Bible In A Year - Colossians

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Great to be able to gather together with you again. Let's let's go to the Lord in prayer our father this
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Beginning of the week where we're privileged to be able to gather together with the
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Saints To be able to gather in Jesus name to be able to to look to you this morning
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We're grateful. And so we lift up our hearts our souls to you And we would pray with the psalmist
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Lord that you would please teach us your ways That you would quicken us that you'd revive us
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Lord we would pray that you would open up our our hearts and our understanding so that we would see wondrous things out of your law and Lord we yearn to learn more of Christ So that we may find rest to our souls
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Lord that we might be a people As we have been chosen by you and called by you and saved
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By you to be peculiar to be to be a great and good shining
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Testimony for you in the present dark age in which we live and so we ask that you'd please open up the scriptures to us that we may
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Gladly receive the word that we may walk in it as we should for the glory and honor of Jesus Christ alone
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We pray amen Here we go on another book of the the New Testament as we go through the
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Bible in this book this morning is the book of collagenes and you'll see at the top of the page that man the theme is man is completed through the
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Son of God and That is where we're going to spend some practical time with later after I do a bit of an overview of this book
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Where the Apostle Paul probably more than in any other New Testament book gives a powerful powerful
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Case for the divinity of Christ or the godhood of Christ or the deity of Jesus Christ It is a it is a book that When you begin to read through it, you will see him unfolding this truth
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And it is a short book four chapters and yet it is very deep with this truth concerning our
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Lord Jesus Christ and isn't it true even the Lord himself said that we are to learn of him
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He's meek and lowly and we're to learn of him so that we may find rest for our souls that it will help us as we study and And isn't it true when you think of the life of the
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Apostle Paul? That this man knew that his life was Jesus Christ You remember in the book of Philippians.
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He said in Philippians 121 for to me to live as Christ To die is gain.
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He was enraptured with Christ He was in thrilled by by having this relationship with God through the
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Lord Jesus Christ and that Christ was in him that Christ possessed him that Christ had
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Apprehended him so that he could be one who could apprehend or now seek after Christ and as it said in Philippians the book
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We looked at and didn't get to really look too much in chapter 3 But he said that his burning desire after years and years of ministry was to know
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Christ Just to just to know him in the fellowship of his sufferings and being made conformable unto unto his death
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So in one of the opening paragraphs here, we see, you know, how does Christianity spread and grow?
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Well, the Church of Jesus in the city of Colossae began as a second -generation church.
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It is it is said and we know that Paul planted the church in Ephesus and it is said that probably what took place is
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That there was a man named Epaphras who became a Christian at Ephesus and then carried the gospel to Colossae which is a city about a hundred miles away from Ephesus and Then this church is established
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But then there's an attack upon this church. There's heresy that's banging at the door or maybe even had
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Infiltrated the church false teaching and Paul hears about the troubles that they're experiencing there
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So he writes them this letter in this letter as I said being four chapters is a very
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Condensed handbook of the Christian faith. You will see if you've
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Read ever read Ephesians that Ephesians and Colossians are very very similar
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Ephesians is six chapters and I believe there's upwards of there are over 50 Phrases or verses that are very very similar so as you what
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I like to do is I like to sometimes compare them because it kind of Just expounds a little bit more about one book and they complement each other.
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So there's a there's a Comparison between those two again. This is one of Paul's prisons a prison epistles
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And Colossians was written by the Apostle Paul about the year 60 to 62 ad
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Let's see what else about what else about this book In in this book
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You will notice that Paul again like other epistles lays the foundation
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And he deals with the doctrine He speaks of redemption and reconciliation and forgiveness and salvation through Christ and after doing that in The first couple of chapters then we see him get very practical in chapter 3
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Where he he speaks of if you're risen with Christ verse 1
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Colossians 3 1 seek those things which are above Where Christ sits on the right hand of God set your affection?
