If you would, open your Bibles
back to Colossians chapter 1. The title of the message is found
from verse 10. Walking worthy of the Lord. A
few weeks ago I was reading this chapter and that phrase caught
my attention. And I thought, boy, I'd like
to do that. I'd like to walk worthy of the
Lord. So let's look at it and maybe we'll teach you something
here this morning. At the time of the writing of
this epistle, Paul was in prison at Rome. In Epaphras, the pastor
of the church at Colossae came to visit Paul there in prison.
He told Paul about the church there at Colossae. He told Paul
the faith that the Lord had given the people in Christ there. He
told about their love in the Spirit, their love for Christ,
their love for the people of God, how the gospel would come
to that town in power. And Paul's reaction shows us
a true preacher's heart. When he heard this news in verse
9, he says, for this cause, we also, since the day we heard
it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might
be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and
spiritual understanding. Paul says, I've heard how the
Lord saved you. And from that time, my immediate
and my constant prayer is that the Lord would cause you to grow
in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. He prayed
that they might be filled with the knowledge of God, filled
with the knowledge of God's will. Now, no one can know the secret
will of God. We can't know how the events
of providence are going to unfold, what's going to happen in the
future. That's the secret will of God. We don't know who God's
elect are or the time of His return. Those things are the
secret will of God. Only God knows those things.
But what Paul's talking about here is the revealed will of
God. His will that is revealed in
Scripture. Particularly, he's talking about
God's will in redemption. Now, it is the Father's will
in redemption. This is what Scripture teaches
us. That His elect will be saved. They will be saved. by, in, and
through God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. When God's Son came into
this world, he said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. I come
to accomplish thy will in redemption, the redemption of thy people.
He said in another place, This is the Father's will which is
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, may have everlasting life. And I'll raise him up again
at the last day. He said, this is the Father's
will which is sent me, that of all which the Father has given
me, I should lose nothing. I'm going to redeem every one
of them. Now, we need to know that will.
We need to know about this God's will and redemption. Look back
at John chapter 1. Redemption, salvation is by the
will of God. In John 1 verse 12. Well, look
at verse 11. He came into his own. his own
nation, his own people after the flesh, the Jews, he came
unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received
him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God." They were born again of the will of God. Salvation is
of the will of God. And I not only want to know His
will and redemption. I want to love it. I want to
love it. And I want those who hear me
preach to know God's will and redemption. To know how it is
that God saves sinners. I can tell you that. To your
human intellect, I can tell you how God saves sinners. Only God
can make you love it. I want to know His way. God saves
sinners. And I want to love it. And you
know it. And you love it. I do, too. I
want to know more and I want to love it more fully, more deeply
every day. And Paul's not just praying here
for some knowledge that, you know, you'd have some knowledge.
He's praying that you'd be filled with the knowledge of God's will,
filled with the Spirit, showing you the things of Christ. This
is a knowledge that's born from experience. We're not just talking
about, you know, some head knowledge of facts and figures from the
Bible. What Paul's praying for here, and my prayer for the people
that hear me preach, is that you'd have an understanding of
your own sinfulness, of your own inability, the inability
of your flesh, because you've experienced the inability of
your flesh. If you've experienced the inability
of your flesh, Eric's message was for you this morning. Come
to Christ. Look to Him. Seek Him. You only
knew that. If by experience you know the
inability and failure of your flesh. What Paul's praying for
is an understanding of the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. How you've
experienced God's mercy on your sinful soul. And if you're filled
with that kind of knowledge that's born from experience, then you
won't be blown about by every wind of doctrine, false doctrine
that comes along. If you're filled with the knowledge
of Christ, there's not going to be any room for error that
would lead you astray. Now again, Paul's not just praying
here for head knowledge. He prays for wisdom and spiritual
understanding. That's a whole lot more than
head knowledge. Knowledge without wisdom is foolishness. I used
this illustration Wednesday night. It wasn't in my notes, but now
I know where it came from. It was in these notes. A man
gets some knowledge, head knowledge of science, how things work out
in the earth. And his knowledge is foolishness. And you see the proof of that
is he develops the theory of evolution. His knowledge without
wisdom is foolishness. Well, the same thing goes for
a man that wears a suit and stands up behind a pulpit. He gets some
knowledge, some head knowledge of doctrine. And he pounds that
doctrine over and over and over again. and never lays hold on
Christ. Salvation is not a head knowledge,
a doctrine. Salvation is knowing the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's what scripture talks about
ever learning and never coming to a knowledge of Christ, never
coming to saving faith in Christ. Knowledge is the horse, but now
wisdom is the driver that directs that horse. Look at Proverbs
chapter 3. How important is it to get wisdom?
