I haven't begun yet to scratch
the surface in expanding to you the meaning of the words in this
text in Colossians 1.18, but I wanted to look at it again
this morning, and I want to give another run at it. Colossians 1.18. And before we read the text,
listen. Look up here and listen, every one of you. I want you and me to know Jesus
Christ the Lord. To know him. To trust him. To love him. and thus to extol, magnify, and
honor him. I am not the least bit interested, and may be certain I'm honest
when I talk to you, I'm not the least bit interested in getting
David Peterson to be a Baptist or a Calvinist. I'm not the least
bit interested in getting you to have a little religious experience
or knowledge. I'm not the least bit interested
in getting folks to join this church. I'm not the least bit
interested in getting you to have some moral reformation. I'm just not interested, not
interested. For your soul's sake, for the
glory of God, for eternity's sake I want you to know Christ to know him because as our text says he is
the head of the body and if you're not united to the head you're
not in the body the church which is the beginning
the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have
the preeminence. I'm trying to show you that it
is the purpose of the triune God that Jesus Christ, our God-man
mediator, as our substitute and surety, as our mediator, as that
one who is the advocate with us, or with the Father on our
behalf, that one who is the daismon between us and God, in his character
as our Savior, the triune God has given him preeminence in
all things, as the reward of his obedience to the Father's
will in accomplishing our everlasting salvation. And today I want to
try to show you that this preeminence is both the display of the father's
love for his son, and the display of the honor the father has given
to his son. Turn to John chapter 3 for just
a moment. John the third chapter. Hold
your hands here in Colossians 1, we'll be coming right back
to it. Verse 35. The Father loveth the Son. The Father loveth the Son. Now that, if we speak of it with
regard to our Savior's everlasting deity, obviously is an obvious
declaration. Father loves the Son. Son loves
the Father. But our Lord speaks in this manner
a little differently than what we commonly would imagine. In
John 10, our Lord said, Therefore doth my Father love me, because
I lay down my life for the sheep. He says the Father loves me for
a reason. The Father loves me because He
has a cause for which to love me. The Father loves me in a
way that's distinct, a way that's unique, a way that is absolutely
superior to anything you've ever perceived. The Father loves me
as a man, as the God-man mediator. The Father loves me as the surety
of his covenant to whom he's trusted his people and the glory
of his name because I laid down my life for his people. for the
sheep. The Father loves me because I've
come here and I've perfectly honored him and I've perfectly
obeyed him and I've saved his people for the glory of God.
That's really loves me. And then our Lord prayed like
this, Oh that they may know that thou hast loved them as thou
hast loved me. Oh imagine that. God Almighty
loves me exactly as he loves his son. For the same time, the
same reasons, the same degree. He loves me in Christ my covenant
surety. Before the world began, the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world, he looked on me and
his Son and says, I've loved you with everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn you. And the Father loves me because
he looks on me in his son, that one who has perfectly, perfectly,
perfectly fulfilled all righteousness on my behalf. Who has fully satisfied
the wrath and justice of God in my room instead so that God
Almighty can look on me in his holy character and smile perpetually. He loves me in his son. Because
his son laid down his life for me. Because I have fully met
the demands of his law. Because I have fully honored
his name. Because I have fully obeyed his
will. Because I have fully satisfied
his justice. He has every reason to love me.
Because he loves me and his son. Therefore doth my father love
me. Now father, let them and all the world know you love them
just like you love me. He loves me in exactly the same
way as he loves his son as a man. Loves me and him. Therefore the
father loves the son and hath given, look at it now, all things
into his hands. Everything. The Lord God Almighty
has put everything in the hands of Christ. Everything. Everything. Everything. And that's his preeminence. Turn to John 5 for a moment,
verse 20. The Father loveth the Son, there
it is again, and showeth him all things that himself doeth. If Jesus Christ is God, he doesn't
need to be shown anything. And that's what folks do with
this. They jump on this. There, you see Christ can't be God.
The Father had to show Him some things. The Father had to teach
Him some things. There's things He didn't know. Oh, but our Savior
is a perfect man. And as the God-man, our mediator,
the Father gives everything into His hands. The Father shows everything
to Him. And as the God-man mediator,
He does it. Because if we're in Him, Wes,
He gives everything to our hands and shows everything to us. He
will not withhold anything from His friends, but makes known
His will to His own. Read on. And He will show him
greater works than these, that you may marvel. Verse 21. For as the Father raises up the
dead and quickens them, even so the Son quickens whom He will.
