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On the 15th Earth, or perhaps begin at the 14th to get the connection.
Colossians chapter one, beginning at verse 14.
In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
With the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature. For by Him we're all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be Thrones 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 consist. And He is the head of the body, the Church. It was the beginning, the first born from the dead.
That in all things He might have the preeminence we're pleased the Father, that in Him should all fullness dwell, and having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him 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 and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now happy reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you wholly.
And unblameable and unreprovable in his sight, if you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven.
Whereabout Paul and native minister, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind 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 has given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now has made manifest to a St. 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. Where unto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.
The thought and the word image is representative and, uh, the first born of all creation. The way Mr. Darby translates it, that is the Lord Jesus when he takes his place in his creation, for He has created all things. He must be the first. He's the one who is the head. It's not a question of time. It's a question of position and honor. That is his. I just mentioned this because we know this person's been used, You misused to teach that.
He was a creative being, but thank God, we know from many other scriptures by him all things consist in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was God was with God and the Word was God. Well, I just mentioned this. So he's the one who came into this world. He's singing a little hymn. Thou lost the image in man as well as dies of the invisible to mortal eyes. And I think that expresses that very nicely as to his position of image.
And then in the Psalms it says I will make him my first born higher than the kings of the earth. That's a position of honor that belongs to the Lord because of who he is.
And we say that no matter where the Lord enters, he is the first born, that is in coming into the creation, the first creation.
By necessities the first born of all creation.
When he rises from the dead, he's the first born from the dead.
And when we're talking about the new creation, he's the first one of the new creation. So the Lord must have that place.
And I think that borne out in our verse, uh, 19.
Umm or 18 rather than he might have the preeminence.
00:05:00
There's one of the little joys of visiting the assembly in Lima, as you walk into the door and the door of the meeting room, right up on the wall, very prominently it says that in all things he might have the preeminence and that all things is very broad. Beloved, I'm glad our brother Gordon emphasized that and I just stressed to young people get a hold of that concept that the umm.
First born is not a time statement.
It's a physician statement. Uh, it's, it's, uh, a place of honor and don't let anybody misuse that with you, whether it's Jehovah's Witness or anyone. The Lord by necessity in every place that he enters, takes the places first board versus the Psalms is most useful on that. What, what's the reference for it again?
Oh, you're not. Which phone? It is myself. I will make them my friend, you know.
Umm, so we.
OK, verse 27 looking at it.
8989, I'm sorry.
Verse 27.
I think what's interesting too is in uh.
Isaiah Chapter 9 and verse 6. So we can just turn there for a moment where we have that well known verse. We just turn over there to the 9th chapter of Isaiah the prophet.
That well known verses that is often read.
People often speak of the accuracy of the Word of God.
Here's one verse where we can really appreciate just how accurate the Word of God is. Uh, Isaiah Chapter 9 and verse 6.
For under what the child is born, here's the phrase here unto us a son is born. Is that what it says? It doesn't say that, does it? Under what a son is given is given.
How accurate the word of God is. It's true He was a child born, but he was a son. Given that means that he always existed.
I think through we need to go over these things.
Again and again, because the attack of the enemy is very subtle and continuous on that truth. And it was right from the bosom of those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, or in the bosom of those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, where the idea was, was advanced that He was not the Son who passed eternity. And you know what Satan did to one of the best.
Expositor, Expository creatures and evangelical Christianity Today.
Is, uh, John MacArthur, and John is not clear on that at all.
Does not hold eternal sonship with private. If anybody has a doubt about it, I have written documentary proof of it. Be careful what you listen to and who you listen to because, uh, you'll find that Satan won't use a fellow that doesn't know anything to advance his thoughts. He chooses someone who is clever and and, uh, gifted.
Very often to advance what he wants to advance.
I just mentioned that not to down the brother because he's a very capable expositor of the Word of God, but when it comes to the person of Christ, which is everything, isn't it? Who doesn't see that basic thing that our brother is bringing out and giving us so clearly from Isaiah 9:00 and 6:00.
He was the Son from all eternity.
This is Darby wrote a little paper about 1855 I believe it was, and the manuscripts available in his own handwriting. I hold it vital to hold the sonship before the world. It is the truth.
00:10:11
And if you give that up?
There's no telling where you wind up.
I was just thinking the First Chronicles 5 because it gives something of the thought that we're talking about there. First Chronicles 5 and verse one.
