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Colossians chapter one, beginning at verse 12.
Giving thanks unto the Father, which has made us meet to be in partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in life, who have 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 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 thrown, 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 Head of the Church, and He is Head of the 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 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 on earth or things in heaven.
And you that were sometime alienated an enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you wholly 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 he have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven. For of I Paul, 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 has been hid 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, where unto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.
I'd like to read the 12Th verse.
In the new translation.
Giving thanks to the Father.
Who has made us fit for sharing the portion of the Saints in life?
God our Father.
As purpose.
That we should share.
With his son.
In that which he has purpose for his son, who we have in this chapter is head over all things.
And it is the will of God our Father that we should share in that.
But God is light.
The portion of the Saints in life and if we are going to participate in and share with him and that which God has prepared for his Son and purposes for his Son, we have to be fed.
We we can't be unsuited.
To such a place.
And it is blessed be God we see the extreme lengths of His love that He would go to in order to make us fit to.
Participate and share in that portion and in that inheritance.
The greater a person is, even among the men of this world.
If someone is going to participate or share with them in their their glory and their place of honor among men, that person has to be in the eyes of men suited.
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Appropriate to honor them, to be an honor to them and not a hindrance or a shame to them in the place that they have. And so the apostle here says, we give thanks to the Father that has done what's necessary to make us fit to participate, to be to the honor.
Of the one that he chooses to exalt.
That one that is in His headship place, described to us in the verses which follow.
Honestly, in my own heart, I wish we it wasn't necessary to take that side of it off.
But John says yes, it is.
Because immediately our thoughts tend to go to ourselves and focus upon ourselves. But the intent of it is to see the greatness of the person who occupies the place, who is the same person that God has used to fit us for our participation with Him in that place. And so in the right way, taking up to His exaltation, not.
To the unnecessary focus on ourselves.
Uh.
The sharing together of that inheritance, in order to enter into that, there has to be a certain compatibility, a certain common understanding of the enjoyments of the things that the Lord has, what he what he will joy in. And as he takes the inheritance, you know, if we all if we have something to enjoy, we don't wanna be alone.
In the enjoyment of that thing, we want to have those around us who can share in that. And it seems to me that that was somewhat of the Lord's desire. Like he says in the His prayer in John 17 Father, I will that they whom doth given me be with me where I am. He wanted someone there with Him in heaven to share what he would have there and so.
On our part, there ought to be that desire to get into the understanding of what this is involved with. And, uh, if we don't know what he's talking about, how can we share? If we don't understand this, how can we share with him? Well, he's capacitated us for that. And part of our reason of our life here on earth is to be learning that.
Verses 13 and 14 show how he has fitted at this.
Delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son.
And in verse 14, it speaks of redemption, which is the price that was involved in making it possible that we be made fit.
It's interesting in that connection too, that again, if you notice Mr. Darby's translation.
He doesn't say in whom we have redemption through his blood. He simply says in whom we have redemption. And I think the best manuscripts do not add the blood here, although we know that it's certainly on the basis of the blood that we have redemption. And you get that in Ephesians, where we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. But here the emphasis is more on the person who has accomplished the work, because it wasn't just the work that was necessary.
But it took the person to carry out that work that had intrinsic value in himself, and that was the Son of his love. There was only one who could accomplish that work to bring us into this place, a blessing so that we could could share and enjoy with the Lord Jesus for all eternity that which is rightfully, rightfully his. And so we often say in connection with many things, it's the person that gives weight.
To the work, and that's really the focus here, as we said yesterday in the Book of Colossians.
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I'd like to comment too on that expression in the 13th verse, Who hath delivered us from the power or authority of darkness, when it connected with the end of first John.
Last chapter of first John.
First John chapter 5 and verse 19 and we know that we are of God.
And the whole world lieth in wickedness, and we know that the Son of God has come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His sons, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
Satan.
And God the Father are in conflict.
Satan wants the world for himself.
God has purposed the world for His Son.
And at present the world is under the authority.
Of darkness.
It's called Satan's World.
And when we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, we're delivered from that world system of things.
To be to the father for his son.
And if we don't?
Recognize that conflict.
We can very easily find ourselves, even though we've been delivered from its authority, we can find ourselves walking in that world.
That is against the purposes of God the Father, for the honor, the glory, the dignity of His Son.
And so we have been taken out of that system.
That's an enmity against God.
