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Colossians, chapter one, verse 12.
Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us need to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in life, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and have translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, Who is the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature.
For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible.
Whether they be drones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him, and he is before all things and by him all things. Consensus.
And He is the head of this body, the Church, who is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence. For it please the Father, that in Him should all wholeness dwell. And having made peace to the blood of His Cross, I am to reconcile all things unto Himself. By Him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.
And you that were sometimes alienated in enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of his flesh through death.
To present you holy, and unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight, if he continue in the faith grounded and settled, And be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I fall, and made a minister, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake.
Which is the church whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. Even the mystery which hath been here from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His Saints, to whom God would make known. What is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles?
Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom.
That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Wherein do I also labor? Striving according to his working which worketh in me mightily Think it is a surprising thing for young convert, when they learn that they are as fit for glory as they will ever be. But what a peaceful thing it is.
He has made us meet 5th be particularly inheritance of the Saints of life.
Hear all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus and.
Galatians 3. Immigration 4. Because he our sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his Son in your heart, for by ye cry ABBA. Father John writes, Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. There's no improvement on that.
That the meetings in Saint Louis last fall.
Done little gave us.
Kind of a.
Motto of that. Maybe that's not the right word, but what he said was.
The Son of God became the Son of man.
In order that the sins of men might become the sons of God. What a charming and all embracing statement that fears. Well, this verse would go along with that giving thanks unto the Father, which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light.
Maybe 10 or 15 years ago moving around.
Amongst brethren, I heard this strange statement.
I hadn't heard it before, but I heard it over and over again a few times and it was this.
God.
Wants quantity, not quality. I thought, boy that don't spring right and.
00:05:00
One verse destroys that God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. That's quantity. You can't get any bigger quantity than all but what God does.
He wants quantity and he gets it.
He gets quality. He gets quality like Jesus. That's the way we're going to be brought in as sons of God. What peace to know this. So we can certainly give thanks to the Father when we learn this.
There are actually 4 things here to give thanks for. Arthur made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in life, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness.
Hath translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood. The forgiveness of sins. What a circle of blessing, and all that we can know is a present thing.
The very moment we received these things are blessedly true of us, aren't they?
So if you launch quantity and it gets quality, that quality of the showing of practical life.
And so we get all the exhortations about that.
One brother used to say to us, be what you are.
If you're a son of God, act like it.
Pretty simple way to put it for me.
Be practically what you are positionally through the work of God the Father and the Son.
That's the reason it's so important that we understand these first portions of these prison epistles that take up the doctrine of the position of the believer that God has brought through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we.
Were not instructed as to what we are.
We would have no frame of reference.
With which to identify as to how we should do, I've often used the analogy of a royal child. Unless that child is schooled in the conduct and demeanor that becomes royalty, they would I just like the other children. And so we have these precious portions that give us what God has brought and what we are.
In God's view, because of the work of God in our souls and in our behalf.
In the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus to let us know what we are, and then we have the so-called practical sections that teach us how to relate to what we have been made to be by God.
And is there another dimension 2 to that, Brother Tom, that in the chapter in which we are God must first of all tell us all the perfection of our position in Christ?
Not first of all to tell us how practically to act in that position, but to reveal to us all the glories of his beloved Son. We do get the practical side in this epistle. We surely do.
And blessedly so. But even before all that, God tells us very clearly where we are, establishes, as it were, in the perfect standing that we have in Christ. And now in the peace and enjoyment of that position, He can begin to unfold to us all the glories of his beloved Son. We couldn't bear that otherwise. It wouldn't in that sense have an interest for us. We'd say, well, how can? How can we enter into all this kind of.
Of thing when we don't have any right to it. But now God has brought us into that blessed position, and he establishes a Senate, as we've just read in these verses, but then proceeds to unfold to us the glories of His beloved Son and His purposes in him. So doctrine comes to tell us.
What God has done, where he's put us and then.
Based upon that relationship.
00:10:02
There are two things when we're in a relationship. There's privilege.
And responsibility. And I think they're kind of balance out.
It's easy to understand this in any relationship we get into.
We have the privilege of the place and the responsibility of it. Now we're putting the highest place because you are sons.
Has sent forth the spirit of his son your heart forever by we cry ABBA father. So I'm a son of God. If you're a son of God, we're expected to enjoy it and to live according to it. Privilege and responsibility. That's very important and we were someone was alluding to someone born in the royal family and I remember hearing a story many, many years ago.
Concerning the Prince of Wales, who was on a ship.
And when the ship crossed the equator, there was a great party on the ship celebrating the crossing of the equator, and many dressed up in various kinds of costumes. And it was a great pageant. And the Prince of Wales put on a costume and joined in the frivolity of this event.
And someone was there and took a picture and his picture appeared on the pages of the British press and there was a great hue and cry in Britain because they said that was all right for anybody else. But he should have known that being the Prince of Wales and part of the British royal family, that was not conduct that was suitable for one who was in that position. And I remember our brother Albert Hayhoe telling us that one time he listened to his father speaking in.
Concerning the evils of pride and denounce pride and self esteem and all this kind of thing. And Brother Albert went to him after and he said to his father, he said if I didn't have a little bit of pride and self esteem, he said I wouldn't have made sure that sure that my shoes were shined before I came to meeting and that my hair was combed and my appearance was neat. But I'll never forget what was told to him.
