Book of Colossians - Ch. 1, Vs. 20-23 (09/30/2001)

Propitiation and Peace Through the Blood of the Cross

Very good brother Roger now, I'll try to do my part to fill in the blanks that you left in this service. Fill up the time that you didn't use Colossians chapter 1 and I believe we start with verse 20 this afternoon.

What a marvelous passage of scripture brother Otis left for me. Thank you very much. Amazing how much verse 20 has to do with the message this morning, isn't it that part about peace through the blood?

That's the propitiation. So, let's pray father, we thank you so much for our time together in our safe haven here and we thank you for our fellowship and Lord. We thank you for everything about our Day today for everything about our church body and the specific members and how you bring Exactly the right people to be together to do your work and we ask you to use this as yet another time of equipping For your work in us and we thank you for your son Jesus who is everything To you and everything to us and The one who Brought us into right standing before you and the one who brought you into the place of being satisfied and So thank you that he was our sacrifice and our scapegoat all in one.

Amen. Look at this verse and having made peace through the blood of his cross. That's propitiation. Turn to Isaiah chapter 53 if you want to see a vivid Prophecy of the propitiation that would come verse 3 he is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows acquainted with grief and We hid as it were our faces from him.

He was despised and we esteemed him not. The Jewish people did not Esteem him at all. Surely he hath borne our griefs. He hath carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted but he was wounded for our Transgressions or you could say because of our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace Was upon him. There it is and With his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet. He opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter as a sheep before his shears is done. So he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment and who shall declare his generation.

For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people was he stricken and He made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death. Yet in verse 10 it pleased the Lord to bruise him.

He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul and Shall be satisfied.

That is propitiation. Where it says he shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. So in Colossians 120 it says having made peace through the blood of his cross. Having made is important because it points back in time.

It's an accomplished work. It's already been done. Having been done having made peace through the blood of his cross. Now, let's see. What else is accomplished on the cross by him. To reconcile all things unto himself.

Now notice propitiation is something that was done To God really. It was God in other words who was propitiated. It was his righteousness his judgment his justice his wrath that was satisfied By what Jesus did on the cross and now it comes to this word Reconciliation notice that it says that the cross accomplished this it reconciled all things unto himself.

Look at Romans 8 822 just briefly. Romans 8 22 says for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. You realize that when Jesus Christ died on the cross? He didn't just reconcile the sheep.

And make their relationship right with the father he reconciled as the scripture says here all Things the entire cosmos. The entire world the entire heavenlies the entire universe. Everything that was laid in disarray by the sin of man.

He has made right by the death of his son. When you go into John 3 16 for God so loved the world. That he gave his only begotten son is all spoken very clearly here in Colossians 1 verse 20. He gave his son to reconcile the whole Cosmos to himself all things and to himself by him I say whether they be things in the earth of things in the heaven.

That's pretty much all things, isn't it? Anything you can name is in the earth or in the heavens. I've made all of that right again. He accomplished a lot on that cross, didn't he? It's no wonder that before he left the cross or was taken down from a cross.

He said it is finished. All the work that must be done. For the salvation of the cosmos is finished well. Reconcile all things and to himself by him I say whether they be things in earth or things in the heaven and you that were.

You could read this once upon a time instead of sometime if you wanted to that were once upon a time alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works. Yet now hath he reconciled. Now before your salvation.

You were never a goat by the way. You were never a goat because goats never get saved and you got saved so that proves you were a lost sheep. But when you were a lost sheep in your mind you alienated God.

And you wanted nothing to do with it. And the reason I know that you're that way is because I remember me. I remember how I was. Didn't want to go to church. My grandmother who's who's already in heaven now tried to drag me to church.

She put me in the car and take me to church and I'd get with my little friend Stevie Schultz and we'd go exploring the attic. She'd think we were down there in the auditorium during the service. We hated church.

We hated the Bible. It was so boring didn't want a thing to do with it and. And Didn't want anything to do with God. I remember that. I'd love to play sports. We'd be playing football on Sunday and a little friend of mine Roger Turnham who was saved as a young man before I was.