That system, the whole world lies in the wicked one.
And, uh, the only one that can deliver us is the person of God's own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and has done so by the work of redemption and by his death. As we see in the verses that follow. It's only through death really that we are properly delivered from it in the full sense of it. And so it's, it's brought out here and translated us into the Kingdom.
Of his dear son, and son of his love. And it's that Kingdom that's going to prevail. It is that Kingdom over which he reigns, that he is head of.
That will permanently and forever replace the present system of things of which Satan is the head. And so, having been delivered from it, we want to live in a way that recognizes we belong to a whole new Kingdom, if you will, that we were previously under the power of another and we are no longer.
So you see, when Satan took the Lord Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple, in contrast to what you say, he showed him the kingdoms of this world in a moment of time. And that's what the kingdoms of the world are. But as you say, Brother Dawn, that which is we, it speaks up here is for eternity. It's going to last forever. It it is abiding. It's referred to in Thessalonians as his Kingdom and glory. And what a glory it's going to be.
The glory of this world fades very quickly, but I was thinking of how it's illustrated with the children of Israel in the Old Testament.
Because there were two things that were necessary in connection with their position in Egypt. First, they were redeemed by the blood of the Passover lamb. There had to be death because they had to recognize their own guilt in God's provision for them. But that didn't deliver them from the authority of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. They were still on the Egyptian side of the Red Sea. Where Satan, a picture of Satan, or where Pharaoh, I'm sorry, a picture of Satan had his authority.
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And so God delivered them through the Red Sea by a mighty hand. And thank God they never got back to Egypt. But there's an interesting comment made in connection with Steven as he recounts their history in that 40 years in the wilderness. Steven says in their hearts they returned into Egypt. They never got back their positionally and will never be part of this world. And it's programmed again.
We have been delivered from that, but in our hearts we can return into Egypt. We can set our hearts on the things of this world. And so later on in Colossians, we're told to set our mind on things above where Christ said us. Not even to have our minds centered on things that things here in this world, but to realize that while this world is for a moment of time, there's something of eternal value and consequence that we're going to share with the Lord Jesus for eternity and he's going to share with us.
Scripture tells us God is Spirit.
Spirit has no body.
God is a physical.
And as such as it says in the verse.
15 invisible thoughts.
We never have.
We do not now, and we never will.
See God physically.
Is not seeable with the natural eye, with the natural senses.
But in image that that verse speaks of the image. The image is that which represents someone.
Who can't be seen or who is not present?
The thought in scripture of image is that which presents someone.
Take an image of somebody on a coin. As they did in Caesar's day, they put the image of Caesar upon it.
And it was that which represents the person and authority of a person that was not present and not seen.
God has chosen to make himself known to us in some.
And in so doing, he has come out to us in a way that.
Is wonderful. The sun has become a man.
To be seen.
To be looked upon, to be handled.
And John's gospel is that Son coming forth from God the Father to make the Father known to us. He is the image of the invisible God. He is the one that in the end he could say to the disciples, show us the Father, they said.
And what does this answer?
He that has seen me.
Being Father.
And.
Is first John that we just finished reading? It says this is the true God in eternal life. In John's epistle, the two are so brought together in unity that sometimes the words don't distinguish between Father and Son because of the perfect unity of the person of the Godhead, their persons in the Godhead to give us that sense that this person that is before our souls.
Is worthy.
Of the Supreme first place is the MH of the invisible God. He himself is the one that must for the glory of God. It's essential He must have the preeminent, the supreme, the 1St place, even though he is man as well as he is his sonship deity and so.
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For us, it is well for us to seek to appreciate.
When we dwell upon him.
Is truly God to our soul. It's the perfect manifestation. He is God made known to us in this person.
He that has seen me see my Father, and so not only God in his nature.
But as Father God in his heart, and so the Lord Jesus is is as God manifests in flesh, gives us the perfect expression of the heart of God.
And his person, his life and his death and.
That's the person that is the head.
Oh God, there's the same like father, like son. How did that become? Because the sun was watching the father, the son or the God in that case with the mother, They're always watching what mom or dad are doing and they enjoy it. And after violence, they grow older. They say we just want to respond. And that's because there's a there's an image that is reflecting back.
And if we have this image with our children or grandchildren?
If they can see, our walk and our talk will be following the Lord.
