Yeah. OK, if you open up to the book of Colossians, Paul's letter to the Colossians, we're going to pick up where we left off last week at Colossians chapter 1 and verse 9. And as you turn in there, let's go to the Lord to pray that he anoints the preaching of the word. So if you bow your heads. Father in Jesus' precious name, we love you, Lord. And we love not only you, but we love your word. And we know that your word is truth. And so I pray, Lord, that it would be your word that would be proclaimed from this pulpit. And all preachers, including myself, are fallible. But your word is infallible, incapable of error. Your word is inerrant. It's totally without error. And so I pray, Lord, that you would cancel the man so that I would not get in the way and that your truth would be proclaimed. I pray, Lord, you'd open hearts and minds. to understand and receive the truths of your word, and may your Holy Spirit empower us to apply these truths to our lives so that we could be all that you called us to be, and that we would be pleasing in your sight when we see you face to face, when your son takes his stand upon the earth. In Jesus' precious name we pray, amen. Okay, now remember that the book of Colossians, Paul's letter to the Colossians, that Paul's writing this around 60 AD, and the problem here with this congregation in Colossus, a buddy of Paul, one of his colleagues, Epaphras, planted the church there. He led them to Christ, and he came back with all, we saw last week, all these good reports about their faith, hope, and love. I mean, wouldn't it be nice if people would come to Trinity Bible Fellowship, and then people would say, well, what's the Trinity Bible Fellowship like? Well, it's a church filled with faith, hope, and love. So they had a pretty good report card. But Epaphras also told Paul that there's some bad guys in the area, in Colossus. And they're teaching heresies, false teachings, trying to get the people to fall for a heresy. A Gnostic form of heresy that blended salvation through secret knowledge, which was in many of the ancient Greek and Roman mystery religions. Salvation through secret knowledge, secret handshakes and that type of thing. Very occultic. And it was a blending of that with legalistic Judaism. And then they were trying to blend it with Christianity and make this hybrid false religion. They focused on dietary laws and observing the Sabbath days and the Jewish feast days and circumcision and things that Jesus fulfilled. Then these guys were even worshipping angels. And they thought through secret knowledge that the angels were probably like a ladder leading to heaven. and that Jesus was just one of these many angelic beings, or one of these many intermediaries, rather than the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob become a man, God the Son become a man. They were into legalism, salvation by works, work salvation, and so they demoted Jesus to less than full deity. They just considered him one of many intermediaries. If you look at Jesus and you view Jesus as just you know, one of many of equal types of deities or go-betweens between God and men. That's not the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus of the Bible has no competition. The Jesus of the Bible has no rival. There's some that try to be, even Satan tries to be his rival, but they lose. Okay. And But Paul's telling them, look, get away from this salvation through mysticism and secret knowledge. Paul will talk mysteries. He'll tell them, look, there are mysteries about how God deals with us, but they were mysteries in the Old Testament, and now they're revealed in the New Testament through Jesus. and through the Holy Spirit's work through the apostles. And so he's going to talk about those mysteries in this letter, but you don't fall for this secret mysticism and secret knowledge and the mysteries of the cults, okay? And so Paul proclaims that Jesus is supreme, he's the preeminent one, he is God, creator, redeemer, he rules the universe. Paul's going to call Jesus, he's going to say, in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, the Pleroma. They viewed the fullness of the universe, you know, that between earth and heaven, they viewed that Pleroma as the angels, these different intermediaries. And Paul's like saying, no, everything you have to be to be God, Jesus is. Now he added a human nature, But he's God, the second person of the Trinity, become a man. He added a human nature without subtracting from his divine nature, so he is fully God. The fullness of God dwells in Jesus in bodily form. Colossians 2.9 tells us he's the only mediator between God and men. He's the ruler of the universe. And so Paul's going to point out throughout this letter that Jesus is not a local deity. In the Old Testament times, You know, we're told in the first verse of the Bible that in the beginning God, in the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth. But then there were many Elohim, many angelic beings claiming to be the gods of the nations. And so when God entered into the battle of the gods, he started through Abraham his own chosen nation. And he said that Yahweh is the one true infinite creator Elohim. Okay? that the God of Israel is not a local deity. When Jonah offended Yahweh, and they were going to throw him overboard when they picked straws, and they found out he was the guy that offended his deity, they said, well, who's your God? And he said, well, the God who created the land and the sea. He's basically saying the one true God. And they freaked out. They didn't know what to do at that point. So they asked Jonah for advice. And he said, well, throw me overboard. You know, that'll stop. Sometimes giving people good advice hurts us. But whatever the case, Jesus is not a local deity. If you want the true