first chapter of the book of
Colossians. It is such a great delight to
be with you again and looking forward to it. This congregation,
your pastor and his family, very dear to myself, my wife, our
congregation in Danville. I have been very much a part
of this assembly since your first meeting together, and thank God
for every remembrance of you, and I believe I have a message
from God for you. Colossians chapter 1. I'll give you the title when
I get done. This letter to the church at
Colossae was written by the Apostle Paul about 30 years after our
Savior died in our stead at Calvary. We don't really know who first
brought the gospel to these people, but Luke tells us in the book
of Acts that he and Paul came through this region preaching
the gospel, and while they were in the region preaching, many
of the Gentiles turned from their idols to worship and serve the
living and true God. After Paul had sown the gospel
in the area, as was common then and is common now, Satan came
sowing tares among the wheat, with which he threatened to choke
out the influence of the word. Wherever Paul preached, that
was the case. Wherever the gospel of Christ
was declared, men came behind him, attempting to subvert the
gospel. attempting to turn those who
had heard and believed away from the simplicity that is in Christ
Jesus. They did so claiming to be God's
servants, claiming to be the messengers of Christ. None came
and said, now, we want you to know that Paul was a deceiver
and we've come as the messengers of Satan to tell you the truth.
They came clothed in sheepskin. They came clothed in an outward
righteousness. They came wearing the name of
the Lord Jesus, preaching righteousness. But the righteousness they preached
was not the righteousness of Christ, but man's righteousness
in one form or another. There were Judaizers who tried
to mix law and grace. always mingling Moses and Christ,
teaching that works must play some part in the saving of our
souls. Now, as is always the case, when
men try to mix works and grace, it's a strange mixture. Works
always comes out on top. All you hear is works. I talked
to a man today who attends a Presbyterian, what is it? Presbyterian Church
of America, PCA Church, and associated with reform folks. And he was
telling me about various things. He had some very serious questions
and seemed to receive instruction well. I talked to him for a long
time on the way down here. I had heard from him earlier,
and I said to him, you correct me if I'm mistaken. You correct
me if I'm wrong, please tell me if I'm wrong. I know lots
of fellows among the people you're talking about where you've been
going to church all your adult life. And I know they claim to
believe what's called Calvinism. They claim to believe the five
points and they get together in their coffee shops and offices
and talk about it and fuss about it and write books about it and
have conferences about it and debate about limited atonement
and predestination and election, all those things. But in the
pulpit, in the pulpit, what you hear Sunday after Sunday after
Sunday after Sunday all the time is how much you ought to read
your Bible, how much time you ought to spend in prayer, how
much time you ought to spend holding your wife's hand every
day, how much time you ought to spend with your children,
how much time you ought to spend doing various things and charitable
causes, what you ought to do with your money. And there was
a lengthy pause, and I said, is that what you hear? And he
said, that's exactly what I hear all the time. Any mixing of works
and grace always comes out to the preaching of works. Always
comes out with you looking to you, depending on you, trusting
in yourself, not looking to Christ. That's the intent of the preaching
of law. That's the intent of the preaching
of works. There were others who came along
who sought to corrupt the gospel by mixing vain philosophy with
the revelation of God given in Holy Scripture, teaching for
doctrine the commandments and superstitions and reasonings
of men, not proclaiming the word of God with authority, but rather
subjecting the authority of the word of God to man's reason and
to history and to precedent and to man's traditions. Some even
taught the veneration. That's a fancy word for the worship. They taught the worship of angels
and of saints. And they taught for mortification,
that in order to mortify the flesh, then if you like salt,
you ought not eat salt. If you don't like it, you ought
to eat a lot of it. For mortification of the flesh, they taught that
you ought to fix it so that you do without some of those things
that you find pleasing to your taste or to your activity. Not
evil things, just you ought to mortify the flesh by depriving
yourself of privileges God's given you in creation. Still
others crept in among God's saints, teaching the proud Gnostic heresy
that salvation is to be obtained by knowledge. Teaching that men
come to Christ by learning. If you learn the right doctrine,
then you've got Christ. You learn the right doctrine,
then you've arrived at salvation. They all preached righteousness.
