Colossians 1. Let's start in verse 9. Chapter 1 of
Colossians. Let's start in verse 9. For this cause, we also, says
Paul to the Colossians, 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,
that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being
fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of
God. strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power,
unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness, giving thanks
unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us
from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom
of His dear Son. Turn to 1 Peter for our second
text. 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 9. 1 Peter chapter 2 in verse 9, but ye are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people
that you should show forth the praises of him who hath called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light. What I'd like
to look at is delivered from the power of darkness, as it
says in Colossians, delivered us from the power of
darkness, the power of darkness. The theme of our morning's message,
as I said, would be delivering from the power of darkness out
of verse 13 of Colossians, and we are called out of darkness
in verse 9 in 1 Peter. And anyone, anyone who is honest
with the scriptures and or themselves, it should be most plainly observed
and noted of a truth that There are several things that
are obvious in those two passages being translated from darkness
to light and being delivered from the power of darkness. And
every believer, every sinner is born in darkness. and we may
think we have some spiritual light, and we may have mental
light. We may have light as far as how
to work electricity or construction or play in the markets. We may have that knowledge, but
spiritually, we're darkness. It's just that simple. It's darkness. Now, Luke made a comment, and
I'm going to read in Luke chapter 1, that what we're going to look
at is there's some obvious truths. Obvious truths. And Luke says,
for as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order
a declaration of those things which are most surely believed
among us. And these obvious truths that
I'm gonna talk about are things which are most surely believed
among us. Even as they delivered them unto
us, through the preaching of the gospel, which from the beginning
were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word. It seemed good to
me also having a perfect understanding of all things from the very first
to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theopolis, that
thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou
hast been instructed." This thing of believing the gospel, it's
not just a, You know, you spin the wheel and you just hope you
know. I'm not saying we understand
everything about God because he's infinite and we're finite,
but I'm saying he gives us enough understanding to know some basic
truths, some things most surely believed among us. And we're
gonna look at the first thing I think out of these two texts.
Out of these two texts, who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness? Who, who is this talking, who
is this who? It's not we delivered ourselves,
that's what a lot of people think, or we went to church and we said
a few words and a few prayers and when I was growing up in
a Methodist church, it was responsive readings. You'd flip over, you
didn't bring your Bible, you just had the hymn book and you'd
flip over and there was responsive readings. The preacher would
say something and oh, I'm supposed to say this. who delivered yourself. And every religion like that,
as there's only two religions, the religion of Cain and Abel,
every religion that was without Christ is like that. It doesn't
make any difference, the denomination or what you call it. But he says
in verse 12 of Colossians, who hath delivered us? If you go
up to verse 10, he's talking about being walking worthy of
the Lord, The Lord is the one who hath delivered us from the
power of darkness and translated us unto the kingdom of his Son,
in whom, the Lord, we have redemption through his blood, the Lord Jesus
Christ, even the forgiveness of sins. So the first obvious
truth is this. He did all the calling. He did
all the calling, who hath delivered us. He did all the delivering
and he did all the calling. And there's so many scriptures
to back this up, we'll just look at a few. Acts chapter 26. Turn
with me to Acts chapter 26. We'll start reading in verse
13. Acts 26. Start in Acts 26, starting in
verse 13. At midday, O king, I saw in the
way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun shining
round about me and them which journey with me. This is Paul's
describing his conversion. And when we were all fallen to
the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me and saying in the Hebrew
tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Is it hard for thee
to kick against the pricks? And I said, "'Who art thou, Lord?'
And he said, "'I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. "'But rise
and stand upon thy feet, "'for I have appeared unto thee for
this purpose, "'to make thee a minister and witness "'both
of these things which thou hast seen "'and those things which
I will appear unto thee.'" Sounds like he's talking about the same
thing in Luke. Witness, appear as a witness.
To who? To how good we are or pat ourselves
on the back for what we've done for God? No. delivering thee
from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee to
open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, which
is our two texts, and from the power of Satan unto God that
they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among
them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Not in yourself,
in me. So the first obvious truth to
all those who are called and quickened and delivered is God
has done it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left
a crimson stain. He washed it. It's white as snow. You know he's this this our Lord
does as he says in our text through the preaching of the gospel of
Jesus Christ and him crucified That's the gospel turn with me
to Isaiah 42 Isaiah 42 And Verse 16 Uh, you know, the I wills of
God, they're all over the place in this chapter. Verse 14, I
have long time holding my peace. I have been still verse 15. I,
uh, verse of chapter 42, verse 15, I will, uh, make waste mountains
and hills. I will make the rivers, uh, in
islands and we'll dry up the, the pools. And I will bring the
blind by a way that they knew not. I will lead them in paths
that they have not known. I will make darkness light before
them and the crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them
and not forsake them. Now you talk about crooked, this
whole mess, this whole world, they call up, down. They call that which is right,
wrong. And it's crooked. Only in Christ does the believer
see things as they are. I mean, truly, see things as
they are. I will who? Verse 16, I will who? Jehovah God, the Father, and
electing a people. Jehovah, or God, and Christ Jesus,
the God-Man, the Great Martyr Lamb, and the Holy Spirit, the
Great Illuminator, or the Convincer. We could look at others. We could
look at, we won't look at Psalms 18, verse 28, and Luke chapter
one, 76 to 79. This is the purpose. This is
the obvious truth. Well, why did Jesus come? to
seek and to save the lost, those who could not deliver and could
not call themselves. This is the first obvious truth.