Now the sun is, uh, proven, the first born of Israel, where he was the first born. But for as much as he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given unto the summons of Joseph, the son of Israel.
And the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright. In other words, in course time. Reuben was the first born, but he was not recognized as the first born. The honor was given to one who wasn't actually, as far as time was concerned, the first born, but the honor of the position was given to him. And that's the thought that the honor of the position is given to the one who was from all eternity. Therefore, if he comes into time, he must be, he is the first born.
We use that term in that way if, uh, the president's life was called the first lady and she occupies that place, not the oldest or the first one in the country, but she occupies that place of preeminence. I would like to point out something though, because the young people about the, the, this attack on the internal sonship of Christ, the NIV and translation of second Psalm and Hebrews were told that they say.
I almost hate to repeat it, but it says you are my friend and you have become your father. It's blasphemy. God never became the Father of the Lord Jesus.
Christ, thou art my Son this day I'll begotten you. What the Son is given. God did not become the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the Son from eternity. And so they, they, it's not, and it shows too. It really reveals that it's not a translation at all because the word Father isn't in the verse at all. Thou art my son this day I begotten thee. I did not become the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's something we want to belabor the point that.
It's self contradictory when you think of it. How could one who, who is created be God? And think about it, it's impossible, right? It's just impossible. I think of the verse in Isaiah that says from everlasting.
To everlasting thou art gone, everlasting a past eternity. To the present time everlasting the the present eternity to come from everlasting. To everlasting thou art God. Who is that?
What was it? It's it's it's a simple childcare could could state it. That's our Lord Jesus Christ.
Was the view that was pointing out yesterday that in that mercy district from Isaiah that it's not the everlasting Father, but the Father of eternity?
Thought that is the fact is, is that he is the father of eternity and we speak of them there in Revelation, you know, with Alpha and Omega. Yes, he's that. He's everything outside of that too. You know, the first and last and last letter of the Greek alphabet, that he's everything outside of that too. The beginning and the ending. He had no beginning. He will have no ending. But think of it that that blessed One came into time.
He came in to time, and He assumed flesh and blood with the children, but it had been said in manhood he never ceased to be God. That glory with veiled brethren, but he never ceased to be God.
Hebrews chapter one verse eight also makes it very clear.
Hebrews one verse 8 but under the sun he said that God the Father addressing the Son.
But under the sun he passed. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy Kingdom.
The Father addressed him, The Son of thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. Well, as the divine mystery, brethren, it's beyond our mind. No man knoweth the Son, but the Father. He is, uh, has an unscrutable mystery, just as we can't understand eternity. So that it's just vow and worship at the revelation that God has given, and give him the honor that the word of God and that God gives to him.
His Son, His eternal Son. One other clue that might be a help to some who are puzzled about these things is that in our way of thinking, sonship implies in inferiority.
00:15:11
Now, that isn't always true in an absolute sense, but in fact it's not at all true in an absolute sense. But.
In the Scriptures, the idea of son and father is an idea of relationship. It's not a question of who's on top.
In human relationships, simply from the fact that the sun comes from the father.
And the father brings up the son. There is that thought with it a submission and.
Umm and uh, we acquire a thought in our minds that there's an order of things, father and son, but don't press that on the divine relationships because remember that the relationship of father and son.
In human relationships derives from the other, not the other way around. And there's a very key verse in Hebrews that I think is a clue.
Like it gave me a lot of help when I was a teenager and struggling with the idea of umm, the sun being inferior to the father. Look at Hebrews chapter 5.
All right.
Reverse hey.
Though he were sons, I'm reading out from Jamie's translation. Though he were son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered, which he suffered. I think if we were writing that we would have put because he was son, he learned obedience. But God knew that that thought, that evil thought would be intruded of the fact that sunship requires.
Obedience. And so it says, though he were Son.
In the full glory of the sun.
God the Son.
He came into this world.
And I like the way Chuck Hendricks puts it. He who always commanded learned what it was to obey. It was a new experience. He didn't have to learn how to obey, did he?
Doesn't say he learned how to obey, but he learned experience. That is, I mean obedience. It was a new experience for it.
That person was a great help to me. I hope it perhaps is to others too, to see that sonship does not per SE involve obedience in human relationships. It does because of various things, age and who brought up whom and who provides whom and that sort of thing. But I think we, we approach it as our funds achieve maturity and have their own families.
