Jesus is Superior. So What?

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. I wait for 13 seconds, then begin to talk. So that's the fade in, that's the fade out, that's the new music. If you hear the older music, the saxophone, ska, reggae stuff, then you know that's an older show or, I don't know, I didn't have an opening for it or something like that.

You can write us info at nocompromiseradio .com. Just a few things again to remind you of. We have two gospel assurance books, a 31-day guide for gospel assurance, and that's about 200 pages long with a lengthy intro written by me, and 31 days that you can read different Puritan authors about the doctrine of assurance with plenty of chapters in there about Jesus because those two subjects are tied together, Jesus and assurance.

If you want one page only for kind of devotional with some adjacent pages for notes, I've condensed those Puritan writings into one page per day for 31 days. There's a bonus day on that one, same introduction that I wrote, and it's called Gospel Assurance, a 31-Day Devotion or Devotional.

And I'm going to do a few more. I've got other ones lined up that I'm working on, and right now I'm trying to concentrate on S. W. Johnson's Colossians Commentary. Two other things, March 23rd, 24th, and 25th, Steve Meister will be at Bethlehem Bible Church doing a conference on the doctrine of God entitled The Fount of All Joy.

It's going to be for lay people especially as they contemplate who God is and that will give them hope and joy and a desire to live a holy life. You can register, I think bbcchurch .org or you can email my secretary bbcstaff at bbcchurch .org.

So, I think there'll be registration stuff later. I will see you in Oregon this coming June 23rd, 24th, 25th, Doctrine of Sanctification at my friend Kofi's place. Anyway, Kofi has been on NOCO before and I tend to run into him places around the world.

Well, so far, well, maybe I only saw him in England and in the U .S. That's it. What else is happening here? No Compromise Radioville. Well, if you've been praying for my grandson, he's doing pretty well and I just got to hold him and play with him and do other things.

I'm very, very thankful. If his mom and dad need a break, I just say, okay, I'll do it, right? I don't need to go out and see the town, see California. When I was in California a couple weeks ago, I think I had tacos every day because so far I haven't had great Mexican food here in New England.

Jesus Is Superior, So Stop Moving Past Him

All right, we're talking about the book of Colossians. Colossians chapter 1. Remember what we talked about last time? That it's essentially, besides the intro, the prayer, the preeminence, and the proclamation.

It's about Jesus. And here's what I was after last time. It was because of false teaching that Paul wrote the letter. And while I'm not thankful for false teaching, I'm thankful for what God does when there's false teaching.

In particular, we see Colossians written in response to false teaching. You can understand that creeds and confessions were spawned also in response to false teachers. We have to be precise and we have to say Arius is using Bible verses, but we're going to try to explain things theologically using words maybe that aren't even in the Bible to help us grasp things because doctrine matters, Jesus matters, and anyone that wants to take away his sufficiency, his supremacy, his superiority, I'm thinking of other words with S's, his saving work, that needs to be combated.

And that's why elders do two things, positively teach sound doctrine, negatively refute those that contradict. That's exactly what Paul did. I want to say that out of the 27 books of the New Testament, 22 to 25 of them talk about false teaching.

Okay, Philemon, maybe no false teachers addressed there. And what else? What other book would false teachers not be talked about in one way, shape, or form? Whatever the number is, that's not the important thing.

We have this book written, of course, through the human author, Paul, but the Spirit of God himself exactly with the exact letters, with the exact vowels and consonants, exact diction and syntax and everything else, exactly.

We're believing that this is exactly right, right? Revelation from God through these men, 2 Peter 1, verse 20 and 21, 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, this breathed outward through Paul to combat false teaching.

And I want you to know, to make this as practical as possible, there are going to be people that are going to tell you, probably not Jesus isn't God, although they show up at your door. But more often, they're going to say, Jesus is great.

Jesus is good. Jesus is the Savior. And now you kind of need to move on to like other stuff and a bunch of spiritual disciplines. You have to do all those things. Hey, if you want a journal, fine. If you want to go without food, fine.

If you want to do these things, fine. Spiritual disciplines, it's an interesting category. Certainly, if you like spiritual disciplines, you could agree with me when I would say, when you get into Colossians chapter 2, asceticism, that's not going to help anybody.

It looks like it will, it's got the appearance, but it's not going to help. Extra rituals, I'll even go so far to say is going back to Old Testament types and shadows when we already have the fullness, the fulfillment, the Lord Jesus himself.

You don't need to be doing, you know, putting a booth up in your backyard for Feast of Tabernacles. You don't, I mean, if you want to celebrate Passover, Seder and arrange things in such a way so you can walk through with the children, what it means, how it points to Christ, how we're glad he's already arrived.