They reflect that and that reflection back and that that's a beautiful illustration. I see my grandchildren growing up and and I say, wow, you know, he's only 12 years old or less characteristic because he's following and this is what the relationship we should have between US and the Lord. We may be his enemy, but it was even more than that with the Lord Jesus.
Before we turn to Hebrews One, let me quote a verse I believe was read to us this morning.
In John's Gospel it says the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. God has been fully glorified in the His Son. As he came into this world, an incarnation walked through this world in everything he did. The glories of God were fully displayed, because to be glorified is to have every attribute that makes up a person's character.
Brought into full display and the Lord Jesus at the end of his pathway could say in his prayer in the 17th of John, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. He didn't just complete the work and satisfy God as to the work, but God. Every care, every glory, every attribute of God was brought into full display. But I'd like to read in Hebrews. I know this is a familiar portion, but.
In connection with what has been said Hebrews chapter one, I'll just read quickly the 1St 3 verses. God, who at sundry times and in diverse manner spake in time passed under the fathers, by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us. It really is in the person of His Son. That's really the thought. It's in Son. It's in the person of His Son. He spoke in various ways up until the Lord Jesus came in incarnation.
But now He has spoken in a way that He had never spoken before, and that's in Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the world. Now notice this next expression, who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person. You know, we say like Father, like son. We look at a boy and we say, well, no trouble to see whose son that is. They have many of the characteristics, both in their appearances, appearance, and, as you say, in their actions of the Father.
And we can pick out a father and a son in a crowd, sometimes very quickly. But no sun ever born into this world apart from the Son of God. Could it ever be said, with the express image of his person, we say, well, that Sun is the spitting image of his father.
We understand what we mean, but there are differences. There are things that are very different and unique to the individual. But the Lord Jesus, he was the express image of His person. Every movement, everything he said, everything He did expressed fully who God was. And that's why, as you say, at the end of it He could say, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.
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Show us the Father. They had seen the Father perfectly, perfectly expressed in the sun. No other sun has ever perfectly expressed or represented their Father here on earth. But wonder of wonders, there was one who did, the Lord Jesus, and He is the One who is the head, and He is the one who is to have the full preeminence. There's an expression in John One.
Where you read him and verse 14 that is repeated in verse 18, it says no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him so no man has seen God at any time is like our verse said, the invisible God. God is so infinite in his being. There's no way that we as preachers.
You could view him, could see him. So God, uh, so the Lord Jesus is the image of the invisible God that the expression that I enjoy here is the only way begotten. We have a different word used here in verse 15, the first born or first begotten. And there's a difference. And remember an older of our older brothers saying only begotten is that relationship with the Lord Jesus.
Enjoyed with the Father for all eternity, the only begotten Son. But when it is first born or first begotten, it is His relationship to all the rest of creation. He is the one who is the first born, the the one who has the preeminent position in everything. So you have that expression used twice in these verses.
First of all, in verse 15 of our chapters is the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature that is in the first creation, and that is in verse 151617 But then we have in verse 18 that word used again the first born from the dead.
He has the place of preeminence in connection with new creation, because new creation begins in resurrection.
The Lord Jesus and resurrection is the head of new creation environment not understood why the Lord Jesus when he rose from the dead, the first one he met was Mary Magdalene.
And he told her, don't touch me. I have not yet ascended to my God, your God to, to my father and your father to my God and your God. And, uh, sometimes people say, why did you say that? Because they didn't touch him. In fact, he tells them the hands on the NC. And I've enjoyed the thought that it was simply that Mary wanted to have him back like she had known him down here. And he said, in effect, no, Mary.
You're not going to know me that way. You're going to know me in a new way, completely superior to what you did know me before. So it's a new creation there.
18 and 19. It's helpful to see the difference.
Also scriptures very careful in.
Just putting 15 and 15 together.
15 says the first one.
And we might immediately think about time and order of birth with respect to something having to do with time. But the Spirit of God carefully.
Very nice expression that that's impossible to look upon it properly that way and says we're by him, we're all things created.
That is, he wasn't created. He couldn't be first born of anything in the sense of creation sense or in the sense of time, because it says of him, by him, we're all things created. And so the very beginning of time and the very beginning of that which is created is created by this person.
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And as a result of his own creative work.
So it's to give us the.
Increased appreciation in our souls is who He is.
That in our appreciation of who He is, He would have his right place in our souls.
