Come back with me to Colossians
chapter one, Colossians chapter one. I want to focus on verses
21 to 23 this morning with the title Enemies Reconciled. There are few more heartwarming
themes than the theme of reconciliation, aren't there? You know, occasionally
you hear about it in the news. You hear about nations being
reconciled, you hear about long lost siblings being reconciled,
children and parents being reconciled. It's a wonderful heartwarming
theme. When those who were close friends,
for whatever reason, maybe a fallout, maybe something, nothing that
either of them did, but they're separated and they have no contact
for years, and then they're reunited. and the tears flow, the tears
of gladness flow that there's been reconciliation it's a lovely
heartwarming theme now here in these verses in Colossians chapter
one Paul shows us that we who in Adam now think about this
you know Adam the first one created in Adam we walked with God in
Eden before the fall. He walked in perfect communion
with God in the Garden of Eden. But then, because of sin, an
enormous chasm was opened up, an unbridgeable chasm as far
as mankind is concerned, an unbridgeable chasm. But if we're in Christ,
we're reconciled. Where we were enemies, where
we were, as Paul says in Ephesians, children of wrath even as others,
he in Christ has reconciled his people to him. Now having shown
us the majesty of Christ, in the previous verses, 15 to 20,
he shows us who this one is, who this one who was born in
a stable in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago, who came according to everything
the prophets had said, that he who grew as a man, as a carpenter's
apprentice, who lived in the village of Nazareth, that he
was the Lord of glory, that he was the promised Messiah, that
he was the son of David, the one who would come from David,
who David said, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit at my right
hand till I make your enemies your footstool. David's Lord
and yet David's son, what think ye of Christ? This one is the
glory of God. He is the outshining of God.
He is the image of the invisible God. He is the creator. He, to
creation, is all things. He has created all things. All
things were created By him and for him it says. Why? Because
on the canvas of creation God paints the glorious picture of
grace. He unfolds the story of grace. He's preeminent in all things.
He's before all things. In Him all things consist. As
Hebrews says, He upholds all things by the word of His power.
He is the head of His body. As the body of people who believe
cannot function without a head, He is that head. And they're
united together. And it pleased God. How would
we know all of the fullness of God? We know it in Christ and
in Him alone. The scriptures are they that
speak of Him. He who has seen Christ has seen
the Father. He is the very Word of God, the
outshining of his being, of his person. And he is the one who
came, not just on an excursion, but for a specific purpose. The
one whose name was Jesus, Joshua, was called Jesus because he would
save his people from their sins. Joshua is the Hebrew word, Jesus
is the Greek same word. That's why his name was Jesus.
He would save his people from their sins. Not he would make
salvation possible, but he would save his people from their sins. And how does he do it? Verse
20, he made peace through the blood of his cross. He made peace. What a majestic person we have
here. And then we go on. You see, his
purpose is to reconcile. Where sin has brought about separation,
and a chasm, and a split, and a division, what Christ came
to do has reconciled. To reconcile all things unto
himself. By him I say whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven. The purpose of Christ
is reconciliation. of a fallen creation with a holy
God. Not all men without exception,
but those he is determined to save from before the beginning
of time. Now read with me verses 21 to
23. And you, who's he talking about? You believers, you believers
at Colossae. You that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death. to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight, if ye continue
in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel which ye have heard, and which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made
a minister." Four things then, alienated, reconciled, presented,
and continuing. Those are the four things in
those three verses. You believers, you believers,
you, you believers, before you believed, you were alienated
and enemies. Now what is it to be alienated? What is it to be an alien? I
know I've asked this question before. I'm still not sure if
it's true because I don't remember seeing it the last time I went
to the United States, but it used to be 20 or more years ago
when you entered the United States, there'd be a big notice, you
know, like there is a at British ports and airports, is, are you
an EEC citizen, therefore you go through this green channel,
and if you're not, you go through this red channel. Well, as you
used to go into the United States, there used to be a big sign that
said, are you an alien? And you know, you have these
visions of some extraterrestrial alien. No, it just means, are
you a foreigner? Are you somebody who has no birth
or naturalization right to be there? If you're British, then
as much as you might love America or not, I'm not saying anything,
I'm just being completely neutral about this, you might love America
but as far as American law is concerned if you're British you
are an alien you're a foreigner you have no right to be there,
they'll let you visit for a while but you have no right to go and
live there and set up in business and so on and so forth but as
aliens to the USA you might not be alienated from it We're aliens
to the USA, but we have lots of friends there. We love aspects
of it, just like our own country and society. There's aspects
of it we love and other aspects that we don't particularly like,
and the same with there. We may be aliens, but we're not
alienated. Alienated is something in the
mind and the affections. It's a kind of a despising. We're
not set in opposition to it. That's what it is to be alienated.
