Colossians 1:15-16 - Christ, The Preeminent One

Good morning, everyone. Good to be back in Texas. How are you doing? We got some cold weather where we just got back from in Alaska, so you guys have thin blood by now.

We still have thick blood, so we're not used to it yet, but it's great to be back. Good to see all of you.

In the Sunday school lesson this morning that Matt was teaching, I noticed a scripture in there where it said, you probably remember where it said, let's see,

Matt, you might can help me with it. It said something about that if you go into the room of mourning, they call it a room, the room of mourning is better than the room of laughter, because when you go through the room of mourning, your heart grows.

Isn't that something? Great lesson by the way. I was able to listen to Matt's Sunday school lesson from last week on the ship, and then

Ben, I heard it this morning on the way to church. That's why my phone messed up in Sunday school. I was trying to turn that off, and it took control of my phone, and Ben started preaching while Matt was teaching.

I'm going to blame it on Ben. Ben, it couldn't have been the operator of the phone, right? But seriously, I had the sound button clicked off, and the volume turned down, and it did that.

Now how does that happen? Is that even possible? Could anyone else do that besides me? And Satan.

I guess he worked through my phone. Not through me, but through the phone. Anyway, I went in the kitchen finally after Sunday school, and still tried to do it again, and I finally got rid of it.

Anyway, sorry about that. But listen, Matt, your lesson last week was tremendous, and this week was a great continuation of that lesson.

I learned a lot, and I heard Ben's sermon on the way to church this morning, and it was great last week.

Thank you guys so much. And then John King, I heard it, you know, when he preached it Sunday before last, and it was fantastic.

So really appreciate everybody holding down the fort while we were gone, and we had a great trip.

Katie and Dave and their kiddos went with us, and we got to spend all that time together, and it was a really wonderful time.

So if you ever get the chance to see Alaska, you should probably do it, because if you want to see

God's creation, it's just outstanding right there. And we got some great photos.

If you want to see them at lunch, I'll show them to you. But it's just mountain after mountain, snow -capped mountain, and then glacier after glacier, and contrary to what the liberals want you to think, the glaciers are still there.

In fact, some of them are growing bigger, which is interesting, considering what they think is happening.

But anyway, it's great to see God's creation. So good to be back with you, and I will not take any more time to chat, because we need to get going here, and let's pick up in Colossians chapter 1.

We had spent some time in the first part of that chapter looking at God the

Father and what the Scripture says about Him, and then down around about verse 12, it starts to talk about the

Son of God, the Eternal Son. And so we have to talk a little bit about the triune nature of God as we study

Colossians, and specifically the deity of Jesus Christ is huge in this book of Colossians, this letter that Paul wrote to the church at Colossae.

So we started out speaking of Jesus Christ in Colossians 1, 12, and 13, and 14.

It speaks of Him first. It says who He is. He is the king of God's kingdom, and He is

God's dear Son. And if you remember the word for dear there is agape, which is interesting, because in English it really doesn't mean dear.

It means loved, His loved Son, and it has a little article thee in front of the word loved and in front of the word

Son. So He is the Son, the loved, not a son, the

Son, and not a person God loves, but the person that God loves. That's fascinating just to look at the little

Greek words there and the little articles in that. Secondly, we talked about that He is the image of the invisible

God, and that is sort of the last thing that we were talking about, and we see that in verse 15 of Colossians chapter 1, who is the image of the invisible

God, the firstborn of every creature. Now that one sentence right there, it requires quite a bit of study because there are, to you guys, there's nothing problematic in that verse, but when you get out there in the world system, especially in the religious system where so many churches in these end times are preaching false doctrine,

Jesus said there'd be many false preachers in the end times. They are here, they're with us, and they're everywhere, and in every church that you go to, you need to check out everything that person says with the scripture because they will use scripture, but normally what happens is they use it out of context.

So I saw it happen on the ship. Dave was talking about it. We went to a Bible study.

I think Dave went every time. I went about three times to it, but one of the people taught, and he wanted to keep it on the

Holy Spirit, which is fine with us, but some groups in this country act like we don't believe in the

Holy Spirit. We don't believe God can heal. We don't believe the Holy Spirit lives in us and moves in us and gives us power, or maybe they'll say we believe in the indwelling, but we don't believe in the anointing.

Well, the anointing is the same to me as the filling, and we believe in it and possibly know more than they do about it, which is interesting because they act like we don't even believe in it, but the truth is they get out of context so much when they discuss it, they get it wrong, and this gentleman that taught, his very first point, most of his points were very good, but his first point, he took a verse that had nothing to do with what he talked about, had nothing to do with, well, it was the verse where it says that Jesus breathed on them, and they were his apostles early on, even before Pentecost, where it says he breathed on them and they were filled with the

Spirit. Remember that verse? He said that is teaching the anointing of the

Spirit, and it's not because the very next verse shows that one of those disciples wasn't even saved yet.