His father said Albert and said remember, if you remember at all times.
That you're a son and heir of God. It will take care of all of those things without an ounce of pride. And I was thinking as we were Speaking of the expression in the 10th verse of this chapter, I don't want to go back, but we did pass over it. And it's very important in connection with the practical side of things.
Says walk worthy of the Lord and we won't take time to turn to it, but there are three times in the epistles we have this exhortation to walk worthy. And brethren, it's interesting to notice the context of each and how each is a little bit different because the exhortation as the practical walk in our lives is always in relationship with the life that has been given the position of the place of blessing.
Light that has been given as to that place, then there's responsibility connected with it. Just I'll just mention the other two times that we have this expression in Ephesians where he brings before us our wonderful calling and we're already seated in heavenly places in Christ positionally and so on brings before the Saints their their blessings. Then he says walk worthy of the vocation wherewith here.
God, there was a responsibility, brings before them this calling. Now he says there's a responsibility to walk in the light of this in a practical way. Then when the Thessalonian believers were saved, there were many things they didn't understand about their position and what they've been brought into, but they had turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven. And so I think it's in the 2nd chapter there, perhaps it's in the 1St.
He says walk worthy of God. They were. They didn't have as much light perhaps as the Ephesians, but they were to walk worthy of what they had, what they had been brought into and what they understood concerning that relationship here. They're to walk worthy of the Lord.
Because that's the subject here in Colossians, the lordship of Christ is brought before them, and so he says, you walk worthy of the Lord. So I think it's very nice to see. There's always, as we've been saying, very practical side to the truth and the joy and the fruit and the power and the testimony in our Christian pathway come when we seek by grace. And brethren, it's only by grace, but when we seek by grace to walk.
00:15:05
The good of what we have brought before us in the scripture.
10th verse is increasing the new translation by the knowledge of God. In other words, as God was better known, and all of he has done all the glory of his beloved Son and shall we say.
I'd say the standard seems to come higher because when we're going to walk worthy of this glorious Person who is the beginning, the Creator, that in all things He might have the preeminence, how important. But first of all, we need to be filled with thankfulness for all that He has done for us, brought us into this wonderful position which we didn't deserve at all.
So he gives us these things, and we as Christians ought to be the most thankful people in the world, shouldn't we?
When we think of what he has done, well, there is a real power of darkness, and he's delivered us from the power of darkness. Satan has real power, He's a real person and he has real power, but we're completely delivered from his power.
And he's translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love. That's the way Mr. Darby translates it.
The one in whom the father finds all his delight and were brought into relationship with him.
It said of Mary Magdalene that she was one out of whom the Lord had cast 7 devils, 7 demons. And here we have have an example of what we have in our chapter here, one who had been completely under the sway of the authority of darkness. By a word from the Lord Jesus Christ has been delivered from that power.
Power, and I love to put it for my own soul's enjoyment, in these words.
We do not owe any further allegiance to that realm of darkness to which we once were subjected. We have been moved out of. That's the thought of a translation book that we have in our hands has been translated out of its original language into our own language of English so that we can enjoy the word of God. But it is the movement, the actual.
Picking us up, as it were, out of that area where we were enslaved to darkness.
And put us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love.
In the Darby translation, it's the 10th verse is.
Growing by the true knowledge of God.
The true knowledge of God To think of the advance of knowledge that we have of the true God over what the Old Testament Saints had.
The sun hadn't come yet. God hadn't given him yet. He had talked about loving them with an everlasting love. It's one thing to say that. It's another thing to demonstrate the fullness of His love.
The intensity of it, by giving the darling of this bosom the Son of his law, and we know the God who has given him, it says in Second Thessalonians, Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, God will send them strong delusion.
The love of the truth we know, we know. God is the God of love who has not withheld a single thing for our blessing given He's given all that he could give. He could not give more than he has given His well beloved Son. And we, we know him now in a fullness that the older other Saints didn't have.
And we know him as an infinitely holy God.
Because in order to put our sins away, His Son, His well beloved Son, had to hang on a cross of ignominy and shame and undergo the infinite judgment of a holy God against sin, in order that that could that would be removed.
And we could be brought into blessing. We know there were types of all this in the Old Testament, but it hadn't been accomplished yet. And we know him now as the God who gave his Son, who sent him.
The one who forsook him on the cross as a man bearing the judgment of holy God against sin. So we know God in a fuller sense.
Full knowledge of God, we know Him in a fuller sense than any Saints preceding us knew Him. Some of them kind of struck because of Mr. Darby's translation in the 14th verse. He leaves out through his blood.
00:20:15
It's in if the blood is brought in in the 20th verse, but I believe the thought here that is brought before us in Colossians is the glory of the person that did it, just as if I had a great debt and somebody paid by debt.
And you say, well, who was it painted? Well, I say Henry Ford painted. You wouldn't ask how could he ever do that? Because when you think of the person, why you say it's no trouble to him. And so would we think of who it was to think that my debt was paid by the Son of God, the One. And it's the glory of his Person. In him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead, and the one in whom all the fullness of the Godhead.
