Four things the Lord has done

The Father’s Work of Salvation in Colossians 1:12-14

13 and 14. And before we read the scripture, let's go to the Lord for just a moment in prayer. Heavenly Father, as we come before your throne this morning, once again, it is with a grateful heart that we have the privilege to call out unto you, dear God.

It is with a grateful heart that today that we are able to look into your word, to read your word, and that we are able to worship you through the reading and the preaching of your word. Help me, God, today to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified, God exalted and lifted high above every other name and that God, there might be no question or any doubt about what this message is about or whom it is about.

We desire that it would be all about you today. Glorify your name in your church this morning, for it is in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Colossians chapter one and verse 12 is where we are. Verse 12 says this, giving thanks, it picks up in the middle of a thought there.

If you'll remember, over the last two or three weeks, we've been in just those previous few verses, but verse 12 says, giving thanks to the father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of his dear son or into the kingdom of the son of his love in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.

Two verses is what we're going to look at today. And as always, we want to communicate upfront to you what the theme of the passage that we're looking at is. And by the way, something else that I want to kind of put on you all as the church is to make sure and to ensure when you test the message that you hear preached to you, that the main theme or the thought that is being preached is not anything but something what the text is simply saying.

So the main theme of these two verses that we're going to be looking at today are simply this. God the father and Jesus Christ are shown and are addressed in these two verses of scripture. Two verses, again, this is all we're going to look at, but there is so much in this.

In verse 12 and half of verse 13, through verse 12 and half of verse 13, we're going to see explained and laid out for us in the text here what the father has done. And then in the latter half of 13 and the remainder of verse 14, we're going to see Paul making the transition to the son of God, Jesus Christ.

Now remember this in understanding this entire passage, this entire book that we're looking at, Paul is addressing the issue of what's referred to by theologians as just the Colossian heresy, the Colossian people, the people at Colossi were trying to mediate their worship unto God through angels and through ascetic practices, the things that they did.

And so their righteousness and their joy was based in what they did rather than in the person of Jesus Christ. Paul throughout this entire book, as he does in all of the epistles, points to Jesus Christ as the only way, the only hope, and the only source of joy for the believer.

If we are seeking joy, hope, or anything else in anything other than Jesus Christ, we are seeking it in the wrong place. In the 1500s, a confession of faith was drawn up, the Belgic confession, actually in 1561.

And throughout this, as we discuss these two verses of scripture, I'm going to be reading to you a couple of sections from the Belgic confession as well, but I want to give you a little bit of context on the Belgic confession because some of you may say, so what?

That's history, that's ancient history, that's the past. No, listen, it is where we as the church have our deep roots in the Reformation, in those who came out from the Reformation, in those who shed their blood so that we might have the word of God this very day.

So the Belgic confession, just to give you a bit of history on that, was written in 1561. It owes its origins to the need for clear and a comprehensive statement of reformed faith during the time of the Spanish Inquisition.

A man named Guido de Brie, its primary author, was pleading for understanding and toleration from King Philip. This is why the confession was drawn up. He was pleading for understanding and toleration from King Philip II of Spain, who was determined to root out all Protestant factions in his jurisdiction.

Hence, this confession takes pains to point out the continuity. Kenny talked about diligence in the synonymous, they go together, but the continuity of reformed belief with that of the ancient Christian creeds as well as to differentiate it from Catholic belief on the one hand and from Anabaptist teaching on the other hand.

So this confession of faith was drawn up as a point of clarification on what the church believes, what the church holds to. In Article 22 of that Belgic Confession, this is what was written and has stood throughout the years.

We believe that for us to acquire the true knowledge of this great mystery, the mystery of God, the mystery of the gospel in Christ Jesus, that the Holy Spirit must kindle in our hearts a true faith that embraces Jesus Christ with all his merits and makes him its own and no longer looks for anything.

Now, this was drawn from this teaching in Colossians that we need not look to another outside of Jesus Christ. This confession goes on to say, for it must necessarily follow that either all that is required for our salvation is not in Christ or if all is in him, then those who have Christ by faith have salvation entirely.

Meaning this, that our salvation is in Christ alone as we sung in that song. In Christ alone will I glory. The apostle Paul told the Galatian church, God forbid that I should glory in any other save Jesus Christ and him crucified.

For I am crucified to this world and this world unto me. So just a little further in that 22nd section of the Belgic Confession, they say this, therefore to say that Christ is not enough, but that something else is needed as well is a most enormous blasphemy against God.

