15, who is the image of the invisible God. Let me do one thing first. the image of the invisible God. And so as we looked at that last week, we see that what this means is this is God's self-revelation. And there's nothing that can reveal God precisely except God himself. And that one is God the Son.

It pleased the Father that God the Son, in our nature, would be the full and the full and perfect revelation of God. And so that's the way this begins here. And it draws our hearts out to Him. It causes us to do what? To look to Christ. To see God in Him. And then he goes on, he's the image of the invisible God, the exact image, the exact express image, the impress, if you were to take a stamp as they did in the Roman days and seal a document with it, it left the image, the precise image of that stamp. And that's what Christ is. He's the perfect, exact expression, revelation of God.

And so he says in verse again, the firstborn of every creature. And that means that he is the one who precedes, that firstborn precedes because he's eternal. And he's the firstborn in God's purpose, from eternity God had set him up. Now as the son of God, he always was equal with God. He had all the fullness of God, but as our mediator, he was chosen to that. to be the one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And here, he's the God-man, the perfect express image of God, and he's the firstborn of every creature, meaning creation.

And so we see here that he elaborates on that. He not only was before creation, he himself is not created. He goes on in verse 16 to say, for by him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible. He leaves nothing out, does he? Things we see, things we don't see. Things that are in heaven, things that are in earth.

Everything. was created by him, and he begins at the top where people tend to have the most anxiety, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers. All things were created by him. Every power that there is, Christ created it. He delegated that authority. Why? It says in the next thing, and they were created for him.

All of the powers in heaven and earth serve his will. They carry out his word. And nothing of all that he requires of them will go unfulfilled. And he goes on, and later on, where he says in verse, Let's see, in verse 20 where he says to reconcile all things to himself, all these delegated authorities, these thrones and dominions and principalities and powers serve Christ so that even Pharaoh, Judas, and all these others who seem to be somewhat the Pharisees, the Sadducees, they all performed God's will in everything. Even the evil, especially the evil, was made to serve Christ.

And that's what he's telling us here. This is creation, and he goes on, and he is before all things, he precedes all things, and he has a rank higher than all things, and by him all things consist. That means everything that lives, everything that has a being, whether animate or inanimate, but especially those animate objects, animals and plants and people and things, they all receive life from Christ continuously for their existence. And it's helpful to think that if he at any moment of time ceased to think of them, they would cease to have any remembrance or record of existing. And so not only do they have their existence, but they are brought in every point to conform to his will. It is for him. He's the firstborn. That's what the firstborn means. It carries such a weight.

Now this is creation, and now this is, we can see all of the affairs in heaven and earth, in providence. And then he goes on here, he says, and he's the head of the body. meaning all of God's elect, the church of God, the sheep, the brethren of Christ, the children adopted by God the Father, his body given to him to save, to have, and to present to himself holy and without blame before him in love. So he's the head of the body, the church, and from the head flows everything, life, sustenance, knowledge, grace, everything flows from the head to the members. Not the reverse, it always comes from the head, everything. So he's the head of the body.

We don't have anything that Christ didn't give us. All spiritual life, every spiritual grace, the desire to know him, to seek him, the confidence in trusting him. Everything comes to us by grace. You are saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, God, the son, the one who is the head of the body. He's the beginning, says the beginning. And here it explodes.

He takes creation, which Christ, by his will and his word, made all things. And here he says, He's the firstborn from the dead. Now we see him, the foundation was laid, the first creation was made and Christ rules over all and in that first creation that fell through Adam and was subjected to a fallen man and is now cursed. That creation, out of it, Christ raised up from the dead a people to himself by his own life and obedience. And God's justifying him and raising him again from the dead.

So he's the Lord, the head of the new creation. And that's the world of God's elect. That is the world of God's elect. So you can see this. this highest possible accolades being given to Christ because this is the foundation. This is what we rest all of our life and confidence and hope of eternal life and glory upon is who Christ is.

Now, I want to point out something that may not be obvious when we look at this, but if you remember, In the Old Testament, there were several accounts where God had, he revealed himself to Moses. He said in Exodus chapter three, in verse 14, when Moses asked him, when I go to the children of Israel, and they ask me, who is his name that appeared to you? What shall I tell them? He says, I am, that I am has appeared to me. Tell them I am, that's my name.