And, uh, that when we need something or look to something as we had yesterday, the first thought is look to him because he is supremely sufficient for whatever that is. Here's the one when we say, can somebody do this? Can somebody do that, We are presented with the person who has in his person all the power.
Of creation.
Not only does He have the power of creation, but in verse 16 it's for Him. The end of verse 16, all things were created by Him and for Him.
It's for him.
That anything was created that is created.
And so if if our souls, if it lays hold of us, then it helps us to recognize.
He's supreme. He's to have the absolute yes, he's savior.
We start there, but we don't end there.
He is the end of all to the thoughts of our hearts and our souls.
Is my first place in God's plots and he is to be formed in us to have that, to be in us to have that same appreciation that he takes the same place in our hearts that he has in the heart and he's going to retain that place for all eternity. You know, we sometimes think, and I think it's important to realize we sometimes think of.
The day when we're God's house is going to be filled with sons and daughters, and we're all going to be with and like Christ, morally and physically. When he shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see him as he is. But remember, the Lord Jesus will remain distinct for all eternity. He will remain the only begotten of the Father. He will remain the first born of every creature for all eternity.
We will never attain to that position that the Lord Jesus has in the heart of God and the place that he has before God. He will remain the only begotten of the Father, I say, for all, for all eternity. So I just mentioned, I think it's helpful to see that we're never going to reach that same place. He will be that Son of his, the Son of his love forever.
I find it helpful to see that.
In Psalm 89, David is called the first begotten, and it's the same expression that if you just look at it in Psalm 89 and verse 20, he said, I have found David my servant, with whom my holy oil have I with my holy oil have I anointed him and then laid her down? In the chapter he says in verse 27 also I will make him my first born.
Higher than the kings of the earth. So we know that David was the 8th in the birth order of his son Jesse, his father Jesse.
But, uh, he's called the first born because it's the title of preeminence. So that's what's used in connection with this. It's not a matter of birth, like you say down, it's a matter of preeminence. Another thing I think is helpful to see is that when God made Adam, he said, uh, let us make man in our image after our likeness.
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So the Lord Jesus is called here the image of the invisible God. Adam was to be God's representation and he thought he was made in God's image and likeness. The Lord Jesus is the image of the invisible God, but never does it say he's the likeness. That would be to deny his deity. It's important point.
It says in Philippians chapter two, he was made in the likeness of man. Yes, that was the case. He was made in the likeness of the man that he was God. He ever is God. He never ceased to be God when he became a man. Very important points to be clear as to the person of the Lord Jesus because it is the very foundation of our faith. And if we don't have those points clear, they're under attack.
And it will lead to our detriment if we do, if we're not clear as to the glory and as to who He really is.
I don't require that, uh, because.
Go back to first John chapter 2.
OK.
Umm, first John chapter three. First John chapter 3 and verse two. Beloved now are we the sons of God? And it's actually children of God here. Umm, And it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is, and every man that hath his hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure.
Umm.
As the children of God, it's the purpose of God that we be like His Son.
And the reason for reading these verses is that they show us that we gradually become more like Him and the work will be complete in its entirety. When we are changed at the rapture and have a glorified body and enter into His presence, we will be morally like Him. It's also in the family of God, the intent of God, that we enjoy the place of sonship.
Galatians brings that out to us that we are also to be sons, and sons in the case of ourselves has that thought of growing into.
The fullness of that a son is one who's like his father is brought before us before and with respect to ourselves. There is that development and growth into the full knowledge of what God has bringing us into that we might enjoy the sonship place of knowledge and relationship of likeness and so on, but it's.
As Jim has already said it with us, it's never goes to the point of the Lord Jesus. By contrast with us, I'd like to read just one verse in Hebrews.
Umm chapter 5 to bring out an opposite point with respect to the Lord Jesus.
In Hebrews chapter 5, verse 5.
Uh, so also Price glorified not himself to be made in High Priest, but he that said unto him, Thou art my son today have I begotten thee, as he hath saith also in another place thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong prowing and tears unto him that was able to save him from death.
And was heard in that he feared though he were a son or son, yet learned he obedience.
By the things which he suffered.
As Sun as a name Sun.
It's a name of deity.
Father, Son, Holy Spirit, perfect equality.
Perfect unity. And as such, in that name, Son, there is no development.
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It is that which He has been from eternity, it is that which He is now, and it is that which He forever shall remain. He can't be less than He is. He is Son.
Just as Father, his Father and Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit in perfect equality, so is Son, Son, and in that there is absolutely no change. It's eternal.