gnosis, the true knowledge, everybody's looking for the meaning of life. And they want to find the true knowledge that seems to elude us. The true knowledge, the true gnosis is complete in Jesus. We don't need Jesus plus something else. We'll see that real clearly in Colossians chapter 2, verses 8 to 10. And so in the first eight verses, Paul and Timothy is with Paul, and he thanks God for the Colossians because of their faith, love, and hope. And then he talks about Epaphras, who planted the church in Colossus. gave a good report about them, but apparently he also, Epaphras also told Paul about the bad things that were going on. But Paul thanks God for the Colossians because of their faith, their love, and their hope. Their faith in Christ, their love for all the saints, and their hope in heaven. for a future with Jesus. So now we come to verse 9. We're going to be looking at verses 9 through 14. And then Paul starts out though by saying, for this reason we also, him and Timothy, since the day we heard of it, do not cease to pray for you. Now, he says, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. I think this is interesting because Paul just got done saying, we heard that you guys are really doing well in the faith, hope, and love categories. So, you know, the way we think, we're so sloppy in our spiritual warfare, we would think, hey, if that church is doing good in faith, hope, and love, they don't need our prayers. But Paul says, because you're doing so well in faith, hope, and love, I decided to pray for you even more. And so we've got to understand that. Don't just pray for the relatives that are having spiritual or moral problems, you pray even for your relatives, even for yourself, if you're walking strong with the Lord, you still need prayer. Okay? I don't care, even when we get our immortal bodies, we're still gonna need Jesus. And if Jesus willed us out of existence, we'd cease to exist. And so it's really interesting that he says, well, for this reason, because of your faith, love, and hope, because I'm giving Thanksgiving for you, we don't cease to pray for you. And we ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will. in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. The knowledge of his will, he takes the word gnosis. Remember, these guys are teaching false salvation. He takes the word gnosis for this secret knowledge or whatever, this knowledge, the Greek word for knowledge, and he calls it epigenosis, the true knowledge. He wants them, he says, look, forget about the false knowledge of the heretics. the occultic, demonic, secret knowledge, I want you to be filled with the epigenosis, the full knowledge of his will, of God's will, in all wisdom, the Greek word is Sophia, and then he uses another term, and spiritual understanding. So even when we're walking strong with the Lord, God still wants us to be filled with even more knowledge of God's will. Even more wisdom, even more spiritual understanding. And then in verse 10, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. There's only room for one God. There's only one God of the universe, and you're not Him, I'm not Him, we need to get with His program. So we gotta do two things. Number one, we gotta, when the Holy Spirit pulls on the strings of our hearts, we gotta turn our lives over to Jesus and trust in Jesus for salvation. And then number two, then you gotta just start living for Jesus. studying His Word, obeying His Word through the power of the Holy Spirit and for God's glory. But he says that you may walk with all this extra knowledge of God's will and all this extra wisdom and spiritual understanding so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. There's a lot of churches that act like, you know, we don't have to teach you too much. I mean, look, if God wanted to, he could have given us a business card with John 3.16 on it and said, here's my word. There's a lot more to Christianity than just the salvation message. That's a big thing. But God gave us 66 books and thousands of pages. for us to work with, and for us to study, and through the power of the Holy Spirit for us to understand with that spiritual understanding. So Paul prays that they grow in the knowledge of God, and that they will please God, they'll be fruitful in every good work. So it's not just like God wants us to grow in His knowledge so we don't do the bad things. God wants us to grow in knowledge also so that we'll do the good things. You know, I look at that and I say, gee, if God is giving me His knowledge so that I'll please Him and He wants me to be fruitful in every good work, makes you wonder not just what things are you doing wrong, but what good works are you not doing? What are some of the right things that you're not doing that God's called you to do? Now, by the way, Satan's gonna do two things whenever you want to do the right thing. Okay, well, whenever you're presented with the right thing. First thing is he's gonna get you to try not to do it, come up with an excuse. Oh, there's a reason. why I don't need or I can't do this right and good thing. He's going to try to prevent you from doing it. And then if you do the right thing, you resist that temptation, you do the right thing, then he's probably going to try to make you prideful. Like, oh, wow, I'm a holy man. And then I'll add a third thing, though, too. God doesn't need you. God can do his work without Phil Fernandez. Okay? God doesn't need you. He doesn't need me. He chooses to use us and to share that blessing so that we could serve others. But there are times when we do have to say no. That's one of the toughest lessons for me as a pastor. Sometimes you get too many people dependent on you. I teach here. I'm a pastor here. I teach at the Christian high school. And I just can't spread myself that