Episode Transcript
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Please remain standing if you're able,
and let's turn our attention to Colossians chapter
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one, Verses Fifteen through twenty.
Colossians Chapter One, Verses Fifteen through twenty,
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two hundred, or, sorry,
nine hundred and eighty three, if
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you're using Black Bible from the cart. This is about Jesus. He is
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the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation, for by
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him all things were created, in
heaven and on Earth, visible and invisible,
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whether thrones or dominions, or rulers
or authorities, all things were created
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through him and for him, and
he is before all things, and in
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him all things hold together, and
he is the head of the body the
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church. He is the beginning,
the first born from the dead that in
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everything he might be pre eminent,
for in him all the fullness of God
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was pleased to dwell and through him
to reckon top reconcile to himself all things,
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whether on earth or in heaven,
making peace by the blood of his
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cross. Amen, you may be
seated. What an amazing passage. This
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is the second sermon I'm giving in
our series on wisdom. I'm preaching here
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from Colossians One, fifteen through twenty. A very beautiful passage, I think,
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a passage that sings like a hymn
of praise. He is, he
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is, he is. All kinds
of parallels between the first half and the
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second half. A beautiful things,
a kind of piling up of praise throughout
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these verses. In fact, it
has so many poetic qualities that some scholars,
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in fact most scholars, have wondered
if this wasn't an early confession of
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faith or a prayer used in the
church or in fact a him. Well,
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the scholarship on that is inconclusive and
probably always will be. But one
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thing is for sure. It is
a very beautiful passage, a hymnic passage,
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I like to say. If we
can't know for sure whether or not
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it was a hymn, I think
we can say it was him nick.
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It is song like, it is
praise like in the way that it expresses
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our king, our Lord, who
is and was and will be these things
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that are mentioned here Colossians one fifteen
through twenty. Then I think ought to
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remind us of what Paul says at
the end of this letter of Colossians,
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in Colossians three hundred and sixteen.
He says let the word of Christ some
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lear to what we just read,
or at least one of the things.
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Let the word of Christ dwell in
you, richly, teaching and inmonishing one
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another and all wisdom, singing psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness to
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your heart, in your hearts to
God. Let the word of Christ dwell
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in you richly. That's a phrase
you can come back to over and over
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and over again as a way to
think about what it means to live a
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Christian life. Let the word of
Christ dwell in you, richly, teaching
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and monishing one another, in all
wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual
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songs with thankfulness in your hearts to
God. I want you to know of
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the many things that we might note
in that verse, that phrase in Wisdom,
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right, in wisdom. Many people
in this world seek a worldly wisdom
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that is separate from Christ. They
want to grow, they want to look
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and see their world and see it
truthfully and accurately, but only to a
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certain extent. They want to think
of Christ as kind of bracketed out from
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the rest of their lives. They're
going to seek to live wisely and rightly
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in this world and that sort of
one domain, and then another domain is
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Jesus, is father in heaven religion
generally. You might think of it as
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kind of putting God in the Casita, you know, in the back of
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your property. You know, you
sort of subleases it or rents it out
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from time to time. You might
interact with him occasionally, but he's not
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dwelling with you. All right,
let the word of Christ dwell richly and
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you. There's a closeness in that
verb, isn't there? Dwelling and intimacy,
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a fullness in that, and something
about that has to do with with
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wisdom. What he says as we
are to teach and admonish one another in
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wisdom. Think we can also say
that we are to sing in wisdom,
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with thankfulness. But it's more.
It's more than that. Wisdom is letting
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the word of Christ dwell in US
richly, abundantly, thoroughly completely. What
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part of what Paul is saying here
and what he says throughout this letter is
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that if we want to be wise, we have to understand who Jesus is.
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These things go together. Take a
look at the beginning of the book
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before we get into the details of
this passage in particular. What does Paul
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I'll say, how does this letter
start? Well, he starts by saying
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that he talks to these Colossians and
he talks about something that has already happened
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in their church. Looked down at
verse seven, it says that they had
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learned it from epaphras, our beloved
fellow servant, who is called a faithful
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minister of Christ. On your behalf. What is it? What is the
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it that they learned from Pastor epaphus? Well, we go back up to
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verse five and you read it here, the hope laid up for you in
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heaven. Of this you have heard
before in the word of truth, the
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Gospel. That's what faithful pastor epaphorts, pastor epaphus, preached to them.
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He preached to them the hope of
heaven. He preached to them the Word
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of truth, the Gospel, and
you know what happened, because he tells
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us what happened. He says it
bore forth fruit in them. Indeed,
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as that same word of truth,
that Gospel, is bearing fruit in the
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whole world and even increasing, as
he says in verse six, by God's
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grace. They heard the Gospel and
understood it, and now their lives were
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different. That's what has happened.