In his person and his character.
What we learned though, from these verses in here illustrated in Hebrews 5, is that when the sun became a man.
As man there was that which we can see in his person that we might associate with growth or development or suitedness. Not a son, but his man. He was the same person. He was the son. But so we have in Luke's gospel. He grew.
In favor with God and man. He was a child, He grew.
And as a child is a perfect man, we see the growth of the child into its manhood. We see him as man go through those experiences.
It says he learned obedience by the things which he suffered, which is to tell us that he as a man learned what the cost of obedience was.
A son he was not, and he turned past eternity in a place of obedience.
He was not in that relationship, he was equal.
But in Philippians 2, when he empties himself and takes the place of participating in manhood, then we see him as a man go through those things. And here in Hebrews 5, it is particularly bringing before us. He's gone through the experience. What is the high priest to do? He's to have compassion. He's to feel for the people and bring their needs before God.
Here's the man.
Passing through everything perfectly. Does he know what it is?
To feel weakness? Yes he does.
Does he know what it is to feel suffering? Yes, he does. Does he know what it is to be rejected? Yes, he does. And so in that he has been made.
Perfectly suited as a man to bear our case, our need, our situation before God.
By contrast, he was the high priest. He was to take things to God, but.
He was no different than his fellows.
He had his own sins, if you will. He had his own problems. He had his own shortcomings. But.
R5 threes pass through it all and and in that way God can say perfectly understands it was perfectly fitted. So while we're not ever going to comprehend it, we can't understand if we keep.
The different pieces of it properly.
Prayerfully, humbly, in our souls, we can worship in the sun, who is the Son of Man, who is the Son of manhood, But we must make sure that we don't try and mix the two or reconcile the two with markets in mind.
So it says unto us, a child is born. That's his incarnation, that's his manhood. But it doesn't say unto us, the Son is born. Unto us the Son is given. And the Spirit of God is very careful when you go through Scripture to guard this precious truth. You will never read of the sun being born. He's always sent or given because to have us to send or give.
Something you have to have it already. And it's remarkable, isn't it? The little expression of singing in connection with what Dawn has just said in Proverbs chapter 8, where it rings before us the eternity of His person. And when the foundations of the earth were laid and creation came into being, and so on, He was there as one brought up by Him, and so with Him and so on. There's a little expression there that sometimes we think of or we limit in our thinking.
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And that is the expression I was daily his delight. And I suppose the first thought is we think of him walking here as the Son of God in this world. And certainly that's true. Heaven could open up and all heaven be be occupied with the object that God would always be occupied with his beloved Son. And a voice declared, this is my beloved Son, and so on. But you know that expression I suggested more than just the sun walking in this world.
From a past eternity he was daily the delight of the Father. The Father found his delight in the sun from a past eternity. Now we've been talking of contrast between in connection with earthly sons and fathers, and there's another contrast here. No sun it born into this world apart from the Lord Jesus, the Son of God has ever been daily the delight of the Father. Not that they're loved any less. I've never had sons, but I've had two daughters.
And I love them very much to this day, but I can't honestly say they've been daily my delight. There's been days when they've grieved me by their actions and so on. Doesn't mean I love the many left. But here was a son who from a past eternity was daily the delight of his father. And here's the one who's the head. And so we find in our chapter, he, he's not only the creator.
Of the universe, He's the sustainer of it. And that's really the thought, isn't it? You know, we read in Hebrews chapter one that he was upholding all things by the word of his power when just in a past eternity. No, you know, when the Lord Jesus was lying in Bethlehem's Manger, the eternal Son, he was upholding all things by the word of his power when he found a few moments in his weary service to lay his head on a pillow in a boat in a storm.
He was upholding all things by the word of his power. When his hands were stretched on a Roman cross, He was upholding all things by the word of his power. He never ceased to do that. And I say that because in the end of the 17th verse of our chapter, it's really by him all things.
Subsist again, Mr. Darby translates it that way, and it's really the thought because to subsist is more than just to consist. Let me illustrate it this way. We have a table in the middle of the room, and that table consists. It consists of some, I think some would if we were to take the cloth off and kind of pressed wood or something like that, perhaps some glue. There's some metal, some hardware, some rubber.