Dwell stooped so low as to pay my debt. We have the IT isn't setting aside of the blood. I've heard it mentioned. Well, that must be a mistake, leaving out the blood. The blood is brought in, as I say, in the 20th verse, but the theme in Colossians is the glory of the person of Christ in whom the fullness of the God had dwells in Ephesians. It's redemption through his blood, isn't it?
Regions one.
Is it true that there are more gospel verses?
That direct us to salvation through the person and through the work that he has done.
Through through the Lord Jesus.
Many more what I thought.
Many more. I'll quote to you what a brother in the last century gave us, and anyone can verify this in a little book on the Tabernacle by EC Press Land. And he points out that there are only 2 verses in the whole of the New Testament that directly connect faith or belief with the work of Christ. Might seem to be very surprising, but there are only two.
And they're found in one in Thessalonians.
And there it says.
Might as well turn to it, It's in First Thessalonians.
Chapter 4.
And verse 14.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again.
And then the other one is in the 3rd chapter of Romans. And again, we're we're well familiar with it.
Where it reads in Romans chapter 3.
And verse 15, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.
I'm sorry, 25 Beg your pardon? Thank you. I should put my glasses on.
Romans 3 and 25, whom God had set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. But then the brother went on to point out, And I can only trust his judgment as a Greek scholar because I'm not that kind of a scholar.
But he said, although it's not entirely clear in our English translation, he said in the original Greek, there are exactly 100 verses in the New Testament that connect faith or belief with the person of Christ. And he connected that, of course, with the door to the Tabernacle that was 10 cubits by 10 cubits, and said how that that showed the wonderful provision that God had made and how that.
Many dear souls who perhaps had a very imperfect understanding of the work of Christ. And of course God doesn't want us to be ignorant, but he pointed out that what God places the value on in His precious word is the person of that blessed One. There's more than two.
John 6. I'll give you another one. John 6 verse 53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you.
Except she eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, we have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Now the correct understanding of that passage is appropriating by faith Christ in death for us to have eternal life. So that's more than just belief in His person.
00:25:03
As Fun said, that belief in his person is far more awful. I think Bob, Tony can give us another one that he's discovered. Remember the one that you showed me once, Bob? Or don't you remember it? OK?
I shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead. The word there.
I shall be saved.
This very thought that has been expressed is what led me to some understanding a number of years ago at Des Moines when Psalm one 32138 two.
Was brought before us that he had exhausted. He had exalted his word above his name.
And I meditated on that considerably to get late because I didn't understand what was being said and I didn't understand the verse. And I may not have such a good understanding of it now, but I was directed in my thoughts to the 1St chapter of John's Gospel. In the beginning was the Word, and that Word is his personal John one and two says, and he was in the beginning with God.
Well, throughout scripture it is commonly understood that a person is known by the work that he does.
And so the work is enhanced and given credence to by the person who does the work. And I believe that's the he's from my own soul's enjoyment, the thought of his word being exalted above his name. His person is more than the work that he did, and it is he.
As the Son of God who went to the cross, that gives value to his work of redemption. Now there is a converse principle in the 2nd chapter of John's Gospel where it said they saw the miracles that he did, that's what he did, by which he was known in this world. But Jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew what was in man, unless the Son of God is the object of faith.
There is no work in the soul that connects our soul to God.
But the work is the basis of all blessedness, right? Death and resurrect Lord Jesus together cannot be separated.
So this is not really the point that was brought up here in this chapter. It's more the person that is the focus. Be nice if we can get down into these verses. Brother and I speaks of so much of the glory of the Lord Jesus 15 on because that's the focus and that's what we need to have before our souls definitely go on and tell us about the first born of every creature then Bob.
1St the image of the invisible God. What does that mean?
Strictly a preeminent thought, isn't it?
Because the Lord Jesus had no beginning, so the first born is strictly the thought of preeminence the first place.
His headship and in regard to creation.
The 89th son, David, is called the first born of the kings of the earth. He was the eighth son of his father, but he's the first born because he had the preeminent position in Israel.
Thought of image though is representation, isn't it? Lord Jesus asked to see the money of the day, he said. Whose image superscription is this? Said Caesars. It was a visible representation of Caesar. We want to know God.
How do we know God? By looking at Jesus?
He is the image of the invisible guy. So we can know God in every sense of the word. The full revelation of God is what we have in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He is the image of the invisible God. When God put man in the garden of the evening, in the beginning He made him.
In his image and likeness.
He was to be the representation of God in this creation, but he failed in that. Now God brings forth the One who is the image of the invisible God.
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Could we say it was like the answer of what Philip said? Show us the Father and it sufficeth us. How can you show the image of someone who is invisible or God who is invisible? He was seen in the person of that Blessed One who came to this world. It looked upon a man walking here in this world and he was the full manifestation and display of all that God is.
But otherwise God is invisible, can't be seen, but.
He made himself known by the Lord Jesus who walked in this world. And to think that as they looked at the Lord Jesus.
They saw the invisible God, the God who couldn't be seen revealed in a man here in this world and he's a man in the glory, brethren, he's up there. He's really a man. We're going to see a man with the marks in his hands, feet inside that are he went through that glorious work accomplished for our salvation and the glory of God. So to correctly understand what the image means.
He was not the image of the invisible God when he was in the form of God.
