Colossians

[0:00] Seeking the Lord's help, I'd like your attention this evening to Paul's epistle to the Colossians, reading from chapter 1 and verses 20 and 21.

[0:14] Paul's epistle to the Colossians, chapter 1, reading from verses 20 and 21. And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself.

[0:37] By him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.

[0:54] And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself.

[1:07] By him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.

[1:24] There are two things here. One is peace and the other is conflict.

[1:41] The human heart in its old nature is in conflict with God.

[1:59] It is fallen. It may not be in open warfare. It may not be in vast evil.

[2:14] One of the most solemn paths we can walk in is to have a profession and be dead. To be satisfied with an empty profession.

[2:30] To come to the sanctuary of God Sunday by Sunday, week night by week night, and yet to know nothing.

[2:43] Nothing of those things which are preached in our own hearts. That is the delusion of Satan. And the apostle Paul, who penned this epistle from his prison cell to the church at Colossae, knew that path.

[3:07] He says of it that the things he counted gain, that was his religious profession, when the Lord opened his heart and his eyes, he counted but dung and dross.

[3:28] The people of God, as taught by his spirit, can look back to that time. When, as we read in Ephesians, they were without hope and without God in the world.

[3:49] They can mark a change which has taken place in their hearts and lives. They have a spot, a period, a time, when things change.

[4:07] The apostle Paul had one. The world know nothing, spiritually. The professing world know nothing.

[4:23] They have no changes. They're without hope and without God. Satan is a deceiving foe and he is never more satisfied than when we're resting on a false hope.

[4:48] The apostle Paul thought he was doing God's will. He was content and satisfied, quite pleased, with an outward form.

[5:01] filled his heart with satisfaction. And even when he went to Damascus to persecute God's dear people, he was well persuaded he was doing the Lord's will.

[5:18] He was in solemn conflict with God. There came a time when the Lord changed his heart.

[5:31] touched his spirit through sovereign grace. And that is the only way the Lord will ever change your heart.

[5:44] And that is through sovereign grace. We have no claim upon him. We deserve not his mercy. We deserve not his mercy. the free grace of God is sovereignly bestowed.

[6:03] His dear people are called by grace. Called out of nature's darkness into God's marvelous light. There's no age limit.

[6:16] some have been in the past called in their youth. I always remember taking a church meeting when a young man came forward.

[6:39] we ask him to tell us of how the Lord had begun with him. Where he'd begun with him.

[6:52] He told us that it was under one of our ministers when he was six. this minister described in his sermon his days in the Navy in the last war.

[7:18] And what a terrible time he had. But he could look back and see that the Lord had preserved his life.

[7:32] In the midst of all the dangers that surrounded him. Our young friend said that in his childhood he felt there was something real in that.

[7:48] The first time as he listened to one of God's servants he became aware that the Lord had begun in that man's heart.

[7:58] and he was resting in him. I wonder how many of you can look back to the first sermon you heard with Prophet when the power of the Spirit was manifested.

[8:18] you knew a peace not essentially the peace through the blood of his cross yet though that was to be known later.

[8:35] But your heart was softened and touched. And you could have wished that the Lord's servant had gone on to midnight as the Apostle Paul did on one occasion.

[8:53] There was a beginning. It's the beginning. to an end.

[9:11] The sinner is being brought to realize and to know and understand inwardly in his heart there is a God his servants are his instruments and his word goes forth with divine power.

[9:34] I do not hesitate to speak of myself for the servants of God can only preach what they've been taught in their hearts. I remember in my youth sitting in the sanctuary of God for a long time and I was frequently bored.

[10:06] I didn't listen my mind wandered. I went to please my father and mother but I had no desire of my own to go.

[10:22] But there came a Thursday night in Maniford Chapel when Mr. Eben Clark preached from the word confirming the souls of the disciples exhorting them to continue in the faith and that through much tribulation you shall enter into the kingdom of God.

[10:45] That was the first night I heard a sermon with power and it touched my heart. It was the beginning.

[10:57] It wasn't a complete deliverance from this world and the things of this world but it brought me to a halt something I could never forget and I look back to it as the first time the Lord blessed his ministry in my heart and I believe I felt that night a sweet peace in my soul a drawing near to God and the word that fastened on my heart was this confirm me in the souls of the disciples through much tribulation you shall enter the kingdom I didn't look at the tribulation that night I looked at the kingdom a sweet word of promise and hope and hope to me

[12:00] I had yet to learn from that day onwards something of the tribulation when the Lord begins to work in the hearts of his dear people and their fallen natures have been in conflict with him and he begins with them and begins to mold them and conform them to his image he does it through much tribulation and it's the avenue to prayer never do we pray as when we're in the deep waters of tribulation and I look back now on some of that pathway of deep tribulation that the Lord was to call me to walk in but I found it and have found it and still do find it to be the avenue to this peace

