I don't know how much attention
that I will get by announcing my topic today, but it's a most
important subject that I've chosen. The title of the message is The
Preeminence of Jesus Christ. I'm going to read from Colossians
chapter 1, verse 16 through 18. If you want to, take your Bibles
and open them there to Colossians chapter 1. verse 16 through verse
18. Now, here's what Scripture says.
Now, what's the references here to Christ? What's the references
to the Son of God? For by Him, by Him were all things
created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers All
things are created by him and for him. And he is before all
things. And by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body,
the church. He is the beginning. He is the
firstborn from the dead. that in all things he might have
the preeminence." Now, this letter to the church at Colossae was
written by the Apostle Paul about 30 years after Christ our Lord
died on the cross. Now, Paul wrote this letter when
he was a prisoner at Rome. As far as we can tell, Paul never
preached to this church at Colossae. At least he hadn't up to this
point because he mentioned the fact that many of them had never
seen him in the flesh and never heard him in the flesh. So when
writing this letter, this epistle to the church at Colossae, Paul
begins where everything begins with the preeminence of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now here's something that I said
in my message last week. And that is that we need to preach
the Word of God. And I mean by that we need to
preach each text in the context. We need to preach every verse
surrounded by the verses that are before and after it. One
of the most dangerous things in the world to do is just go
from verse to verse here and there and yonder in the Bible
and pick out verses to prove what you already believe. Take
the Word of God. Start with verse 1 in the Epistle
or verse 1 in the chapter and read right on through the verse
that you're studying or the verse you're preaching or the verse
you're discussing. What is said before the verse
has a lot to do with what the verse says and what is said after
the verse of Scripture. So that's what I'm going to do
now. I'm preaching from Colossians 1, 16 through 18, in which Paul
said, By Him were all things created. And He's the head of
the body, the church, He's the beginning. He's the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence.
But let's see what verse 1 says and come right down the line.
Now, Paul, first of all, in verse 1, he identifies himself as an
apostle of Christ. This is what I'm saying. Paul,
when he writes to this church, he begins where everything begins
with Christ and the preeminence of Christ, and he identifies
himself as an apostle. but not just an apostle, he's
an apostle of Christ. He's not just a preacher, he's
a preacher of the gospel of Christ. He's not just a bond slave, he's
a bond slave of Christ. He's not just a denominationalist,
he's a child of God. You see what I'm saying? And
then he writes to those, in verse 2, he writes to those who are
saints, and every believer is a saint, You don't make a man
a saint after he's dead by canonizing him or getting a bunch of people
together and finding out what kind of good works he's done.
That's not in the Bible. That's a pack of foolishness.
We're all saints in Christ Jesus. All who are sanctified are saints. Every believer is a saint. And
he's writing to those who are saints and brethren in Christ. But they're saints and brethren
in Christ. Christ made them saints. Christ
made them brethren and sons of God. See that? Verse 3, He calls
God the Father. He's the Father. But He's the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And He's my Father and your Father
as we are one with Christ. You see that? He's the Father
of Christ. And being the Father of Christ,
He is the Father of those who are brothers in Christ. And then
he gives thanks in verse 4 for their faith. But it's not just
faith, it's faith in Christ. Oh, I wish I could get people
to see that. It's not just faith. It's not
just keep the faith, baby. It's faith in Christ. Faith's
got to have an object. And the object of saving faith
is Christ. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall never see life. Faith's not just an attitude.
Faith is not just a positive mental attitude, PMA. Faith has an object. I believe
God. So he says, I've heard about
your faith in Christ. And then verse 13, he says the
kingdom of God. He talks about the kingdom of
God, the kingdom of God. And I hear a lot of people talk
about the kingdom. But he says the kingdom of God
is the kingdom of His dear Son. It's the kingdom of Christ. You
can't have a kingdom and not have a king. And a king can't
be a king who doesn't have a kingdom. So the Heavenly Father made Him
king over the kingdom. And it's His kingdom which He
purchased with His own blood. He's the King of peace, the King
of Salem, King of kings and Lord of lords. And it's the kingdom
of God's dear son. Look at verse 13 or verse 14. He says this in verse 14. He
says we have redemption. Redemption. Redemption is when
you redeem something, when you buy it back. You forfeited it. Now you go pay the price and
you get it back. It's yours once more. And we have redemption.