The second obvious truth is that we, born in sin, inherited corruptions
from the first Adam, could no sooner save ourselves than those
gathered around Babel could understand one another. That's in Genesis
chapter 11. You think about it, when I was,
as a kid, even in the Methodist church, would go to summer camp,
Bible camp, that's about the only thing I remember, was that
Tower of Babel. What happened? Well, they thought
they could reach heaven by their works. And God confounded them,
that means confused them, and gave them all these different
languages. Why is there so many languages? Because of sin. And they couldn't, matter of
fact, they were so frustrated, they couldn't understand one
another, that they just left off. And that's what our Lord
does. He confounds, if He confounds you, that's a good thing. Now
it may not seem pleasant at first, and it's not because He calls
us from the wilderness. But He calls us when we're in
darkness. And He delivers us when we're
in darkness. You gotta own up to your own
darkness. And He will. give you light.
So that we could know sooner, save ourselves, than those gathered
around Babel could understand one another, or out of Jeremiah
13, than a leopard, cat, could change its spots. Or that we
could do good that are accustomed to doing evil. Same passage,
Jeremiah 13, 23, and again in Genesis 6, 5. So these are two
obvious truths. These are two obvious truths.
God is gonna show us, if he's dealing with us, that he has
done the whole work. This is simple. The simplicity
in the gospel, I love it. He's gonna show us that he's
gonna do everything and has done everything. Satisfied all the
handwriting of ordinances against us and that we are the recipients. But we could do nothing. We could
do nothing. Well, let's look again, let's
look at Colossians. Again, if you're there, let's
look at these, some more obvious truths. And verse 12, giving thanks unto
the Father which hath made us meet. I love those words, made
us meet. What does that mean? Well, first
of all, it's past tense. I love that. But literally in
the Greek, It is this passage, giving thanks unto the Father
which hath enabled or to make us qualified. That sounds like we're being
operated from the outside and he operates on us. Do you need
to know Greek? I don't know Greek. I got tools
that people who do know it. It's just plain. It's just, he's
made us who have delivered us, I'm sorry, giving thanks unto
the father, which hath made us meet, to do what? To be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light, no longer walking in
darkness, though we have the flesh to contend with, who have
delivered us from the power of darkness and then translated
us into the kingdom of his dear son. That sounds like an operation. and we're the patient. You know,
some of us have had some operations and some more severe than others,
but usually the worst, the situation is they give you anesthesia,
they put you out. So how much did you have to do
with your, with the procedure? Absolutely nothing. Absolutely
nothing. So, That's the wonder. We are said to be made meat. The Heavenly Father has done
it all. Bless the triune God, all his dear church, all his
remnant, all his dear sheep, for his free, sovereign grace. Why do we dwell on free, sovereign
grace? It's an old term, it's whatever. Nobody talks like that anymore.
And it's like I said, I try to keep things as simple as possible.
And a gentleman asked me where I worked at one time. He says,
you keep on saying sovereign grace. What is that? I said,
simply sovereign is who God is and grace is how he saves. Now the God of this world is
bound by your decision your confession, all these things, he is not bound. Our God rules and reigns in the
heavens, and I am so glad it's so. I am so thankful that it's
so. Christ shed his innocent blood,
thereby cleansing us from all sin and honoring everything that
was written against us. Christ took our place, we talk
about substitution, that's it. That's it. And again, I've used
this illustration. It's been a long time. But when
you're watching a basketball game and the substitute comes
in for a particular player, and then the player goes to the bench,
you're not watching the guy going to the bench. You're watching
the guy who's coming into the game. He's the substitute. All
eyes are on him. All eyes are on Christ. if he gives us eyes to see, if
we had nothing to do with this thing called salvation, justification,
righteousness. He and also our Lord is right
now at his father's right hand, interceding for us, that is praying
for us and meditating or mediating on our behalf of his dear people. Right now. So I feel like he's
far away. Well, it's usually us. We're
the ones that have, you know, turned our back or walked away.
Like I said, this flesh is, it's so diabolical. It's just unbelievable. But this, listen to what we're
called. He's delivered his people. He's called his people. Listen
to some of these, what he calls us. We are called in Psalms 18,
Deuteronomy 32, Zechariah 2, we are called the apple of his
eye, the apple. That's the most sensitive, precious
part of the eye. We are called his sheep. And, you know, we think sheep,
we think we're pretty smart. Not really, not really. We are
called his brethren. He's not ashamed to call us brethren. He calls us his friends. This
is the thrice holy God conversing and delighting to hear from his
people. We are called his sons and daughters.