They all called it the righteousness of Christ. But it was nothing
but a message of works righteousness preached in different ways by
different men, but all coming out to the same thing. Salvation
really, really, when you get right down to it, salvation really
depends on you and what you do. Paul was inspired by God the
Holy Spirit to write to these saints at Colossae after he heard
how things were going by their pastor Epaphras, called Epaphroditus
in Philippians, and he tells us why he wrote this epistle
in verse 23 of this first chapter. He writes to them to urge them
to continue in the faith. grounded and settled, and be
not moved away from the hope of the gospel. Now may God, the
Holy Spirit, whose word we have before us, be our teacher as
we look at this first chapter of the book of Colossians. I
want to call your attention to four things. I'll make four summary
statements that will give you the essence of what's taught
in each section here. First, understand this. Understand
this. God's servants, gospel preachers,
men called and gifted of God to preach the gospel. God's servants
are God's messengers to his church. They're called the angels of
the churches in the book of Revelation. They are God's messengers to
your soul. God's messengers to bring to
you the word of God, whose faith you are to follow, whose instructions
you are to obey. God's servants are God's messengers
to his church, his family. Paul begins with this statement.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timotheus,
our brother. Not Paul the apostle, Paul an
apostle. Now there are no apostles today. I know all around this area like
there is at home, you have all kinds of folks who claim to be
apostles and have apostolic gifts and speak in tongues and healing
and have visions and revelations and all that horse manure. And he's just fake, just fake. There are no apostles today.
But here sits one of God's messengers, and another, and another, and
another. Messengers, that's the essence
of the word. Apostle means messenger. Paul says, I am a messenger of
God. Oh, what a privilege. Oh, what
a high calling. Oh, what a responsibility. Paul,
a messenger, one among many, a messenger of God and a messenger
of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother,
Timotheus, our brother. Though Timothy was not an apostle,
Paul includes him in this opening salutation. because Paul and
Timothy were co-laborers in the cause of Christ, co-laborers
in the gospel, co-laborers in God's vineyard, workers together
for the cause of Christ, workers together for the furtherance
of the gospel, workers together to make Christ known throughout
all the world. That's what we are, brethren.
laborers together as God's messengers to make God known in this generation. An apostle of Jesus Christ by
the will of God and Timothy. You see, in God's kingdom, there's
no such thing as big me and little you. Not in God's kingdom. In
churches and denominations, yes. Not in God's kingdom, not in
God's church. We're one. were God's servants. God's servants
serving God where he put us with the gifts he gave us to serve
him in that place in the day he put us here for the glory
of his son. And Timothy, our brother, now
read on, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ. Now, how could he presume to
say that? How could he presume to say that?
In chapter two, verse one, he says, some of you've never seen
my face. And yet he writes to them and says, I'm writing to
you, the folks at Colossae, saints and faithful brethren. But Paul,
you don't know what they eat. You don't know what they've got
television in their house or not. Paul, you don't know what
color shoes they wear. You don't know how much they
read their Bible. You don't know how much they pray. You don't
know how much money they give. How can you call them saints?
Because if they're in Christ, they're saints. If you're in
Christ, are you in Christ? Has God given you faith in Jesus
Christ? Do you trust God's son for the
whole of your acceptance with God? If so, you are sanctified
in Christ, made holy by God's grace in his son, saints. And all who are made saints are
faithful, faithful brethren, faithful brethren. I love faithfulness. I admire nothing more about the
character of our God than his faithfulness. And I admire nothing
more in any man or woman than faithfulness. Faithful means
you can count on them. Faithful means you can depend
on them. I was preparing this message
driving down here for the Bob Coffey preach for me last Tuesday
night. And I was thinking about Bob.
I remember the first time I met him. First time I met him. Been
a faithful brother. What's that mean? You can count
on it. You can count on it. With Larry Brown, I met him in
1978, I believe. Done a long time, count on it.
You can count on faithful brethren. You can lean on them. You can
depend on them. That's what grace does for people.