thin. And I had that brain circuitry shut down, which at first they thought was a stroke. So if Satan can't get you to say no, he'll try to get you to say yes to the good stuff more often than you should. But there comes a time when I'll say, well, God bless you, brother, but I want to introduce you to Pastor John, OK? I want to introduce you to Chris and realize that God can actually use other people. I knew Christian brothers real early in my walk. They thought God could only be at work if it was through them. And I had to tell those guys real early. They wanted to be my spiritual fathers or whatever. They were self-proclaimed prophets. their knowledge of God's word, the true knowledge. Not all the verses they pulled out of context. You could put it on a business card. You'd have some extra space too. And so I had to tell them real early. They said, well, God told me that I'm to be your spiritual father. And I said, well, until I get the memo. You stay away from me. You go minister in one part of town, I'll go minister in another part of town. But here, when God gives us, if you increase in knowledge coming to Trinity Bible Fellowship and getting spiritual understanding and getting wisdom, that's so that you'll be fruitful in every good work. That's not so that, oh wow, I know more about theology than my buddy who goes to a church down the block and they're not really teaching him the deep truths of the word. I know more than him. Well, big deal. You gotta not just know the truth, you gotta practice the truth. James says, don't just be a hearer of the word, but be a doer of the word. And so Paul prays for the Colossians that they grow in the knowledge of God and knowledge, wisdom, spiritual understanding that they will please God, they'll be fruitful in every good work. Verse 11, strengthened with all might, with God's power, according to his glorious power, for all patience and long-suffering with joy. God empowers us and gives us patience to endure the trials of life. Things don't always go our way. In fact, more often than not, they don't go our way. But we should have God's joy through God's glorious power and endure those trials, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. We have an inheritance in heaven that will never, ever, ever fade away. Okay? That's where our joy is. We focus on that, not having things our way in this life. Many times, the right decision is something that it's like, wow, that brings joy to me. But there's many times that the right decision is going to bring us hardship. If they try to get you to deny Jesus, and they say we're going to beat you or imprison you, if you deny Jesus, you're still going to do the right thing. You're going to stand up for Jesus. And if you can't figure out how to run away, you're going to take that whooping. You can spend some time in prison for preaching the gospel, whatever it may be. Verse 13, he has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. And so, Paul prays for the Colossians, even though they had a good report card, He prays that they're gonna grow in the knowledge of God. See, what it was was apparently they had a good simplistic knowledge of the gospel message and how to walk with Jesus. I wish we could say that of all Americans, okay? But when the wolves in sheep's clothing come to town, you need more than a simplistic understanding of the gospel. In fact, if wolves only came to us in wolves' clothing, I don't think we'd even need pastors. We wouldn't need guys to dedicate their lives to studying God's Word, because a wolf in wolves' clothing would be so easy to identify. But we've got so many wolves in sheep's clothing that if you just have a simplistic understanding of the gospel message, you could fall prey to their false teachings. Paul's going to talk later on in this chapter. I don't think we're going to get to it, but you just look ahead. Verse 28, him we preach. We preach Jesus. You go in a church, they don't preach Jesus, get out of the church, okay? Him we preach. warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. So the goal is not just leading people to Christ, but it's Christian maturity. But Paul says that we preach Jesus, okay, and that is going to involve what? Warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom. So if you go to a church and the pastor is not preaching Jesus or he's preaching Jesus but there's no warning, warning to believe the truth and not fall for lies, warning to live in obedience to God and not disobey God, If there's no warnings and teachings in the preaching, how are you going to present every man perfect, complete and mature in Christ? And the American church is starving for good preaching. Okay, and the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few, the Lord says. So Paul prays for the Colossians that they grow in the knowledge of God, that they will please God and be fruitful in every good work. And he says that God will strengthen you to joyfully endure the trials of life. And then he prays that they would thank God who delivered us into the kingdom of light. Out of darkness into light. That ought to be one of our rallying cries. Out of darkness into light. You know, I mean, I was a liar, I was a thief. I was a hypocrite pretending to be a tough guy when I weighed 125 pounds soaking wet. And that was darkness. As the old Phil Fernandez, and the old Phil Fernandez is dead. Out of darkness into light. We all have our stories. I think Victoria's gonna be sharing her testimony to the ladies. She's gonna tell us about her out of darkness into light story. If you came to Jesus, there's an out-of-darkness-into-light story. Okay? Some of us, we want to have an out-of-darkness-into-light story, but we're right back in darkness. You know, I'd hate to give my testimony, say how rotten I was, then I came