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He's the only fact of what what we got to set our mind upon and he says set your affection on things above Not on things on the earth now
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I'm not trying to shoot holes and anybody's preaching or what they've you've may have heard this in the past But have you ever heard the statement that says that we don't be we don't want to be so heavenly -minded
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That we're of no earthly good. Have you ever heard that? Maybe the problem with Christians today is is we're not heavenly -minded enough
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And Paul says here and his admonishment here is is to set your affection to set your mind to set your set your thinking set your your
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Your pursuits when it comes to spiritual things in your thinking on things above and of course that's speaking of the
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Lord It's speaking of God is speaking of eternal things. It's speaking of of heaven But particularly it's speaking of Christ and and the things of Christ not on the things of the earth because the problem with us today is that we are too earthly minded and when we start thinking about the things of earth and the baggage there the weight of the
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Responsibilities and all it can hinder us in our spiritual attainments in our spiritual growth
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He says to set your affections on things above not on things there for your for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God when
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Christ who is our life there. He is again the Apostle Paul just like Philippians 121
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Christ who is our life and notice before he said for to me to live as Christ and to die as gain in this book
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Here he says Christ is our life For every believer it's not just something that the
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Apostle Paul was an apostle and he was very strong in his Christian faith and his walk with the Lord and that Christ was just his life alone, but no he is our
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Life and when he appears Then shall you also appear with him in glory and then right after that verse and he this is kind of like the the end
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Of all laying all the foundation He begins to go into mortifying the members of the flesh put off anger and wrath and malice
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Don't lie to each other in this chapter. You've put on the new man You've put on Christ and therefore because of that be humble be a holy people forgive one another
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Just like he kind of it's just like Ephesians 4 same same Same theme same subjects put on love.
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Let the peace of God rule in your heart verse 16 Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom
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Verse 17 whatever you do in word or deed Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the
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Father by him and you'll notice he he admonishes about the home duties or marriage wives
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Husbands children's fought children fathers Servants and then he goes into employers employees relationships right through to chapter 4
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Talking about that. We ought to you know, walk in wisdom watch the speech that we use It's all very very practical after he has laid the foundation as I said like again in the first few chapters on on Doctrine and then he gives his his salutations or the the finishing portions of the book
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Some particular I want to go back now to the first few chapters of the book
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And I want us to look at some things that maybe could be troubling a couple of troubling places And what does that really mean and then we'll get into a study here that I think will be very beneficial
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To us when Paul opens up this book He's he again like he has before Gives thanks for those believers
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And you remember what I mentioned last week and for those for the benefit of those that of you that weren't here last week
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I I had said was Are we are we living all such a life as believers?
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in our fellowship with other Christians With others of like precious faith.
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Are we living such a life that when they are apart from us? They say they are thankful for us.
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That is a very very probing subject and a question to ask ourselves
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What kind of a testimony do we have as? Believers now we understand that we are what we are by the grace of God God's made us who we are but God in his salvation when he visits us comes to us and Breaks in upon our lives to change us
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It is very evident. The scripture is clear that if we're in Christ We're new creatures or new creations and the old has passed away behold
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The new has come or old things have passed away. All things have become new and we are as I just read some of those
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Practical verses in the last few chapters We are to be a people who put on humility and a people who put on charity love
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Being benevolent to others reaching out to others doing for others If we're if we're focused on the things of the earth and focused on ourselves
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Then people aren't going to be too thankful for us because they're gonna be wondering what's going on in our lives
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What is our focus is Christ our life or we our lives is is Christ our life or is our earthly pursuits?
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Our lives is Christ our life or is it pride or possessions of power? Whatever, but if Christ is our life and we're to walk even as he walked notice it in chapter 2
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Paul says this as he writes to them. He says in verse 6 Paul chapter 2 verse 6 as You have therefore received
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Christ Jesus the Lord so walk you in him or walk in him that way and Paul uses in every single chapter.
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He deals with the subject of Walking in Walking in our life and what that means is to live to deport oneself to be occupied with To walk about it has to do with our lifestyle our behavior our deportment and Paul Says it in verse chapter 1 verse 10 his prayer for them is that might they might walk worthy of the
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Lord and in chapter 2 He says as you've received Christ walk in him and we received him
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Humbly we received him gratefully we received him in a way where by God's salvation it was effectual
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We received Christ by faith and we ought to walk walk that way and we received
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Christ knowing that he is the Lord Knowing that he is master knowing that he is sovereign over our lives and rules us and We are to have the
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Word of Christ dwell in us richly Ruling over our lives so that we walk in such a way that we exhibit these
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Characteristics and these attributes of being a Christian one who is to be like Christ to walk like Christ even
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John The Apostle John wrote the same thing In first John chapter 2 around verse 6.