For it then would follow that Jesus Christ is only half of a savior. This was written in 1561. This is what needs to be proclaimed from every man of God that stands in the pulpit every single Sunday of every single week, that salvation is entirely in Christ alone.

And if you are in Christ, you are complete. You are whole. You need not seek anything else. This is what the apostle Paul is trying to teach the Colossian church here. So first let's begin here in verse 12, the apostle Paul remembering, this is his prayer to God for the church.

And if you was to go back in verse nine, you'll see that Paul said, we cease not to pray for you and to ask, excuse me, April, would you care to get me a water, please? That you may be filled with the knowledge of his will.

Last week, we spent time going through the God's will for your life. Last week, it was made clear from the word of God that it is God's will for your life, that God has redeemed you, that God will keep those whom he has redeemed, that none shall be plucked from the father's hand.

It is God's will that you are holy and sanctified. It is God's will that you obey his commands. So that from the word of God was made clear so that you may walk worthy of the Lord. The apostle Paul says fully pleasing him, that you may be fruitful in every good work and that you may increase in the knowledge of God.

So as we enter into this 12th verse here, as we move into this, I want to ask you something that only you can answer and don't, you don't need to answer it out loud, but you do need to give it serious consideration.

Are you increasing in the knowledge of God? Are you growing in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ? If not, then you need to study to show yourself approved unto God. You need to listen to what is being preached and proclaimed and taught unto you from Sunday school to the last, when the last amen is said from the worship service on Sunday mornings, so that you might walk fully pleasing unto the Lord, that you might be strengthened with might according to his glorious power, for all patients with long suffering and with joy.

And here's where we pick up, giving thanks so that Paul said to the Colossian people, so that you may be able to give thanks to the Father. Here we see the Father brought into view. We worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

One in essence, three in person. Amen. Praise the Father. Praise the Son. Praise the Spirit. Three in one. The book of first John says there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost.

And so he said, giving thanks that you may be able to give thanks because this is part of that full thought that his statement that he's making here, giving thanks to the Father. We ought to give thanks unto the Father for what he has done.

And this is what we're going to see, four things that the Lord has done. The Lord has qualified us. He has made us, the King James says, made us meet to be partakers. He has qualified us. He has delivered us.

He has conveyed us and he has redeemed us. This is the work of God, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us. Now, what does it mean to be qualified? What does it mean to be qualified? It means the actual definition of the word.

Let me take these Laffy Taffys out of my pocket there. The actual definition of the word qualified, the Greek word that is used in this for qualified or made to be is the term in the King James. It's the word called hikenao, which simply means this, to equip one with adequate power to perform one's duties, to be equipped or made just to be justified in a doing of one's duties.

Now we live in the state of Tennessee. Amen. Everybody with me? Everybody that you're here, unless you're visiting, you probably live here. And you know, Tennessee has a law that says you can carry a handgun openly, or you can carry a handgun concealed as long as you have a permit.

Now what a permit does, this is just to bring it down to the natural level for just a moment. What a permit does, it gives you the legal right and the authority to carry a weapon. Now, if you were to carry a weapon and do not have a permit and you get caught by the authorities doing so, then you deserve to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law because you have broken the laws of the state of Tennessee.

But if something is said and you are permitted by the state of Tennessee, meaning you are qualified to carry that weapon, you can pull out your handgun carry permit, show it to the authorities and say, I am a car carrying qualified member of the state of Tennessee.

It may not be the right term, citizen of the state of Tennessee. And so I have the right to do this. But if you don't, then you aren't. So here's the thing, to be qualified, to be called a saint of God means it's not something that you do, but it's a work that only God himself does.

And so giving thanks unto the father who has qualified us or has made us, meaning this, he has provided sufficient means and he has provided sufficient grace that we might be considered children of God.

We are accounted as righteous before the father because of what Jesus, the son, has accomplished. The theological term is the doctrine of justification. We are considered right before God because of what Jesus Christ has done.

We carry no holiness or righteousness in and of ourselves. This is why it's important for us to be able to distinguish truth from lies, to be able to know that we cannot impart holiness to anyone, but that only God declares a man holy and righteous in his sight.

And so the Belgic confession goes on a little bit further back in article 20 of it. And they say this, we believe that God, who is perfectly merciful and also very just, sent the son to assume the nature in which the disobedience had been committed in order to bear it in the punishment of sin by his most bitter passion and death.