It's to be set in opposition to it, in your mind, in your
affections. Paul says that in our natural
state, we were alienated from God. We weren't just foreigners. We didn't like him. We didn't
like the things of God. We wanted nothing to do with
the things of God. That's what it is to be alienated,
set in opposition to God. Now this isn't how man was created. In the beginning, when God created
the heavens and the earth he created man perfect and put him
in the garden of Eden and made him a wife from his own side
made him a wife so that together they walked in perfection in
the perfection of holiness and sinlessness in the presence of
God in that paradise that God had created for them and I know
there's a lot of symbolism there but there's a lot of literalism
as well they lived in this perfect fellowship harmony with the God
of the universe who had created them. Lovely, lovely fellowship. You remember a few weeks ago
when we were in Revelation and we were looking to the end of
all things in Revelation 21 and 22 and there were echoes of that
Eden paradise but in the paradise of God that is going to be more
blessed than Eden. Because in the paradise that
God is going to create, and is creating, and is making for us
now, to take us there, there will be no possibility of a fall
from grace. There will be no possibility
of disobedience, because we will be made perfect in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Paradise restored is what we're
going to. But you see, there in Eden, there
was paradise. But in Adam's sin, when he sinned,
when he of his own volition and deliberately listened to the
voice of his wife and the voice of the serpent, when he did that,
knowing what he was doing because he didn't want to be separated
from the woman he loved, when he did that, all were made sinners
in him. Let me read you some verses from
Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5 and verse 12. as by one man, that's Adam as
by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so
death passed upon all men for all have sinned verse 17 for
if by one man's offense, Adam's offense, death reigned by one
much more they which receive abundance of grace and the gift
of, the gift of righteousness The gift of righteousness shall
reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Verse 19. For as by one man's
disobedience many were made sinners, we are all sinned in Adam. So
by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Do you
say it's unfair? that because Adam sinned, why
am I counted a sinner? I wasn't there, I wasn't walking
in Eden when he made that decision. Is that unfair? And you know,
you might think that's a reasonable complaint to make. Well, are
you not a sinner? Am I not a sinner? Yes, of course
I am. Doesn't the outworking of it
prove the fact of its truth? That in the beginning all were
made sinners in Adam. And what is the consequence of
it? It's alienation. You were alienated. You who were
Originally, in creation, in perfect harmony with God, you are alienated. You who were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.
See, alienation is what comes from sin. Enemies is what comes
from sin. Sin makes us the enemies of God. The enemies of God. It estranges
us from God. Why? Because of the very nature
of God. If you have any glimpse, through
the Holy Spirit teaching you, through the scriptures, about
the nature and person and being of God, you will know this. He's
holy. He is not just better than we
are, he is absolutely, perfectly pure. And by virtue of his nature,
he cannot tolerate anything which is impure. near him, with him,
he's of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. We must be separated
from him. He cannot abide sin, he cannot
tolerate it. His law, his perfect justice
must punish it. And so there's a chasm that in
and of ourselves and of our own efforts is impossible to bridge. Do you remember that parable
that Jesus told about the rich man and Lazarus in after they'd
died, and Lazarus who was the poor beggar is in glories in
heaven in Abraham's bosom. And the rich man who'd fared
sumptuously, it said, all his life was in torment in hell.