And especially you young people, now you listen to these verses
of Scripture here. As you go through school and
you grow up, you get knowledge. Listen to your teachers now.
Learn these things that they teach you. But seek wisdom. Get knowledge, but seek wisdom. Look at Proverbs 3, verse 13.
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom. and the man that getteth
understanding, for the merchandise of it, the merchandise of wisdom,
is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gains thereof
than fine gold. She, wisdom, is more precious
than rubies, and all the things thou canst desire are not to
be compared unto her." Everything you can desire can't be compared
to wisdom. Look over page chapter 4 of Proverbs, verse 5. Get wisdom, get understanding,
and forget it not. Neither decline from the words
of my mouth." Don't decline from the words of God's Word here. "'Forsake her not, and she shall
preserve thee. Love her, and she shall keep
thee. Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom,
and with all thy getting, get understanding. Exalt her, and
she shall promote thee. She shall bring thee to honor
when thou dost embrace her.'" Now, certainly, this has application
to wisdom in the world, how to conduct yourself in this world
wisely. But chiefly, this is talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ, who is wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption. Read this again, putting the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ in place of wisdom, because he
is wisdom. Get Christ, get understanding and forget him not. Neither decline
from the words of my mouth, forsake him not. He shall preserve thee. Love him. He shall keep thee.
Christ is the principal thing. Therefore, get Christ. And with
all thy getting, get understanding. Exalt him, and he shall promote
thee. He shall bring thee to honor
when thou dost embrace him. In all your getting, in all the
things you have to do when you're growing up, seek Christ. Seeking, as in Eric's text this
morning, seeking what may be found. Seeking. Our Lord said,
seek me, find me. Seek him, get wisdom, get understanding. So Paul's first prayer is that
we would understand God's will and redemption. And secondly,
Paul prays that these believers would understand God's will in
our walk through this world. Now get understanding, because
understanding will direct your steps through this world. must
be put into practice. Knowledge must be driven by wisdom
or it's useless. It's utterly useless. You cannot
separate faith and conduct. Seek God's will in your walk
through this earth. Look what he says in verse 10, that you
might walk worthy of the Lord, unto all pleasing, being fruitful
in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Now
this is talking about our conduct. And this is not just talking
about our conduct Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights here in
this building. This is talking about our conduct at home, when
it's just us, your family and those four walls. Talking about
our conduct out there on the job amongst the heathen. Talking
about our conduct when we're alone and nobody's looking. You
cannot walk worthy of the Lord. Coming in this building two days
a week, talking about God's grace, His mercy, His abundance, how
He forgives and He's so generous. And go out in this world and
be stingy with folks. That's not walking worthy of
the Lord. Well, then what is it to walk
worthy of the Lord? What is it to walk unto all pleasing,
pleasing the Lord? I'm very interested in that.