God's people are saints, faithful brethren because they are in
Christ. And watch what it says, grace
be unto you and peace. First grace, then peace. Believers seek that which is
best for one another. Believers seek what's best for
one another, grace. Oh, I want you to know the grace
of God. It's grace that saves you and
peace. Peace is that which makes you
to know you're saved. Grace is the root of every blessing. Peace is the flower that sweetens
it all and makes it fragrant. May God give you grace and peace. Watch this, from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. This grace, this peace, like
all spiritual blessings, flow freely to sinners from God our
Father through the mediation, through the merit of Jesus Christ
our Lord. Read on, verse 3. 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 you have to all the saints for the hope which
is laid up for you in heaven where have you heard before in
the word of the truth of the gospel. Paul said we thank God
for these things. It is Epaphras, their pastor,
who's told Paul about them. And when Paul heard about these
saints, these faithful brethren in Christ, and their faith in
Christ, their love to all the saints, the hope they had with
regard to eternity, he takes his pen and writes this epistle
to them, giving thanks, not to them, but to God the Father. And yet, as he speaks of it,
he commends them. I often have folks to ask me,
a fellow just asked me just a few days ago, when the preacher gets
done preaching, should I tell him that the message was a blessing?
Should I compliment him about it? I wouldn't want his head
to swell. I say, well, he won't have any trouble with it. It's
as big as it can get. You don't have trouble with that.
But it's proper, it is right always to commend anyone for
the grace of God manifest in them. Always proper to commend
anyone for anything by which you benefit. I use this illustration. I've been married to the best
cook in the world for 43 years. I know you can't tell that by
looking at me, but my wife is a good cook. And she works hard
at it. She works hard at it. And in
43 years, I don't believe I've ever gotten up from the table
that I didn't say thank you. I don't believe I've ever done
that. Didn't matter whether I had just a toast and eggs for breakfast
or a bowl of cereal or had a lavish meal, because she labored to
do it. And I would let her know, I appreciate
what you've done for me. Yes, Paul here commends these
saints, these faithful brethren, For the love God gave them. For
the faith God gave them. For the hope God gave them. And
it's right that we do so. He commends them for these marvelous
gifts of grace. Faith is that gift of grace that
unites us to Christ and gives us peace with God. Love is that
gift of grace that unites us to one another and gives us peace
with one another. Hope. Hope is that gift of grace
that unites us to heaven and eternity and gives us peace. The hope laid up for you in heaven. Don't you like to think about
that? Soon, I'm going home. And I love to think about it.
I hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into
the heart of man, the things God's prepared for them that
love him. Oh, I wonder what it shall be like. It's a hope laid
up for you in heaven. A friend of mine, Brother Jim
Jemczyk, I've never met him. He was a professional golfer,
and he was in a car accident, lost his right arm. He lives
in Tippie, Arizona. When I first had correspondence
with him, he was making ping golf clubs. And he always signs
his notes to me in his grip, in his grip. Well, Jim and a
mutual friend were talking to a fellow concerning the gospel
of God's grace, a preacher. And this friend of Jim's knew
that he was dying. And the preacher got real upset.
And he said, well, if you knew you were going to die tonight,
what would you do? And the fellow smiled real big. He said, go
home, go to bed early. The hope laid up for you in heaven. Oh, what a prospect. Read on,
verse five. Where have ye heard before this
faith and hope and love in the word of the truth of the gospel,
which is coming to you as it is in all the world and bringeth
forth fruit as it doth in you? When men and women hear the gospel
in the power of God, it brings forth fruit, faith, and hope,
and love. Faith and hope and love. Faith in Christ. Hope with regard
to heaven. And love for all the saints. Now just exactly how is it that
they could have loved all the saints? They didn't know them
all. But Paul says they did. Love
all the saints. You see, brethren love one another. We love the brethren, calls the
brethren. and we love the saints because they're saints. Our love
for one another is not based upon personality. Our love for
one another is not based upon what we mutually receive from
one another, mutual benefits from one another. I came here
tonight and you folks treated me like I was somebody. You greeted
me like I was just a long, long lost brother just now came home. And that's the way it is. That's
the way it is. We are, we're family. But the thing that connects
us It's not because we just happen to have personality agreements.
That man's in Christ. But this man's in Christ. That
woman's in Christ. That woman's in Christ. And in Christ we're
one. And we love the Redeemer. And
if I love the Redeemer, I love everything about Him. That even
includes you. They love all the saints. You've
heard this, it brings forth fruit in you since the day you heard
it, in truth, in reality. Now watch this, verses seven
and eight. When I read these two verses preparing this message,
I just, oh, I rejoiced. Here the Holy Spirit inspired
Paul to commend to this church their beloved pastor. and thereby
encourage them to highly esteem their pastor and to hear it.