How you going to get anointed with the Spirit if you're not even saved yet? So he took it out of context, even the very next verse showed it, but he didn't read that verse, and it's all over the country, maybe all over the world, but I know in the

American church, it's so much so that no one understands the ten rules of proper

Bible interpretation, or they do understand it, but they cheat to prove a point they want to prove that they hold so dear that all of their buddies would kick them out of the group if they stopped teaching that.

Even if they saw it, they wouldn't stop teaching it, so many of them, and especially the younger ones, it's harder for young men to don't worry about getting kicked out of the group.

As you get older, you don't care. You really don't care about the group. What you care about is truth, and you seek the truth.

Well, that's just one example. Well, this particular verse in Colossians 115, there are some people who actually can be quite heretical in their teaching that will use several verses in this first chapter of Colossians to teach the opposite of what

God means by what he says because they cheat and they take things out of context. This church doesn't allow that, and if you ever see me teach something that's not right, all you got to do is show me.

You got to show me in context. You got to use all the rules of Bible interpretation and convince me I'm wrong, which you can do if I'm wrong.

Everyone in here could do that if I'm wrong. You can show me, and please don't believe anything just because I said it.

So, you cannot afford to do that in this day and time. You've got to be in the

Word, checking everything out that all of our teachers say, and all of us want to be corrected. We'd like you to do it private rather than standing up and interrupting the service, if possible.

Come see us after the service, and if you can show us we're wrong, we'll fix it the next Sunday. That's happened before, hasn't it,

Dave? Dave's shown me some historical things I got a little bit off from time to time, and I looked and said, you're right.

I just, like, had a, I did a Biden on it. I just, sorry about that. Didn't mean to bring politics in.

It's just an illustration. I'm going to preach to you today.

Okay. I shouldn't make fun of it. I'm getting there, you know. I'm going to be 70 in October.

Maybe I've got 10 more good years. Isn't he 82 or something? Ten more good years, hopefully. Anyway, so let's take a look at this.

Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature? Well, you know, one thing that, one key word here that people get wrong, and I think we touched on this the last

Sunday I was here before the trip, was image. And even I have gotten, even

I have gotten that wrong. I shouldn't say it that way. I am a man. All right.

So I got it wrong in a lot of my preaching earlier in my life because I used the

Strong's Dictionary definition for image, which you wouldn't think that's wrong. So you have to be careful with Greek.

Sometimes you need to look at the big wide dictionary and look at, you know, go back and look at all of how the

Greek word is used, especially how it's used in the Bible. But that word for image that we talked about last time, it literally means to strike, like to have an image on the bottom of a, what do you call this thing?

A die. Put it on some leather and hit it with a hammer. And then it puts that on the leather. That's the, a lot of times in profane

Greek, that's what it means. Icon is the word. It usually means that. It doesn't mean that in this verse.

And you can look at the greatest Greek scholars who've written anything about the word and how it's used in the Bible. And, and they are pretty much all in agreement that actually what it means is the real and essential embodiment of something, which is a little different.

It's not just like an image of something. It is the real essential embodiment of that thing.

So let me, let me give you an example in scripture. I'll turn to second

Corinthians 3, 18, and I'll show you the same word where the word, and it is translated image again in the

English and the King James, but you'll see that it doesn't mean like a cheap copy of something.

It doesn't mean that at all. And you'll see, you'll see clearly how the words use. And this is how scholars of scripture can sometimes look at profane

Greek and say, well, yeah, that is how Plato used it, but it's not how Paul used it.

It's not how the Holy spirit uses in the Bible. And the way a lot of times you can figure that out this way is use the rule of proper

Bible interpretation. The rule that says, let the Bible interpret the Bible, you know that rule, right? Let scripture interpret scripture.

So go look and see how that word is used in other places and it'll shed great light. So let's look at this second

Corinthians 3, 18, um, in that I'm not going to read the verse, but in that particular verse, it talks about, uh, the work of the spirit in the heart.

And it's described as quote, changing us, the Holy spirit, as he works in our heart, changing us from glory to glory into the image of the glorified

Christ. So it's not like we're a cheap copy, uh, or an image.

We're actually, uh, the we're actually, I think the best definition is what

I said a minute ago. Um, where'd I put it? Oh, I discarded it already, but it's actually the embodiment of that thing.

And that's who we are. We are, Christ lives in us and we're the embodiment of Jesus Christ.

So we talked about that last time. And, uh, you know, that is, that is really great.

Um, and there's a couple of others, uh, in first Corinthians 15, 49, it says that the image of the earthy and the image of the heavenly, and it's talking about Adam and Jesus, the first Adam and the second

Adam. And when it says the image of the earthy, it just means he's a man. And when it talks about Jesus and says, he is the image of the earthy, it doesn't mean he's a cheap copy of a human.

It means he is a man, right? So that is what this word likeness actually means in biblical

Greek. It means the embodiment of something, not just an image of something. I think that is, uh, quite important to understand that.

So now let's talk about, uh, let's move to the next thing, the invisible God. Have you ever wondered what that means?

Uh, somebody, let's see, how about Ben and Charlotte? How much did I cover last time?