He'd say I gotta leave. It's time for the evening service. I can't play anymore and we just get angry with him. Don't leave. He was the you know, a good athlete. We didn't want him to leave. Don't leave.

Just it's not you went this morning. You don't have to go tonight. I Got I'm doing it for Jesus. I gotta leave. We never could understand that and he'd leave every time boy, we thought he was goody two-shoes and.

So there was a time in all of our lives before our salvation that we alienated. We were alienated to the things of God and all those things. We were in fact enemies in our minds. And we even did wicked works yet now.

As he reconciled us to himself. So part of reconciling the cosmos to himself was reconciling his people. His sheep that were known by him before the foundation of the world. He reconciled them to himself.

How did he do it? Verse 22 says that the method that God used Was in the body of his flesh through death to present us holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Now, how could he predict that when he comes we will be that way?

Because we are that way not because of our own merit or our own works. But because of what he finished on that cross. You have to remember that when you go back in Leviticus where we were this last couple of Sundays when they took that blood from that animal.

They they cleansed everything with it. They cleansed the altar itself with it. They cleansed the ground they would sprinkle it on the ground around that place. They shed The blood of an animal for the priest himself now Jesus didn't have to do that but the earthly priests had to do that and So all things were cleansed by the blood.

It wasn't the fact that they were good people because they were Israelites. Their goodness did not make them able to appear before God what it was. It was the blood when that blood hit that altar it turned it into a mercy seat not the altar.

But when it hit the judgment seat, it turned it into a mercy seat. And that's what has been done for us that blood has been presented not only on the symbolic mercy seat that was there in the wilderness tabernacle and And then in the temple, but it's been shed and taken and sprinkled upon the real place in The heavenlies at the throne of God on our behalf so For that reason we stand Unblameable unapprovable and Holy in his sight.

Holiness has a lot more to do with separation than it has to do with perfection in the Bible use of the word. When we see that he has made us holy it means he has separated us from the world the lost the goats.

He has separated us out from among the goats by that blood. It's that very blood that separated us and so all of these things have taken place in the body of his flesh through death for the purpose of Present of not only reconciling the cosmos but then presenting us holy and blamable and unapprovable in his sight.

The Conditional Warning of Colossians 1:23

Now the next verse is fascinating look at verse 23 and tell me what word it begins with if Now most Baptists will teach verses 20 through 22 as if they're the end of the chapter. And most Church of Christ will play like they're not there and they'll start out with verse 23 and read from there on.

If makes this seem like a conditional Promise, in fact, it is a conditional promise. Look what it says. All of these things will be true about this peace about this Reconciliation this propitiation this presenting of you holy and unblameable all these things will happen if You continue in the faith Grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel Which he have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven whereof I Paul and made a minister.

Turn with me to nothing about this. I want you to have this in your mind when you turn here but he says you will be presented holy and unblameable if You continue in the faith now that makes it sound like it's based upon works, but turn to Hebrews 10 39 and We see that there once again we get the cart before the horse if we think the works Are the condition upon which our holiness stands?

Hebrews 1038. Now the just shall live by faith notice. It doesn't say they might. Because whose faith is it? It's God's faith the faith of his son Jesus Christ that he gave to you as a gift so It doesn't say they might live by faith as if to say that on the day when you decide to wake up and work up.

Your faith you will and on a day when you're not going to do that. You don't it doesn't say that. It says you shall live by faith. But now look at this. But if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him now.

What happens to a soul that God has no pleasure in he's lost. But look at verse 39 but we Reckon who the we is. That's the sheepies the little sheepies from all eternity past we are. Not of them who draw back unto perdition.

But of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Now you look at this if yes It is true from a human viewpoint. If you just look across at people who claim to be saved who claim to have the Lord. Who claim to do many wonderful works in his name?

Including miraculous works and raising the dead. They say they've done that they say they heal. They say they do all things they preach the gospel in his name and yet many of them He says depart from me.