Uh, uh, feed at the bottom of it and so on. It consists of a number of commodities. But to subsist is more than to consist. To subsist is to work together under the direction of something or someone. And the Lord Jesus is not only the creator of this universe, but everything in this universe subsists by the word of his power. If he drew his breath to himself for a moment.
Everything would perish if he forgot fire, perish the thought if he forgot some little iota of creation. For a moment, things would go completely haywire in the creation. But to think that it's the Son of God, the head of it all, that not only created it, but that keeps everything in its perfect balance. And this planet Earth is just a marble.
It's just a speck in the midst of it all. People are finding out with their telescopes and their probes something of the greatness of God's creation. And he keeps stretching it out. It's an ongoing tense in Isaiah 40 and other places. He's stretching it out, but he's keeping it all in his proper order. And to think that it was to planet earth this fact that the Son of God came in incarnation and while they spit in his blessed face.
He gave them the strength.
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To hurl their spit in his face, He gave him the strength to lift the scourge around his back, to lift the mallet that pounded the nail, to lift the cross, to hang him between heaven and earth. He upheld their very breath. Came here to planet earth wide, to accomplish to the glory of God, the work of redemption, so that God could be glorified as to the question of sin, and so that you and I.
Could, to the glory of God, be brought into a place of blessing and sonship, and so that we could share the inheritance with His beloved Son, who's going to have His rightful place in creation in the coming day. Tremendous thought. Can we take it in, brethren? No, but we believe it by faith on the basis of what we have in this precious book.
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament saw his handy word, and He's the creator of heaven, all things that are created in heaven and in earth. And like you say, Jim, that tremendous vastness of the universe that we are part of, it just is mind boggling to think about.
Our Earth is to say it could 1,300,000 could fit into the sun.
And yet the sun is just one of the stars of our Galaxy, as they say. I think now it's, I saw in the book the other day, 200 billion stars in our Galaxy alone, and the distance across our Galaxy is 100.
1000 light years.
Is that the light that started across from 1 edge of our Galaxy to the other side of it when Adam was placed in this world is not even a tenth of the way across, even though life goes at 186,000 miles per second?
But then to think, uh, another figure that, and like you say, the figures seem to grow all the time. But what I heard most recently, I don't know, maybe there's somebody that knows better, but they calculate that there's at least another 100 billion galaxies in the universe.
How can you grasp such vastness? This is our God, this is His power. This is the one that we are united to, this person tremendous. And those are the visible things. Notice in verse 16 it says not only the visible things, but the invisible, whether they be Thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, so that what we are looking at is the visible world.
But there is a world that is not visible.
There are spirit powers, there's the angelic hosts. How many of the angelic hosts are there? We have, I don't know that we have any specific numbers, say hundred one 10,000 * 10,000, which is 100 million. But but uh, and then it says thousands of thousands, myriads is really the word.
Of angelic beings, those that are maintained in sinless perfection by the power of God called elect angels. But then there are other and beings too. Invisible means that we don't have any clue about but it shows here in verse 16. I think it is helpful that God has.
Sat in his creation order.
Order in government Thrones, dominions, principalities, powers that God has set his creation in an ordered way and we need to recognize that. Parents have authority over their children that God has determined and there is government in the earth and we need to recognize that as well. Those are things that God has said.
They are.
Things that are they're, they're visible things. There are invisible hours.
Bob, can you enlarge that from Isaiah 5715?
Go ahead brother. You read that. Go ahead and read it.
Thus set the high and holy one that inhabited eternal.
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James Bond.
I will in the high and holy place.
With him also, that is a contrite and humble spirit.
To revive the spirit of the humble.
To survive, the heart of the contract was.
Certainly is our place to.
Humble ourselves in His presence and we consider His grace. How can you and I ever, ever raise the way? No way.
We think we should.
Relegate to ourselves.
More understanding than him.
O brethren, the Lord help us to bow on his feet, to recognize, to give him his proper place.
I'd like to read a verse in John 17.
John 17.
Its connection will be verse 20. Neither pray aye for these alone, but for them also, which thou shall believe on me through their word.
Including those in Mayfield, KY, on this day.
That they all may be one.
As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee.
They also may be one in US.
What?
That the world they believe.
That thou hast sent me for commenting on that, turn back to our chapter.
Verse 18.
Blossom 118.
And he?
That's one of which we've been speaking for the last hour or so.
He is the head.
Of the body.
The Journey.
We've spoken of one which.
With His greatness and majesty.
But now the chapter brings it to its connection with the body.