And he went on in verse 15 of Exodus 3, he said, in fact, let's turn there because it's so pivotal in the revelation. This is one of those eye beams in the structure of God's truth. And so it's essential that we have this well in hand. He says in Exodus, I get there, chapter three, and verse 14, he says, God said to Moses, I am that I am. And he said, thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you. And God said moreover to Moses, verse 15, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, Now that's a very significant title. This is God revealing himself to Moses. And how does he reveal himself? The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you.

This is my name forever. And this is my memorial unto all generations. You see that? The one who is eternal, he is today what he has always been. He will be forever what he is today. He's the unchanging, immutable God, self-existent, self-sufficient God.

That one has identified himself with his people in a covenant. Covenant is not something to be intimidated by. It's an eternal arrangement that God made within himself, within the Trinity of his being. God the Father, God the Son, the three persons of the Trinity, and God the Holy Spirit made this covenant. And there was no one outside of those three who made the covenant, but it was made on behalf of those who are named here, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of your fathers, which means that he made it on behalf of his people who are called the children of Abraham.

And Galatians tells us plainly that that's all those who believe Christ. They were chosen to this. They were appointed to it. God made a covenant with them in Christ, and that covenant is sure. Now, it is because of that covenant based on God's promise and made in Christ's blood, which had not been shed in history until the cross, but it was shed before the foundations of the world, This is God's name. He reveals himself as the covenant God of his people in Christ. Now, what I'm going to say next is going to take that as the foundation, and it's gonna reveal something to us that culminates here in Colossians.

And if you remember these events in history, in Exodus 32, for example, Moses is up on the mountain. The people of Israel were down and they couldn't see Moses. They didn't know what happened to him. And after a few days, after him being up there, the people commissioned Aaron to make a golden calf, which he did. And they worshiped that calf. And God said to Moses while he was up on the mountain, go down.

Your people that you brought out of Egypt have turned to idolatry. And he said, and my wrath is wax hot against them. I'm going to destroy them. I'm going to disinherit them. And Moses argues by the wisdom given to him by the Spirit of God on the basis of God's name, God's honor. And this is so significant. God saves his people for his name's sake. His name reveals his person.

Remember, I always give this example, but Nabal was a man married to Abigail who became David's wife. And Nabal, when Abigail came to David and she was pleading with David not to destroy all of their household and servants because the way that Nabal treated David and his servants in his his greed and his selfishness. And David withheld from destroying Nabal's household and Abigail said, his name is Nabal because foolishness is with him. His name described Nabal, foolish, fool.

And so God's name is the revelation God has given of himself. And the name God gave of himself to Moses to give to Israel was the God of his people. And that name carried them through. And when God told Moses, go down, your people have separated in idolatry from me. And Moses pleads with God. He pleads the honor of God's name.

He doesn't plead to forgive them because they were good people. They won't do it anymore. Someday they're going to measure up and then you can be gracious to them. No. He doesn't look. He looks past all of their sin and he says, they're your people. You chose them. You put your name upon them.

Now, if you did that, and you did that knowingly, what they were, and yet their sin is greater than you can overcome, because somehow it prevents you from delivering on your promise to bring them into Canaan, what will your enemy say? What will they say?

Well, he didn't have enough foresight to be able to see what they would be. He didn't have enough power even to answer his own holiness because he had to destroy them for it. So God, he's not a very great God. He's only harsh. But Moses sees through all of that and he says, your name is staked, your person is staked to your word to them, to bring them into the land of Canaan, which typified our heavenly kingdom, our inheritance. So what we see in that, and in Numbers 14, it's repeated again, as they're going into the land of Canaan, and they refuse to go in, and God says, I'm going to destroy them, and Moses says, no, no, no, don't do that now, because the, The Egyptians and those other people are going to say, you weren't able to do it. You didn't have the power to do it. So all of this builds up.

In Psalm 108, he does this again. In Psalm 106, I mean. He says in verse 6 through 8, we've sinned, and nevertheless, God saved us for his name's sake. And then in Ezekiel 20, not once, not twice, not three, four times in one chapter in Ezekiel 20, The Lord says, even though they profaned my name, even though they were idolaters, even though they were unbelieving, yet for my name's sake, I delivered them.