He didn't become the image of the invisible God until he took upon himself the form of a servant, in other words, until he became a man. Now he can be spoken of as the image of the invisible God. Not before the incarnation. One of them really asking the question. I think that's correct though, isn't it?
One of the fullest verses. I try to understand these things and I think they go far beyond me, but one of the most wonderful verses on these things we're talking about.
Is first John 5 and 20.
It is so full of what we're trying to express.
That it just fills your soul.
And it says we know.
First John 520 we know.
That the Son of God is calm.
Not a strange verb to use. Doesn't say that he came and that he or that he's coming, which are both true, but he is come.
He has taken that place in perpetuity. He is come. The Son of God is come.
And has given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true.
Even in his son Jesus Christ.
This is the true God and eternal life. Notice.
How close together the Father and the Son appear here in this verse as one. This is the true God and eternal life.
Bob said something we need to remember a while ago. We don't want to separate Christ from his work. He's right with the Word we can distinguish things. But Christ and his work with the whole thing together.
So this verse expresses it better than I can express it.
In John one we read, no man hath seen God at anytime.
The only begotten Son who's in the bosom of the Father, He had declared him as. Some have been very puzzled by such verses as I'm going to read it to you in Exodus 24.
Verse 9 then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel.
And they saw the God of Israel.
And there was under his feet, as it were, a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were, the body of heaven in his clearness. And there's another verse in Exodus 33.
Moses says in verse 18, I beseech thee, show me thy glory.
And he said, the Lord said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy, on whom I will show mercy. And he said, Thou canst not see my face, for there is no man see me. Shall no man see me and live?
And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock, and it shall come to pass while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts but my face.
00:35:15
Shall not be seen.
Those are very interesting scriptures, and there's one more in First Timothy 6 that.
Very important Scripture First Timothy 6.
Verse 15 which in his times he shall show who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of Lords. This is Speaking of God, who only had the immortality.
Dwelling in the light which no man, no man, no creature can approach, unto whom no man hath seen nor can see, to whom the honor and power everlasting. How do you harmonize those seemingly contradictory statements?
God in His essential glory cannot be seen by the creature.
He has to come out of that in some way in order for Him to be seen some manifestation of Himself. They saw under His work in Exodus 24, a pavement of sapphire work. They saw some manifestation of God. There was the cloud that came upon the Tabernacle, pillar of cloud by day, pillar of fire by night. That was a symbol of His presence. They didn't see God, though. And then you have that mysterious.
Statement there in Exodus where he says.
You can see my back parts, but you can't see me, my face. And that's really what characterizes the Old Testament. We see the back parts of God. We don't see God fully revealed until the sun came. And now when the sun comes, the Lord Jesus, he reveals him. And now we can see him as as far as a creature can. We see him face to face, so to speak, in the person of the sun, but in his.
Essential glory.
The creature can't see him. Isn't that right? Yes, indeed. We're treading on holy ground. We need to be careful the way we express these things. But.
Should you enlarge it a bit just on the word essential glory? Essential we think of as necessary, but what you mean by essential for it, what He is in His essence as God. A good word is intrinsic, intrinsic glory, yes.
And that would include angels, any creature. God is so.
Infinitely holy and great and and and awesome, if we can use that word that the creature just can't behold him as such, He has to come out, and what we have in the New Testament, he has come out in the fullest way of the person of the Son. Something of this seems to me to be expressed.
In that at the Mount of Transfiguration in Luke's Gospel, which goes a little farther than Matthew and Mark.
Where it says they feared as they entered into the cloud. Now they that feared was Peter, James and John on the earth as they saw Moses and Elias enter into the glory cloud with the Lord. Because men in the flesh in the old Adam's nature is as scared of these things. Somebody made the remark while ago that we are, we don't.
To the devil, we don't know anything. To Adam either, He has only brought sin and death and punishment to us, and God is not fixing up the old man.
In Romans 8, the first verse there is therefore.
Now, no separation to those who are in Christ Jesus, No condemnation.
Nor their condemnation, separation, the end of the chapter.
Correct, but it goes on and we leave out that part of the next verse but trying to quote it.
Who walked not after the flesh, but after the Spirit?
Well.
If that's put there as a question.
It doesn't work with the chapters I see it.
The man that's in Christ Jesus does not walk after the place.
00:40:06
But after the Spirit, it's a statement instead of a question. And so in the chapter we have God giving a treatise upon the believer as he sees the believer. And it's very comforting to read that chapter and see God is saying that about me. That's what he sees.
Because he sees me in Christ. What a wonderful thing that is.
When we're in Christ and we get the new bodies, then I don't think there will be the fearing of entering into the cloud.
It's interesting in 2nd Corinthians 4 and verse 6, what it's been quoted in this conference. I think it says God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, that shine in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
I suppose that's what really relates to the Lord Jesus being the image of the invisible God we now have the knowledge of the true God isn't it wonderful to be able to go to the gospels brethren and see the Lord Jesus from the moment of his advent into this world when he came was born into this world?
And to be able to say this.
Is our God we have seen him, and we could really say that, brethren, through the eyes of faith, by looking and following him through the paths of life, and to see the perfection that was always evident it could not be otherwise and the.
Perversion of men and their desires to trip him up.
Only could manifest in greater measure the perfection that was ever there. How? How could it be otherwise? That was the only thing it could be. And so we can follow him. He had the human veil on and people didn't recognize off times that this was the very God of the universe, the creator of all things. But there were times when.