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He said the same way that we should as Christ walked We should walk and and this this idea of this behavior this this lifestyle this pushing forward having having received
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Christ having associated ourselves with Christ having having Turn to the
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Lord Jesus turning from our sins and turning to Christ to be saved Putting away our idols to serve the true and the
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Living God running from sin to the Savior And I love the way that the
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Apostle puts it in this book in chapter 1 in verse 13 Look what Jesus has done for us. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and he has
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Translated us into the kingdom of his dear son or into the into the into the son of his love the kingdom of the son
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Of his love that is a powerful statement about what God has done in our lives citizenship being very important We love the fact that and we're pleased about the fact that in God and his providence
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Allowed us to be Americans if you're an American here today It is it is a great privilege to be a citizen of this country that God That God has established here for this time and yet this is a greater citizenship citizens of heaven
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Translated out of the power of darkness That is the the power the authority or the control of sin and you remember in Ephesians chapter 2
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Paul said that you walk according to the course of this world according to the Prince of the power of the air
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You know being children of disobedience He said but God who is rich in mercy has saved you and God and we see here that he when he
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Expounds this to the Colossians. He says God has done something he's plucked you up out of this power of this kingdom of darkness and he's translated you and placed you into his his
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Family and we are now citizens of heaven. He goes on to say in whom we have in verse 14
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Redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins like Ephesians 1 7 who is the image of the invisible
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God? The firstborn of every creature. Oh Who is the image of the invisible
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God well, I kind of get that the firstborn of every creature
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I Want to deal with this just for a moment because this can be this can be a little bit troubling to to some
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What does this mean when Paul says the firstborn of? every creature well one thing that it doesn't mean it doesn't mean what the
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The Jehovah Witnesses will teach Because if you were ever speaking to someone who is a follower
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In that in that false religion They may come to you and when you're trying to speak to them, of course, you're trying to speak to them of salvation and How Jesus saves but their
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Jesus and the Jesus of the Bible are two completely different Jesus's It's another Jesus that they they teach about and they'll say you see the
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Bible says That Jesus is the firstborn of the creation or he was the first created being and that's exactly
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How they will put it what the Apostle Paul is saying in here
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This is you know through the from not only here but afterwards and it's very we have to be very careful of what is it that these words in the original language mean and If we study this we will see that Right right in this text notice as I read it together
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Who is the image verse 15 of the invisible God the firstborn of every creature? For by him were all things created
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That are in heaven and that are in earth now, what is that saying Jesus is what? Creator how can
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Jesus be creator and be a created one? Just just a side thought just think just think on that Whether they be thrones or dominions
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Principalities powers all things were created by him and for him and he is before all things
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He's gonna expound what this firstborn means Jesus is Before all things and by him all things consists or all things are held together
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He is the head of the body here Paul is he's telling us. He's just explaining what this firstborn is
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He's the head of the body verse 18 the church who is the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in all things here
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It is he might have the preeminence Jesus is to be first in rank
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Jesus is first in influence. He has the first place in Everything and what the
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Apostle Paul is teaching here when he says firstborn is is
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That it is a preeminence in rank. It is it is the highest in rank not the first created think of this example
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Let me see if I can if I can find find out where I had it I Wasn't gonna go there, but I think
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I'll pull it Pull from it. There is an example in the Old Testament Just for the use of this word just so that you know that the writers knew that they were speaking about in Jeremiah 319
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God calls Ephraim the son of Joseph his firstborn But if you go back and you read in Genesis where where Israel is going to put his right hand on Ephraim's head and not
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Manasseh's head But what is what's wrong here? I mean if you think about typically the way that things go well
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Manasseh is the firstborn So the writer knew that in God's in God says of of Ephraim that he's the firstborn or he's the one that's going to receive the blessing
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He's the one that's preeminent He's the one that is going to be first as far as God's concerned when it comes to getting the blessing that the that the father passes on Or the patriarchs pass on to their offspring
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So it is not it is not that Jesus is Firstborn because even if it was that Jesus was firstborn
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Then what would that tell us if Jesus is created? Then that would mean that Jesus cannot be
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God But Paul just smashes that arguments to pieces in the next verses by saying he is the he is the creator of everything
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Now yes in his humanity Jesus came God came in the flesh and We see that in in his humanity when he comes that That What what the
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Apostle what the Apostle speaks of and what the New Testament writers speak of there is that yes He did come in the flesh
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But when he came God took upon flesh the Son of God was not created at that time
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Because Jesus what always was and always has been if we look back in Proverbs chapter 8 like verses 23 to 26 when it speaks of wisdom being personified
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Which is Jesus Christ who is our wisdom as we saw in Corinthians? We see there that says that he was always with the father always in his presence always
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Having fellowship with the father and Jesus the Son of God the he has always been the eternal
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Son of God But when it when it came to the body that was made and God fashioned
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Yes that that that speaks of his humanity, but Paul is not speaking here of Jesus being firstborn as far as a created being
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Because he would contradict himself by saying in the very next verse by him
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Everything was created And he goes on to list all this these this idea of levels of authority or roles or whatever of the angelic beings beings
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But he says all things were created by him and for him. He's before everything and by him everything
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Consists I love that in verse 17 everything is held together
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By our Lord Jesus Christ We're not deists God did not create have put the creation into order and Kind of wind up a clock that's going to run for thousands of years and just kind of step back
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And it's whatever happens happens. God is intimately aware of what's going on. He is
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Actively working and moving and in orchestrating things in his in his creation and Holding it together.