That's a foundation. That's the foundation. And in Daniel chapter 9, he says in prayer, in verses 16 through 17, he says, not for our righteousnesses, not for our righteousnesses, but according to your mercy according to your own righteousness for your namesake deliver your people so this is the structural I beam in God's truth that God does everything for his namesake and later on in Hosea 13 he says oh Israel you have destroyed yourself but in me is your help in me He goes on, he says, I will heal their apostasy, their backsliding.

I will love them freely for my name's sake. Now, because of this covenant love that cannot be nullified by the instability or the sin, or the unbelief of his people, God lays his foundation, and he wants us to know it. And in Colossians chapter 1, in verse 15, what does he say?

The Lord Jesus Christ is what? The name. He's the express image. He's the revelation, the self-revelation of God himself, the exact Perfect representation of all of God's person. And what is His name? What is the Lord Jesus Christ to us? His name is Jesus. For He shall save His people from their sins.

You see? God has staked Himself to our salvation. Nothing can fail unless God ceases to be God. Unless God the Father, having required the death of His Son, then disregards it entirely and fails to give life to His people on the basis of His righteousness and sacrifice. And this is God's revelation of who he is. Not only is this the basis of our salvation, but this is God revealing himself in his son, the Lamb of God, the Lamb of God.

And turn with me to Revelation. I just want you to see this. Revelation chapter 5. Just quickly here, he says, and here we are retreading some of this ground. But I do this in my own study. I always look back. He says in Revelation 5, John saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne.

This is God the Father. A book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals. This is God's mind. This is God's will. This is God's eternal purpose. This is the mystery. that cannot be known until God reveals it. But there's only one who can reveal it, the one who fulfills it, the one who understands it, the one who is the wisdom of God, the one to whom it was given.

And so it says in verse three, no man in heaven and none of the saints that have already gone to heaven, neither under the earth. was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon, not even look at it. And one of the elders said to me, weep not. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the book." That means his strength. his majestic kingly strength, his sovereign power. And notice how he did it.

And I beheld and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain. Here's the revelation of God fully given The image of the invisible God, the Lamb slain, having seven horns, all the strength of God and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. Christ has everything. He sits on the throne, he sees it all, he has the spirit of God because he was slain. It's given to the church. He goes and he came and he took the book out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne. And when he had taken the book...

Notice the four beasts, and the four and twenty elders, and they fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials of odors, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sung a new song, this is the gospel song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, to open the seals thereof, for Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred. tongue, people, and nation, and has made us unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth." You see, the celebration of all the redeemed, the beasts, the four beasts, the elders, and the rest of the saints, all the redeemed of the earth, 144,000, the redeemed from the earth, the elect of God, the church of God now are praising Christ and God through him, the Lamb of God, Colossians, that's what Colossians is saying here. This is the one. And so I want to look today at this, the all sufficiency of Christ in the book of Colossians.

He says here in these verses that we just read, he's the head. He is the source of all life. He is the source of all direction. He guides His people. They look to Him. They receive all from Him. We don't come with anything to Him. We receive everything from Him. We have nothing but that He gave us, and He gave it to us by His grace. You, through His poverty, are made rich, you see. He is the beginning. There's nothing behind Christ, nothing more than him. We don't look for someone behind him to tell us what God is like.

He is God revealed in our nature, the one who redeemed us. He's the firstborn from the dead, the one who rules over and owns the inheritance that his accomplishments and his sufferings and his death acquired and obtained for us in his redeeming death. He's the one through whom All of the new creation is made and upheld and given. And he's preeminent in everything, in everything, there's nothing that the church does not have or derive from him, life, structure. All these things come from from the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't we don't have life from our tradition. We don't get life from the law. We don't get life from our experience or from our personality or from our parents or from our works. Everything comes from Christ.

And we receive it from him because of our union to the head, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he's saying in these verses here. Among other things. Christ is all sufficient. There's no reason to look for another intermediary, someone else who's going to be a bright flash of revelation to us, some other way, some self-flagellation where we're going to subject ourselves to the man-made religions of depraved minds in order to supplant the work of Christ or to overthrow Christ from his solitary place on the throne of heaven as if we could co-share or participate in the glory that he receives by something that we do. No. Everything, all honor is given to him and everything given to him therefore flows to us because of him, because of his will, because of his work, which he performed in his own blood. That's all sufficient.