I never knew you. But The Bible says we are not of those who fall away into perdition which means utter destruction. But we're of those Who believe unto the saving of the soul you keep on believing? You just you can't lose that belief.

This is what the great John Calvin called the perseverance of the Saints. It was one of his five points of Calvinism. The perseverance of the Saints meant that it was God who kept us going not we ourselves and therefore We could not fall away.

We are not of them that fall away. So yes, the if is true. Because there are those who come up as if seed were planted in thin soil on top of some rocks. And they came up quickly and happily. Talking about their testimony and how wonderful it is to be saved and the Sun comes up which pictures the Word of God.

And the tribulation and trouble that comes in the life because of being saved and it says it Scorches them and they die away because they had no root. The root is Jesus. They just had a Public profession they had professed Christianity, but they weren't saved now this if.

Just knock them out of the saddle seemingly. They're not going to continue in fact, usually they're gone within a couple of months. Sometimes they're gone within a couple of weeks. Sometimes they're gone in a week they get up and give a great testimonies the last time you ever see him and they fall back into the same way that they came from and and It's twice as bad as if they had never made that profession from that point on but that does not apply to his sheep.

It's not written for the sheep. This is written as a warning to those who fall back into that utter destructive lifestyle and the ones who don't have hold of the root and so this says very clearly that the gospel was preached to every creature and.

The Sheep, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance

Now, let me show you some verses. Look at John chapter 6. Some verses that bear out the fact that we are not of them. Who? Fall back unto perdition. Why is it that we cannot fall back unto perdition if we have received the Lord Jesus Christ.

John 6 37 says all that the Father Giveth me Shall come to me. Now that was one of Calvin's five points. He called it irresistible grace a lot of most Baptist today. I'd tell you that's heresy. But what irresistible grace teaches is that the sheep even when they're lost.

When he calls them they cannot resist it. They will always come to him. Why would they want to resist it when they hear the Shepherd's voice? It's the voice they've been listening for. They weren't even trying to listen.

But as soon as they hear the voice they know the voice. Jesus says I know the sheep and they know me and they follow me and they hear me he says so. Irresistible grace is found right here in this verse where it says all that the Father giveth me shall Come to me doesn't say they might.

It doesn't say they decide. It doesn't say if they want to they do. If they don't want to they don't have to. It says they shall. The voice is irresistible to the sheep. When they hear the Shepherd calling they run to him and him that cometh to me.

I will in no wise cast out. So that little if that we looked at cannot apply to you if you're a sheep. You will in no wise be cast out. Look at verse 39 and this is the Father's will which hath sent me that of all.

The word all is very important there. Which he hath given me I should lose nothing. The word nothing is the negative of the word all. He says it both ways. He says I'm gonna save every one of the sheep and he says I'm not gonna lose a single one of the sheep says it both ways.

But should raise it up again in the last days and this is the will of him that sent me that everyone which beholdeth the Son and Believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up. Doesn't say I might he says I will Raise him up in the last day.

Now flip over to John 17. And we skip right by John chapter 10 where he says I I know my sheep. They hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. He didn't say they might follow me. He says they follow me.

You flip right past that to John 17 and verse 6 I Have manifested thy name and to the men which thou gavest me out of the world. That's the sheep. Thine they were that's past tense. It means they were God's before He gave them to Jesus, isn't that interesting?

They were in God's heart and mind before he gave them to Jesus. I Have manifested thy name and to the men which were which thou gave me out of the world thine they were Past tense and thou gavest them me and they have kept thy word.

So you don't have to worry about that if if you continue it says they have kept my word you're gonna continue. It's irresistible. Now you can disobey and Get out of it for a season, but just like any good father.

He will Chasen you and spank you until you desire with all of your heart to be right back in the word and then look in that same verse to The verse 2 chapter 17 verse 2 as thou has given him power over all flesh.