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The Lord. Jesus is holding all the I don't know if you've ever heard this but somebody somebody once said this, you know, because of the the way that the
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The atoms are put together with the electrons that are spinning around the nucleus and all the parts that are there
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It's like they of course they do not understand why or how it all holds together There's no explanation that they can really come up with or when
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Job in the in the writings of Job It says that the world hangs upon nothing I mean that goes against the just the law of gravity any weight any mass
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It would just fall in the planets as they Go around our
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Sun They they they revolve around the Sun. How is it that they just don't spin off into space?
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How is it that? Our earth is tilted at the right axe on its axis at the right degree so that when it spins in Relationship to the
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Sun. We're not burnt or we're Crispy or we're not frozen like the the ice age.
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How does that happen the power of God? By Christ everything is held together. How is it that the animals are fed?
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You remember when God spoke to to Job? He said are you the one that? goes out and gets the food for the lions for the for For their sustenance now
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God not only created, but he sustains. How are we fed? Stop and shop price chopper
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How does that food get there? Well, so a truck driver drove it there. Yeah, where did that truck come from?
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Well some plant made that where did that come from? Well, they used raw materials where that come from. It's it's all a gift from God It's all it's all under his under his care and and and watching over Where does the rain come from the frost the snow?
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from the Lord who puts the stars in the in the space and keeps them there and on and on and on by Jesus our
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Savior all things are held together if His hand was taken off creation.
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Like I said in those electrons just did what they would normally do I've heard that even the human body one human body could probably be compressed to the head of a pin
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I mean, there's there's nothing much to us if you think about it, and it is the
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Lord that holds us together it is a Lord that keeps us in his in existence and sustains us and He verse 18 is the head of the body of the church
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Who is the beginning the firstborn? From among the dead Then in all things and here's the important part that in all things at the end of verse 18 in everything he
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Might have the preeminence and to me that is a coupling theme with being complete in Christ To me.
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I've always I've I've always looked at Colossians 1 8 18 be as being a the theme verse of the book of Colossians Jesus first and what's what's going on here?