There becomes a, uh, perhaps an increased understanding of the. Is is, uh, an almost an equal situation?
And divine things, of course they were, Go equal with the eternal God.
And, uh, the Lord Jesus says that one who was equal to.
One with the Father, he came into this world.
And learned obedience through the things that he suffered and.
He it was a, as I say, a brand new experience for him. Not something he had to learn how to do, but it was something he had never experienced before.
And in so doing.
He becomes.
Uh, having been perfected, he becomes to them that obey Him the author of eternal salvation.
That's us to his priesthood. I like to think of it that he learned, but obedience cost. That is when he refused to turn stones into bread. He was still hungry. He he refused in perfect obedience to his Father's will, but there was a cost to that obedience. And the Lord Jesus having become a man taken that holy place. He was still hungry, thought he was obedient and he was now he can sympathize with us.
00:20:13
He asked us to do something in His word. He knows what it's called. He's been through the pathway before. Not that there was any other desire or thought. And it's hard to be anything else but pleasing to his Father. But he learned what obedience cost and he enters into all that we've passed through and loving sympathy in our pathway here. So I think that's beautiful. That's the way He was suited to be a high priest to us.
He learned obedience, and now he's become a merciful and faithful high Priest.
In some parts you can see those two things, merciful and a faithful, a faithful high priest. If man would belittle him to the point where he's not God, how would these things ever mean anything to us? I think about what I'm saying. How would it ever mean anything to us if one who was so perfect is not what they claimed, you know?
Or he, he is what they're not claiming. And and, you know, they're just belittling the whole thing. I wanna ask the question. Yeah. In connection with the Philippians Chapter 2. We just turn over there for a moment.
Maybe somebody could explain what this means here in verse 6?
Uh, chapter 2 and verse 6.
Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God? What? What does that term mean?
Well, that was not created in the image of God, but it was robbery for him to want to be equal with God. But the Lord Jesus really was and is and always will be God. He was God the Son, but he made himself a little lower than the angels. Adam tried me, Adam tried to climb up. He wasn't equal with God. But Satan's suggestion is he shall be of God, knowing good and evil.
It was broadly for him to desire that place. It didn't belong to him, but the Lord Jesus was and always is. I say again with reverence, equal with eternally the Son of God and all the glory of His person in Godhead. But He made himself a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. He took on manhood form. But it wasn't, shall I say, it wasn't beyond what belonged to Him to be God. It was His place that He never left that.
But he became, if I could illustrate it, if the King's son went out to be an example to a group of workmen how to work, he would still be the King's son in all the honor of his position. But he has put that aside and put on overalls and works now. He's still the king of his son. And the king would be very hurt if somebody said he's not the King's son. He is that. And so if one of those workmen said I'm gonna be equal with my employer, now he's out of his place.
And that's the thought in the past. He's just marvelous, marvelous grace.
Worship that he made himself a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. What a marvel of God's grace. Well, let's try with unshod thief when we speak of these things. But they're there for us to know, to enter into, to understand, and to enjoy. Could we say he was always be fun?
Uh, I was thinking of a simple verse of you say simple verse of John 316. So God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
When was he not respond? He was always the son, but I think one of the writers, I'm not able to quote it exactly, but I'm one of the writers, put it that he took into his bosom or into his heart humanity with the end of his work. I don't know whether I'm quoting that correct that this writer quoted, but I thought it was beautiful to think that he became a man in this world and took took into his bosom.
Humanity so we have a divine person. We also have a true man. We have a true true solidness because you hear something of the of the words who being in the form of God. Perhaps if he had to write, he might write Christ Jesus thought enough robbery to be April with God, but it doesn't say that. It says Christ Jesus who being in the form of God Father, not robbery to be equal with God.
00:25:26
I'd just like to say a word about the UMM.
Following verse verse 16.
In this sentence that sometimes young people say, why don't we say the Apostles Creed? Everybody else seems to know the Apostles Creed and.
Reducing the truth of God to creedal forms always brings error, Always, because we can't say it better than God has said it.
We cannot express it correctly apart from the language of Scripture. So what? What about the Apostles Creed? Well, it starts right out on a wrong basis. I believe in God the Father, Maker of heaven and earth.
Is that right?
No, there is a sense in which the entire Godhead was involved in creation.
Certainly it was God's thought what God the Father thought, wasn't it? And yet the one who is expressly said to have done the creation, and this first makes it so plain by Him were created all things.