I don't care about that. That's fine. But if you're thinking that you have to do that, right? It's like when my children were studying in Israel, Maddie, Luke, and Grace have been there and studied for a semester and they've all been there, I think in the spring semester, if I'm not mistaken, and then they're there for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

And some of the leaders, teachers, either on campus or some of the hired out professors, well, you know what? We need to fast today and we need to do this today. We need to say no today to such and such and such and such.

And my children would call me and say, Dad, what do we do? I said, go out and get a hamburger and eat it. Go out and get a bunch of food. Go get a pizza or two. We don't have to do that. It's not Jesus plus this other stuff.

Yeah, the Day of Atonement can teach me a lot, right? Specifically, here's what the Day of Atonement brings to my mind. There are other things, but it's this. You've got two animals that are slain. The two animals that are brought in, one slain and one walks away.

And we have propitiation, wrath, assuage, killing the animal on our behalf. And we have what? Expiation, where sins are released or let go and they're out of the camp type of thing. Well, we can learn from all this.

That's not my point. My point is, when people start saying it's Jesus plus this other stuff, Jesus plus slain in the Spirit, Jesus plus speaking in tongues, Jesus plus this ecstatic, ecstatic, ecstatic, ecstatic.

How can you not understand what ecstatic is? I see dead people. I mean, come on. Jesus plus, Jesus plus, Jesus plus, Jesus plus emotional responses and liver quivers and shivers and diverse experiences.

No. Rituals, denials. It's not Jesus plus everything else. And I'm talking about both for justification and sanctification. Yes, the response to God's sanctifying work is no to sin and yes to righteousness.

It is vivification and mortification. It is that. That is certainly true. But sanctification isn't outside of Jesus. You don't move on ever from Jesus. If you're a Christian, you'll never move on from Jesus for all eternity.

Did you know that? For all eternity, you'll never going to move on to something better. And you'll see that in Colossians chapter one, that Jesus is supreme. He's preeminent and therefore he's to be proclaimed.

So that's my intro on No Compromise Radio today. We're 10 minutes in and I don't know what else I've got here. That policeman just flew by here. That is amazing. What is here? What is one of my favorite?

Yeah. Okay. There we go. All right. We're ready. We're ready. Colossians chapter one, Mike Ebenroth, No Compromise Radio. You can write me info at nocompromiseradio .com. I think I figured out my new Rodecaster Pro 2 and I think I can get callers back in again.

And I'm not going to take callers, you know, during the live show, but I can have a caller, have a guest and have a guest on. So I think we're going to get our guests back on pretty soon. Pretty soon.

San Francisco quarterback, Purdy, by the time you hear this, he'll have already played against Eagles. Do you think he's going to win or not? Well, now you already know the answer. Paul starts off after his introduction with prayer.

We always thank God, the father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. Interesting. Right there, you get an idea, don't you? About Jesus as Lord, Jesus as Supreme, Jesus as the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings.

You get an idea of the relationship between father and the son. When we pray for you, why are we giving thanks? Well, you know what? How about for faith, love, and hope? Would you see faith, love, and hope in a friend and say, you know what?

That Christian friend of mine's got faith, love, and hope. I thank God that he, God, gave them that. That'd be good. I'd like to have a stronger faith. I'd like to have more love, and I'd like to have an increased hope since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.

Of this you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel. That is so awesome. This is amazing because we have faith, love, and hope. And the way Paul is praying here, it's really that hope of eternal life, that hope of communion face-to-face with the Lord Jesus in heaven, that hope of glorification eagerly awaiting the return of the Lord Jesus.

It's that that fuels his faith and fuels and undergirds his love. Oh, by the way, I had a really bad dream last night, and I dreamt that I was in an airplane, and the cockpit doors were open, and I could see, I could feel that we're going to dive straight down and crash.

And I looked through the front windshield where the pilots would be, and I could see that the angle wasn't, we're going to land nicely, and we're going to just crash. And we're about 30, 20 seconds from just total nosedive, probably 45 degree angle.

And at first I thought it was Maddie with me, my daughter. And then in my dream, I thought it was my wife. But I looked over and I said, I love you. And then right before impact, which by the way, I woke up before impact, I said, Lord, please forgive me.

Like I wanted to make sure all my sins were forgiven with this kind of latent Lutheranism or Roman Catholicism, where I want to make sure they're all confessed to make sure I got a clean slate to make it.

There's nothing wrong with saying, Lord, forgive me. Obviously, please, Lord, forgive me. I should have said into your hands, I commit my spirit, right? I'm committing my whole life into your hands, and I think I'm going to die soon.

Anyway, then I woke up. And you know what? Here's what I didn't think, sadly. I didn't think, what a letdown. I could have been in heaven. I sadly, because I think carnally way too often. I thought, I'm glad that was just a dream.