Everything, our life at all times comes from him, our spiritual life, our eternal life, and eternal glory. That's what these verses are telling us. And then look at Colossians chapter 2 and verse 19. He talks here about those who turn to something else.

They not hold, not holding the head from which all of God's people, the body by joints and bands, having nourishment, ministered and knit together, increases with the increase of God. What he's saying here is that the entire body of God's people grows and is given life because of their union with Christ. And it's from God, it's growth from God, it's life from Christ and growth is from God. Growth comes from holding fast to Christ and receiving nourishment from Him who is the head of the body. It comes from being knit together with Christ in His love. And it is by this bond of His love that our love to Him flows, and that love to Him flows to His body, His people, because we're joined to them in love. The Church grows not by adding regulations or rules, but by a deeper attachment to Christ. You see? We're brought into union with Him. That's where we are.

The Book of Colossians is the greatest comfort to a people who are tempted to seek security anywhere but Christ and Him crucified. Christ is sufficient in all things. He's sufficient against all legalism. He's sufficient against all of our attempts by self-imposed man-made religion to accomplish what only He could do in His life and death and resurrection. This is so essential. We don't act in order to acquire, in order to become something. We act because we are what we are in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is so important.

As we get older, our minds don't work as well. Our bodies don't work as well. It seems like the everyday things of life have got to be thought through carefully. And we find our strength failing. Our emotions might run wild. Past and grievous sins might haunt us. Unfinished business, stewardship, neglected, all these things come and shake us. But the reason for this insecurity and the remedy against it is always and ever the same.

It's Christ on his throne. It's the all-sufficiency of Christ. He says, look at Colossians chapter 3, he says in verse 1, if you then be risen with Christ, This is a past accomplished event. If you then be risen with Christ, with Him, not separate from Him, not in addition to Him, with Him in His resurrection, then seek those things which are above where Christ sits on the right hand of God. You're with Him.

See, it's always explained to us on the foundation of the truth The way things are declared, not seen, it's invisible. But faith says, this is my present possession because God said it. And even though I can't see it, even though I don't experience it, I have it because God's word has accomplished it. Christ himself in his blood, not just his word. but his blood has accomplished it, and that's where I am. I am with Christ, seated at God's right hand. You see the foundation that's laid here for the believer, the body of Christ? He goes on, set your affections, therefore, in other words, on things above, not on things on the earth. You are dead. You can't undo it. You died to the guilt of sin. You died to the power of sin. You even died to the presence of sin in Christ.

You're seated with him in glory. It's essential that you get this, that you understand this, that you live according to the truth of this with confidence and assurance, even boldness, because all of it rests outside of you in Christ. There's no lack in him. There's no instability. There's no nervous uncertainty. It's all secure, already obtained, already enjoyed by the Lord Jesus Christ as our forerunner. And we're in him, with him.

That's what he's saying here. You're dead. You've died to the law. You've died to sin. You've died to this world. Christ has redeemed you by his precious blood from all iniquity, from this present evil world, from death, from hell. from the grave, from everything, from the curse of the law. And you are God's. He's purchased you. It's the relationship God made in Christ from eternity and sealed at the cross. And notice what he says in verse three going on. You're dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.

If you have a a precious something or rather let's say you have some valuables and you want to keep it safe and you think, let's see, how can I do this? I'll take it to the bank, and I'll put it in a security deposit box, and I'll take the key. But what if you lose the key?

Well, maybe they'll remember me. No, they won't remember you. There's new employees there. Well, I'll take my ID. Well, what if they lost the records? And suddenly, you become very anxious, don't you? Well, I'll buy a safe. I'll put it in my house. Well, what if someone breaks into your house? Well, they can't break into my safe. What if they use dynamite? Oh, and you begin to get anxious again.

Well, now let's take the most valuable thing you have, your eternal soul. And where are you going to put it? Where would God put it so that it could never be touched and kept safe? Right here. You are dead, you are risen with Christ, and your life is now hid with Christ in God. You see the layers, the concentric circles of safety? Christ, you're in him, with him, and in him, you're in God.