I honestly am. I'm sure every believer here
is interested. How can I walk worthy of the
Lord who saved me? Well, the word worthy here means
suitable. Suitable. It's to conduct myself
in a way that reflects well on the grace and the mercy and the
glory of my Redeemer. It's by walking in a manner,
by conducting myself in a manner that matches my profession of
faith. Is my conduct, does it match
my profession of faith? Or is it contradictory? This
walking worthy of the Lord is to conduct ourselves in a way
that people can look at us and say what they said to the disciples
of old. They took note they'd been with Jesus. Something's
different about these folks. They took note they'd been with
Jesus. Well, now how do I do that? Well,
first it's by faith. We know that without faith it's
impossible to please God. To walk worthy of the Lord is
living our life looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. And Paul here in these verses gives us three steps
in walking worthy of the Lord. The first one is this, being
fruitful in every good work. He said that you might walk worthy
of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good
work. Now this is not teaching us That we have to work hard
and generate this, you know, good behavior in ourself and
produce this fruit. That's not what he's talking
about. It's not our fruit at all. It's the fruit of the Spirit. It's not our fruit. We don't
want our fruit. We don't want the fruit of the
flesh. It's the fruit of Christ. He's the vine. He produces the
fruit. We're the branches that just
bear his fruit. But we don't want our fruit.
Now, we don't want the fruit of the flesh. Look over Galatians
chapter five. I'll show you that. Our fruit
is rotten and deadly. Worse than just being rotten
and not edible, it's deadly. Galatians 5, verse 16. This I
say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the
lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and
the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one
to another, so that you cannot do the things that you But if
you be led of the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the
works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
envies, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. Of
the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time
past, that they which should not inherit the kingdom of God. If we're bearing the fruit of
the flesh, it's deadly. You cannot inherit the kingdom
of God bearing that fruit. But, verse 22, the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
And they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the
affections and lusts. If we live in the Let us also
walk in the Spirit. Let us walk in a way that matches
our profession of faith, matches walking in the Spirit. And the
more we learn of Christ through His Word, the more we learn of
Christ through the preaching of God's Word, the more fruit
we'll bear. That's how it comes about. The
more we're fed and watered, the more fruit we'll bear. The more
we're fed of the bread of life, the more we're watered with the
living water, the more fruit we'll bear. So we walk worthy
of the Lord, being fruitful in every good work. Then Paul says,
secondly, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Now, if we're
alive spiritually, we must grow. Anything that's alive has to
grow. We grow in grace and knowledge of Christ. Our attitude should
never, ever be, well, the Lord saved me, everything else I need
to know. And start looking down. at people
that don't know everything I know. That should never be our attitude. Brethren, we got a lot to learn. I'm telling you, we've got a
lot to learn. I'm speaking to believers here
now. We do know Christ. We do know
God. You know everything there is
to know about Him that the heavens cannot contain? No. We need to
know Him more fully. We need to learn more and more
of Him. And we need to constantly seek
to learn more of Him. Henry said in his outline on
this, ignorance in believers dishonors God as much as fruitlessness. Well, we don't want to dishonor
Him. And I don't care how much we know. What we know about God
is rattle around and a fumble. We need to know more. We need
to grow in grace and grow in knowledge. And it's not learning
more doctrine. It's not learning more Bible
trivia. I get fascinated by this show.
It's on the Game Show Network, whatever it is. Jeff Foxworthy
hosts it, of all people, about this Bible trivia they're doing.
It just fascinates me. You don't need to know more Bible
trivia now. We need to know more of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is salvation. We need to know who He is. What
he did, why he did it, and where he is now. It's all about him.
Oh, we need to know more about him. We need to increase in knowledge
of him. Well, how on earth am I going
to do that? I'm so rotten. I mean, I'm so hateful. How am
I going to be loving? I'm so proud. I mean, I think
you've got the same flesh as I do now. We're proud. How am
I going to be meek? How am I going to be lowly? How
am I going to esteem others better than myself? I think a lot of
myself. How am I going to esteem others better than myself? I'm
so impatient. I mean impatient. How am I going
to be long-suffering? How can somebody like me, dumb
as a box of rocks, learn how to be patient with people? Long-suffering. How can I be fruitful? I'm so
ignorant. How am I ever going to grow in
knowledge? Just take a breath. It's like
the rest of your salvation. It's not by your power. This
is not something you have to conjure up. It's through the
power of Christ. See what he says in verse 11,
strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power
and all patience and long suffering with joyfulness. A believer bears
the fruit of the spirit and increases in knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ through the strength of Christ in you. It's not through
your power, it's through His glorious power working in you.