Now, don't go working out from this, this is the way it is in
eternity, that people in hell are kind of crying out to people
in heaven. That's not the purpose of the parable. The purpose of
the parable is to teach us this, that there is an unbridgeable
chasm. You know, as we saw in Revelation, in chapter 22, when
it says, he who is filthy, let him continue to be filthy. The
way you enter eternity in respect of God and his righteousness
is the way that you will remain for eternity. If you're cleansed
by the blood of the Lamb, you're cleansed for all eternity. If
you go there with your own righteousness, your own filthy rags, you will
be in them for all eternity in hell. This is what this parable
is teaching. And the rich man cries out to
Abraham, there was an article in last week's bulletin by Joe
Terrell about not praying to anybody other than God, and he
used that as an example. But Abraham says back to him,
I cannot bridge this gap. I cannot bridge it. It's too
wide. You cannot come across. There
is a chasm set between us that you cannot cross. How much alienated
are we as sinners in our natural state? Do you acknowledge that
in your flesh, as we are, we are alienated from God? That
you look around, the flesh by which I mean the minds, the opinions,
the outworking of those we come across day by day. We ourselves
in our flesh, let's not be holier than thou, we ourselves in our
flesh, in our flesh we are alienated from these things. We're alienated
from the image of God. For in the beginning, how did
God create man? Let us, said the triune God,
let us make man in our own image. man, you and me, human beings
were created in the image of God but by sin we're alienated
from the image of God you know it says in Ecclesiastes that
as the tree falls so it lies, you know it's a big heavy thing
isn't it a tree once a tree's fallen down you need some serious
machinery to shift it you can't shift it yourself it's just too
big in other words the way things end up lying that's the way they
continue We're fallen from the image of God. We're alienated
from the image of God. And that's the way it stays in
the flesh. We're alienated from the knowledge of God. Oh that
I might know him, said Paul. And Jesus Christ whom he has
sent. Oh that I might know him. That I might know that I am in
him. We're alienated by sin from the knowledge of God. Oh that
they might know him. that they might know him. Look
at this, what Jesus said in John 17. He said the knowledge of
God, to know God, do you know God? Do you know God? The knowledge
of God is eternal life. That's what he said. This is
life eternal. These are the words of Jesus.
This is life eternal. That they might know thee, the
only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Because
how do we know God? Through Jesus Christ. But ignorance
of God, ignorance of God, which is the state of everyone outside
of Christ and outside of the belief of God, ignorance of God
is alienation from God. Ephesians 4 verse 18, alienated
from the life of God. Why? Through the ignorance that
is in them. The ignorance. You know people
all around you, loved ones, friends, relatives, colleagues at work,
alienated from the life of God through ignorance. They have
no knowledge of God. We're alienated from the knowledge
of God, and the knowledge of God is life. As with Israel,
a veil of ignorance lies on the heart. You know, that's what
Paul said, that the Israelites, they've got the scriptures, yet
when they read them, it's just like they're just looking through
a fog, they can't see clearly. Satan blinds the minds of those
who don't believe. The God of this world, says 2
Corinthians 4 verse 4, the God of this world hath blinded the
minds of them which believe not. Knowledge. We're alienated from
the knowledge of God. Thirdly, were alienated by sin
from the life of God because in Ephesians 2 and verse 1 Paul
says that outside of belief in Christ all men naturally are
dead, dead not sick, dead in trespasses and sins, with no
life, with no will, as dead as a dead body is dead. As far as
the relationship with God is concerned, we're alienated from
the life of God and dead in trespasses and sins, naturally hating the
life of God. And then, fourthly, we're alienated
from the will of God. You think about it. The flesh
is naturally alienated from the will of God, naturally, in terms
of what it wants to do and doesn't want to do, opposed to God's
word, opposed to God's law, opposed to God's truth. And all of this
leads to enmity, alienation, enmity, enmity, separation, being
enemies opposed to one another. In your mind, verse 21, in your
mind by wicked works. In your mind by wicked works.
It comes from the mind, how you're thinking. This alienation from
God, in your mind by wicked works. I'll use an example to give you
an idea. Marguerite's in our congregation
and Marguerite hails from Germany, so please don't take any offense
at my illustrations that I use about the Second World War. But,
you know, if you look back, if you read history and you look
back at drama and you talk to aged parents who are still alive,
you think how British people felt about Nazi Germany in 1941. And do you know how you could
sum it up? enmity. It was enmity. It was
bitter enmity. Everything, everything most British
people thought about Nazi Germany in 1941 was just pure hatred
for what they knew that Hitler and his regime intended to do
to the free world. It was enmity. It's complete
incompatibility. It was the idea that if you came
across anybody that was from that country you had to do something
to stop them perpetuating the desires of that country. Enmity. Enmity. No desire for any fellowship
whatsoever. No. In the same way the natural
mind is at enmity with God. I only use that as an illustration
of what it's like, the alienation of the natural mind from the
things of God. No desire for the things of heaven,
none whatsoever. You know, you say, oh, isn't
everybody going to go to heaven when they die? You know, this
is what religious people try to make out. No, it isn't. You
imagine that if those who want nothing to do with the things
of God in this life go to heaven, they'll hate it. They'll hate
it. They've got no desire for it. They've got no thought of
the things of the living God. They've got no desire to be there.