Verse 22. For the Father judges no man,
but hath committed all judgment to the Son. committed all judgment
to the God-man, the mediator. God won't deal with us any other
way. That all men, that all men, saved and lost, reprobate and
chosen, all men, those who know Him and those who don't, all
men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. Everybody's
going to honor God's Son. Everybody. Everybody's gonna
give praise to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Everybody who's
ever breathed God's air, every creature who's ever lived, shall
bow before the throne of Jesus Christ, the God-man, and say,
He's the Lord, and it's right that He should be Lord, to the
glory of God. Everybody. Read on. That all
men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He
that honoreth not the Son. He that honoreth not the Son,
honoreth not the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me,
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but
is passed from death unto life. How can I say this? The Lord
Jesus Christ is everything to God the Father. The Lord Jesus
Christ is everything to God the Spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ
is everything to the triune God. The Father loves the Son, delights
in the Son, honors the Son, exalts the Son, and magnifies the Son.
Therefore He's determined that in all things His Son shall have
preeminence. Christ is to His Father what
Benjamin was to Jacob, the Son of His love. The Father's love
for the Son is evident for all to behold. The honor he's put
on his son is the display of his love for his son. All right,
now if you will, let's turn to Colossians 1 verse 9. Colossians chapter 1. Here we're given a picture of
our Savior, drawn by the pen of the Apostle Paul under inspiration
of God the Holy Spirit. And what a picture it is. Here
we see the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Redeemer,
our Savior, our Mediator, our Friend, our King, holding all
things in his almighty hand. But there's more than that. He
who died upon the cursed tree is he who possesses everything. He knows the most distant star,
but more than that, he is the one who gives fuel to the star
to give it light. And he's the one who will snuff
it out. he holds all the universe in his hands but more than that
he rules everything down to the thoughts and the intents of the
hearts of a man with an absolute dominion as the sovereign monarch
of everything for the saving of his people I read this again
just a few minutes ago Hosea 2.18 Hosea speaks but it's God
speaking And Hosea speaks to Gomer as he would speak to Gomer. He says, this is what I want
to tell you. But this is what God says to you, his people.
He says, I'll betroth you unto me. I'll betroth you unto me
in faithfulness and in righteousness. You who have no idea what righteousness
is, when I marry you to me, you're going to be married to me in
perfect righteousness. And I'm going to make you faithful
to me. And then he says, I will make a covenant between me and
the beast of the field for you. I fixed it so that even a dog won't
bark unless I say bark against you. I fixed it so that nothing
that moves shall move against you. Nothing that breathes shall
breathe against you. Nothing that acts shall act against
you. I'll make even your foes to serve your interest. Even
your enemies will be at peace with you. Therefore we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are the called according to his purpose. The fact of Christ's
preeminence assures us of at least these four things. Let
me give them to you here in Colossians chapter 1. We'll stay right here
in this first chapter. Number one, the Lord Jesus Christ
is an all-sufficient Savior. In Paul's day, one of the problems
that Colossians was dealing with, and one of the problems he dealt
with in the early church of that Roman age, when the Gentiles
had reached the apex of their genius, and they were so brilliant,
so scholarly, so philosophical, full of wisdom, always learning
some new things, why they would gather by the hundreds in town
squares and learn something new. Brilliant, brilliant folks. Gnostics. Gnostics. And they taught, multitudes
did. They wouldn't dare stand up and
say Jesus Christ is an imposter, Jesus Christ is a fake, Jesus
Christ is a charlatan. Oh, now there were some fools
who did, but everybody else knew better. And folks, these wise
men, they wouldn't dare say such a thing, but they would say,
now Christ is great. Christ came here and did so much.
And you need to follow him, but he's not really enough. He's
not really enough. You've got to have something
besides him. He's really, after all he did, no matter what view
you take of it, no matter whether you say he's God or just a representative
of God, or whether you say he's altogether man, no matter whether
you say he's virgin born or not virgin born, really now, now
whatever it was he did, great as it was, it really was a little
inadequate, a little insufficient, not quite enough. And certainly
you must add something to that. He really, he's a mighty, mighty,
great, great man, great, great Savior. Call him a great God
if you will, but don't ever get the idea that he is altogether
sufficient. You understand, he's a little
incapable without your help. Sound like what you hear today?
Sound like what you've been taught all your life? Let me tell you,
Paul's declaration here, by the Holy Spirit, is that Jesus Christ,
the God-man, Mediator, who died for us at Calvary, sitting yonder
on the throne of glory, is totally, independently, utterly, beyond
imagination, sufficient as our Savior. Look here at verse 9.