It is the glorious power of Christ that gives us patience, that
gives us the patience to run the race before us, that gives
us patience under trial and affliction. It gives us patience to wait
on the promises of God. God promised it. He gives us
the patience to wait for Him to fulfill it. It's the power
of God working in us that gives us patience to wait for the appearing
of our Lord Jesus Christ. I long for his appearing, but
it's God's power that gives us patience to wait, to wait on
him. And the more we know of Christ, the more patient we'll
be. The more we know he's in control,
the more patient we'll be. The more we know he will keep
his word. the more patient we'll be on
Him, to wait on Him to fulfill it in His time. It's the glorious
power of Christ working in us that enables a believer to be
long-suffering. Now, people can wear you out.
People can wear you out quickly. But it's the power of Christ
that enables us to be slow to anger and ready to forgive. The
more we know of Christ, now this is why I said a minute ago, it's
not learning doctrine, it's learning more of Him. The more we learn
of Christ and how long-suffering He is with me, how long-suffering
He is with my sin, the more long-suffering I'll be to somebody else. The
more ready I'll be to forgive someone else, the more I understand
how He forgives me. It's the power of Christ in a
believer that enables us to be joyful. Now, to be able to go
through this life with joyfulness, that's a blessing. It really
is a blessing. A few weeks ago, Savannah texted
me. She was going about her day at
college, and she texted me. She said, this is an easy day
to say, this is the day the Lord has made. I'll be glad and rejoicing. This is a good day. And the Lord
gives days like that, doesn't he? And buddy, I can be joyful
in those days. I can be thankful in those days.
But it takes the strength of Christ in me in the dark days,
in the days of trial, to find joy. And He will give that strength
to His people in those days. And the more we know of Christ,
the more cheerfully and joyfully we can face these trials. I'm
not saying they won't be hard. I'm saying we can face them with
joy the more we know of Him. Only someone who really knows
Christ can esteem the reproach of Christ, greater riches and
the treasures and the comforts of this world." If you really
know Him. And knowing more of Christ lets
me understand that my salvation and my standing before God has
absolutely nothing to do with the circumstances of this flesh.
Nothing whatsoever. Our pastor's been going through
the book of Job. See Job sitting there in the ashes. His body,
whole entire body in open, weeping sore. God loved that man. God sent His Son to die for that
man. Yes, He did. I think we can learn the circumstances
of our flesh had nothing to do with the salvation of our soul.
And you can experience joy even in the worst of trial, even in
those darkest days, by not looking at the trial and looking to Him. The One who gave Himself for
us. The One who put away our sin
through the sacrifice of Himself. How did you begin? How did you
begin following Christ? By looking to Him. Then keep
looking to Him. Keep looking to Him. The One
who gave Himself for you. And I know it's hard not to think
about the pain. Not to think about the disappointment.
Not to think about the trial. It is. But remember, I can do
all things through Christ which strengthens me. Debbie told me
a little while ago, this trial's been good for me. She's saying with David, it's
good for me that I've been afflicted. I learned something I never learned
before. Now I've experienced, I've experienced
God's grace. I've experienced his power I
never experienced before. It's good for me. So we walk
worthy of the Lord being fruitful in every good work. We walk worthy
of the Lord by increasing in knowledge of God. And the third
way a believer walks worthy of the Lord is by giving thanks
unto the Father. He says in verse 12, giving thanks
unto the Father. Now it is impossible to walk
worthy of the Lord without giving thanks to the Father. It's an
utter impossibility. Eight different times scripture
says Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good. His mercy
endureth forever. Look at 1 Thessalonians chapter
5. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 16. Rejoice evermore. Pray without
ceasing. In everything give thanks, for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." Now, you
cannot walk worthy of the Lord outside of his will, can you?