[13:02] I do say then to you tonight what have you got what has the Lord done for you how has he touched your heart how has he used his servants as instruments in your case you may say I've nothing I can't put my finger on anything I say to you tonight does that cause you sorrow do you long to have something in your heart prayer ask us of this question tonight have I ever prayed you may say why yes ah but was it like the prayer of

[14:37] Jacob at Brookjabot I'll not let thee go except they bless me was it wrestling prayer you don't have to be on your knees by your bedside to pray you may be in deep trouble naturally and raise your eyes to heaven it may be as it has been with me it was in my student days that the Lord brought me into hospital and I was seriously ill when I was about 18 clearly in my mind tonight

[15:40] I can see that stretcher outside of the x-ray theater as I laid on it fearing the worst and how I wrestled with God in prayer you see one answer to prayer I wonder if you have one that you can look back to perhaps as that lovely hymn says when most we need his helping hand this friend is always near with heaven and earth at his command he waits to answer prayer I say this all in the light of our text tonight the Lord begins in the hearts of his dear people fallen in nature and his object is to bring them to peace with God to bring them down in submission at his dear feet for he has something to give them and something to do in their hearts and one of those things is this to reveal to them their hearts as he sees them to reveal to them their human nature and their fallen nature as he sees it when we look at this apostle the Lord exposed hypocrisy to him in his heart and one of the most lovely words in the scriptures are the

[17:49] Lord's word to Ananias regarding the apostle Paul and that's this behold he prayeth but the apostle Paul has spent his life praying as a Pharisee now the Lord put his finger on it behold he prayeth and we see the submission who art thou Lord the very use of that word Lord speaks volumes the Lord said to him I am Jesus whom thou persecutest the Lord was to bring his dear servant to be at peace with God and this was the beginning of it and now he prayed in a way he'd never prayed before and what did he pray

[18:51] I believe this for forgiveness for pardon and for peace and we have here in the case of this apostle the Lord Jesus the apostle Paul says God commended his love to us in that whilst we were yet sinners Christ died for us the apostle came to realize that this work lies in our text peace through the blood of the cross this work was done accomplished finished for him before the Lord brought him out of nature's darkness into his marvelous light in his letter to the church in

[19:58] Ephesus he speaks of this work of God in these two words according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love and when we look at that holiness that guiltlessness that lies there we see here the essence of the work of God in the death of his dear son having made peace through the blood of his Christ his sins were pardoned he was to have it revealed to him it was done as regards the Lord's eternal purposes in eternity past and we have the work of salvation before us tonight having made peace through the blood of his cross and we have the experimental nature of it reconcile it's an accomplished fact in the lives of

[21:30] God's dear children he reconciles them to himself and our text speaks of it in the 21st verse now hath he reconciled you he says that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled what the Lord has done is to reveal the blessed benefit of that opening verse having made peace through the blood of his cross it was an accomplished fact but it was to be revealed in the hearts of his dear people and they were to know something of the blood of Christ in their hearts and consciences taking away guilt and sin and you see we may have much religion the apostle Paul did but he knew nothing of the blood of

[22:35] Christ Peter in his epistle speaks of the precious blood for as much as you know he says you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without spot and without blemish ask yourself tonight from the youngest to the oldest what do I know of this blood of Christ you see when it's applied there's peace hymn writer says peace by his cross as Jesus made the church is everlasting head and have we ever known that peace of God you know if we never know the peace of God here below we shall never enjoy the peace of heaven above when the Lord was leaving his disciples after the last supper he said to them my peace

[24:03] I leave with you when he washed their feet and Peter queried it I should never wash my feet the Lord said to him if I wash thee not thou hast no part with me Peter Peter then said not only my feet but also my hands and my head the Lord said he did his wash need is not to save to wash his feet and he's clean every whit and then he added this and ye are clean that was a precious application of his blood in the hearts of his dear apostle in ye clean that is where reconciliation lies in the application of the atoning blood of Christ in our hearts and consciences that we can speak of it apostle

[25:10] John speaks of it he says the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin there are two words in that text I would have you notice one is all and the other is us when the apostle writes he often writes in that term us I do say to you tonight can you join in that company us has the Lord given you a hope does it rest on his precious blood the apostle Peter says who his own self beautiful words his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree that precious blood he knew in his own heart was the founting of life which took away his sins and reconciled him to God having made peace through the blood of his cross

[26:45] I will dwell here in a minute over his cross him right it says behold a scene of matchless grace tis Jesus in the sinner's place heaven's brightest glory sunk in shame that rebels might adore his name and we see the wonder of Calvary's cross that he who created all things as we have read tonight for by him were all things created says the apostle in this letter to Colossae that are in heaven and are in earth visible and invisible the creator of this earth the second person in the glorious trinity the eternal son of God permitted himself to be crucified on