The glory shone through the human veil and.
And it's beautiful what is said, that verse that's quoted there in John 114, The word was made flesh and.
Dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
That's they discerned that there was one who was more than just a mere man.
The only begotten of the Father, this is Him and those poor disciples, ignorant, unlearned men as far as this world is concerned, where they had revealed to them who this person really was. And now to our hearts too, brother.
They go through the Gospels to see him in his many glories, whether it's Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, just to revel in This is our God, Renmin, this is our God.
So we read in Hebrews 1 Concerning the Son that he was the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person. And there are a number of young people here this afternoon. And I know I used to sit in meetings like this and hear expressions that we sometimes use. And I think sometimes we assume that our younger brethren understand what we're Speaking of. And I often heard people say in ministering along these lines, this line of that the.
Jesus fully glorified God the Father in his pathway and in the work of redemption. And I never fully understood what it meant to be to when they they said he fully glorified him. But I read a helpful comment some years ago, I think it was in Mr. Billets writings that helped me to understand that expression to be glorified. Mr. Bellets put it something like this. He said to be glorified is to have all the attributes.
And qualities that make up a person brought into full display. And as the Lord Jesus walked here in his pathway, and as he took up the work of eternal redemption at the cross, every beauty and attribute, every quality of God was brought into full, full display.
00:45:14
And so he could say, at the end of it all, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work that thou gave us me to do.
Because, brethren, it was more than just finishing the work. Sometimes I've illustrated it this way. I might set one of my children to a task, and when they've had ample time to complete that task, I come back and I view what they've done for me, and I might be well satisfied with what they've done. They finished what I asked them to do. But you wouldn't say I was glorified in the task. No, they finished it for me. But I didn't bring any glory to myself, any honor.
Myself, but the Lord Jesus not only finished the work rather, but every attribute of God, I say was brought into full display. And if you'll just allow me to make this very, very practical, there's always a practical application to these lines of truth that we take up I.
Noticed and enjoyed it that in the 17th of John, which I have just quoted from in the first part of the the Lords High Priestly Prayer, we might say we have the Father glorified in the Son. I have glorified thee on the earth, finished the work which Thou gave us me to do.
At the end of the chapter we have the Saints glorified with the Son. We're looking forward to that day when we look on him unhindered and we reflect fully. We're with and like Christ. What a day that will be. Father I will that they also, whom now has given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory and so on. But if you notice, in the middle of the chapter, in the middle of that prayer, we have what we might say, the sun.
In the Saints and brother, that's what he desires of his people now. He fully expressed, He fully showed forth who this person was, but he has returned to the glory.
And just turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 and I think we get a very apartment scripture here in connection with what we're saying, something for our present exercise, Second Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 18. But we all with open face, beholding us in a glass, the glory of the Lord.
Or perhaps it could read looking at the glory of the Lord with unveiled face are changed into the same image.
From glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Now very simply, brethren, this verse is Speaking of occupation with Christ. And what it's saying is that in the measure in which you and I are occupied with the man in the glory.
And the measure in which we see him and he is before our souls, and we're walking with him, in that measure there will be an unconscious reflection of Christ in our lives. Because what is this world going to see of Christ?
It's what's manifested in your life and mine as we walk through this world. We're epistles known and read of all men, but it's not as some have given the thought, and I sometimes hear it. Well, we got to try to generate a testimony for the Lord. No, when Moses was in the presence of the Lord on the mount and he came down, it says that his face shone, but he whisked not that his face shone.
He didn't try to make his face shine. It was the unconscious reflection of being in the presence of the Lord on the mouth. And brethren, the heavens are open to us, so that by faith we can be occupied with a man. Not as he was walking here, there were those who saw His glory, as has been pointed out to us. We they saw, our eyes have seen, and our hands have handled of the word of life. But we are to look up and see by faith a man in the glory.
And then there will be something of a reflection of Christ in your life and mind. Now that verse, Second Corinthians 318 is practical sanctification. There's another verse in John 17 that corresponds with this where he says.
For their sakes, I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. He sets himself up on high, apart as an object for our souls, and that's what you have in 2nd Corinthians 318. He's the object that we're occupied with. So he says, I sanctify myself, set myself apart on high to be the heavenly object of my redeemed people who are not of this world as I am not of it. Now I'm giving them a heavenly object even.
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He says to cause them to walk as I walked when I was here. That's what he says in John 17 and that's what we have in 2nd Corinthians 318. Armstead Barry used to talk about this verse. I think it was wonderful what he said as.
In a glass, the glory of the Lord.
Are changed into the same image from glory.
To glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord, by the Spirit of the Lord and agree with what you say, it's practical, but he said it's going from one glory of the Lord to another glory. He says they're infinite. The glories of the Lord are infinite. The Spirit of God brings them out of the Scripture and that's what gives a practical change in us as we behold by the Spirit through the word of God.
And I believe it should be that, even as by the Lord the Spirit.
That is a ascribing lordship to the Spirit of God. He should have that authority over our souls to bring those glories before us and as in a glass should be out should it be there as there's no there's nothing in between. There's no there's no hindering medium in between. It's John 13 told us that what the fear of God was going to do for the Saints on whom these things to us, the Spirit of God would enjoy it and bring to our knowledge.