Well, what's his will? This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you, that in everything we give thanks. In everything. And in our text,
Paul gives us four reasons why every believer gives thanks unto
the Father. And the first one is this. verse
12, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet, to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." Now
this word, meet, means to render fit. It means to make sufficient
and it means to make qualified. Well, every believer right now
is fit to enter into heaven. Every believer is sufficient
to enter into glory right now. Why are we sufficient? because
Christ met every requirement. That's why He's met every requirement
and made us sufficient to enter into glory. He's made us qualified. Now, you know that's not by our
nature. By our nature, all we are is unfit, unqualified. What
we deserve is God's wrath. But if God Almighty put you in
His Son, if God Almighty washed you in the blood of His Son and
He clothed you in the righteousness of His Son, Without question,
you are F-I-T fit. You are fit. You're qualified.
You're sufficient in every way. Who's sufficient for these things?
Everyone in Christ Jesus. Everyone in Him. In Christ, you
are qualified in every way to enter into glory. He's made just
meat to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life. You are
just as qualified as Moses, who's before the throne right now,
in Christ. Secondly, we give thanks for
being made partakers of the inheritance. Now, this is not just giving
thanks because you have an inheritance. You know, it's like, woohoo,
we celebrate because my rich uncle died and now I'm on Easy Street.
You know, he put me in the will. No, it's not just giving thanks
that we have an inheritance. It's giving thanks for why you
have an inheritance. It's because you've been made
a partaker. And that word partaker means someone who's assigned
a portion, or who is assigned a share. Well, who is a partaker
in an inheritance? Who's been assigned a portion
in an inheritance? Children. Children. The moment
you were born again, you were completely qualified to be an
heir of God. The moment you were born again,
you were assigned a portion God's inheritance because you were
made a joint heir with Christ. And here's why I'm saying it.
Don't just give thanks for the blessing. Give thanks that you've
been made a child of God. That you've been made a son or
a daughter of God. And there's a big difference
in those two things. It's the difference between being
a mercenary and being a son. A mercenary gives thanks for
the blessing. A mercenary gives thanks for
the paycheck. A son and a daughter loves because
they're a son, because they're a daughter. It's all the difference
in the world. Are you a child of God? Then
walk like it. Walk in love after your father.
Third, a believer gives thanks for the deliverance from sin.
Look at verse 13. You have delivered us from the
power of darkness and have translated us into the kingdom of his dear
son. Every believer has been delivered
Not just delivered from darkness, delivered from the power of darkness. Now, darkness is the opposite
of light. That's pretty simple. That's
the way I think. Darkness is the opposite of light.
Well, Christ is the light of the world, isn't He? Well, then
that means that darkness is everything that's the opposite of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's Satan. It's sin. It's our fallen nature. our unbelief,
it's the ignorance that we're born with. It's the darkness
of hell. In Matthew 25, our Lord called
hell outer darkness. All these things are opposite
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all these things have a powerful
hold on us by nature. And the proof of it is light
came into the world and men loved darkness rather than light. But
God in His power had delivered His people He has greater, boy,
these things have a powerful hold on us. Well, there's a stronger
man who's come. And in His power, God's delivered
His people from the dominion of Satan. He's delivered us from
the power of sin. He's delivered us from our fallen
nature. He's delivered us from the blinding power of unbelief
and given us eyes at sea. He's delivered us from our ignorance
and taught us something about who He is. And He's translated
us. He's transferred us. into the
kingdom of His dear Son. He's moved us from one place
into another place. He's moved us from one kingdom
into another kingdom. And He's changed our citizenship. Don't you give thanks that God's
our King. Somebody's your King. Somebody
is ruling the kingdom that you reside in. It's either the power
of Satan or the kingdom of God's dear Son. Now, we're not in heaven
yet. But every believer has a citizenship
in glory. Your citizenship is not here.