We have the forgiveness of sins. But wait a minute. We have redemption
and forgiveness of sins through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, salvation's free. It's free
to you. But somebody paid for it. There
was a price to be paid. The wages of sin is death. The
soul that sinneth shall die. There was a price to pay. Salvation
is free, but Christ paid for it. He bought it. Salvation's
without works to you. But it took somebody's work.
Christ had to work it out. He had to obey the perfect law
of God. Elections unconditional. Why? Because Christ met the conditions. And then here in verse 15, he
says, Christ is the image and revelation of God. This Jesus
Christ we're talking about is the exact or expressed image
of the Heavenly Father. He's the revelation of God. He
that hath seen me, Christ said, hath seen God. And then verse
16, He says, All things were created by Christ. And then in
verse 17, He says, Christ is before all things. If He created
all things, of course He's before all things. Jesus Christ did
not begin to exist in Bethlehem's manger. I hear people talk about,
Well, if Christ was alive today, He'd do this. Now, wait a minute.
He ever lives. He is and was and always has
been and always will be. He's the same yesterday, today
and forever. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
born of Mary, He came from heaven into the world, took up His abode
in a body the Father prepared for Him. And then when He died
on that cross, He went back to glory in a glorified body, risen
from the tomb. But He's always been. He is before
all things and all things are held together by Him. By Him
all things consist. What holds this world together?
What holds the universe together? What keeps every star and every
planet and the sun and the moon, what keeps all of these things
on their exact minute orbit? Not what, but whom. He does. By Him all things consist. And then Christ is the head.
He's the head. What is the head? The king of
the church and he's the beginning of the church. The church began
with him. Somebody says the church began
at Pentecost. It began in Christ. He's the beginning of the church.
He's the head of the body. He's the head of the church.
He's the beginning of the church. We were chosen in him. The church didn't begin at Pentecost.
It began in Christ. Christ is the firstborn from
the dead. He's the first to die, to rise
and die no more. He is the pledge of our resurrection.
He's the firstborn from the dead, the pledge of our resurrection.
And all of this, you see, in these 18 verses, is to say this. God says, In all things, among
all things, through all things, above all things, that he might
have the preeminence. That's what it's all about. That's
the objective, that's the aim, that's the goal. The king made
a feast to honor his son. And that's what this whole universe
is all about. That's what this book said. That
in all things, by him all things consist. He's the head, king
of the body of the church. He's the beginning, He's the
firstborn, that in all things, among all things, above all things,
through all things, that He, not you, He might have the preeminence. Now, I ask two questions, two
simple questions today, easy to be heard and easy to be remembered. What is this preeminence that
Jesus Christ has? And the second question is, why
should he have it? What is this preeminence that
Jesus Christ has? Well, there's no way that a person
can give Christ too much glory. Some might say, well, you preach
Christ, Christ, Christ. I intend to keep on preaching
Christ, Christ, Christ. There's no way that we can over-preach
Christ. There's just one mistake a preacher
can make, and that's under-preach Christ. You can't over-preach
Him. You can't preach Him too much.