I'm glad that was just a dream. Well, of course, I'm glad that the plane wreck was just a dream, that part you could get. But doesn't that tell you something about maybe you as well? Certainly it tells you something about your host, Mike Avendroth, that I'd like to long for heaven more than I do.

Wouldn't you? Wouldn't you like that for yourself? I mean, let's be honest. Don't we have some wonderful things here on this earth? Now, some of you have probably gone through hardships that I can't imagine and are currently going through them and you long for heaven all the more.

Okay. I understand that. Probably for most people though, sprinkled in with trials are in the midst of trials, sprinkled with good things. You have taste buds. You have ears to listen to music. You have eyes to see snow-capped mountains.

You have children. You have a spouse. You have laughter and joy and food and intimacy and wonderful church life. There's a lot of things that you have, children, grandchildren, and it's hard to leave.

I mean, absent from the body, present with the Lord. We know that. Paul in 2 Corinthians talks about what kind of desire that he has to be with you, but he's got this greater desire to be with Christ.

So, whatever Christ wants, that's what's going to happen. And therefore, when we think this way, we should be driven to, Lord, would you increase my appreciation for heaven all the more? And would you give me a greater anticipation of being with Jesus face-to-face?

Faith, love, and hope. Paul says, of this you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel. This is amazing. By the way, Paul is modeling prayer for you. When you see growth in other people and you see things that God is doing in them, you see the fruit of the Spirit in their lives, love, joy, and peace, and other things.

That's a good thing to thank God for. I prayed that today because I thought, well, how often do I pray it? But I'm going to start right now. Dear Lord, I'm thankful for the saints of Bethlehem Bible Church, for their faith in Christ Jesus, the love they have for one another, and the hope that they have in heaven.

Those are worthy of praise and thanksgiving. And Paul, this prayer warrior, we always thank God for those kinds of things. This love that they had, this hope that they had in the future, which he says in verse six, has come to you, as indeed in the whole world, it is bearing fruit and increasing.

And it also does among you since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth. So, he ends in verse five about the word of truth that is the gospel. And this gospel came. And what does this gospel do?

Well, it certainly saves. It gives us forgiveness. God justifies us, redeems us, reconciles us. There are many benefits that we receive when God opens our hearts and minds and we trust in the living Savior.

And what does it do? As indeed in the whole world, it is bearing fruit and increasing. I think probably what's happening here is, you know what? One of the things about false teaching, it doesn't bear fruit.

Oh, it might have behavior modification for a short term. It might have, well, you can deny yourself of this, that, and the other because of the cultic leaders request and shave your head and wear this white robe and blah, blah, blah.

But real fruit only comes from the Lord Jesus, only comes from the word of truth, only comes from the gospel, only comes from the grace of God. And he talks about what in the end of verse five, the word of truth.

And then what does he say about truth in verse six, understood the grace of God in truth. I can hear it, can't you? You say, what's that? The backdrop of lies, lies, lies, lies, lies. Whomever these people are who are telling things about Jesus that ought not to be told and taught, they're lying.

Paul's talking about the truth and Paul's talking about, this is the truth from God. The ones spouting things like angels are better than Jesus, lies. Emanations from God are better than Jesus, lies. All kinds of keeping rules is what you need to do.

You don't need Jesus, lies. Paul hears about what's going on because he learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the spirit.

Again, saying, he's told me about love. He's told me about how you love in the spirit, a love propelled by the Holy Spirit. And he, Epaphras, he's a faithful minister. Side note, I mean, what a commendation by Paul.

What if you are serving under Paul and Paul said, you're a faithful minister of Christ. That's what I'd like to be, faithful minister of Christ, a servant of Christ, faithful steward, faithful minister.

I serve you, Christ. I have nothing else to serve. I serve you, Christ. But that's good. Verse nine. And so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

How shall I pray? What shall I pray? Maybe we don't have all the inside knowledge that these false teachers have. Maybe we need something more. And what does Paul say? No, I'm praying that you'd be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

S. W. Johnson says, you want to know about Paul's prayers? They were brief and explicit, directed to the needs at hand. Just right to the point, right? You have a relationship to the father as son or daughter, and you can just ask.

You can boldly approach the throne of grace. Can you not? I like S. W. Johnson when he said he did not pray all around the world. Johnson, there's an amusing anecdote about Billy Nicholson, the famous Irish evangelist.

In a large meeting, he called upon a brother to pray who was noted for mentioning all the missionaries he knew in every one of his public prayers. Brother so-and-so said, Billy, will you please lead us in prayer, but keep it in the county.

Oh, you want some real knowledge that doesn't have anything to do with Jesus? It's false knowledge. It's not true knowledge. You're not going to get any inside kind of special secret outside of Christ, a deeper relationship with God outside of who Jesus is or making Jesus lesser than what he is.