It's there. Earlier this year, Sam and I
are not big world travelers. You know, a big trip for us is
to go to North Carolina or something. Earlier this year, we were in
the Bahamas. And I looked around that place and I thought, pretty
nice place. I'm here. My citizenship's not
here. I'm going home where my citizenship
is. Brethren, our citizenship is
not here. It's in the kingdom of His dear
Son. That's God's doing, and we give
thanks. And fourth, chiefly, this sums
it all up. We give thanks for the root cause
of every spiritual blessing. Look at verse 14. In whom we
have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
Now, every spiritual blessing that God has for sinners found
the first two words of verse 14, in whom? In the Lord Jesus
Christ. We're redeemed from sin through
the blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're redeemed
from the damning power of sin. We're redeemed from the controlling
power of sin. And someday, thank God, we will
be redeemed from the very presence of sin. We're redeemed from the
curse of the law because Christ was made a curse for us. We're
redeemed from any obligation to the law. The believer has
absolutely no ties to the law because Christ fulfilled the
law for us. In every detail, every jot and
tittle, he fulfilled the law. Then we have no obligation to
the law. We're redeemed from every accusation of the law.
The law cannot lay any accusation to anyone in Christ Jesus because
Christ stood condemned for us. He stood accused for us and never
pled his innocence because he was made guilty for us. He stood
condemned for us so the law can never add any accusation to anyone
in Christ. We're redeemed from death. The
holy law can never require my eternal death if Christ died
as my substitute. He already fulfilled that requirement
of the law. The sins of God's elect are forgiven
because that sin debt has been paid by the precious blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we give thanks. How can you
walk worthy of the Lord and not give thanks for the redemption
from sin? How can you walk worthy of the
Lord and not give thanks for such great salvation that God's
given us in our Lord Jesus Christ? Now, I want to give you this
relatively briefly. How secure are believers in Christ? Your salvation is just as sure
as your Savior. If you saved yourself, you can
lose it. That's for sure. If you saved
yourself through your own decision, you can lose it. How often do
you change your mind? I change my mind every day. I almost changed my mind about
my text or I mean, if my salvation is based on my decision, I'm
in trouble. I changed my mind, I'm fickle.
But if Christ is your savior, you're plumb saved, you're completely
secure. Salvation is not in who I am.
Salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's who he is, what
he's done for me and what he's done in me. And here's a description
of our Savior in these next verses. Now I want you to look at this.
If this is your Savior, now you can take comfort. Your salvation
is secure. In verse 15, who's the image
of the invisible God? The firstborn of every creature.
The Lord Jesus Christ is God. He's God in human flesh. And He's the King. He is in absolute
control over everything. The firstborn is the king. The
firstborn in the family at this time, if Paul is writing this,
he was the king of the family. The firstborn is the priest of
the family. He gets it all. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
firstborn. He's the firstborn, the only
begotten son, and he's the king of everything that belongs to
God. What belongs to God? Everything. Christ owns it all. He's the
king of it all. That if we are in him, We must
be secure, secure in His kingship. Verse 16, for by Him were all
things created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible
and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities
or powers. All things were created by Him
and for Him. Our Savior is none other than
the Creator. That's how all the Old Testament
prophets identified Him as the One who created all this. Now,
it took some power to speak this world into existence. God said,
let there be light, and there was light. God said, let the
dry land appear, and it appeared. God said, let the animals appear,
and they appeared. That took power. That power pales
in comparison to the power that God uses to save his people from
their sin. This is his chief power and his
chief glory, that he saves his people from their sins. then
we're secure in His might. Verse 17, He's before all things
and by Him all things consist. Now it takes some power to keep
this universe in order. The planets hang in space. The
sun stays in its place. The planets and the moons and
the asteroids and everything flying around here exactly in
their orbit. Hangs in space. It's not built
on a foundation. It's not sticking on a rod, you
know, or a string holding up. It's hanging there on the power
of God's Word. God said, there you are. And there it stayed. Just spinning.