And his glories. So how wonderful in a meeting like this to take up Colossians 1 and get the one in whom is all preeminent as God has determined it.
Verses 1516 and 17 of our chapter kind of go together and as was brought out, first born of every creature really means the Lord Jesus position of preeminence in creation. And it's so important, I think for us to insist on this because it's being attacked directly.
By the teaching of evolution, even though evolution has.
Folds all the way through. It doesn't really stand the test of scientific testing. Still, people will not go to consider the thought that God created the world. And if evolution is true, our existence here is a mere mistake. We're here by accident. It was just mere.
Evolving. There is no purpose for our being here. And no wonder young people take their lives. They say there's no reason to be living on the earth, but when creation is taught and it's so important to maintain it.
God put us in this world, and He put us in this world in a structured way. Notice verse 16. For by him that is the Lord Jesus.
Where all things created that are in heaven, there's heavenly beings.
And that are in earth, there's earthly beings, there are visible beings, there are invisible beings, whether they be Thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. In other words, there is a strata of authority that God has set in this world. Sometimes young people don't understand authority.
It's important to realize that God has set authority in this world.
Because without it there would not be any order. And so here we have one who has set creation the original creation in its place.
What's the purpose of it all? All things were created at the end of verse 16.
By Him and for Him. He did it for his own glory.
That wonderful and he is before all things and by him all things consist. So there you have in those three verses more what relates to the first creation when you get down to the next set of verses, and I don't want to go too fast here. I'd like to hear more comments. You have another sphere of blessing where the Lord Jesus also is the first born.
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That that word in the end of verse 17.
And by him, all things consist. I believe it should be subsist. That is, he's maintaining all of this which he has created, and he keeps it going by the word of his power, even when he was on the cross. It's astounding to consider it, but it is so.
Scientists do not know how to explain the fact that the nucleus of an atom sticks together when they have light charges those little particles. There is no scientific way of explaining that it is something that exists by the word of His power. He maintains it in its place.
Why doesn't it all fly apart?
Just going back for a minute to First Timothy 6, I think it's important to see that there is a glory in connection with God and the Godhead which will never be seen. It's far beyond our minds. It's just an object of worship and it cannot be put in a certain sense in human words. I remember reading a comment in Mr. Darby speaks about God repenting and he said this.
Every time we speak about God, we speak imperfectly.
Because he said human language is finite and God is infinite. And I believe it's well for us to bear this in mind. There is a glory, and there will be for all eternity a glory in connection with God. We'll always be preachers and God will always be God, and we'll have to take the place of worshippers.
But as far as His glory can be manifested, it has been manifested in Christ. And there were, as you were saying, brother, partial revelations in the Old Testament, His back parts, and so on. All that could be revealed shone out in the person of Christ. And so He could say, He that hath seen me has seen the Father. But this doesn't limit God. He is still beyond our little minds. He is still God in the sense.
There is something that is beyond us, and I believe it's important for us to recognize this. It makes us worshippers. But all it can be revealed has been revealed in the person of Christ. And as you and I are occupied with him, the moral likeness, now you're speaking the moral side of things. Now that is reflected in us. But we'll never become part of God himself. Intrinsically. He is God, He always is and will be.
And we will never be part of him, but we can enter into and enjoy these precious things, and there can be a moral likeness produced in US. And that's what we're Speaking of in First Second Corinthians 3. It's produced in us in occupation with him.
His first statement in the garden by Satan the liar. He shall be his God. Absolutely false. We will never be God. And that's what tempted Eve and that's what the New age.
Movement. That's what Mormonism teaches. As God is, so we shall be as we are. He once was. That's their formula, that he was once a man, a creature like we, and now he's gone and will be God too. That's the most blasphemous doctrine that there is. And it's so important to emphasize what you just said. If we could be, that we could reach that point, we would be equal with God.
And he wouldn't be greater than we.
That verse and First Timothy 6 will always be true, dwelling in the light which no man can approach, unto whom no man hath seen or notice can see, to whom the honor and glory and power everlasting. Amen. It puts us in the place of worshippers which we will always be in God, as I say, will always be beyond us. But all it can be communicated has been communicated in and through Christ.
Then there is that too, is there not? Which is very guarded as to the person of the sun in in Matthew 11, no man knoweth the Son. Perhaps you can give us a little more thought on that statement. Well, are the three persons of the Godhead, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit? And what is shall I say if true?
They're all in that equal place, you might say. That is the God of the Bible, the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.
That will always be true.
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But only one of those persons became a man, Yes, Amen. And that's why we can't, we cannot fully know him, because who can understand God and man and one person that's beyond the creature. He never left his place in Godhead to become a man though, did he? I would like to make refer, if I may, referring to Bob's comment, whether Bob's on the evolution and so forth.
And I certainly am no student. I wouldn't pretend to be, but I ran across something just recently.
That might be of interest to the younger people. That was to me. It struck me that I had heard before, and it was Old Mother Darby made the comment that the Earth is the only place where there are inhabitants. Where there what where there are inhabitants? The only planet inhabited.
Because the reason he gave is because it is the only place.
Where he has sent his son to God before we leave the.