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What what is taking place? Well, there's teaching That entered or infiltrated the
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Church of Colossi and Paul must have found out about it And he's going to deal with it and the teaching could go like this
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It could be well there is Jesus and he's the firstborn and he's the first created one and Then there's
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Michael the Archangel and all the other angels and there's this hierarchy And if you want to worship properly, you got to go up this
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Worship chain of command so to speak and you've got to worship, you know Christ is it's good to follow him and to worship him, but don't forget about The other beings the other and it can get into mysticism and that can be kind of spun out of Greek philosophy
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Vain teaching as Paul says In chapter 2 he says look in verse 8 beware
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Lest any man spoil you through philosophy or vain deceit or empty traditions as fallacies
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That are after the tradition of men Men come in They don't hold to the
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Word of God and they teach whatever is fancy They teach whatever is gripping
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Whatever it you know, what whatever you know itches that Scratches that itch that people have to want to learn new things like up on Mars Hill We you know, they love to hear new things and they got together and her here all the philosophers teach love to hear it
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But not want to do anything about it Even if they hear the truth as Paul said, oh, we'll the Paul preaches the truth to them
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Oh, we'll hear you, you know at another time like when he goes before the leader and people want to Hear it isn't it a sad thing too when it comes even in Christian circles when you have people who come into the church and it appears that for a while they they have a root in us in a stem that springs up and they're loving the truth and hearing it and and just Just consuming it and and and going after the truth as it is concerning Christ But you know, sometimes you see this this characteristic is people will want to Be ever learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth never really committing to the truth never
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You know you hear like you're going to hear this morning about Paul Wonderously laying out the doctrine concerning the person and the work of Jesus Christ To hear all that and then be unaffected is a shame
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To hear the truth concerning Christ in it for not and for it not to grip us and not to shape our lives and I mean
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I Just put yourself in the place You're on a cruise and some of you may not go on a cruise
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My wife won't go on a cruise because of deep water and those things in the water that has the fins that come out
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You know, she likes to stay on the ground on the shore Even when we go to the beach the the furthest it goes is probably ankle deep and not only for a couple minutes well consider yourself on a cruise just think for a moment and And Something happens big hole in the side of the ship and it's gonna go down and then it's going down and you're in the water and a rescue boat comes by and they scoop you out of the water or some
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Coast Guard, maybe that's even better a Gentleman who or a woman who's in the
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Coast Guard jumps in pulls you out of the water brings you into safely into the boat and you're just Thank you
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We wouldn't do that. Would we we would be so excited. We would be so thankful and that that that experience would be a life -changing experience and Even more so when we take it up this huge this huge notch this huge bar that God has
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Rescued us God has delivered us From the clutches or the power of darkness and he's translated us into the kingdom of his dear son
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This happened to the Apostle Paul a Christian murderer one who who would compel people that were believers to blaspheme to To make sure that they were were sent to prison to do everything he could to extinguish
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Extinguish the way this following of Christ God reaches down Jesus Miraculously Slate saves this man and he becomes a follower of Christ Somebody who as it says in verse 121 you and it's speaking of of not only the folks at Colossi But us to you who were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works has now
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God Reconciled that's the the testimony that we had we were separated from God Far from God and God has rescued us and Paul knows this
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And it has so gripped him and so gripped him to the point where it has changed his life it is transforming truth
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It's dangerous for us brethren to hear things and to know the truth and not to act upon it
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And not to not to incorporate it in our lives not to to live it out Not only to have our affections warmed and our our hearts aglow because what
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God has done But put our feet and our hands and our minds and our wills get them engaged To to live out the truth and that's what the
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Apostle Paul does If you will notice and I've got to get to the to the little study that I wanted to do
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Notice this with me I'm going to show you some things that that deal with the fact of how how
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What is our standing and position in Christ through some of these chapters? You will notice in chapter 1.
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Oh You know what? I got I do need to I do need to get at one point I did all that introduction before because I was head in one place and you know,
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I just got sidetracked But I just it was it's just wonderful to know what the Lord has done But notice what it says in chapter 1 you who are sometimes alienated verse 21 enemies in your mind
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Yet now has he or Christ? Reconciled us in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unapprovable in his sight
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What glory that is what a wonderful truth will be be presented faultless before the presence of God's glory with a exceeding joy if You continue in the faith
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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 where of I Paul and made a minister
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Is this telling us that we can lose our salvation? It says it gives us this conditional statement
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You know, you're going you have been reconciled you're going to be presented faultless blameless unapprovable in God's sight if you
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Continue on in the faith and Paul does this in in in a few places
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There are there are admonitions in the scriptures that come to us Like in Hebrews where it calls for us to hold fast in the faith or hold on to our profession
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There are other ones where it says to be careful to be warned not to fall away from the faith in This conditional statement that the
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Apostle Paul gives us here is not saying that we can lose our salvation Really what this is is this it's dealing with the perseverance of the
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Saints and in this fashion This warning or this plea that comes to us here is among many of them that God gives us to serve
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Or to what it what it does is it's it's a means that God uses to secure our perseverance
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To keep us mindful He's not saying that that you do something to save yourself and you can do something to lose your salvation
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What he's saying is if you're a person who doesn't continue in the faith Then what that really means is that you were you were not really a true believer to begin with and you'll see this over and over Again in the
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Apostle it can be very confusing to people You know you you see in Galatians where it says that you've fallen from grace and people will say they see you can get grace
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And you can lose it, but in that realm there in Galatians It was you've fallen from this mindset that that through grace through the grace of God through Christ You can be saved and now you're thinking that you can do it by the law or some some other means some other way and Paul Is saying here that just be sure stays say
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Settle stay persevering stay pushing on in Christ And he does that in chapter 2 also because if you're if you're a person who does fall away
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From Christ that gives conclusive evidence That you were never a true believer to begin with and when it comes to perseverance.