That's how Paul addresses them and opens up
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this letter. Now that relates to
our passage, because what Paul says is
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he wants them to not stop there
or leave that, but continue it,
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as he says later in the letter. He says, as you have received
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Christ, so now also walk in
him. This verse, as I just
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read to you, a one through
eight, is or paraphrase there. That's
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how they received Christ, through the
preaching of the word. They heard and
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they understood the Gospel, and now
it is bearing forth fruit in their lives.
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And Paul says, I want you
to continue in that. Don't walk
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away from that path, don't walk
away from those means, but rest in
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this. Let the word of Christ
now dwell in you richly, he says,
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and what will happen is then described
in the next verses, in nine
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through fourteen. Listen to what he
says. He prays this. And so,
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from the day we heard about this
great work that God had done among
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them, we have not ceased to
pray for you, asking that you may
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be filled with the knowledge of his
will. In all spiritual wisdom and insight.
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That's how Paul understands their growing lives
as Christians. He wants them not
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only to hear and understand the Gospel, but now to be filled with the
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knowledge of God's bill in all spiritual
wisdom and insight, or spiritual wisdom and
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understanding. You could translate that either
way, and that is not just a
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brainy thing. Right. Wisdom is
not a mirrorly a sort of collection of
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facts or a set of rules.
Wisdom is living in this world according to
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the rules, according to the order
in which God has placed these things.
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And that's why Paul Naturally says next
in verse ten, so as to walk
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in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit
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in every good work and increasing in
the knowledge of God. It's that amazing.
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So Paul is framing the Christian life, which means we should frame how
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we think about our lives in this
way. We should be asking that Paul's
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prayer for the Colossians who heard this
word or received this letter, and for
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ourselves, who have heard and are
receiving this letter, that we two would
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be filled with the wisdom or the
knowledge of the will of God, that
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we would have a an understanding,
insight, ability, skill in walking wisely
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according to God, God's will,
walking in a manner worthy of the Lord
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who called us, pleasing, bearing
forth good fruit and even increasing then in
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the knowledge of God. You can
see why, then, if, if
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that's what the Christian life is like, that he would then this is what
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he's praying for them, that he
would then commend them or a call them
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to this kind of obedience. Let
the word of Christ dwell richly. Teach
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one another these things, admonish our
one another these things in wisdom. Sing
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Psalms him, spiritual songs. He
uses every word. They are possible for
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singing, except for lament. I
think you could paraphrase that loosely by saying
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let the word of Christ dwell in
you richly. Sing, sing, sing
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with thankfulness in your hearts to God
in all kinds, in all ways.
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Let the word of Christ sink down
deeply in you. So then he goes
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to versus a, let verse eleven, when he says, may you be
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strengthened with all power according to his
glorious might, for endurance and patience,
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with joy, giving thanks to the
father who has qualified you to share in
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the inheritance of the saints in the
light. He has delivered us from the
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domain of darkness and transferred us to
the Kingdom of his beloved son, in
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whom we have the redemption, the
forge or who in whom we have redemption
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the forgiveness of sins. Do you
hear the Gospel? This is good news.
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That's what Gospel is to be delivered, to be rescued out of the
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dominion of darkness and brought into the
Kingdom of the beloved son of God.
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How could you say anything else about
that except that it is Gospel, good
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news. So this is what he
wants us to rest and understand. Be
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Wise in be filled with right and
out of that wisdom and spiritual understanding we
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are then enabled and strengthened by the
grace of God to go forth in the
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world, bearing forth fruit and walking
wisely, continuing in wisdom to teach and
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sing and gain knowledge and encourage one
another to grow, to grow up into
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maturity. Think about it this way. If you met someone who, the
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Lord had answered this prayer in their
life, would you not say of them,
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this is a wise person. In
other words, imagine somebody who is
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walking with wisdom and insight, who
walks in a manner worthy of the Lord,
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who is fully pleasing to God.
That's some thing. You'd someone you'd
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want to hang out with, I'd
hope, spend time with, learn from
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mentor me help me. You are
a wise person. So it's on the
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basis of this, then, this
recognition of what God has done, the
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knowledge and wisdom he's given them,
the ways in which he wants them to
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grow. That then he comes to
verses fifteen through twenty and says, now
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let's talk about this Christ, who
has rescued you, who has forgiven you,
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who is routinemed you. This is
this is him. We've been talking
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about the word of Christ. This
speaks to Christ directly. This is wisdom
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you need to know. And what
do we learn? He is the image
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of the invisible God, the firstborn
of creation. This word firstborn does not
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tell us that Jesus was created as
we are created, that he is another
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one number, another one up there, I go. Okay, another one,
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that's what I'm trying to say,
another one of God's many creatures.