There's only one thing I fear, and that is going off on a tangent,
chasing a rabbit somewhere and not preaching Christ, because
you can't over-preach Him. To Him give all the prophets
witness. Almighty God says in all things, He has the preeminence. What is the preeminence? Well,
He has total preeminence, first place, total preeminence. in the father's love. He said,
my father loves you as he loved me. In Matthew 3, 17, the father
said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. In
John 3, 35, the father loveth the son and hath given all things
into his hand. In Romans 8, 39, he names all
these different things and he says nothing Nothing can separate
us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. He has total preeminence in the
Father's love. Now, I don't know how to get
that across, and I don't know how to emphasize it, and I don't
know how to make anybody believe me, but I'm telling you this. If you're not in Christ and do
not know Christ, and do not come to a saving relationship with
Christ. There's no way that you can lay claim to God's favor
or God's love, because it's in Christ. Do what you will with that, but
that's so. The Father loveth the Son, and he that hath not
the Son, or believeth not on the Son, the wrath of God abideth
on him. We need to get acquainted with
the book, don't we? And then secondly, Christ has total preeminence
in power, not only in Father's love, but in power. He said in
Matthew 28, 18, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth,
all power. There's no power that Christ
doesn't have. He has power over the seas, power over the skies. He has power over the land. He
has power over the storms. He has power over the snow and
power over the rain. He has power over the sun, power
over the moon. He has power over lost men and
saved men. He has power. He said in John
17 too, Thou hast given me all power over all flesh that I should
give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given me. Did you
ever read that before? That's right. Christ prayed in
John 17, Thou hast given me all power over all flesh. Over all flesh. He has total
power. He said, A man can receive nothing except it be given him
from above. Our Lord told Pilate that. He
said, You couldn't have any power over me at all except it were
given you from above, from my Father. Don't talk about the weakness
of Don't talk about the inability of Christ. He shall not fail
nor be discouraged. He'll save whom He will. He said,
This is the Father's will which has sent me that of all which
He hath given me I'll lose nothing. And I came down from heaven to
do my Father's will. He has total preeminence and
power. Hebrews 2.8 says this, Thou hast put all things in subjection
under His feet. God left nothing that's not put
under His feet. Nothing. Nothing. There's nothing that hadn't been
put under His feet. And then Christ has preeminence
in worship. Hebrews 1.6 says this, when He
brings the first begotten into the world, He said that all the
angels of God worship Him. Worship Him. The angels of Revelation
5, 13, listen to this. And every creature in heaven,
every creature on earth, every creature under the earth and
in the sea, heard I saying, blessing and honor and glory and power
be unto him that sitteth on the throne unto the Lamb. There's
just one Lamb. John said there He is, the Lamb
of God, forever and forever. all preeminence in worship, both
here and hereafter. And then he has preeminence in
salvation. He says, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. There's none other name unto
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Peter said,
God hath made this same Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord
and Christ. And then John wrote, this is
the record. God has given us eternal life, and this life's
in His Son. That, nothing could be plainer
than that. Nothing could be more simple than that. This life's
in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life. If life's in the
Son, he that hath the Son hath life. And if life's in the Son,
he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Yeah, He has all
preeminence. in this matter of salvation.
It's come to Christ or perish. There's one God. Well, we don't
argue with that. And there's one Mediator between
God and men. You better not argue with that
either. And He identifies who that Mediator is. It's not a
saint. It's not Saint Jude or Saint
Christopher or Saint somebody else. Not Saint Mary. It's Christ. There's one Mediator between
God and men. That's Christ. Jesus. He's the
only intercessor, and He ever lives to make intercession for
us. And then fifthly, Christ has the preeminence in glory.
In glory. He said, Let this mind be in
you, which is also in Christ Jesus, who thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and
took upon himself the form of a servant, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the Wherefore God hath highly
exalted him, him, and given him a name which is above every name,
that is, the name of Jesus Christ, every knee will bow, every tongue
will confess in heaven, earth, and under the earth, that he
is Lord, he is Lord. And that's just not something
people say with their lips. That's something they know in
their hearts. That's not just a bowing of the
knee, my friend, that's a bowing and breaking of the heart. That's
a genuine ownership of Christ over all that we are and have
and ever hope to be. Christ is all. That's what Colossians
3.11 says, Christ is all. Paul just kind of sums it up
there in Colossians 3.11, says Christ is all. Now, there was
a time when this world had no being. There was a time when
this world wasn't here. And when the stars weren't there,
and the sun and the moon weren't there, and Christ is all, where
was he then? Well, he said this, Father, glorify
me, glorify thou me with the glory which I had with thee before
the world was. He was with the Father in glory
before the world was. Christ Jesus. Well, there was
a time when this world and heavens and all things were created.
There was a time when the stars were made and the sun and the
moon and the earth and the waters were separated from the dry land
and trees and mountains and valleys and fish and birds and animals
and man. All these things were created.