As ye also learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant." Epaphras. You'd have to read the book of
Colossians to find out there was such a fellow. Who ever heard
tell of Epaphras? What did Epaphras write? Where
did Epaphras preach? What's his background? What's
his family like? You don't know anything about him, except what
Paul here says about him. That's all you know about him.
Our dear fellow servant, who is for you, not to you, who is
for you. See that man right there? He
is for you, for you. a faithful minister of Christ,
a faithful servant of Christ, who also declared unto us your
love in the spirit. Here's Epaphras, he is fellow
servant with what we call the greatest preacher who ever lived.
Fellow servant with what we call the greatest of all the apostles.
Fellow servant with that man, Paul, who was used of God to
write the vast majority of the New Testament. Everybody knows
Paul's name. Nobody knew Epaphras' name. Fellow
servant. You see, God's servants are not
rivals. We're not in competition with
each other. Some time back, Brother Todd, my daughter's pastor, my
friend, had to tear out the walls of the building and expand it
to accommodate the congregation because God's adding to the ministry
there. And I heard some fellas talking one time. What's he doing?
What's he doing? What's different? As if somehow
or another, either he's doing something wrong or I am. He's God's servant. Servant where
God? I don't know if any place else
had tearing walls out. You had tearing walls out lately? I haven't
had to. Oh, well, we got to do something
about that. Yeah, send some more folks. Send some more folks. Fellow servants, we're not in
competition with each other. We're not rivals to one another.
I'm not responsible for what God's given him to do. And you're
not responsible for what God's given me to do. We are laborers
together in the cause of Christ. Watch what Paul says about this
man Epaphras. He is the faithful minister of Christ. The faithful
minister of Christ. The word is servant. This man
Epaphras, this dear man, that God has given for you, is for
you, a faithful minister. You can depend on him, he's gonna
serve Christ. You can depend on him, he's gonna
tell you about Christ. You can depend on him, he's going
to represent Christ well to you. And then he speaks to this man,
Epaphras, and tells them how their pastor, tells these Colossian
saints, how their pastor spoke to Paul about them. Wouldn't you like to know what
your pastor says about you when you're not around? Wouldn't you
like to know how a preacher talks about you? Epaphras spoke to
Paul about their faith and their love for all the saints and their
hope of eternity. John, he spoke only good about
God's people. Only good about them. That's
all. That's all. I've had the privilege
of pastoring a few of God's saints in Denver, Kentucky for 33 years. And I'm determined that you hear
me speak about them or they hear me speak about each other. they're
not going to hear anything but good. I'm not going to say anything
bad about them, even if I know it. I'm not going to tell you. How come? Because I love him.
This man faithfully serves God's people. And he speaks to Paul
not about their weaknesses and their inconsistencies or their
lack of doing this, lack of doing that, I'm so tired of this, that.
No, no, no, no, no. He spoke to Paul about their
faith and their hope and their love and these men who were attempting
to subvert their souls. What can I do to help them? And
Paul writes this letter. You see, grace teaches us to
honor our brethren. Grace teaches men and women to
be gracious. You remember what Shem and Japheth
did when their brother Ham came and said, look here boys, let
me show you who daddy really is. I've always thought the old
man was a hypocrite. Here he is drunk and naked. Let me show you his shame." And
Sham and Japheth took a covering and went in backwards and covered
up their day, refusing to look upon his shame. That's exactly how we all deal
with each other. That's exactly... Love covers evil. It doesn't
expose it. Love covers it. It doesn't excuse
it. It doesn't justify it. And it doesn't expose it. It
covers it. Just covers it. Refuses to look
upon it. Grace teaches us to extol one
another's virtues. To forgive one another's offenses.
And to help one another. Just pick them up. Just pick them up. What's the
first thing you do if you're walking down the aisle there
and you saw somebody start to stumble? You just reach out and
grab them. Just pick them up. Help them.
God teach me to be that way with God stumbling people all the
time. Helping one another. All right.
Now look at verses 9 through 14. Here's the second section.