Cause Ben's like 12 days, uh, cause I neglected to mark my notes. Did I cover the invisible

God very much or did I just start getting into it? You introduced it.

That's what I thought. Okay. So let's talk about that a little bit because here is, I think we ran out of time and so I just stopped.

Um, but where it talks about the invisible God, um, here's, here's the thought on that because it's difficult to tell.

I don't know if you've thought about this before, but does that mean that the father is literally invisible or does it mean he's just in a, he's not really in a place?

It's hard to talk about the father. He's, he's, he's outside of time and space wherever that is or whatever that is.

We speak as a man, we just call it a place. Okay. I thought about writing a book about it.

I had been talking about writing books a long time and I'm launching Monday because I've got key people in key places in three different companies and everything's running smoothly and I now have time to do it.

So I'm going, and I thought about one title is the fourth heaven. Would that be interesting? Cause the Bible talks about three heavens specifically lists the third heaven and second heaven and so forth.

But it implies the fourth heaven because I don't know if I'd really call it a heaven, but it's where the father dwells, which is outside of time and space.

And so you think about that. So when it says he is invisible, does it mean he's invisible or does it mean you can't see him cause you're not where he is?

See, it could mean either one, couldn't it? So we need to ferret that out and see what you think it means. And I think it's kind of interesting.

So let's talk about that for a moment. And as we do it, let's look at some of the scriptures dealing with it. First John one 18, take a look at that.

And uh, I like you to turn to him if you can, if you have a Bible or phone or whatever you're looking at with your

Bible in it, take a look at first John one 18. All right.

So Jesus is speaking here. No man has seen God at any time.

The only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father, he had declared him. It's not

Jesus speaking. It's the apostle John. It's the Holy spirit speaking through John. No man has seen

God. That means the father. No man has seen the father at any time. The only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father, he has declared him.

Okay. So does that mean no man has seen God because they're not where he is or he's invisible?

Well, it's not real clear on that one, is it? It's not super clear. That's what

I said. Isn't it? It's John chapter one, not first John. Sorry. John one eight.

I'm looking at it says right here, John 18. Sorry. Maybe I don't have 10 years to 82.

I'm not sure. I may be like, you know, more mature than the average 70 year old.

I don't know. Okay. John one 18, no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father, he has declared him.

I saw everybody kind of looking around. I'm wondering why is everybody looking around? Okay. Wrong verse, but it doesn't define exactly what invisible means yet, but we do know that no man has seen the father except one person.

Who is that? Jesus Christ is the only person, only man, woman, boy, or girl that has ever seen the father.

And we know that so far just from a couple of scriptures we've looked at now that tells us one thing is that no man, woman, boy, or girl on the earth could know

God without Jesus, because you can't, because God is in a place you can't go right now.

He's, he is outside of time and space. Your sin does not even approach him.

He cannot be in the presence of sin. Um, he's not in time. He's not in space.

And you couldn't even know about him. If Jesus Christ who has been with him, didn't tell you about him.

Now you could know he existed by the stars and everything. Something made him. So, you know, there's a God, but you couldn't know anything about God.

So we, we talked about that a little last time too. You couldn't know anything about God without Jesus. And that's why the great religions of the world, there's only one that's true.

And that's biblical Christianity because Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, all of them just have one

God. And if they were correct, you would never know that God because he's not in time.

He's not in space. He's not where you are. So you only know him when he comes into time and space. He only does that through two ways.

And that is the person of Jesus Christ, the son of God, and the person of the Holy spirit, both of whom are

God. But the father doesn't come here. You couldn't know him without the word of God, which is Jesus. Jesus is the word.

So we know Jesus has been with the father. Now let's keep reading.

Look at first Timothy and it really is first. It's not just Timothy first Timothy six 16 or as president

Trump would say, Timothy one six 16. He did that with Corinthians.

I think in a speech one time instead of first Corinthians, he said Corinthians one, and then he gave the chapter and the verse.

Okay. First Timothy six 16, who only has immortality dwelling in the light, which no man can approach unto whom no man has seen nor can see.

Now that gives me more information that phrase right there to whom be honor and power everlasting.

Amen. So Jesus, it's kind of refers back to John chapter one, verse 18 and other verses in John, where Jesus talks about that he's been with the father or first back to that.

And it says, Jesus is the only man who has immortality, which makes him

God. Uh, he dwells in the light, which means when Jesus said, I've been with the father, no man's been with him, but I've been with him.

And I declare him, uh, no other man can approach the father and no other man has ever seen the father, which is what

John one 18 said, but now it adds more information nor can any man see the father. Now, uh, that's interesting.

Ben, can you do me a favor and look that and see if it's what tense it is where it says, can see, I should have done it.

And I didn't, um, uh, first Timothy six 16, nor can see,

I want to know if that's future tense present or whatever, or heiress to whom be honor and power everlasting.

In other words, honor to Jesus, because he's been in the presence of the father. He's the only one who ever has.