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No, this title firstborn here refers
to his Pre Eminence. The word firstborn
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is used again in verse eighteen when
it says he's the heady of the body,
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he is the beginning, the firstborn
of the dead, that in everything
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he might be pre eminent. Right, it does refer to an orderedness and
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orderliness of things, but it also
refers to this status that he has,
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first as the Eternally Begotten Son of
God, Eternally Begotten and therefore pre eminent
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as God over all things, but
also as the firstborn of men, not
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being Adam but the second Adam,
his body a part of the new creation
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that is to come, that resurrected
body, he leads us out of captivity
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through union with him, into the
new heavens and the new earth, the
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firstborn from the dead, so that
he is not only God over all of
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the world, but he is also
our mediator, our savior in the in
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the world to come. This Jesus
of ours is God, our Savior,
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is not a wise sage who merely
or a merely a wise sage who teaches
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us things. No, he is
Yahway of the Old Testament. He is
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the one who made the heavens and
the Earth, the sea and the dry
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land, both as it says in
the Old Testament and as it says here
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in the new verse sixteen, for
by him all things were created in heaven
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and on Earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, or rulers
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or authorities, all things, if
Paul couldn't be any clearer, all things
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were created through him and for him. That's a description of God. That's
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a description of the one true living
God who is supreme above everything and who
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distinguishes himself from the creation. He
is the Creator, and he is not
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only the Creator, as we considered
last week in Psalm one of four,
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but he is also the one who
is our preserver. Notice verse seventeen.
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He is before all things and in
him all things hold together. Now,
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the world didn't always know about Jesus. We certainly knew of the sun,
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in some ways and some shadowy ways, of this promised anointed one, Messiah,
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a Christ that was to come and
to save them. But Jesus,
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the incarnate son of God, that
was something that was revealed later, first
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in a kind of prophetic way in
the prophets, then later in fullness,
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when there was a baby lying in
a manger with angels singing above the world
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rejoicing that the Christ had come,
this Jesus who had come was not nearly
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a baby, though he was the
God who always was and is and will
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be. I want you, if
you were here with us last week or
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if you heard the sermon on Line
Psalm one of four, I want you
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to take everything that you remember about
that passage, about the many ways in
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which God has involved in in wisdom, creating and preserving that world, and
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remember that everything that is said there
can be said of Jesus Christ, should
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be said of Jesus Christ, must
be said of our savior. In that
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Psalm we were reminded of God's marvelous
wisdom so that we might give him praise.
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The Psalm calls us to look around
the world and to marvel at his
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amazing design, his plan his skill, the beauty and the power and the
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glory of God's wisdom, wisdom that's
manifest in the things that have been made,
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the mountains and the valleys, the
storks and the rock badgers, in
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the creation and in the preservation of
the world. All that summed up in
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verse twenty four of Psalm One o
four. Oh Lord, how manifold are
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your works in wisdom? You have
made them all. The Earth is full
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of your creatures, this is to
be said of Jesus of Nazareth. Oh
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Jesus of Nazareth, how manifold are
your works in wisdom? You have made
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them all. The Earth is full
of your creatures. And, as Colossian
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says here, as Psalm one o
four says in Psalm one four, as
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God says in Salmoneo four, it's
not just the creation of the world that
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we see the wisdom of Christ,
but it has also in the preservation of
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that world. He is the upholder
and to each animal and creature he gives
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its its food and it's season and
it's time. And in its place,
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the Psalm teaches us not to live
in the world as fools who are blinded
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to the reality of the world's maker, of the world's upholder. Instead,
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the Psalm calls us to look out
on all of the details of the world
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and to see God in them,
not to see them as God and give
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the glory of the immortal God to
creatures, but to see God in them,
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as in to see God working in
them, moving in them, upholding
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them by the word of his power. That's wisdom, right wisdom. If
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you think about how you have thought
about wisdom, hopefully how you think about
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wisdom. Wisdom is about seeing things
according to reality. Right. A fool
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is someone who doesn't see things according
to reality. They think that, let's
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say, by not showing up to
work on time, failing to pass drug
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tests, lying and stealing from your
employer, that somehow that will result in
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more work. Right. That's simply
not reality. A fool drives down the
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left side of the road and thinks
that they won't get hit. Say,
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wake up, that's not reality.
Well, what God is saying here is
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that we, if we are to
look out on the reality of this world,
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if we are going to say there
is no god, you are,
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as the scriptures say, a fool, because there is God who has designed
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this world, made this world,
upholds this world, and it's evident all
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over the place. We're not going
to argue this point. It's perfectly before
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our faces. This is what the
scriptures tell us to be wise to.