[27:48] Calvary's cross we read in this chapter for it pleased the father that in him should all fullness dwell oh that fullness which was to be in Christ was to be the fullness of peace and pardon through his shed blood and we can be absolutely certain of this that there was no other way in which a sinner could enter heaven than that the eternal son of God should do two things one shed his precious blood on Calvary's cross and two walk this earth in his sacred humanity sin accepted and keep his father's holy law in divine perfection and obtain for his dear people a glorious righteousness which he imputes to them this is the substance and the essence of this reconciliation salvation and the apostle Paul in the fifth chapter of his letter to the church at Rome he speaks of it so beautifully he says for if when we were enemies we were reconciled to

[29:20] God by the death of his son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life and not only so but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ and he adds this by whom we have now received the atonement the margin reads the reconciliation I do say to you tonight search your religion ask yourself what do I know about this you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled there comes a time in the lives of God's dear children when he is working in their souls when he shows them their sins and sends forth those deep arrows of conviction into their hearts sometimes it's early in life sometimes it's later in life we don't read in the case of the apostles whom the

[30:51] Lord called to follow him immediate conviction but we can be certain of this that work was accomplished for afterwards as I quoted as I quoted to you tonight both Peter and John speak clearly of the blood of Christ cleansing as John says us from all sin he described himself frequently as a disciple whom Jesus loved but when we read his general epistles we see there he speaks of that blessed work of reconciliation and cleansing and bringing of a poor sinner to God bearing at his footstall of mercy and seeking forgiveness I say this in the light of the 51st Psalm where we read the prayer of confession of David when the Lord sent the arrows of conviction into his heart through the words of

[31:54] Nathan thou art the man wash me those were his words purge me he felt sin like a deep die in his soul he says and these words divinely inspired have a great truth hidden in them purge me with hyssop hyssop in the old order of the tabernacle was a plant used to sprinkle the blood was dipped in blood and the blood was sprinkled David was speaking of the blood of sprinkling that the scriptures speak of that speaketh better things than that of Abel it was a blood sacrifice and we can be certain of this that alone can will and does cleanse from all sin and iniquity having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself by him

[33:18] I say whether they be in things in earth or things in heaven you see that reconciliation experimentally known is known here below and that is things in this earth all things are his church of all he says whom thou hast given me in the prayer in the 17th of John I have lost none that reconciliation is perfect and he goes on into heaven the saints above are able from their experience here below to sing that glorious anthem unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood the honor glory might majesty dominion and power forever that is the substance of their song above reconciliation through the blood of the cross

[34:42] I do say to you tonight earnestly seek the best gifts don't rest satisfied rest short seek that you might know this peace which the Lord says of it my peace I give unto you my peace I leave with you what do you think he meant why did he describe it as my peace it is exactly what is in our text peace peace through the blood of the cross and when he gives that peace he gives the blood of the cross on heart and conscience many times when here on earth we hear him say thy sins which are many are all forgiven thee the

[35:55] Pharisees asked this question who can forgive sins they knew the answer God only what they didn't do was recognize that Jesus in his sacred humanity was the eternal son of God and that he had come here into this earth and that his glory was veiled in the opening chapter of the epistle of Paul to the Hebrews the first chapter is a revelation of the deity of Christ and if you read it the second chapter is a revelation of his glorious humanity as the apostle Paul saw it the first chapter we read unto the son he saith thy throne O God is forever and ever a glorious statement of his deity and then we read in the second chapter for verily he took not on him the nature of angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and a faithful high priest in things became unto God to make reconciliation for the sins of his people people in that great day of judgment when every one of us here tonight will stand at the judgment bar of

[37:40] God shall we have an advocate one who can say that he shed his precious blood for us be certain of this if he did we shall know it here below how solemn in that hour for it will be too late if it's not been revealed to us here when we pass from time into eternity it will not be revealed to us afterwards the Roman Catholics in their mass think that the shed blood of Christ as they see it in their wafer can cleanse a dead soul from his sins even after they've gone into eternity scripture does not reveal that anywhere and so we're left with this that if we have not known that precious blood here below on our heart and conscience we shall never know it here after but what peace in that hour if Jesus says

[39:15] I died for him I died for her and if the child of God knows in their hearts the truth of that word the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin I do say to you tonight have there been occasions when you've known something of that precious blood him right it says law and terrors do but harden all the while they work alone but a sense of blood bought pardon soon will melt a heart of stone true religion is more than notion says Joseph Hart something must be known and felt and it is this to know the power of this precious blood in our hearts and consciences and the peace of God which passeth all understanding my peace

[40:30] I leave with you oh has God sent his dear son into this earth on your behalf and has he left his peace in your heart the scriptures speak of the peace speaking blood of Jesus Christ 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 sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight in the epistle to the

[41:42] Ephesians we read this to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved amen and tell