Where the psalmist calls out about his longing to be in the
courts of the living God, the natural man in his alienation
from God has got no desire to be there. This enmity is seated
in the mind. As it says in Proverbs, as a
man thinks, so he is. The carnal mind, says Romans
8, 7, the carnal mind is enmity against God. It's the enemy of
God, utterly opposed to everything to do with God. Why? For it is
not subject to the law of God. Neither, indeed, can be. That
doesn't mean that the law of God doesn't call it to account,
but it means that in its own willing and doing, it can't ever
be conformed and subject to the law of God, the purposes of God,
the holiness of God. Only the atoning grace of God
can turn an enemy. into a friend. Only that. Now
let's look at the second point. You who were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he, God,
reconciled. He's reconciled. Yet now hath
he reconciled. What does that mean? What is
it to be reconciled? He's removed the separating alienation
and enmity. How has he done it? Well, he's
done it in He's done it in legal correctness, which I'll come
to in a moment, but I'm talking particularly at the moment about
how does he bring about reconciliation in your heart and mind? First
of all, he brings conviction of sin. This is it. You know, this easy believism
that's been around for so long in so-called evangelical religion,
you know, it's just religious adultery, it's just not the truth.
He must bring conviction of sin, first of all. I know I keep quoting
it, but that hymn, A Sinner is a Sacred Thing, the Holy Ghost
has made him so, has brought him to know something, a glimpse
of how holy is God, and what it must be like as a sinner.
who in very heart and mind and thoughts and affections is alienated
from the things of God to stand in his presence and know what
God must do for God is a God of justice and truth and holiness
and how God must condemn me what I am by nature in my flesh how
I stand justly guilty, not just, oh, spitefully guilty, no, justly
guilty of colossal offense against the holy person of God, of utter
incompatibility between me as I am and God who is holy, like
opposite poles of strong magnets that will not have anything to
do with each other, it's that kind of repulsion And I become
burdened under the conviction that the Holy Spirit brings.
I become burdened with a sense that I am unfit for the presence
of God. Like Bunyan's pilgrim was conscious
of a great burden on his back. And I'm weary. And I'm heavy
laden. And I don't know what I can do
about it. And I'm mourning over my sin. I regret it. I long for
the time before the fall in Eden when I could walk with the God
who created me. What a blessed state that is
to come into, to be under the conviction of sin, because God
always brings with it not just the remorse and the repentance,
but with it he brings yearnings for peace with God. Oh, that
I might know peace with God. Oh, that I might know that it
is well with my soul. God says through Jeremiah 31
and verse nine, they, his people, they shall come with weeping
and with supplications will I lead them. They're not only sorrowful
over their sin and repentant, but they, they come with pleadings
to God to be reconciled. Think of some examples. You remember
Jesus pointed out the tax collector, despised by Jewish pharisaicals,
the religious elite despised and rejected the tax collectors
who they regarded as stooges working for the Roman Empire.