So let's give him honor and glory and so forth. That's what the verse is talking about, but doesn't it seem to indicate that not only is it true that no man has seen

God, but no man can see God. So would you tend to think maybe that means actually invisible where it says he's invisible.

It means he's invisible. What do you think? Talk to me. I don't mind. This is class all of a sudden you think, does that prove it in and of itself or do we need more?

I think we have more. I'm not sure we have a better one than that. You got one, a pretty clear.

Thank you. Ben, Ben's going to look up the tense because that'll help them to know that too. Uh, they should match.

So look up seat. Okay. They should both be in the same tense, but okay.

So, so that means a heiress without respect to time. Like it doesn't mean past, present or future.

Usually it's rendered present in English, but it has no respect to time. It just means man can't see God. So you're right.

Okay. So let's look at another one though. Go with me to regular John, clarify myself. Six, John 45, no,

John six 45, John chapter six, verse 45. I would think with Dave senior said, let's see a few more.

All right. Um, you got it. John six 45. It is written in the prophets and they shall all be taught of God.

Now that's a I'd love to get on a rabbit trail there, but I won't, you know,

I lie when I say I won't, right? It's happened before. Not this time. Every man therefore that has heard and learned of the father comes to Jesus.

Oh man, that's tempting to get on a rabbit trail. All right. Verse 46, not that any man has seen the father, except that word save is an old

English word. It means except, except he, which is of God, he has seen the father.

Truly, truly. I say unto you, he that believes on me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life.

Okay. Now that one kind of reverts back to John one 18. It shows us that none of us have ever seen God.

Only Jesus that has this word. It says, uh, save he, which is of God, he had seen the father.

And, um, I think if you look up the word, see, you can check me. Anybody that's got a phone, uh, that word for seen in verse 46,

John six 46 is going to be kind of a good translation would be observe. It doesn't literally mean to strike the eye in the

Greek. It means to observe something, uh, because there's a scripture that says nowadays, for those of us who has seen and believe on the

Christ will be saved. It doesn't mean you have to see him obviously, cause we haven't seen him physically, but it means he's observed him.

You've read the scriptures and you've observed his life and you know him from his word, which is spirit and truth speaking to you who he is saying with the father, right?

So we observed the father that way. And we observed Jesus that way, but, um, it doesn't necessarily strike the eye, but then you might want to look it up,

Ben. There's another verse. And I'm sorry, I would have looked these up seriously. I was,

I expected to do the hospital visit with John yesterday at one o 'clock in Baylor and Dallas was to have the surgery.

They didn't do the surgery till five and it wasn't over till eight. And then I had to drive home.

And so I didn't get a chance to look these up, uh, had my sermon done a month ago, but usually what

I do when I go over it, uh, the night before I'll, if I see a word, I want to look up, I'll look it up, but that would be a good one.

Let's see if it means to strike the eye and, uh, let's see where, which verse we're in.

Yeah. Okay. So it means to strike the eye. It doesn't mean it doesn't mean to observe. What is the word?

Can you pronounce it? Okay. All right.

So that's good to know. So that indicates Jesus has seen the father. So the other verse indicates we will never see the father.

And it says we can't see the father. This one says Jesus has seen the father. So, um, does that mean he can be seen or does it just mean he can be seen only by Jesus because Jesus is

God. So I think when you put the two together, it means that, um,

Jesus has seen the father in the sense that he has been with him before time began, before anything was created and he has observed the father.

But here's what I think when we see the father, the only place we've ever seen the father, and we didn't see him, but in the wilderness tabernacle on top of the mercy seat was the

Shekinah glory. And then in the, the temple that was built later, both of which were resemblances of the actual throne in heaven, right?

And the mercy seat, that's really there. The Shekinah glory shined over it. Only one man could see that ever.

And that was the high priest once a year, remember, and he had to go in with blood or he would have been destroyed and, and the proper sacrifices had to have been done.

And he goes in and he sees the Shekinah glory. Well, that is a type or a picture.

That one man pictured Jesus is the one man that's seen God, right? Pictures that. But in reality, in the third heaven right now, you still have the same thing.

You have the Shekinah glory over the throne and you have the lamb who is Jesus physically in heaven.

You have the Holy spirit depicted by the seven lamps, both in the throne and in the eyes of the lamb, uh, who ties the father and son together and us together with them and with each other and all that.

John saw all that, but you're not really seeing the father. When you see that you're seeing a little bit of God's glory.

You're seeing a little bit of the resplendent light, which is a picture or a symbol that the father exists, but you're not seeing

God. Bible says you hadn't seen him says you won't ever see him. That used to bother me.

I asked Otis about it once. He said, don't worry, brother David, you'll see God. I said, how? He said, through the eyes of Jesus.

I thought that's a nice answer. Not sure it helps, but it's a nice answer and a correct answer probably.

But anyway, so sit, so now, you know, we're, here's what we know. The Bible says he's invisible.

Uh, Jesus says he's seen him, but I think it means more in the sense of he is with him and in all eternity past, you have to put a date on it cause we can't speak like God, but there's no time there.