For this calls also, Since the day we heard of it, do not cease
to pray for you. He said, Epaphras, your pastor,
he bragged on you, told us about your faith and love and hope.
And he said, since we heard about it, we had to cease to pray for
you. We pray and desire to God that you might be filled with
the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. We want you to be filled with
the knowledge of him. His will, His purpose revealed
in this book with not just filled with knowledge about facts, Ron,
but filled with knowledge of His will and wisdom and spiritual
understanding. And there's a huge difference.
Verse 10, that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. Now, that's tall orders. This is what he's saying, Lindsay.
I'm praying for you that God will teach you spiritual things
in your heart so that while you live in this world you live as
one who represents Christ. Walk worthy of the Lord, worthy
of one who bears his name. Walk worthy of one who represents
him. Here's what it is, being fruitful
in every good work. Being fruitful in every good
work. And what he's talking about here? Religion identifies good
works with rules and regulations. Most of them are do nots. Do
this and don't do that. Do this and don't do that. Don't,
don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't.
And that's good works. No. Read this book. Good works
always. Read it again. Good works always
have to do with charity and love. and mercy, and forgiveness, and
forbearance, and kindness, and goodness to men. That's what
it's all about. Giving a cup of cold water, entertaining
strangers in your home, going to visit the sick, and the fatherless,
and the widows, and the oppressed. Every good work, and increasing
in the knowledge of God. Strengthened with all might according
to his glorious power, what a description, according to his glorious power
unto all patience and long-suffering and joyfulness. Now that's what
it is to be fruitful in good works. Giving thanks unto the
Father, look at this now, which hath made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. Right now. Right now. May this meet. May this. That means Bobby Estes
there right now, my brother, my friend. Right now in Christ,
you're worthy to take hold of heavenly glory and walk in it. Oh, I don't feel whether that's
got nothing to do with it. I'm glad you don't. If you did,
I'd be suspicious. But I'm so sinful. Yes, sir.
Yes, sir. But not before God. Not before
God. He's made us, he's going to make
us, he has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in life. Look at it now. who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the
kingdom of his dear Son. By the grace of God, through
the blood of Christ, by the merit of him who set yonder on the
throne of glory, you and I who believe on him have been forgiven
of all sin, justified from all things, and made perfectly accepted
before God himself. So why are we still here? To
serve him, that's all. To honor Him, serve the interests of His
kingdom, tell others about His grace. But there's nothing yet
to be done to make us worthy before God. Not a thing. I love
that passage over in Exodus 20. Our Lord tells us, He said, you
build an altar to Me, you build an altar of earth. If it's an
altar of stone, not of hewn stone, and don't you put any stairs
on it. Because you can't climb stairs to God. You don't begin
down here at level 1 and rise up to level 2 and then level
3 and then level 4 until finally you arrive at being ready to
meet God. That's work salvation. That's
work salvation. Well preacher, you mean our whole righteousness, Our whole
redemption, our whole acceptance with God is all together in Christ. We have nothing to do with it.
Ah, you got it. I knew you would. That's exactly
it. The whole of it. Here's the second
thing. Because of Christ's preeminence,
we are assured not only that he is an all-sufficient Savior,
but he is also a sovereign Savior. He who died at Calvary rules
everything absolutely so that nothing can ever separate him
from the people he loves or separate the people of his love from him.
In fact, this Proverbs tells us plainly that no evil shall
happen to the just. Isn't that a wonderful promise?
No evil. But our brother Rupert Went out
there and went through all those painful, costly medical treatments
to save his brother's life and his brother died anyhow? Brother
John, that's got to be an evil thing. Oh, no. Oh, no. It may be to everybody else in
their family, but not to Rupert. Not to him. There shall no evil
happen to the just. No evil. Well, I invested my
money in this business venture and I lost everything. Tell me
that's not an evil thing? Not if you're God's. No evil happened to the just.