And learn this. First, God's servants are his
messengers to his family, his church. Second, God's people,
all of God's people, all God's people are made fit for heaven. Made fit for glory. made fit
to possess everything awaiting us on the other side by the marvelous
works of God's grace in redemption by Christ Jesus. Look at verse
nine through 14. The Lord our God by his almighty
effectual operations of grace has made us fit for heaven. Now
lest you imagine that I've overstated my case. Look at verse 12 first. giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet. The word is fit or worthy to
be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Rejoice, O my brother. Give thanks,
O my sister. God has made you fit for glory. Not he's making you fit for glory.
That's what says his pastor. He's made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in life. All right, now back
down to verse nine. For this cause, we also since
the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire
that you, each one of you, that ye might be filled with the knowledge
of his will. in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. What a prayer. We want you to
be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and
spiritual understanding, that you may 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 patients in long-suffering with
joyfulness. Pastor Epaphras spoke to Paul
in such glowing terms. about these saints that he served,
the Colossae, and Paul picks up his pen and writes to them
and he says, I've been praying for you ever since I heard about
you, that you might be filled with the knowledge of God's will. I've been praying for you. That
God makes you to know his will as it's revealed in the pages
of this book. your pastor's labor for you,
that you might know his will, revealed in this book. We're
responsible, Brother John, to teach God's people what he said
in this book. Let them know his will. In doing
so, make you to know his eternal purpose, so that everything that
comes to pass in time is by the will of God. Everything that
comes to pass in time is by the will of God. You want to know
the will of God for today? Pick up the paper and read what
happened. Whatever comes to pass in time comes to pass according
to God's sovereign eternal purpose of grace and predestination.
And I want you to know God's providential will so that day
by day you see the hand of God in what he does. We tend not
to. We tend naturally to look to
all other causes. Day by day, as you know this
word and walk with God by faith in Christ, as you understand
God's purpose, now recognize that what comes to pass in your
life is that which God has brought to pass for your everlasting
good and for the building of his kingdom. Oh, that we might
be filled with the knowledge of his will. with all wisdom
and spiritual understanding. Wisdom that God alone gives. Spiritual understanding so that
we understand all things in the light of eternity. Understand
all things in the light of the gospel. Understand all things
in the light of Jesus Christ and him crucified. That ye might
walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. Walk worthy of the Lord, pleasing
Him all the time. Either I'm gonna tell you the
truth now or I'm gonna lie to you. Unless I'm deceived of telling
you the truth. Since I was 17 years old, God saved me by his grace. I
have wanted more than anything on this earth to honor him. And I want to live on this earth
in such a way as reflects his honor and brings honor to him,
pleasing him. And I know full well I've never
done anything that meets the standard. Nothing. Nothing. Well, let me take that back.
Yes, I have. Yes, I have. I read in the book
about a man named Enoch who walked with God. He went to work and
punched the clock, and he loaded freight, eight hours, put in
four hours overtime, checked out, and started walking home
tired, and he walked into glory. He just was translated. And before
it was translated, he had this testimony. He had this testimony,
not from men, but from God, that he pleased God. I had the testimony of God in
my soul that I please Him. How can that be? And without
faith, it's impossible to please Him. Do you believe God? To live in this world, believing
God is to please Him. To live in this world, believing
on the Son of God is to please Him. To walk worthy of God unto
all please Him. You see, our acceptance with
God is not in ourselves. It's in our substitute, the Lord
Jesus. Ecclesiastes 9, verse 7, the
wise man says, Go home now and eat your bread, drink your wine
with a merry heart. For God now accepteth thy works. You mean God accepts me eating
supper? The most ordinary, mundane things
of life? God accepts me I saw Bob pick
up his granddaughter a little bit ago and just smile real big
because she wanted him to. You mean God accepts you being
a good granddaddy? And God's pleased with that? God accepts your ordinary, everyday
work? Yeah. He accepts us in the totality
of our lives. For he accepts us in his son.