Things in heaven, things in there, visible and invisible.
Rose Lordship, principalities, authorities, and then it ends the verse. All things have been created by him and for him. So don't lust after a creed. Somebody asked Mr. Darby one time to write a paper on what the brethren believe and he said no, we don't believe in in making creeds. He said they're all subject to human error.
He said, what I will do is tell you what I've learned from Scripture. And he wrote a little paper, which is a nice little paper, but don't take it as a crease. What have I learned from Scripture? We're always entitled to say that. And there's always a freshness about that, isn't it, When we can state clearly, this is what I have learned from Scripture. And I put it out and the brother Gordon says, well, that's not quite right for *** ****. You know, it should be this here. Notice this scripture that says this.
Thank you brother. That's that's the principle of statement of what we believe and we want to be ready to state what we believe. Watch out for a man who won't tell you what he believes about things.
Every false teacher.
Is squirming. He won't. He won't pin down. You can't get him to be pinned down. I'm sure it happened back in the Apostolic days. We know what happened during the Reformation.
BW Newton was one who wormed and weaseled his way around in the early days of the testimony of those gathered together to the Lord's name and others later. Mr. Raven was very hard to pin down. Mr. Taylor and others. Let's be very careful about people who won't state what they believe clearly. Let them do it humbly and say this is what I've learned from Scripture. Correct me, brethren, if I'm wrong.
But.
You better have a you better have thoughts formed by the Word of God and don't rely on credible statements. Almost every Protestant, evangelical, denominational or inter denominational board or organization power, church organization has a doctrinal statement. Some pride themselves on a very long way.
I believe in the premillennial pro, uh, pre tribulation rapture of the church and then be because they disagree with others who don't and others say no, I'm gonna be very broad and I'm gonna say I just believe that price is coming again. Be careful of those things because, umm, I have to tell you that my wife was gonna teach one time at a Christian School.
When we were, we didn't have, uh, when I had lost my job and she was gonna help out with things and she went to this general association of regular Baptists at the Christian School in Parsippany, NJ and, uh, they passed out a statement of faith to her to sign before she could teach. She brought it home and we went over it together.
00:30:27
And she says I'm not comfortable with this and this and this. I looked at them and I said I'm not comfortable either with. Was it that it was fundamentally unsound doctrine?
So one, one example, one thing is you have to say, I believe in believers baptism by immersion. Well, we don't personally, uh, we believe in believers baptism by immersion, but we also believe in my wife and I in Christian household baptism. So we, we, we couldn't sign that statement. Ruth couldn't sign it and get the job. Umm, I just mentioned that that be careful because there is a tendency.
To want to reduce the truth of God, the creedal statements, you can't do it. You can't do it. It took God. All of that has set out his truth for us.
Later on in this chapter, we read that Paul rounded out the outline of the Word of God. He completed the Word of God.
But that's a very full book and.
Gordon, you've been studying that a good many years, haven't you? Reading it, re meditating on it. I've been exhausted.
No. Is there any points on which you think you might get corrected by the Lord before He comes?
I was wondering mention was, uh, referred to the book of Hebrews in chapter one. And I, I think it's so very, to me, this has been the most clear statement as to who created the heaven, who created it all. He was one very, very plainly written, uh, speech, speech here about God with some New Times and in diverse manners and fake and time passed under the father by the prophets.
Passed in these last days, spoken unto us in the sun.
Now.
Now it says.
Whom he has appointed heir of all things, By whom also he made the world. Who made the world?
Uh, yeah, I, I, I'm sure we revelation or, uh, Genesis one, I think that you find that there's the, the triune goddess there in that creation also, but definitely here, as it says.
Whom he has appointed heir of all things, and whom also who made the word? The simple statement isn't it? But it's a profound statement, and it's a statement that men have wrestled with and set aside and turned upside down and inside out.
And as you say, brother, they, they don't know where offers and they don't know where they're from.
May our brethren at least take my question to be. I know we're in Colossians, but the brother brought up Philippians chapter 2 verse six and I said something that I wasn't making a comment, I was asking this question. The question I was asking is what is the meaning of the word who being in the form of God?
As we will provide Dolby Mites write down Christ Jesus or Father not robbery to be equal with God, but it doesn't say that my question is.
What is the meaning of the words who be in the form of God?
