Let us open our Bibles again
to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. This morning
we will look at verses 19 through 23. We've been looking for the
last several Sunday mornings of this letter that the Apostle
Paul, who was at this time when he wrote the letter, a prisoner,
and he writes to this church at Colossae. And I mentioned
last week that the minister of this church man that God used
to raise up this church, preached the gospel at Colossae, had come
to Paul, traveled to where Paul was over a thousand miles from
Colossae to Rome. And he came with good news and
bad news. And I mentioned the bad news
was that there was false teaching. that had been brought into the
church at Colossae. And as you go through the letter,
you see what that false teaching is or was. It was the need to
add to the work of Christ. Ceremonies from the law of Moses
and also the need of angels, the help of angels in keeping
a person and saving a person. In other words, it was an attack
upon the all-sufficiency of Jesus Christ, that He is a Savior who
is able and willing to save His people. There's something else
that you need. We know that's a lie of Satan. You know, the Apostle John in
his first epistle, he warns the believers at that time about
false teachers. When he wrote, Beloved, believe
not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of
God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world,
many false teachers. Now that was when the apostles
were still living here. upon the earth. In that early
time, there were many false teachers. And I encourage you that you
listen to other men preach. Listen to me preach. A good rule
of thumb always is, who gets the glory? If you hear this man's
message and you believe what he has to say, who is going to
get the glory for your salvation? Is it going to be Christ alone
or are you going to share in the glory? Is the church going
to share in the glory? Because the truth is, my friends,
all the glory, all the praise, all the honor belongs unto Jesus
Christ and him alone. And listen, train yourself to
listen to what a man says more than how he says what he says. There are many men who are excellent
speakers, orators, if you please, but listen to the message. That's
the important thing. What is a man saying? And if he doesn't speak according
to this book, according to the law of God, the word of God,
then there's no truth in him. Always keep that in mind. But
last week we ended with verse 18, where if you look there,
the Apostle Paul declares that Christ is the head of the body,
which is his church. And we thought about the fact
that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is pictured to us in the
word of God like the human body, a metaphor. and the head is all
important. There is no life apart from the
head. The members are important, yes,
but the members all must be attached to the head. By faith, we must
be in Christ. The life, the life is in the
head. The life flows from the head.
His life in us is the hope of glory. Remember he said this,
because I live, you shall live also." There is no eternal life,
no spiritual life apart from Jesus Christ. He's the head of
the body, the apostle Paul tells us, which is his church, the
church that he might have the preeminence in all things. Now this morning, let's read
verses 19 through 23 and then we'll look at them. For it pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. And having
made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile
all things unto himself. By him, I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven. And 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 you continue in the faith grounded and settled. And be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel, which you have heard and which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made
a minister." I want us to look at four things that we are told
here that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ has in her head. That is four things that we have
in Christ. The first is in verse 19, in
Christ we have plenteous grace. In Christ we have plenteous grace. It pleased the father that in
him should all fullness dwell. Now I want to emphasize three
words in that verse. But before I do, I want to make
sure we all understand what is the fullness that is in Christ? What is the fullness that is
in Christ? Grace. That's the answer. It's grace. The Apostle John
in the first chapter of the gospel tells us this. that the word
was made flesh, the word of verse one, who is God, the eternal
son of God, verse 14, and the word was made flesh and we beheld
his glory full of grace and truth. Full of grace and truth. The apostle writing back to these
believers in this church, They may have met in the house of
Philemon. They may have been meeting in
the house of Philemon. Remember when Paul wrote the
letter of Philemon, he speaks about the church which is in
your house. And it may well be that this
was a local church. They didn't have a cathedral.
They didn't have a building like the Lord has blessed us with
even. Most likely they were meeting in someone's house, maybe a large
house, maybe outside. I've met outside with the people
of God and there's always something special to me about that. Just
meeting outside under a tree and some benches or something
like that. I tell you, this whole world
is God's. It's God's world. And it's His
cathedral, the world is. Oh, what a blessing it is that
we have a place when it's raining to come in out of the rain, and
when it's cold, and when it's hot, and think, yes, absolutely. But here this church was, I can
just imagine, word came, well, there's a letter from Paul. and
all the church, they were so anxious to come together and
hear someone read the letter, the letter that Paul had written.