to Jesus, and now this is how I am now, and I'd hate to have people stand there and say, nothing changed. You're still like the old man. OK? And Satan wants to lie. He wants to tell Phil Franz, the old Phil Franz, that's your same guy you used to be. I look in the mirror, I think I'm the same guy, only heavier, and I got wrinkles and some white hair. But I look like the same guy. But God, what does God tell me in his word? The old man is dead. The old man is dead. It's the new man. And you've got to stop living like the old man. When we sin, it's not like this sin principle, this vicious dog fighting another dog, two vicious dogs in battle. When we sin, it's like us taking a dead dog on a leash for a walk around the block. It's unnatural. The old you is dead. Stop acting like the old you. I've got to stop acting like the old Phil Fernandez. Why? Because out of darkness into light, King Jesus rescued us from the darkness of sin. and rescued us and brought us into light of His kingdom. And so God delivered us into the kingdom of light through His Son. And Paul tells us there in verse 14 about Jesus, in whom we have redemption through His blood, His sufferings and death on the cross, the forgiveness of sins. Look at 1 John 1, verse 7. 1st John chapter 1 verse 7. It's a few small books before the book of Revelation. 1st John chapter 1 and verse 7 and the Apostle John says this, that if we confess our sins, if we acknowledge our sins before God, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's actually verse 9, but God's Word is also true, so that's good. I'm glad I read it. But verse 7, but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, remember, out of darkness into light, we have fellowship with one another, fellowship with other believers, And what? And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. Okay? So we've been redeemed in Jesus' blood, His sufferings and death, and we have the forgiveness of sin. So if we acknowledge our sin before the Lord, and trust in the Lord Jesus, He cleanses us. from our sin. He forgives us our sin, but it's through His blood. God's justice demands that sin be paid for in full. And Jesus paid the price. As the ultimately worthy substitute sacrifice, God become a man. He paid the ransom price for our sins. Okay? And we're redeemed. What does redemption mean? Well, in the Old Testament and New Testament times, you could redeem property, you know, land. You could redeem people. Okay? It's usually you take a scroll and you write down the property. Let's say I owe John some money. And John said, well, you can't pay me back, so give me your house and your land. So we'll write down all the property that he's going to confiscate. And then he rolls it up in a scroll, OK? And then you write on the outside of the scroll the ransom price, the price that has to be paid to redeem that land. And then you seal it seven times. Now when you look at Revelation chapter 5, the scroll with the seven seals and it's written on the inside and the outside, that's the title deed to the planet Earth. And it looked like nobody was worthy. To redeem that, John was weeping until they told him about the lion of the tribe of Judah. And then he went to look to see the lion of the tribe of Judah, and he saw a lamb. as if he was slain, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. But you could redeem land. You could redeem people. You can go to the slave market. If you went to the slave market in ancient times, and you bought a slave, and then you made that slave your slave, you didn't redeem him. You just bought a slave, OK? But if you paid the ransom price for the slave, and then you set them free, Then you redeemed them. So to be redeemed means to be set free by the paying of a price. And oh what a price it took to redeem us. Because all sin, even the smallest sin, is rebellion against the ultimately worthy being, rebellion against God. Therefore, we deserve the ultimate in punishment. The Bible calls it the eternal lake of fire, Gehenna, what we commonly call hell. If there's going to be eternal separation from God, the ultimate eternal conscious torment, the ultimate punishment, if there's going to be a substitute sacrifice, the substitute sacrifice has to be ultimately worthy. So the substitute sacrifice has to be God. But a sacrifice has to die. You can't cut a lamb and then let it free and say, well, that was a good sacrifice. No, you got to kill the sacrifice. And God, as God, can't die. So in order to represent man, God the Son had to become a man to be the ultimately worthy sacrifice and die on the cross for our sins. And so Jesus paid the ransom price He redeemed us by setting us free from slavery to sin and the punishment for our sins. He set us free by redeeming us, by paying the ransom price, by dying on the cross for our sins. That's why when Jesus prayed, not my will, but your will be done, if there's any other way, basically, if there's any other way to save mankind, let this cup of suffering and death pass from me. But there was no other way. for God to save us. His justice demanded there had to be an ultimately worthy substitute sacrifice. And so Jesus paid the ransom price for us to God's justice by dying on the cross for our sins. And so Jesus, God the Father, delivered us into the kingdom of light through his son, the Lord Jesus who redeemed us in his blood. He paid through his suffering and death, his shedding of his blood. That's why we celebrate communion. We celebrate his body broken for us and his blood shed for us. He redeemed us in his blood and won for us the forgiveness of our sins. What is forgiveness? Forgiveness means to cancel someone's debt. And we owed a tremendous debt to the justice and the holiness of God, and Jesus paid that debt. by being the ultimately worthy substitute sacrifice