November 2, 2003

Colossians 1:15-23

The Person of Christ - Who He is - What Place He fills in

the universe!

He is Lord of the natural universe. (creative) - heaven & earth

He is Lord of the redeemed. (redemptive) - church

An “everlasting power and divinity are clearly seen from the

creation of the world” but as invisible things. Rom. 1:20-23

The latest secularism and agnosticism despairingly and/or

defiantly echo the cry of Job: “I go towards the east, but he

is not there; and westward, but I cannot perceive him; toward

the north, where he is working, but I cannot see him; where he

veileth himself in the south, but I cannot find him.”

Job 23:8-10a

Without the Holy Spirit and with worldly wisdom, vain man

is like a blind man in a dark room groping for a black cat

that isn’t there.

II Cor. 4:4-6 - In Christ, God becomes visible &

nature becomes intelligible.

Heb. 11:3 - What is seen hath not been made out of

things which do appear.

Eph. 3:14-19

From the invisible, Christ comes forth to testify of Him whom

“no man hath seen nor can see” - I Tim. 6:16

John 1:14, 18, Heb. 1:1-3a

We now know what the Maker of the universe is like

The unknown God proves to be the world’s Father, and

His Son its elder brother.

The incarnation and resurrection of Christ, with the whole

course of His miracles (signs) assure us that natural law is,

and must prove itself ultimately to be, subservient to

spiritual law, the lower dimension to the higher order,

the material world, with which man is so obsessed, to

the moral world.

Science and philosophy can discover no truth which will

not verify and support in the end “truth as it is in Jesus” -

Eph. 4:21

noumenon - apprehended in thought - known to exist

but no properties can be ascribed to it.

phenomenon - known by senses rather than thought

“God was in Christ” creating the heavens & the earth,

sustaining them, co-ordinating, directing the march of

the circling worlds, supporting the endlessly varied forms

of life (the Aquarium at Gatlinburg) -

Ps. 104:24-31

The winds and the sea obey Him, the spirits of darkness

fled at His word, they know something of this secret even

if men do not. (New Era article of debate about God)

“The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God”

Despite the world’s confusion, it advances towards the

fulfillment of its destiny - “that God may be all in all”

I Cor. 15:28

v. 17 - “in Him all things consist” - (chained & woven

together)

The will of God concerning His Son, Jesus Christ,

was the secret of creation.

It is the Father’s will from the beginning that all

should honor the Son as they honor the Father”

John 5:23

Christ is the Heir of all things - Heb. 1:2

and it is the glory of the Father “that every knee

should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth,

and things under the earth, and that every tongue should

confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” - Phil. 2:9-11

Luke 19:27 - “But those mine enemies which would

not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and

slay them before me”

Ps. 2:1-4

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus must penetrate,

transform and dominate every sphere of human thought

and action. “The works of the devil” everywhere and in

every form and shape must be destroyed. I John 3:8

This plan will certainly be carried out! v. 22, I Thess 3:13

All this is yours, the apostle says, “if ye continue in the

faith” - v. 23

Luke 13:27-29

v. 18 - “who is the beginning” - The First Principle,

the Originating Cause.

The Alpha and the Omega - “the firstborn of the dead”

“that in all things He might have the preeminence”

(to be first) - The purpose of creation as “unto Christ”

had been frustrated as it related to man by the entrance

of sin and death and His rightful preeminence denied

Him.

He must recover it and this He does by His death and

His resurrection.

v. 19 - “in Him should all fulness dwell” - pleroma

Christ is a complete Christ and we are made

complete in Him - ch. 2:9-10

Acts 17:28

v. 20 - The blood of the cross is the one all-

sufficient atonement which brings men

into peace with God.

v. 21 - “enemies” - implies a fixed position -

describes the disposition of the sinner

towards God.

Eph. 4:18-24

v. 22 - Jude 24 - “faultless” - unreproveable - a

judicial term meaning without charge.

v. 23 - “all this is yours”

People will enter Readers Digest Sweepstakes,

sign up at Grand Openings for a weed eater,

play the lottery

but will not accept what is theirs provided by God.