I don't know if I can stay in God is a kid and so that the Lord Jesus did something when he came into this world and took a body that had never been so God had before, but now here was God himself, the creator of all things in this world as an invading fashion of the man and to me that's what who be in the form of God says in John chapter 4. God is a sin and worship him must worship him in the spirit and truly he's spoken of here in our chapter as the invisible God, but he became a man.
And that blind man, it's the worst I do best. I believe in the Son of God, that's who is thee Lord, that I might believe in him. He said thou let's both see him, and it will be the socket with me. There was God himself in human quantity fell down worship.
00:35:11
Thinking of that man who was Luca John Chapter 9 you know, umm.
How the Lord?
I can reveal how he revealed himself to that, that man and by faith, he, he saw the Lord Jesus and yet the religious element of the day went right. It just went right by them. There he was, you know, down in the end of that chapter. Maybe we better turn to it and want to get it right, uh, at the end of, uh, John Chapter 9.
And I think by the Lord making this statement, he, uh.
He really exposes the heart of man, especially the religious element of what we've been talking about here. Uh, the 9th chapter of John's Gospel.
And I would just like to read verses 40 and 41, John Chapter 9. Some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, if he were blind, he should have no sin. But now you say, we see, therefore your sin remaineth. What a solemn statement is here. They said that they could see it. They weren't real in their hearts.
OK.
I was just thinking when just about the anything different from what's been said so far, but maybe just put it a little different way.
Uh, in.
All of the.
Creation.
You've learned to classify things.
There's mineral.
Has no light. It's inanimate. There's vegetable, has light.
No salt. And then there's the animal lines. And then there's man.
Man is a distinct element within creation, but outside of creation, outside of time and space.
There's the one who?
Is this spirit that we've learned?
Who is omniscient, Omnipresent.
And.
Is, uh, omnipotent?
And there is a word that almost every language has. I suppose I don't wanna be dogmatic and say everything. Every language I've been exposed to, that's a few.
Every one of them has a word to express.
That.
Being outside of creation.
Who is?
Eternal.
Find Richard Scott.
I was, uh, talking to a group of Albanian people.
Few years ago over in Switzerland.
And the refugees from the wars in Albania.
If you wanna do something hard, try to communicate with people who don't speak your language.
Who don't, uh, who have been told from infancy that there's no God?
They've just never been exposed to the concept of a supreme being. Everything is explained in material sentence.
And who had a smattering of French, some German.
I didn't know their language, they didn't know mine.
And I wanted to tell them they got lost.
When I asked the Lord I said help me to and finally I found out there was a word in Albanians or God. It's zogged.
So I was a little girl. Her story was in the Sunday school paper a few years ago, A little girl by the name of Sonia.
And she listened intently. We read verse after verse of the Scripture. I had to have them show them where it was and then have them read it in their language from the Albanian New Testament.
And I explained to them the best I could and the mixture of German and French and some English.
00:40:05
I explained to them that that God had sent his Son into the world.
To die for our sins on the trust of Calvary.
And one little girl, that little girl, Sonia, lifted her eyes to have an incident.
Boucher Zoo.
A mixture of French and she was going to school in in Switzerland and learning French. If you didn't know the word in French for God so you used the Albanian word. Thank you God for Jesus.
Couple of years later we went back and I asked how is Sonia doing? Oh, she's telling everyone about the Lord Jesus.
What a joy. But I just mentioned that.
It's a concept of a spirit eternal who has.
Doesn't live in creation, but who entered into creation.
In order to redeem our souls.
And the Lord Jesus was in the form.
Of God, or soft or good or whatever you however you want to put it. And that God has a personal name.
His personal name is.
We say Jehovah the Lord.
That's his personal name, but the Lord Jesus was in the form of God, that he didn't think it was something to be grasped after, to be equal with God.
Made himself with no reputation. All right, so here's the ghost story about the man he met on the ship going to England.
He he was one who liked to get into a conversation with others. He wasn't that. He wasn't much on giving out facts, but he'd like to break into a conversation. So he walked up to this man and the man couldn't understand a word he was saying. He couldn't understand him. So he thought somehow I got to communicate. So he says Jesus, Jesus. And he said he put his arms wrong. We had a great time after that.
Understand each other. But we need, we need to. It seems that he's quite happy with that.
Umm.
Sweet part of what it is too, if you think that He not only entered creation, you know. But the sweet thing is that after He shed His present blood, He ascended in that same body and is needed there today in the majesty of the heaven. Think of it. A glorified man burying in His body the marks of the servitude while He was here in this world. Think of it. And He's there, and He's going to come again in that same body and receive us to Himself and for all eternity. And I believe that's the truth.