And they despised them and they hated them. and there's a tax
collector, of the religious folks most despised, and he's standing
at the wall of the temple, and he's beating his breast, because
he's conscious of his sin, and his prayer? God be merciful to
me, the sinner. As if he was the only one. God
be merciful to me, the sinner. Think of the prodigal son in
the parable. He goes away. He wastes his father's inheritance
that he's given him. He ends up with all his fair
weather friends gone and he's feeding the pigs and he says,
I will come back to my father and at least I can see if possibly
he'll have me back as a hired servant. I know I don't deserve
anything better. And he comes back longing to
be reconciled to the father that he's so offended. the penitent
thief on the cross oh how lovely Luke's the only one that records
this Luke is the only one that records it the penitent thief
on the cross who all his life had spent his life in utter opposition
to the law of God and the things of God and the people of God
and he'd been a violent unpleasant man and he was getting his just
desserts under the law of God as it stood under the law of
the land as it stood then And in that moment, God opens his
eyes and shows him who this one was that was dying next to him
and why he was dying. Lord, be merciful to me. When
you come into your kingdom, this day, I say to you, verily, verily,
you shall be with me in paradise. You see, reconciliation. He's
longing to be reconciled. He's conscious of his sin, but
Lord, be merciful to me. This day, you shall be with me
in paradise. There's conviction. and there's
a prayer for mercy. How does reconciliation commence? Think about reconciliation between
parties in this world, in this life, either nations, nations
who are at war or tribes, factions within, between nations, think
how reconciliation starts or alienated members of a family,
you know there's been some big family feud and two brothers
have fallen out bitterly and years and years and years go
by and they hate each other and they long for the downfall of
the other one and the day comes when, I don't know how, but you
know you can make up your own story, when the time comes that
they're reconciled. How does it happen? One party
must initiate it. One party must initiate it. We're naturally stubborn and
bitter. You know you often hear people
who've had a fallout. And you'll hear them say, and
I often think, gosh, that's a very harsh thing to say. You hear
them say, I will never forgive him for that. And I think, you
know, they say, never say never. Oh boy, that's a hard thing to
say. I will never forgive him for that. Oh, that's a hard heart
that says that. No, no, no. There's got to be
movement on one party for reconciliation to take place. The sinner's reconciliation
to God must come, can only come, from God himself. He designed
the Council of Peace before time began. He did it. He designed
that Council of Peace. In what? In the Covenant of Grace.
Who were the parties to the Covenant of Grace? the persons of the
Godhead. What did we have to do with it
if we're his believing people? We were completely passive in
it because there was no will on our part to do anything. He
did everything. He made us willing in the day
of his power to embrace that covenant of mercy and grace that
he formulated in what's called the Council of Peace. Let me
read you a couple of verses from Zechariah. Zechariah says, And
speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying,
Behold the man whose name is the branch. That's in capital
letters. Do you remember Isaiah talked about the branch? Chapter
11, verse 1, the branch growing up out of the roots, the root
of Jesse, talking of Christ. Behold the man whose name is
the branch, and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall
build the temple of the Lord. It's not what Christ did. We
saw it in Revelation. He's building the temple of the
Lord in heaven, that enormous great cube. pictorially, symbolically,
heaven, the temple of the Lord, the presence of God. Even he
shall build the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory,
and shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be, he who
is a king, shall be a priest upon his throne, and the council
of peace shall be between them both. The council of peace. The council of peace. The plan
of redemption. The plan of redemption? the scroll
of God's eternal purpose to redeem his elect by making satisfaction
through Christ. I saw the scroll, said John,
and I wept much. Why? Because there was no one
able to unloose the seals and to implement the plan. And one
of the elders said to me, don't weep, look at the lion of the
tribe of Judah. Christ speaking of Christ. And
I looked and I saw a lamb as it had been slain because the
lion of the tribe of Judah accomplishes his work of redemption in the
person, the being of the Lamb of God. Reconciliation, effected
by blood. Look at verse 20 again. Having
made peace. That's reconciliation. Through
the blood of his cross. By him. That peace is for the
purpose of reconciling all things to himself, and you even, you
believers, were sometime alienated and enemies, yet now hath he
reconciled. He's removed the enmity. How
has he removed it? By making legal satisfaction
for it. He's made it legally sound in
divine justice. How has he done that? The law
says, the soul that sins, it shall die. And Christ, united
with his people in the covenant of grace, he came and did that
which we cannot do in our own strength, and that is die according
to the requirements of the law as sinners. He died He, the perfect
Lamb of God, He, the one who was tested by the law of God
for 33 years, He died the death that was due to His people as
a substitute, as a surety, in the place of. He died that death
and His blood which as the book says Deuteronomy says the life
is in the blood and when he shed his blood he poured out his life
which is the penalty of sin for that's what he did to remove
it he removed the enmity He made it legally sound, but he made
it felt in the heart. Look at Ephesians 2, if you will. Ephesians 2, 14-18. For he is our peace, who hath
made both... He's talking about Jews and Gentiles
here, but he's saying Christ is the peace of both. There's
not two different ways of getting to God. He is our peace, who
hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of
petition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even
the law of commandments containing ordinances, for to make in himself
of twain one new man, so making peace, and that he might reconcile
both, Jews and Gentiles, unto God, how in one body, by the
cross, having slain the enmity thereby. Romans 5 verse 10. When we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of his Son. This is inward reconciliation
of heart and affection. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, you
know those well-known words, to wit, at the end of chapter
five of 2 Corinthians, to wit that God was in Christ reconciling
the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and
hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. What's the
word of reconciliation? It's the gospel of grace. There
is reconciliation with an offended God. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, preachers,
We pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God, because
there's a solid basis. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. This all leads to joy. Joy in
God through our Lord Jesus Christ is what Romans 5.11 says. Joy
in... In other words, the reconciliation
isn't just there, it's felt. It's felt in the inner being.