That he should give eternal life To as many as thou has given him so Here we see these these who will continue it is irresistible. They shall now let me show you another reason that they that we know they will look at Philippians chapter 2 in verse 13.

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do his good pleasure. It is God that works in us both to make us want to do his good pleasure and then to do his good pleasure. So it is a work of God the continuing the if.

Yes, the word if is in the Bible, but the continuing is done by God. Just like the salvation was done by God just as much as he saved you with his own faith. He causes you to continue to follow him with that same faith that he gave you and then look at verse chapter 1 verse 6 there in Philippians.

Being confident of this thing. This very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will Continue to perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Till the second coming if you can make it that long you're doing pretty good.

Chapter 1 verse 29. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe but also to suffer for his sake. You good sayings in this book aren't there. Put some of them up on the wall like they did in the Methodist Church good sayings.

Well now why else is it that this? Continuing is assured to the believer. Look at first the let the Thessalonians first Thessalonians 5 in verse 23 and The very God of peace sanctify you holy and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless and to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. Now, who is it that does this? Is it us? Who is it that he says is faithful who will do this? The one who called you the same one who saved you is going to bring you through to the end and now.

Look at first Peter chapter 1 we saw this one in Sunday school. Look at verse 4 to an inheritance incorruptible undefiled. It fadeth not away. It's reserved in heaven with your name on it for you and Look at this phrase who are kept now.

Who are we kept by it tells us who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Ready to be revealed in the last time. So now let's go back to our passage in Colossians. Now, let's read this in verse 22.

In the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight if you continue in the faith. If you continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away.

Why does it even put that in there because just like in any church any time a man of God preaches or teaches or writes a letter to an Assembly of people there are some tears in that assembly many times probably most times and the Word of God is written as a Warning if they are going to sit in that congregation and profess To be a Christian and they are going to be spots in our love feasts then they're going to hear this verse and Verses like it.

It's not just gonna say everybody in here is saved. It's gonna say everybody in here is saved that continues to the end. Now to you who are born again that did the if you don't even hear the if it doesn't pop you at all.

Because you don't even have a doubt in your mind. Where you're gonna be. 50 years from now 40 years 30 10 5 4 3 2 next week. You know that you're the Lord's and you're in his hand and not only that but your name is Engraven in the palm of his hand.

He says, oh, can a mother forget her sucking child? He said oh she may but I cannot in fact I have your name graven in my hand and John 10 says you're placed in his hand and Jesus said my hands on top.

And that's the end of it and you know that. But if you have someone in this congregation even right now this afternoon, who's not really born again. They're just religious. They've been to church. They're here.

Maybe because someone told them they had to be here. They don't really want to be here whatever and you read this thing about you'll you'll be a right but you'll be right before God and you'll be ready when he comes if.

If you continue if you love the things of God if you love studying the word if you love being in church if you love God's people if you want to be a witness for him and all these things and you're sitting here thinking man I don't like any of that stuff.

What that should tell you is you're not saved yet. And so you must be saved. You say well Maybe I'm not off the elect. You know, how do I know I can ever even be saved? I'm I may not be an elect and if I am God will notify me and I don't worry about it.

Is that the right attitude to take? Now we we on this side know that's true. But is that the right attitude to take if you're a person who trembles a little bit when you see the word if you know? Well, what you know, what if I'm what if I'm not of the elect?

Well, let me take you to Romans chapter 1 and show you What kind of person that is and if you're in here this afternoon you may be a child or a teenager an adult and you're Saying well, you know, I really feel in my heart.

I'm not real. I'm not really saved. I just call myself a Christian. But what if I'm not of the elect well You can kind of ask yourself some questions. Romans chapter 1 let's go down here about verse 21 I'm going to show you some people who are not of the elect and You ask yourself if you're lost in here today, and you know that you're lost and you're wondering.

Well, I wonder if I'm of the elect. Maybe God will never save me. Well ask yourself if you're like this. There is a group of people it says because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God in other words They knew who he was, but they did not Glorify him as God.