He is ahead.
The body.
The body with its head.
In Oneness.
Is to be that display.
Ideas for sample?
It's incomprehensible, almost.
Can you stop?
Look for state of mind.
The assembly, that is, is the head of the body.
The assembly and in its assembly side of it.
The ones gathered out from the world to God formed into a body.
To be the display to the world, if such oneness.
Between the members of the body and their head.
That the world believes.
Jesus is the central one.
So shameful.
It's so humbling.
Because it's so com incomprehensible almost that a person.
Of this character has attacked.
We see the body so dysfunctional.
So not responsive to the head.
By the Spirit.
And I hope when we say it.
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Even farther then.
Within our own souls.
Individually can I say?
Am I holding that?
Personally, individually in my life.
In that place.
Is love to for everything? Why would one ever want to have ones own will in anything that would in the tiniest way?
Not give him his place. Not give him the satisfaction.
I'm seeing if we talk about the creation, we've talked about the creation and this inanimate part of the creation that's described in some of its glories perfectly response to them.
Perfectly obeys him, if you will.
And every tiniest detail.
Every atom of the physical creation.
Responds properly.
As an inanimate part of the creation.
And here we with God-given spirits.
To intelligently know him and be able to respond to him with intelligence in honor of who he is.
And then we look at the state.
And of which were part. And we say, does the world believe?
You know the box that doesn't believe. If we go on to just one more comment on 1St John or John 17 a few verses later, it says that the world not made believe, but the world may know.
Millennium.
When we are seeing as we should be now, but when we will be seen in that perfect oneness.
Umm, every member, every joint, every parts perfectly responsive. And then the glory that is seen of the Church with its head in its millennial glory and Revelation 21.
Bob in the world will know.
And the world will help. Does it know now? Does it believe now?
It's still a shame, but it's to humble us that we might each one want, have a thirst in our souls to give him His place and look to him collectively in every collective responsibility and need with respect to every individual that is part of that party.
I just like to say a word about that last comment in connection with the collective aspect of things because well has been, well, it has been expressed in a number of meetings that every believer alive on the face of the earth today is a member of the body of Christ. Yet God has given a place where these things can be practically carried out and expressed and displayed. And I'm going to just apply it in connection with the local assembly.
We go home to our local assemblies and problems and difficulties arise and they do, don't they? And there are many decisions that need to be made. What are we to do, brethren, to take a boat where the assembly is not a democracy? Now it's interesting that in the first chapter of Acts, before the church or assembly was formed, there was a decision that faced them and they cast lots and it God honored that says in the Old Testament, the lot is cast in the lap and the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.
And God honored it in connection with choosing a replacement for Judas. But a brother was telling me one time that after he was first saved and gathered to the Lords name, he went to a brothers meeting and there was a problem came up. A decision had to be made. And this young brother, he said, well brethren, why don't we cast lots? They did it in the first chapter of the Acts. But it was pointed out to him that after the assembly was formed.
In the second chapter, they never cast lots again. They always look to the head for direction. Because as we said at the beginning of these reading meetings, on the day of Pentecost, one of the things that took place was that the members of the body of on earth, those 120 or so believers that were waiting in the upper room in obedience to the word of the Lord.
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They were not only linked together by the Spirit of God and so on, but they became linked to their glorified head, the Lord Jesus. And so ever after that in the book of the Acts, when a problem or decision came up collectively, they got before the Lord in prayer, and they were directed by the Spirit of God. And so when a difficulty arises in the assembly.
We look to the head, He's head of the body, and we look to Him for direction. And when there's that proper spirit of looking to Him and submission to the head, then He is able to give the direction that is needed. And brethren, if there doesn't seem to be light or direction to act in a certain matter as members of the body of Christ on earth, then all we can do is commit the matter.
To the one who is the head of the body and in his own time and in His own way, then He is going to give direction so that when we act, we do not act independent of the head. And when we act in accordance with the direction of the head, then it's going to be for His glory and for the blessing of the members on earth.
Sometimes we need to wait, don't we? Yes. And when you say that the.
Exercise of going through that process of.
Deciding what is right, What is the Lord's mind?
Helps us become familiar to know God and what his mind is. And then we understand him and we act not just as robots, but we act as in fellowship with him. And then that relationship between him and us is is endeared. It's deep and there's growth. And so that's a lot of what our life is about here in in going through the exercise of these things.
