So the book of Colossians chapter
one and reading from verse one. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God and Timotheus, our brother, to the saints and
faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colossae, grace
be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. We give thanks to God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since
we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which he
have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you
in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the
gospel. which is come unto you, as it
is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit as it doth also in
you since the day ye heard of it and knew the grace of God
in truth. As ye also learned of Epaphras,
our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister
of Christ, who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. For this cause we also, since
the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire
that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in
all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that ye 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 and to 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 Spirit, 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. in whom we have redemption
through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. A sinner's felt experience of
grace begins at conversion. Now I say his felt experience
because conviction of sin, which generally precedes conversion,
is no less a work of grace, although a sinner is unlikely to recognise
it as such. When the wound of sin is open,
and regret is still fresh, guilt and shame are the predominant
feelings, but let us be aware that these too are from the Lord. It is a blessed thing indeed
if a sinner feels conviction of sin. Conversion changes that
sorrow. Conversion is a transformation
in a sinner's soul whereby guilt is replaced by gratitude and
that gratitude flows from a sense of divine forgiveness. The sinner
discovers mercy and the sinner is granted a hope in the cleansing
power of the blood of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul is the writer
of this epistle to the Colossians. He himself was converted on the
road to Damascus and for him it was a dramatic experience,
a dramatic intervention into his life by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now not every believer's experience
of coming to Christ is as intense as was the apostles. Nevertheless,
men and women are converted when under the influence of divine
grace, their spirits are renewed, their life is changed, old things
pass away, and they're enabled to see the Lord Jesus Christ
as the only fit and able saviour of their souls. The Apostle Paul
testifies of his personal experience several times in his epistles. And he also testifies of the
commission that he received from the Lord at that time. The Lord
not only saved Paul, but he commissioned him to carry that saving gospel. to the Gentiles. He was to be
a minister and a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was to
go to the Gentile nations, the Gentile world, to preach the
transforming gospel of grace that would in turn achieve in
the lives of the people to whom he preached what Christ had effected
in Paul's own life. And so this transformation was
given to Paul, this conversion was Paul's experience and Paul
then took that message and by it there was a transformation
and a conversion in others after he preached amongst them. Paul
was told by the Lord that it would be his responsibility to
open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, from
the power of Satan unto God, that they might receive forgiveness
of sins. The apostle was not disobedient
to that calling and he at once began to minister to bring the
gospel of salvation by grace to those to whom he was sent.
And this is the ministry that the apostle is speaking about
when he writes this epistle to the Colossians. Now we mentioned
yesterday that Colossae was an ancient city in modern day Turkey
and it doesn't appear as if Paul ever visited that city personally
although he was close by. He did send Epaphras there and
he sent Timothy there to preach and it's where Philemon and Onesimus
lived. In this letter, this letter to
the Colossians, Paul tells the Colossians that he is full of
joy for them because he has heard that the faith and love of these
believers, these Gentile believers, is a glory to God. And he shares
with them in the good hope of everlasting life in Jesus Christ. And what I would like to draw
your attention to today is what the Apostle says to these Colossian
believers concerning their conversion and the transformation by God's
grace and particularly to look at what he says in verse 12.