They had other gods in their lives other things. They'd like doing other things. They'd rather think about other things that they loved and they were not thankful. But became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened professing themselves to be wise they became fools and Changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things.

Wherefore God also gave them up To uncleanliness through the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves who chart changed the truth of God into a lie and Worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator who is blessed forever.

I'm in for this cause God gave them up unto vile affections for even their women did change the natural use of that which is against nature and likewise also the men. Now go down to verse 28 and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate mind To do those things which were not convenient.

If you're not of the elect God has given you over to a place where you never even think about him. You don't keep him in your knowledge. You've been given over to a reprobate mind, which means your mind can't think right.

It's not gonna think about God. It's not gonna wonder about whether I'm saved or not. It'll never even ask the question. Am I of the elect because it has nothing to do with the things of God. Now if you're lost and in you're in this room today ask yourself the question Am I at that place where I never worry about it and never worry about whether I'm gonna be saved another worry about if I'm Of the elect or am I a person that thinks about it a lot?

Well, if you're thinking about it a lot then what you need to do is come to the place Where you weigh? Whether or not you're a better Lord for your life, or he is. One second after your heart stops beating ask yourself whether you can put breath back in your life someday better than he can and Then you'll come to your senses open your eyes and see him and be saved.

And that's how that works. Now, let's go back to Colossians chapter 1. He says if you continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel Which he have heard and which was preached to every creature, which is under heaven.

I've never had anybody ask you. What about the poor Africans over there? They don't have Bibles about talking about Jesus. That's not fair. Surely God will let them be saved by What their witchcraft or whatever as long as they're sincere.

Have you ever heard anybody say that? Yeah, and as long as they're sincere in their belief, they'll be okay. Well in the first place they got the gospel long time before you did over here on this continent because the Ethiopian eunuch took it to Africa and when the missionaries first got there there were already churches there churches were already there with saved people in them and because that's what a church is and So they had the gospel.

In fact, the whole world has had the gospel sent to it. The Bible says and we think we're the ones doing it with all our missionary efforts. But the Bible says as early as AD 64 That every creature under heaven Has heard the gospel.

There's no excuse. There's no excuse for anyone but look how he ends it here where I've. I Paul and made a minister. We are ministers now some are not called to be ministers or pastors. Elders. But everyone is called to be one who proclaims the good news.

How could we not. How could we not proclaim it? That's just as irresistible as any other part of our salvation did not the scripture say. I believe therefore I have spoken. Yeah, you can't help it. You will be a witness for the Lord.

I Believe we ought to be soul conscious. Where we go, we ought to look at people and say I wonder wonder where they're headed. Wonder what they believe wonder what their whole life is tied up in. Wonder what their God is who their God is.

I Wonder if I spoke the gospel of them if the light would come on they'd be saved because they're lost sheep. I Wonder wouldn't that be something? I Wonder if they are really a sheep if I gave him the gospel if they would hear his voice.

Coming out of my mouth and have to follow him. That would be interesting to find out. I think I'll find out that's what Willis witnessing is all about and So, I think we'll stop with that last point. I am made a minister.

Irresistible. I got to be a minister. I'm the only one that's got the truth. Out of all the great religions of the world, I'm the only one that really knows the Living God and His son Jesus Christ, who's the only one the only name under heaven whereby we might be saved.

They're not preaching that a lot on TV right now. They're getting all these groups together trying to show the unity of the world. They're not saying that Jesus is the only one Whereby men may be saved.

They're leaving the gospel out by the way when they do that. And they can't help anyone. They think they're making friends soothing enemies. But they're not pleasing the Lord when they do that. So we need to take the gospel out and be ministers.

The Call to Proclaim the Gospel as Ministers

Let's pray father. We thank you for your word. Thank you for this glorious day because any day that we can come together and open the Word of God together is a glorious day and we look forward to the time when we can sit at your feet and Perhaps hear you teach and Lord see you with our eyes and be like you when we see you.

And help us to be about being prepared help us to be walking the walk of faith In this time and we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.