But all of that time before time began, Jesus was with him and he sees him as he is.

He's the only one that has seen the father as he is. I don't believe that means the father has a body. I don't believe he has arms and leg and a head like the

Jehovah's witnesses and the Mormons think. Uh, I don't believe he had, even though in the book of revelation, there's a hand that comes out of this kind of glory and hands the book to Jesus.

I believe that hand is just a resemblance of, there was no body.

There was no person that you saw. You saw the Chicago, you saw the Chicago glory and the light and a hand that handed the book, something handed the book to Jesus.

And that is where, you know, I've said so many times that the Bible is remarkable because it's a book that came from a place that's not a place where there is no time and it came into time and space and we have it.

Well, that's a, that is a picture of how that happened, but it doesn't mean God has a hand. The father, uh, it's anthropomorphic, which means we tend to give human characteristics to God, which he doesn't really have, but it helps us to understand him a little bit, but it doesn't mean he has a body.

So I think I lean towards thinking it literally means invisible that the father is invisible because he is not made out of stuff.

All right. He's a pure spirit being. Now, um, I think these verses shed light on it.

Let's see. We've got, uh, one more look at first John four 20.

If a man say, I love God and hated his brother, he is a liar. Because he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love

God whom he has not seen? So I don't know, you know, it, it pretty well indicates invisible, but what's interesting is the passage that we're dealing with indicates that he is in fact invisible.

So I think that's good to deal with that. Now let's go to the next word in the verse. And now I'm back in Colossians uh, chapter one and verse 15.

So verse 15 says he is invisible in the word in the Greek means invisible. All right.

So now what about the firstborn? Do you see how this could be problematic? What are the Jehovah's witnesses and Mormons teach about Jesus and the, and the

Gnostics in the first century, uh, almost 2000 years ago, taught the same thing. Uh, what do they teach about him?

That he's a created being that some say he's an angel that he's created just like Lucifer was created.

Uh, or they just say, he's a created being and guess which verse they used to try to prove it.

The one we're in right now, uh, the firstborn of every creature. And so now they'll say, okay, every creature me implies he's a creature, right?

I mean, it sounds like it in English. This is what's so fascinating about cult groups. Really they're filled with very ignorant people.

They're filled with people who don't have Greek and Hebrew scholars that have ever been recognized by anyone in the world.

They will make up what something means or they'll misuse the Greek. Kind of like we saw the word for a image doesn't mean what even

Strong's means. And really all they have sometimes is Strong's or they just have the English Bible and they take everything from the

English Bible. And so when you take, when you look at the verse we're looking at, it's very easy to think it says something that God doesn't mean.

And the only way you can know what God means is not by reading it, but by studying it in context, according to 10 rules of Bible interpretation, which include, you got to know what the word means.

You got to know what the words mean. You got to know what the grammar is in the sentence. You got to know the tenses of the verbs.

You got to know sometimes where the masculine feminine or neuter is real important. Like when the Bible says that tongues and words of knowledge and stuff will cease.

It tells us when it says when the perfect has come. A lot of people say, well, that's when Jesus comes back, but it can't mean that because it's in the neuter.

Jesus is masculine. Second coming is feminine. Rapture is feminine. It's neuter.

It's the Bible. It's when we had the only perfect physical thing in the world is the Bible. And now we have it.

So you have to look at the, not only the word meanings, but also the grammar and then the context and everything else.

All right. So now let's look at this, the firstborn of every creature, because you will face this someday. If you witness much, you're going to run across a

Jehovah's witness or a Mormon, and they're going to show you this verse in Colossians. And they're going to use the very verse that you studied today.

And if you don't know the meanings, they're going to use it to try to show that Jesus is a created being, which is blasphemy.

All right. So let's look at the word creature. He's the firstborn of every creature. Okay. The word every is

POS. We know that word, right? But the creature, the word creature is the word.

And that little word literally means this original formation, original formation.

So it doesn't mean creature. So in English, it sounds like something created creature means something created, right?

Original formation, uh, is not the word creature. And you may say, well, that still sounds like something that was formed, but let's keep looking at this passage.

And I think to shed light on it, we have to look at the word firstborn as well, because when you put the word firstborn in front of a word that sounds like creature, it really, those words together are pretty strong and they start making you think, well, why is he created?

Is he a created being? All right. So firstborn is the Greek word proto -akos, proto -tacos, like tacos.

It's a Texas word. And obviously it comes from a couple of words, but it means firstborn.

Um, it comes from a couple of words, the word proto, which means first.

What's interesting is the word tokos, uh, in the Greek does not really mean born.

It is translated more often into the English word interest. And you say, well, that doesn't make any sense, but if you keep following me, you'll see what it means.

Interest, the first interest. All right. Now, when you look at it in biblical language, first of all, let's go back and look at it in profane

Greek. Homer, one of the Greek scholars from long ago, 3 ,000 years ago or something, he used it.

And the most often use of his meaning for this word is first in rank, not first created or firstborn, but first in rank.