that God hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. So this is really what I want
to concentrate on today, that God hath made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. Now, that little phrase,
made meet, It means to be made acceptable, to be made suitable,
to be made correct. And actually it's a word that
is found very early in the Bible. When the Lord God says in Genesis
chapter 2 verse 18, He says this, He says, It is not good that
man should be alone. I will make him and help meet
for him. Not a help mate but a help meet
for him. One like himself. And the Lord
said this just before he created Eve from Adam's side. Taking a rib from Adam's side
and making Eve as a help meet for the man. A help suitable
for the man. One like himself. or if you like, one just right
for him. We don't use the word meet very
often in this sense, but maybe you know the rather posh phrase,
does this meet with your approval? Well, that's the sense in which
the word meat might be used. Normally we would say, is this
okay? And actually that's precisely
what the Apostle Paul is saying here. He's telling us that God
has made us okay for his presence. We are all right or all righteous. for the presence of God. God has taken away everything
that prevents us meeting him and he has supplied everything
required for us to meet him in a perfectly acceptable way. In the Lord Jesus Christ, we
are holy like him. He has reconciled us to Himself
and everything necessary for our eternal life in glory has
been done for us. So here are three specific things
that the apostle tells us that God has done for us. Firstly,
he has delivered us from the power of darkness. Second, he
has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, And thirdly,
he has redeemed us by blood and forgiven our sins. So three points,
three headings that I'm going to take and just move through
these points. He has delivered us from the
power of darkness. He has translated us into the
kingdom of his dear son. He has redeemed us by blood and
forgiven our sins. And I just love the tenses in
these statements. Did you notice how that they
are all past tense? These are things that are done. This is a completed work that
we are talking about. We're not talking about something
that God is going to do for us. that he is going to deliver us
from the power of darkness, he is going to translate us into
the kingdom of his dear son, or he is going to redeem us and
forgive our sins. These are things that are already
completed. This is a work already done. It was accomplished on the cross
by the Lord Jesus Christ. It isn't provisional, it isn't
conditional. Our meatness for God's presence
is already done. And just before we look at these
three works of God, I'd like us to note too, where the apostle
attributes gratitude and praise for the conversion of the Colossians. Note how Paul thanks God. Throughout this opening chapter
he is always thanking God for the evidence of grace, the evidence
of spiritual life in the Colossians. He is always thanking God for
doing all the work of salvation. Paul never thanks the Colossians
for delivering themselves from the power of darkness or translating
themselves into the kingdom of Christ. That would be foolishness
in the extreme to even think that. And yet the reality is that many
preachers preach as though the experience of conversion, the
experience of grace and securing salvation is a blessing gained
by an act of a person's own will. They preach as though God makes
everybody suitable for heaven, makes everybody fit for heaven,
makes everybody meet for heaven, everybody right and acceptable
for heaven and all that remains is for a man and a woman or a
boy and a girl to take God's provision by an act of their
own free will. Well I hope we're wiser than
to think that. Paul thanks God for saving sinners
and for giving them faith and for all the benefits of salvation. And he does not thank sinners
for choosing God. Now let's look at what God has
done. The first one is this. He has
delivered us from the power of darkness. That is, he has delivered
us from the power of Satan. It takes power to defeat power. And by delivering us from Satan's
power, God shows both that he has will and that he has power
to deliver. And that we don't. He does for us what we cannot
do for ourselves. Satan's power is the power of
darkness. Now darkness is an absence of
light and Satan keeps men's minds in darkness and he binds them. so that they cannot see the light
of Christ. Men and women are not neutral
in spiritual matters, they are in darkness, they are blinded
to spiritual things. We're blind, we're bound and
we're helpless and Satan does not easily let his prey escape
but he keeps the minds of his followers dark. He keeps all
that he holds in thralldom to his will. And it takes an act
of strength on God's part to break Satan's grip and set the
captives free. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
stronger man who enters the strong man's house and spoils his goods. None of us could ever come to
Christ. None of us could come to Christ
for salvation if God did not first deliver us from the power
of darkness by shining gospel light into our souls. Conversion
is an enabling. The Holy Spirit reveals Christ,
the light of the world, to us and He, Christ, is that light
that shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it
not. There is darkness in the soul
of every man and woman. A darkness of sin, a darkness
of ignorance, and a darkness of unbelief. And even God's elect
people, in a state of nature, are afflicted by this darkness. We are slaves to sin, we are
bound up so as to be oblivious to the dangers of judgment and
hell, thoroughly content in our unbelief. And except the Son of Righteousness
should rise in our souls with healing in His wings and break
the captor's power, we shall all, we must all, be eternally
trapped in his web of spiritual darkness, deceit and death. And if someone should say to
me, how is it that Satan is so powerful when God is sovereign? It is because God allows Satan
to exercise this usurped, stolen power over man. God allows him
to continue to use it until the full measure of iniquity has
been brought to completion and the full measure of grace has
been accomplished. The fall brought all men and
women under Satan's rule. and into his kingdom of darkness.