So God made known his justice toward his son who was charged with our sin and he poured out goodness and mercy on us, us who are guilty of damnation, giving us his son to die by a most perfect love and raising him to lie for our justification in order that by him we might have immortality and eternal life.

This kind of stuff is worthy of you taking the time to look at in your free time away from God's house. It is worthy of you looking at throughout the week and studying to see what men have stood on throughout the years, that this is not something new that we're teaching to you.

This is not something new that we are proclaiming, but it is the old truth that has been stood firm on throughout the years. Well, praise God. He goes on to say the father who has qualified us to be partakers, that word partakers.

And again, these words are very important. Who made us meet to be partakers, qualified us to be partakers, that word there that's used for partakers means to have an assigned part to have a portion or to have a share in.

It means that it means like in Luke chapter 10, if you just want to jot these references down, I'll read them to you. In Luke chapter 10, verse 42, we read in the gospel of Luke where the scripture said, Jesus said, but one thing is needed.

And Mary had chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her in context. That's talking about where when Mary and Martha heard that Jesus was coming, Martha was careful and troubled about many things.

She was worried about getting everything done. But Mary, when Jesus came, sat down at his feet and just worshiped him. And so in that text, Mary had chosen that good part, that portion, that share, that right in Acts chapter eight, verse 21, we see just the opposite.

Simon, the sorcerer has come unto the apostles and he has asked that they might, if he gives them money, can he have the gift of the Holy Spirit to which Peter replies to him, you have neither part nor portion in this matter.

That's the same word that's used in this passage here. You have no part and you have no portion in this matter for your heart is not right in the sight of God. That's how that word is used. So he says, giving thanks unto the father, which has made us partakers, giving us a portion and a right and a lot in the inheritance of the saints in the light, that word used there for light, the Greek word, the definition, the way that that term is used is used of that heavenly state, that consummate and that's free from every imperfection to which the true disciples of Christ will be exalted equivalent to the kingdom of the light.

And so remember when Paul's making these statements, he's addressing their ascetic practices. He's addressing the false worship of angels. He's addressing their mode and their means of trying to get unto God.

And he's reminding them that only the father qualifies a man to be right in the sight of God. And moving a little bit further here, verse 13, the Bible says, so, so we know that God is quality. The father has qualified us in verse 13.

We see, and we read that he has delivered us from the power of darkness. This is the terminology that the apostle Paul uses that we have preserved for us in the, in the inspired text of scripture. He says, he has delivered us.

Remember through, through this point, we still, we're still making reference to the father. That's what the text is still making reference to. Paul will get to the point that it is the father, it is the son, and it is the work of the Holy Spirit that makes a man complete.

Here, he's still talking about the father and he says, he has delivered us. That word that is used there for delivered. It's the Greek word is a word called so-so and it's a word that's used elsewhere and it's translated as being saved or rescued or preserved.

So when we know the definition, we can read it and we can understand what Paul is saying is that God has preserved us, that God has rescued us, that God has saved us. In the Old Testament, we read of the Lord coming to Moses and reminding Moses that he has heard the cries of his people by reason of their taskmasters.

And God said, I am come down to save my people. So this word here, he says, he has delivered us. He has saved us in Romans chapter 11, verse 26. And so all Israel shall be saved as it is written that word.

So, so that's what's used there. There shall come out of Zion, the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. So he's reminding the Colossian church as well. We are being reminded here this very moment, as we look at this text, that if you have been saved by the grace of God, you have been delivered from the wrath of God.

You have been delivered from the power of sin. Now, what is sin? Sin is clearly laid out in the commandments that God gave unto Moses. Those are very clear. You shall not have any other gods before me.

You shall not make any graven images unto yourself, whether those images are in the thought phase or whether those images come out in the physical, you're not to make a graven image of God. Any image that we have of God that is created or appropriated or applied in our lives that is not formed from the word of God is a false image.

There are many who feel our churches week in and week out who have an idea of who they think God is, but it is not based upon the word of God itself. If we are to know the true and the living God, we must know his word.

He has saved us. He has delivered us from the power of darkness. He has preserved us, kept us from the wrath of God. In first Thessalonians chapter one, verse nine and 10, the Bible tells us for they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and the true God.

And he goes on and to wait for his son from heaven. Here's the transition that's being made there whom he raised from the dead. Even Jesus who delivers or Soto's who saves rescues and preserves us. Even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Be sure that the wrath of God will not always be stayed. The wrath of God will not always be restrained as it is in this day. There will come a day when the heavens and the earth will be burned up with a fervent heat.