So if you had a King and a Prince and a pauper, you put them in rank. The King is first.

Doesn't mean any of them were created or born to the person looking at them. It just means this one's first in rank.

This one's second. This one's third. That is the Greek meaning in profane

Greek going back as far as history takes it where people spoke Greek, uh, even long before the new

Testament was written by the Holy spirit. Are you with me? Okay. So, uh, the orientation of the word is not having to do with the presence of other sons.

It's just talking about first in rank. It expressed when

Homer used it in sentences in this case, it expressed the fact that people, the individual or the

King, whoever it's talking about was especially dear to God. And of course he was talking about false gods, but whoever he thought

God was, he was giving an example of a person, maybe a King that was especially dear to God. Didn't mean he was created by God or that he was the first born of God.

It means he was first in rank in God's viewpoint. That's how, uh, Homer used it in profane

Greek. He's first in rank and we know that from that study of Greek.

Now, if we go into the biblical usage of the same word, we find that is more what it means where it's used.

You can go back to the old Testament and, uh, where it speaks of Israel and it says he,

God is speaking. He says, he is my first born only one elect and beloved. Okay.

So it uses the phrase in the English, he called it uses first born again, but what it actually means is first in rank because the next words indicate that he is the only one as far as rank and interest compared to everybody else to God.

Uh, the nation of Israel was the only nation that meant anything to God at that moment.

When this was written, uh, it was the elect nation. It was the beloved nation, but it does not mean it was birthed by God in that sense.

It wasn't used in that usage. And you find that in Exodus chapter four, 22 and 23 Israel is my son, even my first born.

Uh, but it's talking about he's elect, he's beloved and so forth. Um, even in the new

Testament, the scholars that I read in the past four weeks or so, uh, in certain places like Romans eight 29,

Colossians one 18, first Corinthians 15, 20 acts 26, 23. Uh, it's all speaking of Jesus being the first born in a sense of the first one who was risen from the dead.

So that you do have that usage and that picture. And, um, you can see at first Corinthians 1520, but now is

Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. So the usage in Colossians where it says he's first born, uh, is talking about he rose from the dead first.

He is the first one to ever be resurrected. And you say, well,

I don't know about that because some people came out of the graves, you know, when he was on the cross, you remember that? But that's not a true resurrection.

And boy, you've got to know that too, because there's so many tricky people that want to misuse the Bible. There are people who will say there are many resurrections in the

Bible and the Bible only mentions two. There's a first resurrection and the second, the first one happens at the end of this age.

And the second one happens is the end of the millennial kingdom. There are no other resurrections. Oh, there are many subsets of that.

There's a lot of resurrections. And I say like the people that came out when Jesus was on the cross, you know how we know that's not a true resurrection because those people had to die again.

A true resurrection, when you come out of there, you don't die again, you're immortal.

There's only two of those, not counting Jesus's. Of course, Jesus was resurrected, showing us that we will be.

But then as far as the resurrections we take part in, there's only two. So Jesus was the first born in the sense of the first human being to ever be resurrected from the dead in a true resurrection.

And that's what the meaning is. So it doesn't have anything to do with him being a creature or him being born or created by God.

It doesn't teach that at all. If you look at the context, you look at the words and you look at the grammar. All right.

So in Acts 26, 23, it says that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead.

There it talks about that again and show light unto the people and even to the

Gentiles. So really in that passage, what it means is that Jesus is the first of every, he is the first of all creation to be raised from the dead, which is true, right?

That's all it means. All right. So now let's look at verse 16, Colossians 1, 16.

For by him were all things created that are in heaven. You might want to stop and ask, okay, these people that think he was created by God, if he's created, how can all things be created by him?

Because if he was created, he didn't create himself. So he didn't create all things, right? Let's see.

That's an example of letting the Bible interpret the Bible. This, this verse in Colossians 16, and it's also a matter of context can help us interpret verse 15.

It can't mean he's created creature because verse 16 says he created everything.

So people listen, they will literally pull verse 15 out and hope you don't know verse 16, a

Jehovah's witness will or a Mormon. They do it all the time. And I'll tell you this, if you ever get caught with one and you think they've caught you and you hadn't looked at it lately, and you're not sure, you know, you kind of think,

I'm not really sure I know what that means. Just do this and it'll work every time. I've never had a time.

It didn't because I've had been caught before where they'll bring up something that I hadn't looked at in a while, or maybe years, uh, in the way they're trying to use it.

And I don't remember the context. I just know it doesn't mean that, you know, you ever been there. If you'll just say, look, excuse me, would you mind if we went to the top of the chapter and we read together all the way down each verse till we get to this verse.

And then maybe four or five verses after, could we do that together? If they say yes, then do it.

And as you do it, the Holy spirit will show you the context and show you how to prove that's not what it means every time.

Isn't that great? It's just, it's just how God wrote the Bible. It has to be in context.

All right. So, um, for by him, we're in verse 16, where all things created that are in heaven.