Area of discussion here in these 3 verses I would like to just refer to Hebrews 3, three. That explains what I believe clearly. The first born of every creature. And it simply says that he who builds the house has more honor than the house. So if he is the creator of everything, then he has more honor than that which he created.
You know.
When we were considering these things, as to the Son, you know, there he was rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth. You mentioned about the earth being the only habitable place of man, and His delights were with the sons of men. So we see that that was all in connection with the past eternity. But it seems in a certain sense you can see the heart and desire of God.
When he made appearances, and I'm not talking about those majestic, glorious, partial appearances, but for example, when these three men came to talk with Abraham, we clearly know that one of them was the Lord and it turned out that the other two were angels. And then even in the case of Gideon, as you were telling us this afternoon, that Angel that appeared to Gideon and made all those.
Is with a capital A. It must have been the Lord coming in that way. And then it's such a weak time in their history. Here we see there's an Angel that appears to Manoa and his wife, and it should be with a capital A. And they wanted to know his name so that they could pay honor to him afterwards. And he says no, seeing that it is wonderful. Who else bears the title of wonderful but the Lord?
Capital W.
Another thing too, in these verses it sets the Lord Jesus Christ.
Before us as the object of the creation.
And as the intrinsic power by which it was done, and he for whom it was all done, so he is the the object, the power, and for his pleasure it was all done. As to what Denny said while ago.
I'd like to read Revelation 118.
Until your comment that Gordons father made on that verse 118.
I am he that liveth.
And was dead.
And behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen, and have the keys of hell and of death.
Well, his comment was a bit obscure to me, but he said something like this. That verse tells me that God will never visit another planet in grace as he has this one.
Had seemed strange to me, but I believe it too. God has picked out this earth and put creatures on it.
His glory and we're getting that out of this chapter in Colossians all things were created by him and for him to think that he has done it in man and of the failure of the 1St man and he does not improve the atom race. He comes in with a Newman, a new creation and give something which.
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Will last, and Satan shall never get into it.
Well, he is the last Adam because it doesn't say the second Adam. Says the second man because there were more to follow. But it says the last Adam, which indicates surely there is nothing else.
Is what you're talking about would relate to verse 18 forward then?
Lord Jesus.
The head of the church, the body, the church. Who is the beginning, the first born from the dead. That's the beginning of a new race.
The last Adam I said, is that relate there? Yes, there is a new creation.
If any man be in Christ or anyone.
And it really is the first born from among the dead. It was common.
Knowledge in the Jews economy, the Jewish economy, that there would be a resurrection of the dead. But here we have Christ, the first groups, the one who first came out from among the dead.
And afterwards say that Christ at his coming. So we are going to participate in that first resurrection with him, though the time element is far removed. It is out from among the dead that he was raised, and it is going to be that out from among the dead that we are going to be raised, leaving the other dead as we know to be raised.
To stand before the Great White Throne.
This.
Verse Who is the beginning, the first born from the dead?
Revelation 3.
14 And unto the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans write these things, saith the owl men.
The faithful and true witness, the Amen that is the confirmation of all God's promises and His word. He was that faithful and true witness. And then the beginning of the creation of God. Now that's not this creation, but that's the new creation. And that's what's meant there in Colossians one, He's the beginning, first born from it, as risen from the dead. He's the head of a new creation, the beginning of a new creation.
And we see him acting in that capacity in communicating that new creation to the disciples, when he breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Spirit, acting as head of new creation, to bring it down to us.
The life giving spirit.
Adam was a living soul, Christ was a life giving spirit, quickening spirit. So there are two reconciliations here too, aren't there? There is the fact that we already are reconciled says in the 21St verse. And you that were sometimes alienated enemies in your mind by a wicked works. Yet now hath he reconciled. But there's a time coming in the 20th verse that made peace through the blood of.
For us to reconcile all things unto Himself, by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven, everything is going to be brought according to the mind and will of God, isn't it? In heaven and in earth we already are.
It tells us in Colossians in 2nd Corinthians 5. It says that Second Corinthians 5 and the 19th verse to it, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and have committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God.
As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ that be reconciled to God. So we have already been reconciled to God through the death of His Son, but there's still a groaning creation all around us. It isn't according to the mind and will of God, but there is a day coming when everything, the whole Lord creation, everything is all going to be according to the mind and will of God.
It will be wonderful, a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. So we're all ready. But it's interesting to notice when it talks about bowing the bee that's in Olympians that says things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, all will have to bow the knee to the Lord Jesus. But when it talks about the reconciliation of all things.
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Here it says in the 20th verse things in heaven, things in earth, and things in heaven.
Everything in the new heaven and the new earth will be suited to the mind and character of God.
But there will be those in a lost eternity, things under the earth that is infernal beings and the lost will never be reconciled, right? So when does this take place then, this final reconciliation? Well, when there's a new heavens and the new earth as we have it in Revelation 21, we saw new heavens and the new earth. That's the eternal state.
And everything in heaven and earth is suited to the mind and character of God during the Millennium.
Righteousness but sin will have to be judged, and it ends with a final judgment. You know, when Satan is released again, but in the eternal state, it'll be a fixed condition. But everything will be suited to the mind and character of God in heaven and in earth. But the lost will never be reconciled.
So it's not even in the Millennium that everything is fully reconciled, is it?