Of the Revelation chapter 5. And they saw in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts and the elders, a lamb. And it had been lame. Now to God, as if the cross took place two days ago. When you and I are raptured to heaven, you and I are going to look into the faith of Jesus someday, and we're going to see Him as He is. What a thought that is.
So we say that there's only one true man in heaven right now.
As in body.
The Saints are there in spirit.
I don't know whether that's a broad table or not, but the Lord seems to be there. Puzzled how to answer. Sometimes they have. People have asked me. Well, Brother Nick, where it's been on that night.
Amanda.
He's the first one there in a glorified body, isn't he? And uh, I think we, we must hold on to that firmly that he's there and he's there and body.
And neighbors 15 You'll have both aspects of his divinity.
And this command Thou art my son. There's no time element whatsoever. That is the first spoken in eternity. That was always true.
When you come to this day, you see anywhere in time this has to do with this humanity and it says why do you bring it then the first forgotten the world that all the ages of God pushing them. This man, this human man is so important. Every single Angel with that exception is kind of Washington, but then you come to this, I will be to him a father. We have future Transformers and we're on holy grind. We've got to be very careful because it primarily requested his humanity.
00:45:19
But you know, there's just relationship that I can't explain.
There's the eternal relationship and there's this relationship as a man, which did have a stop. And we're on such holy ground that they've got to be very, very careful.
3:15 We can turn over there for a moment, Mr. Smith. What tremendous person. First step, Timothy 316.
No, there's many 316 in the Bible like John 316, but here's first Timothy 316. That's one way in your memory because it's a beautiful verse mode of controversy. Great is the mystery of godling of God was manifest in the flesh.
What a statement. What a powerful statement that that God was manifesting that what? When did that take place? When did that happen?
When we read in John chapter one and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld her glory, but glory is not the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. There's only one person who can meet that, that's our Lord Jesus Christ. Think of that then what else does this say? Justified in the spirit scene of angels preached under the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in the glory. Mark 16 the same thing and after he had accomplished these things.
He said he he attended there and sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, and that's where he seated this afternoon. And brethren, one of these days he's going to rise up off that throne and he's going to step into the air and he's going to get one call.
And we're going to be gone. He's going to wrapped her up out of this control. That's the one that we're gathered to. That's the one by grace that has paid us and brought us into this place of blessing and savor. Oh, how could we ever tolerate anything that would belittle him or put him down on the level of a man or whatever? Peter tried in Luke Chapter 9, but the father wouldn't have it. He said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased here.
Him. Hear him.
Verse 17 says he is before all things.
And by him all things consist.
And these translations is substance.
And what's the difference?
Well, this chair consists of metal, doesn't it?
But that's not the thought. Everything is held together by that blessed One.
Even when he was down here working.
I don't wanna be too speculative, but.
Very nails that held his hands to the cross. So sister through it.
The soldiers. The soldiers who?
Uh, nail them to the cross through his breath.
It's persistent through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Can I explain that I validated? I believe that's important that we learned the valve before the truth of God.
Not saying that our human minds can explain them. The the mind is a wonderful thing.
God gave us our minds.
But the mind is nothing unless it's subject to God's truth as contained in His Word.
I think someone remarked about.
Uh.
About, uh, J&D that he had one of the greatest minds of his time, but like a fully subjected it to the word of God. No, that's the secret of of his usefulness.
Down through these last couple of 100 years is that that was a mind that was subject to the word of God. It wasn't saying, well, I think I can explain this.
There's many things I can't and won't even try to explain. They're not my I'm. I'm not capable of explaining. I am capable of believing.
And bowing at his feet in adoration. And that's where I am.
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I think that's a, that's a good thing. Uh, there are young people here that I'm sure that, uh, may be wondering right now, what are we talking about? I mean, all these are deep truths that God has made known in his word, and it takes years for us to read them and to enjoy them. But the one thing that you must remember is this.
You've got to believe it, though you may never, never, never always understand it. So faith is that which takes God of this word, doesn't it? So we don't need to be able to expound on the you say about the the person of Christ in that way or to dissect it in any way, but just to believe it in simple faith and it's yours. You can have it upon simple faith believe.