I want you to see if there's anything God left out here. So Jesus created everything that is number one in heaven.

What would that include? God is not fair.

Like y 'all are ready for lunch and I'm asking you a hard question. So what does that include? Well, okay.

It would include angels, angelic beings, all of the demons, if they can still, I think

Satan, I'm not going to say where he's still acts access to heaven. I think he still does. Ben will have to correct me if I'm wrong with that.

Cause we know where he's cast down. Is that still in the future? Isn't it? Yeah. So he's still, he's can still accuse you before God.

Can he not? Okay. So, so that would include Satan. Um, I don't know if other demons can be up there right now, but wherever they are, it would say that he created them.

Every good angel that's in heaven right now, he created them. All of the saints that have already died that are in heaven.

He created all of them. And then there's creatures in heaven, aren't there? These interesting things we see in the book of revelation that are in heaven, worshiping

God day and night, singing praises to him day and night. He created all of them.

So everything that is in heaven, uh, he created. All right.

So now would you answer this is the lamb in heaven right now at the right hand of the father?

Yes. So, so did, so you can't say that he was created if he created everything that's there, right?

So let's continue. He created everything that's in heaven, everything that's in the earth, every microscopic thing, every telescopic thing, everything under the sea, everything on top of the sea, everything in the forest, everything in the rain forest, every plant, every animal, every insect, which is an animal, everything.

I had a debate on that once in a board game. People I was debating with didn't understand insects or animals.

I said, well, you think they're plants? Cause there's only two kingdoms. Anyway, I digress a little bit.

So you got everything in heaven, everything in earth. How about everything that you can see and everything you can't see?

He created all that like electrons. You're sitting on a bench that you think is hard.

It's really mostly space. There's more space between the nucleus of the atoms in that bench.

There's more space there than there is stuff. And you don't fall through it because Jesus holds it all together.

So whether there be thrones or dominions, there's your demons, your demonic hordes and your angelic beings.

And even on the earth kingdoms and Kings and so forth, principalities, powers, all things were created by him and for Jesus.

All right. So let's just stop right there. I mean, the truth is it proves his deity beyond any doubt.

You can't let verse 15 throw you if you've got verse 16, right? And you got the grammar and all that.

So this is how we have to study to show ourselves approved unto God. If we don't do it, anybody can disprove you or prove anything they want from scripture.

Cause they just pull it out of context and prove what they want to prove with it. Unless you know how to take it back to the context, show them the word, show them the grammar and hopefully free them up.

Don't argue with them, but instruct them. The scripture says in meekness, that's hard to do, but you have to do it.

All right. So let me end with this. Okay. I want you to think about this.

Why do you think it is that Satan who was originally Lucifer, which means son of the morning.

He was the archangel of God when God created him, who protected the holiness of God in heaven.

He was the nearest angel to God in heaven. Why do you think he doesn't believe in God and he doesn't believe in Jesus?

Now, when I say believe in them, I don't mean like the human belief that Hebrews talks about where you can believe and fall away where you, yeah, they exist.

I'm not talking about that because the angels believe in God in that sense. Don't they, but they're not saved. So they believe in his existence.

They, they will mentally give a scent to the fact that God exists. That's not the kind of faith that saves you.

You only get saved by the faith of Christ. And the Holy spirit gives you that as a gift. When he regenerates you, the

Bible teaches in Ephesians two, eight, nine, and other places, all three scripture. So why doesn't my question is why doesn't

Lucifer, even before he fell, and the thing that caused him to fall in time after that, why didn't he believe

Jesus was God? So have you ever thought about it?

I mean, he saw him. He has seen him many times. He tempted him. How can he not believe?

Well, think about this picture. This is hard to do, but picture what it was like before anything existed in time didn't exist.

And you just had God. You had the father, son, Holy spirit, the triune God head.

We know he existed that way before he made any before Genesis one, one, because he's love he's love.

And you have to have an object. If you have love, it has to love something. So you had to have a father, son, Holy spirit to have love and God's never changed.

So he's always existed as he does now father, son, Holy spirit, but there's no stuff and there's no time.

And then in the scripture, it says that there was a time when

Jesus doesn't call him, Jesus calls him the son, the everlasting son, who was always before God, always before him means he always existed before God and God took great pleasure in his sons.

Always loved him always like that. There was a time when the sun spiraled into time and space, because at that moment, the

God had created time and space. You didn't have, you may not have had Genesis one, one yet.

Maybe all you had was the third heaven, which is what we think of as heaven, where our loved ones are that died before us, where some, some of the angels are there.

If not, all of them are there, right? The throne is there. The lamb is there. So now you have a place and you have time and it's the third heaven in Jesus came out of no place in no time into time and space.

At that point, we know about that from the old Testament. All right. Now think about this at some point, then you have the creation of the angelic beings, which

I think also is before Genesis one, one, you can correct me if I'm wrong with that. And I don't mind, please do if I'm wrong on it, but I think it was before Genesis one, one, uh, because I do think

Satan already existed when they went into that garden. Um, he seemed familiar with the place, didn't he?