It's not just a casting loss, but God could. God could make it real, plain and evident what the right choice should be in every decision. But the act of going through this helps us to learn to no cost. And often when there's not clarity right off the bat, it's because there are deeper roots and we need to wait further on the Lord. I've been impressed with what it says in Hebrews.
To in the 5th chapter.
Paul speaks to them and, uh, speaks to them about their lack of maturity.
And it's interesting what he says. Verse 12.
Hebrews 512 For when for the time he ought to be teachers, he have need that one teach you again what? Which be the first principles of the oracles of God are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness. Freeze, obey. But this is the verse, but strongly belonging to them that are of full age mature.
Even those who buy reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Nothing so trying as when we are in a difficult problem not to be able to resolve it. But God sees fit to put us into those situations at times, brethren, because it's in exercise that we grow in material things. That's the way you grow by exercise and in spiritual matters too. And so it's that having our senses exercise.
That there is discernment. So let's say I have eyes that I can see well with. But to see well, I not only need good eyes, I need light. And we need in discerning things, not only.
Spiritual maturity. But we need light from the Word of God, and sometimes we have to get down on our knees and confess our lack and get into His words.
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Let the light shine and then there can be discernment. Those things don't happen often very fast. Sometimes it takes time.
We've done that. There's things that have to be judged and put in their place and then the light shines.
Like to read a verse in Second Corinthians chapter 5?
Applied to immediately what follows here in our chapter.
2nd Corinthians, chapter 5.
On verse 14 For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all.
Why do you do it? What does it prove? That you're all dead?
That he died for all that they which lived should not do, for it live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them.
And rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we know man after the flesh? Yeah, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now his forth knowing Him no more. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, leading the new translation, He is a new creation. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are new, and all things are applause.
Who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ? Now back to our chapter.
And verse.
18 He is the head of the Body, the Church, who is the beginning, the first born from the dead.
First born in death.
The church.
Is on the foundation.
Not the first creation.
But as Price died.
To that creation.
To the flesh and all that's connected with it, he died.
He rose again.
As head of a new creation.
He returned to glory and was glorified and at that point and on that basis.
The church is formed and linked to its head.
A glorified man in new creation.
In Glory.
Many times the difficulty perhaps? Maybe the root difficulty.
That comes into the assembly and the holding of its head.
Is because the old creation comes into it the flesh.
And.
It did length relationship, the head shift, the functioning of it is in new creation and consequently Colossians. When it gets down into its details in chapter 2 it says if he be dead with Christ.
And after three begins, if ye be risen with Christ, chapter 3 goes on to say, Put off and names those things that have to do with the flesh and the first creation. Put on in a practical sense, that which belongs to the new creation and the conflicts, the difficulties of discernment many times are because something of the flesh which belongs to the first creation.
Is at work and hindering the work of the spirit of God to respond to that in the Newman that does think does understand does appreciate does act in oneness with his head, but only only in that way and consequently much of the rest of this first chapter is to show us the.
Necessary work and effect of his death in 2nd Corinthians 5 you have to reconciliation the rest of this chapter brings out the work of how that reconciliation is made between the first creation. No, but the death of that that brings us into the new and we're reconciled to God in on those grounds, but it's through death and if we don't.
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Recognize practically the effect of death upon us and in US and for us and so on. We will not be able to walk in the light and see us in the light. It's only in the nation that we bear about in somebody that dying of the Lord Jesus that the life of Jesus is manifested. So the allowance of one is the disallowance of the other.
A.
Go back to 2nd Corinthians 5 there Don you read verse 17.
And you may be in Christ, there's a new creation, old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. And then the first phrase is the next verse, and all things are of God. In new creation, everything is of God.
So there's a difference between me and you. Don't. Something of the first creation is coming into the picture here.
And I have to reflect.
I like to put things simply and a lot of what Don just brought before us can be summed up in 2 words in Christ.
That's in comparison with in Adams.
You and I know an awful lot of what it means to be in in Atom. We know how Adam acts. We know what controls Adam.
It's a sin, sin nature, but God and his gracious put his hand another, He's put us in Christ, and that's where new creation begins.
And dry soap.
Just to share that just like to say in Christ through death, in resurrection and in resurrection.
We're in Christ through death and in resurrection. Our position in Christ before God is not in Adam.
Thing #100.
Maybe we can stand and see #100.
And.
Voicemail race.
We lost everything. Real joy to come.