There, all men and women must remain except the Lord shows
mercy and delivers us from condemnation. Satan's power is not outside
of God's control, but it is permitted to continue until the last of
God's elect has been delivered from the power of darkness. So
that is the first thing that I want us to notice. God has
delivered us from the power of darkness. The second one is this. Paul tells us, God has translated
us into the kingdom of his dear son. Now this is a blessed transition,
translation. and transformation. This is what
we call conversion. When we are converted, we are
brought to experience union with the Lord Jesus Christ and we
are brought to experience citizenship in his kingdom. We are members
together with him in his body, the church. Christ's kingdom
is the church. and he is king in his kingdom
over which he rules with love and justice and mercy. It is
blessed to see all the divine persons engaging to accomplish
the salvation of God's elect. And here, the Father's dear son,
in both his divine nature and human nature, is said to be the
son of God's love and pleasure. Why? Because he accomplished
everything that the Father gave him to do and committed into
his care. This is the terms of the covenant
of peace and the Lord Jesus Christ is the beloved son in whom the
father is well pleased because he did all that was commanded
him to do. In time and in eternity the father
is well pleased with his only begotten son. But once again,
we take Paul's words at face value and he tells us that this
act of translation is an act of God and not an act of man. God has translated us into the
kingdom of his son. We cannot make ourselves citizens
in Christ's kingdom by our best will or by our best effort. It
is all of grace and all of God. God designates this body of believers,
the church, as a kingdom with a king. And it shows that it
possesses glory. It is a glorious kingdom upon
earth and in heaven. and the fact that it is depicted
as a kingdom shows that it is strong, that it is ordered, that
it is distinctive and that it is governed and the Lord Jesus
Christ rules and reigns over his possession. His rule is protective
and nourishing for his people. He cherishes us and he blesses
those who are placed by his father into his kingdom. And faith is
the principal characteristic of the citizens of this kingdom. In translating us from Satan's
night into Christ's light, God bestows the gift of faith by
which we are enabled to see and to hear and to feel and to experience
spiritual things. This kingdom isn't imaginary.
It's not an earthly kingdom. But it is a heavenly kingdom
upon earth. It is real. It is formed and
it is established by God. It is populated with believers
and it is enjoyed by faith. And sinners are made meat to
enter it. And they do enter it by faith. We're made meat being joined
with Christ Jesus as his body and with his people in an everlasting
union. Here's the third thing that the
Apostle Paul says. We are redeemed by blood and
forgiven our sins. Again, it is a past act. It is something that transpired
at the cross, it is something that has its history at the cross,
it's a finished work. God the Father secured his people's
deliverance from Satan's kingdom and their transition into the
Son's kingdom by the most exquisite blend of justice and mercy conceivable
this side of eternity. God's justice cannot overlook
sin, nor can his mercy contradict holiness. Therefore a means of
redemption was required and a plan of salvation was necessary to
accomplish God's purpose of grace and to uphold his glory and honour. And God's mercy towards his elect
and God's anger against their sin met at the cross of the Lord
Jesus. And there Jesus fulfilled his
duty as our surety and he suffered in body and soul as our substitute
and he triumphed over death, hell and Satan as our saviour. John tells us, the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. And this precious
blood was spilled so dearly, but it earned so much. Only God could redeem fallen
men by such a purchase. Only He can forgive sins and
He does so upon the merits of the crucified Christ. Our original
sin and our actual sins are cleansed by Jesus' blood. By his redemption
we are free from Satan's grip, delivered from the power of darkness,
escaped from condemnation and ransomed out from under the curse
of the law. Our Lord Jesus Christ has brought
in such a cleansing, such a righteousness, such a holiness, such a purity,
that neither the demands of the law nor the accusations of Satan
have any hold upon us. And maybe somebody will ask,
well what about remaining sin? What about the sin that we feel
in our bodies? What about the sin we feel in
our minds? What about the sin we feel in this flesh? That will
soon be completely gone too. It remains only because we continue
in this flesh until our race is run and our service is complete. and then another transition will
occur. No doubt this transition will
be as glorious as the first when we are carried in the arms of
angels into the presence of our Saviour, never to leave His presence
evermore. Let me ask you, was it a hard
job being translated into Christ's earthly kingdom? neither shall it be a hard work
to be transported into his heavenly kingdom. We shall fall asleep
in the arms of Jesus here upon earth, and we will waken sweetly
in his arms there in glory. Let me mention one more thing
about our forgiveness. Brothers and sisters, you and
I, if we are in Christ, are forgiven all our sins. Every last one
has been taken away. Our original sin is gone, our
actual sins are cleansed, our past sins, our present sins,
our future sins are forgiven. Having been imputed already to
Christ, carried in his body, they will never be remembered
against us forever. Amazing as it is, God sees no
sin in his people. So let me repeat what I said
at the very start. This is all the work of God. He has made us meet for his presence
and he is worthy to be praised. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.