If Christ is all, where was He then? In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and all things
were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that
was made. Christ is all. Well, there was
a time when man failed. This crowning creature, this
one made in the image of God, obeyed the voice of Satan and
willfully disobeyed God and took that fruit, whatever it was,
and ate it. And he died. Spiritual death
came upon him and all men. Darkness, death, disease, sorrow. If Christ is all, where was he
then? I'll tell you where he was. When
that man fell, the father spoke and said to the serpent, I'm
going to put you out of business. I'm going to put enmity between
you and the woman, between your seed and her seed, her seed. And you're going to bruise his
heel, but he's going to bruise your head. You know who that
he is? That's Christ. In that darkness,
he was the light of life. In that death, he was the life
of God. In that time of sorrow, God gave
a happy announcement. In that time of disease, God
said, I'm going to make my people well. I'm going to send Christ,
the seed of woman. The seed of woman, that's the
virgin-born Son of God, the only one that's ever been a seed of
woman. Well, there was a time when all the prophecies and promises
and patterns were fulfilled. When all the Old Testament promises
concerning a Messiah, prophecies concerning a Messiah, patterns
of the Messiah, the sacrifices, tabernacle, priesthood, prophets,
kings, was all fulfilled in the coming of a Redeemer. If Christ
is all, where was he then? He was the Redeemer. Simeon summed
it up. He held Christ in his arms when
he was just an infant. And he said, Lord, now let your
servant depart in peace. I've seen your salvation. I've
seen all that they've talked about, expected, announced, prophesied,
promised, and looked for. in this person, Jesus Christ.
Well, there'll be a time when this world will end. There'll
be a time when the heavens are gonna pass away with a fervent
heat. Heaven and earth will be no more. And the dead are gonna
be raised. If Christ is all, where will
He be then? He said, I'm the resurrection and I'm the life. He that believeth on me shall
never die. There's gonna be a time of judgment.
So pointing unto me and wants to die, and after that the judgment,
and all men are going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. The Father judgeth no man, but
hath committed all judgment to the Son. Well, there's going
to be a new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
It's a settled fact that in that new heaven, new earth, Jesus
Christ has the preeminence. Oh, I tell you, to get a hold
of that, To get a hold of that in your heart, to believe it
in your heart, to believe Him, to know Him, is to have life
everlasting. That's what this book's all about.
It's about Jesus Christ the Lord. Well, why should He have the
preeminence? Just tell me, why should He have the preeminence?
I'll give you five reasons. The first of which is this. He
has all preeminence because it's the will of the Father. It's
the will of the Father. It pleased the Father that in
him should all fullness dwell. It pleased the Father. Why is
Joseph the head man in Egypt? Pharaoh said so. Why is Mordecai
riding the king's horse and Haman leading him? The king said so.
And I'm saying this, God hath highly exalted him and God hath
given him a name above every name. Christ has the preeminence
because God says so. Secondly, he has the preeminence
because he's the first begotten And He is the heir of all things. Christ is the legitimate heir
and the rightful heir. Listen to this. Hebrews 1-2,
God has spoken to us by His Son whom He hath appointed heir of
all things. He's the heir. We're joint heirs
with Christ. Thirdly, Christ has all preeminence
because He bought it. When I buy something and pay
for it, it's mine. And our Lord died that He might
be Lord both of the dead and the living. He bought this world.
It belongs to Him. He purchased the right. You're
not your own. You're bought with a price. You
belong to Jesus Christ. Everything belongs to Christ.
And then He has all preeminence because He's the only one who's
able to govern God's kingdom. The angels kept not their first
estate. Adam couldn't remain dedicated.
Samson, the strongest man, couldn't keep his hair. Solomon, the wise
man, couldn't keep his word. Peter ran before a little maid,
but he's able, and he's the only one who's able to manage the
affairs of God. That's why he has the preeminence.
And then in the fifth place, he has all preeminence because
he deserves it. He deserves it. Jesus is the
King of kings. And in Him are all things. Jesus
lived and died for me, and from bondage sets me free. Jesus our
Lord and God bore sin's tremendous load. Tell what His arm hath
done. Tell what victories He hath won.
Sing His worthy name alone. Worthy the Lamb. Worthy the Lamb. All right, here are two messages
that I have on one tape. The first message is some dangers
we face. The second message I just brought
you, the preeminence of Christ. For $2, you can have the tape.
We'll send it to you by return mail right to the address shown
on the screen. And until we meet again, may
the Lord bless you, everyone.