No evil. That neighbor over here, he invested
his money in something that looked like it couldn't possibly fly
and made him a million dollars. There's nothing good that happens
to the evil. There's nothing good that happens
to the evil. Nothing good happens to anybody
except God's chosen. In fact, wise men said God set
the world in their hearts that they shouldn't seek Him. David
said, I was envious of the prosperity of the wicked. I looked out and
I saw the ungodly, the reprobate. They were flourishing and here
I am suffering like I do. What good is it to serve the
Lord, to have a pity party? And then he said, I went to the
house of God and I understood that God was giving them grain
like a man fattening a calf with a slaughter. And I quit ending
them. Our Savior is he who sits upon
the throne and controls all things absolutely so that no harm shall
ever befall those who are the objects of his love. Therefore,
we shall never perish. To the fearful, trembling, anxious,
fretful, unbelieving believer, our Savior says, let not your
heart be troubled. I'm in control. Everything's
all right. Christ is preeminent. Thirdly,
the Lord Jesus Christ is rich and bountiful as our Savior. He who was rich for our sakes became
poor that we through his poverty might be made rich. But he who
became poor possesses all things and is rich indescribably rich
as our Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ has all
things. What does that passage in John
say? John 3, the Father loveth the Son, and hath given him all
things. Everything. The Lord God Almighty
put everything in the hands of Christ the Mediator. Everything. Everything. Everything. How can
I express this? God Almighty Turned everything
over to his son. Says, here it is, it's yours.
As Pharaoh put all the stores of Egypt in the hands of Joseph,
so that if anybody came to Pharaoh and said, I'm hungry, my family's
dying, I don't have anything to eat, I need something, I'm
going to perish. Pharaoh said, go to Joseph. And I'm telling you, God Almighty
says to sinners, go to Christ. Everything's in Christ. Everything's
in Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ gives all
things to his people. He is our supplier. He is our store. He is our treasure. He is our high tower. He is our great, great, bountiful,
bountiful Savior. And he gives us everything. Everything. He gives us in this world all
things as we need them, as we sue him for mercy. It is. It is. What do you need? Righteousness? It is. What do
you need? Oh, I need peace here. It is. What do you need? I need a word
from God. Here it is. What do you need?
I need blessed consolation. Here it is. What do you need?
Oh, I need forgiveness. It is. Everything. Everything. But the supply there
is not diminished. He's still just as rich as he
was in the beginning. He's an infinite supply. God
the Father has put all things in His Son. So that you who worry
about your daily needs, to you who fret about your lean years
that may come ahead, to you who fear you'll have no
pension in your old age. God forgive me I've begun to
reach that age I begin to fret a little bit about my wife you
know God forgive me God forgive me
My soul he's been feeding us all our lives He's been taking
care of us every day we've lived in this world and before we ever
thought about it Our text says to this preacher Let not your
heart be troubled. Christ is preeminent. He's preeminent. He possesses everything and rules
everything and disposes of everything. All right, here's the third thing.
The Lord Jesus Christ is a rich bountiful Savior. I'm sorry,
it's the fourth thing here. He's a rich, bountiful Savior.
And fourth thing, our Savior, being the rich, bountiful Savior,
being the sovereign, sovereign Redeemer of our souls, the sovereign
mediator, He is worthy of our hearts' devotion. I call on you You who do not know him, and you who have known him a
long time, I call on you. I just met, I baptized you most
recently, by our youngest sister. And I suppose sitting here this
morning, our oldest brother would be Brother Merrill. I call on you, trust him. I call on me to trust Him. You do not honor Christ more
highly than by trusting Him. That one little girl God was
pleased to give us, always sought to honor me, her
mom, And I think, I can safely say,
she honors me in so many ways, but there's no honor she gives
me like trusting me. No honor that woman gives me
as her husband like trusting me. And I'm not fit to be trusted. Will you hear me? This God-man
mediator, our Savior, is worthy of your trust, in everything,
and with everything, and at all times. You may not entrust him to save
me, Look here. Oh yeah, he's able to save to
the uttermost every sinner who comes to God by him. What about
election and predestination? What about all this stuff with
God's decrees? What about redemption and effectual
calling? You can go to hell wondering what
about and fussing if you want to. Or you can grab hold of the
life that's in Christ Jesus by faith and have it. That's just
exactly right. That's just exactly right. And
if you trust Him, it's because He chose you, loved you, redeemed
you, called you. And the evidence of your being
loved of God, chosen of God, redeemed by Christ, called by
grace, as you believe. That's it. Brother Don, that's
all right. We'll talk about centers being converted but now
in practical things, in this practical world. You can't expect,
you can't expect folks to just implicitly, just implicitly trust
Christ to take care of everything. Sad to say, no I can't. I can't expect you to, because
I don't expect me to. And that's the saddest thing
on this earth to me. But we ought to, and we have
every reason to. The most horrible, horrible,
horrible thing in this world Sammy, I can't think of anything
more evil in my heart than my unbelief. I can't think of anything more
dishonoring to my Redeemer than me not trusting Him. His promises,
His providence, His propitiation, His power, He's worthy O Spirit of God, give us grace to trust our Savior,
to whom God has given preeminence. Amen.