who died on the cross for our sins, had his body broken, and his blood shed for us. And so Paul is praying for the Colossians that they grow in God's knowledge, that they would please God and be strengthened by God, and that they would be grateful that God delivered us out of darkness into light. I hope a day never goes by where I'm not grateful. I hope a day never goes by when you're not grateful. You know, they could beat us up and imprison us someday and set an execution date. And in prison, we can worry about our circumstances and our problems, or we can be grateful. Say, my king, one heaven for me. My king is coming back for me. Someday I will see him face to face. And through the darkness of this trial, I know that he rescued me out of darkness into light. And now Paul is going to talk about the preeminence of Christ, or the supremacy of Christ, that Jesus stands above all others. in verses 15 through 18. And by the way, Jehovah's Witnesses and other cults will twist these verses and will confound Christians when they show up at your door. So again, we've got to grow in the knowledge of the Lord. We've got to be grounded in God's Word. Why? Because wolves show up in sheep's clothing. You know, I wish I had a dime for every time somebody said, well, I saw a preacher on TV, and he was saying such and such. I said, well, that doesn't sound biblical. They said, well, he was quoting from the Scriptures. I have to remind them, Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons quote the Scriptures more than Christians do. You know, you can quote anything out of context. You can twist the meaning of something, OK? How many of us quote, like, Philippians 4.13? about Christ as the one who strengthens us. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And so what do they do? We have Christians quoting it out of context like you can claim a Corvette in Jesus' name. When the passage, you read the surrounding passages in its proper context, Paul says, I know what it's like to be poor. and I know what it's like to be prosperous. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. In other words, if I'm in prison for preaching the gospel, I'm going to sing praise songs and I'm going to be grateful. Why? Because I can do, I can endure all things through Christ who strengthens me. If God blesses you with prosperity, you're not going to let it go to your head and become an idol. You're going to use the money the way God wants you to. Why? Because you can endure and do all things through Christ who strengthens you. And so we shouldn't take verses out of context. And this passage has been taken way out of context, especially by the Jehovah's Witnesses. It talks about Jesus. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him, by Jesus, all things were created. that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, or the angelic realm, all things were created through Him and for Him. By the way, Jehovah's Witnesses don't believe that all things were created through Jesus, because they believe God the Father created Jesus, and Jesus is a lesser God, the first thing that God the Father created, and then Jesus created everything else. No, all things that were created were created by Jesus. Jesus was never in the creation category until he took on a human nature and became part of his creation by taking on a human nature and being conceived in the womb of Mary. So now he is the infinite creator, but he's also part of the finite limited creation. But Jesus never gave up his divine nature, so he's one person. He's God, the second person of the Trinity, always existed as God, the second person of the Trinity, but at a point in time when conceived in the womb of Mary, he added a human nature without subtracting from his divine nature. So is Jesus finite and limited? Yes, in his human nature. Is Jesus infinite and totally unlimited? Yes, in his divine nature. OK? Jesus is omnipresent. He's here right now. That ought to make you grateful and rejoice. It ought to also scare the heck out of you. OK? Jesus is here right now. But that's in his divine nature. In his human nature, he's at the Father's right hand. So he's one person with two distinct natures forever. And so, all things were created by him. Verse 17, and he is before all things, and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence, or the supremacy. Okay, so let's break this down. First off, Jesus is called the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. You can write books about the image of God. Do you realize we were created in God's image? We were created in God's image. We were perfect and unfallen. We had no sin. Then we failed our test in the garden and we perverted and corrupted that image, okay? But we were created in God's image. We still retain enough of God's image, so you can't take innocent human life, which is what America does on a pretty regular basis, because we still retain enough of the image of God. But then look at Romans 8, Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 8. Let's start at verse 26. Take it down to verse 30. Romans 8, verses 26 to 30. Likewise, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. So we're not always praying for what God wants us to pray for. So the Holy Spirit helps us out with that. He prays for us. Now, he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Well, what's the outcome of the Holy Spirit praying for you in accordance with God's will? We're told in verse 28, and we know that all things, all circumstances, We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. So all things that happen to you in your life, good things and bad things, God is going to work it for good. If you love God and you're walking with God, God is going to work it for good. Why? Because he's answering the Holy Spirit's