Lives lived unto God. Read on, read on. Being fruitful
in every good work. Fruitful, continuously, in every
good work. Flip back a couple of pages to
Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2. Believers are trees of righteousness
planted by the Lord. And they bear fruit. They bear
fruit from His Spirit. And there's not a question that
they might not. They all do. Look at this, Ephesians
2 verse 8. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship. His
workmanship. I just spotted Ken Melton's out
a minute ago. His workmanship. Know what a word is? Masterpieces. His masterpieces. His masterpieces. Created by God. in Christ Jesus. Unto good works which God hath
before ordained that we should walk in them. I'll give you what I think is
a fairly safe conclusion to that. Just a fairly safe deduction
from that. They will. If God's foreordained
that you walk in good works, you're gonna walk in good works.
And you don't need me standing behind you with the whip of the
Lord to get you to do it. We just point you to the Redeemer
and you follow Him and you walk before God with faith and hope
and love. Increasing in the knowledge of
God. Increasing in the knowledge of
God? How is that? You increase in the knowledge
of God and as you increase in the knowledge of God, you honor
Him who loved you and gave Himself for you. But we can't grow in
grace if we don't grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And we can't grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ if we
don't grow in grace. Strengthen with all might according
to the glorious power which works in us mightily. This I'm talking
about is not something that somehow we... and exercise and do our
spiritual calisthenics and get ourselves in good spiritual shape
and now we're really strong. No, no, no, no, no. When I'm
weak, then am I strong. And his strength is made perfect
in my weakness. And that which we do as we walk
in this world, believing God, is because God continually gives
us faith. And you can't if He doesn't.
You can't if He doesn't. And so, Brother Don, we ought
to tell folks to believe God. I've been telling you to do that
every time. Believe Him. Now try to. Now try to. You get a telephone
call, and your wife's in an accident. The baby's in the car. And the
police say you need to come here. You start to cry to God, you
start to bite your nails and wring your hands, and then you
get there and say, it's bad, but nobody's dead, and you start
working things out, and you pace the floor, and you squeeze your fists, and you think,
and you pace, and you bite your nails, and when God shuts you
up, once you're made to know you can't do anything, then he
fixes it so you have to believe him. and we believe Him as He gives
us thanks. And we walk in that love for
our brethren as He gives us that love, nurturing it continually,
and we live in hope of eternity, not groveling after time, as
He nourishes that hope, giving us continual faith and grace
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, look at verse 12. How I
wish I could expound the meaning of these wonders of grace, giving
thanks unto the Father, which hath, I love that word, hath
made us, me, Don Fortner, meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. And then he tells us how he did
it. Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath
translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. He made us meet
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light by giving
us a new holy nature, making us partakers of the divine nature.
and giving us that righteous nature that is the nature of
His very Son, this holy thing in us that's born of God. And
when He does this work of regeneration in us, giving us faith in Christ,
when He gives you faith in Christ, right now, oh, if God will drop
His grace in your heart right now and cause you to believe
on His Son, that causes you to know redemption and forgiveness,
freedom. in whom we have redemption through
his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. You see, regeneration,
the work of God's grace in you precedes your knowledge of anything
spiritual. You can't know your election.
You can't know your predestination to be the son of God. You can't
know your redemption by Christ until God gives you life, causing
you to believe on his son and believing his son. You have testimony
from God, the Holy Spirit, that you're God. You've been chosen
and redeemed and called by his grace. And then when he got there,
having just barely mentioned the Lord Jesus Christ and his
marvelous works of grace, Paul seems to go off on a tangent.
He seems to just go wild. He writes like his pen was on
fire concerning the glory of our Lord Jesus. And in this last
section of chapter one, he tells us that Christ, our Redeemer,
is everything, everything. Christ is all, he says in chapter
three, verse 11. Well, how far can you carry that? Brother Nybert often says he
gets tired of folks saying we need to be balanced. And I agree. I agree. We ought to always be
lopsided. Always be lopsided. Whenever
you read a promise of God or a declaration of God in this
book, We've got to be careful. We've got to limit this. No!
Don't do that. Run just as far as you can carry
it. And you haven't begun to commence
to getting started understanding it. Christ is everything. He's
everything. Everything in the purpose of
God. Everything in creation, everything in God's salvation,
everything in His church, everything in time, everything in eternity,
and everything out of Him is just vanity. That's it, that's
what it says. Look here at verses 15 through
29. Who is the image of the invisible
God? He's the image of God because
He is God. God in the flesh. God incarnate. Brother Brian
Dufour's grandfather, Watson Dufour, was a dear friend of
mine. Pastored at Beacon Church in Annstead, West Virginia for
a long, long time. Never will forget the first time
he preached for me. He was preaching from Philippians
chapter one, and he stood in the pulpit and made a statement.