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What Coloshans one fifteen through twenty is
adding to this point is that very God
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who upholds all of these things is
the one who died on the cross to
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save us from our sins. God, the second person of the Trinity,
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Gave Glory to the father the first
person of the Trinity, having been anointed
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by the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and this one,
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God saves us in this way,
he makes himself known in this way,
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he reveals himself in this way,
so that Jesus Christ is rightly called
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God and worshiped and glorified as our
creator, which means he is the all
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wise one, the one to whom
we can look and see his wisdom manifest
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in the world. But as we
go on in this passage, what we
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see is he's as if that weren't
enough, the Jesus is not only the
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one who upholds and all of these
things together by being the eternal son of
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God, by being the word of
God manifest, or the word of God
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spoken and powerful, he's also done
something new in the world that he is
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made. He is the head of
the body the church. Paul now addresses
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a new reality, something else that
is true about God, The Sun.
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He is also the beginning, the
firstborn of the dead, which means that
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he died. This is an amazing
thing, a mysterious thing, but a
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thing that should be so precious to
our hearts, because the scriptures tell us
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that all who are united in a
death like his, will also be raised
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in a life like his. Indeed, not just like his, but in
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him, in his life, by
the power of his life, for God
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who dwells in us is the God
who dwelled and dwells in him. He
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is the fullness of God, or
sorry, for in him all the fullness
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of God was pleased to draw it
dwell and through him, the father reconciled
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to himself all things, whether in
heaven on earth, making peace by the
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blood of the cross, the Sun. Did these things by going by being
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obedient, as we read earlier,
obedient even to the point of death,
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to the death on the cross.
So what we learn to summarize and pull
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all these threads together, is this. It's not enough if you want to
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live wisely and rightly in the world. It's not enough to simply say that
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there is a spiritual power, or
even God, a creator, who has
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made these things. It's not enough, because that same God has revealed himself
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in the world, in Jesus Christ, and our God, has done something
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in the world, the changes things. At the end of salmone of four
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it says something like I can't remember
it exactly now. All of all find
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it and read it to you.
At the end of salmone of four,
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the PSALMA says let sinners be consumed
from the earth and let the wicked be
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no more. There is something coming
in this world that the Psalmist is hoping
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for, the destruction of evil,
the destruction of sin, the destruction of
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the dominion of darkness. What Jesus
has done is he has a begun that
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work of defeat. Indeed it he
has defeated them. As we read on,
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in verses Twenty One through twenty three, we read, I'm sorry it's
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further down, but he says that
all of these things he makes peace by
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the blood of the cross. There
we go, verse twenty makes peace by
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the blood of the cross. He
puts rulers and authorities to open shame through
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his ascension there on the cross.
This, in other words, is reality
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and if we are to live rightly
in this world, we have to recognize
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this. But the scriptures tell us
it's not just about recognizing them as true,
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it's putting our faith in them,
believing and trusting. That's how it
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is that we come to be rescued
out of a dominion of darkness and to
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be brought into the new kingdom,
the Kingdom of the beloved Sun. True
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wisdom therefore has to must always begin
with Jesus Christ. How else could it
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be? Where else could you start? For in him is is all wisdom.
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He has done things in this world. Indeed, the father has revealed
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his wisdom through Christ. Paul says
in First Corinthians, to shame the world,
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the worldly wisdom of this world.
Here we see reality, here we
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see God in his wisdom. Shall
we ignore it and sort of stick him
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in the back of our lives and
say, well, that doesn't apply here.
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It applies to everything. He applies
to everything, because from him and
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through him and for him are all
things. So what shall we do?
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What we should do is, Paul
says, what the word of Christ dwell
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in US richly. We should be
like ground ready to soak in the rain.
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But was God pours his word out
on us, we would just receive
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it and then bring forth fruit in
our lives. That's how God works,
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that how he's that's how he works
according to his wisdom. And as he
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says in in in First Corinthians,
the the world looks at this and says
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that's ridiculous. Baby across a man
to save the war world from their sins.
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That God would become man was considered
foolishness to the Greeks. Where are
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the signs? Where are the wonders? I see him hanging on a cross,
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said the Jews. But God did
these things, he says, in
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order to shame the wisdom of this
world, that his power might be known
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in the foolishness, in fact,
he says, in the foolishness of preaching.
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That's why Paul Talks about epaphus.
That's why he talks about the word
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of Christ coming to them in this
very simple way. You, you heard
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the Gospel, you understood it,
and then fruit was brought forth. Stay
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in that, he says to them. Keep in that. Let the word
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of Christ dwell in you richly.
Come to know the Lord Jesus, Christ
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Beloved, as he is given to
you freely in this Gospel. Teach it
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to one another, admonish one another
with it, eat it, drink it,
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live it, sing it. This
is what it means to be a
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Christian and that's what it means to
be wise immature. We'll sing in a
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moment, but let's pray first.