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We are not to be passive in it God preserves the preservation of the
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Saints is all of God's work But when it comes to the perseverance of the Saints God is behind that God is working in us
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I'm confident of this thing Philippians 1 6 that he that's begun a good work in you will perform it to the day of Jesus Christ God is working in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure
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Philippians 2 13 and in here And in elsewhere we see even
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Peter the Apostle Peter put it this way And first Peter 1 5 I believe he says this he says that we are kept by the power of God true
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There's the there's the preservation of the Saints. We are kept by the power of God through faith
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That's what we do. We believe and we push on and we persevere and that's what Paul is doing here He's not saying that you're gonna lose your salvation.
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He's saying just push on continue on in it. Okay? Now let me do what I was going to do real quickly,
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I think we can we can do this and and get wrapped up notice
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When it comes to Jesus Christ our Lord this great condensed Portion in chapter 1 is wonderful concerning Christ and we've read it
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But we see and we've already touched on this that first and foremost in chapter Chapter 1 verse 20
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Jesus has reconciled all things to himself So we are reconciled by Jesus Christ Notice how many things when it speaks of the person and the work of Jesus Christ in chapter 1
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We already read this that we are delivered in verse 13 We've been delivered and rescued out of Satan's clutches
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We were taken captive by him at his will as Paul wrote to in 2nd Timothy chapter 2 and we've been
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Translated into the kingdom of Son, so we've been delivered not only reconciled, but we've been delivered by Christ in verse 14
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We've been redeemed through Christ's blood. We've been purchased by Christ And I'm going to just touch on these just slowly just briefly so you can see him because I want to talk it in on one last one
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Thirdly not only have we been reconciled we've been a couple delivered and redeemed together
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But thirdly in chapter 2 and in verse 2 Paul says that your hearts might be comforted being knit together in love
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We are united in Christ as believers What a wonderful Privilege that we have to be united in Christ and to have fellowship with Christ verse the fourth one is in chapter 2 and In verse 7 it says that we are rooted and built up in Christ not only reconciled by Christ Delivered by Christ redeemed by Christ united in Christ.
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We are rooted and built up in Christ He is the vine. We are the branches John chapter 15 and It starts with him.
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It's all in him and we are established in the faith and grow up in him That's the fourth one the fifth one in chat.
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We read this In one of the other in chapter 3, but let me show it to you here in 3 in 220 wherefore if you are dead with Christ for the rudiments of the world
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Why is though living in this world? Are you subject to ordinances and you remember the infiltration not only with the
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Greek philosophy and the mysticism? The cynicism but also the legalism of the
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Jews the traditions and in that it's all near the end of chapter 2 here He says don't let anybody judge you anymore and meet food and drink and and the when the observance of days and all of this
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Because it's Christ which is important. He is the one that's important your relationship to him So so we see that we're dead in Christ and then in chapter 3 verse 1.
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I read this verse We've been risen with Christ because of the how we've been
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United and associated with Christ But the most important one to me Now I want to get to is the theme of this book like at the top of your page
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Man is completed through the through God the Son We must first be reconciled and forgiven and saved but let me just close with this point
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We are complete in Christ The problem with Americans is we're never happy We're never satisfied
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We're always looking there's got to be more when it comes to pursuits in Life outside the church what's a danger is is when it comes into the church and when it comes into our
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Christian life the Bible says in Chapter 2 verse 9 for in Christ dwells all the fullness of the
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Godhead bodily and you are complete in Him you are furnished you are
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It means to be finished. It means Completeness and it comes from a word that means to fill up Like hollow ground if you have ground that has holes in it is just to smooth it over to fill up all all the holes
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That's the idea of where this word comes from and we in Christ are Complete when it comes to salvation
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Christ is all we need we even sing about that. How about this this hymn?