He said, Jesus is God, and just smiled. And I thought, man, that
sounds awfully simplistic. And I was taught better than
that. You're not supposed to say Jesus is God. You're supposed
to say Jesus is God in the flesh. You're not supposed to say Jesus
is God. You're supposed to say Jesus
is the God made. He said, Jesus is God again,
and just smiled. And I thought, well, he is. He is. Yes. He's all God you'll
ever know. And he's all God you'll ever
see. And he's all God will ever speak to you. He's God, the image
of the invisible God. You can't know God, but by Christ
God incarnate. The word was made flesh and brought
among us. If you want to read and study
about the incarnation and Christ assuming our nature and becoming
one of us, you'll run across all kinds of explanations. I
like this word. The union of the divine nature
and the human nature is a hypostatic union. Did that help you any? What nonsense? No. God became
everything we are. Sin alone accepted. And then
he who knew no sin was made sin for us. And now God sits on the
throne of the universe. Touched with the feeling of our
able to succor them that are tempted. He's the firstborn of
every creature. The firstborn, the firstborn
son. The firstborn of every creature. The firstborn from the dead,
he tells us later on here. The firstborn. Back in Exodus
13, right after Israel was brought out of the land of Egypt on the
night of Passover, when the firstborn, all the firstborn in the land
of Egypt died. So pastor, that's not quite correct.
There were the Jews and therefore the firstborn didn't die. I beg
to differ. God said all the firstborn in
the land of Egypt died. Some of them died in a substitute.
Some of them died in their flesh. Some of them died because there
was blood on the door. Some of them died because there
was no blood on the door. But they all died. And then immediately
after that, God said the firstborn is mine. All the firstborn, and
this is how it describes the firstborn. We tend to say, this
is my firstborn son. This is my firstborn child. That's
because that one was the first one born. That's not the meaning
of the word in scripture. As our God gave the law. He said the firstborn is he that
openeth the womb. Now I'm not the brightest bulb
in the room, But I know that no child has ever opened his
mother's womb by birth. The womb is opened in conception,
not in birth. But there was one. There was
one promised of God, the seed of woman, who would open his
mother's womb in his birth. And that's Christ Jesus, our
Redeemer. He's the firstborn. Not only is he the firstborn,
he is that one, the firstborn of every creature, the beginning
of the creation of God. Look at verse... 16 for by him
were all things created that are in heaven and in earth Visible
and invisible whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities
or powers all things were created by him And for him For him they were made for him
for his pleasure for his glory not yours his Made for him. For him. Read on. And he is before
all things. He's the eternal one. And by
him, all things are held together. All things consist. Oh, we've
got to be careful. We're in this age of global warming.
And the world's about to melt and fall in around us. No, not
likely. Not as long as he's holding it
together. And when he gets done holding it together, it's all
going to fall apart. And he is the head of the body, the church. Not that old man over in Rome
dressed up in a Masonic order costume, walking around in drag. No, Christ is the head of his
church. Not the president of the convention,
Christ is the head of his church. Not the pastor, Christ is the
head of his church. that in, he's the beginning of
the firstborn from the dead, and the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things, God made his son our mediator, the head
of the church, the creator of all things, made him these things,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. So that in everything,
Christ stands out. In everything, Christ is magnified. In everything, Christ is honored.
in his church, in the covenant, in his word, in his salvation,
in all things that Christ might have the preeminence. Look at
verse 19. For it pleased the Father that
in him should all fullness dwell. All fullness. All the fullness
of the Godhead. All the fullness of grace. All
the fullness of salvation. It's in him. Look at verse 19.