And Paul, in this letter, as we look today, said, it pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. All grace,
all grace dwells in Jesus Christ. Now, the three words I want to
emphasize, the first word is the word pleased. It pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. There are
questions, there are questions that we all have and questions
which we're asked sometimes that can only be answered by the words
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the words that he used when he said,
I thank thee, Father, that thou hast hid these things from the
wise and the prudent and revealed them unto babes. Even so, for
it seemed good. Even so, Father, for it seemed
good in thy sight. Why did God choose this man?
and passed by that man. This lady and passed by that
lady. We can't answer these questions.
We know the answer. Yes, there is an answer. But
the answer is in God. And our answer must be, it pleased
God. Even so, Father, it pleased Thee. And that's what we see here.
It pleased the Father. From old eternity, in eternity,
when the covenant of grace was set up, no doubt, between the
three persons of the Godhead, it pleased the Father that His
Son would come, the eternal Son of God, be made flesh and dwell
among us, and in Him the fullness of grace would reside. The fullness
of grace in Christ. It seemed good. It seemed good
to the father. It pleased him. Remember at his
baptism, the father spoke out of heaven and said, this is my
beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Oh, Paul says, it pleased
the father that in him should all fullness dwell. Now the scriptures
reveal unto us that God does what he does, has done what he
has done, and shall do what he shall do for his glory. For his glory. In creation, in
creation, the heavens declare the glory of God. That's the
reason we know that all men are without excuse It doesn't matter
where a person may have been born, no matter how dark a place
they may have grown up in or lived in. God, there's a revelation
in creation of God. God, the handiwork of the Lord,
the stars and the moon and the sun and the planets and all into
the heavens that men are able now to explore and to go with
the powerful telescopes and spaceships and everything else, but it all
shows the glory of God. And yet man suppresses that.
In Romans chapter one, the natural man, he suppresses this knowledge. He doesn't want to admit that
yes, there is a God who has created all of this and all of it for
his own glory and in redemption. God has determined that he receive
all the glory. And that glory is manifested
or declared in all the fullness in Jesus Christ. All the fullness
of grace in him. It pleased God. Now I want to
tell you something. It pleased God, it pleases me. Can you say that? It pleased
God that all fullness dwell in Christ. Praise God, it pleases
me. It pleases me. The second word
is the word fullness. It pleased the Father that in
him should all fullness dwell. All the blessings of grace and
their manifold, their many. We usually think about the forgiveness
of sins. the forgiveness of our sins.
There's no forgiveness of sins apart from Jesus Christ. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission, the scripture tells us. There's no forgiveness
apart from Christ. That verse that we think about
or use sometimes, be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another. even as God, for Christ's sake,
hath forgiven you." It's always for Christ's sake. All the fullness
of grace, the grace of forgiveness, having our sins forgiven, having
the slate washed clean before God Almighty. Justification is
another one of these wonderful graces. Sanctification, being
made holy in the sight of God. And adoption, being adopted into
the family of God. It pleased the Father that in
Him, that is in Christ, should all fullness reside or be. That's the reason we preach Christ
and Him crucified. Every time we come here, that's
what we want to hear. We want to hear of Christ. Why? Because it pleased the Father
that in him all fullness would dwell. All fullness of grace. And you know that one word, fullness,
that could have been sufficient. As we think about it, Paul could
have written, it pleased the Father that in him should fullness
dwell. fullness. I mean when something's
full, it's full. Oh no, Paul had to add that word
all. It pleased the Father that in
him should all fullness dwell. What I'm saying is there's such
a supply of grace in Christ that meets the greatest need. No one And I know sometimes people
think like this. They think, well, my sins are
too great. My sins are too many. I've lived
such an evil life. There's a fullness. All fullness
resides in Christ. You know, I was trying to think
of a name of a sermon that Charles Spurgeon preached once. I think
it called the baddest man or something like that. He was preaching
for the worst, the worst, the baddest man that's ever lived
on the face of God's earth, the gospel to that man. There's a
fullness in Christ, fullness of grace. The scripture says in John 1
16, of his fullness have all we received and grace for grace
We receive grace according to the measure of the grace that
is in Him, and in Him is all fullness. All the grace that
we need to save our souls, to forgive our sins, to keep us
as we go through this world, all the grace that we need to
deposit us eventually in the Father's presence in heaven. There's a fullness, all fullness