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I need no other argument I need no other plea it is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me.
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We sing that hymn How about this hymn? Souls in danger. Look, this is love lifted me souls in danger.
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Look above Jesus three -quarters saves You've heard me say this before some of you heard this before, you know cavalry covers half of it
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No cavalry covers it all and Jesus completely saves Hebrews 7 25 is a tremendous verse that that Jesus is able to save us to the uttermost
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Or to save us completely and I like the King James Word uttermost there because you can rhyme it
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Jesus saves from the gutter most to the uttermost and he completely saves It's not like we're we're drowning in the water or dead and he's and he's throws us the lifejacket pulls us
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Halfway to shore and says you do the rest now. He completely saves. How about this
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Christ on Christ the solid rock? I stand all of the ground is sinking sand When all around my soul gives way he then is all my hope and stay
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Christ is all we need No help from Greek philosophy or the tradition of the of the
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Jews with their ceremonies and rituals Our salvation is 100 % completely secured by Jesus Christ I don't know.
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You probably know this is true but men shop different than women I May have shared this before when women go shopping they have the list and Yet, there's an unwritten virtual list and up and down the aisle.
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Whatever looks good. Let's get it You know, I mean if we I mean you might have the groceries men when they go shopping.
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It's like a hunt Here's the list six items. No more. I gotta get the six and that's it that's the way
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I shot and I go secure things and I and I come back and I think with that if you think about the the tenacity
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The ability Jesus is able to save but when he saves he does it completely when he was hanging upon the cross
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We did not hear him say these words Oh Father it is almost done
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When Jesus hung upon the cross he said it is finished and what ought this to do for every believer.
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It gives us a rest There's a that that him writer. My my faith has found a resting place
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Not in device nor creed. I trust the ever -living one his wounds for me shall plead.
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I need no other argument I need no other plea it is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me and in one other place in that hymn
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He says it is enough that Jesus saves This ends my fear and doubt as a believer
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If you think that that we've got to do something if we have to add and that's the fear That's the that's the fear and the tenacity that the
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Apostle Paul had these believers a Colossi were being attacked The sufficiency of Christ's salvation and being able to completely rest in him and him being our all in all was being attacked and what
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Paul Was saying is rest Rest when it comes to to your salvation.
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It's completely done. Don't fear. Don't doubt It's not like something is left undone.
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Can you imagine Jesus being an incomplete Savior? He can't do that because he's
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God he does all things well It was the Father's will to completely save us. Nothing is left undone.
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Nothing is unfinished Jesus is a Savior who does the whole job and when it comes to our
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Christian life He completely not only saves us, but he keeps us he gives us complete wisdom to guide us full grace to sustain us and difficulties and Abundant strength for our days.
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No need for philosophy No need for anything else and theology ought to spur on our doxology as we've heard before Where we ought to praise our
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God who is a complete Savior and we can rest secure in him and here's my last point
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Stop looking around for more Stop trying to find some other thing if you ever have that thought in your mind that if I'll just read that one book
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If I can just get to that one seminar that one session It'll just totally change my life and i'm not saying that teaching good teaching will not healthy sound it will
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But don't ever lose sight of this fact Don't be spoiled as the apostle paul said by philosophy and empty deceit this tradition that man will come up with you got to have this because it's better paul says don't be robbed like like a
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A country would go in and get victorious and spoil them or or come away with all the goodies
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Don't let somebody rob you of the goodies Or the blessed truth that christ is all we need and we are absolutely 100 complete in christ what a joy and a rest and a stability that should give our hearts.
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Let's pray Father thank you again for this time. Thank you for the wonder and the wondrous truths of christ
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The apostle wrote on this on these pages for us to have today through the direction of the holy spirit
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And through your preserving this great word for us concerning, uh of the wonders of christ the glorious truth of his person and work
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And help us to rest In christ this morning help us to think and remember that we don't need to look elsewhere
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But that christ is all we need when our self and comes to our salvation it is Fully secured for us and we just rejoice in you this morning
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Help us to remember this so that when we live this week, we're not looking to ourselves or looking to others
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For something that can be added to our faith so that we will be perfect or more mature in the faith
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But that it is christ and christ alone jesus who is in us and christ who is our life We praise you and thank you in his precious name.