verse 20 rather, and having made peace through the blood of his
cross by him to reconcile all things to himself by him I say
whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. God is going
to reconcile all things to his own honor and his own glory so
that everybody in heaven and in earth and in hell shall see
that everything that is, has been, or shall be is for his
honor and for his glory. Verse 21, and you. You who were
sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works. The enmity was all on our part,
you know. We were God's enemies. children
of wrath, just like everybody else, living with our fists shoved
in God's face, hating God with all our hearts, until He conquered
our hearts by His mighty grace and reconciled us to Him being
God, reconciled us to Him being Lord, reconciled us to Him in
all things so that now we're delighted to know that He's God,
that He's in charge, that He rules everything. In the body
of His flesh, through death, now watch this, this is why he
died, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. Soon the Lord Jesus is gonna
present me, he's gonna present you holy Unblameable. Unreprovable. By God. Holy! Unblameable. Unreprovable in the sight of
God's own holiness. Now look at verse 23. Here's
the conditional aspect of this thing. If you continue in the
faith, grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel. Ah, now there's your part. There's
your part. You got to hold on and hang on and hang out and
persevere and keep going to the end. Well, that's the way the
gin and the snare looks when God puts it there for a gin and
snare. But I'm going to tell you a little
secret. It's a family secret. Nobody
knows it but folks in the family. All the ifs of God are promises
to you. Our perseverance doesn't depend
on us persevering. Our perseverance is made sure
because God perseveres in His grace. He says, they shall never
perish. I'll give one heart one way and
they shall not depart from me. All right, you keep this in memory,
keep this gospel, don't be moved away from it. And God assures
us that those who believe his son shall not be. Verse 24, Paul
speaks of himself, he says, I was made a minister for this cause
that you continue in the faith, who now rejoice in my sufferings
for you to fill up that which is behind of the afflictions
of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church. What is Paul talking about? Is
there something lacking in the afflictions of Christ? His sufferings? No, no, no, no, no. But not all God's elect are yet
saved. And Paul says it is my privilege
and my responsibility as God's servant in all the things that
I endure on this earth, to fill up the church of God, that which
Christ has redeemed with His blood, whereof I am made a minister,
watch this, according to the dispensation of the grace of
God, which is given me for you, to fulfill the word of God. The
dispensation of the grace of God, the man, has a large household,
and he has servants in his household, and he gives this servant this
task, and this servant this task, and this servant this task, and
for each of those tasks, it is a dispensation from the master. God has given us the dispensation
of his grace. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels, the treasure of the gospel, to make it known in all
the world, for the gathering in of God's elect, for the glory
of his son. Verse 26, fulfilling his word,
even the mystery, which hath been hid from ages and generations,
but is now made manifest to his saints. For what is it to whom
God will make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery
among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. This is salvation. Christ in
you. Christ is in you! Christ in you
is the hope of glory whom we preach. Whom we preach warning
every man. Warning every man of sure judgment.
Teaching every man. Teaching every man the gospel
of God's grace. In all wisdom that we may present
every man in Christ Jesus. Present every man perfect in
Christ Jesus. I don't know. Not much is revealed. Don't know how things are going
to go on Judgment Day. Don't really know what all shall
transpire. But I know that Christ is going
to present his church. Lo, I and the children which
thou hast given me, not one of them missing. Here they are,
holy. Unblameable, unreprovable in his sight. And I just suspect,
maybe, I just suspect, maybe, I'm going to have the honor,
the privilege of presenting some of God's land
for whom I've spent my life in labor, perfect in Christ Jesus. Lord, here they are. You redeemed
them. You chose them. You called them.
You kept them. And you gave me the blessed privilege
of knowing them. Here they are. Here they are.
Perfect in Christ Jesus. Now look at verse 29. Whom we
preach. Whom we preach. Whereunto I also
labor, striving according to the working, his working, which
worketh in me mightily. Now, I can't preach it, but you
look at chapter 2 for just a minute and learn this fourth thing. All our unity and peace and comfort
and assurance is found in Christ, arises in Christ or from Christ,
from the knowledge of Christ revealed in the gospel. For I would that you knew what
great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea and
for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh that their hearts might be comforted
being knit together in love and unto all the riches of the full assurance
of understanding to the acknowledging of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ. The mystery of the work, the
accomplishments of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
in whom in Christ are hid. all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. I told you I'd give you the title
when I got done. Oh, 10, 12 years ago, maybe more,
one of our men read this portion of scripture in the office before
service, Brother Bob Pontzer. And just before he prayed, Brother
Merle Hart said, what a great savior. What a great Savior. Oh, God,
make Him yours. Amen.