intercession for you. He's answering the Holy Spirit's prayer for you. Okay? And he works all things for good. Well, what does that mean? Does that mean I'm going to get that Corvette? No, doesn't necessarily mean that. Does it mean I'm going to get that perfect job? No, doesn't necessarily mean that. Does it mean you're going to get that billionaire position or whatever? No, it doesn't necessarily mean that. But what it means is if God works all things for your good, verse 29, for whom he foreknew, For whom God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed, to what? To the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Adam failed as the head of the human race. The second Adam, the Lord Jesus, didn't fail, okay? And then in verse 30, moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called. Whom he called, these he also justified. Whom he justified, these he also glorified. You got justified the moment you first believed. God declared you righteous. That's when you got saved. As far as God's concerned, it's an unbroken chain all the way to glorification when God finishes the work that he started in you. Okay? What is that? That's God working all things for our good. So, what is that final state going to be? We're going to be fully conformed to the image of God's Son, to the image of Jesus. Okay? We were created in God's image, but then we fell into sin, so we marred that image. Then God sent the Son, His Son, who is the perfect image of the invisible God, and God promises that everyone who trusts in his Son for salvation will in the end be fully conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus, which means that the image of God will be restored in man. And so back in Colossians 1 and verse 15, Jesus is he is the image of the invisible God, you know why he's the image of the invisible God Because because by the way all human beings since the fall apart from Jesus were marred by sin then Jesus shows up born to a virgin and He has no sin He's the perfect image of the invisible God because He is God the Son, the perfect Son of God become a man. He is the image of the invisible God and because of that, because Jesus is God incarnate, Because he is the image of the invisible God, that's what makes him the firstborn over all creation. So it doesn't mean that he was the first one born, that in other words Jesus was the first thing that God the Father created, and then Jesus created everything else. That's not what it means, okay? By the way, the word, the title for the firstborn, prototokos, prototokos, the firstborn son, that means the supreme ruler or the preeminent one. See, the firstborn son is supposed to have authority over his brethren, okay? He's supposed to get a double inheritance. His brothers only get a single inheritance. He's supposed to rule over his brothers as the firstborn son. Well, you look at the Scriptures and we find out that Esau was born before Jacob. Yet, who was the firstborn? The right of the firstborn ended up going to Jacob and the nation of Israel came from him, not from Esau. You look at, well, I'll switch forward. Jacob had 12 sons, but only the last two were born to the wife he really loved. Rachel. So he wanted the oldest son born to Rachel to be the firstborn. That's why he dressed Joseph in a coat of many colors. He dressed him like royalty. Probably had cologne and everything. And then he'd go spy on his brothers who were smelly guys working with sheep all the time. So he got really upset with him, eventually beat him up and sold him into slavery. But who was really his firstborn son? It was in son number 11, Joseph. By the way, when Jacob still didn't get the memo from God, when he's blessing his sons, instead of blessing Joseph, he blesses his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. So he gives them a double blessing, okay? like his firstborn. Now, I'm going to argue that Reuben, the firstborn, didn't actually receive the right of the firstborn, but Joseph didn't either. Now, Jacob didn't love his wife Leah, but she bore his first four sons to him. Reuben was the first, but Reuben ended up, you know, eventually they got in a contest Rachel and Leah, the two sisters married by Jacob, they started giving their slave girls, their concubines, to Jacob to bear children in their name. And so they started doing all this. They were combating left and right. Well, Reuben ends up having a sexual affair with one of his dad's concubines. That's kind of like a wife without rights. And so that brought great shame to Jacob. So yeah, he would have been disqualified. Simeon and Levi, their full sister got raped by a prince named Shechem. And then Shechem shows up and tells Jacob, you know, I raped your daughter. I'm really attracted to her. Is it okay if I marry her? And Jacob, probably for fear of all the tribes that were around them and all the villages, said, yeah, go ahead. And Simeon and Levi are like, what? Are we his servants because we're born to Leah? Is our sister, he's going to treat her like a servant because she's born to Leah? So, you know, when the elderly wise men don't make the righteous choices, you might leave it in the hands of the young guys. And they don't err on the side of grace. So they met with the Shechemites and said, we'd like to marry your gals. You can marry our gals. We can become one people. But there's just one technicality. You've got to be circumcised to join us. And the Shechemites, the males, said, hey, that sounds like a good idea. So they got circumcised. Well, in the third day, at the height of pain, where you can't even move without excruciating pain, Simeon and Levi went door to door. They had their own little door to door ministry, not exactly from God. And they just slaughtered with the sword every male. And then they took all the livestock and