There it stayed. That's his power. That power
pales in comparison to the power that God uses to hold his people
secure. This world one day is going to
be gone. His people never will. No man, he said, can pluck them
out of my hand. That we're secure in his hand.
Verse 18, he's the head of the body, the church, who is the
beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things
he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that
in him should all fullness dwell. Everything is in Christ. God
has entrusted everything into his Son. And if you're in him,
you have everything. If you're in Him, He's got it
all. And if you're in Him, you have everything. If you're the
body, you're as safe as the head. Now, is His rule threatened?
Of course not. And if you're in the body, you're
not either. We're secure. We are as secure
as our head, our federal head. Verse 20, And having made peace
through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things
unto Himself, By Him, I say, whether they be things in earth
or things in heaven. Now, when Christ died, He redeemed
all of God's elect. There came that point in time
that He shed the blood of the Lamb that was slain from before
the foundation of the world. But there came a moment in time
that blood had to be shed. And when He died, all of God's
elect were redeemed. He made peace through the blood
of His sacrifice for every one of His people. He made peace. Understand this, that he made
peace for those already in heaven. He made peace for Abel. In our
human understanding, how long had Abel been there? He made
peace for Abel, for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He made peace
for believers who were on earth right that time. All those disciples,
Peter and James and John and even Peter. They all forsook
Him, didn't they? Peter denied Him. Even Peter. You want to know a greater miracle
in God's saving Peter, who denied Him? Verse 21. And you, and even you, they were
sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,
yet now hath He reconciled. Oh, and you. Give thanks. He's reconciled you. Now, you'd
be reconciled to him. And this reconciliation is no
small thing. It came at great cost. Oh, it's
a precious cost. He had reconciled us in the body
of his flesh, verse 22, through death, to present you holy, unblameable,
and unreprovable in his sight. Now, this redemption, reconciliation,
peace with God, took an awful bloody sacrifice. It took the
butchering of our Lord. It took making the precious,
holy Son of God to be sin for His people. And Christ has made
every believer, even you and me, even us, holy, unblameable
and unapprovable. They are not my sight. I'm not
holding my sight. There's no holiness in me. I'm
very blameable. I've got a lot of blame on myself.
I'm very reprovable. But it's not in our sight. In
His sight. And that's the only sight that
matters. It's in His sight. We are secure in His sight. Now, verse 23. We'll close here. If you continue
in the faith, grounded and settled and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel, which you have heard. and which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, have
made a minister." Now, this verse, you know, is not teaching us
that if you continue in the faith, then you will get to receive
these blessings. For if that's what that's saying,
that means we've earned it. You know, if I do this, then
God gives me this. No, that's not what that's teaching.
What this is teaching us is this. He reconciled you to God. If
he made peace for you through the blood of his cross, then
you will continue in the faith. It's evidence of his salvation
if you continue in the faith. Listen, God will see to it. Now this much I know, God will
not fail and his son did not die in vain. If Christ died for
you, you will persevere to the end. Not because you did something,
because God's going to see to it. Often I get asked, you know,
this question. Somebody's doing something. Well, you know, a so-and-so a
believer. You know, is somebody doing that? Are they a child
of God? Do they know God? You know, so-and-so died. Would
they go to heaven? I have no earthly idea. I mean, I don't
know. That's the secret will of God. I don't know. I mean,
people give evidences and so forth, and you might think you
know, but that's up to God. So-and-so believer? I don't know. Check back with me in 20 or 30
years. We'll have a pretty good understanding maybe then. Are
they still here? Are they still giving thanks
to the Father? Are they still walking worthy
of the Lord? If they are, that's a work of grace. Give thanks. Give thanks. If Christ died for
them, they'll be giving thanks either here or there. One way
or another, they're still going to be giving thanks. I thought
Wednesday night. I thought, how many preachers
over the years have closed their Bible and put up their notes
and said, all right, Mike, it's been a long time, hasn't it?
Check back with me 20, 30 years. If we're still here giving thanks,
it's a work of Christ's grace. All right, Mike.