On the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who is he? He is, he was God. He is God. He is the creator. He is the savior. Hebrews one tells us that. And so I think it's just a nice force to remember. We, we get into deep things and and we, we wrestle with many things, don't we? But The thing is that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So we need just to believe the simple truth.
When Christ died for us, He lives for us and coming for us. Nice business.
But I'd just like to go back to Revelation chapter 4 and 11. Thou art word thee, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power.
For now, has created all things and.
For my pleasure they are and were created and men are very unhappy today and they don't know why they're here, but we were created for God's pleasure and he gets no debt pleasure in the death of the wicked. A man once said to me, he said, what is this to God if I go to hell? And I said you were created for God's pleasure and you get no pleasure in the death of the wicked. And the Lord when he came into the world, he said, I come to do thy will. O God, our brother spoke to us of rejoice in, but that's why he was always happy and his soul, he never had the sense of his father's disapproval and what he did never at any time.
Right up to the time that he said farther in the right hands. I commend my spirit. He had the sense of His Father's approval. He came to do as coming into creation. And so this is what will make us happy. And so he was. He's created all things and they were created for Him.
Your brother, I think your brother's cold one years ago, I'm sure some of us knowing very well I mentioned about the, uh, I think it is created by him and for him. Uh, he mentioned this, he said, you know, the orchid grew in a remote places of the jungle. It's just in recent years that man has been able to, uh, be able to.
Grow the market, uh, in a.
In a setting you might say a man's inventions or man's thoughts, but he said that orchid. Orchid grew in the dense, remote places of the jungle, he says. For whose eye was the beauty of that flower?
I always thought of that, dear brother.
Breathing by him and forth.
And this glorious person is the head of the body, the church. What a thing to hear people say sometimes. Who's the head of your group? All that's never, never think of anything left or anyone left. And this glorious person we're talking about the eternal Son ever with and equal with God. This is the person who's ten of the body of the church and is finding is going to find his eternal joy in making us eternally happy in his presence with all that he provides him.
Back in 1951, I was I got a letter from the President of the United States.
Uh, I don't know how many of you have received a letter from the president, but I have.
Told me that I ought to report on such and such a date to the draft board.
To, uh, be inducted into the service.
Well, I prayed and read many, many pamphlets on the subject, and I became convinced in my own soul that I could not ever share arms.
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And I filled out the forms as provided in the United States for conscientious objector status.
And they don't just let you get away with it. I mean, they you've got to defend your position. So one day they called me up and they said you're going to have a hearing in Jamaica, NY and such and such a street before draft board #63.
That was probably because I was the eldest in the family and the first one they had in that, uh, in that district that had taken that stand.
And I had known that, uh, two others had suffered for that stand and I prayed much before I went, prayed, read scripture, and finally I went And they, one of the first things they asked me, they said, when you filled out your form, we asked you who was the head of your church and you put the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not looking for games, They said, we want the facts.
So I said, excuse me, but that is the fact. There is no other head but the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh no, every church has a.
Well, I said, the one that God has joined me to is the Lord Jesus Christ is the head of it. And so they said, well, it's just something you just invented yourself. I think. No. And I read this first to them. He is the head of the church.
Goodbye.
All right, and we'll move on to some other question, but I don't want to get into that whole hearing. The Lord was merciful and they granted that the status and feeling an awful lot of potatoes in the next couple of years.
It was.
Uh, you can see that men's thoughts just don't jive with gods, do they? How does it work without a head?
Brethren, right in this epistle, we're worried about the need to hold his head. That's to make it practical and real. One thing to go tell the draft board that the Lord Jesus is the head of the church. It's another thing to sit down in a care meeting and act as if he said.
And I, I just mentioned that this truth, the fact that he's the head of the assembly or the church.
The body is fundamental to our practice. It's not just a doctrine.
It's not something we put on some statement of doctrinal beliefs. It's real. And there has been disaster among the people of God every time we have gotten away from the practice of the fact that the Lord is the head. They said, well, I don't think he can handle this problem. We better try to handle it ourselves.
And what happens? We get it. More mess. This is real truth of God. He is the head of the body and He has all the righteousness that has the body.
How often we learn that jump into our own chains.
That, you know, here we are, we we confess that we're very a testimony to the truth that there is one body and who is the head of it? It's Christ. In Ephesians it says that he's not only the head of the body, he is head over all things to the body.
It's wonderful when you see that. So here I am, as one gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.
I have to ask myself a question. Am I at this moment taking the direction from the head in heaven?