This is what Proverbs means when it says, my son, give me your
heart, give me your affections and your desires. My heart is
fixed, O God. My affections are set on things
above. As chapter 3 and verse 2 of Colossians
says, set your affection, your desires, your longings, your
wants on things above, not on the things of the earth. This
inward reconciliation makes otherwise pressed men, those who are forced,
into willing volunteers in the service of God, experiencing
the love of Christ, constraining us, experiencing and feeling
reconciliation in the heart. It purges our conscience from
dead works to serve the living God. Assurance is mine through
faith, belief of the truth, trust in Christ, and all that he has
accomplished." We're reconciled by what Christ has done. But
then, and I'll be quick, I'll be very quick, presented, he
says, in verse 22, in the body of his flesh through death, he's
done this, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. Let me be very quick, but listen
carefully. We've seen in Revelation over
those many, many weeks, there's a wedding coming, isn't there?
There's a wedding. There's an eternal marriage supper
of the Lamb. The bride, the people of God,
the church, is made ready. The purpose of God's reconciling
redemption in Christ is, what's his purpose? To present his church. And who's that? You and me, if
we believe. That's the only evidence that
we're on it, amongst it, is that we believe. It's to present his
church, what does it say? Holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. Washed from pollution of sin
in the blood of the Lamb. We read about it in Ezekiel 16.
Washed from the pollution of our own blood in the blood of
the Lamb, which makes whiter than snow. And to him, says Revelation
1, 5 and 7, 14, and to him that loved us and washed us from our
sins in his own blood, he fitted us to be presented in glory. Thy beauty, said that passage
of Ezekiel 16, verse 14, thy beauty was perfect through my
comeliness, which I had put on thee, said the Lord thy God. God has made us fitted in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We're made the righteousness
of God in him. As when the judgment books are
opened, the people of God in Christ will be found unblameable. unreprovable, with imputed righteousness,
with an imparted holiness from God the Holy Spirit, so that,
as Psalm 45 verse 13 says, the king's daughter, his bride, is
all-glorious within. In other words, entirely fitted
for the eternal environment of holiness and bliss. that is heaven
he says in verse twelve of chapter one of Colossians giving thanks
unto the father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in light so he's reconciled us that
he might present us in heaven not in our own righteousness
which is as filthy rags but in that which is his in that cloak
with which he clothes his people made the very righteousness of
God in him what, even those who are really bad? No, yes, all
right, I'm glad to be made the righteousness of God, but those
that are really bad don't get too high in your own opinion
of yourself remember the thief on the cross again, verily this
day you shall be with me you who were such a base criminal
Until this time, you shall be with me in paradise. Now there's
an if, verse 23, and with this I'll finish. If you continue,
if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled and be not
moved on a solid foundation. If you continue, each of you,
individually and responsibly, my faith won't stand for you
any more than your faith will stand for me. If you continue. Now listen, continuing is not
that work which you do in order to be taken to heaven, no. It's
not that God's done his bit and now you have to do yours, no.
Continuing is proof of genuine saving faith. If you have genuine
saving faith, you will continue to the end. God will not let
you go, he cannot let you go. If your faith is true, you will
continue to the end. As Jesus said in Matthew 10,
22, He that endureth to the end shall be saved. And what is the
end of your faith? The end of your faith in this
life, says Peter in his epistle, 1st epistle, chapter 1, verse
9. The end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. I know
I've rushed to get that finished in time. Enemies reconciled. enemies reconciled. What a blessed,
comforting, safe place and state to be in. What a perilous place
to be outside of it. Amen.