There will come a day sooner or later, like it or not that you will die and you will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and you will give an account of what you have heard week in and week out. So he says that you, he has delivered us from the power of darkness.

And here's the transition and has conveyed us. So we've been qualified. We've been delivered. And now Paul says, and he has conveyed us conveyed. He has moved us translated that word conveyed means to be translated or moved from one place to another.

We have been translated moved by the way, the scriptures teach this, that if you are saved, that you have been translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his marvelous and glorious light.

If you have been saved, you have been passed for conveyed, moved from translated out of you have been moved from death unto life goes on here in the text. And he says, he has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love.

Now, what does that mean? Let's let's take just a moment here because I don't want to run. I don't want to run into the conveyance without considering the power of darkness. This is very important because what is darkness?

Darkness is that the darkness that's being referred to here in the word defined as used in the Greek is this. It's an ignorance, respecting divine things and human duties. Paul is telling these Colossian believers, the Colossian people here that God has, he has delivered us from the power of darkness.

He's saying it is God that has made us able to see the light. Hank Williams wasn't, that wasn't original thought with Hank Williams when he said, praise the Lord, I saw the light. It wasn't an original thought.

Even with the apostle Paul, God is light and in him is no darkness. That's what the word of God says. But this, this phrase that's used when Paul says he's delivered us from the power of darkness, the influence, the authority, the right that darkness and spiritual blindness has on us.

He said, it is God who gives the ability to no longer be ignorant to the things of God, that a man may be wise unto salvation. Search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life. So Paul goes on just a little bit further.

So moving into that conveyance means to be translated, means to be moved. And what are we moved into? We are moved, we are conveyed into the kingdom of the son of his love. We are translated, we are conveyed, we are moved into the kingdom of God's dear son.

Friends, we are not saved to have our own kingdoms or to stake our own claims. We are saved to proclaim the goodness of the Lord. It is his kingdom. Father, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

This is how we are taught to pray. He's conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love out of darkness. Back to the Belgic confession, article 23 concerning our justification. This is what they wrote.

We believe that our blessedness lies in the forgiveness of our sins because of Jesus Christ and that in it our righteousness before God is contained. As David and Paul teach us when they declare those people blessed to whom God grants righteousness apart from works.

And the same apostle says that we are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And therefore we cling to this foundation, which is firm forever, giving all glory to God, humbling ourselves and recognizing as we are not claiming a thing for ourselves or our merits and leaning and resting on the sole obedience of Christ crucified, which is ours when we believe in him.

That is enough to cover all our sins and to make us confident, freeing the conscience from the fear, dread and terror of God's approach. That's what the apostle Paul was speaking to there. He's speaking that God has translated us out of darkness into the kingdom of the son of his love.

And the writer here said in the confession said, in fact, if we had to appear before God, relying no matter how little on ourselves or some other creature, then alas, we would be swallowed up. Therefore, everyone must say with David, Lord, do not enter into judgment with your servant for no one living is righteous before you.

He has conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love. And last of all, through this last, this 14th verse, again, the first one, verse 12 and half of 13, we see the reference to the father in the last half of 13 in verse 14 here, we're going to see, we see the reference made to the finished work of Jesus Christ for he says in whom we have redemption.

He has qualified us. The father has qualified us. The father has delivered us. We have been conveyed out of the kingdom of darkness. We have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. We have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

That word redeemed there in the Greek by definition, the way that that term is used, by the way, this is a verb that is used. It is a verb. It is the act that only God performs. And by definition, that word redemption means liberation procured by the payment of a ransom.

Now here's where it might get a little bit tricky because it's easy, easy, easy to fall into false teaching. It's easy to fall into the idea that somehow, some way, when we think about a ransom, we always think of how the bad guys, the bad guys get something that's precious to someone and they hold it ransom until that someone pays a price to them so that they might get what they want.

And the person that has been stole from might get back what they want, but friends never let it cross our minds. And it's even taught in Christian circles that the ransom that is referred to here was what God paid to get Jesus back from the devil.

The devil never had the authority. The devil never had the power to hold Jesus Christ as a ransom. It was the father that gave his son to be the ransom for our sins. If we read what the text says here, in whom we have redemption, remember the context, Paul is stressing to these people, do not mediate through angels.