of graces in Christ. You cannot have a need greater
than his sufficiency, whatever that need is, whatever it is. And the third word is the word
dwell. It pleased the Father that in
him should all fullness dwell. Now this word speaks of permanence. Permanence in this sense. How
many people do you imagine from the first sinner that God saved
go all the way back there to the book of Genesis? I don't
know if it was Abel. Maybe there's one that he saved
before Abel. I know Abel was saved. But think
of all the millions up to this point. And Christ is sufficient
to save every one of them. How many do you think there's
in heaven today? John said he saw a number that
man could not number. all the fullness dwells in Christ,
what I'm trying to say is, maybe someone would think, well, after
all these years and all these sinners that he saved, maybe
the grace is running a little low today. Like the gauge in
your car, you know, when the gas gauge is going towards empty. Maybe after all this time and
all these that God has saved, through the fullness of grace
that is in Christ, maybe the grace is running a little low
today. Ain't so. Ain't so. Oh no. Anybody here today need a Savior? I tell you, there's a sufficient
Savior, Jesus Christ. As all fullness of grace dwells
in Him. You know, that hymn writer one
time wrote these words, there's room at the cross for you. Though
millions have come, there's still room for one. There's room at
the cross for you. There's a fullness. It pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. Now the second
part, in Christ we have accomplished reconciliation. This is what
we see in verses 20 through 22. And 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. In Christ, there's plenteous
grace. In Christ, we have accomplished
redemption. You know that word reconciliation? You put that prefix re onto that
word conciliation. Reconciliation, that reminds
us that there was a time There was a time when man did not need
to be reconciled unto God. Oh, no. When God created Adam
in his own image, Adam and God were in harmony. There was no
sin. There was no need for reconciliation. But just as soon as Adam disobeyed
God, And we know, as the scripture says, for by one man, sin entered
into the world. He was our representative. He
was our head, our federal head in creation. And when he sinned,
we fell in our father, Adam. And now, once sin enters in,
there's a need for reconciliation. And how does he reconcile us? Well, the scripture here tells
us, doesn't it? Through Christ, through his blood. It was only after man sinned
and became estranged, alienated. Look down in verse 21, or look
at verse 21, rather, and you that were sometimes alienated,
alienated. Let that sink in. Alienated. That was all of us. And that was a position or the
case of those that Paul is writing to in Colossae. At one time they
were alienated from God. Alienated. That's an awful position
to be in, isn't it? Sure it is. How, then, are we to be reconciled? Through the blood of his cross.
Look at that. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto
himself. And you know it says here whether
they be things in heaven or things on earth. At the time that the
Lord Jesus Christ died, there were believers already in heaven.
All of those Old Testament saints, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Isaiah,
I mean, you just go through the list. There are many hundreds
of thousands we don't know the names of. They were already there. And since the Lord died, there's
been many more. But the point is, each and every
one is reconciled in one way, and that is by the blood of the
cross. by the blood, by Jesus Christ
dying in the stead, a substitutionary death in the stead of his people
through the blood of the cross. And Paul, he refutes an error
here. You know, we believe and we know
Paul was a human writer of this letter, but God the Holy Spirit
directed him. And there's going to come, after
Paul wrote this letter, maybe 100 years later, there's going
to come an era that will be taught among the churches, and that
is that Christ didn't have a real body. He didn't have a body like
ours. It just looked like a body, a
spiritual body. But Paul makes it clear, even
before the era cropped up, The refutation is already here. Yes, he had a body, a body that
God prepared him from the Virgin Mary, a body in which he could
bleed. God doesn't have blood. God is
a spirit. But the God man has a body that
was prepared him in which he could bleed and pay the penalty
for the the sins of his people. God's justice demanded satisfaction. Oh yes, he had a body. In fact,
in Romans chapter 8, I believe it is, Paul said it looked like
a sinful body. In other words, it looked just
like your body, Christ did. He didn't have a halo. You know,
back in the, I guess, dark ages, maybe, all the paintings that
they could paint, all that they were allowed to do, they were
all religious paintings for the most part. And they painted Christ,
you know, in those pictures, because no one knows what his
physical features are anyway, but they would always paint him
with a halo around his head. No, no, he wasn't like that at
all. He came in the likeness of sinful
flesh. He didn't come in sinful flesh,
but in the likeness of sinful flesh, Paul tells us. And how
did he reconcile his people unto God? Through the blood of his
cross. You who were far off, far off. Someone said, how far were we?