the property and the wives and the gold and the silver from the Shechemites. So it kind of seems like those two would have been disqualified as well. But Jacob wanted to go all the way to son number 11 to be the firstborn. It went to Judah, son number four of Leah. Leah, I always feel sorry for Leah, because she always wanted to be loved by Jacob, but he loved Rachel. He didn't love her. And I always feel sorry for her. And she probably spent many nights weeping. She thought, if I just bear him another son, my husband will love me. And he didn't really love her. One of the saddest characters in the Bible. But I think she knows now, you know, sometimes I used to feel, I used to study that passage and think like, you know, Leah, don't cry, Leah. It's going to be okay. The Messiah is going to come. And he's going to be the lion from the tribe of Judah, her fourth son. But what I'm getting at is when you look at the scriptures, I mean, even King David, he was selected over his brothers. Ephraim was selected over Manasseh. So you can have the right of the firstborn and be the firstborn son, even if you weren't the first one born. The Jehovah's Witnesses have got this idea in their heads that to have the rights of the firstborn, you have to be the first one born. So Jesus had to be born before any other humans were born. Jesus had to be created by God. No, that's not what it's saying. Jesus always existed. as God, the second person of the Trinity, and then he became a man, so that he's the image of the invisible God. And so now, not only is he the creator, but he's also part of his creation, okay? Yet, he is the firstborn over all creation. Remember, God gave man dominion over the earth and the garden, but then Satan deceived mankind and stole it from him. And God's not going to say, well, that's just not right, so I'm just going to take it back. God gave dominion over the earth to man. So if the planet Earth is going to be redeemed, it's going to be redeemed by a man. And so God the Son, by becoming a man, now he is the ultimate Jew, the ultimate human, He is the second Adam and he has the right to reign over the earth. And that's what it means by calling him the firstborn over all creation. He is the supreme ruler, the preeminent one. But Paul's going to point out this is not just planet earth. He's going to talk in verse 16 about all things were created by him, whether in heaven or on earth. All the angels were created by him. Again, Jesus is not a local deity. He is the God over all creation. He is the firstborn over all creation. I want us to look at a few passages in closing. Look at John chapter 1, the Gospel of John chapter 1. Let's put this Jehovah's Witness lie to rest. John chapter 1 and verse 1. In fact, we can even look at the first three verses. In the beginning was the Word. The Word in Greek is the Logos. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Jehovah's Witnesses insert The indefinite article, ah, the word was a god. There is no theological or grammatical reason for them doing that. In fact, the Greek grammar is called the predicate nominative rule of Koine Greek. The rules of Greek grammar prohibit you from calling Jesus a god. and inserting a there before the word theos. So in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. Now how you could be with God and also be God, it means that God is multi-personal. Okay, a little hint of the Trinity there. Then it says he, the word, was in the beginning with God. So he was already there in the beginning with God. He didn't have a beginning himself in his divine nature. He couldn't be there in the beginning with God if God the Father created him. He's not a lesser God. The whole concept of the Almighty God and then a lesser God is just not biblical. Okay? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him. And without Him, nothing was made that was made. You see what that says there? John is so careful to let us know that without Jesus, nothing was made that was made. So that means Jesus could not be in the made category. He's not in the category of anything that had a beginning in his divine nature. Anything that was made, Jesus made it. And Jehovah's Witnesses would say, well, except for Jesus himself. Oh, you want that exception, don't you? And you want that a God, that indefinite article. You want that. But you've got to take the scripture, take God at his word. Don't twist the word of God. We become experts at twisting the word of God and we're taken after the first scripture twister, Satan himself speaking through the serpent in the garden. All things were made through Jesus and without him nothing was made that was made. Verse 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. That's how he became the image of the invisible God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. God is spirit, but God the Son, not God the Father, not God the Holy Spirit. God the Son became a human, added a human nature. And so he's the image of the invisible God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. He became flesh and dwelt for a while among us. And then verse 18, no one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. That's what makes Jesus the image of the invisible God because he is God the Son become a man so that he reveals to us the invisible God. He is the image of the invisible God. So in John 14 9, Jesus could say, he who has seen me has seen the Father. He's not saying he's the same person as the Father, but as God the Son become a man, he is the perfect representation of God the Father. Look at Titus 2.13, Paul's letter to Titus 2.13, probably just a few pages in your Bible, in your Bibles after Colossians. Paul says that we ought to be looking for the blessed hope. Remember, the Colossians, they had faith, hope, and love. They had hope. But