That's called heresy. And what do you do when there's heresy? You talk about the Lord Jesus and how everything is found in him. Justification, sanctification, glorification, it's all there. And Paul just goes on to pray so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.

That's the outcome. Lord, may this be the outcome of these fruit-bearing saints and faithful brothers and sisters at Colossae who are hearing all these false things. I want them to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him.

He mentioned this earlier, so he says it again, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, not increasing in esoteric knowledge, not increasing in special Gnostic knowledge, not increasing in special knowledge of themselves, no knowledge of God, and that's only through Jesus, and bearing fruit in every good work.

And like I said just moments ago, false teaching, no good work, no good fruit. There might be fruit, but it's going to be a rotten fruit. It's certainly not going to be pleasing to the Lord fruit. You become frail and weak when you're pummeled by false teaching all the time.

Some of you have experienced that. Therefore, does it surprise us when Paul goes on to say, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy?

I mean, pummel, pummel, pummel, pummel, pummel with false teaching. I'm going to need some strength. I'm going to need patience. I'm going to need endurance. I'm going to need strength outside of myself so I can have joy with all this.

That's what Paul prays for. I mean, it just came to me, you have missionaries in Utah. You have missionaries in Roman Catholic lands. You have missionaries places where there's all kinds of occult things.

You have missionaries in areas, Muslim areas, Hindu areas. I mean, what a prayer for the missionaries. For our missionaries, I'm thinking, don't they need to be strengthened with all power? Don't they need this power of the glorious might so they can have endurance and patience with joy?

Lord, give them just enough, just as many glimpses of your work to give them joy so that they might continue and they'd be strengthened and they might have endurance. That's what we need. You probably are hopefully functioning as a missionary right where you live here in America, if you're listening in America, here for me in New England.

And Paul says, thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints. I think this is what we're all after. We're all after, you know what? We want to walk in a manner worthy of our calling.

We want to walk in a manner that pleases God, not to get saved, not to stay saved, but because we are saved as fruit, as evidence out of a gratitude and a love for the Lord for what he's done for us, loving us.

And you want to know what a pleasing walk is? Well, what does Paul say? Bearing fruit, increasing, strengthening, and being thankful. That's what it means. That's what it means. He talks about being thankful and he talks about the inheritance that they can be thankful for, verse 12, qualified to share in the inheritance.

And then he also gives another reason to thank that he's delivered us from the domain of darkness, rescued as Israel was taken out of Egypt, rescued the great delivery, bringing Israel from Egypt. But the greater delivery, the greater deliverance is certainly spiritual.

And Paul just keeps thanking. I mean, there's just one after another, after another, he's delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son. Thankful because God has delivered and God has transferred.

I think that's probably language of Exodus as well. He's delivered us from Egypt and transferred us into Canaan, but now at a much greater level spiritually. And then he says, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Everything's found in Jesus. Remission of sins. If you have your sins forgiven, dear Christian, which every Christian has, a dear person listening, it's because of Jesus. Forgiveness, liberation of all your sins, receive forgiveness through faith and through faith alone.

That's pretty wonderful. That's kind of Paul's prayer. And then he talks about the preeminence of Jesus, because this is where you wanted me to go, I know, in verses 15 through 20. But it took us a while to get there.

And that's just fine. I'm thinking to myself, though, how am I going to get through this in one sermon? I've got the two radio shows, and I'm only up to verse 15. That's telling me go faster. That's telling me just read the prayer and talk without notes and then get to the lordship of Jesus, that he's the image of the invisible God.

He's the firstborn of all creation, et cetera. Jesus is enough. Make sure you keep reading your Bible with an eye to Jesus. Make sure you keep reading the gospels. Make sure you keep reading the fifth gospel, the book of Hebrews.

Make sure you're reading doctrinal books about the gospel. It was J .I. Packer that said something to this effect. We think we're especially mature if we're reading Romans all the time in Galatians. Obviously, read Romans all the time in Galatians.

That's true. But they're telling us doctrinal truths that come from the person and work of Jesus. One of my problems is I think about the doctrine apart from the one who's done it, to think about the Lord Jesus instead and not think about doctrine apart from Jesus.

Does that make sense? You probably do the same thing too. If you ask me about reconciliation, redemption, propitiation, forgiveness, justification, sanctification, glorification, union, I mean, what else do you want to talk about?

All these different things. I know how to do that, but I don't want to detach nor divorce those concepts from the Lord Jesus slash from the triune God. Because remember, every time I talk about Jesus, I mean the one sent by the Father.

I mean the one who has his work applied to us and every believer by the Holy Spirit. We're talking about Jesus. We're talking about the three. We're talking about the three. We talk about the one. Well, that's that.

I think that's that. Mike Ebenroth, No Compromise Radio. If you have any questions, you can write me, Mike at NoCompromiseRadio .com. We'll see you next time.