In fact, they seemed familiar with him, but my point is this. So there was a point when

Jesus was in a physical place in time that we call the third heaven. And he spoke everything to existence in six days.

You agree with that? I think maybe before that he spoke the, um, the third heaven into existence where time actually started and it's a place.

So we have to call it space. It's a place. People are there. Now they talk to each other. Words go from mouths to ears and there requires time, time and space is there.

So picture this. There's nothing in that place, but Jesus at first, would you agree?

Like he spiraled out of where God, the father is into time and space. And he's in the third heaven and there's nothing there, but him because he hadn't made everything yet.

Now I don't care whether you want to debate, whether he made the angels in one of the six days or not.

I think he made them before that. It doesn't matter with my point here. My point is at that point, when

Jesus was in time and space, there was a point where he spoke Lucifer and the angels into existence.

Would you agree with that? Okay. I want you to picture that happening. And, um,

I could have Dave come up here, but I won't do it, but I could have Dave come up here and I would even let him be

Jesus. And I would bring a, who would I let be Satan? Let me think.

I'm not going to pick anybody. I'll let me be Satan. Okay. So, and I would crouch down here where you can't see me and he would be

Jesus and he would speak Lucifer come forth and I would pop up. Ooh, that's creepy. And I look at you and I'm a glorious creature.

I look at him. He's a glorious creature, just like me. And he says, and Dave says to me,

I made you, I'm God. And I'm going, you're just like me. I don't believe that. And look at all these other angels.

You're just like them. I think some, I don't know where we came from, but I don't believe you made us. Can you see that?

That's why I don't believe he believes in Jesus. And he certainly doesn't believe in the father whom he can't see and has never seen.

So he's an unbeliever. And Satan was the first Armenian. Did you like that?

I love it. We have new folks. Never heard me say stuff because I don't need new jokes. I just need new people. But that's, think about it.

Isn't it true? Say it was the first Armenian. So he thinks he can change everything. He knows the scriptures better than you and I do knows how it ends, but he don't believe he believes he can change it, which is what

Armenians think. Armenians believe that there are many different possible futures.

They don't understand if God's perfect, you don't need but one plan. He's not going to make a backup plan. There's just one plan.

They don't get that because to them, God's not sovereign. They are, the human is sovereign. And so the whole plan of salvation they have in all these churches, most modern churches is an

Armenian plan where the man and the church together make it happen. It's not God making it happen.

And it's totally unbiblical. And that came from Satan because Satan believes the same thing. He literally believes he could have stopped

Jesus when he killed him on the cross. But what really happened? He didn't kill him. Jesus gave up the ghost.

And so when he died, it destroyed Satan and Satan, he's seen that he reads about it, but he still thinks he can change that because he's an unbeliever.

He thinks he can control things and change things according to his will and what he does and things he makes happen.

And he really thinks he can make it in differently. All the way out to the end of the millennial kingdom, when he's let free again, he still thinks it because he got out of hell.

God let him out, but he gets out of hell. He said, well, now I'll change it. And there's a big uprising and a perfect kingdom with Jesus on the throne physically.

And they rise up against him. And then God just slays them all with fire from heaven. And Satan's cast into hell forever at that point.

Now he'll go on believing he can change that all he wants because he'll never get out. In fact, I think God will forget about him. God can forget things.

I think all the lost people are going to burn forever in hell. Satan will, the demons will, and God won't be remembered.

So then they have no hope because God didn't even remember him. He's certainly not going to have mercy on him ever again. It's going to be over.

Remember that when he messes with you, Satan that is. So anyway, this is what

I think about how the Jehovah's witnesses, the Mormons and Satan, Satan himself, somebody getting hurt back there.

Noah, you'll be all right. Oh, that's not Noah. Anyway, I forgot where I was, but it's lunchtime.

So let's, let's stand and have prayer together. Anyway, Mormons, Jehovah's witnesses,

Satan himself, and all Armenians in this world believe they can change God's will by using their will.

And that comes from hell, that thought. You need to know God's will. Pray that the

Holy Spirit would take the mind of God, bring it to your mind, which the scripture says in Romans chapter eight, that he will do that. And then you can pray according to God's will and your prayers get answered.

We had a big ones answered yesterday with John Posey, where we thought cancer was in his liver and we thought they might not be able to do the surgery successfully.

And both of those were answered prayers. All right, let's, let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for your word.

We thank you for how you have written it in such a way that a person who's true in heart, who wants to know the truth can simply allow the scriptures to teach the scriptures and allow your

Holy spirit to speak to our hearts and, and get the true sense of meaning of different things that you say in the

Bible so that we know what you mean also. And thank you for that. Lord, please always correct us when we're off and help us to be bright lights when we're on the truth and help us to be effective in this world to be used by you in these last times, according to your will.

And may we take great joy in that. And we know we will have tribulation in this life, but help us to even take joy in that because that's where we grow.

Lord, thank you for our fellowship time. Bless the meal. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen. You are dismissed.