that hope is in a future inheritance. And who brings that future inheritance? That's Jesus. That's the blessed hope of the church, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, the Granville Sharp rule of New Testament Greek says that both God and Savior have to refer. to Jesus Christ. So Paul calls Jesus God. He's not a lesser God. He is God the Son, who is equal in his deity to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. But at a point in time, he added a human nature without subtracting from his divine nature. And then Colossians So Jesus is the firstborn, the ruler over all creation because he is the image of the invisible God. He is God the Son become a man. And he has earned the right to take back planet Earth and the whole universe for that matter from Lucifer who rebelled, the leading fallen angel who rebelled against God. And then Titus, I mean Colossians 2.9, talking about Jesus, for in him, in Jesus, dwells all the fullness. That's the Pleroma. The fullness is not the angels stepping stones to God. Jesus has the fullness of God because he is God. For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. For in him all the fullness of deity. dwells in bodily form. And so we'll pick it up there next week. But we need to understand that Jesus redeemed us. He paid the price for us in His blood. He paid the price for our sins. He redeemed us. So through Jesus it's out of darkness and into light. It's out of damnation into salvation, okay? And Jesus is the image of the invisible God. He's God incarnate, God the Son become a man, and he is the rightful ruler over all creation, not just planet Earth, but the entire universe. Jesus is the firstborn over all creation. He is the supreme one, the supreme ruler, the preeminent one, the one who has the right to rule over his brethren. And so what it comes down to, you got a choice to make. I got a choice to make, okay? There is a God and you're not him, okay? God the Son became a man. And he is the rightful ruler of planet Earth. And you've got two main drives. It's kind of the essence of free will. One is the drive for human autonomy. I want what I want. I want to do things my way. I don't care about God's rules. I don't care about God's will. I don't care that God's the creator. I want to be God. That's human autonomy. We all have a drive for that. But God also created us with a thirst for him. And so the question we all face, are you going to give in to your drive for human autonomy and act like you're the firstborn over all creation? Or are you going to acknowledge that you have a thirst for the true firstborn over all creation? You thirst for the Lord Jesus, who can give us living water. The Lord Jesus, he is the bread of life. He who comes to him will not hunger, He who believes in Him will never thirst. And so it's my prayer that we will all submit our lives, trust that He is for salvation, but submit our lives to the Lord Jesus and acknowledge. You know, I mean, people want to talk about Buddha. Jesus bore me to death. You want to talk about Muhammad, you want to talk about Gandhi, okay? I want to talk about the image of the invisible God. I want to talk about the firstborn over all creation. I want to talk about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who became a man, became one of us. There's a dumb song, what if God became one of us? He did! You don't get it? You live in America and you seriously don't get it? God the Son became one of us, but he is the firstborn over all creation. He's one of us, but he has won the right to rule over us. And I'm telling you, please, tell Klaus Schwab at a World Economic Forum and Bill Gates, okay, tell President Biden, I don't think President Biden is listening, but if he was, I'd say it. When all those guys, they want you to tremble in fear and bow down before them and submit to them. No. My God's the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's the firstborn over all creation. He's the image of the invisible God. God, so, Klaus Schwab, you go take a hike. I don't care what you do to me. As for me and my house, we all got to choose, but it's for me and my house. We're going to serve the Lord and the Lord. His name is Jesus and to him be all the praise and the glory, not just in his kingdom, not just in the church, but throughout the earth and throughout the entire universe, because Jesus, is no local deity. He's the creator of the heavens and the earth. He is the God over all creation. Let's close with a word of prayer. Father, in Jesus' precious name, I thank you, Lord, that even in our county, there's still a remnant of people who want to study your word and want to hear your word and want to grow in your knowledge, and want to grow in your wisdom, and have spiritual understanding, and want to be all that you called us to be. May we never ever forget that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. He is God the Son become a man. May we never ever forget that Jesus is our Redeemer. He rescued us by shedding his blood on the cross for our sins. He is our Savior. May we never forget that he is the firstborn, the ruler over all creation. And so no matter who it is, Lord, whether they be human or angelic, if they tried to lead us astray from the Lord Jesus, may we submit our lives, our thoughts, our words, and our actions to the Lord Jesus, the firstborn over all creation. the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Lord, as things get tough in America, may we just get closer and closer to your son, the Lord Jesus, until that day when he takes his stand upon the earth. In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen. All right. God bless you, everybody. What's that? Running through fields of green At night and the starry skies My senses race, my mind's alive Only fire begins to burn