So far, we couldn't come back on our own. That's how far we
were. We were so far, we couldn't come
back on our own. We were like that one sheep that
was lost, that the shepherd left the 99 and went out to seek. That sheep would have never come
home if Christ did not come seeking to save that which was lost.
The third thing that we have in Christ is a bright hope. You
notice in the last part of verse 22, it tells us, to present you
holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. The word hope,
the English word I should say, the English word hope has sort
of changed its meaning over the years. When the scriptures were
translated, when they used the word hope, think of it as expectation,
the expectation. And I believe that this here
refers especially to when the Lord Jesus Christ comes again,
when he will present his body, the church, to himself and his
father. His purpose in reconciling us,
that He might present us, He might say unto His Father, Father,
here am I and the children which Thou hast given me. You know,
everyone that He was given, everyone that God chose in that everlasting
covenant and gave into His hands, And he thanks the father. You
read in John chapter 17, his prayer six times, he mentions
the fact that God had given him these people, given you. If you're one of his children
today, God gave you into the hands of his son before the world
began. And one day he's going to present
you to his father. and not you alone, but all of
those who were given to him and be able to say, Father, here
am I and the children which thou has given me. Oh, what a day,
what a day. And my friends, when he presents
us, he's going to present us here as the scripture says, unblameable,
holy, first of all, holy, as holy as God is. as holy as he
is, dressed in his righteousness, unblameable, unreprovable in
his sight. In his sight. Man, that's saying
something, isn't it? I mean, in his sight! In Him, the scripture says, the
heavens are not clean in His side. He charges even His angels
with folly, and God is going to present us before Him in His
side, holy, unblameable, unreprovable. How is that possible? How is
it possible He can take a poor lost sinner like me, as filthy
and sin as can be, and present me to His Father, unreprovable,
holy, unblameable, through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. That's the only way. Only way. Those in heaven have washed their
robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Some people believe this prophecy
in the book of Zephaniah refers to Christ when he stands there
with all of his blood-bought children around him. The Lord
thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing. Singing. The last thing that
I mentioned we have in Christ, in Christ we must continue in
the faith, verse 23. Now Paul is not saying here that
our faith makes the blood of Jesus Christ effectual but if
a professed believer does not continue in the faith they could
not be presented unblameable in his sight. And Paul would,
I believe by this, stir up these people in Colossae and stir you
up and stir me up today to perseverance. Yes, we believe in the preservation. We're in his hand and nothing
can take us out of his hand. That's preservation. But there's
also perseverance. We persevere believing. And God has given us means to
persevere. His word, his word, prayer, the
fellowship of believers, the times we come together and worship
the Lord together and hear the word of God. These are means
that God gives us to help us to persevere, to keep looking
to Christ, to keep trusting in him. Then I want you to notice
that last saying of Paul and that verse when he said, whereof
I, Paul, am made a minister, a preacher. What is a preacher? What is a preacher? I like Brother
Scott Richardson's definition of a preacher. He said it something
like this. A preacher is a nobody. who desires to tell everybody
about a somebody who can save anybody. I like that, don't you? A preacher is a nobody who desires
to tell everybody about a somebody who can save anybody. And that
somebody is Jesus Christ, our Lord. And He's able to save anybody. Anybody. Oh, what hope and expectation
do we have in Christ.