I've enjoyed the thought. That's what I was was thinking of, and I've enjoyed the thought and it's not original with me, but I thought it put it so well referring to the Millennium and the eternal state. And I know that's not particularly the subject of the chapter, but someone has said the Millennium is for the public vindication of God's character, but the eternal state is for the eternal satisfaction of God's.
And it's beautiful to see, isn't it? Because through the finished work of Christ, everything will be reconciled. Not merely that righteousness will reign, but that everything will be according to the mind of God. And it's beautiful to connect that with the reconciliation that is spoken up here concerning ourselves. You get a little bit of the same thought in Romans 5, where reconciliation is brought in. It's not only being.
Reconciled to God in the sense of being saved from the penalty of our sins. But could we say in the verses that are presented here that our walk is brought into the picture too, because it says in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight? Well, I suggest that that goes even beyond, shall I say, the perfection that we have through the finished work of Christ, although that is certainly.
But there's the sense in which we're given the a new life which wants to please him, a new life which is suitable to that place in which we have been brought into. Is that correct? Yes. Except there he's mentioned everything will be reconciled, not the last. They will never be reconciled.
So the next verse begins with an if.
Long as we're down here, there will be if, if he continues, correct?
And that's why we can we put it that way, because if is always connected with our state, isn't it never with our standing we've had brought before us?
Wonderfully, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ as the.
Expression of what God is and all of those things that have been brought out. But it's wonderfully true also that everything desirable that God desires in man is also seen perfectly in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the fourth of Ephesians where the.
Character of the Gentiles is brought out, it says, But you have not so learned Christ. If so, be that you have heard of the truth as it is in Jesus.
All those undesirable and wicked things that the Gentiles displayed, we don't learn in our Lord Jesus Christ. There we learn everything desirable of God and man, perfectly exhibited.
Is that something of the thought that we have in verse 19 because the Lord Jesus is the eminent in the first creation, verses 151617, preeminent in the second creation versus 18, and then it says in the end of verse 18 that in all.
He might have the preeminent.
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And I'd like to hear on the numbers 19 it please Father's night, Alex that in him that is even the Lord Jesus should all.
Something could be said on that, and especially perhaps in contrast with or in comparison with what we have in chapter 2, where also it says in verse 9 in.
The Lord Jesus.
Dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
I'd like to hear some comments on that. So verse 19 of chapter 1 would be more correctly rendered for it, please. The Godhead that in him should all fullness dwell, and that would go along with two knives in him, all the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in him.
When it says the Father, it gives the idea that the Father is above the Son and that's wrong. In the Trinity all three persons are Co equal.
One is not superior to the other, so it please yet that all full well in him as a man bubbly in in his. When he came here, he did not. As Gordon said earlier, he did not lose in any sense his deity.
All the fullness of God dwelt in that man and you say I can't understand that. Well, none of us can really. We don't have to. But it's revealed, isn't it?
Well, it's an understanding of the all these things and recognizing this revelation that God has given it's going on perhaps, but I was thinking of what we have at the beginning of the 2nd chapter just to mention this or I would that you would knew knew what great conflict I have for you and for them. But lay it Asian for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh that their hearts might be comforted being nipped together in love.
Unto all riches.
The full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God. I believe that's all in Mr. Darbys translation. The rest is left out, isn't it? The mystery of God and then in the.
Third verse, Wherein are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge? If we don't see what we've been, but the Spirit is bringing before us here the glory of the person of Christ, the purposes of God in connection with the blessing of man, and how all is going to be fulfilled, that God may be All in all. We'll never really understand the Bible, knowing and understanding this, in whom or where in our head all the treasures of wisdom?
And that's why these portions are so very important for us, because unless we recognize and see the glory of the Person of Christ and the place that he occupies in the Godhead, even though he became a man in order that he might associate with Him, the Church which is to be His bride for all eternity, will never really understand.
The whole truth that God has set before us in His Word.
Question about the mystery of God here and the mystery of God in Revelation 10. The difference. Revelation 10. The same words in the seventh verse, but in the days of the voice of the 7th Angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished as He had declared.
To his service, the prophets. I just mentioned the comment of someone else. That is the great secret why God has allowed sin and why all this is come in. Because the character of God has come out in a way that it could never come out. If sin had not come in, you never had any trouble. I'd never know how you would act in trouble or how you would act toward someone who.
Was perhaps the cause of the trouble.
But for the trouble cave, and I see you act in a perfect, in a wonderful way in the situation. Then I say, well, I know that person's character. I've seen him in a situation and sin came into this world and it seemed as if Satan triumphed. He spoiled the whole scene that God had created. And the secret was God allowed it to go on. What happened at the cross, The question of sin, take it up.
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And it's all taken out and settled. When the time comes, the 7th Angel sounds. The kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.
And the redeemed, her seed now represented in the four and 20 elders, and they fall down and worship him. You and I would never have known God as a God of love and grace and all his character and love and light and holiness all made known if sin hadn't come in. But God allowed it to come in. But it brought out what was in the heart of God and brought blessing to you and I. I believe that's the thought revelation here.
It's really the fact of the church and the occupation to place the church will occupy an association with Christ in manhood for all eternity. That's a good old instance where the same expression means 2 entirely different things. Yeah, yeah. So good to get that brought out. Yeah, very good.