All these phrases are tender. We're kings and priests unto
our God. And I could go on and on. But
when, you know, sin has you brought low or situations or trials or
tribulations or hard times, Just remember, He has delivered you
out of darkness. And sometimes we want more. But
I'm the kind of person that when everything is against you, you
go back to the most simple things. I am His and He is mine. And I go to the songs of Solomon
a lot. He's altogether lovely. And you just start thinking about
those passages, the six or seven verses. He's lovely. His lockets are thick. Just all these things that He
is to His people. That He is to His people. And
this is all solely due to the worth and work and accomplishments
of our great Emmanuel, Christ the Lord. Once again, let's look
at some more obvious truths in 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter, that passage,
1 Peter 2 and verse 9, but you are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should show
forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light." Now not to, it talks about in the
Old Testament that there are people who are walking by the
light, by the sparks of the light of their own flame. And that's
not what we're talking about here. We're talking about walking
in his light. Walking in his light. But what a We're a chosen
generation. We're not proud of that. It's
amazing. A royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a peculiar people. These are all wonderful titles
that he gives to those who were walking in darkness, and now
he's been given grace, too, to walk in marvelous light. Once again, obvious truths. Oh,
brethren, how our sovereign loads us daily with benefits. We just don't look enough. We
got our Bibles, probably, I don't know how many I've got at home.
How many do you have at home? And they just sit there. And
they just sit there closed. Everything He reveals to us,
He reveals through His Word by the Holy Spirit. Let us, as one
writer said, let us dig deeper in the mind of grace. And yes,
go back to those simple things that always come back. You know,
the thief on the cross, Lord, remember me, and you're going
to be with me. But he acknowledged what he was.
He said, you know, the other guy, be quiet. We are here indeed
justly. He owned up to his sin. There's
the difference. A true person, man, woman, boy
or girl, who is convicted, convinced of sin and righteousness will
own up to what they are. And then there's a fountain opens,
what Zachariah says. Well, I got three more points
and these were the main reason why I looked at this message,
but I got sidetracked. These are directly from William
Mason. These are good. Now remember,
we're delivered from the power of darkness. Darkness, that's
the key, darkness. First of all, the Lord saved
us from the dominion of sin, which is darkness. Turn to John
chapter 1. Verse five, this then is the
message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that
God is light and in him is no darkness. If we say that we have
fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not
the truth. Our Lord has saved us from the
dominion of sin, which is called darkness. Secondly, our Lord
has saved us from the dominion of Satan, Ephesians chapter six,
which is called the prince of darkness, right? Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 12, For we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against
the spiritual wickedness in high places. He has not only saved
us from the dominion of sin, which is darkness. He has saved
us from the dominion of Satan, who is the prince of darkness.
And lastly, he has saved us from the damnation of hell, which
is outer darkness. Matthew chapter 25 and verse 30. Let's start in verse 29. For unto everyone
that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance, And
from him that hath not shall be taken away, even that which
he hath, and cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. There is a heaven and there is
a hell. But our Lord has saved us from
each one of these darknesses, sin, Satan, and hell. We are called and delivered.
These are past tense. That tells me it's accomplished. He hath delivered. He hath called. It tells me it's accomplished.
It tells me it's finished. It tells me it's complete. Now
this is from George Whitfield. I usually don't read these guys
in the morning before I preach, but this was too good. This was
too simple. But to me it was very profound.
I'm gonna read it. What good is a savior that doesn't
save? What good is a redeemer that
doesn't redeem? Or, this is the part that just,
I've never looked at it this way. It's amazed me. We know
the story of Jacob's Ladder. That's another one of Bible classes
back when I was a kid that I remember, Jacob's Ladder. It says it reaches,
in Genesis, and you can look at this when you go home, Genesis
28 verse 12, it specifically says it starts from heaven and
it reaches T-O-P, top, the top of heaven. And Whitefield said
this, what good is a ladder if it doesn't reach the top? I just never thought about that.
Out there doing work at the house, get up on a ladder, I make sure
that it's going to get me where I need to go. What good is a
ladder that does not reach the top or does not reach heaven?
And Christ, as we know from John chapter 1 and verse 53, Christ
is that ladder. That's what He says. Descending
and descending on the Son of Man. So every time you go get
a ladder, you think about this. Such a simple, but a profound,
there's a message there, I just got it this morning, so I'll
look this over some more, but what good is a ladder that doesn't
reach to the top, that doesn't do what you want it to do? Oh,
do you, I close, do I, do we know and believe these obvious
truths? that he's done it all and that
we can do nothing at all. Everything and nothing goes perfectly
well together. I ask you, I ask me, I tell me,
I beseech you to look to him, not to yourself. Trust only in
and upon him, not religious traditions, not what mom and dad, unless
your mom and dad preach the gospel, but that's not what They said,
what does the scripture say? Trust only in him, not in someone
else. What someone else has believed,
you can't believe for someone else. They have to believe for
themselves. Believe on Christ for yourself. And may he be our all and in
all. May the Lord bless the preaching
and the reading of his word. Bruce, would you close us please? Thank you.