Nothing can penetrate you. Nothing can accuse, nothing can unjustify what God has justified. No one can adopt whom God has adopted, whom Christ has purchased and redeemed. His blood has been shed. God has justified him and raised him and seated him. God has exalted the Lamb. And Christ the Lamb has everything. He unfolds the book. It's all done. It's completed. It's fulfilled. It's revealed. When Christ, who is our life, it's not just that he gives us life. He himself is our life.

Can it become more sure than this? when Christ, who is our life, notice back in chapter one, verse 27, God would make known this riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, Christ in you, the hope, the certainty, the expectation of eternal glory. And here he says in verse four of chapter three, Christ our life, when he shall appear, He's in glory, we can't see Him, but when He comes in the glory of His kingdom, the glory of His Father, what's going to happen? Then we will be unclothed, not unclothed, but we will be manifested, we will be set forward by God, set forth by God as being also with Him in glory. We'll be raised then in body and with Him in glory. We're hid, our life is hid with Christ, we're seated at the right hand of God, and when He appears, then our true state in glory with Christ shall then be revealed.

So what are we doing now? We're living upon Him by faith. God has given us this precious faith so that we might be partakers of the inheritance. By now, right now, we're possessors of the eternal life and eternal glory by faith even now. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. The present possession, the evidence of things not seen.

Faith in Christ. And that's why these places where it says in chapter one, verse 23, if you continue in the faith, it seems like a condition and a warning, but it's telling you, don't leave Christ. Don't leave him, this is where you began, this is how you walk, and this is how you finish. This is how you enter glory. The name of the Lord, everything for his name's sake, everything for Christ's sake. What an amazing all-sufficiency. The Lord Jesus Christ, he's all-sufficient, isn't he? He's the reason for our growth.

Notice back in chapter one in verse nine, I want you to see this. He tells them before he does all this, he tells them why he's gonna do this in verse nine. For this cause, we also since the day we heard about your faith and love, do not cease to pray for you to desire this, that you might be filled. With what? With the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

You see? He wants you to be filled with the knowledge of His will, not mystical secrets, not things that you can't understand until you reach some kind of a metaphysical state of meditation that gets you outside or inside or something in some other dimension, not some spiritual level, some tiers of structure you have to rise to, not some hidden Things that you discover through some deep introspection, not metrics based on personal performance in our personal obedience to God's law. None of those things. The knowledge is not an accumulation of religious data.

It is understanding God's saving purpose in Christ. The supremacy of Christ, the all-sufficiency of Christ, the reconciliation accomplished in Christ, the redemption in His blood, who Christ is, the revelation of God, the full revelation, the name of the Lord.

You see, growth begins not with striving, but with clarity. When Christ is all, This is what maturity looks like. Maturity looks like this, seeing more clearly who Christ is and what we possess in him by the will of God. That's what this verse is saying here, that you might walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing. The worthy walk is the result of being filled with the knowledge of his will. We walk not so that we might be full, but we're filled so that we might walk, you see. We're filled with the knowledge, with the truth of God concerning Christ.

Growth bears fruit, and fruit is the evidence of life. You see, fruit is the evidence of life. And that fruit comes, it springs from God's grace through the knowledge of his will. The means of that work is God revealing Christ to us. And that's why we look to the Lord Jesus Christ. And what results in this is this quiet perseverance of abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So growth actually, as a believer ages and grows older, resting on Christ, the evidence of that is an attitude of gratitude. An attitude of a deepening gratitude, thanksgiving. Not a constant nervous striving and wondering whether or not I'll be accepted in the day of judgment. but a gratitude, seeing that none of my salvation, none of my inheritance depends upon me.

It entirely depends upon God's will, His eternal will, His name, Christ, and Him crucified, and His work, Christ, and Him crucified, and Christ risen, and interceding, and now giving His Spirit, that we might know His will, and walk by faith, and interglory when he reveals us as being with him in glory when he appears. So growth is marked by this grateful assurance, giving thanks to the Father. He says in verse 12 of chapter one, giving thanks to the Father. Thank you, Father.

That's the attitude of that's the attitude that results from faith, isn't it? Thankfulness. Well, a lot more to say about that in the coming weeks. But I just wanted you to see just an overview here of Christ's all-sufficiency in the book of Colossians. And I expect we're going to take that little tractor out and roll it back over this area again and again.