Do not mediate through other modes. Do not trust in your works. Do not trust in your deeds. Do not trust in yourself. Trust in the price that was paid by God, the father for his dear son, for our sins, that we might be declared righteous in his sight.

Romans chapter three, verse 21 through 36, Romans chapter three, verse 21 through 26, the word of God says this, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe for there is no difference.

Paul says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Verse 24 says, but being justified freely by his grace through the redemption, that is the same word that is used in Colossians there through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Verse 25 there, whom God set forth, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance, God the father had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate that at the present time, his righteousness, that he might be just.

He might be the one that is just, and he might be the one who justifies the one who has faith in Jesus Christ. It is him in first Peter chapter one, first Peter chapter one, verse 18 through 25. Listen to what the word of God says here in closing, knowing this, that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold from your aimless conduct received by the tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

He, he, Jesus, he was verily foreordained before the foundation of the world. But the apostle Peter is writing to people in that present time, and it carries even to our time, who in these last times was manifested for you, who through him believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and your hope are in God.

Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart. And by demonstration, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible through the word of God, which lives and abides forever.

Because all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man is the flower of the grass. The grass with grass withers and its flower falls away or its flower fades. But the word of the Lord endures forever.

Matter of fact, he closed that statement by saying this. Now, this is the word by which the gospel was preached unto you. So what is the application here for us? How do we put this into practice? Remember the question I asked that you start adding to your question list so that when you test the message, you'll be able to answer these questions last week.

The question to add was this. So what, what does the, what does the writer intend for me to understand from what is written? What is the author's intended meaning? Or if you just want to bring it to where we are right here, so what preacher, what do you expect me to believe and what do you expect me to do because of this?

It is simply this. Trust not in yourself. Trust not in your own deeds. Trust not in your own works. Trust not in your own righteousness, but trust in Christ alone. And if you trust in Christ alone, then you are saved by Christ alone.

And if you trust and you hold to anything, add anything to Jesus. Jesus plus works, you're lost. Jesus plus ascetic practices, you're lost. Jesus plus mediating through angels or as the Roman Catholic church does through Mary, then you are lost and you must be born again.

My only hope and my only righteousness, our testimony must be as the songwriter put it, is in Jesus Christ and in him alone. Who are you trusting in today? As we'll, as we'll move into in the future, the Lord tarries his coming.

When we, when we pick back up here in verse 15, we're going to see how Paul begins to lay out the preeminence of Christ. I used that word last couple of weeks, preeminence of Christ, meaning that there is none above him, that there is none beside him, but that all are below him.

He is God and God alone. So we'll see Paul's defining, Paul's laying out to the Colossian church in the coming verses there, the preeminence of Jesus Christ. So the question today is this, what are you going to do with this?

Do you understand today that as Paul taught the Colossian church, that the father has qualified you to be a part of the kingdom of the son of his love, that he has, that he has delivered and rescued you.

Well, so what, what do you expect me to do with that preacher? I'll tell you what, I can't help but do with it. I can't help but to rejoice to know that I've been saved by God's grace. How can anybody sit back on the Lord and truly be saved and not rejoice in what God has done?

For he has delivered us from death, hell, and the grave. We have the hope of eternal life. Why don't you fear death? April gets mad at me because I talk about death like it ain't nothing, but I'm telling you what, the sting of death was removed by Jesus Christ making me homeward bound.

I'm ready for it. How about you? I'm serious about this. I mean, I don't want to go painful. I don't want to suffer. I hope it's quick, but I'm ready for it. Come Lord Jesus. He's qualified us. He's delivered us.

Praise the Lord. He's conveyed us. He's done all the work. He's done all the legwork. He's done all the labor. It is finished. When he said that on the cross, he did it. He's conveyed us and because of what he has done, we are redeemed.

Let that be the cause of joy and hope in your life.

Rob, would you care to dismiss us in prayer, sir? Lord, Father God, I so thank you for the day that you are in control. You are a sovereign God. You have done all the work for us. Salvation's price has been paid for when the Lord Jesus Christ was suspended there between heaven and earth and he cried out, it is finished.

Paid it for and now I'm trusting in the finished work of the cross. I pray for those that are here today, Lord, if there's one that don't know you, there's one that is lost and undone on their way to hell.

I pray, Lord, that the light of heaven would shine in their soul and they'd be born again. I'm so thankful for the word that has been preached here at Rappaport. Your faithful servant today. I ask you to go with these people.

Lord, allow this message to take root in their hearts and they rejoice in their own salvation. Amen.